The Valiant (The Seventh Avenger)

Chapter 7

I jump up onto one of the flying ships and punch the alien off. I then make the ship swerve into three of the others. I jump up onto the building and quickly climb up it using my abilities, I reach the level of the aliens are at and gather purple flames into a small ball in my hand and hurl it at them. The aliens go flying off the building as I throw my fists around left and right, hitting each of them in the chest. I hear a gun charge up and I swerve my head around and see an alien pointing his weapon at me. It fires and time slows, I look down at my arms and see green wisps floating off of them and disappear. The beam is coming closer, I put my palm up and purple flames wrap around my hand creating a shield. It continues to quickly grow as the beam comes closer and closer to me.

The beam hits the shield, causing me to lose my grip, I fall as I hear the creature screech. I continue to fall hundreds of feet down as I try to grip a ledge of a window, but I'm moving too fast. I land hard on something and feel myself moving. I look up and see that I had landed on a flying ship, I summon my purple flames and create a small ball, I throw it onto the ship and jump down to the ground.

I hear an explosion and look up seeing a burst of purple light engulfing four other ships. Screams are heard from down the street and I look in that direction. A group of aliens corner crowd of people into an alleyway. I sprint towards them and summon my flames. I jump over a car and fly over the group of aliens and land between them and the people. Shrieks sound behind me but I face the aliens. I hear a click and see one of the creatures is holding a bomb counting down. It looks at me and chucks it into the crowd.

I push my purple flames to wrap them around it and slam my hands to the ground causing the ground to shake, more shrieks and cries sound behind me as I continue to push the bomb farther and farther into the ground, wrapping more and more layers of my flames around it. The charging of a gun sounds and I look up but its too late. I get hit straight in the chest and fly back. The bombs ticking becomes quicker and I see the nob reaching its final twist. I throw my hands up creating a dome around the people milliseconds before the bomb goes off. People shout and move farther away from the side the bomb had just come from. I make the dome disappear and run over to the other side where the bomb was set off. The creatures were gone, all that is left are piles of dust floating where they were. I turn around and see the people stepping away from me.

"I am not here to hurt you," I say putting my hands up. "I'm here to help." People begin to stop cowering from me. "You have to get underground and get out of the city. Is there a subway that leads out of here?"

No one says anything.

"Can you take the subway out to Queens?" I ask desperately.

"Yes." Someone shouts in the back.

"Take that route!" I shout and direct them to the staircase leading them down to the subway. I quickly look at the map. "That way!" I shout and everyone runs.

"Wait what is your name?" A woman asks. I look at her and smile.

"The Valiant," I say.

"Thank you." She says and takes off with her son. I make sure that everyone made their way in that direction. After clearing the area, I run back up the stairs. The street is vacant and I run towards Stark tower noticing how far I had gotten from it.

I see a huge lightning bolt and I run towards it. I get there just in time to see Thor land hard on the ground. He shakes as he recollects himself.

"Thor are you alright," I ask and he looks at me and nods.

"Thor, what's the story upstairs?" Steve asks coming up to us.

"The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable," Thor says.

"Thor's right we got to deal with these guys," Stark says through the comms.

I look around. "How do we do this?" I ask and they all look at me.

"As a team," Steve says. "We got Stark up top...."

We all turn to the sound of a motor vehicle approaching us. Banner rides it, he stops and shuts it off.

"So, this all seems horrible," Banner says walking towards us.

"I've seen worse." Ms. Romanoff says next to me. I look over at her and she shakes her head.

"Sorry," Banner says awkwardly.

"No, we could use a little worse." She reassures.

"Stark, we got him," Steve says. "Yeah just like you said."

"Alright tell him to suit up, I'm bringing the party to you," Tony says.

We all turn at the sound of crashing, Iron Man comes flying towards us and behind him is one of the long, flying, mechanical creatures. We here it scream and I flinch.

"Doctor now's a good time to be angry," Steve says. Iron Man flies past us.

"That's my secret cap," Banner says as the creature comes closer, "I'm always angry."

Banner turns and as he does he begins to grow and turn green. The creature comes up to Banner and he punches it crushing the creature into itself. The momentum of the creature sends it tumbling over to the side. Tony shoots a rocket into the side and I throw my hands up creating a barrier between us and the explosion. The creature tumbles over the edge of the bridge. Everyone moves into a circle as we get surrounded by the aliens as they cry out their war screams. Hulk replies with his own scream. Tony lands down next to me with Steve on my other side.

I summon my flames and have them travel up my arm. The creatures begin to make their way down towards us.

"Guys," Natasha says and we all look up at the portal. Three more of the large creatures come out of it.

"Call it, captain," Tony says next to me.

"Alright listen up, until we can close up that portal, our priority is containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything, call out patterns strays, anything you see. Stark you got the perimeter." Steve says.

"Can you give me a lift," Barton asks Tony.

"Better clench up, Legolas," Tony says and takes off with Barton.

The rest of us turn back to Steve. He points at Thor.

"Thor, you gotta try to bottleneck that portal. You got the lightning, light the bastards up." Thor swings his hammer and takes off towards the Empire State Building. "You and me, we stay on the ground, keep the fighting here. Grace, take care of the ships in the air. And Hulk, smash."

I here Hulk growl his approval and jumps up onto the building. I smile to Steve and take off down the street, I jump up onto one of the flying ships and destroy it causing pieces to go flying onto the others. The other ships crash and fly to the ground as I see one of the large, metallic creatures comes towards me. I jump off the perch I was on and go towards the creature, as I am flying towards it I pull back, preparing myself to punch the creature as I surround my fist with purple flames. I hit the creature and bright purple light bursts through the cracks as the creature cries out in pain. The creature bursts into a bright purple explosion. I fall to the ground and gasp in pain. I crawl over to an alley and lean against the wall to take a minute.

"Grace, are you okay?" Barton asks me.

"Yeah, I just need to catch my breath for a second," I say and something hits me across the head. I collapse to the ground with a cry. Something warm trickles down my head, I place my hand up to it and pull it back out, dark blood covers my hand. I look up at the creature as he charges up his weapon. I flick my wrist and a small purple light makes the creature go flying.

I get up, retie my mask onto my face and run out into the street. Aliens point long spears at me, I create a shield and make the beams ricochet back at them. I run towards the group and jump. I feel the power course through me as I'm in the air, I see the purple wisps surround me all around my right arm and as I come down. I make contact with the ground causing a wave of cement with purple light to continue on down the street, creatures go flying as the wave passes by them.

I take a look around making sure that the street is clear and I move on to the next area.