LIFE WAS BETTER OFF THE GRID || 1

Agent This Is Why I Don't Fight With Guns

"Stark, we're heading north east." Nat says. Chitauri are everywhere. "What, did you stop for drive-thru? Swing up park I'm gonna lay 'em out for you." He replies.

Clint fires one of the guns on the ship at Loki. But instead Loki sends a blast of energy at us sending us down. When we crash and i bang my head with a thud. "Goddammit Clint. I thought you could fly." I mutter.

Cap runs out on the ramp and Nat, Clint, and I join him. We arrive in the middle of a four way street. Suddenly the city lurches to a stop. A deep primal rage bellows put, with that roar, a shadow comes over us. We look up, out of our element. Chitauri soldiers cling off and attach themselves to the sides of buildings, sliding down. Some crash into the buildings and begin firing their energy rifles at civilians.

"Stark, are you seeing this?" I ask." I'm seeing, still working on believing. Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?"

"Banner?" Cap asks.

"Just keep me posted. Jarvis, find me a soft spot."

~

I slide behind an overturned taxi that Cap and Clint behind it. I look up to see Loki on a flying chariot. "The hell..." I trail.

"Those people need assistance down there." Cap says as Chitauri soldiers fire at a group of people. I take three stars from my boot and throw them at the soldiers. After a second they electrocute the soldier that they landed on. "We got this. It's good. Go!" I yell pulling out the guns in my thigh holsters and shooting at the group.

"You think you can hold them off?" Cap asks Clint. "Captain. It would be my genuine pleasure." He shoots an arrow into the creatures head gaining a few seconds for Cap as he falls down the bridge.

Nat covers Clint as he runs over to a bus full of people. From the Windows, small children are held by their parent for him to pull them to safety. I take out my blades. I click a button on the side and the hilt opens up and the blade comes out. "Oh, how I've missed you guys." I murmur. I grin as a soldier comes at me and I slash its middle and kick away another. I run up to one and wrap my legs around its neck and decapitate it.

"This is just like Budapest all over again!" I yell to Clint. "You got shot in Budapest!" He yells back. "Not '07! '05!" I correct. "You and I remember Budapest very differently."

I trip a Chitauri and ram a blade into its throat. Nat gets hold of an energy rifle. Cap rejoins us and whacks oncoming soldiers with his shield. You see, there is a reason we call him Agent Shield. Lightning strikes down from the sky, channeling the blast, firing the electricity out at the soldiers around us. They're blasted back in a massive shockwave. "What's the story upstairs?"

"The powers surrounding the cube is impenetrable." Thor says. "Thor is right. We gotta deal with these guys." Tony adds. "How do we do this?" Nat asks. "As a team." Cal looks at me with a soft look. Guess he knew that I don't play well with others. "I have unfinished business with Loki." Thor states. "Yeah, get in line." I say, wiping the Chitauri blood from my blades.

"Save it. Loki's gonna keep this fight focused on us and that what we need. Without him these things could run wild. We got Stark up top, he's gonna need us..." Cap is cut off by a rumbling. It's Banner on a small motorbike. He gets off and looks around the city. "So, this all seems horrible." He says. "I've seen worse." Nat tells him. Obviously talking about when he chased her through the helicarrier. "Sorry." "No. We could use a little worse."

"Stark? We got him." I say into my earpiece. "Banner?"

"Just as you said." I reply. "Then tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you." Stark comes flying with a Chitauri Leviathan following him. "I-I don't see how that's a party." Nat says. "Lighten up, Nattie. This will be fun." I say, connecting the hilts into the double sided blade. Stark swoops down the street, the leviathan hot on his heels.

Bruce starts walking to the Chitauri. "Dr. Banner. Now might be a really good time for you to get angry." Cap says. Banner gives me a knowing look. "That's my secret, Captain. I'm always angry." Just then, Banner turns into Hulk. He pops the Chitauri in the nose. Tony extends his arm and shoots a rocket at the soft spot and it blows up.

I look up to see thousands of Chitauri Soldiers and Leviathans fly out of the portal. "Guys." I call. "Call it Cap." Stark says. "Alright, listen up. Until we can close that portal up there, we're gonna use containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash." Clint nods. "Wanna give me a lift?"

"Right. Better clench up Legolas." Stark lifts Clint up to the building. "Thor, you've gotta try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You've got the lightning. Light the bastards up." Thor flies off and he turns to Natasha and I. "We stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here. And Hulk. Smash."

Hulk grins and leaps up into the nearest building. He runs up the wall hitting several Chitauri Soldiers.

Some of the Chitauri start to surround me. "Let us dance, darlings." I say before aiming my gun at one. I pull the trigger. Nothing happens. I roll my eyes. "This is why I don't fight with guns." I mutter before throwing the gun to the side and taking my blades back out. "Now, we can dance."

One shoots at me but I run at it and jump up and spin sideways and slicing four with a blade. I land and kick another. One grabs me from behind and I drop my blades. "Take this you Chitauri bastard!" I hit its head with the back of my head and it loosens its grip. I grab my last star and I stab it in the eye. It falls and brings me along with it. I get up and grab my blades.

"Where did you learn that?" Clint asks in my earpiece.

"What? Did you think I learned everything at S.H.I.E.L.D.?" I ask before starting to fight again.

~

I cut another Chitauri's throat before slumping behind a taxi with Cap and Nat. "Captain, none of this is gonna mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal." Nat says. "Our biggest guns couldn't touch it."

"Well, maybe it's not about guns." I gesture to the flying chariots. "You wanna get up there, you're gonna need a ride." Natasha tells me. "I got a ride. I could use a lift though." I start backing up so I can get a running start. Cap angles his shield so I can jump on it. "Are you sure about this?" He asks. "Yeah. It's gonna be fun." I answer. I run on a car and jump up on his shield. He gives me a boost and I grab onto a flying chariot.

I climb onto the chariot and I cut the turret shooter's linkage to it. I jump the rider and I decapitate it. The rider next to me is shot out of the sky. I look around. "Oh. You." Loki is following me in hot pursuit. We weave around buildings. He shoots and me and I dodge.

"Ave, what are you doing?" Clint asks me.

"Uh... Little help!

"I've got him." He says and fires. Loki grabs the arrow that was aimed at his head. Then... BOOM! The arrow explodes in Loki's face, crashing into the Stark penthouse pad. "Way to go, Pigeonfart! I knew you were go for something!"

I jump from the chariot and on top of Stark Tower. "Doctor." I say as I near Selvig. "Loki's scepter, the energy... The Tesseract can't fight. You can't protect against yourself." He says. "It's not your fault. You didn't know what you were doing." I tell him. " Well, actually I think I did. I built in a safety to cut the power source."

"Loki's scepter."

"It might be able to close the portal." He looks down. "And I'm looking right at it.