Assemble (Book 2)

1.13

August 19, 2012

We landed on the street, and as Tony went up to reason with Selvig and stall Loki, while we tried to evacuate as many people as possible. Though it was almost impossible. People don't really like to listen and New Yorkers are rude. Though when the bright blue ray of energy blasted into the sky and aliens started coming out, people started to panic. From the ground, we could see Tony trying to destroy as many as possible, but there were thousands of them, if not millions. Clint was still in the quinjet as the jet's mini-gun comes out. He shoots down some of the alien army and then follows Stark to Stark Tower where he starts to shoot at Loki, but Loki retaliates shooting a blast of energy at them. The quinjet was hit and it catches fire, falling to the ground, though Clint tries to land it safely and out of the way. Then he runs out of the jet, meeting up with the rest of us. From the ground, we look up to the portal and look at the giant dragon-like creature comes out of the portal. Shit. Hundreds of alien soldiers jump off of the dragon and scale down buildings, trying to get to us. "Tony, are you seeing this?" I ask him through the coms. "I'm seeing, still working on believing." He replies. "Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?" Tony asks us. I look at Steve, who looks surprised. "Banner?" I hear Tony sigh. "Just keep me posted." Tony says as he goes back to the mission.

The four of us run behind upside down taxis, being sure not to draw attention to ourselves. "We've got civilians trapped down there." Clint tells us. Steve watches as another band of Chitauri soldiers fly down the street. Buildings all around are blown up as terrified people scream. Nat and I stand up, both of us firing our guns at Chitauri warriors. Many of them drop dead, but others spot us and jump to the ground, coming towards us. "Steve, go save them, we've got this." I tell him. He nods and leaves, running towards the building. Clint, Nat and I stand up, each of us trying to shoot down as many Chitauri as possible. I fire my gun, each bullet hitting a Chitauri in the head or heart, if they have those. "Just like Budapest all over again." Nat yells at Clint. He fires an arrow, then looks at her. "You and I remember Budapest very differently." He replies. I chuckle, shooting a couple more bullets at Chitauri warriors. Many fall, though not enough for my liking.

I trip a Chitauri warrior and then take out my knife, cutting his head off. I pick up his energy rifle and shoot the hell out of the few Chitauri left around us. Clint and Nat both thank me. Thor lands next to us, limping a little but regains his composure as Steve comes over. The five of us standing around, waiting for more to come. "What's the story upstairs?" I ask Thor. "The powers surrounding the cube are impenetrable." Thor tells us, as Nat and I put more bullets in our guns. "Thor is right. We gotta deal with these guys." Tony says through the coms. "How do we do this?" Nat asks. "As a team." Steve answers.

"I have unfinished business with Loki." Thor tells us, making Clint chuckles. "Get in line." "Save it. Loki's gonna keep this fight focused on us and that's what we need. Without him these things could run wild. We got Stark up top, he's gonna need us..." Steve starts but then a motorbike arrives, making us all look. I smile, shaking my head. "Tony, he's here." I tell him through the coms. He gets off the bike and looks around at the city that's falling apart. "So, this all seems horrible." Bruce says to us. "I've seen worse." Nat says speaking up, making eye contact with Bruce. "Sorry." She shakes her head, and smiles a little, neither having broken eye contact yet. "No. We could use a little worse."

"Tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you." Tony tells us as he comes around the corner, the dragon following close behind. Nat sighs. "I... I don't see how that's a party..." She replies to Tony, who swoops down the street, the dragon still following. I look to Bruce, sighing. "Dr. Banner. Now might be a really good time for you to get angry." I inform him. "We've got a lot coming this way." He shakes his head, walking forward. "That's my secret. I'm always angry." Bruce faces the dragon and suddenly his whole body starts to swell and stretch into a giant green beast. The Hulk. A loud roar comes from the Hulk as he jumps into the sky and hits the dragon in the nose, making it flip over. "Hold on." Tony says as he shoots the dragon, its armor falling off until skin is shown, the entire thing blowing up. Now it's a party.

The portal opens wider, more ships coming through with dozens more Chitauri. "Call it Cap." Tony says, giving Steve the right to lead us into battle. "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." Steve orders. Tony grabs onto Clint, taking him to the top of a building somewhere. "Thor, you've gotta try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You've got the lightning. Light the bastards up." Steve orders, making Thor nod and fly up and away. "The three of us, we stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here." Nat and I nod, as Steve turns to the Hulk. "And Hulk. SMASH." The Hulk smiles and leaps high up into the nearest building, running up the wall, hitting several Chitauri, snapping them in half.

Using the energy rifle I took, I stab a Chitauri soldier in the back. Another comes and I slit its throat with the same weapon. I turn around to attack the next thing, but I see Steve with his shield up. I sigh giving him an apologetic smile. "Steve, none of this is going to mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal." I tell him. "Our biggest guns couldn't touch it." He tells me as I sit back on a taxi, taking a break. "Well, maybe it's not about guns." I look around, flying chariots everywhere. "You wanna get up there, you're gonna need a ride." He tells me. I laugh. "I've got a ride. But give me a boost." I ask, backing up as Steve angles his shield. "Are you sure about this Clara?" I look at him, shrugging. "You do what it takes." I smile at him one last time before running at him, jumping onto the shield, Steve throwing me in the air. When I'm in the air, I grab ahold of one of the flying chariots. I climb onto the chariot and cut the shooter's link to it, watching them fall off. I jump on top of the rider and stick my knives into his back, controlling the chariot through him. Behind me another Chitauri soldier starts firing at me. Damnit. It's not a Chitauri. It's Loki. Through the com, I get birdman's attention. "Hawkeye. I need help." Assuming he sees me, he replies back. "Clara, what are you doing?" I look behind me to see Loki still on my tail. "Just do something!" I yell at him. An arrow flies past me and to Loki, who catches it and smiles, but then the arrow blows up and Loki is thrown, crashing into the Stark Tower. I jump off the chariot, landing on the tower.

I see Selvig laying on the floor, looking at the machine. He seems to have come to his senses and broken the mind control. "Loki's scepter, the energy... the Tesseract can't fight. You can't protect against yourself." He tells me. I lean down, and help him up. " It's not your fault. You didn't know what you were doing." I tell him. He shakes his head. "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 continues, then looks down the tower. "And I'm looking right at it." Damnit. 

After grabbing Loki's scepter without any problem, I raced back up to Selvig who was behind a computer. I slowly raise the scepter putting it through the forcefield. "I can close the portal. Can you hear me? I can shut this down." I yell into the com, waiting for a response. "Do it." Steve tells me, as I move the scepter closer, then stop at the sound of Tony's voice. "No, stop. I got a nuke coming in, it's gonna blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it." Stark replies. I sigh. Of course there's a nuke. "Tony, that's a one way trip." I tell him. He doesn't respond but I see him grab a hold of the nuke, bringing it into the city. He begins to climb higher and closer to the portal, before getting close enough to fly into it. I watch the sky, waiting and praying for him to come back. We wait a few moments but nothing comes back, though all the Chitauri soldiers lie dead. "Close it." Steve tells me. I look towards the sky once more before sighing, shoving the scepter all the way through and then ripping it out. The beam of light disappears and the portal quickly closes. I smile largely as a small figure hurdles back from the portal, plummeting to the ground. The Hulk jumps from a building catching Tony and lying him down on the ground. "What the hell? What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me?" I hear Tony ask from the com. I smile, letting go of the breath I was holding. "We won." I hear Steve say. We won.