Loki's destruction ended up worse than I expected.

The White House wasn't so white anymore. Blood dyed the walls and dried underneath the sun. Smoke and ash settled on half of the gigantic building, right where the two helicopters crashed into it. The helicopter blades and deformed metal stuck out between the rubble, showing off how far Loki's destruction had come. No bodies were in sight, so he must have had them moved to a different location. Bullet holes impacted everything, revealing the failed efforts of the Secret Service. The sun hadn't fully risen yet, so the lights on the White House brightened up the disaster.

Loki and Ira sat on a blanket in the middle of the White House front lawn, lost in their own little world. Cups of tea were held up by a small metal tray, accompanied by a batch of sweets. Ira fed Loki a couple pieces of chocolate covered strawberries, but Loki didn't seem too happy. He brooded and his eyebrow twitched as if he were waiting for something to happen. Ira didn't think much of it and waited for him to feed her something, her gray eyes staring at him dreamily. She started up a conversation, thinking it would get him more involved, "Did you see the look on the President's face?"

He chuckled darkly, his mouth twisting up into a wicked smile, "Yes, the terror, the fear...It was exhilarating. The whole world watched as we tore apart America's political system." His blue eyes glimpsed at Ira, but quickly went back to staring off into space to think.

"You in position?" I questioned into the earpiece, looking through night vision binoculars at the U.S. Department of Treasury building on the other side of the White House. Hawkeye moved around next to me to try to get into a better position. He perched on the edge of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building's roof and watched the gang below as they made their way to the duo of darkness, observing the environment.

Peter sunk low on the roof of the building, his arms draped over the edge lazily. He scoffed and waved his arms around for a second. "If you can't see the bright red and blue suit, there's something wrong with you, Lilly."

I almost replied until the group moved forward below. Steve, Tony, Natasha, and Bruce walked up to Ira and Loki hesitantly, watching their every move. Ira looked over their way and laughed, "Gaze upon of which the furry feline has brought to us!"

"What?" Peter snorted into comms.

Clint chuckled beside me, "Is she trying to be funny?"

"I'm gonna tell her she isn't funny," my cousin replied quickly. He cupped his hands around his mouth, ready to yell it out.

"Quiet down, you two," I shushed them and focused on the scene.

Loki rolled his eyes and almost wanted to glare at her in shame. He focused his glare on the Avengers and snarled, "Ah, the Avengers finally coming around? Took you longer than I expected. Are you here to kneel to your new king?"

"No one is going to kneel to you. This is a free country, not some fear driven, tyrannical place," Steve replied sternly. He held his shield closer to his body and stood ahead of the Avengers triumphantly. Bruce hung back awkwardly, not wanting to get into a fight. Iron Man stood on Cap's right, while Black Widow glared at the villains on his left.

Ira got up and scoffed, "Shut up, Captain Small Ass." She crossed her arms and stood defensively. Loki grabbed his scepter from his side and used it to help him up, his eyes glowing a more intense blue than usual.

"Savage," Peter whispered, leading me to roll my eyes at his comment.

Natasha checked Steve out and made a face of approval. She curled her fingers into a fist, leaving her thumb and pinky sticking straight out, and brought her hand up to her chin. Wrong. She signed, giving her opinion on Ira's short handed insult. Steve shot a confused Are-You-Serious expression at her.

"She has a point there, Cap," Clint and I stated simultaneously with a smile. I took the binoculars away from my face and peered at Clint curiously. He pursed his lips and shrugged, turning his attention back to the scene below.

Peter looked at us and tilted his head, probably sending us a weird look through his mask. His body stiffened and he glanced around nervously. "Guys, my Spidey senses are tingling." Clint's attention flickered between the group and Peter. He glimpsed around our surroundings and moved to the other side of the roof to do a perimeter check. There was nothing suspicious around the area when we got here, but maybe that's what Loki wanted us to believe.

Loki took the bottom of the staff off of the ground and aimed it at the heroes in defense. His lips twitched up into a sly grin and he held his head up high. "You have no idea what you're getting yourselves into. There are more of us than you think."

Peter jumped around on the roof of his building, avoiding the metal whip-like weapons someone in front of him controlled. Barton fired an arrow at the villain, but the man merely caught it and threw it aside. Clint looked down at the group and noticed a bunch of people filing out of the White House. "We have company," Clint declared and nodded towards me. I created a pink portal next to him leading down to the rest of the group. He went through and I ran to join him before it closed, until something grabbed onto my leg.

I peeked down for a second, noticing a red substance wrapping around my leg. Before I could react, I fell onto the roof of the building and was dragged away from the portal. "Shit," I whispered in a panic and tried to grab onto something. My nails scratched against the roof and the metal pipes I grabbed onto, bending upwards and breaking away from my skin. Blood dyed my fingers red and left a trail on the roof as I was pulled.

A figure came into view and it wasn't a pleasant sight. Vein-like red and black substances covered it from head-to-toe, while some of it stuck out like stray hairs. Giant white splotches for eyes covered the top half of its face, and the bottom half led to a giant, menacing mouth full of sharp teeth. Its tongue slithered out, dropping saliva onto the ground. He pulled on the red substance attached to my leg like a rope from his wrists, similar to Spider-Man's web tech, except this was made from its body. It growled a guttural sound and used its pointed claws to pull me up from the ground.

I used adamantium claws to dig them into its gooey red shoulder. It cried out and I caught its other hand before it could punch me, but the goo attached to my skin and tried to cut me. I twisted my hand sharply, jabbing the villain and making him let out a shrill cry. It launched me to the White House lawn where the others were, making me roll onto the grass pretty far away.

"I didn't think he was telling the truth..." Peter trailed off and glanced over at me when he met up with everyone. "Eddie told the truth...Venom gave birth to Carnage. He is one ugly looking alien."

I groaned and picked myself up. "Thanks, Peter, for telling me that now." Come on. Step it up, Echo. This is for freedom. I cracked my neck and looked at all of the villains standing behind Loki and Ira, the rising sun lighting up the situation. My heart fell when I saw what we were up against.

Carnage jumped down from the building and made the ground shake from the impact. He snarled and licked his teeth hungrily, fixing his stare on all of us. The creature covered in the strong black substance was Venom. Venom eyed Carnage and grit his teeth, showing his anger towards his son. That was odd in itself. I made a mental note of that for later. Juggernaut, in all of his glory and hardheaded anger, stood to the side. His metal helmet covered everything but his face, a small smirk playing on the ends of his lips as his eyes met mine. We fought a few times before, but it never finished due to other problems and people intervening. I flipped him off, showing I could still be somewhat playful in our stare off.

Natasha nodded towards the big, muscle-built guy that had attacked Peter. She explained, "Omega Red, formerly known as Arkady Rossovich. I read his file when I worked with the KGB. I thought he was a ghost story, something to scare the children before they went to sleep at night. He's dangerous in more ways than one. His nickname is Red Death." The guy she talked about looked intimidating. His outfit was skintight, red material with metal added onto places like his waist, shoulders, and kneecaps. A red headband kept his stringy blond hair back out of his red, glowing eyes.

"I see you've met some of them already. I recruited them to secure my reign. This world will be ours for the taking," Loki hissed and waved to the other two unknowns. "Doctor Soul and Saturna are the newest editions."

Dr. Soul nodded in acknowledgement, his dark hair covering the side of his face, just out of the way of his gray eyes. His dark skin was burned and half of his face had melted completely off in some places, allowing his white skull to be visible. Dirty white lab coat, clothes burnt in some places, oozing green plasma staining his clothes, he certainly looked like a mad scientist.

Saturna's yellow eyes peered at the back of Loki's skull in thought, and eventually glanced at us. Her short, straight orange hair curved to the right against her pale skin. Two rings like Saturn's spun slowly and wrapped around her body diagonally against her brown outfit. When she took a hold of them, they detached and spun faster like a chainsaw. She tilted her head to try to intimidate us.

"I'm not going to fight Venom again. One go around was enough for one year," Peter announced and turned to Tony, "He hates heat, so you're a perfect match for him."

"I always love the ones who can't take a little heat," Tony commented and focused on his designated villain. The tension in the cold air was thick enough to be cut by a chainsaw. Everyone's breathing steadied, and all eyes locked on each other. No one wanted to make the first move, but fighting was inevitable. We all knew that. When the fight began, it was chaotic.

Juggernaut started a run towards me, but Bruce quickly got in the way. Banner transformed into the Hulk as Juggernaut pushed him, slowly stopping himself as he dug his heels into the soft earth. Juggernaut looked up at the Hulk and laughed, throwing a punch in his face. The Hulk screamed back; he grabbed him by the arm and swung him around until he let go, Juggernaut flying into the White House. Jugg shook himself out and made a war cry as he came into contact with the big guy again. They slammed each other into the ground and the White House, destroying anything they hit in the process.

Black Widow took out dual wield pistols and aimed straight at Dr. Soul. She fired one shot, two shots, three shots, four shots, until she felt satisfied with a few hits on her target, but it didn't effect him as much as she hoped. His hands glowed green for a short time and he forced one hand forward at her, shooting plasma at her. She dodged, rolled, and threw a grenade at him.

Dr. Soul covered the grenade in plasma, enveloping it and holding the detonation in place. He smirked and fired more ooze at her. Natasha shot a grappling hook from her large yellow bracelets, locking onto the villain and yanking him closer. She took advantage of her close range and used her bracelets to do what she called "Widow's Bite", firing electro-static energy blasts at her victim. It electrocuted Dr. Soul and he launched one more plasma bolt at her before he became incapacitated. It hit Nat in the shoulder, causing her to cry out in pain as it ate through the fabric. She took something out of her utility belt and injected it into her wound as the plasma ate at her skin like acid.

"Guess I'm up to bat," Tony observed and flew towards Venom. He used his missiles and beams against the creature, making him cry out in pain. Venom grabbed a hold of Tony and dug his claw into his armor, but couldn't get it off. Tony kicked and flew out of his grasp, setting himself free. Venom chased after him and took a few rays to the chest, but quickly recovered and pounced on Tony. He bit into his metal armor, making the material sizzle from the poison the creature released.

Iron Man yelled something at Jarvis and he grabbed onto Venom's arm. Ray beams exerted itself out of his hands, melting the alien's skin, revealing human skin underneath. "What the hell? There's a person inside this thing?"

Peter answered over comms, "Yeah. I'll explain later. Too busy not dying right now." He shot webbing at Omega Red and tried to tie the metal tentacle weapons forming from his wrists. Omega Red kicked him in the stomach and hit Peter across the face with metal. Peter fell, but quickly swept himself off his feet and threw webs at the villain's face. It distracted Omega enough for Peter to run up and throw him down to the ground. He retreated before Omega could get up, using his hit-and-run tactic he told me all about.

Spider-Man didn't have any objects nearby to use, so it was all left up to him to fight. He looked for a weakness, but couldn't see one. Omega got up, growling to himself and trying to grab Peter with the tentacles. Peter jumped and slid right out of reach, laughing as he did, "Is that all you got?"

"You shouldn't taunt someone more powerful than you, boy," Omega Red grunted and went in for close combat. One punch after the other, Peter dodged or took the hit with strength. Peter retaliated with kicks and punches of his own, sometimes getting lucky and threw the villain off balance. Omega chuckled darkly and hooked one of the tentacles around Peter's left arm, tearing it off in one swift move.

Peter screeched and backed up before Omega Red could do more, his cry of agony echoing through comms. Blood spewed out from his wound, blending in with the red fabric of his outfit. He covered the wound and sharply gasped in pain. He lost himself in his new found agony and forgot about the fight.