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CHAPTER SIX
insult to injury
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❛ ━━━･❪ ❁ ❫ ･━━━ ❜

"GUYS?" NATASHA ASKED, Diana glanced at the woman to see her gradually getting nervous.

"Call it, Captain." Tony jumped into action as they all turned to each other, looking at Steve for direction.

"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," Steve commanded with ease, as if he was leading a mission in world war 2 again, "Stark, you got the perimeter, anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."

The two nodded, Clint looked over at Tony, bow ready.

"Wanna give me a lift?" He asked.

"Right." Tony's voice was robotic due to the suit, "Better clench up, Legolas."

Tony grabbed Clint and the two flew up to the top of a building, then he flew off.

"Thor! You gotta try and bottleneck that portal, slow 'em down." Steve pointed up at the sky where the portal was, "You got the lightning, light the bastards up."

Thor swung Mjolnir, flying off as Diana's hair blew back from the force of the wind.

"You, me, and Diana, we stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here. And Hulk!" Hulk turned around facing Steve, who pointed at him. "Smash!"

The grin that Diana watched Hulk light up with, sent shivers down her spine as he then leapt off, taking out dozens of warriors that were on the sides of the buildings he grabbed them, smashed them, and threw them around. Hulk leapt across the air and slapped a flying craft out of the air.

Thor landed at the top of the Chrysler building and summoned a bolt of lightning. He sent it shooting out towards the portal, taking out warriors and they're floating beasts.

Steve, Diana, and Natasha were still on the ground, Diana had found a really good fighting pattern when it came to taking out the chitauri. She had been able to take out a whole block using it. And Diana guessed it bothered someone because before she knew it, someone grabbed her jacket while she was firing at them and she took off.

Diana flailed and kicked and looked up to see Loki in his battle armor, his horns glinting in the sun.

"You're bothering me," He frowned.

Oh course she was, she was only a mere little human and she managed to take out a whole block with alien tech.

"You!" She screamed over the howling wind in her ears. Loki made it seem like he was going to drop her which made her desperate to find some footing on the craft.

"Someone send Diana some backup!" She heard in her comm and she tapped her ear.

"Negative!" She yelled out over the wind, "I'm on his craft if you blast it I'm dead, I can handle this punk."

Loki raised his eyebrow with a face that said "Oh, will you?" Diana grabbed a hold of the crafts railing and smirked.

She punched him in the face once and hard. She wasn't going to be done punching him though, not until he was down and he called off his fight. That didn't happen though.

Loki socked her in the jaw, making her widen her eyes. Diana understood that this was war but the shock and anger from the past 24 hours all built up within her and it was ready to explode.

"And to think!" She yelled, stiffening her hand and chopping his throat, making the whole craft lurch as he gasped for air, "we could've had something special, you fucking dick!"

She looked down to see another craft flying below them a few feet behind. Diana looked back over at Loki and smirked. Punching him one more time in the face for good measure and readying her stolen spear, she jumped off, sticking her spear out so it embedded itself perfectly into the chitauri and sent it back. She wriggled around and managed to stop her craft from crashing into a building and looked up.

Loki stared down at her with an unreadable face as she learned the controls. She glanced down at the controls, trying to find a way to fire at him but when she looked back, he had disappeared. Diana groaned as she managed to take down a few more carriers as she searched the sky for Loki, which was hard considering there were so many crafts in the air and they seemed to realize that she wasn't one of them.

Clint was atop his building still, he fired relentlessly at Chitauri.

"Stark." Clint addressed in the comm, "You gotta lot of strays on your tail."

"Just tryin' to keep them off the streets." Tony responded.

"Well they can't bank worth a damn." Clint pointed out.

"I will roger that."

In the distance, Diana could hear crashing and explosions, Tony flew past her, taking out a few crafts behind her as he disappeared around a corner.

"Nice call. What else you got?" Tony asked.

"Well, Thor's taking out a squadron down on 6th."

"And he didn't invite me!" Tony's tone dripped with sarcasm as Diana rolled her eyes at how corny it all sounded.

It was hard trying to not get fired at and came up with a plan that seemed good enough if she could find a target big enough. Luckily, there was a mass of Chitauri that were crowding Natasha. Diana dive bombed the Chitauri that were in front of the woman on the ground. She jumped before the craft could explode, using a nearby Chitauri that managed to stay standing to break her fall.

Diana broke out into a fight as she stabbed warriors and blasted others back. It was like she had been doing it her whole life as she tried getting her way to Natasha. The two managed to reunite as Natasha used electric charges in her wrist gauntlets to kill the Chitauri who had her trapped on top a car.

The two had a quick moment to nod at each other as they stood side by side, out of breath. The thud of something landing on a car pulled Diana and Natasha's attention, the two got into a guarded stance. Natasha had her charges up as Diana held up her spear, ready to blast at whoever it may be.

Steve stood wide eyed as he held his hands up. The women instantly relaxed, Natasha even leaned against a car as Diana planted the base of the spear to the ground and leaned against that.

"Captain," Natasha was audibly and visually out of breath as she shook her head with her words, "none of this is gonna mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal."

"Our biggest guns couldn't touch it." Steve responded, hope was starting to become lost as they looked up at the beam of blue light upon the tower.

"Well, maybe it's not about guns." Natasha spoke, it was like an idea clicked in her head.

"You wanna get up there," Steve seemed to realize her plan, "you're gonna need a ride."

Natasha glances up, seeing the Chitauri crafts fly past. She makes her way over to the other side of the overpass.

"I got a ride." Natasha shrugged, "I could use a boost though."

They were getting ready when they began to get blasted at. Diana gave them a thumbs up as she ran off into the direction where the firing came from and began to blast them back. Giving Steve and Natasha more time.

Diana heard a few more words distantly spoken and soon, Steve was by her side, using his shield to take out as many as he could.

"I gotta get me one like that," Diana spoke as he yanked it out of the car it got embedded into.

"Can't," Steve turned down, making Diana furrow her brows as she glanced at the taller man, "this is the strongest metal on earth, and all of it was used to make this shield."

They made their way down the overpass as they took out more warriors side by side. Eventually they made it back to back, slightly, Steve needed room to move his arms as he used the shield to hit Chitauri and she was not going to be a causality of that.Tony had taken a turn, coming up on the overpass, where he knocked Chitauri aliens over and landed by Steve, who is fighting and kicking Chitauri.

Diana ducked to the ground as Steve lifted his shield. Tony reflected a repulsor blast off the shield, taking out the surrounding warriors. Diana jumped back up and blasted at a few strays as Tony flew up the side of a building, hitting more warriors. At the top of which, Clint fires arrows into the heads of Chitauri. Two blasts are fired at him. He ducks and returns a shot by firing an arrow. The arrow hits the pilot of a craft which falls and gets hit by a giant beast.

Clint had alerted Steve of a group of civilians trapped in a building. The two on the ground only nodded at each other and ran off as they made it to the street that Clint alerted them of. There was a mass of cars and civilians, some were running and screaming, others were by the police, probably waiting for their family to get out of the building. Steve ran inside as Diana got on top of a police car, keeping her eyes to the sky as she shot down any crafts in her sight, taking care to look for a red headed woman to make sure she doesn't knock Natasha out of the sky.

An explosion went off overhead and Steve came flying out of the window, landing on the car next to the one Diana stood on. She winced as she witnessed his crash and jumped over to his car, holding out her hand for him to take. As she pulled him up, she noticed his cowl-helmet had fallen back, exposing his slightly bruised face covered in soot from the rubble.

He looked a mess and she was sure she looked the same way. Diana figured she had a look of questionable concern on her face as she wondered if he was alright, he only nodded, assuring her that he was still good to get into the fight.

The two found their way back to the overpass as they fought warriors, keeping the fight away from the civilians. Thor at some point managed to join them, the three fighting in unison like it was done for years. Diana was about to blast an alien that was aimed for Steve's back when a firing hit her arm. She yelped in pain and shot the warrior and spun, looking for the perpetrator that managed to get a hit.

She got hit again, this time, grazing her ribs. Diana yelled out again as her hand instinctively went to her side, the material of her suit was seared away, exposing her side that felt like it was on fire.

She winced at the contact that her hand made with the wound. She didn't mean to drop her guard but she did. Diana looked up to see a group of Chitauri firing at her, some missed, but before one could hit her in the chest, Steve jumped in the way, taking the hit. The heroic action had glory for all but a millisecond before Steve was blasted back into Diana.

Her and Steve landed in a crumpled pile of injured humans. Diana felt her rib break and groaned painfully, her poor body couldn't handle any more battering.

"I'm so sorry!" Steve gasped for air as well as Thor electrified the rest of the invaders on the block, stepping over to help the two up.

"You should've let me die," Diana wheezed as she held her side, leaning on Thor's support, "would've hurt less."

"You ready for another bout?" Thor asked.

Diana widened her eyes as she looked up at the blonde god. She shook her head as she stretched her side, popping the rib back into place to make it heal better.

"What, you gettin' sleepy?" Steve asked. Diana sighed as she sent a blast to another Chitauri.

She had no choice but to fight, she could worry about her wounds later because they wouldn't matter if her world was decimated by Loki's takeover.

"I can close it. Can anybody copy?" Natasha's words brought a new bout of energy into Diana's body, even the blasts that she was firing had more kick to them as she swung her spear, smacking a chitauri in the face, making the block clear again, "I can shut the portal down!"

"Do it!" Steve commanded into the comm.

"No, wait." Tony argued, confusion washed over Diana as she looked up at the sky. More Chitauri flooded in, making her heart race.

"Stark, these things are still coming!" Steve pointed out.

Diana glanced over at Thor in confusion, he only shrugged.

"I got a nuke coming in, it's gonna blow in less than a minute." Tony explained, dread flowed through Diana's veins, making her blood turn cold as her dropped to her stomach, "And I know just where to put it."

"A nuke?" Diana asked, her mind unable to comprehend on who would think to drop a nuke on a city full of people.

Diana watched the sky trying to see Tony but he wasn't in sight yet.

"Stark, you know that's a one way trip." Steve's concern was powerful, Diana could feel it from next to him at this point.

She looked back up, squinting through the the sunlight and watched as Tony was flying with the missile on his back. As he flew by, Diana patted Thor and Steve's arms, making them look to the sky.

Tony redirected the missile upwards, barely missing Stark Tower, and pushed it up towards the portal. The rest of the Avengers look on. A second later he disappeared inside the portal.

Diana sighed in relief, letting go of the breath she had hitched in her throat, the adrenaline began to leave her body as it relax more, her muscles began to ache as her wounds throbs through her nerves.

Diana heard the explosion before she saw it get bigger through the portal, Tony still couldn't be seen. They tried waiting but the explosion was still expanding and getting closer to breaching the portal.

"Close it." Steve's disappointed words matched Diana's emotions as she looked away from the portal, unable to watch as they trapped Tony's body in space.

Diana felt a growing pain in her chest as her emotions clouded her brain. The chitauri began to fall dead, Diana immediately had it click in her head that they had a hive mind. She looked up at Thor when she pieced it together.

"You seriously didn't know about the hive mind?" Diana asked, making the tall man clearly confused from his furrowed eyebrows, "you know, kill the source, the rest die off?"

Thor looked away, clearly bashful but Diana patted his arm reassuringly.

"Son of a gun!" Steve's voice pulled the spies attention to the sky.

Tony's suit glinted in the sun as it plummeted to the ground. He shouldn't caught himself by now.

"He's not slowing down." Thor voiced Diana's thoughts.

Thor prepared to fly at Tony and catch him as he swung his hammer but the Hulk grabbed him out of the air, sliding down the side of a building and crashing to the ground in front of Thor, Steve, and Diana. Hulk threw Tony off him and the trio ran over to him as he laid on the pavement, still as a stone. Thor pulled off the faceplate of Tony's suit and Steve, who was on his knee listening in for a heartbeat, Diana noticed his arc reactor wasn't glowing. Suddenly the Hulk roars and beats his chest. Diana jumped back, hold her uninjured hand over her chest as she breathed heavily, trying to slow her heart rate after the sudden noise. Tony, shocked, gasps and opens his eyes, looking around.

"What the hell?" Tony yelled, looking around and assessing his surroundings, "What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me"

Diana smiled as Steve looked up at her. "We won."

"Alright, Hey. Alright. Good job, guys-" Tony raised a fist into the air, weakly trying to signal his victory, "-Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. You ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it."

Diana chuckled at the idea but her stomach growled at the mention of food. Those blueberries were far from enough and she was ready to eat horse if she waited any longer.

"We're not finished yet." Thor reminded, making Diana frown as she remembered. Loki was still out there. Tony sighed, looking over at Diana's disappointed face.

"And then shawarma after?" Tony asked.

"Can someone pick me up? I'm in the building I was on," Clint's crackled voice came through the comm.

"Guys, Loki is in the tower," Natasha inputted into the conversation through her own comm, "the same floor as the balcony."

Diana chuckled a bit as they looked at each other.

"I'll get Barton, you take Cap and Renfrey here to the tower," Tony spoke as he got up, picking up his faceplate and scoffing as he flew off.

Thor came up behind Diana and wrapped an arm around her waist, avoiding her ribs and wounds narrowly as he gripped Steve a little rougher. In an instant, the two shot up making Diana jolt. She gripped her spear tightly.

She was worried that she would misfire a blast but nothing happened. There was something different about her spear. She frowned as aimed at a dead beast. Diana tried to fire and nothing came out. Disappointed, her arms fell a bit limp as the owner came into view. Natasha was outside on the balcony waiting for them when Clint and Tony joined them. Even Hulk managed to jump his way up to them.

They stepped inside quietly as Loki crawled his way to the steps, she looked at the crater in the floor as she passed it with a smirk, Hulk had to have done that with Loki. They all got into their guarded stance, Diana had pulled out her spare baton, holding the two weapons up as Loki spun around, laying on his back as he looked out to all of them.

"If it's all the same to you," He strained as he spoke, "I think I'll have that drink now."

❛ ━━━･❪ ❁ ❫ ･━━━ ❜

3.1k words

AHHHHHH!!! THERES ONE MORE CHAPTER LEFT BEFORE PART ONE ENDS OMG OMG!!!

what did I tell y'all, the avengers is long but short at the same time it's crazy. I had it when the time span of a movie takes place only with in the span of a day there's no room for anything but the main plot.

BUT IM HERE TO CHANGE THAT.

stay tuned for the final chapter of part 1!

(p.s: peep the new cover that I've made for the book! it hasn't been changed in 2 years lol!)

-greta!