Steve lifted the trading cards from the table. There wasn't a wrinkle to be seen on them and they would have been in mint condition if it weren't for the red color of blood staining the pictures.

Both he and Tony were sitting in the briefing room after Loki's disastrous escape, trying to process the shock of losing Agent Coulson.

"We're dead in the air up here," Fury started, "our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor, Willow. Lost my one good eye...maybe I had that coming."

Steve clenched his jaw and looked away from Stark and Fury, holding the cards tightly as if someone were coming to take them away from him.

"You sent her down there, that was your call." He was trying to control the volume of his voice, but his sister had been dropped through the sky in a pressurized container by a lunatic that managed to escape from it.

Granted, the situation before them was much bigger than Willow, but how could he ignore the fact that she wouldn't have been alive if Thor hadn't gotten trapped in there with her? A coincidence and one he did not like the odds of at all. Agent Hill was quick to comfort him when he entered the briefing room in a frenzy. She showed him a screen that meant nothing until she pointed out the vital signs—the heartbeat, the pulse, the oxygen—that Willow's suit was reading and sending back to the Helicarrier.

"It was a risky situation I put her in and I accept that responsibility."

He knew it was the best he would get out of Fury and so he merely nodded for him to continue.

"Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea—Stark knows this—called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to fight the battles we never could." He stopped pacing and looked at them. "Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes."

Tony abruptly got to his feet and walked out of the room, unable to listen to anymore of what Fury had to say.

He sighed.

"Well, it's an old-fashioned notion."

Steve stared at the trading cards for a moment.

"People might just need a little old-fashioned."

——————

"Where did you learn how to do this?" Thor's tone was curious as Willow sparked the wires together, once, twice then again before she gave him a triumphant grin as the engine for the "borrowed" truck turned over.

"This place called a YouTube...on the screens," she straightened the rearview mirror, "driving shouldn't be all that hard—"

She cut off as she pressed her entire foot down on the gas pedal, causing them to peel out of the barn entrance they'd found the truck in. Thor shouted in surprise when they began to swerve all over the field, Willow yanking the wheel to whip the vehicle around and point it towards the dirt path leading out to the highway while smashing the brakes and throwing them forward.

"When was the last time you operated a similar machine?" He asked nervously.

She laughed.

"1945."

As Willow drove almost recklessly through the streets of New York City trying her best to avoid a car accident, Thor scanned their surroundings in an anxious manner.

"On edge?" The young woman took a sharp swerve into the right lane and waved impatiently at the driver she almost rammed into.

"Loki is different," he murmured, "and I'm shameful to admit that I do not recognize him—maybe I never did."

"Yeah, he sure got the lotto in murderous genes," she mumbled under her breath.

"Are you sure you two are related?"

He chuckled softly.

"As sure as the air I breathe. And I know this...all of this...it is not my brother."

"It doesn't matter if it's your brother or not. He's a threat."

"Would it not matter to you if that was your own brother?"

Willow glanced over at Thor and noticed for the first time how sorrowful he looked. Before she could answer, a sound higher than the piercing of a bell echoed throughout the city and Thor peered through the windshield just in time to see an electric blue beam shoot into the clouds from the top of Stark Tower.

The space that it came into contact with rippled like a mirage before tearing itself apart and opening up a large black hole in the sky. For a moment, the vortex between earth and space was silent, the calm before the storm when indistinguishable figures riding on chariots began to spill from the rip like ants from the top of an anthill.

"Holy shit," Willow breathed, watching in awe as more and more of the foreign army poured into their world when Thor slammed his hands against the dashboard, his verbal warning a little too late as the truck collided with the vehicle in front of them. Neither of them had noticed that traffic had come to a complete stop as people began to run through the streets in fright at the sight of the Chitauri. They scrambled out of the truck and just as they did, huge blasts cracked open the highway underneath their feet, Willow diving for cover as the aliens swooped down, screeching and shooting everything in their paths.

With a loud bellow, Thor raised Mjolnir into the air, bringing down crackling bolts of lightning onto the heads of passing Chitauri, their chariots spinning through the air and crashing into nearby buildings and cars.

"Go!" She waved Thor away as he hesitated. "I'll catch up!"

He nodded once and flew off as Willow jumped to her feet, ducking the blasts and trying to lead people to safety at the same time when a few aliens dismounted right in her path.

She pulled the thin baton from her hip and spun it around, both sides extending out as it turned into a two-headed spear.

"Let's play."

Before they could even perceive her as a threat, she had already thrusted her weapon into the neck of one, using its body to kick off and spin through the air, taking another down and smashing her leather-covered knuckles right through its mask. She twisted the spear around her neck and quickly turned to impale the oncoming Chitauri in the chest before using its corpse to shield herself from the last two.

Pushing it aside when they were done firing, Willow flung two throwing knives at the first and ran up the front of a car to jump onto the shoulders of the second, grabbing it by the sides of its head and quickly pulling backwards to flip them both over. She landed on her knees and a satisfying crack! was all it took for the body to stop struggling.

A dark shadow fell over her as she got to her feet and she looked up in horror as an enormous leviathan snaked out of the portal, it's metal fins cutting into the sides of buildings. The sheer size of such a monster was almost unbelievable as Chitauri were released from its sides and smashed through windows, pulling them apart.

"Willow!"

The young woman perked up at the familiar voice and she turned to see Steve, Natasha and the agent she'd kicked in the face with a tight wrap around his leg. Before she could question it, Steve swept her up into a bone-crushing hug that she returned with a breathless laugh.

"You're okay," he breathed in relief, "had to make sure."

"Nothing I haven't done before apparently."

She pulled away from him and pointed at the agent.

"Who's he?"

"Clint Barton. I believe we met though it wasn't one of my best moments," he said with a shrug.

"Understandable."

The four of them looked at the chaos around them in calculation, trying to find an angle to work from. Overturned vehicles were on fire and debris scattered the streets, falling from the sky like rain as the Chitauri wreaked havoc on the city. People were running and screaming, trying to find cover while trying to protect themselves and their loved ones.

"I almost miss the 40's," she mumbled.

"Willow," she snapped to attention as Steve addressed her with that achingly serious tone of his, "there's people down there that need assistance."

She peered over the side of the bridge to where he was pointing when several Chitauri landed near them and began to shoot. Natasha waved them off and pulled out her guns, returning fire. Willow didn't need to be told twice and as Clint nodded at Steve, the pair ran towards the edge of the bridge and leapt over the side. She landed in a crouch atop a van, shattering its windshield, and darted all over the place to herd people into safe buildings and get them away from the chaos. As she directed a crowd into a clothing store, one of the women pushed back against her, screaming incomprehensibly until Willow grabbed her by the shoulders.

"What is it? Tell me!" She demanded.

Tears ran down her face as she pointed across the street and a single cry came out of her mouth, "Mika!"

"You stay here!"

The others quickly grabbed ahold of the woman to console her and Willow ran into the open to retrieve the young  girl—she was flat on her back on the sidewalk, unconscious it seemed until Willow knelt down beside her. She had a long scratch across her dust-covered face and one of her legs were crushed under a big piece of cement. The young woman gently brushed her hair aside and her eyes fluttered open.

Willow gave her an encouraging smile.

"My mom—"

"Shh, shhh, it's okay." She urged. "My name's Willow, I'm here to help you. I know your mom, she told me your name's Mika?"

"Y—yeah."

"Mika, you have to stay very still, okay?" Willow placed her hands on the block of cement. "This might hurt, but I need you to be strong. Can you do that for me, Mika?"

The girl nodded and Willow counted down from three, keeping eye contact with her before lifting the debris off of her leg and tossing it away, causing Mika to cry out in pain.

"Okay, now—"

"Look out!" She screamed.

Willow quickly covered the girl with her body as energy blasts blew into the shop window above their heads. She twisted around, throwing her baton as it extended in mid-air and speared two Chitauri together before pulling out her gun. The super soldier shot a few rounds at the first, distracting it before sweeping its legs out and taking ahold of its weapon, stabbing it in the chest. Using the powerful stick, she took down two more before Steve appeared, taking the rest out with his shield.

Wasting no time, she picked the girl up as gently as she could and sprinted for the clothing store where a crowd of terrified people stood with their faces pressed up against the glass.

An anxious one in particular brightened and pushed through the others to get to the door where Willow gently slid Mika into her mother's arms. The great relief was soon replaced by despair as she looked down at her daughter, her brown cheeks now pale and her eyes fluttering weakly.

"My baby, my baby," her voice was hoarse, tears dripping onto the young girl's face that she wiped off when she leaned down to kiss her forehead. Willow took a few steps back and could only watch, frozen in shock as Mika nodded, her head slipping to her chest.

"Willow...we need to go."

She said nothing, letting the soft cries of Mika's mother block out all of it, all the chaos and the fuss and the noise.

"Willow."
"We need to get her help."
"Will, I'm sorry, but you need to leave her—"

He cut off as she spun around and violently shoved her brother in the chest.

"She's not one of your soldiers," she hissed, "she's a kid, Steve, a kid that needs our help. And we need to help her! We need to find someone or—or call something! Just—"

"We'll be okay." Willow turned, the girl's mother looking right at them. "He's right...thank you...for...for getting her out of there. We'll be okay."

Her voice shook and her face pinched as she began to sob when Willow moved to kneel down and gently wrap her arms around them both.

She didn't have the courage to look back as she and Steve ran off towards the middle of the city, grabbing her spear along the way and trying to fight back the burning tears in her eyes. With every Chitauri that came across her path, the young woman struck them down in such a ferocious manner that Steve was almost afraid to approach her afterwards.

She was breathing a little hard as she yanked her spear out of a dead alien when Steve put a hand on her arm. The young woman pulled away from him, too angry to speak as Natasha and Clint came running through the chaos, Thor landing next to them.

"What's the story upstairs?" Natasha asked.

"The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable," he said grimly.

"Thor's right," Stark's voice echoed through the comms, "we gotta deal with these guys."

"How do we do this?"

"As a team."

Willow's attention was captured by people running past, one of them a little boy in a lime green jacket that clung to his father's hand as they disappeared around a corner. Her heart was beating especially loud in her ears when she heard the rumble of a motorbike.

"Banner," she breathed.

The man looked almost uncomfortable as he got off the motorbike.

"So...this all seems horrible," he said awkwardly.

"I've seen worse." Natasha lifted a brow.

"Er—sorry."

She shrugged.

"We could use worse."

Steve put a hand to his ear.

"Stark, we've got him. Just like you said."

"Tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you."

Before any of them could say anything, a loud roar echoed throughout the city and above all the noise when Tony flew around a tall building with the great leviathan right behind him. He led it lower and lower until the monster's belly was almost touching the ground, barreling towards them like a freight train.

"I don't see how that's a party," Natasha muttered.

Bruce shook his head and began to walk towards the leviathan as Tony shot into the air.

"Dr. Banner?" Steve called. "Now would be a good time to get angry."

"That's my secret, Cap," he said, amused with himself, "I'm always angry."

Willow's eyes widened as Bruce began to transform, growing quickly in size and his skin turning a dark green, his once lanky physique now hardened with packed muscles. She was too busy staring at him in awe that she didn't notice when he slammed his huge fist into the nose of the leviathan, it's metal plates shifting in protest and it's tail lifting in the air.

"Hold on!" Tony swooped down as the leviathan's body flipped over their heads and sent a rocket into one of its crevices, effectively blowing the monster into pieces.

Willow ducked under Steve's shield, metal raining down on their heads when the deafening screech of Chitauri gathering on the sides of the buildings caught all of their attentions. With a glare, she twirled her spear at her side, the others forming a circle as they all looked up to where their enemies roared in anger.

Suddenly, hundreds of aliens began to pour out of the black hole followed by more leviathans, much to the heroes concern.

"Call it, Cap."

"Alright, listen up. Until we can close that portal up there, we're gonna use containment." He pointed at Clint. "I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything that gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."

"Wanna give me a lift?"

Tony turned to Clint, grabbing ahold of his sheath.

"Right, better clench up, Legolas."

"Thor, you've gotta try and bottleneck that portal. You've got the lightning—light the bastards up." As the god shot into the sky, Steve gestured to Willow and Natasha. "Us, we stay on the ground. Keep the fighting here. And Hulk," the enormous green being turned to look at him with a growl, "smash."

——————
☀︎ celine's corner ☀︎

okay, but like 2012 avengers was a serve and i've seen so many people that don't like it? I mean, that's their opinion, of course. it's the first official movie with all of them working together and they're all so badass, but go off (:

buuut, here's an update since akshayah woke up and chose violence yesterday by calling me out in her book. smh. mf.