Loki had obviously planned this out well. So it was frightening. The Chitauri had one order: destroy. And that was exactly what they did.

The flying dinosaur-like creature few right over our heads. It's flanks sparked suddenly, and Chitauri soldiers with grappling cables attached exploded out to land on the sides of buildings.

"Stark, are you seeing this?" Steve asked in awe.

"I'm seeing," I heard Tony reply through my earpiece. "Still working on believing. Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?"

"Banner?"

"Just keep me posted."

"Move!" Natasha screamed.

Energy gunfire blasted nearby, sending us running for cover behind cabs. Explosions around us shoved my senses into survival mode—I saw complete destruction, I heard screams of distress, I could smell smoke, my hands were clammy.

"We've got civilians trapped," Barton notified.

As soon as the archer said that, a group of Chitauri with Loki in the lead began blasting a street. My eyes widened. There were civilians still trying to escape!

I created a portal nearby and pushed myself to my feet. Steve's gloved hand gripped my arm. "Be careful, Andi!"

"You be careful!" I countered with ferocious determination and ripped my arm away.

I charged through the portal. As I came out the other side, I was faced with a torrent of explosions and fire. Civilians screamed and scattered. I couldn't save them all in real time. I needed everything to slow down.

I held out my hand. A golden ring blasted out of my palm. Everything it passed slowed down. People ran in slow motion. Fire curled sluggishly. Smoke drifted leisurely. But nothing had stopped. I frowned. How come nothing stopped? Why didn't anything stop?!

I didn't have time to question. If things were moving slowly, the danger was still moving. I needed to get everyone to safety.

I dashed around the civilians and directed them towards the portal. And then time snapped into the present suddenly. I didn't command it so. What was happening to me?

People stopped running suddenly when they realised they were facing a different direction. I rolled my eyes. "Move! Through the portal! Now!"

When they were aware of the situation, they dashed through to where Steve and the agents were. I glared at the explosions. They were moving too slowly! The fire was catching up!

"Faster!" I shouted.

A child and his mother were the last to get through. Mere seconds before it caught up, I looked for anyone else and charged through. The explosion's momentum sent me crashing into the side of an overturned cab.

Pain erupted through my body and my vision blurred suddenly.

"Andi!" Steve helped me to my feet. He wore a worried expression. "You okay?"

I grinned stupidly. "I'm great." I shrugged. "Just having fun."

We looked to the lower street further down. Abandoned vehicles were clogging up people trying to escape, storms of fire around them.

"They're fish in a barrel down there," Steve muttered.

My attention snapped to the sound of a crunching car behind me. Chitauri foot soldiers gathered to fight, firing Tesseract infused energy.

"We have to do something to help them," I told Steve.

"We got this," Natasha said.

Steve turned to Barton parallel to us. "You think you can hold them off?"

"Captain." I watched his quiver mechanically switch to a different kind of trick arrow before drawing another. "It would be my genuine pleasure."

I elbowed Steve. "Come on." I smirked. "Think you can keep up, Captain America?"

His lips curled upwards into a boyish grin. "Let's go."

As Barton and Natasha covered us, he vaulted over the bridge to land on a bus below. I portalled to the ground as he jumped down. We ran side by side, him climbing and leaping over cars and me portalling around them. I blasted any Chitauri we passed to dust as we reached a police blockade.

My eyes met a family cowering under an angled capsized car. I portalled to them before a Chitauri soldier did. My hand curled around its neck, and I made it explode into golden dust. I closed the portal and created a new one to a different location, and ushered the family through.

I portalled to Steve on the top of a car as he was midway through giving orders to police officers.

"Why the hell should I take orders from you?" the captain of the NYPD scoffed.

I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Do you want to be responsible for the deaths of everyone in those buildings?"

He turned his obnoxious gaze on me. "And who are you?"

Chitauri exploded from a nearby building and came towards us. Four soldiers landed nearby. Two climbed onto the car to face Steve while the others came at me.

I kicked one in the chest, power coursing through my leg and blasting out my foot, sending the soldier flying away. I blasted the other to golden dust. Steve held his own, using his shield to decapitate the soldier's arm with the gun attached from its body and finishing it off by knocking the body away with his shield.

I smirked as the NYPD captain marched away, convinced, barking orders to his men around him and through his radio at his shoulder.

Steve jumped down to stand next to me. "'Why should I take orders from you'. Seriously."

I giggled. "You're a man running around with a shield in tights. What did you expect them to say?"

"'Yes, sir' would've been nice."

"Uh-huh." I turned back to where we came from. "We better go back to help Nat and Barton."

I created a portal back to where we came from and we charged through as the agents were being overrun.

We appeared in front of them to face a bunch of Chitauri. I whipped my arms to the side. A wave of golden energy erupted from me. It ploughed through the small army, completely destroying them.

The drawback hit me hard. I stumbled dizzily for a second. I hadn't used my powers to this extent for a very long time. I wasn't used to so much of my energy being used at one time. It was like running a marathon and not training for it.

But even with my wave destroying a bulk of the horde, there was still many skulking around. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning blasted from the sky, dividing into separate streaks to dispatch the entire group.

Thor landed with a thundering stomp, using a nearby car to stable himself.

"What's the story upstairs?" Steve commanded, readjusting his shield on his arm.

"Are you okay?" I asked Thor, looking at his arm wrapped around his waist to cover a wound.

"I am fine," he replied. He turned to Steve. "The powers surrounding the cube is impenetrable."

"Thor's right," Tony added over my earpiece before flying past above. "We gotta deal with these guys."

"How do we do this?" Nat asked.

Steve's eyes flicked to me, and I nodded in reply. "As a team."

Thor stood straighter. "I have unfinished business with Loki."

"Yeah," Barton grumbled as he fiddled with his arrow heads. Get in line—"

"Save it," Steve interrupted as he walked off with the rest of us in tow. "Loki's gonna keep this fight focused on us and that's what we need. Without him these things could run wild." He pointed to the sky. "We got Stark up top, he's gonna need us..."

I understood why he trailed off as a crappy motorbike hummed towards us with a familiar face riding it.

I grinned widely. "Bruce."

He dismounted the bike and strolled towards us. He gestured to the carnage around us. "So. This all seems horrible."

"I've seen worse," Nat growled with a frown.

Bruce bit his lip. "Sorry."

"No. We could use a little worse."

"Stark, we got him," Steve announced.

"Banner?"

"Just like you said."

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

Iron Man shot out from around the corner of a building. And crashing after him was the flying dinosaur.

"I-I don't see how that's a party," Nat remarked.

"Nope," I added with a shake of my head. "That thing is gonna eat the cake and the guests."

Bruce turned away from us and walked towards the incoming threat.

"Dr. Banner," Steve halted. Bruce turned. "Now might be a good time for you to get angry."

Bruce smiled mischievously. "That's my secret, Cap. I'm always angry."

As simply as turning on a light switch, Bruce transitioned into the green monster. Hulk braced himself as the dinosaur crashed into his fist. He slid along the pavement, pulling it up completely and the metal monster's front frame crunching. It curled over him.

"Hold on!" Tony said as he fired tiny missiles at the curling body.

It exploded. I generated a shield, covering the rest of us in the line of fire. Debris scattered around us. The body toppled onto the street below.

Chitauri screeches reverberated around us as we stood together as one, raising our weapons and fists in defiance and rebellion. We were ready for any wave Loki threw at us. We were the Avengers. We were here to protect the people. And if we couldn't, we were going to avenge them.

So bring it on.

❈Author's Note: Hey, there! So the battle begins! The next few chapters are going to be INTENSE, I promise you that! So stay tuned, lovelies! The next few are going to be a doozy.

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