Chapter 9

Tony had flown to Stark tower and failed in attempting to shut down the reactor. The Tesseract was already self-sustaining. His next move was to talk to Loki. He landed on the deck and walked inside as the robots removed his suit. Loki walked in also holding his sceptre.

"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity." Loki said as Tony walked down to the bar.

"Uh...actually, I'm planning to threaten you." Tony told him.

"You should have left your armour on for that." Loki said with a laugh.

"Yeah, it's seen a bit of mileage. You've got the blue stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?" Tony asked holding a bottle of whiskey.

"Stalling me won't change anything." Loki disclosed.

"No, no, no! Threatening. No drink? You sure? I'm having one." Tony said as he poured himself a glass.

"The Chitauri are coming, nothing will change that. What have I to fear?" Loki asked as he walked over to the window.

"The Avengers." Loki looked at him with confusion. "It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. 'EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES' type of thing." Tony took a sip from the glass.

"Yes, I've met them." Loki said with a smirk.

Tony smiled. "Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But, let's do a head count here. Your brother, the demi-God; a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend;" Tony slipped on two bracelet looking things. "an extremely powerful, genetically enhanced Russian assassin; a man with breath-taking anger management issues and a couple of master assassins, and you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them." Tony said with a smile plastered across his face.

"That was the plan." Loki said, still smirking.

"Not a great plan. When they come, and they will, they'll come for you." Tony said walking down to where Loki stood.

"I have an army." Loki said.

"We have a hulk." Tony shot back.

"I thought the beast had wandered off." Loki said with a laugh.

"You're missing the point. There's no throne, there is no version of this, where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damned well sure we'll avenge it." Tony defended.

Loki was no longer smiling. He began to walk towards Tony. "How will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?" Loki put the sceptre to Tony's chest and it began to glow blue. Nothing happened so he tried again; nothing happened. "This usually works." Loki said looking frustrated.

"Well, performance issues. You know? It's not uncommon. One out of five I believe...." Tony trailed off as Loki grabbed him by the throat and flung him across the room. "Jarvis. Anytime now." Tony said getting to his feet.

"You will all fall before me." Loki said grabbing Tony.

"Deploy. Deploy." Tony said before Loki threw him out of the window.

Tony went hurtling towards the street below. Behind Loki a door opened and a red pod flew out of the window. The pod began to transform into one of the suits and homed in on the bracelets on Tony's wrists. The suit encased his body and he flew back up to where Loki was stood.

"And there's one other person you pissed off! His name was Phil." Tony said. Loki raised his sceptre to shoot but Tony's shot first and Loki went flying backwards.

The Tesseract reactor opened and shot an electric blue beam into the sky. A portal opened up and the Chitauri began to fly through.

"Right." Tony muttered. "Army." He flew up towards the portal and began to fight.

They flew straight for the city which caused chaos among the citizens as they all ran for cover. The shot at the buildings, people, cars, anything they could. They left destruction in their wake.

"Stark, we're on your three, headed North East." Natasha informed him over the comms. They all had them now.

"What did you stop for drive through?" Tony asked as he was chased by the aliens. "Swing up park I'm gonna lay them out for you."

"I'm gonna get the people off the streets." Abi informed them.

As the quin jet neared Stark tower Abi opened the door and jumped out. Clint looked on in shock. She blasted up with her powers and landed on the main highway. She moved people out of the way and took down the alien speeders with her powers. The real fight had just begun. Tony and the jet flew around shooting everything they could see.

Thor was fighting Loki on the top of Stark tower and Clint noticed. "Nat." He said.

"I see him." She said as she swung the plane round.

She shot at Loki as Thor hit the floor. Loki shot back with the sceptre, however and took out one of their engines. The jet began to fall towards the Earth.

"Abi, we're coming down hot." Steve warned.

"I see you. Hold on." She replied. She ran to where the jet was crashing and used her powers to bring it down safely.

Steve, Natasha and Clint all exited the jet. "We've got to get back up there." Steve said.

"Follow me." Abi told them. They ran through the city until they were back on the main highway.

There was a massive roar that made the four of them freeze. A huge creature came through the portal covered in some kind of gold armour.

"So, space whales." Abi said as they stood in shock as it flew over them.

It began to shoot Chitauri at the sides of buildings. Abi used her powers to pull some off and crash them into the ground and Clint shot others.

"Stark, are you seeing this?" Steve questioned.

"I'm seeing, still working on believing." Tony replied. "Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?"

"Banner?" Steve asked.

"Just keep me posted." Stark replied as he went back to figuring out how to take down the whale thing.

"We've got civilians still trapped up here." Barton said as the four of them took cover behind an over turned taxi.

Abi was grabbing any speeders that shot past and crashing them into the ground. Her hands seemed to be permanently glowing blue. "They're fish in a barrel down there." Abi said.

"We got this. It's good. Go!" Natasha told her and Steve as she shot some Chitauri.

"You think you can hold them off?" Steve asked.

"Captain," Barton said as he pulled another arrow from his quiver. "It would be my genuine pleasure." He stood and shot the arrow into one of the alien's head.

Abi and Steve got to their feet and ran. "Jump." She told him.

"What?" He asked looking at the distance off the bridge.

"Trust me." She said as they reached the end and jumped. She caught them both and set them both down. She created a blue shield of energy that deflected the aliens' blasts as she and Steve then ran at them.

Natasha and Clint were getting people to safety and holding off the aliens.

"Just like Budapest all over again." Natasha said as they shot at the Chitauri.

"You and I remember Budapest very differently." Clint replied.

Abi and Steve were getting people to safety and also holding off the aliens. They ran up to the police.

"I need men in these buildings. There are people inside that can run into the line of fire. You take them through the basement or through the subway. You keep them off the streets. I need a perimeter as far back as 39th." Steve told the cops.

"Why the hell should I take orders from you?" The sergeant asked.

An explosion went off behind them. Steve started fighting two Chitauri on foot as Abi brought down the speeders that came through the buildings. The cops looked at them in shock before the Sergeant relayed Steve's message to his force.

Steve and Abi re-joined Nat and Barton on the bridge. Lightning suddenly came down and incinerated a few of the Chitauri. Thor appeared in the lightning's wake. He stumbled slightly upon landing but righted himself quickly.

"What's the story upstairs?" Steve asked him.

"The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable." Thor told them.

"Thor's right. We got to deal with these guys." Tony replied through the comms.

"How do we do this?" Natasha asked.

"As a team." Steve replied.

"I have unfinished business with Loki." Thor said.

"Yeah, well get in line." Barton warned.

"Save it!" Steve said.

"Loki's going to keep this fight focused on us." Abi told them.

"And that's what we need." Steve added. "Without him these things would run wild. We've got Stark up top. He's going to need us to..." Steve stopped as a motorbike ridden by Bruce pulled up.

"So, this all seems horrible." Bruce concluded.

"I've seen worse." Natasha chipped in.

"Sorry." Bruce apologised.

"No, we could use a little worse." Natasha added.

"Stark, we got him." Abi said into the comms.

"Banner?" Stark asked.

"Just like you said." Steve replied.

"Then tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you." Tony said as he flew round the corner. He was quickly followed by the space whale.

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

The things stomach began to scrape the ground as it got lower. Bruce began to walk towards it.

"Dr Banner." Steve said. "Now might be a good time for you to get angry."

"That's my secret, Captain. I'm always angry." And with that he transformed into the hulk and smashed the space whales face. The things armour began to crack giving Stark the window he was looking for.

"Hold on." Stark said as he fired a rocket into the things flesh. The whale blew up and everyone ducked to avoid falling flesh. The Chitauri began to scream as the Avengers stood in a circle and watched.

"Send the rest." Loki commanded.