CHAPTER EIGHT
THE CHITAURI

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     Riley didn't waste a single second after Steve announced that they were leaving in ten minutes. He escaped to the armory and restocked on ammo and guns, and then got to work getting his crossbow out of storage. It had been taken away from him on his last mission. He had shot too early, at a black market dealer he'd been watching for a few weeks. He'd seen the man lash out at his daughter and had seen red, and the next thing he knew, his finger had squeezed on the trigger and the arrow had went flying. Fury hadn't necessarily disapproved of the action—Riley had been sent to spy and then eliminate regardless—but the problem was how public it had been. His crossbow had been locked up ever since, but considering how busy everyone was, he had no problem getting into the part of the armory reserved for more dangerous weapons.

Like a crossbow that could shoot electric arrows.

He'd taken Nat's identification card just in case he wasn't cleared, but when he swiped his own, he was surprised to find that he'd been cleared to enter the dangerous part of the armory. Perhaps that was Fury's intention. Riley had a feeling he knew perfectly well that the Avengers were about to head out without any specific orders. That was what he wanted them to do. Feeling better about sneaking around, Riley entered the armory and went to the touchpad on the wall, swiping through the catalogue until he got to ranged weapons, and then he typed in his name and let it search. He had more than one crossbow in storage, but he chose the electric one and waited for the tech—made by Tony, which wasn't surprising—to bring his weapon out. As he waited, he idly searched for Nat's widow bite bracelets, wondering if she had already taken them out.

She'd been with Riley during his mission that cost him his crossbows, but he wasn't sure if she had also been punished for it. Riley hadn't technically done anything wrong. He bent the rules, but he hadn't actually broken them. Since the widow bites weren't in storage, he could only assume she'd gotten off with little more than a slap on the wrist. He sighed and exited out right when a panel opened on the wall and his crossbow slid out, as well as plenty of electric arrows. He took them, then requested even more electric arrows, just in case. He secured the crossbow and quiver on his back, grabbed the extra arrows when they were brought out, then turned and broke into a run. He cut through the halls as quickly as possible, earning a few glares and grumbles as he made his way to the garage. He arrived just in time to catch Nat, Steve, and Clint arriving at one of the jets. Instead of cutting through the center of it all and catching unnecessary attention, Riley weaved through the side and between other jets until he got to the one they were hijacking.

"Hey, you guys aren't authorized to be in here—" the man cleaning up the jet started. Riley peaked over Steve's shoulder to see who it was. He didn't recognize him, not that it really mattered. Steve didn't let him finish his warning, far too fed up with the days events to have any more patience.

"Son," Steve said, raising his hand to silence him, "just don't." Riley let out a small laugh and quickly circled around them, going to start up the jet as Steve, Nat, and Clint bullied the innocent agent until he let them steal the jet. The agent must have been a little too stubborn, because Nat and Clint were manhandling him out of the jet not long after, Nat literally kicking him out the last foot. Riley had already powered up the jet by then, so he wasted no time closing the doors on the agent.

"So," Riley started once everyone started getting settled. He and Nat both slid into the pilot seats, while Steve and Clint strapped the safety belts around themselves. Riley reached up to flip on a switch, checking the fuel in the tank, while Nat checked the pressure inside the cabin. "Where are we headed?"

"New York," Steve told him. Riley glanced at him over his shoulder, since Steve sounded distracted to him, and saw that he was squeezing the stress ball Riley had given him earlier. Riley turned back forward and pretended like he hadn't noticed. "Stark Tower. Tony realized that Loki is a diva—his words, not mine—and said that he would want the largest audience he could possibly get. We both figured that Stark Tower is a good place to get that, since it's..."

"Obnoxious," Riley and Clint echoed, much to Steve's amusement. Riley bit back a smile. The next few minutes was spent preparing the jet for flight, and then they were racing at full speed down the landing strip. They didn't want to risk slowing down to lift off of it first, so they flew completely off the side of the Helicarrier. For a bright moment, they were free-falling, and then Nat and Riley pulled at their handles and they were shooting forward in the sky, separating clouds. Once they were stable in the air and the coordinates for New York were put in—they had to twist entirely around because they had taken off in the opposite direction—Riley glanced over his shoulder again.

"How are you nervous?" Clint was asking, staring at Steve incredulously, who was squeezing so hard around the stress ball that his knuckles were turning white. "Didn't you fly a plane into the ocean?"

"I'm pretty sure that's why he's nervous," Riley cut in. When Clint saw him staring judgmentally, he only offered a shrug. That was exactly like Clint. He had only wanted to make conversation; he hadn't meant to be callous. "Besides, it's only been what, a month, since he's been off ice? Give him a break."

"You know, I'm right here," Steve muttered. Riley, a little embarrassed now, shot him an apologetic smile. It quickly went away when he felt Nat hit him on his arm with the back of his hand. Wincing, Riley turned back forward and focused on flying the jet. The rest of the ride went in relative silence, aside from the occasional comment from Clint. The tense atmosphere didn't really abide until their comms in their ears started to crackle. Eventually, they were switched back on completely, and Riley winced when a high squeaking sound was sent into his ear.

"Anyone copy?" Maria asked. Riley wasn't really sure if he should answer, since they were technically on an unauthorized mission, but he said he copied regardless. Thankfully, he was saved from being the only one who spoke by Clint, Steve, and Nat, who all spoke at the same time as he did. There was a brief moment of silence. "There have been reports coming in from New York. Stark is on sight and has confirmed that Loki is at Stark Tower. He's also using the Tesseract to open a—a portal from space. Loki's army is coming through the portal as we speak. Whatever you're doing, do it faster."

"When you say army..." Riley started, even as Nat reached for the controls to make the jet go fast. "Do you mean..."

"Aliens, yes," Maria said, her voice blunt. Riley took a moment to process that, to really get it through his mind that he was about to fight aliens from another planet, before had shoved that thought aside entirely and focused on the mission at hand. It didn't matter if they were aliens or not. They were a threat to people's safety, and Riley was going to fight them either way. Maria didn't say much once she realized Riley wasn't going to respond to her confirming they would be engaging with aliens. She just briefly told them to stay safe, give updates when they could, then said S.H.I.E.L.D. was preparing to send reinforcements. Then the line was cut, and they were flying through the air three times faster than they had been before.

Riley was the one who saw it first. Nat was looking down at the controls, slowing down the jet so that they could control it more easily and preparing the weapons the jet had equipped. It was up to Riley to steer the plane through the city and make sure it didn't hit any buildings, so he saw the beam of blue light as clear as day. It was extremely hard to miss. Not only was it coming straight from the top of Stark Tower, which was already an attention-grabbing building, but it was also glowing bright, rather wide, and was currently shooting directly into the sky. Where the beam ended, a large portal shaped like a circle was forming, wide and dark. Riley could just make out tiny specks flying out of it, and he could only conclude that it was aliens. Just like that, a switch clicked inside his brain, turning him from a mildly nervous person to a professional agent. He'd been teetering on the edge of it for the past hour, but seeing the huge portal in the sky and seeing the light coming from something as powerful as the Tesseract made the switch rather easy.

"Do we know what type of aliens they are?" he asked, assuming that their comms were still online. He didn't know if S.H.I.E.L.D. was struggling with them anymore, but their technicians had always been brilliant. He was pleased when Maria answered almost immediately.

"According to Stark, they're called Chitauri," Maria responded. "Don't really know what hurts them the most, but Stark has blown a good bit up while you've been in the air, and fire seems to work. Electricity does, too." Riley was extremely relieved to hear that. He wasn't sure if bullets did anything to aliens, but he had plenty of electric arrows, and he was sure Clint brought plenty extra bomb arrows on top of that. "Stark's struggling with them right now. He's staying close to Stark Tower, so go straight to him. No stopping to help civilians. Stark seems to be keeping the Chitauri from straying too far, so focus on helping the civilians in the center of it all, if you have to—but if you can get to Loki, do it."

"Copy that," Riley muttered. They were getting close to the eye of the storm, and the only reason he could tell was because a Chitauri was shot off one of their chariots by Tony and it flew right into the jet. Riley swerved before it could hit the glass, and then he was circling around, trying to find Tony again. He'd flown off before they had a chance to really take in anything. He seemed to have chased after the single Chitauri that had gotten away from him, and now he was shooting back towards Stark Tower.

"Stark, we're on your three, headed northeast," Nat announced from beside it, and in the comms, her voice echoed in an uncomfortable way. Her voice broke in places due to static. Riley hoped the connection wouldn't be completely cut off the closer they got to the Tesseract. As they got closer to the fight, he could see more and more damage. More police cars flying through the streets, more civilians running away and screaming in the panic and chaos. He knew things would start looking a lot worse soon. They would need to be able to communicate with each other, especially if they got separated. Which, looking at the chaos, was a given at that point.

"What? Did you stop for drive-through?" Tony snapped immediately, sounding extremely stressed and on edge. That was the only reason Riley didn't sarcastically respond with a, Yeah, went to McDonald's, want some fries? He was sure that Tony wouldn't appreciate the comment at the moment, though he'd probably find it hilarious later, when the fight was over. "Swing up Park," Tony proceeded to order, and Riley was turning the jet before Tony even finished saying, "I'm gonna lay 'em out for you."

The jet rounded a building, and suddenly Tony was sweeping down. Behind him were at least twelve of the Chitauri, driving chariot-looking vehicles through the air and gaining on Tony fast. Natasha released the gun on the underside of the jet and aimed while Riley steered. He pulled the jet up slightly, then flew forward. Nat aimed as he went, taking out the Chitauri in a sea of bullets so easily that Riley was a little underwhelmed. As long as they kept the Quinjet in the air, then they'd be able to take out three times as many as Tony could and three times as fast.

"Go higher," Nat ordered once the Chitauri were taken care of. "I want to see the source. Maybe we can destroy whatever machine is making the Tesseract do...that." Riley nodded and steered the jet back toward the Stark Tower, and then he was following it up, circling the tower until they got to the source of the blue beam. Right before they would have reached it, however, they saw two figures fighting on the level right below the Tesseract. Riley slowed the jet as soon as he noticed bright red. Looking more closely, he saw that the two figures were Thor and Loki.

"Nat?" Riley asked, wondering if she wanted to take a shot at Loki or continue up to the Tesseract. She was already gripping at the gun controls.

"I see him," she said lightly, looking a bit excited at the thought of getting a bullet into the god. Riley, knowing what that excitement meant, immediately, pointed the head of the jet in Loki's direction. Nat immediately started shooting. Loki had quicker reflexes than either of them could have anticipated, though, because he didn't wait for them to start shooting. He saw them and immediately pointed his scepter in their direction. Seeing the scepter start to glow a bright blue, Riley tried to pull the Quinjet up as fast as he could, tried to get it out of Loki's sight, or at least throw off his aim. Unfortunately, Loki was too fast, they were too close, and the Quinjet was too heavy to move as quickly as was needed. The beam from the scepter hit the wing on Riley's side and took out the fan along with it.

Out of the corner of his eye, fire erupted from the ruptured fan, and the wing itself broke in half from the blast. The entire jet immediately tilted to the side, sending everyone in that same direction. The entire jet flipped entirely upside down only once, and then Riley was jerking so hard at the handles his wrists hurt. He couldn't fly it properly now, not with the left wing broken, but he could twist it back upright. They could ride the wind as best as they could, use the buildings to slow their momentum down, and then hope and pray that no civilians were close when they inevitably crash landed. This wasn't the first time Riley had to deal with a broken jet in the air. He'd been trained how to react in this sort of situation.

Still, that didn't make it any less nerve-wracking when the plane tilted this way and that every few seconds. Each jolt of the plane sent his heart into his throat, each crash against the building made his hands clenched tighter around the handles. By the time they were nearing the ground, he was on pins and needles. He didn't want to die, least of all in a jet he was crash landing in the middle of New York just because a Norse god was throwing a tantrum on earth.

The landing wasn't as smooth as Riley would have liked, just because he realized too late that they were still going too fast. At the last second, he had no choice but to point the head of the jet toward the pavement just to avoid crashing into the building in front of them. He could see terrified civilians looking from behind the windows, pressing their faces to the glass even though a jet was coming straight toward them. That was the thing about civilians during a crisis. They thought being inside made them safe, so they kept close to the windows to watch all the destruction, so sure that it wouldn't reach them that they let their curiosity get the better of them. Riley didn't have any time to think about that, though.

They landed, and his breath was knocked completely out of his lungs. The first thing he felt was pain as his body was lurched forward. The safety belt kept him from any real damage, but the impact against his chest and ribs would surely leave bruises. He got his breath back while they were still sliding across the pavement. As soon as the jet was slowing down a safe amount, he and Nat were undoing their belts and bolting up from the pilot seats, all too aware that the left wing was still on fire. They had no idea if any fuel was leaking anywhere on the jet, but they didn't want to be anywhere near it if it was. Fortunately, Steve and Clint had still been strapped down when Loki hit the plane, so they were fine too, if a bit winded.

They only paused long enough to grab their respective weapons, and then they were jogging out of the jet, leaving it open where it was. No one was going to touch it with aliens currently rampaging the streets, and S.H.I.E.L.D. would send a clean-up crew after the battle to retrieve what they could save from the crash either way. Now, Riley focused on settling his nerves from the crash landing and readying an electric bow into his crossbow. The quiver was strapped to his back, more electric arrows waiting, and the others were already put inside the crossbow. The crossbow itself was electric, just like the arrows, and was built to rotate an arrow to replace any he had previously shot. He was glad to have it in his hands against, and he tested the familiar weight of it as they hurried down the road.

"We have to get back up there!" Steve barked, and suddenly Riley's focus was sharp again. His head whipped up from his crossbow, and then he broke into a run to follow Natasha, Clint, and Steve farther down the road. He kept his crossbow pointed at the ground as he ran, keepings his hands as steady as possible and his finger near the trigger. They were nearing a collection of cars blocking easy access to the other side of the road when they heard it. A loud groaning sound, like metal shifting under heavy weight. They all came to a stop, the sound making them all feel uneasy. Riley was the first to glance up. He had to crane his head back to get a clear look at the portal—it was practically right above them, which meant the Stark Tower was blessedly closer than he had thought—and what he saw made his stomach drop.

Out of the portal came something larger than a whale and a thousand times uglier. It was covered in what was either armor or an exoskeleton, and as it descended onto earth and flew above their heads, smaller Chitauri were spit out of its sides. They soared through the sky and landed in various skyscrapers around them, some climbing to the top while others crashed through windows. At once, gunfire and panicked screams erupted all around them.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: I know this is a weird place to cut off the chapter but here's the thing. I was writing this chapter out, and it was nearing 6k words, and I suddenly realized...I don't have enough material for next chapter and I'm afraid I wont even dent 3k words. So I decided to take a chunk of the last bit of this chapter and just add it to the beginning of the next one. It was getting way too long anyway and I wasn't even close to being done with it, so.

Unedited. Sorry if this chapter sucks.