∆ {1⁶} {THE HULK, THE ENGINE ROOM, AND THE GOD} ∆

GLASS SHATTERED SOMEWHERE above Roxi as she was thrown to the floor from the shockwave of the blast, slamming her head off of the (thankfully) padded ground. Even so, the impact made her head spin, and to add to it, alarms began blaring over the helicarrier. She got up as quickly as she could, her hand gripping so tightly onto the quarterstaff that her knuckles were paling to white, and Roxi thanked herself from being overprepared as she felt the metal of the pistol she'd taken as a precaution before coming down to the training room. It didn't help that she didn't have any comms and couldn't tell what was going on, so she decided to check on the closest engine room first; if more than one engine went down, so did the whole ship. 

As she began to make her way down the corridors, she was slightly surprised at how steady she was on her feet, though she attributed it to adrenaline, not to her sturdiness. A few agents passed her hurriedly, trying to get to the bridge, which Roxi realised she probably should've done, but she continued on her path to the engine room. When she eventually reached the door, she pried it open slowly, hoping to make as little sound as possible. She made her way in, slipping between the silver pipes and girders, completely tense, each little sound causing her to whip around, even if it was the faint echoing of her footsteps. A few moments later, she heard the echoing of a voice she faintly recognised as Natasha's, talking to someone. Roxi made her way towards the sound, passing two mechanics who had been on their way to do the same thing she was. She faintly heard them try to tell her that she shouldn't carry on, but she ignored them and pushed past until she finally reached the scene.

Natasha's leg was trapped under a huge collapsed pipe, and she was sprawled on the metal floor, using her hands to support herself, her gaze trained on Dr Banner, who was not trapped and seemed to be struggling to control his anger.

"I swear on my life, I will get you out of this. You will walk away, and never ever-" Natasha began, her voice shaking as she banged the ground with her fist for emphasis, still struggling to pull her leg out. 

"Your life?!" Banner bellowed, his face becoming green and strained. A moment later, he sat up, on his knees, and let out a roar, his shirt ripping as he became the Hulk. Roxi ran forwards, causing Natasha to finally notice her presence, and reached the other Agent, grabbing her arms and pulling her out from underneath the twisted pipe as the Hulk stumbled off of the raised platform and down onto the floor of the engine room a little below. He slammed his fist into one of the water tanks, causing the lights to flicker and die, just as Natasha stood up and glanced at Roxi.

"You shouldn't be here," she reprimanded breathlessly.

"I make a habit out of being places I shouldn't," Roxi responded, much more steadily than Natasha. The Hulk turned around and caught sight of the two of them, his body shaking with rage, before he spun around, prompting Roxi to dash up the metal stairs, Natasha only a moment behind. Roxi just made it up on time, but the Hulk ripped the stairs out from under Natasha, causing her to flip over the railing and up onto the next level to avoid falling. They made their way into the vent system, moving in a crouched run, trying to avoid being seen. The Hulk ripped a panel out from under Roxi, who was now behind Natasha, who had managed to swing to safety using the railing. 

Roxi fell to the platform beneath, barely avoiding the Hulk's flailing hands and as she came into contact with the ground, she crouched low, and managed to duck and avoid every swing that came her way, infuriating Hulk even more, and quickly ran over to where Natasha was waiting, before the two scurried away through another of the ship's huge air vents. The Hulk let out a mighty roar, which Roxi could hear reverberating throughout the ship. 

"What the hell is happening?" She asked, her hair falling out of the ponytail she'd put it up in when she'd started training. as they continued to creep through the pipes of the ship.

"Agent Barton has the Tesseract here, and he blew up the side of the ship and stopped Engine 3, and now Loki's troops are invading the helicarrier," Natasha explained, still out of breath. 

"And what about Loki?" Roxi asked her. She didn't receive a response and cursed under her breath. As soon as she was out of this situation, she'd head to Loki's cell to try and keep him there. The pair of Agents stopped on their level, which was slightly below the main level. They waited for a few moments until they were certain there was silence. Natasha crept slowly out, and although Roxi was warier, she still followed her out, wanting to stay together if at all possible. Both kept their guns up, Roxi still keeping a firm grip on her quarterstaff. The Hulk burst out of the shadows a moment later, uttering a loud yell, causing Natasha to shoot a pipe above his head, that released steam downwards, temporarily blinding him. She sprinted away, Roxi close behind as they turned a corner and ran down a narrow corner with glass panes lining either side. 

The Hulk ran after them, causing the glass to shatter and the wires inside the metal frames to spark, causing both of them to cover their heads as they ran for cover. Roxi pointed her gun behind her and took a wild shot, at this point not caring for the repercussions. There was another roar, but this one more of anger, which meant that the bullet had somehow, miraculously found its mark amidst the chaos and bounced off of his skin. The shot made the Hulk even angrier, and this time, his flailing arms caught both Roxi and Natasha, sending them sprawling to the ground a few feet away. Roxi got up as quickly as she could, her gun still out as Natasha struggled to get up with her aching leg. Roxi fired another shot as the Hulk advanced on the other S.H.I.E.L.D Agent, hoping to deter him. It didn't do much and she was beginning to worry when something burst through the wall and into the Hulk, sending him flying. 

The thing that had barreled into the Hulk turned out to be Thor, who had also been thrown to the ground by the impact, and who rolled over a few times before getting up, keeping his gaze fixed on the Hulk. Natasha remained where she was, sitting down, out of harm's way, her face gleaming with sweat as she panted heavily. Roxi wasn't in a much better state, her back and neck aching from the harsh impact on the metal ground, but she knew she needed to carry on helping. She took a few moments to catch her breath, before turning to Natasha and telling her

"I'm going to the bridge. Stay out of trouble." The redhead only acknowledged her with a nod, which Roxi took as her cue to leave. She glanced around,  trying to find the quickest way to the bridge. She located a door across the room that would get her there fast and she glanced at the Hulk and Thor's fight before running across the room, barely dodging Mjölnir as it flew to Thor's hand, before finally reaching the door to find it jammed shut. Roxi rolled her eyes. Of course, this had to happen now. She couldn't be bothered with anything fancy, so instead of trying to pick the lock or barge the door open, she simply raised the quarterstaff above the handle and swung it down with all of her strength. There was a crack and a slight grinding sound as the screws broke, causing the handle to tumble to the floor with a clatter that was much louder than she would've liked. She pushed the door open as fast as she could, before slipping through the small gap that she'd managed to draw open - normally these heavy doors were automatic. She dashed down corridors, whirled around corners and bounded up flights of stairs until she saw the entrance to the bridge.

In the middle of her and the bridge were a small group of Loki's men, fully dressed in tactical gear, who looked ready to shoot anything that moved. Luckily for Roxi, they all had their backs to her.  Just beyond them, she could see Fury and Agent Hill, though she doubted they could see her, with their guns raised as they crouched behind desks to avoid the gunfire of Loki's troops. There were seven men, and she only had five rounds left in her gun. She'd probably be better to save them. So instead, she put her gun away and brought her other hand onto the handle of the quarterstaff and smiled slightly. Just like old times. She came up behind the group of Loki's men and simply slammed the quarterstaff against the first one's head, causing them to crumple to the ground. That would be the easiest one. Luckily, only two or three of the soldiers had heard the person hit the ground.  Two of them turned around, one of them reacting instantly and coming straight towards her.

Roxi disarmed him as quickly as she could, hitting the gun onto the floor, before using the momentum to power a swing to the man's side, causing him to stumble sideways, and she used that time to jab the end of the staff into his throat, in the gap between his armour. He gasped and dropped to the ground, hopefully unconscious. At that point, the other man who'd turned finally reached her and swung his gun at her head, which she only just blocked with her staff, centimetres from her face. She pushed the gun away and used the other end of the staff to twist the man's arm, causing him to drop it with a quiet yell, before continuing to ram the end of the staff that had been protecting her face into the man's temple, causing him to fall. Another person had turned at the man's soft yell, and this person had some sense, because they had just taken the shot straight away, which grazed Roxi's hand. At this point, she gave up on fighting with the quarterstaff and went for the easy option, bringing up her gun and firing four times, leaving her with one round left in her gun.

Fury and Hill looked up at her and then at each other briefly before getting up and walking towards her.

"Agent Ryder," Fury greeted, gun still in hand.

"Director Fury, Agent Hill," Roxi parried, sweat trickling down her forehead. She could feel a sort of dull ache, which probably meant that she'd ripped her stitches. The nurses wouldn't be happy, but she needed to focus on the problem at hand.

"What are my orders," she continued, wanting to get this over with so that her head could stop throbbing from all the noise. Fury seemed to consider that for a moment before he answered.

" Head up to the flight deck, do anything you can to stop Loki leaving. I'm going to his cell." Roxi nodded in affirmation, spinning around and jogging back out of the bridge. Fury turned to Hill.

"She's a strange one."

{~}

ROXI REACHED THE corridor leading to the flight deck with relative ease, only encountering a few of Loki's toy soldiers on the way, and she still had that one round left in her gun. Of course, that was when she encountered the problem. Loki was striding up the hall towards her and the way up to the flight deck, which Roxi put behind her by stepping forwards and walking along the corridor to meet him. She had her quarterstaff in one hand, which stuck slightly to her palm because it was sweating profusely, and had her other hand over the gun that was strapped to her thigh. They stopped a few paces apart, meeting slightly closer to the door to the flight deck, purely because Roxi had shorter legs and moved less far. Loki regarded her carefully for a second, before

"What's the point of standing in my way? I am a god, and you are a mortal; there is no way you could possibly hope to beat me."

"You're right. I probably can't beat you. But I can damn well try and stop you," She replied, completely determined and suddenly feeling very selfless. He smirked slightly as if he thought the following fight would be easy. As she moved her hand from over gun and onto the handle of the quarterstaff, Roxi decided she would make sure that it was anything but that.

Loki sent a blue blast of energy from his sceptre straight towards her, which she dodged by lunging to the right, before running towards the god, closing the gap between them as quickly as she could. At the moment, he had an advantage; he could attack from a distance when she couldn't. She still had a round left in her gun, but she didn't need that yet, and she wanted to save it for when she did. She continued to dodge Loki's blast as she slowly weaved her way closer. Of course, he realised what she was doing, so that when she got close enough for a hit and swung her quarterstaff at his side, he blocked it and slammed his sceptre into her side, sending her flying into a wall or the second time that day.

She let out a gasp of pain and shock from the impact, and she could feel her bones shuddering from the force. She was pretty sure she'd have some bruised ribs. Still, she pushed herself up, set on holding off the god for as long as she possibly could. She clambered to her feet, feeling her blood pound and run cold with pure adrenaline, using the silver quarterstaff to help push herself up. Loki watched her with some amusement, but also with a surprising amount of curiosity.

Roxi made her way back to the centre of the corridor, her breath hitching slightly, waiting for him to make the first move. He seemed to consider doing nothing for a moment before he probably decided that that would take too long, and instead, sent yet another energy blast at her, which she managed to dodge again before she ran at him. Loki seemed to expect her to keep going, but she slid to a stop right in front of him and swung her staff sideways, managing to slam it into his temple, causing him to stumble back slightly, before retaliating with a hit of his own, sending her back a few steps too. He realised that he had underestimated her as he raised a hand to the side of his head, checking for blood; she was better than he thought. Loki scowled at her, deciding that this petty fight was taking far too long and that she was wasting his precious time.

Consequentially, the next time Roxi got close enough to attack, he created another copy of himself and stepped out of the way, letting her attack his fake self before sending her flying into a wall, effectively knocking her out.

{A/N:} So Roxi had a bit of inspiration there. Even though Loki beat the crap outta her, she managed to get a hit in. I'd like to say thank you to @Newsourpatch , @rwindham18 and @hmwmsm2 for your support, it really does mean the world to me and every time I read a comment like the ones you've left it makes my day. I published this today because it took so long for me to get my last chapter out so I hope you enjoy. Please leave a vote and some advice, so until next time,

JabberJay11

2735 words

Written: 13 / 07 / 2020

Published: 13 / 07 / 2020