Blind

“What’s the problem?” Barton asked, his voice razor sharp.

“There’s a guy…dressed like the American flag?” Kennedy said, her eyes finding Loki once more.

The bolt hadn’t harmed him but it had flung him to the ground. Several people that had been kneeling were beginning to rise to see what was going on. She shifted, her finger curling around the trigger of the gun as she turned off the safety.

“Get the iridium back to New York,” Kennedy said quietly. “I’ll get Loki.”

“…we ended up disagreeing,” the man in the flag costume said.

Raising an eyebrow, Kennedy just watched as others began to move to their feet. The man dressed in the flag was walking close to Loki to where only several feet separated them. Loki said something that she couldn’t quite make out before using his staff to help him climb to his feet.

“The man out of time.”

“I’m not the one whose out of time.”

A Quinjet like the one she, Loki, and Barton had used to get to Germany appeared overhead. Kennedy’s eyes followed it for a moment before dropping back to where Loki and flag man were. She lowered her gaze to where Freyja was, noting that Freyja had managed to slide a few feet away from Loki’s tall form during the exchange.

“Loki, drop the weapon and stand down!”

The sentence had barely left the mouth of the woman in the Quinjet when a bolt of blue light was fired. It dodged narrowly and then the fight was on. She saw the shield go flying into Loki’s chest and started to shake her head. It would do more damage to the shield than to Loki. And while the shield did bounce off Loki’s chest, it was still in perfect condition.

“Kennedy, what’s going on down there?” Barton snapped into her ear.

“Super heroes? I don’t know, American man and Loki are going at it,” Kennedy snapped back before realizing she’d lost Freyja in the scramble.

With everyone running every which way it was almost impossible to catch sight of Freyja. It took barely half a second for her to find her though. She was the only one not running away from the fight. She was making a beeline straight for Kennedy.

“Barton, I’ll call you back later,” Kennedy said before turning her mike off.

She stepped out of the shadows and fired a few shots in Freyja’s direction, not caring that they might hit someone else, before turning and running. If Freyja was anything like Loki, the bullets would do zero damage. But they would deter Freyja long enough for Kennedy to haul ass.

Kennedy shoved people out of her way as she ran along the rain-slicked sidewalk. Her gaze continually returned to glance over her shoulder, checking to see where Freyja was. The blonde had to contend with a ball gown but another glance over Kennedy’s shoulder revealed that Freyja had taken care of that. She’d ripped most of the dress off and was chasing Kennedy down barefoot.

Glancing in front of her, Kennedy didn’t hesitate to delve into the crowd of people on the sidewalk. She wormed her way through, shoving where she had to, before slipping down a side street. Her pace slowed as she checked over her shoulder. No sign of Freyja.

After a moment, she turned and began climbing up the fire escape on the side of a building. Her ribs protested, as they had all night, but she continued climbing. Once on the roof top, Kennedy turned her mike on and walked over to the edge of the roof. Stark, in his Iron Man suit, had arrived and was standing guard over Loki. Flag man had disappeared.

“Barton,” she murmured as she turned on the mike, “they’ve got Loki.”

Her blue eyes scanned the sidewalk below, searching for Freyja. She finally found the blonde as well as the flag man. From here, there wasn’t a chance in hell that Kennedy could make out what they were saying. But she saw Freyja turn in her direction and Kennedy immediately dropped to the roof top.

“Is it a lost cause to go for him?” Barton asked, his voice buzzing in her ear.

“Yeah, Stark’s here,” she whispered as she crawled across the roof top. “If I’m not at that airfield in twenty minutes, stick to the plan.”

Pulling her ear piece out, Kennedy laid it on the rooftop. She smashed the boot of her gun onto it several times until it was nothing. Then she rose into a crouch and slunk as quickly as she could to the door leading onto the roof top. It was solid steel and locked.

“Fuck,” she growled before hearing the sound of feet on iron.

Kennedy darted around the side of the door, her gun drawn as she peered over to where the fire escape was. Licking her lips, she shook her head as Freyja came into view. Of course Freyja would come looking for her. Holstering her gun, Kennedy slowly began to slink around the side of the small structure encasing the stairs while Freyja crossed the roof.

With the fire escape just ten feet away, Kennedy made a break for it. She was over the side and practically jumping down the steps of the fire escape before Freyja could shout anything. She didn’t slow as she practically threw herself down the fire escape. She skipped the last ten steps and just jumped straight down.

Her knees bent, absorbing the shock as she landed. Looking up, her brow furrowed as she saw that Freyja wasn’t following her. Freyja was just staring down at her. Slowly, Kennedy reached back to draw her gun.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Kennedy turned with her hands raised, not entirely surprised to see flag man standing there. She was more surprised at her own stupidity. She had walked straight into the set up.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t be wearing a spandex version of the American flag, flag boy,” Kennedy replied caustically, her eyes narrowing as she turned and faced him.

She kept her hands raised, palms face out as she looked at him. Her mismatched eyes watched him warily, waiting to see what he would do.

“It’ll be a lot easier, and less painful, if you come with me right now,” he said, watching her just as warily.

“I don’t follow strange men that are dressed in flag costumes,” Kennedy returned, “especially if I just met them in an alley. Not really my cup of tea.”

“You like making things complicated, don’t you?”

“Well, that is definitely my cup of tea,” she smiled deviously. “It’s just a bit of fun, really.”

“Hurting people? That’s fun?” he asked seriously.

“It’s a dog eat dog world, sweetheart. And there’s only one really pleasurable way to be eaten,” Kennedy shrugged.

Even with his helmet on, she could practically see his brow furrow in confusion. Briefly, it flashed in his eyes but then he was focused again. A true soldier.

She faked a quick lunge right, tricking him into throwing the shield. It zoomed right on by harmlessly as she went at him. Kennedy swung a strong right kick at his thigh, looking to take out his legs first. He was taller than her by several inches. And height was always an important factor in the end.

The kick connected and his leg folded slightly. There was something inside of her that was relieved to know that while he could fight Loki, he wasn’t invincible like Loki. Tough but not invincible. She could work with tough.

They traded blows quickly though Kennedy noticed that he was checking the force behind each of his kicks and punches. Her eyes flashed briefly in irritation. That was the only response that she could manage as one of his kicks, having gone unchecked, connected with her ribcage.

She was sent to the ground and rolled several feet away, eyes watering in pain. Her teeth dug into her lower lip so tightly that she could taste blood. Gasping in a breath of air, she reached down and cradled her ribs with one hand while trying to climb to her feet with the other. She made it halfway to her knees before she slid back down in pain.

Kennedy squeezed her eyes shut as she breathed heavily, struggling to get past the pain and get air into her lungs. Nausea rolled over her but she managed to keep from dry-heaving. For several long seconds, she laid there on the ground and breathed heavily before feeling someone lifting her to her feet.

In too much pain to lash out, Kennedy stood there on shaky legs. She still had an arm cradled about her ribcage, holding the throbbing area tenderly. Licking blood from her lips, Kennedy jerked away from Freyja’s hands when her sister arrived, recoiling as if touched with acid.

A glare narrowed her different colored eyes before she was led out of the alley. She held the glare for several seconds, watching Freyja over her shoulder before facing where she was going. There were, surprisingly and yet unsurprisingly, few people standing in the street or on the sidewalk.

Both Stark and Loki turned at their approach. Too prideful really to show injury around Loki, Kennedy uncradled her ribs before twisting loose from the grip on her shoulder. She made no move to dart away, most likely unable to dart away, but continued walking towards Loki and Stark.

“There’s always a feisty one,” Stark said dryly as she approached.

Without a word in response, Kennedy lowered herself onto the sidewalk a foot from where Loki sat. Her legs stretched out in front of her while she rested her elbows on the steps behind her. Painfully, her ribs continued to throb but she just stared at the ground.

Beside her, Loki shifted and turned towards her slightly. Kennedy could feel his green eyes on her, waiting for her to look at him. If there was a smirk on his face, she was going to empty her gun into his face. She hated that smug little smirk he had when he was right about something. Letting her breath out in a loud sigh, Kennedy angled her head to look at him.

“Was that you thinking on your feet?” he asked, sarcasm evident in his tone.

Her eyes narrowed. “Maybe you should skip the helmet of doom next time and just use your winning personality.”

“Can it, Bonnie and Clyde,” Stark snapped, turning to look at them.

“Ostentatious little prick,” Kennedy muttered as he turned his back to them once more.

Out of the corner of her eye she caught Loki smirking.