A Taste of Vengeance

Together we watched in horror as the flying Godzilla-beast moved throughout the city, hitting buildings and monuments without pause. The plated armor moved in sync with its body as it practically swam over us, deploying Chitauri out of the sides onto the roads and onto the buildings.

The Chitauri were ugly beasts, with thick grey skin, tall built legs and riffles that shot some kind of space energy. I kind of felt like I was in the middle of star trek, with the aliens running around and people screaming for a high power to help them, to aid them in their time of need and fear. We were their higher power, and we were here to answer. I just wasn’t sure how yet.

“Stark are you seeing this?” Steve asked, craning his neck towards the sky while the dino-monster flew around the city. It was like a very scary Macy’s day parade.

“Yep, I’m seeing just working on believing,” Tony answered, taking fight behind it. “Where’s Banner, has he shown up yet?”

“Banner?” Steve replied, confused. Banner was nowhere to be seen and we hadn’t heard anything from him either.

“Just keep me posted,” Tony answered shortly, not really answering the question.

Just at that moment a group of Chitauri rushed us, firing their weapons at us. We burst into action as one, seamless team. I threw up a wall, blocking the shots as I fired my own weapon at them, my bullets grazing off their armor. I growled and began shooting all over, trying to find a soft spot when I hit one in the neck, causing it to scream and tumble over, blood gurgling like a hot geyser.

“Aim for the neck!” I yelled as one leapt at me. I slide under its legs and turned on my back, squeezing the trigger rapidly and shoot it in the back of the neck, killing it. “Their armor is weak at the neck!”

“And at the face,” Steve added, throwing his shield and crushing one right in the face. The scene was gruesome but I had other things to worry about as a group of three swarmed me, making my gun uses less.

I blocked the punch of one creature, blasting the other with energy. I spun away from the first one, stabbing in a downward arch with a knife and landing it in the throat before throwing my leg out and kicking the third square in the chest, sending it hurtling backwards. The second chitauri had recovered from my shove and was moving at me again but I charged it, running and jumping onto its shoulders, swiveling my legs and slamming it to the ground. I stuck an explosive on it as I ran to Steve, who was engaged with several of the alien beasts.

Steve was holding his own easy enough, but I could see the smile on his face as I jumped on top of one creature, ripping his neck to the side and severing the spinal cord before propelling myself into the middle of the circle with him, ducking and hitting another one and sliding to the floor, sweeping my leg out and knocking over another creature.

Steve and I worked around each other like we had been doing it our entire lives. There was no need to communicate, no need to order one another around as we twisted around each other, twining and dancing like black and blue smoke. I worked around him the same amount as I used him as a device, rolling over his back to attack another, or to avoid one. I was perfectly comfortable with Steve and I knew that he would never let one hurt me, and I would never let one touch him as well.

It seemed like the fighting went on forever before there were no more attackers. As we ran over to Barton and Romanoff, I glanced around, in awe of the destruction. Cars were over turn, their metal crunched like wrapping papers, their windows shattered and glass spread out like saw dust. Smokes burned from cares and fires lit tires and the roads, where gasoline ran thick. The screams of the people were ringing in my ears, but with Steve by my side I was closed of to their panicked thoughts.

We slid to the asphalt, which was filled with rubble and charred marks, covering our heads as another explosion went off. According to Barton there was a room of civilians being held captive by chitauri, and glancing upwards, we saw as Loki himself rode upon a spacecraft, firing and shooting with a sick glee as he went. He truly was gone.

“There fish in a barrel down there,” Steve said, peeking over the car. I looked up over the car and shot down two chitauri that were approaching, emptying one of several clips. Glancing at my belt, I knew I only had a few left.

“We got this,” Natasha told Steve, just as two more landed on the car in front of us. She looked at me and I nodded my head, turning to Steve and repeating the gesture. Steve was the one for saving civilians, not us. We were assassins, we didn’t deal with people. “Go.”

“You can hold them off?” he asked, making sure.

“Captain,” Barton smiled, arming his bow. “It would be my genuine pleasure.”

He looked at me again, eyes searching. “Go on.” I smiled. “Show them who Captain America is again. Make them believe.”

Steve turned and jumped off the bridge as more Chitauri attacked. Natasha, Clint and I acted at once, moving like the three heads of a hydra. Clint began firing arrows as Natasha and I fired our guns, hitting with perfectly and deadly accuracy. We began making our way to a stopped and broke down city bus, in which people were screaming and trying to escape from. I winced as their thoughts threatened to overpower my own, but I focused on what was in front of me, on the task at hand. I felt as if my uncle would tell me to calm my mind, to slow things down.

Just like that, the Chitauri seemed to slow down as I tore through a line of them, bursting with a newfound speed. I savagely punched, kicked and stabbed at all of them, slicing through them like a razor blade. And with the silver of the knives flashing, the blood being exposed after I had slashed at them, I was a razor blade.

I paused, checking my surroundings. Dead aliens littered the ground around me, and both of my fellow assassins paused and raised their eyebrows, not truly understand what had just happened either. The best I could guess was that I had unconsciously invaded their minds, slowing them down in their places. It had always been an ability my uncle tried to teach me, but I didn’t have the inner peace or state of mind to accomplish it.

Barton began helping civilians out of the bus while Natasha and I stood side by side, making it a game to see who could take out the most aliens. Natasha was beating me by three when my gun clicked, signaling it was empty. Instead of refilling the clip I ripped back a the first layer of my belt, pulling out discs and clicking them in the middle before moving away from Natasha, throwing the discs in the air and grabbing them individually and tossing them. It was a blur of movement as I did so, causing Natasha to narrow her eyes and mutter, “Show off.”

“Hey,” I called, throwing more knives and explosives. “God gave you the ability to shoot and Barton to use a bow and arrow. I just happen to have super speed and good precision with knives.”

“She’s right,” Barton said, skidding to a halt next to us and firing an explosive arrow into one of the aliens.

“You know,” she said to us, firing away her gun. “This reminds me of Budapest.”

“Budapest?” both Clint and I asked in unison.

“You and I remember Budapest very differently,” Barton laughed.

“Yeah not only that, but I got knifed in the back on that trip. I had stitches for weeks!”

Another flood of enemies came in and stopped our talking. It seemed like no matter how many we killed, there was always another to replace it. We went on forever like this, covered in sweat, blood and grime, killing and taking hits, bleeding and killing. It was a chaotic cycle that never ended, and I didn’t know how long we could go like this. A couple hours at most but not forever.

I killed another chitauri and spun, bellowing and tackling one that had Barton pinned on the ground. We hit the ground with a loud smack, rolling and I cried out in pain as the beast stuck a knife in my arm, missing my chest like it had been aiming for. The creature was ripped away from me suddenly and Steve was there, dismantling it entirely as I lay on the ground, pulling the long, slender blade from my arm. It hurt like hell and I clenched my teeth, hissing until the blade was all the way out.

Steve offered his hand and I took it, letting him help me up. We turned to take on more, but a blast of lightning surrounded us, frying the aliens in their armor like eggs on a Sunday morning. They faulted and fell to the ground, clattering as Thor landing with an audible boom. His face had anger written all over it, and I had to admit that he resemble Mufasa from Lion king.

“What’s the new upstairs?” Steve asked, throwing his shield and knocking a chitauri off his flying machine.

“The energy around the cube is impenetrable.”

My face fell. “Have you tried sticking knives in it?” I held up a knife, eagerly nodding my head at the suggestion.

“No,” Tony said through our earpieces. “Thor’s right. We have to deal with these guys.”

“There’s hundreds of them!” I shouted.

Natasha felt the same way. “How do we do this?”

There was silence as Steve took my hand and squeezed it reassuringly. “As a team.”

Thor nodded. “I have unfinished business with Loki.”

Barton, who was examining and arrow looked up at him, annoyed and growling, “Get in line.”

“Save it.” Steve let go of my hand and walked past Barton, looking up into the sky as his mind began calculating a plan. “Loki’s going to keep the fight focused on us, and that’s what we need.”

“What I need is some water,” I joked, but I really was parched. Steve cast me a ‘get-serious’ look and I shut up, gesturing for him to continue.

“As long as we’re here, these things won’t go tearing around to far. They like to attack us, and that’s what Loki wants. We’ve got Stark in the air,-"

“Wait,” I said quickly, hearing it long before the others. I turned and looked down the road. Bruce was coming towards on a motorcycle, driving around the broken street as quickly as he could. “Banner’s here!”

Bruce pulled up and killed the engine, sitting for a moment and looking at us. I smiled and approached him, the other’s following suit as he dismounted, eyes scanning the damage and the broken city. On the bright side, if he was here to help, there was nothing he could do to this city that hadn’t already been done.

“Well, this all looks horrible,” he chirped.

“I’ve seen worse,” Natasha deadpanned, looking at him with a vacant expression. Banner winced. “Sorry.” “No really, we could use worse.”

“Stark, Banner’s here,” Steve said into the earpiece. I approached Bruce wile Steve talked to Tony.

I clapped Bruce on the shoulder, smiling. “I knew you’d come.”

He smiled slightly. “You are psychic.”

“Alright.” Tony sounded strained. “I’m bringing the party to you.”

Tony came sky rocketing from around a building, and I felt my jaw drop as the flying fossil broke through the corner of the building, emitting a terrible sound and sending a thousand shards of glass raining to the streets as well as strips of heavy and deadly metal. Tony was heading straight towards us, the monster giving chase and I almost laughed out loud at him.

“I… don’t see how that’s a party.” Natasha’s voice was low as she stared up at the creature, skeptical.

I guffawed and slapped my hand on back, smiling at her. “Natasha, you wouldn’t know a party if it slapped you in the face.”

“Uh, Doctor Banner?” Steve asked as bruce turned away from us, walking towards the giant beast. “Now might be a good time to get angry.”

Bruce laughed. “That’s my secret, Captain.” He glanced at us over his shoulder, his eyes burning green. “I’m always angry.”