Avengers - 2
After I talk with Fury, I walk to my room for a shower. I didn't need to know about Natasha's interrogation; I saw her strategy playing out in her mind. She will be playing a victim to find out why Loki is here. I know Thor and Steve have questions for me, but honestly, I couldn't care less about answering them. After I shower, I get dressed in one of the more professional SHIELD suits. I walk down to the firing range and pull out my knives. I currently have two blades in my hand, prepared to throw when I hear the door open. I cast a glance over my shoulder, and I see Thor; he looks hesitant to approach me but does so nonetheless.
"Hello Nikolina, you throw very well with those," Thor compliments me while looking down at the target with four knives sticking out of the bulls-eye. I look at him and study his posture, his body telling me he is wary of me; his hands are slightly fidgeting, waiting for an attack to happen.
"Thanks." My short reply cut across the awkward silence, and we stare into each other's eyes for a good minute when suddenly I throw my arm back and release the knives in my hand. I see Thor flinch harshly at how quickly my hands move and then look at the target, the blades in the bulls-eye again. I continue to look at him as I walk back toward the target; Thor follows me down the lane and helps me pull out my knives.
"I have a question for you, Nikolina." He hands me two of my knives that he pulls from the wall; I quirk my eyebrow at him before shrugging my shoulders slightly.
"Okay. Shoot." A look of confusion covers his face, his mind trying to figure out what my words meant before resuming his question.
"Your powers," Thor can say those two words before my sassiness takes over.
"Mhm. Congratulations! You realize I have powers." He lets out a huff of amusement before looking at me seriously again.
"How did you get them, if you don't mind me asking?" I ponder over his question in my head, wondering if I should tell him the truth or not.
"An organization named HYDRA kidnapped me as a child and experimented on me." I gave him a vague answer, but I saw rage, worry, and pity flash through his eyes.
I'm not too fond of the look of pity that runs across his face. I have never been one to understand emotions, probably because HYDRA beat the feelings out of me. If I wanted a person's pity, I would give them a sob story that wasn't true. Playing with a person's emotions is the best way to get what you want.
"What about SHIELD? What happened to the people who experimented with you?"
"No, not with, on, they experimented ON me, and as for SHIELD, found me and offered me a job instead of killing me." That was all I was going to tell him. Thor didn't need to know everything about me, at least not yet.
"Is that why your file has restricted parts in it? Because of what happened to you?"
I smirk, and a dark look floods my eyes. "No, the reason my file is restricted so tightly is that of how powerful I am, and SHIELD fears what would happen if people knew who I was," I said all of that in an ominous tone that caused Thor to stiffen and shiver out of fear.
I open my mouth to say something, but Fury's voice comes online in my earpiece. "Head to the lab and bring Thor with you. Banner is Loki's play." I sigh and look at Thor; I place all my knives in their respective spots on my suit and check my guns to ensure they have ammo before motioning to Thor to follow me. He and I make our way down to the lab and walk in to see everyone already there. Tony and Steve are fighting about something I expected to happen sooner rather than later. I am tuning out everyone trying to figure out Loki's plan when I see Bruce grab Loki's scepter.
Fury reaches for his gun, and Natasha does the same; the powers start to course through my veins, bleeding into my eyes, turning the whites of my eye from white to black; only my concentration is broken when an explosion occurs under us. Natasha and I were standing the closest to Bruce when the blast broke through the floor. We dropped through the floor, and a tube landed across my back, causing me to become pinned to the floor. My ribs are aching from the weight on top of me, and I can tell I broke at least four ribs. I see Natasha signal for two
workers to run, and the men do as the motion commands when they look at Bruce beginning to Hulk out.
"Bruce, come on. This is exactly what Loki wants; don't give in to it. You will walk away. Natasha and I promise that. I will personally hide you; no one will ever be able to find you; I swear on my LIFE." I say in a breathless tone. I keep Bruce's attention on me while bringing one of my legs to lift the tube, pinning Natasha. She can pull her foot out from under the pipe and subtly lift the metal off me. I use a force field to raise it more while still being discreet.
"YOUR LIFE!" Bruce roars, he looks back at Natasha, and I see the pain and the apology written in his eyes. His clothes begin to stretch around him, only to reach their limits and fall to the floor in scraps. The green coursing underneath his skin is becoming more prominent.
"Run," I tell Natasha; she looks at me with her eyes full of fear while shaking her head. "Run, Natasha, I can handle him. Help wherever you can. Don't come back near Hulk or me." Using my mind control so that she follows my order. Her eyes flash with recognition; she can tell I used my powers on her, and she glares at me, but the worry is underneath it all; she turns around and runs.
When I am sure she is a safe difference, I turn back to Bruce, say Hulk. "Bruce," I whisper, but at this point, he is too far into his transformation. He looks over his shoulder at me, regret and anguish in his eyes as his body begins to grow, and my breath catches in my throat. Adrenaline starts coursing through my veins, and the pain in my ribs begins to fade; Hulk growls and starts to run after me, and I shoot a pipe, hoping it distracts him long enough for me to get away. It doesn't. I turn and run through a walkway; I feel him coming up behind me, smashing through the control panels. I put up force fields in front of him, and they slow him down before he can destroy them. His giant green hand smacks me through the air, and I fly. I hit the wall, and he starts walking towards me. I feel my eyes turn black, and the shadows come forth.
In the shape of tentacles, the black mist shoot forward, the strands following my hand movements. They start to wrap around Hulk and restrain him, he roars in anger and tries to pull them off, but the tentacles are too powerful. His hand can make it past the mist and grabs my leg and swings me toward him, he throws me to the floor, and he goes to jump on top of me when Thor comes smashing into the Hulk. They fly through a wall and land in the quinjet area where all the planes are being held. All the workers go running, trying to find coverage from Thor and Hulk. I pick myself up from the floor and run through the hole in the wall.
I run up behind Hulk and wrap my arms around his neck when he is distracted by Thor. Thor leaps up and knees Hulk in the face, and Hulk punches Thor through some cargo boxes. Thor raises his hand and waits; while he is waiting, I grab one of my knives and cut Hulk's palm as it reaches up to catch me. Hulk roars in anger, grabs my leg, and throws me across the cement; I land next to Thor and wipe the blood off my forehead and lip. Mjolnir, I finally learned the hammer's name, comes flying into Thor's hand, and when Thor has a good grip on it, he turns and swings at the right moment. The hammer strikes the Hulk with such force that the green guy stumbles back; I take a moment to get off the floor and charge toward the large man. Hulk rips off a wing from a quinjet and throws it at Thor and me; Thor slides on his knees to avoid being decapitated. In contrast, I slide along the floor on my right thigh, like a baseball slide going for the home base; only this home base is to try and save my life.
As I slide, I grab one of my discarded daggers that fell from their holds when I become a bird, soar through the air, and make it to Hulk's side. I stab him in the knee while Thor throws Mjolnir; Hulk tries to catch it only to fly back. Hulk is distracted because he can't pick up the hammer when Thor jumps on Hulk's back with his hammer creating a chokehold. Hulk roars in anger, and I slash at his legs, causing the green knees to buckle slightly; suddenly, Hulk leaps into the air, taking Thor and me with him to the level above. As if sensing something, Thor launches his body toward mine; with his body covering me, I turn my head to see a jet out the window and the machine guns opening. I wrap my hands around Thor's neck and the back of his head as the bullets smash through the glass; Hulk roars and jumps at the plane, both the Hulk and the jet go spiraling into the air when I see the plane explode, and it sends Hulk shooting to the ground. The pilot is going to have some severe nightmares after that encounter.
After the bullets stop firing, Thor lifts his chest slightly from mine, only far enough that the tips of our noses brush against each other. His hand reaches my face in a trance, pushing back the baby hairs that fell from the fight and wind.
"We have to go, Thor," the words snapping the god out of his daze, and it finally registers that his body is still on top of mine and how close our faces are to each other.
Thor runs off toward Loki's cell, and I take a minute to catch my breath and place my head on the floor. I groan as I pick myself off the floor and feel my back crack in multiple spots. I start running down the hallway when I hear my earpiece comes to life. My heart jumps into my throat, and my body freeze; after a second, I break into a dead sprint, the words ringing in my ears.
"Agent Coulson is down."
I hear other people talking through the link, but I don't listen to it. I arrive at Loki's cell and see Phil's lifeless body; Fury grabs me, arms wrapping around my body and pushing me backward out of the room. Fury forces me to walk with him to the meeting room; our steps carry us further and further away from Phil. I finally realize what is happening around me. For the first time in a couple of years, I feel my mind slowly turning into the monstrous state that Hydra created me to be, only feeling anger and the need for revenge.
I sit deathly still next to Steve as Fury explains what the Avengers Initiative is and then places the Captain America trading cards on the table; they are covered in blood; Phil Coulson's blood, and my eyes slide to the ground. I see Tony get up and storm out, leaving Steve to pick up the cards and look at them. Steve gets up and walks after Tony while I head to Clint's room. I walk into the room, and I hear Clint and Natasha about the fight to come,
"You're not a soldier," They both look over to me when I walk in and continue to speak, "Neither of you is a soldier; now you want to wade into a war. Why? What did Loki do to you?"
"Nothing," I inform him, and Natasha carries out my sentence, "He didn't; I just..." She pauses, and I know what she is about to say.
"Natasha," Clint says, urging her to continue her sentence.
"I've been compromised. I got red in my ledger. I want to wipe it out." She finally finished her sentence.
"What about you, Lina?" I sigh through my nose, sitting at the end of the bed where Clint is lying.
"I have nothing better to do," I said, and I saw Nat and Clint look at each other and then stare at me. "I want to get revenge for Phil. As long as I still get to kill people, I don't care all that much"
"Nikki, what are you saying?" They question me at the same time.
"Both of you know as well as I do that I will never truly be one of the 'good guys,' I have done too much, been through too much to change what I am."
"You know that is not true; you got away from Hydra and agreed to Fury's offer. You are doing a job to help people."
"I got away from Hydra because I was done with being controlled. I wanted to do what I pleased. I still do. But in case you both haven't noticed, all I have done is just switch Hydra for Shield; I still do the same thing. I kill the people who the organization sees as a threat." I roll my eyes at them and scoff.
"Nikki," Clint begins to say, but I cut him off.
"Leave it alone."
Clint nods his head at me and gets up from the bed. He is going to the bathroom when Steve walks into the room. Natasha and I look up at him curiously; he is dressed in his full combat uniform and looks ready for battle.
He opens his mouth, "Time to go." "Go where?" Natasha and I ask in unison. Steve looks at us in confusion but brushes it off.
"I'll tell you on the way. Can you fly one of those jets?" Clint walks out of the bathroom and looks at Steve, and Steve shifts his body to look at him.
"I can," Clint said. Steve looks at me, and I nod in confirmation stating with no words He's fine. Steve nods slightly at me for the first time and speaks to Clint, "You got a suit?" Clint nods in confirmation.
To all of us, Steve said, "Then suit up." He walks out, and I sigh and shrug, then walk out. I go to my room and struggle into my suit. I meet with the rest of the teammates, and we walk towards a quinjet. There is one of the crew working on the jet when he tries to stop us.
"Hey, you are not authorized to be here..."
"Son... just don't," Steve said to the crew member. The guy looks at all of us, taking in our uniforms and the 'no bullshit' aura, and that is all it takes for him to run out of the jet. I look at Steve and smirk; looking down, he glares at me, but I can see the humor in his eyes, but the smallest of smiles makes its way onto his face.
The jet begins to fire up, and before I know it, we are hovering but taking off before I have time to get into my seat. I see Thor and Loki fighting on the STARK tower's balcony through the windshield as we approach New York City. Clint looks at Natasha for confirmation, and her reply is to fire up the ship's gun; the jet lets out a blast toward Loki and hits close to him, which only succeeds in pissing him off even more.
The dark-haired god raises his wand and fires a ball of energy at us; Clint and Natasha tilt in a desperate attempt to dodge the blast head-on, the power hits one of the turbines, and the jet shakes. Steve grabs me and wraps his arms around my waist, the plane starts to crash to the ground, and the super-soldier grabs the handles on the top of the roof, using them as a stabilizer, all while still holding me. When we land, Steve snaps his head at me to see if I am okay, and I see a light blush on his cheeks because his arms are still around my waist. Smirking at his embarrassment, I pat his arm as I untangle myself, walking by my seat, grabbing the machine gun around my body, and walking out with the other three.
"Stark, are you seeing this?" Steve asks as the commlinks come online, my eyes staring at the big ass hole in the sky and seeing a giant flying slug soaring through the air.
"Seeing. Still working on believing. Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?" Tony asks while flying around, killing Chitauri soldiers.
"Banner?"
"Just keep me posted."
"Why does it look like a giant ugly slug?" My eyes never stray from the thing.
A hand grabs my elbow, "Come on, Nikolina." The grip I decipher belongs to Nat begins to pull me behind her.
"Do you not see the giant slug, Nat?"
She shoots me a look before humoring me, "Yes, I see the slug. Now it is time to find a way to kill it."
Her sentence captures my attention, and for the first time, I look at the redhead, "I'm good at killing." A childish smile mixed with pride is on my face like I just received a medal.
"Will you stop joking around?" Clint shoots from ahead of us. As I carry on, Steve looks at me with slight concern, humor, and exasperation.
"But that's no fun. Then it is just a bunch of grown adults in weird costumes fighting demented-looking creatures and flying slugs."
"Like seems like an oversimplification of things. Nikolina, you can control darkness and move things with your mind, and we have a literal god. And they aren't costumes, and they are suits; they help us keep our identity a secret." Clint states while giving me an exasperated dad look.
"Um, none of our faces are covered, and Tony literally announced he is Iron Man, and Steve's identity has been known since the 40s."
"OH MY GOD, NIKOLINA." Nat shouts, finally done with my shit, "Stop. You know what you are doing. Now," she stalks to me and grabs the gun, laying limply at my side, "go kill something."
We run off in opposite directions to help other people. "Not humans, Nikolina!"
Huffing in disappointment, I grab my gun and start shooting the Chitauri. One of the soldiers runs up behind me and catches me off guard, causing me to drop my weapon; breaking away from the hold, I fling myself back into their arms to throw off their balance. I grab my knife from my belt and slit the 'soldier's?' throat. The body falls to the floor, taking me with it.
"Ah shit." I push myself off the thing, look down at my outfit, and see a weird substance that I assume is their blood on my front. "Ewww," whining, a hand wiping some of it off my clothes,
"ugh, I have been infected by the ugly alien."
Walking up to the discarded firearm, I see that the clip is almost out of bullets, and I reach into my belt and pull out more ammo. Hearing fighting, I look up to see Steve take off down the bridge to help people stuck in a store. I run over to Natasha and help her cover Clint, helping people out of a bus. They nod, giving me a look and telling me to intervene more helpfully, meaning I use my force field powers and cover the people trying to find shelter, so they don't get hit.
A wave of soldiers comes up, trying to ambush us. My shadow powers begin to change my veins black before they come out of me full force; shaped like spears, they tear through the soldiers like nothing, bodies flying in every direction carelessly. When one lands on the hood of a car, a scream comes from inside. I look over, and there is a person.
Running over, he looks at me with fear, "Hey, uh, you maybe wanna get out of the car?"
"I can't," his body begins shaking, and soon tears start to leak out of his eyes, "I'm stuck. Please. Help me. I don't want to die." the man, full-on sobbing at this point. Then there is me, standing awkwardly with a face that says, 'what the fuck am I supposed to do?'
"Uh," shuffling to the car, my hand pats the top of his head, "there, there."
He looks at me, and I have to hold the grimace in when I see a trail of snot coming from his nose, "how is that comforting in any way?"
"Look, I don't really do the whole feelings things, and I especially don't do tears; it's irritating." sighing through my nose, I begin barking orders, "Listen, I need you to suck it up so I can get you out of here and then you can go cry to your heart's content, kay? Kay."
I grab a leg of the dead alien and pull hard; the body begins sliding off the car before it lands in a heap on the asphalt. I drop the foot and walk back to the guy, noticing the door is smashed inward; I stare at the door; the familiar rush of energy surge through me, and the car door breaks off, and I slice his belt off. I grab him and put a force field around us and take him to some bystanders who begin to help him.
Before the guy can open his mouth, I run towards Clint and Nat when I see an arrow soar and kill a Chitauri, and I begin making my way through the wreckage. A wave of soldiers starts to surround us, and Cap runs over to help; it feels as if one falls; two more are dropping from the sky; with every hit I land, the anger and annoyance build up in me, veins turning black. The feeling of the power pounding beneath my skin when it is about to boil over, a giant wave of lightning comes and electrocutes the soldiers. All of them spasm for a moment before they fall to the floor, dead, and Thor lands heavily next to a car, stumbling a little, causing him to lean against the side to steady himself. I look over and nod my head in greeting, making sure to keep the enemy a safe distance away from us.
"What's the story upstairs?" We all gather around Thor as he begins to explain what is happening.
"The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable." Thor says, and Stark chimes in with, "Thor is right. We gotta deal with these guys."
"How do we do this?"
"As a team." Well, no, duh, Cap.
"I have unfinished business with Loki." Thor says to us, and Clint spits back with a tone, "Yeah, well, get in line."
"Can I join in for fun?" asking with the machine gun raised in the air and a hopeful look on my face.
"Where did you get that?" Natasha inquires while staring at the weapon in my hands.
Shrugging my shoulders, I point a thumb behind me. "Found it lying around and thought it looked lonely, so I took it upon myself to give it a friend." A gummy smile makes it across my face while still brandishing the gun.
Cap gives me " the eyebrows of disappointment" and tells the two men to save it, disregarding my question. When a small rusted motorbike drives towards us, Steve begins to hand out assignments, looking ready to topple when the driver tries to maneuver it around some debris. Banner's clothes are messy, and he gets off the bike as we all walk up to him.
Banner glances at the damage and then turns to look at us. "Well, this all seems horrible." Well, no shit, thanks for the observation.
"I've seen worse." Nat chimes up and looks at me, thus causing Bruce to look at me with apologetic eyes.
"Sorry." He apologizes, and everyone looks at me.
"Eh, don't worry about it; I finally found an opponent that puts up a decent fight. Plus, we could use a little worse," I confess, and he nods while Cap starts talking to Tony.
"I'm bringing the party to you," Tony says as he flies around the corner with a massive Leviathan on his ass.
"I don't see how that's a party," Nat remarks, and I scrunch my nose in disgust when I see the slug coming right for us.
Banner walks toward the monster when Cap tells Bruce that now would be a great time if he could get angry. He replies that he is always angry. Banner informs while turning towards the
Leviathan and transforming into the Hulk. He smashes his fist into the Leviathan's face and slams it into the ground; the armor surrounding the creature begins to break and fall apart, and the flesh starts to tear apart. Thor and Steve try to grab me to ensure I have cover, but before either can touch me, a wave of black mist forms a dome over me. Tony shoots a missile toward the creature, causing the body to explode and parts to fall around us, and I look up at the Chitauri as they roar in anger.
We look up at the portal in the sky and see more soldiers coming for us. The circle we form turns to look at the creatures and prepare ourselves and our weapons for the coming-up fight, finally placing our complete trust in each other.
Steve starts handing out assignments for all of us to do; Tony flies Clint to the top of the roof for surveillance, and Stark guards the perimeter. Thor's task is to lessen how many soldiers are
coming out of the portal; Steve, Nat, and I stay on the ground and help fight and protect people. Hulk gets to smash everything he can. Lucky bitch.
As I continue fighting, one of their guns sends a blast toward me; at the last second, I put up a force field; a loud explosion erupts when the blow connects with my power. My body flies through the air a couple of feet before my back slams into a concrete wall; the force of the hit causes my head to snap back and make contact with the wall with blinding strength, and black dots swim in my vision.
Landing in a heap on the ground, I groan, feeling my body hurting all over, and I don't even notice Steve running to me until his face swims into focus, and I see a look of concern written on it; he reaches down and picks me up from the floor. Half sitting, half lying in his lap, his hand comes up and wipes the blood away from my head, and he starts to talk to me; his voice is muffled, and I can't focus on his lips long enough to figure out what he is saying. Blinking as hard as possible and tilting my head side to side in an attempt for my senses to start to come back to me, I hear Steve's voice, and though he is speaking a little louder than average, it sounds like he is screaming as loud as he can in my ear.
"Nikolina! Are you okay?! Easy! Easy! It's okay." Steve is trying to reassure me; I feel a mind-splitting headache; reaching behind me, my fingers find the spot where my head got hit, and I jerk at how sensitive it is when my hand comes back in front of me to see it covered in blood.
Our comm links come to life, telling Cap that there are people trapped in a bank, the voice is too loud for me, so I rip the piece out harshly. I can see hesitance in Steve's eyes; it takes a second, but it clicks that Steve doesn't want to leave me alone in my current state. I look him in the eyes and nod, silently telling him to go and save those people. He sighs and takes off in a run; I look at my surroundings and pull out my gun, I see Natasha above me flying around on one of the hover jets, and I raise my eyebrow and nod my head impressed. Steve must have gotten her up there when I was thrown. I head over to the bank, shooting any alien remotely close to me; during my journey, I see Thor and Hulk fighting a Leviathan together, only to crash into a building. The building, now in giant pieces of stone and glass, continues to collapse. I pause running and stare at the damage, and the dead alien, when a massive chunk of rock falls, causing the worm thing to jerk; blinking a couple of times, I shrug my shoulders and continue running.
As I make my way to the bank, Steve flies out of the store and crashes onto the top of a car; his broad-shouldered body somehow fits behind his shield. I wince as the roof of the car breaks, Steve is lying on the damaged metal, and I run over. I hear him groan and push himself up, his body falling off the vehicle's hood and panting in pain. Me being me, I try and make light of the situation.
"Yeah, you're gonna feel that in the morning," I say with a hint of concern in my voice. Steve looks over at me and chuckles lightly. He nods in agreement and starts to stand when he slightly stumbles. I rush forward and grab him; I make him lean against the car, causing him to take a slight break. I raise my eyebrow at him and tilt my head to the side. The motion doesn't help with the concussion, but who cares; there is shit to be done.
"You good?"
"You know, I think I should be asking you that, not the other way around."
"Uh, no. I think the question can go both ways, seeing that we both took hard hits."
"Fair enough."
"Real quick, though," he looks down at me, "how do you fit your huge frame behind the shield?"
Steve shrugs helplessly, "I don't know. It just kind of happens."
"Well, when you do it, it makes you look like a turtle." Gasping dramatically, I slap his chest rapidly. His eyes show concern, and his body moves to protect me. "A tiny turtle of freedom."
Steve gives me a deadpan look and rolls his eyes, and I give him an innocent smile, shrugging lightly before gesturing around us, and he nods, understanding my silent comment, both of us knowing that we have to keep fighting.
Running down the street, we find Thor in the middle of hitting aliens with his hammer, and we take that as the signal to begin to fight again. My knives fly at every alien, and Thor and Steve keep swinging their weapons, taking as many down as possible. I cut off one of the aliens' legs when I see Cap turn and get hit in the stomach with a ball of energy; the force knocks his feet out from under him, grabs his side, and falls to the ground. I shoot my gun in one hand while stabbing an alien at the same time, Thor hits a car with his hammer, and it kills the remaining aliens moving closer to our friend as each body falls. Once the coast is clear, Thor walks towards Cap, still on the ground, and helps him up.
"You ready for another bout?" Thor asks while he and I look at Cap in concern; Cap looks at us and says.
"What? Are you gettin' sleepy?" He tries to joke, but I know he is still hurt; I nod at him, and I hear Natasha's desperate voice.
"I can close it! Can anyone hear me? I can close the portal!"
"Do it!" Cap commands her to shut it, only to be interrupted by Tony.
"No, wait," Stark informs us that a nuke is heading straight for the city. With a flash of red and gold, I see his suit racing to grab the nuke. Once it is in his grasp, his armored body begins to fly toward the portal.
"That's a one-way trip, Tony," I say, my voice heavy with understanding.
He flies into the portal, and suddenly, the aliens around us drop to the ground, lifeless. We all look up, waiting to see Tony come passing back through, only to see nothing; I lower my head in disappointment.
"Close it." Natasha follows Steve's order, and the once bright blue streak of light collapses, closing the portal.
My eyes never stray from the sky; a small body falls through the hole at the last second, Tony Stark.
"Son of a gun." I look at Cap out of the corner of my eye and smirk, but Tony keeps free-falling.
"He's not slowing down." Thor starts swinging Mjolnir, preparing to take flight, when Hulk plucks Tony from the sky.
Hulk crushes a car as he lands on the ground; he looks down at Tony before lightly tossing him to the side, then gets up. We all run over, and Thor plucks the face mask from Tony's suit off like it is nothing. Lean down and place my ear near Tony's nose; I don't hear the sound of him breathing. Closing my eyes in disappointment for a moment, I lean back on my knees and stare at Tony's once lively face. Hulk suddenly releases a roar, and soon after, a gasp follows.
"What the hell? What just happened? Please tell me no one kissed me? Except you, Nikolina, you can kiss me." Smiling at Tony's joke, I shake my head good-naturedly, but Cap and Thor stiffen slightly but ease themselves, realizing it's a joke.
"We won, Tony." Cap and I tell simultaneously, and I smile at all the guys.
"Alright. Hey. Alright. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I want to try it."
"We're not done yet," Cap says, and Tony looks at him. "And then shawarma after," Tony jokes, ensuring he gets his point across.
Chuckling at his antics, "Sure, Tony, we'll get you your shawarma."
We get up from the ground and head to the Stark building, all of us heading to Tony's floor, and Hulk is already there by the time we get up there, and so are Clint and Natasha. We find Loki dragging himself onto a set of stairs, looking like a wreck. There is a large crater in the stone of Tony's floor and multiple scrapes and bruises on the god. It doesn't take me long to put two and two together. It is hilarious to think about what Hulk did to Loki and threw him around like a rag doll. We all swarm Loki, and he turns around.
"If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now."
We walk down the street to the shawarma joint, our bodies barely moving cause of how exhausted we are. Tony walks to where the front window once was and asks the lady,
"Hey, can we get some food?" The two workers look bewildered before sharing a glance.
The cook gestures to the open area, "sit wherever you would like."
Before anyone takes a step, my head pops out from behind Thor's shoulder, "Do you have Mountain Dew?"
Nodding, the cook takes our orders while Nat and Clint push two tables together. Sitting down, Nat and Clint sit side by side, with the archer taking some of Nat's chair to rest his leg. Bruce
sits at the far end of the table with loose-fitting clothes that we were all to find with Tony on his left side. I am sitting between Steve and Thor, my left leg propped up on the rung of Steve's chair while leaning my right elbow on the back of Thor's chair.
In Thor's case, we wait all five minutes for our food to arrive, and we all begin eating or cramming our food.
"Nikki," Nat's voice calls out to me, and I pick my head up from my plate.
With food in my mouth, making me look very much like a chipmunk, I mumble, "what?"
A familiar green bottle is dangling in the air, my eyes widen, and I begin making grabby hands for the Mountain Dew. "Gimme!"
Everyone lets a chuckle as I snatch it from the air and instantly begin chugging it down. Minutes pass, and I finally look at everyone; Thor is still shoving food down his throat, Tony is looking over into the distance while chewing mindlessly, and Banner is eating slowly. My eyes slide to the two sitting across from me, staring at each other, having a silent conversation. Then there is finally Steve, seated at the head of the table, resting his head on his fist that's propped up on the table, looking like he is about to dose off, like the older man he is. After looking at every one of them, I lower my head and stare at my food, a million thoughts racing through my mind, some good and some bad. I push the thoughts away to deal with them another time when things are different when I didn't just finish fighting off an alien race.
A couple of days later, all the Avengers are called in, causing us to be gathered in a circle staring at Loki. Thor begins saying his goodbyes to the rest of the team. I take the chance of everyone being distracted to talk to Loki. Walking closer, careful not to draw the attention of the others, I stand in front of the god, running my eyes over the god's face before landing on his muzzle.
Looking back into his eyes, I begin speaking, "So this the real color of your eyes." Loki's green eyes widen comically while I smirk slightly; my gaze runs up and down his body. "You are looking healthier too."
I look into his eyes again, seeing so many emotions and questions in his gaze, silently begging me. Hearing the sound of the team's conversation coming to an end, I turn my head to sneak a peek over my shoulder before I casually approach the stone railing, acting as if I have been there the entire time. Thor begins to walk up to me after his goodbye conversation with everyone else ends.
The blond god smiles at me once he comes to a stop directly in front of me, "Nikolina."
With a slight smile and a huff of amusement, I state, "Thor."
His deep and hearty chuckle resonates before he continues, "your skills are impressive. I am glad I had the chance to fight alongside you." He says to me, and I can't resist teasing him.
"You sound like one of us is dying. We will see each other again, another person will mess up and want control over the world, and we will be called in." I say with a smile, and his smile grows as he chuckles.
"I hate to agree that those are the circumstances in which we will meet again, but it is more likely to be true." Both of us smile and laugh at our statements. "Farewell, Nikolina. If you ever need me, I am only a call away."
"Goodbye, Thor, and don't worry, I will keep my eye on the sky," I declare. He wraps my arms around me suddenly and hugs me; my eyes widen before I decide to accept my fate and embrace the freakishly tall man back.
After Thor relinquishes his hold on me, I make my way over to Steve, and we watch Tony and Bruce transporting the Tesseract out of the briefcase and into a glass canister. Thor grabs one end and makes Loki take the other handle, Loki looks at me, and I tap my cheekbone and flash my black eyes at him, smirking when his eyes widen slightly in amazement. Thor looks at all of us and nods, silently communicating his thanks and farewells, he holds my eyes as he twists the container handle, and a beam of light shoots down from the sky, signaling that the bi-frost is opening.
The two gods are enveloped in the light and evaporate into thin air; the rest of us watch the sky, waiting for something terrible to happen. Snapping out of it, we all begin saying our goodbyes. Once the conversations finish, I stroll over to the red and black motorcycle waiting for me on the sidewalk.
"Nikki," Steve's voice stops me in my tracks, and my body turns to face him, "Where do you plan on going?" Steve asks me with curiosity and concern in his voice.
"Well, when I got called in, my vacation was interrupted, so I figure Fury owes me a new trip," I tell him with a smile.
"Will you be back?"
"Of course, who else will be your partner at SHIELD? You better get into shape, Cap. I don't slow down for anyone." I teasingly tell him as we walk over to my bike, and I hop on.
He smiles at me and nods, "I'll see you soon." The bike roars to life underneath me, and I zip up my leather jacket.
Winking at the super soldier, "Yes, you will." With that, my foot hits the kickstand back into place, and my bike speeds off, weaving in and out of traffic, leaving Steve to stare after me.