Shifted | Marvel

14. Assemble (2012)

"Put me down there!" I yell, pointing at the foot of the Stark tower, where dozens of people are running out of their buildings and getting out of their cars and taxis. 

"I have to get to Loki and I can't leave you alone," he yells back. 

"Oh, don't be responsible now, I'll protect my own ass!"

With visible hesitation, he lands and puts me down. "Don't get hurt," he says. Suddenly he holds out a long dagger- or tiny sword, however you want to call it. It's beautiful, but it's a freaking dagger.

"Thanks, Thor, I'll just kill the robot-aliens with a dagger," I say sarcastically. 

"You're welcome," he says, and with a final pat on my head, he launches himself up.

I'm still looking at the dagger when there's a sudden flow of explosions on the row of buidlings next to me. I look around to see the panicked people run for their lives. I look up to see four Chitauri fly towards us, blowing cars and buildings on their way. I don't know what to do first, help the people stuck under the debris, eliminate the Chitauri or play dead. I choose for the second option. The dagger is useless at this moment, so I replace it for the gun. 

Concentrate now, you've got enough bullets, don't waste any. 

I aim the gun at the first alien. I shoot twice. The first one misses, but the second hits the engine. The flying-thing leaps to the side and takes one of the other three down with it. My mouth falls open. I am one lucky ass bitch.

The two that are left speed up and are now flying straight towards me. 

Uh-oh.

My concentration is gone, so I just shoot at the random. I manage to hit one of the until I run out of bullets. The craft of the one I hit crashes onto a streetlantern and explodes. The last one jumps from his craft before even landing. From the corner of my eye, I can see hoardes of other Chitauri nearing. But no time to focus on them now, as there is one alien standing just a couple of feet away from me and a group of innocent people. 

I aim at the machine-alien-bot, and realise too late that I used up all my bullets. The Chitauri aims his weapon at me, and as a last resort, I throw my empty gun its way. Ironically, it hits him right in the head, which gives me a second advantage. I leap forward while grabbing the dagger Thor gave me. I dodge the beam it fired at me and stab the dagger in the not-machine part of his neck. He cocks his head back and makes a loud screeching noice before dropping his weapon and falling dead on the floor. 

My mouth falls open again at my victory. I look around to find anyone who could've seen that, a couple of frightened looking people.

"Did you guys see that? That was sick right?" 

Obviously they don't answer and just keep staring at the dead alien. I regain seriousness, realising this fight is not over yet. 

"Okay, get away from the streets. Try and get underground, take as many people with you as possible," I say. The people give no reaction for a while and just look at me and the dagger in my hand, until one of them nods and nudges the other people. I look at them for a while until they run around a corner, gesturing an older couple to follow them. 

I look up. Except for the Chitauricrafts, there's something else flying over the streets of New York City, the quinjet. I realise quickly that it isn't flying, but crashing, grazing buildings on the way down. Behind me there's a sudden burst of chaos. The Chitauri are shooting at a restaurant, where some people were standing outside to see what was happening. As the aliens keep shooting, they take cover from the shots. I look around for something to help them with, and I catch sight of the Chitauri weapon. Without hesitation, I pick up the spear, which is heavier than expected. I lift it up and aim it at the nearing Chitauri. Without even knowing how I am doing it, it starts shooting yellow beams at the crafts. Surprisingly, it works more effectively and faster than a gun. In the blink of an eye, there's a rain of Chitauri (and crafts) pouring down onto the street.

I look at the falling aliens, and behind them, I see a couple of people walking my way.  As they near, I recognise them. Nat, Clint and Steve quickly pick up the pace as they recognise me aswell. I wave at them, and Natasha waves back. I can't express how glad I am to see them. Even though I managed to keep myself fairly uninjured so far, I still perform better in team. 

When they reach me, Natasha immediatly locks me in a tight hug. And now, it's like I breathe again for the first time since I fell from the helicarrier. She lets go and grabs me by my shoulders.

"If you ever do that, ever again, I will kill you," she says, shaking me a little. As she does, she notices the blood and dirt on my clothes. "You look like shit."

"Yeah, well, shit happened," I say, smiling slightly. "But look at what I did," I say proudly, pointing at the dead Chitauri. 

Before they can tell me how awesome I am, we look up to a low groaning and rumbling coming from the portal. It's the giant armored Leviathan. Again, they seem a lot smaller on TV. It's literally the size of  the building it's flying at. Steve talks into his earpiece while dozens of Chitauri jump from the giant monster.

"Stark, are you seeing this?" he asks, not taking his gaze of the Leviathan. Soon, Iron Man is flying right behind the armored warship.

The Leviathan took our attention of the hoardes of Chitauri running and flying towards us. I aim my weapon at them, but before I can shoot, Clint grabs the back of my sweater, pulling me behind a flipped over car. 

"We gotta help those people," I whisper to Clint, looking down at the people running under the overpass. 

"They're fish in a barrel down there," Steve says, looking over the cab. The window of the vehicle shatters and he crouches down again. Natasha and I stand up and shoot at the incoming group of aliens.

"We got this," Natasha says to Steve as she bows down.

"You think you can hold them off?" Steve asks me and Clint.

"What have we been doing this entire time?" I ask him, and he raises an eyebrow.

"Captain, it would be our pleasure," Clint says, and he fires and arrow at one of the Chitauri.

Steve and Natasha stand up. While Steve runs towards the railing of the overpass, Natasha keeps shooting at the flying aliens.

I run towards a bus, where a group of people are desperately trying to get out, but the doors won't open.  I gesture the people inside to get back, as I shoot my alien-weapon at the windows. I drop the weapon and help some of the people get out. Clint joins in, and manages to pull open the doors. A woman runs out screaming, looking for the young girl I got out of the bus earlier. She takes the girl in her arms and I tell them to run towards the edge of the street and try and get to the subway.

As soon as the bus is empty and all people are safely running away, I turn around to join Natasha and Clint. Instead of them, I see one of the aliens stand right in front of me. He lifts his arm and hits me across the face with his metal armor. My head cocks to the side from the impact and I fall to the ground. The stinging pain spreads through my entire head. A large hand grabs my ankle and it lifts me up, until I'm hanging upside down. Between the legs of the Chitauri, I can see Nat fighting of two of the enemies, while Clint is shooting arrows at the ones coming at them. I don't get time to fight mine off, as he swings me to the left and throws me over the railing of the overpass. Just in time, I manage to grab the border. I groan in an effort to keep myself up. Above me, the alien points his weapon straight at my head.

I think this one really wants me dead.

Seeing this as my last chance to save myself, I swing forward and grab one of the pipes on the roof of the overpass with my foot.

It's giving Spider-Man.

The Chitauri fires and the shot misses me by an inch. A second later, the Chitauri stumbles from the overpass with an arrow in it's neck. The moment the alien hits the ground, my foot slips from the pipe, and I fall.