Shifted | Marvel

15. Final battle (2012)

It isn't a long fall. After 10 feet, I fall on top of a bus standing under the overpass, head first, half a second later my butt. Immediatly, a shock of pain courses through my entire body, and for a couple of seconds my vision goes black.

I don't know how much time has passed when I open my eyes again. I groan as I try to get up, but the pain keeps me lying on my back on the roof of the bus. I manage to turn my head, and notice a totalled Dr. Pepper truck on my right.

I am in terrible pain, but it is Dr. Pepper we're talking about, so I roll on my stomach and push myself on my knees, groaning and cursing on my way. I swing my legs over the side of the bus and jump off, my feet hitting the gound harshly and sending a new painwave through my body. Tears well up in my eyes as I walk towards my lifegoal, the Dr. Pepper truck. I open the doors and to my delight, see dozens of boxes piled up, some already open on the ground.

While outside the truck a couple of heroes are fighting to save the city, possibly the world, I am grabbing as many cans as I possibly can. As I leave the truck, fulfilled, I notice the pain in my back has nearly gone away. Oh, the magic of Dr. Pepper.

I walk back up the overpass and see that Bruce has turned big and green, popping Chitauri left and right. When I get back up the overpass, I see Tony fly away holding Clint.

"I brought fuel," I say, walking towards Steve and Natasha, holding out the load of cans. Before Nat can take one, a blast blows the cans out of my hands. I look to the Chitaurus that took my babies from me, and aim one of the weapons at it, effectively blowing its head of. I smile slightly and as Natasha joins Steve, I keep blasting the remaining chitauri. For the first time since the start of this little battle, I finally get the idea that the number of robot-aliens is reducing.

A low rumbling sound seems to be getting closer. I turn around and see one of the Leviathans flying between the buildings of the city, heading straight for where I'm standing.

"Woah! OH NO!" I yell as I stumble over my own feet to get away from the overpass as soon as possible. Holding the Chitauri laser-gun behind me shooting without realising what I'm hitting. Above me, Iron Man flies straight towars the monster. I stop and turn, but realise too late that's a bad idea.

The Leviathan is gonna blow.

I start running again, but can't get far enough. The blow throws me on the ground, covering me in metal, dust and Leviathan flesh. Delicious. Tony falls a couple of feet away from me. I get up and walk towards him. Tony rolls on his back and holds up a metal thumb, which quickly turns in him pointing to something behind me. I sigh, and face the band of Chitauri rushing towards us, holding their rifles.

I have one of these too, bitchachos.

I aim my weapon at them and try to shoot as many as possible. Right now, this kinda feels like a very violent videogame. Tony flies towards the remaining ones and blows them up

"Good team work, kiddo," he yells, before flying of again.

Before I can respond, my watch start beeping distorted and quietly. I look at it and see it's an incoming call. My first fan call.

"Hello, Eleandra Brooke speaking,"

"I know it's you," Fury says hurridly at the other end of the line, "we have a missile heading for the city."

"Shouldn't you be telling Tony this?" I ask confused.

"We tried. We can't reach him."

"That's not possible, he-"

"Tell him you've got four minutes, at best," he says.

"How do I-" I don't finish the question, as the answer is right in front of me. One of the Chitauri jets that didn't blow up or catch on fire.
"Let me call you back," I say as I end the call.

I run towards the jet and check the controls. For being cyborg-aliens they didn't make there public transport very hard, as there is literally just a sort of steering wheel to control the jet. I scoff and smile to myself as I mount the jet and hold the wheel.

I regret it.

As soon as I touch it, the plane bolts in the air. I scream as I get send hundreds of feet into the air. It only lasts until I remember that the city's targetted by a nucleair bomb. I balance the steering wheel and manage to fly straight ahead. I fly towards the blastst that sound like the Iron Man lasers and quickly see the red and gold metal suit between the tall buildings.

"Tonyyy-" I continuously yell as I fly towards Tony. He keeps shooting lasers but turns to face me. Even though I ace flying this machine, I have no idea how to stop it. When I'm close enough for Tony to hear me yell, I keep circling above his head.

"There's a missile headed our way!"

"How long?" He yells back without questioning... all of this.

"Three minutes tops!" As soon as I finish the sentence, Tony leaves the street and flies off towards the portal. As soon as he's out of sight, a blast hits the right side of my private plane and I start swirling mid air. I yell as I try to hold myself on the jet. As I tumble around, I still see that falling from this height would probably hurt a bit.

I also notice the Stark building is closer than the ground. I manage to control the jet for a moment and now fly straight towards the penthouse of the tower, where I see the vague green outline of Bruce. As a last resort before wrecking Tony's tower even more, I launch myself of the jet and jump on the platform. The jet falls to the ground and I land on my stomach on the cold floor.

"Oh, how I love floors," I say, pressing my cheek onto the cool concrete. Flying is exhausting. I roll onto my back to see a flash of gold en red falling from the sky. Tony did it. He saved the city. He's having shawarma tomorrow.

I may need a break from this world for a while.