Eagle (A Loki love story)

Chapter 153

The instant we landed in Wakanda, I was glad we had left Dreyma with Pepper. It was a complete and utter war zone here, and Thor threw Stormbreaker before the light had even dissipated. And once it did, it seemed like the entire battlefield froze to gape at us. At first glance, I could see Steve, Nat, T'Challa, and Bruce in the Hulkbuster suit. Wait. Bruce was back? Where was Hulk?

"Haha! You guys are so screwed now!"

"BRING ME THANOS!" Thor yelled, running for the overwhelming number of enemies advancing on us. These weren't Chitauri, these were savage beasts running on all fours. Or was it all sixes?

"Mira!" I received a bone-crushing hug from Steve, "I'm so happy you're alright! When Bruce arrived, we feared the worst."

"I'm ok. So is Dreyma, she's with Pepper at the compound. It was the safest place we could think of."

"Good. Vision is with Shuri, she's trying to take the stone out of his head so Wanda can destroy it safely."

"Got it!" Steve turned to rush back into battle, but paused for a moment.

"Good to see you too, Loki." My husband spun, gave a wave, and engulfed another beast in ice like nothing happened. His skills certainly hadn't dulled with parenthood. Time to truly put mine to the test.

There was no time to sync coms, so I went where I could do the most good. The air. I could see Rhodey bottlenecking the gap in the blue shield, and Sam making dive runs across the enemy lines. In the interest of saving energy, I made a single dive in Rhodey's direction. My heart leapt to my throat, I'd forgotten how exhilarating it was to use my enhanced speed in the air. I barreled through the beasts almost too fast for me to react, my long katanas easily slicing through anything in their paths. After I reached Rhodey's side, I began catching strays with my tendrils.

"Where's Thanos?" I shouted, hoping he'd hear me through all the explosions.

"I don't know! Not here!" So it hadn't just been my eyes overlooking him. The only two individuals that weren't 'space dogs', as Rocket had dubbed them over our separate coms, were the horned woman and the biggest goon from the Statesman. The elf and the other one were nowhere to be seen.

"How much for the gun?" I paused to respond, but I heard one of the last voices I'd expected to hear beat me to it.

"Not for sale."

"Ok, how much for the arm? Oh, I'll get that arm." I tuned out Thor's banter with Steve and dove for the backs of my enemies. It wasn't exactly honorable, but even those few minutes hovering by Rhodey had been far more taxing than I'd wanted. The burning in my arms had already forced me to sheath the long pair of swords in favor of the shorter. But these aches were nothing compared to my will to fight, so I pushed on, spinning on my next dive. I couldn't help the thrilled noise that escaped me when I came out of the spin and continued on with no dizziness.

After that, I flinted about the battlefield, and I saw Pietro doing the same on the ground, armed with a pair of clawed brass knuckles. Our paths intersected and on pure instinct, I stowed a sword for a split second. His hand grabbed mine and he spun, hurling me hard with deadly precision into a hoard of beasts which had temporarily cornered a group of warrior women. I landed on my feet for a moment, but then my world spun and my stomach lurched as I lost them. One of the women was quick to offer a hand.

"There any more of you that can do that?" I accepted it, the vertigo already gone.

"Nope, I'm one of a kind. Name's Mira."

"Okoye. My king speaks highly of you." I opened my mouth to reply, but the cracking of wood caught both of our attentions. The ground behind the shield rolled and the forests burned. Once past the shield, several cylindrical tanks armed to the teeth emerged from underground. The air support was quick to engage, but there were too many. I unfurled my wings, but the incredible pain that shot through the left one made me rethink taking to the air again. Perhaps the throwing spin had been a bit too much. So I pulled them in and ran towards the nearest row of tanks instead, getting there just before they ran over Loki.