Stained (N.R)

Chapter 4

Tony managed to get there before me, and Thor too. I was not surprised. I deliberately took some long routes, I was cherishing my last moment of peace, I was not there to safe the civilians, but to fight a madman, one just like me, but stronger, and supposedly undying. Slowly lifting my head to the sky.

"Let us go, Jupiter," I whispered, my lips widening into a grin. "To slaughter."

Just as I arrived, a black hole opened in the sky, letting out hundreds and hundreds of Chitauri soldiers. Tony was already in the sky, blasting the Chitauri with various weapons from his armor. 

Loki stood on a platform of Stark tower, leaning on his scepter, waiting. 

"Loki," Turn off the Tesseract, or I will destroy it." Thor pointed his hammer at the glowing cube.

"Oh, no, Mr Thunder. He is mine." I stepped off Jupiter, who eyed Thor warily, blocking him from us. Diana and Pluto stood on either side of me, their gaze focused on Loki. 

"Do you know what you are doing? Girl? You are putting all at stake." Thor yelled, angry.

Just as he finished speaking, a giant beast swam out of the portal. It was the size of one and a half Stark towers stacked together, its frame seemed to be made of bone and metal. It opened its maw, showing off sharp teeth, and bellowed.  

"Go do your job, Sky Boy." I waved at the beast. "And let me do mine."

He hesitated, jumping off the building after a mistrustful look.

"You started the fun without me." I smirked at Loki, kneeling down to draw one rune after another on the ground. He took a step forward, but shrank back when Diana growled at him. "I never play fair, Ms Dreykov."

"Well," I reached out for my stock of marble souls. "You better start now."

With each one planted down on the runes to form a portal, I felt my senses leaving me. First to go was my hearing. The world turned silent as a still, black vortex appeared at my back. Loki squinted his eyes and charged at me, but was intercepted by Pluto's sharp claws and Diana's fangs. Yet they could only delay so much time.

I planted the second marble down, and felt a searing pain in my throat, a sensation I knew too well. I had lost my voice again. 

The third and final one took away all the senses I had on my nose, and I took in a breath of relief. At least I did not have to fight Loki blinded.

Behind me, the vortex rippled, and out of them, charged the army of the dead. Faceless humanoids and animals, pale and identical as each other, marched out of the portal. Some of them had swords in their hands, others spears and shields, but most wielded guns, the ones you'd use in the second world war. They charged at the Chitauri, floating across wrecks of burning cars, ruined streets, fallen buildings, into the fray. I turned to Loki, Furrowing my eyebrows.

He said something to me as he deflected Diana and Pluto's blows with his own, but I shrugged my shoulders, motioning to him that I could not hear. 

I read his lips well enough though. He mocked if I could fight him like this, and I knew I could not. The runes alone had drained most of my strength, but I had one thing left, my eyesight. It was the last bargain I can give to gain temporary strength, enough for me to win the battle.

I locked eyes with Diana and she immediately understood. She leaped towards me, abandoning Loki, her form shifting as if she was being melted in a furnace, wrapping around me like liquid mercury. Soon, My whole body was coated with uru, a leopard shaped mask covered my face as claws protruded from my fingertips. 

I can only last in this form for ten minutes, if after ten minutes Loki wasn't defeated yet, I would be basically be a living mummy, all my five senses gone, depending solely on Pluto, Diana and Jupiter to protect me.

Above my head, I saw more and more Leviathans coming through the portal, dropping off Chitauri everywhere they go, but none of that concerned me. 

Loki blasted at me, but I was a lot faster than he anticipated. I jumped up the side of the building, using it as a leverage point to throw myself at him, my claws outstretched. He was pushed backwards a few steps but quickly regains his balance. 

He strikes back at me, and I was forced to dodge again, rolling out of the way as he made a crack into the concrete. That annoying scepter... I needed to get rid of it. I lunged at him again, taking a blow with my shoulder, grunting in pain. The tip of the scepter pierced my armor, but I held on to him, giving him a good jab on the stomach. He let go of the scepter and withdrew from me, but not before giving me a good slash across my already wounded shoulder. I kicked the scepter back towards Jupiter and saw him take off. I sighed in relief, hoping against hope that Jupiter will manage to keep it from enemy reach. 

Loki shook his head at me, wagging a finger and drew twin daggers from his sleeves instead. 

We exchanged blows back and forth, and with each passing second my heart sank lower and lower. Loki was stronger than I thought, and my advantage over speed could barely make me escape his long reaching and powerful strikes. Sometimes I was forced to exchange injuries with him, and then both of us will withdraw, circle each other like two predators. 

I was running out of time and he knew it. So he enjoyed his victory over me, dancing away from my reaches and leading me around the floor as we battled. We were pretty evenly matched, but my life was on a timer, and his is not.

Ten minutes were drawing quickly to an end, and my eyes began to dim. I felt a head splitting  ache which seemed to set my brain on fire, coursing through my veins as I fell out of Diana, who quickly collected herself, standing by my side along with Jupiter, struggling to fend off Loki's attacks, and then everything went dark.