Mother Nature

The End

Chapter Seven

Her body fell slowly through the portal, just before it closed, and then began its free-fall back towards the ground.

"She's not slowing down." Thor said, as he, the Captain and Iron Man watched Mother Nature's body fall from where they stood on the ground. Both Thor and Stark moved to go and catch her, but the Hulk beat them to it. The green guy wrapped an arm round her middle, and slowed their descent by grabbing onto a nearby building and sliding down it, before launching them towards the bridge. Hulk rolled over, taking the force of the impact as they hit the ground.

As gently as the Hulk could, he placed the unconscious woman on the ground, as Thor, Iron Man and the Captain raced over. All four of the men (well one demi-god, one Hulk and two men) knelt by her side, concern written all over their faces.

"Is she breathing?" Cap questioned, as they rolled her over so she was on her back. Stark had taken his helmet off, so he couldn't see if JARVIS had run a scan on Alex's body.

Steve leant his head towards her chest to see if he could find a pulse, but he couldn't hear anything. There was no rise and fall of her chest, no subtle beating of her good heart. It seemed that the demi-goddess, who had spent thousands of years protecting the Earth, had finally decided to rest.

The three men, excluding the Hulk, exchanged glances, and bowed their heads in their grief. They stayed silent, even Stark, to pay respect to their fallen comrade. The Hulk had other plans, however, and roared in anger at the tiny demi-goddess' death. He had liked her. She was nice to him, and reminded him a little of Banner's Betty, before she left them.

His roar, though, seemed to send a shock into Alex's body. Her whole body shook as she jolted upwards, gasping loudly as she burst back into life. She fell backwards again, laying herself back onto the ground, too weak to keep her body upright for now.

"What fresh hell is this?" Alex groaned, almost silently.

Thor, Steve and Tony all smiled down at the woman, as her body regained feeling again.

"What just happened? Please tell me that nobody kissed me. I don't think I could take another shock." Alex rambled, as she blinked the black spots in her vision away and saw four out of six of her team-mates all staring down at her.

"We won." The Cap breathed, looking up at the alien-less sky, back to its usual blue. As it should be.

"Bless the Gods!" Alex cheered, breathlessly.

"Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day," Tony suggested, and Alex slowly pointed at him, slowly because her body felt like dead weight, agreeing with him. "Have you ever tried shawarma?"

"I have. It's inspired from the food of my native country, Greece." Alex answered him.

"There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I want to try it." Tony said, making Steve smile at him, in spite of himself. Tony had almost sacrificed himself for the world, and now here he was planning his next meal with the dame who actually had sacrificed herself for the world. Steve had a new appreciation of this weird world.

"We are not finished yet." Thor said, turning his gaze to Stark Tower, where Loki was still cowering.

"And then shawarma after." Alex said, letting Steve and Thor pull her to her feet. She wasn't sure she could walk, but she forced herself to run with her team mates, as they headed towards Stark Tower to finish their mission.

~*~

Loki dragged himself out of his crater, pulling his body over to a couple of steps in the middle of the room when he suddenly felt a large shadow looming over him. He hesitantly turned his head around and narrowed his eyes at the sight before him, but not in anger, in fear.