Unexpected

Finding Loki

"Hey! I'm on your side!" I cried lowering the craft and glaring at the man who now looked at me with guilt and bewilderment, "You do your job and I'll do mine!" I must be so caked in blood, ash, and dust that I must look almost like those nasty grey aliens. Didn't really excuse him from shooting at me though.

Captain America looked around him in almost a daze, breathing heavily as I came up to him. Stepping back off my scooter craft, "You okay?' I asked, whipping my nose with my arm only now noticing a nosebleed.

My question brought him from his thoughts and he looked at me. How odd I must look coming off the craft with a Chitauri gun clasped in hand and so dirty and bruised that I could be confused with one of the vile aliens by a police officer.

"You're that girl, Penny?" he asked simply, like everything else was totally normal.

I nodded, "That's me."

He looked around him, "Quite a big one for my first." I answered, trying to sound as light as he was.

He chuckled and shook his head tiredly. You either laugh or you cry, right? We had to stay focused. "Have you seen any sign of Loki?"

"No," I looked down, "Got distracted, found some trapped people, got them below ground." I gave a deep sigh, thinking about the panicking woman I hadn't been able to save, "Need a lift?"

He looked at me, then at my craft and nodded. I stepped on it and he got on behind me reaching the handlebars from around me. Trying to ignore the size of his biceps and my irrational fear that I must smell so bad right now, I started it up and we flashed into the air. "What's up with you ladies and flying these things?"

"What?" I could barely hear him over the wind in my ears and the din of the battle.

"Nat- uh... Black Widow is on one of these too!" he called louder.

"Huh," I shrugged, taking a corner, "Maybe it's a girl's thing."

A group of Chitauri gathered on the ground ahead of us, guns raised at a police car. Swiftly I shot at them, killing two while the officer shot the third one.

"You're getting good at- put me down on Fullview Drive!" Cap called, interrupting himself halfway through his own sentence.

"What? Why?"

"Hawkeye says they're grouping there, they have a group of civilians cornered.

I nodded, "Which way do I go?"

"Left up here at the intersection!"

Putting on more speed I shot towards the intersection right as five aliens came from around the corner. Immediately they started shooting at us.

"Detour!" Is all I said before tipping my craft up at a steep angle and flying over the heads of the charging creatures. It would take them a bit to wheel around, and I'd hopefully get some ground on them before they could attack, but these creatures had guns. We'd only gotten a few yards off when I felt a burning explosion of pain in my side, like someone had thrown a blazing harpoon into my flesh. Crying in agony I bent down towards my wound, tears blearing my vision immediately. As I bent in pain, the craft started veering to the left with me.

"Penny!" the Captain shouted, moving his shield to block me from any more blasts.

Struggling to right the craft before we ran into a building, I thrust my alien weapon into his arm holding the shield before clasping my hand to my side. "Here!" I thrust the word through my teeth. My flesh felt like it was melting, but I couldn't take my watery eyes off where I was going or we'd crash!

Captain America's free hand scrambled to get the weapon before it fell away, catching it out of the air. "How do I fire-"Suddenly the thing fired into the air above us, somehow managing to hit the back of a zipping craft, sending it spiraling downward, "Nevermind!"

My ears rushed with the sound of my blood as I gritted my teeth and took as sharp a turn as I could with the Captain shooting behind us at our followers. We were flying low now as I took turn after turn trying to lose the Chitauri. Unfortunately another, larger craft came from around a building right as we flew past and we crashed into them, the lot of us thrown from our vehicles and tumbling against the rough ground. For a second the air was knocked out of me when I finally stopped rolling, but a punch in the gut from one of the vile creatures made me suck in a ragged breath. Looking up at it as it pulled its arm back to punch me in the face and take me out I had only a brief moment to see the scrapes all over its face and chest from its fall before I rolled out from under it and got on my hands and knees. The alien's fist pounded the cement and it screeched in pain right before I thrust myself hands up from the ground and flew a closed fist at its face, sending it toppling two yards away. A scream of pain from my side ripped from my throat before I charged at it crawling quickly to it before it could get up and with the fury from my agony I got on top of it and threw punch after punch at its face until it lay still and its face was coated in blood.

I rolled off the thing, exhausted and lay down. I wasn't sure if the blood on my fists was the alien's or mine, but I was sure that the super strength, all the energy I had taken from my shock from the Tesseract was draining out of me fast. I felt wiped and weak. Turning my gaze to my side I saw that some of the energy was being drained away because of healing. My t-shirt was ripped up and burned on my left side and although the skin was angry red, it wasn't bleeding and it was already showing signs of fading away. That shot should have probably killed me, but as I watched the burn, sickening and blackened was starting to right itself. The healing process was barely discernible, but it was much faster than the average human capability to heal. I gawked at the wound for a second before I saw a shadow come over me.

There was the Captain standing with his hand out, and in a flash his shield flew into his hand and he moved it onto his arm before reaching down to help me up. A moan escaped my lips at the strong jerk upward and his face twisted in worry. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." I grabbed my side and winced, looking up warily into the sky, "Where'd our followers go?"

"They kept going once we crashed." He answered, "I guess they figured we were down and out of the game."

I nodded tiredly, trying to ignore the burning itch the healing process was adding to the actual pain from the wound, "I need a new ride-"

"Don't be ridiculous! You're hurt, you need to-"His eyes went blank as he listened to something coming from his earwig, "Nat found Loki."

"What? I grabbed his arm, forcing him to look straight at me," Where are they?"

He hesitated for only a second before saying, "She's following him, and Hawkeye's trying to help her."

"Where are they?" I repeated sternly, looking around the destruction to find another craft. I needed to find them!

The Captain's face grew more worried as he listened intently, his hand rising to his earwig, "They just crashed onto Stark Tower!"

"Of course!" I growled, glancing up at the portal high above us, "They had to end up there!" With a grunt and a gasp of pain I flipped a dislocated car door off a small craft. It was beaten up and looked partially singed. I prayed silently in my head that it would still work.

"Hulk just crashed through the glass of Stark Tower too! He's going after Loki!" Cap said from behind me as I lifted the craft up, suddenly his hand was between mine on the bars. I looked up into his face, "Penny, you can't go up there, the Hulk is far too dangerous and unpredictable!" His voice was commanding.

"Loki is our only chance of closing that portal, don't you see?" I pleaded. "He needs to close it and he won't if the Hulk beats him to death, I need to get up there now!"

Captain America's blue eyes locked on mine for a second and both of us pleaded silently with the other when suddenly more shots from alien weapons streaked just above our heads. Whipping his head around, he shouted, "Fine! Hurry! I'll hold them off while you get away!"

I nodded, which he didn't see, and started the craft up. It made a terrible spluttering, creaking sound and I was afraid it wouldn't work. After a few seconds it was humming its alien, metallic noise and I got on it, flying away from the sounds of gunfire.