The Seventh Avenger

Chapter 72: Strangers

We wait until the chitauri are solely focused on Nat and Clint in front of them before we make a mad dash towards the balcony that Loki had flown over moments before. The moment that my hands wrap around the cool railing, I vault the rest of my body over and fall over the other side. Steve follows close behind.

I had been expecting a long fall towards the ground below, and that I would have to use my wind powers to slow my descent to prevent my ankles from breaking on impact. But to my surprise, our fall is a short one as we land on the roof of an abandoned school bus. But we barely have enough time to straighten up, as a group of chitauri flying through the air spot the two of us and begin to fire their weapons. Steve and I quickly rush down the length of the roof, barely moving fast enough to avoid the deadly blasts of the aliens. The explosions cause the bus to shake beneath our feet, the action causing me to stumble momentarily. Knowing that I am seconds away from losing my balance and toppling over, I quickly leap forward and fly through the air over the edge of the bus and the toppled cars in front of it.

I land swiftly on two feet and turn around just in time to see Steve leaping from the bus and onto a car in front of it. But the moment that his feet touch the hood, an explosion behind it sends the car flying upwards. On instinct, my hands fling upwards, and I go to use my abilities to guide the car back down to the ground. But it appears that Steve doesn't require any help, as he curls in on himself and tumbles through the air both effortlessly and gracefully.

He lands on the ground in front of me, and a confused look passes across his face at the look that I send him as he pulls himself to his feet. "What?"

"Are you sure that it's you who needs backup here? It seems to me that you're more than capable of taking care of yourself."

His cheeks flush crimson at my teasing tone, but he only tightens the strap of his shield. Wordlessly, the two of us break into a sprint down the burning street, trying our best to weave through vehicles and broken fragments of buildings around us. We leap over cars and slide beneath fallen signs that have fallen from the buildings above. Small pieces of debris fall from the sky, but we dodge the pieces that are large enough to kill us. When I can, I send blasts of wind so send them hurtling in other directions. The aliens flying above us occasionally shoot down at our running figures, but we avoid these blasts every time. Steve's impenetrable shield manages to send the blasts back the way that they came as well if any of the aliens shot too close to us.

And we ensure that we help as many civilians as we can along the way. Whether that included digging them out from underneath piles of wreckage or instructing them to head underground and take as many people as they can with them, if there was something that we could do to help, we did it.

But not everyone could be saved.

The number of lifeless bodies that we pass as we move makes me feel sick to my stomach. Some had been crushed by the upturned vehicles or fallen debris, while others had succumbed to the wounds either inflicted by the weapons of the chituari, or the fire of the explosions. I soon lost count of how many we passed. Dozens. Hundreds. It seemed like thousands. And this was only along one street. How many other innocent victims lay waiting around the corner? How many men, women and even children lost their lives to Loki's bitter, dictating goal?

But it is the shrieks and weeping of the family members, and the friends of the fallen are enough to make tears well in my eyes. We pass just as many grieving people as we do bodies. Their screams blend in with one another in the streets, and I can hear them as clear as day over the gunfire and screeching chitauri. There were thousands of people that had lost loved ones already. In a blink of a moment, their world has turned upside down, and all they can do is grieve for those who they've lost. Something that they will never stop doing, and will effectively change the rest of their lives for the worse.