Solar ▹ Marvel Cinematic Universe ( SLOW UPDATES )

CHAPTER NINE

"Riles is right," Clint voiced. Steve bolted up a moment later, not giving him time to finish whatever he was going to say. Clint rolled his eyes and used the scope on his bow to look at the buildings around them, keeping an eye out for anyone who needed help above them. For anyone they could help by shooting from a distance. Unfortunately, all the fighting seemed to be deeper into the buildings, so they were left to wait anxiously until Steve got back. Clint immediately started speaking when he arrived. "We've got civilians still trapped up here." Steve nodded, then pointed at something in the sky.

"Loki," was all he said. Riley turned to look and saw a figure with a horned helmet flying on the back of a chariot. Riley scowled, then glared when he noticed that Loki was raining down fire on the civilians below. "They're fish in a barrel down there." More Chitauri crashed down from the sky then, somehow sensing that there were plenty of trapped humans they could target on the bridge itself. Or maybe Loki had seen the civilians and had ordered them there. Clint, Natasha, and Riley all stood and started firing, taking them out as Steve tried to decide who to help. The civilians on the bridge, or the civilians below the bridge.

"Go," Nat ordered, making the decision for him. "We got this."

"Do you think you can hold them off?" he asked, not wanting to leave them alone with aliens twice their size. A new arrow clicked into place on Riley's crossbow, and he shot a Chitauri right through the eye socket, sending it crashing into the Chitauri beside it. The electrical current went through both, then traveled through a third one that tried to kick their bodies out of the way. That one went down, too.

"Well, they're not exactly hard to take out," Riley observed. "They're big, but they're stupid." It was a good thing, while it was also concerning. An enemy without a set strategy was unpredictable, and Riley didn't like dealing with enemies that were going wild on the battlefield. He liked patterns, not whatever this randomized chaos was. But he wasn't concerned enough to voice any of that, and a Chitauri had yet to really land a hit on him. Besides, with Clint and Natasha by his side, he'd have no trouble taking them out.

"As for holding them off, well..." Clint pressed a button on his quiver, switching out his regular arrows for his bomb ones. "Captain, it would be my genuine pleasure." Steve didn't hesitate after that. He took a running start and jumped entirely off the bridge, landing on a bus below. Riley kept shooting Chitauri after Chitauri until the rate with which they kept landing on the bridge started to slow. It was only then that he started moving up the bridge itself, checking the vehicles for any civilian hiding inside. He kept his crossbow raised until he came across a bus. Smoke was coming out of the engine, and it seemed like the doors were locked from the inside. Passengers were beating against the windows and screaming.

"Shit," Riley cursed, then ran forward. All he could see was a child's face crying through one of the windows. He didn't wait long enough to pry the bus doors apart, leaving that for Clint, who had followed him up the bridge. He switched to regular arrows on his crossbow, waved for everyone to get away from the window, aimed, and fired. He never would've risked shooting the glass with civilians at close proximity on a regular day, especially not with children inside, but the smoke was too thick. There was no telling how much smoke the children had inhaled, so he risked it now. Luckily, the parents yanked the kids back and shielded the faces once Riley raised his crossbow. The glass burst inward, but that didn't compare to how much smoke that billowed out. Dropping his crossbow to the ground, Riley got closer to the bus and raised his arms. The adults inside didn't hesitate to start passing children through the broken bit.

Riley pulled the jagged pieces of glass out of the window pane while he waited for the next kid to be passed through. Avoiding them touching the children meant that the process was slow. With the shards out of the way, they'd be able to move much faster. He glanced to the side and saw that Clint was using his bow to wedge the bus doors open. He and Clint worked fast, and everything seemed to blur together until Riley was holding the last kid in his arms, a little girl no more than three years old. She was sobbing hysterically, her face smeared with dust. The other kids were huddled around him, waiting for their parents to filter out of the small gap Clint had managed to wedge between the electrical doors of the bus. Natasha was nearby, taking on the Chitauri on her own. Seeing her start to get a little overwhelmed, Riley started to get a little anxious, and was relieved when the girl's father came running up to him. Passing the baby over, Riley gave him quick instructions.