I'll MEET YOU AT THE END OF THE LINE • MARVEL AVENGERS

1:7

BOOK ONE
C H A P T E R      S E V E N
King FOr A Day by Pierce The Veil

ADRIENNE BARTON

Thor and Loki continued to fight, and it wasn't letting up as Clint and Natasha started to run to find another way to fight at a different angle. Loki stabbed Thor in his abdomen and Thor picked him up and slammed him to the ground, releasing his grip on the scepter. By that time the aliens were fighting Steve, and as he used his shield, Clint was near to use his bow and arrows to help the Captain out a little bit.
Adrienne ran off after being left alone, thinking of ways that she could help without ruining the city way more than she had already done, and when she came to realize she was going to destroy things regardless, Adrienne broke off into a sprint and skidded across gravel, bringing up larger boulders, three at a time, which also drained her a little bit more than the technique she used before. Overall she didn't believe it was too bad. The entire day before drained her, the day she experienced with the aliens had drained her. Adrienne punched the air forward and pushed the earth into aliens, which brought them down but didn't kill them. She thought about it and concluded she could use her mind to shape the earth into what she wanted so why not try it if she was trying to kill the creatures? What did Adrienne need to be afraid of?
Adrienne thought hard and quickly, so closing her eyes and struggling to bring her hands up while the earth was shaking, she tried her best to control that part, and it paid off within a couple of seconds because the dirt and rocks Adrienne brought up started to mold into what she wanted them to be with the help of motioning her hands. They shaped themselves into spears, and Adrienne took another couple of seconds to push them away from her as they impaled the same three aliens getting up and coming back for her. Stark saw the whole thing and praised Adrienne from inside her earpiece. Unrealistic, but it did happen.
"Holy hell! Nice one, Mini-Barton!" Stark exclaimed while flying over all of their heads.
"Thanks!" She let out the breath she held in. The next person to speak to her was Clint.
"When'd you learn to do that?" He didn't skip a beat as he pulled an arrow off of his back and shot it through the air. Adrienne didn't hesitate to duck and weave aliens fighting against her, and she ran as soon as she had the opportunity. Adrienne had not a lick of training in close combat and she was positive that if she survived the day then Steve or Natasha would train her willingly, and even though Adrienne hesitated to throw a punch, she did not hesitate to bring up the earth for another round. The ground came up like a fountain of water and grabbed aliens like it had arms and brought them down and covered them as if they had never existed. Adrienne let out a sharp breath she knew she was holding on to and looked back toward her uncle.
"I never learned," She explained swiftly while looking up to see where she was going next. When Adrienne saw more was coming, she didn't hesitate to go at it again. That time she formed the rocks bigger, and she shot them upward. Aliens fell out of the sky. As more started flying on their specific aircraft, they searched around and tried to keep them off the streets. Adrienne heard Thor mention them by name, the Chitauri, so that was what stuck rather than just calling them plain, disgusting aliens. And every time Adrienne spotted one, she brought it down, and Clint helped her out with that too.

They were flying above all of them, and Adrienne couldn't help but feel like she still wasn't doing enough. If Adrienne was going to prove herself to be a part of the team then she needed to pull her weight.
"Someone needs to let Thor know that we need him to close that portal!" Steve called out as he continued to fight, swinging his shield and sending two aliens into a nearby destroyed car.
"I'm on it!" Stark flew around and started making his way back to find the God of Thunder. It was cut short though because Thor came falling out of the sky, joining them once again. There was no point in telling him then. When he stood to his feet, they were already gathered and Stark was the first one to speak up while they all tried to catch a breath.
"Never mind!" They all heard Stark but Adrienne ignored him before racing over to Thor to make sure he was okay, the second he put up his hand to stop her, Adrienne backed off.
"What's the story upstairs?" Steve asked as he requested an update while taking a long look around, making sure to keep an eye out.
"The power surrounding the Cube is impenetrable," Thor answered with swiftness. Not minding giving the little bit of information he thought of ways to stop his brother. He wasn't coming up with anything on the spot.
"Thor's right, we got to deal with these guys." The group could hear Stark through their earpieces.
"So, how do we do this?" Natasha asked while glancing over her shoulder.
"As a team," Steve never looked down as he spoke. But he didn't expect Adrienne to say it with him either.
"As a team I guess," Steve adjusted his stance and he stared directly in Adrienne's direction as she shrugged her shoulders while glancing up. When Adrienne finally saw that he and Natasha were staring at her, Adrienne kind of just shrugged that off too. "I mean, it was Fury's plan this whole time. Or have I misread something?"
"Well, I have unfinished business with Loki," Thor mentioned, and honestly he couldn't wait to get back up in the air. Brother's quarrels and Adrienne wasn't going to pretend like she knew she had any experience with that sort of thing. Only child problems.
"Yeah, get in line," Clint spoke up and gave Thor a grave look, but to Steve, it wasn't the right time to be planning their revenge when they all had to figure out a way to stop the army, and Loki altogether.
"Now's not the time." Steve gave off a stern expression as he took a quick glance around everyone before looking back at the rest of the team, making sure he wasn't going to be attacked while he got some words out. No one would have let that happen anyway.
"I can feel them coming this way." Adrienne felt something and turned her head slowly to the right, even though she couldn't see them, she still knew they were near. That was also weird to feel because she normally didn't have that feeling, Adrienne hadn't felt it since she was in high school. That was precise, to make sure she steered clear of certain people so she wouldn't cause something drastic. It wasn't something new, and she couldn't act like it was if hers and everyone else's lives were in danger. She couldn't tell why the feeling was coming to her at that time though like it was waiting to showcase itself at the right moment.
"You can feel things now?" Adrienne turned her head to Natasha's question and nodded her head up as Adrienne looked in the exact direction they were coming from.
"I've always been able to. It's also hard to explain. But if they're on the ground, I can feel everything. It's weird that the feeling just came back because there's a lot more of them now." Adrienne grew nervous because it had been knowingly the longest amount of time, she used her abilities, and she certainly wasn't sure how long it was to last or if it was going to go away at all. She never had the opportunity to question it since it was obviously the first time she was fighting against an alien army.
Stark joined them by then and watched every direction as they tried to come up with a better plan. "Call it, Captain."
"Listen up, until we can close that portal, our priority is containment," He looked up and watched more of the army come from the portal. Everyone was looking up but Adrienne. She was watching the details in Thor's suit as she had gotten slightly distracted. Just a little bit. Adrienne never really expected a God, or his brother, to be that good-looking. Adrienne also didn't expect one to be standing so close to her either. "Barton, I need you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything that gets more than three blocks out you turn it back or you turn it to ash."
"Can you give me a lift?" Clint turned to Stark as he prepared his bow and arrows in case something happened on the way up.
"Right, better clench up, Legolas." He walked over and grabbed onto Clint tightly and then blasted off.
"Has anyone ever told you red is your color?" Adrienne leaned over and spoke to Thor as he just realized she was standing there and lowered his eyebrows. Her existence only became apparent when he saw her, not remembering she was ever there. Rude, but Adrienne wasn't hurt by it. Especially since she kind of figured he wasn't really expecting compliments from her at a time like that. That resulted in Adrienne getting smacked on the back of the head by Banner-scratch that- Hulk. Which still hurt as she glared back at him while rubbing her head. Natasha watched as Adrienne jerked her fist back at him, threatening someone who literally had the ability to kill her, which made Natasha hold in a snicker, and made Steve look at Adrienne sternly before he continued giving orders.
"Thor, you got to try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You got the lightning. Light the bastards up!" Steve looked up and then to his side where he watched Thor start swinging his hammer, taking off into the sky as Stark had.
"You and me, we stay on the ground. Keep the fighting here." He instructed Natasha as she only nodded her head to agree.
So that left Hulk and Adrienne. Both Steve and Natasha turned to them, like children who wouldn't stop fighting. Honestly, it suited the two.
"Hulk and Adrienne," He called out to them even if he was already making eye contact. Hulk obviously let out a snarl. "Smash."
Hulk gave an evil smirk before he jumped up and started smashing into the Chitauri. Dragging them into the walls of the buildings while Adrienne stood there and basically pouted because she thought it was unfair that she got paired with someone like Hulk. He was a hothead; she evidently was not. What else pissed her off was how her instructions were reduced to a single word.
"Wha- why do I get one-worded instructions?" She threw her arms out to her sides as she demanded to know what the big deal was.
"Because now is not the time to be flirting, it's time to fight." Steve seemed upset at her, which made Adrienne question what was really going on. She wasn't flirting with anyone, she was trying to keep the mood light because normally that was what she did when she was feeling overwhelmed. Adrienne didn't know Steve was that much of a stick in the mud that he had to single her out for literally trying to make someone feel better after being thrown out of the sky. For basically doing absolutely nothing.
"Fine, whatever." Adrienne rolled her eyes and tried to brush off what he said, then ran in the direction her senses were taking her. Lo and behold Adrienne was right about the number of aliens and immediately she started waving her hands. Bringing them up, she brought up the street that was already destroyed and slammed down on every single one of them. That still didn't stop more of them from coming because that just made her their next target. And from a farther place, Loki was still watching her.
"Is there something you want to talk about?" Natasha followed Steve as he tried to regain his focus; at first, he tried to ignore what she said but he knew that he wasn't going to be able to avoid it forever.
"I just wanted her to keep her head in the game, that's all." He walked and she watched.
"Yeah, but you took it a whole other way. Is it because she was complimenting Thor? Who, in retrospect, really didn't know what was going on?" She made a face as Steve looked down another street, again trying to ignore that Natasha was implying something.
Everyone was doing their part, and Adrienne was working twice as hard so she could be in everyone's good graces once the day was over, as soon as she tried to bring another member of the Chitauri down, Thor was bringing the thunder, literally, shutting the portal as best as he could.
Meanwhile, back on everyone else, Clint was speaking about Stark having a trail following him and Stark was trying to just keep them off the streets, not in any way helping Adrienne keep the load off.
"Well, they can't bank worth a damn," He spoke casually as he pulled back on his bow and shot at an alien aircraft without even looking. "So find a tight corner."
"I will Roger that." Stark listened and then rounded a building, giving Clint the perfect opportunity to get rid of them, one at a time. Clint took one down while Stark found his way into a parking garage, making the Chitauri crash into parts of it. Once they were gone, Stark continued. "What else you got?"
"Thor is taking on a squadron down on sixth." The answer was quick and Adrienne listening to them made her eyes roll in annoyance because she felt like they were becoming friends while she was being separated from everyone else. They got to hold a conversation while she was working her ass off. That didn't seem fair.
"And he didn't invite me." Stark deadpanned, clearly making a joke as he went well on his way to help.
Hulk was making a mess just like Adrienne was, but at least he was taking down the giant monsters, something Adrienne could do but would probably drain the absolute crap out of her, so he ran through an office building and crashed through another building, making sure the monster didn't go through it.
Adrienne shot her head straight up as she could see him barely- going over her head, but she didn't help him. Adrienne decided to go and help Natasha as she appeared like she was having a hard time-fighting. Before Adrienne could stomp on the ground and bring more boulders up, Steve was already there to help her. So Adrienne stopped in her tracks and looked around to see where else her attention was needed. Natasha rested against a car she was just pinned to and caught her breath before anyone else tried to put her to work again.
"Captain, none of this is going to mean a damn thing, if we don't close that portal." Together they stared up, and so far too many were coming out with what the team could keep up with, and watching them, made Adrienne look up. She caught on to what they meant.
"Our biggest guns couldn't touch it," Steve mentioned as he looked over her shoulder and saw more aliens touch down onto the street.
"Well, maybe it's not about guns." Natasha looked up and realized what she had to do to help.
"If you want to get up there, you're going to need a ride." Steve shrugged his shoulder. Not even questioning her sanity, as if it was normal for her to do crazy things like going up in the air knowing she didn't have any special abilities except for the fact she was an ex-spy.
"I got a ride," She rolled her eyes and started walking away from him. "I could use a boost though."
"You sure about this?" He didn't want to pressure her but Natasha assumed she had been in worse situations so it wasn't that big a deal.
"Yeah, it's gonna be fun." She brushed it off casually. Adrienne could hear them speaking, and it only made her eyebrows furrow.
As soon as he lifted her into the air, she grabbed hold of an aircraft and started trying to get on top of it so she could kick the alien off. As soon as Steve was finished, shots were being aimed in his direction. And Adrienne could have helped him if she wasn't taking care of the Chitauri herself, so at that time he was going to have to work alone. If Adrienne hadn't been there he would have had to anyway. He would be fine without her, was what Adrienne was getting at.
Stark helped out Natasha a little bit as he flew past her and then saw Steve fighting alone, so he landed on the street and started fighting with him.
"Where's little Barton?" Stark fired at two aliens while looking around for her.
"Do I have to remind everyone I'm a grown woman!?" Adrienne shouted into her earpiece while bringing up more earth from underneath her. Impaling monsters all on her own. "I also don't appreciate you assuming I'm not over here fighting!"
"Geez forget I said anything!" He rolled his eyes, and even though Adrienne couldn't see him, she knew he was doing it. It was just the type of person she believed Stark to be. He was obviously so predictable.
"Thank you!" She grabbed one of her rock-type spears and shoved it through an alien when they got too close. Its body was lifeless and in her face, by the time it died completely. So Adrienne slowly moved from underneath it so she wouldn't get any of its DNA on her. It was safe to say she was epically grossed out.
Stark zapped as many as he could and knew that it would be seconds before he had to leave again, but he knew Steve would be able to handle himself if he had, he was more than sure of it. Clint had things under control, but Hulk was still having a hard time bringing down the monster that almost crashed into the building full of people. Clint shot an arrow to kill off an alien Hulk was fighting and then he started breaking off armor to stab the monster before Thor joined him. Together they fought until all the aliens were thrown off, giving Hulk a chance to shove the armor into the flesh of the beast, with Thor helping by sending lightning into it, bringing the monster down for good. From there, they crashed into what looked like Grand Central Station. Thor and Hulk stood there together for a second, then Hulk looked down at him and punched him, sending Thor to the other side of the building. Adrienne felt that underneath her own feet. Which caused her to also turn her head up and snicker before being brought back to the Chitauri racing toward her. Maybe she liked the Hulk after all.
Steve was on his back as he tried hard to get the alien off of him before Adrienne came to the rescue and impaled it, killing it immediately. Steve punched it off of him at the same time Clint sounded off in his ear, bringing him to his feet, looking around for Adrienne, but she was already rounding a corner. The only reason why she hadn't been attacked or in close combat was because she was paying close attention to patterns, just like her uncle was, so Adrienne knew when they were coming and she knew just when to stop them. Hundreds of feet away from her, never giving any of them a chance.
"Captain, the bank on forty-second past Madison. They've cornered a lot of civilians in there." Clint mentioned as he nonchalantly kept shooting arrows.
"I'm on it." He was out of breath but he carried on, he went to where he was directed and went to fight. A couple of minutes later, he was blown out of the building by a bomb made by the enemies. When he gathered his footing, he stood up and looked around for what seemed like the millionth time, and for the first time, he thought it was a fight he wasn't able to win. Maybe Adrienne was right.
Natasha was still flying through the sky when Loki finally caught up to her. When she called out to Clint, even he was trying to figure out what the hell Natasha was doing.
"Nat, what are you doing?" He asked casually, a little too casual for how Adrienne would have asked but Clint knew better than his niece, and he was staring at her like he wasn't really seeing what he was seeing.
"A little help!" She yelled and from his little corner he prepared his weapon, fondling it to see what setting he wanted it on, then he pointed it and aimed it.
"I got him." Then shot it at Loki, who caught it without a problem. His smile was smug, but he didn't know that the arrow was going to blow him out of the sky. Making him land on Stark's building. In the same place, he took on Stark a few minutes later. Only, Natasha was above him with Dr. Selvig- who Adrienne still hadn't met- where she would get him to try and stop the tesseract and try to close the portal herself. If it was even possible.
Neither of them knew Hulk was going to be joining Loki on the roof. He was watching where Loki was going and was chasing him. He tackled Loki as soon as he got the chance, breaking through the glass. Loki was getting fed up with Hulk and was about ready to have a breakdown for how he was being treated. Like the bad guy deserved the chance to be bad for more than three hours. Especially since Hulk threw him into the nearest wall. Hulk started pounding the ground, ready to take Loki on, and Loki just stood up and turned into a total diva. That was what Adrienne would have called him anyway if she had seen how he was acting.
As soon as Hulk started heading toward him, that was when Loki lost it. "Enough! You are, all of you, beneath me! I am a God, you dull creature. And I will not be bullied by..."
Hulk took him by his foot and started slamming him into the ground like a doll a child had aggressively gotten a hold of. And he did not stop until he felt like he had enough, leaving Loki lying in dented cement, as he whimpered in pain. Hulk walked away, satisfied to shut the God of Mischief, up. Muttering the words: "Puny God." as he walked away with a sway in his step.
And honestly, if Adrienne was there to witness that, she would have cackled in a fit of laughter. But Adrienne didn't have the opportunity because she was still fighting on the ground, and pretty much alone at that. Adrienne didn't understand why everyone had put so much trust in her to fight by herself. She was freaking exhausted. She didn't want to sound like a bother but Adrienne didn't know what she could say to get some help either without sounding like she was weak, or worse, lazy.
Thor was really trying his hardest to keep the aliens off the streets, but he wasn't paying attention when yet another monster came straight through a building, knocking Thor over completely. Stark came through trying to use his lasers to cut through the armor but his Artificial Intelligence- Adrienne could have sworn she heard Stark mention the name J.A.R.V.I.S- mentioned he would lose power before he could penetrate it. So Stark had to think of something else. And if anyone had asked Adrienne, she would have said it was the stupidest idea he could have ever had, and she had just met the man.
Stark literally went into the belly of the beast and killed it from the inside. Making it crash into the streets of Manhattan, also making him crash into the street where he was then attacked, and shot at by the Chitauri closing in on him. Adrienne saw what was going on, so she did her best to try to help while also getting away from the army. So the closer she got, the more spears she was throwing, and for someone so out of shape, she appeared to be doing a pretty damn good job.
It was getting to be a little too much though, and at some point, Adrienne wasn't sure how much more she had left in her before she had to stop.

* ** *** **** ****** ******* ********* **********
WORD COUNT: 4,170