"Can this city not get a break!? If it's not mutants or people trying to take over the world, it's goddamn aliens!"
Nyneve froze at the sound of a familiar voice which she heard over the shouts of the Chitauri. Her head swiveled around as she tried to locate the source, drawing the attention of the seven people with her.
"What is it?" Loki asked, his first words since they had joined up with the Avengers.
"I thought I heard someone... Someone I know." She took a few steps away, scanning the streets around them. "But what the hell would Hannah be doing here?"
Then Nyneve spotted her.
Below them, on a street near the overpass, was Hannah. She was wearing a dressy outfit, suggesting that she'd been at work when this whole thing began, clothes which were now dirtied with blood and grime. What most surprised Nyneve was that Hannah was wielding a pair of swords, moving as if she'd grown up using them. Hannah gave a yell as she cut down the Chitauri coming at her, but it was obvious she was outnumbered. Nyneve could see the couple cowering behind her and using their own bodies to protect their children. It didn't take her long to realize that Hannah was protecting the group of them.
Nyneve turned to look at Loki, who stood just behind her. Sheathing Caliburn, she held out a hand to him. She had explained to him earlier about their need to stay in a certain proximity to each other. Teleporting alone to Hannah's side would leave Loki out of range and vulnerable to the Mind stone. His green eyes met hers and he took her hand. This sign of trust from him made Nyneve give a small smile. Without hesitation, she snapped the fingers of her other hand, teleporting both of them down to Hannah. Their disappearance was met with surprised shouts by some of the Avengers.
Upon their arrival, Loki instantly reacted to block a blow, deflecting the attack with his scepter. Nyneve freed Caliburn from its scabbard, teleporting again to get behind the Chitauri attacking Loki. With a single swing, the alien's head went rolling. Spotting a blaze nearby, Nyneve called the wind, swirling it together with the fire and using it to take out the other Chitauri surrounding them. However, she made sure the combined fire and wind kept its distance, the memory of Loki's torture making her hesitant to use elemental fire magic around him.
Even if it is one of my stronger magics, I know the pain of triggering memories better forgotten.
The immediate threat quelled, Nyneve sheathed Caliburn, turning to stare at her friend. When the silence between them stretched on, Nyneve raised a brow, her left hand resting on Caliburn's hilt in a relaxed position. Loki observed from off to the side, gaze switching between the two women who obviously knew each other.
"Um..." Hannah glanced down at the blade in her right hand. "I really didn't think you were in New York. You should have called. I would have taken off early for lunch." She really hoped that Nyneve would just assume she had taken up swordplay from editing her friend's books. Though Hannah could see how the moves of Nyneve's characters felt genuine, judging by the sword her best friend's hand rested on. "So what are you doing here on this lovely day?"
"Helping a new friend," Nyneve replied, sending a quick glance in Loki's direction. "I wasn't in New York until just a bit ago though, so we probably couldn't have done lunch. Wasn't expecting to see you in the middle of this though." She glanced up at the overpass, where Steve, Natasha, Clint, and Thor were observing them from the edge. Her gaze returned to Hannah. "I guess we each have some explaining to do after this is over."
Hannah gave a nervous laugh. "Yeah, I guess so." She looked up at the overpass. "Um..." she motioned toward the Avengers with the hilt of her sword. "Is that Captain America?"
Nyneve looked the way Hannah was pointing. "Ah. You mean the man with the giant metal frisbee?" She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling as a small laugh came from Loki behind her.
"It's Captain America!" Steve yelled back.
Nyneve nodded with a serious expression. "The man with the giant metal frisbee." Steve groaned while Natasha smiled next to him. She was starting to take a liking to this mysterious new ally of theirs.
Hannah gave a laugh. "I feel better knowing the Avengers are here, then."
"They do seem like a handy bunch." Nyneve glanced appraisingly at Hannah. "Care to join us? I believe the good Captain and his frisbee were going to delegate tasks. We could use all the help we can in this battle."
"Gladly."
"Meet you up there?" Nyneve asked with a quirked brow as she took Loki's hand again, preparing to use Thor as a focus point again to get them back up with the others. In the blink of an eye, the two disappeared.
"Meet you there." Water seemed to come from thin air and lifted her upward toward the others on the overpass. The water dissipated once she set foot on the concrete. "Hi." She held her hand out to Steve. "I'm Hannah O'Llyn."
"She's a good friend of mine," Nyneve said, standing with Loki next to Thor. "You can trust her."
Steve looked at both of them, then nodded, reaching out and shaking Hannah's hand. "Nice to have the extra help."
"Well, I live and work here. I'd like to help protect it." She looked over the others, noting Thor among them. "Probably also helps to have an Asgardian god on our side, a giant battering ram, and Iron Man. But there are a lot of them and only a handful of us, no matter how powerful all of us are. What's your plan, Captain?"
Before Steve could say anything, two Chitauri dropped down from a nearby building to land behind Hannah. Nyneve reached for her sword, gathering the power for a quick teleport. She never got to utilize it though.
A full-sized sedan went flying through the air toward Hannah, the Hulk throwing it quicker than anyone could react. In a split second, Hannah's entire body went from solid flesh to a human-shaped pillar of water, the therapist instinctively going to her natural defense against harm. She had also dropped into a crouch so the car just barely missed her, taking out the two Chitauri behind her instead.
"Will you stop throwing crap in my general direction!" she cried, causing the Hulk to blink in surprise. She was also aware of the eight sets of eyes on her as she returned to solid form. "Yes, I'm a mutant." She sighed. "Protecting the city comes first, though."
Natasha scoffed a laugh. "You're Nymph," she said.
"That's a name I haven't heard in a while." She looked over at Steve. "You were about to tell us the plan?"
Steve was about to speak, but Natasha called their attention to something above. Lifting their gazes to the portal in the sky over the city, the team saw two more of the large animal-ships come through, followed by a multitude of gliders.
"They are bringing forth reinforcements," Nyneve noted, one hand gripping Caliburn's hilt as she analyzed the situation.
"Call it, Captain," said Stark.
"Alright, listen up," Steve said, his gaze trained on the sky. "Until we can close that portal up there, our priority is containment. Barton, I want you on that roof. Eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you've got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."
Clint looked at Stark. "Can you give me a lift?"
Stark nodded. "Right. Better clench up, Legolas." He walked to him and took hold of the back of his gear, rocketing the two up into the air. Nyneve watched them go with an assessing eye before returning her gaze to Steve.
"Thor, you've gotta try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You've got the lightning. Light the bastards up." Nyneve and Loki took a few steps to the side as Thor began spinning his hammer, taking off into the sky after sending a glance his brother's way.
Steve looked at Natasha. "You and me, we stay here on the ground. We keep the fighting here." He turned to Nyneve, Loki, and Hannah, pausing for a moment as he considered. "You guys keep the ground floor too. I don't know your strengths as well, so do what you can."
Nyneve nodded, throwing a grim grin Hannah's direction. Two best friends with powers? Potent stuff that. Add a God of Mischief and things get real interesting.
Lastly, Steve turned to the Hulk. "And Hulk." He pointed up. "Smash." The Hulk gave a menacing grin before launching himself at the Chitauri lining the buildings. Rubble fell as he did indeed smash each and every one into oblivion, leaping from building to building.
Nyneve was impressed by the aerial display of Thor's lightning, the storm clouds gathering above giving her an idea. She focused inward, calling up the training from her younger days. You have an army of three. In what way can you best serve? Scanning the area around them as Natasha and Steve moved on to their own targets, Nyneve took in all the Chitauri on the buildings.
"Hannah, Loki, if I bring them down, think you can dispatch them?"
Remembering how she had used the wind before, Loki quickly caught on to her meaning. He drew a breath and adjusted his grip on the scepter, then glanced at Hannah. He didn't say so, but he wondered if the Midgardian woman would be able to keep up.
"Have faith in us, Loki," Nyneve said, drawing his attention back to her. Her eyes held no fear, brave and unwavering. "I promised I would help fix this. I intend to keep my word. But it can't be done alone." She drew Caliburn, the silvery blade glimmering in the sunlight. "So let's do this. Together." With that, she stabbed Caliburn's point into the pavement at her feet, power swirling around her as the wind rose. One hand came to rest on the pommel.
"Use ranged when you can. We don't want to get separated." Lifting her gaze to the enemies lining the buildings around them, Nyneve called the wind to her. It danced around her, taking strands of her hair with it as the wind spiraled around her, happily answering her request. She raised a hand, sweeping it along one side like she was knocking the Chitauri off the buildings with it. The wind emulated her, ripping the Chitauri from their perches and sending them tumbling toward the ground.
Loki chose to take the chance and do as Nyneve said. He raised the scepter, using blasts of power from it to target the falling Chitauri. It was the easiest way to deal with them without moving too far away from Nyneve. He feared what would happen if the Mind stone was no longer dampened by her power. So he stayed near her, taking out what Chitauri he could. Including one who came at Nyneve's back. The bladed end of his scepter sliced easily enough through the Chitauri's body. A shove off the overpass did the rest. The fact that Nyneve had trusted him enough at her back to remain focused on the enemies in front of her, despite all he had done, made Loki feel something he couldn't quite identify. It had been a while since such trust had been placed in him.
Meanwhile, Hannah's swords turned to water, changing shape in her hands until she was holding a bow. She immediately drew the string back, a watery arrow appearing as she did so. Droplets dripped from the arrow tip and ran down the length of the bow. They glittered as they fell to the pavement below. The arrow became solid when she released, hitting her target with expert accuracy.
"So," began Hannah in between firing at Chitauri. "You have powers."
"I'm a descendent of Merlin," Nyneve replied, using a piece of metal shrapnel to cut in half a Chitauri who ventured too close. "I have magic. And a sword with an attitude."
"I guess that's better than being a mutant."
Caliburn emitted a series of thrumming sounds, drawing his wielder's assessing gaze for a moment.
"...Caliburn says he places money on the bet that there's more to you than that." She did another sweep with her wind magic, dropping to their deaths multiple Chitauri who had been scaling the surrounding buildings.
"So the magic sword is assessing my abilities?"
"That's just part of what it does."
A Chitauri fired at Loki's back. Nyneve spotted it out of the corner of her eye. In a burst of power, she dragged up a piece of metal shrapnel from nearby, using it to absorb the blast. An arrow from Hannah dispatched the Chitauri.
They are starting to catch on...
Nyneve only had the time to send a worried glance Loki's way before she had to refocus on the larger picture. The enemies' numbers were growing. It was no longer just the ones on the buildings they had to worry about.
Seeing all the Chitauri above and below, on the ground and on gliders, Nyneve got an idea. The best way to do some heavy damage and lessen their numbers. But it depended on one thing.
"Hannah, if I get you extra water are you able to make ice shards?"
"It takes a lot of concentration, but yeah."
"Good." Nyneve swept a hand out, using elemental magic to twist the metal of a fire hydrant, unleashing the water within it. "Do what you can with that." She pulled Caliburn from the pavement, sheathing the sword in its scabbard. "Probably best to stay behind me for this, Loki," Nyneve said, sending a smile his way. "Don't need you getting blown away."
Curious as to what she intended to do, he did so after blasting one last Chitauri who had been coming their way. Then his gaze came to rest on the back of the woman before him, standing so tall in the midst of such chaos. A wind swirled around them, tugging at his green cloak before moving to drift around Nyneve.
Nyneve drew in a deep breath, her eyes sliding closed. What she intended would take a lot of magic and she didn't know how much she had left in her reserves.
Please let it be enough.
Determination guided her as she gathered what remained of her magical power. She swept her hands out in front of her, making large circling motions. The wind answered, following her hands and the will behind their movements. As Hannah and Loki watched in awe, a tornado began forming a few yards from them, gaining strength as well as size with each rotation. Gliders were being drawn into it, other Chitauri picked up off their feet and sucked into the funnel of wind. Bits of metal shrapnel joined in, leaving many Chitauri trapped in the tornado with gaping wounds or severed limbs.
Though the wind blew around them, neither Hannah nor Loki felt the force of the tornado's pull. They soon realized it was because Nyneve was keeping the tornado, created by her elemental magic, from affecting them.
"Loki, watch my back," Hannah said. She took a deep breath and focused on the water. She held her hands slightly outward, palms up, and closed her eyes. She focused on shaping the water, the temperature dropping within each shard. A friend who could control ice had taught her how to do this, but she had never actually mastered the skill before leaving for New York. She could feel it working as the water was slowly turned to ice. Hannah opened her eyes to find several ice shards hovering in midair. She raised her arms, shifting the shards into position before moving her arms in a throwing motion. The numerous shards sailed into the tornado Nyneve had created, merging with the swirling vortex.
Once they were combined with the tornado, Nyneve took the shards under her control, impaling multiple Chitauri trapped within the swirling vortex. With her magic, she was able to keep the shards moving, losing none to the corpses which dropped like stones. Nyneve suddenly felt her power waning, the tornado starting to unravel. In a last burst of strength, she used what force was left in the tornado to turn the shrapnel and ice shards within it into projectiles. Gliders fell in bunches, pilots and gunners alike either impaled by ice or sliced open by shrapnel.
Nyneve bent over, hands on her knees as she tried to regain some breath. She hadn't used magic of that magnitude in a while. It had taken its toll. Seeing more Chitauri coming, she gritted her teeth. She straightened, drawing Caliburn and shifting her stance. Looks like now it's just a full-out melee...
"Nyneve!"
Hearing her name, Nyneve's head snapped around, catching sight of Steve running toward them. He came to a stop a few feet from her, looking battered and out of breath.
"Nat needs Loki and the scepter. Supposedly she can close the portal with it."
Nyneve's gaze lifted to the top of Stark Tower, where the blue beam of light from the device rose in the sky toward the portal.
"Can you get him there?" Steve asked.
Nyneve drew a breath. "I can." She sheathed Caliburn. It wouldn't be easy, not with how drained she was. But she would get it done either way. "Loki!" He hesitated only a moment before transferring the scepter to his other hand, taking hold of her right with his left. Picturing Natasha in her mind, Nyneve teleported both of them. A swirl of dust was all that heralded their departure.
"What now, Captain?" Hannah asked, breathless herself from the power it took to turn her water to ice.
"You're with me."
~~~
Thor joined up with Steve and Hannah, the trio working together to fight off the Chitauri. Hannah had gone into her liquid form, using her water with Thor's lightning to do extra damage to the Chitauri. She turned when Steve gave a cry to see him land face-first on the ground and not immediately get back up.
"Steve!" she cried, going to him. She pulled up a watery shield around them that absorbed the attacks from the Chitauri's energy weapons while Thor threw a car at their attackers with his hammer, before throwing the hammer at others. Hannah dropped her shield once they had been dispatched. Thor walked toward them, holding his hand out to Steve who took it and was helped to his feet. Once he was upright, Steve clutched his side, the wound from the Chitauri energy weapons apparent.
"Are you ready for another bout?" Thor asked, eyeing the wound.
"What? You getting sleepy?"
Thor looked amused.
"That wound looks pretty bad," Hannah said, still in her liquid form, which caused her voice to somewhat echo like she was underwater.
"I've had worse."
"That's what they all say. Allow me." She placed her hand next to the wound, allowing her water to cover it.
Steve looked down as the water healed the wound. "How did you do that?"
Hannah shrugged. "Figured out I could do that when I was attending a school for gifted individuals like myself."
Thor called his hammer back to him. "Extraordinary gift. I am thankful you're on our side then."
"Been a while since I've had to do any kind of fighting, to be honest." She looked up at Stark Tower. "Think they can get that thing closed?"
"Let us hope so."
~~~
When they arrived, Nyneve stumbled sideways, a wave of exhaustion swamping her from the toll of teleporting two after draining so much of her magic already. It was only her grip on Loki's hand that kept her from tipping off the edge of the building. Loki reflexively tugged her back toward him, not really processing the fact that he did it until she bumped into his shoulder. Nyneve glanced up at him in surprise. She hadn't expected him to do such a thing. It was almost comical how he looked as nearly startled as she was.
The hum of the device and Natasha's footsteps on the loose gravel brought Nyneve's attention back to the situation. "Go on," she said to Loki, letting go of his hand and gesturing with her head toward Natasha and the figure standing with her near the device. "I'll be fine," she added when Loki seemed to hesitate for a moment. Nyneve watched him make his way over, noting the suspicious look the man next to Natasha sent his way.
"He's trying to fix things. Give him the benefit of the doubt," Nyneve said, her tone nearly a snap due to how worn out she was. She made sure her gaze didn't waver as the man looked at her. There was a tense moment as they stared at each other.
It was the man who gave first, turning and moving to his laptop near the device. Opening it, he gestured and said, "Right at the crown."
But Loki paused, staring down at the scepter. Nyneve had moved to lean against the wall. She looked up, her expression puzzled, as Loki simply stood there. He seemed to be debating with himself. Then his gaze went to Natasha.
"Here you go." With no other warning, he tossed the scepter to her. Natasha caught it, then looked at him questioningly. "The Captain said you had need of it. So there it is." That said, he turned and strode toward Nyneve, coming to stand next to her. His arms were crossed, his gaze drifting from the device up the beam of light to the portal above them.
Nyneve watched him, a curious tilt to her head. Finishing his perusal, Loki's gaze moved to her, his expression unreadable as their eyes met.
"What?"
Nyneve gave a soft smile, turning to face the device before them once more. "Nothing." He frowned before shifting his own gaze to what was going on in front of them.
Natasha, getting over her momentary surprise, had taken hold of the scepter with both hands. She followed the instructions given by the man, slowly inserting the point of the scepter through the forcefield around the blue cube in the center of the device. It took a moment for Nyneve to remember what Loki had called it before.
The Tesseract... It contains another of the Stones... Caliburn gave a low thrum at her hip, stopping when she sent a quick glance its way. She frowned. Caliburn had been acting a bit strange lately and she was beginning to think it had to do with the Stones. Nyneve just didn't know why.
The power surrounding the Tesseract crackled as Natasha forced the scepter in. "I can close it. Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down."
~~~
"Do it!" responded Steve. Hannah's head snapped around at his shout as the corpse of the Chitauri she had just dispatched crumpled at her feet.
"No, wait."
"Stark, these things are still coming."
"I got a nuke coming in. It's going to blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it."
Steve's expression took on a serious yet worried cast. "Stark. You know that's a one-way trip."
Moments later, Thor, Steve, and Hannah looked up as Tony blew past them, heading toward the portal then through it. As much as she never cared for the playboy millionaire, she never expected he would do something so selfless. Suddenly, the Chitauri collapsed around them, as if someone had flipped the off switch, the only remaining animal-like creature flipping over itself and landing hard on a building.
"Okay, I did not expect it to work like that," she said. They could see the fiery blast from the nuke heading toward the portal. "Where is he?" Hannah looked over at Steve as he and Thor exchanged glances before Steve turned back to the portal.
"Close it," he said.
~~~
Natasha's head snapped from staring up in worried hope at the portal to facing the device with grim determination. She forced the scepter the rest of the way through, touching it to the Tesseract. There was a boom as one burst went up toward the portal, the rest of the beam of blue light disappearing in its wake. The portal began to close, the glowing cloudy edges rolling back toward each other. At the last possible second, a faint figure dropped through, just as the portal closed.
One corner of Natasha's mouth lifted up as she left out a relieved breath, spotting Tony as he fell back toward them. However, something was wrong.
He's not controlling his descent. Nyneve gazed up, watching Tony with a worried eye. His body was limp, freefalling through the air, suit dark. She took in a deep breath. Her magic was running on fumes, but she'd be damned if she wasn't going to at least make an effort to give him a softer landing after he just risked his life for them. She pushed herself away from the wall, closing her eyes and holding her hands out to each side. Her breaths deepened, body relaxing. Loki had turned to watch her, curious about what Nyneve was doing.
Nyneve didn't have enough power to bend the wind to her will as she normally did. Instead, she called to the spirits of the wind, asking for their aid. They joyously answered the request of the descendent of Merlin. A wind swirled around the top of the building, playing with Nyneve's long hair before racing upward. It scooped up the man in the metal suit who fell from the sky, carrying him safely down to the pavement below.
~~~
"Son of a gun," Steve said as the figure passed through the portal at the last second.
"Something's wrong," Hannah observed, noticing Tony continued to descend at breakneck speed.
"He's not slowing down!" Thor said, immediately beginning to spin his hammer.
But before he could go to Tony's aid, his fall suddenly slowed. It looked as if he were limply floating in midair for several minutes as he slowly lowered to the ground.
I have no idea what just happened, Hannah thought as she rushed to where Tony had landed with Thor and Steve. Wonder if Nyneve did that.
Thor tore off the front of Tony's helmet, tossing it aside.
"You don't happen to be a doctor, Hannah?"
"I'm a doctor of psychology, not a medical doctor."
Its task done, the wind had danced its way back up to where Nyneve and Loki were. Overly exuberant, it lifted them as well and took them down to where the others were gathering around Tony, much to the surprise of all involved, Nyneve included. She hadn't called for the spirits of nature in a while. Their swift reply and joyous aid had meant enough to her that the thanks she gave as the spirits left came from her heart.
Hannah had turned her head as she caught movement in her peripheral vision to see Nyneve and Loki float down to the pavement a few feet from her. Now that's pretty cool, she thought, glad to see her friend safe.
Nyneve took stock of the situation, moving to stand next to Hannah, with Loki following behind her. When Tony continued to lay there unmoving, Nyneve leaned over slightly toward Hannah. "Got any cold water?"
Hannah frowned at her, brows furrowed. "Why?"
"Just answer the question."
"I guess," Hannah responded reluctantly, beginning to conjure some. Cold water was easier than ice at least. Once she had an orb about soccer ball size, Nyneve took it from her using a tiny hint of elemental magic, just enough to keep it together.
A couple strides brought her close enough to Tony. Unceremoniously, she dumped the collected cold water on him. While everyone else shouted in astonishment at her actions, Tony came around, startled and spluttering from the shock of the cold water. Those around him stared in relieved surprise.
"Welcome back to the land of the living!" Nyneve announced. She sent a guilty look at Hannah. "Sorry, I couldn't resist." A bit of mischief glittered in her eyes, bringing a hint of a smile to Loki's mouth.
Tony looked around at those gathered around him. "What the hell?" he asked, still spluttering water. "Please tell me nobody kissed me." He then pointed at Hannah. "Unless it was her. Then I'm okay with it."
Hannah gave a laugh. "I'm no medical doctor, but I think he's going to be okay." Nyneve rolled her eyes.
Steve settled back on his haunches, giving a sigh of relief. He gazed around him, tired now that it was all over. "We won," he muttered.
Tony gave a sigh of his own, letting his head fall back to the pavement beneath him. "Alright, yay. Alright, good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow," Tony said, groaning as he shifted. "Let's just... take a day..." He looked at the Hulk, who had come down to join them. "Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I want to try it."
"Before that," Steve began as he turned to look at Loki. Noticing his gaze, Nyneve shifted, placing herself in front of Loki and letting her body language tell them that she had no intention of letting them do anything to him. "I think it's about time for that explanation you mentioned earlier."
One hand came to rest on Caliburn's hilt, the moonstone gleaming in the sunlight. Nyneve took a breath, sending a glance Loki's way over her shoulder before returning her gaze to Steve.
"I believe it is."