I sat on my bed in the room at the Compound, legs crossed as I hunched over the notepad I held in my hands. The last remnants of sunlight before night struggled to get through my blinds, my true source of light the lamp on my nightstand. The calendar on my wall had 'x's on each day that had passed, just ending before the Fifteenth of February. Just under two weeks until Hawkes was presumed to attack.
I had heard nothing about the man since the Dragons came to visit, and that lack of knowledge frightened me. There was nothing on his whereabouts, nothing new about his plan, and no confirmation on if the Twenty-Eighth would be the true start of our battle. My own writing on the paper was starting to blur to my eyes from how tired I was. With a groan, I ripped the paper off of the notepad, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it across the room without lifting my head. There was no sound of it hitting the ground, and I looked up from the pad.
"Am I dreaming..." I asked slowly, "or is this real?"
"Real," Loki told me, the crumpled paper clenched in his raised hand. He raised an eyebrow at me while I continued to stare at him. The man wore his traditional black and green clothes, his dark hair slicked back and just above his shoulders. "But you don't believe that, do you?"
"Considering my only contact with you has been dreams and premonitions, you can't blame me," I scoffed, and he bowed his head. "So why now? Why are you here after all this time?"
"I can't even get a welcoming hug?" he asked cheekily, and I stayed silent. "You're mad at me, aren't you?"
"Seeing you in front of me made me truly realize that," I admitted, and Loki's shoulders sagged slightly. "I know you've been watching me. Why else would I start suddenly dreaming of you when I began to have... I moved on! You've known me longer than I can remember, and it's been like a game of cat and mouse with you! As great as it is to see you, I'm busy and I don't need your help or whatever the reason it is you're here."
"Cat and mouse... oh, for Odin's sake, I know you're dying!" he raised his voice at me, and I flinched at the abrasiveness of his words. Loki realized his mistake quickly, giving a quick sigh while he calmed himself. "Keeping Thor out of Asgard is much harder than you would think, and it wasn't until-"
"Why are you keeping your brother away from you?"
"- it wasn't until that little energy blast of yours that I realized there were pressing things going on with you," he continued over my question. "Even now I can feel your life force, and it's weak. Those tests you took, they're wrong. Four years is if you're optimistic..."
I felt sick to my stomach, Loki's words fading as I processed what I had just been told. Carefully, I set the notepad down, trying to keep my eyes from brimming with tears. "You're... you're telling me," I asked him, "I have even less time than that? Less... less than four years?"
"Only if you stay here and rely on whatever Midgardian medicine you have," he quickly continued on, sensing my distress. He cautiously approached me, taking my hands into his own, and I was too numb to truly respond. "Asgard is known for our healers. I have them researching now on life extensions and abnormal diseases. Not that this is a disease, a poor choice of words..." Loki stopped himself and the fast pace he was rambling at. He let go of my hands and crouched down on my bedroom floor to meet my eye level. "What I'm trying to say is... I can save you. I'm going to save you."
I still sat there, my eyes flickering back down to the notepad my hands had dropped back on again. There were indentions on the new sheet of paper from how hard I had pressed my pen on the previous one. I tried to focus on the words that stuck out the most, trying to pull myself back to reality. I couldn't let myself fall back into a depression slump, not again. There wasn't enough time for that. I needed to be at full focus.
"I didn't think this conversation would go this way," he apologized, looking uncomfortable with himself. "I'll be honest with you because that's what I know you want, okay?" I nodded slowly, bringing a small smile to his face. "About a month ago in your time, Asgard got a little visitor. He doesn't speak much, well, from his mouth anyways. It took the citizens a bit to get used to a Frost Giant. He looks more like them than I do, anyway."
"Hugonyn," I murmured before my eyes widened. "Hugonyn! Is he alright? How is he adjusting? Is he safe?"
"You can ask him yourself soon enough," Loki chuckled, standing back up. He began to move to his original position when he announced himself. "For now, just focus on that little friend of yours. Hawkes, you call him?"
"You're a god," I said quickly, almost in desperation. "Or something similar to that. Help me. Who better to win this fight than the man known for his deception?" Loki lowered his head and turned away. "Loki, please. Please help me. I'm begging you-"
"I cannot intervene," he apologized quickly as I stood to my feet. "You'll better understand when you come to Asgard yourself, but I cannot leave. There are certain forces who will recognize my arrival on Earth, one's testing me now as we speak." As if on cue, a yellow flickering began to appear above him on the ceiling, spinning in a circle. It acted like a portal, but I couldn't determine what was on the other side. "I must go now. I will see you soon."
"Loki, wait!" I cried out, reaching for him.
"I'm sorry." The man disappeared in front of my eyes, the portal removing itself slowly. My fingers only caught hold of air. My heart was beating fast as I scanned my room, hoping it was just a trick he was playing on me. It was quiet.
"Loki?" I called out slowly, and there was no response. With a frustrated yell, I closed my fist and punched the wall as frost began to cover my fingertips. My frozen hand went through, breaking a hole to the room next door. It was empty, allowing me to see my enraged reflection in a vanity mirror through the small section.
______________________________
"Alright, my merry little misfits!" my father's voice spoke through the intercom. Stacy, Amy, Zane, and I stood back to back in the darkness of the virtual training room, waiting for whatever was going to be thrown at us. After Loki's spontaneous visit, I had more than a few emotions I wanted to let loose. "I've got this thing on full power. Let's get this day going."
"I really like that!" Stacy said excitedly from behind me. Her training had gone faster than I had expected. She was much more toned in muscle than from when I first met her, and if you hadn't known the Elementals beforehand, you would've thought her to be part of the original group. "'Merry misfits... that's cute! Yo, Stark Senior! Can we get some music this time? Please?"
"Never call me Stark Senior again, McFlurry." The lights of the virtual room turned on, flooding our eyes with a neon blue as it loaded up. I reached my left hand out to take Amy's, who squeezed it back. I felt Zane take mine on his own accord, realizing that the trend had gone around our little circle. In that moment, it felt like the days when I was younger with them: us against the world. The team was finally forming together. "But since you asked so nicely..."
A solo guitar began to play along with a shaker, followed along by a clap or snap of a person's fingers. Stacy laughed while Zane chuckled. "Very funny!" she called up to my father, who didn't respond back. The floor began to change to concrete pavement, skyscrapers and the other buildings of New York City began to appear around us. I glanced over to a woman walking past us, a newspaper in her hands. The date on the corner of the front caught my eye: May 4th, 2012. My eyes widened in realization.
Ice, Ice, Baby
I looked up into the sky, the dark wormhole spitting out Chitauri from the other side of space. The screams of civilians immediately began to follow. "Oh, joy," I grumbled, and the other three followed my gaze. "Alright, battle plan: Zane, you and I are going to evacuate the city. You're the fastest. You run them out in the higher buildings; I'll see if I can copy what my sister did once with a massive mental control."
"On it." Zane let go of my hand and rushed off, leaving an aura trail of white behind him. I turned to face the two other girls. Amy's wings were twitching eagerly, ready to join the fight, while Stacy continued to stare up at the wormhole in horror.
Alright stop
Callaborate and listen
Ice is back with my brand new invention
Something grabs a hold of me tightly
I flow like a harpoon daily and nightly
"Stacy... Stace." The girl finally looked away and at me, her chest moving quickly as she tried to compose her breathing. "You can do this," I told her, and she gave me a few quick nods. "I need you to watch my back while I try to work on evacuation. And Amy?" The Fire Elemental gave me a grin in excitement. "Go light some alien ass up. Get back on ground when the Leviathans come."
Do the extreme, I rock a mic like a vandal
Light up a stage and wax a chump like a candle
"Isabel, I... I thought your father defeated them by flying into the wormhole," Stacy asked me as Amy pushed off and took flight. "These are hive creatures."
"Yeah, with a nuke," I agreed with her. "Considering the timeline of this battle, that doesn't come for a few more hours. Plus, knowing him, he probably changed that hive mind thing. Our biggest concern is to fight them off for now and to find-" There was a loud explosion, and Stacy screamed from the noise. I looked up to see a younger Loki fly over us on a Chitauri chariot, his staff extended in his hand. The sound of snarls and battle cries filled my ears, much closer than the other problem. I moved my attention back to the ground, where a few Chitauri managed to slip past Amy and get into the city. One roared at the two of us, causing many of the civilians to retreat in terror. Judging by the number, Zane was going to be the only one on evacuation for a bit. "Well, this is great."
"Elsa and Moana time?"
"Elsa and Moana time," I agreed.
Deadly when I play a dope melody
Anything less than the best is a felony
Love it or leave it, you better gangway
You better hit the bullseye, the kid don't play
I flung my hand toward the one at my right, twisting my wrist in to form a whip and wrapping it around the alien's neck. The creature snarled as I held it still. Stacy flicked her finger in its direction, and a large icicle burst from the ground and impaled it. The Chitauri gave a sputter, its body curling in the air as the icicle had it hovering over the ground.
And f there was a problem, yo I'll solve it
Check out the hook while my DJ revolves it
Ice, Ice, Baby
"Six o'clock!" I called to the girl, who turned to see three large aliens approaching her with guns in their hands. From how their weapons were sounding, I knew my powers wouldn't be able to cover her fast enough. "Wall-" With my attention on watching Stacy, I left myself uncovered. A thinned blast went past my ear, and I pivoted on my feet to see a new crew with their guns pointed at me. I extended my hands at my waist, summoning water that grew in size by the second. A few of them cowered at the massive wave forming behind me, at least two stories tall and cutting Stacy off from their sight. "That was rude."
Now that the party is jumping
With the bass kicked in and the Vegas are pumping
I pulled my arms to my chest and then thrust them forward with my palms facing the Chitauri. The water followed my command, surging past me and wrapping around the aliens. My hands twitched as I swayed them back and forth with a glare, pulling the water into a ball and watching as the creatures struggled for air.
I go crazy when I hear a cymbal
And a hi-hat with a souped up tempo
I'm on a roll, it's time to go solo
As the massive orb moved above me along with my hands, bending my back slowly, I heard another blast of a gun and Stacy yelped in pain. I looked over my shoulder to see her holding hers gingerly, the wall she had tried to build crumbling to the ground. The Chitauri who shot her, its weapon still raised, smashed its foot on the ice and bared its teeth at her.
"Hey!" I called out, and the alien looked up at me and its drowning companions. The Chitauri snarled and redirected its gun to me, but it was too slow. I allowed my back to fully bend backward, throwing my right hand over in its direction as my left touched down on the gravel to keep me from hitting my head on the ground. The orb froze through the air and smashed into the creature, breaking upon contact and crushing the Chitauri. As I spun my feet around to fix my position, Stacy groaned. "You okay?"
"Forgot we can actually get hurt in here," she grumbled, moving her hand to look at the wound. It had burned through her sleeve, leaving her skin raw and pink. "I'll be fine, just made me think of a few things..."
Zane appeared by my side, his hair windswept and a white glow around him slowly fading. "Done for now," he nodded firmly before his eyes caught on Stacy, the girl still sitting on the ground. "You alright?"
"Managing," she told him with a grim smile. The Air Elemental offered his hand, which she took as he pulled her up on her feet. "It'll build character."
Kept on pursuing to the next stop
I busted a left and I'm heading to the next block
The block was dead
Yo, so I continued to A1A... Beachfront Avenue!
Amy landed hard on the street with a thud, cracking the concrete from the pressure while her wings flared out to their full extent. Her clothes were full of rips and claw marks, and she was bleeding from a cut somewhere hidden by her hair. As the Fire Elemental stood, she pointed up to the wormhole, where a pair of Leviathans were descending down into the city. "We've got round two coming in, and they're ugly."
"That might be an understatement," Stacy murmured, and Zane chuckled.
"Got a plan, boss?"
"I... um..." I struggled to respond, searching my brain as I tried to recall all the tapes I had watched previously on this battle. I had been watching every fight since my father spoke out about his identity as Iron Man, hoping it would somehow prepare me for whatever Hawkes would throw. It then clicked, and my eyes widened. "Lightning. It took the Hulk forever to beat one down with brute force, but Thor killed them quicker with his hammer. Zane-" I jerked my head toward him. "If we can get a starting source big enough to hold them together-"
"- we can strike them all at once!" he finished for me. He twisted his palms at the ground, causing his feet to lift and his body to hover. "I can get up there easily, but I can't hold you, myself, and shoot at the same time."
"I can bring Isabel up there," Amy offered. "I'm stronger than I look."
"Okay, that's three of us... Stacy, you think you could still do ground control?" I asked the girl, who looked a little nervous. "I don't know the extent of your injury, so if you need to sit this one out for a bit-"
"I'll get over it," Stacy cut me off, shaking her head. She gave a look to the sky warily before focusing back on me. "The Leviathans won't be able to transport from that height, but I bet there are still a few of those buggers running around down here. I can do handle it."
I nodded, and Zane took off into the sky. Amy wrapped her arms around my waist, her wings lowering slightly as she adapted to the weight she was about to carry. "Don't focus all on your hands," she told Stacy suddenly, who looked surprised at the girl giving her advice. "Your powers... they're coursing through your entire body. Use your feet if necessary, but it all ends up in your head. You'd be shocked to figure out the ways you can fight."
"I... thanks," Stacy said slowly. "So no hard feelings?"
"Can't lie, I hold grudges for a long time," Amy shrugged. "You still kicked my ass pretty well... for a newbie." She winked at the girl, and I felt her grip on me tighten before she pushed off the ground.
Bumper to bumper, the avenue's packed
I'm trying to get away before the jackers jack
Police on the scene, you know what I mean
They passed me up confronted all the dope fiends
All I could hear was the wind blowing past my ears harshly as Amy flew, taking us above the city in seconds. Zane was already up there waiting, floating in the sky with ease. The approaching Leviathans were gargantuan, making the three of us look like insects in comparison. As one opened its mouth to roar at us, I sent back a war cry of my own, lowering my head and flaring all of my fingers in its direction.
Water flew up from the East River at an unbelievable speed, each droplet holding tight to the Leviathans until I had them connected by a bridge of my own making. The large creatures thrashed against their bonds, and Amy grunted as she had to hold me tighter to prevent me from flying to them.
"Zane!" she screamed as she struggled, and the boy's eyes flickered. The sky around us started to grow a sickly grey color, and the smell of ozone filled my nose. The hairs on my arms began to stand. The Air Elemental's eyes went white as his hands, summoning lightning from the sky and channeling it through his fingertips. The Leviathans cried out in pain as it spread through their watery cage like wildfire, and Chitauri fell dead from their sides and down through the sky. Our plan was working perfectly, and I was just about to let the water return to the river-
Amy howled in pain as she was shot in the back, dropping me as her body reacted. I screamed as I fell, my hair flying around me and my long-sleeve shirt billowing. Loki lowered his staff with a grin before racing down on his chariot, following my path. The other girl tried to intercept, but his posse of Chitauri swarmed her on chariots of their own, leaving me defenseless. The music that had been playing seemed to disappear, and the situation slowly grew to feel more real.
My arm scraped against the wall of the Zephyr painfully, bending backward as I clawed at it in the useless hope of stopping my fall. There was a loud snap, and I screamed in agony. A moment later, I was facing the skyline of New York City, my arms swinging back and forth wildly as I continued to pick up speed. I was praying for a miracle, praying for some sort of Savior to catch me.
I fell out of my memory and grew more aware of Loki coming closer and closer to me, his eyes an eery blue. Peter wasn't here to save me this time, and this Loki was not the one who I grew close with. My eyes narrowed, and my vision tinted blue.
"No!" I said fiercely, and I reached my left arm out to the God of Mischief. Loki reached, misinterpreting my action as a plead for help, but I pulled my fingers into my palm to form a fist. The water I had used to hold the Leviathans stopped their descent and came back into my control, moving toward Loki at a fatal speed. He looked over too late, and the water knocked him off his chariot. I closed my eyes to avoid watching him fall for a moment, only realizing that I would succumb to the same fate if I didn't figure out a plan.
I was falling at an angle, beelining toward a skyscraper. There was no time, and I hurriedly pulled the controlled water around myself by pulling my arms across my chest in an 'x' formation. Even in my protection, I heard the building groan as I crashed through it. The impact was hard enough to break my bubble, and I was back to falling to the ground like a meteor.
"I've got you!" I heard Stacy yell as I struggled to stay conscious. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her moving to catch me, a snowy path forming under her feet that held her up in the air. She turned around at the perfect moment with her hands outstretched, and I barreled into her. The force of my landing knocked her off the snow, sending us tumbling into the street. The two of us moaned, and I pressed a hand to the back of my head gingerly.
"Ow..."
"Run!" Stacy yelled at me, pulling me up and grabbing my hand while pointing at the building in front of us. The large hole I created took the middle of the structure, and it was falling straight for us. People were crying on the streets, some frozen in fear. I glanced at them in surprise. I had thought Zane had dealt with them all. "Come on, Isabel!"
"Support beam it!" I shouted back wearily, letting go of her hand to fling both of mine toward the falling building. "I shoot, you freeze!"
"I can't do this!" Stacy began to cry as water blasted out of my palms, cracking under the pressure. With a groan, I slowly changed it into its icy form to make up for her hesitation, my arms shaking as I took the weight alone.
"Yes you can!" I yelled at her, my fingers curling and twitching as I continued to use my powers. "If you give up now, these fake people die. Real people will die if you don't realize that you can quite literally do anything you set your mind to! You're an Elemental for Christ's sake!"
"I am?" she asked me shakily.
"Yes!" I nodded my head, giving a strained laugh. Blood was dripping from my nose, and my mouth tasted like metal. "Now act like one!" Stacy looked back at the broken structure, and her eyes narrowed. Her hands lifted slowly as snow flew closely around her wrists before she flung them up with a battle cry. Her powers were concentrated, wrapping around the building and taking the weight for me. As I let go and crouched to the ground, my vision tinted blue. I pressed my hands down on the concrete, my fingers spreading until my palms hit it firmly.
"Leave," I whispered, and in the corner of my sight, I saw passerby who were previously screaming in fear straighten up. "Go." I could feel every brain I connected to, almost like a web with multiple strings. People passed Stacy and I as they walked quickly down the streets in evacuation, their faces blank and eyes glowing the blue hue I saw every time my powers reached their peak. I could feel my eye twitching as I continued to extend my powers. "Stacy, how are we doing on that building?"
"It's starting to slip!" she told me worriedly. I looked around us to make sure we were the only two on the street. "What do I do?"
"Get ready to run... now!" I burst up and took her hand, pulling the girl away and cutting her powers off as we began to sprint. I could hear the groan of the building as it continued on its course to crush us. From the shadow looming above us, I knew there was a possibility we wouldn't even make it to a side street. "Jump!"
Stacy followed my command with no hesitation. I threw my left hand out to the side and dragged my fingers through the air as if I was scooping something up, forming a massive wave to catch us and propel us further. We were just about to make it-
"Simulation terminated." I opened my eyes to the real world, blinking a few times groggily. My father sat in front of me at a circular island holo table, spinning back and forth on his stool as he pulled the other Elementals out. Peter stood behind him, his arms crossed as he watched the battle we were all previously in on the table top. I reached up to the back of my neck and pulled the sticky patches connecting me to wires off, wincing as it ripped my baby hairs.
"You turned the difficulty up on that one," I complimented them, stepping out of the capsule slowly as I continued to pull the patches off of my arms. "How did we do?"
"On a scale of one to ten... I'll give you a four and a half."
"Is one considered the best?" Zane asked the older Stark hopefully, more aware of his surroundings than the other two. My father pressed his lips together into a smirk, looking around at all of us.
"You all understand the concept of teamwork, but you're all so used to using your abilities separately that being together still meant being alone," he explained to them. He interlaced his fingers, showing each of us the merge. "There's disconnect. Maybe it's from some of you not being in an actual battle for a while, or for one of you, never being on the field. We're doing the best with what we've got." My father took his hands apart and snapped his fingers. "Takeaways?"
"Yeah, I'm making us better suits," Stacy started off, crossing her arms across her chest. I realized at that moment that real blood was coming from my nose, and I wiped it away with the back of my hand. "We went in there with thick workout clothes, and we were defenseless against those weapons. Hawkes has the Elemental powers, so we're going to need something better than a standard suit." She realized most of the room was looking at her strangely. "What?" Stacy said defensively. "It's my specialty."
"We keep training in cities," Amy piped up, looking somewhat aggravated at that fact. "Sokovia, this, that small town in the desert... that HYDRA base! Why do we keep having to focus on saving people? I have to focus on getting some random person out rather than defending myself." My father sighed and leaned over the table in her direction, his elbows propping him up.
"General Ross... he knows you all are here." I jerked my head toward the man, raising an eyebrow at this statement. "I've done the best I can, but he believes all of you should fall into government custody." The room grew still, Peter paling and looking at me in worry, but I shook my head angrily. "Technically, one of you signed the Accords; the rest of you could be classified as fugitives."
"No... that's idiotic," I said firmly. "I signed those Accords with a direct statement that I would be dealing with Hawkes."
"That's where the problem comes in: you didn't," my dad told me with a grimace. "Your exact words, which I know thanks to several phone calls these past days, was that the UN would 'arrest Hawkes.' To Ross, this means that they deal with the problem."
"So why all of these tests?" Zane questioned him angrily. "Why prepare us to fight if they're going to... arrest us the moment we go out the Compound doors?!" Amy was staring at the ground, her face solemn as her wings wrapped around her body protectively. Stacy's hand reached for the ends of her pure white hair, gripping it tightly.
"Listen, I'm doing everything in my power to not let that happen!" my father snapped. "I've seen where they would send you if you piss them off! Do you know-" His eyes widened and he quickly calmed himself, rubbing his face with his hands. "General Ross is saying that the United Nations can pick the best of their soldiers to fight Hawkes. They don't know what they would be dealing with because the man has been under the radar since the Florida incident. The UN runs on visible proof, not just our words."
He turned to Zane, swiping his finger on the holo table to pull up videos of our training. Some were from our eyes, others just shots as if we had been recorded with a full camera crew. I stepped closer curiously, my eyes flicking back and forth between the tapes. "I've been picking which data to send to him, trying to focus on how the main goal is evac and defense. I'm trying to not let him see your full extent of power; it's easier to fight in the simulation where you can overexert yourself without feeling the consequences. Ross wouldn't get that."
Watching the recordings of us felt all too familiar, almost a recreation from when the man came to the Compound the first time to introduce the Sokovia Accords. It ripped the Avengers apart, the only family I had at the time. Now, I was forming a new one, and there was a chance of it being destroyed again. I hadn't seen my sister in a year. Bucky was hiding in Wakanda while Sam and Steve were off still trying to fight for others while being on the run. Nat, Vision... and I had no clue about Clint and Scott.
"When can I meet with him?" I asked my father, my tone serious. "This isn't the Avengers. Technically speaking, I'm in charge at the end of the day. I want to discuss what he plans for my team." Zane looked over at me proudly while my father merely sighed.
"Luckily for you... he's upstairs."