I turn to Natasha who was shivering and rocking back and forth.
"Nat, are you okay?" I ask, reaching out to touch her but she flinched and I retract my hand immediately. I sigh before sitting beside her, careful not to touch her.
The sound of Thor and Hulk wrestling in the next room doesn't help.
"We are not your enemies, Banner! Try to think!" I hear Thor grunt out.
The sounds of crates falling and crashing us so loud that I couldn't stand it again.
"I'll be right back." I say to Natasha who'd already calmed down a little. I think I see a nod but I'm not so sure.
I run through the hole following the roar of the Hulk. I get there just in time for him to throw a ripped off part of a jet.
Thor skillfully slides under it, leaving it coming at me. It gets stopped a few feet away from me though. It lands on the floor with a loud clank, drawing the attention of both of them to me.
Thor takes advantage of the distraction and swings his hammer at the Hulk and he falls with the hammer in his hand. He tries to lift it, probably to swing it back at us but he couldn't.
"You are not supposed to be here, lady Stark." Thor says turning to me.
"Yeah, but that has never stopped me." I replied.
The Hulk continues to strain, pulling with all his might, the tarmac cracking beneath his feet. He lets out a loud roar, as he continues to struggle.
Thor jumps up, kneeling the rage monster in his face. He grabs his hammer and holds him in a choke hold. My hands light up and I deliver a few blasts of energy at his mid section.
The rage monster continued to claw at Thor and finally grabs a hold of him. He throws him in my direction but I manage to step out of the way just in time.
I turn behind me to see Thor on the ground. I turn back to the Hulk, to see him coming at me, making me levitate a few feet in the air delivering punches while also trying not to get squeezed to death by the large palms.
The Hulk swings at me again and I dodged it but I didn't see the other hand coming so it grabbed me by my neck lifting me up to his level.
I claw at the giant green hand around my neck but it does nothing. I continue to kick and struggle against him. Thor jumps on it's back holding it in a choke hold again.
His killer grip on me reduces and I manage to slip in a few breaths. I kick again and in response the Hulk jumps through the floor above taking us with him.
He flings me and I crash through a glass wall. I suck in breaths through my deprived lungs closing my eyes for a few seconds. I really should have stayed with Nat or followed Pepper to DC. The hulk concentrates on Thor probably thinking I was dead.
The sound of bullets rings through the space and I managed to crawl into a shelter not trusting myself and my powers at this point.
The Hulk roars and I think he went to deal with the shooter. My heavy breathing is the only sound I hear for a few seconds.
"Lady Stark are you alright?" A deep voice asks.
"Yeah, I'll survive." I breathe out, rubbing my neck. This was going to hurt, like a bitch.
"We have to get to the dungeon, Loki might be escaping." Thor continues.
I shake my head. I should have gone for Loki, at least it wouldn't have been this hard.
"You go ahead. I'll be right behind you." I replied.
He nods before walking away like he did not just fight a rage monster. It must be cool to be a god.
The ship rocks a few minutes later and I stand up, finding my way to the cell. As I rounded the corner I started to hear two familiar voices.
"...your floating fortress falls from the sky...where is my disadvantage?" I heard Loki ask. Who the hell was he talking to, I'm sure it wasn't Thor. As far as I know, they didn't have a good relationship.
"You lack conviction." The person replied and I gasp. Shit.
I began to run and I enter just in time to see a flash of energy blow past me. If I had been one second faster, I would have been hit.
I enter the room and I hear a very faint voice behind me. I turn around to see Phil on the floor, blood seeping through his suit and a weapon in his lap.
A sob tears through me as I rush to his side. I pick up the weapon throwing it aside.
"It's okay, I'm fine." He whispers.
I ignore him, my hand going to the wound to try to stop the bleeding, trying to blink back the tears in my eyes.
"You're going to be alright, okay? Phil? You're going to be okay, I promise. Can anyone hear me? Phil is down he- he- " I call out but there's no response.
I tap my ear trying to figure out why I'm not hearing anything. My heart sinks when I realise that there was nothing. It must have fallen during the Hulk situation.
"Lis, I'm-" he starts before grunting.
"You're really stupid, you know that right?" I asked unable to hold back the tears.
"You're the little s-sister I-I've always wanted." He chokes.
I hear footsteps behind me and I turn around to see Fury looking down at us, he kneels beside me."I... I can't stop it." I choked out.
"Sorry, boss. They got rabbited." Phil says.
"Just stay awake. Eyes on me!" Fury instructs.
"No. I'm clocked out here." Phil replies and I cry harder.
"Not an option." Fury replies grabbing his face.
"It's okay, boss. This was never going to work... if they didn't have something... to..." Phil starts before he stop breathing.
"No, no, no." I cry out tapping his face with my bloody hand. I feel someone steering me away.
"Lisa, you have to let them do their work." I hear Fury say to me.
I step aside as the medic attended to him.
Maybe I wasn't too late, maybe he's just-
"We're sorry, we weren't able to-" I didn't listen to what else the medic says, another sob tears through me.
▪️▪️▪️
"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. Guess he never did get you to sign them." Fury slams something on the desk and I look up. The trading cards that we both collected, soaked with blood. I look away, another round of tears fills my eyes. Dad places his hands on my shoulder and I reach up to squeeze it.
"We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming." Fury continues.
"Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, the Starks knows this, called THE AVENGERS INITIATIVE. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes." Fury continues and I couldn't hear more, I stand up and walk away.
I walk towards the holding room, wiping my tears. A few hours ago we were watching Loki, held captive in this place.
I turn towards where the cell was supposed to be. Phil saved my life more than once, I wasn't able to save his. I wasn't able to-
I hear hurried footsteps behind me and I turn around. Dad stood at the door way where I was standing a few minutes ago in shock.
Dad walks towards me and hugs me burying my head in his chest placing his chin on my head, running his hands through my hair for comfort.
"I'm sorry." I heard behind us. I broke the hug and turned to see Steve standing a few feet away.
"Was he married?" Steve asks again after a few minutes.
"No. There was a uh...cellist, I think." Dad says turning to me for confirmation and I nodded.
"I'm sorry. He seemed like a good man." Steve replies.
"He was an idiot." I said out.
"Why? For believing?" Steve asks.
"For taking on Loki alone." I replied.
"He was doing his job." Steve states.
"He was out of his league. He should have waited. Just one more second, he should have..." I countered.
"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Lisa." Steve replies.
"Right. How did that work for him?" Dad says taking a few steps away.
"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?" Steve asks.
"We are not soldiers! I'm not even a hero. I'm just a eighteen year old who just wants a peaceful and simple life. I am not marching to Fury's fife!" I snap at him.
"Neither am I! He's got the same blood on his hands as Loki does. Right now we've got to put that aside and get this done. Now Loki needs a power source, if we can put together a list..." Steve starts but dad cuts him off.
"He made it personal." Dad says and I turn to him, he was staring behind me and I follow his gaze to see him staring at the blood stained wall. I gulp and look away.
"That's not the point." Steve says.
"That is the point. That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?" Dad asks.
"To tear us apart." Steve replies.
"He had to conquer his greed, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us and he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience." Dad says.
"Right, I caught his act at Stuttengard." Steve replies.
"Yeah. That's just a preview, this is opening night. Loki's a full-tilt diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built in the skies with his name plastered..." Dad says but pauses. His eyes snaps to mine and it clicks.
Holy shit.
"Sonofabitch!"