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Natasha managed to make it on top of Stark Tower where the portal machine was. She looked at it, trying to figure out how in Earth she was going to shut that thing down.
"The scepter." A voice muttered.
Natasha turned and saw Selvig lying on the ground, watching the chaos. The blast from the machine when Tony shot it, seemed to break him out of Loki's control.
"Loki's scepter. The energy. The Tesseract can't fight, but you can't protect against yourself."
"It's not your fault, you didn't know what you were doing." Natasha reassured him.
"Actually, I think I did. I built in a safety to cut their power source." He reveled.
"Loki's scepter."
"It may be able to close the portal. And I'm looking at it right now."
...
Back at the base, Maria was looking at the screens and something caught her eye, and not in a good way.
"Sir, we have a bird in motion! Anyone in deck, we have a rogue bird! We have to shut it down!" Maria emphasized. "Repeat, takeoff is not authorized."
...
Fury ran out onto the deck holding a bazooka. He saw one of the places taking off and fired. The rocket hit the plane, preventing it from taking off.
Fury sighed in relief, but it was short lived as another plane took off from the runway as well.
Fury went back inside and got on his mic. "Stark, do you hear me? You have a missile headed straight for the city."
...
"How long?" Stark asked, as he was hit in the helmet by a Chitauri.
"Three minutes. Max. The payload will wipe out midtown."
"JARVIS, our everything we've got into the thrusters." Tony ordered.
"Already did."
Tony shot up into the air, going to intercept the missile.
...
Selvig pulled up his laptop. "Right at the crown." He instructed.
Natasha touched the scepter to the barrier around the Cube and managed to get through. "I can stop it. Does anybody copy? I can shut the portal down!"
"Do it!"
"No, wait."
"Stark, these things are still coming."
"I got a nuke coming in. It's gonna blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it."
"Stark, you know that's a one way trip."
...
Tony didn't respond. He flew under the missile as it was headed for the city, and used his thrusters to push it upwards. He just managed to avoid hitting Stark Tower and flew straight up through the portal.
As he entered space, his suit began powering down. He released the missile and watched as it flew straight at the giant ship where all the Chitauri came from. As soon as the missile hit, the ship exploded into a big fiery ball.
...
Down on Earth, all the Chitauri and space worms powered down. The rest of the Avengers looked up, hoping to see Tony coming back down.
The explosion was becoming bigger and bigger, and Steve knew they couldn't keep the portal open any longer.
"Close it."
...
Natasha pushed the scepter into the machine, and the portal started to close. Just as it did, a small speck of metal could be seen falling from the sky.
...
"Son of a gun." Steve muttered as he and the Avengers watched Tony fall back down to Earth.
"He's not slowing down." (Y/n) observed.
Thor began turning his hammer, preparing to fly up and get him, when the Hulk grabbed Tony and slid down a building onto the ground.
Hulk set Tony down, and Steve, (Y/n), and Thor rushed over to them.
"Is he breathing?" Steve asked.
Thor ripped off Tony's mask to see him lying completely still, his eyes closed.
They all stared down at him, waiting for any sign to show that he was still alive. Hulk got tired of waiting, and roared at Tony, making him jerk and open his eyes.
"What the hell?" Tony exclaimed. "What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me. Unless it was Space Princess."
(Y/n) rolled her eyes. "If I wasn't so happy you were alive I'd punch you in the face."
"We won." Steve muttered.
"Alright, yay! Hurray. Good job guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is but I wanna try it." Tony ranted.
"We're not finished yet." Thor announced.
"...And then shawarma after?"
...
Loki slowly manages to crawl his way up from when the Hulk pounded him into a pulp. He grasped a small set of stairs, and leaned against them.
Feeling a presence in the room with him, he slowly turned and came face to face with all seven Avengers, with Clint aiming an arrow at him.
"If it's all the same to you..."he groaned. "...I'll have that drink now."
"Alright, get him on his feet. We can all stand around posing up a storm later. By the way, feel free to clean up." Tony suggested.
Natasha held up the scepter. "Who gets the uh, magic wand?"
A group of men in black uniforms and suits entered the room and started gathering up evidence. "We can take that off your hands." One of them offered.
Natasha gave them the spear. "By all means. Careful with that thing."
"Unless you want your mind erased." Clint added, handing Natasha a drink.
(Y/n) stood next to Loki who had been put in handcuffs. He kept glancing at her, hoping she'd look at him but she didn't.
"On my way down to coordinate search and rescue." Steve said, passing by him.
Loki changes into Steve and began mimicking him. "'On my way down to coordinate search and rescue.'" He changed back into himself. "Honestly darling, how do you keep your food down?"
(Y/n) rolled her eyes and pressed a device to Loki's mouth which wrapped around his head gagging him. "Shut. Up."
The Tesseract was put into a metal briefcase, held by Tony, and all the Avengers, soldiers, and Loki piled into the elevator.
Hulk tried to come in too, but everyone objected.
"Woah, hey buddy, what do you think? Maximum occupancy has been reached." Tony told him.
"Take the stairs!" Thor suggested.
Loki waved goodbye at Hulk as the elevator doors closed. Hulk, who was not happy at taking the stairs, raised his fist and punched the elevator doors as they closed.
While the elevator was going down, (Y/n) felt something touching her hand. She glanced down and saw that Loki was trying to hold her hand.
Unfortunately for Loki, she was still mad at him and swatted his hand away, crossing her arms.
...
The elevator reached the bottom floor of the tower and everyone shuffled out. As they walked along the first floor lobby, the were approached by more men in suits.
The oldest looking of all of them stepped forward. "Uh, may I ask you where you're going?"
"Lunch and then Asgard." Thor answered. "I'm sorry and you are...?"
"Alexander Pierce is the man behind Nick Fury." Tony introduced.
"Oh."
"My friends call me Mr. Secretary. I'm gonna have to ask you to turn that prisoner over." Pierce requested.
"Loki will be answering to Odin himself." Thor told them, while Loki rolled his eyes.
Pierce shook his head. "No, he's gonna answer to us, and Logan can have whatever's left and I'm gonna need that case. That's been S.H.I.E.L.D property for over 70 years."
Just before an argument could take place, Hulk burst out of a door, knocking a guy dressed in black carrying a case to the floor.
"No stairs!" Hulk bellowed.
...
"In the aftermath of what was confirmed as en extraterrestrial attack, the extraordinary heroics of the group known as the Avengers has been many a cause not only for comfort, but for celebration."
"It's just really great knowing they're out there. That someone is watching over us."
"I love you Thor!"
"And then these guys were like...pew pew, and then the air goes boom! And this green guy walks up and he goes roar!"
"I don't know. I don't exactly feel safer with those things out there."
"It just seems like there's a lot they're not telling us."
"Superheroes in New York? Give me a break." One old man commented.
"These so called 'heroes' have to be held responsible for the destruction done to this city. This was their fight. Where are they now?"
"Tough questions are being asked about the Avengers themselves. Their sudden appearance and equally sudden disappearance."
"What, that this is somehow their fault? Captain America saved my life. Wherever he is, and wherever any of them are, I would just...I would wanna say thank you."
Fury turned off the screen and looked up at a bunch of larger screens that had the Council's faces on them.
"Where are the Avengers?" One of them asked.
"I'm not currently tracking their whereabouts." Fury answered. "I'd say they earned a leave of absence."
"And the Tesseract?"
"The Tesseract is where it belongs. Out of our reach."
"That's not your call."
"I didn't make it. I just didn't argue with the Asgardians who did."
"So, you let him take it and the war criminal Loki who should be answering for his crimes."
"Oh, I think he will be."
...
Out on a street in New York, all of the Avengers and Loki met up at a spot to take Loki and the Tesseract back to Asgard. They were now all dressed in normal clothing except for (Y/n), Thor and Loki who were still wearing their armor.
Selvig opened the back of a truck and pulled out a container.
Tony opened the briefcase that contained the Tesseract, and Bruce carefully placed the Cube inside.
Loki glanced up at Clint who was glaring at Loki through his sunglasses.
Thor and (Y/n) held on handle on one end of the cylindrical container and held it out to Loki, suggesting that he hold the other handle.
Loki looked to (Y/n) and held out his hand, gesturing for her to hold it. She looked up at him in disbelief, but he just kept looking between her and his hand.
The mischievous glint in his eye told her that he wasn't going to grab the other handle until she held his hand. With a very deep eye roll, she grasped Loki's hand and held onto the handle with the other.
Even with the device over his mouth, she could tell he was smiling as he grabbed the other handle in the container.
Thor and (Y/n) looked around at their new friends and nodded in thanks before turning the handle, and activating the Tesseract which took all three of them back to Asgard.
...
"I don't think you understand what you've started, letting the Avengers loose on this world. They're dangerous."
"They surely are, and the whole world knows it. Every world knows it." Fury emphasized.
"Was that the point of all this? A statement?"
Fury looked up at the Council and smirked.
"A promise."
...
Somewhere far away in the galaxy, the same hooded figure that had spoken to Loki was speaking to someone sitting on a throne.
"Humans. They are not the cowering wretches we were promised. They stand. They are unruly and therefore cannot be ruled."
The figure suddenly stood up from his throne and the hooded man cowered a bit.
"To challenge them, is to court death."
The large figure turned, revealing him to have a purple face, and chiseled chin. He looked at the hooded figure with piercing purple eyes and smirked.
Thanos.
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