PURE AND TAINTED
CHAPTER TEN
( besides the impending alien army )
"CALL IT, CAP," TONY SAID. He had landed roughly beside the group, his gold and red armor just slightly dented but still working perfectly nonetheless. Aline was sure that if he lifted up his mask, she'd see just how exhausted he was.
"All right, listen up," Steve said, addressing their group. "Until we can close that portal up there, we're gonna use containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."
"Wanna give me a lift?" Clint asked as Tony walked up to him.
"Right," Tony said. "Better clench up, Legolas." Grabbing hold of the archer, Tony flew off and quickly dropped Clint off at the desired location.
Aline called after them, cupping her hand around her mouth. "That's super creepy, Tony!"
Steve continued to order them about. "Thor, you've gotta try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You've got the lightning, light the bastards up." Thor swung his hammer until it spun so fast Aline couldn't see it anymore and disappeared into the sky. "Us three, we stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here. And Hulk." Hulk turned and looked at him. "Smash."
The Hulk grinned.
___
Leaning tiredly on a flipped over taxi, Aline groaned then yawned loudly. She used her hand to cover her mouth, then turned to Natasha, who was also standing beside her. "I've been draining blood all day," she said through another yawn, "and yet I've never been more tired and exhausted in my life. God, I need a massage." She looked down and saw there was a rip in the sleeve of her jacket, and not the cool kind. The tribrid reached up, hoping to wipe away whatever alien blood was still collecting around her lips.
Natasha stood next to her, also panting. Somehow she had managed to snag one of the Chitauri spears, wielding it like she had used it before. "So when are you gonna explain to us what you are exactly?" she asked, a slight grin on her lips.
Aline just grinned. "Sorry, cupcake, you need special access for that." Lifting her head, she saw a Chitauri soldier running straight towards them. "Maybe if you leveled up," she said, effortlessly raising her wrist and flicking it, resulting in the Chitauri to fall over dead from a broken neck, "I'll give you the whole rundown." The tribrid slouched over on the taxi.
When Steve eventually joined them, she saw that he too was exhausted. Natasha looked at him in surprise, aiming the spear at him but once she realized who he was, she dropped it. "Captain, none of this is gonna mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal."
Looking up, Aline saw the portal sitting above the Stark Tower. It looked like it had gotten bigger, with more Chitauri and Leviathans pouring out of it with every passing second. "Our biggest guns couldn't touch it," Steve panted.
"Well, maybe it's not about guns," Natasha said, carefully eyeing the Chitauri chariots flying ahead. Slowly, Aline followed the woman's gaze and grinned.
"You wanna get up there," Steve said, "you're gonna need a ride."
"I got a ride. I could use a lift though."
Aline suddenly smiled, pushing herself up from the car. She knew exactly what the woman was planning. "Oh, there's no way in hell that you're doing that without me!" She raised her hand high. "Count me in, sista!"
The two women got into position, knees bent and ready to run, while Steve started to angle his shield in the correct position. "Are you sure about this?" He lifted his head up to look at the chariots, watching as they zoomed past in the blink of an eye.
"Are you kidding?" Aline laughed to herself. "I've never been so sure of anything in my life, and that's saying something. Just tell me when you're ready, Stevie."
The moment Steve gave her a nod, Aline took that as her cue and rushed forward. Doing a bit of parkour, the tribrid hopped on the car then onto Steve's shield. He boosted her up with all his might and Aline shot high into the air. Her hand stretched out, hoping to latch onto something solid and once it did, she held on tight and did not let go. It felt like she had gotten whiplash, her body just dragging through the air behind the chariot. She swung her other hand to grab hold of the vehicle, eventually pulling herself up onto it. The wind was roaring in her ears, and she was thankful that her hair was pulled into a ponytail. If not, it would have been a tangled rat's nest of a mess, and would have been everywhere.
The Chitauri soldier driving didn't even seem to notice Aline, and she smiled at that. She raised a hand at it and shouted, "Ossox!" Immediately, the creature screeched loudly as several of its bones started to break and snap, the sounds as clear as day. It fell over, shaking and curling in on itself, and Aline reached down and gripped its shoulders. She easily tossed it over the side. "Sayounara, dude!" she shouted, watching its body fall to the ground below, then she turned to the control. "All right, Ali... this should be just like riding a bike, right? A much bigger, alien bike..."
Taking hold of the controls, Aline tipped it to the right and legitimate fear took hold in her heart as the chariot spun upside down momentarily. "Nope, nope, nope!" she screamed. "Not like a bike! Not like a bike at all!"
A laugh came from her left and she looked to see it was Natasha. Instead of kicking her pilot off, she had simply dug her knives into its body and used him to pilot. "Not fair!" Aline shouted over the wind. Looking ahead of her, she slowly started to turn the chariot to the side, following after Natasha. "You know, besides the impending alien army, this is actually pretty fricken' cool! Now, let's go save New York! And maybe the world... yeah, the world, too!"