"Did you ever know that you're my hero
And everything I would like to be?
I can fly higher than an eagle
For you are the wind beneath my wings."
CINDY REACTS INSTINCTIVELY – she's been in explosions before, and her body knows exactly what to do. She flies forward, smacking into Tony. The ground ripples below her, and she feels her father brace himself over her vulnerable, unprotected form.
When the vibrations stop, Tony is looking down at her with shocked, brown eyes. It's chaos, agents screaming and running. There's claxons and alarms shrieking, along with indistinguishable orders. The debris is so thick Cindy can't see Natasha, Steve or Thor, and they were standing close to her.
"Dad?" She coughs, squinting, gaping at the hole in the ceiling.
"Bambino, Cindy!" He smiles, holding her face in his rough hands. "You okay baby?" Cindy merely smirks before checking her fathers body for any injuries, "Good, that's good."
Cindy shakes her head as it rings, "We have to get to the engines," Cindy shouts over the commotion, grabbing his arm, "Come on, dad!"
Tony nods, face pale. They run down the corridor, dodging agents, Steve in his uniform and fallen framework, feet pounding the floors.
In the mist of the chaos she losses her father, squinting widely as she looks for an exit to the hanger only to find a large green face screaming in a deep, horrifying tone.
"Holy crap," Cindy gasps falling back, landing with a painful smack against a metal stairwell. The Hulk is yanking at the large metal beams separating his large body and her small one. Cindy looks around widely as she grunts, trying to crawl away. Then someone is suddenly colliding with the large green chest and they go flying back, smashing through other walls.
"Blondie." Cindy smirks as she makes eye contact with the god, she groans as she pulls her body up, certainly going to ache tomorrow. Her head aches from the blow to head, taking a deep breath she groans as pain explodes in her head, her hands . automatically flying to her head, trying to ease the agony raging between her ears.
Flashes of blue cross her vision, Cindy can only sky there in pain, her mouth dropping open as she gasps for air, head jerking to the side as the images continue to consume her mind.
The Tesseract.
A golden gauntlet.
Loki.
A Throne over looking the galaxies.
Dust.
When the images finally come to a stop, she barley manages to dodge an on coming fist sent her way. Quickly getting into her protective stance Cindy eyes her friend who stares at her with eary lifeless blue eye. "Clint?" She questions as he attempts to shoot the youngest Stark.
Grabbing ahold of the bow she shakes her head, "Oh no you don't." She muses, holding it to the side as the arrow misses its target, twisting the bow before he turns and elbows her squarely in the face. Cindy steps away as he uses the curved metal as a sword. "I just can't get a day off," Cindy grunts as she spins and kicks him, sending him back.
Clint flys back into the wall as she steps closer, practically face-to-face, ready to grab a hold of him just as he shoves her into the railing, quickly remembering her Aunt Peggys advice, she knees him where the sun isn't shine and punches him across the face. He stumbles to the side and she spins around, holding the quiver across her back and shoulders. Then he pulls out a knife and gets back into another fighting stance as Cindy lets out a warrior cry as slams his head into the wall just as Fury had done.
"Cindy!" She hears a yell, looking to her side she spots Natasha gazing worriedly at them before setting her face in a blank expression.
"Clint will be fine!" The young Stark tells her friend, "Get him to medical."
"Onit." Natasha nods sharply as she takes Clint, throwing his arm over her shoulder as they walk out the corridor, looking back at Cindy she nods again, "Stay safe."
Glancing around, Cindy quickly uses her shoulder to cautiously open the heavy metal door - only to be met by the sight of Loki standing behind Agent Cookson and harshly shoving the blade of his scepter through his chest. A silent cry escapes her mouth, eyes wide as the sound of a squish reachers her ears, frozen, she watched the god tug the blade. Phil gasps as the metal stabs through his heart.
A loud cry shocks her, Thor in the cell is angrily banging his fist on the glass. Loki shoves Phil off of his scepter and pushes him into the wall. Phil's body limply falls down to the ground and he gasps for breath as red begins to crawl through his shirt.
The blood looks like a flower, spreading and branching out.
"You bastard–" she growls as Loki turns, in surprise as he spots her running towards him before her lean frame collides with his, smashing them into the ground. Rolling over, she yells out, shoving her sword out as he blocks each blast with the scepter.
He lifts the point of the scepter above his head and moves to bring it down against her chest. Snarling, she curls around, kicking his legs out from underneath him. He grunts a little as he lands onto the floor and Cindy grins a bloody smile as she twists to take the scepter, fingers enclosing around the metal staff when the visions come back full force.
The Blue Cube.
A lush land of grass filled with dark skinned men and women in fierce looking clothing.
Five other glowing objects come into view.
The Throne.
A sharp objects snaps her out of her trance, petite body face colliding with the glass of the cell. A gasp of pain escapes her lips as she blinks at Loki who picks the scepter back up and steps over her withering body. He slowly makes his way over to the control switch and he slowly looks to the man in the cell. Thor watches him with both anger and hope and Cindy can only crawl slowly. It's his brother. Hes blind-sighted, she knows this, she's experienced it.
Loki opens up the floor's hatch and Cindy nearly yelps, holding onto the side as she looks over the edge to the ground below. Thor's expression doesn't change. Loki easily presses the button and the cell goes down. They're thousand of feet up, while being a god, she's sure there's no way for him to escape his death.
Trying to ignore the thought of Thor plummeting, the youngest Stark crawls over to Phil who is still gasping for air. Blood is dribbling out the corner of his mouth and there is a large wound in his chest. She knows it futile but she presses her hand to his bleeding chest, ignoring the blank look on the gods face. Blank. No guilt or regret.
"You're gonna lose." Staring at the Agent, Cindy smirks slightly as he forces out, "It's in your nature."
"Your heroes are scattered, your floating fortress falls from the sky," Loki mocks staring down the two Agents who glare, "where is my disadvantage?"
Phil responds, "You lack conviction." He looks to Cindy with a gesture she knows as 'get ready'. Cindy opens her mouth as he suddenly moves.
"I don't think so," Phil says, pushing her out of the way and then shooting Loki with a large gun he was holding in his lap. Loki's body absorbs the blast and he's blown backwards, crashing through the wall behind him. "So that's what that does," Phil says quietly.
"Phil," Cindy croaks with a weak laugh, "Phil, hey, hey stay awake!"
"It's okay, Cindy, it's okay,"
"This is Agent Stark." She tells her com, "We have an Agent down! I repeat Agent Coulson is down. We need medical to the holding cell immediately!"
"Cindy, listen to me." Phil says sternly, despite his vulnerable state. "You're a good kid, you hear me? Such a good kid. The worlds gonna need you. I can tell."
A shaky breath escapes her as she lets out a tear, listening to the pounding of feet down the hallway as the door flies open. She knows this is it, she can tell he does too by the pain in his eyes as he stares at his long time friend. Fury drops down in front of him and immediately becomes focused.
"Sorry, Boss," Phil apologizes, "The god rabbited."
"Just stay awake," Fury grabs his chin, "Eyes on me!"
"No. I'm clocked out here," he responds tiredly.
"Not an option," Fury gravely snaps, fave stern as he talks to his partner.
"It's okay, Boss. This was never going to work," Phil struggles to get the words out, "if they didn't have something..have something to..," his voice is breathy and difficult before it stops, his chest still.
Shaking her head she shares a look with Firy who bites his lip in pain, blinking rapidly as he talks into his com. She can only watch as the medical team begins to touch Phil's neck and arm."Agent Coulson is down." Fury talks, taking a deep shuddering breath as he talks over the secure SHEILD channel with all agents.
"A medical team is on their way to your location," an unknown informs.
She watches as Fury pulls himself together as she talks into her com for him, "They're here." She tells the channel lowly, knowing the amount it would effect many agents, "They called it,"
He's gone. Is all she can think as she stares blankly.
____
"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket." Fury tells them, "Guess he never did get you to sign them," He tosses vintage-looking trading cards onto the table, stained red with blood.
The three sitting at the table in the briefing room blink in a daze. They dont know is Thor or Bruce are alive. Clint is free from Loki's spell, but still in recovery, Natasha being his best grins is watching over him. Fury stands in front of them, Maria Hill beside him, the spot where Phil ah oils be noticeably absent. us and the unimpressed agent.
Tony stares at the floor as Steve keeps his eyes on the table before carefully plucking one of the cards up. "We're dead in the air up here," Fury says lowly, defeatedly, "Our communications, location of the cube. Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming," there's a short silence, "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 know this, called 'The Avengers Initiative'."
Cindy clenched her teeth, The Initiative. Avengers. How are they meant to be a team when they can't agree on anything.
Fury stands hands on the headrest, face sobering, "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.." he trails off, staring at the three in thought. "Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes."
Heroes, Cindy scoffs to herself. As if the group of misfits were meant to be heroes.
Catching his eye, Cindy watches numbly as gets ready to walk out the room, her eyes going to the trading cards rubbing blood off gently, slipping it into her pocket she heaves herself from her chair and follows her father's retreating figure, catching his words, "Well, it's an old fashioned notion."
___
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