I don't own anything except any original/own characters and any original plot.

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Chapter 4- Battle of New York

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As the Quinjet entered New York, I spotted Stark's red and gold suit shining in the distance.

"What, did you stop for drive-thru? Swing up park, I'm gonna lay 'em out for you."

As Tony came into full view, I could see the Chitauri soldiers following after him. Nat pulled out the ships gun and fired at the aliens.

As the quinjet passed around the tower, Loki shot a blast out of his scepter. I gripped one of the top straps tightly as the ship swung to the ground in a rocky landing. The team hurried off of the quinjet, preparing their weapons.

A large worm-like alien flew from the portal. That would be damn-near impossible to kill. As it moved above us, Chitauri jumped from the sides landing in the areas around us. We ducked behind a few different taxis.

"Steve the civilians will listen to you. Go!" I waved Steve off as the Chitauri neared us.

Steve seemed hesitant, "Will you be alright here?"

"You should know by now Captain, I can handle it," I smiled confidently.

I waved my hands to form a few different motions. That sent a small group of the Chitauri flying into each other and through a building.  Knowing Clint and Nat would have my back, I ran towards a bus full of trapped civilians. I dislodged the shrapnel that was trapping them on the emergency door, and began helping them out.

As I helped a small girl out of the bus she stared up at me in wonder, "Are you an angel?"

"I'm an alien," I corrected, "What's your name?"

"Kamala Khan, I wanna be a hero like you!"

I smiled gently, "If you work hard enough, you will be. Now go with your parents to safety."

I finished helping the civilians off of the bus, pointing out subway entrances that they could go through. Several of them thanked me, and called me a hero. The majority of them didn't even seem bothered by my appearance. Strange, that I was so concerned with it for so long.

I felt a presence behind me and summoned a pair of discs, killing a Chitauri soldier and I swung around. I stole his weapon, shooting the other Chitauri in the area. Steve ran over to the three of us, taking out as many aliens as he could along the way.

Thor landed with a loud boom near us, stumbling slightly. He looked at the damage for a moment, before he turned to me.

"Forgive me Lady (Y/n), but Loki might be too far gone to save."

"I don't believe that," I grumbled, "You don't give up on family."

From behind us, a motorcycle was nearing the area. I turned around, laughing joyously when I saw Bruce Banner sitting upon it. Bruce stopped it, kicked out the kickstand, and walked towards us.

"So, this all seems horrible," Banner said casually.

"I've seen worse," Nat shrugged.

"Sorry."

"No, it's fine. We could use a little worse right now."

"Stark, we got him."

"Tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you."

Stark came around the corner of a skyscraper, the giant worm following him. I lifted up the staff I was holding towards it. Bruce sighed, beginning a slow walk towards the creature.

"Now would be an amazing time for you to get angry," I said breathlessly.

"That's my secret, Princess. I'm always angry."

Bruce's body began to shift and transform as he became the Hulk. He punched the creature straight in the nose. The force was so great that his tail lifted up and began to fall towards us. I ducked behind Steve's shield as Tony shot a few small rockets at the creature.

"Thanks Steve," I smiled, putting a hand on his wrist, "This is a formidable weapon."

"It's something," Steve agreed, flushed under the mask.

Steve and I joined the others in a circle as we looked around for more Chitauri. Even more of the worm creatures and plain footsoldiers flew into New York from the portal.

"Until we can close that portal our priority is containment," Steve took charge, giving out orders, "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 your turn it to ash."

Tony and Clint took off.

"Thor, you've gotta try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You've got the lightning. Light the bastards up. (Y/n), make your way to Loki, you said something is off, find out what and take out anything you can on the way there. Stay safe," Steve's eyes were full of concern. I knew he didn't want to lose the one person he could identify with in this modern age, "Nat, you and I stay on the ground. Hulk...Smash."

I twirled the staff in my hands, separating from Steve and Nat to go back to the tower. As I got closer and closer, I encountered several Chitauri soldiers. Instead of drawing out a pointless battle, I simply shot them with their own weaponry before I moved on.

One such soldier snuck up behind me while I was distracted. He wrapped his arm around my neck and threw me into a car. I let out a wheeze, groaning. When I reached out for the Chitauri weapon I had been carrying he kicked it away.

"You little wurn," I cursed, rolling away as the soldier shot at me.

I jumped up, grabbing the gun in his hands and pushing it up so it hit the alien in his face. I then kicked his stomach and grabbed a piece of shrapnel nearby. The sharp piece of metal cut my hands slightly, but I didn't drop it. I swung it down on the Chitauri, taking the chance to grab their gun and shoot them.

"I could really use the Cloak of Levitation right now," I stared up at the tower, "Experimentation will have to do."

I ran to the edge of the highway I was on, throwing my hands down. A shield appeared below my feet, moving me upwards. But, I couldn't hold it long, and it soon disappeared. That left me flying through the air with no plan.

"Tony!" I screamed.

"On it."

As I was nearing the ground Tony grabbed my arms. He flew me towards the tower and dropped me near the roof. I somersaulted as to not injure my ankles. When I had settled a bit, I looked at the intimidating machine in front of me.

"Hulk is handling Loki, take out the portal (Y/n)," Steve changed my original orders.

"I'm there right now," I noticed Doctor Selvig on the ground nearby, "How do I stop this?"

"Loki's scepter may be able to close the portal, and I'm looking right at it."

I joined Dr Selvig at the edge of the roof, on the terrace below us, Loki's scepter was shining in the sunlight.

I estimated the distance, before jumping down. When I neared the floor, I threw my hands down, forming a shield. It flickered, but caught me before I could hurt myself all the same. I gripped the scepter tightly and realized I wouldn't be able to get back up by jumping, my shields were too unreliable and Tony was likely occupied.

"Elevator, okay," I ran inside, barely registering Loki's pained form before I entered the elevator.

"Can you take me to the roof please?" I requested politely.

"Of course Ms Altovar."

"You know who I am?" I questioned, jerking my arm out to grab the bar when the elevator began to move. I was still getting over my initial fear of the machine. I winced when I saw the purple blood I left. My hands were still bleeding from my encounter earlier.

"Mr Stark registered your name and voice while all of you were on the helicarrier," the AI explained.

"Oh, well, thank you," I stepped out when the doors opened.

"My pleasure."

I held the scepter up for Doctor Selvig to see. He was already working on the machine so we could shut it down. Selvig nodded to me and I pushed the tip of the scepter through the field. I paused, pressing the com in my ear.

"I can shut the portal down! Can everyone hear me?"

"Do it!"

"No don't!" Tony yelled back, "I got a nuke coming in, it's gonna blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it."

I soon realized what Tony meant, "Tony your body wasn't made to survive space, you can't do that!"

I didn't get a verbal answer. Instead, I saw Tony's red and gold armor fly past me, a nuke on top of him. One of the things I had learnt about was the bomb set down upon Hiroshima, I knew the damage nukes could cause, and it would do nothing to stop the Chitauri.

Tony disappeared through the portal. I waited anxiously for him to come back out. Around thirty seconds passed, and there was nothing. My fingers tightened around the cool metal handle of the scepter, my blood making my grip falter.

"Close it."

I pushed the scepter into the core, shutting the machine and portal down completely. As the view of space became nonexistent, there was a flash. I dropped the scepter, running to the edge of the roof. Tony was free falling towards the ground, and he didn't show any sign of slowing down.

"Nersh, Stark," I waved my hand, trying to conjure up some spell that would slow his deadly fall.

Sure enough, a shield appeared below his body, but I couldn't even carry myself on a shield, so when the purple light shattered I wasn't surprised. The Hulk jumped from the building he was purchased on, grabbing Tony midair and landing on the ground, most likely breaking the concrete.

"Is he breathing?" I asked through the com in panic, "Steve is he alive?"

I got frustrated with Tony at times, that was obvious, but he tried his best to right his wrongs and be a hero, and I understood that.

ROAR

"He's awake, Hulk woke him up," Steve reported, sounding relieved as well.

"Hey Princess," Tony's snarky voice came through the com, "Have you had shawarma yet? It's an Earth delicacy."

"No Stark, I haven't, we have other things to deal with."

"Right...But shawarma after, right?"

~*~

I walked across the street towards the other avengers, gladly showing off my true self. There were times, when I felt the stares, and wanted to shift into my human form again, but I held off. I had saved New York, and I was a princess, people could stare. That wasn't to say I didn't have a journey to self-acceptance ahead of me, but I felt like I was halfway there.

Loki was to be tried for his crimes, but the likelihood of Odin executing him was low. The favoritism was obvious, but Odin had raised Loki, and Frigga wouldn't let him. She had more power of the King of the Nine Realms than any other being.

The Tesseract was put into a container and handed to Thor, it would be taken back to Asgard and guarded properly, where no one would be able to misuse it again. Thor held out the Tesseract for Loki to grab a hold of, and the god hesitantly did so.

"Your word would help at Loki's trial," Thor turned to me, "It would be wonderful to have you return to Asgard."

"Thanks Thor," I looked at the group around me, "But I came to Earth to stay." I hugged Thor tightly and turned to Loki. I slapped him, then kissed his cheek, "No matter what has happened, you're my best friend. I hope all goes well for both of you."

"And you (Y/n)," Thor smiled.

"Stay out of trouble alright? I'm not always going to be able to save you two."

Both of them rolled their eyes but nodded all the same. They twisted the handles over the Tesseract, and they were off.

I winced, looking down at my hands. When I had slapped Loki one of my cuts had reopened. A bit of purple blood was splotching on my white bandages. I knew the cuts would likely scar, the amount I used my hands after cutting them assured that, but I was fine with it. I had a few scars from past battles, but nothing that would show normally. Each scar was a mark that I was more than a princess who would stay on her planet and out of conflict.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. I took it out, also putting a com in my ear.

Meeting starting, go ahead and listen in

Nick usually let me listen in on meetings like this, it was a show of trust. He did it at the beginning to show me that he wouldn't be making secret deals to send me to experimentation or anything. Now, it was a normal thing.

"Where are the Avengers?"

"I'm not currently tracking their whereabouts. I'd say they've earned a leave of absence."

"I'll see you guys later," I gave Nat and Clint hugs, "Clint, I'll be sure to find a present for Lila's birthday."

"Laura would love to see you again, good luck, now that you're out in the open or anything."

"You'll do great," Nat nudged Clint, "And having Cap by your side must be great."

"Yes, we trust each other," I smiled, "Goodbye."

"And the Tesseract?"

"The Tesseract is where it belongs, out of our reach. Miss Altovar makes a fair point when she says things not of this world shouldn't be experimented on."

I walked with Steve towards his Harley bike. Both of us would be taking it to a Quinjet that would take us back to D.C. Somehow, we lived quite near each other. As he started it up I wrapped my arms around his middle.

"Yes, what are you going to do with Agent Altovar? Surely someone with her abilities, and now her armada and status, wouldn't be left unsupervised."

My arms tensed around Steve. He sent me a look over his shoulder. I smiled reassuringly, and he looked back at the road.

"Agent Altovar has proven time and time again that she is here to protect and fight for us. She deserves the same rights the rest of us have."

"That's not your call. With both the Tesseract and Ms Altovar."

"Maybe you should call her Princess from now on," I smiled at Fury's snarkiness, "And I didn't make that call. I just didn't argue with the people that did."

"How are your hands?" Steve asked over the sounds of traffic and wind.

"Healing," I assured, "A small price to pay for New York's safety."

"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."

"And how does it work now? They've gone their separate ways, some pretty far. We get into a situation like this again, what happens?"

"So what do we do now?" Steve asked, "It feels silly to not acknowledge each other when we live in the same city."

"You teach me about your time, your planet, and I'll teach you about mine."

"They'll come back."

"How can you be so sure?"

Steve chuckled at my offer, but accepted all the same. I grinned, my cheeks flushing a dark violet. I leaned forwards a bit more, tightening my hold.

"Because we'll need them to."