The Quinjet approaches Stark Tower, which has a new blue beam shooting up from it to a portal in the sky; what can only be the Chitauri army flies out of it, never-ending. They're large and gray, almost like robots. Kate stands behind Nat, Steve next to her, looking out.

"Stark, we're on your three, heading northeast," Nat says on comms.

"What, did you stop for drive-thru?" Tony replies.

"Gosh, we should have," Kate says. "I'm starving."

Tony ignores her. "Swing up Park, I'm gonna lay 'em out for you."

Clint does as asked, flying up the street, shooting at the flying Chitauri with the Quinjet's gun. He turns right to follow them, and they swoop up past Stark Tower, where two figures are on the platform outside, exchanging blows. Shakespeare in the Billionaire's Tower.

"Family reunion... nine o'clock? Nine o'clock," Kate says, pointing.

Nat snorts. "See 'em."

"Scientist, not a spy."

"Scientists don't know how to read clocks?" Clint comments. Kate rolls her eyes. The jet swings around to face Thor and Loki, shooting the latter.

Loki retaliates, shooting with the scepter. One of their wings is damaged, rocking the ship, and they start going down. Kate falls to the floor, then slides, hitting the back of the ship. "Goodness gracious great balls of fire!" she says, anticipating that bruise. Steve manages to hang on to one of the seats.

"That's a bit of an ironic phrase, isn't it?" he says.

"Focus on hanging on and not my sayings!" Kate shouts, now sliding to the side.

"Yeah, I don't see how that's gonna work!" he replies, sliding too. Kate's hands scramble for something to grab as the wing clips buildings on the way down. Moments later, they hit the ground with a jolt. It doesn't help with the previous injuries and bruises Kate's sustained in the last few days.

"Are we dead?" she asks as Steve gets to his feet and opens the back of the jet. "I'm okay with being dead." Nat and Clint hurry to follow him, but he pauses to help Kate up.

Once she's on her feet, he gives the answer she wasn't looking for. "Not yet. Until then, we have an army to stop."

She nods, squinting in the sunlight. "Yep. That. I'm mostly here to scorch Loki, but that works, too."

Outside is chaos, the concrete in rubble underneath the Quinjet, cars scattered, their alarms blaring. Chitauri fly through the sky. Steve looks to Stark Tower. "We gotta get back up there."

They run onto the bridge, looking up as civilians run in the other direction. But then a gigantic, robot-looking eel-like Chitauri monster exits the portal, emitting a noise not unlike a whole pod of whales. Steve stops first, then Nat, Clint, and Kate. Chitauri soldiers leap off the beast and slide down the surrounding buildings to the ground.

"Stark, are you seeing this?" Steve asks on comms.

"Seeing, still working on believing. Where's Banner, has he shown up yet?"

"Banner?"

"Just keep me posted."

"I think Hulk would be really appreciated right about now," Kate adds, though not on comms. Behind her, Nat and Clint are assessing the situation. When the Chitauri start firing, they duck behind an abandoned cab, and Kate and Steve quickly follow suit.

"We've got civilians trapped up here," Clint says. But as he says it, two streaks fly past on the Chitauri's gliders. One isn't a Chitauri solider.

"Loki," Kate says. As he flies down the street, he leaves destruction in his wake.

Steve watches, too. "They're fish in a barrel down there."

Soliders crash down near them, and Nat begins firing. Clint moves behind another cab. Nat looks at Steve. "We got this. It's good. Go."

"Who's we?" Kate asks, looking at the soldiers, how many of them there are, knowing she can't withstand their fire — because it's not fire. "Does that include me?"

"Depends on if Cap can go alone."

"I can. Do you think you can hold them off?" he asks.

Clint readies his bow. "Captain, it would be my genuine pleasure."

Kate looks to where Loki went, realizing it'll probably be worse over there than here anyhow. She turns to Steve. "If you see Loki, leave him alive. I've got a bone to pick."

"So do I," Clint adds. Steve nods, turning and jumping off the bridge. Kate, Clint, and Nat turn back to the Chitauri soldiers. Nat fires as Kate and Clint help people off a nearby bus, directing them to safety. Once Clint gets the doors open, Kate ushers them away, waiting until they're gone to make her hands burst into flame.

She lobs fireballs, positioning herself behind a car. Across from her, Nat and Clint fire from behind the cab.

"Just like Budapest all over again!" Nat shouts.

"You and I remember Budapest very differently!" Clint replies.

Kate chucks another fireball, watches the soldier run and set his buddies aflame, too. "At least this time we aren't blowing up buildings!" she adds, though she wasn't actually there, only heard about it.

"Don't count that out yet!"

The soldiers get closer and closer, and Kate eventually jumps over the hood of the car, shooting fire as she goes, kicking the nearest soldier before landing on her feet.

Nat's brows raise. "Where did that come from?"

"You."

"Oh, yeah."

Clint moves out from cover, fighting with his bow, and, when Kate glances over, Nat manages to steal one of the Chitauri's weapons and starts using it against them. Kate begins recalling hand-to-hand training, her hands a blur of orange as she fights and dodges. Arrows and blasts hit some of the soldiers before they can even get to her, flames hit some of Nat's and Clint's.

"Maybe I should've brought guns," Kate comments, throwing more fireballs. "I don't have the best aim and the ammo isn't infinite, but it's fatal much faster than this. And easier to shoot."

"What, you can't shoot fire?" Clint asks.

"Not that I know of."

"Then what exactly happened when you got angry in the lab?" Nat points out.

"That's a good question."

She ducks behind the car, remembers what it felt like, the heat streaming through her, down her arms, to her hands. A blast, not a ball of flame. The heat stirs within her, and she leans over, aiming at a Chitauri soldier. She shoots — direct hit, right to the face. The soldier falls back, roaring and trying to put out the flames. "Oh, this is much better for long distance. I wonder how far I can shoot it..."

The soldiers are still too close to test that, but Steve soon joins them again to thin out the crowd, landing in front of Clint. Three more soldiers approach, and Kate eyes their weapons, but before she can think about doing anything, they're all struck with lightning. Thor lands soon after.

"What's the story upstairs?" Steve asks.

"The power surrounding the Cube is impenetrable."

Kate presses her comm. "Tony, you got any ideas with the Cube?"

"Not a one; you can't get to it. And, anyway, we gotta deal with these guys."

"How do we do this?" Nat asks.

Steve turns to her. "As a team."

"I have unfinished business with Loki," Thor declares.

Clint retrieves his arrows. "Yeah? Get in line."

"I wanna burn him to a crisp," Kate adds.

"Save it," Steve says, turning around to face them all. "Loki's gonna keep this fight focused on us, and that's what we need. Without him, these things could run wild. We got Stark up top. He's gonna need us to-"

A motorcycle approaching cuts him off, and Kate looks around him to find Bruce heading their way. He stops and props the motorcycle against a car. They all walk over to meet him.

"So," he starts, "this all seems horrible."

Kate shrugs, the pain from Hulk's blow flaring up again. "I've seen worse."

He looks at her and Nat. "Sorry."

Nat shrugs. "We could use a little worse."

"Stark?" Steve says on comms. "We got him."

"Banner?"

Kate rolls her eyes. "No, Fury's evil twin — yes Banner!"

"Just like you said," Steve adds.

"Then tell him to suit up, and tell Anne of Green Gables to lose the sass. I'm bringing the party to you."

Kate scoffs. "I'm taking that as a compliment — the nickname, not the party."

Tony suddenly flies around a building, the giant robot eel following him, heading straight down the bridge. Nat stares in disbelief. "I... I don't even see how that's a party."

"Dr. Banner... now might be a really good time for you to get angry," Steve says.

Bruce looks ahead of them, walking towards the monster, then glances back at Steve. "That's my secret, Cap. I'm always angry." He immediately turns into the Hulk, punching the monster in its face before it can get any further, the force pushing Hulk back until he can stop himself, at which point the monster begins to flip over, its metal-like scales popping off.

"Hold on!" Tony shouts, still in the air.

Nat and Kate turn, ducking behind Steve and a car. Clint finds his own safety as the others brace themselves. The monster explodes above them before its back can hit the ground, thanks to Tony. He flies down as Hulk roars, Kate and the others forming a circle as they survey their enemies. There's still a lot of them.

Next to her Nat reloads. Kate lights her hands again, getting into fighting stance. Around her, her team — her whole team — readies, too, and for that moment she actually believes that they can win this.

Until two more eel robot monsters and a bunch more Chitauri fly out of the portal. She extinguishes again.

"Guys," Nat warns.

"Call it, Captain," Tony says.

Steve nods. "Alright, listen up. Until we can close that portal, our priority is containment. Barton, I want you on that roof-" he points "-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."

Clint turns to Tony. "Can you give me a lift?"

"Right. Better clench up, Legolas." Tony grabs Clint and takes off.

Steve continues. "Thor, you've gotta try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You got the lightning, light 'em up." He swings his hammer, then flies off. Steve looks at Nat and Kate. "The three of us, we stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here. And Hulk." Hulk turns, ready for the order. "Smash."

Hulk smiles before going to do as asked, jumping from building to building, creating millions of dollars in damage. But he takes out Chitauri while he does it.

Kate's hands warm, looking at the approaching enemy. Above them, the clouds turn dark, lightning cracks. It shoots from the top of the Empire State Building to the eel robot monsters trying to get to Earth.

Kate blasts at soldiers, taking them down. Nat shoots, Steve throws. Adrenaline takes over, the aches and pains of the last few days now a memory as the training kicks in again. Loki sits in the back of Kate's mind, and the anger fuels her fighting. The Chitauri hardly stand a chance.

Clint's voice is in her ear. "Stark, you got a lot of strays sniffing your tail."

"I'm just trying to keep them off the streets."

"Well, they can't bank worth nothing. Find a tight corner."

"I will roger that." There's a pause, then, "Nice call. What else you got?"

"Well, Thor's taking on a squadron down on 6th."

Tony sounds betrayed. "And he didn't invite me."

Kate chuckles as she continues fighting, only one more Chitauri coming her way. She blasts fire at it, knocking it back, but it still aims its weapon at her and fires. She dodges, opting to tuck and roll forward, taking out its legs. It goes over her, and she turns, pressing her flaming hand to the back of its neck, then slamming its head into the ground. Breathing hard, she turns and finds Nat, holding another Chitauri weapon in front of Steve.

"Captain, none of this is gonna mean a thing if we don't close that portal," Nat says.

"Our biggest guns couldn't touch it."

"Well, maybe it's not about guns."

Kate and Steve look at her, the latter voicing the main problem with what Nat is clearly thinking. "You wanna get up there, you're gonna need a ride."

She looks up, and Kate follows her gaze as she says, "I got a ride." She walks to the center of the bridge, throwing the weapon down. "I could use a boost though."

A passing glider — that still has a Chitauri in it.

"Are you sure about this?" Steve asks, backing up anyway, readying the shield.

"Yeah. It's gonna be fun."

Kate snorts. "I think you and I have very different definitions of fun."

Nat runs at Steve and kicks off of the car next to him, jumping onto the shield, milliseconds before Steve throws her up. She grabs onto the glider, and Steve stares after her. "Wow."

Kate nods. "Yeah, she's pretty wow."

A Chitauri solider cuts off their admiration, forcing them to fight again. Kate repeats her techniques, as they've worked pretty well so far. Steve fights next to her, then Tony flies in. When he lands, he blasts the shield, and Steve turns it, hitting three Chitauri soldiers with the same beam. Tony flies off after.

"Is there anything that thing doesn't block?!" Kate asks.

"Not that I've found!"

They continue fighting, taking down one Chitauri after the other. One manages to hit Kate across the face as she's fighting three, and Steve tosses the shield her way, hitting the Chitauri before it goes to her. Surprised, she still manages to catch it, and she can barely believe it.

"Oh, my stars, I knew it would be light but this is insane. This is amazing. This is so awesome," she mutters to herself, looking at the thing in her hands. Captain America's shield! She's had dreams about holding this thing — and this is better than every one of them.

A Chitauri shooting at her brings her back to the present, forcing her to shield herself. She darts forward, hitting the soldier with the shield, first head-on, then swinging it sideways, cutting with the edge. She blasts fire with her left hand, still taking out the two in front of her.

Then, Steve shouts, "Kate, gonna need that back!" She turns, finding him on the ground, holding back a Chitauri with one of their weapons. She throws the shield at it, hitting it in the head and knocking it off Steve, who gets up. "Thanks."

He grabs the shield as Clint comes in over comms. "Captain, the bank on 42nd past Madison. They've cornered a lot of civilians in there."

"We're on it," Steve replies, jogging off.

"We?" Kate asks. He doesn't reply, continuing on and forcing her to follow. "Cool. My second solo mission with Captain America."