TONY HAD ARRIVED FIRST. He assessed the damage as they flew closer.

"Stark, we're on your three, headed northeast," Natasha said through her earpiece.

"What did you stop for drive-through?" Tony asked sarcastically, "Swing up Park. I'm gonna lay 'em out for you."

Natasha deployed ammunition as the aliens came down the road in front of them, following Tony. They turned the jet around to Stark towers seeing Loki and Thor fighting.

"Nat."

"I see him," she replied.

Loki fired at the jet and an engine caught on fire going down. Lana held on to her seat as they crashed into a square almost hitting a building. She quickly unbuckled and opened the door to let them out. They ran onto the road.

"We gotta get back up there," Steve declared.

The sky rumbled and they stopped looking up. A large giant alien slug-like thing came out of the sky roaring as it passed them. It seemed to eject smaller aliens and they jumped onto and into buildings, "Stark you seeing this?"

"Seeing. Still working on believing," Tony replied.

"Great now there are alien slugs," Lana muttered.

"Where's Banner has he shown up yet?" Tony asked.

"Banner?"

"Just keep me posted."

Natasha, Lana and Clint were behind a car when Steve ran up to them crouching down, "We've got civilians trapped up there," Clint nodded over to the buildings behind them.

"They're fish in a barrel down there," Steve said looking over the car. Something shot at them, and Natasha and Lana got up shooting at them.

"We got this, Steve, go," Lana told him.

"Do you think you can hold them off?" he asked Clint.

"Captain, it'd be my genuine pleasure." He got up and shot at an alien. The arrow seemed to let off other explosives that took down the ones next to it.

Steve left and Lana got up shooting with Natasha. Clint escorted some people in a bus to a safe place as they did this. He came over to them, "Just like Budapest all over again," Natasha conceded.

"You and I remember Budapest very differently," Clint exclaimed.

"What happened in Budapest?" Lana asked.

"Don't worry about it," Natasha replied.

The aliens came at them and Lana took one's weapon and shot them with it. Just as one came to shoot her, Steve jumped down and hit it with his shield. The rest were electrocuted as Thor came down.

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

"The power surrounding the Cube is impenetrable."

"Thor's right. We gotta deal with these guys," Tony spoke over the comms.

"How do we do this?" Lana asked.

"As a team," Steve replied.

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

"Yeah? Well get in line," Clint said as he screwed arrowheads onto arrows.

"Save it. 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 going to need us to..." Steve was interrupted as a motorcycle pulled up.

They walked over to Bruce, "So this all seems horrible," he said.

"I've seen worse," Natasha commented.

"Sorry."

"No, we could use a little worse."

"Stark we got him," Lana spoke.

"Banner?"

"Just like you said," Steve replied.

"Tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you," Tony answered. He came around the bend with the large alien on his tail.

"I don't see how that's a party," Natasha shook her head. Bruce walked forward.

"Dr Banner. Now might really be a got time for you to get angry," Steve cautioned.

"That's my secret, Captain. I'm always angry," he turned into the Hulk punching the alien. He slid back cracking the ground and the alien started to flip over.

"Hold on," Tony shot an explosive at it and Steve covered Lana as it exploded. They got up and stood back to back as the aliens screeched.

"Guys," Lana got their attention.

"Call it Captain."

"All right, listen up. Until we can close that portal, our priority is containment. Barton, I want you on that roof. Eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark you got the perimeter. Anything that gets more than three blocks out you turn it back or you turn it to ash." Steve ordered.

"Can you give me a lift?" Clint asked.

"Right. Better clench up Legolas," Tony replied and he took the two off into the air.

"Thor you gotta try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You got the lightning. Light the bastards up," Steve told him. Thor swung his hammer making Lana's hair flair up.

"You and me we stay here on the ground We keep the fighting here. Lana, go up to Stark towers and shoot them from there. And Hulk... Smash," Hulk smiled and Lana went over to him.

"Okay, buddy. You're giving me a ride. And if you drop me I swear I'll find a way to kill you." Lana got up onto his back and he launched himself into the air smashing aliens on the way. He jumped across the buildings to Stark towers where he allowed Lana to get down, "Thanks."

Lana sat on the roof and shot at the aliens coming by as lightning crackled, going to the portal above her head. The aliens blew up as debris rained down onto the streets. She fired shots at the remaining ones. Something exploded above her head and Loki fell next to her.

She pointed her guns at him as he groaned. He looked up and chuckled.

"Those won't kill me."

"But it will hurt," Lana replied. He took the sceptre off the ground and walked toward her.

"You mortals think you could beat me, but yet you lack the manpower to do so."

"So what do you want us to do? Give up? You came to our planet, brought your alien slugs and are now destroying it. Do you really think we would just let you rule?"

"Don't you see miss Romanoff? I am the saviour of this planet. And I will rule. Your team won't have to worry about me when they're trying to fight you," Loki pointed the sceptre at her chest. Her eyes tinged orange before she collapsed to the ground.

➵

When Lana finally awoke Steve was standing over her looking worried.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"I feel fine. Great actually," He helped her off the ground, "What happened."

"We won. You've been passed out for like an hour. We tried reaching you on comms but we thought they might have gotten damaged," they walked into the building where S.H.E.I.L.D. officials were taking Loki away.

"Hey wait," she stopped them. She walked in front of Loki and punched him in the face breaking his nose, "That's for knocking me out." she walked over to the couch and laid down.

"Hey," Natasha came up to her, "We're going for shawarma. Let's go."

➵

The next day they were on a bridge as Loki and Thor were going to leave. Natasha whispered something to Clint and Lana making them smile. Thor walked up to Loki holding the Tesseract in a case. Loki put his hand on the other side and Thor twisted it making them evaporate in blue. Everyone said goodbye to each other and Natasha, Clint and Lana got into a S.H.I. E.LD. car and drove off.