"You really should have let me take a look at it when I offered," Lex's gripped on Tony tightened as one of the trusters began to sputter again. She already took one fall out of the sky that day, she didn't need another.
"Oh stop complaining. I could have just left you in Jersey." Tony retorted as they flew over New York.
"Ha you wish. You couldn't leave me behind even if you tried," She knew she was right. He couldn't leave her behind and she couldn't leave him.
"Unfortunately…"
"I'd be carful how you finish that sentence, Stark," He chuckled at her response.
"Unfortunately, I'd be lost without you." She was glad Tony couldn't see her face currently as heat began to rise to her cheeks. Was she blushing? No way in hell. Lex Barton does not blush.
"Nice save." She felt his arm around her waist tighten as they approached the Stark Tower.
"Sir, I've turned off the arc reactor, but the device is already self-sustaining." Jarvis informed them. Tony came to a stop just off the rooftop where the Tesseract was located. Lex was in one arm and he had the other free.
"Shut it down, Dr. Selvig," Lex demanded. She had met the doctor once before. Just once. But from that one meeting she knew he was a good man. Maybe he could over power Loki's control on him.
"It's too late!" He yelled back in response. "She can't stop now," He turned to look at the Tesseract in a hypnotized fascination. "She wants to show us something! A new universe."
"Okay." Tony lifted his hand to blast the Tesseract.
"Tony, don't!" Lex warned, but it was too late. As the blast neared the Tesseract it was deflected by some sort of forcefield. Dr. Selvig was thrown to the side like a rage doll and the blast came right back at Tony and Lex, sending them flying backwards. Tony for a spilt second lost his grip on Lex and she nearly slipped out of his grasp. He caught her at the last moment.
"You almost fucking dropped me!" Lex clung to Tony once he had his metal incased arms back around her.
"No I didn't-"
"Anthony Stark!"
"Sorry."
"The barrier is pure energy. Its unbreachable." Jarvis chimed in.
"Yeah, I think we got that." Lex knew that before Tony even took a go at it.
"Plan B." Lex looked at him confusedly. She followed focus and found Loki at the other end of it. Tony began to lower onto his landing pad. She knew exactly what he was thinking.
"Tony, the Mark 7 isn't ready to be worked yet." They had just finished it before they left for S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters. Sure, it could function and preform, but they hadn't tested it fully.
"Skip the spinning rims. We're on the clock." Tony spoke directly to Jarvis, ignoring Lex's comment about the Mark 7.
Once Tony's feet hit the ground he released Lex and she quickly move out of the way as Tony began to be stripped of his suit. She walked a few steps behind him and off to the side. She readied an arrow as she watched Tony and Loki have a stare off. As she walked into the loft behind Tony, Loki spoke. "Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity."
"Actually, I'm planning on threatening you."
"You should have left your armor on for that."
Yeah, but I have her so…" Tony looked over at Lex who had an arrow aimed straight at Loki. "Would you like drink?" Tony asked as he approached his in house bar. Lex bypassed the bar, moving in front of it and off to the right side. She didn't want to be directly in front of Tony, but she wanted to be close enough so if things went south she could jump in as quick as possible.
"Stalling won't change anything." Lex listened to Loki as he spoke. His accent was charming, something she didn't notice too much of before. He held himself up tall and it was easy to see that he was over confident. It reminded her somewhat of Tony.
"No, no. Threatening," Tony picked a communication device off the counter and tossed it to Lex. Since her's was long gone in the ocean she would need it. She caught it gracefully and inserted it into her ear. She immediately went back up into a defensive position, aiming her bow once agin at Loki. "Relax, Lex." As much as she would rather not, she did as Tony said and lowered her bow, but still keeping the arrow ready. "No drink? You sure? Lex you want one?" She shook her head, keeping her eyes on Loki. She made the mistake of taking her eyes off her target once already that day and it didn't end well. "I'm having one."
Loki walked over to the glass wall. He looked over all of New York City. "The Chitauri are coming. Nothing will change that," Loki turned to face them. "What have I to fear?"
"The Avengers," Lex stated bluntly. Loki took interest as he walked slightly closer.
"At least that's what we call ourselves," Tony said as he poured a glass of scotch. "We're sorta like a team. Earth's 'mightiest heroes'- type thing."
"Yes, I've met them," Loki looked over at Lex and then back to Tony.
Tony chuckled. "Yeah. Its takes us a while to get any traction-"
"Quite a while." Lex chimed in.
"But lets do a head count, here. Your brother, the demigod," Loki physically cringed at the mention of his brother. Lex didn't understand how Loki could feel like that about his brother. She couldn't imagine being that way with Clint. "A super solider, a living legion," Tony took hold of one of the two silver bracelet like devices on the counter and put it on his wrist. "Who kind of lives up to the legend. A man with breathtaking anger-management issues, a couple of master assassins," Tony glanced over at Lex who was staring hole through Loki. Tony slipped the other bracelet on. "and you, big fella, have managed to piss off every single one of them."
"That was the plan."
"You come up with some pretty stupid plans then," Loki locked eyes with Lex as she spoke.
"Yeah, not a great plan," Tony agreed. Loki shifted his attention back to Tony. "When they come," Tony started. He walked out from behind the bar and closer to Lex on her left side, drink in hand
"And they will come," Lex added. Tony didn't mind because her comments always flowed with his.
"They'll come for you," Tony finished.
"I have an army."
Lex scoffed. "We have a hulk." Tony smirked.
"I thought the beast had wandered off." Loki said, bring up the fact that he had succeed in his plan on the airship.
"You're missing the point. There is no throne. There is no version of this where you come out on top," Tony stepped closer to Loki as did Lex. "Maybe your army comes and maybe it's to much for us, but its all on you," Tony paused. "Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it." Tony took a sip from his drink as Loki stepped closer. Lex raised her bow just the slightest bit. Her main objective right now was to protect Tony.
"How will your friends have time for me when they're so busy fighting you?" Loki raised his staff to Tony's chest, but before he could make contact, Lex raised her bow with unbelievable speed and went to take a shot at Loki, but Loki was faster. He shot Lex with a blast of energy that sent her through the glass and down the side of Stark Tower. Tony stiffened. He didn't know what to do. She would survive, right? She survived the last one. He knew no matter what he did he couldn't save her and that broke his heart. He focused on trying to remained unfazed and faced Loki.
This time, Loki connected his staff with Tony's chest or what he thought to be. The staff made a ding sound as it made contact with the arc reactor. Nothing happened. Loki looked confused and tried it once more. Ding. Still nothing. "This usually works."
"Well, performance issues isn't not uncommon. One out of five…" Tony's air supply was cut off as Loki wrapped his hand around his throat. Loki threw Tony to the side. "Jarvis, anytime now," Tony said as he tried to recover. As Tony got to his feet, Loki grabbed him by the throat once again.
"You will all fall before me," Loki growled seconds before he launched Tony out of the very same window Lex had gone through.
"Deploy…Deploy!" Tony yelped as he went through the opening in the glass wall and began to free fall. At first he tumbled towards the ground awkwardly, but eventually steadied himself. As the ground grew closer and closer red beams connected to his brackets. Seconds later he was being enveloped in his Mark 7 Iron Man suit.
As Lex broke through the glass wall, she felt all the air leave her body, the wind getting knocked out of her. She reacted just as she did when she fell off the carrier. She quickly rotated her quiver so she was presented with an arrow that had a grappling hook at the tip. Hopefully this one was more successful than the last. She shot the arrow, it thankfully latching onto a balcony. Lex swung through yet another glass wall of Stark Tower and tumbled through the broken glass. She felt a searing pain in her abdomen along with the stinging of small newly acquired cuts on her arms as she sat up . Lifting up her shirt revealed that she had popped the stitches of one of the bullet holes. "Great. Just Great."
Lex's head snapped to the right as she saw Tony free fall past the open hole in the glass. A gold and red colored pod flew after him at twice the speed. The Mark 7. Seconds later she heard Tony through her new earpiece. "Lex? You okay?" She could hear the panic in his voice.
"I'm good. I just really need to stop doing that…"
"Doing what? Falling off sky scrapers and aircraft carriers?" She saw Tony shoot up past her in his suit back up to the top floor.
"I'm gonna head down to the street," Lex informed him, ignoring his comment. Lex found the nearest staircase — which didn't take long because she knew this building like the back of her hand — and took the stairs down two at a time. By the time she reached to the lobby the Chintauri had began to swarm from a hole in the sky created by the Tesseract. Tony was taking them on by himself. The Chitauri swept the streets of New York as they bypassed him, taking out cars and creating craters in the middle of streets. It was like one of those scene you only ever see in the movies.
Unlike every other civialian on the street, Lex ran from cover and headed to the center of the road. She watched as the 'K' fell from the Stark Tower. Tony flew over her as did the Chintauri on his tail. She took aim at one that was gaining on him. It dropped out of the sky, but was soon replaced by another one. She didn't see how they would make it out of this one. They, as Fury had put it earlier, were hilariously out gunned and out numbered.
"Stark, we're on your three, headed northeast," Both Tony and Lex heard Natasha's voice sound through the communication line.
"What? Did you stop for drive-through?" Tony barked. He wasn't trying to be rude, not at all. Everyone else would take it that way, but Lex knew otherwise. She knew he was scared, terrified. Tony always knew what he was dealing with at all times. He was comfortable with that and that was how he liked it. The unknown was probably his greatest fear. "Swing up Park. I'm gonna lay 'em out for you."
Lex didn't know what to do. She didn't know where to go or where to stand. She knew her arrows would make very little difference against the growing alien army. She made her way to Park avenue on foot, sprinting all the way there. Once she got there she saw the quinjet take out most of the Chitauri that Tony had baited there. One still remained in the air, but Lex took it out quickly.
"Sir, we have more incoming." Jarvis informed Tony.
"Fine, then lets keep 'em occupied."
The jet then disappeared from Lex's sight and so did Tony and the Chitauri that continued to tail him.
Clint looked over at Natasha briefly as they approached Stark Tower. "Nat?"
"I see him," She said in reference to Loki. With that Clint turned the quinjet and open fired on Loki. Unfortunately, Loki was unfazed and shot a beam from his scepter straight at the jet, taking out its left wing. Clint tried to keep control over the jet, but the odds just weren't working in his favor. Steve clung to a pole on the ceiling, trying his best not to be battered around the rapidly decending jet. They crashed and tumbled into building after building. Clint tried to keep it in the air as long as he could, just so he could find a safe place to land…er crash. He found a spacious concret area with little to no people near or around it. They probably didn't wanted be out in the open so they had run for cover. The three braced themselves for the the touch down.
"Lex, the jet is down. It landed about 3 blocks west from where you are. Romanoff, Rogers and your brother were in it." Tony informed her and her only.
"I'm on in," Lex, once again, took off running. Her wounds burned, but she didn't care. There were more important things at hand than her wellbeing. Not only were Steve and Natasha in the quinjet, but also Clint. He was back to himself if he was with them. He was her brother again. Not Loki's lackey that tried to kill her. She could see the smoke from the jet bled in with the destruction around it. She was just a block away when she saw the cargo door slowly open. Half a block away now. She saw Steve jog out and then came Natasha and last, but certainly not least came Clint. Once she saw him, a grin spread across her face from ear to ear. Her speed picked up and so did the pain in her side.
"Clint!"