"I can't believe you actually let him go off by himself Steve." Miriam scolded the blonde super soldier as they both were onboard one of quintjets. Her arms were on each hip and although the man was significantly taller then her Steve still flinched back at the sharp tone in her voice. Miriam didn't like this, Steve didn't know her too well to know that she wouldn't dare hurt any of her friends just yet so she relaxed and dropped an arm, reigning in her anger.

Clint and Nat were in the cockpit, maneuvering it in the direction of where the battle would take place. Although they continue to mutter small pieces of information to one another their ears were trained to listen to every piece of the conversation behind them because Miriam had been in a mood and if there was one thing to know about her it was she didn't get bothered by much.

"It's not like Tony would have listened," Steve responded, raising a brow at her concerned nature. This was more then typical worry though, he could see how the wheels in her head were turning and it had taken everything in her not to speed off before them. She had the chance, but had been coaxed into sticking with them. Steve was slightly thankful because Tony and her together were like loose cannons and he couldn't very well deal with that thousands of miles away.

"That's not the point," she mutters back, tucking her hand into one of the holsters as to not fall over as the balance in the jet was off every few moments when turbulence hit them at full force. "Tony is human, yes, he's smarter then all of us probably but that doesn't mean that Loki won't kick him right off a roof. Tony is the least capable of us to take him on right now, he's vulnerable. As much as that man would rather get teeth pulled then admit that, he is."

"Ignore her Cap, she's just mad Tony conned her into staying back and she didn't see through it!" Nat yelled back, barely turning her head to give a reassuring nod towards the super soldier. Her mind was otherwise occupied in steering the jet as they cruised over never ending water yet she still wanted to keep Steve from feeling guilty.

"With all due respect, I don't think that's the issue here." He answered, the wrinkles around his eyes grew deeper. It'd taken him a lot longer then it would have taken Natasha but since he'd been there to see both of them with this same expression he knew exactly what it was now. His mind kept altering between the present and moments before tony had disappeared on the helicarrier, how he had been muttering something about the brunette and then going entirely too silent. "Miriam, if you had told Tony how you felt about him maybe he—"

"WHAT?" Everyone else in the jet yelled out, a silence took over then, all eyes flickering between the blonde and raven haired soldiers.

"I don't—"

"That makes so much sense, why didn't I see that coming!"

"I picked a great time to let you beat me back to the conscious Nat, I was definitely not going to miss this."

"Steve!" Miriam stomped her foot, gaining the super soldiers sole attention who had previously been glancing between them all as he tried to process what everyone was saying. Her mouth had gone dry, throat practically closing shut the longer his words hung in the air and stuck to her like truth serum slowly compelling her to use. "You think I like Tony?"

"Well like isn't exactly the word I would use but yes, if that's what you call falling for someone in this generation." He answered quickly, attempting not to stutter as her smoldering look grew with the second. He had pissed her off, her eyebrows were creasing together and her breathing was shorter then usual.

"Like is the right word, she definitely likes Tony Stark." Nat nodded her head.

"That is the last thing that I expected to happen and we are expecting aliens soon." Clint commented, turning his attention back to flying in hopes Miriam would not catch his grin or the wiggle of his brows he'd given his copilot.

"I honestly thought you, yourself knew Miriam." Steve said under his breath, regretting ever speaking. He dipped his head, noting how she'd stopped being angry and now was somewhere between confusion and deep concentration. "I'm sorry."

Miriam stayed silent, coming to terms with what he'd just said. It had once been a ridiculous thought. Her and Tony Stark? The least likely to ever get together and yet here the rest of her team was finding out before she ever could, and to be confronted with it by Steve of all people, not that was certainly a wake up call. She swallowed thickly and patted his arm, "its fine Steve. Nobody talks about this okay, not until I speak with Tony." She said the last few words loud enough for the two in the cockpit to hear who nodded their heads.

"For what it's worth," Steve whispered, leaning in closer. "He likes you too, that's why he went without telling you anything."

Miriam pursed her lips, attempting not to let a smile cross her lips and instead she decided it was time to change the subject. "Where are we headed?"

"New York," Clint answered, tapping a few wires. "We'll be there shortly so hold on everyone."

"I always hated New York and now I'll get to destroy it, there's gotta be some cosmic joke there." She responded, licking her lips and holding on tighter to the holster as Steve stepped closer towards her. Through the rough air she started to make her way towards the front of the jet, getting a better view of the incoming city and where a blue beam was shot straight into the air.

"What—" Steve drifted off as the group stared in awe of what was happening. The beam had opened up what seemed to be a portal and now many of what Loki had referred to as Chitauri came pouring out, an army ready to take the world.

"I'd like to go back to the jungle now if possible." Miriam muttered, already feeling the adrenaline preparing to course her body and take on the dangerous option of the fight or flight mode.

"Stark, we're on your three, headed northeast." Nat tapped the microphone in her headset, calling out to the Iron Man who seemed to be far ahead of them.

"What? Did you stop for drive-through?" Tony's voice came through and Miriam blew out air, shoulders relaxing to the point Steve stared at her with a raised brow as if asking if she was still in denial of her feelings for the billionaire. She pressed her lips together in a thin line and continued to listen as Tony directed. "Swing up Park. I'm going to lay them out for you."

They pass through narrow streets, below them masses of people running for their lives and through the broken windows of the skyscrapers Miriam can just see busy workers rushing for the exits. Just as they come through the end of the street Natasha pulls a lever unloading a machine gun from below the jet. Tony flies by, being used as bait for the Chitauri who are in hot pursuit until they are blown away by the bullets unloaded in their way.

They are soon shot at and the jet shutters with amount of blasts it is being thrown but Nat and Clint are relentless and blow away more as they fly up Stark Tower and towards the blue beam of light. They only stop when they come across Loki and Thor fighting in Tony's suite, the blonde man on the ground while his adoptive brother threatens to give the final blow. Almost immediately they start to fire at the frost giant who turns in time to aim his scepter and throws his own energy shot, giving the jet its final blow.

The blast hits one of the wings and they start falling right out of the sky. Miriam and Steve fall back towards the holsters, stumbling over their own two feet as the jet begins to twirl. The brunette clings onto the holster with her life, feeling Steve right behind her as they both smack into one another. Steve wraps an arm around Miriam's waist when they hit the ground, throwing his body over hers when they crash.

The duo groan simultaneously, Steve using the sides of the jet to stand and then outstretched a hand towards the brunette. "Miriam, are you okay?"

"Surprisingly, yes," She answered and hoisted herself up with his help, the back of the jet opened and they pushed out into the rubble.

"We gotta get back up there!" Steve yelled, running into clear view of stark tower.

They ran out, into the open air where they could see the portal still open. Hundreds of the Chitauri army continue to pour out into New York City while more civilians run for their lives past the group and as if it could be enough something roars heavily from the hole in the sky. A dark shadow blooms and appears as it lowers itself.

"Holy—" Miriam mutters in awe as it comes out.

A Chitauri Leviathan comes down, flowing through the air and carrying what appears to be hundreds more of its own, the monsters crashes without a care through the building of the city and passes over the heroes head.

"Stark, are you seeing this?" Steve questions the Iron Man.

"I'm seeing, still working on believing." He answers, continuing to fly above the air. "Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?"

"Banner?" Miriam questions, having almost completely forgotten of the one missing in their group.

"Just keep me posted." Tony muttered after a pause.

Crashes and shots come far too close to the group and without a word they run off towards the covers of abandoned taxi's and a bus full of panicked civilians.

Clint is the first to notice this, among the chaos he yells, "guys! Those civilians are dead if we leave them."

"Go, we will cover you!" Nat answers back, earning a nod from Miriam who knows immediately what to do. The Chitauri begin to rampage through the streets, some now walking their way and others still blasting their own bullets from their flying contraptions.

"Those people are fish in a barrel down there!" Steve yells out to the screaming mass of cops and families trapped on the street below them.

"We got this! Go!" Nat yells out, shooting bullets to the aliens she managed to find.

Miriam nods, powering up as her hands filled with maximum amount of smoke she could muster. The anger that leveled out seem to add an extra amount of fuel she hadn't seen in years, tiny beads of lightning falling through the clouds she lunged at the monsters. The went down with a loud scream of pain, holes in where their chests used to be. "We'll cover you Cap!"

Steve turns towards Clint one last time, "You think you can hold them off?"

"Captain. It would be my genuine pleasure." Clint responded, firing up his bows and beginning to shoot off alongside his fellow agents.

Miriam doesn't hesitate, taking down the hardest of targets who seem to be too close to the civilians. With loud growls she fires them out, feeling her body come alive with the powers of Santa Muerte. It'd been a long time since she had to use this much power to take anything down but it all seems to come back to her like riding a bicycle and she continues to clear the way for Captain America who makes it towards the group of policemen awaiting assistance.

"Just like Budapest all over again!" Natasha yells over the commotion towards her friends and for a moment she seems to be actually enjoying herself.

"You and I remember Budapest very differently." Clint eyes her oddly for a split second.

"Can we please not compare Budapest to this! I would rather it ended differently this time!" Miriam shouted in.

A swarm of Chitauri drop over the trio and they have no choice but to start fighting hand to hand. Miriam launches herself at the first of them, high kicking one directly into its friend from behind. With a loud scream her blackened palms slice through three heads who come close, chopping them off with ease. The next aims its energy gun and fires a shot but Miriam dissolves it with the power of her smoke and runs straight through it, surprising three of them long enough to punch one in the face and have it fall back into the nearest taxi while she trips the other two. She shoots smoke bombs into their chests and goes back to the first who has groggily stepped forward, Miriam uppercuts it once more, shoving her hand through its chest for one last victory.

Just as it seems that the group is too much and they are beginning to become overwhelmed Steve rushes in and bounces energy shots off his shield, Thor electrocuting a few to death as the group rushes together and gains a moment of peace. Miriam hunches over, leaning against one of the Taxi's.

Thor walks up to them slowly, holding his side as Miriam eyes him. "Thor, you good?"

"Nothing I can't handle." He grunts to her with confidence. "Are you tired already?"

"No," she shakes her head. A smile caresses her face as her body turns to him and she speaks with excitement. "I'm enjoying myself, I think a little too much. I don't know, but it feels like I was meant to do this. I belong in battle, my body is coming to life despite having the powers of death."

Thor stares at her for a second to long, stopping from speaking as he thinks over his words. He feels like he's heard them before, like something is coming together in his mind and Miriam saying those last words are dropping everything into place. He can't explain to himself much less to her as he continues to just stare her way but for that very split second Miriam feels something drop in the pit of her stomach, like Thor has uncovered something before she has and she fears what it might be.

"What's the story upstairs?" Captain America is oblivious to what happens between them, walking right up to them and breaking them out of their trance long enough to question.

Thor isn't bothered by the interruption as he gives the super soldier his answer and attention. "The powers surrounding the cube is impenetrable."

"Thor is right. We gotta deal with these guys." Tony speaks into their ear pieces, hearing every last bit of the conversation as he flies somewhere out of their site. 

"How do we do this" Nat steps into the circle.

"As a team." Steve states the obvious.

"I have unfinished business with Loki." Thor bitterly states, as if claiming Loki for his own.

"Yeah, get in line." Banner retorts, polishing the end of one of his arrows. 

"Save it." Steve stopped the argument from even commencing. "Loki's gonna keep this fights 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..."

Steve's voice drifts off as the inevitable sound of a moped's engine nearing made all their heads turn in the same direction where they found Bruce Banner slowly coming to a stop. Miriam cracked a smile at seeing the ever relaxed man approaching them. "So, this all seems horrible.

"I've seen worse." Nat sarcastically answers him.

"Sorry." He seems to understand just what she is referring to and his features soften.

"No. We could use a little worse." She states, implying the the Hulk was better then anything they were dealing with now.

"Stark? We got him." Steve states for the iron man to hear.

"Banner?"

"Just like you said."

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

With that final statement they all turn to find once more a Leviathan coming their way, in pursuit of Tony who is flying at full speed their way.

"Party?" Miriam scoffs as the giant monster grows closer.

"I... I don't see how that's a party..." Natasha states as well.

"Dr. Banner. Now might be a really good time for you to get angry." Steve speaks to the only man not ready for whats incoming.

Bruce is already fearlessly walking in the direction of the incoming beast, only slowing to turn his head and explain his actions to the group. "That's my secret, Captain. I'm always angry."

Without another word his body begins to evolve, clothes ripping off and skin splotching bright green as the Hulk takes over and rampages right into the monster just as Tony flies out of the way. His growl of domination is followed by a monstrous punch to the Leviathans nose that leaves the giant beast to smash into the black tar of the pavement and flip up into the air. The hulks fist is so strong pieces of the beasts armor begin to pop off, leaving exposed flesh.

"I got it." Tony says and releases missiles into the weak spots, skin exploding and fire coming over the group. Clint hides behind one of the Taxi's, Steve using his shield to block the fire from him and Natasha while Thor pulls a motionless Miriam near him and uses his long red cape to shield them both from harm.

When they come up and it seems clear Miriam pats the blonde Asgardian, "thanks blondie."

Thor nods his head, "it might be time for you to get some real armor."

"Soon, I think right now I'm gonna have to go without." She responded, seeing rips in her leggings and black top. There was no way she would be able to wear these clothes again.

"I can help with that." Tony flew down beside both of them, his suit thumping against the ground.

"You!" Miriam turned with a flare his way, her eyes narrowing. Her costs tightened, a storm of black smoke intensifying and spark of lightning clawing out of them that showed. "What was that you said? Don't be stupid and get yourself killed going out there? Did that only apply to me or were you hoping to be killed!"

"I picked the wrong spot to land didn't I," Tony attempted to joke and when Miriam only snarled at him he lifted his palms in surrender. "I did it for you? I'm selfish? Sorry?"

"Guys." Nat cut in, breaking apart the bickering duo.

Tony, who was relieved he didn't have to feel the wrath of Santa Muerte turned in the other direction towards the super soldier. "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 gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."

"Can you give me a lift?" Clint turned towards the Iron Man.

"Right. Better clench up, Legolas." Tony answered and lifted both of them out of the street with ease.

"Thor, you got to try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You got the lightning. Light the bastards up. Miriam, you can fly and that death storm might be of better use up there then down here."

Miriam and Thor nodded, the ground shaking underneath them as they picked up strength to shoot into the sky. Miriam felt the thin veins under her skin begin to blacken, harnessing more power for her to release. She turned towards the Asgardian and muttered, "try to keep up."

Both of them soared into the sky, Thor headed for the tip of the Empire State Building and concentrated all the power he could from lightning.

Miriam flew directly towards the mass of Chitauri, finding that all of them were shooting at her and missing drastically.

She flew around, dodging as many as possible and shooting her own bolts of smoke at the ones who got too close until they had her circled. There was no way out of this one, they were all ready to aim at her. With a Leviathan headed straight towards her she calmed her body, sensing the only option she wanted to go with.

"Miriam! What are you doing!" Tony yelled into the ear piece.

"Stay back." She muttered, dropping her open and discharging a smoke screen of Black Death in every direction. Those within a mile of her disintegrated into nothing, charring into ash with a single touch of her powers.

The Chitauri screamed in anger and pain before going.

She'd gotten rid of a few hundred with that single move and even so her body was not tired. Miriam dropped back into the streets, following behind Thor who was now tackling one of the roaming Leviathan with Hulk.

Miriam dropped to the ground, falling right into a pit full of them where Steve had just been shot with an energy blast into the abdomen. His fallen shield was picked up and bounced around the circling Chitauri, slicing through each of the bodies with the force she slung it at, and the remainder where blindsided with blasts of black smoke. When she was done Miriam looked down towards the super soldier and extended her hand. "Miss me Rogers?"

"Right now? Not so much." He sarcastically stated, laughing when he lifted into a hunched position. His eyes were bright, until he noticed a Chitauri right behind her, getting ready to stab her with the tip of his gun. "Miriam—"

The monster was shot away by a passing Tony, stopping it from even nearing the women. Miriam turned just as it dropped, long enough to see Tony fly by with a dozen Chitauri on his tale, still he had time to answer, "am I forgiven now?"

Miriam pursed her lips, lifting her hands and burning away the ones trailing him. "Actually, we're even now."

He flew out of distance just as Nat came through the earpiece. "I can close it. Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down."

"Do it!" Steve and Miriam shouted at the same time, Thor landing beside them with a determined expression on his face.

"No, wait." Tony hesitated.

"Stark, these things are still coming." Steve spoke just as more began to appear around all through of them.

"I got a nuke coming in.It's gonna blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it." He explained and by the sounds of his retreating thrusters he hadn't even bothered to ask them if it was okay.

Miriam couldn't look up, already becoming overwhelmed with the mob of Chitauri attacking them. She thrust a few smoke bombs at them and dodged behind a taxi, narrowly missing getting shot in the leg.

"Stark, you know that's a one-way trip." She heard Steve say through the ear piece.

"Save the rest for the turn, J." Was his only response.

Miriam concentrated and killing a few more monsters, stabbing them with broken pieces of glass left on the floor. She could feel Steve's eyes on her amongst the chaos, trying to detect a hint of her sadness or even distress but the girl simply bit her lip and kept on fighting because there wasn't she could right now, she was trained to follow through on what was best and right now that was saving the city from total destruction.

"Miriam..." Tony's voice spoke up into her ear piece, calling out her name softly despite the acceleration he was traveling.

"Tony," she breathed, kicking off one of the Chitauri long enough to give her a moment to look around. Steve nor Thor seemed to have heard the Iron Man, which could only mean he had disconnected from the rest of the team, leaving them two.

"Hey, how's it going?" He said brightly, attempting to detach from what was happening. The man knew very well his call should have been for Pepper and Jarvis had even suggested the red head but he'd hesitated because there was one person he desperately wanted to speak with.

She shot off a couple others away, dropping her arms long enough to concentrate on the conversation. Her lips lifted into a smile at his words, finding them amusing despite her chest aching. "Not well, you?"

"Well I've got a missile ready to go off so I've seen better days but I know where you should go on vacation after this, that's a bonus." He wittily replied.

Miriam decided to entertain him as he flew past her, forcing herself to stay grounded and not follow him. "Where?"

"You ever been to Sweden?"

"Not unless it's in the middle of the Amazons." She retorted, grunting out when another round of Chitauri appeared.

"Well it's not, it's actually freezing around this time. There's amazing snow lodges where you can just relax high into the mountains and even learn to ski, they have these places where you can enjoy a hot tub carved right into the sides of mountains. The Northern Lights are beautiful there as well. " Tony detailed and Miriam could only imagine what freezing temperatures where like against her bare skin.

She tried to keep her eyes on the deadly Chitauri but her mind continued to flash back to the though of being somewhere she could see her warm breath fama around her and even the northern lights.

"What are you trying to say?" She questioned, slightly breathless at the overwhelming sense to view all these things.

"Let's go, we can leave this behind us for awhile and see all of that. Get you into colder weather for a change and me into a less stressful situation... actually both of us on that last one. Say yes though, and quickly please. " He offered just as his ascent up was visible to her eyes.

Miriam pursed her lips, a million thoughts running through her mind but the most vital was the unbearable demand to agree. Still, she knew there was things in their personal lives that needed to change for it to be possible but she needed to give him hope. "Tony, if you get back down here without blowing yourself up we can discuss it. I promise."

He flew into the portal just as she finished speaking and shortly after their connection went dead. Miriam counted her breaths, both continuing the endless battle by disintegrating more Chitauri and flickering back to the portal in hopes that Iron Man would fall out in one piece. At some point during this the Chitauri all fell simultaneously, Leviathan crashing into parts of buildings as they too completely dropped dead which could only mean one thing, he had succeeded.

Miriam ran to a clear view of Stark Tower, bumping into Thor who steadied the brunette as she barely bothered to look away.

"Come on Tony," she whispered, even though both the Asgardian and super soldier heard her pleas.

"Close it." Steve regretfully ordered Natasha to do after a full minute of emptiness. Natasha didn't bother to respond, merely taking another moment in hopes and then proceeding to end it all once and for all.

Miriam did not cry out, or even drop to the ground. She only shattered from within as her hopes slowly diminished and she watched another person in her life dim away. Steve placed a hand on her shoulder, pressing his lips together as he watched her jaw tighten and eyes shut. He decided to respectfully look away and give her this moment, watching as the blue beam broke apart and the portal closed on itself. As the hole grew smaller something fell out, no someone.

Steve would have been speechless had it not been for the devastated brunette near him who he gently nudged, "Miriam! Look!" Tony was free falling through the sky at rapid speed, narrowly missing the closing of the portal as he made it back to earth. "Son of a gun."

As if to get a better look Miriam straggled forward and onto a boulder, gaining height. "He did it..."

Thor swing mjolnir around after a moment, noticing how the man remained motionless. "He's not slowing down."

Miriam was gonna beat the Asgardian to the punch and launch herself at full speed but Hulk had already beat both of them, just as Tony came barreling into the streets of New York the green giant threw himself off a building and plucked him out of the air. Secured in his chest they both fell onto the streets, dragging across them for almost an entire street until coming to a stop nearly in front of the trio.

Hulk pushed Tony off his chest, the Iron Man falling off on his side as Miriam fell to her knees and pushed him facing up. With urgency she pushed off his mask, revealing the bloody and motionless face.

"Is he breathing?" Steve questioned, dropping beside her.

"I don't hear anything, Steve help me get this thing off him. He needs CPR," she stated, desperately yanking at the sturdy armor.

Hulk, who'd only just stood up, let out a roar so loud it startled them all, including Tony who woke up with a large intake of breath. "What the hell? What just happened? Miriam please tell me they didn't kiss me."

"Oh my god, that was terrifying." Miriam leaned back, letting out a laugh and looking around the group to see everyone now relaxing and even smiling. Hulk even letting out a victory roar of approval.

"We won." Steve smiled in triumph, looking around the war zone.

"All right, yay! Hurray. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I want to try it." Tony cheerfully added, nudging Miriam before wincing at the amount of pain that radiated through his body.

"We're not finished yet." Thor added, motioning towards the Stark suite where Loki was unconscious.

"And then shawarma after?"

"Definitely," Miriam winked at him.

|•|•|•|•|

OH MY GOD I HATED WRITING THAT FINAL SCENE! FIGHT SCENES ARE SO HARD AND IM LOWKEY NOT IMPRESSED WITH MY WRITING BUT I LOVE THE SCENE BETWEEN MIRIAM AND TONY!

SO THERES JUST THE EPILOGUE WHICK WILL
HOPEFULLY BE POSTED WITHIN A DAY IF NOT LATER TONIGHT AND FINALLY WE WILL MOVE ONTO BOOK TWO!