Chapter 16: Voices in Your Head

TW: War, Violence, Slight gore?

Nervous. Anxious. Absolutely petrified. None of those even came close to describing to how stressed Katrina was about what was going to happen. This time they were going to find Loki and end this once and for all, no matter what.

Natasha had helped Kat clean off the last of the blood before going to suit up, leaving the girl to do the same.

There really wasn't much for Kat to do seeing as the only suit that she had was the one she wore which was already stained with blood, but that didn't stop her from wiping as much blood as she could away and checking that she had her other weapons, and that they were loaded and at the ready. But a sudden knock on her door caused her to stop in her tracks.

"Hart." Fury simply greeted as he leaned on the doorframe.

"Director Fury." Kat replied, snapping up and at attention before him.

"At ease." He commanded, his gaze softening as much as his constant stoic expression could, "I have something for you."

He then pulled out a bundle from behind him, and as he held it out to her, she got a better look at it. It was a new suit, folded up in a neat little pile. "Seeing as your suit is in rough condition, I thought you could use an upgrade."

She honestly couldn't agree less. There were so many holes and rips from burns and slices from all of the previous days along with the blood that currently stained the material, it wasn't in any condition for the battle that they were headed into.

She blinked before taking it out of his calloused hands, "Thank you, sir."

"Coulson designed that for you specifically. He was adamant on being involved." Fury blurted out, making her look at him in awe. "Oh, and these were in his locker with the trading cards, thought you might want them."

His hands then pull a couple folded pieces of paper out of one of his many pockets and held them out to her. Still in a bit of shock, she stepped forward after a brief pause and let him place them in her hand before stepping back and leaving the room silently, but not before glancing back at her. "One last thing...Happy birthday, Hart."

Stunned, she couldn't even say a thank you to him. She had completely forgotten her own birthday and what felt like how to speak. Katrina was officially thirteen and about to take on one of the strongest forces that the world had ever faced.

With gentle fingers she unfolded them to find they were pictures. The pictures that Coulson had planned to give to her of the secret birthday parties and the times where her face was almost entirely covered in ice cream despite how she promised she eat it 'carefully'. It was all the memories of Coulson and her that had dimmed in her mind. The ones she took for granted and she hated herself for it. The ones that she had forgotten about over the years and were replaced by her training.

She regretted not thanking the man that was basically her father for taking the time to make her life what it was and giving her everything she could've asked for. She regretted not saying a true goodbye to him. And finally, she regretted not calling him what he truly was to her.

Dad.

Carefully, she unzipped her suit a few inches, pulling out Phil's trading card from inside. Gently, she swiped the dried blood from the corner. This time, she didn't cry, not even a single tear. She simply stood up a bit straighter, pulling her shoulders back. Looking in the small mirror, she felt different. A good different.

Raising her chin up a bit higher, she placed the card on her cot and undressed, slipping the new suit on. This suit wasn't entirely different from her first, but on this one, there was no mask. The sleeves were a bit longer, reaching down to just above her elbows, but she couldn't help but notice how it almost looked like a mixture of Natasha and Clint's uniforms. Before fully zipping it up, she tucked the card back into suit, this time in the pocket over her heart. She then placed the pictures in her journal for safe keeping, savoring one last look at them before zipping the suit up to her up to her chin.

~

Kat walked beside Steve with Clint and Natasha following right behind them as they approached one of the quinjets. But before they made it inside, the young girl heard someone call her name.

"Kat!"

Glancing over, she saw that it was Tony, fully equipped in his famous gold and red armor with his helmet off. Leaving the others to go and get the jet ready, she jogged over to him wondering what this was about.

"I have something for you." He said, holding something in his hands. Seeing her confused expression, he held out his hand revealing two black metal wristlets.

"What are these?" She asked as he placed them into the palm of her hand.

"Special project for you. I meant to give them to you earlier, but I didn't get the chance." He nodded, "Put them on."

She blinked, slipping them over her hands and the fingerless gloves of her suit onto her wrists. "What do they do?"

"They're your own personal source of energy. From the tests that I saw, your body should absorb it subconsciously, meaning that you'll have an unlimited supply during battle. It'll provide energy as fast as you use it."

"Thank you, Tony." She smiled, "But, may I ask how you saw my tests?"

"No, you may not." Tony blurted, before placing his helmet back on and taking off.

Kat chuckled, shaking her head before sprinting back to the jet as the hatch began to shut.

~

"Sir, I turned off the arc reactor. The device is already self-sustaining." Jarvis informed Tony as he flew towards his own tower. A large metal machine sat at the very top, the Tesseract mounted within it.

"Shut it down, Dr. Selvig." Tony demanded, hovering above the tower's roof.

"It's too late! She can't stop now." Doctor Selvig shook his head, "She wants to show us something. A new universe."

"Okay."

The Doctor was then flung across the roof by a blast from Tony's repulsors, knocking himself out as he landed harshly. Stark fired again, directly at the device's barrier, but it simply bounced off, a wave of energy colliding with his chest.

"The barrier is pure energy. It's unbreachable." Jarvis stated.

Tony sighed, "Yeah, I got that." He gazed over the edge, spotting Loki on the balcony of his own penthouse.

"Should I contact Agent Hart? Perhaps she could help." The AI suggested.

"I will, in a bit, but I'm beat."

"Sir, the Mark Seven is not ready for deployment."

"Then skip the spinning rims, we're on the clock." The billionaire demanded, landing on the roof, and strolling over to the door as the armor deconstructed. The two glared at each other, never breaking eye contact as they entered into the room.

"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity." Loki playfully begged.

"Uhm, actually, I'm planning to threaten you."

The god scoffed, "You should have left your armor on for that."

"Yeah, it's seen a bit of mileage. You've got the uh—blue stick of destiny." Tony joked, approaching the bar at the opposite side of the room of Loki. "Would you like a drink?"

"Stalling me won't change anything."

"No, no, no—threatening," Tony corrected, before pouring himself a drink. "No drink? You sure? I'm having one."

"The Chitauri are coming, nothing will change that. What have I to fear?" Loki questioned.

Tony looked up to stare the god in the eye, "The Avengers." He stated blatantly, "It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' type of thing."

"Yes, I've met them."

"Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one." Stark started, grasping one of the wristlets from bar counter and snapping them onto his wrists while Loki's back was turned. "But let's do a head count here. Your brother, the Demi-God. A super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend. A man with breath-taking anger management issues, a couple of master assassins; and you, big fella', you've managed to piss off every single one of them." He counted off, "Oh! And we can't forget the kid who is just about as powerful as that almighty rubix cube upstairs who is now ready to blow your head off. Nice job!"

Loki smirked, shrugging as Tony approached him, "That was the plan."

"Not a great plan." He pointed out, "When they come, and they will, they'll come for you."

"I have an army."

"We have a Hulk."

Loki's head tilted to the side, "Oh, I thought the beast had wandered off."

"Yeah- you're missing the point. There's no throne, there is no version of this, where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damned well sure we'll avenge it."

A mischievous expression crossed Loki's face, stepping towards the billionaire, "How will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?" The tip of Loki's scepter meets Tony's chest, at least, that's what Loki thought until a soft 'clink' could be heard. Nothing happened. No ice blue wisps trailing up veins and turning eyes the same hue, creating another mindless soldier, leaving Loki incredibly confused. "This usually works."

"Well, performance issues. You know?" Tony teased before he was cut off by Loki grabbing him by the throat and throwing him across the room. "Jarvis, anytime now." He whispered, "Jarvis. Deploy."

All of sudden, Tony was flying through the air, crashing through the glass windows, and hurtling rapidly toward the cement streets below. "Deploy!"

A second later, the Mark Seven suit appeared above him, the lasers graphing out his limbs before piecing itself together around him. The thrusters fired just in time before he hit the ground, soaring back up to face Loki at the broken window. "And there's one other person you pissed off! His name is Phil."

Tony raised his hand, blasting Loki flat on his back. Though, the small victory was short lived as the device on the roof turned on shooting an ice blue beam into the sky, opening a large portal. Even from miles below the Chitauri army could be seen, lying in wait to attack and destroy their city and possibly their world.

Tony's eyes widened, "Right. Army."

~

Kat watched, frozen in shock by what she could see through windshield past Clint and Natasha as they piloted the quinjet. Dozens of alien soldiers, the Chitauri, flew down through the massive portal in the sky. Her mouth hung open, blinking rapidly at the sight that she wished she had never seen, but it was too late now. Now, it was game time.

She could see Tony flying through the sky ahead of them, swerving through the buildings and skyscrapers of New York City as multiple Chitauri soldiers trail behind him. Perfect targets for the jet's weapon's system.

A few soldiers had already been picked off by either the jet or Tony, but their aim was ruined when a large explosion shook the jet. Red lights flashed as alarms sounded. One of the engines was destroyed.

Steve, Clint, Natasha, and Katrina all hung on for their lives. Luckily, Clint and Natasha were fully buckled in, though Steve and Katrina were not. Steve clung to one the handles on the roof of the jet with one hand while wrapping a secure arm around Kat's waist to keep her from flying about.

Realizing that they would be in for a rough landing, Kat quickly created a force field, just large enough to surround the four of them, shielding them from the debris and some of the impact.

Soon, Nat and Clint had been able to just graze some of the buildings instead of crashing straight into them and landed in the middle of the street. Noticing the multi-hued, transparent wall around them, they all turned their gazes to the girl as she finally let it dissipate.

Steve gently placed her on the ground with a grateful smile, "Thanks, kid."

He ruffled her hair slightly as Clint and Nat sent her nods of thanks.

"You know, Cap, you can call me Kat." She said, noticing the nickname. She could tell he didn't know if they were at that point seeing as they had barely spoken before that moment. But, to her, that didn't matter, they were on the same team, and though they didn't know each other well, they would eventually.

"Alright, Kat. You can call me Steve."

"Alright...Steve."

As they all stepped out into the chaos that once was one of the many streets of New York City, Steve looked up to the roof of Start Tower and the portal. "We've got to get back up there."

Kat quickly took one glance at the portal and could see not only the troops that had already made their way through, but the hundreds of others that waited to replace them.

It was as if she was hit by a ton of bricks. This was so much more than her imagination could come up with, but at the same time, she hadn't expected less. With a threat of this size, you couldn't afford to expect less. Over-prepare rather than under-prepare, but that still didn't stop her heart from skipping a beat. This was terrifying even for an adult; she was only thirteen. It could be argued that kids think their invincible, but Katrina wasn't a normal kid in the slightest. She had been reminded over and over again throughout the years and even in the past few days that that wasn't the case. Maybe the ignorance would've been bliss, but it was too late for that.

"Stark, are you seeing this?" The Captain asked over the radio as they all jogged onto an overpass below the Tower. Another massive Leviathan flew through the portal carrying more of the Chitauri.

The aliens leapt onto the sides of the skyscrapers, clinging to the concrete, and shooting down at people that scrambled for cover below.

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

That question made Katrina's heart sink. She was hoping that someone had eyes on Banner and worried that he was hurt or worse. All she could do was pray that he was okay.

It didn't matter to her if the big, green guy came out. All she wanted to know was that he was alright. That Bruce was okay, especially after the talk in the lab. She knew he felt like a freak, even among the some of the freakiest people to walk the Earth, but she wanted him to know that he was the one she cared about. Though it would help if the big guy would show up to help.

Steve's brow furrowed, "Banner?"

"Just keep me posted."

And with that Tony flew off after one of the Leviathans leaving the four of them on the street to come up with a plan. One minute it had been calm and then there were soldiers everywhere.

Taking cover behind a dust-covered taxi, Clint pointed out Loki and other warriors flying around and terrorizing people below the overpass. "We've got civilians trapped."

"Loki." Steve grunted, noticing the god amongst the troops as explosions sounded off. "They're fish in a barrel down there."

"We got this. It's good. Go!" Natasha nodded to the super-soldier, gesturing for him to go and help.

"You think you can hold them off?" He wondered, looking to Clint and Katrina.

"Captain, it would be our genuine pleasure." Clint responded looking to the younger girl who nodded in agreement, letting his bow snap out into its full form and notching an arrow.

"Hells yeah." She muttered smiling almost in excitement in effort to hide the fear, flicking her hands out, her powers at the ready.

He nodded, darted over the edge of the overpass, landing on the roof of a bus, and rolling onto the street. The three left over stuck as close together as they could, but still ended up a good distance away from the others.

Clint notched arrow after arrow, hitting his target every time. Meanwhile, Natasha pulled out her pistols and fired at every soldier she could, taking out the majority of them.

Kat had multiple of the soldiers around her, but she was able to hold them back far enough to remain in control. She expertly punched and kicked, using her powers to give her the extra strength. When she saw the opportunity, she started to let orbs of energy form, sending them rapid fire at the warriors, taking multiple down for the count.

Just keep going. That's all she could do as more and more kept coming.

She saw Clint go to one of the buses that had gotten stuck on the street, all of the passengers still inside, though as he helped them, she heard the faint sound of a child screaming from somewhere on the street.

Then she managed to catch a glimpse of movement from inside the window of a black sedan. Darting over, she could see a white man somewhere in his fifties in a black suit and tie huddled in the back of the car with a child in his arms. She could see a young Indian boy who couldn't have been more than nine or ten engulfed safely in the man's arms as they cowered away from one of the windows that one of the Chitauri was about to blast through.

"Oh no you don't." Kat muttered, sprinting at the scene. in the middle of the street with the soldier on the far side. Kat leapt up onto the hood and the roof of the car, sweeping her legs around and wrapping them around the things neck. The force was enough to knock the alien back, allowing her use to momentum to flip and take it down. Once it hit the ground, she sent an orb at its head. With the new levels of power that she could get from the wristlets Tony gave her grouped with the close proximity, the soldier was dead, half of its skull shattered.

Getting back to her feet, she stepped up to door, pulling on the handle but quickly realized it was locked. She laid her hand flat on the door, letting another surge flow through her and into the car, short circuiting the locking mechanism, letting it come unlocked.

Yanking the door open, she ushered them out, but the younger boy wouldn't move.

"Come on, it'll be okay!" She spoke in a surprisingly steady voice, but he only shook his head in protest. "Hey, look at me!" She shouted over the commotion, holding her empty hands up so he could see that she wasn't a threat. "I'm going to keep you safe, I promise! Trust me, please! I can protect you... you just have to trust me."

Hesitating for a moment, he abruptly jumped forward and allowed her to push them in front of her to keep them in her sights. Her honey eyes scoured their surroundings for somewhere they could hide.

Noticing a café a few buildings down with people inside, she urged them on, pointing it out to them. But, of course, before she could get the two there safely, a small group of Chitauri warriors ran out from an alley in front of them.

Katrina hastily put herself between them, shielding them as much as possible with her small frame.

"Stay behind me." She muttered to them, "It's going to be okay, just stay behind me."

And just to herself, she whispered, "Let's do this."

Though, she still felt her mind protest. Would she be able to do this?

"Go be the hero I know you are... the world needs you."

The sentence echoed through her brain in a familiar voice.

And just like that, she felt her fear wash away and she stood up straighter letting her hands brightly, flicker to life.

After all this time, she finally realized that the more confidence she had and the more she believed in herself, the more powerful she became. It was like a mental block that she didn't even realize she had come crashing down and she was more alive than ever before. Loki was right about one thing, she did have a lot of power in her, but he was wrong about another. He was wrong that she was going to let it go to waste.

Instead of rushing them, she waited for them to lunge, screeching at her, and one by one she attacked. She flipped and dodged every bullet with a new energy, yelling for the two civilians to run for cover. She kept her back to them and her eyes on the soldiers before her, sending blasts at two of them, sending them flying backwards.

Suddenly, an arm wrapped around her neck putting her in a headlock. Katrina pulled and scratched at the arm, but quickly noticed the guns aimed at the two civilians and used one arm to form a shield in front of the two and the other to form a sort of hold on the aliens, holding them back.

She formed a breathless and strangled scream, "Go!"

Once they were inside, she released everything and locked her fingers onto the head of the thing holding her and let bolts of energy like lightning into it. The thing was dead even before it hit the ground.

Again, she whipped her arms out, letting her mind lock on the other four that had previously tried to attack the two she swore to protect making them freeze and struggle to move. Her right hand held them steady and the other made a move, causing their guns to be yanked out of their hands.

They all looked shocked for a moment before ripping their knives out of their belts and lunging for her.

Without a single thought, her body took over, knowing exactly what to do. Her hands curled into fists, and she could feel a tidal wave of power travel down her arms, forming into razor sharp, dagger-like extensions of her arms.

One by one, they fell at her feet. She looked down shocked at her fists, in awe of the daggers, having not known that she could do anything like that. It was felt so familiar, like instinct. Perhaps there was more of a mental block than she originally thought.

Looking over to the café one more time, she could see the man and the boy inside amongst the others inside the doors. They all applauded for her, smiling at her, but the only thing that she saw was the boy waving at her. Their eyes met, and she smiled at him. Sending nod and a two-finger salute his way, he saw and did the same back to her.

With a little skip, she turned and was off, running back down the street and into the chaos of battle.

AN: Hi Everyone, I hope you enjoy the longer chapter. I didn't even realize it was this long when I first wrote it, but the chapters from here on out are closer to think length if my memory serves. There's only about four chapters left, and they are my absolute favorite. I am in the process of writing the next book and hopefully I will be able to finish it this summer. There still might be a break once this book is finished and the next one is posted, but I am about halfway through Age of Ultron at the moment. The next book is getting written must faster than this one did, it's just that school and finals week is a bit hectic. So, once the semester is over after next week, I will be back on track.

Also, let me know if I should go back and put in other trigger warnings in previous chapters, just in case. I completely forgot in the process of posting everything. But, if that's something you all would like me to do, I will do so. Though, in this book, nothing happens that is more extreme than anything that was in the movie in my opinion. Still, I want everyone to feel comfortable reading it, so I am totally open to doing so.

Finally, there is actually a little easter egg in this chapter that will come into play a bit later on the series, but when you do find out, it is absolutely adorable. So, I can't wait until you all see, though it will take a while. Honestly, it doesn't come in until the second to last book of the series. 

Anyways, hope you enjoyed reading this chapter. If you have any feedback or just want to talk Marvel, feel free to comment! Love you all!

-Mo