They stood up from the ground, Athena's ankle was achy from the beam. Athena started to follow where Natasha was running. Natasha stopped and looked behind us and Athena followed her gaze. She saw a big green thing walking on the walkway. Athena's eyes widened when she saw the head of the thing turned towards them. Natasha grabbed Athena's hand and dragged her down the hall as the green thing chased after us.
They ran up some stairs and looked around. "Grab the pole," Natasha said and then jumped up and grabbed the pole and swung herself onto the other walkway. After Natasha was done, Athena did the same thing. Right as she did that the stairs under her crashed down to the floor.
Athena met Natasha at the other walkway. The thing was getting closer so Natasha jumped and grabbed Athena's hand. They landed on the lower level. The thing noticed and pushed one of the floors up, Natasha and Athena grabbed onto the poles overhead and swung into the cleaning ahead, and started running.
They hid behind a machine and breathed for a second, then they heard heavy footsteps coming their way. "Get your gun ready. We're going to shoot the pipes," Natasha said and Athena grabbed her gun and followed Natasha out. The green thing roared at them and they began shooting at the pipes. Puffs of air came out and hit him in the face, causing him to be disoriented.
They started running down a narrow walkway. They kept running and pushed to go faster when they heard things crashing. The thing was getting closer and the exit was getting closer. They got to the exit when the thing hit Athena with his hand. This sent Athena into one of the machines. All she felt was pain spreading through her back. She sat against the machine.
The thing got closer and closer to Athena then it was gone. There was another bang of metal breaking. Athena stood up and shakily walked over to where Natasha was sitting. She got up and walked over to Athena. "What happened?" Natasha asked.
"I don't know," Athena said holding the back of her head. "Barton, he took out our systems. He's headed for the detention level. Does anybody copy?" Fury asked over the earpiece.
Athena looked over at Natasha, who seemed pretty shaken up, but so was Athena. "This is Agent Romanoff, I copy," Natasha said and stood up. "I'm going with you," Athena said and followed Natasha. "You need to get your head checked," Natasha said.
"I can't if the carrier is under attack," Athena said and all she got was silence, they walked to the detention level.
Athena got there before Natasha and saw Clint walking down the walkway ahead of her. He turned around with his bow ready and Athena grabbed it and elbowed him and then let go. Natasha arrived and joined in on the fighting. Taking it surprisingly easy on him.
Natasha kicked him in the stomach and then stood up and grabbed onto a pole. She swung around right as Clint shot an arrow.
Athena was behind Clint and was slowly walking up to him. Athena was finally close enough to get a hit on him and kicked his back. Natasha took over again and started fighting him. Athena grabbed his bow and he let it go. Then, Athena hit him over the head with the bow and he fell to the ground unconscious.
Athena heard over the earpiece that Phil was injured. She ran as fast as she possibly could to Loki's cell. When she arrived, she ran over to where Fury and Phil were. Phil was sitting there, bleeding out.
"It's okay, boss. This was never gonna work if they didn't have something to..." Phil trailed off as he closed his eyes. "No. No," Athena said and Fury touched her shoulder. "I'm sorry, Athena. He's gone," Fury said.
—
Athena and the other Avengers were sitting around the table above the Bridge. "These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. I guess he never did get you to sign them," Fury said as he tossed the bloody cards in front of Steve. "We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, the location of the cube, Banner, Thor..." Fury said.
"I got nothing for you. I lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming. Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number, though, because I was playing something riskier. There was an idea, Stark knows this. It's called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea. In heroes," Fury said, then Tony stood up and walked away.
Athena didn't know what to think. She had so many things going through her head all at once. Having two concussions within not even a week of each other was definitely affecting her. Athena's head was pounding. To the point where she couldn't lift her head out of her hands.
"Are you alright?" Steve asked.
"As okay as I'll ever be, I guess," Athena replied, as she lifted her head and pretended to be fine. She stood from her chair and was about to walk when a wave of dizziness came over her. She leaned onto the table for support and sat there for a moment.
"Agent Brown, are you okay?" Fury asked.
"Yeah, all good, sir," Athena said and she walked out of the room.
—
Athena arrived at the hospital wing and sat down on the examining table. The doctor began to do some physical tests. Like checking pupil dilation with a light, recalling words said a few minutes prior, and things like that.
"Alright. Agent Brown, you have a grade 2 concussion and a sprained ankle. As of right now, I see no other injuries. If anything feels wrong or your head begins to hurt more even after a few days, please come back so we can monitor you," The doctor said.
"Okay, thank you," Athena said and she stood from the table and walked out of the room. Completely ignoring the pain her ankle was in.
Athena walked into her room and sat down. She started going through and studying old case files for one of her classes when a knock sounded on her door. "Come in," Athena said.
"It's time to go," Steve said and Athena looked at him with confusion. "Go where?" Athena asked.
"We figured out Loki's plan. We're leaving to make sure we can stay a few steps ahead of him," Steve said and Athena just stared at them for a moment before grabbing all of her things. "Let's get going then," Athena said as she walked out of the room.
—
Athena sat in the jet as they were flying and as she leaned back in her chair her vision went completely went. Her whole body froze. Then the image of a bird flying into the jet window appeared and then disappeared just as quickly.
"Watch out," Athena said.
"Watch out for what?" Clint asked and then a pigeon flew into the window. "That," Athena said, and then it clicked in Athena's brain what was happening. Maybe it was the concussion, but she should've put this together a long time ago. "Do you think it's possible for someone to see into the future?" Athena asked.
"It wouldn't be the weirdest thing we've experienced," Natasha said.
"Probably not likely, why?" Steve asked.
"Because I just did it. Obviously. And I had another one a couple of days ago," Athena said.
"What did you see?" Steve asked.
"It happened a couple of days ago, but there was a portal in the sky with some sort of metallic aliens coming out of it and New York was almost completely destroyed. I don't think this fight is going to end well," Athena said.
Edited: 5/25/23