Chapter 7

Loops remaining 10/20

So there was a problem with the whole 'Save Captain America' issue.

Surviving past 10:48 had become the norm the last couple of loops. Even killing the Chitauri was like a piece of cake. He had taken more unnecessary time one particular loop to get in some more revenge but when he had decided to move on to the objective, things didn't exactly go as he had intended.

Ash kicked the dead Chitauri on the nuts and walked towards the Chitauri glider, weapon in hand. The last three loops had been enough for him to understand the controls, so turning it on was not harder than controlling it. If Black widow could do it, then he could. Besides, his dad was a huge motorcycle guy. Or at least he had been...

There was a sort of slot that he could place the weapon in to stop it from falling off as he flew on the glider. Ash looked at the broken glass, knowing that the building he was on, was a block behind where the real action was taking place. His glider wouldn't really stand out too much to the Avengers due to the large number of Chitauri that they were trying to box in.

The Chitauri however could recognize when someone wasn't one of their own. Ash was going to use that to his advantage. He pulled on the control mechanism and the glider rose up, utilizing gravity repelling technology to hold itself aloft. Then Ash stepped on what passed for the pedal, and zoomed out of the building.

For a few short seconds, he felt free. His trajectory was aimed for the next building over where he could see more Chitauri soldiers scouring the floor for more humans. Ash did not correct his trajectory. He needed them to follow him. Why? He had a plan.

For the past two loops, everytime Ash got close to Captain America or any of the Avengers, the sorcerer that had been hiding up until then would always find a way to attack. They had killed Ash the second time he had pushed the Captain away and the third time he had tried to attack the general area where the sorcerer assassin was.

It made no sense! Why were there Nazi Sorcerers? Marvel was already crazy enough without including Nazi sorcerers. All that showed Ash that if he wanted to break through the loops, something had to change in the way he was approaching the situation.

The glider he was in was dangerously nearing the windows of the building before his sight. He made eye contact with the Chitauri inside as they started pointing their weapons at him.

At the last minute, Ash pulled up, shifting the direction of the glider so instead of crashing through the building, he started flying up along it's length. He could feel gravity acting on his back. His arms would have protested if this was before but Ash was noticing that his body was getting stronger the more he looped. It was almost worth it, if it wasn't for the risk of death hanging over his head.

Glass broke behind him as the Chitauri inside the building started racing after him in their own two manned gliders. Ash's heart hammered inside his chest. Oh, it was game on now.

He jerked to the left, speeding along the side of the Skyscraper, followed closely by the Chitauri in hot pursuit. A few loops around the buildings, not bothering to hide had the desired effect and behind him, he had managed to amass a high speed chase by over 10 gliders.

Blaster fire wheezed past him to land on the buildings or fizzle out in the distance. Ash had no idea how he was even evading. All he knew was that his senses similar to his weirdly growing strength, were working overtime to help him dodge the fire power.

(The Avengers)

"Cap, we have over 20 gliders coming in from your 6 o'clock. I'm too far out to make any good shots."

Hawkeye informed them through the comms in their ears. The archer was expertly moving across the rooftops, swinging between distance to find a good vantage point to take out most of the invading force.

"Stay on course, Hawkeye." Cap ordered before communicating again.

"Tony how far away are you to..."

"Sorry, more party crashers coming in from the left. Point break or the big guy can handle the rear charge."

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Iron man interrupted before Steve could complete his question.

"Very well."

Captain America made eye contact with Black Widow, who held up her venom shots.

"Can't really do anything to them with these."

Steve nodded. There wasn't time to waste, so he reached out to someone else.

"Thor..."

(Ash)

The glider buckled slightly as it sustained damage.

He took a risk and looked behind him. The sight would have sent anyone's heart racing into an early stroke. Over 20 angry Chitauri gliders now. The aliens were steadily gaining on him though, all in his calculations. Looking up the clouds were getting rowdy. Anytime now. He slowed down just as reached the end of the block.

More blaster fire passed by his body,

Then he punched it. His glider immediately shot off, clearing the street faster than he had gone before. He could feel the hairs on his body stand up as he cleared the immediate danger zone. His glider buckled even more heavily than before.

Just as he had escaped, the groups of Chitauri that had been after him saw Armageddon fall onto their heads and the buildings around the block. Over 5 skyscrapers came toppling down as a hundred plus Chitauri were drowned in thousands of lightning streaks coming from above.

The sound was deafening, arriving only after the deed had been done.

Ash safely made it out of the affected zone and looked on in shock at the wide damage. Then he turned his eyes to the sky in awe. Thor Odinson, god of thunder. God or not, how could any being have access to so much power?

It made Ash feel weak and helpless. Like no matter what he tried, there was probably nothing he could do to save himself. No. Ash looked at his dust and blood covered hand. There was something he could do. He could think, plan, strategize and take advantage of the curse of the loops to save himself.

Looking at the facts, Ash had already done that. He had died the past few loops trying to protect Captain America but while they were failures, they enabled him to find out the Nazi Sorcerer's relative location, which was one of the buildings destroyed by Thor's attack. That had been why he had decided to grab the attention of so many Chitauri.

Ash knew that Iron man or any of the others would notice the strange pursuit and deal with the Chitauri packed so close to each other in one fell swoop. So he decided to fly around in circles, waiting with his senses on high alert for when the attack came.

The second Ash had seen the clouds in the sky combine into a massive nimbus and felt the hair on his body rise up, he'd slowed down to give the Chitauri a sense that their prey was giving up and then booked it at the last minute, making it out of the blast radius.

That was all his mind.

The dust cloud was settling down now and Ash thought he saw a flash of yellow down on the debris of the wrecked buildings. He launched his glider towards the flash of golden yellow light as his heart rate sped up.

The Sorcerer was not escaping! One thing to keep in mind when fighting magicians...get close and personal. Ash yelled as he aimed the glider for where he had last seen the flash of light, grabbed the blaster and jumped off at the last minute. The glider exploded a second later.

He rolled on the uneven ground, his ribs striking upon a chunk of concrete and cracking painfully. The pain was incredible but not debilitating. Ash ground his teeth as he peaked out of the debris he hunkered behind.

His eyes widened when the concrete piece was shaved off by a tao mandala construct right where his head had been. He awkwardly rolled away, escaping the next attack which happened to be a spear. The yellow construct lance bit into the ground with sparks before fading away, leaving a deep hole.

Ash realized he couldn't put weight on his left leg due to a dislocated ankle, so he brought the Chitauri weapon to his front while crouching. The weapon was kicked out of his hands before he could shoot and Ash found himself kneeling before a familiar face with construct daggers aimed for his neck.

The figure was breathing a bit heavily and had scuff marks all over his body. He was wearing a dark cloak over ripped gray robes and had two rings on his fingers. One of the rings, Ash recognized as a sling ring, the other was unique. It had a swastika on it's head and glowed an occasional blue everytime his hand shifted. The construct daggers seemed to be connected by a thin blue string to the ring.

"A kid?"

Kaecilious recoiled in shock. The boy staring back at him, hiding his fear couldn't have been more than 17. What the hell was a child doing here? There was a hum in the air announcing the approach of Iron man.

"Why are you trying to kill Captain America?"

Ash asked, his voice steady. The boy knew! How?

"Who are you!?"

Kaecilious' face grew cold as he pushed the dagger in his hands at the skin of Ash's neck.

The boy gulped, keeping quiet.

"No matter." Kaecilious stated, waving his hand and causing space to shatter. The mirror dimension. Ash tried to escape, but the ground before him gave out. Up became down. Down became up.

Manhattan was folded into a pretzel before him in complex shapes as the world adhered to it's master. He looked around and saw the debris from the broken and destroyed buildings rise up to reform the buildings whole again. His back landed on the ground, in the middle of the intersection. All the streets on his cardinal directions were deserted, giving the whole area a grim air to it.

Ash knew it was game over. There was no way he was going to leave this place without Kaecilious allowing it. His heart hammered loudly inside his ribcage as Kaecilious hovered above him, the construct daggers changing into a long sharp saber.

"Now, you're going to tell me everything you know. How did you find out about my mission?! Who are you working for?!"

He probably deserved the back hand slap he got when he answered the last question with a well timed,

"Your momma."