Corrupted - The Tigris Series Book 1

Chapter Twenty Nine

July 23, 2012

Loki let out a slight hiss of pain as I pressed my knee firmly into his chest. "I-I'll be happy to answer your questions if you'll just- give me a minute." he rasped, gasping for air.

I raised a brow at him in annoyance. "Does it look like I have a minute?" I shot back, gesturing to the still-going-on war behind us.

He glanced towards the broken windows, then back up at me with an irritated expression. "If you would be so kind as to lift your knee off of my-"

I punched him across the face before he could finish his sentence, gritting my teeth. "I'm not doing a damn thing until you tell me how to close the portal. Clearly you have no trouble speaking, so I suggest you start saying something that'll stop me from tossing you out that window and back to the beast."

"Okay, okay!" he exclaimed, slightly raising his hands in surrender. "My original intent for the machine was for it to be indestructible. Selvig made it so my scepter would be the only thing powerful enough to-"

The second he had mentioned his scepter, I stood to my feet and made my way back towards the balcony without a word. Loki watched me with his brows furrowed in confusion.

A groan escaped his lips as he tried to make him sit up. "You didn't let me fin-"

"I didn't need to." I interrupted, stepping through the broken window to search for his scepter.

This balcony had been the one that Thor and Loki were fighting on during the beginning of the war. He didn't have the scepter in his hand while he had been flying around, so he must have dropped it somewhere on this balcony during the fight. I could hear the slight sound of it's power source towards my right, and looked towards the flight of stairs to see it lying directly in front of it. I wasted no time in marching towards it, snatching it off of the floor.

"Ty!" I heard Natasha's voice above me.

I snapped my head up to see her looking over the ledge at the very top of the tower, right next to the machine powering the portal. An older man lied next to her with blood running down the side of his face, peering down at me with a tired, pained expression on his face. I recognized him to be Professor Eric Selvig, the one responsible for building the machine under Loki's control.

"Natasha, take this!" I shouted back at her, gripping the scepter like a spear with the blade end towards me, and threw it up at her.

She caught it with ease, then disappeared behind the ledge to approach the machine. I stared at the bright beam of blue light that shot up into the sky, waiting for it to vanish so the portal would close. I could still hear the chitauri shooting their guns from below me. Even once the portal closes, there are still too many of them throughout the city. Judging by the position of the sun, it had been at least two hours since we had arrived. The others were bound to be getting tired.

I turned my attention back towards the city, seeing Steve and Thor fighting side by side. Steve got shot in the abdomen, sending him to the ground. He slowly gripped his stomach, hanging his head low, tiredly. Thor threw his hammer at the remaining chitauri soldiers around them, turning to Steve as he allowed it to fly through the streets. He helped him up to his feet, speaking to him. I could hear Hulk roar from somewhere else in the city. It was audibly not as powerful as it had been before. He was also getting tired. Barton was no longer at his post. There was a broken-in window a few floors down, indicating that he had likely swung himself into the building. He would only have left if he was running out of arrows.

"I can close it. Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down." Natasha's voice rang in my earpiece.

"Do it!" Steve exclaimed.