Aliens.
Chitauri flying through a space portal in New York.
Me flying through New York with a half functioning Iron Man suit.
If it wasn't for those missmatching numbers it would have sounded like one of Apollo's crappy Haikus.
Yeah, today's one of those days where things only get stranger.
The portal hung above Manhattan like an evil cloud. Pouring weird looking aliens into the atmosphere and, although there were a lot through the portal already, I could see entire ships and constellations waiting on the other side of the portal.
Tony was already flying towards the hoard of Chitauri, shooting bright colored missiles from his back. They only had minimal impact, every single one killed was replaced by ten others coming from that accursed portal. But at least he was keeping their attention on himself.
The quinjet with the rest of the team had finally gotten closer and started to fire at the ones that escaped Tony's fire, which were quite a lot.
While I was still hovering in the air, trying to wrap my head around this, one of the aliens flew closer to me, giving me a brief chance to see them up close.
They were reptile-like, but still walking on two legs. They had glowing metallic equipment implanted both into their arsenal and their own bodies. It flew on a weird hovercraft that looked like a jetski. A space jetski. Yeah, things got stranger.
I managed to twist out of the way and dodge it. While maintaining stability I managed to draw Riptide again and slashed at the Chitauri just as it passed underneath me. The spacecraft crashed into the side of a building, raining debris down upon the civilians below.
Yeah, they could totally see the portal in the sky too. No mist to hide the truth now.
I heard Natasha and Tony give orders through the speakers embedded into the suit pieces. Something about damage control and how to close the portal.
I looked up, the Tesseract!
I managed to adjust the angle I was hovering at and flew towards the platform again, hoping I'd figure out a way to shut it down while the others tried to keep the aliens occupied.
More Chitauri flew in my general direction as I tried to fly up.
It might come as a big surprise, but trying to wield a sword, while dodging incoming fire, and flying is rather hard. Especially considering the thrusters which kept me afloat were also in the gauntlet.
Long story short. I was hit.
A searing pain hit me in the shoulder and I recoiled in pain. However, it didn't pierce it completely but it was still painful, despite this I tried to keep going up. I could already feel the flesh repairing itself inside my body but I doubted my flesh would keep repairing if I crashed down.
'What if you, instead, hijack one of those flying chariots?' Chaos offered a solution as I tried to dodge the gunfire coming my way.
'Not now.' I gritted my teeth and inhaled a deep breath.
I unleashed a sonic scream and managed to toss 2 incoming Chitauri off their space crafts. But more were coming my way already.
In the distance I saw that Tony had given up on trying to stop them at the portal and was now being chased by a couple Chitauri.
Not good.
I pushed myself to fly up faster, hoping to reach the damn Tesseract but everytime I gained altitude I was forced down by a new wave of airborne attackers. It was getting ridiculous how hard it was to keep going up. Enemies circled around and above me, clearly seeing me as a target.
Just as they were upon me the bright sky above me twisted and darkened all of a sudden.
A bright flash followed the storm and fried the Chitauri mid flight. They dropped like flies. Thanks to this divine intervention I couId fly up and safely land onto the bridge that led to the Tesseract.
A handsome figure seemed to have arrived at the same time. Red cape, big hammer and a pissed look.
"Hey, Thor." I breathed as I finally managed to land on the platform.
Thor didn't acknowledge my presence sadly.
Loki did. He looked quite surprised to see me again. However, his attention was soon pulled to the Thundergod.
"Turn the Tesseract off and close the portal!" Thor roared.
"That's not going to happen,." Loki gave us a knowing smile. He spread his arms wide. "Open your eyes, look around."
Having a wide view of the city without flying gave me the chance to see the state Manhattan was in. It wasn't good.
I had seen Manhattan in war before. Kronos' army and Typhon both didn't care much for the environment but atleast the damage they caused was relatively simple.
This wasn't the case now.
Everywhere my eyes passed I could see something going horribly wrong. Chitauri on chariots flying close to the ground and shooting at mortals. Cars and buildings were on fire. Explosions and screams came from everywhere around us.
"This is war, the only way." Loki said.
"So be it." Thor turned around, finally acknowledging my presence. "Can you fight in that thing?"
I flashed my sword. "Don't need the suit." Wasn't even sure if I could shoot lasers with it like Tony did. Best not to try.
"Great." Thor nodded appreciatively.
Loki leapt towards us, holding his scepter like a spear. Thor deflected the strike with Mjolnir.
I swiftly snuck in a jab but Loki disengaged before it could connect. He aimed the point of the scepter at me and a projectile was launched.
I barely managed to duck underneath it, causing it to explode behind me and break off part of the bridge.
Thor hit Loki in the face with his fist. The god of Mischief struggled backwards.
I spotted a gleam in his eyes.
"Behind you!" I shouted.
Thor turned around just too late. The old Loki vanished while the new Loki stabbed Thor with a dagger.
Thor dropped to the floor. A pale look on his face. A red wound in his stomach.
I yelled as I jumped forward and slashed Riptide at Loki's back. He again vanished.
An icy sword formed in my other hand just in time to block a swipe from his scepter.
"Just stop teleporting already." I groaned.
In contrast to my request, Loki started to teleport even more. Only appearing briefly for a second, just long enough for a quick jab, before reappearing somewhere else.
I threw Frostsilver at a spot I expected him to reappear just when he disappeared again.
My luck must have been especially rotten that day because he appeared far away from me, on the other side of the platform; firing multiple shots from his scepter.
The Shield of Winter appeared just in time to block them but the explosion knocked me backwards, towards the part of the bridge that had already been blown up.
I flew over the edge but grabbed it with my spare hand, just in time.
I managed to hold onto the edge of it and just when I considered dropping myself and using the suit to fly Loki appeared above me, a smug smile present on his face as he aimed the scepter down at my face.
A sound distracted him from pulling through. He looked to the right where he saw the quinjet hovering in the air. Natasha, or Clint, I don't know who was behind the wheel, but they didn't waste a second and unleashed fire upon the god.
Loki jumped out of the way, tanking multiple bullets as he did but without any real damage. He aimed his scepter at the quinjet. The left wing exploded violently and the quinjet started to fall out of the air.
I got up and considered going after them, but I didn't really know what to do about a crashing plane. Instead I opted to go for Loki again but he had already gotten to his feet again and aimed his scepter at me.
"Aaarghh!" Thor suddenly roared as he threw himself onto Loki. Causing both of them to fall. My hero.
I got up from the edge before Thor and Loki untangled themselves. They both needed a second to breathe. I still had some juice left and threw the Shield of Winter at him. He dodged it nimbly but a hit from Thor followed the assault.
Thor gave me a nod. I readied my sword and joined the fray again.
Loki backed away, closer to the edge, trying to maintain a confident look under the continuous barrage of attacks.
Everytime I missed a swipe Thor would step in. Everytime Thor's attack was too slow I covered his sides.
"This is pointless!" He growled when he had run out of space to retreat.
The shield of Winter hit him in the back just as it returned to my arm, causing the god to buckle over.
Thor stepped forward and gripped Loki by his neck. This time, he didn't look nonchalant. In fact, I would say he looked absolutely pissed. "You lost, again. Shut off the damn Tesseract, I know you can."
"C-an't breathe" Loki choked out.
Thor slightly released his grip on Loki's neck.
"Stop this madness!"
"It's too late." Loki hissed back. He immediately took that opportunity to roll off the platform.
I wasn't sure if this world's Asgardians could survive a fall like that but Loki didn't even fall for a full second before he swiftly landed in a passing Chitauri chariot.
"Curses," Thor roared. I glanced at the Tesseract. I couldn't really think of a way to shut it down.
"I am going down, see if I can help the others." I told Thor before diving off the edge.
I immediately discovered that going down was much easier than flying up. I even managed to slash one of the Chitauri in the back. Causing it to drop.
I saw Steve with his trademark Captain America getting swarmed by Chitauri from all sides. He had set up a barrier with police cars and was currently trying to protect the retreating civilians.
I dove down into a hurdle of Chitauri and started swinging Riptide in a wide arc. Dispersing their attempts to overwhelm Steve with a little bit of chaos. It wasn't a real challenge. The Cghitauri were caught between my deadly bronze sword and whatever Cap's shield was made off. The crowd around us thinned out as we slayed everything that came too close to us.
"Glad to see you are still in one piece." Steve gave me a quick compliment while he bashed his shield into a Chitauri's head. He immediately pivoted and took cover behind his shield as a couple Chitauri down the street started blasting their guns at him.
Luckily that guy put a big target on his shield, it kept the Chitauri's attention long enough for me to explode a water pipe nearby.
They were washed away immediately but I didn't waste that precious water and instead drew it towards me, to both boost myself and to attack.
A squadron of Chitauri came flying towards us. I took a deep breath and prepared to fight when a black arrow pierced the first spacecraft.
It triggered a big explosion that caught all the others following it. Leading to a chain reaction of explosions.
I turned around and saw the bow guy and Natasha coming towards us. Natasha was holding a spear she had picked up from a dead soldier.
Clint notched another arrow. "Move!"
I jumped out of the way as the arrow breezed past me. Instead it hit a fallen Chitauri grasping for his weapon.
"How are things going?" I asked cheekily, feeling quite refreshed from the water.
"It has been worse." Natasha replied.
A loud roar came from above us. I thought for a second it was Thor doing his thing again but this roar was different than the sound of thunder. It was more guttural, I could feel it to my bones.
The portal above us, in the bright blue sky, started to convulse. As if trying to eject something.
A second roar followed and a large beast emerged from the portal.
It was almost as big as the portal and looked like some kind of monstrous whale. A flying whale. A flying whale with metallic armor pieces around its body.
"You said worse?" I mumbled.
It flew through the city, his body crashing and cutting through skyscrapers. Seeing this massive thing felt surreal. so surreal my body was almost frozen on the spot. I had seen big monsters before. But to see one flying through your city, one of that size. It was something else.
It flew right over our heads, not even paying us any attention.
Smaller, regular Chitauri, had attached themselves onto the sides of this monster like it was some kind of military plane. When the thing flew past a building they jumped off and clung to the buildings. Some went inside while others slid down..
"Stark, did you see that?" Natasha asked.
"I don't see how I could miss that." Tony sarcastically remarked. "But I am having trouble comprehending it. Does anyone know where Banner is?"
"No?"
"Guess I'll be the entertainment 'till then."
We saw Iron Man pass overhead as well, tailing after the flying worm while shooting missiles from his back.
"What now?" I asked
"We fight!" Steve said, a little bit shaken but still giving off an aura of confidence. "Everyone still doing alright?"
"I can still go on." Clint said. He took out another arrow.
"Yeah," Natasha replied. "Just like Budapest." She shared a look with Clint. "This ain't so different from Budapest."
I wondered what the hell was up with that but didn't question it as Steve's gaze drew to me.
"Same. I've been through much worse." I nodded.
"Alright," Captain America turned to look around at the plaza. "While Stark is up in the air. We should cover the ground. Clint and Natasha, you two try to help evacuating. Percy, you help me hold the line here. Got it?"
The two spies nodded and ran away.
"Got it Captain!" I gave Steve a salute.
He rolled his eyes but I could see a smile on his face. "A new wave is coming. Don't let a single one through!"
I popped more water lines around the block. Trying to draw them all towards me from across the block. Steve gave me a weird look but didn't say much of it.
'Hey Chaos, won't using fire break these gauntlets?' I asked. Studying the Iron man style gloves. I did not even remotely know how they worked, and what they could take. But I had been holding off on those powers because I didn't want to break them yet. They were really useful for getting around quickly but fighting with these things on my hand was also kind of distracting.
'You ever wonder why your clothes or your own skin don't get scorched when you use your firepower?' Chaos asked.
I frowned. 'No?'
'Well,there you go.'
I grinned and aimed my hands at the new wave of Chitauri coming towards us.
A glorious beam of fire burned through 3 aircrafts at once. Exploding them out of the sky.
The ones that had attached themselves on the sides of the buildings focused their attention on us and started screaming before descending down.
Captain America didn't waste a second and started sprinting towards them like a freaking cheetah. Some of them didn't even reach the ground before he whacked them on their heads.
I focused my attention on the ones coming from the front and shot down 2 more before they got too close for my liking.
Deciding to take a page out of Steve's book I sprinted towards them, using a police car as a springboard, and sliced the driver's jetski. I hit the ground and saw it fly into a building where it continued to explode.
I duck out of the way as a Chitauri was about to crash right into me. He sped harmlessly past me but this one was smarter. He slowed down to make a U-turn.
I snapped my finger and a geiser emerged from below the chariot. Throwing it off balance. Captain America was already on his way to finish him off.
That should take care of the airborne ones, for now at least. Grounded Chitauri were now coming closer.
These ones were much more cautious then the ones I had just killed. Instead of coming recklessly towards me they were using their riffles and spears to slowly gain ground.
I was forced to take cover behind a car while fire was blasted over my head.
I suddenly got a new idea. I inhaled deeply and then, screamed my lungs out at the car I hid behind.
The soundwaves lifted it up into the air and threw it towards the firing squadron. Taking out 4 of them like they were bowling pins.
The others screamed in rage and began to run towards me. With my cover literally blown, I met their challenge head on. Sending a beam of fire ahead to cover me.
The temporary blinding effect it had was enough for me to get closer and weave through the Chitauri like a storm cloud, using only Riptide and fireballs to wipe them out.
When I was done, and the final body hit the pavement I turned around.
It seems Cap also had done some good work on his side.
I took a deep breath and gave him a thumbs up before slowly jogging towards him. I was starting to feel tired by now.
The street was littered with Chitauri corpses by now. I'd like to say that I had gotten the majority but I couldn't be certain.
"Okay, I could use a glass of water now." I joked.
Steve gave me a vague, hopeless, expression. "That was...interesting."
Natasha and Clint came running towards us. Luckily, both of them were still alive and in one piece.
"We cleared this zone." Natasha told Steve.
"Another wave incoming." Clint pointed an arrow at the other side of the street.
"How many Aliens did Loki hire?" I sighed.
Natasha reloaded her two guns while Cap raised his shield.
Before we had to fight though multiple flashes of lightning impacted the incoming Chitauri. Frying them on the spot.
Thor took out the stragglers without even doing so much as throwing his hammer before taking another huge leap.
He landed right in front of us, the pavement shattering under his feet as he did so.
"Any luck with the Tesseract?" Natasha asked.
"No," Thor replied grimly. "It's a self contained shield. Impenetrable."
"Then we'll deal with Loki." I suggested. "He must know a way to close it."
"I doubt it," Thor replied. He gave us a sad grimace. "Loki is way over his head with this. Loki only brought the Chitauri here. Stopping him won't keep them at bay."
"So we are left with containment and damage control." Steve said. "We can do that."
I wanted to say something but an odd noise interrupted me.
"Is that...?" I asked instead.
A person was riding a scooter, through the debris and torn open cars. It frankly looked ridiculous.
None of us said something as the person came to a stop in front of us, unceremoniously dumping the scooter.
"Stark, he has arrived.." Steve spoke through his earpiece.
"So," Bruce Banner said, looking around like he just woke up. "Things seem to be going bad."
"I've seen worse." Natasha smiled.
"Sorry."
Natasha smiled back. "Actually, things should get a little worse."
"Guys," Tony's voice came from the speakers on my suit. "I got a big surprise. I'm bringing it to you."
"Wh-"
Iron Man appeared from behind a building. Immediately after coming into sight, buildings at the end of the street suddenly collapsed. The flying monstrosity emerged as well, chasing after Stark like a dog chasing a stick.
"That's not a surprise." Steve said.
"Bad surprise." Natasha nodded while lowering her weapon.
Iron Man lowered his altitude and the monster followed his style. Swooping down and storming through the street like a freight train, rampaging through cars, buildings and everything in between.
Bruce began to walk towards the rampaging monster without hesitance, looking surprisingly calm.
"Dr. Banner," Steve shouted.
Bruce looked over his shoulder.
"Now might be a really good time for you to get angry.
Bruce gave Steve a grin. "That's my secret, Captain. I'm always angry."
Now, I hadn't seen Bruce do his party trick before. But now I was definitely in the front seat.
His body starts to swell and stretch, harden and changing tone to a green color. The muscles in his body contorted, his shape changed until he was no longer Dr Banner.
The Hulk roared loudly before raising a single fist and pumping it into the monster's face.
It was unlike anything I've seen. The monster managed to push forward only a few more feet before coming to a complete stop. The sudden change in gravity and speed caused the monster to flip over, his tail end bending over like a shrimp.
Iron Man came to a stop as well and extended his hands out. Releasing multiple bright missiles at the monster's belly.
It must have hit a weak spot because all at once the plates on its body started to detach themselves, exploding off it like a chain reaction.
The monster cried in pain.
Metal pieces of armor and scorched flesh rained down from above. I quickly drew all the water towards us and formed it into a sphere of water. Only allowing Tony himself to pass through it.
He landed on the ground with a thud and gave an appreciative nod.
When the rain finally stopped and I dispersed the water. I could only look in awe.
The monster was dead. It's head, completely blown off.
Outraged cries and screams came from the Chitauri army. Hateful glares were directed at us from all directions. But amongst the hate there was also fear. They were looking at us with new eyes.
I grinned as I raised my sword to the sky.