Avengers: The Reaper War

by Nataku's Wrath

During the Battle of New York, the Tesseract overloads and sends the Avengers through time and space to a world of strange aliens, advanced technology, murderous robots, and a race against extinction...maybe it isn't so different after all. MarvelMovieVerseXMassEffect (original trilogy). Rated M for violence, language, and azure. No pairings yet.

Avengers X Mass Effect

Avenger Effect

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

The island of Manhattan was a ruin. Fires blazed as emergency personnel struggled to tend the wounded and rescue civilians trapped beneath the rubble. High above, the SHIELD Helicarrier hovered above the remains of what had been Stark Tower. To some, the Helicarrier was a symbol of hope, a sign that humankind had fought off its first truly alien invaders. To others, the carrier hung like Damocles Sword, the cause of all the death and destruction just waiting to start anew.

Inside the Helicarrier, SHIELD agents and technicians worked frantically to restore order, not only to the chaos in the city below, but to the Helicarrier's own damaged systems. In the heart of the carrier, one person was not working hard. In fact, she was sitting still at the head of a conference table, quite comfortable and incredibly angry. Maria Hill hated bureaucrats and hated having to be pulled away from her job as SHIELD Deputy Chief, second in command to Director Nick Fury. She had hundreds of things she should be doing and a thousand things she'd rather be doing than sitting in front of four video screens.

Three of the screens showed the streaming images of the World Security Council. The fourth screen was shielded. There was no image on the screen, but Maria knew it was active nonetheless. And she knew the it was Fury who was listening in and watching the proceedings. The cycloptic spymaster took no chances, even with his most trusted subordinate.

Staring at the screens, Maria was glad that they were not debriefing her in person. She might not have been able to control herself after the Council launched a nuclear missile at Manhattan. Maria had always liked New York City and was glad the battle hadn't ended in radioactive fire.

The center screen brightened, the signal that the Council was going to begin. "Deputy Hill," started the American representative, "could you please explain what happened."

"You already know what happened," Maria replied, already bored of the diplomatic crosstalk and hidden agendas. "The whole world knows what happened. Except for that little missile stunt you tried to pull. I bet a lot of people would be pretty upset if they found out their elected leaders tried to nuke Manhattan."

"Is that a threat?"

Maria fought the urge to smirk. "No. I just don't want to waste any more time playing word games with you. If you have questions, ask me directly. If not, I'm going back to work."

The American representative shifted in his seat. "Very well, Deputy. What caused the Tesseract Event? How did it get out of our control?"

Maria shook her head. "We never had control, not really. We were playing with forces beyond our understanding, kids playing with very big guns."

The second representative, German if Maria placed her accent right, spoke up. "The initial findings were so positive though. There must have been something that went wrong."

"You wanna know what went wrong?" Maria scoffed. "How this horror, this catastrophe could have been averted?"

"A lot of people are dead, Deputy Hill. Someone has to answer for that."

"A lot of people have to answer for that." Meaning all of you, you pigs in suits! Maria thought and was again glad that the representatives weren't in the same room as her.

"Like Nick Fury?" the third representative asked. He was Chinese and Maria could hear the arrogance in his voice, the blame thick in his 'This-wouldn't-have-happened-under-my-peoples-watch' tone. It took all of Maria's willpower not to look at the blank screen, to alert the representatives that the man they are speaking about was completely aware of the conversation. Maria almost wished he would step in, to put the bastards in their place.

"That man…"

"You filed several reports criticizing Director Fury's actions since you joined SHIELD," remarked the German representative.

"Because he's reckless," Maria admitted. Despite their sins, Maria would be damned if they thought they'd catch her in a lie. "We're at war and he thinks about superheroes."

"The Avengers."

"God, who would bring those people together and not expect what happened? They were a time bomb, just waiting to go off. A bunch of lab experiments and crazies more dangerous than the enemy itself…"

"The Avengers…"

"Don't interrupt me again," Maria spat. " I have much more important things to do right now than to put up with your bullshit. Despite all that, despite the fact that who they are should never have worked, it did. They're the ones that saved us. They're the ones that stopped the invasion. Not SHIELD, certainly not you," Maria didn't bother hiding the venom in her voice anymore. "They really are heroes and they deserve better than to have their work questioned by a bunch of cowards thousands of miles away!"

Maria's voice echoed in the empty conference room for a moment and Maria slowly sat back down. She didn't remember standing up at all and she felt her hands shake with her rising emotions.

"This is a tough time for us all, Deputy," the American representative said. "We all have things, more pressing matters to attend to. We only have one question remaining for you.

"Where are the Avengers?"

Maria looked at the ceiling, the table, anywhere but at the screens in front of her.

"I don't know."

3 HOURS EARLIER…

STARK TOWER, NEW YORK CITY

Loki groaned as he struggled to crawl across Stark's penthouse floor. He had lost; he had felt the Tesseract's energy beam, the portal, collapse into itself. He had been beaten by mortals and their pet brute. And, of course, by his dullard of a "brother." That stung Loki's pride more than anything. That once again, Thor, beloved Prince of Asgard, Odin's son, had beaten him. Loki hated them all, but he hated Thor the most because he once loved him. That betrayal had cut the deepest.

As he crawled out of the crater the Hulk had left him in, Loki tried to find where his plan went wrong, how it all went bad. It had been perfect, no, he had been perfect. The Chitauri, it had been their fault. Those mindless aliens, an entire army of them couldn't handle four mortals, a mindless brute, and his brother. Thousands against six. If only I had been given a real army, a proper one… he thought and spat blood from his mouth.

Thinking of the Chitauri immediately brought to mind their master, The Other. That twin-thumbed boot-licker had tried to hurt Loki, but Loki had faced far greater hurts before, the worst at the hands and powers of The Other's master. Thanos, the Mad Titan. Thinking of that purple-skinned monster—for Thanos was a true monster that made the Hulk look like a child's stuffed toy—made Loki shudder despite his pride.

I failed him, he realized and the sudden truth hit him harder than any physical blow ever could. What did The Other say the penalty for failure was? That I would wish for a balm as sweet as pain…

Loki's thoughts were interrupted by sounds behind him, heavy boots and labored breathing. It was the Avengers, all six of them. They stood above him, tired but not seriously wounded, proud in their victory. Thor looked practically smug. And the woman, the only person in all the Nine Realms that could lie more convincingly than he could—another blow to Loki's pride—was holding his own scepter like a trophy. The archer, Barton, whose mind Loki had ensnared, was pointed a drawn arrow at him. As if that toy could actually harm him. But the others…

Loki weighed his options and his strength. Physically, he never could stand against Thor and, from the cuts and bruises he felt from the brute's assault, Loki couldn't stand against the Hulk either. His only chance was to teleport away, run to fight another day. Yes, Loki thought. These so-called Avengers haven't seen the last of me.

Loki began to draw up what remained of his magic, but stopped when he saw Thor tighten his grip on that blasted hammer of his and gently shook his head. His eyes were soft, though, understanding. The fool knew, Loki thought. He knew what I was planning on doing, but wouldn't have stopped me. He'd let me go, despite everything, all out of love. Loki could have scoffed at the notion. Only a simpleton like Thor would still believe in something as insipid as love. But he could use this, turn this to his advantage. After all, where could he go? If he stayed in the Nine Realms, Heimdall would see him and Odin would send for him, perhaps even come himself. And wouldn't that be a family reunion for the ages, Loki thought and smiled. Then Loki thought about what waited outside the Nine Realms and the smile died on his lips. No, Loki decided. I'd prefer Odin's dungeon to Thanos' any day. At least Mother would send me books to read.

Loki forced the smile back to his lips and slowly raised his hands in surrender. "I think I'll have that drink now."

The Hulk snorted.

"Yeah, fat chance, Rudolph," Stark said. Barton drew back his arrow another millimeter, just hoping for a chance to let go.

"On your feet, Loki," Thor said, shoving forward and grabbing Loki's arm. He hauled Loki to his feet and pushed him across the floor. Loki stumbled in his own crater, but caught himself before he could fall. Barton slowly relaxed his bow arm, but kept the arrow notched.

"There is no need for your brutish manners, brother," Loki spat. "I know when I'm beaten. I surrender without condition. I don't suppose you have another cell waiting for me on your flying fortress?"

"You'll be lucky if you ever see daylight again," Steve Rogers, the Super-Soldier known as Captain America, said. "You're going to be tried for war crimes."

"Loki is too dangerous to stay on Earth," Thor said as he pushed Loki toward the broken windows and the landing beyond. "He'll be taken to face Asgardian justice."

"I'm sorry, but when did he lead an invasion to take over your world?" Natasha growled. "He attacked us, remember?"

"Yeah, I'm not ok with him going home and having Daddy slap him twice on the wrists for being a bad boy," Tony added.

The Hulk growled. It made Loki flinch.

"We can argue this later," Captain America said and pointed outside. "There are a lot of hurt and scared people in this city. I know we're all tired, but there is still a lot of work to be done."

"Captain Killjoy, everyone," Tony remarked as they all walked out onto his Iron Man landing platform. "Seriously, you couldn't give us ten seconds to enjoy the moment, could you?"

"This isn't the time for more of your games, Stark," Captain America said. Tony rolled his eyes. Once again, his sarcasm had flown miles over Cap's head.

"We can rest when we're sure the Chitauri are really all gone," Cap said. He looked at Natasha. "We're going to need help cleaning up all those alien weapons and gear."

"Fury already has people on that," Natasha reported. "Science Division will figure out how to shut down any leftover tech."

"I want some," Tony said.

"It's too dangerous, no," Cap said.

"It's too dangerous, so yes," Natasha countered. When Cap looked at her, she shrugged. "He built that first suit out of scraps in a cave with guns pointed at his head. If there is anyone qualified to tinker with this stuff, it's him."

"That may have been the nicest thing anyone who wasn't my mother or Pepper ever said about me," Tony said quietly and with genuine gratitude.

"Don't get used to it," Natasha smirked and kicked a piece of small pebble off the balcony edge. The Avengers and their prisoner stood on the balcony and looked out over New York City. Smoke rose from hundreds of damaged and destroyed buildings. Both Steve and Thor could see bodies, human and Chitauri, on the streets. Both were used to seeing the horrors of war, but these weren't just enemy combatants lying on the battlefield. These were civilians, including women and children. Maybe even babies. It made Steve's stomach churn and made Thor's immortal heartbreak.

How could my brother lead such an attack? he wondered. What madness drove him to kill so wantonly, so callously?

"I'm sorry for your people," Thor whispered to Steve. "And I'm sorry for my brother's part in it. And mine."

"Your part?"

"My brother was not always like this," Thor tried to explain. "If some deed of mine drove him to this…" His voice was thick and he stumbled over his words. He tried to look at Loki, but the trickster avoided his gaze. Thor noticed that Loki avoided looking at the streets below as well, and this gave him the smallest bit of hope for his brother's soul.

"He made his choices, as did you, Thor," Steve said. "We all have regrets, but regrets don't change the consequences of our actions."

"No, I suppose not, my friend. But there will be time later for such morose speech. As you said, there is work to be done," Thor said and lightly clapped the Captain on the back. The blow would have sent a normal man sprawling, but it only made Steve take a single small step forward.

Loki rolled his eyes at the sight of comradeship between his brother and the mortal. Such pathetic sentiment, he thought and cleared his throat. "We still have not completed our discussion on my accommodations. I am not feeling as well as I'd like and would like to eat and rest. You mortals do allow your prisoners such boons, correct?"

"I got a boon for ya," Clint muttered and fingered the string of his bow. If it were up to him, Clint would see Loki trussed up in front of a bull's-eye, an apple on his head, and the biggest quiver of arrows in the world. Sharp, rusty, explosive arrows…

"I think we got a very deep, very dark hole somewhere you can nap," Tony quipped as they approached the rooftop. "The Mariana Trench maybe."

Eric Selvig was still standing next to his machine and he turned very pale when he saw Loki, even with Thor and Captain America guarding him. "Is everything alright? The portal's closed, I don't think the machine will ever start again."

"Everything is fine, friend Selvig," Thor smiled in greeting. "The Tesseract being broken is the best news we've heard all day."

"The machine is broken, yes, but the Tesseract itself is still functioning," Selvig said. "In fact, she's glowing brighter now that you're all up here."

"Could it explode?" Steve asked. He was completely in over his head with modern technology as it was, but the Tesseract was a whole other level. And his history with it, when it was the Red Skull's source of power, made Steve extra cautious around it.

"Impossible," Tony said as he approached Selvig's machine. "The Cube is far too stable for something like that. Unless the big guy over here starts poking it with those banana fingers."

Hulk snorted in amusement. Tony let out a chuckle. "Poking bad," and shook his finger at the Hulk. "Poking blue cube bad, but smashing bad reindeer man good." He gave the Hulk an armored thumbs-up. Natasha rolled her eyes and stepped towards Selvig.

"The scepter shut it down once, could it do it again?" she asked and held out the golden staff.

"I don't think so. The Tesseract acted like this before, when he came through," Selvig said and turned another shade of pale when he looked at Loki. "Something else might be opening the door."

All six Avengers rounded on Loki, rage and worry lining their faces. "Who's coming? Who's your backup?" Tony demanded.

"I don't know," Loki said with a devil's smile. "There are many who have such power. Perhaps the Silver Herald has come to call on Earth? Do you remember, Thor, when he tried to claim Asgard for his master?"

Steve looked at Thor and was genuinely frightened to see the God of Thunder shudder. What in Heaven could scare Thor? he wondered and quickly decided he didn't wish to find out.

Meanwhile, Tony wasn't buying Loki's antics. "Still with the cute answers, huh? Ok." He turned and stepped back. "You're up, big guy."

Before Loki or anyone could protest, Hulk roared and wrapped a massive hand around Loki's throat. Hulk effortlessly picked Loki off the ground and held up at arm's length. Loki clawed and kicked at Hulk, but was far too weak to break the hold. He began to turn purple; not from the lack of air, since Asgardians don't need to breath the same as mortals, but from the sheer amount of pressure Hulk was putting on his neck. Tony thought that if Hulk had squeezed any harder, Loki's head would fly off his body like a champagne cork.

Clearly overmatched, Loki tried to repeat that he didn't know anything. All he managed was to spit a little on the back of Hulk's hand.

"Let him go, Hulk," Rogers ordered. Surprisingly, Hulk dropped Loki without a shred of complaint. Rogers was impressed and wondered just how much of Banner was still in charge inside the Hulk's mind.

Loki collapsed to the rooftop and grasped at his throat. He glared up at the Avengers and sneered. "I don't know what's happening, but I hope Thanos himself is coming through the Tesseract! I would gladly share my pain with you all!"

"Thanos?" Thor asked, enraged. "Who is this Thanos? Is he the one who poisoned your mind, brother?"

"You did that yourself, brother, when you condemned me to fall from the ruins of the Bifrost!"

Hulk roared at Loki's sudden venom, but the Trickster refused to budge. His blood was up and ran like a heady potion between his temples.

"Roar as much as you like, beast! Threaten me with your armors and your shields! They are like a mother comforting a babe compared to what's in store for us all."

"Shut up, all of you!" Natasha yelled over god and Hulk alike. "It's happening!"

Beside them, the Tesseract pulsed with blue-white energy. It arced off the cube and swirled in great vortexes in the sky. One arc snapped out like a whip and struck Selvig across the chest, knocking him off the rooftop and onto Tony's Ironman platform below. Thor forgot about the Tesseract and looked down for his friend. Selvig was rolling around on his side, cradling his right arm against his chest. He was injured and in great pain, but alive.

"We must stop this!" he bellowed over the crackling energy.

"Natasha, hit it with the scepter!" Rogers ordered. "It might be the only thing that works!"

Natasha raised Loki's scepter to stab the Tesseract, but a wave of energy knocked her over. Rogers rushed over, holding his shield out to cover them both. Bolts of energy rebounded off the shield, tearing gauges out of the rooftop.

"Light it up!" Tony shouted and fired all the energy his suit had left at the Tesseract. Thor raised his hammer skyward and summoned magical lightning down onto the cube. Clint fired the arrow he'd reserved for Loki at the Tesseract and had notched a fresh explosive-tipped arrow before the first ever struck. Hulk slammed his massive hands together in a thunderous clap, creating a shockwave the deafened them all and sent the remains of Selvig's machine flying off the rooftop. Even Loki, terrified by the potential arrival of Thanos, fired green bolts of raw magic at the cube.

The Tesseract fought back against them, it's energy pulsing wildly against the attacks for a brief moment before succumbing against the combined might of the Avengers and Loki. The arcs and vortexes ceased and it gave the Avengers a boost of confidence. They poured their attacks on more. But their confidence quickly turned to dread and then horror.

The cube began to absorb their attacks and grow in size. It swelled and tripled in size before the Avengers could cut off their attacks. But by then it was too late. The cube had gone from being able to rest in someone's palm to the size of a car engine.

"Aww, shit," Tony groaned before the world erupted in blue-white light. The light grew until it encompassed the entire rooftop and upper part of Tony's penthouse. From the balcony, Erik Selvig could only watch in horror as the light grew closer and brighter. He threw his good arm in front of his face in a futile gesture to protect himself. He waited for the light to consume him. When, after a few seconds, his heart was still pounding inside his chest and he didn't feel fiery pain, Erik Selvig peeked out from behind his arm.

The light was gone along with the entire rooftop. Erik could see where it had stopped, a mere ten yards from his location. He stood on shaky knees and crept towards the edge of the blast. Everything still glowed with a faint blue tinge and the Tesseract was still floating in midair, right where it had been before he had been thrown off the rooftop. Selvig watched as the Tesseract's glow faded all around him and the cube itself turned a cold, icy blue, no longer throwing off any energy, not even its normal glow. It fell to the ground, landing on what remained of Tony's bar, bouncing with a solid thunk, and clumsily rolling until it rested just in front of his feet.

I think she did that on purpose, Erik thought and, without thinking about the danger of doing so, picked up the cube. It was surprisingly light and was as cold as the deadest portion of outer space. Erik looked at the seemingly dead Tesseract in his hand and then at the destruction all around him.

Not a trace of the Avengers or of Loki could be seen.

EDEN PRIME

Jenkins said this place was a paradise, Shepard thought as she ducked behind a boulder. Maybe it's a good thing he isn't here to see this.

Eden Prime was a war zone. Hundreds, maybe thousands of geth had attacked the colony, the geth's first appearance in almost two hundred years outside the Traverse. They had not come peacefully. Smoke billowed from dozens of fires and Shepard could see the bodies of defenseless settlers scattered throughout the colony. Only minutes after the away team from the Normandy had set foot on Eden Prime, they had been under constant attack by the artificial intelligence platforms. Corporal Jenkins had been born on Eden Prime during its first years as a Alliance Colony. Shepard tried not to think of the irony of him dying there as well.

Another wave of gunfire slammed into the boulder and Shepard winced as flak pinged off her shields. Shepard struggled to remember what she knew about the Geth, what their weaknesses were. Shepard racked her brain, but couldn't think of anything past the metal killing machines advancing towards her.

"What's the plan, Commander?" Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko shouted over the gunfire.

"Why don't you try shooting the genocidal robots?" Gunnery Chief Ashley "Ash" Williams suggested, letting out a burst of fire from her assault rifle. Her target's shields shattered under the concentrated fire and the Geth was perforated beyond repair.. "They're the ones with the flashlights for faces!"

"Good suggestion, Chief," Shepard grinned before snapping off another round with her sniper rifle. "Kaidan, use some of those fancy biotics you're always bragging about to throw some of those robo-zombies off a cliff!"

Kaidan rolled his eyes at the Commander's sarcasm, used to such abuse on board the Normandy and in the field. It was Shepard's style, she wielded sarcasm just as efficiently as she bullseyed a Batarian slaver from one thousand yards with her sniper rifle. She was, as Kaidan had heard Captain Anderson say: "The most talented, skilled, and sarcastic bitch in the galaxy and I love her like a daughter."

Kaidan was sure everyone felt that way about Commander Shepard. To follow her was to love her, to love her was to follow her into hell and back again. Her strong ethics were only matched by her skills as an infiltrator; she believed in doing what was right and wouldn't take any shit from anyone who got in her way. She would do anything for anyone under her command and Kaidan knew that he'd do anything for her without hesitation.

Kaidan spotted a pack of Husks, humans that had been captured and converted into mindless cyborg berserkers, rushing towards the small outcrop of rocks Shepard was taking cover behind. Focusing on the pack, blue eezo surrounded Kaidan's clenched fist. He let it build up until it felt like his hand and his brain were going to burst from the biotic power, then unleashed it at the pack of Husks. The wave of biotics slammed into the Husks, lifting them off the ground and violently flinging them off the edge of a nearby cliff.

"How was that, Commander?" Kaidan smiled at her through his helmet's faceplate. But Shepard was already charging past him, bashing the butt of her sniper rifle into a Husk's face and shooting another through the throat. Ash was glued to her six, covering the Commander's charge and watching her flanks.

"C'mon, pretty boy!" Ash called back at Kaidan. "I don't think she's planning on slowing down to wait for ya!"

Shaking his head, Kaidan hefted his assault rifle and followed. The trio quickly reached a pair of scientific trailers and froze in horror. A group of five tall spikes had been erected and on them were four impaled human civilians and a sole Marine. Ash paled beneath her helmet.

"Holy fucking Christ," she whispered in equal parts terror and rage. The bodies hadn't been stripped, but looked like the victims clothes and armor was disintegrating from exposure to something unknown. From the looks on the victims' faces, they had all been alive when they were impaled. Ash squinted and recognized the remains of a tattoo on the marine's bare arm: a jungle cat coiled on a tree branch. "That's Private Woods," she said, her voice barely louder than a whisper. "I knew him. I knew all of them. What the hell did they do to them?"

"I don't know," Shepard said through clenched teeth. "But we aren't going to let them get away with it. C'mon, double time it."

The three soldiers ran up the hill and posted in front of the first trailer. A quick check saw the door was unlocked. Shepard nodded at Williams and the Lieutenant kicked the door open with a single blow. They followed her into the trailer's single room, but there was nothing left alive inside. Two scientists, both riddled with plasma bolts, lay dead in bloody heaps on the floor. All the equipment in the trailer had been broken or blasted apart, either by accident or design, Shepard couldn't tell. The air was thick inside the dead trailer and the team made a quick exit. All three were too distracted and disturbed by the dead and impaled bodies to notice a damaged Geth trooper reactivate behind a low series of bushes.

The Geth's legs and lower torso had been blasted away, leaving it clawing at the ground in order to propel itself forward and toward the largest of the silver spikes. With a metallic whirl and mechanical garble, it reached up and pressed a finger onto a silvery panel. The panel sank into the spike and a loud click cut through the silence.

"Contact!" shouted Kaidan as the team spun around and targeted the bisected Geth. Two bursts from Kaidan's and Ash's assault rifles tore through what was left of its body while Shepard's single sniper round punched through the Geth's flashlight-like eyestalk. The Geth sputtered and thrashed for a mechanical heartbeat, then collapsed in a heap of scrap metal and sparks.

"What was it trying to do?" wondered Kaidan. A loud humming noise emanated from the silvery spikes and the largest one contracted with a great whoosh, dropping the gray-colored corpse onto the ground. Behind it, the other four spikes did the same.

"Well that was a waste of its last few seconds of existence," Kaidan mused with a cocky smile. "All that just to creep us out with dead bodies. Think the Geth are trying to use psychological warfare on us, Commander?"

The five corpses suddenly picked their heads up and inhaled, a combination of mechanical and organic parts moving for the first time. Shepard, who had seen and fought a Thresher Maw after it had torn the rest of her squad on Akuze to puddles of acidic goo, flinched at the site of freshly reanimated Husks rising off the ground. Close up, the Husks were ghastly creatures, fresh from childhood nightmares inspired by old 21st century movies of flesh-eating ghouls. Shepard could hear their synthetic moans of pain and want. The Husks shambled towards them, reaching out with metal fingers for their throats.

Shepard brought her rifle to her shoulder, but before she could sight the closest Husk, a bright blue beam burst shot down from the sky and slammed into the ground. Blue arcs of energy expanded, creating a portal the burst into existence four meters in front of her, right in front of the Husks. The Husks ran straight into the portal and vanished in bursts of blue light and metallic screams.

"Kaidan! Shut down the singularity already!" Ash shouted over the growing roar of the portal. "You're going to suck us in too!"

"I didn't do this!" Kaidan shouted. "I can't make singularities! Grab onto my hand!" and grabbed onto the banister of the science trailer to keep from getting pulled in. He reached out and grabbed Ash's hand, who in turn grabbed onto the back of Shepard's armor, chaining them together.

Suddenly, the portal expanded and in its center, they could see the blackness of space and the crisp white dots of stars. The portal grew and swelled until it burst in a wave of blue and white energy. The energy washed over Shepard, Kaidan, and Ash temporarily blinding them, but otherwise harmless.

EDEN PRIME

Bruce Banner threw up for the third time since he landed in a grassy field. His head swam with dizziness and he found that it was very difficult to vomit while trying to keep a pair of Hulk-stretched pants from falling down his now puny hips. Beside him, Natasha was still unconscious and hadn't moved since the portal spat them out and closed. Bruce knelt down beside her, slightly embarrassed from vomiting and his lack of attire. He had always been a little shy around the opposite sex; it took him months before he was comfortable with Betty; and that had gotten much worse since the initial accident. Bruce was just uncomfortable in his own skin, green or otherwise.

Bruce carefully watched her steady, shallow breaths and routinely checked her pulse, making sure there was nothing wrong internally. He'd never boast that he was a great medical doctor; his formal education had been in biochemistry, nuclear physics, and gamma radiation; but Bruce knew enough medicine to be a practical doctor during his time in Kolkata and certainly knew enough to keep Natasha safe.

In the distance, he could hear high velocity gunfire and small explosions and wondered just where on Earth the portal had sent them. He quickly tried to deduce his location based off his surroundings, comparing the field to every active war zone he could think of: Sokovia, Afghanistan, Madripoor...but there was no way to explain the giant squid-like craft hanging in the sky.

Inside his mind and body, Bruce could feel the Other Guy's agitation, like an angry lion pacing behind bars. But there was more than just anger there, Bruce knew it. He was an expert on anger, he bore it like how cancer survivors bore their scars; with honor, dignity, and with the faint traces of the horror that came with it. Whatever was out there, it made the Other Guy nervous.

"I don't know about you Nat," Bruce muttered aloud, more to himself than anyone else, "but I think I liked it better when I was the weirdest thing I knew about."

EDEN PRIME

Steve Rogers ducked behind his shield and wondered if this was what a hangover felt like. Thanks to Professor Erskine's formula, he could no longer get drunk, no matter how hard he tried. Steve had put that to the test twice: the night after Bucky died, and the night after he'd woken up over seventy years in the future. Both times he hadn't gotten so much as a headache, but now his whole world spun on its axis and Steve could barely stand to look at any source of light. Steve's senses swam, and not just from the residual effects of the portal.

Steve thought he had been living in some sort of dream ever since he woke up in the future with men in armor flying across the sky, a flying aircraft carrier, evil flying snakes, flying thunder gods; everything flew for heaven's sake! And now there was a giant black thing that looked like something he and Bucky might have pulled out of the East River to eat during the Great Depression was floating overhead. Robots with flashlights for heads were running around and firing weapons that he'd never seen before.

To think I'd actually miss fighting Hydra, Steve thought as his combat instincts, still fresh and honed from the European Theatre and the Battle of New York, alerted him that another trio of robots were approaching quickly on his left. Steve pivoted and immediately heard the tattering and pinging of rounds ricocheting off the shield. But for some reason, he didn't feel the impacts like he usually did when blocking enemy fire. Steve filed this away for later consideration, at least with the hope that there would be a later.

Steve hurled his shield at the trio of flashlight robots and watched as it sheared through them like their bodies were made out of newspaper. Whatever they were made of, it was no match for Vibranium. Steve pulled his shield out of the torso of the last robot and snapped to the right as he heard a familiar, human- sounding scream over the bursts of gunfire and small explosions. Steve took off in its direction, pulling on his mask as he ran faster than any other human in history.

He reached a group of silver buildings later with what looked like cargo containers nearby on a large dock of some sort. There were four people being rounded up by 3 of the flashlight robots. One was giving orders and the other held its rifle at the ready. Steve hit that one first. He raced out from behind some sort of trailer, shattering the robot's flashlight face with a single elbow strike and threw his shield at the other. The shield cut through both elbow joints, literally disarming the robot. Wrapping his arm around the first robot's tubular neck, Steve wrenched his body forward, ripping the connections and decapitating the robot.

"Are you alright?" he asked the stunned captives. At first, none of them could say a thing. They just started at Steve and at the head dangling from his hand. It was the unarmed robot that spoke first.

A long mechanical cry emitted from the robot's antenna, at first low but it quickly rose in pitch until it was almost deafening. Steve dropped the head and covered both his ears in pain, his heightened senses even more vulnerable to the intense sound. Blindly, he threw his shield at the robot and cut it in half. The noise stopped abruptly.

Steve tried to clear his head as he recovered the shield. He turned back to the four people he'd saved. "Do any of you know what that was? Or where these things came from?" When all he got in reply were blank stares, Steve added, "Do any of you speak English?"

It was the smallest and perhaps youngest of the four that seemed to snap out of it first. She was dark skinned and wore a coverall made of a material Steve didn't recognize.

"Holy shit," was all she muttered, but it acted like magic words over the rest of them. Instantly, all four were talking at a frantic pace, crowding around Steve, touching his uniform and shield, each one trying to monopolize his attention.

"Whoa, whoa. Slow down, one at a time," he said and held up his hands for them to calm down. "I'm glad to have helped, but can one of you explain just what is going on?"

"The Geth are attacking!" the young woman said. "They came in with that big ship about an hour ago and just started attacking and killing everyone they saw. Then they stopped when those blue singularities appeared all over the sky, but they started attacking a minute or two later. They must be after the Prothean Beacon!"

"Geth? Prothean?" The words sounded completely foreign to Steve, but then again, Chitauri had been too up until a few hours ago. Ever since waking up, Steve's weirdness acceptance had skyrocketed while any sense of denial or skepticism had gone out the window. He was about to ask what meant what when he heard the sound of metal feet running on concrete in the distance. Lots of metal feet and approaching quickly.

"Do these things have locks?" he asked and pointed at one of the silver trailers that hadn't been damaged in the fighting so far.

"Yes, of course," the woman answered. "It's where we store artifacts and data from the Prothean site."

"Good. I need all four of you to take these weapons," Cap pointed at the discarded rifles from the destroyed robots, "and get inside. Lock and bar the door with whatever you can. Don't open that door until it's all over. Understand?"

The young woman nodded while the other three looked lost and frightened. One of them picked up one of the rifles like it was a piece of roadkill on the side of the highway.

"Move!" Steve yelled. The four civilians jumped in place and quickly ran for the trailer. Steve was glad when he saw the young woman who had done the talking grab one of the rifles. At least one of them was going to put up a fight if she had to. Once he saw the last of them get in the trailer and heard the door lock, Steve turned his attention back to the field in front of him.

His position was situation on the top of a small hill and he had good visibility. In the distance, he could see larger robots milling around, carrying some sort of pack on their backs near a train track of some kind. But directly in front of him, at the base of the hill, was a group of emaciated, almost skeletal like figures. They were too far away for Steve to make out individual features, but they all had dull grey skin with patches of blue light scattered across their naked bodies. All of them had glowing blue eyes. The group continued to grow as the one closest to the hill let out a scream strikingly similar to one of the Chitauri drones without its mask on and charged towards Steve.

EDEN PRIME

Shepard blinked rapidly to clear the spots away from the front of her face. Even with her helmet on, that blue burst of light had been blinding.

"Kaidan, Ash! Call out!" she ordered as the halos and spots began to fade and the hills and fields of Eden Prime came back into focus.

"I'm alright," Kaidan said. "Vision's a little spotty still."

"Ash?" Shepard called again.

"I'm ok," Ash said with a grunt. She was behind Shepard and Kaidan and her pink armor was covered in dirt and bits of grass. "The Biotic Wonder here knocked into me and sent me halfway back down the hill."

"Sorry about that," Kaidan tried to apologize, but Ash ignored him and stood next to Shepard.

"What was that thing, Commander? Some sort of new biotic attack? Can the Geth even use biotics?" she asked.

"Maybe he knows," Shepard replied and pointed to the blonde man in the stained armor, holding a massive looking hammer, and wearing the silliest garment Shepard had ever seen on the battlefield: a bright red cape. Shepard would have laughed if the man wasn't floating seven meters in the air.

The floating man was looking toward the sky, scanning the heavens above rapidly. "Heimdall!" he shouted. "Heimdall, can you hear me? The Tesseract has transported us I know not where and Loki is nowhere to be seen. Heimdall!"

"What the hell is a high doll?" Ash muttered. "And why is it in low key?"

The man heard her and looked down, giving them a small smile. "Good day, my friends," he said calmly with a friendly and confident voice. "I mean you no harm." The man dropped to the ground like a stone, landing on one knee, and stepped toward the trio of soldiers as if their rifles were mere toys. "My name is Thor Odinson, Prince of Asgard and god of thunder."

"Commander, I think we might have a Section 8 here," Kaidan whispered. "He could be a biotic with a damaged implant."

"I'm Commander Shepard, this is Chief Williams and Lieutenant Alenko," Shepard said. "Would you mind explaining just what the hell that blue light was and how you were floating in midair?"

"The Tesseract opened a portal and myself, the Avengers, and our captive Loki were unable to escape its cosmic power. It transported us here. It is imperative I locate Loki immediately! While he roams free, your world lies in great peril."

"Un huh," Ash grunted. "And the flying part?"

Thor gave her a large grin. "I am mighty."

"OK, Mr. Odinson, I think you better come with us," Shepard said. "This is a very dangerous place and I can't worry about you causing trouble and fight the geth at the same time."

"You battle these monstrosities?" Thor said and picked up one of the Husk corpses by the back of the neck. Shepard, Ash, and Kaidan all gasped in awe as he lifted it to eye level with just one hand. Thor inspected it carefully, looking at the combination of circuitry and flesh. "I do not recognize this foulness, but it reeks of suffering. I will aid you in your battle. If there are innocent that suffer, I shall most likely find my comrades enmeshed in battle as well and I would be shamed if others fought whilst I sat at ease."

"Right," Shepard deadpanned. She removed her spare sidearm from its ankle mag-lock and held it out to Thor. "I don't suppose you know how to use one of these, do you?"

"You sure that's a good idea, Commander?" Ash asked.

"Not much choice, Chief. If he's going to tag along, I don't want him getting fragged because he's wearing a "Hey, look at me!" red cape and carrying only a giant hammer-thing," Shepard said. "Right now, we can use any help we can get." She looked back at Thor. "Take it."

Thor looked at the pistol and scoffed. "Mjolnir is the only weapon I require. It is far mightier than your puny armament."

Shepard sighed. "Can't say I didn't try. Just stay out of our way and try not to get yourself killed, ok?"

"I shall try to keep up," Thor said and tossed the Husk over his shoulder and into one of the science trailers. The Husk left a large crater and oily stain in the metal wall. Thor wiped his hand on the seat of his pants and started walking in the direction of the main settlement. When he noticed that Shepard, Ash, and Kaidan were still standing there, he turned back and laughed.

"I shall try to leave some foes for you and your lambs, Commander Shepard."

Ash's eye twitched. "Lambs?"

"My name is Shepard, after all," Shepard smirked. "Go prove him wrong, Chief."

"Gladly, ma'am," Ash growled and ran after Thor.

EDEN PRIME

With one last throw, Steve's shield sliced through the last four robot-monster-things that had attacked him, rebounded off a rock, and Steve plucked it carefully out of the air. Every single one that had rushed up the hill and attacked him lay dead/deader. The closest one to the trailer sheltering the scientists had been cut in half more than fifteen paces from the trailer's door.

Steve quickly checked the shield for any damage, wiped the oily blood-like substance the robot-monsters had left behind on the grass, and placed it on his back. The shield snapped into place, held by the specialized magnet S.H.I.E.L.D had created in his uniform. He was about to return to the trailer, to let the scientists know everything was alright, when he saw the alien. Steve ducked behind a boulder and stared at it.

The alien was tall and bipedal, and at first Steve mistook it for a Chitauri in black and red armor. He ran closer and immediately saw that it was a completely different species. This alien was tall like the Chitauri, but thinner, even with the armor on. Its hands ended in three fingers, not the Chitauri's four and double thumb. The alien's head was narrower, more avian shaped that the Chitauri's beneath their masks and was covered in bright white paint.

Steve watched as the alien blasted a pair of the robot-monsters with a large rifle and then dispatched one of the flashlight robots as well. It scanned the area and found no threats remaining. It placed its rifle on its back, collapsing it into a more compact mode for storage, something that fascinated Steve, and pulled a small device from its armor. It held it out and waved it over the body of one of the flashlight robots; Steve assumed it was scanning the robot for something.

Seeing as they were seemingly fighting on same side, Steve began to approach the alien, shield raised in front of his chest in precaution. He was about to call out a greeting, when Steve saw a second alien appear out from behind a stack of crates. Steve felt a twinge of repulsion at this second alien. It was clearly the same species as the first, but was as different from the first as the Red Skull was to Captain America.

The first alien Steve saw had a sense of nobility and honor about him, in his posture and poise. This second alien looked insidious and had a slimy feel about him. It's skin and uniform were dark grey and it looked like it had a mechanical left arm. The alien also lacked the face markings of the first. Steve wondered if the marks showed rank or social status, perhaps even some sort of subculture like Hydra had been to the Third Reich.

The pair obviously recognized each other and were cordial acquaintances at the very least as the face-painted alien lowered its rifle. The two aliens began to speak in a strange language that reminded Steve of a combination of wolf growls and bird chirping. Watching and listening to the two aliens was fascinating and terrifying at the same time.

While they were talking, the face-painted alien turned its back to the other, still talking, staring at the massive, squid-like ship looming above them. Steve saw the dark one, the slimy one, reach down with its mechanical arm and remove a pistol from its hip. Steve's eyes widened as the slimy-feeling alien carefully maneuvered until it was in the other's blind spot.

As the alien carefully and deliberately raised the pistol toward the back of the face-painted alien's head, Steve pulled the shield from his back and hurled it as hard as he could at the dark alien's mechanical arm. The Vibranium shield whizzed over the distance and sliced into the mechanical arm, causing it to drop sharply down and to the right. The pistol fired and, instead of taking the back of the face-painted alien's head clean off, it grazed a deep furrow along the side of its head. Blood spurted from the wound, and the face-painted alien fell forward onto the loading floor.

The dark alien let out a cry of alarm and pain as the shield sliced through the metallic casing and delicate wiring of the mechanical arm. Steve sprinted toward the aliens, gritting his teeth in frustration at his poor throw. He had hoped the shield would cleave straight through the arm, cutting it off at the wrist, but he had sacrificed strength for speed and accuracy in the critical moment. The shield had only sliced into the mechanical foreman instead of cutting clean through. The alien whipped its injured arm around, tossing the shield away and grabbing it's wound with a hiss.

Steve ran towards the aliens, picking up his shield on the way. He held it in front of his chest, ready to deflect any incoming fire. But the dark alien hissed again at Steve and leapt away, its powerful legs propelling it over the loading dock and out of sight. Steve considered pursuing; he could make the leaps easily; but he heard the face-painted alien let out a painful wheeze, Steve's inner kindness stopped him.

Even in the darkest days of WWII, Steve had never turned cruel. He always fought his hardest and had killed many Hydra and Nazi soldiers in battles and covert ops. But he had never refused to let a wounded man be treated, Allied or Axis alike. That, beneath all the politics and bad luck to be on opposing sides of a war, men were still men underneath and deserved to be treated as such.

Steve knelt beside the wounded alien and, since he had absolutely no clue what the alien's biology was like, pressed down hard on the wound to slow the bleeding. The dark blue blood seeped between his fingers, but Steve pressed harder on the wound. The seeping blood slowed and the alien's mandibles twitched steadily in what Steve hoped was normal breathing.

Guess I owe Fury another ten bucks, Steve thought as he looked up at the squid-like spacecraft hovering high overhead. I wonder if I'll have a normal day again?

"Captain!" a familiar voice boomed nearby. Steve turned his head and saw Thor approaching in long, bounding strides.

"Thor! Over here!" Steve waved with his free hand, not daring to let go of the alien's head wound. Thor hurried along and Steve spotted the three humans in what had to be combat gear running after him. When the three humans saw the alien, they increased their speed to catch up with the god of thunder and raised their weapons at Steve.

"Get away from him!" a woman in black armor ordered Steve. Her voice carried the weight of command in it and Steve easily identified her as the group's leader.

"He needs medical attention!" Steve shouted. "I've been able to slow the bleeding, but I'm not sure what it even is, let alone what to do."

"Kaidan, see to Nihlus," the woman ordered and the man in blue armor holstered his rifle and knelt beside Steve. He pushed Steve's hands out of the way to inspect the wound on the alien's head.

"Nihlus is unconscious, but it looks like a deep cut, not a direct hit. No visible skull or optic damage, Commander," he reported. He nodded at Steve. "Putting pressure on the wound definitely helped."

"Call in a shuttle for him and get him back to the Normandy. Doctor Chakwas will be able to patch him up in no time."

"Well done, my friend," Thor said and clapped Steve on the shoulder. "You are as keen at saving lives as you are ending them."

"Thanks, Thor," Steve said and shook his numb shoulder to get feeling back into his arm.

"You know him?" the woman in pink armor asked Thor.

"Indeed, for he is a man of great valor on the field of battle. The Captain is one of the greatest soldiers Midgard has ever produced."

Steve blushed and pulled down his mask. "Hi, I'm Steve Rogers."

"Commander Jane Shepard, Alliance Navy. That's Lieutenant Alenko and this is Chief Williams," Shepard introduced and nodded at Thor. "Did he say you were a soldier?"

"Captain Steve Rogers, United States Army, SSR Howling Commandos."

Shepard and Ashley looked at each other. There hadn't been a United States Army for decades.

"Un huh," was all Shepard could say without grinning.

"I don't remember that spangly outfit ever being standard issue in any army I ever heard of," Ashley said.

"Special issue," Steve said with a smile. "Matches the shield. And it's not spangly."

"I will stand by the Captain an vouch for his honor," said Thor, oblivious to the veiled insults and sarcasm. "Our party is far greater with his addition."

"There's a shining endorsement," Kaidan muttered as he finished securing a patch of medi-gel onto Nihlus' wound. "He's good to go, Commander. The medi-gel has already started healing him and the shuttle is inbound. I asked if they could drop us off at the Beacon, but no one is going to fly near that thing," Kaidan said and pointed at the giant squid ship looming overhead.

"What's the ETA on the shuttle?" Ashley asked, fingering her rifle. "We're too out in the open here. If the Geth come back, they'll surround us in no time."

"Is that it?" Steve asked and pointed to the small and sleek craft coming towards them. The ship's lines were sleek and delicate, almost insect like.

"Incoming!" shouted Shepard while she, Ashley, and Kaidan all dove for cover. She landed behind a low shipping container and was shocked to see both Thor and Steve standing their ground. Steve stood in front of Thor, his star-spangled shield blocking bolts of fiery plasma from the Geth Fighter's gun emplacements. The Drone whipped past them, blowing Thor's cape back, and began to circle around for another pass.

"It's faster than the Chitauri speeder bike things," Steve muttered to Thor. "Are you sure you can hit it?"

"Is that a challenge, Captain?" Thor asked as Mjolnir began to glow. Thor whirled the hammer until it became a glowing blur at his side. When he let go, it streaked through the air as fast as lightning and struck the front of the Geth Fighter with the crack of thunder. Mjolnir sheared through the metal hull and split the Fighter in half before returning to Thor's outstretched hand. The Fighter crashed into the hillside just beyond the cargo area.

"Ha! This round goes to me Captain!" Thor cheered and turned as Shepard, Ashley, and Kaidan stepped out from behind cover.

"You've been all over the galaxy, right Commander?" Ashley asked, staring at Thor.

"Yeah, sure," Shepard replied, staring at Steve's shield.

"You ever see anything like that?"

"Nope."

"OK, just wanted to check," Ashley said and took a deep breath. She followed Kaidan towards the Fighter wreck to make check for any valuable tech or intelligence. There was no need to worry about survivors; the Geth ships didn't use pilots the same way non-digital beings did. All their ships were piloted by digital programs and online platforms that abandoned the vessel the moment it went down.

"Nothing to note, Commander," Kaidan reported and pointed to the distance. "Shuttle is coming in."

Steve and Thor stared at the craft swinging down through the sky. The shuttle was a boxy craft with very straight lines and what Steve thought were four legs that swung down to act as landing struts for the shuttle.

The shuttle bay doors swung open and a squad of five marines disembarked. Three of the marines raised their rifles at Thor and Steve, but Shepard waved an arm at them.

"Weapons down, men," she said. "They're friendly. Get Nihlus up to the Normandy immediately. Take him directly to med bay, no stops."

"Yes, ma'am," the squad leader barked and the team quickly loaded the injured alien onto a glowing orange stretcher and into the shuttle. Steve nodded in approval of the marines' efficiency. They were clearly well trained.

"Alright," Shepard said. "We need to press on to the beacon as fast as possible. We've already lost too much time. The two of you should be safe here. We'll pick you up on our way back."

"Commander, I would like to request that you allow us to accompany you. While we aren't quite sure what is going on here, we'd like to help however we can," Steve said, standing at attention. Shepard raised an eyebrow and looked Steve up and down. While the longhaired blonde with the hammer was bigger and much stranger, this one looked like a soldier. She stared into Steve's eyes and saw the horrors and victories of war reflected in them. She saw tragedy, but she saw the strength that could never be broken even under the most horrible circumstances.

"Chief? Get this man a weapon. He looks like he can handle the kick on an assault rifle just fine. "

"Are you sure, Commander? Alliance doesn't usually hand out assault rifles to just any Joe in a fancy costume."

"Do it Chief."

"Aye, ma'am." Williams reached behind her back and handed Steve her spare assault rifle. Steve was startled when the gun suddenly expanded in his hands, but the weight was all too familiar to the M2 Carbines and Browning M19s he'd used in the European theater. The stock and trigger assemblies hadn't changed either. Wherever he was now, the weapons hadn't changed that much.

"Safety is off, just squeeze the trigger to fire," Ash explained, pointing out the small switch. "Safety on to collapse it. Don't touch any of the other buttons."

Steve nodded his understanding and smiled when he saw the model designation on the side of the weapon: Avenger.

"Lieutenant, give the big guy your spare as well," Shepard ordered Kaidan. Kaidan reached for his spare assault rifle, but Thor stopped him with an outstretched hand.

"I said it before, I need no weapon save the might of Mjolnir."

The three Alliance members rolled their eyes, but Steve smiled.

"Whatever," Shepard said. "Let's move out. We got a high priority target on the other end of the tram. Keep your heads down and try to keep up, pretty boys," she said and ran toward the tram station, Ashley and Kaidan right behind her.

Thor grinned at Steve. "Ready for another bout, Captain?"

"Why, you getting tired?" Steve said and returned the grin. Together, the two Avengers effortlessly caught up to the Alliance Marines.

EDEN PRIME

Clint Barton was not having a good week. While blasts of superheated plasma slammed into the concrete-like pillar he was hiding behind, he ticked them off on his fingers.

One: being brainwashed by Loki. Clint had been asked to do some questionable things as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. But to willingly turn against his comrades and attach the Helicarrier, not to mention at the P.E.G.A.S.U.S. facility and at the Stuttgart Museum, left him with a pit in his stomach.

Two: having to fight Nat. Sure, they had sparred more times than he could ever remember and that he always gave as good as he got, he hated himself for fighting her inside the Helicarrier. He had tried to kill her, really tried, and she had bashed his brains in until he snapped out of whatever voodoo Loki had used on him. Clint still had a small mark where his head had bounced off the steel railing.

Three: the battle in Manhattan. Turning the New York island into a war zone, fighting ugly ass aliens, giant flying whale things, and running out of arrows like an asshole. And crashing through that high-rise office window hurt like hell. Not a good time.

Four: whatever the hell was going on now.

Clint had woken up behind a stack of metal crates, head pounding harder than ever, eyes sensitive to the bright sunlight. It felt like the gleaming light was stabbing directly into his brain and Clint covered his eyes with his bow hand.

At least I still have my bow and all the arrows I managed to scrounge up before we confronted Loki, Clint thought. Glad I still have a little credit upstairs.

Training took over and Clint took stock of his surroundings. He was on an open-air train of some sort at the bottom of a narrow canyon. It's a goddamn kill box, he thought and quickly checked sight lines and potential sniper nests. Clint didn't see anything amongst the canyon walls and breathed a sigh of relief.

Clint's sharp eyes spotted movement above him and he fell backwards in shock. High above him, miles away, was a massive craft shaped like a gigantic squid. Red lightning split the air around its spindly tentacles that jerked and swayed in movements that were almost organic in appearance.

"What the hell is that?" Clint muttered. He stood, still staring at the craft, and was nearly killed for it. Shrapnel burst in the air beside him as a crate burst from a bolt of superheated plasma. Stinging chips of wood and concrete sank into his exposed arms and neck. Clint ducked behind the largest container within reach and carefully peeked out from behind it.

"Robots," he whispered. "It's a bunch of goddamn robots."

A squad of eight bipedal machines with what looked like flashlights for faces was marching toward him, firing at the container. Two of them were carrying a large crate that looked strikingly familiar to Clint. They continued onto the tram while the remaining six robots aimed their rifles at Clint. Clint ducked back again and took a deep breath. He rolled the kinks out of his neck and activated the arrow selectors on his bow.

As one of Nick Fury's top agents and charged with guarding Thor's hammer when it first crashed in New Mexico, Clint had access to detailed briefings of all the "special threat assessments" that had begun to appear around the world. He knew from those briefings that Iron Man's armor was weakest at the joints, especially at the neck. While Tony had corrected this weakness with his latest model, Clint was willing to bet that these robots would have a pretty similar weakness.

Clint's fingers danced across the buttons on his bow, activating a standard broad-tipped arrow. While the least exciting and customized of his loadout, it was the best tool for assessing just how armored and vulnerable these robots were. Clint drew the arrow, notched it, took a deep breath, held it, and sprang out from cover. Letting his breath out, he loosed the arrow. It flew through the air and sank into the throat of the closest robot. A shower of sparks burst from the wound and the robot began to shake and spasm just like a human would have. It let out a ear-piercing shriek, fired its weapon into the leg of the robot to its left, and fell to the ground.

Looks like that worked just fine, Clint smirked and drew another arrow.

EDEN PRIME

That squid thing is really starting to freak us out, Bruce thought, feeling the Hulk's unease inside his mind. It is a lot bigger than those sky-whale things were back in New York, but there is something more...malevolent coming off of that thing.

Bruce turned his attention back to Natasha. Her breathing was steady and she had started to move her arms and legs slightly in her sleep. Bruce thought she might wake up soon all on her own. Whether she would be in any condition to move, or if she was injured internally, was another story.

Another explosion echoed in the distance and the smell of acrid smoke had begun to burn Bruce's nostrils. The fighting was getting closer and Bruce knew moving Natasha right now could do much more harm than good.

"Come on, Natasha," he muttered. "You can wake up anytime now." Natasha replied by rolling her head to the side slightly. Bruce let out a sigh.

Bruce could hear voices now, approaching quickly. He felt the Other Guy rumbling in his mind and could feel his clothes begin to tighten along his chest, shoulders, and thighs. Bruce's brown eyes began to tint green when a squad of eight men in helmets and gray uniforms appeared at the top of the hill. Four men armed with massive rifles surrounded the other four marines carrying a large and heavy looking stretcher, its contents covered in a sterile white sheet.

The armed soldiers surrounded him and Natasha quickly. Bruce raised his hands while physically covering Natasha as much as possible. While he didn't recognize the rifles the soldiers were carrying, Bruce instinctively knew they couldn't hurt the Other Guy. Go ahead. Make my day, he thought and a small smile flickered across his lips.

One soldier, a sergeant if Bruce remembered his military ranks from working with the Army so long ago, stepped forward and scrutinized Bruce's appearance. Bruce noticed that, even though he was armed, the sergeant didn't get too close. Even if he transformed, the sergeant would have been out of arm's reach.

"I think this is him," the sergeant said to his companions. "Is your name Bruce Banner?" he asked.

"That depends on who is asking," Bruce replied.

"He said you'd say something like that," the sergeant said with a light chuckle and raised an orange hologram generated from his left wrist to his helmet.

"Captain, we found the target. Please send immediate pickup to these coordinates."

"Excuse me," Bruce said evenly. "What do you mean target? Because if you intend me or my friend any harm, well, that's not going to end well for you and your men."

The sergeant raised his hand and his subordinates lowered their rifles. "We mean you no harm, Dr. Banner," he said and removed his helmet. "My name is Sergeant Gomez. We were given orders to locate you as soon as possible."

"How did you find me? And who gave you these orders?"

"Captain Anderson, of the Normandy. As for how, low levels of Gamma Radiation led us here," the sergeant said. "He told us that would be the easiest way to find you."

"Captain Anderson told you about the Gamma?"

"No, he did," Gomez said and pointed to the stretcher. Bruce stepped past the sergeant and recognized what was lying on it even before the soldiers pulled back the sheet.

It was Tony Stark, his helmet's visor raised, unconscious. Bruce felt cold horror creep into his guts when looked at the dull Arc Reactor in Tony's chest.

EDEN PRIME

Steve and Thor were able to keep pace with Shepard and her troops easily and, at times, had to be careful not to run past the trio of marines. Whenever they spotted a group of robots, the ones Shepard called "Geth", Steve and Thor were quick to lay waste to the mechanical beings, much to the amusement of their new companions.

"Maybe it's all a hallucination?" Ashley wondered out loud as Thor held out his hand for Mjolnir to fly back into. "Maybe we all hit our head when that flash knocked us on our ass."

"You think that we're all having the same dream?" Kaidan questioned.

"Yeah, sure, why not? Maybe it's some kind of new Geth weapon. Some new psychological warfare thing."

Kaidan thought about it for a second, then shrugged. "It could be possible, sort of like a mechanical version of biotics…"

Shepard rolled her eyes, reached out, and pinched Kaidan's check under his helmet. He yelped in pain.

"What was that for, Commander?" he complained and rubbed the sore spot.

"Prove you aren't dreaming this shit up," Shepard said. "Now move your ass. The tram is just up ahead."

Thor was the first one to see the tram station and the first to see the bolts of superheated plasma being fired at a figure taking cover behind a thick metal crate.

"Captain, yon archer needs assistance!" Thor called out. Steve spotted Clint Barton firing another arrow into the headlight of another robot before ducking back behind cover. He was holding his own, but was outnumbered and in danger of being overwhelmed.

"Take the flank," Steve ordered Thor. "I'll meet you in the middle." Thor nodded, whirled his hammer, and took to the sky. Steve lowered his head and held his shield out in front of him. He took a deep breath and sprinted for the tram station.

Shepard clenched her jaw tight to keep it from dropping open like an astonished schoolgirl. She had never, not even in N School, saw a man, Turian, Asari, not even a Krogan Battlemaster biotic charge was that fast. Steve Rogers ran in a red, white, and blue blur, firing his borrowed assault rifle while deflecting enemy plasma bolts, all the while never breaking pace or slowing for an instant! Shepard's sniper eyes could see Geth dropping from expertly placed shots. Who is this guy? Shepard wondered. How can he do that?

Beside her, Kaidan and Ash were wondering the same thing.

While Steve stormed the tram station from the front, Thor whipped across the skies. The Geth were too occupied with Rogers to notice Thor until it was too late. Thor plummeted to the earth, bringing his hammer down hard. A force of pure magic flashed outward in a shockwave, decimating the robots. Thor tossed his hammer into the air with a cocky grin as Steve arrived. He wasn't even breathing hard.

"These metal beings are even weaker than the Chitauri were," Thor laughed. Steve returned Thor's smile and nodded towards the approaching Shepard, Kaidan, and Ash.

"Think they think that?" he asked and Thor laughed again.

"Alright, seriously," Shepard said, finally more annoyed and frustrated than astonished. "What the hell is going on here? Just who the hell are you two?"

"He's Captain America. And he's the God of Thunder," Clint Barton said as he walked toward the group. "They don't follow the rules like we do."

"Who are you?" Ash asked, looking Barton up and down skeptically.

"Clint Barton."

"Is that a bow and arrow?" Kaidan asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Seriously? There's a gigantic squid thingy in the sky and we're fighting an army of robots. Me using a bow and arrow to kill them is what doesn't make sense to you?" Clint fired back before turning to Steve. "What's the situation, Cap?"

"High priority target at the end of these tracks. We're heading for it," Steve answer, all business.

"Let me rephrase that," Clint said before shouting: "What's the situation with where the hell are we and why are robots trying to kill me?"

"I have no idea," Steve said, "and neither does Thor. All I know is we ended up in some sort of warzone and these Marines needed our help."

"Excuses me," Ash started, but Shepard cut her off.

"Look we're wasting time here. We need to get to the Beacon before the Geth get it off planet."

"Hate to be the one non-superhuman or spaceman to point this out, but two of those Geth things took off on the tram carrying a really large crate. If I didn't know any better, I'd say it was a bomb."

"Oh great," muttered Kaidan. "What else could happen today?"

"Come in Joker," Shepard called into her Omni-Tool.

"What the hell is that?" Clint asked, nodded toward the orange hologram on Shepard's wrist. Steve shrugged.

Joker here, cackled a voice over the comms.

"Joker, I need a full sensor sweep of the area. Scan for biological, chemical, or nuclear assets."

Copy that, scanning now. Uhh, Commander? It looks like there are a couple low yield nukes deployed within a mile of your current position.

"What is a nuke?" Thor asked Steve, who shrugged. Clint narrowed his eyes.

"Fury didn't have you brief on how World War II was ended?" he asked.

"The atomic bombs, yes," Steve confirmed.

"Nukes would be considered the next generations of atomic bombs, but a lot more powerful, " Clint explained. "The one the World Security Council tried to use against the Chitauri was about one hundred times more powerful than both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs."

During his first few days after being thawed out in the modern world, Steve had scoured all the footage of the war after he was lost in the ice. He had seen the footage from Los Alamos and shot from the Enola Gay above Japan. While Steve had never fought in the Pacific Front, he never would have wished that degree of destruction on any human soul. The thought of a device over a hundred times more powerful than the bombs he had seen chilled him deeper than the North Atlantic ice flows ever could have.

"And these nukes are capable of destroying this planet?" Thor asked.

"Not the whole planet," Kaidan explained. "Joker's readings show that these are low yield, only 1 megatons each. Enough to wipe out everything for almost three kilometers."

"How many did the Geth deploy?" Ash asked.

We read only 4, but they may be placed too close together for the Normandy to get a good readout.

"Alright, everyone on the tram," Shepard ordered. "We need to get to these bombs and deactivate them before they take out the entire colony, and the Beacon with it."

As the Marines and Avengers ran onto the platform, Clint grabbed as many of his arrows as he could from the fallen Geth. He was suddenly very glad he hadn't wasted any of his more deadly and specialized arrowheads earlier.

"Cap, what's this Beacon she keeps talking about?" he asked once they were all onboard.

"It beats the hell out of me," Steve admitted. "All of this does." He stared down at the tram's track as the platform floated off the ground and sped forward. Steve had no idea how any of it worked. He remembers his smart-alec quip to Tony on the Helicarrier about electricity. He couldn't even be sure about that anymore.

Fortunately, the tram moved so fast, Steve didn't have much time to ponder how out of place he was. Within a few minutes, the tram was already pulling up to the other station. The station appeared similar to the previous one, open air and filled with assorted boxes and crates. Steve quickly looked for locations where a bomb could be hidden. What he saw horrified him even more.

"They aren't even trying to hide them," he said. "I can see four of them on the port side of the tram."

"There's another two on the starboard," Clint added. "About one hundred meters apart. And there are twelve flashlight heads standing guard."

"Not for long," Thor said and raised his hammer. It began to spark and glow, but Steve quickly grabbed the Norse Prince's arm.

"No lightning," he ordered. "It could set off those bombs."

Thor shrugged as if a nuclear explosion was nothing to him, but lowered his hammer as Steve ordered.

"We can't risk one of those things setting off even one of those bombs," Shepard said. "We take them out quickly and quietly, defusing the bombs as we go. We can't risk a firefight." She looked at Thor. "Think you can be stealthy?"

"The god of thunder does not go quietly," he rumbled, "but I will take to the skies and grant you the cover you need." Thor spun his hammer and shot into the air. Clouds began to form and the wind picked up, blowing towards the tram. Thick fog rolled in, shrouding the tram and entire platform.

"That's a handy hammer," Shepard muttered and drew her sniper rifle. As it expanded in her hands, she flipped on the light enhancements in its scope.

"Umm, when he said lightning, he meant like attacking fast, right?" Ash asked, still staring into the sky to try and make out the red of Thor's cape. "Not like actual bolts of lightning?"

"Yeah, sure kid," Clint said as he drew his bow. "Just keep thinking that." Ash gave him a look that would have made most men wither and shrink away, but Clint's best friend was the Black Widow and Ash couldn't hold a candle to Natasha's glare. Clint briefly wondered where his friend and partner was and if she was alright. He assumed, thanks to Steve and Thor's presence, that they had all wound up in the same place after the Tesseract went crazy.

Nat's around here somewhere, he thought. Hopefully, she kept out of all this nonsense and killer robots and grouchy women with guns.

Shepard ignored the archer and marine and motioned for the others to follow as quietly as possible. The makeshift squad of Avengers and Marines crept toward the occupied tram station. Shepard motioned toward a row of cylindrical metal containers just high enough to provide cover if they knelt behind them.

"Suppressors on," Shepard ordered. "Fire on my mark only."

Kaidan and Ash nodded, drawing their own sniper rifles and activating the built-in silencers. While cancelling nearly all but a whisper of the weapon's retort, the silencers decreased the weapon's range dramatically. Fortunately, Thor's covering fog had allowed the team to get close enough for a rifle half as powerful as theirs to do catastrophic damage to the Geth.

Steve looked at his rifle, wondering if it could function as a silenced sniper rifle as well. He looked at the multiple buttons on the side of his assault rifle, then remembered Ashley's warning. For all he knew, he may hit a button that caused the rifle to self-destruct or break into a dozen pieces. Steve switched the safety on, collapsing the rifle, and raised his shield. Better the weapon you know than the one you don't, he thought.

"Take them," Shepard ordered. The three sniper rifles whispered and three Geth troopers fell. A soft twipht from Hawkeye's bow downed a fourth. Before the remaining eight Geth could retaliate, Shepard had taken down two more. Ash took down another, while one of Hawkeye's arrows crippled the first Geth to begin moving towards them. Steve flung his shield at two approaching Geth, decapitating both, careening through the chest of the wounded Geth, before returning to his hand. Kaidan was so astonished by Steve's throw that he forgot to target the remaining Geth. Shepard took them out before they could bring their weapons to bear. The twelve Geth, all destroyed, had not fired a single shot.

"Thanks for the help," Ash said and gave Kaidan a dirty look.

"I'm not really much of a sharpshooter," Kaidan said and looked at Steve. "How did you do that?"

"Trigonometry," Steve said with a small smile. Kaidan looked at the star-spangled soldier with a confused look. He was about ask another question when Shepard stood up from cover.

"That's all of them. Spread out and locate those bombs. We're on the clock here, people," she said before turning to Steve and Clint. "If either of you reach a bomb before us, call out and one of us will be over as fast as we can to defuse it. Do not try anything on your own!"

"Yes, ma'am," Steve said

"You hear me?" Shepard shouted at the sky.

"Aye!" hailed Thor. "While your technology is still quite lacking compared to Asgard, it is still unfamiliar to me. I will keep watch over you."

"Is he always so cocky?" Ash asked.

"He's actually toned it down a lot," Clint answered, remembering Thor's swagger as he tore through SHIELD agents in New Mexico.

The group quickly spread out over the area, Shepard, Kaidan, and Ash leading the way with their Omni-tools lit to detect traces of radiation. The nuclear devices were fairly crude by Geth standards, obviously something jury-rigged rather than manufactured. While this made them easier to locate, it made them harder to disarm. The three Avengers stood watch, Steve and Clint on the ground, Thor from the air.

"Do you have any idea what is going on here, Cap?" Clint asked while Shepard defused another bomb.

"I wasn't even used to being back in New York this morning," Steve answered, his voice heavy. "For me, I was still fighting Hydra in Europe last week."

"Do you think the Tesseract sent us through time and space or just space?" Clint wondered. When he saw Steve looking at him like he'd just asked if Hitler danced the Cha-Cha, Clint smiled a little bit. "Sorry. The techs back home had a theory that the Tesseract has the ability to manipulate time and space. Stark could probably explain this better though."

Steve, remembering Tony's explanation of the circuit board back on the Helicarrier, gestured for Clint to continue.

"Basically, the idea is that the Tesseract could spend objects across time as well as space. That's how Loki got to Earth in the first place."

"So the question is, are we in a different time, different location or same time, different location?" Steve asked.

"Or different time, same location," Clint smirked. "For all we know, this could be New York City circa 4085." He pointed at a distant low rising hill. "Maybe that used to be the Garden."

Steve swallowed hard, trying not to think about it. He turned to Shepard as she was finishing the last bomb. Get some orders, he thought. Something real to focus on.

"What's next?" he asked as she stood up and turned off her Omni-Tool.

"Now that we aren't going to vaporized, we go secure the beacon," she said and unfolded her sniper rifle.

"And then?"

Shepard smiled. "Hope it doesn't vaporize us."

It was a short run to the platform that held the Prothean Beacon. The beacon was a tall, obelisk-shaped object giving off faint green light. Steve couldn't see anything overtly interesting or important about this small tower, but then again, he was still unsure about television and cell phones.

Shepard, Kaidan, and Ash quickly surveyed the area for any remaining hostiles. They did not see any signs of the Geth and neither did the Avengers. They were alone for the moment.

"Normandy, the beacon is secure," Shepard said into her comms. "Request immediate evac."

Roger, this is Normandy. Shuttles are in route.

"Roger, Normandy. Standing by. Be advised, we have three extra civilians who will need transport as well."

"Who you calling a civilian?" Clint smirked as he adjusted the draw on his bow.

"This is amazing," Kaidan said in awe, his eyes wide with delight. "Actual working Prothean technology. Unbelievable!

"It wasn't doing anything like this when they dug it up," Ash said, a hint of worry in her voice. "Something must have activated it," Ash said as he peered closer.

Steve picked up on it immediately. Between SHIELD's Phase 2 weapons development and the Tesseract, he had had enough of technology he didn't understand going wrong.

"You ever see anything like that before?" he asked Thor.

"Nay," answered Thor. "It is not Asgardian in design, but it is giving off some sort of energy I do not comprehend."

"Magic you mean?"

"Something like that," Thor smiled and winked.

"Hey, Ash! What are you doing?" Kaidan called out as Ash slowly walked closer to the Beacon. Her gait was unsteady and slow, she leaned back and forth with each step.

"It got in her brain," Clint said with worried surety.

"You sure?" Steve asked.

"What are you talking about?" Kaidan asked as Ash shambled closer.

"Hold it right there, Ash," Shepard ordered. "Ash? Chief Williams! Stand down!"

The beacon began to spark and a fog of green energy began to build around it. A bolt of energy reached out and touched Ash's chest, levitating her a meter into the air.

"Ash!" shouted Shepard and ran toward the beacon.

"Shepard!" shouted Steve and began to run as well. Shepard was closer, but Steve was much faster. Just as the energy began to crest, Shepard slammed her shoulder into Ash's floating midsection, knocking her down and away from the beacon.

The energy focused on Shepard and lifted her into the air in Ash's place. She went limp inside the field of energy, her eyes rolling back into her head. Steve reached her a heartbeat later, leaping between Shepard and the Beacon, his shield out to block the energy.

The energy pulsed against the Vibranium and, unable to pierce through it, swarmed around it, Steve, and Shepard all together. The green energy thickened and both Steve and Shepard began to spasm.

"Enough!" Thor roared and hurled Mjolnir at the Beacon. The mystical hammer slammed into the Beacon, shattering the relic into hundreds of pieces. The energy field vanished and Steve and Shepard fell to the ground. They hit limply and did not move.

Kaidan and Clint reached them almost as quickly as Mjolnir returned to Thor's hand. They pulled their respected leader's helmet/mask off and checked for a pulse. Kaidan and Clint let out sighs of relief as both Shepard's and Steve's pulse remained strong and steady. What was more concerning was the way their eyes rolled and moved under their eyelids, like they were experiencing a very vivid and horrible dream.

"Where's that shuttle?" Clint asked.

Kaidan checked his Omni-Tool.

EDEN PRIME

Saren rubbed his eyes to ease the building migraine forming in his head. He sat on bridge of his ship, Sovereign, and waited impatiently as the Geth technician removed his damaged mechanical arm. While that man in bright blue's 'weapon' hadn't cut completely through the arm, it had severed enough nerve connectors and servomotors to make it useless in the field. The arm was made from the finest and strongest materials the Turian Hierarchy could muster and that was before the Geth made their improvements on it. The man in blue's disc had cut it like it was made from paper.

The Geth technician garbled a query at Saren as it examined the clean, almost surgical slice in the arm under a scanner.

"No, it wasn't a cutting laser or plasma beam," Saren growled. "I've never seen anything like it. It was a circular disc, painted red, white, and blue."

The Geth technician let out another trill and beep.

"No, he didn't fire it at me," Saren said, his voice quivering ever so slightly. "I didn't hear any kind of shot. I think he threw it." The Geth technician looked up from its work and tilted its head in a human gesture so accurate it was almost mocking.

"Does the Geth Consensus have any information on the man in blue, or what could have cut through my arm so cleanly?" Saren asked.

The Geth technician made a whirring noise before continuing to repair the damaged arm.

Saren looked away and massaged his brow, trying to keep the building migraine at bay with his flesh and blood hand. The seizure-like images that the Beacon had implanted into his mind were wreaking havoc with his Turian and Geth implants. The implants were trying to sort and categorize the information; Saren could almost feel the implants overheating and wondered if there were tiny red dots of hot metal glowing between his skin and skull. Without the implants, Saren wondered if his mind could handle the strain. Saren felt the corners of his lips curl up in a grin that showed his elongated canine teeth.

He almost felt bad for anyone who activated the Beacon without his implants.

Heeled footsteps approached from behind Saren. The tall, blue skinned Asari Matriarch spoke as she walked.

"We identified the ship that touched down on Eden Prime. The Normandy. A human Alliance vessel. It was under the command of Captain Anderson. I recall you two are acquainted."

"Anderson is no threat to us. What of Nihlus? What was he doing with the humans?"

"Officially, Nihlus was there as a member of the Turian Hierarchy who helped design and construct the vessel. Unofficially, he was there to evaluate the human commander for SPECTRE status."

"The humans still want their human SPECTRE? How arrogant. Next they'll want a seat on the Citadel Council and the full rights of a Council Race."

"Indeed. Primitive as they are, they managed to save the colony and destroyed all the remaining Geth platforms."

"Inconsequential. What of the Beacon?"

"Destroyed," the Matriarch deadpanned. "Though, one or more of the humans may have used it."

Saren slammed his claws into the chair, piercing the control console there. Sparks sputtered and hissed, but were drowned out by Saren's savage snarl. He leapt to his feet, knocked over the Geth technician, and grabbed hold of the nearest bulkhead. With a roar, he ripped it from the wall and flung it across the room. The Matriarch tilted her head to avoid being clipped.

Saren closed the distance in two quick steps and stood toe-to-toe with the Matriarch. "These humans must be eliminated. See to it immediately."

The Matriarch held her ground, acknowledging the order with only the slightest of nods. Saren bared his teeth at her, his rank breath washing over her face.

"And get me intel on those strange humans with the Alliance Commander. I want to know more about them, especially the one who stopped me from killing Nihlus and damaged my arm."

"At once," the Matriarch said, turned, and left.

"Connect me with the Core," Saren ordered and sat back down. Immediately, a trio of thin wires snaked out of the nearest wall and twisted through the air until they reached Saren. He tilted his head forward and the three wires connected to small ports positioned around his skull. A wire connected to ports hidden in his frills near his temples, and the third connected to a port at the base of his skull.

Saren's eyes twitched and fluttered beneath his eyelids as the connection was made. A metallic, basso voice echoed inside Saren's mind.

SOVEREIGN ONLINE. I AM HERE.