Summary:

It's been less than a year since the Chitauri invasion was repelled by the Avengers. The city is just getting back to normal when a new threat arises. After what happened the last time aliens came through a portal, is New York City ready for visitors from Azeroth?

Notes:

Let it be known that neither I nor my co-conspirator own any rights to characters associated with Marvel or Blizzard. If I had a stake in either company, I'd be too busy making money to write fanfiction.

Assumptions are made that the reader is familiar with the Avengers (and related Marvel movies) and/or the game World of Warcraft. If you're familiar with neither, you are truly adventurous to be reading this and I commend your blind curiosity.

If you find yourself wondering about something related to WoW, I recommend looking it up either on the official game website, or on Wowhead (best WoW site ever so far as I'm concerned). If you're confused about something related to the characters that fall into the Avengers universe, go poke at Marvel's website and focus on the movies, for it is the movies this fic is based upon. A quick Google search should get you to the proper websites quickly.

In addition, this fic is set post-Avengers movie, pre-Panda WoW. The villains are original characters. Burn, 'Ice, and Golaugost are mine. Harvist, Shishido and Rhewi belong to my co-conspirator. (I say "co-conspirator" because I am the actual author, but the two of us discussed assorted details of the plot together and so we both have contributed to the end product.)

Prologue

New York City, New York, USA, Earth

Brown eyes watched the monitors intently. It wouldn't be long now. This was the crucial stage; the point where all previous attempts had failed. There was a slightly crazed look to the eyes as they glanced at the heap of metal and wires in the middle of the room. Sparks of electricity pulsed through the thick cables. A sharp beep from the monitors signaled the completion of the first phase. The eyes gleamed in anticipation as power flowed to the metal construct. Just a few more minutes and all those years of research and experimentation would be validated. So many had said this project was impossible; that it was doomed to fail from the very start. And yet here was the prototype, complete, and just a few short moments away from activation. Oh, this was going to be glorious.
As the final stage ended, the green activation button lit up. A deep breath was taken as a hand reached over to press the glowing green circle. At the press of the button a loud metallic keening filled the air. Sparks sizzled across the creation, but nothing caught fire. The keening soon faded to a dull hum as the machine began to move.

"Yes!"

A jubilant figure approached the strange mobile weapon, practically skipping with excitement, and took hold of the controls. Gauges indicated that all systems were fully functional. It was time for a test run!

"Let's see if you perform as well in reality as you did in the simulations, shall we?"

The creation shuddered slightly as it moved forward. The massive weapon charged and fired at the far wall. Gleeful laughter echoed through the workshop as the world exploded into chaos.


Feralas, Kalimdor, Azeroth

A nasal voice chanted steadily, the sound almost melodic as it twisted through the air. The spell, so dark and lyrical, had taken days of preparation. Nothing could be allowed to interfere with its completion. Not the clang of blade against blade, or the vocal warcries of combatants, or even the feel of the very earth trembling underfoot. No, the spell must be properly concluded. The magic was strong and powerful, and without direction it would lash out and cause great destruction to the immediate area. The caster had no intention of dying, and so the chanting continued as if there wasn't a small battle raging around him.

The fight itself was utter chaos. How both Alliance and Horde parties had stumbled across the clearing at exactly the wrong time was a mystery to the group of dark-robed figures. At least it meant that the "heroes" were just as busy fighting each other as they were their supposed enemies.

The roar of an angry bear filled the air as a fireball sizzled purple fur. The blue-skinned Draenei swung his mace at an enemy warlock, catching the orc in the chest and sending him to meet his ancestors. Arrows flew with great precision from a Troll's bow as her white lion closed his jaws upon the throat of a robed human. The Death Knight's Runeblade seemed to glow as the blood of enemies flowed freely over its surface. One of the robed figures tried to run, only to find himself tangled in a mass of thick roots which shot out of the ground to wrap about his limbs. Another figure dodged arrow and spell alike, freezing anyone who came too close. And through all this, the lone figure was oblivious as he focused entirely upon the magic he sought to weave.

There was a sudden victorious cry from the spellcaster as a portal began to open. But something was wrong; the portal did not hold steady in the prepared archway. It…rippled. Then flashed. In a violent explosion of light, the portal suddenly expanded. When the light faded, the clearing was empty.