Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel or Halo franchise.
A/N: Okay, I will the address the issues regarding the human military vehicles.
Guest: I know the actual sabre from the halo franchise, that being a gun ship. But in my story, sabre is a ground light recon vehicle. I hope this clears your doubt.
jackmaner126: Humans are hyper advanced in 62nd millennia. They have simply merged utilities of different vehicles. And do you still think maneuverability matters to them anymore? No! And one Mammoth is a multi-utility vehicle that can do more than what a tank and sabre could do together. Mammoth's Plasma mortars can deal helluva damage and the heavy pulse laser guns/cannons take up the role of tank's main cannon. Sabre is a light recon but a significantly powerful vehicle. Though not on par with mammoth, still, it's shielding is too hard to crack. So Sabres are more than enough.
The Mantis warmaster is the biggest tri-pedal exo-suit worn by soldiers and can take down multiple scarabs. It can easily survive an attack from the covenant Kraken itself and manage to take down one. With this exo-suit, humans doesn't need scarab or kraken. It's always the quality and not the quantity.
Spartan laser is a terribly obsolete technology.
minecraft93: Regarding the vessel, You will see it soon enough.
Chapter 4:
Stark, Banner and Hank all reached the top most floor of the Stark tower where the three made contact with the others who were already present, Captain America, Black widow, Hawkeye and Falcon. By the time they arrived, the four were already working on the hologram that displayed a lot of images regarding the attack on Earth. There were also projections on the strange ships that appeared near their planet.
"Shit! What are those ships? Or at least who do those belong to?" asked the frustrated Falcon.
But before the others could answer, there came a voice from their back.
"Definitely not seen before...JARVIS, what do we got?" asked Stark who hurried towards his team members. His AI projected another hologram of the huge mother ship that scaled up to 30kms across.
"Sir, the ships are off unknown profiles but-..." the AI paused to get everyone's attention. They wondered what it was that Jarvis found odd that was clearly evident in his voice.
"What is it JARVIS?" asked Steve only to hear something he never liked to.
"But the occupants are Chitauri" finished the AI. Everyone were stunned to hear that and their eyes widened in terror.
They had already faced the Chitauri, but they very well knew that those aliens never possessed powerful technologies like these. While the Chitauri considered themselves equal to the Skrulls, the latter considered them only as terrorists. So to see these aliens getting their hands on ships this big and powerful weapons was hugely disturbing.
"The Chitauri shouldn't be in possession of such power" said Hank Pym in disdain.
"But right now we need to shelf that because the moment we speak-..." Banner said as he went near a hologram to work with. Then it displayed Earth and some golden markers at some places on the planet,
"The satellite reading shows the Chitauri are invading at 8 locations around the globe" finished Banner.
"Key locations, as they are points of greater importance. Some scientific and some are military" Black widow added her thoughts.
"Then they are trying to strategically eliminate us by taking our strengths" said Captain America with his ever vigilant mind.
"This could be bad. But I'm also reading lots of feed from the Triskellion" said Hawkeye and just as he mentioned, Director Nick fury's image appeared in the hologram calling on the team.
"Speak of the devil!" muttered Stark who then answered the call.
"Director Fury!" saluted Captain Rogers, though not the actual salute, as the others got near the holo-display to look at their supporter.
Nick fury though cautious about the walking super powered beings on Earth, he was one of the reasons for the formation of the Avengers. He also helps the other young up and coming superheroes like Spider-man, (Kamala khan), Agent Venom, White tiger, Nova(Sam alexander, son of Nova centurion of the Nova corps). Fury as of now highly supports the superheroes and often act as pencil pusher in case of unavoidable, unforeseen collateral damage to public property while fighting the super villains.
"How's your vessel holding?" asked Tony.
"Not too good. It's only a matter of time before we get swarmed by these Chitauri. I don't know what the fuck do they want from us now!?" yelled Fury in frustration. Of course, he would be pissed off as it's a pain in the ass for him to deal with alien invasion. It was only 5 years since the previous invasion by the Skrull and it already made a huge dent in the city and the economy.
"What's the status of the others?" asked Black widow readying her shock gauntlets and batons specially designed and improvised by Stark.
"The X-Men, Fantastic four and all the others including Spider-man and some of our 'Trainees' have spread across the attack locations to stall the enemies. Danvers helping the Attilan. His Majesty at Wakanda and his armies are managing I guess" said Fury where Hawkeye picked up instantly,
"That-...leaves us in Newyork. So bad shit's happening everywhere and here I'm thinking about getting a vacation to Florida beach with nice hot babes!" rebuked Clint to which others simply glared at him for not taking the situation seriously. But Hawkeye had to say something to lighten himself up.
"What?" asked Clint innocently.
"You get your ass buried under the beach sand if you don't stop those aliens!" said Fury in a stoic angry tone. Hawkeye grunted and sighed in response, rubbing his forehead with his left arm.
"What about Thor? We can't reach him for months" asked Banner. That was true as it had been many months since they last saw the Norse God of Thunder. Its too unusual for an Avenger to be absent in the team for a long time.
"Last time we saw him, he said something's been brewing up in Asgard and that Odin needed him desperately. So he's out of this picture for now" replied Stark who was aware of the certain fact about Thor's situation. Others weren't that delighted to hear that as Thor was one of the strongest link with in the Avengers along side Hulk.
"Right then. Fury, I hope you can handle yourself" said Hank as he readied his cybernetic helmet.
"I do Hank. The President has called up the military aid in fighting them. Rhodes is providing his aid from NORAD HQ as much as he can" said Fury which brought Stark a moment of thought about his friend Rhodey. He knew his friend would have sprung into action before themselves. Of course, it's the military that always answers the call first.
"I, on the other hand managing to stop them at the skies"... "Things look bleak from here, but the ultimate survival is something only you can guarantee. Good luck!" said Fury calmly and closed the communication.
While this conversation was over, they could feel the rumble in the Stark tower as Rogers and Hank went outside in the balcony to look at the very mess the city got plunged into. They watched thousands of alien fighter crafts piercing the skies and wrecking havoc. The beautiful city was dreadful to watch burning with flames.
"Shit! This is bad, real bad-..." said Rogers in disgust and in split second,
"INCOMING!" cried Hank as he pushed Rogers and both got out of way as a fighter shot multiple energy rounds on wherever they were standing and the place suffered a mini explosion. Banner and Falcon went on to help them get back to their feet.
Damn! No point standing here. Let's kick some alien booty!" said Falcon.
"Avengers! Assemble!" Said Captain America as he grabbed his uni-fighter and flew away from the building.
"Well, I hope my current armor is more than enough" muttered Stark as he pressed a button in his wrist and in just a second, his whole body wrapped itself by billions of nanites, the bleeding edge armor.
"See you guys" waved Tony and he flew away. At the same time, Hank had used his helmet to summon flying insects. He then shrunk to smaller size with the help of Pym particles and flew away by boarding one insect.
"Looks like you and me. We will fight them from the ground" said Natasha.
"And also help the civilians down there" said Banner to which both nodded. Then the two boarded their uni-fighters and left the building.
Bruce was standing alone taking a look inside. He then walked to the outside to watch the situation escalating to whole new level. There was both alien fighters and some medium sized ships.
This very much reminded him of the Skrull invasion they faced in 2025 and to make matters worse, that time, Super skrull and Paibok too came down. But even amidst the mutual hatred, Hulk and Ben Grimm defeated them together...'Narrowly'. And the collateral damage they caused forced the government to order the SHEILD and the other Avengers to restrain and bring the Hulk to solitary confinement and that made Hulk even more mad as he felt betrayed despite helping saving the planet and managed to give a significant beat down to the army forces who used advanced technologies secretly bought from A.I.M, that were sent to fight him. The forces were led by none other than the then corrupted General Glenn Talbot who had his own agenda.
The Avengers didn't understand why they were so focused to restrain the hulk all of a sudden. Collateral damage was something that's to be expected in the first place when forced to tackle an invasion and especially in fighting beings like Super Skrull and Paibok. They even felt biased as they never accused Ben grimm as he too was fighting the two Skrull super soldiers and giving his own fair share of public damage. Besides, The Super Skrull possessed the powers especially to mimic the Fantastic four. Because of that, The Avengers and the Fantastic four had a short term dispute and that culminated to long term consequences.
Wakandan king, T'Challa analyzed the weapons that were used by Talbot to fight the Hulk and he instantly grew suspicious. He had his doubts that those could be the A.I.M as he had seen similar things when he had his run with MODOK. He remotely hacked A.I.M's cyber network and found that Talbot used A.I.M's help to capture Hulk and steal his powers for himself and for them to have the Hulk himself. T'Challa publicly revealed those information to the U.S senate. Poor Talbot couldn't defend himself as the Jury declared their verdict as guilty and he was sent to SHIELD's vault prison though he's not seriously big of a threat to be there. The Avengers could only laugh as he screamed and cursed abusively as he got his ass dragged away. A.I.M went underground to save themselves. Finally the relationships reconciled between the F4 and the Avengers.
Back to the Present, Bruce got angry at the sight of these horrors. His breathing rapidly increased and clenched his fists tight. The nerves started to glow mild green and his eyes turned bright green.
"No body messes with my city" said Banner gritting his teeth and then instantly grew big and green, tearing his dress apart leaving only a half torn pants.
"RRRAAWWWHH!" roared the green behemoth called the Hulk.
...
"HULK SMASH ALIENS!" roared Hulk and leapt out of the building and directly used his right fist to punch an alien fighter that exploded to pieces while another fighter dashed him accidentally only to suffer the same fate. He then landed on one building and leapt to another with great force and took down another two fighters with just a punch. Soon some of the aliens charged towards him to take him down as there were both fighters and Chitauri foot soldiers shooting their weapon.
"PUNY CREATURES!" yelled Hulk and broke away a large signal tower and threw it at the fighters and then he started punching and stomping the Chitauri soldiers like crushing the grapes.
Mean while Iron man was taking down some of the Chitauri fighters with his armor weapons.
He was flying over the South Bronx and was suddenly shot with micro missiles that shook him.
"Ouch!" Stark said in irritation. His helmet hologram then displayed multiple pictures.
"Jarvis, get me a head count on these creatures" said Stark while he flipped his body to look at the attackers behind and shot them down with his repulsors and then proceeded to fly forward at increased speed.
"Sir, I'm reading a lot of fighters all over the city. Metrics are useless at this point" replied his AI.
"Well, then all we can do is piss them off" said Stark as he used his micro missile lancets to take down multiple alien fighters which exploded and have it's parts fly with great force all over. That's when somebody came over his comm. It was Hank pym.
"Stark, the only way we can beat them is to take down their ship" said Hank.
"I know that, but first things first. We need to take care of these things under the sky" replied Stark. He wanted to bring things to a slow before going for the main event.
"Agreed" said Hank and cut the channel. Hank was using the flying insects to travel and alternatively shrink and grow to beat up the enemies. He grew beyond his normal to easily smash the fighter craft with his bare hands and then shrink to sub-atomic levels to kick the Chitauri soldiers with brute force.
Deep down, Stark knew that it's gonna be a very long fight, before they could even get to the mother ship. So he was tensed as he needs to find a quick way to dispose these things or someway to bypass them and get to the ship directly.
Falcon and Captain America were sweeping the Chitauri fighters near the Times square.
"Cap! You got 3 on your six" said Falcon as he got two fighters that flanked him on both the sides. He quickly flew above the left one and shot his dual SMGs though powerful Stark tech made, that cracked open the engine and blew up to pieces and one of the fragment hit the other causing it to lose balance. Then Falcon shot a powerful red glassy spike like material that pierced the hull and hit the engine, blowing it with a bang.
By the time Captain America was shooting laser guns from his uni-fighter that took down a Chitauri fighter craft. But noticed 3 fighters flanking him from front and the sides.
"FALCON!" he called out loud and did a sign language to which he nodded in response. Using quick sign languages always had served it's purpose well.
Then without wasting a second, Rogers jumped out of his uni-fighter, doing an air somersault at the same time throwing his shield hard towards the left fighter, whose iron-vibranium strength coupled with Rogers super soldier strength pierced the armor to incapacitate the craft and bounced off to hit the right side craft flying beneath Rogers body, who then managed to land on Falcon's back. The shield finished off the right craft by the time and reached Rogers grip. And one more second to get a fix on his target and he immediately jumped away Falcon and landed on the third fighter in front, held his shield high and hit the hull with brute force that instantly spit the parts and started to flame. Steve knew the craft's gonna blow, so he simply dived on his back from the craft only to land on his uni-fighter at the right time. The final fighter was finished off.
"Falcon, my scanners are showing large activity down the boulevard, time to finish them off" said the Captain.
"Roger that Cap!" replied Falcon and then both dived down the wide main roadway.
While the others took care of the skies, the chaos that spread across the streets were remedied as much as possible by Black widow and Hawkeye. Vehicles were burning, toppled, crashed. Both could hear the cries of the people as many were confused and scared to death and were running in random direction. Some buildings just caved in and smaller ones were out straight blown up. The atmosphere was nothing but dust and echoes.
Both the Avengers knew it's not gonna be an easy job to calm things down. It was only 5 years since the Skrulls invaded and just then they had recovered. Nobody's ready to survive another invasion.
"It's too bad Nat. It's only been 5 years and now what happen. Another freaking invasion! What do these jackasses wanted from us!?" yelled Barton in anger. Natasha couldn't help but wonder the same. The former soviet spy had many possibilities in her mind but none made sense.
"I don't know Clint, but something's really wrong. I don't know what to perceive out of this. Another invasion in just 5 yrs is not to be taken lightly. We need to find what's really going on" said Natasha as both helped the civilians scattered around to the safe place. So far the heroes in the sky have kept the enemy distracted enough to leave the ground side attack, just buying a little time.
The Civilians were quite happy as the famed Avengers came when needed the most. There had been a slight rejuvenation of hope among them after seeing the two helping them from this mess. But suddenly a blonde woman in her 30's came running in desperation towards them.
"Please help! My son's struck there! Please...PLEASE bring him back to me!" the woman cried with tears flowing down pointing her fingers to opposite side of the street where a part of the huge building had broken and fallen down.
"Calm down lady. I'll bring him. Stay here with her" said Hawkeye and giving nod to Natasha to which she did the same in response.
Then Hawkeye immediately ran towards the debris and took a look. Clint then heard a cry and then identified a small boy under a big boulder and with no space to get out of it.
"Hey kid! Stay there, I'll get you out of this"
"Where is mommy?" asked the crying kid.
"Your mom's safe. I'll take you to her though you may need to close your ears for now" Hawkeye said in an assuring tone to which the kid smiled and nodded. The boy then closed his ears.
Hawkeye knew he can't lift the boulder and clear up the debris. So he took an arrow whose head is fitted with a powerful sonic boom. He pierced the arrow hard in the boulder and immediately took a few steps back. He then used pressed a button in his bow and closed his ears instantly. The arrow exploded with a powerful sonic boom, a high pitched intolerable sound wave that pulverized the boulder. Then Clint ran towards the kid clearing debris that only had smaller broken building parts which he easily lifted and threw away. Then he grab hold of the kid. The boy tightly held the Avenger around his neck. Clint was sure the kid was too scared so he decided to take him to his worrying mother sooner.
"Let's go" said Hawkeye and ran towards Nat and the kid's mother. But in the middle of the road, he spotted three Chitauri fighters flying at great speed towards him and shot a few rounds.
"SHIT!" cursed Hawkeye and then dropped the kid down and immediately took three explosive arrows, aimed at the target and shot them. Each arrow struck the fighter and the next second, they exploded and the parts were flying over and to his sides. Clint prayed the broken crafts doesn't hit him as he don't have super powers to survive the impact. He immediately carried the kid and ran towards the widow and handed over the kid to his mother.
"Oh Sweet heart! Don't leave me like this!" The mother consoled his son. It was a nice and sweet thing to watch amidst the chaos.
"I'm sorry to interrupt but this is no longer safe place-...Nat take them away!" said Clint in hurry to which she nodded and guided the woman to safety. She once again turned and smiled at hawkeye and spoke,
"God bless you Hawkeye! Thank you so much!" she said.
No need to. Now go!" he said with a smile and readied his next set of arrows.
Mean while Captain America was clearing the skies of the fighter crafts with his unifighters and was flying above the Battery park where he used his shield to take down one fighter to his right and then the guns from his fighter to take down another. From there he reached the Brooklyn bridge where he noticed a lot of Chitauri soldiers laying waste. He instantly jumped off the uni-fighter and used his shield to resist the impact from the fall. He recovered by countering the force with a roll and got to his feet.
The soldiers immediately shot and charged towards him. He blocked the energy rounds with his shield as he ran towards them and threw his shield towards one soldier in front which then ricocheted to four others in a star pattern and by the time it reached his hand, he kicked a soldier in the abdomen with his super human strength that sent it flying crashing a car that almost broke in half. He then jumped above a SUV and then did an air dodge and threw his shield at the soldiers in that zone that took a few more. He then flipped a sedan car to take cover from overwhelming gun shots. By the time Iron man reached the place shooting his repulsors to make a few counts and then punched the ground and kicked the charging soldiers and shot a continuous energy blast towards Cap's shield which reflected on the other side. Rogers moved the shield and focused the beam towards the enemies, eliminating every soldier in their circle. Then Iron man prepared to fly away not before stopped by the captain.
"Tony, Something's amiss. The Chitauri have invaded 8 specific zones around the world" said Rogers taking a look around the dead soldiers and broken cars.
"You think they are here looking for something?" asked the armored Avenger. The fact was, even he too felt the same when the invasion began.
"No. But look at the attack. We have defeated them several times. But it looks like they have well learned from those defeats" said Rogers once again calculating the probability.
"Your point being?"
Rogers took his time to walk a few steps to look at the sky filled with flying aliens. He then turned to look at Tony who retracted his helmet inside to reveal his confused face. At this point, he didn't want to jump to rash conclusions, so he decided to listen to the veteran soldier.
"Tony, all the 8 locations are highly important. So that would need maximum protection. It's as if the Chitauri knew this. So that we would send more than usual number of superheroes defend them at any cost. This invasion down here is still only a distraction. If we don't eliminate them in space-..." said Rogers. Tony understood where he was coming as he too had the same hunch on the attack patterns.
"That makes sense. Wakanda, Newyork, Greece, Atlantis and above all, the Triskellion itself...They are highly important. With the overwhelming force, we will be swarmed and fail in our defense. Then...they would strategically take over Earth" said Tony and sighed a bit at the revelation.
"Divide and conquer is good, but this time they had just succeeded..." said Tony
"Almost. But no use keep fighting. We need to infiltrate their ships to check and capture if they had their leader inside guiding these creatures who had chosen not to reveal himself" said Rogers to which Iron man nodded in agreement and enforced his helmet back online.
"We can captain" said Stark walking past Rogers and looking halfway back at him,
"If-...we can" he finished and flew away.
With the Archer and the spy, As the woman and the child left to a safe place, Nat rejoined Clint and all of a sudden, more than a dozen Chitauri soldiers grappled down to the road surrounding the two. The soldiers were grunting in low tone.
"GET THEM!" yelled one soldier. Then the Chitauri soldiers made sudden move towards them. But these aliens didn't know this was Avenger's regular bread and butter.
Natasha instantly pulled her dual energy pistols that shot directed energy rounds at the creatures. Natasha used Clint's steady posture in holding him around his neck and go a round sweep and shoot the soldiers that instantly took 6 down. Then Hawkeye swept the bow to beat down an approaching soldier. Another one swung it's gun over Clint's head which he evaded by bending his torso back and then rolled over to the left to evade another low swing, followed by a left hook to the alien's face. Then he took out an arrow and struck it's head. Natasha blocked their attacks with her forearms and then hit them with their own weapons. The fight pattern followed and all the soldiers were dealt within the area.
"Hooh! I don't know how many freaks we still got to face! Even now, we are only part of the full team in Newyork as there are others spread across somewhere" yelled Hawkeye. He knew it's really a long shot in repelling all the invaders in Newyork, with being few in number. As there are still other members namely Doctor Strange, Scarlet witch, Vision, Wonder man, Wasp, Tigra being scattered with the others.
Natasha nodded in agreement and then called the team over her comm.
"Tony, these things keep coming and our attacks don't mean a damn thing. We need to take this fight to their ships" she said.
"I know that red head. But we are few in numbers. We can't even contain the situation in Newyork and we won't be able to even with our full team here" said Tony in a hard pressed tone as she can feel that he was in the middle of some fight while talking.
Natasha could do nothing but agree with the fact. And this wasn't the case just with Newyork but with all the attack locations through out the world. Even with the X-Men, Fantastic four, Defenders, remaining Avengers, Fury's New Avengers(Spider-man, Ms-Marvel, Agent Venom, Nova, White tiger(Ava ayala), Stephen Srange spread across the world, the Chitauri forces are over whelming and to make matters worse, this time, they had superior weapons technology at their disposal.
Natasha and Clint shared a look of desparation.
"I think..." she stumbled,
"What?" asked Clint feeling he wasn't gonna like what he's about to hear.
"I think we can't win this time" she said with the dimming hope and before he could respond, the whole atmosphere started to turn dark as the sunlight just faded as the city was covered by artificial clouds. The two were witnessing the change.
Meanwhile Ant-man was using the flying insect to travel and was alternative growing to man size in the mid-air and delivered powerful kicks to the Chitauri fighters who flew their own versions of uni-fighters.
He also saw the Hulk who was leaping from building to building and dashing and punching at the enemies who all died crying and cursing.
"HULK SMASH EVERYTHING!" he roared as he was man handling the soldiers like a baseball and also smash their crafts with bare hands. He then jumped high above a building and "**BOOM**", he did a thunder clap, creating a shock wave that forced the fighters out of balance and crash to ground and to the far off buildings.
And then there was Falcon who was doing stylish aerial maneuvers to avoid being hit by alien fighter crafts and then shot micro missiles that took down the few crafts into explosion. He also shot the red glass spiked from his suit's wings to destroy their uni-fighters. He then flew away from Hank and Hulk and then took a hard left towards where Baxter building was visible.
While this may seem a victory for heroes, It was truly a very narrow one, as the Chitauri still managed to turn the city to partial ruins. Buildings were burning with flames, broken to the roads, pipelines burst out. It was way worse than the Skrull invasion 5 years back.
The Avengers had been fighting for more than an hour. The fight had already started to take it's toll on the heroes as each and everyone started to feel exhausted except one or two. They had never thought that fighting the Chitauri gonna be this tough. They had fought them before, but this time, things were entirely different. Somehow they had got their hands on powerful toys to tip the odds.
That's when Hank witnessed the clouds and dark atmosphere and was stunned.
"My God!...Everybody! You seeing this?" asked Hank.
"I see" replied Stark,
"Jarvis, what's happening?" he asked. After a couple seconds, he got his reply,
"Sir, Stark satellites are detecting a powerful electro-chemical surge in the atmosphere" he said to the whole team.
"What's causing this event?" asked Captain America who too was on the line.
"I don't know but it's clearly artificial-...One moment..." The AI said as if it had been abruptly distracted by something else.
"Sir, there's something coming at great speed from the sky" said the AI to which everyone from their positions looked up to see a burning asteroid like thing flying at re-entry velocity appearing fully of plasma flame.
"What's the trajectory?" asked Tony. Everyone's got no idea of what this new threat was. But he decided to have everyone ready to get their attention towards that.
Some holographic markers appeared and Jarvis spoke.
"Sir, the point of impact would be near the plaza in the financial district" replied the AI. Tony immediately got the feed and spoke to the team.
"Is that a meteor or an asteroid?" asked Black widow.
"My scanners don't reveal much and we can't keep second guessing now" replied Hank pym.
"Hank's right, everyone converge at the financial district plaza. Let's see what we are truly up against" said Tony to which everyone acknowledged and cut the comm.
...
After a few minutes, All the available Avengers gathered near the big plaza in the district upon one of the widest roads. They all watched the flaming object neared their position from the sky.
"Here it comes" muttered Captain America as the others readied themselves for a hostile engagement.
That's when the object crashed into the wide road far away from the heroes position.
"BAAAAMMM" there was a huge explosion and tremors as it touched the ground with violent pound.
"Whoa! That was one hell of an entrance. Surely this day is getting a lot better" said Hawkeye to which others looked at him and then at the crashed object. That was exactly the same feeling everyone had at that moment.
The smoke that surrounded the place slowly cleared to reveal a huge hulk sized creature with a strange armor. He had dark armor that had molten lava like glowing lines all over the armor and mild vapors emanated from them. His or more precisely it's face was very demonic. He had lots of large spikes protruding from his body and even in his face. He looked bald or what counts as bald for something like that. It had animal teeth and the eyes were burning in flame. Overall, it appeared quite like a human giant but not human.
The being slowly revealed itself to the heroes only for them to see the huge creature slowly making it's steps. It also carried a huge battle axe that had hellish features. The heroes were startled at the sight. They instantly deducted that the fight's gonna be far from over and are even worried about the collateral damage they were gonna inflict to this whole city.
Iron-man on the other hand after getting his sights on the axe grunted in a lower tone but enough for his friends to appear. Because he felt like he had seen the axe before. It was familiar.
"Now who the hell are you?" asked Hank and there was silence. Then everyone readied their own weapons and the sound of energy buildup in their suits and weapons could be easily heard.
"You got one chance...To surrender or there will be consequences" threatened Rogers taking few steps front of the team. Iron-man on the other hand was trying really hard to remember the mysterious beings lava flaming axe and the burning demonic face. Meanwhile the Chitauri were laying waste to the city as usual with no disruption. They had never been in this kind of situation before. This time they felt like they are seeing a different Chitauri, so much powerful than before. They take out one and a hundred filled it's place.
"Oh c'mon! Think! I've seen that axe somewhere!" cursed his brain hard. Then suddenly he got a mild picture of the former design of the same axe, but in a different regular form. That's when it clicked his mind and immediately let a smirk.
"That weapon is Asgardian design. I know it! But who?" Tony rolled his eyes, tensed as he got near the answer.
The demonic being smirked and let a chuckling sound in it's low rumbling tone and started walking towards them.
"I'm sorry Cap, but I think he's deaf" said Falcon readying his suit.
"Well, how about a nice shot to the head?" said Hawkeye readying his bow and exploding thermite tipped arrow. Captain America soon joined his team and Hulk lost his patience.
"Guys, do we have any records on this creature?" asked Black widow.
"No, but I do get a feel like I kn-..." Tony said something before interrupted by Banner's alter ego.
"NO MORE TALK! HULK SMASH!" hulk roared and tore through the air at incredible speed.
"Hulk NO!" yelled the others, but the green scar didn't seem to stop. The demonic creature lifted it's axe and held it to his left arm.
"RRRAAARRRR!" roared the hulk.
"Hulk! Stop!" yelled Tony and then everyone paced towards his direction.
Hulk closed the gap between himself and the creature and when he leapt towards him with his fists tight ready to punch and shatter the being.
And the next thing that happened shocked everyone abruptly made the others to stop running.
**BOOM**
The demonic creature swung it's right arm and landed the fist upon the Hulk's chest with brute force that let an explosive sound of a volcano. The punch sent a shockwave that shook the others out of balance and the surrounding buildings had their glasses shattered. Hulk got battered by the punch and he flew uncontrollably in the air breaking through a series of 7 buildings, piercing them one by one to a point that the heroes couldn't see him. Everyone were wide eyed at the sight of what just happened. They never expected Hulk to be temporarily de-commissioned off the place.
"BRUCE!" Hank yelled and instantly turned to face the creature.
"Damn!" cursed Hawkeye at the sight and immediately sent the thermite tipped arrow head that struck the creature's chest and exploded with a huge sound and some lava got spit to the ground.
"HMM...HUH..HA HA HA!" the creature laughed maniacally.
"NOW EAT THIS!" the creature roared and held the axe above the head and hit the ground that instantly blew a big crater of lava. The nearby building lost it's base and got demolished into flames.
**BAAAMMM**
and the effect forced it's way towards the heroes.
"EVADE!" yelled Hank and the next second, Hank shrunk and escaped with an flying insect. Falcon carried Hawkeye, Iron man flew away carrying Captain America and Black widow. They landed on the other side of the road safely and before they could blink, the demonic creature leapt towards them.
"RRRAHHH!" the being roared. Cap and Widow rolled to their sides to evade that blow.
Stark used his armor's strength to directly block the attack from the creature's weapon. There was a heavy metal to metal heavy clanging sound. Stark was struggling for a couple seconds to hold the force as the being put too much pressure beyond even the bleeding edge armor's capacity.
'God, I wish I had my Achilles armor readyyy-...**GRUNT**" Stark was losing threshold. That's when Widow launched at the creature with her fully charged baton. But it didn't create enough force and the creature shrugged it away that shook her out of balance. Then he swung his left fist towards her. She bent her torso and dodged the reverse sweep attack. But then again knocked aside by another unexpected strike from the axe's handle.
"**GRUNT**" She grunted in pain.
"NAT!" Stark yelled in desperation.
And all of a sudden they heard a loud roar at a distance which distracted everyone. That was actually a huge building that collapsed from the basement as the alien fighters were being intercepted by military fighters.
"Now I'm losing my patience" Steve thought.
Captain America threw his shield hard to the creature's back that bounced back at him which managed to draw it's attention. Rogers then jumped high and landed a powerful round house kick to it's face and it wasn't enough. The creature adjusted it's jaw and by the time, Rogers gave a powerful punch to it's abdomen only for it's intense lava filled body spewing fire. Roger's fist instantly caught fire.
"Damn!" he muttered and blew the flame off. Then he noticed the creature intently glaring at him. Rogers wanted to keep fighting but didn't feel the urge as he too was staring a him. He assumed that the being was gonna mock him for a moment.
"YOU FIGHT VALIANTLY, SOLDIER. BUT THAT IS NOT ENOUGH TO PUT DOWN THE MIGHTY "SKURGE" OF ASGARD!" the creature roared finally revealing it's name. Rogers was stunned to hear that and so were the others whose face turned bilious.
"What the f-...!?...You're Skurge?" asked Hawkeye in shock. Skurge served as the executioner and slave to an asgardian mage Amora, the enchantress. Skurge was bound to her love spell that brainwashed him.
"I knew it! I thought I knew that big ass weapon he carried. I've seen that when I had my fair share of adventures in Asgard" replied Stark with a quick memory recap of his time in Asgard to fight Odin's brother, the God of fear. But he just can't believe the being they've been fighting was Skurge. He doesn't look like the half-giant anymore, but rather a twisted, corrupted dark entity with fire coursing through it's vein.
"It doesn't matt-..." Rogers said before interrupted by Skurge's another axe swig which he evaded by air dodge and block another attack with his shield raising a thunderous sound that knocked Skurge off balance.
"..-matter! We need to stop him and the Chitauri!" yelled Rogers.
"But how did he gain control of this Chitauri army?" asked Falcon firing energy glass spikes from his wing suit that exploded into Skurge's body, which was immediately followed by couple of electric grenades kickshot over his body by Black widow which again exploded...But to no effect.
Everyone wondered the same that how did the asgardian got control of the Chitauri army with newer and a lot more powerful technologies.
Iron man flew at supersonic speed and hit the ground with his arms raised charging up all the kinetic energy he gained into the repulsors and shot a huge beam towards the creature that would trip all the circuits if it were previous version armors. But Skurge blocked them with his magma flowing huge axe, and leapt high in the air and struck his weapon over Iron man. But the bleeding edge is resilient to withstand the blows from hulk. He blocked the attack with his arms. But that's when he saw a huge shadow trailing over him.
"Now what?" he thought and turned to look above only to find a huge object to all on them.
"Shit!" cursed Stark and dodged to his left. It was a huge freight train locomotive which Skurge cut into half and as the debris began to settle, he saw the Hulk roaring his way towards him.
"DIE!" Hulk yelled and gave thunderous blow to his body that mildly pierced his hide. Skurge flew back out of balance.
**GRUNT**
Hulk then immediately stomped the ground to make a huge piece of the rock. He leapt over Skurge and swung it hard over him.
The huge rock shattered and Skurge fell down. Then the green goliath began pounding on the creature that started to hurt the former asgardian. Only Hulk can do something like hurting beings that are considered on par with him. But Skurge kicked Hulk in the gut that sent him into the nearest building.
Meanwhile in NORAD HQ, Colorado desert
James "Rhodey" Rhodes is busy and tensed with the planet wide attack of the aliens. The officers there were working on each terminals to assist their own assets. Rhodey, aka War machine, Stark's best friend was standing in front of a huge monitor that displayed various images of the world and several red markings that signifies the points of invasion.
Rhodey became an Avenger later on. But his journey began with the heroes when he first met Tony stark aka Iron man in his armor in the American jungle when he was on a mission to blow up a rocket base. That was the first moment in the blossoming of their friendship when they recognized each other fighting for same cause. He knew Stark is rebellious and sometimes acts like an amateur, but he came to trust Stark to a point that sometimes, he defers to his judgement at times of greater crisis.
"Sir, the situation is defcon 3. Our initial response forces have been completely obliterated" said a lieutenant.
"Send all available units. I want all the falcons in the air. Also prep the stealth fighters with emp mine arrays ready. If we can't get it done, we need to make sure the EMPs knock off everything around a 1000mile radius from the insertion points" ordered Rhodey to which the officer nodded in acknowledgement.
"And I pray God it doesn't come to that. Tony's toys will surely get the job done, but end up being a total mess" he thought.
"Sir, SecDef want's to speak with you" said another officer.
"Patch him through" he said. Then after that in the large screen, appeared an elderly person with a face scar that shows he's been through his own fair share of ordeals.
"General Rhodes" he saluted.
"Sir" he said back saluting him.
"I want to know how this invasion is being handled. From what I heard last, Director Fury has sent his super human response squad to multiple places around the globe to die try and stop this and your friend Stark and his buddies are handling Newyork not so well" the old man said with a hint of disdain. Rhodes just pursed his lips at the comment.
"Mr. Secretary, All available assets are out in the air to respond to the threat. I am personally coordinating them from this base. At this point, a little appreciation from you would do good for our morale" said with a smirk.
"I ain't got that luxury, Son. But it looks like we are on the losing end. We are losing a lot of hardware more than we destroy theirs" replied the SecDef. By the time the readings displayed near by his image and it was positive. Indeed the fighter crafts were easily swarmed and destroyed by the Chitauri and that made him despondent.
"I wonder if the enemy's got a lot more secret powerful stuffs under their skin. *SIGH* It was only 5 years and here comes the pain again!" said the SecDef.
"What about situation on the ground side?" asked Rhodey now angry at the mess the world had got into. He's an Avenger and he felt the adrenaline rush and wanted to do something about this as the war machine. But as a soldier, he's still got his duties here in coordinating his people from NORAD.
"Mass evacuations are on the way. But God only knows how much casualties we have already suffered" he said hopelessly. Rhodey couldn't help but feel helpless. He started to wonder if his presence was gonna make any difference.
"We'll update the situation if...anything improves, " he said. The SecDef nodded and the channel was cut. He then folded his hands watching the screens of some live footage of the attack. He watched the X-men, Fantastic Four, Avengers, Fury's New Avengers fighting the now powerful Chitauri army. He also got to see the attack on Newyork by a huge strange creature with a giant axe.
"Holy crap! What is that thing?' he wondered. He also saw the heroes who are among his closest friends, fight that being.
"Sir, 53rd regiment command reports their Marine units in Washington's been wiped out. But we are still picking up 6 heat signatures over that building. They are calling in for any assistance" said an officer pointing to the holographic image of the building.
There was little hope. He felt he could at least go out there and save them and kick some alien collective asses on the way.
"Looks like they might have survived the assault" he said. Then he immediately turned to face another officer.
"Lieutenant Carter, You will coordinate from here. I am leaving now for a search and rescue mission" he ordered.
"Sir, Yes Sir!" he saluted back. Then Rhodey left the command centre to suit up and begin his work as an armored Avenger. He's now planning to fly to washington to rescue the soldiers from supposed death. But it might have already been late.
Meanwhile in Newyork...
The situation had only gotten worse. The Avengers seems like couldn't stop the asgardian.
"I wish Thor was here to help us!" said Antman who was knocked to the ground. The heroes already got a lot of bruises in their bodies, blood wounds on ther faces.
"He just abandoned us in the time of need! That's the fucking fact!" cursed Hawkeye who helped her to get back to her feet.
"HMM HMM HUH HA HA HA!...IT IS A POINTLESS WASTE OF TIME WEAKLINGS. GIVE UP THIS PLANET. MY MASTER MAY SHOW SOME MERCY" said Skurge in his growling vocals. The Avengers got together to face him.
"If we can't save Earth, we will make sure to Avenge it, bitch! Tell your master to suck up!" said Iron man who retracted out his armor helmet to reveal his wounded helmet.
"HUMANS!...AS STUBBORN AS ALWAYS...AND NOW THAT'S GOING TO GET YOU KILLED!" said Skurge letting out a maniacal glare at the almost defeated heroes.
The heroes were letting out heavy breath. Of course, they are already tired of fighting him. It's been more than an hour.
"No matter how many you kill Skurge, But try to remember who you were once. You were a proud Asgardian and now you are nothing more than a monster" said Rogers while others looked at him with a hint of confusion. They looked at him desperately.
"HMM, THE SKURGE YOU KNEW IS DEAD. I AM REBORN WITH MY MASTER'S HELP, THE ETERNAL FLAME INSIDE ME WILL BURN FOREVER" the being said with no remorse.
"And care to tell me who sent you? Who your master is? Coz we would love to pay him a visit" said Hawkeye sarcastically in the wrong timing. They were more worried about getting out alive from this fight alone.
"I'M SURE THAT WON'T BE NECESSARY!" the hideous Skurge grunted and hit the ground with his axe again that caused a huge indent, but Hulk quickly stepped in and level the road and prevented the rushing magma.
Then Rogers rushed and used Hulk to climb over him and leap towards Skurge, but was knocked aside and hit a car that buckled. Iron man then channeled his repulsors and shot a powerful straight beam at him. Skurge repelled it with his axe and deflected it back to him that threw Iron man out of balance.
Black widow and Hawkeye both ran in parallel and Clint shot a couple arrows with air burst tip that could blow a truck and Natasha throwing two electric grenades simultaneously. They instantly evaded the swinging axe and cleared the space. Skurge's body exploded violently spewing out even more magma, He then gathered himself up and made it clear that the attack wasn't enough.
Falcon then flew with great speed and hit Skurge in his chest that sent him few steps back. Then he evaded the creature's attacks and shot three spikes that did nothing. Hulk then jumped and landed few punches, but was shunted aside by his flaming axe.
**GRUNT** Stark grunted in pain after he was blown. He could see the bleeding edge was not so enough and is starting to wear off.
"Jarvis, I just wished I had the new Achilles armor ready" he said gritting his teeth in pain. The Achilles is probably Stark's most powerful creation yet. Powered by the ARC reactor with a new core, a strange energy manipulating crystal that he found on an ancient derelict spaceship at Iceland, That Ship really piques Stark's interest and he had decided to look into that when he get's time...if he lives through this ordeal.
"I am sorry sir, but still 2 days to go" the AI replied monotonously to which he simply let a jesting smile at himself.
"It's clear that someone he calls 'Master' has sent him. But who and from where? Asgard maybe?" he muttered.
"Given his origins, it is a possibility, Sir" the AI replied.
"Yeah, got it" he thought and sighed.
"If we don't stop him here, Earth's lost and there's no way we would know what will happen next" he thought losing hope.
"May be a miracle is all that we need" he thought and that's when his personal AI came back online.
"Sir?" Jarvis called out. Stark was too tired to even listen to it's voice.
"Not now Jarvis!" he said with disgust.
"Sir, but I insist" the AI retorted back. Stark sighed and he slowly got up to his feet by throwing away the rubble that fell on him. He just found that he was blown away by Skurge to greater distance that he could barely see his fellow Avenger fighting the creature. He knocked the dust out of his armor and went on to speak.
"Alright, What's it you got?" asked Stark.
"Multiple calls from your friends. Patching them through" said the AI. To Tony's surprise, it was the other heroes from other parts of the world who spread out to stop the invasion. Appeared in the helmet display were Spider-man, Mister Fantastic, Scott summers from X-men. Stark was amazed for a moment to hear from them as it had been a long time. As much he and his friends at Stark tower were heavily engaged in Newyork, they almost forgot about them. It was also a moment of relief as he could see they were just fine.
"Spider-man? Reed? Scott!?-...Finally great to hear from you guys!" he said. But deep down he knew they weren't okay. The fight had taken a toll on them.
"Not so great . Never seen the Chitauri so aggressive. They are swarming!" said the young leader of Fury's New Avengers and the web slinger from Queens, the friendly neighborhood, Spider-man.
"He's right, Tony. We are having a hard time shaking them. For every fighter we kill, ten take it's place" said Reed richards.
"The Chitauri had got a lot powerful. Their weapons, their strength are are on par with Shia'r. I guess things look bleak for everyone" said the current leader of X-men.
"I also heard Rhodey has coordinated his wings all over the place" said Stark who's not happy after what he heard from his friends.
"Yeah they are here effortlessly being blown up sky high by these creeps. Looks like we've to-..." said Spider-man who abruptly stopped, more like dumbstruck by something that he just saw up above.
"HOLY CRRRRAAAAAPPPPP-...!" he cursed at something much to other's confusion.
"Spider-man, what happened!?" Tony asked.
"Friends, you need to see this" he said quickly turning the display of the sky that Spider man was looking at.
"Wait! I too see that!" said Reed and Scott looking over the skies.
"What are those things? Alien fighter crafts from another unknown faction?" finally Reed broke the silence as he saw strange alien like fighter jets hovering the skies at blinding speed. Scott confirmed the same.
Stark got a load adrenaline rushing into his blood. He started to wear down mentally as he assumed that some new alien civilization has entered Earth to raze the planet. It was as if he almost decided that it's done and done.
"Oh My Goodness!-...They are shooting at the Chitauri fighters!" Peter parker yelled in surprise. Others were shocked to hear that.
"What? You mean to say they are friendlies?" Stark asked wondering which alien race would take interest in helping humans. If his memories served any better, its actually none. Everybody's got a blood grudge against the Earth's superheroes.
That's when Stark's personal AI lit up again.
"Sir, Those strange alien crafts are here in Newyork too. They are decimating the Chitauri crafts at unimaginable pace"
"Looks like somebody gave me the miracle I wished for!" he thought.
"Alright, we don't know who's helping or pretending to help us. But one thing at a time. We will carry on and will catch up to it once this is over" he said.
"Alright Tony" Reed responded as the other two acknowledged. The channel was cut and as Stark retracted his helmet back and looked at the skies to see the same, too oddly looking alien crafts that expended lots of blue energy from the thrusters. The crafts are firing highly powerful directed energy rounds and strange missiles that pulverize the Chitauri to molecules.
"F**k me sideways!-...What is even powering those!? The power cycles would need a significant overhaul from something more durable than a fusion reactor to have something like that!" the scientist inside of him thought of such an incredible possibility. His armor's sensors picked up lots of deutron particles expended at very high energy from the thrusters. He couldn't believe such thrusters are even possible.
He then flew towards his friends who were still having a hard time fighting Skurge. They were even more hurt from the curb stomp.
"Tony where had you been, man? You are supposed to help us" said Hawkeye who already have a wound in his cheek. and some burnt ash in his body. Others gathered near him.
"Looks like we already have help" said Stark pointing towards the sky as everyone looked up. Everyone were awestruck at the sight of strange crafts flying and were killing off the Chitauri fighters at blinding speeds.
"What in the blue hell are those-...Things!?" asked Falcon who was astonished.
"Are those alien crafts?" asked Black widow in awe. She already ruled out the possibility of SHIELD's secret weapons program as nothing gets to pass without her knowing. She then deducted that those fighters could be some other alien species they haven't known all along. She's already dying to know what those powerful crafts were.
"My God! Could something like that even exist? I can't even believe my cybernetic helmet's scanners are showing the crafts are unmanned" said Hank.
"Is that some SHIELD's secret program?" asked the archer.
"No, Fury would never keep things away from me. If I didn't know, then it's not SHIELD. I'm not even sure, if we can trust this" replied Natasha with a hint of confusion. Actually, she herself are not sure, except seeing the might of those weird technology. She could say that it's totally unconventional for any organization, be it good or the bad ones, to develop such technology. For now she's happy that the tides are turning for good or for the worst to come.
"WHAT IS IT WEAKLINGS? TIRED OF FIGHTING?" the creature mocked the heroes. It was Natasha who answered.
"Looks like somebody's taken a bad liking to your kind it seems" she said with a smirk.
Skurge immediately looked above to find his forces being decimated by some unknown parties.
"WHAT? WHAT IS HAPPENING?...ANYBODY RESPOND...SEND ALL THE FORCES...DESTROY THIS PLANET!" he yelled trying to call the thousands of Chitauri ships in space to enter Earth. But to his surprise, there was no reply, just dead silence. Now Skurge started to get pissed off by the turning tides. He felt like he was starting to lose the fight he nearly won.
He then watched as the heroes symbolically mocked him back.
"I WILL KILL YOU ALL!" he roared and charged towards them and so did the Avengers.
...
In the outer space...
John-117 and Cortana are in the bridge getting ready to face the Chitauri. Their flagship Labyrinth of Chaos was hanging at the edge of the system until their alarm went off after detecting the Chitauri attack on Earth. They needed the help of the heroes who have knowledge on the multiverse in reconstructing the multiverse chart to get back to their reality. Until then, they are stuck here.
"Cortana, what's the situation?" asked the Spartan who was in his armor sans the helmet.
"Well, you can see it. I am reading 1500 Chitauri ships, each a kilometre long, around Earth that's sending a lot of fighter crafts to swarm the place" she replied.
"Are they the same ones?" he asked. It was they who encountered the Chitauri in their universe and their presence here simply made things complicated. John's suspicion was too high. From the beginning, he had this weird feeling of walking into traps.
"I wish Kurt were here" he thought.
Of course, Spartan-II Kurt ambrose was the best at sensing traps. He used to say that he 'Feels' them miles away, no one knew how he do that. But its a fact that every spartan II were unique in their own fashion. It really paid off well during their missions in dealing insurrection activities back at 26th century.
"What is that activity on Luna?" asked John who saw the hardlight holo-display revealing live relay on moon with sensor data.
"According to SHIELD's files, there is an Inhuman royal family located on a place they call Attilan. Currently, a super-human named Captain Marvel, as she call herself is helping them thwart the invasion" replied the AI.
"Do they need help?" asked John.
"I don't think so, but Earth's taking the worst. At this point, we may even lose it" said Cortana feeling bad and her friend could see it in her face.
This reminded John of the war with the covenant. Even with the technological superiority, Covenant vessels swarmed the human colonies with sheer force that gave humans no chance even for a narrow victory. If not for the OPERATION: FIRST STRIKE, Earth would have definitely fallen and with that the whole human race and it's identity. Fall of Reach was more than enough to bring down their morale.
To see the same thing happening to 'his' race no matter the place who are not even as advanced as his 26th century counterparts, he couldn't sit well with it.
"Right, we need to steer clear of the ships here in space" he said with firmness in his voice.
"You don't say" she replied back manipulating the holo-display.
"Bring the shields to normal level. That's more than enough to tackle their ships board weapons" he ordered.
"Even that's an overhaul. I'm bringing all particle cannons online" she said as she confirmed in the display.
"Also key in all the seeker and reaper missile pods. We'll finish with this minor distraction and get down to help them" he said casually. Of course, humans of the 62557 AD are the most advanced in their own universe. John and Cortana had already assessed the Chitauri's strength and they are right not to be afraid of anything.
"Right, I'm bringing the ship at the position between Earth and Moon" she said as the ship moved to it's strategic position.
While at the Chitauri vessel, the ships were sending it lots of fighters. The ship board soldiers were talking in their language.
"Send all the forces down. Earth will be ours! And So does the victory" said, a ship's bridge commander and that's when the alarm went off.
"Commander, Sensors are reading an unknown huge vessel heading to a point between Earth and it's moon" said an operator.
"Show me!" the commander yelled. Then their holo display emerged and revealed a huge ship of 260 kms tall, 115kms length and 100kms wide.
"What in the heaven's name is that?" asked the commander, not believing his own eyes at the size of the behemoth. There's no ship that big in this universe except the one called Tau II, the solar system sized mobius strip shaped ship of a cosmic entity called the 'Galactus'.
"Sir, the ship is very difficult to read It looks like they-..." the operator Chitauri said before another warning set off.
"it is going to fire upon us!" it yelled.
"Bring us in to defence position!" the commander barked and before they could blink, they saw a huge energy beam that crossed their vessel and pierced through multiple vessels with ease, already making a count of 50-60 ship.
"All ships, fire at the big vessel" the commander barked, but his time in fear as they never seen a mighty attack like that. Not even kree, skrull or the shi'ar had done that.
All the vessels fired their most powerful ship board main DE cannon that lunged towards the huge ship. As the main cannon rounds from 1400 hundred ships hit the single vessel. The Chitauri were able to see the whole ship being swarmed with bright light like a nova. After a few seconds, the light vanished and they were already celebrating their victory of taking the ship down. But what they failed to realize soon dawned upon them. The huge ship stood intact with not an ant sized scratch.
"Commander, the ship is fine. Our attacks didn't do a thing" the weapons operator said in shock.
"The commander of Chitauri tensed up. They had never seen anything that can withstand this attack.
"We need to warn Skurge of this new enemy" he thought.
Meanwhile in John's ship, John could realize that they had already got the Chitauri's attention just by mere appearance at the line of sight.
"Looks like the enemies have garnered our attention. Or ironically we did theirs. Either way, on your word, John" she said with a smirk.
John waited for a minute. He was already seeing thousands of ships ready to attack them from the display. He also read his ships ready to fire. He made his mind.
"Fire" he said.
"With pleasure" she said as she touched a hardlight console that lit green. And soon they could see the fortress vessel's particle cannons fired. A beam of 500TeV annihilated Z-bosons from a single cannon instantly pierced around 65 ships end to end in the L.O.S as John watched the ships getting shattered to dust with no trace.
"Bingo 65 down" she said cheerfully.
"Send all the first barrage of missiles and heavy plasma accelerators" he said not before the display turned red.
"Looks like they got a good lock on us. In 10 seconds, 1400 hundred ships will fire their main cannon" she said with no hint of distress. That's because the Chitauri are in for a real surprise.
"Let's see what they can do" he thought. Then all of a sudden, he and the AI watched 1400 ships launching their main weapon. As the rounds hit his ship, it was fully covered with plasma light with negligible vibration. As things settled down, Cortana watched the sensor readings.
"Shields down only by 09% and recharged" she said looking at John and nodding disappointingly. John was never a soldier who underestimated his enemies. This may be a good news, but he's always on the lookout to avoid nasty surprises.
"Pile up everything and finish them" he said and Cortana launched the seeker and reaper missiles, heavy plasma accelarators towards all the enemy ships. If it were 26th century and the enemies were Chitauri, this fight would have lasted longer and even might have stood at the receiving end. But despite the advanced nature, the Chitauri stood no chance against the weaponry built by tier-0 inter-galactic empire. It was a pure curb stomp.
The missiles and the plasma shots did well against the Chitauri vessels. The attack scorched the ships surface penetrated the inside and blew it up on the whole. John and Cortana watched as 1350 ships that were surrounding the planet were torn apart. The missiles did great at tracking the target and adjusted their trajectories. Because of that, the evasive maneuvers and escape tactics didn't work. Even the ships that were not at the flagship's line of sight were surprised by the sudden attack.
John realized that the Chitauri don't have the militaristic sense in their nature as he recognized the flaw in their attacks. All the 1500 ships were concentrated at one place pointing the planet which is big fatal mistake when facing powerful enemies like their own ship. But even if they did, the fortress has weapons that can fire omni-directionally, so no enemy has a chance to even get near, let alone an un-coordinated Chitauri.
"That's it, 1350 vessels are nothing more than a flour. 50 ships simply escaped Earth with their own FTL, Chief" she said earning a look from the spartan though she couldn't see John's face expression, she didn't have to know his thoughts.
"*SIGH*..Well habits" she responded with a shrug. John was not offended, but it's been a long long time since he went by that rank. But John didn't forget the past as it was by that rank he fought the insurrection and the immediate and long standing war with the covenant, flood and the rogue forerunner Didact.
John stood silently as he nodded satisfyingly at the outcome of the attack against the Chitauri..
"Does their ships use slipspace?" John asked curiously. He didn't mind the 50 ships escaping the scene. he knew they would deliver this warning to their leader and he would always be ready when he faces them again.
"No, the normal space, where they pull the spatial fabric from ship's bow to stern and propel themselves at FTL speeds" she said. John easily understood the function.
"More like a bow and arrow. That's flawed. They need to be careful in their path. A small miscalculation could end up hitting a planet whose warped kinetic force would create an effect of an asteroid bombardment" he said analyzing the physics in seconds, behind such nasty incidents. Cortana nodded with a smile.
John might be military man by blood, But Spartan IIs as of 62557 AD are more like scientists who can pull the trigger and get their hands bloody. The continuous augmentations not only increased their physical strength but also their mental strength and abilities.
"Right, now that this threat is over, We need to help Earth" she said.
"Get the longswords and broadswords in the air to clear all the fighters at these incursion points" he said as he shifted a hardlight holopanel to lit up a display of 3D earth and marking at the 8 locations where the enemies have invaded.
"On it. Sending in the fighter" she said as the fighters from the Labyrinth's bays exited and entered the planet's atmosphere.
And that's when he caught the sight of the small display that had a live relay of a fight at Newyork. John's eyebrows shrunk and he touched that part and extended his arms. The display zoomed and revealed a group of super heroes fighting a strange creature who was as big as the hulk. The creature wore an ornate armor that exhibited ancient times, carrying an axe. Also he saw magma like content flowing inside it's body. It's face was hideous enough to be seen only in horror movies. Cortana joined his friend at the sight and her face turned awful.
"Now, why do I find the flood so cute?" she asked sarcastically. But the spartan didn't mind that.
"What can you tell me about that thing?" he asked keenly focused on his mission.
"Well, the reading's here is not much useful" she replied slowly turning to look at her 7'10" tall armored friend with her eyebrow lifted.
"But, not if you can help by getting down there" she finished.
"You sure that's a good idea?" he asked. Cortana effortlessly understood the motives behind his question.
"I know that you are still wary of revealing your presence known to the others. But look at them, they need help. They wont last another hour" she said now in a serious tone. John knew Cortana was right. The only thing he cared was what's about to happen next. But he cleared his mind and decided to aid the heroes in his way, the way of a Spartan II.
...
The Heroes at Newyork were almost defeated by Skurge or what was once Skurge. But there was a sudden turn of events as the Chitauri fighters were destroyed easily by some party to their advantage.
Right then, the asgardian was pissed off and he fought aggressive but predictably, blinded by fury.
The Avengers were finding easy to fight Skurge as of then as they found a renewed hope seeing the fallen Chitauri army in the sky.
"We finish him, I hope we will stop this invasion" said Rogers as he dodged an attack and as Skurge was about to pound the ground, Hulk came and blocked the attack of his right arm and steve blocked the left arm. By the time, Hank pym shrunk his size and used his full strength to give a hard stomp to his face that shook him off balance.
"HULK STILL FIGHT" he replied.
"NO ONES HELPING YOU! YOU ARE ALL GONNA DIE!" he yelled and was about raise his arms and pound again, that's when everyone heard a huge scream due to air friction and suddenly Skurge was receiving a missile into his body.
"Shit!" cursed Stark as he dived towards the opposite direction and there was a huge explosion that covered a large portion of that area, knocking out both Skurge and hulk, leveling the area and knocking out the glass from the building. Stark was protected by his bleeding edge yet had half of electronics fried. Hulk survived the explosion with his thick hide.
Skurge flew back and hit the ground hard on his back. Luckily, the other Avengers were out of the blast radius.
"Now what the hell was that?" Barton asked looking at the attack.
"Don't kno-...Look!...There!" Natasha said pointing to the sky. Everyone looked up to see one of the fighters that destroyed all the Chitauri flew below and ejected something or more precisely someone huge.
Everyone got their sight on that. They could see, it was gliding in the air at high speed directed at them.
"Uh-ohh! Who or what's that?" Falcon asked as everyone got their attention at the flying being.
"Jarvis?" called out Stark.
"I'm sorry sir, but I couldn't scan anything. But the being's armored it seems" the AI said for everyone to hear. Stark cursed under his breath. He started to wonder if it's some new enemy they had to face.
"My helmet's scanner don't reveal a thing, hell it's bouncing off" said Hank who astonished and wondered if that armor was an advanced technology. Stark equally wondered the same.
Then the being came close for everyone to see it clearly. It was someone in a dark grey matte finished armor that had the grandest, elegant, flamboyant design from head to toe. The helmet had a blue visor(helmet design is a blend of MJOLNIR and Didact's helmet. Visor looks more like Locke's visor). The armored being then did an air dodge with an upside down full body spin and landed with a fist pound to the ground that created a light tremor.
"**WHISTLES**...Now that's what I call an entrance!" exclaimed at the sight of a new never before seen being in front, though deep down feeling restless. Everyone got to see him having two hands and legs, appearance that of a human. Natasha felt her eyes popping out at the sight of the armored man. Stark, Hank, Falcon, Rogers and Hulk wondered who this new guy was. Despite the appearance, they are not sure, if that being was human.
"You!" Rogers called out as the armored being lifted it's head and stood with it's both legs looking at the man in blue star striped suit and a cap. Rogers mildly raised his eyebrow as he could see he was above 7 ft.
"Shit, he is 7'10" taller. My scanners are scrambling when I try to scan that being" he said loud for others to hear and they were shocked.
"Sir, the armor's material-..." the AI stumbled.
"What about it?" Tony asked confused at the stress in his AI's voice wondering what could have tipped even him.
"It's compressed alternate layers of molecular Titanium and Iridium and the even more weirder part is...The density reveals it be a degenerate composite. I can't say anything more than that" the AI spoke to everyone's awe especially Tony himself and his fellow scientist Hank Pym.
"What? That's impossible! Degeneracy can never be created artificially without collapsing down the material at sub-atomic level. No race in this universe is that advanced" Hank said peering.
"That's right. But also it explains why my sensor scans been bouncing back. Signals can't pass through degenarate matter" Tony said slack-jawed due to the shock at the revelation of something that's impossible to exist.
"You mean to say that we have another huge headache to deal with?" asked Hawkeye vacantly.
"HULK NOT FEELING GOOD WITH THAT TIN-MAN" Hulk said in his deep growling voice.
Rogers called out the being as he walked towards it and it was approaching him too.
"Who are you? or What are you?" asked Rogers who had his shield ready so much that he ever gives out a hostile move. To everyone's surprise the being talked in pure English that really stunned the heroes.
"For now, call me Spartan-117" he said. Rogers didn't know how to react, but he instantly recognized the militaristic tone in his voice. Deep inside his conscience, he believed that this man was not an hostile.
From John's point of view, it was really a tough ride. He ordered Cortana to send the birds to finish of the hostile alien forces in the planet's atmosphere. Now he just blew up the demonic creature and made a dashing entrance to garner enough attention. John was looking at a fellow super soldier who he previously read as Captain America, the WWII hero.
"Spartan-117? You some form of military?" asked Rogers. He could see the exotic build of the armor. He could easily say that it could never be a human architecture. But the word 'Spartan' changed his views as he started to suspect whether he belonged to this world.
"Yes. But we ain't got much time to play 100 questions. We need to stop him" John said as he pointed towards the fallen creature at the distance.
"Really? Sorry to be rude, but who are you? Where are you from?" asked the Russian red head curiously looking at the armored figure. She was wild eyed with what she's seeing in front of her.
"I'll explain when the time's right, Mam" he responded stoically to which he raised her eyebrow.
"Those strange crafts that destroyed the Chitauri fighters...Are those yours?" asked Tony at the same time trying to analyze his armor. He mentally even acknowledged that the armor's appearance was the best thing he had ever seen in this universe.
"Yes and we need to stop that thing before-..." as John answered was distracted by the growls and grunting of Skurge, the executioner, who slowly got to his feet after being battered by the missile.
"Are you human?" asked Ant-man who was amazed by the figure.
"Yes and who is that?" asked John. The Avengers were stunned to hear that he was indeed a human. That only raised their suspicion even more as humans are not capable of designing and developing these kind of armors, not even Tony Stark and also humans are never that tall unless affected by gigantism or acromegaly. The only other option is some secret super soldier program like Cap.
"He's Skurge, the Executioner. He belongs to Asgard. But he doesn't always look this mean. Dunno what's wrong with him" the archer answered looking at the 7'10" tall.
John having gone through SHIELD's personal files on meta-beings, learned about the real existence of characters of Norse legends which he found too odd. He also went through the profile of this Skurge. He learned that he was once a slave to a sorceress called Amora. He never paid attention to magic.
"Skurge? I thought, I read that he was a half giant. But he looks hideous" John confusingly thought.
"NOW WHO ARE YOU STRANGER? AND YOU MORTAL DARE TO STRIKE THE MIGHTY SKURGE OF ASGARD!" he growled in his demonic voice.
John immediately summoned a Pulse Fusion Rifle into his right hand that came through micro slipspace container and the heroes were stunned at the sight.
Stark and Hank didn't even know what to think of that. They saw a blue energy field from where a blue-black colored weapon appeared into his hand. Stark already started to feel his adrenaline rush into his blood.
"My god! How did he do that? Where did the weapon come from?" Hank thought. Others couldn't even comprehend what they just saw.
"This is Spartan-117. I ask you to surrender peacefully or I will be forced to take measures on you" John said in his usual monotonous voice.
Rogers could confirm that this guy was military. But what he couldn't understand was to which part of secret program he actually belonged to. He could easily say that he must some sort of special weapons program to carry unique abilities with him. He also feared if he was part of evil organizations like A.I.M or HYDRA.
"THIS MUST BE THE BIGGEST JOKE. YOU DARE HUMAN TELL ME TO SURRENDER! YOU WILL DIE FOR THIS!" roared Skurge and charged towards him. John didn't give a second thought and he started firing his weapon that spewed multiple bluish arc filamented proto-star rounds at the creature who was immediately stopped by it.
"RHRRRR" Skurge grunted in irritation. Even with the magma flowing into his body, the rounds still caused him discomfort.
Iron-man in particular was startled by the DE rounds.
"Jarvis, analyze that weapon" he said and the AI highlighted the Spartan's rifle and some readings appeared.
"The weapon actually shoots a dense micro stellar round made from Lithium ion fusion" replied the AI.
"Holy Shit!" he cursed loud.
"What happened Tony?" asked Falcon and Rogers.
"That Spartan's weapon, that thing's actually shooting proto-star rounds" he exclaimed.
"Tony, that's nigh impossible. That kinda weapon can't even exist. No material can stably withstand the fusion energy let alone create it inside a compact chamber like this. Not even the most advanced alien races have developed that kind of weapons" Hank responded equally dumbfounded.
John could see that the rounds didn't do much. He used his visor's augmented reality display to get a read on Skurge and was surprised with the results.
"Cortana, is it true what I am seeing?" he talked using his internal speakers that no one heard.
"Actually yes. Skurge's body is filled with lava or whatever thermal energy. It's as hot as Sun. Maybe that's how he survived the attack or else he would be turned to molecules for sure" she responded.
"Can something like this even exist?" asked John in dilemma.
"People from the Norse myth are quite magical by nature. I know you would not like it, but that's just the fact. And I hope you already devised another plan" she said with a assuring smile.
"I do" he said and cut the channel.
"Looks like your toys aren't effective against him. Got any other ideas?" asked Falcon.
"I do. Fight him in the old fashioned way" he said as he walked towards Skurge.
"COME MORTAL, COME TO YOUR DEATH!" Skurge roared and charged towards the spartan. John could see that Skurge was no more than an angry brute at this point. He is dangerous, but damn predictable. Spartan IIs on the contrary are constant improvisers.
John lifted his rght arm horizontally and opened the palm. The same blue energy field appeared and all of sudden a huge oddly looking hammer(Adamantine hammer modified specially for Spartan IIs, see chapter I for details) appeared and he held it's handle and had it ready with his both hands.
"You know what, I'm gonna puke. This guy has been full of surprises" Hawkeye said almost freaking out.
"HULK HELP HAWKY TO PUKE" Hulk said cheerfully to which Hawkeye glared at him. Hulk just shrugged and others chuckled.
"Talk about brains-..." he muttered gritting his teeth.
"Tony, you think he can handle this alone?" asked Rogers.
"Wanted to see his abilities. So far we knew nothing about him but he was friendly towards us till this moment" he replied. Others nodded in acknowledgement.
Skurge charged at full speed with his axe held high.
"AAARRRRHHH" he roared.
Little did he know that the entire available media and satellite had been capturing this footage.
John was calm and collected. But all of a sudden, he moved with fluid precision at incredible speed that astonished the heroes.
"Good god! He's faster than me!" Rogers thought.
"How the hell's he moving at that speed with his armor? It's theoretically impossible!" Stark thought.
"TIN-MAN FAST AS HULK" Hulk said. Even with his limited intelligence, he could see the spartan was faster for his size and weight. Black widow, Falcon and Hank pym were silently watching the Spartan.
As they both closed the gap, Skurge swung the axe right towards his face, John bent his torso back and dodge front quickly. As John got to his feet, Skurge swung his axe back only to be blocked by John's hammer. John equally held the force put on by his enemy.
There is an untold fact about John and the other Spartan IIs. John benched max of 6 tons, but that was never his physical limit. He trains with less weights to focus the amount of force he wants to deliver by his hands so that he doesn't end up killing anyone accidentally. Without Armor, John is capable of lifting 45-50 tons in actual and inside armor, it depends on his metaphysical will power. The same goes for the other Spartan IIs.
"**CLANK**" the sound of metal hitting metal was heard by everyone.
"And he's strong too" Widow thought. She now had the urge to see the human's face. She was now more interested in his origins given the level of technologies he carried.
Both John and Skurge repelled each other back. John and the other Spartan IIs for the 60,000 year time span had intensely trained in CQC combat and Martial arts and from none other than it's master Fred-104. No spartan is on par with his abilities, but they possess skills enough to be called as master martial artists.
Skurge then made 3 quick successive moves which John blocked with his hammer. Then Skurge tried to kick back the spartan's abdomen. But John spun himself counter-clockwise to evade and hit Skurge's face with his elbow.
"**GRUNT**" Skurge grunted in pain as the force delivered by the Spartan was very high.
"RRAAAHHH" he roared and he went on to slash his axe multiple times in different direction and John dodged every attack. He evaded the last one by dodging mid air and after getting to feet, John charged an intense energy ball in his left palm, which he channeled from the Nexus power core, he and Cortana retrofit into his armor. He then shot the energy ball to his chest that exploded and sent him flying which Skurge back flipped and countered the force by piercing the axe's head down the road that visibly tore until he stopped.
"FINALLY SOMEONE WORTHY!" the demonic being rumbled it's voice and again charged towards the spartan.
John stood simply looking at the desperate creature.
"Why isn't he moving? Is he nuts? Got a death wish?" Hawkeye cried seeing the immobile spartan. Tony even made a step to help the Spartan get off the way.
When Skurge charged the Asgardian energy into his axe and used full might to hit the spartan in his body, John used his metaphysical ability to concentrate in altering the armor density to near infinity using his will power alone. This is one of the profound abilities of Spartan-IIs.
When Skurge hit the charged axe at John's torso, The Avengers thought he was done. But what happened was the contrary. The axe bounced off with extreme violent force that exploded both on John and Skurge. Skurge was knocked back out of balance and he terribly hit a truck that buckled.
"Jesus christ!" Rogers yelled and the other Avengers made their move only to stop to see the Spartan was standing just fine with not even a microscopic scratch in his armor.
"I swear to God!...I swear nobody could survive that. What is he?" Hank now stressed his mind too much.
Skurge was now hurt by his own raged filled attack. He slowly got to his feet after hitting the truck now looking at the spartan who was carrying his hammer and was walking towards him.
"WHO ARE YOU!? I HAVE NEVER SEEN A MORTAL THAT FIGHTS LIKE YOU DO. MY MASTER WILL BE PLEASED WHEN I HAVE THE HONOR OF KILLING YOU" Skurge roared and ran towards him barehanded. John charged the hammer head with the quantum vaccum energy to full level and unleashed a blast that sent Skurge flying back into the same truck this time breaking it.
Then John ran at incredible speed once more to the heroes awe, and he jumped high and instantly a bright yellow energy field surrounded him and the spartan vanished mid-air.
"HEY! WHERE DID THE TIN-MAN GO!" Hulk asked loud the others wondered the same.
"His armor's got teleportation abilities!" Stark thought instantly recognizing it, now with a bit of jealousy in his mind voice.
"Dunno how many tricks he has got himself up-...Look! Over there!" Widow said pointing to a place where Skurge lays down.
The spartan appeared just above Skurge in mid air from the same yellow field with his hammer raised and the next second, he stomped the hammer hard over Skurge's body.
**BOOM** that was the loud sound anybody heard.
Skurge had never thought that he would ever be beaten by an armored human, a mere mortal. But he's about to learn that it's an absolute nightmare to piss off the Spartan-IIs of the Tier-0 human empire, let alone their military commander. Skurge is about to learn the metaphysical powers of the Spartan IIs that are almost on par with the cosmic beings, The Precursors.
John instantly took few steps back and then raised his right arm and pointed it towards the creature with open palm. Then he raised the arm only for everyone to witness Skurge being raised above the ground, floating in mid air. John was using Telekinesis to lift Skurge with his mind.
The heroes couldn't believe what they were seeing.
"Is he lifting him up with his mind?" asked Falcon loud.
"Think so. Looks like another Jean grey to me. Wait, could he be an X-Men?" Stark replied wondering of such a possibility.
"No matter who he is. It's good that he is helping us. We wouldn't have survived another hour" Rogers said.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING? LET ME OUT!" the being yelled.
John threw Skurge on the opposite direction and caught hold of him again and this time he propelled him towards himself. John then ran and jumped high to deliver a full round house kick that sent him crashing to the ground.
**GRUNT** Skurge started to feel weak. He never expected to face someone who is well diverse in all arts and forms of war.
"John, I think, we can stop dragging this cat fight" Cortana said in his speakers.
"Acknowledged" he replied.
"I think this fight's gonna end" Stark said as others looked at him.
John then charged himself with the Nexus energy, siphoning from the Nexus core. He was entirely covered blue aura of energy. It grew intensely and at one point, John released a powerful beam of energy from both of his palms. The energy hit Skurge and incinerated him to a point that he felt his powers drained almost completely. He was now too weak.
The Avengers were startled at the sight of such might. This energy projection ability had them place him on the power levels of Thor, Doctor Strange and Captain Marvel.
"He's an absolute overkill. I would say that" Hawkeye said in flattery.
"For years, we have never encountered someone like him. He's different, mysterious. Where in this world had he been all the time?" thought Rogers. That's when they all saw Skurge struggling to get back to his feet.
**HEAVY BREATHING**...I-...I...MUST NOTIFY MY MASTER...HE WILL FINISH THIS!" he said knowing that he will be killed if he stayed any longer.
John knew he would try to escape, but he wanted answers. So he ran towards him, but before that,
"GET ME BACK!" he yelled looking up. Suddenly a huge rainbow filled light covered him and lifted at light speed into the sky. Skurge vanished with that.
The other heroes ran and stopped besides the spartan.
"Damn! He escaped using the bifrost" said Stark who didn't like the outcome.
"That means he was from Asgard, that's confirmed. Now I wonder what's going on with Thor" Hawkeye said. He was right on that regard, but there was no answer.
Hulk, all of a sudden, free of stress, reverted back to Banner. Hawkeye and Falcon helped him get back to his feet.
"Hooh!...I feel like being rammed by a freight train" he said earning a chuckle.
"So the world's safe?" he asked to which others nodded. Hank walked slowly by him and smiled gently and turned to look at the spartan.
"Thanks to him" Hank pym pointed at the strange armored man.
John was looking at the Hulk's real human form and he mentally assured himself.
"So he's the world's renowned gamma scientist that I read about" he thought.
Then Bruce got to look at the strange big armored being, his vision, half blurry. After the vision cleared to get a nice view, His face turned deadpanned at the sight of a huge being's appearance.
"Who are you?" he asked.
...
One hour after...
The dust began to settle, the sky began to clear and sunlight started to set upon the city. The atmosphere felt light as the fight was over. The enemy had been vanquished from the planet. The Chitauri had been dealt with once and for all, for now. But everyone had the liberty enjoy the new earned peace that filled the air.
"I wonder what happened to the Chitauri space ships" Rogers asked.
"They have been dealt with" the Spartan replied.
"Wait, what? What do you mean dealt? You got space ships too-... for space combat?" asked the now overwhelmed Hank.
"We do in a sense" replied John not divulging much.
The Avengers and the Spartan watched as the civilians started to get to the streets, the calm after the storm. Spartan could see with his helmet visor, that there were many wounded and severely injured men and women and children.
"We could help them chief. It would be a nice first impression to start with" Cortana said. John mentally acknowledged.
"I'm sorry, but who are you? I think we owe you for your help. But you can give us the explanations. Where are you from?" asked Bruce banner who manged to get himself some clothes.
"I will reveal everything about myself at the right time. But now, we need to tend to the wounded" John replied. The heroes didn't deny that as they can see for themselves. But this pretty much surprised the heroes. They never thought he had such compassion to help others despite being a complete stranger.
But John is a soldier and ever since the day he became a Spartan, he swore to protect innocent life at the cost of his own life.
The cops had already arrived into the city to help the civilians. They were a bit startled at the sight of the Spartan and even went on to aim their weapons at him. But the Avengers did a nice job of cooling them down. The media helicopters were already flying high and capturing every single footage.
Then John went on to look for the worst injured and those who are in near death situation.
John spotted a woman crying out loud as the cops restrained her. She was crying at the sight of her dead 11 year old daughter. The Avengers looked at her sympathetically and guilt as they couldn't prevent such an unfortunate incident. But they knew they had to deal with it every time they had to save the day. The bill always comes in due for pay even for good deeds.
"People look at us like we are saviors. Huh-...in reality we are no different than the civilians. Things do get beyond our control" Falcon said with utter sadness.
"You still did the best in protecting this world. You shouldn't be guilty for that" John said to console them to which he let a sad smile.
This very much reminded John of his early days in the Covenant war. The Spartan IIs were seen as their means of salvation, as super heroes. But only they knew that they are just soldiers who will die in a battle just like any human would. They couldn't save everyone like Jericho-VII, Reach and many other worlds. The Spartan IIs were hyped so much just to boost the morale, with the only difference that the hype were of absolute worth.
John's visor zoomed to find that she was crying to see her lifeless little daughter being taken away from her in a stretcher into the ambulance. John assumed the girl to be between 10-12. He slowly walked towards the girl before being carried in only for them to stop at the sight of the huge armored man. People around there tensed, including the cops.
John slowly brought his left arm and touched the girl's forehead with the first two fingers and instantly recognized the negligible neural activity in her brain. John had hope. His visor instantly scanned her body to reveal everything about her vital signs.
John then took a small advanced wierd looking pistol syringe from his armor's compartment and loaded with a blue glittering serum. The serum is infact billions of organic nanites that are biologically programmed to heal any wound, even dead persons, who's got their brain still active. This was used in emergency cases. This medical advancement was one of the reasons that significantly reduced humanity mortality rate.
John administered a shot much to other's dismay for not knowing that he was in fact helping. The nanites entered her blood stream and started to work it's miracle. The nanites simply gets converted into the organic cells for repair. The people around includng the Avengers were stunned to see the girl's body visibly getting repaired at remarkable pace and in few seconds, everyone could hear a loud and heavy breathing as if she woke from a bad dream.
The child's mother was astonished and her face turned exultant at the sight of her now alive daughter. The girl immediately lunged at her mother and they both embraced each other that even the other civilians who watched that had tears filling their eyes. Then for a moment everyone looked at the Spartan in respect despite being a complete stranger.
"I don't know who you are. But we'll never forget you in our life"
"Go home and be safe" was all that he said.
Then John turned to an officer who was staring at him with little hint of fear. He then handed him another small medical device.
"Just one little press against the skin for the wounded and injured" he said. The officer looked at the device he didn't even understand, but were able to follow his instructions. He nodded in acknowledgement and went to help the people.
The Avengers on the other hand were totally stupefied at what just happened. Bringing a dead girl alive was the last thing they expected out of the Spartan.
"Just how much advanced technology is he in possession of? Who really sent him? Who can even develop such things" Banner, now as a scientist wondered the potential effects of the serum and the technology he displayed so far. It's been intriguing from the very first moment. All of a sudden, they got to see a new player outta nowhere and did something most would get a stroke.
"You've been an eye-opener for some time. You carry an incredibly technology and natural super-powers. Now we all are eager to know you" Rogers said who still couldn't believe that he actually brought a dead child back alive.
"What about the rest of the world, the other 7 places?" asked Natasha looking at the Spartan's helmet.
"I'm reading the whole planet safe and free from the Chitauri" he said firmly. The others smiled. But they were confused how this man was well informed and that he's getting information almost instantly. Because, Tony confirmed via his satellite feeds and acknowledged the Spartan's report. They thought he really must be well equipped and backed up.
"Are you part of any secret clandestine organization that we aren't aware of? But even then every black ops we've known were never capable of such feats" Natasha said.
"I'm not part of any group. But like I said, I will explain everything at the right time"
"looks like you just made a good first impression after all. Even if they don't trust you, They might give a chance to socialize with them, earn their trust. Then we can get to work in getting back to our place" Cortana said to him. John mentally acknowledged her point of view.
"Nat, I know your past experiences are getting the best of you. But he doesn't deserve too much interrogation for now" Hawkeye said with some little maturity in his words. Black widow raised her eyebrows at the statement.
"Clint's right, Widow. After all, he did help us without asking anything in return. We don't have to pry for now" Captain America said.
"But Fury will ask for answers anyway. C'mon, everybody in this world would have known him by now" Bruce said. Others acknowledged the logic whether they liked it or not.
"Tell them that I'm not here with malice intention. Tell directory Fury that I will come forward to clear your doubts" John spoke firmly that others nodded.
"Right, we'll talk about that later. But what of the not so friendly parties who would pay a great attention to you? Those who would in all their powers to subdue you" asked Tony. Stark internally cursed himself for letting out his mild jealousy because of the advanced technologies he carried. Even a part of him wanted to spar with him to test his armor's resilience that withstood an Earth shattering blow from Skurge.
"May be with my Achilles, I could do that" he thought.
"As for the bad group that you warn me about...They are always welcome to try to get near and raise a finger against me" he said in a deep tone that sounded more like mean threat. John immediately turned to face Rogers,
"Captain?" he called out to which he looked at him.
"It is a pleasure to meet a WWII veteran" he said lending his right arm. Rogers was wondering how did he knew about his past. But he could easily feel a tone of respect in his voice when he said that, more like a fellow soldier greeting another soldier.
"The pleasure is mine, Spartan. Hope we would meet again" Rogers replied, with both the super soldiers shaking their hands in mutual respect.
With that said, he took a fewsteps back and everyone saw a fightercraft(Longsword) flew to his position and hovering above ground. It rotated and released the bay doors in a retractive fashion. John stepped into the longsword and the doors closed. After a few seconds, the craft rose above and tore through the air into the sky and left Earth. John wanted to give them time to get acclimatized to his presence, before he could explain his origins.
"Okay, That wen't well. But am I the only one feeling wrong to let him go just like that?" asked Falcon to his fellow Avengers.
"What makes you say that?" asked Hank.
"What he means is, what if this whole drama's a facade? What if we had just shook hands and butts with someone who's got an invasion force to raze the planet again?" asked Natasha, being supportive of Sam wilson's argument.
"We will always be ready, Widow. But if my judgement serves right, he is not our enemy, I can vouch for that" Captain America said with seriousness.
"Why do you say that? You sound as if you knew him before?" asked Banner. Rogers took a deep breath and moved away from them and turned halfway to see them.
"The way he addressed me, I felt a comradship. Something tells me he's a soldier by blood-...And soldiers are honor and duty bound" he said. Others could actually feel and understand his words and where he was going. They even thought of such possibility.
"One last thing. He knew your past. Just how much he knew about us already?" asked Hawkeye to which others nodded in approval. This is now a matter of identity at stake, so they need to be more cautious.
"I wondering the same myself" Stark finished who hadhis mind blank, not being able to sum up what happened so far.
By the way, they got paperworks to be done. Directory Fury will ask the situational assessment. Little did they know that not only the organization that keeps the world safe took interest in this Spartan, but also the evil ones like AIM, Hydra, HAMMER etc.,
...
At the Stark Tower
12 hours after Chitauri attack...
Tony Stark and the other members of the Avengers including those who were not in NewYork, but spread in other parts of the world like She-Hulk, Wasp, Tigra, Wonderman, Carol danvers who returned from Attilan after helping the Inhumans, Scarlet witch, Vision, and three of the members of New Avengers - Spider-man, White Tiger, Sam Alexander(NOVA), then the whole Fantastic four.
"We are back with 12 hours after the attack by the aliens once again after 5 years since the so called Skrull invasion. As, the cops and fire department in NYC are helping people to get to their normal lives, There are also massive pooling of money and other resources from mega corporations around the world like Stark Industries, Rand industries, Roxxon Energy Corps likewise for renovation of cities that were severely beaten-..."
"Hmm, Looks like a great job . Philanthropism still in your list" said Spider-man.
"Isn't that one of my 4 qualities?" said Stark sarcastically.
"So tell me about this new comer Stark. The one who calls himself Spartan" said Carol danvers gaining everyone's attention.
"Yeah tell us, Tony. Who's this new player in the field? Certainly he's looks big from these images the news channel shows us. But how much of a big meany weeny guy is he?" asked Johnny Storm.
"I guess 'Spartan' must his other designation, but god!-...I've never seen the technologies he possessed. Everything he's got is way beyond what we can actually develop now or anything even I had made" Tony said. Reed, a fellow scientist was intrigued as he too saw the footage of the appearance of the strange fightercrafts and this Spartan's appearance in NewYork. The powers he possessed and the armor technology sparked his mind for lots of possibilities in advancements. Also has powers that puts him on the level of cosmic beings like the Silver Surfer, the Fantastic four had encountered.
"Why do you sound so envious, Tony? Sorry for asking out loud" said She-hulk with a funny taunt.
"Wait, What? No-...I-...I don't" Tony felt completely embarrased, stammering to respond. Some burst into laughter.
"Oops!" She-hulk shrugged.
"Interesting, I would like to see those tech myself, assess it's potential" said Reed rubbing his chin beginning to kick start his scientific brilliance.
"Having the ability to teleport requires lots of energy. If the Saprtan can do it inside his armor, then the level of mathematical foundations needed for precise Space-time displacement and energy expenditure is way beyond imagination!" Reed wondered. Tony, Hank and Banner were the only once who understood deeply what he said. They too nodded in approval.
"Uh oh! Here they go again!" muttered Danvers who was already feeling a little sleepy.
Not only that, but he also used a weapon that shot rounds of proto-stars made of lithium ions. That's technically impossible to develop. I don't understand how it's even stable without collapsing" said Banner after he saw the satellite footage of the fight as he was there as the Hulk and Banner didn't know what happened.
"Not only the weapon Bruce, but also I tried to scan him with my helmet. But it just bounced off. The material was categorized as degenerate composite. That's even more intriguing" said Hank.
"And did anyone saw that huge hammer? It fired blue energy that knocked Skurge's ass off" said Hawkeye.
"Jarvis managed to scan that, did you know what was powering the hammer? Pure Quantum vaccum energy. The hammer head acted as a siphon" Tony said who can't even believe what he saw during the fight. The scientists in the room were flabergasted by such technologies. That's not something they can easily get into.
"You know what? You guys are gonna get yourself a stroke if you keep doing that" Ben grimm said with a jest.
"Yeah, we are already having a rough day fighting the Chitauri and you eggheads are simply making it worse than my previous date with Frankie" said Johnny Storm that earned chuckles from many.
"That was your fault. You just burnt down her favourite serigraph painting that she kept for years as a memory" Sue chided her brother.
"Hey I just wanted to make it look even more beautiful with my touch" Johnny defended himself.
"Sorry matchstick, but your 'Touch' is the real problem. You can't make a girl's day any worse than that" said Danvers.
"Ha! Looks like everybody's getting to know you better, kid" Ben jested to which he grunted in response.
"So did he reveal anything about himself? Like where he came from or which group he belonged to?" asked Ava, the white tiger who herself was fascinated by him after seeing the armored figure fighting the Skurge.
"No. But he said, he would come out and explain himself at the right time, but trust me when I say this. He packs a pretty powerful punch" answered Hawkeye.
"Lemme guess...You guys just let him go? Who knows if he's some new troublemaker in disguise. God, we already have to do the honors to the whole world" said Spider-man with mild distaste.
"We didn't find any reason to. He helped us after all" said Rogers.
"Hey, I'm just saying, no offence. Trust is hard to come by you know" replied the web head. Spider-man himself lives a double life and even with his close friends near except his wife Mary jane, he never disclosed his real identity to anyone because of the trust issue, but more like to keep his loved ones from harm's way.
"As excited as I am, I agree with the web-head. He may or may not be a threat, but we need to keep a close watch on his activities. He might have fought Skurge, but that only makes him an even more dangerous one" said Sam Alexander, member of the Nova corps and Fury's New Avengers.
"Agreed, if he turns out to be a threat like any other, then we just got additional homework" Tony said as everyone listened to news once more.
"-...We all could see the footage of the fight in NewYork. Looks like there's someone new out there that nobody's seen before. He displayed a lot of powers he carried when fighting that's causing a stir among both the political and military sectors. Almost everyone believes he's another hostile alien. Not everyone is supportive of the idea that he might be someone fighting for good as there are others ,who urge to hunt him down across the globe before he becomes a new threat-..."
That was very much true as not everyone supports the Spartan. Half of the world is wary of his presence stating and some even firmly believing that he's another threat to be contained and just because of his angelic actions in NewYork, he should be let to roam freely. But the other half are fully supportive of the Spartan as the media had covered the footage where the armored figure helps reviving a dead 11 year old girl back with his technology. Half of the civilian population are thankful to him and his timely help. The scientific community is pretty much on the edge, looking for an opportunity to meet the Spartan to get more knowledge on advnced technologies that may beneift mankind, but it was never upto them. Governments of almost every nation at the same time are ready to use deadly forces and military for confinement. But those negative reactions are not their fault. Earth is getting filled with super-human and alien populace and with those who out match them. Everyone wants to keep their nation safe.
"I don't know who he was, but he brought the only thing I love in this world, my daughter back alive. Wherever he is, may our lord watch over him and also every super hero that's keeping our world safe" the woman whose daughter John revivied, spoke to a media front man.
"As we've seen the reactions from the publc and the bigshots, more are yet to come. This is Lucy wilson from FOX news. Stay tuned..." finished the news reader and with that the screen was turned off.
After hearing the public reactions, most in the main hall changed their opinion about him. Few were still wary, but others decided to give him a chance.
"So, we keep this under wraps for now?" asked Susan storm.
"For now. When he comes back, we'll decide what to do with him" Steve rogers said to which everyone nodded in approval.
"Okay, if that's all, we have to get back to the Triskillion. Fury's gonna get a lot more 'Fury'ous if we are late.
"Then see you later Spidey" Johnny waved him.
"Sure, see you later folks" he waved back and he and his other two fellow squadmates left the Stark tower to get back to their flying base.
"Okay then, Fantastic four will return to Baxter. But if you ever need any help? Do call us" Reed said to which others nodded.
"And hey Reed, thanks for you help with the Achilles armor" said Tony.
"Glad to be of help. But I'm wondering why would you need an overhaul like that, Still, I'm worried about that strange crystal you found on that derelict ship at iceland" said Reed sounding a little worried.
"Reed, I think Tony's not a kid. You've been worrying for a long time" said Sue placing her hand over her husband's shoulder to assure him.
"Reed, I get it. But don't stress yourself. You know my stuff. They never fail" said Tony with a smirk.
"I'm just saying Tony, no offence. I'm simply-..." said Reed,
"Worried? C'mon pal!" he said getting near him and shaking hands.
"Hope you are right" he said with a firm smile. Stark may be the genius of all, but that doesn't mean he's 100% right all the time. Sometimes, he need friends like Reed, Hank and Banner to pinpoint negligible yet significant flaws in his works.
"If that's all, F4 needs some break. See ya Tony and everyone else" said Ben grimm. Everyone nodded with a smile. With that, the F4 left the tower in the fantasti-car.
"Hope that went well. Now to the other part of the problem" said Wasp bringing their attention.
"What about?" asked Wanda.
"What happened to Skurge? It's really odd to see him like that" Wasp said. Others were equally confused as even they couldn't find the answer to that.
"Now I'm starting to wonder if something bad really happened to Thor when he left for Asgard months back" said Wanda, the scarlet witch.
"The only time we'll get the answers is when we see Thor. Until then, we just carry on our work. But Skurge referred someone as his 'Master'. I wonder who that is" Steve said still looking past the fights and Skurge's boasting about his master.
"We will find that, even it means a ride to Asgard itself, Cap. But still I'm eager to meet this Spartan. He seems really interesting" She-hulk said eyeing at a mini hologram of the Spartan that Stark used to show the others.
"Me too. Really would like to see who he is underneath that armor, if he's a human as he said about himself or some alien in disguise" Danvers said with equal amusement and wariness. She had a fair share of troubles with the shape shifting Skrulls and Kree.
"Next time ladies, next time" Natasha said shrugging her shoulder. But deep down, she wanted learn the secrets of the mysterious Spartan. She felt an aura of immense power like when standing next to people lik Hercules, Thor. But this Spartan looked even more disciplined in his moves than them.
"Right, Jarvis? Let's get to work in finishing that Achilles armor. Final core insertion is all that's left" Stark said to his AI.
"Yes Sir" the AI responded. Stark then waved his hand to the others to get back to his R&D floor.
Now the people who's left also said each other good bye and went their separate ways as each got their own chores to tend to.
One thing was for sure, with the Spartan's presence, the coming days are gonna get a lot more interesting. They will soon learn about the armored warrior and the human that resides in. Now that his presence is known to the world, John already knew that he might have already gained the attention of dangerously bad guys like and other individuals and they will have a common goal of capturing this Spartan. But for them, he's going to be a surprise for best...or for the worst.
...
A/N: Next chapter will include some covers on the perceptions of characters like Nick fury, the New-Avengers, the X-men, even the Wakandans(especially Shuri and T'challa), Doctor Strange etc. But amidst this, like I said, the story will maintain a grounded style with limited and necessary back story. The story will not be confined to Earth. John and Cortana will travel the cosmos for different adventures and at the same time find the real truth about their arrival and their path from there and who thereal enemy was all along. This chapter is just the beginning of the stage set.
As for the other usual stuff, I'm planning for John and Cortana to share some technology just enough for 2030 AD in Marvel universe. Definitely John will surprise everyone with his wits. Also, this story will touch all the facets of story like Cosmic adventures with the Guardians, Asgardians, Mystic adventures and even some earthly run in with the big bad guys like Apocalypse, Kang, and yes, time travel events will be there in my story. I'm also planning for a romantic relationship between John and Black widow. But I need opinion on that, to know if that would really work out, even opinion on whether there should even be a romance in the first place.
Until then...C U Later in next chapter.
