AN: Hey all, been a while hasn't it! Yeah sorry about that, I have had most of this chapter written for ages, I just got distracted with other things and never really had the inclination to sit down for an hour and finish it off. Until now that is! Which is why you're getting a update. I hope you all enjoy it and leave a review. Thus far the support for the story has been great, and I hope you all continue to enjoy my writing!
Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Ghoul or Avenger and the extended MCU. Which by the way is now ridiculously big, like insanely so!
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(Last Time)
"Great, well it'll be good to work with you, especially now I'm no longer being mind controlled…" Barton laughed weakly, obviously trying to wave away recent happenings with humour. Though from the way the skin around his eyes tightened, his heart thundered in his chest and hands twitched, Kaneki could see he wasn't as fine as he was pretending.
"Kaneki." Natasha finally spoke up, talking into the slightly more content silence that followed Barton's words.
Kaneki turned to look at her.
Before she could speak though, conversation was once again interrupted by someone barging into the room. Only this time it was Captain America, and he had something important to say. Something that all those present needed to act on immediately.
"Loki's in New York, he's about to make his move. Everyone get ready, we need to go now!"
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Chapter 7
(With Kaneki)
"We're approaching the city, and by the looks of it, it's really lighting up out there," Clint Barton, or using his alias, Hawkeye, said abruptly, as both he and Natasha sat in the front seats of the speeding Quinjet. One or other of them piloting the small, but fast, craft as they powered their way towards New York City. The other members of the Avengers all waiting patiently in the back.
Or nearly all of them, Kaneki thought as another voice quickly replied to Clint's sombre announcement.
"Somewhat stating the obvious there Robin Hood." Stark quipped, his voice holding a jovial tone to it as he flew alongside the Quinjet in his high-tech battle suit. The billionaire obviously seeing the same thing they were, which is to say the giant sky beam that at present was erupting from the top of Stark Towers, his own building. With the beam itself shooting up into the sky, and opening up a colossal portal in the area directly above Manhattan, a portal which even from here they could see space and stars through.
Rolling his neck, Kaneki narrowed his grey eyes as he saw countless small and indistinct figures erupting forth from out of the portal, all of them then hurtling down from portal and into the busy metropolis below.
To use Stark's words, it looked like they were late to the party. Loki's plan, for what else could this be, was already in full swing, and by the looks of it an entire alien army was descending on the densely populated American city.
No doubt the casualties were through the roof, and that was just from the vanguard of the alien invasion alone. Mundane police officers weren't exactly suited to dealing with this kind of phenomena, or at least not in this world.
In Kaneki's own world they were slightly better, after all they had had to adjust and adapt through the ages to the existence of Ghouls, the supernatural, alpha predators. Inhuman beings that had haunted human kind, probably ever since they took their first steps.
"Everyone get ready, we're going to need to hit them hard and fast from the very beginning!" Steve Rogers spoke up, ignoring Stark's comment as he instead stepped forward, still clad in his classic Captain America uniform, his brightly coloured, vibranium shield already on his arm twisted to look out of the window, his foot tapping away impatiently on the floor as he did so.
"Stark, we're at your three o'clock, heading northwest," Romanoff spoke up next, her tone stiff and tense as she easily manoeuvred the small craft between the city's many skyscrapers.
Kaneki stood up and prowled over to the front of the aircraft as he heard that, absentmindedly reaching up and stroking the area on the back of his head, the place in which he knew a tracker, or some kind of device, was implanted.
He still had questions over how Fury had even managed to do such a thing, considering how Ghoul's had supernatural durability, something which coupled perfectly with their other highly enhanced physical abilities. But that was a thought for another time, for now he would need to rip the device out of his skull, sooner rather than later.
Pushing that thought away for the moment, Kaneki looked up at the giant sky beam ahead of them, the blue beam reflecting back in his cold, grey eyes as they got ever closer.
Already he had noticed the thousands of little figures streaming out of the portal on what looked like flying scooter. But, right at that moment, as he looked up at the portal, he could see something much, much bigger emerging.
From what he could see, it looked like some kind of gigantic, brownish grey worm like creature. One which had a brutish lizard like skull, and a colossal a maw, one that was full of numerous, sharp, yellow teeth. With the creature also noticeably having a thick, segmented, armoured, carapace like shell.
"Trouble." Kaneki muttered, ignoring the way Black Widow tensed as he spoke up from right beside her. The red head flinching, as if she had just now noticed how close he had gotten as he stared out of the Quinjet's front window and up at the portal.
"You're telling me, what are those things?" Captain America added, walking over so he was standing next to Kaneki, not paying attention to the Ghoul as he instead watched the giant, airborne leviathan erupt forth from the portal, after which it dived down into the city below, smashing through cranes and skyscrapers as it went, causing untold damage as it barrelled through the anything that got in its way.
Looking away from the rampaging beast, Kaneki quickly noted that several more of the creatures were emerging from the portal just like the first. The leviathans flying alongside the human sized aliens as they swept over the city of New York.
"That doesn't matter at the moment. No, what matters is destroying these things and protecting the city!" With that said, Stark shot forward, fire erupting forth from his boots, even as he began to engage the flying alien crafts that were flitting throughout the city.
The billionaire, using his robotic, battle suit to immediately unleash a rain of fire on the nearest Chitauri. With him gunning down a dozen over the course of a minutes in his first pass, even as he unleashed another dozen or so projectiles, each of which shot through the air, leaving trails of smoke, before they exploded. Expanding Stark's kill count all the while as he used the boasters in his hands and feet to shoot around the city, his small size and suit easily allowing him to outmanoeuvre his opponents.
Seeing what was going off, Natasha angled the Quinjet around, opening the back doors as she swept lower to the ground, angling the aircraft as she did so, so that the high-powered, Gatling gun on the front was now pointing diagonally across the city.
After which she activated the sips weapon systems, a stream of bullets strafing through several dozen flying Chitauri 'chariots/ scooters' or whatever they were, as they flew by. Her actions causing several of these crafts to explode, pitching the alien warriors into the air, some of them already dead from the strafing bullets, whilst others were still alive and screaming as they plunged down to the earth below.
"Try to find Loki. He's is the commander of this army. If we want to stop these invaders then we will need to take him out first!" Thor said loudly, his deep voice and powerful presence drawing the attention of the occupants of the aircraft as he did so. All of those present turning to the Prince of Asgard as he grabbed his hammer and prepared to jump out of the Quinjet.
"What will you do?" Steve asked, even as Natasha continued to fly them through the air, the Gatling gun still spinning and rotating as they continued to gun down the invading aliens.
"I will deal with the portal, a bit of lightning should stop the invaders from coming through!" With that said Thor began spinning his hammer in his hand, sparing Kaneki, Rogers, Romanov and Barton a single glance and a curt nod, before he leapt out of the back of the Quinjet and released his hammer, shooting up into the air and in the direction of Stark Tower, his red cloak whipping around behind him.
"A good plan. While Thor bottlenecks the portal, and Natasha and I take down the airborne aliens, you lot need to move quickly to protect the people!" Stark's voice came in over the communicator, the man in question shooting past in a red and gold blur as he continued to pursue swarms of other flying aliens, gunning them down as he did so.
"He's right, our main aim here must be to protect the citizens." Steve nodded, his brow furrowing as he clutched onto a handle overhead to steady himself, even as they hurtled through the city.
"No, you were right before, we need to hit them hard, and hit them first. The first thing we'll need to do is as Thor said, take down Loki and close the portal." Natasha interrupted, her tone tense as she continued to operate the Quinjet's weapons system, even as Barton took over steering the craft through the city's streets.
"We split up then," Steve said with a grunt, a frown passing across his face at having his authority questioned, something which had likely not happened back when he was leading his squad, the Howling Commandoes, back during the Second World War. "Thor bottlenecks the portal, Stark and Nat keep the airborne aliens off of our backs and try and find Loki, Barton, Kaneki and I meanwhile protect the citizens, and respond the moment we managed to lock onto Loki's positon!"
Kaneki sent the Captain a flat look at that, not that Steve noticed or looked over at him. Instead he continued to talk to the others, hashing out some ramshackle plan that would likely fall apart within minute of it being put into operation.
Genuinely, this team, if you could call this collection of powered and skill individuals such a thing, needed a leader. At present, Thor, the ancient, Prince of Asgard, Stark, the billionaire CEO, Barton, the highly trained SHIELD agent, and Captain America, the former captain of a Special Forces unit, were all battling for command.
From the outside it might look like it was working. But honestly, from where Kaneki was stood, there was no cohesion. Instead everyone was giving out different orders, and different suggestions, some of which were incredibly contradictory.
"Right, the main fighting is at Stark Tower. I'll taking us in for a closer look." Barton spoke up, pulling the Quinjet up, even as Natasha continued to control the weapons system.
"Okay fine, you three head to Stark Towers and find Loki, I will look to the people!" Captain Rogers replied decisively, his shield in hand as she gave the others a nod, before he then turned, and leapt out of the back of the craft, without a parachute.
"Wait… god dammit!" Barton muttered, looking around only to see that the Captain was already gone.
"It's fine, he knows what he's doing. They all do." Natasha said quietly, not even looking from what she was doing as she still managed to calm Clint.
"Your right, I just don't like the idea of separating, not when Loki still has that staff, the one that can enslave people's minds! I don't want what happened to me, to happen to them too!" Barton grumbled to Natasha, their conversation seeming oddly personal, as if they had forgotten that Kaneki, and Kaneki alone was still present.
"It'll be fine." Natasha said softly, looking to Barton now for a moment, before her green eyes flickered to the side and over to Kaneki. Green meeting grey for a moment, before she quickly looked away.
Looking away from the other two in the jet, Kaneki instead glanced out at the still open door, his head tilting his head to the side in curiousity at the scenery and carnage that flashed past, even as the Quinjet continued to fly higher, the weapons system still blazing as they gunned down anything that got in their path as they headed for the now quite close, Stark Tower.
Looking back to the front of the craft, and through the window, Kaneki was now also able to see lighting erupting from the tallest and closest tower to the portal. Massive branches of the white energy, tearing through the air, exploding forth from Thor's hammer as he pulled it down from the surrounding dark skies above, before then redirected it at the portal, effectively bottlenecking the passage into this world as the unstable energy ripped through the descending aliens and even forced the colossal leviathans to stop.
Likewise Iron Man was occasionally visible in his red and gold armour as he rapidly flew through the city, chasing down rogue aliens, and even at one point taking down one of the leviathans, explosions erupting all around him as he unleashed hell on the invaders. His high tech suit releasing excessive amount of missiles and explosives, as the Da Vinci of Death, another title for the famous weapons designer, finally put his craft to some good.
Honestly, from where Kaneki was stood, things were chaotic, and were getting more so the closer they got to the tower and thus the portal.
In fact, even as Kaneki watched, he saw two chariots appear behind the Quinjet. Both of them shooting through the air as they pursued the aircraft, releasing beam like attacks of pure energy as they did so, one of which managed to strike the jet in the back, causing the entire structure to shake, even as one of the turbines on the wing exploded. Flames and great gouts of fire erupting forth form the engine, even as the aircraft struggled to stay in the air.
"Shit, we're hit! Everyone brace yourselves, we're going down!" Clint shouted, even as he gripped the shaking controls of the Quinjet. Fuck, we'll all need to bail!"
With that said Natasha was out of her seat in moments, with Clint soon following after her as they grabbed their kit and ran for the exit. Even as another shot hit the shaking, smoking jet. The jet which, now there was no longer anyone at the controls, was spiralling in the air as it flew completely out of control.
Glancing between the two humans as they made to leap out of the back of the aircraft, Kaneki grit his teeth and ran after them. His kagune erupting out of his lower back in twin tendrils, looping around both of their waists as Kaneki then leapt out of the back of the jet, moments before it crashed into a nearby building. Sheering through the windows and several floors before it exploded. The impact of the crash causing the entire six storey structure to being to collapse.
Ignoring this though, Kaneki instead concentrated on landing. Though not on the ground, as he instead landed on the front of one of the chariots, two more green flecked, red tendrils erupting forth from the small of his back and skewing the two panicking Chitauri on the chariots as he did so. After which Kaneki then deposited both Natasha and Clint on the still moving, airborne vehicle without a word.
No, instead his attention was on the other chariot, which even as he watched flew nearby. The two angry looking aliens on it, gesturing at him, even as one of them brought its weapon to bare on the white haired ghoul.
"Kaneki..!" Natasha began as she grabbed the aircraft's odd looking controls, while Clint pulled out his bow and arrow, readying himself for battle as he drew an odd looking arrow and aimed at the other, now very close alien craft.
Kaneki though ignored her, as he instead, with a sudden burst of strength and startling agility, leapt from the chariot he was on, over ten metres onto the other craft. His right hand thrusting forward, and through one of the shocked looking alien's chest, killing it in an instant as he ripped it out moments later, pulling out a bunch of dark, blue looking entrails as he did so.
After which Kaneki twisted to the other one, releasing the entrails as his another hand, held out like a knife blade, whipped round in a sweeping strike, landing in the juncture between the creatures head and shoulder with a sickening crunch. His hand breaking bone and exoskeleton even as it tore the creature's head clear off of it's body.
It's ugly helmeted head falling down the earth below, bouncing off of a nearby building, before it amusingly clattered down an open manhole cover as they shot past.
It seemed he managed to get a hole in one.
Kaneki had to hide a slight smile at that strange thought, as he instead looked over and saw the tense expressions on both Clint and Natasha's face as the now driverless vehicle drifted away, losing heath and momentum as it now no longer had anyone operating it.
"Go!" Kaneki shouted across the gap to the other chariot.
Before, without even bothering to wait for a response, Kaneki instead kicked the impaled body of one of the creatures off of the craft, after which he grabbed the very simplistic looking controls for the craft.
He might not be a tech genius of Tony Stark's calibre, but he was smart enough, and intuitive enough to work out how to operate such a simple craft. After all if Natasha could do it, then so could he.
With that in mind he wrenched the vehicle upwards, the airborne chariot lurching to obey, as he now headed up and in the direction of the top floor of Stark Towers. With Kaneki absentmindedly taking a bite out of the other dead Chitauri, the headless one slumped that was slumped over the craft right beside him, as he did so.
More out of curiousity than anything, as he just wanted to find out what it tasted like.
Moments later though he grimaced, his decision had unfortunately turned out to be a mistake. The creature tasted vile and disgusting, so much so that the white haired Ghoul grabbed the dead thing by the throat and hurled it down into the streets below in disgust.
Honestly, the vile looking creature, tasted about as pleasant as it looked. Kind of like what he would imagined a raw and rotting cockroach would taste like. Which was basically to say, it tasted just plain nasty.
Still, in spite of that, the humanoid creature was still strangely edible, disgusting, but just about palatable. At present though he hunger for sweet flesh, if he was minded after the end of the invasion, he might try another bite, but for now he had more important things on his mind.
With that thought in mind Kaneki continued his ascent, the other two having disappeared by this point, vanishing off into the chaotic city, as they, like the rest of the team, just did their own thing. Be it killing the invaders, saving the local citizens, or attempting to track down Loki in order to close the portal, and thus stop the invasion.
A couple of minutes later, after a harrowing, white knuckled, nearly death-defying journey straight up the side of the tower on one of the alien's chariots, Kaneki gladly, almost gleefully, leapt off of the chariot and onto a nearby platform. The now empty vehicle itself whipping past him, shooting a few more metres into the air from it's maintained momentum, before gravity took hold and it fell back down to earth.
Rolling as he landed, so that he quickly regained his footing, Kaneki soon found himself on the Stark Tower penthouse's balcony, Tony's current home.
A large round area, complete with a lots of glass and white metal, along with some futuristic looking architecture, all of which led up to the glass covered main apartment, which in and of itself was just a dozen or so metres below the roof, and thus just below the source of the portal opening sky beam.
It was only a few moments after he arrived on the balcony though, his gaze naturally sweeping around his surroundings, that he soon found his attention drawn elsewhere. With the sounds of the battle far below echoed in his ears, as Iron Man, Captain America, and likely Black Widow and Hawkeye too, all fought against the alien invasion. Meanwhile, Thor continued to bottleneck the portal, his loud bellows still audible above the sounds of battle, as even he, a Norse god/ alien, or whatever the hell an Asgardian was, began to flag, as the exhaustion of continuously using his lightning began to hit him.
Shifting his head about, his nostrils flaring, Kaneki soon locked onto a new, yet, familiar scent, and it wasn't Tony Stark, despite this being his home. No, he recognised this scent as belonging to his foe, Loki.
He could recognise the Asgardian's cold, enticing scent with ease, after all it was so unique. With it being a scent, so different from Thor's in many ways, but also so similar in its complexity, and in the power and might that it seemed to embody.
Twisting his head, Kaneki's grey eyes landed on the god in question, the green flecks in his irises flaring as he naturally, almost instinctively, began to prowl forwards. The sounds of battle now muted, along with the voices of his teammates in his head, especially after he pulled the communicator out of his ear and dropped it on the floor. The small earbud crunching as he absentmindedly stepped on it, his fingers twitching for a moment.
Before a resounding crack echoed across the balcony, as Kaneki cracked his middle finger with his thumb. His heart racing faster all of a sudden, creating a pounding noise which filled his ears, even as he felt saliva beginning to build up in his mouth.
Hearing the crack, Loki glanced over at him as he advanced, a sneer spreading across the god's face as he hefted his spear like sceptre, his golden horned helmet glinting in the midday sun, as too did the many buckles and pieces of armour that decorated his gaudy, green, leather outfit. His long, green cloak blowing about behind him somewhat theatrically as he stepped outside of the apartment and out onto the balcony.
"And so the monster appears…" Loki drawled, his hand clenching his sceptre tighter as he did so, even as one end of it dug into the floor beneath him, causing the metal beneath his feet to warp and bend slightly, even as he curled his lip and sneered at Kaneki, disgust and hatred clearly present in his icy, cold eyes.
Clearly Loki hadn't forgiven him for the whole 'ripping off and eating his ear' thing.
Licking his lips at the sudden memory of that tasty morsel, Kaneki prowled forwards. Allowing all four of his kagune to slowly, but surely, push out of his back. Glorying in the sudden twinge of pain he received as they tore themselves free flesh, all four of them rising into the air, before they hung there, just above him, like hungry, coiled snakes just waiting to strike.
"I'll be honest, I would have thought that Stark was the one that would arrive here first. Especially after the indignity of having his home, his sanctuary, not only usurped, but weaponised against him." Loki continued, his tone mocking as he came to a stop, his flinty, cold, blue eyes locking with Kaneki's hungry, green flecked grey ones. "Still it matters not whether it be you or whether it be Stark, either way you will both be dead by the end of the day."
"You're confident." Kaneki said softly, his head cocking to one side as he eyed Loki up and down, his kagune quivering slightly in excitement, all four tendrils pulsing with red and green energy.
A low growling noise, sounding quite audibly as the two faced off against one another.
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Loki cocked an eyebrow at the sound, before he frowned. Kaneki's expression hadn't changed, nor had he opened his mouth, nor had noticeably made a sound. Or at least, he hadn't made a sound via his mouth. Looking down at the white haired teen's stomach though, Loki's eye twitched when he heard yet another, gurgling growl sound out.
"I'm hungry…" Kaneki said in explanation.
Loki's eye twitched yet again at that comment, his free hand unconsciously moving to his helmet head as he glared at the odd, white haired mortal, his lip curling again, even as rage filled his being. "Well, I am not a snack…!"
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Kaneki's lip twitched upward as he heard that, even as he saw both a flicker of revulsion and rage, and maybe, was that a hint of fear that he also saw appear on Loki's haughty, regal features.
"So he says beloved, but we both know that isn't the case don't we…" Rize's soft melodious voice suddenly cooed, the purple haired beauty appearing behind the scowling Loki as she did so, both arms leisurely draped, almost tenderly, over the Norse god's broad shoulders, even as her long, purple hair trailed down one side of his torso, her head absentmindedly leaning on her own arms as she gazed seductively, sensually, at Kaneki. "Everyone is our prey beloved, everyone is our victim. We are the ultimate predator, the perfect killer. It is in our nature to destroy and consume, just as it is in humanities nature. Only in our case well," Here Rize's lips curled into a wicked smile. "Humanity is exactly what we prey on…"
"Yes..." Kaneki nodded, tugging his buff down so as to reveal his entire face, even as one of his eyes turned a burning, crimson colour, a colour which was noticeably shot through with glowing, angry, emerald green flecks, the sclera also noticeably turning completely black, accentuating the change in his iris, as it did so, even as the veins around his eyes darkened and became clearly visible to the naked eye.
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"Yes?" Loki queried nervously, taking a step back now as he saw the furious, almost bestial look on Kaneki's now demonic face. The four tendrils behind him flicking about furiously, the pulsating intensifying now.
Taking a step back, Loki shook his head, even as he saw the same greenish, red energy that made up Kaneki's tentacles slowly spreading from the small of the teen's back, across the white haired teen's torso and then slowly up his neck.
The energy then seemingly cooling to become a blackened, spiked carapace of sorts. The tendrils themselves were also noticeably becoming thicker, longer, spikier and more, wing like as the energy coming off of Kaneki spread, the tips of the tendrils now twisting and curling into spiked, bladed hooks.
"W-what… what in oblivion's name are you?" Loki hissed, completely taken aback by this sudden, unnatural metamorphosis, as Kaneki hunched over, his eyes gleaming with both hunger and madness, even as the carapace that covered his body became more streamline, and formfitting, the appearance become distinctly insect like now.
With the energy, by this point, having also covered most of Kaneki's upper body in a spiked, armoured shell, even as it trailed down his legs and up his neck, forming yet more segmented armour as it did so. With the energy around his hands noticeably morphing into razor sharp, blackened claws, the nails extending several inches, even as spikes and thorn like protrusions erupted forth from the now inhuman looking teen's arms and legs.
"I'm…" Kaneki began, his voice as rough, bestial and insane as he now looked, even as he hunched over, his claw like hands gouging easily into the several inch thick metal beneath him. "Hungry!"
"Shit…" Loki hissed, his blue eyes widening as he realised exactly what that meant, even as Kaneki suddenly exploded forwards.
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AN: So what do you all think? Intially I was going to try to run through the whole battle of New York thing in one chapter. But then I decided not too, it would have either made the chapter too long, or it would have been lacking in detail, and a pretty all round, rushed chapter. Hernce why I split it up, that and I also wanted to get this chapter out after having waited so long between updates.
So yes, I hope you all enjoy the chapter and continue to read and review. If you have any specific questions etc. please feel free to PM me. If not I hope you continue to support the story, and give some of my other ones ago if you have the time.
Thanks for reading and I'll catch you later.
Greed720.
