Chapter 21 – The War

Inside a lone quinjet, a young S.H.I.E.L.D. pilot was tending to the jet's interior. He prepared to sit down and take a breather, when he noticed a group of people marching toward the quinjet. In the center was Captain America, who was now wearing his mask and wielding his shield. Flanking his sides where Agents Wrekk and Romanoff, both armed to the teeth. Next to Agent Romanoff was Agent Barton, who was now in his purple and black combat suit with his high-tech bow and arrow in hand. Next to him was Sif, whose Asgardian healing factor repaired some of the wounds inflicted onto her by the Hulk. She had her sword in its holster and her shield on her shoulder.

Next to Agent Wrekk was Carrie, who was now wearing dark bullet proof vest over her white and grey shirt. The vest had dark yellow stripes around the sides and a S.H.I.E.L.D. logo on the front. She also was wearing a jean skirt with a black belt wrapped around it. Underneath the skirt were black skin-tight pants, and brown boots. Courtesy of Soladat.

The pilot quickly walked out of the jet to stop them.

"Hey, you're not authorized to be here!"

"Son," Captain America interrupted, shaking his head, "just don't."

ooooo

On the bridge, Fury stood at the viewing port as the BridgeTechs worked around him. He was looking down at Coulson's trading cards. He glanced back when he heard footsteps approaching, and saw Agent Hill approaching.

"Sir."

"Agent Hill?"

Hill frowned at him, crossing her arms. "Those cards were in Coulson's locker, not his jacket."

Fury sighed and looked back at the cards. "They needed the push."

Suddenly, a voice spoke over the com. "Attention, we have an unauthorized departure."

Fury, Hill, and the other BridgeTechs blinked in surprise and looked out the port to see Iron Man zoom by, followed by a quinjet. Fury smiled.

"They found him." He said, and then turned to Hill. "Get our communications back up, whatever you have to do. I want eyes on everything."

Hill nodded. "Yes, sir."

ooooo

"Beth!"

The blonde waitress turned her head at her boss, who was pointing at a table outside the diner. "Family of three."

Beth smiled and nodded. She headed outside and walked up to the family, seeing that it was two parents and their young daughter.

"Hello, my name is Beth, I'm going to be your server today." Beth said with a smile. "Can I take your orders?"

The husband started to speak. "Yes, I'll take…"

"Mommy, daddy, look!" The daughter pointed up at the sky. Beth turned to see Iron Man soaring overhead toward Stark Tower, but she noticed that his suit was faltering slightly as he flew. The people gathered around applauded at the armored hero as he hovered above Stark Tower. Beth squinted up, and could barely see what Iron Man was doing up there.

Suddenly, there was an explosion and everyone looked up confused as a blue pulse seemed to come from Stark Tower. Beth caught a brief glimpse of Iron Man hovering away from the roof and down to the lower floor where the Stark insignia was set up.

"Mommy, what happened?" The young girl asked.

"I don't know, honey."

Beth just looked up, getting a sudden inexplicable sense of dread.

ooooo

Scepter in hand, Loki watched as Tony slowly removed his armor and entered the living room/bar area of the building. Frowning in confusion, Loki entered the room to see Stark standing at the bar whipping up a few drinks. Tony feigned a welcoming smile at the god of lies.

Loki returned a false smile of his own. "Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity."

"Uh… actually," Tony said, "I'm planning to threaten you."

Loki chuckled. "You should have kept your armor on for that."

Tony shrugged, and, unknown to Loki, slipped on two metal bracelet-like devices, and paged a silent order to JARVIS. "Yeah, she's seen a lot of mileage. But look at you. You've got the big blue stick of destiny."

Loki looked down at his scepter, smiling. At least the inventor was observant, unlike most of the mortals here. He looked up as Tony poured a glass of liquor.

"Would you like a drink?" The billionaire offered. Loki glared.

"Stalling me won't change anything."

"No, no, no!" Tony said, holding up his hand in a stop position. "No stalling. Threatening."

Loki just glared in annoyance and turned away from Tony, staring out at the cityscape. Despite his abhorrence for humanity, he had to admit they had impressive architecture. This city was almost as large as Asgard. It's too bad it would all go to waste.

Behind him, Stark offered the glass again. "You sure you don't want a drink? I'm having one."

"The Chitauri are coming. Nothing can change that." Loki said, ignoring Stark's offer. He turned around to face the inventor. "What have I to fear?"

"The Avengers." Stark said simply. Loki frowned in confusion and slowly stepped forward. Seeing Loki's expression, Tony quickly explained.

"It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. An 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' type of thing." Tony said simply.

Loki chuckled, nodding. "Yes. I've met them. Can't say that I'm impressed, though."

Tony shrugged. "Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But, let's do a head count here. Your girlfriend, the thunder goddess."

Loki glared at the inventor when he mentioned Darcy, but continued to listen. "A super soldier and living legend who kind of lives up to the legend, an alien warrior who spent the last fifty-thousand years locked in a refrigerator, a girl with some impressive psychic talents, a man with breathtaking anger management issues, a succubus who, might I add, gave you quite the ass kicking."

Loki glared up at the inventor in annoyance. Tony shrugged. "Saw the security footage. Couldn't resist."

"And then we got some master assassins." Tony finished, and then pointed at the Asgardian prince. "And you, my friend, have managed to piss off every single one of them."

Loki smirked. "That was the plan."

"Not a great plan." Tony remarked, and slowly stepped out from behind the counter, drink in hand, and approached Loki. "When they come, and they will, they'll come for you."

Loki glared. "I have an army."

"We have a Hulk."

Loki blinked, and pointed his staff out at the city. "I thought the beast had wondered off?"

"You're missing the point!" Tony suddenly yelled, and the lord of lies glared in outrage. "There's no throne, absolutely no version of this where you come out on top! Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you."

Now only a few feet away from the god, Tony glared defiantly. "Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damned well sure we'll avenge it."

Glaring daggers at the inventor, Loki approached him menacingly. "How will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?"

Suddenly, Loki touched Stark's chest with the tip of his scepter. But to Loki's surprise, the blue energies given off by the staff seemed to vanish, and the gem's glow died down. Tony blinked up at the god in confusion.

Frowning, Loki tried it again with the same results. Tony smirked at the Asgardian, and Loki looked back sheepishly.

"This usually works."

"Well, performance issues…" Tony said, shrugged. "Not uncommon. One out of five maybe…"

Suddenly Loki grabbed Stark by the throat, and the inventor gagged at the grip. Loki tossed Stark angrily to the side, and Tony slowly pulled himself up.

"JARVIS," He said quietly to his AI, "any time now."

He gagged again when Loki picked him up by the throat, and brought the inventor to him eye level, snarling in fury.

"You will all fall before me!"

Then, Loki jerked his hand back, preparing to throw the billionaire.

"Deploy, JARVIS!" Stark said, and a hidden compartment at the end of the room suddenly opened up. "Deploy!"

Loki through Tony through the window, and he fell several stories below. Loki smirked, but then blinked when he heard the sound of engines priming, and looked back to see a red missile-looking device rocket out of the compartment. It raced past him, hitting him across the face on the way, and raced down after Tony.

Locking into the homing bracelets Tony equipped, the device unfolded into the Mark VII, and attached itself to the inventor. Now Iron Man, Tony quickly propelled himself upwards before he could hit the ground, and raced back up to the top floor. He saw Loki pulling himself up off the ground, and upon seeing Stark, Loki glared in anger.

"And there's one other person you pissed off!" Tony said. "His name is Phil."

Loki pointed the scepter at Iron Man, preparing to fire an energy blast, but Iron Man quickly fired a repulsor blast at the invader, knocking him off his feet.

Tony prepared to finish off the Asgardian, when he heard a noise up above and looked up to see a blue beam firing off into the sky. Then, a black hole suddenly formed in the sky, and Tony's eyes widened when these creatures suddenly poured through. They looked humanoid, except Tony noticed that they supported numerous biomechanical formations on their bodies. They were riding jet-ski looking vehicles, and were heading right for the city.

"Right…" Tony said, locking his suit's targeting systems on the creatures. "Army."

ooooo

Beth's eyes widened in shock when a large black portal suddenly opened up above Stark Tower. The customers all got up from their tables, seeing it as well. Beth squinted and saw, to her shock, a number of… things coming out of the portal. They looked like people on jet-skis. Then, she spotted Iron Man racing up towards them. He shot a few of them down with his repulsor blasts, and then shot a number of little pellets at them that exploded, blowing several of the creatures up.

However, a few of the creatures flew past Iron Man and started descending upon the city. On a nearby bridge, people got out of their cars and looked up at the spectacle in confusion, but their confusion soon turned to horror when the creatures started shooting at them with plasma rifles.

People ran screaming as cars were blown up by the blue streaks of plasma as well as a few unfortunate civilians. Below, Beth ducked away when a few stray blasts scathed the nearby tables.

She quickly led several of terrified customers into the diner, locking the door behind her. Once everyone was safely inside, Beth looked up in bewilderment as the creatures started destroying buildings, cars, and innocent lives.

ooooo

Loki stepped out onto the landing platform on the tower, and his body shimmered as his helmet appeared over his head, and his suit repaired itself from the damage. He watched as his army laid waste to the city, smiling in satisfaction. All was going well. Nothing could possibly ruin it now.

Suddenly, the scepter's gem glowed brightly, and Lok grunted in pain and gripped his head. His eyes turned from bright green to bright blue as something invaded his thoughts.

"Well?" The raspy voice of the Other said. Loki smirked.

"My time has come." Loki announced in pride.

"Resistance?" The Other hissed.

Loki shook his head. "Only from a few. We'll pick them apart."

"And the rest of the humans?" The Other queried.

Loki just smirked. "We mow them down."

"Loki!"

Loki blinked as his eyes returned to their normal color, and he turned to see Thordis had landed nearby. She glared up at him.

Loki gave her a smile. "Ah, Darcy! So you did survive. Enjoying my little revolution?"

"Stop this!" She demanded, pointing at the devastation. "Right now!"

Loki scoffed. "Do you really think I'd stop? After all I've gone through to get here? Don't be a fool!"

Darcy glared. "I'm warning you, Loki. I kicked your ass once. I can do it again!"

"I want you to try." Loki hissed.

Darcy's eyes narrowed. "Don't think I won't!"

Then, Loki, giving a warrior's yell, leapt down at Darcy, preparing to bring the scepter down on her. Darcy quickly leapt out of the way and the scepter struck the ground. Darcy quickly swung the hammer at Loki, who brought the scepter up to block the strike. Darcy backed away as Loki swung the scepter at her, which she ducked away from. Loki continued swinging the scepter so that it was against his shoulders, and gripped the other end with his other hand. He jerked the scepter, and an energy blast shot out towards Darcy.

Bringing Mjolnir up, Darcy absorbed the blast into her hammer. Glaring, Darcy swung the hammer down to strike Loki, who clashed the scepter against it. Darcy's strength being the better of the two, Darcy forced the edge of the scepter to point away from her and to the side. The resulting energy blast struck the K on the Stark insignia, blowing it clean off.

The A fell from the tower, plummeting several stories until it crashed onto the roof of a smaller building below.

ooooo

In the streets below, several police cars drove up around Stark Tower. The officers got out and looked up in shock as several of the creatures soared overhead, firing their weapons at anything they considered a target.

One sergeant saw Iron Man racing after a small group of the creatures, shooting them down one by one.

"What in the name of…"

Suddenly, the sound of a jet engine was heard, and the officers looked up to see some sort of jet zooming in towards the city.

ooooo

"We're here." Clint said from the front. "But we might be too late."

Everyone came up to the front and all looked in shock and horror at the sight before them. A portal was already opened above Stark Tower and a swarm of creatures, who the group guessed were the Chitauri, was besieging the entire city. Carrie's eyes widened, recognizing the creatures from her vision.

"That looks bad…" She murmured.

"That might just be the biggest understatement ever." Steve said to her. Suddenly, everyone turned at the sound of the hatch opening, and saw Soladat standing at the loading ramp, rifle in hand.

"What are you doing?" Steve yelled. Soladat turned and smirked.

"Providing a little aerial support." She said, and then waved. "See ya!"

"Wait!"

But Archangel already leapt out of the jet and unfolded her wings, flying in to confront the invaders. Steve quickly turned back to Barton.

"Take us in!"

"You got it." Clint said, and started making his descent into the cityscape. Natasha quickly paged Stark.

"Stark, we're on your three headed northeast!"

"What, did you stop for drive through?" Tony's irate voice responded. Natasha scowled at the inventor's remark, and Tony, as if seeing her expression, quickly responded in a kinder tone.

"Swing that park, I'm gonna lay 'em out for you."

"Roger that." Natasha said, and then nodded at Clint. Clint nodded back and made a rapid descent into the city skyline. Opening the hatch beneath the quinjet, Clint unloaded the mini-gun on several Chitauri flyers. After gunning down numerous flyers, the quinjet soared over Grand Central Station and swooped upwards towards the top of Stark Tower.

Nearby, Iron Man was being pursued by two persistent Chitauri flyers.

"Sir, we have more incoming." JARVIS informed his master.

"Fine!" Tony snapped. "Let's keep 'em occupied."

"Don't worry, Stark!" The voice of Soladat said through the com. "I've got you covered."

From inside his suit, Tony blinked and glanced over to see Archangel soaring nearby. Aiming her rifle towards an unsuspecting Chitauri flyer, Archangel pulled the trigger and smirked with satisfaction as the pilot took the shot right to the head. Careening out of control, the flyer rammed into the flyer flanking its left. Both flyers collided and exploded, and the remains plummeted down to the streets below.

"Thank you very much, Archangel." Iron Man said in appreciation.

Archangel smirked, but then glared when she noticed five more incoming. "Stark, you got five bogeys closing in from behind!"

"Right."

Iron Man quickly turned around and pointed his hands at the rapidly approaching flyers, and fired two repulsor blasts. Both struck two of the flyers, but the other two continued to close in. Iron Man braced himself as one of the flyers collided with him, but Iron Man managed to grip down on the flyer and spun around, throwing the flyer off course and into another as it flew by. Both crashed into the ground, exploding.

Iron Man quickly swerved away from a plasma blast, and prepared to fire a repulsor blast at the last flyer, but Archangel quickly fired her rifle at the pilot, striking him right in the chest.

The Chitauri shrieked in pain, and started swerving around wildly. Seeing an open target, Iron Man raised his hand and took out the flyer with a second repulsor blast.

"Bogeys taken care of." Tony said.

"Just those few." Archangel remarked. "We got over a hundred more."

Tony grimaced inside his suit. "Right…"

ooooo

Back on Stark Tower, Loki ducked to avoid a swing from Thordis' hammer, and then swung his scepter, striking Thordis in the back and causing her to stumble. Growling, Loki grabbed Thordis by the hair, eliciting a hiss of pain from the thunder goddess in the process, and smashed her head against the glass railing nearby.

Up above, the quinjet hovered over the two combatants. Inside, Sif, who was looking over Natasha's shoulder, pointed.

"There he is!"

Natasha looked over at Clint. "Hawkeye?"

"I see him." He remarked, and started firing at the god of lies.

Loki grunted in surprise as he was pelted with bullets, and looked up to see the quinjet firing at him. Glaring in annoyance, Loki tossed Thordis away and pointed his scepter up at the quinjet. Jerking it forward, Loki unloaded an energy blast, which struck the quinjet's right wing, blowing a gaping hole in it.

"Shit! Hold on!" Clint yelled as the quinjet started falling out of the sky. Everybody onboard quickly braced themselves for impact.

Loki prepared to fire another blast to finish the jet off, but Thordis yelled and charged at Loki, knocking him off his feet. Loki grunted in pain as Thordis delivered a fury of hard punches to his face, and tried to block the strikes, but Thordis strength greatly outclassed his own. She grabbed him by the throat and bit his face left and right with her other fist, and soon blood started to drip from his nose.

Below, the quinjet spun out of control as it was racing towards the street at uncontrollable speed. Clint grit his teeth as he tried to keep the quinjet straight, but was having no such luck. Sif gripped the back of Natasha's seat in order to keep herself standing, while Captain America and Carrie were holding onto their seats in the back.

"Everybody brace for impact!" Clint yelled over the noise. Natasha closed her eyes as the ground came in fast, but the collision didn't come as expected.

Natasha opened her eyes, and blinked in confusion when she saw that they were hovering above the ground.

"What…?" Clint said, looking around in confusion.

"Carrie?" Captain America said, and everybody looked back to see the telekinetic girl was standing up and gripping the jet's steel-grab bars, and had a look of concentration on her face. The jet faltered slightly when the captain put a hand on her shoulder.

"Carrie, you can let go now."

Carrie grunted as she released her hold, and the jet immediately dropped and smashed against the ground. Everybody jerked forward from the small impact, but were nonetheless unharmed.

Captain America quickly opened the hatch and ran outside. Everyone else followed. The group saw that they had crashed on the bridge leading up to Grand Central, and ran past numerous terrified civilians.

The skies were filled with Chitauri flyers, with more and more emerging from the portal. Captain Ameirca looked back at his teammates.

"Come on, we need to get back up there!"

Suddenly, the group stopped when a loud, inhuman wail seemed to echo from the portal. Looking up, the Avengers gawked when an enormous creature suddenly flew out of the portal, roaring loudly. It looked like a giant tadpole covered in a thick armored shell, and had metal fins jutting out of its sides. It's mouth was filled with jagged black teeth and diseased looking gums.

Still holding Loki by the throat, Thordis looked up from her perch on Stark Tower in shock as the creature scaled down the building and swooped over Grand Central, knocking the head and torso of a nearby statue as it did. It floated over the bridge, and the Avengers watched as several Chitauri foot soldiers were ejected from numerous pods attached to the monster's sides.

The soldiers leaped from the pods and into the nearby buildings, where they started attacking the people inside.

In the skies above, Archangel and Iron Man watched with wide eyes.

"Oh, shiiiiiiitt!" Archangel groaned.

And that is the first part of the Battle for New York! Next chapter, the battle continues (duh, lol).

Before I close this up for today, I'd like to share some thoughts on the final battle, mainly the Chitauri. I'll admit, the fight would have been nothing without them, but realistically, the Chitauri couldn't have been more worthless as a team. Really the only advantage they had was their sheer number. When I first saw the movie I expected them to be difficult adversaries with how threatening Loki made them sound, but as I found out later they were the most unorganized bunch in movie history! In a way, they are everything that the Avengers aren't.

Anyway, sorry for rambling, but I just felt like sharing that. Review pleaz!