Hey guys! I am back! I know I was supposed to update Past Present and Future but today I really felt like continuing with this story. So here it goes!

Chapter 34

Tony and Ray look at the empty cell container blankly as they stand not saying a word when Steve walks in. "Was he married?" he asked.

"No. There was a uh...cellist, I think." Tony replied.

"I'm sorry. He seemed like a good man."

"He was an idiot!" Tony snapped at ones.

"Why? For believing?" Steve asked.

"For taking on Loki alone." Ray replied in an obvious tone.

"He was doing his job." Steve insisted.

"He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have..." ray was cut off by Steve speaking again.

"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Ray."

"Right. How did that work for him?" Tony said walking in the other direction.

"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?" Steve asked that made Tony turn around sharply "WE ARE NOT SOLDIERS!" he snapped. "We are not marching to Fury's fife!"

"Neither am I! He's got the same blood on his hands as Loki does. Right now we've got to put that aside and get this done. Now Loki needs a power source, if we can put together a list..." Steve said but Tony cut him short looking at the blood stained wall. "He made it personal."

"That's not the point." Steve pointed out.

"That is the point. That's Loki's point!" Tony exclaimed. "He hit us all right where we live. Why?"

"To tear us apart." Ray replied.

"He had to conquer his greed, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us and he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience." Tony said getting more and more excited.

"Right, I caught his act at Stuttengard."

"Yeah. That's just a preview, this is opening night. Loki's a full-tilt diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built in the skies with his name plastered..."Tony stopped midsentence only to realise where Loki could go.

"Son of a bitch!" exclaimed Ray in frustration.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Steve walks in full uniform and calls Natasha and Clint to suit up. Tony mends his own suit while Ray's was completely destroyed by the hulk. She had to retreat to Stark Tower to get herself new armour. Cap, Widow, Ray and Hawkeye walk towards and into the QUINJET. A young SHIELD pilot looks and stands in their way. "You are not authorized to be here..."

"Son... just don't." Said Steve backing him off as they fly off.

Tony arrives at STARK TOWER where Selvig activates the CMS device, holding the Tesseract. "Sir, I took off the arc reactor. The device is already self-sustained." JARVIS infored.

"Shut it down, Dr. Selvig." Tony ordered.

"It's too late! It can't stop now. He wants to show us something! A new universe."

"Okay." Said Tony as he aims his hands toward the CMS and fires. The energy from his boosters shatter with a deafening crack and Selvig falls backwards while down below the Stark Tower the citizen look up to see what was happening.

"Ms. Stark is in the compound in the workshop. She is preparing the Mark VII. It is not ready

To be deployed.

"Skip the spinning rims. We're on the clock. Tony lands his suit and goes through the gauntlet and unseats himself. Loki looks up at him, smiling as they proceed to walk into the penthouse.

IN THE STARK TOWER WORKSPACE

"Ms. Stark, Mr Stark has entered the penthouse and has confronted Loki." Voila said as Ray was in the workshop getting the suits ready.

"What!" Ray exclaimed as a virtual screen popped up in front of her.

"Tone, I don't think Loki is friendly enough to encounter him." She said through the intercom.

"Don't worry. I got this. Get the suit." he said walking casually walks down the steps, towards the bar.

"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity." Loki said in a mocking tone.

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

"You should have left your armour on for that."

"Yeah, it's seen a bit of mileage."

"You've got the blue stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?"

"Stalling me won't change anything."

"No, no, no! Threatening. No drink? You sure? I'm having one."

"The chitauri are coming, nothing will change that. What have I to fear?"

"The Avenger." Tony say as Loki looks at him, confused "It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. 'Earth's Mightiest Heros' type of thing." He explained.

"Yes, I've met them." Loki smirks.

"Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one." Tony said smiling and then continued "But, let's do a head count here. Your brother, the demi-God; a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins, and you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them."

"That was the plan." Loki said evilly smirking.

"Not a great plan. When they come, and they will, they'll come for you." From underneath the bar table, Tony pulls on colantotte bracelets, a honing device.

"I have an army."

"We have a HULK."

"I thought the beast had wandered off."

"You're missing the point. There's no throne, there is 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. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be amned well sure we'll avenge it."

"Ms. Stark, it is time." Said JARVIS as Ray was getting the suits ready.

"Shut up J, you know how long it take!" she said impatiently.

Loki slowly walks up to him, raising the sceptre, "How will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?" Tony holds his breath as Loki taps Tony on the chest with his sceptre. PING! Nothing happened. Confused, Loki tires again. PING! But nothing happened. Tony sighed in relief.

"It should work." Loki said confusion clear on his face.

"Well, performance issues. You know?" Tony said in a joking tone. In anger, Loki grabs Tony by the throat and flings him across the room.

"Ray, Anytime now!" he said as Loki grabs Tony by the throat.

"Two minutes, tone."

"Don't have that." He said in a choking voice.

"Fuck Tony. I'm doing it manually!" she said panickingly looking at the screen.

"You will all fall before me." Loki throws Tony out of the window. Tony freefalls down the tower. The pod laser shoots the colantotte bracelets on Tony as Ray had the suit read. The POD begins to transform into the MARK VII suit. It latches onto Tony and the suit FLIES up just before he hits

the ground or the gazing people. "Saved your butt!" Tony heard Ray say who was in her suit connected to him. Loki looks up, angry. "I saved you first!"

"And there's one other person you pissed off! His name was Phil." Tony said flying up facing Loki as he raises the sceptre as Tony fires at Loki, sending him on his ass.

Suddenly a hole in space rips open, and from it, the chitauri army spillout in flying chariot, carrying energy rifles with a bayonet on the end.

"Right. Army." Tony said as he flies up towards the portal. From his shoulders, a miniature multiple rocket launcher, pops out and fires. Like the Jerico missile, several targets are taken down unlike no

Missile but it's useless. Thousands of chitauri fly out as Tony flies towards the city.

"Stark, we're heading north east." Steve said as he walked out of the Quintjet.

"What, did you stop for drive-thru? Swing up PARK, I'm gonna lay 'em out for you."

EXT. STARK TOWER DAY

Valkyre swoops down the street, causing a Chitauri to crash. Flying up, she puts the following chitauri in view of the Quintjet.

"Ray. Stay closer to the ground" he said worriedly looking at the destruction around her.

"Yeah." She said flying higher up.

"We have more incoming."said both the AIs to their masters.

"Let's keep them occupied." Both Ray and Tony head back to the portal where Thor and Loki were battling savagely. Loki fires ENERGY from the sceptre, sending Thor sliding across the floor.

From the portal, a freaking big chitauri leviathan flies out, carrying hundreds of soldiers; the chitauri leviathan passes Clint, Natasha and Steve. They look up, out of their element. From both sides, chitauri soldiers cling off and attach themselves to the sides of the buildings, sliding down. Some crash into these buildings and begin firing from their energy rifles at innocent people.

"Stark, are you seeing this?" Steve asked.

"I'm seeing, still working on believing." Tony said as he and Ray flied up the street.

"Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?" Ray asked.

"Banner?" asked Steve

"Just keep us posted." Tony said as Voila and Jarvis works on finding a soft spot chitauri leviathan as they quickly fly behind and parallel with the chitauri leviathan.

The TRIO runs behind upside taxis. They look up and see Loki taking his band down the street and fires at the street in a chain of explosions, smashing cars and hurling people as it goes off one final conflagration.

"Those people need assistance down there. Chitauri soldiers that have landed near them and begin firing at them." Steve says as Natasha pulls both pistols and fires and turns to cap.

"We got this. It's good. Go!" said Natasha.

Steve turned to Hawkeye, "You think you can hold them off?"

"Captain." He says as he pulls a trigger on his bow. "It would be my genuine pleasure." He said as he shoots an arrow into the creature's head, gaining a few seconds for Cap as he falls down the bridge,

followed by an explosion. Cap races over to the plaza, jumping over dozens of exploding cars.

Tony swerves around a building and faces the chitauri leviathan. He pulls out his miniature multiple rocket launcher and flies. The chitauri leviathan roars in annoyance. The chitauri leviathan turns to him. "We got his attention. What the hell is step two?!" he says as he flies away.

"The powers surrounding the cube is impenetrable." Thor said through the intercom.

"Thor is right. We gotta deal with these guys." Replied Ray.

"How do we do this?" Nat asked.

"As a team."

"I have unfinished business with Loki."

"Yeah, get in line."

"Save it. Loki's gonna keep this fight focused on us and that's what we need. Without him these things could run wild. We got the Starks up top, he's gonna need us..." Steve said. Just then, Bruce arrives. Getting off, he looks around the city.

"So, this all seems horrible."

"I've seen worse." Ray said.

"Sorry."

"No. We could use a little worse."

"Stark? We got him."

"Banner?" asked Tony.

"Just like you said."

"Then tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you. Tony comes out from behind a building. The chitauri leviathan follows, impatiently as the rest of the avengers look up, getting ready and standing

still.

"I... I don't see how that's a party..." Nat commentedas Tony swoops down the street. The chitauri leviathan also swoops down, barrelling down the street like a freight train that keeps building and building its intensity. Banner looks behind. Cap looks at him. Banner begins to walk towards the monster.

"Dr. Banner. Now might be a really good time for you to get angry."

"That's my secret, Captain. I'm always angry." Banner's body starts to swell and stretch and harden. Green shoots through his body as the Hulk emergesas it smashes the chitauri leviathan flipping it by 360 degrees. Valkyre, in mid-flight, extends her arm out and a rocket, ready to shoot. Ray fires - the rocket hits a soft spot. Large chitauri leviathan is blown completely away.

United against the common threat, to fight the foes no single super hero could withstand, THE AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!

From the portal, thousand more Chitauri soldiers and more chitauri leviathan fly out.The avengers look up.

"Call it, Cap." Said Tony

"Alright, listen up. Until we can close that portal up there, we're gonna use containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Starks, you both got the

perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or your turn it to ash."

"Wanna give me a lift?" Clint asked Ray.

"Right. Better clench up, Legolas." She replied as she lifts Hawkeye up to the building.

"Thor, you've gotta try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You've got the lightning. Light the chitauries up.

"You and me, we stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here." He said to Nat, "And Hulk, SMASH!" the Hulk smiles the most magnificient grin and leaps, soaring high. The fight goes on but for every chitauri they killed two more came. They were at loss.

AT SHIELD BASE

"If we don't hold them in the air, we lose everything." Said the Security Council chief said.

"I send that bird out, we already have."Fury shuts off his viewscreen.

Natasha, who was driving the chariot with the RIDER, is hit at her side. She looks about, wondering whose energy fires it was she looks behind.

"Oh. You." she said as she realises it was Loki. Loki follows in hot pursuit as they race downward, trailing between buildings. They race madly, driving and dodging. At the rooftop, Hawkeye looks at Nat, astonished. "Nat, what are you doing?"

"Uh... a little help!" she said as Hawkeye pulls the trigger twice, nocks an arrow, and points it

at Loki, smiling. "I've got him." He shoots the arrow but Loki catches it as he looks straight at Clint witha smirk but too his surprise the arrow explodes on his face and Loki falls on the Stark Penthouse Pad. Nat looks down and building her momentum, she JUMPS of the chariot, lands on top of Stark Tower, rolling herself to the edge.

As Loki looks up, shocked at what just happened, the hulk is leaping up and down and kicks Loki, hurling toward the glass window. He collapses as he hits the wall. The hulk jumps in, ready to

attack as Loki rolls himself up in a flurry of broken glass. Standing up to the hulk Loki yells. "Enough you all are beneath me! I am a god you dull creature, and I will not be bullied..." he is cut short as the Hulk grabs his legs and smashes him against the floor repeatedly and finally throws him side the ground. "Puny God!" Hulk says as Loki whimpers in pain .

Natasha walks up the CMS machine. Selvig, slumped down, weakened, looks at her desperately. The Tesseract's energy is firing towards the portal, gaining in strength, at the surge of energy moving through the sky.

"Doctor."

"Loki's sceptre, the energy...the Tesseract can't fight. You can't protect against yourself."

"It's not your fault. You didn't know what you were doing."

"Well, actually I think I did. I built in a safety to cut the power source. Loki's sceptre, it might be able to close the portal. And I'm looking right at it."

Tony flies right next to the chitauri leviathan and aims his chitauri leviathan at it. Nothing happens. Ray attempts for the same but nothing happens. "We will lose power before we cut through that fucking shell." Ray said as Tony flies up ahead, facing the oncoming monster.

"Uuu...language kid!" he joked.

"Yeah, sorry. It just slipped out."

"Kiddo, you ever hear the tale of Jonah?"

"Tone, I...I seriously wouldn't consider him a role model at this moment." She said in an unsure tone as Tony flies through the chitauri leviathan unleashing energy arsenal on the suit. The chitauri leviathan opens its mouth and Tony flies in and bursts out the other end, making the chitauri leviathan collapse. Tony rolls down the street. The wind is knocked out of him as he looks up with an overwhelming sigh. "See that?" he cheerfully said to his sister though a small band of chitauri soldiers were rushing towards him, holding out their rifles. "Yeah, cool! Now watch this!" she said as she landed just before him facing the approaching chitauri as Tony was still on the ground. She shot pure beam of energy which hit directly at the approaching chitauri and killed all of them at ones. "Wooah! That was sweet!" Tony said getting up. "Doing that would next time would drain a lot of our energy." Boombed Voila.

"Yeah, I know." Ray said.

"Ray, at the sixth square there are civilians trapped in a building." Steve said through the intercom.

"I'll be there." She said as she flew past her brother. Tony stared at her back. Damn he never wanted hher to be a part of this madness. The last time! He mentally swore flying in the other direction taking down a few more chitauri.

"Stark, you hearing me?" Tony heard Fury through his intercom as he was fighting half a dozen chitauri. "We have a missile headed straight for the city."

"How long?"

"Three minutes, at best. Stay low and wipe out the missile." Nick said. Tony didn't even take a moment he fights off as many chitauri soldiers as he sustain. "Jarvis, put everything we got into the

thrusters!" he said.

"I just did." Said his obedient AI JARVIS as Tony leaves the streets and flies up into the sky.

"Ray, where are you?" Tony asked.

"6th square, third floor" she replied as she helped people out of the collapsing building.

"Good." He said and without a word flew directly towards the approaching missile.

Cap and Thor battle side to side as they both throw their respective weapons. Thor catches MJÖLNIR, but as Cap turns, an energy blast strikes him down hard. Thor runs over to a broken car, swings the hammer and flips the car over and over on its side, crushing a few chitauri soldiers. Cap tries to get up. Thor helps him back to his feet. Cap raises his SHIELD back up.

"You ready for another bout?"

"What? You gettin' sleepy?" Steve joked.

The building couldn't hold any longer. "Voila do a last check for civilians in the building." Ray said as her AI obeyed.

"I am getting heat signatures from the 13th floor."

"Hurry!" she said blasting of and smashing through the window finding a family sticking to eachother. She looked around to find something she could carry them on.

"Get on the bed!" she said as they hurriedly did as told. She smashed out of the wall carrying the family of four on her back as the building collapsed behind her. "Phew! Close one wasn't it?"

Back at Stark Tower, Selvig is back in scientist mode. He clanks at his laptop. Natasha grabs Loki's sceptre, slowly breaks into the force feild, almost touching the Tesseract.

"I can close it! Can anybody hear me? I can shut the portal down!"

"Do it!" Steve said when Tony spoke up.

"No, wait!"

"Stark, these things are still coming!"

"I got a nuke coming in, it's gonna blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it."

Tony catches up, now comes at the missile from behind. The missile speeds on as Tony grabs it from behind, gripping it tightly. With a mighty effort, he wrenches the rocket off its course, steering it from behind, he accelerates quickly, flying straight up into sky, towards the portal.

"Stark, you know that's a one-way trip?"

"Save the rest for return, J." He said not replying to Steve.

"Stop!" he heard his sister scream through the intercom. "You are not doing that!" she said in authoritive tone.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Ray. Its fine. I promise!" he said though he was sure it wasn't true. "I'll be fine. I have enough energy to return."

"Yeah! Who are you lieing to? I helped you create it! The arc can never sustain that energy!"

"Don't worry." He insisted.

Ray was about to fly towards him when Jarvis spoke up. "Sir, your sister is about to take a flight!"

"Ray, No!" he said as jarvis hacked into her suit shutting it down. "And Ms. Potts is on line."

"Thanks J." Tony said.

"Tony, you can't do this!" she said, this time almost crying getting out of her suit.

"What? You thought you are the only hacker around?" Tony joked as he looked at the screen. The phone kept on ringing. Pick up Pepper.

"Anthony Edward Stark, get down!" she screamed. As Steve held her back. "Tone, please. You promised..." she trailed.

"I know. I'm sorry. I love you, kiddo." He said as he climbs higher, gaining speed, suddenly flings himself through the portal. "I love you too..." he heard a faint reply from his sister as all his communications die. The suit begins to freeze as he looks in horror,the black sky is filledwith what must be ninety ships in a vague cluster. Most of them hang still in the air. Some move swimmingly about. Tony lets go of the missile. It whistles off into the blackness as Tony idly falls back down the portal's opening. The missile reaches the main ship. It causing the entire ARMADA to burst into a upernova, creating a spectacular heavenly display.

The Avengers look up at their consultant, not sure if he'll make it through. Ray looks up expectedly but sees nothing. Still holding the sceptre in hand, Natasha shifts around, waiting. "Come on, Stark...".Thor and Cap see the supernova coming towards them. Thor nods to Cap.

"Close it." Steve said still holding his first friend of the century. Without hesitating, Natasha pulls the scepture out, the tesseract turns off its energy beam. The portral closes. A small figure is hurled backwards into the open now closed portal. Tony, plummeting to the earth.

"Son of a gun!" Steve exclaimed smiling as Ray ones again looks keeps falling. And falling. And falling.

"He's not slowing down." Thor says as he swings Mjölnir around. Just as Thor is about to fly up, the hulk snags Iron Man out of air, crashing and sliding down a building. As he lands on the ground he throws Tony ff him. Ray, Thor and Cap run over to him. Thor rips off Tony's helmet. He appears to be dead. "No, no, no pump it." Ray mumbled incoherently as she realised the arc wasn't glowing and tried to. "Shit!" she said. Even her own suit was shut off. They stand around not sure almost loosing hope when the Hulk roars in fury. The noise startles Tony awake.

"What the hell?" he said breathing heavily "What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me?"

"We won." Steve said smiling.

"Alright. Hey. Alright. Good job, guys." He says as Ray just stares. Sometimes she really couldn't believe how he could remain so calm. "Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's ...just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it."

"We're not finished yet." Thor says looking up at Stark Tower.

"And then shawarma after." Tony said looking at Ray giving her a warm smile as she hugged him trying to dig her face in his shoulder like she did as a kid but couldn't because of his suit.

Yay! That was chappie 34! Ok, I know most of you dint like A/ns but I wrote a really long chapter and my neck is aching now. So you all, for humanity, should read it! So I rewatched Chaplin yesterday and guess what, my love for Robert Downey Jr. just grew stronger. If you haven't watched it yet, I'd say, give it a try! Its really an awesome movie. I even insisted my mom to watch the movie and she loved it!

Anyways, 'This is it!' is coming soon. And I can't explain how much I love and respect Micheal Jackson. You can actually find a lot of truth in his songs. He speaks out his feelings through them. I am truely into helping the needy right now. And his songs just seem to inspire me a lot. Current favourite track? 'Man In The Mirror'! Others include 'Heal the world', 'Black or White' etc. All the videos and the lyrics delivers a very true message. I would love it if you all just hear it ones if you haven't. I am sure it's worth it! And if you are interested in other tracks, try 'Librarian Girl', 'Another day has gone', 'Beat it!', 'Smooth Criminal'. They are equally great.

Anyways, thats all for today.

Thanks for sticking with me for so long.

Love,

ImaginationsUnleashed