Battle of New York
Steve (out of his suit), Tom (out of his armour) and Tony (out of his suit) all sat around the conference table on the bridge in silence. Even though they've been informed that they lost Thor and Bruce to who knows where, that Loki escaped with the sceptre and that Nat knocked out Clint Barton and he's getting out of Loki's control, they were still affected by Coulson's death. Tony facing away from Steve and Tom.
Even Ghost was silent in respect to the man.
"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. I guess he never did get you to sign them." Fury told Steve, tossing the trading cards Coulson collected onto the table, one stained in blood.
"We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, the location of the Cube, Banner, Thor… I got nothing for you." He then said as Steve looked at the blood stained card of him giving a salute.
"I lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming." He then added before walking up to Steve.
"Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract." Fury confessed, making Tom coldly glare at him.
"He comes clean after being busted. Meatsack." Ghost noted bitterly.
"I never put all my chips on that number, though, because I was playing something even riskier." Fury then said.
"There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could." Fury explained to Steve and Tom.
"Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea. In heroes." Fury finished, Tony standing up for a few seconds and then he left the bridge.
"Well, it's an old fashioned notion." Fury noted. A few seconds of silence lasted before both Tom and Steve left and followed after Tony.
"I can't be in the room with that man." Tom told Ghost.
"I know how you feel." Ghost responded.
They eventually met up with Tony, who was staring down at the hatch from where Loki was held in the cell. There was a short period of silence until Steve broke that silence.
"Was he married?" He asked Tony about Coulson.
"No. There was a, uh, cellist, I think." He told them.
"I'm sorry." Steve apologized.
"He seemed to be a good man." Tom said.
"He was an idiot." Tony stated.
"Why? For believing?" Steve asked.
"For taking on Loki alone." Tony clarified as he started to make his way to them.
"He was just doing his job, Tony." Tom reminded him.
"He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have…." Tony scoffed.
"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony." Steve told Stark.
"Right, I've heard that before." Tony quipped, walking past the two men.
"Is this the first time you lost a soldier?" Steve then asked him, making him turn around angry.
"We are not soldiers." He reminded the super soldier, calming down right after.
"I'm not marching to Fury's fife." He then said.
"Same here." Tom sided with him.
"Neither am I. He's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does. But right now, we gotta put that behind us and get this done." Steve then said. Tony looked at the blood stain where Coulson was when he died.
"Now Loki needs a power source. If we can put together a list-"
"He made it personal." Tony interrupted Steve. Tom narrowed his eyes in confusion.
"That's not the point." Steve shrugged that off.
"That is the point. That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?" Tony then said.
"To tear us apart?" Tom suggested.
"Yeah, divide and conquer is great, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us, he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience." Tony explained, walking past Steve and Tom again.
"Right. We caught his act in Stuttgart." Steve recalled.
"Yeah, that's just previews. This is opening night. And Loki, he's a full tilt diva, right? He wants flowers, he wants parades. He wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered-" Tony was explaining when he suddenly stopped upon realization. Steve raised a perplexed eyebrow, but Tom clearly knew what Tony was thinking.
"Stark Tower." He said to Ghost.
"Of course, the one place for someone with an ego like Loki." Ghost said, shocked that he didn't think of that till now.
"Son of a bitch." Tony cursed, heading to get his Iron Man suit fixed up enough.
"Let's get ready." Tom told Steve and they left as well.
Steve got in his suit while Tom got in his armour and then they went to the infirmary where Nat and Clint were.
"Time to go." Steve told Nat.
"Go where?" She asked.
"We'll tell you on the way." He said.
"Can you fly one of the jets?" Tom asked her right before Clint came in with a towel in his hand.
"I can." He told them. Steve and Tom looked over to Nat for reassurance. She nodded, telling them he's okay and that's all they needed.
"You got a suit?" Steve asked him.
"Yeah." Clint nodded.
"Suit up then." Tom said as he and Steve left the two agents to get ready and arm up with their weapons as Steve grabbed his shield. Tony was somewhere else fixing up his Iron Man suit.
Once they were all ready, Tony flew ahead to New York and Steve, Tom, Nat and Clint walked up to a Quinjet, ready to take the fight to Loki. As they approached it, a young technician saw them entering the vehicle.
"Hey, you guys aren't authorized to be in here." He warned them all.
"Son, just don't." Steve advised him.
At New York, Tony was able to reach the city in a short amount of time, heading directly to Stark Tower, though he picked up on a massive surge of energy.
"Sir, I've turned off the Arc Reactor but the device is already self-sustaining." Jarvis, Tony's A.I. said in his suit as he hovered on the spot, looking down at Erik Selvig, who was working on a contraption that houses the Tesseract.
"Shut it down, Dr. Selvig." He commanded the man, who turned to face him, noticeably with a blue filter on his eyes.
"It's too late! She can't stop now. She wants to show us something! A new universe." Erik told him, gleefully.
"Okay." Tony muttered, raising both hands up to aim at the machine and fired his repulsor beams, but then they hit what looked like a shield made of energy and it backfired at Tony, spinning him out of control and knocking Erik off his feet.
"The barrier is pure energy. It's unbreachable." Jarvis told Tony as he evened himself.
"Yeah, I got that." Tony noted before he looked down to see Loki looking up at him on the walkway.
"Plan B." He then said as he descended.
"Sir, the Mark 7 is not ready for deployment." Jarvis informed him.
"Then skip the spinning rims. We're on the clock." Tony insisted as he landed on the armour removal deck. He then walked as mechanical arms formed out a ring, removing pieces of his armour, heading to the interior, keeping his eyes on Loki, who was walking inside as well.
"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity." Loki gloated, so sure he knew what Tony was about to say.
"Uh, actually, I'm planning to threaten you." Tony replied in the most casual way possible.
"You should have left your armour on for that." Loki chuckled.
"Yeah. It's seen a bit of mileage, and you've got the glow stick of destiny." Tony retorted as he walked up to the bar, pointing at the sceptre, which made Loki look down at it.
"Would you like a drink?" He then asked the God of Mischief.
"Stalling me won't change anything." Loki told the billionaire.
"No, no, no. Threatening. No drink? Are you sure? I'm having one." Tony said as Loki looked out and faced the large glass window, looking out at the New York skyline.
"The Chitauri are coming. Nothing will change that. What have I to fear?" Loki asked, looking back at Tony.
"The Avengers." He answered as he opened a bottle of alcohol. Loki gave an odd look, taking a few steps towards him.
"That's what we call ourselves. We're sort of like a team. 'Earth's mightiest heroes' type thing." Tony elaborated as he poured himself a drink into a glass.
"Yes, I've met them." Loki bragged.
"Yeah. It takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But let's do a head count, here. Your brother, the demigod, a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend. A man with breathtaking anger management issues, a skilled fighter with an alien swimming in his guts, a couple of master assassins, and you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them." Tony explained as he put a couple of metal bracelets on, without Loki noticing.
"That was the plan." Loki pointed out.
"Not a great plan. When they come, and they will, they'll come for you." Tony corrected him, taking a sip of his drink and started to walk up to Loki.
"I have an army." Loki told him.
"We have a Hulk." Tony brought up, not impressed.
"I thought the beast had wandered off." Loki said in confusion.
"You're missing the point. There is 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 damn well sure we'll avenge it." Tony warned him before taking another sip of his drink.
"How will your friends have time for me when they're so busy fighting you?" Loki ominously said, pressing his sceptre onto Tony's chest, intending to control him, but it didn't work due to the electromagnet on his chest. This of course confused Loki so he tried again, nothing, again.
"This usually works." He said, flabbergasted.
"Well, performance issues, it's not uncommon. One out of five-" Tony was starting to be snarky when Loki grabbed him by the throat and threw him to his left, Tony on the ground.
"Jarvis, anytime now." Tony groaned as he got back up on his feet, but then Loki grabbed him by the throat again, pulling him up to his face.
"You will all fall before me." Loki snarled.
"Deploy!" Tony called out as a panel opened up on a circular part of the wall.
"Deploy!" He repeated as he was lifted off his feet and then thrown through the glass window, plummeting with a shower of glass. The pod that contained the Mark 7 shot out, blurring past Loki and chased after Tony. It opened up slightly and aimed lasers to align with Tony's bracelets, and once they did, the pod attached to the bracelets and it formed all around him, becoming the Mark 7 suit in full glory. The helmet wrapped around his head right before he was about to hit the ground, but was able to use his thrusters on his hands to propel himself back up Stark Tower.
"And there's one other person you pissed off. His name was Phil." He told Loki, hovering in front of the broken window. Loki was about to fire at him with the sceptre but Tony was quicker and fired at him, throwing the God of Mischief back on his back, letting go of the sceptre.
Suddenly, a beam of energy formed from the Tesseract shot up into the sky, making a portal form, growing big enough for a whole bunch of aliens to come through on flying chariots. The Chitauri have arrived.
"Right. Army." Tony muttered right before he flew up at them. The Chitauri saw him and started firing at him with their weapons, though he managed to maneuver out of the way as he fired back at them, able to take some down. He then opened up the compartments on his shoulders and dozens of small missiles burst out, hitting some more of the invading aliens, however, some evaded him and they flew all over New York, firing at the civilians, causing destruction, flipping cars, causing explosions and the civilians ran for their lives.
Up at Stark Tower, Loki formed his horned helmet as he looked at what his army was accomplishing, soaking in the sight when Thor, now fully in his armour, landed on the walkway.
"Loki! Turn off the Tesseract, or I'll destroy it." He warned his brother.
"You can't. There is no stopping it. There is only the war." Loki declared, pointing his sceptre at Thor.
"So be it." He accepted that he wouldn't budge right as Loki jumped down and tried to hit him, but Thor stepped out of the way, swung his hammer, which was blocked. Loki then tried to swipe at his face, but Thor ducked to avoid getting hit. Loki then fired a beam, which his brother blocked with his hammer.
The two then at the same time swung their weapons, which caused a blast to form, ripping off the 'R' and 'K' on the tower.
Down on the streets, many civilians ran for their lives past rubble as the NYPD arrived to see Iron Man flying and getting chased by the Chitauri.
Both Nat and Clint piloted the Quinjet and had finally arrived in New York, seeing that the invasion had now started. Both Steve and Tom hanged on in the back.
"Ready to fight against Loki's army?" Tom asked his Klyntar friend.
"Yes. Always wanted to fight against the Chitauri." Ghost replied, though he was serious as he wanted to protect his home.
"Stark, we're on your three, headed northeast." Nat informed Tony through comms.
"What? Did you stop for drive through? Swing up Park. I'm gonna lay 'em out for you." Tony replied as he flew past Stark Tower, where Loki and Thor were still fighting. He led his chasers towards the others, speaking of, Nat pulled out a gun on the Quinjet and once they saw Tony fly, they started firing the gun and took down almost all of the Chitauri that chased Tony and they then flew up towards Stark Tower.
"Sir, we have more incoming." Jarvis informed.
"Fine. Let's keep them occupied." Tony replied, seeing on his HUD that more of the invaders are coming through the portal.
The Quinjet flew up Stark Tower, firing at any Chitauri it could as the two Asgardian siblings continued to fight, which both Clint and Nat are seeing now that they're hovering nearby.
"Nat?"
"I see him."
Loki saw them and threw Thor aside to fire a beam at the jet, taking out its left wing and they started descending to street level, both Steve and Tom hanging on the pipes above them.
Clint piloted as best as he could around the skyscrapers, grazing one of them before they eventually crashed right in front of a building.
Everyone then got out through the ramp that opened up, running through the streets.
"We gotta get back up there." Steve told everyone as Ghost took over Tom's body.
"We can climb up there." Ghost replied as they ran up on the road leading to Grand Central Station but then they all stopped when a loud mechanical growl was heard from the portal. They looked up to see more Chitauri come through on flying chariots but also a large worm-like creature with flippers and a huge maw of sharp teeth. It also had armour on. It was a Leviathan.
"That takes the cake for the most shocking thing I've seen so far." Tom told Ghost, who grunted in response, understanding his utter shock.
The creature then flew right over the group, who saw that some Chitauri were ejected out from it onto and into the skyscrapers.
"Stark, are you seeing this?" Steve asked Tony through an earpiece he was wearing.
"Seeing. Still working on believing. Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?" Tony asked as he flew towards and past the large flying creature.
"Banner?" Ghost asked in confusion.
"Just keep me posted. Jarvis, find me a soft spot."
With Loki and Thor, the two were now in a stalemate, arms and weapons locked.
"Look at this! Look around you! You think this madness will end with your rule?" Thor questioned his brother, who looked at all the destruction of the city so far and seemingly looked horror struck.
"It's too late. It's too late to stop it." Loki said.
"No. We can, together." Thor told him, trying to get through to him and initially it seemed to have worked but then Loki stabbed his brother in the abdomen with a dagger, making him drop Mjolnir and fall onto his knees.
"Sentiment." Loki scoffed. Thor then snarled, grabbing onto a horn on Loki's helmet, kicking him in the stomach into the glass railing and Thor then grabbed his brother, lifting him up above him and then dropping him, hitting the floor, groaning in pain. He then rolled off the walkway and fell onto a Chitauri chariot and led some of his army through the city. Thor pulled out the dagger out of his abdomen and threw it aside, grimacing at the fact that Loki tricked him.
Back on street level, everyone got behind some taxis, Ghost having thrown a couple of cars at some of the Chitauri, managing to hit them.
"We've got civilians trapped in there." Clint informed Steve as some Chitauri flew by and Steve saw the Trickster God.
"Loki." He muttered as he and Chitauri he led fired down at some civilians, causing explosions on the street.
"All those people are fish in a barrel." Ghost stated in concern before some laser bolts shot past them from Chitauri and Nat pulled out her two pistols and fired them towards some Chitauri that landed nearby. Clint took cover. Nat turned to both Steve and Ghost.
"We got this. It's good. Go." She told them, knowing that she and Clint can handle it. Steve and Ghost looked at each other unsure and then at Clint.
"Do you think you can hold them off?" Steve asked the archer.
"Captain, it would be my genuine pleasure." He grinned as he pressed a button on his bow that switched arrowtips. He then pulled out the arrow, pulled it back on the bow, came out of cover and fired the arrow in the head of a Chitauri and the arrowhead fired some shots at some of the other aliens.
"Impressive." Tom complimented.
"Could give Robin Hood a run for his money." Ghost agreed as he and Steve jumped off the bridge they were on and onto the top of a bus that some of the invaders shot at, trying to get Ghost and Steve. The Klyntar jumped off to the side and ran on all fours as Steve ran down the bus and jumped onto a car that was launched in the air and the super soldier flipped off and continued down the street.
While Nat provided cover fire, Clint helped civilians out of a bus they were trapped in, telling them to run for cover and once they all got out, he joined back up with Nat, who made a headshot at a Chitauri and Clint fired an arrow.
"Just like Budapest all over again." She remarked about their first meeting.
"You and I remember Budapest very differently." Clint retorted, firing another arrow.
Steve jumped over a turned over car and then over a couple more cars and ran up one akin to a ramp, running to help people.
Ghost ran on all fours like an animal, every once in a while, biting heads off some Chitauri, helping anyone he comes across.
Elsewhere, police officers fired their pistols at the Chitauri flying above them, but they kept missing as they flew on their chariots too fast. One officer named Saunders ran to another named Silva.
"It's gonna be an hour before they can scramble the National Guard." Saunders informed Silva.
"National Guard? Does the army know what's happening here?" Silva asked back, ducking from a shot that hit a police car behind them.
"Do we?"
Steve came in, jumping on top of a car in front of the pair, who were surprised by his sudden appearance.
"You need men in these buildings. There are people inside and they're going to be running right into the line of fire. You take them to the basements or through the subway. You keep them off the streets. I need a perimeter as far back as 39th." Steve ordered the police officers, pointing at various buildings as he did so. Of course, because of his uniform, they don't really take him seriously.
"Why the hell should I take orders from you?" Silva questioned him. Some shots went off behind Steve, getting his attention and then a car exploded. Some Chitauri noticed Steve and started to attack him. He blocked one of their shots with his shield and then he hit one in the head, blocked another's shots from their rifle up close before it scratched his shield and then Steve threw a hard punch into it.
He turned around, hitting another with his shield in the face and threw it off the car. He then grabbed another's arm that had a gun attached and severed the arm off with his shield and pushed it back with his shield.
That display of skill left the officers stunned and knew that they had to as Steve told them.
"I need men in those buildings. Lead the people down and away from the streets. We're gonna set up a perimeter all the way down to 39th Street." Silva ordered his fellow officers and through the radio.
Tony flew around the corner and came face to face with the Leviathan and he released some flares as he flew past it, which caught its attention and turned around to chase it, its tail crashing into a skyscraper, causing rubble to fall down, missing some civilians luckily.
"Well, we got its attention. What the hell was step two?" Tony asked, slightly nervous before he started getting chased by the large creature.
"Come on, let's head back to the others." Tom told Ghost as he slammed a Chitauri into another and slammed them into a wall, squashed like a bug.
"Yeah." Ghost agreed as he got on all fours and ran.
Clint sweeped a Chitauri off its feet with his bow and stabbed it with an arrow through the chest.
Nat got on the shoulders of one and used one of her electrified bracelets and shocked it by the neck. Clint then got tackled onto the ground by a Chitauri. After Nat took it down, she grabbed its rifle and used it like a staff to face off against two others and then shot them both down with one shot each. Clint stabbed the Chitauri that tackled him in the chest with an arrow and got back on his feet. Nat then faced off against two other Chitauri.
Some more arrived and fired at them. Clint slid on the concrete as Nat fired the rifle she's using again as Clint fired an arrow. Steve joined back up and pushed two Chitauri away with his shield and then hit two more.
Another troop of Chitauri arrived and just as they were about to attack, Ghost leaped out from above and slammed a fist into the ground, forming many sharp grey spikes that impaled the Chitauri and then they retracted, letting the corpses fall. Ghost then receded back into Tom.
"Is it a bad thing to say that me and Ghost are starting to have fun?" Tom asked, making the others shrug.
Thor then landed from the sky, stumbling slightly due to his injury from Loki.
"What's the story upstairs?" Steve asked for an update as the rest took the chance to take a breather. Clint also started gathering arrows and cleaning them.
"The power surrounding the Cube is impenetrable." Thor informed him.
"Thor's right. We got to deal with these guys." Tony agreed and pointed out.
"How do we do this?" Nat questioned.
"As a team." Steve answered.
"How else are we gonna do it?" Tom questioned Nat.
"Especially since we're fighting against an army." Ghost told Tom.
"I have unfinished business with Loki." Thor interjected.
"Yeah? Well get in line." Clint blankly said as he checked one of his arrows.
"Save it. Loki's going to keep this fight focused on us, and that's what we need. Without him, these things could run wild. We got Stark up top. He's going to need us to-" Steve started explaining and giving orders when they all heard a motorcycle approaching. They looked to see a disheveled and unkempt Bruce riding up to them and stopped the motorcycle. Everyone walked up to him, surprised to see him join up with them.
"How nice of you to join us." Ghost greeted him as he formed out of Tom's shoulder and receded back.
"So, this all seems horrible." Bruce replied, referring to the state of New York.
"I've seen worse." Nat noted.
"Sorry." Bruce apologized, slightly timid.
"No, we could use a little worse." Nat corrected herself, which surprised him.
"Stark, we got him." Steve informed Tony.
"Banner?" Tony asked for clarification.
"Just like you said." Steve responded.
"Then tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you."
"What?" Ghost questioned right before Tony flew around a skyscraper with the Leviathan still after him. Upon seeing it, Thor gripped his hammer tightly, snarling and Ghost formed out of Tom, growling.
"I-I don't see how that's a party." Nat said in confusion as Tony flew low to the ground with the Leviathan skimming the street, heading to the others.
Bruce watched, looked back at Steve and then walked in the direction of the Leviathan, now accepting and ready to be the Hulk.
"Dr. Banner. Now might be a really good time for you to get angry." Steve stated.
"That's my secret, Captain. I'm always angry." Bruce smirked before he started transforming back into the Hulk within seconds, shirt ripped off and his pants stretched and then he delivered a punch on the Leviathan's face so strong that made the creature come to a halt, denting the protective shell and starting to flip over and down at the team, pieces of its armour fracturing apart.
"Hold on!" Tony told them just in time as he launched a missile from his wrist into the Leviathan's exposed body and it exploded. Its guts and armour raining down on the team. Steve used his shield to cover both him and Nat and Ghost formed a shield over himself and Clint while Thor just used his hand to block himself. The remains of the Leviathan then fell onto the street below, crushing some cars.
The air was then filled with the angry screeches and roars from the Chitauri who were furious to see a Leviathan fall with ease. The team then all stood in a circle, all looking up at the Chitauri. Hulk roared and Ghost licked his lips, eager to fight and eat their heads off, Nat reloaded one of her guns, Tony landed next to Steve, Thor spun his hammer in eagerness, Clint pulled the bow string, ready to shoot an arrow and Steve stood strong.
The Avengers were born at this very moment.
Above them, Loki looked down at them with annoyance and ire, thinking they're just delaying the inevitable.
"Send the rest." He ordered, bored out of his mind.
Up at the portal, more Leviathans came through, which caught everyone's attention.
"Guys." Nat said warningly.
"Call it, Captain." Tony said, letting Steve give out the orders, knowing his experience would be needed here.
"Alright, listen up. Until we can close that portal, our priority is containment. Barton, I want you on that roof. Eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays." Steve gave his first orders to the archer, pointing up to the skyscraper on their left.
"Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash." He then ordered the billionaire.
"Can you give me a lift?" Clint asked him.
"Right. Better clench up, Legolas." Tony nodded, walking to him, grabbing onto him and lifted off to the roof.
"Thor, you got to try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You got the lightning. Light the bastards up." Steve ordered the Asgardian, who nodded and spun his hammer and after gaining enough momentum, he threw it up and he was launched into the sky.
"You and me, we stay here on the ground. We keep the fighting here." He then told Nat before turning to Ghost.
"Ghost." The Klyntar looked to the super soldier.
"Bite some heads off." He ordered him, giving him full permission since they're fighting against aliens. Ghost then made a really wide grin.
"Yes, Captain." He nodded before leaping off at a fast speed.
"And Hulk." Steve called for the green rage machine's attention.
"Smash." He told Hulk, pointing a finger, earning an eager grin before he jumped up to a skyscraper, smashing a Chitauri into the concrete, grabbing it and then jumping to the skyscraper on the other side of the street, killing the Chitauri in his hand. Another one fired at him, not doing any damage and Hulk just smashed it and a couple more before jumping onto the next skyscraper, throwing one through a window and then he jumped further up, hitting a couple of Chitauri chariots.
Thor flew right to the Chrysler Building and secured himself on top of it. He then lifted Mjolnir up to the sky, forming thunder clouds and lightning beamed down at him and using the skyscraper as a conductor and Thor then used the lightning to blast at some Chitauri, exploding their chariots and blocking the portal with a Leviathan and it exploded at the same time.
Ghost bolted through the streets, leaping from vehicle to vehicle, biting Chitauri heads off and dodging incoming fire from others that screeched upon seeing the Klyntar. But every shot they make just keeps missing.
"These guys are worse than Stormtroopers." Tom stated, downright amused.
"I know, right? Who trained them?" Ghost questioned as he landed on top of three Chitauri that were about to enter a book store and he formed a spiked mace with his right hand, smashing one's head in and then hit another repeatedly as it screeched in agony, bones and organs splattering and the Ghost chomped on the head of the last one.
"Delicious." Ghost complimented, tongue licking his teeth before he heard screaming coming from within the book store and heard some roars.
"Hostage situation. Let me take over." Tom told him.
"Got it." He agreed and receded back into Tom and he ran in quietly to get behind a tattered and beaten up bookshelf and heard all the commotion.
"How many are we dealing with?" Tom asked.
"Five. Three on the ground floor, two above." Ghost replied. Tom peeked and indeed saw three Chitauri standing guard over some hostages and there two up on the floor above by the railing.
"We'll have to be quick." Tom said right before he charged out and snapped the closest Chitauri's neck and grabbed its rifle, firing at the other two, shocking the hostages and surprising the Chitauri above, one of which fired their rifle, shooting the one Tom had out of his hand.
"Alright." He muttered before Ghost took over, shocking the hostages more before Ghost roared and jumped up to the floor above them, smashing one Chitauri's head in and then he shot out a tendril, grabbing the last Chitauri and then he pulled it towards him and stabbed it with spike he formed with his other hand. Once it was limp, he dropped the body on the floor and looked down at the hostages.
"Go! Get to safety!" He warned everyone, who all did as told and ran for wherever is safe.
"Let's go and see who else needs some help." Tom said, Ghost nodding and then jumped out a shattered window.
Clint was on a ledge of the skyscraper, of course firing arrows at any Chitauri and kept his eyes open on their formations and anything else that's worth knowing.
"Stark, you got a lot of strays sniffing your tail." He informed Tony as he fired an arrow.
"I'm just trying to keep them off the streets." He replied. Clint, as he looked at the Chitauri on their chariots, noticed one thing Tony could use to his advantage.
"Well, they can't bank worth a damn. So find a tight corner." He told him as he fired an arrow without looking and exploded a chariot, demonstrating how skilled of an archer he is.
"I will roger that." Tony acknowledged right before he flew around a corner and past Clint, who aimed his bow and arrow before firing into a chariot, melting through it and it fell apart, crashing into concrete. Tony then stopped for a second, letting one chariot get in front of him and he blasted it before continuing to fly with one Chitauri firing at a car, exploding it and causing one of its fellow invaders to crash.
Tony then flew around a corner and into a tunnel and when they exit the other side, Tony made a sharp U-turn by a building and since the Chitauri can't bank, one crashed right into the building while two other chariots still chased Tony.
"Oh, boy." He muttered in annoyance before he led them into a tunnel. One made a shot that threw him into a wall but he kept going and ducked to avoid a structure in the tunnel and a chariot exploded, exploding the other and they shot out of the tunnel and into a building as Tony flew out and off elsewhere.
"Nice call. What else you got?" He asked Clint.
"Well, Thor is taking on a squadron down on Sixth and Ghost is facing against one of those big things by himself." Clint informed him.
"And they didn't invite me." Tony pouted.
Ghost up on top of one of the Leviathans, crawling his way up to the face after he climbed up a skyscraper to jump onto it.
"We might've gotten in over our heads." Tom retorted.
"Yeah." He simply agreed as he just barely held onto a gap in the Leviathan's armour and then he made a jump right by the creature's head.
"Let's use one of its own teeth against it." Tom suggested as Ghost looked down at the Leviathan's maw of teeth.
"Oh yeah." The Klyntar grinned and he then jumped and managed to grab onto the bottom jaw of the creature and with one hand, managed to rip one of its teeth out, making it roar in agony and then Ghost jumped up and held onto the side of its head before using the long tooth like a spear and stabbed the Leviathan's eye, causing it to roar in agony again as blood started to gush out and then the Klyntar jumped off the creature and onto the street, watching it crash onto the street, dying from the wound and killed off some Chitauri as it did so.
"Awesome." Tom remarked, making Ghost laugh.
Another Leviathan was flying through the New York skyline until its attention was on some workers inside a skyscraper. They all gasped until they heard a commotion behind them. They turned and all ran to the sides as the Hulk charged through and leaped through the window and onto the Leviathan's bottom jaw and pulled down on it, causing it to fly down and crash one of its flippers through a skyscraper, showering some people in shattered glass.
Nat, bleeding from her forehead and with a cut on her lip, was busy fighting a Chitauri when she got thrown onto the hood of a car and it tried to stab her with its rifle but then she wrapped her legs around its neck and struck its neck with one of her electrified bracelets. It then got weak and Nat kicked it back, grabbing its rifle and shooting it point blank. She then turned to see Steve jump in front of her, his shield stained with blood. She then took a moment to relax.
"Captain, none of this is going to mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal." She reasoned, looking up at the portal with Steve.
"Our biggest guns couldn't touch it." He pointed out.
"Well, maybe it's not about guns." She retorted, suggesting something else entirely, which Steve picked up on. That she's planning to go up there herself. Steve then looked and saw a number of Chitauri approaching their location.
"If you want to get up there, you're going to need a ride." He reminded her and she already knew what she's going to use.
"I got a ride." She told him, throwing the rifle away and walking to prepare a run up to Steve's shield to jump onto a chariot.
"I could use a boost, though." She told him as he realised what she meant and then he got into position with his shield.
"Are you sure about this?" He asked her.
"Yeah. It's gonna be fun." She shrugged before she ran onto the hood of the car, jumped onto the shield and Steve springed her up and she grabbed onto a chariot. Steve watched on until a shot narrowly missed him and his attention was now on the Chitauri.
With Nat, she hung onto the chariot and then she climbed up on it to see a Chitauri that was tethered with a chain, acting as a gunner while another flew the chariot. She pulled out a knife and cut the chain before kicking the gunner off, screeching to its death. Nat then made her way to the Chitauri that was flying the chariot and stabbed into its back, killing it, but also to take control of the chariot.
"Okay, turn, turn. Less! Less!" She said to herself as she started to understand how to control this chariot as others started to chase after her.
One came up behind her and fired a shot, only to get exploded by a blast from Tony as he flew past them and then he flew down to where Steve was fighting some Chitauri and Tony himself took some down. When he landed, Steve sliced one on the ground and kicked another while he fired some blasts at some more. Tony then fired a beam at the shield, which deflected the beam at a couple more Chitauri before Tony flew up a skyscraper, taking down more Chitauri and flying past Clint.
Speaking of the archer, he fired an arrow at a Chitauri that was climbing up to him and then he ducked to avoid a couple of shots aimed at him. He then saw a couple of chariots fly past him and fire an arrow, striking a pilot in the head and as the chariot descended, it crashed into the head of a Leviathan.
On top of the Leviathan, both Hulk and Ghost were smashing, chomping and beating up various Chitauri. One jumped onto Hulk's back as he ripped a piece of the Leviathan's armour and threw it at some Chitauri before Ghost used a tendril and ripped the Chitauri off Hulk's back and threw it towards Thor, who just joined in and swung his hammer at the Chitauri, throwing it off the Leviathan. Hulk then dented the armour and Ghost formed a spiked mace and dented it further before swinging it at more Chitauri.
The three powerful Avengers all then joined together in fighting the Chitauri and then Hulk ripped off a piece of armour and dug it into the Leviathan. Thor saw this and he slammed the piece down with his lightning powers, which killed the Leviathan and it crashed right into Grand Central Station.
Hulk, Ghost and Thor stood as they looked at the aftermath and at the civilians that ran, Then suddenly, without even looking at him, Hulk sucker punched Ghost in the face, flying off somewhere in the station, surprising Thor.
"SERIOUSLY?!" Ghost bellowed out in annoyance, making Hulk snort and Thor chuckles.
Elsewhere in the city, the military started to get involved and helped protect citizens as they ran to safe locations like subway stations.
Back with Steve, he was in the middle of struggling as he was on the ground, using all his strength to stop a Chitauri from stabbing him with its rifle but he moved it out of the way and he punched it right in the face, knocking it right out. He then got back on his feet and grabbed his shield.
"Captain, the bank on 42nd past Madison. They've cornered a lot of civilians in there." Clint informed him, knowing that he's closest and capable of handling the situation.
"I'm on it." He replied before heading off to the bank.
Once he arrived there, he dived right through a window on the upper floor and threw his shield at a Chitauri that armed a bomb of some kind, knocking it out. The other Chitauri aimed their rifles at him and fired but he dived into cover behind a desk, which he kicked at them, knocking the wind out of them. He jumped over it and punched one Chitauri in the stomach and then he snapped its neck, shocking the citizens below slightly as he threw the invader over the railing down to the citizens.
"Everyone! Clear out!" He told them all before the other Chitauri came up behind him and put him on a chokehold and pulled his cowl off and Steve tried to get out of its grip. The other Chitauri he first knocked out got back up and aimed at him but he flipped over the Chitauri holding him, making it take the shot, killing it.
The bomb started beeping a lot quicker, meaning it was about to explode and the Chitauri tried to grab it but Steve rolled to his shield and curled up behind it as the bomb exploded, throwing him right out the window and onto a car, denting it, leaving the super soldier in pain and got off as the police and the military escorted the civilians to safety, one of them, a waitress looked over at Steve in slight awe as he himself started to realise that Nat was right.
That as long as the portal stays open, all of this fighting just won't matter.
As Nat flew towards Stark Tower, a shot missed her and she looked back to see the trickster Asgardian on her tail.
"Oh, you." She muttered, fed up with him. She avoided some more shots as she knew that one person could help her.
"Hawkeye!" She called out to her friend, who saw her and frowned at the chase that's ensuing.
"Nat, what are you doing?" He questioned her as she flew towards him.
"Uh, a little help?" She requested, making him easily do as asked as he picked a particular arrowhead and pulled the bowstring back, aiming the arrow and smiled upon seeing Loki in his sights.
"I got him." He assured Nat and once he got his aim right, he fired the arrow, which Loki grabbed lazily and looked over at Clint, thinking how stupid he was to fire it at him, not knowing its actual purpose as the arrowhead beeped and exploded, throwing him at the walkway of Stark Tower, crown of horns falling off as his chariot smashed into the 'S' and 'T'.
Nat flew towards the top of Stark Tower and she jumped off and landed to see the machine, the Tesseract and Selvig.
Loki looked up in time to see Hulk roar as he jumped up and then threw him through the window as he jumped through as well. Loki hit a wall and fell on the floor and saw Hulk ready to charge at him and he just had enough.
"ENOUGH! You are, all of you, beneath me! I am a god, you dull creature. And I will not be bullied by-" Loki started his rant but stopped when Hulk suddenly grabbed him by the ankle and proceeded to smash the God of Mischief onto the ground, making dents three times and then he looked him before smashing him two more times with Loki lying in the ruined floor, eyes so wide that they look like they're about to pop out and in pure pain.
"Puny god." Hulk spat as he stormed off as Loki whined in pain, a sound that was not expected from someone like an Asgardian god.
Nat walked up to the machine, perplexed as to how she's gonna close the portal.
"The sceptre…." Selvig blurted out. Nat looked over to him and saw that he, like Clint, is now out of Loki's control.
"Doctor." She called to him as he looked down over the edge.
"Loki's sceptre. The energy. The Tesseract can't fight, but you can't protect against yourself." He started explaining.
"It's not your fault. You didn't know what you were doing." She told him, trying to make him feel less bad about himself.
"Actually, I think I did. I built in a safety to cut their power source." Selvig revealed and Nat realised what could help with this.
"Loki's sceptre."
"It may be able to close the portal. And I'm looking right at it." He said, looking back down at the scepter down on the walkway.
Tom decided to take over and he was maneuvering through the rubble and cars to face a group of Chitauri that were cornering some civilians and he kicked two Chitauri in the heads at the same time, so hard that bones were heard breaking and then he got his legs wrapped around one's neck, throwing them onto the ground and then snapped their neck as a couple of tendrils formed, grabbing the remaining Chitauri and threw them really hard at a wall, breaking all their bones and killing them.
"Go! Get out of here!" Tom then told everyone and they did as told, slightly in a daze from what they saw.
Tom then sat against a car as the tendrils retracted back into him.
"I'm starting to get tired of this constant fighting." He said to Ghost, whose head formed out and bit the Chitauri's heads off.
"Let's just hope a way to close the portal is found by now." He replied, looking up at Stark Tower.
Thor was now fighting against some Chitauri on a chariot and its pilot suddenly died and the chariot was about to crash into a skyscraper when a Leviathan burst out with a roar, making Thor fall off. Tony was also flying after the Leviathan and then he flew next to it and fired three laser beams at its armour.
"Sir, we will lose power before we penetrate that shell." Jarvis informed the man and so he had to come up with a new idea. So he flew ahead and turned around to face the Leviathan with a rather ballsy move.
"Jarvis, you ever hear the tale of Jonah?" Tony asked his A.I.
"I wouldn't consider him a role model." He said, sounding slightly on edge as compartments on the armour's legs opened up to some missiles as Tony flew head first into the Leviathan's mouth and fired all the missiles, causing the creature to explode from the inside and Tony got hurled through the air and crashed through a glass bus stop and into a yellow cab. He stood up, only to get shot at a few times by Chitauri and got thrown back.
Clint fired an arrow at Chitauri that was sneaking up behind him and reached back to the quiver, only to realise that he was now out of arrows. With this, he used his bow as a staff against another Chitauri that climbed up and then kicked it off.
He looked up and saw some chariots flying towards him and knew that he had to get out of there. Clint grabbed the arrow he fired and put it in the quiver, pressed some buttons on his bow and an arrowhead of a grappling hook attached to it. The chariots started firing at the rooftop, making explosions that were getting closer to the archer so he ran and jumped off, pulled the arrow out and fired it onto a wall and used it to swing through a window and landed on his back, groaning in pain. He was now starting to rethink his life at this moment.
Hulk landed on a different rooftop and smashed a Chitauri's head in, kicked another back and threw another away, squeezing its head at the same time. He then had some shots hit him and he looked up to see a large number of chariots hovering above him, making him growl. Then they all made a barrage of shots, causing the rage machine to stumble and try to block the shots.
Back with Stark, he was busy trying to handle the Chitauri closing in on him when his comms came on with Fury's voice coming through.
"Stark, do you hear me? You have a missile headed straight for the city." He gave him some grave news. Clearly, Fury didn't agree to this and so perhaps the higher ups thought they could handle it.
"How long?" Tony asked as the Chitauri started beating him with their rifles.
"Three minutes, max. The payload will wipe out Midtown." Fury explained as Tony fired some blasts at the Chitauri.
"Jarvis, put everything we got into the thrusters." Tony ordered.
"I just did." He replied and Tony took off into the sky.
Elsewhere, Tom, Steve and Thor joined up and fought against some Chitauri. At the same time, Thor called back Mjolnir, Steve's shield came back to him and a tendril retracted back to Tom's hand and then formed a scythe as another wave came in. Steve turned and got shot in the gut, throwing him to the ground. Tom formed into Ghost and both he and Thor threw a couple of cars at the rest of the Chitauri they're facing, squashing them. Ghost roared as Thor threw his hammer at another Chitauri.
The Asgardian then walked up to Steve and gave him a helping hand and Steve grabbed it to stand back on his feet.
"Are you ready for another bout?" Thor asked the super soldier and the Klyntar.
"Warrior spirit, I'll give him credit." Tom retorted.
"What, are you getting sleepy?" Steve panted.
"Not even close." Ghost answered as Thor called back his hammer.
Up on Stark Tower, both Nat and Selvig started getting to work with the sceptre and the machine to shut the portal up.
"Right at the crown!" He told her and she pointed the sceptre and stabbed through the energy barrier.
"I can close it. Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down." Nat informed everyone through the comms.
"Do it!" Steve told her.
"No, wait." Tony told them, confusing everyone.
"Stark, these things are still coming." Steve reminded him.
"I got a nuke coming in. It's gonna blow in less than a minute." Tony gave them the grim news.
"Who in their right mind fires a nuke?" Tom asked bitterly.
"Idiot politicians." Ghost snarled.
Tony flew out of the city and towards the nuke, trying to catch up to it and prevent it from nuking the city.
"And I know just where to put it." Tony then said, deciding to have it go through the portal. He eventually reached up to the nuke and held onto it as he flew closer to the city.
"Stark, you know that's a one way trip." Steve reminded him grimly.
"Save the rest for the turn, J." Tony said.
"Sir, shall I try Miss Potts?" Jarvis asked, an image of Pepper showing on Tony's HUD.
"Might as well." He said, though Pepper didn't answer his call. Tony flew the nuke towards Stark Tower, watched by the other Avengers as he used his thrusters to lift the nuke up towards the portal, barely grazing the tower. He made it up through the portal and into space. As he flew further, Jarvis and his suit started powering down and he eventually started falling back towards the portal and the sight before his eyes was one that would leave a mark on him.
He saw many more Leviathans and the Chitauri Command Centre. The nuke struck the Command Centre, blowing it up in a large fireball.
This ended up making all the Chitauri back in New York fall to the ground, dying and even the Leviathans in the air, became limp and crashed into buildings.
"Tony did it." Ghost said, knowing what happened.
Tony looked at the invaders, their forces and how large it all was and it was just too much for his brain to take in and he blacked out partly due to lack of oxygen.
Everyone looked up at the portal, waiting to see if he could make it back, but as time went on, they heard the boom from the explosion and they felt that he didn't make it. Steve had to make the order.
"Close it." He told Nat. She stabbed the machine with the sceptre and beam that kept the portal open stopped and it started closing but when it did, everyone saw something fall down from where it was.
"Son of a gun." Steve muttered in amazement, seeing that it was Tony. But he looked like he was flailing in the air.
"Something's wrong." Ghost said, seeing this.
"He's not slowing down." Thor also saw that something was wrong and started winding up the hammer, ready to catch him. But as Tony's unconscious body reached the city skyline, Hulk caught Tony mid air, slid down a building and then jumped onto the bridge near Steve, Ghost and Thor. The three ran up to them as Hulk tossed Tony on the ground.
"Is he breathing?" Steve asked as Thor laid Tony onto his back and ripped the faceplate off to reveal Tony's unconscious face.
"Why isn't he waking up?" Ghost asked, sensing his pulse. Everyone didn't have an answer and were in a somber silence, believing that Tony had passed. But Hulk had none of it and roared at the top of his lungs, making everyone jump and jolting Tony awake. Hulk then roared again, pounding his chest.
"Thank God." Tom said in relief and Ghost grinned.
"What the hell?" Tony questioned as he looked around at everyone there.
"What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me." Tony then asked, making Ghost and Tom snort.
"We won." Steve answered, looking at everyone. Tony sighed in relief, seeing that it's now over.
"Alright, yay. Hurray. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day." Tony remarked.
"Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I want to try it." Tony then said, amusing both Ghost and Steve.
"We're not finished yet." Thor reminded them all, looking up at Stark Tower.
"And then shawarma after." Tony added.
Up at Stark Tower, Loki was crawling on the ground, still in pain and made it to the steps, groaning slightly as he leaned against them. But he felt a presence behind him and so he turned and saw all the Avengers looming over him, Hawkeye aiming an arrow right at his face and Ghost and Hulk growled at him. It was clear to Loki right now that the Avengers have won and so he just simply accepted defeat.
"If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now." He told them with a slight smile, trying to alleviate the tension.