Chapter 14: Second Battle for New York

The tea kettle whistled. Splinter's whiskers twitched as he moved to the kettle and took it off the flame, and the whistle died into a whisper. He poured two cups of steaming herbal tea into china cups, placed them on a tray, and walked from the kitchen into the common room, where April O'Neil sat patiently waiting.

She smiled up at him as he approached. Ever since Splinter had lost his true daughter, Karai, many years ago, he had comes to view April as his surrogate daughter. She respected him as well, seeing him as a father figure after her own father had been kidnapped by the Kraang. They were of a kind, he and April. He had trained her in the ways of ninjitsu to become a kunoichi, and now they had just finished a different kind of training altogether.

April had been born as a mutant, with an array of mental abilities. She had had little control over her powers at first, but Splinter had been helping her develop it through their special training. She had used to have a crystal belong to the ancient Aeons that she'd received during her adventures in space, but after an incident where an otherworldy being had possessed her through it, she'd taken it off. Splinter had been teaching her workouts to improve her mental capabilities.

"Your tea, April," he said, placing the tray before her.

"Thank you, Master Splinter," she said. Putting her phone down, she placed her hands together and bowed slightly, reciting a Japanese blessing of thanks along with Splinter before picking up her teacup.

Splinter sipped his tea, savoring the taste before asking, "How was today's session?"

"It went well," April said slowly. "I think I'm starting to get control of my powers back. I know before, with the whole Aeon thing, I kind of went off the deep end. And I think my stint with that Carnage symbiote really messed me up too."

Splinter placed a hand on April's shoulder reassuringly. "With time and training, April, you will develop this sensitivity to your full potential. You have a rare gift, and have spent much time honing it. We must continue these exercises to help your mind recuperate from being under the control of others."

"Thank you, Sensei," April said, sipping her tea.

Splinter's excellent hearing picked up the distinct noise of the Shellraiser approaching. His sons had returned home at last. He set down his tea and picked up his walking cane, heading towards the entrance with a smile on his face.

That smile was quickly wiped off his face to see his youngest son, Michelangelo, covered it the scars of battle, carrying Raphael on his back. "Sensei!" he cried, stumbling down into the living room. "Raph's hurt pretty bad. He needs help!"

He rushed to his son's side, quickly followed by April. "Oh, no!" she said. "Raph! What happened?"

Splinter looked up to see a group of policemen entering the Lair with weapons drawn. Snarling, he leaped for one of them, tackling the hapless officer and pinning him to the ground by the neck with his crystal walking stick.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Sensei!" Mikey shouted in protest. "It's okay! These guys are on our side. This is Captain Stacy, and his officers."

Splinter reluctantly backed off, and the officer carefully got to his feet. Another officer, older, with gray hair, stepped out from among the crowd. "Put your guns away, men!" he ordered, and the policemen did just that.

Captain Stacy followed Mikey, Splinter, and April in carrying Raphael to his room. They cleared his bed of "Kaput" bug spray cans and Modern Ninja magazines and laid him down on it. His eyes were shut tight. He had turned a sickly color, he was groaning in pain, and his leg looked awful, twisted at an awkward angle.

"His leg is broken," Splinter said. "Very badly. It will take much time to heal." He turned, glaring at Mikey. "How did this happen?"

Mikey swallowed. "Well, we did like you said and headed topside to help out the police. We saved a bunch of them, and then boom, this crazy guy showed up who could turn into anything he touched. He messed Raph up real bad."

"And where are your brothers?" Splinter asked, raising his voice.

"I don't know," Mikey stammered, his voice cracking. "They went after some other guy. I haven't seen them. I met a guy, Daredevil, said he'd track them down. I was so worried about Raph, and—" He broke down, tears streaming from his eyes.

Splinter softened, and approached his son, embracing him. "Michelangelo. You were right to bring your brother home. But let this be a valuable lesson to you both." He pulled back, looking Mikey in the eyes. "I raised you as ninja. I taught you to stick to the shadows, and only expose yourselves when absolutely necessary. You have not been heeding my instructions. Now, two of your brothers are missing, and one is gravely injured. Let this be a lesson to you, my son. We walk a path of peace, and confrontation can only be our final choice in any situation. I have learned the truth of this through . . . painful experience."

"Yes, Sensei," Mikey sniffed, wiping his nose with the back of his hand.

Splinter turned back to Raph. "April. Help me tend to my son's injuries." They left the room, headed for the kitchen.

Casey Jones skated into the Lair, ready to hit up his bro Raph. It had been weeks since they'd hit the streets looking for Karai, or punching the Purple Dragons' faces in, or really much of anything. Casey had been busy with school; he'd kept his grades up enough to play on Lee High's hockey team. Now it had been a full semester since he got put on academic probation, and he had half a semester to get back on track or the coach would drop him from the team. April had been helping him with tutoring, and he was very thankful for it. But he was tired of flipping through textbooks. He wanted to be back on the streets, taking down thugs in the name of justice. With all these riots, there would be plenty of scum bags to turn into punching bags. So he was going to swing by the Lair to pick up Raph before he went out.

When Casey walked into the Lair, he knew something was up. Police officers were everywhere. A group of them were watching the news, while another one brought in a box of Mikey's pizza from the kitchen. There was no sign of the turtles or April.

"Hey, what gives?" Casey asked. "Why all the fuzz?"

The cops turned to look at him, and several of them put their hands on their guns. But then the precinct's captain, George Stacy, approached him. "Casey?" he asked. "You're in on all of this?"

Casey jumped. "Mr. Stacy?" he asked. He knew George Stacy from back when he'd dated the cop's daughter, Gwen. He knew George was a cop, but he was the last person Casey had expected to see.

"What are you doing here?" Casey asked him.

"My men and I were ambushed at our station," Captain Stacey explained. "Your turtle friends came and rescued us. One of them got beat up pretty bad." He jerked a thumb at Raph's room. "In there."

Casey's heart dropped, and he quickly ran into Raph's room. April stood by his bedside, tending to his friend. Raph's leg was bandaged, and a moist wash cloth on his head.

"April?" Casey asked. "What's going on?"

April looked up at Casey, tears in her eyes. "I don't know, Casey. Mikey and Raph came back to the Lair after all those riots going on up top, and—" Her voice caught. "Leo and Donnie aren't back yet. I don't know what's going on."

Casey clenched his fists. Raph was one his best friends; in many ways, he was like a brother to Casey. They'd fought together, laughed together, saved the world more times than they could count. And now that Raph was hurt real bad, no way Casey was just going to sit by.

"What do I do?" he asked.

"I'm not sure if you can do anything," April said. "Master Splinter went out looking for Leo and Donnie, and I'm tending to his wounds. He's not hurting anymore, I don't think. He just won't wake up." She looked away. "A little privacy would be nice, though."

"Oh." Casey backed away. "I get it." He walked out of the room, never feeling so helpless in his life. He barely even heard April's apology, claiming that she hadn't meant it like that. It didn't matter. His best friend was in a coma and there wasn't a thing he could do about it.

As Casey headed for the exit, he was approached by one of the policemen, Jim. With a brown handlebar mustache, aviator sunglasses, and a brown mullet concealed by his officer's cap, Jim and Casey had had more than a few run-ins on the opposite sides of the law. "Wait a minute," he said, eyeing Casey suspiciously. "Aren't you that punk who we picked up vandalizing the Baxter Building?"

Casey was not in a mood to be confronted. "What's it to you?" he sneered.

"You've got a big mouth, tough guy," Jim said. "I should've expected to find gutter trash like you down here in the sewers."

"I'll show you gutter trash!" Casey yelled, leaping at Jim. Three policemen jumped in between them, splitting them up. Casey was still trying to shake them off and take a good swing at Jim, get him right in the moustache.

"CASEY!" April yelled. Everyone stopped, turning towards the sound. She had stuck her head out of Raph's room. "Can't you give it a rest?" she asked, her voice cracking. "Do you have to pick fights everywhere you go?"

Casey shrugged off the hands of the cops holding him back. "Forget it then." He stormed for the exit, blood pounding in his ears. "I'll stay out of your way."

"Where you going, kid?" he heard Captain Stacy ask.

"Topside," Casey shot back, pulling his goalie mask down over his face. "If the cops in New York are too busy slacking off down here, I'll do their job for them." Smiling at his final snark, he skated off down the subway tunnel.

Splinter sat on the edge of an apartment building's roof, staring down into the alley where two armed thugs walked past. Beside him, the vigilante known as Daredevil leaped onto the fire escape and climbed down without giving himself away to the thugs. One had a pistol, and one held a crowbar.

"Cripes, man," the crowbar guy remarked to the one with the pistol, "can't believe Kingpin's got us out here taking down cops. Somethin' they've had coming for a while."

"Didja hear that he's teamed up with some big Japanese crime boss?" the pistol guy asked. "The Foot Clan, they're called. They're the ones whose creepy-looking robots have been leading the attack on all the cops here."

"I don't like it," said Crowbar Guy. "It's only a matter 'a time before the Feds send in military. Fat lot of good these'll do us." He smacked the crowbar against a dumpster, producing a loud clang.

Daredevil led Splinter over the rooftops of New York City. Smoke from fires blazed into the late night sky. Car alarms blared. Windows broke. People screamed in terror. The city was in complete disarray.

"So much destruction…" Splinter muttered to himself. The Foot Clan was adept at creating chaos everywhere they went. That was the Shredder's way.

Daredevil interrupted his thoughts. "This is as far as I tracked your sons," he said. They had arrived on the roof of an apartment building, with a billboard on one side and a water tower on the other. There was a burn pattern on the roof in a large circle with a diameter of about twenty feet. The circle was filled with intricate patterns of ash and soot. They looked vaguely like runes.

Daredevil dropped to one knee and rubbed the pattern with two fingers, then rubbed his fingers together and smelled them. "I'm not exactly sure what this stuff is, but I've never seen it before." He stood up. "This is where the trail stops cold. There's no scent, no tracks, no nothing. It's as if they just—vanished."

Splinter examined the rune circle carefully, tracing part of it with his stick. Daredevil was right. There was no sign of Donatello or Leonardo anywhere. This was all very strange. The city had been rocked by a resurgence of the Foot Clan, and now—he feared the worst was yet to come.

Casey slammed a discarded soda can with his hockey stick. The can flew gracefully threw the air and into a trash bin across the alley. "Who needs them anyway," he muttered. "Scum-sucking fuzz like them. Cowering underground while there's work up here needs doing." He slid his goalie mask over his face, which he had just finished painting to look like a skull. "Sounds like the perfect job for Casey Jones."

Casey retrieved his bike from behind the dumpster where he'd hidden it and climbed on, pedaling off into the night. The city was filled with the sounds of chaos, inflicted by the Shredder and his men. Casey hated them. They stepped over the people of this city with no regard at all.

As Casey biked past the Manhattan Community Bank, only a few blocks from the turtles' lair, the sound of shattering glass caught his attention. He looked up to see three tattooed Asian men breaking through the front window of the bank and going inside. Casey recognized them; Fong, Sid, and Tsoi, of the Purple Dragon street gang. He'd run into the gang many times before.

"Well, well, what have we here?" Casey chuckled. "Looks like Casey Jones' first catch of the night." Getting off his bike, he strode confidently towards the bank, hockey stick dragging dramatically behind him.

"Hurry up, Tsoi, get this machine open!" Fong said. He could barely contain the excitement he felt. Finally they were pulling off a heist, and no turtle freaks or cops to ruin their fun.

"We're gonna be rich after this," cackled Sid, the bigger, most muscular of them. They all laughed as Tsoi bent down and used a fancy-looking blowtorch to cut open the ATM. Sid stepped in and used his strength to rip the ATM out of the wall.

Sniggering with glee, the gang members stuffed their bags full of cash, then turned to walk out the door. Casey Jones stood in front of them, in the parking lot, with both hockey stick and baseball bat drawn.

"Time to take out the trash," he said. "Haven't you twerps had your fill of bank robberies?"

"You again!" Fong said. "Let's get him!"

All three of them charged towards Casey, who quickly beat them down. Smacking Sid across the face with his hockey stick felt especially good. He needed to release some of his pent-up anger and frustration.

The Purple Dragon crew lay groaning on the ground. "What's the matter?" Casey taunted. "Done already?" He walked over to Fong, the skinniest of the three. Fong saw Casey and covered his face with his hands in protection. "Get up!" Casey shouted, kicking Fong in the stomach.

"Ah, the hockey boy without honor," came a voice behind him. "Kicking a beaten man who is already down." Casey turned to see a slender Chinese-American man standing several yards away. The man wore shades and spiked brass knuckles on both hands, and his shirt was unbuttoned halfway revealing his tattooed torso and a gold medallion that hung from his neck. "Playing the hero again, Casey?" he taunted.

"I'm not playing at anything, Hun." Casey clenched his fists around his hockey stick. "My fists have been aching for your face for a long time."

"After this, the rest of you will be aching as well," Hun said, removing his shades and charging towards Casey.

Spider-Man had been swinging around the city for about an hour at this point, trying to get a handle on some of the crime that had sprung up all of a sudden. He was about to start heading back to his apartment to check on Aunt May, but then his spider-senses went off. He heard a bank alarm and swung off in the direction of the sound.

Landing on the ground in front of the bank, he spotted Casey and Hun fighting inside. "What's this?" he asked. "Bruce Lee versus Jason Vorhees? Best crossover ever!"

He was about to go help when the three other Purple Dragon members, having recovered from Casey's pummeling, started to run out of the bank. Spider-Man shook his head. "Where are you guys going? The party's this way!" he said as he jumped down behind them and shot his webs at Fong's back. He yanked the street gang member backwards and Fong went flying, dropping his unzipped bag of cash and scattering money in the air. The other two stopped in their tracks and tried to catch as much of it as they could. Spidey webbed Fong on the wall, then turned to Sid and Tsoi. "So who's next?" he asked as he webbed them both up, one after the other.

Hun had grabbed Casey and pulled him in close, delivering some smashing blows to the face with his spiked brass knuckles. The blows were so strong Casey could feel his hockey mask cracking. Suddenly Hun felt his wrist being yanked back, as Spider-Man had shot a web at his wrist and pulled it back. Hun went flying back towards Spider-Man, who performed a spinning air kick and knocked him to the ground.

The street gang leader spat out blood, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Everyone has something to lose," he said.

"Like you're about to lose consciousness?" Casey asked.

Hun smiled mirthlessly. "I refer to your baby sister."

At the mention of his younger sister, on top of everything else that had happened that night, Casey snapped. "SHUT UP!" he screamed, and began pounding Hun mercilessly with his hockey stick. Blows rained down on the Purple Dragon leader, who cowered, his hands protecting his face. Casey barely heard the man's cries of pain, could barely see Hun through the red fog of anger that eclipsed his vision.

Spider-Man shot a web against Casey's back, and pulled the young hero back away from Hun. "Casey! Casey! He's done." They looked at Hun, who lay groaning on his back, bleeding. Spider-Man quickly webbed the Purple Dragon leader up. In the morning the cops would be here, triggered by the burglar alarm.

Spider-Man grabbed Casey and webbed the two up to the roof of an apartment building next door. Frustrated, Casey punched a metal AC unit so hard he dented it. "That scum," he growled. "He deserved it! Nobody threatens my family."

"That's not who we are," Spider-Man said. "Otherwise we're no better off than them."

Casey shrugged Spider-Man off. "Whatever, dude. You don't know anything about me. My life was fine until freaks like you came along. This whole city was just swell, till the mutants started turning up. My dad and my little sister were almost killed by rogue mutants. How long till that almost happens again? The cops and this justice system can't do a thing about them, so somebody has to."

He lowered his hockey mask and was about to climb down the fire escape, but was stopped when Spider-Man started talking. "You know, Casey, something my uncle used to say to me was 'With great power comes great responsibility.' And this was before I got bit by the spider that dumped its spider powers all over my head and everyone started blaming me for every bad thing that ever happened to New York City."

Spider-Man walked over to Casey and sat down on the edge of the roof. "The thing is, when he said it, I didn't know what he was talking about and I didn't figure it out until it was too late. Some idiot with a gun shot and killed him. And I could have definitely stopped him if I wasn't so busy worrying about myself and instead really listening to the words he was saying. With great power comes great responsibility. And ever since that day I've been trying to live a life that resembles what those words mean. And I can tell you they mean everything."

He turned to look at Casey. "You can live every day of your life trying to think of something more profound, but for people like us, who suddenly find themselves looking out at a crazy world and not knowing what we're supposed to be doing, I can tell you that just remembering that with great power comes great responsibility can completely define you."

Casey lifted his hockey mask over his eyes, struck by the profoundness of the hero's words. They sat in silence, overlooking the city, which now looked like something out of the apocalypse. Smoke billowed into the air, fires burned, screams filled the air. "There's a whole lot of bad out there," he said quietly.

"Yeah," Spider-Man agreed. "What do you say you and I do something about it?"

Casey grinned, before lowering his mask again and pulling out his hockey stick. "Goongala."

It was eight o'clock in the morning. Nick Fury was exhausted. He'd left the Helicarrier and had been coordinating S.H.I.E.L.D. movements on the ground, as they worked with the police to try and put a stop to whatever was going on in the city. It looked like Kingpin was behind everything, as well as the Foot Clan. Their forces had gathered at Fisk Tower, which was heavily guarded and sealed off, and the S.H.I.E.L.D. teams couldn't get in. He'd been on the phone for hours with the Council, trying to get permission to turn Fisk Tower into dust with the Helicarrier. But the Council wasn't going for it. Now he was driving through New York City in his armored SUV, on the phone with Tony Stark, talking about Tony's latest friends. Even though they had helped keep the Helicarrier up in the air, he still wasn't 100% sure about them yet.

"These turtles, in the short time I've known them, haven't done one thing wrong," Tony said. "Not one thing. They've been on the right side, all in, with every fiber of their mutated beings. This isn't Banner. There is no gray area here. They're—they're such good kids. You know what I was when I was their age?"

"Drunk?" Fury asked.

"Well, yeah . . ."

Fury's onboard computer beeped, indicating an incoming call. It was Maria Hill, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s deputy director, who was in command of the Helicarrier while he was away. Fury put her on the line.

"Director?" Hill sounded shaken. "S.H.I.E.L.D. just picked this up. We've got multiple bogies in the air, unidentified flying objects that appeared out of nowhere to the east. I think you should check the skies."

Traffic had stopped. Even with the city going down the tubes, crime rates skyrocketing and the police scrambling to respond, people were trying to get to work on time. But whatever was going on, the cars were now in gridlock. People were getting out of their cars to look at the sky. Fury put the SUV in park and stepped outside, looking up.

A large ship had appeared over Manhattan. It wasn't like a spaceship or anything; it was an old sailing ship, like something out of Greek or Norse mythology. The ship was floating in the air, with an eerie green aura surrounding it. From here Fury could see flying creatures as well, surrounding the vessel. Hundreds of them. And as if that weren't bad enough, suddenly the ocean off the coast of the Statue of Liberty erupted and an enormous snake's head appeared.

The snake let out a terrifying roar as more and more of its body appeared. It stretched up across the sky, blotting out the sun. People began screaming.

"That's one big snake," Fury said. "I hate snakes."

"People of Earth," came a female voice. It wasn't especially loud, but everyone could hear it, projected over the entire city from the floating ship. "I am Amora the Enchantress. An entire civilization has fallen to my forces, and your city will fare no better."

Then came a man's voice that Fury recognized instantly. "Let your fabled Avengers try and stop us. No one, in all of space, has ever been able to best our army. Kneel before us!"

At this Fury ran back to his SUV and radioed Maria Hill, still onboard the Helicarrier. "What do you need from us, sir?" she asked.

"Get armed forces to sign off on some counter-measures that we just launched," he said. "That's Loki's voice you're hearing. He's back. You've got full clearance. Take down that snake."

Almost immediately the Helicarrier's bridge weapons began firing. Turrets snapped off powerful rounds, which tore through the serpent's skin. The serpent cowered in pain, then moved its body from side to side, moving through the air up towards the Helicarrier.

The snake opened its jaws wide as it approached and let out a terrifying hiss, snapping down on the Helicarrier. The snake shook its head from side to side, tearing the ship apart like a dog shaking a rat. Pieces of metal went flying from its mouth as it shredded the S.H.I.E.L.D. vessel.

Fury could hardly believe what he was seeing, and neither could the people of New York. Screams once again filled the air as the terrified citizenry ran back to their cars and hid in buildings. Fury's screen registered Hill's transmission as disconnected. But the line with Stark was still open. Something was happening to it, though; they were losing their signal. Communications across the city were being shut down by something or someone.

"Stark," he said, hoping the eccentric billionaire superhero could still hear him. "Mobilize the heroes in Manhattan. Stop Loki and his army at all costs. If his troops hit the ground our city will fall. I'm going to check on S.H.I.E.L.D.—or what's left of it."

Iron Man zoomed over the city, headed for the giant snake that had just appeared out of the Upper New York Bay. His helmet viewscreen was filled with video screens of news stations scrambling to respond.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y., get the Avengers on the line!" he said.

"All communications in this region have been blocked," the AI system answered.

Small squares popped up on Iron Man's viewscreen as he tried calling different heroes, and each one was covered by a red "X" and the word "Unreachable."

"The Fantastic Four!" he said.

"Communications in the region have been blocked, boss," F.R.I.D.A.Y. repeated.

"The Defenders?" Iron Man asked. "Power Pack?"

"You're not listening to me," said F.R.I.D.A.Y. "The entire area has been bubbled, and cut off from the rest of the world as far as communications are concerned. The National Guard won't be able to deploy enough troops in time for a counterattack."

"We need backup, F.R.I.D.A.Y.!" Iron Man said. "Earth is under attack, and we don't even know why. This entire area will cease to exist before anybody knows this campaign has happened."

"Boss, if we're going to do this, it's us against them," F.R.I.D.A.Y. said. "A head-on confrontation is the only option at this point."

If they were giving it everything they had, Tony knew they'd really have to bring some heat. "F.R.I.D.A.Y., remember that untested suit we had stored in the East River in case of emergencies?" he asked. "This is an emergency."

"Pacific Rim suit is not advised," the AI system said. "The severe energy management issues have not been fully repaired. It's not fully combat-ready."

"F.R.I.D.A.Y., I need that suit online now," Tony said. "It's the best chance we've got. And activate House Party Protocol. Have them target the fliers and keep Loki's forces concentrated in one area as long as they can."

"Suits headed your way, boss," said F.R.I.D.A.Y. As Tony approached the East River, the water began bubbling before a giant mech rose from the depths. The mech was twenty feet tall, but painted with the color scheme of red and gold that characterized Tony's Iron Man suits. Water poured down from the mech as it rose to its full height. Tony approached the mech's head from the air and activated it remotely, so the head retracted to reveal a piloting station. Once Tony had flown in and gotten his suit hooked up to the mech, the head retracted and the eyes lit up blue, confirming it was online.

Tony had built this suit a long time ago, as a contingency plan in case they ever discovered giant sea monsters or alien robots hiding out on Earth. He liked having contingency plans. Then he could rub it in his friends' faces when his suspicions turned out to be right. The Mark SSRMFF, he called this baby. It stood for Stark's Super Robo Mecha Force Fighter. The suit had been named after one of his favorite TV shows: Super Robo Mecha Force Five. It looked and felt pretty sweet to drive.

F.R.I.D.A.Y. was right, though. The suit wasn't really combat ready. For one thing, it was extremely energy intensive and ran low on power quickly. But Tony didn't have a choice. They didn't have the firepower they needed to take this dragon thing out without it. He was the only Avenger in New York today and the others were too far away to get to him in time to help.

"Aliens are invading lower and upper Manhattan through portals, boss," F.R.I.D.A.Y. reported. A screen came up in the pilot station of theMark SSRMFF that showed various portals opening up all over the city, and all kinds of mean-looking creatures coming through.

"Looks like Loki's back for round two," Tony said. "Only this time he's got a little more than Chitauri. Have the other suits defend the city. I'll bring down the big guy."

In the bay, the giant snake was screeching and roaring, and the people on the shore could feel the vibrations in the air. The ferries in the bay were scrambling to steer clear of the enormous creature, but one unlucky ferry boat had been almost on top of the snake when it surfaced. The boat was still floating, but far too close to the snake for comfort.

The snake looked down, peering at the ferry with its reptilian yellow eyes. The passengers aboard screamed and prayed and pleaded for mercy. But there would be none. The snake roared and dove towards the ship. The passengers closed their eyes and braced themselves for death.

After a few moments, the people realized they were still alive. They cautiously opened their eyes and looked around. The snake's mouth was agape, suspended in the air almost ten feet above them. Two giant metal hands held its mouth open and up, keeping it from chomping down on the ferry. The hands were attached to an enormous red and gold mech that looked an awful lot like an enormous Iron Man suit. The passengers were too stunned to cheer. Their boat floated precariously between a giant metal titan and a gargantuan beast of the sea. They had never felt smaller in their life (which is saying something for New Yorkers).

The Mark SSRMFF reared up, twisting the snake's head and dragging it away from the ferry before dunking it back below the water. The waves threatened to capsize the ferry, and the passengers began screaming again. The Mark SSRMFF turned back to the ferry and scooped it out of the water with one enormous hand.

Inside the pilot station, Tony saw the ferry on his HUD. A display screen came up, revealing that all the original passengers were accounted for. "Ferry secure," F.R.I.D.A.Y. reported.

"Adjust the torque," Tony said. They weren't out of this yet, not by a long shot. The water bubbled and the snake reared out, lunging at Tony's suit. He turned just in time to avoid a collision, and sent the ferry towards the shore with a shove. The passengers had found their voice again, and they screamed and cheered for Tony Stark, their hero.

"Torque locked," F.R.I.D.A.Y. said.

"Alright, let's send this guy back to the myth he came from," Tony said. The Mark SSRMFF swung its fist in a right hook, which caught the snake in the side of the head in mid-roar. Tony swung the other arm around and delivered a second blow with his left. As the snake reeled, Tony brought the suit's arms up and delivered a powerful slam directly atop the snake's skull. The snake hissed as its head was driven below the water.

That turned out to be a mistake. The snake swirled around his feet and began climbing up his body in a circle, constricting him like a giant anaconda about to swallow its prey whole. The snake wrapped itself around him and squeezed its coils, and warning alarms and flashing lights went off in the pilot station of the suit. Tony raised the mech's left arm in time to prevent the snake from taking the mech's head off; its jaws instead locked around the suit's forearm and bit down hard, bending and twisting the metal.

"Suit integrity at 65 percent," F.R.I.D.A.Y. warned.

Tony groaned. The suit wouldn't last long; it wasn't build to withstand the kind of otherworldy force the snake was exerting. If only S.H.I.E.L.D. had cleared him to test it in the Arctic Circle when he'd asked.

"Suit integrity at 51 percent."

"Divert all power to right repulsor!" Tony shouted. This was it. He'd have to hit the snake hard with everything he had; the energy blast would probably drain it. One shot, one kill. He pulled the arm back, freeing it from the snake's coils, waiting.

He watched with baited breath as the power gauge rose steadily. "Suit integrity at 25 percent."

The passengers on the ferry that Tony had rescued were watching the whole encounter. It was safe to say the entire city of New York was watching. They were all cheering, screaming at him, "Get him! Come on! Shoot him!"

"15 percent and falling fast, boss!"

The power meter was full. "Now!" Tony yelled. The Mark SSRMFF delivered a powerful blast of energy directly under the snake's chin. It screeched and let go of the mech's arm with its now-smoking mouth, collapsing back into the bay as its coils slipped limply off of the suit and followed it into the water with a splash. "Yahoo!" Tony cried in triumph.

But the snake wasn't the only thing smoking; as he'd predicted, the single arc energy shot had completely drained the mech of power. Sizzling and smoking, it stood like a silent guardian in the bay. The inside of the pilot station went dark, and F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s congratulations went off. Tony slumped forward against the pilot console, becoming painfully aware of how damp his forehead and armpits were with nervous sweat.

It was over. The small fry in the city would be cleaned up eventually, but they'd taken out Loki's power piece. He might pull something else, but by then the rest of the Avengers would be back to fight with Tony. The invasion was almost as good as stopped.

Though the suit had lost all power, he could still look out through the mech's shielded viewport. As he began to breathe easy again, the water in front of the mech began bubbling and frothing, turning white. Tony's heart sank. Oh, no. No.

The snake's head burst from the bay with a watery explosion and a terrifying shriek. It chomped down on the mech's left arm and ripped it clean off, finishing the job it had started earlier. Tony knew he couldn't do anything, but he couldn't escape either; the suit's loss of power prevented him from activating the escape launch pod.

As the snake finished off the arm, it reared up and dove down on the mech from above, sinking its jaws into its head. Its teeth ripped right through the hull and tore the head clean off. As soon as Tony saw his chance, he activated his suit and flew off, looking behind him as the snake finished tearing the Mark SSRMFF apart.

Nothing could stop that snake now. Nothing in Manhattan anyway. They'd have to come up with a plan. In the meantime, Loki's army was terrorizing the city's populace. They needed to be stopped.

"Boss, we've got other heroes on the ground," F.R.I.D.A.Y. said. "Spider-Man's suit tracker shows he's active in Queens."

"Time for a rendezvous," Tony said as he flew off in the direction of the smoking city.