Disclaimer: I don't own shit. Especially not Naruto or Marvel.
Wow, only two chapters in, and we're already near two-hundred favorites, three-hundred follows, and fifty reviews. I'm blown away by the support.
By the way, I was wondering if you guys were interested in seeing Naruto obtain an EMS/Rinnegan, and Six Paths Sage Mode? I have an idea how I could make it happen, but I'd like to see if you, the audience, would like to see that happen? I have a poll on my profile, so go ahead and vote, or just give me your answer in the review box. That's great too. I really appreciate it!
Proxima circled him like prey. Naruto listened to her footsteps. Quiet, unbearably. It was as if she was walking into the void itself. Not a single sound was made. Her feet practically glided across the deck. Naruto didn't just watch; he learned. It took her years to learn to step with such silence. He did it in seconds.
Naruto watched once and copied her almost perfectly. It wasn't quite an exact copy but rather a stellar imitation. He wasn't soundless as much as he was extremely quiet.
That was his natural ability.
He could learn any skill by only watching someone perform it once. It allowed him to become one of Thanos' most skilled before he turned fifteen. Trained since birth, he was exceptionally well-trained. These skills he obtained were not perfectly mimicked. However, drilling them afterward made those skills sharper.
A sneer crossed Proxima's face as she watched him walk. Naruto relished that infuriated look. Out of Thanos' Black Order, he despised her the most. Cruel of cruelty's sake, a sadist at heart, and his first tormentor, Naruto loathed her very existence.
Abruptly, she lunged, her spear rotating wildly like a wheel. He deflected it with his blade. It was long, double-edged, and appeared more like a cultivated mass of steel rather than a blade. Proxima shoved his sword back, then rammed her foot into his unprotected stomach. The sheer force from her boot winded him.
He reclaimed his breath, reacting swiftly to her subsequent attacks. Backstep, sidestep. He avoided the first several slashes, then bent backward as a vertical oscillation nearly lobbed his head off. Proxima growled as her steps were no longer soundless. Naruto hid a grin. She was fallible.
Jabbing the butt of his sword after swooping in close, she grimaced at the direct strike. Naruto saw another facilitating swing of her sword a mile away. He counted on it. An acrobatic leap later, he backflipped behind her. A swipe cut open a gash in her back.
The outcry that followed was far from pleasant.
There was no more grace in her movements. She whirled around, swinging her sword with a fury that knew no bounds. That meant she was no longer holding back.
Naruto made the mistake of parrying one of her blows. The blade in his vibrated exceedingly. It felt as if his hands were going to melt off as they shook at such a violent speed. She smacked his sword away. It flew at blinding speeds, stabbing into the ship's hull, sinking several inches through the steel. The second strike put him on his back, and the third nearly severed his head from his shoulders.
Had he not forged another blade from his hand to counter it, it would have.
Naruto stared in shock, meeting her astonished gaze.
What…
What did he just do?
Proxima Midnight didn't care, however. She arced her spear over her head, intending on lancing his heart in two. A cold voice stopped her short.
"Enough."
Naruto was startled, her anger had vanished. She retracted her boot from his stomach and her spear inches from his chest. Taking several steps back, Proxima bowed to her master. Naruto swallowed, although he did not allow his fear to show. Not like she had. Proxima, just moments prior, appeared every bit as wrathful as he knew her to be.
But the second the Mad Titan spoke—it was a man yanking on his dog's leash.
It chilled him to see the power Father wielded. This woman had nearly killed him. Easily, his self-deprecating conscience added unnecessarily. And yet, one severely spoke word uttered from him sent her reeling. Father may have been a bastard, but he was a powerful bastard.
As Naruto stayed on the ground, horrified at his near-death, clutching this new blade in his palm, he promised that would keep him alive for many years to come.
'Proxima Midnight, you will be the first whom I will kill. And your death will be the one I enjoy most. Right now, you are stronger than I am. One day, mark my words, I will end your miserable life and I'll do it with a smile. But, until the time comes, I will savor every thought, every fantasy I have, for I will kill you within my thoughts in the most painful ways I can imagine.'
"Come here, My Child."
Naruto heeded Father's words. He scrambled to his feet and bowed. The welcoming heat of hatred swarmed his cold, dead heart.
From his throne, Thanos lifted his chin with one of his massive fingers.
Naruto hadn't even noticed it. He was bleeding from his nose.
"You will do better," he told him, and Naruto found himself immediately nodding.
"Of course, Father."
A short, measured pause. Naruto resisted the overwhelming urge to squirm under his crushing gaze.
"That blade—how did you create it?"
Naruto held it up. Father and son scrutinized it together. It was a short sword, a hair under fifty centimeters. It was painfully simplistic with a straight blade, a plain guard, and handle, yet it almost had an… eldritch appearance. Purely black, as if it had been forged out of obsidian.
"I don't know, Father," he answered honestly, sounding as puzzled as he looked.
Unbeknownst to them, Proxima Midnight glared intensely, her light blue skin wrinkling into a nasty scowl.
"Think," he ordered sternly, although not unkindly. "Visualize. It came from you. You control your body. You commanded it to be created. How?" he demanded.
"I…" Naruto stopped himself short. "I didn't want to die," he responded, hesitant. "I was going to die, but I didn't want to."
An instinctual response, he mused. Self-preservation. Yes, his son knew this feeling very well. "You envisioned a blade." Not a guess, a statement. Cold, calculating, and surgical. "You summoned your own sword. That power that swirls within you grows by the day." A swell of pride bubbled in Naruto's chest. "Give me that blade."
The blond handed it over to him. Thanos traced his thumb along its edge, inspecting its sharpness. It pricked his skin but didn't do too much else. "Summon another."
"Um—"
"No hesitance," Thanos coldly interjected. "Do it," he demanded.
And so, Naruto did. He wired his eyes shut, brows narrowing as he concentrated. Father mentioned that power was growing. He believed that this blade was created from the same power. If he was correct (he always), all he had to do was pull on that power. It was a thread for him to draw on.
Just as he was about to give up, a gasp left his body. He opened his eyes, and another short sword formed in his hand. It didn't form or assimilate. It just appeared.
"Again."
Naruto focused. This time, it was easier. Not enough to make a difference, but he assembled another blade half a second quicker. Again, he found sweat gathering above his brow.
"Again."
His two swords clunked to the metallic deck. When Naruto created the next one, he found himself breathing heavily. Thanos pretended not to notice. When he ordered him to continue, he did so with great reluctance. The fourth took the longest to create. Father was a patient man. He could see the struggle written over his face. Though, it appeared, nonetheless.
Naruto sunk to the deck, breath ragged.
"This ability of yours," Thanos drawled, sounding bored before snatching one of his fallen blades. "Is like any other muscle. This one is new, untrained. Practice more. Master it until it becomes as easy as breathing."
And so he did.
A large, body-length sword flew from his hand with a swipe of his hand. It pierced through two Chitauri soldiers at once.
He mastered it until it was easier than breathing and much more. In such a seemingly black and white skill, Naruto found versatility in it. The ability to create any bladed weapon sounded straightforward. On a surface level, yes, Naruto would agree.
But delve a little deeper.
Apply some more thought.
Swords, axes, hammers, spears, knives—the only limitation was his imagination.
When most of his life was spent in his own head, pondering on ways to kill, his imagination expanded. This skill fit him like a fish in water. Naruto fell in love with it instantly. Able to materialize any melee weapon he could imagine was a massive boon. Yes, it drained his stamina severely, but he strengthened that muscle.
Before he turned eighteen, he longer felt any sort of fatigue after summoning even a hundred blades. However, Naruto didn't just use these blades for close combat. No, he learned how to channel this energy that simmered within him to fling knives outward like cannon. This was an attempt to expand upon his weaknesses.
Naruto felt comfortable in close combat. "Too comfortable," Father had said. He needed a way to fight from afar. Blasters were out of the question. Naruto didn't like plasma rifles. They were fallible and, from his experience, clunky. Having one on your person at all times was inconvenient. It made him a larger target, which was never good.
Launching these blades solved this issue.
This ability was a blessing in many ways.
It gave him so many options in combat. Unlimited weapons, an arsenal to choose from depending on what the situation required, and a solution to his weakness in ranged combat. Naruto was already extensively trained in every weapon known to the universe, which broadened his scope. It allowed him all of that, but it also gave him a stealthy guise. Even if one knew of his ability, they would be hard-pressed to know which weapon he would conjure or if he would launch it from afar or attack up close.
It made the word 'versatility' sound unequipped to define it.
The Quinjet was coming in hot. Clint Barton, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Loki bent to his will, was at the controls, and Natasha Romanoff monitored the situation, which didn't look so good. She saw Iron Man zigzagging through the city and broke radio silence to let him know they were close.
"Stark, we're on your three, headed northeast," Natasha said.
"What, did you stop for the drive-through? Swing up Park Avenue. I'm going to lay them out for you." A large group of Chitauri was right on Tony's tail. He angled north and then banked back around. The Chitauri followed, and the Quinjet caught them from the side, shooting many of them down with its belly-mounted cannon.
"Sir, we have more incoming," Jarvis warned.
"Fine. Let's keep 'em occupied," Tony said.
The plane swung by Stark Tower, still firing as the Chitauri chariots came within range. Hawkeye saw Thor and Loki fighting. He gestured to the Black Widow. "Nat?"
"I see them."
Hawkeye brought the Quinjet around and slowed it to a near halt so she could target Loki—but before the Quinjet's gun locked in, Loki got off a bolt of energy from his scepter. It burst in the Quinjet's left wing engine, knocking the jet into a damaging downward spiral. Hawkeye's superb piloting skills kept them from crashing straight down and taking most of a building with them.
Or was it?
At Barton's confused stare, Natasha caught a glimpse of what slowed their descent. Or rather, who. To their astonishment, it was a blond man they almost mistook for Thor. Except his hair was shorter. They watched, too dumbfounded to move as he set down the Quinjet.
It rumbled as it set down, and Natasha and Barton flooded down the ramp. They noted a tallish young man standing outside, glaring up at the sky blotted by Chitauri.
"Not that we're not thankful for the save, but who are you?"
The blond never looked away from the sky as figures zoomed around, unleashing hell on New York. Natasha noticed his white-knuckled fists were almost obscured in that tattered brown coat. As she studied him more, she noted that he was quite handsome and wore what constituted as rags. A maroon top, matching pants, near knee-high boots, and boiled leather gloves extended to his forearms (Heimdall's outfit from Thor Ragnarok).
"Hey, pal!" Barton shouted, moving to grab him.
What happened next shocked her. Faster than she could even blink, a hand found Barton's throat and was hefted into the air. The most startling thing about this? He hadn't even taken his eyes off the portal.
"Don't presume to touch me," he warned him, undisturbed by his gagging or fruitless attempts to get free. Barton jumbled for an arrow and tried to drive it into his arm, only for the tip to snap like a twig.
Immediately, Natasha had her gun drawn. "Let him go," she ordered calmly—calmer than she felt.
He did as she told him. Barton collapsed and quickly got to his feet. "Try that again," the archer said, anger in his eyes. "I dare you."
"Save your rage for your enemies."
"And you're not our enemy?" Natasha asked guardedly. This man did, after all, nearly choke Barton out. Not only that but he was definitely enhanced in some manner. He took an arrow to the arm, and the arrow broke. But, by a glance, she saw it hadn't even harmed his skin.
"You're still breathing, are you not?"
The cold words pushed Barton to growl, although a glare from Natasha forced him to settle down. This was not a fight they wanted to pick. The message was clear.
"What the hell is your deal?" Barton asked slowly and with masked hesitance.
"Are you an ally of Loki?"
Naruto snorted at the redhead's inquiry. "No," he answered. "Not anymore."
"Not anymore? Explain, dipshit." The blond remained quiet, those same fists clenched. "Answer! You owe us that much."
"What you owe me is your lives," he said carelessly, eying the destruction the Chitauri wrought. This was hardly the first world he'd seen be turned to ashes. Many of Father's recent conquests involved the Black Order at the front lines. That included him. He was their leader, after all. "Questioning me will not bring you closer to protecting your planet."
"You're alien," said the woman, catching on to the phrasing.
He didn't dignify that with a response.
When Barton opened his mouth, ready to make a retort, an energy beam streaked by their heads. Both of the humans ducked behind the Quinjet for over.
Naruto finally turned his gaze from the sky and to the streets, where he saw half a fleet of Riders come in for a drive-by. Natasha unloaded her Glocks into them, but her measly nine-millimeter bullets bounced off their armor harmlessly. When she paused to reload, she saw him leap into the air as the Riders flew overhead.
He mounted one of their chariots, dispatching the driver and gunner, and threw long spears from his hand. They just appeared out of thin air! And when they collided with the flanking and pursing chariots, they exploded.
Natasha and Barton looked at one another. Not a single word was uttered. What was there to be said? They didn't even know what they saw! Much less what to say about it!
Naruto controlled the chariot, taking him high in the sky. Flying further into another part of New York, the more northern edge, he saw another group of humans battling. However, unlike those two, these ones possessed gifts. Naruto ordered the chariot to take a nosedive.
One man noted him. Thinking that he was Chitauri, he fired a powerful red beam from his eyes. Naruto dismounted the chariot. It erupted into flames a moment later. He landed on one knee—mere feet from the gathered group of humans.
Without moving from his squat, he thrust his right hand out. A series of smaller blades fired from his palm, killing six soldiers in an instant. Turning, he aimed another enormous spear up, destroying two chariots in collateral as their flight patterns aligned momentarily.
Naruto lastly stood and noticed the humans staring at him.
The first that caught his notice was an astonishingly striking woman with hair the bright as fire itself and green eyes that imitated the glow of emeralds. Next was a rather tall, blue-furred male humanoid. Following was the opposite. He was short, almost embarrassingly so, yet he bore the most savage expression of them all. Three metal claws bulged from his knuckles.
Another woman floated by his side, mocha skin positively glowing, contrasting nicely with her pale white hair and matching eyes. Finally, it was the man that nearly struck him with those ocular beams.
Naruto knew what an ocular blast looked like. He ought to.
"Who are you?" the man asked. He wore a skintight suit marked by a yellow 'X,' a strange mask that only covered the top half of his face, and a ruby visor.
"My name is none of your concern," Naruto replied before another swarm of Chitauri bombarded them. They came down from the sky—probably having disembarked from their chariots.
Unable to ask again, the group behind began fighting.
Naruto ducked under a swipe of a laser lance. He formed two dual-sided battleaxes. Within seconds, the dozen Chitauri foolish enough to attack him lost their lives.
Two more climbed up to the highway they fought on. Naruto evaded a succession of lasers. They impacted a building behind him, causing rubble to cascade onto a lower street. The blond swept the feet of that Chitauri. He leaped at it—and remembered his fight against Proxima—his battleaxes shifted into a spear and lodged into its chest.
The final Chitauri screeched in a language he didn't understand. Naruto paid no mind to its babbling and wove his hand, sending it a hundred feet back, sending it hurdling into a Bank of America.
Naruto turned and chose to watch these humans engage in combat. He perceived a particular detail immediately. They worked as a team. Each of them had the other's back. Their work was far from flawless, but they all trusted one another, and it showed.
The dark-skinned woman interested him right away. She wielded power to shape the weather. Such an ability was scarce. Clouds churned at her command, unleashing lightning bolts that smote some of the approaching foot soldiers. She whipped up gale-force winds that knocked airborne Chitauri off course.
The man wearing the visor shot out an ocular blast, which killed some of the perplexed charioted Chitauri. Naruto allowed his gaze to drift to the manlet as he viciously tore through several foot soldiers of his own. He tore them limb from limb with a grin on his face. Now, this was a human he wouldn't mind getting to know, Naruto mused with a hidden smirk.
When the transient threat had passed, the visored man approached him. "I haven't seen you around. What's your name?" Clearly, he didn't remember his words from earlier.
"You shouldn't waste time engaging in useless chatter," Naruto chastised. "Their army is only growing larger while you remain idle."
"He's right," the redhead said, concerned. "For every one that we kill, five more enter the portal. Be careful, they have a hivemind. I can't hear their individual thoughts. They are getting mental commands directly through a neural implant."
Hear their thoughts? This woman was a telepath, he thought.
"That's why they're so damn coordinated," the hairy manlet grumbled.
The visored man frowned direly, addressing the mocha-skinned woman. "Storm, I want you to head up there and bottleneck the portal." The woman nodded and flew off. "Beast and Wolverine, you're going to fight them on the ground. Watch each other's back." The two feral men grunted in affirmative. Although, the manlet appeared annoyed at being ordered around.
"Marvel Girl—" Naruto barely withheld a snort at the ridiculous name. "You and I are going to evacuate and save as many people as we can."
Naruto approved of his plan. It was painstakingly simplistic but held some solid strategic value. Until that is when he looked me. "You—"
He stopped him before he could get out another word. "I'm not yours to command," Naruto said, flying off, nearly shattering the sound barrier as he did so, leaving a group of confused defenders.
Back at Stark Tower, Thor forced Loki's face to the destruction. "Look at this madness!" Thor shouted. "You think this insanity will end with your rule?"
"It's too late," Loki said, breathless. Thor thought he was beginning to understand what he had done. "It's too late to stop it."
"No," Thor expressed. "We can. Together."
Loki looked him in the eye… and jabbed a hidden knife into his side. Thor dropped to the ground, clutching the wound, wincing. "Sentiment," Loki spat mockingly.
Enraged, Thor yanked himself to his feet and battered Loki through a window. Then he lifted him and slammed him to the stone balcony. He was beyond talking now, and the God of Lies knew he was in trouble. He looked to his Scepter, but it was out of reach, so he rolled to the balcony's edge and allowed himself to dwindle.
Thor hurried to the edge. Loki fell and landed on a blitzing chariot. Piloting it, he sped away, leaving Thor alone on top of Stark Tower.
Captain Rodgers got to the police lines. They were firing at the Chitauri and holding their ground. Regardless, they were clearly overwhelmed. Most of their vehicles had been ravaged by the impending army. They were steadily losing cover. Almost as fast as they were losing ground. He heard one of them say it would be an hour before the military could arrive.
Steve felt his heart waver at that. Reinforcements would not be coming, it seems.
"Do they know what's going on here?" a second cop retorted.
The first cop looked up at a massive Leviathan as it ascended into the air, spreading fear into everyone's hearts. "Do we?"
Steve vaulted over a line of destroyed vehicles and landed on top of a taxi. The police pointed their guns at him, but he ignored them.
"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 Thirty-Ninth."
The sergeant looked at him like he'd just escaped from the loony bin. "Why the hell should I take orders from you?"
Steve didn't have time to reason with them because, at that moment, Chitauri attacked.
Their flyers swooped low and dropped ground troops close to the police line.
In the same motion, Steve blocked a blast with his shield and, batted away the closest Chitauri. He pivoted and brought the shield up to parry a spear thrust from another Chitauri, knocking it down with a single punch and then grabbing its spear.
He slashed a third Chitauri down with the weapon. Without breaking stride, he lunged forward to grapple with a fourth and beat it into submission before throwing it back off the roof of the taxi.
Not another word was said to Captain Rodgers. The police sergeant started calling orders into his radio.
"I need men in those buildings," he said, pointing so all his officers could see. "Lead the people down and away from the streets. We're going to set up a perimeter all the way down Thirty-Ninth Street."
Black Widow—Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton defended their position valiantly. But despite their perseverance, they wouldn't be able to hold off the enemy for long.
Sooner or later, they would run out of ammo. It took at least four shots of armor-piercing .45s to down one of son's a bitches, she was burning through ammo quicker than the Chitauri were burning through troops. She was forced to abandon her Glocks, replacing them with a simple pair of modified M1911s. Just as they were about to get overrun by three squads, pincered from both sides, lightning cascaded down to their overpass.
Every single Chitauri fried, Thor landed with a slight swing of his hammer.
He looked wounded, tired… and as angry as any of them had ever seen a man look.
At that moment, Steve was glad he wasn't a Chitauri. And he was especially glad he wasn't Loki. "So, what's the story upstairs?" he asked.
"The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable," Thor said.
"Thor's right," Tony said as he zipped by overhead. "You've got to deal with these guys."
"How do we do this?" Natasha asked.
"As a team," Steve said.
Thor was still watching the Chitauri zipping overhead. "I have unfinished business with Loki."
"Yeah?" Hawkeye said. "Get in line."
"Save it," Steve said firmly before it could devolve into an argument. "Loki's going to keep this fight focused on us, and that's what we need. Otherwise, those things could run wild. We've got Stark up on top—"
He broke off as a motorcycle engine approached, idling down. Steve glanced over and saw the welcome sight of Bruce Banner.
"So," Bruce said. "This all seems horrible."
"I've seen worse," the Black Widow said.
He knew what she meant. "Sorry."
"No," she stated. "We could use a little worse."
"Stark," Steve communicated into his microphone. "We got him."
"Banner?" Tony asked.
Steve nodded. "Just like you said."
"Then tell him to suit up," Tony said. "I'm bringing the party to you."
They saw Iron Man swoop around a corner to their north, and right behind him, the gargantuan armored Leviathan, shattering the corner building as it made the turn in pursuit.
"I… I don't see how that's a party," Natasha sounded concerned.
Iron Man sank almost down to street level, and the Leviathan followed, pulverizing cars and streetlights out of the way as it bore on the group of heroes.
"Dr. Banner," Steve spoke. "Now might be a really good time for you to get angry."
Bruce was already walking toward the Leviathan. "That's my secret, Cap," he said over his shoulder. "I'm always angry."
When he turned back to face the Leviathan, his transformation began. He grew, his clothes shredding away from his body as ordinary Bruce Banner became the eight-foot-tall, two-thousand-pound mass of indomitable rage called the Hulk. As the Leviathan dipped its crown toward him, the Hulk brought his fist on the creature's head with a booming crunch that shook the bridge the Avengers stood on. The Leviathan's head trolled into the road surface, shoving up hunks of concrete. Its momentum shoved the Hulk back, but he stopped as the rest of the Leviathan's body leveled up and over them. It crashed to the street below and lay still.
All over the city, the Chitauri stopped and screeched in sudden shock, as if they had never envisioned the great beast could be defeated. Not by pitiful humans, that is. The Avengers looked around. All six of them were together as a group for the first time in combat. Maybe the tide was beginning to turn, Steve thought.
Then Natasha, looking up into the sky, said, "Guys?"
They all looked. More Chitauri poured through the portal and more Leviathans. What they had thought was the climactic battle had, in fact, just been the beginning.
"Call it, Captain!"
"All right, listen up," Steve said. "Until we can close that portal, our priority's containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back, or turn it to ash."
Hawkeye turned to Iron Man. "Want to give me a lift?"
"Right," Iron Man said. He swathed an arm around Hawkeye's waist. "Better clench up, Legolas." He soared straight up to the rooftop Steve had pointed out and released Hawkeye prior to taking off to hold the border around Stark Tower.
"Thor," Steve went on, "you have to try to bottleneck that portal. Slow 'em down. You got the lightning. Light the bastards up."
Thor swung Mjolnir in a tight circle and bolted off, smashing Chitauri out of his way as he rose higher against the New York City skyline. Steve turned to the Black Widow. "You and me, we stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here."
She nodded affirmatively. On the ground, fighting beside Captain America, there were worse places to be in this battle.
"And, Hulk?"
The Hulk pivoted and glowered at Steve.
Steve thought there was really only one order you could give the Hulk. One word. "Smash."
The Hulk bared his teeth, grinning, and leaped away. He hopped up the sides of nearby buildings, smashing Chitauri with single blows whenever he was in arm's reach of them. Then he jumped into the air and swatted their flyers down before charging off into the chaos.
Thor reached the top of the Empire State Building and lifted Mjolnir. Just then, a woman floated by his side. Clouds gathered—the God of Thunder wasn't the one who summoned them.
Puzzled, he watched as lightning dispersed along with darkened nimbus clouds as bolts were directed to the portal. Thor grinned, unable to hide his excitement as he, too, channeled lightning. Only on a much, much larger scale.
The lightning bolt that came was convoked from the might of Thor himself. It struck Mjolnir, turning the Empire State Building into a massive electrical conduit. Positively buzzing with electricity, Thor then absorbed that energy and redirected it to the portal.
Thor let freed all that power at once. Storm watched, awed, as hundreds of Chitauri were vanquished at the snap of a finger. Many of them exploded, tumbling from the sky, including several Leviathans that plunged to smash into buildings below.
Storm always thought she was powerful. When left unchecked, no one could match her raw destructive capabilities. Clearly, she was wrong. Although, she didn't feel ashamed or inferior.
This man was Thor, the God of Thunder. She was just a Mutant. A powerful Mutant, but this was Thor. The real God of Thunder. It was his domain.
"Your power is impressive," he praised, smiling. "I did not know Midgardians were capable of commanding the weather."
"Mine may as well have been a spec compared to yours."
Five years ago, Thor might've grinned, abashed by the compliment. But, instead, he smiled politely.
"I'm fifteen-hundred years old. I've had plenty of practice." Thor chuckled. "Have no fear. I'm sure your power will only grow. What you are able to do, no other Midgardian has that power. Take pride in that."
"I do," Storm expressed with every bit of pride she could manage.
Giving another smile, Thor swung Mjolnir. Before he could fly off, he said, "We shall meet again, I hope." Like thunder itself, he was off.
Naruto aviated further into the air, eyes scouring for targets. There was no shortage but encountering a cluster worth his time took a few seconds.
Nevertheless, his efforts were always repaid in the end.
Four squads of Chitauri abandoned their Leviathan—a massive beast he was very familiar with. When Naruto fought battles with the Chitauri, the Leviathans were always the most prominent targets. Still, with their highly steady armor and durable hide, they could take the punishment that increased attention brought. So he valued them in the battles.
The foot soldiers he always saw as distractions. The Leviathans always seemed to be the ones that wrought the most destruction. Their flight, incredible size, and armor gave them a clear advantage against any air force. Naruto had seen it firsthand. These beasts were tremendously valuable on the battlefield.
But they were not without their weaknesses.
Naruto flew down and outstretched his hand. An invisible force seized the Chitauri soldiers hooked to a building. Their arms snapped to their sides. Naruto listened to the sounds of their armor crumbling into their bodies before that too folded. With a wave of his fingers and he sent their corpses into another band of foot soldiers. Their bodies dropped onto the streets, dead.
However, he saved two of them. Naruto, without turning, hurled their corpses into a band of flyers, electing several explosions. They were all taken care of, but a third of their force. The sudden attack scared them enough for them to scamper away, retreating.
Naruto sighted a roaring Leviathan gliding to him. The blond hurled a glance to his side—a fully populated building. The frightened gazes of the occupants rung within him as he looked back to the Leviathan.
Lips pursed, Naruto held his ground and pushed against the creature as it tried moving him back. Muscles strained, he yelled at the top of his lungs as he poured every bit of strength he could manage.
The beast whined, its pace halted.
Naruto panted, muscles painfully straining. However, he didn't relax. He wasn't so foolish to break when only half the fight was won.
"Hey, need a hand?" Iron Man asked from behind, hovering in delayed flight.
Just for half a second, he relinquished his control, only for him to move to the top of its head. Naruto pushed it down, and it plummeted. A deafening bang rang off. As loud as you'd expect to hear from a creature its size.
Naruto dismounted it. Hand at his side, a substantially large sword formed. It pierced through the armor and into its skin. The bellow of agony that it released was nothing compared to the horror that came next.
The blond enlarged the blade while it was inserted. He hovered before pulling the edge across the underside, cleaving an immense tear in its stomach. Blood and guts glowed out. Naruto found its head. He sliced that in half too.
Iron Man gaped, blinking slowly.
"Got it. Don't mess with that guy." He took off into the air, looking to find another crew of targets.
A few miles down the line, the X-Men went to work.
Beast and Wolverine slashed through any aliens dumb enough to attack them on the streets. Although, they did struggle somewhat with the airborne threat.
Storm continued to wreak havoc in the skies. Her ability to distort the skies on a whim made it incredibly challenging for the Riders to pilot safely. She was most likely the only reason Wolverine and Beast managed to combat the threat on the ground without having to worry obscenely about the threat of the flying chariots.
Jean Grey discerned trapped citizens with her blanketed telepathy. She would reach out, and sense any nearby minds. After alerting Scott, the two would clear any fallen debris or objects before ushering them into safety.
Several leagues away, on a separate section of the battlefield, Natasha Romanoff fended off some of her attackers. Her guns had been long-since abandoned. No ammo speak of; they were but dead weight.
Natasha tackled one of the Chitauri, yielding its laser lance for her to use. She killed it, point-blank, then turned on one knee, firing. The dart of vapory energy slammed into another. Natasha rammed the butt of it against another and hurled it over a railing.
Aiming, she released three rapid shots, nailing the same quantity of Chitauri. Captain America surged behind her, deflecting an energy bolt aimed at her back. It bounced harmlessly from his shield. She watched as America's Most Righteous Soldier flung his shield. It decapitated an alien. Rebounding off a bus, it retracted back into his waiting grasp.
"Captain," the Black Widow said, panting, clutching her bleeding side, "none of this will mean a thing if we don't close that portal."
"Our biggest guns couldn't touch it," he said.
"Well, maybe it's not about guns," she suggested.
Captain Rodgers thought he knew what she was getting at. She was mighty good in close quarters, but one good look at her and he could see her stamina wavering. They were all tired, though. He didn't have time to worry about her well-being. He had to trust her. "If you want to get up there, you'll need a ride."
She eyed a passing Chitauri flyer. "I can get a ride. I could use a boost, though."
"Are you sure about this?"
She looked up, gauging the distance and speed of an oncoming flyer. "Yeah. It's gonna be fun."
She ran and skipped onto his shield. Captain America flung her into the air. She caught the bottom of the Chitauri craft and was gone, riding it out of sight.
Natasha was having trouble shaking the last Chitauri pursuing her. When she glanced over her shoulder, she understood why.
It was Loki.
"Clint," she said, pulling her craft into a tight turn toward his position. He was still on the rooftop where Iron Man had dropped him, across the street from Stark Tower, and he was still picking Chitauri out of the sky with his extraordinary accuracy.
"I got him," he stated. He lined up an arrow and let it fly.
It was an incredible shot, over a distance of several hundred yards at a moving target, and it was perfect—until Loki reached up and snatched the arrow out of the air just inches from his face. He looked in Hawkeye's direction and smiled.…
And that was when the explosive arrowhead detonated and blew him off the Chitauri craft.
He tumbled onto the Stark Tower balcony as the out-of-control craft destroyed the 'S' and the 'T' in the Stark logo.
The Black Widow followed, leaping off her craft and rolling into a combat stance. Loki saw her and stood. She knew she didn't have a chance against him in a straight-up fight, but that wouldn't stop her from trying.
But she never got the chance. Flying out of nowhere, the Hulk crashed into Loki and drove him through the last intact balcony window into Tony's living room. He pounded the floor and came after Loki again. Loki stood up and screamed, "Enough!"
The Hulk paused, confused.
"All of you are beneath me!" Loki raged. "I am a god, you dull creature, and I will not be bullied by—"
The Hulk didn't bother to listen anymore. He snatched Loki's leg, curving the Asgardian over his head, and mashed him down to the floor six or seven times. When it was over, the floor was trashed, and so was Loki. He lay staring up at the ceiling, an expression of incredible discomfort on his face.
"Puny god," the Hulk snarled and stomped off to rejoin the fight.
Loki could only wheeze.
Natasha approached the machine holding the Tesseract on the Stark Tower rooftop, wondering what she could do.
"The Scepter," said Erik Selvig. She looked over at him and saw that he was free of Loki's spell. How had that happened? She knew Iron Man had tried to destroy the machine. Maybe the explosion from his repulsors had shocked Selvig back to his senses, just like Hawkeye had been freed from Loki by a concussive blow to the head.
"What about it?" she asked.
"The energy. The Tesseract can't fight it." He was riddled with guilt. She could see it on his face. Again, just like Barton, both of them were suffering from the knowledge of what they had done under Loki's control.
"It's not your fault." She knelt next to him. Natasha knew what it felt like to be manipulated, to be made into something you weren't. "You didn't know what you were doing."
Selvig digested this and then said, "Actually, I think I did. I built in a safety to cut the power source."
"Loki's Scepter," she said, understanding. The Scepter was given its power by the same source as the Tesseract. It could reach through the energy barrier!
"Maybe it will close the portal," he stated and glanced down over the rooftop's edge to a lower floor. "And I'm looking right at it."
Naruto landed beside the God of Thunder. Like Thanos, he was practically a wall of muscle. Bearing incredible power that went almost unmatched, Naruto enjoyed fighting by his side. Battling with or against powerful warriors always excited him.
As Thor battered two more Chitauri with his hammer, he fired off a small row of lightning. Like bowling pins, a squadron of infantry was knocked aside. Turning, he faced him.
"Odinson," Naruto acknowledged.
"You know me?" Thor asked, surprised.
"Of you," he corrected.
"You're not of Midgard," he guessed, proving he wasn't as slow as everyone thought he was.
"I'm not," Naruto said, killing another four soldiers with a short sword at close range.
"Then what is your quarrel with Loki?" If he was not of Earth, then he was protecting this planet out of the goodness of his heart. No, the only other tangible possibility for this man's interference was that he had a feud with Loki.
"I have no care for your brother. It's his other goal that warrants my attention," Naruto answered. He wasn't cold to Thor. No, unlike the other humans, Thor possessed power. Real power, and he came from a long line of warriors. True warriors. That meant something in his eyes. He respected him for that and his triumphs.
"Other goal?" Thor inquired, confused.
"Who do you think gave Loki the Chitauri? Or the Scepter?" The blond's question rattled him. He paused to consider it. Naruto decided to help him out. "What artifact in the universe allows another person to bend a man's mind and launch projected energy blasts?"
"The Mind Stone," the answer came out of Thor's mouth against his command. His eyes widened in horror. All of his mother's lessons on the powerful artifacts came flooding back. "The Mad Titan," he whispered faintly, afraid to utter the man's name.
Naruto couldn't blame him.
"Wait… your choice of weapons, abilities, and knowledge…" Thor's eyes glazed over with simmering blue electricity. "Herald of Darkness, member of the Black Order… Naruto, Son of Thanos." His posture changed. Taking on an aggressive stance, the mighty Mjolnir charged powerfully. "You shall not touch an Infinity Gem!"
Naruto appeared the opposite of threatening. His short sword vanished, leaving his hands bare. "I fight against my father's forces and Loki—his ally. If I were seeking an Infinity Stone for him, I would not be fighting for Earth's survival." Those calmly voiced words resonated within him. Still, the God of Thunder remained on guard. Naruto would have been disappointed if he wasn't cautious. "My father wishes to claim the Infinity Stones' power for his own. Trillions will die with but a snap of his finger. You may distrust me, Odinson, but trust in my hatred for my father."
For the briefest of moments, Thor saw those incandescent cerulean orbs redden with hatred.
Sighing, he slumped, his hammer no longer aimed threateningly.
"Why should I believe you?"
Why should he? Naruto knew he shouldn't have felt offended or frustrated by his remark. On the contrary, it was right for him to be distrusting now that he knew who was standing before him. But he couldn't help the rising urgency or the anger in his chest.
"I am a traitor now, do you understand?" Naruto almost growled. Thor held his reddening gaze without trepidation. "I betrayed my father. Do you know what the Mad Titan does to those that betray him? I do. My sister made that mistake. She is more machine than living now." Thor adverted his eyes for a second at the mention of Thanos' cruelty. "I had no more of a choice to serve my father than you did being born."
Hesitant, breathing labored, and plodding, the Asgardian eventually nodded. When he met his eyes, they returned to their oceanic blue.
"If what you say is true, Naruto, Son of Thanos, then disaster shall spring on us all."
A breath of relief almost left his mouth. "Father already possessed one an Infinity Gem—the Mind Stone. He lent it to Loki for his conquest of Earth. But the Tesseract, it is not what you believe it be."
"I know exactly what it is." Thor's expression darkened.
Naruto's expression took on a similar look. "Then you understand why I intervened." He hurled a blade into a nosy Chitauri soldier, ending its life. "Father—Thanos cannot get his hands on the Space Stone. With it and the Mind Stone, he would—"
"He would become unstoppable," Thor finished for him, weak. Naruto nodded with all the solemnity that ran through him. "Thanos shall not obtain the Space Gem. You have my word, warrior." At Naruto's nod, he continued. "I am surprised you don't attempt to bargain for it yourself."
"I am not ignorant to Asgard's might," he replied. "There are three beings in the universe Father ordered me never to cross. Galactus the Devourer, The Stranger, and Odin All-Father. Asgard is the safest place for Tesseract and the Scepter to be stored."
"I agree, but none of this talk will matter unless we prevail against my brother's army."
True enough, he conceded that point. He was relieved that Thor Odinson saw the danger for what it was. Thor had well enough reason to strike him down here and now. From all the rumors of him being a hot-headed fool, he seemed a fairly wise man.
As more and more Chitauri flooded their flanks, they brandished weapons. Naruto wielded his own bastardized version of what the humans called a 'ninjato' and a long double-edged spear. Meanwhile, the God of Thunder readied Mjolnir.
"Thor Odinson, it is an honor to fight at your side." If the god in mention glanced back, he would have seen a dark red bubbly aura envelop him as claws grew from his hands. Naruto felt his eyes sting as they ran blood-red. A slit opened up where his pupils should have been.
"Despite your lineage… and previous atrocities, I feel the same, young warrior."
And the battle resumed.
Thor deflected a string of lasers with Mjolnir. He followed his defenses by slamming his hammer down. The ground unraveled until the street folded into a chasm. Multiple soldiers sunk into the hole. Their screams sent Naruto into action.
He allowed them to get close and began combating them. Naruto lunged, stabbing one with his spear, and then decapitated another as he swung his sword. Then, a brief show of telekinesis, he ordered his sword to hover in place and bound two more approaching Chitauri.
He gave them a careless toss. They were flung hundreds of meters away.
Thor released another bolt down at Naruto's side. The blond copied his motions and telekinetically threw his sword into a rifleman that approached Thor.
The two swapped sides, effortlessly falling into a grove as they attacked.
Naruto commanded a nearby car over a small surge of approaching Chitauri. They were squished beneath the several-ton weight.
Thor battered several with his hammer. He even assaulted them unarmed, proving his skill. While Naruto attacked with grace, speed, and agility, Thor abused that brute strength he was born with and a surprising amount of suddenness in speed.
When another Leviathan swarmed in, Naruto immediately grabbed it with a telekinetic hold with one hand while unleashing a wave of swords simultaneously in the other. Those blades pierced the sky but did little else. They weren't thrown to kill it, though.
No, it was a set-up, and the Asgardian saw it instantly.
Thor discharged one final blast of lightning—everything that he had left. It clashed down the Leviathan's back, dealing significant damage. However, what really killed it, were the swords stabbed into its neck and face. They vibrated savagely before exploding violently, showering the beast's insides with electrically charged shrapnel.
When its multi-ton body landed, skidding to a stop only a few feet away, its head twisted awkwardly.
It didn't take a genius to see that it was dead.
Alone on a barren, withered battlefield, Thor and Naruto stood. The two blond warriors caked with blood—some their own, most the enemies'—dust, grime, and sweat. They couldn't have felt more at peace.
Naruto found more in common with the Prince of Asgard than he admitted.
On the rooftop, Natasha had the Scepter. She pushed the tip against the energy barrier protecting the portal generator.
It went through slowly.
"I can close it," she said, hoping she could be heard over the wash of electromagnetic energy from the barrier. "Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down!"
"Do it!" Captain America replied immediately.
But as she leaned on the scepter to push it the rest of the way through to the Tesseract itself, Iron Man broke in. "No, wait!"
"Stark, these things are still coming!" Cap argued.
"I got a nuke coming in," Tony answered. "It's going to blow in less than a minute, and I know just where to put it."
Natasha looked around. She couldn't see Tony.… No, there he was, far away to the south, the contrail of his boot thrusters leading away from the battle. A nuke, she thought. Fury wouldn't have done that. The only people on Earth who would turn Manhattan into a radioactive crater—other than various terrorist groups and lunatic super villains—were the World Security Council.
They had to be behind this.
Natasha felt her heart tighten.
Down on the ground, Captain America had rejoined Thor. While initially surprised by seeing someone he hadn't known, he couldn't question it. He looked just dirtied and bloodied as the rest of them. However, he wasn't the only new one.
A small group of individuals introduced themselves. Two women, both extraordinarily beautiful, a short man with a hell of a beard that Steve felt like he knew from somewhere, and a literal man-creature with the bluest fur Steve had ever laid eyes on, and finally, someone that looked somewhat normal. Save for the weird visor.
Then again, he was dressed in a spangly outfit, so he didn't have much room to complain.
Hesitant, Steve touched his ear. "Stark, you know that's a one-way trip…"
He received no answer in return as Iron Man sailed into the portal, carrying one of those nukes Naruto had been thinking of earlier.
They saw the explosion through the portal, brilliant as a new sun. There was no way Stark could have survived that, Naruto thought. He was mortal—a human. And he just had fifty-megatons blow up in his face in the vacuum of space.
On the streets of New York, the Chitauri fell to the ground as if they had been switched off. Every single one of them. Even the remaining Leviathans sagged and crashed to earth.
Nuke had done its job. Naruto hadn't even known there was one coming. Although, he should have figured. Of course, the humans would fire a nuke into a heavily populated city, he remarked distastefully.
"Close it," Steve Rodgers said. There was nothing they could do for Tony now.
Natasha leaned in and touched the tip of Loki's scepter to the Tesseract. The beam of energy holding the portal open twinkled out, and the portal began to collapse. All the Avengers watched, knowing they had lost one of their own.
Then, at the last minute, before the portal winked out of existence, the minuscule form of Iron Man fell through it back into the sky.
"Son of a bitch," Steve said, amazed.
But soon, they could tell something wasn't right. "He's not slowing down," Thor said. He started to swing Mjolnir, to fly up and intercept Tony before he could hit the ground at terminal velocity.
He never got the chance because the Hulk came leaping into view. He caught Iron Man, and his momentum carried him all the way across to the building across the street.
Using one hand to slow himself, he slid down the building's facade to the street. When they came to rest, the Hulk dropped Iron Man on the ground and bent over him. Thor and Steve came running, the other group at their heels.
Naruto remained behind, watching from afar.
"Is he breathing?" Steve asked.
Thor ripped the face mask off the Iron Man armor. Tony didn't move. His miniature Arc Reactor went dark.
"He is alive," Jean Grey, the redhead, answered, getting looks from the Avengers. Even the beast, Hulk, looked worried. "I am a telepath," she said as if that explained everything. "His brain is still active. I can wake him if you want."
"Please," Steve said politely. He remembered seeing her and her group around once or twice in the battle. They fought just as hard as any of them. But, for now, they earned his trust.
The woman knelt to Tony
Naruto watched, interested.
A single touch to his forehead, and he snapped up, gasping.
"What?! What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me."
Steve cracked a smile, as did everyone else. Even in a moment like this, Tony had to make a joke. "Although looking at you, I wouldn't have minded."
Jean Grey had the decency to blush.
"We won," was all Steve could say.
"All right," Tony spoke. He had started to sit up, only to wince as his back cramped him. Tony wisely lay back down. "Yay. All right. Good job, guys." Until he caught notice of the telepath again. "And wow, you are gorgeous." She smiled at his words. "Romanoff." He tapped his ear, trying to engage his earpiece. "I think I found your sexier, redhead sister."
Naruto hefted out a sigh, eying the fallen Leviathan. There was a small degree of sadness he felt. Not for the Chitauri, but rather how it all turned out.
As horrible as it sounded, he was satisfied working under his father. Committing awful crimes, killing, warring... Naruto was used to it. It was even fun—all the fighting.
Father showed him war when he was only four. He quickly learned the laws of the universe. At first, Naruto sought peace. After seeing only bloodshed and cruelty (some of the latter having been aimed at him by his caretakers), he wanted to bring some good into the world.
Naruto naively told his father that on his fifth birthday. The results were far from pleasant.
Safe to say, he never brought his would-be ambitions again. He learned to keep secrets—real secrets—there.
With years spent doing exactly as Father ordered, he became what Thanos wanted. The perfect weapon. And one of the finest in the universe. Naruto took pride in that. All the years of grueling training where, had he been slightly less durable, weaker—mentally or physically—he would have perished long ago.
This strength, this power, was his.
He earned it.
The bubbly aura had long since dissipated.
Tired and jaded from having seen yet another war, he sat on the devastated hood of a taxi. Naruto mulled over bloodied and dirty hands, contemplative. A forlorn glance up to where the portal had once been, he sighed.
Naruto had won the battle, but he had just started a war with the man that never lost. The man that had taught him everything he knew… the Mad Titan who courted Death.
As Naruto took in the disturbingly familiar devastation around him, he hung his head and drifted off into anguished reflection. Another planet that suffered at Father's hands. He hoped that it would be the last.
Naruto knew otherwise.
Big chapter. Battle of New York is done. A decent amount of Naruto's powers are revealed.
As for Naruto's blade creating ability, he was blessed by Death. Think Hela's (MCU) ability to create all kinds of blades. It's the exact same thing. Is Naruto as powerful? No. Not yet, at least. They just share a similar ability. More will explained on that in later chapters.
X-Men! Yes. They are thing. And will be important a little later in the story. This is not MCU. Some events may carry over to this fic, but this is a "Marvel" story. Meaning, I'm taking events, and characters, from the comics, MCU, and the various animated tv shows. Hence why Death exists and Thanos' relationship with her, the X-Men existing, etc, etc. You may be wondering "Where is the Fantastic Four?"
Hint, hint: They're currently in space, and are about to nuked by a wave of cosmic radiation.
Also, before I get the inevitable comments—No, Naruto is not emo, he's just not socially adept. You get raised by a band of cruel fanatics, and a genocidal maniac obsessed with wiping out half the universe, and see how socially advanced you are. And remember, for the time since he was born, Naruto is his own man. He is his own master. That's gonna take some time getting used to.