Chapter 18: Battle for New York
Loki stood on the balcony of Stark Tower, doing some last-minute tuning to the machine he'd created to help sustain the power of the Tesseract. Once the cube was in place, he activated it, the cube beginning to pulsate and spark, just like it did back in the S.H.I.E.L.D base.
While Loki did this, Iron Man flew in, Natasha talking to him over his suit's comms.
"We were too late," she informed him. "Loki had already taken the Iridium he needed a few days ago."
"Sick bastard had this entire thing planned from the start," Clint spat. "We're on our way back, but we may take a minute."
"Hurry," Iron Man told them. "Looks like Loki's already at the tower."
He approached the tower, shutting off the comms as JARVIS spoke up.
"Sir, I turned off the arc reactor."
"That's good," Tony let out.
"Unfortunately, the device is already self-sustaining."
"And that's not so good."
As Iron Man approached the device, he followed through on his first instinct and tried to blast it. Unfortunately, the energy of his repulsor blast merely collided with the barrier now surrounding the machine the cube now resided in. There was a deafening crack, then a shockwave that nearly fried Tony's circuits. He stabilized himself, then his eyes went wide when he realized that the barrier, and the machine, were left completely untouched.
"The barrier appears to be made of pure energy," JARVIS informed him. "It's unbreachable."
"Yeah I noticed," Tony remarked before seeing Loki standing beside the machine. "Time for plan B."
Tony then landed on the roof and went through the giant rings that pulled the suit off him before. Once he was fully out of the suit, he walked into the penthouse where Loki was waiting for him
"Please don't tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity," Loki remarked.
"No, actually," Tony replied, walking towards the large bar located by the balcony. "I'm here to threaten you."
Loki couldn't help but chuckle at that.
"In that case, you probably should have left your armor on."
"Eh, it had seen a bit of mileage," Tony quipped, pulling a bottle of whisky off one of the shelves. "Especially since you've got the glow stick of destiny over there. You want a drink?"
Loki walked towards Tony, a confident smirk plastered on his face.
"If this is some sort of attempt to stall me-"
"Threaten, not stall," Tony interjected as he poured himself a glass. "You sure about the drink?"
Loki just dismissed him as he looked out the window.
"Within moments, my victory over this world is assured," Loki stated. "What have I to fear?
"Us," Tony answered, downing his drink before pouring another. "The team. We don't exactly have a name yet, but we've got some potential."
"Yes," Loki replied. "I've seen your 'motley crew'"
Tony chuckled a bit.
"Takes a while to get any traction I'll give you that. But, let's do a headcount here. Your brother, a demigod."
Loki grimaced at the mention of Thor as Tony set down his glass, opening a secret drawer under the counter to reveal a pair of silver bracelets.
"A super soldier, living legend who kinda lives up to the legend," Tony continued as he secretly put the silver bracelets on each wrist. "A man with breathtaking anger management issues, the metal clawed mutant you tried to toy around with, a duo of size shrinking heroes, couple master assassins, not to mention the kid, and you, big fella... you managed to piss off just about every single one of them."
"That was the plan," Loki informed him, as if it should have been obvious.
"Not a great plan," Tony remarked. "When they come, and trust me they will, they'll come for you."
"I have an army."
"We have a Hulk."
Loki leaned on his staff with his smirk returning.
"Last I checked, your little monster ran away."
"You're missing the point here," Tony interrupted, coming out from behind the counter. "There's no throne for you, 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 at the end of the day, it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damned well sure we'll avenge it."
Loki slowly walked up to Tony as he finished talking, raising the scepter.
"How will your friends have time for me," Loki asked. "when they're so busy fighting you?"
Loki brought the staff towards Tony's chest, the tip glowing brightly. However, there was a metallic ping at the tip connected with the arc reactor. Loki paused, blinking a bit before trying again. Once more, there was just a metallic ping, leaving the demi-god confused.
"This usually works..."
"Well, performance issues," Tony offered. "You know, it's not uncommon. One out of five-"
Foregoing the staff, Loki just grabbed Tony by the throat, flinging him across the room. He landed hard, shattering a glass door. As he was picking himself up, Loki came over and picked him up by the throat again.
"You will all fall before me," he declared.
"JARVIS!" Tony called out as Loki lifted him up. "Deploy!"
Loki then threw Tony out the window, sending him falling to the streets below. As he falls, a lone suit of armor shatters one of the lower windows, coming after Tony. It opened, aligning with the bracelets on Tony's wrists and slowly closing around his body. The visor slid into place just seconds before his repulsors activated and saved him from his very sudden stop.
"Cutting it a little close there, JARVIS… but thanks."
Above the building, the Cube unleashed a powerful beam of light that struck the sky, ripping open a large portal. However, instead of revealing the icy landscape of before, this portal opened to reveal the endless blackness of space. As the doorway opened, a large armada on what could only be described as flying chariots began to descend upon the city. When Iron Man saw the portal, he let out a gulp.
"Right," He let out as his visor switched from observation to targeting mode. "Army."
Iron Man then took off towards the oncoming army.
...
Across the city as he landed on the side of a building, Spider-Man looked over and saw the beam emanating from Stark Tower.
"What the hell?" he let out.
Thinking fast, he shot out a web line and swung over to investigate.
...
Outside a CVS, Rick was downing almost an entire bottle of water as the big guy fumbled with an ace bandage around his skull. When the loud crack of the energy blast rang out, they both turned towards it.
"Looks like break time is over, big guy," Rick informed him, standing up and tightening his bandages. "Let's go."
Hulk nodded and, after slinging Rick onto his back, jumped towards the ensuing battle.
...
Back with Iron Man, he was soon joined by Thor, who was looking at the invading army with a culmination of shock and horror.
"Odin's Beard..." he cursed. "The Chitauri..."
"Wait, you know what these things are Thor?" Iron Man asked.
"By reputation alone," Thor replied. "They are equivalent to your mortal mercenaries, working for the highest bidder. No doubt Loki promised them the Tesseract in exchange for their aid."
"Right..." Iron Man let out.
Iron Man continued blasting at the oncoming soldiers, he then jetted out towards the city to handle the ones that made it past the tower. Thor then made his way down to the tower to confront Loki.
"Loki!" Thor cried out as he landed. "Turn off the Tesseract or I'll destroy it!"
"You can't," Loki told him. "There is no stopping it. There is only...the war!"
"So be it," Thor declared, gripping Mjolnir.
The two brothers rush at each other, their respective weapons raised as they clash. Loki spun his scepter at him, but Thor ducked under it. Loki then tried blasting him, but Thor used his hammer to deflect it. The two then clashed weapons again, creating a massive energy blast.
...
At that time, a jet carrying Clint, Natasha, and the rest of the heroes rocketed into the city.
"Stark, we're coming in hot, north-east of your position." Natasha declared.
"What, did you stop for drive-thru?" Iron Man asked.
"Hey, traffic's worse than usual," Clint remarked.
Iron Man shook his head in response.
"Swing up Park Avenue, I'm gonna lay 'em out for you," Iron Man responded.
Natasha turned towards Iron Man's requested location and Hank and Jan prepared their suits.
"This is definitely a long jump from stopping Whirlwind, isn't it?" Jan quipped, adjusting her earpieces.
"Definitely," Hank responded.
"You ready for this?" she asked him, holding out her hand.
"Always," Hank replied, taking her hand.
As the jet approached the designated street, Iron Man flew past with a ton of Chitauri on his tail. Clint fired the weapons at them, taking out as many as he could. As they were flying upwards, something seemed to have landed on the roof.
"What the hell?" Clint let out.
Suddenly, Spider-Man climbed down onto the window, looking through it while upside down.
"Excuse me, is this the ferry to Staten Island?" he joked.
"Spider-Man," Cap greeted in surprise. "Glad you could make it, kid."
"We could use all the help we can get," Clint added.
"Happy to be of service," Spidey remarked. "So, what are we up against?"
"Space Mercenaries," Janet explained simply. "They're following Thor's younger brother because he has the Cosmic cube."
"Wait, Thor?" Spidey repeated. "As in the Norse God of Thunder?"
"One and the same," Ant-Man replied.
"And here I thought the weirdest thing in this city was Venom," Spidey quipped. "What can I do to help?"
"Sit tight," Cap told him. "You'll have a front row seat to Loki in a moment."
"Right," Spidey replied.
…
Iron Man's repulsor blasts were easily knocking the Chitauri off their chariots, but for everyone he struck down, a good ten more took its place. It was quickly proving to be a tedious task.
"Sir, we have more incoming," JARVIS informed Tony
"Good, let's keep `em occupied," Tony remarked.
Hoping to plug the hole at the source, Tony made his way back towards the portal. Meanwhile, Thor and Loki continued their battle, Thor's strength giving him a temporary edge before Loki's scepter sent him sliding across the floor. As they we're duking it out, the jet came up overhead.
"So that's Loki huh?" Spidey observed. "Not much of a family resemblance, is there?"
"We can discuss the Norse family tree later," Natasha snapped. "Hawkeye, you got a bead on the Chaos God?"
"Like you have to ask," Clint quipped.
Clint let loose the guns on the jet, getting Loki's attention. Loki turned to the jet and used his scepter to blast one of the jets turbines. Natasha cursed in Russian, struggling to level out the jet. The jet begins spinning out of control, dropping out of the sky towards the ruined freeway while clipping various buildings and skyscrapers. Spider-Man thought fast and leapt onto the front of the jet and shot out several web lines to try and slow down the jet's descent.
Several lines of the webbing snapped from the pressure, but it was enough to slow their descent from a deadly crash to merely jarring slam. Spidey released the webs, sagging forward a bit as the heroes emerged from the jet.
"Nice job, kid," Cap congratulated.
"Thanks," Spider-man replied, straightening up. "Oh, hey Logan."
"Hey Webs," Wolverine replied.
Natasha slammed some clips into her pistols as Clint readied his bow.
"You two know each other?" Clint asked.
"I've teamed up with the X-Men on an occasion or two," Spidey told him.
"Glad to know introductions aren't in order," Natasha let out, cocking her guns. "Let's move."
"Right," Cap said, getting back into focus. "We gotta get back up there."
Before any of them could move, some kind of low rumbling emanated from the portal. The heroes looked up to see something huge coming from the blackness of space. Then, a large head slowly made its way through the portal, letting out a deep, primal bellow of rage. It emerged in full, revealing a whale-like body covered in thick armor plates. Upon it were dozens of Chitauri, all of whom were armed to the teeth and screaming in some primal tongue.
"I'm not the only one seeing this, Right?" Wasp asked.
"Seeing, still working on believing," Iron Man replied, flying past the giant beast.
"Stark, we got Spider-Man down on the ground," Cap reported.
"Great," Iron Man replied. "What about Banner has he shown up yet?"
"Hulk?" Jan asked. "No sign of him, or Rick."
"Wait, Bruce went green?" Spider-Man asked.
"Long story webs," Wolverine replied.
"You all deal with Chitauri down there, I'll see if I can take out Moby Dick," Iron Man declared.
Iron Man flew off towards the large leviathan, the heroes below scattering to deal with the invading Chitauri.
…
Thor managed to regain the high ground in his fight with Loki, Mjolnir pinning Loki's scepter and pulling him into a deadlock. Thor took the chance to force him to look down upon the burning city.
"Look at this!" Thor screamed. "Look at what you've done, Loki! You think this madness will end with your rule?!"
Loki tried to look away but found himself unable to.
"It's too late," he told Thor, a strange note in his voice. "It's too late to stop it."
"No," Thor disagreed. "We can. Together."
Loki looked at his brother, and for a moment, Thor allowed hope to slip into his heart. Then that hope was dashed when Loki thrusted a small knife into Thor's stomach. Thor choked, Mjolnir slipping from his grasp as he fell to his knees. Loki looked down upon him, scowling.
"Sentiment," he spat.
Thor let out an angry yell, getting to his feet and attempting to punch Loki. Loki caught the blow but was unable to stop Thor from kicking him in the stomach. He fell, Thor grabbing him and lifting him up, only to slam him down hard. Seeing that he was no match for his brother, Loki rolled off the balcony. Thor ran to the edge just in time to see Loki land on one of the flying chariots, taking command of it. He sped off into the fray, about a dozen Chitauri following him.
...
Down below, the heroes took cover behind some cars as more aliens came pouring out. Cap peered over to see Loki speeding in his chariot towards the streets below, blasting at everything in his way.
"Loki…" Cap let out. "They're fish in a barrel down there."
"What do we do?" Wasp asked.
"Spider-Man and I will head down and help the people in need," Cap instructed.
"Ready to serve Captain," Spidey saluted.
"Good," Cap replied. "Think the rest of you can keep `em occupied?"
"These horror-show rejects?" Wolverine asked, unsheathing his claws with a smirk. "Not a problem."
"We got this," Widow told him, cocking her guns.
"Captain," Hawkeye addressed him, notching an arrow. "It would be my genuine pleasure."
With that, Hawkeye stood up and let loose an arrow at a Chitauri. The arrowhead then let loose several bullets at the nearby Chitauri. Spider-Man then swung out towards the streets with Cap following on the ground, jumping off an exploding bus as he flipped onto the ground.
On the bridge, Ant-Man saw a bus full of people trapped. He shrunk down and ran up to the door. As he slid through a broken window, he approached the door, delivering several punches to it to try and get it open. Wasp slid in behind him, tapping him on the shoulder.
"Allow me," she insisted.
She used her blasts to destroy the hinges on the door, letting it fall forward and open the way. Ant-Man quickly became full sized, ushering people out.
Back outside, Wolverine went on a savage killing spree on the Chitauri, slicing them to pieces left right and center. After being used as a tool by Loki to start this whole thing, he was itching for a little payback.
Watching his six, Widow and Hawkeye laid down cover fire so Wolverine wouldn't get overwhelmed.
"Just like Budapest all over again!" she commented, slapping new clips into her guns before returning fire on the Chitauri.
"You and I remember Budapest very differently," Hawkeye informed her, firing another volley of arrows.
…
The heroes were not the only ones trying to stop the Chitauri invasion. Down on the ground, every cop in the city was doing all in their power to hold off the aliens. Unfortunately, there was little they could do, and it was becoming quite apparent.
"It will be at least an hour before they can scramble the National guard," one cop reported to his sergeant.
"National Guard?" The sergeant repeated. "Does the army know what's happening here?"
The cop looked at his sergeant, his face portraying the sheer amount of terror he felt.
"Do we?" he asked.
"Well a massive alien invasion led by a Norse god by my guess," a voice quipped. "But I'm just speculating."
Spider-Man and Captain America then landed on a cop car in front of the two officers.
"I need men in these buildings," Captain began, gesturing to the various buildings around them. "There are people inside that can run into the line of fire. You take them through the basement or through the subway. You keep them off the streets. I need a perimeter as far back as 39th."
The sergeant took one look at the costumed heroes and his face scrunched up in disbelief.
"Why the hell should I take orders from you?" He questioned.
Just then, an explosion rang out from behind them. Cap quickly brought up his shield to block an oncoming energy blast. He lowered his shield just as two Chitauri soldiers landed on either side of him. Captain bashed one in the face as Spidey delivered a kick to the other one's stomach. Spidey shot web fluid into his Chitauri eyes, blinding him before kicking him hard enough to send him off the car. Cap brought his shield down hard on his Chitauri's neck, snapping it with ease before turning to the sergeant once more. There was a second of silence, then the sergeant turned to the cop.
"I need men in those buildings," The sergeant told the cop. "Lead the people down and away from the streets."
He then got on his radio to signal the rest of the cops in the area.
"I need a perimeter as far back as 39th," He ordered.
Spidey watched the sergeant in surprise.
"That was easier than expected," He noted. "Think you could teach me that trick?"
Cap just shrugged in response
"Just comes naturally I guess," Cap replied. "Come on, the others might need our help."
…
Iron Man flew alongside the leviathan, attempting to pierce through the impossibly think armor that seemed to cover it. While he was able to knock off the many Chitauri riding on its back, it wasn't leaving as much as a scorch mark on the creature.
"Sir, we will lose power before we penetrate that shell."
Irritated, Iron Man thought of an idea. He rocketed past the leviathan before looping around and heading towards him.
"JARVIS, you ever heard the tale of Jonah?" Iron Man asked.
"I would not consider him a viable role model, sir," JARVIS replied.
As the creature roared, Tony flew inside, unleashing almost every explosive at his disposal. The creature began to blow from the inside, then it shattered all together, coating most of the buildings in the vicinity in its internal fluids. The force of the blast also sent Tony flying out of control and barely able to stabilize.
"JARVIS!" Tony exclaimed.
Before he could hit anything too big, there was a loud roar, but not one of a Leviathan. This one was from a familiar green monster, one that leapt through the air and grabbed Iron Man before his descent could truly begin. Rick poked out from over his shoulder, a grin on his face.
"Glad we could catch you, Mr. Stark!" Rick joked.
"Nice to see you too, Rick," Tony remarked before activating his jets again.
Hulk released Iron Man as he landed, pulling Rick off his shoulder and setting him on the ground. Rick looks around, letting out a whistle.
"I've seen my fair share of carnage, and I've never seen anything like this," he remarked.
"Yeah, and it looks like it's gonna get worse long before it gets any better," Iron Man remarked.
Thor came down from Stark Tower, landing before Hulk, Iron Man, and Rick.
"Beast tamer!" Thor let out. "You are well!"
"Concussed, but still kicking," Rick answered. "The big guy and I are here to help however we can."
"Excellent!" Thor exclaimed. "Where are the others?"
"This way," Iron Man told him. "Follow me."
Iron Man rocketed towards the others. Thor spun Mjolnir and took off after him. Rick looked at Hulk, jumping onto his back.
"Ready Hulk?"
"Ready."
Hulk then took off towards Iron Man and Thor.
…
As Spider-Man and Cap moved to meet back up with the others, Spidey noticed a van speeding down the street. He noted a Chitauri sniper on the roof taking aim towards it, prompting him to swing into action. He quickly kicked the Chitauri in the chest, knocking him off the roof. Spider-Man landed next to him just as the van drove up. He quickly leapt up and over the van as it drove past, noting that the Chitauri had grabbed onto the back of the van. It punched into the back windshield, making a grab for the kid in the backseat as his mother took hold of him.
"Oh no you don't!" Spider-Man webbed out, shooting two weblines at the alien.
They snagged the Chitauri, allowing Spider-Man to yank him off. Spider-Man then leapt up and kicked the Chitauri into a wall, taking it out. Spider-Man quickly webbed it down before running to check on the family inside the van.
"Everyone ok?" he asked.
"Yeah," the kid replied.
"Thank you," the father replied.
"You can thank me by getting underground."
The family nodded, getting out of the van and made their way to safety. Spider-Man smiled before running off, just as Cap caught up with him.
"Where'd you go?" he asked.
"Sorry, people needed me."
Cam smirked in response.
"Good on ya. Come on, this isn't over yet."
Spidey nodded before the two ran off again.
…
Black Widow emptied her clips for perhaps the fourth time in the past ten minutes and cursed when she realized she was out of spares.
"I'm dry!" she called, snapping her elbow into an oncoming Chitauri.
Hawkeye used his bow to sweep a Chitauri off his feet before pulling out an arrow and jamming it into its chest.
"I'm down to secondhand arrows myself," He replied.
Wolverine dug his claws into one alien before lifting it up and throwing him off the bridge. As one Chitauri came up from behind him, Cap's shield came out of nowhere and took him out. Wolverine smirked as the Cap came in with Spidey.
"You do realize my bacon's the only one you don't have to save, right?" he asked.
"You're welcome," Cap replied, catching his shield.
Cap then proceeded to bash and hit every Chitauri that came into range. Spider-Man shot a web line at one of the Chitauri and spun around into some other oncoming aliens.
"You know I once made a bet I'd never live to see the apocalypse," Spidey shared. "Typical, owe Flash Thompson twenty bucks, and get to see the end of the world."
"Worlds not over yet, web head," Wolverine told him.
"How're you guys handling it over there?" Iron Man asked over the comms.
"We could use some assistance!" Widow shouted, jamming her stingers into the neck of a Chitauri.
"Good, because reinforcements are en-route."
Before any of them could respond, some surprise blaster fire came from above. They looked up to see an oncoming chariot flying towards them. Cap quickly threw his shield at the chariot to take it down. It rebounded off a skyscraper, then struck the chariot right in the front. There was an explosion, then the chariot went down, skidding across the ground before the group. Cap reclaimed his shield.
"Stark, where are those reinforcements?"
Suddenly, a large green object landed in the path of the chariot, causing it to explode in front of it. The force of the blast sent Rick flying right towards Cap. On instinct, Cap dropped his shield and caught him. Rick rubbed his head, then looked up.
"Oh, hey Cap," he greeted. "Nice catch."
"Thanks," Cap replied, setting Rick on the ground.
As Hulk turned around to see the others, his eyes fixated on Wolverine. Rick noticed him too and immediately got in front of the big guy.
"Whoa big guy, hang on," Rick insisted. "He's one of the good guys."
He paused, then looked back at Wolverine.
"You are one of the good guys, right?"
"Right," Wolverine replied.
"Trust me Hulk," Spidey reassured. "He's cool, even if he doesn't smell like it."
Wolverine growled at Spidey in response to that. Hulk just snorted, then turned to Captain America.
"Just tell me who I need to smash," he remarked.
"The guy in the antlers up there," Cap told him pointing to Loki.
As Hulk looked up, more aliens came pouring out of the portal, much to the dismay of the heroes.
"Well that's just great," Spidey let out. "It's just the ten of us against an entire army, that includes giant alien whale things."
"Leviathans," Thor clarified.
"Whatever," Spidey remarked. "How are we gonna stop this?"
"... as a team," Cap told them.
As more aliens readied themselves for battle, Hulk let out a massive roar of defiance as Iron Man landed against him. Hawkeye readied an arrow to fire, Wolverine extended his claws, Thor readied his hammer, Ant-Man grew back to normal size with Wasp flying right next to his head, Black Widow readied her bio-stings and aimed them out towards the aliens, Spider-Man aimed his web shooters, and Cap gripped his shield, ready for what was to come. The heroes were ready for battle. The Avengers had assembled.
...
Favorite chapter to write so far. Hope you enjoy reading it just as much as I enjoyed writing it.
