"Morgan, wake up….come on….wakey wakey….time to go fight some aliens."
I could hear dad's voice calling out to me but it sounded far away, like he was standing at the end of a tunnel. I wanted to tell him to piss off and let me sleep in a bit more but I couldn't make my mouth form the words.
It wasn't until my mind finally comprehended the last word that he said that I realised I needed to wake up. It took a couple of minutes but I finally got my eyes to flutter open. As the haze lifted I saw a battered and bruised dad, clad in his Iron Man suit, looking down at me. His faceplate was flipped open, giving me a good look at the cuts and bruises all over his face.
He looked relieved when he saw my eyes were finally open.
"You're not going to hit me again, are you?"
"What?" I croaked out. I had no idea where I was, what had happened and what dad was talking about. The last thing I remembered was…
"Oh shit," I cried out. I struggled to sit up. As I did, I looked around and realised where I was. I was in Stark Tower and judging by the broken glass, my disassembled suit and the droplets of blood on the floor, a fight had taken place here. My mind was trying to remember what had happened here. The last thing I can remember was flying to Stark Tower to confront Loki. Now I was waking up on the floor.
"He got me, didn't he?" I asked dad.
He nodded. "Yeah he did."
"I'm so sorry dad." He held out his hand which I accepted and he helped me to my feet. "I just wanted to get revenge for Coulson. I wasn't thinking properly."
"You're a Stark. Sometimes we do things in the heat of the moment without thinking. And then regret it later."
"I was so stupid to think I could take out Loki alone." I looked up at dad and again noticed the blood and bruises on his face. "Did Loki do that to you?"
He opened his mouth to answer but hesitated and averted his eyes. It took me a second to work out why he wasn't answering. "Oh God. I did that, didn't I?"
"You weren't yourself," he immediately said.
"I am so sorry. I can't believe I did that to you." It was one of the worst feelings in the world, looking at someone you love and knowing you've hurt them. Every cut, bruise, and drop of blood on his face was because of me. And because of Loki. "Wait, if Loki was here, where is he now?"
"He left the moment the portal was opened and his alien friends joined us."
"What?" It took me a moment to digest the words he said. It was then my attention was drawn past dad to the window. "Oh my God." I walked over to the windows, my mouth agape in shock. Flying through the sky were these…creatures.
The city was already being destroyed from their attacks. Smoke was billowing through the sky from cars alight in the streets below. The faint sounds of people screaming could just be heard over the noises of the Chitauri's attacks.
"We have to get out there now and stop them." It was only then that I remembered my only suit had been destroyed. I walked over the where the pieces of it lay in the floor. I picked up the chest piece. The arc reactor in the centre of it was smashed and beyond salvaging. Without the suit I was going to be useless against an army of flying aliens. "I'm useless without my suit."
"No, you're not," dad said. "Don't ever think like that. But you do have a suit."
"I don't-"
Dad walked over to a panel on the wall and placed his hand upon it. After a second, the wall panel slid to the side, revealing two suits standing side by side. One was dad's classic red and gold suit but it looked like it had been upgraded with more weapons. Standing next to it was a shorter, smaller suit. It was pure silver, with softer edges and more curves. It was obvious who it had been made for.
"Dad…" I said softly, speechless.
He placed his hand on my shoulder. "I always wanted you to be a part of my world," he said. "I just needed more time to get use to the thought."
"Thank you." I reached up onto my toes to plant a kiss on his cheek.
"Now suit up. We've got some alien ass to kick."
This didn't feel real. It felt like I was in a video game or a horror movie. How was this real?
I was standing on the balcony of Stark Tower, encased within my new suit, staring up at the sky in shock. The Tesseract on the roof of the tower was shooting a blue beam of energy straight up into the sky. At the end of the beam was a swirling black hole that alien after alien was pouring out of. They were soaring through the hole and into the Manhattan skyline on these little hovercraft ships.
My heads-up display zoomed in on them as they streamed through. They were horrifying creatures that looked like a hybrid of a man and a reptile. There was already too many of them for us to handle alone, and with each passing second more and more came through. I didn't know how we were going to stop them all but we had to at least try.
"Stay safe," dad said as he stood beside me. He'd configured my suit to automatically be connected to his own suit, as well as the S.H.I.E.L.D connection frequency, so I could hear that Natasha, Steve and Barton were in a helicarrier on their way. I hoped that Banner and Thor would make an appearance because we needed all the help that we could get.
"You too," I replied. Without hesitation we both shot off into the sky and immediately began attacking the Chitauri. I sent out blast and blast, reducing them to ash but for every one I killed, it felt like 10 more flew through the portal. There were just too many. They were slipping past us and flying through the Manhattan streets. I could hear the screams of people far below us as they tried to run from their attacks. I wondered if the sounds of their cries for help would forever be etched into my mind.
The overturned cars and burning fires could be seen even from up here. The people in the streets were scattering like ants, running into the nearest buildings for shelter from the attacks. Their sanctuary wouldn't last long though as more and more Chitauri were slipping through our defences and making it to the ground. Police cars were pulling up into the streets but the officers getting out of them were at a loss of what to do.
And that's when it finally, fully hit me. We were it. The only thing protecting this city…this world, was us. Two geniuses in flying suits, a frozen solider come back to life, a man who has an extreme alter ego, two special agents and a mythic god- that's if any of them actually showed up. Billions of people were relying on us. Who knows how many people would die if we failed. People below us were already dying. That thought alone was enough to bring tears to my eyes. But as heartless as it sounds, I had to stop thinking about them. We had a job to do and I had to be focused. I know we wouldn't be able to save everyone but we sure as hell were going to try.
The Chitauri were returning our fire with attacks of their own. I flew through the sky, ducking and dodging their blasts as I had no idea if the suit would be able to hold up against alien weapons. Just as that thought crossed my mind I was suddenly flung forward through the air. One of the creatures had fired off a shot which landed square in my back. I waited for the suit to begin malfunctioning or to start falling off piece by piece but nothing happened. Their attacks were useless while I was in the suit. That was great news for dad and I, but not everybody had a suit to protect themselves.
"Where is our back up?!" As far as I could see there was only 2 of us fighting against hundreds of aliens.
"Point Break is fighting Loki on the balcony," dad replied.
Sure enough when I looked down my heads up display zoomed in to show Thor and Loki battling it out on the balcony of Stark Tower. It was hard to tell who was winning.
"We're almost there," Natasha chimed in.
"I'll line them up down Park Avenue. Be ready to take them out." Dad shot off and a large group of Chitauri took off after him. I stayed in the sky above Stark Tower, trying to take out as many of them coming through the portal as I could.
A photo of Daniel's face suddenly popped up across half of my screen as he tried calling me. That's when it hit me that footage of this attack would be showing on every news channel across the world. No doubt Daniel was at work, watching me sail through the sky in my suit fighting aliens. He was probably calling to tell me to be careful and that he loves me. Hearing his voice right now is a distraction that I could not afford.
"Jarvis, decline call."
I continued to take out alien after alien but it didn't matter how many or how fast I killed them, there was always going to be another one coming through the portal. Who knows how many were ready and waiting in space to come through. Thousands? Millions?
I decided instead of trying to stem the flow as it came through, I had to try and cut the source off completely. I flew down and landed on the roof of the tower. The Tesseract was encased in a large device that was concentrating its energy into the portal shooting up into the sky. I raised my arm, ready to fire at the device, when Jarvis's voice stopped me.
"Mr Stark has already tried to destroy the device. There is a barrier around the device which is pure energy, it is unbreachable."
"Great," I said exasperatedly. I wasn't just going to give up though. There has to be a way to close the portal. And the best person to ask would be the person who built the device.
"Dr Selvig!" I shouted. He had been on the roof when I had first arrived. Surely he would still be here, there weren't a lot of places to go from here. That's when I spotted his prostrate form on the other side of the roof.
"Selvig!" I rushed over to him, rolling his body over onto his back. "Jarvis, scan for signs of life."
Only a few seconds had passed before the scan was complete and the British AI answered. "Dr Selvig is alive but is suffering from a concussion, 2 fractured ribs, a hairline fracture of the wrist and cheekbone, and he is severely malnourished and dehydrated." Alive was all that I heard of the sentence.
"Selvig, please wake up. I need your help." I roughly shook his shoulders, hoping the movement would rouse him.
I was momentarily distracted as 2 Chitauri landed on the roof to attack us. A couple of shots from the suit made quick work of them and when I turned around to check on Selvig I was met with 2 blue eyes staring up at me.
"Thank God." I flipped open my face plate to show him who was in the suit. "Selvig, are you alright?"
"Morgan." The relief was evident in his voice. "What happened?"
"There's no time to explain that all now. We have to close the portal." It was only then he seemed to really wake up and realise everything that was going on around him. His wide eyes took in the energy being blasted into the sky, the portal at the end of it and the aliens streaming through it.
"My God. What have I done?" he asked, horrified.
"It's not your fault. You weren't yourself. Trust me, I know."
He stumbled to his feet and went over to inspect the device he had created.
"Don't get too close," I warned. "There's a pure energy barrier around it. I can't blast through. Can you remember anything about creating it? Is there a way we can close the portal?"
"I can't remember but there has to be a way." While he started typing away on a computer connected to the device, I stood guard destroying any Chitauri that came our way. Standing directly below the portal, I could see the stars in space shining brightly. God only knows where in the galaxy this portal was opening from.
After a few minutes clicking away on the keyboard, Selvig spoke. "I built in a safety to cut the power source." My body flooded with relief. It seemed like Loki didn't have complete control over Selvig the whole time he was with him.
"What do we have to do?"
"The Tesseract can't fight…can't protect against itself," he said.
"Loki's sceptre," I said as I caught his train of thinking.
"It may be the only way to close down the portal."
I instantly ran over to the edge of the roof. The balcony below was now empty. It showed evidence of a fight, with smashed glass panelling littering the ground, but Thor and Loki were nowhere to be seen. And neither was the sceptre.
"Damn it," I exclaimed. "Jarvis, make sure I'm broadcasting to the whole team. Selvig may have found a way to close the portal but we need Loki's sceptre. Anyone got him?"
"We've been grounded," Natasha said. With the helicarrier out of commission, that meant it was only myself, dad and Thor up in the skies. At least Natasha, Barton and Steve could focus on helping people on the ground.
"We need that sceptre." My eye flittered up to the portal just in time to see something different, something new coming through. "And we need it now." A gargantuan beast was flying through the air. It had to be at least the length of a football field. Like the Chitauri, it had a reptilian, almost snake like appearance but was moving through the sky the way a whale would swim through the sea.
"Ah…Starks, are you seeing this?" a stunned Captain America asked.
"Seeing. Still working on believing," dad replied.
As the creature sailed through the skies some Chitauri started repelling off of it and landing on buildings.
"Dad, you focus on…that. I'll look for Loki." I saw dad shoot off after the thing and heard him asking Jarvis to scan it for any weak spots. I tried to put the creature out of my mind and search for Loki. Dad could handle it and the sooner I found the sceptre the sooner this would all be over.
Like I had hypothesised when I had been on my way to find Loki the first time, he had to be close to the action. Even after getting a beating from his brother, there was no way he'd just get up and leave and wait for it all to be over. It only took a minute of flying through the skies, destroying any Chitauri that I passed along the way, before I found him. He was flying around on one of the alien hovercraft things. The sceptre was grasped tightly in his hands. My heads-up display zoomed in on him, and even though he was over a mile away from me, he turned his head, locked eyes with me and smiled.
It infuriated me greatly that I had no idea what I had done while under his control. And it scared me. The truth was I didn't want to go anywhere near him, or that sceptre, ever again but when billions of people's lives were at stake, my fear of him didn't mean a thing.
I shot off after him. I had one advantage over him this time; he didn't know it was the sceptre I was after. He just thought I was trying to take him down again. All I needed was for the sceptre to just slip from his hand and then this could all end.
I fired shots off at him, which he returned with blasts from the sceptre. I ducked and dodged through the air, avoiding the fire. Loki must be connected to the Chitauri, or they were just insanely loyal to him, because within moments of my attacking him, a swarm of aliens descended upon me. I tried to counter each of their blasts with one of my own but there were too many of them. I was literally surrounded, they were blocking every possible escape route. Loki and the sceptre had long disappeared from view. Blow after blow rained down upon me but thankfully the suit was holding up against their attacks pretty well. They seemed to realise this because they stopped their firing and began physically attacking the suit. I felt one jump onto my back, causing me to drop 10 feet in the air before I could counter balance the weight. His hands were clawing at my suit, trying to tear it to pieces. Another one latched onto me from the front. I felt two more hanging off of my boots, causing me to again drop in height. I didn't know if their attack would be successful and I wasn't going to wait to find out.
Just as I opened my mouth to ask dad for a little assistance, I heard a loud, resounding crack echo through the air. It was swiftly followed by a shot of blinding lightening that struck every Chitauri within a 30 foot radius. Their bodies glowed as the electricity coursed through them. They began to drop like flies.
I looked around for my saviour and found him standing atop a nearby building, hammer in hand. "Thanks."
"Don't mention it," Thor replied before swinging his hammer and shooting off into the sky.
I'd lost sight of Loki but it wouldn't take long to find him again. I was just about to shoot off through the air when I heard an unmistakeable roar that seemed to reverberate throughout the entire island of Manhattan. It could only mean one thing; the Hulk had arrived. Thank god. Surely with his strength, stamina and anger, we'd finally start making a dent in the Chitauri numbers.
As the sound of his roar died out, it was replaced with another sound; a gut wrenching scream from the street below.
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