It happened like with the Chitauri: sudden and without any warning. Except this time not even the superheroes, or the shadowy pseudo-government and quasi-military organizations had had any warning. There was no huge portal in the sky to herald their appearance. There was just a warm summer's day with bright blue sky peeking out from behind a layer of slightly gray clouds. And then there were giant ships floating in the skies above New York.
Their appearance was so sudden it took a few minutes for the city to figure out what was going on. A few minutes during which New York stood uncharacteristically still, as its inhabitants stared up at the sky at the long green shapes that hovered just above the top of the buildings. The largest was long and thin, pointed at the front and with two thick fins jutting out of the sides at the back, making it look like a giant sword pointed threateningly towards the heart of the city. Four more smaller green ships hovered beside it, their more uniformly oval-shaped bodies covered in ugly, yellow lights and purple stripes.
When the smaller ships began to split apart and fly down towards the city, the streets erupted in panic.
Tony had been on the phone with Pepper when the car had come to such an abrupt stop that it threw him forward and made him splash some of his martini all over the Gucci suit jacket he was wearing.
"Oh great, just fantastic," he muttered looking down at the wet stain. Walking into another board meeting reeking of booze was just what he needed now that he was trying to clean up his image.
"Tony, what is it?"
Tony sighed. "I miss Happy. His driving was flawlessly smooth without taking forever to get... wait a minute..." He frowned at the halted traffic he could see outside his window. "There seems to be some sort of traffic jam or something. Shit, it's probably an accident."
Just then the intercom came on with a slight crackle. "Mister Stark, sir, you should probably look out the window."
His eyebrows rose even as he rolled down the window to do exactly that. The dark shadow covering half the street wasn't difficult to spot. Slowly, he looked upwards, higher than the top of Stark Tower (because, of course, he got stalled in traffic within walking distance of the Tower).
"Tony?! What's going on? Tony!"
"Uh, Pep, that flight you and Happy are supposed to be getting on in three hours to come home... you might wanna postpone it," he said absently as he got out of his car to get a better look at the ship he saw floating above the city.
"You want me to postpone my trip back to New York? Why? Tony, what the hell is going on?"
"I'll call you later."
"To–"
He'd barely hung up on Pepper when he was already hitting speed dial on the next number. As he waited for it to be picked up, he activated the beacon in his cufflinks that would summon his suit to him.
"Yes, Mister Stark, I can see it and I've already begun evacuating everyone in the building into the basement bunker," said Maria Hill in a bored tone when she finally picked up.
"Oh, well good then. I'm glad that's being taken care of. Have you–"
"–Yes, I've also alerted the Avengers as to the situation and am in the process of getting a call through to their UN liaison."
Tony sometimes wondered why he even bothered trying to check up on Maria; she clearly adhered to Fury's policy of being ultra-paranoid and triple-prepared. She was like a super boy scout, only one who was female and carried a gun – usually more than one.
"Good job, Maria. Just, uh, continue doing what you're doing. Once my suit gets here, I'll see if I can get a closer look to figure out what we're dealing with."
"Intelligence gathering is good, just remember you can't act without the permission of the UN!"
"Yeah, yeah I know. But if those things start attacking people, I'm not gonna just stand by twiddling my thumbs! Ross and the UN can go bite me."
"Why, Mister Stark, it almost sounds like you're threatening to disregard the legally-binding word of those accords you signed."
Tony winced. "Oh not at all, I'm just stating a fact. And that fact is that I won't stand around and watch people die, so maybe the UN subcommittee or whatever should hurry up with its decision-making."
He could practically feel the eyeroll Maria was mentally making. "If that's all, Mister Stark, I think my call to our liaison has just gone through."
"Yeah, that's all. Good luck."
Maria Hill hung up without another word. Which was when two of the four ships surrounding the giant phallic-shaped mothership suddenly flew off.
Tony flattened himself against his car to avoid getting swept up in the chaos that followed. He scrambled onto the trunk even as he dialed the next number on his speed dial, his eardrums protesting against the high-pitched screams from the crowd. In the distance, he could see light reflect off the Iron Man suit as Friday flew it out of Stark Tower.
His phone call was picked up by Rhodey. "Hey Tony. If you're calling about the giant-ass space ships or whatever hovering above New York, then, yes, we know. Maria sent us an alert. Also, it's all over the news, Twitter, and Instagram. Do you have anything new to add?"
Tony huffed. "It's like everyone can read my mind today. And, no, not yet. Except that two of the smaller ships just flew off somewhere. But soon, Jelly Baby, soon I'll have more. The suit's already on its way."
He could see it passing under the shadow of the spaceship.
"Uh, just make sure you don't engage the ship until we get UN sanction."
Once again, Tony rolled his eyes. "Seriously, what is with everyone today? When exactly have I gone against the UN Accords that, I may add, I was a strong proponent of in the first place?"
There was a pause on the other end of the phone. "Like within a week of them being signed."
"That doesn't count. Ross told me that we needed to get Cap and bring him home. I was only going along with his orders. Besides, the Accords hadn't been fully ratified yet at that point."
"I don't think you quite understand how chain of command works." A pause. "Wait, Tony? I think something's going on outside..."
On the other end of the phone, Tony heard a loud crash. "Rhodey? Rhodey, what is it? What's going on?"
"Hang on, Tony, I've gotta go check this out."
He looked up, glad to see that the suit was less than thirty seconds away, so close he could practically smell the polish and mechanical oil. Behind the suit, a yellow laser beams shot out from the two remaining smaller spaceships. On the other end of the phone Tony heard yelling and an explosion.
Tony dropped his phone. The suit landed next to him, but Tony didn't acknowledge it. He was too busy staring in disbelieving horror as Stark Tower blew apart as though it were made of nothing but toothpicks and krazy glue.
Steve sat silently staring at the innocuous black flip phone in his hands, feeling the vibrations of the plane as he listened to the sounds of its engines. He willed the phone to ring, just as he had for the past hour. Part of him hoped it wouldn't ring, because that would mean that things weren't as bad as they'd looked in the initial news broadcasts. Before they'd all fallen silent.
He didn't dare call the only other number on this phone. What if it rang at the wrong time, gave someone's position away?
What if no one answered it, or the small automated voice said it couldn't connect the call?
The mood on the plane was anxious, worried, as most of their small group had relatives and friends in New York City. Sam had a cousin who worked in one of the office buildings near Stark Tower. And then there were, of course, all those who'd worked at the Avengers' base and Stark Tower itself.
Steve rubbed his face with his left hand, his right still resolutely hanging on to the phone. If anyone could find a way around whatever electronics blockade the alien spaceships had created, it was Tony Stark.
The footsteps coming up the aisle towards him were barely audible, but Steve heard them anyway. They stopped beside him and he looked up. The King of Wakanda looked grave.
"No news?" Steve asked, already knowing the answer by the look on T'Challa's face.
The other man shook his head. "No, I've spoken to my ambassador, but he had little to add to what we already know. One of the two ships that attacked the Avenger's base seems to be headed towards Washington. Although there was, apparently, one other building destroyed during the attack on New York. An office building with no obvious connections to either Stark Industries or the Avengers."
Steve frowned. "That's strange. Maybe the aliens had reason to believe there was a connection?"
T'Challa shrugged. "I do not know, however I've asked my people to look into it. The consulate is also dispatching a small force to New York as we speak to gather more information. They might be able to provide us with an update before we arrive."
"Thank you. For everything."
The King of Wakanda nodded to him in acknowledgment and turned to make his way back to his seat at the front of the plane.
Which was when every single screen on the plane suddenly turned on. Steve jumped, exchanging a startled glance with T'Challa. The other man quickly hurried towards the front while Steve looked back to the static-lined blue screen. The blue screen was gone within the blink of an eye and he found himself, instead, looking at the face of a man wearing some sort of protective headgear that looked like it belonged to a futuristic hazmat suit that was purple and green with a blue-tinted face window.
"Greetings, primitive apes of the twenty-first century. I am Kang the Conqueror and I come to you from the distant future. You have no chance of overcoming my vastly superior technology and so I recommend that you give up quietly. Do so and you have my word no more harm shall come to any of you. To that end, I demand all world leaders surrender to me on behalf of their respective countries in person. Any country that refuses to comply will have their capitol city erased from the map."
The man paused for emphasis, though his smug deep booming voice continued to echo in Steve's ears.
"Oh, and I also demand the unequivocal surrender of the Avengers as well as the Secretary of the United Nations. And please do keep in mind that I have studied my history thoroughly and thus will know if anyone tries any sort of substitutions. I trust I do not have to repeat the punishment for anyone who attempts to trick me in any way. You have three days to comply."
The screens went blank as abruptly as they'd turned on before. Steve stared at the blank television screen, seeing only his own wide-eyed, horrified expression reflected back at him.
"Well, fuck," he heard Clint say.
"Hey, if he's demanding the Avengers surrender to him, that probably means he doesn't have them and that they're not dead, right?" Scott pointed out a few minutes of silence later.
"That is good, yes?" Wanda asked.
Steve took a deep breath and stood to face his team, his small group of fugitive heroes. "It's the best news we've heard all day," he said. "The question, is what do we do from here?"
"We sure as hell don't surrender," said Sam. "I didn't surrender to terrorists, or Nazis, or supervillains, or Tony Stark, and I sure as fuck ain't surrendering to time-traveling asshole conquerors with blue-tinted front view windows!"
"Here, here," said Clint with a murderous twinkle in his eye.
Steve smirked. "Then I guess we'd better come up with a plan."