Chapter 23 – The War (III)
Loki looked down at the cityscape, listening as the Chitauri cried in rage. The prince of lies scowled. So the Avengers actually managed to kill the Leviathan. No matter. There were plenty more where that came from.
"Send the rest."
ooooo
Natasha blinked as three more Leviathans soared out of the portal and slowly began to descend upon the city.
"Guys…"
Everyone looked up, and grimaced at the sight.
"Lovely." Soladat muttered.
Iron Man glanced at Captain America. "Call it, captain."
The captain blinked, and then looked serious. It was time to get in gear. "Alright, listen up. Until we can close that portal up there, our priority is containment."
He turned towards Hawkeye. "Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays."
Hawkeye nodded, readying his bow. Captain America then addressed Iron Man and Archangel. "Stark, Wrekk, you guys got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or your turn it to ash."
Soladat nodded, prepping her rifle. "You got it, cap."
"Wanna give me a lift?" Hawkeye asked Iron Man. The metal hero nodded.
"Right. Better clench up, Legolas."
Iron Man grabbed the neck of Hawkeye's shirt and rocketed off into the sky with him. He placed Hawkeye on top of a high building, where Hawkeye immediately started shooting down Chitauri flyers. Soladat unfolded her wings and prepared to follow, when Hikesh stopped her.
"Soladat." Wrekk looked at the Prothean in confusion. He sighed. "Be careful."
Soladat smiled at Hikesh, nodding, and then flew off to join Iron Man. Captain America turned to Thordis.
"Lewis, you've gotta try and bottleneck that portal, slow them down." He ordered. "You've got the lightning, light the bastards up."
Darcy smirked, and saluted. "Roger, Rogers."
Then, Darcy twirled the hammer around and shot off into the sky. Steve then looked at Hikesh. "Hikesh, while air team is taking down strays, I need you to put up some kind of barrier. Keep any of them from leaving the island."
Hikesh blinked. "I have never created a field of that size before. The strain of keeping it together could kill me."
The captain cursed, when Carrie spoke up. "Maybe I could do it. When I was in Chamberlain I was able to create like a kinetic barrier around the town to keep people from leaving. I can't guarantee it'll be big enough, though."
Steve looked at the girl, unsure, but eventually nodded. "Alright. Hikesh, you provide some cover for her. Me, Romanoff, Sif, and Voyant will stay on the ground and keep the fighting here. And Hulk?"
The green beast growled, turning towards the captain. The captain smirked. "Smash."
The Hulk smirked, and jumped off into the air. Everyone watched in amusement as he slammed right into the side of a building, slamming his fist right into a Chitauri soldier that was clinging to the side. With the dead soldier in hand, the Hulk leapt over to another building, impervious to the plasma blasts being shot at him. Then, like he did before, he slammed right into a Chitauri, spinning around to drive his fist into another one nearby. Throwing the alien away, the Hulk leapt higher into the air and into the path of three Chitauri flyers. With a swing of his fist, the Hulk knocked one out of the air.
"Nice." Claire said, smirking. Sif rolled her eyes.
"Yes, I suppose it's nice when he's beating someone who isn't me."
"Speak for yourself." Hikesh remarked, and Sif glared. Rolling his eyes, Captain America looked over at Carrie, and nodded.
Nodding back, Carrie reached out with her senses, locating the perimeter of the island. She sensed several flyers attempting to breach the perimeter, and glared as she seized them with her mind.
On the perimeter, the Chitauri pilots screeched in surprise as their mounts were suddenly gripped and crushed by an invisible force. With their mounts destroyed, the Chitauri fell from the sky to their deaths.
Carrie smirked. "I got it. As long as I can hold it, nothing's leaving this city."
"Great, now all we…"
The captain was interrupted when a few plasma shots exploded near them. The group looked as a squad of Chitauri marched toward them, hissing. Sif glared, raising her sword. Hikesh's green aura flared. Claire just smiled.
"This is going to be so much fun!"
ooooo
Thordis raced up to the top of the Empire State Building, gripping the side as she surveyed the city. She smiled. Oh, how she loved New York. But not when it was being besieged by aliens. Looking up at the portal, Thordis glared and pointed Mjolnir upwards.
The hammer glowed with energy and the skies above began to change and darken. Storm clouds crackled with electricity, and soon an enormous bolt of lightning shot out from the clouds and struck the hammer. Darcy grit her teeth as she felt the electricity being absorbed into her hammer, and once the lightning stopped, she grunted as she jerked her hammer upwards, unleashing an enormous electrical blast upon the portal.
Several Leviathans and flyers attempting to leave the portal were caught in the electrical torrent, howling and shrieking in pain. Soon, they were all engulfed in explosions.
ooooo
Loki grit his teeth as he watched Darcy block the portal. Suddenly, his head was overcome with pain and his flyer faltered from brief lack of control. He shook his head, and his eyes were now bright blue again. He could sense the Other's distaste on the situation.
"This," the Other hissed, "is a little resistance?"
Loki snarled in anger. "Your force lacks finesse!"
The Other scoffed. "Our warriors are fearless, and welcome a glorious death."
Loki shook his head. "That might actually be the problem."
"Or maybe," the Other said, smiling, "you just lack leadership. I'm aware that this is what resulted in your exile?"
Loki eye twitched. "I am well capable of leading an army, creature!"
"Then lead them, 'king'." The Other shouted, and Loki winced. "You wield the scepter, do you not?"
Loki's eyes widened. "The scepter!"
ooooo
On the bridge of the Helicarrier, Fury and all the other S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel watched the battle from across numerous newscasts and hacked cellphone recordings. Fury himself watched from his usual area, looking around at the circle of terminals with an unreadable expression. He was listening intently to one particular newscast.
"This is Tiffany Snow of Amity Park, Illinois, reporting live from the Manhattan skyline." An unusually cheery reporter said. She was sitting inside of a helicopter hovering high above New York City, luckily out of the Chitauri's range. "Thirty minutes ago, what witnesses have described as a black hole has opened up above the island of Manhattan, and the city is now being besieged by a hostile force of unknown origin."
"In only a few minutes, dozens of people have been in the chaos and military forces are unsure of how to handle the situation. But precisely fifteen minutes ago, a military aircraft of some kind crashed along the Triborough Bridge, bringing with it a mysterious party that has risen in defense of the city and is combatting this hostile force. While we are still trying to get more information on the team, we are aware that Tony Stark's Iron Man is involved."
Fury was broken out of his concentration when Agent Hill came up, looking annoyed.
"Sir, the council is on."
Fury silently cursed. Of all the times… why now?
ooooo
From his perch, Hawkeye shot an arrow at a passing flyer, killing its pilot and sending it crashing below. With his superb sight, he noticed a number of flyers in pursuit of Iron Man.
"Stark," he paged, "you've got a lot of strays sniffing your tail."
From within his suit, Tony grunted as he dodged several plasma blasts. "Just trying to keep them off the streets."
"Well they can't bank with a dam." Hawkeye said, firing his arrow and shooting down another flyer without even looking in its direction. "You need to find a tight corner."
"Yeah, well roger that."
Iron Man soared upwards, racing past Hawkeye with the flyers in pursuit. Aiming his arrow, Hawkeye shot at one of the flyers, and the arrow pierced the flyer's metal base. Suddenly, the arrow started pumping super-hot temperature into the metal, burning it in half. The two halves of the flyers careened out of control and crashed into two different buildings. Iron Man fired behind him, blowing up one of the flyers while the other three resumed pursuit.
Flying low, Iron Man raced across a number of abandoned cars that the Chitauri blew up in their aimless fire. He flew through a small tunnel, coming out through the other side and swerving quickly away form a building. Three of the flyers were able to swerve and resume persuit, but one of them couldn't move in time and crashed right into the building, disappearing in a ball of fire.
"Oh, boy…" Tony groaned. Spotting a lone parking garage, Iron Man zipped down into it, and the flyers all rode in single file, barely fitting through the tight space. Iron Man moved to the side to avoid a plasma blast, accidentally scraping against the wall, and then quickly ducked to avoid a large indent in the ceiling. Two of the flyers crashed right into the ceiling, blowing up.
Now with only one flyer in pursuit, Iron Man exited the garage and fired a respulsor blast backwards, striking the nose of the flyer and causing it to spin around and crash right into a restaurant.
"Nice call." Tony said. "What else you got?"
"Well, Darcy's taking down a squadron on six." Hawkeye responded. Tony smirked.
"And she didn't invite me."
ooooo
A Leviathan growled as it soared towards an office building. Inside, several employees backed away in horror as the monster approached. Suddenly, they all heard a commotion behind them and turned to see an enormous green monster jogging at great speed towards the window.
People screamed and jumped out of the way as the Hulk plowed through the office and then jumped right out of the window, howling as it gripped onto the Leviathan's mandible.
The Leviathan screeched as it tried to shake the pest off of it, but the Hulk used his strength to tug the Leviathan way from the building, with only its fins doing a little damage to the windows.
ooooo
Elsewhere, Archangel was racing after one Chitauri flyer, which was racing past several buildings to try and shake off its pursuer. Then, the pilot quickly pointed its gun back and shot at her, and Archangel brought her wings up around her. The vibranium metals protected her from the blast, and she immediately raced up so that she was flying directly above the flyer.
She landed right on the pilot's back, and it hissed and screeched as it tried to rid itself of the unwanted hitchhiker.
Grunting, Soladat grabbed the creature's head and shoved the barrel of her sniper rifle right into its mouthed. The alien gagged in discomfort.
"Choke on this!"
Soladat pulled the trigger, and the Chitauri's head exploded. The flyer immediately started falling, and crashed into a billboard. Archangel jumped from it moments before the collision, doing a backflip and landing safely on the roof of the building that the billboard was on. She watched as the board burst into flames and fell down into the streets.
Suddenly, something shoved Archangel to the ground, and she immediately got up and glared as a Chitauri marched up to her, wielding some sort of bladed weapon.
Archangel flicked her wrist, and a sharp blade extended out of her wrist wrap. She slashed it forward, leaving a large gash in the Chitauri's chest. Hissing in pain, the Chitauri backed away, gripping its bleeding wound, and then hissed in satisfaction when two other foot soldiers came to its aid.
Pulling herself up, Soladat quickly jerked her hand forward at an advancing Chitauri, driving the blade right into its gut. The Chitauri shrieked as Archangel slammed it over to a nearby wall, slamming it face first into it.
Another one rushed forward, preparing to strike her with its rifle, but Archangel quickly lifted her rifle with the other hand and shot the Chitauri right in the face. Its head jerked back as the bullet shot through its eye, blowing purple blood everywhere, and it fell down, dead. The one she was holding against the walls started to struggle, and Archangel quickly pulled it away and then slammed it hard into the wall, and the creature hissed in pain as a few of its ribbed cracked.
Smirking, Soladat lifted the sniper rifle up to its head and pulled the trigger, killing it. She let go of the wretched creature and watched it slump to the ground.
Suddenly, the Chitauri she slashed across the chest shrieked and charged at her, colliding with her. Soladat accidentally dropped her rifle, but as soon as it hit the ground it fired and the bullet flew right into the Chitauri's ankle.
The Chitauri shrieked as it lost its footing, but Archangel grabbed it by the throat and slammed it into the ground. She punched it hard across the face, and then extended her wrist blade and yelled as she drove it into its head, killing it.
Hearing a noise, Archangel looked up to see two flyers zooming towards her. Glaring, she quickly picked up her rifle, and then saw a Chitauri plasma rifle lying nearby. Raising her eyebrow, she picked that up to and tested the feel. Smirking, she fired at one flyer with her rifle, hitting the pilot right through the head and downing it. Then, she fired the plasma rifle at the other, and the pilot screeched as the blast blew the front of the flyer.
The burning flyer quickly spun wildly to the ground and crashed on the bridge below, only a few inches away from Carrie, who yelped and shielded her eyes from the explosion.
Hikesh, who was guarding her, glared up at the rooftop that Archangel was standing on.
"Soladat!" He said through the com. "Watch what you are doing up there!"
"Sorry, Xegh." Soladat responded, and then jumped off of the building and into the sky. Hikesh just shook his head and looked back at Carrie.
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." Carrie said, and quickly refocused on the field. Then her eyes widened. "Look out!"
Hikesh blinked and turned around to see four Chitauri approaching. He raised his dark energy field up, shielding himself from the plasma blasts. He fired a singularity blast at them, and the resulting field suspended the Chitauri in midair. The Chitauri hissed and thrashed around, trying to break free from the field, but Hikesh lifted his hand up and manipulated the field; the Chitauri all shrieked in pain as they were torn apart molecule by molecule.
Nearby, the Black Widow was slammed against the hood of a taxi by a Chitauri, which attempted to stab her with the bladed end of its rifle. She jerked her head away and then drove her Widow Bites into its throat, pumping electrical shocks through it. The Chitauri hissed in pain and pulled away, attempting to strike the agent, but Sif, who had just bisected another Chitauri, quickly pulled the soldier off of the Widow and threw it to the ground.
The Widow watched as Sif impaled the creature with her sword.
"I had it under control." She said, frowning, but then sighed. "But thanks."
Sif nodded, and then glared as she sensed two more approaching. She spun around and slashed the sword right through one of the Chitauri's throats, and it gripped it as blood seeped through it and died. The other tried to fire its rifle, but the Widow shot it right in the race, killing it.
Sif smirked at Natasha, finding that she was starting to like the shadow agent. It was nice to see that Midgard didn't treat its women as poorly as Asgard.
A few meters away, Claire Voyant laughed as she easily dodged numerous plasma blasts thrown her way. A Chitauri hissed as it rushed at her and tried to stab her with a bladed weapon, but she parried the attack and punched it across the face, knocking it down. Another one moved in, but Claire kicked it down before it could even strike and stomped her heel straight through its chest, killing it. She let off a laugh as she did it. Another tried to sneak up behind her, but she whirled around and grabbed it by the throat.
She smirked, and took in the scent of this creature's bitter soul. It was old and mangled, but her master would make do with it. She lifted her finger up and touched the Chitauri's forehead, and there was a spark of fire as the symbol of Mephisto was engraved into its head. Claire dropped its lifeless husk, and sensed a plasma blast racing towards her.
She quickly vanished in a puff of smoke, and the smoke flew over the Chitauri that attempted to shoot her. It shot around wildly at the smoke, but then it vanished, and the Chitauri looked around, growing scared. Suddenly, a hand was impaled right through its chest, and the Chitauri gagged in pain as it died. Claire pulled her hand out of the creature's chest, and smirked down at it.
"Pathetic creature." She sneered.
Sif and Natasha fought side by side, gunning and cutting down Chitauri by Chitauri. Sif blocked several blasts with her shield, and then rushed at a group of them, screaming, and drove her sword right through its stomach. It screeched as she cut through its side, cutting it clean in half, and then swung around to bash her shield into another soldier, knocking it down. Natasha shot one right in the shoulder, causing it to double over in pain, and then she brought the pistol to the back of its head and executed it. She quickly glanced back and took two small devices from her belt, and tossed them at the feet of a Chitauri that was pointing its gun at her.
Two small bolts of electricity shot out of the devices and surged through the Chitauri's feet, and it spasmed around as the electricity ran through its body. The surged stopped and the Chitauri fell down, fried.
Sif looked at it in surprise, and then back at Natasha. "Sometime I'd like to take a look at your weaponry, Lady Romanoff."
Natasha smirked. "Maybe."
"Uh, ladies?"
Sif, Natasha, and Claire all blinked and turned towards Hikesh, who was looking up at the sky with a worried expression. They all looked up and grew wide eyed when they saw a Leviathan racing right at them.
"Not again." Natasha groaned.
Meanwhile, Carrie looked up at the approaching monstrosity, and snarled. Her brain pulsated as she reached out to the Leviathan, and with all her strength, she gripped.
Everyone looked shocked as the Leviathan let out a pain roar, and saw that its armored shell started to cave in, as if something invisible were gripping it tightly. Carrie jerked her hands down, and the Leviathan was suddenly forced down onto the bridge, which broke and crumbled beneath it.
Everyone watched from a safe distance as the Leviathan crashed through the bridge and into the streets below, and then went up in a brilliant explosion.
Carrie breathed heavily, and then gripped her head. "Ow…"
Hikesh looked at her, impressed. "Nice work."
Carrie, still breathing, gave the Prothean a smile. Momma would freak if she saw all this.
However, it was far from over. More and more Chitauri poured through the portal, their numbers greater than before.
Natasha grunted in annoyance when three more soldiers landed nearby, but sighed with relief when Captain American jumped down to confront them. He swung his shield, striking one right in the face and forcing it to fall flat on its back, and then delivered a right hook to another one right in the face, caving in its lower jaw. He dodged a punch from one of them and beat the creature's face with his shield, knocking it down.
Natasha was breathing in exhaustion, and shook her head at the captain. "Captain, none of this is gonna mean a damn thing if we don't close."
"She is correct." Hikesh said. "Their combat skills are weak and primitive, but their numbers are sheer in might. Carrie cannot keep the barrier up for long."
"For once, I agree with the Prothean." Sif chimed in. Claire just rolled her eyes at the group. She didn't mind cutting down a few hundred more.
Steve looked up at the portal, scowling. "Our biggest guns couldn't touch it."
"Maybe it's not about guns." Natasha said. Steve looked to the side, and saw more Chitauri approaching.
"You wanna get up there, you're gonna need a ride." He said.
"I got a ride. I could use a lift though." Natasha said, and then looked over at Hikesh. "Hikesh?"
Hikesh blinked, and then looked up at the flyers soaring overhead. He looked back at Natasha. "Agent Romanoff, are you sure?"
Natasha shrugged. "Yeah. It's gonna be fun."
Hikesh smirked, and his aura flared as he put his hand out towards Natasha. Natasha blinked as her body was surrounded in a green field and she started to levitate off the ground. She looked up at an approaching flyer, and quickly reached her hand out and grabbed it as it flew by.
The group watched as the Widow zoomed off, but then grunted as a few plasma shots struck the ground nearby. With the Chitauri approaching, the group resumed their battle.
Well, that's part three. I really have nothing else to say. Next part the battle continues (duh).