The Master Chief sprinted into the lobby of Stark Tower, snapping his Assault Rifle to his shoulder to do a sweep of the area, sweeping his rifle's crosshairs from the left to the right, as he ran through the area towards the stairs where, as marked by Cortana on his HUD. He kicked the door in and checked his left and right before running up the stairs. As he climbed up the stairs he kept his head on a swivel and his eye on the motion detector with the diligence only a Spartan trained since childhood had. Even when he heard a small sound that turned to be nothing the Spartan leapt into the closest cover and snapped his rifle up. The warrior eventually made it the door to the suite that Mr. Stark kept at the top of the tower. Bracing himself against the wall, prepping a flash grenade in one hand and hefting his MA5C in the other, after making sure he had a full magazine. When he was ready after mentally drawing up a plan of engagement the Spartan stepped away from the wall, pivoted on his ball of his left foot snapped his right knee up to his chest and lashed out with his heel against the door. The hinges of the heavy bulletproof door snapped away from the metal frame and the door tumbled through the air until it stabbed into the smooth concrete wall across the room.
Loki had been so distracted by the door flying across the room that he hadn't noticed the flash bang grenade until it detonated. The Prince of Asgard didn't have time to react as a heavy armored soldier slammed into his illusion and tumbled across the floor. The god of mischief was looking at the Spartan in amusement. He leveled his scepter at the armor-clad warrior.
"Well, it looks like Thor isn't the only one that falls for that old trick." He remarked with a dry smirk on his face as malice flashed in his eyes.
Instead of replying the Master Chief kicked himself up to his feet and shook the floor when he righted himself. As he was righting himself he was shouldering his Assault rifle and began firing once he was stable. The FMJ rounds just bounced off of Loki without any effect. Seeing this the Spartan holstered his rifle and unsheathed a Matte black combat knife with a monomolecular edge, and spun it around to an upright grip.
Loki smiled and leveled his scepter. The Spartan circled and Loki began to circle as well to entertain this mortal, it was amusing to see this lowly creature approach this fight with a tactical method. He was surprised when the mortal lunged at him and he barely managed to deflect the knife, he noted with surprise the scepter had a mark in it from the human's blade. He realized this was not just a mere human. The armor was so similar to that idiot Iron Man's that he forgot to notice his opponent was lithe and precise, far more graceful than Asgard's own veteran warriors. This being was a threat, plain and simple.
Loki jabbed at the warrior this time, and his blade was knocked off target with shocking force, jarring his grip from the weapon. He nearly dropped it and only managed to ready it in time to deflect another slash this one aiming for his knee. Crouching into a fighting position and lowering his center of gravity Loki started going on the offensive. He slashed and the armored man sprung back and closed the distance and got inside his reach, where his Scepter's larger blade was of no use. He deflected with the smaller blade on the end of the weapon and leaped back and put some distance between himself and the mortal warrior. With a flash of gold his scepter elongated into a spear and he twirled it into a better position. The warrior paused and began circling again, his feet always staggered and his legs were always tensed, Loki observed. Laufeyson swung his spear at the warrior after closing. As expected the knife flashed up to meet it and Loki flicked it and tossed it out the shattered window. His staff twirled around to grip again and he made a stab at the Spartan, only for the blade to be grabbed and crushed under the black and green gauntlet. The warrior tugged the spear away from the trickster, pulling the god of mischief off balance in the same motion. When Loki was whirling his arms and regaining his balance Chief and swept his feet out from under him. The staff was tossed to the ground near the doorway and his hands ripped into Loki's robes and picked him up.
The Master Chief pivoted and slammed the Asgardian into the floor shaking the room with the impact and cracking cement. Loki tried to pry his fingers off but failed to gain any purchase on the energy shields and was picked up and slammed down again for his efforts. John was lifting him up again when he was head butted. The desperate attack didn't phase him. What did manage to distract him was the punch from another Loki, it wasn't anything compromising, a nasty bruise if that, on his upper arm. He had taken worse before in training.
The Master Chief reacted on instinct and let go of the Loki that was on the ground and went to incapacitate the new Loki. He went to grab the slightly extended arm that was still pulling back from the haymaker that had hit him. When he grabbed just behind his elbow, the Loki smirked and disappeared in a golden flash. It was another illusion, but it had made contact with the Chief. Something more than simple illusionary tricks were being used. Shouldering his rifle, the Spartan swept the area to check on the real Loki, he was nowhere in sight. The Spartan adjusted his grip on his MA5C, something felt off. He mentioned so to Cortana.
"Chief, Loki might be magical. He probably used a spell or something in conjunction with the illusion."
"Affirmative." John responded, cycling through various visual settings on the MJOLNIR's HUD with a thought. On the EM setting he noticed an outline of a humanoid figure slowly stalking to the Staff that had been taken out of the fight. The Spartan fired on the figure and with a shimmer Loki reappeared in the visible spectrum. The Spartan charged his adversary and swept him up in a tackle, armored arms wrapping around his legs, before they both collided with the wall next to the empty doorway. Loki pushed off against the wall and the spartan slid back before readjusting his footing and slamming Loki in the wall with his shoulder. The wall, buckled under the stress of being hit by two superhuman beings. The force of their repeated impacts broke the wall and the combatants fell through the wall in an avalanche of concrete dust and rubble. Loki, managed to catch his footing and kicked the Spartan against the iron railing and the Spartan fell over the handrail, back first. As the heavily armored warrior fell, he gripped Loki's lower leg in between his boots, dragging the disgraced Prince with him. The duo collided with another hand rail of a stairway a level down, crushing the metal under their weight. The Spartan pulled his feet into his chest and lashed out kicking Loki into the air and into the wall, cracking the concrete with the impact. Loki slid down the wall and struggled to get up. The Spartan got to his feet and marched to the Asgardian. He grabbed the prince around the throat and began to choke him, paying close attention to the pulse under his armored grip. After thirty seconds of struggling the prince feigned unconsciousness and after a second of being choked further, began to fight with even more vigor until finally, he really did lose consciousness.
The Spartan secured Loki with some rebar that was twisted around his wrist. Confident that Loki was at least momentarily secured the Spartan threw his quarry over his shoulder and began to climb the stairs back up to the Stark Suite again. He bent down and retrieved the Scepter that had reverted to its shorter form sometime during the fight. The magnetic strip on kept it in place.
Spartan 117 then headed towards the roof of Stark Tower where Doctor Erik Selvig was last spotted. The warrior climbed the stairs up to the roof to see a sight that was unnervingly similar to some that he had witnessed during the Human-Covenant War. Chitauri Chariots strafed civilian positions and slaughtered dozens and monstrous Leviathans were being ripped apart by the Dawn's archer missiles. The creatures roared in agonized fury as they came apart in meaty chunks and decorated Manhattan Skyscrapers with their innards. The Hulk was leaping building to building and chariot, destroying Chitauri invaders with roars of rage as he went. Thor was decimating the Chitauri as he covered the retreat of the civilians trapped under the alien's fire. The other Avengers were being pushed back, covering as many civilians as they went. Barton had joined them on the ground, firing an MP5 submachine gun that he had gotten from the SWAT units that were fighting alongside the Avengers. A Leviathan that had managed to avoid being targeted had rounded a corner from behind the Avengers and their civilian charges. With a roar the beast dived towards the ground. Just as quickly as it appeared an armored exoskeleton flew into its maw and it began to drop, the monster came apart from the inside as explosions blasted through its internal organs and hide. The fresh corpse, shattered nearby building withs its flesh as it detonated above the vulnerable civilians that avoided the smaller chunks that rained down on their position.
Tearing his eyes away from the spectacle, John visually inspected the rooftop and saw his secondary target Erik Selvig, crying softly from the carnage he was witnessing.
"Doctor Selvig, what's your status?" The Spartan asked as he approached the man who had a gash over his right eye.
"I'm fine, but the things I helped him do under his control. I did this, I'm responsible. I figured out how to open a sustained portal, all those people dying down there are dead because of me." He cried out as tears of shame and guilt poured out of his eyes.
"Doctor do you know how to close the portal? If we can close the portal we can stop this from continuing."
The scientist turned towards the Spartan and noticed he had the Scepter and said, "We can close the portal, I'll need you to slowly insert the blade through the force field and touch the beam at the base of the machine. At the same time, I'll initiate the shutdown on the computer."
"Affirmative. On your mark Doctor." The Armored soldier responded.
"Go!" Selvig said, at the same moment the staff was plunged into the spherical energy barrier surrounding the machine. The barrier popped and sparked, and the scepter elongated on will and lengthened until it interrupted the streak of energy, and the device shutdown and the machine stopped and the portal drew in on itself.
The Chitauri, who had managed to move enough of their forces into Manhattan weren't affected in the slightest by the shutting of the portal.
"Chief, We're being overrun and SHIELD is calling us back. We can't take them out, intel is saying that the Chitauri moved in twenty thousand troops and about 500 chariots and about 20 of those Leviathans. The National Guard will establish a perimeter and keep them contained until we can come back and help." Black Widow reported, informing the Spartan of the current mission status.
"Affirmative, I have Selvig and Loki in custody. Where's our rendezvous point with extraction?" John asked.
"We're meeting up around the downed Quinjet, civilians are here as well." Captain America cut in, sounding out of breath.
"Copy. En route now." Chief replied. Immediately, he secured the scepter to his thigh again and beckoned Selvig closer to him.
Without another word the Spartan began his trek back to exfiltration point, with an unconscious Loki, tesseract, and wounded citizen.