Chapter Notes:
So, this is where some of MC´s doubious morals come into play... Also, fight scenes are hard :P
Chapter 15: The Battle of New York
Turned out, there was quite some wait time before the invasion began. Should have thought of that.
In the meantime, Tony mended the kinks in his suit and Clint woke up. Bruce had questioned me about how I knew where the Tesseract was, but I had excused myself with Ree.
The X-Men were already in position and we weren´t all that far from NYC either.
Now, the exact position of stone was still a mystery to the others. They knew it was New York, but it hadn´t clicked yet where the necessary energy to kickstart the portal would be coming from. I had overestimated their searching capabilities and was glad for it.
I needed that damn portal to open. I wouldn´t relish in the destruction the Chitauri brought, but not having them threaten Earth would be disastrous for my plans concerning the Accords and the publicizing of mutants.
While silently urging certain brainwashed scientists to hurry up, I wondered if I had to drop some hints for the others to guess where the portal would be. Coulson wasn´t dead (not even temporarily) and Loki was still in his cell, sleeping now.
Thankfully, it turned out that I didn´t need to do that. You could have heard Tony swearing two rooms over. He stormed over to me.
"Al, we need you to portal us to my tower! Of course, it´s my tower! Brainwashed or not, Loki is such a drama queen!", my billionaire friend said, gesturing erratically.
I hesitate for a moment, surprised by the suddenness of his revelation, and hopped up from where I had been sitting.
"Well then, get your suit and then the others as back-up!", I said with an excited smile.
He gave a few words over intercom, storming away again, and stood ready a minute later.
"Alright, I´ll spit you out over the tower in the air.", I warned him and did exactly that with a gesture of my hand.
The two spies and Thor were the last ones to convene. I was just happy everyone was still motivated to fight even without a unifying incident like Coulson´s death. Well, this team also didn´t have as many arguments so that was a positive.
I shoved those thoughts aside and landed the whole group in Tony´s living room. I walked out on the balcony and took to the sky. My heart was beating a mile a minute. If Selvig hadn´t been able to start up the portal in time, all my planning was going down the drain.
I looked up and I didn´t know if I should be relieved or apprehensive of the fight coming up.
The portal was open.
I heard an explosion above me. Just then Tony´s voice came on the comms.
"The portal is open, there is an energy field around it that I can´t breach."
"I´ll take a look. Until then damage prevention. I asked a few friends to help out, they should be here somewhere. Cap, I´ll connect you and you can organize the fight on the ground. Thor, Tony, I need you to think up possible ways of dealing with the mothership in case the portal takes time.", came my prompt answer. I had thought a lot about this fight after all.
I watched as the first Chitauri came through as I had Ree patch in the comms the X-Men used. With a last glance at the sky, I opened up portals to the street level for Cap, the Widow and Bruce and one to the roof of a high building for Clint.
"Okay, what friends are we talking about here?", came Caps apprehensive voice.
"That would be us, bub.", Logan´s gravely tone rung out over the comms. On que a jet came to hover over buildings of New York. It intermittently fired at the quickly multiplying Chitauri in the air, but I knew the onboard weapons weren´t made for this kind of continued fire, they barely existed. They let out Storm far above the ground though, before going lower to help Cap on the street level.
I grinned, thinking about how Thor would react to someone stealing his thunder – literally. I shook my head and shot up to take a look at the portal. In the corner of my eye, I saw Tony flying down to change into a new suit. At the same time the X-Men and Cap were navigating the defenses on the ground.
I shut them all out to contrate on Selvig´s work. The scientist himself was laying unconscious off to the side.
Considering that the barrier was powered by an infinity stone, it was no surprise it was very powerful. I still had quite a few ways around that. One of the more unpredictable, but fast, ways would have been to just throw the portal in the mirror dimension. Theoretically, it should work, but infinity stones were tricky to predict.
I had also spent a very long time studying runes, specifically to inhibit the infinity stones (to the detriment of my other studies), so I knew I could close the portal in just about two minutes with a bit of fiddling around.
But I didn´t want to.
I wanted the fight to go on for some time and I wanted the mothership destroyed. Which meant waiting for the atomic bomb in all likelihood.
I threw up a half-complete rune circle. Right now, it only looked fancy, but no one would know that.
Behind me, I heard the Hulk roar, and I turned around in time to see big Green tearing up one of those big Chitauri whales. Good going, buddy.
"So, I´ve got good news and bad news.", I said into the comms while taking aim at another whale.
On the way I whipped my eldritch magic around one of the Chitauri´s jets and propelled it at two more, sending them all crashing.
I switched to constructs, launching my standard electric teal staffs at all targets in my sight. Countless Chitauri were to slow to evade, but as in the movie even more came through the portal.
Three Chitauri came directly at me, noticing their fellow soldiers being struck from the sky. One I got with another staff, but the other two evaded sideways. I constructed an elastic net that caught one and sent it spiraling into the side of a building. The last one was only a dozen meters in front of me when I swung out with a comically big teal hammer and it went flying off of its jet.
Finally remembering my other relic, I fished my scythe out of its designated corner in my apartment and attacked the next Chitauri flying at me with it. It ripped through the cybernetic enhancements of the creature to bury itself deep into the Alien´s chest.
To my surprise I could feel the life seeping out of the thing, I could also feel its weaning connection to the hive mind.
Baffled I stared at my scythe as the Chitauri died and fell out of the sky, freeing my weapon, that was glowing in a dim white light now. It was the first time I took a life with my scythe, so I had not experienced this before. I hadn´t thought I would notice the effect it had on its victims, but I couldn´t have been more wrong.
It didn´t feel bad, but it wasn´t comfortable either.
"-Al? Bluelight, report!", Caps voice tore me out of my musings.
"Oh, sorry, got caught up.", I said sheepishly. I wasn´t used to these big battles yet.
Getting back on track, I set off towards a third whale. The one I had spotted before had been dealt with by Thor and Storm, who seemed to be getting it on like a house on fire.
"So, good news-", I started to say, while taking a swing at an interrupting Chitauri. "I can close the portal, bad news, no idea how long it´ll take."
I slashed another Chitauri and evaded a group of them firing at me. I was quicker than them, so they soon lost their heads. I winced when their headless bodies on the jets crashed into the nearby buildings.
"Your best estimate, how long?", asked Cap.
"Somewhere between 5 and 20 minutes?", I lied through my teeth. I had no idea when the WSC would pull their dick-move and launch the bomb.
"It would help if there wasn´t anyone coming through anymore though."
"Yeah, I don´t think that is going to happen anytime soon.", said Tony, his tone dripping with sarcasm.
"Maybe if we ask nicely?", I joked back.
I had slaughtered my way through a number of Chitauris to finally reach the whale. I sped up, throwing my scythe arm back to wind up and felt the scythe pulse with energy as if it could sense my blood lust. Without looking back, I could feel it enlarge without increasing in weight.
Before I could crash into the nose of the beast, I wrapped my second arm around the handle and brought the blade forward with a cry.
My eyes were blinded for a moment by a bright flash, and I could feel a shockwave of white energy travel through the air, sucking in any life it touched in that area.
The whale, whose head was now halfway missing, just gave away, creaking like a rusted old bridge, until it crashed into the street below.
My adrenaline was spiking at this point. I stared at my scythe.
"What the fuck?", I murmured. I looked down again.
"This wasn´t in Mordo´s description."
I seriously needed to do more research into my relics.
"Holy shit, if that is your way of asking nicely, that might even work!", Tony´s breathless laughter came through.
"Where were you hiding that thing?"
I shook my head, laughing in disbelief. There, another whale. I took off.
"I didn´t know I could do that either."
I took the occasional swing at the surrounding Chitauri and speared even more with my constructs. Below me I spotted a big blue spot of fur rescuing people from a building and leading them towards a subway station. I smiled at seeing Hank there.
I came at the next whale from the side, cutting deep into its neck, if it even had such a thing. The flash wasn´t as big this time.
Before that huge beast could take dip onto the buildings underneath us, I opened a giant portal to the first save place I came up with. Space, just behind the moon.
I closed that portal real quick though when the difference in air pressure started to suck in all it could. Luckily it got only a few surprised Chitauri.
Fuck space. Fucking-, scary shit, man. Ergh.
I shivered and took aim at the next Chitauri to work of the fright.
Being air support in this battle was a surreal experience. Literally hacking away at enemies for minutes was lulling me in some kind of trance. The swinging motions were only interrupted by the occasional shield when some of the Chitauri tried to evade me and eliminate me from as far away as possible. Sadly for them, I was a lot faster and at close range their weapons were mostly useless.
This was entirely different from fighting on the street. There I would have been occupied with evacuating the citizens and setting up a perimeter while under fire. But right now, picking off as many enemies as possible was the best option for me. Cap seemed to agree, at least he hadn´t given any orders to the contrary.
So, I startled quite badly when Ree alerted me to an incoming communication from Fury to Tony. The atomic bomb was imminent.
I had to quickly dodge behind a shield as my concentration returned to the battle at hand. I tried to suppress my nervousness at this part of my plan, unsuccessfully. The idea of someone, who had become one of my best friends, carrying an atomic bomb through a portal to who knows where and nearly dying… - it wasn´t my favorite, to say the least.
I could be assured that my rune work on all of his suits and the sole mention of the existence of aliens had made Ironman space-friendly, but still there was some doubt in my mind. I didn´t want to mess this up.
Ripping into the Chitauri that had fired at me with my scythe, I breathed in and out with deliberate control to get my nerves under control.
"Guys, I can close the portal now.", I said over the comms, pretending like that hadn´t been the case 15 minutes ago.
"Do it.", came the immediate response from Cap.
"What are you waiting for, bub?", growled Logan.
"Don´t!", Tony shouted.
"Tony?", I asked, trying not sound to expectant.
"I got a nuke coming in. It´s gonna blow in less than a minute."
Then there was a pause. I could feel the dread building in everyone on the comms.
"And I know just where to put it.", Tony finished grimly.
"Stark, you know that´s a one-way trip."
The line went silent for a moment. I flew higher up until I could see Tony and the bomb in the far distant.
"Hey Al, don´t let Pepper overwork herself alright? And keep an eye on the bots for me."
I snorted, trying to ignore the way my throat was closing up at the tears I was suppressing. All my anxieties were rearing their ugly little head.
"Stop talking like that, have some confidence in those runes I put on your armor.", I sniffled.
"Says the crybaby.", Tony joked.
He had entered the city now, he was heading straight towards his tower, the bomb on his back more visible than him. I reached out to the runes around the Tesseract. One last check to make sure New York wouldn´t end up as a radioactive wasteland. With that done, I started to concentrate on the locating runes on the Ironman suit that I had put there with specifically this situation in mind.
Finding the right set, I could now feel Tony taking a sharp upwards turn towards the portal. The next minute would feel like years to me.
As Tony disappeared through the portal, I knew all around the world people would exhale in relief. I was still as tense as a bowstring about to be loosened. A few seconds went by, nothing happened. Suddenly, all the Chitauri collapsed and fell from the sky, their connection to the mothership was cut. I could see the explosion on the other side of the portal. Tony was already heading towards Earth again.
I waited with bated breath. Dimly, I registered Rogers order to close the portal, but I waited a couple more seconds before I was sure Tony was back. Only then did I close the portal with a thought and a twitch of my hand.
Right away I noticed Tony wasn´t slowing down. Seemed like my runes weren´t helping with Tony´s powers source after he put through all that stress.
I flew in his direction and caught him with my magic, figuring it was the softest way of slowing him down. As cool as Hulk fishing Tony out of the air had been in the movie, there was no way he wouldn´t have had at least a severe concussion from that. No, thank you.
I landed with an unmoving Ironman not far from Dr. Selvig, who was still sleeping. I magically kickstarted the Arc reactor, slightly peeved that all my preparations to make the suit space-save were for nothing as the problem had laid with the one thing I hadn´t wanted to interfere with.
It took a moment, but as the suit came back online, Tony had started moving. I laughed in elation when his head piece folded away to reveal a disorientated genius-billionaire. I swayed backwards, sitting down where I had been kneeling at Tony´s side before. Now that the tension was leaving, I could feel all my energy disappearing too.
"What just happened?", Tony said with wide eyes. I laughed again.
"We won.", I answered with a bright smile, leaning against my now bladeless scythe and enjoying the cold metal against my temple. Tony blinked and then looked up straight at the sky.
"He´s fine, we´re on top of his tower.", I said over the comms. I laughed again when I heard tired whooping on the over end.
"How about a vacation?", Tony babbled tiredly. "I think we deserve a vacation, Al. I don´t think Pepper would mind. Definitely deserved. Oh, and I would really like some of your wizard friend's food right about now. I´m starving."
I snorted and got up. With Tony´s commentary in the background, I made towards the Tesseract. It took me a hot second, but then I had the space stone incased in a preprepared container. I looked at the unassuming little metal cube, wondering at how much destruction such a tiny thing could bring.
I threw it up in the air and caught it. Then I did it again.
"Can you not play with the almighty stone we just fought an alien invasion over? Please and thank you.", Tony interrupted his rant about food to snark at me.
I turned towards him and grinned.
"Since when do you say please or thank you. That fall must have really addled your brain."
He stuck his tongue out at me.
It took a few more minutes before the rest of the Avengers joined us on the roof. The X-Men had volunteered to drop them off with their aircraft that had miraculously survived the fight. Apparently it had taken them a bit to get the Hulk onboard. I tried not to laugh at the image of a group like Logan, Summers and Thor trying to get the Green Bean to go anywhere.
Thor took the chance to look at the condition of Slevig who was waking up now. As Tony was trying to get everyone to get some shawarma (in absence of any Domi-cooked food), I took Hank and the other mutants aside.
"I assume you're leaving before the government gets here?", I asked to start off.
Hank nodded with a serious expression. Logan growled, his stance with the crossed arms clearly indicated he didn´t want to be here any longer than necessary.
"Better we are gone, before Hydra gets any ideas about disappearing any of us in the chaos.", Storm said in a grim tone. I nodded to show my understanding.
"Tell Xavier; this is it. We´re going public. This is our best chance. I´ll contact Murdock and his team. SI will get started on the Press.", I informed them.
I could tell some of them were excited, others apprehensive. Hank looked worried.
"Now?", he said, clearly hesitant. I knew he was still unsure about the role I had picked out for him, even if he had begrudgingly agreed with my reasoning.
"Now.", I insisted. My smile had none of the levity from before. It was a vicious little thing.
The X-Men made their quick goodbyes and as they left Ree started to send out the prepared messages to a whole host of people, who would be starting to move in the next days and weeks.
"Aaaaal…", Tony whined as I turned back towards the Avengers, who looked to be in varying stages of exasperation. My friend made his best attempt at puppy eyes. I stared at him, unimpressed. He stuck forward a wobbly lip and sniffed a few times. I sighed.
"Shawarma, you said?"
I opened a portal and he started to smile brightly.
"So useful!", he commented towards a tired looking Steve while gesturing over his shoulder at me when he went through. I sighed again.
As if I wouldn´t still play taxi for him when he asked normally.
End Notes:
Yeah, MC really wanted that invasion to happen. I only touch on it here, most of that and the Plan comes in the next chapter. I wanted this one to be more fight focused.
I mean, fighting isn´t hard to write, but to make it a long scene - I struggled with that this chapter. The Chitauri are really boring to write.
