The gentle, if not annoying, buzz of Tony's built-in phone system failing to reach Pepper was oddly soothing in the moment. If anything, he could focus on trying to telepathically will Pepper to pick up the phone as he shot towards the nuclear warhead heading right for New York City.

Y'know, thought Stark to himself as he finally managed to reach the missile. Looking back about five years before now, if I had been told I would one day be a superhero who saved countless innocent lives and eventually the world, I would've laughed in my face.

Stark gently (very gently) reached out and grabbed the missile, slowly maneuvering it towards the sky portal up above the city. Why do all these 'sky portals' have to be blue?, continued Tony's thought process, now trying not to focus on the fact that Pepper wasn't going to hear a final goodbye.

Tony shot through the portal. Up above, he saw the gigantic alien craft (presumably the mother ship), looming in front of a massive star. The weightlessness of the vacuum of space took effect, and Tony slowly floated away from the missile.

The call to Pepper ended with no answer.

XXXXX

"Close it."

Rogers' mournful, but resolute, order came through Romanoff's communications device in her ear. She hesitated for half-a-second, still giving Stark a chance to fly back through the portal. She could almost imagine him cockily blasting 'Back in Black' over the communication devices.

But he wasn't coming back. As Selvig watched, Romanoff pushed the spear through the force field protecting the device housing the Tesseract. Within seconds, she had reached the cube.

XXXXX

Tony watched as the missile sent to destroy New York as a final solution for the invasion shot upwards, eventually striking the mother ship. It immediately went up in a ball of fire, destroying the ship entirely.

Tony chuckled to himself, as he turned weightlessly to face the portal that brought him here. At least I'll have a pretty rad final act to put on my tombstone.

Looking down at the portal, Tony frowned. Something was… changing with it. It was turning green. The window into New York was steadily shrinking, while the green energy surrounding it was expanding rapidly.

The shockwave from the nuclear explosion caught up with him, jolting him into unconsciousness. Said shockwave also propelled Stark further towards the portal, eventually sending him right in the center of its collapse.

XXXXX

On the ground in New York, the surviving citizens of the city that never slept looked up at the portal that hung over Stark Tower. It had turned green and massive waves of energy was spewing from it.

Soon, the energy swallowed up the otherwise clear, blue sky in all directions. The people looked up in both awe and silent terror at the alien sky. Even the Hulk stopped smashing to stare up in… well, not exactly awe, but some combination of it with rage.

No one even noticed the Chitauri warriors dropping to the cement and pavement, dead as doornails.

On top of the tower itself, Romanoff looked to Selvig, hoping he had an answer to all this. "What's happening?", said Natasha. "What is this?"

Selvig, however, looked just as mystified as everyone else. "I… I don't know. When you touched the spear to the cube, it should've closed up."

Street level, Rogers turned to a nearby Thor. "Thor, do you recognize this?"

Thor nodded grimly. "Aye. It is the work of a powerful magician. One powerful magician to be exact. My brother, Loki."

Meanwhile, in Stark Tower, Loki had painfully drug himself to the window overlooking the city. He leaned against the sides of the shattered windows, looking up at the green sky, chuckling to himself. He should enjoy this brief respite before the forces of Earth came to collect him.

He coughed up blood leftover from the attack by that green monstrosity, then looked back up at the green sky. All according to plan.

XXXXX

"This doesn't make any sense.", said Ric Olie, looking down at the star charts on his computer screen. Panaka, who had journeyed to the cockpit to check on their progress to Tatooine, frowned at Olie's shock.

One hand felt the blaster at his side. What with the recent blockade and invasion of his home planet and the fact that they had to land on a planet controlled by the vile Hutts, Panaka was a little on edge for any signs of danger.

Olie turned to Panaka, confusion written on his face. "Captain Panaka, our sensors are picking up another star system a few lightyears away."

Panaka's brow furrowed. "I thought you said the only star system we could reach would be Tatooine."

"Yesterday, it was.", Olie tried to explain. "But this new star system just appeared on our sensors."

"What do you mean, 'just appeared'?", said Panaka, walking over to the star charts.

"I mean, one second our sensors were showing nothing in that area, the next, a star system had appeared there."

Panaka saw for himself that there was indeed a star system there. One sun, eight planets, a few asteroids.

"Did you check the star chart records?", said Panaka.

"Of course. They make no mention of any star system in this general vicinity, besides Tatooine.", said Olie.

Panaka hesitated. If this new star system was not in any way controlled by the Hutt's, it might be safer and potentially easier to acquire the necessary parts they needed for the hyperdrive. And yet, for all intents and purposes, this system had appeared completely out of thin air. Might this be some sort of elaborate trick by some form of enemies.

"Captain Panaka." The serene voice of Qui-Gon Jinn announced the Jedi master's arrival. Panaka turned to the Jedi and began to explain, only to be cut off.

"I heard everything, Captain.", said Jinn. "I believe it would be beneficial if we plot a course for this new star system."

Panaka hesitated, then came to his decision. "Plot the course. I will inform her majesty our new… er, stroke of luck."

Both Panaka and Jinn left the cockpit, both going in opposite directions. Panaka, to the queen, Jinn, to his padawan learner.

Once he reached Obi-Wan Kenobi, Kenobi practically leapt up from his seat. "Master, did you feel it too?", said Kenobi, agitated.

"Calm yourself, my Padawan.", said Jinn. Obi-Wan did so, eventually adopting the serene look of a Jedi. "I too felt the disturbance in the Force.", said Jinn, walking to the window set in the rooms provided for the Jedi.

"What do you think it was?", said Obi-Wan. "It felt like a truly massive shift in the Force."

"I know not, my padawan.", said Jinn, as Obi-Wan joined him at the window. "But I fear it portends both wonderful and terrible things in the future."