As Loki slid to a halt a couple of feet away from me, people around us started stampeding in blind panic the moment they saw me attack someone. Thankfully, most ran towards the exit of the building, meaning that they wouldn't get in the way of the coming fight, meaning fewer casualties.
Attacking a guest out of nowhere would be bad PR already, I didn't need any deaths to complicate matters any further.
The attack could be rectified, since Loki scrabbling his way to his feet clearly indicated to everybody that he certainly wasn't a baseline human, and once he attacks New York, my actions here will be transformed from 'unprovoked attack' to 'pre-emptive strike'.
Dead people, however, would always remain dead people, regardless of the spin you put on the story.
No, it was easier on everyone if the building was as empty as possible when the Battle of Ice and Fire began.
Trying to buy some time for everybody to vacate the premises, I slowly walked to where the Frost Giant now stood glaring at me, his armor forming around his body in a show of golden light, one spindly hand coming up as he gently traced his bruised cheek with a controlled wince.
"So, how are you feeling, Loki? That bit of 'cerebral correction' shake a couple of things loose up there?"
Given the properties of the Scepter, and the fact that Loki's eye color had changed from his appearance in Thor to the one in Avengers (until the Puny God moment, at least) there actually might be a chance that Loki wasn't entirely acting on his own will.
Then again, that also might be complete bullshit, considering Loki's blatantly villainous actions on Asgard, Earth and the near genocide on Jotunheim. Dude was fucked up way before he ever even met Thanos.
Still, it didn't hurt to try and see if he could be made to see reason a bit earlier than in canon (may he/she/it rest in peace), since Ragnarok had shown that Loki, once he had gotten his issues out of his system for the moment, could actually be not that bad of a guy.
Sure, the humorous relationship between him and Thor was something that was unlikely to form with literally anyone else in the universe, so this wasn't me pining after the Trickster God's companionship or anything (I truthfully didn't much care what eventually became of the Jotun, as long as his plans didn't interfere with mine).
But returning a Crown Prince of Asgard back to sanity ought to give me some kudo's with their Royal Court (or at the very least with Frigga). Even if aiding Loki didn't earn me favors with Asgard, he was still useful to me, more useful than Odin, in fact.
During Loki's reign from the Dark World until Ragnarok, the Nine Realms had fallen into disarray (again) and presumably security had become lax.
Which for me, was perfect, or at least a hell of a lot better than the watchful one-eyed gaze of Odin making sure that all of their precious little goodies were secure in their vaults.
So yeah, if Loki turned out to be controlled or subtly influenced or whatever the hell was going on, and I managed to snap him out of it, great!
If it turned out he was just being a dick, then meh, I could still work with that.
For my immediate plans, it didn't really matter.
At my question, Loki looks up at me in surprise (his eyes are green again, I notice, but very dark and surrounded by deep bags) as his hand flies to his temple instead, a confused expression appearing on his face.
"What… there is this fog… in my thoughts… mortal, what… what is happening?" the Frost Giant muttered, one hand reaching out to grasp the stone altar that stood in the middle of the hall, as he slowly leaned against it, his shoulders hunched.
Huh, some mental effect then?
Seems all the Hiddleston fanboys are validated then.
Approaching the god, I placed one enormous hand on the man's shallow shoulder, a grin coming to my face.
"Well, am I glad that that worked. Now here's the cliff notes: you were sent to invade Earth, using an army given to you by the Mad Titan Thanos, which is waiting on the other end of the universe. They need you to use the Tesseract in order to open a portal and bring them here. In return, after Thanos is done ransacking the place, you get to rule the remains as King. You got anything to add to that?" I ask as I peer closely at Loki's face, trying to read his reaction.
Other than some clearly visible surprise at the depth of my knowledge, he doesn't let slip anything else, as he slumps forwards a bit, resting his forehead in the palm of his right hand.
"I see… only the one thing then, really…"
And with that, he whirls in my direction, suddenly surging up as his other hand shoots into vision from where he had subtly hidden it from my view, the blade of a nearly foot long Asgardian blade suddenly flashing into existence, right before it's buried about halfway right between my ribs.
As I gasp in surprise at the sudden pain (it's been a long time since I've been cut), as well as the fact that the blade so easily punched through my Amber Armor tux and skin (I'm surprised it penetrated at all, though to be fair, Loki had also managed to stab the extremely durable Thor right through his Asgardian battle armor), the Frost Giant viciously grabs me by my shirt collar, his lips peeling back to show his teeth as he snarls in my face.
"You should be more wary of trusting a God of Lies." He hisses with a smirk.
The smile quickly runs away from his face when he realizes three things.
One: I'm not keeling over dead yet. This has something to do with the fact that the Asgardian made weapon, superior to most conventional Midgardian weaponry, is only about halfway into my body instead of cutting me in half as it should have, and that was after he attacked with great force.
Two: the hand that I had placed on his shoulder is still holding on to him. In fact, its grip is steadily increasing, to the point that its hold is so strong, it actually becomes a bit painful to the god.
Three: I'm grinning.
Leaning in close (Loki tries to move away, but the hand on his shoulder prevents him from moving, which is exactly why I had approached him as I did) I place my right hand on Loki's other shoulder, my eyes nearly exploding with heat as smoke slowly starts to rise from my stab wound, molten blood hissing as it drips down the gleaming blade.
"And you… should have gone for the head."
And with those words, I head-butt him hard enough to produce the sound of a thunderclap which echoes through the marble hall, the Frost Giant once again sent flying, this time crashing hard enough into the tiled floor to dig up a furrow a couple of feet long.
As Loki pushes himself up to his elbows, his expression one of pain and surprise, I look down at the blade that's still sticking out of my chest. Looking Loki straight in his green eyes, I slowly grasp the smooth handle, and extract his knife from where it's slipped in between two of my ribs.
His eyes widen slightly as his gaze lands on the smoking, red hot blade of the knife, before he flinches somewhat at the clattering sound it makes when I carelessly let it drop from my hands, the Asgardian weapon smoking as it lies on the marble tiles.
Casually straightening my jacket and bowtie as I approach him again, Loki is (surprisingly) quick to work himself back to his feet again, two more blades appearing in each hand with a twisting movement, a brief flare of magic barely noticeable to my senses, even as I'm straining them.
Either Loki is really good at hiding his magic, or he's simply so far above my own level that he doesn't even need to hide, since I'm just incapable of sensing him at all.
Neither option is really advantageous to me, but then again, I never intended to settle this with magic anyways.
Not his kind of magic, at least.
"I did not expect a Surtur-spawn in these regions, I must admit. Your arrogance is admirable though, if not overinflated. Hiding amongst these ants may have given you delusions of power, but I am a God!"
And with that boast, Loki lets fly with his blades, two more appearing in his hands the moment the weapons sail through the air, as he dashes towards me with incredible speed.
I'm faster.
Twisting my torso sharply to the side, I let one of the knives fly past me, the second one landing in my upper arm, though only penetrating a few inches. Turning back in, I bring my fist forwards in a picture-perfect liver-shot. Loki proves his status as a Trickter God however: the moment my fist impacts his body, it falls apart in a show of gleaming light, revealing that the actual Loki had slid underneath the strike altogether, disguised in the shadow of his doppelganger.
Naruto and Sasuke would be proud.
As the armor on his knees scrape across the marble tiles, my thick arm sailing harmlessly over the tips of his curled horns, his hand lashes out, opening a long, if shallow cut on my thigh, prompting an annoyed snarl from me as I realized I've fallen for his signature trick.
The moment he's dodged my swing, he comes to a halt, pushes off and turns in a single smooth movement, ready to bury his knives deep in my kidneys (or as deep as they'll go at least), a vicious grin on his face as the gleaming blades close in on my form-
-right as I turn around, catching both knives in my hands, a pissed off expression on my face, my eyes lighting up with a hellish glow, ignoring how the Asgardian weapons make shallow cuts as they're trapped in my closed fists.
"I am no Surtur-spawn, little god. I. AM. A TITAN!" I roar in his face, before I Spartan-kick him in the chest, sending the Jotun flying once more, ripping the knives from my hands, my burning blood splattering across the floor, where it forms smoking pits.
Not even bothering with the already closing wounds, I rocket from where I had been standing, trying to go faster than I had ever gone before in my life, tiles cracking underneath me as I take off. For all that I had been boasting, my quote wasn't entirely incorrect.
Loki possessed both incredible superstrength, as well as an experience in combat that spanned more than a millennium, with a sly mind to use all that to boot. Combined with weaponry that was actually capable of breaking my skin, and he was a credible threat.
He wasn't strong enough to straight up cut my head off, but a knife through my eye socket, or up through my mouth, or even just the top of the spine, through the back of my neck?
With those damned knives of his, he could do it.
I needed to end this.
Fast.
Even at my most impressive speed, Loki almost proved fast enough to keep up with me, trying to avoid my first strike by turning his tumbling crash into a smooth combat roll, attempting to throw himself to the side, out of the way of my flying knee.
Almost.
Instead of striking him in the chest, as I had intended, I hit him in the hip, though my strength, combined with my momentum, still proved enough send him flying a couple of feet further in a spinning motion, until he managed to literally dig his fingers into the stone floor, coming to a halt on his hands and knees.
He wasn't fast enough to avoid my second strike.
In a move that wouldn't be out of place in a football match, my foot crashed into his side with enough force to lift him clear off the ground, the sound of ribs snapping clearly ringing out through the now empty hall.
With a pained grunt, Loki flew through the length of the ornate room, before he slammed into the brickwork next to the main entrance with a chocked off gasp, his body cratering the wall from his impact zone a couple of feet off the ground.
He was in too much pain to dodge my third strike.
Before gravity even had a chance to pull the Jotun from the impression his body had made in the wall, a bright golden glow lit up the entire room as I flew right on his heels, my Meteor Fist charged to its fullest and ready to absolutely ruin a certain god's day.
And week.
In the millisecond before my fist impacted his chest, I saw Loki's eyes widen slightly in surprise as the golden glow of my chi shone on his pallid face, his cracked lips forming a small 'o'.
And then there was a wave of light and heat, and Loki was gone from the room.
As was the rest of the wall.
Looking out over the square in front of the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, I spot bits and pieces of the wall of the Art Museum strew around the plaza, people screaming in fear and complete panic, and I don't blame them. It almost looks like someone bombed the place.
And lying in the middle of all that rubble, the armor of his chest caved in and smoking, lies the broken form of Loki Laufeyson.
Amazingly, the god is still conscious, though even from here I can tell that he has trouble breathing, and other than some weak grasping motions of his arms, he doesn't manage to work his way to his feet again. Floating out of the gaping hole in the side of the building that I had made (the sheer size of it made me wince slightly, as I hadn't expected my punch to be that powerful) I made my way over towards the prone form of Earth's would-be conqueror, my hearing already picking up the sound of a jet rapidly approaching.
Black Widow and Captain America then, meaning that Tony Stark wasn't far behind. Widow was easily dealt with: since I had stopped Loki from taking out Dr. Schäfer's eye, Barton would be forced to use heavy tactics in order to breach the warehouse of Schäfer Siecherheitsdienst in order to obtain the Iridium.
Which meant that he was still here in Stuttgart, and would probably be forced to make quite a bit of noise. Noise that our resident superspy would be all too eager to investigate. Of course, I needed Loki's people to take the Iridium to Selvig, or otherwise there wouldn't be an Invasion, but it didn't have to be Barton specifically.
Ideally, he would still manage to get away from Widow in order to lead the attack on the Helicarrier, which would cripple S.H.I.E.L.D. and at least hold up the Avengers for a bit. If Loki was too weak to kill Coulson all the better, since then the Avengers wouldn't be galvanized to unite, and show up to the party even later.
If Barton did manage to get captured by Romanov however, then it still wasn't a loss for me, since for my plan to succeed, both S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers were quite inconsequential. The plan would still be completed, I would just get less out of it than if the attack still continued.
Kneeling next to the Asgardian prince in order to make sure he wouldn't die here due to a punctured lung or something (and also to make sure he wasn't playing any tricks), I see his eyes flit towards my glowing ones, as we ignore the complete and utter pandemonium surrounding us.
"A… T-Titan… huh?" the god manages to choke out, a thin line of blood trailing from the corner of his mouth.
At my nod, his lips twitch into something that could either be a grin or a grimace.
"T-that… explains… a lot…" Loki manages to gasp, a wet chuckle coming from his throat.
Hearing that the jet was quite close now, I grabbed the Jotun by the shoulder as I straightened, pulling him to his feet as I ignored his muted gasp of pain, as I turned in the direction of the approaching Avengers.
Sure enough, there was a bright streak through the sky as the air was filled with the roar of jet engines, a blurry shape falling from above. And lo and behold, Captain America crashed onto the ground a couple of feet before us, his Vibranium shield slamming into street with an ear-deafening bang.
And wearing that ridiculous outfit that Coulson had designed for him. Bless the man and his worship of the Captain (to be fair, you would be hard-pressed to find anyone in the Western hemisphere of his age who wouldn't do the same, as that generation was practically raised on stories, shows and literature based off Steve Rogers), but his fashion sense really was horrible.
The bulky gloves, the tight clothes, that ridiculous cap… Steve looked like he literally just stepped out of one of the comics that were written about him (the war movies portrayed his uniform pretty accurately, actually), which I guessed was sort of the point.
Still though…
As Steve straightened, he immediately took the most heroic pose you can imagine: chest out, hands on his hips, chin stuck out. He's not even aware that he's doing it, this sorta thing just comes naturally to him. However, after a few moments of us just staring at each other, with Loki barely clinging to consciousness and held up more by me grabbing him by the scruff of his neck than his own willpower, and with me showing no other reaction than raising a very judging eyebrow as I slowly look his outfit up and down, he started to get a bit uncomfortable.
He almost fidgets, before he managed to steel himself, pointedly looking at the plaza surrounding us, filled with rubble and panicking people.
"What the hell happened here, Michael?" he asks in a stern, disapproving tone, but other than me raising my eyebrow even further, it doesn't really have any effect.
"I got into a bit of trouble with our resident alien here. Since you've arrived in that spiffy S.H.I.E.L.D. bird up there, I assume you know who he is?" I rumble, giving Loki a little shake, grim amusement rising as the god gives a pitiful moan as I do so.
"You call this, a 'bit of trouble'?" Steve asks in an incredulous tone, sighing a bit at my nonchalant shrug.
Looking from me to my prisoner, the supersoldier's gaze hardens.
"Loki Laufeyson, formerly of Asgard. Yeah, I know who he is. Michael, he is really bad news, on a global scale. It's the Red Skull all over again. So please, if you know anything, anything at all, could you help us? We need all hands on deck for this one." Steve says earnestly as he glances at the beat up form of the Frost Giant.
"Well, I probably can only tell you things you already know. However, when I saw him at the gala, he seemed to go for one of the guest speakers, a certain Heinrich Schäfer, who owns a large compound here in Stuttgart, Schäfer Siecherheitsdienst. I don't know why he needed that man specifically, but maybe that can be your lead? I'm pretty sure a guy like Loki doesn't operate alone." I lie easily, pretending not to notice how Steve glances at the S.H.I.E.L.D. jet hanging in the air above the plaza.
For a moment, nobody said anything, before the jet suddenly threw its nose in the opposite direction, and took off at immense speeds.
Guess Romanov is really eager to get her hands on Barton, huh?
"By the way, where is Carter? I thought she wanted to join you in the field from now on?" I ask innocently, and bringing up his girl successfully takes his mind somewhat off the current situation.
"She's… chasing down a lead, at the moment. She's aborted her mission and is making her way back towards HQ, but it may take a while before-"
Anything else Steve was about to say was drowned out by the sound of Rock and Roll being blasted across the skies, a bright red and golden streak curving around before it rapidly descended towards us, slamming into the ground next to us in the classic three-point landing, shattering the brickwork underneath.
As the armored form of Iron Man straightened to its full height (it's actually pretty large up close, at least several inches taller than the beefed up Steve Rogers, with a pretty bulky frame) its glowing eyes slowly tracked from Cap's alert form, to my casual one, and finally to the slumped over Loki, the crater in his chestplate still clearly visible.
Even though his faceplate hid his expression, I could almost feel Stark's deadpan look as those glowing eyes slowly turned to take in the entirety of the rubble strewn plaza, before they tracked back towards me.
"You must be really bad at dancing if this is the result."
After engaging in a snarking battle with the younger Stark (which sadly, I lost) an explosion on the edge of the city distracted both Avengers enough that I was able to get rid of them, handing Loki over to Cap and sending Iron Man out towards where Barton had clearly taken out the big guns (literally) in order to get the Iridium.
Between the two of them, Iron Man was the only one who could get to the scene of the crime at any reasonable speed, and Cap would have his hands full with Loki even as battered as he currently was (assuming that he had a somewhat similar regeneration factor to the Asgardians, in a couple of hours he might not be anymore).
Meaning that there wasn't really anyone left who could contain me, so I just told Steve that I'd find the owner of the Museum in order to pay for the damages, and that I had a date to get back to, as Loki had quite rudely interrupted our dance together.
The intentional parallel to his and Peggy's long-postponed dance clearly got to him, and after giving me a determined nod and taking Loki off my hands as he waited for his S.H.I.E.L.D. pick-up, I made my way back towards the Museum. It took a bit of rather forceful questioning (despite the fact that the fighting had ended a couple of minutes ago, people were still in a panic) before I managed to leave my contact information with the proper authorities, and then I slipped away out of the terrified crowd, everybody too worked up to even notice me.
Once I was certain that there were no eyes on me (a bit of subtle magical scanning made sure of that), I blasted off into the sky, making my way over towards the rendezvous with Jessica. Since we didn't know from what direction Romanov would be flying in, we couldn't pick a roof or anything like that, so instead we decided to meet at one of the underground parking lots.
Touching down in a back alley, I quickly made my way inside the agreed upon parking garage, where I spotted Jessica leaning against one of the few cars that were parked there. When she saw me approaching, she quickly picked up the case that was resting at her feet, and without a word, she smoothly fell in step next to me.
Both of us kept an eye on the camera's that occasionally lined the ceiling as we hurriedly moved along, and once we spotted a blind spot, we turned a corner, and stepped onto my private Island, arriving before the gates of Othrys, the tell-tale glow of a portal closing behind us.
There's a seven hour time difference between Germany and New York, meaning that it was still early afternoon at my base, the sun suddenly glaring to our eyes as we just left nighttime behind us.
Yeah, travel with portals is cool and all, but nobody mentions the extreme cases of jetlag you can end up developing (thank god that I only need so little sleep).
Thankfully our vision almost immediately adapted, and we saw that despite the hour, only Harper and Phineas' latest model were waiting outside for us. Most of Phineas' physical bodies (around a dozen were currently active) were almost like a Life Model Decoy of his original body (meaning that the differences were barely visible), though he had added some aesthetic differences that showed he had completely embraced his new status as a technological entity.
Meaning that small cybernetics showed on their faces and arms, and their eyes were robotic orbs instead of something mimicking the biological originals.
What was standing in front of us, however, was his Gatekeeper platform, and as such it was both a lot larger and a lot more robotic.
It had to be, in order to accommodate the veritable legion of heavy and futuristic weaponry Phineas had managed to cram into the body, to the point that it was more a walking tank than an actual human-like body.
Once he learned that I had taken the name of Hyperion, and had named the base Othrys, Phineas insisted that he get a nickname as well, in keeping with the whole Greek theme I had going on. In his words it was going to be "like, so totally cool to create your own pantheon man!" and seeing no harm in it (and considering he was in fact, tied very closely to Othrys already) I allowed it.
Which meant that I wasn't exactly looking at Phineas right now.
No, this was Soter, Gatekeeper of Othrys, Majordomo to Hyperion, the New Titan of the East River.
(Alright, I had to admit to myself that Phineas was correct: it was pretty cool)
At our sudden arrival, I saw Phineas' optics widen slightly as he took us in, though Harper remained as stoic as ever, merely raising an eyebrow in question as he glanced at the bulky case in Jessica's hands.
"That the package?" he simply asked, and at my nod, he gave a grunt as he took the case from Jessica.
"You know the drill Harper. Stash it where only you, me, or Phineas can find it. It's extremely dangerous, so we don't want this just lying around in Othrys. The possible damage it could inflict with all the stuff in there is immense."
At my dire warning, Jessica's eyes widen slightly, though Harper of course only gives a calm nod.
Then again, he knows more of the Plan than Jessica does. Phineas does as well, but that's only because of necessity.
As Harper stalks off towards the hangar without so much as another word, Phineas turns towards us with a big grin, his glowing optics briefly scanning Jessica as she's standing there in her tight dress.
"You two certainly look like you had an enjoyable night. Quite explosive, if my sources are correct." He says as he lewdly wiggles his eyebrows, looking between me and Jessica.
As Jessica groans, I can't help but let out a large grin.
Everything is going according to plan.
One of the first things that I had Phineas do once he got used to his new state of being and his duties as Gatekeeper of Othrys, was hack S.H.I.E.L.D. Just because Fury was willing to hold a hand over my head so that my televised murders didn't lead to me being locked up or ending on an examination table, didn't mean that I would abstain from trying to get eyes and ears in the most expansive spy network in the world.
Ungrateful? Kinda.
Necessary? Definitely.
It had taken literal months (Phineas could probably brute-force his way into their systems in a couple of hours, but then every single person in the organization would know within minutes that they had been breached, and probably by who as well), but my AI-buddy had finally created an expansive enough network within S.H.I.E.L.D's systems, completely unnoticed, that I now had eyes and ears in most of their locations.
S.H.I.E.L.D.'s systems were pretty compartmentalized (for instance, some of their safehouses and storage facilities ran on their own contained networks meaning that I had not access to those), probably specifically to counter the very thing that I was doing.
Smart, of course, unless you were infiltrated by Neo-Nazi's, who managed to use that fact to hide their own digital infrastructure. It was why Stark claimed he had 'every dirty secret S.H.I.E.L.D. had ever had', but didn't see any evidence of Hydra's survival. He simply didn't know that he should bother to look for them (they were dead for over seventy years after all), and he didn't have everything, he just had a part of a larger whole.
The most important thing for me, however, was that I now had eyes and ears in the Helicarrier.
By monitoring their communications, I listened in how Romanov, in an extremely clipped tone, reported that Barton had managed to escape with the Iridium, though Iron Man had managed to restrain a couple of Loki's henchmen.
It's also how I learned that Thor had made his appearance as he had in canon, but the sight of his hurt adoptive brother had sent him in such a rage he had brought down the Quinjet before anyone had managed to stop him.
Eventually, they managed to talk the irate Thunder God down until he was willing to listen to reason, explaining their common goal of stopping Loki's Invasion and saving Earth. However, since the Quinjet was down (that tends to happen to planes when they get struck by a bolt of lightning several feet across), other arrangements had to be made, which made me snort in laughter when I saw them approach the Helicarrier.
Stark was forced to carry Cap, while Thor carried Romanov on his back and Loki in his free hand. It looked as uncomfortable as it sounded, though Caps expression as he clinged onto Starks armored form was absolutely golden, and their awkward stance after they had landed and Steve 'dismounted' nearly sent me into a laughing fit.
I was quickly sobered by the attack on the Helicarrier however. As awesome as it had looked on screen back in my old universe, and as little I cared for S.H.I.E.L.D.'s spies, it's another thing entirely to actually see and hear people dying as they scream in confusion when their former friends and colleagues mercilessly open fire on them.
And to think, when Hydra revealed itself, all this would happen all over again.
Looking soberly at a screen that showed how the Hulk busted through one of the walls into the hangar bay, I watched how one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s mightiest strongholds was brought low by one of their own.
Some small part of me had hoped that given Loki's condition after being on the receiving end of one of my chi enhanced punches, Coulson would survive this time around, but I wasn't sure whether or not he had, since Fury quickly moved him to a location where there were no camera's.
Coulson had cornered Loki just like he had in canon, but due to the beating I had given the Jotun, the God of Mischief didn't have the strength to pull an elaborate trick on the spy in order to stab him in the back, too battered to pull off any convincing illusions. Instead, he simply slumped over as if in pain, and when Coulson automatically lowered his weapon somewhat, surged forwards, a long knife flying from his hand.
Just goes to show that, even whitout access to most of his magic, Loki is still a Trickster at heart and an extremely dangerous combatant, capable of weaving misdirection into his attacks.
The Asgardian knife buried itself deep into Coulson's gut, who let out a pained gasp as he stumbled backwards. The spy tried to lift the Destroyer gun, but Loki hadn't been idle, and during the time it took for his weapon to leave his hand and find Coulson's stomach, the god had closed the distance between them, harshly backhanding Coulson in the face, which tore the gun from his hands as he flew into the nearest wall.
He was still alive though, since he managed to crawl over to where the weapon had fallen while Loki was distracted by glancing down the hole he had just sent his brother down, once again blasting the Frost Giant through the wall of the holding area.
As I watched how the Helicarrier stopped listing due to the combined efforts of Cap and Iron Man, a single jet taking off, a battered and bruised, but triumphant Loki inside, I turned in my seat behind my desk, taking a quick glance at the other various holographic screens that were projected.
Turning my head a bit to the side, my eye fell on a screen showing New York itself. More specifically, it showed Stark Tower. Even more specifically, it showed the terrace of Stark Tower.
It was a feed of one of the multitude of cheap, lightweight drones that I had flying all over New York. Despite its small size and easy manufacturing it was leagues beyond any commercial drones my old world had been able to produce, offering great range, incredible stability and 4kHD video.
And currently, it was showing how one Erik Selvig was constructing something that looked like a mix between an enormous Arc Reactor and a miniature Bifrost Observatory.
Soon, the people of Earth would have an answer that had been plaguing them for millennia: they weren't alone in the universe.
And the rest of the universe was scary as fuck.
Tapping my ear once, I waited until the call was taken. Without waiting for confirmation, I gave my order.
"Deploy the Hysminai. Tell them to get in position and remain there until I give the signal."
"Yes sir." Came the dry voice of Harper, before I shut the call off.
I rubbed my chin as I glanced at the multitude of screens in front of me, some of the Helicarrier, some of New York, as I contemplated what was about to happen.
I was nervous, I realized, though it was to be expected of course.
After all, in a couple of hours, I'd have completed one of the major milestones in my Twelve Step Program to Omnipotence.
I can hardly wait.
I'm standing in the main hall on the residential level, surrounded by the majority of my employees as we look at the enormous holographic screen that Phineas put on one of the walls, most of it showing the feed from my drone at Stark Tower, a small box (meaning it was the size of a regular flatscreen) up in the corner showing the local news station.
Everybody was watching with baited breath as we saw how Iron Man was blasted away from the Tesseract which protected itself with a glowing bubble of impenetrable energy.
A small part of me was curious about that impenetrable part. How would it stack up to a Meteor Fist, for instance?
Still, I couldn't act now.
It wasn't part of the plan.
I remained standing motionless as I looked at the feed even when a bright beam of light shot up from Selvig's creation, tearing a hole open in the sky above New York, like a 2-dimensional sinkhole that had been inverted and raised to hang upside down in the sky.
It was really difficult to look at directly, and that was even disregarding my magical senses that went completely haywire when two different ends of the universe were connected through a portal the size of a couple of city blocks, right above my head (figuratively speaking, of course, though it certainly didn't feel like it).
No wonder the Ancient One didn't show up in order to defend New York: given the sheer disturbance up in the air here, the various magical shields keeping Earth safe from being lunch for the bigger, nastier brothers of C'thulu were probably going haywire right now.
As the hole in the sky widened enough, the first Chitauri came through, and my employees turned to me with wide looks of confusion and visible fear.
"Michael, what the hell are we going to do?!" Jessica said in shock as she stared at a Leviathan that made its way through the portal.
'God, had they always been that big? That thing has gotta be as long as a fucking tanker!'
"We are going to do nothing. We are secure within Othrys, so we'll just stay here and be safe-"
SAVE EARTH
The voice that slams into every fiber of my being, bypassing any kind of mental defenses I had painstakingly build using chi-meditation techniques and Pangborn's lessons, is enough to send me to my knees with a scream of pain, most of the crowd quickly jumping away as my body explodes with heat in response to this unseen threat.
"W-wha-" I try to grind out from behind gritted teeth, but once again a presence fills my entire being, transcending simple notions such as body and mind.
Someone's got a direct line to my soul… and they're using it to yell at it at the top of their lungs, using a megaphone.
ONE ORDER, AND I SHALL GUIDE AND STAY YOUR HAND AS I SEE FIT AS YOU ATTEMPT TO COMPLETE IT. REMEMBER?
Gritting my teeth, I try to straighten, spots in my vision as I dimly hear Jessica shouting in my ear, the only person willing to brave the waves of heat and fire that are rolling from my glowing body.
'The Avengers… will take care of it… Earth… is going to be… fine-' I try to think back (I'm biting down so hard that I doubt I could even talk out loud even if I wanted to, and since I don't want to be seen as a crazy person, I don't particularly want to).
However, before I can even finish my thought, another spike of pain lances through my skull, sending me back towards the ground, supporting myself on trembling arms.
YOU ARE MY CHAMPION, YES? NO CHOSEN OF BAST, DAUGHTER OF AMON RA HIMSELF, THE FIRST SON, SHALL HIDE AWAY FROM HIS DUTY! SAVE EARTH! BAST COMMANDS IT!
"It's not part of the plan!" I finally manage to yell out, letting my rage fuel me, though I'm immediately punished for it by a crushing force throughout my entire body which sends me sprawling on the ground, collapsing in a pool of fire.
I CARE NOT FOR THE PLANS OF MORTALS! I HAVE GIVEN YOU A COMMAND, CHAMPION. YOU HAVE ONLY TO FOLLOW IT, NOT TO QUESTION IT. SAVE EARTH. FIGHT!
The pressure just keeps on increasing, until it feels that a mountain is resting on top of me. Eventually, it simply becomes too much to bear, and I give in.
"Fine! Fine, I'll fight!" I roar out, and almost immediately, the pressure leaves as if it was never there to begin with.
Opening my eyes, I see my people look at me in worry and fear, Jessica right next to me kneeling in molten stone as she holds my head in her hands, which are slightly burned, I notice.
"I'm okay. I'm okay now, Jess, it's alright." I say tiredly, though strength is rapidly returning to me.
"What the fucking hell was that, Michael?" Jessica says in an urgent tone as she helps me to my feet, but before I can answer, I hear Pangborn speak up in a shaky voice.
"That… that was… I have never felt such power before… who contacted you?"
Turning towards the kneeling wizard as I slowly straighten, I let out a grim smile.
"Bast, the Panther Goddess of the Wakandan people. I ran into her a while back, and I had to promise that I would become her Champion if I wanted to leave alive. Meaning that she gave me a Task, which I had to fulfill according to her wishes. The Task was to save Earth, and she now wants me to fight. I had to say yes."
If it weren't for the fact that they were living in a futuristic stronghold inhabited by the digitized spirit of their deceased coworker, working for a man who daily practiced magic and had a firebreathing dinosaur for a pet, the news that I had literally talked to a Goddess might have been unbelievable to most.
As it was, many of them were still somewhat sceptic, but they at least accepted that I was apparently contacted by something extremely powerful and ordered to fight and defend their city, so they didn't much care either way.
Clearly, they were still scared of the invading army, and if I had ordered them out to fight alongside me, many of them would've either refused, or do so grudingly, which might damage Othrys in the future.
Now that Bast had so graciously delivered a literal Divine Intervention, forcing me to do battle in order to save them, they had a lot more confidence in me, and just looking at their determined gazes, I knew that I could order most of these people out there and they wouldn't even hesitate (their untrained, unenhanced families would stay safely within Othrys of course).
If it turned out that by enforcing her will on me in order to fulfill her order she turned out to have used up all her favors with me all the better. I hoped this was the case (which is part of the reason why I deliberately stalled until Bast lost her patience with me, as I had expected she would), since we had never specified what saving Earth exactly entailed or for how long her order lasted, but I wasn't counting on Bast seeing it my way.
She was a God.
Gods were dicks like that.
"Michael. What are we going to do?" Jessica asked me again, and I turned towards her with a sly smile.
"Someone wake up Susan."
Everything was going according to plan.
Perfect.
By the time I rocket out of Othrys, fully clad in the final version of my armor (meaning that it looked different from what I had worn during my attack on Bakuto's hideout, just in case), only a minute or so has passed, meaning I have beaten Thor and the other Avengers to the fight.
Just as I had intended.
Rocketing towards the city center where Iron Man can be seen fighting off the horde of Chitauri fliers, I angle my way upwards towards where the aliens are swarming into my world like a horde of locusts.
Compartments on my shoulders and back slide away, and right as the Chitauri (and Stark) notice that I'm approaching, I unleash a payload of micro-missiles that take out scores of aliens in a single hit as I blast past them.
Almost immediately, bright purple blasts screamd towards and past me, showing that I've definitely managed to catch the invaders' interests.
I'm not interested in them, though.
In the words of a certain witch: I want the big one.
Tracking down the Leviathan is easy, considering it's gargantuan size. Once I spot it, all the while taking down every Chitauri flier that's stupid enough to get within my reach with punches or kicks, and gunning down everything that's further away, I make a looping maneuver.
Making a sharp turn (causing a Chitauri sled that was too eager in its pursuit to crash into a building in a glorious ball of flame and alien body parts), I rocket down the street that the Leviathan had just started to turn into.
It doesn't have any eyes that I can see, but I can still sense that it's somewhat surprised to find something moving towards its enormous mouth, filled with sharp teeth the size of a medium car. Still, it immediately starts barreling towards me, steadily picking up speed, whereas I come to a sudden halt (holding out an arm, I behead a Chitauri that had been close on my heels, but who was a bit too late to come to a stop like I had), making sure that I'm slightly above the Leviathan's head.
As it gets closer and closer, I focus all of my chi into my fist, powering up the Meteor Fist as far as it will go, struggling to keep the enormous amounts of energy contained and controlled, as the alien creature closes in on me.
Right before it crashes into me, however, I rocket upwards so I'm above the Leviathan's 'nose', and then send the entirety of my powerfield to surround my fist as well, which incidentally meant that my flight suddenly cuts off as I do, sending me crashing down.
Right on top of the Leviathan's head.
Before my feet impact the metallic skull, I swing my fist down with every single bit of power I have, a loud roar tearing from my throat.
The impact creates a shockwave which completely shatters every window on both sides of the streets, a blast of heat and flame surrounding me in a halo of fire, as the Leviathan is rocketed into the street below, moving so fast it almost appears as a blur.
There's a shocked silence across the battlefield, even the Chitauri gaping at the display of sheer power, and as the dust slowly settles, I can't help but grin at the results, even though I'm pretty worn out at the moment.
Because lying there below me, half buried into the ground, is the corpse of a Leviathan, with the entirety of its humongous skull caved in, charred and smoking, having died instantly,
Since that attack took a lot out of me, I'm rather sluggish in turning around when at the other end of the street, a second Leviathan rounds the corner, and immediately speeds towards me, maw spread wide as it aimes to devour me whole.
Still, it doesn't really matter how fast or slow I was in reacting towards this new threat-
"ROOOAAARRR!"
-since it's being taken care of by a Giant T-Rex, which speeds out of nowhere as she closes her jaws around the middle of the Leviathan, bringing it to a sudden halt, its jaws snapping closed a mere foot away from my face.
Susan, fully enlarged with Pym Particles and clad in segmented armor made from a tungsten-titanium alloy with a graphene inlay for comfort, violently shakes the Leviathan back and forth, smacking it into buildings before there was a loud snapping sound.
The trashing Leviathan suddenly goes limp, and with a wet crunching sound, Susan bites the entire thing in half, letting both parts fall to the ground below in a shower of gore and blood. Turning her house-sized head in my direction, she leisurely licks her chops in clear pride and satisfaction, prompting a grin from me.
Glancing behind my dinosaur, I see yet another Leviathan, as well as a veritable tidal wave of Chitauri fliers rapidly approach us, apparently recognizing the threat we represented.
In a matter of moments, I've sped over towards the enlarged Susan, landing at the base of her massively thick neck, one arm pointed in the direction of our coming attackers.
"Susan! Let's fry these fuckers! Just like we practiced, okay girl!"
As the T-Rex turns towards the rapidly approaching Chitauri with a worrying gleam of intelligence in her eyes, she braces herself, and sperrs her cavernous maw wide open, waterfalls of purplish blood streaming down her jaws.
Heat rapidly starts to build within her, making the air around us waver as I light up both my hands with my chi, before placing my palms on her glowing hot skin. As Susan builds her fire higher and higher, I keep pumping more and more chi into her, mixing it with the heat inside her.
Right as the Chitauri were upon us, I roar out "NOW!"
And Susan unleashes a veritable tidalwave of flame, its edges tinted with those non-colors that were so characteristic of chi-fire.
The Chitauri die in droves, in some cases reduced to only ash and a crumpled, malformed sled. The Leviathan that had accompanied them crashes to the ground, a burnt out husk, smoke coming from its mouth and various caverns in its sides showing that it had been simultaneously set alight, as well as cooked from the inside out.
Looking at the hell we have unleashed together, I float up towards Susan's table-sized eye, patting her on the horny ridge that protruded above it.
"Good girl."
The weather around us darkens, a bright flash of lighting cleaving through the sky, the telltale rumbling sound of thunder ringing in our eardrums not even a second later.
Seems Thor has arrived then.
Spotting another figure flying through the air, wearing a black trenchcoat and punching Chitauri into oblivion, I recognize Jessica as she was aiding in the fight. A quick look around shows me that the rest of the offensive forces of Othrys have finally caught up to me and Susan.
Swarms of drones fill the skies as they shoot lasers, exotic bullets and micro-missiles at the invading Chitauri, though they aren't much help against the massive Leviathans, each surviving one bringing dozens and dozens of fresh alien warriors with it.
But more importantly are my people on the ground, clad in Amber Armor tactical gear, as they make their ways down the streets to where the fighting was heaviest, meaning that police and firefighters couldn't get to the people trapped there.
Fighting aliens was all well and good, but as Civil War had shown, if you had to wreck shit in order to do it, people were still going to hound your ass over it. Which is why I was up here, highly visible and doing lots of damage, a clear defender of the people.
And it was why people in Titan Solutions uniforms were down below, shifting rubble off survivors, guiding panicking people to safety, reducing Chitauri soldiers that had managed to come up and close to paste with their fists or Othrys weaponry.
The longer the fight lasted, the more people they saved, and the more aliens I killed, which in the long run meant better PR for Titan Solutions and more alien material for Adrian Toomes to salvage and share with a certain 8 foot tall close friend of his.
Having caught my breath, I give Susan a light swat on her head, signaling her to go off on her own. Letting out a challenging roar that rattles the windows around us and sends the people far below to the ground clutching their ears, Susan barrels towards where another Leviathan has just crashed through a building as if it was made of paper in order to get at her.
Watching as my pet dinosaur, now 50 feet tall and trailing fire and smoke from her wide open maw as she storms towards an approaching spacewhale, I give a wide grin before I turn around in search of my own victims, of which there are many.
Without the Sceptre, the Avengers can't close the portal (can't have my supply of limitless alien loot cut off too soon after all), so Chitauri Riders keep on flowing through the tear in space, and each Leviathan that survives not only cuts a swath of destruction through the city (which is something that Titan Solutions will be all too happy to fix, the more the better), they also bring a fresh load of new Chitauri warriors with them.
Meaning that my machine guns are constantly up and firing, my on board targeting system combined with my own enhanced senses meaning that I hit more often than I miss, Chitauri falling to the ground in scores, completely riddled with high-calibre bullets.
Occasionally as I'm flying around from hot-spot to hot-spot (guided by Phineas, who thanks to the legions of drones now in the air, is easily keeping an eye on the entirety of the battle for me) I spot some of the Avengers.
Iron Man and Thor are the easiest to notice, of course. Thor is easily racking up a kill count equal to mine with those enormous bolts of lightning he's throwing around, Chitauri dying in waves to the might of Mjolnir.
Iron Man just appears to be continuously surrounded by explosions as Tony tries his very best to corral what can only be compared to a tidal wave of locusts. The fact that he's actually somewhat succeeding in that effort says a lot about his skills as a combatant, flier, and his tactical awareness.
The Hulk is another that's easy to spot, as he's jumping around from building to building, crushing Chitauri in bulk in those meaty green fists of his, with an ease that's honestly almost frightening. Sure, me, Thor and Tony may kill more at a time, but we all need to work at killing the damned aliens.
Hulk merely grabs them in his hands, and squishes them as if they were nothing more than little bags of juice.
Cap, Barton, Romanov and Carter (Phineas had caught sight of her with one of his drones right as she snapped a Chitauri nearly in half over her knee) are a lot harder to spot in the sheer chaos that has become New York as I keep shooting down aliens, or letting them crash into my unbreakable body, but occasionally I do spot that glaring red, white and blue down on the streets.
It's not enough.
The waves of Chitauri soldiers keep breaking on our attacks, but they simply don't seem to run out. And every one we miss, is one that wreaks more and more havoc, and each Leviathan we miss means more and more Chitauri soldiers, which means that there are more and more enemy forces at our backs.
At any moment now, the situation will appear unsalvageable to the WSC, and they'll launch a nuke at Manhattan.
I needed that to be just a little bit later.
Flying straight into a squad of Riders that had been giving Stark a bit of trouble as he didn't manage to shake them, I manage to destroy two on impact, while I grab the head of another.
I stop.
His Sled doesn't.
With a wet cracking noise, his head pops off. Not even pausing as I'm covered in even more gore, I turn and throw the head with all my might at one of the various Chitauri that are climbing the surrounding buildings like mutated ants, striking one hard enough I caved its chest in.
Ignoring its chocked cries as it falls back to Earth, I return Stark's professional nod, before he rockets off, and I home in on my actual target.
A Leviathan, half again as large as most others, this one clearly bears the marks of having survived one of Thor's attacks (considering the multitude of charred Leviathans that surround the brightly glowing Chrysler Building, that's pretty impressive actually), since it's covered in scorching burnmarks, crashing into the various skycrapers of Manhattan.
Rocketing forwards, trying to ignore my aching body as yet more purple bolts slam into my armor (which is pitted and smoking in a few places, but still fully operational), I approach the Leviathan head-on. Once it notices me, it lets out a challenging roar (though it fails to compare to the ones the Hulk and Susan are making somewhere around Times Square) as it speeds towards me in those odd gravity-defying waving motions of the Leviathans.
It seems to have learned from his brethren, however, since instead of merely flying straight towards me with the intention of either ramming me or eating me, it heaves up its upper body at the latest moment, taking my tired mind off-guard.
Looking upwards, I have just enough time to lift up my arms, before the Leviathan crashes down onto me, its front teeth slamming against my outstretched palms. I try to keep myself in the air using Jessica's power, but with nothing to brace against, the Leviathan's vastly greater mass pushes me down with little effort, until it slams me into the street below, my feet cracking the tarmac and being almost completely buried.
I'm straining with all of my strength, holding up the Leviathan as it keeps trying to press down on me, its long sinuous body now almost ninety degrees upwards. The street keeps buckling around me, and I'm pretty sure that if this goes on much longer, the damned space whale will simply push me straight through it and into the subway.
So, I do something a little bit… stupid.
I start channeling magic in my hands. Now, magic, as the Ancient One had told Strange, could be seen as a sort of programming language to reality, funneling interdimensional energy through carefully constructed conduits (items, gestures, words, you name it) in order to achieve an desired effect.
One of the simpler spells was the Whip, partly because the required conduits (in this case gestures) were fairly few and rather easy, but mostly because it was nearly impossible to overpower the spell. Funneling too much interdimensional energy into spells could either cause it to fizzle out or blow up spectacularly, but in the case of the Whip, it either made it tougher or simply longer.
I start pumping a ridiculous amount of magic into the spell, a glowing array springing into existence around my outstretched arms, a thick burning line of light and energy forming between them.
And then I let go of the Leviathan.
It immediately opens its mouth wider as it speeds downwards, but I was already moving, rocketing backwards and letting the giant beast's jaws snap shut right in front of me.
With the Whip now in between its teeth.
Not giving it a moment to recover, I shoot upwards, cratering the ruined street even further underneath me. I only manage to fly up about 20 feet before the Whip pulls taut. So I pour on even more speed, literally dragging the Leviathan with me.
As its enormous head laboriously rises into the air, I make two quick loops around it, taking advantage of my greater maneuverability. Then, once I feel secure that the Whip would remain in place, I crash down onto the Leviathan's neck, straightening to my full length, and pulling on the magic lines as hard as I could.
And at my command, the Leviathan rises.
I want to laugh and roar in victory, but the moment is suddenly broken by a Chitauri soldier who had been aboard the Leviathan slamming a sword into my side, where the armor is thinnest. Due to my natural toughness and that of the armor, the sword doesn't even make it halfway inside, but it still hurts like a bitch and a half, a pained grunt escaping me as I desperately try to control the raging Leviathan underneath me.
The soldier savagely tears out his weapon, the blade now glowing red-hot, but if the alien notices or even cares I'm not sure, since he makes to immediately stab me again. Before he can attack, or I can defend for that matter, a slim arrow suddenly sprouts from his eye socket, his expression and limbs immediately falling slack as he slowly topples from the Leviathan to the ground far below.
"Soter! Keep any aliens from getting close to me!"
"Sure thing Hyperion."
"And make sure to send Barton a thank-you note."
"Of course."
Giving a harsh yank on my improvised reigns, I steer the Leviathan back towards the thick of the battle, smashing into every gob smacked Chitauri on the way.
I have to admit, seeing the God of Thunder freeze in smashing an aliens head in as both he and his victim stare with open mouths as I barrel past on my oiltanker sized alien bio-warship is probably the funniest thing I have ever seen.
Using my new mount, I slam into other Leviathans, either pushing them back towards the rough perimeter that Stark and Steve are trying to keep together, or to simply kill them outright, as I manage to break more than a few back by descending down towards them from on high at enormous speeds, ramming them right in the middle of their oversized bodies.
The Chitauri footsoldiers and Riders are simply reduced to smears upon impact. There's a whole squadron of Riders on my ass (from their unusually harsh and loud screams, I'm guessing stealing one of their bio-ship/warmounts/attackdogs is regarded as a pretty grave offense) but Phineas (or Soter, now that we're on 'active duty') is true to his word, and a small swarm of drones is sticking close to me, shooting down every alien that tries to board me.
My efforts in trying to turn back the invading forces are suddenly aided by the arrival of the military, an Apache Fighter swooping around the corner of one of the highrises as I pass it, taking down an entire wave of Chitauri Riders that had been hounding me.
Because the fight was now lasting longer than in canon, since none of the Avengers knew where the Sceptre was, and thus were unable to close the portal (I briefly wondered what that meant for their psyche's if they thought they were fighting a battle they simply couldn't end), enough time had elapsed for military and relief forces to finally arrive to the site of the wholly unexpected attack.
Choppers filled the air, getting into desperate dogfights with the surrounding aliens, while down below, waves of green fought bitterly for every single street as they tried to push back the endless tides, supported by LUV's and even APC's, lead by Carter and Captain America and aided by the elite forces of Titan Solutions.
Fighter jets were limited in their contribution, since their sheer flying speed and heavy ordnance meant that they were far too damaging to the City and their allies to get too close, but Phineas noted several Leviathans that had managed to breach the perimiter being reduced to smithereens by the combined fire of the jets that kept circling Manhattan at a high enough altitude so their mere passage wouldn't shatter ever glass object within the city, the deafening roar of their engines adding to the rumbling thunder of Thor's powers.
"Hyperion. Jessica is in trouble over on Lexington Avenue. Multiple Leviathans are harassing the surroundings, and she can only focus on one at a time."
"Thanks Soter, I'm on it."
Giving another heave on the reigns, I steer my Leviathan towards the direction of the Chrysler Building, that's no longer lit up as a Christmas Tree, though the surrounding skies are looking like a Cat 2 hurricane at this point, a near constant rumbling of thunder shaking the entire city.
Two small flying shapes, one trailing a red cape, the other clad in a dark duster, can be seen flitting around, smashing into Chitauri Riders and Leviathans alike, but by trying to create a bottleneck for the invaders, Thor has painted a pretty big target on himself, and the area is swarming with more enemies than they can handle.
Which is where I come in.
Spotting Thor and Jessica each near a Leviathan and roughly in line with each other, I give a hard stomp on my own beast's head, which causes it to give a hateful roar as it speeds up. Thor has just a moment to spot me, catch onto what I'm attempting, and move to the side of his own Leviathan.
The enemy spacewhale tries to follow the much more agile Thunder God, only to get completely blindsided by my own mount as it slams into its head, causing it to widely swing to the left, where Thor is already waiting with Mjolnir in a two-handed grip. As the disoriented massive head rockets towards it, he swings his mythic weapon with all of his godly might like a professional baseball player, crashing Mjolnir into the Leviathan with such brute force he sends its jaw (and the rest of it) flying.
I barely have eyes for this as I rocket towards the Leviathan that Jessica's currently tangling with. It has heard mine and Thor's attacks however, and is in the process of turning away from her and towards me. Unfortunately for it, this just means that it ends up presenting its side to me, and pouring on even more speed, my Leviathan slams into its fellow space whale with enough force to have it nearly do a 180.
As its tail is thrown wide, it rockets towards Jessica, who flies up, grabs it with both arms, and uses the momentum of the already spinning giant alien to wrest it upwards, swinging it wide over her head and slamming it down on top of the Empire State Building, it's gleaming tip punching through its underjaw straight through its brain and emerging out of the top of its skull.
That's my girl.
Still, as awesome as those moves had been (and that was disregarding the awesomeness of Iron Man's explosions and daredevil maneuvers, Hulk and Susan teaming up to literally tear a Leviathan in half in the most bizarre display of tug of war in the history of the universe, Phineas' unparalleled crowd control with a veritable swarm of deadly machinery) we're all tiring, Jessica wobbling slightly in the air before she manages to steady herself, her face showing the same exhaustion that's slowly starting to form on Thor's face.
The same exhaustion that becomes more and more apparent in my own body.
The fight in canon couldn't have lasted more than a couple of hours, two to three at the absolute most, though I think it was a lot shorter than that, given that the sun was pretty much in the same spot during the entirety of the battle.
But now… the sun was already setting.
In little over an hour, night will fall, and something tells me that these Chitauri didn't mind fighting in the dark. Meanwhile, most of our defenders don't have night vision, and neither do my own forces (the organic ones at least). Those that aren't aiding the soldiers (whose advance has stalled as the Chitauri numbers swelled beyond what they could overcome, so now they've dug in and are waging a bitter turf war with the aliens) are still evacuating people from the area of the battle, saving lives every second, but digging through the rubble in the dead of night was just as likely to do harm as good.
Sure, Thor's lighting and mine and Susan's fire (as well as the few lights that were still working in the city and the multitude that my robotic forces were equipped with) provides ample light for now, but we are tiring as well.
We can't keep this up for much longer.
However, deliverance was upon us in the form of Phineas speaking up in my earpiece.
"Hyperion. The WSC has just authorized a nuclear strike on Manhattan. Fury is fighting them over it, refusing to follow their order, but they're already scrambling a bird."
"Perfect. Are the Hysminai in postion?"
"They are. Ready to move at your command."
"Good. Soter, begin broadcast. Oh, and tell Pangborn to prepare a large area of effect stasis spell."
"As you wish, Hyperion."
And with those words, I steer my Leviathan towards Othrys. At the impressive speeds that the Chitauri creature moves at, I'm there within the minute, completely ignoring the raging aliens around me.
The battle was won anyways.
As my Island comes into view, I immediately spot the area where Pangborn has prepared his stasis spell, though I'm somewhat confused by the agitated twisting and shuffling of the jungle on the island.
A question for later.
Seeing the few figures that had helped Pangborn set everything up quickly run away from the area, I steer my Leviathan sharply downwards, landing the creature with such an enormous crash, that if it wasn't for Othrys highly advanced foundations, I'd be worried the massive impact might have caused some shifts and instabilities.
Almost before the Leviathan has come to a complete and sudden stop, I jump off, getting myself out of the radius of the spell as fast as possible.
"Activate it! NOW!"
Pangborn doesn't waste a moment, twisting his hands, covered in glowing geometric figures, a couple of times in intricate patterns around each other, before he slams them into the runic pattern before him, which lights up with a pale blue glow, showing a complicated figure that completely encompasses the Leviathan.
Said creature is trying to rise from the Earth, but the moment the last glyph lights up, a slightly transparent dome springs up around it, and it's motions are completely frozen. It's now in complete stasis: on the inside of the bubble, time no longer flows, perfectly preserving everything inside, like a better, magical version of amber.
Pangborn nearly collapses on the spot from channeling such advanced magic on such an humongous scale, blood dripping from his nose and eyes. Still, I'm on a very tight clock here, so I can't stay and make sure he's alright.
"Get him medical attention!"
"Already on it Hyperion." Phineas calm voice sounds in my ear, even as I hear him simultaneously broadcast from the legion of drones further into the city.
Having an incorporeal friend is weird.
As I rocket away, I can spot Phineas' Gatekeeper Platform quickly approach the slumped over form of Pangborn, the smoking pits and craters on the robotic frame giving me an inkling as to why there are faint screams coming from my agitated jungle.
And then I'm gone, eyes fixed on the horizon, where Phineas has helpfully put a targeting rectangle on my HUD. As I fly through the warzone that New York has become, I catch a snippet from Phineas' drones, his voice coming from a thousand angles but never sounding muffled or unintelligible.
"-repeat, the World Security Council, at 21:58, has authorized a nuclear strike on Manhattan, despite the objections of Director Nicholas Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. His objection to firing upon a civilian target on American Soil was overruled, and a nuke is now headed this way. Please try to remain inside. Hyperion of Titan Solutions is dealing with this issue as we speak. I repeat, the World Security Council-"
And then I'm out of the city itself, leaving its burning, warring remains behind me as I rocket towards the approaching nuke. As it approaches me in a head-on collision, I cut the power, allowing me to drop as I stretch out my hand.
Catching myself on the metal casing of the nuke, I first get into position underneath it, before I start flying as fast as I can, combining both my own flight, as well as the Arc Reactors in my armor. A keening wail starts to rise in the air around me, making my teeth ache in my skull, before there's an enormous wave of pressure and an ear deafening bang.
It takes me a moment to realize that I've just broken the soundbarrier.
As I approach the center of New York again, I can see that the Avengers and the Military have cottoned on immediately to what I'm trying to do, since I can see all of them trying to form a corridor for me straight to the portal (Romanov has even managed to once again commandeer a Sled, using it to deadly effect).
Blasting over the city, leaving rattling windows in my wake, I only have eyes for the portal far above me, as I begin angling upwards. I rocket past a battered Iron Man suit that's clearly all out of ordinance and is carefully timing its noticeably weaker repulsor blasts, past Susan who is missing part of her armor and whose still unleashing walls of flame, even though she's visibly exhausted, past Thor whose missing part of his cape and who as a black eye, even as he buries Mjolnir up to the hilt in the head of a Chituari soldier, past a Hulk who is literally wrestling a Leviathan to the ground…
Past a shocked looking Jessica, as I catch a glimpse of her face as I flash past her, her eyes wide as she follows me, her mouth forming a small 'no'.
And then all sound is cut off as I'm suddenly no longer in Earth's atmosphere. Instead, I'm hanging in the void of space at the other edge of the universe. Kilometers away are the mountainous motherships of the Chitauri, ready to unleash never ending hordes of their soldiers upon Earth, devouring it completely.
With a grin, I let go of the nuke, which speeds through the vacuum of space on its own power. Before it can get very far though, I take aim with my right gauntlet, a small compartment opening up with ordinance that I had been saving during the entire Invasion specifically for this moment.
A small object rockets out of my gauntlet, impacts the the speeding nuke... and now it's the size of a small boat.
That done, I quickly speak into my comms (specifically designed to work at interplanetary distances and yet still fit inside my helmet, something that Stark could do, but didn't know that he would end up needing).
"Now."
And with that, I turn around, and rocket towards the portal, which is already shrinking, the Tesseract having been shut off, despite the fact that none of the Avengers have the Scepter or even know where it is.
When they go to look for the cause of the shut down portal, they'll find out that the Tesseract will be gone as well, and the only people that know the whereabouts of both objects are me, Phineas, Harper and his special team, which nobody else knows about since their sensibilities would probably be against their usage.
I had given them the codename Hysminai, but they were once called the Winter Soldiers.
Harper was the only person who I could rely on to not mind the enslaving of elite Neo-Nazi's, and the Hysminai were so limited in their autonomy, I was forced to appoint a handler to them.
Phineas knew about them because, well, in a sense he is Othrys. Trying to keep the Hysminai secret from him would be an effort doomed to fail, so I clued him in on their existance as well. Thankfully, the digitized spirit wasn't too hung up on my mental enslavement of the elite supersoldiers, rationalizing it as a pretty shitty thing that had happened to some very shitty people and a such not something that he needed to feel bad aboud.
The fact that he thought it was cool as shit didn't have anything to do with his judgement, or so he promised me with the most unbelievable expression of innocence I had ever seen.
As I enter Earth's atmosphere again, being greeted with the sight of countless aliens that have just spontaneously dropped dead where they stood, the bloom of nuclear fire behind me suddenly shut off as the portal closes, I can't help the grin that's growing on my face.
Everything went according to plan.
Soter (Σωτήρ): male spirit of safety, preservation, and deliverance from harm.
Hysminai (Ὑσμῖναι): spirits of fighting and combat.
Fun Fact: Real Military Police were used in the attack of New York City. The crew hired 25 members of the Ohio-based 391st military police force battalion for the scenes, and director Joss Whedon even allowed them to give their own input on how they would theoretically act in a similar scenario, and then followed their directions.
AN: It's half past three AM… I'm… so… tired….
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