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The Chitauri warriors, formidable in their own right, poured into the city. Nearly half their bodies were cybernetically enhanced—semi-mechanical life forms controlled by a Chitauri hive mind.
Even with Iron Man intercepting with all his might, the sheer number of Chitauri soldiers pouring in was overwhelming. Tony was forced to shift his strategy, using the towering skyscrapers of New York for hit-and-run attacks. Above Stark Tower, the massive portal—a shimmering tear in the sky—had become a terrifying spectacle.
Loki admired the unfolding chaos from his perch on Stark Tower, the Mind Scepter gripped firmly in his hand, a cruel smile playing on his lips.
Boom!
A figure in a familiar red cloak descended from the sky like a thunderbolt. Thor landed, Mjolnir in hand, his voice a roar of fury. "Loki!"
He hadn't expected his brother to truly commit to this path of destruction. Even though Loki had deceived him with their father's supposed death, the bond of over a thousand years couldn't be so easily severed. In Thor's heart, Loki was mischievous, often cunning, but still his brother—still an Odinson. But now, Loki, driven by his own selfish desires, had unleashed war. He had allowed this fragile planet to be overrun by the locust-like Chitauri. This—this had shattered Thor's last shred of tolerance.
"Shut down the Tesseract immediately, Loki—or I swear by Asgard, I will destroy it!"
Facing his brother's ultimatum, Loki remained chillingly calm. "It's too late, brother. You can't stop it now." He looked down at Thor, tightening his grip on the Mind Scepter. "Now, there is only war."
"Then so be it!" Thor roared.
The battle between brothers—between gods—erupted. Loki leaped down, the Mind Scepter a blur of motion. Even Thor, mighty as he was, had to momentarily sidestep the initial assault. But Thor was Asgard's most valiant warrior. He swung Mjolnir, and it crashed against the Mind Scepter, sparks and raw energy crackling between them. Loki's initial advantage vanished. His expression hardened as Thor deflected energy blasts from the scepter with his hammer. The furious confrontation continued, but Loki was already beginning to show signs of strain against Thor's righteous power.
Below, the streets erupted in chaos. Civilians scattered, screaming in terror as the Chitauri began their indiscriminate attack. Laser fire shattered cars and ripped through buildings; those who didn't escape in time died where they stood. Police sirens wailed as squad cars deployed, officers leaping out, pistols drawn, to return fire. But the difference in firepower was tragically vast. A single blast from a Chitauri weapon obliterated a police car.
A streak of red and gold—Iron Man—blazed across the sky. Tony shot down Chitauri warriors one after another, but he was constantly pursued, narrowly avoiding enemy fire multiple times.
Hell's Kitchen.
Chitauri soldiers stalked into an apartment building. With a tall, imposing frame and a ferocious visage, one Chitauri warrior kicked open an apartment door.
Inside, a family of three hadn't had time to escape. The father shielded his wife and daughter, his hands trembling as he clutched a shotgun.
"Get out!" he bluffed, hoping the single remaining shell in the gun could intimidate the brutal alien.
But he was wrong. Chitauri soldiers had no mercy for humans.
The man yelled hysterically, "Go to Hell, you bastard!"
He pulled the trigger. The Chitauri soldier's shoulder exploded in a shower of alien gore, but the creature only became more enraged. It lunged into the room, intent on tearing the family apart.
Footsteps echoed in the dim hallway—sprinting, accelerating.
He kicked heavily off the wall for leverage, leaped up, his custom billy club already in hand. With a swift motion, it separated into two short, weighted batons, their ends tipped with high-grade alloy spikes—a specialized weapon crafted by Taran Industries.
One decisive strike—and the Chitauri soldier's head exploded.
The tall alien body crashed heavily to the ground.
The terrified family—wife and daughter huddled behind a wardrobe, the husband slumped in shock—looked up. Through the horned cowl of his dark red suit, a human face was visible. Daredevil.
"It's not safe here," Matt said, his voice urgent, the new combat suit John had given him flexing with his movements. "Go to Satan's Mansion—there's an underground racetrack there. You can take refuge."
"Okay, okay!" The man finally found his voice, scrambling to help his wife and child. Before leaving, he looked back, his voice filled with worry. "You be careful too, Daredevil."
In Hell's Kitchen, there were many heinous criminals, but there were far more ordinary, hardworking residents just struggling to get by. They weren't bad people; they were simply caught in the crossfire.
After saving the family, Matt gripped his weapons, his senses pushed to their absolute limit, filtering the cacophony of Hell's Kitchen for cries for help. He had to save as many as he could. This wasn't his usual fight against crime; this was true hell unleashed upon his home. Born here, raised here—the last thing Matt wanted was for Hell's Kitchen to become a smoldering ruin.
Another cry for help reached him. After ensuring the previous apartment was clear, he launched himself across rooftops, a crimson blur against the gray sky. But his acrobatics didn't go unnoticed. Several Chitauri fliers spotted him. A barrage of energy fire rained down, the ground beneath his feet exploding, and Matt was instantly buried under a collapsing ceiling.
Three Chitauri fliers circled, their weapons locking onto Matt's position. Just as they were about to fire, Matt heard the distinct thwip-thwip-thwip of objects slicing through the air. Three sharp, willow-leaf throwing knives found their marks, piercing the heads of the Chitauri pilots. The fliers spiraled out of control and crashed, their alien occupants silenced.
A figure landed gracefully on the rubble above him—clad in a blue combat suit, a stark contrast to Matt's own. Night Ghost. His suit bristled with modifications, clearly designed to carry an arsenal.
As Matt recognized him, Dax—Night Ghost—also spotted Matt. He pulled a spherical device from his belt—a bouncy ball bomb—and tossed it towards the debris pinning Matt. The bomb struck the heavy ceiling slab, and a contained explosion shattered it into manageable pieces. Matt was nearly crushed by the secondary impact, but his advanced combat suit absorbed most of the shock.
"Thank you," Matt gasped, struggling free. Though their methods in Hell's Kitchen were worlds apart, in this moment, they weren't enemies.
Dax merely glanced at Matt, a flicker of something unreadable—perhaps contempt—in his eyes, then turned and headed towards the sounds of more fighting without a word.
"Wait!" Matt called out, his senses warning him. "There are a lot of enemies in that direction!"
But he didn't understand. Dax wasn't avoiding the danger; he craved it. For Night Ghost, this alien invasion was a bloody paradise. Armed to the teeth, he would unleash the darkness within, one kill at a time.
Park Avenue was a war zone. Explosions rocked the street as Chitauri fliers strafed the ground. People abandoned their cars, fleeing in every direction. In the desperate scramble, a woman was separated from her child.
"My baby!" she screamed, fighting against the tide of the panicked crowd.
Then she saw him. Her child, small and terrified, with a Chitauri soldier advancing, its bladed weapon raised. The alien stood over the four-year-old, ready to strike. The woman ran, a desperate, primal cry tearing from her throat, but she knew she was too late. She squeezed her eyes shut, unable to watch.
Crack! A single gunshot. Then, a wet splatter.
The woman fell to her knees, helpless. But a familiar cry—her child's cry—made her open her eyes. Her son was unharmed, held safely in the arms of a tall Black man. Behind him, the Chitauri soldier lay dead, its own weapon somehow turned against it, its head shattered.
"Leave here quickly. Don't go back onto the street," Robert said gently, handing the child to the mother. He glanced at his abandoned taxi, then up at the sky where Iron Man executed a sharp turn, pursued by a swarm of Chitauri. A Quinjet swooped in, firing at the hostiles. More Chitauri emerged on the street. Robert urged the mother and child to safety, then calmly picked up the fallen Chitauri's weapon. He was a master of weaponry; it didn't take him long to understand its function. He wouldn't fight on the open street—that was suicide. Instead, he slipped into a nearby building. This was his home ground.
Meanwhile, from the portal above Stark Tower, a monstrous shape began to emerge—a Chitauri Leviathan, a colossal, armored beast of war.
On the ground, Steve, Natasha, and Barton—who had been en route to help Thor subdue Loki before their Quinjet was blasted by Loki's scepter and forced to crash land—stared up in grim disbelief. Barton's incredible piloting skills had saved them from utter annihilation, but now they faced a new horror. The Leviathan snaked through the sky, Chitauri soldiers leaping from its armored sides, swarming into the surrounding buildings.
How could they possibly fight this? More and more Chitauri poured into New York. A suffocating sense of despair began to settle over the city.
Suddenly—one Chitauri flier exploded in mid-air. Then another. And a third.
Steve, Natasha, and Barton whirled around. From behind them came the heavy, rhythmic sound of approaching footsteps.
Formations of Steel Soldiers marched down the street, coming to a halt in disciplined ranks. Stabilizing leg locks deployed from their legs, anchoring them firmly to the ground as shoulder-mounted anti-aircraft cannons swiveled into position.
Fifty Army Steel Soldiers were now active.
A fierce storm of firepower erupted. The ground beneath them trembled from the massive recoil, shattered stones dancing in the air. Chitauri fliers began to fall from the sky, one after another. More sonic booms ripped through the air as airborne Steel Soldiers, flying in tight formation, streaked past Iron Man, unleashing a devastating barrage on the Chitauri swarming the skies.
In that moment, the tide of the battle began to turn. Steel Soldiers versus Chitauri.
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