One hour earlier.
"How much longer until it's operational?!"
Inside the satellite, Tony Stark was drenched in sweat from sheer anxiety.
He had spotted the steadily advancing Chitauri army an hour ago.
The overwhelming tide of colossal beasts looked like a mass migration surging through the star sea. Among the dozens of Chitauri Leviathans, the largest had a body stretching several kilometers long.
The three motherships of the Skyhammer Bureau put together wouldn't measure half its length.
But even now, the protective barrier was still not fully ready.
"Soon," Bant answered him.
He was currently running the final adjustments. This step should have been straightforward, but he had never imagined that Loki would vanish.
The Tesseract was not an easy thing to harness before it fully awakened.
As an Asgardian, Loki had possessed the Tesseract for centuries, possibly longer. Their research on the artifact far surpassed anything Earth had achieved.
Bant had originally planned for Loki to activate the Tesseract and release its energy.
But Loki's sudden disappearance, with even his communicator unreachable, had thrown everything into chaos.
Tony Stark cursed furiously, raging that he'd always known Bambi couldn't be relied on.
Right now, he was just outside Earth's atmosphere. If the satellite failed to open the barrier before the Chitauri Leviathans arrived, he and Bant would have to face the Chitauri army head on.
Of course, that was the smaller issue.
What mattered far more was that the massive Chitauri army would sweep straight through and plunge deep into Earth. Once battle broke out on land, countless casualties would be inevitable.
"Deploy the armor first and engage. Try to contain the battle in space," Bant said.
Tony nodded at the words. He was thinking the same thing.
At the same time, the Avengers on the ground had finished their preparations.
Everyone was now fitted with a suit of armor. These suits were capable of supporting flight in the vacuum of space, ensuring they could board the Chitauri Leviathans.
"Once we're out in space, we won't be able to provide support," Norman said, placing a hand on Spider-Man's shoulder. "Prioritize your own safety."
"Don't worry, Mr. Norman."
Spider-Man knew Norman was speaking those words to Peter.
Harry had come as well, but he wouldn't be joining them in space. The Green Goblin armor wasn't suited for the space environment. Adding one more person wasn't necessary anyway.
Steve saw that everyone was ready. He immediately donned a steel battle suit from Prismos.
Then he raised his arm high and shouted, "Avengers, assemble!"
In the next instant, the suit's back opened and a violent burst of energy erupted, generating thrust that propelled Steve toward space like a rocket.
The other Avengers followed right behind.
After them came thousands of steel suits controlled by Eunice, their flames igniting in unison.
BOOM!
The uniformly clad iron warriors formed a vast army, charging straight at the incoming Chitauri horde in space.
Above the skies of New York, everyone could see the scene unfolding.
This war had never been kept hidden from the public. Norman had made advance deployments, evacuating most of the citizens. The entire world had entered a state of high alert.
If the Chitauri truly entered the atmosphere, every nation would launch missiles, striving to annihilate them all in the air. That was the second line of defense.
In New York, Felicia and Mary Jane brought their families, Uncle Ben and Aunt May, to Prismos.
With Prismos' security forces, this place was extremely safe.
In fact, besides them, Connors, Otto, and Banner were all there too, along with their families, of course.
Uncle Ben and Aunt May had no idea that their two nephews were out fighting in space right now. Bant had lied to them, saying that he and Peter had taken jobs at the Skyhammer Bureau, both in tech-related positions, solid desk jobs.
And as defenseless civilian desk workers, casually blowing up a couple of Chitauri soldiers would be perfectly reasonable, right?
In space, the enormous Chitauri Leviathans glided forward.
Inside the largest one, the Chitauri mothership, the towering figure of the Warlord stood.
Like most Chitauri, these Leviathans had been transformed into semi-mechanical lifeforms.
Even from within the beast, he could see everything outside. The Leviathans' brains were linked to the master control system, feeding the images they perceived directly to the Warlord's eyes.
Not far away, the blue planet reflected a brilliant light.
It was, he had to admit, a beautiful planet.
The Warlord, who was also known as The Other, stretched his gray-blue hand toward Earth. His fingers were as hideous as charred black coal after a fire.
He curled his five fingers, as if grasping the small Earth tightly in his palm. He would conquer this planet.
"Take this planet for me. I shall present it to the great Thanos."
At his words, all the Chitauri warriors mobilized.
Most of these soldiers were roughly human-sized, but their bodies were hunched, their faces like fleshless skulls. They shouted, "Destruction! Destruction! Purge all disorder and free will!"
Long before the Chitauri submitted to Thanos, they were already notorious across the universe. They called themselves the immune system of the cosmos, striking and annihilating all civilizations. At their core, they simply craved war.
Immediately, all the Chitauri soldiers armed themselves and prepared to deploy.
On both sides of the Chitauri Leviathans, countless channels opened, and the warriors riding their flying chariots poured out like a swarm.
From a distance, it looked like a deep blue tidal wave from the far side of the stars surging toward Earth.
Seeing this, the words Venom had spoken echoed in Bant's mind: locusts.
These creatures really were like a swarm.
By now, Tony had already suited up and was the first to charge toward the swarm. Knowing in advance that the enemy would be from space, he had designed every suit he'd built recently with space combat requirements in mind. At moments like this, he could always charge to the front.
Thankfully, he wasn't fighting alone.
The suits originally deployed to modify the satellite in space were now flying toward the swarm under his mental command.
Meanwhile, the steel warriors on Bant's side were also advancing toward the incoming Chitauri under Eunice's control. But in comparison, the number of suits was far too small.
BOOM!
Sound couldn't travel in space, but the fiery glow of the explosions was crystal clear.
Tony, leading those suits, looked like the remnant of a shattered army raising its blade, charging alone against an overwhelming tide.
In an instant, he was swallowed by the massive swarm of Chitauri.
This was nothing like the Battle of New York in the movies, where the Chitauri could only reach Earth through a narrow portal. He had essentially charged straight into the Chitauri battlefield.
In the movie, Tony had been able to nuke the mothership, causing the instant brain death of all the Chitauri.
But now, the mothership wasn't even here.
Tony had completely given up on aiming. Chitauri filled every direction around him. All he needed to do was max out his suit's firepower and blast with everything he had.
Missing would be the real surprise.
"If you had this kind of accuracy at night with Pepper, would your kid be old enough to buy soy sauce by now?" Bant asked over his earpiece.
"Bullshit!" Tony roared. He absolutely refused to let anyone slander his prowess. "I always use protection!"
Jarvis immediately responded, "Protective shield activated."
In an instant, a small energy shield enveloped the exterior of Tony's suit, blocking a fair number of the Chitauri attacks.
Even so, he was on the verge of being completely buried by the Chitauri.
If the suit didn't already supply oxygen, he would probably have suffocated by now.
The suit shook violently. To be honest, no protective energy shield could completely block every attack. Just like the Wakandan shield in Avengers 3, it was bound to break at some point. Not to mention that while his suit's energy was plentiful, it was still finite.
Inside the massive Chitauri Leviathan, the Warlord also spotted the tiny insect standing in the path of the great wave. He swung his battle axe and hissed in a low growl, "Crush him."
As if receiving a pheromone signal from the queen, the Chitauri warriors instantly grew even more frenzied. They threw themselves at Stark with mad recklessness.
Utterly fearless of death, like mindless beasts, they planned to tear open the shield around Tony Stark's armor with their bodies.
In truth, they really didn't possess much reason. The Chitauri lifeform was highly similar to ants. The Chitauri Queen continually birthed vast numbers of Chitauri. The moment they were born, they underwent modification and were assigned a destiny akin to worker ants, becoming pitiful cannon fodder in war.
Anyone could be sacrificed. The Warlord, though of transcendent status, was still merely a leader of the Chitauri.
Now, countless hideous faces pressed against Tony's suit. The cheeks of these Chitauri warriors were covered in desiccated, bone-like biological matter, much like insects. They showed no fear that the energy shield would burn their bodies. They swarmed forward together. One used its flesh to tear open the energy barrier, only to have its arm severed when the shield restored itself. But immediately after, another creature squeezed into that gap.
In that moment, Tony could have sworn he smelled something burning.
"Is anyone there? I need backup!" he shouted.
Then Peter's voice came through the comms channel.
"Hold on, Mr. Stark, we're coming!"
Steve, shield on his back, was the first to charge into the frenzy. The energy core in his suit's chest burst open, releasing a massive beam directly from the reactor. In an instant, it wiped out a huge swath of Chitauri warriors.
Tony broke free from the Chitauri like a drowning man finally surfacing. Gasping, he squeezed out of the breach and lifted his head to look toward Earth.
Thousands of steel warriors stood arrayed in a single line, like a Great Wall erected before his eyes.
"We're here, Tony," Steve said quietly. "We won't let you fight alone."
/-\
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