"Not good. Thor is down!"
Fury reacted instantly. Seeing the Destroyer turn its sights on the frozen Asgardian prince, he barked into his comms.
"Save him! Do not let it kill Thor! If he dies, we are finished!"
Technically, this was an Asgardian civil war. None of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s business.
If Loki were just some petty tyrant content with ruling Asgard, Fury might have played dead and let them sort it out. Why risk human lives for alien politics?
But Loki wasn't content. He had ambitions. He wanted to invade Earth.
If Loki secured the throne today, the invasion fleets seen in Lucas's diary would become tomorrow's reality. That was a future Fury couldn't allow.
Before Fury even finished his sentence, Tony Stark was already in the air.
Iron Man swooped down, placing himself directly between the towering Destroyer and the Thor-cicle.
"I really hate meddling in family drama, but hey, Point Break—you owe me one!"
Tony quipped as he unleashed a barrage of repulsor blasts straight into the Destroyer's chest.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
Explosions bloomed against the metal giant. But when the smoke cleared, the Destroyer stood unmoved. The repulsor beams hadn't even scratched the paint.
"J.A.R.V.I.S., analyze armor density!" Tony shouted. "Calculate based on my current output. What do I need to crack this shell?"
"Sir," J.A.R.V.I.S.'s voice was calm but grim. "Your current weaponry poses zero threat to the target. You lack the heavy ordinance required for anti-armor penetration against this material."
"Damn it!" Tony cursed.
He knew it. He'd known it since the Iron Monger fight.
His Mark III was a sports car. Agile, fast, stylish. But against a tank? It was useless.
He was basically light infantry trying to punch through a bunker.
Obadiah Stane's Iron Monger had taught him this lesson the hard way: size matters. Mass matters.
That was why he'd started designing the heavy-duty suits—Hulkbuster, Thorbuster, Anti-Superman Armor. But none of those were ready yet.
And now, facing the Destroyer—a magical tank with infinite ammo and invulnerable armor—Tony was out of options.
"Fury! Get your men in there and drag the popsicle out! I can't hold this thing for long!" Tony yelled over the comms.
Fury snapped out of his shock and waved his team forward. S.H.I.E.L.D. tactical squads rushed toward the crater, trying to retrieve Thor's frozen body.
But they were too slow.
Loki, watching through the Destroyer's eyes, saw them coming.
The faceplate slid open.
BWWOOOOM!
A beam of pure disintegration swept across the desert floor.
In an instant, the tactical squad vanished. Vaporized. Not even bodies left to bury.
The sheer power was horrifying. Thor might have tanked shots like that earlier, but for normal humans? It was instant death.
"Look out!"
Tony didn't have time to mourn. He thrust his palms forward, diverting power to shields as he flew straight at the Destroyer to draw fire.
BANG!
A backhand swat from the metal giant sent Iron Man flying like a ragdoll.
"Holy—J.A.R.V.I.S., recalibrate the shock absorbers!" Tony gasped, tasting blood.
His dampeners were calibrated for impacts like Iron Monger's hydraulic punches. The Destroyer hit with the force of a collapsing building.
"Recalibrating, Sir," J.A.R.V.I.S. replied. "Warning: Chest plate integrity at 90%. Structural fractures detected."
"I know I can't beat it! I just need to distract it!" Tony roared, firing unibeams that bounced harmlessly off the Destroyer's face.
The Destroyer ignored the annoyance. Its faceplate glowed again, locking onto the red-and-gold gnat buzzing around it.
A continuous stream of yellow energy erupted, chasing Tony across the sky.
"What the hell?! It doesn't even have an arc reactor! Where is it getting the energy?! This isn't science!" Tony screamed as he barrel-rolled to dodge the beam.
The heat was intense. His HUD flashed red warnings.
"Sir, armor fatigue is at 80%. If you sustain another direct hit, the suit will fail catastrophically in thirty seconds."
"J.A.R.V.I.S., divert all power to thrusters! Get us out of here!"
Tony felt humiliated. Since becoming Iron Man, he'd faced two real opponents: Stane and this thing. And both times, he'd been tossed around like a toy.
Being a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist was great, but being a punching bag sucked.
With a sonic boom, the Mark III shot upward, barely escaping the Destroyer's firing range. Even with Earth's most advanced alloy, he hadn't lasted a minute.
Meanwhile, on the ground, the situation was dire.
"What do we do, Sir?" Coulson asked, watching Iron Man retreat.
Fury's face was stone cold.
"We have no choice. Contact the World Security Council. Alert the White House. Request military deployment."
He paused, his voice dropping an octave.
"And if that fails... authorize the nuclear option."
The words tasted like ash in his mouth.
A nuke on American soil. It was a nightmare scenario.
But if the Destroyer wasn't stopped here, it wouldn't just stay in the desert. It would march to Los Angeles. Or New York. And it would level them. Literally flatten them.
The thing had infinite energy. It didn't tire. It didn't stop.
A nuke was the only weapon humanity had that might scratch it.
And more importantly...
"We need to send a message to Loki," Fury thought, staring at the unstoppable machine. "If we don't show him we're willing to burn everything down, he'll think Earth is free real estate."