From the edge of the Stark Tower balcony, I watched the consequences of my action unfold.
The sky was clear.
The streets weren't.
Chitauri soldiers crawled out of the wreckage by the hundreds, flooding the avenues below. Plasma fire flashed between the buildings, lighting up the shadows in bursts of blue and white.
Steve, Natasha, and Clint were taking the brunt of it. They had formed a defensive perimeter behind a barricade of taxi cabs on Park Avenue, but the sheer volume of grounded alien infantry was threatening to overrun them.
I stepped off the edge of the glass platform.
The wind roared in my ears as I plummeted down the side of the skyscraper. Just before impact, I slowed.
My boots hit the pavement hard enough to crack the asphalt, landing right in the middle of an advancing Chitauri squad.
Before they could turn their rifles on me, I swept my hand outward. A wave of telekinetic force hit them like a freight train, launching the front line of aliens backward into the side of a crushed city bus.
Walking toward the barricade, I caught a stray plasma bolt mid-air with a twitch of my fingers. I crushed the superheated energy into sparks and stepped up beside Steve.
He bashed a Chitauri soldier backward with his shield and threw a quick glance my way. "Glad you decided to join us down here, Adrian."
"Captain," I said, projecting a telekinetic barrier across the intersection. A dozen heavy plasma rounds splashed harmlessly against the invisible wall, buying Natasha and Clint crucial seconds to reload. "We've got a numbers problem."
"We noticed," Clint called out. He put a fresh magazine into his bow and fired an explosive arrow over my barrier. It detonated in a cluster of aliens, sending them flying. "Got any more neat tricks?"
Before I could answer, a deep, mechanical shriek vibrated through the concrete beneath our feet. It was a sound so low and massive it rattled my teeth.
Looking up past the skyscrapers, we saw it.
A Leviathan swam out of the portal. It was a colossal, armored space-whale, undulating through the air with slow, terrifying power. It ignored the buildings completely, moving in a sweeping arc directly toward our avenue.
Then, it crossed the five-block threshold of my domain.
The absolute gravitational lock seized the behemoth instantly. Stripped of its anti-gravity buoyancy, massive alien whale dropped out of the sky.
It hit the avenue three blocks away. The impact shook the ground beneath our feet, sending debris and dust exploding into the air.
But it didn't stop.
The Leviathan skidded forward, tearing through asphalt, crushing cars into scrap as it barreled straight toward us.
In its path.
Trapped in the middle of the street, completely blocked by piled-up cars, was a city transit bus. Dozens of civilians pounded frantically on the glass, watching the giant space monster sliding right at them.
Steve broke into a sprint, his shield raised, but the distance was too great.
I blurred forward.
Stepping past the barricade, I planted myself directly in the center of the avenue, ten yards in front of the bus. I widened my stance, driving my heels into the asphalt, and raised my hands.
The Leviathan's armored snout slammed into my palms.
The impact thundered through the street. I didn't flinch. My arms remained locked, fueled entirely by my aura, completely unyielding against the thousands of tons of alien monster.
But physics still demanded a toll. The pavement beneath my feet instantly exploded into gravel and dust. My boots carved deep, jagged trenches into the avenue. The sheer forward momentum of the beast pushed me backward through the ruined street.
The thick metal plating of its jaw struggled and buckled against my hands as I bled off its speed. I ground the massive train of armor down to a crawl, sliding back five yards... then three... before finally coming to a dead stop just inches from the front bumper of the civilian bus.
The Leviathan was halted, trapped against my absolute hold, but it was still thrashing violently, its massive tail whipping through the air and destroying the surrounding building facades.
A motorcycle engine cut through the chaos.
Banner.
He pulled up behind the barricade. He calmly climbed off the rusted bike, taking in the destruction. He looked down the street at the thrashing alien whale, pinned in place by a single man.
Steve jogged up near him, chest heaving. "Dr. Banner. Now might be a really good time for you to get angry."
Bruce kept his eyes on the Leviathan. He started walking steadily toward us, his pace perfectly even.
"That's my secret, Captain," Bruce said, his voice dropping as his skin shifted into a bruised, dark green. "I'm always angry."
His body violently expanded, tearing through his clothes as the Hulk took over. The giant lunged forward, closing the distance in two massive leaps. He landed right beside me, planted his massive feet, and drove a devastating upward hook directly into the Leviathan's crumpled jaw.
The absolute, raw force of the Hulk's punch countered the beast's thrashing. The impact flipped its massive tail cleanly over its own head. The Leviathan crashed heavily onto its back, dead.
I lowered my arms, brushing a thick layer of concrete dust from the lapels of my suit. I glanced back at the bus. The civilians inside were completely silent, staring in absolute awe.
The Hulk stood over the carcass, letting out a deafening, triumphant roar that echoed off the glass of the surrounding skyscrapers.
A familiar mechanical whine filled the air. Iron Man touched down on the pavement next to the carcass, his shoulder weapons spinning down. "Well. That's one way to stop traffic."
A second later, lightning arced across the sky. Thor dropped from a nearby rooftop, his red cape billowing as he hit the ground. He looked at the massive trenches my boots had carved into the asphalt, then gave me a firm nod of respect.
Natasha walked out from behind the taxis, checking the chambers of her pistols. Clint followed close behind, casually nocking a fresh arrow to his bowstring.
Steve stepped up to the front of the group, bringing his shield tight to his arm. He looked at the portal still spewing Chitauri forces in the distance, then looked around at the rest of us.
We stood together in a tight circle in the center of the ruined street, surrounded by the screeching alien army closing in from all sides.
"Your call, Cap." Tony said.
The team was finally assembled.
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