Inside Stark Tower, it was also a complete mess.
Lin Huai kicked the tower's revolving door off its hinges, sending shards of glass flying everywhere. In the lobby, Chitauri Soldiers and another type of ragged-uniformed aliens were tangled together. They weren't just attacking humans; they were even fighting amongst themselves to grab weapon fragments scattered on the ground.
"Where did these airdrops come from? They look all weird and misshapen!" Colonel Rhodes roared, blasting a would-be ambusher alien into chunks with his shoulder cannon.
"Don't worry about them!" Steve's shield flew from his hand, drawing a graceful arc through the air, accurately flattening a row of enemies before bouncing back into his grasp. "Our target is the top floor!"
"Fighting our way up like this is too slow!" Lin Huai shouted to the others, dodging an Energy beam.
His figure suddenly blurred, his bones emitting a teeth-grating series of cracks and pops. In the blink of an eye, he transformed into a larger, bulkier Chitauri commander.
Imitating the aliens, Lin Huai let out a series of incomprehensible hisses and roars. He extended his claws, first pointing at a squad of Chitauri Soldiers focusing fire to the left, then swiftly pointing at the looting pirates on the other side. His gestures were full of fury and unquestionable authority.
Lin Huai's impersonation directly caused a command conflict within the local network of the Hive mind. For these low-level soldiers who absolutely obey orders from superiors, a command from a Commander right before their eyes created a paradox with the macro instructions coming from the Mothership, throwing their actions into a state of mental gridlock. Their brains overloaded, and they collapsed on the spot.
"Now's our chance! Follow me!"
Thor seized this opening with a furious roar. He raised mjolnir overhead, hurled it upwards with immense force, and caught it precisely upon its return. The violent shockwave directly shattered the ceiling above them, creating a hole several meters in diameter.
"Go!" Steve yelled.
Thor leaped up, grabbing the edge of the hole and flipping himself through. The others followed closely behind.
The tactic was simple and brutal, but its efficiency was terrifyingly high.
Lin Huai continued playing his role as a mole down below, using ambiguous commands to disrupt the enemy's deployment. As for Thor, he became an unstoppable wall-breaking machine.
"Boom!"
The second-floor ceiling was smashed open.
"BOOM!!"
The third-floor ceiling was also smashed open.
With every swing of the God of Thunder's hammer, a straight vertical passageway was brutally carved through this New York landmark. Rubble and steel rebar rained down like a downpour. Steve used his shield to protect everyone overhead as they steadily advanced.
Within minutes, they had already blasted through dozens of floors.
Thor smashed through another ceiling, and the familiar laboratory came into view.
"CRASH!"
The ceiling shattered. Thor, covered in dust, jumped up from the hole and landed steadily at the door of the top-floor laboratory. Lin Huai, Steve, and Rhodes also jumped up.
"You're finally here! I was starting to think I'd have to wait for a delivery!"
Tony Stark's voice floated over from nearby. He was wearing a battered suit of armor, using an Energy hand-shield to desperately block the intense barrage of fire from outside the window. Natasha and Dr. Banner were hiding behind a sturdy lab table. Dr. Banner was sweating profusely, his hands flying across a keyboard, trying to wrest back control of the system.
"What's the situation?" Steve asked, keeping a vigilant watch on their surroundings.
"Terrible!" Tony retracted his energy shield and spoke rapidly. "That Singularity Engine was remotely activated by a S.H.I.E.L.D. mole! I can't shut it down now!"
He pointed at the massive device in the middle of the lab, which was voraciously devouring and spewing blue energy. The Tesseract's power was being infinitely amplified by the engine, tearing a hole in the sky.
"Let me try!" Thor said without hesitation, raising his hammer to deliver a powerful blow to the machine.
"DON'T!!" Tony hurriedly stopped him. "It's now deeply bound with the Tesseract, and its energy output has exceeded my design limits! You hit it with that hammer, and you'll be giving all of Manhattan a fireworks show at nuclear blast levels!"
Tony picked up a U-shaped, precision device the size of a thumb drive from the workbench.
"The only way is to manually insert this Shutdown key into the engine's core," he said, looking utterly defeated. "But look at that thing."
He pointed at the thin, rippling blue energy shield surrounding the engine core.
"The Tesseract's overflowing energy has formed an Absolute defense shield. Any attack will be absorbed by it. Right now, I'm just a poor schmuck who wants to run a virus scan on his own computer but finds the admin password changed by a thief! I can't get in!"
Just as everyone was at a loss, all the large screens in the lab suddenly flickered to life with a crackle.
A face that was both familiar and unfamiliar filled every screen.
World Security Council Representative, Alexander Pierce.
He was wearing an impeccably tailored suit, a composed smile on his face, as if he were at a high-society cocktail party rather than in the middle of a chaotic battlefield.
"Good afternoon, Avengers."
Pierce's voice came through the speakers, unnervingly calm.
"I imagine you have many questions. Don't worry, I will explain everything clearly." He adjusted his tie for the camera, his demeanor like that of someone giving a routine work report.
"That's correct. I gave the order to activate the Singularity Engine."
"And I, as you might have guessed, am the President of HYDRA's New York branch."
Pierce continued in his unemotional tone:
"This World has slept for too long in the cradle of peace. It has forgotten what true unity is, forgotten how to stand together in the face of a threat."
His gaze swept over each person before the screens. There was no hostility in his eyes, only a heavy sense of gravity and impatience.
"Therefore, we decided to light a fire, to give this World a common enemy. However, we severely underestimated the Tesseract's power and miscalculated the complexity of the Universe. This... exercise has now become a genuine disaster."
There wasn't a hint of remorse in his tone, only the cold acknowledgment of fact.
"HYDRA's goal is to establish absolute order, not to bring about unregulated destruction. A ruined World serves no one's interests, including ours."
"So, we must cooperate, Avengers." Pierce looked directly into the camera, as if making eye contact with Stark and Rogers. "The key to shutting down the Singularity Engine is in your hands. But we cannot breach the Tesseract's energy shield from the outside. We've tried. We failed."
"I need you to find a way to break through the shield from the inside and manually shut down the engine. In exchange, I will mobilize all forces at my disposal to clean up those uninvited guests on the ground, buying you enough time."
He paused, his tone becoming exceptionally grave.
"We started this farce, but to end it requires all of us. For humanity to survive, not for any organization. Avengers, don't disappoint me."
With that, Pierce's face showed no extra emotion. All screens went black simultaneously, turning off.
In the lab, only the sound of increasingly heavy breathing remained.
A rage born of being manipulated and betrayed burned in every chest. This was no longer a simple alien invasion, but a profoundly stupid operation personally directed by the highest echelons of humanity, which had then spun disastrously out of control.
"We..." Natasha's voice was a bit hoarse. She was the first to break the silence.
Steve Rogers slowly raised his head. The confusion and shock in his blue eyes were gone, replaced by a cold, resolute determination unlike any he had shown before.
He didn't look at anyone, just fixed his gaze on the shattered sky outside the window.
"Save people first,"
he said.
"Then, settle the score."