Tony Stark stared intently at the glaring red dot on the large screen, then looked up again at the blue tear in the sky outside the window.
An external singularity event.
A powerful energy source of opposite nature.
A chance that could shut everything down or destroy it all.
"Jarvis." Tony's voice was unusually calm.
"Sir."
"Get Pepper on the phone for me."
"Tony, are you crazy?!" Steve Rogers was the first to react, rushing in front of Tony to grab his arm, "We still have time, there must be another way!"
"No more, Old Ice Pop." Tony pushed his hand away, the metal faceplate of the armor clicking shut, leaving only a pair of glowing white electronic eyes, "This is the only way. The only hard reboot solution."
He walked towards the workbench where the key was placed.
"Hey! Stop right there!" Natasha also spoke, a rare urgency in her voice, "Do you know what you're doing? That's a nuclear bomb! Not a firework in your backyard!"
"I know." Tony picked up the small key device and weighed it in his hand, "A firework that can solve all problems. Shut down the portal and then blow up those ugly aliens' mothership... two birds with one stone, quite a bargain."
He turned around, his gaze through the metal faceplate sweeping over everyone present.
"This was a mess I made in the first place, so of course I have to finish it. Should I count on you guys in tights and the one swinging a hammer, or that Big Green Guy who can't control his temper?"
His tone was as mocking as ever, but the weight of his words was heavier than anyone's.
"Your task is to wait for my signal. When the shield disappears, plug this thing in."
He tossed the key to Natasha, who was closest to the engine core.
Natasha caught it instinctively; the small device in her palm was frighteningly heavy.
Jarvis's calm electronic voice came through the communicator.
"Sir, Ms. Potts' call has been connected."
"Tony?"
Pepper Potts' voice came from the communicator, full of worry, her voice breaking with a sob. She was trapped in the underground bunker of the Malibu mansion, knowing nothing of the situation outside.
Tony took a deep breath, forcing his voice to sound as relaxed as usual.
"Hi, honey. Sorry, traffic is a bit heavy here in New York, and today's live party is especially lively. I might... be a bit late home for dinner."
"...You'd better be, Stark." Pepper on the other end was silent for a few seconds; she knew him too well and heard the weight in his tone, "Don't try any tricks. If you dare to miss it, I swear..."
"I swear, I won't." Tony interrupted her, his voice filled with unprecedented tenderness, "Love you forever."
"Kzzzt—"
He cut the communication of his own accord.
"Jarvis."
"I'm here, sir."
"Pour all the remaining energy into the thrusters. We're going to... chase a star."
After speaking, he looked at no one else, and the thrusters at his feet erupted with a blinding flare. The reinforced glass on the top floor of Stark Tower shattered at the Impact.
That red and gold figure turned into a meteor, flying against all paths of escape and charging headlong into the death in the sky.
"Tony!!!"
Steve's shout was left far behind.
In the laboratory, everyone rushed to the broken window, watching that small red dot quickly disappear into the chaotic skyline.
"Dammit..." Dr. Banner leaned against the wall watching this scene, his fists clenched tight.
Above New York.
In Tony Stark's vision, only that point of death remained, trailing a long tail of flame and rapidly enlarging.
"Hey! Big guy!" he shouted at the speeding nuclear bomb, "You're going the wrong way! The party is over there!"
He extended his arms, tracing an arc in the air to accurately circle to the side and rear of the missile.
He used all his strength to tightly hug the cold missile body engraved with the numbers of death.
"Boom—!!!"
The nuclear bomb's massive kinetic energy caused his body to sink violently. Inside the armor, the piercing alarms reached a peak.
"Turn... around!!!"
Tony let out a roar. The arc reactor on his chest erupted with unprecedented light, converting all energy into pure thrust!
A mortal, a body of flesh and blood wrapped in steel, was forcibly... bit by bit... changing the trajectory of an intercontinental nuclear missile.
That tiny figure, like a moth to a flame, pushed a destructive force capable of leveling a city and resolutely crashed into the bottomless blue vortex in the sky.
A silent, indescribable blazing white light erupted from the other side of the portal.
The next second, a massive shockwave, diametrically opposite in nature to the Tesseract's cold blue spatial energy, poured violently back out of the gate!
The entire Stark Tower shook violently under this energy Impact!
In the top-floor laboratory, two energies belonging to different Worlds collided fiercely!
"Vrrr—!!!"
The indestructible blue energy shield began to flicker violently in this energy clash, distorting and then deforming!
"The chance!!" Lin Huai shouted.
"Now!"
Natasha's body suddenly lunged forward. All her calmness and training turned into the most precise and lethal action at this moment!
The Shutdown Key in her hand, carrying all her weight, slammed into the exposed core slot of the Singularity Engine!
The entire engine let out a piercing screech, and the frantically spinning core came to a sudden halt. The spatial structure maintaining the portal immediately disintegrated.
In the sky above, the massive blue vortex began to shrink rapidly at a visible rate, from a boundless void to a disc, and then to a point of light.
New York's sky was finally about to close again.
On the ground, those Chitauri Soldiers and flying craft connected to the Hive Mind suddenly stiffened, then fell limply from high altitudes and building walls like Puppets with cut strings, becoming piles of scrap metal that no longer moved.
However, the Space Pirates and Scavengers with mismatched equipment on the battlefield were unaffected. After a brief moment of shock, they realized their retreat was cut off and let out even more desperate and fierce roars, completely turning into Beasts trapped in the cage of Earth.
The war was not entirely over.
There were no cheers on the top floor of Stark Tower.
The eyes of all survivors were fixed on the point of light in the sky that was about to disappear completely.
"Come back, Tony... come back fast..." Steve Rogers murmured, panting heavily.
However, at the very instant, one-ten-thousandth of a second before that last bit of blue was swallowed by the night sky!
A tiny red and gold dot that had lost all its light fell out of that wound about to heal.
It was no longer flying, no longer glowing.
It was just a helpless, free-falling piece of iron, plummeting rapidly toward the hard ground below under the influence of gravity.
"Roar—!!!!"
A giant roar full of anger and anxiety erupted from the roof of a nearby skyscraper!
A massive green figure, legs kicking two deep indentations into the edge of the rooftop, soared into the sky with an extreme explosive power that defied his massive size!
He extended his massive arms in the air; the hand that had torn apart countless enemies and possessed immense destructive power was now incredibly precise and careful as it caught the falling tiny red and gold figure steadily in its arms.
Hulk holding the motionless Iron Man, landed heavily on the rooftop.