"I'm in."
Natasha Romanoff was the first to step forward. Her face was expressionless as she took out two handguns and skillfully checked the magazines; her actions already said everything. Having spent a lifetime as an Agent operating in the shadows, this kind of off-the-books black op, detached from official constraints, was the battlefield she was most familiar with.
"Count me in." Clint Barton rose from the corner, patting the quiver behind his back that almost never left him. "Gotta find something to do, or my bones will rust."
Steve Rogers looked at this temporary team and nodded steadily. "Tony needs rest, and I need to stay in the public eye to draw official attention. Jarvis will provide you with technical and intelligence support. Stay safe."
"Don't worry, we're professionals." The corners of Natasha's mouth curled up slightly.
Just like that, a cleaner team consisting of Lin Huai, Black Widow, and Hawkeye, operating outside of all official sightlines, was established.
Night deepened, yet the chaos in New York was far from over.
Jarvis quickly locked onto the first high-value target: a group of Cosmic Pirates were raiding a Polymer Materials Laboratory at Columbia University. Tony guessed they wanted the superconducting material samples stored inside.
In Queens, on the street leading to the laboratory, a pirate squad responsible for sentry duty had just arrived and hadn't had time to set up defenses.
A silent arrow streaked through the night sky, pinning itself precisely onto the hood of a car being used as cover. The next second, the arrowhead released a strong electromagnetic pulse, and the energy weapons in the hands of all the pirates instantly went dead.
The pirates looked up in shock, greeted by dark shadows descending from the sky.
Natasha Romanoff dropped among them silently like an elegant Black Panther. Every move she made was concise and lethal; in less than ten seconds, three pirates had lost their fighting capacity and lay on the ground in pain.
The only remaining pirate squad leader was about to pull out the dagger at his waist when an arrow whistled through the air, accurately piercing his wrist and pinning him and his dagger firmly to the wall.
Lin Huai stepped slowly out of the shadows at the alley entrance. He looked at the wailing pirates on the ground, then glanced at Clint on the roof with his bow drawn taut, signaling that everything was under control.
Natasha dragged a pirate who was still somewhat conscious into the deeper part of the alley and began her professional interrogation. However, this cosmic pirate's mouth was tougher than the energy gun in his hand.
"Let me try."
Lin Huai walked up to the pirate squad leader pinned to the wall. Natasha understood his intent and knocked him out with a hand chop.
Lin Huai crouched down, carefully examining the pirate squad leader's face, which was distorted in pain. A few seconds later, amidst a flurry of wriggling and blurring, his form changed into that of the squad leader, even the damage on the clothes was identical.
He walked into the alley and kicked the pirate.
"Idiot! What are you still holding out for!" Lin Huai, disguised as the squad leader, growled in a low voice. "I already said, I don't want to die at a time like this. My Lord, do you think you could let me go?"
Natasha nodded, and the squad leader disguised by Lin Huai immediately fled out of the alley.
The pirate prisoner, who had been holding out, saw his boss "defect" so quickly and even sell him out; his psychological defenses instantly collapsed.
"The shipyard... Yes, our temporary headquarters is at the abandoned shipyard in Brooklyn! We're repairing communicators there, preparing to contact the main fleet!"
After getting the intelligence, Lin Huai didn't act immediately. He walked to an unnoticed corner and took out a yellow crystal pendulum.
"The intelligence just now is true."
He chanted silently in his mind, and the pendulum slowly rotated clockwise.
"The final hideout is at the Brooklyn shipyard."
The pendulum rotated clockwise again. Having confirmed the accuracy of the intelligence, Lin Huai nodded to the other two.
"Let's go, time to pull in the net."
Over the next few hours, this three-person team turned into the most efficient harvesters in the New York night. Using the clues they obtained, they uprooted several other small hiding spots one by one. All the pirates were quickly subdued under their exquisite coordination. Those who resisted to the end had their mouths shut forever by Clint's arrows.
As the first ray of dawn broke through the sky, the three were already standing outside the abandoned shipyard in Brooklyn. This was the last and largest stronghold.
"Forty-one heat signatures, five heavy firepower points. It seems they don't know their underlings have already been wiped out." Clint reported the situation as he put away his arrow equipped with a special lens.
"A direct assault isn't a good option." Natasha frowned.
"Then let's let them fall into chaos themselves." Lin Huai smiled.
He transformed into the pirate squad leader again. This time it wasn't for interrogation, but to put on a good show. He took a deep breath, put on a look of panic, and rushed through the main gate, shouting in Cosmic Common as he ran:
"This is bad! Those Earth Lunatics are attacking! It's Cohen, he sold out our location!"
Chaos instantly erupted inside the warehouse as suspicion and panic spread rapidly. At the moment the Cosmic Pirates raised their weapons against each other over who was the "traitor," Natasha and Clint struck from the shadows.
A cleanup with no suspense began.
Half an hour later, when Lin Huai, Natasha, and Clint dragged their weary bodies back to Stark Tower, it was already broad daylight.
In the laboratory, the Avengers were all still there, exhaustion written on everyone's faces.
"Done?" Steve came forward to meet them.
"New York is clean now," Natasha replied briefly.
A brutal war finally came to an end at this moment. The joy of victory did not appear; instead, there was the silence of survival and extreme fatigue. Everyone remained silent, the only sound in the room being heavy breathing.
Tony Stark snapped his fingers, breaking the heavy silence.
His face was also filled with exhaustion, but his signature unruly smirk still hung on the corners of his mouth.
"Alright, everyone. Having saved the World, it's about time for a meal. Anyone want to try some shawarma? I saw a place earlier."
No one objected.
Tens of minutes later, on a street full of dust and debris, in a small shawarma shop Lin Huai was familiar with that had survived the disaster.
The owner looked tremblingly at this group of gods who had descended from the sky, then at the thick stack of US dollars Tony handed over, and briskly began roasting the meat.
The Avengers sat around the only table that was still somewhat intact, surrounded by broken glass and peeling wall paint.
Total silence.
Hulk had already turned back into Bruce Banner. He leaned weakly in the corner with his eyes closed, looking like he could fall asleep the next second. Steve pulled a soft cloth from his tactical pouch and wiped his energy shield over and over, the surface of the shield reflecting his tired but determined face.
Natasha and Clint sat back-to-back, sharing a portion of shawarma, a tacit understanding between them that others couldn't intrude upon.
Tony chewed in large gulps, his expression showing no joy or sorrow, only extreme fatigue.
Lin Huai sat quietly among them, observing it all. The flames of war had burned the city, but upon these ruins, they had also kindled a resilient spark of humanity. After destruction, reconstruction must follow.
In this eerie tranquility, this temporary team of mortals, gods, super soldiers, and scientists was being silently forged into a true whole.
"Clatter—"
The shop owner began tidying up the nearby tables and chairs; the sound of metal clashing was particularly piercing in this silence.
"Ugh..."
A weak groan came from the corner.
Loki, who had been forgotten in the corner, was woken by the noise.
He slowly and painfully opened his eyes.
In those emerald eyes, there was no longer the usual shrewdness, looking somewhat dim. Only the confusion and weakness of someone just recovering from a serious illness. He struggled to sit up, but the soul trauma made his body refuse to obey, and in the end, he only managed a weak sway.
At this moment, he had none of the air of the god of mischief, looking more like an ordinary patient just wheeled out of the ICU.
"Loki!"
Thor was the first to react. He dropped the food in his hand and rushed over, his movements urgent, yet becoming clumsy and careful as he nearly reached Loki.
He reached out and gently supported Loki's shoulders, his blue eyes filled with a worry and concern his brother had never seen before.
Loki's gaze slowly focused. He looked at his brother's face, covered in dust and blood, then at the heroes around him who were equally exhausted, all staring at him.
He had intended to habitually say a few mocking words, like "What are you looking at, haven't you seen a handsome guy wake up?" or some other bastardly thing.
But when the words reached his lips, what came out was something that even surprised himself.
His lips quivered, his voice so weak it was almost inaudible.
"Did we... win?"
This "we" made Thor's body instantly stiffen.
He nodded vigorously, his eyes turning red without warning. He opened his arms and gave Loki a solid bear hug, shouting excitedly:
"Yes, brother!! We won! o(╥﹏╥)o"
Loki was squeezed so hard he almost fainted again.
But he didn't struggle as usual, nor did he push him away. He just raised his only arm that could move and weakly, on his brother's broad back, gave a gentle pat.
"...This time, you didn't do bad, brother."
The lingering smoke of the Battle of New York finally dissipated in this late and clumsy reconciliation between the two brothers.
Lin Huai watched this scene, seeing the relieved weakness on Loki's face and the rekindled flame of kinship in Thor's eyes, and the stone that had been hanging in his heart finally fell to the ground.