At the top of Stark Tower, the skyline had turned into something out of a cosmic fever dream.
A pillar of light tore through the sky, linking Earth to somewhere far less friendly. It shimmered like a wound in reality, and through it poured an alien invasion.
And yet… no one on the rooftop looked particularly worried.
Because standing among them was someone far worse than the invasion itself.
Noah Vale rolled his shoulder, fingers pressing into the muscle like he'd just woken up from a nap instead of witnessing the beginning of an interstellar war.
"Alright," he said casually, "I'll handle it."
Then he vanished.
Inside the portal, the Chitauri flooded forward in endless waves, their numbers stacking into the thousands within seconds. Satellites locked onto the breach, broadcasting everything worldwide. Humanity leaned forward collectively, watching their first real look at alien invaders.
"They don't look that impressive," Magneto muttered, unimpressed.
Professor X tried to reach into their minds, only to hit something… strange. Not individual consciousnesses, but a shared network. A hive.
Elsewhere, people watched from couches, from command centers, from anywhere with a screen.
And then—
Without warning—
Every single Chitauri pouring out of the portal detonated.
Not one. Not a few. All of them.
They burst into fragments of light, like fireworks igniting in reverse.
"What the hell just happened?"
No one saw the attack. No one tracked the movement. They only saw the result.
Tony Stark folded his arms, watching the sky light up. "Bit excessive, don't you think? Could've left one intact. Science would've appreciated it."
The truth?
It had taken Noah less than a second.
Every invading unit. Every ship feeding into the portal. Erased.
And then he dove through the gateway.
On the other side of the portal, space stretched into a battlefield waiting to happen.
Dozens… no, hundreds of massive Chitauri warships floated in formation. Each one carried legions, their numbers dwarfing anything Earth could muster.
The portal was too narrow for a full assault, so they had been feeding troops through in waves.
A slow grind.
Or at least, it had been.
"What's going on?" one commander barked. "All deployed units just vanished!"
"Unknown," another replied, panic creeping in. "Possibly a high-yield planetary weapon—"
He didn't finish.
Because something came back through the portal.
A man.
Floating in the vacuum like gravity had politely stepped aside.
In his hand, a struggling Chitauri soldier.
Noah looked at the fleet, eyes calm, almost bored.
"Earth isn't yours to take."
His fingers tightened.
The alien's head collapsed like crushed fruit.
Then Noah moved.
To the fleet, it didn't look like a man.
It looked like a streak of light.
A line cutting through space at impossible speed.
The first warship didn't even react before he passed straight through it.
Like a bullet through glass.
No resistance. No slowdown.
Just a tiny hole left behind—
Which began to expand.
Energy rippled outward, tearing the ship apart from the inside. Thousands of Chitauri were vaporized before they could even register what was happening.
Then the explosion came.
And then another.
And another.
"Report!" a commander shouted, staring at the collapsing battlefield on his display.
"Supercarrier destroyed!"
"Obsidian-class—gone!"
"Multiple vessels—lost contact!"
The updates came faster than they could process.
Every two seconds, another ship disappeared.
"What is attacking us?!" the commander roared.
"We—we don't know!" the technician stammered. "It's too fast! Sensors can't lock on! Estimated speed—over eighty kilometers per second!"
Another explosion lit up the void.
Morale shattered across the fleet.
"Retreat!" the commander screamed. "All units, retreat!"
Too late.
In the distance, a glowing streak curved sharply through space, slicing through another ship before arcing toward them.
The commander's breath caught.
"That's not a weapon," he whispered, realization crashing down. "That's… a person—"
The transmission cut off as Noah tore through their ship.
What followed wasn't a battle.
It was a purge.
Noah's path twisted through space in straight lines, sharp angles, sweeping arcs. Each movement erased another warship. Each impact triggered a chain reaction of destruction.
The fleet, once an overwhelming force, became a graveyard of drifting wreckage and expanding firestorms.
Some ships tried to flee.
None succeeded.
Nothing in that armada could outrun him.
Within minutes, the invasion force was gone.
Noah slowed, floating in the silence that followed.
His gaze swept across the debris.
No sign of Thanos.
"Not here, huh…"
A little disappointing.
Back in New York, the portal still hung in the sky—but what it showed now looked less like an invasion and more like a fireworks display.
Ships detonated one after another beyond the gateway.
On Stark Tower, a small group stood frozen.
They had come prepared to intervene. To help tip the scales if things went bad.
Instead…
They were spectators.
"We're in trouble," Scott Lang muttered. "At this rate, we're never getting those Stones."
Tony exhaled slowly, forcing himself back into problem-solving mode.
"Relax. Time's on our side," he said. "No matter how long we spend here, it's a blink when we return."
He glanced at the others, thinking fast.
"Banner sticks to the plan. Go see Doctor Strange, get the Time Stone."
He paused, eyes drifting back to the sky.
"As for us… we wait until this wraps up."
Scott suddenly snapped his fingers, a grin spreading across his face.
"Or—we get creative."
Everyone looked at him.
"What do you mean?"
Scott leaned in slightly, lowering his voice like he'd just cracked the universe's cheat code.
"You," he pointed at Tony, "pretend to be… you."
Tony blinked. "That's not as clever as you think it is."
"No, listen," Scott said quickly. "In this timeline, you're basically the guy. Once the battle's over, you just step in, act like nothing's weird, and take the Stone."
Silence.
Then a few exchanged glances.
It sounded ridiculous.
It also sounded like it might actually work.