[A/N]: We finally hit the goal of 200 Power Stones, so here's your first bonus chapter as promised! The second bonus chapter will be up by tonight, so stay tuned and thanks for the support!
SHIELD Helicarrier
The war room still smelled like cordite and blood. They'd scrubbed Coulson's stain from the floor barely an hour ago, but everyone could still see it. Still see him.
Steve had known Phil Coulson for a few months now. The man had been a fan, awkward and earnest in a way that made Steve uncomfortable and touched at the same time. Now he was gone, stabbed through the back by a god who smiled while doing it.
Nobody had said much about it. There wasn't time for grief. There was barely time to breathe.
Footage from the attack played on loop. Thor was missing. Loki had escaped. They'd gotten Hulk to turn back into Bruce though, so that was something.
Tony Stark leaned against a workstation, watching Steve Rogers pace. The super soldier's tactical suit was pristine, freshly issued after the previous one was stained from the attacker's blood. His shield rested against a chair, within easy reach.
Tony pulled up tactical data, his fingers dancing across the holographic interface. "So we've got a god with daddy issues, a glowing stick that turns people into zombies, and zero fudging leads on where he's hiding."
"Language," Steve muttered.
"That's not even a swear, Cap."
The door hissed open. Natasha Romanoff entered, and behind her walked a man in a purple shirt and jeans, bow slung across his back.
"Everyone," Natasha said, "meet Clint Barton."
Clint's eyes were clear now without any blue glow. But shadows lingered. His hands kept flexing, opening and closing like he was trying to remember how they worked when they belonged to him.
"Before anyone asks," Clint said, voice rough, "yeah, I remember everything. Every order I followed. Every person I shot." His jaw clenched. "Selvig's face when I dragged him out of his lab. The fear in his eyes when he realized what was happening. The scientists at the facility. How many of them had families? Kids?"
The room went quiet with the weighted silence of people not knowing what to say. Tony's fingers stopped moving across the holographic display. Steve's pacing halted mid-step. Even Natasha, who'd brought him in, looked away.
"I can still feel it," Clint continued, his voice dropping. "Like an itch inside my skull. Loki's voice, his certainty, the way he made everything seem so simple. Do this. Kill that. Serve me." He swallowed hard. "Part of me still wants to obey. That's the worst part. Knowing it's still in there, just... quieter now."
Natasha moved to his side. Didn't touch him, just stood close. Proximity as comfort.
"You're here now," she said. "That's what matters."
"Is it?" Clint's voice cracked. "Because being here means I've got intel, and you're not gonna like it."
He moved to the central holotable. A three-dimensional map of Manhattan materialized.
"Stark Tower," Clint said, highlighting the building. "That's the target. Loki spent three days researching it. The height, the visibility, the power source. It's perfect for what he needs."
Tony's expression went flat. "He's going to turn my building into a glorified doorway?"
"The arc reactor," Bruce said, moving closer to examine the schematic. "Self-sustaining clean energy and theoretically unlimited output. If you could tap into it properly, channel that power into the Tesseract..."
"You'd have enough juice to punch a hole through reality," Tony finished. "Great. Wonderful. My life's work used to end the world. That's not gonna look good on the papers."
"How big?" Steve asked.
Clint zoomed out. The projected portal covered six city blocks. "This is a conservative estimate. Could be bigger depending on how much juice Selvig can squeeze from the Tesseract. Loki kept saying 'big enough for an army.' That was the phrase. Big enough for an army."
"Selvig's a good man," Bruce said quietly.
"Who's currently building a doomsday device because a psycho demigod is wearing his brain like a hat," Tony finished.
Fury strode in. His coat didn't billow so much as announce his presence. Maria Hill followed, tablet in hand and her face grim.
"Stark," Fury said, "I need your tower."
"What, like a date? Buy me dinner first, Nick."
"I need to evacuate it. Full lockdown. Every civilian out."
Tony's smirk faded. "You want to turn my building into the apocalypse's landing pad, at least ask nicely."
"I'm not asking. That tower is ground zero whether we like it or not. We either control the battlefield or Loki does."
Steve moved closer. "He's right, Tony. We evacuate and make our stand where we can protect people."
Tony was quiet for three seconds. Then he pulled out his phone.
"JARVIS, initiate Protocol Exodus. Everyone out of the tower within the hour. Make it look like a gas leak."
[Understood, sir. Shall I also prepare the Mark VI?]
"Make it Mark VII. This is gonna get messy."
Natasha pulled up city infrastructure. "We need perimeter control. NYPD, National Guard, every available unit."
"Already in motion," Hill confirmed. "Governor's declaring a state of emergency. They're calling it a terrorist threat for now."
"Until a portal opens up and aliens start pouring out," Clint said.
Bruce paced to the window. The ocean stretched out below, dark and vast. His reflection in the glass looked haunted. "Has anyone considered we're outmatched? Loki's a god. We're just people."
"People with a Hulk," Tony pointed out.
"The Hulk who just tore apart a helicarrier," Bruce shot back. "Who almost killed Natasha. Who has zero control and even less discrimination about what he destroys." His hands trembled. "You're banking on the Other Guy showing up and playing nice. That's not a plan. That's a prayer."
Fury planted both hands on the holotable. "You're the Avengers. You stand between Earth and whatever wants to burn it down."
Tony snorted. "Touching. But how are we supposed to fight an alien army with no intel on their capabilities?"
"We adapt," Steve said. "It's what soldiers do."
"I'm not a soldier, Cap. I'm a guy in a flying suit."
"Then fly better."
Tony broke the stare first, shaking his head. A bitter laugh escaped. "You know, I'm starting to remember why I usually work alone."
Hill's tablet chimed. "Director, we've got a problem. Local news is running footage from Stuttgart. Social media's exploding."
Fury crossed to her station. "How bad?"
"People are panic-buying." Hill scrolled. "And we're getting calls from every major city's mayor demanding protection. Boston, Philadelphia, DC. They all want to know if they're next."
"Tell them to get in line," Fury said. "We've got one team and one target."
"That's cold," Bruce said.
"That's reality. We stop Loki in New York, or nowhere else matters."
Tony's phone buzzed. Another call. He glanced at the screen. "Pepper. Third time in ten minutes."
"Call her back," Steve said.
"And say what? 'Hey, sweetie, alien invasion in an hour, might die, love you bye'?"
"Yes. Exactly that." Steve's voice was firm. "Because if something happens, she deserves to hear your voice one more time."
Tony stared at him. Something shifted in his expression. He stepped away from the group, phone to his ear. His voice dropped low enough that the others couldn't hear the words, only the gentle tone.
"What about the X-Men?" Natasha asked carefully. "Jean Grey alone ..."
Fury's jaw tightened. "Xavier declined to cooperate publicly. After District X and our failure to protect his school, he's keeping his people out of SHIELD operations, but he'll send his key players."
"Can't really blame him," Clint muttered.
Bruce studied Fury's reaction. Something there. "What about Jay? Coulson mentioned him. From what I understand, he's helped with major threats before."
The room went silent.
"Jay's off-grid. Has been for months. His last known location was Antarctica, and all contact attempts have failed."
"Convenient timing," Tony said. "World's ending and our ace in the hole is playing explorer."
"He's allowed his privacy," Bruce said quietly. "Not everyone wants to be a superhero."
"He literally fought Doctor Doom on international television," Tony countered.
Fury held up a hand. "We work with what we have. Stark, Rogers, Banner, Romanoff, and Barton. Five people against an army."
"Fantastic Four?" Steve tried.
Hill shook her head. "Sue Storm went into labor three hours ago. Reed won't leave her side. Ben and Johnny are standing by, but they're not leaving too far from Sue."
"Heroes for Hire?"
"Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist are handling evacuations in Harlem," Natasha said. "But this is above their weight class."
"What about the Morlocks?" Steve asked. "They've got numbers, and even combat training now."
Hill consulted her tablet. "They've begun evacuating. Apparently, they built a bunker under District X. We didn't even know about it." She paused. "Bobby and the rest of Jay's inner circle are on the streets, helping with evacuations."
"Of course they built a bunker," Tony muttered.
"Almost as if Jay warned them," Clint said.
Steve absorbed this. His tactical mind ran the numbers. Five people. One hostile god. An unknown number of aliens.
"Then we make it work." Steve moved to the holotable. "Fury, what's our defensive capability?"
"SHIELD's mobilizing everything. We've got maybe minutes before Loki makes his move."
"How do you know?"
"Because he's theatrical," Clint said. "He wants an audience. It'll soon be Midday, the sun high enough to light up whatever nightmare he's got planned."
Tony pulled up building schematics, the hologram rotating. "The arc reactor's in the basement, but Selvig would need to elevate the Tesseract. Height, visibility, theatrics. He's putting it on my roof."
"Your tower has defensive capabilities?" Steve asked.
"It's got JARVIS, state-of-the-art security, enough failsafes to make Fort Knox jealous. But against a cosmic cube?" Tony shrugged. "I'm good. I'm not that good."
Steve traced evacuation routes. "Then we evacuate, fortify, prepare for a siege. Barton, you're our eye in the sky. Portal opens, you give us angles, trajectories, enemy positions."
Clint nodded.
"Romanoff, crowd control. Keep civilians away from the hot zone."
"Got it."
"Banner, you're our contingency. If things go sideways..."
"I turn green and smash things," Bruce finished.
"Stark, you and I are front line. We hit them hard, hit them fast, try to close that portal before the army gets through."
Tony's smirk cracked. "Love the optimism, Cap. But what's our actual plan for closing an interdimensional wormhole stabilized by an object that rewrites physics?"
"We blow it up," Steve said.
"With what, harsh language?"
"With whatever works."
Bruce laughed. It was an empty sound. "You're talking about attacking the Tesseract directly. That thing could destabilize, collapse, take out half of Manhattan."
"Welcome to war, Doctor." Fury said.
"I hate this," Bruce said quietly. "For the record, I really hate this."
"Noted," Fury said. "Now suit up. We're wheels up in thirty minutes."
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