"Is this... snow?"
Everyone watched as the stray snowflakes transformed into a heavy blizzard in the blink of an eye. The temperature of the scorching midsummer day plummeted dozens of degrees instantly.
"Look over there!!"
"What is that!"
Clint Barton (Hawkeye), who had just arrived with Nick Fury, and Gwen, with her Spider-Sense tingling, pointed toward the horizon simultaneously with terror in their eyes.
At that spot in the sky, a massive blue void had appeared out of thin air. Behind it lay a world of endless snow and ice mountains that pierced the clouds. This blue-and-white world seemed devoid of sunlight, radiating a sense of gloom and oppression.
Faintly, the group could see countless blue figures swarming out of the rift. Behind these figures were several mountain-sized behemoths letting out primal roars. Even at the distance of the Avengers Tower, they could feel the biting, cold killing intent radiating from the void.
"That is... Jotunheim!! Frost Giants!!" Thor, the Prince of Asgard and the one with the deepest knowledge of the Nine Realms, was the first to cry out.
Immediately after came Tony Stark's low curse through gritted teeth: "That bastard Loki again!!"
Every member of the Avengers realized the truth: Loki, holding the Tesseract, had once again sent alien "guests" to the people of New York.
Gravity was written on everyone's face.
"We must stop those Frost Giants from entering New York! Prepare for battle!" Steve Rogers (Captain America) tightened the strap of his shield, his eyes filled with resolve.
Tony exchanged a glance with him and turned to dash into the lab to don his Iron Man suit. Steve took immediate command of the scene.
"Dr. Banner! We need your strength! Thor, give us a quick briefing on the Frost Giants' weaknesses!"
"Wait!" Nick Fury interrupted, turning to Dr. Erik Selvig and Jane Foster. "You two stay here. Everyone else, get on the jet! I'll take you there—we talk on the way!"
Without a word, the others rushed into the Quinjet. Tony, now in his Mark VII armor, was about to follow when he grabbed Gwen as she tried to sprint past him.
"What are you doing?!"
"Mr. Stark, I'm a superhero too! I can help!" Even though this wasn't her world, Gwen's sense of justice as Spider-Woman wouldn't allow her to stand by and watch an alien invasion slaughter innocent people.
The Avengers already on the plane looked over. They hadn't met Gwen before, but during recent video calls, Tony had repeatedly emphasized that "Spider-Sister is my person." Naturally, the decision fell to him.
Tony scolded her without hesitation: "Hey, kid! A battlefield is nothing like your neighborhood crime-fighting! You stay right here and protect the two doctors with Luca! Once Uncle Tony blows these Smurfs away, we'll find a way to get you home..."
As he spoke, Tony's voice trailed off. He frowned and looked around. "Hey! Where did that Luca kid go?"
Steve and the others, whom Tony had intentionally kept in the dark about Luca's specifics, followed his gaze in confusion. Thor and Banner instinctively looked toward the back of the jet, wondering if the boy had sneaked aboard.
But they didn't need to look far. From within the Stark lab, a rhythmic hammering sound and Luca's clear shout rang out.
"Tony, wait for me! I'm almost done here!"
Inside the lab, in front of a mechanical engineering rack, Luca had produced a wrench from somewhere and was forcibly prying open the chest hatch of a robot. The design originally called for an automated transmission hatch, but there was no time for that now.
Once the hatch was open, Luca looked at the two Haros—one orange, one white—at his feet. After a brief hesitation, he picked up the orange Haro and stuffed it directly into the robot's cockpit.
"Haro! Link with Er-Ha! Switch to Combat Mode!"
"Haro copy! Haro copy!" Haro's eyes flashed red, and its voice turned cold and mechanical. "Er-Ha Unit, launching!"
Luca snapped the hatch shut and donned a control device resembling a high-tech AR monocle. Outside, Steve was losing patience.
"Tony! We have to go now!"
Just as he finished speaking—BOOM! CLANG!
A series of metal impacts and crashing sounds erupted from the lab. A black-and-white figure smashed through the interior glass wall of the tower and landed in front of the group in a textbook "superhero landing."
It was a mechanical war-suit standing about 2 meters tall, radiating a chilling, lethal aura. The head resembled a motorcycle helmet with a pitch-black visor, hiding the "face" within.
The main body featured sharp, angular torso joints, but the forearms and lower legs were slightly oversized, utilizing a rounded, curved armor design distinct from the torso. Curiously, as if suggesting there was a second head in the chest, the protruding chest plate also featured a black glass visor similar to the helmet. On its back sat a strange flight pack with what looked like two sword hilts protruding from the top.
Despite the eccentric mix of styles—which Luca would describe as a "Baymax-Gundam crossover"—the machine looked formidable.
Tony, one of the few who knew there wasn't a human inside the suit, stepped forward and patted its shoulder.
"Hey, kid! I just replaced that glass!"
Though he grumbled about the broken window, Tony wore a faint smile under his faceplate, noticing Luca had smashed through the exact same pane Tony had jumped out of once before.
"Let's go! Move out!"
---