Discimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don’t worry, I am pletely sober).

  Manhattan

  –Tony Stark–

  “I have tried shutting down the Arc Reactor but it is a self-sustainiion now. It ot be stopped,” His suit stumbled around as he heard Jarvis’ report.

  He should have known Loki would go after his tower. That narcissistic ego of his would not have been satisfied if he did not have an audieo go with his spectacle. What better way to mock the so-called guardians of humanity than to start the invasion by using the iions of the humans themselves?

  The suit itself was not in aer dition. He had three different suits on their way from their fabrication facilities but the closest was one in Stark Tower and he was on his way there himself so he had ordered Jarvis to keep it there and look for Loki.

  Log dowower did not help, like at all because Loki just performed his voodoo magid somehow bypassed every single obstacle, only for his eeam to appear on the rooftop, already hooked up to the Arc Reactor.

  By the time Jarvis could shut down the reactor, it had already been too te. Acc to what Jarvis could predict, the mae might have opened a portal before he could even reach the Tower.

  He gnashed his teeth as he thought of Jad his sad smile as he melded in with the huge green shield that held up the Helicarrier, allowing for thousands of lives to be saved. He couldn’t even do anything with his stab wound as he somehow mustered forth enough power to stop the Helicarrier’s hull from snapping in two if it crashed into the o water directly like that.

  The majority of the force that the water exerted was borne by Jack’s barriers, allowing the water to soften and the Helicarrier to nd safely.

  He could have escaped, so so easily. He could have escaped hundreds of times before they crashed into the o but no, he had to stay. He was in no dition to even protect himself properly as his armour had dissolved, his entire focus being on the carrier.

  He had hought that one person could bee s. Not even the Hulk could have stopped the carrier, even if he did have the strength to do so. He would always hate Loki for that. He knew what Jack would do to protect people and he exploited that, even so far as t in someone who was able to bypass Jack’s barrier and almost killed him for it.

  “Jarvis?” He took in a deep breath of determination and gave the order for something that he had told himself would never be needed unless Armageddon was on them.

  Well, this was war, and…he was fresh out of patiend damns to give.

  “Activate project Aegis….”

  “....Affirmative. Project Aegis activated. ETA - 119 seds,” Jarvis reported as he could finally see the Tower in view.

  “Loki?”

  “He is in the penthouse, sir. He seems to be waiting for someone,”

  “Well, what are you waiting for, then? Activate the spinning rims,” He said as his suit’s repulsor arrays gave out, dropping him roughly oform he had designed on a whim, to give himself even more of a fary.

  Well, it was safe to say that a ry was the st thing on his mind as he saw Loki looking at him and thereating bato the penthouse as he too exited the suit, wing in pain as some parts came her than expected due to the damage it had gohrough.

  “I would say wele to my house but…you did kinda break in without an invitation,” He quipped as he slid the bracelets on his wrist. They would help the suits remotely locate him and then just slide on top of him.

  “Stall all you want to, Stark. My army is ing,” Loki said as he walked back to the baly, his staff firmly in his hand. That was something that was the most dangerous on of Loki. He would have to make sure that he does not get him under trol as well. That would not go well…., especially with Project AEGIS on its way.

  He took his drink and walked to the hat he knehere Jarvis would eject his suit. “Well, you might want to pace yourself a bit there. You pissed off a lot of people back there with your little stunt.”

  “Oh? And what would those people do to me? I have an army.”

  “Well, we have a Hulk….and Thor,” He found himself saying whatever came to his mind, hoping to prolong this versation a bit so as to allow Jarvis to perform the final checks.

  “I thought the beast had wandered off? Fine work from the Green Guardian by the way. Green Guardian, what an idiotiame,” Loki scoffed as he finally turned around to face him.

  His smile strained as Loki, that bastard had the gall to say Jack’s name. His fists ched as he stopped himself from doing anything rash. Any moment now, Jarvis would activate the floor defenses and fling the suit at him.

  “Besides, who would have the time to worry about me when….” His throat ran dry as he saw Loki marg towards him.

  ‘Any moment now,’ He thought to himself as he forced his fato a look of nonce.

  “....When they will have to worry about you…” Loki said as he tapped his sceptre on his chest. He closed his eyes, fearing the worst but then opened one when he didn’t feel any different.

  He saw the hiriously fused face of Loki as he charged up the sceptre once again and tapped it once again, right on top of his reaaybe it had something to do with the energy in his reaaybe it disrupted the energy flow from the sceptre? If it was true, then it was one hell of a ce.

  Ieral life ah sario, he found himself remembering Jack’s stupid ents and he couldn’t help himself, “....Performance issues? I have heard one in five men haaaa-”

  His words were stu his throat as Loki just lifted him by the throat and walked straight to the edge of the baly.

  He looked straight at the release wall and muttered, as he held onto Loki’s hand, “Anytime now, Jarvis,”

  Loki s him and then flung him off his own tower. He immediately reoriented himself mid-air and spread his arms out.

  Iower above, as soon as Loki flung Tony out, multiple turrets just fshed out of the roof as well as the floor and peppered Loki with the highest caliber bullets Jarvis could find. At the same time, the suit was finally done and he u straight at Loki, who dodged it but stumbled back due to the sheer force from both the suit and the Gatling guns on the roof.

  While the bullets didn’t actually puncture his skin, they hurt a lot, even for someone of his stitution so Loki found himself being pushed back bit by bit. Jarvid didn’t let up even as he firmed his creator had equipped the suit and was on his way to stop Loki.

  “And there is oher person you pissed off rather mightily,”

  Loki looked to the armoured Stark as the bullets finally stopped peppering him. He lifted the sceptre but he was too slow as Tony just bsted him with his repulsors.

  “...Me,”

  “Project AEGIS ETA - 30 seds,” Jarvis helpfully reminded him just as he was about to head in and knock Loki out. Jarvis’ update was aborted forcefully as another situation developed right on top of the Tower.

  “Better make it quick, Jarvis,” He said as he rocketed towards the portal, already seeing the armies that were heading their way.

  “I believe that we have just earned ourselves precious time, sir.”

  What? He was about to ask but the words were stu his throat as he saw a majestidam appear out of thin air, holding both of his hands right underh the portal as if trying to plug the gap.

  “JACK!” He screamed as he immediately floated to the head where he hoped he would be.

  “Stark, evacuate the people. I will stop them for now.”

  He had a thousand questions but he nodded a back down where he could already see people panig as they tried to run away from the hellish portal in the sky. It was small mercies that they had not seen the numbers of their army oher side. Even Jarvis’ sensors could not tell him the full story and that terrified him.

  There were possibly millions…hundreds of millions of them oher side of that blue hole in the sky.

  “Jarvis, hato everything and tell everyoo evacuate. tact the Mayor, Army Generals, Air Foravy, hell call the President if you have to. We have little time before the fighting really begins.” He said as he worked orategies.

  Project Aegis had to wait for a bit because if Jack himself could hahe situation, there was no need for him to expose that part. That could nd him into really hot soup because there was no way in hell he was going to sell that to anyone.

  In the meantime, “Showtime,” He muttered as what could only be described as a flying hot dog appeared in front of him.

  He immediately dove into the opening in the tre. This was a remote ons ptform, desigo resupply him with everything he might need for prolonged warfare situations.

  “Rubber Ducky please, Jarvis,” he murmured as the suit entered from one side a small humanoid-sized suit and came out the other side a hulking monstrosity not smaller than the Hulk.

  Its job dohe ptform flew away but still close by in case he needed something.

  “Jarvis, how are we on the evacuation?”

  He said as he and the other two suits, which had finally arrived from their respective fabrication sites, immediately began clearing the nearby blocks. Stuffing people into cars and then floating them away. Clearing the streets of abandoned vehicles, etc.

  “Evacuatihly 1% done, sir,”

  Well, shit.

  His neapped up as there was a horrible breaking sound as the entire Gundam holding the portal close broke apart as a huge horned whale-like creature burst out of it.

  “Jaarvis?”

  “Sensors indicate Arc Reactor running out of energy before the armour is breached, sir,”

  He goggled as he saw that despite his armour being limbless, Jack had not yet given up.

  The whale-like creature had broken through the barrier but not without cost, it would seem. Most of the armour that covered its head had broken apart, even stabbing it but it seemed to igs injuries, fog on esg the portal and then wreaking havo the city.

  Well, Jack was not having it because he immediately pulled his other arm bad puhe whale-like creature, straight ba the portal from where it was ing from.

  “Sir, we have a situation,” Jarvis pointed his attention to the form of Loki who was charging up his sceptre from the looks of it after destroying the floor and ceilings of his penthouse, destroying the guns. It was a mistake on his part not to install repulsor based onry iower. With the Arc Reactor installed in the building, Jarvis could have waged war by himself if he had been given the ons for it.

  “Jarvis, remio install remotely guidable onry for you in every home,” He said as one of the suits immediately abaheir current tasks and rocketed to the penthouse baly, on which Loki was currently standing. It was very satisfying to watch Loki get grabbed by the suit as it broke through the baly as if it was not there at all and throw Loki in the air with his sceptre falling down on the baly, its glow dying down as Loki was no longer wielding it.

  Jarvis threw Loki towards the hulking form of Jack who promptly uood the assig and just kicked Loki like a soccer ball, throwing him straight into the building in front of Stark Tower. It seemed as if Jack had held back, perhaps due to Thor so Loki did that building and fly through three other buildings before finally stopping.

  Speaking of Thor, he watched as a Qui arrived and nded iral Park. Thor was the first oo arrive on top of the tower, looking at the green avatar with relief and awe clear in his eyes.

  He could see that the area around the Tower was cleared up so he headed up to meet up with Thor, Jarvis coordinating the evacuation process with the two other suits.

  Two times, Jack’s barriers broke two times as the whale-like creatures tried to make a eback but Jack dispatched them the same, straight bato the portal. The only problem was that Jack was uo pletely close the portal due to the hyper-dense energy in the middle of the beam.

  So, small stragglers still got by but Jaost of them, and the ohat did make it past him, Thor aook care of them.

  “Friend Guardian. He made it,” Thor said to him as he threw Mjolnir at the small hover vehicle that Jack missed.

  “Yeah, somehow, against all odds, he made it. I don’t know how though. By all ats, he should be dead.” He said as he monitored the progress in the background. One of the suits had entered Barton and Widow and was in the process ing them to the Tower.

  The evacuation process was only hastened once Jarvis took over traffiagement systems of the city and after coordinating with the NYPD which was uhe orders of the Mayor, who himself was under orders from the President, to follow his lead and now most of the areas around the tower had beeied.

  That would not be enough though because Jack would have to stop sometime because this was the same situation as before, just the load was little. They would have to look for a way to close the portal because judging by the hey had on their side, they could go on for months without making a dent in their numbers and he was sure that Jack could not do that.

  “Stark?” His s fred to life as a familiar gruff voice sounded in his HUD.

  “Fury?”

  “Backup is on the way but the way things are—”

  “Yeah, I don’t this and missiles are going to help us here. That would damage the city more than the aliens. Still, let them e. We could use all the help rimarily, just flex your muscles ahe city evacuated quickly. The people are just sitting ducks if we ot hold the portal for long. We are at less than 10% done and Ja–Green Guardian ot hold on forever,”

  “...Got it,”

  “Hmm, Thor, you hit it with lightn—”

  “What the…” His words were stopped midway as red alerts started bring on his HUD as Jarvis detected a truly humongous wave of energy ing from the portal.

  He was about to warn Jack but he seemed to have realised it as well as he abandoned his form and immediately crashed on the floor o them, his armoured form.

  He looked up to see a white light fill the other end of the portal, remi of the sun. Maybe he could use Project AEGIS here? But they would not be on time.

  He was jerked out of his thoughts as a green barrier ed around him and Thor, tightly wounding them up. At the same time, hundreds of small shields appeared in front of them which then moulded around the energy beam of the Tesseract, creating seven blocks of green, that blended in with the blue from the Tesseract.

  Not a moment ter, he was blinded as he was assaulted by white as far as his vision could go as the beam must have struck Jack’s barriers.

  “Jarvis? Jarvis?” he mumbled as he tried to cycle through all the sensors avaible to him only to find most of them giving him nonsense readings.

  His heat readings showed temperature readings exceeding the levels measured on the surface of the Suried to ect to his other suits but all of his signals were jammed.

  He could not even sehor or Jack standing right beside him, so great was the energy interference.

  All he could hear was the sound of something huge breaking apart. That must be the barriers that Jack had jured to protect them. He ted owo, three, four barriers breaking before the temperatures around him receded, turning into cooking oil temperature before turning into heat wave temperature before finally reg into a warm bath temperature.

  His vision finally cleared up, as did the unication error as his uplink was finally restored.

  “...Si…Sir? Sir?” Jarvis’ armed voice sounded in his suit but he was too busy fbbergasted to reply to him.

  All he could do was gape as he looked at the destru surrounding him.

  He looked up to see the remaining three barriers dissipating as the portal was finally left unguarded, causing the Chitauri to energy out of it in huge numbers.

  The whale-like things immediately began spreading out to maximize their reach.

  He could see Jarvis heading after the whale-like creatures using his suits as he himself immediately ehe resupply ptform, and repaired the s array on his suit. As soon as he came out of the ptform, he looked at the surroundings of the tower a out a shuddering breath of fear and awe.

  That beam had enough energy to melt down the surrounding areas on top of melting the streets around Stark Tower as well and that was after the majority of it was stopped by Jack’s shields.

  The only reason Stark Tower was not a molten piece of sg was due to Jack.

  He looked at the ever-emerging Chitauri who seemed to have o them and remembered their member lists, half of which were nearly useless in a fight with the whale creature and one of them was even missing.

  “Jarvis, alert me once Banner is ba town,”

  “Very well, sir.’

  “Also, start manufacturing. We are going to need a lot more than just three suits,”

  He immediately set out to stop the small hover vehicles from going too far out of the perimeter. That was the best he could do at the moment. Unfortunately, the bigger fish must be kept for Thor, Jack, and Banner when he finally shows up with his green ass.

  Word t - 3188

  If you guys would like to support my writing or just want to read ahead of the public release, you head on to my P*treon.

  I already have upto 15 extra chapters published there.

  A/N - The Chitauri must have something of note in that mothership of theirs. In this case, it was an energy on of death that was thankfully stopped by Jack. Otherwise, bye bye Aveower.