The Tragedy of Living

14

EXT. NEW YORK CITY SKYLINE - STARK TOWER

Iron Man arrived at Stark Tower where Selvig activated the CMS device holding the Tesseract.

JARVIS informed, "Sir, I took off the arc reactor. The device is already self-sustained."

"Shut it down, Dr. Selvig," Tony ordered.

"It's too late!" Selvig replied. "It can't stop now. He wants to show us something! A new universe."

"Okay." Iron Man aimed his hands towards the CMS and fired. The energy from his boosters shattered with a deafening crack. Selvig fell backwards. Down below, citizens of New York looked up at Stark Tower. Iron Man stared in disbelief at the CMS unharmed.

JARVIS said, "The barrier is pure energy. It's unbreachable. The Mark VII is not ready to be deployed."

"Skip the spinning rims," Tony told him. "We're on the clock."

Tony landed his suit and went through the gauntlet which unsuited him. Loki looked up them him, smiling. He proceeded to walk into the penthouse.

INT. STARK PENTHOUSE

Loki walked in, holding the scepter. Tony casually walked down the steps, towards the bar.

"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity," Loki said.

"Uh... actually, I'm planning to threaten you," Tony corrected.

"You should have left your armor on for that."

"Yeah, it's seen a bit of mileage. You've got the blue stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?"

"Stalling me won't change anything."

"No, no, no! Threatening. No drink? You sure? I'm having one."

"The Chitauri are coming, nothing will change that. What have I to fear?"

"The Avengers." Loki looked at him, confused. "It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' type of thing."

"Yes, I've met them."

Tony smiled. "Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But, let's do a head count here. Your brother, the demigod; a Super Soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a couple master assassins and you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them."

"That was the plan."

"Not a great plan. When they come, and they will, they'll come for you."

From underneath the bar table, Tony pulled on colantotte bracelets, a honing device.

"I have an army," Loki said.

"We have a Hulk," Tony shot back.

"I thought the beast had wandered off."

"You're missing the point. There's no throne, there is no version of this, where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it."

Loki slowly walked up to him, raising the scepter. "How will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?"

Loki tapped Tony on the chest with his scepter. Nothing. Confused, Loki tried again. Again, nothing.

"This usually works," Loki said.

"Well, performance issues," Tony reasoned. "You know? Not uncommon. One out of five..."

In anger, Loki grabbed Tony by the throat and flung him across the room.

"JARVIS," Tony called. "Anytime now."

Loki grabbed Tony by the throat again. "You will all fall before me."

Loki threw Tony out the window. Tony free-fell down the tower. From behind Loki, an elevator opened and a red pod shot out. The pod laser signaled the colantotte bracelets on Tony. The pod began to transform into the Mark VII suit. It latched onto Tony. The suit flew up before he hit the ground or the gazing people. Loki looked up, angry.

"And there's one other person you pissed off!" Iron Man said. "His name was Phil."

Loki raised the scepter. Iron Man fired at Loki, sending him on his butt.

EXT. STARK TOWER

Selvig looked up at the sky. The Tesseract's energy beamed into the sky. The beam formed a vortex, which opened up another portal.

EXT. VASTNESS OF SPACE

A hole in space ripped open, and from it, the Chitauri army spilled out in flying chariots, carrying energy rifles with a bayonet on the end.

"Right. Army," Tony said as he flew up towards the portal. From his shoulders, a miniature multiple rocket launcher popped out and fired. Like the Jericho missile, several targets were taken down, but it was useless. Thousands of Chitauri flew out. Iron Man flew towards the city.

EXT. MANHATTAN - DAY

The Chitauri unleashed. New Yorkers filled the streets, staring at the fire fight in the distance. The Chitauri unleashed blasts as it went, blowing up cars, setting storefronts aflame. An explosion ripped out the windows of the top corner of buildings. Flame and stone rained down. A domino-effect of explosions rippled across the bridge.

EXT. STARK TOWER

Loki walked onto the balcony as the sounds of the Chitauri rang out. He admired his soon to be kingdom. Thor landed on the tower.

Loki turned to his enemy and Thor said, "Loki! Turn off the Tesseract or I'll destroy it!"

"You can't," Loki told him. "There is no stopping it. There is only the war!"

"So be it."

Loki and Thor rushed each other. They and their weapons collided. The two battled -- Loki unleashed another pent-up rage and jealousy, Thor had no choice but to defend himself.

EXT. MANHATTAN

Soldiers and cops had taken positions covering the streets. They saw from the sky, Iron Man and Steel Iron leading a trail of Chitauri towards their tower.