The Immortality War || The Avengers

Chapter Sixteen: The Hole Above Manhattan

Music is "Heroes" by Generdyn Music feat. Zayde Wolf.

Picture is the Avengers.

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CHAPTER SIXTEEN: The Hole Above Manhattan

Tony crashes through the glass half a second after I begin to fall. After him, a bullet of scarlet follows. The Mark-7 Iron-Man suit opens around Tony's outstretched body, encasing him in seconds. As the helmet closes over his face, Tony blasts towards me, grabbing me by my waist just before we hit the ground.

"Bloody hell, that was close!" I exclaim, holding tightly to Iron-Man.

"You ain't never lied," Tony sighs, relieved, and we fly back up towards where Loki stands, at the edge of the hole in the Tower. "And there's one other person you pissed off." Tony hovers in front of the demigod. "His name was Phil."

Loki aims his scepter again, but Tony is quick enough to fire a blast to knock him over. The Iron-Man lands on the Tower floor just long enough to place me down. "Barnes, you gotta stop throwing yourself into danger like that. Rogers will kill me if I let you die...again."

I shake my head slightly, watching Loki carefully. "Good luck with that."

He flies over to a compartment in the adjacent room. "Hey, what's your shoe size?"

I raise my eyebrows in surprise. "Really, Tony? You want my shoe size? Now of all times--"

"--Just answer the damn question!"

I sigh, "Eight. Why?"

"You're lucky, that's why." Iron-Man returns with a pair of cuff links like the ones he slipped onto his wrists earlier. "I made these for Pepper in case of emergencies. Put them on your ankles. They'll give you boots like the ones on my suit. Not perfect, but it'll have to do for now."

He hands them to me, and I do as he says. Once they're on, metal plating covers my combat boots, giving them both added protection, durability, and flight capabilities. "Thanks, Stark," I grin as I test them out.

Before he can reply, the Tower shakes, and we make it to the broken glass opening just in time to see the Tesseract shoot a giant blue stream of energy into the sky. We hear a sonic boom, and then a black hole opens up a few hundred meters above our heads. Moments later, creatures of an alien origin start pouring out of it, flying on hover crafts that look just as odd.

"Right," Tony mumbles, flying out into the sky. "Army." He turns to me. "No more falling off buildings, you got it? Find Rogers, Romanoff, and Barton. They're gonna need help on the ground."

"What about you?" I shout over the noise of the city.

"I'm gonna go kick some alien ass."

After that, we part ways. Tony jets up towards the hole in the sky, taking out as many aliens as he can in the process. Loki is still passed out in the Stark Tower penthouse suite behind me. I use Tony's hover boots to descend down towards the crowds of New Yorkers being shot at by the intruders.

Manhattanites are screaming for help and running for cover. Cars and buses are being thrown by the explosions. Flames are everywhere, buildings are crumbling into debris, and I can hear the distinct sound of laser fire all around me. If I didn't know that this was the biggest city in America, I would have confused it with a neighborhood in Sarajevo during the Bosnian War.

I pull out my bowstaff, using it as a weapon against the aliens as I fly by. I knock off as many as I can before I make it to the street. NYPD officers swarm the streets, heading the one place where people are fleeing. The letters on the Stark Tower sign fall onto the ground below. Iron-Man flies overhead, three aliens on his tail.