"Stop fighting!"
In the dark, forested valley, Hawk stood beside Loki, shouting frantically at Thor and Meliodas.
Just moments ago, Thor had completely ignored Meliodas's obstruction, violently dragging Loki off the Quinjet and crashing down into the mountains. Meliodas, holding Hawk, had followed closely behind.
"Meliodas, I don't want to fight you," Thor warned, spinning Mjolnir by his side. "Let me take Loki back!"
"That won't do," Meliodas replied cheerfully, crossing his arms. "This is Hawk and my very first official mission for S.H.I.E.L.D. Can't exactly fail on day one!"
A hint of helpless frustration flashed in Thor's eyes. He could tell that the short blonde boy wasn't joking. Meliodas was truly prepared to fight him to keep the prisoner.
"Are you ready, Thor?"
Before Thor could even process the question, Meliodas's figure flickered. He instantly shattered the sound barrier, appearing directly in front of the Thunder God.
BANG!
With a single, casual punch, the divine Asgardian armor on Thor's chest caved inward. The sheer kinetic impact was so devastating that a mouthful of blood surged up Thor's throat, though his warrior's pride forced him to swallow it back.
Thor dropped to one knee, leaning heavily on Mjolnir as he gasped for breath.
Having observed Meliodas's brutal battle with the Destroyer back in the desert, Thor knew his opponent was incredibly powerful. But only by truly facing the Dragon Sin of Wrath did he realize just how unimaginably vast the gap between them actually was. With a single punch, he had almost been taken out entirely.
"Wow, I was planning to listen carefully to your righteous teachings," Loki sneered gleefully, sitting casually on a nearby log. "It seems you don't quite have the time now, brother."
Thor clearly heard Loki's mockery. He shot a fierce, murderous glare at the Trickster God, then slowly stood back up, looking solemnly at the blonde boy.
"I'm getting serious!" Thor warned, raising his hammer. "Be careful!"
The moment the warning left his lips, Mjolnir began to flash wildly with intense electricity. The thunder in the sky roared in response, the storm clouds complementing the God of Thunder's divine rage. A thick, blinding bolt of lightning blasted from Mjolnir's hammerhead, aiming directly at Meliodas's chest.
Meliodas lazily drew his broken blade.
"Full Counter."
KRA-KOOM!
Thor's massive body flew violently backward through the trees. Only this time, what attacked him wasn't Meliodas's fist. It was his own divine lightning, magnified to double its original, catastrophic power.
Before Thor could even hit the ground, Meliodas flashed to his side and casually bopped him on the head.
Thor's eyes rolled back, and he immediately fell into a peaceful, baby-like sleep.
'That Destroyer armor must have been made of tin,' Meliodas thought to himself, completely unimpressed. This brief skirmish made Meliodas even more certain of Thor's strength—or lack thereof.
The epic clash of gods ended just as abruptly as it began.
Carrying one Asgardian god tucked under each arm like rolled-up carpets, Meliodas strolled cheerfully back to the Quinjet. As for Hawk, the pig flapped his ears and flew alongside them on his own.
...
Inside the massive, airborne Helicarrier, Loki was locked securely inside a reinforced glass cell that had originally been designed to contain the Hulk.
Thor had also awakened from his baby-like slumber, sporting a massive headache. Led by a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, all the extraordinary personnel summoned by Director Nick Fury were gathered in the main laboratory.
"Loki is a Prince of Asgard," Thor argued indignantly, pacing the floor. "He is my brother! You cannot simply lock him up in a glass cage like some rabid beast!"
Natasha Romanoff looked up from the monitors, her expression entirely deadpan.
"He killed eighty people in two days."
Thor froze. He cleared his throat, calmly looking away.
"He's adopted."
Moving swiftly past the awkwardness, Thor leaned over the briefing table. "Loki has an army in his hands. The Chitauri. They are not of Asgard, nor any world known to our scholars. They are the infamous mad dogs of the universe. I suspect Loki must have made a dark bargain using the Tesseract to bring them here."
After Thor finished speaking, the tension in the room shifted entirely. The threat of a massive alien armada was infinitely greater than one rogue prince. Some immediately began to strategize, while Bruce Banner and Tony Stark returned to sweeping the globe for the Tesseract's gamma signature.
But just as they were busy preparing for a distant war, a group of uninvited guests arrived to bring the war directly to them.
"Three, two, one..."
BOOM!
A catastrophic explosion blew a massive hole in the side of the cloaked Helicarrier. For any highly advanced military equipment, the one most intimately familiar with its structural weaknesses is always its own people. Under a brainwashed Clint Barton's explosive arrow attack, the Helicarrier's turbine shattered, plunging the flying fortress into absolute chaos.
The subsequent events unfolded in a desperate, fiery blur: Tony Stark and Steve Rogers fought to manually repair the failing rotors; the Hulk was triggered and wreaked absolute havoc through the lower decks; and Loki, rescued during the confusion by his compromised agents, successfully murdered Agent Coulson and escaped into the wind.
Loki flew directly to the penthouse of Stark Tower and activated the portal device.
A massive, tearing hole of blue energy ripped open in the sky above Manhattan. From within the dark void of space, Chitauri soldiers poured out one after another, riding sleek, anti-gravity chariots.
Tony Stark, the first to arrive on the scene, immediately engaged the invasion force. Iron Man's repulsors fired relentlessly, trying to bottleneck the swarm. However, it was like trying to put out a forest fire with a squirt gun.
More and more alien soldiers flooded the streets of New York. Heavy plasma cannons fired wildly, blowing taxis and buses away in massive explosions. Civilians scattered like panicked ants, fleeing in all directions to find shelter in the subway stations and basements.
"We need to get up there!" Steve Rogers yelled.
The hijacked Quinjet, heavily damaged by Chitauri artillery fire, made a screeching emergency landing on a crowded avenue. Captain America, Black Widow, and a newly freed Hawkeye emerged from the smoking wreckage.
Steve observed the apocalyptic situation around them with tactical precision.
"We need to contain the soldiers down here," Steve ordered, raising his shield. "But the more urgent matter is shutting down the Tesseract device above Stark Tower. Otherwise, even if we eliminate every invader on the ground, a million more will take their place."
Just as the three Avengers looked up to chart a path to the tower, a deafening, mechanical roar echoed from the portal. The Chitauri's true war machine finally descended into the atmosphere.
The Leviathan.
Compared to the footsoldiers buzzing around the skyscrapers, this armored, flying, whale-like creature's destructive power was over a hundred times greater. Worse, the Leviathan functioned as a massive troop transport, carrying hundreds of fresh soldiers within its armored shell.
The Leviathan swam through the air, its heavy armor effortlessly shattering the glass and steel of the skyscrapers it brushed against. As it roared, countless Chitauri soldiers leaped from its flanks, swarming the buildings.
Steve looked up at the Leviathan's massive, armored form, feeling a rare sense of profound powerlessness. The Vibranium shield in his hand could deflect bullets, but it couldn't cut down a flying warship.
"Stark?" Steve called over the comms. "Did you see that thing that just came out?"
"Yeah, Captain. I see it," Tony replied, currently flying parallel to the beast. "But, this big guy... I think we're gonna need the Hulk."
Aside from drawing its fire and letting it rampage, Iron Man's conventional weaponry had absolutely no solution for a target with that much mass and armor.
"J.A.R.V.I.S., find its weak point!" Tony ordered, his HUD scanning the Leviathan with infrared lasers.
Just then, a familiar, short blonde figure blurred into Tony Stark's view, hovering directly in the Leviathan's path.
Meliodas simply pulled his arm back and threw a casual, bare-knuckle punch.
KRACK-BOOM!
The shockwave shattered every window on the city block. The colossal, indestructible Leviathan was violently crushed from head to tail, instantly crumpling into a condensed pile of mangled alien scrap metal. It lost all forward momentum and plummeted heavily to the street below, dead on impact.
"What the fuck."
Inside the Mark VII armor, Tony Stark couldn't help but utter a very un-superhero-like phrase. The unstoppable alien warship, which had seemed like an apocalyptic problem just seconds ago, was blown out of the sky by a teenager with a single punch?
"Captain," Tony's voice crackled over the radio, completely deadpan. "I think you don't need to worry about the big guy anymore. Also, please remind me to never, ever provoke this kid."
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