Standing in front of a business center, a middle-aged brunette wondered if she should go ahead with her plan. After some further deliberation, she finally made up her mind and took the first step toward the building's entrance.
After providing her information at the entrance, she was escorted to the desired floor. The secretary let her in almost immediately. Inside, a luxuriously appointed office with well-equipped technology and furniture awaited her. A blonde woman in a business suit sat at an expensive desk, working with documents.
The person she saw was not the one she had planned to meet, which left her confused.
"Good afternoon, Ms. Hanson . Please sit down. My name is Anna Sycheva. You were looking for a meeting," the office owner greeted amiably.
"I thought there was a meeting with Dr. Ledov here. I don't think so..."
"Alexander is unavailable right now," Anna tried to reassure her guest before he left the office. "At the moment, everything related to his assets goes through me. He entrusted me with developing the company while he's busy. Besides, for several days now, you've been corresponding with me instead of Alexander." Anna pulled out her phone and showed him the correspondence.
Knowing this wasn't just any employee, Maya was still wary of acting openly with someone she'd never met. Sighing, she finally decided to take the plunge. Taking a small folder from her bag, she silently handed it to the office's occupant. Anna spent a few minutes looking through the folder and glancing at her guest, trying to absorb the information.
"What do you want for this information?" The folder contained a very promising project that Ledov would have liked. While he might not fully understand all the terms, the information was written in a way that was easy to understand.
"I need protection and guarantees on certain issues." Knowing there was no turning back, Maya decided to continue the conversation, despite her inner doubts.
- What you brought could change the world, why did you decide to betray your employer?
- I'll tell you everything when I talk to Alexander.
- Okay, then I'll start preparing the documents and let him know that we need to hold a meeting.
While business negotiations were taking place in one place, preparations for battle were underway in another. Many didn't understand what was happening, and two police officers were posted to prevent anyone from passing.
"Steve, do you think London will become the second New York?" asked the first, taking a sip of coffee.
"I don't know, Dave , but what's happening isn't doing much good." They were stopped and told not to let any civilians through.
"And those guys in golden armor, like knights. Could it have been Thor who brought them? Many saw the beam of light pass several more times, and each time more and more people in armor appeared."
- I hope that they won't send us to solve what everyone is gathering for.
"Well, yeah, Iron Man, Thor, Aquaman ( title still in the works), and a bunch of military agents—those guys are like roleplayers. I'd rather stay somewhere far away." Everything was kept secret, but civilians were being escorted away from the potential battle zone.
- I agree that whatever is planned there will be a big mess.
The next day, several blocks of London were evacuated. The area was deserted except for a large man in a red cloak and the girl he was supporting.
"Thor, I'm afraid things are getting worse. Are you sure Malekith will come?" The dark circles under Jane's eyes were terrifying to look at. Veins were visible all over her body. The aether that was in her will soon kill her completely.
- Yes. We are convinced that Malekith He knows we're here. If he doesn't come now , everything he's done will be pointless. So he'll definitely come for you.
"I believe, but I'm scared," the man responded by simply hugging her, giving her warmth and confidence.
While the couple were embracing, a dark elf ship approached them in stealth mode. Having revealed itself, Thor assumed a fighting stance. He knew they wouldn't attack with the ship's weapons, but there could be other tricks.
After watching for a couple of minutes, the invaders themselves began to descend from the ship . Leading their delegation was Malekith himself . Seeing the enemy's face, the urge to throw a hammer at him grew stronger with each passing second.
"And here we are, unwilling to give her to us, yet willing to sacrifice all the worlds just to let her live a little longer." Malekith stood on the dais, his voice confident and menacing, as if he were not just a leader but the very essence of darkness. His followers gathered around him, their eyes burning with greed and hatred. They awaited his command, ready to fulfill his every wish.
"Yes, I'm ready to do it, but if you think you can take over worlds with this power, you're sorely mistaken." Thor held his hammer threateningly the whole time, hinting at how exactly it would interfere. "I propose a deal: you take the Aether, and then I'll kick your ass."
"How vulgar! I expected more from the Prince of Asgard , but I'm willing to take the aether for this. Kill him." At that moment, Malekith's soldiers attacked Thor. The dark prince himself went to the girl.
The fear on her face pleased the leader of the dark elves. While Thor was fending off the attack, he decided to take the plunge and snatch the ether. Jane's scream echoed throughout the surrounding area. Thor, who had sent the elf flying with his hammer, looked at Jane and paid for it with several blows.
- Hahahahaha - Jane's body fell limply to the ground, and Malekith didn't hesitate and began to absorb the ether.
Seeing the body of his beloved lying on the ground and not moving, Thor did not hesitate and flew away from the meeting place, capturing the former vessel of ether.
After flying several hundred meters, the couple simply vanished. However, an explosion appeared in the place of the dark elf king.
In a remote location above the Earth, a small group of people stood. Tony Stark in his battle armor, Alex with several doctors and equipment for treating patients, and Fandral with several Asgardian guardians . They all waited for Thor to complete his part of the task. Currently, all nine realms had rifts that allowed passage among them as if entering a different room.
- Commander, order us to kill the goats - Tony's frivolous attitude towards what was happening irritated everyone except Alex.
Thanks to his equipment, he was able to see what was happening on the other side of the fault and understand when to expect the bait.
"And here's Superman with Lois," Thor said, without thinking, placing his girlfriend on the couch where Alex immediately took hold of her, and several doctors assisted him. Thor himself, his gaze fixed on her.
Big guy, don't get distracted, we're following the plan - Tony does have some kind of core after all - trust Alex, he helped your mother and he will help her.
"Thor, don't look at me like that. She'll be fine, she's just in shock. I'll just restore her a bit and hand her over to Fandrel ."
- Thank you, friend - Thor exhaled heavily and perked up - I am in your debt.
- Then start by making them regret that they even thought of attacking your home. - Looking at Tony, the thunder god turned his gaze to Fendrel , receiving a nod and from him Thor went through the rift to battle.
If you look at Iron Man's sensors, you'll see a map of London with numerous green and red dots. Some minor adjustments to the map increased the red dots in some places, allowing the green dots to be in the majority.
- Dear warrior, please explain to me what is going on , otherwise Thor was not stingy with explanations after I became the guardian of his lady.
Stark looked at the curious Asgardian and drew a map of London with many dots.
"After I gained access to the rift research and a little help from Jane, we were able to create equipment that could be used to manipulate these rifts." After a couple more manipulations, the number of markers changed, with more red ones in some places and fewer in others. "Thanks to this, I'm now separating this Malekith's soldiers so our people can deal with him with fewer losses."
"What's that?" Fandral pointed to the new red dots that appeared in the sky.
"It looks like these are new guests." A look at the camera revealed several dozen spaceships entering Earth's airspace. " Rhodey, I'm sending you the coordinates. Hey, water spirit, how long will it be?"
- A couple of minutes, don't rush me - Tony wanted to join the battle , but according to the plan, he was waiting for Alex to be free and for them to go to the rescue together.
If a British military officer had been told a week ago that he would be fighting aliens, he would not have believed it.
Of course, the battle in New York showed us we weren't alone in the universe. But that seemed to have faded somewhat. But now, firing at creatures not from this planet, he feared for his future.
Command put them all in their places and told them the battle would begin at any moment. After sitting in some jungle for half a day, a second later he found himself back in London and a firefight had begun.
Many of his comrades had already been killed. The alien weapons pierced any armor the British soldier wore. Some were less fortunate, caught in some kind of gravity grenades. Watching his friends turn into minced meat only angered him and made him want to shoot them all. The warriors in golden armor sent from another world fought well, using their shields to protect the Earthlings as best they could.
Now, sitting behind the wall, several people were preparing for the last attack before they were pinned down.
But suddenly, the enemies pressing them simply vanished. Everyone involved was given a brief explanation of what it was. But seeing people simply appear and disappear was like magic for many. This gave him time to regroup for another position. As he moved, he looked up at the sky and saw ten more small ships, each like a pile of scrap metal that had somehow managed to fly. Realizing that the enemy had received reinforcements, the only thing he could do was move toward his own.
Ten small frigates of various space rabble appeared within fighter range.
Receiving the order, a squadron of ten units circling the city headed toward the unidentified objects that had entered the atmosphere. The order was simple: destroy them all. If possible, do so outside the city.
Trying to intercept, the pilots fired their first salvo. The missiles launched at the alien ships hit only two of them, one of which struck its energy shield. But even a direct hit on the spacecraft had little effect, and the ship itself was able to continue the fight. Such a high rate of misses was due to the superior armament and maneuverability of the ships themselves. Half of the pirate fleet that entered space was dispatched to intercept the British Air Force, while the rest returned to the ground. Realizing the battle would not end quickly, the pilots requested backup. Due to their reduced maneuverability, the recent hunters became the hunted and were pursued. A warrior joined the chase. Using a volley of shoulder-fired missiles, he was able to hit the vulnerable points of one of the ships, which began to plummet after the impact. The warrior's small size helped it avoid numerous attacks and allowed it to command the battle. By drawing attention to itself, the warrior was able to free the fighter pilots, who began to circle again to fire another salvo. After 10 minutes of fighting, only four fighters remained alive against three ships. The missiles weren't particularly effective against the shields. Fortunately for the defenders, one pirate captain didn't consider this a disadvantage and fled into space. Continuing the battle could have cost the lives of all the pilots, even the warrior, who was clad in superior armor. Receiving the signal from command, all remaining fighters began to flee the combat zone, as within seconds the sky over London was filled with dozens of anti-aircraft missile explosions of varying strength. The damage inflicted on all remaining pirates was fatal. The shields couldn't withstand the impact, and debris fell heavily onto the streets of London.
Having handed Jane over to Fandral's care, Alex left the rift where they had been hiding all this time. There was no battle where they emerged, but gunshots were clearly audible everywhere .
- We need to hold out for another 5 minutes and then that Snow White won't be so dangerous -
- Tony, there's the River Thames here, I can help those who are here, and you check those ships that flew to the city -
- Okay, take care of yourself, icicle.
sighed heavily, wishing he could come up with a witty retort, but he had more pressing matters. Getting to the river wasn't difficult. The problem here was the large, T-shaped spaceship. Its weapons were powerful. And even though it was hanging in one place, that didn't lessen the danger.
Reaching the river, he began to concentrate. The muddy river, which had seemed lifeless and useless, suddenly came to life. The water began to rise, turning into a powerful tsunami that hung over the river, as if ready to strike.
The sounds of battle died down for a moment as a massive wave captured the attention of all involved. Some fighters and invaders paused, observing this natural wonder. In some areas, the battle came to a complete halt—all eyes were fixed on the watery force looming over the city.
- Show-off -
Alex ignored the voice in his earpiece, but he felt his body tense. He began slowly directing the flow of water through the streets and squares. The wave moved with incredible force, cutting through crowds of enemies and destroying everything in its path. Many earthlings tried to take cover or flee, but the flow of water passed them by—it was as controlled and precise as possible for a man handling such a massive force for the first time.
It was incredibly challenging to control such a mass of water, especially for a novice on such a scale. Alex felt his muscles tense, his mind struggling to control every movement of the current.
Eventually, the tsunami swept across the entire area, sweeping away the enemies and destroying their fortifications.
- Doctor Ledov, the time has passed since the convergence process.
- Thanks, Jarvis. Now all that's left to do is deal with the main bastard.
Everyone directly or indirectly preparing for the battle tried to keep the events contained within a specific location to avoid affecting the local population. Even after informing the city authorities of the impending alien attack, they remained skeptical. Civilians suffered for this. Information about the attack was kept under wraps among the public and ordinary law enforcement, so when space pirates began landing on the city streets, it quickly sparked panic. Of course, the ships were simply pirate rabble quickly assembled by Malekith . Their sole purpose was to sow chaos while their employer did his work. And although armed men were stationed throughout the city, they were unprepared for a ship to land in the middle of the street and a battle to break out in the middle of the city. Civilians were forbidden from leaving their homes that day. Therefore, there were few civilian casualties.
Just yesterday, Steve and Dave were standing and driving people away from the closed area, and today they were shooting at space pirates on the city streets.
- But someone suggested dismantling the armory so that everyone would be armed - Steve decided to reload while hiding behind a column.
"You won't get anything because there won't be anything," Dave was clearly quoting one of their bosses quite well, considering how irritating that phrase was.
The situation in this area was not rosy: having a greater quantitative and qualitative advantage, the pirates suppressed one policeman after another.
Many of the aliens were humanoid in shape, so fighting them was like fighting a regular shootout with painted clowns.
- FLARE GUN - Seeing how one of these pirates took out a larger weapon, Steve did not hesitate and warned his own.
A plasma charge struck the column, causing an explosion that stunned everyone. Something pushed Steve away.
When Steve came to, he found himself surrounded by a man with whom he had spent most of his time for several years.
- Dave - he shook him a little - Dave. Dave. DAVE. BITCHES. I'LL KILL YOU. - the rage simply overwhelmed him, which is why he mindlessly began shooting at the invaders .
Of course, it didn't work. He ran out of ammo early. And now he's the only one left on this street. Several of his comrades are lying wounded and waiting for help, which might not arrive.
But the music from above distracted the robbers from ending his life. As if death itself, Iron Man descended from the heavens. A beam weapon, a mini-missile, or simply a strike from a power suit. One minute, those who the law enforcement officers couldn't resist were destroyed by a single superhero from the ground.
- Help will arrive for you soon, help them as much as you can , but I have to go, there are still many Martians on Earth -
Steve himself simply watched silently as Iron Man flew away from him.
Thor stood before Malekith , his hammer in hand and his enemy on his knees. The blood streaming down his body didn't faze the thunder god.
"This is what your thirst for power has led to. The last survivors who followed you are now dead. You are most likely the last survivor—"
The battle was much harder for Thor. Never before had he faced such an enemy. The chase across several worlds and the damage from the red aether storm took their toll.
- No… you cannot defeat me. YOU WILL ALL DIE…
With a final, desperate attack, Malekith attempted to unleash the full power of the Aether in order to take as much of it with him as possible. Thor tried to stop him , but the blast wave knocked Thor back. A second later, the Dark Lord's whereabouts were vanished.
" Hey, Superman, how are you? Are you alive?" The scarlet metal armor landed next to the thunder god.
- He is not defeated yet, we must finish.
- Wait, wait - Tony managed to stop Thor, turned to the place where Malekith was and a small rocket flew out of his shoulder and disappeared into the rift - if he survives after this, then your father will finish the job.
"My king, the battle is over," Heimdall said, standing and watching the battle the entire time. The King of Asgard and his guards stood nearby, waiting while he kept them informed of the main events.
"And Malekith ?" Heimdall used his sight to find his target in his home world. He was terribly wounded. The great explosion caused by the knight in scarlet armor had dealt terrible damage to the elven lord, but still not killed him.
- He is wounded, but not killed, my king.
- Then launch the biwrest and destroy it, then we'll go get the ether.
Heimdal immediately began to carry out the order and the bivrest's engine came to life again.