Murdock was the first to wake back up. But his ringing head caused him to have little ability to discern his surroundings at the moment, he could barely grasp that there was fighting currently going outside the building.
Explosives rang out; screams were echoing all over the place, and then there were these electronic zaps, not unlike the sounds of phasers used in Star Trek.
The world of fire that he usually saw might be literal right now.
But slowly his senses returned to him proper, now he could tell from the way that the tentacles twitched that Doc Ock was laid out in corner of the room, that meant that the young woman struggling against restraints while wiggling forwards along the floor was Louise and the groggy person beside him was Agent Morse.
Slowly, he braced himself against a chair and rose to his feet while the world solidified before him. Now he could tell that Barton had just entered the room, sprinting past them all to talk to Loki who'd just reentered the room from the balcony.
"Sir, what's the plan?" Barton asked, unconcerned by the blind man getting back to his feet, and the still slowly waking Morse. Matt didn't like their chances against Loki and Barton given the performance that they just had against him. Ideally, he hoped that backup would get here soon because otherwise, they'd all be bloodstains on the floor soon.
"We've been betrayed," Loki replied, shocking Murdock. "Our armies are not coming," Loki pointed the scepter at the bowman, who didn't inch away at the sight of the deadly weapon. "So not much point in keeping you in my control at the moment."
The Norse God tapped Hawkeye in the chest, causing a rather alarming gasp to escape the man's lips before the man fell onto the floor as if spiked over the head with a club.
"So… what? World Conquering is off your itinerary now?" Matt asked in a low, tired voice. He tried to be somewhat intimidating, but he was sure that the other man only found the attempt to be amusing rather than effective.
Loki took a few steps towards, something that allowed the blind man to clearly make out that he'd received more injuries since he knocked Morse and him out. Matt could smell the blood leak out from an open wound on the other man's face.
That and a hitch in the way that the Norse God took a breath, told Matt that the situation had changed somewhat since they were knocked unconscious. But that didn't mean that they could let this guy walk around free.
"More postponed, no point in taking over this world if Brainiac destroys it," Before Loki could start to go into any further detail, Barton leaped up to his feet, his bow knocked back and an arrow already flying out at the Norse God. Who simply grabbed the projectile with a swipe of his hand. "Barton, good to see that you're up."
"You!"
"I'm aware that I'm me, Barton," Loki retorted. "I swear, you were smarter when I had you mind-controlled."
Morse fully awoke around this time, using the arm of the nearby chair to help herself to her feet. With a shake of her head, the woman seemed to regain her strength to stand, to walk forward. Soon, Barton, Murdock, and Morse surrounded the Norse God on all sides.
Whatever tension that the room had gained was broken by Thor striding in with his long red cape billowing behind him. There was a frown on his face, a glare on his brow, altogether he looked as if he was ready to take down the whole building if it offended him.
"We've got bigger problems to deal with right now," he intoned, drawing them away from the coming fight. But he didn't stay for long instead they all seemed to just magnetically follow him past the unconscious body of Doc Ock and the ever-struggling body of Louise, who still was attempting to escape from her restraints.
Louise was freed from her restraints with a single arrow from Hawkeye cutting through the ropes. She grimaced as her fingertips felt over the red marks of her skin, the feeling of rope burn was a small price compared to what would've happened to the young girl if the archer had decided to use a normal arrow to deal with her.
"I think you two should make your ways out of here," Barton spoke with a calmer tone than his expression would've hinted at. Though, that was probably due to those feelings being directed toward Loki. "This is hardly the place for two civilians to stay in an invasion like this."
Matt had two contrasting thoughts on that order, firstly that he was glad that the man had thought of it. If he had been anyone else, this would've been the right choice and one that he felt that Louise should take. But his second thought on the issue was that he could do well here, and was skilled enough to stop from being dead weight.
He was about to voice that opinion when Loki intruded.
"If safety's their concern, then this building will be better off than any other in New York," The Norse God's expression just reeked smugness, so much so that Matt had to fight the urge to restart their fight. "Brainiac can't afford any serious damage to the structure, not if he wants the Tesseract to continue to keep the portal open."
"And we can't afford to destroy the building ourselves?" Thor asked his brother, twirling his hammer in his hand as if the thought excited him.
"Not if you don't want a repeat of what happened when I arrived on Midgard, recall the massive explosion? Wouldn't want that to go off here, not only would the bigger portal lead to a bigger explosion there's no way even we'd survive it."
After that, much to Barton's clear frustration Loki gave a much too brief run down what they were facing now. The genocidal alien overlord obsessed with having all the knowledge in the universe, who had apparently been missing for some time, had been brought back to this dimension by Doc Ock who had betrayed Loki.
Barton and Morse had shifted a device attached to their ears, a communicator much smaller than any Murdock had been aware of existing. It seemed that they were talking with someone codenamed Black Widow, and someone that thought calling themselves Captain America wasn't egotistical.
Matt would hold back his judgment of that, given he was friends with a guy trying to call himself after a literal god.
They were being assured that while they couldn't trust Loki, given his own goals in the operation, the threat of Brainiac was confirmed by Thor before the other alien retrieved the scepter from Ock's still(or perhaps dead?)body.
So none of them were under his control as Barton had previously been. Which was good.
Though the bad news came after that, Doyle had gotten himself overwhelmed not an hour ago, apparently he had kept the Helicarrier from a dark fate off the coast by holding it in the air for too long. Afterward, he went into a daze, tried to push through it, and ended up collapsing.
So Doyle wasn't likely to make an appearance to save their asses.
But as long as they could stop Brainiac's forces from setting up devices to capture New York, because that was what Brainiac liked to do apparently, and stop the being himself from coming through the portal, they wouldn't need the big man himself.
Suddenly, there was a green flash and six figures, whom Matt could only guess were robots given their lack of heartbeat, appeared in the room. Instantly, Louise leaped to the ground, rolling as to grab the SHIELD designed EMP rifle, before firing off a few shots that seemed to do nothing.
Thankfully, Barton's special arrows managed to cut through the robots with ease, while Morse had somehow gotten hold of a handgun. Those did little when they weren't directly hitting the eyes or joints of the bots. Together they made short work of their ambushers.
"Right," Thor took charge. "We won't get much more time, Brainiac may decide to make another appearance himself soon. Stark is trying his best to handle the drones in the air, I'll be joining him. The rest of you, keep on my brother and make sure he closes the portal."
"Brother, I'm hurt," Loki held a hand on his chest, making his way towards the stairs to the roof. "When have I ever betrayed you?"
(New York Skyline)
Stark twisted in the air, his bulky backpack launching out a trio of missiles that targeted the drones that were chasing him. They all hit, exploding the drones in a fury of fire and metal, leaving the billionaire to fire off a quick repulsor blast at one that had teleported in, in front of him.
Meanwhile, Black Widow found that Quinjet was being quickly outmaneuvered in the relatively cramped space that the drones were floating in. Any strafing runs were quickly made useless as the drones were able to either dodge or outright defend themselves against the rounds from the Vulcans. The missiles had been the only effective weapon, and the Quinjet only carried two of those.
Two missiles Romanoff had already used to take out two separate huddled crowds of them.
"Open the back," Rogers yelled, standing by location. "I've got to start directing first responders into safer areas while Stark-" At this moment, Thor joined them in the air, his hammer letting him tear through piles of drones as if they were paper sheets. "-and Thor deals with the drones in the air."
And click of a button and the Quinject's ramp fell down. Captain America leaped out shield first as soon as there was enough room. Black Widow twisted the Quinjet in the air, dodging the beam weapons that the drones were firing off with the narrowest of margins.
Iron Man managed to fire off a wide sonic blast, another weapon that was somehow kept in that bulky backpack, at those drones, warping the metal of their construction while leaving them open to be taken out finally by the Vulcans tearing through the weakened material.
Stark's voice rang out in her ear, courtesy from their Comms unit.
"The toys on that thing isn't going to cut it-" He spoke, lacking the smug tone that the man would usually have when discussing others' weapons but sounding rather resigned. "-there should be a landing pad on a building down the street. Land there, Thor will pick you up and we'll meet back up with Cap."
"No, that's not needed," Her radar caught the rather large number of drones that appeared off in the distance, her computer switched to footage from a nearby security camera. It showed her the drones descending on a building with a large object being carried by a beam of light between them all. "We're going to need him to meet me at these coordinates."
Whatever that device was, it couldn't be good.
(Pat Doyle)
I woke up feeling refreshed, and surprisingly naked, my head no longer felt like it was about to spin off my neck. It felt like I was being baked in low heat, a raging fire that would come from a neat fireplace back home, not something that I'd seen here in New York; I'm sure that there are some in New York, I just haven't spotted any.
Still, the more important factor was that I seemed to be naked… which was not how I usually slept. Usually, I went to bed in at least a pair of shorts, so waking up in the nude was a new experience for me.
Thankfully I seemed to have some odd reflective sheet over my body, covering it from anyone that just wanted to take a peek. Above the bed I was in was a pair of lights, large torches that radiated energy of a sun.
"Water," My mind supplied, I wanted water when I spotted the nearby sink and tap. Straight from the tap, I hungrily devoured whatever liquid came out while wearing the sheet as if it was a toga.
I heard his footsteps before he even spoke up, so I decided to take advantage of that fact.
"Fury, sneaking up on me when I'm dressed like this sends a rather suggestive message."
"Finally awake, and snippier than ever I see," he responded, a case in hand as the man stepped forward. His eye scanned over my form, especially my face. "Glad to see that you were right in your message about sunlight powering you up. Luckily, it only took about twenty minutes to change one of our test rooms into a makeshift sunbathing room," Fury's face suddenly went grim. "Sadly, there's no rest for the wicked, the situation got worse."
"Worse?"
"The report that we've got says that it's a being called Brainiac-"
"What?" I interrupted him flatly.
"-whose army is currently descending on New York, overwhelming what forces we've managed to gather there, except for the Avengers themselves-"
"W-w-what?!" I interrupted him again, this time stuttering as I came to realize that he wasn't joking. This was real.
"-And Doctor Octavius appeared to have been working for him the whole time, using Loki's portal device to bring him into our dimension," Fury continued as if I wasn't a gaping fish that had repeated 'what' twice so far. "So even if you're not ready, we need you out there."
"... what? Brainiac? What?" I spoke in a rather shell shocked manner. "As in the guy with the big massive ship in the shape of his head? Bottler of Cities, destroyer of worlds? That Brainiac?"
"Given your reaction, you'd know better than me," Fury rolled his eye at me, I think? It was hard to tell given the eye patch. Suddenly he slipped the case towards me, opening up to reveal the contents. "Stark handed us this and said that it was the prototype he created for you earlier. Need to have some input from you when you need something more specific though."
Inside the case was a jumpsuit of sorts, colored in blue and white, white boots with blue accents, and my blazing sun shield on the center. It was made from thicker material than I would've asked for, but if anything that kept it away from looking like spandex. it was close to what Rogers was wearing in his suit.
I was suddenly struck with a sense of anxiety as if my heart was restricting faster and faster. My mind suddenly reminded me of the breathing exercises that I once learned, so I took a deep breath, and calmed down.
It was time to get to work.
"I just need one more thing," I spoke suddenly after a few moments of silence.
"What's that?"
"Well, I've gotta have a cape."
Before that statement could be taken in by the man, Hill came into the room, only briefly glancing towards my near-nude body and rolling her eyes in a manner that told me that she expected me to have changed into them already.
"Sir," She turned to Fury. "Security Council's demanding a meeting with you, wanting to figure out what the response to the invasion of New York should be?"
Fury glanced at me, then to the suit before he started to leave the room in a manner that caused his long jacket to twirl as if it was a cape. It was when he reached the doorway that the Director finally spoke to about what he was going to say to the Council.
"Isn't it obvious, we've already responded."
(New York Streets)
Seconds before a young man was about to be killed by the alien robot's beam weapon, an iconic shield flashed before his eyes. Blocking the attack, while also bouncing off a nearby car to slam into the attacker's face.
Blue fist smacked into the face as a follow-up, the shield snapping onto the man's forearm with ease that spoke of experience, before said shield slapped against the robot's beam weapon, causing the entire thing to combust. It was only then that the young man's eyes glanced to the center of his savior's chest, seeing the single star in the center.
"Captain America?" The man asked as if he couldn't believe the sight before him.
"Son," Captain America helped him back to his feet. "I'm going to ask you to make your way with these fine folks," His thumb pointed back towards a trio of cops. "They'll be taking you to somewhere safe."
Steve sighed as they walked off, his hands on his knees as he caught his breath for the movement. Somehow, the legions of drones that Brainiac had been sending down to the city from his massive head ship had stopped for the moment. Something the hero would use to regain his breath, but he knew that it could only really be a bad thing.
There was a sudden beeping noise that came from behind him. Rogers turned around to admonish whoever this was, after all this was a dangerous area, only to be shocked when Bruce Banner strode on up next to him on a moped.
"Hey," Banner said awkwardly as he got off the vehicle. "What's the situation?"
"Didn't expect to see you pop up around here," The World War II veteran commented after giving the other man a rather brief and quick rundown on the situation. "Thinking of going after Ross?"
"Well, it's not like there's much that can stop the Hulk when he starts going."
As if to combat that statement, the ground shook as the largest Brainiac minion of the day landed on the road with enough force that the asphalt flew off into the air. It wasn't like the others, it only retained the apparent emblem of Brainiac on its forehead.
Lacking a humanoid body, it instead coasted along the ground on four legs, with two large claws that were positioned as if they were arms, ready to protect the body from damage. It didn't have any other limbs or external weapons, that they could see, and otherwise, it appeared as if it was a giant head.
Basically, it was a spider robot.
"I can see this guy's got an aesthetic and is sticking to it," Banner started to walk towards the creature as he said that, his confident walk being the only thing that stopped Rogers from throwing himself on the man to save him from the spider-bot.
"What are you doing!" he yelled out, but Banner simply smirked as he moved forward.
"THIS!" In a sudden burst of speed that one wouldn't expect from a man that spent the majority of his life in the lab looking down through microscopes Banner managed to get into the arms reach of the bot, his fist held back and winding up for a punch.
But instead of finding his fist hitting hard metal, Banner was instead thrown twenty feet the other direction.
"Banner!" Rogers screamed before he found himself forced to block one of the claws of the spider-bot. He rolled to the side as the other claw attempted to skewer him from the side, barely managing to get out of the way as it sliced into the road as if it was butter.
It wasn't long till it started shooting green beams as well but each managed to be caught, deflected back at the spider-bot. But while deadly to most beings on Earth, those beams weren't doing much more than blackening the metal of the spider-bot once applied to themselves.
Rogers drew out his standard-issue pistol, having already discarded the EMP gun that he'd been given once he'd been told that they didn't work, and fired off a clip at the bot's darkened spots, hoping that they'd be weakened or warped by the beams enough to penetrate.
Instead, the spider-bot suddenly grew faster, knocking him to the ground and managing to force his shield arm to the ground. Suddenly the Captain found himself peering up into the green glow of the robot's charging beam.
Only for it to be exchanged for the massive green fist of the Hulk as the berserker tore through the entire robot as if he was breaking apart pieces of cardboard. With a roar, the big green man threw the remains of the bot into the air and it harmlessly exploded once it was above the rooftops.
Author's Note: Hello young readers... and old readers... and middle-age readers! Not a lot to say with this chapter, but the battle against Brainiac's forces continues. As the Avengers take down the standard drones with ease, Brainiac starts to send more advanced units.
But the question you have to ask... what else does he have in his back hand?