"I didn't expect our first meeting would happen under these circumstances, Mr. van der Berg."
Nick Fury's tone was calm, but the tension in his face gave him away. Still, he greeted Daniel respectfully and added, "Don't worry. We still have control of the situation. Every available resource is searching for Loki. As for Thor and the Hulk, they fell into the sea after the last skirmish. Recovery teams are en route."
There was nothing pointed or hostile in Fury's words, suggesting he hadn't realized the real reason Daniel had been sent to the Helicarrier—to monitor the Avengers. If any signs of instability appeared, the President had already given Daniel full authority to step in and take control.
"That's good to hear," Daniel replied evenly. He didn't press too hard. It was enough to establish a bit of distance between himself and Fury. His voice softened just slightly. "I'd like to take a look at Barton. Given the nature of his situation, I might be able to—"
"Boom!"
A thunderous noise tore through the deck outside, cutting Daniel off mid-sentence. In a blur of motion, a streak of metal shot past the observation windows. It was unmistakably Tony Stark in his Iron Man armor, disappearing from view almost instantly.
Before Daniel could even process what had just happened, a S.H.I.E.L.D. Quinjet fired up and lifted off. Aboard were Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye. They had taken off in hot pursuit.
"Director Fury," Daniel asked, his voice sharp, "what's going on? Who authorized that launch?"
He didn't demand they be called back. This was still Fury's domain, and technically, the Avengers remained under S.H.I.E.L.D.'s oversight—for now.
"They must've found Loki's location," Fury said, eyes locked on the retreating Quinjet.
Daniel turned to look through the reinforced glass, tracking the jet's direction. His face darkened. "They're heading… damn it. That's toward Washington."
Of course, Daniel knew the real destination wasn't D.C.—it was New York. But from the Helicarrier's current position, having just returned from Germany, Washington was still in that general direction.
"Director Fury, I'll coordinate with you later. Right now, I need to catch up with them. If Loki is really heading for Washington, we could be looking at a global catastrophe." His tone was no longer measured. There was genuine urgency in his voice.
Daniel wasn't exaggerating. Loki had nearly destroyed the Helicarrier by simply taking control of Barton and manipulating Professor Selvig. If he managed to reach Washington with the same intent, chaos would erupt—and that chaos could escalate into nuclear conflict.
Even Fury didn't know what Loki was truly planning. That insight only came after Stark shared his theories.
And even if Stark had confirmed that Loki's endgame was in New York, that didn't mean Washington was safe. With the stakes this high, military and intelligence forces were already shifting toward the capital in preparation.
New York and Washington were too close. Worse, Professor Charles Xavier wasn't at the mutant academy right now, and much of the school's combat-ready mutants were unavailable. As for federal defenses, the White House had assigned the Fantastic Four to guard the President directly.
Not because the U.S. military couldn't protect him—but because this wasn't a conventional threat. This was Loki. If he got close enough, he could take over the President's mind before anyone even realized what had happened.
In this kind of war—one that mixed science, magic, and alien tech—the only ones truly prepared to fight on the front lines were the Avengers.
Well, the Avengers and the Ancient One. Though she didn't get directly involved in the battle on Central Avenue, she had already taken action from the rooftop of the New York Sanctum, limiting the spread of the Chitauri across the city. The defenders of Earth were not alone—but they were few.
New York was effectively the last line of defense. If it fell, Washington would be exposed immediately.
Once Daniel relayed the situation to the White House, all branches of the armed forces went into full mobilization.
Only then did he begin to understand why, even after someone had nearly detonated a nuclear bomb in Manhattan, the entire affair had been quietly buried by the government. The political machine had simply moved on, unshaken.
Before Daniel made it back to New York, the President had already been moved into the underground bunker beneath the White House. It was a direct response to the threat Loki posed.
At that point, it wasn't just Daniel who had reached the capital. Stark and Rogers had also relayed their conclusions to Nick Fury and the White House.
Loki had taken the Tesseract and brought it to Stark Tower—a building with a self-sustaining energy source. Combined with Hawkeye's reports about a space-time portal device, the truth became clear: Loki intended to open a gateway for an alien army.
Professor Selvig, brilliant as he was, didn't understand Asgardian runes or cosmic magic. But he understood how to manipulate the Tesseract's energy. The space-time device he had built would open a rift through space itself—allowing an alien fleet to invade Earth.
And New York would be the landing zone.
The President, with access to the deepest intelligence secrets on the planet, believed in the Avengers' warning immediately. That's why he acted so quickly—why he took shelter underground, and why full-scale military coordination had begun.
Both Daniel and Stark had secure communication lines with the White House. The moment Daniel arrived in New York, he received an urgent directive: proceed immediately to Stark Tower and assist Iron Man. The situation was rapidly deteriorating.
Stark, of course, had already anticipated the worst. The Tesseract had been connected to the building's Arc Reactor, activating the space-time gateway. Though the machine seemed unstoppable, Stark had one last ace up his sleeve.
Then it happened.
With a sharp metallic clang, Loki's scepter slammed into Stark's chest, but the attack didn't kill him. It was blocked by the Arc Reactor.
At that moment, Stark felt an odd sense of relief. He'd been planning to have the chest wound from years ago repaired, but the surgery had been delayed. Now, that delay had just saved his life. Loki's scepter—designed to control minds—couldn't bypass the Arc Reactor.
He jabbed Stark again. And again. Nothing happened.
In truth, if the Arc Reactor had only been what it seemed, Loki's attack would've worked. But its core had been rebuilt using a synthetic particle modeled after Tesseract energy. And because of that, the scepter's power couldn't get through.
Frustrated, Loki hurled Stark out of the tower. But before he hit the ground, the Mark 7 armor locked onto him mid-air, wrapped him in a protective cocoon, and launched him right back to the rooftop.
Stark wasted no time. A single blast from his laser cannon sent Loki flying.
He was about to move in when a piercing blue beam shot upward from the core of the gateway device. The sky turned dark, and a massive portal tore open, revealing the cold expanse of space behind it.
The Chitauri had arrived.
The portal had been pre-programmed with exact coordinates. It connected Earth directly to the Chitauri fleet, which had been waiting deep in space. And they didn't wait for stabilization. The moment the gateway opened, their forces swarmed through like locusts.
The Chitauri were infamous across the galaxy. Not just for their numbers, but for how they operated—reproducing rapidly and devouring everything in their path. Their behavior resembled Earth's insects, or even humans, though humans at least had some form of restraint built into their societal systems.
In wealthy nations, birth rates were low. In developing ones, children were abundant—but without structural reform, those populations often remained marginalized. Humanity was slowly trending toward population decline and interstellar expansion.
The Chitauri, on the other hand, had no such constraints. They were pure consumption. They took, burned, destroyed—and moved on. They had no homeworld. Just a fleet of warships.
That was their strength.
But also their greatest weakness.
Daniel had spent over sixty years in Jotunheim. He understood how most major interstellar civilizations functioned. And this attack? This wasn't a full-scale invasion. It was a test. A probe.
Thanos believed the Chitauri were enough to crush Earth's defenses and retrieve the Tesseract. He'd miscalculated.
Daniel's focus wasn't on the Chitauri anyway. It was on Loki. More specifically, the scepter in his hand.
Despite his incredible magical pedigree—trained by both the Aesir and Vanir, and born a prince of the Frost Giants—Loki had strayed far from his potential. Raised by Odin under a legacy of manipulation, he'd become more trickster than warrior.
And yet, his bond with Thor—and his hidden loyalty to Asgard—remained painfully intact. In its own twisted way, Odin's method of raising him had succeeded.
But now Loki was no longer Odin's pawn. He had become Thanos's. And through that scepter, Thanos had found a way to extend his influence directly onto Earth.
And that's what worried Daniel most.