Two weeks.
The calm held, thin and fragile, over the city that never slept. For Sam, the days blurred in corporate meetings and silent preparations. The HyperCell prototype was finalized, patents filed in record time. Dr. Connors worked with quiet intensity, securing the perfected Lizard Serum—now stabilized and renamed the Genesis Serum—in a vault only Sam could access.
Kyle managed the empire from Brazil, her voice steady over encrypted calls. The old man remained blissfully unaware, his life still defined by tea, warmth, and the price of eggs, never knowing the cosmic clock ticking down around him.
Now the two weeks were up.
Sam stood at his office window, eyes turned skyward. The sky was cloudless blue. A beautiful day—for an invasion.
It began not with a sound, but a feeling. A pressure shift. A wrongness in the air. Sam felt it like a nail dragged across his soul. He looked upward, piercing the atmosphere with his vision.
There. A ripple above Stark Tower. A drop of ink in water. Then, a beam of blue energy lanced skyward from the tower's pinnacle, striking something unseen. The ripple tore open, widening into a jagged wound in the sky.
The portal yawned, a vortex of impossible physics. From its depths, cold alien darkness stared back.
And then they came.
The first Leviathan breached the portal, a skyscraper-sized worm of silver armor and exposed muscle, roaring as it descended. Behind it swarmed chariots, sleek craft piloted by Chitauri soldiers firing plasma bolts wildly.
The storm had broken.
Sirens howled. Explosions cracked in the distance. Energy weapons shrieked. Sam watched panic ripple through the city—people scattering like ants, buses overturned, cars crashing, a chariot strafing a crowd with merciless fire.
New York was a war zone.
Lightning split the sky as a red-caped figure descended. Thor. His silver armor crackled with electricity, Mjolnir raised high. Storm clouds swirled to his call, thunder booming as lightning struck his hammer in rapid succession. With a roar, he hurled himself toward Stark Tower, a living storm.
Elsewhere, red and gold streaked through the chaos. Iron Man zipped between chariots, repulsors blasting, mini-missiles flaring from his armor's shoulders. Explosions rippled across the skyline. A Quinjet swooped in to support him, guns blazing, but a plasma bolt clipped its wing, sending it spiraling into the streets.
The invasion had begun.
High above it all, Loki watched from Stark Tower's upper floors. His green eyes glinted with delight, a sick grin stretching across his face. Dressed in emerald and gold, horned helm catching the sunlight, he admired the chaos like a painter admiring his masterpiece. His scepter glowed ominously in hand.
Mortals… pathetic creatures, he mused. They scatter like bugs before the flame. Brother, what do you see in them?
He chuckled, watching Thor carve through the Chitauri. "Ever the sentimental fool," Loki murmured, turning inside. Let him come. The real game begins now.
For Loki, this was never cruelty. It was fun. A family matter. A brotherly quarrel scaled to cosmic destruction. If he could not rule Asgard, then he would claim Thor's favorite toy: Earth.
The floor shook as Thor crashed into the chamber, lightning sparking around him. Lights burst in showers of sparks.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
"Bravo, brother," Loki drawled. "Very heroic. Love what I've done with the place?"
Thor glared, his grip tight on Mjolnir. "This madness will lead to war, Loki. Turn off the Tesseract. Call off the Chitauri."
"Or what? You'll kill me?" Loki smirked. "Please. You've played that game before. There will be no peace. My ascension begins here."
"DO NOT TEST ME!" Thor's voice thundered. "You are being used, brother. These Chitauri serve one master, and he will discard you as he has discarded others. Come home. End this war."
But Loki only laughed. "I use him, not the other way around. His army is mine. His power, mine. This world will fall, and my kingdom will rise."
Thor's jaw hardened. "Then you leave me no choice." Lightning arced around him, Mjolnir raised high.
But before the hammer could fall, a hand shimmered into being beside him. Fingers touched his face—and Thor was pulled into a kiss.
His eyes widened in shock. Recognition flared.
"Amora," he whispered.
The Enchantress smiled against his lips, green energy spilling into him. Her long golden hair shimmered, her emerald eyes glowing as magic bound his will. She drew away with a breathless sigh as Thor's expression dulled, his blue eyes fading into green.
"Rest now, my love," she whispered into his mind. "Be mine. Burn this world with me."
Thor stood frozen, ensnared.
Loki passed Amora with hardly a glance. She bowed low.
"Power was always yours, brother," Loki sneered. "But wisdom—and magic—were mine. Now, all your power is mine as well. Kneel."
Runes flared. The scepter's jewel glowed bright against Thor's chest.
Thor shuddered… and sank to one knee.
Loki smiled, satisfied. "It is done. Take him, Amora. Together, you will break the Green Beast. And send your Executioner to keep our guests entertained."
---
The city streets were chaos incarnate. Cars overturned, buildings cracked, civilians screamed. Leviathans slithered through skyscrapers, flanks opening to unleash waves of Chitauri foot soldiers. Hover-chariots swooped low, plasma fire cutting through steel and flesh alike.
At the Quinjet crash site, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Captain America held the line. Hawkeye's trick arrows burst through squads, Natasha's pistols barked with lethal precision, and Cap's shield ricocheted between targets with impossible speed. Together they formed a deadly circle, cutting down anything that dared to land.
The swarm faltered. Then scattered.
Because Iron Man arrived—trailing a Leviathan behind him.
"Uh, guys?" Tony's voice crackled over comms. "I'm bringing the party to you."
Natasha's eyes widened. "I don't see how that's a party."
"Banner's on his way," Hawkeye said, forcing confidence.
A roar answered him.
The Hulk launched himself from a skyscraper, colliding with the Leviathan's skull. His punch cracked the city, folding the beast into the street. With a second blow, he shattered it. Iron Man finished it with a missile barrage, splitting the creature in two.
For a moment, the battlefield went still. Then the Chitauri roared in unison, enraged.
---
Elsewhere—
The X-Men fought their own battle.
Storm hovered above the city, silver hair whipping in the winds, lightning lashing down from her hands. Beside her, Bobby Drake carved icy slides through the air, freezing Chitauri in blocks of ice and raising barriers for civilians. Cyclops's optic blasts cut through soldiers with concussive force, while Jean Grey hurled debris and cars with telekinesis, shielding civilians. Kitty phased civilians through barriers to safety, her voice tight with awe.
"Aliens. Real aliens. This is insane!"
"They're being controlled," Jean gasped, straining. "It's… like a hive mind. Too loud to pick apart. The source is that portal."
"Creepy," Kitty muttered.
Before they could regroup, the ice pillars holding a Leviathan shattered. The beast tumbled toward the ground. Cyclops blasted falling debris, Storm whipped up tornadoes, Jean shielded the team, Bobby froze the beast to slow its fall.
When the dust cleared, a roar shook the street. The Leviathan's carcass burst apart—and Hulk emerged, bloodied and furious.
"Robots!" he bellowed.
The X-Men froze.
"Don't move," Jean warned. "He's focused on the aliens."
Before anyone could answer, a blur of lightning struck Hulk, knocking him through a building.
Two figures stepped from a shimmering tear in space.
Amora, in green armor, vanished after the storm's trail. The other remained—a bald, tattooed giant in black armor, wielding a massive rune-etched axe.
"Take care of the mortals," Amora ordered smoothly. "I will tend to the beast." She was gone in a flash of green light.
The Executioner leapt down, axe in hand.
Scott narrowed his eyes. "Jean?"
"We can fight him," she said firmly.
Bobby launched the first attack, ice blasting across the street. The Executioner met him midair, swatting him aside with brutal force. Cyclops's optic blasts staggered him back, only for the Asgardian to absorb Storm's lightning into his axe until it glowed with red-blue energy.
The Executioner raised the weapon high, voice rumbling with satisfaction.
"Good."
He brought it down.
BOOM.
The street exploded in shockwaves of fire and lightning.
---