I'm giving up on keeping to a schedule now, pretty much. Events in my life are conspiring to stop me from writing as often as I want to, so chapters will now be on an as-I-can schedule. It shall be at least one a month, though, at least until I can get time to write regularly.
-.-Chapter 18-.-
"Something's happening!" Coulson called from the cockpit, and both Harry and Bruce looked through to see the beam of light being emitted from the top of Stark Tower.
"It looks like the invasion's beginning." Harry muttered under his breath, before pulling the hood of his robes up. "Get us to Grand Central Station, so we can get out there."
"Sure thing." Coulson replied. "We'll drop you off there, and then engage these aliens."
"Any sign of Tony?" Harry asked.
Coulson shook his head. "No. I don't know where he is, there's nothing coming through from him on the comms."
Harry nodded, before walking back to the ramp at the rear of the ship, where he picked up Mjolnir. Bruce looked up as he took his shoes off, and frowned.
"Do you actually know how to use that?"
Harry shrugged. "Not to fly, but ... how hard can it be? If I need to get in the air, I can Apparate."
Bruce unbuttoned his shirt, throwing it aside so he was just wearing his trousers. "Be careful, Harry. You're a good friend." He held out a hand.
Harry gripped Bruce's forearm in a warrior's handshake. "Thank you, Bruce. Don't die out there, huh?"
Bruce chuckled. "I'll try."
"We're over the drop point now." Coulson said through the comms. "We don't have time to land, so you're going to have to jump."
"That's fine." Harry replied as he pushed the button to open the ramp, before looking back at Bruce. "Well, are you ready to get angry?"
Bruce smirked as his skin began to change tone. "That's my secret, you know. I'm always angry." And the Hulk leapt out of the Quinjet.
-.-.-
"What the hell is going on?" Logan cried, as another one of those alien speeders flew overhead. They'd just managed to find a place to park, when the speeders began to fly by, leaving destruction in their wake.
Laura stood by his side, which he had no objection to. She'd proven to him several times before that she could handle herself in a fight, and she had a healing factor on the same level as his. It'd probably be safer for both of them to fight together, rather than splitting up.
"There!" She called out, pointing directly ahead of them. A group of the aliens had landed, and were running through the streets, shooting at anything that moved.
"You want the left side or the right?" Logan growled, as he extended his claws with a snikt.
"I'll take the left." Laura said, popping her own claws out.
Logan nodded, and began to sprint forwards. He was dimly aware of Laura running beside him, but he focused on his target. With a roar, he leapt forward, slicing through the first alien's gun, before stabbing it with his other hand. Spinning, Logan hurled the body at the other aliens, before swiping again with his claws. The adamantium blades tore through the armour of the aliens easily, shredding skin and bone effortlessly.
The energy blast from an alien's weapon took him in the gut, and he staggered back, pretending to be injured. The alien pressed its advantage, stabbing with the bayonet at him. The Canadian dodged easily, before hurling himself forward, decapitating the creature in a single feral strike.
Logan impaled another, punching with both fists. As he retracted his claws, he turned to see Laura athletically flip over the last alien's head, landing a lethal double kick into its back.
"That's the last of them, Dad." Laura said. "Where now?"
Logan glanced in each direction. "That Potter guy said to go to Stark Tower. Looks like that's where these things are coming from, anyway."
The two began to run along the street, when Laura stopped and pointed. "What's that?"
Logan looked up to see a figure, with metal wings that glinted in the sunlight, flying amongst the speeders, shooting at them. "Looks like he's on our side, whoever he is."
-.-.-
Agent Sam Wilson dove under the laser blast from one of the Chitauri gliders, spinning in mid-air to return fire with both of his pistols. He smirked as the bullets tore through the pilot of the speeder, causing the vehicle to crash into the ground and burst into flames.
"Agent Wilson, good to see you." A familiar voice spoke through the headset he was wearing, and Sam smiled.
"Good to hear your voice, Agent Coulson." He replied, as he saw a Quinjet flying above him.
"Switch comms to SHIELD channel 616." Coulson advised. "It's the channel we're using."
"Sure thing." Sam said, slipping one of his pistols into its holster and fiddling with his headset. After a few seconds – while he dodged another pulse of energy – he found the right channel, just as a British voice spoke.
-.-.-
"Anyone got eyes on Loki yet?" Harry asked. He was crouched behind a burnt-out car, firing curses at the group of Chitauri that were attacking a bus full of civilians. The barrage of spellfire caused the group to turn, while also scything down a fair few of them. During the diversion, Steve ran over to the bus, ripping the door off and helping the people to climb out.
"Negative."
"No."
"Haven't seen him yet."
"GRAARGH!"
Harry frowned at the last response. "Bruce, you okay?" He asked, throwing a Blasting Curse into the middle of the Chitauri. "Bruce?"
-.-.-
Hulk charge.
Rampage. Crush puny greyskin flyers.
Jump, slam down. Grab car, throw at flyer. Boom!
Hulk strongest one there is. Far stronger than red-blue web boy.
-.-.-
Peter shot another line of webbing across the street, making sure it attached to both sides. He then flipped in mid-air, shooting a ball of web at one of the Chitauri speeders. It turned roughly, and began to fire at him.
"Come on, ugly!" He yelled, and the speeder flew quickly at him. Peter flung himself up as the speeder flew under him, taking itself out when it hit the biocable.
Peter leapt into the air, clinging easily to the wall as he caught his breath. He'd been in some fights before, but nothing on this scale. Glancing down, he saw a huge figure charging through the streets, and smirked. The Hulk sure was angry ... wait.
That wasn't the Hulk.
The Abomination tackled the Hulk as it charged, slamming both fists into the green-skinned hero's back, before grabbing his arm and throwing him into a bus.
"Hulk needs back-up!" Peter shouted into his earpiece. "There's another creature, about his size."
"What does he look like?" Clint asked.
"Like Hulk, but bonier ... there are weird ridges up his back."
"Blonsky." Natasha muttered. "Bastard deserves to die."
"Nat trained him, before he started working for General Ross. Then he chose to take some gamma rays, to make him strong enough to take down the Hulk." Clint explained. "We'll fly over and take him out, you need to move. Cap's pinned down a block over, and needs some air support."
-.-.-
Clint took aim carefully, and shot down another of the gliders with the Quinjet's minigun. As the barrel continued to revolve, he rotated the angle before opening fire again, shredding another two gliders.
The roaring of the two battling gamma creatures tore through the air, and Clint gasped in shock at the sight of them. The Hulk was on the ground, while the Abomination pummelled him with both fists.
"Natasha, get us closer. I don't want to accidentally tear Bruce in half." Clint said, and the Russian nodded as she steered the vehicle closer.
"Got you now." He muttered, as he lined up the sights of the chaingun. As the Abomination grabbed a motorbike from the ground, Clint opened fire, bullets slicing through the air. The motorbike exploded in the Abomination's hand, knocking the beast to the floor. The Abomination roared as he rolled to his feet, before grabbing an abandoned car from the road.
"Shit." Natasha muttered in Russian, as the Abomination threw the car directly at the Quinjet. There wasn't enough room to dodge. Quickly, Clint grabbed his bow and slammed his hand down on the button marked eject, and both of the chairs shot into the air.
Clint unstrapped himself from the seat and pushed himself away in mid-air, taking aim and firing an arrow in mid-air. The shot bounced off the Abomination's hide, but it distracted him from Natasha's parachute. The only problem was that its attention was now fixed on him.
Clint pushed one of the buttons on his bow, and heard the faint whirring of his quiver as the explosive arrowheads were fitted to the shaft of the arrows. Rolling behind a car, he drew and nocked an arrow, firing it at the Abomination's face. The creature staggered backwards, and he fired another arrow – this time aimed at the monster's bicep. The arrow exploded on contact, but didn't seem to do any damage.
"Come on, this has gotta be doing some damage ..." Clint growled out, as he fired another two arrows. "Nat, where are you?"
-.-.-
Natasha was currently trapped behind a burnt-out car, a grimace of pain across her face. While the Abomination was distracted by Clint's attack, a Chitauri speeder flew past, lasers flashing. It had severed the strings on the parachute, causing her to fall from about ten feet up. While that normally wouldn't be a problem for the athletic assassin, the seatbelt of her chair caught in the latch, and her leg was pinned under the seat when it hit the ground.
She struggled to pull out one of her pistols, taking aim at the speeder as it came back for another strike. Natasha opened fire before the Chitauri could, the bullets clipping the wings of the speeder. As it crashed to the ground, she drew her knife and cut through the broken seatbelt, before pulling herself free.
Natasha let out a whimper of pain as she clambered to her feet, clutching onto the door of the car for support. The leg injury – it didn't feel like a break, she'd had enough of those to know – would stop her from fighting properly. Manoeuvrability and athleticism were more important to her than strength, and without full use of her legs she was no good in a fight at all.
"Coulson, I need help over here. Hulk is down, I might have broken my leg, and Hawkeye's facing the Abomination on his own." She whispered into the earpiece, hoping the Abomination was too distracted to notice her.
"We'll be there shortly. Anyone else in the area?" Coulson asked.
"I'm here."
-.-.-
Tony flew through quickly, firing both repulsors into the Abomination's back. As the beast staggered forward, he followed up with a tank-buster missile, the rocket blowing a chunk from the monster's arm.
"JARVIS, lock on to weak spots." The targeting array on the HUD focused on the bloody wound on the Abomination's arm, the back of each knee, and the groin.
"Targets locked, sir." The mechanical voice answered. "Firing now." The micromissiles concealed underneath the shoulder pads opened fire, each shot burning into the targeted areas.
"How'd it do?" Tony asked, as he dodged another blast from one of those Chitauri gliders, returning fire with a repulsor blast.
"The attack appears to have had no effect, sir. Might I recommend something more powerful?"
"Sure thing, J." Tony flew in close, slamming both fists into the Abomination's face. The punch didn't seem to have much of an effect either, as the creature backhanded him into a car.
"Sir, while punching may be an adequate stress relief, I would recommend the tri-lasers." JARVIS commented, and Tony smirked at the sarcasm in the AI's voice.
"Let's see ..." Tony muttered, diving through the gamma monster's legs as he activated the laser on his left wrist. A tri-barrelled laser emerged from the back of the gauntlet, and Tony fired it, swiping in an arc. The beam of energy tore through the tendons on the Abomination's calves, causing a roar of pain as the creature toppled to the floor, unable to use its legs.
Tony spun upon hearing a noise behind him, both hands coming up to attack, before recognising Hawkeye, who was struggling to his feet. He'd been thrown to the ground by one of the Abomination's attacks, and from the looks of things, he'd been beaten a few times before that. There was a nasty welt visible on the archer's arm, and blood running down the side of his face from a cut just above his temple.
Clint stood over the Abomination, and fired a special arrow at the creature. A net burst from the arrowhead, pinning the Abomination's torso, and the second arrow Clint fired let out a burst of gas, causing the monster to stop moving.
"Chloroform arrow." Clint explained. "Useful for non-lethal missions."
Tony flipped up his visor. "Is that one of your chat-up lines? Does this arrow smell like chloroform to you?" He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.
"Shut up, Stark." Clint raised a single finger in the inventor's direction, as he picked up a couple of discarded arrow shafts. They were still in good shape, so he tucked them back into the quiver.
"Witty, Legolas." Tony replied, as his visor slid back down.
-.-End Chapter 18-.-
AN: So, battle! That was a fun one to write – most of it, anyway. What did everyone think? It was all partially inspired by that scene from the Avengers, during the Battle of NY, where it shows all of them interacting in each other's fights in one long cut. I'm pretty sure it's the one which ends with Hulk punching Thor after they bring down the space worm.
Also, how many of you got slightly panicky when they read the first three words – I'm giving up? I know that's what I dread most – finding a story I like and then reading through to find it's either on permanent hiatus, cancelled, or just not updated for years.