After the Chitauri army appeared, Thor was the second Avenger to arrive on the battlefield—right after Tony Stark.
From the heights of Stark Tower, the devastation below was painfully clear. Alien troops rampaged through the streets while civilians fled or hid wherever they could.
High above, the portal in the sky continued to pour out endless reinforcements. Alongside flying chariots were enormous carrier-ships—vast, fish-like behemoths that seemed to swim through the air.
From openings in the bellies of these massive ships, Chitauri soldiers leapt down onto nearby skyscrapers. Many buildings still held trapped civilians who had no way to escape.
"Loki! Shut down the Tesseract now—or I'll destroy it!" Thor roared.
"You can't," Loki laughed coldly. "It's already beyond stopping. Now there is only one thing left—war."
Tesseract energy far surpassed Odin's own. That was precisely why Odin had cast it onto Earth thousands of years ago—back when humanity lacked the means to harness it.
Under the overwhelming firepower of the Chitauri, casualties quickly appeared along Manhattan's Fourth Street, the main battlefield.
When Captain America disembarked from the Quinjet, several unattended bodies lay among the ruins. Steve glanced at them only briefly before moving on. Right now, saving the living mattered more. The fallen would have to be mourned after the war.
"Agent Romanoff, Agent Barton—there are civilians trapped inside the building," Steve said. "Can the two of you hold this position?"
"We're more than willing, Captain," Barton replied grimly. Ever since regaining his freedom, rage had simmered inside him—now he finally had somewhere to unleash it.
…..
Clara drifted in darkness.
There was no beginning, no end. Time, distance—everything had lost meaning. Then, within the black void, a flame appeared.
An orange flame.
Warm. Comforting.
Instinctively, Clara moved toward it.
The small flame burned quietly. Clara reached out—perhaps not with her hand, but with some part of herself. The moment she touched it, her entire being ignited in brilliant orange fire.
Wrapped in flames, Clara fell—falling endlessly into the darkness below.
She didn't know how long she was unconscious. When she woke, the first things she heard were explosions—deafening, overlapping with the loud ringing inside her head. The world thundered relentlessly.
A massive billboard lay across her body, pinning her down and crushing the air from her lungs.
Clara pushed against it with all her strength. It barely moved.
She gasped for breath, then tried again—
The billboard suddenly flew away.
Backlit by the sun, Clara saw a man standing there, a bold "A" emblazoned on his helmet.
"Are you alright?" he asked. "Can you move?"
"Oh my God! It's Captain America!" Clara shouted, scrambling to her feet. "You're alive!"
Steve chuckled softly at her energy. Clearly, she wasn't seriously injured.
He recognized her instantly—the little girl who had once given him a paper flower. Clara, however, didn't realize this was the same elderly man she'd once suggested should play Captain America in the park.
"This area is extremely dangerous," Steve said gently. "You should head for the subway entrance—it's safer there."
He pointed toward the nearby station.
In the next instant, Clara shoved him hard to the ground.
A beam of blue energy skimmed past Clara's ear, the heat scorching one side of her face.
Her eyes went wide in terror. Just a little closer—and it would have been a direct hit to her head.
"Stay behind me! Don't move!" Steve barked.
Grabbing Clara, he raised his shield, deflecting the Chitauri weapon fire. He hurled the shield, killing the alien, then dodged several flying units—
When he turned back, Clara was gone.
From a distant flying chariot came a terrified scream.
"Stark! A little girl's been taken hostage!" Steve called over the comm. "She's on a Chitauri craft—moving from Pike Street toward Stark Tower!"
There was nothing Steve could do against a target in the air. This was Tony's domain.
"Got it," Tony replied lightly. "Let me see which unlucky kid it is."
A moment later, Tony realized exactly who that unlucky kid was.
Damn it.
It was his own—his accidental, unexpected daughter.
"Hell—wasn't she supposed to be going to Midtown today? How did she end up here?!"
Clara's Midtown plan had been casually mentioned to Happy, who mentioned it to Pepper, which meant Tony knew. He'd even considered having Happy drive her—then got distracted by tower renovations and forgot entirely.
Now there was no time to think.
The Chitauri soldier holding Clara suddenly let go.
From hundreds of meters up, Clara began to fall.
Bad luck couldn't be blamed on the government.
Misfortune couldn't be blamed on society.
The alien had grabbed her at random. Realizing the human child was useless, it simply tossed her aside. It had an invasion to manage—no time to care how a human splattered on the ground.
"Aaah—!"
Clara screamed as her mind went blank. Unless she suddenly grew wings, she was moments from becoming a tragedy.
At the last second, Iron Man caught her.
The armored figure arced through the air, landing with Clara safely on a Stark Tower balcony.
"Stay inside. Don't move. Don't run. Understand?" Tony said sharply.
Clara nodded instantly—obedient like never before.
"Hostage rescued," Tony reported. "Captain, has the Hulk arrived yet? Let me know when he does."
Tony left Clara inside Stark Tower because, compared to the streets, it was far safer. As the Tesseract's base, Stark Tower wouldn't be attacked directly by the Chitauri.
The war raged on.
Loki tore through the sky in his flying craft, while the massive portal continued vomiting Chitauri forces into New York City, overwhelming Earth's defenders.
Thor descended in a storm of lightning and thunder. Unable to shut down the Tesseract, he joined the ground battle instead.
"What do we do now?" Thor asked, surveying the chaos.
"We work as a team," Steve said firmly. "We take out Loki first. Without him, their forces lose coordination. Stark's in the air—he'll need backup. We—"
Before Steve could finish, Bruce Banner arrived—riding a battered old motorcycle.
He'd reached Brooklyn's waterfront, where an elderly caretaker had given him spare clothes and the ancient bike.
And so Bruce Banner rode toward the heart of the battle, engine sputtering.
"Stark," Steve radioed, "Banner's here."
"Perfect timing," Tony replied. "Tell him to get ready—the party's about to start."
With a sharp turn, Tony streaked toward Banner's street—
And behind Iron Man, a hundred-meter-long steel leviathan thundered through the sky.
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