Ch.12

Soon an explosion sent me and Natasha through a window while taking out one of the engines of the helicarrier. I was pinned under twenty tons of concrete and steel thanks to Barton blowing a hole in the carrier above me. By the time I was out the carrier had been righted, Coulson was dead and Thor was dropped in a cage meant for the Hulk if Banner couldn't control it. Hawkeye had been stopped by Bruce and Natasha while Steve and Tony had prevented the carrier from falling from the sky.

Fury gave his speech about heroes and I got a signal from Oracle. "The tesseract is in Manhattan on Stark Tower and it's begun."

I sent the message for all hands on deck as it were and all of the legions moved to evacuate New York for the battle. I told Fury that the Ten Rings would evacuate everyone before we get there so no one dies, but it was going to get violent when the war begins. I opened a portal for us and Natasha walked through while Wanda appeared in a suit and mask, joining us with Pietro and Trish in their suits.

I stood before Eric Selvig who said it was too late. Tony, Steve and Bruce came through with Clint coming in last before the portal closed. I punched the device my fist and it hit a barrier that rebounded with enough force to send me flying. My suit floated and I flew back as Jean and Jessica joined us. Ten Rings members were portaling in all over and evacuating the area for ten square blocks.

More members emptied buildings, homes and businesses as fast as possible so I turned to Wanda and Pietro. "Help the evacuation then rejoin us."

They nodded and he gave her a lift Steve's surprise. I turned to Tony. "Change your suit out and take to the skies. Tell Jarvis to sound the emergency and hack into all phones and speakers as well as cameras. We need to make sure all the civilians are out and everyone nearby is accounted for."

He nodded and I turned to Clint. "Take Natasha and get lower than stark tower on a building. You both will be helping spot the ones that get to ground level. Call them as you see them."

I turned to Steve. "You'll go with Bruce to ground level, kill anything that gets to you."

I turned to Trish. "Find Thor and signal Odin to send whatever armies he has ready, the war is coming to us now and I've a feeling it won't be going away anytime soon."

As I said that the cube spun and released a beam that opened a portal. I turned to the rest. "The rest of us can fly so we'll be doing just that. Anything that gets past us will be dealt with in waves. War isn't a race, it's a marathon and our survival depends on not tiring out before it's over."

I got on the coms as Bruce hopped down through a portal I made with Steve. I floated up using the gravitonium antigravity flight capacitor in my suit. The Chitauri started pouring through and I revealed my Vibranium-carbon weave claws. My whole skeleton had been weaved with a nano weaved mesh so solid it looked entirely like Logan's skeleton only made of Vibranium including the razor sharp claws.

The ten rings flew around me in a circle and many of the warriors in suits below did so as well. Tens of thousands of warriors met the army of Chitauri in the air. Giant beasts flew out and released Chitauri army onto buildings which resulted in all out war on the ground and buildings. Super soldier boosted Ten Rings warriors fought them off as portals opened up and brought for the armies of Asgard led by Odin and Thor together.

Bruce let his anger rise as Hulk took over and worked the Chitauri down with the martial arts and giant hammers like he was taught. Childlike the Hulk may be, an idiot he was not and his suit keeping the pain away made him fight harder. The Asgardians fought beside us and and flew on Pegasus's as well as flying boat spaceships the size and shape of sailboats but far faster.

I did my best to bottleneck the portal, even going so far as to use my inhuman powers to send vibe blasts repeatedly at the space whale like creatures before unleashing shoulder mounted particle cannons that blasted it in half before needing to recharge. The battle went on for hours while Loki hid seeing others sensing his father. Warriors switched out when tired and reinforced weaknesses while making a shield wall around the battlefield to ensure the fight didn't go beyond a certain point.

Eventually the armies of the Chitauri slowed coming through as most were killed off. I fired my canons through the portal in rapid succession until I made a beam like Tony's chest one and fired it at the main ship, draining the power of my suit. All the Ten Rings did the same when no more Chitauri came through and we exhausted the shrunken arc reactors in our suit as the ship finally exploded from Jean unleashing a super Nova's worth of fire power at it from beside me. Our suits powered off Natasha found Loki before Hulk beat the fuck out of him and Natasha got his scepter, turning off the tesseract.

Several city blocks were damaged and many places beyond repair, but only a few Asgardians were injured from our side. I promised Odin I'd give him a modern suit to replicate and supply the Vibranium and adamantium for synthesizing so long as he had the Uru to trade. He agreed readily while we replaced the arc reactors in our suits and some let the Asgardians use them to heal. The entire battle was recorded from many angles despite it being over the council behind Shield sent a nuke.

I met it in the air and opened a brief portal to the other end of space where the Chitauri had gone. The portal closed and the videoed of what happened were released to all the news stations across the globe. The Ten Rings vanished and me with them until I sent a post to the world saying TR Industries would help clean up and repair all damages cost free while reinforcing the buildings of Manhattan to upgrade the power and water supplies for all of Manhattan.

I tweeted that the changes would begin as all the old transformers and power grid needed upgraded for the whole US so TR industries would not only help repair and clean everything up, but we'd upgrade the apartments and homes of those affected as well. I didn't join the Avengers or Odin in the celebratory feast afterwards, but the legion of Ten Rings warriors with Odin's forces took them and Thor home a couple days later after Odin met with the UN and told them that Asgard has been and will always be allies of earth, despite what his son Loki has done.

He assured them Loki would face justice on Asgard before telling them that the guardians of earth will be able to contact Asgard if the world is threatened again and the armies of the Ten Rings cannot defeat them alone. It was a request on my part and it helped the people of earth understand that while we weren't alone out there, we had our allies. The UN asked if he knew the the Leader of the Ten Rings and if he could tell them who it was.

He told them he did and that he wouldn't reveal my name or location because I was a very old immortal even by Asgard's standards. He told them my age and that I was from earth and human like them, just very old and devoted to protecting them all as a whole from the horrors of war from outside. He left them there saying he had eight other worlds to protect with the help of the armies of the Ten Rings and his own world to rule so he couldn't stay any longer.

When he, Thor and Loki left with the tesseract, I went with them because Odin insisted on removing the dark matter from my wound lest it fester and drive me mad. A few days later I returned having met baby Kratos and held him. He called me dada and I tickled his little belly before setting him down. He was nearly two years old and quite intelligent.

The Avengers became quite famous for leading the fight beside the Ten Rings in this battle or so the story was. I was feeling far better upon my return and let the world know through Stark that Loki received life in a small cell for the rest of his extremely long life for his crimes.

Time passed quickly as a secret war with a dozen hell realms broke out while repairs and cleanup were happening fast in Manhattan. The Masters of the Mystic Arts as they called themselves helped where they could and the Ten Rings army put an end to the wars over a year later in August when the last of the back door portals were sealed. The energy from the tesseract had been manipulated to open them.

I'd barely slept and Shao-Lo was getting old so when it was over a new ringer bearer was chosen in Trish who beat the rest of the warriors out wanting it. Only when the tournament fights were over did I giver her a heart shaped herb and tell her the duties of the ring bearer that would be added atop her Shield duties. She swore before the legions to never falter and I told her how to use the herb.

She became the first female ring bearer in seven hundred years. Natasha had declined to fight for it, but only because she'd already taken an herb as a special consideration thanks to the age of the gods and monsters being upon us. I'd chosen her myself for the change and she'd rewarded me greatly. As for Wanda and Jessica, they weren't interested at all because Wanda wasn't a physical fighter despite having the super soldier serum and Jessica already had super strength and flight atop her own super serum enhancements.

Jean said the Phoenix gave her all the extra power she needed. She even told me the Phoenix had enhanced my own healing because it liked me as a fitting lover for her.