Battle of New York (1)

Time: 2012 May. Location: New York, US

It had been just a special Saturday morning for Maybelle Parker. On these rare occasions when she did not have to work on the weekend for the Salvation Army or FEAST (Food, Emergency Aid, Shelter & Training), she wanted to spend as much time with Peter as possible. The boy was growing up so quickly, and she only had a couple more years until all he cared about was getting a date with a girl. So the two decided to be productive for once in their escapades and went grocery shopping for the upcoming week.

May had been looking forward to having dinner with Felix yesterday. She even got her friend to look after Peter for the night, but the man canceled just a few hours before the date. Despite her slight annoyance that he would definitely hear about from her, she knew that it must have been important for Felix to do so. During the months they got to know each other, he had never missed a single Tuesday lunch at their favorite coffee shop, The Talon.

Coming back to the apartment with both their hands full of bags, Peter begged, "I heard JL of America is on Brave TV now. Can we watch it, aunt May?"

(A/N: My ass hoping to not get sued or anything)

"Is it that one about those superheroes? One who dresses like a b…." May replied to her nephew while putting the bags on the ground and unlocking the entrance to their place. Opening the door, she saw a black-haired man wearing a weird dark green outfit standing in their living room. May's gaze shifted behind the intruder and saw her window broken to pieces. She quickly threw the keys at the man and rushed down the hallway towards the stairs with Peter. In the corner of her eyes, she saw the keys pass right through him.

Peter, still stunned from being suddenly dragged away, asked, "What's going on?"

"It will be ok, Peter. We just have to go out for a bit more." She tried to stay calm for her nephew, but she started to panic now with what she saw. She thought it was some sort of kidnapper coming to get them. What shocked her more was that the man walked out of the corner they were heading to.

"There's no need to run," Loki said with an arrogant grin on his face, walking closer towards the two in a slow and eerie manner.

Holding onto the terrified Peter, May anxiously thought of any possible escape plans as the man approached them. Finally, May muttered, "Who are you?"

Loki answered her, still with his signature arrogance, "Let's just say, I'm a friend of a friend."

Seeing the fire extinguisher to her left, May took hold of it and sprayed the intruder while he was only feet away. As a result, the corridor was engulfed with fire extinguishing agents in puffs of white and gray.

….

Felix flew to May's apartment to warn her about the incoming attack. However, upon arrival, he saw the shattered remains of what was used to be a window. Entering the room, Felix immediately caught a glimpse of a bloodied vintage Captain America trading card on the coffee table. He had heard Coulson talk about his card collection a couple of times during their scheduled meetings. Curling his hand into a fist, Felix directed his glare towards the Stark Skyscrapper.

(A/N: Changing what happened in Avengers a little bit. I know the cards were in his locker and not his jacket. Fury just added random blood on it to push the Avengers (Dick move btw) but I'mma says Loki took some to spite the avengers later, which was right now.)

…

Tony arrived at Stark Tower, where Selvig activated the CMS portal device, holding the Tesseract. The instrument was in its initial starting sequences. Pounding waves of energy emitted from the cube as rings of machinery rotated to their own chaotic patterns.

"Sir, I took off the arc reactor. The device is already self-sustained." His trusty AI, Jarvis, announced in his ears. To his amazement, Loki even used his own reactor to jumpstart the device and now, it didn't need the energy anymore. Having an alien invasion was worrisome enough, but the bad news kept stacking against the Avengers.

"Shut it down, Dr. Selvig," Tony warned through the speakers of the suit.

"It's too late! It can't stop now. He wants to show us something! A new universe." Selvig chuckled and lifted his arms in delight. In his face, he had the appearance of a child who had received comfort and reassurance from his parents.

Stark aimed his hands toward the CMS and fired beams of condensed energy. However, the energy from his boosters shattered with a deafening crack against the device's protective force field. Selvig fell backward on his back from the dissipating power. Down below, citizens of New York looked up at the tower to investigate where the sound came from. Tony stared in disbelief at the unharmed device.

"The barrier is pure energy. It's unbreachable. The Mark VII is not ready to be deployed." Jarvis advised to provide some level of explanation to the shocked Tony.

In a hurried mood, Tony replied, "Skip the spinning rims. We're on the clock."

Tony landed his suit and went through the gauntlet and unsuited himself. The machinery sprung to life as each piece of armor was taken off with precision. Loki looked up at him from the other pathway, smiling. They proceeded to move into the penthouse.

Loki walked in, holding the scepter. Tony casually walks down the steps towards the bar. He saw an unconscious child and a woman he had never seen before. Tony pointed at the two and asked Loki, "You're low enough to take hostages now?"

"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity," Loki responded with a shrug of his arms, keeping eye contact with the man throughout the exchange.

"Uh…actually, I'm planning to threaten you." Tony brought himself towards the bar in his unarmored clothing.

"You should have left your armor on for that." Loki was perplexed as to why Stark had taken his armor off. He was completely unaware of what the other was intending.

"Yeah, it's seen a bit of mileage. You've got the blue stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?" Despite his nonchalant demeanors, there were weights to Tony's movements.

Loki retorted, "Stalling me won't change anything." He finally understood how this human could be so unconcerned with the current situation. He knew it was a facade, a front that Stark put up towards him. Whether it was deception or manipulation, Loki knew it well.

"No, no, no! Threatening. No drink? Are you sure? I'm having one." Tony opened a bottle of his high-end scotch and poured it into a beautifully crafted glass.

"The Chitauri are coming, and nothing will change that. What have I to fear?" Despite his own worries, he played himself up to match the human.

"The Avengers!" Tony replied with some emotion now. He allowed himself to show at least that much but Loki just looked at him in confusion. He continued, "It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. `Earth's mightiest heroes' type of thing."

"Yes, I've met them."

"Yeah, it takes us a while to get any traction. I'll give you that one." The emotional shield Tony had gone back up, humor, sarcasm, and self-importance. Not letting the god time to chime in, Tony proceeded, "But, let's do a headcount here. Your brother, the demi-God; an outlandish brooding alien; a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins, and you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them."

"That was the plan."

"Not a great plan. When they come, and they will, they'll come for you."

From underneath the bar table, Tony pulled out a colantotte bracelet, the honing device for his new armor, and placed it on his wrist.

"I have an army." He positioned himself over the two sleeping humans and stretched his scepter towards them, flicking his sight between Stark and the sky outside the penthouse.

"We have a Viltrumite." Tony deflected back with a beaming smile on his face.

In Stark's penthouse, Felix smashed through a glass pane and fractured the marble floor from his landing.

"Great timing, but you could have used the doors," Tony winced a little from the damages to his newly finished flooring and pointed towards the two large entrances to the balcony.

Felix spoke without glancing over his shoulder at Tony. "I am not in the mood, Stark."

"What did you do to the nice man, Loki" Tony raised an eyebrow towards the Asgardian.

With his scepter still hovering over May's and Peter's heads, Loki stood tall, challenging Felix to make a move. "I never thought you would fraternize with these humans, Frei."

"How?" Frei growled. Much like what it had done in the SHIELD Helicarrier, the mind stone that resided inside Loki's weapon emitted its compulsion towards Felix. The scepter flickered with light, silently rising the urgency in the Viltrumite's mood once again.

"You'll be surprised what you can find once you're in SHIELD's database." Tony chimed in. He and Felix shared a look then. Felix's eyes seemed to urge the billionaire for some sort of distraction.

"Let them go." Tony's voice was more serious now, "There's no throne. There is no version of this where you come out on top."

"I would beg to differ." Suddenly, Loki's face lit up with a faint grin.

"Jarvis now!" Tony yelled as the Mark 7 Ironman armor burst out of its holdings towards the billionaire. Loki weaved to dodge its trajectory, which Felix used to speed himself towards the god. His hands reached out to rip the god's heart out from his body. However, no flesh was torn from Loki's body. Instead, the Viltrumite's fist passed right through the illusion. Felix willed himself towards May and Peter with widened eyes only to see Loki with his scepter in hand. The cold steel of the scepter touched his chest, expanding a deep blackness over his irises and scleras. Felix swayed back and forth, swinging his head to fight against the effects of the scepter.

The CMS device outside on the balcony sent blue light beams into Manhattan's afternoon sky and opened up a massive doorway to the cosmos beyond its walls. Following that, waves upon waves of Chitauri fighters descended onto New York.

Felix smacked himself on the side of the head a few times in resistance, but the outcome was unavoidable. The alien's irises changed to a throbbing blue haze after the darkness had vanished from his vision. Felix's posture straightens into a saluting position as if he were expecting commands from his new master.

The laughter of a mad man could be heard after that from Loki. The twisted grin he had on spoken as if his victory was guaranteed, "They actually escaped, you know? Humans can be so clever that way. It matters not. Now, I have an army and the Viltrumite, Stark."

With the final touches of his armor completing their assembling, Tony stood in a stunned expression, unsure how to proceed. Connecting his communication device with the rest of the team, Tony pleaded, "I am going to need some support up here."

"We're a little busy," Natasha replied. Rogers, Barton, and her had arrived on the streets below to defend civilians from the waves of Chitauri soldiers. She was going to ask for a raise after this was over. There was no cause in her contract with SHIELD when she signed on about fighting an invading force from space.

"Well, we're about to get a lot busier," Tony responded and took off to the sky, hoping that he could divert Felix's attention from the people below.

"I want him dead." Loki looked at the intimidating mustached man which nodded back towards the Asgardian. Felix flew after Ironman swiftly after that.