Arc Twelve. Chapter Three-Hundred Fifty-Two. Line In The Sand

As Yon-Saron and the Starforce boarded their shuttle, unaware that the ship had already been boarded, the forces of Earth prepared to counter the Kree invasion.

Scott had lifted off with Maria and Fury, and as they approached the upper limit of the Qunijets flight capabilities, Both Cyclops and Vengence exited a top hatch and she wrapped several arms of symbskin around him, anchoring them both to the top of the jet,

Carol, Emma, and Jean all waited at the meeting point, waiting for the arrival of the Earth's current enemy. Carol knew the Supreme Intelligence would stop at nothing until the Earth was either theirs or destroyed. The Kree never did anything by half, and this time she would make sure Saron was dead, and the Starforce scattered to the wind.

"Stephen, this isn't the time to be stubborn," Wanda said, as she stood in the doorway of the Sanctum.

"It is, and for good reason." Stephen summoned the cloak of Bloop "I found Wong, and due to interference when we fixed reality. He wasn't returned back to his original state."

Wanda furrowed her brow, "He is an enemy now?" and Stephen could only nod.

"I can't leave the Infinity Stones undefended. Especially against a hostile force that seems intent on taking over the planet." but he smiled and raised his eyebrows, "but, as I will be busy, and the sanctum wards will be monitoring for enemies attacking, then." and he paused,

"I am free to do what I like if you are busy of course," Wanda said,

"Of course," he replied with a smile. He took a deep breath, "take care Wanda. I know it's bad out there, but, it could be a lot worse." he said.

Wanda pursed her lips and nodded. "I will Stephen" and as she walked to the door of the sanctum, and floated from the ground, letting Hexis cover her, "and you too." before she floated out of the door.

The four members of the Star Force waited patiently in the back of their transport. They had been punished, while Saron had been promoted. A fitting punishment was to send them for re-education, a combination of brainwashing, by the Supreme Intelligence itself, and cybernetic augmentation.

The removal of organs and superfluous parts without anaesthetic was a good reminder that the Kree were warriors, in body and in soul. Only Yon-Rogg remained whole, the Accuser cult disallowing augmentation of any kind, other than the connection point to converse with the Supreme intelligence itself.

The pilot had orders to ignore any enemy craft in the air, but its friend or foe systems marked the single jet entering the lower atmosphere and sent its beacon to the cruiser overhead. Once the battle started, it would be the first target for the fighters, and a single jet would prove no match for the might of the Kree Armada.

Fury noted the ship as it flew past, and while he maintained an active lock on it, he knew it would not go well if he fired. Parker had already notified him to leave that ship alone, that their heavy hitters, Carol, Jean, and Emma would be taking care of it. Concentrate on the smaller craft and make sure nothing gets past to the ground. It was a tough call, but right now, they only had enough Powered to deal with the fallout in the US, other countries were busy scrambling their own heroes and were on their own.

It wasn't going to be an easy task, as there were ten large ships, the huge mothership that made a helicarrier look like a kids toy, against one single quinjet.

Fury had heard the radio chatter, and Shield was caught with its pants down. The Asgardians were just as bad. Nobody had suddenly expected their ranks to be full of traitors, and he had to suppress a laugh as if it hadn't happened before. He guessed even Alien Coulson didn't read his report.

Fighters and troops were being readied, but in the five minutes he figured it would take for the fighting to start, it would be too late if they would be any help at all. He agreed with Parker, this time it was the heavy guns they needed. Troops and the military could help evacuate, but the fighting was on a completely different level now.

"Hey Fury, sending you some drones. They're slaved to your fire controls, so they should provide some help, but uh, you break them, your paying for them." Tony said over the comms.

Fury snorted, "sure, I'll bill Parker, thanks. How's it look on the ground?"

"Not good, the cruiser they took out also took out ten blocks, and we're managing. We have Pepper, Vision, Friday and Jocasta managing ground support, but while they work, we need to keep them safe."

"I know, but uh, how's it look up there?" Fury had his own radar, but he knew Tony was receiving telemetry from multiple sources, and if anyone still had working satellites it would be him.

"Not good, the sky's clear except us and them, and there is a whole lot more of them," Tony replied with a huff,

"Yeah, fourteen billion dollars worth of satellites gone in a few seconds, they just swept the area with a high-intensity beam and they were gone."

If Fury had been attacking a planet, he would have done the same. In fact, he would have done a better job and sent fighters over the planet's atmosphere to take out every single satellite in orbit. The Kree had only cleared the area they were stationed at and had left enough satellites that Stark had repurposed some of them to act as relays, uncaring of whether their owners needed them or not. The population could live without GPS for a few weeks if it meant everyone had cell service and communications were still online.

"So, tell me straight, how bad?"

"Us plus a hundred drones, it's bad." Tony replied, "With the government taking most of my stuff, I can send out drones to a few of the worse-off areas, but it's not enough."

"Only a foolish insect would admit defeat before Doom has entered the battle." and Fury rolled his eyes,

"President Doom, so glad you can join us." He said with a hint of sarcasm.

"Join you? I am defending my embassy, and if that overlaps with the flight plan of your insignificant force, then so be it. Be aware though, that I will not tolerate any debris falling on it. You have been warned." and the channel cut out.

"I guess Dooms helping, in his own way," Fury noted,

Tony snorted, "yeah, always a charmer. Good luck and, yeah, if we make it, I think I'll hold a huge party at Stark tower, make sure you can come."

As Dooms Doom Bots filled the sky, Tony redirected several of his own drone units out into the other states. Even with the few minutes, it would take them to get there, he could still save lives.

Fury laughed, "inviting Parker?"

Tony snorted, "That jackass will do something stupid, save the day but probably die and get a big statue. If he lives, I guess I can invite him."

"Well, now I have to live. Seeing you and Parker in the same room, I wouldn't miss that for the world."

Tony laughed but the com channel shut down. Fury took a breath, "right people, we're not waiting. I have contacts on multiple fronts, dispatching drones to cover us, Cyclops. Do you best, and Maria, keep him safe, okay."

Tony patched into the Rescue channel, "how's it going?" He asked Pepper. Sure, she was still salty at him, and he knew it wasn't for dating Maya, it was for trying to date them both, but this was more important.

"It's good," and he heard her grunt as she lifted some debris, "but, yeah, working, do your job, keep us safe," and Pepper cut the line.

That was the plan, and as the Iron Legion was set to intercept and destroy anything in the air, and he had contacted the Civil aviation authority across the US, there was nothing in the air except Kree ships and everyone already marked as a friendly. He just hoped that it would be enough.

Streaking up into the atmosphere, Tony set the suit onto full life support, and the God Buster armour slammed around him. This was his baby. Sure he might have lied a little bit and used a small percentage of the vibranium destined for Vision and Jo, but it was worth it. Standing at over 2 meters tall, with enough firepower to make War Machine melt with envy, the God Buster armour was impressive. It was also one of Tony's alloys, using vibranium as a base, it was much stronger than any of the alloys anyone had produced so far, and the suit was almost indestructible.

As the four arc reactors on the back whined and lit up, and the four massive pylons split away and formed a defensive shield around him, Tony grinned, Wait till I can brag to Parker about this. "Holliday. Set all cameras to record. The public should see just how amazing I am."

As the fighters from the cruisers poured out, huge orange beams of repulsor energy arced out, sweeping the area and taking out dozens of ships.

"They're starting their run, Fury. Get ready." He broadcast and got the ready signal back. He could stop some, but it would still be up to the rest to finish the job.

The quinjet backed as fire from a fighter streaked past, and as the radar on the quinjet slowly filled with red dots, Fury knew the battle had begun.

Small fighter craft, one man with light armaments streaked past them, and Cyclops made short work of them. They had no shields and even hitting them with just the concussive blast stalled them out.

These were the simplest of ships, an engine, two guns and not much else, and even as the pair were jostled and twisted by Fury's evasive manoeuvres, they remained stoic in their talk.

It seemed like hundreds were pouring from the ships like angry insects, and even in the distance, Scott could see explosions as the ships engaged Doombots and the Iron Legion alike.

The sky was filled with whistling craft as they streaked past, trying to launch their payloads at the ground. Their orders were to cause devastation but not to destroy. The Kree empire needed new slaves for its war efforts, and if the humans had managed to manifest stable powers, then they would be perfect if they needed to be disposed of first.

The single craft launched its own missiles, and chaff and flares streaked away as missiles exploded nearby, but nothing touched the ship. Even the small debris that peppered Cyclops was held at bay as Vengenace kept a watchful eye on what was coming close enough to hurt him.

He even saw Wanda over in the distance, grabbing ships out of the sky with her powers, crushing them into balls and setting them down in Central Park before flying off to deflect a large blue blast back across the atmosphere.

Cyclops was aware he was an Omega Augment, but it was still impressive with another flexed with X-Gene and showed the world what they were truly capable of.

"Hey, can you link to my HUD? This might be easier if I had another set of eyes." He asked, and as Maria had already sunk several tendrils into the hull of the ship, it was easy enough to tap into its systems, "thanks."

The small map in his lent lit up, and he almost choked as hundred of dots suddenly appeared, covering the entire sky, "filter, all enemy within 1 kilometre." As the map changed. It was still over a hundred ships, and the task seemed daunting.

"Hey Hill," and she raised an eyebrow, he never called her that, preferring to say her name, "marry me once this is over yeah?"

"Not the question I was looking for," she replied.

"You said to be fearless, so yeah, once this is over, we're getting married."

Maria snorted, "figured I'd have to ask you, so sure. City hall though, try and get me in of those meringue things, and I'll gut you."

"Sure" and as a ship began its attack run, Cyclops let a beam of red energy blast forwards and it exploded,

"You know, the hero usually dies after something like that,"

Cyclops laughed, "yeah, this isn't a movie, and if I died, you'd kill me."