Chapter 2 : The Battle Of New York begins.

FWOOSH!

CLANG!

SPLASH!

I fell through the sky, smashing through a railing as I plunged into the water. For a moment I froze out of instinct, the shock of the fall rattling me into inaction and I gulped hard, gasping for breath before I remembered.

Oh, right. I don't need to breathe anymore.

A wave of calm washed over me just as I hit what I can only assume is the riverbed, seeing how much trash lay buried halfway into the sediment.

The East River then? Because Central Park ponds and lakes aren't likely to be littered with old fridges and bent bicycles and….is that a skeleton with a fleshlight?

I shook my head.

You know what, not my problem right now.

I pushed of the riverbed with all the force I could muster and leapt, shooting up through the river like a torpedo.

Woah! That was just wow…

Must have been a good eight, ten feet….dayum, that four ton strength isn't just for show huh?

I twirled around as I floated below the surface, shaking off the dirt from my feet before swimming up to the top to get a bearing on my location. Shaking off the hair from my eyes, I looked around till I spotted the sky beam in the distance.

Yup. That's the way.

I dove back down and swam stealthily to the shore, climbing out over the concrete embankment before I took stock of where I was.

In the distance before me the stark blue sky beam was tearing a hole in space sending ripples of blue across the sky like great waves in a pool, and below it the logo I had seen before, confirming just where I was.

Big, bold letters plastered across the side of the art deco flavoured building.

STARK.

That and the sky beam meant only one thing. I wasn't in SCP. This was Marvel. The MCU at that. Finally some good news!

I breathed a sigh of relief- I did have lungs for some reason, despite not needing to breath- and looked up at the being that was no doubt listening in.

"Thank you so so so much dude. Thanks for not sending me to SCP. Appreciate it, I really do." I smiled, and jumped over the fence to the compound before me, when suddenly-

BOOM!

I looked back up at Stark Tower and saw a squadron of Chitauri emerging on hoverbikes from the space hole, and immediately being blown up by a volley of missiles as a red-yellow figure whizzed away from the top. And so the invasion begins.

"Time to get to work! But first…" I looked down at myself and cringed, "lets get some clothes."

I stalked past the maintenance building and the power backup, sneaking behind building closest to me while everyone was distracted by the explosion, evacuating into the building, as I walked up to a window.

A gift shop, coincidentally.

"Great day for an alien invasion, eh?" I tapped the counter and joked.

The middle aged black lady manning the counter just raised an eyebrow, looking me up and down with a hint of amusement in her eyes.

"That's how you wanna start the conversation?"

"Had to break the ice somehow." I shrugged, "Besides, streaking through the UN headquarters wasn't exactly on my bucket list."

She chuckled.

"I can tell. You want some clothes?"

"Nah, but those teddy bears look nice." I snipped.

"You wanna pay for them with cash or card?" She called my bluff.

"Yeah, sorry." I caved, "A pair please."

She smiled and pulled out a stack of t-shirts.

 "What size are you?"

"Large."

She looked me over again.

"You look like a medium to me. Here, try this one." She threw me a blue t-shirt.

"Fits like a glove." I took off the spike ridden Broken God's Amulet off my wrist, placing it on the counter before I tried it on. Guess Americans are just fatter.

"And uh…"

"No pants, I'm afraid."

"Really? With all the sexscapades that happen here?"

"Diplomats don't usually end up sopping wet and naked after." She teased, "And they bring their own pants. They rich, boy."

She dug back into the compartment below the counter and pulled out a pair of aprons.

"We do have these."

"Why does the UN gift shop sell aprons?" I asked, even as I took them and began tying them up around my waist from both sides.

"Fuck if I know." She shrugged.

"You're taking this all rather well." I quirked my head as I finished covering up my lower half. She didn't even ask any questions.

"Kid, this is NYC. You're not the first and you won't be the last I see. You ever been on the subway?"

"Touche." I conceded, "And thanks. I'll pay for it, promise."

"No need. Keep it." She said.

"Really?"

"I don't get paid enough to care."

"At the UN gift shop?"

"Do world leaders strike you as particularly generous folk?"

"Suppose not." I didn't argue. Not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Still, I'll pay for it." I insisted, "I'll be back."

Kindness deserves a good turn.

"You're a good kid. Now go on home. Or actually, shelter in here. Its dangerous out there."

"Thanks, but I really need to be somewhere, pronto." I said, picking up the Broken God's Amulet off the counter, and took off running, "I'll be careful, don't worry. Bye~"

"Hey! Wait-" She called out but I was gone.

I was halfway down the block when I realized- I don't actually know what to do now. I snuck into a nearby alley and leaned against the wall as I pored over my options with a quick thought.

Running around like a headless chicken won't do me any good, but I can't just jump straight into the fray either. Superhuman I may be, but I have never so much as thrown a punch in my life and I have no control over my powers yet.

I idly tapped into my psychic powers and tried to move a nearby garbage bin cover, only to have it shoot up like bullet. Immediately, I let it go out of fear.

Wait- shit shit shit-

I lunged and caught the cover before it clanged to floor and attracted unnecessary attention, gently setting it aside.

Not enough control over my powers yet…I'm definitely not joining the fight.

No, the best choice right now is to keep out of the fight. If I join, not only will I be a liability, I'll also get noticed by both SHIELD and Stark. Being on their radar this early will thoroughly mess up any future plans I have, not to mention drag me into further plot shenaniganry. As it is that fall and crash earlier and the scene at the UN will catch their notice enough. I need to find some way to deal with that too, and quick.

The best way to do that would be to use the Broken God's Amulet to subvert JARVIS and erase the footage from the UN, but the problem with that is that JARVIS would alert Stark the moment I stepped into the building, especially since he's wearing the armor right now.

A direct approach won't work. Any plans I make will have to be fast and stealthy to ensure my anonymity until I can find a quiet place to bunker down, train, and plan my next moves. To grow strong enough to face the horrors that await this world in the future.

After all, this is my world too now.

"That reminds me…" An idea blossomed in my mind as I finished going over my meta-knowledge.

"Hmm…maybe this could work." I turned and walked back out onto the street, "Now which way is Bleecker Street?"

Just then, I heard a whooshing sound as a squad of Chitauri Chariots flew overhead, dropping soldiers onto the buildings around me, scaring the crowd on the street into a panic as the began stampeding about recklessly amid gunfire.

Shit! They're already this far in?!

I turned to run, only to see a woman with a child in front of me get gunned down, her headless corpses falling flat before feet, stopping me in my tracks. Blood sputtered from her stump neck and began to pool beneath my feet as her son began to wail.

At that moment, time stopped for me as it felt like my non-existent blood had frozen over. Time and sense felt like a thick jelly as my thoughts raced.

Someone's dead. Just like that. They're dead!

I felt myself freeze and begin to zone out as an instinctive fear won out, when suddenly a bolt of plasma hit me, throwing me to the ground, pulling me out of my reverie.

I rolled out of the way of the next shot as clarity returned to me, just in time to see one of the Chitauri walking towards the wailing boy, chittering in its alien tongue.

"No, wait-" I shouted, attracting its attention, and another shot hit me square in the stomach. I looked down to see the nanomachines cover my torso in a layer of matte black armor, as fear and anger mixed within me.

The Chitauri near the kid looked at me, then at the kid as a cruel smirk spread across its face.

It leveled its gun at the kid's head and chittered a taunt and my gut twisted knowing what was to come.

I jumped up and lunged towards it, just as it pressed the trigger.

"I said STOP!" I shouted, and my voice reverberated through the air like a divine commandment, anger blinding me now. I raised a hand towards the Chitauri, sending him flying with a pulse of telekinetic force that washed over the street like a wave, and embedded him into a nearby car.

I tumbled to the kid's side just in time for the other Chitauri to turn their attention my way. Before I could even think, I was over the boy, covering him as they all fired into my back. The nanomachines helped me hold my ground for now but this can't keep going.

I grabbed the boy, pulling him away from his mother as I used all my power to jump away, before bolting away into another alley. I kept running even as I could feel the Chitauri being left behind, their chittering noises dying down, replaced by the whooshing of the wind in my ears from the sheer speed I was going at. I didn't know how far I ran before I found myself on a street lined with a barricade of police cars that was just being set up. I stumbled to a stop before them, pretending to fall down, tired, as I put the boy down.

"Hey!" An officer called out to me, gun held at ready, "What's happening out there?"

"Alien invasion." I rasped out, forcing myself to breath heavy, "Its bad. There's dead people."

Thankfully the apron was a dark navy, so it hid the nanomachines that were already beginning to fade away.

"And you? You okay?" The officer kneeled down, putting his gun back into the holster, as he pointed to my sides, where the plasma bolts had burned the apron.

"Yeah. They missed me. It was…..close. Miracle really." I huffed, appearing exhausted.

Another officer appeared behind him, looking between me and the kid I had saved.

"You're a good lad. Kid told me how you saved him." The officer probed. I could tell the kid had spilled the beans. But the fact that he was probing, meant he didn't fully believe the kid. I can play this.

"I didn't do anything. It was Iron Man. He flew in and blew the aliens away." I smiled admiringly, gauging the officer's reaction subtly. He seemed convinced by that, but I still committed his and every other officer's faces to memory. I'll come back later and alter their memories as well as the kid's, just to be sure. Occam's Razor is good, but not foolproof.

"You saved the kid, brought him here. You're a hero in my book and his too, I'll bet." He gestured back at the kid, but I couldn't look at him. Not after…..

If only I had acted earlier, his mom…

It felt like there was a stone in my stomach as the guilt burst through me like a dam broken, but I swallowed it, stopping it from overwhelming me before the officers. I can't break down here. Not yet. Not before I…

I looked up at the officers and let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding.

"Say, officer, which way is Bleecker Street? I'm new to this part of the town, and I'd really like to get home and get some pants on."

"Yeah, what's up with your pants situation?" One of them asked.

"Well, you see I was um...getting a tattoo on my uh…" I passed them an embarrassed look as I glanced down, "when this whole alien thing happened and I lost my pants in a hurry so I just grabbed the aprons from the rack and bolted."

"Oof. Tough luck huh?" The officers laughed, "Its fifteen blocks down that way."

"Thank you so much." I shook his hand, before casting a worried glance towards the kid I had saved, "Will he…?"

One of the officers placed a hand on my shoulder and patted me.

"Don't worry. We'll take care of him." He assured, "Go."

"Thanks." I nodded and shakily stood up, stumbling away till I was out of sight, before I bolted towards the Sanctum Sanctorum at full speed.