Disclaimer - All the usual Yada Yada Yada. I don't own any rights to any characters in this fic save for my OCs. Don't sue me.
Anywho, without further ado - read on.
Earth-6161 [May 2012]
Manhattan, New York [Stark Tower Periphery]
–Carl "Luke Cage" Lucas—
He was out on the streets, helping people navigate, or in some cases, getting some people off of fallen ones as they all screamed and ran, in panic, away from the giant blue hole in the sky.
He winced as he had to literally hold off a couple of people from walking over someone unconscious, barely getting them out of harm's way before a car crashed into another car and almost collided into him.
Before he could curse at the man, he saw the car had been emptied and the man was running away with a woman and a child in his arms. Cursing the situation, he turned the man over and "fuck!", swore as blood dripped from his mouth. He was barely breathing as well.
"Carl!" His neck snapped up as he saw a bunch of people headed his way, with Pops at the forefront.
"What are you doing?! I told you to leave!" He shouted as he checked the man for any other injuries and then effortlessly hoisted him on his shoulders, intending on taking him to the hospital.
"I was worried about you. Besides, we were in the neighborhood, visiting Jordy's sister. Once they were safely out of the bridge, I gathered as many as I could and came rushing over. Man, what a bad day to go sightseeing, huh?" pops asked him and he could do nothing but agree.
He had been cooped up in Harlem for the past six months, never leaving the block for weeks at a time, afraid that he will be recognised and put back into prison or worse, experimented on. He knew the worth of his body and how many people, rather governments, would hunt him down for a chance to uncover his body's secrets.
The half a dozen men that came with Pops began moving bikes, cars, and trucks, to create a safe space for the panicked people to leave the city. In the process, they found 4 other unconscious people. Thankfully, they were all in much better condition than the middle aged person he found with blood down his lips.
He was about to turn around after handing over the more injured people, to head deeper into the city when he was stopped by someone holding his wrist. The grip was featherlight and yet, if someone had told him that he was under a hundred ton weight, he would have believed them, such was the weight of Pops' stare.
The same eyes that unravelled all his secrets and didn't ask for anything in return when he came to the shop, broke and on the run, were now staring at him. Not judging, never judging yet searching for something within him.
Something must have clicked in Pops' mind because he let go of the wrist and instead, took something from his jacket and handed over to him. "Go! Embrace your destiny."
Not knowing what else to say, he nodded and ran, with all his might, manhandling cars and emptying crashed cars, lifting cars and putting them on the side, and more, all the while wearing the yellow and black mask that Pops gave him.
He smiled at that moment, as he felt the most free he had ever felt in years. Even after escaping prison, he had never really felt free. Always afraid to be singled out, afraid to be caught and put back under the tender mercies of that mad doctor once again.
But no more, he thought to himself as he punched through yet another car after seeing that it was stuck in a fire hydrant. For now, he was sticking to clearing the routes, and making sure that people that were stuck were taken out.
Whatever that blue hole in the sky was, it could be taken care of later on and something told him that it was way beyond his pay grade at the moment. Once, he was done clearing the surrounding areas, he might—
His thoughts screeched to a halt, as he heard screams renew once more all around him. His gaze snapped up as his eyes narrowed before they widened in horror as what could only be described as flying monsters came pouring out of that gaping hole in the sky.
"Go! Go! GO!" Shaking the people around him out of their reveries, he ran towards the monsters. His breath came in shaky gasps even as the physical exertion of running towards his potential doom was negligible.
He saw multiple buses, cars, and people inside them stuck that were being rapidly approached by the aliens. He knew he was going to be too late, he knew that there was no way he was going to be able to protect so many people all by himself, not when the monsters were still coming out in droves by the dozens, and had begun indiscriminately bombarding the buildings all around them.
"Nooo!" His hand thrust into the chassis of the nearest car around him as he rotated on the spot and threw the car at the monster. There was a spectacular series of explosions as the car throw destroyed one or two monsters but the next moment, his blood ran cold, as the movement of all these monsters paused.
It was very eerie as he kept running towards them, even as there was utter silence between what had been up till now very loud screeching all around. The next moment clinched it for him as suddenly, all of the monsters in his vision began heading straight for him.
By now, his jacket was in tatters, his shirt torn in various places, his pants having holes in them when metal punched through them and broke upon impact, and yet, even having no armour whatsoever, aside from his skin, he ran because if the monsters kept their attention on him, maybe, just maybe, the people and the children in the buses could be saved.
On his way, he hooked his hand into yet another car and chucked it as hard as it could. It barely nicked one of the monsters, as every one of them dodged his throws.
A laser blast exploded the pavement right in front of him, throwing him back. Shielding his eyes, he quickly stood up and saw, resigned, as dozens of these monsters with their flying ships had surrounded him.
He shielded his face and jumped back as hard as he could to save himself. Oddly, there was no sound of any explosion, just chokes and metal crashing sounds.
Landing on the ground, he looked up and his eyes widened as the monsters were now holding on to their necks, as if they were being choked. He looked all around him and saw all the monsters in similar states.
On instinct, he whirled around and punched with all his might as he felt the air shift, only for his eyes to widen as his fist impacted water?
He looked up to see cool, indifferent eyes staring back at him, with arms of water coming out of her back, "Rescue the trapped people. I will take care of them,"
She negligently gestured behind him and his neck snapped as he heard a wet tearing noise before something exploded behind him. His eyes widened in horror and his face turned pale in disgust as, one by one, all the monsters who were choking, began bloating up before dying in an explosion that rained down blood and gore all around him.
Barely choking back the small sandwich he had earlier, he turned around only to see the woman gone. A chill ran down his spine as he imagined the woman and her actions.
Shaking his head, he tried to ignore the sounds of dull explosions all around him and ran with all his might towards the trapped people.
This was…not good. Whoever that lady was, she was bad news but for now, she was not on the side of the human killing monsters and that was fine by him.
______xx____
A thousand miles away, at the same time
–Tony Stark–
"Are you shitting me?" He cursed as the Quinjet, outfitted with his technology, sped past him, reaching speeds he had never reached before. The Arc Propulsion technology on the Quinjet was a slap on his face.
He was going to bleed SHIELD dry in lawsuits after this. How dare they!
A feed opened up on his HUD, after Jarvis had returned to using the LA servers, which were noticeably slower and less efficient but they had to abandon the Stark Tower servers because the entire building was compromised in one way or another.
His eyes widened and his face turned pale, as the video feed showed hundreds of those Chitauri Monsters running rampant in his city. One moment they were floating, and the next, they were being choked by invisible hands, and then….
"Jarvis?" He choked out, the sheer visuals of those aliens exploding made sure that he would be a vegetarian for the rest of his foreseeable future.
"108 aliens dead and counting, sir."
With a grim visage, he kept silent as he flew to the city with all his might.
Her methods might be gory but they were working as all of the Chitarui in the city were descending upon her while Samantha, was floating high up in the air, looking straight up at the portal with the same stoic, indifferent look on her face.
In fact, he had never even seen any other expression on her face, and that stayed the same even during an Alien Invasion.
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