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Manhattan
–Jack Sullivan–
What the fuck was that!?
He slowly collapsed down on one knee as he took in long deep breaths as the energy beam straight from hell finally stopped after breaking through half of his barriers. He really thought that they would die here, well, except for Thor.
That might have come true if the beam had kept coming. Realistically, there was no reason to defend Stark Tower because it was just a building in the end but deep down, he didn't want that.
Losing Stark Tower might mean losing Avengers Tower in the figure and as illogical as it might sound right now, at that moment, he could not let them do as much damage as they pleased. Plus, he had to contain all the heat surrounding them, otherwise the effects on the city would not have been pleasant.
“Friend Guardian, are you alright?” He was brought out of his reverie as Thor kneeled beside him in concern.
He shakily nodded his head and stood up, “Ye-Yeah, I am good. You should go, Tony alone cannot handle the Leviathans. I will join you in a bit,”
He clenched his trembling hands and looked at the portal. The Chitauri were pouring out in droves, just like in canon, but this time, they were not heading straight down. No, they were spreading out in all directions. He counted three Leviathans heading out in three different directions with the small stragglers heading down into the city, to kill and destroy.
Because of their head start, the Leviathans were still in the safe zone but once they reached the evacuating population, the casualty rates would shoot up. He was sure that people had already started panicking due to the Leviathans and that would slow down the process even more.
Cops and first responders too would not be faring any better than the common population because those things were truly terrifying. He didn’t even know when he could stop the invasion but the moment he sees civilian casualties, he is putting a hard stop to this invasion.
Doesn’t matter what happens, the second he sees the first civilian dying, he will be putting that sceptre right into the Tesseract. He was not going to be responsible—-
Goosebumps rose up on his entire body as he immediately blasted himself away from his position, cratering the roof and creating a sonic boom as he found himself in the walls of the building next to Stark Tower, looking at the balcony of the tower with wide unblinking eyes of fear and hatred.
There, in the place where his armoured head was, was a dagger, in the hands of that same Asian man who almost killed him on the Helicarrier.
The man didn’t look surprised as he dodged his attack somehow. Having the dozen different sensory barriers floating around him at all times did make it hard to multitask a bit but it was a price he was willing to pay because of one simple reason.
That man right there with a dagger in one hand, another dagger in the other, looking at him with blue unflinching eyes and a bloodthirsty grin on his face. For some reason, he was able to bypass everything and reach him without him noticing it, not until at the last moment.
This was going to be so troublesome. He didn’t even get a chance to talk to Barton about the man and look into his powerset. Experimentally, he sent in a charged barrier, at speeds exceeding the speed of sound and found to his resignation, that the barrier passed through the face of the man, his grin not abating a bit as his face dissolved into fog and then reassembled itself, not a moment later.
Now, how does one go about beating an intangible foe?
Well, for starters, he thought to himself as he immediately flew into the air, figure out the limits of that intangibility. Conjuring a dozen different barriers and then sending them after him didn’t help him.
He was constantly being peppered by sharp-edged barriers at speeds nearing the speed of sound and yet, even as his body was constantly in fog form, his grin didn’t abate as he walked, step by step, towards the edge of the balcony, his eyes never breaking contact with him.
He could hear his own heart beating as he looked at someone who had a very healthy chance of killing him. Well, he might have to assume a long-range role then. He could bypass his barriers as well but for that to happen, he would have to be in range and that could be solved quite easily. He immediately sent a barrage of barriers at the man and this time, instead of targeting his body, he targeted the floor he was standing on, destroying his footing.
He expected the man to start free falling but his fears only grew as he found him floating on thin air. Then his eyes widened to saucer levels as he seemingly flew towards him.
SHIT! SHIT!
He immediately started flying away, at the max speed he could without destroying the city or the buildings around him. No, he did not have the time for this, he had a city to save.
He looked around him and saw that one of the Leviathans had gotten very far without its attention being distracted by either Thor or Tony. He could see the Captain, Widow, and Barton helping with the evacuation process and even taking down a couple of stragglers but it was certain that they would not be able to help him.
Not with the Leviathan and certainly not with the crazy Asian man behind him. He was somehow built with the powerset needed to kill him. For now, he was content with leaving that man behind because he did not seem to have the same speed as he did.
He kept an eye on the man chasing after him and looked at the Leviathan floating away, constantly shooting out small stragglers that promptly began open firing on their surroundings. Thankfully, most of it was empty anyway so that was good.
As he came closer, his form buffed up, to match that of the Leviathan’s and as if he was a rider and the Leviathan was his steed, he roped around the Leviathan's underside and….pulled.
The sudden force was jarring as the leviathan’s armour cracked in places but the effect was not as pronounced as he wanted it to be. In the meantime, the bloodthirsty man was almost on his avatar so he just switched tracks. He shrank his form immensely and willed a small wall to manifest in front of him, all the while he was playing the game of cat and mouse with that man, he would need a name at some point.
He then sped that wall up to rotate around itself at dizzying speeds and just sent it careening towards the Leviathan, creating a saw blade for all intents and purposes.
The effect was apparent. The armour was harder than he had expected but the added rotation made quick work of everything as the Leviathan, with a pained roar, was bisected and fell on top of a building which collapsed on another building, like dominos.
He winced as he flew around the Leviathan, the person still on his back, as he looked at the destroyed block of buildings with the blood that was melting through the building like it was a very concentrated acid. He looked at the Stragglers coming out and thankfully, killing them was very much in his capabilities so he simply willed for another set of barriers to appear and sliced through almost all of them with ease.
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The next moment, he turned around and flew back to the centre of the fighting, the man behind him. There was a reason he was not getting rid of this tail on him. The simple answer was there was no other person on the team who could fight with him effectively.
Even Thor might have a hard time, depending on how he takes the lightning attacks or Mjolnir’s impossible weight and density. So, keeping his attention firmly on himself was the best way to make sure that the rest of the team did not have to deal with this crazy bastard capable of bypassing their bodies and taking hold of their very hearts.
So far, he had tried everything. Solids, fluids, energy constructs, and everything in between, the bastard phased through all. His body turned to fog as objects passed through him but it was as if he did not lose his senses in that state.
He was still on his tail, even as he saw Stark, now with a new silver armour, taking on the Leviathan. He winced as Stark was successful in destroying one of the Leviathans, albeit in a very unsanitary way. Ugh, he could only imagine the stench that would stick to that suit.
He was surprised to see what looked to be an earlier prototype of Project Veronica landing on top of Tony and leaving him spanking clean, ready to initiate another beat down on the Chitauri. Even then that was not enough apparently because soon another empty suit landed in front of him which opened up to reveal nobody underneath. Tony simply entered the other, never been into a Leviathan’s stomach, suit and resumed the fight.
He looked behind him as that man was still after him. His neck swiveled to the side as he heard the sound of bullets and was surprised to see jets flying about the airspace around the city. They were peppering the stragglers and the Leviathan with bullets and the occasional missiles in the areas that were probably already cleared off people.
He needed one of the comms but he could not risk bringing this demon to any of the other Avengers. He could also not spot Banner anywhere and judging from the dead Leviathans around and not seeing any that had its skull caved in, it was safe to say that Banner had not arrived yet.
Loki was probably still out due to his blow and Thor was doing a very good job of downing Leviathans but after seeing yet another lightning strike from the heavens land atop another Leviathan, he wagered that even Thor was tired now.
He had to end this before it went too far. He could not afford any civilian casual–
His mind speech stuttered to a halt as he looked at the blood that was coming out of the small cut on his cheek that the dagger had made. The dagger flew in front of him before coming to a halt and then coming back for more. He promptly dogged it and looked back to see the Dagger person with his arm in the direction of the dagger which flew back into his hand, like it was Mjolnir and he was Thor.
He slowly came to a halt as he faced the person who was responsible for putting the fear of death in his mind.
“Done running?” He mockingly said, with a heavy accent.
He didn’t say anything but looked at the situation unfolding around them. He had to neutralise this person. He had to do it whilst keeping the Chitauri in line as well. Both of the jets had been destroyed as well and Tony had rescued both but it would seem that without an active direction from Loki, the Chitauri had started rampaging everywhere.
They spread in every direction, seemingly focused on reaching more and more areas. The Leviathans had even started ramming into buildings after finding that Tony’s suits didn’t do much damage to them aside from busting up the stragglers.
He took in a deep breath and looked ahead, “What is your name? Why are you after me?”
The man grinned as he juggled his dagger, “Me? My name is Wei and well, you are in the way of truth and that is why I must end you,”
Wei. Huh. Asian from looks and name. Maybe an Inhuman? But he didn’t know any Inhuman in the MCU having this outrageous powerset. If he was from Jiaying’s camp, she should have won long ago.
He also seemed to have multiple powers that didn’t have any relation with each other. They seemed to be completely different powersets instead of just supplementary powers.
The power of Flight.
Intangibility.
Enhanced weaponry (or did Loki grant him the enchanted weapons with similar recall features as Mjolnir?)
The weapons were also infused with his powers because the dagger just sliced clean through his barriers and drew blood. He was not even dodging at that time. He was being toyed with, at that moment and…he did not like it.
Not one bit.
He looked at the blue eyes which meant that he was under Loki’s spell. He probably didn’t deserve the beating but it was not as if he could do the same as Romanoff did to Barton. To perform mental recalibration, it was needed for the opponent to be solid and this Wei person probably maintained complete intangibility for the entire time he had been chasing him.
His daggers were imbued with his energy so they could probably be intangible with him as well.
So, there they were, standing near the Stark Tower with the Chitauri pouring in droves out of the hole above them and pandemonium around them, thankfully without civilian casualties at least. Occasional explosions rang around them as the military fired at the portal with their missiles. They missed most of the time but without many civilians to worry about, they were probably given free reign.
One moment, he was quite a bit away from Wei, and the next, he had disappeared, leaving a sonic boom in his wake. At the same time, Wei’s entire body had turned to fog as dozens of razor-sharp barriers assaulted his body. He tried even attacking the daggers but even they were intangible.
He kept attacking Wei as he kept his avatar quite a bit of a distance away, focused on mowing down Chitauri as soon as they exited the portal. Seriously, it was as if they had unlimited stock.
He also spotted the sceptre which was safely on top of the Stark Tower, right beside the Tesseract.
Loki was still nowhere to be seen but Banner had joined the party, judging by the upturned Leviathan and the Hulk’s roar that came at the end of it.
He looked at Wei to see him staying in the same position in the fog form, making no effort to move.
He sighed internally. He was hoping that there was some time limit to his intangibility or some limit to the damage he could sustain, even in the fog form because his barriers could sense some resistance but even that was a bust then.
He dispelled his barriers and saw the same mocking grin appear on that face as he looked languidly. He dispelled the large avatar and settled on his mid-sized Gundam and readied himself.
The next moment, with a sonic boom, he rushed to Wei. The shock on his face was palpable even as he went right through his body before turning back and intending to repeat the same.
This time, though, Wei was prepared as he too flew forward to meet him head-on. He had to lean to the side as he threw one of his daggers and winced in discomfort as he had to pull himself down…harshly, to avoid the other dagger that was about to dig into his shoulder. At the same time, he sent two more barriers through him and found, to his growing frustration, that they still passed straight through him.
So, he would have to sustain some wounds then.
Well, he was not exactly the Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze, who could take advantage of that drawback but oh well, who was?
He then rushed him once again, only this time, he too wielded a similar dagger, only it was hidden in his Gundam, poised to come only on his command.
This time, when they clashed, he winced as the dagger was stuck inside his shoulder, scraping the bone very painfully. But his gamble had paid off. His arm, on top of which the dagger was located, was now piercing the chest of Wei. He had hoped to avoid a killing blow because he was under mind control.
He immediately went to capitalize on the shock and tried to hit his head really hard but he recovered faster than expected and turned intangible.
He grunted as Wei turned back from his fog form and called back his dagger. It got out rather clumsily, spraying blood everywhere.
It was fine though, because his body would heal, like it always does. The other party, on the other hand….he watched as Wei put a hand on the wound and when it came off, the wound had turned into fog and he was once again subjected to the same bloodthirsty grin.
“Good. Good Good GOOD! More. Give me more!” Wei said with a mad look on his face as he rushed towards him, wielding both his daggers.
Well, time to test the healing powers of his body then, he thought to himself as he rushed to Wei once again, this time determined to knock him out.
He did not want the death of this person to be on him.
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Word Count - 2940
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A/N - I promise the Invasion Arc ends next chapter.