Chapter 167: This Is Humanity's Punishment, Delivered by the Gods
At the edge of the wormhole.
Tens of thousands of Chitauri soldiers were sprinting at full speed toward the command ship.
When they spotted the assault craft approaching the wormhole from a distance, their first instinct wasn't to attack. Instead, they assumed the craft were friendly, and tried using the communication system to order them to turn back.
This was entirely because the inside of the command ship had already descended into total chaos.
To contain the "internal disturbance," the command center had issued a defensive order.
In other words: suspend the invasion of Earth, recall all forces, and resume the offensive only once the internal situation had been dealt with.
"Assault craft 1210, please have the unit behind you turn around and head back immediately."
"Acknowledge if you receive this." A Chitauri squad leader spoke into the radio on his shoulder.
But after waiting several seconds without a response, the squad leader realized something was wrong.
Or rather, as the distance closed, he got a clear look at the figures aboard the assault craft, and at the same moment, got a clear look at the gun barrels they were raising.
"!!!"
"Shit! We're under attack!"
"Those aren't ours!"
"Open fire!"
As he shouted those words, a grenade instantly tore the ship beneath him apart, blowing it out into deep space.
"Open fire! Open fire!!"
In an instant, flashes of light began flickering through the pitch-black void.
The grenade launchers fired silently in the vacuum.
Each shot found its mark precisely, taking out one of the Chitauri closing in on them.
The Astartes had never piloted a Chitauri assault craft before, but the control system was similar enough to a motorcycle's that they handled it without difficulty.
With the boost from Stanavistin's time-dilation effect on top of that, they could make multiple fine adjustments mid-flight, dodging every shot the Chitauri fired at them.
"Eight, how much time is left before the Swarm Control Room bomb detonates?" Astartes One asked.
Eight checked the timer displayed on his visor. "Fifty seconds."
In fifty seconds, the bomb would go off, the Swarm Control Room would be destroyed, and the Chitauri soldiers in front of them would be completely paralyzed.
Hearing the response, One gave an acknowledging grunt, then raised his weapon and blew apart a Chitauri craft trying to flank them from the side.
"Try to avoid their fire and keep your craft intact."
"If our ships get destroyed, we'll be stuck out here in deep space." One spoke flatly even as he dodged an incoming energy round.
The other Astartes didn't respond to One's reminder. They simply continued pressing forward, weaving through the formation.
The entire group moved like a precision-engineered killing machine, rolling, sidestepping, accelerating through the barrage.
It was as though they were playing a bullet-hell game in space, and as the "players," every dodge they made was perfectly timed.
But even they weren't immune to mistakes under fire this dense.
Whoosh—
A silent beam of energy flashed through the void.
The next instant, the assault craft beneath Astartes One erupted into flame!
Countless fragments blasted outward in every direction the moment the craft exploded!
A spray of metal debris scattered outward, the shockwave slamming into One with full force.
For an ordinary person, an attack like that would have reduced them to a cloud of blood in an instant.
But he wasn't an ordinary person.
The instant the explosion occurred, One released his grip on the controls!
The muscles in both legs, amplified by the power armor, exploded into motion!
Rather than tearing him apart, the explosion's shockwave acted like an enormous invisible hand, hurling him along a trajectory he'd already calculated.
At the same moment, the thrusters on his boots ignited!
Combining that momentum with the force from his thrusters, One shot forward like a fired artillery shell, slamming directly into a Chitauri craft attempting to evade off to the side.
The Chitauri soldier aboard saw nothing but darkness, with no time to even react, before a hand encased in heavy power armor crushed his skull, then pulled him bodily out of the pilot's seat and hurled him into the void.
The entire sequence took less than half a second, flowing seamlessly from one motion to the next.
The moment One took control of the craft, he slammed the throttle to full.
Then, with a single drift, he swung the nose around and rejoined the Astartes formation.
The comm channel remained dead silent the entire time.
No "well done." No "are you all right?" Not even a single Astartes turned to look at him.
The fight continued.
Some unknown amount of time later...
A burst of light erupted from inside the Chitauri command ship, and instantly, the surrounding Chitauri legion seemed to have their souls ripped out, collapsing all at once.
Not only that, the assault craft beneath them lost power at the exact same moment.
Taking the opportunity, the Astartes Legion shot through the wormhole at full speed, returning to Earth.
Looking down at the city below, devastated by the Chitauri army, the Astartes wasted no time and immediately began rescue operations across the city.
Of course, before returning to Earth, they had already used their personal "virus decontamination spray" at the edge of the wormhole, treating every inch of their armor to ensure they didn't carry any of the command ship's virus back to Earth.
This battle had effectively reached its conclusion the moment the Astartes destroyed the Swarm Control Room.
Standing atop Stark Tower, Loki watched the Chitauri army across the city instantly go limp, and in that moment, he understood everything.
He looked up at the wormhole.
No more Chitauri soldiers were emerging from it. Only silence remained.
"Looks like I've lost this round," Loki said, looking at the Astartes that had appeared behind him, a trace of dry amusement surfacing on his face.
He wasn't dejected by his failure.
On the contrary, his face still carried that unhurried, villain's confidence.
Though it was entirely possible that smile was there simply to save face, or perhaps he simply knew that, given his status, nothing too serious would happen to him, which made it easy enough to smile.
His gaze drifted over the Astartes closing in on him.
Recognizing that the situation was hopeless, Loki slowly raised both hands. "I surrender."
"I'm willing to accept your judgment."
"So—"
THUD!
A heavy, full-force kick landed squarely in Loki's stomach!
There was nothing held back in that kick.
And because of that, Loki was sent flying, crashing through two walls before finally coming to a stop.
Through the dust, the Astartes spotted Loki embedded in the wall, walked over, grabbed him by the throat, and yanked him free!
Holding Loki aloft in midair, the Astartes slowly raised his other hand, then clenched it into a fist.
The sight of that fist suddenly tightening made Loki's pupils contract. He spoke up hastily. "Wait... wait! I'm Loki! A god of Asgard!"
"And I've already surrendered, you can't do this to me!"
Hearing this, the Astartes paused slightly, and the iron-grey fist slowly lowered.
Seeing this, Loki quietly let out a breath of relief.
But before he could finish that breath, the fist, the size of a human head, shot back up faster than the eye could follow, driving straight into Loki's face!
Thud!
A dull impact echoed through the space.
Before Loki could even cry out in pain, the Astartes landed several more punches across his face!
Blood streamed from his nose.
Loki, dazed and seeing stars from the blows, found tears squeezed involuntarily from his eyes.
Once it was done, the Astartes dropped Loki on the ground the way you'd discard trash.
"I know who you are. I know Asgard has its own judgment and punishment waiting for you."
"But before that happens, I'm going to make sure you understand that some things don't end just because you say the word 'surrender.'"
"You need to face the consequences of what you've done."
"And the consequences are..."
"Blood and tears."
The flat, unwavering voice came through the faceplate.
Loki, lying on the ground, scrambled backward.
He really had been rattled by those punches.
It wasn't enough to seriously injure him, but it hurt. It genuinely hurt.
As Loki tried to crawl away, another Astartes grabbed him by the ankle and yanked him straight back.
"Accept it. This is humanity's punishment, delivered by the gods!"
Under Loki's panicked gaze, the first Astartes slowly raised his right leg, aimed it at Loki's head, and stomped down hard!
The kick drove Loki's head straight into the concrete, knocking him out instantly.
In the distance.
Thor, God of Thunder, watched the Astartes's handiwork in silence. He didn't charge over in a rage to defend his mischievous younger brother and start throwing punches on his behalf.
Instead, he simply watched.
He watched as Loki took a thorough beating from the Astartes.
He knew perfectly well his brother wouldn't be seriously harmed by an attack like this. At most, he'd suffer a bit, get bruised up a little.
The Thor who had grown was well aware that everyone needed to face the consequences of their own mistakes.
The city had been destroyed to this extent, the casualties were uncountable, and all Loki was getting was a beating. What exactly was the problem with that?
Whoosh—
A streak of light cut across the sky.
Tony landed at the edge of the rooftop.
He looked at the wrecked penthouse, and at Loki and the Astartes amid the rubble, and let out a tired sigh.
"Once this is all over, I am absolutely settling up with Matthew over this 'renovation.'"
During the time the Astartes had spent on their boarding operation, the rest of the team had been fighting their own brutal battle against the Chitauri legion across the city, witnessing firsthand the devastation and the sacrifices of war.
Precisely because of that, this originally unsteady team had, for the first time, truly come together as one.
Except for Soldier Boy, of course.
That guy had absolutely no concept of teamwork. During the fight, he'd looked down on everyone else without restraint, and had taken more than one opportunity to provoke and insult them.
This had left Nick Fury quietly resolved: once this was all over, Soldier Boy was getting kicked off the Avengers.
After all, the original reason he'd recruited the man had simply been to prove to his superiors that he had a suitable candidate to fill out the Avengers roster.
Now that the Avengers had been officially formed, and had put up an impressive showing in this battle, kicking out one undisciplined troublemaker with no sense of justice shouldn't be a problem.
And if he had a problem with it, well, they could always freeze him again.
It wasn't as if the process for making another old-fashioned popsicle was a secret.
Tromp, tromp, tromp.
A clatter of footsteps came from the stairwell.
"Oh~~ sorry, are those of us who can't fly running late again?"
Hawkeye and Black Widow, both looking somewhat worse for wear, stepped out from the stairwell one after another.
Before they'd even finished speaking, Peter Parker came flipping in through the window. "No offense, but... has flying become a basic requirement for being a superhero?"
"Here I was thinking my way of getting around was pretty advanced."
Compared to his usual self, Peter Parker with the mask on let himself talk freely.
Out of everyone on the team, he was easily the chattiest.
"Speaking of advanced, I think you should get yourself a more advanced suit," Tony teased. "Instead of running around the streets in pajamas."
"Pajamas?" Peter blinked, then looked down at his Spider-Man suit, now riddled with several holes.
"Mr. Stark, this might be a bit forward of me, but could you help me make a more advanced suit?"
"Sure. If you're willing to pay for it."
Peter Parker: "..."
As everyone knew, Spider-Man was broke.
Even now, working for Umbrella Corporation, his salary clearly wasn't enough to commission a custom suit from Tony Stark.
Just as he stood there, awkward, a voice cut in and saved him from the moment.
"Get him a suit."
"No, make it five. Otherwise people might think my employees can't afford Iron Man armor." Matthew's voice floated in through the window.
[System points +3,000. Peter Parker's opinion of you has improved.]
Hearing this, Tony's mouth twisted. "Matthew, do you have any concept of humor at all?"
"I was actually planning to design a suit for the kid myself."
"After all, this kid was a real help to me during the fight just now."
Ignoring Tony, Matthew flew in through the window.
He looked at Loki, who had been knocked into a baby-like sleep. "So, how do we want to handle this?"
"Obviously, we stand here and strike a pose, and wait for him to wake up," Tony said, still in full wisecrack mode, joking with the group.
What Tony said made Matthew immediately think of the scene from Avengers 1 where Loki gets arrested...
These people weren't actually about to go along with Tony's idea, were they?
Just stand there in a pose, holding it until Loki regained consciousness?
Matthew turned and gave Tony a strange look. "Are you being serious right now?"
"...Don't you think it'd look pretty cool?"
Matthew's gaze swept across everyone's faces.
Well, it seemed Tony was, in fact, being serious.
And not just him. Looking at everyone else's expressions, they all seemed a little eager to try it too.
"First of all, I object to this idea."
"Second of all, do you all genuinely think this would look cool?" He looked toward Hawkeye, Thor, and the others again.
Their response was a round of nodding.
Sure, the scene had looked cool enough in the movie. But if Matthew actually had to stand there like that in real life, he'd be embarrassed enough to dig himself a three-bedroom apartment with his toes.
"Anyway, I have veto power over this whole posing idea."
"Astartes, arrest him, then take him downstairs." With that, he walked over to Thor and patted him on the shoulder.
"I know you'll be bringing him back to Asgard eventually, but before that, we still need to go through the arrest procedure."
"You understand, right?"
"Of course." Thor gave Matthew a wink, followed by an expression that said "I've got this."
Clearly, Thor had picked up quite a bit during his time on Earth.
Black Widow pulled a pair of specialized handcuffs from behind her back and locked them onto the still-unconscious Loki.
Two Astartes then took hold of him, one on each side, and lifted him off the ground, heading toward the stairs.
But just as everyone was preparing to hand Loki over to the SHIELD personnel waiting to receive him, Captain America's voice came through the comm channel...
"Report. Loki located."
"He's in..."
Everyone froze mid-motion.
What did he mean, he'd located Loki?
After a moment of silence, Tony responded. "Rogers... you've got that wrong, haven't you? Loki's right here with us."
But this time, there was no response from Captain America...
Elsewhere, another "Captain America," this one without his mask, pushed himself up off the ground, hand pressed to his aching back.
He looked down at the unconscious Captain America lying on the ground, then staggered over and picked up the fallen Chitauri Scepter.
Once he'd done that, "Captain America" turned and looked at his unconscious self, and at that signature, prominent backside, and couldn't help muttering, "If I hadn't seen this with my own eyes, I'd never have believed my ass used to look this..."
With that, he didn't linger, and started walking off into the distance.
At the same time.
Matthew, who had been put in charge of safeguarding the Tesseract, also noticed something was off.
He turned and looked at one of the security personnel behind him.
Unless his ears were deceiving him, that security guard's heartbeat, blood flow rate, and stride frequency were identical to those of the Tony Stark standing right in front of him.
Beyond that, he also picked up an extremely faint sound.
And it was coming from somewhere nearby.
To confirm his suspicion, Matthew quickly traced the source of the sound...
Sure enough.
The moment he spotted the Ant-Man who had appeared there, everything clicked into place.
If he wasn't mistaken, the timeline he was currently standing in wasn't his own.
It was a different timeline entirely.
Or rather, a different parallel world altogether.
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