Hawk finally suppressed the burning in his heart and chose not to join the commotion at the main battlefield in Manhattan.
The Leviathan Giant Beast, belonging to the Chitauri's biochemical war fortress, roared as it emerged from the Space Gate. Its sprawling body was incredibly massive, clad in a thick layer of alloy armor.
Not to mention whether he could take on the Leviathan Giant Beast, but just by its size, it was like the difference between the ground and the sky.
Besides.
If he had Holy Armor, maybe Hawk would rush to the main battlefield for some action.
For now, it's better to forget it.
After all, there are Chitauri soldiers here in Queens, skimming through like locusts, so there's no need to rush to Manhattan.
That area is the battlefield of the First Generation Avengers, not his.
He had grown stronger.
But it was merely getting stronger.
The awakening of the Little Cosmos is just the beginning, a starting point.
It's not the end, nor the conclusion.
So...
Hawk didn't go anywhere, nor did he choose to take the initiative. Instead, he squatted at his doorstep, waiting like a trap for the Chitauri soldiers ravaging nearby to fall into his net after receiving news of their companion's death.
This was much easier than making a proactive attack himself.
After all, Chitauri soldiers could fly, and he couldn't.
The most important point.
The neighborhood where he lived was a poverty-stricken area.
What's a poverty-stricken area?
Let's put it this way.
An ambulance would take at least half an hour to reach their neighborhood after receiving a call, whereas in Manhattan's wealthy district, it would only take three minutes at most.
The same goes for surveillance.
If even the garbage cans in the alleyways of wealthy neighborhoods are equipped with surveillance cameras, then the main roads in the impoverished areas have no such cameras.
Even if they did, by the next day, some kids would have already found a way to remove them and sell them for money.
Before long.
Standing in the shadowy corner, Hawk saw two Chitauri soldiers rushing over, receiving the death signal of their companions and coming with their flying machines.
Hawk's eyes lit up.
Two minutes later.
"Thump!"
"Thump!"
Among the rubble of the apartment, two more hideous corpses lay beside the two bodies Hawk had neatly arranged before, lest the Chitauri soldiers failed to see them.
After detecting the pilots' deaths, the two equally ugly-looking flying machines automatically turned and flew in a certain direction.
Watching this scene, Hawk quietly retreated back into the shadowy corner.
One minute later.
Amidst the surge of Chitauri soldier deaths in Queens, a signal was sent from the Chitauri warship inside the wormhole above Manhattan.
At the next moment.
The Chitauri soldiers, unleashing full firepower and screaming wildly while wantonly destroying buildings, vehicles, and massacring Earthlings, suddenly turned around and, upon receiving the signal, quickly assembled towards the roar that echoed over Jackson Heights.
They received the order to engage over there.
The Chitauri soldiers roared, gathering behind their leader, who was slightly taller and stronger than the other soldiers, and even had a meaner-looking craft than theirs. Led by their captain, they arrived over the neighborhood.
In an instant.
They saw, on the rubble of the apartment, the four mangled corpses of their companions lined up neatly.
"Squeak, squeak, squeak!"
"Hiss, hiss, hiss."
At the sight of their fallen comrades, the captain of the Chitauri soldiers and the six soldiers seemed momentarily stunned.
The next second.
They seemed to snap back, as if receiving new orders, and their flying machines powered up once more.
In the blink of an eye, the captain of the Chitauri soldiers and the six soldiers quickly dispersed and surrounded the neighborhood below, their snake-eyes devoid of emotion or hesitation as they pulled the triggers of their flying machines, unleashing their Energy Bullets.
Like cold biological weapons.
In an instant.
Energy Bullets rained down, like a net cast from heaven, conducting a blanket bombardment upon the street below.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Buildings in the neighborhood were blasted apart, roads fractured, and vehicles on the street exploded and ignited continuously.
The Chitauri soldiers in the sky, firing in unison, remained expressionless, like machines, their talons on the triggers holding firm until the entire neighborhood was engulfed in smoke and until their flying machines' Energy Bullets were emptied. Only when the captain of the Chitauri soldiers halted did they uniformly release the triggers like well-oiled machines.
At this moment, the entire neighborhood had turned into complete ruins.
The old apartment blocks continued to crumble.
The burning vehicles still occasionally exploded.
At this moment, this place looked more like Iraq, enduring the ravages of war, than Iraq itself.
Sitting atop his flying machine, the captain of the Chitauri, with eyes larger and greener than others, scanned the now still, deserted neighborhood one last time, retracting his gaze only after receiving the latest command, preparing to withdraw.
Under the overwhelming firepower coverage attack of the Chitauri soldiers, no life could possibly survive.
Let alone the lowly life forms on Earth that couldn't even step off their own planet.
So...
Orders from the Chitauri mothership, overseeing command from the wormhole, were issued to the captain through the soldiers' vision.
As the Chitauri captain turned, the six Chitauri soldiers followed in tuning their flying machines.
But at the very moment when the six Chitauri soldiers started to turn, suddenly, one of their companions, seated on a flying machine, curled forward like a cooked shrimp. Accompanied by a squelch sound, his armor-clad chest abruptly exploded.
The next second.
One, two, three, four, five.
The five remaining Chitauri soldiers barely had time to react before meeting the fate of the previous soldier.
Just as they turned their backs to the street, their chests burst open, creating a fist-sized hole.
The chests were torn from back to front, as if someone had punched through from behind.
Almost precisely as the six Chitauri soldiers' chests exploded, six thunderous punches resounded with bangs!
"Boom, boom, boom!"
"Boom, boom, boom!"
On the instant their teammates' chests erupted, the captain of the Chitauri soldiers turned on his flying machine, hearing the blasts in his ears. With a robotic lift of his head, he leaped right off, without a moment's hesitation, from his aircraft.
The next moment.
His flying machine, even more menacing than the others, seemed to have been hit by something, detonating instantly in mid-air.
Boom!
...