Iron Man. Captain America. Black Widow. Hawkeye. The Avengers had finally arrived.
Turning back to Thor and Banner.
"Don't worry. You two, step up. I'll help you before you go out there."
Thor and Hulk exchanged a glance. The thunder god shrugged, planting Mjolnir into the floor and dispelling his lightning aura. Hulk, currently in Banner's form, nodded slowly, eyes wary yet curious.
"What are you planning?" Banner asked cautiously.
Soren didn't reply immediately. Instead, he raised his hands, and two radiant beams of ethereal energy surged forth, one gold, one green.
They enveloped Thor and Banner, bathing them in glowing spirals of light. Their bodies shuddered as power surged through them.
Potential Awakening Level 10
Soren's eyes narrowed with focus.
Thor gasped, his eyes crackling with lightning. "By the Nine Realms… what is this?! I feel like I could wrestle Yggdrasil itself and win!"
Banner staggered slightly, breathing hard.
"Hulk…" He whispered, trembling.
"He's… roaring. But not out of rage... he's happy." A grin tugged at his lips. "We're stronger. Together."
[Ding! Potential Awakened. Thor: A+. Banner: A]
Soren's lips curled slightly. "The ability to awaken potential is strong, but I'm not sure how long it lasts… Still, it'll make a difference today."
He dismissed the light, and the aura faded from both heroes.
Banner hesitated, rubbing his forearm. "Uh, Doctor… if I transform now, will I still be able to control myself?"
"Wait a moment." Soren gave a short nod and stepped into his lab. The sound of whirring machines and bubbling glass filled the air.
In less than five minutes, he returned with a dozen neatly-packed vials, shimmering with deep blue liquid.
"These suppress the Hulk's delusion state." Soren said, handing them over.
"They'll help you think clearly, even in the other guy's form. But save them. I don't brew these for free. Do I look like a charity?"
Banner chuckled. "I'll ration them. Scout's honor."
Thor clapped Soren on the shoulder. "Your methods are strange… but effective. Midgard is lucky to have you, healer."
As they stepped away, Phil Coulson remained behind, seated calmly despite the rising tension.
His eyes followed Thor and Hulk until they were gone, then turned toward Soren, curiosity glinting behind his practiced calm.
"Doctor." Coulson began hesitantly, "I have a question, and I don't know if it's appropriate…"
Soren was already pouring tea for both of them. "If that ever stopped you, Agent Coulson, we wouldn't be having this conversation."
"Fair. It's about Banner. He… seemed kind of scared of you. Why?"
Soren sipped his tea, thoughtful. "Let's say I met him before SHIELD did."
"He got his ribs crushed by Abomination, and I took out Abomination… maybe I was a bit... heavy handed."
"And that must have left a deep impression on Bruce."
Just then, a tremor rolled through the ground beneath them.
The sky outside began to shimmer.
A deafening BOOM followed as a pillar of blinding blue light erupted into the sky from the center of New York.
"That's it, the portal's open."
Outside, hundreds of feet above Stark Tower, the rippling hole in the sky stretched wide, and through it, a chilling scene began to unfold.
The stars beyond were wrong, too bright, too blue. A pair of massive, cold, inhuman eyes stared down through the rift.
A scream rang out.
Then the monsters poured forth.
Sleek, serpent-like metallic beasts. Hulking brutes with fused armor plating. Mechanical dragonflies with razor wings. The skies were instantly flooded with alien soldiers, Chitauri, enhanced with unfamiliar tech.
"Run!" someone yelled from the street below. Chaos erupted instantly.
A piercing siren wailed across the city, followed by an automated broadcast.
"All residents of New York, evacuate immediately! This is not a drill."
"Blocks surrounding Stark Industries are under attack. Proceed to designated shelters. Follow law enforcement instructions and remain calm."
"It's starting." Coulson whispered, rising slowly to his feet.
Soren's expression changed.
Turning to Phil Coulson, Soren gave a sharp nod. "Stay here. I'll bring back Zilant."
And with that, he vanished, blinked from the hospital to the shores of Manhattan.
There, coiled on the edge of the water like a sea god sleeping, was Zilant. The massive serpent stirred, its molten eyes already fixed on the skies. Thunder rumbled overhead.
Soren didn't waste time.
"Zilant! You see those things falling from the sky? All of them are your food today."
He pointed toward the space portal in the distance.
"Everything that comes out of that hole… eat it."
Zilant let out a deep, rumbling hiss, like a war cry echoing through the ocean. It unfurled its wings, huge and bat-like, and launched into the sky.
"And don't hurt anything that's not food!" Soren yelled after it.
But Zilant was already gone, a massive shadow cutting through the air toward the battle.
With a resigned sigh, Soren blinked back to the hospital.
Coulson stood as Soren reappeared. "Doctor? How'd it go?"
Soren shook his head. "I've done all I can. Now, we wait, and fight."
The Avengers were everywhere.
On the rooftops and streets, they fought not for glory, but for survival, and for every innocent life trying to escape the hell raining from above.
Boom!
A bolt of lightning crashed down on a swarm of Chitauri fighters as Thor, standing atop an old cathedral's steeple, summoned the storm.
"Feel the wrath of Asgard!"
Mjolnir blazed with power, channeling raw thunder through its core. He flung it into the sky, where it shattered a Chitauri dropship into flaming fragments.
Below him, the Hulk, now larger, bulkier, and more composed thanks to Soren's serum, charged through the streets.
His fists were piledrivers; his roar shook windows.
"HULK… HELP!"
He smashed through a Leviathan beast, tearing it from inside out with one monstrous leap. Civilians scattered behind him, using the brief lull to run toward evacuation zones.
Iron Man zipped through the sky, blasting through formations with AI assisted precision.
"JARVIS, redirect all drones to defensive lines at 5th and Broadway. Cap needs backup."
"Right away, sir."
Captain America barked orders on the ground as he protected fleeing civilians.
"You~get those people under that bridge! Hawkeye, we've got fliers at our six!"
Hawkeye, perched on a broken billboard, loosed arrow after arrow. Explosives. EMPs. Grapples. Every shot counted.
"Tell them to get in line. I'm running low."
Black Widow spun through a crowd of Chitauri, dual batons electrifying everything they touched. She slid under one's blade, flipped up, and drove her baton into its skull.
"I really hope we survive this." She muttered, panting.
Watching it all unfold, Loki's eyes gleamed with madness.
"Send the rest, let the ants drown in the tide."
The Chitauri horde grew denser.
More Leviathans.
More war-beasts.
The sky itself seemed to bleed invaders.
"HISSSSSSS!"
A shriek tore across the city.
Something massive dove from the clouds, its wings blotting out the sun.
꧁𓊈𒆜༺⚜༻𒆜𓊉꧂
Fellow Phantoms and aspiring Phantoms to be, if you seek to access advanced parts of this story procced to my shadowy realm of p@treon.
PhantomDream