"RAAAAAAAGHHHH!"
A Leviathan snarled, only to be tackled mid-air by a much larger creature… Zilant.
With a flash of fangs and a blast of energy from its maw, Zilant shredded the war beast into burning pieces.
"What in the hell is that?!" Tony yelled through the comms.
Zilant flew into the sky, roaring triumphantly, then dove again, cleaving through three Chitauri fliers and swallowing one whole.
Maria Hill's voice crackled through comms.
"All units! Be advised monster sighted on the ground! Repeat, hostile monster~"
But before panic could set in, Thor's booming laugh echoed over the rooftops.
"Ha! That's no enemy, that's Soren's pet!" Thor shouted, gripping Mjolnir. "He's with us!"
Captain America frowned. "Soren? Who's this Soren we're talking about?"
Hawkeye blinked, still aiming.
"We got a thunder python now? Since when?"
Iron Man's voice cut through the chatter.
"Just trust me. If it's got anything to do with Soren, let it work. That block's his now."
The war behemoth, now shrieking with pain, locked eyes with Zilant and charged. Armored plates clanked with every step as dozens of Chitauri soldiers leapt from its back, weapons glowing and ready.
They unleashed a barrage of beams and explosives at Zilant.
Bang bang bang~KRAKOOM!
Smoke billowed. Fire blazed. But as the smoke cleared, Zilant emerged untouched.
"HISSSSSSS!!"
The furious serpent reared back, electricity crackling across his massive coils.
Then he struck.
Zilant coiled, compressed, shooting forward.
WHOOOM!
A tide of lightning surged behind him. He crashed into the war beast head-on, piercing its chest like divine retribution.
The skies turned white.
The war beast exploded mid-air, its body smoking and limp before it slammed into a crumbling office building.
Debris rained like meteors.
Zilant hit the ground seconds later, crashing from the sky. The impact kicked up clouds of dust. Yet even winded, his feral eyes never lost focus.
Nearby
Black Widow watched with wide eyes.
"...Remind me never to get on that thing's bad side."
Bruce Banner, mid-Hulk, grunted in agreement. "Hulk likes thunder snake."
Captain America turned, barking orders.
"Clear the block! Give it space!"
Loki's knuckles were white as he gripped the scepter. "What is that abomination?"
The Chitauri commander's voice echoed from the comms.
"Our war beasts have been neutralized. Casualties, severe."
"Then send everything!" Loki snapped. "Focus all fire on the serpent! Long-range assault, now!"
Thousands of Chitauri fighters, like a storm of hornets, filled the sky.
Their flight crafts spiraled in wide formations, launching coordinated barrages of plasma fire toward the ground.
At the center of it all, Zilant, the frost-thunder serpent, writhed with frustration.
Bolts of lightning danced across his metallic scales, now visibly cracked in places. His eyes were blazing orbs of blue fury, his breath cold enough to frost the asphalt.
He couldn't take to the sky.
He couldn't dodge.
He could only endure.
"HRRRAAAAAAGH!!"
A deafening roar tore through Manhattan as Zilant reared up, glowing with white-hot power. Electricity arced from his body in violent, chaotic bursts.
If Soren had been there, he would've said just one thing.
Zilant was losing control.
Tony's voice buzzed through static.
"That snake's about to pop, fall back! Give it space!"
Cap grunted. "There's nowhere left to fall back to!"
Black Widow, ducking beneath a crumbling balcony:
"We either stand or fry with it, pick quick!"
Suddenly, all of Zilant's crackling fury surged to a point. The thunder-glow on his body condensed, coiling up his spine, then exploded outward into a serpent-shaped manifestation of pure lightning.
A colossal electric serpent, thick as a subway tunnel, howled into the air with a shriek of static and storm.
It launched forward, faster than sight, and struck one of the war behemoths mid-flight.
BOOOOOM!!!
A mushroom cloud of blue electricity.
The air shattered as a shockwave rippled through the entire city block.
When the light faded, silence.
Then the ashes began to rain.
All that remained of the second war beast was a smoking crater and a few thousand burned-out Chitauri flight crafts, spiraling down like dying fireflies.
Everyone looked up.
And saw... nothing.
The sky, once buzzing with enemies in that direction, was now empty.
Iron Man, dumbfounded. "…Did anyone else just see a python commit genocide?"
Hawkeye, blinking through his scope. "Yeah, that block's definitely his now."
Zilant's body sagged, steam rising off his scales. The light in his eyes dimmed slightly. That final blow had drained nearly everything.
He hissed a long exhale and coiled low, defensive, still deadly, but fatigued.
Thor landed beside him, slapping his hammer to his palm.
"By Odin's beard... you've the fury of storms and the patience of stone. Rest well, serpent."
Stark Tower
From above, Loki had watched the electric massacre unfold.
His face was pale. His hands trembled.
"That… That could've been me…" He muttered, swallowing hard. "That beast bears Jotun blood…"
But the sky gate still pulsed.
More Chitauri came, wave after wave, with no end in sight.
"We must endure." Loki hissed.
"The serpent cannot win alone."
Tony's voice came over the comms again
"We need to shut that portal down! I'm running on ten percent here!"
Steve barked orders. "Hulk! You're up! Top of the tower!"
From the rubble, a green blur launched into the sky, soaring across shattered windows and broken air.
"HULK SMASH!"
With a roar that shook the foundations, Hulk crashed onto the roof of Stark Tower, sending debris flying and Chitauri warriors scattering like insects.
He tore through them in seconds, slamming bodies into concrete and hurling wrecked vehicles like pebbles.
He turned.
There stood Loki, robes torn, scepter in hand, staring at him like a deer in headlights.
Loki raised a trembling hand.
"Now… now, Hulk. Let's be reasonabl~"
WHAM!
Before he could finish, a green fist the size of a small car slammed into Loki's chest, sending him hurtling through the glass wall of the penthouse.
CRASH!
He hit the marble floor inside, then bounced off a pillar and crumpled with a whimper.
Hulk followed, stomping through the broken glass like a monster from myth.
"Puny god."
And he wasn't finished.
THWACK!
THUD!
SLAM!
Loki was pounded into the floor again and again like a misbehaving toy.
꧁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