by Alex Irvine
The missile had a lot of momentum built up, and Tony’s Mark 7 suit was not operating at full capacity after the amount of energy he’d expended in the battle already. It was no easy task to get the missile angled up sharply enough to clear the tallest buildings in Midtown—especially Stark Tower. That was where the missile seemed to want to go. So, Tony thought, the World Security Council is jealous of me, too.
He got underneath the missile and angled it upward, straining against its stabilizers, which tried to keep it on course. But slowly he forced it up, and once he got its warhead pointed at an angle, pushing it into a steeper climb got easier. A little.
Steve Rogers’s voice broke his concentration. “Stark, you know that’s a one-way trip?”
Tony ignored him. If he talked to Steve, he was going to think too much about how Steve was probably right. “Save the rest for the turn, J,” he said to Jarvis once the missile was pointed in the right direction.
“Sir, shall I try Ms. Potts?” Jarvis asked.
“Might as well,” Tony said. She was probably busy with some congressional thing or other, but maybe he could leave her a message.
Tony and the missile passed within feet of the roof of Stark Tower, close enough that he could see the amazement on the faces of Natasha and Selvig. Then he fired extra lateral thrusters and aimed the missile straight up, adding his own thrust to the missile’s solid-fuel engine and blazing toward the portal. Pepper’s phone kept ringing, but she didn’t answer. The portal loomed ahead, with more Chitauri appearing through it all the time. As Tony got closer, he could see more clearly what was on the other side.
Empty space. Stars. And lots and lots of Chitauri.
This better work, he thought, and then he was through the portal.
Jarvis cut out as the wireless link to Stark Tower was broken. The call to Pepper failed. His thrusters flickered and began to go out. Tony let go of the missile and fell back toward the portal. His eyes were wide.
Against a backdrop of alien stars, the Chitauri ship hung in space. It was bigger than anything he had ever seen, shaped like a rough X lying on its side. Any one of the legs of the X was larger than a dozen Helicarriers. Leviathans poured from it, and Chitauri flyers swarmed like dust. They would just keep coming, in their thousands and millions, if it wasn’t destroyed. What kind of a civilization could build something like that? Humans were centuries away from that kind of technology. Fury was right. When it came to threats from space, the human race was hilariously outgunned. All they could do was hope that brains and willpower would even the odds.
The missile streaked on toward it, its timer ticking down. Tony watched. Even if this was the last thing he ever saw, part of him was glad that he had seen it. The universe was full of wonders. One day, Tony knew, the human race would make it out among the stars… but first they would have to stay alive long enough.
That meant defeating the Chitauri.
A tiny ball of fire bloomed in the center of the Chitauri ship. It grew and kept growing. In seconds, it had engulfed the Chitauri ship.
Tony closed his eyes.
On the streets of New York, the Chitauri fell to the ground as if they had been switched off. Every single one of them. Even the remaining Leviathans sagged and crashed to earth.
The Avengers looked up. On the roof of Stark Tower, Natasha said, “Come on, Stark.”
They saw the explosion through the portal, brilliant as a new sun. There was no way Tony could have survived that.
I was wrong about him, Steve thought. When the time came, he did make the sacrificial play. “Close it,” he said. There was nothing they could do for Tony now.
Natasha leaned in and touched the tip of Loki’s scepter to the Tesseract. The beam of energy holding the portal open winked out and the portal began to collapse. All the Avengers watched, knowing they had lost one of their own.
Then, at the last minute before the portal winked out of existence, the minuscule form of Iron Man fell through it back into the sky.
“Sonofagun,” Steve said.
Smiles spread across their faces. Tony was alive!
But soon they could tell something wasn’t right. “He’s not slowing down,” Thor said. He started to swing Mjolnir, to fly up and intercept Tony before he could hit the ground at a fatal velocity.
He never got the chance, though, because the Hulk came leaping into view. He caught Iron Man, and his momentum carried him all the way across to the building across the street. Using one hand to slow himself, he slid down the building’s facade to the street. When they came to rest, the Hulk dropped Iron Man on the ground and bent over him. Thor and Steve came running. “Is he breathing?” Steve asked.
Thor ripped the face mask off the Iron Man armor. Tony didn’t move. His miniature Arc Reactor was dark.
They stood for a long moment, realizing that they had lost him after all. The portal was collapsed. The Chitauri were gone or deactivated. Tony Stark had sacrificed himself to save humanity.
Then, just to be sure, the Hulk bent low and roared in Tony’s face.
The sound was earsplitting from down the block; Steve thought it must have been just about able to wake the dead up close. Tony gasped and his eyes shot open. “What?! What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me.”
The Hulk grunted. Steve cracked a smile. Even in a moment like this, Tony had to make a joke. “We won,” he said.
“All right,” Tony said. He had started to sit up, but now he lay back again. “Yay. All right. Good job, guys. Let’s just not come in tomorrow. Let’s just take a day.” He rested, getting his breath for a minute. Then he started talking again. “Have you ever tried shawarma? There’s a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don’t know what it is, but I wanna try it.”
“Shawarma,” Steve said. He had no idea what it was, either. For once, he and Tony were both in the dark about something. “Sure, why not.”
“We’re not finished yet,” Thor said.
“Oh, okay,” Tony said. “Then shawarma after.”
CHAPTER 31
Loki had just gotten himself put back together enough to get out of the hole in the floor. Painfully he dragged himself toward the door. Never had a mortal damaged him as much as that green monster. He would be healing for a long time. But heal he would, and then he would have his revenge. Even though the portal had collapsed and he had lost the Tesseract. Even though his Chitauri army was destroyed. Loki would show the so-called Avengers they never should have opposed him.
He heard a noise behind him and rolled over… and there they stood. All of them. Even the ones he’d thought dead. Thor, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Captain America, the Hulk, and the Black Widow. She even held Loki’s scepter, adding to the indignity.
Loki sighed. He knew when he was defeated—at least for the moment. “If it’s all the same to you,” he said, “I’ll have that drink now.”
The Avengers met one last time to make sure Loki, Thor, and the Tesseract got off Earth and back to Asgard. Then they shook hands and dispersed, each knowing that if the need arose, Nick Fury would know how to find them. On the Helicarrier, with repair crews swarming the damaged turbine and the collapsed interior decks, Nick Fury held off the World Security Council as long as he could, wanting to give the Avengers a head start. But eventually he had to answer the Council’s call… and they were not happy.
They demanded to know how Iron Man had discovered the inbound missile. Fury told them. Enraged, they then demanded that the Avengers be brought together and kept in one place under World Security Council supervision.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Fury said.
“Where are the Avengers?” the lead councilor asked.
“I’m not currently tracking their whereabouts,” Fury answered. “I’d say they’ve earned a leave of absence.”
This wasn’t strictly true. He was tracking their whereabouts and knew they had gathered to see Thor and Loki off back to Asgard… with the Tesseract. He also knew that once the Asga
rdians were gone, Tony, Bruce, Natasha, Barton, and Steve would scatter to the four winds.
Exactly as Fury wanted them. The farther apart they were, the harder it would be for the councilors to keep an eye on them. Fury was an old dog who knew lots of tricks. One of them was that he knew better than to trust groups like the World Security Council. After all, they’d already gone behind his back and tried to nuke Manhattan.
“And the Tesseract?” the councilor pressed.
“The Tesseract is where it belongs: out of our reach.” Right about then, Fury guessed, Thor and Loki would be gripping the handles of a cylindrical case holding the Tesseract. They were using its power to return to Asgard, since they couldn’t use the Bifrost.
“That’s not your call,” the councilor said ominously.
“I didn’t make it,” Fury said. “I just didn’t argue with the god that did.”
“So you let him take it and the war criminal, Loki, who should be answering for his crimes?”
“Oh, I think he will be,” Fury said. He didn’t know what Asgardian justice was like, but he had a feeling Loki wasn’t going to like it. The last time he’d seen Thor’s brother, Loki had been fitted out with a steel half mask that held his mouth shut. Unless Fury was badly mistaken, it would be a long time before Loki would be able to sweet-talk anyone into anything again.
The councilor wasn’t ready to let it go. “I don’t think you understand what you’ve started, letting the Avengers loose on this world. They’re dangerous.”
“They surely are,” Fury agreed. “And the whole world knows it. Every world knows it.”
“That the point of all this? A statement?”
Nick Fury leaned a little closer to the holographic silhouettes of all the members of the World Security Council. “A promise,” he said.
He broke off the call and returned to the Helicarrier’s bridge. There was a lot to do before this ship would be combat-ready again, and no telling how much time they had. The world—the worlds—were full of threats.
“Sir, how does it work now?” Maria Hill asked from her station. “They’ve gone their separate ways, some pretty far. We get into a situation like this again, what happens then?”
“They’ll come back,” Fury said.
“Are you really sure about that?”
Fury nodded. “I am.”
“Why?”
“Because we’ll need them to,” Nick Fury said simply. Then he got back to work.
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Walking inside the recruitment center, Steve Rogers was directed to an examination room. His eyes quickly adjusted to the dark. Where outside it was all bright lights and noisy crowds, inside it was quiet and somber. Out of the corner of his eye, Steve saw an older man come in. He looked tired, as though being there took all his energy.
The man made his way slowly over to Steve. “So. You want to go overseas? Be a hero?” he asked in a German accent. Steve just looked at him. He wasn’t sure what to say. Was this some kind of test?
“Dr. Abraham Erskine,” the man said, introducing himself. “Strategic Scientific Reserve, US Army.”
Steve had never heard of the Strategic Scientific Reserve but figured there were a lot of things he hadn’t heard of. Shrugging, he gave Erskine his name and looked on as the man found his file. Steve tried not to grimace when he once again saw all the red x’s, marking each and every one of his ailments and weaknesses.
“Where are you from?” he asked, to draw the doctor’s attention away from the file.
“Queens,” Erskine said. He paused, then added, “Before that, Germany. This bothers you?”
Steve was momentarily taken aback. Was this place legit? He hadn’t expected a German national to be inside a US Army recruitment center.
Then again, wasn’t Einstein German, too? “No,” he said, but he hesitated first.
It didn’t seem to bother Erskine. Probably he’d heard it all before. He finished reviewing the file and then looked up. “Where are you from, Mr. Rogers?” he asked. “Hmm? New Haven? Or is it…” He glanced down at the file again. “Paramus… Newark… five exams in five tries in five different cities,” he said. “All failed. You are very tenacious, yes?”
How did he know that? Steve wondered. He’d thought that by going to different cities, he could stay under the radar and the army wouldn’t see how desperate he was to enlist. Maybe this Strategic Scientific Reserve, whatever it was, had more intel than the other branches of the army.
Outside, a pair of men wandered by and turned when they heard Erskine’s German accent. They took a step forward as though to do something, when Steve held up a warning hand. Figuring it wasn’t worth it, they moved on.
“A fella has to stand up,” Steve said, turning back to Erskine. “I don’t like bullies, Doc. I don’t care where they’re from.”
The old man nodded thoughtfully. “So you would fight, yes,” he said. “But you are weak and you are very small.”
Steve was about to protest, when Dr. Erskine did something unexpected: He laid out Steve’s file on the table and picked up a stamp. Steve’s heart began to beat faster.
“I can offer you a chance,” Dr. Erskine said. “Only a chance.”
Then, as Steve watched with growing excitement, the man pressed the stamp down on the file. Holding up the file, Steve saw a big 1A.
He couldn’t believe it. After all this time, he was actually in the army. His luck had changed. Just like he told Bucky it would.
As Erskine began talking about next steps, Steve tried to pay attention. But his mind was spinning. He had no idea what kind of group the SSR was or why they would okay someone like him. Should he be worried? Was Bucky right when he said the biggest danger would come if someone did let him in? What if this was all some sort of joke? Maybe when he got outside he’d see Bucky laughing, having pulled a fast one on his old friend.
Shaking off those thoughts, Steve focused on Erskine. Whatever the SSR was and whatever the reason they had for taking him, Steve didn’t care. He was in. Soon, he would be a real soldier, and maybe, someday, he’d even be an American hero.
Contents
COVER
TITLE PAGE
WELCOME
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
A SNEAK PEEK OF PHASE ONE: CAPTAIN AMERICA
COPYRIGHT
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
© 2015 MARVEL
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First ebook edition: March 2015
ISBN 978-0-316-38362-2
E3