Chapter 121 – The Backdoor
"He just flew out of the portal."
Barton's voice was calm, but his hands were a blur of motion. An arrow was already nocked and the string pulled to its limit. "Ten times size, ten times speed!"
WHOOSH!
The arrow shrieked through the air, hitting Loki with such terrifying momentum that the sound of the crack didn't even reach the spectators until after the impact. Loki's godly armor buckled under the force, and he was sent reeling off his flying Chitauri skiff.
BOOM!
The arrow's payload detonated, sending Loki tumbling through the air.
"That one was for me," Barton muttered, finally letting out a long-held breath. The feeling of his mind being forcibly squeezed into a corner by Loki's scepter had been a nightmare.
"Why did he come out of the portal?" Tony asked, his brow furrowed. "Where did he go?"
Loki had timed his return perfectly. While the Avengers were distracted by the initial wave, he had slipped back through the portal to the Chitauri homeworld—not to retreat, but to plant his "Scarecrows." By embedding them within the Chitauri soldiers, Loki had effectively turned the entire invasion force into his own personal bank of extra lives. As long as he had a soldier to serve as a proxy, he couldn't be killed.
He had emerged from the portal confident, expecting to rule the battlefield, only to be immediately humiliated by Barton's arrow.
As Loki hit the ground, he stood up instantly, completely unharmed. However, his arm had turned into straw, and a small, shredded doll fell to the ground. The fall from that height would have killed him, but his Straw-Straw Fruit had absorbed the damage.
"You have truly annoyed me," Loki hissed.
He leaped onto a low-flying skiff, aiming to strike back, but swerved sharply as he approached Stark Tower. Several translucent, eerie ghosts were drifting around the building—Natasha's Homies. Loki didn't dare risk physical contact with those spectral horrors.
"Loki! Stop!" Thor roared, descending onto the tower. He abandoned the fight against the random soldiers, focusing entirely on his brother. "You are an invader now! Call off this army before the damage becomes irreversible!"
Loki sneered from his perch. "Call them off? Close the portal? You clearly don't understand the Tesseract. Once it's self-sustaining, it cannot be turned off. Midgard will fall unless you kill every last soldier!"
"Then I am placing you under arrest for war crimes!" Tony shouted, flying up behind Loki and detonating a small charge against his skiff. Loki tumbled again, caught by another Chitauri pilot.
"You're all dead!" Loki shrieked, unleashing the full fury of his command. "Chitauri, attack the entire city!"
"Tony, focus on the portal!" Thor yelled, his eyes crackling with lightning. "I'll handle the soldiers!"
Seeing the swarm expanding, Thor gave in to his fury. He channeled the full power of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, bringing down a localized storm of such intensity that the ground trembled.
"Barton," Thor yelled through the comms. "Check on Dr. Selvig! If he's awake, see if he knows how to stop this!"
Betty jumped over to the auxiliary deck where Selvig was just starting to stir. "Dr. Selvig! Can this be stopped?"
Selvig looked up, his eyes wide with horror at the carnage in the sky. "The Tesseract's energy is infinite—it can't be destroyed... but I built a failsafe." He grabbed Betty's arm, his eyes frantic. "The Tesseract is the key, but it can also be the lock. Loki's scepter—it's powered by the same energy. If you can get the scepter, you can use it to reverse the portal!"
Betty sprinted back to the team. "We need the scepter! It's the only way to close the gate!"
"I'm on it," Tony said, his thrusters roaring.
He zoomed toward Loki, but a massive Leviathan blocked his path. "Hulk! Smash that thing! It's blocking my shot!"
ROAAR!
The Hulk leaped from the side of a skyscraper, his four arms shredding the Leviathan's armor. He dove inside the beast's carcass, tearing through its internal organs until the massive creature collapsed and crashed into the city streets.
"Hulk, smash!" The monster roared, standing atop the wreckage.
Tony didn't waste a second. He fired a concussive blast at Loki, who shrugged it off by sacrificing another straw-doll, but the impact left him reeling.
"Loki, it's over!" Tony roared, his weapons tracking the god. "The portal will be closed!"
"It doesn't matter," Loki laughed, gesturing to the burning city. "The army is already everywhere. You're too late!"
"We'll see," Tony replied.
"Soldiers! Destroy them all!" Loki commanded.
But to Loki's utter shock, the reports started coming in from the front lines—the Leviathans weren't causing the mass destruction he had ordered. Instead, they were being stopped. Explosions erupted across every sector of the city. The Chitauri weren't sweeping through New York—they were being cut down.
Loki stared at the sky, his eyes widening in panic. "What... what exactly is hidden in this city?"