The void burned white-blue as Tony's satellites unleashed their combined fury. The Dreadnought's crimson beam collapsed, folding in on itself before detonating in a blinding wave of fire.
The Kree ship tore apart in silence, ripped clean through its core. Debris scattered into Neptune's shadow, drifting like ashes.
One by one, the remaining cruisers tried to retreat, engines flaring desperately. But Tony's lattice tracked them with perfect precision. Beams lanced out in rapid sequence—
VWOOM. VWOOM. VWOOM.
Each blast found its mark, cleaving ships apart before they could even finish their jump calculations.
In under five minutes, the sky around Neptune went quiet. No signatures left. No survivors.
The Kree armada was gone.
Inside Unity Tower, the silence that followed wasn't tense—it was calm. Almost casual.
Tony leaned back, folding his arms. "Well… that was anticlimactic. I was ready for round three."
Natasha exhaled, brushing a strand of hair back. "It wasn't a war. It was an execution."
Steve adjusted his shield, but his voice stayed even. "And they'll know it. Word of this won't die in the wreckage. The Kree will make sure of that."
Dave finally unfolded his arms, his presence filling the room like iron. His tone carried finality—calm, steady, immovable."Good. Let them spread the story. Earth is no longer prey."
The projection flickered, showing only drifting wreckage and the faint glow of shattered hulls.
Then Dave looked around the room, his expression shifting slightly, the cold edge softening into something lighter.
"Alright," he said, almost casually. "That's done. So…" His eyes swept the team, a faint grin tugging at his lips. "Who's ready for an outer space adventure?"
Tony blinked, then tilted his head with mock curiosity. "Wait, wait, wait. You mean, like, pack up, hop a ride, and go cosmic road trip? Because if so, I call shotgun."
Shuri smirked faintly. "Outer space, with this group? That's either the most brilliant idea or the stupidest."
Rhodey chuckled, leaning back. "Knowing us, probably both."
Steve straightened, the faintest glimmer of resolve in his eyes. "If we go… we don't go as invaders. We go to stop this before it escalates."
Natasha's smile was razor-thin. "Then it's settled. We take the fight to them—on our terms."
The team stood together, calm, collected, as if deciding on a mission rather than the fate of galaxies. Outside, the Earth hung untouched, safe behind Tony's silent lattice of weapons.
The war was over.
The adventure was about to begin.
****
The hangar deck shook as Tony's personal strike ship detached from Unity Tower's upper launch bay. Sleek, angular, and plated with next-gen alloys Stark swore were "lighter than carbon, tougher than vibranium," it streaked into the black with a crimson flare.
Dave's arms folded as he watched it rise, but he wasn't done. His aura shifted—something primal, dangerous—and with a single sweep of his hand, a void-like rift tore open behind him. Out of it emerged something that did not belong to Earth.
A massive craft, black as midnight, surfaced through the tear—its shape all jagged blades and cruel, curved architecture. The hull pulsed with faint runes, old scars from battles past. The moment it appeared, the air in Unity Tower's war room grew colder, as though the ship itself radiated ancient malice.
Natasha's eyes narrowed. "…That's not one of ours."
Dave gave a sharp grin. "No. It's mine. The Dark Elves tried to use this against Asgard. I took it from them when I broke their invasion line." His tone darkened with a rare hint of satisfaction. "Odin let me keep it. Said I'd find a use for it someday."
Romanoff let out a low whistle. "Guess today's the day."
On the projection screens, the Dark Elf mothership unfurled its wings like a predator waking from hibernation. Energy conduits along its surface flared to life—an ominous purple glow flooding through its veins.
Steve glanced at Dave, a ghost of a smile tugging his lips. "You brought a monster to fight a monster."
"Exactly," Dave replied. His eyes sharpened, locked on the Kree fleet massed near Neptune. "And now we'll see how the Empire fares against something they can't understand."
Tony's voice crackled over comms, half amusement, half awe. "You didn't tell me you had a death-metal space yacht sitting in storage, big guy."
Dave's grin widened, his tone flat and lethal."It's not a yacht. It's a graveyard. And the Kree just volunteered to fill it."
The Dark Elf mothership's weapon bays opened with a guttural hum, aligning alongside Tony's satellite cannons. The battlefield over Neptune shifted from a one-sided siege… to a slaughter waiting to happen.
The war room trembled again as Unity Tower's armored shutters peeled open, revealing the launch corridor.
Tony's ship had already broken away, streaking like a crimson comet through the upper skies. Right behind it, the Dark Elf mothership rumbled—its hull shivering as if the craft resented being awakened after centuries of silence. The engines ignited with a guttural roar, tearing clouds apart as it climbed higher, dragging a trail of distorted air in its wake.
From the glass-paneled command bridge inside the Tower, Steve, Natasha, Bruce, and the others stood frozen, watching both vessels claw toward the stars.
The room's comm-link hissed alive.
"WHAT—" Fury's voice erupted so loud it nearly blew the speakers. "Someone explain to me why I'm looking at a damn Stark missile cruiser and a floating funeral barge the size of a city leaving Earth's atmosphere without clearance!"
Natasha exhaled slowly, deadpan. "You might want to sit down for this one."
Fury ignored her. "Stark! Banner! Cap! Somebody get on the line—what the hell are these guys doing?! Because from where I'm standing, it looks like we've just advertised Earth as the perfect target for every alien listening on subspace."
Steve leaned forward, voice steady. "They're moving to intercept the Kree fleet near Neptune."
"Intercept?!" Fury barked back, voice climbing. "Those Kree warships make Chitauri look like bottle rockets! And you're telling me Rogers and Mr. 'Walking Kaiju' just sent up a Stark prototype and a… what is that even, a Dark Elf dreadnought?! We don't have the firepower to start another war in orbit!"
Dave, standing off to the side with arms crossed, finally turned toward the comm line. His voice was calm, iron-edged.
"We're not starting a war. We're finishing the one they brought here."
*******
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