"This isn't over!" Klaue snarled as T'Challa's vibranium claws came within inches of his throat. "You have no idea what forces you're interfering with!"
"Your twenty-year crime spree ends tonight," T'Challa replied with cold finality, his enhanced suit restraining the criminal who had haunted Wakanda for two decades.
Tony landed nearby, his armor's systems still analyzing the alien technology scattered across the pier. "Kid, you okay?" he called out to Peter, who was hanging upside down from a crane cable, looking slightly dazed from the energy net attack.
"Yeah, just a little crispy around the edges," Peter replied with characteristic humor, though his voice carried undertones of exhaustion. "That energy net thing was definitely not fun."
Matt approached the group, his enhanced senses still processing the aftermath of the chaotic battle. "We need to secure this technology before anyone else arrives. The NYPD response time in this area is usually around twelve minutes, and we've been fighting for eight."
But even as they began to secure the scene, a new threat emerged from the shadows. Brock Rumlow—Crossbones—stepped out from behind a shipping container where he had been conducting his own business with Klaue's operation.
"Well, well," Rumlow snarled, his skull-painted helmet gleaming in the pier's harsh lighting. "Looks like the Avengers crashed the wrong party."
Peter's spider-sense exploded with warning signals. "Crossbones! What are you doing here?"
"Same thing as you, probably," Rumlow replied, raising his enhanced gauntlets. "Trying to get my hands on some of this alien tech. Klaue's been a useful business partner."
"Business partner?" Tony's voice was filled with disgust. "You're working with arms dealers now?"
"HYDRA needs resources, Stark," Rumlow replied coldly. "And Klaue provides the best merchandise money can buy."
T'Challa's expression hardened as he realized the implications. "You have been purchasing stolen vibranium from this criminal?"
"Among other things," Rumlow said with malicious satisfaction. "But it looks like our business relationship just got complicated."
Okoye and Ayo moved to flank Rumlow, their vibranium spears at the ready. "Surrender now, and perhaps we will allow you to live," Okoye commanded.
"I don't think so," Rumlow replied, activating his gauntlets and firing a repulsor blast toward the Wakandans.
The energy blast missed its intended targets but struck one of the damaged Chitauri devices that had been scattered during the earlier battle. Sparks erupted from the alien technology as its power core was compromised.
"Watch the equipment!" Tony shouted, but it was too late.
The damaged device began to emit an unstable energy field that caused other nearby Chitauri technology to resonate in response. What had been separate alien weapons suddenly began connecting to each other through energy bridges, forming an unintended network.
"What the hell—" Tony started, but his words were cut off as his armor's sensors went haywire.
"The devices are malfunctioning!" Shuri shouted in alarm, her scanning equipment detecting chaotic quantum signatures. "The damage is causing them to link together! They're forming some kind of unstable portal matrix!"
"Portal to where?" Matt demanded, his enhanced senses overwhelmed by the building energy.
"I don't know!" Shuri replied frantically. "The energy patterns are completely random! This technology wasn't designed to work together like this!"
Peter's spider-sense was screaming warnings as the blue glow intensified and reality began to warp around them. "Guys! Something's really, really wrong here!"
Klaue, still restrained but now looking genuinely terrified, stared at the malfunctioning technology. "This isn't supposed to happen! These devices were never meant to interact with each other!"
"What are you talking about?" T'Challa demanded.
"The Chitauri technology operates on quantum frequencies," Klaue said frantically. "When damaged units start resonating together, they can create dimensional rifts! I've seen it happen before—entire research facilities have disappeared!"
The blue glow expanded rapidly as the malfunctioning alien technology created an unstable dimensional rift. The air itself began to shimmer with quantum distortion as the damaged devices tried to compensate for their compromised systems.
Peter, who was closest to the damaged device that started the chain reaction, felt the strange energy washing over him. Matt's enhanced senses were overwhelmed by the dimensional chaos opening before them. T'Challa tried to reach for his sister, but the energy field was expanding too quickly.
Rumlow, realizing his weapon discharge had caused the malfunction, cursed as he found himself caught in the same expanding field. "What did I do?" he muttered in growing panic.
"The quantum field is destabilizing!" Shuri shouted desperately. "I can't stop it! The cascade failure is too advanced!"
"Tony! Get them out of there!" Clint shouted from his overwatch position, but even as the words left his mouth, he could see it was too late.
"Peter! Matt! T'Challa!" Tony shouted, rocketing toward them at maximum speed. "Get out of there!"
But the malfunctioning portal had already engulfed the four figures. The last thing Peter saw was Tony's armored form diving toward them, the last thing Matt heard was the terrified shouts of their allies, and the last thing T'Challa felt was the strange sensation of being pulled apart and put back together again. Even Rumlow's panicked shouts were lost in the roar of quantum energy.
Then there was light—brilliant, overwhelming light—and they were gone.
When the energy dissipated, Tony crashed into the empty space where his young protégé had been standing just moments before. The pier was scorched and damaged, with the Chitauri devices now completely burned out and lifeless. Peter, Matt, T'Challa, and even the HYDRA agent Rumlow had simply vanished.
"No, no, NO!" Tony shouted, his sensors frantically scanning for any trace of the missing heroes. "Friday! Tell me you got readings on where they went!"
"I'm sorry, Boss," Friday's voice carried an unusual tone of distress. "The quantum signature was completely chaotic. The malfunction created a random dimensional rift. I have no way to track their destination."
Shuri was frantically working with her equipment, tears streaming down her face. "The portal was completely unstable! The damaged technology created a random quantum tunnel. They could be anywhere in space and time!"
"This is all my fault," Rumlow would have said, if he hadn't vanished along with the others.
Klaue, still restrained and now looking genuinely shaken, stared at the burned-out technology. "I've seen this happen before in other facilities. When Chitauri tech gets damaged and starts resonating together, it tears holes in reality. But I never saw anyone get caught in one before."
"Can you reverse it?" Okoye demanded desperately.
"The technology is completely destroyed," Klaue replied grimly. "Whatever rift opened is gone now. There's no way to recreate it or track where it led."
Clint's voice crackled through the comm system from his overwatch position. "Tony, we've got incoming. Police, FBI, and what looks like military vehicles. We need to extract now."
As sirens wailed in the distance and the remaining heroes tried to process what had just happened, four of Earth's protectors found themselves scattered across a galaxy far, far away—caught in the middle of a war they never could have imagined, all because a weapons deal had gone catastrophically wrong.
The malfunction had been a tragic accident. What had started as a simple bust of an arms dealer had spiraled into an unpredictable disaster when damaged alien technology created a random dimensional rift.
Tony stared at the scorched concrete where Peter had been standing, his heart breaking as he realized that his young recruit—along with two other heroes—was now lost in some unknown space, facing dangers he couldn't even imagine.