Ethan stood frozen, staring at the sky above Manhattan, where space had been torn open to reveal an endless, pitch-black void.
A beam of ethereal blue light surged upward, piercing the sky like a blade, flooding into the rift in the heavens as if forcing open a gateway to another dimension.
The spatial tear above Manhattan looked as if some invisible force had violently ripped it apart. Blue light flickered along its jagged edges, crackling with static energy.
Instinctively, Ethan glanced at his right hand.
But
A moment later, he realized something.
No.
That tear in the sky wasn't his doing.
It had been caused by the Space Stone.
The year was 2012.
The Chitauri Invasion had begun.
Ethan's mind whirled, connecting the dots on the timeline. In a flash, his gaze snapped back to the gaping rift in the sky.
Just as he feared.
The moment the space portal opened above Manhattan, an alien army began pouring through it like a swarm of metallic locusts.
The Chitauri soldiers.
They burst through the gateway en masse, riding streamlined personal aircraft that gleamed with a cold, metallic light. Their engines emitted a high-pitched screech, sharp enough to make one's teeth ache. Their bodies were encased in dark alloy armor, tightly fitted to their inhuman forms.
BOOM!
With the first shot fired, a glass curtain wall on one of Manhattan's skyscrapers shattered instantly, raining debris below.
"Waaaah!"
"We're under attack!"
"Invasion! It's an invasion!"
"Kill them all!"
The Chitauri soldiers howled with excitement as they flooded through the portal, quickly dispersing and locking onto their targets.
Some dived low, flying toward the streets of Manhattan.
Others climbed higher, adjusting course in midair before shooting toward Brooklyn.
Naturally
Queens was also within their strike zone.
"Holy shit!"
"What the hell is that?!"
"Aliens? Are we being invaded?!"
"They're headed this way!"
"Jesus Christ!"
"Run!"
"AHHHH!"
Just like the chaos engulfing Manhattan, the residents of Queens panicked the moment they saw the incoming Chitauri. Energy blasts tore through buildings, ignited cars, and killed civilians without hesitation. The screaming was deafening as people ran in every direction, hoping to escape the slaughter.
The shrieks of Chitauri soldiers.
The crumbling of buildings.
The explosions of vehicles.
The cries of the dying.
The desperate shouts of those trying to flee
All of New York was drowning in terror.
Ethan stood on the rooftop, instinctively turning to retreat back into his apartment.
But
He stopped abruptly.
Something flashed through his mind.
Slowly, he turned back around and looked up.
At the swarm of Chitauri riders, streaking across the sky like a living storm, descending upon Queens.
One of the soldiers spotted him.
Among the fleeing, screaming civilians, Ethan was the only one who stood still. That made him impossible to miss.
The invaders lived for this watching the powerless scream and run in the face of destruction. A motionless human was not only unusual it was intriguing.
Their eyes met.
In Ethan's piercing blue gaze, something flickered.
A star.
A spark.
A cosmos.
"Human,"
The Chitauri soldier hissed beneath its armored helmet, its reptilian eyes gleaming. As if receiving some silent command, it veered off from its formation, diving toward the rooftop.
It opened fire instantly.
A glowing orb of destructive energy began to form at the nose of its craft. The moment it reached critical mass
It fired.
Ethan's pupils contracted as the blast raced toward him.
BOOM!
The rooftop exploded on impact, the blast shaking the entire building and sending a wave of dust and debris into the air.
But when the smoke cleared
The Chitauri soldier saw Ethan again, standing unharmed on the opposite side of the rooftop. He had dodged the blast in the blink of an eye.
The soldier didn't hesitate.
It pulled the trigger again.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
The rooftop became a warzone, rocked by continuous energy blasts. Chunks of concrete flew. Dust clouded the air. The apartment roof cracked and groaned under the assault.
Ethan darted through the haze like a phantom, slipping between explosions, always one step ahead of the next blast.
At first, he'd been flustered. But now
He was calm.
Focused.
In control.
It hadn't even taken him a full minute to adjust.
After all, a Saint was born for war.
The Chitauri fired again and again.
"Click click click."
A sharp metallic click rang out. The soldier paused, glancing at its weapon. The ammo feed was empty.
Just then
WHOOOSH!
A piece of twisted steel part of a broken rooftop water tank came flying from the dust cloud.
CRACK!
It smashed into the alien's hovercraft, sending it into a tailspin.
The soldier was thrown from the vehicle, tumbling through the air
THUD!
"Tch!"
He hit the rooftop hard, grunted, then scrambled to his feet. He reached over his shoulder and drew a weapon something shaped like a rifle but pulsing with eerie green energy.
"Ssssssss!"
The alien hissed in its native tongue maybe a threat, maybe a call for reinforcements.
Ethan didn't care.
He didn't even try to understand.
This was a fight.
And he was taking it seriously.
The rooftop was in ruins, cratered and buckled under the relentless barrage. Whole sections had collapsed, some holes plunging straight down to the third floor. The apartment below was fully exposed.
No one had noticed what was happening up here.
But that was no surprise.
New Yorkers, for all their flaws, were survival experts.
They'd grown up with school shooting drills, terrorist threats, and near-weekly emergencies. Their instincts were sharp: when danger strikes, run first, ask questions later.
The dust finally settled.
And through the smoke, Ethan's silhouette emerged.
The Chitauri soldier raised its weapon. Its glowing green eyes flared as it pulled the trigger once more.
"Die, human!"