When Cap, Banner, and I came up to the helicarrier's deck, we saw Iron Man flying toward New York.
We waited for Natasha and Barton, got them on the Quinjet, and took off for New York. I contacted my house in New York and told everyone it looked like something big was going to happen in Manhattan, so stay inside and don't go out.
The house is in the suburbs, far from Manhattan, so as long as no one goes outside, they should be fine.
After calling home, I walked over to Barton and introduced myself.
"So you're Natasha's friend, Clint Barton."
"Nice to meet you, Jin. You're Natasha's boyfriend, right?"
Barton and I shook hands.
"Yeah, I guess I am now."
At my words, Natasha, who was piloting the Quinjet, smiled slightly. Barton exchanged greetings with Cap and Banner too.
Once the Quinjet reached Manhattan, we saw a portal open and countless Chitauri forces pouring down through it. Iron Man was in a new suit, fighting them in the air, but there were so many he was mostly flying evasively and counterattacking occasionally.
Aside from the flight units chasing Iron Man, many more flight squads came through the portal and began attacking Manhattan indiscriminately. Explosions sounded from every direction, and black smoke rose all over the place.
Natasha flew the Quinjet and started attacking the many flight units on Iron Man's tail with the miniguns mounted on the Quinjet.
Drrrrrrt~!
Once Natasha shot down a good portion of the aerial forces behind Iron Man, a transmission came from Tony.
—Why are you so late?
"We got here as fast as we could."
—Well, help me out here.
"We're trying!"
As the Quinjet flew and engaged aerial troops, the units that had been chasing only Iron Man latched onto the Quinjet too.
Despite Natasha's efforts, the Quinjet was bulky and sluggish in evasive maneuvers, and couldn't avoid the Chitauri energy blasts. A direct hit to the wing engine providing thrust, and we started going down.
Boom!
"Damn it! Hold on tight!"
Everyone in the Quinjet grabbed the safety bars or fixed objects inside to brace for impact. Fortunately, we weren't very high, so Natasha managed to control it somehow and land in the middle of the street.
Thud!
"Phew~ Everyone okay?"
I looked around and no one seemed hurt. Cap said to Banner,
"Dr. Banner, no one's going to complain if you get angry now."
"Urgh!"
Dr. Banner strained his whole body, trying to transform into the Hulk. But other than his skin briefly turning green and then returning, nothing changed.
"Uh, what's happening?"
"Dr. Banner, turn into the Hulk, quick. We don't have time."
"Give me a second to focus."
We quietly watched Banner. He strained again, trying to force the transformation.
"Ugh! Come out! Come out!"
Don't tell me...
Suddenly Banner's face shifted slightly toward Hulk's, and he shouted in a deep voice,
"No~!"
At a critical moment like this, Banner couldn't transform into the Hulk, just like in Infinity War. Maybe I hit him too hard.
Wow~! This is bad. What happens to the original story now...
"Sorry, but I can't transform..."
"Then we have no choice. Dr. Banner, hide somewhere safe for now. Everyone, follow me!"
We left Banner out and exited the Quinjet, moving toward Stark Tower. Looking at the portal, an enormous Leviathan was descending.
The Leviathan was a massive weapon that looked like an alien head without a body, with a spine and wings, armored in metal, flying through the sky like a whale.
Cap saw that and, as if he couldn't believe it, asked Tony to confirm what he was seeing.
"Stark, do you see that?"
—I'm seeing it and I still can't believe it.
As the Leviathan flew down and neared the city, Chitauri troops riding it jumped off and clung to buildings. Seeing that, Cap quickly gave orders.
"Ground troops are starting to come down. We'll split up, evacuate people, and hold off the ground forces."
"Got it."
I chose offense over evacuation. With no Hulk, I had to pick up the slack. More and more Leviathans were coming down from the sky.
"Ah, damn it. How did things get this messed up?"
I pulled a huge stack of cards from my inventory and strapped them to my waist. I infused some with mana and, while moving, threw them at Chitauri ground troops.
Boom boom boom!
Kuak! Kraak!
Some shot energy beams at me in the middle of it, but I dodged them easily with [Observation Haki]. In a chaotic melee where attacks could come from anywhere, I really felt how good [Observation Haki] was. As I took out ground troops, I didn't forget to pick up the weapons they dropped and put them in my inventory.
Occasionally, when a Leviathan flew over, I tossed an energy-saturated steel ball into its mouth like candy and blew it up too.
The destructive power of the steel ball matched Megumin's Explosion from the early days, so a Leviathan couldn't withstand it. Though when a Leviathan exploded, chunks of flesh and metal shrapnel rained down, making the whole area a mess. I stored the usable metal in my inventory.
Chitauri metal doesn't exist on Earth. It's not as strong as vibranium, but it's still sturdier than any metal we can get on Earth. So I planned to collect as much as possible while I had the chance.
For enemies attacking people inside buildings, I just threw steel balls without energy. The destructive power of from raw strength was already beyond sniper-rifle level.[Throw]
Continuing to fight forward, I eventually reached Tony's Stark Tower. Cap, Natasha, and Barton were driving ground forces forward and fighting in front of it.
Natasha especially stood out — using the bio-muscle suit, she dodged enemy attacks and closed in quickly, delivering electric shocks or stabbing with knives, showing strength and speed no human could achieve. Watching her made me proud as the one who built it.
Natasha spotted me and said,
"Jin! Did you bring my car? I'm almost out of consumables."
"Figured you would be. I called it in."
I'd actually brought it in my inventory and set it out near Stark Tower beforehand. I sent a signal from my smartphone, and Natasha's vehicle — Talaria Unit-01 — deactivated its camouflage panel and flew down, landing on the street.
"As expected, Jin builds this stuff well."
Natasha went to the vehicle, pulled out ammo and other supplies, and restocked the small pouches on her belt.
"Wow~ I don't know about the rest, but I'm jealous of that car. Could I get one later?"
Barton watched and asked me, clearly envious.
"I can give you one. If you leave SHIELD and join my company."
"Hmm... That'd be tough."
I've made several units to support them when SHIELD falls and reforms as the Avengers, but I can't hand them out now. Because of HYDRA.
"Dr. Banner? Still can't transform?"
"Yeah, he's hiding in Stark Tower."
Just then, lightning struck and Thor flew down and landed near us. Thor had been tricked by Loki at Stark Tower and took a small injury to his waist, so he stumbled slightly on landing. Seeing that, Cap said,
"Thor, are you hurt?"
"Just a nick. Don't worry about it."
"How's the situation up top?"
"I can't break through the energy shield around the Cube."
Then Tony's urgent voice came through.
—We need to deal with the Chitauri forces first.
Natasha asked how.
"How?"
Cap answered Natasha's question.
"As a team!"
Thor said to Cap,
"I still have business with Loki."
Hearing that, Barton spoke up like he had plenty of scores to settle with Loki too.
"Oh yeah? Get in line."
Cap tried to pull the team back together before they split.
"Stop! Loki will concentrate his forces on us now. That's what we want. Without him, civilian casualties will just increase."
Then Tony's voice came through the earpiece.
—Sorry, Jin, get ready! The party's about to start.
Tony was bringing a Leviathan toward us even without the Hulk. Whether it was because of the New Mexico incident or the Hulk, Tony seemed to trust I'd handle it somehow. Natasha looked at the Leviathan approaching behind Iron Man and said with a dumbfounded expression,
"What kind of party is that?"
I was just as flustered.
"Damn it! No choice. I was trying to keep this hidden."
I used [Mystic Arts] — Eldritch Magic — from Kamar-Taj and created a massive circular saw in the air, sending it at the Leviathan.
The spinning saw flew forward and sliced the Leviathan in half. Like a train running in both directions, the Leviathan split and came at us, spreading out to both sides. Because of its size and speed, it kept pushing outward for a long time, only stopping when it crashed into buildings.
Cap and the others were stunned by the sight, just staring with their mouths open. Then Tony broke the silence.
—I knew Jin was hiding something, but I didn't think it was this. Tell us sooner next time.
"I had my reasons for keeping it hidden. Buy me a drink when this is over."
—For this, I'll buy you anything. I can give you a bath in booze.
Natasha looked at me and said,
"After this is over, you and I have a lot to talk about, don't we?"
"Maybe?"
Then we heard the screeching of Chitauri fighters, and countless Chitauri troops poured from the portal in the sky. Iron Man paused the fight for a moment and flew over to us, saying to Cap,
"Call it, Cap."
"Alright, listen up. Until we close that portal, we have to lock this place down."
Cap gave orders to each person.
"Barton, get to the top, watch everything, and track their movement range."
"Got it."
"Stark, you take the perimeter. Anything that goes more than three blocks out, drag it back or take it out."
Barton asked Iron Man for a lift.
"Give me a ride?"
"Hold on tight, Legolas."
Iron Man grabbed Barton and flew up to the top of a building.
"Thor, thin out the ones coming through the portal. Use lightning to blast them."
Thor also took Cap's orders and flew to a tall building with a clear view of the portal.
"Natasha and I will keep engaging on the ground. And Jin, handle those big ones."
Cap asked me to take care of the Leviathans.
"Got it. Natasha, be careful."
"Yeah. You too, Jin."
I moved around the area again, throwing cards at Chitauri and feeding Leviathans candy. Of course, I kept collecting weapons and metal. I took out countless troops while heading toward Stark Tower. With no Hulk, I had to deal with Loki too.
"I have no sense of how badly the original story is going to derail."
Then Tony contacted me.
—Jin! You got anything else hidden? It's getting more dangerous.
Come to think of it, I'd been fighting hard but the enemy numbers weren't decreasing — they were only increasing. Not just Tony, the others seemed to be in similar situations.
"This is crazy. I didn't want to pull this out. Minerva! Send the thing I was building as a hobby."
[Understood, Master.]
Suddenly, an 18-meter giant robot flew down from the sky and landed in Manhattan. The robot looked exactly like the First Gundam.
—Holy shit! I knew it. Jarvis, record this and send it to Rhodey right now!
Tony's excited voice came through the earpiece, loud and noisy.
It was a Gundam I'd built a bit at a time. People in the media kept pestering me about Gundam over one joke I made, so I built it while remodeling the helicarrier.
Of course, it was different from a real Gundam. For a beam saber, I could've used Nano's future tech, but to avoid tech leaks I just mounted a supersonic vibrating knife made of special alloy on its back, and put an AI inside instead of a human so it could move freely even in large motions. The beam rifle used repulsor beam tech — good power, but terrible range.
That said, it wasn't just a lookalike. It could fly, its movements were very natural, and I'd paid attention to defense.
And so the First Gundam, eyes glowing gold, held its shield and beam rifle, ran through Manhattan, hunting Leviathans and stomping Chitauri flat.