“Call it, Captain!” Iron Man said. “All right, listen up,” Steve said. “Until we can close that portal, our priority’s containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash.”

Hawkeye turned to Iron Man. “Want to give me a lift?”

“Right,” Iron Man said. He wrapped an arm around Hawkeye’s waist. “Better clench up, Legolas.” He rocketed straight up to the rooftop Steve had pointed out, and let Hawkeye off before taking off to hold the perimeter around Stark Tower.

“Thor,” Steve went on, “you have to try to bottleneck that portal. Slow ’em down. You got the lightning. Light the bastards up.”

Thor swung Mjolnir in a tight circle and flew off, smashing Chitauri out of his way as he rose higher against the New York City skyline. Steve turned to the Black Widow. “You and me, we stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here,” he said. “And, Hulk?”

The Hulk turned and glowered at Steve.

There was really only one order you could give the Hulk, Steve thought. One word. “Smash.”

The Hulk bared his teeth and leaped away. He bounded up the sides of nearby buildings, crushing Chitauri with single blows whenever he was in arm’s reach of them. Then he leaped into the air and swatted their flyers down before charging off into the chaos.

Thor reached the top of the Empire State Building and lifted Mjolnir. Storm clouds gathered and lightning struck down, hundreds of bolts reaching for Mjolnir. Thor turned the Empire State Building’s iconic spire into a lightning rod, gathering the force of the elements into it. Then he thrust Mjolnir in the direction of the portal. All the energy he had built up blazed out in a single forking bolt. It struck and destroyed every single Chitauri between the Empire State Building and the portal itself. Hundreds of them exploded and tumbled from the sky at once, including several of the Leviathans that tumbled down to smash into buildings below.

He had earned them a breather but only for a moment. It was up to the rest of the Avengers to put it to good use and turn the tide against Loki.

On the Helicarrier, Fury and Hill watched. She cocked her head and listened as a message came over her earbud. “Sir? The Council is on.”

This was the last thing Fury needed in the middle of a war. But he turned to answer the call.

From his sniper’s perch, Hawkeye shot arrow after arrow, every one finding its mark. He also tried to keep an eye on what threats the rest of the team was facing. “Stark? Got a lot of strays sniffing your tail.”

“Just trying to keep them off the streets,” Tony joked.

“Well, they can’t bank the way you can,” Hawkeye said. “You might want to find a tight corner.”

“I will roger that,” Tony said.

Hawkeye watched as Iron Man peeled his Chitauri pursuers off in a series of maneuvers through tight spaces. They crashed into overpasses and blew up, or spun out of control trying to stay with Iron Man through tight turns between tall buildings. The last of them lit up the front of a bank building with a fireball and Tony said, “Nice call. What else you got?”

“Well,” Hawkeye said, “Thor’s taking on a squadron down on Sixth.” “And he didn’t invite me,” Tony said in mock anger.

That’s the attitude, Hawkeye thought.

The Hulk charged through a building, leaping out the window to land on the muzzle of an approaching Leviathan before it could tear the building down. Workers screamed as he pulled it around to the side and down, hammering away at its armor-plated skull.

He brought it down to the street and finished it off, not far from where the Black Widow and Captain America were holding their own against overwhelming numbers of Chitauri on foot. They couldn’t do it forever.

“Captain,” the Black Widow said, “none of this is going to mean a thing if we don’t close that portal.”

“Our biggest guns couldn’t touch it,” Cap said.

“Well, maybe it’s not about guns,” she suggested.

Steve thought he knew what she was getting at. She was mighty good in close quarters. “If you want to get up there, you’re gonna need a ride,” he said.

She eyed a passing Chitauri flyer. “I can get a ride. I could use a boost, though.”

“Are you sure about this?” he asked.

She looked up, gauging the distance and speed of an oncoming flyer. “Yeah. It’s gonna be fun.”

She ran and leaped onto his shield, and Steve flung her into the air. She caught the bottom of a passing Chitauri craft and was gone, riding it out of sight.

Iron Man saw her hitch a ride and figured he might know what she was up to. He picked off the nearest Chitauri following her and then peeled back to give Cap a hand. He was all by himself facing down maybe twenty Chitauri. Tony hit the ground firing and evened the odds a little. He still hadn’t found Thor’s little party that Hawkeye had mentioned.

That was because Thor and the Hulk were on the back of a Leviathan. The Hulk wrenched loose one of its dorsal plates, reared back, and pounded it into the base of the Leviathan’s skull. Thor followed with a blow from Mjolnir and the Leviathan heeled over to one side. They smashed through the windows of Grand Central Station’s upper level and came to rest. Satisfied, Thor nodded and glanced over at the Hulk. Perhaps the scales were evened from their last fight against each other on the Helicarrier—

The Hulk shot out his left fist and smashed Thor all the way across the block-long gallery. Then it was his turn to look satisfied.

Very well, Thor thought. Now we’re even. Let us take the fight to the Chitauri, and to Loki! To7TIghRFTzNwNJ+/JGO7Dj/iDtk7XTplgrX67cPfmxMVGlPyGNEuh3Jt/jyyKTS