Ch: 251 [The resistance]
Ch: 251 [The resistance]
While Peter was facing Thanos... Other heroes are also fighting their battles.
[NY Square]
The battlefield was huge, covering many miles. Despite the best efforts, the enemies spread out in the city. It was a mess filled with the leftover parts of Thanos's soldiers, shattered buildings, and burning cars and houses. Bright explosions lit the sky, and the air was full of energy blasts, shouts, and the sounds of weapons hitting each other. Frank Castle stood at the front with the mutants, trying to keep the enemy back.
"Jean, we need cover fire on the left flank!" Scott Summers, his visor glowing, barked orders amidst the chaos. His optic beams carved through a wave of Chitauri soldiers advancing toward their position.
"I'm on it!" Jean replied. Her eyes burned with a fiery glow as she extended her arms, her telekinetic energy sweeping through the battlefield, creating a barrier around them. Then she used a wave of energy blast to take down a group of outriders.
Frank ignored the exchange, focusing on the leviathan charging from the right. "Scott," he growled, his voice low and gravelly, "keep your lasers pointed somewhere else. This one's mine."
With a sickening crack, Frank ripped a shard of bone from his own arm, shaping it into a serrated spear. He hurled it with lethal accuracy, the weapon pierced through the eye of the leviathan. The massive creature roared, crashing to the ground as its body convulsed. Frank's hands glowed faintly with purple energy as he gestured his finger up, summoning jagged spikes of bone from the ground that pierced the fallen beast's hide, ensuring it wouldn't rise again.
"Damn, Castle," Bobby Drake muttered, encasing himself in a suit of ice as he froze a Chitauri gunship in mid-air. "You ever think about therapy?"
"Each time I take out one of these creeps," Frank replied, his lips curling into a grim smile with no hint of humor.
Storm loomed over the battle, her white hair flowing in the wind while lightning flickered around her fingers. With a clap of her hands, she called forth a stormcloud that sent a barrage of lightning bolts crashing down, wiping out an entire squad of Thanos's troops. "Stay sharp, everyone!" she ordered, her voice ringing out like a thunderclap. "They're regrouping. Pixie, teleport reinforcements to the eastern perimeter."
"On it!" Pixie replied, her wings shimmering with iridescent light. She vanished in a puff of pink smoke, reappearing moments later with a squad of mutant reinforcements ready to fight.
Frank scanned the battlefield, his eyes narrowing as he spotted a cluster of heavy artillery platforms being set up by the Chitauri in the distance. Their massive cannons glowed as they began to charge up, preparing to fire on the defensive line. "I'll take those out," he yelled, running forward.
"Wait—" Scott began, but Frank was already moving.
With a guttural roar, Frank slammed his hands into the ground, and the earth beneath the artillery trembled. Bone spikes erupted from the ground like jagged teeth, impaling the cannons and their operators. He sprinted forward, ripping bones from fallen enemies and shaping them into weapons as he moved. A bone whip materialized in his hands, and with a sharp crack, he decapitated a group of outriders attempting to flank him.
Jean's voice echoed in his mind. 'Frank, watch your six!'
Without hesitation, Frank ducked and spun, a bone dagger forming in his hand as he plunged it into the chest of a Chitauri soldier sneaking up behind him. He turned back to the artillery platforms, which were now in ruins.
"Eastern side's secure," he muttered into his comm. "What's next?"
"Don't get cocky, Castle," Scott replied, his tone clipped. "My kill count is three times yours. Stay focused. And try not to get killed before we win this thing."
Frank snorted. "Keep dreaming, Summers," he shot back.
[The Bronx]
"Move, bub," Logan growled, slicing through an advancing outrider with his adamantium claws. The creature's guttural snarl was cut short as Logan's claws ripped through its chest. He didn't stop to admire his work, pivoting to take down another that leaped at him from a nearby rooftop.
"Logan, cover fire at 2 o'clock!" Jubilee's voice crackled over the comms.
"I see it!" Logan snarled back, leaping onto a pile of debris for a better vantage point. His eyes locked onto a group of Chitauri soldiers setting up heavy plasma rifles in a nearby alley. With a feral roar, he lunged forward, tearing through them like paper. Energy blasts zipped past him, one scorching his jacket. "Watch it, Jubes!" he barked.
"Sorry!" Jubilee called out, perched on a nearby building. Her fingers sparked with her signature pyrotechnic energy. She unleashed a barrage of dazzling explosions, scattering a cluster of outriders attempting to flank Logan. "Better?"
"Good enough," Logan grunted.
A gust of wind blurred past him, followed by a string of shouted commands. "That's the last family on this block!" Pietro Maximoff—better known as Quicksilver—skidded to a stop next to Logan, his silver hair windswept and his face streaked with soot. "Shield's got them. I'm heading for the next block."
Logan grabbed his arm before he could zip off. "Slow down, kid. You're no good to anyone if you run yourself into the ground."
Pietro shook him off with a smirk. "You're no good to anyone standing still, old man." With a flash, he was gone, leaving a trail of displaced air and scattered papers in his wake.
Across the street, Psylocke was a deadly blur of motion, her psychic katana slicing through enemies with precision. Her violet energy blade shimmered as she ducked under an energy blast and drove the weapon into the chest of a Chitauri commander. With a flick of her wrist, she turned to deflect a strike from another assailant, her blade cutting cleanly through its arm.
"Psylocke, we've got more civilians pinned down near the subway station!" a SHIELD agent shouted, dodging a stray plasma bolt.
"I'm on it," she replied calmly even in that situation. She extended her free hand, sending a telekinetic wave that sent three outriders crashing into a nearby wall. "Logan, can you clear a path?"
"Already ahead of ya," Logan growled, barreling through a group of Chitauri with his claws flashing. "Get those people moving!"
Psylocke nodded, darting forward to meet a small group of SHIELD agents who were leading a cluster of terrified civilians. "Stay close to me," she instructed, her tone commanding yet reassuring. She raised her katana, cutting down an outrider that lunged at a young boy in the group.
On the outskirts of the chaos, Jubilee hovered near a makeshift evacuation point set up by SHIELD. She got her hands on booster shoes from one of the Shield agents. She kept her focus on the sky, her fireworks intercepting incoming Chitauri drones before they could get close. "We've got incoming from the south!" she warned, spotting a fresh wave of enemies.
"Great," Logan muttered, wiping alien blood off his face. "This day just keeps getting better."
Pietro appeared beside Jubilee in a blur. "Southside? Got it. Be right back." He disappeared again, reappearing moments later in the thick of the new wave of enemies. Moving faster than the eye could follow, he disarmed Chitauri soldiers, smashed their weapons, and tripped them into one another in a dizzying flurry of motion.
"Try to keep up!" he called over his shoulder, grinning as he darted through the battlefield.
"Show-off," Jubilee muttered, but her lips twitched into a grin. She fired off another barrage of explosive energy, clearing a path for SHIELD agents to lead more civilians to safety.
Back at the subway station, Logan and Psylocke worked in tandem to hold the line. A leviathan roared in the distance, its massive form blotting out what little light remained in the smoke-filled sky.
"We've got trouble," Logan muttered, his keen senses picking up the vibrations from its massive footsteps. "Big one's heading this way."
"I see it," Psylocke replied, her eyes narrowing. She reached out with her mind, probing the creature's thoughts. "Its mind is…primitive. Animalistic."
"Good," Logan said, popping his claws. "Means it won't see this comin'."
Before they could act, a streak of silver shot past them, and Pietro appeared on the leviathan's back. "Don't worry, I've got this!" he shouted, running up its spine and planting small devices—explosives provided by SHIELD—along its body. He leaped off just as they detonated, the beast letting out an earth-shaking roar as it collapsed.
"Not bad, kid," Logan admitted grudgingly. "Still a show-off."
The battle raged on, the mutants and SHIELD agents working tirelessly to evacuate the last of the civilians. Despite their best efforts, the enemy's numbers seemed endless.
"We've got to hold this line!" Psylocke called out, her voice cutting through the chaos. "The evacuation is almost complete!"
"Tell that to them!" Jubilee shouted, pointing as another wave of Chitauri and outriders emerged from the smoke.
Logan growled, his claws gleaming in the dim light. "Alright, team. One more push. Let's make it count."
The mutants charged into the fray, their powers lighting up the battlefield. Pietro zipped between enemies, disarming and disorienting them. Jubilee's fireworks turned more destructive and colorful than before. Her power was slowly evolving. Psylocke's psychic blade cut through the enemy ranks, and Logan's feral fury left a trail of devastation in his wake.
As the last civilians were evacuated, a voice crackled over the comms. "This is Maria Hill. The Bronx is clear. Fall back to the bridge—we're regrouping there."
Logan wiped blood from his face and glanced at his teammates. "You heard her. Let's move."
With the battlefield behind them, the mutants and SHIELD agents retreated, ready to regroup and continue the fight.