Blood trailed down Mirio’s arms, but he still found the strength to stumble towards the army, ensuring the child was in the safe embrace of the soldiers before he turned around…

The child had fallen unconscious a little after Mirio first permeated, and that was preferred considering permeating was traumatizing for those who were not mentally strong…

Due to exhaustion, Mirio slumped over and was about to fall…

Steve was the first to arrive at Mirio’s side, supporting the teen’s weight and guiding him towards where Natasha and Clint were located…

Honestly, Steve would have much preferred that Mirio leave the rest of the fighting to them, but Steve could tell that Mirio would see the battle through to the end, bitter or not…

Mirio was not a soldier, but in some ways, being a hero was much more demanding than being a soldier…

“Chin up, kid…” Steve encouraged, leaving Mirio to stand on his own two feet as Natasha bandaged his bleeding arm…

The battle had quieted down a bit, but that was only because the Chitauri were gathering their forces for a final push…

Mirio took a couple of deep breaths and stood steady “I am fine…”

Clint reached into one of the many pockets on his vest, and fished out a silver-packaged strip of gum for both Mirio and himself…

It was one of the many perks he was granted for being a top Agent at SHIELD…

“Eat it…” Clint advised, offering Mirio the strip of gum “Gives a boost in adrenaline, lessens lactic acid in the muscles, and suppresses pain…”

Mirio thanked Clint for the gum and snacked on it right away…

The gum came with a bunch of instructions and a list of possible side effects, but now was not the time to worry about what could happen tomorrow, when the next hour was not guaranteed…

The effects of the gum were immediate as Mirio felt somewhat rejuvenated and ready for the next round of battle…

Everyone entered their battle-ready stances as Chitauri Soldiers, Chitauri Elites and Chitauri Chariots circled their position in the skies and on the ground, blocking all means of escape…

This was meant to be the final push that would seal their coffins, but thankfully, the Chitauri never expected a God of Thunder to intervene…

---BBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM----

There was the loud booming of thunder, and lightning struck the ground with a vengeance, rendering all nearby Chitauri into charcoal…

Even after Thor landed on the ground between everyone, their ears were still ringing from the power of his thunder…

Mirio felt the weak tinge of electricity passing through the ground…

“Your lightning hurts…” Mirio commented, hoping Thor would cease throwing around the lightning like it was Christmas presents…

“Son of Amillion… Master of solids…” Thor greeted, readying his hammer for more battle “Why is it you fear my lightning?”

Mirio frowned “Your lightning feels alive…”

“We should be thinking about what’s the next step… nothing we do matters as long as that portal remains open…” Natasha voiced the crux of the matter…

“The barrier protecting the device is impenetrable…” Thor explained, “It rivals the barriers of Asgard…”

---DING---

Mid-discussion, Tony sped through the skies, coming to a stop just before reaching the group and integrating himself into the formation and discussion without issue…

“Maybe not impenetrable…” Tony voiced, running numerous calculations along with Jervis “Maybe… just maybe… the ghost kid can disrupt the energy sustaining the portal enough for a cascading event…”

“It’s Lemillion…” Mirio corrected…

Tony shrugged “I just don’t care… Can you or can you not close the portal?”

Had it been before, Mirio would surely have said no, but for some inexplicable reason, he could feel power bubbling inside his body, telling him that he just might be able to disrupt the portal…

“Disrupt the flow?” Mirio asked and then thought about it for a while “Maybe… very likely but…”

“But?” Steve questioned…

“Tony wants to cause a cascading event…” Natasha clarified, a frown on her face “He’s basically asking Lemillion here to poke the dome with a stick until something happens…”

“The woman in tight drapes is right…” Thor added, agreeing with Natasha’s theory “Even if the son of Amillion can poke the sleeping beast and get it to move, he cannot withstand the retaliatory blow…”

“Are you sure?” Steve asked, leaning more on Thor’s theory than Stark’s since the Asgardian seemed more knowledgeable about the tesseract…

“Aye… Tesseract Energy bends space…” Thor explained pointing at Mirio “Should he be caught in the explosion after disrupting the energy, he will be scattered across the wide realms of Asgard…”

“Any other plans, Stark?” Steve inquired, knowing that Tony was running countless simulations with the aid of his complex machines…

“I can do it…” Mirio intervened “I just need to get out of there fast enough and even then… I can’t just stand by as more people die every minute…”

Silence descended…

“Are we really considering putting a kid in front of a bomb?” Natasha argued, glancing at everyone with disappointment…

Clint shrugged “I was younger than him when I disabled my first bomb...”

“Oh, I am sorry…” Natasha voiced sarcastically “Was it a cosmic bomb?”

Seeing that no one was presenting any more solutions, Steve decided to make the final decision “Listen, we hold out as long as we can and keep the battle centralized on-”

During the heated discussion, the distinct sound of a scooter was heard approaching their position…

Everyone tensed for battle, their nerves already one edge from being handed their asses over and over again…

Thankfully, what came on the scooter was not an enemy, but an ally… well, an ally depending on who made him angrier, The Avengers or the Chitauri…

“So…” Bruce got off his scooter, ensuring to park his transportation properly even though it would probably be destroyed in a couple of seconds “This all seems horrible…”

Natasha quirked her brow, a bit in relief and a bit in fear “I’ve seen worse…”

“Sorry…”

“No… we could use a little worse…”

“I think it’s time you suit up, Banner…” Tony interrupted, monitoring the Chitauri Whales’ movement “A party is coming to us soon…”

A couple of seconds after Tony’s warning, two massive Chitauri Whales cleaved a skyscraper in half, following a journey that would take them directly to the Avengers…

Obviously, Loki was still pulling strings from the shadows even if he didn’t dare show himself…

Mirio shivered a bit at the sight of the two massive creatures, but everyone else seemed strangely calm considering they could not permeate away from the danger like him…

The Chitauri Whales dragged their massive bodies across the streets, destroying whatever stood in their paths towards the Avengers…

Even if the Avengers somehow won the battle, the structural damage was sure to leave miles of New York City uninhabitable for months to come…

“Hey, new guy…” Bruce greeted Mirio, avoiding everyone as he walked to face the direction of the two incoming Chitauri Whales…

“Hi…” Mirio replied awkwardly, turning to Natasha and whispering “What is he gonna do? Eat them?”

“You’ll see…” she whispered back, sinking into a battle stance…

“Dr. Banner…” Steve urged “Now might be a good time for you to get angry…”

“That’s my secret, Cap…” Bruce glanced back for a second as green veins started to sprout from his neck “I’m always angry…”

Mirio’s heart was shocked the next moment when the small man morphed into a huge, hulking green figure that gripped the first Chitauri Whale like it was a toy car…

Mirio could hear the metal of the Chitauri Whale’s armor cracking beneath Hulk’s grip like popcorn…

The second Chitauri Whale collided with the first, forcing Hulk to leave skid marks in the street, pushing the giant man backward…

But Mirio had no doubt that Hulk could take them both with his impossible strength…

Still, a little backup was not bad, and Mirio could feel the energy building inside his body – energy that wasn’t there before…

Mirio broke into a run, permeating through Hulk’s body, then the Chitauri Whale in his grasp, until he got to the second Chitauri whale…

Mirio placed a hand on the second Chitauri Whale, using the embers in his heart to push his powers further than he ever had before and…

He entered the void of nothingness along with the entire Chitauri Whale…

It didn’t feel like a strain on his quirk, but it did require great concentration and even more stamina…

Mirio and the second Chitauri Whale disappeared into the ground, falling and falling until he deactivated his quirk and both he and Chitauri Whale were launched upwards…

The Chitauri Whale shot out of the ground, colliding with the Chitauri Whale in Hulk’s grasp, and somehow, Hulk still had enough strength to slam one Chitauri Whale into the other…

Both Chitauri Whales made deep hums of pain, and blue blood could be seen seeping out of the cracks of their armors…

Stark quickly used his shoulder missiles to lay waste to the severely damaged Chitauri Whales, sending blue blood and mechanic parts flying all over the place…

Just like that, the Avengers had defeated two of the Chitauri’s greatest weapons, and they had done this where everyone could see them…

All of the Avengers were gathered in one place…

Each facing a different direction, preparing to defend Earth to their last breath…

Hulk roared to the skies in a show of dominance…

Lightning gathered around Thor’s hammer, and the skies grew cloudy…

The arc reactor on Tony’s chest glowed even brighter, flickering with white electricity every so often…

Three arrows were placed into Clint’s bow, each arrowhead transparent and filled with unknown chemical concoctions…

The stingers on Natasha’s wrist turned red with electrical power…

Mirio’s hand permeated into the ground like a swimmer about to take a head dive into the sewers of New York…

Steve’s shield was fastened to his arm, ready to push away everything in his path…

This was the Battle of New York!