Seeing that he'd bought the people some time, Harry raced after them. There had to be nearly two dozen in the group and thankfully, the ones in the lead actually had some sense. When the subway entrance came into sight, they doubled their pace, almost flinging themselves down the stairs in their haste.
Kaboom!
Harry spun around, dropped to one knee and sent out his most powerful banishing charm. The ball of light smashed into the chariot that had appeared from out of nowhere, sending it careening into the side of a building.
The instant that it was gone, Harry raced across the short distance to the car now on its side. Flames were licking around its engine and he wasn't sure how long it'd be before the petrol tank ignited. A quick glance through the windscreen showed him a groggy-looking young woman blinking about her.
Quickly, Harry vanished the glass, leant in and cut through the seatbelt with a low-powered cutter. A levitation spell later, and he had her out. From what little he could tell, she seemed alright, although there was a cut on her forehead that was bloody. Scooping her up, Harry dashed back across the street towards the subway entrance to give her to someone there to look after.
He'd barely finished passing her off to an older gent when the sound of a motorbike caught his attention. The guy riding it was completely unprotected – no helmet or anything and worse yet, he was headed straight towards the centre of the battle.
"Hey! Not that way! You'll get killed going that way!"
But Harry's cry of warning was either not heard or ignored.
ooo00ooo
Tony was trying hard not to panic. His scans showed dozens more of these aliens, these Chitauri, coming through the wormhole by the minute. Shutting down the power source was a priority. But not quite as much of a priority as getting the half-dozen chariots off of his tail.
"Stark, you got a lot of strays sniffing your tail," Hawkeye's voice said into his ear.
"Just trying to keep them off the streets," he replied, dodging a concentration of energy blasts by mere inches.
"Well, they can't bank worth a damn. Find a tight corner," Hawkeye advised.
"I will Roger that," Tony replied.
Instantly, he changed direction and altitude, taking the group down and amongst the buildings where they'd have less time to react.
Noting a small, curved tunnel between two buildings, Iron Man shot between them. He was in and out in barely a few seconds, but that was enough for him to ensure that they were committed. And once they were, he used his extra manoeuvrability to jink around, shooting off a couple of repulsar blasts before taking off again.
Unfortunately, that manoeuvre only knocked out one of the six.
"Oh, boy," he groused.
A second tunnel attracted his attention. This one had civilians near it, but it couldn't be helped. Hoping that he had the chariots' full attention, he continued with his plan. Energy blasts shot past him, slamming into the buildings and raining debris towards the civilians.
Foolishly, one man in a ridiculous cloak stepped forward and raised his hand towards Tony and the pursuing chariots.
Tony could only blink as a series of dark red, blue and yellow bursts of energy shot from the man's hand, missing him and slamming into the chariots behind him. He watched his scans as four of the five remaining chariots either exploded or careened away to slam into the buildings or ground.
"Jarvis?" Tony asked.
"I am at a loss, Sir. Energy readings are inconsistent with anything in my databanks," his A.I. replied.
"Log it for later analysis," Tony ordered.
With silent thanks to the man on the ground, he shot into the tunnel as planned, ready to deal with his last pursuer.
ooo00ooo
This, Hawkeye decided, was exactly what he was born for.
From this position, he could track the entire battle, well, maybe not all of it, but enough to be able to help out his teammates.
Noting a squadron of chariots coming in from the west, he used the controls on his bow to select his next arrow. Acid, he decided.
A quick draw, aim and, when the distance and position was correct, he released, tracking its trajectory. As he knew it would be, his aim was true, striking right between the main part of the chariot and the driver's spot. The acid did its job wonderfully, eating through the coupling and sending the two parts of the chariot in two different directions.
Hawkeye tracked the parts only until his sharp eyes locked onto the next part of the battle.
There were a pair of chariots harassing a group of civilians, shooting energy blasts down towards them. A low growl escaped him as he realised that there was nothing that he could do from here. He was just about to call in for back-up from Thor who was the closest, when he saw something inexplicable.
A golden dome appeared above the pinned-down civilians. The cloaked individual responsible for stopping the attack motioned behind him and the civilians scampered away, seeking what little shelter that he could find.
The instant that they were clear, the done disappeared as the man rolled away, coming up on his knees and returning fire with coloured energy blasts of his own.
"We have an enhanced in the field," Hawkeye announced over the radio.
"Seen him. He's a friendly," Stark replied. "At least, he's protecting the people and dishing it back out to the Chitauri."
"Noted," Hawkeye replied.
An extra person to keep an eye out for made his job that little bit harder, especially when this one, just like Thor and Hulk, didn't have an earpiece to communicate with.
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