Chapter 300: Full Deployment!
"I'll be your opponent," Captain America growled, glaring down Corvus Glaive and the others.
Steve had no idea exactly what had happened, but from what he'd overheard through the comms, he knew these aliens were on a whole different level of dangerous.
Knowing full well he might well lose, Steve came anyway, without a moment's hesitation.
"Ooh, another cutie's shown up. Ebony Maw, hands off — this handsome one's mine," Proxima Midnight said, her voice bright with excitement, clearly delighted at the chance to indulge her curiosity about Earth's superheroes.
"Steve Rogers." He said his name flatly and charged straight at her.
Watching the two of them clash, Ebony Maw turned to Corvus Glaive, exasperated. "Corvus. Rein in your wife. We came here on a mission — how are we ever going to get the Tesseract at this rate?"
He clearly disapproved of Proxima Midnight's behavior, baffled that she could find anything remotely entertaining about these pathetically weak Earthlings.
Corvus Glaive shot him a flat, indifferent glance. "If she's having fun, let her have her fun."
With that, he abruptly spun on his heel, scythe slicing backward in a sudden, brutal arc.
His strike revealed a figure that had been hidden — Susan Storm, the Invisible Woman.
She'd meant to ambush him using her powers, only to have Corvus Glaive see straight through it.
How is that even possible? Susan gasped, unable to believe her ability had been detected so easily.
If Reed hadn't yanked her out of the way in time, she'd have died on the spot.
"Be careful. These three are seriously strong," Reed warned, his voice low and grave, cautioning everyone else on the team to tread carefully.
Just then, an ice spike and a burst of flame came streaking in from two different directions, both converging on Ebony Maw.
The attacks came from the X-Men's Iceman and Pyro, teaming up in an attempt to bring down this dangerously powerful enemy.
Facing what looked like an unstoppable double strike, Ebony Maw remained perfectly composed. He raised a hand with practiced elegance, giving his fingers a light flick — as if conducting some graceful piece of music.
In that instant, a mysterious force rippled through the air, swallowing both the ice spike and the flame whole, leaving nothing behind.
"Quite a lot of rats scurrying around, aren't there," Ebony Maw sneered, a mocking curl to his lips, as though laughing openly at the sheer uselessness of these so-called heroes.
He tucked his handkerchief neatly back into his pocket, as if the whole exchange had barely registered as a footnote.
His gaze swept the battlefield, and then, with another light flick of his fingers, he unleashed something far more devastating.
Cars, broken tree limbs, chunks of rubble — everything nearby seemed to answer to some unseen, mysterious force, hurling themselves straight at the X-Men.
The debris carved arcing paths through the air, transformed into a hail of deadly makeshift weapons bearing down on the mutants.
Elsewhere, Proxima Midnight and Steve traded blow after blow, fists colliding again and again.
Say what you will, but Steve's own signature "even odds" physiology held true here too — remarkably, he was actually managing to fight Proxima Midnight to a near-standstill.
Viewers around the entire world watched the harrowing battle unfold live via satellite feed.
Everyone held their breath, tracking every detail, hoping desperately the heroes could pull off a win against these terrifying enemies.
"With all the superheroes finally out there, we've gotta be able to beat these guys, right?"
"Gotta hand it to Captain America — one guy holding his own against a whole Black Order general, while the others gang up on the rest."
"That skinny little alien is teaching me that ugly can somehow still be elegant."
"Elegance never goes out of style, apparently!"
"Looks pretty even so far. Guess aliens aren't as scary as everyone made them out to be after all."
"Where's the so-called Lord of Hell's Kitchen in all this? Is this whole mess actually Ethan Cross's fault somehow?"
"Please, that guy's all bark, no bite when it counts — great at fighting his own kind, useless the second real outsiders show up!"
Back at the Lucky Dragon in Hell's Kitchen, Tobey-Peter watched the fight against Corvus Glaive's group play out on the TV, all while making constant, fidgety adjustments to his Spider-Man suit. His expression, reflected in the mirror, looked deadly serious — if not for the faint tremor in his hands, no one would've guessed anything was off.
"What's got you so tense, Parker?" Doc Ock, sitting nearby, noticed the slight shake in his hands and asked.
The question drew everyone else's attention straight to Tobey-Peter.
"A little, yeah. It's not like this is my first time out in public or anything — but this is my first time representing Hell's Kitchen in front of the whole world. Aren't the rest of you nervous too?"
Tobey-Peter didn't bother hiding it.
"You'll be fine — you're literally Spider-Man. Besides, we're all going together, bro," Harry said, already suited up in his Green Goblin gear, gearing up for the fight ahead.
"No need to sweat it. We've got your back the whole way — just treat it like any other fight." Daredevil, meanwhile, was busy wiping down his Zanpakutō, running the cloth along the blade over and over.
Pietro sat glued to the TV footage, grumbling. "Man, when's it finally OUR turn? I want to rack up some Friend Points too — that damn Tony Stark's already got a head start on me."
"Should be soon. Looks like the Illuminati and Avengers are already starting to falter out there. Ethan'll give us the signal any minute now," John Wick answered with a yawn, drawing on years of combat experience.
"So — hold on, are we going ALL out this time? Don't you Vongola guys need to hold down Hell's Kitchen while the rest of us are gone?" Pietro asked, glancing over at Vongola Primo, also present at the Lucky Dragon. Ordinarily, Primo kept close to their own headquarters — his presence here today was genuinely surprising.
Between him and the usual faculty at the Hell's Kitchen Community School, who'd normally be stationed close to home, it really was looking like an all-out, full-force deployment this time.
"Ethan wants us staying put here at the restaurant for now," Doc Ock explained. "That way, if these aliens try to sneak-attack Hell's Kitchen itself, we can immediately teleport back to our own posts via the Homestead system. If they don't try anything, once Ethan gives the signal, we go all-in together and show the world exactly what Hell's Kitchen is capable of.
If the enemy doesn't take the bait for a sneak attack and the fight ends up dragging back here to Hell's Kitchen anyway, we'd be looking at a fortune in repair costs. Better to strike first."
After all, Hell's Kitchen had already weathered one major fight recently — a second hit like that would be a serious blow.
Vongola Primo was about to add something of his own when, suddenly, a golden ring of light began to materialize in the air around them.
The instant he saw it, Primo said nothing more, simply stepping through it first.
This time, the enemy wasn't some rank-and-file gangster. One careless moment out there, and it would cost you your life.
☆☆☆
-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Inkshaper
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you