Corrupted - The Tigris Series Book 1

Chapter Twenty Seven

July 23, 2012

Being with Hydra taught me many things. Some of which you would never think to be important information in the face of a battle. For example, one of the first things I was taught was this: if you chop off the head the beast, two more will take it's place.

Just moments after the giant serpent lied dead, two more emerged from the portal in the sky. All of us watched them slither through the air, splitting from one another to charge at different area of the city. I grit my teeth as I watched them descend, deeply knitting my brows together. The Chitauri seemed to have an unlimited number of soldiers and creatures. Though they weren't very strong individually, their numbers made up for it. If we didn't find a way to close that portal, the city would be overrun by them within the hour.

"Guys. . ." Natasha's voice pulled me from my thoughts.

"Call it, Captain." Stark's voice sounded from his suit.

"Alright, listen up." Steve started, taking a couple steps forward. "Until we can close that portal, our priority is containment."

Smart. As long as we kept them all within the city, they wouldn't be able to overrun anywhere else in the world. We wouldn't be able to be everywhere at once, so our only option was to keep all of the fighting here.

Steve turned to face us now. "Barton, I want you on that roof. Eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything that gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."

Barton turned his head to look at Stark, keeping his bow in a readied position. "Can you give me a lift?"

"Right. Better clench up, Legolas." Stark replied, stepping next to Barton.

He grabbed him by one of the straps on his back that secured his arrows into place, and shot them both up into the air towards the top of the tall building nearby us that Steve had pointed to for Barton.

"Thor, you gotta try to and bottleneck that portal. Slow em' down." Steve continued, looking back up at the portal. "You got the lightning. Light the bastards up."

Thor swung his hammer around with the slightest movement of his wrist, building it's momentum to shoot himself up into the air and get a good vantage point to the portal. I kept my eyes on Steve, impressed at how quickly he was making these decisions based on everyone's skillset. He was Captain America for a reason, and I was beginning to see why.

He turned to face me and Natasha, stepping towards us. "Ty. You, me, and Natasha, we stay here on the ground. Keep the fighting here. And Hulk!"

The large, green beast jerked his head around with a snarl to face Steve as he called his name, awaiting his direction. I noticed instantly that he was in far more control now than he had been on the helicarrier. He knew not to attack us, or the entire city like I had seen videos of on his file.

Steve raised a finger up, preparing to give his final direction. "Smash."

Hulk grinned, menacingly, and instantly jumped up to the building next to us, smashing his fists into the chitauri soldiers that had been hanging on the sides. They shot at him with their guns, but it did nothing against his tough, green skin. He grabbed one of them by the head with his giant hands, and jumped over us to latch on to the other building across from him with the alien still held tightly in his grasp. Broken glass and debris crumbled underneath him, falling down to the sidewalks and the road underneath him as he fluidly moved from place to place, pounding his fists into every Chitauri soldier he saw, tossing some around like rag dolls.

I heard thunder crashing from above, and turned to see Thor on top of the Empire State Building, holding his hammer up into the air as it collected the electricity. A large bolt of lighting hit the hammer, sending a large wave of electricity all the way down the building, shattering the glass windows. Within just seconds, he directed the large bright blue bolt at the portal, hitting the giant serpent creatures and Chitauri soldiers on their flying bikes at they began to emerge from the giant hole in the sky. The serpents let out a pained roar as it hit them in the face, moving their bodies upwards at the impact of the strike. It seemed to temporarily plug the giant hole, blocking any more from emerging. The flying bikes instantly exploded as the waves of lightning hit them, striking them all at once before they had the chance to move. I let a smirk falter on my lips, feeling a wave of adrenaline kick in.