Ch. 252 The Battle of New York Begins

Loki appeared voluntarily for two main reasons. Firstly, he needed to obtain the metal iridium to stabilize the portal, ensuring it wouldn't collapse on itself.

Secondly, he intended to act as bait, executing his plan to internally sabotage the Avengers and destroy the Helicarrier mothership.

However, General Thanos' three minions were not Loki.

Putting aside whether they needed iridium, more importantly, they were completely unaware of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s possession of a strategic weapon like the Helicarrier mothership.

Loki knew about the mothership because he had manipulated Barton with the Mind Stone's scepter, giving him access to information about it.

The three generals clearly had no knowledge of the mothership's existence.

Therefore, their voluntary appearance seemed very suspicious, especially in New York.

After speaking with Diana, Russell opened a portal to the Sanctum Sanctorum and arrived at its doorstep.

He knocked on the door and entered.

In the meeting room.

"Is there something you need?"

Ancient One, who was drinking tea in the meeting room, asked calmly upon Russell's arrival.

"Yeah, I want to know what the upcoming Battle of New York, which I saw in my visions, is all about."

This wasn't the movie universe, so Russell's "prophet" abilities were affected to some extent.

However, there was someone here who understood the future developments better than he did.

The Ancient One had used the Time Stone to see his future, making her more aware of what was to come.

"It's not a good thing to reveal the future to others prematurely."

"You should be aware of the consequences."

The Ancient One took a sip of her freshly brewed tea, speaking calmly.

"You don't have to tell me every detail of the developments; I just want to know if, besides Thanos' army, there are any other alien forces involved in the Battle of New York."

Russell continued to inquire.

"If you're only asking that, I can tell you definitively that other alien forces are indeed involved in the Battle of New York."

The Ancient One's expression remained as serene as ever.

Although she didn't provide much information, it was sufficient for Russell.

"Thank you for letting me know; I won't disturb you any longer."

Russell expressed his gratitude to the Ancient One.

Then, he used his teleportation magic to return to the Justice League headquarters.

At the Justice League headquarters.

"Do you have the answers?"

As he emerged from the portal, Diana, sitting on the sofa, asked Russell.

"I have some."

Russell replied with a hint of resignation.

"What's wrong? Is the situation dire?"

Diana looked concerned and continued to inquire.

"Worse than I imagined."

Although the Ancient One didn't provide many details, the answer was already clear enough for Russell.

Thanos' forces consisted of only three factions: the Chitauri, the Sakaaran mercenaries, and the Outriders.

Since there were other alien forces involved in the Battle of New York, it was highly likely that the Outriders were one of them.

Although the Sakaaran mercenaries had minimal presence in the film universe, Russell believed they might come to join the fray.

Despite the deviation from his knowledge of the events, he could roughly guess why Thanos had arranged things this way.

Thanos wasn't just after the Space Stone; he also intended to execute his "random half-life" plan on Earth.

From a technological standpoint, Earth was undoubtedly a primitive planet.

However, in terms of population, Earth had far more inhabitants than other planets.

Up to this point, Earth had nearly seven billion humans.

While Earth could still sustain this population, it wasn't essential for Thanos.

What mattered was that Earth's population had exceeded what he deemed a reasonable level.

Rather than waiting until Earth couldn't support such a large population, he preferred to address the issue now.

After all, it was inevitable, and the timing didn't make much difference to him.

Thanos' plan involved using the power of the six Infinity Stones to wipe out half of the universe's population in one fell swoop.

He wasn't concerned about whether Earth could currently support its population; his goal was clear.

"How dire is the situation?"

Diana frowned with a concerned expression.

"If things go badly, New York might be gone directly!"

Russell said seriously.

Although the Chitauri army and the Outriders appeared weak in the films, in his view, the Chitauri army and the Outriders capable of participating in interstellar wars wouldn't be that weak.

There were already multiple planets conquered by Thanos' forces, and some of them were advanced civilizations.

In the films, the Chitauri and Outriders might have been portrayed as weaker for cinematic effect.

Seeing Russell's serious expression, Diana didn't press further.

Not long after, Kara, dressed as Supergirl, arrived at the Justice League headquarters. She had been busy with her movie shoots and was unaware of recent events.

Seeing her puzzled expression, Diana quickly explained the situation to her.

After listening to Diana's account, Kara widened her eyes in surprise.

What was happening?

How had they suddenly entered the rhythm of an alien invasion on Earth?

"The situation may get worse from here, Kara. Please do your best to protect Peter and Gwen."

Although Russell's plan wasn't exactly superhero-like, Kara didn't object and nodded firmly.

"Don't worry; I won't let Peter and Gwen get hurt!"

Kara said earnestly.

Queens.

After returning to Queens, Russell took his battle armor out from the system space and handed it over to No. 3.

At the same time, he issued orders to all the White Zetsu armies and Grendel.

Once these tasks were completed, he finally managed to contact Tony Stark and Reed Richards, who were currently searching for the three generals.

"What's the situation now?"

Russell asked Tony.

"These guys are like invisible. They look weird, but we can't locate them at all."

Tony complained.

"They likely have some sort of stealth equipment, and the bigger problem is that we can't openly search for them right now."

Mr. Fantastic's voice chimed in.

"They might be looking for a high-density energy source to activate the Cosmic Cube. That could be our starting point."

Russell offered his suggestion.

While they weren't sure of the generals' intentions, Russell had to make educated guesses based on Loki's actions.

"High-density energy source?"

Mr. Fantastic asked, puzzled.

"To activate the Cosmic Cube, they need to heat it to at least a hundred million degrees Celsius to meet the theoretical requirements."

Tony continued to explain.

"Oh, damn!"

Tony realized something.

"Both of you, I need to return to Stark Tower."

After saying that, Tony abruptly ended the call and flew at top speed toward Stark Tower.

As Tony hung up, Mr. Fantastic had a hypothesis of his own.

Though he wasn't very familiar with Tony, he was aware of some of his inventions, such as the Ark Reactor.

Tony Stark was now being hailed by the media as a leader in the field of clean energy, especially after he began supplying Stark Tower with energy using the Ark Reactor.

"I can use Baxter Building's radar to scan for high-density energy sources within New York's range."

Mr. Fantastic quickly proposed his idea.

Following that, he too ended the call and returned to the headquarters of the Fantastic Four, the Baxter Building.

With both Tony and Mr. Fantastic off the line, Russell had a hunch.

While not fully confident, he had a rough idea of why Tony had hurried back to Stark Tower.

After considering the events he'd observed regarding the generals, Russell hadn't seen the Mind Stone scepter in their possession.

Without the Mind Stone scepter, breaking through the energy barrier around the Cosmic Cube wouldn't be an easy task.

Even if they could manage it through brute force, it would take a considerable amount of time.

"Alright."

Russell responded to Diana, "Let's deal with the landing ships first!"

Even though they could likely deal with the generals, the threat posed by the black order landing ships was greater and couldn't be ignored.

As for the Cosmic Cube, which was still maintaining the portal, Russell could see that it wasn't something that could be resolved easily.

Without the Mind Stone scepter, breaking through the energy barrier around the Cosmic Cube would be a formidable challenge.

"Understood!"

Diana replied swiftly.

With her right hand gripping the Sword of Athena and her left hand holding the Shield of Athena, she headed toward one of the landing ships.

As for the swarming Chitauri warriors, she paid them no mind.

Once Diana had selected her target, Russell wasted no time and soared toward one of the landing ships attempting to land in Manhattan.

Although their destruction wouldn't necessarily eliminate all the soldiers inside, it was better than allowing the landing ships to reach Manhattan.

Russell, dressed in his dark blue Justice League uniform, arrived in front of the landing ship that was attempting to descend on Manhattan in an instant.

Without hesitation, he activated his red energy vision.

He wasn't Captain Marvel, so he didn't treat himself as a human missile.

When a remote attack could deal with the target, he wouldn't hesitate to use it.

A laser-like red heat beam shot straight towards the landing ship.

Boom!

Although the landing ship had decent defenses, it was still too weak against Russell's high-temperature energy beam.

The high-temperature red beam made contact with the landing ship, causing a violent explosion on its surface.

The intense explosion altered the landing ship's descent, and orange-red flames engulfed it.

However, causing the landing ship to explode wasn't enough for Russell.

The building-sized landing ship continued to wobble unsteadily as it descended toward Manhattan, shrouded in black smoke and orange-red flames.

Merely causing the landing ship to explode was clearly unsatisfactory for Russell.

The skyscraper-like landing ship was still swaying unsteadily as it descended toward Manhattan.

In addition to the black smoke and orange-red flames, Russell's high-temperature red beam started to cut through the landing ship like a laser cutter.