One Punch Shatters the New York Sky

Hawk stared as the sky above Manhattan was torn open, exposing an endless pitch-black void.

Above Manhattan, a cerulean beam shot skyward, lancing continuously into the gap in the heavens, as if a spatial passage were being forced open.

The rift in the sky looked like it had been savagely ripped apart by an invisible hand, its edges flickering with blue light and crackling with energy.

Hawk instinctively dropped his gaze to his right hand.

But...

The next second.

He caught himself.

No.

This sky wasn't torn open by him—it was torn open by the Space Stone.

2012.

The Chitauri invasion.

Hawk's mind shifted, recognizing the timeline. With a sharp turn of his head, his eyes locked back onto the torn sky above.

Sure enough.

As the space gate opened over Manhattan, Chitauri soldiers—like a swarm of metal locusts—poured through the portal, spilling out as if dumped from a vessel.

Bursting forth!

The Chitauri soldiers arriving on Earth through the space gate rode sleek, single-pilot gliders with cold, gleaming edges. Their engines whined with a piercing, grating buzz, and dark alloy carapaces tightly encased their inhuman bodies.

Boom!

The first Chitauri soldier squeezed the trigger on his energy weapon, and a glass curtain wall on a Manhattan skyscraper was instantly pierced, then shattered.

"Waaagh!"

"Attack!"

"Invasion! Invasion!"

"Kill them all!"

The surging Chitauri soldiers howled with excitement as they poured from the wormhole, quickly locking onto their assigned objectives.

Some Chitauri dipped their gliders low, streaking toward the streets of Manhattan.

Others pulled up, confirmed their attack vectors midair, and veered off toward Brooklyn.

Of course.

Queens was also within the Chitauri's strike range.

"Holy shit!"

"What is that?"

"Aliens invading Earth?"

"They're coming this way!"

"Shit!"

"God!"

"Run!"

"Ah!"

Just like Manhattan, which had already descended into chaos, the residents of Queens let out piercing screams as they saw the Chitauri heading their way, firing energy weapons that punched through skyscrapers, ignited cars, and cut down civilians. They scattered in every direction, fleeing toward wherever they thought was safe.

The Chitauri soldiers' war cries.

The crash of collapsing buildings.

The sizzling roar of cars being blown apart.

The screams of dying civilians and the panicked shouts of those fleeing blindly—in that moment, all of New York City was plunged into sheer terror.

Standing on the rooftop, Hawk instinctively turned to head back into his apartment.

But...

Just as he pivoted, he stopped abruptly, as if remembering something. Then he turned back, looking up at the sky—at the Chitauri soldiers now swarming toward Queens like a plague of locusts.

One Chitauri soldier, riding his glider and howling as he swooped in, also spotted Hawk standing on the rooftop.

After all, to an invader, nothing was more satisfying than watching civilians scream, weep, and scramble helplessly to escape the blade of conquest.

So while everyone else was fleeing in terror, Hawk alone stood there, motionless—impossible to miss.

Their eyes met.

Within Hawk's azure irises, something like a star flickered.

"Human."

The Chitauri soldier, staring back at Hawk, felt something trigger behind his dark alloy visor—eyes like a serpent's locking onto a signal. He broke formation, banking his glider, and dove straight toward the rooftop where Hawk stood.

A single energy blast was fired on sight.

Destructive energy gathered at the front of the flier, coalescing in an instant before being aimed and unleashed at Hawk.

Hawk watched the energy bolt rapidly expand in his field of vision, his pupils contracting.

Boom!

The energy bolt slammed into the rooftop, shattering the ground with a deafening roar and kicking up dust.

The Chitauri soldier watched Hawk, who had dodged the moment the blast landed and now stood unscathed on the other side, then pulled the trigger again without any expression.

Bang, bang, bang!

Boom, boom, boom!

The apartment rooftop now seemed to have met its doomsday, bombarded relentlessly by the Chitauri soldier's energy blasts.

Stone fragments flew.

Dust filled the air.

Hawk's figure darted back and forth through the dust, evading one energy bolt after another from the Chitauri soldier.

His body shifted rapidly beneath the hail of the Chitauri's fire.

At first, Hawk had been a little flustered, but now he had calmed down and was handling it with ease.

It had taken him less than a minute.

A Saint Seiya was born for war.

The Chitauri soldier kept firing.

Bang, bang—click!

A crisp sound rang out, and the soldier, who had been continuously firing energy blasts, suddenly paused. He looked down at the flier, its magazine now empty.

Just then.

The wind howled.

The Chitauri soldier looked up. In his sight, a shattered piece of water tank steel plate shot out from the dust, slamming into his flier with a loud bang.

The flier was struck by the broken steel plate, its balance thrown off instantly. The Chitauri soldier sitting on it instinctively tried to fly away, but lost his footing and tumbled off.

Thud!

Hiss!

The Chitauri soldier hit the rooftop, quickly scrambled to his feet, and drew the weapon strapped to his back—something resembling a gun, but also powered by a core of eerie green energy.

Hiss, hiss, hiss!

The Chitauri soldier made an indescribable sound, as if speaking or perhaps communicating with his kind.

Hawk didn't really understand what the Chitauri soldier was doing, but he didn't care much.

After all...

They were in a fight. Get serious!

By now, the apartment rooftop had been utterly ravaged by the Chitauri soldier's relentless assault, broken beyond recognition.

It hadn't collapsed entirely, but it might as well have.

Most of the rooftop floor had caved in, some sections even plunging straight through to the third floor, exposing the apartments below.

But no one noticed what was happening on the roof.

New Yorkers might not excel at much, but when it came to survival, no one knew it better than them.

Raised amid countless shootings and terrorist attacks, New Yorkers had long honed the instinct to flee without looking back the moment danger struck.

The dust on the rooftop gradually cleared.

Soon.

Hawk's figure emerged.

The Chitauri soldier stared at Hawk standing before him, a cold glint flashing in his eerie green eyes. He pulled the trigger instantly.

"Die!"