The Slippery Hulk (Revised)

As the Space Stone continued to supply energy, the interstellar portal above Stark Tower grew larger and larger. More Chitauri poured out of it like a tidal wave, and several of those massive flying creatures even emerged together.

However, after coming through the portal, they all consciously turned away from the rooftop below. Perhaps they had received warnings from their fellow Chitauri; none of them dared join the battle between the two mages atop the tower. The two mages were currently trading powerful fireballs and blue Arcane Orbs. Any Chitauri foolish enough to approach had to weigh their own worth first. Anyone with a functioning brain knew to stay far away.

"Annie! Think of something, quickly! The portal is getting bigger and bigger!" Coulson pointed at the expanding portal overhead. He could clearly see the Chitauri Mothership and other warships in the universe beyond beginning to stir. Perhaps before long, they would try to pass through the portal.

Coulson had actually tried countless methods just now: shooting it with a pistol, blowing it up with grenades, throwing bricks at it, pulling wires, shoving it hard, prying at the base, and so on! Yet all of it had been futile. The only things he had not tried were peeing on it or spitting on it to see whether he could make it short-circuit!

Without even looking, Annie could sense the disturbance coming from the portal overhead. She also felt that they could not keep dragging this out. This endless exchange of attacks, where neither side could do anything to the other, was starting to bore her.

After fighting back and forth with that bad guy named Loki for a while, Annie had noticed something strange about his Scepter. No matter how many powerful spells she threw at him or how many times she attacked, the Scepter's magic never weakened. It was as though it possessed infinite power, constantly supplying Loki with enough magic to maintain his shield. That was no fun for her.

After thinking it over, Annie used Flash to widen the distance between them! Since she could not keep this up, there was no reason to continue wasting magic in a drawn-out fight with him.

Hmph! She had figured it out. That shield seemed to exist specifically to counter magic. Maybe it was another form of the legendary magic immunity? In that case, Annie could only try another method. If that still did not work, she would grab the Space Stone and run. She doubted he would dare chase her.

"What? Little girl, are you giving up?" When Loki saw Annie, who had been tangling with him all this time, use Flash to retreat far away, he assumed she had seen that her attacks were useless and surrendered. That made him start feeling smug.

"You can see it too, can't you? My army is endless. The people of Earth have no chance at all. How about this? Submit to me, and I will share my power with you. We who are strong were born to stand above mortals, enjoying their kneeling worship and supreme authority! Submit to me, little girl!"

Loki had seen Annie's strength for himself! He secretly rejoiced that he possessed a Scepter forged with an Infinity Stone. Only because of it had he been able to restrain her so completely. Otherwise, this time would truly have been dangerous.

"Hehe! Who told you I was surrendering? I've already found a way to deal with you, but first, I need to ask you something!"

Annie eyed his Scepter with great interest. Wasn't he only bullying her because of that magical Scepter? What was there to be so proud of? Still, such a good thing was wasted in his hands. She had to find a way to snatch it from him!

"What is it?" Loki asked instinctively. He truly could not imagine what other method a little girl might have to deal with him. A more powerful spell?

"Um, first I need to ask: have you seen my Little Bear?" Annie grinned maliciously at him.

"What Little Bear?" Loki froze for a moment. What was this little girl up to now?

"So you haven't seen him? Then I'll show you! How about that? Hehehehe~!" Annie hurled a Fireball, then casually threw Tibbers at him as well.

"What is this little girl trying to do?" Loki was utterly confused.

Of course he had never seen her Little Bear, and her inexplicable act of throwing a toy left him baffled. Still, following the principle of adapting to all changes by remaining unchanged, he immediately summoned his shield to block the Fireball. He planned to counterattack once or twice during the gap in Annie's assault! The Chitauri Mothership was about to arrive anyway, so he was in no hurry. He could drag this out slowly. If he kept stalling, victory would surely be his!

"Now, hurry! Tibbers, get out here and bite him to death!"

Following Annie's sharp cry, the teddy bear thrown above Loki gave off a violent surge of magic and rapidly expanded. In an instant, it transformed into a gigantic Flame Giant Bear and smashed down viciously toward Loki! The massive flaming bear paw crushed straight through Loki's magic shield. Before he could react, Tibbers swatted his Scepter away with one paw. It spun through the air and flew off Stark Tower, falling into some unknown corner below...

"Aha! Take that, magic immunity! You were so smug just now. Bet you didn't expect that!"

Annie's eyes lit up as she watched the Scepter get knocked away. While pretending to stand aside triumphantly and watch Tibbers beat up his punching bag, she secretly cast an Invisible Puppet Spell and ordered the puppet to sneak down Stark Tower as quickly as possible. What was it going to do? Ahem! Annie was not telling anyone!

"Oh! No!" With his shield crushed and his Scepter knocked away, Loki could only instinctively raise both hands to protect his head from the incoming bear paw.

Sadly, he did not have the Hulk's strength, nor did he have the Hulk's physique! Tibbers's second swipe sent him flying into a wall. When he fell down, Tibbers stepped on his chest. After just two swipes, he was beaten unconscious. Tibbers's flames had also left him in a miserable state. His long black hair had long since been singed into curled, sticky clumps, and the air was thick with the smell of burnt protein.

Pah! This guy was ridiculously weak! Such a frail body, and he passed out after only two hits! If he had not been relying on that magic-immune shield, Master Annie would have burned him to a crisp long ago, wouldn't she? Tibbers curled his lip disdainfully.

Whatever! It had been hard enough to get out for once! The other guy was an Asgardian god, after all, so Tibbers would stomp on him a few times for fun first. He had never stomped on a Demigod before. So, Tibbers stepped forward again, raised his bear foot, and stomped hard on him twice. That felt great, though he was a little too weak and not much fun to hit!

"No! Annie, please, stop! Don't kill him!"

Thor, who had fallen from the tower without dying, had finally climbed back to the rooftop. When he saw this, he hurriedly spoke up to stop her. Although his brother Loki had committed a grave crime, he still did not want him killed here. At the very least, Loki should be taken back to Asgard and judged personally by his father, Odin.

After getting his fill of stomping, Tibbers kept one foot pressed against Loki's chest and raised his other paw high, ready to deliver the killing blow! However, upon hearing Thor's shout, he could only turn his head and look questioningly at Annie. As long as his master Annie nodded, he would immediately tear off the head of the Demigod beneath him.

He only obeyed Annie's orders. As for that hammer-wielding guy over there? Tibbers did not care who he was. He could not wait to kill the Demigod beneath his foot. Even if this Demigod was a little weak and pathetic, he was still a Demigod! When Tibbers returned to the Shadow Realm, he would have something to brag about. On such-and-such a day, I, Tibbers, killed a Demigod! Now that sounded impressive!

"Huh? Let him go? Why?" Annie was reluctant to release that bad guy! Looking at the city reduced to smoke and ruin, she had seen many people die because of him along the way. Annie wanted Tibbers to eat him!

"Please, Annie!" Thor did not dare use force and could only plead desperately. After all, Loki was his brother!

"But..." Annie was still unwilling! She was not even familiar with this uncle named Thor. Why should she listen to him? She refused!

"Hey! Can you stop discussing this first? Look! Their Mothership is coming through!!"

Coulson was close to losing his mind! He hurriedly spoke up to interrupt the two people still arguing. What time was this, and they were still discussing that? Loki had already been beaten into that state by Tibbers; he was not going anywhere! Whether they wanted to kill him or torture him afterward was entirely up to them. But the alien Mothership was already coming through! Could they, as members of the Avengers, be just a little more professional?

"Whoa!" Annie looked up and saw the gigantic Chitauri Mothership's head already emerging from the Space Gate. She sighed. It looked like she had played this a little too far. That Mothership was huge...

"How do we shut it down?" Coulson hurriedly led Annie and Thor to stand before the Space Device. Thor's hammer and Annie's Fireballs seemed unable to harm it in the slightest. It was tightly protected by a shield! The Space Stone's power was continuously drawn out by the device to maintain and expand the portal in the sky.

"According to the doctor who built this device, it seems only Loki's Scepter can shut it down!"

Coulson hurriedly added that he had previously tried shooting it with a pistol and detonating grenades at close range, but none of it had worked. And now they had to find Loki's Scepter? Who knew where Tibbers had knocked it? By the time they found it, the Chitauri army would probably already be through!

"Maybe it doesn't have to be that troublesome. Tibbers! It's your turn!" Annie's eyes darted about as she secretly infused Tibbers with some special Arcane energy. That energy was somewhat similar to Loki's Scepter.

"Roar~!" Tibbers reluctantly gave up the prey beneath his foot, leaped over, and smashed the Space Device and its shield into pieces with a single paw. As far as he was concerned, Master Annie simply did not want him to kill that Demigod yet.

"The Space Stone!" When he saw the device destroyed, Thor finally relaxed. But when he saw the shattered fragments and that glowing cube, he immediately recognized what it was.

"Come back! Aha~!" Annie quickly cast Mage Hand and pulled the glowing cube that had been knocked away back into her hand. This thing had finally fallen into her hands, and she finally laughed proudly.

"Oh no! Look up there! We're doomed!" Coulson wailed, signaling everyone to look overhead.

It turned out that once the Space Device was destroyed and the Space Stone no longer supplied power, the space passage immediately collapsed. The Chitauri Mothership, which had only pushed a small portion of its head through, was instantly severed by the collapsing portal. Explosions erupted from the break, and then the entire front section of the Mothership crashed down toward Stark Tower.

At the same time, as the space passage closed and the Mothership was destroyed by spatial Rupture, the Chitauri soldiers and those massive flying creatures still ravaging New York suddenly lost power and control. They stopped moving one after another and fell to the ground...

In the end, Coulson was not doomed. Annie's Mass Teleportation Spell allowed the few of them to escape disaster. Standing in the distance and looking at the enormous ruins before them, everyone felt fortunate. Though the battle had been brutal, Earth had won in the end! That was something worth celebrating, except for one person—Iron Man, Tony Stark!

"Oh God! That was my building!!!" Tony lowered the faceplate of his Iron Man Suit and stared blankly at what had once been Stark Tower, now reduced to rubble by the fallen bow section of the Chitauri Mothership.

The unlucky Stark Tower and the nearby buildings had all been flattened by fragments from the alien Mothership's fallen front section. Fortunately, it had only been a small fragment of the ship's bow. If half the alien Mothership had fallen, New York would probably have been finished, right? Thinking of that, everyone could not help feeling a little afraid.

"Excuse me! Um... did I miss something?" After the battle had ended, Bruce Banner finally arrived late on a battered motorcycle. Looking at the devastated streets and the motionless aliens lying everywhere, he awkwardly asked the captain and the others.