Through the Portal, they could see the other side.
On the other side, countless black dots were moving. They marched in neat formation, about to pour through the Portal.
The Chitauri Army was coming.
Lin Hai withdrew his gaze from the Portal and swept his eyes over the blocks surrounding Stark Tower.
Perhaps Gwen's warning to her father had worked. Perhaps S.H.I.E.L.D.'s evacuation efforts had been fairly effective. Perhaps it was both.
In any case, there were not many pedestrians on the two blocks near Stark Tower at the moment. The streets were empty, with only a few police officers maintaining order at the intersections. An occasional car drove past from afar, but quickly vanished around a corner.
Even those who believed that talk of "possible danger" and "fire safety drills" was complete bullshit began moving away under the guidance of police officers after seeing such a sight in the sky above them.
No one was stupid enough to insist on staying put after seeing a massive dark-blue vortex appear in the sky.
At the top of Stark Tower.
The Tesseract continued to radiate energy, and the Portal kept expanding. The Chitauri Army's first vanguard was already becoming faintly visible, those black dots growing clearer and larger.
After taking another look at the scene within the Portal overhead, Lin Hai turned and took his black mask from Gwen.
He pressed the mask onto his face. Teal-gold light flared from the runes on its inner surface, flashing briefly between the mask and his skin before the mask firmly sealed itself against his face.
Dark-green light rose from his other hand. The little black rod Tony had considered a "toy" rapidly extended in Lin Hai's grip.
The shaft stretched outward from his palm in both directions. A spearhead emerged from one end,