Chapter Text
~*~
The Iron Sentinel sat back against the top of the once great Empire State Building, scanning the landscape of hollowed out high-rises and torn asphalt. Only the quiet whir of servos broke up the silence of dark pre-dawn hours as the distinctive helmet moved its expressionless gaze over the overgrown remnants of New York City. The armor was covered in tears and scrapes, everywhere showing signs of too long without proper repairs. The workshop where it had been built was long gone, lost in the last great battle. The once great concrete jungle had begun to be reclaimed by nature, the cracked streets growing over with tall grass, rivers flowing through old subway lines, and all manner of creeping, crawling, slithering and flying things nesting in the crumbling corners.
Once, the Sentinel had stood with an alliance of heroes, before the one who had stopped at nothing, the Scourge of the Universe had made it his mission to see the world burn. They had met in battle again and again, until they were the only two left in all the world. One hero, one villain. And now, one last confrontation.
In the distance, the nearly forgotten crackling of electricity sounded and a beam of light exploded out into the sky. It caught up and twisted in midair, tearing open to reveal a once familiar skyline, a world unprepared and unaware, shining with artificial light and teeming with human life. The dark shape of the Scourge arched up into the air, passing seamlessly into this new world. The Sentinel waited for a time before it moved closer, scanning the area for the source of the portal and tracing it to the mass of metal and wiring hooked up to a row solar panels on the roof of an old apartment building. After a moment’s deliberation, it followed the enemy into the other world. This time, the Sentinel was ready for him, this time the world could be saved.
The mass of wiring let loose a shower of sparks and the portal twisted up and disappeared, the Sentinel and the Scourge trapped forever on the other side. One way or another, this game of cat and mouse would be over soon. The sun began to rise in the distance, the Earth spun on, oblivious.
~*~
“Sir, we have a problem.”
“Is that…?”
“It appears to be a portal, sir.”
“Is it him? Is it Loki?”
“No, sir, no sign of him. As far as we can tell, it looks like New York, possibly a future version. It’s-”
“I see. I’ll wake the Director.”
“Sir! There’s a bogey-”
“Wake the Director, now!”
“Second bogey, we have a second bogey-”
“What the hell?”
“Sir, the portal appears to be closed. And we lost the bogies, sir, no sign of either one.”
“What do you mean you lost them?”
“Well, sir, they came through and disappeared, no radar, no satellite footage, they’re just gone.”
“Director Fury’s on the phone for you, sir.”
“Well, find them, and do it fast, we don’t want another Battle of New York on our hands.”
~*~