Chapter 33 - Battle of New York XVII

WHITE…

SKY BLUE…

RED…

GREEN…

ORANGE…

PURPLE…

BRIGHT YELLOW…

Each color represented the amalgamation of an entire life…

Each bright glow represented the essence of someone who once possessed the quirk beyond all quirks…

A quirk that held true to the ideals of noblesse oblige…

Then the myriad of colors combined, and Mirio's mind was free to do as it wished, and more than anything, Mirio wished to complete his duty in the ongoing war…

Mirio's mind snapped back to consciousness like a rubber that had been stretched a bit too far, returning him to the familiar sights of bodily destruction via world-ending spatial energies…

The blue tesseract energy that Mirio had so desperately clung to almost slipped from between his fingers, nearly making all sacrifices up to that moment mute…

But luckily, Mirio's body knew to hold onto the thread of spatial energy even in the absence of his mind…

With the return of his mind, Mirio reaffirmed his permeation, causing his resonance with the violent tesseract energy to heighten, leading to an overall better grip on the blue energy…

It took a couple of seconds for Mirio to realize that his feet were no longer touching the ground; instead, he was suspended almost ten feet in the air…

And rising higher every second…

Mirio was being pulled into the air by an unstoppable force, his upward mobility increasing with the instability of the portal above…

The portal was unraveling, pulling Mirio along as it did…

What was that saying - an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?

Only, there was no immovable object here…

But Mirio did possess latent energy fueling his permeation quirk to higher levels…

With the will of a demon, Mirio fought back the pull of the raging tesseract energy, forcing himself back to the ground through heroism alone…

One inch at a time…

Mirio slowly descended from the air…

The energy destroyed his body faster due to so much resistance, but Mirio's only concern was to give New York a chance at survival…

With the intense instinct to survive a bit longer, Mirio's felt his feet touch the ground once more, and he desperately tugged the tesseract energy with all the might he could muster, once again connecting the energy with the machine on the ground…

This action anchored Mirio to the Stark Tower, denying the tesseract energy from taking him too far from the machine that held the cube…

Sadly, Mirio was in a constant battle of thug and war, and sadly, he was neither of the pulling forces – he was the rope holding the two forces together…

An unstable portal above, and an infinity stone below…

There was no way to survive such an ordeal, and Mirio knew that but still, he refused to give up…

Mirio's left hand snaked around the blue energy above, and his right hand clung to the machine below, desperately trying to maintain the fragile balance of chaotic energies…

All Mirio wanted was another second…

Then another second…

And another…

Each time it was one more second, and Mirio didn't dare hope for more…

Yet, somehow, he knew…

Nay…

Even Steve, Natasha, Thor, and Clint, watching the intense, ever-growing blue energy condense on the Stark Tower, knew that Mirio's permeation was the only thing prolonging his life so far…

The Tesseract had no physical matter to destroy, but space, itself, was also twisting beneath its chaotic nature…

And while Mirio could render himself untouchable to all physical forces, there was no way he could permeate through the confines of space…

At least, not with his current level of strength…

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"The kid is amazing." Natasha murmured, "A dead man holding onto a string of energy that is killing him."

"But will it make a difference?" Steve replied sadly "The energy of the tesseract will need somewhere to go when the portal collapses, and how are we sure it won't go into the sewers beneath the city."

'Easy.' Tony's reply rung over the coms as he carried a missile on his back 'The Stark Tower was made with the specifications to contain an Arc Reactor Explosion, so, at the very least, it can redirect the Tesseract Energy into the air, but that doesn't help the kid though.'

"But it does help half of New York City," Clint responded, finding the silver lining in a time where morale was greatly needed.

"But does that help you?" Steve inquired over the coms, staring into the horizon where a blaze of robotic man and missile were quickly become visible "Stark, you know that is a one-way trip, right?"

Stark scoffed into his coms 'If the kid can be that cool, then I can be cooler. I mean, just think about it. The kid had to wear a visor to hide his face because his parents didn't want him out saving the world, and here I am in an Iron Suit. Of course, I can't let him have the glory at the afterparty. I already booked the models.'

'More like afterlife.' Natasha thought, but didn't let the sorrow in her heart show…

For once, she was glad that The Red Room trained her for situations such as these – situations where losing comrades was inevitable…

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"Sir, shall I try for Miss Potts?" Jervis inquired in Tony's suit.

"Might as well," Tony replied, hoping desperately she didn't answer because it would lead to some serious second-guessing that he didn't need at this exact moment.

After all, a man would do anything for the woman he loves, and Tony didn't think it below him to fly away from New York City and let the missile do its work if Pepper was the one to ask him…

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"ARGH!" Mirio knew he was at his limits…

Probably even his limits beyond his limits…

He had broken so many limits in this battle that he was sure, even without the tesseract energy flooding his body, it was inevitable he would die from exhaustion alone…

This thought was further amplified when his mind wondered, maybe even hallucinated, Eri, Deku, Nejire, and everyone else standing in front of him…

They were proud… at least, that was what he could determine from their faces…

They were also searching for him, telling him to hold on and how much they missed him…

"Don't worry." Mirio mouthed his words, unable to even whisper due to the burn in his throat "LEMILLION IS A HERO NO MATTER THE UNIVERSE!"

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NEWS CHOPPER

"Oh my God. We are here just looking at the destruction this attack is causing and…" The Reporter took a deep breath, wiping her tears while the cameraman steadied his shaking hands "We thought all hope was lost, but that clearly isn't the case!"

The Camera Man shifted his focus to the distance where Iron Man was rapidly approaching, his suit damaged severely, emitting countless sparks as it tried to alter the course of the missile…

"Iron Man is still fighting. Captain America and the other Avengers, wherever they are, we are sure they are fighting as well. And- and-" The News Reporter paused, she was at a loss for words…

The Camera Man shifted his camera to the Stark Tower, focusing on the semi-clothed figure of Lemillion, holding desperately onto the blue energy of the tesseract…

"We don't know his name. We don't know his story, but here he is, holding open the portal to the great beyond at no small cost to himself." The News Reporter sobbed a little at the look of intense pain on Mirio's face "And… he is just a child, but he is fighting… so I ask, wherever you are, hug your neighbors and make sure they are fine because, while we can't hold a portal between worlds, we can lessen the worry of our heroes by one percent."

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STARK PRIVATE JET

Pepper sat in the advanced Stark Stealth Jet, tears flowing endlessly down her cheeks…

Several of her closest aides comforted her as if she had already lost the love of her life, but she still held some hope…

Not hope that Tony would deliver the missile beyond the portal, but hope that he would let it go and fly in her direction…

As selfish as it was, a city was not worth losing the only man she could ever love…

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METRO-GENERAL HOSPITAL LOBBY

Christine sat lifelessly on the chair…

Several of her colleagues were shaking her body, trying desperately to get a response…

After all, she was needed for several surgeries…

Yet, Christine didn't respond…

"What did I do?" She muttered over and over again like a madwoman…

Even if her mind had chosen Stephen, her heart had chosen Mirio, and deep down, she someday hoped they could be together…

But one glance at the screen and she knew that would be impossible…

Even if Mirio survived, she was confident that she no longer had a place in his heart…

And that's why, deep down, she wanted him to die…

The way Mirio kept the portal open, even as he experienced excruciating pain, told Christine one thing – he would never give up…

He would put the lives of New York City above his own, and she hated that…

Mirio was the type of guy she couldn't help but love, and since she could no longer have him, she secretly hoped that life would make the decision for her…

That way, she wouldn't have to face the fact that it was her fault…

She could dismiss it as one of life's cruelties…

"Goodbye, Mirio…" She whispered, rising from her seat and heading to the ER…

Christine was confident that it would be the last she would see of Lemillion…

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TONY WITH NUKE

Under the astonished gazes of the world, Tony barely managed to dodge the Stark Tower, redirecting both himself and the nuke upwards…

An instant later, he was beyond the portal, flying through the vastness of space…

Cheers erupt all over the world…

Only those who truly knew Tony was sad, but, in SHIELD, Fury and Hill knew the battle was not finished as yet…

Mirio was still struggling to keep the portal open, as Fury knew that the portal had to be closed before the nuke detonated…

After all, that was no normal nuke – that was a nuke that carried the chaotic power of the Tesseract – the power of an infinity stone…

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Two minutes passed in absolute silence…

Steve, Natasha, and the other Avengers hesitate to give the order to close the portal but when a bright light lit from beyond the event horizon of the portal, Steve knew they were out of time…

'Close it…' Steve ordered, and the Watch on Mirio's wrist barely managed to relay the order…

"But he is not back yet…" Mirio groaned, hoping that his loss would be the only loss of this battle…

'He is not coming back, kid…' Clint comforted 'We all took these risks when we put on the suit to fight…'

"I couldn't even hold it open any longer if you begged me…" Mirio whispered, and finally released the tesseract energy, causing a cascading event that led to the collapse of the portal above…

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At first, Tony somewhat enjoyed flying through the expanse of space…

It wasn't long after that his systems failed, and the trajectory for the missile had to be altered once more…

Thankfully, the target was so large that Tony was confident the nuke would not miss…

Three massive ships, almost the size of several cities, floating in the void of space…

The Chitauri flew out of the ship like ants, but Tony knew the ships were the True Endgame, and with Earth's current technology, there was no way they could win…

Even though Jervis was not active in space, Tony's intelligence allowed him to extrapolate the outcome should there of those ships had entered the Earth's atmosphere, and the answer was obvious…

What EARTH?!?

There would be none left…

In a twisted way, the same reason Earth is weak is also the reason it survived up until now…

The limited technology on Earth could not create a portal large enough to allow the full force of the Chitauri through…

"Haha…" Tony released a pained, hopeless, yet somewhat cheerful laugh as he released the nuke and his mind drifted into unconsciousness…

It would finally end!