Captain said as if he couldn't understand.
"-People aren't even running away and are watching the robot. Some are even crying? What's going on, are they all hypnotized or something?"
"That's... how should I explain this. Right! Captain, did you have a cherished toy when you were young?"
"-Yes, I had an airplane toy."
"Think of that cherished toy airplane coming to reality now and defeating the bad guys."
"-Ah... I understand. But this is still dangerous... Hey! Stark, don't just stand there watching, fight too!"
The Gundam shot its beam rifle and shot down a Leviathan. For the Chitauri air units flying in the sky, it fought by swatting them away with its shield like mosquitoes. When one Leviathan charged at the Gundam with a body slam, it held its ground with the shield, discarded the rifle, drew the ultrasonic vibration sword from its back, and sliced the Leviathan's head. It was a Gundam that fought pretty well. Watching that, Tony said one line.
"-The Federation's mobile suits are monsters!?"
Leaving Tony's fanboying behind, I teleported up to the top of Stark Tower. Going up, I saw Hulk holding Loki's legs and repeatedly slamming him.
Thud! Smack! Boom! Thud!
"Urk!"
A short break and
Thud! Boom! Thud! Smack! Crack!
"Gods are weaklings."
Loki was embedded in the floor, unable to move, and made a groaning sound.
"Ughhh..."
Then Hulk changed back into Banner. I ran to Banner, supported him, and asked.
"Dr. Banner, can you transform now?"
"Ugh... Did I transform again?"
"Yes, what happened?"
"Well, I was trying to somehow close the portal when Loki flew over and stabbed me with his spear. After that, I don't remember..."
"I see."
This unintentionally became like the original. Then Dr. Selvig hurriedly approached us and said.
"We need Loki's spear to close the portal."
"Understood."
I picked up the spear lying nearby, took it, and went to the Tesseract. Dr. Selvig came along, turned on the computer connected to the Tesseract, and helped stabilize the energy. It seemed preparations were done, so I said to the other team members.
"Found a way to close the portal! Should I close it now?"
Captain answered.
"-Close it!"
Tony suddenly stopped me.
"-No, wait!"
"-Stark, the enemies keep increasing."
"-A nuclear bomb is headed that way. It'll explode in 1 minute."
Frankly, I don't understand why the World Security Council launched a nuke first. What about the army? Was Manhattan that worthless? They might have been unable to make the right judgment in the unprecedented situation of an alien army invasion, but it was a bit ridiculous.
"[Master, the Gundam is under concentrated fire.]"
I looked down for a moment; numerous Chitauri flight units were surrounding the Gundam and firing beams. The Gundam was barely blocking with its shield, but it didn't seem like it could hold out much longer.
Then, I saw Iron Man flying while holding a nuclear missile. Because of this incident, Tony would suffer trauma, but there wasn't much I could do for him. Even if there was, I planned to leave it be for Tony's growth.
Iron Man used the thruster on its chest to change the missile's direction upward, grazed past Stark Tower, shot up, and went into the portal.
After a while, a bright light was seen as if a nuke had exploded in space connected to the portal. Then, the Leviathans flying in the sky and the Chitauri air units simultaneously began falling to the ground. The Chitauri race seemed to be one that had replaced most of their bodies with machines, so when the command ship disappeared, they all stopped functioning.
When the aftermath of the explosion was about to come through the portal, Captain said.
"-Jin, close the portal."
When Captain gave the signal, I stabbed the spear into the machine device maintaining the portal and stopped it. Then I pulled out the Mind Stone from the spear and put it in my inventory. As the energy maintaining the portal disappeared, the portal began to shrink and disappear.
Fortunately, Iron Man came back to Earth through the portal, but seemed to have lost consciousness, motionless and in free fall. Since there was no Hulk, I jumped from the building, caught Iron Man, slowed down by running along the building's wall, and safely landed on the road.
The members gathered at the location where Tony and I landed. Captain, seemingly worried about Tony's survival, hurriedly tore open the face part of Iron Man's helmet.
"Tony! Tony!"
When there was no response no matter how much he called, Captain, misunderstanding that Tony was dead, bowed his head with an expression of having lost a comrade. I ignored such Captain, approached Tony, tapped his chest, and said.
Thump! Thump!
"Tony, Pepper's pregnant."
"Cough! What!!??"
Tony was startled and regained consciousness.
"Just kidding. This is a surefire remedy for someone who won't come to their senses."
"Ah damn it. You're buying the drinks!"
At those words, all the members laughed. Laughing like that, Captain sat down as if tired and said.
"We won."
Tony, lying down, said.
"Yeah, we won. Good job, kids. Don't come to work tomorrow, take a day off. There's a shawarma shop two blocks from here; I've always been curious about the taste. I'll buy, let's go eat together."
Then Thor said with a dark expression.
"There's still unfinished business."
We went up to the top floor of Stark Tower and gathered in front of Loki. Loki, perhaps because the damage from Hulk remained, couldn't stand up, crawled, grabbed the stairs, and turned over with difficulty. And he said to us.
"I'll have that drink you offered now."
I poured a glass of wine and handed it to Loki. Since I'm a fan, I granted this level of request.
While watching Loki like that, SHIELD agents swarmed in, put special handcuffs on Loki's wrists, and took him away. And they also took Loki's spear, which now lacked the Mind Stone. One agent asked why the spear was like that, but I said it broke when I closed the portal.
After some cleanup, we moved to the shawarma shop as Tony wanted. That shawarma shop also seemed to have taken some damage from this incident, as the ceiling had partially collapsed. When the members started ordering food, I nudged Natasha.
"What?"
"Order chicken shawarma."
"Chicken? Why?"
"Chicken rarely fails."
"Really? Okay."
Natasha and I ordered chicken, and the other members ordered according to their preferences. As expected, the taste was not great for everyone, so they ate the shawarma without a word. Their expressions were exactly like kids forced to eat the tasteless healthy food their mom serves once in a while. Fortunately, the chicken shawarma was just passable enough to eat.
The Gundam had taken too much damage, became unable to move, and its functions stopped while kneeling on one knee. The shield was half gone, and one of the Gundam's arms and about a third of its face were also broken and missing. Since we couldn't move the huge Gundam immediately, we only took out and brought the important machinery parts separately.
The world was in an uproar due to the Chitauri army attack. Various media began interviewing survivors, and the heroic tales of the members began spreading through various mass media. Consequently, my having supernatural powers was also revealed to the world.
"Chairman Jin saved me by catching an alien just before I died. I love you, Jin!"
"Captain saved me. I really wanted to say this. Thank you for saving me."
"Black Widow is so cool."
"I have no regrets now even if I die. Because I saw a real moving Gundam."
Especially, the reaction to the Gundam was hot; despite warnings from police and firefighters that it was dangerous, many people came to see the Gundam. And before we knew it, countless flowers and candles were placed in front of the Gundam, with many thank-you signs and post-it notes attached.
The war criminal Loki and the Tesseract were transported to Asgard under Thor's supervision without any issues, thanks to Nick Fury's influence. Banner went to Stark Tower following Tony. Captain and Barton returned to the lodgings arranged by SHIELD. Natasha, of course, came to my house in New York.
I began buying back the useful company real estate shares, etc., that had become dirt cheap due to the New York incident. Of course, I also donated a certain amount for New York City's recovery costs.
When I tried to move the Gundam back to my island, the Mayor of New York City personally contacted me and asked if we could leave the Gundam in Central Park. Since I had already removed the important machinery, it seemed fine, so I moved the Gundam, in that same pose, to the spot prepared by New York City in Central Park. According to the plan to create a park within the park, they plan to erect a monument in front of the Gundam to forever commemorate the heroic tales and names of the heroes who fought. Of course, also to increase tourism revenue.
The problem was Japan; Japan also went crazy because of the Gundam. Some people even cried and fainted upon seeing a moving Gundam, which says it all. Tomino Yoshiyuki, the father of Gundam in the Marvel universe, said, 'I'm glad I lived to see this.'
That would have been heartwarming, but true to Japan's nature, they started saying crazy things like 'Gundam is ours, so we should naturally take it back' and 'Since Gundam saved America, America owes Japan.' Eventually, they even filed an international lawsuit against New York City. To hand over the Gundam.
Fortunately, I mediated and decided to donate to Japan a model of the same size made similarly to the Gundam in New York, plus the actual arm that fell off and the half shield of the Gundam that fought, so we were able to calm this situation. Bandai in the Marvel universe decided to absolutely not touch the copyright of the Gundam I make as a hobby.
And there was one more thing to handle. I moved with my bodyguards and secretaries to a place in Manhattan where recovery and Chitauri equipment collection were still ongoing. Because I received word that Executive Order 396-B was being implemented.
Simply put, it meant that extraterrestrial materials would be managed by Damage Control, a joint venture created by Stark Industries and the government. Since I hold a lot of shares in Stark Industries, my money was also involved.
The problem here was that because the announcement was too late, the workers who were already hired and working had no choice but to stop their work. The government offered some compensation, but it was significantly less money compared to the originally contracted amount, so damage was inevitable.
I had people gather the previously working workers, properly introduce them to necessary job openings, and after background checks, if there were no problems with skilled friends in this field, I placed them in Damage Control. Since it was newly formed and lacked personnel, there were no issues.
Among them were 'Adrian Toomes' and the workers he had hired.
'So he was here, as expected.'
Other people weren't needed; only Toomes and the inventor Tinkerer were necessary. Toomes later becomes the villain Vulture, and Tinkerer was the one who made his equipment. I planned to make them into Avengers. They were livelihood villains, which was pitiable, and frankly, I thought they were also just terribly unlucky. And Toomes is a caring father who loves his family. The fact that he never revealed Spider-Man's identity to the end was also one of the reasons I chose him.
'Spider-Man will grow up well on his own. He's overflowing with a sense of justice and is a good kid. And he has Stark too. Shouldn't be a problem.'
I had my secretary separately call Toomes and Tinkerer, put them in a car, and moved to a bar.
"To think I'd see you here."
Toomes and Tinkerer were quite surprised to see me.
"Let's have a drink together. The conversation seems like it'll be long."
"A drink at this hour... Anyway, sure. I have things to say too."
Then Tinkerer said.
"I'm a fan. You're my role model. The Gundam was truly moving. It's an honor to meet you like this."
Tinkerer, being an inventor, expressed excessive respect upon seeing me, the best in this field.
"You really make good stuff out of those junk parts. The problem is that they're things that already existed."
Tinkerer really made things like electric toothbrushes or razor shredders out of junk in no time. He later made equipment for Vulture and Shocker too, so he was a truly skilled person.
We entered a quiet bar, sat down, and ordered drinks. Toomes drank a glass and said.
"First, thanks. For introducing other jobs to the workers I hired. Things were really looking bleak."
Toomes drank another glass.
"But you know. I invested all my assets in this job. Bought trucks, bought equipment. How can they just unilaterally cancel a contract like that? Are the rich and the government always like that?"
I also had a drink.
"Hmm... Tough luck. Probably, since it needed to be cleaned up first, New York City hired workers without much thought. Without considering that it was extraterrestrial material. Then a government agency created a department and belatedly decided to collect it. Frankly, New York City messed up here. If they had thought a little more, they wouldn't have hired people so recklessly."
Hearing my words, Toomes sighed as if frustrated and drank another glass.
"To handle business like that. Damn it!"
"So what now?"
"Hah... Well, you'd know, right? Since you called us here."