The Avengers were taking an absolute beating. Black Widow was on the roof of Stark Tower, but low on ammo and with no idea how to close the portal. Iron Man had taken out one of the Chitauri Leviathans but paid a heavy price and was now surrounded and outgunned on the street. Thor had recently been knocked out of the sky by that same Leviathan and was suffering from a stab wound courtesy of Loki. Captain America had just been blown out the window of a bank and he was hurting all over. Hawkeye was down to less than a half dozen arrows, soon to be a sitting duck. The Incredible Hulk was surrounded by more than twenty Chitauri cruisers who were preparing a coordinated attack.

"Director Fury, the Council has made a decision," came a cool female voice.

"I recognize the Council has made a decision, but given that it's a stupid ass decision, I've elected to ignore it."

One of the other council members responded, "Director, you are closer than any of our subs, you scramble that jet -"

"That is the island of Manhattan Councilman! Until I'm certain my team can't hold it, I will not order a nuclear strike against a civilian population."

"If we don't hold it here, we lose everything!", came the reply.

"I send that bird out we already have. I've got one more card to play Councilman. I intend to hold that island."

Nick Fury made his way back to the deck and made straight for an average sized man with salt and pepper hair sitting at a small desk off to the side. Hardly anybody had even noticed he was there.

"Do you what you need to do."

The man in the corner opened the small laptop in front of him. It wasn't a laptop at all, just a small glamour designed to hide the mirror which took the place of the screen. He spoke English, but with an accent that gave away his Swiss nationality.

"Watchmen, connect."

A reflection of his face was moved to the top left corner of the screen/mirror, which had divided itself into four rows of five spaces. Within a few seconds several of the spots were filled with outlines of people with grey hoods concealing their features facing towards him. The rest had connected and were listening, but otherwise engaged, their own mirrors successfully disguised as the face on a wristwatch.

"Overlord, Specter, I need an ETA on the two of you."

"My portkey activates in three minutes," came a muffled reply from the man code named Overlord.

"Closer to ten for me, but I'm en route," came the same muffled reply, this time from Specter.

"Copy, all of you are to maintain your cover and continue assisting in ways that don't break the Statute. Paladin, you are cleared to break the Statute, don't wear the grey."

"I have just the thing. Out."

His connection ended, and one of the others, code named Maverick, spoke up.

"Due respect sir, but I've always believed him to be the weakest member of the team, are you sure-."

He was cut off, "The order is final. Continue as commanded. Watchtower out."

The man turned back to Colonel Fury, "There's no going back from this now. I'll need to inform the higher ups in the ICW so they can get the message to the rest of the witches and wizards in the world that they are still not to break the Statute."

"Why did you tell him not to wear the standard grey uniform?"

"I thought it would help us keep it contained if he wasn't connected to The Watchmen by anybody familiar with magic that might be keeping tabs. We can portray him as one of your group in the media and hopefully non-magicals will think him to be the only one with his ability. Though I'm sure explaining magic to children born to non-magicals will soon be much more interesting."

After a few moments, Colonel Fury finally said, "I'll help smooth it over in any way that I can. Thank you for being willing to help us."

"Don't think me yet, Colonel. This could all be for naught."

The Huntsmen codenamed Maverick, a California born American wizard, scowled before looking over at Voodoo, a female Huntsmen and the only other American in the unit, who is crouching a few feet away but facing the opposite direction.

"I can't believe he's sending in Paladin. That guy's a joke."

"You're wrong," she replies simply.

His ego dictates that he respond, but she cuts him off before he can get started, "I'm a sensor. I can literally feel how powerful a magical object or person is by being in their presence. You register at roughly 4.2 flamels correct?"

"Yeah, usually a little lower, why?

"He registers at 12.1 flamels."

"But the scale only goes 10."

She turns to face him and says simply, "It used to only go to 10. He works harder to not overpower spells than you do to power them." She turns away and casts another wind charm which blows some debris slightly off course and saves a woman and her son huddled down a block away.

Hawkeye reached back to grab another arrow, but there wasn't one. He slashed across the chest of the Chitauri attacker in front of him before giving him a swift kick off the roof. He turned to see a host of cruisers heading his way. He grabbed an arrow lodged in the chest of a nearby Chitauri footsoldier and turned away from them to see if he could find a way out. He took one last look over his shoulder and froze. Out of the corner of his eye he saw somebody dressed in all crimson. The person held a six foot tall black wooden staff in their right hand, they lifted it about a foot off the ground, then smashed it down. A bluish blob flies out of the staff towards the incoming host and right in the middle of them, it explodes. The whole group is blown out of the sky.

The person in red turns towards Hawkeye and takes the arrow out of his hand. It took a few moments for Hawkeye to realize the person wasn't holding the staff anymore, it was just standing upright on its own. With a snap of the wrist, a small, light brown stick appears in the person's hand. A whispered "geminio" confirmed the person to be a man, but more importantly, all of the sudden there were dozens more arrows in front of him. The man in red looked up and for the first time, Hawkeye noticed that he wore a white mask that had two red lines that stretched like tears from the corners of the eyes to the corners of the mouth. Under his crimson robes, he wore a white vest with a black crest over his heart. He had a hood pulled up over of the sides and back of his head."

"These arrows should last you quite awhile. Your Director Fury sent me, please tell the others that I'm friendly."

Hawkeye nodded slowly, "I'll pass it along, but Thor and the Hulk aren't in contact."

"Good enough. Happy hunting."

And with a soft crack, he vanished.

Tony Stark was being overwhelmed, but he could vaguely make out Hawkeye informing them that there was a new friendly who had entered the arena. Tony blasted a few more Chitauri, but the numbers gave them an advantage that he just couldn't overcome. Then there was a flash of silver and the heads rolled off of three of the foot soldiers. There was only a blur of red with flashes of silver as Iron Man's savior pressed his attack. The body count ended up a more than a dozen, but Tony didn't know the exact number. When it was done, the man in red crossed his two swords behind his back in an X and they vanished. He reached down to help Iron Man to his feet. Before Tony could get a word in, another Leviathan appeared and the man disappeared with a soft crack.

Tony was getting prepared to go on the attack again when a large force hit the beast on its left side and traveled right through it, breaking the monster in half. Tony looked up and to his right and on the roof of a nearby building, he saw the man in red again. The man's hands were held out in front of him and he made a pushing motion away, suddenly both pieces of the Leviathan were pushed out into the East River where the promptly sank. When he looked back to the rooftop, the man in red was gone.

More than two dozen cruisers were in on the attack against The Hulk. He couldn't move. There was no break in the attack. Suddenly there was a roar of thunder and the attack stopped. The Hulk saw the last of the lightning dissipate and he could smell the burned flesh of the Chitauri who were on the receiving end of the attack. When the smoke cleared, he saw a figure on the rooftop across the street, dressed in all red. The figure gave a small nod, then vanished. Hulk turned, and began looking for something else to smash.

Thor and Captain America were battling against a group of foot soldiers when Captain America took a hit to the stomach that flattened him. Thor turned to defend his downed ally when a man in red appeared on a car in front of him. The person dropped to a knee and reached into his robe toward a pocket in the vest. He pulled out five knives and threw them straight up into the air. After just a second, they quickly changed directions and made straight for the advancing Chitauri. Five knives were embedded in five eyes and the soldiers all fell.

Thor threw his hammer at the last advancing soldier and ended the threat. He turned to help Captain America to his feet, but the man in red already beat him to it. At that moment the Black Widow spoke through the transmitter.

"I can close it. Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down."

Before he could respond the man in red cut in, "Hold."

Captain America looked shocked, "These things are still coming!"

"I know," came the calm reply, "Tell Iron Man I need a lift and have him pick me up the landing pad at Stark Tower. It's time to go on offense."

"And how exactly do you plan on getting there?"

"Like this."

And with a soft crack he disappeared. Captain America snuck a peek at Thor, who seemed deep in thought.

Thor looked directly at the Captain, "Trust the seidhr, relay both messages."

And so, he did.

Stark was there just a few seconds after the man in red arrived.

"So, what's the plan."

"I need you to take me up to the opening of the portal. I'll take care of the rest."

"Simple enough." He grabbed the robes at the bottom of the hood and pushed towards the sky. When they got to the opening of the portal, the man had a stick in both hands. One was light brown, the other completely white. With a simple flick of the white wand there was suddenly a thin metal plate, five feet in diameter, floating in the air. Iron Man lower the man on to the plate.

He looked to Iron Man, "Thank you for the assist. You'll want to be quite a bit away from here, tell the one with the scepter to close the portal as soon as the fire stops."

"What fire?"

"Trust me, you'll know." There's a small pause. "Seriously, back far away."

Iron Man does as requested. The man in red points both his wants straight up into the portal. He flexes his arm down to ninety degrees and simultaneously cries out "Ignis Irae!" Flames pour out of both wands and even envelop his entire upper body. He holds it for ninety seconds and the flames of his Fiendfyre attack everything in the atmosphere above him eventually making it to the mothership and destroying it. All the Chitauri on earth immediately collapse. The man in red gets to the point that he literally can't force any more magic out of his body. He is dizzy and woozy but has the presence of mind to snap both wants back into the holsters on his wrists.

Black Widow sees the flames stop and uses the scepter to close the portal. Iron Man notices the man on the silver plate start leaning, then he falls to a knee and finally tumbles off the plate. Tony takes off in pursuit, Fury begins barking in his ear.

"Get there Stark! You have to get there!"

"I'm giving it everything I have Fury, but I'm too far away, I'll never make it."

The deck of the helicarrier is silent except for Fury shouting at Stark. When he hears Stark's assessment, he turns back to the man from earlier.

"Can you do anything to break that fall?"

"With that kind of momentum?" It's only a whisper, "No, no I don't think so."

As the falling man starts to pass between buildings a green blob streaks out across the sky and catches him before falling to the ground. The man quickly opens his laptop.

"Voodoo connect."

"This is Voodoo," comes the reply.

"Get there. Now. Out."

Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, and the Hulk are all standing around the man in red unsure of what to do. Captain kneels down and reaches towards the man to try and find a pulse, but a female voice behind him interrupts him.

"Hold."

A figure steps out of the shadows in a matte grey robe with her hood pulled over her head. Her face is hidden in the shadows.

It's Tony Stark who responds, "And you are?"

"Huntsmen codename Voodoo. I've been ordered to provide medical assistance for our mutual friend." She gestures towards the man in red and begins to step forward, but stops at the tone of Captain America.

"Not another step ma'am. I'll need an ID challenge first." He pauses long enough for Fury to tell him the information over the coms. "Code in, eagle."

"Response, whiskey."

"She's clear, do your work ma'am."

She kneels down, a stick suddenly in her hand and begins to mutter under her breath. After the longest ninety seconds of anybody's life, she looks down to her watch.

"Watchtower connect." When Scherzinger's face pops up on her screen she starts.

"He's in a bad way, wounds to the left shoulder and shin and right side, mostly superficial, but it's a terrible case of exhaustion. He'll probably be out of action for a while. I need to move him." There's a reply, but the magic keeps the Avengers from hearing it. "Roger. Out."

She looks up at the Avengers, and you can hear the emotion in her voice. "He'll live." The second part of her statement was barely more than a whisper.

"Thank God." She took his right hand in both of hers and disappeared with a crack.