SECTION II: THE FIRST BRIEFING
ERNEST ANASTOS
WNYW NEWS ALIVE AT FIVE, MANHATTAN STUDIOS
The studio lights were usually set up to wash out the imperfections of the anchor desk, but tonight, the glare just highlighted the deep, human relief etched into Ernest Anastos’s face.
Behind him, the digital backdrop wasn’t a looping graphic of the Manhattan skyline; it was a static, high-resolution helicopter camera feed of Midtown, dominated by a massive plume of dark gray smoke that was still drifting sluggishly over the East River.
“We’re live again in ten seconds Ernie!” His producer informed him.
He didn’t look at the camera just yet, he was staring down at a stack of unformatted wire sheets, his finger tracing a line of text that had been vetted by three separate federal bureaus before it hit his desk.
“We’re on air in 5! 4!” She held up her hand to finish the countdown silently so the cameras wouldn’t accidently hear the end of her countdown.
When he finally lifted his chin, his voice filled with the performative baritone of a seasoned broadcaster.
It was warm, steady, and filled with the profound gravity of a lifelong New Yorker who knew just how close the city had come to the edge.
“Good evening once again New York. If you are just joining us, the federal government has officially upgraded the evacuation order for the district of Midtown Manhattan to a Level Five mandatory exclusion zone, The bridges and tunnels remain closed to all civilian traffic, and the National Guard has established a perimeter at the canal.”
He cleared his throat, pausing as if to build up to something.
“For the past fourteen hours, this station, along with every major news outlet across the globe, has struggled to find the words to describe the events that transpired over our city yesterday afternoon, at approximately eleven-fifteen yesterday morning, the human race experienced its first verified contact with an extraterrestrial force.”
The screen split, throwing up a grainy, shaky piece of cell phone footage taken from the roof of a parking garage on 42nd Street.
The camera tilted wildly upward, catching the massive, iridescent blue tear in the sky above Stark Tower, before panning down to catch a wave of armored flying chariots cutting through the low clouds.
“Military officials from the Pentagon have confirmed that the hostile force, identified by the government as the Chitauri, was an extraterrestrial military threat operating under the command of an off-world aggressor. According to a statement released by Stark Industries, the portal opened above Midtown functioned as a gateway into a separate region of space, and was opened by the extraterrestrial terrorist who identified himself as Loki.”
As Ernie spoke, the image behind him shifted again.
A still photograph of Loki filled the screen, taken in Munich only days earlier, he stood above a terrified crowd gathered in a public square, dressed in emerald and golden armour that looked more ceremonial than practical, though no less menacing for it. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
His expression was cold, proud, and utterly without remorse, the long sceptre in his hand angled toward the people kneeling before him.
From his helmed head, like a devil rose two long curved horns, giving him the appearance of something less like a man and more like an old nightmare pulled forward into the modern world.
Ernie paused, his eyes moving to the next paragraph before he continued, and when he spoke again his tone had softened into something quieter, steadier, and more openly grateful.
“Despite the devastation caused by what has now been confirmed as an extraterrestrial assault, the actions of the group known as the Avengers have given many Americans not only comfort, but something even harder to come by in the wake of attacks like this: hope. Hope that we are not helpless, hope that we are not alone in our defense, and hope that humanity may yet prove capable of protecting itself from threats that, until yesterday, belonged only to fiction.”
The graphic behind him changed once more, now displaying a montage of photographs and civilian footage captured from apartment windows, subway entrances, police dashboards, and phones held in shaking hands from behind overturned cars.
“While some members of this coalition remain partially shrouded in mystery, several of the names associated with Manhattan’s defense are already known to the public. At the forefront of the battle was the controversial billionaire Anthony Stark, deploying his Iron Man armor. Fighting beside him was a figure government sources have now verified as Captain Steven Rogers, the decorated war hero known to history as Captain America, a man long believed to have died in service during the Second World War, and who has now, in the most extraordinary fashion imaginable, returned when his country needed him most.”
Ernie looked directly into the camera, and although his voice returned to something more professional, it could not quite conceal the wonder still moving beneath it.
“The Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division or as it is more commonly known, S.H.I.E.L.D. has also released a statement identifying the most of the remaining defenders involved in the battle for Manhattan as Natasha Romanoff, known in intelligence circles as Black Widow; Clint Barton, the marksman known as Hawkeye…Thor, described by federal authorities as an Alien Prince sent here to apprehend the Alien Terrorist known as Loki; and a previously unknown enhanced combatant being referred to as Green Lantern.”
At the mention of Green Lantern, the camera cut away from Ernie to a rolling sequence of footage gathered from across the city.
The first clip showed a streak of emerald light racing low between the buildings of Midtown, weaving through smoke and falling debris with impossible speed.
The second showed the same glowing figure lifting trapped civilians from the upper floors of a burning office building inside a construct shaped like a massive green platform.
Another video, filmed shakily from a street corner showed him carrying an entire city bus clear of a collapsing overpass before setting it down gently among a crowd of stunned survivors.
In another clip, he flew through the air above Park Avenue, scanning rooftops and shattered intersections before diving sharply toward a trapped family pinned beneath rubble, only to reappear seconds later with all of them held securely inside a cocoon of hard green light.
Ernie continued over the footage.
“Witnesses throughout Manhattan have described Green Lantern as a one-man search-and-rescue operation moving across the island at incredible speed, pulling civilians from collapsed structures, redirecting debris, shielding evacuation routes, and assisting police and first responders wherever the fighting was heaviest. Multiple eyewitness accounts also place him in direct combat against the invading force, engaging hostile aircraft, erecting barriers to protect fleeing civilians, and taking part in the final effort that prevented further reinforcements from entering the city.” This chapter was copied from NovelPing without permission.
The montage shifted again.
Thor appeared next, captured in fragments of impossible weather and blinding light.
In one clip he stood atop a crushed taxi as lightning exploded downward around him, scattering Chitauri troops through an intersection.
In another, he hurtled through the sky with his hammer in hand, striking one of the enormous alien leviathans hard enough to send it crashing through the side of a building.
Another piece of footage, taken from several blocks away, showed him suspended in a storm of his own making, hammer raised as forked lightning tore across the skyline above Manhattan.
The footage widened into a final montage, giving the audience not just a look at the battle, but at its defenders in motion.
Iron Man tore across the sky between towers of smoke and glass.
Captain America pulled survivors from a ruined bus while pointing firefighters toward a safer route.
Black Widow vaulted across broken concrete with one stolen alien weapon in each hand.
Hawkeye stood alone on a rooftop, loosing arrow after arrow into the invasion below, in some of the footage, all of them in some way shape or form where enshrouded in green light.
Ernie’s voice returned over the images, low and steady.
“Whatever questions remain about their origins, their authority, or the means by which they came together, one fact is no longer in dispute. These individuals did not flee when New York came under attack; they stood their ground, they fought for this city, and by every account currently available, they helped save it.”
Ernie allowed the final images of the Avengers to remain onscreen before turning toward the camera once more.
“Across New York tonight, survivors are beginning to describe their encounters with the Avengers and the extraordinary green energy that spread throughout Manhattan during the battle’s final moments, for more on those accounts, we now go live to Marisa Delgado at an emergency relief centre in Downtown Manhattan.”
The studio disappeared from the broadcast, replaced by the crowded southern end of Foley Square beneath portable floodlights and flashing emergency vehicles.