One-shots and plot bunnies

The streets of New York had never felt so alien before. It wasn't just the chaos or the loud rumblings of destruction that filled the air—it was the sense of fear that clung to everything, like the very air was suffused with it. Rylan sprinted down the sidewalk, his sneakers slapping against the cracked concrete, barely dodging the wreckage as the world around him fell apart. Chitauri ships hovered overhead, their sleek, serpentine bodies cutting through the sky like enormous, metallic insects, raining fire down upon the city below.

"Get home," Rylan whispered to himself. "Just get home."

The shrieks of civilians echoed through the streets, and the sounds of gunfire and explosions blended into a cacophony that made his ears ring. He didn't stop to think about the destruction around him—there was no time for that. His mind was consumed by one single thought: his parents. His family. He had to get to them. He had to make sure they were alive.

He swerved around a flaming car, barely glancing at the burning wreckage before his gaze was drawn to something far worse. A man, his body mangled and twisted beyond recognition, lay sprawled on the sidewalk. Rylan swallowed hard and kept running. It wasn't the first dead body he'd seen in the past hour. It wouldn't be the last.

The sky above was a blood-red hue, a stark contrast to the usual brightness of the city. Everywhere he looked, the streets were filled with panicked people, some of them running, others too stunned to move, their eyes wide with terror as alien creatures—hideous, dark-skinned, reptilian beings—rampaged through the streets. The ground shook with every crash, every explosion, and Rylan felt as though his entire existence was quivering with each tremor.

"Please, please be safe," he muttered under his breath, his chest tightening with dread.

His legs burned from the exertion, but he didn't slow down. He couldn't. He had to get home. Had to make sure his parents were okay.

Turning the corner, he saw the familiar sight of his street, the brownstones lining the block like they always had. But this was no longer the home he remembered. The street was a warzone. Debris scattered everywhere. People ran, screaming in different directions. A woman cried out as she was dragged into the air by one of the Chitauri, her screams cutting off abruptly.

Rylan's heart pounded as he approached his house. His stomach sank, and his legs felt like they might give out beneath him as his eyes landed on the crumbling building that was once his home. His mother's laughter, his father's voice calling him for dinner, the smell of his mom's cooking—it was all gone. His house—his family's sanctuary—was nothing more than a pile of broken bricks and dust now.

"No..." The word escaped his lips in a shaky whisper. "No, no, no..."

He pushed forward, panic surging through his veins as he dashed into the wreckage. The smell of smoke and burning wood filled the air, and the ground was littered with shattered glass. A piece of the ceiling collapsed with a deafening crash as he stepped through the splintered doorframe, but he didn't stop.

"Mom? Dad?!" His voice broke as he shouted their names, the panic and desperation thick in the air around him.

He stumbled over a fallen beam, his heart hammering in his chest as he crawled deeper into the wreckage, calling for them again and again. His eyes darted over every inch of rubble, hoping, praying to see them emerge from the darkness.

But it wasn't hope that greeted him. It was the sight of his parents, trapped beneath the heavy beams that had once supported the roof of their home. His father's body was crumpled beneath the broken beams, his face pale and lifeless, eyes wide in the shock of his last moments. His mother lay nearby, her legs pinned, her hand outstretched toward him, as if she could still reach him.

Tears blurred his vision, but he didn't care. He reached for her hand, his own trembling, his breath coming in short gasps.

"Mom... Dad..." His voice was barely a whisper now, as he knelt in the rubble beside them. The weight of the world seemed to settle on his shoulders, crushing him, suffocating him.

The ground trembled beneath him once again, and this time, it wasn't just the shockwaves from the ongoing battle above. The very house itself seemed to groan and shudder, its structure compromised by the relentless attacks outside.

"No, no…" Rylan's voice caught in his throat as he scrambled to pull his mother from under the beams, but it was hopeless. The destruction was too much.

The ceiling above him cracked. He didn't even have time to scream before the final pieces of the structure gave way. The walls seemed to collapse inward all at once, and the debris came crashing down in an avalanche of stone and steel.

Everything went black.

The last thing Rylan heard before everything fell silent was the distant, booming roar of the Chitauri invasion above. But it didn't matter anymore. The world he had known, the world he had fought to save, had already crumbled. Just like the house that had been his home.

And then, the earth swallowed him whole.

No hero to save him.