Title: Demons
Author: lildreamer
Rating: T
Summary: "Monsters are real. Ghosts are real, too. They live inside us. And sometimes they win." –Stephen King
Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers, they belong to Marvel and Stan Lee.
A/N: A little something for Halloween. After you read this first part, you might be a little confused, the title being "Demons" and all. But just bear with me. It's only a prologue.
All right, on with the story…
One stared at him with cold, dead eyes. The other's eyes looked in two different directions—at him and at the ground, one eye dangling grotesquely from its socket. The looks on their pale, mutilated faces sent a chill up his spine. They were unafraid. But more than that, they were hungry.
Captain America backed away as the creatures shuffled toward him, blood and guts from their previous meal dripping from their mouths. He was starting to regret letting his teammates split up. That strategy never worked in the movies. It almost always got everyone killed. So, why did they think it would work here on the Helicarrier, which was currently overrun with zombies?
Speaking of zombies…the air shattered with a ferocious growl, jolting him out of his thoughts. He was hemmed in against a wall of the hangar bay. Too bad his shield was lying on the floor instead of in his hand.
"Uh-oh."
He felt himself picked up off his feet by the neck and slammed back into the wall. The blow took the wind out of him. He had no doubt that Dangly Eye, who he was pretty sure used to be Agent Ward, could break his neck with a single squeeze of his fingers. He reached up with both hands and grasped the undead agent's wrist in an attempt to loosen his grip but only succeeded for a moment before his pale, bony fingers wound tighter, cutting off his air.
To Steve's horror the zombie shoved his face close to his, sniffing him. He grimaced, feeling and smelling the hot, putrid air from the thing's throat as he bared a set of razor-sharp teeth.
Just as the soldier braced himself for what he knew was coming, the agent-zombie suddenly shrieked in pain, bullets tearing through his skin. He whipped around, snarling angrily at his attacker.
Black Widow stood there, guns smoking.
The other zombie moved toward the assassin, limping on a leg twisted at an awkward angle. Before she could react, a smoldering mess appeared where its head used to be. The decapitated body fell back without a twitch or a movement. A puppet whose strings had been cut.
"Nice shot, Stark," Natasha commented, reloading her guns.
Iron Man ran up behind her, followed closely by Thor.
"You're welcome."
Natasha just gave him a look, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips.
But the smile quickly disappeared when Dangly Eye roared angrily and flung Steve across the room like a rag doll. He hit the wall then the floor, landing in a crumpled heap.
"No!" the red-head assassin screamed in alarm.
Tony's eyes widened. "Cap!"
Thor growled, poised to swing Mjolnir, his eyes burning with anger.
The zombie-agent lunged toward them, undeterred by all the weapons pointed in his direction. Blasts of energy whizzed past him. He dodged them without really trying. The few that did manage to hit him only succeeded in slowing him. But it was enough. Because with a snap of Thor's arm, Mjolnir rushed toward him. The zombie fell, his head all but separated from his body.
"Way to knock his block off, Point Break."
Thor gave the billionaire a confused look.
Tony sighed. "Forget it." He turned his attention toward Steve. "Hey, you okay, Cap?"
The soldier groaned, dragging himself to his feet. He winced, his hand moving to his skull. His head was pounding. He glanced toward his teammates and his eyes widened.
He stared in horror as they emerged from the shadows of the hangar, bearing down on his teammates from behind. More zombies.
His mind was paralyzed, but only for a moment. Without a conscious thought, he grabbed up his shield and threw it at the horde of undead monsters, taking off a few heads and other body parts. They all turned, seeing the spangly shield fly by, and saw what had caught the captain's attention.
"I got this," Stark said, lifting his right hand.
Natasha ducked out of the way just in time. The beam of energy from his repulsor shot past, just inches from her head, before hitting its mark. Another zombie collapsed to the ground, a gaping hole in its chest.
The assassin jumped back to her feet, glaring at Tony. "What the hell, Stark!? You almost took my head off!"
The billionaire shrugged, smiling sheepishly beneath his helmet. "Oops."
Cap caught sight of the open door his friends had come through.
"RUN!"
He and the other three made a mad dash for the exit, shooting-throwing-swinging wildly behind them as they did, and spilled out into the corridor.
A zombie who was missing an arm and vaguely resembled Agent Sitwell made a grab for Natasha, but was stopped by an arrow drilling through his forehead. The force of the projectile kicked his head back so that he faced the ceiling. Then he collapsed in a heap.
"Thanks, Clint," she said to the archer, who'd just jumped out of an air vent.
He smiled. "How many is that you owe me now?"
Before she could answer, a chorus of shrieks echoed throughout the Helicarrier. There were more of them. A lot more.
"Head for the bridge!" Steve commanded, as they sped through the corridors.
The creatures followed in hot pursuit, joined by others who came crawling out of the woodwork—or metalwork as the case may be. All the crew, all Fury's agents, had turned into these things.
As they sped through the Helicarrier's maze of corridors, the lights began to flicker worse than before. What were those things up to?
They ran, ducking and veering around fallen beams and broken machinery, the two assassins shooting blindly at their pursuers.
"Go, go, go!" the captain yelled, letting the rest of the team run ahead of him. He kept pace behind them, watching their backs.
Along the way, they ran into the Hulk who was pounding zombies into the ground like it was no big deal. Unfortunately, he was also destroying one of the labs in the process. They helped him finish off his attackers before continuing toward the bridge.
There was a scream, like a banshee. The ghostlike cry of pain chilled Steve's blood. She screamed as if she'd been cut open, the echoes of her voice layering one upon the other as the metal walls sent the sound back and forth, back and forth, back and forth through the Helicarrier.
From out there, a legion of demons answered the woman from their haunts and hiding places, their screams long and mournful following one upon the other, rising, fading, notes clashing, echoing, echoing, echoing…
Everyone went speechless.
Except for Tony. "That can't be good."
Steve forbade himself to be afraid, but his hands were getting icy. He checked his bearings. "We're almost there! Keep moving!" He tightened his grip on his shield, and plunged onward.
They immediately spotted the thick, heavy doors a few feet ahead.
"Stark, get those doors closed!"
The billionaire genius ran ahead into the room, swept it visually, and dashed toward one of the bridge's many consoles. The others lingered behind to cover him.
The Captain and Thor stood guard outside the door while the Hulk lumbered off to find more bad guys to smash.
Natasha followed Tony inside and helped him with the controls any way she could, while also watching his back.
Footsteps and loud moans echoed through the corridors.
Clint found a hiding place up high, sank into the cover of darkness, and lay still, listening.
Stark was feverishly working away at the console when something snarled angrily behind him. He froze, his hand poised over the touchscreen.
"Uh…guys?"
The creature suddenly screamed in agony. He jumped in surprise then whirled around to see what was happening. Someone had just impaled the zombie, who used to be Agent Hill, from behind with a glowing scepter. The alien weapon retracted and she fell at Tony's feet in a pool of blood. He looked up to find Loki standing where the zombie had been, blood and guts-covered scepter in his hands.
"You must hurry!" he urged.
"Right." He turned back to the screen and input a command into the computer.
The doors began to shut.
Clint jumped down from his hiding place and ran to join his teammates, Steve and Thor not far behind.
Unfortunately, before the doors could close completely, the power suddenly cut out, sending the Helicarrier into complete darkness.
"Stark, what did you do!?"
"It wasn't me."
It didn't take long for the back-up generators to kick in. But there wasn't enough power in them to shut the doors, only to bring the lights back on.
Natasha's eyes widened.
She gasped, her eyes looking in horror over her partner's shoulder.
Clint spun around, then froze. Time stopped. His thoughts, his breath, maybe even his heart, stopped. They were surrounded.
The creatures had broken into the bridge, shrieking, hissing, eyes crazed. Several of them blocked the doors.
The archer held his bow in a death grip.
For several seconds, with tendons tightened to their limit, sweat dripping down their faces, and every breath controlled, they rotated slowly about a common center, back to back, eyes, ears, and weapons on the creatures that encircled them, looking for a way out…over, under, anywhere.
Then something monstrous stepped out from behind the hoard of zombies. Something as huge as the Hulk, but grotesquely deformed. Its right arm hung heavily at its side, extremely swollen and disturbingly out of proportion with the rest of its body. But what was even more disturbing, what none of them could keep their eyes off of, was the giant eyeball protruding from where its shoulder should be.
"What manner of beast is this?" Thor demanded.
Steve's eyes flashed with recognition when he spotted the eye-patch covering one of the creature's normal eyes. "Is that…?"
The others saw it, too.
Tony swallowed hard. "Oh, crap."
So, whaddaya think? Want more?