Summary: When an unlikely trio are called upon to join the Avengers, they bring with them news of an upcoming war on earth. Lakshmi leads this group, born with the ability to create illusion with his mind. Unfortunately the only one who seems to be able to get close to him is the resident God Of Thunder. Is thunder the only way to shatter the ice around his heart? Set post Avengers ThorxOC
Warnings: Swearing, violence, blood and sexual references Rated M because I like to swear. A lot. And there WILL be lemons approaching. Don't like it, I don't care.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers or any of the Marvel characters. Although we all wish we did. Because I would have all of the male Avengers in my basement as my sex slaves :)
Started: 6/6/12
Challenge: If you can tell me the title of the song I use for each chapter title in a review and the name of the artist, I will send you a snippet of the next chapter, the size of the snippet varying in length depending on how impressed I am with your review.
"Normal speech"
"Animals talking. Only Lakshmi and other animals can understand this"
Memories, thoughts or dreams. Occasionally emphasis on words.
Last Time
They both collapsed onto the bed, sated, sticky and exhausted. Lakshmi was a complete mess; his hair splayed everywhere and covered in sweat and cum dripping off his chest and Thor was just as messy. Basically, they both looked thoroughly shagged.
"What was that language?" Thor panted. "Because that was so erotic it should be against every realms law," Thor turned his head to look at his now lover, only to see he was fast asleep. Thor gave a chuckle and grabbed a discarded sock to clean them up a little, before bundling Lakshmi up to his chest and covering them with the sheets.
"Love you Thor," he heard Lakshmi murmur sleepily. Surprised, he saw the man smile in his sleep, and watched how young it made his with a certain amount of pride.
"I love you too, little one," Thor replied, hugging the man tightly to him before joining him in his slumber.
Chapter Eight
Nothing Is Sweeter Than Needed Revenge
*Lakshmi's room. 12:15pm*
Lakshmi awoke not much later on in the day feeling shagged out. He didn't ache; no he was too old for sex to still hurt for him, and even after sex pain was nothing to some of the pains he had endured, but he had a nice warm, relaxed sort of feeling. Thor was snoring quite loudly next to him, laid sprawled out across the bed. Lakshmi's lips quirked into one of his almost smiles, and he slipped out of bed and tiptoed to the bathroom.
He peered at himself in the mirror. He had quite a few hand shaped bruises on his body and a large number of hickeys around his throat area. His hair was sticking out randomly in all directions, and with the length of his hair, it made him look like he'd been electrocuted.
Turning on the shower and slipping into it, he gave an almost feline hiss as the water hit the various hickeys on his body.
"Damn it Thor... I said I don't mind a few bruises, I didn't mean try to eat me bit by bit," he muttered irritably to himself as he grabbed a scrubber and lathered it with soap. He scrubbed his body free of the accumulated grime and was attempting to get a difficult spot on his back when he felt Thor's massive arms encase him. He didn't jump; he'd heard Thor enter the bathroom, but he was a little surprised Thor had got in the shower with him.
"I could help you with that...?" he purred in Lakshmi's ear. Lakshmi gave a very pronounced shiver and leaned back against Thor's chest.
"Please do," he replied, leaning forward and placing his palms against the shower wall and bearing his back to the thunder god, sweeping his long hair over one shoulder. Thor scrubbed at his back in sensuous circles, his intentions painstakingly obvious, but he felt oddly mischievous and decided to play innocently oblivious. When Thor was done he stood up and made to leave the shower, only to find his front pressed up against the shower was and a tongue laving at the nape of his neck. Lakshmi gave a light purr and went to move his hands to caress Thor's sides. Thor was having none of this however, and pinned Lakshmi's hands above his head.
"I'm going to enjoy this," Thor growled, "And you will too." quivering at the silent promise, Lakshmi pressed his forehead against the cold tiles of the shower and purred low and deep in his throat. Oh yes, he was most certainly going to enjoy this.
*Southern Mountains, Japan, 12:52 Local Time*
A pale predawn light filtered in through the large window. The room was sparsely furnished, but well done, and what furniture there was clearly of Japanese design, and most of it looked old, and there were clear signs of repair to a lot of it. The people who lived there had clearly been there for quite some time, and hadn't visited any nearby villages of cities to get profession furniture repair or replacements. A small furry animal was splayed out of the window sill, snoring softly in its sleep.
At about the size of a cat, it had long hanging ears tinged a deep pink colour, a long furry tail also tinged pink and an elegant feline body shape. It snuffled slightly in its sleep, then swished its long tail around out of the shade and into the patch on sunlight in which it slept.
There was a loud series of bangs and a white furred canine creature about the size of a horse stumbled into the room. On the back of its head and neck and the joint at where his leg met its body were large cobalt blue feathers growing out of the white fur. A pair of large blue feathered wings grew from its shoulder blades, and large dark blue eyes darted around excitably. A long tail of deep blue feathers was raised in excitement and a blue tongue was lolling out of its mouth as it panted.
"Sammie!" it barked in an exited voice. It ran over to the dozing animal on the window sill. "Sammie, wake up!" the voice was slightly more impatient this time. Still the animal slept on. "Wake up you lazy bitch!" it snapped, annoyed now. When the animal continued to sleep, the canine growled impatiently and smacked the animal on the top of the head.
"Ah, fuckin' bitch!" the animal snapped furiously, bolting upright and its fur bristling out in a rather comical manner. "Alex! What the hell?!" she snapped. The canine, Alex, raised an eyebrow, uncaring.
"Get your lazy ass up!" Alex snapped, annoyed at her friend.
"Correction: sexy, lazy ass," Sammie quipped, smirking as she leapt off the windowsill, phasing into a small human as she jumped. Completely naked, and clearly not caring, she had an impish face, with a messily short cut patch of white hair with a jagged strip of a shade of almost hot pink down the left side. It had clearly been home cut, as it hung at varying and haphazard lengths all over her head, the longest strands only reaching her shoulders. She still had the long ears, now hanging to about her waist, and the long tail that lightly brushed the floor.
"Get dressed," Alex groaned, covering her eyes with a paw. Sammie chuckled and waved her hips from side to side.
"Naw, you can't get enough of this sexy ass," she joked, but skipped off merrily out the room anyway. Alex gave an exasperated groan but ran after her friend anyway, phasing into her own human form. A taller human female with the feathers and wings still place, and the upright crest of feathers in place of hair. She grabbed a pair of loose white linen trousers and a loose white button down shirt and threw them on as she ran after her friend, who appeared; leaning on the doorway dressed the same.
"So... what's the emergency?" Sammie asked casually, moving through the living room to see if there was any food to be found nearby.
"I've gotten a message," Alex said, running her hand through the feathers on her head.
"Oh, from someone you had hot sex with?" Sammie joked. Alex smirked.
"Oh, obviously," she said in a voice dripping with sarcasm. "No, it was from Lakshmi."
"Oh, the little gay boy?"
"That's the one," Alex said, shaking her head exasperatedly.
"What did he want? Did he finally see from our point of view and take up our offer to have hot sex with us?" Sammie purred, picking up an apple from the food bowl and taking a huge bite out of it. Alex shook her head and sighed.
"Get your mind out of the gutter."
"Aw, but the gutter is so much fun!" Alex chose to ignore this, and opted to answer her first question.
"He's assembling an army. I got the message just," Sammie's eyes glinted manically.
"Oh, sound like fun, we gonna go?"
"Pft, yeah. I've already called up and assembled some of the locals here on earth."
"Oh! Sounds like a party! Who's invited?" Sammie asked, tossing the apple core towards the bin and jumping up in mock celebration when it went in.
"Misfit and Mayhem," Alex began, counting them up on her fingers.
"The sexy twins? Delicious."
"Elak," she held up a third finger.
"Grr, don't like the pissy, crippled old nurse. She doesn't like me either." Sammie pouted.
"Tailless,"
"Mmm, lots of sexy men so far."
"Razor,"
"Oh, the strong, silent, sexy ninja."
"Tiberius,"
"Christ, not that psychopath."
"And a few others of whom I can't remember the names," Alex finished; clearly a little peeved at her friends interruptions, if not surprised at all.
"Well then, let's get going! We have to get all the way to America! Let's go give Lakshmi his army!" Sammie crowed, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet, clearly full of a manic buzzing energy.
Some things never change, Alex thought ruefully, moving to pack. She would miss the nice Japanese mountain forest they'd settled themselves in. But she was sure all the exiting things were happening out in America, so that's where they'd be heading. Fun Times lay ahead!
*Armoury in Avengers HQ, Three days later, 12:01*
"What do you suppose is keeping Thor and Lakshmi?" Bruce asked curiously, tapping his fingers against the cold metal table he was leaning against. Three days had passed since Phil's return and the plans and battle schematics had been drawn up, much to Lakshmi's irritation they had decided to wait. Now it was time to leave and the Avengers were all assembled. Well, almost all the Avengers. Everyone but Thor and Lakshmi had showed, which was odd because they were normally the most punctual in the group. For them to be late was virtually unheard of.
"Probably shagging upstairs," Tony joked from behind his Iron Man mask, not having a clue how close he actually was to the truth. Everyone was suited and armed, and were just waiting for the last two. The other of the Asgardians were present, Loki even bearing his helmet which Tony had make a many number of joke about.
"Should I go up and get them?" Pill asked, looking around worriedly. He wasn't going to be joining them, but it was at least his job to make sure they didn't all kill each other before they'd even left the building, and to assure none of them chough*Tony*chough decided to 'vanish' or 'mysteriously' fall ill prior to the mission.
"Nah, any idea what could be keeping your brother Rudolph?" Tony asked, turning to an indignant Loki. Loki's eye twitched slightly at his newly acquired nickname, but he merely shrugged noncommittally
"No idea," he sighed, lifting his hands to highlight his cluelessness.
"You got any ideas?" he looked at Sa'ar and Anubis. They were both newly kitted out with top of the range Kevlar armour, Sa'ar had a deadly looking sickle shaped blade in his beak, and Anubis had a two bladed sword in his jaws. With their weapons in their mouths they couldn't speak, but they both shrugged to show they hadn't a clue, Sa'ar sort of half lifting his wings to mimic a shrug.
"Sorry we're late!" a breathless voice called from the doorway, and Lakshmi and Thor came rushing though. Thor was wearing his full Asgardian armour and holding his hammer in his hand. Lakshmi was wearing a jet black tight fitting suit make out of some flexible, rock hard looking hide, with metal plates of an obsidian coloured metal on his thighs, shins, forearms, chest and back, and a matching helmet to go with it. He held a long black and red hand-and-a-half sword in his left hand, and he was tucking his hair away with the right. It was Thor that had spoken, as Lakshmi looked neither out of breath nor concerned of any discord he caused, merely opting to quietly take his place amongst the fold without saying a word.
Bruce looked a little irritated, as he was the only one of the Avengers who looked as though he wasn't going into battle. This was because Bruce's powers were on a strictly 'only when absolutely necessary' basis, as the Hulk had a habit of destroying things he was supposed to be protecting, more often than not killing innocent civilians or soldiers accidentally. Lakshmi noticed this and use his illusions to calm Bruce. He liked the man, and in his own unique way, wanted him to be as happy and relaxed as possible. He saw the tension drain from the man, and he shot an appreciative glace at Lakshmi, who nodded in understanding.
"Are we going to go then?" Loki asked impatiently from his corner, fingering the blade of his staff. He'd been given it back under strict instruction he was to give it back after the mission. Of course Fury didn't exactly know about this. The Avengers trusted him - to a reasonable degree of course - but they hadn't actually gotten around to telling Fury the God of Mischief was living here. There was a general murmur of consent and they all moved to the door, or in Anubis's, Sa'ar's, Tony's and Thor's case the window, and prepared to leave.
"Good luck," Phil called as they all left, leaving him on his own in a now empty armoury, aside from a professor Banner who was still leaning on the table looking grim.
"Yeah, if it all goes well I won't have to Hulk," he said grimly, standing up and leaving slowly. "I'll be in the lab if you need me. Hopefully you won't," and on that rather depressing note, he left, Phil following not far behind, going to go complete the mountain of paper work that was building on his desk. Oh joy.
*Unable to specify location, device interfering with satellites. 13:46pm*
Lakshmi pressed himself into the wall and vanishing without sound or effect as the Jageia passed down the corridor. It was as though he had never been. Smirking to himself as he saw the animals pass, he waited a brief moment until they were gone and dropped his illusion. The illusion of not being was a difficult one to maintain as there were so many factors to think about to make it work at all, so he could only really use it for brief periods of time when standing completely still. Invisibility and silence were easy enough, but Jageia had many other ways of finding him. The list was huge.
When the animals had vanished down the corridor he continued on his way. His job was a stealth mission; hack the hard drive and steal all of their data whilst the Avengers kept them busy with the fighting on the bottom floor. He had the nagging feeling something was wrong, but foolishly opted to ignore it as he ran to the control room, following the smell of warm wires and electricity; the tell tale scents of computer equipment. The building shook momentarily and he briefly heard a few notes of one of Tony's AC/DC songs from the lower floors.
'What was that?' he asked over the coms.
'Nothing important Rapunzel, get moving' came Tony's quipped reply. Lakshmi rolled his eyes and continued down the corridor, veering left up a flight of stairs when he head pawsteps heading towards him.
He jumped the steps two at a time, his breaths coming in short controlled bursts. He felt the air get colder. Distinctly colder. Something's wrong! A voice screamed in his mind, but his desire for revenge completely doused his reason and he ignored the voice, not even noticing when his breath became visible and ice had begun to accumulate on the steps in small gritty patches.
He met no one on the steps and followed them all the way up to the very top of the building where he knew the control room to be. He should have registered this as something wrong, but the thought of revenge was clouding his judgement, making him hasty.
He burst through the door at the end of the staircase into what was supposed to be the control room, only to find a huge empty room spanning the whole of the top floor. The room was freezing. The temperature was way below zero, and Lakshmi began to shiver. Huge ice formations were climbing the walls, and a light covering of snow covered the floor.
Once more ignoring reason he ventured slowly into the room, carving fresh tracks into the virgin snow. Something was wrong, terribly wrong. There was a musky scent in the room, and it was hauntingly familiar.
"It's been a while Lakshmi," a slick voice purred. Whipping around he saw the Ice Varna, Zostar, perched atop a huge ice boulder, and he felt his stomach plummet. He should have seen it coming. He had way too much information for them to be accidental leaks. His desire for revenge had made him hasty and clumsy. And now the Avengers were all going to have to pay the price for his stupidity.
"It certainly has Zostar. Still stalking small children's nightmares?" he asked coldly. Zostar chuckled and jumped off the boulder. He was in his human form, yet he looked no less intimidating.
He was dressed this time, his attire similar to Lakshmi's but in shades of blue and white. He unsheathed a scimitar with an ice blue blade and twirled it in the air and watched the blade with an air of fascination; like a child in reverence of a new toy.
"You know... I'm not supposed to kill you. But the moment was just so... perfect, I just couldn't resist the idea of watching your blood pouring out over the ground," a manic light was dancing in the Ice Varna's eyes, and Lakshmi visibly shuddered. He knew the Ice Varna to be completely insane, but it never failed to scare him with just how far gone the animal was. No matter how hard he'd tried, he couldn't rescue him from the clutches of insanity... because the truth was, he enjoyed it. Lakshmi couldn't rescue a man who refused to grab the rope no matter how hard he tried.
"Zostar, please!" he begged. "I know you! This… madness, isn't all you are!" Lakshmi was starting to tense, subconsciously slipping into a fighting stance and his hand drifted slowly to his sheathed sword. Zostar noticed this; jumping onto him so fast his barely caught the movement. He hit the snowy ground with a whomph and a puff of snow. Zostar pressed the sharp of his sword against his open mouth and sat cross-legged on the Illusion Master's chest.
"At ta ta ta!" he cried, pressing the blade at little harder against his cheeks as the hand moved towards the blade once more. "That's better," Zostar purred, easing the tension slightly on the blade and shifting into a more comfortable position. "Now," he said in a more business like tone, "Personally, I'm not too bothered if you live or die," he removed the blade from Lakshmi's mouth and moved it so it rested on his chin instead, allowing Lakshmi to speak.
"We both know that's a lie," the Illusion master spat vehemently. Zostar shook his head.
"No, blunt honesty there. I personally enjoy playing with you. I've enjoyed our game of cat and mouse down throughout the millennia. Bing and Immortal is such a bore unless there's something to fill the time."
"You continue to surprise me after all these years," Lakshmi sighed in a distinctly weary way, falling slack against the snow.
"But," he pressed, a manic glint flaring even more in his eyes. "If you are to die, I want to be the one that kills you," he cocked his head to one side and looked appraisingly down at his prey. "And it seems our game is drawing to a close. Morpheus wants you dead, and he normally gets what he wants. SO… I'm afraid I have to kill you." He stoked the blade of his scimitar across Lakshmi's throat.
"He won't win. And neither will you," he lurched his hips forward and kicked Zostar square in the chest, sending the Ice Varna flying across the room.
He drew his sword and flipped himself to his feet, assuming a fighting stance and snarling like a feral animal.
"HAHAHA! Looks like you're going to make this fun for me Lakshmi!" he crowed, laughing like a maniac. He whipped his scimitar through the air and charged, waving it around so fast Lakshmi had trouble keeping his eyes on it, which was the plan he was sure.
Ducking under the swinging blade he retaliated with a sweeping slash at Zostar's belly, only to have the psychopath jump back and slam the flat of his blade against Lakshmi's helmet.
It did nothing to harm the Kaame, yet it dazed him enough to allow Zostar a brief opening. He charged again, darting around to hide his true objective.
It was instinctual, yet it was a huge mistake. Lakshmi threw out an illusion of a blinding light in a bid to protect himself instead of raising his arms or dodging.
The blade sliced straight across his stomach, from his right hip to left shoulder. Lakshmi screamed out in agony over Zostar's crazed laugh.
"Your tricks can't fool a shattered mind Lakshmi!" the Ice Varna howled, eyes glowing as he watched his opponent bleeding out over the floor, blade inches from his fingers were it had fallen. He sauntered over, raising his head above his head to strike a killing blow.
"No. But you forget one thing…." Lakshmi panted, eyes glittering dangerously.
"Oh? And what is that?" he purred, dropping into a crouch next to Lakshmi's bleeding body.
"We were both trained by a psychopath." He breathed out. Zostar registered his meaning milliseconds to late, just as sharpened canines sank into his exposed throat.
Lakshmi closed his eyes tight as he bit as hard as he could on Zostar's windpipe, trying his hardest not to think about the fact he enjoyed the taste. The building rumbled as the fighting below reached its intensity, but Lakshmi hardly registered it.
He stood up, blood running down his face, looking down at the corpse of his once best friend. He felt a loss, deep and raw, and it burned with a low fire in his stomach.
"I'm sorry Zostar…" he sighed, turned round with a swift intent to the door. He would send Morpheus to his death. He had driven Zostar to this.
Had he left the room a few seconds later, he would have seen Zostar staggering to his feet, blood streaming down his throat, murder written in his eyes.
*Location still unknown*
The fighting was raging on the bottom most floor of the tower.
Iron Man ducked and sent a blast at the Jageia that had flown over his head. The animal flew across the room and git the opposite wall. Its fur was smoking slightly, but it stood up, completely uninjured.
All of the Avengers were having a similar problem. They could hit these creatures with bullets or hammer, energy blasts, but nothing seemed to be able to do any damage.
Only Anubis's teeth and claws had been able to split their hide, and he was leaving a trail of red behind him as he fought. But he was beginning to tire, and when he was down they would have to form of attack.
Clint was on top of a bookshelf in the far corner, firing arrows at anything that wasn't a SHIELD agent or an Avenger.
"THOR!" Iron Man bellowed, punching a Malainos in the beak, sending the metal bird soaring though the air.
"WHAT?" Thor bellowed back, giving his hammer an almighty swing, hitting the oncoming Jageia so hard it was actually hit through the wall, leaving a good sized hole and a great deal of rubble behind it.
"How do we kill these things?! We can only fight like this for so long!" he panted, ducking as what appeared to be a mace flew through the air. Only when it hit the opposite wall with a sickening squelch did he realise it was a Jageia head.
"Bite 'em!" Anubis howled, before launching himself at a Jageia that had been making a b-line for the Black Widow and grabbing hold of its tails and pulling at them to rip out its spine.
Tony let out a yell of annoyance and shot another energy blast at a passing Malainos.
The clamour of battle was drowned out by the sound of what seemed like a conch horn.
"PLAY TIME!" two voices called out in a sing song tone, and two black flashes shot in through the hole in the wall, swiftly followed by an odd assortment of various creatures.
"Misfit, Mayhem!" Anubis called happily as the black flashes ran through the battle, cutting the throats of any enemies they passed.
Chaos had erupted now. Blood was flying as the new recruits attacked, and the Avengers were pushed back to the sidelines, pushing any attempting to flee back into the throng.
Biting down on a Malainos skull, Anubis allowed his legs a moment's respite of standing still, before he felt the bird still between his teeth and jumping back into the throng. He was thanking any gods out there for the enforcements that had arrived. He supposed Lakshmi's message had gotten out faster than expected. Misfit and Mayhem were in Australia last he'd heard. He was glad the two were here though; they were demons in battle, yet were the biggest pranksters he'd ever met.
"G'day!" an Australian accented voice called, and the owner came, skidding to a halt in front of him. Black furred, the creature resembled a jackal, but was much more angular and elegant looking. Its eyes were bright yellow, and its muzzle glimmered wetly in the electric lighting.
"Misfit!" Anubis greeted. Misfit cocked a head in greeting too, and flung his hind leg out to kick an oncoming Jageia in the throat.
"How many is there?" he asked curiously, humour the ever present emotion on his muzzle. "Doesn't seem to be as few as you were expecting, is there? More here than you would expect in a facility this big," ah, good old Misfit; straight to the point.
"We think they may have been expecting us. We got in way to easily; it was a planned ambush," Anubis said ruefully, flicking his head to one side and tasting blood as his attackers throat was cut.
"Ah, bummer. Best be off, happy hunting," the jackal creature winked and disappeared into the bloodshed.
"Quit gossiping!" a voice called as the other jackal creature passed, winking at him too, aiming for the Malainos that had just flown in low to claw at Thor's head.
"ENOUGH!" a voice roared. There was a moment's mad scramble, then two defined sides formed; the Avengers and their new helpers on one side, and the Jageia and the Malainos on one side.
A huge Jageia was stood at the head of the group. He must have been some sort of general, as the soldiers nearest to him were all looking at him with reverent bordering on fear.
Stood at the head of their group was Anubis, blade now gone, many bits of armour also missing, bloody but standing. A low caw announced the arrival of Sa'ar, who perched as ever in his antlers, his sickle like blade still clamped in his beak, wings raised threateningly.
A Malainos perched on one of the Jageia's spikes, hissing a bit like an angry cat.
"I believe this would be better solved another way," the Jageia growled, eyes glinting like chips of violet ice.
"I don't," Anubis countered. "Any alternative you can come up with will most likely end up with us all being dead," he hissed. The Jageia cocked his head and looked appraisingly at the wolf.
"You speak of our species as though we are all likely to kill you all at any given moment," he said quietly.
"You are!" there was a flurry of movement and the two Jackal creatures appeared on either side of Anubis, both were wet with blood and growling, hackles raised. The general threw his head back and laughed, then stopped abruptly, eyes growing wide and eyes darting around in fear.
"NO!" there was a shuddered that passed through every one of the Jageia and Malainos, and then a scream ripped through the hush. They all started to cower and some actually began to tear at their eyes.
"What on earth is going on!?" Tony had pushed through the crowd to stand near him; his face plate up to Anubis could see the horror clouding his vision.
"Lakshmi," Anubis whispered, seeing the man himself appear from the stair well, eyes glowing demonically and his long ponytail whipping around behind him. He was casting a powerful illusion over the Jageia and Malainos. Whatever it was it was so bad that many of the Jageia were committing suicide, and the Malainos were all attacking each other in a terrified frenzy.
"What are you showing them?" Thor had appeared at Lakshmi's head, and although Lakshmi didn't actually register Thor's existence, he still answered. One word that caused terror to rip down Thor's spine.
"Everything." he whispered, eyes glowing bright.
"LAKSHMI!" a voice bellowed. It was the general. He gave an enraged roar and charged forward, attacking the thing that was nearest to him. Tony. Tony gave a surprised yell, and then a cry of agony as the sabre teeth pieced though his armour around his neck. The illusion broke with an audible shatter, and the Jageia and Malainos that could still move all ran for the door, screaming in terror.
"TONY!" it was the cry on all the Avengers lips as they rushed forward. But the general had already tossed the writhing body of the Iron Man into a far corner.
"This was fun Lakshmi. We should do it again sometime. Move out!" the command to leave was pointless, as most of his troops had all ready run off, but it gave him an authoritive appearance, as he ran through the hole in the wall, his three tails held out high behind him.
Steve was fumbling blindly around Tony's neck, trying to find pieces of loose armour so he could remove the whole thing. It looked like a ground in mesh around his throat, but by whatever miracle, his windpipe hadn't collapsed, and he was still breathing.
"Get the armour away from his throat!" Steve whispered in terror, picking sharp fragments away from the wound. The newcomers had all backed away respectfully, all except Misfit, Mischief, and an unknown creature sat at Tony's head, looking down at him. It had a roughly feline with body with slightly overlarge paws. A canine head was at the end of an oddly upright neck for an animal, and it had a forehead like a human. The ears were large and bat-like, and perked forward in interest. Huge feathery wings grew from each shoulder, and the spine tapered down into a long feline tail ending in a fork. She had deep chocolate fur and keen yellow eyes. She may once have been beautiful, if it were not for the heavy scarring that littered her body. Her left ear had several large chunks missing from it, and the right was completely missing, torn off at the skull. Her left hind leg was almost completely bald with silvery scars, and so was the front of her throat. She was looking down at Tony with an almost... appraising gaze.
"It won't do any good!" Lakshmi growled furiously, pacing back and forth in irritation. "The poison will kill him before the wound does!" he threw his sword at an opposite wall in frustration. The whole blade sank into the wall and the handle quivered there.
"Is there a cure?" Hawkeye asked quietly from where he was crouched at Tony's feet next to Natasha. Lakshmi shook his head, accidently whipping Steve in the face with his ponytail as he paced.
"No! It needs a stabilizer. Something that won't react badly with his arc reactor. Something quite potent to combat the poison. It has to be volatile to mix readily with his blood. DNA. Something..." he trailed off, still pacing, rubbing his scalp furiously and growling.
"Think of something!" Steve demanded. Lakshmi stopped dead and proceeded to yell in Steve's face.
"I'M FUCKING TRYING!" he drew back and continued to pace furiously.
"Would I be of service?" the creature sat at Tony's head asked in a raspy female voice. She sounded old, and she looked up at Lakshmi with a harsh gaze. "I believe my blood would fit the bill," she blinked deliberately at the suspicious gazes she was being shot to show she didn't really care, then with practiced ease, then drew back on her haunches and began to pull the metal loose.
When the injury was clear, she rasped a tongue across it to clear the blood so she could inspect the damage. Whilst she was looking at the jagged wound she chatted aimlessly, clearly with no other objective other than to fill the silence.
"I suppose I should introduce myself..." she muttered, nudging a loose flap of skin back into place. "I believe that's what 'curtsey' says... Name's Elak. I'm a Varg, and a technopath. I believe that is what humans call what I can do. I talk to machinery. Rather fun," she sighed and pressed on the wound, giving a satisfied grunt when Tony gave a low keen in pain. "Bingo," she muttered, raising a paw and slicing her wrist with the claws of her opposite paw. She watched with an almost morbid fascination at the crimson blood that began to flow, dripping steadily into Tony's open neck wound. The blood hissed as it met Tony's. The man screamed.
Anubis was watching on, sympathetic. He remembered those screams; they were the screams he'd made when he'd gone through the bone wreching pain of DNA transfusion and transformation. It had felt like he was being boiled from the inside out.
"Oi, what's with 'im?" a obnoxiously loud, deep female voice sounded close to his ear and he turned to see a white furred, blue feathered, winged canine trotting over, a fluffy long eared feline sitting on her shoulders.
"Never you mind," Anubis said curtly, hoping to deflect any further contact with this strange individual. He winced as another scream tore through the air, and felt the shadows tug at his paws a little, hinting at Lakshmi's obvious distress at not being able to do anything.
"Eep, that sounds painful," the canine commented blandly. "Name's Alex. This lazy shit's Sammie," she rolled her shoulders slightly to indicate the feline on her shoulders, which Anubis now realised, was sleeping rather soundly, even though he'd seen the fluffy thing dispatching her opponents with an undiluted ferocity not two minutes ago. Cats.
"Anubis," Anubis said cautiously. This stranger was weird. She wasn't dancing around formal greetings or making an effort for first impressions.
"Weird name. Nice, but a bit unusual. Egyptian god of the dead, right?" Alex said casually, not taking her eyes off Tony, apparently transfixed. Anubis blinked at her forthright blunt honesty.
"Yeah..." he said, uncertain. "I like my name," he added, defensively. Alex gave him a rather patronising smile.
"That's nice," she soothed, as though she was talking to a rather stupid child.
Author's Note
Sorry for the delay on this one guys, but this chapter was a bitch for some unknown reason, and I've been a bit busy. Holidays, work, yada yada yada, the usual shit, BUT I got it done... eventually. Reviews will speed things along guys, and I'm going to need them cuz I'm feeling really uninspired for the next chapter as I have no idea what I'm going to write about. Oh well, I'll get it done eventually.
