Normally when the Avengers get a call to save the world or city, whatever it is that day, it's because a person is wreaking havoc and thirsty for American blood. Or maybe a small group of people. But 2 years of having this job, they had never gotten a call quite like this one.
Cats. Cats everywhere.
Climbing up whatever they could, ripping apart the city with their extended claws and huge teeth. Not housecats, either. Jungle cats capable of killing a man. They were chasing people through the streets of New York. If it weren't for the fact that there was great shopping and also that odd villains had been circulating all over the country, New York would be a ghost town. No one would be willing to stay.
The remaining 8 Avengers got suited up and ready for battle. She-Devil and Pyro hopped onto the She-Devil-mobile and Rush kept up with them the whole way. The helicopter had to be used again to take Black Widow, Prodigy, and Bruce. Thor and Iron Man flew.
There wasn't really just one place to meet up and fight. The cats were everywhere, swarming the streets and even a few buildings. So they all had to work mostly on their own, the communicators being the only thing they had to work together.
"Isn't this animal cruelty?" Black Widow asked as they started to figure out individual plans.
"Don't kill the cats then!" Iron Man yelled. "Just injure them enough that they don't keep attacking us."
Hundreds, maybe thousands, of big cats ran amok past and towards the Avengers on the ground. She-Devil stayed on her motorcycle with Pyro on the back. Pyro's legs tightly wrapped around the sleek vehicle and kept him on while his hands were outstretched, brushing against the legs of any cat he could reach. Tigers, lions, and jaguars fell as their legs were burned. Not gravely injured, but they couldn't run for quite some time.
Rush found herself running around, sweeping the legs of any cat she came to. The only problem arose when a cheetah didn't want to be temporarily felled and tried to jump onto her. She poured on the speed and managed to outrun the cheetah before getting back to her leg sweeping that wasn't actually doing very much for anyone.
Thor and Iron Man were having possibly the most fun. They would go down to the streets, pick up any cat they found, and take them onto roofs that had ledges so the cats wouldn't just walk off. Iron Man was having a grand old time, and Thor was booming with laughter every now and again.
Black Widow was observing and giving instructions whenever she need to. Just things like a lion approaching Rush or Pyro needing to stretch more.
Black Widow ended up dropping Bruce and Prodigy off on the ground. Prodigy found a man staring at the approaching cats on a stopped motorcycle. With her sweet little girl charm, she convinced him to give Bruce the bike so they could help out.
Bruce and Prodigy fell into the same pattern as She-Devil and Pyro, with Prodigy stretching out electric charged hands. She was careful to use just enough electricity to knock out the big cats for a few hours.
Black Widow yelled at Rush to go into the shop she was about the pass. When Rush went inside she found a weapon store.
"Pick up a dagger or two so you can disable their feet. Don't take them off, just spill a little bit of blood," Black Widow commanded. Rush nodded and quickly armed herself.
Iron Man found a littler cat, spotted and cute. An ocelot. He picked it up and dropped it off all the same.
The next cat he picked up was lithe and blonde, sort of like a lioness and sort of like a jaguar, but he didn't recognize it for sure. He thought it was odd, but he went to put it on the pile anyway. As they ascended, he suddenly wasn't holding a cat anymore.
Instead in his arms was a young woman who was practically naked if it wasn't for the small costume she wore. Long blonde hair matched the cats fur exactly and her silvery blue eyes were the same color. It didn't take a genius to figure out what happened.
Iron Man knew this woman disguised herself as a cat and he knew that this was the person who caused this mess. So he dropped her, easy as that.
But cats always land on their feet. After the 50 foot fall, she landed gracefully on all fours. A smile all arrogant cheerleader was sent his way and the woman ran off very quickly, but not half the speed of Rush.
"Widow, do you see the hot blonde girl not wearing clothes?" Iron Man shouted into his communicator.
"Tony, now is not the time to ogle!" She-Devil exclaimed as she took a sharp turn, dismayed that the billionaire could even think about girls at a time like this.
"No, she's the bad guy. Rush, do you copy?"
Rush nervously bit her lip quickly before responding. "Yeah, I copy. What do you want me to do?"
The team could almost hear him rolling his eyes. "Take her out. You've got the knives. Uh…Winnie, you might want to get over there too."
She-Devil ground her teeth and started to search for the black and green flash that would indicate her friend. "Call me that again, I dare you."
Iron Man hesitated before answering. "…maybe not now."
"Good choice."
Rush had found the scantily clad blonde woman. Perusing her was almost boring, she was going too slowly to be a challenge for Rush. Rush couldn't figure out where she was heading, but it was a surprise when she ran straight for the speeding motorcycle that Bruce was driving.
Bruce swerved as quickly as possible and Prodigy screamed. With a wicked smile, the woman grabbed Prodigy by the back of her costume and started running.
"Hartlyn!" Bruce yelled. Prodigy just shrieked with pain and terror. Being manhandled brought back too many flashbacks that she tried to shut her eyes against.
Thor paused just before he grabbed a tiger, "What had happened?"
"They got the Squirt," Iron Man informed him shortly before heading in the general direction he believed Prodigy to be. Thor was faster than him, and looked much angrier than Iron Man did behind the mask.
"Keep taking out the cats," Black Widow directed. "Devil, Pyro, Bruce. Rush, you too."
As much as Rush wanted to help retrieve the smallest member, she listened to the older woman and went back to dispatching felines.
Iron Man found the woman but Prodigy was nowhere in sight. "Who are you? Where have you taken her?"
The blonde woman grinned and shouted back. "I am Feline, and to tell you that would ruin all of the fun!" And she was off again.
Iron Man reported to the others that the villain was called Feline and that he was on her tail.
A short, high pitched cry made him stop and look around. It was Prodigy's scream, and he started to go towards it until he saw Thor and Rush going that way. When he turned to find Feline and go after her, she was gone.
"She's gone," He said shocked.
The fight was over. The cats just aimlessly meandered the streets, no longer thirsting for blood. Now it was time for the city to return the cats to the zoos, and other places they were taken from. The cold December air was starting the chill them all to the bones and they needed to find the little girl as fast as they could.
Rush and Thor found her on the first floor of a building with a large tiger right next to her, getting closer every second. The little genius's face was blocked to them by the large beast.
"I shall slay him!" Thor boomed, hammer in hand and he quickly advanced.
"No!" shouted a sweet voice. Hartlyn popped up and laid a hand on the head of the tiger. "Don't hurt her!"
"What?" Rush asked incredulously.
Hartlyn smiled widely. "I named her Sweetie! Cause she's so sweet!"
Charlotte looked confusedly over at Thor was matched her expression. Hartlyn didn't seem to get why they were so lost. "She can be like my guard dog…cat. My guard cat. To protect me from all the monsters. I mean, I know there aren't really monsters but if there were they wouldn't get past Sweetie!"
Charlotte was trying her hardest to catch up. "You want to keep the tiger as a pet?"
Hartlyn nodded enthusiastically. "We can keep her in the tower! Tony always said he wanted a dog! And Sweetie is way cooler than a dog!"
In the end, Hartlyn got to keep the massive tiger. It was as tall, if not taller, than Hartlyn herself, and it looked terrifying. But it seemed to love her. Sweetie actually let Hartlyn ride her back to the tower.
In other words, this fight ended better for Hartlyn than the last one did.
"Who is it you're working for anyway? What are they planning?" Steve asked insistently as Aphrodite smiled slightly.
"I obviously can't tell you that, Steve. Just know that you are safer here than you would be at home. Your team might need you, but they need you safe. Also, I don't have clearance to free you yet." Aphrodite was spilling everything to him. She couldn't help it. The honest, innocent look in his eyes made her want to answer him truthfully. So she did.
"That sucks!" Steve shouted, actual anger starting to color his voice.
Aphrodite quickly shot a finger to her lips. "Steve! Hush up! You don't want anyone else to know anything about this okay? Also, you're gonna wake up Taylor."
Taylor was currently asleep on the ground, curled up in a very non-manly way. Steve smiled down at him almost like a father would. He took a deep breath. "He's a good kid," Steve said wistfully.
"You're a good guy," Aphrodite told him without having to think it over first. It was just a fact. An idea sparked in her head and she got up.
"Where are you going?" Steve asked sadly as she walked away. Aphrodite turned to talk over her shoulder.
"To get a board game or something. Monopoly sounds like heaven right now."
Clint and Monet were having a much worse time. Monet's stitches had to come out, and soon. Preferably while Feline was out so they wouldn't be forcefully ripped from her face.
Clint found the tiny knot and was using his fingernails to pick it apart. It hurt more than Monet expected and a tiny tear leaked out of her eye. Clint swore and kept apologizing under his breath.
"Got it!" He deftly took out the medical string, relieved that the wound didn't break open again because he couldn't undo what he just did. It was definitely healing, but they would leave nasty scars for the rest of her life.
"Thank you," Monet told him with a sob just barely hidden behind the words. "Thank you so much."
Now she could at least pretend she looked like she used to, with pretty, tanned, blemish free skin. The stitches pulling on her as a constant reminder was eating her form the inside out.
Feline hadn't returned yet. If she did, she would have shouted something scathing and taunting and threatened to mess up Monet or Natasha to rile up Clint. It's just what she did.
The person that entered was shorter, with dark brown hair streaked with red. Her eyes made Clint shiver. They were a bright, almost Tesseract, shade of blue. Her suit definitely covered more than Feline's. It was similar to Natasha's with red accents and fingerless black gloves. Her red and black nails flashed in the dying light.
"Sorry. Not my room. My name is Death by the way. I've heard a lot about you. It would have been fun to see Feline rip those out of your pretty face, too bad you took care of it yourself." With that, she left.
Monet and Clint shared a glance of fear, wondering who this next psychopath was.
Okay! Fun times tom be had by all! Sorry about the very little action, it was just a lot of making cats fall down. But I didn't really see Feline as the type to get her hands dirty.
Also, Hartlyn got a cat because I wanted her to have one. That is the only reason.
The eyes on the cover picture are, from top to bottom, Feline, Death, and (obviously) Hypno Heart.
Question time! Now that Death had come into the picture briefly, who do you think will be captured next? Where will Aphrodite be in the final battle? Who is your current favorite villain and your current favorite hero? Anything you want to see in the next few chapters?
Responses!
Munamuna: I mentioned Monopoly just for you! And thanks for not caring that there are fillers, I seemed to write a lot of those. Thanks as always.
TheOnlyEv: Here is your update, friend! Any chance you could update yours soon? Please? I want to see Luna awkwardly meeting new people.
Mythomagic-Champion: I like Win quite a lot and try to write about her often. Thanks for the review!
Storm229: You have wonderful taste in music. I'm not gonna tell you, it's gonna be a surprise! Thanks as usual!