Manhattan NY
"Looks like Loki's target is Faith." Xander looked at Steve and got a confirmation nod in return. Steve had come to the same conclusion.
"He's after the spear. If he wants it so much let's make sure he works for it."
Xander looked at Steve with admiration. "You are one sneaky guy. You know that?"
Steve had a surprised look on his face that said, who? Me?
Xander wasn't buying. "Please teach me your ways master." Xander pleaded in his Igor imitation.
Steve looked strangely at Xander. He got the reference, one of the few he did, he thought, 'Good man, but an insane sense of humor.' he shrugged. Not like he can be choosy with who his friends were. Xander and the girls were at least his physical equals. He could relax when they were around without having to worry about accidentally hurting them. On the plus side they were right next to him in the thick of battle. You can't ask more of a man or woman. They stood tall shoulder to shoulder with him facing the monsters out of this world. He could put up with a little insane. "Natasha. I need a way to close that portal."
"I know." she rolled her eyes. What did he think she was 'born yesterday' she looked around and saw Stark was still on the ground looking the dragonfish corpse. "I need a lift." she didn't give him a choice. She got a tight grip on his arm and waited. When he didn't do as she says right away, she asked, "Well?"
"I am not a taxi." he complained.
"Dude. Get her the fuck up there. There's only so many things I'm allowed to kill in one day. And in case you haven't noticed, it's a target rich environment. Move your ass!" Faith pointed the glowing end of the spear at Tony to emphasize her point.
Tony flew. He had seen the kind of damage that thing did. And Faith was pissed off just enough to start blasting.
Tony landed next to the SHIELD transport on his landing pad. He dropped her and took off after the other targets he could shoot back at.
"Widow." Natasha saw that Colonel Fin was waiting for her beside the rear hatch. "This way." he pointed inside the vehicle. "Dr. Selvig is starting to wake up.
Natasha nodded her head in acknowledgment and followed him in. Overhead Stark was thinning the opposition.
Back on the Ground Steve was giving the troops there marching orders. "Thor we need to slow them down. The portal's the best place for that. You've got the lightning, light the bastards up. Faith. Can you back him up?"
"Yeah I guess..." she looked at the spear and told it to behave. She ignored the snide remarks form the robot wanna be in her hand. If she wanted snide, she'll stick near Dawn.
"Xander you Phil and I will take care of those on the ground. They want to take us out let's take advantage of that. We'll give them targets they can't refuse."
"Easy for him to say..." Xander whispers to Phil, "His bulls eye at least can take a hit. I need me one of those shield things."
"Do you know how to use one?" snarked Phil.
"How hard can it be? The guy wearing the flag suit is using it." Xander felt the back of his neck itch, " He's looking at me funny. Isn't he?" Phil nodded in return and waited for the canon to finish charging. Great punch, but takes too long to charge. Four shots minute. Not good.
Ignoring the by play of his support team, "Stark keep them in the zone. Any get to 39th help Cpt. Walker turn them back, or fry them up. And Doctor Banner..." he turned to the second biggest gun in his deck, "...Smash!"
"Ha ha ha ha. Some what appropriate Captain. I'll certainly give it my best shot."
"You talk too much!" declared Dawn. She picked him up and flung him with all her strength at the next dragonfish that was in her throwing range.
Captain America re-assessed the battlefield as an ever increasing number of enemy forces were pouring in. Thor twiddling his Hammer and flew toward the empire state building.
Faith looked at her spear and asked, "Why can't you do that?"
The spear didn't bother to reply. That question was beneath it. It made sure that her wielder would not lose her grip and followed the thunderer. "AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"
"She should learn to stop teasing intelligent rune weapons. They have no sense of humor." Xander looked at his sword as he said that. "You realize that we need more bodies to throw at these guys." Steve knew that. He wasn't born yesterday. It just felt like it.
"Captain Walker. Detach two teams and send them to the east end of the Stark Plaza. Lt. Miller please bring half your squad to the same location."
"On our way. Eta in sixty seconds." Graham gave quick instructions to his second, grabbed the rest of the squad and headed to the subway. The aliens haven't made it that far down yet.
"Hawkeye!"
"Yes Captain."
"Start feeding Stark some targets and keep me informed of the enemy concentrations. Ms. Morse..."
"Yes..."
"Watch his six."
"Not a problem. I'm always watching his six."
"Man you have to stop feeding my girls all these juicy lines. I can't blame them when you make it this easy." Xander saw the blushing man go a deeper shade of red. He wondered just how inexperienced was he?
Steve let the comment go. He dug himself in too deep and couldn't climb out. Instead he took his frustrations out on the handy dandy aliens that offered themselves up as a distraction. He should remember to say a few kind words at their burial.
Manhattan, N.Y.
Luke Cage jumped up and grabbed a hover fighter by the chassis and pulled himself up behind the pilot. As the pilot turned to shoot him, Luke grabbed his skull and crushed it as he made a fist. He jumped off at another passing hover fighter. No way was he going to try and pilot these death machines. Once was enough. His partner Iron fist was behind Misty Knight as she piloted one of the alien vehicles. 'How come she can drive that thing and I can't?' he saw Colleen Wing remove another head with her katana. She was building quite the pile. He kept close to the girl to make sure Misty didn't tear him a new one for letting the fool girl get her damn self killed. He grumbled and took out his anger at the fools who kept throwing themselves in his way. They gave up trying to shoot his diamond hard skin a while back. Now it was all up. Lose and personal with the bladed power staves they used. 'Maybe I should try one of those. They look seriously cool.', he picked one off the ground and swung it like a bar at the next fool. The alien took the hit on the chest armor and was hit like home run. "Right out of the park. Now that's what I'm talking about."
Meanwhile Danny Rand was jumping from one hover to the next leaving a trail of unconscious bodies behind. When he ran out, Misty was there, to provide a quick pick up so they could go after the next bunch.
"Is that Spider-man?" Colleen ducked a stab and parried an overhead strike as she made her way to Luke.
Luke stopped playing baseball with the aliens and looked up to the sky. "Yeah. That's the fool. Wonder what he did to piss off do many of them? There's close to a dozen of those things on his tail."
They saw the Spider do those gravity defying acrobatic stunts of his. He took them down an alley and doubled back. He webbed up the alley entrance and started to taunt them. The alien wing we t after their antagonist like a bunch of pissed off hornets. Right into another sticky, giant web. "Ha ha ha ha. They never learn."
"What did I tell you. That fool has a death wish."
"Hey I heard that Q-ball. Say...that's quite the collection you guys got going. Hi Colleen. Miss me?" he turned to Luke, "Red heads are my secret weakness, I'll have you know." he mock whispered.
"No it's not. It's the empty space between your ears."
"Ooh. Colleen watch out." Peter warned.
"What? Where?" she didn't see anything.
Peter pointed at Luke. "His head's about to explode from the effort it took to come up with that one."
"Christmas. You just can't leave enough alone." the disgust on Luke's face looked normal. It was the same look he had every time Peter saw the man.
"Say Colleen. Why don't you and Misty come and join the fun at the shindig we got going a few streets over. We even have Hand ninja."
"The Hand are helping out?"
"Well. Not so much helping out as attacking everybody. Hell even Beetle and Rhino are helping out, and I think some of Fisk's boys were taking pot shots from the shadows."
"Sure. Why not? Let's get Misty and Danny..." she blew a sharp whistle and Misty swung back towards her partner. She saw her talking to Spider-man. "Spider-man has a big party going down, want to join?"
Misty looked at her boyfriend, who shrugged why not. The aliens seemed to follow them more than attacking a particular area. It was better to get them together in one place than to have them shoot up the city in multiple locations.
"Aw come on! You're not seriously thinking of going with this fool?"
"Who's helping out Spidey?" asked Misty.
"Who isn't? Come on. Can't dawdle got paces to be aliens to taunt." with that said the incredible Spiderman shot a webline and took to the skies. Colleen climbed next to Misty and Luke after a look from Danny got in as well. Misty followed the rapidly disappearing Spiderman through the concrete canyons of Manhattan island.
Stark Tower Roof.
Manhattan NY
"AAARRRGGGGHHHH!"
*ARE YOU DONE WIELDER? WE HAVE ARRIVED AT THE DESIGNATED DESTINATION.*
"Why the fuck didn't you tell me you could fly?" Faith yelled at the spear.
"Is she arguing with the spear again?" Hawkeye asked Bobbi.
"Maybe. But more likely she finally cracked and gone loopy." Faith gave her sister slayer the evil eye. If she had time she'd slap the bitch down a peg or two. But for now she had more important things to do.
"What else can you do?" she asked.
*DO YOU HAVE THE TIME?*
She thought about it. She really didn't, but she and the spear were going to have a 'Slayer to Spear' talk.
"Man Thor is really lighting them bastards up." Clint was admiring the destruction Thor was capable of.
"Not now Clint. Get back to work." Bobbi went back to covering Clint and now it appeared she had to cover Faith as well. She pulled back another arrow and let loose. She had grabbed a half a dozen of Clint's quivers, and his spare bow. She was somewhat familiar with the load he usually used for all out combat.
Faith ignored the couple and went back to her job at hand. "Alright you shiny bastard. Gimme all ya have."
*YOU CANNOT HANDLE ALL I HAVE!* was the spear's smug reply.
"Enough with the back talk. Gimme!" she demanded.
The spearhead glowed and Faith took aim. She let loose a blast that did quite a bit of damage, but nowhere on the same scale as the Thunderer. She looked at the damage Thor was doing and her slayer senses noticed that while a few dragonfish were destroyed others were limping. She waited for the next charge and aimed for the wounded behemoth. This time she had the results she was looking for. The dragonfish dropped out of the sky taking down everyone on board with it.
Manhattan, N.Y.
Stark Tower, Roof
Faith aimed the spear at the yet another wounded dragon-fish that Thor injured with his lightning barrage. She took the shot. The dragon-fish took the hit where Thor's lightning damaged it. She then saw Thor fly off his perch and come crashing down beside the Hulk on top of another dragon-fish, "Where the fuck is Thor going?" she didn't expect an answer and was surprised when the spear answered.
*THE PRINCE RAN OUT OF ENERGY! HE WILL NEED TIME TO RECHARGE!*
"How would you know?" she shot at another target; the shot took out the the last wounded creature. "How do I slow them down now?"
*A DOUBLE ENERGY CHARGE THROUGH THE EYES INTO THE BRAIN! WAIT UNTIL THEY EMERGE FROM THE PORTAL TO TAKE THE SHOT! YOU APPEAR COMPETENT ENOUGH FOR THAT!"
"Are you freaking insulting me?" Faith was seriously considering ditching the nosy phallic symbol down the nearest sewer.
The spear was clearly not happy either. *YOU ARE CLEARLY INSANE! OBVIOUS CORRECTIVE MEASURES WILL BE TAKEN! SCANNING...SECONDARY WIELDER IN RANGE OF COSMIC ETHERNET! UPGRADING WIELDERS TO MOST BASIC STANDARDS! PROCESSING...*
"What the hell are you up to? You gleaming pain in the ass!"
*CANNOT EDUCATE THE PRIMARY WIELDER AT THIS TIME! LEAVE A MESSAGE!*
Faith felt a jolt of energy go through her, from the top of her head to the bottom of her tippy toes. She started to swear at the top of her lungs, but she directed her anger at the enemy, for now.
Clint took note of what Bobbi's co-worker was saying and filed it for later use. 'That's good stuff. Hope I can remember even half of that shit.'
Manhattan, N.Y.
Bruce jumped from one target to another, crushing each as he made his way through the invaders to the top of the building. He saw a dragon-fish carrier that slipped through the net of destruction that was Thor and the lovely Faith.
He jumped off the roof; behind he left cracks in the re-enforced concrete. He landed on top of the enemy's carrier i. e.: the dragon-fish, and proceeded to pound the crap out of the troops. 'This is exhilarating,' he thought as he smashed the aliens left and right.
Thor landed on his dragon-fish and proceeded to take charge of mopping up, as if someone put him in charge. He tore a piece of armor and plunged it into the neck area. An alien trooper shot him and he turned to deal with him. Thor pounded the improvised dagger deep into the wound, mortally injuring the creature. The two heroes rode the dragon-fish down to the ground as it went through its last remaining seconds of life.
Thor was still giving him the odd piece of advice on how best to deal with the enemy. 'Didn't he say that his people never even heard of the Chitauri?'
He left the smashed landing site and went after more strong positions to smash.
Thor tagged along, but Bruce kept jumping from place to place haphazardly laying waste to whatever came to hand, just from sheer annoyance. The enemy didn't like that and tried to deal with him. They cornered him in an empty theater of some sort and proceeded to pelt him with their energy weapons. They didn't hurt, but they stung, and his body regenerated the minuscule amount of damage as fast as it was dealt.
However it looked like they wanted to put an end to his obstructionist ways and gathered a force to deal with him specifically, and not that prima donna Thor.
'They can fly, I can't. However they are all in a stationary position. What I need is some way to swat them out of the sky, like bugs with a flyswatter. Hmm, maybe a little force and a bit of pressure would do the trick. Damn, they are pesky. Just like a bunch of mosquitoes. Pressure...yeah that might work. Let's see the force needed would have to equal...' while Bruce continued to work out the physics needed in his head the hover fighter squadron continued to pour on enough energy to turn the ground around Bruce's feet plasma red.
'Let's see...the force needed to generate a pressure wave strong enough to take these guys out would need...' Bruce did all the calculations in his head, and when he was sure he had the numbers right. He clapped his hands several times. He was going for overkill. 'Nothing wrong with a little overkill.'
"Aaaaaarrggggghhhhhhh!"
"Aaaaaarrggggghhhhhhh!"
The two matched screams of agony came from above and below. He knew that the one below was Xander. He didn't know how? He just knew.
He looked in the direction of the scream that came from above and saw Faith. He lost it. Someone was hurting his mate.
"NO!" he screamed and jumped towards his mate his rational mind went someplace else and a more savage Hulk took his place. He jumped and hoped his way towards the one who would dare hurt his mate.
When he cleared the skyline he saw Faith on her knees and Loki closing in.
Manhattan, N.Y.
Stark Tower, Plaza
Xander whirled and dodged all the while firing g the never-empty Uzi. 'Gotta make sure the magic monkeys make more of these for the girls. They're worth their weight in diamonds.'
"Speaking of girls..."
"Shut the fuck up Xander. Or my stake will never see sunshine again!" Graham and his boys came running. Cap started with the giving of the orders.
Xander gave the unhappy giant a smart assed grin. "Gotta be me, didn't know you swung that way big guy?"
"My stake doesn't care who the asshole is Xander, if you mouth off in front of my guys...all I'm promising is a lot of wooden pain with splinters. I don't believe in sanding!" he gave Xander an evil grin.
"Graham that sunny disposition of yours is just precious. Never let it be said you have a sense of humor."
"Don't you mean, that I have a sense of humor."
"Nope...hold on..."
Graham saw an enemy craft orbiting around Xander and trying to take him out. He swung his phase 2 rifle and took out the particularly irritating hover fighter that was making a nuisance of it self.
"Go on..." he waved for Xander to continue, "... Dig your grave a little deeper."
Th two kept needling each other as they kept a steady stream of fire going to give Graham's men the time needed to setup their equipment.
Xander just kept firing in random directions every now and then, but what freaked Graham was that every shot hit something. "Okay enough! How the hell are you doing that?
"Don't know. It started just after we left, but didn't become this developed until after we left the transport. W word I knew how it happened?"
*SECONDARY WIELDED IS PART OF COSMIC ETHERNET. SECONDARY WIELDER IS SATURATING THE AREA AROUND HIM WITH A LOW LEVEL COSMIC FIELD THAT GIVES SECONDARY WIELDER AWARENESS OF EVERYTHING IN THAT FIELD! FIELDS OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY WIELDERS ARE COMPATIBLE AND WILL EXTEND THE AWARENESS OF BOTH UNITS!*
'You mean that is Faith I've been feeling all this time?' Xander had more experience with the weird ass shit than Faith and knew better than to talk out loud where people could take it the wrong way. A lot of them already thought that he was certifiable. No need to give them more evidence for the men in the white coats and straight jackets. He felt another tiny jolt go through his body. He had been ignoring them for a while, but he was starting to get suspicious. 'What are you doing?'
*PRIMARY AND SECONDARY WIELDER NEED TO BE BROUGHT UP TO BASIC STANDARDS TO SAFELY OPERATE THIS UNIT! GENETIC CORRECTIVE MEASURES COMPLETE!*
Xander screamed at the top of his lungs, and so did Faith. It hurt like hell, but then he was used to that, and so was Faith.
"Shit! Cover him!" Graham grabbed Xander and passed him to his team's medic. "If this is another of your lame ass jokes Xan...it's not funny, just like the rest of your material." Xander didn't reply. He just lay moaning under the shield.
"What happened?" Steve and Phil looked concerned, Xander went down for no apparent reason. They hoped it wasn't due to an after effect from that spell that Willow did on the carrier, but Steve had the Red Witch's assurance that they were all fine. Better than fine. He could still remember her exact words. "Everyone pay attention to any more incidents. If someone else goes down the same way I want to know about it right away. Got it?"
"Got it Captain!" Graham saw a large green figure streak overhead.
Steve saw it as well. The Hulk just landed on top of Stark Tower.
"Ooh. What hit me? Did anyone get the number of the runaway rune weapon that just fucked me over..." Xander looked up to the sky and focused on the fight between Faith and Loki. He saw Faith was a little wobbly but getting steady fast. Just like him in fact. 'When this is over spear...' he promised it that there would be reckoning.
...