A/N: Okay, next chapter time.

It's actually quite a job to write for seven characters all doing things simultaneously, so hopefully this next action chapter will make sense to you all. My cold is still raging, but I'm trying to ignore it and see how that pans out. LOL

It was lovely to see so many familiar names checking out this fic and just as lovely to see a few new ones. I'm thrilled to have you all along for the ride. I'm keen to get into some real dialog writing, so I can't wait for that. I'm also keen to start penning a couple of little love stories within this fic, anyone want to guess where I might be aiming cupid's bow? ;)

But before we get to the lovin', we have to survive the fightin'... so let's see how our team is doing, eh?

Chapter Two

"I have to go in." Natasha's words hung between them.

Tony instantly hated the idea. "And you know how to dismantle nuclear explosive devices, do you?" he asked sharply. "Do they teach that in between how to dress provocatively and where to hide the daggers you're about to put in someone's back."

"I have basic bomb disposal skills," said Natasha calmly, not rising to Tony's bait. "You can talk me through it."

"No."

Natasha arched a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. "Worried about me, Stark?"

"I'm worried you're going to get us all killed and give the East Coast its first taste of a nuclear winter," Tony said in annoyance. "I should disarm the bomb."

"You're too big in the Iron Man suit to get under the Carousel and not set off the motion sensors and you don't have the equipment to remove the suit," she said simply. "It's pointless to waste any more time on an option which cannot happen."

She was right, which annoyed Tony even more.

"Stark, let Romanoff go in." Nick Fury's curt command was barked in Tony's ear.

Tony looked up to see the giant SHIELD base hovering above their heads. "This is a bad idea," Tony replied in frustration.

"It's the only option we've got," replied Fury evenly. "Romanoff is going in. She's my best agent."

"We want the bomb disarmed, not seduced," said Tony darkly.

"Are you going to help or are you going to whine?" asked Natasha coolly. She was already kneeling beside the base of the Carousel. There was just enough room between the base and the ground for a flexible, smaller adult to manage to crawl under the base without disturbing it. She looked up at Tony expectantly. "Well?"

"What was the first thing again?" he dead-panned.

"Stop making this all about you and save the city, Stark," Fury snapped.

Tony's lips thinned, knowing he was the better man for the job, but also knowing that he simply wasn't an option. He lifted a cautioning finger at Natasha. "You have to do everything I say, exactly as I say it," he warned her. "You know, something you've never done before. Can you wrap your head around the concept?"

"I do what I have to do," she said coolly, "always." Natasha pulled out a small torch from the belt around her waist and then promptly started to wiggle her way under the Carousel base.

"The bomb's in the middle," Tony directed her. He looked up at the overhead hanger. "So, Fury, you're the supposed leader of this glorious outfit," Tony noted. "Got any words of advice for your team?"

"Yeah," came the man's laconic reply, "don't set off the bomb."

"Thanks, Coach," said Tony mockingly, "very inspiring. Jarvis?"

"Sir?"

"Is Pepper still in the Avenger's Tower?"

"Yes, sir."

"Get her and her security detail down into the bunker." There was a brief pause and then Jarvis was back.

"Ms. Potts wishes to speak with you, sir."

Tony blew out a long-suffering breath. He knew this wasn't going to be easy. "Put her through."

Pepper's concerned voice was immediately in his ear. "Tony, why are you telling me to go down into the bunker, the nuclear bunker?"

"I think I left the light on," said Tony brightly, "can you go and check for me, hon?"

"Tony, is there a nuclear device in the middle of New York City?" she asked tensely.

"There is an outside chance," Tony hedged. "I'm just being overly cautious. Take your team and go down to the bunker, Pepper."

"Is your suit able to withstand a nuclear blast?"

"Yes."

"Tony."

"Okay, probably, maybe, I'm not sure." His voice became serious. "Pepper, I have to see this through, I can't run away."

"I know," she said quietly.

"Pepper," said Tony, his voice low, "I need to know you're safe, I can't think if I know you're in danger."

"We have a charity benefit to go to tomorrow," she informed him unevenly, "and I'm not going alone, have you got that, Tony Stark?"

Tony smiled. "Got it. I'll be the handsome guy in the tux who's picking you up at eight."

"It starts at seven."

"We'll be fashionably late."

"I love you," said Pepper huskily, "now go and be Iron Man."

"Are you going to the bunker?"

"I'm on my way as we speak," she informed him. "Don't worry about me, Tony, just do what you have to do to come home to me in one piece."

Pepper hung up and Tony felt the relief wash through him knowing Pepper was safe. He hadn't been lying, the thought of Pepper in danger really did cloud his mental facilities. It was all he could do to stop himself from going and checking she was in that bunker himself.

"I'm looking at the casing of the bomb, Stark," Natasha's voice informed him.

Tony's mind was back on the job. "Can you take it off? We need to see what we're dealing with here."

"Already on it."

A few seconds ticked away and then Natasha was back in his ear. "The bomb is exposed." She paused briefly. "There doesn't seem to be any kind of timing device, so I'd say it can be set off remotely or by the motion sensors."

Tony nodded as he stood by the Carousel, forced to be on the sidelines for this one. "Can you see any wires? There should be a blue one and a red one."

"I can only see two blue ones," Natasha informed him.

"No," Tony argued, "there is always a red wire, look again."

"There are only two blue wires," Natasha reiterated calmly.

"There can't be," said Tony in frustration, "are you colour blind?"

Her reply was stoic. "I'm not colour blind and there is no red wire."

"It must be inside," Tony concluded, "you're going to have to get inside the bomb more." His mind raced. "Okay, Romanoff, you have to do exactly what I say, when I say it-" Tony's attention was caught by the approach of several of the praying mantis machines heading their way through the park. "Crap."

"Sorry, Stark," said Natasha coolly, "that's the one thing I can't do on command."

"Was that a joke?" asked Tony in disbelief. "I didn't realise you knew what one was." The first mantis was upon Tony and he blasted it with his repulsors, but just as quickly, another was coming at him. "Okay, we may need to delay your comedy hour debut, Romanoff, things are getting a bit crowded up here."

"I'm ready, tell me what needs to be done now."

"Find that red wire," said Tony as he dispatched another two mantises and could already see the first one he'd destroyed starting to come together again. "Then we'll talk."

oooOOOOooo

Steve leapt agilely from machine to machine, lopping off their heads as he went with his shield. The mantises were reforming faster now and he knew there was no hope to defeat these machines unless what was controlling them could be destroyed and that couldn't happen until they got past that bomb. All he could do now was try and trust in Tony and Natasha to do their part in stopping these creatures and in the meantime, Steve was going to limit the amount of destruction they could cause. He leapt off the latest decapitated mantis and landed on the roof of an abandoned car just as another group of mantises approached him from down the street. Suddenly, there was another massing of the machines along the street on the other side of him and the large gathering of machines were now bearing down on him.

Above him Steve could feel and hear the thunder in the skies as Thor was dispatching the creatures in his own way. Steve tightened his grip on his shield, ready to work through the oncoming menaces one by one when they all suddenly stopped as one and looked up to the skies. Steve frowned, not having a good feeling about this and was quickly vindicated as the mantises promptly displayed wings which had been hidden away in their armoured backs and took to the skies. Without thinking, Steve immediately bolted towards the closest one and leapt as high as he could up in the air. He just managed to catch a hold of the machine's leg as it shot up into the sky. Looking around Steve could see that every other mantis in the city seemed to be doing the same thing, darkening the skies with their number. "Hey, Stark," he called out to his team mate, "whatever you're doing, I think you've got them worried, because you're about to get a whole lot of company heading your way."

"How many?" asked Tony tensely.

Steve looked around and saw that their number had covered half of New York's sky line. "I'm going to say all of them."

"Romanoff, you need to pull the lead out," Tony instructed his pupil. "Have you found that red wire yet?"

"No."

"What are you doing in there?" asked Tony in frustration as the sounds of him using his repulsors could be heard. "Reapplying your makeup?"

"Take your time and do this right, Natasha," came Hawkeye's voice with the sounds of wings beating going on around him. "We've got this, you don't need to rush."

Steve looked ahead and saw that the archer had obviously had the same idea he had and hitched a ride with one of the creatures. Hawkeye was sitting on the back of one of the machines though, as they all descended on Central Park.

"I've found another wire," said Natasha. "It's blue too."

"Are you kidding me?" asked Tony in exasperation.

"Maybe the bomb maker was the colour blind one?" Hawkeye suggested as he clung to the back of his winged transport.

"Which one do I have to cut, Stark?" she asked him.

"Are you sure there are no other wires?" asked Tony tersely.

"Yes."

"Give me a moment."

Steve and his mantis flew by the Hulk as Tony thought about his next move. The green beast was bouncing around in the air, swatting the machines out of the air with powerful sweeps of his arms and bellowing in frustration as they just kept on coming. "Hulk!" he called out. "Follow us!"

All Steve got for his trouble was an even louder roar from the Hulk as he grabbed one of the machines and started to swing it around and around, taking out a collection of other machines in the process and almost catching Steve's mantis at the same time. His mantis narrowly avoided the whirlpool of destruction the Hulk was creating and sped onto Central Park. Steve looked back over his shoulder to see Thor taking over.

The blonde man hovered over the Hulks head and sent a small bolt of electricity at him. The Hulk gave an annoyed grunt and glared up at Thor. "This way, my behemoth friend," Thor instructed him, "I will lead, you will follow."

Steve grimaced as the Hulk started to chase Thor now as he led him on a merry dance between all the buildings, managing to stay just out of reach. "You'd better make sure he doesn't catch you, Thor," Steve advised him. "He looks unhappy."

"The beast is always unhappy," said Thor simply. "I wish only to guide his anger to the appropriate place."

"You're starting to sound like Stark now," said Steve dryly.

"Perhaps Tony Stark has a point."

Tony's voice was suddenly interrupting them. "Did someone just say I was right?"

"Aren't you meant to be dismantling a bomb by proxy?" asked Steve in annoyance.

"I'm trying, but I keep getting distracted by trying not to die by the claws of a pack of praying mantises," said Tony sarcastically. "Any chance one of you hero types could help a guy out?"

They were directly above Central Park now and Steve looked down to see the Carousel being swamped by the mantises and Iron Man trying to fend them all off. He let go of the leg of his mantis and dropped from the sky to land neatly by Tony's side. He shot him a sideways look. "Like this, do you mean?" Steve neatly fended off a mantis attack and dispatched the creature at the same time.

By now Hawkeye, Thor and the Hulk were all forming a protective ring around the Carousel, determined to protect it and the explosive cargo it contained. The mantises seemed equally as driven to stop them though, as they surged in on the Avengers in a swarming attack which had all of them fighting for their lives.

"All of them!" Tony shouted, the effort of all the fighting starting to show in his voice as he took down mantis after mantis, only to have another ten take their place. "Cut all the wires at once!"

Natasha hesitated. "Are you sure?"

"Yes!"

"What if you're wrong?" Steve grunted as he slice through yet another mantis and narrowly avoided taking laser fire to the chest.

"Then we'll all be vapourised immediately," said Tony simply, ducking and weaving more mantis attacks. "Do it, Romanoff, we can't hold them for much longer. This is going to work, I know it. Cut all the wires at once."

"I'm doing it," said Natasha.

Everything seemed to slow down for Steve as he continued to fight off the mantises. The milliseconds ticked by as he unconsciously braced to be blown to smithereens. A full second went by, and then another. "Have you done it?" he bit out the question.

"Yes," said Natasha, "I think it's worked."

"Jarvis," barked Tony, "scan the bomb."

"The device is deactivated," Jarvis informed him calmly.

"Wow," said Tony in amazement, "that worked. What were the odds?"

Hawkeye rapidly strung three arrows in a row and took out three mantises in turn as he snapped at Tony in annoyance. "You said you knew what you were doing!"

"I had a hunch," said Tony, using his unibeam now to destroy more mantises.

"You almost killed us all because of a hunch?" Hawkeye asked angrily.

"Hey," said Tony, "my hunches are always right." He clarified. "Almost always right."

"Unbelievable," Hawkeye ground out. "Natasha, are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she said shortly, "someone want to take care of that radio controlling device or did I just stick my face in a nuclear bomb for the hell of it?"

"We're having a few technical issues," Tony grunted as he and Steve were both overrun by the mantises.

Steve fought to breath as the sheer number of the mantises was just too much. He was continuing to fight, but out of the corner of his eye Steve saw Tony disappear into the mass of teeming silver bodies as they overran him. "Thor!" he ground out as he also was enveloped by the creatures. "Can you get to the ring?"

"Nay, tis too many of the winged vermin," came Thor's muffled response as he obviously was having the same problem as the incredible numbers of the machines overwhelmed them completely.

There was one last chance and Steve could hear it bellowing angrily amongst the sound of metal wings and legs grinding together. "Hulk, we need you!" His only answer was a roar which hurt Steve's ears as even more of the mantises piling in on top of him...

A/N: I did mention I was the Queen of Cliffhangers, right? ;) Stay tuned, the next chapter hopefully won't be too far away. :D