A/N: Sorry this one took me an extra day, guys, but for a variety of reasons it's a bit more complicated. I'll explain why after the next chapter, but for now, let's just say that the action stuff was a bit more tricky than usual for me. :)

I'm blathering on below in this a/n, so don't feel compelled to read any of it. I'm just thinking aloud really. :D

I just wanted to answer one of my guest reviewers who pointed out to me that 'fails' isn't a noun in Chapter 36 I believe it was. I find it really intriguing that a lot of what my lovely readers point out to me are things I've stopped and considered myself. Like the strawberries, Steve getting drunk, the use of fails, the possibility of Pepper being pregnant – these are all things I have in my story by conscious choice. I really like how you guys all pick me up on those things, even if I have a cunning plan ;) because it kind of reinforces to me that we're all on the same wavelength, which is a lot of fun I think.

When I'm questioned about something, it always makes me go back and review the reason why I made the choice I did and I really love that aspect of storytelling. I agree that Tony would know that wasn't the correct usage of the word, when I wrote 'it had been a night of fails', just as I did when I used it. But this is where the intriguing thing comes in for me. In fan fics you have to get into the head of your characters and try to wear their skin so you can make your characterisations as authentic as possible. Sometimes you can achieve that better than other times, but it's the relentless challenge of a fan fic writer, including professional ones like Joss Whedon. (Just a little side not, I'm in NO WAY comparing myself to the brilliant Joss with that statement, just an overall observation).

So, when I chose to use that turn of phrase I was thinking of all those funny pictures that have done the rounds with 'FAIL' of people/animals doing just that. LOL I 'noun-erised' it – yes, that's a word… don't look it up. :P But the reason being is because even though Tony is very intelligent and would know that was wrong, I think it's pretty normal for people to have different levels of communications. For example – I have a certain way of using my words when I'm speaking with my colleagues, another way with my staff and then still a different set with my friends and then finally my family. There is a sliding scale of how correctly I speak depending on the situation. I know the right way to speak all the time, but my environment often dictates how I choose to use that knowledge. It's like Tony, I don't see him as someone who'd be overly concerned with grammar and its correct usage… until maybe someone like Steve said something incorrectly and then he'd be the grammar police – just to be a giant pain in the ass and annoy Steve with it endlessly. LOL

As you can tell by all of that rambling, I'm utterly fascinated by language, its usage, what it evokes and how it's always changing. I really do love it and can talk about it forever, debating points back and forth and learning different people's perspective and understanding of it. That being said though, my love of the written world doesn't extend to me being perfect with checking my own work… dang it. . I'd love to think everything I presented to you guys was grammatically perfect (unless I was choosing to break the rules) and spell checked to within an inch of its life… but it just isn't. I don't have the time to organise a beta and I just try and do my best whilst navigating the fact I'm an Australian trying to write an American based story. I know I don't always nail the differences but being an Aussie. I'm a real mongrel when it comes to having so many cultural influences from Britain, US and Oz, so it's hard to know what I've picked up from where to be honest. Like, until one of my brilliant reviewers pointed out that Americans say 'math' instead of 'maths' I'd never really put that together and would never have thought of it.

Okay, enough of my musings, on with the show and thank you to everyone who cares enough to leave a review for my story. It is truly appreciated. :D

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Tony's thrusters kicked in as he hovered above the fight going on below him, still holding onto Clint and Steve. "Thank you for choosing to fly Stark Airlines. We hope you enjoyed your flight. Please make sure your trays are in the upright position before you disembark to kick some metal ass." Tony let go of them and Clint and Steve sailed through the air to both make graceful landings on the ground below. Clint landed on top of a car and immediately started to fire off arrows at a group of mantises bearing down on him. Meanwhile Steve raced down the street, heading in to help the SHIELD agents already engaging in combat with the advancing creatures.

Tony knew what he had to do next. "Jarvis, find me that signal."

"I'm working on it, sir, but the target seems to be moving again."

Tony scanned the mantises on the ground and in the air as he started to fire off his blasters at them. "Is it in one of the machines again?" He did a barrel roll and almost collided with a building as he dodged laser fire from the mantis' eyes. "Jarvis," Tony barked out impatiently, "is the signal device in one of these mantises?"

"I do not believe so, sir, the type of movement I'm detecting is not consistent with the mantis' patterns of movement."

"What kind of movement is it showing?" bit out Tony, taking out the lasers of two more of the machines and dodging the carcass of another one which had just been thrown by the Hulk who was ripping apart the giant metal insects with gay abandon.

The Hulk caught sight of Tony and his eyes narrowed. He tore the head off one more mantis and then started bounding towards Tony.

Tony jetted up into the air. "Oh crap." The Hulk jumped at him and just missed as Tony tried to calm him down. "It was an accident, okay, an ac-ci-dent, I didn't push you out of the plane on purpose."

The Hulk gave an ear splitting growl and picked up a cab and threw it Tony who caught it neatly. The shocked cab driver behind the wheel looked at Tony with white-knuckled terror.

"It was a misunderstanding," he explained to the cab driver seeing as the Hulk didn't seem interested in listening. "I just bent down to check my boot. A guy shouldn't be pulverised just because he wanted to check his armour, right?" The man looked too traumatised to take a side and Tony hastily put the cab down on top of the nearest building. "You'll be safe here," he promised him and the other man nodded mutely, still unable to speak. Tony looked up and saw the Hulk making a beeline for him and grimaced. "Boy, push a guy out of a plane a couple of times and he gets completely unreasonable about it." He shot up in the air and decided to put the Hulk's anger to good use. Tony expertly darted between the mass of mantises which had taken to the air. The Hulk was on his tail, angrily swatting the metal insects out of the way to get to Tony. For his part, Tony made sure to keep just ahead of the rampaging monster and in the thick of the creatures so the Hulk would continue to destroy them in his pursuit of revenge.

"Straight and slow."

"What?" said Tony distractedly as he weaved between the mantises, shooting down any in his way while keeping an eye on the Hulk.

"The signal's move is straight and slow, sir," repeated Jarvis. "You asked what kind of movement the signal was showing and it's strai-"

"Yes, yes," said Tony sharply, "I've got it." He glanced down at the chaos below him and none of the mantises were exhibiting that kind of behaviour. "Okay, lock down the co-ordinates because we're in real trouble if I don't shut off that signal." Already below him Tony could see countless mantises reforming and continuing on their path of destruction. He glanced over nervously at the White House which was far too close to all of this carnage for his liking. There seemed to be double the number they fought in New York and Havana. Tony was sick of having to play catch up with these creatures all the time. They were always a step ahead and all the Avengers were doing was attempting damage control without being able to stop it permanently. It was frustrating Tony that they couldn't get a proper handle on all of this.

The mantises were now swarming all over the Hulk, firing painful volleys of lasers at him and enraging the beast further, so much so that he seemed to forget about Tony and began lashing out at them in earnest. Tony blasted his way through another swarm of the creatures and dived down, providing some protective cover fire for a group of SHIELD agents on the ground who were struggling to take down three mantises. "Jarvis, I need those co-ordinates now!" he barked, using his chest uni-beam to destroy one of the mantises just as another four took its place.

oooOOOOooo

Clint grabbed for fresh arrows, skilfully shooting down two mantises at the same time with one trick arrow. "The Hulk is trying to kill Tony," he reported from his vantage point on top of a bus as he had just caught glimpses of the Hulk chasing down a darting Tony. "Are we going to worry about that?"

"Tony can take care of himself," said Steve, "concentrate on protecting the civilians."

"Avengers," came Fury's voice over their intercoms, "we've just gotten intel that President is in the White House."

Clint looked down a couple of streets to where the unmistakable façade of the White House. They'd been holding the mantises back until now, but the metal creatures were making inevitable progress forward and it seemed like there was little doubt where they were heading. "That is not good news," said Clint. "We need to get him out of there."

"His Secret Service detail is working on getting him to bunkers below the White House, but they're going to need some distractions."

Thor appeared in the skies above Clint's head, holding his hammer high above his head. "That shall not be a problem," he promised them. The clouds gathered around Thor's head, immediately turning an ominous grey colour. The hairs on the back of Clint's neck stood up as electricity filled the air and lightning split open the skies, the sound of thunder shaking the bus beneath his feet. Thor directed the raging storm straight at the mantises in the air, lightning striking them in brilliant stabs of light and electricity. A great swarm of the mantises spread their wings and took to the skies, intent on taking down Thor and stopping him raining down chaos upon them.

"I think you got their attention, Thor," shouted Clint above the noise of the thunder and lightning.

Natasha's voice was in Clint's ear. "Hawkeye, I need you to take out a wall for me," she said urgently. "Head due south."

Clint jumped down from the bus. "On my way." He raced down the streets, dodging laser fire and darting between the legs of oncoming mantises. Clint made a couple of turns and rounded a corner to see Natasha swinging herself up under a mantis and firing her Glock into its underbelly. The mantis' legs wobbled and then it was crashing to the ground as Natasha skilfully leapt out of the way. She caught sight of Clint and pointed an urgent finger at an art gallery across the road. Five mantises had found their way into the gallery and blocked off the entrance, trapping a group of terrified tourists inside. There was no way out for them. "I need one of your arrows to make a new exit," she shouted at him above the din of the onslaught.

Clint gave a short nod. "On it." His practice eye quickly sized up where the best and safest place would be to land his explosive arrow head. Clint lined up the shot, blocking out every other distraction as he took his shot. The arrow landed exactly where he needed it to, in the side of the building and immediately detonated. A large hole was made in the concrete brick and Natasha was instantly running over, calling to people to get out through the newly formed exit. Clint went to help her get the people out when a mantis flying overhead laid down some laser fire which connected with several park cars. The ensuing explosion knocked Clint off his feet and had his head ringing. Definitely not what the doctor ordered for a hangover. He shook his head, trying to clear it and peered through the smoke and dust, trying to see if Natasha was alright.

"Hawkeye!" her voice was in his ringing ears.

"I'm alright," he responded, getting shakily to his feet. "You?"

"That explosion trapped us," she told him. "I need your help to get these people out."

Clint quickly made his way back across the road to what was left of the street corner and art gallery. The explosion had caused half the wall of the gallery to come down and created a wall of rubble at least twenty foot high blocking off the side street and the way out. Clint clambered up the side of the debris and looked down at the scene below. The people from the art gallery were out in alley beside the gallery with the rubble in front of them and advancing mantises behind them. They were the very epitome of being caught between a rock and a hard place.

Steve's voice came over the comms. "Hawkeye, Black Widow, do you need help?"

Clint surveyed the situation. "No, we've got this Cap, stay where you are." His eyes automatically sought out Natasha amongst the crowd. Their eyes connected across the distance as she looked up at him. "Just like in Mozambique?" he quizzed her on their approach to this.

Natasha gave a short nod. "Yes, only faster."

"Got it."

Clint went to spring into action when one of the mantises from inside the art gallery made its way out of the building and fired on the traumatised crowd made up of mainly older men and women. The scene erupted into even more chaos as they all started to scream and try and find some kind of cover. Clint instantly loaded his bow, firing an explosive tip into the eye of the giant insect and blowing its head off. Even as it fell to the ground, another two mantises appeared from inside the gallery, trampling over the body of their cohort and bearing down on the trapped people. Natasha had her guns drawn and she was firing on them but it wasn't having the necessary impact.

Clint loaded another arrow, intent on taking them both down when he was suddenly launched into the air by an explosion at his feet. Another mantis had come up behind him and blasted the mound of debris with his eye lasers and sent Clint flying. He hit the ground and rolled to absorb the impact, years of training paying off. In the process, however, Clint lost hold of his bow and it flew several feet away from him and landed on the ground. Searing pain shot up Clint's right leg but he ignored it. He could do an inventory later of his wounds, right now he just needed to get his bow back. Dragging himself along the ground, Clint headed straight for his bow but before he could get far Natasha was suddenly over him, holding onto a car door. She bent down, using the car door as a shield to protect them both from the barrage of laser fire. "Cap," called out Natasha, "we need help, Hawkeye is injured."

"Stay where you are, Cap," protested Clint in vague annoyance. "I'm fine."

"Roger that," came Steve's voice.

"I don't think we define that word the same way," said Natasha, still holding up the car door. She nodded at his leg.

Clint looked at his right leg for the first time and saw a large piece of metal was sticking out of it. "Flesh wound," he dismissed easily. "I need my bow." She opened her mouth to argue with him but Clint got in first. "Nat, my bow," he said determinedly.

Natasha's lips firmed in a disapproving line, but she snuck a look around the car door and then handed the protective shield to Clint before making a break for the bow. She made it to the bow and kicked it back towards Clint while not slowing her pace as more laser fire was aimed her way. Natasha ran onto a large piece of rubble and hid behind it, immediately drawing her guns again and firing on the mantises to draw them away from the terrified people huddled against the alley wall. Clint grabbed up his bow, and still sitting on the ground, he drew out an arrow, loaded his bow and aimed it at the mantis closest to the people. As he did, Hawkeye's attention was caught by the figure of a man suddenly appearing on the scene from the sky. The man was wearing full body armour which was painted green and purple. His face was hidden behind a purple mask with large, glowing eyes and dragon fly-like wings kept him in the air. "Ah, guys, we might have a new problem," said Clint as he watched the armoured man bearing down on the trapped people. "Looks like we've got another variation on the insect theme," he briefed the rest of the Avengers.

"Can you take it out?" asked Steve quickly.

"Yes," said Clint without hesitation as he aimed an arrow at the newcomer who abruptly turned his attention to Clint, touching his fingers together and pointing them at him and that was the last thing Clint remembered...

A/N: Haven't done a cliff hanger for a bit, thought it was time. ;) Don't know how those action scenes played out for you all. I just finished writing these scenes and it's past 1 in the morning, so the muse maybe a bit incoherent right about now. LOL