Peter looked on as the object came streaking down from the sky, tracing its route towards its most likely landing point, which was looking like the middle of a busy street. Thankfully, people were already scattering, but not all of them were likely to make it.
"We need to get those people out of there!" he shouted upon this realization. He immediately swung off, looking for who had the most need or was furthest behind. He scooped up a girl who tripped along the way and had fallen towards the back of the crowd in a hurry. She screamed at first but seemed to settle down at least a little upon the realization that she'd been helped.
"Spider-Man, what's happening?" she asked nervously.
"I don't know," he said, "but it's not good. Get as far away from here as you can."
He landed, setting the girl down. Sam must have followed him, landing beside him and setting down an older man. By now, the object was about to come in for its landing, but there was still one more person who had fallen behind in the chaos.
"I got him!" Sam shouted, blasting off and flying towards the man, snatching him up just in time for the object to come crashing down. Peter leapt out of the way as well, barely avoiding the scope of the impact. It smashed into the road, leaving a long trail in the concrete before finally coming to a stop. Peter came over, landing in front of it while keeping a decent distance. He just stared at it, trying to figure out what it was. Judging by its shape, it looked like a large meteor, but its surface looked more like it was made of metal than rock.
Sam came over next to him, having returned from his rescue of the man from the course of impact. He was still glowing and hovering though, which meant he was likely bracing for something. Naturally, this only made Peter even more nervous than he already was.
"What is it?" he asked.
For the second time, an answer to one of Peter's questions was interrupted by something, this time by a loud rumbling noise. The large round object began to shake, particularly on one side. Suddenly, that side of it, which was roughly a third of the overall object, broke off from the rest as something resembling metallic legs burst forth from it. Within seconds, Peter was staring at a machine that looked like something straight out of the pages of War of The Worlds.
The machine raised one of its legs, and its intent was clear once it shifted just above them, and Peter's spider-sense rang out. He and Sam scattered in opposite directions as the machine smashed its leg into the area where they just were, going straight through the concrete. It then looked right at him, and Peter could see what appeared to be some kind of laser charging up to blast at its center.
"Oh boy," Peter said, leaping out of the way as the blast came at him. He fired a web onto the machine itself swinging out of the way. Sam came past him as he did so.
"Stay back, I got this!" he said.
"Wait, what are you..."
Before Peter could finish his sentence, he turned back to watch Sam unleash a blast of pure energy at the machine's center. The blast looked powerful, at least to Peter, but it didn't appear to inflict any real damage on the machine though. It did seem to stun it though, giving Sam time to let out another blast. The second one appeared to almost agitate the machine, which fired back in retaliation, sending the boy running, or flying.
Trying to figure out how to help, Peter leapt back up and swung back in on the action, drawing the attention of the machine again. He narrowly avoided a blast, shooting himself upward just in time and landing on top of the machine. Noticing Sam coming back in for another attack, Peter jumped towards the back end, webbing the machine at its top. Once he landed, he pulled hard, causing its laser to shoot skyward. He could feel it straining against his grip, and he fought to maintain his hold.
Finally, Sam let out another powerful blast directly at its center, and Peter jumped out of the way as it came crashing down. Sam joined him as they observed the fallen machine.
"Okay, so maybe now you can tell me what in the world is going on?" Peter questioned.
"We're not out of the woods yet," Sam replied, still eyeing the machine itself. Unfortunately, he was proven right: the machine successfully made its way back onto its legs, shaking off the blasts it had taken like it was nothing. It did appear to have sustained some damage, but clearly not enough to destroy it.
"Alright, let's hit it again," Peter said. He had his hand all ready to fire a web but stopped just short when the metallic meteor that the first machine had broken off began rattling again. Soon, Peter and Sam's odds went from bad to worse, as a second machine came out and joined its other.
"Okay, okay," Peter said more to himself than to Sam. "It's still two on two, so the odds are still at least even, right?"
The second machine, instead of a laser, unleashed a powerful sonic pulse that blasted a wide area, catching Peter in spite of his attempt to jump out of the way. As he and Sam went flying, his spider-sense alerted him to another laser blast that was imminent. Firing a web at the nearest building and another one at Sam, he pulled them both to safety just in time to avoid the forthcoming blast.
"Thanks," Sam said.
"I appreciate it, but thank me when we're out of this," Peter replied, his spider-sense already going off again. It seemed like it was stuck in permanent tingle mode as multiple blasts were coming their way. Moving almost entirely on instinct, Peter managed to get out of the way yet again. He could play keep away pretty much forever, but that wasn't going to get anywhere. He needed to find a way to advance against the two machines and take them down for good this time.
"Any suggestions?" he called out to Sam.
"Take out their legs," the boy suggested. "They're sturdier than they look, but we should be able to handle it."
"Oh, right, makes sense," Peter thought to himself. After all, it was literally HIS idea during the fight at the airport in Germany, which was based off how they took down the AT-ATs in Empire. Also, now that he thought about it, this whole situation was giving him a very attack on Hoth style vibe right now, but now was not the time to focus on that.
Maneuvering out of the way of the blasts, Peter made his way toward the legs of the one that was already torn up a little, circling it as he wrapped them in webbing. Sam kept the other one distracted as he worked, and soon enough, the once spread-out legs were now tightly bound together, causing the machine to crash forward.
"Alright, one down!" Peter shouted.
The machine that had been attacking Sam suddenly then turned its attention to its fallen counterpart, going over and beginning to chop at the webbing.
"Oh, come on, really?" Peter said, trying to get to work on the other one. It swatted one of its legs at him, keeping him from being able to go to work on it in the same way he did the previous one, plus its positioning next to the other one made it harder to swing around properly. Instead, Peter wrapped around and up, landing a kick against the head of the machine. This knocked it back slightly, but ultimately failed to deter it.
Sam then took his turn, but the machine turned and unleashed a powerful pulse blast, sending Sam crashing into a building.
"Sam!" Peter called out, rushing to the aid of his new ally. He caught him just before he hit the ground.
"Thanks," Sam mumbled as he stood up on his own two feet. The two then turned to see that both machines were now free and ready to charge at them again. Peter was ready to spring into action, but suddenly Sam grabbed him and flew them both into the air.
"What are you doing!?" Peter shouted. "We have to stop those things!" Sam didn't respond, and within seconds they were far away from the attack site.
After a while, they came down on top of a building, almost crashing down. When Peter looked at Sam after smoothing out his own landing, the boy looked exhausted.
"Sorry," Sam said, "I guess I'm still not up to full strength yet, but I had to get us out of there."
"Why?" Peter asked. "We could take them."
Sam forced himself to his feet and tapped something on his left arm. He then came over to Peter, holding what appeared to be some kind of map, with about four or five dots on it.
"What is this?" Peter asked.
"Each one of these dots is another crash landing like what we've been dealing with here," Sam said. "They're targeting major technology hot spots around the world."
"So...this is one of many?" Peter asked, the realization beginning to dawn on him as to just how bad this situation really was.
"I got us out of there because we need a new strategy," he said. "We have to find a way to incapacitate all of them. Are there anymore that we can recruit to help us?"
Peter staggered back, turning around as he took in everything he was being told and had seen.
An invasion was happening. It was really happening.
"Spider-Man," Sam said.
"I'm sorry, I just..." Peter stumbled into his words, not even sure how to finish his sentence. He had to pull himself together though; he needed to focus, or earth was likely doomed.
He had hoped not to bring anyone else into this fight, but now it seemed that was no longer an option.
"I do know at least a couple people that we can reach out to," Peter said. "There...there aren't exactly many superheroes left, but there are some who can help us. It's just going to take some work to reach them."
"Then we need to hurry," Sam replied.
Riri bounced the ball against the floor and wall back to her hand repeatedly, bored out of her mind. All her assignments were done, so she didn't have much to do. She supposed she could work on upgrades to her armor, but she had been spending so much time on it recently that she felt she needed a break. She had worked on it in anticipation of Spider-Man giving her and Amadeus a call, but it was looking less likely than ever that that was going to happen. She didn't know what she expected, honestly. Sure, she'd come on a bit strong...okay, A LOT strong in their first meeting, but she just wanted to help!
Riri had told herself repeatedly to relax ever since that meeting. It hadn't ACTUALLY been that long since her and Amadeus assisted Spider-Man in saving some people from a burning building, so she knew she just needed to give it some time. Still, she was itching to get back out there, so it made waiting particularly difficult.
She almost fell out of her seat when she suddenly heard a frantic knocking at her door. She dropped her ball and ran over to the door to see what in the world was so urgent. She took a peek out of the small see-through spot to find Amadeus. Riri opened the door.
"What is so urgent?" she asked, an exasperated half smile on her face.
"You mean you haven't seen what's happening?" he asked, his face in utter shock.
"Seen what?" Riri asked.
Amadeus then stepped into the room, closing the door and pulling out his phone to look up something. Riri suddenly found herself getting a little nervous; very little riled up or got Amadeus going in this kind of way, and she didn't like it.
After a moment, Amadeus pulled up his phone as it displayed live footage of attacks from machines that had "fallen from the sky" in New York, Hong Kong, Tokyo, etc.
"Woah," she said, "did this just happen?"
"It's been going on for a couple hours now," Amadeus explained. "At first, it was just New York, but it wasn't long before the others started landing too."
Riri's brain was able to process a lot, but it was taking her a moment to soak all of this in. The planet was being INVADED.
"Ri, we have to go," Amadeus said. "We have to help."
"Spider-Man hasn't contacted us yet," Riri countered.
"Oh come on," Amadeus argued, "you really think that matters right now?"
"I'm just saying, maybe he has other help that we don't know about," she said. "Maybe they're on the case right now."
Amadeus gave her a look that told her he could tell she didn't believe that any more than he did.
"Yeah, I didn't think so either," she said.
"Ri, we have to do this," Amadeus said. "It's our responsibility. After...after I lost my aunt in the Snap, I swore I would do whatever it took to help the most people possible. THIS is it!"
Riri knew he was right. It was more personal for Amadeus, since she was fortunate enough not to have lost someone during the Snap like he had, but despite that, they still needed to act, with or without the world's last Avenger's permission.
She was about to speak up, but suddenly her phone rang. Riri went to her desk and grabbed it, but she hesitated to answer when she saw what it said. Turning to Amadeus, she spoke up.
"Unknown number."
Amadeus nodded, and, coming back over to him, Riri answered it and put it on speaker.
"Hello?" she said.
"Riri Williams?" came a voice.
"Yes?" she replied, still anticipating someone.
"It's Spider-Man," the caller responded. "It turns out I need you and your big green friend's help after all."
Hope you all are still enjoying this!
Continuing to pray for you all; stay safe and healthy!
"For those who find me find life and receive favor from the Lord." Proverbs 8:35