(Short chapter. Again, liberal use of comic book logic.)
"War, huh? What is it good for?"
"Absolutely nuthin."
Spider-Man and the Thing banter and fly closer to the battle in an old Fantastic Four flying bathtub ship. The police cordoned off the road they flew above a mile back. They could still see the top of a large metal pyramid and what looked like a barely opened red eye standing vertically on top.
"It DOES look like the Eye of Sauron", the arachnid hero commented.
"The dinosaur guy?" The pilot asked over his shoulder.
A stray blast of energy passed too close for comfort. Breaking over the tree line, the two could see a large field filled with battle.
Mutants. Students, mostly teenagers, littered the area, fighting for all their worth. Spider-Man idly thought it looked like that day he broke into the school, except on a much larger scale.
The large red eye shot small blasts from time to time, taking aim at flyers or those that got too close to the pyramid. Among them, Johnny and Carol weaving expertly among the blasts.
The pyramid itself floated slowly about a street light's distance from the ground, shaving or completely uprooting the trees in its path. Its force field could be seen whenever something hit it, a brief splash of red before whatever bounced away or dissipated.
Further up in the pyramid's path, Giant-Man wrestled with a grey figure in Egyptian like clothes. Near them, a large wall of ice stood.
Thing pointed to the ice, "that's where we're heading."
After the announcement the craft took a direct hit from below. Thing wrestled with the controls, but found the craft listing towards the floating structure and slowly plummeting.
Spider-Man was surprised by the sudden grip on his arm and the feeling of being thrown. Looking back he could see the FF ship crash into the side of the pyramid in a large flash of red, and the debris fell to the ground.
In midair, a hand found his. Him and his savior spun twice to bleed off the momentum then orientated themselves upright.
Spider-Man's hero immediately flew toward the ice structure. "Where's Ben?" Johnny's voice called over the battle.
"He was on the bathtub. I didn't see him jump", Spider-Man informed. Another hand grabbed his for better support, both equally flameless, unlike the rest of the flyer.
"Eh, he's fine", though there was slight worry in Johnny's voice, both the Human Torch and Spider-Man were confident in their friend's survival. "He's like a big, orange stray cat. You can't get rid of him."
"Well", Spider-Man thought out loud, "he does like lasagna and hates Mondays."
The two land on the other side of the ice wall.
There they find two Ice-Men maintaining the wall, patching any holes blown out of it. A young Cyclops blasted everyone that made it around the wall. And working on a large cannon like machine were two Beasts, one big, blue, and furred, the other less so.
The older McCoy sees them first. "Spider-Man", he motions toward the machine, "what do you know of force field resonance?"
"Less than I will by the time this is all over I imagine", quipped the arachnid hero.
In spite of the situation, Beast chuckled. "Indeed. I must confess, as will I."
The less blue McCoy spoke up. "Dr. Banner was discussing a possible way to adjust this mechanism's output wavelength to disable the force field before he- he-"
"He took a rather nasty hit from one of the Strained students and proceeded to correct their behavior", the older Beast finished for his stunned counterpart.
"Your first 'Hulk-out'?", Spider-Man directed to the time jumped teen. "Don't worry, eventually you won't even notice." Then as an afterthought, "unless he starts charging at you."
"Quite so", Old McCoy agreed. "Unfortunately, we require Dr. Banner's expertise. He mentioned something about the exact level of gamma energy needed to be effective. When it comes to gamma energy-"
"He's the man with the plan. Gotcha", the red and blue figure nodded. They needed a de-Hulked Hulk and quick.
Moving with barely a thought, the hero quickly swings onto the other side of the wall. Fighting as far as he could see, but the one he was looking for easy to spot.
The green rage machine swatted away anyone who came close to him. The stronger students and Colossus attempted to hold him back.
Spider-Man lept from his perch, avoiding an electrical discharge at the last second. He hopped and dodged around fights, not knowing who's side who was on. He webbed the face of a large stone guy who looked ready to deal a fatal blow. His would be victim took advantage of the situation and beat a hasty retreat.
In mid leap, he slammed the heads of two students together to stun them for the moment then landed next to the Hulk sized dog pile.
"Hey Hulkster", Spider-Man called to the pile, "I bet you're having fun, but we really could use some Nerd power right now."
A huff and a growl and five bodies were thrown in several directions. Spidey casually took a step to the right just before a woman made of volcanic rock flew by.
Growling, Hulk roared to the sky, "Hulk smash!"
"Yeah, I get ya big guy", Spider-Man said in exasperation. "But we really need-"
"For Apocalypse!" Hulk cut him off, standing at his full height staring down the annoying bug man in front of him.
Spider-Man looked up into the furious face of one of the strongest forces on earth.
"I think I webbed myself a little."