WHUMP
Rubble started falling from the ceiling and panic descended. Cap ran to shield Jessica and her pregnant belly from the falling roof and Iron Man burst into the room with Cassie, reassuring everyone that she was fine.
CRASH
The roof was torn off completely and a giant figure appeared through the smoke.
"Where is he?!? Where is the master?!"
Billy recognised it at once as the growing man, and began running his statistics through his head, only realising that he was doing it out loud when Jessica Jones yelled, "God, you really are fanboys, aren't you?" from behind Cap. Cool, Kaplan. Smooth.
"Whatever you do," Cap shouted. "Don't -"
Teddy leaped up and punched the growing man squarely in the jaw.
"- hit him," Cap finished.
"Whoops," said Teddy.
"The more you hit him, the more he grows," Cap explained, and then stopped dead as he stared at the figure of the growing man laying immobile on the floor.
"I don't know sir," Teddy said. "His growth seems to have been... stunted."
Billy descended and landed next to his boyfriend to get a better look at a sight than was completely unheard of. The growing man isn't growing or doing anything really annoying. That's it. The moon must be made of cheese.
"Well, that's never happened before," Cap said to Iron Man.
"I guess they don't make 'em like they used to."
Iron Man was prevented from continuing as the growing man's first line "Where is the master?" seemed to be coming from everywhere.
The team watched in horror as the growing man didn't grow, but began to split into many little growing men.
"Okay," Billy said. "This completely violates growing man continuity."
The four of then backed up together, surrounded by the growing men.
"God, I'm such a dork," Billy muttered so that no one could really hear him.
"Yeah," muttered Teddy, catching Billy's hand for a second and squeezing it. "But you're my Dork." Billy's heart soared and lightning flowed over his skin.
"What do we do?" asked Iron Lad.
"We're fanboys aren't we?" replied Teddy. "We collect them all."
"Do you want my advice?" asked Cap.
"Do we have a choice?" Patriot retorted.
"Not if you want to survive," growled Iron Man.
"Don't fight them. Subdue them."
And they did. The team tried every method of subduing the little men who were constantly chanting "Where is the master?"
"I think they want their master," Teddy roared over the din.
"Who the hell is their master?" Patriot yelled back.
"Kang!" replied the Captain, trying to fight off ten of them at once.
"Kang?" replied Iron Lad. "Oh my God, they're stimuloids. I invented them."
All the pieces fell into place, albeit in a weird time travel way. Of course Iron Lad was Kang, he was from the future, his armour was even more advanced than Iron Man's and he had ad this huge obsession with Kang's coming. Billy gave himself a mental duh and tuned back into the fight to hear Iron Lad talking to him.
"Asgardian, can you hold them back?"
"How?" Billy asked. "They're lightning proof."
"Use your other powers."
My other powers? Not the best idea to be casting spells that are unreliable at best in a time of crisis. Shit. I -
"Are you sure? I don't know if I -"
"Do it!"
"You don't have to yell," Billy muttered as he lept into the air, sending out a ring of fluorescent blue power and knocking out a large proportion of the growing men.
Wow. So that didn't screw up completely. Fluke. Hmmm,Cap and Iron Man seem to be giving me weird looks. Maybe I should have mentioned that lightning isn't the only trick I have.
Billy watched in fascination at Iron Lad, who now hovered above the partially sedated growing men shouting,
"I am Kang. I am your master!"
Well, I would say that my suspicions have just been spectacularly confirmed.
Green beams of light shot upwards from the position of each growing man, it took Billy a few seconds to realise that the growing men had disappeared with the light, leaving them without an enemy.
"What are they doing?" asked Iron Man.
"Sending a signal," Iron Lad replied. "Letting Kang know they found me. He's coming... we have to prepare."
Iron Man led them back into the mansion and to the training facility; he then took their gear, claiming that he wanted to see what they could do without their stuff.
Billy walked into the facility next to Teddy, putting his arm around the others waist and loving the feel of him, he was just so powerful and...big in this form.
"Good luck," Billy whispered.
"You too," Teddy replied with a small nervous smile playing across his lips.
"You'll be fine," Billy reassured him.
"Thanks," he slid an arm around Billy's waist and squeezed gently on his hip bone.
"Move guys," said Patriot from behind, causing them to jump apart.
Patriot sighed under his breath and moved past them, shaking his head.
"Crap," Billy cursed, stopping and turning back to the entrance. "Just be a second, I'll see you in there," he jogged the short distance to the exit. "Oops. Forgot to take off my watch," he pushed against the door. "Hey, the door's locked. Cap? Iron Man? Guys..."
There was no reply.