Chapter Five: This Makes Us a Team
Blue Beetle yelped as an alien…thing…tried to take his head off. It looked like a cross between a dinosaur raptor, a zombie, and a cyborg. He leapt to the side, yanking his Beetle gun from his belt and firing it as soon as he brought it up. The thing screeched as the blast of air threw it backwards. Seconds later, the thing dropped as Iron Man hit it with his repulsors.
"You got anything better, Beetle Boy?" the armored superhero demanded. "Chitauri aren't going to be impressed with that little toy of yours."
Before Beetle could form a retort, a robotic voice announced, "No Man escapes the Manhunters!"
Iron Man went down as a blast hit him dead center of his back. Beetle groaned as he took in the robot; just like every other Manhunter he'd ever had the displeasure to see, it had a metal human face on a red robot head, eerie glowing green eyes, and a single minded robotic determination to accomplish its goal. Beetle threw himself into the air, flipping over a second Manhunter's attack and kicking the first Manhunter into a chittering Chitauri trying to get at the downed Iron Man. Beetle grinned as his kick left him with enough momentum to push off a nearby wall and hurtle into the second Manhunter, his Beetle gun unleashing its flare right in the Manhunter's face.
"Anytime now, Irons," Beetle taunted as a third Chitauri launched itself at the two heroes.
"Down," Iron Man ordered. Beetle dove to the side, smirking as a repulsor blast caught the Chitauri in mid-air. Iron Man rolled, delivering a second repulsor blast to a Manhunter trying to sneak up behind them. "JARVIS says we're going this way, Beetled One!" Stark called as he got airborne and swept low enough for Beetle to leap up on his back. "That gun of yours have any other settings?"
"Sure does," Beetle confirmed, nailing a Chitauri with the laser function. "Now shut up and fly, Irons."
Chitauri and Manhunters, could this Halloween get any worse? Max Coulson was very careful not to voice that thought aloud: they did not need the great god Murphy sticking his nose in now. Instead, he pulled his gun, double-checking his weapon and chambering a round before opening fire on the Chitauri howling for his blood. Behind him, War Machine's weapons roared as he lit up the Manhunters.
"No Man escapes the Manhunters!" another Manhunter snarled, leaping at Max.
"Who said anything about escaping?" Phil Coulson inquired calmly, shooting the Manhunter between the eyes and shoving a gibbering with fear Maxwell Lord down in his mind. Though the fear was understandable, since Max had once been shot five times by an undercover Manhunter he'd trusted. "Rhodes, I recommend figuring out which way we're going before we get overrun."
"JARVIS is working on it, but right now, he's split between me and Stark," War Machine replied, mowing down an entire horde of Chitauri. "This place is a maze," he added, glancing around.
"So I noticed," Max snarked, rising to the fore again and taking a certain amount of pleasure in getting to shoot back this time. "Loki must be trying to delay us though; Chitauri and Manhunters aren't enough to kill us unless we get sloppy."
"Run the clock," Rhodes mused. "You sure those Leaguers are up to scratch?"
"Yes." Not an ounce of doubt. "The Chitauri are from the Avenger world, if you will; the Manhunters are from the League's world. And considering the Manhunters came within seconds of blowing up the entire planet, only to be stopped by a member of the Justice League, I'd say the League can handle them."
"How'd they get stopped if they came that close?"
"Booster. He was blackmailed into working with them, but he drew the line at destroying the Earth. When one of them went to activate the bomb they'd somehow smuggled to the Earth's core, he turned on them and kept them away from the switch." Max grimaced at the incredulous look he could 'see', even below War Machine's impassive faceplate. "He's a good guy, Rhodes. I'd trust him with my life, just not my wallet."
Rhodes considered that as he helped finish off the immediately visible Manhunters; the Chitauri had already been dealt with. "I guess everyone's got a past and stuff they regret," he finally decided. "JARVIS has got our direction," he added, pointing to a fork Max hadn't noticed until just then. "Let's go."
Between Thor's lightning and Hawkeye's arrows, neither the Chitauri nor the Manhunters were able to even get close to the two heroes. Hawkeye refrained from using her trick arrows, at least for the moment. Conserving her ammo for later was far more important. Besides, it was oh-so-satisfying to watch the Manhunters and Chitauri fall to her usual arrows.
"The Golden One is your brother?" Thor inquired as the initial fighting ended.
Clint cocked her head at the other. "Yes," she said simply, leaving out the more complicated details as she retrieved as many arrows as she could.
"Then why have we not met him before?"
So much for leaving 'complicated' out of it. "Thor, we are costumes," she started, following her inner sense of which way to go. "I know that, even if a part of me doesn't like it. He's my brother – out of costume, I mean."
Trailing along behind, Thor considered this. "You mean that he is your brother, regardless of your garb and memories?"
A nod, then Clint's eyes narrowed. "This 'Loki', though? He's just pretending to be Loki, Thor; he's not actually Loki, not in costume and not for real, either."
"Your magic tells you this," Thor rumbled. He smiled, just a bit, at the surprised look he got. "You forget, friend Hawk, that I have power of my own. It is not like Loki's, but it is enough that I, too, can sense the magical kinship between you and the Golden One." He looked around the maze, his brow furrowing. "Your magic also guides us here?"
"Yeah, I think it is," Clint confirmed, taking another turn and grinning as she spotted a group of oblivious Manhunters. "Let's have some fun."
"Indeed," Thor agreed, spinning Mjolnir. "It shall be fine sport."
Thunder and lightning rained down on the Manhunters as Hawkeye unleashed her first explosive arrow of the evening.
For the first several minutes, Captain America and Mister Miracle did not talk; they were far too busy fighting to survive as Manhunters and Chitauri descended on them from both sides. Cap's shield flew every which way, taking out Manhunters and Chitauri in equal measure as Miracle and his aero-discs took to the air and deployed every last trick in Scott Free's considerable arsenal. As the wave of enemies began to ebb, Miracle flipped into the middle of a horde of Chitauri and took them down hand-to-hand, snarling as he backhanded one Chitauri into the path of a Manhunter aiming its weapon at Cap's unguarded back.
"Down!" Cap yelled suddenly.
Scott threw himself down as the American superhero grabbed a Manhunter about to fire and forced it to aim at a cluster of Chitauri. Without an ounce of hesitation, Scott hurled a small explosive into the midst of the Chitauri as the Manhunter's weapon continued to fire. The resulting explosion took out most of their remaining foes. Cap nodded approval as he wrenched one of the Manhunter's arms behind its back and kicked, detaching the arm and the weapon it held from the robot.
"No Man escapes the Manhunt...zzzz," the robot sizzled out, static marking each word before it trailed off.
"You okay?" Cap asked as Scott flipped back to his feet.
"Not a scratch," Miracle reassured his counterpart as he took to the air again and carefully pulled the other hero up onto his aero-discs. "This may get a touch awkward, though."
"I'll deal," Cap promised, scanning the maze. "Any ideas?"
"A few," Scott replied, tapping Mother Box and nodding briefly at Mother's reply. "Mother Box has a rough map of the area," he announced, steering towards an opening to another section of the maze. "She recommends we work our way to the center."
"It's as good a place to start as any," Cap agreed, his gaze thoughtful behind his mask.
Booster Gold was grateful for two things…well, more than that, but right now, two things: his force field belt and Skeets. Skeets was a thing of beauty as he swooped around two Chitauri, landing hits and making as much trouble as he could for the nearby Manhunters. And his force field belt meant that he and Black Widow hadn't been annihilated in the first three seconds by the two groups of foes who'd been lying in wait for them. Booster drew in a breath, then nailed a Chitauri and a Manhunter simultaneously with his Booster Shots.
"Interesting defense," Black Widow mused, pulling two handguns from her leg holsters. "Can that be used offensively?" she inquired as she opened fire, a cool expression on her face.
Booster shrugged. "Most of the time, no," he admitted, eyeing one particular Manhunter, who was starting to remind him of the very late Red Rocket #7. Thank goodness the other Red Rockets had shown up in nick of time that day…he still shuddered to think of how the day could have ended.
As the Manhunter roared, "No Man escapes the Manhunters," and raised its arm to launch a missile at the pair, Booster smirked and adjusted the settings on his equipment.
"Duck and cover," he ordered Black Widow as he watched the Manhunter. She obeyed, watching in shock as the Manhunter fired and promptly blew up. A shimmering force field around the explosion gave away the cause.
"It blew itself up," she realized. "You can use that offensively."
She earned another shrug. "Only when they're that stupid," Booster rejoined, adjusting his force field to catch another volley of shots from the enraged Chitauri. "Caught another Manhunter that way awhile back, but they're usually smart enough not to do that around me." The hero cocked his head to the side, eyeing the oncoming rampage. "Then again," he mused, firing his Booster Shots into the crowd, with Black Widow adding her own rounds. "Skeets! Crossfire mode!"
"Certainly, sir!" Skeets acknowledged, dropping down and opening fire as an aerial Booster and an on the ground Black Widow caught the Manhunters and Chitauri from the opposite side in an impressive – and lethal – crossfire. As the monsters and robots fell, Skeets ceased fire and zipped over to his master. "All enemies in this area are down, sir."
"Good work, Skeets," Booster called as he flew higher to get a look around. After a few seconds of scanning, he flew back down. "I think I know which way to go," he informed Black Widow.
"Then lead the way, Mr. Gold," Black Widow replied, gesturing for her fellow hero to take the lead. "Let's not keep the others waiting, shall we?"
Booster cast her an amused look as he led the way. "Still suspicious, Miss Widow?"
Widow inclined her head in acknowledgement of the tit for tat. "Occupational hazard," she remarked. "Trusting easily gets you killed in my line of work."
"But if we don't trust each other, then things are going to get a whole lot worse," Booster argued back. "Skeets, how much time do we have left?"
"Two hours and counting, sir," Skeets reported briskly. He dropped down to hover between the two. "Booster is correct; trust is the only way this can work, ma'am. It is not a one-way street, I assure you."
"Ignore him," Booster refuted, waving the little 'bot off. "I trust you, Widow, just like I trust my sis in the archer's outfit with the slick bow."
Natasha Romanoff considered that argument. "I'll think about it," she decided. "Now, are you going to get moving or not?"
Hordes of Chitauri and masses of Manhunters meant it took another hour for the two teams to meet up in the center of the maze. Every last one of them was getting a bit ragged and worn, but none of them were backing down. On the contrary, all of them were determined to show Loki that his tactics were not going to work and that they could take situations ten times worse than this without breaking a sweat.
Loki scowled to himself as he watched the two teams progress towards their goal. Somehow, they had, to a large degree, avoided the infighting he had expected, even encouraged. And yet, enough of their true selves remained that, once the initial suspicion had been overcome, they'd fallen right into watching each other's backs and working together, just as they'd always done.
He looked up at the clock, then to the side at his other guests, smirking at the looks on their faces. Even so, he was still the one in control, the one with power and authority. A group of Muggles and Mudbloods couldn't change that, not now, not at the very moment of his triumph.
"Fight on, little Muggles," he murmured at the image of the maze and its occupants. "You shall not succeed, I vow it."