I can't believe how fast I wrote this.
Just for those of a squeamish disposition: No animals, real or imaginary, were harmed in the writing of this chapter - they're all CGI, particularly the recognisable ones!
...and, for the record, I love animals: I just wanted my aliens to be nasty and a credible threat but without any complex villainous agendas.
Huge cyber-hugs to my lovely regular reviewers. You may be thin on the ground but you're making this a worthwhile endeavour, thanks for your support.
Chapter Eleven
Tony headed for the launch pad with a degree of indifference towards the mission. He'd have to slow the rate of the aperture's opening while he waited for SHIELD to complete the work on the quinjets, but even their engineering mediocrities couldn't louse up a minor adjustment and a software install. Because they'd caught it so soon, it was barely worth worrying about what would probably never get a chance to happen; evacuating the area below and having people on the ground was purely precautionary. Trust Captain America to want to play by the book and ensure all bases were covered, even if the threat never got a chance to materialise.
Still, deep down, Tony knew the Captain was right. After all, the fiasco of the other night was, in no small part, due to him not taking it all that seriously when he'd realised how little threat the 'enemy' posed: He should probably have taken more flack for it from the others except that they'd all been a bit lax and had, realistically, got lucky with the outcome – add to that, they all knew it.
He looked down at the phase modulator wondering if he'd have been happier if he hadn't created it, would he wonder why he'd made it if Steve lost his case? Would he question how he'd spent the last 24 hours or just not worry about it as everything was blocked from his memory and curiosity?
"Tony," Steve's voice resonated inside the suit, "the opening is starting to increase in size, doubling with each pulse. You should hurry."
Tony ran a quick check on the visuals. "It's only at 2cm diameter now, another pulse due in 18 seconds. It'll be a while before it's big enough for anything to get through."
"What about viruses, bacteria, chemical weapons….?"
"Alright, you made your point. Jarvis, full air filtration and environmental scans as we approach the area."
Jarvis confirmed as Tony launched in the direction of the opening. He arrived on the far side of the disturbance from the tower and was prepping synchronisation with the other array just as the next pulse hit: Even at less than 10 metres distance from the aperture it was scarcely detectable to the naked eye in the early light of the day….until something started to emerge from the tiny hole in the sky…
Tony doubted what he was seeing initially as a tiny black dot appeared, suspended in the sky some 50 feet above the buildings below. Zooming in gave no further clarity as to what it was other than to confirm it was actually there and moving very slightly as though trying to wriggle through a hole that wasn't quite big enough.
"Jarvis, add my visual to display in lab. Steve? Are you seeing this?"
Down at street level, Natasha turned to Clint and mouthed: "Who's he talking to?" Clint shrugged, bewildered.
"I see it….what the hell is it?."
"The next pulse will be in 7 seconds. Synchronising array." Jarvis intoned.
"Confirmed." Tony held up the modified hand repulsor and zeroed in on the coordinates of the aperture.
As the next pulse hit, it was significantly weakened as Bruce had predicted. Readouts on the HUD confirmed that the opening had only widened by a little over 1cm, significantly slowing but not eliminating its increase in size: The small increase in diameter, however, was apparently enough for whatever had been trying to get through.
A thin, black, snake-like creature, about 3 foot long with curious spiky scales, slithered through the opening; to be followed almost immediately by another…and another…and another.
The first of the small creatures headed directly for Tony, bouncing harmlessly off the suit with a dull clunk and falling a short way before recovering and swimming off through the air as if it was water.
"Jarvis, analysis?" Tony took a pot-shot at some of the others with his unmodified gauntlet and the creatures evaporated satisfyingly as they were hit. "Not much to them." But reluctantly he realised that he couldn't keep firing like that with the rate they were coming through, he'd reduce his power too rapidly.
"Just a lot of them. Focus on keeping the size of that opening limited as much as you can Tony," Steve eyed the 3D scan of the gap and the area behind it, the space around the area was now so thin that he was starting to see quite a clear visual of what seemed to be trying to get through. "It looks like these are only the smallest of them and I think they get a lot bigger. You need to restrict them as much as possible."
"Sir, the creatures are fully organic but appear to be able to thrive in any environment. They seem to have no remarkable defensive or offensive capabilities. There are no venom sacs or anything similar in their physiology." Tony watched as one of them turned elegantly and swiftly in the air, trapping a small bird and swallowing it whole. "They also appear to be carnivorous." Jarvis concluded solemnly.
"Good to know all those years of development I spent on you were worthwhile J." Tony said, having learnt nothing he couldn't have ascertained from his own observation. Another of the small creatures emerged from the aperture and took a swipe at Tony, its tiny fangs showing as it flew straight at the faceplate only to fall away on impact: These little ones weren't of any real threat other than the panic they could cause but, he had to admit, he didn't like the idea of what the bigger ones could be like as he watched a group of them start to swarm and attack a flock of birds that had just risen from the park only to be decimated and devoured by the invaders.
"Can you spare the power to drive these things downwards to the others, they need to be contained: Focus on the aperture and get the team to deal with these."
Tony complied, using a stream of energy from his repulsor to skim the top of the gathering swarm and send those creatures not incinerated downwards towards the rest of the team: "Hawkeye, Widow? Are you having fun yet?" He braced himself for the next pulse as he waited for the reply.
"Just starting to reach us, I don't need a gun for this I need a large fly swatter." On the CCTV feed back at the lab, Steve watched as Natasha elegantly swung a metal pole she'd liberated from somewhere to sweep through a small group of the creatures before hurling them into a wall where their glutinous bodies smashed into a viscous purple mess.
A roar that was heard even within the confines of the tower had Steve looking to the screen that showed Bruce's location: The snakes had run into Hulk and weren't having the best of times as a result. He watched, with the awe he always felt when the Other Guy made an appearance, as a huge green hand gathered maybe twenty of more of the creatures up and smashed them into the ground.
The issue, he concluded, was going to be weight of numbers rather than the danger of the snakes individually but even these smaller ones were vicious – he winced as movement in the corner of another screen caught his eye, seven or eight of the 'space snakes' appeared to be attacking a small animal of some kind, a cat….it didn't stand a chance. If Steve had a stomach, it would have churned at the sight of the doomed creature. His concern flew to the more obviously vulnerable of his team.
"Tony, warn Nat and Clint that these things can do real damage in numbers. Tell them to stick together and not get hemmed in."
Tony had just ridden out the next pulse and was pleased to see that they were successfully limiting expansion of the opening…but not enough to prevent one or two larger snakes (about twice the size of the first ones) which came through in amongst what was now a torrent of the repulsive creatures pouring through the hole. He barked out the Captain's message to the two assassins on the ground – the fact they concurred so readily suggested they were starting to feel the same way themselves.
"Jarvis, how long till the jets get here?"
"They have launched and should be here in a little under 8 minutes."
"How long will power to the suit last if I increase the charge used on the pulse?"
"That course of action would result in power being sufficiently depleted to no longer be able to maintain flight in 6.7 minutes, Sir. It is an inadvisable course of action and it is unlikely you would be successful in closing the aperture which…."
"I get it J – don't labour the point." Frustrated, Tony blasted one of the larger snakes as it wriggled its way into Earth's atmosphere. The smaller ones adjacent to it, that weren't destroyed by the same shot, scattered in every direction away from the heat."
Steve watched on one of the CCTV cameras covering a peripheral street as several of the strays from that blast descended and attacked a police officer. He managed to get them off him with the help of his partner but picked up several painful-looking bites: Steve hoped these things weren't carrying any unknown diseases.
"Tony, don't do that: It causes them to scatter, you need to keep them contained. They'll cause mass panic if they start getting out into the city."
"What do you suggest?" Tony hovered in anticipation of the next pulse while Steve considered the creature's reactions to heat….fire! Of course, all wild animals fled from fire and that's what these were: This wasn't a sophisticated invasion, more like a plague of locusts.
"Get Clint to fire incendiary arrows onto the tops of the buildings – let's make them a landing strip straight to the Hulk!"
Despite knowing Hulk could withstand virtually anything that came at him, Steve still felt bad sending everything in his direction but, with Iron Man needed elsewhere, he really was the best bet for controlling these things.
Tony relayed the command. Clint and Natasha had taken refuge in the foyer of an office block and were firing out of small spaces cut in the glass: Whilst both were extraordinarily fit, this kind of onslaught was wearing and some of the bigger snakes that were making their way down to them were a substantial weight. They both carried scratches and marks from near misses with the vicious fangs of the creatures.
"I'll cover you." Natasha assured the archer as he switched to the correct setting on his bow and selected the arrows needed. They sprinted into the street, Natasha somehow managing to wield both her incredibly useful iron bar and a gun and clearing a path for them both through the increasingly thick sea of snakes by a series of acrobatic manoeuvres.
Hawkeye emptied the airspace above them using an arrow that exploded around a dozen small flares above their heads, causing a scattering of the throng (many of whom stampeded into a nearby wall) and proving the veracity of the theory that they'd run from fire, before he aimed two arrows in quick succession onto the roofs of the neighbouring buildings.
As the incendiaries were set off, flames shot into the sky reaching to not far below where Tony was hovering. The snakes still cascading through the aperture sensed the immediate danger and, as anticipated, the throng headed straight towards the Hulk who appeared to be enjoying himself immensely as he swatted huge swathes of the creatures into hard surfaces in every direction, he was almost covered in purple from the life-blood of the creatures.
"Well at least Bruce likes purple," Barton grinned momentarily forgetting his earpiece.
"Remind Barton to keep comms clear."
"You heard…well no you didn't…but keep comms clear Barton! Next pulse in 3…2…1…"
The next pulse opened the aperture wide enough for an even larger snake to pass through – its body was the circumference of a small tree and Tony, in spite of himself, gasped in horror as it trailed through, snapping its jaws in his direction. He wasted no time in slicing through it with his gauntlet and watched with satisfaction as the head fell to Earth – only to feel slightly sick as the creatures behind it all but devoured it in their haste to clear their entry point.
"Ugh, cannibals!" Tony briefly considered that vomit inside the faceplate would be highly unpleasant and inconvenient and swallowed hard.
Back inside the safety of the foyer, Clint took care to silence his earpiece before turning to Natasha and querying: "Did I just get dissed by Tony's imaginary friend?"
"Not now…" she hissed back at him, but accompanied her comment with a roll of the eyes that suggested she was equally concerned by Tony's behaviour. "Incoming!" She yelled as she saw four of the largest snakes yet heading down the street. She took out one with a straight shot through the head, Clint launched another of the flare arrows which sent the smaller ones in all directions and the window they were using took several very messy hits from the fleeing creatures, but the larger ones only seemed a little disoriented and one turned in their direction regarding the source of movement malevolently: It charged at the window and broke straight through, the collision was enough to stall it briefly and Nat swiftly despatched a bullet to its brain but another was right behind it, accompanied by numerous smaller ones.
"Elevated view?"
"Sounds good."
They ran for the stairwell, Clint using one of his last two flares to send the creatures scattering over the area and buying them time to get the other side of the hefty door. They sprinted up two floors and managed to find a good vantage point behind several sturdy fire doors.
From the window overlooking the street below, they both found a moment to marvel as the Hulk grabbed the remaining larger snake and wielded it as a weapon against the others: At nearly twelve feet long, it cut a swathe through the creatures, slamming them into hard surfaces and shattering almost all of the smaller ones to fragments. But, whilst neither of them was concerned that any of the creatures would be able to pierce the Other Guy's skin (he was impervious to missiles after all) it was worrying to think how much bigger these things could get and would there come a point where just their sheer numbers could nullify him.
"How long till the jets get here, Stark? There are just too many of these things." Natasha never sounded panicked, but, Tony reflected, that sounded pretty close.
He was about to check with Jarvis when he heard a sound, looking up he saw the two quinjets approaching and preparing to move into position.
"They're here now Nat." The relief in his voice was plain.
"So is Yustis, Tony. I have to go."
"WHAT? No! You can't go now!"
Natasha and Clint glanced at each other in worried confusion at the one-sided exchange they heard over their earpieces.
"Tony, the jets are here. You'll be fine, just stop these things coming in and Hulk will probably manage the rest." Steve took a moment to take a quick look at Hulk delightedly swatting the creatures as they swarmed towards him. "Take care of the team….and thanks."
Tony held it together as the next pulse hit but barely registered the results.
"Jarvis. Current location of the Type 3 signature?"
"The signature is now absent from the Tower, Sir." If Jarvis was confused as to the reason for the question in the middle of a battle, he chose not to express it at this time.
"Not now….come back…" Tony groaned, oblivious to being on open comms channel.
Clint muted his earpiece once more: "OK, so our illustrious leader is so bad at personal relationships he even gets dumped by people he's made up. Now can I worry?"