A/N Almost there. This is, most likely, the penultimate chapter. I do hope you enjoy it.

This one's all Tony - seemed like the cleanest and most dramatic way to write it.

Reviews, as always, gratefully received. Thank you once again to those happy few who've given me such wonderful feedback and support whilst writing this.

Chapter Twelve

For the briefest of moments, amongst the chaos that reigned around him, Tony felt numb…bereft: This was so wrong…it couldn't be happening.

He looked at the phase modulator, still attached to the front of the suit; he remembered everything and, as long as he did, he reassured himself that meant Steve was okay, for the time being at least.

The momentary distraction, however, proved fateful as the increase in the aperture caused by the most recent, and significantly stronger, pulse allowed the ingress of a number of even larger snake-like aliens than before. As they started to pour through, with the smaller of their kind taking the opportunity to slip through as their bodies narrowed towards the tail, one turned from the descent and eyed the hovering Iron Man with disdain: Darting towards him, Tony barely had time to react as the creature flew directly at him, jaws wide, yellowed fangs bared.

Too late he made to raise his right hand bearing the non-modified repulsor to defend himself but was caught, squarely in the chest as the huge beast, at least 15 foot long, barrelled into him: Although its fangs weren't particularly powerful against the toughened exterior of the Iron Man armour, its weight and momentum threw Tony backwards as closing jaws sought purchase and a fang caught on a corner of the phase modulator. He blasted it with the repulsor (which, at such close range, separated the creature's head from its body) and looked with satisfaction (and no small measure of relief) as the now bisected assailant tumbled earthwards; only barely aware in his shock that, as the alien fell, something metallic detached from the suit still clasped in its jaws.

"Jarvis, damage report." Tony flew back to his position realising, from the HUD readout, that the quinjets were now prepped to begin negating the effect of the pulse so that he and the signal from the tower array could effectively start to close the creatures' access point.

"Superficial damage only Sir. All systems functioning normally. Power at 67%." Jarvis was succinct and certain.

"What? I thought something came off the suit! What was it?" Tony was now in position and checking that all four points of assault on the aperture were perfectly synchronised. Encouraged by the information that power levels were still reasonably high, he took a few pot shots at some of the larger snakes which, less intimidated by the now receding flames from the incendiaries, were looking to spill into neighbouring streets away from the Hulk.

"I am not sure what that was Sir. I am unaware of any additional component to the suit."

Tony blinked hard and focussed. No time to worry about what it was now. He suppressed the nagging suspicion he'd forgotten something and braced himself to maintain the perfect angle for delivery of the beam concerned at the abrupt increase in the power of the latest pulse.

When it came, he monitored a spike in the force of the impact. The jets appeared to be performing their function of attempting to deaden its power but the plan had been formulated on the basis of earlier pulse readings, which had been substantially lower. Despite executing the plan perfectly, they had only succeeded between them in maintaining the aperture at its current size – there was no discernible reduction as the pulse receded at which point they were unable to affect it further: The stream of creatures entering showed no signs of abating although, thankfully, no larger ones were able to come through.

"Jarvis, why's the pulse getting stronger? Analysis."

"The pulse appears to be generated by the creatures themselves. I can only speculate at this point that the area behind the aperture has widened adequately to allow access to a far larger and more powerful member of their species.

Tony REALLY didn't like the sound of that. The HUD showed him that all four points of their defence were running at maximum possible efficacy but unless he could find a way to remove that creature from the equation, these things would continue to come through until they ran out of power at which point the next pulse would blow the sky wide open.

Approaching the opening, still thinning out as many of the larger snakes as he dared without compromising his power reserves too much (the HUD showed that just holding the last pulse had reduced his power levels by 12%), he realised the front end of a huge black outline was visible through the damaged area….he muttered a string of curses under his breath, this thing must be at least 20 times bigger than anything they'd seen so far and, at a rough guess, was probably responsible for almost all the force of the pulse.

His mind raced, calculating variables and possibilities. The shadow behind the sky loomed larger, obviously determined to exert maximum force on the aperture with the next pulse. It was a gamble, he knew, but all Tony's considerable scientific instincts told him that with this creature out of the picture there was every chance the tower array would have enough power to close the aperture on its own….most likely…with a bit of luck….okay, so evens at best but better than no chance at all!

Flying forward he positioned himself a few feet below the opening, dodging and smashing past as many of the creatures as he could so as not to waste valuable energy unnecessarily, and fired into the aperture with everything the suit had left that wasn't actually required to keep him airborne, desperately hoping it would be enough.

Responding to the gabble of voices inside his helmet, he abruptly outlined the situation to the stunned and slightly alarmed response of the agents on board the quinjets who, in the absence of any better options, concurred with his course of action. He continued firing, a sustained stream from his right hand repulsor that was draining his power with alarming rapidity, still attempting to shrug off as many of the (relatively) smaller snakes as possible but increasingly aware of how sluggishly the suit was responding as everything available to him was diverted to destroying the beast.

Power levels were just starting to slip below 8%, barely enough to keep him in position, when he realised that the area behind the aperture appeared to be shaking. The HUD showed the next pulse to be mere seconds away. There was an awful moment of almost eerie silence, which may just have been his senses excluding everything except his direct view into the abyss, as time appeared to slow and even the slew of snakes coursing over him seemed to momentarily vanish…and then everything happened at once.

Tony couldn't resist the broad grin that grew unchecked as he realised what the shaking was a precursor to….a grin that rapidly disappeared as he found himself showered in what could only be described as "liquefied essence of enormous space-dwelling snake" which poured through the opening above and successfully coated him, its force sending him reeling downwards. Blinded by the gelatinous purple goo, he had to rely on the HUD, now flickering slightly as it operated in reduced-power mode, to tell him that the next, almost negligible pulse was not only being entirely negated by the quinjets but successfully reversed by the tower array: He watched as it decreased throughout the duration of the process, with the cycle completing with the aperture at slightly less than 20% its previous size.

"Next time round you bastards," he smirked, focussing on using the little power he had left to right himself given that only one (barely) functioning repulsor made manoeuvring pretty tricky.

His relief however was short-lived. As he used his, modified and therefore useless for stabilising him, left gauntlet to clear the faceplate's visor he almost wished he hadn't as he became the target for no less than four of the largest snakes who'd obviously identified him as the source of their leader's demise.

Tony had to admit, the suit's compromised state made this a less than ideal situation as he simply didn't have the power to make a quick getaway. He routed what little power he could to thrusters, attempting to make a dive for the nearest building, in the hope of finding cover, but found himself staring down the throat of a large gaping mouth which appeared to be endeavouring to swallow him whole. He was vaguely aware of a lot of rather ineffectual shouting coming over his helmet communicator which served very little purpose as far as he was concerned given that no-one was in a position to help him: The voices stopped abruptly as a fang managed to catch on and disable a nest of circuitry at the back of the helmet effectively cutting off his communications with the rest of the team and Jarvis – oddly enough he found the silence to be something of a relief; if he was going to be eaten alive (the way a crab is eaten by an octopus) on national TV he'd probably prefer not to have to hear a commentary about it at the same time.

He mustered what little strength and power he had left in the suit attempting to buy himself some time (he'd be damned if his dying thought was going to be comparing himself to a crustacean) and raised his right hand in an attempt to dislodge the beast that had his head in a vice-like grip only to feel another of the snakes latch on to his arm. He managed a short burst from the repulsor with the suit's little remaining energy but could feel that he'd only been partially successful as, although the pressure on his limb ceased, the weight didn't – unable to see what had happened he could only assume he now had the dead weight of the snake adding to the sensation that his arm was being pulled away from his body, he just hoped that if the sleeve came off the suit his own arm didn't go with it.

Tony was starting to feel quite dazed as his head took repeated blows from the inside of the helmet as what felt like another of the snakes joined the fray in their apparent desire to tear him apart and was therefore quite surprised when his thoughts departed from the clarity he'd had in composing his appropriately Stark-like dying thought to a sudden onslaught of memories and images all vying for his attention.

"Coffee!" It suddenly struck him that his life lately had contained totally insufficient quantities of his favourite beverage….and it further occurred there was a really good reason for that….he just couldn't quite remember what, having his head being shaken about like a bead in a rattle really affected his concentration….and as a way to die, this really sucked…not that there were any particularly good ways…

…and then a blinding flash of light and heat caused the snakes to shrivel and explode and (most importantly) peel away from him, releasing their grip as their charred remains fell to Earth. The charge that killed them transferred enough power to the suit to allow the thrusters to fire adequately and prevent him from following them.

Almost instantaneously, he became aware of an arm supporting him in midair as the pain from his own arm, which he realised was close to being completely dislocated, overwhelmed him. He tiredly turned his aching head and saw, with relief, a familiar face as he was gently lowered towards the ground.

"Man of Iron, are you badly injured?" At this distance, Thor was quite loud enough not to need any kind of comms.

With no functioning communications and scared as to what attempting to shake his head might feel like, Tony barely managed to raise his left hand in a half-hearted thumbs up. He had a feeling he was supposed to be mad at this guy for some reason but, whatever it was, it would be churlish to pursue that line of thought when he'd just saved his life….and there were all those other things that seemed determined to make their way to the front of his pain-fogged brain…so he just settled for being set down in an alleyway and focussed on trying to remain upright which was, worryingly, far more challenging than he'd prefer.

Thor took a moment to steady Tony and, when he realised the genius was raising his useable left hand to withdraw the faceplate, reached forward to expose the man's face to the, mercifully, fresh(ish – the acrid smell of burning snake predominated) air.

The god had clearly received some kind of instructions over his earpiece as he raised his head and looked above him.

"Stay here," he said gently. "You are injured my friend." Without another word, he launched himself skyward and started to incinerate the larger of the snakes, particularly those that had spread into the neighbouring streets.

Tony looked up and, for an instant, the sight of the sky sealed with no more of the repulsive creatures entering the atmosphere made him smile…which in turn made him wince – his head really hurt: The increase in oxygen helped to clear his mind which he regretted immediately as he regarded the walls and paving of the local area spattered with copious quantities of snake entrails and more than a few of the smaller ones chasing each other and anything else that moved – not a good sight on an empty stomach.

His head started to clear enough for all those other images, the ones that had started to pester him when he'd thought he was dying, to try and make their way to the forefront of his mind, but he was still struggling to focus on them even though it all felt horribly familiar…but not as familiar as the next thing he noticed.

A large snake turned the corner of the alley and glared at him viciously, clearly escaping the pogrom Thor was unleashing elsewhere: To say that, at this point, Tony was heartily sick of these things would have been an understatement of Olympic proportions; on the other hand, as he considered his chances against it, he would have had to see himself as the underdog in this encounter. Whilst available power for the suit had recovered slightly, without Jarvis' input it was impossible to say how much, he doubted he could manage more than a…sedate…take off at best, certainly a lot slower than anything the snake could muster; his right arm was only mobile with significant pain and a quick visual diagnostic suggested his single repulsor could well be damaged beyond repair; the suit remained in one piece and could probably withstand an onslaught from the creature for a little while but, without assistance, it was unlikely to remain intact for long which would only prolong things; and he had no way to call for help!

He responded in the only appropriate way.

"Oh…shit!"

The sharp sound of metal colliding with brick…the briefest flash of blue…and the snake no longer had a head with which to glare at him.

"That's what I was trying to remember…." Tony smiled briefly before finally relinquishing his tenuous grasp on consciousness.