A/N-Here we go folks. Hope everyone enjoys this fic as much as the first two. Read, enjoy and REVIEW. Let me know what you think! ~A
The Itsy, Bitsy Spider?
The Avengers are assigned to investigate and eliminate the threat of "Giant Spiders. After Stark finished having a geek fest, in other words having Jarvis pull up every movie with spiders of abnormal size. He downloaded it to his palm pilot and after handing out similar ones to the others. They watched several before they set down at the landing site.
Since the Invasion of New York, the Avengers had been assigned to all kinds of strange and unusual cases that came up all over the globe. Now the group (minus Natasha who is on assignment elsewhere) are tasked to take care of giant mutant spiders who have been robbing banks.
The spiders don't actively attack humans unless the humans attack them first. Unfortunately since security guards have a tendency to shoot at bank robbers, and most humans aren't overly fond of spiders and these spiders happen to be between 6 and 10 feet tall, the results were kind of inevitable, as were the injuries and property damage that resulted.
The guys who were trying to stay incognito have interrupted a robbery in progress and are trying to follow the spiders back to their web. Stark being his usual snarky self says, "You know it's too bad that the Widow isn't here. Her being a spider could be invaluable if we get the opportunity to negotiate."
Giving what he would forever after call a manly yelp. Barton who was really the more honest narrator of the tale would say, "He screamed like a little girl." As one of the spiders threw several large trash cans and finally an entire business sized trash bin at the flying billionaire before scuttling off after its fellow bank robbers.
The team manages to follow the spiders back to what appears to be an old subway line. They are disappointed to discover that an abandoned subway car and part of a caved in tunnel wall prevents them from following the trail of the spiders any further.
While Stark, Thor, and the Captain work to clear the debris that is blocking most of the tunnel, Hawkeye keeps a lookout for more of the spiders. Meanwhile Dr. Banner works to discover why the spiders have grown to such an enormous size. After performing some soil samples on the surrounding area with his equipment, Bruce discovers that for some reason the entire area is saturated in gamma radiation, He explains in a confused voice, "I don't understand these readings. Gamma radiation unless it's man-made has only ever been noted in space, it's a cosmic type of radiation."
As he continued to try and decipher the mystifying test results. One of the larger spiders lunges through the hole that his fellow Avengers were working to try and expand. Grabbing the good doctor around the waist and yanks him back past, the other members of his team, with several of Hawkeye's arrows bristling from its backside.
"Bruce!" Tony shouted. He and the rest of the team are preparing to follow when they hear the distinctive roar of a lean, mean, green machine. After several thumps that have the walls shaking in the old tunnel in an alarming fashion, the subway car that had been blocking part of the tunnel was peeled back to reveal a Hulk covered in yellow goo. He gave an evil grin and explained. "Hulk swat bug."
"Good job Hulk," Steve said, stopping short of patting the Other Guy on the shoulder as he saw the spider guts smeared all over his huge torso.
The rest of the team crawled through the opening and followed after the Hulk down through the tunnel. They follow the rather obvious trail left behind by the huge spiders. Coming to what appears to be another abandoned train station, half a dozen of the huge spiders are piling their ill gotten gains in front of a spider woman. The upper body was that of a beautiful woman, the lower half was the eight legged body of a spider
Her body rests on a huge slab of the tiled roof, as she used her hands and a couple of sets of her legs to pick through the pile of objects the spiders had acquired from the banks safety deposit boxes. Tony directs their attention to an oddly shaped rock sitting behind the roof slab. Thor and Clint recognized it immediately. Tony leans forward and whispers in the Captain's ear. "Meteor."
Steve nods as the spider-woman hybrid and several of the spiders apparently hearing the teams approach look up in their direction and then hastily begins to collect the loot. Several of the larger spiders turn and attack the Avengers. The Hulk rushes forward to meet them, only to groan and bend over in obvious agony.
He roars but as he places his massive hands on his knees to keep from falling over, the team can already see the changes. The green is fading from his skin, his body is shrinking back down to his regular size. Bruce Banner looks around at his surroundings and just manages to duck a swing of one of the spiders legs.
As the leg starts to swing back, it is neatly severed from the shiny black spiders torso by the flash of silvery mirrored light from Steve's shield. Suddenly Bruce hears Hawkeye's voice in his ear.
"Guys, the spider woman and some of her freaky team are making a get-away through the tunnels." Suddenly an arrow went whizzing by them and Barton's voice said, "Tracker being deployed." They heard him say, before adding, "Heads up by the way, one of 'ems working on a large web I think he plans on dropping on you. Doc move one step to your left please. Perfect thanks." Came the same calm gravelly voice before an arrow flew past his ear and imbedded itself in what was apparently the anchor point.
The web fell on the spider still building it. There were inhumane shrieks from the creature as it tried to break free of the webbing.
"Hey Bruce , think that they all might be mutants or something?" Tony asked as he repulsed one of the remaining spiders away from Bruce. Banner couldn't answer as he had been trying to keep away from the spiders as his friends took them out and to change back into the Incredible Hulk without success.. They didn't win the battle because they were too busy trying to protect the doctor from being injured
Tony said, "I don't think we should consider it a loss though. None of us are hurt, quite a few of the spiders are dead or disabled and we have gained and are gaining more information from the tracker Legolas was able to imbed in the spiders butt.
When they emerge from the tunnel Thor suggests, "Ws should go and enjoy a repast as brothers in arms."
Stark agrees saying, "This town has to have some kind of schwarma place."
To which Steve replies, "No offense Stark, just a little tired of schwarma. I saw a nice pub near our hotel though, the sign said they served food. Why don't we try there? That way we won't have to walk far after we eat and unwind."
"Sounds good to me, some beer would hit the spot right about now." said Hawkeye before turning to Thor and Bruce and saying, "How 'bout it guys?"
"As long as the food and ale are plentiful and I have the company of my friends, anyplace will do." Thor agreed readily enough and after a little more persuasion they were able to get Banner to agree as well.
After a trip to the hotel to shower a couple of times (Bug guts and blood don't come out of clothes, skin, or hair very well), and a change of clothes they headed to the pub called the Dahl Riata.
Meanwhile at the pub the dinner crowd is in full swing with both fae and human customers enjoying the culinary efforts of the Dahl's resident cook Annie. Ennoi as she was known to a select few fae. Her natural beauty was on a par with her culinary skills. Culinary skills which had packed the pub ever since she had been hired by Trick, the owner and bartender of the Dahl Riata.
In attendance were perennial patrons Bo with her lover Lauren who sat at the bar chatting with Trick. Lauren kept looking at the door and her watch a little nervously. The third member of their trio, their lover Vex was running late.
Hale, the siren, and interim Ashe was noticeably absent from his place at the pool table trying to woo the local lovelies. His absence a sad and painful betrayal to several in the pub.
While his friend and partner Dyson sat in the corner booth with his girlfriend Kenzi leaning into him as they discussed the book she was reading. An impressive old tome whose size matched the size of her torso rather closely.