A/N~ Sorry about the late post, as you can probably tell we are coming to a close on this series. Thank you all for your reviews and faves. You have no idea how much I appreciate the comments, suggestions, love and even the constructive criticism. It all helps me write better more enjoyable fan fiction. Thank you and have a wonderful holiday season. ~A
Green and Mean
Stark was freely and loudly complaining about feeling boxed in, and promised to buy the bank new and improved everything when ever he got a little…extreme with the redecorating. Jarvis reminded him several times the object was to keep the spiders contained as much as possible, in order to keep the civilians as safe as possible.
When one of the spiders crashed into him as Thor zapped it with his hammer, the inventor reminded his A.I. raspingly, "Jarvis, you do remember that technically I am a civilian?" as he struggled to remove the massive arachnid from his body.
"You have repeatedly said Sir, that you haven't been a civilian since 1989. You just did it with more style." replied the A.I. with a bit of sass that Tony was quite sure he hadn't programmed into it.
Thor reached over and rather than trying to shift the spider merely pulled the inventor out from under the dead spider. Standing the iron suited billionaire on his feet, the Thunderer didn't even flinch as Stark lifted one of his gloves over the demi-gods shoulder and fired his repulsor in the face of the spider that was preparing to grab Thor from behind.
"What is a civilian?" asked Thor thoughtfully.
Clint rolled out of the way as Arachne tried to throw one of those "Spitballs from Hell" at his head. She had tried to retreat the way she had come down that back hall, but Thor had managed to collapse the hall in on itself, blocking her retreat for the time being.
"Not us." Clint replied quickly, before releasing three arrows at a group of spiders who were trying to protect the spider woman. He had started delving into his more exotic arrow tips. The explosive and acid tipped arrows seemed very useful against the bugs.
Several minutes ago now, the Other Guy had shattered the window and helped the employees and customers of Second National Bank out through his makeshift exit. Bypassing the spider web wall entirely, he had then moved around to the front window of the bank and smashed it enough to get the Star Spangled super-hero Spitball to splat onto the sidewalk outside of the bank. The Green Guy had looked at the gooey mess with some disgust, before lifting it to carry it off somewhere. Presumably a safe distance from the war zone that was quickly destroying Second National Bank piece by piece, to extract him from the spider web goo.
Tony found himself next to Arachne in the fight and slammed her into the wall with his repulsors. He pulled up his and Barton's version of the Ex-Wife. Which compared to Hammers was a totally different story. The missile blew the spider woman through the wall of the safe. With a fist pump the inventor gave a little shout of, "Yes."
Arachne then gave another shriek and several of the spiders crawled into the smoke filled vault over the rubble. Some of the other spiders continued to fight the trio.
"We need to kill that damn bitch." Clint yelled as he climbed up on the teller counter. He was getting frustrated with how the battle was going. For one thing he was running out of arrow shafts, he could retrieve them from the spider bodies. Unfortunately the shafts were so covered in goo that they were useless to him as it would take too long to clean them for them to be useful to him.
"Agreed," said Thor as he used his hammer to thump a large spider out of his way. "I believe the other beasts will be disoriented without their leader and either run for hiding or at the least be confused enough to make them easier to destroy."
Iron Man meanwhile swiped by one of the legs of the larger spiders into a row of filing cabinets which toppled over on him. Said grouchily, "Brilliant, and what do you think we've been trying to do, Katniss? Play bridge with her highness?" he said as he shoved the metal cabinets off of him, making them crumple like wet cardboard.
Barton only growled as he used his last acid arrow on the spider who had thrown the inventor into the filing cabinets. Several of the spiders came back out of the vault, three of them trying to help support Arachne, who seemed to be giving orders as the rest of the arachnids regrouped. Splitting into fours groups three of them went after the Avengers while the fourth seemed to be looking for an escape route.
A few of the spiders went to the back hall area as if trying to make a path through the debris. Then the moment that Clint had feared came, he ran out of arrows. Tossing his bow and quiver aside he pulled his automatic and started firing at the various spiders who were moving in on him. He was about to be overrun when more gunfire broke out.
Several of the spiders exploded as a red, white and blue blur rolled into view. He pulled a couple of clips of ammo from a pocket on his belt and handed it to the SHIELD agent. "Hollow points seem to work pretty well," said Steve a little breathlessly. Clint grinned gratefully as he took the ammo from the Captain. Before he could say anything though there was a familiar roar and a crash in the back hall.
Followed closely by the spiders being thrown out into the main area of the bank, some dead, some still kicking weakly as they were followed by the Hulk. He looked around and spying Arachne he stalked toward the spider woman.
There were none of the large tank sized spiders left, nor even one of the VW Beetle sized ones, but there was one about the size of a huge Harley. He was actually trying to scurry out of the way of the incoming beast. He wasn't fast enough though to get out of the way and the Other Guy grabbed the spider by two of its eight legs and began swinging him like a club at the other spiders.
Arachne saw him coming and started sending more and more of the spiders after the incoming behemoth. It wasn't working though, she was trying to move her wounded body away from the attack that was coming . She had sent the spiders that were helping her.
Everyone heard a rumble and for a moment they were looking up at the ceiling concerned that the Hulks entrance through the already damaged roof in the hallway had weakened the structure badly enough to bring it down on their heads. It took several minutes for the rest f the group to realize the grumble was coming from the Hulk himself.
"Bad bug, bad bug, Bad Bug, Bad Bug! BAD BUG!" The big green guy growled as he moved toward Arachne still swinging the decidedly dead spider club he was wielding.
When he reached her he pulled her legs out from under her and dragged her back to him. Holding her by three of the legs he began to being the other spider down on top of her over and over and still grunted and growled the same chant over and over.
The other Avengers continued to fight off the rest of the spiders. The hollow points did seem to be particularly effective against the spiders. Thor's hammer was also quite effective. The background noise of Hulks chant and smashing the spider woman to mush was disconcerting but satisfying all the same.
Right up until the Avengers looked around and discovered that there were no spiders left to kill. All of the bodies on the floor weren't moving. Some were nothing more than parts or goo on the floor. Clint climbed down off the counter and realized that he had acquired a slash across his thigh. And had reopened some of his wounds.
He and the captain walked across to where the Other Guy was still smashing the very dead body of Arachne. He had finally dropped the spider, well really it fell apart on him and he had just dropped the remains of the legs and started using his fists
Problem was the Other Guy wasn't stopping.
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Kenzi was trying very hard not to giggle and failing miserably. Her muffled laughter and snorts brought everyone's attention to her. She shrugged with a smile and said, "Just thinking about what the Lady High dark fae council person said about hoping the Morri-biddy hadn't pissed off any gods or goddesses. She has," and the smile turned into an evil smirk as she added, "and somehow I think that Nonni and some of the others will probably be visiting the Morrigan in whatever deep, dark hole they put her in."
"Plus you know she's probably just like the former Ashe hole and has a slew of enemies, we don't know about. You know I have a feeling when they finally give her visitation, its not going to be all happy, happy, joy, joy." then the former human seemed to think about it a little more and smacked her forehead as she continued, "What am I thinking? Hello gods, goddesses, and other. Who says any of them will even have to wait for "visitation?"
She turned back to her friends and saw Vex and Lauren smiling a little dazedly, Vex undoubtedly from lack of blood and Lauren due to trying to keep up with the thought process of the Kenzi. Bo was just smiling at her affectionately. Dyson, well Dyson was just giving her that look he got when he was looking for the nearest flat surface.
Kenzi didn't even have to look around. This was the former Morrigan's play room, Holding up her hand, Kenzi said to her lover, "Nope, huh uh, no way in hell. That would be an ick factor that even Einstein on his best day couldn't calculate. We are so not doing anything like that in this entire building."
The detective had the good sense to look at least a little guilty. As Kenzi walked back towards them and ask Vex, "So you up for a walk yet?"
Lifting a hand a little tiredly he grasped Kenzi's firmly but gently and said, "If it means getting me out of this room, I think I could figure out way to fly."
Kenzi gave an evil smirk to her bestie and said, "And here I thought you could only manage levitation by post coital bliss after a bout with the ladies." She was glad to see that even after the trying events of the past several hours, she could still make the trio blush although Vex's was still a little wan from blood loss.
"Ok, lets get out of here and Doc, I want the name of your smith," Kenzi said as she moved under one of Vex's arms as he stood from the table as Lauren was supporting the other side. The Mesmer's legs nearly went out from under him and his head rolled back as his eyes rolled up for a second.
The new dark fae leader drew a gasp of breath and then another deeper breath, before he regained his equilibrium. Realizing he had his whole weight on the smaller Elder and the Doc. "Ladies as much as I appreciate the support, I think I want the strongest fighters to watch my exit, while Bo and the Wolf carry my sorry arse out of this place, if you don't mind."
Kenzi merely smiled, while Lauren looked at him like a fish for a moment, "Are you…"
"A genius absolutely," Vex said a little smarmily. As the other fae moved to comply with his request.
"I'm not a fighter Vex," Lauren said a little sharper than she had intended.
"I would say that Evony might disagree," Vex reminded before thinking about it a moment and then adding, "Well no, knowing Evony she'd lie like the biotch she is and say she fell down the stairs or that it was a lucky shot or something."
"The specially made bullets should probably remain a secret between us doctor," Dyson said informatively as he tapped Bo on the shoulder. When the succubus looked at him curiously he shook his head and indicated Vex's feet. The new Morrigan was doing his best to move his feet trying to get out of his predecessors room,
Bo didn't comprehend what he was trying to tell her until she saw that the werewolf was keeping pace with Vex. Stepping slowly and carefully at the new Morrigan's side, instead of trying to drag/carry the dark fae as Bo was doing. Instantly the succubus slowed her steps and while she insisted he put more weight on her, Bo kept pace with Vex.
Lauren poked her head through the double doors at the top of the stairs, and called back down quietly, "Clear." Then realizing what Dyson said replied, "Well I wasn't planning on broadcasting it but why?"
"Because love, even if you were protecting me.",the Mesmer replied in the wolf's stead, "The fae would consider it a threat that a human knows ways to stop most fae in their tracks with a human made weapon."
The Shifter nodded in agreement as they made their way up the stairs, "Most fae still think of humans as toiling in the fields for their supper and hunting with bows and arrows. They don't get guns and tanks, computers and combines. Sad but true." the dark fae said as he passed the blond he stroked her cheek and said, "Truth be told if they were half as advanced as they claim to be they'd be more afraid of your brain than anything else in the world. And they'd still only be getting half the picture."
A/N/N~ I will be taking my usual little break from writing during the holidays. When I return I will be delving into a new fandom and perhaps a little more into the Avengers, we shall see. Thanks for your follows on this story and if you want to keep up with my writing, follow me as an author. Happy Holiday Season all. ~A
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