Things would've looked grim if it wasn't for Hulk just wrecking any bots that got close to Doyle, who continued to huff and wheeze along the floor. It was the rather worrying factor in all this, being forced to defend the man that had hours ago lifted the Helicarrier.
It made her worried about what exactly this radiation was doing to the man. Doyle wore the expression that you'd expect to see on a person if someone's organs were bursting apart from the inside.
She would wager that the man was in enough pain that he wasn't aware of his surroundings. It wasn't an uncommon reaction to being in extreme pain, Bobbi recalled a man that had knees smashed in, apparently didn't realize they were brought to a hospital till he was in the operating room.
"We need to get him out!" She ordered Loki, the Trickster taking the head of a drone with a swing of his scepter. "I'm not sure how much of this stuff he can take before it just kills him."
Loki glanced at Morse before shifting his sight towards the Kryptonian. There was a flash of something that would look like concern to some but to Morse's eyes, it appeared to be glee.
"He'll be fine," He eventually replied, using the scepter to blast a hole to the next room. "We'll be done here soon and then we'll all go at once. Hey, If I get to a control room, I might be able to turn off what device is doing this to poor Lugh before his organs turn to liquid."
Morse couldn't help the growl that escaped her lips as Doyle's grunting soon turned into a series of sharp breaths.
"I believe the specific radiation spectrum emits from an element that once exposed to yellow solar radiation becomes what the Kryptonian Science Council called Kryptonite," Brainiac's latest body stepped into view. Looking the most human that he had ever been, it was as if he was a regular Cyborg. "It was unique to their world and akin to the inhabitants in many ways."
Hulk swung his meaty right arm into what they all assumed would be the latest scrap sent their way. But instead of the crackle of metal breaking under the Gamma Mutant's skin, Brainiac smoothly ducked and weaved around each attempt.
Then punched Hulk in the face, hard enough that the green man flew into a nearby wall. There wasn't a speck of blood, though the Hulk certainly spat out enough saliva to fill a bucket.
"HULK SMASH ROBOTMAN!" In a bout of greater rage than Morse had seen from Hulk. He surged forward managing to smack Brainiac hard enough that he flew through another wall.
"Good job, ogre!" Loki leaped through the newly made hole with excitement written on his face. Only to be blasted by a large green beam back into the room with a groan of his own. As Loki slid along the floor, his face bruised and his bottom lip busted, he yelled; "Never mind, hit him harder next time."
"ARGHH!" The Hulk roared as if he agreed while he charged through the wall and enlarged the hole along the way. Only for Brainiac's form to appear in front of the Gamma Mutant, his hand somehow fitting right around his neck.
"Foolishness, Doctor Octavius granted me access to your research Doctor Banner," Brainiac threw Hulk to the ground as if he was a small child. "While a fascinating use of Gamma Radiation to induce mutation in inactive humans genes that were then boosted by a serum. The loss in your intelligence during this transformation ensures that you will never be a threat to someone like me."
"Not, puny Banner! HULK STRONGER!"
"But also dumber."
Suddenly, Brainiac blasted Hulk with a yellow beam, his body ignoring the shots from Morse's repulsor gun and from Barton's specialty Arrows that attempted to stop him as if they were nothing but plastic pellets and foam arrowheads.
Soon, Hulk started to shrink, his green skin tingeing yellow as he leaped to his feet and attempted to gather all his rage to hold onto his transformation. But it didn't work and soon it wasn't The Incredible Hulk that stood here but Bruce Banner.
The good doctor could do nothing but blink confusedly as he took in his surroundings.
"Where am I?" Brace asked, staring at the carnage around them, his worry didn't seem to be about that so much as the new location compared to the last. "Last time I checked I was in New York. Now I'm… ?"
Bruce's expression of confusion was replaced with horror as his eyes scanned Doyle's downed form. From that alone Morse could tell Banner's mind was racing with all the details that he'd gathered from simply observing the room, the color of the lights, and his situation.
"He's bombarding just him in a narrowly focused beam of radiation," The Doctor explained. "We need to get him out of here right now, there's no way he could withstand more than ten, fifteen minutes of this without long-term damage."
Morse's quick reflexes allowed her to shove Banner to the ground, saving him from whatever energy wave Brainiac was going to use against him next. She threw a disk at the only green being left, it stuck to his chest and exploded.
"You're everything Octavius warned me of Doctor," Brainiac spoke as if he hadn't had the force of a tank buster expended against his torso. This was turning out to be the toughest body this alien had used against them, rivaling what they've seen from the Hulk. "To deduce that merely on what your eyes can perceive. In time you just might become dangerous."
There was a sudden cry as if the metal that constructed the ship had started to expand. Soon a ray of light started to cut through the ship, it reminded Morse of a sci-fi where an alien would scan a vessel with a beam of light that crossed through the ship.
"What's that?" Barton asked, drawing two arrows between his fingertips before he hit the very floor Brainiac stood on. But once more, the alien had a counter, this time it was merely by floating in the air above the hole.
"That is the end of this enterprise, the front of my ship has entered Earth's atmosphere."
(Tony Stark: New York City
It wasn't the length of the conflict that caused him issues, it was a matter of just how many drones had been sent his way already, combined with the lack of Jarvis. Since Doc Ock had taken over the Tower earlier, Jarvis hadn't been active at all.
Not here nor his backup servers for his formerly ever presented AI.
It had made it nearly impossible for him to receive a reload for his missiles or to call in any of the suits he had in his house back in Malibu to replace his current. Instead, he was now forced to rely on his repulsor weapons alone.
They didn't always deal critical damage to the drones, but they did enough in repeated blasts that they could be taken out by most standard firearms that the military, who had finally arrived to help suppress the Brainiac drones, carried on their armored vehicles.
While he dealt with the swarms of enemies in the air with Thor, who was capable of either merely throwing his hammer or just flying alongside them and smashing things with his bare hands to destroy whatever he felt the need to. Rogers and Romanoff helped with evacuations on the ground that continued with minimal drones attempting to entrap the innocent people of New York.
A few times, Stark found himself eliminating devices similar to the type he and Romanoff had found earlier. There were more than a few times that he needed to give Rogers instructions to deal with one himself as Brainiac had started to teleport them into the city rather than have them escorted into the city by drones.
While they still didn't know what the function of the devices was, it wouldn't be a good idea to let Brainiac do as he wanted.
Still, they were just waiting till Doyle's team came back from Brainiac's ship and closed the portal. So when the ship finally edged through the portal, its massive jaw entering the world first, and the sky shifting color, from blue to red. Stark soon felt that they were in more than a bit of trouble.
"Guys, you seeing this?" Tony asked the others through the communications devices they all had.
Before he could get an answer to that question, dozens of drones suddenly popped into existence around him. Quickly, Stark weaved around all their rounds, letting the blasts start to pelt the buildings with each missed barrage.
As if by divine intervention, Thor came rocketing through the swarm of drones, his hammer shooting out streaks of lightning with every swing, taking out the majority of the drones in a few seconds.
"Our friends seem to be behind schedule," Thor roared over the air as they now flew side by side. "Perhaps now that the menace has poked its head out we should take out the chin, a weak point if there ever was one."
"Yeah, we're seeing the red skies too," Roger's voice piped into Stark's ear. "But give them time, we have to trust them to do their part."
(Steve Rogers; New York Streets)
"Head towards the soldiers, they're going to escort you all to safety," Rogers ordered the normal New Yorkers with a soft voice, one that assured them that things were now under control and as long as they followed his orders things would be alright.
The way his shield effortlessly bounced back the beams that showered down from above, taking out even the drones that had sent the attacks in the first place, helped the citizens take the man's presence very seriously.
Everything the Captain did was with such ease and grace one would've been surprised to learn that the man even could be troubled. But despite the appearance the man was showcasing, of the invincible hero, Rogers was starting to feel the drain of the day on his endurance.
Each drone took a little more out of him, each time he deflected or blocked a beam Rogers could feel his arms start to weigh a little bit more.
Black Widow dropped down out of seemingly nowhere, nearly fighting the good Catapin but thankfully he didn't let it show on his face.
"This building is free," She told him, flipping her hair back while striding next to him. "It should be the final one in this block, should we-"
"Oh come on!" Rogers interrupted her as one of the larger Brainiac drones teleported into sight. It was the same kind of machine that Cap needed help from the Hulk to take down. And then the green giant took down a dozen more of them that had popped up. "Thor! We're going to need some of that firepower."
He threw his shield first, wacking the drone in one of its massive eyes before it returned to his hand. Rogers timed his next move, shoving his shield upwards as Romanoff leaped onto his shoulders and then onto the shield at that exact moment.
As she flew over the spider-like drone, she threw several disks at it. They clamped onto the surface before letting loose a payload of what appeared to be electrical power into the machine. It jittered in place before smoke erupted from its frame.
"I'm out of those," Romanoff informed him as they started to move towards the next building. "So Thor better stay closer to us than he's been doing."
As they turned a corner a new sight awaited them. There was a single large spider drone, flanked from the air by two regular drones, bearing down on a group of fearful families. They weren't firing at them, but instead were attempting to round them up.
Rogers didn't get to throw his shield before someone else interceded. A piercing screech filled the air twice, taking the air drones down, followed by a figure in army kit leaping over the spider drone's back legs, a large rifle in hand as he did so.
It was an anti-material rifle; though a bit modified from other examples he had seen. But Rogers wasn't so familiar with such weapons yet that he could tell what those modifications were. What he did know was it would be far too heavy for a normal human to use as this man was.
Reacting to this, the drone charged up its eye beams but the military man simply fired off as many rounds as possible into the center of its forehead. The spider drone flopped to the ground, lifelessly.
"It can't be him?" Romanoff muttered, seeming to be a mix of enraged and annoyed at the man's presence.
"What? Who is that?" Steve asked, confused at the speed and capability of the human man. Rogers could certainly do the same, wielding a rifle of that weight. She didn't get a chance to answer, a group of soldiers marched towards the families and started to escort them out of the area.
The mystery man himself walked up to Rogers, finally revealing his features to the Captain. His skin was paler than a normal man, his back slightly bent forward, and his eyes carried shadows that Rogers thought must've been make-up. This man had his left hand holding the rifle as if it weighed nothing while his right was outstretched;
"Captain Rogers," he spoke, a British accent coming out of his mouth. "Captain Emil Blonsky, Royal Marines. A pleasure to finally meet my predecessor, just wish it was under better circumstances."
(Clint Barton: Brainiac's ship)
There was a rhythm now to the combat. He'd duck, roll, draw an arrow, stab a drone, and grab a new arrow and fire a shot at another drone, sometimes at the man behind this all, who was currently engaged in fighting Loki. Sometimes, Barton would need to kick or shove Lugh's almost still body out of the way of stray shots from the drones.
Most of the time Morse handled it, but they were heading towards the next room, the target room according to Loki. So that method of doing this wouldn't work.
"Being a bit-" Barton grunted, picking the caped man up and forcing him to lean on his shoulder. Lugh was heavier than he looked too, you'd think with all the super speed and flight that the man would be lighter. "-of a load, Lugh. Maybe next time you'll wear a spacesuit."
"Ahhhh!" Was the only response from the man as they entered the next room.
Luckily for Barton's combat capability, Banner's unshirted self came up and took Lugh from him.
"I'm confused, a bit lethargic but I know enough about the situation to take him for now," he explained, holding Lugh with the same amount of exertion Barton used for the task. "You deal with the death robots trying to take our lives, I'll keep Doyle from being killed."
It was better with the two of them together, leaving Morse and himself to guard only a single target rather than pairs. But it was still a bad spot they were put in, two of their biggest fighters down. Forcing them to rely on him.
Loki was a blur with the scepter, it blocked blasts, sent its own, and would slice through anything that Brainiac attempted to put in the way. Truly, it was a deadly weapon that was only topped by two things so far in Loki's use of the thing.
Thor's hammer and the Captain's shield.
Barton only took some comfort in that it wasn't currently being used against them or to control him.
But even with the power that the weapon and its wielder had combined. Brainiac's current body was just faster than the Asgardian. Loki would swing the scepter but the City Bottler would merely take a step back, leaving the blade centimeters away from cutting his head from his shoulders.
"We're here!" Loki proclaimed with a grin, causing Barton to glance around the room. The drones had completely stopped, in fact, turned around. Even Brainiac just mutely glared at the Asgardian Prince.
"This is not the control room," Brainiac stated, causing Barton to glance around the room.
He came to the same conclusion very quickly, this was not the control room to the ship. Instead, this room appeared to contain rows upon rows of bottles, each with their own city inside, some had flying miniatures inside too.
The sense of dread that Barton could feel at this sight was only heightened by the knowledge that this section of the ship was already through the portal.
"Of course not," Loki snapped the fingers on his free hand together, grinning with that same lust for control he'd arrived on Earth with "We've only been the distraction all along."
Suddenly, there was a loud, almost deafening cry as the ship suddenly shook. Barton wasn't sure but he thought that there was an almost notable frown that crossed that spread over green-faced alien's features.
"So you've disabled my stabilizer," Brainiac scoffed, his eyes darting around the room. "It doesn't matter, with a ship inside the portal, it will remain open till I've cleared it. I shall simply deal with you, then whoever you've sent to-"
It came in a blue blur, one so fast that Barton only could conclude that he imagined the blur after seeing the blue man after the attack, punching Brainiac so hard that the alien flew back into the other section of the ship.
He crashed through so many walls that Barton couldn't help but wonder how he didn't end up being booted from the ship.
"Lugh?" Barton questioned his eyes at the sight of the vigilante standing proud. The SHIELD Agent's eyes looked up, only to find the same green light that had disabled him just minutes ago still going strong. "You're ok? I thought that this stuff was lethal to you?"
Lugh turned to him, his grin wide like Loki's but lacking that same lust for power.
"Let's just say that Brainiac's research was far from complete."
"Something that I'll be sure to correct once I've studied your corpse," Brainiac's body hadn't lost much time returning to their location, but now he stood on the other side of the portal once more. His body twitched, his face swollen.
"So you've got a flesh and blood body? Loki rhetorically asked, leaning on his scepter as his hands grasped around the Tesseract once more. "Well, I better correct the books back in Asgard, twice actually."
"Twice?" Banner questioned, now that he wasn't holding up anyone and was free from the potential death at the hands of the drones, the Doctor studied the contained cities with pity in his eyes.
"Once for his organic body, the second time for his death of course."
Without warning, Loki slammed his palm against the surface of the Tesseract, the portal cutting through the rest of the ship before their eyes. Brainiac outstretched his hand, a beam ready to fire off to end Loki's life but it was too late and the alien menace's hand so found a new resting spot on the floor.
Where there was once a ship, now there was only the skyline of New York. And with whatever power pushed the ship forward gone gravity took effect on them.
"I've got this!" Lugh yelled, blurring out of the ship and out of sight, but not before grabbing the Tesseract out of Loki's hands, much to the Asgardian's annoyance. Barton's feet once more hit the floor as they stopped falling, and he leveled his bow at the final threat against Earth.
"Now, now," Loki held his hands up, dropping the Scepter onto the ground without much concern for his safety. "I'm unarmed, and I'm sure that we can sit down and I can explain how this was all a misunderstanding."
"You brainwashed me by accident?" Barton growled, his temper flaring up slightly in the face of such a blatant lie.
"Well… no but-"
It was then that once more… Asgardians proved to be very stunnable when Morse stabbed him with an advanced taser. The would-be conqueror twitched on the floor. The only thing that they could hear from him was;
"This is uncalled for."
Morse made a show of noting the city still on fire below them, shaking her head, and turned to Banner who had his eyebrow raised as if questioning her taking down Loki.
"Yeah, I suppose it is," Morse admitted with a shrug. "But it made me feel better at least."
Author's Note: Not too big on the whole author's note right now. I still plan on leaving them, as many seem to like them, but I've just not found myself with a lot to say.
So I'll leave this with two things, one that there's many of a plot thread still here. So this part moves on, and secondly; MY MIND COULDN'T COME UP WITH A CHAPTER TITLE BETTER THAN THIS! I'm sorry guys, but you try to come up with title after title for more than a combined... 5 Million words of writing over the past few years.
It's not easy... and most of them aren't good. I'm honestly tempted to go back and change them to arc titles rather than chapters. That way I could go "Avengers 1.1, 1.2,1.3..." and so on. It would make things easy in the future.
But that would involve going back and giving the past chapters Arc Names, which isn't too hard. It'll just take time.
Well, what did you know? I had something to say after all. Lol.