Fic: There is no 'I'... 6/11
Chapter 6
“Order of the Insectoid, with a capital ‘I’.” Hawkeye offered as he carefully sorted his arrows. “Emphasize the ‘sect’.”
“They’re not organized.” Widow corrected, eyeing the situation with a professional calm that Tony would pay money to duplicate.
“Crazy Bug Witches.” Tony had JARVIS taking about a thousand concurrent readings. “It’s catchy, like a band name.”
“Okay people, this is the plan.” Captain America walked back to the team from where he and Thor had landed.
The plan better be a pretty good one, because right now Tony couldn’t see exactly how they were going to manage this disaster. The ‘Crazy Bug Witches’ (Tony was sticking with that till they voted otherwise) had managed to summon dozens of huge spiders and set them on the Brooklyn Bridge. According to SHEILD there were two hundred and twelve civilians caught fast within the massive web that now shrouded the entire structure. It was like looking at an enormous white cotton candy with the occasional disturbing black shape moving within. Spider web was incredibly strong in relation to its thinness. It’s also really, really sticky.
“Thor will take Hawkeye to burn a path to the centre using combustible missiles while we work our way in releasing as many people as possible.” Cap looked like he would rather be the one flying in with a flame thrower, but they couldn’t risk burning the webs until all the civilians were out. “Reports say there is at least a dozen spiders the size of cars, but one as big as a bus. That’s the main target Hawkeye. If you can find her, you and Thor are okay to kill if subdual is impossible.”
“Sir, scans indicate the tensile strength of the web is insufficient to resist the power of the armour or Captain America’s augmented musculature.” JARVIS reported.
“JARVIS says we can break it.” Iron Man informed Cap.
“I’ll follow and bring the civilians out back along the path you make.” Widow offered.
“You mean you can’t just climb the webs?” Tony asked, grinning behind the faceplate.
As the rest of the Avengers turned to look at her, Natasha rolled her eyes.
“It’s a code name you idiot.” Black Widow walked to the web gummed asphalt with arms impatiently folded as Thor lifted a snickering Hawkeye high into the air.
The difficulty in traversing the web laid more in clearing a large enough tunnel rather than breaking the actual strands themselves. Tony was pleased to note that Iron Man was stronger than Captain America, human perfection or not. However, he was no-where near as agile as the leather clad man easily ducking through the criss-cross maze. It took less than a moment for Iron Man to brush away a dozen of the thick rope-like strands, it took longer to pull off all the resulting broken pieces and cross lines that then caught on his arms and legs as he moved.
“Are you statically charged?” Widow asked from behind as they approached the first cocooned car.
“No.” Tony tore away yet another bunch of strands. “I just don’t have super dodge powers like you two.”
Cap stopped at the hood of a large SUV held vertically off the ground by several massive web cables. Inside the half obscured window, a man was trying to get the Avengers’ attention. This situation was more Iron Man’s speed.
“Cap? I can bring the car down and get them out. Why don’t you clear the way to the next one.” Tony suggested, carefully picking his way forward.
“Good idea.” Cap nodded. “Widow, stay here till they’re free. We’ll make a production line to get them out.”
It worked perfectly for the first five cars they came across. Iron Man pulling cars down and wrenching off doors so Widow could lead relived New Yorkers back to a SHEILD base at the end of the bridge. Over the comm. Hawkeye reported mixed success with burning a tunnel into the centre of the webs. They were making progress, just very slowly.
“I just hope the spiders aren’t eating someone while we slog through this mess.” Cap worried as Tony caught up to him at a motorcyclist webbed a little too close to the edge of the bridge for anyone’s liking.
Iron Man reached up and caught the front wheel, setting his feet before pulling the bike down to street level.
Captain America tugged off the tight clinging strands till the woman could move enough to take off her helmet. “You’ll be fine Ma’am.” He reassured her, flinching slightly as she hugged him in thanks.
“This way please.” Tony noticed the kernel of amusement in Widow’s normally expressionless voice.
“Thank you so much…” The rider continued to Cap as she was escorted down the path they had cleared through the web.
“I’m surprised she’s okay.” Tony looked through the while knotted mess to the next vehicle JARVIS pin-pointed. “She had no protection, but was bound up like the cars for later.”
“We have no idea exactly what the cult did to the spiders,” Cap determinedly started pulling at the next bundle of webbing. “They might not be acting like their smaller counterparts.”
“Hmmm…” Tony wasn’t sure he agreed. The wasps in Midtown had seemed normal…just huge.
“Sir, there is a creature…”
Thinking that over, Tony almost missed JARVIS’ warning, but he managed to turn just in time to catch the full impact of a spider the size of an elephant. Iron Man went down under eight point-tipped legs and more than usual amount of arachnid aggression.
“They’re on PCP or something.” Tony gritted out, catching one hook before it gouged a hole in his face plate. He wasn’t particularly worried he’d be hurt by the monster. Iron Man could take a tank round to the chest with only scratched paint to show for it, but the amount of webbing being spun around him was going to be hell to remove.
The creature shuddered and gave a high pitched squeal that had JARVIS dialing down the volume on his microphones.
“Try again,” he suggested, bracing himself for the scream as Captain America’s shield impacted against the spider’s body.
“Iron Man, my shield’s doing damage, but it isn’t giving up.” Cap advised.
“Okay then.” It was likely a bad idea, but Tony gave up on dodging mandibles and offered the spider a double repulsor blast to the abdomen.
It was only a bad idea in that he was mostly attached to a now dead spider suspended forty feet off the ground.
“Crap.” Tony muttered as he pulled ineffectively at the strands stuck fast around Iron Man’s arms.
“Can you use your boots to fly up an out?” Cap asked over the comm.
“JARVIS? What do you think?” Tony watched the HUD making calculations and setting course trajectories.
“There is a sixty-eight point nine percent chance are you could exit the web by using the boot repulsors, Sir. But, there is a small risk of colliding with one of the captured civilian vehicles and an even greater risk of becoming even more entangled in the web.”
“Fantastic.” The odds were pretty good, but Tony really didn’t want to be trapped deeper in the web for the others to rescue when they had the chance. “I’ll try, but there’s a chance it’ll get worse not better,” he reported.
“I’ll use my shield to break the webs near your arms then you can tear away the rest and drop down.” Cap offered.
“Nah,” Tony snorted. “If I’m stuck then your shield will be caught like a fly. I’ll try the fly-out option.”
“It won’t get stuck.” Was that actually a tone of offense in Captain America’s voice?
“Yes, it will.” Tony had JARVIS plot a course.
“No, it won’t.” Cap was adamant.
“Fifty bucks says is will.” Tony tugged once again at the webs securing his arms and threw a glare at the dead spider hanging just to his left.
“No,” the offense was gone to be replaced by calculation. “The shield doesn’t get stuck; you’ll come to the Neue Galerie to see the Klimt exhibition with me.”
Well. That was an easy bet to take because Tony could always…
“No getting Virginia to substitute for you either.” Captain America was apparently a telepath as well.
“Fine,” Tony conceded. “But if it does get stuck you come to Detroit with me in January for NAIAS.”
“What’s that?” He heard Cap ask Widow sotto voce.
“North American International Auto Show,” she replied.
“A car show?” Cap confirmed with Tony.
“It’s like a candy shop.” Tony stopped struggling. “You’ll have to hold my credit cards though. I get a bit dreamy and buy too much.”
“It’s a deal.” This time it was smug satisfaction in the other man’s tone.
Tony realized why when a red, white and blue disc severed the strands around his left arm and spun lazily back to its wielder.
“So,” Tony began as he started tearing away web with his newly freed army. “How’re Hawkeye and Thor doing?”
*****
Not very well, as they found out two cars later. Widow had just returned from escorting a family out of the web when Hawkeye’s swearing reached them over the comm.
“We need back-up people.” He yelled as the high pitched screams of angry spiders came through from the background.
Curling a gentle arm around Widow and a more solid one around Captain America, Iron Man flew them directly back along the way they had come and high into the air over the bridge.
“There.” Cap spotted the tunnel forged by Hawkeye’s arrows, blackened web still smoldering at the edges.
“Status?” Their leader asked as Tony hovered over the hole.
“SpiderBus is kinda angry at us for rescuing her lunch,” Hawkeye was panting now, “and I set fire to Thor’s cloak.”
“What?” Widow yelled as Tony carefully lowered them so they didn’t brush against embers or the web itself.
“Say when.” Iron Man could see the battle now, Hawkeye’s arrows peppering a monstrous dark form as Thor stood toe-to-toe with the behemoth.
“I fucked up,” Hawkeye cursed. “He’s burned on the shoulders and back, but not too badly. Where are you guys?”
“Here.” Captain America said as Iron Man dropped him from fifty feet in the air directly onto the great spider’s back.
“Now.” Widow followed suit at thirty-five feet, landing beside an overwhelmed Hawkeye with guns blazing.
Iron Man finally settled next to Thor, JARVIS scanning the soot stained god for major injuries.
“Having fun?” He asked while alternating repulsor blasts with the impacts of Mjolnir on the great spider.
“No.” Concise in battle as always. Tony took a leaf from that book and bit his tongue while attacking both the big black funnel web trying to eat Cap as well as keep her elephant-sized daughters from killing the rest of them.
Weather he had learned spider anatomy or was just that awesome, Tony could only guess, as between one second and the next the great spider shuddered and died under Cap’s assault. She twisted and twitched for several seconds, pulling the webs around her into further disarray. Emerging covered in red and black gore, Captain America fixed his shield back into place and looked for the next target.
The spider’s companions then went a little crazy and doubled their efforts to eat Hawkeye.
Repulsors aimed, Iron Man, Thor and Captain America rejoined the battle.