Avengers: The Gathering

Chapter 1: A Deadly Delivery

From the sky, it was clear to Vision and Stark; "It is far too big. He will run out of webbing and time before he can encase half of it."

"Right," Stark agreed, "I need you and FRIDAY to look for a weak point and then hit it with everything we've got. This thing gets back up, there goes all of New York."

"It appears to have a sort of healing factor." Vision informed him.

"Sort of?"

"It is the best way that I can describe it." Peter swung, ever so quickly below, making significant but not effective progress. "But it does have one, along with a rather high endurance."

"He's right," FRIDAY agreed, "the missile to its head momentarily disabled it, but it's not fatally wounded yet. It has a very specific weak spot that if hit with enough power, will kill it." She paused. "It's under the exoskeleton, though. I'm sorry, boss, but it's too thick for you to cut through."

"I could do it," Vision offered.

"Go for it," Stark ordered. ,"Kid, Vision's coming in for the kill, clear out."

Vision dove straight for the monster, the gem in his forehead glowing bright yellow.

Peter stopped his loop, roosting on the monster's vertebrae. He took a few breaths and gasped, "Oh, sweet Mary Jane, I know what this thing is!", he exclaimed, grabbing his head.

"Kid, what are you doing?" Stark asked, urgently. The monster was beginning to get up, planting its claws into the concrete and pushing its hulking body up. "Get out of there!"

Spider-Man started running down the spine, "We're gonna need back-up!"

He shot a web at the nearest building, barely clearing the monster's path before it launched itself back to full height. He stuck to the wall of the building, watching as the monster squirmed, bulging from something moving inside of it. "Viz, if you're gonna do something, do it now!"

Vision fired from his gem, aiming directly at the monster's sternum. Its bones proved to be a match for the blast. In fact, the only thing that came of Vision's attack was the monster swatting right through him with its odd arm. "I believe I need to utilize Ultron's method; tear it apart from the inside."

"I wouldn't do that!" Spider-Man warned.

"Why?"

"Because something is already doing it." FRIDAY answered.

Vision pursued his flight path to phase inside of the beast, when its sternum split down the middle.

"That's not good!" Spidey shouted.

An unsightly mass of tentacles and larger, redder clawed arms reached out of the chest, hauling a second broader, taller, wider-headed monster from inside the first. The new monster crushed the already ruined city block into even further levels of rubble. "Definitely not good." Tony agreed.

Once it emerged, the first creature closed up its chest and stood at full height, only coming up to the shoulder of its companion.

"Uh...Stark?!", Peter panicked, "You got a 20 on that Ant guy?!"

"Thanks to my bright ideas, Lang and half of The Avengers are still on the lamb.",Tony growled as Vision flew into the first monster. "Everyone else is on call all across Europe. Damn, those accords."

The new monster was climbing to the part of the Empire State building its head didn't reach.

"I'm gonna have to blow the second one up myself," Stark said to himself. "Vision couldn't spend the energy needed for both. FRIDAY, get me far enough out to penetrate that armor." He shot upward, "As soon as I get within a hundred feet of that thing, let me out and set the suit to self-destruct. Kid, I want you to get these guys webbed up as much as possible; the less they move, the more people we save. Mummy webs."