It was a pretty typical day in New York city; busy roads, angry pedestrians, questionable street food sold by more or less legitimate vendors. Nothing really significant...
Except, perhaps, for the giant, red and white faceless monster, bursting out of the water next to Liberty Island.
The monster towered over Lady Liberty, at least twice as tall. Its eyeless, white skull of a head pivoted, as if it were looking for a target. Once it found the shore, it tore through the water and wasted no time wreaking havoc on the city.
It was well above the size of a skyscraper, which it took no time to decimate as soon as it came to one. Its four arms were fused at the elbow with a stray fifth arm on the left.
Instead of legs, the monster had a mess of tentacles that made up the lower half of its body.
It gave no thought to the cars, buildings and hundreds of pedestrians trying desperately to escape from beneath it, only to get crushed and smeared in a bloody mess into the pavement. It ravaged the city, snatching everything it blindly found and tossing it into its horrific, jagged jaws, swallowing them whole.
It made a path of pure destruction; buildings were crushed. Streets were vacant and flooded. Corpses lay everywhere. It rampaged until it ran, head first, into the Empire State building.
It grabbed the building, sizing up its new obstacle. It could tell, even with no eyes, that the building was at least over its head. Determined to not be stopped, the monster swung its arms, intending to punch right into the side...that's when something flew straight into the cavity that most closely resembled an ear on the monster's skull.
A moment of rapid beeping, then a loud boom as an explosion detonated inside the creature's head. It collapsed, crushing an entire city block with its sheer size, sending debris and people in every direction.
People, watching in horror from the street, looked up as an eclectic guitar cover of "Flight of the Valkyries" echoed from an unseen PA system. They cheered at the red and gold figure flying through the sky toward the fallen behemoth, flanked by a second, flying, caped figure and a third, red and blue, swinging member of the group.
Tony Stark flew once around the fallen creature, "Boys, the calamari is on me tonight," he told the others over his communicator. "That is, assuming we survive this. Kid, try to web it up while it's down."
"You got it, Mr. Stark!" Spider-Man eagerly replied. He let go of the web he was currently swinging on and landed on the back of the creature's massive, bone-like exoskeleton.
"Damn, this thing is gigantic." Tony whispered. He looked to the cosmic gem/AI fusion flying idle next to him. "Vision, you got anything?"
"It is not of this world," Vision said, stating the obvious. "It does not seem to match anything in this dimension."
"Oh, comforting," Stark sighed. "FRIDAY, try to get me a read on exactly what the hell this thing is. And, more importantly, how to disable and or kill it."
"Vision is right," FRIDAY replied, "even with data from the Mind Stone, nothing in this known universe even comes close to matching it. I can't even read its biological functions."
The monster began to stir. Parker was still fidgeting with his web shooter. "Let's see...was it this one?"
"Greenie, what's the hold up?" Tony nagged.
"Which one is the mummy web, again?" Spidey asked. He looked back down at his wrist, rotating through the holographic symbols the display projected.
"Which one is the..." Tony scoffed, "Kid, you're quite possibly, literally killing me right now!"
"Never mind, I found it!" Peter exclaimed. "Monster burrito, coming up!" He adjusted his web shooter, and back flipped off the monster's back. He aimed both shooters at its side and fired two wide sheets of webbing, creating a gauze-like wrapping around the waist as he swung under and back over.
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."
"On it!" Spidey called back. He jumped and hooked onto the back of the monster's head with another two gauze webs and swung around its face, around its neck and down. "Monster burrito deluxe, order up!"
"Boss, even if we could get through it, I doubt the self destruct function would be effective, much less lucrative. Not to mention, you'd still fall from 1,000 feet up, and no guarantee of a survival rate of..."
"OK, safeguards, FRIDAY, that's why we have them." Stark cut her off. "NYPD was dispatched the second that thing broke the water, the building is evacuated. T'Chala outfitted the suit with a Vibranium blade, that's should get the suit in." He looked down as Peter continued to wrap the second monster up. "Thanks to my ingenuity...and Vision helping, the self destruct drains the surrounding energy and reciprocates it in a shiny explosion. I'll detonate it manually once it's charged and have the kid catch me. Any more questions?"
"You seem to have everything thought of," FRIDAY conceded. "Dive now, at one and a half speed."
"Here goes my bladder," Tony arched back and dove, his arms extended forward. Two metal sheaths slid forward from his shoulder blades and connected around his forearms.
"Vibranium spikes engaged.", FRIDAY reported. "Optimal speed, achieved. Vital point targeted."
"Alright, get ready to rock," Tony said as the in-mask sight locked onto the center of the second titan's exoskeleton sternum.
Vision suddenly flew out of the first monster. "JARVIS, what are you doing!?"
"Stark, we gotta get out of here!", without warning, Tony was knocked into by Peter, still going full thrust, on course.
"What is wrong you two, we had a...?!"
FRIDAY cut him off, "Ejecting now, self destruct sequence armed."
"What, no, FRIDAY, don't..." But too late; the suit opened from the back, and Tony was thrown out, immediately caught and body-hugged by Spider-Man.
"I gotcha, Mr. Stark!" They both spun as Peter fidgeted frantically
with his web shooter, "Parachute, where's the web parachute?!"
"Gauntlets!" Just before Tony's suit went into the monster, the gloves and boots detached and flew straight to him. He held his arms and legs out and the suit pieces flew into place. Without the boots' thrust, and since the beast had broken free of its web trap and moved its entire body, the suit simply crashed into the exoskeleton and fell to pieces.
Tony activated the thrust and aimed all four gauntlets to the ground...which his face was hovering about a foot above now. With Peter clinging to his back, he floated a moment, then collapsed. First onto his hands and knees, then to his stomach, panting.
"Why is it..." Peter panted, "That every time you call me in...I almost die?!"
"Welcome to the job, spanks," Tony grumbled. "Get off me?!"
"Oh, yeah," Peter rolled off of Tony and pulled him up by the hand. "You're gonna wanna look at this," Peter said, pointing back at the second monster.
Tony looked back at the Empire State building, where the second monster stood, now trapped in a light blue, transparent netting. Vision floated down and watched with them as the smaller creature had another bright blue netting thrown over it, attaching at the ground. Both struggled to escape their traps, but to no avail.
It wasn't five seconds later, a black projectile trailing black smoke was shot at and struck each of them. They both cried out in pain. Dust flew from their skulls, eating away at them. Whatever hit them was quickly disintegrating them. In a matter of seconds, they swirled into nothing but dust. Then the netting burst.
Vision huddled over his teammates, shielding them from the dust and debris. After the initial explosion ended, Vision backed away.
Peter was coughing, "Oh, crap, I'm inhaling monster ashes," he dry heaved, "So gross!"
"Where the Hell..." Tony asked as Peter continued to hack, "did...any of that come from?!"
Vision stayed silent a moment then turned to Tony, "JARVIS?"
"OK, slip of the tongue in a life and death adrenaline rush." Tony shrugged, "No offense meant."
Vision looked toward the direction where the black projectile had come from. "There's someone on that building."
They both looked to where he was pointing. Sure enough, there was someone standing, ever so still, on top of the One World Trade Center. Tony and Vision flew up to him, Spider-Man staying on the ground, until they were about 50 feet away, staring him down.
He could have been taken for a statue...if not for the blue glow coming from his hands and illuminating his eyes, which started back at them from under a thick, gold trimmed, dark blue hood.
"Where is this guy supposed to be from," Tony asked, commenting on the gold trimmed blue robe with wide, layered shoulder pads and a leather satchel that made up the new player's style. "World of Warcraft?"
"Not exactly," Spidey answered over his comms.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Do you mean any harm to the planet, or this city?", Vision asked the man, bluntly. "We will engage, if you are, and if we must, I do not like your chances."
The man simply stared at Vision for a moment. He held a blue, silk gloved right hand up and reached into his satchel with his left.
"OK, this isn't kindergarten, let's use our words, pal," Tony armed his gauntlets and Vision powered up his gem.
The man nodded slightly and gestured forward with his hand as if to assure his intentions were not hostile.
He then quickly pulled his hand out of the satchel, flicked his wrist and suddenly, a golden fog filled the city. Tony and Vision both took blind shots at the place where the man was standing. The dust cleared as quickly as it came and when it did...the stranger was gone.
"What the hell kinda..." Tony stopped when he saw the city below him. He landed on the Trade Center's roof, unable to believe what he was seeing.
Just where there had been crushed buildings, flooded streets and corpses...was a perfectly intact, living city full of people. "Viz?"
"No damage or death from the monsters' attack anywhere," the android reported, sounding bewildered. "It's as if they were never here."
Only now did Tony realize; he was back in his suit. He looked down, and gave a start. "What kinda trip...?"
"Something wrong, boss?"
"Yeah, the entire city has absolutely no damage after being crushed by two giant octopus monsters!" He told FRIDAY, annoyed at her ignorance.
"Monsters, boss?"
Stark and Vision looked at each other. "FRIDAY, you were just arguing with me on how to kill the damn things!"
"There is something on the ground," Vision cut FRIDAY off before she could answer.
Tony turned around as Vision picked up a small envelope off the ground. In the center was a glowing letter "M" that gave off the same blue glow. "It contains a message of some kind."
"Well...You're the indestructible one," Tony insisted, "open it."
"I am afraid I can't," Vision replied, looking perplexed.
"Why not?"
Vision turned the envelope around so the "address" side was facing Tony, who read the scrawled writing;
Anthony Edward Stark
Iron Man of Earth,
Marvel Universe