With the monster sent crashing into the middle of the field, Thor immediately went in for a follow-up attack. The creature, however, proved far quicker than its massive frame suggested, twisting aside just as Mjolnir came down before whipping one of its tails toward him.
The thick, spiked appendage struck Thor across the body like an enormous steel whip, the impact powerful enough to knock the god of Thunder clean off his feet and send him sailing backward.
Before Thor could recover, the beast was already after him, covering the distance with startling speed, its enormous jaws hanging open in anticipation as it prepared to take a bite out of divine flesh. That had to count as some sort of premium delicacy in certain circles. Maybe the cultivation circles. Thor certainly wasn't interested in finding out.
His expression switched the moment he caught a proper look inside that gaping maw. Rows upon rows of nightmarish teeth filled the creature's mouth, each one designed less for biting than for shredding whatever unfortunate thing found itself between its jaws.
"No, no." Thor's voice carried genuine displeasure at the prospect of becoming an appetizer as he immediately stretched out one arm. Mjolnir answered his call, tearing through the air and slamming into the monster from behind with enough force to interrupt its charge before the enchanted hammer continued its trajectory back toward Thor's waiting hand.
The blow barely seemed to discourage it. Even after being struck by Mjolnir, the creature violently lashed out with its numerous tails, the spiked appendages snapping through the air toward Thor like a nest of living whips. Before any of them could reach him, however, a barrage of concentrated blasts descended from above.
Iron Man hovered overhead, his repulsors and suit-mounted weapons firing in rapid succession and hammering the beast from multiple angles. The creature recoiled as the blasts struck its hide, releasing a shrill, ear-splitting screech that echoed throughout the stadium.
"Now," Iron Man called, his voice carrying his usual self-absorbed confidence like he's the main character or something.
Spider-Man who at some point had been given a spare earpiece didn't need to be told twice. He launched himself across the stadium, his body twisting gracefully through the air as he fired web after web toward the monster. The sticky strands wrapped around its limbs and body, interfering with its movements and slowing its attempt to regain its footing.
"For something that big, it's really fast," Spider-Man muttered, his eyes widening behind his mask as the creature continued struggling against the webs. He planted himself against the ground and fired another web line, pulling with all his strength. "And for something that fast, it's really—"
The webbing suddenly strained.
"—strong."
Peter's concern was justified. There was no chance his webs alone could hold down something this powerful and aggressive, but that had never been the plan. They only needed to restrain it for a few seconds.
Iron Man's armor suddenly shifted around his shoulders and upper back. Small panels opened around his shoulder blades and along the reinforced sections of his biceps, revealing compact mechanical devices hidden beneath the armor. Four metallic clamps shot outward in pairs, their miniature rocket boosters roaring to life as they launched into the air. They arced over the struggling creature before abruptly changing direction and plunging downward.
The clamps locked onto the monster's enormous, spiked tails, pinning them against the ground before the creature could lash out again. Its body thrashed violently, claws digging into the field as it fought against the combined restraints, but for the first time since the fight began, its movements were sufficiently limited.
"Get back!" Thor commanded. There was no mistaking the urgency in his voice.
Thor propelled himself into the air, Mjolnir clutched tightly in one hand as he rose above the battlefield. The atmosphere seemed to change with him. Dark clouds began gathering high overhead, swirling unnaturally as distant thunder rolled across the stadium. Lightning flickered within the clouds, illuminating Thor's silhouette as he hovered above the battlefield, his expression settled into the merciless visage of a god who had ceased to offer mercy and was now preparing to deliver judgment.
"Don't kill him." Bruce and Tony's voices came at once.
"Don't kill him, you war-crazed god!" Tony shouted through the comms, sharing Bruce's exact thought. If they could incapacitate it instead, that would be the far better outcome.
Then, in the next breath, the heavens opened as a bolt hit dead center, engulfing the beast in a blinding flash as electricity surged violently across its body. It released an ear-piercing screech that echoed throughout the stadium, its scorched flesh smoking as the air filled with an awful smell, somewhere between freshly grilled meat and something that had been left to rot afterward. The monster's violent movements gradually weakened, its breathing becoming slower and heavier as though the devastating attack had finally pushed it toward unconsciousness.
"Is it dead?" Spider-Man asked cautiously, his head tilting slightly as he watched the creature's smoking body. For several seconds, nothing happened. Then the beast released a long, defeated exhale, its chest sinking against the ground as though it had finally accepted its fate. Spider-Man stared at it for another moment before shaking his head. "Of course it's not."
His eyes remained fixed on the creature as he cautiously approached, curiosity beginning to overpower his initial apprehension. "What is that?" he asked, genuinely baffled. Even with everything he'd encountered during his time as Spider-Man, he couldn't place the creature. Its anatomy certainly possessed characteristics that suggested it was some form of living organism alien to Earth for nothing about it resembled any animal Peter had ever seen.
Then again, if the thing really had come from the depths of the ocean floor, perhaps that wasn't as impossible as it sounded. The ocean was an enormous, largely unexplored world of its own, with countless regions hidden beneath miles of dark, crushing water. Humanity had barely scratched the surface of what lived down there. For all they knew, there could be creatures lurking in the deepest trenches that looked even more horrifying than this thing.
Peter stared at the unconscious monster. "Yep," he muttered. "I'm officially never swimming past the shoreline again."
Iron Man's scanners swept over the monster, Tony's HUD filling with streams of data as his armor attempted to identify its biological structure. His expression became increasingly puzzled as the scans returned conflicting information. Whatever the creature was, the technology couldn't match its biology to anything in its databases.
"Okay, big alien dog thing," Tony muttered, his eyes narrowing behind his helmet as another series of scans failed to provide anything useful. "Extremely hostile. Considering how hard it chased after Spider-Man's gooey cousin, I'm guessing it eats the stuff. Which is new. Weird, but new."
"Never met that fella before," Spider-Man immediately clarified, raising both hands defensively as he glanced toward Iron Man. "Just putting that out there. I have absolutely nothing to do with that slug monster, whatever he was, and whatever this thing is."
The clarification earned him a momentary look from Tony, but the distinction hardly mattered to the creature. Its target had never been the Avengers. It had been hunting the symbiote, and the heroes had simply gotten in the way. Unfortunately for the creature, getting its chase intercepted by Thor, Iron Man, and Spider-Man had turned its hunt into something resembling a very one-sided tag-team match.
"Is it down?" Captain America asked as he finally caught up with them, approaching the others while keeping his shield raised. He had arrived just in time to witness the aftermath of the lightning strike, but before anyone could answer, the seemingly incapacitated monster suddenly moved.
Its body violently twisted against the ground as it began thrashing with renewed aggression, as though someone had just popped an Ako Sugar from Sekiro straight into its system.
The remaining webs stretched and snapped one after another while Iron Man's mechanical clamps groaned under the sudden strain. With one powerful jerk, the creature tore itself free, sending broken webbing and metal restraints flying across the field.
"Apparently not," Tony remarked.
The monster immediately dropped onto all fours, its claws digging into the ground as it lowered its body. There was no hesitation in its movements. It had finally recognized the situation for what it was: it was badly outmatched and surrounded by opponents capable of hurting it. Whatever instinct governed the creature's behavior clearly told it that staying and fighting was no longer an option.
It needed to escape.
The beast suddenly launched itself forward with astonishing speed, its massive body becoming little more than a blur as it tore across the field. Captain America's eyes widened behind his shield as the creature rapidly closed the distance between them.
"Cap!" Spider-Man shouted.
Peter fired several webs toward its legs, the strands snapping through the air and wrapping around the creature's limbs. For a brief moment, it looked as though they might slow it down, but the monster simply powered through them. Its muscles flexed beneath its armored hide as the webs stretched to their limits before snapping apart one after another.
"Okay, definitely still strong!" Spider-Man exclaimed as he leaped backward.
The creature didn't even slow down. Its attention was fixed on the obstacle directly ahead of it, and Captain America happened to be standing in its path. The monster lowered its head and accelerated, seemingly intent on bulldozing through the super-soldier rather than wasting even a second engaging him.
Steve's expression became stern as he planted his feet and raised his shield.
The creature was coming straight for him.
Though the Xenophage was fast enough to catch almost everyone by surprise, there was one exception. Spider-Man's spider-sense had already warned him of the sudden shift in the creature's movements, alerting him the instant it abruptly lunged forward. Captain America, however, was quick enough to react on instinct alone, raising his shield just as one of the Xenophage's claws came sweeping toward him.
CLANG!
The impact rang through the stadium as claw met shield. Steve gritted his teeth beneath his helmet, boots scraping against the ground as the sheer force behind the attack drove him backward. But Captain America wasn't simply trying to stop the creature. As a tactical fighter, he immediately recognized an opportunity in the Xenophage's own speed and strength. He shifted his stance at the precise moment of impact, angling the shield so that the creature's momentum worked against it.
With a swift twist of his body, Steve redirected the force and sent the Xenophage stumbling off balance, its massive frame pitching awkwardly toward the ground. It was exactly the opening he had been looking for. The Avengers had the advantage in numbers, and against a single opponent, they could use that advantage to overwhelm it from multiple directions.
The impact still sent Steve stumbling backward several feet, but his maneuver succeeded in knocking the Xenophage down. For a brief moment, it looked as though the creature had finally been stopped. Instead, it simply adapted. Even while sprawled across the ground, it continued pushing forward, claws digging into the earth as it refused to surrender the momentum it had built.
Its objective remained painfully simple: escape the stadium, find its prey, and continue the hunt.
The Xenophage abruptly changed its movement pattern, zigzagging across the field with such unpredictable shifts that it became difficult to determine where it would move next. Iron Man immediately opened fire, repulsor blasts streaking through the air as JARVIS attempted to predict its trajectory, while Spider-Man fired web after web in an effort to slow it down. Yet the creature was simply too fast. It twisted between the incoming attacks with startling agility, occasionally taking glancing hits but refusing to slow down.
Then it made its move.
The Xenophage suddenly leaped toward the stadium stands, its claws catching the edge of the structure before it hauled itself upward and bolted toward the exit.
"It's trying to make a run for it!" Spider-Man shouted.
Peter immediately fired several webs after it, attempting to slow its escape. When that wasn't enough, he rapidly fired another spread of webbing ahead of the creature, creating a thick net across its path. For a moment, it seemed like the Xenophage had nowhere to go.
Then its numerous tails snapped outward.
The spiked appendages tore through the webbing with brutal force, ripping the improvised barrier apart as though it were nothing more than cobwebs. The Xenophage didn't even hesitate. It continued its escape without slowing down for so much as a second, its body moving with a single-minded determination that made it clear it had no interest in fighting unless absolutely necessary.
Thor watched carefully from above, Mjolnir resting in his hand as he tracked the creature's movements. He could call down another lightning strike, but the Xenophage was moving too quickly and unpredictably. Spider-Man was still chasing after it and doing everything he could to keep the creature within the stadium.
One poorly aimed lightning strike could easily catch Peter in the blast, so Thor didn't rush forward.
As he waited, his eyes followed every movement of the Xenophage, patiently searching for an opening while the others continued pressuring it.
Tony, meanwhile, was already calculating one.
"JARVIS."
"Trajectory calculated, sir."
Iron Man suddenly adjusted his flight path and raised one arm. His armor's systems locked onto the Xenophage's projected position rather than its current location. A second later, Tony unleashed a full-powered repulsor blast directly into the path JARVIS had calculated.
The Xenophage didn't have enough time to react.
BOOM!
The blast struck it squarely in the back, sending the creature hurtling out of the stadium and into the nearby parking lot. Its massive body smashed through a parked vehicle with enough force to crumple the metal around it before it bounced off the wreckage and rolled several times across the asphalt.
For half a second, everything went still as the heroes watched.
Seeing the Xenophage didn't move, Tony lowered his arm slightly, while Spider-Man remained poised to fire another web. Captain America tightened his grip around his shield, and Thor's gaze remained fixed on the creature, ready to strike the moment it showed signs of movement.
Then the Xenophage's claws slowly dug into the pavement.
Its claws scraped against asphalt as Its body began to rise.
Slowly, almost unnaturally, the creature pushed itself back onto all fours. Smoke curled from the blackened wound across its back, the scorched flesh glowing faintly beneath its armored hide.
Its jaws slowly opened, revealing rows of vicious teeth as it released a deep, unsettling screech that sounded like some grotesque combination of a roar and a shriek.
Then, without giving them another opportunity to attack, it bolted toward the streets.
Iron Man simply stared after it for a moment. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me."
He immediately took off after the creature, the others following close behind as the chase spilled out of the stadium and into the surrounding streets.
Spider-Man swung after them, glancing toward the fleeing monster as he watched its long tail whip behind it.
"So that's what large reptiles do for a roar when they aren't hissing," he remarked aloud, apparently finding the observation more amusing than the situation warranted.
Nobody bothered answering him.
They were too busy chasing the alien monster that apparently refused to stay down.
"This isn't a field trip, kid. Focus," Cap called out, his voice carrying a firm edge of command even as they raced through the streets.
Spider-Man barely had time to react before Steve continued, "Shoot at Thor. Now!"
Peter immediately understood what he wanted. He fired a web toward Thor, who caught the strand without breaking stride. Cap reached out and grabbed the other end, bracing himself as Thor suddenly pulled against the line. With a powerful swing of Mjolnir, the God of Thunder hurled Captain America forward, sending him soaring far enough to close the distance between himself and the fleeing Xenophage.
Steve landed directly onto his shield, using it like a makeshift surfboard as he raced down the street. The shield scraped against the pavement, throwing sparks into the air behind him as he leaned forward and used the momentum to maintain his pursuit.
"Cool," Spider-Man remarked, clearly impressed as he swung after them and joined the improvised method of transportation without missing a beat.
Then his attention returned to the creature ahead.
"Guys! It's not trying to fight us!" Spider-Man shouted through the comms. "It's running!"
"Yeah, I've noticed," Iron Man replied dryly. "It's completely fixated on getting to that gooey cousin of yours. Clearly, he tastes better, because this guy hasn't even considered you for the menu."
"I assure you, we are of absolutely no relation," Spider-Man immediately denied.
Peter swung forward, silently hoping the distinction would remain important.
'Best it sticks to its usual dish. I really don't feel like becoming monster food.' His eyes remained fixed on the Xenophage as it tore through the city.
'Seriously, what's up with these things?' he wondered. 'First, we've got a whole series of attempted invasions by an army of monsters. Then there was that red gooey organism I fought last time. Now we've got a black one that's so ridiculously buff it looks like it spent time behind bars doing nothing but lifting weights.' His expression beneath the mask became more thoughtful as another possibility entered his mind.
'Something's up. That's for sure. And whatever it is, we should probably be bracing ourselves for impact.'
The Avengers clearly knew more than they were letting on. Peter had picked up enough from their conversations to realize that whatever was happening wasn't some random collection of monster attacks.
'The Avengers seem to know what's going on,' he thought. 'Might as well ask them and see what I get. Hopefully, I get something better than a vague, dismissive response filed under the folder marked classified.'
Spider-Man continued swinging through the air, mentally piecing together everything he had seen and remembered so far, hoping that somewhere among the scattered details was a connection that could explain exactly what was happening.
Ahead of them, the Xenophage suddenly changed direction.
The creature made a sharp leap, abandoning its previous route and plunging directly into the busier streets of the city. Its sudden change in direction immediately created another problem. Cars swerved violently as drivers struggled to react, horns blared throughout the streets, and pedestrians scattered wherever they could find safety.
"JARVIS, traffic control," Tony ordered.
"I've already begun adjusting the traffic signals, sir."
Iron Man accelerated ahead while JARVIS manipulated traffic lights and monitored the surrounding vehicles, creating gaps in traffic and redirecting cars away from the creature's path. Despite the Xenophage's reckless movements, the heroes had so far managed to prevent the chase from turning into a mass-casualty event.
Without JARVIS coordinating the traffic around them, there was no telling how many vehicles would have already collided trying to avoid a giant alien monster sprinting through the streets.
- - -
A/N:—
Did anyone get the hint about the next Spiderman Rogue that'd likely make an appearance soon?
Patrn
Da_suprememaverick