Ariadne didn't run, she flowed.
To the soldiers peering over their barricades blocks away, she was a blur of white motion against the smoke-choked street, impossibly fast, impossibly graceful. To the Abomination, she was an annoyance, a gnat daring to approach a god.
"Die!" the monster roared, swinging a fist the size of a wrecking ball.
Ariadne didn't block. She knew better than to match the monster in a direct contest of strength.
Instead, she slid under the arc of the blow, the wind pressure alone whipping her hair back like a flag in a hurricane. As she moved, the white aura around her fists flared brighter, condensing into a hard, buzzing shell of concentrated chi.
She pivoted on her heel, driving a glowing fist directly into the creature's exposed ribcage.
The impact sounded like a thunderclap.
The Abomination staggered. Actually staggered, his massive frame knocked off-balance by the force of the blow. A bruise was already forming on his gray-green hide, dark purple spreading beneath the skin like ink in water.
For the first time since his transformation, the Abomination had been hurt. Even if it was only a bruise.
"You..." He glared down, rubbing his chest. The bruise there was already fading, the grey skin knitting itself back together. "You hit hard for a bug."
"I'm just warming up," Ariadne said, her voice devoid of emotion. Cold as the title she'd earned.
The Abomination snarled and lunged, abandoning grand swings for a grappling tackle. He wanted to grab her, to crush the life out of her between his massive arms.
Ariadne leaped. She used the hood of a crushed taxi as a springboard, vaulting over his head in a perfect arc. As she passed, she spun, delivering a chi-enhanced heel kick to the back of his neck.
THUD.
The Abomination's face smashed into the asphalt hard enough to crack it.
He pushed himself up instantly, spitting out a tooth that was already growing back. "Enough! You have made me angry, insect!"
But the Abomination was not the Hulk. He did not grow stronger with rage.
He slammed both fists into the ground. The pavement shattered, sending a shockwave of debris and jagged concrete rippling outward.
Ariadne anticipated it. She pushed Chi into her legs, leaping high into the air, landing gracefully on a bent lamppost.
"Come down here!" the monster screamed, ripping a chunk of the road loose and hurling it at her.
Ariadne dropped, letting the concrete shatter the lamppost where she'd stood a microsecond before. She landed in a crouch and immediately drew the twin blades from her hips.
The swords sang as they cleared their sheaths, their edges gleaming with faint magical enchantment. Arthur had gifted them to her years ago - folded steel infused with magic, far superior to any mundane weapon on Earth.
She channeled her chi into the blades.
They began to glow white-hot at their edges.
"Chi is finite," she murmured to herself, a reminder and a warning. "Make every strike count."
She raised the blades.
"Round two."
Ariadne sprinted forward. The Abomination swung a backhand. She slid on her knees, the massive arm passing inches above her nose, and slashed upward.
SHIIING.
The Chi-enhanced blades parted the monster's indestructible hide like wet paper. A long, deep gash opened across his inner thigh, spraying black blood.
The Abomination howled, more in shock than pain. He tried to stomp on her, but she rolled between his legs, slashing his Achilles tendon on the way out.
He stumbled, dropping to one knee.
"You little—!"
He was healing, but the Chi energy lingered in the wounds, burning him, slowing the regeneration.
For the first time, the monster looked wary.
Emil Blonsky had retained his military training, buried deep under the serum-induced rage, and that training was telling him this wasn't an easy opponent.
But he was still stronger. Much stronger.
He grabbed a nearby bus, ripping it in half, and swung the rear section like a massive club. The range was too wide to dodge.
Ariadne braced, crossing her blades, flaring her Chi for a defensive shield.
CLANG.
The impact launched her backward like a ragdoll. She skidded across the pavement, her boots carving grooves in the asphalt, but she remained standing. Her arms trembled from the force she'd absorbed. Her teeth ached.
But she was still standing.
—
"Winky?" Eileen's voice came from behind the shimmering barrier that protected her family from the debris flying in all directions.
"Ari is fine," Winky reported, her eyes narrowed as she maintained the barrier protecting the family. "But she cannot defeat the monster alone. Her chi reserves are depleting rapidly."
"When she has had enough fun, I will join her." Melina stood at the edge of the barrier, watching the battle with an excitement she hadn't felt in years—perhaps decades. The Extremis enhancement thrummed through her veins, demanding to be tested. "Let Ariadne have her moment. Then we finish it together."
Eileen nodded, pulling her unconscious daughter closer. Elena's breathing had steadied, her color returning. She would be fine.
But Eileen couldn't shake the feeling that something else was coming.
—
The Abomination threw the bus remnant aside with a crash and charged, sensing weakness.
But Ariadne was ready.
She became a whirlwind of blades.
She opened a cut across his reaching arm and rolled away before he could retaliate. She slashed the tendons behind his knee and danced back as he stumbled. She scored lines across his chest, his shoulder, the meat of his forearm - each wound burning with chi, each cut refusing to heal properly.
Death by a thousand cuts.
The Abomination grew frustrated. His attacks became wilder, more desperate, less controlled.
He grabbed a chunk of concrete and hurled it - she deflected it with a chi-reinforced blade, the stone shattering into dust.
He tore a lamppost from the ground and swung it like a club - she ducked beneath the blow and opened a gash across his stomach as she passed.
"STAND STILL!" the creature bellowed, his voice cracking with rage.
"No."
He brought both fists down in a hammer blow that cratered the street three feet deep. Ariadne was already gone, having read the attack in the tension of his shoulders before he even moved. She appeared at his side and drove both blades into the meat of his bicep, burying them to the hilt.
He screamed and swung blindly. She withdrew the blades, slick with dark blood, and retreated three steps.
"You're fast," she observed, circling him with predatory patience. "Strong beyond measure. Nearly indestructible." Her smile was cold enough to match her title. "But you fight like an animal."
Blonsky had been a trained soldier once. An elite operative with decades of combat experience across three continents. But that training had been for a human body, with human limitations and human capabilities. This new form was something else entirely, and he hadn't yet learned to use it properly.
He was a child with the strength of a god.
"I'LL KILL YOU!"
"You'll try."
He charged again and this time, Ariadne didn't retreat.
She ran toward him.
At the last moment, she dropped into a slide, passing between his massive legs. As she slid, both blades lashed out, slicing deep into his ankles. The Abomination's forward momentum betrayed him. His damaged legs couldn't support the sudden stop, and he pitched forward with a roar of surprise.
His flailing arm punched through the facade of a nearby building.
And got stuck. Concrete and rebar closed around his forearm like a trap.
Ariadne didn't waste the opportunity.
She leaped onto his back, blades flashing in the firelight. One strike across the back of his neck. Not deep enough to sever anything vital, but enough to make him howl. Another across his shoulder blade. A third down his spine, leaving a trail of smoking flesh.
He finally wrenched his arm free, debris exploding outward in a shower of concrete and dust, and reached back to grab her.
She was already gone, landing ten feet away in a ready crouch.
The battle had lasted less than five minutes, but both combatants were showing signs of strain.
The Abomination was covered in cuts. Two dozen wounds that wept dark blood, his regeneration struggling to keep pace with the accumulated damage. The chi energy in each wound burned like acid, refusing to let his body heal properly. He was weakening, and he knew it.
But Ariadne was slowing too. Her chi reserves were nearly depleted, the glow around her blades flickering like a candle guttering in the wind. Her breathing came harder. Her movements, while still precise, had lost some of their earlier fluidity.
"Getting tired, little human?" The Abomination's grin showed too many teeth.
"Getting worried, big monster?"
He laughed, an ugly, grinding sound. "I heal. You don't. This ends one way."
He was right. She couldn't keep this pace forever.
But she didn't have to.
WHOOSH.
A high-pitched whine descended from the night sky.
PEW-PEW!
Two brilliant beams of repulsor energy slammed into the Abomination's chest, halting his advance and knocking him flat onto his back. The pavement cracked beneath the impact.
A red and gold figure dropped from the clouds, landing in a classic three-point crouch between Ariadne and the monster. The faceplate hissed open.
"Ariadne Anderson." Tony Stark looked around at the devastation, the burning cars, the shattered buildings, the monster bleeding on the ground. "When I traced military comms to a monster attack in Harlem, I didn't expect to find you sword-fighting the thing."
Ariadne didn't lower her guard. "Stark."
"Also—" The helmet turned toward the shimmering barrier protecting the Hayes family, and his voice shifted, genuine concern breaking through the usual snark. "Is that Eileen? Are the kids okay? What the hell is going on here?"
"Long story. Everyone's fine. We can talk after this thing is dead."
"Right. Yeah. Priorities." Tony's repulsors whined as he raised both palms toward the recovering Abomination. "Also, what's with the glowing swords? Some kind of plasma field? And what's that wall protecting Eileen? Force field tech I don't recognize?"
"Stark."
"Fine, fine. Saving questions for later." His targeting systems locked onto the creature with an audible chime. "But you owe me answers. Arthur too. I've had enough of his secrets and vague deflections."
"Take that up with him."
Before Tony could respond, another figure stepped out of the barrier's protection.
Melina had waited long enough. It was time to end this.
"I hope you've had sufficient fun, Ari." Melina's eyes tracked the Abomination as he climbed to his feet, shaking off the repulsor blasts like a dog shedding water. "Now we finish it."
Tony's helmet swiveled toward the newcomer - taking in the combat stance, the enchanted blades, the predatory stillness of a trained killer. "One of yours, Anderson? How many secrets are you people keeping?"
"Later."
The Abomination straightened, wiping dark blood from his chin with the back of one massive hand. He looked at Iron Man hovering above, then at the two lethal women flanking him.
Three against one.
"More bugs," he growled. "More trophies."
"Stark, you're ranged support," Ariadne commanded, slipping naturally into leadership. "Keep him off-balance with those repulsors. Melina, we go high and low. Don't let him focus on either of us."
"Taking charge of my battle?" Tony asked, though he was already ascending to optimal firing altitude. "I like it. JARVIS, target the big guy's joints. Let's see how well he regenerates when he can't stand."
"Targeting solutions locked, sir."
The Abomination charged.
Three warriors met him.
—
The battle shifted.
Where before it had been a duel, now it became a coordinated assault from multiple angles. Each fighter covered the others' weaknesses. Each attack set up the next.
Tony stayed airborne, raining down repulsor blasts that forced the Abomination to divide his attention. The beams weren't powerful enough to truly injure the creature, but they stung, distracted, created openings.
Openings that Ariadne and Melina ruthlessly exploited.
The two women fought in seamless coordination, their styles complementing each other perfectly.
Ariadne was power and precision, her chi-enhanced blades carving wounds the Abomination couldn't ignore.
Melina was speed and adaptability, her Extremis-enhanced physiology allowing her to match the creature's movements, to strike and withdraw before he could retaliate. Her attacks lacked Ariadne's raw power, but the enchanted blades still bit deep, adding to the accumulating damage.
When the Abomination swung at Ariadne, Melina struck him from behind.
When he turned to deal with Melina, Ariadne opened a gash across his back.
When he tried to leap at Tony, both women struck simultaneously, driving him back to earth before he could reach the armored Avenger.
"I'm impressed," Tony observed, dodging a thrown car with a barrel roll. "Also concerned about how well you two fight together. How long have you been doing this?"
"Focus, Stark," Ariadne snapped, ducking beneath a wild swing and scoring a cut across the Abomination's wrist.
"I'm always focused. I can multitask. It's a gift." A repulsor blast caught the creature in the face, making him stumble. "Seriously though, does Arthur know about the glowing sword thing?"
"Who do you think taught me?"
"Of course he did. Of course." Tony fired another volley. "Why am I even surprised anymore? The man probably has a secret moon base."
The Abomination was losing.
He was still immensely powerful, still capable of killing any of them with a single solid blow. But he couldn't land that blow. Every attack was countered, every advance punished, every moment of stillness exploited. He was bleeding from two dozen wounds now, his regeneration struggling to keep pace.
For the first time since his transformation, Emil Blonsky felt something unfamiliar.
Fear.
He backed up, looking for an escape or a weapon, bleeding from a dozen wounds that weren't healing fast enough.
—
Away from the battle, Eileen watched the battle turn. She should have been relieved. They were winning.
BZZZT.
Her phone vibrated in her hand.
She looked down. A text from Eve.
SECOND CONTACT DETECTED. MATCHING ENERGY SIGNATURE. TRAJECTORY INDICATES ARRIVAL AT YOUR POSITION. 12 SECONDS.
Eileen's blood went cold.
"INCOMING!" she screamed, her voice cutting through the battlefield. "SOMETHING ELSE IS COMING!"
Everyone looked up.
A shape was descending from the sky. Not falling, but landing. It had leaped from somewhere far away, its arc carrying it directly toward their position with the inevitability of a guided missile.
CRASH.
The impact was earth-shattering.
It landed directly between the heroes and the Abomination, creating a crater ten feet deep and throwing up a cloud of dust that blinded everyone.
The shockwave knocked Ariadne and Melina off their feet. Even Iron Man's flight stabilizers whined as he was blown backward.
Silence fell over the street.
From the dust cloud, a pair of glowing green eyes opened.
A hand, nearly identical to the Abomination's but slightly darker, more heavily armored with bone plates, reached out of the crater.
"Oh, come on," Tony groaned, hovering back to a safe distance. "They come in pairs? Since when do they come in pairs?"
The new monster pulled itself from the crater.
It was massive, perhaps even slightly larger than Blonsky, with a ridge of spikes running down its forearms like organic blades.
It looked at the battered Abomination, then turned its gaze toward the heroes.
It threw its head back and roared, a sound that challenged the dominance of the alpha.
Ariadne stood up, dusting off her white suit. She looked at the new challenger, then at the exhausted Abomination.
"Eileen," Ariadne spoke, her voice tight. "Please tell me this is the good one."
Eileen stared at the second monster through the shimmering barrier.
"No," she whispered. "This isn't the Hulk."