The room we teleported into was as high-tech as I expected it would be. Perfectly flat surfaces that I'd expect from a Star Trek ship, outlined with small doses of green colors that accented their appearance to match their designer. Even though we were in a brightly lit room, there also wasn't a visible light source, at least to standard vision sets.
I could make out the odd bulb-like device floating above our heads. Something that I made sure everyone else made note of too.
Despite Loki's rather concerning ranting about the dangers of teleporting inside the ship without knowing the layout, we managed to arrive with all our limbs intact. Though, I'm just assuming that was what the ranting meant, because otherwise, Thor's brother thought about torture methods far too much, even for a would-be world-conqueror… especially for a would-be world conqueror.
I took point, having the toughest body and the fastest response times only made sense that I would. Loki was behind me, a dangerous spot if he decided to stab that scepter up where the sun didn't shine but Morse and Barton had the man in their sights at all times.
He even sneezed evilly, and they'd do their thing.
We almost came to an issue when we noticed that the doorways were just built for normal-sized, if not oddly skinny, people, and not the wide powerhouse of muscle and green that many today called the Hulk. It was an awkward moment when the rest of us peacefully walked by it and Hulk just… stood there glaring at the doorway as if it would collapse just by doing that.
"I'll deal with the doorway, big guy," Before I could do much more than walk up to it, Hulk just burst through it as if the wall had been made of paper, merely peeling outward. "Or you could do that… not like we want to keep the ship in one piece or anything like that."
Hulk merely huffed at me in the same manner that you'd see an adult whenever they see a kid try to act adult. That 'oh, that's adorable' sorta expression. It annoyed me, but whatever.
We didn't have long before Brainiac started to talk, his voice echoing out from speakers lining the walls of the hallway we were walking through.
"It was arrogant to think that you would be able to run around on my ship," Accompanying his sentence, a red energy barrier erupted out of the walls and into existence ahead of us. We quickly turned around, heading down the other way only for another barrier to appear the same way. "My defenses are designed against far greater foes than you."
"Hulk," I patted a wall. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Move," Hulk shoved me as his fingers ripped into the very wall itself, revealing a darkened room, a row of motionless drones held inside what looked like charging stations.
They were thicker than the other drones, larger biceps, rounder thighs and their faces were far more detailed than any of the drones that I took out down in New York. I didn't spot any external weapons but my array of super visionary powers noticed that there were several oddities about the way that the mechanical compliments were arranged. Properly could transform to deal with a varied range of enemies.
"You haven't thought this through," Brainiac spoke once more. "This ship is my fortress, every inch is designed to my specifications over hundreds of years of research and study."
Suddenly, one of the bodies sprung to life, its eyes peering out at us as if they were truly organic, blinking and darting around the room as it searched for us all. It broke free from the restraints holding it back but I didn't let it get further than an arm and a leg before I smashed through its chest.
"Nope," I said while pulling my fist from its mechanical guts. "Not going to let-" before I could finish my sentence, I found that my limb had become trapped in the tight grip of the robot's arm.
"Foolish," Brainiac's voice suddenly came from the robot's lips, it was cold and emotionless, but there was that sense of smugness that seemed to still emanate from it. "As I said before, this ship was designed by me. You'll find my vessels here make the drones sent out mere playthings."
I was just about to exert some effort to break from the bot's grasp when suddenly its mouth lit up blue and blasted me in the face. Instinctively, I closed my eyes and was thrown back by the blast taking me off my feet, but I wasn't hurt. Merely hit hard enough to be thrown out of the room and back to the hall once more.
It only got worse from there though. Before I could even get back to my feet before I was accosted by a series of laser shots that pelted against my body. Luckily, it appeared my durability had finally spread to my outfits, or at least this one was close enough to my skin to not be burned nor torn.
I heard Hulk roar out, his hands crushing, and tearing through several robots that got close to him. I shifted to my feet quickly, basically ignoring the laser fire as if it was simply someone using the hairdryer to dry me off. A quick bit of freeze breath turned those turrets into icicles and I ran back into the room.
What awaited me was Morse helping Hawkeye bounce into the air with a springboard maneuver. He shot off three arrows as if he was a machine, accurately nailing three standard drones that had popped into the room at some point.
The other more dangerous robot bodies stayed motionless at the sides.
My eyes soon came to Hulk ripping apart the Brainiac-controlled body that had hurled me out of the room seconds ago. It didn't take him long at all, it was like watching someone tearing apart cardboard to fit into a recycling bin.
"Li-ttle help!!" Hawkeye's voice caused me to glance back toward him.
"I'd been too inactive during this fight," I realized at the sight of Barton being held by the throat, another more human-like robot, no doubt directly controlled by Brainiac, raising him while stepping on Morse's throat, slowly applying more pressure as the seconds passed.
"Your arrogance knows no bounds," Brainiac stated. "I've studied you all for months, I know your strengths, your weaknesses. The gaps that you leave open when you arrogantly believe that you-"
Barton's arms were free and so using them he grabbed an arrow, the head sparking with electrical power. While Morse was much in the same position, only she took out a disk from her belt, it was sparking with that use of electrical energy.
The two stabbing the limbs that were restraining them.
Brainiac's current body didn't so much receive damage from these devices as it did lose the capability to hold the two. Morse knocked away his leg, leaving the alien to fall to his knees while Barton landed on his feet, quickly springing another arrow to his hand and using its blade to pierce Brainiac's head.
I took this as the moment to move in for the kill, using the same method that Hulk used seconds earlier and ripping the robot to pieces.
"We're moving!" I decided, Hulk already bursting through another wall, that Loki pointed him to, and leading us to the next room. Luckily, while he hadn't helped with the fighting, Thor's brother stayed around to lead us to where he thought the control room was.
"From now on, I'm sticking with the big guy," Barton groaned as they walked forward. Hulk growled slightly at this but didn't respond with any words. He was oddly silent for what I could recall from versions of the Hulk.
But I suppose that's better than him screaming 'Hulk Smash!'.
I took two steps inside the next room… and then was bombarded with a green energy ray so powerful that I fell to my knees, even the floor itself groaned under the pressure. Soon Brainiac's voice popped up once more.
"I told you, I had analyzed your weaknesses," he gloated as a robotic hand snaked its way across my throat. "My studies of Kryptonians were complete well before meeting you. This wavelength is derived from an irradiated mineral leftover from Krypton's destruction. It tends to have negative side effects on the subjects I've tested it on. Even trapped here as I am, I'm always advancing. "
Oh… so that was the plan. Almost smart of him.
(Louise O'Reilly: Stark Tower)
She shuffled down the stairs, Murdock not far behind her as the rest of those new Super Friends of Pat's started to get to work on defending the city from the drones that were once more being sent their way. It was in smaller numbers as if Brainiac had a backlog prior and now needed to send them as they were made.
Obviously, it was decided that as they weren't SHIELD Agents, or super soldiers, or Norse gods, or super genius playboys with mech suits, that they weren't going to be much help with them. Especially given one of them was a blind man and the other a young office worker.
Muggers? Louise could take them on, but alien invasions were another thing entirely.
But they were helping out, all the same, the Brainwashed minions of Loki were supposedly freed by the rogue Asgardians. These were the people that she and Murdock had knocked out and tied up not too long ago. So the pair were to free them of the restraints that they'd put on them.
There was a rather unfortunate matter once they reached Stark's cozy penthouse. There was no sign of the rather terrifying Doctor some called Ock. This was something that worried the two people that had spent no small amount of time dealing with the woman earlier that day.
"Where did she go!?" Murdock knelt to the ground as the freed SHIELD Agents took guard of the room's key entry points. "We didn't just beat her up and leave on the ground, we shot her in the head. There's no way that she could've survived that."
Louise watched as his hands rubbed along the floor, feeling out the area that the Doctor had been left laying from the battle earlier. Louise flinched at the sight of Murdock dipping his fingers into the blood that pooled from Octavius's body, he was testing if it had dried or not.
"It's real," Murdock supplied, his face once more concealed by a scarf covering the top half. "So she was really shot-"
"-And stabbed, electrocuted, suplexed, and had been shot with EMP weapons," Louise interrupted him, deciding to take a seat on one of the few remaining chairs that hadn't been destroyed during all the fighting. "I swear to god, what does it take to… " she trailed off, her eyes spotting a closet nearby that shook slightly.
Louise attempted to shift her body to the side suddenly, to lean her head in the direction of the closet. Trying to gain the Lawyer's attention but failing thanks to the dedication to tracking Octavius.
"Double D," She whispered, using one of Pat's nicknames for the man as to not give anyone the vigilante's name. Some of them had his face, it would be worse if they had his name to go with it. "The closet."
His head didn't move, she assumed that this was due to the whole blind thing. It didn't matter if he turned his head to face people, it wasn't like he needed to face someone to know that they were there. Slowly, Murdock walked slowly, holding up a baton while sneaking up to the door. Then he mouthed;
"On the count of three," A single finger rose, a second one, before finally the third one. Murdock swung the door open before stopping himself from striking the person tied up on the floor of the closet.
She was a brunette, older than Louise but not enough that Louise would think of the woman as old.
"You're not the woman we're looking for?" Louise couldn't help but blurt out. Murdock removed the gag around her mouth as she glared at the redhead.
"No? You don't say!" The obvious hostage snidely replied as soon as her lips were free. "Next, you'll even say that I'm tied up. Now before we're suddenly sucked into a black hole or something. UNTIE ME!"
"Wait a second?" Louise gasped as her mind recalled the article Pat had written for the Bulletin right after the Doc Ock one. The one about the Hulk and, the now former, General Ross. "You're Doctor Betty Ross!"
"... yeah, I know who I am," She returned, though angry. The woman didn't really appear angry at Louise but rather at the general situation. "I'm also the woman that spent what felt like weeks trapped in a closet while World War Three seemed to be going on outside. What time is it?"
Louise reached for her phone to check the time, only to realize that it wasn't there anymore.
"Must've lost the thing at some time during all the fighting," She realized with a rather shaky grin. Her Pops would've been calling her non-stop the second this invasion started on the news. He was going to kill her for worrying him and her Ma.
"Sorry," Came her and Murdock's dual reply.
"It's fine, I'm surprised it wasn't Bruce ripping through the building to save me that got me out of that closet."
Ross didn't stay long in the closet, walking out of there with the same sort of dead stare as one would expect once they spotted the city on fire.
"Loki did it," Ross looked on in mounting horror. The sirens of police and ambulances alike ascended the air. "That bastard. He's just out there killing so many people."
"Actually… this is a different alien coming in to invade and Loki's helping us defeat him."
Ross blinked.187