Summary:SHIELD and an ensemble cast of heroes face the awesome might of Doctor Gatling in the second of two part finale of the Crucible in Bronze plot. Log Info:Storyteller: hank-mccoy |
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Cold…darkness…and then SUDDEN PAIN!
Thea is shocked awake by some sort of psychic backlash, but the pain stems from a spike buried in her skull. She's suspended in pink-goo, the foul tasting stuff in her mouth, in her lungs…
And that spike? It starts to withdraw…slithering out of her head even as she realizes she's in some sort of tube - the light inside provided by a red light that flashes, giving it an almost strobe quality.
With a lurch the tube extends outwards, and then KACHUNK flops down so she's 'standing'. The lurch pulls the spike the rest of the way out, and the hatch of the tube lifts and folds back, rapidly dumping the goo out in a flood, and Thea with it.
She's in a cavern of stone, a large one — there's a 'tree' almost, with maybe 30 pods total, including the one that just unceremoniously dumped her onto the floor of a cold and alien stone chamber. Starkers, covered in the fetid pink goo she lies on her stomach, and can see as some /thing/, enters the room, and speaks a ~word~, a rift forming between her and it, as it steps through.
The rift remains open…however…
—
Multiple explosions have gone off, Agent May and Captain Rogers evacuate Jemma, dragging her to the cloaked Quinjet, it seems this is a scene of /madness/.
Her head is agony, in someone else she was looking over with her powers, it would be blood red blooms like that flashing faux strobe light. She sputters, using her powers to force that goo up out of her lungs, spitting it out. The need to breathe is like another strand of agony, panic that flashes with her speeding heartbeat like lightning.
Before she can try to figure out how to deal with being trapped, she's being dumped unceremoniously onto a cold stone floor in that flood of gross goo. She will try to push herself to her hands and knees, still gagging on goo. Her hair slithers over her shoulders like slick, slimy snakes, and she shudders in revulsion.
Then there's a horror show of a thing, huge especially to her point of view. Rage fills the biokinetic, and before she can rationalize and use calm thinking, she's on her feet. Naked or not, she's moving towards that rift on bare feet, hands clenched in fists.
Spider-Man GAPES at the creature that comes out of the rift. It almost defies imagination, comprehension; it is almost an offense to the eyes and mind.
But he is, first and foremost, a scientist, and ALICE has been collected all the data it can on what had become of the Fake Thea, what it had become.
And then it declares its hatred of "organics," he bites back a smart-aleck reply. So MANY replies he could make.
But there is that hope, that hope that this THING had to work off the original to make such a deceptive, complete duplicate. He had to hope Thea was still alive.
And that the "rift" was somehow a way to get to her.
He didn't trust himself. He was already thinking of ways to hurt this clockwork horror, multiple experiments in MISapplied physics occurring to him. Maybe even to kill it, if it could be killed. He forced himself to focus on how to save any that could be saved.
He fired a webline, and went to the left, keeping an eye on the gun mounted on the thing's right arm. He had to be able to dodge it as he swung around in a wide arc, hoping to get behind the thing without it noticing him, and heading for the rift.
*God…? A little help this time, whaddaya say?* he thinks as he heads towards the unknown.
"Aaaauuuugggh… fuck!"
Re-setting her dislocated shoulder was painful enough; Spider-Girl wasn't quite ready for the violent explosion that followed. Instinctively, she dove to the ground, tucking her arms and legs up and into a ball that protected her head. Moving her left arm in such a way was a firm reminder that not one, but two bones have been fractured; the radius and ulna on her left arm, near the wrist. Not good.
As the explosion dies away, still more of her costume has been shredded and burnt. Fortunately, she still has her decency, but barely; the costume has been ripped to pieces, revealing half her face and much more of her skin than she'd prefer to be seen in the field.
Coughing, she uncurls herself from the dumpster she was thrown against, and checks to see if her comms and HUD are still active. The HUD is flickering, but still active; luckily it was the right side of her mask that was ripped apart. "Spider-Girl, checking in. I'm wounded. Left arm. Definitely broken."
Shielding her face, she looks about the area, trying to get a bead on things. "Arana, vigilancia tactica."
Her tech is miraculously still working. From it's hiding spot, Arana rises and begins scanning the area. She's a sleek, black spider-drone that Anya built herself, and begins making a tactical scan of the area with her cameras, IR and EM sensors.
Rather purposefully, the woman some call Voodoo has been blending into the crowd of apparent civilians. Shapeshifting is great for that, and with preparation her costume lies beneath civilian attire that suits visiting the fair. When those folks stopped being such apparent civilians, Voodoo moved mostly out of the way; she doesn't have SHIELD training, and didn't want to get somebody hurt unnecessarily. If those present couldn't handle it all, then she would step in. But otherwise, she would stay largely out of sight.
Pris fully intends to get that date with Sarah, after all of this is over. But when Sarah called - and when Pris confirmed that it was really her - she begged to come along and help. She's on-site, hoverbike ready out of the way, when it all goes down.
When roboJimmy moved to attack Sarah, Voodoo closed on her, ready to protect her should her shields fail. But then she feels it. Feels HIM. Jimmy. The real Jimmy, there, manifesting alongside the fake. She has no idea what to do …
But then, quite explosively, it's over. Over, and Pris is still in one piece; a far sight better than last time, with Sarah's doppleganger. She has almost finished spitting up odd micro-gears at this point, and has no desire to experience that again, thanks.
And then there's a giant frimping portal, and WHATTHEHELLISTHAT?! Everyone else distracted, it's time to shed her disguise, allowing her body to resume its normal shape inside the costume as Voodoo yanks sword and blaster to hand.
And yet Voodoo hesitates. "Sarah, he's here. He's still here. I can feel him."
Miles away from the current site of battle, the Hulk is fighting against the energy trying to consume him, other energies seemingly trying to heal him. It's incredibly painful, searing into his mind. And that pain makes him steadily angrier. The angrier he gets, the stronger he gets. But also tougher, and quicker healing. So as his ire mounts to dangerous levels, the damage he's taking begins to slow. And then, reverse. By the time the explosion feades entire, he's steadily healing. Though he does drop down onto one knee and support himself with a hand, panting heavily as the healing continues. But, he can't stay there. Somebody might have been hurt by the remaining head. Eventually he clambers to his feet again and crouches down, leaping through the air once more.
It'll take a minute or two for him to get back. Time for all sorts of things to happen in a battle like this. But, then there's a faint whistling sound in the air, kind of like a bomb dropping. A green shape appears up in the sky, dropping rapidly down towards the sight of the recent and continued fight. When he touches down, it's heavy. The ground cracking under his feet, a glare painted across his face as he focuses on the obvious threat towering over the group. He doesn't look particularly intimidated.
The past few days have been one long string of horrors and indignities. Being captured, disassembled while alive and awake to experience it, replaced by a thing wearing her face and meant to betray everything she believes in, the waking in the clockwork base, the ordeal of escaping from that particular hell…
And now this thing arrives. Using her magic.
Sarah Black has had about enough. She hears Pris's words, and turns her head enough to give her a look of grateful hope, before returning to the task at hand.
The 'Doc Gatling' monster. It has guns. (With a name like that…) Guns have ammo. Maaaybe that's an angle she can exploit…
Sarah's hands snap through a quick gesturing, and an ancient word spits from her lips. And a blast of fire sends heat ripples rising through the air as it streaks from just beyond her fingertips toward Gatling's left gun-appendage. Maybe she'll get lucky and cook something off, or set off some HE rounds or something.
"Copy that, Spider-girl." Comes Sniper Ramsey's voice over the the comms. "All units, I have line of sight to the rift, there is one human form coming, but I see movement behind her. Subject is tentatively identified as Agent Thea Harman, though she appears to be in distress - confirm - it IS her, scans indicate she is /human/."
The colossal metal form takes a ground shaking stride forward, multiple tons of metal and gears and armor thudding on one digitigrade foot. "You FILTHY meatbags will /die/ at the talons of DOCTOR GATLING!"
Well, it seems to have the Villain Monologue thing down pat.
The huge longer upper set of arms each fan out the scarable like 'wings', shields providing cover for much of the body, and then the smaller arms, each with gatling weapons are leveled just over the rims of the shields and spin up. "You have interfered with my glorious plan! Foolish /hormonal/ creatures, it is so much better as /real/ life-forms! Can you not see I offer eternal life, peaceful co-existance, harmony…no wars, no disease, no starvation…"
The woman's voice is actually quite similar to that Sarah heard from Josefin in the base.
Thea staggers through the portal, and she can hear a skittering behind her, like…a lot of skittering…
When Hulk returns so impactfully, the metallic monstrosity turns those guns…and they fire on him, though Sarah's blast does knock one arm's aim of. The bullets are being fired by some sort of of mechanical process, there's no explosions, more like…yes, Arana will detect some sort of mangnetic field. These things are GAUSS weapons! And they hit with titanic force.
Thea does indeed stagger, her body is less than enthused at having been held hostage without her usual routines for…how long has it been? She's not sure. A hand flings back sodden, congealing hair, turning her head to look at the skittering sounds behind her. She's ready to stomp things, injury to her feet be damned.
But she knows there are people there. /Sarah/. "Black! Close the portal!" Nevermind that she's naked, there are important things going on here. "Keep these things from getting out here!" Her voice is slightly ragged, but what else could one expect?
Then she's taking a half breath. /Peter/. "Please tell me you have your harness!" She will shout out before coughing.
- T H E A ! ! ! * The thought seems to fill his mind when ALICE pinpoints her location. He swoops down, almost to street-level. The big ugly thing seems to be a bit distracted, and Spider-Man says quickly, "HARNESS."
And just like that, it opens up over his backpack.
The next part is almost ballet.
As he gets close to her, the tension on the current webline guiding him to her, he fires another behind him to slow him down, turning his body so that his back is moving towards Thea. As soon as her body presses against his, the snaps are pulled together in coordinated force, one after another.
When his body snaps back in the way he came, Thea is securely harnessed and it's almost like all the other times he's taken her on Mr. Spidey's Wild Ride.
Only she's naked this time.
"Are you all right, Thea? Is there anyone else trapped there? Ohmigosh you're NAKED!"
Arana springs high into the air, but her sensors are trained upon the creature that came through that portal, feeding information back to Spider-Girl's damaged mask and HUD. The young Latina notices the new arrival as the data comes in, and her exposed eye widens. "Mierda…!"
Quickly scrambling back against the dumpster, she pulls her left arm in close to her body with a grimace and starts wrapping it up in black webbing from her right hand. She wraps it up, then begins feeding the webbing around her torso, securing the broken arm to herself. All the while, she's reporting over comms to the others who are still listening.
"May, Rogers and Simmons are withdrawing. In the clear, far as I can tell. Getting readings on that… thing."
Spider-Girl's voice is strong but trembling with adrenaline. As she relays the information, shadow begins to form around her, cast by the dumpster above and the wreckage around. "I can't tell if it's really here or not, but the metal is storing a ton of energy. It's like a wound up spring, and it's heavy. Six tons, at least."
Watching as the Hulk returns, she readies herself, and moves into a crouch behind the dumpster. When the ground shakes, she moves, hooking her right arm underneath the dumpster and lifting. The metal creaks, muscles bulge, and the dumpster shifts. Shadow deepens around Spider-Girl, and if you didn't know she was already there, you wouldn't be able to see her.
"Shit! Look out, those guns will pack a serious punch!"
Reacting on on instinct, sure there is little she herself can do to a creature that big and powerful as the clockwork Gatling, Voodoo does instead what she can do that others may not be able to do: she gets a lock on the feeling of 'Jimmy'-ness and she sprints full out. It's kind of amazing that a human form can run that fast, but it can happen, and it does. Through a portal or around the world, she's heading for Jimmy, because she doesn't need eyes to see him, and he needs help. That should, Voodoo hopes, free up others to do what they can, what they must do.
The Hulk's still-closing wounds do not like taking gauss slugs to them. He rsies his forearms to protect his face as they slam into him, digging in his toes. He's still being pushed back, roaring out in ever mounting pain and anger. After a furrow of some distance is dug into the ground, he digs in harder and manages to stop himself. Then he starts to walk forward, skin and flesh rippling from each impact as his green hide closes. He begins to gradually build up speed, heading towards Doctor Gatling. He kind of looks like a man leaning into a heavy wind, if the wind was made of metal and moving fast enough to punch through battleship armor. He's making no effort to actually dodge the weapons, because anything that doesn't hit him is going to hit something, or somebody, else.
Eventually he builds up into a dash over the last few feet towards the metal monstrosity, and then leaps into the air towards her. Trying to reache for one of the gun barrels extending out from behind a shield and grasp it in both hands. If he can catch it, he'll plant his huge feet against the wing-shield and begin to wrench and pull it as hard as he can. Which is currently a considerably level of strength. He roars as he does it, the sound or rage loud enough to cut through most sounds around him.
Hearing Ramsey over comms confirming Thea's emergence from the portal, Sarah turns to look, just as Thea is shouting to her. And then she sees Spider-Man whisking her friend and fellow agent — and now, fellow former captive of these things — to safety. She'd love to have the luxury of time to feel gratitude and relief, but she has a job to do — urgently.
The portal through which Gatling arrived — followed by Thea, and now apparenly about to be seeing the arrival of more things — was not cast by Sarah, but it does duplicate her magic — precisely. And because of that, with a bit of concentrated mental effort, she is able to wrest control of the portal. And closes it, the opening irising to a pinpoint of light in an instant, then vanishing.
"Copy that." Comes the sniper's voice over comms. "The ground through the portal…is covered in…looks like bugs, roaches." If she's repulsed, Agent Ramsey's voice doesn't show any signs, just cool professionalism. And then she starts firing, /through/ the portal past Spidey and Thea as he snatches the woman up in a well practiced maneuver. Each shot, still firing depleted uranium slugs detonates one of the thousands of Clockroaches, and the sudden destruction detonates each one blasted, creating small pockets that clear…before the flood continues.
Arana's sensors would register each burst - kinetic energy, shrapnel, electricity in equal measure. The bugs burst like small grenades.
The portal closes just before that hideous swarm can flow to freedom. Sure, a few dozen make it…but the bulk? Trapped.
The sudden collapse of the rift pulls what remains of Jimmy on the other side fully to this one even as Voodoo closes on his position…and Hulk, Hulk makes that leaping attack, and one of the guns crumples under the impact, the emerald titan's fist knocking the creature back into the same dumpster poor Spider-girl is sheltering with. The metal crimps, crumples, tumbling and then Gatling rolls backwards, leaping into the sky and the wing covers on her back folding open and two sets of mechanical-dragonfly like wings whir-and-blur into motion and she twists up into the sky.
Thea will hang onto Peter with more cling than usual. She'll skip her usual sass and arm waving, tonight the roller coaster ride is important to get her away from…whatever that thing was. She's naked and covered in this wet goo and it's not exactly warm…
"Ever see the Matrix? It's like that. There's people in tubes, just like I was. I don't know why…" She's tired and angry and confused. "Yes, I'm naked. And getting the back of your suit covered in the gunk they had me… stored in." She's thoroughly unhappy. "I can't do anything against that thing, that I can sense."
Spider-Man doesn't look behind him, as focused as he is on getting her to safety. But she can sense his blush fighting his seriousness. "Don't worry. I CAN."
He lands on the roof of a building on the edge of the battleground, then unlatches the harness. "Take a deep breath."
He turned around, and then Thea is being covered by his mid-grade webbing - dry, but durable for four hours. He had gotten the idea from Cindy Moon. He couldn't manage colors like she could, but when it's all over, Thea's body is covered in a rather snug budysuit of webbing.
He looks to the rift suddenly closing. Can they do anything for the ones still trapped? He didn't know.
Then he looked at Dr. Gatling head up into the sky, and Thea can feel the rage building in him. Gatling was every bully he ever dealt with - Carl, Flash, Flash's buddies, the other students, the teachers who wanted him to "sort it out for himself."
"…Right now, Gatling's about to reach the 91ST DAY of her 90_DAY WARRANTY!"
Then he fired both weblines and was off again, aiming himself towards Gatling.
"Arana, objetivo." Spider-Girl continues lifting the dumpster, watching her HUD carefully; noting the Hulk's attack, Spider-Man's evacuation of Thea, everything. "Busca acceso a la tecnologia."
Arana stays safely out of harms reach, and focuses on Gatling's form, searching for any sort of technological access port. Something that might be accessed and hacked. It's a stretch, but it's something.
Meanwhile, whatever plans she had for that dumpster (as in, weaponizing it) are dashed, and she goes tumbling right along with it.
"No you don't!"
Her good arm flings out, even as she tumbles head over foot, and a webline snatches the crushed dumpster, pulling it back to her. Thank goodness this was all staged and there isn't really any garbage in there.
Dropping the webline, she kicks her feet and flips onto her side, planting her right arm into the ground with both legs aimed at the trashed dumpster as it heads for her. She catches it on the lower end, turning herself into a fulcrum of kinetic energy. The metal creaks as it's caught by her feet, and for a moment, there's just Spider-Girl, diagonal to the ground, with one hand on the earth and a dumpster perched on her feet.
She uncoils her body with a growl of strength, and kicks the dumpster into the air… headed for the flying Doctor Gatling.
Its just too bad she didn't have the means to set it on fire first.
"Hey Spider-Man!" she calls over the Spider-Comm. She may not have had the strength to kick it high enough, but now he's got a flying projectile to play with. "Time to take out the trash!"
Yep. She did it. Though it goes completely against her genetic code, she made a pun that's sure to make him proud, maybe even bolster his fighting spirit.
Well, that was easier than he thought. Hulk lands on the ground, briefly startled as the Doc falls over with minimal effort. Well. Minimal for him anyway. He gives himself a shake, growling as the clockwork villain darts into the sky, presumably preparing to either escape or rain down metal death on those assembled. Neither possibility appeals to him, so he briefly crouches down before leaping towards the ascending horror. He's able to jump fast enough, and precisely enough, to intercept missiles. So he's hoping he'll be able to snag onto her and get a good grip. Digging his fingers into whatever part, if any, he manages to grab. "YOU THINK YOU CAN LEAVE? HULK WILL SMASH YOU TO PIECES!" Hulk knows… very few of the people here personally. But he still doesn't like what he's heard about Doc Gatlings practices.
The Clockroaches that managed to get through the portal scatter, moving in coordinated synchronicity that's appalling to see - the things LOOK exactly like roaches, Arana can sort of detect they're not, but they move just like them, look like them, until *POP* - another sniper round blasts one. They are streaming towards those still on the ground, ten going towards Sarah, ten more heading for the Quinjet, and five, oops…four after the shot…heading for Spider-girl after her showy hurling of the dumpster and snappy-banter over the Spider Comms.
Gatling is up about a hundred feet or so when she turns. When Hulk's beefy hand grips her leg, she shudders in revulsion. "BRUTE! How dare you SOIL my perfection with your putrid rotting flesh!" Okay, someone needs to take the mechano-horror equivalent of a valium!
Pods at her waist fold open, again, following the structure of beetle-wings, and out pour dozens of narrow tendrils, they twine together, forming about a half dozen cables, tentacles of sparking bronze colored metal that seek to wrap the Hulk's head. If successful they discharge electricity sufficient to power a city block in one massive jolt.
Of course that's when the Dumpster is launched, Spidey does have time to intervene, and he's got a nice angle on her wings since her turn to deal with the Hulk.
The crumpled gun is ejected, detonating just over the Quinjet, riddling it with shrapnel and electricity, the cloak knocked off line, though the armor seems to be holding.
The tac-teams on the ground have not been idle, nope, they've setup a perimeter to contain things, and it is at this point that guns fire - some with sonic weapons, some firing armor piercing rounds. When it becomes obvious that Doc Gatling is impervious to both they switch to fire on the Clockroaches to better effect.
Spider-Man sees it coming, then reaches into his backpack and takes out a large disc, He throws it at the dumpster, watching it land inside as he firesa webline. He lands on a building ledge, then swings it in a wide arc once, twice, and then swings it up at Dr. Gatling. Halfway through there is a loud BOOM and white smoke issues from the dumpster.
Then it hits Gatling and explodes, dousing her with liquid thermite.
Spidey suddenly gets a flare from his Spider-Sense and sees a Cockroach moving towards him with purpose. He scans it with what he has…infrared, ultraviolet, X-rays…
And then it suddenly crisps and stops moving.
A moment late, a broad-spectrum transmission goes out:
USE X-RAYS!
HUD flashing a warning, Spider-Girl spins to see the Clockroaches headed her way. Her left arm is positively throbbing; webbing it up was a good move, but she's hardly stayed stationary. A silent thanks is given to her hovering spider-drone, and she picks the targets as they come in.
Right arm lifted, she crouches low and starts firing globs of webbing from her wrist, ignoring the pain by hearing one of her favorite songs in her head.
Wu-Tang Clan ain't nothin' ta fuck with!
Of course, 'Wu-Tang' is swapped with 'Spider' in one verse, 'SHIELD and' for another. It's a way of ignoring the pain, the exhaustion that is setting in. She's never been in this hard of an overdrive.
One roach down, followed by another. Two more to go, but they're gaining on her, and fast. She scampers back and squeezes her hand… but nothing comes out. Organic webbing burns fuel, and her body is running low.
In the blink of an eye, she can feel the tingling in her fractured bones, and doesn't even think about it; she just rips her left arm out of the web sling and bashes the third across its ugly face. The fourth is upon her now, and she falls to the ground, eyes closed, expecting to become dinner.
Instead, the clockroach becomes mincemeat, thanks to the sharp shooting of one Agent Ramsey.
Meanwhile, Arana, who is monitoring Doctor Gatling again, witnesses Spider-Man's dumpster fire move. She files the video recording away, knowing that Anya will want to watch it later.
The Hulk's verbose and eloquent response to her words is, "RAAAAAWR!" He reaches up with the other hand, clamping higher on the leg, and pulling him higher. He repeats the process, intending to gradually scale the clockwork madwoman. Believe it or not, the expression on his face is somewhat annoyed. The thermite bath likely catches him too, but with how angry he is at the moment he doesn't really feel it. It still shrouds him in flames. Then those copper tendrils wrap around his head and a power plants worth of energy is channelled into him. If this had been the start of the fight, that very likely would have knocked him out. Probably for some time. As it is, it still hurts. A lot. But he manages to keep his grip on both consciousness, and the Doctor. "GOING… TO… CRUSH… YOU….!" Muscles spasming, he tightens his grip with both hands in preperation for her hopefully falling out of the sky with her wings burned up.
The Clockroaches are big, for bugs, roughly an inch across…fortunately the one that gets shot is also moved, Spider-girl's body does take some shrapnel, some electricity, but it is was not close enough to do her any serious harm.
The wings are made of metal like the rest of the Doc, but they're they're not NEARLY as tough as she is, thinner, diaphanous really…thermite compromises them enough that she does indeed fall, the impact of /flaming/ dumpster tumbling her as Hulk climbs. She's tough, VERY tough, but not invincible, as Hulk's rage fueled strength grows, she actually seems to be in some measure of pain! "BRUTE! FILTH! UHAND ME!" And then they it the ground.
Thea's voice does indeed crank the anxiety level down a few notches, but he's not done yet. Gatling is down, and Spidey is wasting no time. He leaps out to spin a webline that carries him over to the prone form of Dr. Gatling, who is currently hating the Hulk bigtime.
"ALICE…web grenade."
"Configuration loaded."
Spidey pressed the webshooter between two plates crumpled by the Hulk's attack, then hisses loud enough to hear…
"WELCOME TO PLANET EARTH."
CHUNT. CHUNT. Spidey fire two web spheres into the gap, and they bounce once inside before going off and it is as though every little nook and cranny is filled with sticky adhesive webbing.
"Just like Pepto-Bismol. Coats…soothes…RELIEVES…"
For a moment, Spider-Girl spasms on the ground, the electricity shocking the adrenaline back into her. The arm feels absolutely weird, a mixture of sharp pain and the warmth of whatever the hell is going on. Thea's words somehow ring through the haze of everything, and she pulls it close to herself again, holding it still.
Her spinnerets have run dry. Arana doesn't have X-Ray tech, and she's quickly running out of ideas.
"C'mon," she says to herself, with eyes on the right. She's either willing those still in the fight to finish the job, or willing herself to get some of her strength back. Maybe both.
Then, she hears Spider-Man day that. Her head drops back into the earth, and her right hand rises to facepalm.
After they hit the ground, Hulk releases the legs of Doctor Gatling and clambers to his feet. He notes the web spheres that were shot into her back. Hopefully those keep her from moving too much. Bending nover, he clamps his oversized green hands down onto her head. ""HAPPY TO MEAT YOU!" Look. Savage Hulk isn't as good as wordplay as Spider-Man. That's about the best you can hope for from him. Then he starts to push those hands together, putting all of his currently rage-boosted strength into trying to crush it flat. And/or just rip it off entirely. He clearly doesn't intend to give her the chance to get away.
Armor meant to withstand artillery fire buckles under Hulk's assault, and then the Spider-man detonates a pair of web grenades inside the clockwork villainess…the ARMOR is super dense, super resilient, but the inner workings are precision fitted machinery. The webbing disrupts things, delicate micro and nanogears locked in place, it starts a hideous cascade inside the menace, her voice garbles.
"Noo….wha-ttt…have…you…dooooOOoooOOnne…" Her last words before Hulk's hand crush her head, and tear the thing loose from the body.
Still…the threat is not ended, for there's a sickly yellow glow that starts, something all present have seen with the much smaller and less dense others…if Gatling blows is it going to be a /big/ boom indeed!
"I've got this," Sarah Black calls out, aloud and over comms, as she peers out past the nearby shoreline and out over the water, as if judging distance… or trying to fix a spot in her mind. And then she gestures, and speaks a word, and another…
The now-familiar glowing runes and lines draw themselves into existence… over the ground surrounding the crumpled Doctor Gatling. The portal opens, and gravity does the rest…
…and the fallen clockwork hive queen plummets out of the portal's twin, out over the water, maybe a hundred feet above the water, high enough to ensure that she will be falling fast when she splashes through the surface, and keeps on going down quickly.
The massive form of Doctor Gatling is transported out over the near by water. Even as she falls the mechano-magical clockwork menace glows…within her chest there's not one, but THREE 'hearts', and every atom of her armored form incandesces…as she plummets the glow is eye searing, and then *Plunk* she plunges deep beneath the water.
A pause…one of those freeze frame moments where the entire universe seems to hold its breath, and then a GEYSER of water erupts, a massive swell inundating the shore and washing over much of the fairground as the explosion rips out.
Then stillness.
Oddly…Spidey's spider-sense would twinge, it is vague, formless. Miles away, both Heavensent and Voodoo would feel a twinge of rage, then nothing.
These events happen /after/ the destruction of Doctor Gatling.
Far away, in another underground complex…somewhere.
Josefin watches through the eyes of her remaining Clockroaches, cold eyes harder than battle forged steel as she watches the end. A faint sigh, habit more than anything needful, after all she's not and never has been anything other than clockwork.
"So…a setback…"
Gears whir and click, and the woman-formed but never human creature revises, collates, coldly plans…
…it is done for now, but over?
Time will tell.