Quoted By:
The real trouble came when you finally encountered your first squad of Doombots. For the ones that weren’t smart enough to stay in the air and bombard you with lasers from above, they were quickly overwhelmed by an army of squirrels and bogged down by flaming nets. But most of them adapted to the situation fast enough to put you on the backfoot, retreating to safe range and unleashing a barrage of heated plasma in your direction. You and Squirrel Girl were dexterous enough to avoid their shot, but Ember and the squirrels weren’t. SG didn’t hesitate to give them the order to retreat, and Ember was forced to fall back and generate a barrier in order to withstand the sustained fire from the angry metal men standing before you.
Even when you did manage to hit them with a few lucky fireballs, they would systematically fall back in order to repair themselves. Because apparently, Doom built these things with a self-repair function!
Ember, who was clearly straining to maintain the pixel barrier, turned her head to address the two of you. She spoke through gritted teeth.
<span class="mu-r">“Hold on. I’m gonna try and make something that can punch a hole straight through these shiny metal assholes…!”</span>
The effort of maintaining a barrier and generating a whole new pixel construct seemed to be taxing her greatly, but you had no other options besides leaping out of cover and retreating to a safer location.
But before any of you could act on your plans, the arrival of two, very distinct aircraft drew the attention of the Doombots away from your group.
A gleaming, silver helicopter flew out from behind a building, its twin miniguns spinning up preemptively. The Doombots turned their weapons to face the vehicle, but they were several seconds too slow. A storm of crimson plasma bolts ripped through their airborne ranks in mere moments, stripping them of their advantage almost immediately.
Sable International had finally arrived, and you couldn’t have been happier. At least, that’s what you thought, until Squirrel Girl pointed out the identity of the second craft. And your heart lifted.
<span class="mu-g">“Look! It’s the Quinjet! The Avengers are here!”</span>
She tugged at your arm excitedly, pointing up at the red and silver jet. It barely slowed down for more than a few seconds; just long enough for them to open the hatch and allow something to jump out.
You watched in awe as a round, dark object plummeted towards the ground with alarming speed. But as it got closer, its descent slowed considerably, and you spotted what must’ve been a jetpack on its back, along with four mechanical arms.
The round man hit the ground with a thud, but his mechanical arms seemed to absorb the impact, because he didn’t so much as flinch when he landed. Through crimson lenses he scanned the battlefield, taking in every aspect of you, your allies, and the Doombots standing in your way.
(Cont.)
