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 It was an instant too late for a warning. They were smaller than the thing that had called itself Samedar, but what they lacked in mass they made up for in numbers. The creatures poured from the vents in a glut of spidery arms and translucent wings, swarming and scrabbling over each other in a blind rush towards the intruders like bees responding to a wasp in their hive. They were not immune from the increase in gravity. Their wings whirred, but their flight was erratic. One launched itself unsteadily at Bobbi, keening "Queen-killers! Queen-killers!" A crimson beam struck the alien point-blank. The body struck the wall with a sound like a bug hitting a windshield, and with similar physical effect. Namor, however, did not fire. He moved. His rifle was reversed as he drove forward, smoothly settling into a ready position. Then, with a flick of disdain, he drove the butt of it into the nearest creature’s thorax. Chitin cracked. The body folded. He spun, then, and more bugs were routed. "Redundancy," he said flatly, pivoting. Another thing struck – he parried it with the side of the rifle like a trident haft, then brought it down again, harder, until it stopped moving. "And poor listeners. Intolerable." His eyes swept for chaos for more targets. "I loathe repeating myself: see to the door. Stop wasting fire on mere insects." "Well, at least he's found use for the rifle," Marius remarked as he turned to regard the door. There were no visible hinges, but this was not a problem. Finesse was for people who weren't being swarmed by extraterrestrial parasites. One thing could be said about the Nevada desert: if one were borrowing solar-charged optic blasts, few places were better. The blast peeled the door inward like warped aluminum, creating an opening just wide enough for a person to slip through. An entrance, but narrow enough their attackers would be forced into a chokepoint. "Ladies first–" Marius began to offer Bobbi when a chunk of ichor and exoskeleton slapped against the wall directly next to them. Namor appeared to be enjoying himself. "Gross," she said after the splat sound morphed into a squelch as the alien viscera slid down the wall. Bobbi made her way inside and stopped by a conveniently placed control panel, which had an even more conveniently placed sign with instructions in English hanging beside it. "Here, this can't be . . . no, it couldn't be that easy, could it?" she questioned aloud, looking around at the dozen or so pods filling the room. "Gonna try the defrost sequence, cover me, please?" she asked as her fingers went into action, following the sequence on the sheet as carefully but as quickly as possible. A shadow passed over the room as the Atlantean stepped between the last skittering insect and the corridor's narrow breach. His rifle hung in one hand now, dripping and dented. His other hand swept back his hair, streaking it through with something unidentifiable and faintly glowing. "You are both adequately covered. Offensively, defensively, and sartorially." A flash of teeth caught in the hallway light. "Try not to spoil it with gratitude." |