POV Rio
"Sigh. Look, I know we're not certain how to deal with the Queen, but I'm sure this isn't the best idea," Tony says while shaking his head in defeat.
"Hey, look, maybe we won't have to worry about this at all, and the Queen dies easily enough, or maybe that Nuke will do the trick," I say with a smile after explaining my plan.
To say my plan was a bit dumb was a bit of an understatement. I knew Xenomorph physiology pretty damn well, and as such, I was fairly sure that their insides were far weaker than their outsides. As such, I chose to modify my original idea of having Ant-Man go through the back door. Instead, I would shrink myself down with magic alongside the Nuke, which would be in my inventory before getting eaten by the Queen. Then I pull out the nuke and set it off as I teleport out of their insides.
"What could go wrong? Don't answer that," I say aloud before staring at Selene, who was raising her hand.
She lowers her hand and chooses silence. She was one of the people assigned to this mission. The idea was hers. She would join the mission and thus earn full rights to exist on Earth as she becomes a world-famous hero. I was disguised as Batman for this mission for similar reasons. Lucy also came along, though that was because I couldn't convince her otherwise. The more human members of my friends stayed behind. There just wasn't a whole lot they could do in this case, especially when even a simple cut from a Xenomorph can infect you. I wasn't sure if the locket could rid someone of a Xenomorph parasite, and I wasn't too keen on testing that idea.
"Okay, everyone ready?" I ask as I look around me.
Everyone nods and starts getting into the Javelin, which was the ship I used to transport people to and from the Watchtowers. I was tempted to use the Falcon but felt that it was both too recognisable and a bit overkill. Not to mention, it just doesn't fit as well with the style we were going for.
We arrive at the hive swiftly and leave the Javelin. As soon as we leave, the Javelin flies back into orbit. Would Shield be following it to and from the tower? Sure, but the tower moves positions at random, so good luck finding it.
"You must be Batman," Nick Fury says as he walks towards us.
"Yes, and you are Director Nicholas Joseph Fury of Shield, and to your left is Clinton Francis Barton, also known as Hawkeye, to your right is Natalia Alianovna Romanoff, former Red Room Widow, now an agent of Shield with the moniker Black Widow," I say while listing off a few other details that would be found basically nowhere but a someones mind or in some heavily guarded vault.
"You seem... Quite well informed. But you know our names, so how about you share yours?" Nick Fury says while hiding his surprise quite well.
"I'm Batman, leader of the Guardians of the Globe, but the chatter can be saved for later. We have a mission to do," I say before walking towards the hive entrance.
"Charming," Barton jokes with a smile.
Fury gives him a look, and his smile fades.
"I was told Mr Stark has the Package, but I don't see it. Did you forget it?" Fury asks Tony.
"Nope, we got it handled," Tony says with a knowing smile.
Just to mess with them, I tap on my wrist device, and the Nuke appears for a few seconds before entering back into my inventory.
"How?" Natasha says with surprise.
"I'm Batman," I say seriously.
They wait for more explanations, but I don't give any, and I move to the entrance to the hive and press my finger to my ear.
"Alright, Constantine, send them over," I order the robot I named Constantine.
A portal is opened, and an army of golems of various kinds comes pouring through. I didn't have as much Iron as I wanted, so I had to use other materials, mostly stone and gold, which are weaker, but it was good enough for what I needed. Gold was basically worthless to me as it was nearly endless and really common in the Nether, and finding it in space isn't that hard.
The portal stayed open for about 30 seconds and then closed, but in that time, around 5000 golems came out of the portal and entered the hive. Soon after, they entered the faint sounds of explosions, and the slight shaking of the ground could be felt as many golems were defeated and set off their Thermal Detonators used as a weaker core.
Fury was trying really hard to hide its confusion, curiosity, and fear, but it was slowly failing to maintain its composure. Barton just gave up and was staring at me with utter surprise. Natasha was arguably doing the best at hiding how she felt, but she was still somewhat new to Shield at this point, so maybe she just didn't care as much.
"Who the hell are you really?" Fury demands.
"I already told you, I'm Batman," I say seriously while not bothering to turn towards him.
I was focused on the connections to the golems, or rather, the trackers I placed on each Thermal Detonator, that gave me a count for how many were still alive and kicking. In the meantime, Selene and Lucy got to work on setting up the second step to reduce their numbers, which was a turbo laser combined with a Ray Shield.
"What are you doing?" Natasha asks.
"Those Golems will only thin out their numbers; they're bound to start flooding out after that. If you want to help, I suggest getting onto one of the turrets and shooting anything that moves out of that gate," I reply.
Barton and Natasha look at Fury, who nods and then orders some agents to back off to the outer defences they set up.
"They're coming," I say aloud as I feel the last Golem blow up.
Rumble
The flood comes moments later, and they smash into the field of ray shields we created in front of the hive, coralling them into easy kill boxes. The ray shields also turn on and off at random, letting some exit the hive while others are trapped, while also messing with their senses. Though I notice something odd.
'They're coming towards me. Why?'
The entire flood of Xenomorphs seemed dead set on getting to me, but I wasn't sure why that was the case.
'Perhaps they learned how to detect magic and can tell I am the biggest threat, or that I was the master of the golems?'
Despite my theory, I felt it wasn't fully accurate. Some small part at the back of my head was urging me to let them take me, but I wasn't sure what the hell that was.
'I'll handle that later; for now, we fight.'
I pull out some guns and start blasting.
Several Hours Later...
Thud
"They don't seem to be coming anymore," Tony comments as he lands heavily.
"You out of power?" I ask.
"Yeah, I got 2% left. I got to swap out for fresh cores, crazy I burned through 8 new Arc reactors fighting these pests," Tony complains while ejecting the empty cores.
Everyone was pretty tired, and much of what we had built had been slowly destroyed over the last few hours. Not to mention the sizable loss of height due to the massive amount of acid blood spilt here.
"How many did we kill?" Selene says while also taking a seat.
"I'd say 200k or so. I sort of lost count around 160k due to power concerns," Tony says tiredly.
Lucy takes a seat next to me while she looks over me to make sure I am unharmed. I was fine, a little tired, but fine nonetheless. I made sure she was fine as well, but to no one's surprise, she was still fine. A bit sweatier, but her hair wasn't even out of place.
"Those powers are broken," I say mentally to her.
She smiles but doesn't say anything else.
"Rest up for a few minutes, then we will enter the hive," I order, and everyone gives their own form of acknowledgement.
Once that was done, I started storing everything and even made sure to take back the items some agents tried to walk off with. It wasn't anything that important, but I wasn't about to let them steal from me unless it was for a plan.
After everything was settled and everyone had rested for enough time, it was time to enter the hive. Natasha and Barton didn't come with us. They were to protect the entrance.
The hive was a bit different from the previous hive I was in, mostly due to all the destroyed hallways and melted surfaces.
"Follow me and do not separate under any circumstances. If you are separated, use the emergency recall totem I gave you," I say while giving them my best Batman stare.
Everyone shivered and gulped before nodding.
"Good, now follow me, I'll take us to where the Queen should be," I say while nodding.
"How do you know where the Queen is?" Tony asks.
"Instinct," I reply and leave it at that.
The rest of the journey through the hive was quiet. Too quiet. I didn't detect any movement until we reached the Queens chamber, at which point I only saw 7 Xenomorphs guarding the chamber.
"Lucy, handle two, Tony one, Selene, one, I got the last three," I order.
Everyone nods, and we break cover and attack.
"Avada Kedavra!" I cast and drop the first Xenomorph by surprise.
That was the main issue I had with the spell; it was too easy to dodge. The next Xenomorphs to go down were Lucy's targets as she restrains them and starts to try to break their defences.
I drew my lightsaber and slashed right through the second Xenomorph I had to deal with, ignoring the acid as it hit me, as I was immune to it. But that didn't kill it; instead, even as it was dying, it grabbed me, and then I became especially confused as it didn't attack me. It kidnapped me.
"Huh?" I say dumbly as it starts running towards the Queen's chamber with me in its arms.
Before anyone could do anything to stop it, I was taken into the Queen's chamber and face-to-face with the sizeable Queen, she was around 6 meters tall from my estimate and covered in a very tough-looking black carapace. I think fast and use the force to float the Lightsaber next to the Xenomorph holding me and ignite it into its head, barely missing my shoulder by a few centimetres. The Xenomorph goes down, and I enter a roll to block the Queen's claws as she reaches for me.
Bounce
The lightsaber doesn't cut through the Queen at all and instead bounces off her carapace. I try to recover, but as I adjust my posture to dodge her claws, her speed increases massively, and I am snatched up.
"Found you," the Queen says via telepathy.
"Huh?" I ask aloud.
"Mate," the Queen responds.
My eyes widen, and I start struggling wildly as I panic as I learn what that small connection at the back of my mind. It was my Xenomorph template's connection to the Queen.
'Ah hell naw!'
"Minimus!" I cast and shrink myself, causing myself to slip through her claws.
As I fall, I focus on a distant place and cast apparate. I had been training to cast it without a wand, and I could do so, but only within a place I could visually see. Unfortunately, the place I chose was deeper into the chamber.
"Mate, cannot leave. We must mate and restore the hive," the Queen says telepathically.
"I... uh, I'm very flattered, your highness, but no thank you, I don't want to die," I say as I back deeper into the corner and fumble my wand out of my inventory.
I was a bit confused, and that was messing with my usual calm. My mind was not being very helpful as it was being bombarded with images of what the Queen meant by mating, and it was... Not something I needed to see. Still, I fought through that and drew my wand and attempted to apparate. Key word attempted. I look at my wand and try again.
Drip
A glob of saliva drops on my face, and I slowly look up as the Queen reaches me.
"Heh, I'm in danger," I joke nervously.
'I'm going to hate this.'
I tighten my butt and decide to use the Hail Mary. I cast a jump spell and launch right into the drooling maw of the Queen.
Gulp
The Queen swallows me, and for a moment, nothing happens as she looks down towards her stomach. Then she swells up.
BOOOOOOOOM
Everyone is teleported away to the Watchtower as the Nuke goes off, and they quickly spot me covered in slime.
"Not. A. Word." I threaten.
"Eugh, not so fun huh?" Tony mocks anyway.
I look at him and give him a kind smile.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Tony says.
"You've been such a good friend," I say while spreading my arms wide for a hug.
Tony's eyes widen in horror.
"No! Stay away from me!" Tony says as he goes to fly away, but his suit vanishes with a flash of magic.
[Frog Moaning Meme]