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The bird was massive enough that if it flew into the city, one hard beat of its wings could raise a storm and tear through whole blocks.
No one in the crowd moved.
They stared up at it with their breath caught and their chests tight, crushed by the pressure of something that should not have existed.
Then the forest roared again.
The ground shook.
Heavy impacts rolled through the preserve, each one landing in the crowd’s bones like a drumbeat.
People turned toward the sound.
Another giant emerged between the trees.
A bear.
A brown bear so huge it looked impossible.
On all fours, it stood nearly two hundred feet high.
Its fur bristled like spears.
Its eyes burned like furnace coals, and its exposed fangs curved out of its mouth like twin blades.
It noticed the humans underfoot.
Then it roared and charged.
“Run!”
Panic broke the crowd apart.
Police and port security opened fire with sidearms and rifles, but the rounds did almost nothing.
At that scale, bullets struck the bear like insect bites.
The giant crashed into the fleeing civilians.
Its jaws opened, and dozens disappeared in a single bite.
Blood turned the morning into a nightmare.
Before the slaughter could spread farther, a figure dropped from the sky.
Blue light flared under armored boots.
A red-and-gold suit hovered above the chaos, palms raised, repulsors firing.
Iron Man.
Tony Stark hammered the bear with missiles and concentrated repulsor blasts.
His weapons did what police rounds could not.
Wounds opened across the creature’s hide, deep and smoking.
Then the wounds began to close.
Tony watched torn flesh knit together in seconds.
“Okay,” he muttered.
“That’s new.”
A strand of webbing snapped onto a nearby tree.
A red-and-blue figure swung in and landed beside him.
Spider-Man.
The two looked at each other and nodded.
This clearly was not their first meeting.
“What are we dealing with?” Spider-Man asked.
“This morning, people reported the trees in this preserve doubling in size overnight,” Tony said.
“Then the animals started doing the same.
Federal teams locked the area down and sent a search group inside.”
He glanced toward the heart of the forest.
“They found something in the center.
I’m calling it a Life Source until someone gives me a better name.
It’s releasing a concentrated biological energy field, and that’s what mutated the forest.
I came to help contain it.
Then our giant bear decided to start eating people.”
Spider-Man looked at the bear.
“Go handle the Life Source.
I’ll keep him busy.”
Tony studied him for a beat, then nodded.
“Fine.
Be careful.”
He shot upward.
Then he dropped back down for one last look.
“Also, your suit is terrible.
Remind me to build you something that doesn’t look like a gym class project.”
Tony flew off before Spider-Man could recover from the offer.
Spider-Man was still processing the words when the giant bear roared, turned away from him, and charged back toward the center of the forest.
Above them, the enormous bird wheeled in the sky and followed.
At the center of the nature preserve, security forces had formed a wide perimeter around a crater.
Inside the crater, a glowing green cocoon pulsed with soft light.
A dozen scientists stood around it with scanners, tablets, and equipment cases, their faces bright with excitement.
“This is incredible,” one of them breathed.
“The green material is condensed life force.
If we can extract even a fraction of it, we could reverse organ failure, restore dying tissue, maybe even slow aging.
This is not just energy.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter.