A regular day on Chicago, and Stingray Security Services Secondary Depot #46 (Code Name: “THE BOOKSTORE”) has gotten some guests: The Littles. Site Keeper Roger Hackett is a man who tries to be a good host... and that means hilarity ensues when an old foe of the Littles comes a-calling...
"A Little Hospitality"
(co-written by marcoasalazarm and OrionPax09) is located on DeviantArt. It is part of the Coreline Shared Universe.
This fanfic provides examples of:
- A Day in the Limelight: For the Littles (who had made minor appearances since Avengers Reassembled).
- All for Nothing: The crux of Dr. Hunter's Villainous Breakdown. In a world that knows about and accepts the Littles with casual ease, his decades-long crusade to capture them has become utterly meaningless.
- Badass Bystander: Roger, if we consider this tale to be another little snafu for the Extraordinary Avengers.
- Big Damn Heroes: Henry Bigg, a.k.a. the Chicago Young Avenger Stature, does some damage on behalf of his friends. Pretty literal, considering he arrived in his "Titan-size" height.
- Chase Scene: Hellsoldier chasing van, then getting hooked to the van, then getting dragged by the van, and then climbing to the back of the van.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Grandpa Little to Dinky, or so Roger thinks so when he sees them in action.
- Creepy Stalker Van: Dr. Hunter's signature black van finally gets an "upgrade" to a full-blown example of this when he and Petersen try to abduct Lucy at the climax.
- Curse Cut Short: Peterson manages to get as far as "YOU LITTLE B-!!" when Lucy bites him at one point before Grandpa and Dinky go big and start wrestling him.
- The Cutie: Lucy. Roger finds her pretty adorable throughout the story.
- Giant Robot Hands Save Lives: The "giant human hand" version when Henry stops Hunter's runaway van from crashing into something with his Stature powers.
- Hand Cannon: Hackett's weapon of choice is the Stingray Industries "Slammer" .50 Action Express pistol (a replica of the AMT Automag V updated for modern-day combat handgun standards). Two bullets successfully kneecap the Brain's suit when it goes haywire on Dinky and a barrage from said gun cripples Hunter's van.
- Intimidation Demonstration: The climax is pretty much giving Dr. Hunter an extended example of this, in order to force him to stop chasing after the Littles.
- Implacable Man: At the climax, Roger gets dragged behind Dr. Hunter's speeding van, gets smashed against the side of another car, gets blasted in the face with a large-gauge shotgun and doesn't lets go.
- Mobile-Suit Human: Dinky decided to use the Pinky and the Brain suit he'd purchased on a sale from Acme Labs to go to the Bookstore. It goes bonkers on him.
- Pastimes Prove Personality: Roger sings the praises of his cover work because it's let him see some of the myriad ways that the "Different World, Different Movies" trope has manifested on the Core Timeline.
- Pun-Based Title: The animated series had a few "Little" puns on the episode titles, too.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Dr. Hunter delivers a diatribe towards Mari that pretty much insults her tomboy attitude and her role as a leader (because she's a girl who happens to be heavily muscled).
- Rule of Funny: Explicitly mentioned In-Universe as a reason why Toon Fiction stuff (such as the Brain's suit) sometimes goes bonkers for no apparent reason.
- Sacred Hospitality: On his side, Roger tries to be a good host. On the Littles' side, their society has an important code of paying back for the stuff they borrow by doing repairs to the Big people's houses. The former even explicitly says that he chased after Hunter because they were his guests.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Dr. Hunter finally has had enough when he gets a first-hand view of the Avengers' DISK technology (which captures his assistant Peterson) and tries to run away. Unfortunately, he doesn't gets far.
- Sequel Hook: Roger owes the Littles a great favor.
- Shout-Out:
- The climactic chase scene is supposed to homage the escape from Pescadero Hospital from Terminator 2: Judgment Day (with the difference of the "hero" Terminator being the one chasing the car).
- Henry getting a grab of Dr. Hunter and lifting him up in his gigantic state is described in the narration as "him (Henry) imitating a Titan".
- The You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With speech at the end of the story (a full-on Badass Boast to tell Hunter how much he's screwed if he continues hunting Littles) references Tony Stark's speech to Loki on the climax of The Avengers (2012) ("Earth's Mightiest Heroes kind of thing...")
- Sizeshifter: The Littles and Henry Bigg, and the story gives them plenty of times to demonstrate their Pym Particle powers.
- Terror Hero:
- Roger Hackett. He scares the living daylights out of Peterson and the Little men (especially Dinky) during the chase and he spends part of the scene wherein the Avengers intimidate Hunter wearing a trauma blanket to not scare the rest of the neighborhood. Understandable, considering the effect of getting the crap kicked out of him during the chase left him looking like a Terminator-style ghoul.
- When it comes time for the Intimidation Demonstration mentioned above, Mari fields some of her scarier-looking Avengers. Which happen to include Yamcha (a werewolf), Vasquez and Jack (two gamma mutants), and Kuwabara (who's got the powers of the Ghost Rider).
- This Cannot Be!: The reaction of the Littles when they recognize Dr. Hunter's van.
- Too Dumb to Live: Sure, Dr. Hunter. Insult the genetically enhanced Super-Soldier with Supernatural Martial Arts training, while surrounded by a bunch of people under her command and willing to kick your ass (if she doesn't). No way that could ever go badly for you.
- Van in Black: Doctor Hunter's van, with tinted windows. It's explicitly mentioned to be a custom model of some kind (and one of Hunter's few remaining possessions after Emerging on the Line).
- Villain of Another Story: Dr. Hunter and his assistant Peterson. Henry Bigg and the Littles have a history with him as their arch-nemesis (of a sort) all the way back to their home universe and before Henry became a superhero (and all things considered, the story showcases what may be the climax of Dr. Hunter's Villainous Breakdown). Hackett just saw them taking Lucy and did what he felt was right.
- Walking Disaster Area: Dinky Little, as usual. Other Coreline stories have made him cameo by causing chaos with his bumbling and chaotic flying, and on this story his Establishing Character Moment is making the mechanized suit he bought go haywire and wreck part of the Bookstore.
