DNA catastrophe ch 1
Chapter one: the mission and back to day care.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
"Gah!" Peter fell out of his bed, startled by the sound of his alarm going off. Laughter came from the hall as his team congratulate themselves on a prank well done.
"Haha, very funny." Peter said sarcastically as he stood up. Sam was holding his side as he continues laughing.
"You should have seen the look on your face!" Luke chuckles. Even Ava and Danny were having trouble suppressing their laughter.
"Totally priceless!" Sam manages between his laughing fit.
"Whatever just get out of my room." Peter closed the door on his team. Ever since they had moved in there had been an ongoing prank war between everybody. Even now that they had moved back into the tricarrier it was still going on. Last week Peter had put super glue on the inside of Sam's helmet, it had taken hours to get it off! Danny had made cookies, with salt instead of sugar, and many other pranks like that.
Today Peter had a special prank in mind to get them back for this one. Just thinking about it was making him laugh, but for now he just needed to get ready for the day. After a few moments Peter came downstairs to Aunt May making her signature Saturday breakfast, scrambled eggs, cinnamon toast, and fresh squeezed orange juice.
"Smells great, Aunt May." He commented, taking a seat at the table next to Danny. It had become tradition for the team to gather at Pete's house for Saturday breakfasts.
"Oh Peter, you always say that." She smiled as she put the food on the table, "alright kids, eat up! I'll be back later today."
"Your not eating with us?" Luke asked, already dishing a mountain of eggs onto his plate.
"Nope, the girls and I are heading out for Brunch after our spinning class and then I may be doing a little shopping." She explained looking up at the clock, "Cheese and crackers! I'm late! See ya kids! Call me if you need anything from the store!" She grabbed her purse and ran out the door.
"Well, I guess we got the house to ourselves today." Peter shrugged as he grabbed a piece of cinnamon toast.
"Who wants to catch a movie?" Luke asked around a mouthful of eggs.
"I was thinking about heading to the park to play some frisbee." Sam said as he poured himself some more orange juice.
"I was planning on going to the tricarrier to train a little." Ava said. The boys looked at her as though she had said she was going to go to school.
"Wrong you're going on a mission." Nick Fury said, appearing on their communicators.
"Really, its a Saturday. Don't villains ever take a break on the weekends?" Peter complained.
Fury ignored him and explained the mission, "Doc Ock broke out of jail and into a S.H.E.I.L.D warehouse last night and stole back all his animal DNA serums. Luckily the tracking device we installed on the case hasn't been discovered yet, also we fear that a recent string of kidnappings may be tied in with this."
"Wait up, kidnapping?" Luke said disbelievingly.
"Correct, many kids from a local orphanage have been reported missing."
"Wait a moment, why would Doc take a bunch of kids?" Sam asked.
"Our theory is that he sees them as a resource for experimentation." Fury explained.
"Then what are we waiting for! Let's go save those poor kids!" Luke shouted, anger taking over his emotions.
"Be calm my friend, anger clouds judgement." Danny said, putting his hand on Luke's shoulder.
"We're sending you the coordinates, good luck." Fury ended the transmission.
"Let's go!" Ava said, already in her white tiger costume. The boys followed right behind her.
A while later we find the teen heroes under the bustling city of New York in, you guessed it, the sewers.
"Why can't villains ever put their lairs somewhere nice? Like a tropical island, or maybe even an ice cream shop?" Nova joked weakly.
"Really?" White Tiger asked looking over her shoulder at him.
"What, just trying to relieve the tension." Nova said walking faster. White tiger rolled her eyes and kept walking.
"We should be there soon." Spidey whispered. Sure enough around the next corner was a big safe like door.
"Power man, will you do the honors?" Spidey gestured to the door.
"With pleasure." Power man popped his knuckles.
"Wait," White Tiger hissed, "we should do this stealthily. We don't want to alert Doc of our presence just yet."
"Oh it's to late for that." Doc Ock said, coming out of the shadows and pushing a button. A trapdoor opened beneath the teens and all of them, except Nova, fall down.
"Haha, missed me" he gloated before one of Doc's tentacles shock him with a taser, causing him to pass out and fall down the trapdoor too.
The heroes awoke to find themselves in a clear container of some kind. Power man instantly tries to break through the wall only to be blasted backwards into Spidey and Iron Fist.
"Uh, uh, uh." Doc said coming over to them, "you see this is a specially designed cage. The walls are made of a substance of my own concocting, any force applied to it is multiplied and sent back. Ingenious isn't it?" He laughed maniacally.
"What's your game Doc? Trying to make little lizards out of that serum stuff?" Nova asked.
"Close, I just needed to reanalyze it so I can try out my new invention. Here why don't I demonstrate it." He smirked evilly and headed to another container close by, one full of kids.
"The trick is which one, after all some don't react well with the serum." Doc smiled at the kids, who all backed up into a corner. All except one, a girl about Ava's age, by the look of her, with brown hair and blue eyes glared at Doc defiantly, standing protectively in front of the other much younger kids.
"You don't scare us, you lunatic." She called, sticking her tongue out at him.
"Hmm. Strong, healthy looking, you'll do nicely." Doc pushed a bottom on his remote, opening a small door in the ceiling, then reached in a tentacle and pulled out the girl, dangling helplessly by her legs.
"Leave her alone you big bully!" One of the kids shouted. Many of the other kids started shouting and crying.
"Let the girl go, Ock!" Ava called over.
"Nope, then you'll miss the show." The Doc laughed. Apparently Doc's time in jail had done little for his sanity.
"Put me down, you freak!" the girl tried to fight back to no avail. He carried her over and placed her on a table. Instantly, metal straps sprang out and secured her to it. Octopus then reached over and pulled out a injector containing a bright green liquid. He then, ignoring the shouts from the heroes and children to stop, jabbed the needle into the girl's arm. She gritted her teeth as the serum took effect. It was quick and painful but there didn't seem to be any results until the girl then started to shrink until she was the size of a mouse, scratch that, she was a mouse!
"What the heck?" Nova shouted as the creature tried to scurry away.
"Remarkable isn't it? A serum that not only changes the subject's DNA but allows them to recombine it into different forms to allow more adaptability to the subject's environment. The world will surly recognize my genius now!" Doc said, picking the mouse up by the tail.
"That's just sick and wrong." Spidey said, shaking his head.
"You think you could do better?" Oct asked him, coming closer.
"Yeah, and there's one problem with this cage of your's too." Spidey said.
"And what's that?" Doc growled coming even closer.
"It's not stable." Spidey said, flicking the top left corner of the window, it caused the whole thing to crack apart freeing the teens.
"Why didn't you do that before?" Tiger growled.
"I just noticed it." Spiderman confessed.
"Forget that. It's butt kicking time!" Luke laughed and charged Doc, slamming his fist into one of the mad scientist's robot tentacles. It buckled a bit causing Ock to drop the mouse. It squeaked and turned into the girl again just before it landed, she quickly moved over to the container with the other kids in it. Oct swung an arm and sent Power man flying across the room into a wall. Nova began blasting Ock as Iron Fist and White Tiger launched a sneak attack from behind. Spidey was tangling Ock's legs in his webs and distracting him with flashweb, while Power man charged Ock from the side again only to have him dodge causing him to slam into his teammates.
"Next time heroes, I'll be the victor." Doc shouted as he made a retreat.
"That could have gone better." Nova said, flying over to his team.
"Ya think?" White Tiger grumbled from the bottom of the pile.
"I don't mean to be rude but I could use a hand over here." The girl called.
"Oh hey, no problem." Nova flew over and tried the same trick as Spiderman, but it didn't work. He tried again and again and again getting more frustrated with each failed flick.
"Dude, just push the release button." The girl rolled her eyes.
"Right." Nova pushed the button and the kids rushed out as soon as the door opened. The kids swarmed the heroes, asking them various questions and other things.
"Are you really Spiderman?" One little boy asked Spidey.
"I've seen you on TV, you're amazing!" A boy told IronFist.
"Will the Octopus man come back?" A little girl asked grabbing Power man's hand.
"You're my favorite super hero!" One boy told Tiger.
"Are you gonna take us home?" A kid asked Spidey.
"I want to be as strong as you when I get big!" Another kid told Power man.
"Why do you where a bucket on your head?" A little girl asked Nova.
They where interrupted by a sharp whistle.
"Guys, chill out." The girl said, "let's get out of here first, then you can ask them a million questions." The kids backed off.
"Thank you." Tiger said, wiggling loose from a kid who had decided to hold onto her leg. Spidey downloaded Ock's notes while Tiger searched for the serum. Iron Fist contacted Fury who sent a vehicle to pick up the kids.
"What do we do about the girl?"
"Bring her to the base." Was Nick's reply.
"But what if…" he started.
"Just do it." Nick said before hanging up.
"Oh great." He huffed.
"What's wrong?" The girl asked coming over to him. The others had already completed their tasks and where gathering the kids into the S.H.I.E.L.D. vans that had arrived.
"Nothing." He said.
"Hmm. Come on, the others are waiting for you." She said, walking back towards the group.
Iron Fist rejoined his team and explained what Fury had said.
"Really? We need to bring her back with us?" Spidey asked.
"Yep." Iron Fist nodded.
"How are we gonna do that? There's no way she'll come with us if that means leaving the kids. You've seen how protective she is." Power man said, looking over as the girl helped the kids into the vans, glaring at any S.H.E.I.L.D. operative that tried to help.
"We'll just tell her what's going on, I'm sure she'll be happy to come along then." Nova said sarcastically.
"That might work actually." Tiger said, tapping her chin with one finger.
"Then you do it." Nova said, giving Tiger a push in the girl's direction.
"Fine I will." She walked off and the boys watched as the two girls talked. The girl kept shaking her head as Tiger talked, pointing at the kids and saying something. Finally the girl nodded resignedly and Tiger rejoined the group.
"See easy."
The team headed back to the base, the girl riding with Spiderman.
"So what's your name?" He asked her.
"Alice." She answered, finally smiling a bit.
"Nice to meet you. I'm…"
"I already know." She laughed.
"What?! How?" Spidey panicked, thinking that she meant his secret identity.
"Who else where's a spider themed costume?" Alice asked sarcastically.
"Oh yeah, right." He said, grateful he was wearing a mask to hide his embarrassment.
"We're here." He said as the tricarrier came into view.
"She wasn't kidding when she said it was big." Alice said in surprise.
"Yeah, what did Tiger say to make you come along anyway?" Nova asked flying close to them.
"She promised that we'd be safe here." Alice said, looking down at the vans below.
"So are you like their big sis or something?" Nova pressed.
"I guess you cloud say that." Alice smiled briefly.
"Ok." Nova flew past them and into the Tricarrier.
It wasn't long before they where all in the Tricarrier. The kids all huddled together behind Alice, awed and scared.
"Welcome to the S.H.E.I.L.D Tricarrier, I'm agent Coulson." Coulson said coming in.
"Where's Fury?" Tiger asks.
"He had a previous assignment. Anyway, these are all of them?" Coulson nods at the kids.
"Not quite." Alice spoke up, looking down, "There was one more, Joe, the octopus guy gave him some of the stuff he gave me but it made him go crazy and disappear."
"Sorry we couldn't have gotten there sooner." Spidey put a hand on her shoulder. She looks at him and smiles sadly.
"What's gonna happen to us?" A little girl asked, looking up at Coulson.
"We're gonna take care of you until we can get you home. Spidey, could you and your team escort them to the day care? Oh and keep an eye on them, since the nanny bots haven't been repaired yet." Coulson said, ruffling the little girls hair as he spoke, causing her to giggle.
"Hey! We're super heroes, not baby sitters!" Nova complained but Coulson was already gone. Tiger took the lead and headed towards the day care, the boys dividing so they kept the kids protected on all sides. They made it there and the kids started settling in.
"Thanks for rescuing us." One of the little boys came up to Nova and hugged his leg. Nova checked to make sure none of his team was looking before bending down and giving the kid a quick hug.
"No problem kiddo." He smiled.
"How sweet." Alice said, coming up behind him.
"Gah! How long where you there?" Nova leaped in surprise.
"Long enough." Alice smirked, holding a little girl in her arms.
"Long enough for what?" Tiger asked being pulled there by a few kids.
"Nothing." Alice winked to Nova.
"Come on kitty lady, we wanna look around." One of the kids said pulling her arm.
"No, we need to stay in here." Tiger said, trying to pull back.
"But we wanna go exploring!" A kid whined.
"She's right guys, you need to stay here. How about you make a drawing for these guys." Alice said, untangling their hands from Tiger's arms.
"Ok Alice." They said heading to the arts and crafts.
"Thanks again." Tiger said, massaging her wrists.
"No problem." Alice said, looking out over the kids. Power man was reading a story to a few, Spidey had made a couple of small swings with his webbing and pushing the kids, and Iron Fist was helping a few color. Even Nova was pitching in, getting snacks for a couple that said they where hungry. Alice set the little girl down and she ran off to join the fun.
"So when these guys go home, to the orphanage, what happens to me?" Alice asked Tiger. Tiger opened her mouth to respond when Fury came in.
"This her?" He asked Tiger.
"Yes." She confirmed.
"What's your name kid?" Fury asked turning to her.
"A-a-Alice." She stammered, intimidated by the large man with the eye patch.
"Nick Fury. Come with me please."
"Where's Alice going?" A boy asked, coming over with a piece of paper in his hand.
"I'll be right back." She said crouching down so she was eye level with the boy, looking over her shoulder at Fury. He nodded, confirming that she would come back.
"This is for you." The little boy handed her the paper.
"Thanks Billy, now go play." She smiled, standing up again. She followed Fury out into the hall. As they walked Alice unfolded the paper to see a poorly drawn picture of her standing in front of the kids, protecting them from the octopus guy.
"Not bad." Fury commented slowing down and looking over her shoulder.
"Yeah, Billy's always been good at drawing." Alice sighed.
"Do you have any idea what Doc Ock did to you?" Fury asked.
"Something about recombining DNA." She said, folding the paper and sticking it in her pocket.
"Hmm. Any side effects yet?" He asked.
Alice thought a moment, "I changed into a mouse then back again," she then asked, "will I ever be normal again?"
"Don't worry, we have some of the best scientists here. They'll see what we can do to help you." He said, opening a door to a lab. A number of scientists where prepping various equipment. A man came over.
"Hi, I'm Dr. Cage." The man with one arm introduced himself, then the woman standing next to him, "this is my wife, Dr. Cage."
"I'm Alice." She said, shaking his hand.
"Right this way please." He motioned to one of those beds you see in doctor's offices. Alice went over and sat down. A scientist cleaned off a spot on her arm and held up a syringe.
"Oh goody, more needles." Alice closed her eyes as he took a blood sample.
"We're just going to see what kind of effect the serum's had on your body." Mrs. Dr. Cage explained, squirting a drop onto a microscope slide and outing a cover on it. She then stuck the slide under a microscope and Mr. Dr. Cage fiddled with the nobs, making a few comments here and there but not saying anything besides that.
Finally he stood up and flipped a switch, turning in a screen displaying Alice's blood sample. They looked perfectly normal.
"As you can see the cells themselves seem perfectly fine and heathy." Dr. Cage said, then pushed a button on the monitor. The scope zoomed inside the cells showing the DNA, "the inside is a whole different story. Alice, your DNA is now able to reconstruct itself into different ways at your will. The result of this new ability is that you can change your physical form into theoretically any creature or person."
"So that crack job scientist, no offense, turned me into a shapeshifter? Cool." Alice said, she had always liked animals.
"No not cool, the serum has made your cells unstable, if we can't cure you or at least stabilize your DNA, then it could unravel and you would end up dead." Mrs. Dr. Cage went on.
"A bit harsh there, Doc." Alice winced.
"How soon do you think a cure could be made?" Fury asked.
"Not sure, Spiderman's last cure for Dr. Conners was a miracle in itself. A not permanent cure at that. It could take months to analyze this and figure a cure."
"And what do I do until then?" Alice asked.
"You'll stay here under supervision, if your condition goes critical we could at least try to help you." Fury answered, the Cages nod.
"Ok, wow." Alice felt dazed.
"We know its a lot to take in but trust us, we'll do whatever we can to help you." Fury said.
"What about the kids?" Alice asked, her eyes flashing with worry.
"We're taking them back to the orphanage in the morning, for now they'll spend the night here." Coulson said, entering the room.
"Ok. And until then I just act like everything's ok?" Alice questioned.
"Yes. We'll brief the others as soon as they get a chance." Coulson confirmed.
"I better get back to them now. Who knows what torture they're inflicting on those poor super heroes." Alice smiled, hiding her fear. Growing up alone in the nasty neighborhoods of New York City, Alice knew how to hide her fear.
"You know the way back?" Fury asked.
"Down the hall, take the first left, then a right and you're there." Alice said, heading out the door.
"Good, just stick to what we said and you'll be fine." Fury nodded.
"Like I have a choice." Alice mumbled as the door closed behind her. As soon as she was alone she let a few tears roll down her cheeks, before wiping them away quickly.
"Stay strong, the kids still need you." She told herself and headed back to the day care.
In the day care, however, things weren't going so well. Many of the kids where arguing and a few where crying loudly. Despite the heroes attempts to calm the kids down things had broken out into small fights. When Alice arrived Spidey had gotten tied up with his own webs, Iron Fist and Power man where holding a couple kids back from getting in a fist fight, Nova was trying to calm down bunch of crying kids and White Tiger was trying to get things into order. Alice sighed and did her piercing whistle again. Instantly all the mayhem stopped. The kids who had been crying rushed over to her and surrounded her in a group hug.
"I'm here, its ok." She soothed them, then, sternly, she looked at the trouble makers, "Jasper and Kade untie Spiderman right now! Austin, Ray, David, and Billy settle down, I'm sure that whatever your fighting over is important but we can solve it with words not fists." As she spoke the kids did as she said with a few grumbles here and there.
"Go play kids." Alice pushed through the kids to the six trouble makers. She stood there, arms crossed, waiting for an explanation.
"Jasper told me it would be fun to mess with Spidey." Kade said, pointing at his twin.
"Did not!" Jasper defended.
"I don't care who's idea it was. You both did it, now go apologize." She pointed to Spiderman.
"We're sorry Spiderman." They said in unison.
"No problem kids." Spidey said awkwardly, unsure what else to do.
Alice nodded then turned her attention to the remaining boys.
"Ray said Billy's drawing looked dumb and made him cry so I said Ray was dumb then Ray jumped on me making me accidentally hit Austin making him angry at me and then we started to fight and then Billy tried to get in the fight too to help me when those two guys came over and pulled us apart." David said in one breathe.
"Is this true?" Alice eyed the boys, watching for hints of lying. They weren't, so Alice made them apologize to each other before letting them go back and play.
"You're good." Nova said, coming up to stand next to Alice.
"I've had a lot of practice." She smiled before turning to play with the kids. They spent the rest of the day taking care of the kids. By dinner time they where all exhausted and where grateful when Alice got them all in bed, watching as she tucked them in.
"Alice?" Fiona asked.
"What sweetie?" Alice turned to her.
"Will you tell us a story?" She asked, her eyes big and pleading.
"Of coarse I will. Which one do you want to hear?" Alice said kindly.
"The brave knight!" David spoke up.
"No the turtle story!" Ben shouted.
"Fiona asked for the story, so Fiona gets to pick." Alice said calmly.
"I want the bird story!" Fiona said happily. The other children murmured with agreement and settled in their beds, eager for the story.
"Ok, the little sparrows it is. Once upon a time there was a papa sparrow and a mama sparrow, and they loved each other very much. They had a lovely nest just the right size for them. Everything was happy and perfect.
But then they decided that it was time to move to a bigger nest so they could have a big happy family. They searched high and they searched low but couldn't find anything. So they kept looking until they found the perfect nest. There they had many little baby sparrows. Everything was happy again. But the little sparrows grew up, as sparrows do and soon it was time to leave their nest. They where sad to leave their mama and papa so they decided to always come back to visit. And off they flew to find their own homes. One sparrow lived on a farm in an apple tree and was happy. Another sparrow lived in a forest in a willow tree and was happy. And the last sparrow lived in the city but wasn't happy. He couldn't find a tree to call home. One cold night when the little sparrow had been searching for a home he decided to perch of a windowsill to sleep for the night. He was so cold he couldn't wake up the next morning. And what should happen but a little girl opened the window and found him. Gently she picked him up and brought him inside. She put him in a wire cage close to the fire to warm him up. Soon he was warm and so happy he started to sing. The little girl was so kind to him that he decided to stay with her. The little girl loved the little sparrow and took very good care of him. Everyday she would let him out of the cage to stretch his wings and everyday he would thank her with a song. One day, in the spring the little girl noticed the little sparrow looked sad.
"What's wrong my little friend?" She asked him.
"I miss my family. I wish I could see them." The sparrow said to her. Although the little girl didn't want her friend to go she opened the door of his cage then the door of her house.
"I'll miss you my friend." She said as the little sparrow flew out the door.
"I'll miss you too." The sparrow called. He returned to his parent's home tree and was happy to see all his family was there. They chattered away until they began to discuss their homes.
"I live in an apple tree." The oldest sparrow said.
"I live in a willow tree." The second oldest sparrow said.
"I don't live in a tree." The youngest sparrow said.
"Why not?" Mama sparrow asked.
"Because I live with a little girl in her house. It is very warm and always happy there. And I love the little girl very much." The young sparrow said.
"It seems you have found a very fine home for each of you." Papa sparrow said proudly. All the sparrows sang together before their three children flew away to their happy homes to be with their families. And none was more happy than the girl and the youngest sparrow. The end." Alice finished the story. The kids had all dozed off during it and where now sleeping peacefully.
"Nice story." Spidey whispered.
"Thanks, you all should probably get to bed now too." Alice smiled at them. They whispered their farewells and left the day care quietly. Alice smiled as they left then laid out a blanket on the floor and fell asleep.