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Chapter Two- Liberation


MANHATTAN, NEW YORK, JUNE 21 , 02:27 EDT

Otto Octavius paced nervously through his office, unsure of what to do next. They had subdued the teenaged superheros but he knew how they worked for. If Shield , or worse yet, the Avengers , were to discover that their protégés were missing, there would be nowhere he could run to escape their wrath.

Then there were his superiors—the Ravencroft board of directors. They weren't the very understanding type either. Plus, he had orders to not make contact with them unless it was absolutely necessary. He didn't know how they'd react if he contacted them to merely discuss the issue of teenaged intruders—but then again, he didn't know how they'd react if he didn't.

Taking a deep breath, he entered the password on the keypad on his desk to seal his office from outside interference. Having done so, he reached for the silver dial and paused momentarily. Making up his mind, he pushed the dial and waited.

A moment later, all the lights within the office began to dim as seven translucent glass panes rose up out of slots that opened in the metallic floor , lining up in front of Octavius. With a low hum, the glass panes came online and the dark silhouettes of seven figures came into view, all of them focused on Octavius.

"Doctor Octavius." A voice hissed from one of the screens. The voice had a sick flavor of disembodiment to it. "You required an audience ?"

"Yes." Octavius croaked, wiping the sweat from his upper lip nervously."Very.. sorry to disturb you at this late—"

"Just get to the point." Another man's voice talked over him. This voice did not possess the intimidating sound of the previous one, but nonetheless, it had a cool, commanding tone and sounded very direct.

"Well.. There has been… a small incident in the public sector of the institute—the origin of which is still unclear—but it seems to have brought in some… unwanted attention." Octavius spoke , glancing around at all the glass panes.

"Three… teenaged Shield agents. Spiderman, Powerman and Nova. They've breached Ravencroft security protocols and… freed the weapon from its pod. Of course the clone is still under our telepathic control and as expected, turned on it's would-be three are currently being held sedated in containment pods and we don't believe Shield knows they're here."

"The situation seems to be under control. What possible reason would you have to contact us?" a third voice, this time, a female, hissed .

"Um.. well.. What.. should I do with them?"

For a few moments, there came no answer. The silence was weighing down on Octavius and he began fiddling with his thumbs behind his back to keep himself from cracking.

"Clone them." One of the voice remarked .

"The substitutes can act as moles for us. They will serve The Syndicate. And only The Syndicate."

"And.. the originals?" Octavius inquired.

"Delete the source material. Leave no traces."


SHIELD HELICARRIER THREE, 02:53 EDT

"Does anybody have eyes on Spiderman, Powerman or Nova!?" Fury yelled furiously across the starboard deck of the aerial vehicle.

"Negative sir. " Maria Hill responded from the commanding unit, her eyes fixed on the control monitor, scanning for any signs of their three missing agents.

"What about their trackers?"

"Offline. One of them must've remotely hacked and disabled them." One of the crewmen responded as he ran a scan for the trackers on Fury's request.

Of course.

Fury pinches his nasal ridge in frustration. If any of those three could've done it, it had to be Parker. But where would they have gone anyway?

Left with no choice, Fury turned to Hill and furrowed his brows.

"Agent Hill. Contact Cap about the runaways. I'd rather have kept this off of the Avengers' radar. But that doesn't seem like an option now." Fury sighed exasperatedly.

"On it, sir."

/

The first thing Sam felt was the continuous throbbing in his temples. He felt like he'd just been shoved in hard through a vacuum tube . For some vague reason ,he felt a sudden numbness all over his body and he found it difficult to move his eyelids. He felt something cold over his head, telling him that he still had his helmet on. Where was he?

His head began to hurt worse as he tried to recollect the last thing he remembered. Blurry pieces of his memory came to the front of his mind's eye. Voices. Something. Ravencroft. What was Ravencroft?

Then, out of nowhere, a black haired teenaged girl sprung to his mind's eye, a ferocious expression on her face and two silver claws drawn out. She lurched at him and his eyes shot open.

Sam gasped for air for a few seconds, his chest heaving as he did so. His breath began to fog up the glass. The glass?

Looking up, he found his hands and feet restrained in metal casing that encased them whole. He looked sideways , squinting his eyes to try and figure out where he was.

"Pete?" he muttered in shock as he caught sight of his best friend in a similar situation to his. But he didn't seem to have awaken yet, since his head was hanging forward , his chin resting on his chest.

"Guys!?"

No answer came.

He then looked past Peter and noticed Luke, restrained in a pod as well.

He grunted as he tried to yank his arms out free to no avail. He wasn't as strong as Luke or even Peter without his Nova power. His heart racing, he began to look around . They seemed to be kept in a chamber with white flooring and tiles, similar to what he remembered from before.

Then, his heart almost dropped out of his chest as his eyes found the figure of the Wolverine clone standing a few feet away, an unreadable expression on her face. She must've been standing there in silence, staring at the three of them as they were unconscious.

"YOU! " Sam yelped . If could have leapt back in fright, he would have.

"Whaddoyouwan?" Sam yelled.

She didn't answer. She simply continued glaring right back at him. Sam felt like a zoo animal, being stared at for entertainment.

"Quit staring! You're creeping me out!"

"Would you just shut up! My head's hearting as it is! Urgh.." Peter's voice came .

Sam craned his neck to find Peter shaking his head, possibly to try and shove off the head ache.

"Why… why did you do this?" Luke voice muttered and the other two turned to see their friend lifting his head, looking a little worse for wear.

"Yeah! We free you and this is how you thanks us!?" Sam yelled, glaring hard at the girl, hoping she'd just disintegrate under his stare.

"Hey buckethead! How bout you not tick off the girl who just took the three of us down in one go?" Peter chided from his pod.

"You shut up!" Sam retorted. "This was all your stinkin idea in the first place!"

"I had orders." a female voice muttered as Peter opened his mouth to argue back. The three of them glanced at each other and then at the clone in shock.

"She can talk!?" Sam blurted out in dismay.

"Yes. I can! " the clone hissed louder this time, clenching her fist. The other two glanced reproachfully at Sam.

"Hey, it's not like I called her an 'it' or anything." He shrugged.

"I had orders.. to do what I did. I couldn't disobey." She mumbled.

"We didn't see anybody else in the room with us." Luke remarked.

"Voices. In my ." the clone answered.

"Okaaayy. So we've got a loopy one here." Sam remarked.

As an answer, the clone bared her teeth at him.

"Let's not all get heated up again. How'sabout we just… talk this out?" Luke offered.

The girl stared at him for a second before nodding.

"Who was giving you orders?" Luke asked.

"I… dunno. Voices. They've always been there. They taught me to read. Write. They taught me the names of things."

The three teenagers stayed silent, taking in all what she'd said. Not only had they force-grown her, they'd also implanted her with information.

"Do you know… what you are?" Sam inquired .

"I'm the Weapon twenty-three. A clone of the Mutant Wolverine. Create to serve The Syndicate. But… that's all I know."

"So… what's your name?" Peter inquired. Out of the corner of his eyes, Sam noticed Peter's fingers moving suspiciously.

"I…. They never gave me a name."

"You do realize Ravencroft's just using you, right?" Sam remarked hotly.

"I live because of Ravencroft!" the clone hissed venomously. "It's my home!"

"Yeah… news flash. Ravencroft's your prison. " Sam argued.

But before things could get anymore heated up, the sliding doors to the chamber slid open and the masked mercenary from before walked into the room, followed by a man in a lab coat with an unfriendly expression on his face.

"Having a chat now, are we?" the man croaked .

"I don't believe we've met." He remarked, turning to the other three. "You may address me as Doctor Octavius. Remember it. It's the last name you'll learn before you are terminated."

"Nice to meetcha. The name's Spiderman. These are my trusty associates,Nova and Powerman. I'd shake your hand if you hadn't so graciously tied them up." Peter remarked.

"Activate the cloning procedure for these welps." Octavius hissed at an assistant scientist, who nodded .

"Pass. I'm happy with just one me. " Sam chortled.

Luke, however, caught the eye of the wolverine Clone who was staring up at the three of them.

"Please." He mouthed as Octavius turned to the clone.

"And you! Head to your pod! There is a telepathic rebooting program awaiting !"

The clone glared at Octavius for a few seconds. Luke even thought she'd go against her order and free them. But, to his dismay, that moment passed. She turned on her heel and walked out the chamber.

"Begin."

/

As the clone walked away , rounding a corner, towards her own containment chamber who's doors stood open, with a few telepathic changelings waiting inside, she stopped dead in her tracks.

The pained screaming of the three teenage boys filled the hallway, following after her. The voices whispered in her head to keep going, to ignore the screams and follow what she'd been told. But something wasn't sitting right. She clenched her fist as the screams got louder, more unbearable.

/

"Silence them!" Octavius ordered his subordinates as the three teenagers yelled in pain. The three of them had razor edged electrifying needles injected into various points along their body and a blood sample from each of them had been extracted and was filling up a small orb above their pods, the crimson liquid swirling as it filled up.

Through the excrutiating pain surging through his body, Peter managed to catch a glimpse of the circular sliding doors of the chamber slide open and the silhouette of someone bounding inside.

Octavius head the painful scream of someone from behind and he turned on his heel to find himself staring at the sight of the Wolverine Clone growling, her adamantium claws embedded deep into the head of one of the sentry men.

"Wha—WHAT THE HECK IS HAPPENING!?" Octavius roared in fury . "GET THE WEAPON BACK INTO IT'S POD!"

At once, Rumlow and his men charged at the clone, raining down gunfire on her. She took most of the hits head on, bolting straight at Rumlow. Roaring with her teeth bared, she dug her claws into his shoulder blade and with all her strength, swung him whole over her head, sending him crashing straight at his men.

"NO! THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE! YOU BELONG TO ME! YOU—" Octavius began stomping his feet around,but his tantrum was cut short by a solid punch on his jaw by Spiderman.

"Quit whining, ya over-grown wimp!" Peter snorted .While everyone had been focused on the clone, Peter's spider droid had detached itself from his chest and had been discreetly working to free him from his restraints.

"You free Powerman. I'll take Nova." Peter remarked to the clone, who retracted her claws as she walked to him.

"Don't you give me orders." She hissed .

"Yeah. Yeah. I got it. You hate orders. Just do it, will ya!" he waved her off as he sprung up onto Nova's containment pod, working to get him free of it.

The clone did the same with Luke's pod.

"Thanks. I owe you." Luke smiled in gratitude at the clone, who nodded at him.

"Are you two done bonding? We gotta disappear before these guys wake up. Fast!" Same called as he and Peter bolted on ahead. As they exited the room, Sam turned and aimed concentrated energy blasts at the three cloning pods, seemingly destroying them in simultaneous explosion.

As the teenagers disappeared out of the room. Rumlow grunted as he extracted a purple serum vial from his Kevlar and injected it into his bloodstream. Although it was painful, within minutes, he was back on his feet. He picked up his gun and observed the scene. Most of the men were dead, with two puncture wounds on them. Except for Octavius, who began to stir.

"Quite a package you people cooked up." Rumlow remarked as Octavius stumbled back to his feet.

"They… They cannot leave the facility. Initiate lockdown protocol." He panted as he dragged himself towards the doorway.

"We'll cut them off at the top floor. Where are you off to?" Rumlow called as Octavius neared the elevator.

"To sub-level twenty-one. I need to get something from project Exoskeleton. Just in case."

/

"We are still forty-one level below ground level. Anybody got any ideas on a fast exit?" Luke called out as he bolted ahead, leading the other through the unending corridors.

"The elevators!" Peter answered, pointing ahead at the elevator which stood open at the end of the corridor.

All four of them leapt inside and sealed themselves in just as Crossbones' henchmen came round the corner, weapons aimed.

"This shouldn't be that hard." Luke panted with a smile.

Sam couldn't help but stare at the female wolverine clone as they sped up the many floors in the elevator. He was just trying to see if she bore any resemblance to her dna donor. She just kept trying to ignore his staring.

"Ya know, for such a wacko sciency place, they've got good taste in elevator music." Peter remarked with a grin.

"What?" the clone blurted out, confused.

"Seriously dude? Now?" Sam chided, giving him an unimpressed expression.

Peter opened his mouth to answer but all of a sudden, the elevator clunked crudely to sudden stop, forcing the passengers to crash into each other.

"What was—" Sam mumbled, rubbing his head but he never got to complete his sentence as the next moment, the elevator broke loose and it began plummeting right back down the way it came.

"I don't need to be a science whiz to know what's gonna happen next!" Sam exclaimed.

"Move!" Luke yelled , shoving them all aside . He then leapt up, dug his finger into the ceiling of the elevator and yanked downwards, ripping it open.

"Nova, grab her and fly up. " Luke remarked.

Wasting no time, Sam slipped his arms under the clone's own and flew upwards, out of the elevator. Peter then shot a strand of web out of the elevator and grabbed a hold of Luke by his hand and together, the two of them got pulled out as the elevator rocketed downwards, disappearing into the darkness below them.

As the teenagers regrouped on one of the floor ridges, they heard a faint crash, telling them that the elevator had finally reached the lowest floor of the facility.

"Well.. At least we know this place ain't endless." Sam mumbled sheepishly.

"Sub level thirty. " Peter mumbled, his lenses fixed on his scanner .

"This'll have to be our exit then. " Luke remarked. He then stood up, dug his fingers into the elevator door and yanked it open.

"Out of the furnace and into the fire." Peter groaned as they came face to face with another squadron of changelings, screeching their displeasure as they bolted towards them, coming from the end of the long corridor.

"This way." Sam remarked, leading them through the opposite corridor , away from the incoming changelings.

/

Rumlow and a battalion of his men prepped their electrocution rifles, aimed at the silvery sliding door . Rumlow walked to the front with a tablet in his hand.

"They're comin in though here. Get ready to blast em. But no kill. We have orders."

The men waited as the sound of fast moving footsteps began to grow louder and louder , coming from the other side of the door behind which was another connected corridor.

The grip on their blasters tightened as the sound drew nearer and—

A second later, the door burst open and a horde of angry changeling reptiles poured into the room, piling on top of each other, knocking some of the men over.

"They hacked the motion sensors." Rumlow cursed, hurling the tablet at a nearby wall in anger.

/

"Neat!" Sam beamed as Peter explained to them what he'd done . "So now what?"

"That should give us enough room to move." He answered and sprinted forward with the others trailing behind him.

The group turned round a corner, finding two armed guards walking towards them. The moment they caught sight of the runaway teenagers, they halted in their tracks and aimed their blasters at them.

"HALT! OR WE'LL—"

But they never got to finish the sentence as Peter shot elastic webbing at the two of them and yanked them forward. As they flew through the air toward him, he landed a solid knock on their jaws.

"You'll what? You didn't finish!" he chuckled as the other bolted on ahead.

"Here." Luke remarked as he spotted a metallic yellow painted door on one of the walls. Moving through it, the team found themselves at the foot of a spiraling flight of unending metal stairs.

"Really?" Peter groaned. "They have all this tech to cook up creepy monsters and they don't bother building an escalator?"

The four of them began sprinting up the silvery stairs as a battalion of armed guards burst through the door , loading their electric blasters.

The plasma blasts shot over their heads as the group bolted up the stairs.

"Geez! They're like our very own super armed lunatic fan girls chasing us around!" Peter remarked ahs ducked under a blast aimed at him.

Luke stopped in his track and punched hard at the flight of stairs behind them.

"Uh… what're you doing, big guy?" Sam inquired.

With two more solid kicks, Luke managed to dislodge the flight of strairs from the top platform on which they stood.

"That's gonna hurt." Peter mumbled as he watched the stairs crash to the ground with the armed guards following through.

"Come on!" Luke led the way.

They exited the stairwell and entered some sort of hall. For a change, at least the interior decoration wasn't made of white tiles. Just then, the lights in the hall dimmed and the security breach alarms began to ring.

Sam wasted no time in speeding forward ahead of the others. He rounded a corner and spotted a large partition door at the end of the corridor.

"There's our way out folks!" he called and shot towards the door. But before he could make it, the door slid shut and Sam ended up crashing face first into the thick, reinforced metal.

"Ow.." he groaned , getting back to his feet as the other reached him.

"Dammit. The doors locked down." Luke cursed .

"Thanks for letting me know. My head hadn't noticed." Sam grunted , rubbing his helmet.

The clone's claws shot out of her knuckles and he began clawing ferociously at the reinforced door to no avail.

"Appreciate the effort, Wolvie. But that's not gonna work." Peter remarked. "And there isn't enough time to hack the doors. "

The clone growled for a second before raising her face, nose pointed upwards. As the others watched in bewilderment, she began to sniff at the air , her eyes closed. Her claws retracted back into her knuckles as she walked away from the door and eyes still shut, pointed at a particular point on the wall next to them.

"There's a compactor duct that goes through there. We can get to the main compound through it." She stated monotonously.

"Uhh." Sam and Peter chorused in disbelief.

"You two heard her! Get to it!" Luke yelled .

"Right. Right." Sam muttered as he lit up his fists. Furrowing his brows, he used all his strength and shot a concentrated beam of energy at the spot pointed at by the clone and sure enough, a gaping hole exposed some kind of duct that lead away from the corridor.

"Urghh.. What a wonderful smell we've discovered!" Peter couched, pinching his nose as he crept in through the hole.

Luke was the last one in. Upon taking one more step in the duct, he lost his footing and began sliding down the metallic tunnel at a rapid pace. He couldn't make sense of how fast he was going but he was at least able to understand the fact that after an initial dip, there was some sort of pressure exerted on him and he was being sucked up the duct that was now traveling upwards.

After what seemed like hours, he was coughed out of the end of the duct, landing on top of the other three who were already piled up on top of each other.

"Mind getting off me, big guy!?" Peter squirmed from the bottom of the heap.

Once they had all gotten back to their feet, Peter turned to the others, rotating his shoulder.

"Come on. Let's go. We're one the ground level now."

"I think not." A familiar nasal voice proclaimed from behind them. But that was not all. Along with the voice came the sound of something stomping violently along the ground, heading towards them. With each step, the ground shook.

The group turned to come catch sight of … something… appearing out of the darkness, it's four, long mechanical arms stomping along the ground vehemently . The four mechanical arms were attached to some kind of black armored body suit that hung mid air as a result of the long mechanical arms walking for it. But that was not the worst part. There was a person inside the mechanical suit. The person they all had come to detest.

"Octavius!?" Sam exclaimed in shock as the man in the six foot tall , four armed body armor stomped towards them menacingly.

"You thought you three welps can just steal my own creation from me? THE CLONE BELONGS TO ME!" Octavius roared threateningly and something told them that something wasn't right with him anymore.

The clone clenched her fists, her claws slowly sliding out of her knuckles. Screaming out in rage, she bounded towards Octavius who simply whacked her hard with one of his mechanical arms, sending her flying off and crashing into a nearby wall.

"This just got a whole lot harder." Sam muttered to himself as he hovered off the ground.

"Hey ugly! Suck on this!" he yelled as he shot energy blasts at Octavius, but to their shock, it had almost no effect on the biosuit in which he was encased in. It merely absorbed the blasts, diluting it and protected it's user.

"Not so cocky now are you?" he cackled as one his arms caught Sam by the torso and flung him away into a nearby pillar that cracked slightly on impact.

"Hey Ock! I think there's something on your nose!" Peter yelled , trying to divert Octavius's attention. And to his surprise, it worked.

"What?"

As an answer, Peter shot a wad of webbing at Octavius's exposed face, covering it with web strands.

"Wait a sec!" Peter snorted as he watched Octavius struggling with the webbing.

"What?" Sam remarked as he floated down to Peter.

"I just came up with a name for our new friendly neighborhood frenemy. Get a loada- Doctor Octupus!"

"Neat." Sam mumbled sarcastically .

"Can we focus on the mission now instead of coming up with codenames for the guy who's tryin the kill us!?" Luke exclaimed irritably as Octavius finally managed to detangle the webbing from his face.

"I'll kill you for that, Pest!" he roared as two of his mechanical arms shot towards Peter, forcing the teenager to spring upwards onto the ceiling to avoid the oncoming attack.

"I think he likes me." Peter remarked in a terrified voice as he dodged Octavius' arms.

"ENOUGH!" Octavius roared and this time, he managed to catch Peter by the torso and shot an electric current though his arm.

"ARRRGH!" Peter yelled in pain as the electricity surged through his body.

/

Fury stood at the main bay of the helicarrier while around him, most, if not all of the crew were running scanners trying to find their missing superpowered trainees.

"Sir. What if we don't find them?" Maria Hill remarked quietly, walking towards her superior .

She was right. What if they weren't able to find them? It'd be his responsibility . Luckily , he was saved from having to answer that question when one of the crew called out to them in an urgent tone.

"Sir! Spiderman's tracker came online!"

"Where is he!?" Fury yelled impulsively.

"North Avenue, fuller street. T-they're at the Ravencroft facility. "

/

Octavius was blasted backwards off of his feet by an energy blast . Peter dropped to the floor with smoke trailing off of him.

"Urgh.. Just… shake it out. It's just in your muscles..and bones… and organs." He muttered to himself as Sam helped him stumble back to his feet.

"You okay webhead?"

Before Peter could answer, the building they were standing in began to shake violently as crumbs of concrete flaked off the ceiling, dropping to the floor. They turned to see Octavius slamming Luke and the wolverine clone into the pillars. Clearly the two of them were having a hard time stopping the maniac.

Octavius walked over to Luke(who lay on the ground, groaning) and grabbed him by the head with one of his mechanical arms. Then, he proceeded to repeatedly slam the teenager into the concrete pillar next to them. As he did so, Peter observed that as Octavius continued slamming Luke into the concrete, he was ignorantly beginning to destabilize the building floor as well .

"Hey wolvie!" he called out as the clone got back to her feet, growling at the sight of Octavius. "Get over here! I got a plan. And it just might work."

"See the pillars?" he grunted as he clutched at his side. The other two nodded .

"What do you think's gonna happen if we knock em down?"

For a brief second, the other two stared at each other, then back at peter before the realization dawned on them. Quite literally.

"Got it?"

"Shoulda said so earlier , webhead!" Sam grinned as he floated up.

"Great. I'll get his attention. " Peter remarked as he shot a web strand and propelled himself towards a rampaging Octavius.

Peter crawled along the crumbling ceiling towards Octavius, making sure he was out of his line of sight.

"Hey Ock! What's big, ugly and webbed all over!?" he called.

Confused, Octavius dropped his attack on Luke and wheeled around, searching for Spiderman.

"You!" Peter cackled as he shot webbing at Octavius, covering him in a blanket of web strands .

Luke shook his head, grunting in pain as he staggered back to his feet. Through his blurry vision, he first noticed Octavius wound up in tight webbing. Then he noticed that parts of the ceiling was beginning to crumble and flake.

For some reason, both Sam and the Wolverine Clone had stopped attacking Octavius and were instead attacking the concrete pillars around the place. Sam was blasting intense energy beams at the pillars, forcing them to melt under the intense heat while the clone was punching the concrete repeatedly , her knuckles beginning to get bloody.

Luke then squinted at them and then back up at the ceiling and then it clicked. Wasting no time, he joined in the assault, making the process a lot faster owing to his super strength.

"AARGGGH!' Octavius roared in fury as he broke free from the webbing around him. "I'll get you for that, you little bug!"

"First of all—" Peter grunted as he began flipping over Octavius' mechanical arms, "Spider's aren't Bugs. They're arachnids. And you call yourself a Doctor!?"

"Second off. You're ugly, fa—" Peter was cut short as Octavius managed to grab a hold of him by the torso and rammed him hard into the nearest pillar, sending rippling cracks through the concrete.

"You insolent brats have disturbed me for the last time!" Octavius roared as he unleashed his fury on Peter, slamming his hard into the concrete.

Octavius morphed one of his mechanical arms into a razor edge apparatus , ready to drive it through Peter when Luke leapt up from behind him and wrapped his arms around the only exposed part of Octavius—his head. Loosing his balance, Octavius stumbled backwards under Luke's strength, trying in vain to pry the teenager off of his back.

Clenching back his pain, Peter changed his web shooter setting and aimed straight at the power reactor on Octavius' mecha-suit. As soon as the webbing made contact with the target, a massive electrical current passed from Peter's web shooter and onto the reactor, essentially frying it and the person inside the suit.

The teenagers regrouped as Octavius groaned, a trail of smoke wafting off his body. Despite this, he was still making slow advances towards them.

"The weapon.. It's belongs to—" but his words were cut off as the ceiling finally gave way without it's support pillars and a massive slab of concrete came crashing down on Octavius.

"MOVE!" Luke yelled and the four of them began sprinting straight towards the exit hall, running as fast as their legs could carry them.

But they were too late. The entire building came crashing down, crumbling to pieces, collapsing on top of them.

The rumble of the collapsing building shook through the night, it's very foundation giving way. Soon, nothing was left of the building except for dust, debris and a mangled mess of concrete.

For a few seconds, nothing moved. The night was still again. A cat sitting on a nearby abandoned apartment building watched the scene curiously . Then, there was a slight rumble and a massive slab of concrete rose upwards and a single being, a teenager , came into view, holding the concrete slab over his shoulders.

Luke grunted in strain in the effort of lifting the heavy object upwards . He made sure they were all safe as he flung the concrete away from them.

He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, letting the cold night winds blow over him, soothing him.

"We made it."he muttered quietly.

"Was there ….. ngh.. ever any doubt?" Peter coughed .

Luke turned to find his two friends standing up, albeit with their hands on their knees, as they panted heavily from the effort . They too, just like him , had parts of their costumes singed and torn in some places. The two teenagers grinned at each other and gave each other a high-five, only to grunt in pain a second later.

The Clone said nothing. She simply walked forward to where Octavius lay unconscious, barely visible under the rubble, sparks flying at irregular intervals. His mecha suit was clearly damaged. All of a sudden, her ears perked up and she whipped around, staring straight up at the large circular moon that shone up in the starry sky.

"Someone's coming." She muttered vaguely.

Peter squinted his lenses, staring in the direction in which the clone indicated. As he zoomed in, to his surprise, she was right. Someone was coming. But it wasn't just a person.

As they watched, the familiar sight of Iron man rocketing towards them became clearer. But he wasn't alone. Following him through were Vision, The Scarlet Witch,Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, Hyperion, Thor, Hulk, Nova Prime. Almost every Avenger you could think of. Bringing the rear was a black stealth fighter jet being piloted by someone.

Sam waved an arm over Peter's face but the latter made no response. His eyes were transfixed on the sight of all the Avengers flying towards them.

"Oh boy. Looks like he's gone fanboy." Sam groaned.

The Avengers slowed down as they neared the derelict site, all of them landing around the Ravencroft Building compound. As the Stealth jet stopped mid air, hovering in a stationary position, the bay doors opened and Captain America, Hawkeye,Storm, Black Panther, Black Widow, Wolverine and Nick Fury.

For a few seconds, nobody dared talk. The Avengers merely stared down at the teenagers and at the destruction around them. Then their focus shifted to the form of Octavius lying unconscious under the rubble.

"What… happened here?" Fury remarked in a commanding tone. His eyes grilled the three teenagers who'd gone off authority. And then his eyes found the girl standing among them. He'd never seen her before.

"And who's the girl?"

The teenager didn't answer . They simply exchanged silent glances with each other, not knowing how to answer Fury's direct question. As they stood there ,speechless, the clone walked forward.

"I'm Wolverine's clone." She proclaimed bravely.

Instantly , the adults' eyes widened in shock. They began exchanging stunned glances with each other . Most them turned towards Wolverine, who was standing there next to Storm, halfway in the process of lighting his cigar. He had a shocked expression on his face before it was replaced with a look of disbelief.

"Start talking." Fury stated threateningly, furrowing his brows .

The teenagers did not want to be the first one to make the move. Each of them eyed each other apprehensively until Luke decided to step forth. He began with how they investigated about Ravencroft, how they found out about them running illegal underground operations, about them producing biological weapons and how they found the clone of Wolverine being kept deep under levels.


It had been almost half an hour since Luke had finished telling Fury and the others in attendance about what all they had discovered about Ravencroft. Most of them were still in shock. Some of them, like Hyperion kept eyeing the Wolverine clone suspiciously. Nevertheless, the boys did not leave her side when told to by Fury, since they knew they were the only ones who trusted her at the moment.

The girl pursed her lips and gazed at the sight of Wolverine, who stood with Storm, Captain America , Ironman and Fury. She observed him keenly from her spot. She… didn't know what to make of it. She didn't know how she felt about him. She didn't know what he was to her.

Storm, who had seen the young girl staring at her friend tapped him on the shoulder and nodded at the girl, who quickly looked away.

Begrudgingly , Logan walked towards the girl, not sure about how to address her. As he neared her, she turned to him, a slightly eager expression hidden beneath her façade.

"Uh.. look kid.." Logan began , scratching his chin like he always did whenever he was nervous.

"We'll.. uh.. we'll figure somethin out for you… " he mumbled

"Shield will. I mean… Trust me. You don't want me around." he added quickly .

An uneasy silence fell between them . The other three teenagers exchanged quick glances with each other.

"I'll. Uh.. See ya later ,kid. Gotta make sure those idiots keep away from my seat. " He remarked before he left her, heading towards the open Avenget onto which Thor and Hulk were loading an unconscious Octavius onto.

She stared after Wolverine as he disappeared out of sight.

"Ravencroft will be investigated. All the levels. "Fury remarked as he, Captain America and Hawkeye walked towards them with unpleased expressions on their faces.

"But let's make one thing clear here. " he continued.

"You shoulda called us." Clint interjected , folding his arms.

"End results aside, we are not happy with what you hacked Shield and Avengers systems, disobeyed direct orders and in doing so, endangered your lives." Captain America stated.

Peter looked down, a little abashed that one of his heroes did not approve of what they'd done. The others however, did not back down.

"And you also freed a possible lethal weapon and brought it into our midst—" Fury continued as the clone clenched her teeth.

"I'm not an 'it'!" she hissed , glaring up at his one eye. The other three teenagers pursed their lips , stunned. Even Captain America seemed taken aback by the girl's grit. Not everyone—especially if they were a teenager—stood upto Nick Fury like that.

"Then you have a name, I presume?" Fury responded, glowering down at her.

For a few seconds,she didn't respond, instead taking an interest in glaring at the Director of Shield, as if hoping he'd simply just disintegrate under her gaze.

"Yeah…She doesn' least from what she knows." Sam remarked, "they never gave her a name."

This, in fact, was not entirely true. Ravencroft had given her a name. But considering that fact that it bore the word 'weapon' in it, the three teenagers decided not to indulge that information to the others, especially Nick Fury.

"Laura." Clint suddenly stated, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"What?" the others chorused , each of them confused.

"Laura. I was just suggesting a name for the new girl. We can't really address her without a name, right?" he chuckled at Captain America and Nick Fury.

"If she's fine with it." Steve remarked, giving the girl a small smile.

"Fine. Whatever. " she nodded coldly.

"Now you three." Fury continued, turning to the other three teenager, who gulped.

"You will each received a written evaluation detailing your disobedient code of conduct and you will each be stated to the monitor duty of a shield agent at all times while on duty. "

"Now I want the person responsible for coming up with this bright idea to step forth . In three—"

Peter let out a sigh and let his head hang.

"Two—"

He pursed his lips. He knew he was in deep trouble now. This was all on him.

"One—"

At the final count, all three boys stepped forth simultaneously. The others couldn't see it because of the mask over his face , but Peter had a stunned expression on his face as he stared at the other two.

"I'm sorry sir. But we all took part in it. And with due respect, we do not feel our actions to be out of line." Luke stated, staring straight at Nicky Fury as he spoke.

"Stand down, Powerman." Captain America ordered.

"I'm sorry, Sir. But no." Luke answered confidently. His remark not only stunned the two Avengers standing with Fury but also his own teammates, who gawked at him.

"We did good work here tonight. We did what you've been training us to do all this time. We did this on our own. And you cannot take that away from us."

"Why train us at all if you never plan on letting us out in the field?"

The three adults stared at the teenagers. For a few strained seconds, no one dared speak.

"Fury. I'd like to have a word for a second." Steve stated, turning his gaze to the director of Shield, who duly complied, sending the teenagers on their way.


UPSTATE, NEW YORK, JUNE 24 , 10:13 EDT

A shield quinjet soared through the air, it's black metal gleaming under the sun's rays. Inside the aerial vehicle stood Nick Fury at the helm , his stern gaze focused on the four teenagers sitting in front of him, strapped to their seats.

The Wolverine Clone—Laura , as she was now called , was with the other three teenagers as well. She'd also been given new clothing. She was wearing a pair of black denims with a black form fitting sleeveless crop top paired with black army boots. Essentially, she kept to the color black. Peter, Luke and Sam weren't in their respective costumes by rather in civilian clothing, as per Fury's request.

"Now, since you all are determined to fight the good fight, you've been granted permission by the board to do so—provided you'll do it on our some convincing but they eventually came around once Captain America made his point clear. " Fury spoke commandingly.

"Um.. so.. where're we headed exactly?" Sam piped up .

"An old secret Shield base. It's been used by the Avengers as well, during the initial days. We're calling it into service again."

"Sweet! We get out own HQ!?" Peter exclaimed excitedly ,a wide grin on his face. He shrugged as the other gawked at him.

"Agent Couslon has volunteered to live here and be your supervisor. Hawkeye and Black Widow are in charge of training you lot and I will deploy you on Shield sanctioned missions." Fury continued .

Just then, one of the two pilots steering the quinjet called out to Fury.

"Sir. Approaching new base in ten."

/

"Cool crib!" Sam gasped as Fury led them around their new base. And man was it huge.

The entire building was expansive and it was secured within a vast compound. There were open grassy fields encircling the flat oval building and if they didn't know any better, they'd have no idea that was in any way related to an organization such as Shield. There was a large silvery metallic logo of the Avengers carved into the main wall at the entrance of the building. The training facility was within a separate, smaller building that was connected to the main one by a tunnel made of reinforced glass. All in all, the teenagers instantly found the place much more suited to their tastes than a Helicarrier ever would.

"While the Avengers will continue to handle the more obvious threats, we'll need a covert team who can operate for us on the sly, undercover. " Fury remarked as he turned to them. "You five will be that team."

"Awesome!" Peter exclaimed with a wide grin before his face fell. "Hang on a sec. The five of us? I only counted—"

"Team, I'd like you to meet our newest recruit. Kamala Khan, aka Miss Marvel." Fury interrupted, his gaze fixed at a point behind them.

The teenagers turned around to find a tan skinned teenage girl walking towards them shyly, with Agent Coulson leading the way.

"Hi!" the girl chirped, beaming at them.

" Hey!" the three boys chorused.

"I'm Sam." Sam introduced himself, stepping forward. "That's Peter, Luke and Laura. It's cool if you forget their names. I'm the awesome one here. "

Kamala giggled at them as the boys crowded around her. Peter noticed that Laura hadn't joined them and was still standing where she stood with an apprehensive expression on her face.

"Hey Wolvie! Come meet the newbie!" he called to her.

Laura looked at him and then allowed herself to smile, ever so slightly. She then joined the team as they mingled with their new teammate.

"I love your top!" Kamala exclaimed, her eyes ogling the clothes Laura was wearing. Laura looked down at her clothing and back at the new girl, a faint smile playing on the edges of her lips.

" Today's the day." Fury remarked quietly as he and Coulson left the teenagers to themselves.


That's all folks! Hope you all had a blast reading this chapter !

please leave a comment and fav if you liked it so far, it really helps me write more better content! Constructive criticism is welcome! Thanks!

PS: In this story, most of the Avengers wear their MCU costumes . Wolverine and storm wear the costumes they wore in the X men days of future past film.