Welcome back to my 'New World Order' in the Marvel Universe.
Let´s go!
Chapter 3: What a lovely day
Washington DC. The capital of the former United States of America. Once it was a proud and magnificent city. But since the heroes vanished it lost all what made it once worth living here or visiting it. The White House was once known as the home of the President. But there hasn´t been any President for five years now. Since the villains took over, the house was the home of Wilson and Vanessa Fisk, the self-declared Royal Family of the newly founded Kingdom of America.
Most of the time the city was quiet under the rule of the Fisks. But today was an expectation. The Triskelion reported intruders. Intruders that were escaping with a colossal tank, that could be easily identified by it´s pitch-black and dark green colors and it´s heavy weaponry made up of a giant rail gun and two Gatling guns. It made it´s way through the city, heading for the highway and leaving a path of crushed cars and destroyed signs and street lamps behind. On it´s tail were masses of people, riding on motorcycles or driving with cars, that looked like they had some accidents in the past. It also seemed like these vehicles would be on fire, and their drivers had all bright orange glowing skins, some also had burnt holes in their cheeks or elsewhere. Their eyes were also emitting in flames and their breath looked like smoke. Running forward with his uncanny, super-human speed was the super-villain James Sanders. Once known as the Whizzer, now calling himself Speed Demon. A name that was fitting his new appearance. He looked like a costumed skull on flames. During his run he left a streak of fire behind, making it easy for the Thorns to follow him on the hunt for the escaping enemies.
"It seems that we can´t shake them.", Widow said bluntly.
"I´m sorry, but I´m doing my very best, Ms. Romanov. But this thing is already at full speed.", Overdrive explained shaken.
Natasha stood up and went to the back before she reassured him: "Don´t worry, ´Drive. You did great so far." She looked at her team and commanded: "Okay, everybody. Victor and Laura, you will have some fun with the guns. I´ll will use the rail gun and Skye and Deadpool will have to do the most dangerous part: Overdrive will open the loading space and you´ll fire everything you got at our persecutors."
"I will what?", the helmet wearing man at the controls cried out shocked.
"Open the loading space.", Widow repeated and gained a nervous glare after which she added playful: "Come on, it´ll be fun."
"I bet the following scene would go great with 'Brothers in Arms' by Junkie XL. Even the title of this chapter is a 'Mad Max' quote.", Deadpool stated.
Meanwhile both mutants of the group started to heat up their weapons and mowed down many Thorns in their reach.
"Think you are ready for this, Kinney?", Sabretooth said somewhat mocking her.
She had a small grin on her side as she snarled: "I was created for this. I bet I get more than you."
"Deal!"
Widow, now at the rail gun shot down another car of the Thorns and added: "This is the reason I didn´t wanted Victor and Wade at the guns, because I thought it would end in a comparison contest. But I think I made it worse."
Down below everyone heard the banter and Deadpool remarked: "Don´t worry, red. There´s nothing that could be compared with my Love Gun!"
"Urgh, disgusting...", Skye muffed, hitting two bikers with her seismic waves.
Two other bikers suddenly came from both sides and started to shoot at the mercenary and the Inhuman. The latter dodged the bullets while Wade took three into his left arm and another one into his triangle. A high-pitched shriek filled the air as the red and black covered man collapsed into himself on the floor of the tank.
"This gun wasn´t lovely at all..", Skye remarked as she leashed out against their pursuers.
Deadpool´s breath slowly returned as his mad voice slowly built up to it´s aggressive climax:
"This. Means. WAR!" In blind rage he shot several bullets into the masses, reloading as quick as he pulled the trigger of the pistols. "Never shoot a man into his juice crew! NEVER!"
One of the cars, a black one whose engines were visible on the outside, came dangerously close to the tank. On it sat a female Thorn, like she was ready to leap on it. In her hand she held some kind of bag, which was filled with something. Out if this bag came a fuse which she gladly lit on fire. Skye aimed for the car before the explosive could be thrown, but suddenly she was taken off her feet. Two burning hands pressed her down and she looked directly into the flaming skeleton visage of the former Whizzer, who let out a scream that crawled under the skin of everyone present.
"Oh, shiiieeet. Ms. Romanov! A monster is here with us!", Overdrive panicked
Deadpool did not forget about the incoming bomb construction, which was thrown by the female Thorn accompanied by her maniacal laughter. When the bag with a burning fuse was mid-air the merc aimed for it and pulled the trigger. To his unpleasant surprise he had no more bullets left.
"Author! We need a serious talk when this story is finished! It´s not fair getting me from one unlucky situation into the nex-" His rant was interrupted when the explosive landed to his feet.
"Exactly what I mean!", he pointed angered at it as it exploded and ripped a giant hole into the right side of the tank. The detonation ripped Laura out of her seat and destroyed the Gatling gun she used the whole time against distanced Thorns. Her legs caught some pieces of metal, which were digging very deep down into her flesh. Between the torn pieces of the jeans up to her knees were her burnt and partly vaporized skin and muscles visible. She scoffed and shrugged off the pain as good as possible, simply because she knew that everything would grow back and she was used to injuries like that.
Skye was lucky in two different aspects: First, only her left gauntlet was damaged by pieces of metal, when she protected herself from the explosion and second was that Speed Demon´s flaming skeleton body protected her unintentionally as he prepared himself to finish her off and he got blown into pieces. His head landed besides Overdrive, who was still processing what was happening around him. The man in the biker-outfit yelled: "What the literal hell is going on? This is insane!"
"Laura, are you okay?", Natasha asked, still firing with the rail gun at pursuing cars.
"I´m fine. It will grow back.", she grunted. Sabretooth chuckled at this and blasted another vehicle with it´s passengers into oblivion.
"Skye. Overdrive. What about you?", the red-haired ex-spy wanted to know.
"I lost one of my gauntlets, so my seismic waves won´t be that precise anymore. But otherwise
we´re fine."
"We´re fine? A demonic flaming skull landed in front of me! We have a huge hole in the side of our tank! And don´t forget the others that are after us!", Overdrive´s voice struggled in a panic.
"Focus on your driving. We´ll be running with the devils...", Skye said.
"Was that a Van Halen reference?", a snarly voice yelled from the side of the tank.
"Wade?", X-23 asked. She climbed out of the remaining pieces of her seat and looked through the hole. On the side of the tank was Deadpool dangling with his right arm impaled by some shrapnel that stood up from the metal. His mask was vaporized, like some parts of his costume in general.
"If nobody asks after me I have to gain the attention for myself. Okay, Wolverina, would you please help me to get inside? I hate being side-lined in such a action scene, simply because I was created for shit like that!"
"If you stop that nonsensical talk, I will consider it.", she said annoyed.
Another Thorn on a motorcycle came closer to her and prepared a strike with a flaming chain. But before he lashed out, Deadpool used his free hand to aim with his gun at him. As he pulled the trigger he remembered that he ran out of ammunition several moments ago.
"Seriously, we need a talk...", he muttered and threw his weapon into the front wheel which made the vehicle collapse and it´s driver slamming onto the ground. "I´m supposed to be much more awesome than this! Stop making me look bad."
X-23 climbed on the side, burying her claws into the metal. She ignored the scratches she got from the other upstanding splinters she had to press her body against. "Take my hand, Wade!", she yelled.
But without any warning a shot hit the young woman into the back. Another black car drove closer to them, with three passengers. A male one, who aimed with a smoking shot gun at them. A female one that seemingly prepared another explosive bag and a second female driving.
"Hey, Widow! Victor! Are you hitting anything with your weapons?", Deadpool stated.
"Shut up, Wade!", Creed sneered.
"What Victor is trying to say is that we´re a bit overwhelmed here!", Natasha said.
Both shot down so many vehicles as possible, but they also had to fight with the overheating effect of their powerful guns.
X-23 felt another shot in her back by the man on the car passing Overdrive´s tank. Instead letting out a scream of pain, she burst out a roar of fury! She dug her adamantium claws deeper into the metal in front of her. She pressed herself closer to it, balancing all her weight on her feet. With full force she pushed herself away from the tank and landed on the car. With the claw of her right foot she cut off the fingers of her attacker in a roundhouse kick motion. Before he registered his loss, her left foot claw did the same with his whole head. The Thorn preparing the improvised bomb put out a butterfly knife and tried to use it against Laura, who shrugged at the sight of it and stated that it was "Cute."
Before both clashed, Deadpool landed on the car, only one arm left. The other one was still dangling
at the shrapnel that impaled it. "Sorry, I lost my girlfriend over there. Could you help me out?", he quipped towards the female Thorn at the steering wheel. "You wish, ugly!", she said and pulled out a gun. Before she could pull the trigger, Deadpool reached with his left arm for the wheel and pulled it towards the tank. The woman with the butterfly knife lost her balance and fell off the car. X-23 jumped back on the tank, while Deadpool was slammed against it´s side and the car exploded as it came under the spiked chains of Overdrive´s machine. Now Deadpool´s torso was impaled at the same shrapnel his arm was still hanging on. He looked down at it and commented: "This is getting out of hand..."
On the other side Sabretooth had to leave his seat too because his weapon overheated and malfunctioned.
"He, Overdrive! I thought everything would be great as long as you have control over it!", he grunted somewhat accusing. Skye calmed him down and explained: "Listen, Victor. His powers are getting overused now. At the moment it´s impossible to talk to him. He told me that he has to focus more and more the longer he manipulates the tank and we´re getting attacked."
A bit less angered Victor looked to the other ex-villain and could see by the way he sat there that he was really struggling to keep what is left together. "Than I have to think of something."
With his cat-like abilities he climbed outside, on the top of the tank.
Black Widow, still firing with the rail gun eyed him and asked: "Victor? Why are you not inside?"
Sabretooth crawled towards his Gatling gun. He took a stabilized stance behind it and answered:
"Needed some air!" His paws grabbed the gun and with all his power he tried to lift it. Ripping it successfully from it´s moorings he lifted the heavy weapon over his head. With a mighty roar he threw it at a car coming closer to him. The heavy impact on it´s hood made it flip and land on it´s roof. Spinning around in a circle motion it hit three motorcycles and let their drivers meet the asphalt street in a uncomfortable way.
"That...that was kinda...wow!", Natasha tried hard not to sound too much impressed.
"Victor!", Skye yelled. "That was awesome!"
X-23, who just got back into the interior of their vehicle didn´t bother and asked: "Is the tube okay?"
Skye took a look at the object in question and remarked: "It got a few scratches, probably because of the explosion. We better hurry up, if we want to reach our extraction point in one piece. Natasha, how far is it still away?"
"Far enough to get still torn apart! I think we´ll have still a way that´ll take fifteen minutes!", the Russian red-head answered.
"Shit.", was the Inhuman´s reaction.
"How are we supposed to know what our extraction point looks like? I´m hanging here and see nothing expect some trees and a loooooong way down. This bridge is high as hell! And not in a stoned way!", Deadpool commented, still his torso impaled.
"We´re on a bridge?", Skye asked.
"Yup. Like I said.", the merc answered.
Skye thought a moment as her teammates were still holding back the Thorns. Then she had an idea:
"I have to use my powers in a big, a really big way! But it could become dangerous for us too. There is a fifty-fifty chance that it will kill us all."
"Than do it. Won´t be that bad.", Widow said sarcastic.
"Don´t worry, Daisy.", Sabretooth snarled smiling. "If we die we will blame Wade because he gave you the idea."
"Just because I was reduced to a stooge does this not mean I´m responsible for casualties!", Deadpool exclaimed.
Skye positioned herself and saw the masses of Thorns that were still hunting them. She told X-23 to fixate the tube and protect it from any damage. Her arms were now fully extended. All her focus was now on her powers. She never used them in that capacity, especially not with only one gauntlet that helped her to channel her seismic attacks.
She felt that the ground began to shake very slowly. But it became faster and harder exponentially.
After a few moments the first cracks were on the asphalt. And another few moments later the bridge started to collapse. Rustling pieces of street, accompanied by falling cars and motorcycles and the sounds of screaming Thorns, meeting their doom in the abyss beneath them were heard.
A extremely exhausted Skye collapsed, but was caught by a into the interior returning Sabretooth before she hit the floor.
"I don´t know if I´m the only one seeing this, but I think we got the bad fifty percent of the plan!", Natasha said surprisingly calm, considering that the street they were driving on was collapsing behind them and they would probably follow the same fate as their persecutors.
"Mysterious plot-device man at twelve o´clock!", Deadpool yelled.
A few yards away was a young, dark-skinned man standing on the bridge. He wore a big cape with a hood, that was covered in dark blue and pitch-black stripes. He opened his cape as they drove closer towards him. Now the mysterious figure was surrounded by black energy that could be easily described as dark force.
Overdrive, still not talking and at the edge of his power, didn´t slow down. He drove right into the dark force and the whole tank vanished.
Suddenly Black Widow´s team found itself in a long hangar, that looked like it was some part a underground facility. Totally exhausted Overdrive stopped the tank and let go of it.
"I...I´m tired...", he sighed, letting go of the controls and reverting the machine back to it´s normal state. Black Widow said somewhat caring: "You were great, ´Drive. Without you we would have been dead. You deserve your rest. We all do..."
She walked out of the tank, followed by Sabretooth who carried Skye and X-23 who supported a weaken Overdrive. Outside of this deadly machine they looked after Deadpool, who remarked:
"All of you get a cool 'We made it!' march and I have to-"
"Wade, shut up for once...", Natasha interrupted annoyed.
All six individuals were still getting out of their immense adrenaline rush as a male voice said:
"Damn, guys..."
As they looked up they eyed the hooded man that brought them here. To his left was a young woman in his age, dressed in a white spandex suit that had a cleavage cut out like a cross, which went down to her belly button. Around her eye was a white circled tattoo.
To the right of the Afro-American man was another man of the same ethnicity, but much taller with much more muscles and dressed in a dark yellow muscle shirt and blue jeans.
A raven-black haired woman was also part of the group, covered in a skintight red spandex suit with a yellow triangle-like symbol on her belly. The only part of her face that wasn´t visible was covered with a red mask and two white eye-lenses.
The man that spoke and lead them wore a well known red and blue, skintight spandex suit, covering his whole body. He also had bigger versions of the white eye-lenses on his mask and a small spider on his chest. On his back he carried a round shield, that was colored in red and blue and had a silver star in it´s middle. He continued his sentence: "I didn´t knew that Wade would be such an ugly hood ornament!"
"Please, Peter...I´m happy to see you and that you send Cloak wider than planned...but we´re all not in the mood for your quips now...", Black Widow answered pleading.
"Okay, I´ll pull myself together.", Spider-Man said with waving hands. After that he added with a warm and honest voice: "Welcome home, guys. Glad you survived it..."
###
When villains took over the world, the people just got two choices: Either to follow their leadership like a silenced lamb at the cost of their free will or being free for only mere moments before getting slaughtered. Most of the people chose the first, just to save themselves. Now they were living under the dictatorship of gruesome men and women, not hesitating to kill if they just want to have fun.
Many people are hoping for better times to come, for the return of the heroes. Others already gave up every spark of hope and just accepted that they have reached a new dark age.
One of the latter ones was Robert Baldwin. The man with a slender but muscular physique and somewhat longer blonde hair was once known as a super-hero himself. Back then, the day the villains attacked, he survived and vanished. Now residing in in a small town in Arizona, he created a new life for himself, married a beautiful woman and since ten months they had a little son.
They built this life away from all this costumed craze, focusing on living like normal people and not getting into the way of any of the evil individuals that are now in charge. So far it really worked out well, but everything good finds it´s end.
He found himself on his knees, only a few yards away from the edge of the Grand Canyon. His hands were tied together with a heavy chain, which had a wrecking ball at it´s end. In front of him was his wife, holding their baby, shaking in fear. A reddish-blonde woman who had a muscular shape that rivaled this of many Olympic weightlifters had a tight grip on his wife´s arm. The muscular female wore a purple domino-mask and a fitting long-sleeved top and short pants. Her knee-long boots had the same color and like the sleeves small spikes on it.
She was accompanied by the man who tied Robert, a even more muscular man with a bald head and only wearing a white tank top and purple striped jeans. He recognized both as the villainous married couple Titania and the Absorbing Man, a duo that even gave the Hulk and other powerhouses in the hero-community a hard time.
A bit in the back and closer to the edge of the cliff was a man dressed in military combat clothes. On his back was a gun and at his belt hang a knife. His Kevlar vest had two bones painted on it in a way too look like a 'X'. The face of the man was hidden behind a skull mask. His was known as Crossbones, a man who had many confrontations with Captain America in his life.
On the left of Robert was the Radioactive Man in his yellow containment suit.
"Baldwin, Baldwin...next time you better don´t get in my way. I don´t like it when somebody interrupts me in a fist fight!.", Creel the Absorbing Man snarled. "If you haven´t tried to be a good Samaritan down in this bar, we would probably never found you and your family.", Titania added.
"Mostly because we don´t waste time on searching pathetic third string heroes like you.", Creel grunted.
Chen Lu shot small blasts of concentrated radiation into the former hero, who just groaned in pain. His wife screamed out his name and their baby was crying. Lu added: "What a ridiculous name was 'Speedball' anyway? Sounds some sort of game kids play on the street." Another blast hit him.
Creel looked closely at their victim and remarked: "Though little guy are we, huh?"
"Hit him with your powers, Carl.", the mighty villainess said to her husband.
Carl Creel´s hand touched the ground beneath him. The hand suddenly changed it´s complete molecular basis. It gained the same attributes as the deserted mineral ground they all were standing on.
With his now rocky fist he punched Robbie Baldwin several times into his face. Blood and teeth were spread over the ground, always accompanied by pleading cries of Titania´s hostage.
"I think it´s enough, Creel.", another female voice ordered. The former Speedball couldn´t see the person who was talking because she was behind him. But he heard her steps slowly walking towards him. As she reached him, she leaned down to him and looked him into the eyes:
"Remember me, Robbie?", she said with a cunning smile and sadism in her voice.
"Karla...", he snarled muffed but angry.
"Still a tough boy, like back in our days as Thunderbolts.", she remarked. "You´ve changed a lot, Robbie. At first a stupid boy in a even more stupid costume, thinking his powers could help the world. Then, after he caused accidentally the deaths of hundreds of innocents he became a masochist...and now a fully grown man, who just wants to live a family life..."
She walked towards Robbie´s wife and pressed her cheeks together, commenting: "She´s cute."
Now she took the baby away from the crying woman and caressed it, still with a malicious smile towards the former Speedball. The blonde villainess said: "And a beautiful little boy you have.."
Pressured by this whole situation, Baldwin asked through the blood still running out of his mouth:
"What do you want from me, Karla? If you want me to stay out of your business...okay, I´ll never be in your way, ever again." This made the sadistic woman laugh and the other villains, expect Crossbones, chuckled at this too.
"Out of our way? No, no, Robbie. We have other plans. See: Coincidentally we lost today one of us, I don´t know if you ever heard of him just because you had similar names, and we need a replacement. Not that we would stop still recruiting others, anyway. But 'Speedball' for 'Speed Demon' sounds especially good in my mind, am I right?" She looked at her fellow criminals who agreed nodding.
"I won´t work for the Kingpin...", Robbie snarled.
"I know you would say that.", Moonstone said and gave Crossbones a sign. The masked man walked towards her and took the baby she was still holding. With the child on his arm he slowly moved towards the cliff.
"No, Karla...tell him to stop, I beg you!", Robbie exclaimed afraid.
Crossbones was now at the edge of the cliff and reached out the hand he was holding the child in, ready to let it drop into the depths of the Grand Canyon.
"If you want your family to live on, you better accept our deal, okay?", Karla Sofen said joyful.
Her index finger was now at Baldwin´s chin as she lifted it in a gentle movement.
He asked: "What´s this pact with the devil?"
"Nice of you to call it like that..." Moonstone placed her finger now on her lips. "Because it´s literally that. We´ll explain it to you on the way to the Fisks. Don´t worry, your wife and child will be set free." She gave Crossbones another sign. Now the masked man pulled his arm slowly back and held the baby in a caring motion. Titania also relaxed her grip on the helpless woman.
Absorbing Man freed the former Speedball from his chain and pointed towards the Radioactive Man, who was sitting on some kind of motorcycle without any wheels. Instead it looked like it had two big repulsors at their places, which made it possible to fly with it.
"Jump on.", Chen Lu said and Robbie did as he was told. He glared over to his wife and looked her into the eyes, reassuring: "I´ll save you, sweetie."
Now both men took off with the flying vehicle and made their way into the night. When they were far away Moonstone took off with her flying powers, too. But before she completely left, she nodded towards the remaining individuals.
Crossbones now threw the child like a piece of trash into the Grand Canyon. Before the mother of the boy could scream out, her neck got broken in a fast, one-handed motion by Titania. Her body dropped motionless into the sand and the three villains left.
Creel, who carried the wrecking ball remarked to his mighty wife: "What a lovely day, isn´t it?"
###
In the north of San Francisco, across the world famous Golden Gate Bridge, are the Marin Headlands. Once located there were Graymalkin Industries, undercover headquarters that have been used in the past by the super-hero group known as the X-Men. Long-abandoned military bunkers were now used by some families and other survivors who could escape the villains and are living hidden from them for five years now on this base. Helpful was that it had many underground bunkers, too. So, if there would be ever some kind of danger for the base, they could still try to hide themselves down below.
The leadership and security of the base was in the hands of the remaining heroes of this world, made up of Spider-Man, his counterpart Spider-Woman, the Black Widow, Luke Cage and few others.
Down in the hangar was still the tank Widow´s team used to escape the Thorns. At least what was still left of it. Around it was a small group of heroes, examining it.
Spider-Man, Black Widow and Luke Cage had company from the Vision, who had lost his old android body on the last day of heroism. Only his functioning head and parts of his upper body and cape were left, which Spider-Man supplied with new diverse robotic parts. Vision´s left lower arm was now replaced with the leftovers of a electric jackhammer. But in the place of it´s concrete-smashing tip was now a hand, similar to a claw inside of a toy vending machine, but much more solid. His complete right arm was now made of parts of a silver-black armor Spidey once used against a villainous group called the New Enforcers, long before he even was an Avenger. It´s interior was made up of several circuits and electronics, that made it possible for Vision to move it like any of his previous arms. His legs were now former parts of some Iron Man armors by Tony Stark. Spider-Man collected these pieces shortly after all this happened and made it possible for the android to walk again.
Another former Avenger wasn´t that lucky, but still alive. Colonel James Rhodes was once known as War Machine. But now he was forced to move around in a hovering chair, which was once used by Professor Charles Xavier, mentor of the mutant team who once lived in here, too.
Cage carried out the purple glowing tube and placed it in front of the whole group.
Rhodey simply asked: "Okay, Natasha. What is that?"
"We have no idea. We only know that it is somewhat alive. Kinda...", she answered. The light-being that illuminated the tube looked from one hero to another, curious like a little child.
"I thought it could possibly be an A.I.!", Natasha added.
Spider-Man, now without his mask and revealing his hazel-brown hair and now fully grown beard, went over to the glass and metal container and put his hand on one of the cracks. The being inside did the same, so that it´s hand was now parallel to Peter´s. "It doesn´t look like a machine. More like pure energy. Maybe some kind of compromised radiation with it´s own awareness."
Vision scanned and analyzed what was in front of them and said in a polite manner: "It is nothing like me. Our guest may be one of multiple akin extraterrestrial lifeforms."
"Multiple? You´re saying that this is from outer space and not alone?", Cage asked with his arms crossed.
"Indeed. Like Mr. Parker already established, is this entity emitting some kind of non harmful cosmic radiation, similar to these that my scanners knew from the race of the Kree. But this is different...", the android said with an doubtful impression.
Peter now crossed his arms too as Cage and Natasha asked in unison:"What´s different?"
"It feels...incomplete.", Vision said confused.
"Incomplete? Like: it´s still searching it´s soul-mate or what?", the shield-carrying web-head asked.
"No, but similar and more like a phantom pain, like it´s missing a essential part of it´s body..."
Natasha rubbed her eye-patch and Rhodey did the same with his paralyzed legs and murmured:
"We know that feel..."
Vision looked down at himself and continued: "But not only in physical means, also in soul and mind. It is searching for his own components, comparable to a puzzle that tries to put itself together."
Peter glared again into the tube and his eyes met those of the being in it. Something was familiar about this sight, but he wasn´t sure what it was. "Okay, we´ll bring it into my lab. It´s safe in there and none of our people should know about its existence, yet. I don´t want that they worry about an unknown living thing in our base."
Rhodey answered: "Let me take care of it´s transport. Rover!"
His yell was heard through the whole hangar. Suddenly the ground began shaking and a mighty figure came out of the shadows. A nearly twenty feet tall humanoid robot with dark blue and purple paint was now visible. In a mechanical voice it asked curious: "Destroy?"
Now Vision spoke to the metallic behemoth: "Rover, would you kindly bring our guest.." He gestured towards the purple being which looked curious at the giant robot. "To Mr. Parker´s laboratory? It is a urgent matter."
The behemoth called Rover confirmed: "Destroy!"
It´s colossal hand grabbed the tube in a, as far as it was possible for him gentle matter and carried it away. Vision and Rhodey followed it and the latter added: "Please be careful, Rover! We don´t want another disaster like that with the fuel barrels that suddenly stood in flames!"
Sad Rover said: "...destroy..."
"No, Colonel Rhodes is not infuriated by this, my big immature friend. He just wants to avoid accidents like this to happen again."
A much happier sounding "Destroy!" followed this statement of Vision.
Peter, Natasha and Luke, who were still standing besides the damaged tank glared after this strange little group and the Afro-American remarked: "I´m still not comfortable with a Sentinel as a pet..."
"Right now, when I wanted to say 'Aren´t they cute?' you ruined the mood. Great work, Luke!", Spider-Man quipped.
Natasha walked off and stated that she needed a shower. Luke and Peter now wanted to leave the hangar too. But The shield-wearing man eyed his female counterpart sitting on some stairs and staring into the distance.
"Don´t wait for me, Luke. There is-"
"Waiting was not my intention.", Luke said stiff but still in a non-serious mocking tone.
Jessica Drew alias Spider-Woman was looking somewhere into nowhere. She was so lost in her thoughts that she even didn´t realize how her male counterpart walked up from behind.
"A penny!"
"Wh—what?", she asked shocked, turning her head towards him. "What penny, Pete?"
Both spider-themed heroes were now sitting next to each other, still in costume but with their masks off their faces.
"A penny for your thoughts. That´s what my aunt always said when I was moody and brooding because of my spider-life.", he said. "I think it comes from our arachnid DNA. Are real spiders also that broody?", he quipped, gaining a small smile from her.
"What´s the matter, Jess? You know you can talk to me about everything."
She rested her head on her bent knees and muffed: "I know, Pete. And I´m more than grateful for this...but right now I´d prefer to keep it to myself, if it´s okay for you."
His hand rested on her shoulder and he answered: "Of course it is. I just let you know, if you´re ready to talk you can count on this guy here." His thumbs were pointing towards himself.
Jessica chuckled at this and asked: "What was that thing that Nat and the others brought in?"
"Don´t know. Vision´s scan said it was partly Kree, but incomplete as a sole lifeform. There have to be others out there."
Both now looked into the direction in that Vision, Rhodey and Rover were bringing the entity in the tube to.
The male spider-hero continued: "I´ll work on some tests and experiments to find out what it is and how we can help it. It looked so helpless, but still powerful. I don´t think it´ll harm us."
"What makes you so sure?"
"The way it looked at me. Something about it was...strangely familiar, trustworthy...I can´t explain it." He grabbed the shield on his back and stared at it: "But if I´m wrong, everyone around here is in grave danger. I´m putting the life of everyone on the line just because of my instincts. Sometimes I doubt Steve´s decision..."
"Don´t be like that!", Jessica now said in a reminding tone.
"Do what?"
"Doing what you do right now! Drowning in self-doubt as our leader! Steve chose you for a special reason, Peter! He always knew what you were, are and will be capable of. He always had the opinion that you will become the greatest of us all. Even Logan, who never admitted it in your presence said that you will become the greatest of us all!"
Logan alias Wolverine was a long-time companion of Peter. Both fought several battles side-by-side and could always count on each other. The hairy, clawed mutant was not easy to have around, but still a respected member of the hero-community. Peter and him had always honored each other and would even call each other a friend.
Jessica continued: "When Steve died and gave you his shield, he knew that you would be the one who could gather us, heroes and civilians and even some villains with a change of heart, and bring us into safety. He knew, that your brain and your heart, your instincts would be the only way to keep us all together and survive this mess, that ruins lives since five years now! So, Peter: If you ever, ever doubt your role as our leader again, I will personally zap your face with my bio-energy bolts until you look like Wade!"
Peter gulped at her honest words, because he knew she would make her promise come true regarding his face. "Wow, Jess, I...I´m speechless!"
"Never thought this was possible.", she chuckled.
"Me neither. Scary thought that you would let me look like that psycho.", he quipped with a smile.
Both let out a small laughter and were silent for a moment. After a while he stood up and said:
"I should look at our guest. This will be another night in the lab."
"From time to time, you should consider some sleep, Pete.", the British woman said worried.
"Nah, sleep is overrated. Coffee is the real deal.", he joked again before he said on a more serious note: "And Jess, if I can do anything for you, don´t hesitate to ask."
She looked at him with a warm smile and said: "There would be actually one tiny thing you could do..."
"Like I just said, I have no time for sleep-"
"Not that. But..." Her hand now tickled his beard. "You should shave. You look like the worst kind of hipster!"
###
"Are you really ready for this, Mr. Baldwin?", Wilson Fisk, wearing haori and hakama, traditional Japanese clothes, asked.
"Yes, I am."
"You are aware of the pain and that every single use of your new powers will cost you splinters of your soul.", Vanessa Fisk, wearing uchikake asked.
"For my family, this is a price I´m willing to take!"
"Well,", Mr. Fisk said. "Let´s begin the rite."
The black-haired wife of the bald Kingpin opened a ancient scroll. Robbie Baldwin sat in the middle of a pentagram, that was painted on the floor. Around it were also candles standing in a circle, that were illuminating the dark room in a weak light.
Vanessa started to read unidentifiable words while her husband had a pleased smile on his big face.
Robbie suddenly felt heat rising in his body. In a matter of seconds it felt like his veins were burning to ashes and his flesh would vaporize by the heat.
After a while Robbie became a skeleton in flames. His bones were also covered in small spikes, his corner teeth sharpen like that of a predator.
He let out a deep, bloodcurdling roar that blew out all candles and shattered the only window in the room.
Both Fisks stood up and slowly walked towards the now as well by Zarathos possessed Baldwin.
"Mr. Baldwin, I have to say, none of our Thorns had such an effective transformation into a
Spirit of Vengeance. The spikes seem a bit too much, but not too shabby...not too shabby at all.",
the kimono-wearing man remarked in his typical calculating manner.
"I must say, it´s a extraordinary sight. And I´m sure you will exceed our expectations,
Mr. Baldwin.", Mrs. Fisk added.
"When can I see my family?", the demonic former Speedball asked.
Kingpin tried not to smile at this question, remembering what Moonstone and the others did to the now-demon´s wife and child. At first he did not approve of this action, because he once lost his own son Richard, but somehow he was now able to enjoy the cruel irony of this.
"You´ll see them, when your work is done. Which will be when we tell you, you´re done.", he answered.
Baldwin hang his head down until Vanessa said: "The first you´ll do: some enemies of my husband and me have stolen something that belongs to us. Find them, kill them and bring it back."
"How do I find them?", he asked them confused.
"Listen to your inner voice...", Kingpin added.
Shaking his head, Robert wanted to leave the room. But Mr. Fisk stopped him at first: "Before you leave, Mr. Baldwin. Should we still call you 'Mr. Baldwin' like now or 'Ghost Rider'."
"Neither, I´m using one of my old names.", he answered.
Confused Wilson asked again: "You really want to use 'Speedball' again?"
"No...", Robbie said. "Call me Penance!"
###
As always constructive reviews are welcome.
The next chapter will be probably less action-focused and more about the remaining heroes
that are living in the secret base now.
This means there are definitely coming more character-moments than before in this story.
Trivia:
The idea of Spidey using Cap´s shield came not from the short scene in the Civil War-movie.
The inspiration behind it was a cosplay I once saw which made Spidey´s suit look like Cap´s uniform, but sadly I don´t remember by whom.
Rover was a real character in the cartoon "Wolverine & the X-Men".
He only appeared in one episode of this great (and far too soon canceled) show, but his little 'destroy' made me love this Sentinel on an instant.
Robbie Baldwin was mostly known as Speedball since his debut in the late 1980s.
But since the comic book-version of the Civil War he wore an armor and called himself
Penance and joined Norman Osborn´s Thunderbolts.
Graymalkin Industries was really an undercover hideout used by the X-Men after
their mansion got destroyed during 'The Messiah Complex'.
Well, this was it so far.
Until next time!