Taggart's office, Undisclosed Location, New York 10:30am

Taggart sat at his desk mulling over the recent events. He'd sent the search and destroy order on Alex Mercer yesterday and thus far had received no news of results. In fact he'd received the exact opposite. A call came earlier informing him that Sargent Matthews and another Blackwatch officer had been reported MIA (MIA:Missing in action) this was disturbing. He knew Sargent Matthews better than most of the other Blackwatch officers and he was incredibly efficient. It was unlike him or let alone any other Blackwatch soldier to just suddenly cease contact. He began to worry.

"What if Mercer has become like Cross. He could cause a great deal of damage" Taggart thought as he put his hand to his forehead and realized he was sweating. Mercer wasn't the only person on his mind. He was also thinking about the man who had hijacked the van. This Deadpool whoever he was Osborn had referred to him as a mercenary if he was a mercenary then who hired him? The sound of the phone ringing snapped him from his thoughts.

"Yes?" He answered curtly as he put the phone to his ear.

"Sir Sargent Matthews has just returned and we are about to commence moving the girl" replied the voice of the soldier.

"Put Matthews on the line I have some questions for him" Taggart demanded. He heard the shuffling on the other end of the line as the soldier handed over the phone.

"Mr Taggart Sir" came the familiar voice of the Sargent.

"Sargent Matthews would you care to explain why we lost contact with you for over half an hour?"

"Sorry Sir, there was a technical problem with my transmitter" replied the soldier.

"Did you hear anything from the other agent who was reported MIA?"

"No Sir. I only heard the man was missing when I arrived back at the girl's apartment."

"Very good Sargent. I need you to transport the girl to H.A.M.M.E.R." Taggart said excepting the Sargent's explanation. It wasn't unusual for the transmissions to stop working especially as they were in the city among a lot of radio pollution from other devices.

"H.A.M.M.E.R Sir?" Matthews questioned.

"Yes H.A.M.M.E.R the director there is a client and has agreed to lend us his resources" Taggart finished.

"Yes Sir, I'll begin arranging her transportation immediately."

"Sargent make sure she arrives safely, she's our last line of defense from Mercer."

"Yes Sir" replied Matthews before Taggart hung up the phone. It was strange Taggart could have sworn that Matthews was smiling as he spoke those last two words. He shook his head and turned to look at the containment report on the subway station where Mercer had unleashed the virus. It was taking a lot of resources to keep it under wraps. They had top scientists in there right now trying to nullify the virus but as yet they had only been able to contain it. Also They currently had 60 people in quarantine that the scientist's believed had been contaminated. He knew they wouldn't be able to keep the disappearance of 60 people in the dark for long. They had to fix this and fix it fast. The phone rang again.

"Colonel Taggart here."

"Colonel!" came a panicked voice.

"Ye.." he began but was cut off by the voice.

"There's been a containment breach Sir. The quarantined patients have become violent it's like they've suddenly just gone insane. We've dispatched cleanup crews to take care of them but the air tight lock we had round the area is broken we are trying our best to plug it but with the patients rioting I don't think we'll be able to do it" The man finished.

The color drained from Taggart's face panic began to take over.

"Hold them for as long as you can I'm dispatching more men now!"

"Yes Sir but please hu…" the other end of the line began to crackle and Taggart could hear sounds of gunfire and shouting.

"Shit!" he cursed out loud. "F***!"

Taggart quickly picked up the phone and began to dial.

"Hello?"

"This is Colonel Ian Taggart, I want every available man you have to go to 5th Avenue Penn Station on the Broadway line there has been a containment breach in the Red Zone lethal force is authorized" trying his best to keep the authority in his voice and the fear out of it.

"Yes Sir" the soldier acknowledged.

Taggart slammed down the phone and began dialing again.

"What is it Taggart?" came a low voice from the other end of the line.

"General Randal Sir we have a problem" Taggart said mopping his brow as the thin stream of sweat began to turn into a torrent.


Secret Location, New Avengers Hide Out 10:30am

"Wake up princess!" came a voice accompanied by a rough tap on the head.

Peter opened his eyes to find Wolverine standing over him. Staring down at him with an amused expression on his rough features.

"Urg what happened?" Peter asked groaning as he sat up and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Danvers said you passed out. What's the matter Parker can't hold your liquor?"

"For your information furball. I was up all night trying to work out mathematical problems and equations your tiny feral brain couldn't possibly comprehend" Peter replied pulling himself to a sitting position.

"I prefer to leave the science to nerds anyhow" Wolverine replied smirking.

"I told you not to overdo it Pete" Jessica commented as she walked into the room.

"Maybe I'll listen to you when i'm not dealing with a potential end of the world type virus" Peter replied his tone immediately darkening. "Where are the others?" he asked "I need to speak with all of you."

"Everyone is in the kitchen waiting for you" Jessica informed him as she helped Spider-man to his feet.

"Good" Peter replied stretching "If this is a bad as it looks we can't waste any more time."

The three Avengers walked into the kitchen and Wolverine and Spiderwoman sat at the table whilst Peter set up a white board.

"Do we really need that?" Clint said gesturing towards the white board with his head.

"Yeah Peter. We may not be scientists but I think we'll be able to understand the basics without little diagrams" Mockingbird agreed in an indignant tone.

"It's more for my benefit than yours. It helps me see things clearer and anyway I know some people whose minds cannot understand certain things without little pictures" he quipped. A few of the Avengers turned to look at Wolverine as he said this.

"What the hell are you girls looking at?" Logan snapped in annoyance at getting singled out.

"Anyway" Peter continued. "From what I've gathered the weapon is a retro-virus that attacks and hijacks certain cells in the human body and replaces them with copies of itself" he said as he drew a diagram of how the virus infected cells.

"What cells does the virus effect?" MockingBird asked observing the explanation intensely.

"To begin with it attacks the brain cells taking over the chemical receptors in the brain and replacing it with its own chemical messages. Which by what I can gather seem to cause violent tendencies. After it has completely taken over the mind it begins to attack any other cells degrading them and eventually destroying the host. Its quiet ingenious really. As soon as the virus has control of the mind it ceases to be contagious and then kills host body to prevent the spread." Spider-man explained as he put the pen cap ontop of the blue pen he'd been using.

"So lemme get this straight" Logan began. "This doohickey enters your head and gives you rabies and then after a certain amount of time it kills you?"

Peter sighed and looked at the mutant. "That's very simplified but yes, that is the general gist of it."

"Can you create a vaccine or a cure for it?" Cage asked.

"No. It would be virtually impossible. Nothing I've ever seen would present enough resistance to it to be considered as potential base for a cure" Peter replied a slight note of worry in his voice.

"What about me?" Logan asked pointing to himself. "My healing factor has protected me from pretty much everything."

"In this case it would be almost useless because your healing factor heals destroyed or damaged cells. So yes it would prevent you from dying but it would not stop the virus entering your mind and turning you into a raging lunatic. Well more than you already are" Spider-man explained. "Luckily whoever designed it wasn't completely insane. Had they wanted to it would have been possible to have created a strain that didn't lose its contagion and instead of just killing its host it could have had mutagenic properties."

"So it's impossible to fashion a cure?" Iron fist asked gravely.

"Well theoretically it is possible but as I said I haven't seen anything that has the properties I need" Peter answered.

"What kind of properties are we talking about?" Carol pressed convinced there must be an answer they wern't seeing.

"Well I'd need something that would make every cell in the body replace itself simultaneously whether they are damaged or not and I can't think of anything that has that kind of regenerative properties" Peter sighed.

"I think I do." Everyone turned to look at Wolverine as he spoke. "But you guys aren't gonna like it!"