So here's the start of the end of this rather long and possibly drawn out arc of Spider-man and his Suicidal Friends. Not going to lie I'm thinking about bringing the Squad back later on in the story only with new members and some veterans. So this mission should be reasonably short and straight to the point and only take around four more chapters (the last three are long ones admittedly) to wrap up the Phantom invasion and let Spider-man and Taskmaster have their rematch. Also the individual who was shooting rockets at Spidey in his first encounter with Taskmaster and Professor Zoom will appear.
Disclaimer: I do not own any Marvel or DC characters mentioned, used or seen in this story.
Chapter 20: This is a suicide mission…
Nepal, May 24th 3:23 AM
The ride towards the final destination was quite Peter realized as he sat in the aircraft with the remains of what was once an eight-man team. Well technically a six-man team with two women but you get the idea.
The team was given some rather good first aid by one of the co-pilots from the craft and were allowed some decent MRE's that they had on spare. Sadly, they didn't have much in terms of equipment to rearm them
Peter was only able to re-arm his last working web shooter with one last capsule of his electric webbing and four extra strength webbing. Luckily there was plenty of ammo for his built in pistols.
Frost was chugging bottle after bottle of water along with a shirtless Shark who thankfully replaced his torn pants and boots. Deadshot was equipping himself with an assault rifle, two pistols, and a bag full of grenades and a pump action shot gun with incendiary rounds as well as more ammo for his wrist pistols. This time he was counting to make sure he had all of his grenades and keeping a close eye on Black Spider who seemed a bit fidgety.
Peter could understand why his fellow spider themed assassin was uncomfortable at the moment. Their next destination placed them dangerously close to Ra's al Ghul's turf and well, Peter was uncertain on whether or not the man will make a move on them or not.
'Hopefully he'll be busy with the Phantoms and Taskmaster. Unless Tasky is smart enough to leave Ra's alone' Peter thought before walking over to the small table that Deadshot was at and grabbing an assault rifle and checking it over.
Peter doesn't normally use guns aside from his web shooter's pistol feature but considering he was down a web shooter and most of his web cartridges he wasn't going to be picky. After seeing that the gun was in good order he grabbed around a dozen clips and slipped them into his backpack and a few more to his pants pouches.
'Note to self, get a utility belt… wonder if Batman or Deathstroke will be willing to part with one. Better yet I'll have T'Challa make me one.' Peter concluded as he sat back down cradling his weapon for the mission.
Deadshot saw Black Spider's uneasy composure and decided to speak up "Nervous Black Spider?"
The purple and black clad man gave the marksman a side glance "…Yes"
"What's there to be worried about aside from the Phantoms we'll be facing?" Frost asked the man who out of all of them was able to keep his composure fairly well.
"Ra's al Ghul is based in the Himalayas" Peter said as he stared out the window to see the distant peaks getting closer "A few years ago me and B.S. here may or may not have given old Ra's the provable finger and told him to go to hell…"
"You stuck it to Ra's al Ghul? And I thought the Joker was insane" Deadshot said in mild surprise at the fact that Spider-man had screwed over arguably the only assassin in the world to match the wall crawler. This was also a man who had more resources at his disposal then some countries
"Yeaaaaah… But I had a very good reason to!" Spider-man shrugged "But between us, it's not him that I'm afraid of running into"
"Are they one of his daughters?" Frost asked with a deadpanned expression and her arms crossed as she stared at the man
Spider-man looked towards her in confusion "Huh?"
"It's a woman you care or cared about your worried about seeing again" Frost said with a shrug of her shoulders as she leaned into Shark "It usually is"
"She's got you there…" Black Spider said in amusement
"Oh like I'm the only one with romantic issues in this jet, plane, hovercraft thing… also how the hell can we have these things flying around and I have yet to see any flying cars!?" Spider-man said as he directed the last part towards the pilots up front.
One of the pilots turned back to answer his question "You know how expensive these thigs are? Even Bruce Wayne wouldn't be able to afford many of these, especially if he wants a good one"
"…Fair enough" Spider-man said as his shoulders slumped in defeat and acceptance that he won't be getting a flying car anytime soon.
It was then a holographic projection of Waller appeared in front of the team.
'Oh yipyyyy she's back…' Peter thought to himself as he and the team turned their attention to their handler
"Well, boys and girl' congratulations! You have one more shard to retrieve and your free to go" Waller said with a smirk
The 'Until I need you again' went unsaid but the team didn't need to hear the words to know it was true. Waller would never let them go so long as they proved useful to her and it's not like they were irreplaceable. She had quite a few places to recruit from; Belle Reve, Arkham, The Vault and the list went on and on.
"So what are we facing?" Deadshot said in a slightly strained voice as he tried to resist the urge to tell the overweight woman to go screw herself
"Jocasta's readings have calculated the Phantom's symbiot index to be at one hundred percent" Waller said in a serious tone as she then brought up photos of some of Phantoms that were taken by an ARGUS strike team… before they were slaughtered. The Phantoms were a little bigger looking but also appeared to be more streamlined but no less deadly "And Taskmaster has been reported in the area"
"Oh good… rematch!" Spider-man said with grim amusement 'Time to pay that bitch back for New York and being partially responsible for nearly getting me killed by a pissed of immortal demi-god and kidnapped by some government bitch!'
"We've also concluded that this area is where all of the other Phantoms are originating from. There seems to be some sort of teleportation network that was being used to transport the Phantoms to the other locations to retrieve the shards." Waller said as an image of odd energy readings were appearing in Nepal and connecting to Egypt, Transylvania, Tokyo and Tangarora Island "Further scans also indicate that the Phantoms are being created here, meaning that there's a high probability that their creator is down there as well"
"Hurray!" Frost said with a roll of her eyes "We're marching into the Phantom capital…"
"Could be worse" Spider-man said as he analyzed the energy readings
"Anything else to be on the lookout for? I don't want to meet anymore freaky deakies like those damn Hybrids!" Shark spoke up in his deep voice laced with annoyance with his eyes narrowing at Waller
The director of ARGUS returned his look with a blank one "Will it make a difference? Your all going down there and getting that shard and stop whoever is creating these Phantoms or… you're lose your heads"
"Will that Venom thing be there?" Deadshot asked with a raised brow at the director of ARGUS
Waller looked at the assassin for a moment before speaking "Unknown…"
"Why isn't Jocasta given us our briefing? You unplugged her or something or is she getting an update?" Spider-man asked cautiously about the whereabouts of the A.I.
"That's none of your concern Mr. Parker" Waller said before she promptly cut the feed
"Heh, she's lost control of her" Black Spider said as he rose up from his seat and approached the table and examined the weapons before grabbing a heavy tactical pistol and more throwing knives to use. "Else she would've been bragging about it or Jocasta would be here flirting with Spider-man"
"Hopefully she's not trying to start Judgment Day… I don't think I'm up for fighting an army of robots anytime soon" Frost said as she snuggled closer into Shark's form. The rest of the team decided to not comment on the ice meta and cannibal meta's apparent relationship
"Approaching L.Z. in twenty seconds. Readings put the shard's location three kilometers ahead near a small settlement." the pilot alerted the team as the craft began its descent.
The craft landed on a small Cliffside that overlooked a valley with the tower mountain of Mt. Everest in the distance. The sky was clear and with no major cities close by in the mountains, the star filled sky was on beautiful display along with a full moon. The moon light gave the place a sort of surreal feeling. The team exited the craft and scanned the area as the aircraft rose up back into the sky and left the team standing in the cold.
Several moments passed before Killer Frost spoke up "So how do we do this? Charge in guns a blazing? Because if Dracula and those Hybrids were any indicator… we'll get our teeth kicked in"
"Let's recon the area before we come up with any plans. I didn't come this far to get offed by some damn killer hologram thing because we didn't stop and use our heads for once" Deadshot said as he led the team up what looked like an old path used by the mountains natives
Spider-man was scanning the mountain range before he spotted a very familiar peak across the valley in the distance. The mountain was the location to one of Ra's al Ghul's personal retreat compounds that last he checked was being inhabited by Nyssa al Ghul and a small detachment of the League of Shadows and League of Assassins.
'Wonder how Nyssa's been…' Peter thought as he hasn't heard any news on the centuries old woman in years. The occasional rumor but nothing concrete. He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Eric's masked face looking at him.
"You good?" he asked as he also recognized the distant mountain
Peter looked back at the mountain for a moment before saying "No… come on. We have slightly more important matters to attend to"
Peter sped up in his walking to catch up with Shark, Frost and Deadshot while Black Spider took a moment to stare at the distant mountain before shaking his head and broke out into a lot jog to catch up with the rest of the team.
Twenty minutes later the team came to a stop on a snow and ice covered ridge that overlooked a small village with a large temple or monastery above it built into the mountain next to a water fall that emptied out into a river that flowed through the village and headed further down towards the valley. The village from what they could make out looked deserted but in reality was likely swarming with full powered Phantoms lying and wait
And this wasn't taking in to account the Phantoms and Taskmaster up in the large monastery with the shard and whoever or whatever was making these Phantoms
"We'll be slaughtered" Spider-man summed up his observations of the area and what they know about Taskmasters forces of Phantoms and whatever men or women he or his apparent boss have hired. He was currently crouched on a small pillar of stone that looked like it used to be part of some kind of shrine in the past.
"We go down there, we'll be outmatched, outnumbered, and worst… surrounded" Black Spider said as he rubbed his forehead in aggravation
"Hell Taskmaster will have a great view of the area to coordinate his forces if anyone try's to attack" Spider-man said as he scanned the monastery for any signs of Taskmaster or Phantoms
"So now what? Even if we still had KGBeast, Harley and Boomerang and we were all in tip top shape we'd still be screwed" Frost looked towards the village in annoyance at finally realizing how suicidal this entire mission is. It seemed so easy in the beginning with the occasional curve ball thrown at them, but now standing here and seeing that they haven't even faced the worst of the Phantoms forces really putted things into perspective to the former scientist turn super villain.
"Well we could try to draw out Taskmaster's forces. If we're lucky the monastery will be left with fewer guards and we'll be able to infiltrate the structure and retrieve the shard." Deadshot said as stroked his chin in concentration
"I'm not going to be the bait!" Frost said as she sent a dark glare towards the sniper "And neither is anyone else!"
Louise couldn't deny that she's grown fond of these people somewhat. After she became Killer Frost what few friends she had either abandoned her or ended up dead. So for a while she was on her own then she met Shark who was the most intelligent or articulate man in the world but had a sort of charm to him that she liked. Spider-man was an annoying old man in her opinion that was trying to relive his glory days. Black Spider seemed to be a guy who took things too seriously and in her opinion needed to get laid and find maybe find someone that could as cliché as it sounds make an honest man out of him. Deadshot, well she's heard him mention on the ride here that after this he was going to do everything in his power to get out of this life so he seemed to have the most common sense of the bunch but was still a bit of an ass.
Two weeks ago if someone asked her if she would be willing to fight side by side with a group of people like this she'd laugh and likely freeze their balls of or just out right kill them. But in the last several days she couldn't deny that facing nearly impossible fatal odds had a way of bringing people together into a sort of comradeship.
"And if they happen to have those teleportation devices in there that can transport large groups of Phantoms like they probably have in the village? Won't matter if we lure them out when they can easily just teleport back in" Shark said quietly as he crossed his large arms across his chest. Perks of being part shark and spending long amounts of time in the water allowed him to tolerate the Himalayan cold.
"You know we're fucked when guys like Shark are right" Spider-man said which earned a growl from the large meta which caused Spider-man to hold his hands in up in defense
"We need an army to stand a chance…" Black Spider stated as he didn't see them pulling this off with just the five of them
"Frost, couldn't you just use your water and ice manipulation to…" Deadshot gestured towards the village that was surrounded by ice and water "Make an avalanche or something along those lines?"
"Not from this distance and honestly… I don't think my body can take that kind of strain at the moment. Up until Transylvania the most I did was move water around in a pool and that alone was exhausting" Frost said as she folded her arms under her breasts and looked down at the ground
"Shark? How about you? Can you still turn into that sharkzilla thing?" Spider-man asked the large meta with a raised brow under his mask
"No… I still never completely recovered from my fight with Croc before I changed again earlier and I don't see that making much of a difference even if I could"
The team was quite for several minutes with the only noise being the wind as they tried to think up a plan that could work but came up short.
"Fuuuuuuck!" Frost exclaimed as she kicked some snow in frustration before sitting down on a rock and holding her heads in her hands. Shark wandered over to her and crouched beside her as he rubbed her back in attempt to sooth the woman he's grown to care for over the past several days.
To most of the team it looked like they were about to live up to Taskforce X's infamous nickname 'Suicide Squad' since they didn't see any way they could survive this
"I think I can get us one…" Spider-man suddenly said in an uncertain tone
"What?" Deadshot looked at the assassin in surprise who started to scratch the back of his head nervously
"Earlier Black Spider said we needed an army and well… we uh, aren't very far from-" Spider-man began before Black Spider interrupted
"No!"
Spider-man turned towards the younger assassin "Look I don't like it either but ironically enough Ra's might be our only hope of surviving this suicide mission that Waller's given us cause frankly I don't see the fuckin Justice League flying over the horizon anytime soon!"
"Peter!" Black Spider said in an angered tone as he drew closer towards the older man "Ra's will kill us before we can even explain the situation and even if we did I could still see him ordering our deaths!"
"Well excuse me for not wanting to die so soon!" Spider-man argued back "But hey, if you can pull a miracle out of your ass or better yet a way to win this then by all means pull it out!"
"ENOUGH!" Deadshot shouted before taking a deep breath to calm himself back down before speaking again "Will he help us?" Deadshot addressed Spider-man directly with a hard look on his face
Spider-man returned the look with one of his own even though it was covered by his mask "Maybe… I don't know. But if one of his daughters is there I might be able to convince them to help us out. And they might be able to convince Ra's if he's around that is that it would be in his best interest to help us out here"
"Will that be even enough?" Frost asked skeptically "Because I don't see how a bunch of ninjas can help take on guys that could give you and Shark here in his other state trouble. Hell it took the three of us combined to be able to match Dracula and even now I'm starting to think he was just fucking with us!"
"Trust me Frost" Spider-man said as he places a hand on the ice and water manipulator's shoulder "They may be human well actually, that's debatable for a lot of them since some of them possess supernatural powers and or weapons-"
"Get to the point!" Frost ordered the man
"The point is that some of the best fighters in the world are part of Ra's League of Shadows or League of Assassins!" Spider-man finished "Besides they just have to keep most of Taskmaster's forces distracted while we find the shard, the Skelator reject himself and the Phantom making machine and take them out"
The team was quiet for several minutes before Deadshot finally spoke in a resigned tone "Fuck it, we don't have any other options as far as I can see"
"To think that the fate of the world has fallen to us and likely Ra's al Ghul or his daughters" Black Spider rubbed his forehead in disbelief
Spider-man looked at his fellow morally questionable teammates and then back down towards their objective before saying "Yep… Earth's screwed"
After asking Spider-man and Black Spider to lead the way to the Demon Head's compound the team of misfits began their long trek through the cold snow covered mountain range, unaware of a small black orb that's been following them since Transylvania, well a replacement since the original was destroyed
…
The mysterious figure was watching the team of five individuals make their way towards the League of Shadows compound with amusement
"I will be surprised if you can convince Ra's to aid you in your mission Parker…"
He then approached his desk and contacted Venom who should be close by "Venom report"
…
"We've just arrived" Venom responded back as the former ARGUS agent was overlooking the monastery and village with a specially designed sniper rifle on a nearby Cliffside. For his mission Venom had opted for a less conspicuous appearance and toned down on the hissing
Instead of being a large mass of muscle with giant white eyes and a large mouth full of teeth, he now resembled someone around 6'4 and dressed in some kind of black Kevlar like armor equipped with holsters for weapons and other little goodies that he was given by his master to use.
Venom didn't even try to zoom in on Parker's location, knowing that his Spider-sense would tip him off that he was being watched. And Venom's presence had to be kept secret.
"Good… and Venom make sure that Taskmaster won't talk. We don't need him revealing our plans… not now" the man said with an edge to his calm voice
"We understand…" Venom replied before making his approach to the monastery. Venom felt the symbiot stir as they caught a gust of cold wind "Patience… we'll be out of here soon enough…"
…
And Done.
So next chapter will be dealing with Peter meeting the next woman of his harem and convincing the League of Shadows and Assassins to help him in staging an all-out assault against Taskmaster and the Phantoms.
As for Venom's appearance, it is based off of Flash Thompson's Agent Venom look.