Chapter XXV – Cooler Heads

Omega

Korra and Spider-Man reached the depths of the mobile base, the belly of the beast. The immense control room housed hundreds of computer servers and cables, all connected to a single monitor and console located on the far side of the room. "Woah…" Korra was in awe.

"Shh." Spidey quickly shushed her, and hugged the metal wall with shadows. In front of the giant monitor and console was a floating head being accompanied by two other individuals. One of the individuals was a well-known supervillain, the Shocker. The other, was the ever-elusive enemy of the state, someone who chilled the soul of the most hardened SHIELD agents…the Grim Reaper. A dark blue hood hid his rotting face, he wore a dark cape and his right hand was missing, instead of it was a scythe-like device.

"Is the download complete yet?" The Grim Reaper asked as he walked around the immense chair that floated in front of the supercomputer.

"Mysterio is getting anxious over in the control tower, boss." Shocker added, "He says that we have two intruders running amok nearby."

"What the hell happened to the Crimson Dynamo?" Reaper asked.

"His signal went out thirty minutes ago." Shocker answered.

"Then why wasn't I informed?!" Reaper yelled pointing the sharp end of his scythe at the Shocker's face.

"Sorry, boss! I thought he had gone to the crapper or somethin'!" Shocker nervously responded holding both of his arms up in fear.

"Gentlemen, there is no need to start killing each other." The great floating throne turned around, revealing an immense head with tiny arms and legs resting on it. "I, the great M.O.D.O.K, have acquired all of SHIELD's most precious codes and information."

"About time, are the coordinates in place?" Reaper asked.

"Armed and ready." M.O.D.O.K confirmed.

Spidey turned to Korra, "Oh damn, okay Blue-Eyes, we got to go and stop them." He whispered.

"That sounds good and all, but there are a couple of problems with that." Korra replied.

"What?"

"There are currently three of them there and only two of us. Second, I have a broken arm. Third, that Mysterio guy could show at any minute." Korra said, "If we're gonna do something we better plan it ahead of time."

"We don't have time for that." Spidey insisted.

Korra looked around to see anything that could give them an upper hand, these guys are professional supervillains meaning that one wrong move and they were dead. She noticed that several securitrons were in offline mode. The bots were standing on each end of the room, meaning that if the SHIELD robots weren't going to cut it they could at least give them an opening to prevent these baddies from getting SHIELD's data.

"We could turn on those security robots on and give ourselves some time to get the data from them." Korra said, "But I don't know how we'll turn them on."

"Leave that to me then, I got a knack for electronics." Spider-Man said, he crouched down and began to essentially slither his way towards a nearby panel. He hid below tables and computer terminals to avoid being noticed by any of the villains.

Spidey reached the control panel, "All right, let's see what we got here." He whispered to himself. "Ah, a password. Hopefully the security team here is as predictable as I think they are."

Spider-Man typed an eight-character word into the password dialog box.

…EYE_PATCH…

Access granted. "Call me the Scientist Supreme because I just 'hacked' SHIELD's security." Spidey boasted as the bots came online.

The villains noticed the highly-advanced security drones waking up, "What the hell?!" Reaper was dumbfounded as the drones their guns at them. "The security was supposed to be disabled!"

Shocker turned around looking for a way out but he spotted Spider-Man instead. "You!" He hissed aiming his gauntlets as the wall-crawler. He fired his concussive blast towards Spidey who quickly dodged by jumping onto the ceiling.

"Well there goes our cover." Korra said jumping behind one of the steel tables as the drones proceeded to fire indiscriminately.

"Foolish one track machines, witness the might of the M.O.D.O.K!" The big-headed villain exclaimed charging the red jewel on his forehead and firing it towards one of the drones. The blast ripped the drone in half.

"Keep them busy while I take the data out of here." Reaper ordered.

"Gladly." Shocker acknowledged, Reaper ran into one of the exits.

"He's getting away!" Spidey yelled, but his spider-senses lit up warning him of an incoming concussive blast. Spider-Man jumped out of the way again the blast hitting the metal ceiling and creating a hole in the steel. "I didn't think of seeing you finally swinging in the big leagues, Shocky."

"You could say that my resume has impressed very powerful people, web-head! And check this out, new blasters!" Shocker shot his concussive blasts at Spider-Man who could only dodge them.

Korra kept herself hidden from the fight, wanting to analyze the situation before charging into battle. The drones, while relatively weak, were keeping M.O.D.O.K at bay as they jumped onto his big head, and Shocker was distracted by Spider-Man as well, this means that she could easily sneak away and follow Grim Reaper and get the data back. But she couldn't just tell Peter this without ruining her plan.

"Hey Shocker, you got new toys but you're still the knucklehead that I met two years ago." Spidey taunted the supervillain.

"Keep talkin' wall-crawler and I'll- "But before Shocker could say another word Spider-Man webbed his mouth shut. "Mmpgh!"

"Spider bit your tongue?" Spidey jumped down and kicked the Shocker right on the jaw knocking him towards the far metal wall.

"Feeble mortals!" M.O.D.O.K destroyed the last drone. "Ah yes, the man-arachnid."

"Um, I go as Spider-Man, thank you very much." Spidey corrected the big-headed fiend. "But if we are going by nicknames, then I'll call you bobble head!"

"Silence! You will now experience the efficient brutality that is M.O.D.O.K!" The villain fired his red jewel towards Spider-Man, this blasts were super-heated plasma, and unlike Shocker's concussive blasts that would normally result in some dislocated shoulders and a broken rib, this beam of energy would be mean good-bye for our favorite superhero.

"Holy Moley I did not expect this to be this kind of party." Spidey said noticed the metal steel floor being melted by the plasma beam. "Luckily I'm all spider and you're all head."

Spider-Man swung towards M.O.D.O.K avoiding each beam blast via great reflexes and the ever-reliable spider-sense. "Stay still insolent runt!" The technophile villain screamed in frustration.

"No can do!" Spidey kicked the big-headed villain, the foe yelled in even more frustration. He fired his energy beams at a higher frequency, each of them almost going through Spider-Man's limbs. "Woah nelly!"

But before Spidey could act on the spider-sense's warning, a concussive blast hit him square on the chest, knocking out the young hero out of the air and into the floor. Thud! Spider-Man felt as if an elephant had rammed him right on the torso. He tried to stand up, but his ribs ached in intense pain. "Told ya' that I got upgrades." Shocker was back, his gauntlets smoking from the blast.

"Excellent." M.O.D.O.K floated behind the Shocker, smiling. "Now wall-crawler, you will die!"

BOOM! From the very ceiling that M.O.D.O.K floated below of a red and yellow blur tackle the villain at super-sonic speeds, ramming him several feet below. "What?!" Shocker yelled, but then he was tapped on the chest. "Huh?"

"Ding ding!" Spider-Man punched him on the right cheek with enough force that this time he was completely knocked out. "I win. Perfect!"

Iron Man hovered out of the recently made hole in the floor, "And that takes care of that." He said, "Hey kid, great job in taking care of this second tier loser."

"Well the mission isn't over yet. These guys activated some sort of targeting system and now the computer is aiming something towards all the major cities in the country." Spider-Man showed him the map in the supercomputer.

Iron Man raised his fists and destroyed the supercomputer in a single strike. "Hey what the hell?!" Spider-Man was caught off-guard.

"Fury will thank me for that later." Iron Man responded, "Now that this thing is not only immobile and deactivated, we can go back home for a mission debriefing."

"Whew…all right. Korra you can come out now." Spidey told Korra to get out of hiding. But there was no response. "Korra?"

"Where's your partner?" Iron Man asked Spidey, "You were supposed to stay together."

"Uhh…"

Korra ran outside into an open area where the central control room met with the escape helipad. "There he is!" She said spotting Reaper making a charge towards a parked Hind-D. "Talk about unexpected references."

She bended the metal underneath the helicopter to bend in a way that it would get Reaper's attention and stop him from getting into the chopper. The metal got spiked into the cockpit of the chopper making it impossible for the villain to get away.

Reaper turned around, "Ah so you are one of the intruders that Shocker talked about. Colonel Fury must be growing desperate in looking for recruits with sending a child to do his dirty work."

"Think again, knife-hand! I may not look like it, but I helped in kicking Loki's sorry ass back to Asgard!" Korra smiled, "And now I'm gonna kick yours back to last Tuesday!"

"Impressive. Quite impressive indeed." Reaper said, "But then again, there's little you can do now with a broken arm, child."

Korra ran towards Reaper throwing a ball of fire at him, he sliced the fireball with his scythe-hand and then swung it at Korra who barely evaded it. She backflipped away and bended the wind towards Grim Reaper at moderately high speeds distracting the villain. Korra then bended some of the metal plates off the floor and threw them at Reaper. The villain sliced them in half easily but was blindsided by a strong kick to the mandible by Korra. "Gah!" He stepped back a bit. "Tenacious pup."

"I can keep going, with one arm!" Korra taunted him. Reaper smirked and turned his back to her. "Huh?"

"As much as I would enjoy presenting your head to my employer I'm on a tight schedule." Reaper stated, "We'll have to conclude this some other time."

Then out of thin air a cloud of smoke appeared giving way to Mysterio himself. "We are done here." Reaper told the mystical supervillain. An energy beam flew past Korra and hit Mysterio's standing kinetic barrier. "What?"

"Leaving so soon, Reaper?" Iron Man flew towards them. "Come on, let's catch up."

"Iron Man…this means that the others are close." Mysterio said.

"Get us out." Reaper ordered. Mysterio expanded his cape and purple mist surrounded them. Korra ran towards and fire another fireball towards it but the fireball just went through the fog. The mist dissipated…they were gone.

"Dammit!" Korra cursed, "They got away!"

Korra turned towards Spidey and Iron Man who had just arrived, "Why didn't you stop them?!" She questioned them.

"Why did you leave your teammate?" Iron Man asked her.

"What?"

"Why didn't you stay with Spider-Man? Why didn't you follow orders?!" Iron Man stated, "Do you know what would've happened if Reaper actually got serious?"

"Wha…"

"You have a broken arm yet you decided to abandon your teammate and go off by yourself to fight a certified lunatic!" Iron Man took off his helmet, "You know what was happening when you were gone?"

"I…"

"Spider-Man was fighting two villains at the same time, one of them being above his paygrade. If I hadn't been there he would've been killed, Korra." Iron Man told her.

"Um excuse me, Mr. Iron Man…sir…" Spidey tried to defend Korra, "She just did what she thought was best for the mission."

"Best for the mission? Sigh…" Iron Man pressed the bridge of his nose, "At least we prevented the base from sending the nuclear signal. Let's go, you'll get a proper debriefing once we get back to the mansion."

Korra looked at the ground as she walked behind Iron Man, Spider-Man approached her and placed his hand on her shoulder. She looked at him and smiled, but then she remembered something. "Hey Peter…"

"Yeah?"

"Were you able to get whatever M.O.D.O.K stole from the computer?"

"Uhh…"

Somewhere Else

"I've obtained the information. M.O.D.O.K and Shocker played their roles." Grim Reaper placed a disc on a metal table. "But I must ask, why do this instead of using more direct methods?"

A metallic hand extended grabbing the disc, "Because my friend, if you want your enemies defeated properly…annihilate them from within." Doctor Doom held the disc in front of his metal face as he sat on top of the throne of Olympus.