Chapter Thirty Six: A House Divided Part One.
Huntress took down two of the SHIELD agents. She threw a smoke bomb into the air and caused a cloud cover of smoke to blind them.
The Black Widow was trying to figure out what the hell was happening. She wondered who authorized this. Someone high up in SHIELD had been compromised, at least high enough to give the clearance orders.
Then again, was this SHIELD. Or was this someone else who was posing as the spy organization? There were so many questions going through her mind. She took advantage of the cloud cover to attack their enemies.
Natasha shocked one of them and jumped into the air. The woman delivered a spinning leg lariat and popped her enemy in the face. She could see Helena taking down one of the SHIELD agents with a crack. He fell to the ground.
She figured the attack was really effective. A person couldn't aim a gun if both of their arms were broken after all. She continued to push herself forward, ready for anything that they had to throw at her. The Black Widow raised her hands into the air and sent two electrical shock bolts at her enemy.
The Widow's Bite was pretty biting. The enemies toppled over like they were nothing. She continued to pour on the assault, not letting up for one second. She let up, they'd all die. Natasha's breathing increased and became more labored.
Helena grabbed the leader of the pack and slammed him face first onto the ground. The back of his head connected with the wall with a solid clang.
All of the SHIELD agents were down, except for one. Helena marched him over towards the hallway towards the balcony. She hung him over to the balcony.
"Who ordered you to attack us?" The Huntress asked. She didn't give it quite with the force that her father did, but she thought that she scared the shit out of him.
"I'll never talk…HEIL HYDRA!" the SHIELD agent yelled. He bit down onto a capsule in his mouth and foam started to pour out of his mouth. His body went into twitches when his eyes rolled into the back of his head.
The Black Widow rushed out and saw the man. She was a spy, so she saw all of the tricks. And one of them was a cyanide capsule.
"He might be dead, but he told us enough, HYDRA masterminded the attack," Huntress said. "Your organization is under the banner of HYDRA."
Natasha was in denial mode, even if there was a part of her that was trying to deduce what was happening. "Fury would never…"
"I'm wondering if Fury's disappearance was willing," Huntress said. There was some doubt in her voice. One thing that she could say about Fury was that the man always had some kind of ace up his sleeve.
She picked up a communication link. Someone had to give them the orders to cross off the Black Widow.
Natasha looked over Helena's shoulder. This was the type of situation that she had been through before. The woman was not nervous, but it was unsettling the type of things that could happen.
"It was done on Maria Hill's channel," Helena said, once she hacked into the communicator link. Oracle wasn't the only one in that team that was able to hack, although she was the best in the world at what she did.
"You don't….you're not saying what I think that you're saying, are you?" Natasha asked.
"It's likely either her channel was hacked into or she was," Helena said. She pushed the playback.
"The Black Widow knows too much, she's not with the program, I want her brought down," a distorted voice that sounded like Maria Hill commented.
"It's not her," Natasha said immediately. She recognized the voice of one of her superior's and while it was a good mimic, the Black Widow had a keener ear for detail than most.
"You and I both agree about that," Helena said. She heard a set of footsteps and someone rushing towards them.
She spun around and Bobbi Morse threw her hands up. "Relax I come in….you're here."
"She helped me take down some rogue SHIELD agents, she might be one of the few people that I trust right now," Natasha commented.
Bobbi raised her eyebrow. "So, am I among the few people that you trust?"
Natasha gazed at the moment and said nothing. The fact that she didn't take out Bobbi where she stood might have been an indicator for the level of trust she had.
"We're going to have to communicate on the other channel," Natasha told her. She nodded. Natasha pulled out the communicator that she had and adjusted the frequency. "Widow to Indigo, are you there?"
There was a crackling sound over the communicator and Black Widow felt frustration brim to its highest point with her. Then there was a voice that came over.
"Agent Hill just got in touch with me, her channel has been compromised, someone hacked into it and is doing a pretty good imitation of her," the voice over the other communication link commented. "And someone sent as a warning that the MRD are on their way to the Xavier Institute and Milton Fine is…"
"Dead," Natasha replied. That caused the woman on the other end of the line to stop and become surprised. "Not exactly what you learned."
"No, and nothing that I can explain to you over the phone," she added, bobbing her head up and down.
The MRD poured their way into the Xavier Institute with a reckless abandon.
"Everyone, stand back!" Logan yelled. He bared his claws and went to attack them.
There was a large crack outside of the mansion, and they were coming in from all of the entrances, blocking them.
"We're not going to run, we're going to stand and fight, right?" Laura asked. Peter grabbed Laura firmly by the shoulder and Kitty stepped towards them. Jean joined them.
"No, I'm not losing any more teammates," Jean replied firmly to them. "The three of you get out of here."
"What about you, then?" Peter asked.
Jean smiled, a bit unsettlingly from that. "I'm good at coming back from the ashes."
Peter didn't even know what to make of that statement. All he could do was keep leading Kitty and Laura downwards. Kara followed them.
"We're going to need an exit," Peter commented. Kara raised her hands and smashed through the floor, creating them one.
"I think that will do nicely, won't it?" Kara asked. "Oracle warned me about…..well remember that artificial intelligence that my mother created for her university project and…"
Kara didn't have a chance to respond. They were down in the tunnels and a large modified Hulkbuster robot walked towards them. It was about right that Ross would giddily help the MRD, in exchange for perhaps their help in wrangling the Hulk.
"I'll take that, go that way!" Kara yelled. She squinted her eyes and fired a blast of heat vision at it.
The armor absorbed her attacks. Kara figured that it wasn't going to be easy to take down, given that it was built to withstand a beating from the Hulk.
There was more than one way to get around that. Kara dove underneath the outstretched arms. The MRD wrecked some of the ground above and Kara saw some sparks. Several of the pipes were broken and Kara pulled a disgusted face when she got a face full of raw sewage. The blonde shook her head when she flew off in the other dissection away from the creature.
"Hold it off, Mutie!" the driver of the Hulkbuster grunted. He approached Kara and got closer yet.
Kara hung her head in a combination of disgust and shame. She didn't want to break it to this brain surgeon that she was not a mutant. Mostly because she doubted that being an alien would be much better to these bigots.
He walked in water, with power lines flying everywhere. You didn't need a twelfth level intellect like Kara possessed to know that was a recipe for disaster.
The Hulkbuster robot was short circuited when it entered into the water. It would reboot in a little bit. Kara made sure that no one else was around, before she flew at super speed through the support beams.
The tunnels began to collapse and Kara stood back, watching it do so. The Hulkbuster creation was trapped underneath the falling rubble. Smoke began to rise up everywhere.
Kara sighed deeply, to say that was easy. She could hear a lot of voices and not of them good ones. The MRD were searching the tunnels and Kara had a sense that the Hulkbuster robots were the least of their troubles somehow.
'Can you all hear me?' Jean asked. Her mental voice popped up through the link and nearly caught everyone off guard.
Kara sat up and took notice of it first. She smiled when she heard Jean's voice. Oddly enough, it was a soothing sound that brought her back to life. 'Yeah, Jean, I can hear you loud and clear.'
'We can all hear you,' Ororo thought. There were many chimes in. 'We're separated into various groups though, it's hard for us to all get things together.'
'Yes, that was what I was afraid of,' Jean admitted. 'It's best to keep the MRD split off. Kara, have you had any further information from your contact?'
'No, she's gone silent,' Kara thought. The young girl's frustration started to mount. She tried her hardest not to lose her cool, even though it might be inevitable that she would do so. She allowed her breath to come in and out of her body. 'I don't know, I don't really like the looks of this.'
'Few people do considering the circumstances,' Jean agreed with her. The telepath took a few moments to collect her thoughts. 'But I think…..'
There were the sounds of more MRD troops approaching. It was only a small miracle those Sentinel robots hadn't been deployed yet.
It was only a small miracle that they hadn't, but they had more than enough on their plates right now.
Their work appeared to be never done and the frustration all of them felt mounted towards what proved to be a fever pitch. They knew that anyone in the Xavier Institute would be brought in, whether they be a mutant or otherwise.
Robert Kelly thought personally that today was the grandest moment of his life. Things got a bit rough at the hearing, and Captain America appeared to have lost his mind. Then there was the attempted assassination from Magneto. Magneto was in an MRD cell where he belonged and Xavier was right there beside him.
Two of the most powerful mutants in the world were imprisoned and Kelly felt pretty good about himself. The people would sleep much safer once the Sentinels were deployed.
"You should be proud of yourself, Senator Kelly."
Kelly turned around and saw Milton Fine approach him. Fine always seemed cold, but he was a brilliant man. Kelly couldn't fault him for that much. The man's lips curled into a smile and he nodded.
"I'm proud of myself, Doctor Fine," Kelly replied. His tone indicated that he thought that he was king of the world.
"Yes, and soon the X-Men, along with Spider-Man and Flamebird will be brought in and imprisoned along with the rest of them," Fine continued.
"Yes, it has been a rather productive day," Slade said. He entered the office and smiled. "Just checking up to see how you were doing, Robert."
"I'm doing fine, Director Wilson, thanks for asking," Kelly replied. This was the fourth assassination attempt that he survived and he was feeling pretty untouchable.
"You are not a man who shows fear, that's the type of person that the American people need," Slade commented. He sat down next to him. "Did you ever think about running for President?"
Robert Kelly imagined himself as the most powerful man in the world and that was a good feeling. Such power would be perfect as far as he was concerned.
"President Robert Kelly," Kelly muttered to himself.
Slade chuckled. The day that fool became President would be the day that he lost whatever faith he had in the American people to make intelligent voting choices.
"Yes, we all must live that one dream," Slade said. "And mine will come true."
The Scorpion was online and he was hunting Spider-Man. Soon, the son of Richard Parker would pay for the sins of the father. Slade accessed the SHIELD database and knew the identity of every single active super hero in the world. They were weak, because they sent the scum they hunted to prison and did not put them down like the rabid dogs they were.
"I must oversee the capture of the mutants, and I'm certain you want to enjoy the fruits of your legacy, Senator," Slade said crisply.
Slade left and left Kelly looking like that the cat that ate the canary.
"A good day Senator, I hope that you enjoy it like it's your last," Fine commented when he walked out.
Kelly didn't really find anything too peculiar about Fine's statement. If he did, it would be a cause for concern, but he didn't, so he was off out of the office.
Peter scrambled down the tunnels. The web slinger had no idea where he was going. He lead Kitty and Laura down the tunnel. He had to trust that everyone else in the Mansion were able to take care of themselves and find their way out of there.
'The problem is that our faces and names are all over the news,' Peter thought to himself. He always thought in a rapid fire fashion when he was stressed out. His breath grew extremely labored when he tried to figure out his predicament. 'The good news is that….no one has connected me to Spider-Man, at least they haven't, yet.'
The key word in Peter's mind was yet. They have yet to do this. That didn't mean that they wouldn't figure this out in the future. It was said that keeping a secret identity in the age of information and busybodies was pretty much close to impossible. Peter's heart drummed heavily against his chest when he kept making his way down the tunnel.
"I think that there's an exit point up there," Peter muttered underneath his breath.
Laura sniffed the air. "Something's off down here."
"Are you sure that's not the sewage?" Kitty asked. Laura turned to Kitty and gave her one of those looks. Kitty's face fell when she melted underneath the pointed gaze of the girl that was dubbed Project X-23. "Well, it could be."
"No," Laura commented. She could hear something.
"The MRD has gear that's able to take down the Hulk, the HULK!" Kitty yelled. Peter slapped his hand to her mouth to silence her.
"If you promise not to yell, I'll remove my hand from your mouth," Peter hissed in her ear.
Kitty shifted underneath his hand and nodded. She promised not to yell. Peter removed his hand from her mouth and she breathed heavily.
"Sorry, but that upsets me, that they have gear that can be used to take down….."
Peter's spider sense went off and he turned around. He saw three familiar faces walking towards them.
"Well, if it isn't the Three Stooges?" Spider-Man asked. He slipped into pure quip mode as he did.
Sandman rose up from the dust and caused a sand storm to blind them in the desert. Rhino charged in and tried to attack both of them.
Laura dodged Rhino and Kitty screamed when she went intangible. Rhino slammed head long into a brick wall.
"Alright, this is it, I'm going to take your punk ass down, and I'm going to get paid for doing it!" Shocker yelled and he lifted up one of his gauntlets.
"Yeah, Herman, keep dreaming the impossible dream, buddy," Spider-Man said. The one thing that he had to say about Herman Schultz was that he was pretty persistent, even though it was rather annoyingly so. Spider-Man clicked his tongue in amusement and sighed when he looked at the man that was before him. "Come on, you're not going to hit a broadside of a barn with attacks like….."
Kitty phased through his gauntlets and disabled them completely. Shocker was taken down handily.
That left Sandman to deal with. Laura tried to hack away at him with her claws, but unfortunately all she was doing was stirring up the storm.
"Laura, I can handle him, trust me," Peter answered. Peter dove over the top of Laura and raised his arms. He hurled a little metal bead through the air at Sandman.
"What's that supposed to…" Sandman started, but then he was frozen. He was still conscious in there, but he was not able to move at all.
"What did you do?" Kitty asked.
"I'll just skip all of the scientific jargon and say that I froze him solid," Peter told her. Kitty turned to him and smiled.
"Hey, Spider-Man, come out and play!"
Spider-Man could hear a taunting voice behind him. He didn't recognize it as one of his normal rogue gallery, but he could be wrong. The web slinger stood rigid and still when he looked out into the shadows. He waited for his enemy to come out and face him.
A large and imposing figure stepped out of the shadows. His body was covered in green armor. Spider-Man wondered if he could even penetrate that with his stingers. He tried to search for a weak spot right off hand.
"Just who are you?" Spider-Man asked.
"You can call me the Scorpion," he said. His voice was raspy and rough. He lifted a large tail.
"He must be a hit at parties," Kitty whispered.
"Must you joke at a time like this?" Laura asked to her in agitation.
Kitty shrugged her shoulders. "It help lightens the mood."
Laura shook her head and frowned. "I guess, if you say so."
"I don't say so," Kitty replied. She piped up with a smug statement. "I know so."
"Girls, behind me, I don't know how dangerous this thing was….."
The Scorpion moved towards Spider-Man with expert precision. It knocked him hard into the wall.
"I was a normal man, a nobody, a peon before this morning," the Scorpion growled, when his strength overwhelmed Spider-Man. "And now, I'm the man who is personally responsible for taking down Spider-Man."
Laura rushed at him, but he swung his tail and sent a jet of acid venom at her face.
Kitty screamed when she saw half of Laura's face melted off from the Scorpion. She rushed over, and panicked.
"Stay back," Laura groaned. She could feel her face healing over itself. It healed over, but it still hurt like hell.
Kitty was shaking like a leaf. She thought that she should be used for hardened things, dealing with the X-Men.
Spider-Man flipped over the Scorpion. The Scorpion landed on his feet and smiled. The web slinger tried to nail him with a stinger. Scorpion absorbed that.
"My sting is better than yours, Spider-Man!" Scorpion yelled.
Spider-Man dodged the tail and jump onto the top of his head. Scorpion closed his eyes and a bolt of electricity shot through Spider-Man, launching him off.
Laura's face was a bit red, but it was healed. She turned her head towards Kitty, who looked to be hyperventilating about the fact that she saw half of her fellow collective member's face.
"Cool it, I'm alright," Laura said. "But he won't be."
"Freeze, Muties!"
"Seriously," Kitty said. She turned around and placed her hands on her hips. "Listen, that kind of douchebag racist behavior went out with the Reich."
An electrified net shot towards Kitty. Laura pushed her out of the way and it landed harmlessly.
The Scorpion and Spider-Man continued their fight in another portion of the sewers.
"Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a Spider-Man can," Scorpion taunted him.
"Yeah, I think giving you super powers has made your brain kind of loopy," Spider-Man said. He punched him, nothing.
"Ever since I've been bonded with this suit, I can feel no pain," Scorpion informed him. He grabbed Spider-Man by the wrist. "You can punch at me all day and I wouldn't get so much of a tickle."
Spider-Man was hung over the edge of a metal contraption with whirling blades. He didn't know what the purpose of such a thing was; it looked to be pumping the water down or something. He knew that if any human flesh, even super powered human flesh was caught on that.
A burst of fire caused the Scorpion to be distracted. Gwen rushed over to join Peter.
"Fine, you want to play too!" Scorpion yelled. He launched an acid jet at Gwen, who avoided the attack. The Scorpion launched himself over. "You don't get it, do you, I can't be hurt! I can shrug this off"
Scorpion launched a barb from his tail at Gwen.
Peter reacted quickly and jumped in front of Gwen. He took the poisonous barb to the shoulder and dropped down to the ground instantly.
Gwen's temper boiled to the surface. The Scorpion laughed. "The bastard will be dead and….."
The Scorpion was caught off guard by Gwen knocking him off of the edge and right into the fan contraption. The Scorpion tried to scramble out, but he was no match. He was hacked to ribbons. Blood splattered up from the water. He had no chance.
Gwen walked over and looked down at Peter. He had a pulse, but barely. His breathing was quite labored and he was running an intense favor.
"Oh, Peter, you noble idiot," Gwen said with a sigh.
She looked down the tunnel and saw Kara, Kitty, and Laura walk towards them. The MRD had been taken out, and Gwen noticed that the Huntress was right with them.
"The MRD are taken out now, but there will be more on the way," Huntress said. "What happened?"
"He got stung by the Scorpion, he's in bad shape," Gwen said. She tried to keep a cool head, but the other girls were freaking out.
Kara gently picked up Peter and cradled him in her arms. She could see the barb still sticking in the back of his neck.
"He'll die if the poison isn't neutralized within twenty four hours," Kara urgently stated. "The venom was made from a rare plant…..it's not native of Earth."
"If it's not native of Earth then…..it might be difficult to formulate an antidote," Gwen commented.
"There's always hope," Huntress told her. "We do need to get out of here though. Our ride is up above."
Kara managed to carry Peter's dead weight out of the sewers. He looked rather sickly and he could barely talk.
"Conserve your energy, Pete, we'll get you help, I swear," Kara said. She knew who was behind this; it was just a matter of finding him.
Carol was waiting for them. Normally Kara would be glad to see her sister but not under these circumstances.
"Poisoned, rare plant…..it has no translation for its name in any Earth language, that's how rare it is," Kara stated with urgency. They made their way and set Peter down. He was about ready to have a seizure.
"Do we have something to stabilize him?" Gwen asked urgently.
Helena sat down. She considered something that she would never consider if the situation had not been dire. She had one last favor from the League of Assassins. It was because of them that she was brought back from the edge of death in the first place.
She would never consider it, if the situation had not been so dire. If Peter hadn't been this close to death's door. The problem was it was considered a taboo for an outsider to use the pits, so to ask for this favor, it would burn up all of her political capital she had with the daughter of the demon. She had been tasked with the mission of finishing off the Red Skull, who went against the code of honor that the League had.
It was also the problem that she honestly had no idea what the pits would do to someone of Peter's powers. Normal people had periods of insanity when they emerged. It was unprecedented for someone of Peter's powers.
"What's wrong?" a voice said and that caused Gwen to look up and smile. "Gwen, is that you?"
Gwen was surprised to see an old friend of hers from grade school that she lost touch from, but there was no mistaking her now. "Hello, Chloe, I didn't think that you of all people would have defected over to the dark side of SHIELD."
To Be Continued On February 14th, 2015.