Returning to Sanctuary
On Island M…
Deep within the sublevels of Magneto's mysterious fortress was a chamber filled with cells where they contained a small number of people that were taken by Taskmaster's forces during the Manhattan Incident. They were thrown in there and treated like low-level prisoners. They were innocent, hungry, distraught, confused, and above all: fearful, fearful of their future and the unknown of whether or not they would be rescued.
They each remembered the chaos and mayhem the terrorist attack carried out by Taskmaster's mercenary forces brought upon them, capturing many and forcing them into his submarines that escaped the island shortly before the Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D., and the U.S. Military retook the island. Their submarines were ordered to deliver some to Island M while the rest were taken to Magneto's secret facility up near Vancouver, a black site known only as Purgatory. Once the humans were taken into custody, Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants killed Taskmaster's mercenaries, cutting all loose ends.
These were men, women, and children that were taken all in the actions of a mercenary working for a mutant supremacist whose actions and intentions were to experiment on them for his own dream of advancing the mutant race into a new level of existence to supersede mankind.
The chamber where they were held was a large atrium-like stone chamber, divided up in two sections with a steel wall dividing the sections apart. One was for the men and the other one was for the women and children. They were monitored by two of Magneto's mutants, Blob and Lady Deathstrike. Blob watched over the section with the adult males, while Lady Deathstrike watched over the section with the women and the children.
The steel door to the entrance seemed to super heat itself in a bright red glow. It slowly dissipated away into a burnt scorch mark on the door, then, the doors swung open, followed by Pyro's slow approach into the chamber. His boots scorched the stone floor with every step he took, the fire and heat generated from his flamethrower strapped to his back, poking his eyes into each one of the cells filled with fearful souls as he walked past, chuckling to himself in a raspy tone.
As he reached the median where the sections divided up the thousand or so humans they held in the chamber, he heard large footsteps approach him, along with the sharp screeching sound that sounded like claws on a chalkboard. From both sides of the steel median, the massively big Blob came thundering out and the small and sleek Lady Deathstrike came walking out with her claws scratching across the steel median.
Blob was a gigantic freak of a mutant. He had a small head that seemed irrelevant to his morbidly large mass of body that towered over anybody. He had a small patch of graying-blond hair on his round head and wore giant black cargo pants and a black shirt that had trouble covering his huge belly. On top of all that, he had the continuous stench of potato chips.
Lady Deathstrike was vastly smaller in size compared to the counterpart Magneto assigned her. She wore black skin-tight leggings that had some sort of golden armor plating that ran up through her upper body that covered all the way up to her knuckles, in which her exposed hands were downplayed by the really long steel claws protruding out of each one of her digits. Her black hair covered most of her face, almost like a hood.
"Oye, whatchu doing here, Pyro?" Blob blurted out in a deep but funny-sounding tone of voice. "I thought you was supposed to be watching the dungeons!"
"What, with the one prisoner we have?" Pyro coldly asked. "Reaper sent me to grab one of the humans for testing."
"Mmm, another experiment? I thought we already had the Wraiths." Lady Deathstrike asked in a condescending tone of voice.
"He's experimenting on the Phantom's daughter." Pyro explained. "And Magneto wants a young male to accompany her in the experiment."
"I hope Magneto realizes that he's not making advancements by creating mutates and then branding them as mutants. It's idiotic." Lady Deathstrike stated. "I don't think the Brotherhood should trust Reaper and his claims."
"I don't mind him." Blob commented. "I think he's a good guy. Well, not good guy, but you know what I mean."
Pyro sighed. "I'm not here to argue this. Take it up with Magneto, not me. I'm just here to take the young male to Reaper."
"I got lots of guys in me section!" Blob proudly stated. "Take one of them sorry bastards!"
"He said young male, you idiot." Lady Deathstrike scolded her counterpart. "I have plenty of young teenagers in the holding cells with the rest of the women in my section."
"I'll go with the teenager; he might last longer than an older male in the experiment." Pyro made his decision.
"Awh, come on!" Blob pouted that Pyro didn't choose his section. "No fair, Lady Death always gets all the choices."
With that, Blob sulked away into the corridor of cells in his section, yelling loudly at the prisoners and punching their cell bars. Lady Deathstrike and Pyro watched him walk away.
"Is he always like this?" Pyro inquired.
"You haven't seen him during lunch hours." Lady Deathstrike shook her head in disapproval. "He complains whenever I take more than five minutes for lunch while I let him have a whole two hours to eat a whole month's worth of food."
Lady Deathstrike led Pyro through the cells of her section, some of them with the sounds of babies crying or women crying, some yelling at each other, others fighting each other in what appeared to be death-matches.
"It's interesting how humans react differently to the situation they find themselves in." Lady Deathstrike commented. "Some have even gone to cannibalize each other, unfortunately, Magneto doesn't want his subjects to eat each other, so we've had to isolate the cannibals in other cells."
"Very interesting." Pyro responded in an uninterested tone, he didn't honestly care about it. "Who did you have in mind to give to me, anyone in particular?"
"Hmm…" Lady Deathstrike scratched her chin with her long claws, pondering the question. "There is one of them that has interested me, he's very different from the rest in his cell."
"Oh, entertain me." Pyro rolled his eyes. "Or show me where he is."
She led Pyro to the cell, peeking in to see a small family inside. The woman (presumably their mother) had long black hair, aged, and her clothing looked hideously worn. She watched over two small children, and an older looking teenage male. He had a jagged cut, raven-black hair when fell to his ears and eyebrows, his skin relatively pale, and wore ragged clothes and worn-out jeans. He had obviously been there a while.
"That one." Pyro grinned ear to ear. "That's the one we can use."
"Very well." Lady Deathstrike pried the cell door open, scaring the family that was inside. She stalked inside, holding up her claws to keep the family pinned down.
"No, no, please don't hurt us!" The mother cried in a frightened tone, holding her small children closest to her while the teenage boy stood close next to his mother.
Pyro walked in behind Lady Deathstrike and stared down the boy, slowly approaching him, filling the cell with extreme heat. He stopped a few feet in front of him, holding his hand up and beckoning the boy to approach him. The boy had tears flowing down his face, his eyes filled with fear. However, he defiantly shook his head at Pyro, refusing to approach him.
Angered, Pyro grabbed the boy by his collar. In that instant, the boy's mother grabbed one of his arms, trying to hold him back away from Pyro.
"No, please! Don't take my son!" the mother cried. "Take me! Don't take him, please!"
"Let go, human!" Lady Deathstrike threatened the mother, but the mother wouldn't let go.
Lady Deathstrike attacked the mother, slashing her arm and causing her to let go of the boy and start violently bleeding. The woman kept crying and refused to accept that they were taking away her son. Pyro shoved the boy outside of the cell followed shortly by Lady Deathstrike, leaving the family crying and weeping inside the cell.
"Wren, please… don't take my son, don't take my Wren!" The mother's screams were heard throughout the cells.
At the Xavier Institute…
Wolverine readied the X-Jet to head out to the Alaskan Coast to help coordinate the attack alongside the Avengers. This united teamwork against a common enemy came at an unprecedented time for the X-Men. S.H.I.E.L.D. was beginning to make inquiries into each individual action Xavier's Institute for Higher Learning was taking to contain its mutants from divulging into criminal and/or terrorist actions alongside Magneto. It was reaching a point of breaching their privacy and requests to have S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel monitoring the mutants in their activities.
Professor Charles Xavier strongly disagreed with the precautions S.H.I.E.L.D. was taking. But, it was not of his nature to act out aggressively against the wishes of the government, specifically the agency at S.H.I.E.L.D. In spite of it all, he proceeded to comply with S.H.I.E.L.D. regulations with the hope that it made the humans feel "safer" that the Institute was closely watched over.
Amongst these "regulations" was a security perimeter guarded by numerous S.H.I.E.L.D. troops surrounding the grounds of the institute, along with security cameras installed in the hallways and mandatory checks and inspections from mutants leaving the institute as well as identification of all mutants into a S.H.I.E.L.D. database. This was all done in the "interest of protecting the mutants."
These regulations were done in a matter of days, all it took was a visit from newly appointed S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Sitwell to Professor Xavier himself. The following day, Xavier ordered the X-Men to mobilize, having ensured that S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't discover the lower levels of the institute where Cerebro and the X-Jet were housed.
In the hours before their departure, Xavier sat at his desk one more time, reviewing documents and old textbooks so that Hank could take over the administration of the institute while Xavier was gone. Despite his exterior looks, Hank was a diplomat at heart, and would ensure that the institute is taken care of, even under S.H.I.E.L.D.'s watchful eye.
The night had befallen upon the institute and the X-Men were itching to depart, ready to face their nemesis, Magneto, and put a stop to his reign of terror once and for all, for the better of both mutant kind and mankind.
As Xavier continued to review his important files, the wooden door to his office opened, and Dr. Jean Grey walked in, fully suited in her X-Men attire, calmly closing the door behind her.
Xavier glanced up at Jean before continuing with his work. "Shouldn't you be helping Logan load up the X-Jet, Jean?"
"Scott's helping him, along with the others. He's just making sure that cloaking device that Tony Stark gave us will help mask the X-Jet's departure from the institute. Logan doesn't really trust Stark and his machines." Jean respectfully answered, taking a seat in front of Xavier.
"He doesn't trust too many people." Xavier grinned a little bit.
"Are you about ready, professor?"
Xavier put down his papers and directed his attention to the outside of the window of his office to his right side. He placed his hand at his chin, lost in his thoughts.
"Is everything okay?" Jean then asked with concern in her voice.
"I'm just trying to figure it out, Jean. I'm trying to figure out how we've come to this point, where Eric, a longtime rival… and friend… has decided to experiment on humans… creating mutates, and leading himself to believe that this is the future of Earth." Xavier solemnly spoke. "Eric is a lot of things, but a madman, I've never known him to be."
"I thought we concluded that Reaper might have him under some sort of mind control. Do you think otherwise?"
Xavier moved about away from his desk, rolling towards a wall where he had placed all the black and white and faded color pictures of his time with the X-Men decades ago, in a time where both Eric and Raven Darkhölme were once considered X-Men. It seemed alien to him now, that Magneto and Mystique were ever X-Men.
"Eric is one of the most intelligent mutants I've ever had the honor to work with, a man with a vision, and willpower second to none, it just seems outlandish to think that there is another being capable of swaying Eric under his influence, to the point he's making claims and theories that the Eric I know would never make."
Jean Grey got up and walked over to stare at the pictures alongside Xavier, crossing her arms in studying them. "I know that you still believe in him, professor, but nobody here, except for perhaps Hank, believes that Magneto will agree to settle this peacefully. You and I both know that the moment he experimented on humans, we were beyond compromise to this lifelong issue."
"I know." Charles took a deep sigh. "Now our hope lies in an alliance with the Avengers, Specter Haven, and Spider-Man's team of heroes… all trying to stop one man."
"If we don't stop him here, there won't be anything to stop the world powers from beginning to persecute mutants worldwide. Nobody will be safe." Jean Grey stated to Xavier, with fear in her voice.
"That's exactly what Eric wants. He wants the world to attack us. He wants them to give him a reason to exterminate mankind."
Jean Grey shook her head, disapprovingly, knowing what Magneto is set out to do. "If the time comes where Magneto refuses to listen to reason, will you be able to do what is necessary to stop him, professor?"
Charles closed his eyes, trying to fight the inner conflict within himself of whether or not he will be ready to finish Magneto off should the time come. He opened his eyes and nodded to Jean. "If Magneto has to be stopped, he must be stopped. But we need to also ensure that the Reaper is stopped as well."
After their chat, Jean Grey returned to the X-Jet hangar. Accompanying them would be Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Colossus, Rogue, Nightcrawler, and Shadowcat. It was a small team, but Charles wanted to make sure not all the X-Men were off the grounds in the case S.H.I.E.L.D. would decide to do something outside their agreement with the institution.
As Xavier transferred the control of the institution to his trusted friend, Hank McCoy, he took one last look at the school before embarking off alongside his fellow mutants towards the Alaskan Coast…. Unsure if he would ever see the institute again.
A vision… (Phantom's POV)
Phantom blacked out into a deep sleep after the events that happened on the shores of Lake Michigan, unsure of what resulted from Specter Haven's fight with Mystique and the rogue Nova. Weakened, his body shut down all of his functions to restore health to itself. This is similar to how he cheated death when he sunk the previous helicarrier into the Hudson River. In this state, Phantom's mind was lost in his own consciousness, in a state of "limbo".
He woke up in a blurred vision of some sort, feeling disoriented and uneasy in whatever place he had ended up in. It was a large room of some sort, a chamber filled with machines and large glass tubes with humanoids floating inside. It looked like a laboratory of some sort, but Phantom couldn't make sense of where he was.
This doesn't… look like my dreamscape. Where the hell did I end up?
In the middle of the lab were two large metallic steel casings, similar to the one that Phantom remembers as where he was transformed into what he was, Project Vitruvian. The steel casings had tubes running in and out of them, this was to gas the subjects with the aerosol form of the serum before injecting them with various compounds derived from a pool of abilities that Reaper seemed to have acquired over a long time… this was information that Phantom learned from Vitruvian, anyway.
This looks exactly like the casings that created me for sure… is this a memory of some sort? Or somebody else's memory? Someone from Specter Haven?
As he approached the casings, he realized they were open, and inside laid two bodies… a female and a male, both awake and conscious. The girl was crying, scared out of her mind and weeping away at her doomed fate. The boy on the other hand, was shaking, nervous, tearing up but not as bad as the girl was.
Phantom's heart dropped as he recognized one of them, Selena! Both her and the young man that was in the case opposite of her were placed in these black skin-tight body suits that covered all but their hands, feet, and heads. It seemed to be a countermeasure to graft their disappearing abilities into a suit they will wear if the experiment were to be a success.
Selena, no! This can't be happening! Reaper's taken her! I… I can't let this happen! That bastard is going to pay! Damn it!
"Selena!" Phantom yelled, rushing over to her side. He tried to break the casings, rip open the steel tubs, but he could do nothing, he was in a vision, and . "No, no, no… this can't be happening. I'm going to save you, honey… I'm not going to let this happen! Dear Christ, this can't be happening!"
Suddenly, a maniacal laugh was heard from the other side of the laboratory. Phantom turned his head to see Reaper walking towards them. Only the red of his glowing eyes were apparent from underneath his black hood, with his bracers emanating its signature red electric glow, his twin swords strapped in black sheathes across his back, and the excruciating screaming effect that accompanied his presence.
This son of a bitch is going to pay… dearly… for what he's been trying to do this entire time… and he better not do anything to my little girl…
"At the last, we've come to complete the goal of the Athena-Class Projects, to create the perfect, supreme mutant being." Reaper spoke to himself as he stood over the steel casings, holding a long tube filled with some sort of green substance. "If this serum proves successful… then we shall disperse it across the atmosphere… to transform all of mankind, and completely eliminating the human race."
"You're crazy!" Selena cried.
Reaper's smile was apparent beneath his mask. "Perhaps I am, my dear, perhaps I am. But if you only knew what events transpired to drive me to this point of insanity… maybe then, you'd understand."
"W-What happened?" the boy asked with great fear in his voice.
"Many things…" Reaper began to pace around the steel casings. "It's not typical of me to explain what happened but… perhaps you should both know what did happen. You see, I come from another time period, far ahead of this one. I was a mutate created in a world where mutants were the minority, and I associated myself alongside those mutants… having lost everything I held dear in my human life."
"I made friends, I made enemies, but above all else… I came to trust the man named Magneto, my creator, the man responsible for the experiment that created me." Reaper continued, continuously pacing around the room. "He taught me everything I knew, he warned me of the fate that mutant kind would face.
"S.H.I.E.L.D. spearheaded the fall of the mutant race. First came the persecutions, then the executions, then the death camps… and then… the Sentinels. They hunted mutants down, one by one, all at the hands of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the rest of the human community. Magneto sought to save us by securing passage for all mutants to Genosha, the mutant utopia that Magneto hoped to have been our sanctuary… but even that proved to be a lie.
"I watched as the skies filled with Sentinels and helicarriers, the shores with armored troops and tanks, and I watched our final plight with mankind… before we were cut down. The humans lined our fellow mutants up one by one, and killed them like animals. It was then, before they broke into Magneto's Citadel, that Magneto revealed to me… that he had acquired two Infinity Gems… after many years of searching for them. He told me that they were the Time and Power gems, able to travel back into the future and hold unlimited power.
"As they broke into the Citadel, I placed one gem in each of my bracers, and used the Time Gem to travel back into the past, to ensure that we had an opportunity to stop what will happen… to bring the human race to a new level of existence… amongst us mutants." Reaper finished his great monologue detailing his past. He held up his bracers to show Selena and the other boy the gems.
They were perfectly crested into the metal of the bracers, orange and red, red obviously being the Power Gem, having given Reaper the red electric glow.
This is definitely some information that I never knew about… but it confirms our suspicions as well as what we've been concluding all along… Reaper is a time-traveler. But who is he, truly? He said Magneto was his "creator"? What does that mean?
"I don't expect you both to understand." Reaper crossed his arms at them. "But I've come too far to back down now, I will do what I must, even if that goes against Magneto. You see, the Magneto that I came to know isn't the same as the Magneto that exists now… he doesn't understand the pain mutant-kind went through in the end… he's still a soft man, not as hardened and as ruthless as I came to know him… but… that doesn't matter."
That would explain the greater influence Reaper has over Magneto… He must be trying to shape the future the way Magneto of the future wanted it, even if that means forcing the present-time Magneto into believing it, at whatever the cost.
Reaper walked towards a holographic projection of the world. He must've had it to study how he would disperse the serum into the atmosphere.
"Nothing will stand in my way." Reaper took a deep breath. "I will finish… what Magneto started, save the mutant race… and save our future."
I've heard enough…
Infuriated, Phantom tried to supercharge his bracers to attack Reaper, but even in this vision, he couldn't use his powers. All he could do is watch in horror as his beloved daughter was about to be experimented on by this monster.
"That doesn't give you the right to take away our free will." Selena tried to tell him. "You're no better than the humans who took away your free will in your future…"
"Don't try to appeal to my better judgement, young girl." Reaper snapped, still facing the holographic globe. "My mercy has run out for the human race. But, it was Magneto's wish to preserve mutant-kind by transforming the human race… it was the best idea we had. However, it will be some time before we are able to ascend you both to that level of existence… I still need one more blood sample."
"You're just gonna leave us here?!" The boy next to Selena questioned.
Reaper began walking away from them; back out towards the entrance of the lab. "Don't fret, I'll return soon enough to complete the experiment."
Just then, Selena looked up at Phantom, just as she did the last time Phantom seemingly entered her consciousness through the mental connection they shared. Her eyes filled with hope in that instance.
"D-dad?!" Selena cried out. "D-dad, come stop him, please!"
Is it possible?! It must be like that time she saw me while she was doing homework! The mental connection!
"I'm coming, darling, I'm coming!" Phantom cried back, reaching out for her hand.
But in that moment, the vision faded into darkness, having seemingly lost the mental connection to Selena, Phantom returned to being lost in his thoughts and memories, still not waking up to the physical world.
On-board The Eidolon…
In the minutes that followed their escape from Chicago, everyone on-board remained silent. The two separate teams studied each other, all while keeping an eye on their fallen members, Sam and Phantom, lying in different cots on opposite sides of the main cabin. Ava had resumed her job of flying The Eidolon back to Phantom's Sanctuary to rendezvous with Coulson, with Spidey as her co-pilot. The rendezvous itself was on a whim, since they weren't able to open up channels with Coulson's official S.H.I.E.L.D. connection.
Phantom's bloodied-up body laid on the cot with his sword rested at his side. Fox removed his mask and hood so that he didn't have to wake up with the smell of dried up blood from his mask. His healing powers had started to work their magic and his face was healing up fine and well. White Fox sat next to him, meditating and praying to herself.
Sam's body lied sprawled out on his cot with his helmet in the cockpit to avoid him trying to reach for it in-case he was still under the Reaper's control. Powerman and Iron Fist were both keeping a close eye on him, while staying weary of the new characters of Specter Haven.
Both of the teams sat on opposite sides of the cabin, waiting for someone to say the first word.
"So, you guys part of Spidey's crew?" Firewalker broke the ice.
"Crew? You mean team?" Powerman clarified.
"Sure."
"In that case, yeah, we're part of Spidey's team." Powerman crossed his arms. "We're pretty good at what we do, even if that means staying up late chasing baddies and not have enough time to do homework and have enough time to sleep."
Firewalker chuckled. "School is for chumps, bro."
"Knowledge is power, a path to wisdom, a key to growing and learning." Iron Fist added his philosophical note to the conversation.
"And who are you?" Wolfe grunted. "Are you some sort of fortune teller or something? Isn't your name Iron Hand, or something like that?"
"Isn't your name Wolfie, or something like that? It's kind of similar to Wolverine, no? Maybe a bit unoriginal?" Powerman coolly asked back.
Wolfe growled and whispered to Firewalker, "I don't like them."
"Don't mind the old man next to me, he doesn't like anyone younger than him." Firewalker shook off Wolfe's demeaning vibe. "The name's Drake Ashbell, although my friends call me Firewalker, the hunter here is Wolfe. Our newbie meditating over there is White Fox, and it looks like you guys already know Phantom."
"Damn, Phantom really pulled it off then, huh? He was able to recruit you guys into Specter Haven, after all." Powerman was amazed at the incredible feat.
"Hey, anything to get back at that mofo who made us who we are now." Firewalker shrugged. "It's nice to be in the action scene too, a great change up from getting shot at by ordinary people in the streets."
"Well, I'm Powerman. The human fortune cookie here is Iron Fist. Our lost friend here is Nova, and you guys already know Spider-Man and White Tiger." Powerman introduced their team to them.
"Ah, the lovebirds." Wolfe grunted. "They're going to have one interesting tale to tell their pups, that's for damn sure."
"What do you mean?" Iron Fist curiously asked. "Did their relationship get in the way of the mission?"
"Not really." Firewalker shrugged. "It's just nice to see two people so in love that they're too stubborn to really let go of each other. Hell, after everything that's happened, I'm interested in hearing what they're saying in the cockpit right now. I'm missing the superhero soap opera, here."
"I'm sure they're doing fine." Fox spoke, breaking her meditation and removing her hood and white scarf, revealing the attractive features of her face.
"You connect with Phantom at all there, Fox?" Firewalker inquired. "Is he doing ok?"
Fox shook her head. "His healing factor's working, that's for certain, but it'll be sometime before we see him up and about again."
"Shame, we did not get the chance to say hello to him again." Iron Fist sighed. "And here I was thinking he had slaughtered our friends and turned to the dark side."
"I'm pretty sure he's in the clear there." Powerman assuredly commented.
"Agreed." Iron Fist smiled.
Suddenly, Sam woke up from his sleep, violently screaming, "Ah! Traitors! What the hell is going on?!"
This prompted everyone to ready themselves to beat Sam back down, but Powerman was the closest to him, fastest to act on the situation.
Powerman quickly rushed in to pin Sam down on the cot. "Calm yourself dude! I will knock you back to the first grade if you blow up on this ship now!"
"Chill, man!" Sam was tapping Powerman's arm, trying to get him off of him. "I'm good! I'm good now! I think!"
Powerman reluctantly let go of him, helping Sam sit up in his cot. "You good?"
"You gonna try killing us?" Firewalker added his question.
Sam held his head in his hands, trying to make light of what happened. "I don't know what the hell happened… Just… one minute I was fine and then… I don't know."
"You just called us traitors!" Firewalker skeptically stated.
"Sam, are you aware that you might've been under Reaper's mind-control?" Iron Fist poked his head over Powerman's shoulder to ask.
"Mind-what?" Sam seemed to be normal to the team. "I don't… remember. W-where are we?"
"Going home." Powerman quickly answered. "Come on, Sam, you got to remember something."
"Home?" Sam was confused, continually grabbing his head. "Why can't I remember anything?!"
"I think this Reaper character still has some sort of grip on his mind." Fox quickly stated after examining him.
"How'd you figure?" Powerman curiously asked.
"I can sense that his mind is only halfway there, in his head. The other half isn't there, the important piece, the piece where his collective memory is. It's why he doesn't know where or what he's doing. All he knows is the pain from trying to remember." Fox tried to explain.
"And how do you know all this?" Iron Fist skeptically asked. "That sounds like something only Doctor Strange can diagnose."
Fox shrugged. "It's just a feeling, I guess. I can't really explain it."
"Maybe he needs rest?" Powerman suggested and turned to Sam. "Bro, you should probably get some sleep, it'll do you some good."
"Sleep?! W-why?!" Sam looked up at Powerman, a tint of red glowing in his eyes. "There is no time for rest…"
"Aw shit, here we go again." Firewalker took a deep sigh.
Sam suddenly burst into anger, trying to jump on Powerman and trying to claw him with his nails. "Traitors! You're all traitors!"
Powerman quickly punched him across his jaw, knocking Sam out cold onto the cot he was resting in, causing Wolfe to laugh hysterically at the scene.
"I didn't want to do that." Powerman sighed.
"I hope you did not break his jaw." Iron Fist planted his face in his palms. "Oh, Sam, how are we ever going to cure you of whatever disease you have?"
"It's not really a disease…" Firewalker corrected. "More of like… a power trip, his ego was probably something Reaper preyed upon, and it just got him, you know?"
"Sounds about right." Powerman shrugged. "It doesn't make me feel any better from punching him."
"Let me do it next time." Wolfe commented.
In the cockpit of The Eidolon… (Spidey's POV)…
Spidey and Tiger didn't say much to each other after they escaped Chicago. Tiger only asked Spidey to be her co-pilot because she felt the team should have the opportunity to meet each other and get comfortable about working with them. He agreed with the idea, but felt a rush of awkwardness and nervousness from being next to her again after she had also died in his arms, mostly because they left on not as good terms before what happened in Chicago.
I can tell that this silent treatment of her's isn't intentional this time… I almost feel like she feels guilty for me saving her butt for the hundredth time now!
Well, not THAT many times, but who's honestly counting?
I just want to make sure that we're good now… but if she's going to keep acting this way… I mean, come on…
"So, it's been one hell of a week, eh Tiger?" Spidey tried breaking the silence and getting her to talk.
"Yeah, you could say that." Ava shrugged. "At least we got Specter Haven recruited, now if only Phantom could wake up now. We're literally flying into the unknown right now."
Yeah, but I'm sure Phantom would be here like, "Your relationship can't interfere with the mission! If it does, I'm going to go ghost and curse you for eternity!"
"Yeah, true." Spidey nodded. "Listen, Ava…"
"Before you start, there's something I should say." Tiger let go of the steering controls and activated auto-pilot on The Eidolon. She turned to Spidey and removed her mask, exposing her soft face and brown eyes, meaning that she was going to be sincere in what she was going to tell him.
Here we go, here's her big lecture as to how dangerous that whole thing went and how she wants us to split up for good. (Sigh)… Back to being Pity Parker and be single for the rest of High School again.
In return, Spidey removed his mask too.
"Fox filled me in on what happened after Sam knocked me out up there in the sky, dropping me hundreds of stories in the air… and you jumping to come save me… it's not the first time you did something like that, web-head." Ava crossed her arms and legs on the chair.
Ah, that one time Green Goblin made me decide between Tiger and catching him… of course, I made sure I was able to get both.
"I remember the last time we did that." Peter shrugged. "And…?"
"I'm really grateful that you risked your life to save me, Pete. I can't tell you how much it means to me, and I'm not just saying that as a teammate or as someone close to you… I'm saying that with all my heart." Ava heartily told him. "I seriously thought I had died."
Huh, well that's definitely NOT what I was expecting her to say. Could this possibly be that soft side of Ava coming out again? Just like when we first fell for each other? This is a rare side of her!
But I'm going to make her work for it…
Peter nodded. "You once told me that I shouldn't risk my life…for the sake of the mission. You were worried that our relationship would interfere… so, why the change of heart now, Ava?"
Ava held her head low, playing with her claws. "I guess it takes you seconds from death to realize that somethings are worth dying for. I realized that truth after you made a choice to save me instead of going after Nova… the same way you chose me before you went after the Green Goblin so long ago…"
The guilt trip is strong with this one!
"Well, I couldn't let any of my teammates die. You would've done the same for me, regardless of where we stand together, Ava." Peter sincerely told her. "At least, I'd hope so."
"You know I would've done it in a heartbeat!" Ava softly placed her hands on his thigh, trying to convince him. Peter just crossed his arms.
"Let me just have it, Ava. Cut the crap, just tell me that I risked too much by trying to save you." Peter sternly told her.
Toss the bait, about to reel in the prize…
Ava held her head low again. "Peter…I…"
"I'm waiting to hear it. Tell me how I messed upagain. That's all I ever get from you anymore is ridicule… and honestly I…" Ava pressed her finger against his lips, prompting Peter to stop talking.
Jackpot.
"Just shut up, web-head." Ava leaned over and kissed him, pressing her lips against his, passionately, rushing them into a flow of emotions all over again.
"Ava, we can't be…" Peter tried to say, but Ava shook her head and continued to kiss him.
She held his head as he placed his hands around her waist. She then grabbed his chest and the unbalance caused them to fall off their chairs onto the floor of the cockpit. That didn't stop them from letting their teenage emotions tell the story for the love they have for each other.
Minutes later, Pete and Ava sat on the floor of the cockpit, with Ava between his legs and her back to his chest as they watched out the windows of the ship as the auto-pilot flew them back to Sanctuary. They had gotten some blankets from the cabinets in the compartment to cover each other up since it got cold during flight.
Peter held Ava's hands as they both looked out the windows. Their masks sprawled out on the floor next to them along with their wrist communicators and gloves.
"You're the craziest person I know, web-head." Ava softly told him. "Here we are leading the team against a crazy mutant and God knows what else."
"I like life with a little bit of danger." Peter coolly told her.
"Danger?" Ava giggled. "A little more like suicide! We get into some impossible situations, webs."
I won't argue with her there.
"I'm not so much worried about the situations as I am about Sam right now, though." Peter sincerely told her. "I hope Reaper hasn't turned his brain into mush."
Reaper thinks he can divide us by turning one of them against us, but I know Sam better than that… We'll be able to pull him out of the fire… and once we do, he's going to have a score to settle with Reaper… and it's not going to be pretty.
"Gosh, I can't wait til we face off with that guy, he's probably worse than Magneto."
"Maybe… but I don't want to worry about facing off with him just yet, Ava."
"Me neither." Ava agreed as she cuddled up closer to the webslinger. "Wake me up when we get there."
Author's Note: One of the important things I wanted to emphasize with this chapter was uncovering a bit of Reaper's story and how his motives are fueling the actions he's taking throughout the entire story. I've thrown out some clues and hints as to who he really is and where he's really from in here, but I'm trying to build up to the final showdown with Magneto and Reaper. I appreciate the reviews and your thoughts as to how the story is going along! :D I hope I added just enough of everything in this chapter for everyone, especially some SpiderxTiger romance at the end there ;D! As always, feedback is greatly appreciated, and I'll update as soon as I can :)
Reader Responses:
Sport21: I agree. I've always admired that relationship Mystique and Magneto had, it was strange because I could never fully tell if they were romantically involved or if he just had a very strong influence over her :/ Thanks :) I'm really trying to build up for the next climax with the finale! Hmm… you're right on that, I kind of did overlook his temper a bit. Although now that you brought it up, I'll be sure to keep that in mind when I depict his character behavior! :D
I entertained the idea a couple of times with having Peter be controlled by Reaper instead of Sam, but I'll keep that as an idea for the moment, I have a few ways where I can incorporate that into the ending! Thanks for the suggestion :)
True Beast 01: A contribution in the form of a review! :) I hope you enjoyed this chapter and let me know what you think, I added a little bit of everything for sure in this one!
Arrowshaft: Trying to make up for all the lost time I had with not updating the story :O Lol, I want to finish this story as best I can! I'm glad you enjoyed it, I hope you enjoy this one, be sure to have Sam have a more active role with the chapters to come! Thanks for the review! :)
Guest 1: Thanks for the review! :D I hope I added just enough SpiderXTiger in this one! I thought it was pretty good, more to follow though, for sure!
Guest 2: Won't say for a fact if he'll die by the end of the trilogy or not, but him being the primary protagonist in the Phantom Trilogy, I can assure you it won't end as tragically as you think :) He's gonna be ok :D Thanks for your review, hope you enjoy this next chapter!
The Night Hunter: And again, I appreciate the fact you've followed this story since the first chapter a lot, not a lot of people have kept up with it, and I don't fault them for that. I feel that me not having updated for so long causes disinterest to people, on top of the fact the content is long and hard to follow at times. :/ You have a good hunch indeed, I planned for some traits and abilities to be transferred over to Ava, but that'll be revealed in time! :D Thanks for the review! :)
Man285: Don't worry, I shall continue it for as long as I can, to the final chapter, of course! :D Thanks for the review! :)
Thank you all for reading! :D