Chapter Thirty-Seven: A House Divided Part Two.
Gwen never thought that she would be reunited with an old childhood friend when she was here of all places. She would be much happier if she was in a better frame of mind and more important, she would be happier if Peter wasn't clinging towards death's door as much as he was.
She stepped over towards the young blonde that looked towards her with imploring violet eyes.
"Okay, the violet eyes are new," Gwen told Chloe after looking her over. She smiled and shrugged.
"It's an occupational hazard with dealing with SHIELD, sometimes you get a souvenir or too, no real scars though, just an exotic set of eyes," Chloe added. "But then again, my division of SHIELD, the division that I work in rather, is pretty much the off brand of the organization."
"How did you come to work with SHIELD?" Gwen asked. Her curiosity was getting the better of her. Chloe opened her mouth and Gwen shook her head. "And I'm pretty sure that you're going to tell me it's a long story."
Gwen looked over her shoulder, where Peter was getting medical attention.
"Curiosity killed the cat, but thankfully no cats died," Chloe offered. She smiled and went down better than me. "But, sometimes, my curiosity really got the better of me. I was nosing around in the SHIELD's database, trying to find my way around there. When suddenly….."
She held her hands up and snapped her fingers for dramatic effect.
"I had SHIELD agents on the left, and SHIELD agents on the right, and Nick Fury right in my face, making me an offer to join SHIELD or be thrown in prison for the rest of my life," Chloe said. She sighed. "Naturally, the offer was too good to pass up. Even if it was using my skills for evil, as opposed to good."
"Well, Chloe Sullivan, you've been seduced by the dark side," Gwen said in a dramatic voice. She tried to keep her head up and she was led away from Peter. There wasn't much that she could do other than worry or wait. "So, how were things going since….well since we last talked?"
"You know, my friend gets into trouble a lot, it seems like that we have to deal with a new meteor powered freak every week," Chloe commented. Gwen looked at her. "I'll tell you all about it later."
"I'm sure," Gwen said. She could hear the footsteps of the Black Widow approach behind her. The blonde woman tensed up and allowed her chest to raise and lower when she approached. She frowned when she turned around.
"No progress, Kara is working with us, and Peter is fighting it," Natasha informed her. Gwen frowned. "We might have to…..we'll were trying to make him as comfortable as possible. Super powered seizures are worse than regular seizures."
Gwen didn't really process a lot of this. Her mind was racing through a million doomsday scenarios for a moment. She wasn't really having all that much of a good day now. Her already bad day might be getting worse.
The fact that she wasn't sure if all of her friends at the Xavier Institute got out, that worried her. Kara, Kitty, and Laura all were present and accounted for. She was here, Peter was here.
"He's stabilized," another blonde said. She paused and spoke extremely calmly. It was a ghastly sight to see someone that powerful having been taken down like that. It was awful to the point where she couldn't really describe it without flinching. "He's stabilized, for all it's worth."
She could see Gwen's eyes lock onto her. "Bobbi Morse, I'm another Agent of SHIELD."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Agent Morse," Gwen said. She was looking over her over, as if trying to feel her out.
She sensed no signs of deception, so she relaxed.
"So, does she pass the test?" Chloe asked.
"Yes," Gwen said.
They saw Helena who was thinking about something. Gwen could see that Helena's mind was deep into thought about something.
The young blonde got to her feet and went towards the woman. If she had information, Gwen really wanted to know that information now.
"Do you know of a way that we can help Peter?" Gwen asked.
Helena paused for a moment. There was a supreme note of hesitation that brimmed through her voice. "There are ways to help out Peter, and I sent the information to Karen to have her look things over."
"There's another way, isn't there?" Kara asked.
Helena paused and she was about ready to speak. "The Lazarus Pit."
That caused Gwen's eyebrows to rise, and Natasha and Bobbi both looked grim.
"It could bring him back to life," Natasha confirmed. Granted, the intel SHIELD had on the pits were sketchy. "Or it could mutate him into a horrific monster that we need to put down. The pits…they warp a person's sanity."
"There's another way," Chloe said. Gwen looked towards her. Bobbi's expression grew grim when she looked towards Chloe.
The SHIELD agent's lips curled into a frustrated expression and she shook her head. "No, Chloe, absolutely not, it's too dangerous…"
"It's even more dangerous for him not to be helped and I'm sure it's not worth the risk of chucking him in one of those Pits," Chloe argued. "And accessing those Pits in the first place…..I don't want to even think about the favor that must be owed to you."
"It's best not to think about it," Natasha agreed. She wondered if Helena was technically dead in the first place, before being brought back by the Pits. "But, Agent Indigo…"
"Trust me, I can do this," Chloe said. She looked over him. "All I'm going to do is take the burden of the venom, so his healing factor can kick in and purge it from his system."
"That is insane!" Gwen yelled.
"Do you want him to die?" Chloe asked.
"I don't want either of you to die," Gwen argued. It was so much conflict.
"The world needs a hero right now, it can do without me," Chloe answered. She frowned. "This is my burden to bare."
Chloe used these powers before. She was technically dead for thirty seven hours the first time she used it before she was revived. It wasn't exactly a power that she could master. Chloe raised her hands and hoped for the best.
She touched her hands to Peter, concentrated on him, and her entire world went black.
The chaos that reigned after the X-Men were attacked was something that the team of mutants was not going to forget any time soon. Despite the best efforts of their team leaders to get them out safely and stand together, they were more divided than ever.
A trio of Rogue, Iceman, and Nightcrawler had been separated from the rest of the group. Rogue and Iceman were left alone, with Nightcrawler having teleported off to scout things.
"Everything is going to be okay," Bobby said. He was trying to be positive.
Rogue didn't say anything. She didn't trust her tongue to work properly. She had Jean's psychic contact and then it broken. The only good thing was that the MRD didn't swoop down and take them all out. They seemed more obsessed with Spider-Man for some reason. Rogue didn't even know.
She thought in concentration. She tried to reach out and mentally touch Jean. Her mind was so far out of the way that Rogue thought that she would have collapsed down in frustration. Her sighs grew even more prominent.
'Jean, if you're there, please pick up, please hear me,' Rogue thought frantically. She thought that she was going to lose her mind trying to reach out and touch Jean.
There was no answer and she was frustrated. Rogue had been chased by people belonging to the government before.
Ororo, Betsy, Hank, Jean, Logan, Kitty, Laura, they were all gone. Rogue didn't know what to do.
"Kurt should have been back by now," Bobby muttered. He was growing rather serious.
If one knew Iceman, it was a serious situation when he grew so serious. To be fair, he matured greatly ever since those earlier days of the X-Men, but he still had his moments where he was a jokester and the life of the party.
"If he isn't back within the next five minutes, we have to go," Rogue said.
She jumped up and saw that Nightcrawler teleported next to her. Rogue stood up straight and her breath escaped her. She thought that she just about aged ten years with Nightcrawler popping up from behind her like that.
"Don't do that," Rogue whispered. She took a deep and heaving breath. It took several moments for her to calm herself down.
"What is it, Kurt?" Bobby asked.
Kurt allowed himself a few minutes to regain his bearings. When he was properly calmed down, he spoke. "The MRD are everywhere, we're going to have to keep moving."
"What about the rest of the team?" Rogue asked.
"I do not know," Kurt admitted. His tone was extremely grim. He allowed himself to sigh. "But we must have faith that they will get out of this entire mess alive."
"Yeah, well my faith's a bit lacking now," Rogue said. She didn't mean to seem so sour or so stern, but that was just how her voice was coming out.
"No, no, you got to believe….." Kurt said.
What Kurt had to say next would have to wait. He gripped both Bobby and Rogue and flashed them out of the way.
The trio waited calmly in the tunnels. The MRD guards walked down the tunnel. Thankfully they were just out of sight and they breathed a sigh of relief.
"We need to get close to them, get some information from them," Iceman replied. He looked over his shoulders towards his teammates. Both of them looked extremely nervous.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Rogue asked. She wondered about something like that.
Jean's voice cut in through her thoughts. 'It's not a good idea, especially since Professor Xavier has been brought into the MRD facility for custody.'
Rogue's lips curled into a frustrated whistle. 'Oh, yes, that would be a bit of a problem. And I suppose that they got Magneto too at the same time.'
'From what information we've grabbed onto, that seems like a likely possibility,' Jean agreed. She didn't want to really seem so grim. 'Logan is also missing. Kitty and Laura left with Spider-Man, Flamebird, and the Goblin Queen."
They didn't really feel that Logan was that much of a cause for concern, at least now. It was likely that wherever he was, he was fighting for his life.
Jean's eyes closed. 'The Institute is going to be picked apart and destroyed. I manage to send the self-destruct codes to wipe the information before we left. So they shouldn't be able to use it.'
'Oh, you managed to do that?' Ororo asked. She was surprised and she frowned. 'We need to locate Charles and Logan…'
'So, are we close to you or not?' Rogue asked. She frowned deeply.
'Yes, we're pretty close, we should meet up, and we need to get out of here, soon, to storm the MRD facilities,' Jean thought.
'Are you sure that's a good idea?' Rogue asked.
'A good idea isn't something we have the luxury of having right now,' Jean admitted.
Chloe's eyes snapped open when she woke up. She rested back in bed and every single inch of her body felt sore. She felt like she was on fire.
"That wasn't my best idea," Chloe groaned, when the last bits of pain left her body.
"The good news is that Spider-Man is stabilized," Natasha informed her. She walked over and placed her hand on Chloe's head.
"Oh, that's great, so he'll survive," Chloe said. The SHIELD agent was piecing together exactly what happened. She was pretty sure that she almost died again. "And what about me?"
"The poison has been purged from both of your systems," Natasha informed her. "You should feel extreme fortunate that you were there and not somewhere else."
"Feel fortunate, not really," Chloe admitted. "Are we almost there?"
Chloe had a pretty good idea where they were going. It was one of the few SHIELD bases that they knew for a fact that wouldn't be compromised. Given that the number of SHIELD agents that knew about it only went into the single digits and didn't pass the double digits.
There was a knock on the door. Natasha excused herself and the door swung open. The one and only Gwen Stacy entered the room. She sat down on the bed beside Chloe.
"You know, you should be with your boyfriend right now," Chloe said. She paused and smiled. "Or is it your husband by now? You know that he's about as good as such by now."
"Yes, I know," Gwen agreed. She placed her hand gently on the top of Chloe's hair and parted her head. "And Peter's fine to answer the question, thanks to you. But what you did….what you did? What you did was completely and utterly reckless!"
Chloe wilted underneath the power of Gwen's look.
"So, I've been told by a lot of people by now," Chloe replied. Gwen's eyebrow rose up slightly. "And so I've been telling myself all of this time."
"Well, as long as you know, being self-aware is really half of the battle," Gwen commented. She had a question that was burning on the tip of her tongue.
"If you're going to say it, Gwen, then go ahead and say it," Chloe said. Her eyes glinted when Gwen looked into her eyes. "Whatever you have to say, I'm a big girl, and I can take it."
"I know," Gwen muttered underneath her breath.
"What's the deal with the powers, is that what you're trying to ask?" Chloe asked.
Gwen smirked. "I was really getting around to asking that question, honestly. Sure that I was…..so what's the deal with the powers."
Chloe had to admit that she was a sucker for a good origin story. She kept herself extremely calm and tranquil.
"Well, it's….interesting," Chloe muttered underneath her breath. "The meteors infected everyone in that town. And I guess after a while, my powers settled in. I guess powers of any kind are some kind of weird and twisted metaphor for puberty, you know what I'm saying?"
"I've got a good idea," Gwen said. There was a lot about powers that Freud would have a field day with.
"So, I found out that I had these powers when one of my friend was poisoned and I touched her and I absorbed the burden for her, she could have died, but she didn't," Chloe said. She kept herself calm and whistled. "I should have died, but I didn't. That type of radiation is not healthy for anyone, that much was obvious."
"Is that where you got the glowing violet eyes?" Gwen asked her.
"Actually no….that was…"
Bobbi made her way into the room. As much as Gwen and Chloe were both annoyed that Bobbi interrupted their private moment, both of them understood the urgency of what she had to say.
"We have a change of plans, we can't go back to base," Bobbi said. "Milton Fine must have found out about the base. He's been telling the MRD about all of the SHIELD bases and they've been seizing them."
"Can they do that?" Chloe asked.
Bobbi shook her head in response. "Things are so insane, that I'm not sure if there's anything that they won't do, now. We've got an alternate location."
Helena Wayne walked into the other room. She figured that there was no point in keeping up the masquerade, because pretty much everyone knew who she was underneath that mask, so the point of hiding herself was completely lost.
Her father would have been rolling over in his grave because of how she compromised her identity though.
"So?" Gwen asked her. She didn't know what to expect from her.
Gwen didn't really know what was going to happen next. She was far from the only one to have this sense of uncertainty. The plane rolled into a garage.
Chloe looked at things curiously, and Peter was roused. He looked a bit staggered.
"So, is this it, our base of operations?" Peter asked. He didn't know what to make of this, but it wasn't the most ideal place for someone to really make their last stand.
"How are you feeling?" Chloe asked him.
"I feel like I nearly died and came back to life," Peter said. He wobbled and Kara managed to hold him up. Gwen was over to assist her in doing so. Peter could hear a delicate ringing sound in the back of his head and he doubted very much that it would be improved.
Kara walked out of the tower and saw the older version of herself, she smiled at her when she passed her. Things got a little bit better with them.
"You should rest in the bedroom, you're still recovering," Helena said. "This is the clocktower of Oracle."
"Ooooh!" Chloe exclaimed in an excited voice. "Are we finally going to figure out who the mysterious Oracle is?"
Helena gave Chloe one of those looks. It was a look that Chloe knew better than to stay silent with. She was still dazed herself, but she was mostly able to function.
They made their way up into the Elevator. They had to plan their next move, but they weren't sure what that next move was. They would find out sooner than later.
Gwen's expression turned and she chuckled in amusement when she saw the woman that was nearest to her. Her grin got even wider before she spoke. The red haired woman greeted him.
"Wait, she's Oracle?" Chloe asked, and Gwen continued to chuckle.
Chloe should have known and Gwen was about to say as much.
"Well, well, well, Barbara Gordon, I should have known."
Peter was down in the bedroom and he was drifting in and out. After his latest nap, an hour had passed and he was about ready to head towards the Clocktower to see what the hell was going on.
"Everyone is staying put until the morning, we'll know one way or another what's happening."
Chloe was sitting at the foot of his bed. Peter looked at her with a raised eyebrow and a quizzical look in his eyes.
"I was drafted to be your babysitter while Gwen got something to eat," Chloe said. She stretched her arms out. "Chloe Sullivan, Agent of SHIELD….long and interesting story that I got into SHIELD."
"Does that have something to do with the violet eyes that you have?" Peter asked. He could see Chloe's lips curl into a frown.
"I'm more than a pair of eyes," Chloe commented sullenly. She shifted her position and frowned. "You know, you went through at terrible ordeal today."
"Yes, I about figured that out," Peter replied. He allowed himself to groan when he stretched his arms. He felt a few aches and pains, but he felt better. "I thought that I was going to die."
"Well at least you didn't go through towards the tunnel of mystical light," Chloe offered him in a joking manner. Peter raised his eyebrow when he looked at her. She looked at him and seemed apologetic. "Sorry, I'm trying my best to lighten the mood it's just that….well things have been rough here."
"Not every day that SHIELD gets compromised and the entire world goes nuts," Peter offered her. Chloe shook her head in negative.
"Yes, but SHIELD has always had some unsavory figures working with it, I'm not really surprised that it has come for this," Chloe said. "I mean, the only reason that I got a job was that I hacked into a high tech government facility. Could you believe how messed up that is?"
"You'd be surprised with what I'd believe," Peter commented lightly. Chloe smiled when she leaned in closer towards him.
She knew that she shouldn't, she really shouldn't.
"A lot of girls, you must have a busy life," Chloe muttered. "I wonder how you find to sleep or eat."
Peter shrugged his shoulders and grinned at her. "You'd figure that it isn't too easy, but I manage it quite nicely."
"Yes, I'm pretty sure that you would manage things quite nicely."
His pheromones output was higher than ever. This was what Natasha warned her about. This was the reason why they were all in shifts.
"You seem interested," Peter said.
Chloe's expression turned towards him. She tried to play all coy and innocent, but needless to say, she was failing at it.
"What gave it away?" she asked him. She frowned and Peter laughed.
"I recognize that look in the eyes of all my girls," Peter told here. "It's been a very stressful day and I want to return the favor."
"You know, that's the polite thing to do."
Gwen entered the room and clicked the door shut behind her. She entered inside and walked towards Chloe, sauntering her hips backwards.
"And let's face it, you're curious to see if the rumors are true," Gwen said. She swayed her hips when she inched closer towards Chloe.
Chloe opened her mouth to protest. Gwen reached forward and touched her finger on the edge of Gwen's mouth. She was silenced suddenly.
Peter was offered a visualize show, with Gwen overwhelming Chloe with a sweeping kiss. She placed her hands down on the back of her neck and pushed her down.
Chloe closed her eyes and felt Gwen's tongue inch deeper into her mouth. She never felt so alive when she experienced this amazing thrill.
She couldn't back off if she wanted to. And believe her, Chloe didn't want to. Gwen spun her around and she was pushed into the capable arms of Peter. Her entire world went wild with absolute lust.
It was a very stressful day and all deserved a chance to unwind.
Chloe, Peter, and Gwen all basked in the afterglow of their amazing threesome. Peter had a blonde pinned to either side of him. Both of them snuggled softly into his chest on either side and they relaxed.
"So, I'm going to say that you're fit and ready to go," Chloe commented. She gave Peter a saucy little grin in response.
"If you say so," Peter said.
"As a certified Agent of SHIELD, I'm going to have to say that you're fit and ready to go," Chloe responded. She looked into his eyes and grinned at him.
There was a frantic knock on the door. Peter managed to find some clothes to put on and go to answer the door.
The door opened and Kitty was outside of the door. She was looking rather pale.
"I woke up, and Laura wasn't there," Kitty told him. "I searched all over the base, and she was gone."
Peter could have sworn about this, regarding what happened. He turned to Kitty and looked her right in her eyes.
"Are you sure about this?" Kitty asked.
"She's right."
Helena turned up to join them. She looked to be rather serious about this. Karen and Kara followed behind her.
"She must have gone after her mother, after HYDRA," Peter said. He fumbled through his back and suited up as Spider-Man. "I promised her that…..I promised her that we would go for her and…."
"There's something else that you should know," Kara muttered.
"What?" Peter asked. He didn't mean to be so short with Kara, but he didn't know what he had to know that was so important.
"I talked to Oracle, I thought that she was the one that gave us the heads up, but she wasn't," Kara said.
"Then who did it?" Gwen asked. There was another mystery added to the insanity that was already occurring and another mysterious on top of all of the other mysteries.
That just proved that there was someone who was able to give them messages that would help guide them. Who was it? Their safety should be feared for.
Peter was about suited up and ready to go back out there. He was after Laura, but there were more answers that were needed.
The Dark Spider made her way down into the sewers and followed the path. An expert tracker, she was able to deduce pretty much what happened.
"Remember, you need to find Spider-Man, for he is the key to a new age and a new evolution," a voice stated in the back of her head.
"Yes," the Dark Spider whispered. Her handler was close by. There were times where she felt human, less feral, and less prone to obeying her programming. It was a long and winding road to get where she was.
She saw the blood that was down on the ground. The grisly remains of the Scorpion and she closed her eyes.
She sensed the images of what was going on now thanks and what was to come.
"Gotham City," she whispered. The Dark Spider climbed out of the sewer system and made her way to the city streets above.
She ran head long into the MRD. They pointed their weapons at her.
"Freeze, mutant!" one of them yelled.
She didn't even bother to spare them a few words. Instead, she impaled one of them with a stinger and caused him to drop to the ground, instantly dead. The others, she merely snapped their necks. No wasted motion, she just did it.
The Dark Spider ignored the blood that dropped from the ground. Her frown deepened when she walked forward.
She could see another set of eyes watch her from above.
"X-23," the Dark Spider said. She motioned for the girl to come out into the light.
"So, you're HYDRA's greatest asset," Laura said. She stepped towards the Dark Spider.
"Yes," the Dark Spider repeated. She was not one for words. "You wish to find your mother, don't you? You wish to find Doctor Sarah Kinney?"
Laura nodded in response. She regarded this woman with distrust. She felt like she stuck her hand in a pit of poisonous snakes.
"You have her right where you want her," the sinister figure whispered into her ear from far. "You bring her, she'll be perfect bait for a trap. Spider-Man and Flamebird will be soon to follow and they will be assets to HYDRA."
"Come with me, if you wish for Doctor Kinney to live," the Dark Spider commented.
Laura bared her claws at her. "Do you think I'm that stupid?"
"No, I think you're very intelligent, more so than your brutish predecessor," the Dark Spider said in her stoic voice. "You hurt me, Sarah Kinney dies and so do all of your friends. HYDRA plans to destroy any who stand in its way."
"Are you just going to let them?" Laura asked.
"It's out of my hands, just like it's out of Peter's," the Dark Spider commented. "If you love him, you'll come with me."
"Who are you to Peter?" Laura demanded. She was getting rather agitated.
"I am what he shouldn't be," the Dark Spider said and she led Laura to one of the MRD vehicles that had been abandoned. "I will take you there."
Laura realized that she had no choice. She didn't want any harm to come to anyone again.
It was obvious that Peter would hopefully figure out the trail that he was leaving him and the rest of the group would be brought to HYDRA.
To Be Continued on February 21st, 2015.