S.H.I.E.L.D. Convoy, Newark, NJ.
Sunday Night, Sept. 12th, 3:43 p.m.
"This is Agent Thompson reporting in, we have officially crossed into New Jersey's state line, thus far the prisoner has remained under sedation, current dose should wear off in about… five hours." He said as he pulled his sleeve up to check the time. "It's about to be 4:00 in the afternoon, we've got about 15 more hours until we hit Missouri." he thought, he began looking at the other convoy trucks, there are five in total and four out of the five were all positioned to be on each side of the fifth one in the middle, which was also the one that Flash was in, it also held and was transporting Electro, so far it looked that it was going to be a smooth ride to Missouri.
That is, so far, as he got up from the passenger seat he went back to check on their prisoner and like before, he was still unconscious, even though Flash knew he was crazy, it baffled him as the how someone like Electro could look so peaceful as they were sleeping, especially having murdered so many people in cold blood, Flash's mind began to wander, "Somewhere out there, there's a timeline, a timeline where things occurs differently, I don't want to believe it, but I know to be true, some way somehow there's a timeline out there where me and you are in different places, where I become just as bad and as sick as a person that you've become, or maybe… we are in said timeline."
He had to admit, he had no idea what to think when he saw Peter as Spider-Man standing there, he knew he definitely felt a mixture of awe and proudness, but the thing that overwhelmed all other emotions was guilt. For years he had took all the anger he had gotten from his father and taken it out on other people, she had destroyed in tormented people just because they gave him some sort of satisfaction that he knew that he was never going to get from his father, in the beginning, everyone was free game, anybody could be a target, then his victims started having one thing in common until finally he found his primary target:
"Peter Parker." the one person on this Earth that Flash expected nothing to come out of, he was proven spectacularly proven wrong, Flash would always pass his bullying of him off as trying to put the weak in their place, but really it was nothing more than him holding a grudge because Parker had everything that he didn't, Parker was going places, Flash peaked in high school and he knew that, he knew that after high school his life was going nowhere, so he hated Peter for it, deep down he always knew something great was going to become of Peter and he let his jealousy rage blind him. "God, I'm such a loser."
"Agent Thompson! You might wanna get up here, we've got a problem." The convoy driver broke him out of his thoughts, for some reason he thought a bit disoriented, but still made his way back up to the passenger seat.
"What's going on?" He asked.
"Apparently the front is trying to tell us that we have bogeys surrounding us, but none of the other convoys see anything." Eugene immediately checked his radar to see that it was empty and quickly came to a conclusion, "Their radar just must be just having a circuit failure of some kind."
"I'm sure it's fine, radars break all the time." The blonde reassured the driver, "Besides, if they had any good sense, bad guys would know to stay away." He pulled out his gun after completing his sentence.
"I hope you're right, I got a wife and little girl to get home to." The driver laughed. "You know what, since we're in for a long drive, what about you, hmm? You got a girl at home?"
Flash slightly froze at the question, but figured humoring him couldn't hurt. "Well uh, nah, I can't say I do."
"Really? I woulda thought a guy like you would be practically rolling in women." He responded in obvious shock. "One would think you would have women practically throw themselves at you, what? Too modest for that kind of thing?"
"I mean I guess you could say that, but I won't lie and pretend that those thoughts weren't a reality for me at one point, I was very popular back in high school, star athlete, Captain of the football team, and the entire high school was practically my kingdom." He said. "But unfortunately, with my praise also came my arrogance, I let it all get to my head to the point where I began looking down on those around me, those weaker than me, those who couldn't fight back, I was a coward, but I was given an eye opening experience that showed me the error in my ways, with it I finally grew up, so I guess I was so busy turning my life around that I never really paid any mind to the thought of women."
"Well I didn't ask for your entire life story, but if it makes you feel any better, you're definitely not the man that you're describing, I think you're on the right path, kid." The Driver responded. "Y'know what? After we get back to New York, me and a couple of my guys are gonna take you out to relax and cut loose a bit, doing too much of the SHIELD stuff is going to get to you eventually, and I would hate to see a young guy like you fall victim to this madness."
"I guess your-" suddenly the radar went before Flash could finish his sentence, originally they were picking up multiple dots, but as the seconds passed, all the dots began forming into one singular dot, at first, he was confused as to how the front convoys were picking up bogeys but the rest weren't, he didn't ponder on it long though as he immediately radioed the other convoys. "DELTAS 2-5 REPORT!" there was visible fear on Flash's face as tried to make communication with the other carriers once again. "DELTAS 2-5! THIS IS YOUR COMMANDING OFFICER, COME IN!"
Static… that's all that could be heard. Anxious, Flash tore off the dashboard that held the communication device to find that there was some kind of black goo jamming everything, well that's at least what it was, but Flash knew exactly what it was as before he could do anything a voice could be heard from beside him and it wasn't coming from the driver.
"Tooooo laaaate!" Venom said as he took the entire clip of bullets Flash had shot at his face before uttering another sentence as his face reformed. "You'll pay for that, boy!"
Thinking quickly, Flash wasn't willing to take any chances as quickly blurted out. "Quick! Swerve the vehicle and crash everything!"
"Wayyy ahead of you." Venom taunted as leaped off the speeding truck and left Flash to watch as the convoy ahead burst into flames and exploded, Eugene tried to shield the driver as the burning wreck came at them.
He felt something pierce his shoulder and legs before everything went black.
SHIELD Helicarrier, New York City, NY.
Sunday Night, Sept. 12th, 5:28 p.m.
"One-hundred forty eight men dead, two survivors, but both critically injured and currently unconscious while being worked on." Fury laid the situation as bare as he possibly could
"And Dillon?" Peter asked.
"In the wind, as it stands, he is one of the few men to walk away from that wreck, being accompanied by Otto Octavius and Eddie Brock I would assume." He answered, "It would seem that Miss Drew was correct in her prediction that Ock was planning a breakout, and now he has Electro at his beck and call.
"How do we know Dillon is going to be cooperative with Otto?" Nova wondered out loud.
"Because more likely than not, Max Dillon is no more than another man thug, he's a follower that's looking for a leader to cling to, clung to Spider-Man before he got his powers and is now sticking to Octavius." Ben said.
"Never mind his mental state, we need Ock's next move." Jessica spoke up, finally being brought to her limit. "Even with Electro at his side, I'm doubtful Otto's stupid enough to believe that he could bust up the Raft or Triskelion with three people alone."
"On that, we all can agree, but he's already got two powerhouses, all he needs is one more, thanks to said holding facilities." Fury concurred. "So as of now our top focus is to figure out who he's going after next, got it?"
"Roger that." They all said in unison as Fury left the room and a lot of them followed.
Leaving Peter in the room alone with no one but his thoughts. "What a mess this is turning into, if only I had chosen to go with the convoy, then none of this wouldn't have happened." of course, Peter knew that his period of peace wasn't going to last forever, but it was nice to actually be Peter Parker instead of Spider-Man once again, there was even a point in time where he considered retiring, but then he remembered that with the bad also came the good of being Spider-Man, he smiled as he recalled the look of sheer happiness that rested upon the face of a little homeless girl who he had saved from the freezing cold, but of course even with the good, there is always going to be the bad, at its worse, it cost him Gwen, the woman he was willing to hang up his mask for, gone in an instant.
"Why? Why must everything always come back to her? Oh Gwen Stacy, even though you've been gone for a long time, it would seem that you have yet to actually leave me alone, not that you were any different when you were alive, but… I guess my ghosts have a knack for following me." He thought once more. "Y'know Gwen, there isn't a day that goes by where I don't think about how I could have saved you, how I could have saved your dad, how I could have saved Detective DeWolf, how I could have saved Flash, how I could have saved… Uncle Ben."
"Don't tell me you're blaming yourself for what happened to the transport." Ava walked back in, she had noticed Peter didn't walk out with and had figured that he was having a self pity party all by himself and to her non-surprise, she was right. "Y'know you're going to give yourself back problems if you keep carrying those sins on your back."
"If only I had just gone with them-"
"But you didn't! You can't be blamed for this any more than I can, you can't blame yourself for what happened to Flash, if you want to do right by him then stop sitting around beating yourself up and go catch the men who did this to him." She said, getting closer. "Judge yourself on your ability to do that and not on your inability to change events that have already transpired, now stop sitting there like a wuss! Go out and show me why the Tiger decided to jump YOUR bones of all people."
"Okay so she's referencing it.", He was hanging on to every word she was saying, but that last line is what really caught his attention "Yeah, I'll do that, but before I do, we need to talk… about… that day." Peter started.
"When I'm not embarrassed to admit that I've kinda been purposely pushing back this conversation, hence avoiding you." She admitted. "But of course how can I escape from the ever-persistent Peter Parker."
"So uh, we did it, where do we go from here?"
"I honestly have no idea, I'm not one of those "save myself for marriage" kinda girls, but that wasn't exactly how I pictured it happening either." She started. "Also as you've probably figured out by now, throughout that entire encounter I was obviously not in my right mind, and it's becau-"
"As long as you wear that amulet, your body becomes a mix of both Human AND Tiger tendencies, thus giving you the ability to go into heat." He finished. "Yeah, I kinda figured that part out already."
"I can see that." She said curiously. "Well I just want to say, that kind of thing won't happen again, I didn't realize the tiger hormones would come on that fast, you were literally at the wrong place at the wrong time."
"If it wasn't obvious already, I'm not mad, you weren't in control of yourself and so there's nothing you could have done, try taking a page out of your own book and don't beat yourself up over something you couldn't control." Peter threw back at her, much to her displeasure. "Plus, and I'm just throwing this out here, that situation under different circumstances is not necessarily something that shouldn't be repeated, y'know, if you want, it could happen again."
"C'mon, stop beating around the bush and say what you wanna say."
"You say that is it you know what I'm trying to say."
"Maybe I do."
"If you do then why aren't you responding to the offer."
"Because I want to hear you say it, and I mean, ACTUALLY say it."
Peter sighed and thought about it for a minute before completely resigning himself. "Ugh fine, since your whole heat thing is such a problem, I figured since your tiger hormones prefer me over the rest of the guys, I thought maybe… I could… help you?"
She began laughing, harder than he'd ever heard her do before, but that bar wasn't very high considering how she carried herself around the guys, she kept laughing for a couple more minutes before settling down and looking at Peter while wiping her watery eyes from laughter. "I'm sorry, but that sounds like an obvious ploy to get into my pants, again."
"I'd be lying if I said I didn't hear it too." He admitted. "But I mean, it makes sense right? Hell, technically it doesn't even have to be ME, I hear Jessica swings in both directions, she'd probably be happy to help you since she can't seem to keep herself in a relationship."
"Like you?" Ava quipped
"Har har, laugh at my pain all you want." He responded.
"Parker, I was going to with or without your permission." She got even closer than before. "And about your offer… hmm… buy a girl dinner first and I'll think about it."
"L-Like a date?" He asked
"Yes, like a date, Peter." She reassured him.
"You should say my first name more often, it sounds wayyy better." He leaned in closer.
"Well you better buy me damn good dinner… Parker." She responded, also leaning in.
Their lips were about to touch until Peter felt a sudden migraine in his head and a tingle run down his spot as he grabbed Ava and braced for impact just seconds before both of them were sent flying out of their seats while being accompanied by the roaring sound of an explosion, sending them flying straight into the wall with Peter turning in mid-air to take the blunt force of their landing, to which he let out a meager "Ow!" as Ava quickly got up and looked around to see what the hell was going on and her desire for answers didn't have to wait long as Fury was quickly heard over the intercoms.
"ATTENTION! ATTENTION! ALL SHIELD PERSONNEL, CONSULTANTS, AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN, THIS IS A CODE BLACK, I REPEAT THIS IS A CODE BLACK, THIS IS NOT A DRILL! THE HELICARRIER HAS BEEN ATTACKED AND BOARDED BY CURRENTLY UNKNOWN INTRUDERS, PROTOCOL 10 IS NOW AND FULL EFFECT!" Fury finished.
They both looked at each other worryingly, Peter knew exactly what she was thinking and how irrational the thought made her. "We have to go stop the intruder or else who knows what they might do, I refuse to let the Helicarrier go down again, I lost my home once, I refused to lose it again."
"Ava, you should already know what I'm going to say, so I'm just going to skip over that part and tell you that this is serious, our number one priority is to evacuate the Helicarrier, I refuse to let the number of casualties today go up, not if I can help it." He argued.
"Is that an offer or order?" Ava asked.
"We're evacuating everyone…."
Peter paused, thinking about whether or not he was fully ready to come back to SHIELD, but quickly put those thoughts away as now was not the time to argue with Fury's policies, lives were at stake.
"... And that's an order."
"Well, sir yes sir."
NEXT: Hell on the Helicarrier Part 1!