Chapter 56)
In an abandoned lab out in the middle of nowhere, Alexandra Danvers hunched down and performed a couple of tests on one of the symbiotes. The symbiote kicked to life and started to slam against the glass case with each movement. She would soon be able to unlock all of it's secrets. The AIM Scientist Supreme carefully studied the symbiote and tried to gather all of the necessary data for it.
"Doctor Frost, come in."
Whitney Frost, better known as Madame Masque, stepped into the room.
"Killmonger is searching for an oracle who has information regarding the Beyonder," Whitney said without any preamable. "He may be getting close."
"And she will be the key to finding out precisely how and why we're here," Alexandra said without any preamble. "Keep the situation close by and tell me if you learn if he's getting close."
"Yes...look at that!"
Whitney stopped in mid-sentence with her eyes glued on the glass case right next to her. The symbiote shifted to life and began to rattle the side of the case. Each high impact smack into the case rattled it and Alexandra just frowned when she raked over the side of the symbiote.
What was most interesting is the symbiote shifted from black to white. And kept hammering the case. Alexandra released a pulse of sonic energy into the case to ensure the symbiote had been kept at bay.
"It's seeking something out," Whitney said. "The main symbiote perhaps to rejoin it?"
"No," Alexandra said. "To destroy it."
The Scientist Supreme of AIM stumbled upon something. She wondered if the other one would come after her. It was time for the final confrontation. If Killmonger or HYDRA reached the Beyonder before Alexandra did, then there would be difficulties.
"I'll be off in case you need anything else," Whitney said. "Here's all the information I've been able to gather about the the Oracle."
Alexandra gathered the information up while she kept a careful eye on the symbiote which slowly grew in mass and formed a white cluster. More experiments would be needed to determine the symbiote and what it was.
Bobbi, Natasha, and Wanda recovered and joined a large group of women. They had been after the same thing. After they compared notes, Natasha summed up what they were going after quite succulently.
"We have to find her," Natasha said. "Has she reached out for you recently?"
"No, she's quite," Gwen said. "I don't like it, but she is. I can't track her down, there's just some kind of mental block which is stopping me. I can't really explain it."
"It's obvious," Lena said. "The Beyonder doesn't want to be found, or at least is preparing for the next phase of whatever their plan is."
Alex rocked back and sighed. She did not have any time for games, no time to be played around. The Beyonder rode her last nerve very carefully and lead to ample amounts of frustration. Nora Darhk's eyes shifted around towards the group and she just closed her eyes.
"We just missed her by that much, I can feel it," Nora said.
"If it makes you feel any better, so did we," Bobbi said. "AIM sent us after that complex. I'm not certain they knew about the Oracle, but they wanted something there."
"There's just nothing there but monitoring equipment though," Daisy said. "Although, it shows we're not alone and there are more layers, more people brought here. This is a vast world, and we were very fortunate to run into each other. Who knows what else is out there."
Alex would like to know. Daisy picked up on Alex's anxiety and patted the top of her hand. She tried to give reassurance everything was alright.
"We've compiled everything about the Beyonder," Daisy continued. "Everything which he is all about."
"Yeah, we could really use your help to get it going through," Zari said.
Her eyes turned towards Nora and Gwen, who both nodded in response. They would do everything they could do to help and maybe, just maybe, pinpoint the Beyonder.
"We've got pretty much all of the locations we were brought here," Felicity said. "There has to be some central focus of the Beyonder's power. I mean, it's not random. There has to be some clue which would point her to her."
Gwen screwed her eyes shut in deep and intense concentration. No matter how hard she tried to think, Gwen could not find anything. She called out for this Madame Webb when suddenly a blaring sound echoed across the back of her head and sent Gwen flying back onto the ground.
"Are you okay?" Lena asked.
"Killmonger's on the move," Gwen said. "I...I somehow tapped into Madame Webb's web and noticed she had a strong vision about Killmonger going after her...we have to go, now."
Gwen jumped up, Nora followed, and out of the door, Shuri and Black Widow followed. The others made a movement to follow, but Black Widow stopped short and shook her head.
"It has to be the four of us, a smaller group will be easier to maneuver," Black Widow said.
"The teleporters in the base are back on line," Shuri said. "We will be in touch with Gideon as well and the base, in case we need any help."
"I'm standing by to assist whenever I can," Gideon popped up over the intercom.
Alex rubbed the side of her tempo. Gwen seemed to have a good idea where Madame Webb was. She just hoped this would pan out better than the last lead although that last particular lead nabbed them some more allies.
Julia Carpenter, the latest to hold the title of Madame Webb, leaned back against the wall. Blinded to the physical world, Julia saw more than most and she could see it coming.
The force known as Killmonger along with his crew blasted door the doors. Killmonger put a gun at Julia's neck and she did not even blink. She did not staredown.
"Cassandra foresaw the great war coming, before passing the gift onto me. Killmonger...and Baron Zemo?"
"That's right," Baron Zemo said. "Tell us where the Beyonder is. Where can we find him?"
"You're not looking hard enough," Julia dryly responded. "And you should brace yourself for what is to come. It's only inevitable you will be betrayed."
Killmonger blasted Zemo in the back of the head and dropped him down to the ground. Baron Zemo perished right before he could understand Killmonger's words.
"Alright, listen up here, you're coming with us," Brick said. "Don't try anything funny."
"Oh, there's nothing amusing about the humiliation you're seconds away from getting."
Brick grumbled and wondered what the hell was going on. He found out quite quickly. Spider-Girl latched onto his face and came down all of the way to kick Brick down into the ground. Brick stumbled up to his feet and Spider-Girl latched onto him with the webbing.
"Lights out!"
The thunderous attack dropped Brick to his knees. Spider-Girl rocked him with one more kick and put him.
Blockbuster charged forward with a huge punch. Black Widow dodged the attack and connected with a series of rapid fire strikes to certain areas of Blockbuster's body. Her jabs connected furiously to Blockbuster's joints. She caught him right in the ribs and the back of the head as well. Black Widow snapped up into the air and slammed down onto Blockbuster's neck to send him down onto the ground.
Killmonger's forces fired at Spider-Girl and Shuri. The two went their separate ways. Shuri jammed a device into one of their guns which sent off a chain reaction and blew up all of the guns next to them.
"Madame Webb!" Spider-Girl yelled.
"You should dodge," Julia said
A split second later, Spider-Girl's spider sense went off and the gunshot flew into her. One of the bullets struck Madame Webb from the shoulder and detached her from the web.
"You fool, we need the Oracle alive!" Killmonger yelled.
Killmonger charged Shuri with a fury with the knife.
"We should work together," Killmonger said. "For the good of making this new world far better than Wakanda."
"It's a lie, and you're out for yourself as usual," Shuri said.
Shuri landed off to the side of Killmonger. He rose a cleaved blade until Nora blasted it out of his hand. This distract allowed Shuri to knock Killmonger for a loop with a kick to the side of the head. Another snap kick brought Killmonger down to the ground.
Killmonger reached for a gun. Shuri released a snapping device and it snapped Killmonger into a tight binding. The energy glowed and prevented Killmonger from escaping.
An army of goons stampeded to grab the Oracle. They all slammed into an invisible wall which had been created by Nora. Nora flicked her wrist and they all flew head over heels onto the ground.
"We've got to get her out of here!" Nora yelled.
"Working on it!" Gwen called out.
The spider themed heroine flipped herself down onto the ground and took the legs of her enemies out from underneath them. They all scrambled to get a better holding on the ground. Nora joined in battle.
"We'll have your back," Black Widow said.
Nora did what she could to stop the bleeding on Madame Webb. Unfortunately, most of the magic Nora learned had been to hurt and not to the heal. Gwen applied the pressure.
"Dad taught me how to get a bullet out, but I don't have the right equipment," Gwen said. "But, I don't need to. Gideon, we need an extraction."
"You're going to need to disable the barriers around the fortress before I can extract you."
"Disable barriers, passcode Excelsior-Stan," Julia breathed.
The barriers came down and Julia collapsed. Gwen and Nora gently grabbed Julia on either of her arms and the transport brought them out.
Black Widow and Shuri finished off Killmonger's forces. With the man himself bound and finally, finally, Shuri would see Killmonger inside of the Wakandia prison cell.
"Zemo's dead," Black Widow said.
"He would have done so first if I would have given him the chance," Killmonger said.
Well, Black Widow would not argue with that one. Whatever, Killmonger wanted from Zemo, he obviously got it or realized Zemo could not get it for him. Therefore, Killmonger finished him off.
Julia's injuries had been healed although her body entered some kind of catatonic state which prevented them from speaking with her.
Shuri walked down to the cell which Killmonger had been kept. Elsewhere in the base, they kept Blockbuster and Brick isolated and ensure they would not here.
"Madame Masque appears to be missing from your group."
"She's my agent within AIM," Killmonger said. "She's playing them for saps and getting me information for them."
Well, Shuri wondered if Madame Masque played both groups for her own purposes. Of course, without an insight onto the mind of the woman, she had no question about it.
"You are going to lock me up, when I have insight of where the Beyonder is," Killmonger said.
Shuri knew by now to be very cautious around Killmonger. He had been able to twist half truths around to cause more than enough problems.
"You know nothing," Shuri said. "Because, if you did, you would not have gone after Madame Webb.
Shuri took a couple of steps back and prepared to lock down the prison area. Hopefully, she could still hold onto Killmonger.
Gwen leaned up against the wall, and Shuri walked over to her.
"She's resting right now," Gwen said. "She took a bullet for me. Why?"
"I'm sure her mind works in ways which we cannot even begin to guess," Shuri said. "The area of foresight, seers, fortunetelling, there are mysteries. A lot of charlatans out there, but I don't think this Madame Webb is one of them."
"I don't believe she is either," Gwen said.
"Madame Masque and the Scientist Supreme are out in the wind," Shuri said. "Killmonger claims that Doctor Frost is his spy within AIM. And I believe that Alexandra believes that Whitney is her spy within Killmonger's organization."
"And what do you believe is the truth?" Gwen asked.
Shuri offered a brief little smile.
"The truth lies somewhere in the middle," Shuri said.
As with most things in life, Gwen figured out. They had Madame Webb although she was not coherent enough to tell them anything. On one hand, Gwen helped get her out of there. On the other hand, if Gwen had not been so reckless, Madame Webb might not have needed any saving in the first place.
The Shameless Smut Commences In the Next Chapter