Black Knights Hideout

Steve Rogers ate a sandwich as he watched the news, back in his time news was dispersed by the paper or a town crier. Now they had screens that could broadcast the news as it happened. On one hand it amazed him when he woke up, on the other it was becoming very annoying. He'd been listening for the last hour about these new "villains" that showed up in Area 11 a few days ago. The Sinister Six, they were called. All of them had a history against the Spider-Man apparently. But that was all the news said.

For the last few days, it was nothing but repetition with only scarce new information. "It's a beauty of modern society, is it not?" Behind him Diethard Ried stood in doorway, it was announced this morning that Diethard would become a permanent member of the Black Knights, focusing on its image and relation with the public. Steve understood the idea, he started off as a joke to boost morale for the troops under General Washington's command. Every soldier needs confidence they are going to win.

"Beauty? That's a funny way of saying it." Steve took another bite of the sandwich.

"I'll admit, these amateurs use it like toddlers use a gun. It's dangerous in their hand, but with a professional, it can sway minds. The news can change a lowly thief searching for food into a rotten rogue who would do anything to fulfill his needs." Diethard walked up to him, camera in hand.

"What's that for?" Steve asked.

"The Black Knights thrive on anonymity; it's how they can get around without getting caught. But it's also a double-sided sword, The Black Knights have no face. Not many can relate to our cause if they see men and women in masks, that includes Zero."

"But isn't Zero the face of the Black Knights? He is our leader." Steve stood up to face Diethard.

"Of course, but he is still a mystery. But you, you were an inspiration. A symbol of rebellion even before Charles zi Britannia was born! You predate modern Britannia, you fought against its ancestors! You may have not won, but here you are, alive and kicking. You still fight for a cause, not any government, or personal gain, but for freedom. You spit in the face of Britannia, which is why I want to have you appear all across Area 11, hell even the world."

Steve thought about it for a minute, he had no secret identity, so he had nothing to lose. Britannia probably knew of him since his escape, so he was already known. In Steve's mind, it all added up. Every soldier needed to do their part in a war, sure he was already on the front lines and espionage…but this went beyond him. It included a people suppressed and a nation defiled, it was bigger than him.

"I'll do it."

"Good, I was hoping you would. We'll have to go somewhere else, I'm sure you realize the problems of broadcasting inside our secret base." Steve nodded, and the two of them left.

x-x

Ashford Academy

There was a lot on Lelouchs mind, upcoming plans, the future of the Black Knights, the Knights of Zero (who have been busy while he hasn't been looking), and what to do with Nunnally. If he was going to commit to Zero, he'd have to give her to someone she could be safe with. Sayako and the Ashfords were well and good but they didn't have the security and power he needed. Anyone from Student Council were out as well, he needed his full trust. And for as much as Kallen was his Ace Pilot, her time was better spent on the battlefield than attending Nunnally.

Lost in thought, he didn't realize the phone pressed up to his face, startled he looked up to see C.C. "Phone call." She dryly said before leaving to eat her pizza.

Lelouch sighed and stood up from his desk. The name on the phone was Suzaku's, what could he be calling for? "Hello, Suzaku?"

"Are you busy right now?" He voice sounded urgent, this was serious.

"No, are you okay?" What was wrong, did Suzaku get in trouble.

"I'm fine, it's you we need to talk about. Where can I meet you, it has to be discreet. Is your place good?" Suzaku looked at C.C., she got the message and pick up her things.

"Yeah, come by Ashford we can talk here." What did Suzaku mean it was about him? Did someone find him out?

x-x

Area 11 Port

"You know, when you called, I had assumed you were a ghost. That was quite the beating you got a few days ago, I'm surprised you're still standing." The Detective looked up to see none other than Spider-Man, slowly lowering himself onto the ground.

"Don't believe everything you see on TV. I would say I'm sorry for being out of contact, but you obviously know why." The detective nodded.

"While you were busy, I found our next lead. Do you know the Knights of Zero?" The detective asked.

"Yeah, a bunch of knock offs. I took down a few of them a few weeks back. What do they have to do with the Refrain operation?" Spider-Man asked.

"It seems they have the same boss; I was digging through one of their distribution centers and found gear made for them. I managed to eavesdrop on them and picked out a name. Richard Daws, he owns a nightclub in the Tokyo Settlement. We're going to go bust some heads and see if we can interrogate one of them. If we get him to squeal, we'll know everything we need to in order to strike at the heart of this operation."

"Good call, let's get going." Miles couldn't really tell, but he had a feeling the Detective had a smile on his face.

x-x

Tokyo Settlement

"So, this is it?" Spider-Man perched above the skylight beside the Detective. Down below more than a dozen men and women danced in a raving club. Let's went off in all hues of the spectrum. The Detective pointed to the corner of the club, sitting in a circular table with a few women was the target.

Richard Daws, brown hair, snazzy white jacket, no one would think he was peddling drugs and working with a terrorist group. In ways Richard reminded him of Kallen, so unassuming yet still having a dark secret. On second thought maybe that's as far as it went.

"So how do you want to do this?" Spider-Man looked to The Detective.

"I think we can let this all play out, bust some heads. The bigger the surprise, the better. Don't bother worrying about the employees, they're on Daws' payroll. You ready?" Spider-Man nodded; The Detective motioned to the glass. It was all his.

Spider-Man backed up, getting some room between him and the skylight. He ran, gaining speed, and jumped. He shot two webs-line on either side of the skylight and yanked him to the ground. The shattering of glass caused a lot of commotion. The employees took a second to reel back, surprised by his entrance.

"Hey all, don't mind me. Just gotta speak with your boss." Out of their stupor, every employee with a gun pulled it out and charged. "Well that was easy."

The music played loud in the background, not letting the screams of its patrons drown it out as they ran out the door. Spider-Man readied his stance as the guards on duty -about eight of them- surrounded him. "Guns? Not that's a little unfair if I have to say."

Spider-Man shot a web-line to the guard in front of him and yanked out the gun. He swung the gun in a complete circle, sure to knock the gun out of everyone's hand. With one more rotation Spider-Man let the gun fly to the face of the man he took it from knocking him out.

Two guards approached at once, throwing their fist at him. He slid under their feet and kicked his back, sending him flying. The other couldn't react in time to see a punch appear at his side, the punch aimed at his face was enough to knocked him out.

'Let's see what improvements Milly has made to my webshooters." Miles thought as he flicked his wrist, in front of him a circle appeared, all with different symbols and names.

'Electric web, stun web, impact web? Yeah that sounds good.' With another flick, Miles chose impact webs. He aimed both of his arms at two different guards and shot. The webs shot with some kickback he wasn't used to, they sailed threw the air at hit their mark. Both targets were knocked back from the impact webs until they hit the floor and were covered with webs.

"Oh, that's handy. Who's next?" The rest of the men fearing their lives ran, not before one was collapsed on by The Detective.

"I don't know how you do that." He said as he got up from the floor. He looked behind him as the last two ran out the door.

"It's really in the landing. It's a common mistake to land on your knees, trust it gets really tiring after a while." At the other end of the bar, Daws seethed, seeing all his man run.

"Hey there, we were just looking for you!" Spider-Man pointed at Daws, the man too angry to respond. Instead he ran the other way out the back entrance.

"Go ahead, I'll run through anything I can find here. I think he has an office." Spider-Man nodded running out the back door. He looked both ways before his spider-sense triggered.

JUMP

Spider-Man jumped just as a car sped through the alley and into the streets. "Oh bother." Spider-Man said, swinging to give chase.

Daws' car was very obvious, other than the only one weaving through traffic at high speeds, it was a very expensive-looking sports car. It also made the loudest noise.

"If you come back now, I won't punch you!" Spider-Man called out as followed behind him.

Daws' response was to whip out a pistol and fire aimlessly into the sky in hopes he would land a shot. It didn't work, but what it did do was cause panic. Cars swerved out the way, people ran into stores on the sidewalk. General mayhem, nothing Miles wasn't used to.

DODGE

Miles turned his body as a shot from behind him. As he turned around, he could see a fast-moving black SUV barreling through traffic. In every window was a gun pointing out to shoot at him, even the driver-side window. How irresponsible!

"I'll get to you in a second Daws! Lemme just clean up the street." Spider-Man swung back to the SUV to keep up to track with it. If he tried to take out Daws now, these guys would surely cause a lot of damage.

Spider-Man swung behind the SUV, moving left and right between the bullets. He had to take out the gunners before he could stop the car. With one big swing, Spider-Man threw himself to the car. He landed on the car, hearing the curses of the men inside. To his right one of them popped out to shoot, Spider-Man rotated to the side of the car as the man fired. With a punch, his gun was thrown away and Spider-Man shot a web-line connecting him and a nearby building. The shooter was yanked out of the car, suspended in the air as they drove past him.

Miles climbed into the car, seeing the surprised face of the man's cohorts, "Mind if I pop in?" Spider-Man shot his foot to the passenger on his left. He fell unconscious quickly. The passenger whipped his gun around but was quickly dissuaded as his hand got stuck to the ceiling by webbing. "Nuh-uh!" Spider-Man said disapproving, the passenger tried to yank his arm out with his free one but that too got stuck with webbing. All that left was the driver. He was so focused on driving he didn't pull his gun out.

"Please pull over." Spider-Man asked politely, the man seeing his predicament lamented and stopped the car.

"Just don't punch me." He asked. What he was granted was two shots of webs pinning his hands to the dash.

"Deal." Spider-Man reached for the keys and threw them out, the keys flew far. Past the buildings surrounding them.

"Damn it, I still have to pay this car off." The driver sulked as Spider-Man hopped out. In front of him, Daws' car had made a right turn. Spider-Man zipped onto the nearest building, watching as the car drove onto a freeway. Spider-Man swung after him, there weren't many things to swing on this high except the light poles, so he had to be careful on his swing.

"Alright Daws, I took care of the others. So how about we chat!" Spider-Man swung just behind his car. From the window of his car, put his gun out and shot. Except this time, it wasn't to him. The bullet flew beneath him hitting a car behind him. The car spun, trying to right itself but it crashed into the barrier. The car behind it without much time to swerve out the way crashed into it. The front car broke through the barrier, leaving its front-end dangling off the roof.

"Fuck you Spider-Man!" Daws yelled as he kept driving. Behind him the sound of cars colliding hit his ears again.

Miles looked between Daws and the pile-up. He had to let Daws go, and he hated the idea of him getting away. But people needed him, they needed Spider-Man. "Damn it, ok let's get these people to safety."

Miles turned back to the pile-up; people had been exiting their cars. With a sudden scraping noise, the car hanging off the freeway had inched closer to falling. In fact, at least half of the car was leaning off the ledge. "Everyone get away!" Miles shouted as he approached the car. He was gonna have to push the car behind it to move it, else he wouldn't have enough room.

With two web-lines, Miles shot at the second car, pulling it away from the first. As he did, he could finally hear the screaming come from the first car. "Help! Help us!" The frantic moving from the car only exacerbated the problem.

"Hold on I'm coming! Don't move!" Miles, with enough room for the first car, let go of the second, turned his attention back to the first. The car started to slide more and more; it wasn't going to last long. Miles shot two web-lines to the back of the car, pulling as hard as he can. As much as he could, the car was stuck. Sometime under the carriage was stopping it from moving.

"Alright, I need you all to be calm. I'm going to yank the car!" He could only hear the people inside crying. Miles positioned himself, ready to yank the car. But as he did, he could hear a distinct pop. Following the thread, he saw that the car hadn't been successfully pulled onto the freeway. Instead the rear bumper had only popped off and the car was falling.

"NO!" Miles ran after the car as it fell of the ledge, he shot two more web-lines but the weight of the car dragged him over the ledge too. In free fall, Miles looked back to the bridge and shot a web-line stopping their momentum. The weight of the car hung beneath him in one hand, and the web to the bridge was held in the other.

With as much strength he could muster, Miles pulled both ends together and connected them together. Now the car was hanging by a thread, he had to act fast. Miles swung to the side of the car and took in the situation. Three people, two in front, one in back. Driver, a father knocked out, and two sons screaming their heads off. "Hey, I got you guys. I'm gonna need you to calm down, okay!?" The sons looked at him in amazement, wide starry eyes focused on him.

"Okay kids, I'm gonna…gonna…" How was he going to do this? He looked around him, below him were some buildings. Above him was the bridge, he couldn't risk going back up. That would take too long. He looked back down, eyeing a building not too far off. He had an idea.

"Alright kids, any of you use a zipline before?" Both kids shook their heads.

"It's pretty simple, just hold on really tight and don't swing left or right. Gimme your hands." The closest kid stuck out his hands, Miles put it over the zipline and webbed them together. "Now hold on tight." Miles gently pushed the kid out of the car and towards the building.

"You next, give me your hand. I'll help you get over here." The other kid stuck his hand out and unbuckled his seatbelt. Gravity pulled the kid down towards the front seat, but Miles tightened his grip to keep him close. "Okay, you ready?" The kid nodded his head, just as he did before Miles put him on the zipline and pushed him forward.

"Two down, one to go." Miles crawled to the front seat; the father groaned unconsciously. "At least he's alive." With a readied fist, Miles punched into the driver-side door and ripped it off. Miles was aware to throw it towards a nearby roof to avoid it falling on the street below.

A loud snap cracked above him; Miles whipped his head to see the webbing holding the car giving way. "Gotta work fast." Miles unbuckled the father and grabbed him, he grabbed the zipline and slid to the roof with the other kids.

"Dad!" The two ran towards their father as Miles put him down. The man was still stirring, but it was better than being dead. Another snap cracked behind him, and the webbing connected to the car had finally given way. "Oh no!" Miles jumped off the roof to the street below and landed in the middle of the street, as it fell Miles braced his arms and legs for a few hundred pounds of metal and fabric.

The car landed above him, the rest of the unbroken glass landed around and on him, and the sound of metal crunching filled his ears. Miles threw the car off him, it flopped back onto its wheels. Around him people cheered, having watched the events of what just happened. In the distance Miles could hear sirens, most likely the police.

"Remember to always wear your seatbelt everyone!" Miles swung away ready to get back to The Detective, hopefully finding something useful.

x-x

Ashford Academy

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Lelouch and Suzaku sat in the dining room together, the three had eaten a dinner prepared by Sayoko and Nunnally was taken to her room to sleep leaving them alone.

"You know I consider you my friend, and I've tried to hide your secret the best I can. But I don't know how well I can hide it from prying eyes." Suzaku played with his hands, this was certainly troubling him.

"It's okay, just tell me."

"It seems that Princess Euphemia has taken an interest in finding you. She said she wanted to continue his work in looking for you. For as much as she appears kindhearted, our conversation was very tense." The meeting between the two replayed in his head, Suzaku wasn't sure if anything he said gave away him lying and that worried him more.

"Ah, that makes sense. Me and Nunnally were always close to Euphemia, if anyone would want to look for us it'd be her. What did you tell her?"

"I told her you were kept away from me, that I wasn't allowed to speak to you. When the war started, we split ways. I felt that an outright confirmation that you were dead would be a clear lie." Lelouch chuckled, it seemed he rubbed off on Suzaku.

"I know from experience that Euphemia can be very persistent for something she wants. Thank you, Suzaku." Lelouch stood up and move to Suzaku's side.

"What are you going to do?" Suzaku asked.

"I've spent the better part of a decade dodging the military. I'm sure I can evade Euphemia's prying eyes."

x-x

?

"Yeah it's Richard. Get me in touch with the Big Man, it's urgent." The man on the other end patched him through, the disappointed sigh of his boss filled his ears.

"Mr. Daws, what do you want?' The Big Man asked.

"Boss, my club just got sacked, I just barely escaped. I think they're looking for some dirt on the operation."

"If it's one of the local Eleven terrorists remind them you're under the Big Man. Send some of the hired men into the ghettos and make an example. If this was the only thing you came for-"

"No boss, it was that Spidery guy! I was able to get away but no doubt he's looking for something. I think he had a partner with him, but they also wore a mask. It wasn't that Zero guy on the news, some guy in a trench coat." The silence was palpable.

"Return to my office, I want to know everything," The Big Man pulled away from the phone, to talk to someone in the room, "Lorenzo, get Stacy on the line. It seems I will have to apply more pressure on him. As for you Mr. Daws, our conversation is done. Your orders are clear, now hurry." The phone call ended, and Richard sighed in relief.

A fist came crashing through his car window, as he kicked and screamed the man outside his car pulled him out and tossed him onto the concrete road. Richard groaned as he hit the ground, hard. "Do you know who I am? I work for the Big Man, the Black King! You'll be sorry you ever set foot in this city." Richard looked up to the man above him.

He stood at a tremendous height in a combat uniform colored navy blue and silver with a big star on his chest. "Son, I don't think I'll ever be sorry from a scared man like you or whatever boss you work for." The man picked him up by the collar of his shirt putting him eye to eye.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Captain America, and you're coming with me."

We only have a couple of chapters left before we close this arc of the story, and I for one can't wait to write the finale of it. I've been planning it for a while, and it's got me excited. Hope ya'll've enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you next time. Also, don't know how many of you realized but I changed the