Chapter 44: Blunder Down Under
Author's Note: Hey there, readers! Sorry about the delay in the release of this chapter. It was done a while back, but I've been rewriting the end of this story because I didn't like how it felt. It felt like I was borrowing too much from other influences, rather than writing my own thing. So after this chapter, we will be focusing exclusively on the turtles' point of view for the rest of the story. But, until then, enjoy some crazy fight action between the New Avengers and the Sinister Six!
"Gentlemen, it's time." Doc Ock stood in front of the control room of his Octagon underwater base, surrounded by the Sinister Six team. This moment almost felt surreal. They were on the precipice of Octavius's greatest accomplishment. This victory would not only define the modern life as they knew it, it would cement the name Otto Octavius in history for the rest of the human age. This would be his Great Wall of China. His Colosseum. His Taj Mahal.
"I am done waiting. All the preparations are complete, and my monitoring systems have confirmed that neither the Fantastic Four nor the X-Men are recovered enough to yet pose a threat to us." He turned on his tentacles to face the rest of the Sinister Six. "Now is the perfect time to strike," he said, stomping a claw into the floor for effect.
"Hold on," said Sandman. "What about the New Avengers?"
Ock snorted contemptuously. "I have analyzed their strengths, their weaknesses, and have devised the perfect counter-measures. They are no threat to me, or to my greatest masterpiece. Rise, my Octagon!"
He pressed a button on the control panel, and the Octagon began to unfold, extending up from the surface of the water until it had become a towering structure looming hundreds of feet above the Australian ocean.
"Through you, my Octagon, I shall conduct my choir invisible," Ock said, his fingers dancing over the controls. "My host of angels, lying perfectly in wait, dying to sing. And with them I, Otto Octavius, will set heaven itself alight, and purge this world with fire!"
All across the world, weather monitoring equipment began to beep with alarm and transmit increasingly alarming data. It looked like the earth was heating up, at almost an impossibly fast rate. And the effects were catastrophic.
In the Arctic Circle, scientists at research stations ran outside to the sound of crashes and bellows, watching in disbelief as massive chunks of iceberg began slipping off of the ice sheets and into the sea, melting away immediately. Across the world, crops began to wither and die. Animals collapsed dead from the heat. And soon, it became hot enough to affect people. Heatstroke had people falling over themselves as they passed out in the streets, in their homes, at their jobs.
Panic erupted, as people began to pray to whatever gods they believed in to deliver them from this hell on earth.
But only Otto Octavius answered.
Doc Ock began transmitting a global frequency broadcast, that overtook every television station, every radio, and every billboard in parts of the world that were in the daytime. "To the peoples of North and South America, any travelers in the Arctic or Antarctic, or anyone else currently facing the sun: good afternoon," he began. "I am Doctor Otto Octavius, and today we all have something in common. We are all dying. And I have found that when you can feel death coming for you, you find it within yourself to make many concessions. So let me ask all three billion of you, what will you concede to make this stop?"
Because of the global broadcast, people in Brazil could hear Ock's speech just as easily as people in Toronto. Or in upstate New York, where the heroes in the Avengers Mansion had crowded into the conference room to watch the image of Doctor Octopus on the screen.
"Please remain calm," said Ock. "Everything will be alright. That, my friends, was the stick. And now comes the carrot."
Immediately, the planet began to cool off. The ice reformed, the crops grew back, and all the dead animals and people shimmered before being returned to their former states. The public was in shock, their mind blown twice in the span of five minutes. What had just happened?
In reality, it was all a clever illusion set up by Doc Ock and Mysterio. Mysterio's holotechnology had been uploaded into satellites in the Earth's orbit, which Ock had hacked into using the electromagnetic power of the Octagon. The tower was essentially a giant radio beacon that had let him control the illusion tech in the satellites, giving the Earth a taste of their future to catch their attention.
And it had worked. All eyes and ears were listening to him now.
"What you just experienced was a taste of the world to come," said Octavius. "Not through any evil machinations, but through your own doing. My holographic illusion projectors sped up the effects of global warming. That is the world you are leaving to your children and grandchildren, unless you listen to me now. With your help, my technology can be augmented, and the effects of global warming reversed. I am sending out copies of my solution to the greatest minds around the planet. They will confirm the science is accurate."
Ock's voice took on a much more sincere tone now. "I am a brilliant man. A man with a terrible past who wishes to be remembered as one thing. The man who preserved the Earth for all time. Who shielded you and all of your children from harm. This is all I want, my friends. This, and nothing more. I beg you, let me give you the greatest gift of all … a future."
The transmission ended, and the world erupted in a hubbub of noise, as people began talking about what they'd just seen. The general public was fully on Doc Ock's side. If they hadn't believed in global warming before, they sure did now. And Ock's data was right on the mark; this could put an end to the devastating greenhouse effect.
Tony called a meeting of the New Avengers. They had been planning to start recon against Doc Ock and preparing to make a move, and they were totally thrown off by Ock's hail-mary announcement. The conference room of the Avengers Compound was filled with the sound of arguing.
"I hate to be the one to say it," said Tony, "but we should consider all the alternatives. The man is a certifiable genius—"
"Oh, he's certifiable, all right," Bucky Barnes muttered.
"All I'm saying," Tony went on, "is what if he's done it? What if he's come up with a way to preserve the planet? Doctor Richards has already sent me the results of his tests. The science is solid."
"Tony, have you lost your mind?" Sam Wilson slapped an open palm on the conference table. "The man is a textbook supervillain!"
"I'm not talking about the man," said Tony. "I'm talking about his ideas. You know, if N.A.S.A. hadn't recruited Nazi scientists, we never would have put a man on the moon."
"No dice, Stark!" said Sam. "I'm not listening. Only thing that should be coming out of Ock's mouth is teeth."
"I'm with the bird guy," added Quicksilver. "Once a crook, always a crook."
"Says a former crook sitting in between his twin sister and the Winter Soldier," said Rhodey.
Scarlet Witch put in her two cents. "Octavius is the last of the Masters of Evil remaining. Desperation can push a person into acting stupidly. Maybe—"
"Maybe what?" a voice asked. "You're actually discussing this?"
The heroes at the table turned to see the last member of the New Avengers, Spider-Man, walk into the conference room. He was wearing the Iron Spider suit, a suit that Tony had made for him after the capture of the Vulture. He'd refused the suit, as well as a place on the Avengers' roster, at the time. But now that Tony had recruited him, he figured he'd better wear the suit. And it was a very nice suit at that.
"What is this?" Peter asked, the mask retracting into his suit. "Earth's mightiest chat room?"
"Mr. Parker," said Tony. "Love the new suit. New look. My look, I'd like to add."
"Thanks," Peter said sheepishly.
"You're our resident expert on all things Octavius," Tony went on. "What's your take on this?"
"My take?" asked Peter. He looked around the faces at the table, all of them staring back at him. "My take is that Doc Ock's got eight sleeves, and he's got something up all of them. And everybody's falling for his eco-friendly earth shield speech."
"Well, we'd better start writing a counter-speech," said Tony. "The President wants us at the emergency G8 summit that's happening in Paris tomorrow."
The G8 summit is an annual meeting between leaders from eight of the most powerful countries in the world: France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Japan, the US, Canada, and Russia. Usually the meetings took place every year in a different member's country, to try and tackle global problems by discussing big issues and planning what action to take.
This summit, however, had been called early because of Doctor Octopus's broadcast. A UN session would have been more in order, but that would have taken far too long to organize, and the G8 members felt that this matter was of the utmost urgency. In addition to the world's leaders, some of the greatest minds on the planet were in attendance, leaders in the area of climate change who were there to give their testimony on the specs that Octavius had sent them.
But even after the scientists had confirmed Ock's science, the Élysée Palace where the summit was being held was still erupt with intense debate. Ock's illusion shows had only taken place in the Western Hemisphere, which had been experiencing daytime during the illusion, and the Eastern Hemisphere hadn't experienced it. Therefore, there were several Eastern countries, namely Russia and Japan, that were still unconvinced that it hadn't been a hoax.
In fact, the Prime Minister of Russia, Dmitri Olshenko, had just said those exact words, which was what had started off this latest round of frenzied bickering and arguing.
"Are you mad?" the German Chancellor shouted. "Half the world witnessed it first hand!"
"Not our half!" the Japanese delegation argued back. "It was a western trick!"
This back-and-forth continued on for a few moments until finally the UK Prime Minister took advantage of a lull in the bickering to remind them all of the urgency of the matter at hand. "The eco-system is at risk. We've been saying this for years. All this Doctor Octopus did was show us our future."
France's representatives immediately jumped on the chance to point the finger. "That madman—an American—endangered us all!"
This threatened to send the room back into another flurry of infighting, until Neil DeGrasse Tyson, the famous astrophysicist, took control of one of the microphones to command the attention of all the various world leaders. "His science is sound," Tyson said. "Whatever Doctor Octavius's motives are for doing this, his plan would work. If we help him launch more of his satellites into orbit, his technology could end the threat of global warming."
"I concur," said President Matthew Ellis, who took the microphone from Tyson and moved to the podium as everyone else sat back down to hear what he had to say. "I haven't been a proponent of geoengineering in the past, but this new approach is revolutionary. And in my opinion, it's—"
"Completely insane!" Tony Stark called.
All eyes turned to the front of the room, where Tony, wearing a fancy suit, glasses, and a wrist-watch. Bruce Banner and Spider-Man walked behind him, with Bruce on his right and Spider-Man on his left. Spider-Man was wearing his superhero suit; he wanted to keep his identity a secret at all costs. But behind his mask, his eyes were darting back and forth, scanning across the faces of the delegates at the emergency summit meeting.
He couldn't believe he was doing this. Peter Parker, the high schooler from Queens, crashing a world assembly. But Stark looked and acted as if he were right at home, walking towards the podium, raising his voice over the excited murmuring. "You're debating whether you should throw in with a man who makes giant robot octopi!" he said dramatically, emphasizing the absurdity of it. "Hello? The man's a psychopath."
"Gentlemen," the French President said, standing up. "I'm sorry, this is a closed session. Under what nation's authority are you—"
Tony pointed a finger at President Ellis. "Our President's, Mister President. We've been asked to testify on the state of Doctor Octavius's madness. And he is a mad scientist, who's getting all of you to help him build some kind of doomsday product. He's not out to save the planet. He's here to destroy it."
"With all due respect, Mister Stark," said President Ellis, "what I see is a chance to end the greatest threat our environment has ever faced. And I don't see any evidence to the contrary."
Tony's eyes narrowed on the American President and he removed his glasses slowly. "I see," he said. "Thank you, Mister 'President'." He nodded at Spider-Man. "Mister Spider-Man, your rebuttal, please."
Spider-Man swallowed hard, trying to ignore his nerves as he prepared to do the single most gutsy thing he had ever done in his life.
Then, in the blink of an eye, he webbed himself over President Ellis and punched the man square in the face. The President went down, hitting the floor amid the shocks and gasps from the other delegates. The Secret Servicemembers accompanying President Ellis drew their pistols immediately, and the other security guards for the summit did the same as they rushed Spider-Man.
No one could believe what they'd just seen. But they were even more surprised to see that the man Spider-Man hauled up from the floor was not President Ellis at all. It was a man wearing a full-body black and grey motion capture suit, and a see-through facial tracking helmet that looked like an oversized fishbowl. Spider-Man's punch had broken the helmet, so that glass littered the floor underneath the two of them. It had also deactivated the mocap's illusion, so that the entire assembly saw that they had been tricked.
"Here's all the evidence you need," said Tony Stark, grabbing the microphone over the eruption of noise from the assembly. "Uh-oh, looks like Ock's biggest booster here is none other than one of his own Sinister Six, Mysterio! Or, Quentin Beck, as I knew him."
"That was a risky play," Bruce Banner whispered to Tony as he put down the mic. "How did you know?"
"The kid's idea," Tony whispered back. "He tricked out my glasses' lenses to block out Mysterio's little light shows. Been prepping that one for months."
Bruce raised his eyebrows, impressed. "Gotta hand it to him, he seems ready for whatever Ock throws at us."
The palace's television sets lit up simultaneously without warning. Everyone in the room could see the image of Doc Ock staring back at them. "How unfortunate," the doctor said. "My apologies, my friends. Please forgive this deception. I was merely trying to speed up the process. But, thanks to the Avengers' interference, I have no choice but to take more drastic measures. My stealth satellites have more than enough charge in them to teach you all one final lesson. Now witness again the power of my Octahedral! My greatest creation!"
Security hauled a webbed-up Mysterio to his feet. The palace was quickly searched, and the real President Matthew Ellis was found, tied up and in a closet. He was a little groggy from the chloroform Mysterio had slipped him, but unharmed.
The French President approached Tony, Banner, and Spider-Man. "Mister Stark, I hope you Avengers realize what you have just done," he said angrily. "Last time we were fortunate to escape without the loss of human life. But this time?"
"I promise you, Mr. President, we have it under control," said Doctor Banner. "Our best men and women are on this."
Tony stepped away, hand to his earpiece. "Rhodey, you in position? Doc took the bait."
"Copy, Tony," said Rhodey. He was in position, looking down on the half-lit Planet Earth from space as he clung to the side of the Avengers' orbital satellite. It was nighttime for the U.S., and the dark side of the earth was dotted with bright lights that looked like small yellow fireflies. It was a very surreal sight.
But Rhodey wasn't here to sightsee. He was directly patched in to the satellite's Starkware subspace scanners, via an optic cable connecting the satellite to his suit's chest reactor. Doc Ock had cloaked his Octobot satellites that Mysterio had used to trick half the planet with his global warming illusion, but Rhodey could trace back his earthbound signal, to hopefully locate the doctor's hideout.
"Wait," he radioed back, as his suit began sending him data from the satellite's tracking scanner. "Something's going on up here. Ock's technology is operating on a different frequency than before. This could be very bad."
Tony sighed on the other end of the call. "Rhodey, please tell me you've got good news."
"Yes and no," said Rhodey. "Sorry Tony, but I don't think we gave Octavius enough credit. This stealth technology he's using is revolutionary. I can't get a bead on him. He could be anywhere."
"So we forced his hand, and we still have nothing. Great. What's the good news?"
Rhodey grimaced. "That's the part that'll really tick you off. The new field he's put up in the atmosphere is having a different effect. His Earth-shield is filtering out the harmful effects of the sun's UV rays. And it looks like it's working."
Back on the Earth, the world leaders at the G8 summit were murmuring, as texts began flooding in to cell phones. The data was confirming what Rhodey had told Tony. Tony shot Spider-Man a worried look. "I don't like where this is going. Did you know he'd do this?"
Peter shook his head no. "I didn't," he said, beating himself up inside. But I should have. Nice one, Pete.
Doc Ock was speaking on the TV screens again. "Gentlemen. I want this to happen. Please. While I am still alive to see this dream become a reality. More importantly, you need my mind to make this work. So hurry, make your decision. I give you twenty-four hours. And on that note, I have one last request. Release my associate, Mister Beck. This is a request that must be met without condition."
The screens blinked off, and the murmurs began again. The summit security guards looked around at each other in confusion, then at Mysterio, who just shrugged with a maddening smirk.
"Are you kidding me?" Peter asked Tony. "We're just letting Mysterio go?"
Tony shook his head in frustration. "Sure looks that way."
"He knocked out the President and shoved him in a closet!" added Peter.
"I'm with the kid on this one," Banner said. "This is crazy."
"Oh, it's something, all right," Tony said, glaring as Mysterio walked down the steps of the palace into a waiting car that had pulled up to the curb to pick him up.
Opening the door, Mysterio shot a look back at the heroes on the palace steps. "Don't worry, Tony. I'm sure we'll see each other again," he said cockily. "So this is what it feels like to be on the winning team!" Laughing, he got in the car and drove away.
President Ellis joined the heroes outside the palace, and Tony quickly turned to face him. "Mister President, you're looking no worse for wear, sir."
"Thank you, Stark," said Ellis. "But after my time in office, you'd be amazed at how much I can put up with. Let's not forget the whole Extremis situation."
Banner walked up to Peter, who was staring after Mysterio's car as it drove off. "You sure this is gonna work?" he asked.
"Yep," Peter said. "This part is all going according to plan. I know how Ock thinks. Trust me, Doctor Banner. I have got every angle covered."
Early the next morning, a small helicopter flew along the irradiated Australian coastline, towards a large mechanized Octobot walker that was standing in the water just off the edge of the beach. The walker looked like a giant metal sphere with four legs on each side and a heavy-duty energy cannon sticking out of its front. It was the Octo-Walker, Octavius's creation to deal with larger-sized threats like the Hulk. He'd adapted some of Stockman's tech for the project. The man was an idiot, but he specialized in building mechs.
Mysterio, flying the helicopter, received a radio signal from the Octo-Walker. "Beck, you are to bring your craft in for a landing immediately. Is that understood?"
Mysterio landed the helicopter and climbed out, walking towards the walker with arms oustretched. "No, I don't understand," he yelled. "What's the meaning of this? Why are we meeting so far away from the base?"
The walker's boarding ramp lowered with a crash into the surf, and the other Sinister Six members walked down out onto the beach. "I dunno, Beck," Electro said sarcastically. "Maybe because it's a secret base and we wanna keep it that way."
"What are you talking about?" asked Mysterio.
"Not much," Scorpion said. "Just the 'Kick Me' sign on your back, genius."
"What?" Mysterio turned his head and lifted the back of his shirt. A small GPS tracker drone, in the shape of a spider, had fastened itself to his shirt. "Spider-Tracer," he growled, peeling off the bot and crushing it between his fingers. "How dare-"
"Enough," Doc Ock said. The Sinister Six leader was staring up at the sky, where an Avengers Quinjet was streaking over the early morning sunrise. "The Avengers. It is time. Mysterio, think you can manage the coming fight?"
"Don't patronize me," Mysterio snarled, activating his mo-cap suit to give him his trademark gold-and-green outfit with his purple cape and fishbowl helmet. "I know what I'm doing."
"Really?" asked Scorpion. "Cause that was a rookie move. This is the Sinister Six. You're in the majors now, buddy. Act like it."
In the Quinjet above the beach, Spider-Man was tracking the Spider-Tracker's signal through his web-shooters. The signal cut off abruptly; Mysterio must have found and destroyed the tracker.
He turned to the other Avengers sitting in the Quinjet. They were all here: Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Iron Man, Bruce Banner, Black Widow, Falcon, and Bucky Barnes, sporting Captain America's old shield. "They've made us," he told the Avengers. "So much for the element of surprise."
"What now, kid?" asked Falcon. "You're the expert on Octavius. This is your show."
"We've got them outnumbered and outgunned," said Spider-Man. "Nothing fancy. We overwhelm them. We do it fast and we end this now."
Bruce grinned. "So you're saying 'smash'? My kind of plan."
"Short and sweet, people," said Iron Man, pressing the button to open the launch bay doors of the Quinjet. The air around them began whistling as they prepared to jump. "The kid's not asking for much, just Earth's mightiest smack-down!"
On the beach, the Sinister Six watched as the Avengers began jumping from the Quinjet. "I'm counting seven of them," said Sandman.
"And the pilot," Doc Ock said. "I know."
"One of them is Hulk," noted Rhino.
"Immaterial, my friend," Ock said dismissively. "We are ready for them. Keep to your assigned targets. Stick to our strategy. We can't lose."
Doc Ock turned and walked up the ramp into the Octo-Walker. "This is our day, gentlemen, the day the Sinister Six reigns supreme!"
The Avengers descended from the sky, some of them flying, and some of them falling with style. "Hulk, the giant robot's all yours," said Iron Man. "The rest of us get the soft targets."
With a roar, Hulk crashed into the top of the Octo-Walker, leaving a dent in its perfectly round metal surface. The other Avengers hit the ground running, charging at the Sinister Six.
"Hey Fishbowl, heads up," said Falcon, flying towards Mysterio. He launched Redwing from his back, and the drone fired an electrical taser pellet directly at the supervillain. The pellet turned into a flower petal before Mysterio's face with a soft popping sound, before Redwing was transformed into an origami crane in the blink of an eye.
Mysterio clicked his tongue. "Sorry, Falcon. Missed me."
Falcon flew over and looked back, coming around for another pass. "Redwing! How'd he —?"
"He didn't," said Spider-Man. "You got him, Falcon."
"What?" Falcon pointed at Mysterio, who was standing on the beach unharmed. "But look, he's—"
"A hologram," said Spider-Man. "Trust me. I tricked out my suit's lenses to block Mysterio's little light shows. He's in the bag. That's one down, five to go."
Mysterio was, in fact, in the bag. The taser pellet had sent him to the ground hard, and Spider-Man's webbing secured him.
Electro buzzed, his suit transforming him into a solid mass of lightning as he took to the sky in a streak of blue. "One shot. That's all you get, Web-Head. From here on out, it's you and your little friends who are going down."
Electro passed through the Quinjet and came out the other side, releasing a large electrical discharge into the Quinjet as he flew through it. In the cockpit, alarms began to sound as the plane stalled and began to fall, spinning down towards the ground below. Black Widow sat at the pilot's seat, struggling with the flight yoke. "Controls are locking! Losing altitude!" she shouted into the mic. "Avengers, I need —"
The Quinjet smashed into the ground at the edge of the beach, where the ground turned from sand to trees, and sent up a massive fireball with a loud explosion. "Natasha!" shouted Bucky.
Electro landed on the beach in a shower of electrical sparks. "The thing is, since my power-up, I don't even need the other Six," he said, his voice crackling with energy and anticipation. "I can take you all on by myself!"
He sped through the air, moving as a blur of electricity towards Spider-Man and brushing past Iron Man and Falcon as he descended. The electrical current from Electro coursed through both of the superheroes, electrocuting them. They fell to the ground from the air and lay there twitching and smoking, Iron Man's suit shutting down from the electricity that rippled over it.
"I'm lightning fast!" Electro gloated. "Can kill with a touch! I'm a living force of nature! And what've you got, Spider-Man? Huh?"
"Not much," Spider-Man said, bracing himself as Electro approached. "Just an Electro-proof suit."
Electro passed through Spider-Man as a blur of lightning and emerged out the other side to see Spider-Man unharmed. He deactivated his suit's capacitors, reverting him to his human form. "What?!" he shouted.
Spider-Man had added an upgrade to his suit's material immediately before the battle to counter Electro's powers. He had added a layer of arc flash suit material in between the suit's outer and inner layers. The material would absorb Electro's charge and prevent his skin from getting burned, which meant he would be unharmed by any of Electro's attacks.
And now he'd gotten Electro right where he needed the villain. "Now, Scarlet Witch!" Spider-Man shouted.
Electro turned around, but he was a few seconds too late. Scarlet Witch, who was standing a few feet away, grabbed Electro with her telekinetic powers. Red psionic energy covered Electro, keeping him from being able to move. She activated his suit, turning him back into his "lightning" state before launching him with a loud crackle into the air, through the Earth's atmosphere and out into space as a bolt of lightning.
As she stared up at the sky where Electro had disappeared, she didn't see Rhino charging her from behind until it was too late. The supervillain impaled her on his horn, which sunk through her flesh with ease. She screamed in pain as she looked down at the point coming through the front of her shirt, before Rhino pulled her off his horn and dropped her.
"Like it, Avenger?" he asked tauntingly as she collapsed to her knees in pain. "New horn, courtesy of Doctor Octavius. A blade from a demon called Marduk Helstrom, from the same dark matter that gives you your powers."
He laughed evilly as Scarlet Witch slumped over onto the ground and lay still.
"Wanda!" Pietro shouted. The speedster was busy fighting Scorpion, but as soon as his sister had taken the hit he turned around, his attention divided. Scorpion took his advantage, jabbing the man in the back of the neck with his tail stinger in a lightning-fast move that he wouldn't have been able to pull off without the aid of his symbiotic suit.
"While Rhino deals with the witch, I'll deal with you!" Scorpion snarled as Quicksilver shouted in pain. He could feel something lodging onto his spinal column. With a bloodcurdling scream, Quicksilver dropped to the floor, shaking and twitching uncontrollably.
Scorpion withdrew his symbiotic shell, his human face staring down at Quicksilver. "We picked that bad boy out of a Hammer Industries blacklist project," the villain told him. "Vibratory nanite projectiles. Ock refined them so they could fit into the human bloodstream. On your spinal cord, they're giving you epileptic seizures at almost lightspeed. You'll be wishing for death by the time we're done with you."
Meanwhile, Bucky was fighting Sandman several feet off the shoreline, in about knee-deep seawater. Sandman was using the sand underneath them to create waves, bombarding Bucky with water to keep him off-balance. "Looks like there's only three of you losers left," Sandman said. "And I see what you're doing. Trying to get me further out to sea so I get good and soaked. Ain't working, 'Cap'. As long as I'm in touch with the beach, I'm good to go."
Bucky climbed to his feet, spitting out wet sand. "Worth a shot," he said. "Still not giving up."
"Yeah?" Sandman cocked his head. "The other Cap used to say that, too, huh? 'I can do this all day'? Doc Ock was thinking that resolve might have transferred over to you. That's why he cooked this up."
A small blue sphere about the size of a golf ball hit the water near Bucky and immediately started crystallizing, flash-freezing the ocean water around his feet until he couldn't move. Panic set in as the ice continued to grow around him. "No!" Bucky shouted, smashing at the ice with the shield as Sandman threw two more spheres until he was completely encased in thick ice.
"A cryo-pellet," Sandman said, looking at the small iceberg that was keeping Bucky trapped. "The one proven way to stop Bucky Barnes. The ol' deep freeze kept you outncold before, didn't it? Sweet dreams, Grandpa."
He moved out of the water, his entire body taking on the consistency of the beach sand as he rejoined the battle.
Hulk, meanwhile, was ripping every nut and bolt out of the Octo-Walker that he could get his hands on. Roaring, he tore a box with wires and cables out of the hole he'd punched in the side of the Octo-Walker. Even as he shouted with frustration, he was wondering why the robot wasn't falling down.
Poor Hulk, Doc Ock thought from inside the walker's piloting seat. Probably too used to fighting government issue Hulk-busting robots. Evil geniuses, like myself, build things of a higher caliber. Much like the late Dr. List, and his alpha/gamma disrupter. Which, I have verified, is able to shut down all brain activity in gamma-irradiated creatures.
He pulled a lever, and one of the Octo-Walker's arms pulled the Hulk off of the walker's outside shell and held him in place in front of the energy cannon. Hulk struggled as the energy cannon primed itself and fired a beam of what looked like solid light into the Hulk's body. Hulk made a noise somewhere between a growl and a gurgle as he went limp, falling from the walker's grasp onto the sand with a crash.
It had only been a manner of minutes, and every Avenger was down.
Everyone except Spider-Man.
As the other five members of the Sinister Six descended on Spider-Man, he did his best to fight them off as a growing panic filled his head. Ock planned this out perfectly. Well, I've been planning too. I can do this! Come on, Peter, think! There has to be a way out of this!
He fought bravely, but by the time Doc Ock had lowered the Octo-Walker ramp and walked out onto the beach, Spider-Man was on the ground being pummelled by the other villains. They stopped the beatdown as Doc Ock approached, pinning Spider-Man's wrists to the ground viciously with his tentacle arms and breaking his web-shooters.
"Thank you, Spider-Man," Ock said. "You played your part perfectly, delivering the Avengers into my hands. And I have plans for them." He turned to the other villains. "Gather them up. Except for the spider. Leave him to me."
"Sure thing, Doc," said Sandman, encasing the frozen Bucky Barnes in a container-shaped block of sand. "Least we can do for the guy who showed us how to job the Avengers."
Rhino grabbed the unconscious Hulk by one leg and slung Iron Man over his other shoulder. "Have to admit, his plan did go off without a hitch," the villain said.
"Unless you call Electro being shot into space a 'hitch'," Mysterio said, who had recovered from Redwing's taser and was picking up Scarlet Witch. "Don't forget, Alexei. It's still us versus the entire world, and now we're a man down."
"Max Dillon was a fool," Scorpion said, as he picked up the still-twitching Quicksilver. "He let his guard drop and got what he deserved. We're better off without him."
Doc Ock wrapped Spider-Man up in his tentacles and lifted him into the air so that they were face to face. "Well, my old foe. We've reached the end of our game, haven't we? Any final words?"
Spider-Man said nothing, struggling feebly in Ock's grip. "Very well," the doctor said. "Farewell, Spider —"
Suddenly, from the jungle behind them, the crashed Quinjet exploded again. This time the explosion was much larger, and the sound was like a clap of thunder two feet away from someone's ear. Ock started and whirled to face the explosion. "What?" he asked in surprise. He turned back to Spider-Man—
Only to see Spider-Man had disappeared.
"NO!" Ock screamed, pounding the sand in frustration. "My concentration only waned for a moment! He can't have—Spider-Man?! Show yourself!"
Mysterio stood just inside the entrance of the Octo-Walker, having laid down the unconscious Scarlet Witch. "Woah," he said. "My helmet's sensors aren't picking him up anywhere. That's one hell of a disappearing act. Give me a second, I'll figure it out."
Doc Ock sighed through gritted teeth. "Regrettably, Mister Beck, that shall have to be another time. The leaders of every nation are awaiting my next move, and a lengthy bug hunt is not on our schedule." His tentacles snaked towards Falcon, dragging the superhero along the ground into the Octo-Walker with the rest of the Sinister Six. "But no matter," Ock told them. "I have taken multiple precautions to deal with him."
The villains took the captured heroes into the Octo-Walker, and once their cargo was loaded, the massive walker crawled into the ocean and disappeared beneath the waves.
Once the coastline had returned to normal, save for the burning wreckage of the Quinjet, a voice announced "We're clear." The air on the edge of the beach began shimmering like a mist. Spider-Man appeared out of nowhere, as an invisibility cloak was pulled off of his body. His suit's helmet retracted, exposing his face to the warm beach air.
"Impressive," he said, gasping for air. "How are you doing that?"
"New stealth technology," the voice said. "Straight from Symkaria." The air shimmered as another cloak was pulled off of Black Widow. The S.H.I.E.L.D. agent was wounded from the crash, but very much alive. The air between both of them began to vibrate as Sharon Carter unzipped her stealth suit, a full-body outfit made of the same material as the blankets that had kept them both covered. She slipped out of it, leaving it discarded on the ground.
"Sharon?" Black Widow asked in disbelief.
Sharon approached Spider-Man and helped him to his feet. "I don't think we've been properly introduced," she said.
"I'm Spider-Man," Peter said, shaking her hand.
"Sharon Carter," she told him. "Former S.H.I.E.L.D. and CIA agent, now I work alone. Can you walk?"
"Yes," Peter said, climbing to his feet.
"Wasn't easy nabbing you from Ock's tentacles," said Sharon, walking off towards the jungle as the other two followed. "The Quinjet's explosion was just enough of a distraction."
"Don't get me wrong, Miss Carter," Peter said. "We're grateful for the save, but why us? You had all the Avengers to choose from, why not a heavy hitter like Iron Man or Hulk?"
"Well, out of all your teammates, you're the one with the most experience with Doc Ock," said Sharon, walking off towards the jungle as the other two followed. "And Natasha was the closest."
Natasha rolled her eyes. "Of all the nihilistic—"
"Here," she said, moving through the trees towards a helicopter parked underneath the cover of some trees. The chopper was white and blue in color, with two lift fans that served as the chopper's propellors and rendered it capable of VTOL flight. They climbed into the chopper as Sharon Carter took the pilot's seat and booted up the engines. "I've been following you since you left the G8 Summit."
As the chopper took off, Peter stared idly out the window at the landscape below, looking over the smouldering beachline where the battle had taken place. His mind was still reeling at their defeat. Doc Ock had wiped the board with the New Avengers like they were nothing. Contingency plans to deal with each one. And they'd only managed to take out Electro in the process. Nothing to sniff at, but he was still frustrated at himself. How was he supposed to come up with something on the fly? Out here, all on his own?
"Where are we going?" he asked finally.
"Madripoor," Sharon answered. "Small island nation in Southeast Asia. It's a place where pretty much anybody can lay low without fear of being arrested or extradited. Doc Ock is a dangerous man who's carefully thought this through. We'll disappear there, wait and watch for him to make a move."
Sharon was right. Right now, all they could do was wait.