Hello, friends, and welcome to Chapter Eighteen! Things are really going to heat up with this one, so I suggest you fasten your seatbelts and put all trays in their upright and locked position! As usual, please read and review, I greatly appreciate the feedback. Thanks!
Disclaimer: All characters owned by Marvel.
Chapter Eighteen
The Avengers heard the echo of a scream only seconds before a wave of power slammed into them, sparking the fluorescent lights and shaking the foundations of the tunnel. Strange and Spider-Woman were thrown against the sidewalls, while the others, even Thor, were halted in their tracks.
"Odin's Beard," Thor said.
The sensors in Tony's suit erupted, their sirens reverberating inside his helmet.
"What is it?" Cage asked.
An interface popped up over Tony's left arm; the bars were shooting into the red, nearly to the top of the screen. "I don't know," he said, "But it's powerful. Cosmically powerful. Like, nearly Galactus-level powerful."
Strange stood, Jessica helping him to his feet. "That sounds like something we might want to be concerned about."
"Right now I'm more worried about that scream we heard," Jessica said.
"Indeed," Thor said. "Let us see to our comrades. Afterward we may concern ourselves with whatever power our enemies have amassed."
They continued down the corridor, the god of thunder out in front in case of another wave of force. As they reached the end of the passage, the Avengers found themselves standing before a pair of thick steel doors—at least, they used to be steel doors. They'd been nearly folded in half by whatever had plowed through them, burned and scorched by the heat of its passage.
What they found on the other side was much worse.
The large room beyond had been shattered by whatever force had erupted from its center. Vents circling the high domed ceiling bent inward, or had been so damaged that they hung loosely from whatever few bolts remained; the room's lighting did much the same, sparking and swaying from their power lines.
And kneeling in the center of the room, they saw the source.
Carol's body burned bright and loud, her hair transformed into fire, her skin the red of melting steel. When she opened her eyes to them, they flared with white light, and heat rolled off them as over desert sands.
In her arms she held the body of Spider-Man.
"Oh, no," Jessica said. "No, this can't be happening…"
Mjolnir dropped to the ground, its echo rebounding off the high ceilings and the metal. Thor followed it, falling to his knees; he lifted the helmet from his head and pushed the long blonde hair out of his face. He set his helmet down next to his hammer, and even from beneath the waters of the East River and the steel and concrete of the bunker, the others heard the thunder. "He rests now in Valhalla, in the highest seat of honor," he said, his voice low. Electricity arced over Mjolnir's Uru surface. With a howl, the god of thunder scooped up his helmet and hurled it into one of the vents on the ceiling; it plowed through the steel like a bullet through paper, and what remained of the slats rained down into the room.
Dr. Strange cupped his hands over his nose and mouth, his fingers a temple over his face. Tears welled in his eyes briefly before cascading down his high cheekbones, and he felt himself double over for a second before standing upright and placing his hands on his hips. He took a deep breath to steady his nerves, then dropped to the floor, on his knees, and began uttering what sounded like a prayer.
Tony, Jess, and Luke Cage all stepped forward, toward Carol, but one of Tony's sensors sounded again. "What?!" he yelled at his suit, his voice thick.
Jess reached her friend first, and knelt down next to the body. She'd removed her goggles, and her hands hovered over Peter in rapid movements, as though everywhere she tried to grab him radiated heat. Carol's head moved toward her friend slowly, and she looked as though she were about to say something when Cage placed a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm so sorry, Carol," he said.
Tony finished examining the feed from his suit, and his head snapped up. "Luke!" he called.
Carol's eyes turned to Cage, then back down to Peter, where she laid him back onto the metal surface of the floor. "Not yet." When she spoke, her voice reverberated like nine or nine thousand, and such was the weight and power of the sound that Cage was pushed away from her by inches. As he fell back, however, Carol reached up and caught his hand with her own.
Then she crushed it. With ease.
Cage howled in pain, but Carol squeezed further. The heat streaming from her glowing white eyes flowed faster. Tony could see tears evaporating at the edge of her eyelids.
"But you will be."
XXXXXX
A concrete fist slammed into the floor.
"Ock!"
The searing flash of electric bolts blacked out the room briefly, striking where the concrete had just been only a second before.
"You said it wouldn't be this hard!"
Rhino's horn plowed into the sidewall; had it not been for a second outer layer of protection, the East River would've come pouring into the base.
"It shouldn't be! I don't understand!"
Webs fired out of the underside of Octavius's wrists, but instead of hitting their intended target, they stuck Rhino's face to the wall. The other villain cried out in fury.
What remained of the Superior Six turned their heads to watch the burned and bleeding shape of the Amazing Spider-Man vanish into the shadows of the ceiling.
Octavius fired a web and followed him, grabbing Peter about the waist; but Peter was already rolling in mid-air, and by the time they reached the ceiling Octavius was facing the opposite side. Peter's feet pressed hard against Octavius's chest and plowed the Superior Spider-Man into the metal. Octavius howled, but turned his hands and feet to adhere to the surface.
Peter rolled forward, over Octavius's shoulder, and sprinted along the ceiling. With a grunt and a scrape of metal, Octavius was chasing again.
Despite lacking his Spider-Sense, Peter's other five were all functioning perfectly; he heard a shout from below, another from behind, and smelled the air burning around him. He leapt off the ceiling just as a bolt of electricity struck where he'd been, missing Octavius by centimeters.
Eventually, however, his luck was bound to run out. Sandman would catch him with a solid fist, or Rhino would finally manage to gore him. Blood rolled out of the wound on his back, and whatever device Octavius was using to block his Spider-Sense was starting to make his head pound.
It was this pounding that allowed Octavius to get the drop on him. Disoriented as he was, Peter didn't see Octavius land behind him. The villain threw one arm around Peter's neck, with the other gripping at the back of Peter's head. Peter was able to get a hand between Octavius's arm and his throat, but only just.
"How are you doing this?" Octavius whispered in his ear. "You can't see our attacks coming!"
Peter grunted. "I trained how to fight without my Spider-Sense, you moron," he said. "Check those memories you stole, you'll find it."
The Superior Spider-Man tried to drag Peter to the ground, but Peter stuck his feet to the floor, his thighs burning with the effort of holding himself upright. "I've seen you developing your idiotic fighting style. I've tried to use it. But it hasn't worked like this!"
"That's because you're not me," Peter said. "Training develops muscle memory, Ock. The retracing of the neural pathways in the brain that allows for repeated tasks to be performed more easily? You can remember the moves all day long, but how old is that cloned brain of yours, technically? Five, six months?"
Octavius growled, and pulled harder. Blood spurted out of the hole in Peter's back, trailing a line down the front of the other Spider-Man's costume. Peter threw his elbow back, but Octavius caught and held it, using it as leverage to pull harder toward Peter's neck. In a bout of desperation Peter released his feet from the floor, letting the force of Octavius's pulling slam them both onto the steel. Peter's head snapped back into Octavius's face, and he heard the telltale crack of bone.
Instinctively Octavius pushed Peter off of him, rolling away to throw his hands over his broken nose. But as Peter breathed in a deep gulp of air, a shadow fell over him, and he turned to see the massive concrete block of Sandman's fist careening toward him.
Parker Luck finally caught up with me… I'm sorry, Carol. I tried…
That was when the scream hit his ears, and the wave of power burst into the room.
XXXXXX
Cage was down within seconds.
Carol had destroyed his hand, and when he'd tried to back away, she'd pulled him in and punched him square in the chest. The cracking sound of his ribs giving way had nearly echoed off the high ceilings, but the clang when he'd caved into the metal sidewall had snapped the others to attention like a gunshot.
Thor erupted off the floor, attempting to pull Carol into a bear hug; but she simply sidestepped, grabbed his arm as he passed, and hurled him into one of the vents surrounding the room.
"Carol, what in the hell?!" Jess screamed, trying to grab her friend by the arm and turn her around.
She might as well have been trying to turn a building. Carol turned, slowly, her eyebrows pulling together creasing the red skin of her forehead. With an invisible snap her hand was around Jess's throat.
"I don't know how you healed so quickly," Carol said, lifting Jess off the ground and nearly pulling her nose-to-nose. "Or why you thought impersonating my best friend would be a good idea… but for what you've done to him…"
The fingers of Carol's other hand closed over Jess's mouth, the thumb and index pressing with enough pressure to crack the cheekbones. "You want to live a faceless life, you monster? Then I'll be happy to oblige you."
Blood seeped from Jess's jawline, her skin pulling away from around her ears. It was only Dr. Strange's intervention that prevented Carol from tearing off her best friend's face.
Unfortunately for the good doctor, it was enough that she took notice of him. She discarded the unconscious Spider-Woman and turned around, her burning white eyes scanning the room until she saw Strange standing beneath her, his hands glowing orange and his fingers hyperextended. "You glorified street magician!" she shouted, firing a photon blast with so much concussive force that it threw both Strange and Tony back into the hallway leading into the room. Carol began to follow them, but Thor was back on his feet, and careened into her while she was distracted.
"What in all the hells is going on?" Strange asked, wiping a stream of blood from the side of his forehead.
"It's gas!" Tony said, helping the doctor to his feet. "Whatever hallucinogenic gas Mysterio used on Peter in that broadcast, he's pumped ten times more of it into that room. She's seeing us as the Sinister Six!"
Thunder rumbled from within the room, and they turned to see Thor swinging his hammer toward Carol's side, lightning arcing off the handle and down his arm. Carol, however, ducked beneath the swing, and delivered a vicious right hand to the thunder god's stomach. Thor doubled over, and a spurt of blood mingled with the saliva that tumbled from between his teeth. "I don't know what you did to make yourself so much more powerful," Carol said, "But it won't matter. You won't survive this."
Her hands came down in a double-fisted strike at Thor's head. He managed to raise Mjolnir to deflect the blow, but its force still sent him crashing through the floor. The hammer exploded out of the hole only half a second later, plowing into her chest, but it was only enough to move her back a few feet before she shrugged it off and it flew back to Thor's outstretched hand.
"We've got to destroy the vents," Tony said, firing his repulsors into a pair of them. "That's how the gas is getting in."
With practiced and concentrated movements, Tony and Strange destroyed what remained of the vents, Strange ensuring that they were sealed to prevent any more of the hallucinogen from entering the room.
Tony moved to head back inside, but Strange grabbed his arm. "Do you think that might not be Peter's body lying in there?"
Another wave of concussive force burst outward as Carol clashed with Thor above the charred corpse.
"All I know is, she thinks that's Peter's body, and that we're responsible for it." Tony fired another repulsor blast, turning Carol's body so her fist missed Thor's face by inches. "If Peter is still alive somewhere, well… here's hoping Steve gets here with the others soon. Because if we don't contain this, right now, she'll drown us all before we even have a chance to look for him."
Tony charged back into the room, and Strange stood in the doorway for a moment before mingling a brief word and gesture. Blue light glowed over his nose and mouth, and he breathed in, exhaling a glowing dust a second later. He watched as Carol dodged Tony's punch, then crushed the armor around his left side with her counterattack. "May the Vishanti watch over us," Strange whispered, his hands aglow with mystic energy as he rejoined the fight.
XXXXXX
Sandman dissolved under the concussive force of the wave, and both Electro and Octavius were hurled into the walls. Even Rhino had to dig in his heels to prevent himself from being thrown across the room.
Peter only survived by adhering to the floor with his back, though it pulled at the wound there and caused him to cry out a bit.
The hole where Rhino had rammed the wall cracked further, and a small leak began to trickle into the room.
I know… I know that voice!
Peter was the first to regain his footing, but Octavius wasn't far behind. The two Spider-Men clashed in the center of the room, near the pool leading down into the river. They tumbled together, trading and blocking blows; Octavius was stronger, less damaged, but Peter's experience and technique led to him landing on top of his foe, his hand raised to strike Octavius's head into the metal floor.
"What have you done?!" Peter shouted, his fist trembling near his right temple.
Even through the mask, Peter could see Octavius smiling. "What I promised," he said. "I told you your friends in the Avengers would all die, that you would watch while your precious Captain Marvel wasted away to nothing. And, in a masterstroke worthy only of such superior intellect as mine, I've accomplished both at once."
A shadow fell over the Spider-Men, but Peter was so preoccupied with Octavius that he didn't see it until it was too late. Rhino grabbed Peter's outstretched arm and pulled him to his feet, head-butting him before he had a chance to react. Dazed, Peter watched Octavius rise to brush the dust and dirt away, lift his mask to spit out some of the blood trailing from his broken nose.
"We can kill him now, yes?" Rhino asked. "No more games?"
Octavius stroked his chin through the mask. "Only a small one, my friend. Only a small one."
With a series of button presses on his gauntlet, a panel opened in the sidewall, showing a reinforced one-way mirror. On the other side, through what little visibility he had around Rhino's massive fingers, Peter could see Carol clashing with several Avengers, including Tony, Thor and Dr. Strange.
She was in her Binary form.
Dear God, no…
Tony hurled a punch at her, which she dodged, and with a single strike to his left side crushed his armor against his ribcage. Peter was sure that he could hear Tony's bones breaking through the wall.
"My friends!" Octavius called, gesturing to the group around him. Electro joined them at the window, though his body still sparked and shuddered on occasion, and Sandman had reconstituted himself enough to have a form that could see through the window. "Let us watch the destruction of these Avengers who gathered to stop us!"
He turned to Peter with a snap, his hands wrapped around either side of Peter's head. "All of them," he whispered.
Then Rhino released him, and Octavius whirled them around, hurling Peter through the one-way window that had opened just long enough for Peter not to crash through it.
Avengers littered the ground around him. Jess lie crumpled and bleeding next to a body that too closely resembled his own. Cage was motionless, his legs dangling from the hole he'd made in the wall. Dr. Strange leaned against the wall, nursing a knee that was bent far too much in the wrong direction. Tony was only a few feet from him, but every inch of his armor was dented or sparking, and the arc reactor in the center of his chest was barely holding a flicker.
Thor dropped to the ground before Peter in a heap, the clang of his fallen hammer echoing off the high metal ceiling. The god of thunder was not out yet, but it was clear that whatever power Carol held in this form was simply too much for him.
"You!" Peter heard, and though her voice sounded like it was on the wrong frequency, it was still music to his ears. He looked up to see her burning white eyes boring into him, and a new wave of energy burst from her body like a solar flare.
This is not going to end well…
Power gathered around Carol's fists, and she charged toward Peter, her face contorted into a mask of absolute loathing. "This time you die for good, Octavius!"