Of all the Anomalies that were knocked unconscious in what they would later
refer to as "the battle of the Roxxon parking lot" Spider woke up first.
As he awoke, he found to his pleasant surprise that most of his injuries were gone. The only evidence left that his body had been broken was a number of minor aches and pains running through his body.
As he awoke he found to his somewhat unpleasant surprise that he was strapped down to a metal slab in what looked to be a military infirmary.
Looking around the room hurriedly Spider attempted to get his bearings. The room was nearly bare. The walls, ceiling and floor were all made of what looked to be reinforced steel and the only objects that Spider could see in the room were complicated looking mechanical devices. As the haze of having just awakened receded Spider's thoughts grew clearer and he guessed that the devices were for medical purposes. He also realized quite suddenly that he wasn't alone in the room. Someone was standing directly behind him. Or perhaps directly above him would be a more appropriate statement since Spider was laying flat on his back on a slab. The man was dressed in a typical white lab-coat and was quite typically holding a clipboard and adjusting a typically thick pair of glasses.
As the realization struck him Spider could only manage to say one thing. "Aw crap." he said which brought a slight chuckle from Mr typical. "I never thought this captured by an evil scientist thing actually happened." Spider muttered to himself. "Oh I assure you I'm neither mad nor evil." the man said. "My name is Dr Daniel Beattie" he said. "I've been helping you and your friends recover so you can be questioned.". Okay it's official Spider thought. Definitely don't want that to happen... ... wait a minute why is this guy so familiar? He wondered. Regardless of his questions however Spider was then committed to his chosen course of actions. With a heave of his arms he snapped the heavy leather straps that held him down, sat up quickly ripped the straps off of his ankles and back-flipped up over Dr Beattie's head. Landing gracefully directly behind the startled doctor Spider shot out his hands and attempted to cocoon the doctor in webbing. The attempt failed however as Spider seemed to have been stripped of his web-shooters altogether. It was at this point that he realized he was entirely without his costume.
"Ah I see..." the doctor began. "So the costume ISN'T the source of your abilities." he finished. "Yeah sorry Doc." Spider responded. "But I'm afraid that means I'm gonna have to hit you.".
To this the doctor seemed quite understanding. "Oh yes well that's understandable I suppose. You can't have me telling people which way you went and all." He said. "But wouldn't it be wise to ask me which way it would be best to go first?" the doctor asked. "Ummm" was Spider's only response as he scanned the room and all it's exit's quickly. "Yeah that might be helpful." he finally conceded. "Right. Well your belongings and teammates are kept in holding cells down that way" the doctor said as he pointed through one doorway "But the only way out of this facility leads you back through this room and up that way." he said pointing to a door in the opposite direction. "Okay, got it. Thanks" "Any time" "umm okay... You know I'm still gonna have to hit you right?" "Yes of course, I had assumed as much." "And you're not gonna try to fight back or run or anything?" "Of course not. I have no weapons nor superhuman abilities to match yours. Resistance would only get me injured worse than I otherwise would." the doctor responded calmly. "Well... yeah... but why were you so helpful?" "I was only being polite" the doctor answered. "Whatever man" Spider responded. "Again sorry" he said as he quickly struck the man at the base of his skull just hard enough to knock him unconscious. As the man fell limply to the floor Spider thought to himself that this adventure was getting weirder and weirder every day and leapt for the door that would lead to his friends.
Just as the overly friendly Dr Beattie had indicated the hallway behind the door lead directly to the holding cells where his friends were kept. Passing through a doorway at the end of the hall he came into a room with prison cells along each side. The cells weren't the traditional type. They looked more like the holding cells on the USS AVENGER than they did those of a traditional prison. In each there were three walls and a bed and a red line circling the open doorway. A slight warning buzz in Spider's head confirmed to him that the red lines indicated a force field of some sort. Obviously one that would be unpleasant to touch. In each of the cells was an Anomaly. Behind the force fields. Strapped down and collared by what Spider could only assume was a device to inhibit their powers. Tank and Psyche however were wearing more than just collars. Psyche had a helmet strapped to his skull with no eye-holes and a number of wires and tubes sticking out of it and Tank was tied down with more chains and metal cords than Spider could count. He was also unarmored and had a number of tubes protruding from his flesh which were pumping drugs into him at a rate that would kill a herd of elephants. The drugs were obviously to keep Tank sedated and Spider immediately started planning how to remove them. His plans were interrupted however when his Spider sense started to buzz louder than before and he noticed a new red line cutting him off from the way that he had come. "Crap" he muttered and promptly slammed himself into the invisible wall that had appeared behind him. Hitting it as hard as he could pain flared through his body as the energy of the force field burned through him and repelled his attack. Bouncing harmlessly off the wall (well harmless to the wall at least. Spider was likely a little harmed) Spider fell to the floor, rolled and was back on his feet before he could blink. To his left the groggy voice of Creature sounded out. "No luck eh Chase? Too bad." Creature said. "Cause if you can't get through that wall then the gas I smell is gonna be affecting you pretty soon.". As soon as he said it Spider realized what had been triggering his spider sense. The room was being gassed. Already shadows were beginning to dance at the corners of his eyes and his arms and legs were starting to feel heavier. In just over a minute Spider had again lost consciousness.
Just over an hour later Spider awoke again to the sound of someone calling his name.
"Spider." the voice called out. "Spider wake up. I need to ask you a few questions." it said. As Chase listened he tried to identify the voice before he opened his eyes. It was the voice of a stranger. A man, middle aged at a guess and more than slightly self confident. The man's voice was filled with authority and patience and eventually Spider was forced to open his eyes in response to the man's requests. "Ah you're awake. Good" the man said. As Spider looked the man over his mind was racing. Okay Chase this one's easy. You're in the Marvel universe, you're locked up in a highly advanced holding cell and you're confronted by a completely bald guy in a fancy suit and a floating yellow wheelchair. He though. "Xavier?" Spider asked with relative confidence. To his surprise it turned out he was wrong. "Xavier? Goodness no. I'm hardly a mutant outlaw. My name is Lex Luthor and I'm here to help you." the man said.
Spider's only response was to stare at him in awe. Blinking rapidly Spider sat up and stared more directly. Lex... Luthor? No that's not right. That's not right at all. He thought but decided it'd be best if he kept his thoughts to himself. "What do you want?" Spider asked. "Simple" came Luthor's response. "I want to bring peace and order to this world." "Which means I want to help you and your friends leave it." he said.
Despite his confusion and despite the warm tone in Lex Luthor's voice Spider immediately noticed the threat implied in his statement.
"Now. You are apparently the leader of your quaint little team so I'll ask you and only you." Luthor said. "What will it take to get you people off of my planet?"
"Your planet?!?" Creature exclaimed from the cell across from Spider's "If this is YOUR planet then how come we were fighting the Avengers rather than the Justice League?" Creature asked. "Where's your old pal Superman baldy?" As soon as it was said Spider mentally cursed himself for lending Creature some of his old comics. Here Spider was trying to learn what he could without giving away anything about himself when Andrew comes charging in and gives it all away all at once. "Dammit Andrew" Spider muttered as Lex Luthor turned surprised towards Creature's cell. "What did you just say?" Luthor asked. "You're Lex Luthor. You're not from here and we all know that. You're an evil manipulative man and whatever it is you want here in this world we're gonna stop you" Creature said. "Hmm I see..." Luthor began. "Well if you all know so much about me then you must know how foolish it is to try and stop me." he said. "Since coming three years ago I have gained more and more influence every day. At this point the president of the United States is less influential than I, all because of the technology I bring. Upon arriving here I have purchased mining rights, programming designs, weaponry. By bringing materials and technology from this world to my own I have increased my wealth a very great deal and I am on the brink of ruling both this world and my own." as he spoke he turned back to Spider. "Now here you people are. Complete strangers. Errors in my great plan. And you tell me you're going to stop me? Stop me how? From your captive position all you can do is beg for your lives and pray that I am feeling generous. Threatening me thus is hardly wise. Now let's try again... Who are you people, where are you from and how do I send you back there?" this time the patience in his voice was gone. Replaced by anger and hatred. Spider was struck speechless. Lex Luthor has found a way to cross over to Marvel at will and is using that ability to gain wealth and power enough to take over both worlds? Man this'd make for one interesting comic. He thought. Instead of answering Luthor's questions he decided to ask a few of his own. "Where are we?" Spider asked. With as much authority and confidence in his voice as he could muster. "Avenger's mansion. One of the many sub-levels. The Avengers you see are often working alongside the government here and the government here is now under my thumb. Now answer MY questions. Who? Where? How?" Luthor practically shouted. "If I tell you how to get to our world you'll just follow us and try to take it over too." Spider responded calmly. "You'll learn nothing from us." Spider said.
This response didn't seem to surprise Luthor at all. "Ah. I see you're somewhat smarter than I had originally thought. Too bad. I still can't have you running amok here so you have a choice. You can leave here with my help and go back home or you can die here in the very near future." Luthor said. "What will it be?". Spider's response was spoken as calmly as could be. "I already told you our answer baldy." he said. "You'll learn nothing from us.". At this Luthor merely laughed. "I doubt that. You see I recognize you people for what you are. I've seen countless of you super-hero types before and I know how your minds work. So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to ask you again. Each time you refuse to answer I'm going to kill one of your teammates. If you still don't answer then at least you'll all die and be out of my way any way. So this is you're last chance. Willing to talk?" he asked with just a trace of humor in his voice. For a moment Chase was silent. He thought about it for a moment and finally responded. The calmness in his voice was breaking. "I'll sleep on it." he said. "You can leave now Mr Luthor. Goodbye." he said. This time it was Luthor who was silent. "Very well" he said finally. "Since this may well be the last decision you ever make I shall grant you a night to consider it. Goodnight I shall return in the morning." with that he turned his chair and floated away. As soon as he was gone the Anomalies broke out into conversation. "Way to go Chase!" Creature exclaimed. "I guess that's why we made you the leader." he said. "Shut up for a minute Andrew" Inferno interrupted. "What good will a night to consider it do? You're not considering what he said are you?" Chris asked from a cell that Spider couldn't see from his own. "Of course not" Chase replied. "We're not going to be here in the morning." he said. "Sarah?" he called out. "You there?" "Nehhh" Came Sarah's groggy reply from the cell right next to Chase's own. "How did you, Chris and Cal get captured.?" Chase asked. "Well let's see. Chris couldn't use his powers. Cal was unconscious and I'm not really a match for a hundred heavily armed soldier guys." she responded angrily. "Fair enough. I'm sorry. How well does your collar work?" he asked. "Can you still phase?"
"Umm I don't know" she answered. "What? What do you mean you don't know?" Spider asked in surprise. "I haven't tried yet." she said. "Well try!" Chase yelled. In response to this there was silence. "Sarah don't!" Came Jason's voice from somewhere beyond Wraith's cell. "I just checked out these collars. They aren't only designed to stop our powers they're also rigged to go off if any of us leave our cells." "Oh well thanks a lot Chase. You almost got me killed." Sarah said. "Almost got all of us killed actually. They're rigged to go off at once if anyone leaves their designated area." "Crap." Chase responded. "Can you tap into the system and shut them off or anything." he asked. "Umm I can link up with their network and shut off the inhibitor portion of them. But I can't tamper with the explosive part. If I open them or try to disarm the explosives. It'll just blow us all up." Jason responded. "Umm okay... gimme a minute." Chase called out. And after a moment or so of silence he spoke again. "Okay Jason what about Cal's helmet thing? What's the deal with that?" He asked. Jason's response was immediate. "Same thing as the collars. One part inhibitor, one part explosive electric leash." "Okay shut off the inhibitor part of all of the collars and devices and such and see what you can do about stopping to flow of drugs into Tank" Spider ordered. "On it." Tech responded. And after another couple of minutes he spoke again. "Okay done but given what they've been drugging Nariman with I still don't think he'll be up for a while." "That's alright, good work J" after a moment of thought he called out again. "Cal?" he called. "Yes Chase?" came the telepathic response in his head. "How you feeling Cal?" Spider asked. "well I'm okay I guess. Got a bit of a headache though" he answered. "Any chance you can contain the blasts if these collars go off?" Spider asked. "Well that depends. How big a blast are we talking about?" Psyche asked in response. At this Tech cut in. "Near as I can tell it's the equivalent of a pound or so of C4." he said. "I'm also trying to hack into the force field projectors in here to give you a hand." "Good thinking Tech. Well Psyche? Feel up to it?" at this Psyche grinned although nobody could see it. "Ready when you are" he answered. "Alright good. Wraith phase into Tech's cell and bring him out of it into the main room. Tech hack into the controls there and open our cells as well as find out where our stuff is and the best route out of here. Oh and shut down any security systems you run across while you're at it." Spider ordered. "Anyone else got any other ideas before they start?" in response Sage spoke up. "Would it be alright if I drained the electricity out of my collar and froze it as much as I could? It's not that I don't trust Psyche's shields or anything I'd just feel better if I did something to protect myself anyway." she said. "Go for it Telli. Anyone else?" Chase asked. "No? Alright then. Get to it guys." in response to his command nobody said anything. After waiting a moment he was about to give his order again when his collar exploded. His first thought was a synonym for poop, his second thought was why didn't his spider sense go off? And his third was "Oh" for all the blinding light of the explosion the destructive power of it was relatively little. In fact the explosion only expanded about an 8th of an inch before it hit an invisible wall of force and stopped. So all together the only damage the bomb did was to blind the anomalies for an instant and then to fill the cells with the faint smell of smoke. "Good job Cal" Chase muttered and several other Anomalies seconded the thought. In seconds Spider could see Tech and Wraith walk into view in front of his cell and he watched as Tech started accessing a control panel on one wall of the room. Almost immediately the red line around the doorway of his cell faded from view and Spider and the other Anomalies stepped out of their cells. After scanning the computer systems for a moment Tech located the Anomalies' personal effects and remotely opened a locker that was hidden in a wall right next to the control panel. A moment later he found a way to remotely inject a "wake up drug" into the still unconscious Tank and he too walked out of his cell to join the others.
All in all it took less than five minutes before the Anomalies were organized, out of their prison and on their way to freedom. They would have been out of the mansion and into the daylight in five minutes flat had not the Avengers noticed their escape attempt and put themselves directly in the way. Instead in five minutes, all hell, once again broke loose.
As he awoke, he found to his pleasant surprise that most of his injuries were gone. The only evidence left that his body had been broken was a number of minor aches and pains running through his body.
As he awoke he found to his somewhat unpleasant surprise that he was strapped down to a metal slab in what looked to be a military infirmary.
Looking around the room hurriedly Spider attempted to get his bearings. The room was nearly bare. The walls, ceiling and floor were all made of what looked to be reinforced steel and the only objects that Spider could see in the room were complicated looking mechanical devices. As the haze of having just awakened receded Spider's thoughts grew clearer and he guessed that the devices were for medical purposes. He also realized quite suddenly that he wasn't alone in the room. Someone was standing directly behind him. Or perhaps directly above him would be a more appropriate statement since Spider was laying flat on his back on a slab. The man was dressed in a typical white lab-coat and was quite typically holding a clipboard and adjusting a typically thick pair of glasses.
As the realization struck him Spider could only manage to say one thing. "Aw crap." he said which brought a slight chuckle from Mr typical. "I never thought this captured by an evil scientist thing actually happened." Spider muttered to himself. "Oh I assure you I'm neither mad nor evil." the man said. "My name is Dr Daniel Beattie" he said. "I've been helping you and your friends recover so you can be questioned.". Okay it's official Spider thought. Definitely don't want that to happen... ... wait a minute why is this guy so familiar? He wondered. Regardless of his questions however Spider was then committed to his chosen course of actions. With a heave of his arms he snapped the heavy leather straps that held him down, sat up quickly ripped the straps off of his ankles and back-flipped up over Dr Beattie's head. Landing gracefully directly behind the startled doctor Spider shot out his hands and attempted to cocoon the doctor in webbing. The attempt failed however as Spider seemed to have been stripped of his web-shooters altogether. It was at this point that he realized he was entirely without his costume.
"Ah I see..." the doctor began. "So the costume ISN'T the source of your abilities." he finished. "Yeah sorry Doc." Spider responded. "But I'm afraid that means I'm gonna have to hit you.".
To this the doctor seemed quite understanding. "Oh yes well that's understandable I suppose. You can't have me telling people which way you went and all." He said. "But wouldn't it be wise to ask me which way it would be best to go first?" the doctor asked. "Ummm" was Spider's only response as he scanned the room and all it's exit's quickly. "Yeah that might be helpful." he finally conceded. "Right. Well your belongings and teammates are kept in holding cells down that way" the doctor said as he pointed through one doorway "But the only way out of this facility leads you back through this room and up that way." he said pointing to a door in the opposite direction. "Okay, got it. Thanks" "Any time" "umm okay... You know I'm still gonna have to hit you right?" "Yes of course, I had assumed as much." "And you're not gonna try to fight back or run or anything?" "Of course not. I have no weapons nor superhuman abilities to match yours. Resistance would only get me injured worse than I otherwise would." the doctor responded calmly. "Well... yeah... but why were you so helpful?" "I was only being polite" the doctor answered. "Whatever man" Spider responded. "Again sorry" he said as he quickly struck the man at the base of his skull just hard enough to knock him unconscious. As the man fell limply to the floor Spider thought to himself that this adventure was getting weirder and weirder every day and leapt for the door that would lead to his friends.
Just as the overly friendly Dr Beattie had indicated the hallway behind the door lead directly to the holding cells where his friends were kept. Passing through a doorway at the end of the hall he came into a room with prison cells along each side. The cells weren't the traditional type. They looked more like the holding cells on the USS AVENGER than they did those of a traditional prison. In each there were three walls and a bed and a red line circling the open doorway. A slight warning buzz in Spider's head confirmed to him that the red lines indicated a force field of some sort. Obviously one that would be unpleasant to touch. In each of the cells was an Anomaly. Behind the force fields. Strapped down and collared by what Spider could only assume was a device to inhibit their powers. Tank and Psyche however were wearing more than just collars. Psyche had a helmet strapped to his skull with no eye-holes and a number of wires and tubes sticking out of it and Tank was tied down with more chains and metal cords than Spider could count. He was also unarmored and had a number of tubes protruding from his flesh which were pumping drugs into him at a rate that would kill a herd of elephants. The drugs were obviously to keep Tank sedated and Spider immediately started planning how to remove them. His plans were interrupted however when his Spider sense started to buzz louder than before and he noticed a new red line cutting him off from the way that he had come. "Crap" he muttered and promptly slammed himself into the invisible wall that had appeared behind him. Hitting it as hard as he could pain flared through his body as the energy of the force field burned through him and repelled his attack. Bouncing harmlessly off the wall (well harmless to the wall at least. Spider was likely a little harmed) Spider fell to the floor, rolled and was back on his feet before he could blink. To his left the groggy voice of Creature sounded out. "No luck eh Chase? Too bad." Creature said. "Cause if you can't get through that wall then the gas I smell is gonna be affecting you pretty soon.". As soon as he said it Spider realized what had been triggering his spider sense. The room was being gassed. Already shadows were beginning to dance at the corners of his eyes and his arms and legs were starting to feel heavier. In just over a minute Spider had again lost consciousness.
Just over an hour later Spider awoke again to the sound of someone calling his name.
"Spider." the voice called out. "Spider wake up. I need to ask you a few questions." it said. As Chase listened he tried to identify the voice before he opened his eyes. It was the voice of a stranger. A man, middle aged at a guess and more than slightly self confident. The man's voice was filled with authority and patience and eventually Spider was forced to open his eyes in response to the man's requests. "Ah you're awake. Good" the man said. As Spider looked the man over his mind was racing. Okay Chase this one's easy. You're in the Marvel universe, you're locked up in a highly advanced holding cell and you're confronted by a completely bald guy in a fancy suit and a floating yellow wheelchair. He though. "Xavier?" Spider asked with relative confidence. To his surprise it turned out he was wrong. "Xavier? Goodness no. I'm hardly a mutant outlaw. My name is Lex Luthor and I'm here to help you." the man said.
Spider's only response was to stare at him in awe. Blinking rapidly Spider sat up and stared more directly. Lex... Luthor? No that's not right. That's not right at all. He thought but decided it'd be best if he kept his thoughts to himself. "What do you want?" Spider asked. "Simple" came Luthor's response. "I want to bring peace and order to this world." "Which means I want to help you and your friends leave it." he said.
Despite his confusion and despite the warm tone in Lex Luthor's voice Spider immediately noticed the threat implied in his statement.
"Now. You are apparently the leader of your quaint little team so I'll ask you and only you." Luthor said. "What will it take to get you people off of my planet?"
"Your planet?!?" Creature exclaimed from the cell across from Spider's "If this is YOUR planet then how come we were fighting the Avengers rather than the Justice League?" Creature asked. "Where's your old pal Superman baldy?" As soon as it was said Spider mentally cursed himself for lending Creature some of his old comics. Here Spider was trying to learn what he could without giving away anything about himself when Andrew comes charging in and gives it all away all at once. "Dammit Andrew" Spider muttered as Lex Luthor turned surprised towards Creature's cell. "What did you just say?" Luthor asked. "You're Lex Luthor. You're not from here and we all know that. You're an evil manipulative man and whatever it is you want here in this world we're gonna stop you" Creature said. "Hmm I see..." Luthor began. "Well if you all know so much about me then you must know how foolish it is to try and stop me." he said. "Since coming three years ago I have gained more and more influence every day. At this point the president of the United States is less influential than I, all because of the technology I bring. Upon arriving here I have purchased mining rights, programming designs, weaponry. By bringing materials and technology from this world to my own I have increased my wealth a very great deal and I am on the brink of ruling both this world and my own." as he spoke he turned back to Spider. "Now here you people are. Complete strangers. Errors in my great plan. And you tell me you're going to stop me? Stop me how? From your captive position all you can do is beg for your lives and pray that I am feeling generous. Threatening me thus is hardly wise. Now let's try again... Who are you people, where are you from and how do I send you back there?" this time the patience in his voice was gone. Replaced by anger and hatred. Spider was struck speechless. Lex Luthor has found a way to cross over to Marvel at will and is using that ability to gain wealth and power enough to take over both worlds? Man this'd make for one interesting comic. He thought. Instead of answering Luthor's questions he decided to ask a few of his own. "Where are we?" Spider asked. With as much authority and confidence in his voice as he could muster. "Avenger's mansion. One of the many sub-levels. The Avengers you see are often working alongside the government here and the government here is now under my thumb. Now answer MY questions. Who? Where? How?" Luthor practically shouted. "If I tell you how to get to our world you'll just follow us and try to take it over too." Spider responded calmly. "You'll learn nothing from us." Spider said.
This response didn't seem to surprise Luthor at all. "Ah. I see you're somewhat smarter than I had originally thought. Too bad. I still can't have you running amok here so you have a choice. You can leave here with my help and go back home or you can die here in the very near future." Luthor said. "What will it be?". Spider's response was spoken as calmly as could be. "I already told you our answer baldy." he said. "You'll learn nothing from us.". At this Luthor merely laughed. "I doubt that. You see I recognize you people for what you are. I've seen countless of you super-hero types before and I know how your minds work. So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to ask you again. Each time you refuse to answer I'm going to kill one of your teammates. If you still don't answer then at least you'll all die and be out of my way any way. So this is you're last chance. Willing to talk?" he asked with just a trace of humor in his voice. For a moment Chase was silent. He thought about it for a moment and finally responded. The calmness in his voice was breaking. "I'll sleep on it." he said. "You can leave now Mr Luthor. Goodbye." he said. This time it was Luthor who was silent. "Very well" he said finally. "Since this may well be the last decision you ever make I shall grant you a night to consider it. Goodnight I shall return in the morning." with that he turned his chair and floated away. As soon as he was gone the Anomalies broke out into conversation. "Way to go Chase!" Creature exclaimed. "I guess that's why we made you the leader." he said. "Shut up for a minute Andrew" Inferno interrupted. "What good will a night to consider it do? You're not considering what he said are you?" Chris asked from a cell that Spider couldn't see from his own. "Of course not" Chase replied. "We're not going to be here in the morning." he said. "Sarah?" he called out. "You there?" "Nehhh" Came Sarah's groggy reply from the cell right next to Chase's own. "How did you, Chris and Cal get captured.?" Chase asked. "Well let's see. Chris couldn't use his powers. Cal was unconscious and I'm not really a match for a hundred heavily armed soldier guys." she responded angrily. "Fair enough. I'm sorry. How well does your collar work?" he asked. "Can you still phase?"
"Umm I don't know" she answered. "What? What do you mean you don't know?" Spider asked in surprise. "I haven't tried yet." she said. "Well try!" Chase yelled. In response to this there was silence. "Sarah don't!" Came Jason's voice from somewhere beyond Wraith's cell. "I just checked out these collars. They aren't only designed to stop our powers they're also rigged to go off if any of us leave our cells." "Oh well thanks a lot Chase. You almost got me killed." Sarah said. "Almost got all of us killed actually. They're rigged to go off at once if anyone leaves their designated area." "Crap." Chase responded. "Can you tap into the system and shut them off or anything." he asked. "Umm I can link up with their network and shut off the inhibitor portion of them. But I can't tamper with the explosive part. If I open them or try to disarm the explosives. It'll just blow us all up." Jason responded. "Umm okay... gimme a minute." Chase called out. And after a moment or so of silence he spoke again. "Okay Jason what about Cal's helmet thing? What's the deal with that?" He asked. Jason's response was immediate. "Same thing as the collars. One part inhibitor, one part explosive electric leash." "Okay shut off the inhibitor part of all of the collars and devices and such and see what you can do about stopping to flow of drugs into Tank" Spider ordered. "On it." Tech responded. And after another couple of minutes he spoke again. "Okay done but given what they've been drugging Nariman with I still don't think he'll be up for a while." "That's alright, good work J" after a moment of thought he called out again. "Cal?" he called. "Yes Chase?" came the telepathic response in his head. "How you feeling Cal?" Spider asked. "well I'm okay I guess. Got a bit of a headache though" he answered. "Any chance you can contain the blasts if these collars go off?" Spider asked. "Well that depends. How big a blast are we talking about?" Psyche asked in response. At this Tech cut in. "Near as I can tell it's the equivalent of a pound or so of C4." he said. "I'm also trying to hack into the force field projectors in here to give you a hand." "Good thinking Tech. Well Psyche? Feel up to it?" at this Psyche grinned although nobody could see it. "Ready when you are" he answered. "Alright good. Wraith phase into Tech's cell and bring him out of it into the main room. Tech hack into the controls there and open our cells as well as find out where our stuff is and the best route out of here. Oh and shut down any security systems you run across while you're at it." Spider ordered. "Anyone else got any other ideas before they start?" in response Sage spoke up. "Would it be alright if I drained the electricity out of my collar and froze it as much as I could? It's not that I don't trust Psyche's shields or anything I'd just feel better if I did something to protect myself anyway." she said. "Go for it Telli. Anyone else?" Chase asked. "No? Alright then. Get to it guys." in response to his command nobody said anything. After waiting a moment he was about to give his order again when his collar exploded. His first thought was a synonym for poop, his second thought was why didn't his spider sense go off? And his third was "Oh" for all the blinding light of the explosion the destructive power of it was relatively little. In fact the explosion only expanded about an 8th of an inch before it hit an invisible wall of force and stopped. So all together the only damage the bomb did was to blind the anomalies for an instant and then to fill the cells with the faint smell of smoke. "Good job Cal" Chase muttered and several other Anomalies seconded the thought. In seconds Spider could see Tech and Wraith walk into view in front of his cell and he watched as Tech started accessing a control panel on one wall of the room. Almost immediately the red line around the doorway of his cell faded from view and Spider and the other Anomalies stepped out of their cells. After scanning the computer systems for a moment Tech located the Anomalies' personal effects and remotely opened a locker that was hidden in a wall right next to the control panel. A moment later he found a way to remotely inject a "wake up drug" into the still unconscious Tank and he too walked out of his cell to join the others.
All in all it took less than five minutes before the Anomalies were organized, out of their prison and on their way to freedom. They would have been out of the mansion and into the daylight in five minutes flat had not the Avengers noticed their escape attempt and put themselves directly in the way. Instead in five minutes, all hell, once again broke loose.
