Chapter 11 Things Go Wrong

Disclaimer: It all belongs to Marvel, except for my original characters, of course. But if Marvel wants to use them, they can. Feel free to post this, or any other Glaivester fic, anywhere, but please notify me so I can brag about it.

It was just after 8. Wanda was standing outside the Jasper Building, and Laura, was talking to one of the men in the reception area to the building. After a little flirting, she managed to get some information on who was in each floor. After hearing it said that on the eighth floor there had been some strange goings-on, and about strange packages being taken up there, she immediately decided that that was the floor to be on. A little more flirting, and a little show of leg (Wanda did not care to speculate as to Laura's state of dress underneath her outermost layer of clothes, and had decided that she did not care if Laura did a striptease if it helped them to find Kurt), and the receptionist directed her towards a man who worked on that floor.

Laura immediately began to flirt with this man and then, upon being rejected, repeated her earlier performance with the receptionist and was directed towards a second man working on the eighth floor. This man was more receptive to flirting, and immediately agreed to show her where he worked.

"Listen, could my friend over there come too?" She pointed at Wanda. "Later today she'll be taking her niece with her parents and she and I can show you a really good time."

The ruse worked, and Wanda was soon being taken to the eighth floor. She had on hippy-ish clothes and a blonde wig, so that she would not be recognized by anyone, who might have seen her on the news during the sentinel attack.

"What's behind that door?" asked Laura to the man next to her, pointing to a closed door in the hallway.

"Oh, nothing," said the man, but his nervous reaction suggested otherwise. Wanda, who was behind Laura, immediately picked up on this. She decided to make her move on the way out.

As it was, she didn't have to wait long. Murdock, who was a large blond man with sideburns, suddenly came out of a doorway and stopped the junior FOH member and Laura.

"What the Hell? You don't bring strangers in here! Now beat it!"

Laura, Wanda, and the junior FOH member were pushed to the door. Little Talia had managed somehow to escape everyone's notice, and she darted off. Coming to the closed door, Wanda suddenly lifted her hands and hexed it as powerfully as she could. It crumbled before her, and standing in the doorway were a dark-haired man [A/N Farmer] and a rather dazed-looking Kurt and Pietro. There was also a pink girl with green eyes.

"Well, another mutant and her friend, apparently," stated Murdock coldly as he clasped a collar around Wanda's neck.

Around 8:45 am, Spider-Man, Cloak, and Dagger were huddled behind a protrusion on the roof of the Daily Bugle, waiting to see what happen next. Very suddenly, something flashed past them. Then again. Suddenly it hit Spider-Man on the chin, and threw him back. Spider-Man tried to fight it, but he couldn't see whatever it was because it was moving so fast.

In five minutes, Dagger and Spider-Man had been knocked out, and Cloak had disappeared to someplace in order to figure out what to do.

"Good work, Murdock," said Epstein.

"I though that it might be good to send the speed-freak up ahead of time to scout out the roof." Kurt, Jason, Clarice, Wanda, and Laura were in the back two rows of the van. Murdock, Epstein, and Farmer sat in the front two rows. Wanda, Jason, and Laura were tied up.

Stopping at the Daily Bugle building, Farmer got out of the van. Jameson, in a trance, had followed them in his own car, which they had managed to get the night before. Graydon Creed was in the car with him to make certain he didn't come out of his trance.

"We will make the move in less than ten minutes," said Murdock. Everyone began to move into position. Everyone was hustled off and taken up into a apartment in the building next to the Daily Bugle. Mastermind's power was used to keep Wanda and Laura quiet; although there was not enough time to do a full brainwashing, Mastermind could at least make them unable to speak or make noise.

J. Jonah Jameson was rather taciturn when heading up to his office that day. His usual grumpiness was gone, replaced by an almost total obliviousness. He didn't even take off his winter jacket, but walked into his office and started pacing in full winter regalia.

"Sir, we need your approval on this contract," his secretary told him a minute after he had arrived. He signed it immediately without even looking at it, and then commented that he had to go up onto the roof and think.

On the roof, he walked around in the freezing cold, shivering due to the fact that he had neglected to bring a hat. Suddenly Pietro appeared right in front of him.

"Dirty human!" scoffed Pietro. "You normal people think you are so great! Well, mutants are the new superior race! We will inherit this planet, not you obsolete Neanderthals!"

Pietro slowly backed Jameson toward the edge of the roof, so that the argument could be seen in the street below. Jameson's back hit the railing.

As if on cue, an FOH agent on the ground screamed, "What's going on up there?" Everyone on the street looked up.

It was difficult to see anything on the top of the Daily Bugle building, as it was 46 stories high, but a few well-prepared souls had brought binoculars and helped everyone else to see that something was indeed happening on the top floor. Within minutes, TV news crews were running to the area, and the Bugle's own reporters were clamoring for space on the roof.

Suddenly, in all of the hubbub, just after a news helicopter had arrived, a hole opened in the air and a pink teenager with green eyes and pointy ears jumped out. Pietro was raving about how evil humans, by which he meant wild types, were, and how we was looking forward to seeing them all die. The pink girl approached Jameson threateningly.

Unnoticed by anyone, a small blue girl slipped out from under the FOH's van where she had been hiding, and began scaling the building next to the Bugle building, where she had seen her mother taken.