Part 5 - Blood of the King
Chapter 88 - The GOC
Nobody was sure what had gone down at Max's house. All they knew was there was no body. Gwen watched a big screen as Corbo worked through ELIS to try and track him through the monitoring chip in his neck. Teresa already had a strike team on standby, ready for a briefing as soon as the Legion had enough information. The screen pinged; Gwen was standing up in an instant: 9001...the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. She raced to Teresa's office where the director was working quickly through information as it appeared on her computer screen.
"I have it all here. Let me work and I'll find him faster."
"He has to be on a ship, or maybe an oil platform."
"The ship's data just came through: RMV Coalition."
"RMV? Usually the ship names make sense."
"Republic Merchant Vessel, as opposed to RNV or STC meaning Republic Naval Vessel and Sol Temporal Command respectively."
"A civilian ship?"
"Satellite images are coming through now. Yes, civilian. Five hundred metres long, looks like an old friend of ours. And it's under one hell of an escort. Looks like an aircraft carrier, possibly RNV Serpent's Hand, and another thirteen vessels."
"An old friend?"
"The GOC. Or RGOC is their full name."
"Meaning..."
"Republic Global Occult Coalition. They were founded in 9001 similar to the SCP Foundation by United Nations, UNGOC. Now they're a Republic organisation that nobody likes. Their entire mission statement is to destroy anything anomalous compared to us who've taken up the Foundation statement of secure, contain, protect."
"They're gonna kill Max, aren't they."
"I doubt it. They would have done it straight away and his monitor sends a different signal if he's dead."
"I'm going to get him back."
"Gwen, I'd leave it to the strike team."
"They can help my son over my dead body. I have to do this, Teresa."
"Why?"
"Maybe I'm just trying to prove something to myself."
"Alright, but the team goes on the jet with you in case it goes pear shaped."
"Deal."
Everything was dark. Max could hear voices and a rumbling similar to the sounds made by the ferries in New York. Everything felt like it was moving, rocking from side to side; he was on a ship.
"Rise and shine, kid!"
The blindfold was removed. He took in his surroundings: two soldiers, a table with all sorts of terrifying looking tools and a man in a suit. Max recognised the man in the suit was the person who had shot him. His attention turned to the table, and the fact he was tied to a chair.
"You're quite the work of art, you know. Son of a bitch and a war hero." Said suit man.
"So are...oh wait, nobody knows you."
"Don't try and play smart, kid. It was quite the shock when we found out the infamous Miles Morales' replacement as senior director was a fifteen year old nobody."
"Why do you care? What do you want with me?"
"Democracy keeps the Republic in check, but who keeps the Ethereal Legion in check?"
"The Republic."
"Exactly. And the Republic needs to know what's going on to keep you in check. So, you're going to tell us every detail or things will become quite unpleasant."
"Why'd you kidnap me? Why not Robert or Lisa?"
"I'm asking the questions."
"Then ask them instead of staring at me like a pissed off goldfish."
Suit man laughed, slapping Max across the face.
"Let's do this like a little kindergarten quiz." He bent down to Max's eye-level. "What was that thing at school a few weeks back?"
"You're that far behind? Wow."
"Are you going to talk or do you require some persuasion?"
"It was a shooter. You know, one of those guys who walks up with an AK47 and doesn't know how to take his finger off the trigger. Although I think it was a P90. That's military tech, though, so where'd he get it?"
"We know all about that incident. We gave Mr Rex his rifle, ammunition and target."
"You mean to tell me the Republic funded a school shooting? Gotta say, man, that's some bad PR."
"Not the Republic itself, the GOC branch."
"Is that supposed to mean something?"
"Global Occult Coalition. The government funded version of the Legion."
"The Legion is government funded. Sorta."
"The difference is people trust the Legion has their best interests at heart. The GOC, on the other hand, has their safety at heart."
"I'm very confused."
"Answer my question, you slippery little bastard."
"The other one was a school shooter too."
Suit man rolled his eyes and stood up straight.
"Loosen his tongue. I want it so loose I could pull it out with my bare hands by the time I've gone and grabbed a coffee."
The soldiers picked up batons which lit up with electricity as suit man left. Max gritted his teeth as they began to beat him.
Gwen could feel adrenaline pulsing through her veins as the Ares jet took off from a military base in 9001. The flight to the convoy would take twenty minutes, despite it being in the middle of the Atlantic and the jet leaving from former Norway. It would fly in, completely invisible, and she would jump onto the ship and locate Max. After that, if she couldn't get him out the strike team would move in and deal with it. She silently prayed, to no deity in particular, that her son was OK. If he wasn't she would spill a thousand drops of GOC blood for every drop of his.
Twenty-five minutes had passed. Suit man still hadn't received an answer from Max to any of his questions. Max was intent on not giving up the information; not because it was particularly sensitive, but because anyone who kidnapped a fifteen year old and tortured them might do all sorts of damage. He stared defiantly, ignoring the blood trickling from countless cuts all over his body. He had been beaten, electrocuted, waterboarded and just about everything else, but he was still no closer to giving anything up.
"You must have the tightest tongue in the history of torture. What's your secret?"
Silence was all suit man received.
"This is getting personal."
He took an electric baton from one of the soldiers and slammed it into Max's chest. He switched on the electricity and hit him again, holding at against the spider's skin so it electrocuted and burned him. Suddenly, the door slid open. A knife flew; suit man crumpled in a heap on the floor. The soldiers tried to fight back but were dead before they had a good look at their attacker. Gwen sheathed her katanas and ran to Max's side. He broke down, sobbing with the pain. Gwen tore the restraints apart with her bare hands and caught him as he keeled over, too exhausted to support himself.
"Max...crap...what have they done to you?"
Suddenly, an alarm blared. The radio in Gwen's suit crackled to life.
"Strike Jet to Strike One, do you copy?"
"I'm here." She replied.
"What's your status?"
"Target is secure. I need evac ASAP."
"You're out of luck with that one. We can't get in."
"Go invisible, lower the ramp and I'll jump."
"No can do. The sky is filled with AA."
"Why aren't you invisible?"
"We are. They're just shooting at the sky. You need to find another way off that ship."
"Understood. I'll need a distraction soon."
"Let us know. Strike Jet out."
Gwen hugged Max, relieved he wasn't dead but livid at what had happened to him.
"We have to go."
"Mum...I...I can't."
"You survived torture. Stay with me for just a few more minutes. I love you."
He didn't seem any stronger, so she did the next best thing: she swung him up onto her back and carried him. After a few minutes, trampling over a few bodies Gwen had killed on her way down, she carried him into daylight.
"Stike One to Strike Jet. I'm gonna steal a lifeboat, so I need your distraction."
"Acknowledged. Performing attack run on RNS Serpent's Hand."
A few moments later, there was an enormous explosion on an aircraft carrier not far from the ship the spiders were on. Its bow was blown clean out of the water and the ship split in half as it crashed down again. Gwen took her chance and cut a life boat free, jumping onto it with Max still on her back. She gently lay him on the floor and set about trying to figure out the lifeboat's controls. It sailed away from its mothership and past the sinking aircraft carrier. When it was far enough away from the convoy, the Ares jet descended with its ramp open. Gwen picked up her son and leapt aboard. It turned and left the scene behind.
"Kidnapping someone of so much importance is an act of war, and the GOC know it." Said Teresa to the directors, Gwen and Conall.
Max was missing, lying in a medical ward under constant vigilance. His list of injuries was extensive, but he was expected to fully recover minus some serious scars.
"If the Legion went to war with the GOC, wouldn't it be a civil war?" Asked Conall.
"The only dimensions that support them are 9001 and 9002. If we did, it would be the final nail in their coffin: the Republic would cut off their funding and they'd crumble." Robert explained.
Gwen sighed, feeling a thirst for blood welling up that she had only ever felt when under the influence of a Plate.
"Where's their headquarters?"
"Cape Town, 9001."
"I'll be back soon. How would you like their leader's heads served?" She asked, standing up.
"Woah, slow down. What are you going to do?" Asked Teresa.
"I'm going to finish this before it starts and civilians are injured."
She had left before anyone could protest. Edward bit his lip knowing the news was about to be flooded with reports of a massacre.
The receptionist at the GOC headquarters looked up with a friendly smile at the person who had cast a shadow over their desk.
"How can I help?"
"I'd like to know where the stairs are."
"End of that corridor. You'll need a pass."
"Thanks."
The receptionist frowned, recognising the person who stared at them with a burning malice that could strike fear into even the strongest person.
"You're Gwen Stacy!"
"Yes. I. Am."
The receptionist didn't even see the blade that killed them. Gwen pressed the ball of her suit to her chest, morphing it around her. She pulled out one of her katanas and thrust it through an employee walking by behind her. Every person she walked past fell victim to one of her blades. By the time she reached the stairs, both gleamed red; her suit was spattered with the blood of her victims as well but she didn't care. People were already running on the next floor, but they fell just the same.
By the seventeenth floor, a security team was on the case. They fired pistols from behind desks. Gwen ignored the bullets knowing her suit had all the tech to prevent them from hitting her. She grabbed one of the officers by the throat and held them high in the air, enjoying the sound of them choking. When they went limp, she hurled them on top of one of their friends and drove a blade through both. The surviving three officers began to retreat: the first took a knife thrown into their chest, the second was decapitated as she rushed forward, and the third was knocked flat on the ground by a foot and took a katana through the head.
Floor thirty appeared to be some sort of conference hall and was taller than all the others. This gave the GOC a chance to pull out a secret weapon: a mech suit squared up to Gwen, its driver concealed behind darkened glass. She walked forwards and it began to charge. At the last second she took a sprinting leap and slid between its legs, slicing one of her blades at the wires in the knee joint. Electricity crackled through the katana and into her suit, giving her more power. She charged one of her hands in the same way she had to destroy the new reporters' equipment back in Noladis. This time, however, there was a much higher voltage. Three hundred volts surged through the mech, blowing just about every fuse in its circuitry. The mech fell flat; Gwen stuck a katana through the rear of the cockpit and heard the pilot gasp as it went through them.
Apart from the roof, the fiftieth floor was the top. Gwen slaughtered everyone there just the same as every other. Finally, she came to the room where the head of the GOC should be. She kicked open the door, but the office was empty bar an open window next to which was a ladder onto the roof. Gwen climbed up to find a helicopter spooling up its rotors. She ripped an antenna out of the concrete and hurled it straight into the machine's engine. It burst into flames and a man jumped clear. However, instead of rolling around on the floor begging for their life, they pulled out a green circle and pressed it to their chest. There was a click as it connected, then the man double tapped it. A grey and green suit appeared around him sporting claws similar to the metal ones of Doc Ock from Gwen's home dimension.
"This used to be Serpent's Hand tech before they were shut down. Now it belongs to the GOC."
"I guessed that."
All four claws went for her. She dodged them and they retracted. Next, they pulled a flaming piece of debris from the helicopter before retracting towards the man and hurling it at Gwen; she rolled out the way and sprinted forward. The claws came for her: the first she somersaulted over, the second she jumped on, the third she ducked and the fourth she stabbed a knife into making it seize up and start shaking wildly. She leapt on the man, stabbing her katana through his chest and the circle. The suit went loose and clattered at his feet. Gwen twisted the sword making him scream in agony.
"That's how it feels to have your son kidnapped and tortured."
She pulled it free and he fell face-first on the concrete. She ran her hand on the flat sides of her blades, cleaning off the worst of the blood, before sheathing them and leaping off the side of the tower and swinging away before the army of police officers on the street could react.
Edward shook his head slowly as the news reports rolled in. Four-hundred and ninety-three dead, half-a-million dollars worth of damage, no survivors. He put his iPad down and stared at Gwen who was sitting, hanging her head, in the corner of his office.
"You realise people are going to be coming for you now?"
"They already were. Sucks to be a GOC worker."
"What would Miles say?"
"He'd have done the same."
"We have very different memories of him. He hated taking lives."
"Well if he was still alive, GOC wouldn't have kidnapped Max and we wouldn't be having this conversation."
"You're pinning this on him?"
"Of course not. I blame the GOC. They signed their death certificates as soon as they laid a hand on Max. I'd do the same to you if you ever hurt him."
"I would never..."
"Hypothetically."
"Right."
"Since the Legion was going to go to war with them, they would have died sooner or later. I stopped it before the crossfire started and civilians were caught in it, so I may have killed them all but I saved lives."
"Quite honestly, I'm with you on that statement but you didn't have to make it so bloody."
"The only differences between a gun and a sword are the range and the level of satisfaction the wielder gets from using it. Shooting someone doesn't feel as satisfying as a sword going through them. It's therapeutic when you're getting revenge."
"You need a counsellor."
"You think? Hell, I should have been in a mental asylum twenty-five years ago, but I'm not so I may as well practice being a psycho on the people who deserve death."
"What makes you worthy of judging who lives and dies? When someone starts calling those shots, we end up with the Holocaust."
"I would never gas people. There were only two people I killed slowly; everyone else died instantly."
Edward buried his face in his hands, wondering what to do. The Legion needed her to fight the Scarlet King, but she was dangerous.
"I'm confining you to quarters unless you are called to duty. You can have visitors, but you cannot leave without a valid reason and an escort."
"Only fair. I'm surprised you don't want me chained up."
"If you break confinement, that can be arranged." The admiral tapped his com badge. "Melbourne to security. I need some officers to escort Ms Stacy to her quarters and a guard to be posted at all times."
"Yes, sir."
Crossovers in this Chapter
- SCP Foundation