Noble Six: Thanks. The Journey will definitely be something.
The Story's Shadow: That's fine. Longer than you know. Yeah, I should've found a better name. Dark Web has done far worse.
Blue Knight: These are good suggestions, but I don't think they'll happen. The status of the Fantastic Four and the X-Men will be explained.
Guest: Not a bad idea. But Dark Web isn't the type to use other Spider-Men.
Guest: Here it is.
New York
New York City. Home of some of the most popular heroes known to the world. Such as The Avengers, Earth's Mightiest Heroes, The Ultimate Spider-Man and the newly formed New Warriors.
But right now, the city is currently under martial law by order of SHIELD, due to the threat of the portal in the sky and the enemies coming out of it.
These were the Gilder Troopers, under the direct command of Dark Web himself. This particular branch of soldiers, dubbed the Mega Hero Killers, are led by their Commander, Lorne. They were tasked with dealing with the Heroes of this world.
The heroes consisted of The Avengers, led by Captain America and the New Warriors, currently led by White Tiger, left as leader by Spider-Man before he left with Drifter.
They had done a good job in fighting back against these Gilders, even capturing a good number of them and locking them up in SHIELD. They also tried to find a way to close the portal but nothing came up that would help.
But there are still a handful of Gilders out there causing havoc. It was believed that they had a base of operations but it was hard to determine where exactly it was.
It was very lucky that the people of New York were able to be evacuated before any harm could be done to them. And it was also lucky that there were very few super villains and criminals on the loose, most of them either in hiding or at the SHIELD Triskelion, where the imprisoned gilders are also residing.
Avengers Tower
Currently in the Avengers/New Warriors main base of operations, The Avengers Tower, the co-leader of the Avengers, Tony Stark, the Invincible Iron Man, was currently on the monitors, trying to find a way to properly locate these men and possibly integrate them.
"The one time I need Bruce other than his strength" Stark muttered to himself as he continued on with his work.
"How's the search going?" A voice asked the Iron Avenger.
Tony turned to see his friend and ally, Steve Rogers, Captain America, sans mask, standing by the door with a calm look.
"As good as it's going to get." Iron Man sighed as he continued on with the search. "These guys are using some hell of cloaking tech because I can't seem to find them anywhere."
"You'll find them." Rogers assured as he walked next to his old friend. "I've seen you work miracles before."
"I like to think I can easily impress you considering the time period you came from" Stark said with a smirk.
"Please, I've seen a lot more during my time in the past" Steve said back with his own smirk. "Is there any word on any of the other teams we sent out?" Rogers asked.
"Nothing yet." Iron Man answered as he continued to search. "While I do think it was smart of to do the whole divide and conquer it would be nice if we could actually conquer something."
"Give it time." Steve assured as he placed a hand on his armoured shoulder. "It takes a while but trust me, this method is a sure-fire way to find those men."
"I'll go by your word, Cap," Tony said. "I always do." Iron Man then tried a different algorithm to see if it would make any new results.
"What about the other heroes?" Rogers asked as he stopped leaning and looked up to the monitor. "Shouldn't we ask for their help? They may be able to help out with this Dark Web"
"I don't doubt that." Iron Man continued to work on the monitors but still was able to answer. "But The Fantastic Four is still in the Negative Zone, who knows how long they'll be gone for. The X-Men are currently dealing with Mister Sinister in the Savage Lands and won't be helping us with our thing any time soon." Iron Man listed out
"Hulk's Agents of SMASH are currently helping the Guardians of the Galaxy with a conflict with the Skrulls and Doctor Strange is currently in some other realm." Iron Man recounted.
Captain America sighed at this. He knew that not every hero would be available and he understood why. But it would be great if they had more help to deal with this crisis.
"Don't worry, Steve." Tony said. "We have the New Warriors helping us out and they are plenty powerful enough to take those guys down"
"I know" The First Avenger nodded. "I still can't help but feel worried. They're still young and inexperienced and from what Drifter told Spider-Man about Dark Web, I don't know if they'll be able to take him down."
"Well, it's a good thing we're here to help them out." Iron Man said. "And if Spider-Man vouches for them, then that's good enough for me."
Steve smiled at his old friend and gave a small nod. "You really have that much faith in him, do you?"
"What can I say," Tony shrugged. "I see a lot of myself in the guy."
"He's got heart, I'll give him that," Steve said.
"But what would be really good enough for all of us is to take a break from all of this" Iron Man stated. "We sure could use one."
"I'll drink to that." Steve smiled in response and went to leave the room, letting Tony continue on from his work.
Streets Of New York
Somewhere in the middle of the city of New York, was a squad of Gilder Troopers, flying with the skies as they had crates of some unknown origin attached to the bottom of their gilders and here heading off to their drop off point?
"Good thing we found these things at the warehouse" One of the gilders said, gesturing to the crates they were hauling to their destination.
"A good and quick raid." One of the men said. "Always fun"
Another Gilder turned to the main leader of this group. "How many more hideouts are there?"
"Well, apparently, Roxxon, or rather their tech, had about more than enough to help us with our supply situation" The leader said.
"So where can we find the next one?" The Soldier asked.
"Don't know yet" the leader answered. "We'll have to talk with our tech advisor about that."
"We could always go out and find more" One of the other soldiers suggested.
"No" The Leader said in a strict tone. "We've been out long enough and we got the tech we need. If we're out for any longer, they'll be able to track us"
The soldier nodded in reluctance and continued on with their destination. "Where are we headed to now?" He asked.
"Towards Time Square." The Leader responded. "If we make it past there, we can get to our hideout and avoid any contact with any of the heroes."
"Like they beat us!" A more arrogant member of the gilders commented.
"Stow the chatter!" The Leader said strictly. "We're heading up to Times Square." The Leader said as they all sped up their pace.
Times Square.
The members of the MHK managed to make their way to one of New York's Cities popular locations, what used to be brimming and filled with people, was now an empty feeling place with only the gilders in sight.
"Man, feels like a ghost town here." One of them commented.
"That's what happens when you evacuate an entire city." Another gilder said.
"Let's just keep on with the mission." The Leader said. They just need a few more miles and then they would be able to reach their destination, which was their own lair. Hidden in plain sight that no one would guess.
The gilders squad kept flying, zooming past the bleachers. But something was caught within the leader's line of sight. A slight glimmer, like something that wasn't supposed to be there was there in place.
It was a line, similar to a cable that was very transparent, almost invisible. The leader turned his head left and right to see that there was a line connected to two buildings next to each other and was in the gilders direction
"STOP! IT'S A TRA-"The leader was about to yell out and warn the rest of his men but it was too late. As soon as they flew past the wire and it snapped, a shot of electricity suddenly bolted towards the gilders, shocking them all instantaneously.
Every gilder fell to the ground below, impacting on the hard concrete, they were at least alive thanks to their armour. But it did very little to avert the pain from both the impact and the shock itself.
Their gilders were at least still airborne and the equipment they were carrying were undamaged to say the least.
"Of course it's a trap..." A voice called out to the grounded gilders.
They looked up to see the Avengers top archer, Hawkeye, pointing his bow at them with an explosive arrow ready. Standing with the purple bowman was the Iron Spider, Black Widow, Falcon, Agent Venom and Kid Arachnid, all of them looking down at them in a defensive position.
"I mean, how else would we get you guys here" Hawkeye smirked as he kept his aim on them.
"Hey, I mean it's not exactly you guys that make it easy for us" Kid Arachnid retorted.
"I mean, we know we won't exactly make it easy on you guys" Agent Venom said as he pounded his fists together.
The Lead gilder got up from the ground and glared at the heroes while the rest of his men slowly got up themselves. "If you think this is going to set us back, it won't" The Leader said. "We'll keep fighting"
"Not something I'd thought I heard a bad guy would say" Miles commented.
"So, do you maybe wanna tell us what you were doing with these?" Hawkeye asked, gesturing to the crates while keeping his bow trained on them.
The Gilders just glared at the Avengers in response. "Like we'd tell you!"
"You should if you know what's best for you." Another voice called out to the gilders, separate from the first group of heroes.
The Gilders turned to their left to see a second group of heroes consisting of White Tiger, Scarlet Spider, Squirrel Girl, Nova, Power Man and Iron Fist standing by the bleachers of Times Square.
"If you wanna give up, now is probably the best time" Power Man said with a smirk with his arms crossed.
"Or don't." Nova said with a cocky smirk. "Either way, we'll still kick your butts"
The gilders were getting a tad worried for their chances against these two groups.
"Sir, what do we do now?" One of the gilders quietly asked their leader, who still kept his calm through this trap. "We don't have men or firepower to take on all of these Avengers"
"We can't avoid this soldier" The Leader said to his fellow gilder. "The best we can do right now is to hold them off long enough for us to make our escape" The Head Gilder said.
"At least they don't have the Hulk or that Asgardian on their side." One of the other gilders said.
"Like the man said," White Tiger spoke up to the gilders with a serious tone, gaining their attention. "You can either come quietly or we'll make you regret coming to our universe" Tiger growled as she brought out her claws.
"We don't regret anything we do" The Lead Gilder said as he stood up against the heroes in front of him and his crew.
"Huh, funny enough," Scarlet Spider chuckled before standing up and raising his arms up, talons sprouting out of them. "Neither do I!" Scarlet growled before he leaped towards the Gilders.
"Scarlet no!" White Tiger tried to stop but it was too late as he leaped from the bleachers and was aiming towards the group who immediately fired at the self proclaimed first spider.
Scarlet landed in front of two gilder soldiers and immediately punched them both in their faces and then proceeded to go all savage on them.
"Typical Scarlet" Agent Venom scoffed with his arms folded. "Never thinking things through and always hot headed."
"Y'know I think he would think things through a lot more better if he didn't have that stick up his..." Nova was about to say until White Tiger stopped him.
"Enough Nova" Tiger said strictly to the cosmic powered hero. "We're not standing around here any further. Now let's get in there and stop them!" White Tiger ordered as she charged into battle, the rest of her team following her.
"Ah screw it" Hawkeye muttered in annoyance. "You heard the girl! Avengers!...And New Warriors, take them down!" Hawkeye yelled out as he jumped down to join in the fight, the other heroes with him joining the archer to the battle below in the streets.
Hawkeye teamed up with his partner, Black Widow to take down a group themselves. The former Red Room spy used her skills to over power the group she was fighting by dodging their blows and used her own stun batons against them, electrocuting them greatly, even firing off a few shots from her widow stings.
The Purple Archer was up close against these soldiers so he didn't have a chance to fire arrows at them. But that doesn't mean he was useless. He used his bow like a staff and proceeded to beat down the gilders by either whacking them over the head with his bow or just using some arrows from his quiver and stabbed the gilders, somewhere non vital but still damaging to the gilders.
Falcon teamed up with the Iron Spider to take care of the gilders that were still in the air or just got back on after the ambush. The two flight heroes coordinate their attacks together, something they learned since they met. Falcon led off with firing off his light based projectiles while Cho used his repulsors to blast down any Gilders in his path.
Falcon spun around with the grace of a bird, using his sharp wings to cut under the gilders while Iron Spider used his advanced intelligence to pilot the suit and used its talons to spice the gilders they were standing on.
The heroic duo of Power Man and Iron Fist both worked alongside each other to take on some of the more hard hitters of the gilder group. Iron Fist moved with finesse as he dodged each and every blow that the Gilders tried to deal to him, effectively using his iron fist to take them down with a single blow.
Meanwhile, Cage didn't have to try too hard as the soldiers' attempts to beat him ended up with them dealing with his steel like body, causing Cage to smirk and smack them around. He did have to try when they pulled out their firearms, which packed a bigger punch than most weapons. He did manage to bend them like a pretzel with ease.
Nova and Squirrel Girl also worked as a duo against their number of gilders. Though Nova insisted that he could do it one his own, even slightly boasted about doing it with one arm, Squirrel Girl still insisted on working with the cosmic powered hero.
While Nova was up in the air above the flightless soldiers, Squirrel Girl was on the ground using her material art skills to take them down. Nova blasted down the soldiers with his energy beams, knocking a few of them down and even firing off smaller shots to give Doreen a better chance in taking them down. Squirrel Girl herself relied on her own fighting skills and used her own furry companions to help as they overwhelmed a few soldiers due to the sheer number of them.
Agent Venom was currently using his missiles he stored within the symbiote to fire at the Gilders, damaging their armour but only slightly, making the former jock growl in annoyance. Luckily for him, Kid Arachnid was creeping up behind the soldiers while he used his invisibility to get the jump on them.
Before they could realise, each of the gilders that was shooting at Flash was quickly taken down in an instant by Mile's electro shock touch as he simply pinched them by the neck, electrocuting them down to the ground, Agent Venom now with more room to fire his missiles once more at them and take them down while they were being stunned.
Miles walked up to Flash and they both high fived each other in response to their take down. "Oh yeah!" Agent Venom cheered.
"Spiders rule! Gilders drool!" Kid Arachnid joined in.
White Tiger had to team up with Scarlet Spider while they took on the leader of the group and his forces. White Tiger was more than annoyed with the red and black spider for charging head first into the fight before she could formally make a plan of action. She used to think that Spidey was much to handle when they worked together, but now Scarlet was far more frustrating.
Scarlet couldn't care less about what she or anyone else thought of him right now. He'd rather let his actions speak for himself as he tore down a Gilder soldier in front of him by using his talons and slice open the armor. Quite frankly, he couldn't care who this Dark Web was or how many people he had under his belt, he could take them down if he wanted to.
Besides, Scarlet thought that this Dark Web wasn't much if he sent his minions to do the dirty work. Which either meant he was too lazy to do it himself or that he was incredibly strong and sent his men first. Scarlet prefers the former, because that's just how he is.
White Tiger had already dealt with the other foot soldiers using her skills and technique. She was now face to face with the leader of these Gilders as he stared down the feline themed heroine.
"You know it's pointless." The Lead Gilder said to White Tiger as she raised her brow at the man. "All of this, trying to stop us, it won't work, none of it." The Leader said. "In the end, you'll fall under the Lord of the Web."
"Are you just gonna just stand there and talk? Or are you gonna fight me?" Tiger asked as she got into a fighting position, her claws sharp and ready as ever.
The Leader glared at her for a few seconds before pulling out a knife and charged at the White Tiger. The both clashed at each other, Tiger getting a few scratch marks on his armour while the Gilder Leader almost managed to nearly slice near her face.
She turned back and proceeded to try and slash around the man's face but he just dodged each time when she nearly got too close. He then pulled his dagger forward in an attempt to slash at her face, but the feline heroin simply just ducked under and kicked the knife out of his hand.
White Tiger then ducked down and swept the leader onto the ground. She slammed her foot onto the chest of the leader, glared at him and sharpened her claws.
"Call off your men, now!" Tiger demanded.
The Leader grunted in response and glared back at her. "Never!"
She pressed down harder. "Do it!" White Tiger said. "Don't make me angry..."
The head gilder just scoffed at her threat. "You have no idea who you're dealing with, do you?" The Gilder asked. "Our master has faced off against far worse than the likes of you!"
"Yeah? Well tell your master Dark Web that he will never have his hands on this world." White Tiger said as she continued to glare at the man.
The head Gilder just chuckled at that statement. "Oh, you stupid naive girl..." The Gilder said as he glared at her. "He already has. You just don't know it yet..."
Before Ava could begin to ask what the hell that meant, the gilder suddenly pulled the pin out of something, causing White Tiger to panic. She was about to jump out of the way of the leader but the bang occurred. Luckily it was a flashbang, merely blinding her for a few moments.
As for the leader, he was unaffected by the flash due to his standard issue helmet. He got right back from the ground and looked behind him to see what was left of his troopers, fighting off against the other heroes.
"MEN! GRAB THE EQUIPMENT WE GOT AND LEAVE!" The Head Gilder commanded the rest of the remaining Gilders.
The ones who were not knocked out got that message their leader sent through the coms. They pressed a button on their belt, to which every soldier in this group had, causing smoke to burst out of their belts, creating a massive smoke cloud.
"Wha...What's happening!?" Agent Venom coughed as he struggled around the area, unable to see what's in front of him.
"Ah, damn it! They're using a smoke cloud!" Hawkeye grunted as he snapped back and forth to see where his teammates were and more importantly, where the gilders were.
Hawkeye looked up to see that the gilders, or at least what remained of them, were currently flying away.
"Guys, quick! They're getting away!" Barton yelled out as he pointed his bow at the fleeing gilders and fired off a few arrows, the rest of the heroes who had ranged based abilities fired as well, managing to take down a few ones that were staggering behind, but the ones carrying the equipment managed to get away due to an ability they had on their gilders to go at high speeds, zipping out of there in an instant.
Hawkeye sighed in response at this as he lowered his bow. "Great..."
"Damn it!" Nova cursed. "They got away!"
"At least we manage to take out a good number of them." Cho pointed out. "That's something to be proud of."
"Yeah, but it wasn't enough." Scarlet pointed out. "They still got away with the tech they wanted."
"Man you just always look towards the negative sides of things" Agent Venom said with his arms crossed as Scarlet Spider glared at him.
"Well when something actually good comes up, I'll be sure to plan a celebration party" Scarlet said in his snarky tone.
"Man, I hate it when those two get at each other's throats" Squirrel Girl whispered to Miles.
"Tell me about it." Miles nodded in agreement.
"Do we know what they stole?" Power Man asked, wanting to know what the gilders took and mainly to avoid more conflict between Scarlet and Venom.
"Apparently those things were some parts and tech from the Roxxon Corporation." Hawkeye informed. "They were gonna use those components from something but didn't even have a chance to use them before that wormhole opened up and most of their staff had to evacuate."
"What are they gonna use those for?" Nova asked.
"Nothing good," Miles said.
"I'll have to make something to figure out what they could be building with those materials." Iron Spider said. "I talk through it with Iron Man and Falcon to see what they could do with such material"
"We'll be sure to find something useful to know," Falcon said in agreement with the armoured spider.
"You do that," Black Widow said. Suddenly, an Avengers Quinjet then landed a few feet away from the heroes. "Looks like our ride is here."
"But hey, look on the bright side guys," Squirrel Girl said with a chipper smile on her face. "We managed to take out half their guys!"
"She's right." Cage smiled. "And now, they're gonna have to think real hard before they go out again."
"It'll definitely make them think twice before messing with us!" Agent Venom boasted.
"Man we are on fire!" Kid Arachnid joined in. "Man, I bet Spidey is gonna be real glad that he counted on us to protect the city, right White Tiger?" Miles asked as he turned to the temporary leader of the Warriors.
"Yeah...sure, we did a great job here." White Tiger said, as if she were trying to make her tone more optimistic but instead sounded a little dejected. "I'm just gonna...head inside the Quinjet." She then began to walk away from the area as her friends and fellow heroes watched on as she went to board the Quinjet.
"Is she okay?" Falcon asked as she watched her walk away.
"With that look and voice, I'd say no" Nova remarked, causing Squirrel Girl to jab him in the ribs. "Ow! What?"
"Try to be a bit more considerate to her feelings!" Squirrel Girl chastised the human rocket. "You know she's been feeling upset for a while now."
"I know! I know!" Nova said as he rubbed the spot where Doreen hit. "I was just trying to lighten things up"
"I would try and do a better job than that." Iron Spider remarked, causing Nova to grumble.
"I guess she's a little bummed out ever since Spidey left with Drifter to travel across the Multiverse" Cage said as he crossed his arms. "I don't blame here, I'm starting to miss the web head."
"I would've thought they'd be back by now" Flash said. "I mean, I know that the multiverse is all vast and wide, but to take this long?"
Iron Spider then spoke up. "Traveling to the Multiverse to find more spider people would take a long while," Cho said. "I imagine a process like that could take months, years even."
"We don't have years, Cho," Scarlet said. "These gilders are here and attacking now. If the Web head and that Drifter isn't going to come back, then we should probably deal with the threat ourselves."
"Man, brooding much," Nova muttered.
"But he's not wrong" Black Widow said, causing the rest of the younger heroes to turn to the former Red Room Agent. "These Gilders will keep coming until either we're dead or until they are stopped. And by the looks of things, it looks like they're not stopping"
"We've handled goons for bigger threats before Natasha" Clint reminded his old partner. "We can handle this."
"We can only hope," Widow said as she went inside the Quinjet, her partner following her in response.
Miles walked up to the group, looking over at the Quinjet. "Man, I just hope she's gonna be okay with all of this," Miles said, referring to White Tiger.
"Well, then she should get over it" Scarlet's voice said in a harsh tone.
They all turned to Scarlet Spider, who was standing by a destroyed gilder and looked to have an annoyed expression under his mask. "If she can't get her emotions in check, she shouldn't be leading at all" Scarlet glared.
"Hey! It's hard enough, you don't need to act like a jerk to her" Agent Venom growled as he got face to face with Scarlet, both glaring at each other.
"It's like every day with these two" Cage groaned as he face palmed at this.
Iron Fist then turned to Cho and Miles. "Have you tried to stop them from arguing?"
"We've tried" The Spiders said at the same time, making Cage sigh in response as all of the young heroes went inside of the Quinjet.
Meanwhile in the Cockpit, White Tiger was sitting on the pilot seat, waiting for the others to come inside. While she was glad that she managed to lead her team effectively today, she couldn't help but feel a little saddened due to the absences of a certain web slinger that she was fond of. She knew he'd be back soon, but Ava figured it would take a mere week, not a month.
She tried to shake these negative thoughts away, making sure not to let her emotions get the better of her again. But she still missed the web head without a doubt.
"You did good out there." Widow said to Ava, making her look up and turn to the former russian spy in slight shock. "I wasn't expecting that plan to go as well as it did. But you really surprised me."
"Oh, um...thanks" Ava said, giving a small smile under her mask. She really wanted to impress each member of the Avengers, to show that she and her team were worthy of standing alongside Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
"I mean it." Widow said as she took the seat next to Ava. "I don't often give praise enough and when I do, it's not something to be taken lightly" Widow said as she turned to White Tiger with an amused smirk.
"Of course!" Tiger quickly said. "Sorry, I don't mean to take it lightly." Ava said quickly. "I really appreciate hearing it from you. It's just that...Sorry, my mind is on other things right now."
"Let me guess? Spider-Man?" Widow guessed as Ava turned to her in shock.
"How did...?" Ava was about to ask. "Did one of the guys tell you?"
"Believe me kid, even without their gossip, I can pretty much tell that you miss him." Widow said.
White Tiger was speechless and didn't even try to deny it, The Black Widow was probably the best spy in the world after all, there's nothing you could hide from her. "Yeah, I do..."
"It's just that...I didn't think he would take this long with himself, I mean, Drifter, that is." Ava explained as Widow listened as she continued. "I'd thought he'd be back in a week and spout out some corny joke and it would irritate the life out of me but now..." Ava stopped as she looked at the floor.
"But now?" Widow said with a raised brow in interest.
"Now...I kinda miss hearing those stupid jokes" Ava said solemnly.
Widow listens to the young girl. "You really care about him, do you?"
"Well, yeah, I mean, as a teammate and friend of course...not that there's anything. Well I uh" Ava stuttered, feeling very nervous in front of the spy. "It's just that...I can't help but worry about him.
"It's fine, kid." Black Widow said assuringly to the feline heroine.
Ava looked up at the Black Widow. "How can you tell?"
"I know I haven't known him for that long and his personality leaves much to be desired, but I know a good person when I see one." Black Widow said. "For the time I saw him in the Avengers or when we fought Loki and even at the Contest of Champions, I can tell that nothing can ever bring Spider-Man down and he will do everything in his power to save people."
"You really think so?" Ava asked with a small smile.
"I'd honestly think that the only person who is ever gonna stop Spider-Man is himself" Widow chuckled, Ava joining in on the laughter. "You good now kid?"
Ava nodded in response. "I think I am, yeah."
"Good." Widow said. "Because we need all hands on deck if we're ever gonna take down those Gilders"
Ava gave a confident look on her face and nodded. "Hell yeah..." Ava said as Widow smiled at the young girl's determination.
"That's what I like to hear." Black Widow said as she prepared the engines of the Quinjet. Once everyone was inside the jet, except the ones who could fly on their own, the Quinjet hovers up in the air and then blasts out of Times Square and heads back to Avengers Tower to continue their efforts of pushing back Dark Web's forces.
Triskelion
The Triskelion, The main base of operations for the SHIELD organization after its sky base the Tri Carrier was converted into Hydra Island and then later was lost. Right now, the base was in full on tactical mode as every agent in the building was doing their part in stopping Dark Web and his forces.
Hill had done this under the order of Director Fury, who was currently in a meeting with the world council and what to do with the situation. She didn't exactly have a good feeling about this considering that the last time this happened, they had sent a nuclear missile to New York.
Fury's second-in-command, Maria Hill was currently coordinating the agents they had on hand to set up checkpoints throughout the city. It was a way for them to know if any Gilder Squad Soldiers sped past them and they could get the jump on them and potentially cut down the number of men they had.
The doors opening behind her caught Hill's attention as she turned her head to see Agent Phil Coulson, Fury's other right hand.
"Still nothing?" Hill asked, hoping for some good news on the Gilders.
"Afraid not" Coulson shook his head. "Every time when it looks like we almost go 'em, they find a way to completely disappear" Coulson informed. "These Gilders are using tech obvius not from here, and by here, I mean this dimension, to hide themselves."
"Hopefully we'll find them." Hill said. "In the meantime, we should probably coordinate with Director Fury on where we should place more checkpoints." Hill said. "Speaking of which, Where is Fury?" Hill asked.
"He's gone to the cell blocks to see if he can get anything out those soldiers the Avengers and New Warriors took down" Coulson informed. "He's hoping he can get something out of them."
"They should know something," Hill said.
"Yeah, well here's hoping for some answers," Coulson said. "He just got done dealing with the council," Coulson informed his fellow agent.
"And how'd it go?" Hill asked. "They're not gonna drop another nuke again are they?" Hill joked but hoped that really wasn't the case again.
"No, nothing like that," Coulson assured his friend. "But they're not exactly happy to hear that this threat hasn't been dealt with yet and did threaten Fury that they would take things into their own hands if he couldn't deal with this."
"Hopefully, it never comes to that." Hill said.
"Yeah, but who knows what's going to happen around here nowadays." Coulson said as he walked away from Hill to focus on his own efforts in dealing with this Crisis while Hill continued her job to stop these Gilders.
Cell Block 7
Nick Fury, the director of SHIELD, was currently standing right infront of the cell of one of the Gilder Soldiers. He came down here to once again interrogate the man for anything useful information.
"We've been through this so many times that I can predict what you're gonna do next. Which is nothing" Fury said as he glared down at the Gilder grunt who just stared down at the floor.
The Director of SHIELD was currently undergoing one of his new daily routines to do ever since the portal opened up in the sky. And that is to interrogate the Gilder Squad Members for any information they had. Whether it be their leader, how many men they had, where they were residing, their resources and overall goal in general.
But every time that Fury or anyone else tried to interrogate these soldiers, they were always met with silence, say for an ominous remark or threat, something that greatly annoyed Fury to no end.
"Going around in damn circles and still nothing from these guys" Fury angrly thought to himself while still glaring at the soldier.
"Listen, buddy, I don't know if you know this, but you and the rest of your little band of gilders are currently losing" Fury said. "Every time you have an encounter, whenever it's either from the Avengers or the New Warriors, they always beat you and take you down a peg."
The soldier said nothing in response as Fury kept talking.
"Sooner or later, it won't be long before they're only just a handful of you guys left" Fury said. "And I doubt that your boss would come down here himself and fight when he sees you guys as expendable."
"Do you know how many major threats that Earth has dealt with?" Fury asked. "The Sinister Six, Hydra, AIM, The Cabal, Squadron Supreme, Thanos and all the way to Ego." Fury listed off. "And every time, they've gotten their ass's handed to them by the people who protect the Earth."
"You're Dark Web is just another warlord who thinks he's gonna win" Fury said. "So do yourself a favour and just tell me what you know." Fury demanded. "Because it's just gonna be a matter of time-"
"Do you know how many Earths we've been to?" The soldier suddenly asked, still looking down at the floor and surprising Nick. "A lot. Not like, ten or thirty I mean a hell of a lot of worlds." The man said.
"Some of the others keep track of how many we've been to. But I never did. I lost count when we were at the...hundred and seventh earth and after that, it just sort of blurs around" The soldier said as Fury listened.
"But let me ask you this," The soldier said as he then looked up to the Director of SHIELD. "Do you know how many people Dark Web has killed?"
"And I don't mean people like your agents, I mean, the number of heroes he's killed?" The Soldier asked. "People like The Avengers, The X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy, Defenders, New Warriors so on and so forth" The Soldier listed. "He knows their moves and strategies and knows how to kill them. He's really good at it. Practically used to it by this point."
"So let me ask you this, Director Fury." The soldier said in an intense tone as he glared at Fury. "How long do you think before this world is filled to the brim every single soldier comes here and takes over it, how long will it be until all of your precious heroes go down and how long do you think your world will last...when Dark Web's through with it" The soldier finished.
The room was met with silence, neither Fury or the soldier spoke after that, the soldier went back to staring at the ground while Fury kept his glare on the man, his expression not changing, but something within him felt a twinge of worry.
"Glad we had this talk..." Fury said with clear sarcasm as he began to walk away from the soldier, having enough from the soldier.
"So am I Director Fury," The soldier spoke up as Fury was a few feet away. "Hope we can do it again." The soldier said.
Fury could practically feel the smirk coming off the Gilder Soldier, something that made him scowl in response. He shook this off to go back to running his organization and to make sure that none of these men could fulil what he just said.
As he left, one of the other imprisoned Gilders spoke up to the one that talked with Fury. "Hey, When do you think we're getting out of here?"
The soldier looked up at his comrade with a smirk. "As soon as this place is in flames." The soldier said in a dark tone as he and his fellow Gilders waited for the right time. For when their leader will soon take this world.
Sewers
Within the underbelly of New York was the sewer system, a place where all the rats, lizards and spiders crawl underground. It's also a common place for Spider-man whenever he needs to hide or find something, much to his irritation.
The remaining Gilders that weren't taken down by the heroes and managed to get their tech were able to make their way down to the sewer systems of New York, evading the rest of the heroes and found that they weren't being followed by them, much to their relief.
One of the Gilders turned his head to check if they were being followed. But no one was on their tail. "Looks like we're in the clear" The Gilder said, making the other gilders sigh in relief at this.
"Boy, and here I thought we were gonna end up in that Triskelion" Another Gilder said.
"Would it matter anyway?" One Gilder asked his peers. "I mean, it's just gonna end up as ash and old rubble anyway, so what's the point?"
"The point is to get the job done!" The leader of the group snapped at the soldier. "Don't think it doesn't matter if we get captured or not, because if we do then Dark Web won't be so forgiving."
This made the soldier shiver in response. The soldier knew full well what Dark Web did to those who failed him. Hopefully, this man won't be one of the people who fails him. He'd been serving as a Gilder for quite a while. Long enough to see what his lord was fully capable of. And if the choice came down to fight against the Avengers or face off against Dark Web...He'd choose the Avengers, at least they had mercy.
"Heads up!" The leader of the group called out, gaining the rest of his men's attention. "We're here."
What the leader was referring to was the entrance to their base of operation They entered through the large pipeline, flying through the pipe and ending up into a large lair area, filled with a large amount of Gilder Soldiers and scientific equipment.
During their time on Earth, the Gilder Soldiers have been using this lair as their base of operations to hide away from SHIELD and the Avengers. This lab was previously used by Curt Connors during his time as the Lizard. Apparently, the former reptile monster had set up a number of labs in the sewers in case any one of them were compromised.
"It's a good thing that Connors never bothered to report these." One soldier said.
"Must've lost some of the memory of some of these after he was cured." Another said.
They remained undetected by also using cloaking tech they received from The Web, practically hiding in plain sight and gave them enough time to plan out their next move to deal with the heroes of this world.
The remaining gliders landed on a landing pad, which was basically a large grate. Once they landed down, the injured gilders went over to the makeshift medic bay to get treated while the leader of the group and the others that weren't as injured went towards their Commander of the group.
Commander Lorne, the leader of the MHK, Mega Hero Killers, coined by their leader, after the leader of the group was meant to capture Spider-Man was killed because of his failure to capture him.
Lorne was tasked with dealing with the heroes of this world and possibly kill them when the time comes. Possibly being the key word here as they haven't killed a single one since they arrived here. This is something that Lorne will have to change at some point.
Lorne looked up to see the Gilder group that he sent off to find and steal tech from the Roxxon Corporation after they were forced out of New York. He walked over to the group of Gilders to see how it went.
"Was the mission successful? Lorne asked, hoping for something good on their end.
"Yes sir." The Gilder Soldier nodded. "We managed to get the tech we need for ourselves."
"That's good." Lorne said. "Anything else you want to report?" Lorne said with a raised brow as he noticed that there were a certain less amount of gilders with him then when they left.
"Ye sir." The soldier sighed in disappointment. "A few of our men were once again captured by the Avengers"
Lorne slightly growled in anger at this. "We can't afford to lose any more of our people to the Avengers and their proteges." Lorne said. "We have to be on point if we have any chance to take them down."
"Yes sir, I understand" The soldier nodded his head.
"You'd better." Lorne said. "Because from this point on, we cannot risk losing a single one of our men to those heroes" Lorne said, making the soldier nod in response.
After that conversation had ended, Lorne then ordered a couple of his men to move the tech and equipment they stole and bring them to the science team so that they could make better use of it.
"We got the equipment you asked for." Lorne informed the man in charge of the tech group, causing the man to look up in response.
"Good. This will definitely give us an edge"
"It's better." Lorne said. "My men were very lucky that Roxxon managed to leave their equipment around after they were forced out of the city." Lorne informed the man as he began to work with the stolen tech. "And a few gilders were taken."
"Dark Web will not be happy about that." The Tech-Gilder said.
"Well, hopefully this tech you demanded will give us the edge to take down The Avengers" Lorne said as he folded his arms. "It won't be long before they find out where we are"
"There's no worry, sir." The Tech-Gilder said. "Our cloaking tech will last for a very long time. It'll take them months before they find us"
"Well you better hope it'll be enough." Lorne said. He then looked at the tech on the table. "I never asked before, but how exactly will this tech be able to help us turn the tide?"
"Before they were forced to leave, Roxxon was on their way onto building some incredible defence and weapon mechanisms for defence for themselves, considering how many times they've been raided and had their tech stolen."
"Like now?" Lorne said.
"Like now." The Tech-Gilder said.
"And you think you could do something with this?" Lorne asked.
"Combined with our own tech, we'll be able to take down The Avengers, the younger heroes, SHIELD and take their ivory tower burn it all to the ground" The Tech-Advisor said.
Lorne looked at the tech-gilder for a few seconds before nodding in response. "Good to hear." Lorne said. He then walked away from the Tech-Gilder. "Get to work soldier, we've got a world to conquer," Lorne said as the Tech-Gilder nodded in response and went to work on the tech that would take down the heroes of this world.
RIP
Chadwick Boseman
May he Rest In Power
Thanks for reading this chapter of Rise and Fall.
Sorry for not updating for a LONG while, I just felt that I released the story way too soon. But now, I'm somewhat back to write the story. I'll write chapters for this story to a once a month type thing, not including this one.
So, The Avengers and New Warriors are continuing their efforts against the Gilders with some good results. Let's hope that'll improve over time.
If you're curious where this takes place, timeline wise, then these events occur before Season 4 Episode 10: The New Sinister 6 Part 1. The rest of the timeline remains the same except afterwards Return of the Spider Verse never happened.
Next chapter will be around the Spiders again, making their way to a nightclub on a very different earth. While Drifter makes a few dealings with a familiar face. Trouble will be brewing. Thanks and see you around!
