Chapter 22: Spidey SOS

September 6

Phil Coulson's Office

"I haven't been this tired since the stupid Games," Logan grumbled. "Why are we here ao early again?"

It had been another long night with Trish Walker, and although Logan could put up a good show, it was getting wearing. The closer they got to the election, the more outlandish the questions from the reporters became — and the more they kept repeating certain ones, hoping to trip up the victors that were still in the press game with him.

So far, it hadn't worked, but even Sam was getting close to snapping at one of them for asking repeatedly if they backed Hill or Osborn 'all things considered'. So coming down early, even at Skye's request, was taxing.

"There is literally no other time I can get two of my favorite people on the planet in the same place right now," Skye pointed out as she pushed him a mug of coffee. "Plus, we're celebrating. I'm most of the way through Osborn's firewalls, and after a good, solid, fifteen-minute cat nap to refresh, I'll have it broken by lunchtime."

"I swear to God you operate on sunshine and sugar," Logan muttered into his mug.

"Lies. I operate on pure spite. Especially in this case," she said, but she couldn't help but kiss his cheek all the same.

"What have you got, Skye?" Coulson asked, smirking at both of them, since, honestly, things always seemed to look up when either of them was working on this project — and both of them were enough to make a noticeable dent in Osborn's armor. Even on the first day.

"Well, it's not the keys to Oscorp yet, but I can tell you that there was definitely some kind of security stuff for his company going on in One, oh, about the same time Tony showed up. So I think I found exactly the moment they moved our friends," Skye said triumphantly. "I'm just trying to follow the security codes now."

"Do you have a location yet?" Coulson asked.

Skye shook her head. "I had one, but I checked the cameras and the hotel records, and it seems like Osborn's been moving to different suites every night, so it's old by this point. I'll let you know if I find the current location."

"Oughta be able to get a few good guys in there pretty quick," Logan said, nodding to himself.

"Oh at least," Skye said with a nod as she leaned back with her coffee. "But, honestly, the second problem is that I think that's just where the on-camera captives are. I have no clue where the others are."

"I still think the lab rats are at Oscorp," Logan said. "Probably locked up in a sub-basement."

"And I'll probably know that too by the time I'm done with this," Skye said, smirking widely. "Election's a week from today. We've got time."

Coulson returned the smirk Skye's way as she and Logan gently picked on each other over their coffee, and he returned his attention to the various monitors and screens across the back wall of his office. The sound was turned down because there were so many of them, but the captions and banner headlines gave him a quick update on the situation. Hill was ahead, according to most polls, and the morning shows were attributing most of that to the push from the victors.

It was honestly just a relaxing morning... until he did almost a double take on seeing the feed from one of the morning shows — not Trish, of course — and he automatically pulled up on the screen closest to him, backtracking the footage to start from the beginning. The panel announced a new guest for that morning... and Kate joined the group of panelists sitting on a couch in what was obviously a purple maternity shirt, one hand resting on her stomach as she almost shyly said hello to each of the reporters.

As soon as Coulson turned the volume up, Logan and Skye stopped everything they were doing and stared at the screen.

Don't get me wrong; I love Logan, Kate was saying. It's just that we disagree here. Ever since I found out… She trailed off and looked down at herself, seeming to gather her thoughts. Anyway, security and safety has become much more important to me. And it's a concern that Norman — sorry, Mr. Osborn — definitely shares.

It went on like that for most of the segment as Kate very quietly and politely answered all their questions — on everything from whether that meant she was supporting Osborn ("that's what I said, isn't it?") to how far along she was ("not very, honestly, but I'm still excited") to whether or not she would support either candidate who won ("oh, we'll just have to see how things turn out, I guess").

"Hill is going to want a stronger stance," Coulson said, turning toward Logan as soon as the segment was over.

Skye glanced at Coulson and threw her hands in the air. "That's it," she said. "I'm breaking this code now. That is just wrong."

"She didn't actually back him," Logan pointed out. "I want bugs for Tony or Osborn — or both."

"We can get it to you before your next appearance," Coulson agreed. "I doubt you'll be able to get to Osborn."

"Watch me. Have Trish shadow Sam instead."

"Have Trish shadow me," Skye offered.

"No," both of them said in unison.

"Wow. Stereo. That's always fun," Skye grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Sorry, Director," Logan said with a smirk before he leaned over to kiss her cheek. "The interim director is right."

Skye tipped her head back. "Come on. This is a low blow, even for Norman Osborn."

"What's your reasoning to get on camera?" Coulson asked. "No one knows who you're married to, and if you did get on camera, it'd just be fuel for Osborn to say Logan's with SHIELD, Agent Skye."

Skye glared at Coulson and dragged both hands over her face. "Okay, fine. Yeah. But that doesn't make me any less pissed off, and I really, really want to give him a piece of my mind. I mean, the whole country is finding out before Kurt gets to hear it from her."

"Kurt's gonna kill Osborn bare-handed," Logan said evenly. "I'll watch the door."

Skye crossed her arms again, glared at both of them, and then snatched up her coffee mug. "If anyone needs me, you know where to find me," she called over her shoulder. "Destroying the Green Goblin's firewalls, since I can't destroy him in person."

"She has a point," Logan said once the door closed behind her. "I just think she'd lose her eloquence when the first reporter pissed her off."

Coulson had to smirk as he nodded. "You haven't seen her being questioned, have you? It's a small train wreck."

"I have," he said. "Breaks down to very easy to read expressions and single syllable words that are not connected. It'd be kind of adorable if it wasn't such a glaring security hazard."

Coulson let out a sigh as he nodded and then gestured toward the screens as the other networks started to pick up Kate's story. "It's not a coincidence he put her out in the public eye the day after Skye started to make a dent in his security," he told Logan seriously. "Be careful."

"I would hope that if I can juggle Thanos and the evil triplets, I should be able to handle Norman."

"I have to say it all the same," Coulson said with a small smile.

"Let me see whatever intel you can get a hold of today — on everything," Logan said.

"It's yours as soon as I see it," Coulson agreed.

"Then I'll just stick around — keep the trail to a minimum."

"Be ready to go to Eight if Skye makes progress there as well," Coulson told him.

"I'm always ready to go after Petey," Logan promised.

Coulson nodded and then leaned back. "Then, for the time being, I don't have anything for you. I'd suggest getting some rest before your wife gets back with the keys to nuke Osborn."

"You got it," Logan said. "And good luck." He got up and headed out of Coulson's office, giving him the privacy to make and take the calls that were flooding in already.

September 10

District Eight

It had taken Skye a little longer than she'd wanted it to, but she did finally break through enough of Norman's encryptions to confirm that Oscorp did have not only sub-basements but several buildings not on any official charters in Eight that the team could look into. Unfortunately, he was still moving around too much with Kate and Tony — who were drawing in huge ratings for him —to pin down where they were, but at least this was a start in the right direction for finding the lab rats.

Kurt had flown out from Seven to be part of the team, along with Wade, and Logan met them with Clint and Natasha after they were done in the Capitol. The first thing that Kurt did when he saw Logan was to run up to his friend, his gaze questioning. "Anything yet?"

"No, but we've got a plan in place, ready to roll," Logan replied quietly. "He keeps movin' with 'em. So we're gonna have to get better ways to follow him."

Kurt nodded, though he didn't look too happy about it as he twisted the handle of one of his swords. "Right," he said softly.

"I already told Coulson you're gonna kill him," Logan said. "And I'll watch your back. It's settled."

"Good. Then we can find Peter as well, and he can help us get to that point," Kurt said with a nod.

Natasha cleared her throat to draw their attention. "We have a positive hit on facial recognition," she said. "With a hidden message that pinged our system along with it. Security is high, so, all that training you boys did for Weapon X won't go to waste after all."

"Remember, you have to keep your faces off camera. Any tip offs in our direction will sink Hill," May told the little group.

"Lucky for us, whichever camera pinged us this time was Pete's," Clint said with a smirk. "The 'Spidey SOS' with the coordinates was a dead giveaway."

"And though I hate to say I was right …" Logan said, giving May a look.

"If you'd been wrong, a raid on Oscorp would have catapulted him into the presidency," May pointed out. "But yes, you were right."

"Technically, it's not in Oscorp," Natasha said. "At least, the sublevel isn't in Oscorp. The only entrance and exit is through Osborn's building. The place they're being held is across the street and several stories down, accessible through a tunnel attached to the lowest sublevel in Oscorp."

"All the police force cameras will be out as we go in," Logan said. "Gwen's dad was kind enough to leak the codes to temporarily kill their surveillance. We'll have exactly one hour to get in and out — and Skye's already in their system, disabling it as we go."

"That will be plenty of time," Kurt said as he twirled his swords and then rushed forward to lead the way out, ready to get moving.

"Follow the bamf-master, then," Wade said with a little chuckle as he did almost the exactly same move with his katanas in a twirl.

"Guys, I know you're ready to kick it into high gear, but we still have to wait for our director to give us clearance," Logan said as he made his way between Kurt and Wade. "She's pushing the buttons for us."

"It's much more fun to kick down the doors," Kurt said.

"I agree, but this is covert. When it comes to Norman himself, I want you to bring a bag full of those damn smoke pellets and maybe just scare him to death."

Kurt almost chuckled. "I just might," he said, slowing down a bit. "But there's no reason we can't at least head in that direction, and honestly, mein Freund, I am tired of standing still."

"If the intel is right, you'll have plenty of creeps to work out your frustration," Logan told him.

The little group approached the entrance to Oscorp and more or less circled it, waiting for Skye's cue to move in — so that when it came, they were ready to move, descending on the building quickly, quietly, and invisible to the cameras.

As they rushed in, Logan and Wade took a new angle to cover their tracks — something that Fitz had designed based on a polymer that they'd found in a lab run by Dr. Lykos to simply gum up the cameras. He'd loaded up several cartridges for them to shoot the cameras inside the building, so that all they ever caught was a rush of black before their feed was obscured, clearing the path for the team to move in.

From there, Skye was feeding them intel as to which corners to take and how to get to the tunnel connecting the main Oscorp building to the underground lab. It was almost a straight shot with Skye in their ears, and they didn't run into any trouble until they actually arrived at the other end of the tunnel. Kurt and Wade led the charge — and were each tackled by a former victor.

Neither Kurt nor Wade wanted to stab either of their attackers, but it was quickly clear that wasn't going to be their main problem. Even as Kurt sheathed his swords, Johnny simply bowled him over, stronger than his gaunt appearance would suggest as he took Kurt to the ground. Which was all the more disturbing as he laid into Kurt with a totally neutral expression on his face.

Wade was more or less trying to avoid Jessica, though she finally got him in a good grip and started simply pounding him. He had barely been able to keep his arms over his face to stop her from bashing his face in when Logan got to his side to help.

He slipped between Wade and Jessica with a block, and started countering her moves, blocking her at every hit until she lunged at him in a rage and Logan wrapped himself around her and took her to the ground. "Come on, Jess, knock it off. I know you're not drugged."

But she just struggled and wriggled, trying to break free as he held her tighter, waiting for the others to settle the fight with Johnny.

In the meantime, Clint had managed to haul Johnny backward by the shoulders to give Kurt room to breathe, and the two of them fell into a wrestling match while Natasha helped Kurt to his feet and then wordlessly gestured past the fight. The two of them slipped around Clint and Johnny — Johnny was clearly getting in the stronger hits, but Clint had managed to wrap himself around Johnny from behind to try to choke him into passing out.

It didn't take long before Johnny did, in fact, pass out, and then Clint looked over Logan's way with a little wince as he got to his feet. "Got a tranq?" he offered Logan.

"Unless you plan on leaving me here to just hold her," he replied.

Clint smirked. "Never know. Could be educational for the kiddies. How to Stop a Rampaging Victor: 101."

"I swear to God, if you finish that with 'hug them,' I'm going to shave your head while you sleep."

"Wrong Hawkeye," Clint said as he pulled out a tranq arrow, twirled it, and stuck the end in Jess' arm, watching until she finally went limp and Logan could step back from her. "We're gonna have to carry these two, so I'm really hoping the others aren't gonna be a problem too, or we're short on arms."

"Tie her first," Logan said. "Jess'll fake it when she starts to come around."

Clint was already pulling rope out of his quiver. "I'll get Johnny too. You go catch up to Nat and Kurt."

"On it," Logan agreed, gently slipping out and setting Jess's head on the floor before he rushed to find the others.

Natasha and Kurt, in the meantime, had found where the lab was that the captured scientists had been working in — though it didn't look like anyone was home this late at night. "There must be sleeping quarters around here," Natasha directed Kurt's way. "You check them out, and I'll get pictures of this stuff so we can be sure to counter whatever it was they were working on later."

Kurt nodded and took off down the hallway until he found one lined with doors that locked on the outside — which he took the liberty of unlocking with one of his swords. The first room he levered open was Miles', and the youngest spider was dead to the world asleep until the door burst open and he sat bolt upright with wide eyes and a half muttered "Wasgonon?" before he saw Kurt and just stared, clearly trying to work out whether or not he was still asleep.

"Is Kate here?" Kurt asked, looking through the room already.

Miles rubbed the sleep from his eyes and then seemed to decide that yes, this was really happening as he shook his head and threw back the covers. "Ah, no; we didn't even know she was part of this crazy circus until she hit the news," he admitted, pulling on some socks and shoes.

"Do you have any trackers on you?" Logan asked as he arrived too, though he was already digging in a side pocket on his belt for something.

"Oh, uh, yeah. Don't know where, but that's part of the whole 'you can never leave for I am evil' thing Ozzie the Horrible has going on in this creepy place," Miles said as he grabbed a sweatshirt and pulled it on over his pajamas.

"Not for long," Logan told him as he handed him a tiny device. "Turn this on; it'll scramble anything electronic on you."

"Great," Miles said, pocketing the device and grinning. "Who'd you bring with you? I mean, is this a full-on all-hands-on-deck or…?"

"We'll talk about it later," Logan said. "Right now, take us to the others and let's get the hell out of here. We already have Johnny and Jess down."

"Oh, alright, well, Pete's just down the hall, and the girls are around the corner," Miles said, already leading the way.

"You want the dashing rescue?" Logan called out to Kurt.

"Oh, always," Kurt said with a nod.

"Then I'll take the geeky one," Logan agreed before he headed off the way Miles had pointed. There weren't too many doors, and it was the second one that was occupied, as he learned very quickly.

"Petey, you comin' or what?" Logan called out.

Peter startled at the noise and stared at Logan in a way reminiscent of what Miles had been doing earlier before he simply scrambled up to the door, nearly tripping over himself before he surprised Logan with an honest-to-goodness hug that knocked the breath out of him.

"Take it easy, Petey," Logan said, carefully returning the hug. "You hit your head or something?"

"Just really, really glad to see you," Peter said, finally letting go as he looked around. "How did you — did you get our SOS? We've had it set for days now."

"Yep," Logan said, nodding. "He's got Kate pandering for him."

"Yeah, I saw," Peter said, his expression twisting for a moment. "She's not here, though. We haven't seen her or Tony. I saw him doing the same thing on the news too."

"Let's get the hell out of here," Logan said as he handed Peter one of Fitz's mini scramblers. "This will kill anything electronic you've got on you."

"Oh good, because old Normykins has issues with, you know, freedom of movement," Peter said, pulling another face as he stuck the scrambler in his pocket, though his expression turned into a grin for a moment. "I offered to go on camera for him, but he didn't take it."

"Can't imagine why," Logan said. "I'll ask him what his trouble is next time I see him."

"It's a mystery," Peter agreed with a grin that got wider when they rounded the corner to catch up to the others and he saw that Kurt was with Simmons and Gwen. And Kurt looked just as surprised as Logan had been when Peter's immediate reaction was the exact same — practically tackling Kurt in a hug.

"Are we all getting rescuer hugs, because if so, it's my turn next," Wade said as he poked his head out from the lab.

"Later," Logan called his way. "Let's get out of here first." He was pushing them hard to move, and when they got back to Clint, he didn't even break stride as he picked up Jess and put her over his shoulder. "Quicker is better in this case, kids," Logan called out before he broke into a little jog.

"No arguments here," Gwen agreed as they matched his pace, with Clint taking up the rear and carrying Johnny in a fireman's carry.

It wasn't until they were loaded up and in the air that Logan let out a breath and ran both hands through his hair as he leaned back. "Any of ya have any idea how nasty that really was?" he said quietly to Peter once Peter had settled in and gotten over the euphoria of getting out.

"Uh, yeah. Lived it," Peter pointed out.

"How many charges did you count in that tunnel?"

Peter's expression dropped, and he immediately blanched. "I … was not paying attention to the walls," he muttered, wide-eyed.

"Top corners, every ten feet."

Peter just stared at Logan for a long while. "That's the only exit, too," he half-whispered.

Logan nodded but didn't express his thoughts on it, though it was pretty clear that if things had gone too far south, or they would have been caught, Norman would have buried them alive.

Peter suppressed a little shiver before he turned to Logan and shook his head. "Well, tell me who's on the team getting Kate out. We should warn them about that kind of thing."

"I'm out," Logan said, shocking Peter for a moment. "At least the way the plan is written up right now. But Clint, Nat, Kurt … Sam. Plenty of good people on it."

Peter looked around the plane. "So ... not yet. Do you at least know where they are?" he asked. "Because I saw Kate on television and ... did you guys know about the…?"

"No," he said. "All I know is that I'm the distraction."

"That historically is not the best look on you," Peter pointed out. "And I'm kind of really enjoying you being alive right now, all things considered."

"We can't get a solid location on 'em 'cause Norman keeps movin' 'em," Logan explained. "So, the next big soiree we both go to, the team'll follow him."

"That's cutting it kind of close, isn't it? I thought the next big thing was the night before the election."

"No other choice right now," Logan said. "He's cut his appearances down — particularly with those two."

Peter shook his head. "He's totally nuts, Logan," he said seriously. "Except for when he's totally sane, which is almost worse."

"If it comes up sooner — or if Skye can break through Stark's encryption — we'll move on it faster."

"I'll help," Peter said quickly. "Me and Gwen and Miles — we've been working on some coding for weeks anyway. We're pretty intimately familiar with what's Normy's and what's not."

"Then you can volunteer when we get back. Fitz'll clear you before you leave the plane," Logan told him.

"Great," Peter said, stretching out his hands in front of him. "I'm looking forward to using my powers for good."

"Be careful," Logan warned. "She's on a 'vengeance' hack right now."

"Oooh, I'll stay out of the way, then," Peter said, nodding seriously. "What got her started?"

"Norman using Kate's pregnancy as a prop," Logan said frankly. "She was telling Coulson to give her a camera."

"Oooh that would do it," Peter said, nodding seriously. "None of us even knew he had her. Or that she was pregnant. When did that happen?"

Logan leaned very close to whisper to Peter for the rest of their conversation. "Kurt didn't find out until we'd searched for days for her. Came home to find tiny purple shoes. I know Norman pulled a number on you guys? But he's got first whack."

Peter's eyes were wide as he nodded seriously. "Oh yeah. That… that's just evil." He paused and seemed to consider it. "But somehow a classic Norman move. Which is just proof of how evil he is."

"I think he hired Creed as a diversion too," Logan continued. "After the first appearances we did. He attacked Clara and Scott."

"Are they okay?" Peter asked quickly. "He didn't kill them or anything?"

"Clara has a few scars," Logan said, looking more irritated. "Scott's blind."

"Wait. What?"

"Fitz is workin' on it," he told him quietly.

"Well, we've got Fitz's better half now, so that should help," Peter pointed out.

"Yeah, they'll fix him up, I'm sure," Logan agreed.

"I can web Creed's own claws to his face if he shows up again," Peter offered. "It would be the strong stuff. Can't break through it without the dissolving agent, even with a truck."

"Keep away from him," Logan warned. "He's out to maim and kill. And we just got you back from one creep, alright?"

"Don't worry; I'm not going anywhere except to help get the rest of Team Awesome altogether," Peter promised. "Just don't go getting killed by him either, alright? I already thought you were dead once."

"That's not gonna happen," Logan said with a little smirk. "He's not good enough."

"That's because he's a horrible, smelly, big ugly moron," Peter said with a nod. "Just… humor me and bring backup, okay? I mean it."

"Sure thing, Petey," Logan agreed. "Back up would be fine."

"Good, 'cause you know something? I think me and Gwen are actually gonna get married after all this, and with Skye and Kate both working on Team Awesome: The Next Generation, I'm pretty sure you need to stick around." Peter shifted with his hands clasped in front of him. "I… kinda thought you and Kurt were dead. In the attack where I got grabbed."

Logan turned his way with a scrunched up nose. "Why the hell would you think that?"

"Norman had it on video when you two went down — told me he was testing out a neurotoxin," Peter admitted. "It wasn't until Jemma got in that I found out he was full of it. I mean, I knew he was. But. For that…"

"You don't gotta worry about that, Petey."

"Yeah, I'm just saying… if you could not die for real, that would be awesome."

"Well I'm sure as hell not trying to," Logan pointed out. "And I'd rather avoid it as long as I can."

"Good." Peter leaned back against the wall of the jet and looked every bit relieved. "Did you at least save my room for me?" he asked after a moment of silence.

"Oh sure," Logan said, nodding as he got settled in for the flight, obviously ready to take a nap. "It's there with all your crap."

"Great. Thanks," Peter said, grinning Logan's way before he turned his attention to Gwen as Logan got in a few winks on the flight back.