"So," Crimson announced his return to Avengers HQ, "What info do you have on the missing Spiders?"
"Are you going to accept our help?" Revenant asked.
"If you can keep up." Crimson shot back, earning a sigh from the Symbiote clad Spider.
"Right," Revenant activated the Hologram projector, which showed a map of Manhattan, "they were last seen on Liberty Island."
"Yeah," Crimson sighed as the beacon appeared by the at the base of the Statue of Liberty, "that makes sense."
"Why?" Spider Warrior asked.
"Fanatic is basically a fan-boy gone mad," Crimson explained, "he's a big fan of confrontations at famous landmarks. I still remember confronting him on top of CN Tower."
"That was you?" Diamond asked, "I saw that on the news. I thought it was Spider-Man."
"When has Spidey ever been to Canada? more specifically Toronto?"
Diamond backed off, clearly trying to remember any news reports of Spider-Man in other countries.
"If we're going to Liberty Island," Crimson continued, "we need to go in our civvies, which means we should probably introduce ourselves properly." Crimson removed his mask without hesitation, "I'm Chris Blake."
Warrior followed his lead, taking off her helmet, "Blazen Hope Kelly," she looked directly at Chris, "You can call me Hope."
"Luna Lulamoon," Diamond said, taking off her helmet to reveal pink hair in braided pigtails, earning a snicker from Chris.
The three turned to Revenant, waiting for him to follow suit. He sighed and conceded.
"All right," his mask retracted, "My name is Joseph Sanders."
"Nice to meet you all," Crimson snickered, still not over Luna's appearance, "now that that's out of the way, let's get changed." Crimson turned to leave, "Come on Joe," he called back, "Let's give the girls some privacy." He then spotted Temper in the corner and quickly detoured to her, kneeling in front of her so he was at eye level as her mask retracted and her hair returned to its mostly black coloring, "I want you to stay here, where it's safe, ok? I'm going to find your aunt."
Temper wanted to pout, but knew by the tone of her father's voice that this was more serious than she could possibly comprehend. She caught him off guard with a worried hug and ran off to find Doctor Strange.
...
Chris mainly kept to himself on the ferry, choosing to stay separate from the others until they arrived at Liberty Island. As the group got off with the civilians, Chris looked up at the statue. This was his first time seeing it through his own eyes, as the last time he was in New York, Frenzy impaled a Skrull against Lady Liberty. Even from the ground, he could see the hole, as small as it was. He shook his head to bring his focus back to the present, to his sister.
"Spread out," Crimson ordered, "Fanatic may be crazy, but he has a method to his madness. I'm his sole focus, and it's not exactly a secret that Cobalt and I are siblings. If he's captured her, then he wants my attention. Look for anything that could be seen as a clue."
The quartet split up, though they remained close enough to maintain visual contact with each other. Chris started by examining the ground, hoping that Damage Control would've at least left something for rescue teams to investigate. As usual, they were thorough. Chris sighed and looked to the others, primarily Hope. He didn't know why, but her scarlet hair reminded him of Frenzy, more specifically, the humanoid form she took when they were alone. Hope caught his gaze and he quickly looked away. It was then that he noticed some oddly shaped shrubbery.
"Guys?" He called out as he approached, "I think I have something."
The other three converged on Chris as he moved the leaves and branches that obscured his view. He let out an exasperated sigh when he saw what was there.
"What is it?" Joseph asked.
"A Doom-bot," Chris explained as he picked up the busted robot, "I should've seen this coming." He didn't need to look back to know that the others were giving him confused looks, "Fanatic has, let's call it a "business agreement", with Doctor Doom. Doom sends Fanatic these Doom-bots to do with as he pleases and Fanatic, in return, shares his twisted views with Doom in order to give Doom ideas for conquering in a way that gets the most attention."
"But why would Doom want attention?" Luna asked, "Wouldn't that make accomplishing his goals harder?"
"He want's it because he wants the world to know who rules over them, and how he did it." Chris threw the Doom-bot down, breaking it's already busted shell, "Let's keep looking, there's bound to be something else. and keep your wits about you, Fanatic's not above traps."
As if on cue, time slowed down. Chris looked around at the near frozen civilians, expecting any of them to be a Doom-bot in disguise, then he felt the breeze. He removed his civvies to reveal his costume hiding beneath, thanking any deities or mystical presences watching over him that he currently moving too fast for the human eye to comprehend. As soon as he had his mask on, he turned around to see the base of the statue cracking, then the shock wave hit. He braced himself on the ground as the wave passed over him. If there was anything he took to heart over the years, it was that the shock wave was always worse than the explosion when time was slowed. the ground started to shake as the wave passed and pieces of the base started to come off. He looked to the others, intending to get them out of the way first since they were the closest, but they were already out of the way. Joseph and Hope had already changed, giving Crimson an idea of just how fast they were, and Luna had clearly been shoved into a bush to change, which only served to show her lack of powers, proving why she had her armor. As the heat began to build, Crimson realized that the part of an explosion that even he was too slow to move through, when Temporal Displacement was active, was coming and he dove out of the way, taking some civilians with him. That was when the chaos began.
The explosion rocked the island, a second shock wave catching Crimson off guard and temporarily locking him out of his most useful ability. time resumed it's normal flow as the Lady Liberty started to fall. Crimson jumped up and started making preparations to save everyone, not even bothering to tell the others and just going off of blind hope that they got the idea. He started by webbing up the base so as to slow Lady Liberty's descent as much as he could. He then webbed up the surrounding area beyond the Statue's path and started chucking the civilians into his sticky cushions. For the children, however, he picked them up, as many as he could at a time, and brought them to their parents. He was so focused that he didn't even know if they were thanking him or trying to reprimand him for the way he was doing things. Slowly, but surely, visitors and tourists were placed out of danger, but banging from inside the Statue's base told Crimson that they were far from done. Crimson shot a web line at the visitor's entrance and yanked the door out of the wall.
"Move!" Crimson called, but no one moved.
Crimson looked around and realized why. His Temporal Displacement had finally kicked back in, and just in the nick of time too. The top half of the Statue was already in the water. Crimson looked up to see the rest of the Statue just inches above him. There was no time to move the civilians, even with his Displacement, he would kill the civilians before the Statue did. There was no other option, he raised his hands and placed them on the statue. Taking a deep breath, Crimson used the only spell that Starnge taught him. Time resumed it's normal flow as he siphoned his magic from his other powers and used every bit he could spare to bolster his strength. Dust engulfed the area as Lady Liberty's remaining weight crashed down on him. Pain seared through his body as it was pushed to it's limit. He closed his eyes, not letting any visuals distract him. If he broke focus for even an instant, his magic would return to it's designated roles and he would be crushed. Crimson let out pained gasping grunts as tha Statue only seemed to get heavier, letting him know that his stamina was dropping quickly. Every sound in the world then seemed to vanish as his heartbeat grew thunderous in his ears. It was then that he realized that his stamina had run dry and his body was about to give out.
'I'm sorry Arria,' Crimson sighed inwardly, or whimpered, it was irrelevant at this point, 'I guess seeing you again was just a stupid dream.'
All feeling in Crimson's body disappeared as his heart gave out to the strain.
...
Crimson looked around, not sure if he was still alive, or if he had passed on. If it was the latter, then he was a little disappointed that his afterlife would be spent floating in cold, empty void. A loud BANG made him worry that he wasn't alone. Rather than pursue the noise, he chose to wait, see if it was just his imagination. Another BANG sounded, this one louder than the first. Then came another. The void flashed briefly when the fourth sounded. Same with the fifth. He felt a pang in his chest on the sixth. A more intense one on the seventh. Each BANG brought a more intense feeling, until the twentieth made his whole body sting. Then everything went white.
...
Crimson sat up with a start, clutching his chest and gasping for air. He gripped the grass beneath him and gathered his composure. His gasping turned to deep breathing as he looked around to find the Avengers surrounding him, Revenant, Warrior, and Diamond keeping their distance. He looked down to see Iron Man's open hand, Repulsor activated.
"Keep," Crimson panted, pushing Iron Man's arm away, "that thing... away from me."
"Your welcome," Iron Man said sarcastically.
Crimson took one final deep breath before speaking to everyone.
"I'm sorry," he addressed hos audience, "I should've told you that he would do something like this. I was just so focused on saving my sister," he then addressed the other Spiders exclusively, "I can't lead you. I'm too emotionally invested in this. It clouded my judgement once already... who's to say it won't happen again?"
"That's exactly why we need you to lead us," Warrior spoke up, "Your determination will lead us to him faster. If a trail goes cold, you're the only one who can find a new one. You know him, you'll find him and just like you said."
"He's waiting for me," Crimson sighed. He considered his next move carefully, looking up at the Statue, which was now being repaired by some of the other Avengers as well as Damage Control, then down at the busted Doom-bot, which was still where he left it, and got an idea, "the Embassy."
"The Latverian Embassy?" Cap asked.
"If anyone knows where Fanatic is, it's the man supplying him with his foot soldiers," Crimson explained, "He's at the Embassy, right?" Cap nodded and Crimson turned to the other Spiders, "I think it's time we paid Doctor Doom a visit."
...
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