"Marvel: Tomorrow Initiative"
Chapter 2: "The Devil Is Me"
Disclaimer: Many of the characters that appear in this story are based largely on characters already created by Marvel Comics and as such do not fully belong to me. Marvel is to be credited for inspiring much of the characters and ideas found in this story.
Author's note: All right, you've met Audrey, a.k.a. "Spider-Woman." Now it's time to meet the Tomorrow Initiative's incarnation of Daredevil. The introduction to her will be a retelling of the events in chapter one from her point of view. Basically, you'll see what she was up to up until the ending point of chapter one and then it'll go from there. Have fun reading.
At five-thirty in the morning, a dark-haired girl of mixed Japanese and Caucasian descent – judging by her features – awoke. She got out of her bed and walked to the bathroom of her Hell's Kitchen apartment, where she brushed her teeth and quickly showered. Once her shower was finished, she dried herself off and donned a pair of loose drawstring pants and a sports bra. She picked up a black baton and pulled it into two, revealing a wire of red energy between the two halves. She used the split baton and wire as a pseudo-jump rope, pulling all sorts of complicated jumping maneuvers.
Once the jump rope exercise was over with, she manipulated the split baton and wire as nunchaku. After that was finished, she retracted the energy wire and performed a series of katas while holding the dual batons. She pressed a button on one baton and it manifested a red column of sword-like energy. She pressed a button on the other baton and a similar red column of sword-like energy manifested. She swung both energy swords in her katas, moving swiftly and precisely, slicing imaginary enemies.
Finally, she retracted the energy blades and recombined the batons into one. She put it aside and began to perform unarmed katas. Her moves were swift, precise, and graceful. If she had had opponents to fight, those opponents would have been dropped on their asses.
When her workout finished, it was quarter after seven in the morning. The girl walked to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, pulling out a bottle of water, which she opened and drank. She capped the bottle when she was finished with it and put it back inside the fridge. She went back to her room and put scentless deodorant on her underarms. After that, she donned a zip-front black sleeveless shirt and a pair of sneakers.
Her cell phone rang, prompting her to pick it up. "Hello?"
"Kusanagi," the voice of Laura Kinney, a.k.a. X-23, greeted tersely.
"23," Kusanagi answered.
"Your class is visiting Milton Labs today," X-23 stated.
"I know," Kusanagi replied. "I also know what that lab does outside the public view."
"Perfect recon opportunity," X-23 said.
"Yes. Perfect. Assuming I can keep the teacher from noticing what I'm up to."
"You can."
"Glad for that vote of confidence."
"Hm. Just do it." A click signaled that X-23 had hung up her phone.
Kusanagi switched her drawstring pants for a pair of jeans and put on a leather jacket, exiting her apartment and taking the elevator to the parking lot of her building. She found her motorcycle and slipped on her leather gloves, fastening them around her wrists and donning the helmet. She straddled her motorcycle and wheeled it out of its parking space. She started the bike and rode out of the parking lot and to Midtown High School, where she took the bike to the student parking lot. Once that was over with, she walked into the school building.
She walked to her locker and packed her jacket and other things inside, going to her homeroom. She gave the teacher a terse look of greeting and took her seat, which was behind the seat where Audrey Hopkins usually sat. She knew Audrey more by scent and voice than actual interaction. She knew Audrey liked Herbal Essence shampoo, judging by the smell of her hair. She knew Audrey used Secret deodorant. She knew Audrey's voice had a soft, humble timbre and yet it seemed to fill the entire room with a presence the younger girl didn't know she had.
And Kusanagi had to admit that Audrey had a pleasantly shaped and structured face. She would be more conventionally attractive if she straightened out her hair and started using certain skin creams, but then she wouldn't be the understated beauty that she was. Kusanagi liked that in Audrey, liked that the younger girl had other things on her mind besides looking pretty for the boys.
The object of Kusanagi's fascination arrived about five minutes after her and with that, the class was off to Milton Labs. Kusanagi sat just behind and to the left of Audrey, enabling her to keep an eye on the younger girl. She watched Audrey in quiet contemplation, wondering what would happen if she befriended her.
No, it couldn't happen. It wouldn't happen. Kusanagi had more important things to do than pursue a juvenile attraction. And even if she decided to just be friends with Audrey, she couldn't afford that, either. She had too many secrets to keep and a friendship couldn't last with secrets between the two who were supposed to be friends. It just . . . couldn't be.
"Hey, Karin," a boy's voice greeted her obnoxiously. Karin Kusanagi didn't even have to look. She recognized that voice as belonging to Franklin "Smoke" Ness and even if she didn't recognize the voice, she'd recognize the scent of his equally obnoxious cologne. He was one of the starting players of Midtown High's blitzball – antigrav soccer – team and he imagined himself a great charmer.
"What do you want?" Karin asked, not even looking at him.
"You," Smoke replied.
"At least you're direct," Karin remarked. "Most guys would try to butter me up before they got to that point with me."
"I'm way better than most guys."
Karin chuckled admonishingly. "Confidence is one thing. Being overconfident is another thing. But at least you believe in yourself. That'll take you places. Just not with me."
"Aw, why you gotta be so cold? I can treat you right."
"Given your past history with girls, I doubt that."
"Oh, those girls? Please. That's old news. I wanna start fresh. With you."
"Fine. You win. I succumb to the power of your charms. You have me to do with as you please. I will dote upon you, I will come to all your games, I will cheer you on, and I will reward your victories with my body."
"You serious?"
"No."
"Bitch."
"You flatterer."
When they arrived at Milton Labs, Karin kept her distance from Smoke while keeping a close eye on Audrey. She shook her head with slight irritation when Jenna started asking the medical scientist who was currently playing tour guide questions about seeing Captain America shirtless. It was a fake Captain America, a pawn of the government rather than the true Sentinel of Liberty the original had been.
As the tour continued, Karin was about to sneak away when she heard Audrey's heart beating faster, then slower. She heard Jenna's outcry of shock and dismay and turned to see what was happening. Audrey had collapsed on the floor, clutching her hand . . . and a spider was crawling away from the scene. Letting the other students cluster around Audrey, she picked up the spider and scooped it into a small plastic pouch she kept in her jacket. She then slipped the pouch into her jacket pocket.
This was way too much of a coincidence. A spider in a biotech lab that specialized in superpower creation via genetic manipulation biting a girl? If Karin's suspicions about that particular spider were correct . . . she looked at the now-unconscious Audrey. The poor girl would be in for some real hell in the near-future.
The ambulance hovercraft soon arrived to take Audrey to the hospital, wasting little time. The teacher was so dismayed that he let the class go for the day, but first they had to go back to the school to get their things. As for Karin, she rode her motorcycle through the old tunnels into a base hidden in those tunnels. She parked the motorcycle and entered the base, where she was automatically greeted by a blue-haired boy garbed in a black leather suit with circled-X pads on the shoulders and knees.
"Hey, Fearless," he greeted her. "Got something for me?" Karin's response was a raised middle finger, prompting a sigh from him. "Why do you hate me so much? I only try to show you my affection and you repay my efforts with spite and venom!"
"I'm glad you read poetry, Impetus," Karin answered. "At least you do more with your time than run around pissing off everyone."
Impetus groaned. "I got wind of an ambulance leaving Milton Labs. What happened?"
Karin pulled the plastic pouch containing the spider out of her jacket pocket. "Here's what happened."
"Whoa. Parker's gonna want to see this."
"See what?" a grim voice asked, prompting Karin and Impetus to turn. The voice belonged to none other than a brown-haired man whose face smacked of youth but whose eyes betrayed a soul far older. He wore a black zip-front hooded sweater with a circled-X zipper tab and black pants with circled-X designs on the thighs. A white lab coat offset the black of his clothes.
Karin held out the plastic pouch. "This. It bit a student at my school during a field trip to Milton Labs."
Peter Parker took the pouch from her. "I'll see what exactly they dosed this spider with." He departed for the base's lab. Within minutes, he was calling the entirety of New York's X-Men cell and Karin into the lab.
X-23, a dark-haired seemingly young woman dressed in a sleeveless circled-X-tagged black leather suit, was the first to speak. "What did you find?"
"That spider . . . has my DNA mixed into its venom," Peter replied. "The CSA is trying to recreate my powers in one of its people."
X-23 looked at Karin. "Take a blood sample from the one who was bitten. We need to know if the CSA succeeded in its attempt, even if by accident."
Karin nodded, taking a syringe gun passed to her by Peter. She placed it inside her inner jacket pocket and left the X-Men's base. She got on her motorcycle and rode out of the tunnels and to the hospital nearest Milton Labs. Once she reached the hospital, she parked her motorcycle and entered, walking briskly to the receptionist.
"I'm here to see Audrey Hopkins," she spoke.
"Just sign in and you can visit her in Room 2C," the receptionist replied. "She's unconscious right now, so I'd advise you to not disturb her too much."
"Sure," Karin replied, signing the datapad and pressing her thumb onto the fingerprint scanner next to it. The computer in front of the receptionist processed the signature and thumbprint, allowing her to go forth. She jogged up the escalator, getting off at the second floor and walking to Room 2C. The door slid open from her presence near it and she stepped inside.
Audrey lay on the cot, looking for all the world as though she was just sleeping. Karin pulled the syringe gun out of her jacket pocket and held the business end to a vein in Audrey's arm. She pressed the trigger and the needle popped into the vein, drawing some blood into the vial loaded into the syringe gun. Once she was sure she'd had enough, she released the trigger and the needle retracted. Karin calmly cleaned up the little amount of blood Audrey's arm was still leaking.
"Sorry about that, Audrey," she whispered. "I'll come see you tomorrow, when I don't have to do this to you." She gently stroked Audrey's hair before exiting her room, hiding the syringe gun in her jacket pocket. She slipped out of the hospital with no one being any the wiser, riding back to the X-Men's tunnel base.
She entered the base again, this time greeted by an Amazonian-built redhead garbed in the standard circle-X-adorned black leather attire. "Got the blood sample?" the tall redhead asked.
"Yeah, Fairbrook, I have it," Karin answered.
The Amazonian mutant known as Fairbrook escorted Karin into the base. Once inside, Impetus was the first to greet them, followed by the other X-Men, consisting of X-23, a young Indian boy named Wireless for his cyberpathic abilities, a teenage Brazilian boy called Sandstorm for his control over sand, a Vietnamese boy named Synergy for his ability to mimic other mutants' powers, and a pale-skinned, pale-haired girl named Daybreak and the granddaughter of Cable and Domino.
"You have it," X-23 said.
"Yeah," Karin answered.
"I'll get Parker," Daybreak offered.
"No need," Peter said, emerging from the lab. "I'm here." He extended his hand to Karin. Getting the meaning, she removed the syringe gun from her jacket pocket and removed the vial from it, handing the vial to Peter. "Thanks. I can get back to you in a day. In the meantime, I suggest you go home."
"Sure, shoo me out already," Karin remarked, nevertheless obeying Peter's suggestion. Peter himself returned to his lab.
"He always sequesters himself in there," Wireless mused. "It's irritating."
"He has his reasons, Wireless," Fairbrook answered.
That night, Karin went into her secret room, finding one of her suits, black and red with sharply ridged pads on the shoulders, knees, and outer thighs and shins. She unzipped the back of the suit and stepped into it, zipping up her own back with the aid of a mirror and her own flexibility. Once that was over with, she slipped on a pair of metal cuffs, magnetically sealing her batons to them, and picked up a black faceplate with red lenses. She sealed the mask over her face, completing the transition from Karin Kusanagi to Fearless.
She took the exit from her secret room that led out of the apartment complex in which she lived and leaped out. She snatched one of her batons from its holder brace, firing a red energy grapnel at the building across. The grapnel punched into the façade of the building and she swung from the energy line, retracting it when she reached the pinnacle of her arc and extending another to swing from. She continued on in this fashion throughout Hell's Kitchen, descending in the midst of an MGH deal.
Fearless knocked a dealer's gun out of his hands and smacked him brutally with her baton. Another dealer tried to shoot her, but she heard the bullet leave the gun and blocked it with her other baton, which was coated with a bulletproof substance. She flipped into the air and extended the energy blades of both batons, slicing through the others' guns. One of the dealers pulled out a length of chain and whirled it over his head like a lasso before swinging it at Fearless, who pressed a button on one of her batons. Immediately, the energy blade extended into a chain blade that sliced through the dealer's chain.
She felt the rush of air that came only from someone speeding toward her and whirled to meet her attacker head on. She grabbed her attacker by the wrists and used his momentum to flip him over her shoulder. To her not-quite-surprise, he just got up like it was nothing and attacked her again. This time, Fearless stabbed him with the energy blade from her baton. He might have had some kind of enhanced durability, to shrug off her attack like that, but a stab wound would take him out of the picture for the time being.
With another lash of her chain blade, all of the dealers were down for the count. Fearless retracted her energy blade and threw out an energy grapple, swinging away from the scene. As she swung, she spotted one of the surveillance saucers looking at her. She continued her swing, unconcerned; the saucer wouldn't see her, as the circuitry in her suit and mask made her invisible to electronic detection. It was a necessity, if she wanted to lessen the chances of being caught while operating without a license.
The next day, Karin Kusanagi visited Audrey again. This time, it wasn't to get her blood sample; it was just to talk. That was how she ended up sitting beside Audrey's hospital bed, watching the younger girl sleep. Karin's senses alerted her to the changes in Audrey's body, muscles tightening and becoming suppler, heart pumping blood through her body more efficiently, even a sort of static field around her body.
"Your life's going to be a living hell. I hope you know that. With these powers you're developing, you're going to have all kinds of government pricks wanting a piece of you. If you do the wise thing and don't let yourself be taken in by them, your life will be even worse. You'll be considered a criminal for not becoming one of their super-soldiers. You'll have to hide from them, when they should be hiding from you."
She took Audrey's hand in hers. "But I'll be here for you. Know that, too."
She stood up and walked to the door, which slid open to reveal a girl that looked a lot like Audrey, only more self-assured and conventionally attractive. "Sister?"
"Yeah," the girl replied. "My name's Kaye. Yours?"
"Karin. I'm in Audrey's class." She walked away from Kaye and out of the hospital. It hadn't even been a minute before her communicator, carefully disguised as a cell phone, rang. She answered it. "Hello?"
"Parker's finished," X-23 answered. "Come to the base immediately."
"Coming, Laura," Karin said, closing her communicator. She placed it in her pocket and rode her motorcycle to the tunnels where the X-Men's base was located. Once safely in the tunnels, she parked her motorcycle and walked the rest of the way to the base. There, she was welcomed inside by Wireless. "What did Parker find?"
Peter guided the X-Men's and Karin's attention to a digital chart showing two DNA double helixes, one blue and one red. Sections of the first double helix were highlighted in red. The second double helix, on the other hand, was completely red. "Look at the red sections of the first double helix. Those are the sections of Audrey Hopkins' DNA that resemble mine. That spider's venom was modified to carry a biochemical agent derived from my DNA and anyone bitten by it would have that agent in their bloodstream, re-sequencing their DNA to be similar to mine."
"Why would they try it that way?" Fairbrook asked.
"They were probably planning to extract the venom from the spider and directly inject it into the subject," Peter replied. "The spider must have gotten away before they could start that particular process."
"Why'd the CSA want to copy your powers?" Sandstorm asked.
"A guy who can scale walls without the aid of climbing equipment is useful for espionage," Peter answered, a bit of his old mirth coming back into his voice.
"What do we do now?" Impetus asked.
"We keep a close eye on her for now," X-23 replied. "She'll be itching to use her powers when she wakes up and that'll get her in trouble. We'll be there to get her out of it."
Karin left the X-Men's base, riding back to her apartment in Hell's Kitchen. Once there, she found a message from Jenna on her base phone. She clicked the button on the back of the phone to listen and it played her voice. "Hey, Karin. Listen, we managed to talk to Audrey's parents and we know it's only going to be a matter of time before she wakes up. We're gonna throw a big 'welcome back' party for her, but we need some help. We'd like to bake a cake, but I'm not so good at the domestic stuff. . . ."
Karin stopped the message and pressed the button that would redial Jenna's number. "Hey," Jenna's voice greeted.
"I'll bake that cake for Audrey's Welcome Back party. I'll see what I can do about getting permission to use the school kitchen."
"You're the best, Karin!"
"I know I am. See you in class tomorrow." Karin ended the call.
By the day Audrey came back to school, Karin and the rest of the class had carefully prepared the party. Audrey was rather surprised at how far they had gone for her. Karin just had to smile; didn't Audrey know how beloved she was by her class? Apparently not, or else she wouldn't have been surprised.
As the party went on, Karin observed Audrey. Her movements were more graceful and yet more tense, a tenseness marked by the suspicion that she was being watched. Audrey turned to look at Karin and Karin continued looking at her, knowing now that Audrey was looking back. She saw the silent cues Audrey was giving off, that Audrey wasn't comfortable with her stares. A few minutes later, the recently genetically shifted girl turned away, enjoying her cake with that girl Jenna.
That night, Karin was out as Fearless again and tearing up an underworld bar where the dealers who sold the MGH liked to hang out. She was looking for information on the dealers' boss's boss, as in the main man behind the crime in New York City – the Black Tarantula. The patrons were shooting at her, but she was moving between bullets and lashing out with her chain blade, knocking down bullets and cleaving guns. When she was close enough, she forwent the chain blade for her fists and feet. At one point, she wrapped a length of energy cable around the neck of one of the dealers and dragged him to her.
"All right, talk."
The patron gagged.
"Not a satisfactory answer. Where's your boss?"
"Ack . . . can't . . . ack . . . talk . . ."
Fearless loosened the cable around the dealer's neck. The sound of a round being chambered made her chuckle. "What makes you think that I won't turn around the second you fire and let him be hit instead?"
"Because I got another round to cap you with, bitch," the second dealer answered.
Fearless withdrew her second baton and lashed out the chain blade at the second dealer, knocking his gun out of his hand. It accidentally fired and clipped a random patron in the arm. The chain blade sliced the second dealer's hand before retracting into the baton. "Now do you want to mess with me?" She turned her attention to the dealer she had in an energy cable chokehold. "All right, where's your boss?"
"Who wants to know?"
"I want to know. Your boss happens to be a middleman in the Black Tarantula's organization and I want to see how far down the rabbit hole I can go until I reach the bastard. Talk."
As the dealer was about to speak, she heard a heart beating fast from terror-charged adrenaline above her. She heard fast footsteps on the roof above her head, followed by hovercrafts following that heartbeat. She heard the hearts within the hovercrafts, beating fast from excitement and determination. She recognized the frightened heartbeat as Audrey's. Swearing quietly, she released the two dealers, knocked them unconscious, and ran out of the bar, shooting an energy grapnel into the sky. As soon as the grapnel grabbed a hold, she pulled herself up and swung into the air, landing on a rooftop and running after the hovercrafts, which she could see were NYPD-issue.
She jumped onto the rear hovercraft, landing silently and using the magnetic clamps on the soles of her gloves and palms of her hands to remain attached as it flew. She watched as they pursued a swiftly moving girl dressed in a copy of Spider-Man's original costume – Audrey, Fearless thought – and Fearless could see her quite clearly despite the speed of her movement, such was the benefit of her enhanced sight. When the hovercrafts finally cornered Audrey, Fearless chose that moment to make her move. She leaped off the hovercraft and slashed the turrets in the hovercrafts with her chain blade.
Landing agilely on the rooftop, she looked at Audrey. "Come with me."
She could see Audrey's posture was still tense, still prepared to flee. She just didn't know if Audrey would flee with her or take her chances by herself. To the spider-like girl's credit, she ran toward Fearless, who took her by the hand and asked, "Do you have any webbing?"
"No," Audrey replied.
"Then hang onto me," Fearless answered, jumping off the rooftop while Audrey held her and launching an energy grapnel at one of the buildings across. Fearless didn't find it easy to swing while carrying Audrey's weight on her back, but she was strong enough to carry that weight. And Audrey was shifting to distribute her weight just right. . . .
Not now, Karin, Fearless thought as she swung with Audrey. You have a job to do. Still, this may just be the beginning of a beautiful partnership.
End Notes: There you have it. Now you have the introduction of the Tomorrow Initiative's version of Daredevil. You'll see in due time how she came to have powers resembling Daredevil's and why she's hooked up with the X-Men. You'll also see what Spider-Man is doing with the X-Men, why I described the X-Men as a cell, and the answers to other mysteries I've brought up in these first two chapters. Let me know what you think of what I've done, both good and bad.