Part 6

There was no time to react as the attack happened in the blink of an eye. If it hadn't been for his spider sense and quick reflexes X-23 would have undoubtedly had skewered his abdomen. Instead she only grazed his costume, slicing the material neatly but failed to break the skin.

"Wait! What are you doing?" The unmasked Peter leapt and bounded away from X-23's flurry of swipes, managing to keep at least a few inches between himself and the razor sharp edges of her claws.

"You disobeyed orders!" she yelled between swipes.

"What orders?"

"You're to bring in the mutation at all costs, not let it go."

Peter fired a web line at the crazed clone of Wolverine. She easily dodged the attack by ducking under it and charged at Peter with both arms extended.

"Listen, I can explain." He leapfrogged over her attack and clung to the side of the roof access. "She's not illegal; she's a clone like you. My clone, she was made in a laboratory."

"Semantics." X-23 dove at Peter with all six claws extended, looking to skewer him where he hung but instead impaled the wall where he was less than a moment ago. With her stuck to the wall for a few precious seconds, Peter fired a large web ball at her and trapped her the moment it exploded on her back.

"What the…" Struggle as she did she couldn't get free as she was encased in the gray polymer. "What the hell is this?"

"You like that?" Peter ejected the empty cartridges from his web shooters and reloaded them. "I came up with that last night in the Shield laboratory. It uses an entire cartridge but it's well worth it. I don't have a name for it though. Maybe ballistic or impact webbing. Something of that nature."

"I swear Parker if you don't let me down from here…"

"You'll what? Call Bub again? Jess… Spider-Woman is not going to be forced to work with Shield like me or be taken in as a prisoner. She's going to do what she wants, when she wants."

As Peter spoke his piece, X-23 slowly began to slice her way free. Her right clawed hand had enough space to move slightly. She simply cut through the brick to allow her more room to eventually move her arm around and began cutting the glob of webbing restraining her. If there was one thing she could count on, it was Peter's tendency to make sure he got his point across.

"If you want to talk about illegal genetic mutations and go after them, then pay Danvers a visit and take her in. She needs to be taken down a peg or maybe a couple dozen. Hell, she's using us as her own personal soldiers to round up others like us and I won't do it. I refuse to. I just want my life back. I want to go home to my family and friends to live like a normal teenager. I just…"

Spider sense tingling.

A moment after his spider sense alerted him, X-23 broke free and pinned him to the ground before he had a chance to move. She was quicker than he realized and was even faster than Wolverine.

"Shut up, Parker," she told him. "All you do is complain." She raised a hand, claws extended and ready to deliver a deathblow when Peter kicked her over his head and got back to a squatting position.

"So what? You want to kill me because I don't want to do this?"

"Just following Danvers' orders, web for brains."

"What orders?"

"If you won't follow the orders that have been assigned to you than I am to terminate you with extreme prejudice. Exactly what a perfect soldier should do. Needless to say I'll be more than happy to do so"

"Yeah well, bad luck with that."

The two stared each other down. Their eyes locked onto each other with neither of them blinking. Almost at the same time, both charged at each other at full speed. Peter had his fists cocked back while X-23 came at him with her four hand claws extended. They almost collided when a blast from above sent them tumbling backwards.

"Enough!" Both teenagers looked up to see Ironman descend from the sky.

"Bull," X-23 said as he charged Peter again.

She didn't get more than two steps when she was blasted by a blue Ray from Ironman's armored hand and fell to the ground. Much like Geldof did when Ironman used that same beam on him. "I said, enough!"

"What did you…" Peter said.

"Get back to base," Ironman told him.

"Not until you tell me what you did to her."

"I paralyzed her Parker! If you don't want the same done to you then I would recommend you go back to base this instant. This mission is over and you're done for the night."

Peter stared at Ironman for a moment before picking up his mask. He pulled the webbing off the lenses and slipped it on before turning to leave. "Just for the record, I hate all of you."

"Duly noted. Now follow my order." Ironman did not look at him as he swung back to the Triskilian.

Looking over the area the two super powered teens fought, Ironman let out a heavy sigh and lifted his visor over his head. "I knew this was a bad idea."

X-23 lay still from being paralyzed and would remain so for at least another hour, plenty of time to get her back to base. What Carol Danvers was planning, he didn't know, but knew he would have to eventually find out. He hated being left out of the loop and denied information.

To be concluded