The inside of the OsCorp facility smelled like rotten eggs, Pietro thought. It was not a nice smell in any sense of the word. Luckily, the smell was accompanied by the long, darkened hallway with enough lights to let you know that shady work was being done in this building. There were hardly any doors on this particular corridor, however, with the exception of the one at the very end.
"What's happening here?" Pietro asked. "This place looks like the kind of place where Hannibal Lecter's spending his evenings in a straight jacket."
Richard shrugged. "This is Facility Six, one of the many OsCorp safe-houses. It's on-the-books, but only as an asset to Osborn rather than his company, which is why it's so secretive. This is a particularly nasty place, I've heard. It's gotten the nickname Sinister Six."
Swallowing loudly, Pietro said, "So, what's next? We wait for Groot to break in?"
"That's for you," Richard agreed. "I need to get to Selvig's office, and more importantly, figure out what the hell Franklin is doing here."
"Whose Franklin?" Pietro asked.
"Franklin Storm. He's another high-up scientist, but he was supposed to be out in Norway with Dr. Blake. I'm not sure why he's here, and more importantly, why he's here. But all in good time."
The duo opened the door at the end of the hallway. On the other side of the door, they witnessed a large glass room built in the center of a massive room. Inside of the glass room was an idle bat-wing-shaped metal snowboard-like machine.
"What the Sam-Heck is that?" Pietro asked.
"Osborn's glider," Richard replied with disgust. "It's his number one priority right now. It's a combat-ready flying device. That thing is fast, silent, deadly, and cheaper to make than you'd think."
Pietro simply gawked at the glider, awed by the look of the machine. "I want one," he determined.
"Don't bother. Ever since OsCorp was bought out, Stark put them on a short leash."
There was a massive sound behind them. Pietro shrugged, "Guess it's time to go, eh? I'll be back."
Richard looked behind him, but indeed, Pietro had seemingly disappeared. Sighing, Richard quickly made his way to the end of the room, where the offices were held. He used his key-card to get into the offices, where he found himself face-to-face with Franklin Storm.
"Dr. Parker," Franklin greeted calmly, holding his hand out. Richard took it. "I wasn't expecting you to be here."
"I'm surprised by your appearance as well," Richard admitted. "What brings you out here, Franklin?"
Dr. Storm smiled, his brilliant white teeth blinding. "Well, I'll be honest, Richard, I was going through a pop-up to make sure that Facility Six was running smoothly after the accident with Erik. Why are you here?"
"Erik had some notes on Project: Arachne that I wanted to see," Richard explained. "Since I was here, I thought I'd give a pop-up. But then I heard you were here."
"I am here," Dr. Storm stated. "Let me walk you to Erik's office."
There was a massive screaming of "I AM GROOT!" from the large room Richard had just been in, and the two scientists looked back.
"Should one of us go check that out?" Richard asked nervously.
Unnerved, Dr. Storm replied, "That door is nearly indestructible. The security guards can handle a Groot. You had some files you needed, did you not? Let us make haste."
Meanwhile, on the other side of the facility, Pietro had just finished taking out a small unit of security guards. Shaking his hand rapidly to get the blood off of his knuckles, Pietro looked at the elevator door. "How do I open you?" Pietro asked, frowning. There was no button for him to press, just a small slit in the wall. Looking down at the security guards, Pietro picked up one of their key-cards and placed it into the slit. The elevator doors opened. Pietro smiled. "Good."
The elevator was slower than Pietro wanted it to be, but it finally made its way down to the basement level. Once inside, he found himself in a circular room. There were several doors, none of them marked with anything at all. Confused, Pietro went to the first door in the circle and opened it. Inside, he saw tanks lining the walls with several humans inside, each of them just floating in the water.
"What the hell is happening?" Pietro asked himself. He ran to the end of the room, where he saw a big red button. "I hope this gets all these guys free," Pietro mumbled before pressing the button and running out of the room. The next door, he found nothing but empty cots and rooms. It was an eerie place, but Pietro figured it was nothing major.
The third door had hidden behind it a massive wooden crate. From within there was a brilliant green light trying to escape through the cracks of the box. In black paint on the sides of the crate the words "DANGER CAUTION EXPLOSIVE" were written. Pietro nervously left the room alone.
Door number four was the protector of twelve egg-shaped pods, one of which appeared to be broken. The eggs were massive, roughly the size of a car, but as Pietro walked towards them, he realized that they were being moved simply by the air conditioning in the room. "Light but massive," Pietro mused. "I wonder what that material is."
Picking one of the eggs up, he ran through the facility and threw the egg into the elevator before him. Satisfied, he made his way back up as he heard the continued shouting from Groot. Smiling to himself, Pietro thought, "I hope Richard is almost finished with his part in all of this."
However, back in Erik Selvig's office, Richard was doing his best to look through the office for Selvig's computer while pretending to look for other files.
"Can't find it?" Dr. Storm asked, his voice too calm for Richard's liking.
"No, I can't seem to," Richard growled.
"Is this it?" Dr. Storm asked, holding up a laptop. Richard gulped. "I'm looking-"
"Don't bother lying to me, Parker," Dr. Storm interrupted. "I know you arrived with the Groot and with Pietro Maximoff and that you're here helping them."
Richard swallowed. "What are you doing?"
"Selvig was killed for a reason, Parker," Dr. Storm growled. "I'm on the list of those who are coming next and I need to find a way to escape. You're not getting this laptop."
"What are you going to do?" Richard questioned. "Kill me."
Dr. Storm smiled slightly. "No, Dr. Parker. I'm going to kill me. But don't worry. You will accomplish your job. I guessed your intentions and I've altered the records."
Confused, Richard stood up just for Dr. Storm to pull out a pistol and shoot him in the knee. Richard fell to the ground, clutching his bleeding knee when Dr. Storm shot him in the other knee. "I am sorry, Richard," Dr. Storm stated coldly. "I know your boy was just born. But I won't let my children grow up as orphans and luckily for you, Mary will most likely survive."
Then, Dr. Storm walked closer to Richard. Kneeling down, Dr. Storm grabbed the collar of Richard's jacket and pulled him close. "I'm going to need this," Dr. Storm apologized, stealing Richard's key-card. Dr. Storm then planted his own key-card into the inside pocket of Richard's jacket and he pulled out a pack of cigarettes. "If someday I met Peter, I will let him know of the sacrifice you made for my family. But for now, I must focus on saving myself so that I may watch my children grow up. Susan was just born, Richard, did you know? Less than three weeks ago. What a beautiful girl. I wish her mother would have lived through the affair, but I was blessed with a daughter nonetheless." Dr. Storm lit his cigarette, taking a long puff before he put his hands back in his pockets. Pulling out a small can of lighter fluid, Dr. Storm opened it and began to pour it all over Dr. Parker. Richard went to scream, and Dr. Storm punched him in the throat, silencing his victim. Dr. Storm sighed and continued to poor the lighter fluid. "I would take your teeth, normally, but that won't be necessary. I need time to find the killer, that is all. And if he thinks I'm dead, he won't be looking for me. But eventually they'll discover you're you and not me, so your family will have some closure and they can mourn you. I will show up at your funeral and I will pass along my grief for your lose to your wife and son. I'll look out for them, even." With a final shrug, Dr. Storm threw his cigarette butt onto Richard's body, which went up in flames almost instantly. "It was a good chat, Richard."
Dr. Storm left the room quickly, locking the door before he left. After walking down the hallway for a few moments, he was met by Pietro.
"Who are you?" Pietro asked quickly.
"Dr. Franklin Storm," the scientist greeted, his voice taking a slightly scared edge to it. "A-are you Pietro? I was just w-w-with Richard, he said you guys were together. We a-a-attemptedf to get int-to Selvig's office, but there were traps. I t-think that Richard's d-dead. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
Pietro clenched his jaw. "That. Wow. Okay."
Dr. Storm nodded his understanding. "But, we, uh, we found his computer. We altered the records. Groot is free to go. Please. Get him and go."
"Aren't you coming with us?" Pietro asked. "If Richard trusted you, I do too."
With a slight smile, Dr. Storm replied, "Thanks, but I ought to s-stay here, make sure everything is okay and there's no follow-up questions. Okay?"
Pietro nodded. "Thank you, Dr. Storm. You're a hero." With that, Pietro zoomed away, leaving Dr. Storm alone in the offices.