S.H.I.E.L.D Hellicarrier
"What do you know about H.A.M.M.E.R?" Natasha asked looking round the table.
"Never heard of it" Black Tarantula replied, his lack of interest evident in his voice.
"Where have you been living? Under a rock?" Taskmaster asked turning to the spider-themed mercenary. "Actually that would make sense as most tarantula's do tend to hide in dark places."
"You're on thin ice my friend" Carlos said in a nonchalant tone as he flexed his fingers.
"It was a joke dude. Seriously am I the only one with a sense of humour? Or who isn't for a better word 'emotionally detached'" Masters continued taking a quick glance at X-23 who returned it icily.
"Please try to stay focused" Natasha said placing her thumb and fingers on the bridge of her nose and closing her eyes in an attempt to remain calm.
"Fine. H.A.M.M.E.R was what Osborn renamed S.H.E.I.L.D when he took it over during Dark Reign" Taskmaster replied leaning back in his seat.
"Correct" Black Widow confirmed nodding her head.
"So what has this got to do with us?" Kaine asked looking at Natasha through his red lenses curiously.
"Some deluded individuals still believe Osborn was in the right during his time as head of H.A.M.M.E.R. Thus we have small groups of H.A.M.M.E.R agents posted all around the world trying to get Osborn out of jail and generally making life annoying for us. Recently they launched multiple raids on our bases in South America killing many men in the process. We are to go to Peru and retaking an important S.H.E.I.L.D base from H.A.M.M.E.R" the Black Widow finished.
"Sounds like a normal Monday morning to me. At least give us a challenge" Taskmaster replied as he swung back and forth on his chair.
"Oh and the whole base is rigged to blow if H.A.M.M.E.R so much as see's us within a mile of the place. Killing any S.H.E.I.L.D hostages and destroying the base" Natasha added.
"Now we're talking" Masters said leaning forward, suddenly more interested.
"We leave in 3 hours go get ready. You'll be debriefed during the journey. Scarlet Spider, Laura you're going in first. Due to your combination of stealth and tracking abilities you should be able to get a good layout of the base but remember don't be seen" Natasha told them as the team began to leave the room. "So I suggest you take the time we have before we leave to get familiar with each other."
Kaine and Laura gave each other an awkward look before following the other members.
A few minutes later the Scarlet Spider and X-23 where both in the S.H.E.I.L.D training room. This had been Taskmaster's idea. As he'd said the best way to get to know someone was seeing them fight and to be honest neither Kaine or Laura could argue with that.
"Ok a few ground rules" Laura began looking at the crimson clad man in front of her. "We aren't friends and we aren't here to find anything else about each other than we need to."
"Agreed" Kaine replied gruffly. He was completely ok with this as it meant keeping his past out of the whole thing. If he was being completely honest he was a little curious as to how this girl had the same claws as Wolverine but enough to press. Girl was probably a poor choice of words as she was probably in her mid-twenties. He confirmed this by taking another look at her.
Laura could see the Scarlet Spider's eyes studying her and returned the favour. He was taller than Spider-man and a bit bulkier to. Whereas Spider-man exhibited control and agility this man gave off an aura of stealth couple with deadly intent. They stared at each other for another few minutes until suddenly Laura lashed out claws snapping from her knuckles.
"She's fast" Kaine thought as he side stepped only narrowly avoiding a graze from the blades. The attack wasn't meant to cause any damage as they were just sparring but Kaine guessed if she could move with that kind of speed packing a lethal attack then she wouldn't be someone you would want to get on the wrong side of. Retaliating he threw a punch towards her shoulder. Laura was just able to avoid it by cartwheeling backwards but she didn't get off scott-free as she felt his fist glance off her shoulder. She stopped her acrobatics a few feet away, her black hair flowing round her face.
"He's strong" she thought rubbing her shoulder slightly. It had only been a glancing blow but she still felt a lot of force behind it.
They continued sparring for about half an hour. During that time Laura noticed something. She had fought Spider-man in the past and like Logan she had his incredible sense of smell and this Scarlet Spider almost smelt identical to the web-slinger himself. There was a slight difference if she really concentrated but it was incredibly small. If she hadn't been concentrating she was sure she wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between the two but it was there. It was slight but it almost seemed to smell like he was….artifical. That was the only word she could find to describe the smell.
Unfortunately her thoughts had distracted her and Kaine was able to land a punch squarely on her jaw. She winced as the inhuman strength pushed her back a few paces. Laura had noticed something else as well. He was stronger than Spider-man. She could tell by the way his tricep tensed every time he struck. He was pulling his punches and yet it still felt like getting hit by a hammer. She walked up to him in a relaxed stance to signal to the Scarlet Spider that she wasn't going to attack.
"Hit me" she commanded standing in front of him. Kaine looked at her in surprise through his mask.
"That's what I've been doing" he replied crossing his arms and looking her in the eyes.
"I mean really hit me" Laura pressed. "I can see you pulling your punches. Don't."
"Look kid I don't want to hurt you. This is just training remember?" Kaine replied looking at her sternly.
"I've got a healing factor dumbass and if you ever call me a kid again I'll jam these claws where the sun don't shine" she snapped irritably. The Scarlet Spider considered this for a moment.
"I don't really like the idea of punching a gir..woman" he quickly corrected himself as he saw Laura's eyebrow twitch. "directly in the face."
"Oh just get over yourself and do it! Tougher people than you have hit me" Laura replied rolling her green eyes.
"Ok fine" Kaine replied relenting. He pulled back his fist. "Ready?" he asked checking.
"Would you just do it already!" Laura snapped back. Suddenly the full force of Kaine's strength hit her in the face. Lifted off her feet Laura was sent flying back and crashed into the wall causing a dent in the metal.
"Ouch" Laura thought as she got to her feet. She hadn't expected that kind of brute force and staggered a bit as she got to her feet. Kaine stood in his original position watching her.
"Are you ok?" he asked looking at her slightly worriedly.
"Just give me a minute" Laura replied holding up her hand.
She wouldn't like to take a full force punch from him too many times. In battle due to her agility she rarely took a full on blow. Generally they just glanced off her which was why she was always surprised at the difference in strength between the two. A couple of seconds later and she was back to normal condition as her healing kicked in.
"Ready to go again?" she asked pushing a few strands of black hair from her face.
"Are you sure you're al…" Kaine's question was cut off as Laura threw herself at him. Swiping with her claws towards his chest.
The blow would only have been another graze but Kaine didn't fancy getting yet another cut. He already had multiple flesh wounds across his body from previous rounds. Not to mention this meant he was going to have to repair his costume after this was over. Suddenly another claw snapped from Laura's foot. Kaine only just noticed it in time to avoid but the tip of the blade still nicked his leg as he jumped away.
"So you've got them in your feet as well" he stated looking at the mutant curiously.
"Captain obvious strikes again" Laura replied as she recommenced her assault.
"She's not the only one with tricks" Kaine thought as she took another swipe. Laura noticed his change in demeanour and realized he wasn't going to dodge her attack. Her eyes widened in surprise as a long bone-like objects snapped from his wrists blocking her claws.
Laura looked at them in surprise. She hadn't expected that. They caught her off guard for a moment as they bore an uncanny resemblance to Logan's bone claws. X-23 put some distance between them and looked at the new arrivals curiously.
"What are they?" she asked eyeing the spear-like objects intently.
"I don't know to be honest" Kaine admitted.
He'd only found out he had these things a few weeks back when a thug had rubbed him the wrong way and he accidently impaled the man on one of them. After that he'd done a few small tests. He was Peter Parker's clone after all so science was something that came naturally to him. From what he could tell they were made of an enhanced form of chitin that bore a very close resemble to the material spider fangs are made of. During his tests he had also discovered the tips of these 'stingers' as he had called them were coated with a paralysis inducing toxin but he wasn't sure exactly what they were.
"Aww look at those two getting along" Masters said amused as he watched the pair through the glass of the observing area.
"We all need to learn to get along" Black Widow replied also watching Laura and Kaine spar. "All of us" she finished firmly turning to look sternly at Taskmaster.
"Really red? You're going to have a go at me?"
"You're attitude may have flown over at Agency X Masters but not here" she insisted firmly.
Natasha chose her words carefully despite his cocky attitude Taskmaster was not someone to annoy. She remembered when Taskmaster had broken into S.H.E.I.L.D to have 'words' as he put it with Maria Hill. There were only a few people in the history of S.H.E.I.L.D that had successfully broken into the hellicarrier and even then it had always been teams and yet Taskmaster had broken in on his own and made them look like amateurs before confronting Hill. She guessed that his cocky arrogant attitude was a cover to keep people off guard and underestimating him. She would not make this mistake.
"Ok fine I won't say anything that might hurt their feelings" Masters replied cynically as he rolled his eyes beneath his mask. "Oh but taking on the Black Tarantula? I think you might want to replace the captain of your brain ship because the current one is drunk at the wheel" he added before turning to leave.
Black Widow watched him leave silently. Most of the team she could control. Psylocke and X-23 were here by the motivation to do good and the Scarlet Spider seemed to be there for a similar reason. The only two that worrid her were Taksmaster and Black Tarantula.
Over the past day and a half they had put 5 different locks on Master's 'cell' as he called it although it could have been mistaken for a 5 star hotel suite. Everything from eye recognition to state of the art coded locks. Taskmaster broke out of them all in hardly any time at all. Further enforcing her vigilance of him. Eventually they had agreed not to put locks on his door as long as he stayed put for a designated amount of time. Natasha had to give credit to Master's for accepting the terms as he'd already proven that he could break out of nearly anything they could throw at him but he had accepted which gave her the slight advantage of knowing he was quite happy with his current situation.
Black Tarantula on the other hand was here because she had blackmailed him. Which wasn't a particularly good situation to be in. Whenever he wasn't with the team he was confined to his quarters and guarded. Natasha knew that at some point Carlos was going to ask himself in the pro's of being a member of this team outweighed the con's. She needed to make sure the answer to the question was yes. As if Carlos came to the conclusion that he'd rather be in prison or worse dead than a 'S.H.E.I.L.D pawn' as he'd put it, then they were going to be fighting one very angry Black Tarantula who had absolutely nothing to lose.
Even the least dangerous villains could become monsters as soon as they realized they had nothing to lose so if someone like the Black Tarantula came to this conclusion the results could be…unpleasant.