Chapter Seven - Infiltration—'Nuff Said!
"Team one, go," Hill spoke into her communicator, her voice passing to at least a dozen SHIELD agents (and Peter) immediately.
Agents Cindy Moon, Antoine Triplett, Melinda May, and Skye all made their way towards the back alleys of Oscorp. Shielded by the dark of night, they kept in a steady line as they moved on towards the entrances. Entrances they would make on their own.
Hidden behind storage crates, they awaited the entrance of one of the workers, Moon paying severely close attention as one approached the locked door. She watched his every keystroke, nodding as soon as the door shut. "I got it," she whispered, leading the group towards the door. Her fingers matched the movements of the earlier worker, down to every last stroke, and soon the door beeped open. She headed in, Skye staying for last by the door, slipping a device on the lock for the next team and activating it.
The halls were dark, and they intended them to stay that way. A few guards were scattered here and there, but May took them out silently with no problem. Trip, meanwhile, left a digital trail of breadcrumbs for the next group, not missing a beat as he padded backwards behind the group, leaving no stone unturned.
"The main storage bunker," May hissed, hand at her hip where her gun rested, ready to retaliate if needed, leaning against the wall and peering across the hall towards the door. "Two guards, minimal security. Osborn's getting cocky."
Skye and Moon nodded to each other, adjusting their gloves as they headed towards the door. "Hello, boys," Skye quipped with a light smirk, before knocking out the guy on the right while Moon landed a swift blow to the jaw to knock out the one on the left. "And goodnight," Skye added, motioning for Trip and May to follow.
Trip dusted the keypad, making sure he coated it well, and smirked. The prints showed up easily, each print indicating which digits were pressed. "We got it," he said, allowing Moon to key in the code—like a save password feature on a computer, she wouldn't forget—and let the team in.
May stayed behind to guard the door, gun out and ready.
"They've got too much time on their hands here," Skye whispered, looking around the bunker, a look of mixed surprise on her face. "How are we gonna transport all of this onto the Bus?"
"We've got more than just the Bus," Coulson's voice came on over the comms, "Don't worry. Just get everything opened and ready," he said. After a pause, he added: "Team two is on their way."
Trip nodded, looking at a few of the experiments, "I'm pretty sure this crate is just full of spider venom," he commented, looking at the label. "We should be glad they stopped testing this stuff," he added, tapping the crate with a few fingers.
-.-.-
"Would you zip up your jacket a little more?" Drew grunted to Hardy, who simply smirked playfully in return. "God, you'll get shot in the chest and die, I know it'll happen," she said, rolling her eyes, "See if I care."
"It's called a distraction," Hardy responded, heading towards the door at a brisk pace alongside her, "You'd be lucky with one, what with those golden goggles," she said, tapping the glass of the goggles Drew wore.
She simply glared at the silver-haired agent, silence laying over the three for a good few seconds.
"So, am I actually SHIELD yet, technically?" Peter asked curiously to Drew as they pressed the activator on the device on the door, opening it with ease.
Drew headed in first, electricity crackling from her gloves, "No, not yet. Patience," she said, giving him a small smirk, as if trying to push away the annoyance that was Hardy. "They sure cleared a path," she commented, stepping over the unconscious body of a guard on the floor as they made their way, following the digital breadcrumbs.
"Nice job, Trip," Hardy commented, goggles humming almost inaudibly as she watched the trail continue.
Peter paused for a moment, Spidey-Senses tingling madly. "On your left," he muttered to Drew, who gave a sharp jab of electricity to a remaining guard—except something was off about this one. "Hang on..." Peter said, examining the guy, "This isn't an OSCORP security guard, it's HYDRA," he said, frowning as he straightened up, following the other two.
"It's a HYDRA-based facility, their guards will be HYDRA," Hardy said dismissively, waving a hand as they passed Agent May. "We're here," she informed, gesturing for the others to follow in.
Drew nodded to Moon, "On my six," she said in a low growl, gloves still crackling, "Something isn't right."
Moon nodded, "Thought I sensed something nearby, something pretty big," she whispered, glancing Peter's way. "You feel it, too?"
"Now that you mention it," the teen agreed, feeling a buzzing in the background, as if something had been there the whole time. "I'll get some of the higher-up stuff," he commented, thwipping a strand up to a support beam high above, shimmying up a few feet before stationing his feet on a beam of the shelves. "We good down here?" He checked, getting nods of affirmation in response.
A few minutes passed, and by then, the third team had arrived. Crates were beginning to be moved, and Trip and Skye were heading back the way they came to help lead them on and protect those bringing experiments back. Meanwhile, Peter read crate after crate, frowning at odd words such as "venom" and "goblin," but deciding he'd seen stranger things in the news. He sent the crates down by web parachute—carefully, of course.
"Hold on, comms are down," Moon said, tapping the device in her ear, multiple others following suit and finding the same problem. "I can't hear Hill or Coulson," she whisper-yelled, a slight feeling of panic in her tone.
"We'll be fine, don't worry," Hardy said, leaning against a tower of crates. "Relax, we've got everything shipping out now, continue on," she said, her tone a little too laid back.
"Check the security systems, Parker," Drew ordered, her tone serious again. It was mission time. Peter nodded, landing soundlessly on the floor and heading out towards the main security room. He glanced back at Hardy, whose eyes were trained on him.
He found it eventually, and was surprised to find a simple laptop plugged in to everything else, static buzzing, words making it through the crackle. They were being tracked, all their comms, all sources of communication. "Comms still down?" That was Drew's voice.
"Coulson and Hill will handle it," Hardy's voice came in, clearer than any others he heard, or would hear.
"That's the last of the A-Class crates," Moon said. "We've got to keep moving. There's a hell of a lot more where this came from," she said determinedly.
Peter inched closer to the screen, pressing a few keys but finding nothing works. "Huh," he muttered, frowning as he looked at the screen, which is still full of static with random comments coming through the audio.
"Gotcha," a low voice grumbled, gagging him from behind, almost cutting off his air completely.
Peter tugged a few times at the arms of the big guy, coming closer to safety, and instead pointed his wrist at the man's face. A web hits the man in the eyes, giving Peter a few seconds to scramble to the opposite side of the room, near the door again.
"Gah!" The guard growled, searching around for the laptop. Peter gets there just in time, thanks to his senses.
"Uh uh, I don't think you're gonna get this," Peter said, waving the laptop in front of him cockily. "I think I'll keep this for now, what would your boss say?"
"Override code Alpha One-Six-One-Zero," the guard shouted, ripping bits of web from his visage, "All teams, engage!" He shouted into his own comm.
"Your boss says some strange stuff, then," Peter quipped, before trying to high-tail it out of there. Unluckily enough for him, the guard grabbed him again, and the fight was on.
-.-.-
"What the hell is that?" Drew growled, blinded by the sudden switching on of the lights. "Dammit, Peter," she said, "If this is your fault, I will kill you," she muttered, switching off her night vision goggles and blinking the white spots away from her eyes.
"Sorry, hon, but that's not your job," a familiar voice from behind her purred. Something hits her right in a nerve, causing her to fall to the ground. "We've got plans, and I can't have you and Moon mucking them up," the voice said, adding a swift jab to the half-paralyzed Drew's head, knocking her out cold.
"Jessica!" Moon screamed as Trip slung her over his shoulder, "Jessica!" She screamed again as the team's evacuated, leaving any and all crates not already packed behind.
"Peter!" Skye shouted to the teen, motioning for him to follow as he just barely escapes the burly guard's grasp.
Peter was gasping for breath by the time they mounted the Bus again. "What just happened?" He asked between heavy breaths, looking out the window at the retreating troops below.
"HYDRA happened," May said bitterly, rolling her neck.
Skye shook her head, "That's—that's not possible, we went in with them totally blind."
"Not totally," Peter said, face falling into a hardened expression, "Somehow they'd hacked into our comms. They were tracking our every move, our every word. They knew," he said, after gulping another deep breath.
He paused, looking at the disgruntled team of agents and seeing a few people missing. "Where's...where's Jessica? Felicia?" He asked, pulling off his goggles and blinking a few times, "Are they alright?"
Cindy shook her head, eyes and nose slightly reddened as she inhaled a shaky breath. "Captured," she said, eyes hardening. "Agent Hardy knocked her clean out."
This couldn't be happening.
No, he wouldn't accept it.
"There's gotta be another answer, something else," Peter argued, searching for something that could prove his statement. "Something, anything. That's my team you're talking about."
Skye entered the room again. "Sorry guys, but I think I might've just proved this all," she said, showing them the screen of her laptop. "This is an encrypted coding I found in the data folders of the Oscorp information Hill's team gathered a few days ago. Turns out its main job is to hack into communications and track everything—which they did," she explained, closing the laptop again. "Sorry kid."
The teen gritted his teeth behind closed lips, eyes hardening, "We have to get her out."
-.-.-
"Now, Agent Jessica Drew," a figure said. "There is the easy way, and there is the painful way."
"I'm not giving any information to you," she growled, wrestling with her restraints as she glared at her captors.
"Oh, but you will soon enough," the figure stated, a smirk evident in his tone of voice, "You may want to keep your eyes open for this, the pain is far worse to imagine than to watch," he said darkly, a machine whirring to life as her tabletop restraints tilted her forwards, bringing her face to face with her captor, "We have a lot to discuss."
-.-.-
"Are you sure you want to continue with this?"
"Of course, it's not like I have to pretend any more for those SHIELD agents. I want to embrace my full potential."
"The Centipede program was ended months ago, you do realize this is an out-of-date technology and serum."
"Then we'll just have people work on it, won't we?"
"Of course, ma'am. What do we put you down as?"
"Black Cat. Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"
-.-.-
Peter's grades were tipping dramatically. There's been no response from SHIELD in almost a month, he was getting antsy. Jessica was captured, Felicia was probably HYDRA, and Cindy was absolutely out of it. Worst of all, Oscorp had begun rapid-speed testing, even holding back Harry from doing much in his spare time besides hang about his home.
You sure you can't come over today, man? Peter texted hopelessly.
Can't. Dad's at work. Too busy, he won't allow anyone at home.
Right. Well, see you at school.
Cya.
Peter threw the phone across the room, allowing it to land on his bed (thankfully) as he grunted in annoyance, leaning back in his chair. He tilted his head up, looking at his dirtied red hoodie and blue compression pants that hung unused on a coat hanger, while flicking his fingerless gloves at the door. He hadn't done much of anything the past month himself, besides doing mandatory school work and checking his communicator every five seconds.
Oh, and attempting to muster up enough courage to talk to that Gwen girl.
Ding!
Peter didn't bother standing, and rather thwipped a quick web strand at the device—he hadn't removed his web-shooters yet—and opened the message.
Peter, what's up?
Hey, MJ.
Hey. But seriously, we haven't texted in like, forever. What's up?
You know Gwen?
You mean that blonde Harry told me about that's in your Biology class?
...does everyone know that?
Pretty much :P
Well, yeah. Her.
Good luck, whatever you're going on about, she's the police chief's daughter. Hear he's pretty protective of her, you know.
Gwen...Stacy?
Yep.
Oh dear God. This couldn't get any worse.
He had fallen for the girl whose father had attempted to arrest him.
-.-.-
Well, that happened. Don't forget to review! And thanks again to the lovely fictionhashijackedmymind for beta-ing :)
-CC