"I'm sorry for failing you. I didn't expect to be caught before I even broke in," Black Cat waited for an answer to come out of her comlink.
-Don't worry about it. I'll send others. This person you fought was part of the best agents trained by Spider-man. Now, I will send in professionals to deal with them. You will sit this one out on the sidelines. Understand?-
"Yes, Sir."
-=-=-=1 Year Later=-=-=-
"So we're just supposed to wait here until everyone leaves?" I asked Catherine.
I was starting to get cramps in my legs from crouching for so long behind these storage boxes. We were hired by Cathy's friend, who I don't trust, to get the adamantium diamond hybrid out of the museum and into his hands. We've actually been working with him for what seemed like a long time, long enough to consider each other partners, -or six months- but I still don't like him but I couldn't let her do this alone. We were a team and we stuck together, no matter what. That's what our mentor taught us. Besides ever since he stopped talking to us and started to let his henchgirl do all the business, Cathy has started become a bit more reckless to try and impress our employer, making me try and work overtime to cover her mistakes.
"Yes, now shut up and keep still. You'll get us discovered," she whispered sharply.
Times like this was when I knew not to go against her. When she gets agitated, anything and everything can tick her off. And we had no choice, if we failed in any way, one of us would get punished. And I wasn't too keen on that.
We'd been here in the museum a few times before. It always seemed as though it provided everything we needed. Almost as if it was a front for our operations.
An explosion rocked the foundation. It was the sign we've been waiting for. Time for us to do our job. We popped out of our hiding place and burst into a sprint towards the security guards that were posted on the exit. We made quick work of them. I slashed at the door with my plasma gladius causing it to fall apart.
"You didn't need to kill the guards. We weren't hired to kill them. Just to steal the artefact," Cathy berated me.
She already knew that I didn't care about her scolding. I would always kill whoever I wanted. After all, we are the bad guys. Though Cathy's morality was painfully annoying.
"Time for us to find Deadpool," I groaned ignoring Cathy.
"Whoop whoop whoop!" a flash of red whooshed past.
-=-=Hours later=-=-
Explosions rocked the Museum every few minutes. Outside the building, cops tried to keep civilians, who were engrossed in what was happening out of harm's way. Debris launched everywhere with every shake keeping the Iron Spider and the duo, Cloak and Dagger, busy.
Inside, or what was left of the inside since the building's roof and front walls were missing, the young generation of heroes was battling the thieves.
"Hey, Janice! Looks like Baby Daddy Taskmaster taught you well," our favourite Merc with a mouth, Deadpool observed from his Assassin teammate.
"Aw, shucks. You're making me blush Oswin," Deadpool said as he sliced at another.
Okay, this is creepy. Sorry but I have to go on with narrating the story. I'm not even supposed to be a character. You've ruined everything.
"What can I say except you're welcome!" he threw his sword at his friend Powerman.
"What the hell are you blabbering about, Wade? And why are you working for them?" Powerman asked as he blocked the strike with his forearm.
"Well, the money is one reason. But I'm also sorta indebted to the guy behind all this. Oops, wasn't supposed to say that oh well. Ignore that last comment please." He slashed his sword at Luke again only for it to bounce off. "Jeez. I need to get a new type of unaliving weapon. There are tougher guys than you and this little thing can't even make a scratch on you."
Elsewhere, Black Cat and White Tiger were slashing at each other trying to land a blow to incapacitate the other. The only problem was that they were too good at dodging each other's strikes. As Black Cat slashed with her claws, White Tiger evaded them and returned the favour with a kick. And as her opponent flew into the air, she took out several weapons to throw at Tiger. It all appeared to be a choreographed fight. Serene moves were made as each tried furiously to hit each other.
"Grah! Sym!" Black Cat called out as she jumped onto a broken column.
White Tiger looked at her in confusion with her mask outlining the frustration that was on her face.
Green sludge from across the field stopped smothering Nova and Ka-Zar and began its trek towards Black Cat. It dodged and weaved around other fights sometimes being hit by other bodies and weapons to just spring back into existence and continue slithering. White Tiger noticed what was going to happen and she lept at it trying to stop the slime from reaching its target. Her claws did nothing to symbiote as it just squeezed throw her fingers and continued up the column until it reached Black Cat and enveloped her in itself appearing to devour her whole.
The Green texture of it seemed to be overtaken by blackness as it melded with her. The dark Green of its normal colour was now the secondary colour. All the red that once formed the spider symbol on its chest now shaped itself into a cat's face similar to what you would find on a rune. Purplish spikes also dominated the red decoration as spikes formed around her. Her face also became covered in a mask, no longer resembling the standard domino mask that the woman had used every time that White Tiger had encountered her.
That mask produced a crevice that slowly opened up into a chasm that revealed razor sharp teeth that dripped with greenish saliva. The spots on the floor that were touched by that liquid sizzled as the concrete evaporated. White Tiger was intimidated by the acid. Just one touch could destroy her body. Nevertheless, it was her job to stop these criminals. No matter what. Besides she stopped caring about what would happen to her the moment that Peter died. All those years had left her feeling empty with no one to turn to. It just reminded her how much she had relied on Peter to talk to. The amount of trust that she had put in him.
She coiled her legs and threw herself at the symbiote covered Black Cat. White Tiger sent both of themselves tumbling down the rubble. Luke Cage had seen this happen and tried to break out from his fight to go help his partner but was held back by Wade who took out some bolas to throw at his feet to trap him.
"Ahhh!" White Tiger screamed in agony as some of the acid spit landed on her shoulder. The chemical had burned through the thin layer of her costume and was cooking her skin somewhat. Sizzling was heard from the part that the acid was eating through. She looked at the Symbiote creature with hatred and pain in her eyes and lunged once more.
She almost struck Black Cat with her claws but her enemy had created an extended amount of sludge that she used to smother White Tiger in. She was trapped. No movement was possible underneath the symbiote. Finally giving up, White Tiger resorted to just screaming blindly and thrashing around and despite all the noise she was making. No one was able to get to her.
Nova tried to break through the swarm of goons only to be knocked out of the air by one of Spirit's flechettes that he had thrown in the air. One of the small metals had barely managed to knick his skin creating a laceration on his cheek. The others just bounced off harmlessly from his helmet and armour though they were heavy enough to knock him off course. Squirrel Girl tried to get to her herself, but she was still occupied with the seemingly endless amount of goons that the criminals managed to sneak past all the guards and their friends who were busy fighting off collateral damage themselves.
"Let's see if you have any mutations yourself," Black said greedily as she formed her fingers into needles and inserted them into White Tiger's body making her scream some more.
"Ava!" Powerman yelled throwing caution to the side as he grabbed Wade by the head and threw him to the side.
"Bon Voyachie!" the Mercenary yelled as he sailed into one of the buildings still managing to stand next to the museum.
White Tiger could feel herself grow drowsy as the symbiote invaded her body rummaging through her as though she was just a bag hiding goodies inside. As its tendrils finally reached her brain, she felt a connection to the sludge. Images flooded her mind, memories of the day that everything went bad. She could see the helicarrier in the sky. Mechanical hands falling to the houses below obliterating them. Then there was the rage. Murderous, untempered rage that consumed all common sense. The feeling of becoming part of something big.
This was all from 4 years ago. The day that Spiderman died. When he was immortalized as New York's greatest hero.
And then she was underwater. Struggling to breathe. What was going on? A glimpse of something in the corner of her eye. Fabric. Red fabric, torn to shreds as it tried to escape.
Then there was a sudden burst of pain that shocked her entire body as her amulet was torn from her taking all the powers she once possessed.
And suddenly, the connection was gone. She was free. Her limbs could move again and she could breathe without struggling. Powerman had knocked Black Cat off her.
"Are you okay?" he asked as he knelt to nuzzle her affectionately.
"I'm fine. But I felt something while I was in there. I could feel him. That's the symbiote.." her eyes closed and her breathing steadied. She passed out. Now it was Luke's turn to protect her. Keep the Villainess away from her reach.
"It's you and me, Kitty," he said with a serious face.
Black Cat snarled in response as she headed straight for him. Her muzzle opened wide to hack acidic spit at him but Powerman just smashed a fist into her and knocked her away several feet. There was some acid covering his fist gnawing away at his gloves, but it was doing nothing to his actual skin. He walked over calmly over to where Black Cat was dazed and jumped into the air to grab one of the bombs that were sailing over their head. It was one of the sonic bombs.
He then shoved the blasted thing into her and watched as it went off creating a sonic screech that tore the symbiote apart. Globs of the goo scattered trying to find a place to reconstitute when one of the pieces found its way to Luke's foot. And in masse, all the globs attached themselves to him prevent him from moving as they cocooned.
"Dagger! Do it now!" Powerman yelled as loud as he could hoping that the woman would be able to hear him.
Just like he hoped, Dagger jumped away from damage control and made her way over to where Luke Cage was. Though she couldn't get as close she wanted due to all the thugs trying their best to stop her. So she just settled for the distance she was at instead.
"It's time to see the LIGHT!!" a bright white glow emanated from her as she amassed energy and directed it towards Powerman.
"Cathy!" Black Cat cried weakly.
Her partner reacted fast and produced a contraption consisting of several parts they've been stealing for the past year and a half which included the diamond that they managed to snag a short while after White Tiger prevented Black Cat from stealing it.
All the purity of the light was pulled stopping it from reaching Powerman and was sucked into the box. The light inside grew into a dark cyan colour before Cathy threw it onto the floor where it began to shake violently.
The symbiote unravelled itself from Powerman and raced towards the energy where it covered the machine greedily.
Everyone had stopped their fighting and had their attention focused on the goop trying to contain the energy inside of itself. A small explosion blinded everyone momentarily.
When everyone gained their sight back, there was a figure standing where the symbiote was once slithering. A green suit covered him. There was a red spider symbol on his chest that had its legs stretched all around his torso and met itself on his back. Jagged pieces of what looked like glass were in place of his eyes and deadly red spears decorated his suit.
"Thank you all for helping me gain control of my body again." he swayed his head from side to side in a menacing way similar to a snake's movement. "The name is Reaver by the way. And we'll be seeing each other again soon."
The way he talked was chilling. Monstrous even. But it didn't matter as he and all of his accomplices disappeared in sudden flashes of energy. They'd teleported which would prevent anyone from following them.
-=-=Epilogue=-=-
"You have to get out of here. I'm sorry Mr Cage," Amalia ordered the muscular man that towered over her. She'd lost her shyness long ago thanks to the many heroes she worked for during her time in the Helicarrier.
As a surgeon and Physician, she had the responsibility of saving the people who saved the people. Pretty ironic. Going from a nobody who was the daughter of the Captain of NYPD and sister to one of the assistants to the CEO of the new Alchemex Industries, but she was now the one taking care of the most important people in the world.
It was something that she had never expected. Nevertheless, it was an exciting and important job that she was glad she had.
"The poison's gotten too far in her bloodstream. We're going to need several intravenous transfusions," I stated and ordered my colleagues to get me the tools necessary to continue with our jobs afterwards.
AN: I'M SORRY FOR THE EXTENDED WAITING TIMES BETWEEN CHAPTERS. IT'S JUST THAT SCHOOL AND OTHER STORIES TAKE IMPORTANCE OVER THIS. BUT I'M NEVER GOING TO GIVE IT UP. I PROMISE.