Chapter 38: Of Pride, Plans, and Peter
It's the Holiday Season! Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy Kwanzaa, Merry Newtonmas, Happy New Year, Merry whatever other holidays there may be this month!
Is it weird that I keep track of the anniversary to when I first discovered how much I like Spider-Man? December 1, 2015. That's when I read my first Ultimate Spider-Man comic and fell in love. Hard to believe it's been 7 years since I first decided I wanted to write fan fiction. I didn't even start publishing things until 2019. Wild . . . I feel old now, I'm going to stop keeping track of time . . .
Peter followed Adrien down the hall and through one of the doors he hadn't yet been through. It led to another hallway, this one much longer, but with no doors along the walls. Its only purpose was to be a path to the ladder all the way at the other end.
How odd. Perhaps even creepy.
No matter how hard Peter tried, he couldn't muster up any amount of fear as he walked down the blank hall. Not that he knew how to be afraid or worried on purpose. Those things usually just happened, and it took a lot of work to stop feeling those emotions. But Tandy's powers seemed to have some sort of lasting effect.
Unless Peter really did feel okay now.
That was supposed to be bad, right?
Maybe, but it was impossible to gauge without the negative emotions that normally forced him to ruminate on such a question. With only peace and gratefulness, Peter felt like he was viewing the world from some sort of detached vantage point, somewhere that made everything make sense, where not every decision led to disaster.
A place where he didn't need to feel guilty, because Amadeus really had done something wrong. And by extent, Peter had done something right.
"So have you ever used your venom before?" Adrien asked casually.
"Yes," Peter admitted.
"On something living, or did you just spit it out or something?"
Peter didn't answer right away. His mind immediately went to Kraven, which usually made him feel terrible, but Tandy's calm fought against it, leaving him very confused. Hadn't Kraven hurt him worse than Amadeus? Hadn't Kraven deserved it?
Wait, but wasn't his attack on Kraven supposed to be a secret? Peter hadn't wanted to tell them about his venom, but Tandy was so trustworthy . . .
Adrien wasn't Tandy though. Adrien had fought Peter in the past. So Peter could lie to him. He had to. He had promised Fury he wasn't going to use his venom to hurt others, and Taskmaster would force him to.
"I injected it into vials," Peter finally answered vaguely. It felt weird to have all these thoughts with almost no emotion. Because he couldn't feel upset about them, but he couldn't be happy about them either, so the thoughts simply passed through his mind, no emotions attached.
"Okay, so this'll be something new for you!" Adrien said excitedly as they reached the ladder. He climbed up and opened the . . . what were doors called when they were in the ceiling? Trapdoors were usually in the floor, but then again, that meant they were also in the ceiling below. Could it be considered a trapdoor, then? Maybe. Trapdoors sounded cool anyway.
Peter followed him up, hesitating only slightly. It had been ages since he had to climb an actual ladder. He usually climbed up the wall, which was a very different process. It was nice to use a ladder again though. It reminded him of playgrounds and childhood fun.
Popping his head through the trapdoor, Peter's eyes widened in surprise. The room beyond was large and circular and the ceiling was a good fifty feet up. Poles and branches and platforms and all sorts of obstacles jutted out from the curved walls.
"Welcome to the Birdhouse! Do you like it?" Adrien asked, smiling. "Mr. Masters made this for me, Felicia, and you. Or really, for anyone in this group who has powers that make them more agile and active. I just love flying in here! It's so much fun and way safer than going out. I don't need to worry about Doc Ock trying to take me back or anything. Watch this!" He transformed and in one powerful motion sent himself flying up to the distant roof.
Pulling himself up to sit on the floor, Peter watched avidly as Adrien swooped in and out of the obstacles. Sometimes he grabbed one of the poles with his talons and used it to swing around and change direction. Even without the poles, Adrien was able to turn in the blink of an eye. At last, he alighted on one of the lowest poles and bowed.
Peter clapped. "Wow, I almost wish I had wings!"
"Flying is cool," Adrien replied proudly. "But climbing is cool too. I've seen Felicia move like a cat ballerina up here. Do you wanna try before I show you the next surprise?"
He could . . . climb for fun? He could be high up? Higher than anyone but Adrien and Felicia could reach? And maybe Ty since he could teleport. But still. High. High and safe. He hadn't thought it would be possible in this bunker.
Peter shifted into a crouch before leaping up as high as his legs would carry him. He ended up on the bottom side of a platform further up than where Adrien was perched. Adrien gasped at the sudden movement, losing track of him.
"Whoa! That was so fast! Where'd you go?"
Suppressing a snicker, Peter dropped and stuck silently to the wall behind Adrien before he looked up. "Boo!" Peter said loudly, but not too loudly. He understood enhanced hearing all too well.
Adrien startled with a shriek that was bordering on a squawk. He flapped away to the opposite platform. "Holy cow! I didn't know you could move like that! You're lucky I'm not part pigeon!"
Peter cocked his head. "Why?"
"Because pigeons kind of . . . use the bathroom whenever they get scared."
"Oh, yeah, that makes sense." Many suits had been ruined whenever Peter accidentally startled a flock of pigeons while on patrol.
Adrien's beak shifted until it was clear he was grinning. "Race to the top?"
"You're on!"
Adrien didn't even wait for a countdown. He just took off. Peter shouted indignantly and started climbing up as fast as he could, moving in vertical leaps and bounds. Adrien could fly faster than Peter could ever hope to go, but the obstacles made it almost a fair race. Each dodge made Adrien slow slightly, while Peter was able to use the structures as leverage for more speed. Adrien ended up beating him only by a fraction of a second despite his head start.
"Oh wow! That was so much fun!" Adrien did a loop-de-loop before landing on the highest platform. "I've never been able to race with anyone before! Felicia usually comes in here alone. But there's so much more to do now that you're here!"
Peter almost felt a little sad at that. With any luck, he wouldn't be here for very long. But if Adrien did want to have more races like this, then that would make it more fun here. Peter still didn't know when he could escape. He might as well enjoy what time he did have.
Not wanting to give up any hints about escape, he chose not to respond to Adrien verbally, giving him a thumbs up instead. Peter was a little out of breath anyway. Climbing like that took so much more effort than web swinging. He could have used his webs to slingshot to the top and win, but that felt like cheating, and he'd already used so much to make the web in the bedroom.
They sat up there in silence for several long and peaceful moments. Now that Peter had an unobstructed and close-up view of the ceiling, he could see that it was rounded. Combined with the cylindrical shape of the structure, it almost felt like they were inside a silo.
Huh, could they really be in a silo? There had to be plenty of abandoned farms in the Tri-State, and Peter had no way to tell how far they had driven from the city. Maybe they were upstate or in Jersey or Connecticut or even Pennsylvania . . .
Okay, so that didn't narrow his location down much, but it was a start.
"So," Adrien said after a while. "Are you ready to use some venom and have some breakfast?"
Peter nodded. The pressure hadn't quite reached the level it had with Rhino, but he was trying to stop it before that point. Plus he was starving. He really hoped they had juice for breakfast. And it would be nice if Felicia got him bugs again . . .
There was something off about those thoughts, but Peter couldn't place his finger on what.
"Alright!" Adrien did that thing again where it looked like his beak was smiling. "We need to head back down to the bottom then. Want a lift?"
Peter glanced down. If he had to guess, he'd say they were a good six stories up. More or less. He was bad at guessing exact distances. "Nope, I'll be fine."
And with that, he let himself drop into a free fall. Adrien screeched in surprise behind him. That made Peter giggle. For someone who had fought with and against Spider-Man, Adrien was easily surprised by these tricks. Granted, he wasn't supposed to know Peter was Spider-Man, but everyone here knew he was spidery.
When he was far enough down, Peter shot a single line at a pole to slow his descent. He used his left spinneret for that. He didn't want to hurt his right one further.
"That was awesome!" Adrien exclaimed when he caught up. "Have you had much practice doing stuff like that?"
Peter shrugged. "Shield gives me physicals occasionally where I get to use their gym, Spider-Man taught me a little, and Mr. Stark let me use the Avengers' gym once, but I don't often get to do any of that." Not purely for fun at least. Leaping off buildings was usually part of a chase or some other patrol related activity.
Adrien transformed back to his human form, making his grin more obvious. "Instincts then?"
"I—yeah, definitely. I used to be so clumsy." He'd told Ava the same thing. He had cried then. Now he couldn't.
"Instincts are so helpful," Adrien said agreeably. "And now you'll finally get to use more of them! Come over here." He walked over to one of the walls where a small doggy door was installed. Peter hadn't noticed it earlier, probably because he'd been so distracted by the sheer size of the silo room.
A doggy door was intriguing though. Did it lead to outside? Would Peter be able to squeeze through it? Maybe. As he approached, he estimated it to be made for medium sized dogs. It would be a tight fit, but if he contorted just right . . .
"First, let me come clean," Adrien said while Peter considered the tiny door. "I'm not just part vulture."
That was enough to distract Peter from his plotting. He looked up in shock. "What do you mean?"
"Doc Ock wanted me to be his attack bird," Adrien explained resentfully. "And even though vultures can be tough, they're not very aggressive. They barely fight each other, let alone people. He really only used the vulture DNA as the base for flight and the ability to destroy evidence."
Peter frowned. Evidence? The main feature of vultures was that they ate carrion which was dead meat and—oh . . . that sort of evidence.
"So I'm mostly vulture," Adrien continued. "But I'm also a little bit of cassowary."
"Casso-what-now?"
"You know emus and ostriches?" He waited for Peter to nod. "Cassowaries are kind of like those. Big and flightless birds with long legs made for running. Cassowaries aren't the biggest type of bird, but they're the meanest. They'll attack anything. They're literally called the world's most dangerous bird."
Oh. That actually went a long way in explaining how difficult it was to fight the Vulture.
Adrien shifted self-consciously. "So sometimes, even though I mostly like to eat long dead things, sometimes I'll get this urge to attack. Which is why Mr. Masters added this." He pressed a button next to the doggy door.
There was the sound of whirring. Then Peter became aware of the sound of . . . clucking? Sure enough, the flap popped up and a snow white chicken strutted its way out. It startled when it realized two humans (or not-quite humans) were standing so close, and it ran to the other side of the room.
"Now I can follow my mixed-up instincts whenever I want, without having to hurt anyone!" Adrien finished happily.
Peter stared at him. Was he saying—? Did he mean—? Was he really going to—?
"Since you've never done this before, I'll give you a demonstration!" Adrien transformed back into Vulture, stalking over to the chicken and screeching at it. The chicken squawked and started running in circles like—like—well—like a chicken without a head, which Peter realized was a very likely outcome of this interaction.
"Um, Adrien?" Peter asked uncertainly. "Are you sure you have to—? I mean, I've never—I don't really wanna see this." Fear wasn't an option currently, and it seemed like disgust wasn't either. The only thing he felt was some awkward discomfort at being in such a new situation.
"Peter, spiders are hunters, and if you've never hunted anything before, then you're denying that part of you. Neither cassowaries or vultures actively hunt much, so I can't even imagine how much you might be craving this."
"I promised my aunt I would deny that part," Peter said, then frowned. That was a weird way to put it. Why was he only doing it for her? Why wasn't he doing it for himself?
Something dark glinted in Adrien's eyes. "It bothers some people, yes, but even normal humans hunt. What about all the rich guys who pay to kill lions and tigers for sport? We're only doing it for our instincts. And we even eat the chickens, so it serves two purposes."
Peter started biting his lip again. He was so very close to being nervous, and he hoped the action would push him over the edge, but alas, he mostly just felt confused and conflicted. Apparently, those weren't negative emotions.
"The chickens are even given a numbing injection before they come in here, so they're not really feeling any pain," Adrien continued to try to convince him.
"I don't know . . ."
"Watch me first, and then you can decide." With that, Adrien turned away from him and focused solely on the chicken. He ran after it instead of flying, attempting to catch it in his large talons. Chickens were fast runners, but Adrien's legs were much longer.
Peter turned away when he realized Adrien was on the verge of winning. The sound of the desperate squawks reverberated around and up to the top of the silo. The cracks of bones were quieter, but still audible. And then there was silence. And then . . .
He could smell the chicken's blood. Just like Amadeus's, just like Kraven's. His stomach growled against his will. He was really really starving.
Adrien came back. Peter could hear his footsteps, no longer punctuated by the sharp tap of claws. Adrien went back to the doggy door so Peter didn't even need to look in the direction of whatever remained of the chicken.
"It's really not so bad. Here, try it for yourself and you'll see what I mean." Adrien pushed the button again before Peter could protest.
"Can't I just have breakfast like a normal person?" Peter whispered.
Adrien looked at him sadly. "We're not normal. We'll never be normal. And that's okay. We can be what we need and want to be instead." The machine whirred and clucked and a new chicken popped out, this time brown.
"I don't know if I want to do this."
"You'll never know until you try."
Peter watched silently as this chicken went through the same brief freak out as the other as it ran off.
Peter's aunt and uncle used to tell him that phrase when he'd been a picky child, 'You'll never know until you try'. There was a certain point in your life when green vegetables simply didn't look too good. And there were so many types, so many new ones to try. He would stereotypically refuse peas and broccoli. So his aunt and uncle told him it was like a science experiment. You could never be sure that it tasted yucky until you tried it. The concept worked, and Peter got over his picky phase fairly quickly.
Now he was faced with the same advice again, but this time it wasn't simply the possible flavor that was deterring him. It was the morals of the entire thing.
In fact, when he really thought about it, he hadn't been worried about the flavor at all. If blood could taste that good, then fresh chicken would probably be similar.
Peter's mind frizzled out a bit with that thought. He still wasn't capable of feeling guilt or shame or disgust, but he was all too aware that there was something very wrong going on. He was falling into wrong patterns of logic just like that morning. The problem was that he couldn't tell where he was going wrong because nothing could seem wrong right now.
"C'mon! You're not going to have enough energy to catch it if you keep starving yourself!" Adrien encouraged. "Look at how big and juicy it is!"
The suggestion made Peter look automatically, which might have been a mistake. The remains of the first chicken were right there near the wall, mangled beyond recognition. The second chicken was strutting about nearby nonchalantly.
For some reason, despite the lack of danger, Peter's vision narrowed into his 'selective focus mode'. The strutting chicken was the only thing that wasn't blurry.
"Go on." Adrien nudged him forward. Peter took a few steps.
What had he promised his aunt again? He had promised that he wouldn't use his venom needlessly. He would only use it when it was necessary for him to get home to her. Because he always had to go home to May. He'd promised.
In order to go home, he needed to live. In order to live, he needed to eat. In order to eat . . .
He was suddenly very hyperaware of the pressure in the roof of his mouth. In his venom sacs. They were ready. They were waiting.
He stepped silently closer. The chicken soon noticed how close he had come and started running away. The quick movement had Peter moving faster. The feathers felt funny in his mouth, but that didn't matter because—
Oh.
Oh!
Oh . . .
It felt similar to sinking his fangs into Ava's stress ball, but ten times better. The resistance of flesh felt so good. And now he could pump in so much of his venom all at once! It seeped in at a steady pace, relieving the pressure slowly but surely. It was so therapeutic that Peter didn't even care that the chicken was screeching in his ear, but its noise hardly lasted a few seconds.
When the chicken was still, Peter's fangs released and he pulled away for a moment. He thought he was done, but within seconds he felt his venom sacs filling up again, and he was drooling. Startled, he bit down again, letting the new venom and unexpected surge of saliva slip into the wound. It made some sense. Dr. Connors had said the digestive enzymes were in his saliva, not his venom.
Hm, but there wasn't an exoskeleton to hold everything in as it liquified. Perhaps . . . yes, he had enough left.
He released his fang's grip a second time before licking up some of the blood that had leaked out. Then he used his silk to wrap the chicken in a cocoon. He didn't care that his right spinneret stung as he worked. It would heal so much faster with a proper meal.
And then . . .
He was done.
There were no more new experiences to preoccupy him.
Peter kneeled there, staring at his handiwork.
His handiwork.
This thing he had done.
What had he done?!
Either Tandy's magic was wearing off, or this was too big to stop. He was falling into another panic attack. He was crazy. He was a monster! He was—
"Great job, Pete!"
Oddly, two voices said that. Peter whipped around, horrified to find Tandy coming up the ladder. Her smile faded when she saw his face.
"Are you okay? You're not upset about this morning still, are you? Need some help?" Her hand glowed.
Peter gasped and immediately jumped over to the wall and began climbing nearly as fast as he had while racing Adrien. It was harder to climb when he was holding onto a silk cocoon and—WHY WAS HE STILL CARRYING IT?! IT WAS DISGUSTING! IT WAS MURDER! IT WAS—!
Of course, like both previous times, his spider sense didn't warn him before the ball of light hit him. He stumbled, coming to a stop on one of the poles.
What had he just been thinking? It felt like his train of thought hadn't simply derailed. It had been completely obliterated, tracks and all.
"Better?" Tandy called up from below. "Come on down! Felicia was telling us about spiders, and she said you'd probably want to keep your meal in your web while you wait for it to liquify!"
Peter smiled at their thoughtfulness. Why hadn't he thought of his web before? It was perfect! And he could recycle some silk while he waited! He dropped down, careful not to break open his prize.
His first true hunt had been a success! Phoebe would be so proud!
Felicia watched Peter walk by with Tandy and Adrien, blood drying on his lips and a web pouch held securely under one arm.
Part of her was proud that he had been able to participate in his first hunt. Having carnivore DNA meant that the desire was there, and it felt very good to give in to it. But at the same time, she knew that it wasn't for everyone. From what she had gleaned from the boy, he was one of those who probably couldn't stand the idea of hurting an animal.
He couldn't feel that way now, not with Tandy's manipulation, not with the deed already done.
Hoping that Peter was resilient enough to come to terms with his actions, Felicia continued on her way to Anthony's office. He was typing quickly into the computer when she arrived.
"They took the bait," Anthony said with absolutely no preamble. "They'll be at the site within a couple of hours. I need you to supervise and make sure that Ty behaves."
Felicia didn't let her disdain show. A perfect thief forced to be a babysitter. How insulting. "Of course. Are you coming too?"
"No. I would rather not even send you along, but Stark joined them, and I don't trust the hired help."
She rolled her eyes. "You never trust the hired help."
"No, I suppose I don't. You'll be leaving within the half hour. It'll be fine if you can't capture them, but we must send a very clear message."
"Sounds like fun!" It did not sound like fun, not with Stark there. Ever the notorious playboy, he would certainly make some comments about her body and attire, but she would be facing such degrading compliments after she called for help anyway. Besides, this was a perfect opportunity to send a message. Anthony would be far away. She could use her private burner and have a short conversation, and he would be none the wiser.
"There's no other information. You're dismissed."
Felicia's grin might have morphed into a sneer at being dismissed, but Anthony was already too preoccupied to notice. He prided himself on his focus.
Oh well, one man's gift was another woman's weapon against him.
Things would be a lot different here come tomorrow.
Amadeus was a little disappointed that he wouldn't yet have official clearance for the really cool equipment and weapons, but he had expected as much. Besides, he knew how to hack. This would be a piece of cake.
Once he was alone.
For a while, Amadeus was resigned to the fact that Ty seemed intent on keeping an eye on him for the entirety of his first day in the workshop. But then Felicia came in and called Ty away. Amadeus was supposed to leave too, and he did, for a few seconds. A quick nub of pencil in the lock kept the door open for his return.
This was very fortuitous. Now he could make some plans and set them into motion.
First, the cameras. He quickly hooked up a system that would set the video to a loop of the deserted workshop at the click of a button. What was Masters thinking, putting all these cameras on a single closed circuit? It made Amadeus's job so incredibly easy! Hacking open the weapons display was a little harder, but still child's play. Handcuffs weren't hard to make either. He wasn't entirely sure if they would hold someone with enhanced strength, but his calculations made it seem likely.
Most of those things were the bare necessities. Obviously he couldn't be seen while he was doing this work, and the weapons would come in handy if things went south.
Now was time for the first real steps in his plan.
Seeing Tandy's and Ty's powers in action, Amadeus was dying to know how they worked. He quickly rigged up a device that could detect whatever energy they were using, whether it be electrochemical or electromagnetic or, ooh, maybe even thermodynamic! And once he knew the science behind it, the power would be his too!
Amadeus had taken a quiz once in school, a banal ice-breaker the teacher had made up herself. One question had asked: Which super power would you wish for? It listed all the common ones as options, and then at the bottom was SCIENCE! Exactly like that in all caps. The teacher had meant for it to be a joke since it was a science class, but Amadeus had chosen the answer and taken it to heart for a different reason.
All super powers functioned on some scientific principle, even if it wasn't obvious. Captain America had enhanced human biology perfected for combat. Professor X had a mutant brain that could read the electromagnetic signals of other brains. Nova had the power of a fusion explosion in his helmet. Hulk had . . . some weird gamma ray thing that turned him big and green . . .
Okay, so some powers like Hulk's and Thor's were still mysteries, but most of the rest were known, and it was a simple fact of science that once you know something, it's yours forever. You'll know the fact for as long as your memory will allow, and then you can use it to bend the universe to your will.
Tony Stark was an excellent example of this phenomena. He had defeated aliens and magical creatures far more powerful than him, all because he scientifically designed his suits for each occasion.
Now Amadeus would have the chance to study an entire group of super powered individuals! He would be even better than Stark!
He felt giddy at the thought and began to laugh like a maniac.
His origin story would begin right here, with this small energy reader gadget and that suit!
Oh right, the suit! It was the most important part of his plan. It would give him access to all the databases he needed. Plus safety. If he was attacked, he would like to have some armor (especially when dealing with Peter now).
Amadeus set down his invention and went over to the Iron Spider suit. It was currently outside of its containment unit, but set to standby mode, unable to turn on. He would need to fix that as quickly as possible, though he knew it would take a while. Stark's work was a lot more sophisticated than Master's, and Amadeus didn't know when someone might come into the workshop.
He worked in determined silence, imagining how things would go once he had Peter in here tomorrow.
Ava couldn't wait until they found Peter and things could go back to normal.
Today had been chaotic. Not for everyone else, mind you. Mostly for Ava. She had to sneak back into Peter's room to give Phoebe breakfast. Then she had to return to the Helicarrier and go down for another patrol before visiting May with the guys. Then they had that revelation about May. Then they had to go back to the Helicarrier to be debriefed for the new search radius. And now they were off again, almost at their target destination.
She was beginning to feel drained. No wonder Peter had started taking spider naps. Doing all these things in one day, even without school, was exhausting.
They were so close to finding him though. Ava could feel it. Someone's home camera had captured Taskmaster's van headed towards some abandoned factories. With Nova and Iron Man on board to blow open any doors, they might find Pete within a couple hours! She just had to hold on until then. There would probably be quite a scuffle when they entered Taskmaster's lair, and she needed to be alert for that.
She could make it. Yes. She could do it.
"Any thermal visuals?" Luke asked Nova and Iron Man. They were all huddled out of sight, watching the building that Shield had deemed most likely to be occupied by bad guys. It was an old slaughterhouse that had once been owned by the Mafia. Abandoned now, there was every chance that it had plenty of nooks and crannies for a villain and his band of misfits to hide.
"None yet," Stark reported.
"Yeah, ditto," Sam agreed. "Wait, I see something!"
"What?! Where?" Stark demanded.
"In the middle, there's some people. One, two . . . Six? Maybe seven? There's a lot of walls in the way, but I'm pretty sure there's like half a dozen people there, spread out between two or three neighboring rooms."
Stark's suit whirred as he turned to look at Sam. "How are you seeing all of that? I can't get any readings!"
Sam tapped his helmet. "Space magic thermal imaging is way better than any Earth stuff."
"Not for long . . ."
"We have the element of surprise," Danny said, getting the conversation back on track. "Should we split up to cover the exits?"
"I don't like our odds against Taskmaster if we're split up," Ava said. "Nova, are you sure they're all close together?"
"Looks that way."
"How about we ambush them, then?" Ava suggested.
Luke grinned. "Sounds good to me. What does our visiting Avenger think of that?"
"As a man who has infiltrated an enemy base with nothing but weapons straight from a Home Alone movie, I am all for this plan."
"You just can't stop bragging, can you?" Ava muttered.
"When everything you've done is impressive, it's hard not to brag," Stark replied nonchalantly. "But if you would prefer advice over bragging, then may I suggest that we move in two groups? If there are any traps, then only some of us will be caught and the rest can come right after to bail them out."
"Makes sense," Ava admitted.
"Okay," Luke agreed. "We'll do that then. Nova should go first since he can see if they start moving."
"Oh fine, make me the sacrificial lamb why don't you," Sam grumbled. "Can White Tiger come with me then? She can hear if I trigger something."
Ava rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, I'll protect you."
"Spidey should come with us too," Sam continued. "He's always leading the charge."
Ava glanced at the Life Model Decoy disguised as Spider-Man. It was there almost purely for aesthetics to continue the charade Peter had set up with his video demonstration of the Iron Spider suit. So long as Taskmaster wasn't torturing information out of him, Peter might be able to escape with his secret identity intact.
No matter how many times she reminded herself of all that, Ava was still disturbed by the android. It acted almost identically to Spider-Man, which was necessary to trick Taskmaster, but it just creeped Ava out.
Moving carefully and quietly, they all went down to street level. Stark had his AI scan the building and identify the easiest entrance. There was a window on the first floor that was far enough from the people inside that no one would hear if it broke a little. Even then, Nova used his heat blast to melt the glass rather than shatter it. Stark muttered something hypocritical about showoffs as he retracted his own small blowtorch back into his suit.
Sam hovered off of the floor while Ava padded silently through the junk piled around. The Spider-Man LMD walked alongside them, its fake breathing masking the sound of all the gears moving inside.
The slaughterhouse looked like the last business here had left in a rush and hadn't bothered to liquidate everything. Rusty machines and hooks lay about. The floor was still heavily stained with all the blood that had been spilled here, but it was old enough that Ava couldn't smell it. The thought of all the cows that had once passed through here made her hungry, but she tried to push it from her mind.
"Jarvis found a hidden door," Stark said through their communicators. "I sent it to your maps. It seems to lead to a basement that definitely wasn't on the original floor plans. We'll start following once you get far enough ahead."
"Affirmative," Ava whispered.
They travelled silently past everything, heading towards the structure in the center where a supervisor's office may have once watched over everything, but now it was an empty core of the place.
"Um, Tiger?" Sam asked quietly.
"What is it? Do you see something?"
"No—uh—I wanted to ask you something."
Ava frowned. "Is it related to this mission?"
"Well, in a way, maybe, but—"
"Then now is not the time."
"But—"
"No, Nova. I'm not risking this. We can talk later."
"Okay," Sam replied, sounding . . . sad? Ava's frown deepened. What if he really did have something important to say? What else could make him sound so serious? But what could he possibly know? The entire team had all the same information . . .
No, it couldn't be an emergency thing. Sam barely shut up. He would have blurted it out if it were truly important.
LMD Spider-Man didn't acknowledge the brief discussion.
When they reached the door Jarvis had identified, Sam used his heat again to melt the hinges, allowing the door to be lifted out of the frame with barely any noise. They traveled down some stairs which led to a narrow hallway. There were doors lining both sides.
"Which are the people in?" Ava whispered.
"Two people are in this room," he pointed at a door halfway down the hall. "Two more next door, and three more in the next door. Can you smell if Pete is in any of them?"
Ava crept towards first one Sam mentioned, sniffing deeply. She shook her head and started making her way to the next when her communicator crackled to life.
"Agents," Nick Fury's voice came through the comms, but highly cracked, as if the reception was terrible. "Get out of there! It's an ambush! Signal jammer delayed the message!"
"Ack! Fury's right! Abort" Luke yelled.
Expecting to hear a fight break out back upstairs, Ava was nearly scared out of her skin when the sounds came from the rooms in front of her instead. She turned back to Sam questioningly. He was already flying towards her.
"Whoa," Sam said. "I can see them through thermal. Everyone upstairs just disappeared and reappeared down here, and—"
Something black as night swirled into existence directly in front of Sam, enlarging into the shape of a man wearing a cloak. Ava's warning shout had barely left her lips before the cloak engulfed Sam, shrinking back down into a blip before disappearing without a trace.
Ava turned to the LMD. "Spidey! Cover my back! Stay on high—"
Cloak came back and took the LMD too.
A metal barricade slammed down, blocking the only exit.
The first door slammed open. Black Cat stepped out.
"Oh dear, poor little kitty all alone," Black Cat drawled with a mocking frown.
Ava stepped back. There had to be a protocol for this, but she was blanking. What was she supposed to do when half of her team was trapped and ambushed, and another two members were teleported who knows where? She hoped they had been taken into the other rooms too, but there was no way to tell.
"Come on now, I don't want to make the 'cat got your tongue' joke. Between us felines, it's far too overused." Black Cat sauntered closer at a casual pace.
Well, Black Cat was working with Taskmaster. Maybe she knew where he was keeping Pete. If Ava could detain her, Fury could interrogate her.
Ava unsheathed her claws, lowering into a fighting stance and growling. "Did Taskmaster assign you to fight me? Or did you actually think that a little cat like you could beat a tiger?"
Black Cat grinned wide enough to compete with the Cheshire cat. "You can't blame a girl for wanting an honest to goodness cat fight, can you?"
"That's a lame excuse."
"Oh, wow, I am so insulted. You called me lame?" Black Cat laughed. "What next, you're going to say I'm not cool enough to hang out with you?"
"If you tell me where the kids Taskmaster kidnapped are, I'll go easy on your face." Ava made sure her growl was extra loud as she said her threat.
"Okay, kitty's got spunk, I respect that. Not the most original threat I've heard though. Let me teach you how it's done." Using the wall to ricochet, Black Cat pounced. Ava dodged, although her shoulder still received a shallow scratch. "See, not verbalizing your threat makes each attack so much more mysterious, don't you think?"
It killed Ava's pride to take advice from someone like this, but she didn't reply. She just pounced back.
Fun Facts:
- Vultures are very nonconfrontational creatures, so to explain Adrien's fighting skills I decided to give him a little cassowary DNA.
- Cassowaries really are listed as the most dangerous bird in the world. They look like little raptors.
- I looked up spider venom yet again (because it's really really complicated) and their venom sacs can make saliva (or rather digestive enzymes) just like they make venom. Peter has venom sacs and salivary glands, so I guess they would both be triggered once he has a meal? Dr. Connors is going to need to step up his game so he can stop avoiding these little mistakes.
