Chapter 42: Blinding Lights

The alternate title for this chapter is: Rock Me, Amadeus.

The chapters just keep getting harder and harder to write, and yet I'm more and more excited for each one.

Also, this week has been absolute insanity for me. The politics of graduate school are disappointing.


Replies:

Fan: Venom is reserved for the sequel :)


Felicia acted surprised when the main entrance was breached, even though Anthony immediately looked at her accusingly. But he couldn't do anything about it now. They had to get rid of the intruder.

Oh, she couldn't wait to see the look on Anthony's face when he saw Deadpool! It was going to be hilarious!

They ran down the hallway, Adrien and Ty following. The four of them rounded the corner and—

Were hit by a power blast? What sort of strange weapon had Wade gotten a hold of this—?

Felicia froze as she struggled to stand back up. What were these Shield kids doing here? They shouldn't know this location! They shouldn't even have been brave enough to burst in so soon after yesterday's beating! And they certainly shouldn't have thought they could get away with using another robot Spider-Man!

Anthony gave Felicia another accusatory look.

Felicia sighed. She hoped Anthony figured out that she had called Deadpool and not Shield. She didn't need the reputation of a tattler once she took full control of her bar again.


Peter was glad that Amadeus's laser thing didn't work as well as Tandy's original magic. It helped him calm down, but it didn't stop his negative emotions, so he was free to be as annoyed, angry, and surprised as he wanted to be.

And he wanted to feel it all now.

Well, maybe some of it could wait for later. He didn't want too much anger clouding his judgement. But surprise couldn't wait because nothing was more shocking than Deadpool breaking through an underground wall. Which, Amadeus was right. That should have been impossible. But this was Deadpool, and Peter had come to expect the unexpected with him.

Like Deadpool shouting out his name like they were best buds. Yeah, that was bad. Any second now, Amadeus's shock was going to wear off and he would ask—

"Wait, you two know each other?"

Peter and Deadpool had a silent staring contest, Peter trying to convey 'don't you even dare' with a single look. Deadpool's eye lenses just looked oddly blank for the longest time, and Peter was beginning to fear that he would spill the beans when the silence was finally broken.

"Us? Know each other?" Deadpool said. "Ha! That's preposterous! I just call every stranger Petey. You're Petey Number 2. I gotta distinguish you completely unrecognizable people somehow."

Amadeus raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I'm not buying that."

Peter facepalmed. If Deadpool's presence here was Fury's idea, then Peter was going to turn the tables and yell at Fury for once.

"Come on, make the explanation quick so I can understand the situation and alter my plan accordingly, if necessary," Amadeus urged.

Well, at least Deadpool hadn't called him Spidey, so Peter could make up an easy story of how they met at Shield or—

"Petey and I went on a mission to stop Tasky once which established our deep friendship."

"We are NOT friends!" Peter corrected immediately, realizing too late that he forgot to refute the rest of Deadpool's sentence. "I mean, we didn't go on a mission. Why would I go on a mission? I'm not a superhero."

Amadeus gave them both a deadpan glare.

Ugh, this was the worst. Or . . . or maybe not. Amadeus's plan was okay, but Peter honestly did have a lot ways to improve it. Maybe by revealing his hero status, Peter could take control. That would be nice after the last few days.

"Okay, fine, I'll tell you, but you have to promise not to tell anyone else."

"Obviously."

Peter took a breath. "I'm Spider-Man."

Amadeus's eyes narrowed. "You can't be. Your instincts, your personality, your inclination to bite. You're nothing like Spider-Man."

Ouch. That hurt to hear. A lot. But Peter was glad that Spider-Man didn't have a reputation for biting people (not like him). "Well, it's true. That's kind of the whole point in a secret identity, right? You're not supposed to connect the two at all."

Now Amadeus's eyes widened. "Of course . . . It seems I've greatly underestimated your intelligence as both yourself and Spider-Man."

Peter felt his eye twitch and forced a smile. "Of course you did."

There was a crunch that made them both jump. Deadpool had pulled out a bag of popcorn and started eating. "Oh, don't mind me," he said when they turned to glare at him. "The drama is getting so good! Go on! Tell him off, Spidey!"

Peter closed his eyes and prayed to whatever gods answered prayers these days to grant him the patience to deal with these two.

During the brief quiet, he could hear the fight in the distance. His team. They were here! They were here to save him! Peter was so relieved he could cry, but he wasn't about to let Amadeus or Deadpool see that. So he focused on the sounds of fighting to pull himself together into business mode.

"Okay guys, look, I have way more experience saving people than either of you. Yes, that includes you, Deadpool."

"Compliment accepted," Deadpool assured him.

Peter ignored him. "So I appreciate your help getting me out of Tandy's control, Amadeus, but I'm going to take over planning from here on out."

Amadeus was not happy to hear that, as expected. "I've accounted for everything! I've been planning this for days! You can't possibly exceed my plan in such short notice!"

"Trust me, I've done a lot more than this on much shorter notice. Now, I know that I can't expect Deadpool to follow any orders—"

"I'd do anything for you, Petey!"

"—but I do want to know if I can trust you to follow some instructions. Understand?"

Peter looked Amadeus dead in the eye. Amadeus stared back defiantly for a moment before his expression began to soften, becoming more uncertain, more afraid. Good.

"Fine," Amadeus admitted defeat. "I'll let you take the lead. But I'll still react to unexpected scenarios as I see fit."

There was a sudden bright flash that blinded Peter for a moment. He hissed, covering his eyes, waiting for his spider sense to start up. Would his spider sense even still work after what Tandy did? Maybe it would. Peter could feel Deadpool invading his personal space and forced an eye open to find a phone in his face.

"Oh my gosh, your new eyes are so adorable!" Deadpool squealed.

Peter blinked several times before the screen came into focus. It was a picture of him glaring at Amadeus, eyes shining green, fangs bared—

Peter pushed him away and tried to force his fangs to be as small as possible. He hadn't meant to look like that. He didn't want to make Amadeus afraid of him.

But he did. Every time Amadeus showed his fear, Peter felt a strange sense of victory.

Okay, he wasn't going to think about that right now. "Deadpool, stop taking pictures! What are you even doing here? Are you working for Taskmaster again?"

"Nope! The pretty kitty hired me to knock Tasky down a few pegs."

"Oh." That was extra unexpected even for Deadpool. "So, wait, Felicia is betraying Taskmaster?"

"Yeah, that's what I just said."

"Right, that's good news. So, uh, you just do you. Go out there and do your job. Just don't hurt my team."

"Hey, they were once my team too! I can play nice." Peter gave him a deadpan look. "Okay, okay, I won't swing my katanas around too much."

"No katanas! No killing!"

Deadpool's voice suddenly became deep and gravelly. "But Taskmaster should be sleeping with the fishes."

Peter's eyes widened in horror. He didn't like Taskmaster any more than the next guy, but he didn't want anyone to die today. "No! Don't you dare kill him or I'm going to web you to the ceiling!"

Deadpool's voice went back to normal. "What's wrong? Why don't you want Tasky to get a nice job as a nightwatchman for an aquarium so he can take naps with the fishies?"

Peter opened his mouth to argue again, but stopped when he realized what had just been said. "A—a nightwatchman?"

"For an aquarium. Exactly! Watching all the little fishies swim around will cure Tasky of his evil ways!"

"Right. Okay. Um. So yeah, you get him to that aquarium."

"Aye aye, Captain Cutey Pants!" Deadpool went to the door, discovered it was bolted shut, and used a katana to slice the lock before Amadeus could offer to unlock it for him. Amadeus visibly paled.

"Okay," Peter muttered, trying to get his thoughts back on track. This was only his second time dealing with Deadpool, but he had a feeling that he would never get used to this insanity. Then his gaze fell on Tandy's unconscious form and his stomach lurched. Peter rushed to her side. "Tandy! Amadeus, I need you tell me exactly what you did to her."

It took a moment for Amadeus to respond. Peter didn't bother looking back at him. He was probably in some sort of shock. "Her powers work by using electromagnetic waves to influence brain activity," Amadeus explained hollowly. "I can't perfectly mimic it, but I can match the wavelengths she uses, and also cancel them out by emitting something completely out of phase. It's simple wave mechanics."

That was interesting. "So these handcuffs are cancelling out her frequency?"

"Yeah, that's all they're doing. She shouldn't have passed out."

"Well, she did pass out, so obviously something else is going on. Did you consider that maybe the out of phase wave is messing with her brain? If you're using the same frequency, that's actually very likely."

"Oh, huh, yeah, I guess that might be happening."

Peter noticed this time when he started baring his fangs again. He decided to fix this problem himself, gripping the handcuffs and ripping them apart. Tandy didn't stir, but at least the probable source of her unconsciousness was gone. There wasn't much else Peter could do without some sort of medical scanner—

"Amadeus, get in the Iron Spider suit."

"Why me? You're the expert on it."

Oh, so now Amadeus was willing to admit who the real expert was. "I'm also the one with powers and experience fighting. Get in and tell it to activate the medical scanner on Tandy. Once we know she's okay, we're going to meet up with my team."

"Why are you wasting time on her? If she wakes up, she can use her powers to stop us from resisting."

Was he seriously asking that?! "Because we're the good guys, and we help people! Now hurry up! We're not even protected since Deadpool broke the lock."

Amadeus hesitated, but he powered up the suit and stepped in.


Ty stepped away from the fight. Something wasn't right.

Mr. Masters had called all hands on deck to deal with this threat, but Tandy, Amadeus, and Peter hadn't come yet. Ty would have assumed that Tandy was staying with them to keep them safe, but a feeling of dread had been festering in his gut for the past few minutes, and then it reached a fever pitch, and then—

Nothing.

There had been some sort of weird connection between him and Tandy ever since they got their powers. It was like a very weak psychic link or something, like the connection some twins claimed to have. They could tell when the other was happy, upset, or sad, or scared, or in danger. Ty had hoped that the feeling of dread was just Tandy's fear of the security breach. They had both thought that this place was extremely secure. To have Shield break in so soon was a terrible shock.

But now Ty couldn't sense Tandy at all, and that worried him. That had happened only a few times before, and all those times Tandy had been incapacitated.

"Masters!" Ty shouted. Mr. Masters was locked in battle with three of the Shield agents and looked very preoccupied, but he promised he would always pay attention to the Thunder Bolts. "Tandy's in trouble! I need to find her!"

Mr. Masters might have nodded. Ty didn't care either way. He had joined the Thunder Bolts, but his main allegiance would always be to his sister. He teleported to the workshop.

In the few seconds before anyone noticed his sudden appearance, Ty examined the scene. Amadeus wasn't in sight, and Peter was knelt on the floor next to Tandy who—

Ty gasped and pushed Peter out of the way. Or he tried to. Peter abruptly dodged and turned to face him.

"What did you do to her?!" Ty demanded.

"I didn't do anything! Amadeus tried to block her powers, but I think it was hurting her so I stopped it and—" Peter took a step back when Ty tried to grab the collar of his shirt. "Please, wait! We're about to make sure she's okay!"

Ty could feel his shadows growing. He would have engulfed Peter already, but Amadeus was obviously the one at fault here. Ty turned, looking for that wretched know-it-all, only to find a glowing robotic hand in his face.

"Let us go, and we'll leave you and Tandy unharmed," Amadeus's voice came from the Iron Spider suit mechanically.

Ty hesitated. He knew he could teleport faster than a bullet, but light-based weapons were iffy. They were as instantaneous as his teleportation. If Amadeus had a quick trigger and a powerful blast, then this would not end well.

"Amadeus!" Peter said sharply. "Don't shoot! What do you even have the power output levels at?"

"I haven't changed them. What's the default?"

Peter's eyes widened. "It's probably set to 200% because it was last used against Goblin. Don't shoot anyone until you lower the output!"

"Is 200% really that bad?"

"Yes!"

"Good thing I grabbed this then."

There was a red light and suddenly Ty's shadows left him. He looked down, lifting his cloak, only to find his normal body underneath instead of the swirling mass of shadows that manifested whenever he fully used his powers. "What did you do?" Another flash of red light, and this time Ty could see it was coming from a gun held in Amadeus's other hand. There were no more shadows for the light to disintegrate, but it left Ty feeling slightly weak. He staggered slightly. Amadeus's weapons tracked his movement.

"Amadeus, stop! That works on the same principle that knocked Tandy out, doesn't it?" Peter stepped towards them, moving to shield Ty.

"Of course it does. And that's the point. Ty can teleport. We can't escape until he's dealt with."

Peter huffed angrily. "We can also try to reason things out. Ty," Peter turned to him. "I was planning to have Amadeus scan Tandy to make sure she's alright. Once we prove that she'll be fine, would you let us leave?"

Ty looked Amadeus up and down. He didn't like how ready the kid was to use his new toys. "I'm not letting Amadeus anywhere near my sister. I would let you scan her, Pete, and then if she's okay . . . I don't know why you would want to leave, but I'll let you." Personally, Ty would like to use the opportunity to get some revenge on Amadeus and scare the wits out of him, but he couldn't let even that very tempting idea take priority over Tandy.

"I'm sorry," Peter said sincerely. "But Amadeus has the suit right now. The scanner is very safe though. Mr. Stark and I tested it on ourselves."

"How do I know Amadeus won't shoot something else at her by accident?" Ty demanded.

Peter did not have an immediate response to that. He bit his lip. "Iron Spider override protocol five-oh-nine, perform a health scan on Tandy."

A small square piece unfolded from the suit and shone a green light on Tandy. Except Tandy wasn't laying on the ground anymore. She was rising to her feet, slightly unsteadily, but looking okay.

"Tandy!" Ty said, relieved. He went to go hug her, but Amadeus shouted at him not to move, and he didn't want to risk that red light gun being used again.

Tandy blew some hair out of her face, which was angrier than Ty had ever seen her. He hadn't seen her frown in ages. "Alright boys, that's enough! Amadeus, why are you doing this to us?"

"I'm just trying to leave this obvious scam!" Amadeus replied. "Why is everyone treating me like the bad guy here?!"

"You hurt me, you hurt Peter, and now you're threatening to hurt Ty. You are the bad guy." Tandy summoned two fistfuls of daggers and threw them at him. Amadeus screamed and dodged clumsily. Peter looked surprised by the attack. Ty could tell that these daggers were only meant to calm anyone they hit, but of course the other two didn't know that.

There was a high-pitched whirring sound. Ty turned to the source. The circle in the center of the Iron Spider suit's palm was glowing blue.

"Amadeus, don't!" Peter cried. He lunged forward and struggled to push Amadeus's hand away from his targets.

Ty could feel his powers coming back. He summoned his shadows and ran to Tandy, pulling her under his cloak to teleport. He was still weak, so they didn't get very far, but he did manage to get into the hallway before the blast went off.

That sounded a lot louder and more destructive than any gun Ty had ever heard.

And wow. He felt like that one teleportation took the same amount of energy as running a marathon. He could see how Tandy could have passed out earlier from the effects of Amadeus's stuff.

"Ty? You okay?" Of course Tandy could tell something was still off about him.

"I'll be fine. Just give me a minute." Ty leaned against the wall to catch his breath.

Now there was the sound of an argument inside the workshop, and something was making a terrible cracking noise. Tandy stumbled to the doorway to see what was going on.

Whatever she saw made her gasp. "Guys! Get out! Quick!"

Ty sighed. Why was she encouraging Amadeus to come closer to them again after they just got away? Ty went over to see what all the fuss was about.

The cracking sound was coming from the ceiling, which was splitting apart and crumbling, making the air cloudy with dust. Peter was pulling Amadeus out from under some debris.

"Ty," Tandy said. "Teleport them out!"

"I—I don't think I can." The distance was probably only around twenty feet, but teleporting out had been so hard, Ty didn't think he could handle the round trip.

Tandy stared at him, her eyes betraying her emotions just as much as their connection. "I can run in and—"

"Don't. Look, Amadeus can run now. They're coming already." It was true. Amadeus was free and sprinting towards the door as best as he could in the unfamiliar suit and with debris and other obstacles in the way. Peter dragged him along, keeping him upright. They were just a few yards away from the doorway.

The ceiling cracked again. Louder this time. Peter winced hard and abruptly stopped, grabbing Amadeus with both hands and spinning him around like a discus in the Olympics. And he did throw Amadeus. Straight at the doorway. Where Ty and Tandy were standing. Ty and Tandy pushed each other out of the way at the same time, allowing Amadeus to crash into the wall.

And then there was a deafening boom from the workshop.

Ty forced himself to his feet and rushed to go help Peter but was forced to stop at the doorway. Rubble filled the room entirely.

"Peter . . ." Tandy whispered beside him.

They stayed like that for a long moment, just staring at the slabs of cement, bundles of wires, bent pipes, and massive piles of dirt and dust.

"Oops," Amadeus said meekly behind them.

Ty and Tandy turned, darkness and light flaring and swirling. They still weren't completely recovered yet, but at this moment they didn't care.

Amadeus managed to get his repulsors working and flew off screaming as they chased after him.


Seeing the look on Taskmaster's face when Deadpool came running in was hilarious.

Feeling the wild punches, blades, and other random weapons Deadpool pulled out as they fought was annoying.

Hearing what sounded like an explosion from deeper inside the place was worrisome.

It actually did worry everyone, forcing them all to pause in their battle. This allowed them all to watch as the Iron Spider suit came flying recklessly down the hall, bouncing against the walls.

The suit looked like it would keep going, so Wolverine grabbed it by the ankle before it got too far. Stark came over and removed the faceplate, revealing some Asian kid.

"I'm assuming you're Shield?" the kid asked as he surveyed the tense scene.

Logan's first instinct was to deny that, but he technically was working for Shield today. "Yeah. I'm assuming you're Amadeus Cho?"

"Yeah."

"Where's Parker?" Almost everyone in the hall asked.

"Um . . ." Amadeus gulped. He stared at them all, seeming to get distracted when his gaze fell on the LMD Spider-Man.

And then Taskmaster used the stillness to slice at Deadpool, and the battle resumed. Logan pulled Amadeus away from the violence.

"I'll ask again," he said gruffly. "Where's Parker?"

"Back there," Amadeus replied meekly. "He may need some help."

"With what? What happened?"

"Code Red Beta!" a distant voice shouted. This time the battle didn't pause, although it did slow down. A kid in a black cloak and a girl in normal clothes came running up, looking exhausted. "The ceiling collapsed on Peter!"

The response to this was largely negative. Logan released Amadeus so he wouldn't dent the suit, Parker's team gasped in horror, Stark cursed, the Black Cat and Deadpool exchanged glances, and Taskmaster shouted, "Thunderbolts, code yellow alpha five!"

"But—" the tired girl tried to protest.

"NOW!"

Taskmaster and the new boy and girl put on some weird yellow glasses. That's all Logan saw before the hallway filled with painfully bright strobing lights. They weren't simply blinding, they flashed in a disorienting way.

Logan had encountered this exactly once before in a Hydra base designed for Mutant experimentation. He and the X-Men had gone to free the prisoners there, discovering that Hydra had invented a special strobing light to 'humanely' prevent a prison break. Once it turned on, sensitive eyes were blinded painfully, normal eyes couldn't adjust fast enough to focus, and anyone even remotely prone to seizures would be incapacitated completely. Only the Hydra guards with special lenses could traverse through the lights unfazed.

Of course someone like Taskmaster had it here to prevent his little prodigies from escaping.

Logan tried to keep moving, but it was frustratingly easy to lose his sense of direction within seconds. Plus, the others bumping into him didn't help. The lights lasted several minutes, and they must have been all along the hall because Logan was pretty sure that he had traversed at least several meters in some direction.

At last the lights stopped, leaving everything blissfully dark.

There were groans and grunts and panicked voices as they all tried to regain their sight. Logan was forced to keep his claws in as somebody ran straight into him.

"Where'd they go?" Nova snarled, obviously trying to punch him and missing, if the air whooshing past Logan's ear was anything to go by. "Taskmaster?"

"Easy, kid, I'm not him."

"Oh, sorry."

"Is everyone okay?" Stark called out. "Roll call, who's present?"

"I'm fine," Power Man answered.

"Mild injuries, but fine," Iron Fist reported.

"I found Wolverine," Nova said triumphantly.

Logan grunted an affirmative.

White Tiger remained silent.

"White Tiger?" Stark called. "Can you hear me? Jarvis, describe the room."

Jarvis only spoke in Stark's fancy suit, so Logan listened to hear where White Tiger was. There were shuffling sounds heading away from them, and ragged breathing closer.

Stark cursed again. "Tiger's having a seizure. Deadpool and Black Cat are getting away. Taskmaster and those two other kids are gone. Can anyone see yet?"

"I almost can," Nova said. "My helmet blocked the worst of it."

"Haha! You can't catch us! Later, haters!" Deadpool shouted from way down the hall. Logan gritted his teeth. Deadpool was right, they wouldn't be able to catch him like this, which was a pity. Logan had quite been looking forward to having some fun with his claws today.

"Alright, Amadeus," Stark said commandingly. "Get out of the Iron Spider. It's going to fly White Tiger up to the Med Bay."

"But I need—"

"To show us where Peter is. Get a move on!"

There were whirs and clanks as the suit opened up. Setting the suit on auto pilot didn't take long, but by the time it was done Logan was beginning to see again. Things were blurry and his eyes were still sensitive to bright lights, but it was better than searching while blind.

Even after the Iron Spider suit left, they still had two robotic sets of eyes. The Iron Man suit was equipped with multiple cameras and the LMD Spidey had only pretended to be affected by the lights. Amadeus still forced them to go slow as he tripped on his own feet, but they were able to pick up the pace as their vision improved.

Once they reached their destination, they could see the rubble leaking out of the cracked doorway.

"Peter's probably still in there," Amadeus said sheepishly. "He sort of sacrificed himself to get me out."

There were some gasps of horror, but also sighs. Typical Spidey, willing to do whatever it took to save people.

Stark and the LMD began scanning, but even top-of-the-line scanners could only penetrate so far into rubble, especially when metal pipes were mixed in. So Logan and the rest began clearing the slabs of concrete and layers of dirt. For the first few minutes there was fear but also hope. Peter had survived the Goblin throwing part of a building on top him. He could survive a bit of dirt.

But then minutes turned into more minutes which began to creep closer and closer to a full hour. Their hope began to dwindle, because surely Peter would have made some noise by now, some movement . . .

Past the hour mark, Logan fought against an unfamiliar pressure on his heart. Jesus, if he didn't have an insane healing factor, he would have been worried that the suspense was giving him a heart attack. The kid couldn't be dead. He couldn't! Not that Logan cared. But still. Peter had to be fine!

Where was the bod—no, the boy. Where was the boy?!

"Guys," Stark said at last nearly two hours later. "I don't think he's here."

"What do you mean?" Amadeus asked, confused. "He has to be here. Even if he's dead, his body—"

"DON'T SAY THAT!" multiple voices shouted at Amadeus. He jumped and tripped backwards, scraping his elbows.

"In a way, he has a point, though" Stark admitted begrudgingly. "I don't mean that there's something wrong with Peter. I'm saying that he's literally not here. There's no trace of anyone in here."

There was a pause as the others absorbed this.

"So Pete's not here? Did he get up and go . . . where?" Nova asked.

"He better not have gone after Taskmaster," Power Man groaned.

"Well, that's a possibility," Amadeus said as he brushed himself off. "If Tandy used her powers on him again, then he could have gone with them willingly."

"What are you talking about?" Iron Fist asked sharply.

"Obviously you don't know what happened. I haven't told you yet." Amadeus glanced around. "Should I explain here or in a more secure location? I've learned some sensitive information and you'll benefit more if I can speak freely."

Logan narrowed his eyes. He didn't like the idea of this kid knowing sensitive info. He didn't like the kid period. But they needed to know what Peter had gone through these past few days, so they had to deal with him. For Peter's sake.

God, at this rate, Logan really was going to have a heart attack or something. He hated caring.


Fun Facts:

- I got the joke version of "sleeping with the fishes" from the Lego City game. Very fun, I recommend it if only because the storyline is a hilarious amalgamation of almost every famous cop show ever to exist + James Bond.

- I understand Ty and Tandy's powers are magic based, but since magic can cause a physical effect, then it can have physical explanations as well. So their brain-altering magic uses electromagnetic waves (basically light), which can affect the brain using science like in the next fact.

- If lights are strobed in a specific pattern, they can cause seizures even in people not usually prone to seizures. I think. I read this in a book that I trust but I haven't double checked it.