Peter Parker
Surprisingly, I slept rather well. I don't know how I did, considering how much I was anticipating the following night. But I did. The morning after, I felt the tension in the air. When we ate breakfast at the bar, we were silent. Normally, I'd make a joke in such a situation. I couldn't bring myself to do so. I was just thinking about the many ways tonight could go wrong. After breakfast, I went to my room and went about checking my gear. I ran a diagnostic on the Black Dahlia suit, making sure it was proper shape for field use. Craig was in the room with me, checking over his own gear as well. Once again, that shotgun with the yellow stock made its appearance as it lay in its case.
"How you holding up, homie?" Craig asked as he took the rifle out of the case and started carefully looking it over.
"I just want to be done with this and go home," I said simply. "You?"
"Same, man. Same." He shook his head. "I don't know about you, but when summer rolls around, I just want to go on vacation. I'm talking a real vacation. I want to be on the beach, sitting on a beach chair while I'm sipping drinks from a coconut or pineapple and holding Carmilla while she sits on my lap wearing nothing but a two piece."
I smiled. "You could go back down to Florida."
He nodded in acknowledgment. "I could. But, I want to go back to Japan or California and actually enjoy either one of those places. I'm getting tired of going to vacation spots and just being there to handle some heavy, know what I mean?"
I nodded. "I guess I feel the same way about Europe. Like, don't get me wrong, Europe ended on a high note but… the memories are kind of tainted." I shook my head. "You know, there's a small part of me that hopes I get another chance to fight Beck again, just so I can kick his face in once more."
Craig gave me a pointed look. "You might not want to put that out into the universe."
I scoffed. "Beck is dead," I pointed out.
"For some people, death is the end," Craig retorted. "But for other people, death ain't nothing but a five letter word in the dictionary."
I raised an eyebrow. "You've met people that have come back from the dead?"
"If I had a nickel for every time I've seen somebody walking around alive and well after their death was confirmed, I'd have about three nickels. That's not exactly a lot of nickels, but that's three more nickels I'd ever expect to have for that, you know?" I stared at him for seconds. I then nodded slowly. I had so many questions, but I didn't bother asking.
A little later on, we all met in the living room. After setting up a secure and highly encrypted Wi-Fi hotspot, Kitty shared the screen of the tablet to the TV. First thing we saw was a satellite image.
"Okay, what we're looking at is Madripoor," Kitty explained. She zoomed in on a particular building. "This is the building they're holding Kaine in. After doing a lot of…" Kitty paused in her speech as she yawned. Once she was done yawning, I got a good look at her. That's when I saw the circles around her eyes. She definitely wasn't kidding when she told me she was going to have a long night. "Excuse me. Anyway, after doing a lot of digging, Carmilla and I discovered that the black site is a laboratory devoted to researching and experimentation of the augmentation of the human body with animal DNA. It was actually one of a handful of such black sites scattered across the globe. We technically came across one of them before."
"Palm Springs," I whispered out.
"Of course it was Palm Springs," Carmilla grumbled.
"But why?" Buford asked. "What's the point in all of this?"
"The U.S. Government is probably trying to bolster their forces to deal with high-level violators of the Accords such as ourselves," Joanna responded. "That would explain the guys we fought at Hammer Industries."
"We might be facing the same type of foes at the black site," Kitty pointed out. The screen changed, showing a 3D rendering of the building. After Kitty tapped away at her tablet, the inside of the building was shown. "There are five floors. Kaine will likely be held on the third or fourth floor. The invading force will be made up of me, Peter, Craig, and Joanna." The screen changed back to the satellite view. It zoomed out a bit, showing the surrounding area. "There are some buildings in nearby." One of the buildings was then circled. "This one in particular is where I'm going to situate you, Carmilla. The building is about 600 yards away, so that should be well within range for you to provide sniper support. It's also unoccupied and is apparently up for sale. I need you to bring two rifles – one for precision shooting, and another for anti-materiel purposes."
"Got it," Carmilla stated.
"As for you Buford, you'll be nearby with the vehicle just some yards away. You'll likely be our getaway driver. But you'll also be monitoring communications. I understand what the Power Broker says goes. But I don't put it past the U.S. Government to break agreements. Beyond that, you may need to help Carmilla out of a jam."
"Noted," Buford said in response.
"We'll be leaving this hotel in five hours. Do whatever you need to do to get ready. Rest, nourish yourselves, check your gear, etcetera. Okay?"
"Got it," Craig spoke up. "Well, I don't know about y'all, but I think room service is in order."
A few hours later, we headed out. After we checked out and paid our room service tab, we made our way to the building that Carmilla would be situated in. As Kitty stated, the building as unoccupied. It looked like it hadn't been used in a while as everything was pretty dusty. Still, it was in pretty good shape from what I can see.
I'd take this building over Ravencroft any day of the week.
Anyway, once we there, we changed into our outfits. I donned the Black Dahlia Armor. Kitty went with her spy suit. Craig went with the All-American Armor. Carmilla also wore her spy suit. Buford kept it simple with a bulletproof vest underneath his fancy suit and a black ski mask that only left his eyes exposed. Joanna was wearing something a bit different. She wore a black jumpsuit that looked to be made out some rather sturdy fabric. Over her upper body was a grey flak jacket with the X-Symbol in the middle of the chest area. Along with that, she had on grey military boots and a black tactical mask with red eyes that covered her face but still allowed her dreads to hang down.
"Where'd you get that suit?" I asked.
"It's a suit I used when I was working for Anvil," she explained, her voice slightly muffled by the mask. As she spoke, she shouldered an M32 Multi-Shot Grenade Launcher "I kept it stashed away for a while. But, lately, I realized that I probably shouldn't have my face out in the open. Some stenciling and spray painting later, and…" She trailed off as she gestured to her outfit.
I smiled underneath my mask. "I think it looks awesome."
Joanna chuckled heartily. "Thank you."
"You're welcome."
Once we were ready, we set up communications. Everyone got an earpiece except for me and Craig (both of our suits already communication devices that could be programmed to the frequency we'd be using). Once that was set up, Kitty addressed us all.
"Remember the plan," she told us. "Our priority is to make sure that Kaine is safe. Once we free him, we'll take down Kraven and The Jackal if they are there, which they most likely will be. Remember that we'll likely deal with a lot of resistance, so we'll have to be on our toes. As I said before, Craig, Joanna, Peter, and I will be the strike force. Once everyone is in position, we'll begin our invasion. While we're making our way in, Carmilla will be providing support in the distance. Buford, you'll be on standby. You're going to be serving as our getaway driver and monitor communications. However, if we need you for anything else, we'll radio you in. If Carmilla needs you for anything, she'll do the same. Now with that said, we're using codenames from here on out. Let's go."
We all split. Scorpion went upstairs, carrying two cases up with her. Buford… Razorback… got into the armored SUV and drove away. The rest of us moved on foot towards the black site. We moved slowly, keeping an eye out for anyone who could be playing look out. My Spider Sense didn't go off. Still, I was getting this antsy feeling that we were being watched. Internally, I was playing my favorite game – Which Is It? Was it intuition? Was it paranoia? Or was it my deep-seated expectation for the worst-case scenario to happen?
Isn't my mind fun?
We eventually arrived at the black site. Frictor, Frenzy, and Shadowcat leaned back against a wall as I peered around the corner. Using the lenses of my mask, I scanned the area in front of me. There was a fence around the site. On top of the fence was razor wire. Even in the dim light, the wires were giving off a glint. They were definitely relatively new.
"Edith, would you kindly switch to thermal vision?" I asked. I had a feeling that the fence was electric.
"Doing so now," Edith stated. My vision was then flooded with hues ranging from violet to yellow. The fence was looking very bright, giving off a rather pale yellow. It was almost white. That was going to be an issue. More than that, there were guards making their patrol. I withdrew my head and sighed.
"Okay, so, the good news is that the fence is the only barrier we have to worry about before we reach the building," I said.
"What's the bad news?" Shadowcat asked.
"Well, the fence has razor wire spiraling across the top of it. Also, the fence is highly electrified."
"Of course it is," Frictor muttered. I looked at him. "Maybe we should have asked for a tour of the facilities."
At that, Shadowcat scoffed. "I doubt they were giving any tours tonight."
"I can roll out a red carpet for you," Scorpion said through our communication frequency.
"Please do."
Some seconds later, I heard the sound of something whizzing by. Right after that, I heard an explosion, followed by the sounds of a blaring alarm. I poked my head around the wall. I saw a whole bunch of smoke. Once the smoke cleared, it revealed that a section of the fence was blown away. Sparks were coming out of the burnt ends of the wiring. The others moved from behind the wall. It was during this time that the security personnel moved in.
"Not bad, not bad," Shadowcat said. "Frenzy, would you kindly give out the presents?"
"Gladly," Frenzy said. I looked towards her as she grabbed hold of her grenade launcher. She aimed it upwards and fired off six shots. During this, the guards started to run out towards us. Frictor and I sprang into action. After he and I moved in front of Frenzy, I let loose a barrage of webbing bursts as Frictor aimed his modified Mossberg and fired off XREP rounds. Within moments, the group of six were taken down, either from getting pelted by the web bursts or getting a rather nasty shock from the shells that hit. Seconds later, the grenades Frenzy launched landed, causing a scattered string of explosions.
"Let's move!" Shadowcat ordered. "Scorpion, open up an entrance for us!"
"Got it!" Scorpion said.
Frictor, Frenzy, Shadowcat, and I ran forward through the opening, making sure to avoid the sparks. As we continued to run forward, two more explosive bullets flew over our head before they hit the wall of the building, exploding on impact. After some seconds, the smoke cleared. Unfortunately, the wall was mostly intact, only dirtied by residue.
"I guess we should've known they would have reinforced their walls," Frenzy commented.
"Sorry guys," Scorpion apologized over the radio. "I thought I'd be able to blow open an entrance for you."
"Don't worry your head over it," Shadowcat said dismissively. "If anything, we can just make lemonade, so to speak."
Once we reached the wall, Shadowcat stepped up to it placed her hand on it. She then beckoned us to walk through. Frictor walked through the wall without hesitation. Frenzy and I looked at each other for a moment before we stepped through the wall, going through it was if it was some kind of hologram. It wasn't the first time I walked through a wall like that, of course. But this was the first time I did so without Shadowcat holding me. Still, Frenzy and I made it to the other side without issue. I looked over my shoulder to see Shadowcat walking in. I then looked around the place. I guess it was typical – metal hallways, sirens blaring, the whole floor bathed in the revolving red lights…
"Edith, think you can point us to the nearest stairwell?" I asked.
"Accessing the local network," Edith replied. After some seconds, a map of the building came across my vision. Two dots then appeared. One was blue, indicating my location. The other dot was red, showing the location of the stairwell.
"Thanks Edith." I turned my head towards the others and beckoned them to follow me. "This way."
We moved down the hallway, with me taking the lead. A couple of minutes later, I made a left. That was when my Spider Sense went off. From a connecting hallway, a squad of eight turned the corner and rushed towards us. As they opened fire with their rifles, Frenzy and Frictor moved to the front. Between their powers and their armor, they were able to soak up most of the gunfire without any problems. Some of the bullets managed to get by them, but my suit was able to take them easily. Even though Shadowcat was a bit too far behind me to be in my peripheral, I had a feeling she was using her powers to allow the bullets to sail right through her harmlessly. After the hail of gunfire, Frenzy ran forward at top speed. She brought her arms out and went through the entire group with a double lariat that would have made Stan Hansen proud. After she was done, I quickly webbed the defeated guards down to the ground. After that, Frictor, Shadowcat, and I stepped carefully over the bodies and continued down the hall, rejoining Frenzy along the way.
"You know, Frenzy, having you on the team made me realize how much we missed having a powerhouse on the team," Shadowcat commented.
Frenzy looked at her. "Y'all never had someone like me on your team before?" she asked.
"We've had quite a few before my time. But during my time on the team well… not since Colossus."
I looked at her. "Who is Colossus?"
"He's a large guy whose power basically allows him to turn into this super strong metal being." Shadowcat grimaced. "He's also my ex."
I had so many questions, but I kept it to myself.
Eventually, we reached the stairwell. We all stepped inside through the door before we looked up and…
"Aaaaaah shit!" Shadowcat swore.
Coming down the stairs from the top floor was multiple guards. These guys were masked up and wearing grey camouflage jumpsuits.
"What do we do?" I asked.
"We fight," Shadowcat ordered as she pulled out two kunai from her holster and palmed them. "We'll split up into teams of two – Frictor with Frenzy in the third floor, and you with me to the fourth floor!"
"Got it," Frictor replied, readying his shotgun.
"Understood," Frenzy added as she cracked her knuckles.
I didn't say anything in response. Instead, I deployed the Spider Pincers. I lowered myself into the three-point stance that I was known for. I looked up at Shadowcat and nodded. She nodded back at me. That was when we all ran upward.
