Gun fire rages loudly at the front of the post office. A group of JTF soldiers form a defensive semi-circle in front of the steps leading up to the main entrance of the post office with their weapons drawn and firing in bursts. The rioters surround their position with more numbers and fire at the JTF relentlessly with pistols. JTF dispatch shouts on the radio.
"We need better people to hold this line. Misfit squad, get out there and hold the line. We cannot let those animals inside!"
Five more JTF soldiers burst out of the post office with above average weapons. The leader of Misfit Squad is a former cop with a good son and lost his wife, Sergeant Jefferson Davis, carries a with a semi-automatic rifle. Private Aaron Richards, known as the gunrunner of the JTF, cradles a good M4 assault rifle in his hands. Then, there's Corporal Cade Brooks who pulls his camo hoodie over his head before moving into action with a stable and powerful revolver. Finally, there are two ex-SWAT officers, Eric Haines and Larry Glaser, and they make up the rest of battle-hardened rag tag group of volunteers: Misfit Squad.
Glasner and Haines break off to cover the left side. Richards takes the front with Cade and Davis before ducking behind cover alone as the rioters return fire. Cade quickly rolls to the side to dodge a smoke bomb thrown in his way. The gunslinger scurries over to tap the shoulder of his superior.
"These guys are hitting us hard!" He hollers.
JTF Sergeant Jefferson Davis nods and pops out to take a rioter down in a couple of shots. "They're just punks with pistols. Just hold the line and we'll thin them down..."
A heavily armed rioter named Poole arrives with a group of his people and starts firing away at the hip with his RPK-47. It proved to be a superior weapon compared to the JTF's standard and worn out issued rifles and pistols. Davis drops behind the concrete barrier and curses quietly as bullets whip and snap above his head aggressively. Aaron turns his head around and tosses a grenade.
"Huh, how does a punk get something like that?" Cade notes as Poole sprays his LMG at the post office. "Seriously, we need guns like that."
"He isn't hot shit. He's firing the damn thing from the hip like a reckless amateur." Private Richards snaps.
"How are we even outgunned by these hoodlums, Richards?" Glaser shouts. "You said these punks couldn't take us on."
"He likely got it from those damn convicts and you know how they feel about us." Richards fires back. "Damn it, we are screwed."
"Hold up, someone just tapped into my channel." Davis presses the headphone against his ear. "Identify yourself."
"Dispatch? This is Division agent Faye Lau, empowered and authorized by executive order and DHS Directive 51."
"Whoever you are, we're under an all-out assault. I'm not sure how much help you'll-." Gunfire zipping above the young corporal's head interrupts his thoughts. "Ok, Screw it! We'll take anything you can give us. How the hell are you in my coms?"
"We've got your back. Just try not to shoot anyone trying to help." Faye Lau kills her line, leaving the trio of JTF soldiers to shrug and accept what she's got in her pocket.
"Works for me," Cade says to his superior. "I'm about tired of having to doing all the work."
Officer Davis glares at Corporal Cade, making him gulp a little and goes back to firing at the Rioters with a heavy revolver.
-Division Agents-
The SWAT officer hustles with his fellow SHD agents as they move in to break up the rioters surrounding the JTF. Oliver makes a signal with his hand to split the group up. ISAC patches the agents into the JTF's local radio comms.
"Unit 43; be advised. You have incoming Division agents as back up to your location."
"About damn time you got us some help." Sergeant Davis shouts. "Bring them here now!"
The rioters are unaware the agents are flanking. Freya drops her seeker mine on the ground as she runs for cover. It quickly beeps and rolls for the nearest rioter. She slides behind a concrete barrier as her toy takes out a group of looters with a powerful explosion. Cade runs out of cover and rolls right next to Freya before he starts blasting with his revolver alongside her. He grins to his former co-worker.
"Nice to see you dropping by with a lovely fireworks display!" Cade looks at her backpack. "Any chance I could use that... rolly polly thingy?"
"Don't get excited. It's a once an occasion thing." She rolls her eyes up.
"Well, this is making me look bad."
"Awww... is someone jealous?" Cade scoff. Freya pats his shoulder. "Come on, show me what you can do with the revolver, gunslinger."
Cade beams a smile and pops out. He quickly shoots three rioters running up to their position with baseball bats and golf clubs with one shot each. JTF Sergeant Davis gets up onto his feet and starts issuing orders to his subordinates in Misfit squad to help out their new friends and protect the post office.
"Cade, we need support on the stairs." Davis hustles over to agent John Oxton and gets an injection of a health stimulant to patch up his wounds. "Richards, move up on the right flank. Go! Go! Go!"
Cade and Freya hurry over to the stairs to take care of the raiders from a higher position. Richards steps around the side of a bus before popping around to take down three rioters with his rifle. He steps back as Poole swings his barrel around and shoots at the bus.
All the rioters now notice the division agents and change their targets. Oliver moves forward slowly with his ballistic shield taking pistol rounds from the rioters. Shane moves his scope as he takes out one rioter after another. Oliver breaks up the rioter's offensive position on the post office. Poole twitches his head to Oliver moving slowly with his riot shield and starts unloading everything he's got on the iron curtain. Oliver clenches his teeth as his shield starts to break apart.
"Shane!" Oliver puts away the pistol and crouches down to avoid getting shot in the foot. "Put one on his head."
Shane doesn't hesitate and fires one round from a distance on his head. Poole steps back as his head jerks violently but doesn't fall to the ground. Poole grins to himself, happy to be wearing a piece of armor under his hood. He loads a new clip onto his LMG and continues to pour on. Oliver curses to himself and drops the shield as it falls apart. He ducks behind a newspaper dispenser. The last edition of the Daily Bugle inside rips apart as Oliver presses his back against cover.
Poole begins to move up onto Oliver's position. However, a string of web yanks the RPK-47 out of his hands and tosses the light machine gun away. Oliver catches the gun from midair and chuckles quietly.
"Not so much fun when you're not carrying the big stick, huh fuck face?" Oliver doesn't hesitate to hold down the trigger. Poole crumbles back to the ground.
The JTF soldiers look up as Spider-Man disarms more of the rioter's pistols with his webbing. As the gunfire dies down, the hoodlums slowly stop advancing and turn around to retreat from the post office. The JTF stand down as Sgt Jefferson Davis reports on his radio.
"Dispatch? The situation is under control." Sergeant Davis reports on the coms. "Situation report? The Division and Spider-Man saved our sorry asses."
"Well then, thanks for the report." The JTF dispatch replies. "Awesome job there, Misfit squad. Bring yourselves inside and get back to your posts."
"Right." Davis signals his squad to follow him into the post office.
"Well, that's that then." Spider-Man says stretching his arms out. "What do we have next?"
"It's time we look around our base." Faye says on a private channel between her and Spidey. "Come inside and take a look at our new home. I've got some transport and should be there soon. I'll brief you on what happens next."
"Right..." Spider-Man nods slowly before looking outside.
The SHD medic notices Spider-Man staring off to space and taps his shoulder. He pulls Spidey to the side and speaks gently to his ear.
"You seem distracted, buddy." Oxton observes.
"Yeah, I was thinking of stepping back to a quiet place and changing out of my suit." Spider-Man replies. "I don't think you should be anywhere close."
John takes a whiff. Then he steps back and pinches his nose. "Yep, time to get out of the suit. I'm going to head into the base to check it out. Maybe you can get some sleep."
"That would be great." Spider-Man blinks. "Wait! Have you told your squad about my identity?"
John shakes his head. "You want me to? Or you just keep it between the five of us?"
"Don't tell them yet. They don't need to know yet."
John sticks his thumb up and walks away. Doctor John Oxton is one of the only few people who know his identity and it was all because he had to remove the mask to treat his injuries after a deadly fight with Scorpion that happened long ago. Still, the doctor has been good at his word and hasn't shared it with anyone else.
Spider-Man swings over to an alley several blocks down. Before he could start to change out of his suit, he stumbles onto a gruesome scene. A few numbers of JTF officers hang upside down from their feet by one side of a building. Peter looks away after realizing he was looking at mutilated corpses left for display.
"Christ, who would do something like this?" Despite coming to see the city destroyed by the virus, the dark side of humanity that has seemed to come out from such dark tragedies are still new to him. He steps away from the murder scene and finishes up changing into his civilian clothes.
Five minutes later, Peter Parker runs a couple blocks back to meet up with SHD agent John Oxton at the front steps of the post office. The medic chuckles under his face mask.
"Well, that's better, Pete." He gestures to the post office. "This is where we are going to be."
The two agents step through a corridor lit up in black lights. John enters the building with the young teenager following behind. Before he could follow the doctor, A JTF steps in front of Peter.
"Hold up!" The JTF soldier mutters a bit hard. "Who is this kid, agent? Is he cleared?"
Peter tries to say something but feels John places his rubber gloved hand on Peter's chest to shush him. The medic makes a gesture to calm the JTF officer.
"Don't worry. He's a survivor I found a block south of this base." Dr. Oxton says quickly. "He told me his name, Peter Parker. I have checked him and found no signs of the dollar flu. Come on, he's been through a lot."
"Alright, I'll let him in. Thank you, agent." The JTF soldier gestures to the two to pass.
Peter lets out a breath of relief. John motions the young teen to follow him. He quickly looks around the JTF's base and is disappointed in the condition the facility is in. The room ahead on the left seemed to be a mess.
"Doesn't seem to be a functioning base." Peter mutters.
"Yep. It's a mess." John nods. "For starters, we need doctors. Faye says there's one running a medical facility in Madison Square Garden."
"The stadium?" Peter asks. "Interesting location."
"Yep. But there's a problem. The JTF lost contact with her, so we are going to check in on her. There's someone over there trying to treat people along with some JTF, but she's not exactly medically trained. Let's step in and see if I can help out."
The one person in the medical wing, Mary Jane, scrambles to understand how medicine and first aid works through a laptop. Deep in her mind, she thought she was doing a great thing to learn first aid to help people. She thought of the times of patching Peter up after his fights as Spider-man would be enough to know all that she needed to know to help hundreds of people. Not only she wasn't prepared, but she's overwhelmed. She hears a knock at the door.
"Hello." A voice calls out. "May I speak to the one in charge of the medical wing?"
"That be me. I'm sorry you have to walk on this mess," MJ sighs. "I'm a little swamped. What do you need?"
"I don't need anything." John Oxton steps into the room with a chuckle. "I'll take the weight off your shoulders."
"Do you have medical training?" She turns around. She looks up at a middle-aged man wearing a Red Cross face mask over his mouth along with the orange circle on his watch. He didn't need to lower his mask down for her to recognize it was the same doctor she worked with in FEAST several weeks back.
"Doctor Oxton!" MJ gasps happily. "Of course, you can help!"
"Glad I can help out, MJ." John Oxton grins underneath his face mask and gestures someone to walking in. "Peter, I'll be taking charge of the medical wing for a bit."
"Peter?" Her eyes widened. "He's here?"
Peter Parker steps inside and waves a little to his long-lost friend. At that moment, her emotional instincts kicked in. MJ quickly rushes up and hugs Peter tight. A tear trickles from her face as Peter hugs back.
"Alright, you can take a break and catch up with your friend, Pete." He walks over to a laptop to sign himself in. "I'll be the doctor in charge for now."
"Thanks Doc." Peter separates himself from his friend and walks out of the room together. Then, they parked themselves on a bench on one side of the room.
"So... you were playing doctor for a while?" Peter asks.
"Oh... yeah. I'm about done playing." She laughs. "You noticed anything strange from that doctor? He was wearing the same watch Freya had."
Peter explains John and Freya are two of the four Division agents that arrived at the post office. MJ blinks a couple of times and grows a bit confused.
"So... You're telling me my co-worker had a double life of being a sleeper agent?" She shakes her head and smiles. "And they have you... working with them?"
"I'm not sure..." Peter grins. "Because they may have forgotten to give me a fancy wristwatch."
"You still have that sense of humor." MJ shakes her head but chuckles a little. "Hey, haven't you taken a look around at the place?"
Peter looks around. He could only see a group of civilians gathering up to receive dinner in the mess hall. The FEAST banner hangs proudly over that one section of the post office. It put a smile on Peter's face to see that FEAST had relocated to the JTF's main building of operations. He shakes his head.
"Nope. I didn't even notice the banner until now." Peter remarked. "I found the FEAST Center scorched. Glad you guys got out of there ok."
"Thank Miles's dad." MJ sighs happily. "He and his unit escorted us out from the main headquarters to the post office. Not only did we have food to eat and beds to sleep in, but we are also working with the JTF to help the people we take in."
"Oh? That's amazing. Where's Miles and Aunt May?"
"They've been promoted due to staff shortages. Miles is upstairs working on the backup generators while some technical expert named Rhodes is out fixing the electrical grid outside of the base. Your Aunt is helping Officer Davis fill in for Captain Benitez. We haven't heard a word from him since he left to watch over the Lincoln checkpoint."
"That's a problem." Peter doesn't say out loud. "I'm sure the agents and I will find out where they are."
"Good! The sooner we can get those guys back running the base, the better our lives will be."
John Oxton steps out of the medical wing and walks up. "Peter, I have something for you."
MJ and Peter wave to each other goodbye, for now. Peter stands up and walks with the doctor over to an empty room next to the medical wing. There were seven beds organized in a tight room with a bathroom and two closets. John tosses his bag onto a bed.
"Huh... you could fit ten people in here." Peter remarks.
"Yep. It was meant for the second wave of agents on that chopper." Doctor Oxton remarked. "
"I still don't understand how it blew up..." Peter scratches his head.
"Me too. But we have more important work at hand. Faye will brief us on that." John adjusts his glasses. "Now, I would like you to fight with us. But in order to do that, we must stop ignoring the elephant in the room."
"What are you saying?"
He says quietly "You have to tell us who Spider-man is."
Peter tries to protest, but the doctor stops him by holding out his hand to plead to at least hear him out. "I'm not saying to tell it to the JTF or the people here, just Faye Lau and us agents so we can continue working together. The fight to take back New York and save what's left will be a long one. Will you do this for us?"
Peter thinks for a moment. "Only Faye Lau. I'm not sure about the others. The more people that know my identity means the more lives could be at risk."
"Good idea." He checks his watch as it beeps. "Agent Lau has arrived. Let's go see her."
Peter stows his bag underneath his bed. The two stand up and exit what will be their bedroom.
-In a secret facility in Manhattan-
There's a facility hidden in Manhattan that has sealed itself away from the chaos of the outside world. It's amazing for a building to be well lit and maintained while the city outside has fallen to a chaotic war zone. As the world was crumbling apart, everything inside this facility has what it needs to sustain the occupants of a large number of people and provide a massive amount of food, water, and electricity. Matters like that seem irrelevant for a single woman working in her laboratory alone. She had black hair, a hourglass figure, and was wearing a yellow and green jumpsuit with gauntlets on each wrist. A phone buzzes, becoming the only thing to stop her. She picks up the phone.
"What do you have to report?"
"The supplies we asked are at the dead drop and are bringing them back." A man says on the phone. "Your plan is working, Ma'am."
"I knew it would. The disease brings people down to their basic instincts." She smirks a little. "People are desperate to do anything as long as they get something out of it. Whatever it is, we can provide it, and they won't ask themselves what they're doing."
"Funny you mention it. We got a note from our delivery boys requesting a list of special items along with food and water."
"Send it over." She smirks. This should be amusing.
The lead scientist waits a few moments until the list appears on her screen. Her jaw lowers a little as she reads a shopping list of what she recognizes as hazardous chemicals. If that's what these people want, whoever they are, then that shouldn't be a problem. Chemicals are her specialty, and she shouldn't have a problem not only providing the chemicals, but perhaps make a more potent version. Interesting customers.
"You have a clue on what they need it for?" Her henchman asks.
"Not really... nor it matters to me." She smirks. The plan is coming together better than she anticipated. "I don't care what they do with it as they don't interfere with our work."
"You sure they won't ask about us? On what we do?"
"Likely not. They will do their best to keep us on their good side." She snaps. "Get your men back to the facility with the stuff and make sure you're not followed. We must continue on with our work uninterrupted."
"Of course, ma'am."
The call drops. The chemical specialist sits back on her chair and waits for her people to return with their supplies.