Peter breathes and sits right up on his bed, feeling refreshed and well rested. He yawns and stretches his limbs out and looks around in the room to find Oliver, Freya, and John sleeping in separate beds. It's good to see they let the Division agents rest for a bit before going back out onto the fight to take back the streets from the rioters, cleaners, and Rikers. On a table is a stack of neatly folded clothes. Peter looks at the sticky note attached to a clean shirt and reads the message written.
I heard you haven't slept for a few days. Glad you got some rest. I collected some clothes donated from the JTF. These should fit you, hopefully. Please eat whenever you can. With much love. -Aunt May
Peter beams as he pulls the sticky note off of the buttoned-down shirt and slips onto the new pairs of clothes. He slips it on with little trouble. The clothes are plain and simple, not too weird, or flashy. It reminded him of the clothes he would wear to Midtown High School. He stuffs his old clothes into a laundry bin to clean them off, that is if when the base can install some way to clean clothes. Perhaps he could swing by to a laundromat once the streets are a bit safer.
Peter finally puts on his clothes and quietly leaves the room to avoid waking up the Division agents. He steps outside and looks to the sharpshooter, Shane, sitting on a chair by the door. He turns his head and smiles softly. The young man eyes widen a little as the agent stands up and waves.
"Good to see you're well rested, buddy." Shane greets with a nod.
"Yeah, I needed the sleep." Peter replies. "What or who are you waiting for?"
"Well, I was about to knock in and ask Oliver if he wants to rescue some hostages held by rioters up in 7th and 39th street. I'm just waiting till he wakes up." Shane chuckles before calming himself down. "I have to say I'm impressed what you helped Miles create. A seeker mine that stops hostiles in their tracks. If there's one person I would trust to handle SHD tech, it would be him."
"Thanks." Peter beamed. "I'll pass that along to him."
"Of course." Shane nods. "Hey, just curious. How did you get the sticky adhesive for it?"
Peter freezes in place and laughs nervously. He realized he forgot about coming up with an explanation for the webbing. Thankfully Miles didn't give Shane the truth on how he got it. His mind quickly thought of a perfect cover story for the former hitman of the Maggia crime family.
"I've created them myself." Peter began. "Then I drop it off at a discreet location for Spider-Man."
"So, you're kind of a science wiz?" Shane raises an eyebrow.
"Exactly."
Peter waits for Shane to reply as he rubs his chin in thought. "That makes sense. For a young kid, I'm impressed you helped Miles improve our tech. Lord knows what else you can do to help around here."
Peter nods a little. "Yeah, which is why I like volunteering for the JTF."
Then, the door opens as if it was on cue. Oliver slowly walks out and yawns as he stretches his arms out. Shane stands up from his chair and nods to Peter before splitting off to talk with the former SWAT captain. Just as he looks around, he notices Faye making her way over in crutches. She glances at Peter as Oliver and Shane head to the basement for some weapons from the JTF's friendly arms dealer. Peter walks up to Faye as she sits down on a chair.
"Good to see you up and about." Faye greets with a smile. "What can I do for you?"
"I'm kind of wondering what intel you have that would be good for Spider-Man." Peter replies while checking both sides of the base.
Faye grins before nodding a little. She gets back on her crutches and leads Peter to her desk by the main entrance. Peter glances at the woman slowly healing from that helicopter explosion in Brooklyn. He couldn't pity her because she is doing the best she can despite her injuries. She's the person behind the computer, guiding her agents through the mission safely. She sits down and looks up to Peter who pulls a chair up to sit down.
"So, I take it you would like some intel for Spider-Man to make our streets safe again." Faye assumes.
"That, and some questions." Peter adds. "I'm still not used to the city the way it is right now. Prefer when it wasn't destroyed by riots and death."
"I feel you. I would do anything to have the New York I know and love back." Faye chuckles a little before going through her laptop. "Alright, I've got some cleaners moving west to Hudson yards and the Garment District. Not sure what they're doing there, but I suspect it's nothing good."
"Funny you mention that. I heard from the JTF gunrunner downstairs that the Cleaners are stockpiling munitions, explosives, and other materials around several locations in the west of Manhattan." Peter points out in a quick thought. "Whatever it is, they probably have something big in the planning process."
"I agree. I can have ISAC mark a spot where the Cleaners are shutting off the water pressure below the streets and burning down apartments in the area. Perhaps after he's done beating them up, he can ask where they are doing far out west in the city."
"I'll let him know." Peter nods with a smirk. He looks around and sees no one was nearby to hear him. He was about to head out but there's one small detail that is left on his mind. He heard the Raft, the prison for super powered criminals, is still operational even in this time of crisis. He turns around and asks the senior commander of the Division how the Raft is still operational. Faye opens a new tab and types The Raft into the Division's database. She presses enter and waits for a thick load of information to appear on screen. Faye goes through the information and filters in the things Spider-Man would like to know.
"Well, you can thank our friends in S.H.I.E.L.D for securing The Raft." Faye begins as Peter's eyes widened a little. "The President has authorized SHIELD to secure the Raft and hold onto it while they ration out food to the guards and the inmates who are serving their time. Fury has stated that he has placed one of his best agents in command of the entire operation to safeguard the city from the super powered threats. Honestly if it weren't for them, we would have a much tougher battle to save New York."
"Let's hope your agents don't have to face any of my enemies." Peter says with a nervous laugh.
"I agree. But they're stronger than you think. They aren't made of glass." Faye goes through the rest of the document released by SHIELD archives. "The best part is these SHIELD agents are equipped with advanced weapons and have transportation from land, air, and sea to secure and transport any super powered criminals hiding in the city. I understand killing isn't your thing, so you won't have to worry about having to get your hands dirty to save the city."
"Good, it's better that way." Suddenly, another thought slips into Peter's mind. "Wait, if SHIELD is capable to fly into Manhattan and pick up let's say Electro, then how come they aren't sending back up to help make New York safe?"
"They've been ordered to guard The Raft and capture any super powered criminals hiding in New York, nothing else. Our job is to restore order on the streets so we can get supplies to the civilians" Faye replies. "Trust me, I would love to collaborate with SHIELD on this, but they aren't getting reinforcements from the heli-carrier until the situation in Manhattan gets better. Besides, we can't have a breakout at the Raft."
"I guess it makes sense." Peter rubs the back of his head. "Thank you for clarifying. I best better be on my way."
"Happy to clarify the details. Now go get them." Faye waves off before diving right back to work on her laptop.
Peter thought about heading out to patrol the hostile streets as Spider-Man, but he had to make a stop first. Instead, he makes a quick run upstairs into the engineering wing of the base. He quickly finds Miles talking with a group of JTF engineers and technicians. Amongst the group are the candidates who are competing for the spot to become the Division technician. One of them shows off a quad rotor drone hovering in place in front of her before sending it back to the landing pad on his desk. Peter couldn't help but admire how he got it to work.
"Yeah," Debra says with a laugh. "I got something small that will help the agents on the field."
Peter then walks up and joins in on the conversation. "So, what is it that you're making to improve the drone?"
"Oh, I'm not going to tell you." Debra laughs a little. "You'll see when the Division commander checks on our prototypes this afternoon. Heard that we're going to test our prototypes in the basement in the security wing. Hey, Miles, isn't this your friend from school you mentioned?"
"Yes, this is my friend, Peter Parker. Peter, this is Debra Sanders."
"Nice to meet you, Peter." Debra greets with a wave of her hand.
"Likewise, Debra." Peter replies. "What are you guys up to?"
"Taking a coffee break. The JTF found a box of Kerman's coffee" A JTF engineer says before taking a sip of coffee. "God, I haven't had the good stuff in weeks."
"Anyways," Miles turns his head to Peter. "Is there anything I can help you with?"
"Just checking before I head out on a supply run with the JTF." Peter replies. "How are you holding up?"
"Honestly, I'm a bit nervous. But I'm sure to win the spot."
"I bet you will."
"Hate to burst your bubble, kid" The third candidate, his name is Todd, interjects. "My father was an engineering professor at MIT. He taught me a lot about engineering… before the dollar flu got him. That position is going to be mine."
Peter rolls his eyes a little before turning around and waving goodbye to Miles. He walks down the stairs quietly before reaching the main entrance. As he steps outside and breathes the cold winter air of New York, he runs off and carries his backpack with him before entering an abandoned building across the street. After a few minutes of climbing up the stairs, he emerges on the roof in his suit and walks over to the edge. He steps back and runs forward before leaping off the roof and starts swinging his way through the city to Garment District.
-Monica Rappaccini-
Inside AIM's discreet headquarters,Monica meets with four people dressed up as Rioters and scavengers. The four press down on their watch and transform via holographic cloak from regular civilians into soldier wearing yellow hazmat suits. They salute to Monica, who they recognize as scientist supreme. She grins and clasps her hands together.
"I take it you gave what these so-called cleaners wanted without being seen?"
"We did, Scientist Supreme." One of the A.I.M. Agents replied. "We spotted them loading into a truck and carrying it to their destination."
"Very good." Monica smirks before turning her head to the monitors displaying footage of the city. One of the A.I.M. agents steps forward and speaks out.
"Permission to speak, Ma'am?"
"Go ahead."
"Pardon for my ignorance, but why are we exactly helping those cleaners? They aren't logical at all. They just burn anything they believe is contaminated. Didn't you say you wanted to take over the city? How can we take over something that will be in ashes?"
"In the short term, we are helping the Cleaners so they can keep killing the convicts, rioters, and JTF. We are watching an ecosystem that's hostile burn itself out. At the right moment, we will rise when they least suspect it, fight these factions while they're weak, and take the city for ourselves."
"And the cleaners will be dealt with in due time." The agent concludes. "Alright, I accept your plan."
Monica dismisses her agents to go back to stashing caches for the cleaners to find. The Cleaners are certainly a force to be feared, but A.I.M. is technologically more advanced and smarter. The weapons and incendiary devices that are donated to the cleaners are low grade and not very advanced. With the continued effort of the agents creating a constant boil in the city, it'll be a matter of time until no one can challenge A.I.M.
-Spider-Man-
He drops down in the middle ofthe street and scans the area. Spider-Man scans the area for anything hostile with a reasonable amount of fear coursing through his body. He's quite far out from the base and not a JTF squad in sight. It's empty and quiet and the fear of the unknown is getting to him. He knew he's going in blind, not knowing what's safe and who would shoot him on sight. Usually there would be a patrol car with happy officers that are glad to see the web slinger swinging around the place. He saw one just now, except it was burned into a crisp, the cleaner's handy work did their job.
His thoughts are interrupted as he senses a sewer lid opening up. A few seconds later, a group of Cleaners emerge from the sewers below. One of them points to an alley several yards away while muttering through his gas mask. Spider-Man zips over to a wall with a leap from the light post and observes the cleaners entering the alleyway and sweep the area for anyone. Eventually, one of them clears the area of trash and uncovers a metal cache. Spider-Man watches a cleaner open it up and starts pulling out incendiary grenades, weapons, food, and water along with documents in folders. The cleaners pack it up in duffle bags and containers. Spider-Man climbs up to a fire escape and clears his throat.
"Did you guys get anything good for Christmas?"
He wasn't sure if it was past December. The cleaners snap their bodies around and look up at Spider-Man leaning on top of the apartment fire escape. The Cleaners load their guns as Spider-Man leaps down and throws a fist at the leader. It lands on his face, causing him to spin to the wall. There were two more who pull the lever on their assault rifles. Spider-Man uses his webs and yanks their guns to the side. The Cleaners take a second of hesitation as their weapons are thrown from their hands before they charge at Spider-Man. He ducks under one of their punches and lashes at his shin with his foot before bringing his knee up to the stomach. The cleaner collapses to the ground before the other grabs a trash lid and swings it at Spider-Man. It knocks the web slinger back a bit. He jumps back as the cleaner swings his shield again, winding himself out in the process.
"Let me do my job!" The cleaner growls.
"Hey, if it didn't involve burning the city down, I wouldn't be bothering you." Spider-Man replies with a sneer before webbing the cleaners hand to the wall. The Cleaner struggles to get the webbing off of his arm as Spider-Man steps close and speaks calmly to his adversary. "What's that box doing here? They belong to you?"
"We found it. It's none of your concern." The Cleaner snarls before looking around. His voice picks up to a yell. "Somebody get me out of here!"
Spider-Man shakes his head and punches the Cleaner in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. He grits his teeth a little. "I don't want to do that to you, buddy. Mind telling me what brings you this far in the city? Any idea who is giving you weapons?"
"I don't know who is giving us gifts. But at the moment, we aren't asking questions on who is helping our cause." The Cleaner coughs. "If I tell you why we're here, would you let me go?"
Spider-Man nods and lets the Cleaner tell him why.
"We were planning to clean out the Hudson Yards, but we got word that something big is being sent on our way. My guys are on their way bringing whatever it is over to the Hudson Yards. It's our back up plan in case plan A didn't work."
"I don't even know what's your plan A here…" Spider-Man replies. He felt something ugly is going to come out of the Cleaner.
"There's infected people that need to be cleansed living together and we plan to round them up and set the entire place on fire. It'll cook everything."
"Including those poor people…" Spider-Man gasped.
"Don't bother trying to save them. They're infected and are already dead."
"You'll be surprised in what I can do." Spider-Man growls. "The webbing will dissolve in two hours."
"Wait, what?" The Cleaner rasped. "You can't leave me like this!"
"Sorry, but you think it's fine to just kill off those people. You'll be fine." Spider-Man walks away from the Cleaner who starts thrashing in his restraints. He could hear the Cleaner yell obscenities at the webslinger as he walks out of the alleyway. He tries his all to break free from the webbing.
"Oh, you son of a bitch. When, I find you I'll…!"
He didn't catch the last part as he runs fast and jumps into the air before he swings around in his webbings. He presses the side of his mask to connect to Faye Lau through ISAC. As he swings his way to Hudson Railyards, he spots from above a group of JTF taking on a group of Rioters. He thought of helping, but there's something down there that didn't say they needed help. Down below was Cade Brooks wearing a camo themed hood under his tactical armor who is shooting rioters with a revolver alongside with Freya Springfield. She drops tosses a mechanical device onto the small concrete wall. The device folds itself into a turret and begins targeting the rioters who charge at the JTF with golf clubs.
Spider-Man drops down and lands a diving kick on one of the Rioters. He leaps off from the rioter with another kick and slams into another with his knee. Cade pops out and slams on the hammer to rapidly fire his revolver before twirling it to reload his gun as the four rioters attacking him fall. Freya sprays away at the rioters who turn around to run away with her Vector. 45 SMG. Spider-Man stands at ease as the gunfire dies down slowly. Cade holds up his hand and signals all clear to the rest of the JTF squad.
"Good job Freya and Spider-Man." Cade says as he twirls his revolver into his holster.
"Alright, enough with the cowboy act." Freya bumps Cade's shoulder. "I swear you're trying to show off."
"Nothing wrong with looking good in front of the bad guys." Cade says. "Anyways, lets get these supplies back to the base. We got some good stuff here."
"Sorry to interrupt, but I need to borrow Freya for a minute."
Cade nods and hustles with the JTF to resume their patrol. Spider-Man is out of breath and looks around to make sure the area is really clear. Then he looks at Freya.
"Can you make it to Hudson Railyards? I got intel the Cleaners plan to burn it down with something big and kill hundreds of people in the process."
"Jesus Christ, the Cleaners are rounding up the infected." Freya gasps. "Sure, I'll go with you. I was heading over there on a lead by Jessica Kandel."
"What does she you over there for?"
"Can't talk. We need to hustle over there. I can give you what Doctor Kandel told me when we get there."
Spider-Man nods and casts a web to a light post before he signals Freya to hold on. She grabs onto Spider-Man's back before he starts swinging over to the Hudson Railyards. Spider-Man makes a quick call to Faye to report what he learned.
-Fisk Tower-
A group of four soldiers in purple and black paddingwait nervously as the elevator carries them up to the top floor. The elevator lets out a ding before the doors slide open. They step into a quiet, but big office. There are two men in the room. The first man, slender while wearing a white hood and cape, stands behind the massive man to look out of the window. The other, a large man in a white business suit, sits at his desk writing something onto a ledger. He looks up and spots the four men carrying a briefcase. As he spots the briefcase, he signals his men to step forward.
"So, it's all there?" The massive man asks.
"It's all there like you asked, Mr. Fisk, and I'm sure it still works." One of the guards replied.
"Good, leave it here." Mr. Fisk motions to the hooded man with his hand to collect the briefcase.
The guard drops the briefcase gently and stands still as the man in the white cape turns around, revealing to wear a skull mask along with tactical gear beneath the cape. The skull mask glares at the four guards as he walks over to grab the briefcase. He nods to the CEO before grunting. His voice came out robotic.
"I'll bring this to Bliss. You'll know where to find me if you need anything else."
"I hope he remembers his end of the deal." Mr. Fisk mutters.
"Don't push it if I were you." The white hooded reaper growls. "Just because you're providing intel, men, and resources doesn't mean you get to make demands. Now if you excuse me, I have to drop this off. We'll put this to good use."
Wilson Fisk, or better known to his adversaries as Kingpin, leans back in his chair and nods to the man in the white hood and cape as he takes the elevator down to the ground floor. Mr. Fisk dismisses his men by swirling his hand. His guards head to their post by standing next to the elevator as he dives back to his work.
A/N: Incoming Transmission!
I got some explaining to do for why it took me so long to finish this bit is simple, I'm struggling on how to construct this story from how A.I.M. is involved in this to Tombstone's role with the Rikers. I also feel the Division agents aren't as lively as I made them out to be and it's starting to worry me. Hopefully I can figure this out and get more chapters pumped out and uploaded. Until then, stay tuned.
The following characters belong to these people
John Oxton:
Freya Springfield:
Oliver Borkovic:
Shane O'Connor: