-Tombstone-
A group of motorcycles race in a V shape formation to a factory out near the Hudson giant sign, Alchemax chemical distribution factory, hangs over head of the gate as the motorcycles smash through it. They maneuver through the front shipping area before stopping in the open space of the factory grounds. The massive albino man is the first to step off of his chopper before the rest do and takes a deep breath. He could still smell the foul odor of hazardous chemicals lingering in the air. He breathes out and laughs.
"it's good to be back in the old stomping grounds!" Tombstone proclaims.
"Wish there wasn't so many abandoned cages in our way." One of the bikers complains. "One of them nearly knocked me out of my bike."
"We could take the cars in for parts." Another suggests.
Tombstone doesn't pay attention to the banter as a truck roll past the smashed gates and stops in front of the factory loading dock. The back of the truck opens up before someone slides a ramp. The driver hops out of the truck and runs up to the biker gang leader, ready to go to work. The rest of the biker gang gather up in front of Tombstone.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Tombstone growls. "Break open and get to work, pronto! The sooner we load up with the stuff we need for Grave Dust, the faster we get out of cold."
"You got it, boss." One of the bikers says as he pulls out a crowbar and lifts open the door with some effort. The rest run inside and load up the truck as Tombstone looks up to the sky and lights up a cigar. He takes a puff before breathing out smoke through his lips.
It's so different to be a rising king in a land filled with lawlessness, theft, and death. There are no cops around, just volunteers of the JTF who are barely trained to fight. Still, with rumors of Spider-Man not being dead only upped the thrill for a fight. The JTF aren't much of a match against a man like him, who is practically bullet proof. It's not sporting to him. Wherever Spider-Man is, he better hurry up and come to where he would likely be, restarting the chemical factory to produce chemicals for his signature concoction.
He hears a thwip sound, causing him to look up to the sky. He could see Spider-Man swinging high above in the sky. He quickly notices he's carrying someone on his back before disappearing behind a building. He wondered briefly who that person was. Perhaps it was a civilian being escorted out of danger. Tombstone shakes his head and turns around. Spider-Man isn't going to show up and fight him, just yet. He walks into the factory and checks up on his men.
-Spider-Man-
Spider-Man carried Freya as he gently drops down onto thetop of a random building that stands across from the entrance into theHudson Railyards. Freya walks slowly as Spider-Man lets her go and starts shaking. Spider-Man grows worried under his mask. The trip took fifteen minutes of web swinging, and he didn't check on his passenger.
"Are you ok?" Spider-Man asks.
"I'm fine. Just need a minute to gather my bearings." Freya wheezed.
"It sure beats taking the subway though."
"True." Freya says before opening the fire escape to get down from the building. Spider-Man crawls down from the building and drops onto his feet as Freya emerges from the building. She cocks back the level of her submachine gun and walks with Spider-Man through the gate. The descend the steps as Freya calls in Faye Lau.
"Lau, I'm at the Hudson Railyards with Spider-Man." Freya reports on her coms.
"Lau reading you." Faye reports. "Glad you have some help from the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Kandel is on the line. Take it away, doctor."
Spider-Man and Freya race down the stairwell until they reach the railyard. Then, they hear Kandel come onto the coms.
"Agent, it's Doctor Kandel." The virologist began. "I want to stress to you the vital importance of safeguarding any civilians you may come across. The math says some of those people must have survived the dollar flu. That means they got antibodies to it that I need to have a hope in hell of fighting this thing. And the ones who are just sick? Having a broader genetic diversity of virus samples will help us track the virus' rate of mutation."
"Which is a long way to say keep those people alive until you get what you need from them." Freya simplifies what the doctor says. "I think I got it."
"Great." Kandel says before signing off.
"I was briefed by Lau on this. I didn't need a reminder from the good doctor." Freya says with an annoyed sigh as Spider-Man listens intently. "You don't find this to be dull, do you?"
"Not really. She just sounds dedicated in finding out about this virus before it kills more people." Spider-Man replies before taking a whiff of the air. The smell of gasoline and flames got to him. "Wait, you smell that?"
Freya takes a whiff of the air. She sensed the same telling odor that Spider-Man smelled. "I do. Cleaners are here."
A group of Cleaners emerge from the train tunnels. Two of them start to chat quietly. Freya scoots behind a train car and pulls out a small device, the sticky bomb launcher. She points at a cleaner as two more cleaners walk up to join in on the conversation with the other two. Freya fires her sticky bomb, which embeds itself on the back of a cleaner. Before he could find out what is going on, Freya stabs the trigger down with her thumb. An explosion erupts, wiping out the group of four in the process.
As the explosion creates a violent echo, another unit of cleaners carrying shields and fire axes emerge from the tunnel and begin to charge for the lone agent. She tosses a turret on top of a bundle of empty barrels. The turret folds itself into an automated turret and starts shooting at the rushers. The Cleaners get close, making Spider-Man leap into the air from the top platform and drop down in front of one of the bad guys. The cleaner backs away in a flinch, exposing himself as his shield arm flails. Spider-Man uses his webs to throw the shield back at his target, pushing him back.
Freya pulls her sentry turret and starts shooting in bursts, picking off shields in the head as Spider-Man knocks one Cleaner after another in quick lunging strikes. As the last cleaner falls, Freya calls Faye Lau and Doctor Kandel at the main headquarters. It takes a few seconds for the call to connect.
"This is Agent Springfield." She calls in. "I just encountered some Cleaners. What's the situation with the railyard?"
"Springfield, you need to hear this. Faye tells me the Cleaners are holding the entire tent city prisoner."
"That's what I heard from Spider-Man." Freya replies. "I'm afraid he's right about their intentions. They plan to burn this railyard down."
"Yep, it fits the Cleaners M.O." Faye acknowledges. "If you want to eradicate every last vestige of detectable virus, where would you go?"
"Wherever the biggest concentrations are." Jessica replies. "Refugee camps, shantytowns… Jesus… You don't think they'd…"
"Draconian solution, but highly effective." Faye remarks.
"Sure, if you're a genocidal maniac…. You even wonder if we even deserve to survive this thing?"
"Every day doctor." Faye replies somberly. "Everyday. Good luck agent."
Spider-Man and Freya race into the tunnel. Freya is one step ahead of the webslinger before he suddenly goes to alert. He grabs Freya and holds her back. She stops and turns around, glaring at the hero with a confused look in her eyes.
"Hey, is there something wrong?" Freya grunts with a bit of annoyance but continues to walk forward slowly.
"Yeah, something is off." Spider-Man says. "Be careful around here."
"You're making it sound like this tunnel is dangerous or something. Don't worry, I'm not made out of glass."
Spider-Man turns his head and searches around the tunnel. It was an instinct of some kind he developed during his time fighting crime and it's helped him keep him out of serious danger at critical times. It took him a few minutes of careful searching before he then sets his sights on a gasoline jug resting at the door of a subway car. The flashing red light is a dead giveaway that is rigged to blow, perhaps in proximity of any unlucky passerby. Freya is unaware of the bomb rigged in the subway car and is about to step inside.
"Wait!"
Freya freezes as the device beeps loudly, triggering it to explode. In split second thinking, Spider-Man uses his webbing to pull Freya back by several inches away from the bomb. The device explodes in front of her, making her jump back as the entrance to the subway car bursts into flames. Spider-Man notices another bomb stashed by a door. He yanks the bomb to the side, making it explode harmlessly at a distance.
"Let's go this way." Spider-Man points to the open door. "We can stop the Cleaners from killing people and avoid playing mine sweeper."
"I agree." Freya nods and grins. "Thanks for saving my ass, Spider-Man."
"No problem."
The two took a detour through the maintenance door and walk through the corridor. They step around the corner only to stop as Freya hears a beeping sound. Then, Freya looks ahead and sighs as there are two more proximity firebombs set to detonate on the wall of the corridor. Spider-Man sighs as Freya aims her SMG to detonate the bombs.
"Man, I wish Oliver was here to help dismantle these fire mines." Spider-Man groans a little.
"It's faster if we shoot them." Freya points out. "You have his number, right?"
"That's right…"
He presses on the side of his mask and makes a call to Oliver. Freya moves up through the corridor and shoots at the other bomb blocking the hallway. Just close by is a group of two people, a man and woman, huddling together near a wooden crate. They look up and spot Freya walking past them before Spider-Man points to the opposite direction, guiding them to safety.
"Thank you both." The man says before he escorts his friend out of here.
"Yeah, Oliver. It's me, Spider-Man." Spidey says through his mask. "Any chance you can head over to Hudson Railyards?"
"Sure." Oliver replies with a bit of warmth in his voice. "I'm inbound and will be there in 10 minutes."
-Miles Morales-
Before the commander was alerted about Cleaners cleaning out the Hudson Railyards,an event took place downstairs in the basement of the JTF security wing. It was the tryouts for the upcoming engineers who want a promotion to work alongside the Division. The JTF gunrunner, Aaron, had finished setting up targets for his makeshift firing range. The JTF engineers trying out for the Division tech specialist position. There was three in the room and only one was going to get the position. Faye stands by as a JTF soldier reads from a clipboard to the three nervous engineers and goes through the list one by one.
"Alright, when I call your name, you will demonstrate what you've learned and what you came up with for your assigned SHD device." The JTF soldier announces. "First up is going to be Debra Sanders."
Miles gives Debra a nod, wishing her good luck. Debra nods back before she stands in front of the firing range. She activates the drone with a flicker on the switch. It begins hovering into the air and moves into the firing range. The drone opens its hatch for the gun to drop down before it begins firing at the target. The drone moves in different directions, firing in a strafing run until the target is riddled with holes. There was a quiet clamor of clapping as the drone fluttered to Debra's hands. She walks back to the line followed by a round of applause.
"Nice job, Debra." Faye compliments the first engineer. "The drone is quite impressive and could be useful to our agents on the field. We have one in the prototype phase, but I'll pass it along to them."
Debra nods and goes back in line. The JTF soldier quickly glances at the sheet and looks at Todd Andrews who carries the support station.
Todd walks over tosses the box over the sandbags and the support station hums to life. It radiates a glow and expands a green sphere aura around the box. Todd steps into the aura and throws an incendiary grenade below the target's feet, which is in the healing aura. The flame grenade explodes but doesn't ignite the target dummy in flames. Todd stepped back as another round of applause came. Faye looks at the target dummy as the flames die out.
"Seems you perfected the support station to where it can prevent people from bursting into flames." Faye notes. "Does it work for things like flashbangs, phosphorus, smoke, etc.?"
"Yeah, they work." Todd nods. "Why you ask?"
"Because this is something that could be useful of keeping our agents in cover and prevent them from being drawn out into the open." Faye says. "That's all I need to know."
"Finally," The JTF gunrunner looks down at his clipboard one last time. "Miles Morales."
Miles starts to sweat a little from his forehead. He squeezes the Seeker Mine and looks at the last target in the firing range before looking at the seeker mine. He was nervous as this is a performance tryout that he didn't prepare for. He did check to see if the seeker mine would work before he walked down the stairs. This is his chance to move up from working for Rhodes to working with the Division on their tech, a promotion he dreamed of. He nods to himself.
"Here goes nothing."
He tosses the seeker mine over the sandbag barrier as it beeps to life. The seeker mine finds it's target and begins rolling to it. Miles holds his breath as it gets close. Finally, the seeker mine jumps into the air and drops the web fluid onto the target before it explodes into pieces. The webbing rains in huge globs and covers the target in web fluid. Miles turns around to glimpse at the shocked faces from the engineers. Faye grins a little.
"Miles, I would like for you to come with me. Everyone else, head back to your stations."
Miles nodded and walked up to Faye. The young kid wonders what the senior commander of the division wants with him. Was she going to bombard him with twenty questions? Ask him the awkward question about the web fluid. The silence lingered as they reached her desk. Finally, Faye broke her silence and smiled.
"I'm impressed with your prototype." Faye says. "I take it you had some help from Peter."
"Wait…" Miles blinks a couple of times. "You know that he's Spider-Man."
Faye nods and looks around to see no one is in earshot. She pauses for a moment as she stares at the young kid.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're Rhode's assistant, right?" Miles nods, making Faye grin a little. "Well, that's a shame because I would like to offer you the position of Division tech specialist. Unless you like to work with Rhodes."
Miles beams very brightly. He could barely contain his excitement. He nods quickly to the senior commander and shakes her hand, accepting her offer to become the Division tech specialist. Faye nods and laughs a little. She gets up on her crutches and leads Miles upstairs into the tech wing.
"Well, take a load off for a while. In the meantime, we'll create space for you to get started on your new job as a division tech specialist. Congratulations Miles."
Faye walks downstairs to continue her work as commander of the division. Miles walks downstairs. His father, Jefferson Davis, is nowhere to be seen. He then heads to the medical wing and spots Rio working on a wounded JTF soldier. Rio finally finishes patching the JTF soldier's leg before she takes a brief break. She turns to see Miles walking in, making her raise an eyebrow.
"Miles, what are you doing here?" She asks as she wipes sweat off her forehead.
"Just something amazing happened." Miles says. "I got a new job in the base of operations."
Rio sits down on a chair with a smile as Miles tells her about his new job in the tech wing, filling his mom with joy. Outside the medical wing was a man gearing himself up in SWAT gear before he makes his way to the Hudson Railyards.
-Spider-Man-
The Cleaners were attaching something onto a crane, a large sized device. They set it to arm and watch it be lifted up by a crane before they hear gunfire echoing. The Cleaners shove the civilians out of the way and point their rifles at Spider-Man and the Division agent as they step into the Shantytown. Freya steps forward and fires away with her assault rifle; the lightweight M4. The Cleaners go down before Spider-Man could jump into the fray. As the last cleaner falls, Spider-Man goes up to the civilians who are shaken terrified.
"Don't worry, folks. You're safe now." Spider-Man announces.
"Alert!" ISAC announces from Freya's backpack. "Unknown explosive device armed and set to detonate in 10 minutes."
"That's how the cleaners plan to burn this entire railyard down." Says Freya.
"How did they get it together so fast?" Spider-Man wonders out loud.
"It doesn't matter." A voice calls out. Spider-Man and Freya turn out to face a man donning SWAT gear walks into the Shantytown and pumps a load into his shotgun. It was Oliver, who tilts his head up to the bomb hanging above the Shantytown. He looks back at Spider-Man and Freya Springfield. "If we hurry, we can stop the cleaners, lower the bomb and save these people."
"You sure you can disarm that bomb?" Spider-Man asks.
"We'll see. Chances are I can. I just need to know what kind of bomb it is."
"Alright." Freya nods. "Let's hustle."
The two agents and the webslinger hustle further into the Hudson Railyards as the bomb hangs above the railyard.