Gwen's good mood lasted all the way to her apartment building. She was planning on a shower then an excursion to her lair to sift through the data she acquired the night before. Or modify her data-spider as she called her personally created AI to do it for her. Her mood was dashed when she saw a familiar pair of agents sitting out front of her apartment building. She could get into her apartment without them noticing she was Spider-Woman after all. She decided against it, they were probably already suspicious. She walked up to Agent Mallory's window and waved. He lowered it.
"So, you didn't answer your door because you weren't home. You know the drill."
Gwen sighed.
"I don't suppose I could go grab a shower and some lunch before we go?"
The homeland security agents looked at each other. Gwen motioned to her building.
"I'm cool if you come up and wait and make sure I don't run off. You can even grab some cold drinks. Please just let me get a shower."
Agent Mallory nodded.
"I guess half an hour won't make a difference at this point."
She led the pair of agents up to her apartment she motioned to the refrigerator.
"Grab whatever. I'll be quick. I promise."
Gwen rushed about gathering up a change of clothes before heading for a shower. She was in the midst of putting on moisturizing sunblock and was checking her face over for missed spots when she saw a flash of black with two huge white eyes and a mouth of razor-sharp teeth overlaid on her reflection. She stumbled backwards, tripped over the tub and hit her head. She hadn't screamed and it took her a few moments to come to her senses. She heard one of the agents knocking on the door.
"Are you alright in there?"
Gwen rubbed the back of her head with a groan.
"Yes. Just being clumsy, almost done."
She looked in the mirror again checking herself out for anything odd but she looked normal for her, which was basically a fifteen year old girl who looked like she was an Olympic gymnast or professional ballet dancer with her musculature. She shook her head and muttered.
"You've been spending too much time dealing with gods and monsters, Gwen Stacy. You need to get back down to Earth."
She leaned on the vanity and thought of Loki. She felt a pang of guilt being here and him being in a cell. She thought to herself: Come on Gwen, he's like a thousand years old, the ultimate bad boy your mom warned you about, he killed a bunch of people and you tried to kill each other. You're fifteen. Oh, and you have a really hot boyfriend. She thought she'd talked herself out of Loki but then that little devil on her shoulder said its piece. Loki is hot too and he is fun to talk to. Wouldn't it be fun to be Queen? She held her hands up at her reflection in a 'I can't even with you right now' motion and started brushing her hair out. She selected a fresh pair of leggings and a shirt she'd purchased at the Pride parade last year. It was black and had the blue, pink and white trans flag on it and declared in big letters Protect Trans Kids! The Agents looked up when she came out of the bathroom. She smiled at them. Grabbed three protein bars and a water bottle and stuffed them in her backpack. She declared.
"Take me to your leader."
Agent Mallory chuckled. Henderson looked less impressed. Gwen sighed at Agent Henderson.
"Come on, that was funny."
The odd trio left the walk-up and got into their SUV. Gwen started munching on the protein bars as they drove being careful to avoid getting crumbs all over the pristine vehicle. Agent Henderson who seemed the more severe of the two kept glancing at her in the mirror as if watching to see she wasn't making a mess. They parked at a building Gwen had never been to. It was a silver office building and besides a big address sign it had no name on it. Agent Mallory escorted her inside and left her at the front desk.
The woman behind the front desk looked pleasant. Somehow Gwen felt she wasn't everything she seemed. She pushed a clipboard towards Gwen and put a pen beside it.
"You'll need to sign in."
Gwen saw the visitor's badge and realized this was a SHIELD facility. Instead of signing she reached into her backpack and held up her SHIELD badge to get her in and out of the Chitauri Perimeter.
"Will this work?"
The woman raised an eyebrow and took the visitor's badge and clipboard back. She took Gwen's badge and tapped it on an RDIF reader. She pointed down a hallway.
"Yes. Clip your badge on. There is a waiting room four doors down, please be seated. Someone will be with you shortly."
Gwen clipped the badge onto her shirt and walked off down the hall. The building was very sterile looking. The waiting room's black seats were uncomfortable. It was like it was all set up to be intimidating. She sent an email to her father. While she was in her email she noticed an email from Queen's general billing. She tapped it and it was the bill for Aunt May's surgery and stay at the hospital. She dialed the number at the bottom of the bill. She passed her time waiting by going through the itemized bill one line at a time. She managed to drop the price by twenty thousand dollars, so it was more in line with what they had initially been quoted. Her nan, always said the worst criminals were the ones who said they were helping people, like hospital billing departments. Coming from her nan who was a forty-year veteran mob-wife that was saying something before she passed away. She made arrangements to pay the remainder right there and then. She looked at the link to her lair's servers and decided against accessing it from inside a spy agency. She tapped her wrist and made the holo-display vanish when her spider sense triggered. It was Maria Hill who came around the corner.
"Gwen, nice to meet you officially, please follow me. Director Fury is waiting."
Gwen stood up and followed her and they rode the elevator up to the top floor. Maria led her to a corner office. Nick Fury was sitting behind a big desk. He nodded to Maria who smiled at him and left the office. The door closed behind Gwen ominously. He motioned to a seat across from him.
"Have a seat."
Gwen hesitated, this seemed like it was going to be one of those she gets yelled at situations, and she wasn't feeling it.
"This isn't going to take that long, is it? I have a lot to do today."
He stood up, leaned over the desk and pointed at the seat.
"Sit your ass down."
Gwen sat down and mumbled.
"Okay, sensitive."
He sat down.
"You're goddamned right I'm sensitive. What part did the two of you amateurs miss about secret operation?"
Gwen looked around.
"Is this a safe place to have this conversation?"
He nodded.
"Swept for bugs and the office is soundproofed. Now, tell me, how a simple in and out data theft turned into a building exploding?"
Gwen blinked innocently.
"Oh, don't try that on me. I know you were nearby, that Sheriff who ran your ID proved that much."
She sighed.
"There were complications."
Fury's one good eyebrow arched.
"Complications, you don't say, I'd say a goddamned building exploding with thirty agents dead is a little more than a complication."
Gwen's shoulders slumped.
"She ran into an AI on an old-style mainframe. We did not expect that. We thought it was just a terminal. She got in without being detected. The AI tripped the alarm. Armed guards showed up and that's when I lost the signal. Next thing I knew the building blows up. She somehow managed to make it out. I found her mostly naked in a wooded area nearby. Covered in blood. She was unconscious until morning and isn't sure what happened, and I lost feed, so I don't know what happened. She managed to get a spider bot on some copper cable, so we got some data, I'm just not sure how much. I'm telling you this computer was ancient. Almost as old as you. It was slow. Likely we only got what was being transferred back and forth to the active memory of the computer. I don't know yet because before I could analyze what we got, your personal attack dogs from Homeland Security dragged me in here."
He tapped his fingers on the desk.
"Well access it now."
Gwen shook her head.
"No, you think I'm accessing her secure server from inside a spy agency? Hell no. I don't think I've ever been that stupid. You want the data, let me go analyze it and send you what is pertinent."
"Why do you think you get to decide what is pertinent?"
Gwen blinked a few times.
"You don't pay either of us, we don't take orders from you. You want all the data? You send your own people into exploding buildings with armed guards. You want her and I to do it you get what we give you. So, either you get none of it, or you get what is important. And by important, I mean anything that doesn't compromise her identity."
She could tell by the frown he was annoyed. He motioned towards his door.
"Please get it to me as soon as possible."
Gwen stood up.
"I'll send you a text when I have it ready on an encrypted drive."
He nodded and watched her go. Gwen mashed the main floor button in annoyance. She was getting really tired of being SHIELD's unpaid intern.
Gwen decided to take the subway back to Queens. After a very circuitous route that took her through alleys and businesses with two entrances, she reached her lair. Which was untouched just as she expected. Her spider bot had gotten some data but it was literally binary data so it would take time to break it into actual readable intelligence. She sent her data spider off to do that and started reviewing the video footage from the bots. The one she'd had watching the roof caught what looked like two missiles hitting the building just before it blew up.
"One mystery solved…"
She tried to get an angle on what happened after she blacked out. She was sorely hoping it was just the explosion that caused her black out. The problem was the timestamps didn't match up. She left the view of the bot in the computer room ten minutes before the building blew up. The angle was bad so all she got was the audio of screams and gunfire. She saw a shape appear in the doorway. It was one of the guards. He screamed when what looked like an organic whip with teeth wrapped around his neck. He dropped his assault rifle and started tugging on the writhing bloodred tongue as it began to strangle him. He was lifted up. The tongue seemed to throw him up in the air then yank itself back suddenly. The teeth on it acted like a saw. Gwen turned away as his head was separated from his body; Blood sprayed everywhere. She felt her protein bars coming back up and had to stop the video for several minutes.
Once she got over the gore she'd just witnessed, she returned to her desk and moved the video forward frame by frame and finally caught a full glimpse of whomever it was. It wasn't her as far as she could tell. Whomever it was, was obviously female. It looked like a mockery of her own costume. The eyes were white. The rest of it was black. The edge of the hood looked like jagged white teeth. The inside of the hood was a bloodred color that seemed to form into a tongue as it reached the neckline. The long thin tongue ran the length of her body, and it was covered in what looked like large teeth. She captured the image. She let the video play forward.
Gwen was in denial. There was no way that thing could be her. Whatever this was… it was a monster. It could not possibly be her. The black slime thing looked enraged and sounded feral.
"What have you done to me?!"
Arnim Zola's ascii avatar looked terrified. As Gwenom's claws dug into the white desk. He spoke.
"We can discuss this. Do you want a cure? We can work together to find one."
It leaned further in, blood dripped from the toothy maw. Its voice sounded feminine but completely inhuman. It was almost like two people speaking at once through one mouth.
"Project Regrowth. Black slime!"
Arnim had a few false starts as blood dripped down his screen from her mouth and onto the camera beneath. Then the green avatar's eyes went wide.
"You must be subject SW, the one from the serum tests. Incredible… you've merged with the symbiote."
It growled. Arnim spoke in a rush.
"Of course, you did, of course. We were attempting to create a superior super soldier serum with the ability to regrow lost limbs. It caused… unstable mutation in the subjects. Your blood acted as a stabilizing agent. We'd managed to create a synthetic symbiote… with all the abilities and no intelligence of its own. Unfortunately, it eventually killed the hosts with radiation poisoning even as it tried to keep them alive. But it is obvious now, they were genetically incompatible! Look at you the perfect unstoppable killing machine."
The audio distorted when it roared and then a tearing sound could be heard when it dug its claws deeper into the desk.
"Out now!"
Arnim just stared at her from the screen. In response it ripped the desk in half. That seemed to get him talking again.
"With time we can find a solution. I work for an organ-"
It closed its fists and slammed the sides of the screen. It roared a single word.
"Now!"
He responded with a stammer.
"Then you need Cindy Moon she was the one who created the synthetic symbiote."
It snarled.
"Where?"
He spoke again.
"I'll need time to pull the information up."
At that point it turned as if it heard something. The last image the video had was of it smashing through a wall like it was paper. Then there was a flash, and the signal went dead. Gwen stared at the screen capture she'd taken. She could see how it looked like a dark twisted version of her costume. She closed her eyes and turned away. She could not go out and risk it happening again. Who could she tell? If she told SHIELD… if they saw the video. If Steve found out. She would need to handle this on her own. She opened the AI interface on her watch.
"AI, I need you to use my backdoor through the FBI. Use your digital skeleton key, I need you to tear apart SHIELD's entire file system, emails everything. Look for any references for Cindy Moon, Arnim Zola, Project Regrowth, any budget discrepancies."
"Of course. The requested actions may take several days to complete."
"Be careful. Do not trip their security. Be a ghost."
The AI interface app displayed, Working. Gwen tapped the holo-phone and rubbed her temples. She opened her desk drawer and pulled out a burner and left her lair after locking the computer. She rode the subway aimlessly finally stopping in Brooklyn. She pulled out the phone and dialed the number Nick Fury had given her, she left a message.
"It's Gwen. I have some information for you."
She hung up and wandered around Brooklyn for an hour before she received a response in text form. It was an address in the Bronx. She hopped on the subway and made her way there. It was a hole in the wall African themed coffee shop. She sat down across from him. He motioned to a waitress who put an iced tea in front of Gwen. He reached under his chair and moved it closer to the table.
"I wasn't expecting to hear from you so soon."
"The news isn't good. All we got was a bunch of binary that is going to take weeks or months for my algorithm to sort out. I did not find any information that was helpful to you know who. What I found was the cause of the explosion."
She slid the burner over to him. He looked at the picture on the front.
"Those are drone launched missiles. Likely SHIELD drones."
Gwen nodded.
"I have some audio but the video just didn't make it through. Too much interference. She encountered some form of AI that called itself Arnim Zola. Said he was part of an organization. The name of it was cut off. She ran into heavy resistance, lots of gunfire."
Nick Fury's good eye went wide.
"You're sure it was Arnim Zola?"
"Yes, that part was clear. It was archaic tech but the underlying code was complex. I overheard the Sheriff when he was calling me in. He and the deputy he was speaking to mentioned they'd seen the SHIELD logo before on trucks going in and out of that building. The only other thing I can tell you is they had some secure storage areas full of stuff similar to what she ran into in the truck. I hope that helps you at least."
He took a drink of his coffee.
"It's a place to start at least. They'll probably go deep again. Someone finding their black site will have spooked them. Good work."
Gwen blinked in disbelief.
"Was that a compliment? Does that mean you like me?"
Fury finished his coffee off and stood up.
"I tolerate you. If you get anything else let me know. Iced tea is on me."
He walked to the counter and paid then left the restaurant.
***** Writer's Notes *****
This chapter continues my slowly pulling HYDRA into my version of the MCU. Those familiar with 616 Comics know Cindy Moon as Silk, aka yet another Spider-Woman (with a kick ass costume!) however, those familiar with Earth-65's comics Spider-Gwen comics, know Cindy Moon was actually a SHIELD agent who was running their version of HYDRA, S.I.L.K. I'm trying to bring the Spider-Gwen comics into this story where I can and trying to limit MCU spider-people to Gwen, so of course Cindy Moon is going to be closer to the Spider-Gwen comics. To my knowledge the first time we encounter Cindy Moon (Earth-65) is in the Spider-Women mini-event, if interested you can see these comics - Spider-Women Alpha #1, Spider-Gwen #7 – 8, Silk #7 – 8, Spider-Woman #6 – 7, and Spider-Woman Omega #1. (pretty fun read, at least for me)