Chapter 6

John tightened his mask and kept his shield a tad under his eyeline. Alexi was watching their six while Felicia was crawling on the ceiling, it honestly felt like they were acting more as her distraction rather than her bodyguards. They made their way through the lower corridor where the hallways were….. surprisingly empty. This was the palace of a superpowered monarch, there should have been small armies around every corner. He wasn't complaining of course but it seemed really odd.

"We're here," Felicia said as she started messing with the handprint scanner. They finally made it to the server room, at least she claimed. It was heavily sealed off for some reason, it could make sense if there was seriously important information in there but it still seemed kinda excessive.

Felicia finally got the door open, once again there weren't any guards in there. He halted in his place, this definitely wasn't a server room. It had blueprints all over the walls and had several giant green tanks with brains floating in them. It far more resembled a mad scientist lab than a server room. He also noticed where everyone went, there was an escape tunnel on the other side of the room and looked like it had been used heavily with footprints blending together.

"MOVE" Someone screamed from down the escape tunnel

Before John could investigate Alexi collapsed on top of him "What are you doing? '' he said, shoving Alexi off. John threw his shield at Felicia but it completely missed. A force field trapped them both into the corner of the room.

"ARE YOU INSANE" Alexi screamed at Felicia

Felicia backed away from the force field controls "I'm sorry guys, not enough to do anything but still sorry" she said with a mischievous smile. John and Alexi didn't listen that much; they were mostly just trying to break through the force field. Felicia didn't waste time saying a word, she pulled a tampon out of her pocket and unwrapped it revealing some kind of green vial, one John wished he didn't recognize. Centurion Neuro poison, you lose consciousness after thirty seconds, not breathing after forty.

This caught John and Alexi's attention for a moment. Felicia started connecting the vial to the force field systems. That traitor, they needed to get out of there now. John and Alexi used all their might to try and break out. In that moment that petty rivalry between them was long gone and they were both just soldiers trying to survive.

Felicia had connected the toxin to the force field, John guessed they may have ten seconds at best.

"Problem!" someone said running toward them down the hall "THE OTHERS ARE….." Erik shouted before he saw what was going on. Erik didn't bother with an investigation; he only shot the force field controls and dodged Felicia's attack. Erik tried using his strength to hold her back but Felicia's agility and claws made her a more than formidable opponent.

The force field was weakened but not dead yet. John and Alexi used every drop of energy against it. "No, both at once" Alexi commanded "On three, One Two Three" they both smashed against the force field and successfully escaped, John following his frie…coworker's orders.

But there was no time for them to celebrate, Felicia had Erik pinned to the wall with her claws millimeters from his eyes. John and Alexi ripped her off and freed Erik. Felicia may have gained an advantage against one super soldier but three is out of anyone's reach. Everytime Felicia tried a daring escape one of them slammed her against the wall.

Erik held his gun right at Felicia's head. "Alright explain yourself" he threatened

Felicia stayed silent and tried to assert dominance. Alexi went over to the force field controls and ripped out the Centurion Neuro poison, put the cork back on, and held it close to her face ready to pop the cork out. One whiff that close and she would be brain dead.

"Alright, Alright" Felicia said. Even though she just tried to kill them John couldn't help but feel sorry for her, he'd been in interrogations before so he knew how awful it was. "I'm the mole" she confessed

John almost said what, but all three of them were trapped in place by shock. But after a few seconds Mystique's behavior started to make a little sense.

"What about Mystique?" Alexi asked

"We were working together" Felicia said, she was an excellent liar

"Don't lie to me" John said snatching the Neuro poison and holds it closer to her eyes

"Alright I drugged her" Felicia confessed "Skullface was digging around I had to do something"

"We should kill her right now" Erik said, the veins in his eyes bursting with anger.

"No wait" Alexi said gently pushing Erik's gun down "Why?" he asked, conveying everything he needed with one word.

"Why do you think we're here" Felicia said confusing the three of them "Doom stole the mind control tech from the Wakandans and started using it, he contacted me in prison and promised me Spider if I kept his intel safe"

John shook his head until he came to a terrifying realization "are you saying?"

"What you actually thought Rhodes and Danvers were doing this willingly" Felicia said rolling her eyes. She knew this entire time and said nothing, John was so close to letting Erik shoot her. "Why do you think we're here"

"That's what this is about, they sent us to destr….." John stopped when he remembered the mission parameters, 'If all goes well we won't need a Thunderbolts division'. "they sent us to collect" he said, his hands shaking

"They don't care about saving anyone and they don't care about their 'alliance' with Symkaria" Felicia spat "they just wanted the tech for themselves, what better way to force superheroes to fall in line".

The room started to shake, bits of ruble fell on them from the ceiling. "Ugh" Erik groaned before smashing the butt of his gun into Felcia's face knocking her out "we gotta finish here the others need us" he said

Alexi stomped to the servers and started rummaging through it, he typed around and found files related to the mind control system. Alexi looked around for his shield and found it in the corner. When he turned back to the server he was baffled to find Erik downloading the information onto a DOOM brand flash drive with its own tiny monitor "what do you think you're doing" he said forcing Erik to face him.

"We gotta finish the mission, our lives kinda depend on it" Erik stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, which it was. Erik shoved him away and made sure it was downloading.

Alexi almost rebounded harshly but restrained himself "I'm not letting them get away with this, not again"

"Now's not the time for this old man, their probably dying out there" Erik spat at him

"Alexi calm down, I mean we're taking Felicia's word, the woman who was about to murder us" John said.

"Against who's, Rambeau and Hayward's" Alexi said

John tried to do something, anything that could justify siding with them, siding with his country's spokespeople. But there wasn't anything about the mission that seemed right.

"Doesn't matter" Erik said in John's defense "we don't deliver and we die, simple as that" he insisted. John was caught between his shield and a hard place, Erik was a hundred percent right that they had to hand over the information or they die, but that concept just proves that nothing noble is being accomplished. But if America doesn't have the tech then Doom will, maybe that can justify it enough at least until he gets home.

Alexi took a deep breath "you're right, you're right" he said calming down

SMASH

"WHAT THE HELL" Erik screamed. Alexi had just smashed the server room and cut off the power to it.

Erik pulled out the flash drive and examined it closely and examined it '17 files successfully downloaded' was written plain and clear. Erik needed to make this convincing "YOU BONEHEAD, I DIDN'T GET SHIT, YOU MIGHT HAVE JUST GOT US ALL KILLED" he said desperately trying to protect the information on the drive. As a final act to convince them Erik threw the drive in the trash, that did the trick perfectly and Alexi apologized claiming it was for the greater good. John went on about how Alexi will take responsibility when they get home, while both of them were distracted Erik quietly snatched the drive out of the trash and put it in his pocket.

John kicked a trash can across the room in anger, maybe (just maybe) them beating Rhodes and Danvers will be enough for them to just be thrown in prison, but after everything he heard even that felt like more than they'd give.

The room shook again "Ok now come on, the others still need our help" Erik begged.

"You're right, we need to….." Alexi's world slowed to milliseconds as he leaped into action "JOHN" he screamed as he tackled John out of the way as Felicia leaped at them with her claws out.

John's head smashed into the metal floor and was dizzy for a minute. He wiped his face to find blood. He checked over himself looking for any injuries, but noticed Alexi sitting on top of him, claw marks penetrated his skull. John got out to see Felicia about to do the same to Erik, John threw his shield without thinking and it smashed Felicia across the face sending her back. After the shield bounced back to him John helped Erik up.

Felicia got herself back up and pounced after them. John and Erik ran down the escape tunnel until they reached the end. John got on the ladder and looked back at Alexi's corpse before rushing up the ladder.

"AHHH" Erik said as Felicia grabbed his leg. Erik unpinned a grenade and tossed it at her face, it knocked her off but she dragged him down with her. The grenade went off and the tunnel got blocked off by ruble. John dropped down to help Erik, he tried to get through the rubble but there was no hole big enough for him.

Erik came up but couldn't make it through either, Felicia started tugging on his leg. Erik stuck his arm through with… the drive? "Here just take it, get it to Rambeuh and Hayward" John had no idea what to do so he just took the drive, the screen said 17 files were downloaded. He quickly put it away and tried to help Erik out. But Felicia pulled him back inside "just go"

John abided and climbed up to the escape hatch. Maybe he couldn't keep this intel out of the wrong hands but if he got to the rest of the squad first maybe he could save Danvers.