Episode 61: Escape from Nova Corps!
Black Cat struggled to answer Peter's question. "This isn't a good time to explain."
"Yeah, I agree, but how am I supposed to trust you?" Peter argued.
Suddenly, the vent buckled underneath Peter and Black Cat's combined weight causing them to fall into the room below them. It was a break room with two people in blue-and-yellow uniforms with helmets that had the Nova Corps star-shaped symbol. They were surprised to see Peter and Black Cat, who had fallen onto each other.
"Get off me!" Black Cat insisted, throwing Peter off of her. As she got up, she sheepishly grinned at the two uniformed individuals. "Sorry to drop in, Nova Centurions, but can you tell us where the exit is?"
The taller of the two uniformed persons, a man with a defined chin, folded his arms. "What were you two doing in the vents?"
"And what's with the costumes?" asked the shorter uniformed individual, who was a boy that looked to be Peter's age. "Halloween is many months away."
"Well, some of us like to celebrate early," Peter joked as he stood up behind Black Cat.
Spidermin then crawled up onto Peter's shoulder, though the taller man's judgmental stare made him shutter. While Peter tried to comfort Spidermin, the Infinity Stone in his hand glowed slightly getting the taller man's attention.
"Care to show us your hand, kid?" the tall man said to Peter.
"Um, why?" Peter said, hiding the hand with the Infinity Stone.
"Just show Mister Rider your hand!" the boy in the uniform ordered. "He's the Prime Centurion, so you'd better do as he says!"
"Tone it down, Cadet Alexander," Rider said to the boy before turning his attention to Peter. "We were on patrol when the two of us received a transmission from here saying some thieves were trying to steal the Power Infinity Stone, and they were being supported by Team HYDRA. So we called the Star Blasters, then we went in to evacuate anyone still inside this facility. Now we found webs on the cameras, and the guards in the security room were knocked out."
"And since you have a Spidermin, it would seem that maybe you two are the thieves we are looking for," the boy Alexander guessed, giving Spidermin a suspicious look.
"Um, actually, we fought the thieves and we were going to return the stone to you," Peter lied, showing the stone to Rider and Alexander. "The reason my Spidermin covered the cameras with webs was to prevent the thieves from finding out where we were going, as they had taken over the security room after knocking out the guards."
"Is this true, Miss?" Rider asked Black Cat.
"Yeah, sure," Black Cat said before realizing she was still holding the flash-drive and hid it.
Unfortunately, Alexander noticed and said, "What have you got in your hands?"
"Oh, this?" Black Cat held up the flash-drive casually. "It's just—"
"A flash-drive that contains Don Fortunato's personal data," Peter interrupted. "We swiped it off the thieves in addition to the stone, and we were going to give that to you guys as well. Right?"
Black Cat glared at Peter before sighing. "Right."
Peter then gave the Infinity Stone to Rider while Black Cat reluctantly gave the flash-drive to Alexander. The two examined the items carefully, while the TV screen that was silently on in the upper-left corner was showing a breaking news story. Helicopter footage showed a girl tied to a radio tower in black webs while next to her stood a frightening figure that looked human, but was covered in a black substance with big white eyes and a gaping mouth full of sharp teeth.
"MJ!" Peter cried out, recognizing the girl on the TV.
"Turn the sound on, Alexander!" Rider ordered.
Without question, Alexander reached for the remote on the break room table and pressed the sound button.
"Parker!" cried the humanoid figure with the sharp teeth. "If you don't show yourself soon, we will make the girl part of us."
"Don't listen to him!" MJ screamed. "It's a trap!"
"What should we do, Rider?" Alexander asked.
"I'm not sure," Rider admitted. "We haven't evacuated the headquarters completely, yet we can't let this hostage situation continue in case it escalates further."
As Rider and Alexander were talking, Spidermin leaped back into the broken vent and used Web Shot to grab Peter.
"Hey!" Black Cat exclaimed, watching Peter crawl through the vent. "Don't leave me behind!"
Back on the rooftop, Peter hid behind an air conditioner and healed the claw marks Spidermin got from Panthack with Healing Factor Juice. He also saw the Nova Corps star-shaped Star Blaster ships pursuing the green HYDRA helicopter in the distance while one Star Blaster was patrolling the skies overhead. Peter held onto Spidermin tightly as his blue-and-red spider used Web Shot to latch onto the flying Star Blaster which propelled them into the air. Once they were spinning around in relation to the Star Blaster, Peter's eyes noticed a commotion on the ground. There were HYDRA grunts engaging with the Nova Corps guards while Hammerhead rode Saurhead out of a destroyed wall trying to make a break for the headquarters' perimeter wall. But he was quickly pursued by Panthack as Black Panther followed on foot.
"I wish I could explain the situation better to him," Peter murmured as he took out the ear-piece Black Cat gave him and threw it away. "But I guess that'll have to happen the next time we meet."
Peter then saw a lamppost beyond the perimeter wall and ordered Spidermin to Web Shot to it. From there, Peter and Spidermin swung their way across several buildings and streets until they came across the radio tower that MJ and the mysterious thing were. At the tower's base was a news crew and concerned onlookers with Thor and the Japanese girl among them. Noirspi was still on Thor's shoulder, though he seemed more anxious than usual.
"Noirspi must have gotten away before MJ was kidnapped by that thing," Peter guessed as he landed in an alleyway that was across the street from the tower. "If I could get Thor to come over here, I can find out more about what's going on and come up with a plan to rescue MJ. Think you can help, Spidermin?"
Nodding, Spidermin quickly ran across the street towards Thor.
To be continued…
