Michelle "MJ" Jones
During the elevator ride up, there was a voice in the back of my head thinking that things were going too easy. The very fact that we didn't run into anyone else so far was more than a little suspicious to me. Granted, we were in this building during an hour where most people would be at home sleeping or enjoying the nightlife. And we were lucky enough to come at a time where a guy had no shame in indulging in certain urges – not just while he was on the clock, but also in a rather public place. I wanted to say we were lucky. The thing was, while I'm not a person who doesn't believe in luck, I never one to believe I had much of it – not since a certain point in my life. Add in the fact that my intuition has been putting up Hank Aaron numbers for a long time and, well, I couldn't shake the feeling that things were going to go left.
"So I just realized something," Betty spoke up.
I looked at her. "What's up?" I asked.
"We should probably give each other codenames."
I narrowed my eyes. "Really?"
"She does have a point," Cessily stated. "The last thing we want to do is accidentally say our real names out in the open."
I nodded reluctantly. "It makes sense."
"Okay, I'll go by Brando," Betty decided. I gave her a look, but didn't say anything about it. At this point, given the circumstances, if she liked it I loved it.
"I'll go by Silk," I stated.
"Mercury for me," Cessily stated.
I looked at her. "You already have a codename?"
"It was one of my nicknames from years ago. I kept it in my back pocket just in case I'm in a situation like this."
After what seemed like an eternity, we reached the seventh floor. Mercury, still disguised, stepped out first. She looked left and right before she beckoned me and Brando to step out. Once Brando and I were out of the elevator, I looked left and right.
"It's been quiet," I whispered out.
"Yeah, it has been," Mercury agreed.
"Let's do what we need to do before the other shoe drops," Brando suggested.
Mercury and I followed Brando as she slowly guided us through the halls. I looked left and right, looking for any sign of security or any employee who decided today was the day to burn the midnight oil. But nobody showed up. Within a minute, we found what we're looking for. There was the door to the meeting room. It was crossed out with white and blue crime scene tape. There was a piece of paper taped to the door. I stepped up to it and read it aloud.
"'Warning: This conference room is an active crime scene. Any employee who attempts to enter this room without the authority of the NYPD, FBI, or DODC will be terminated immediately'."
"That is to be expected," Mercury noted.
I looked at the door. There was a keycard scanner above the door handle, but there was no light coming from it. I raised an eyebrow. "It looks like the scanner has been disabled." I stepped forward until placed my elbow down on top of the door handle. I pressed down, increasing my force little by little until I confirmed what I already figured. "The door's locked."
"Why didn't you use your hand?" Brando asked.
"I have no gloves." I looked at Brando. She nodded at me in understanding, probably because she thought I was being extra cautious. Well, she wouldn't be wrong. Mercury gave me a look. Something told me she really understood what wasn't being said.
"So, a deactivated keycard scanner and a lock that is… locked," Mercury observed as she moved in. "Kicking the door in would be out of the question. It seems like we would need a good old fashion key."
I heard Brando scoff. "So what do we do, go dungeon crawling and find a chest with a key in it?"
Mercury chuckled. "Ah, Brando, sweetie, understand something – I am the key." I raised an eyebrow, wondering what she meant by that. She lifted up her right hand. It deformed into a ball. She pressed that ball against the door handle, right over the keyhole. "Let's see, one… two… three four… five… six pins." After that, the ball engulfed the entire handle before she twisted it. She pushed the door open. "Houdini got absolutely nothing on me."
I heard the sound of light clapping, I looked over at Brando to see her giving Mercury a subdued round of applause. I couldn't help but smirk before looking back at Mercury.
"Great stuff," I complimented. "Now let's get inside."
All three of us carefully moved in into the spaces between the crime scene tape, making sure not to dislodge any of it as we entered the room. After I closed the door behind us, I hit the light switch. As the room lit up, I blinked a couple of times before I looked around the room and…
"…What the hell?" Brando whispered out.
There was nothing to this crime scene. There was no bloodstains, no damage to the walls, no signs of an attack, nothing. I watched as Brando walked forward into the middle of the room and looked around. Red flags started popping up in my head. The alleged attack happened only a couple of days ago. With three different agencies investigating the crime, there was no way this scene wouldn't still be active.
"There's nothing here," I whispered out loud as I came to a realization. "…That attack was a hoax."
"Well, isn't that what we were trying to confirm?" Mercury asked.
"It is," Brando stated. "But we have no evidence. Let's make a quick sweep of the room. There has to be something, a clue we can use."
"I don't think that's a good idea," I warned. "We need to get out of here before –"
"A quick sweep isn't going to hurt at this point. I know things are dangerous now, but if there's any chance of us not leaving here emptyhanded, I'd like to take it." I took in a breath. What was even the point of arguing? When she wanted to, Brando could be extremely stubborn. Plus, I didn't want to escalate things and make noise. "It'll only be a couple of minutes, I promise."
"Fine. Let's get this done."
The three of us went about searching through the room. We checked underneath the tables and chairs to see if there was anything that looked even remotely like a clue. After a couple of minutes, it seemed like we found nothing until I found a business card on the floor after moving aside a chair. I kneeled down and picked it up. I narrowed my eyes.
"New U Technologies?" I mumbled. Before I could even ponder it further, alarms went off throughout the room. I quickly stood up and pocketed the card. "We need to leave now!"
The three of us left the conference room quickly, not even caring around dislodging the crime scene tape. The whole entire floor was bathed in swirling red lights.
"You think they know we're here?" Brando asked.
"All security personnel, there's a Code Red in effect!" a voice said urgently over the PA system. "I repeat, there is a Code Red in effect! Please report to the seventh floor! There are three intruders!"
"I'm going to go out on a limb and say no," Mercury deadpanned.
"What do we do?!"
I took a moment to think. "We need to keep moving," I said. "Brando, call Cyclops. Let's make our way to the roof!"
"Why the roof?" Brando asked as she pulled out her phone.
"Because they'll likely have the ground entrance covered." While that was part of the reason, there was another part that I didn't want to admit.
"It's not like we got another choice," Mercury added. "Let's go."
We ran back towards the elevator. We then skidded to a stop when we saw two men step out. The three of us immediately reversed course and ran back in the direction we came from. I heard one of the men shout at us to stop but we didn't dare slow down before we turned the corner. As we ran, Brando was on the phone speaking.
"Hey Cyclops, it's me," she said urgently. "Yeah, we're in a bit of a situation. Mercury, Silk, and I are at Hammer Industries, and the alarms went off. We're heading for the roof now. …Uh-huh… Uh-huh… Okay, I'll let them know!" She hung up the phone.
"What's did he say?" I asked.
"He said stay the course. He's sending Spider-Man our way." I didn't say anything to that. I merely nodded. I really didn't want to see Spider-Man, but considering the circumstances, who was I to complain about who was being sent to rescue us?
"Okay, but how do we get to the roof?" Mercury asked. "The elevator is out of the question."
"There has to be a stairwell nearby, no?" I pointed out.
"I think you may be right," Brando said as she pointed upward. I looked up to the see a sign hanging from the ceiling, indicating where the stairwell is.
"Let's go!"
We followed the direction the sign was indicating. After we rounded the corner, we kept on running. Up ahead, I saw the door to the stairwell. There was a small part of me that felt like we made it. That small part of me was proven wrong real fast when the door opened and two guards ran out. The three of us skidded to a stop. I looked behind me to see the guards that were chasing us do the same. We were outnumbered.
"You three might as well surrender!" one of the guards said. "The NYPD is on their way!"
"Yeah, we won't be doing that," Mercury stated. From the corner of my eye, I saw her tap her image inducer. The hologram she had on faded away, revealing her mostly true self – her normally red hair was just as silver as her skin. "Just let us go."
It was at this moment that all four of them drew their guns on us. I swallowed. "We're warning you!"
"Is that so?" I looked at Mercury. "How much you're getting paid per hour? Twenty? Thirty? Even if you're getting great medical benefits, PTO, and vacation, it won't be worth it. Right now, you all have guns trained on us. You all're putting up a brave front, but I know the truth, though. All four of you are looking at the three of us, seeing one of us all chromed out, and wondering to yourselves if pulling the trigger would even be worth it. I can answer that question for you – it's not. I'll even let you in on a little secret. You don't have the upper hand here."
I didn't know if Mercury was bluffing or not. I looked around at the guards. They seemed just as unsure. They took glances at each other as if they were weighing their options. They then looked back at us.
"This is your last warning!" the same guard from before barked out, though with a little less confidence.
At this point, Mercury's hair started to rise up. "Unfortunately for you, that was my only warning," Mercury retorted. Clumps of her hair went flying towards the guards faces. I could barely see them as they whizzed pass me. I looked around as the hair went straight into their eyes. The guards dropped their guns as they clutched their eyes in pain.
I chose this time to strike. I moved in on one guard before I sent a sidekick into right side of his right of ribcage. He stumbled backward at first. He then doubled over, holding his abdomen. I smiled – his liver was just impaced. Without hesitation, I stepped forward, wrapped my arm around his head and fell backward, sending the top of his dome into the tiled floor. As I sat up, I pushed him away. I then lay back down, just dodging a kick to my head. I rolled away and kipped up to my feet. I turned around and faced the guard who tried to kick me. He charged at me. Before I could even think of my next move, however, he was hit in the head by a flying metal trash can lid. As he fell to the ground unconscious, I looked at him. I then looked in the direction of where the trash can lid came from. There was Brando. Even under the mask, I could tell she was smiling. She then looked at me.
"What?" she said plainly. "I can't let the two of you do all of the work."
I nodded at her. I then looked past her to see Mercury standing over the other two guards. She looked towards me and Brando.
"Let's go!" she said.
I didn't hesitate to follow Mercury as she turned and ran for the door with Brando following in tow. We rushed into the staircase before we ran upward. We just kept on running, dodging and evading all of the guards that may have stepped in through the door at the landings we reached. At some point, I started to feel rather grateful for the stamina drills Colleen put me through whenever I trained with her. After what seemed like an eternity, we reached the roof access door. Mercury practically barged into it, opening the door rather violently. I stepped out right behind her. I looked around as I walked forward.
"Okay, now what?" I asked to myself. That's when I heard the sound of helicopter rotors. I stopped in my tracks as I blinked. I closed my eyes and took in a breath. "Of course." I opened my eyes to see the area around me being suddenly lit up. As Mercury and Brando joined me, I narrowedd my eyes and looked up to see a helicopter. I could barely make out its shape behind the spotlight.
"This is the NYPD!" a voice said over the helicopter's speaker. "We have the building surrounded! Put your hands up and down get down on your knees!"
From behind me, I heard the roof access open. I looked over my shoulder and saw guard after guard come out of the door. I figured about twelve made their way out before they all stood in front of the door, almost shoulder to shoulder as they drew their guns on us.
"I'm guessing surrendering is out of the question," Brando said, sounding a bit distressed.
"Just say the word, Silk," Mercury said. "I'll scoop the both of you up and make a jump for it.
I was around to raise my concerns about that idea. But then I heard it. I heard sounds that were so familiar to me. As much as I didn't want to, there was no stopping the relief in my chest when I heard the incoming THWIPs.
"He's here," I announced.
"Who's here?" Mercury asked.
As if to answer that question, I heard the sounds of things clattering on the roof. I looked back over at the guards, seeing them looking down in confusion. All of a sudden there were multiple explosions before they were incased in what looked like webbing. I then heard a thud behind me. I turned around to see Spider-Man slowly rising up from a three point stance.