SEVEN MINUTES AGO // BEFORE THE ASSAULT ON GWEN STACK
The Empire State Building wasn't Felix's idea of relaxation or of jogging his exhausted muscles. Ultimately, it gave a clear view of everything. It told him where Gwen Stacy was and where she was attacking Rash. It also told him the destruction wasn't too bad. It was nothing like Creature Z and thank goodness for it.
'My nerves are still tingling. Rash leaving me has weakened me far more than I could have ever guessed.' He laughed, if only because science continued to surprise him.
The tall tip of the Empire State Building was wide enough for two feet to stay flat on and yet not wide enough for someone to stay on. The adhesive nature of his flesh and the flexibility of the soles of his feet made the impossible possible. Legs pointed in opposite directions, elbows on his thighs and arms hanging in, Spider-Man was still.
He double-checked his heart rate and other health parameters. None of it was looking good.
'Extremis starts and ends in my brain, and with the Symbiote having made its nest there, I won't die without it but the parts of my brain that light up when Extremis is in effect aren't glowing.' Which it should have considering he was injured. Extremis should be working. 'But it's not. And that's that.'
"MULTIPLE UPDATES, MASTER FAETH. PRIORITY ONE: CZARINA HAS BEEN LOCATED IN A SUBWAY STATION NEAR CANAL STREET. SHE IS CURRENTLY HIDING WITH NORMAN OSBORN."
The Mark X was mostly repaired. The tech of metal absorption wasn't perfect but it was anything. The psychic link he once had with Herbie via the Symbiote was gone. He was back to the classics.
That was fine. He was still Spider-Man. He could still fight.
At the same time, he couldn't deny reality. He was unequipped to deal with both Gwen and Rash-Hulk. He needed more information. He needed to know what Harry Osborn did.
'Harry Osborn was the one controlling Gwen Stacy. And if not controlling, then hiding her. That much, I've gleaned. But…who MADE that Symbiote for him? This…this Control Symbiote.'
Yes, that was what he dubbed it: the Control Symbiote. An injected Symbiote that allowed a third party to control someone. He was missing pieces of what made it tick and what exactly Harry did with it and how the clone Harold was able to use it. But he got the jist. It was the same way Rash wormed into his brain.
Something like this, using that facet of Symbiote behaviour…there was only person in the world that could make such a thing.
'Elsa Brock.'
He had met her. He had observed her. He had taken Rash from her. He needed more. And there was only one person in the world that could do that and help him drag out the truth.
'Emma. Where are you, Emma?'
He rose slowly from his crouch, spine straightening as the city stretched endlessly before him. He wasn't standing here for fun, he was waiting for Herbie to track her down.
"PRIORITY TWO." And Herbie did. "CONFIRMED LOCATION OF EMMA FROST."
"Where?"
"THE SHIELD HELICARRIER. CURRENTLY STATIONED OFF THE EAST RIVER, ADJACENT TO RYKER'S ISLAND."
Felix exhaled through his nose. "Of course she is. Of all places, the Helicarrier."
"EMMA FROST AND DR. ELSA BROCK ARE BOTH LISTED AS VIP ASSETS," Herbie added. "HOWEVER, SECURITY PARAMETERS DIFFER SIGNIFICANTLY."
"Did Nick Fury find out that Emma Frost was kidnapped by the rogue cell?"
"UNKNOWN. FROM THE RADIO TRANSMISSIONS OF THE AGENTS, THERE WERE MENTIONS OF CONCERN OVER ABOUT HER RELATIONSHIP WITH FELIX FAETH. IN ORDER TO MAKE A DEAL, EMMA INVITED HERSELF TO THE HELICARRIER."
Should he call her an idiot? No, Emma was a big girl, not to mention she picked the best to do her little negotiation. Today, it was the motherload of coincidences that the one woman he needed was where he wanted her.
"Does Emma know Dr. Brock is there?" he asked.
"UNKNOWN CONSIDERING HER POWERS. EMMA FROST IS BEING HOUSED IN A LUXURY OBSERVATION SUITE WITH LIMITED MONITORING. DR. BROCK IS CONTAINED IN A SCIENCE WING."
"And Harold?"
"UNKNOWN. CONTINUING TO TRACK. I SUSPECT THE TWO DOZEN SOME INDIVIDUALS THAT HAVE GONE MISSING UNDER HIM ARE COVERING HIS TRACKS DIGITALLY. IT SEEMS HE IS VAGUELY AWARE THAT YOU POSSESS AN AI."
Countering Herbie with top-tier hackers? Good luck.
"Time isn't on my side though," he muttered. "Where is he? Harold…what's your next move going to be? You want to rid this world of its hierarchy. With the Control Symbiote, how will you do it?"
How DID the Control Symbiote work? And was Gwen currently under Harold's control?
Lots of unknowns that he had to straighten out. Spider-Man stood there, the city reflected in the white lenses of his mask.
Only Elsa Brock could tell what he needed. If this Control Symbiote had a weakness, if Gwen could be rid of it, and if it was responsible for the totality of her behaviour.
What about the Sheath that she had stolen on the island? What happened to that?
With Harry dead, Elsa was the only one that had the answers he desperately needed.
'That's the plan then. Infiltrate the Helicarrier, get to Emma, and use her to help me get information out of Elsa Brock. Everything.' He recalled that for memories from long ago, it took a while to scrounge out what she needed. 'But it's better than fighting those two monsters.'
As he was now, he was a measly spider. Hulk-Rash and the Scarlet Symbiote Gwen, he could do nothing to stop them from slugging it out.
His heart did a small pitter-patter.
'Rash…'
He saw him being absorbed. He saw him dying. Maybe...maybe he could still go back?
'I'm sorry, I am. But there's too much at stake here.'
Spider-Man leapt.
The Empire State Building fell away beneath him as if the city itself had dropped. Wind howled. Gravity screamed. For half a second, there was nothing but freefall and faith.
Thwip!
A webline snapped outward. It couldn't be seen but it did indeed anchor to a building and Felix swung. Apart of him wanted to turn to where Rash was. But…the Symbiote had made its…no, HIS choice. Rash wasn't just some abject alien experiment, he had a soul. He was a friend.
'And Rash made his choice.'
The city rushed up to meet him, neon and steel and motion blurring together as he arced forward. His invisibility shimmered fully into place, light bending around him.
Below, traffic flowed.
Above, the sky was dark blue. It was almost eight o'clock, noon.
'...I really am sorry, Rash, my friend.'
At full speed, to go from the Empire State Building over to the East River took five minutes. He swung east, glided over the Queen's Midtown Tunnel, and then took a sharp turn north. Ryker's land was right beside LaGuardia Airport, in the most northwestern part of Queens. Even without Rash, with the Mark X, he had repulsors. Gliding was accompanied by boosts of nitro. In order to keep anonymity, he web-swung and glided at juuust under the speed of sound, not wanting to create a sonic boom. Herbie might have the majority of SHIELD servers hacked, but that did not mean he could stop every single defence mechanism.
Moving under Mac 1 was still enough to make it in record time. Ryker's Island, the great prison, was in view now. The Helicarrier was docked next to a lengthy island, massive rotors and repulsor arrays keeping the impossible aloft. Floodlights swept the water.
Spider-Man landed on the side of the Wastewater Treatment Plant, which was pressed right against the water. His eyes were locked on the carrier.
'About two kilometers away,' he guesstimated with Herbie instantly adding the precise number.
There was no aircraft carrier in the world like the SHIELD Helicarrier. Capable of anything the best aircraft and ship in the world could do plus more. According to the reports Herbie was rolling down, Peggy Carter wasn't a huge fan of it. Nick Fury had advocated for it to be the central hub of SHIELD to little success. Peggy preferred the old school ways. Every country had its own central intelligence, giving each branch equal amounts of authority. The democratic process and equal authority weight was an illusion, partly to cover for Peggy Carter and partly for Carter to make it seem like her position was not as powerful as it seemed.
The Helicarrier was only to be used in emergencies and this was indeed one. Yet Felix could help think Nick Fury was simply aching to rev the thing up. Who could blame him? The Helicarrier was unique and massive, 1,050 to 1,400 feet long and powered by four massive rotors. It possessed a crew capacity of over three thousand people and a displacement weight of around 150,000 tons.
The weight fluctuated due to the runways. The carrier boasted two types of runways, one for takeoff and one for landing. And let's just say the takeoff runway was very busy.
Through enhanced optics, he saw all sorts of machinery and people on the takeoff runway. Jets were about to be launched and helicopters were already launched. Nearly a dozen had lifted off in organized waves and were flying over the East River.
Herbie intercepted their radio signals, not that it was needed. Felix could see with it. 'So you're heading off too, Captain.'
His old friend Samantha Wilson, the great Captain America, was among those in the helicopters, shield already strapped to her arm. They were the kind of battle helicopters with exposed doors. There were nearly a dozen helicopters with her. And the jets…they were still being readied but they were soon to be launched.
This much backup, this many people, it was all for Gwen Stacy and Rash. After Creature Z, SHIELD was not going to mess around.
For a moment, he considered going to try and help Rash or Gwen or both. With Captain America, maybe, just maybe, the tides could change. But upon calculating it in his head, it was still a losing battle. Without information, without knowing what Harold was going to do with this Control Symbiote and what Gwen Stacy herself wanted, he wasn't sure if he could stop the situation with force or with words.
'I might be able to get Samantha to stand down, maybe, but the rest of SHIELD…?'
Closing his eyes, all he could imagine was a warzone. Spider-Man, SHIELD, Rash-Hulk, and Gwen. All of them fighting with little understanding of what was really happening. Of the real villain.
That was what Harold wanted, wasn't it? To see chaos. To see this hierarchical system fail miserably. To see those with powers kill each other like animals and for the world to see their threat.
'I have an answer for you, Harold. I want to talk to you again.'
But first, he had to disable the Control Symbiote, and he had to stop Gwen and Rash. Neither problems he could solve for at this current moment without Elsa Brock. Elsa had the solutions, the answers, everything he could need.
One of the very first people he had ever suspected and investigated. And now, the one whom he needed to erase all doubts. To help him build a counter to these Symbiotes.
"Herbie, how much energy do we have left?"
"26% PERCENT REMAINING, MASTER FAETH."
'I need to hurry to Emma…!'
The helicopter hosting Samantha whizzed by and that was his mark. Thwip! Weblines snapped out and clung to the first helicopter and he swung himself through. Thwip again and the invisible Spider-Man arced through. No one was aware that the Spider-Man was underneath them, swinging from helicopter to helicopter.
He landed on the runaway in a crouch, both hands down. There were jets everywhere. His Spider-Sense went off and he leapt over a hurrying pilot. Then another, albeit by darting away and not jumping. Being invisible was not working in his favour here.
"CURRENT CREW COUNT: APPROXIMATELY THREE THOUSAND SEVEN-HUNDRED AND THIRTY SEVEN, NOT INCLUDING STRIKE TEAMS."
Around him, agents were running and acting with drilled precision. Ground crews in reflective gear guided jets into position. Technicians shouted over the roar of engines. Armed troopers jogged toward waiting transports. Spider-Man dropped down and rolled under a jet.
"Herbie," he whispered, "full schematic overlay. I want everything—vents, power conduits, blind spots, redundancies."
"ACKNOWLEDGED."
Detective Mode blossomed. A combination of X-ray vision and thermal vision and AI advice, layering information mapped cleanly over reality. The Helicarrier became transparent in pieces, decks and bulkheads ghosting into wireframe outlines. He saw fuel lines and elevators shooting up and down like bullets in a chamber.
Most of all, he saw people. So many people. Thermal silhouettes moved everywhere. Herbie listed out the security cameras too, but they were the least of his problems. An opening was needed to actually get to Emma, and fortunately, he found one.
'Oh, look at that. A vent. Lots of 'em.' On all fours, he turned himself around. A smile appeared. 'Like this one.'
Spidey's favourite place: a vent. This vent was huge, at least three feet wide, and meant to cool the underside of the jets as well as to circulate air. Opening it was nigh-impossible without the proper equipment.
His five fingers casually jerked it open. Equipment was merely what humans needed when they didn't have the strength to do something. And Felix always had that strength. He slipped inside just as the jet above him started to move. Phew.
The vent interior of the Helicarrier was cooler, quieter—but only comparatively. It was still loud given how close he was. He crawled down, down, down. This vent was probably too hot for a normal person to crawl through. When he reached the end of the vent and carefully pried it open, he clung to the ceiling. Lights glowed a sterile white. Felix clung to the ceiling as two armed agents passed beneath him, boots ringing sharply against the floor.
"Herbie, initiate Ghost Protocol."
"INITIATING GHOST PROTOCOL," Herbie replied. "CAMERAS LOOPED. MOTION SENSORS FED FALSE POSITIVES. DIGITAL FOOTPRINT: ZERO."
The Mark X with its nanobots possessed more watts of energy and more hacking to deploy. It was incredible, although there was a great cost.
"How much energy do we have left?" he asked in a whisper.
"23%, MASTER FAETH."
Time was not on his side on both ends. He crawled on the ceiling until he found a vent on the ground floor. Then it was time to go through that. He dropped soundlessly into junction rooms, crossed corridors between heartbeats, and crawled along ceilings like a spider.
The vents soon changed from industrial steel to polished composites. Yep, he was in what was effectively the VIP zone. Where SHIELD kept important folks. He felt a little cold. 'Air conditioning is nice and minty.'
It struck him as his fingers glued and unglued himself that he was actually feeling cold. And that Extremis wasn't immediately adapting to it. He felt cold and he just…had to deal with it. It had been a long time since that had happened.
Emma Frost's suite sat at the end of the vent and corridor too. The shape of her body couldn't be mistaken. It was her.
His fingers stuck to the vent and did a little push to break the screws and open it. Silently, with a small thwip, he started lowering himself upside down on a thin strand of webbing.
Emma was standing near the panoramic window, arms crossed, gazing out at the city as helicopters streaked toward their destination. In white pants and a white blazer—with no shirt underneath, because of course she had to be provacative—she hummed.
He tapped on her shoulder. Emma flinched in place and slowly turned. Felix let his invisibility drop. She did a double-take.
"Well," Emma said dryly, eyes flicking up to where and how Spider-Man hung upside down. "That's one way to make an entrance."
Red and blue resolved out of nothing, the Mark X's surface shimmering. "Emma, sorry, but I need you."
Her lips curved immediately, amused rather than alarmed. "Need me? How bold—"
He rolled his eyes behind the mask. "Don't start. It's important."
"Right, and I still prefer the black," she added sweetly. "I love you Felix, but I do have a life and I do have other matters to attend to." Felix dropped lightly to the floor, landing in front of her. That alone made her continue. "And this right here is a controlled situation, Felix. I'm smoothing things over with Fury. And funny enough, it has to do with you. And unless you want Fury knowing about you being Spidey, I think it's best that you leave."
"I know," he said. "Except this has nothing to do with that. You can do as you please—after you help me. You heard about Gwen Stacy? And the monster?"
"Uh-huh. Out on the street, yes. I assume you were going to take care of that like you usually do. Beat them up? Send one of them into the stratosphere if things get really dicey?"
"I can't."
Her expression sobered instantly. "You…what? What do you mean you can't?"
"I just can't. I can't beat them."
"You…you can't...beat them?" Emma lifted a finger. "You're Spider-Man! You can do anything! Gwen Stacy or this monster, they're nothing to you!"
"Sorry to say, but I can only do whatever a spider can—"
"Is this really the time to be joking?"
Felix, to her surprise, actually chuckled at that. At Emma's panic. His Spider-Man persona, his silence, his deadliness, it wasn't gone. It was muffled. It was touched by something else. The telepath was momentarily uncertain if this was Felix. But no, it was him. This was Spider-Man.
"It's not. It's really not. I'm glad you've caught up."
And he was…smiling? She felt he was smiling under that mask. What was this optimism? It was weird. Emma was out here panicking and he was, like usual, calm as a cucumber but in a different way. But if he couldn't beat someone, who could? Emma ran her hands down her face and shuddered. "Okay, okay, fine, but whose?"
"Elsa Brock."
"Oh. Hm, I heard rumblings of her—woah!"
Felix scooped her up effortlessly into a princess carry as she yelped in surprise, instinctively looping an arm around his neck. "Good. Then let's go."
Elsa Brock, it was time.