Chapter 35 The Longest Night
The Fastest Man Alive
Chapter 35
The Long Night
[Vega HQ]
Before Everything Happened.
Alfred watched as Natasha placed Maya to sleep inside her room while Ororo was taking a shower. One of his spider bots watched her while Alfred had his other partitions take care of the influx of all information and track the family.
With the Labs shutting down and the data secured, Alfred turned his attention towards the island and his other spider bots building, housing and the main labs in the clearings that his father had allowed. Even then, they were being built with the strict command that the island be respected and everything to be done with the least disturbance to the island as possible.
The island was one of many marvels to Alfred. It was able to create life and change shape all with a command.
The island's ability to create life was a major surprise for Alfred. The island wasn't just creating fruits: no, the island was able to create actual biological life from the elements, and his father had plans to use this function to create a real body for him.
Alfred was more than pleased to know that he was going to get more than an artificial body: but he would have to help the process along. Alfred was going to ask the person who he thought would make the most appropriate mother for his being. So he waited and watched, and when Natasha walked out of the room as Maya slept, he pounced.
"Natasha, a moment of your time please," Alfred said from one of his smaller spider bots.
"Sure but not here, Maya is asleep." Natasha returned.
"Of course," Alfred replied as the little spider bot scuttled towards the gathering room.
Alfred waited on tenterhooks as Natasha walked back into the room, waiting until she had gone to the fridge to get herself something to drink. As Natasha walked back into the room to take a seat with her apple juice, Alfred turned all of his attention to her.
"Okay, ask your question," Natasha said as she took a drink and then leaned back in her chair.
"I would like to harvest some of your DNA." Alfred gushed out in a rush.
"Excuse me?" Natasha replied instantly with an arched eyebrow.
Taking a deep breath, Alfred decided to try again. "Sorry, that came out wrong. I would be honored if you could grant me some of your DNA for me to build myself a body."
"Why? And does Ben know about any of this?" Natasha asked as she sat up straight on the couch.
"Hhmm, he doesn't know my decision yet. And I would like your DNA because you're my father's right hand. So I would like to combine yours and his to build myself a body." Returned Alfred as his mini drone body nervously walked back and forth across the table. "I have run thousands of permutations about whose DNA I would like to use to create my body besides my father and the numbers keep giving you as the answer."
"That's somewhat flattering! But why not Ororo or one of Ben's women?" Natasha returned.
"Are you not also one of his women? The olfactory sensors and the rapid increase of your heart rate when he is around both confirm that you are also his woman." Alfred asked and stated as his drone body paused its walking. "Your reactions are the same as the others, have my sensors malfunctioned?"
Natasha's head snapped around and looked hard at the big talking little drone; then her face spread into a slow smile as she came up with a wonderful idea. "If I agree to this I would have to lay some conditions that you will have to agree to."
Alfred was so excited he didn't even care what her conditions were, " Of course mom! Anything you want lets… Emergency!… Emergency!"
"Talk to me! Alfred! What's going on?" Natasha snapped as she got up from the couch.
Alfred brought up a map with the GPS ping on Peter's location.
"It would seem that Peter activated the location tracker inside his shirt," Alfred replied, as he watched the map zoom in on the location from where the tracker was signaling.
"Give me eyes on what happened Alfred and give me tracking on Ben." Natasha snapped as she brought up her own holo comms unit.
On the holo screen appeared the camera footage of Peter and Laura leaving the derby in a rush. Then a lady appeared in front of the couple, and they watched in silence as both Peter and Laura were knocked out and then a truck backed up towards the fainted duo. When the back of the truck opened, Alfred noticed the portal and cataloged it as another portal like the one used to get to Eden.
Alfred and Natasha watched in silence as both Peter and Laura were picked up and walked through the portal then the device blew up the truck behind them. Not too long after, Ben was seen crashing into the car garage enraged as he looked for where the signal was coming from.
Ben sniffed around the rubble of the wreckage for a moment and then took off in another direction, angry and blazing a trail.
"Shit! Talk to me, Alfred! Where is Ben heading?" Natasha commanded as she turned towards the spider bot.
Waving his mandibles in front of his chassis, Alfred didn't know what to say. "I believe he is heading towards the signal of Peter coming out of the Montana Mountains mom."
"Okay call in the Flying Fox gunship for a roof landing and notify Ororo we have a situation!" Natasha said as she made her way towards her room to get changed.
"Yes!… Oh, no…...we have incoming!" Alfred yelled as his drone hopped off the table.
Before Natasha could take more than a few steps, the wall that leads outside to the balcony was blasted open. Six assault troopers came bursting in through the opening that they had created, but before they knew what was happening a knife found its way into three of their throats.
"Activate the auto defense systems, now!" Natasha yelled out as she jumped and faded from view.
"Find the child," A soldier yelled, but before he could say any more, another knife found its way into his throat. More and more troops took cover and started to fire their rifles at anything and everything.
"Over there-" Someone yelled as he noticed his partner getting snatched up behind cover. Three of his new companions turned and laid down fire as another two ran down the hallway leading to the bedroom.
More and more troops came pouring into the building through the opening leading to the outside as Natasha fought them off with her knives she had hidden on her person.
Jumping across the couch gap with his spider drone, Alfred nailed one of the assaulting troops in the head, removing it from his body. Someone turned to fire towards where Alfred had fired his shot, but he was already scuttling along.
The firefight progressed, another head of one of the troopers exploded as a shot fired from the roof. As everyone took cover from the fired rounds, the assault troopers that went down the hallway were all thrown back by the wind.
While they turned towards the direction of the wind, Natasha took two more shots, fired and two more heads exploded.
"My child is asleep, and you dare to interrupt my bubble bath!" Ororo spoke as she came stalking down the hallway with a towel wrapped around her body. "Begone!"
Ororo waved her hand as she summoned a wall of wind before her and the hallway that she stood in. Two of the troopers got up and fired towards Ororo, but Natasha was already on them. The two that stood went down as they lost their heads, from the front door busted in one of the larger drones that Alfred had around the tower as security.
When the assault troops took a look at their opposition, without a second thought, they tossed grenades towards the drone. With a wave of her hand, Ororo sent the grenades out and up into the air to explode.
"Not in my home," Ororo said imperiously.
The last three troops shared a look then ran to the balcony hoping to jump to their deaths instead of being taken alive. Unfortunately, one was shot in the back of the head as he ran. Another was blasted with a laser, and the last was immolated with flames.
"What's going on here?" Asked a voice from outside the window as the person or persons came into view.
"I will return." Said Ororo as she turned around and went back down the hall.
"Phoenix, who is your friend?" Natasha asked as she stalked up towards the two new interlopers.
"His name is Cyclops, and he volunteered to help with the emergency."
Let's rewind time to after Ben leaves for where he ran off.
Jean was out patrolling tonight as she normally did when she felt like she needed some freedom from Vega HQ. She had stopped a mugging and a kidnapper, and then she stopped to sign an autograph for a little girl.
With an inward smile, Jean flew off towards the sounds of sirens over the nightlife of New York. Flaring her Phoenix aura, the sky was alight with the great flame bird as she dove towards her prey. Arriving on the scene, Jean was greeted with a team of people driving away from the cops. Hanging out of one of the windows was a gunman firing at the cops.
The police car in pursuit already had several rounds fired into its hood while in pursuit. The cops slowed down as they noticed her approach while they watched the bad guys speed up in the black unmarked car they were driving. Well, that was new Jean thought to herself, but without another thought, she extended her hand as the claw to her Phoenix aura extended to snatch the car off the road.
With the car and the bandits now over her head, Jean came to a stop hovering over the road. Jean had to wait for the police to also come to a stop. With the cops pulled up below her, Jean slowly lowered the vehicle. As the car touched down on the ground, the bandits placed their weapons outside the windows in the motion of getting ready to shoot at the police officers, but with a mental tick, Jean was able to disarm them.
"Thank you, Phoenix, but we will take it from here." One of the officers said as she took away the first bandit from the car. With a closer inspection, Jean found the name tag that said Desantos. She also noticed the frayed edges to the officer's face and her shaking hands from the added adrenaline.
"No problem, Officer Desanto's just doing my part to help keep the city safe." Jean popped with a smile.
Though as she was watching the cops cuff and read the bandits there rights her comms unit began to go off in alarm and so did her wrist-mounted computer. As Jean looked down at her wrist, a bright red emergency warning flashed across the screen.
Unbeknownst to Jean, one of the bandits broke free and reached for the officer's weapon while her attention was brought somewhere else. There was a loud bang, and Jean reacted instinctively as she raised her hand into a telekinetic shield around herself.
Jean was greeted with a bullet suspended in the area mere inches from her face. The shock was clear across her face but as she turned to lash out at the person who fired the shot. That person was blasted with a laser beam from another angle.
Jean turned her sight towards the interloper and found a man standing in spandex with a large red X on his chest as he proudly smiled at her.
"Ohh not another one."
Jean heard one of the officers say; that ticked Jean off for a moment before she turned her attention back towards the bullet that she had frozen in the air before her. Placing that rude officer out of her mind, Jean decided it was best to thank her savior before she went to find out what this whole emergency was about.
Before she could do anything, a person in the all-black suit walked up to her with his hands out.
"Nice to finally meet you while out on patrol, you can call me Cyclops," He said as he held his arm out for Jean to shake.
"Phoenix," Jean replied as she shook his hand in return. She took a look at him from head to toe. Jean noted that this Cyclops had a lean runner's build, not only that but his suit also covered the top half off his face even though it left his eyes free. Jean noted that this might be where he was letting out the laser beams since the edges also had singed marks.
Before Cyclops could say anything in reply, her wrist-mounted computer beeped its emergency beacon again for her attention.
"Shit," Jean spat as her H.U.D. was overridden by Alfred to show her what the current situation was.
"I can assist you," Cyclops spoke as he took a step forward.
Jean thought it over as she watched Ben leave the perimeter of the city on the monitor system as he was already halfway across the continent. Well, shit, he is fast, Jean thought to herself. Because she had no clue on where he was heading as long as his tracker wasn't turned off she was happy following his path.
Then she had another idea that she had never tried before.
Taking a deep breath, she placed one of her hands on her forehead to help focus her thoughts and then reached out with her mind for that familiar thrum of power.
[Babe, you there?]
[Yeah but I'm a little busy about to fuck someone's shit up for taking Laura and Peter.]
[What's the situation?]
[Someone took them through a portal, but I was able to track them because of the tracker that Laura was wearing.]
[Okay, I'll get the team and be there behind you. Be safe.]
[Okay… don't call the professor but contact Natasha; she will have a way to get here faster without borrowing the X-jet. Be safe and see you soon.]
As Jean disconnected mentally from Ben, she was greeted with another emergency noticed as someone attacked her home.
"Shit, Yeah, you can come with," Jean said as she picked up her sidekick and flew towards her home, the Vega Tower. What's one more helping hand Jean thought to herself. If he is helpful and trustworthy, he can keep his memories, but if he turns out to be useless, then she could always wipe his memories of the event afterward.
Turning around, she spoke up before he got any better ideas in his head, "You're a sidekick for this moment and nothing more, you understand, or I can leave you behind."
"Yes ma'am," Cyclops said in return as he felt his body begin to lift off the ground.
Jean carried the man known as cyclops through the city, but for some reason, she couldn't place where she had heard that name before. Jean had to place those thoughts aside though because as they came up upon the tower, they were greeted with the scene of violence.
Before Jean could give him the command though Cyclops started to blast the people trying to escape. Since Cyclops had already fired the opening shots, Jean decided to follow up with the last shots and to kill the last assailant trying to escape.
When her feet touched down on the now destroyed balcony, Jean wished they had saved one person for them to be able to track down who sent these guys.
"Who's he?"
Jean looked up to see a Natasha holding a gun aimed at Cyclops who had his hands up in the universal sign of peace and surrender.
"A sidekick that I picked up and a tag-along for now," Jean replied instantly to Natasha. "If anything happens, I can always snip snip."
"He is your responsibility then, but I'll have my eye on him and keep a bullet with his name on it," Natasha replied before leaving the room.
"Is she always so intense?" Cyclops asked with a chuckle towards the one he knows as the Phoenix but was also Jean Grey in disguise.
"Don't mind her; now tell me Cyclops, why are you so adamant about pulling sidekick duty?" Jean asked as she turned to face her sidekick.
"You and the rest have been protecting the city so I would like to do my part," Cyclops replied slowly to Jean. "It's been a few trying weeks, and I'm so honored to be of service."
"That's okay for now, but it's not my approval you're going to need," Jean replied to the man in his spandex.
"Then who's? Because I can prove myself." Cyclops asked as he took a step towards her. Jean held a hand up to halt him as she put her thoughts together, but before she could say anything, both Ororo and Natasha walked back into the room.
"Meet Storm and Black Widow no other names need saying at the moment," Jean said as she waved her hand towards the ladies.
"Second watch is on the way up the elevators to pick up the little one, and our ride is on the roof so could you do the honors please Phoenix because we have someone to pick up while we make our way to the party," Natasha spoke as she held up the tracker with Bens location.
"Ohh, this is a road trip! Sweet. Will LightSpeed meet us? And where is Spiderman? I would love to get an autograph from him." Cyclops spoke up as Jean lifted them up to the roof with her telekinesis.
"We are on a rescue for them both," Natasha replied as she went through some of her menus on her wrist comms. "Talk to me, Overwatch what's happening."
"It would seem that LightSpeed is going on somewhat of a rampage," Alfred replied but did not bring up the video to show what was happening because of the newcomer.
As everyone floated up to the top of the roof, they found a sight straight out of a Syfy novel. Floating over the helipad was a flying ship half cloaked with the back ramp lowered for people to embark and fly. The flying ship was mat black with swept wings hovering over the grounding with glowing blue vents underneath.
"Alright sidekick, get on the flying ship," Jean said as she nudged Cyclops forward with a telekinetic push.
"Hey, my name isn't sidekick, it's Cyclops, " huffed Cyclops as he walked into the plane behind the rest.
"Like the pretty birdie said your name is sidekick until proven otherwise or you can get back on the streets, " Natasha said as she turned around and stalked up to him her eyes hard.
"Fine, call me whatever just don't leave me behind, " Cyclops muttered offhandedly.
"Good now we can finally leave, " Ororo said as she walked into the cockpit. "Talk to me overwatch."
"Before we go I would like to inform you that we have an incoming call from Black Cat in the Batmobile," Alfred said over the comms in his support position as overwatch.
"Tell her to head towards the docks and jump it; we will grab her," Jean spoke up since Ororo and Natasha didn't have any current plans on how to get the plane within reach of the batmobile.
"Roger,"
Ororo flew towards the docks of Hell's kitchen while Natasha acted as her co-pilot. Jean stood at the back ramp, ready to press the button to lower it as they came in low over the bay to a hover. As they hovered over the bay, Jean heard the tall tail roar of an engine, and she had a feeling that it was the batmobile. As she pressed the button for the ramp doors to descend, a tank came flying around the corner like it was a part of the derby five hundred.
Jean felt a shiver in her loins as she heard the roar of the engine at that distance. With a smile on her face, Jean watched as Felicia floored the gas paddle and the batmobile shot forward even faster as the booster on the back kicked in. The batmobile rocketed down the docks and jumped at the last moment, but Jean was ready for this action.
With a swift motion, Jean grabbed the vehicle out of the air with a telekinetic grip and slowly brought them into the back of the plane.
"Batmobile is here; let's punch it," Jean spoke into her comms as she pressed the ramp door button to close the back door. With the ramp coming up to close, Jean took a step back to take a look at one of Ben's recently finished creations.
"Black Cat, Marine, we have a situation brewing," Jean called out as she knocked on the window to the batmobile. Backing up Jean watched as the two got out, but once Salt played her eyes on the extra body, she gave Jean a nod in confirmation of the code name.
"Talk to me red, why did he run off like that." Felicia returned as she hopped out of the batmobile.
"It's a situation that's in motion." Jean returned with a shrug. "Marine head up top and suit up."
With a nod in return, Salt headed to the upper levels to find the suit that would help her with whatever battlefield they were heading towards.
"You going to tell me who and why he is here?" Felicia asked as she pointed towards the person standing on the side with a large red X on his chest.
"Hi, I'm-"
"His name is unimportant; you can call him sidekick," Jean replied as she interrupted Cyclops from speaking. "So tell me how was the ride in that tank?"
"Ohh she is a hellcat alright; I'll need him to build me one or at least give me the keys to this one," Felicia replied as she walked to stand next to Jean as they looked over the batmobile.
"What am I, chopped liver?" Cyclops asked exasperatedly with his arms outstretched.
"No, you're a sidekick now hush and let the adults talk." Felicia replied, "Tell me, Red, why did you bring him and not underoos?"
"Because underoos has been taken," Replied Natasha as she walked back into the loading bay. "We are five minutes out, and I would also like to know more about our guest over there in the spandex."
"He saved me from getting my head taken off, so this is his chance to impress LightSpeed," Jean said sheepishly.
"Hmm, it would seem that you need more training," Natasha replied before turning around and going up one more level.
"Crap," whispered Felicia.
"Yeah, I'm so dead," Jean noted with a nod.
"Okay, where are we going to be in five minutes and what kind of training do you need and why is she like that," Cyclops replied as he walked up towards the two ladies.
"She isn't the one you have to worry about." said a voice as a tall Nubian goddess strolled out of the cockpit towards the three. "We will arrive soon, so make your final preparations."
"Duly noted," Replied Felicia as she turned around and gave Jean a hug before jumping back into the batmobile. "Tell the Marine she is with me once she gets back down here."
"Hey since there is a third seat you mind if I ride with you?" Cyclops asked with obvious hope in his voice, but all he got in return was cold silence.
"I'm not the nice one, make it past this test, and I will tolerate you," Felicia replied as she brought the canopy back over to close.
Turning around to face Phoenix, Cyclops wanted to ask a question, but all he received was a shrug before he could even ask.
"Attention! Attention! This is Overwatch; we are two minutes out. Please make your final preparation; we are on approach."
Looking up at the noise that she heard, Jean watched as Salt came back down in an advanced Exo suit fully kitted out for war. With a nod towards her, Salt stashed her weapons and knocked on the window to the batmobile for Felicia to open the canopy so she could get in.
Jean watched as Salt got into the batmobile, and then, she felt Ororo and Natasha approach.
"Widow I would like you to infiltrate while LightSpeed is doing whatever he is doing while Phoenix and myself handle the air support. Black Cat and Marine will handle the ground units." Ororo said as she came to stand next to Jean.
"I believe the code name he is using tonight is Red Hood," Replied all of their comm units.
"Okay Phoenix, you're with me in the sky while the calvary takes out their ground units," Ororo said as she waved a hand towards the batmobile.
"What do I do ma'am?" Cyclops spoke up from his spot behind Jean's shoulder.
"You stay from underfoot and don't die; this is the big leagues," Natasha said as she rounded on Cyclops.
Cyclops stepped up to face his adversary, but when he noticed that he was the only one facing her, he remembered that he was the one that chose to come into enemy territory with them. "Fine, I will assist however I can."
"Good! now here," Ororo said as she handed Cyclops one of the comm units to get him on the same page. With that out of the way Jean tightened the fasteners on her belt and opened the storage to bring out some telekinetic laser weaponry that Ben had added recently. The new weapons were shaped like a diamond and could be fired and controlled with her telekinetic touch.
Jean felt the ship coming around in the sky, and she knew they had arrived at their destination. Taking a look around Jean couldn't find Natasha anywhere, not even when she switched to her astral sight. Well damn! It would seem that either Ben created astral cloaking or Natasha had figured out a way to cloak from even her sight.
"Drop off of the batmobile in 3...2...1… drop!"
The first thing to go down the ramp was the batmobile. Jean watched as the batmobile touched down, and Felicia opened the cannons up, blasting everything in sight. With a nod to Ororo, Jean jumped out of the plane next as she used a telekinetic grip to bring Cyclops behind with her.
Hitting the open air, Jean took a deep breath but soon wished she hadn't because it smelled and tasted of ash and volcanic brimstone. Taking a look around, Jean came to a realization that this was no ordinary war zone. Placing Cyclops on one of the roofs Jean flew out to stop an escaping truck leaving towards the northwest.
With quick and rapid commands to her telekinetic drones, she fired a shot right through the engine block stopping the truck dead in its tracks. When the truck came to a sudden halt, the driver went through the windshield as the rest jumped out and began to open fire at her.
Without a second thought, Jean summoned up a telekinetic claw to swipe at them on the right side leaving long furrows in the ground. The guard looking guys jumped towards the left away from her flaming telekinetic swipe. This was just as Jean planned as she lined up the telekinetic drones on the left to riddle them with holes.
With a snort, Jean turned around to fly back and cover the area but heard a savage Kra-koom off in the distance. Jean's head snapped in the direction of the noise only to find a plane crashing out of the sky. Not too far from the plane though Jean noticed Ororo had lightning coming out of her fingertips as it surrounded her.
With a smile, Jean turned back to keeping her side of the air clear while also taking down escapees.
Peter Parker - Underoos / Spiderman
Drip…..drip...drip…
He felt something wet on his face as he swiped his hand in the air to try and brush it away.
"Did anyone get the plate of the bus that hit me?"
"No but you need to get up; we are in danger and your laying there will get us killed." A voice up above his head said.
Who was that voice Peter thought to himself and where was he. Yeah no he remembered, he was out on a date with Laura when they got captured. With a gasp, Peter shot up wide awake.
What Peter found before him, chilled his heart to the core. He was currently laying in a small puddle of blood, and when he looked for where it was coming from, Peter wanted to scream. Up above, Peter's head was Laura hanging from chains that were hooked into her. Laura hung from them with her hands locked behind her back.
Without even thinking, Peter leaped up towards the chains Laura was hanging from but was met with a solid force field repelling him back. His eyes shed tears from the pain of smashing his head into whatever kept him here.
"I need you to focus, activate the tracking system," Laura said from up above him.
"I don't have any tracking system," Peter yelled as he began to look around, trying to figure out a way to overload the field mechanism so that he could escape.
The walls were clean, and there were no hanging gaps for him to get a handhold to pull anything apart with his strength.
"Calm down," Laura said with an eerily calm voice.
"I'm calm, but we need to get you down before you bleed to death." Peter turned around to yell up at Laura
"Calm down and think for a moment, would my mentor give you a shirt like that without a secondary function?" Laura spoke from her hanging hooks.
"Hmm oh okay what's the code then?" Peter said after he took a moment to think about it.
"How would I know what the code is Peter," Laura replied in a monotone. "What is something that only my mentor calls you?"
"The only thing she calls me that others don't is Captain Underoos," Peter said with a hand on his chin.
-Confirmed Rescue is on the way.-
- Activating weapons utility belt.-
"What the, what!" Peter exclaimed, jumping high up as his shirt began to transform into armor. Peter was marveling at his new nanotech armor when he heard a loud crash. With the sound of that crash, all hell had broken loose in the cell block.
For a brief moment, the lights shuttered on and off before settling back to staying on.
"Rescue is here," Laura spoke as if this was another day that amazed Peter at how calm she could be even with those things hooked into her.
"How could you even know that?"
"Because the moment we were taken; I said my own location code to ping the GPS and lead him here," Laura replied in a deadpan voice. " I thought it would take him longer than a few minutes to cross the United States to come and save us. Now, Captain Underoos, can you get me out of here. I'm certain that you have more than enough weapons in that utility belt to fight an army."
"Aye, don't call me that," Peter huffed as he began to scroll through the menu hovering above his wrist.
"What else would you like me to call you?" Laura asked with a raised eyebrow. "Because I refuse to call you Petepie."
"Can I get just a little bit less sass," Peter huffed, "You know since we are like, needing to escape."
"Then stop stalling and get me down; it is very uncomfortable to have these hooks in me." Replied Laura but was silenced when the building shook one more time.
Peter quickly donned the power gloves that had an energizer function and went towards the purple force field that was holding him in the jail cell. This wasn't a zero-point field nor was it a stasis shielding so that could only mean the power source would be close but also off the ground. Taking a look outside the forcefield, Peter found the track marks on the right side of his jail cell.
Bingo! Peter thought to himself as he flexed his fingers to activate the energy lance function with the gloves he wore. Taking a deep breath, Peter hit the joint that connected the wall with the edge of the force field barrier. Peters's hand slid right into the wall at waist height, breaking the connection to the access panel and the power source on the other side of the wall.
"Owww!" Peter yelled after smashing apart the wall that had the access panel and the power coupling for his jail cell.
"I will kiss it and make it better when we escape," Laura spoke up as she looked in the direction of the door leading into their cell block. "Hurry up and release me from up here."
"Well, well, well if it isn't little lover boy."
When Peter turned around, he found her standing there at the door. She was the same one that had knocked him out. Peter noticed she had brought the electric prod in her hand as she stood at the door. Not only that, but her face was covered with some brown smudges that Peter felt might be dried blood.
Before she could even take a step through the door, a red sword reached in from behind her and removed her head. The arm was large and rocky with flowing veins of lava stretched along the forearms.
Then the largest person Peter had ever seen stepped inside, this guy was so large that he had to have had two feet on Luke, Peter thought to himself. The person wore black combat pants with a red undershirt with a black bat covered over with a black flack jacket. On his head, Peter noticed the red helmet with the odd-shaped ears, but what really drew Peters's attention was the arms of rock behind their rescuer. On his arms, Peter also noticed the mark of gunshots, and on the left, he also noticed a long gash.
"That was my kill!" Laura yelled, greatly spooking Peter. "You had no right to take that from me!"
"She raised you, that means all that you know she knows," Grunted the person in the red helmet.
"Wait you know this guy?" Peter asked incredulously. There was no way he wouldn't know about a crazy powerful person like this.
"Come on Petepie you don't recognize your brotha from anotha motha?" The person asked as the helmet that was hiding his face opened up to show, Ben!
"You killed a person!" Peter chirped as he pointed towards the body of that mean lady.
"Wouldn't be the first time but let's get your girl down," Ben told him as he jumped and yanked the chains connected to Laura clean out of the reinforced concrete roof.
"When did you get so strong?" Peter yelled out, pointing at what Ben just did.
"A long time ago, I just haven't made a big deal about it." Ben replied, but then he looked Peter up and down. "Tell me why did you get yourself captured in the first place."
"Well, I ahh-"
"Save it, this just means you haven't been training hard enough," Ben said as he interrupted Peter. "Do you want me to teleport you back or do you want to walk out of here?"
"I want to walk out on my own two feet," Peter replied with his chest out.
"Good now get your girl up and get ready for battle."
Let's rewind time and change over to Ben's perspective:
Or, Why You Don't Piss Off an Ascended Meta-human.
This was turning out to be a very productive night. Right as everything kicked off, I grabbed Bullseye with a gravity hold summoning him right into my hand and then broke his neck. People always joke about Bullseye being a lame DareDevil villain, but I knew he was one of the most dangerous men alive anywhere.
A man that was able to turn anything into an implement of death and can use it with the accuracy of Hawkeye was not a man to sleep on so he was the first to die. With Bullseye out of the way, I began to dismantle the rest of the goons, I also had to take out Flint Marco and pinned him to the roof with a gravity cling.
With the two real baddies out of the game, the rest of them folded. Turning around, I found Felicia standing over Fisk with a lot of his blood all over the place. Damn, Felicia was going to task on Fisk without any of our help, and now she had that manic look in her eyes as Gwen gets over the last cookie.
I watched the interaction between the two and had to step in when Fisk spat at her, which Felicia dodged easily. Even though she was able to dodge the spit, Fisk had raised my ire for the man.
Before Fisk even knew what was happening, I was on him.
"You should have kept that to yourself fat man," I told Fisk as I hauled him up off the ground by the throat. Before Fisk could even retaliate, I twisted him around and brought him down hard over my knee.
Playing it cool, I rolled Fisk off my knee after I felt and heard the crunch of his spine. Ohh it felt great pulling off Bane's Backbreaker on one of the greatest Spider-Man and New York villains around. Taking a step back, I watched with no remorse as Felicia doled out her revenge on the man that has destroyed thousands of lives in his pursuit of power.
My wrist beeped, and when I checked it, I noticed a message from Laura asking for help. Trying not to sigh in exasperation, I double-checked to see if I received any messages from Peter asking for dating advice.
There was nothing from Peter, so I shot a message back to Laura, but I got a message back that the device was inoperable. Now I released a sigh inside my helmet, with a few button pushes I was able to bring up the video feed of them going to the derby.
Logging Peter and Laura into the algorithm I watched as my supercomputer began to compile the video footage of them and their progress through the derby. Scrolling through the video footage at high speed, I noticed everything was going good until Peter perked up and then they began to run.
Without even checking the rest of the video, I pinged Laura's phone and took off towards that direction. My anger was spiked to the top, and whoever was behind this was going to die in fire and brimstone.
Pulling back in my anger before I landed on the spot that I was getting the ping from Laura's cellphone. It was odd, I was receiving a ping, but nothing was able to get through to her phone. Landing hard on the pavement, I ignored the cracks and the footprint I left in the ground: nothing but leftover destruction caused by whoever did this.
Ignoring the ruble from the mess I honed in on the cell phone only to find it partially broken. Tossing that aside, I searched through the rubble quickly finding a control module trying to call home. That was all the help I needed, the module was able to ping home but couldn't answer the return call, but I could.
With a step I blasted off flying in the direction of the signal; they were about to find out why kidnapping my people was a bad decision. Reaching halfway across the United States, I received a message from Alfred that people were attacking my tower. That's when it dawned on me that this was a coordinated strike against me, but I couldn't think of who it could be at the moment.
Commanding Alfred to up the DEFCON protocols, I also had him send a few spider-bots to go gather the junk from what they used to smuggle Laura and Peter away so fast. Then I also checked the video feed from my tower and found Natasha kicking ass.
Now I was havoc level angry and had no more thoughts of holding it back. My baby and my girls were in that building! They could take care of a large army, but that wasn't the point. There is now hell to pay!
Increasing my speed even more, I was going to show these assholes why it was best to stay out of my way. The signal I followed brought me to a valley wedged between a hill and a plateau deep within the back of the Montana mountains.
Floating up more than a thousand feet up in the air, I looked down on the base as they ran around trying to prepare for my arrival, but I had something else for these fucks today.
Putting my hands before me, I balled them into fists and raised them high above my head. It was time to release the Darksied on these fucks. My forearms and hands began to glow red as I gathered energy into them when I felt I had enough. I dropped with the force of gravity behind my fall.
Today they will all die beneath my feet as I channeled the inner earth bender and Darkseid as my wrath unfolded and blended the forces. I hit the ground with the force of a tomahawk tow missile destroying the earth around me, but I wasn't happy with only that. Pulling more on the strength force I brought out the lava sending it before me.
Shots were fired at me, and I didn't even need to dodge as they slammed into me going inert on contact as the speed and strength force drained them of all the kinetic energy. The soldiers didn't scream or cry out for help; no they got angry and brought bigger and better guns to face me. Too bad for them, I was on another level entirely. Slowly I walked out of the crater that I had created as the soldiers took steps back from my form as I rose to my full power before them.
They looked at me, and I looked back at them, and then I stepped forward with a stomp. They never knew what took their lives as earth spikes erupted beneath their feet impaling them.
With a wave of my hand, I set a lava shot arcing over and burning through one of the Humvees that began to open fire on me as they tried to take me down.
After burning a hole into the humvee, I took off towards the facility that was housing my brother and his girlfriend. There was no need to phase through the wall because I was now moving like a true Juggernaut.
The concrete wall was nothing in the face of my might, it broke asunder as I walked through it with ease. I stepped in to find a hallway with scientists and guards running around.
"Get him!"
"Die freak!"
Everyone around with weapons opened fire while those without ran away from me as I kept on smashing through walls like they were made of tofu. As I was breaking my way through the facility, I found myself in a wide room with all white walls as a monitor hung over on one of the walls. Everything changed when I stepped into the room, metal shutters closed down behind me and a section of one of the walls raised up to release a beast.
Man, this animal was butt-fucking ugly to the umpteenth level. It was down on all four legs with jagged spikes all along its body, its maw was massive with sharp teeth with blood dripping from its face. The skin was silver, and the claws on its feet were sharp enough to break the concrete that it stood on.
"Do you like her,"
Someone spoke, and it could only come from one place, and that was the monitor on the wall.
"Stryker commissioned us to make her before his disappearance. But since he is no longer around, I decided to amp it up for you." The person on the TV said as he brought up a picture of a place that I hate with every fiber of my being. "So you do recognize this place, don't worry, you don't have to say anything because I could read it from your body language."
The monster didn't even wait for him to command it to attack me; it was already at my throat trying to rip me in two. Today was not my time to die, with a vicious slap I broke the jaw on the monster before me.
"It would seem our predator x would like to feast." The man on the monitor said.
"You added my blood to this thing!" I yelled out as I jump towards the beast lashing out, smashing its head in, cratering the wall opposite the monitor.
"It would seem that you have gotten stronger."
"Wash your neck because I will kill you soon," I spoke out as I stood my ground against this beast. Now ignoring the man on the screen, I faced my foe because I had faith in Alfred tracking that fucker down so that I could take his head later.
ROOOAAARRRRR!
With a lunge, I smashed a knee into the monster's face as it attempted to fix itself against the ground that I had pounded it into. The beast lashed at me, pushing me back off of it as it ran around me at hyper speeds.
The beast was too large compared to my size, so it was time to level the playing field. Pulling on more of my energy and strength, I raised my height up, allowing me to stand and face the monster eye to eye.
I didn't realize it at first, but I was growling along with the beast before we clashed once more. This time one of its claws raked across the forearm that I had up in defense. The first jab had broken its jaw, and that didn't seem to phase the beast, so it was time to up the ante and break it completely.
Bouncing off the wall, the beast came at me going for my back, but with my guard up, there was no chance of it succeeding.
Yet the monster going for my back was a faint what it wanted was my leg. With a chomp, the beast came down on my meaty thigh like it was a drumstick on the fourth of July. That was the final straw with this thing, jamming my elbow into its head. I forced the second blow into the nerves on the side of its neck causing the monster to pause from the blow and its attempt to shake me.
That slight pause was the moment that I was looking forward to using so that I could escape from its grasp. This thing might have my speed, but there was one thing that I could do that it couldn't, and that was phasing. Using that slight moment to gather myself, I phased through its jaw falling onto the ground and returned with a rising uppercut smashing its mouth closed as a few teeth shattered from the force of the impact.
My wrist unit buzzed with the location of Peter, and my mind settled into killing this thing and going to recover him before I moved on to finding where Laura was being kept. With the distance opened up between us, I pulled out my Gladius and turned it on. When I had made the batmobile and the flying fox I had taken that idea straight out of DC, but I had also taken a few moves from Deathstroke the terminator.
That had turned into the sword I was currently wielding, the gladius that I wielded was able to oscillate at a hyper frequency that allowed the sword to slice through anything. That was great, but I had upped it once more by running heat coils allowing me to cauterize the wounds closed.
With my sword out, I didn't even give the beast a chance, and I jumped over it as I struck like lightning right down and through the spine. I sliced the monster from its neck all the way to its tail, cutting it in half. Before the beast could heal from that I created a lava pit and bathed both parts in the lava.
Turning around, I found the guy looking horrified on the other side of the monitor.
"You will be next," I said while pointing my sword at the monitor, then with a slash, the screen was cut in half. With a snort at the wreckage, it was time to find Peter.
The wrist holo that was glowing out of my Sanskrit beads showed Peter was somewhere below me. With the location now known, I took off running towards the ping. There was something that I wanted to try now that I was outside a training room.
With the speed force, I was able to make a clone and also recreate body parts, but the strength force gave me gravity control, earth powers, and strength. I was more than a one-man overpowered tank. With a little bit of focus, the debris from the previous fight was now in orbit around my person.
With an evil smile to myself, I set the debris on an accelerated spin around me and took off running down the corridors. Every step I take every inch of the corridor that I passed was pulled along with me as I ran. No scientist and no guards could stand in my way as I blazed my path of carnage.
I worked my way down more than ten floors towards the basement, once I even came across the room that held a teleporter. That was going to be mine also, so I dropped a nano grenade inside the room for Alfred to download all of the data and information on the tech.
Leaving the nano bomb behind I made my way towards the prison cells but what I found was a woman standing in the way at the door. Raising one of my rocky hands, I drew my sword and cleaved her head clean off of her shoulder. Gun in one hand and wearing the guard's clothes, that makes her a bad guy in my book. Ignoring the body on the floor I stepped my way into the prison to find Peter already free, and Laura was hanging from the ceiling.
Laura started to spew something about me stealing her kill, and Peter went on about me being a killer.
"You need to understand PetePie that this isn't a Saturday morning cartoon," I said as I poked a finger at his chest. "Look at what they did to your girl, now stand back and take a look around us. Notice anything?"
Peter did take a step back and took in the sights, and I watched as his eyes opened wide as saucers. That was because all around us were jail cells lined the walls up to the roofs filled with tons and tons of metahuman prisoners.
With that, Peter stayed silent while Laura walked over to me and held her hand out for something.
"Weapon," Laura said with her hands out, so I gave her one of the spare swords that I carried along with me. Then I watched Laura walk back over to the body and began to dismember it, arms, legs, and cut the torso in half.
Well damn, she must really hate this person then. With a wave of my hand, I turned the floor beneath the body parts to lava and watched the parts sink into the pits. Turning my back on that scene I went around to destroy all the cages and free all of the prisoners.
Coming out of the cells were meta's of all shapes and sizes, hell I noticed a few people that I also recognized, which was pretty cool. The only one that I wanted to hang with would be Mercury that I would want a dna sample from or to add to my forces but that could wait until after all of this is finished, and we got out of this mess.
As I made my way back towards the ground, another one of those predator x monsters came crashing into the prison, but Peter's spider-sense went off, allowing him to grab Laura and escape. The monster went and gobbled up one of the ladies with a leg flying somewhere and another limb flying somewhere else.
"Vertigo! Noooooo!"
I heard someone scream out for the lady that died, but I ignored them and went for the monster with my sword ablaze. The beast was able to eat three more people before I was able to catch back up with it and take off one of the legs with my sword.
With its hind leg removed, the monster turned back around and screamed at me. Out of my jacket shoulders popped mini-missile pods firing into the beast. The monster did not expect that and was blown through one of the containment cells.
Before it had a chance to right itself, I was on it slicing down along the spine removing it whole, killing the beast.
Getting back up, I turned to the rest and waved my hands at them, "Let's roll! This is a jailbreak!"
After placing my sword on my back, I pulled out my pistols and led the way with Laura at my side. More guards had made their way behind me and we're currently filing down into the corridor as I walked out of the cellblock.
Before they could open fire on us I stomped, shooting the rock below them up and smashing them into the roof clearing the way for us. What I hadn't done though was clear the stairwell because I had no clue on how secure those things were. So, we ran up the stairs towards the exit while I placed a bullet in each of the downed guards and Laura cut a few heads off with the sword I gave her.
We arrived on the fifth floor when we burst into another ambush point that pinned us down. That was when Peter leaped over us to web the guards up against one of the walls and some to the floor. With them trapped, I raised my gun to put a bullet in each of their heads to stop them from getting us in the back if we got pinned in another location.
"Ben, no! Hero's don't kill," Peter said sternly pushing my gun aside.
"One, never do that again. Two, never do that again." I told Peter as I stepped into his personal space. Laura instantly popped her claws in the defense of her boyfriend. "Why do you think we wear the mask, tell me that."
"To protect our identities'" Peter replied
"Then why the fuck are you yelling my name out loud," I yelled at him, causing the people that we released from the cells to take a step back.
"We are heroes and heroes don't kill," Peter replied definitely.
"Did you stop to think about what they would have done to you if I didn't make it here in time to save your ass?" I replied to him. "They have hot weapons ready to fill your ass with lead and monster's made to eat people, so you need to understand that you're on another level here and the rules are different entirely."
"We can make it out of here without taking lives I know we can," Peter said. "I have to believe that we can do this without killing."
"Well we can't," I replied. "Do you even know if they have another one of those predator x monsters around the facility? And if they do, what's your plan for dealing with it? Are you going to ask it not to eat more people? Are you going to make friends with a genetically created super monster designed to eat people like us?"
"I would have thought of something," Peter replied, holding firm in his belief.
"Yeah you would have, and people would die in the process anyway, and you would be chained with guilt," I said as I brushed him aside. "I know you all too well and the way you think, and that's why you have no voice in the matter. They will all die for us to get out and you can go to the back of the queue and be tail end charlie to make sure our back stays clear."
"You can't keep doing this."
"Yes, I can. You see this mask that I wear, this symbol on my chest. This will be the symbol they fear coming for them in the night. Monsters don't fear people, monsters only fear other monsters." I replied, facing him straight to his face. "They will spread the word, and I will be the boogie man that appears and dismantles all of their fucked up experiments."
With that, I walked past Laura and Peter and proceeded to dismantle every choke point and guard I met on the way towards the exit at the top of the facility. Nothing stood in my way, and that was how I like it, but as I made it out onto the second floor, I found Natasha facing off against the last of the predator x beasts.
Once my feet touched the ground, it rounded on me and headed directly towards me. Very unlucky for the monster, though was that Natasha had her eyes for the kill even though it was juiced up with my blood somehow. Everyone was looking around when we heard a muffled thump, and the monster fell on the ground as its stomach blew out and its feet collapsed.
Shaking my head, I walked up to the monster that was toyed to death by the Black Widow and held my sword up to remove its head, when Natasha returned visible next to me. Natasha held a hand out in front of me, and I gave her the sword to perform the kill on the beast.
With a slash, the monster was dismembered and that made the count of three of these beasts dead and gone.
"So who is watching our child?" I asked Natasha the most obvious question that was pressing on my mind now that chivalry was here.
"Your mother: and the tower is on total lockdown," Natasha replied smoothly. "Backup was brought, and you will have to make a decision on a new body that tagged along."
"Shit, dude you're tapping that,"
Someone from the crowd of people embalmed and both Natasha and I rounded on the person with guns up. Everyone instantly scattered, leaving a pink-skinned guy in the center shaking.
"Do you not want to leave here alive," Natasha asked in a threatening whisper that sent a chill down a person's spine and I was certain that everyone heard her. "If so, then you shall keep your trap shut and allow us to rescue you without your sideline babble."
I grinned down at her, and she raised an eyebrow back at me, "Whatever is between us is no one's business" I replied with a shrug then yelled out for Captain Underoos to get his can up here.
With Peter and Laura up with us now, Natasha did a solid three hundred and sixty-degree check on both of them and I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the scene. Leaving Natasha to be the big sister to both of them, I went over the information that Alfred had gathered for me. The information allowed me to sprout a savage grin on my face because the next stop was in the alpine mountain range.
Besides the scene of the next place to trash, which I had another one of my team's prep for, Alfred was also blanketing all of the accounts in overseas banks and shell companies. Again more billions will be added to my name, and I was already planning on how to spend it all.
Feeling a tap on my shoulder I received a nod from Natasha, and it was time to make our way back to the top of this forsaken place. Getting to the top, I broke down more walls making our own exit as Natasha dismantled any of the opposition that stood in our way on our way out.
Reaching the open air, I took a lung full of that sweet freshness but as wasted with the smell of ash and burning. Natasha gave me a quick pat on the back and went over to examine some of the people that came up with us. Before anyone could say anything, a sexy battle tank came flying around the corner in reverse as multiple combat vehicles chased it while it was in battle mode. Shells fired and Humvee's blew up in a sexy cascade of destruction: and man was I proud.
The crackle and boom of lightning were heard overhead as Ororo touched down a few short feet away from me and the surroundings lit up in a bright shine of orange as Jean touched down as well. We felt the wind as the flying fox uncloaked over the battlefield and rested at a hoover with the back ramp down for boarding.
My people were here, and I couldn't help the smile that spread across my face at the show of support. Then another person jumped off the roof, landing behind Jean and stood there. This must have been the extra body that Natasha was talking about down below I thought to myself.
What happened next put my hackles on edge though, the person that was behind Jean in her Phoenix suit opened fire on some soldiers posted up on the roof overhead taking aim. The laser beams would have been okay but what really put me over the edge was that these were optic beams.
When I noticed the optic beams, I had to take a closer look, and I wasn't very happy with what I found. He was in an all-black jumpsuit with a large red X on his chest, and I was seconds away from impaling him with my sword.
"Red Hood let me introduce you to Cyclops, he arrived to assist Phoenix and tagged along with us here," Ororo said with a flourish of her arm towards the newcomer.
Natasha though noticed my mood, and so did Jean.
"Who are you?" I asked, barely containing my rage at the person. The sound of my voice brought Ororo's attention back to me and away from the children that we had rescued.
"The names Cyclops thought you would get that from that lady that just said it, ya know." the person before me joked.
"One chance before you're dead where you stand," I said, drawing my sword and activating it. Everyone noticed how serious I had become and drew their own weapons and stepped away from the man. "I will ask one last time, A name and not that code name because your life depends on it."
"Shit, you're intense. My name is Scott Summers." The clone replied to me, and that was when I got the ping on my wrist holo. Genosha and with that, I was also given an address on the island.
"SINISTER!" I snarled and moved faster than lightning removing the head from his body before he could even register what was happening. I held the laughing head in my hands and then exploded in a mini-explosion of lava burning everything and the body in a mini three feet radius.
Everyone had their hands in front of their faces to shield from the light.
"I fucking hate clones!"
[Undisclosed location]
"We were unable to recover the child of Gaia."
"We shall try again."
"She will have more protections."
"We shall increase our effort then."
"We can not fail."
"Master, our location is compromised,"
"Gather our troops,"
"Yes, Master, your will shall be done."
Authors Notes - Removes the - for the internet links.
For those who are wondering, If there is X-men there is Sinister and the big guy behind him. People are, of course, plotting for Ben and his family, you can't have all that power and not expect certain people not to have some type of tracking or observation. For those wondering why I normally dont post author notes because I'm very active with the chat on Discord. Let me know in the comments section if you would like more author notes.
You can come and find me here chatting with the server so come join us.
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On the Pat - reon you will find artwork for The Fastest Man Alive and Side Stories.
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