章 144: Chapter 144
[Third Person's PoV]
Nick Fury led everyone out of the jet and began guiding them through the Helicarrier. He turned towards some of the agents that were waiting and said, "Take the others and put them in a cell…"
"Move it," one of them said, pushing Ursula forward with an electric baton, causing her to grunt slightly as she looked back towards Scarlet-Spider.
Scarlet-Spider shot an impact web at the man, causing him to be thrown back and tumble to the floor.
The agents all took out their guns and aimed them at Scarlet-Spider, who glared back, unfazed. "Although they're half-animals, they're still people. Treat them as such, or I'll show you what it's really like to be treated as an animal."
Scarlet-Spider then looked towards Ursula and nodded. "Don't worry, I'll keep my word," she said in Russian.
Ursula closed her eyes and nodded with a faint smile.
"Can I ask what that was all about?" Fury asked, massaging his forehead.
Scarlet-Spider scoffed, "They're not all bad people. They don't deserve to be treated as such. So, shall we continue?"
Nick looked at them for a moment before nodding. "Stand down. Treat the prisoners gently," he commanded.
Spider-Man's helmet showed emote tears. He covered his mouth and put a hand on Ghost-Spider's shoulder. "They grow up so fast, don't they?"
Nick rolled his eye. "Like I said, follow me."
As they walked, Natasha looked towards Scarlet-Spider and asked in Russian, "Do you all speak Russian, or is it only you?"
"We all do," they all replied in Russian.
"Good to know…" Natasha nodded, impressed.
"How many languages do you guys speak?" Hawkeye asked curiously.
"Too many to count…" they all said in a hollow, dead voice, holding their heads as if experiencing phantom pain, except for Spider-Man, who had a smug smirk.
"Sorry I asked…?" Hawkeye said, looking towards Natasha, who just shrugged.
They soon arrived inside the Helicarrier, where multiple agents were seated in front of a screen.
"So, how much do you truly know about what's going on with your little friends and what's happening behind the scenes?" Fury asked, referring to the beast-men.
"What part of 'you guys are hackable' did I fail to explain?" Spider-Man asked.
"Right… but not all of our systems are connected to the internet. What you don't know, and what isn't in our system, is that we have some agents in there acting as spies, and it isn't looking very good for them," Fury said, his expression growing serious.
Spider-Man put a hand on his chin, his expression also growing serious. "Let me guess. They created more and are currently growing in power…"
Nick nodded. "It isn't looking too good. They are planning on using the failed experiments as foot soldiers."
"Cannon fodder…" Nightwing added in realization.
"And that's what we just learned a few minutes ago…" Nick added.
"Sir, we have news… and it went from bad to worse," Maria Hill said, looking at a screen.
"How so?" Fury asked, his expression growing unpleasant.
"Listen to this…" Maria said, hitting play on a voice note.
There was heavy breathing followed by someone gulping. "This is Agent Serial number 463636A. We have been discovered," a man whispered. "I repeat, we have been discovered. They're on my trail…"
There was a short silence. "They have grown ambitious. They have moved from animals to dinosaurs… they are planning on combining the DNA using the fossils of dinosaurs—"
"HE'S HIDING OVER HERE! GET HIM!" someone yelled in Russian.
"No, wait!" the agent yelled in panic, followed by a roar, screams, and the sound of blood gushing everywhere. There were sounds of choking before hearing his dying breath. The voice note then ended.
There was a heavy silence in the Helicarrier. Nick Fury turned towards Spider-Man and the others. "You can see why I said we need your help… they're creating an army. We aren't strong enough or have the weapons capable of dealing with them. And the last thing we want to do is throw a nuke at the problem. It could lead to the start of World War III if it ever came to that."
"They're making human-dinosaur hybrids? That's insane," Ghost-Spider said, her brows furrowing. "We don't know what that could lead to. Their DNA is vastly different from that of modern animals, and such hybrids would likely exhibit more animalistic traits than human ones. The genetic divergence between humans and dinosaurs is enormous, spanning millions of years. Integrating their DNA could result in unpredictable and potentially dangerous physiological and behavioral traits. The stability of such hybrids is highly questionable."
Nick and the others looked at Ghost-Spider with interest.
"She's the genetic expert, so this is her field," Spider-Man quickly explained, causing them to nod in understanding.
Scarlet-Spider then looked more worried. "We don't even know if the ones undergoing the experiment are doing it willingly anymore."
"So, are you guys in?" Fury asked.
"Is that even a question? You can't expect us to simply look the other way when a possible war is in our hands. Hundreds of lives are potentially at stake," Nightwing said.
Nick nodded. "We are likely to assume that the agents we had are already sniffed out and are most likely dead. So this changes the mission. You are going to go in there and stop the production of these human-beasts before they become a problem. Eliminate anything that gets in your way or that will become a problem for us—"
"And this is where I intervene," Spider-Man interrupted, his tone serious. "We don't 'eliminate.' I'm not sure how much you've truly been following me around or how much you have studied me. But I don't kill. Killing is where I draw the line."
"Motherfucker, we are having a national crisis! Are you seriously going to do this right now?"
"You wanted our help, right? Then we will do it our way. I know it might sound annoying to you and it's not how you do things. But it's my principle and how I do things, so you will need to respect that," Spider-Man said.
Nick looked at Spider-Man, who looked right back at him. Nick nodded. "So what's your plan?"
"We will need to capture all the 'Human-Beasts' alive. When Ghost-Spider gets a hold of the DNA splicer, she should be able to adjust it to undo all the damage and revert them back to normal humans.
Your job, Nicky, is to deal with the leaders, make it so they can't be leaders anymore, and ensure that this doesn't happen again. Once what they have done comes to light, it will most likely cause civil unrest among the people. To make sure that doesn't happen, we need the Soviet Union to disband.
Although I make it sound like step one and two, there is a lot of danger involved. We don't truly know how many more they have created since the ones we just captured. Not to mention how strong their soldiers that have transformed properly will be. But that really shouldn't matter much…"
"Why shouldn't it matter much?" Hawkeye asked.
"It's simple really… I'm strong, and that's all that will truly matter."
"So we're going there to help them?" Nick asked.
"You asked a hero for help with this, what do you expect?"
Natasha tilted her head with an expression that said 'Fair.'
"I see your point, alright. We'll do it your way, as it leads to the least amount of casualties," Nick nodded.
Natasha then turned towards Scarlet-Spider, "So what was it that you promised to the woman earlier?"
"The reason she joined the program was because she was promised that her kids will be well taken care of. She found the deal good enough so she went with it. It was only later that she found out that she would be labeled a deserter."
"Those kids aren't going to be treated well," Spider-Man sighed as he shook his head, "Children of deserters are treated horribly, especially from such a patriotic nation."
"That's what I said as well," Scarlet-Spider nodded, "I felt bad. She was only a mother doing what she believed was best for her children, so I decided to help her out."
Spider-Man and the others nodded in understanding. Spider-Man then turned towards Nick, "So how long until we arrive? We will need time to prepare…"
"Four hours…" Fury calculated.
"Alright, that should give us enough time," Spider-Man muttered. He turned towards Nick, "Do you guys have a workstation here? I need to make some things for our little mission."
"Yeah, follow me," Hawkeye motioned, which Peter followed.
Meanwhile, Nightwing was off to the side tapping his ear, "I know babe, I'm sorry, I should have told you I wasn't going to be there today."
"I know you waited by yourself, and I'm sorry for that. I should have warned you."
"I don't know where the others are. I'm currently busy… I'll call you later. I'll make it up to you with a date. Love you, bye," Nightwing sighed.
When he turned, he saw the others looking at him, causing him to cough in embarrassment. "I'll see if Spider-Man needs help," he said as he rapidly walked away.
As they waited, the girls started to get to know each other, "I'm curious, why do you guys have a no-kill rule?" Natasha asked.
"I actually asked Spider-Man this myself," Spider-Kat said, raising a finger.
"He said there are actually a few reasons. First, and I quote, 'There are fates out there far worse than death, fates that will keep beating them down until they have nothing left, a fate they much well deserve,'.
Another reason is that death is a mercy for them, a mercy which they do not deserve. They need to pay for their actions and face the punishment for the people they hurt and the crimes they committed.
And lastly, we are just friendly neighborhood heroes. We will have people looking up to us, following our example, especially little kids. Little kids are very impressionable. If they see people they consider heroes just kill willy-nilly, they will think that it's an okay thing to do. Plus, what kind of neighborhood would feel safe when someone is killing people out there?" Spider-Kat said in a proud tone, a tone she didn't even believe came out of her.
Scarlet-Spider and Ghost-Spider just looked towards her as she began to blush slightly. Scarlet-Spider and Ghost-Spider gave each other a sideways glance but didn't say anything else.
Natasha nodded, "I think I understand… You guys take this hero business very seriously."
Ghost-Spider nodded, "We kinda have to, there are people out there who will need our help, and are not strong enough to help themselves, which is where we come in…"
…
As the spider-ladies get to know each other and go off to face a growing problem, another problem grows in their own backyard…
Otto Octavius, better known as Doc Ock, is seen sitting in what appears to be his secret lab.
He has his arms out as his tentacles arms are rapidly moving, building a metal object around his arm as he looks up towards the news.
"Since he hasn't found me, it means my hypothesis is correct; he must keep a watch through the city using CCTVs and others of similar nature. The EMP coating around my body I made luckily makes me invisible to such detection. But I can't keep relying on it forever.
I won't make such a rookie mistake of underestimating my enemy. He's like me; he's smart, foolish in his hero ways but smart. I would be more of a fool as well if I deny that and underestimate him.
Thanks to these mechanical limbs I can't even hear myself think. I have to talk out loud to myself like a crazy person if I want to properly use my head.
Not to mention this body that is growing more useless by the day…"
The mechanical limbs stop moving and backed away, revealing metal braces that went up to his arms and down towards his hands, wrapped around his fingers.
Otto made an opening and closing hand gesture. He walked towards a wall in his lab and punched it, leaving a large dent of his fist imprinted on the metal wall.
He still had an unsatisfied expression. Otto looked up at the news once more and saw the fight against Spider-Man and Rhino, as well as the others and their opponents.
Although Otto didn't want to admit it, jealousy was what he was feeling more than anything.
"There they are, all strong and young with their incredible powers and strength, and here I am, my own body slowly deteriorating. Becoming a shell of who I once was, the only good thing functioning well is my own brain.
If only I could just transfer my brain into—"
Otto stopped talking, his smile growing wide and sinister. He put the metal brace hand over his mouth and started laughing madly,
"HAHAHAHAHAHA! WHY CAN'T I DO THAT? WHAT'S STOPPING ME?" he cackled, "Hell, knowing my own genius, I could probably replicate their power. Hahaha! Ooh, I'm going to have so much fun," he sighed in satisfaction.
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