Chương 82: T-Minus
For a moment, time seemed to stop. Alistair froze, his hand hovering above the keyboard, his eyes wide with shock. Felix could feel his own pulse quicken, a cold sweat breaking out on the back of his neck as the words sank in. The announcement repeated, the loud robotic voice counting down the seconds to their demise.
"T-MINUS FIVE MINUTES UNTIL DETONATION."
"Shit," Ashley mouthed. Not that it mattered, the blaring alarm would have blocked her out anyway.
Alistair snapped out of his stupor, his face twisting into a mask of fear and confusion. He pulled back from the desk, nearly colliding with the wall in his haste. Felix watched him, trying to control his own panic as he realized they had less than five minutes to get out of the facility before it was blown to pieces.
"Why the hell would the self-destruct sequence be activated?" Alistair muttered to himself, his hands shaking on his wheels. His eyes were fixated on the sudden red of the room.
For a moment, everything in the room seemed to stand still. Felix could feel his pulse quicken, his senses heightening as a cold sweat broke out across his back. The words from the announcement hit like a hammer blow, sinking into the pit of his stomach and causing his Spider-Sense to go haywire.
'Don't tell me this is what was warning me about—!?'
"T-MINUS FOUR MINUTES AND FIFTY-FIVE SECONDS UNTIL DETONATION."
The alarm blared louder, filling the room with an overwhelming cacophony of noise and flashing red lights. Alistair wheeled himself away as fast as he could.
Felix and Ashley remained frozen under the desk, waiting for the sound of his wheels to fade. It took a few seconds before Felix exhaled, letting out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. Ashley was already moving, slipping out from under the desk with catlike grace.
"Let's go," she whispered. "Go, go, go!"
They bolted out of the office and into the corridor, but what greeted them outside was even worse than Felix had expected. The factory wasn't just filling with noise and alarms—things were melting.
The walls closest to them were slick with a glossy, bubbling layer of plastic and metal, sagging under the intense heat that had begun to spread through the facility. Smoke curled through the air vents, thick and black, making it hard to breathe. This was no drill. The self-destruct was real, and whatever triggered it had ignited something massive.
"Holy shit," Felix muttered, his heart hammering in his chest. The heat hit them like a wall, and it was clear they had no time to waste.
They took off down the corridor, sprinting through the facility as the once pristine, sterile surroundings turned into a nightmare. The walls were groaning as the structure itself seemed to buckle under the strain. Felix's Spider-Sense buzzed at the base of his skull, urging him to move faster, to find a way out before it was too late.
'What is this? I feel there's fire but…there's something more too!'
Spider-Sense buzzing tighter, Felix looked up and saw a piece of metal fall—and not some tiny scrap either. A huge human-sized chunk dropped down and cracked into the floor. Ashley seemed unconcerned as if she had gone through more difficult obstacles.
"T-MINUS FOUR MINUTES UNTIL DETONATION."
Felix was the same, fortunately.
"Nice job!" Ashley shouted over the blaring alarms. She darted ahead, agile and quick, dodging falling debris as they weaved through the chaos. Felix followed close behind, trying to ignore the oppressive heat and smoke that filled the air. He wanted to run ahead and guide them but…
He cursed under his breath. The Advanced Glasses were malfunctioning.
'Shit! I didn't build them to withstand smoke and whatever the hell else is in here!'
As they reached another corridor, Felix's Spider-Sense flared up more intensely than ever before. It wasn't just the imminent danger of the fire—there was something else. Something…
Ah, they were here! The space containing the lizards and the genetically modified animals! The tour with the investors!
Felix skidded to a stop right when he was about to cross the steel door. He could hear the faint sound of screaming behind it.
Harry Osborn, Eleanor Bishop, and the other investors were in there! Shit! His Spider-Sense went wild, screaming at him that he couldn't leave them behind.
"I have to help them," Felix muttered.
Ashley, who had already made it a few feet ahead, turned back to him, her face shadowed in the smoke and light. For a second, their eyes met, and something unspoken passed between them.
"This is where we part ways, Felix," the thief mouthed. "Good luck."
With that, she turned and sprinted off into the smoke, her silhouette disappearing.
Felix didn't waste another second. With Ashley gone, he could finally use his full strength. He grabbed the steel door and pulled hard. The metal groaned in protest, but he didn't let up. Muscles straining, he pulled back with everything he had, and finally, with a deafening crack, the door buckled and gave way.
A rush of panicked bodies spilled out of the room—CEOs, investors, and security guards, all scrambling to escape.
"Get out of the way!"
"Hurry up, hurry up!"
"Open it more!"
The air inside had been even thicker with smoke and Felix could see the fear passing by him. He saw Harry Osborn, he saw Eleanor Bishop. But one face stood out in particular.
Emma Frost.
The eye contact lasted only for a second. She ran alongside the others, afraid like them. But seeing Felix, the flicker of fear turned to appreciation.
"Thank you," Emma mouthed.
Then she was gone like the rest.
Once the space was empty, Felix peeked inside. His eyes widened. 'What the hell…?'
Everything was melting. Metal debris was falling from the ceiling. Vents were collapsing. The cages of the animals were cracking bit by bit as more destruction fell upon them.
Just what the hell happened here!?
"T-MINUS TWO MINUTES UNTIL DETONATION."
Felix glanced at his surroundings before shoving the steel door to seal the space up. The creatures in there were too dangerous to let out.
Felix bolted off to catch up immediately after. The factory was collapsing around him, the walls groaning and twisting as the fire spread. Flames licked at the ceiling, and thick black smoke billowed through, making it hard to see and even harder to breathe.
"Eleanor!" Felix called her name out partially due to his remembrance of the mission and partially because she was slow. Too slow. She couldn't seem to run if her life depended on it.
"Felix!" Eleanor Bishop gasped out, running painfully slow. He decided to stay with her despite being several feet behind everyone otherwise.
Through the smoke, Felix could see the exit just ahead, the large double doors leading out to safety.
"We're almost there!" Felix said. "Come on, just a little faster!"
Eleanor was speeding up when suddenly, she tripped.
Felix saw it happen in slow motion. A piece of debris—heavy and jagged—had fallen into their path, and Eleanor's foot caught on it. She stumbled, falling hard to the ground just as more debris rained down from above. That wasn't all.
A massive steel beam, its edges glowing red-hot from the heat, came crashing down, blocking their path entirely.
'Shit.'
Eleanor groaned and struggled to get up. Again, she was so damn slow! Clearly, she didn't move much in her life.
"T-MINUS ONE MINUTE UNTIL DETONATION."
No time to think. Felix acted. He scooped Eleanor up into his arms in a princess carry, her head cradled in his chest.
"H-huh—?"
"Hold on tight!"
He reeled several steps back, trying to make this realistic, and ran. He ran and vaulted over the steel beam. The heat was unbearable, smoke coming up to his face. His Spider-Sense was still buzzing, guiding him forward, pushing him to get them out before it was too late.
Left, right, left, straight! His Spider-Sense buzzed tighter at the right moments. More shit was falling. More people were tripping up. Felix couldn't look back.
He glanced down at Eleanor whose eyes were squeezed shut. Felix slowed down his pace just for a second and then—
Thwip! Thwip!
From his wrist, he launched two lines of webbing and jerked two workers several feet forward till they were in an area where the smoke was lighter. They didn't even know what happened and probably never would.
But he had saved their life and that was what mattered.
"We're almost there!" Felix shouted, though his voice felt drowned out by the roar of the flames and the blaring alarm.
Eleanor clung to him, her face pale and streaked with soot and eyes squeezing tighter. Felix could very easily hop twice and get there but he had to make this real. He ran like a normal person and eventually…
Light.
They reached the parking lot. Dozens of fire trucks awaited them.
Indeed, the firefighters had already gathered, their hoses blasting jets of water at the inferno that had engulfed the factory. Felix had never seen so many firefighters in one place.
Felix and Eleanor had burst through the exit, stumbling into the open air. The sudden rush of cool air hit Felix like a shock, and he staggered, finally setting Eleanor down. She was able to stand on her two feet, swallowing the delicious air.
"Haah…haah…"
Behind them, the factory was a sea of flames, the smoke rising into the sky in thick, black plumes. And then—
'Spider-Sense…!'
It had never warned him this strongly—!
"Get down!"
His warning made it right on time. The firefighters, the investors, everyone looked and ducked.
BOOM!
As if in slow motion, a massive explosion ripped through the heart of the building, sending a shockwave across the lot.
The force of the blast knocked everyone save Felix to the ground. Felix shielded his face, his ears ringing from the sheer volume of the explosion. When he looked up, a towering mushroom cloud of smoke and fire rose from some deep center of the factory.
The whole factory hadn't blown up. The outside shell still stood. But whatever had gone up in flames had been massive.
Felix stared at the destruction. Beside him, lying on the ground Eleanor coughed. Felix quickly went to her side.
"Are you okay?" Felix smiled down at her, wiping the soot from her face. "Mrs. Bishop?"
"I…" The older woman looked at a loss for words. "You saved my life, Felix Faeth."
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