Just as Savant was wiping his sweat, another ionic blast hit his bare back. He turned around and looked at the woman whose legs were shaking crazily and aiming her gum at Savant. Surprisingly, even though her legs were shaking, her hands were stable.
"So it was you? Don't you know research etiquette as a scientist yourself? You shouldn't disturb someone while they are conducting sensitive experiments. What if I had lost control and blown up this whole building?" Savant reprimanded the scientist as she slumped down to the ground.
"Anyway, I have marked all of you, so you have 24 hours to either report to the Earth Academy of Sciences as captive scientists or leave the solar system. And don't forget to take all the resources, research results, and everything AIM has collected in its lifetime. I can turn him back and I can turn you all into lab rats too so choose wisely." Savant warned and disappeared out of thin air.
There was a silence in the room for a long while before the woman who shot at Savant before stood up and started running to her office while shouting, "What are you doing, start packing up and get everyone. Fast!"
With her shouting as the cue, the whole of AIM began to move at a fast pace. Without any explanation, the scientists in the lower positions were hurriedly shoved into planes and flown to the EAS headquarters. There were already officials waiting for them there.
The scientists were then assessed for their criminal behavior and based on that they were made to wear security bracelets to monitor them inside EAS.
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Spiderman was having as normal of a day as he could as a superhero in New York. He had only gotten halfway through his breakfast when he heard on his modified police scanner about the Lizard wreaking havoc in a research facility in lower Manhattan.
Spidey was frustrated at how many times he had to capture and send these guys to jail only for them to return within a week like they weren't captured at all. But as his uncle had said, this was his responsibility and he had to rise to the occasion no matter how frustrating it got.
Swinging through the high-rise buildings, Spider-Man reached the place just in time to see the Lizard running out of the building under gunfire while holding something. Probably some proprietary research related to bioengineering, Peter thought.
It didn't matter too much though, he just had to stop the rampaging monster and bring some calm to the city. He also had to finish his breakfast and get to the Daily Bugle to submit the photographs before Jameson chewed him out for being late.
Oh, I have classes too. I keep forgetting those, Peter landed in front of the Lizard while thinking.
"That's the end of your rampage! Hand over the briefcase and surrender or I will have to make you do that. I haven't had my breakfast yet so you don't want to upset me." Spiderman quipped at the big lizard.
The Lizard looked Spidey up and down before grunting a little and ran in the opposite direction.
"Hey! Stop!" Spidey chased after the Lizard and tried to web him in an attempt to stop the big guy but he felt the spidey-sense tingle and dodged just in time to miss Doc Ock's claws smashing through his chest.
"Good reflexes spidey-boy." Doctor Octopus smiled as one of his claws took hold of the briefcase.
"Oh no! Is this one of your villainous group thing again? Sinister six? Or was it five?" Spiderman mocked as he dodged the metallic claws while approaching Doc Ock.
Although Peter was just making fun of them, he heard the ominous laughter that made his spidey-sense go blaring. And lo and behold, the green goblin was flying down on his glider and shooting bombs already.
Peter almost swore as he swiftly did backflips to avoid the explosions and maintained the distance from the trio. "Now I'm really curious, what is in that briefcase?"
A new voice replied this time, "They think there is the prototype for Savant's Cure Serum in it but I'll let you in on a secret on account of us being best friends, it just has my semen."
Peter really didn't want to hear that voice this early in the morning. He wasn't ready for whatever craziness Deadpool was bringing along this time. It never was anything simple with him. Wacky adventures, demons, assassins, demonic assassins, dimension hopping, you can never tell.
"What do you mean by that?" Doc Ock asked in a confused tone and forced open the briefcase and found a vial there. On the vial, there was a large tag with childish handwriting. On it was written, Deadpool's swimmers. In his fury Doc Ock broke the vial and the liquid got on his claws.
"Yuck!" Spiderman gagged at that while the trio of villains just got angrier, especially Doctor octopus.
The battle once again started with Deadpool being the focus of the villains and Spidey trying to incapacitate them.
"Why did you even trick them in the first place? Why bait them out of hiding?" Spiderman asked Deadpool as they fought the trio.
"Oh, don't be jealous but I have this new friend who asked me to round up all of the scientists in your rogue's gallery. He said he'll give me a surprise if I do a clean job without causing any casualties." Deadpool answered and brought out a bazooka out of nowhere and fired it at the Lizard.
Spiderman who was tangled with the Goblin and Doc Ock noticed this and shouted, "This is a public place. What are you doing?"
Deadpool smiled a smile through the mask and replied, "Don't worry. This will end soon."
The bazooka did not actually explode as Peter had expected and actually only released a gas that made the Lizard unconscious. Taking advantage of the distracted villains, Deadpool fired two more tranquilizer bullets to bring down the other two villains.
Spiderman burst out in anger, "If you could do that all along, why did you wait until now? Couldn't you have done that before when I was distracting them? We wouldn't even have to fight them."
Deadpool shrugged, "I have to make it seem like I put in some effort at least. If it's too easy, he might not give me a big surprise."
Spiderman wanted to say something but decided against reasoning with Deadpool. "Who wants you to get them anyway? And why do they need these guys?"
Deadpool slung his hand around Spiderman and said in a low voice, "Didn't you know? The EAS has been aggressively recruiting scientists." He then turned to the three villains and added, "Some more aggressive than others."
Spiderman felt conflicted. He wanted to get into EAS too. The way it was advertised, the details about its infrastructure and everything about it that was known in the media had made EAS sound like the mecca for all scientists. He had been thinking of how to convince Tony and the others who were still very anti-Doom.
But, "They qre recruiting villains? Maybe Doom really is up to something nefarious." Spidey said out loud.
"He did say that heroes would say something like that if they saw me capturing these guys." Deadpool chuckled.
"He? Who are you talking about?"
Deadpool facepalmed, "Right! I forgot to tell you. My new friend is Savant."
"He is involved in this too?" Spiderman asked with some surprise.
"If any hero questions you about this, tell them to go see the EAS headquarters before starting another meaningless battle. I am far too busy to play-fight with people in spandex. Those were his exact words. Right! Why don't you come with me to see it?" Deadpool replied.
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Deadpool had somehow managed to convince Peter to go with him on a visit to the Earth Academy of Sciences. In classic Deadpool fashion, they had teleported straight to the EAS grounds where they were greeted with automatic security systems which stood down once the intruders were identified.
"Deadpool." The female security personnel who had come out said in a practiced annoyed tone.
"Hey there, Betty!" Deadpool tried to play it cool but caved in under her stare, "Okay, okay. I won't teleport into restricted space again. Now can you let us out? I have a guest and three captives with me here."
Betty sighed and pressed a button on her remote and only then did Peter see the mesh of energy shield unfold around them. Seeing that Spiderman was looking intently at the energy shield, Betty proudly explained, "Containment force-field. Specifically used for unauthorized teleportation users. It's usually wasted on him though."
"Cool." Spidey whistled.
"You have seen nothing if you think just this is cool." Betty spoke and walked inside followed by the duo.
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Hello guys. Coming back from a long hiatus. Sorry for pulling a Houdini on you all but I will try to maintain consistent chapter uploads once again. I hope you all show some love. You can curse at me for not uploading all this time too though. Would love to see you interact once again in any form. Enjoy
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"What do you mean?" Peter asked.
Deadpool answered this time, "Things like that." And where Deadpool was pointing, two humanoid robots were approaching along with a platform that was hovering in the air a whole feet above ground.
The robots went straight to the unconscious villains before putting some kind of bracelets on them and putting them on the platform. They then took away the villains with them.
"You will see them soon enough. Now follow along." Betty said in a commanding tone and walked on.
Peter looked up at the building which looked like a bunch of rectangles smashed together in weird angles. The rectangle shapes were jutting out of random places. "I thought the building would look different."
Betty turned back and asked, "Different how?"
"I don't know. Made entirely out of glass, or impressive architecture or something. This isn't bad, but for EAS, I thought there would be more." Peter replied.
Betty chuckled at that answer. "You are really just a teenager huh? The people who come to work here won't even care if we painted the whole building in rainbow colors. This is a place for cutting-edge science. Maybe if they add an architecture department somewhere down the line, there might be buildings as you imagine."
As they talked, they entered the building through the wide gates. Betty walked through an entrance and Spidey was going to follow as well but was stopped by Deadpool. "You don't want to go through that if you want your identity to remain hidden. Just walk in from the sides. Usually, it isn't allowed but they make exceptions for verified heroes and their companions."
Peter turned to Deadpool in shock, "You are a verified hero?"
"Hero, mercenary. What's the difference?" Deadpool shrugged and entered.
"Doesn't letting people in like this cause security issues?" Spiderman asked while looking at the large lobby where many people were going about their own business. Some of them turned or looked up at them but not for long.
"As if. Blue Marvel is a full-time resident scientist in this place. Not to mention the other superpowered scientists and mutants. You would have to be very dumb to break into this place. On top of that, a lot of the villains are already being sent in here." Deadpool shuddered a little thinking about the recent past.
"You tried to break in, didn't you?" Peter caught on quickly and asked.
Deadpool refused to answer but Betty who had come back after doing some formal registration answered, "He was literally hung out to dry on the flagpole for hours after all his muscles were paralyzed. It was a good show. If Savant hadn't been visiting that day, he would still be locked up with the villains."
"Let's continue with the tour, shall we?" Deadpool powered through his embarrassing story and walked ahead in a hurry.
"This is where the designs for the hadron collider to be built out in space are being designed. Oh, and that is the prototype for a type of Dyson sphere. They say it isn't actually a sphere but I am not scientifically literate enough to understand what they meant." Betty was taking Peter and Deadpool on a tour through the physics wing which was so large that everyone traveled through hover-platforms.
"This is awesome! And this is just a small section of the physics wing?" Peter asked.
Betty nodded, "Yes, this is the massive space construction projects department in the physics wing. It'd take days just to go through the physics wing. Then there are the Biology, Chemistry, Engineering, Mathematics, Computers, and all their sub-subjects. It's still very confusing but a powerful assistant AI is said to be in the works to make things streamlined and have better cooperation between departments."
"This place is the mecca for science," Peter said wistfully as they hovered through lecture halls, recreational spaces, and small projects being tested out in the open.
"Now that you have had some taste of the place, let's move on to why you are here. I'll show you what happens to the villains we bring here." As Betty spoke, the platform moved to a wall and after she put in some commands, a portal opened up swallowing them.
"Did we just teleport?" Peter asked as they reappeared in a different building in a flash of light.
"With so many departments and buildings, teleportation is the best mode of transportation here. By next year teleportation for long-distance travel is supposed to be launched for public use as well. The airline companies will probably make a lot of noise. But that's not our problem."
They reached a place where Doc Ock, Green Goblin, and the Lizard were currently being hosed down with water. "This is the first place where the villains are processed. We clean them, take all kinds of samples like blood, DNA, and tissue from them here."
They watched on as the villains tried to protest but were immediately paralyzed and the robots did the processing work. "The bracelets were designed by the combined efforts of Dr. Strange, Chancellor Doom, and Savant. It is a magitech as they call it, a mix of magic and technology. Not only does it send specialized bioelectric signals to paralyze the muscles of any biological creature but it also dampens all kinds of superpowers and mental abilities."
Spiderman was stretching his neck to stare at the bracelets from behind the glass window. He wanted to get his hands on one of those and test how the bracelets work. Deadpool had already disappeared at the start of the tour. He wanted to "catch em' all" or something, but Peter didn't pay attention.
"It dampens all superpowers?" Peter asked curiously.
Betty shook her head, "Not all of them. Sometimes they have to make custom bracelets based on the powers and abilities of the specific person. I don't know how it works though. It's all magic to me."
The platform then moved to a laboratory but they only looked in from outside. "They study the biology of the villains there. For people like the Lizard and Doc Ock, we try to safely depower them and remove the accidental experimental effects that caused them to be like the way they are."
Peter was amazed at what Betty said. If those people were safely depowered then he wouldn't have all the headache of fighting them every other week. And those people can also live a normal life, hopefully.
The platform continued to move and they reached the psych ward. "As you might have guessed, this is where we treat their mental issues. Almost all of them have some kind of mental health problems so it is a continuous process. We have top psychologists, telepaths, and neuroscientists working in this place. I even saw Professor X coming out of here the other day. He looks so cool in that helmet."
Charles Xavier had announced to the world that he was Professor X. So seeing a distinguished psychologist and an expert telepath in EAS was only normal, Peter thought to himself.
"I can't exactly show you but I am obligated to tell you that after the villains are put through treatment and assessments, if it is determined that the villain will not change their ways and will only continue to cause destruction and chaos, they are executed and their body is used for experiments. This isn't something we hide, it will be publicized when the press release happens." Betty said the whole paragraph as if she had remembered this section by heart.
Spiderman could see that this was something she was told to recite to any hero who came to visit. "And who decides if those guys will never change their ways?"
"A panel of top psychologists, law experts, and telepaths who can read minds? I hear they are creating a system that will be announced to the public for debate." Betty answered in a tone that said, you must be dumb to ask this question.
And from Betty's perspective, it was very dumb. If people who study all their lives to learn human behavior and people who read minds say that someone should die, Betty isn't going to sing about human rights. Had they been innocent people, Betty might still have reconsidered, but these were the villains who treated human lives like dirt.
Spiderman wanted to refute it but thought better of it. He couldn't think of any counterarguments either. "What about them being used for scientific research?"
"Oh right." Betty tapped on a holographic panel and the platform continued to move. "When the psychological assessment says that they can be let out, they are then allowed to interact with other scientists through video. Their restrictions are removed over time based on their progress. For now, most of them are in the video-conference stage."
The platform arrived at a place from where they could see down in a garden where some people from different nationalities were arguing about something in front of a whiteboard with mathematical symbols.
"They are scientists from different parts of the world who were driven to a life of crime out of desperation because of oppressive governments, gangs, or some other reasons. They will probably be allowed out in a couple of months."
Peter nodded solemnly and looked on at the scientists passionately discussing some theory in the garden.
"You can go back and tell the other heroes about this. They are always welcome to visit. Although they will find out about it in a few days after the press release anyway." Betty said thoughtfully.