Spider Gwen: Bushido CHAPTER 12: Hell Unleashed (Patreon)

Relaxing a bit and waiting for her food to be finished, Spider Woman was able to chill out a bit between her patrols and enjoy the Hudson waterfront in Manhattan’s Upper West Side area. An entire week passed since the takedown of Matt Murdoch and things seemed to have quietened down, much to her relief. Even Mister Negative’s gang seemed to have gone suddenly quiet, like they knew The Hand ended up crippled. She did find it suspicious, knowing normally as the rival gang will immediately start to fill in the void once its main enemy has gone down.

“There you go, young lady: two corn dogs with butter and also a coffee, extra strong.” said the Hot Dog Vendor, handing over her order after getting the money for it “anything else you would like to order?”

“No, it 's ok. Thanks a lot. These new corn dogs you brought on the menu are spot on.” replied Spider Woman before walking away, struggling not to drop her order. Right now, all she wanted was to reach the nearby pier overlooking the Hudson River, find a bench and enjoy her lunch.

However, as she was ready to get off the street and on the walkway, she heard the sound of a revving engine and tire screech, along with a flashing blue light reflecting on a glass panel on her right. Her spider sense didn’t react at all, so it couldn’t be any danger. Slowly turning around in order not to drop the corn dogs and coffee, she saw a familiar looking dark silver Audi RS7 with a flashing blue light on the corner of its windscreen that stopped right next to her. Immediately she recognized it as Agent Specter’s personal car, remembering it last time she saw it when she found him bleeding to death in it after that faithful attempt on his life.

“Marc, I’m surprised you managed to fit in this…car…” said Spider Woman in a joyful voice, only to be surprised at seeing it was actually Agent Luke Cage, alone at the wheel “Luke? What 's going on? New wheels?”

“No time for talk! Get in!” quickly replied Agent Cage, opening the passenger door and urging her to get inside.

“Where’s the fire? I just got lunch and I’m starving…”

“Get in, let’s go! It 's serious!” shouted Cage, pulling her immediately on the passenger seat, making her drop the coffee and one corn dog “Seatbelt on! This is going to be a rough ride!” moments later, he stepped on the gas, spun its wheels, performed a 180 degree turn and went full throttle down the streets of Manhattan.

“Luke, what the hell is going on? I hope something is on fire, otherwise you owe me a coffee and a corn dog.”

“Something IS on fire, literally! The entire Brooklyn Navy Yard! Vladislav Ivanovic is in town and he is unleashing hell over there right now!”

“WHAT?!!” shouted Spider Woman, nearly choking on her remaining corn dog, pulling it out of her mouth and coughing “How the f*ck did this guy even come back to America?”

“I have no idea and I don’t care. Right now, our concern is to stop his massacre before someone innocent gets killed!” replied Agent Cage as he took a sharp turn and went past Union Square at high speed, nearly clipping traffic at several intersections. He then pulled out the car’s radio and turned it to police frequencies. Both could hear the entire NYPD was on alert, as reports flooded the communication channels and all were about the frantic 9-1-1 calls regarding the docks becoming a warzone. She could hear even her dad trying to manage all the incoming requests, diverting any non- essential call towards this one “Marc, I picked up our friend and headed towards Brooklyn. Where are you?”

“Four miles away from NYC, I got a Black Hawk helicopter from the Bureau to bring extra agents. We’ll be there as fast as I can. What’s your position?” replied Agent Specter via the radio, with helicopter noise in the background.

“Speeding through Union Square, trying to reach Brooklyn. All our remaining squad members are already en-route, will join me on my way towards the docks!” said Cage before ending the call and giving several instructions towards the rest of the agents that were mobilized. He also called in any NYPD help he could find, knowing that Ivanovic won’t go down without a fight.

Minutes later, as the car was near Delancey Street, four more cars joined, all part of Marc’s elite team, forming a convoy. Along them, several other NYPD units also joined.

“We’re taking Williamsburg Bridge, is the quickest route towards the docks-” said Cage, but before he could say anything more, a large explosion could be heard from the Navy Yard on the Brooklyn side. A massive fireball could be seen erupting from the bow of a large container ship, rising high in the sky, shocking everyone “...Jesus Christ!!!”

“What the-?!” shouted Spider Woman after seeing the fireball engulfing the bow, causing the entire container ship to shake slowly in the shallow dock water, also causing a large wave “why’s he doing this? What's with that ship that he wants to blow it up so badly?!”

“You didn’t hear? Dimitri sent an assassin to Serghei's wedding last week in order to kill Vladisalv. But during the struggle, the gun discharged and Serghei got shot right after he got married!”

“WHAT!!?? Serghei got killed?!” shouted Spider Woman in utter shock, looking empty outside the window at the smoke coming from the docks.

“You know the guy?” asked Cage, visibly confused on how Spider Woman knew about Vlad’s cousin.

“I… let’s say that I saved him from the same Bratva goons on one occasion…” She prayed that this wouldn’t happen and yet it did. At the same time she could not feel unsympathetic towards Serghei. Afterall, he had nothing to do with his cousin’s criminal activity and yet he suffered because of him. Luke on the other hand wanted to know more about this, but seeing her getting more worried and concerned, decided to not keep pushing on the topic.

“He’s not dead… yet. His life has been hanging by a thread for the last week in the hospital. Had the worst bad luck in history, a stray bullet hit him in the heart. It is a miracle he’s still alive.” replied Cage as they were almost on the other side of the bridge and already were able to see the destruction at the docks on their right. The entire Pier K Dock looked like a warzone and much to Spider Woman’s shock, red trails were forming in the water around the blown up ship.

“Floor it, Luke! If I know him well, NOBODY will survive his wrath.”

After ten minutes that seemed more like hours, the entire squad was approaching the Brooklyn Navy Yard. This time, it was completely silent, like everything simply stopped. The only thing that was breaking the silence were the sirens of squad cars and sound of the Bureau helicopter approaching Pier K. Dispersing to surround and seal off the perimeter, the authorities took no chances, as containment of a dangerous gunman was priority. Spider Woman and Luke went towards the Pier where the Russian cargo ship was located in order to meet up with Marc and rush in to apprehend Ivanovic.

Coming to a screeching stop, both Agent Cage and Spider Woman immediately got out and immediately froze in shock after seeing the full picture: everywhere she looked she saw bodies on the ground, bullet holes everywhere, even the river was littered with corpses, letting out red trails in the water.

“Jesus Christ Almighty…” whispered Spider Woman as she walked away from the car and looked around, like someone lost in the middle of nowhere. Nearby the crane area, she discovered a dead Bratva member on the crumpled roof of a parked car, looking like he fell from a great height and crashed on top of the car. A little further near the edge of the dock she found another car that was flipped on its roof and about to fall in the water. From its tire marks and the fact it was full of bullets, it looked like the Russian mobsters were shot while driving at high speed and died in the ensuing crash.

“Hey! Hands in the air!” Spider Woman turned around as she spotted a group of NYPD officers approaching her, guns ready and aiming at her. On instinct, she raised her hands up in the air at seeing the officers surrounding her. However, Luke stepped in, getting their attention.

“Wowowowowow! What are you guys doing? She is with me!” said Luke as the Sergeant approached him.

“She is a wanted fugitive, can you explain why she is with you, in this place Agent Cage?”

“I can explain.” A third voice that sounded like it was also a slight growl was heard, this time, it was Marc who approached with his team after jumping out of the low hovering helicopter, slightly cracking the ground on landing. The rest of the agents, who repelled down.

“You better have a good explanation of why one of your men is in the company of a dangerous fugitive, or the fact of why she is not cuffed and put at the back of the truck.” asked the sergeant while looking at Marc. Despite staring at the giant sized reptile, the cop was showing a lot of guts. Normally people would just go away once they spotted him, but the Sergeant had a lot of determination to stand his ground. Also some still remembered the lizard’s rampage and were aware it was Marc who did it. Even after his situation was explained and most calmed down, some were still feeling uneasy, especially after seeing what he was capable of when he was feral.

“She is a valuable key witness that my team recovered, also she is one of the very few people who had engaged and survived a fight against Ivanovic. Her aid would be very valuable in this situation.”

“You don’t have the jurisdiction to bring that fugitive with you… and even if you were, you expect me and my team to work alongside that murderer without taking her into custody?”

“If you don’t like my methods, Sergeant Dent, you and your team can search the other side of the docks. And while I may not have the jurisdiction, I have the authority to put YOU, and your team out of this operation…”

Things were starting to get tense as neither Marc nor the sergeant were backing down. However, Luke decided to step in and handle the situation. “Gentlemen, we both have a sense of duty to fulfill, but the more we are arguing, the more are the chances of that psychopath to escape. We won’t have another chance like this one!”

After 30 long seconds of tense silence, Sergeant Dent sighed as he ordered their men to put their guns down and retreat.

“...Fine.I am going to let this one slide... My team will cover the entrance and the east side, we will keep the same radio frequency during this operation. If we find anything, we will notify your team.”said as he and the rest of the officers left, letting Marc nod as the cops went their way, albeit, some still gave Spider Woman a few not friendly at all glares.

“Spread out, secure this perimeter! Luke, you and I are going in the ship after the shipwreck.” said Marc, arming his staff with electrical prongs and pulling out an assault rifle he kept on his back “Spider Woman, try and survey the area from above. If someone is ambushed, go and help. Keep your headset on our frequencies so we can keep in contact.”

“Got it!” replied Spider Woman before shooting a line of web and finding a good vantage point on the top of the nearby dock crane. For ten or so minutes, she used the highest point she could find in order to scope out the area and see if she could see anything suspicious. Much to her disappointment, it looked like there was no sign of Ivanovic and all the team could find were more and more bodies, especially on the smoking and partly sunken ship. It looked like the explosion blew a hole in the hull and caused it to sink a bit until reaching the dock’s bottom, but at least it was still accessible for the most part. One saving grace was Marc’s incredible strength granted by his lizard form along with Luke’s superhuman strength as well, allowing them to make way through the twisted metal and collapsed inner walls in order to reach the epicenter of the explosion. Moments later, Marc and Luke announced their finding at the end of the partly flooded hull, disappointing everyone: Dimitri Rasputin’s corpse floating along with several illegal substance cargo and at least a dozen dead Bratva members. While it was clear the Bratvas died in the explosion. Dimitri however, looked like he survived the fireball with some injuries, but in the end was executed by a few shots to his knees and one in the chest, like in a twisted sense of “justice”, in the same spot Serghei was hit.

“No sign of Vladislav here… or anyone else alive.” said Cage via the radio as they exited the ship via an emergency exit that was unaffected by the blast and presumably used by Ivanovic too as an escape route “Other units, report?”

“Sergeant Dent here, negative. Only more dead Russians. I already called in some help from Captain Stacy to send some boats to fish the corpses out of the water.” replied the cop via his radio, followed by the same answer from other groups that patrolled the area, much to everyone’s disappointment. Out of frustration, Spider Woman landed at the pier and kicked an oil drum so hard that the thing flew out in the river halfway towards Manhattan. However, everyone got startled when they heard a sudden booming sound right beside the wrecked ship. They thought it was some secondary explosions from the ship, but in truth...

“Arghhhh….DAMMIT!” Marc shouted in anger after giving a quick but rather powerful punch to the wrecked ship. His strength was more than enough not just to leave a large dent in the hull, but also make the entire vessel move a few feet further in the water, much to Spider Woman’s shock. She knew his lizard form gave him incredible strength, but didn’t know he was this strong. This made her feel a bit uneasy and also gulp, knowing how close she was to death when she had to fight him the first time he was forcibly turned into that creature.

“Marc, calm down! No use wrecking the place more than it already is.” replied Spider Woman, trying to ease off the tension, but quickly realized her little “joke” did fall flat after getting a cold stare from both Luke and Marc, who was holding the hand he used to punch that ship, breathing heavy, like he was in pain “Ok, not the time for a joke… sorry.”

“Marc… your hand!” Luke said after looking at Marc’s right hand, it looked severely damaged after hitting the hull of the ship. The knuckles were broken and blood was coming out of the fissures of the scales and hard skin that was split open due to the force of the punch.

“It’s… nothing…”

“Medic! I require a medic here, we have a-”

“I said: IT’S NOTHING!!!!” Marc nearly roared at Luke who pretty much took a step back due to his reaction. “...sorry. Should have not reacted that way.” he then strengthened his grip on the wrist to slow down the blood flow and allow himself to heal easier, showing he was in some physical pain, but also quite upset.  Spider Woman on the other hand was starting to get a bit concerned over him. On one hand, Serghey was in critical condition, with a high chance that he may not survive, Vlad was in full revenge mode and she barely could stand her own ground against him when he was just doing ‘his job’. Now this was personal for him and she saw the aftermath when you make things personal between you and the Serbian. And there was Marc, who lost his wife thanks to Vlad, added on top of that is his lizard form that seemed to have amplified his anger. She knew him to be calm and harder to anger. Annoy, yes, but she never saw him this angry, not even at the funeral when he had to see his wife buried. She didn’t want to imagine what would happen if both ended up fighting each other. That outburst he just had made herself question if she would be strong enough to stop her friend. It made her feel quite weak and frail compared to his strength. Needless to say, that potential encounter would end in more than just a dented hull and a broken hand.

“So… what should we do next?” asked the webslinger as a way to break up the uncomfy silence after Marc’s outburst.

“Let’s start with the security office… see if anything was caught on camera.” said Agent Specter, as he was carefully touching his right hand as a way to readjust the broken tendons and bones. It should be ok after a couple of hours or a day max thanks to his healing factor, but the frustration of not finding the Serbian was probably greater than any pain that he could be feeling right now..

“...if we’re lucky and the CCTV system was working, Agent Thompson can sift through the footage to see it. We can get any info so we can… what the-?”

The entire team was in for a surprise the moment the door was open: two more dead Russians,one having a meat cleaver stuck in his chest, the other looked like he was stabbed and shot multiple times. But the shocking little detail stood on the desk near the surveillance monitors and computers: a finger, along with a trail of blood leading to the back door and away from all the carnage.

“Search all hospitals, someone might look for his lost finger.” said Agent Cage to one of the team mates before he and Marc took a look at the computers. Much to their relief, all cameras seemed to work, even the ones in the blown up hull, much to their amazement. And to make things a little better, the hard drives did store footage over the last ten hours, so it was possible to see what happened to this place “Ok, looks like we have a chance. Thompson, are you able to pull any footage we could use out of these machines?”

“Give me five minutes.” replied Agent Thompson, cracking his fingers and beginning to work his magic on the secure drives. It took him less than five minutes in order to bypass the password protection and access the video files from each camera, all timestamped “There you go. And from the looks of it, it recorded from this morning all the way to current time. Let me adjust something to make the files play in the correct order.”

“Alright, then here it goes. Ready for a horror show, kiddo?” said Agent Specter, looking at Spider Woman, getting a hesitant nod from her. She was feeling a bit uneasy inside, even the symbiote gave her a sensation that even it didn’t want to see how all of this unfolded, but neither of them had a choice. As Thompson typed a few codes in the drive’s command registry, he pressed one button afterwards, making the main screens begin to play everything the cameras recorded before they arrived.

*********************************************************************************************************

The video started with a shot of the security booth where the team was now located, with the recording showing what was happening an hour before their arrival. At the desk near the surveillance monitors, a lone Bratva member was asleep, next to him a bottle of vodka laying empty, a sign the young man was still unable to be a proper Russian and hold his drink. He was snoring quite loudly and lucky for him, Dimitri wasn’t there to notice him sleeping on duty, as he was too busy in the ship’s hull, supervising his men loading among contraband, a large crate of heroin.

With the feed returning to the security office’s camera after it detected movement, the team saw on the screen how Vladislav simply entered the office, not even in a subtle way. He looked ready for war in the same combat outfit he used last time when he fought Spider Woman: combat pants with kneepads, combat boots, kevlar vest over a T-shirt and on his back he carried a sniper rifle and also an assault rifle with a grenade launcher attachment. On his belt he had a few grenades and also a pistol with a silencer attached. He came prepared to deal with Dimitri and the Bratva once and for all and he was prepared for war.

Seeing the gangster asleep, he began to look around until his sight locked on a nearby meat cleaver laying at a table next to someone’s lunch. Picking it up, he then went straight to the sleeping Bratva and without hesitating, gave him a “rude” awakening by slamming the meat cleaver as hard as he could, chopping off the guy’s finger, causing him to scream in pain and get up quickly.

“Where’s Dimitri, creep?” asked Vladislav, still holding the bloodied cleaver in his hand, not caring at all he just left the guy with nine fingers instead of ten. But considering what will happen next, he got lucky.

“F*ck, he 's here! Kill him! Kill him!” shouted the gang member as he fled towards the back exit, still holding his bleeding hand, leaving a blood trail all the way towards the exit and heading to the street. From the same door, two other large Bratva members entered, both wielding fire axes, ready to hack Ivanovic to pieces.

“Time for all of you to pay!” said Ivanovic as he walked towards the two goons, avoiding one of them swinging the ax at his head and responding with his own punch to the face, dazing him. He then threw the meat cleaver at the other goon who was ready to attack, impaling it in his chest, killing him on the spot. He then finished the other one off by shooting him multiple times with his silenced pistol, ending the fight swiftly.

After looking at the cameras himself and pinpointing Dimitri’s location, Vladislav exited the office and it looked like he was searching for something in the sky. The video shifted to the outside cameras where it showed the merc was looking through the scope of his sniper rifle and evaluating any outdoor resistance. After getting enough knowledge about his opponents, he then climbed a few tall containers and began stalking the sniper who was on top of the dockyard crane, waiting for the moment to get rid of him and gain the upper hand. One split second of the lookout not paying attention was enough for Vladislav to snipe him and cause him to fall to his death, crashing on the roof of a parked car below, totaling it. This alerted nearby Russian guards, but all of them got sniped before they could even see where the shots were coming from. However, moments after the last guard was taken care of, the alarm on the ship went off, sign that Vladislav's presence is now known.

“He 's here! Kill him! All of you, KILL HIM!” echoed Dimitri’s voice via the ship’s loudspeaker as more Bratva was emerging from the ship’s bridge and took cover, one of them also calling for backup. Several exited the ship and went down the walkway to deal with the intruder, but ended up mowed down by a hail of Vladislav’s bullets as he exited cover and began advancing towards the vessel.

“None of you will stop me from killing Dimitri Rasputin!” shouted Ivanovic after he dealt with the first wave of Russians and could already hear backup incoming in the form of a car speeding towards him. Without hesitating, he aimed his rifle at the car and opened fire. The driver tried to swerve and avoid being shot but to no avail, as he still ended up shot in the neck and killed on the spot. The car then began to lose control and swerve, eventually flipping several times, narrowly avoiding hitting Ivanovic, who didn’t even move, like he knew the out of control car would narrowly avoid him, before coming to a full stop on its roof near the end of the pier, with all its occupants dead.

Seconds later, a second car came, this time the occupants beginning to fire at the attacker, forcing Vladislav to take cover behind a nearby crate and returning fire. This time, he aimed at the car’s tyres and popped one, causing the car to spin out of control towards his position. Rolling out of cover, he avoided the car narrowly as it slammed sideways in the crate, spreading white powder everywhere. He kept rolling, thus avoiding the gunfire from the passenger’s sub-machine gun and recovered once the gunner was trying to get out of the car. In a split second, Ivanovic then slammed the door over the Russian's hands, making him drop his gun and unload his rifle in their faces, killing them on the spot, not even letting them leave the car.

*********************************************************************************************************

“F*cking hell, this guy’s completely unleashed…” said Spider Woman as she looked away for a moment as the carnage she saw did make her feel sick, especially after seeing the aftermath of what was played on the screen so far.

“It’s going to be a lot of closed caskets…” replied Luke, resuming the video, as everyone was either horrified or shocked over the level of mayhem one man could cause.

*********************************************************************************************************

Resuming playing the video, the team could see from various cameras placed on the cargo ship how Vladislav was shooting his way towards the hull, killing everyone without mercy. For him, it didn’t matter how many died, as he made it clear his goal was to get rid of Dimitri, his puppet boss Vasily and eradicate the Bratva once and for all. He kept reaching for cover, then attacked at the right moment, constantly moving and shooting. Much to everyone’s shock, the Bratva goons had no chance, anyone trying to stop him was falling like wheat under a scythe.

Eventually, after leaving a trail of dead bodies, he managed to reach the ship’s hull, filled with crated of various types of merchandise, some legal such as russian alcohol, other illegal such as crates of heroin worth tens of millions of dollars and also crates of guns and explosives at the other end at the ship’s bow, next to a stack of fuel tanks. Right there, next to the crates of military grade weapons and also a small size bomb shelter, Dimitri was taking cover, armed with an assault rifle,like he was expecting to meet his enemy.

“Hey Dimitri! You didn’t think about leaving the city in such a hurry? We have unfinished business!” shouted Vladislav as he took cover behind a few large crates.

“Vladislav, it’s been a long time. I thought your time in America might have calmed you down.” said Dimitri behind his cover, sticking to his arrogant attitude given by his psychopathic nature.

“America does not change everyone. Look at you: You arrived in this country a spineless rat, and you will die as a spineless rat!”

“Убей этого серба прямо сейчас! (Kill this serbian right now!)” shouted Dimitri, urging the last of his men to help him out. A dozen members, the last wave of the Bratvas emerged from the emergency exit, laying covering fire at Vladislav’s position, forcing him to remain in cover.

After seeing the crate starting to get structurally weaker due to the hail of bullets, Ivanovic moved to another spot, laying out covering fire and returning fire when he had the chance. This time, it was more challenging for him, as he was in an enclosed space with a dozen attackers onto him, but with plenty of cover and also possible hiding spots.

“Come on, Dimitri! I’m here to end this! I have nothing left to lose!”

“You should have died along with your cousin!!!” shouted Dimitri, visibly getting more desperate after seeing his enemy was not going down that easily “How come this man is still breathing?! Kill him! Kill him!!! KILL HIM!!!!”

The fight went on and on, until Vladislav got pinned in a corner of the hull, right near one of the ship’s main structure points. Feeling cornered, he quickly began to analyze the situation and found a quick solution. It was a longshot but worth a try. Pulling out a grenade, he quickly threw it straight at the munitions crates, the projectile landing between the explosives and also the fuel tanks before taking cover behind the thick steel pillars. Seconds later, the grenade went off, igniting the explosives and the gas, causing a massive explosion and blowing a hole in the ship’s bow, collapsing part of the structure and ceiling and killing all Bratva hitmen. After half a minute, the place looked like something from a disaster film, with water beginning to slowly make its way in the hull due to the damaged panels, along with smoke and the smell of burned metal and flesh.

Making his way out of cover while coughing, Vladislav grabbed his ear to make the ringing sound disappear and regain his hearing. Looking around, he saw the trick worked, with the attackers now dead. Much to his surprise, Dimitri survived too, barely. He hid in the makeshift bomb shelter but the explosion was still too powerful and managed to injure him, burning part of his face and left hand, making him unable to use a weapon. Emerging from his hideout, barely walking and coughing, he found himself staring at the end of Vladislav’s pistol.

“You’re about to learn a lesson: Actions have consequences! You screwed me over, now you’re going to pay for it.” said the merc before pointing the gun at Dimitri’s face.

“You’re going to be the one learning a lesson. You’re going to be screwing a lot of people by killing me. And those people won’t be happy!” replied Dimitri, thinking this threat will make his enemy back off, but to his shock, it only emboldened him.

“I’m already dead inside, Rasputin. I don’t care anymore.”

At this point, Dimitri realized he was no longer in charge and his threats were having no effect on him. Looking at the scene, Spider Woman and the team were in for a surprise when they all saw Dimitri resorting to his manipulative side, as well as starting to beg for his life, but considering knowing his current fate, everyone watching knew how it would end.

“Go easy on me, we were friends. Remember?” said Dimitri, trying to manipulate Vladislav into letting his guard down, but he saw it only enraged him even more “It wasn’t my idea to screw you over. It was Li! Please!!!!” At this point, the next thing he felt was pain as Ivanovic unloaded two shots in his knees, causing him to scream his lungs out, then his screams suddenly stopped when he received the final shot straight in the chest where the thing that is supposed to be his heart was. Moments later, the second in command simply fell face down on the wet floor, his glasses falling off his face and landing at Vladislav’s feet.

“I should have dealt with you a long time ago. Goodbye Dimitri.” said the merc in a cold tone, walking away from his now dead enemy as the water began to slowly find its way in the hull. But before he could leave via the emergency exit, he heard Dimitri’s phone ringing. Returning and taking the phone out of his jacket, he then answered it and from what it seemed, talked with Vasily, the Russian mafia leader, announcing him about Dimitri’s demise and telling that he is next. The last shot was an outside camera seeing Vladislav mounting a Ducati motorcycle and speeding off, minutes before Agent Cage and Spider Woman arrived at the scene.

*********************************************************************************************************

“F*ck! We were close to getting him… at least now we know who’s next.” said Marc after the video stopped playing “Thompson, can you locate Vasily Petrovic?”

“Way ahead of you, sir.”  replied Agent Thompson, turning on a small size laptop “I have  gone through his surveillance files and tapped his phone remotely. Listen to this!” turning it on, Agent Specter and Spider Woman were able to hear a live conversation between Vasily and Martin Li, one that showed the Russian leader was quite desperate.

“He killed him, Li! He killed Dimitri! And now he’s coming after me too!”  said Vasily in a russian accent, clearly desperate.

“I warned you, Vasily. I warned you not to push things too far. You were supposed to keep this Serbian maniac busy, not go to war with him. Now things got too complicated.” replied Li, somewhat unfazed over his partner’s desperation.

“It wasn’t my idea! That was all Dimitri’s. He was obsessed with clipping Vladislav and tying up loose ends!”

“After that stunt at his cousin’s wedding, do you think he gives a shit? Sorry, but you’re on your own.”

“What the hell am I supposed to do now!?”

“Consider our business relationship terminated.” quickly said Li, abruptly ending the call and thus cutting all ties with what remained of the Bratva, pretty much leaving Petrovic to face the music.

“What a way of dumping a business partner…” said Spider Woman in a sarcastic tone, unsurprised after hearing how Li pretty much washed his hands off this situation “... but how do we find this guy? Judging by how desperate he sounds, he might go into hiding or try to flee the country.”

“Already triangulated his signal. He’s at JFK Airport. His private jet is awaiting clearance to take off for Europe.” replied Agent Thompson, packing his gear and taking it towards his squad car.

“That’s where Vladislav is going now! Everybody to their cars and head towards JFK! If we’re fast enough, we’ll cut him off on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway! MOVE OUT!” shouted Marc while heading along with some of the agents towards the location the helicopter landed while the rest of the team scrambled to get to their cars. Spider Woman as well went along with Cage towards the Audi and immediately sped off along with two more SWAT teams, leaving local police to deal with the scene while coroner and forensics arrive.

Meanwhile, as the team was going full speed and hoping they could catch Vladislav on the Expressway, the Serbian was already past South Richmond Hill and nearing JFK Airport. His Ducati motorcycle was fast enough for him to speed and weave through highway traffic and reach the airport in record time, often going past 130mph. At some point, a Bratva car came from the airport and began to chase him in order to shoot him off the bike, but they got swiftly dealt with by the Serbian after he shot out one of the tires, causing the Russians to crash into an oncoming truck. Getting off the Expressway and speeding past security, he was going towards the runway access, knowing Vasily was about to take off and leave the U.S. via his private jet.

“He 's coming! Warn the others!”  shouted the Bratva security guard to his partner after seeing Ivanovic coming at them at speed. While the other goon was sounding the alarm via radio, his partner began firing at the motorcycle, but Vladislav was agile enough to swerve and avoid gunfire until the clip was empty. He then took out his machete and while still on his bike, threw it at the Bratva gunman, impaling him against the fence, killing him. He then sped past the other guy straight through the barely open security gate, entering the runway area. Just then, a smaller blue and white jet was starting to enter the runway and prepare to accelerate in order to take off.

“Where do you think you’re going?” said Vladislav as he saw the jet accelerating already on the runway. He then hit the gas hard enough to make him perform a wheelie, went behind the jet and thanks to his high performance motorcycle, began to match the plane’s speed, exceeding 170 mph at some point. The plane’s side door opened and a Bratva member began firing his AKM at Vladislav in one last attempt to fend him off until the plane was ready to take off, but was taken down shortly after Vladislav shot him with his pistol. Just as the door closed, Ivanovic did one last ditch and successfully threw a hand grenade inside before stopping his bike immediately. Seconds later, as Vasily’s jet was beginning to take off, the grenade exploded, igniting the kerosene and blowing up the plane from back to front, spreading pieces of the fuselage across the entire runway, igniting it on fire as well.

In the meantime, the team was on its way at full speed, but were beginning to lose hope to stop Vladislav after they went past the wrecked Bratva car, still with its dead occupants in it and surrounded by traffic police. Looking behind again, Spider Woman was starting to feel extremely worried but also shocked over the amount of destruction one man could produce. It was clear he cared deeply about his cousin and now after what happened, it was clear it was his way of settling things once and for all. This also looked like it was his way of projecting his pain by inflicting it on the ones responsible. She was beginning to fear that this “race” might end with a fight to the death or something similar, where he will go down but take as many with him as he can.

“Reports of an explosion at JFK International. All units respond! Possible terrorist attack!” Suddenly the radio announced, prompting every NYPD and tactical unit to go on TAC-alert. Right now, the city was going on maximum alert again, just like last time when Spider Woman brought down Murder INC for the first time.

“Marc, what the hell just happened? A report of an explosion just came-”

“Save it, Luke. I’m seeing it from the air already. The entire plane blew up. The son of a bitch made it.” replied Marc, completely disappointed after witnessing the smoke coming from the end of the runway “The best we can do now is get there and hope he got caught in the fireball and was injured or unable to escape. Weapons ready everyone. He might have his last stand with us as well.”

Back at the airport, the runway looked like it was carpet bombed, with bits of airplane or jet fuel burning on the tarmac. Smoke was everywhere and the entire airport went into full lockdown, every other commercial flight being grounded until further notice, along with every terminal being evacuated.

Making his way through the burning wreckage with his rifle in his hand, Vladislav was combing the scene, looking for Vasily to see if he might have survived the explosion. He wanted to be sure the leader was dead, he already killed most of the organization’s members and the second in command. Making sure the leader is also dead will ensure the Bratva is wiped out for good in NYC and America.

As he walked more towards the somewhat intact remnants of the pilot’s cockpit, he saw one lone Bratva member slowly crawling his way away from the wreckage as the blast paralyzed him. Without hesitating, the merc simply shot him, ending his life, then moved towards the pilot, who also survived with quite some injuries. Seeing the Serbian approaching him, he began to beg not to be killed and so far, it looked like Ivanovic wasn’t interested in harming him further, not even raising his gun at him. He simply looked at him for a few seconds and after seeing he wasn’t connected to the criminal organization only by the fact that he was a simple pilot, left him alone and moved towards the final survivor: Vasily Petrovic. He was on the ground, holding his guts, which were badly pierced by pieces of shrapnel from the plane’s fuselage. He was bleeding from his nose as well and the only thing in his hand he was holding was a simple pistol.

“I told you TO LEAVE ME ALONE!” shouted Ivanovic as he advanced towards the wounded leader, pointing his weapon at him.

“I am the one in charge here, you dumb yokel! ME!”

“Big talk from someone who in reality is not a big shot at all. You want to know something funny?” said Vladislav, lowering his weapon after seeing the leader was harmless despite his huffing and puffing.

“Not really…” replied Vasily, spitting some blood on the ground and groaning in pain.

“You think you knew Dimitri well, but I knew him better. And he …thought you… were a fat f*cking joke.”

“Whatever…” simply replied Vasily in disbelief over this revelation that he was used by his supposed “friend” and second in command.

“A joke! Ha.. ha ha ha…” said Vladislav, turning around still giving him a mocking laughter. At this point, Vasily reached his breaking point and tried to shoot him in the back, only to end up shot in the head when Vladislav quickly turned back and delivered the final blow. At this moment, all his rage and anger simply went away the moment Vasily hit the ground, completely dead. It was like a switch was flipped off and all his anger suddenly vanished. He got what he came for, he got his revenge. His adrenaline level also dropped, making him feel the fatigue his body was experiencing after all he went through.

“Amigo! You did it!” said a voice behind him. Turning around, Vladislav saw it was Diego who came to his aid, armed with a shotgun while Carlos was bringing a Cessna airplane they used to land quickly at the airport to pick him up and leave the country “It’s over. You won.”

“What did I win, Diego?” looking at him, it was clear he didn’t see it as an achievement “Killing all these bastards won’t give my cousin a new heart… it won’t grant me his forgiveness for what i did...”

For a few seconds, he simply stood there next to Vasily’s corpse with his head down, reflecting over the events that unfolded and what happened to his Serghei, only to be interrupted after hearing sirens in the distance and a helicopter sound, a clear sign the Feds and police were closing in.

“Let 's go! The federales and policía are coming!” said Diego as he went towards the plane, but turned around when he realized Vladislav didn’t move at all “¿Que pasa? What are you doing? Let 's go!”

“...You go without me. Get out of here before they get you too.”

“What?!”

“Go… just go.” simply replied Vladislav as he saw Specter’s squad already at the other end of the runway coming at him in a V formation along with Marc’s helicopter starting to appear on the horizon as well. The last sign that made it clear to the Gomez brothers that he was not coming along was the fact he dropped his weapons, got on his knees and put his hands on the back of his head, surrendering to the incoming police force. Saddened after understanding his decision, Diego entered the plane and along with Carlos, took off and left New York, leaving Vladislav alone in the middle of the smoldering mess. On ground level, everyone was in shock over the merc’s decision to surrender, the most shocked of them all being Spider Woman. Watching later as Ivanovic was arrested by Marc himself and put in the helicopter to be transferred in custody, she was baffled. She did have a theory over the reason for his decision to give himself up but kept it to herself for the moment.

11'th chapter of the new story arc, created by me and https://www.deviantart.com/snarkymofo

Tying up loose ends is a dirty job. Especially after what happened in the previous chapter.

previous chapter https://www.patreon.com/posts/spider-gwen-11-89649660