Caught in her Web - Chapter 26 (Patreon)

Chapter 26

**No Erotica in this chapter**

I know nothing about Felicia Hardy from the Ghost Spider universe other than picking out a few bullet points to use from her wiki bio to use for her backstory here, everything else, such as personality and manner of speaking, I just made it my own.

Just before hanging up on Tony, Pete activated the nanites he had buried and stashed under the streets of Manhattan.

There’s no going back after you cross this line…

Turning to his bodyguard - though they’d been having sex mere moments ago, libidinous thoughts couldn’t be further from either of their minds - she answered before he could even ask the question, her fingers click-clacking on her laptop’s keyboard while her AR lenses no-doubt had several other holographic displays set up around her that only she could see.

‘There’s no concrete numbers as of yet, but according to data obtained from first responders and our drones the death count is over fifty thousand.’

The number was like a punch to the gut. Cindy had continued to talk but her voice descended into unintelligible gibberish to his ears, the number echoing in his mind over and over and making him want to hurl.

How much worse would that number be if we hadn’t already built the hospital…?

Bringing himself under control, he connected with Madam Web and had her bring him up to speed with the situation - what had happened, how, what the situation looked like, all of it flashed through his mind at speeds that would be impossible for humans without the aid of personalised AI.

A fury the likes of which he’d only felt once before welled up within him, but instead of letting it consume him, he channelled the emotions in one direction.

Loki…

‘Madam Web,’ he intoned with all the gravity the situation warranted, his tone deadly serious with the enormity of what he was about to do. He not only was about to cross a line, he was leaping over it with both feet. Eagerly. ‘Activate the Carnage Protocol.’

Web’s reply lacked her usual personality and Cindy’s head snapped up in confusion.

‘Password confirmation.’

He rattled off a string of letters and numbers, satisfying one aspect of the security procedures required to unlock this deadly weapon.

‘Confirmed. Awaiting confirmation from Anthony Edward Stark… confirmed. Activating Carnage Protocol.’

‘What -?’

‘I don’t have time for explanations,’ he cut Cindy off before she could ask. He ignored the look of hurt in her eyes - he could apologise later. Even a second’s delay could be the difference between another New Yorker living or dying.

-

The earthquake grew in intensity until, after ever increasing pressure, the nearby sealed manhole covers exploded into the sky releasing trails of nanites like furious geysers of microscopic destruction.

‘What the - ?’

Cap wasn't alone in his confusion, even the Chitauri soldiers paused in surprise at the strange, unexpected sight.

Tony's excited grin faded however when Madam Web sent him the prompt.

With a queasy feeling in his gut, a lifetime of sci-fi predisposing him against this drastic action, he gave his approval with a biometric scan and a long password.

Cap turned to him, noticing him standing there motionless.

‘Tony, what's going on?!’

Stark’s helmeted head turned to their - supposed, totally unelected - unofficial leader and he let out a weary sigh.

‘I just signed these aliens’ death warrants.’

Before anyone else could follow up on his ominous statement, the seemingly endless tendril of black nanites streaming out of the sewers started to hum in unison. If one didn’t know better, it almost sounded like the microscopic machines were buzzing with pleasure.

The sounds were even more bone chilling than the sight of the streams turning a rich, blood red, massive spiked appendages shooting out and skewering any foolhardy Chitauri that came too close.

Even if they keep their distance, it's only a matter of time…

The Avengers watched the scene with sick fascination. Each time the blood red tentacles of death skewered an alien, they'd scream in terror and fall to the earth, their bodies liquifying into pools of nanites in under a minute.

These new nanites would join the horde, creating an exponentially expanding wave of death and destruction.

‘... Are we safe?’’

Before Tony could answer, both Banner and Thor leapt backwards to deal with an incoming troop carrying leviathan. Instead of crushing it like the Hulk had done to several of the behemoths already, the huge, green superhero launched the biomechanical creature into the sea of nanites like a shot put.

They eagerly latched onto the invaders and feasted.

Remembering Scott’s question, he answered without turning to look back at his now normal-sized friend and colleauge.

‘Sure.’

The silence that followed his answer was pierced by the screams of the dying and liquifying invaders.

‘...Theoretically.’

-

Uncaring of the absolute destruction his nanites were causing, Pete moved onto the next step of his counter offensive.

He made a call to his secretary.

When she answered, Pete was already observing her through the cameras in his office. Though Loki had physically locked them out of the building after taking the scientists hostage, their AIs were battling hard to slowly regain access.

Too slowly.

As it stood, he had access to the cameras and that was pretty much it.

‘H-hello?’

He wasn't in the mood to buy her act. Not that day. Not while dead New Yorkers still lined the streets…

‘Are you okay?’

Felicia nodded shakily before answering. ‘E-everyone on our floor is barricaded in the offices.’

‘Good,’ he answered drily, as if he didn't already know. ‘I have a job for you.’

‘I…I don't understand -’

He rolled his eyes in annoyance, his frustration apparently bleeding through because he saw Felicia stiffen on the camera feed.

‘I have a job for the Black Cat.’

It was honestly remarkable how instantaneous the change was. With just the slightest shift in posture, it was like he was looking at a completely different woman.

When she next spoke after several moments of tense silence, gone was her carefully crafted New Yorker accent and in its place was a more cultured one. Educated in the best schools England had to offer, Felicia Hardy’s true roots were only betrayed by an incredibly faint French accent that tinged her otherwise posh one.

No longer pretending, she turned and looked up at the camera she knew he was watching her on.

‘How long have you known?’

Gone was the faux fear she had been trying to project just moments ago, and in its place, bored sensuality.

‘I always knew,’ he answered absentmindedly, his keys tapping away at his keyboard as he sent over several images of Loki, the hostages, the room he was holed up in, the Tesseract and Loki’s sceptre.

‘I want you to use your considerable talents to rescue the hostages and steal the two items in the images. I would very strongly advise not touching them.’

When Felicia made to protest his absurd request, he immediately rolled over her, ignoring her consternation.

‘I'll pay you one hundred million upfront.’ When he looked over at Cindy she just gave him a simple nod. ‘In fact, it's already in your account. I'll pay you another four hundred when you're successful.’

The smile on her face slipped at the, frankly, ridiculous amount of money he was throwing around. He didn't have time to fuck around with a thief though, nor the patience.

‘We don't have time,’ he stressed at Felicia's continued silence. ‘Do you accept, or no?’

When her smile returned, it was forced. Fake. Expecting the world class thief to turn him down out of self-interest, she caught him completely by surprise with her next words.

‘Keep your money,’ she purred, before tilting her head playfully. ‘Well, leave the hundred - a girl's gotta eat. As for the rest, I'll accept the location of Matthew Murdoch as payment.’

Murdoch…? What in the… Whatever.

‘Done. Anything else?’

She seemed momentarily taken aback by his rapid acquiescence, but she quickly recovered, a sensual smile gracing her somehow more beautiful features.

‘Good,’ she purred before her eyes went blank and she scanned all the surveillance footage Cindy was sending her.

‘Gwen incoming,’ Cindy informed him in a professional, serious tone, her fingers click-clacking away at her keyboard. ‘At the speed she's travelling, she'll be over Manhattan in two minutes.’

Jesus. She must be pushing the jet for all it was worth.

All the SI private jets now had the ability to exceed hypersonic speeds, but it was wildly inefficient, only to be used sparingly.

I guess this is an emergency.

‘Good. Web, direct the nanites towards her when she lands and tell her the plan.’

‘Of course, Peter.’

He turned back to Cindy. ‘Get in touch with one of S.H.I.E.L.D’s doctors, I want a full psych eval on Loki in front of me five minutes ago.’

‘Got it.’

He turned back to the screen and watched as Felicia continued to scan through the information packet. She only did so for another few seconds before turning back to look up at the camera.

‘I can't do this alone.’

Pete felt a spike of annoyance shoot through him. ‘I thought you were supposed to be the world's greatest thief?’

She pouted up at him, her luscious lips normally a feature that would grab his attention, but at the moment the furthest thing from his mind.

‘Let me reiterate. If you want to do this in the time frame you've imposed on me, I'll need help.’

Pete frowned but otherwise remained stoic. ‘I'm hearing a lot of excuses. Is it also my fault that you haven't been able to crack the lock on my safe? Is a year of unrestricted access too much of an imposition?’

The high definition cameras caught the corners of her eyes twitching in annoyance and, with a sigh, Pete told her to go to it. What the safe contained had always been earmarked for his kleptomaniac secretary anyway, if he ever had a need for her services.

She moved aside the framed photo of Gwen and stood before the unremarkable box of vibranium inset in the wall.

‘Press your hand on the door and say I'm a very naughty kitty.’

‘You must be joking -’

‘Now, Felicia!’

She must have heard the stress in his voice because the playful, irreverent demeanour slipped and she looked up with a concerned frown.

‘How bad is it?’

Cindy answered in his stead, her voice carrying through to the thief.

‘Over fifty-eight thousand dead and counting.’

‘Mon Dieu…’

After a brief pause, she recited the embarrassing passphrase and the safe’s door silently swung open.

Felicia reached inside and pulled out a baggy, black latex suit and held it against her perfect body. It was so oversized that it looked more like a set of overalls.

‘I do not think this is my size.’

‘Put it on,’ Cindy called over the mic impatiently, channelling his annoyance and earning herself an eye roll from the irreverent woman. Without an ounce of shame, she stripped completely naked in his office and slipped into the suit, the black latex loose and hanging off her body as if she were posing for a before and after weight loss photo. ‘You should find buttons on the inside of the bands around your wrists,’ Cindy continued in a professionally clipped tone, feeling the time pressure just like he was. ‘Press the button on the inside of your left wrist.’

Felicia did so without hesitation and yelped when the suit instantly shrank, contouring to her skin as if it had been vacuum sealed over her body.

‘This is…much better,’ the thief purred, looking down and admiring her perfect figure in the skintight suit.

The suit had been designed for her, or rather, the Black Cat. In the event that Pete needed a carrot to tempt her into his service, this suit was it.

Scanning over her voluptuous form, Pete saw that the material got into each and every crevice, leaving nothing to the imagination. The exact shape of her heavy breasts, nipples and meaty behind, even her belly button and the lines of her muscles were clearly visible through the thin suit. The collar was incredibly low cut and lined with plush, white fur, showing off an intoxicating amount of cleavage while her boots and gloves were similarly lined.

‘This is quite fetching,’ Felicia said, smirking as she admired herself. ‘I did not think you had it in you, my sweet.’

He didn't know how he felt about the term of endearment, but Pete sent a raised eyebrow towards his cosplaying bodyguard, who had the good grace to not meet his gaze and blush beet red.

Pete otherwise ignored the implication that he was the one responsible for the insanely erotic outfit - he had much more pressing concerns.

‘There should also be a vial of nanites in the safe. Drink it, they're programmed to help you interface with the suit subconsciously.’

‘Interface how?’ she asked before, to his pleasant surprise, she fetched the vial and swallowed the nanites without question. ‘I can hear your surprise from here, Peter. You may already know an uncomfortable amount about me, but I've worked with you for long enough to know you are insufferably noble.’ She looked up at the camera and smiled flirtatiously. ‘Though, I'm not sure what this suit is supposed to do. I already know of your impressive stealth tech. Mine is better.’

He somehow doubted that, but let it slide. Seeing Felicia waver and slump against his desk, he explained.

‘The wave of fatigue is normal. You should be seeing a new HUD in your vision?’

‘Y-yes…’

‘Good -’ he was about to continue but was interrupted by Cindy.

‘Gwen’s plane is closing fast, she'll be in the Manhattan airspace imminently.’

Pete nodded, putting aside Loki's file and interfacing with Web and his nanites directly before continuing with Felicia.

‘The suit will allow you to manipulate magnetic fields on a subatomic level, the nanites will do most of the heavy lifting, you just have to will what you want, and it'll be so -’

‘Manipulate what? How does this help me?’

Before Pete could snap back a response that would have been in poor taste, his frustration getting the better of him, Cindy took over.

‘The suit will let you and anyone or thing you're in contact with pass through solid objects at will. If the object is too large, your HUD will let you know by highlighting it in red.’

Pete nodded at Cindy thankfully before continuing his preparations for Gwen's arrival. Even with the hypersonic private jet, she'd made the trip incredibly fast.

‘Mon dieu…,’ Felicia gasped in shock as she watched her hand pass seamlessly through the safe’s previously impregnable door.

Truly a godsend for a thief. Hopefully, one he could retain in his employ.

‘You should have everything you need. Ping me when you're in position.’

‘Entendu, mon capitaine,’ she teased with a playful salute before, in the blink of an eye, she slipped through the floor and into the level below.

Cindy would work with Felicia to make sure she was successful in not only saving the hostages, but filching the dangerous artefacts.

He, on the other hand, had to prepare for his, undeniably, pissed off girlfriend.

These aliens were about to learn the hard way that one didn't fuck with New Yorkers.

-

Tony grunted in annoyance as he and Thor blew up another of the leviathans that were disgorging aliens unto New York after flying through the portal unopposed.

Pete’s nanites had done their job, and the Chitauri were running from the red wave of death in fear, their cohesion as a force utterly obliterated after watching countless of their brethren dissolve into puddles of goo, mere fodder for the nanites to replicate and overwhelm.

It was utter carnage.

Unfortunately, either the leaders of the invasion force on the other side of the portal weren’t telling their foot soldiers of the dangers they faced, or they didn’t know.

They were holding up much better than before, but this game was quickly growing tedious. While he was far from out of options, he was quickly running out of ones that would mitigate collateral or - at the very least - heavy structural damage.

His HUD suddenly blared at him, warning him of a potential incoming threat. Looking over towards the bay, his mask amplified his vision and he grinned when he saw one of his very own private jets silently screaming towards them.

‘Incoming!’

The jet was travelling so fast - mach eight, if his calculations were correct - that the others didn’t even have time to hear it before it collided with the shield over Stark Tower in a fiery conflagration. It wasn’t until long after the flames started to die down that they heard the thunderous sonic boom and the immense explosive reaction.

Regrettably, the shield held up against the insane force brought against it - a fact that he couldn’t help feeling pride in - but it wasn’t for naught. Three more leviathans that had been emerging from the portal and were halfway through the shield had been destroyed in the devastating explosion.

‘No!’

Tony waved away Roger’s anguished cry. ‘Relax Cap, it’s one of mine.’

Cap turned to him incredulously. ‘There were people on that plane!’

Tony turned to the old soldier, his mask making his eye roll invisible. ‘No, there weren’t.’ Tony then pointed to the dark spec approaching them at rapid speed, her arms spread wide and thin, membranous wings allowing her to control her fall. ‘As a matter of fact, voila, reinforcements.’

They all turned, even Banner, and gaped as what appeared to be a meteor flying towards them at ungodly speeds, her momentum from the jet carried over into her skydive. She pulled up at the very last second, nanite tendrils exploding from her body and helping to arrest her momentum before crashing into the asphalt with a resounding boom. Even after having slowed down, the street still cratered around her, concrete dust billowing out and temporarily obscuring her form.

‘Took your sweet ass time, kid!’

When the dust settled, Gwen was standing there in her Ghost Spider suit, her head bowed as she no-doubt conferred with her boyfriend and was brought up to speed. She nodded before turning to Tony with a tilt of her head.

‘Who do we need to kill?’

Tony barked out a laugh as he slowly lowered himself to the ground beside her while the others continued the fight. ‘Pete’s doing a pretty good job of that himself, actually.’

She turned and eyed the red cloud of death that had stopped chasing the aliens and instead turned back towards them. Rather than be alarmed, Tony watched as Gwen nonchalantly stretched out her back with a groan and cracked her knuckles in anticipation. He warily stepped back when the cloud was finally upon them and watched with surprise as Gwen spread her arms wide, accepting the nanite swarm into her body with casual ease.


The change wasn’t instant, but it was fearsome, and unsettling. The girl’s black, white and turquoise suit turned the colour of blood while her hood and several seams that opened up over her body grew teeth.

‘Okay, that was pretty metal, I guess. Do kids still say that?’

Gwen turned to him, and, though he couldn’t see it, he was sure she was giving him a look filled with scorn.

‘We don’t, no…’

The Chitauri had taken the retreat of the red cloud like some kind of victory, following it back to its source and surrounding them on all sides.

‘I hope you had your breakfast kid, I think we’re gonna be at this for a while -’

He started in surprise when Gwen held out a hand and every single one of the aliens froze in place, as if she’d inherited the powers of a certain professor…

They didn’t stay frozen for long however, and quickly their cries of anguish and horror filled the air as the bodies started to vibrate and shake. Before Tony could ask what the fuck was going on, red spikes exploded out of each alien’s body, not only tearing them apart but also eviscerating their comrades in a horrific starburst of gore and carnage.

As the mutilated corpses fell to the ground like lifeless sacks of meat, more red nanites streamed out of their rapidly dissolving bodies and were absorbed by Gwen, her suit growing more red and demonic by the second.

Feeling the silence, Gwen slowly turned and eyed her comrades staring at her in shock. Tilting her head, she nonchalantly put a hand on her cocked hip and stared back as if they were the weird ones.

‘What?’

‘Jesus Christ…’ Lang cursed, staring at Gwen in awe and a little fear.

Tony chortled. ‘They grow up so fast…’

-

Pete watched as the Avengers went on a counter offensive, joined by the Fantastic Four doing likewise. While it eased his heart that the worst of it was finally over, it still pained him seeing the constant updates as the spiders on the force pulled more dead bodies out of the rubble by the hundreds.

Gwen, seemingly channelling the fury of every New Yorker in her lithe, deadly frame, was rampaging through Manhattan in a way that even made the Hulk grunt in approval and feel a little competitive. She was less the Ghost Spider he knew and loved and more a writhing whirlwind of blood-red, spiked tendrils that was absolutely shredding through and absorbing every enemy she defeated.

With one eye watching Gwen, his other was scanning through Loki’s psych eval in preparation for Felicia’s call.

He didn’t have to wait long.

He had the car pull up at a nearby clearing and stepped out, his drones de-cloaking and surrounding him on all sides, their cameras recording him from every angle.

‘You ready?’ Cindy asked, sitting on the hood of the car, her laptop parched atop her crossed legs.

Loki might have had his mind-controlled scientists and security personnel shut the entire building down, but the AIs were currently duking it out to wrest control from his hands. They may not have access to the security systems - yet - but they did have access to the cameras.

With a nod, Pete had the emitters back at SI project a hologram of him - standing there with his arms crossed and a thoroughly unimpressed look on his face - right by the mastermind of this disaster.

While Pete couldn't see through the hologram's eyes - or at least he didn't think it was worth the effort to try - he still had a full view of the room from the myriad cameras.

He wasn't sure what Loki's plan was other than to hole up in this room and keep the portal open for as long as possible, and honestly, he didn't really care.

Pete's goal was firstly to rescue Jane and the other SI personnel, his second, the seizure of certain, mystical artefacts.

Loki spun on his heel when he saw Pete materialise out of the corner of his eye, a cocky, snarky smile on his pale, angular features.

The Asgardian was dressed in green leathers that made him look like he’d just walked off the set of Game of Thrones, his golden sceptre held loosely in one hand while the other swung out in a flourish as he performed a mocking bow.

‘Ah, the illustrious Doctor Parker! I've heard so much about you.’

His voice dripped with honey and Pete, not generally prone to acts of violence, found himself wanting nothing more than to bury his fist in the jerk’s face.

While his hologram didn't turn to look at the hostages, he saw them through the camera feed clear as day. It hurt to see the blank, vacant look on Jane's elegant features, her eyes glowing an ethereal, unnatural blue. She and her colleagues were assisting in the building's defence against Madam Web, and slowly losing.

He was snapped out of his brooding when the piece of shit before him spoke.

‘Have you come to witness how a god conquers ants?’

Pete raised an unimpressed eyebrow, refusing to let the rage bubbling within him to show.

‘For someone who fancies himself a god, your approach is pretty pedestrian.’ Pete was surprised how hard he had to try to inject the mocking tone in his voice - he really wasn't feeling it. ‘I thought you were supposed to be the god of mischief and trickery? Is this it? You wave a magic wand around and cower in this room like a rat? Not exactly a legend that'll get you a seat at your father's table.’ Pete’s smile showed far too many teeth and didn't reach his eyes. ‘Well… adoptive father.’

Loki’s eyes flashed dangerously. Pete might have been concerned if he weren’t hundreds of miles away. The Asgardian looked at his golden sceptre fondly after Pete’s mentioning of it, and Felicia chose that moment to act.

With Loki’s attention diverted, Pete saw her hand reach up through the ground, wrap around Jane’s ankle and, before the mind controlled doctor could even react, she fell through the floor like it wasn't even there, a hologram quickly taking her place.

Felicia had already force fed Jane a vial of nanites before moving to her next target. Though Jane, and many of her colleagues, already had a pretty advanced colony of his nanites in their systems, they weren’t up to the task of breaking them from whatever spell the sceptre had over their minds.

The top-up should remedy that.

‘This is no mere magic wand, fool,’ Loki purred, staring at his sceptre fondly. Loki then turned to him, his lips spread wide in a smug grin. ‘And now, as its new master, I'll conquer this world of barbarians, and anyone else that stands in my way. You will all be nothing but a footnote in the songs they will sing about me.’

Interesting. That makes it sound like this thing was a recent acquisition. Did he find it…or did someone give it to him?

Pete forced himself to bark out a laugh as Felicia systematically disappeared the hostages one by one. ‘Sing songs? About you? I'd say you're a disappointment, oh God of Mischief, but I've got a feeling you're all too used to hearing that already.’

‘That's it Peter, keep needling, Felicia is almost done.’

He didn't physically respond to Cindy's words, though he heard them loud and clear - a far cry from Loki’s reaction to his own barbs. The Asgardian’s jaw was clenched, his eyes narrowed and a vain throbbed at his temple.

‘Oh? Did I hit a nerve?’ Pete taunted, almost feeling bad for the piece of garbage before remembering how many people he'd inadvertently killed. ‘I'm honestly impressed by your commitment to the role of cartoonish villain - do you have some kind of fetish for being outwitted and outsmarted at every turn?’ Pete tilted his head to the side and regarded the clearly seething god with a smirk that mirrored the one Loki had given him before. ‘Or maybe it's just in your blood?’

That one hit a nerve, and just as Pete thought Loki would lash out at him like a child, the Asgardian took a deep, calming breath and recentred himself, letting the sceptre in his hands slip through his fingers and fall to the floor, catching it as it rebounded off the floor and holding it like a cane.

Well, that was how Loki perceived it.

It took every ounce of his considerable willpower to not gape in shock at what had happened. Loki had to have lost contact with the staff for a nanosecond at most, the time in between letting his grip slide up the shaft and its butt hitting the cool, metallic floor.

In that time, Felicia performed a remarkable feat of sleight of hand, using her new suit to let the sceptre fall through the floor while replacing it with a similarly sized rod of metal.

He wasn't sure how she'd managed it, only that she'd been successful. Loki now strolled towards him, an utterly unremarkable piece of metal unknowingly in hand.

I insulted her earlier, but that's honestly one of the most impressive things I've ever seen. It’s like she took my words as a personal attack or something…

‘You must feel safe,’ Loki hissed, his eyes smouldering with rage as he drew closer until they were face to face. ‘A worm, daring to speak to his betters, thinking himself safe because he's only here in - rudimentary - technological spirit…’

Pete wouldn't have to keep this farce up much longer. Felicia had earned her pay and then some, her last objective the Tesseract itself. It was hooked up to a machine that looked to have been hastily built for the sole purpose of opening the portal above the tower.

‘You think I'm scared of you?’ Pete asked with disbelief, genuinely wondering if millennia of worship had driven the Asgardian insane. ‘If I were actually standing in this room with you, you'd already be dead.’

Loki seemed to find his words hilarious, his lips spreading into a Cheshire Cat-like grin as he regarded Pete.

‘Do you think you're safe from my sceptre because you are only here in hologram? Do you think my power is so easily thwarted?’

Pete genuinely wondered if the mind-control sceptre could have reached him despite their real distance apart - in his experiences with Steven Strange, magic artefacts could be a bit unfair like that. Instead, he only grinned cheekily as Loki raised his sceptre and made to hold it against his hologram’s forehead, his eyes widening in disbelief when he realised he was only holding an unremarkable piece of steel.

‘Oops,’ Pete teased, the mirth in his tone not needing to be forced this time. ‘Did the god of trickery and mischief get outsmarted by a mere ant? And you think you have what it takes to be the ruler of Asgard? What a joke.’

He made a lot of inferences and assumptions with the last dig, but Pete almost cackled like the cartoonish villain he accused Loki of being when he saw the pale man’s face flush with impotent rage.

Felicia took that moment to suck the entire console with the Tesseract through the floor, getting around the issue of not touching it by just stealing the entire housing and severing the power cords attached to it when her suit’s effects deactivated.

Loki spun on his heels in surprise, the Black Cat’s final heist orders of magnitude less subtle than her previous ones - a small part of Pete assumed that was absolutely by design, given the skill she'd displayed up to that point, he didn't doubt she could have managed it.

This was anything but subtle or skillful, akin to leaving a mocking calling card.

He doubted she cared all that much about the dead innocents - at least not as much as he did - but Pete wondered if she'd been annoyed by Loki’s arrogant boasting and casual dismissal of humanity.

He doubted she’d ever give him a straight answer.

As the holograms of his mind-controlled slaves started to wink out one-by-one, Loki slowly turned to him, his eyes smouldering with fury.

‘Well…that’s embarrassing.’

‘You think you’ve achieved something here?’ Loki hissed, his voice low, menacing and dangerous. ‘You’ve done nothing but delay the inevitable. The portal is already open, an army the likes of which humanity has never conceived eager and ready to pour out into this uncultured, pathetic backwater. Disconnecting the Tesseract won’t close the portal, fool, the Chitauri are now powering it from their end!’

Pete tilted his head to the side and regarded the ‘god’ curiously, a pleased grin tugging at his lips as Cindy and Web informed him they once again had control of the building.

‘You think I was trying to close the portal?’ Pete asked, his tone filled with mirth that didn’t reach his eyes. ‘Someone obviously put you up to this, you’re too inept to have conjured up this farce on your own. I intend to greet them, appropriately.’

Before Loki could react to his menacing promise, let alone answer with words, several hundred thousand volts of electricity passed through every metallic surface in the room, flowing through Loki and instantly rendering him unconscious.

Web had run calculations based on all the data they had on Asgardian physiology on what would be a non-lethal dosage, enough to incapacitate rather than kill.

Honestly?

This was the first time in his life he hoped the computational supremacy of his beloved AI companion came up short.

His vision returned to his actual surroundings, deep amidst the forested, winding roads of upstate New York. He turned to Cindy, his eyebrow raised in question.

‘They’re all okay,’ she answered promptly, hopping off the boot of the car and tucking her laptop under her arm. ‘Felicia took them all to medical.’

‘And the mind-control?’ he asked, his lips curling in disgust.

‘The doctors at HSR are confident the nanite cocktail should combat the alien influence, we’ll know for sure when they wake.’

Pete nodded, slipping back into the car before Cindy and making himself comfortable. He grimaced, the car still reeking of sex and painfully reminding him what they’d been doing when tens of thousand of New Yorkers had been dying.

Once they were situated and the car started to speed off once more, Pete watched out the window as the scenery sped on by. ‘Tell Felicia to wait for me in my office with the Tesseract and the sceptre, I’ll give her her payment when we return.’

‘Yes sir.’

Pete felt a stab of guilt at the forced professional tone in his friend and lover’s voice.

She probably feels as guilty as I do…

His eyes hardened as he mentally sent instructions to both Gwen and Sue Storm.

Whoever had launched the attack on Manhattan…they would soon regret it.

-

Gwen was carving a path of destruction through the city when she received the message from Pete, chasing down and butchering every alien invader she laid eyes on, their biological matter instantly liquifying and being used as resources to create more nanites.

Her suit was such a dark red at this point - writhing with spiked tendrils and horrific, teeth-filled maws - that she looked like a vengeful demon straight out of Hell, each one of her kills adding to her strength and speed.

After receiving the message, her heart hardened and her resolve steeled. Sending out tendrils to latch onto the side of a nearby building, she flung herself in the direction of Stark Tower. The others had the portal locked down on all sides while she and the other Spiders tracked down and eradicated the stragglers.

Upon reaching the monolithic building, Gwen started to run up the side like a speeding bullet, a red, demonic blur to anyone watching. Each footfall slammed against the building and cratered the stone as she launched herself into her next leap, her target in sight.

Upon reaching the apex, and the portal that was still disgorging invaders, Sue Storm dropped her invisibility. At any other time, Gwen would have been instantly disarmed by her beauty, her body-hugging blue spandex suit and perfect figure out of this world, her luscious blonde locks flowing in the wind and her beautiful features set in a determined frown.

‘I hope you know what you’re doing,’ Sue warned, before her hands started to glow as she channelled her powers. She screamed, the effort of what she was doing clearly taking its toll.

The energy shield protecting the portal had at first originated from Stark Tower itself, but once the portal stabilised, the invaders had used their own tech from the other side to hijack it and use the shield to protect their foothold into their world. The shield surrounding the top of Stark Tower was spherical and made up of plates of transparent, hexagonal, blue energy. It rebuffed all efforts to break it, even from the combined efforts of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four.

But Gwen didn’t need it broken, she just needed a tiny window.

Sue’s screams intensified as the barrier near them flickered, a tiny pinprick of light appearing amidst the sea of blue energy. Sue then spread her arms wide and a spherical forcefield expanded, opening up a tiny tunnel just wide enough for Gwen to slip through.

She didn’t hesitate, instantly slipping through the opening the older heroine had created and turning back to her with a thankful nod, the forcefield instantly collapsing once she’d passed. Sue was panting heavily after her efforts, her breath coming in ragged, wheezing pants.

‘They won’t know what hit them…’

Sue nodded and Gwen turned to the invaders who were watching her curiously, apparently shocked that she’d willingly locked herself within the forcefield with them. Making sure, she knocked the wall of the shield behind her and confirmed what she had expected, the shield wasn’t simply one-way, it just didn’t let anybody but Chitauri pass through its energy barrier.

They’d tampered with the shield, just like Pete had predicted.

Not seeing a need to waste any more time and wanting nothing more than to be with her boyfriend, Gwen crouched low, instantly putting every alien invader in the dome with her on guard. With a mighty leap, Gwen launched herself directly beneath the portal, skewering and killing any alien that got in her way.

That set them off, like she was a cat amongst the pigeons.

But it was already too late.

Spreading her arms wide, Gwen screamed as thousands of blood red spikes shot out of her body, skewering and instantly killing every enemy in her vicinity, each and every one of them consumed and used as fuel to create more nanites.

Continuing to scream, more and more tendrils sprouted out of her body, an endless stream of the nanite-born constructs growing up and through the portal like some kind of demonic tree. She didn’t stop, didn’t relent and poured out all her pent-up rage and hatred until each and every one of the nanites with the carnage protocol activated was expelled from her body, and then she gave even more.

She kept this up until the portal, its opening completely obscured by the thick, nanite tendrils, finally, almost anticlimactically, winked out of existence, instantly severing her connection with the nanites on the other side.

Gwen collapsed on her rear with a tired sigh, her adrenaline-fuelled rage draining out of her in an instant as if she’d had a bucket of cold water poured over her head.

Tony slowly landed on the building beside her, the shrunken Scott leaping off his shoulder and regrowing to his normal size now that he had solid ground beneath his feet.

His golden mask melted away and he grinned down at her. Even after hours of fighting, his face was cool, calm and collected - though his eyes were steely and filled with anger.

‘You did good kid.’

Gwen nodded and accepted Scott’s hand when he offered it, yanking her to her feet.

‘So, wanna tell us what you did there?’

Gwen turned to Scott with a tired sigh as Sue, Reed and Johnny joined them on the roof. ‘I’d be quite interested to know too, if you wouldn’t mind,’ Mister Fantastic added, his tone cordial and curious

Gwen turned to the new arrivals with a tired smile and shrugged. A part of her was reticent to divulge, but it was about time people started to give her man the respect he deserved.

Not just for his philanthropic deeds either.

Pete was terrifying, a fact she knew Tony understood well…

But if more people knew, maybe they’d be a lot more cautious about pulling shit like they did today in the future…

So, she told them.

-

Moments earlier, on the other side of the portal

Thanos watched the scene before him with an impassive stare, sitting atop his throne a safe distance away from the Chitauri armada. Knowing of Earth’s heroes, he hadn’t expected his plan to meet with much success.

From the beginning, this entire exercise was simply a means to an end. He needed to test Earth’s defences regardless, and it held the Space Stone that he so coveted.

Everything had been proceeding as planned… and then an explosion of blood red obscured the portal. Countless spiked tendrils the size of his arm shot out like spears, obliterating the troop ship immediately on their side of the portal.

It was an impressive attack, the explosion causing a chain reaction that took several more ships with it.

That wasn’t the end though. The tendrils continued to grow, spearing through the debris field and skewering any other ship within reach. The Chitauri admirals reacted admirably to the unforeseen threat, pulling their ships out when they realised the sudden danger.

It had been too late.

With the tendrils came a thick, crimson mist that devoured everything in its path, the cloud growing larger and more dense the more it consumed.

Thanos and The Other watched impassively as the entire Chitauri armada was consumed in a manner of minutes, despite the admirals ordering the closure of the portal in a hasty attempt to save their skins. They tried to escape, but none of the ships’ engines worked, and soon, all that was left of the mighty empires’ military might was an ominous, crimson cloud.

‘Humans…’ The Other began, his voice deep and ponderous. ‘They are not the cowering wretches the Godling promised. Nor are they weaklings, ripe for the harvesting.’

Thanos didn’t answer, he didn’t see the need. His right hand’s observation seemed obvious.

‘I want to know what that mist is,’ Thanos commanded, his tone emotionless as The Other sent in the Chitauri scientific vessels.

Too late did he realise his error, his lust for knowledge on the enemy’s capabilities making him hasty and incautious. The moment the non-combat vessels flew within range, the crimson cloud flashed once. That was their only warning as, after a silent, blinding explosion, the scientific fleet, too, disappeared in a catastrophic explosion.

The instant loss of the Chitauri’s brightest minds would likely hurt the species more than the loss of their entire armada.

Not that it mattered. The Chitauri had failed him and would be punished accordingly.

The humans had proved more formidable than he’d imagined, and now, not only did he not possess the Space Stone…but he’d lost the Mind Stone also.

Thanos frowned, leaning back in his throne and steepling his fingers.

‘Interesting…’

-

Back on Earth

When Pete finally returned to his office, he was unsurprised to find both Felicia and Gwen sitting around his desk in silence, the Tesseract and Loki’s sceptre resting innocently between them. The atmosphere was tense, and while Felicia looked as relaxed as a cat reclining in his chair, Gwen glared daggers at the artefacts.

She looked like she wanted to melt them with her fury.

Gwen turned at the sound of his entry, a tired smile tugging at the corner of her lips. Instead of her suit, she’d shifted her outfit into a completely unflattering tracksuit, reflecting her mood.

Pete approached, feeling as dejected as she looked. The final death count was estimated to be over seventy thousand, with more being pulled out of the rubble every minute. Leaning down, he pressed his lips against Gwen’s forehead and accepted it when she swivelled in her chair and captured him in a bone-crushing hug.

A polite clearing of a throat broke their tender moment, but Gwen had no intention of letting him go. With a mental command, his drones de-cloaked and deposited the two artefacts into his safe.

He’d examine them later.

‘Don’t I get a hug?’ Felicia teased with an insensitive pout, her faint French accent sounding strange coming from her lips after spending a year with her sounding like a perfect local.

Instead of responding, Pete sent her a file. He’d only ever shown the video to one other person, and she was currently hugging him with all her might.

‘Oh? What’s this?’

‘It’s the closest you’ll ever get to Murdoch,’ Pete explained, his voice muffled by Gwen’s hair and shoulder. ‘Unless you fancy visiting the cemetery, I guess.’

That caused Felicia to start, her playful demeanour quickly vanishing as she pulled up the video he sent to her, the one where he’d killed the blind assassin.

Gwen pulled back from her hug, frowning at him in confusion. ‘You buried him?’

He coughed awkwardly. ‘Well, no, it was just a figure of speech…’

Snorting with dark amusement, Pete grunted as his girlfriend yanked him down into her lap and buried her face in his chest.

Gwen was in a cuddly, desperate-for-human-contact kind of mood.

So was he, to be fair…

The atmosphere in his office was stifling, nobody spoke as Felicia watched the video and he and Gwen ruminated on the day’s events.

He could tell the moment Felicia was done with watching the video. Her eyes lost the glazed look and she leaned back in his chair, a contemplative look on her beautiful features.

‘How…anticlimactic.’

‘What did you expect?’

She turned to him, about to fire off a snappy, irreverent reply, but checked herself when she read the room and thought better of it.

‘I don’t know,’ she admitted sheepishly. ‘Perhaps that you had him rotting in a prison somewhere. You goody, goody types are usually too shy about doing what needs to be done.’

This time, Gwen was the one to snort in amusement and Pete ran his hands through her hair fondly, sending a smile his secretary’s way that didn’t reach his eyes.

‘I think it’s pretty apparent you don’t know me as well as you think you do.’

Felicia only snorted, swivelling in his chair to stare sightlessly out his window. Even from all the way up here, one could see his drones zipping about, the Spiders and emergency services doing their best to help the wounded and dying.

It was a dark day for New York City, the darkest in its history - a fact exacerbated by the clouds of smoke and concrete dust hovering over the city like an oppressive blanket of misery.

‘Web, any updates on the death toll?’

Madam Web’s prim and proper synthetic voice sounded out from the speakers in his office.

‘The latest update I have has it at seventy-nine thousand, six hundred and forty three.’

The number was like a dagger to the heart. He must have shown some of his internal strife on his face because Gwen, her arms wrapped around his waist, squeezed him right, her lips close to his ear.

‘It’s not your fault…’

To his shame, he let a sliver of the rage he’d been bottling up all day slip out and rear its ugly head.

‘The hell it isn’t!’ he snapped, a fire broiling in his chest and trying its best to burst free. ‘If I hadn’t been messing around with Cindy, I could have reacted way sooner! Thousands, no, tens of thousands of people could have been saved!’

Rather than looking hurt or getting angry back, Pete’s anger was instantly disarmed by the understanding look in Gwen’s eyes and he immediately felt like a jerk.

She must be thinking the exact same thing. She’s the one who chose to go to Switzerland instead of handling one of the local targets…

Their pity party was interrupted however by a different voice coming in over the speakers, equally as cultured and British, but masculine as opposed to Web’s feminine.

‘Miss Stacy, Mister Stark is requesting your presence.’

They both started at the sound of Jarvis’ voice while Felicia spun back around in his chair slowly, her eyes narrowed in thought.

Well, if she didn’t already know, she sure as shit does now.

‘What’s wrong Jarvis?’ Gwen asked, sitting up in her seat as Pete got off her lap.

‘Thor is demanding we release Loki into his custody - the situation is getting rather…heated.’

‘He WHAT?!’ Pete screamed, the rage he’d been bottling up all day threatening to burst at the seams.

Before he began screaming at a speaker, Gwen put a hand on his shoulder and gently pushed him back into the seat.

‘Babe, calm down, I’ll go see what’s going on.’

Pete felt his temples throb with fury, but he stiffly nodded and let out a long, shuddering breath. Confirming that he wasn’t about to lose his shit, Gwen lent down and placed a kiss on his temple before silently slipping out of the room.

He and Felicia sat in silence for several minutes, each of them lost in their own thoughts and too preoccupied to feel any awkwardness.

‘So,’ the world-renowned thief began tentatively. ‘I’m feeling a little foolish now for not noticing sooner, the sighs are all so painfully obvious in retrospect.’

It took Pete a second to realise what she was talking about and he huffed in amusement, sinking deeper into his chair. ‘I think you were the only person working this high up in the building who didn’t know…’

She rolled her eyes. ‘It is unbecoming to rub a woman’s face in her foibles.’ She snorted dismissively, crossing her arms and legs as she regarded him with an arched, white eyebrow. ‘You Americans, so rude.’

Feeling like he’d put it off long enough, Pete turned and switched on the TV in his office, letting the news play on mute while he finally started answering his messages. May was obviously beside herself with worry, and he felt another stab of guilt for not getting back to her sooner.

‘Not to be indelicate…’ Felicia interrupted once more, and Pete started, somehow having forgotten she was still in the room with him. ‘But what about us?’

He looked up and stared at her in utter confusion, unsure what she was asking.

Felicia rolled her eyes and elaborated. ‘Américains,’ she muttered disdainfully under her breath. ‘Do I still have a job?’

His confusion did not abate.

‘What?’ he asked, surprised. ‘Do you still want a job?’

Leaning back in his chair and arching her back like the feline she styled herself over, she grinned at him sultrily and ran a finger over the low-cut collar of her new suit. ‘I quite like the perks,’ she teased, but quickly sobered. ‘And a part of me feels indebted to you, for what you did to the man that killed my father.’

I very much doubt she enjoys feeling indebted to anyone.

He waved her off and continued staring blankly at the disturbing images on the television screen. ‘Whatever you want.’

‘You seem…very upset,’ Felicia piped up again, after almost a minute of silence. ‘I understand, logically, but I’m finding it hard to empathise. Did you lose someone you care for?’

Pete slowly turned and stared at Felicia with narrowed eyes, wondering what she was playing at. Eventually, he shrugged it off and once more turned back to the TV. ‘It’s a New Yorker thing - you wouldn’t understand.’

As Pete continued to watch the horrific images rolling in, he felt his blood boil at the thought of Loki getting off scot-free because his brother helped him escape justice.

He grit his teeth so hard his jaw started to ache, especially when he saw footage of firefighters pulling out the body of a dead child after one of his spiders lifted a heavy steel beam to give them access.

‘This is my fault…’

He hadn’t intended to say it out loud, but he apparently had and Felicia scoffed when she overheard him.

‘Ugh, self-deprecation, how gauche.’ Pete watched as she stood and arched her back, accentuating her heavy, full chest before strutting out of the room, a disapproving sneer on her beautiful features. ‘One good thing about my identity no longer being a secret is at least I don’t have to pretend like what you just said wasn’t utterly pathetic.’

He watched her leave his office in silence before turning back to the TV. He lasted all of ten seconds before he buried his face in his hands, the guilt eating him up inside like a poison of the soul.

-

Later that evening after tucking an exhausted Gwen into bed, Pete sat alone out on his balcony under the night sky, overlooking the Hudson. The normally gorgeous view felt hollow, tarnished by the invasion in a way he couldn’t quite explain.

‘I knew you’d be brooding.’

Pete didn’t turn, instead reaching over and hooking his ankle around the leg of the closest chair and dragging it out for Tony to sit on. His mentor had helped himself to their oft unused liquor cabinet and held a glass of scotch in hand, the bottle in the other. Collapsing in the chair beside him with an exhausted groan, the two men sat side-by-side and stared out at the distant Statue of Liberty in companionable silence.

‘Loki?’ Pete asked, finally breaking the silence before taking a sip of the soda he clutched in his hands with a white-knuckled grip.

Tony’s tired sigh almost caused Pete to launch his bottle over the balcony in a fit of rage.

‘There wasn’t much we could do, kid,’ Tony admitted tiredly. ‘Thor made sure we knew that there would be consequences should we exact any kind of vengeance on his brother.’

Out of his periphery, Pete could see Tony bracketing the statement with air-quotations. He was likely quoting the God of Thunder verbatim.

Sighing, Pete just shook his head and sank deeper into his chair. He held his cool glass against his throbbing temple, as if it would help with the rage and guilt he felt deep inside.

‘If it’s any consolation, we made it very clear the Asgardians are no longer welcome on Earth.’

‘It’s not.’

Tony sighed again, taking a deep pull of his drink. ‘I know.’

They slipped back into silence, each lost in their own thoughts and taking comfort in the other’s presence. Pete ran the events of the day over and over in his mind, wondering where he could have done better.

Where he could have saved more lives.

‘For so long, I was sure… if I could just build more weapons, more armour… I could protect everyone on Earth…’

Pete turned to look at his mentor and almost did a double-take when he saw a single tear running down his cheek.

‘That piece of shit turned my own weapons against me. I was useless… but you…’ Tony turned to him, his eyes red-rimmed but a proud smile gracing his miserable features. ‘Kid…you’ve got no idea how many lives you saved today… your hospital, the drones flying around delivering nanite payloads, the spiders, what you did to push back the invaders…’

His voice caught and Tony looked away, clearly not wanting to show weakness. Pete felt the emotions well up in his chest again, but he’d already cried all the tears he could earlier.

‘You have no idea,’ Tony continued. ‘Without your hospital, your drones, the death toll would have been in the hundreds of thousands. Stop focusing on the people who died and instead be thankful for all the ones you saved.’

Pete remained silent, a part of him hating how the words were having an effect on his conscience, as if accepting Tony’s words was somehow dishonouring the dead.

‘Tomorrow,’ Tony promised, his voice firm with resolve, ‘we’re gonna build more hospitals like the Helen Stacy Memorial. We’re gonna build until every fucking state in the country has one. Then we’ll do the same in Canada, Mexico and the rest of the fucking world.’

Pete turned to Tony in surprise and was shocked to see his eyes burning with passion, his breathing deep and controlled.

‘I’m not letting this happen ever again,’ Tony vowed, turning to Pete and holding out a fist. ‘You with me, kid?’

Pete stared at the offered fist for a few seconds before sighing and reaching out to bump it with his own.

‘Never again,’ Pete repeated, a fire burning in his soul.

‘I figured I’d find you two up here.’

Both Tony and Pete looked up to see Scott sitting silently on the roof above them, staring out at the scenery as if he hadn’t been eavesdropping on them the entire time.

‘How’s your kid?’

Pete started in surprise, he didn’t know Scott’s daughter had been in any danger.

‘Just a few scrapes, thankfully.’ Scott dropped to the balcony beside them and pulled up a chair. ‘She got cut up pretty badly, but apparently she was visited by a helpful little robot that patched her right up.’

Pete grinned as Scott sent him a wink and squeezed his shoulder affectionately.

While he doubted the hurt would lessen any time soon, Pete took comfort in the companionship of his friends, and after they left, he crawled into bed with his girlfriend and squeezed her tight, as if his life depended on it.

He didn’t get any sleep that night, his eyes burning with a fervour he’d never felt before.

Never again.