C181 Spider-Man (Patreon)

“Sir, another AIM facility has been attacked...” A guard hangs up the phone and reports.

As soon as Killian received that suspicious call from the CEO of Stark Industries, he went into hiding just in time to miss the many attacks that unfolded on his properties.

Anything registered under AIM and himself was turned upside down.

“It’s Stark!” Killian grinds his teeth in anger. “It has to be. His little b*tch failed to lead me into a trap so now they’re simply attacking until they find me.”

The only question on Killians mind was how? How did the Avengers and Stark figure out what he was up to?

“Should I plan a counterattack, sir?” A nearby soldier asks.

Though, this man isn’t just any normal grunt. He was a Brigadier General, who lost both legs and eyes in a missile strike.

The best part was the fact that it was an attack from the ten rings, who were using Stark brand missiles at the time.

The idea to blame the Ten Rings for everything was originally from this man, as he blamed them for the many years that he had to spend as a blind wheelchair-bound cripple.

Thankfully, Killian came around and fixed him right up, so he can see and walk just fine now.

Of course, he also blames Tony Stark, so he had no problem coordinating an attack on the man.

“Yes...” Killian agrees as he looks at an image of the Avengers tower on his phone. “They want to attack my property’s? Well, let’s see how long that tower can remain standing.”

——————————————

Just as the people of New York City thought that they wouldn’t be dealing with any more bombings for at least a little while, as one just happened only a couple of days ago, they were all proven wrong by the earth-shaking explosions that took place over and over on this very day.

Nobody knew what was happening, but everyone guessed that the Mandarin was pulling off some sort of large-scale attack on the city.

Though, what they didn’t know, is that it wasn’t just New York City that was going through this.

All across the world, explosions were going off all day long, scaring any nearby civilians half to death and attracting the attention of local law enforcement, who have been on high alert due to the recent Mandarin attacks.

When the police would arrive, they would be met with damaged and raided buildings belonging to AIM or Aldrich Killian. The police never found any traces of the Avengers, as they worked quickly and were in and out before anyone could arrive.

It didn’t take each team too long to figure out how to kill the undying fire soldiers. Overload their healing ability in some way, usually through beheading, and they’ll blow up like a firework on the 4th of July.

An alarming fact that the Avengers soon found out, was that every single location on the list was guarded by these enhanced individuals, which made for a lot of soldiers.

The number of properties on the entire list was over a hundredfold, and each one of them was guarded by at least five Extremis-enhanced individuals.

Meaning, In just these publicly owned properties alone, Killian had a combined army of five hundred, at the very least.

“Is he trying to take over the world?” Peter asked as he and everyone else returned to the tower.

They spent the whole day going down the list and raiding each property one by one, leaving nothing but destruction in their wake.

Not only did each team collect evidence, which they would be going over tonight, but they also brought back countless prisoners, who now replaced the Kree that once crowded the Detention floor of the Tower.

Although they didn’t manage to find a single trail of wherever Killian may be, they did find multiple laboratories that seemed to be used to manufacture the enhanced individuals that they encountered at each property.

Of course, data and materials were confiscated before the labs were destroyed. After all, they didn’t want Extremis falling into any third-party hands.

“So, does anyone else feel like this is a lot more serious than we originally thought?” Tony asks after they shared a quick mission debrief, where each team recounted the events of their outing.

“Yeah, I have a question though.” MJ says as she turns her gaze toward Tony. “How did you hurt this guy so bad that it forced him to make an army that could conquer the world?”

“You’re over-exaggerating...” Tony says dryly.

“Well, with us around it won’t be possible, but if we weren’t here and he had more soldiers, as I suspect he does, Killian may have been able to pull off world domination, maybe.” Peter comments after a moment of thought.

“That’s a lot of ifs and maybes...” Tony replies, waving off the young couple's words.

“Anyway, we need to compile everything we gathered and call a press conference.” Peter changes the subject and gets back to business.

“Is it wise for us to reveal everything so soon? The enemy may start acting erratically.” Erik throws in his two cents. “Right now, the world only knows that there have been more bombings.”

“Beware of driving men to desperation, as even a cornered rat is dangerous.” Charles repeats a quote he heard somewhere. “Outing Killian for who he truly is could have some alarming consequences.”

“Isn’t he already backed into a corner?” Fury asks with a raised brow. “We just performed an all-out assault on every property related to him.”

“True, let’s just keep up the pressure.” Peter says with a shrug. “When he inevitably snaps and attacks, we’ll be ready and waiting as always.”

“Sounds good.” Tony says as he collects all of the drives that were taken from the properties and start connecting them to a nearby computer. “Jarvis, go over these and compile all useful information for review.”

“On it, sir.” Jarvis says as he gets to work.

“Tony.” Peter calls out, getting his friend's attention. “Move all of the materials from those labs to your workshop and start looking into it. Maybe recruit Beast and Banner to speed things along.”

“I already planned on it.” Tony says with a nod. “Are you going to call the press conference?”

“Yeah, we can’t just let the world think that today’s bombings were the work of the Ten Rings and the Mandarin. It might just inflate their terrorist egos.” Peter says with a laugh as he walks off with MJ following closely behind.

“Come help us out when you're done!” Tony yelled as Peter waved over his shoulder and left the room.

————————————————

“So, how was your first Avengers mission with your father?” Peter asks as he and MJ walk through the halls alone.

“It was horrible!” MJ was clearly upset.

“It couldn’t have been that bad...” Peter rolls his eyes under his mask.

“It was...” MJ says with a tired sigh. “I felt like he was studying me the entire time.”

“He’s that type of person.” Peter shrugs.

“Yes, but usually he turns that off at home.” MJ explains.

“Well, congratulations.” Peter places a hand on her shoulder as they enter the elevator. ”You just met the real Nick Fury.”

“He’s different from Nick Watson...” MJ admits as the doors close.

“Humans have many faces.” Peter explains something that he has learned through his two lives. “Faces for our friends, family, lovers, strangers, authority figures, children, etc. We act differently depending on who it is. You just saw one of your father's faces, that’s all.”

“He’s kind of scary...” MJ says with a pout. “I miss his old stupid face.”

————————————————

Sitting in one of his hidden facilities, Killian watched the news as he waited for his men to formulate a plan of attack.

As he watched, the broadcast was interrupted by some breaking news. Spider-Man would be holding another one of his press conferences.

Instantly, Killian felt his stomach drop.

‘He wouldn’t...’ Killian thought as he increased the volume.

“Spider-Man! Is this about the large string of Mandarin bombings?” A reporter asks before Spider-Man could say a word.

“Yes, actually.” Spidey says with a nod. “Though the attacks weren’t the Mandarins doing. In fact, none of the recent attacks were orchestrated by the Ten Rings or the Mandarin.”

‘He wouldn’t!’ Killian screamed inwardly.

“How is that possible? He took credit for the attacks.” Peter voiced everyone reporters next question. “The Avengers have looked into these attacks and found a common denominator. This man.”

Suddenly, before Killians very eyes, an image of himself appeared behind Spider-Man.

“Motherf*cker!” Killian yelled as he stood up and hurled the controller across the room, embedding it into the TV.

——————————————

-Fury POV-

After spending the day with Silk, Fury had an odd feeling about the woman. For some reason, she reminded him of his daughter, MJ.

She sounded like her and even acted like her at some moments, but his daughter wasn’t a superhero. In fact, she should be sleeping soundly at home around this time.

‘Or is she?’ Fury thought as he subconsciously drove to his families home and pulled into the driveway.

Quietly sneaking inside, so he doesn’t wake his family, Fury silently made his way to his daughters room and peaked inside only to find it void of any life.

MJ was nowhere to be seen.

‘Is it actually her?’ Fury asks himself in disbelief as he rushed to the master bedroom.

No longer caring to be quiet, Fury storms into Graces bedroom and shakes her awake.

“Huh? What...” Grace slowly wakes up.

“Where’s our daughter?” Fury asks.

“She’s sleeping over at her boyfriends house.” Grace says sleepily but froze as she realized who she was speaking to. “I mean her friends house!”

“I’m going to kill him.” Fury subconsciously draws his revolver as he storms back out of the room.

“Oh, sh*t...”

A/N: 1666 words :)