"I'm thinking of using this as my look from now on, actually," Victor said as he pulled his black leather jacket on. He was already wearing a black t-shirt, black jeans, and black boots.
Peter was wearing a similar outfit, although his webshooters were protruding from the sleeves. "What, and give up the wide brimmed hat and red scarf?"
"You know how much of a pain in the ass that is in the summer?" Victor replied. "Besides, this actually fits into something I can wear regularly."
"Yeah, costume changes are becoming more of an issue these days," Peter quipped. "I'm glad mine is just made up of mini-machines."
"I'm surprised that you didn't just reprogram them."
Peter shook his head. "I need to hold the red and blues in reserve in case things really get bad."
"Noted," Victor replied as he stepped behind the closet door and adjusted his outfit. "So, who's this friend of yours that you have joining us?"
As if on cue, there was a knock at the door.
"Come in!" Peter called out.
{Dude, how do you know that's safe?} Victor shouted through telepathy.
"Spider sense," Peter replied, as Cassie walked through the door. She was wearing her trademarked formfitting black outfit with the white spider. "Victor, meet my sister, Cassie."
Victor stepped out from behind the door and raised his eyebrows as he saw the stunning brunette. He put out his hand to shake hers. "Sister?"
"Long story," Cassie replied. "But you can call me Madame Web for tonight."
"A pleasure to meet you," Victor said. He shot a glance at Peter. "I guess she knows everything?"
"It really wouldn't work out to not tell her," Peter replied. He turned to Cassie. "Vic's the Shadow."
"I figured he'd be older," Cassie said, slyly. "I've been hearing stories of him dating back to the 40s."
"That would be my grandfather," Victor explained. "Now, before we get into awkward territory, does your dad know about his multiple offspring?"
Cassie rolled her eyes. "It's not something I want to bring up right now."
"Gotcha," Victor said. "Won't mention it again."
"Anyway," Peter added, changing the subject. "My dad said we needed to come up with easy codenames. I figure I'll be Spider."
"And I'm Shadow," Victor added.
"Guess that makes me Web," Cassie replied. She turned back to face Peter. "Remind me, if I keep up this superhero thing to think of a new name."
"Why not 'Madame'?" Victor suggested.
"Ugh," Cassie answered. "That just screams porn star."
Peter smiled. "Okay, new name. We'll do that when we get back. Ready to head out?"
"Where are we meeting?" Cassie asked.
"Top of the Empire State Building," Victor replied.
"Oh, damn. I'm gonna have to teleport us all the way up to the helicarrier, aren't I?"
Peter and Victor both nodded. "You up to it?" Peter asked.
"Yeah. I just don't like teleporting long distances to places I don't know."
A short time later, on top of the Empire State Building . . .
The five adventurers gathered in a circle: Peter, Cassie, Victor, Monty Cranston, and finally Richard Parker.
"Okay, let's keep real names down to a minimal," Richard said, passing out small communication devices. As he handed the devices out, he repeated the codenames. "Peter is Spider, Cassie is Web, Victor is Shadow, Monty will be Avenger, and I'm Phantom."
"Avenger?" Victor asked.
"We've always been called the 'Silent Avenger' or 'Invisible Avenger'," Monty replied. "I figured, since you're the Shadow now, both of us couldn't use that name."
"One thing that I haven't quite figured out," Victor said, "and maybe it's because I came into this a bit late, but why are we going after SHIELD now? I know you said it's been under new management. But, are we going to seriously overthrow the mother of all spy agencies?"
"Not quite," Richard replied. "The last remaining samples of Scarecrow are on that helicarrier, and we need to destroy them. Plus, any information we can get on them is only a good thing."
"Does Bridge know about this?" Peter asked.
"He's the one that asked me to conduct this mission," Richard replied.
Right, Peter thought, remembering his conversation with the agent in Times Square. But if you are not what you say, and go off the deep end, at least I have plenty of backup here, even if they aren't the best people.
"MJ!" Gwen exclaimed as she opened the door to her suite. "You're just in time. Harry and Jason just arrived."
Mary Jane managed a weak, but unsteady smile. "What about Peter and Victor?"
"I think Victor is still in LA. And, I figured Peter would be with you."
Mary Jane shook her head. "We agreed to meet here. I think he was still working on that chemistry lab."
Gwen sighed. "I told him to work on that another night. Come on in, anyway. I'll give him a call, see if he's running late."
Elsewhere on campus, Peter's cell phone sat on the desk in his room, unanswered.
The five heroes appeared in what looked like a meeting room.
"I guess I was expecting a bunch of hangars or something," Peter quipped. "Or big computers, or nice security rooms, like last time."
"This is a fully functional business headquarters, as well," Richard reminded. "And remember, from now on out, only codenames."
"Roger, Phantom," Peter replied. "What's the plan?"
"We split up. Avenger and I will go after the Scarecrow samples. You three take out security and gather the intelligence we need."
"Gotcha," Peter said.
"Dammit," Peter mumbled as he was crawling along Victor and Cassie in the air ducts.
"What now?" Victor asked.
"I told Gwen we'd be at her party tonight. And obviously we can't make it."
"Maybe we'll finish this up quick."
"Ha."
"Hey, guys," Cassie whispered, having stopped over a vent.
"Yeah?" Peter answered.
"I'm seeing something strange down there. It's like a storeroom full of agents, but they're all just standing there, like they're . . . in storage."
"Are they robots?" Victor asked.
Cassie shook her head. "They look too real. I mean, I know that SHIELD's LMDs were highly advanced and could fool anyone. But, if they were going to stockpile a bunch of them, usually they would use a standard model. Everyone down there looks different."
"Want to check it out?" Peter asked. "We can handle the security detail."
"Sure," Cassie said, already using her powers to unscrew the vent. "I'll shout if I need help," she added as she jumped down.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Peter murmured as they kept crawling along.
A couple of turns later, and the duo were looking down into a security control room. There was only one agent on duty.
"This is too easy," Victor whispered.
"I could punch you now," Peter replied. "I recognize that guy from my last visit. He was on security detail then, and ended up shooting his partner."
"How is he still an agent?"
"That's the big mystery behind SHIELD, isn't it?"
"I'll nudge him asleep," Victor said.
As Victor peered down the vent to use his telepathy, Peter felt an intense buzzing in his head. His spider sense was warning him of some danger. He looked down and saw the agent point a large weapon up at the vent. Peter lunged and pushed Victor to the side as the blast ripped the vent apart.
"What the hell happened?" Peter asked. "You were supposed to put him asleep!"
"I don't know!" Victor hissed back. "His mind was blocking me or something."
"This is Agent Bristow of SHIELD! Come down with your hands up," the agent commanded.
Peter looked at Victor. "There's only one way out of this one, isn't there?"
Victor nodded, and jumped through the hole in the air duct. He landed directly on top of Agent Bristow and knocked him to the ground. Peter shot a webline and yanked the weapon out of the agent's hands. He set it aside in the duct, and jumped down himself.
Victor had already regained his footing and was standing over Bristow. He reached back and launched his fist directly into the agent's face.
"Ow!" he shouted. "What the hell, man? You're not human!"
Bristow smirked, and his eyes glowed red. "Oh, I am. But I am more. The Manhunters will rise." He let off a burst of energy that sent Victor flying back into Peter. Peter was able to shoot another webline directly into Bristow's eyes, temporarily blinding him. Victor stood back up, crossed his arms over his chest and reached into his jacket. Underneath, he had worn twin holsters, and pulled out two handguns.
"That's a new look for you," Peter commented.
"We're playing by new rules," Victor replied, as he rushed Bristow.
"Spider, you hack the computer, I'll take care of this nutjob!"
"I'll be right there with you, Shadow!"
Victor slammed into Bristow and knocked him through the door of the security room. Peter sat down in Bristow's chair and started typing furiously. He knew he couldn't disable the entire security system, but he could take down a few safeguards that would make their job a lot easier.
A few keystrokes later, and Peter smiled. He had turned something off. And one of the screens started scrolling through a wealth of information. If only I had the time to start redirecting this stuff, but I gotta go help Vic, Peter thought. We can come back for this.
Peter hit a few more keys, and then all of the screens that had been monitoring the different areas of the helicarrier went black.
"Okay, gang, cameras are disabled, but I give us thirty seconds before they mobilize," he said into his comm device.
Just then, an alarm started going off.
"I didn't do it!"
"Relax, Spider," a female voice said in his ear. "It was me. I just woke something up."
"You need help, Web?"
"10-4. Hurry."
"Spider, this is Phantom. We just got into the lab area. I need you and Shadow to work this one."
"Shadow's a little tied up with security, but I'll head that way."
"That's strange," Gwen said. "I've been trying both the cell and dorm phones, and no one's answering."
"Maybe they're pregaming somewhere," Jason suggested.
"Peter, pregaming? I don't think so," Harry replied. "Unless he's high on learning."
"He's probably got a good reason for not being here," Mary Jane said. "I'll go call his aunt. He's probably with her or something." She quietly ducked into Gwen's bedroom, and pulled out her cell. But she had no intentions of calling Aunt May. If something was wrong, and Peter was with her, no one would answer. And if Peter wasn't with May, then a phone call would only get May more worried than she needed to be. More than likely, Peter was off playing Spider-Man.
Mary Jane struggled to come up with a convincing excuse that would keep the party from getting too worrisome.
Down in the lab . . .
"Do you really think that destroying the Scarecrow here will actually accomplish anything?" Monty asked.
"It probably won't completely eradicate our problem, but SHIELD has the highest concentration of the compound anywhere. Especially after Osborn's place was destroyed," Richard responded.
As Richard placed his hand on the handle to the cabinet, he saw several red dots appear all along the wall. He heard Monty pull out his guns, and then slowly turned around. He saw an entire squadron of SHIELD agents lined up in the doorway, with one very familiar face leading them.
"I never thought I would see it," the leading agent said, walking up. "Richard Parker, back from the grave. Again."
"Koenig," Richard said through gritted teeth. "We did this dance last time."
"Then you know that I can't let you go this time," Koenig replied. "You're too much of a liability."
"Then why did SHIELD let me go twenty years ago?"
Koenig laughed. "I'm not talking about that, and you know it. You're a liability to the world." His grin faded as he looked over to Monty. "He probably doesn't even know, does he?"
Richard smiled. "This is all just part of the plan."
A few levels above, Peter was running through the corridors as fast as he could.
"Hey, Spider, some help would be nice," he heard Cassie yelling in his ear.
"I'm working on it!" Peter shouted back. "This place is kind of big!"
As Peter neared the next intersection, his spider sense flared up in a way that it had never buzzed before. Peter trying somersaulting backwards to avoid running headfirst into danger, but his timing was off, and an energy blast whizzed by his side. He twisted to avoid it and landed hard on his back.
When Peter opened his eyes, he saw a burly man with an eyepatch over his left eye and a cigar planted firmly in the corner of his mouth. What caught his attention was the large gun pointed at his face. "Don't move, or the next one will be a very solid bullet."
Continued next issue! The battle on the helicarrier rages on!