Chapter 14
Black Cat came to a landing in a parking lot to a supermarket in Seaford Delaware. All around the various citizens of Seaford scattered utterly frightened by her presence. Obviously there hadn't been much of a superhero presence in Seaford before.
Cat reached into her belt pouch and pulled out her cell phone. She flipped it open and hit the button to speed dial Peter Park. Strangely she heard a phone behind her ring in time with the ringing on her cell phone. Felicia wasn't going to think anything of it until she felt a tapping on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry, can I..." Cat never finished her sentence before she was cut off by a hard slap to her face.
Cat recovered and looked up see Mary-Jane standing in front of her holding a cell phone that showed 'Felicia Hardy' on the caller ID.
"What are you doing here," Mary Jane practically snarled at Felicia. "And what the hell were you doing flying?"
"I would have thought the questions would have come the other way around," Felicia commented.
"Just answer!" Mary Jane snapped.
"Look I need get Peter back to New York. The situation has taken a turn for the worse," Felicia replied.
"Peter is not going back to New York, he's in no condition." Mary Jane replied.
"It's not like I'm taking him back to fight," Felicia replied. "While that would be beneficial we really need him for what he knows about how to deal with symbiotes."
Mary Jane didn't say anything but just glared at Felicia. The silence was more disturbing than if she had yelled.
"How about flying? When did you learn to do that?" Mary Jane asked.
"Today," Felicia replied. "I'm the new Ms. Marvel."
"Can you be trusted with all those powers," Mary Jane said.
Felicia winced slightly at the jab at her prior, well maybe they were current, cat burglaries. She'd also never known Mary Jane to be this catty. Perhaps it was a defensive mechanism, Felicia did have a lot of attributes that Mary Jane should be jealous about.
"You know this catty attitude is really more my thing," Felicia retorted. "It doesn't really become you."
For a second, Felicia was afraid Mary Jane would try to claw her eyes out, instead Mary Jane composed herself, turned on her heel and simply walked away from Felicia.
"Well, that was certainly productive," Cat muttered.
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Peter was resting in bed when he felt a pair of hands sliding his shirt up.
"Not now MJ," Peter mumbled pushing them away.
However the hands were not to be stopped and once again they were trying to remove his shirt.
"Seriously MJ, stop it," Peter said sitting up.
However he practically sat himself right out of the bed when he saw that the person trying to remove his shirt was none other than Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat.
"Felicia what are you doing here?" Peter asked. "How are you here?"
"Peter we need to you back in New York, thing are bad. Really bad." Felicia replied.
"I'm not exactly in fighting condition. Another day or two..." Peter started to protest.
"Peter in another day or two, there might not be a New York to return to."
"What are you talking about?" Peter asked.
"Something happened to the symbiote and it's growing and multiply or something and it's infecting everyone. It's an epidemic." Felicia replied.
"How?" Peter inquired.
"I don't the exact details, but She-Venom swiped something from Reed Richards lab," Felicia replied.
"Not good..." Peter muttered. "Well how did you find me? I mean did you search all of Delaware?"
"No," Felicia replied. "I was able to figure out where you were by tracing what cell tower your calls were going through, and then I just had the, let's call it pleasure, to run into Mary Jane."
"Please don't tell me you hurt her," Peter said.
"I didn't hurt her," Felicia responded. "I was a little afraid I'd accidently snap her neck or something. I'm still not used to all this."
"Not used to all what?" Peter asked.
"Ms. Marvel was killed by a symbiote infected Thing," Felicia replied. "Before she died her power were transferred to me, so I'm the new Ms. Marvel."
"What?" Peter exclaimed almost falling off the bed in shock.
"I'm the new Ms. Marvel," Felicia repeated. "I got all her powers, flying, super strength, the photon blasts, the precognitive... oh crap."
"GET AWAY FROM MY HUSBAND YOU WHORE!" Mary Jane yelled as she threw her shoe at Black Cat.
Felicia easily batted the shoe aside and then stepped away from the bed.
"Look, I just came here to tell Peter what exactly is going on in New York," Felicia replied. "I'm only here because Peter asked me to keep an eye on things going on in New York for him. Well things got really bad and he said if that happens he'd come back to New York. I just came because I knew if I didn't you'd probably literally tie him down to the bed, this is his decision to make."
For someone with absolutely no super powers what so ever Mary Jane was surprisingly brave. She stormed right over to Black Cat and stuck a finger in her ample chest and pushed her even further away from the bed.
"You can show up here flashing your tits and what not, but when it comes to the health of my husband you have no right to take him away to get killed." Mary Jane snapped.
"Peter, I'm trying to be the bigger woman here," Felicia pleaded. "But I think you know that I don't have a lot of patience."
Peter briefly entertained thoughts of a cat fight where the two of them tore each other's clothes off but quickly realized that Felicia would probably just blast MJ with a photon beam or punch her through a wall.
"Mary Jane, I know that you can stand it how I take responsibility for things that really aren't my fault," Peter said. "But this time I can't stand by. Maybe I'm not directly responsible for what happened to Ann and Eddie giving her the symbiote, but I played a part in that happening. I also am not responsible for being tricked by her and letting her kill Eddie and become more powerful, but once again I played a part in that. And while I'm definitely not responsible for her infecting all of Manhattan Island, I didn't stop her before she became so insanely power. And all of your words of comfort are never going to ease my guilt over that if I don't at least go back and try to help out."
"Peter you are in no shape to..." Mary Jane tried to argue.
"There's no argument here," Peter interrupted. "I'm going back to New York with Felicia whether you want me to or not. All that I will promise; is that I will not go out and fight until I am physically capable of it."
Mary Jane hugged her husband for a good long time, holding on as though if she let go of him she may never see him again, and unfortunately that was always going to be a distinct possibility since her husband was also Spiderman. Finally she released her hold on Peter. She looked up and glared at Felicia who was watching. Feelings of sadness, happiness and envy were all playing across Felicia's face at once, she was glad that Peter was happy, but sad that it was not with her and she was envious of Mary Jane.
"I'm not going to lie and say that I trust you," Mary Jane said to Felicia. "And I entirely expect you to try and steal my husband away from me, and to be honest I don't entirely blame you. If the roles were reversed I would do the same thing. But I all I want you to do is make sure he gets through this safely, if he doesn't so help me God I will find you and I will..."
The threat lay open, but Felicia actually did take it seriously. Mary Jane probably couldn't physically hurt her, but who knows what depths she might go to if Peter got hurt while under Felicia's watch.
"Don't worry about me," Peter said. "I'll be fine. But I want you to stay here. New York's been evacuated there is no reason for you to even try going back there."
"Come on Spidey," Felicia said. "Let's get back before Nick Fury does something stupid like try to blow the entire city up."
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Spiderman and Black Cat showed up at Stark Towers and were greeted by Reed Richard, Black Widow, Valkyrie, Thor, She-Hulk, War Machine, Spiderwoman and Luke Cage.
"Glad you could make," Cage said. "I was begging to think you had skipped town to be with Spidey here Cat."
"Like he would have let me do that know what was going on here," Cat replied.
"I think we've got a bit more urgent of a problem going on right now," Reed said. "Nick Fury is convinced that She-Venom is using the Baxter Building as a spawning ground to make more symbiotes."
"Well he isn't exactly wrong," Cat said.
"He plans on blowing the building up." Reed added.
"That won't stop her," War Machine said. "Those things are all over the city. Might put a major damper in their plans but it won't stop them out right."
"Perhaps not," Black Widow said. "But if we destroy the building we may kill She-Venom and the symbiotes may lose their guiding voice. It is no coincidence that they seem to be so organized and co-ordinated."
"You've dealt with this thing," Spiderwoman said to Spiderman. "What's your opinion?"
"Um, I... I don't... this is a lot to take in." Spiderman said. "I mean heat and loud noise are great ways to get the symbiote off of people, but something like this will definitely kill a lot of people."
"At this point we can't afford to worry about that," Black Widow said. "This army keeps getting bigger. We need to buy ourselves some time so that we can do something to save all the others."
"Do you have any idea how many innocent people are there?" Spiderman asked.
"No idea," Spiderwoman said. "It's impossible to keep up good intelligence on the Baxter building it's much to dangerous."
"Aren't you worried about Sue, Ben and Johnny?" Peter asked Reed.
"Ben's survived worse than a building exploding on top of him as has Sue. Johnny can take the heat, so no not really. And if they come out of this symbiote free that all the better." Reed replied. "I don't like the idea of blowing up the Baxter Building. It's got my laboratory, my research, but more importantly it's my home. But this is an epidemic and it's spreading like an out of control disease and we need to do whatever we can to contain the threat and if blowing up the Baxter Building does it then that's what we have to do."
"Okay, I hope to god that people survive." Peter said.
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On Board the Helicarrier
"Colonel Fury, we're almost in position," the officer manning the Navigation station informed him.
"This is it men, everybody get to Battle Stations," Fury ordered. "I doubt these symbiotes are going to take us blowing the crap out of their hive very kindly."
Fury watched the furious activity about the bridge of the Helicarrier as the massive airship was manoeuvred into position to fire upon the Baxter Building. Fury flipped on com control to the men operating the main turrets.
"Turret 1 and 2 report." Fury commanded.
There was no reply on the radio.
"Turret 1 and 2 report," Fury ordered once more his voice getting annoyed.
Once again his command went unheeded and the radio remained silent. Fury punched a button on his keypad and the tactical display change to display the camera of inside the turret control rooms. Inside both teams lay dead.
"Security get down to the turrets!" Fury ordered. "We have a major security breach!"
"Oh it's too late for that Fury," a voice said behind him.
Fury spun around in his command seat to see a woman duck slightly to step through the door way. She then straightened up to her full height which had to be eleven feet tall. She had short blond wavy hair and ice blue eyes. She also sported a physique that more than rivalled She-Hulk.
"Who the hell are you?" Fury asked.
"Colonel Fury, I'm disappointed." The woman said. "I thought you knew who all your enemies were."
"It doesn't matter," Fury said. "Take her down!"
Everyone on the bridge drew their weapon and opened fire. In less than a second a massive black inky substance enveloped the woman and absorbed all the bullets, protecting her from the fire. The black substance soon took form over her body and everyone on the bridge recognized who it was.
"She-Venom!" many crew member shouted in surprise.
"I'm glad you've heard of me," She-Venom said.
With that the bridge devolved into chaos. Smaller symbiotes began entering the bridge from behind She-Venom as well from every other possible entrance including smashing the windows and through the air ducts. All around S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers were either killed by the symbiotes or smothered by them only to emerge as another member of their ranks. Fury tried to use the radio.
"This is Fury, the Helicarrier is under attack!" He yelled into the radio.
"That's not going to do you much good Fury," She-Venom said. "I've already made sure the radio communications are down. Your only options now are to join me or die."
Fury shoved a key into a special slot under his control console which popped open a red button. He slammed his fist down on it.
"If I'm going to die I'm going to take you down with me," Fury stated.
Suddenly the entire Helicarrier began to shake.
"What did you do?" She-Venom demanded.
"Activated the self destruct," Fury replied. "Like I said, I'm going to take you down with me."
There were several explosions throughout the entire Helicarrier. Eventually they all blended together into one large explosion and the Helicarrier was wreathed in flame.
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Is this the end? Is She-Venom dead? Is Fury dead? Hopefully the next chapter will lead to some more insight. Once again, all comments and questions are appreciated.