Marvel: Tomorrow Knights (Chapter 8)
Title: Marvel: Tomorrow Knights
Chapter 8: Fire in the Hole
Author: V5_Vendetta
Fandom: Marvel Universe
Disclaimer: Marvel's, in terms of setting and character ancestry, not mine.
Rating: PG-13
Significant Characters: Knights (OC), New Warriors (OC), Avengers (OC), Thunderbolts (OC)
Summary: The Knights and New Warriors continue the fight against the Avengers, only for the Avengers to get some help.
Captain America and Winter Soldier battled viciously, Captain America using his shield and Winter Soldier using a pistol that he’d converted into a bladed weapon. Winter Soldier slashed at Captain America, only for Captain America to block with his shield. Captain America retaliated by throwing the shield at Winter Soldier’s throat, only for Winter Soldier to slide beneath the shield and spring up to attack Captain America.
“I don’t know what the hell your problem is, but you’ve gone too far!” Captain America shouted. “Too far!”
“Shut up,” Winter Soldier snarled. “Shut up and die!” He slashed at Captain America with the energy blade growing from the barrel of his pistol. Captain America dodged and clocked Winter Soldier in the face with his shield, which had just returned to him. Winter Soldier rose to his feet, his eyes turning black with circuit-like gold veins bulging out.
Captain America dodged Winter Soldier’s rush but barely, the Soldier whirling on his heel to attack again. Captain America blocked the attack with his shield, holding back the Winter Soldier to the best of his abilities. Of course, Winter Soldier was pushing furiously against the shield, powered by sheer rage the likes of which Captain America had never seen in another human being before.
Suddenly, Winter Soldier vanished with a “bamf” and the smell of sulfur, leaving a bewildered Captain America behind. As for Winter Soldier himself, he looked up angrily at the blue-furred girl straddling his shoulders. “Send me back. Now.”
“No,” Nightshade replied.
“No?”
“Don’t even think of raising that gun to me, Winter. You won’t have enough time to shoot.”
“Mina . . .”
“Don’t ‘Mina’ me, mister! You’re letting your vendetta against the Initiative turn you into something you’re not and if you keep going like this, someone’s going to end up dead.”
“Exactly,” Winter Soldier snarled. “Him.”
“I can’t believe you really mean that.”
Winter Soldier glared at Nightshade with gold-flecked black eyes but before he could say anything, the Hulk dropped in, forcing both of them to dodge. Winter Soldier withdrew his pistol-turned-blade and extended the energy lance, lunging at the Hulk, who charged toward him. Nightshade teleported to Winter Soldier and teleported away with him, just barely evading the Hulk’s charge.
“Are you trying to get yourself killed?” Nightshade asked.
“No,” Winter Soldier replied.
“Then don’t charge someone who’s massively stronger than you!” Nightshade advised. “Honestly, I don’t know why I try to save you.”
“I don’t know, either,” Winter Soldier admitted, “but that doesn’t matter now. We have a Hulk to fight.”
The Hulk had found Nightshade and the Winter Soldier. “Hello there, little pigs.”
“Who are you calling a pig?” Nightshade asked indignantly.
“Hulk smash now.” The sarcastic drawl, as well as the vengeful joy in his eyes, could not be missed by either of his foes. Just as the Hulk brought his fists down, Winter Soldier jumped up and slashed him across the chest with his pistol-blade. The Hulk roared in pain and rage and swung his fist at Winter Soldier, who was teleported out of the way by Nightshade. When the two reemerged, Winter Soldier reverted his blade to a pistol and overloaded the energy pack in it, using it as a grenade. The explosion didn’t do much to hurt the Hulk, but it did stun him enough for Nightshade to teleport away with Winter Soldier.
Elsewhere, a pumpkin bomb flew at Iron Fist and Iron Cage, who both dodged just before the bomb exploded, spraying fragments everywhere. Iron Fist created a shield with his chi to protect himself, while Iron Cage’s nigh-unbreakable skin was all the shield that particular young man needed. From above, the Goblin dive-bombed the duo, shooting rocket missiles at both as he descended upon them.
Meanwhile, Night Thrasher and the Prowler were both fighting the Beetle, who responded to their assaults with inbuilt weapons. Prowler rotated the cuff on his wrist and fired compressed air at the Beetle, who merely staggered back before tackling the Prowler with superhuman speed. The Beetle wrapped his hands around the Prowler’s throat and began to squeeze.
“I’m supposed to take you in alive, but I’d rather bury you,” the armored Thunderbolt admitted. He didn’t have time for any reveries, as Night Thrasher tackled him, thus knocking him off Prowler.
“All right, where did you come from?” Night Thrasher asked.
“We’re here to bring you in,” Beetle replied. “In case the Avengers aren’t up to the job.”
“What about the rest of your goon squad?” Night Thrasher interrogated.
“Probably taking care of your goon squad,” Beetle sneered, just before activating the taser feature of his armor. Night Thrasher simply smiled and punched Beetle in his helmeted face. “How . . . ?”
“My suit’s insulated,” Night Thrasher replied tersely.
At that same moment, Fearless bodyslid to Arachne’s position. “Looks like you and Archaeida have things handled quite well.”
“Hello, spiders,” a slithery female voice hissed. Arachne, Archaeida, Fearless, and the still-bound Spider-Man looked up and saw Venom perched on the façade of a skyscraper directly facing them. Venom flipped off the skyscraper façade and landed before the assorted group, looking at Arachne. “Changed your look, did you?”
Fearless drew her batons and snapped out the energy lances on both, pointing them at Venom. “Stay away from her.”
“Awww, girlfriend to the rescue,” Venom sneered. “Isn’t that sweet?”
“Venom!” Spider-Man yelled. “What are you doing here?”
“In case you Avengers didn’t have enough balls to get the job done,” Venom answered.
That seemed to infuriate Spider-Man, at least if his ripping his way out of Archaeida’s psi-web was any indicator. “That’s because we’re not wanton killers!”
“Oh, shut the hell up, Spider-Man,” Venom rejoined disdainfully.
“I take it you two aren’t friends,” Archaeida remarked.
“Friends or not, we have a common mission, which is to bring you in,” Spider-Man replied. He turned to Venom. “So how about we put away the hostilities and put these ladies away?”
“Sure, no problem,” Venom replied. “Besides, I was looking forward to rematching with the pretty little spider. She’s mine, you know. You can have her girlfriend and the other one.”
“Anytime you’re ready,” Arachne taunted.
Venom sprang toward Arachne for an attack, while Spider-Man leaped into the air and came down with a kick aimed for Archaeida’s head. Archaeida blocked Spider-Man’s kick, while Arachne caught Venom by her outstretched arms and threw her down to the ground. Undeterred, Venom pulled Arachne down to join her and they rolled together as they struggled against each other.
“I should kill you, you know,” Venom remarked, “for humiliating me like that last time.”
“Go to hell,” Arachne retorted, kicking Venom off her. Venom flipped in midair and landed on her feet just before firing restraining webs at Arachne. Arachne dodged the web attack, only for the webs to loop around and grab her. “How?”
“Improvement on an old trick,” Venom replied.
“Arachne!” Fearless shouted, leaping toward her partner. Venom turned out to be faster, and grabbed Fearless by the throat just before she could get to Arachne.
“I bet you’re kinda cute under that mask,” Venom remarked cruelly, squeezing Fearless’s throat.
Managing to retain her calm despite being choked to death, Fearless picked up one of her batons, only for Venom to web her arms together with her free hand. “Ah-ah-ah.” Venom resumed choking Fearless. “How long can you take this? How long before I get bored and break your neck?”
“Venom, stop,” Spider-Man snapped, even as he blocked Archaeida’s punch.
“You’re not the boss of me,” Venom retorted.
“We’re not supposed to kill them,” Spider-Man rejoined.
“Who cares?” Venom asked. “I want to see the look in her eyes when she ghosts.”
“She’s wearing a mask,” Arachne stated from behind Venom, just before she punched Venom in her masked face, knocking her off Fearless. Arachne flipped after Venom, pursuing her with vicious punches and kicks. “Never touch her again, Venom. Do you hear me? Do you hear me, you murderous tramp?!”
“Heh, so you can put some bass in your voice after all,” Venom taunted.
Arachne just punched her again, only for Venom to catch the blow with superior reflexes. “Impressive. My turn.” She punched Arachne so hard that Arachne flew some twenty meters down the street. Arachne flipped and landed on the ground, regaining some control over her footing, only for Venom to spring on the attack again. Arachne flipped up onto a skyscraper and sprang off it to attack Venom from a different angle. For her part, Venom grabbed Arachne’s ankle and threw her onto the street, only for Arachne to tumble onto her feet and shoot stingers at Venom.
Meanwhile, Spider-Man and Archaeida fought, with Fearless aiding Archaeida against Spider-Man. “How do you stomach working with a monster like Venom?” Fearless asked.
“I throw up every night before I go to bed,” Spider-Man retorted snidely.
For his apparent sarcasm, Fearless sensed that Spider-Man was telling the truth, that he was repulsed by the Thunderbolts. Repulsion or not, he was still part of the problem and thus . . . he had to go down. Fearless snapped out her baton blades and slashed at Spider-Man with both, but his reflexes were superior to hers and he effortlessly dodged every slash. Finally, he extended his waldoes toward her, only for her to dodge with her own enhanced reflexes.
Archaeida telekinetically manipulated the free-floating molecules around Spider-Man to form a restraining web, but Spider-Man slashed the air with his waldoes, interfering with Archaeida’s web formation. Spider-Man thrust his waldoes toward Archaeida, only for her to dodge and strike him down with an aerial kick. Spider-Man quickly recovered, twisting himself into a kick augmented by the talons on his feet.
Archaeida clutched her bleeding midsection, webbing her wounds shut. “Vicious, aren’t you?”
“When I need to be,” Spider-Man answered grimly.
“Funny, so can I,” Archaeida rejoined, proving her point when she swept her leg out in a low trip kick, which Spider-Man dodged only to get caught by a high kick to the chest. The kick came with enough force to crack his ribs, despite the protection of his suit. “See?”
Elsewhere, Flashfire and Incendiary were having a battle of fire against fire. Incendiary was throwing fireballs at Flashfire, who was dodging those same fireballs with the inhuman speed he’d gained from compressing the hyperkinetic activity within his body. At the same time, Flashfire was running around Incendiary, generating a ring of fire around the pyrokinetic New Warrior. Finally, Incendiary became fed up and lunged at Flashfire through the fiery ring. While Incendiary didn’t quite tackle Flashfire, he did manage to make the pyrokinetic Thunderbolt trip over him.
“All right, bub! Time to fry!” Incendiary shouted, launching a massive jet of flame at Flashfire, who merely began draining it. Incendiary withdrew the flame jet into an aura that sheathed his own body and punched Flashfire with a fiery fist. Flashfire laughed and threw knives of solid flame at Incendiary.
Incendiary dodged the fiery knives and came down punching Flashfire, only for Flashfire to grab his forearm and throw him to the ground. Before Incendiary could regain his footing, Flashfire was on him with a series of fast and hard punches. Finally, Incendiary generated a body-wide wave of flame to repel Flashfire. While Flashfire was blinded from the burst of flame, Incendiary pummeled him viciously, until Flashfire grabbed his forearm and tossed him again.
Incendiary righted himself in midair and strafed Flashfire with bolts of flame, Flashfire dodging them all with superhuman speed. The pyrokinetic New Warrior ran around his Thunderbolt counterpart, generating a tornado of flame around Flashfire. Incendiary skated the inside of the fiery tornado, coming down on Flashfire with a vicious kick right into and through the wall of the tornado.
Meanwhile, Slipstream and Blitzkrieg were still engaged in their high-speed fight across the city, ripping and burning up asphalt wherever they passed. Of course, the fight expanded from two participants to three when the Thunderbolts speedster V6 entered. With a sonic boom created from snapping his fingers, he sent Slipstream flying and nearly did the same to Blitzkrieg on sheer virtue of Blitzkrieg being in the same area.
At that same moment, Themis was fighting Arcane and Yukionna, the Thunderbolts “ice maiden.” Arcane was throwing quantum knives at Themis, who attempted to block them with her telekinetic force fields. Unfortunately, Themis learned that there was no way for her to avoid Arcane’s quantum knives; they operated on probability itself, and Arcane was probably shifting probability around constantly to keep the advantage. A lesser opponent would have given up; Themis was by no means a lesser opponent.
Iron Fist and Iron Cage were still fighting the Goblin, who was content to throw pumpkin bombs at them from above. Both young men dodged to the best of their abilities, but the Goblin’s bombs were striking closer and closer all the time. They looked at each other once and split off, forcing the Goblin to choose his target. The Goblin threw a pumpkin bomb after Iron Cage while shooting rocket missiles at Iron Fist.
The Black Cat landed on the Goblin’s glider, wrapping one arm around his neck and the other around his midsection. “Breathe and die,” she hissed in his ear.
“How about you?” the Goblin retorted, activating the taser function of his suit and thus knocking the Black Cat off him. Before she could get too close to the ground for comfort, Iron Fist caught her.
“My hero,” the feline femme quipped.
“Thank me later,” Iron Fist replied. “We have a goblin to take down.”
The Goblin dived toward the Black Cat and Iron Fist, only for Iron Cage to punch him in his masked face and thus knock the Goblin off-balance. The Goblin managed to right himself, but by the time he did that Iron Fist had jumped on for the ride and socked him with the peak chi he had built up in his fist. The blow was forceful enough to knock the Goblin off his glider and onto the ground.
“You’ve pissed me off,” the Goblin snarled. “You’re going to have to die now.”
Night Thrasher and the Prowler were still fighting the Beetle, who showed no signs of being willing to give up. If anything, the wounds Night Thrasher and Prowler had dealt him simply spurred him on. The Beetle shot microwave blasts at the two masked young men, who dodged with artificially enhanced reflexes. The Prowler leaped at the Beetle, kicking him in the chest. Upon impact, his boot cuff set off an EMP that knocked out the Beetle’s armor system.
“That takes care of you, I suppose,” Prowler remarked.
V6 ripped up asphalt as he ran, laying into Slipstream with a brutal punch that sent the New Warriors speedster flying back. V6 sped behind Slipstream and kicked him in the back, changing his trajectory with enough force to hurt. When Slipstream managed to land on solid ground, he looked around to find windows shattered from the forces unleashed by V6’s punches.
“This is bull,” Slipstream spat, rising to his feet. He clenched his fists, stared down V6 and Blitzkrieg, and super-speed charged toward them. He tagged Blitzkrieg with a kick and V6 with a punch, his appendages coated in friction-generated heat to add an extra spice to his blows.
“That hurt!” V6 shouted. “Where’d you learn that from?”
“Figured it out myself,” Slipstream replied as he backhanded V6 with a burning hand. Blitzkrieg attempted to attack him from behind, but Slipstream tripped him and punched him to accelerate his descent.
Venom ensnared Arachne with black webs and pulled her closer. “Whatever shall I do with you now?”
“Go to hell,” Arachne spat, triggering the sonic emitters in her suit. Venom dropped her, screaming and writhing in pain as she attempted to crawl away from the sound. Arachne walked toward Venom at a brisk pace, pursuing Venom with the sonic emitters.
“Stop!” Venom wailed. “Please, STOP!!”
“Why? You’re a murderer. A remorseless one, too. Why should I?”
Venom writhed in agony, the symbiotic suit pulling back inside to protect itself. In the process, it revealed a woman with long auburn hair, pale skin, and amber eyes wide with pain. “Stop . . .” she moaned. “Please . . . stop. You’re killing me.”
Arachne crouched before Venom, bringing the sonic emitters even closer to her. Venom attempted to crawl away, but Arachne webbed her wrists and ankles to the ground, preventing her from escaping. “Killing you? The way you’ve killed so many? I’d say the chickens have come home to roost, wouldn’t you?”
“Stop, Arachne,” Fearless ordered, having regained her voice. “Stop this right now.”
“Why?” Arachne asked. “She deserves this.”
“She does . . . but killing a helpless person isn’t you,” Fearless replied. “And you’re too good for this. Not like me. Don’t do this.”
Arachne shut off the sonic emitters, but by then the symbiote had managed to separate from Venom in order to try to escape. The symbiote attempted to reunite with the woman now that it was no longer in danger of dying, but Arachne caught it in impact webbing.
“No!!!” the woman shouted, springing to her bare feet. “Give it back! Give it back!”
“No,” Arachne replied. “That thing gave you your power. Without it, you can’t kill.” She took the spherical web container for the symbiote and strapped it to her back. “Find something else to do with your life. If you can.”
“Three of us against one of you,” Archaeida said to Spider-Man. “I’d have to say those aren’t exactly good odds for you.”
“I’ll deal,” Spider-Man retorted.
“We’ve wasted enough time here,” Fearless said. “Time to get out of here. Bodyslide by three.” She linked hands with Arachne and Archaeida and the trio teleported away from Spider-Man and the woman formerly known as Venom.
Elsewhere, Iron Fist and Iron Cage were regrouping after defeating the Goblin. All around the city, it seemed the Knights and the New Warriors had either managed to outfight or outmaneuver the Avengers and the Thunderbolts. Of course, not all of them were perfectly unscathed; various Knights and New Warriors were winded or bruised, some even having cuts.
“Where’s Winter Soldier?” Fearless asked.
“He left,” Nightshade replied. “I don’t know where he is now.”
“What’s that you have on your back?” Iron Fist asked Arachne.
“The Venom symbiote,” Arachne replied.
“A symbiote?” Iron Cage asked. “Are you crazy?”
“Better than letting it get back into the Thunderbolts’ hands,” Arachne answered.
“Well, we gave the Avengers what for, didn’t we?” Nightshade remarked cheerfully.
“Wait, what happened to Artemis and Tsukikishi?” Fearless asked.
“And Themis and Incendiary?” Night Thrasher added.
Archaeida swore. “They must have been captured.”
“Captured?” Arachne echoed.
“Yeah,” Prowler affirmed. “That just makes this whole thing a lot rougher, since we’re going to have to stage a rescue.”
“Can you track their signals?” Iron Cage asked.
“Yeah, if their biometrics are recorded in our bodyslide files,” Fearless replied.
“Bodyslide?” Night Thrasher repeated. “You have bodyslide?”
“Yeah,” Fearless confirmed.
“Then let’s do this,” Black Cat said.
Meanwhile, the captured Knights and New Warriors awoke to find themselves in energy-barred cells deep within the Thunderbolts stronghold. When they looked outside, they saw Sentinel guards everywhere. Worse, Tsukikishi and Artemis were stripped of their weapons. As for Themis and Incendiary, their cells were specifically designed to suppress their mutant genes.
“Where are we?” Themis asked.
“Nowhere pleasant,” Incendiary replied.
“‘Nowhere pleasant’ is the correct answer,” a harsh voice greeted. “You’re here in the holding cells of Thunderbolts Mountain. We’re going to interrogate you, you’re going to talk, and then depending on how things turn out, you will be stripped of your powers and imprisoned, or you will be conscripted into service to your government.”
“Gyrich,” Incendiary snarled.
“Tobias Michaels,” Niles Gyrich answered. “I wish I could say it was good to see you again. Maybe it will be, so long as you don’t escape again.”
“You know, all these power-dampening cells prove is that you’re a wuss,” Incendiary taunted. “That’s fine. Come in here. We’ll see how powerless I really am.”
“Your juvenile taunts won’t work here,” Gyrich retorted coldly. “And I have other matters to attend to. The interrogators will see you shortly.”
Gyrich left the holding area and ascended via the elevator to the administrative offices of Thunderbolts Mountain. Once there, he walked into his office to find Terry Osborn waiting for him. Gyrich glared at Osborn, who simply stared back into his glare impassively. The silence was interminable . . . until Gyrich spoke.
“Osborn. What happened?”
“We did manage to capture several of the rogues, but the others escaped us,” Osborn replied. “And we suffered a loss.”
“What sort of loss?”
“Venom. One of the Spider-Women used a sonic weapon to strip her of her suit and then appropriated its substance.”
Gyrich’s glare grew more intense in the fury it restrained. “You mean - to tell me - that a symbiote - is in - the hands - of rogues?”
“Yes.”
“You miserable incompetent. Lucky for you, the Avengers are even worse; they were beaten like rag dolls by those upstarts.” He muttered angrily for a moment. “You can redeem yourself by overseeing the interrogations of the ones you were able to capture.”
“How far are we to go in these interrogations?”
“As far as you need to. That’s all.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do.” Osborn moved to leave the administrative office, silently swearing that he would make those brats pay for Venom, for the humiliation that they had once again dealt to his team. At some point, though, he would also have to teach Gyrich some respect for him - the hard way.
Chapter 8: Fire in the Hole
Author: V5_Vendetta
Fandom: Marvel Universe
Disclaimer: Marvel's, in terms of setting and character ancestry, not mine.
Rating: PG-13
Significant Characters: Knights (OC), New Warriors (OC), Avengers (OC), Thunderbolts (OC)
Summary: The Knights and New Warriors continue the fight against the Avengers, only for the Avengers to get some help.
Captain America and Winter Soldier battled viciously, Captain America using his shield and Winter Soldier using a pistol that he’d converted into a bladed weapon. Winter Soldier slashed at Captain America, only for Captain America to block with his shield. Captain America retaliated by throwing the shield at Winter Soldier’s throat, only for Winter Soldier to slide beneath the shield and spring up to attack Captain America.
“I don’t know what the hell your problem is, but you’ve gone too far!” Captain America shouted. “Too far!”
“Shut up,” Winter Soldier snarled. “Shut up and die!” He slashed at Captain America with the energy blade growing from the barrel of his pistol. Captain America dodged and clocked Winter Soldier in the face with his shield, which had just returned to him. Winter Soldier rose to his feet, his eyes turning black with circuit-like gold veins bulging out.
Captain America dodged Winter Soldier’s rush but barely, the Soldier whirling on his heel to attack again. Captain America blocked the attack with his shield, holding back the Winter Soldier to the best of his abilities. Of course, Winter Soldier was pushing furiously against the shield, powered by sheer rage the likes of which Captain America had never seen in another human being before.
Suddenly, Winter Soldier vanished with a “bamf” and the smell of sulfur, leaving a bewildered Captain America behind. As for Winter Soldier himself, he looked up angrily at the blue-furred girl straddling his shoulders. “Send me back. Now.”
“No,” Nightshade replied.
“No?”
“Don’t even think of raising that gun to me, Winter. You won’t have enough time to shoot.”
“Mina . . .”
“Don’t ‘Mina’ me, mister! You’re letting your vendetta against the Initiative turn you into something you’re not and if you keep going like this, someone’s going to end up dead.”
“Exactly,” Winter Soldier snarled. “Him.”
“I can’t believe you really mean that.”
Winter Soldier glared at Nightshade with gold-flecked black eyes but before he could say anything, the Hulk dropped in, forcing both of them to dodge. Winter Soldier withdrew his pistol-turned-blade and extended the energy lance, lunging at the Hulk, who charged toward him. Nightshade teleported to Winter Soldier and teleported away with him, just barely evading the Hulk’s charge.
“Are you trying to get yourself killed?” Nightshade asked.
“No,” Winter Soldier replied.
“Then don’t charge someone who’s massively stronger than you!” Nightshade advised. “Honestly, I don’t know why I try to save you.”
“I don’t know, either,” Winter Soldier admitted, “but that doesn’t matter now. We have a Hulk to fight.”
The Hulk had found Nightshade and the Winter Soldier. “Hello there, little pigs.”
“Who are you calling a pig?” Nightshade asked indignantly.
“Hulk smash now.” The sarcastic drawl, as well as the vengeful joy in his eyes, could not be missed by either of his foes. Just as the Hulk brought his fists down, Winter Soldier jumped up and slashed him across the chest with his pistol-blade. The Hulk roared in pain and rage and swung his fist at Winter Soldier, who was teleported out of the way by Nightshade. When the two reemerged, Winter Soldier reverted his blade to a pistol and overloaded the energy pack in it, using it as a grenade. The explosion didn’t do much to hurt the Hulk, but it did stun him enough for Nightshade to teleport away with Winter Soldier.
Elsewhere, a pumpkin bomb flew at Iron Fist and Iron Cage, who both dodged just before the bomb exploded, spraying fragments everywhere. Iron Fist created a shield with his chi to protect himself, while Iron Cage’s nigh-unbreakable skin was all the shield that particular young man needed. From above, the Goblin dive-bombed the duo, shooting rocket missiles at both as he descended upon them.
Meanwhile, Night Thrasher and the Prowler were both fighting the Beetle, who responded to their assaults with inbuilt weapons. Prowler rotated the cuff on his wrist and fired compressed air at the Beetle, who merely staggered back before tackling the Prowler with superhuman speed. The Beetle wrapped his hands around the Prowler’s throat and began to squeeze.
“I’m supposed to take you in alive, but I’d rather bury you,” the armored Thunderbolt admitted. He didn’t have time for any reveries, as Night Thrasher tackled him, thus knocking him off Prowler.
“All right, where did you come from?” Night Thrasher asked.
“We’re here to bring you in,” Beetle replied. “In case the Avengers aren’t up to the job.”
“What about the rest of your goon squad?” Night Thrasher interrogated.
“Probably taking care of your goon squad,” Beetle sneered, just before activating the taser feature of his armor. Night Thrasher simply smiled and punched Beetle in his helmeted face. “How . . . ?”
“My suit’s insulated,” Night Thrasher replied tersely.
At that same moment, Fearless bodyslid to Arachne’s position. “Looks like you and Archaeida have things handled quite well.”
“Hello, spiders,” a slithery female voice hissed. Arachne, Archaeida, Fearless, and the still-bound Spider-Man looked up and saw Venom perched on the façade of a skyscraper directly facing them. Venom flipped off the skyscraper façade and landed before the assorted group, looking at Arachne. “Changed your look, did you?”
Fearless drew her batons and snapped out the energy lances on both, pointing them at Venom. “Stay away from her.”
“Awww, girlfriend to the rescue,” Venom sneered. “Isn’t that sweet?”
“Venom!” Spider-Man yelled. “What are you doing here?”
“In case you Avengers didn’t have enough balls to get the job done,” Venom answered.
That seemed to infuriate Spider-Man, at least if his ripping his way out of Archaeida’s psi-web was any indicator. “That’s because we’re not wanton killers!”
“Oh, shut the hell up, Spider-Man,” Venom rejoined disdainfully.
“I take it you two aren’t friends,” Archaeida remarked.
“Friends or not, we have a common mission, which is to bring you in,” Spider-Man replied. He turned to Venom. “So how about we put away the hostilities and put these ladies away?”
“Sure, no problem,” Venom replied. “Besides, I was looking forward to rematching with the pretty little spider. She’s mine, you know. You can have her girlfriend and the other one.”
“Anytime you’re ready,” Arachne taunted.
Venom sprang toward Arachne for an attack, while Spider-Man leaped into the air and came down with a kick aimed for Archaeida’s head. Archaeida blocked Spider-Man’s kick, while Arachne caught Venom by her outstretched arms and threw her down to the ground. Undeterred, Venom pulled Arachne down to join her and they rolled together as they struggled against each other.
“I should kill you, you know,” Venom remarked, “for humiliating me like that last time.”
“Go to hell,” Arachne retorted, kicking Venom off her. Venom flipped in midair and landed on her feet just before firing restraining webs at Arachne. Arachne dodged the web attack, only for the webs to loop around and grab her. “How?”
“Improvement on an old trick,” Venom replied.
“Arachne!” Fearless shouted, leaping toward her partner. Venom turned out to be faster, and grabbed Fearless by the throat just before she could get to Arachne.
“I bet you’re kinda cute under that mask,” Venom remarked cruelly, squeezing Fearless’s throat.
Managing to retain her calm despite being choked to death, Fearless picked up one of her batons, only for Venom to web her arms together with her free hand. “Ah-ah-ah.” Venom resumed choking Fearless. “How long can you take this? How long before I get bored and break your neck?”
“Venom, stop,” Spider-Man snapped, even as he blocked Archaeida’s punch.
“You’re not the boss of me,” Venom retorted.
“We’re not supposed to kill them,” Spider-Man rejoined.
“Who cares?” Venom asked. “I want to see the look in her eyes when she ghosts.”
“She’s wearing a mask,” Arachne stated from behind Venom, just before she punched Venom in her masked face, knocking her off Fearless. Arachne flipped after Venom, pursuing her with vicious punches and kicks. “Never touch her again, Venom. Do you hear me? Do you hear me, you murderous tramp?!”
“Heh, so you can put some bass in your voice after all,” Venom taunted.
Arachne just punched her again, only for Venom to catch the blow with superior reflexes. “Impressive. My turn.” She punched Arachne so hard that Arachne flew some twenty meters down the street. Arachne flipped and landed on the ground, regaining some control over her footing, only for Venom to spring on the attack again. Arachne flipped up onto a skyscraper and sprang off it to attack Venom from a different angle. For her part, Venom grabbed Arachne’s ankle and threw her onto the street, only for Arachne to tumble onto her feet and shoot stingers at Venom.
Meanwhile, Spider-Man and Archaeida fought, with Fearless aiding Archaeida against Spider-Man. “How do you stomach working with a monster like Venom?” Fearless asked.
“I throw up every night before I go to bed,” Spider-Man retorted snidely.
For his apparent sarcasm, Fearless sensed that Spider-Man was telling the truth, that he was repulsed by the Thunderbolts. Repulsion or not, he was still part of the problem and thus . . . he had to go down. Fearless snapped out her baton blades and slashed at Spider-Man with both, but his reflexes were superior to hers and he effortlessly dodged every slash. Finally, he extended his waldoes toward her, only for her to dodge with her own enhanced reflexes.
Archaeida telekinetically manipulated the free-floating molecules around Spider-Man to form a restraining web, but Spider-Man slashed the air with his waldoes, interfering with Archaeida’s web formation. Spider-Man thrust his waldoes toward Archaeida, only for her to dodge and strike him down with an aerial kick. Spider-Man quickly recovered, twisting himself into a kick augmented by the talons on his feet.
Archaeida clutched her bleeding midsection, webbing her wounds shut. “Vicious, aren’t you?”
“When I need to be,” Spider-Man answered grimly.
“Funny, so can I,” Archaeida rejoined, proving her point when she swept her leg out in a low trip kick, which Spider-Man dodged only to get caught by a high kick to the chest. The kick came with enough force to crack his ribs, despite the protection of his suit. “See?”
Elsewhere, Flashfire and Incendiary were having a battle of fire against fire. Incendiary was throwing fireballs at Flashfire, who was dodging those same fireballs with the inhuman speed he’d gained from compressing the hyperkinetic activity within his body. At the same time, Flashfire was running around Incendiary, generating a ring of fire around the pyrokinetic New Warrior. Finally, Incendiary became fed up and lunged at Flashfire through the fiery ring. While Incendiary didn’t quite tackle Flashfire, he did manage to make the pyrokinetic Thunderbolt trip over him.
“All right, bub! Time to fry!” Incendiary shouted, launching a massive jet of flame at Flashfire, who merely began draining it. Incendiary withdrew the flame jet into an aura that sheathed his own body and punched Flashfire with a fiery fist. Flashfire laughed and threw knives of solid flame at Incendiary.
Incendiary dodged the fiery knives and came down punching Flashfire, only for Flashfire to grab his forearm and throw him to the ground. Before Incendiary could regain his footing, Flashfire was on him with a series of fast and hard punches. Finally, Incendiary generated a body-wide wave of flame to repel Flashfire. While Flashfire was blinded from the burst of flame, Incendiary pummeled him viciously, until Flashfire grabbed his forearm and tossed him again.
Incendiary righted himself in midair and strafed Flashfire with bolts of flame, Flashfire dodging them all with superhuman speed. The pyrokinetic New Warrior ran around his Thunderbolt counterpart, generating a tornado of flame around Flashfire. Incendiary skated the inside of the fiery tornado, coming down on Flashfire with a vicious kick right into and through the wall of the tornado.
Meanwhile, Slipstream and Blitzkrieg were still engaged in their high-speed fight across the city, ripping and burning up asphalt wherever they passed. Of course, the fight expanded from two participants to three when the Thunderbolts speedster V6 entered. With a sonic boom created from snapping his fingers, he sent Slipstream flying and nearly did the same to Blitzkrieg on sheer virtue of Blitzkrieg being in the same area.
At that same moment, Themis was fighting Arcane and Yukionna, the Thunderbolts “ice maiden.” Arcane was throwing quantum knives at Themis, who attempted to block them with her telekinetic force fields. Unfortunately, Themis learned that there was no way for her to avoid Arcane’s quantum knives; they operated on probability itself, and Arcane was probably shifting probability around constantly to keep the advantage. A lesser opponent would have given up; Themis was by no means a lesser opponent.
Iron Fist and Iron Cage were still fighting the Goblin, who was content to throw pumpkin bombs at them from above. Both young men dodged to the best of their abilities, but the Goblin’s bombs were striking closer and closer all the time. They looked at each other once and split off, forcing the Goblin to choose his target. The Goblin threw a pumpkin bomb after Iron Cage while shooting rocket missiles at Iron Fist.
The Black Cat landed on the Goblin’s glider, wrapping one arm around his neck and the other around his midsection. “Breathe and die,” she hissed in his ear.
“How about you?” the Goblin retorted, activating the taser function of his suit and thus knocking the Black Cat off him. Before she could get too close to the ground for comfort, Iron Fist caught her.
“My hero,” the feline femme quipped.
“Thank me later,” Iron Fist replied. “We have a goblin to take down.”
The Goblin dived toward the Black Cat and Iron Fist, only for Iron Cage to punch him in his masked face and thus knock the Goblin off-balance. The Goblin managed to right himself, but by the time he did that Iron Fist had jumped on for the ride and socked him with the peak chi he had built up in his fist. The blow was forceful enough to knock the Goblin off his glider and onto the ground.
“You’ve pissed me off,” the Goblin snarled. “You’re going to have to die now.”
Night Thrasher and the Prowler were still fighting the Beetle, who showed no signs of being willing to give up. If anything, the wounds Night Thrasher and Prowler had dealt him simply spurred him on. The Beetle shot microwave blasts at the two masked young men, who dodged with artificially enhanced reflexes. The Prowler leaped at the Beetle, kicking him in the chest. Upon impact, his boot cuff set off an EMP that knocked out the Beetle’s armor system.
“That takes care of you, I suppose,” Prowler remarked.
V6 ripped up asphalt as he ran, laying into Slipstream with a brutal punch that sent the New Warriors speedster flying back. V6 sped behind Slipstream and kicked him in the back, changing his trajectory with enough force to hurt. When Slipstream managed to land on solid ground, he looked around to find windows shattered from the forces unleashed by V6’s punches.
“This is bull,” Slipstream spat, rising to his feet. He clenched his fists, stared down V6 and Blitzkrieg, and super-speed charged toward them. He tagged Blitzkrieg with a kick and V6 with a punch, his appendages coated in friction-generated heat to add an extra spice to his blows.
“That hurt!” V6 shouted. “Where’d you learn that from?”
“Figured it out myself,” Slipstream replied as he backhanded V6 with a burning hand. Blitzkrieg attempted to attack him from behind, but Slipstream tripped him and punched him to accelerate his descent.
Venom ensnared Arachne with black webs and pulled her closer. “Whatever shall I do with you now?”
“Go to hell,” Arachne spat, triggering the sonic emitters in her suit. Venom dropped her, screaming and writhing in pain as she attempted to crawl away from the sound. Arachne walked toward Venom at a brisk pace, pursuing Venom with the sonic emitters.
“Stop!” Venom wailed. “Please, STOP!!”
“Why? You’re a murderer. A remorseless one, too. Why should I?”
Venom writhed in agony, the symbiotic suit pulling back inside to protect itself. In the process, it revealed a woman with long auburn hair, pale skin, and amber eyes wide with pain. “Stop . . .” she moaned. “Please . . . stop. You’re killing me.”
Arachne crouched before Venom, bringing the sonic emitters even closer to her. Venom attempted to crawl away, but Arachne webbed her wrists and ankles to the ground, preventing her from escaping. “Killing you? The way you’ve killed so many? I’d say the chickens have come home to roost, wouldn’t you?”
“Stop, Arachne,” Fearless ordered, having regained her voice. “Stop this right now.”
“Why?” Arachne asked. “She deserves this.”
“She does . . . but killing a helpless person isn’t you,” Fearless replied. “And you’re too good for this. Not like me. Don’t do this.”
Arachne shut off the sonic emitters, but by then the symbiote had managed to separate from Venom in order to try to escape. The symbiote attempted to reunite with the woman now that it was no longer in danger of dying, but Arachne caught it in impact webbing.
“No!!!” the woman shouted, springing to her bare feet. “Give it back! Give it back!”
“No,” Arachne replied. “That thing gave you your power. Without it, you can’t kill.” She took the spherical web container for the symbiote and strapped it to her back. “Find something else to do with your life. If you can.”
“Three of us against one of you,” Archaeida said to Spider-Man. “I’d have to say those aren’t exactly good odds for you.”
“I’ll deal,” Spider-Man retorted.
“We’ve wasted enough time here,” Fearless said. “Time to get out of here. Bodyslide by three.” She linked hands with Arachne and Archaeida and the trio teleported away from Spider-Man and the woman formerly known as Venom.
Elsewhere, Iron Fist and Iron Cage were regrouping after defeating the Goblin. All around the city, it seemed the Knights and the New Warriors had either managed to outfight or outmaneuver the Avengers and the Thunderbolts. Of course, not all of them were perfectly unscathed; various Knights and New Warriors were winded or bruised, some even having cuts.
“Where’s Winter Soldier?” Fearless asked.
“He left,” Nightshade replied. “I don’t know where he is now.”
“What’s that you have on your back?” Iron Fist asked Arachne.
“The Venom symbiote,” Arachne replied.
“A symbiote?” Iron Cage asked. “Are you crazy?”
“Better than letting it get back into the Thunderbolts’ hands,” Arachne answered.
“Well, we gave the Avengers what for, didn’t we?” Nightshade remarked cheerfully.
“Wait, what happened to Artemis and Tsukikishi?” Fearless asked.
“And Themis and Incendiary?” Night Thrasher added.
Archaeida swore. “They must have been captured.”
“Captured?” Arachne echoed.
“Yeah,” Prowler affirmed. “That just makes this whole thing a lot rougher, since we’re going to have to stage a rescue.”
“Can you track their signals?” Iron Cage asked.
“Yeah, if their biometrics are recorded in our bodyslide files,” Fearless replied.
“Bodyslide?” Night Thrasher repeated. “You have bodyslide?”
“Yeah,” Fearless confirmed.
“Then let’s do this,” Black Cat said.
Meanwhile, the captured Knights and New Warriors awoke to find themselves in energy-barred cells deep within the Thunderbolts stronghold. When they looked outside, they saw Sentinel guards everywhere. Worse, Tsukikishi and Artemis were stripped of their weapons. As for Themis and Incendiary, their cells were specifically designed to suppress their mutant genes.
“Where are we?” Themis asked.
“Nowhere pleasant,” Incendiary replied.
“‘Nowhere pleasant’ is the correct answer,” a harsh voice greeted. “You’re here in the holding cells of Thunderbolts Mountain. We’re going to interrogate you, you’re going to talk, and then depending on how things turn out, you will be stripped of your powers and imprisoned, or you will be conscripted into service to your government.”
“Gyrich,” Incendiary snarled.
“Tobias Michaels,” Niles Gyrich answered. “I wish I could say it was good to see you again. Maybe it will be, so long as you don’t escape again.”
“You know, all these power-dampening cells prove is that you’re a wuss,” Incendiary taunted. “That’s fine. Come in here. We’ll see how powerless I really am.”
“Your juvenile taunts won’t work here,” Gyrich retorted coldly. “And I have other matters to attend to. The interrogators will see you shortly.”
Gyrich left the holding area and ascended via the elevator to the administrative offices of Thunderbolts Mountain. Once there, he walked into his office to find Terry Osborn waiting for him. Gyrich glared at Osborn, who simply stared back into his glare impassively. The silence was interminable . . . until Gyrich spoke.
“Osborn. What happened?”
“We did manage to capture several of the rogues, but the others escaped us,” Osborn replied. “And we suffered a loss.”
“What sort of loss?”
“Venom. One of the Spider-Women used a sonic weapon to strip her of her suit and then appropriated its substance.”
Gyrich’s glare grew more intense in the fury it restrained. “You mean - to tell me - that a symbiote - is in - the hands - of rogues?”
“Yes.”
“You miserable incompetent. Lucky for you, the Avengers are even worse; they were beaten like rag dolls by those upstarts.” He muttered angrily for a moment. “You can redeem yourself by overseeing the interrogations of the ones you were able to capture.”
“How far are we to go in these interrogations?”
“As far as you need to. That’s all.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do.” Osborn moved to leave the administrative office, silently swearing that he would make those brats pay for Venom, for the humiliation that they had once again dealt to his team. At some point, though, he would also have to teach Gyrich some respect for him - the hard way.