Day 16.
The director had approved for the agents aboard to lower the hellicarrier to the ground. They had to pick up a transported prisoner to bring aboard. Lot of work, but it had to be done. What they didn't know is just how much trouble parking the ship would cause them.
A non-recognizable agent had stopped the lot from boarding. None of the men working could recall the man, he didn't at all look familiar, but he was in uniform and clearly part of the team judging by his stance and attitude.
"Afternoon gentlemen," His voice was somewhat deep and raspy. Nobody could place a name to a face or even a face to a name, but their silence allowed the unusual agent to continue, " I'm here to report that the capture of New York's most iconic villains had been completed." He whistled into his gloved hand, and out came two other agents with the bad guys that had just been mentioned.
The two other agents were women and to be fair, most of the male workers didn't pay any attention to the females onboard unless it was Maria Hill, considering she was close with the director. As for the culprits, the gang of The Sinister Six were all there. Doctor Octopus, the so-called leader of the organization and his four other members; Electro, Chameleon and Kraven The Hunter. The doctor's tentacles' claws were restrained shut, as their hands were cuffed in front of them. How three agents managed to do all this was... suspicious... but more impressive than anything.
The only male agent of their group turned back to the small group of ten before talking. "Permission to enter to put them away?" He asked.
The armed soldiers looked at each other to telepathically communicate. One nodded before walking up to the young agent before slightly pointing his gun. "Got your ID?" He said sternly, under his gear.
Shit.
It seemed like he was in a pickle before the agent with blonde hair swiftly made her way between them and pulled out three. "Frank and Samantha had given them for me to hold while they chased down the more difficult crime causers so that they wouldn't get lost. Do we still have a problem here?" She was fierce, and it instantly made the man back off with a low 'no ma'am.'
Finally, they were given the green light to board. The other female agent pushed the villains to the front and continued to point her weapon, forcing them to walk forward.
"Jeez, you don't have to be so rough." Octavius grumbled, who was only met with another gun in his face from the fit male. He shut up quite quickly as the others vocally complained with whines and other noises. One had even tried to escape before being tackled by the agent in the way back. Even if three didn't seem like enough... they had the situation down.
"Maximum security, right?" One of the figures from the group of ten asked to confirm.
"Yup." The blonde haired girl confirmed as their small group were finally able to pass by. Once they were on board, the hellicarrier doors rose and slammed shut, locking in the process. Almost instantly, they were airborne.
The members of The Six were walked down the halls while firmly held at gun point... but they weren't going to the prison. The three agents carefully guided them along the back halls, taking out any guard who might have seen them not be where they were supposed to be, until eventually, they locked themselves in an isolated room. Once they were confirmed alone, the two agents began to unwind as with a simple 'click!' the mechanical cuffs used slid off the men's wrists like butter.
"Are you going to thank me now?" Laureline asked.
"For what?" Valerian responded with confusion, causing her to scoff. Was he serious? Had he already forgotten?
"The IDs?" She reminded. Otto went ahead and took their childish bickering as his opportunity to have Max fry the security, making it easier to hack into. Surprise, the room they were in was quite important.
"Oh yeah, that. Uh, yeah, thanks. How did you get those anyway?"
"Well, unlike you, I paid attention beginning to end to the plan. Tony warned us that they might ask for ID, so he gave us ones that he used from past missions. You don't remember at all?"
The Major simply shrugged. "It didn't matter if I paid attention or not, since you're the poindexter." He went in for a kiss only to be rejected instantly. Needless to say, the sergeant was quite offended, but there was no time to get upset right now.
"Okay, I'm in their system," Octavius confirmed as he turned the chair towards the couple, "Can you get into contact with Stark to know if we move onto phase two?"
"Alex, did you get that?" Valerian asked.
"Yes, I'm calling now." Their female A.I. responded.
After some short ringing, Tony had answered. The group explained how they were onboard and ready to continue if things were clear. They were group one, so everything was pretty much up to them. Meaning everything was in the clear for them to continue on. With one more confirm, they hung up with the Avenger.
"Okay, Hunter guy, you're up." Laureline stated.
"Ze name iz Kraven." The man growled before sucking it up and sneaking out of the room to a back hallway. Kraven was called a Hunter for a reason. He was incredible at stalking and catching prey. Which is exactly why Tony had assigned him to setting traps aboard the ship to stop passing security so that they wouldn't get caught. Smart.
"Okay, Bubble and Dmitri, you two are up." Otto took control of the operation, after all, he was a leader. "Max, you work on spreading out and shutting down what you can,"
"Roger that, Octopus, I'll make sure they're *shocked.*" Thank God that was the only pun the powered being made before leaving through the outlets.
Dmitri went ahead and played his role as Chameleon, disguising into an agent as Bubble was. Shortly after, those two left and broke off separate ways. Good, everything was going accordingly. While they do that, the remaining three were to stay in the room until the Hellicarrier was completely taken over.
Fury was sat in his office with Maria. Nothing had been reported odd or any alarms, so they were straight chilling. The two discussed future plans for inmates or other crimes. They had decided that tomorrow would be the best day for transportation. They had to get it over with eventually. The sudden break into their office by a male agent was not something they had prepared for.
"Director Fury, we just got word that we're currently hovering over the area Sandman was spotted in. Should we land?" Dmitri asked.
"That's awfully sudden. Would we have any time to land somewhere more secretive? Landing instantly would lower our chances of success."
"I'm afraid not, sir. By the time we find a big enough space, he'd be long gone. It's your call, what should we do?"
Nick turned to Maria, to see if she had a third option, but she simply nodded to show she agreed. The spy turned back to the stranger and stood up. "Alright, we'll land. Send some agents out there. I'll meet them on the field soon."
"Maria Hill, Director Fury!" A second agent ran in with a panic. A female one, this time with long black hair and dark skin. Her eyes, an interesting shade of green mixed with hazel. Nick didn't recognize her, and he found that suspicious.... but on the other hand, there were over a thousand agents on board, so perhaps it was a background worker.
"What's the matter? Is it Stark again?" The man somewhat joked.
"I'm not sure! I came out of my work station and found a bunch of agents knocked out in the halls, I think we're being hijacked!!" She shouted.
Fury and Hill turned to each other. This had Tony Stark written all over it, but the fact that no alarms or anything of the sorts was.... concerning. He was about to give up on the search for Sandman before Maria rested her hand on his shoulder and whispered that she'd take care of it. She walked over to the other woman in the room, got some more details on the situation, and left with her. Leaving the two men.
"While Maria deals with that, let's make our way out front." Fury ordered.
"Yes sir."
And with that, both of them left the office. Stocked up on weapons and other necessities as they walked through the halls filled with knocked out guards. This didn't make any sense... where was that Stark? This was clearly him, but there was no sign of him anywhere.
The female agent, otherwise known as our favorite Glamapod, Bubble, led Maria Hill into the control room where the other three had set up base. Bad news for SHIELD. She didn't have a chance to even reach for her gun when she opened the door. With a quick and swift 'bonk!' Valerian had her out cold. No witty remark or anything. Of course, he wanted to, but Laureline scolded him out of it considering it would waste time.
He spun the metal pipe around before tossing it to the side and smiling at his partner.
"One down, one to go."
Nick was internally nervous as he stepped over unconscious bodies to make it to the front opening of the hellicarrier. He couldn't stop thinking about Stark. He'd have to pop up eventually, right? How the hell was this agent so calm? Well, he shouldn't worry. Maria was one of the best spies on hand. If they were being hijacked, she'd surely take care of it.
Even with this attitude, nothing could prepare the director for when he stepped off the platform to the grass. Almost instantly, like cockroaches scurrying with a flicker of a light switch, tons of people revealed themselves. His gut wrenched when the first thing he saw was Spider-Man. Fuck. He had been right, this was Tony. Quickly, the spy turned to run back into the ship, but that wasn't happening.
"Electro now!" Dmitri shouted.
Bam. The electronic doors slammed shut and became jammed with a yellow glow. Max was keeping Fury trapped outside and with no security or other agents... he was completely alone. How the hell were they pulling this off?!
The cameras outside turned and positioned themselves on Fury. Otto was quite good at poileting them. Apart from him, the space gang watched through the monitors. They were all so close, this *had* to work. With Nick outside it only meant one thing. Stage one was complete.
Even still, Iron Man was no where to be found. Dammit! This was going to be a hard fight to win, especially on his own, but these people were not going to defeat him. He drew one of his high tech weapons and began to shoot only for one of the five Spider folks to place a web over the barrel before the bullet was able to fire. What the fuck?!
The Iron Spider was only waiting on one thing. Peter one was the one to start off session two once Fury was in position. As Spider-J, Spider-Gwen and his two brothers kept distracting the director, the moment made itself clear to him. He was at the perfect angle to dodge one of their webs and then, he struck. Timing it correctly, the flap of his trenchcoat flapped open and even if it was a split second a singular web was able to attach to the prison realm and free it from the man's pocket making it airborne.
Fuck!
As Nick panickingly searched for the gadget that would do the trick- the first row of members passed it down. Peter one had flung it to their world's Harry, who passed it to Peter two, who could throw it upwards to his Harry, who tossed it to Peter three where Gwen webbed it to her and finally to MJ. But it didn't stop there. In the blink of an eye it was hurled to the next row. Cricket focused on it as if it were a speeding bullet. An easy catch, thank God. Next he passed it to Lucien, who passed it to Chris who then passed it to Jason who threw it to Jesse who finally threw it up in the air for Andrew to catch with his telekenis.
Tony respected Quentin's wishes while also having Andrew be useful. That's why he was in the back row hidden from view. It was also why he denied Detmer's request of helping in the air. If he had been hovering he would of been easy to spot. On the ground was perfect.
Wait- something was wrong... Harry was waiting on his glider at the way back but when he realized the issue it had been too late. Carl wasn't on their side. If Quentin got out it meant he would be kept in check and he didn't miss that. So the Goblin wrestled with his pathetic image. With Threat locked in his room it was just those two.
"What are you doing?!" Harry shouted.
"I'm not on you people's side. I don't want him getting released." The goblin snarled as he rolled off the emo and booked it for the control room. The last thing he could hear was Harry's shouting.
That was when Tony revealed himself.
The shiny gold and red armor reflected in the sun as he flew down to behind the realm. His arms crossed firmly and a wide grin on his face when he opened his faceplates. "You know," He began, "Somebody once told me to not make promises you can't keep. I think you should take your own advice." The Avenger joked.
"Look out!!' One of the people in the air shouted. When Tony had turned to look everything happened so quickly. The Prison Realm had been snatched from the air from the being on the glider. One of his eyes green while the other flickered blue.
"What are you doing??? This wasn't the plan!!"
"It's not me!!" A desperate voice tried to yell before being shut down by his other side.
"Sorry buddy, but if this is to help free this guy, I'm not on board. CATCH!" The goblin yelled as he hurled the prison realm all the way back down the line.
"NO!" Tony shouted.
Fury simply grinned as he shot his gapple into it and pulled it toward him. "When I promise something I mean it." The Director had said. The realm was airborne and being flung in the wrong direction. No! He could still stop this!
"SHIT!" Tony shouted as he desperately tried to make his way over there, only to be stopped mid air by Andrew, who reconized it to be a trap.
With the ongoing chaos Harry was able to drag the goblin out of control and fight with him once again. To his surprise Carl had let him win. Most likely because the deed had been done.... he ruined everything.
It was over. All that hard work. All that plotting. It was about to be for nothing.
Nick stretched his arm out, ready to rub defeat in their faces once more... but the cube stopped falling. In fact it stayed airborne. What was going on?? That's when he noticed the tech attached to it. He followed the line upward to ontop of the hellicarrier.
Standing above everybody else was a man with dark hair and blue eyes. His armor tones of grey and his stance determined as he pulled the cube into his gloved hands. "Boy that was a close one, huh. Imagine how fucked you all would of been without me." He chuckled.
Thank God Otto had the idea to tune in through security cameras. Valerian was able to figure out Nick's plan before he even had the chance of grabbing the gadget. What took so long was running down the long halls and getting to the outside. The Major's reveal had the crowd cheering and Tony had let out the biggest sigh of relief he had ever felt.
"Hey asshole, looking for this?" Valerian grinned shaking the cube around.
"I suggest you give that back right now, young man, maximum security is not something you want to be in." Nick hissed.
"Sounds like a challenge, I love those. Unfortauntely, I'll have to take you up on that another time." He pointed his feet forward and shouted. "STARK CATCH!"
The wind blocked out Fury's profanities and screams of no as it soared across the property and for the third time, into the man's red and gold hands. No time to joke, no time to mock, instantly Tony took off towards the back of the line. Clutching onto the prison realm and keeping it firmly against his chest. It was finally time for the final act. God he hopes this works.
Golden Spider, known as Ned, was centered at the way back of the line and it was finally his time to shine. As the Avenger approached him at high speeds he quickly used all his understanding and knowledge to open a portal to the lab. With a smooth fly by Iron Man and the Prison Realm had been secured safely as the portal came to a close.
The Emo Harry was able to make it back to his glider after the surprise attack and thankfully he had America with him, who was the final kick to this incredible plan. He held her tightly as he flew over to the director on his glider. It was time to prospone S.H.I.E.L.D. for a while. With no warning, a star shaped portal was opened under the spy and he was sucked in before he even had time to yell. America had made sure to send him somewhere safe but also thousands of miles away. It was done.
As the outsiders cheered on about their success Tony had finally opened his eyes and looked down. The gleam of green around it much brighter than the last time he had saw it. All he could do was cry and laugh. The nanotechs unattached from him in an instant as he hugged the cube tightly. His tears surely staining it as they rolled down his cheeks.
In the comfort of Quentin's hidden section, nobody from SHIELD would ever find them.
After sixteen long days he finally did it.
"I did it, Q-Tip." Tony sniffled.
"I did it."
He was one step closer to getting him out of that damn box.
Third time was indeed the charm.