The Kidnappings Begin
“Paris. The city of love. Beauty. Peace. And more recently… Heroes. My research lacks an exact number, but the specs add up perfectly.” The air in the Parisian Latverian Embassy turned cold as these words escaped the masked lips of the country’s supreme overlord. Doctor Doom himself. Opposite him, his new, and admittedly reluctant, agents of chaos. The Sinister Six. Five were stood opposite him: Kraven the Hunter, the Rhino, the Vulture, Electro, and the Scorpion. How he had earned their loyalty was inconsistent: some like Kraven were bought simply for the chance that Spider Man might be sent by S.H.I.E.L.D to investigate. Others joined for the score of a lifetime. Stood left to Doom was the last member. Doom turned slightly to his left, and gave a gesture to Doctor Octopus, before Rhino gave a sharp interruption.
“That girl in the red and black. She related to Spider Man?”
“Quiet, Rhino! Although in this partnership, we’re leaving nothing to chance. There are numerous similarities to Spider Man, I will admit, but a definite connection has yet to be established.”
“Spider Man or not, they are merely prey for the hunters! I’ve skinned and worn bigger creatures then they!“
“If you don’t mind, the rest of us find this interesting, Kraven.”
“Hold your tongue, Electro, or I’ll cut it out!” Kraven had no time to act on this threat before both he and Electro were suddenly hoisted upwards at high speed.
“Quiet! Both of you! You both know how I maintained control over Lizard! Don’t force me to do the same to you!”
“Exactly, Octavius. Now, if we may continue,” Doc Ock lowered his tentacles holding his disobedient underlings, “the targets. All five of you will see your targets. Besides Ladybug, there are at least another four worth investigating. Cat Noir. Rena Rogue. Carapace. Queen Bee.” The computer flashed a wrong answer sign at the mention of the last name. “I am mistaken. Queen Bee has been removed from the team. For decidedly unheroic actions, apparently.”
“Perhaps a name could aid us well. Perhaps this… Queen Bee could be turned.”
“My octobots researched that possibility, Kraven. They came up empty handed. Even if I had a bee formula, or a wasp, or a hornet, the girl hasn’t been in the country since outing Ladybug’s allies. I have no idea where she’s being held. But Queen Bee is out. We will have to proceed with the primary objective if we are stay ahead of S.H.I.E.L.D, Spider Man… and of course, the Terroriser and his brigade.”
“I have told you, Octavius, you have nothing to fear from Mr Duncan. He will never risk my wrath in achieving his goals. The mere implication that I am here in Paris will be enough to dissuade him. Now, back to the mission at hand. I have reached out to a fellow villain here in Paris, and he has agreed to help us in our goal. Bring us the subjects you see behind me. Ladybug, Cat Noir, Rena Rogue, Carapace and whoever the final member is now. I will oversee the extraction of the latter elements of my plans. Combined, we will do more than avenge Latveria! Soon, by the end of this week, when all is said and done, the whole world will be Latveria!”
Doom’s plans of world conquest were quick to find ground. The Lovre. About midnight.
Late night patrols were hardly Rena’s favourite part of the superhero gig. But given akumas could strike anytime, Ladybug was becoming surprisingly insistent on a permanent state of alert. Which came much to Rena’s frustration. Especially since there had been a distinct lack of night-time attacks ever since the Sandboy incident. There was no reason to insist on these late-night patrols so much.
“Rena?”
“Oh. Sorry, Carapace. Little lost in my own thoughts there.”
“Anything you want to talk to me about?”
“Does it bother you?”
“What?”
“The fact Ladybug’s becoming so… cold, recently? She’s mandating these late-night patrols and costing us both valuable downtime. I’ve got to juggle my sisters, school life and super heroics according to her whim these days!”
“I’m not so hot on those ideas myself. Then again, she’s got a point. Chloe betrayed us. She told Hawk Moth everything. He’s got more fuel for the fire now. I can understand Ladybug ditching pleasantries.”
“That still doesn’t give her the right to overreact on us all the time!”
“Now this is quality entertainment!” Both heroes turned to see their intruder. In a flash of lightning, Electro appears. “Seeing you two at the boss’s throat? Oh man, that is so going to make our job easier!”
“And you are…?”
“Max Dillion! Electro! You read Spider Man comics, right, Ni… Carapace!”
“Spider Man’s got his own comics? No wonder he’s so annoying.”
“So what are you doing over here, Electro? Here to try your luck against Ladybug? I hear she’s a great comparison for Spider Man!”
“Who’s side are you on?!”
“Your blabber mouthing is, frankly, SHOCKING!” Appropriately, Electro shot out a blast of electricity at that moment, which Carapace barely managed to deflect with his shield in time. Rena leapt out of the way and drew her flute. “Oh, so now you’re volunteering to fight me?”
“You ain’t leaving us much choice!”
“It’s kinda my job, turtle boy! And seriously,” Electro said as he threw several more blasts of lightning, “a turtle and a fox? Really? A turtle and a fox? Are we seriously out of animals to make superheroes out of?”
“I’ve heard about pig and mouse themed jewels if that interests you?”
“Oh, very good.”
“Still, let’s see you handle a little… MIRAGE!!!” Rena conjured up a dozen or so copies of herself, but Electro was not intimidated. He continued throwing lightning bolts at the clones, each one dissipating with the blast…
“It doesn’t matter how you run, Rena Rogue! You can create as many copies as you like…” Electro paused for a moment to electrocute Carapace into unconsciousness by tapping his shield as soon as he tried to strike him with it, “but eventually, I’ll hunt you down and shock your eyes into exploding!”
“Disgusting!”
“Oh, you just try to stop me, girl!” Electro finally shot the real Rena and she fell to the ground. As Electro came in for the kill shot, Rena got back to her feet and slammed him in the gut with her flute.
“Nonconductive flute.”
“Of course…!” Electro grunted in pain. But before Rena could make for another attack, something hit her in the back. Hard. Her vision began to blur as she became unstable.
“What’s… happening…?” As she joined her boyfriend in unconsciousness, she heard only these words: “A fox is no match for a hunter.”
In her room in Le Paris Grande, the replacement Bee holder was not faring much better.
“So naïve. So inexperienced. So weak. You, Miss Lee, will be a tasty snack!”
“Do scorpions even eat bees?”
“Our diet is variable.” Scorpion lashed out viciously with his tail, which Vesperia only just managed to dodge in time. Scorpion smirked and lashed out with his claws instead, before signalling for his teammates to join in. Vesperia barely dodged a swoop attack from Vulture before Rhino slammed her through the floor.
“Heh heh! Only one way to deal with bugs. You know what that is?!”
“If you’re going to say stomp them…!”
“Steal all the fun Scorpion, why don’t you!”
“Enough playing around! Doctor Octopus wants her alive, so we must bring her in alive!”
“Peh! You just want your memories back, Vulture. Some of us prefer good old fashioned face stomping.” Vulture didn’t respond and simply let out a sonic scream at Zoe, who narrowly dodged as Rhino began to leap down. He was obviously going for a classic Hulk smash! Had Vesperia not Venomed him right at that moment, he might well have landed on her instead of crashing through the lower floors like a cannonball.
“One creep down, two to…” Vesperia was cut off by a sudden whip of Scorpion’s tail.
“Look at the mess Rhino’s made. The poor cleaners are really going to have their work cut out when this is over.”
“We don’t have time to worry about details, Vulture! She’s stunned! And… beeping?”
“Oh no! Time limit’s running out! Laters! Gotta go!”
“Vulture! Quick!” Toomes took a deep breath and let out another sonic scream, even louder than the previous one. Vesperia was blasted through the walls into the kitchen area, quickly followed by Vulture and Scorpion as the staff ran for their lives. She was out cold when she detransformed.
“So this is how the better offs live.” Vulture grunted as Scorpion lifted up Zoe with his tail and brought her uncomfortably close to his face, bearing his claws.
“Time to find out how the better offs die!”