Muzzle flashes strobed through the huge white hall. There was the back where Peggy Carter was draped and protected by a couple agents hiding behind cover. There was the elevator and the agents pouring out from there. Bullets went off from both sides. They tore into the walls, ricocheting off steel and glass, shattering monitors.
One side had cover and fewer numbers, the other side was in open fire and had far greater numbers. Any advantage was nullified by one man: Agent Blade.
He was a living shadow darting through the hurrah of lead. The first volley ripped through his coat, slamming into his chest and shoulder. He didn't slow. The holes closed almost instantly, flesh knitting back together in seconds. Blood welled, then vanished under fresh skin.
He slammed into the first SHIELD agent, driving him back into a glass wall hard enough to spiderweb it, then pivoted and hurled his sword through another man's rifle. He was damn agile, despite being surrounded.
A SHIELD agent yelled "Fire again!" and the second wave of bullets hit him — to almost no effect.
"Jesus Christ!" one of the agents shouted. "He's not going down!"
"Don't forget what I said!" Fury barked. "Use your UV flashlights!"
It was as the Vice-Director said and — click.
From beneath his coat, Fury drew what looked like a rifle barrel mated with a floodlamp. When he pulled the trigger, a beam of blinding ultraviolet light erupted across the room.
Blade roared — a guttural, feral sound — as his skin smoked and his regeneration stalled. He dove behind a lab table, half his face blistered, the wound refusing to close. Two additional agents pointed UV flashlights at where he was and crossed the flashlight with a pistol.
"Not so tough now, are you?" Fury muttered, but then he had to duck. One of his agents got shot.
Coulson and the threesome agents with him were already returning fire. Coulson himself was crouched behind an overturned cart, pistol barking in rhythm. Every shot was precise — kneecaps, shoulders, disabling blows — but Fury's men weren't amateurs and had the top-grade bullet-proof armour. Wherever he shot, it only made him stagger and bruise. It wasn't lethal.
The agents pressed forward in formation, fanning out to cut off any retreat. Bang, bang! A Rogue Agent attempted to return fire, only to get shot in the wrist and cry out in agony.
"You'll be fine!" Coulson yelled over. "Use your other hand!"
Having cover versus having better armour and numbers. The latter was winning here, at least without Agent Blade to tip the scales.
"Coulson!" Fury shouted over the chaos. "You don't want this to end with a body count!"
Agent Coulson reloaded calmly. "It already did, Nick — hers."
That moment of distraction gave Blade the opening he needed. SHIELD agents had been inching toward him. He was supposed to be trapped. Yet he kicked the table forward, used it as a springboard, and vaulted straight into the nearest line of agents. His blade flashed. Even weakened under UV light, even with state of the art armour, he got their elbows, knees, and guns. He defeated and knocked back three agents in three seconds.
An agent came behind him and locked him up. Another pointed a gun at his chest. Bam! Cue a bone-crunching headbutt that sent the gun-pointing agent flying and a bone-crushing kick to the foot of the man trying to lock him up. He then spin-kicked him away.
More agents were coming.
Fury adjusted the beam and swept it across the floor in order to limit his movement. Agent Blade had to do a back-flip. Suddenly, his back was pressed against the wall and three agents were downing on him with machine guns.
Blade only smirked. "Only three? Please."
Without regeneration, he was still superhuman.
Olivia clicked her tongue. She and her group of scientists synchronized looks. "Get my arms ready," she said, and they obeyed. To the left side of the room, Felix saw an armoury of sorts containing metal tentacle arms. He had seen these before. He saw the schematics. The original schematics, if he recalled correctly, were drawn up and materialized by her brother Otto Octavius. Olivia then upgraded it with better funding through SHIELD.
Seeing Olivia put herself in the armoury, close her eyes, and have her scientists safely equip the Octo-Arms, Felix saw an opportunity.
'The door…!'
The security room, the place where they were keeping Emma…!
The scientists and Olivia thought he was under the desk. They thought he was going to stay there. Nobody noticed as he turned invisible and ran to the very back. He palmed the door. It was double-locked, one that was a classic safe lock that needed to be spun and the other a cylindrical lock needing a key.
'Rash, we're going to pick this lock.'
'Understoood…!'
Invisible tendrils stretched from the fabric of his cuffs and slipped inside the large lock. A code and a key were unnecessary with a Symbiote. Breaking through it wasn't an option since he was trying to stealth this. He inhaled. From the corner of his eye, he saw the Neural Inhibitor Chip of the Octo-Arms glue on the back of Olivia's neck. He winced.
'Rash, you done?'
'Almooost…almost…' All tendrils suddenly yanked back. 'Done!'
Invisibly and discreetly, the door hissed open and he slipped inside. No one had a clue, especially considering the bullets flying and muffling everything. As expected, the first thing he saw were monitors. They displayed every angle of what was going on behind the doors, including Coulson and Blade being pinned behind cover, Fury advancing and agents shouting into comms.
The cams did not matter. In the far corner, behind a reinforced glass partition, sat Emma Frost.
She was barefoot, still in her nightgown and in cuffs. Her blonde hair hung loose, and she looked up with the world's most unimpressed expression.
"Took you long enough," Emma said flatly.
Felix gave a smile and helpless shrug. "Traffic was hell."
He crossed the room in a few strides, grabbed the edges of the reinforced door, and ripped. The metal groaned, warped, and tore free with a shriek of protest. He tossed it aside like tin foil.
Emma stepped out and offered her wrists. With a chip, he broke the cuffs. "I'm glad you haven't stopped working out," Emma remarked.
He didn't have time for this. "Can you end this? Put everyone to sleep, confuse them, anything?"
Emma shook her head, grimacing. "They put something through my ear. It's blocking my psychic abilities."
"Dr. Octavius must have read through your bio and made a temporary device to disable your powers," Felix muttered, leaning over to inspect inspect the small silver plug nestled just behind her earlobe. "..."
"Can you remove it?"
He squinted. "Not safely. My tendrils could try, but…"
"But?"
"...one wrong twitch and I'd scrape your brainstem. You'll need surgery."
Emma exhaled through her nose. "Of course I do."
Felix tapped his temple. "Herbie?"
'SCANNING DEVICE. BLUEPRINTS FOUND. ID: TEMPORARY BLOCKER. LENGTH: TWELVE-HOUR OPERATIONAL WINDOW.'
"Got it," Felix said. "It burns out in twelve hours. Just need to stay low until then."
Emma rolled her eyes. "Lovely. A half-day vacation in a death bunker."
Together, they turned toward the monitors. The feed showed chaos — absolute chaos.
Agent Blade was still fighting, his movements slowing as Fury's agents kept the UV flood trained on him. Coulson was ducked behind a lab counter, bleeding from a graze across his cheek, firing in controlled bursts. The few Rogue Agents with them were already shot and done for.
Until Olivia Octavius had joined the fray.
The lab floor split open as her four mechanical arms erupted from her back. She was smirking. "Hello, boys! Hope the party isn't over!" Each tentacle lashed out with whip-like precision. One snatched an agent clean off his feet, another grabbed the UV gun and crushed it like paper.
Any bullets were instantly blocked. Those Octo-Arms were no joke. They could see and react as she pleased and then some. It was truly innovating stuff. From the schematics Herbie was sending him, those arms were made of Secondary Adamantium and capable of blocking grenades and RPGs. The AI system had every kind of military manoeuvre and tactic installed in its database and countermeasures for them too.
"Liv…" Felix murmured. "You really shouldn't have done this…"
"Liv?" Emma raised a brow. "Ohh, right, your coworker. Hrm, so she's evil now?"
Felix didn't answer and only watched Olivia Octavius. This was the first time he had ever seen the SHIELD agent in action. It was his first time seeing her as what she truly was and not what she was acting as. One arm blocked a bullet midair, another tore a rifle in two. Fury's reinforcements poured from the elevator, shouting commands, but they couldn't get a clean shot.
"Quality versus quantity," Emma said. "And they're winning."
Felix's jaw tightened. He looked around the room: the security station, the rows of servers, the ventilation grates, a table, and an empty cage. What options did they have?
Emma leaned over one of the consoles, watching as Olivia hurled a heavy table across the lab. "If we don't leave soon, this place will be a crater." She shot him a sidelong glance. "You have a plan? Stop them as Spider-Man? You know you can do it."
"Does Nick Fury look like an idiot to you? He'll know. He'll instantly put two and two together and figure out that Felix Faeth is Spider-Man." He sucked in a breath. "He already suspected me before. And all this—this isn't a crime or a giant kaiju or whatever. This is a SHIELD civil war. It's not in Spider-Man's jurisdiction or psychology to interfere in this kind of secret government matters."
"So…we escape?"
There were already four men dead on the Rogue Agents' side and five on Fury's side—now six with a stray bullet. Dammit, the bloodshed pissed him off. He didn't want to see people die. It reminded him of New York—of Creature Z and all that it stamped on.
He hated not saving people. And while SHIELD agents had signed up to sacrifice their life, if there was something he could do to prevent that…
'Think, think! What can Felix do in this situation? We have a superhuman swordsman vampire guy, a super spy by the name of Coulson, a lady with Adamantium arms programmed by a sophisticated AI and herself with an IQ north of 200, the Vice-Director of SHIELD whose sharper than a knife, and a bunch of elite soldiers. What can a lowly scientist like Felix Faeth do?'
He had Herbie pull up schematics of the Octo-Arms. He bit his bottom lip reading it. Hacking the Neural Inhibitor Chip was impossible. The chip was not in the digital world, it existed only in Olivia's mind. It was powered by the neurons of the individual embedded with the chip. All the data, all the military tactics and strategies, that was all pre-installed to prevent sabotage.
'And it's resistant to electricity too. The original model made by Otto Octavius had that vulnerability but Olivia stamped it out…'
'Why don't we useee our tendrils and go invisible and knock them out, like we did at that parrtty!'
'Invisibility and long-range tendrils…took a bit out of me but we have no other options.'
Main thing: avoid Blade. Being able to block bullets with a sword indicated super senses. Meaning, he was the one person in that room that would sense the tendrils coming one way or another. But Olivia…
He ended up smiling. "The Octo-Arm's AI is only visual-based. Any sound-based inferences are because of Liv herself…"
A weakness, maybe?
Well, time to try and end this…!
Muzzle flashes still lit the walls in erratic bursts. Felix steadied his breathing, the chaos bleeding into the background as he focused. Emma stood by the door, wary, her arms folded.
He raised a fist. "Don't speak."
"Excuse m—"
"Don't. Speak." His tone dropped, deadly calm. "When I do this, I'm blind. Deaf. Every ounce of focus goes to the tendrils. If something moves in here, shoot it, scream, whatever—just watch the door."
Emma blinked and huffed. "Fine, just don't get us killed somehow."
He knelt, exhaled once, and closed his eyes.
The hum of the computers vanished from his perception. Sound dissolved, sight vanished—until only the field of the battlefield appeared in his mind, like sonar drawn in shadow and motion. His symbiote responded in kind.
'Yessss! We are ONE!'
Invisible tendrils seeped underneath and through every gap of the door. They rippled into the blinding white chaos beyond like ghost serpents.
He saw it. He saw Agent Blade in the middle of everything, Vice-Director Fury directing his people up front yet also behind them, and Coulson hiding behind the area around the dead Peggy Carter. Felix saw Liv and the SHIELD agents she was dealing with. He saw the elevator at the back. More back-up from Fury. The back-up wasn't helping.
Three bullets screamed from Coulson and flew toward Fury. One tendril flicked out and knocked away the one bullet about to hit Fury's shoulder mid-flight. Fury didn't notice a thing. No time to think or notice the miracle. Another tendril slithered low, tripping a charging SHIELD agent just before Coulson could fire on him. He saved the man from a bullet to the chest.
No one saw a thing. His goal was for no one to die.
"Keep firing! Don't let up!" Fury barked. He was narrowing in one Coulson. From his history, he had only been shot five times in his whole career. Even in a situation like this where he was up against ten of his own, he was mostly fine. He wouldn't die.
'The bigger problem is Liv…!'
Felix's brow furrowed deeper in concentration. Each tendril acted like an extension of his nerve endings—each flick a muscle, each block a reflex. He could feel the way the air displaced when Olivia's tentacles swung, the sharp precision of the hydraulics, the sheer torque behind them.
When one of Olivia's Octo-Arms hurled an agent across the lab, Felix's tendril snapped forward, coiling beneath the man midair, redirecting his fall. The agent twisted mid-spin and landed on his feet with a skid. It was almost Spider-Man like. The agent was surprised at his own skill.
For a moment, even Fury glanced. He didn't ask though.
Felix's tendrils danced unseen—pushing agents out of the way of ricochets and when one of the agents threw a grenade at Coulson and, for once, Coulson failed to shoot it early, he smacked it away. Felix wanted him defeated, not blown up.
"Goddammit! Push!" Fury yelled.
A gunshot cracked from Fury's pistol. It was a clean, precise shot aimed at Coulson's leg. Felix felt it before it struck. His tendril lashed out, brushing the bullet's trajectory just enough to change its course. Instead of tearing through muscle, it grazed Coulson's thigh. A shallow wound, nothing more.
Coulson winced, but didn't fall. He ignored the wound. He couldn't lose yet, he told himself.
"Push!" Fury roared, taking it as a sign. "He's still up—push!"
Agent Blade was in the middle. He acted as the man congesting them, but it was only possible with Coulson covering for him. Now that he was gone for a second…
"Push!"
And push they did. Four SHIELD agents managed to get past Agent Blade and surge forward.
Felix seized the moment. His invisible tendrils shot straight toward Olivia Octavius. He could see the Neural Inhibitor Chip. He could feel its faint pulse of bioelectric feedback where it touched her spine.
'Pretending to be one…we will show you what it means to be onneeee…!'
A single tendril struck it with pinpoint force. Cue the loud spark. The chip wasn't weak but it wasn't invulnerable. Olivia gasped. Her pupils dilated, her arms spasmed. For half a second, the Octo-Arms went slack.
That half-second was all Fury's agents needed.
All those agents dealing with Blade? They ignored them and rushed right for Olivia. The supersoldier tried to chase them, only to have to block a punch from Fury.
"Not on my watch, motherfucker!"
Agent Blade growled and hooked him across the face. Fury hit the floor.
But he bought more than enough time.
His seven agents grabbed a writhing limb of the mechanical arms, pinning them with magnetic clamps. Two more agents reached the woman herself: one pressing a reinforced gas mask over her mouth. Her muffled scream barely escaped before the tranquilizer mist hissed out.
Olivia Octavius went limp. The Octo-Arms fell silent, locking into their fail-safe state.
"Target subdued!" one of Fury's men shouted.
"Target surrounded!"
That was regarding Agent Coulson. He was completely and totally surrounded. He could still shoot and fight at eighty-percent, but in a situation like this, he had to be at a hundred. And he wasn't. He pursed his lips.
Only Agent Blade remained. He stood over Agent Fury and pointed his sword at his eyepatch. "You old fucker…!" His coat was torn, his face blistered, breath coming in harsh growls. Although his blade was pointed, Fury was smiling.
"It's called strategy, Blade."
Blade looked around. Guns were pointed at him, Fury was smirking, Coulson's leg was bleeding, and their tank was knocked out.
"Gonna put that blade down?" Fury asked, slowly getting up to his feet. He dusted himself, his smile never leaving. "Or am I gonna have to shoot you?"
UV lights were sprayed on him. Every agent had been handed a UV flashlight. Only two agents had to use them right now though.
"Come on, we saw your records. Your healing only works at night. But out in the sun? In UV lights? It goes slack. Why do you think you were deemed a failure?"
Blade sucked in a breath. As much as he wanted to snap back, he couldn't. Slowly, he let his sword clatter to the floor.
"It's over," Fury said.
Blade raised his hands. "Yeah. Guess it is."
Felix released a slow breath. His tendrils withdrew, whispering back through the door like smoke fading into the wind. The second they disconnected, his senses came rushing back in a tidal wave: sound, light, and the hum of the servers and the ventilation system. He staggered.
Emma caught him. "Woah, are you alright? What happened?"
"I'm fine," he murmured, shrugging her off. "It's done."
Through the monitors, they could see the aftermath: agents restraining Blade, others dragging Olivia to containment. Coulson limped toward Fury, exchanging sharp, hushed words. The operation was over.
Felix blinked, realization dawning. "They'll sweep every room."
Emma frowned. "Including this one."
He nodded. "You need to go. Ventilation shaft—now."
Emma scowled, crossing her arms. "And leave you here? Adorable."
"Emma." His voice softened but stayed firm. "You're powerless, recognizable, and Fury's not going to let you walk out free. You stay, you go back in a cage. You leave, I can explain my presence as a terrified lab rat caught in the crossfire."
"Right, right…why are you here again? Why am I here? All I was told was that I was a threat—"
"Emma, I'll explain everything later. Just go."
She hated that he was right. Her lips tightened. "…Fine."
He pried the vent cover open for her. She paused, halfway inside, and glanced back at him. "If you die, I'll be livid."
He smiled faintly. "Get in line."
She disappeared into the shaft, metal grating sliding back into place.
Ten seconds later, the door burst open. Two SHIELD agents swept in with rifles up, Fury right behind them.
Felix yelped, stumbling back against the console, eyes wide. "Oh, thank God—it's you!" he said, playing his role perfectly. "I didn't—I just hid when the shooting started—I swear I didn't see—"
"Relax, Dr. Faeth," Fury said, lowering his weapon. His single eye scanned the room and ended up on the cage. He was coming to the wrong conclusion or whatever. "You're safe now."
Felix swallowed hard and sighed in relief. "You have no idea how happy I am to hear that. I was always afraid a day like this would come..."
"You're the saviour of New York. Comes with the brain, my friend." Fury told his men to fan out. This man was no threat after all. "I surmise you sent that signal?"
"Y-yeah, that was me. They wanted me here for something called Extremis…? C-check their databases, it's all there."
Fury studied him for a beat longer, then nodded toward his men. "You heard the man. Get me information on Extremis."
Felix just kept his head down. On the inside, though, he was smiling and relieved. The Rogue Agents were done and defeated.