The next morning found retracing my steps through the sa forest where I'd encountered Bucky and the compromised Spider-Man just yesterday. True to my word, I was heading to our agreed eting spot for the promised two-minute window.
The early morning air was crisp, and my footsteps barely made a sound on the forest floor as I approached the clearing.
Seven AM sharp, just like I promised.
But as I neared the familiar clearing, my perception picked up sothing unexpected. Soone was already there, waiting. The distinctive silhouette was unmistakable even through the trees.
Bucky Barnes stood in the exact spot where our conversation had taken place yesterday, but sothing was different about him. And parked just beyond the tree line, barely concealed by the forest canopy, was a SHIELD Quinjet with its engines running.
He seed tense.
I dashed forward and moved closer through the underbrush. Whatever had brought Bucky here ahead of schedule, it clearly wasn't good news.
When I was close enough to see the gravity etched into his expression, I decided to make my presence known.
"You found the info that fast, huh?"
Bucky spun around, his hand instinctively moving toward his sidearm before his brain caught up with his reflexes. For a mont, he seed ready to attack .
"Jesus Christ," he muttered, forcing his hand away from his weapon. "Don't sneak up on like that."
I let the stealth drop, becoming visible again as I stepped out from behind a cluster of trees. "Sorry. Just ssing around."
Bucky shook his head, clearly rattled by my ability to completely disappear from his enhanced senses. "No, I didn't find the info about the facilities yet. Our teams are working on it—should be able to trace it back to whoever's responsible by this evening."
He paused, and I could see sothing weighing heavily on him. "But there's sothing I urgently need your help with."
That explains the early arrival and the running Quinjet.
I raised an eyebrow, genuinely surprised. SHIELD asking for my help was not sothing I'd expected, especially not this soon after our first eting.
"What is it?"
Bucky's expression grew even more grim. "What you told about Octavius taking over Spider-Man's body was true. Our scientists confird it—the real Spider-Man was trapped in Otto's dying body, and we had him in our most advanced dical bay just to keep him alive."
I felt a cold knot forming in my stomach. "Had?"
"We developed a device that could switch their consciousness back to their proper bodies. The procedure was supposed to happen half an hour ago." Bucky's jaw tightened. "But Otto—in Spider-Man's body—woke up during the preparation phase. He killed the entire research team and took Spider-Man with him."
Shit. That was not the outco anyone had been hoping for. "How many dead?"
"Seven researchers. Good people." The pain in Bucky's voice was genuine. "We tracked Otto to a laboratory facility in the industrial district."
"But the location is crawling with Lizard clones—creatures Otto created and controls directly. One of our pursuit teams tried to breach the periter and lost many agents on the outer defenses alone."
The picture he was painting was getting worse by the second.
A genius-level intellect with Spider-Man's powers, holed up in a fortified position with an army of superhuman reptilian guards, holding the real Spider-Man hostage in a dying body.
"Why not send in the heavy hitters?" I asked. "SHIELD must have a lot of them, right?"
Bucky sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Like I told you yesterday, most of our heavy hitters are off-world dealing with a threat."
"The few supersoldier-level heroes we have left are either too far away to reach us in ti, or they're not equipped to handle dozens of enhanced Lizard creatures without risking Spider-Man's life in the crossfire."
He t my eyes directly. "I need your help, and I need it right now. He doesn't have much ti left in that deteriorating body."
I considered the situation.
This was an urgent one, but this was also an opportunity.
"I'll help," I said finally. "But in return, I need three things."
Bucky's expression shifted to wariness. "What kind of things?"
"First, clean records for both and Anna. I don't want either of us hunted, tracked, or having our mutant status made public. Complete immunity and anonymity."
That was non-negotiable. Anna deserved to live without fear of governnt persecution or public scrutiny.
"Second, a decent apartnt."
Murphy's Last Stop was fine as a temporary refuge, but we also need to have our own place.
"Third, cash. A substantial amount. Call it a fee for services rendered."
Bucky was quiet for a mont, clearly weighing my demands against the urgency of the situation. I could practically see him calculating whether SHIELD had the authority to make those kinds of deals.
"You should at least have that much authority, right?" I pressed.
His earpiece crackled to life, and I caught fragnts of a voice on the other end—soone giving him clearance or confirmation. After a brief exchange in which he outlined my terms, Bucky nodded.
"Alright. Deal."
Perfect. I'd honestly been prepared to help them just for the clean records, even if SHIELD was not willing to throw in housing and paynt.
Guess they don't have ti for negotiations.
"Great. Let's go save Spider-Man."
As we walked toward the Quinjet, I decided to allocate the stat points I had saved in the past few days.
The Quinjet's ramp lowered as we approached, revealing a small crew of SHIELD agents preparing equipnt and monitoring communications. The pilot looked up as we boarded.
"ETA to target location?" Bucky asked, settling into one of the tactical seats.
"Twelve minutes at current speed," the pilot replied.
I strapped myself in while allocating all the points I had left, and the number of stat points I had as of now made extrely confident in comparison to what I started with in the beginning.
I need to level up a lot more, get stronger to the point I don't have to hide from anyone or any being in the entire world.
A few minutes later
The Quinjet began its descent almost imdiately, and through the windows, I could see we were approaching an industrial area dotted with warehouses and abandoned facilities. The pilot's voice crackled over the intercom.
"Approaching target location. Prepare for landing."
As we touched down, I could see the situation was exactly as bad as Bucky had described.
A periter of SHIELD agents had set up a defensive line around what appeared to be a large cave entrance built into the side of a concrete facility. Even from this distance, I could make out several large, reptilian forms moving near the entrance.
Lizards. They looked exactly like the ones from The Amazing Spider-Man movie—hulking, green-scaled creatures with yellow eyes and razor-sharp claws.
Bodies of SHIELD agents lay scattered near the cave entrance, a testant to the creatures' deadly efficiency.
Bucky stepped up beside as the Quinjet's ramp lowered. "Spider-Man is inside there. You'll need to clear the lizards, and we'll move in for support. I"
"I don't need support," I interrupted, summoning my Red Fang daggers into my hands.
Without another word, I activated Dash and sprinted toward the cave entrance.
Let's see how many levels I can gain from this.
.....
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