Time For Another Target

There wasn't much Serena could do. She was still in shock over what had happened. Her father tried to talk to her, but she didn't really want to talk. She was worried about Peter and felt completely helpless. She went back to the room she and Peter shared and she just laid there on the bed staring up at the ceiling.

Natalya looked over at Steve and gave a little nod. She knew that Hydra would be expecting them. She didn't plan on holding back. They were going to receive the full wrath of the Black Widow. She landed the jet in a secure area and the three of them disembarked. The Hydra base was a rather unassuming building that appeared to be just another warehouse but Natalya knew better and Hydra was far too cocky to move the base, even though they knew she knew where it was. She and Logan parted with Steve and waited for Steve to draw away the initial security.

Peter had long since learned how to track the other members of the team. Each one of them had a tracker under their skin. He knew where they were, they were tiny blips on his wrist comm that gave him their direction. His new black suit had everything he needed. Webs and speed and agility, everything. He felt stronger and more powerful than he ever had before. And HE had a score to settle.

The base looked as if nothing was amiss but that was just what Hydra wanted them to think. Steve saw guards but they looked run of the mill and decidedly to usual. “Ok something definitely isn’t right,” Steve Said. “I vote we pull back and wait,” Steve said.

Natalya heard what Steve said and sighed. She knew that Valentina was in there and she hated getting this close and not being able to do anything about it. She normally would just make a decision on her own, but she and Logan were a team and they were getting married. He was here with her and she decided that he needed to be in on this decision since he was also risking his neck.

"What do you think?"

As Logan looked at Natalya something in a black suit swung over them and landed over the fence. Logan didn’t get a good look at him but he did smell him. Natalya’s vision was much better but she never saw that suit before. However she could swear it looked a lot like Peter’s suit.

“Peter?” Logan murmured and then his and Natalya’s eyes met and Logan got on his wrist comm to Steve.

“I think Peter is in some kind of new suit and he’s inside the grounds...we have to back him up,” he said and then charged with Natalya toward the fence. He cut the fence to allow Natalya through unabated.

Before Logan could even answer her something caught their attention. It was a movement above them and she looked over to see a man in a black suit. She only knew one person who could swing like that and that was Peter. However, she did not recognize that black suit. She looked at Logan and he looked at her and they both knew that they needed to go after him. Their indecision had just been made. As soon as Logan slashed the fence and pulled it back she was through and at a full run after Peter.

Peter was not interested in just getting past security. Not this time he wanted revenge and pet of him. A dark part enhanced by the suit he wore wanted blood and today Peter was going to give it what it wanted.

Two guards popped up seemingly out of nowhere as if by thought Peter webbed the first one then launched him far into the air. The second he pounced on and with a quick twist of his hands he snapped his neck like a twig. The other one eventually landed though the bones of his legs broke like twigs.

Peter was quickly on the eastern wall of the building and he began to climb up fast.

“Jesus!” Logan said as they ran. And they passed the guard who had his neck snapped. Steve has begun his run and he used his abilities and his shield to great effect. “Use your grap gun!” Logan said as they came up to the wall.

Natalya was shocked by what she was witnessing. This was not the Peter she knew, nor did she recognize that suit. Something was wrong...very wrong. Peter didn't kill people. He didn't even like her killing people. She had to catch up to him and stop him. Natalya had grappling hooks on her wrist gauntlet and she fired one up to the top of the wall. The hooks were made to withstand her weight plus another person and thus she had Logan take hold of her and she activated the line to retract, which pulled them up the wall at a pretty fast speed. They were up at the top nearly at the same time as Peter. Natalya managed to grab Peter by the arm but he was able to twist his arm out of her grasp. She glanced at Logan.

"I don't know what the hell is going on with him, but that isn't the Peter I know," she said before following him again.

Peter growled at Natalya for grabbing him and to her surprise, his mouth gaped open as if he wasn’t human at all. Before she could grab him up again he leaped away far further and higher than she had ever seen before. He leaped right into a skylight and disappeared just as they reached where he had gone. The skylight was smashed and looking down they saw him fighting the guards there. No, not fighting them, killing them. “Holy hell!” Logan said in a rasp. “That can’t be Peter, it can;t be!” he exclaimed as he and Natalya did their one, two jump. He’d land hard and take the brunt and toss her up just enough so she could rollout of the fall and be ready to fight. He’d need a few moments to heal but it worked for them and so that was what they did.

Steve came in the front. Guards shooting at him with full auto fire. There was no doubt they knew they were there now and Valentina had that rifle and those rounds. The only one she couldn't hurt with them was likely Steve. The rest of them though were just fish in a barrel for her.

Natalya was extremely worried about Peter. This was not him. However she couldn’t focus on him. She needed to take care of Valentina. She waited until Logan was through the skylight and on the floor before she jumped down after him. He caught her and tossed her up just enough so she landed on her feet. She pulled out her pistols and began to fire at the guards.

Logan and Natalya became separated by someone who drove a forklift in between them. Logan sliced alongside it and sparks flew from its motor but a mountain of a man hopped out on the other side and grabbed Natalya from behind. He pinned her arms down and felt her eyes bulge as he began to squeeze her. Her breath left her lungs as he continued to squeeze but then she felt a whoosh of wind, a jolt and the man fell back away from her as Steve’s shield ricocheted off of one of the forks and he caught it deftly just in time to strike at two others that came up onto him. Logan was faced with 2 men in black clothes on the other side. They were martially trained and working him over something fierce. They both had Katana swords and had already had several deep cuts on him. Peter was above them and he managed to get onto a catwalk that ran along the support steel above them. At first Natalya didn’t understand why when the fight was down below but then she saw a flash of red hair in one of the 2nd floor offices and knew Peter must have seen her too. For the most part, Peter avoided the guards and he opted to disable them with webs unless they got in his way directly.

Natalya tried to keep an eye on Logan, but as they became separated it became much more difficult to do so. She became momentarily distracted by Logan when he sliced through the forklift and in that moment she felt someone very large grab her from behind. He had his arms wrapped around her and began to squeeze her very tightly. She couldn't breathe and she struggled to break free of his grasp. She tried everything she could but nothing worked. Just as she felt herself starting to black out she felt a whoosh of air as Steve's shield shot past her and hit the man who had been holding her. She gave Steve a nod of thanks and then went back to work. As she was fighting the guards she looked up and spotted Peter above them on the catwalk. At first she didn't understand why he was up there until she spotted Valentina's unmistakable red hair. He was after her. She didn't know why, but there wasn't time to ask questions. She now knew where Valentina was and she headed towards that office as she reloaded her pistols.

Logan impaled the first one with a claw then jumped back before he was sliced down the middle and the blade only barely bit into his flesh. Already he was a bloody mess but as more wounds appeared, others vanished and he continued to fight. He saw Natalya pause on the steps that led up to the upper offices but he didn’t turn to face her. “Go!, do it!” He shouted as he decided that he had had enough and charged the man with the sword. The man impaled him but he also drove his claws into the man’s chest.

A large elevator popped up from the floor just then and another one of those damned, metal walkers came off of it toward him. Its weapon wasn't like last time. This time it lobbed explosives at him and it was all Steve could do to avoid them. The shots killed others but there was nothing Steve could do but dodge, watch, anticipate and dodge again.

As soon as Natalya hit the upper offices a woman with blonde hair and a black suit not much unlike her own. She held 2 Sai’s and as Natalya tried to shoot her she managed to hook one of the Sai’s inside of her pistol’s trigger guard. As she did she dropped to the floor as Natalya tried to hang onto her weapon and Natalya was flung head first through the opposing windowed wall. The glass shattered as she came through it and she hit hard then landed onto her side as she tipped over a metal desk on her way down to the floor. She retained her weapon though and she felt the woman’s shadow appear in the opening her body had just made.

“And here I expected more from The Black Widow,” the woman taunted. Natalya knew the woman but she had never faced her personally. Yelena Belova, supposedly her SSB replacement, now working for Hydra as well?

Natalya slowly staggered to her feet. She was disoriented from being thrown through the glass window and she could feel where the glass had cut her body in several places. One of which was deep on her right side. Her suit had been sliced open there and the wound was large and bleeding profusely. Natalya ignored it though. She had heard about Yelena but she had never encountered her before today. She was good, but Natalya knew that ultimately she was better. This woman was cocky and sure of herself and Natalya knew from past experience that that was not necessarily a good thing.

She didn't have a lot of time. She needed to get to Valentina. She couldn't allow her to escape. She engaged Yelena in hand to hand combat and Natalya proved that Yelena had under estimated her...greatly. Even injured as she was she was fast and strong and within seconds she had managed to disarm one of her Sais. She and Yelena struggled for control of the fight but Natalya managed to gain the upper hand again. She punched Yelena square in the face and then kicked her in the chest to back her up against a wall. She then took the Sai she had in her hand and plunged it into Yelena's chest, right through her heart. She watched as Yelena's eyes glazed over and blood began to trickle from her mouth. Right before she died Natalya whispered in Russian in her ear. "Did you expect that?"

Valentina had long since abandoned her rifle. Whomever was in this black suit he meant business and if she had ever known anyone who wanted to kill her before, she knew this man certainly did. He had caught her twice already and she felt the bruises, the cuts and the pain of her right wrist that he had snapped like a twig. Where had he come from? Who was he? How was she going to get out of this? She didn’t know, she only knew that going after the Stark girl had not been a very good choice.

Steve and Logan teamed up to deal with the walker. Once they got close enough it could no longer use its weapons. Steve dodged its massive arm as Logan hopped onto it and began slicing at all of its wiring. It was no longer controlled by someone, this one was completely automated.

Peter kicked Viper in the back and sent her through another wall. He hopped through easily and bided his time as she struggled to get back to her feet. She bled from dozens of places including her nose and mouth but Peter didn’t care. “You killed Aunt May!” he growled as he opened up his giant maw of a mouth. Viper’s eyes grew wide with fear as she desperately thought of how she could talk him down.

“I didn’t mean to shoot her...I was just following orders!” She said as Peter flung himself at her then threw her bodily through another wall. Drywall, glass and metal broke apart as her body fell through it. She was covered in dust and debris as she tried to stand but something was wrong with her left leg and she fell back down. “No more shots to take now,” Peter taunted in a hideous voice that was not his own. “You took the last of my kin and if I knew who you loved, I’d bring them all here and make you watch as I killed every...single...one of them,” He said evilly. She held her hands up as if she wanted him to cuff her.

“I give up...b-bring me in, I give up,” she said breathlessly. Peter was on her in an instant and he held her arms down with his. His large maw growled at her and she turned her face away as she saw it open to reveal dozens of razor sharp teeth. Just before he bit her head off though he saw his aunt’s image in his head.

“Your Uncle Ben used to always tell me that he never once felt as if he had to worry about you. You always do the right thing even when you don’t want to. Your parents would be so proud of you Peter, so proud,” she said as she smiled at him. The gaping maw closed and Peter drew his mask off. Viper looked up at him and he looked down at her as he began to cry softly. ‘You didn’t have to kill er!” he said as tears streamed down his face and he sat back on his haunches. Viper had moved her hand underneath her and she had a knife half out of its hidden sheath as she looked up at him. Though she was a hard woman the emotion she saw in the man made her feel a small twinge of remorse for him. She was going to still kill him though she knew.

Three shots suddenly rang out. Natalya stood on the catwalk above Peter and Valentina. She had seen Valentina reach for the knife and she hadn’t hesitated to kill her. She had shot her in the chest and Valentina died instantly. Her eyes remained open and stared up towards her. Natalya’s gun smoked slightly and now that her adrenaline was slowing she could feel the searing pain in her side. It was done Valentina was dead. Any remaining Hydra guards fled the scene.

Natalya moved down and took the black mask from Peter and tucked it into her suit. She wasn’t planning on letting him have that back. She winced in pain as she sat down on the floor next to him. She didn’t say anything. She just reached out and placed a hand upon his shoulder.

Peter shifted onto her shoulder as he wept and Logan and Steve arrived. Logan bent down to begin tending Natalya’s wounds as Steve checked Valentina’s vitals. She was dead alright, no coming back from that. A flashed Natalya a look of disapproval but he hadn’t seen where her hand had been either. “Hey, who was the blonde chuck you impaled on the wall?” Logan asked as he slid out a rather large shard of glass from her flesh. He showed it to her as he tossed it aside. He took out a few more and then applied the coagulant powder that made her wince. Peter continued to cry into Natalya’s shoulder. They were the only family he had left in this world.

After a time they were all inside the jet. Steve piloted the plane back as Natalya was strapped into the plane’s only biobed, a new edition by Tony to provide in transit medical care. Logan pumped her full of pain killers and gave her a few nips of his flask before he left her there to rest during the flight. As she rested the mask she had taken shifted slowly inside where she put it and as if it had a mind of its own it wiggled out and landed in a dark mass on the floor of the plane. It slithered like a tiny black snake until it met back up with the rest of it and rejoined it.

When they landed they were met by everyone else. Peter flung his arms around Serena and just held her like that as he fought to control his emotions. He managed to but just barely it seemed as the others went on with what had happened.