Red emergency strobes sliced through the damp, ozone-heavy air of the underwater base. Felicia Hardy sprinted down the metallic corridor, her boots barely making a sound against the floor panels. She was hunting for survivors.
Up ahead, the heavy steel doors of the main control room slid open. A woman stepped out, her posture rigid, wearing a pristine green combat uniform. Madame Viper. Felicia flattened herself against the cold bulkhead, holding her breath in the shadows as Viper marched down the opposite hall.
Once the coast was clear, Felicia slipped inside the control room. Her eyes immediately locked onto the massive central monitor. Huge red digits were ticking down.
03:12... 03:11... 03:10...
Felicia's stomach dropped. She gripped the edge of the console. Why? Why would Hydra initiate a self-destruct sequence the absolute second they were compromised? Did they really value their own infrastructure that little?
Madame Viper's logic was ruthless but sound. If Spider-Man was here, the Avengers were already watching. A compromised laboratory was a minor setback; the Avengers discovering the full, terrifying depth of Hydra's infiltration was an extinction-level event. Hesitation bred discovery. Viper chose the simplest solution: burn the evidence, flood the base, and bury the spider.
Felicia didn't have time to unravel the politics. She slammed her hands across the control board, overriding the electronic locks on the holding cells. She snatched the heavy plastic PA microphone from its cradle.
"Attention," Felicia said, her voice echoing through the facility's speakers. "The base's self-destruct sequence is active. You have exactly three minutes to evacuate before this place becomes a crater at the bottom of the river. Run."
Chaos erupted on the security feeds. Armed guards and confused researchers scrambled, shoving each other out of the way.
Meanwhile, in the ruined laboratory sector, Otto Octavius glared through the reinforced glass of his life-support pod. His mechanical tentacles ground against the floor panels. This time, the animosity between him and Spider-Man was absolute. Otto's mind raced. He needed a dedicated countermeasure. Peter's new abilities from his second mutation—specifically his invisibility and his bio-electric output —were variables Otto hadn't prepared for. When Otto finally made his move against Norman Osborn, he knew this damned bug would interfere. He would be ready next time.
But right now, with less than three minutes on the clock, survival took priority. Otto commanded his metal arms to launch his pod backward, retreating down a reinforced maintenance shaft.
Peter wanted to chase him. He wanted to go after Otto and the green-clad woman pulling the strings, but he was currently pinned down.
A massive, heavily armored tactical tank tracked his movements, its auto-aiming turret swiveling with a loud mechanical whine.
Peter, who was fundamentally impossible to shut up in a fight, flipped over a barrage of heavy-caliber bullets. "Who parallel-parks a literal tank inside an underwater base? The logistics alone must be a nightmare! Aren't you worried about blowing a hole in the ceiling and drowning us all?"
He didn't wait for an answer. Peter lunged forward, grabbing the heavy industrial forklift he had intercepted earlier. His muscles screamed under the immense weight. He hauled it upward and hurled it directly at the tank's turret. The resulting crunch of metal on metal was deafening.
"Thank you, Dr. Octopus, for the forklift!" Peter yelled over the sparks.
Deeper in the facility, a Viper security guard rushed through an automatic door. A black-clad blur dropped from the ceiling. Felicia's boot caught the guard perfectly under the chin, snapping his head back. He crumpled instantly.
Felicia landed smoothly, clutching the reinforced glass jar containing the symbiote tight against her ribs. She hit the manual override on the laboratory door and ripped it open.
Inside, Madame Viper stood over a glowing operating table, glaring at a frantic scientist.
"The experiment has reached its most critical moment" Dr. Koyama demanded, his voice icy. "All three subjects have been injected with the modified Super Soldier serum. I only need one minute to finalize the Vita-Ray exposure."
"You're going to be dead in one minute!" Felicia interrupted, stepping into the room.
Viper spun around. She drew a sidearm and fired a three-round burst in a single, fluid motion.
Felicia reacted instantly. She threw herself sideways, tucking into a tight roll. One bullet clipped the very edge of her silver hair.
Viper paused, her weapon still raised. Her eyes narrowed as they dropped to the glass canister in Felicia's hands. The black, writhing mass inside pushed against the glass. It was the alien symbiotic organism recovered from a meteorite in the Arizona desert, originally kept in a military containment facility.
"Where did you get that?" Viper demanded.
Felicia flashed a sharp grin. "Who knows? Fell off a truck. Finder's keepers."
Felicia didn't stop moving. She sprang up from her roll and slammed her open palm directly onto the main console's emergency stop button.
The laboratory's power grid shrieked. A shower of blinding white sparks erupted from the control panel. The humming Vita-Ray emitters powered down with a heavy, dying mechanical groan.
Dr. Koyama cursed under his breath. Realizing the experiment was ruined and the clock was ticking, Viper grabbed Koyama by the collar of his lab coat and violently dragged him backward through a secondary escape hatch. The heavy steel door slammed shut and locked behind them.
With Viper gone, Felicia rushed to the center of the room. She popped the pressure seals on the three experimental chambers. A thick cloud of cryogenic vapor spilled over the edges.
She expected to find corpses. Instead, all three subjects were breathing.
There was a young African American boy, a white teenage girl, and an older Asian man. Felicia recognized the Asian man instantly. She had seen his photograph on a guest list just hours ago. Martin Li, the billionaire philanthropist who had sponsored the charity banquet.
Hydra must be getting desperate, Felicia thought, kidnapping high-profile billionaires for lab rats.
"Hey," Felicia said, keeping her voice calm but loud enough to pierce their daze. "I'm glad to see you're all still breathing. We are leaving right now. Can you walk?"
"W-where am I?" the young Black teenager stammered. He pushed himself up, but as he raised his hands, he froze.
His fingers were dissolving. Pure, suffocating black mist rolled off his skin, as if his flesh was actively opening a tear into a dark dimension. "What... what's happening to me?"
"Hydra pumped you full of experimental super-soldier serum," Felicia said, shaking her head. "I know this is a lot to process, but we have about ninety seconds before the river crashes down on our heads. We need to move!"
She looked at the other two. The young girl was trembling, her hands clutching her face. Hard, blinding white light fractured across her skin, forming sharp, glowing geometric patterns. Martin Li was completely silent. He stepped out of his pod, but his entire body had shifted. His hair was stark white, and his skin had turned pitch black. He looked exactly like an inverted photographic negative.
They were mutating. The serum was altering their biology on a fundamental level. They stared at their own hands, completely paralyzed by the shock of their transformations.
"Hey! Look at me!" Felicia shouted, clapping her hands together. "You were illegally experimented on. It's a nightmare, I get it. But Hydra just triggered the self-destruct sequence to cover it up! There is an Avenger out there fighting a tank right now. Can we please panic after we escape?"
Her harsh tone finally snapped them out of their trance.
Felicia led the three glowing, smoking mutants out into the main corridor. They rounded a corner and nearly collided with Peter.
Peter was entirely soaked, his red and blue suit dripping river water onto the floor. He stood over the smoking, crushed remains of the tactical tank.
"The main tunnel is gone," Peter said, his chest heaving. "Completely collapsed. We're boxed in."
Deafening explosions rumbled through the floorboards. The steel walls groaned under the immense pressure of the river above. Water began spraying through cracks in the ceiling.
Peter's narrow white eye lenses locked onto the glass canister Felicia was holding tight to her chest.
"You actually kept that thing?" Peter asked.
"A master thief never leaves empty-handed," Felicia smirked, though her eyes were tight with anxiety. "Think it can get us out of here?"
Peter stared at the black sludge. The symbiote was a documented potential countermeasure against Spider-Man, an apex predator in a jar. But right now, it was a tool.
"Maybe," Peter said.
He snatched the canister from her hands and violently ripped the reinforced seal off the top.
Thick, inky black gel spilled over the glass rim. It rolled down like liquid shadow, latching directly onto Peter's outstretched hand.