by Alex Irvine
“I did.” Peter was proud of it. He might as well get credit for it if Stark already knew everything else.
“Climbing the walls. How are you doing that? Adhesive gloves?”
That was a little more complicated. “It’s a long story. I was, uh…” He was about to tell the whole story, the radioactive spider and the rest, because he’d never told anyone and Tony Stark—Tony Stark!—was right there listening.
Then he looked up. Stark had the goggles from Peter’s costume up to his face. “Lordy! Can you even see in these?”
“Yes. Yes, I can! I can. I can see in those. Okay?” Peter took the suit away from Stark and put it away again as he went on. “It’s just that… when… whatever happened happened, it’s like my senses have been dialed to eleven. There’s way too much input, so… they just kind of help me focus.”
“You’re in dire need of an upgrade,” Stark said. “Systemic, top to bottom. Hundred-point restoration. That’s why I’m here.”
Peter sat on his bed.
“Why are you doing this?” Stark asked. “I gotta know. What’s your MO? What gets you out of that twin bed in the morning?”
“Because… because I’ve been me my whole life, and I’ve had these powers for six months.” Peter knew he wasn’t explaining it very well.
“Mm-hm.” Stark waited for him to go on.
“I read books, I build computers… and yeah. I would love to play football. But I couldn’t then, so I shouldn’t now.”
“Sure,” Stark said. “Because you’re different.”
“Exactly. But I can’t tell anybody that, so I’m not.” Peter paused. He didn’t want to tell Stark everything. “When you can do the things that I can, but you don’t… and then the bad things happen, they happen because of you.”
He saw a shadow pass over Stark’s face. “So you want to look out for the little guy,” Stark said. “You want to do your part. Make the world a better place. All that, right?”
“Yeah. Yeah, just looking out… for the little guy. That’s what it is.”
Stark came over to the bed. “I’m going to sit here, so you move the leg.” Peter shifted over. “You got a passport?” Stark asked.
“Uh, no. I don’t even have a driver’s license.”
“You ever been to Germany?”
“No.”
“Oh, you’ll love it,” Stark said.
“I can’t go to Germany!” Peter said. This was all the definition of insane.
Stark looked him in the eye. “Why?”
“I got… homework.” Peter knew it sounded ridiculous.
Stark stood up. “All right, I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.”
“I’m—I’m being serious!” Peter said. “I can’t just drop out of school!”
“Might be a little dangerous,” Stark said, like he was thinking out loud. “Better tell Aunt Hottie I’m taking you on a field trip.”
That was it. Peter extended one hand and shot a line of webbing across the room, sticking Stark’s hand to the doorframe and also gluing the door shut.
“Don’t tell Aunt May,” he said, dead serious.
“All right, Spider-Man,” Stark said. He looked impressed at seeing what Peter could do. After a moment, he added, “Get me out of this.”
“I’m sorry,” Peter said. Jeez, he’d just webbed Tony Stark. What a way to make a first impression. “I’ll get that.”
CHAPTER 18
Wanda and Vision were having a quiet night at the Avengers compound, trying to follow the news from Berlin, when they saw a fireball rising into the sky outside. It was close—on the grounds.
“What is it?” Wanda wondered aloud.
“Stay here, please,” Vision said. He phased through the wall and disappeared.
A moment later she sensed a presence. With a twitch of one hand, she lifted a kitchen knife from the cutting board and sent it streaking across the room… where it stopped an inch short of Clint Barton’s forehead.
“Guess I should have knocked,” he said, and pushed it aside.
“Oh my God,” Wanda said. She let the knife fall to the floor. “What are you doing here?”
Clint was wearing his full Hawkeye uniform, complete with a compound bow and a quiver full of special-made arrows. He fired two quick arrows, one into the kitchen counter and the other high on one wall nearby. “Disappointing my kids. I’m supposed to go water-skiing. Cap needs our help. Come on.” He started for the door, holding Wanda by the hand. He had created the diversion outside to break her out. But where were they going?
“Clint!” Vision called as he phased back into the room. “You should not be here.”
“Really? I retired for, what? Like, five minutes?”
Remaining calm as he always did, Vision said, “Please consider the consequences of your actions.”
“Okay, they’re considered.” Vision took another step toward them, and a stasis field flared out from the arrow embedded in the kitchen counter. Vision froze. “Okay, we got to go,” Clint said. The field wouldn’t hold Vision forever.
He stopped when he noticed Wanda wasn’t coming. “It’s this way.”
“I’ve caused enough problems,” she said.
Trotting back toward her, he said, “You’ve got to help me, Wanda. Look, you want to mope, you can go to high school. You want to make amends, you get up.”
Vision blew the stasis field apart with a blast from his gem. Clint swore and fired an arrow at him. Vision phased part of his body, and the arrow passed through to hit the wall behind him. He effortlessly knocked Clint spinning across the room.
Clint groaned as he got to his feet. “I knew I should have stretched,” he said. He snapped out a baton and charged Vision.
It was hopeless. Vision’s power to change the density of his body meant Clint’s baton strikes either passed right through him or bounced off him with no effect. Eventually, the baton couldn’t handle it—it broke on Vision’s chest. Vision wrapped an arm around his attacker’s neck and calmly said, “Clint, you can’t overpower me.”
“I know I can’t,” Clint said. “But she can.”
“Vision.” A crimson ball of energy hovered between Wanda’s hands. “That’s enough. Let him go. I’m leaving.”
“I can’t let you,” he said.
The gem in his forehead turned red as she used her powers to take control of it. His arm phased and Clint staggered free. “I’m sorry,” Wanda said. She squeezed her hands together, and the floor underneath Vision cracked. She was increasing his density, making him too heavy for the floor to support him.
“If you do this, they will never stop being afraid of you.” His eyes never left hers.
“I can’t control their fear,” she said. “Only my own.”
She leaned forward and shoved her hands down, driving the super-dense Vision down through the floors of the Avengers safe house to bury him deep inside the Earth. It hurt her to do this to him, but she could not stand by and let her friends be hunted down. She had to atone for what she had done in Lagos.
Hawkeye looked down into the bottomless shaft. “Come on,” he said after a minute. “We’ve got one more stop.”
Back in Berlin, T’Challa was leaving on his own search for Bucky Barnes, and Natasha was trying to convince him not to go. “It’s just a matter of time,” T’Challa said as he and one of his bodyguards—a shaven-headed woman who glared daggers at Natasha—approached his car. “Our satellites are running facial, biometric, and behavioral pattern scans.”
The bodyguard stopped in front of Natasha, who stood in front of the door of T’Challa’s car. “Move, or you will be moved,” she said.
Natasha didn’t move.
“As entertaining as that would be…” T’Challa said. He gave the bodyguard a look and she stepped aside, with one last challenging glance at Natasha.
“You really think you can find him?” Natasha asked.
T’Challa nodded. “Our resources are considerable.”
; “Yeah,” she said. “It took the world seventy years to find Barnes. So you could probably do better than them by half that time.”
“You know where they are?” T’Challa asked.
“I know someone who does,” she said.
CHAPTER 19
Sharon Carter had agreed to meet Steve at an out-of-the-way bridge underpass in the countryside outside Berlin. “I’m not sure you understand the concept of a getaway car,” she said when she got out of her car and saw that Steve was driving an ancient little car that could barely fit its passengers.
“It’s low-profile,” he said.
“Good,” she said. “Because this stuff tends to draw a crowd.” Sharon opened her trunk, revealing Sam’s Falcon gear and Steve’s shield.
Bucky and Sam were back in the car. From the cramped backseat, Bucky squirmed in the tight confines and said, “Can you move your seat up?”
“No.” Sam didn’t turn around.
“I owe you again,” Steve said to Sharon.
“I’m keeping a list,” she said. “You know, he kind of tried to kill me.”
“Sorry, I’ll put it on the list.” Steve paused and got serious. “They’re going to come looking for you.” Helping the rogue Avengers was going to put an end to whatever career Sharon had. She would be on the run, too.
“I know,” she said.
“Thank you, Sharon.” They looked at each other for a long moment and then kissed. When they broke the kiss, Steve said, “That was…”
“Late,” she said.
He grinned.
She took a step back from him. “I should go.”
She was right. They had to keep moving. “Okay,” Steve said. She got back into her car. Steve glanced over at his car and saw Sam and Bucky nodding their approval from inside.
From Berlin to Leipzig was a pretty short drive, even in a car that struggled to stay at sixty miles an hour. The plan was to meet there and then go after the fake doctor, who had to be heading for the old Russian base in Siberia. Steve pulled into a long-term parking garage at the Leipzig/Halle Airport, a few spaces over from a white van. Clint Barton got out of the van to meet them.
Steve was glad to see his old friend. Well, not that old. Maybe it just felt like they’d known each other forever. “You know I wouldn’t have called if I had any other choice.”
“Hey, man, you’re doing me a favor,” Clint said. “Besides… I’m on your team.”
Wanda Maximoff got out of the van’s passenger seat. Steve nodded at her. She was taking a big chance. “Thanks for having my back,” he said.
With a shrug and a glance at Clint, she said, “It was time to get off my ass.”
Steve looked around. “About our other recruit…”
“He’s ready to go,” Clint said, hauling open the van’s side door. “I have to put a little coffee in him, but he should be good.”
Lying on the floor of the van, Scott Lang started up out of a deep sleep. “What time zone is this?” he asked as he got out and blinked at them. Then he recognized Steve. “Captain America,” he said, like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
Steve nodded. “Mr. Lang.”
They shook hands, and Scott kept shaking. “It’s an honor.” He looked down. “I’m shaking your hand too long. Wow. This is awesome. Captain America.” He looked back at Wanda, happy as a clam. “I know you, too. You’re great.”
Then he looked back at Steve. “Jeez. Look, I wanted to say, I know you know a lot of super people, so thinks for thanking of me.”
Over Steve’s shoulder he saw Sam. “Hey, man.”
Sam nodded. “What’s up?”
“Good to see you.” Remembering their last encounter, when he fought Falcon as the miniature Ant-Man, Scott looked uncomfortable. “Look. What happened last time was a—”
Sam waved it away. “It was a great audition, but it’ll never happen again.”
“Did he tell you what we’re up against?” Steve asked Scott.
“Something about some… psycho assassins?”
That about summed it up, Steve thought. “We’re outside the law on this one. So if you come with us, you’re a wanted man.”
Scott shrugged. “Yeah, well, what else is new?”
“We should get moving,” Bucky said. “I got a chopper lined up.”
They heard a voice over the airport loudspeakers echoing through the parking garage. Bucky listened. “They’re evacuating the airport,” he said.
Steve knew that could only mean one thing. “Stark.”
“Stark?” Scott echoed.
That’s right, Steve thought. He probably didn’t know about the split in the team over the Sokovia Accords.
But they could explain it all later.
“Suit up,” Steve said.
CHAPTER 20
Captain America’s squad was on the move across the tarmac toward the helicopter when a small projectile streaked down out of the sky and hit it behind the rotors. All its electrical systems shorted out, and, side by side, Iron Man and War Machine dropped down in front of it.
“Wow,” Iron Man said. He retracted the faceplate of his helmet. “It’s so weird how you run into people at the airport.” He turned to War Machine. “Don’t you just feel weird?”
“Definitely weird,” he agreed.
“Hear me out, Tony,” Cap said. “That doctor, the psychiatrist, he’s behind all of this.”
Black Panther sprang into view, dropping from the top of a hangar to land near Iron Man and War Machine. “Captain,” he said.
Steve nodded at him. “Your Highness.”
“Anyway,” Iron Man said, “Ross gave me thirty-six hours to bring you in. That was twenty-four hours ago. Can you help a brother out?”
“You’re after the wrong guy,” Steve said.
But the armored Avenger wasn’t listening. “Your judgment is askew. Your war buddy killed innocent people yesterday.”
“And there are five more Super-Soldiers just like him. I can’t let the doctor find them first, Tony. I can’t.” It wasn’t about the Sokovia Accords anymore. It was about doing the right thing. About standing like a tree and saying, No, you move.
“Steve.” He turned to see Black Widow behind him. “You know what’s about to happen.” She gave him one last chance. “Do you really want to punch your way out of this one?”
Captain America didn’t answer. Iron Man waited as long as he could, then said, “All right, I’ve run out of patience. Underoos!”
Right on cue, Spider-Man swung down from another hangar rooftop, snagging Cap’s shield with a web and reeling it in as he landed on top of the helicopter. While he was flipping overhead, he also bound Cap’s hands together with a second glob of webbing.
“Nice job, kid,” Iron Man called out.
“Thanks,” Spider-Man said. “Well, I could’ve stuck the landing a little better. It’s… just the new suit… Well, it’s nothing, Mr. Stark. It’s perfect, thank you.”
“Yeah, we don’t really need to start a conversation,” Iron Man said. The kid needed to settle his nerves. He was in the big leagues now.
“Okay. Cap… Captain. Big fan. I’m Spider-Man.”
“Yeah, we’ll talk about it later,” Iron Man said.
Spider-Man couldn’t stop quite yet. “Just… Hey, everyone.”
“Good job,” Iron Man said again, cutting him off. God, he really was just a kid.
“You’ve been busy,” Cap observed. He didn’t try to get out of the webbing. The important thing was to face Iron Man and his team, and stay cool while the rest of their plan fell into place.
“And you’ve been a complete idiot,” Iron Man snapped. “Dragging in Clint. Rescuing Wanda from a place she doesn’t even want to leave. A safe place. I’m trying to keep… I’m trying to keep you from tearing the Avengers apart.” He got emotional at the end of his little speech. It hadn’t hit him until right then how much the Avengers meant to him.
But Captain America wasn’t backing down. �
��You did that when you signed,” he said.
“All right, I’m done.” Iron Man had tried talking. Now he was going to issue some orders. “You’re going to turn Barnes over and you’re going to come with us. Now! Because it’s us!” He paused, and whispered, “Come on.”
Cap still didn’t move… until he heard Falcon’s voice in his ear. “We found it. The Quinjet’s in Hangar Five, north runway.” Redwing’s remote surveillance had come through again.
Cap raised both webbed arms over his head. From an elevated position on the other side of the tarmac, Hawkeye loosed an arrow, which split the webbing and freed Cap’s hands. Now it was time. “All right, Lang,” he said.
Ant-Man, appropriately ant-size, was on the rim of Cap’s shield. Spider-Man looked down, noticing him. “Hey, guys, there’s something—”
He didn’t get any further. Flashing back to full size, Ant-Man knocked Spider-Man off the helicopter and somersaulted backward to land next to Cap with the shield in his hand. “I believe this is yours, Captain America.”
“Oh great,” Iron Man said, sighing. So it was going to be a fight after all. He ran a scan of the area. “All right, there’s two on the parking deck. One of them is Maximoff.” Iron Man lifted off. “I’m going to grab her. Rhodey, you want to take Cap?”
War Machine also got airborne. His own helmet display spotted other moving bodies. He zeroed in on them. “Got two in the terminal. Wilson and Barnes.”
Black Panther took off in that direction. “Barnes is mine!”
“Hey, Mr. Stark, what should I do?” Spider-Man called.
“What we discussed. Keep your distance. Web ’em up.”
“Okay, copy that!” Spider-Man shot out webs and swung up into the air. Cap was chasing Black Panther. He laid out T’Challa with a shield throw, then tackled him as he got up. When they were both back on their feet, Captain America stood between T’Challa and the terminal entrance.
“Move, Captain,” T’Challa said. “I won’t ask a second time.”
Elsewhere, Ant-Man found himself face-to-face with Black Widow. “Look, I really don’t want to hurt you.”