The van rattled out of Manhattan, weaving through evening traffic. Spider-Man clung invisible to the roof. Through the hum of the tires, he counted turns, timed lights, and matched them to Herbie's maps. He knew exactly where they were headed before the van even broke out of the city proper.
'Ulster County,' Felix muttered in his head. 'Farm belt. Just great.'
They drove another hour north, past abandoned barns and quiet backroads. At last, the van turned onto a gravel drive just off Route 32 near Rosendale, New York. A wide, rolling farm spread across a hundred acres, hemmed in by thick woods and a weather-beaten wooden fence. Cornfields stretched like green walls on one side, and a red-painted barn with chipped siding stood sentinel near a silo. A farmhouse leaned against the wind, its porch sagging, windows opaque with dust.
'Too clean,' Felix noted. 'Too quiet. No cameras, no guards, no dogs. Either they're idiots—or they've hidden everything.'
The van rolled up beside the barn. The rear doors opened and four agents in matte-black tactical suits climbed out, carrying his stolen data that was totally real (it wasn't). The dark Spider-Man crept onto the van's front window, flat as a shadow. Invisible, inaudible. He watched them approach the barn's side door. One of the agents keyed in a code beneath a rusted milk can. The door hissed open, not with creaking wood, but the sound of hydraulics.
Inside was not hay or tractors but a freight elevator.
The agents stepped inside and the elevator rumbled, about to close. Spider-Man leapt through, thinking, 'This place hasn't been touched in years. No fresh tracks. No active equipment. Someone dusted it off today just for this. Whatever's going on—it's not SHIELD's usual chain of command.'
Invisible, he crawled up to the ceiling. They didn't even know he was here. When the elevator doors slid shut, it was as though the farm never existed. Just one more abandoned spread in upstate New York.
The descent lasted nearly a full minute. The elevator opened into a wide underground complex: gleaming white steel, glass partitions, surgical lights humming overhead. This wasn't cobbled together. It was state-of-the-art, like a forgotten offshoot of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Triskelion architecture, buried in the dirt of New York farmland.
And waiting in the center of the floor was Agent Coulson. His suit was dusted from travel, tie loosened, but his calm, deliberate demeanor hadn't shifted. Beside him stood Agent Blade, sunglasses glinting even under fluorescent light. Beside them, most importantly, was a table connected with wiring and covered in a white cloth. The sheer amount of cables and strings and IV drip was unnatural.
"You're here," Coulson told the infiltrators. "Good. Do you have the data?"
"Yes, sir."
They showed the USB that supposedly had the data on Felix's research. Sighing in relief, Coulson then folded the sheet back.
'So that was why they left India in such a hurry…'
It was the dead Peggy Carter.
The legendary founder of S.H.I.E.L.D, an eyepatch sewn over her left socket and pale as marble.
"Phase 1 is nearly complete," Coulson announced. Everyone—and by everyone, that meant the technicians and doctors already here—but Felix understood what that meant. The room had grown silent. Coulson gestured to the technicians. They wheeled over an array of machinery; sleek monitors, electrodes, intravenous pumps filled with clear fluid. The body was connected gently, meticulously.
Then a speaker crackled overhead.
"Agent Coulson, this is Pierce. I'm glad you made haste."
'Pierce…? It can't be…'
"Secretary, you're not busy?" Coulson said, looking up. There was no visual cue of him, only a static audio echoing from everywhere.
"I'm currently hurrying over to the Indian Prime Minister's residence. He and Kristoff Vernard are in a meeting. I surmise this pertains to Director Carter's murder?"
"Definitely. Things got…messy. Apologies."
"Nonsense. We got what we needed," said the voice. Herbie was able to fully identify it now. Alexander Pierce, Secretary of the World Security Council. The atmosphere in the lab had shifted from the moment he voiced in. Everyone straightened at once.
"I formally authorize Protocol Resurrection," Secretary Pierce said. "As you all know, this was Director Carter's directive. Should the worst ever come, we would not accept it. We would not allow the world to lose its founder, its guiding hand. Today, that day has come."
Felix narrowed his eyes. 'Director Carter planned this herself, huh?'
Secretary Pierce continued, "You are among the few. The only. The rest of S.H.I.E.L.D. must not know. This will remain in the hands of Director Carter's most loyal. If the world knew, they would interfere. They would protest. They would not understand."
Spider-Man clung to the ceiling. A finger reached out and traced the cables connecting to the corpse below. 'So this isn't SHIELD. This is a rogue splinter cell.'
On the floor, Coulson's voice was quiet. "We're ready, sir. But, regarding the mess—"
"I'll come up with something. Tell me about the cause of death later," Secretary Pierce said. "We're not here to solve a mystery, we are here to make the impossible possible. That is why sacrifices will be made. We will use everything at our disposal." The words echoed, like a judgment. "As we speak, our operatives are already moving on Wakanda. The Heart Garden will provide the herb. Its properties will be crucial. With the right compounds, we will restore what death has taken. There will be no compromise."
Felix's chest tightened. The heart-shaped herb. 'They're going to raid Wakanda itself… for this. For Peggy. But…where are they getting this confidence?'
Coulson answered that question: "We managed to successfully retrieve King T'Challa's fingerprints and pupils."
'What!? When!? How!? Fingerprints and pupils…' It didn't make sense. He tried to recall an opportunity of time for them to do that. There just wasn't. 'The security and I were watching the whole time, there was no way for them to have scanned King T'Challa's fingerprints and pupils.'
Unless…
'They were already there beforehand? Don't tell me…'
Did all of this happen because of a SHIELD operation gone wrong? Something that had to do with T'Challa? That was what it was looking like. King T'Challa, stripped of everything from his clothes to his eyes and fingerprints by SHIELD.
So…how did Director Carter die? An operation gone wrong only made so much sense.
'Carter would NEVER leave herself vulnerable. She's too old to keep herself without her agents.'
Without answers, however, he could only keep listening to those below him who did have all the answers.
"Excellent." Secretary Pierce was delighted. "And of the serum?"
"One team has been sent to Oscorp Tower. Another team has already returned from Felix Faeth's mansion. Project Rebirth II datapoints have been recovered."
Felix smirked behind his mask. 'Recovered, huh? More like fake data I fed you idiots. But sure, keep bragging.' As for the infiltration at Oscorp Tower, he surmised there was no stopping them. Across the agents saluted, some solemn, some fervent. They weren't SHIELD soldiers here. They were zealots.
Except unlike most zealots, they weren't idiots. They were masters of their craft. Even with the additional security he and Osborn did to beef it up, they must have a strategy. Otherwise, going inside would be suicide.
Finally, Secretary Pierce said, "Doctor, I trust you will lead this."
From the technician's side of things, a figure walked over. Lab coat swaying, hair tied in a messy bun, glasses gleaming. Her face was unmistakable.
"Yes, sir!" she said, smiling.
Olivia Octavius.
Liv.
'Ahhh, no wonder. That's why they're so confident. With Liv's help, they have all the data they need to infiltrate Oscorp Tower.'
Dr. Octavius adjusted her glasses. She checked her phone and smiled. "Ah, great. They did it. The Super Soldier Serums have been extracted. Phase 1 is complete."
A wave of relief spread through the room. Coulson nodded once, smiling.
Secretary Pierce declared, "Phase 2 may begin. God speed, everyone. I must go now."
The voice crackled out of existence and the agents began stocking up on weaponry. The team of doctors and technicians checked up on the dead Peggy Carter.
Spider-Man stayed clinging to the ceiling, invisible. 'They'll risk war with Wakanda, theft of my serum, and god knows what else… just to play god. Just to drag Peggy Carter back from the dead.'
Dr. Octavius placed her hand over Peggy's cold wrist and studied the readouts on her tablet. Peggy Carter's corpse was like a ghost without bones. For an old creature like this to come back to life seemed impossible. All the life seemed to be drained out of her.
The agents returned. They had been filling bags with rope and guns. Refilling equipment, oh yes, and also prepping for a specific order. Agent Coulson and Agent Blade and everyone else, they were waiting for Dr. Octavius. She eventually turned and showed them her tablet.
"This is your target," she said, pointing at the screen. "His name is Felix Faeth."
…what?
The tablet then bloomed out a hologram. It wasn't touchable or anything, it was merely to project the screen and enlarge it for everyone to read. It was him. It was Felix and his SHIELD profile. Everything from his threat level to his history and his physical attributes. The tablet projected three total pages.
"Hung like a stallion and virile as an ox," Agent Blade read out. "Pfft. Who wrote this?"
Coulson snorted and continued with a small smile, "IQ estimated at over 200, socially awkward yet capable. An introvert whose intelligence had propelled him to greatness. I agree, who did write this?"
"Me. Agent Shadowcat aided for a neutral perspective," Dr. Octavius said. "The point is that we've found out that he has lovers but he isn't a deviant. He's intelligent and vital to Oscorp, a VIP, but only a single spy is trailing him."
"Only one, eh? Norman Osborn is getting soft," Agent Blade remarked.
"There would be two, but I did some tinkering to keep them off his back," Dr. Octavius said. "It's nice to be the head of a department."
"I'm curious, why do that?" Coulson asked.
"Because Felix, unlike most of the people at Oscorp, is a genuinely good man. He doesn't deserve to have his privacy invaded because of politics." Dr. Octavius wore a sad sort of smile. "Anyway, like I said, he doesn't have too much security, at least not anymore. He only has a single spy trailing him who I bribed. You go in, and bring him here, simple as that."
They wanted to kidnap Felix Faeth. But…why? They didn't realize that their kidnapping plans could never work out because he was right here.
"A rich asshole sex deviant. Should I feel guilty?" Agent Blade half-asked as a joke.
"You should. He's a good man. He doesn't go after his coworkers. He doesn't hire hookers or anything." Dr. Octavius laughed a little. "Hell, if it wasn't for our agents, I wouldn't have even known he had that dawg in him. T-that is how the youngins say it, right?"
"Yeah, no," Agent Blade said flatly. "What's his current location?"
"Current location…" Dr. Octavius turned the tablet back, deactivating the projections, and then started to message the spy she bribed to only keep part-time tabs on Felix. "He only works on weekends. But he should still be able to help us."
'Herbie, hack into her phone and pretend to be the spy. Analyze their texting patterns and then give a false location.'
Five seconds later…
"Ah, there. At this time of day, he should be a strip club called…" Dr. Octavius squinted. "The Spider Sluts? Okay, kinky."
Felix cackled in his head. 'Good job, Herbie. We'll have them going around in circles, it'll be great.'
'IT IS WHAT I DO,' Herbie replied in his head.
Meanwhile, Agent Blade wore a look of disgust and half-respect. "Honestly, sounds fun, but come on, he literally sounds like a rich asshole."
"And I'm telling you he's not," said Dr. Octavius. "You do realize without him, none of this would be possible."
Agent Blade shrugged off. "Yes, yes, he and Osborn saved the city, I know."
"No, not that. I'm talking about this, this protocol." A beat passed and no one yet understood. "Ohh, right, I never told you, huh? It was before he invented the Super Soldier Serum. The day I saw his profile."
At this point, Felix's heart started racing.
"Protocol Resurrection was only established after I told Director Carter about the theorem Felix Faeth drew up when he was in college. Before, we couldn't even imagine bringing somebody back to life. But after I saw Felix's paper on Extremis…"
'Are you serious...?'
"...everything changed. I told Carter about it and she had her best people talk to me about working on it. To help it evolve further. And once we realized how feasible it was, we began planning in the case of her death. All this, everything we're doing…" Olivia smiled as she gestured with wide arms. "...all we're trying to do is make Extremis come true, that's all. To be honest, it's more accurate to call it Extremis 2.0. We inject it into Peggy Carter's brain and once that happens, her brain will kickstart everything back to life. With his data, with Wakanda's Heart-shaped Herb, and the Super Soldier Serum, Extremis 2.0 will bring back the strongest version of Peggy Carter. It will change everything."