The old industrial tunnel was colder than expected.
Raj stepped down carefully from the last metal rung of the ladder, boots echoing on the cracked concrete. The air was damp, tinged with rust and something older—like mildew and time. A faint drip echoed from somewhere deeper in the tunnel, like a ticking clock that refused to be ignored.
Peter landed just behind him, slightly less graceful than usual. "Remind me why we didn't go with the rooftop entrance?"
Raj squinted into the darkness ahead. "Because the rooftop is a decoy. Hydra's not stupid. If they've kept a base hidden this long, it's because they've buried it deep."
Peter flicked on a flashlight. The beam cut through the darkness, bouncing off exposed pipes and old support beams, their metal flaking with rust. A faded "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY" sign dangled half-torn above a sealed doorway at the far end.
"This feels very Don't Go Here Or You'll Die," Peter muttered, scanning the walls. "Like every horror game level ever."
Raj stepped forward. "Which means we're on the right path."
Behind them, Ned's voice crackled in their earpieces. "Okay, I've got limited visual on your position—camera feeds are scrambled, but audio's good. Peter, did you bring the signal extender?"
Peter pulled a small gadget from his backpack—essentially a repurposed StarkTech WiFi booster, refitted and held together with zip ties and hope. "Deploying now."
He slapped it against the nearest support beam. A tiny light blinked green.
"We're in," Ned confirmed. "Signal's holding. Still no heat signatures nearby, but keep an eye out—these guys are good at cloaking."
Raj nodded silently, approaching the metal door. It wasn't locked—not with a code, at least. Just bolted from the inside. That meant someone used it. Recently.
He pressed his palm flat to the cold surface. The metal vibrated slightly under his touch.
"Someone's used this in the last twelve hours," he said. "There's warmth behind it. Residual energy."
Peter blinked. "You can sense that now?"
"I think so," Raj replied, pulling back. "Solar absorption. It's expanding—feeling more… ambient energy. Not just sunlight."
Peter whistled softly. "You're turning into a human thermal scanner."
Raj didn't answer. His eyes narrowed. Then he raised his fist and slammed it once—clean, controlled—into the center of the door.
The bolt snapped.
The door creaked open slowly.
They slipped inside.
The corridor beyond was narrower, carved from concrete rather than steel. Low fluorescent lights flickered every ten feet, casting a sickly yellow hue across the path. The place wasn't just hidden—it was forgotten. Designed to be invisible.
Raj moved first, silent. His suit lay under his hoodie, but already the power beneath his skin responded to the environment—veins glowing faintly gold when the light flickered too harshly, dimming again with each breath.
Peter followed, eyes darting around. His Spidey-sense was quiet, but tense. Like it was waiting for the air itself to turn hostile.
"You feeling anything?" Raj asked quietly.
Peter nodded. "Pressure. Like static. We're close."
The hallway ended in a fork—left led to what looked like storage. Right led downward.
They went right.
The stairs creaked under their weight, and the moment their feet hit the lower level, they knew they were inside the true base.
It was clean.
Not pristine—but modern. Functional.
Screens lined the walls—many black, a few flickering with streams of data in Cyrillic. A long steel table sat in the center of the room, littered with schematics, a map of the city marked with red pins… and at its edge, an open briefcase with six vials of glowing blue liquid.
Peter exhaled. "That looks very do not touch."
Raj stepped forward, scanning the map. "These aren't just locations. They're movements. Tracking patterns. Someone's been logging enhanced activity across the boroughs."
Peter walked up beside him. "Wait… is that me?"
Raj nodded. "And that—" he pointed to another symbol near Midtown High "—is me."
Peter narrowed his eyes at the vials. "You think that's related?"
"Maybe," Raj said, examining them carefully but not touching. "It's like they're preparing… or replicating something."
Peter tilted his head. "Cloning serum? Enhancement drug?"
Ned's voice interrupted over comms. "Guys, I just rerouted a feed. You've got movement two floors below you. Three heat signatures—one large, two humanoid. You've got maybe four minutes before they reach that lab."
Raj looked up. "Then we make this fast."
Peter nodded. "Copy everything you can. I'll search the back."
They split.
Raj began photographing everything—maps, vials, schematics—with a tiny pen-shaped scanner Ned had preloaded with encryption. Meanwhile, Peter slipped into the next room.
Inside, he found a series of pods—four, maybe five. Only two looked recently used. Their interiors were scorched.
He stepped closer. "Raj, you're gonna want to see this."
Raj joined him moments later.
The pods weren't just holding cells. They were incubators. Feeding tubes, biometric regulators, and data logs showed patterns of exposure to solar radiation, plasma, even gamma traces.
"They were creating something," Raj said softly.
Peter scanned one log. "No names. Just designations."
He read aloud.
"Subject A-19… solar instability, failure. Subject A-20… adaptive resistance, failure. Subject A-21… survived exposure, released for testing."
Raj's eyes hardened. "A-21 was Aidren."
Peter nodded. "And he was just the beginning."
Ned spoke again. "You've got company. They're on your floor now. Two minutes."
Peter and Raj moved fast—grabbing the logs, copying data, and setting one of Ned's small trackers in the ceiling vent.
Then the footsteps came.
Three shadows—two human, one large, mechanical.
Raj whispered, "We can't let them trap us."
Peter glanced at the exit. "Back route?"
Raj pointed to a maintenance ladder. "There. Fast."
They moved—smooth, silent.
Just as the first enemy entered the lab, Raj turned back. His golden eyes glowed faintly in the dark.
He memorized the face of the lead soldier.
Hydra.
He knew it now. Not a guess. Not a whisper.
A symbol sewn into the man's vest—black and red, twisted like a skull under sunfire.
Peter reached the top of the ladder first and reached down to pull Raj up.
They slipped out through a secondary corridor and into daylight before the alarm fully triggered.
Once outside, they ducked into the alley behind an old auto shop.
Ned's voice crackled. "Did you get it?"
Raj nodded, breathing hard. "All of it."
Peter collapsed against the wall. "That was too close."
Raj looked at him. "They're planning something. Big. And Aidren was just a prototype."
Peter opened his bag, pulling out a piece of the pod's internal panel. It had a Hydra emblem etched in silver.
"They're not done," he said.
"No," Raj agreed. "But neither are we."
They disappeared into the alley shadows, just as distant sirens wailed—too late to matter.
But this time, Raj wasn't running from the light.
He was walking toward it.
And Hydra would see him coming.