The battle between Excalibur and the Elementals leveled the streets of Naples. Meggan transformed her body into a sentient wave of water, violently wrestling Hydro-Man for dominance over the torrential storm. The Midtown High students had a front-row seat to Europe's native heroes clashing with living natural disasters.
Miles away, bobbing in the swells of the Mediterranean Sea, Peter dropped into the lower decks of the Wild Pack's cargo freighter. He stripped off his civilian clothes, prepping his suit. He had already dealt with the Molten Man. Today, he was gearing up for Whirlwind.
His enhanced spider-sense suddenly flared. It wasn't an immediate strike, but a heavy, directional pressure pressing against his skull. Peter dropped his mask. He jogged out to the main corridor. Silver Sable leaned against the steel bulkhead, casually sipping a cup of coffee.
"What's wrong?" she asked, her eyes narrowing. "Elementals inbound?"
"Opposite," Peter said. "Something's wrong with the ship. The Molten Man's cell."
Sable didn't hesitate. She hit the ship-wide comms, triggering the Wild Pack's general quarters, and dispatched an immediate alert to Silk and Black Cat. She racked the slide on her rifle and marched Peter straight toward the brig.
Inside the holding cell, the Molten Man hovered in a semi-transparent, spiritual state behind the bars of an enchanted cage. He had refused to give his captors a single syllable of intel. Sable's jaw tightened. She finally understood his silence. He wasn't being stubborn; he had been waiting for extraction.
Two decks down, Felicia Hardy froze. The hull groaned. Steel shrieked, peeling inward like the lid of a tin can. A hulking man in blue-and-black tactical armor stepped through the breach. Felicia recognized the insignia instantly. Viper Security. She melted into the shadows, sprinting up the stairwell to warn Peter. Viper Security was a known Hydra front. Dozens of cybernetic mercenaries flooded the lower corridors.
Outside the brig, thick green smoke billowed across the deck. Madame Viper stepped through the haze, flanked by a squad of heavily armed cyborgs.
"Madame Viper," Peter quipped, dropping into a combat crouch. "Should've known you'd crash the party."
"Long time no see, Spider-Man," Viper purred, her heels clicking against the grating. "Our company secured a lucrative contract. Dealing with the Wild Pack required... specialized security. You know how many players are bidding on the Super Soldier program." Hydra's Weapon Plus operations were a massive, sprawling network.
Sable leveled her rifle at the cybernetic squad. "So this is just Americans fighting Americans on my ship? I expect Nick Fury to reimburse me for the hull damage."
"Viper Security," Madame Viper snapped, cracking a glowing whip against the floor. "Secure the client."
The mercenaries charged. Peter launched himself forward. A woman with long metal blades extending from her fingers slashed at his chest.
"Hey, I remember you!" Peter yelled, dodging the razor-sharp swipe. "Wait, no, I forgot your name." S.H.I.E.L.D. had locked Lady Deathstrike up after Madripoor, but apparently, containment hadn't held. Peter fired his mechanical web-shooters. The silk plastered over her eyes. He grabbed her shoulders, flipped backward, and slammed her skull into the deck.
A massive shadow fell over him. A mercenary activated a size-altering tech, inflating from six feet to ten feet in a heartbeat.
"Face me, Spider-Man! I am the Giant Viper!"
The giant slammed his fists into the floor, denting the solid steel. Corrosive gas hissed from valves on his bulky armor.
"What? Sorry, bad acoustics!" Peter yelled. He fired two web lines, braiding them together. He channeled his newly stabilized bio-electric output straight down the silk. The high-voltage current surged into the giant, dropping the massive cyborg unconscious in a shower of sparks. "Get a better amp next time, buddy!"
Across the room, Madame Viper approached the enchanted cage. She unlatched a heavy metal case, exposing a vat of liquid metal meant to reconstitute the Molten Man's physical body.
A mercenary with a cybernetic snake-tail lunged, wrapping tightly around Sable's waist.
"Going somewhere, girl—" the cyborg hissed.
Sable's combat armor flared. High-voltage electricity arced across her plating, frying the snake-man. He dropped to the floor, twitching. Sable aimed her rifle dead at Madame Viper's chest.
"Step away from the cage. Now."
Viper smirked, green magical energy crackling around her fingers. "And how do you plan to stop me, little girl?"
Sable pulled the trigger.
Her weapon wasn't aimed at Viper. It was synced to the cage. The enchanted bars flared with blinding white light. The Molten Man let out a deafening, echoing shriek as the radiant energy entirely obliterated his spiritual form.
Viper lunged, her bare hand slapping against the cage door a second too late. The metal seared her flesh. She yanked her badly burned hand back, her face twisting in sudden pain.
She looked at the empty cage, then up at Sable. The anger vanished, replaced by a cold, calculating smile.
"Decisive," Madame Viper whispered. "I will remember you."
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