Arc Three. Chapter Eighty-Two. Mani-Pedi

The quartet stood outside an address in Hell's Kitchen, in Fisk's files it was listed as a repair shop, but with boarded-up windows and reflective tinting on the upper windows, it looked more like a bombed-out crack den than a residence or place of business.

When Felicia had gone through the files she found that this was Fisk's drug manufacturing location. At first, it was like any other, workers would wrap and weigh packets for sale but Fisk had been approached with a new venture. MGH.

Mutant Growth Hormone.

Gwen had taken one look at the formula, made a small sample, and then had been violently sick.

"That's vile, and fucking toxic Pete. It's like someone drank Oscorp formula and then puked it back up and used it to make a new formula. I, shit, I can't tell you what that is, Poison won't even go near it, it's so vile." She had told them, after getting several glasses of alcohol to wash her mouth out.

"If we go, then, we stick with what you said at Fisk's," Felicia had said, "That I'm in charge," and while Gwen and MJ had given her a quizzical look Peter nodded.

"That's fair," and as he slipped into his armour he recoloured it back to the original black, and Felicia laughed

"You need a new code name though, if Venom isn't good enough to be seen with us criminal types, uh, how about 'Night Monkey'," and Gwen snorted.

"Oh oh, like Huntress, can you make ears? like little monkey ears?" and retracting his armour Peter glared at them,

"I am not making monkey ears for my armour, pick another name," he said, huffing but Felicia shook her head,

"Sorry Monkey, bosses orders. Night Monkey it is," and as the three laughed and teased him, Peter snorted and shook his head while grinning.

"I also want you two with us, if this is as bad as we think, even if you don't fight, we need the extra hands," and both Gwen and MJ nodded.

"Uh, I might be more of a burden though," Gwen said, with her shoulders slumped, Poison was always complaining when she was stuck in her armour form, and Gwen couldn't trust her not to just hide back inside her if a fight broke out.

Felicia nodded and moving around the Gwen hugged her, "It's fine, if you stay with MJ you can protect each other until either Pete or I get there, this is just a look, we're not expecting to fight, it's fine" and hugging her back Gwen nodded, even if she still looked apprehensive.

At the address, though it was business, the four stood at the door as Huntress used the keys she had been given to open the door carefully. She took a step back from the foul air that escaped from the building. A drug plant was airtight, so no one knew what the strange odour of chemicals was, and with the building being locked down the aircon had been off for a week.

Monkey shook his head, "smell that?" and the rest nodded, the air was thick with the smell of various disinfectants and cleaners.

Huntress looked at him, "You two, go up, Monkey, with me, there's a basement. Coms on," and the four hit the new and improved headsets that Liv had worked on. Peter had no hint of jealousy when she redesigned their gear, she had years of experience working on things like that, and hers was a smaller, more modular, and more expansive setup.

Even without Huntress, Felicia would have night vision, target tracking, and a whole lot more. Liv had taken the Goblin armour helmet apart and reduced the HUD to a simple mask each of them was now wearing.

Poison and Muse headed towards the stairs, taking the simple training Huntress had given them seriously and ascended while Monkey and Huntress headed towards a thick steel door, bolted surprisingly from the outside as well as having a huge thick lock. Huntress shook her head, "no keys," and Monkey shifted, letting his muscles bulge and digging his hands into the plaster of the wall pulled.

Surprisingly the door wouldn't budge and digging further along he found that the door extended a meter in either direction surrounding the frame. He huffed and dug both hands into the end of one side, feeling the edge with his fingers. Punching the plaster away he found several large steel rivets securing the door frame to the wall.

"Nope, no way, if I pull that the wall will fall down, we need Poison." As Huntress looked at the steel frame in the wall it was at least 10 cm thick. Whoever had wanted the basement secure had made sure no one was getting in without alerting whatever security they had.

"P, once you've secured upstairs, everyone head back down here, "

Her comms clicked, "there's nothing up here, everything's been cleaned out, no residue of drugs or tables. The place's been sprayed with cleaner as well, something strong too, probably bleach and alcohol. Heading back down once we've done the last floor," Poison commed back.

"What the hell was going on here?" Monkey asked but Huntress had no idea.

The files she had made reference to the drug but not what it was used for, and if this was the way it was kept it must have been something either really expensive or, as Huntress feared, something really bad.

"If I spray the lock it'll take a while to eat through it but I can blow it, if you and Huntress pull at the edges we should be able to just rip it from the frame, even if we dent it enough to get more tendrils in," Poison said after looking in the lock and sending a small web into it.

Huntress nodded, and Poison pressed her hand against the lock and after a few moments, everyone stood back, watching the smoke and an acrid smell rise from the keyhole.

As expected, while the lock was melted inside and the door moved it was held by several deadbolts and Huntress and Monkey slid thin tendrils into the door at several points to find them before prying the door a few millimetres.

It took several attempts to get the acid into the frame, but with the last bolt a pumped Huntress and Monkey held the huge door up as it came free from the frame and gently lowered it to the floor.

"Me and Monkey will head down. You two stay here and make sure we don't get visitors." Huntress points to several contact plates in the door. It looked like it was alarmed in some way and they had no idea if they had just triggered it somewhere offsite, or if three was a security station somewhere in the building.

Nodding the two took different points surrounding the main entrance, staying as hidden as possible while remaining vigilant.

Huntress and Monkey headed down the dark stairs, Monkey clicking on his low light vision, scanning for possible threats.

They were greeted by three rooms, one closed off and covered in plastic. One was the security room they had been looking for but all that remained was a few wrappers and a table, dust marks and black scratches hinted at a monitor, and maybe a gun rack but now, there was nothing.

The second room was storage, shelves of bottles, all clean and perfect sat in cardboard boxes and counting them quickly, there were two hundred, ten boxes of twenty, and another two hundred should have sat in empty spaces.

Even the air smelled clean here, the air purifier off the normal grid or a system of chemical sponges rather than filters. It wasn't until they opened the last door, thick with plastic sheeting that the true horror of the building was revealed.

There were two rows of beds, eleven down each side of the room with a single one in the centre of the back wall. Each bed had an occupant, attached to a drip, each with a bullet hole in their forehead.

Huntress covered her mouth, these were kids, not one of the bodies was older than either her or Monkey, and she wanted to vomit but swallowed the bile in her throat back down. Monkey went from bed to bed and pulled up the simple blanket each of them had.

He stopped to examine one body. A tap had been attached at the back of the kids head, and he guessed they were draining spinal or adrenal fluid from them. A few had strange markings on their skin or different eyes. Almost like a kind of mutation had affected them.

"They were collecting fluid? Maybe Poison was right, a lot of them are mutated, maybe someone gave them formula and then harvested something we don't know it does?" Monkey pulled the blanket over another kid, her eyes glassy and staring in horror into space. This was wrong, this was what he wanted to stop.

As he approached the twenty-third bed, noting each one was marked with an X the occupant screamed and leapt at him, her movements restrained by thick cuffs wrapped both her arms and legs. She yelled and screamed incoherently at him but stopped and sniffed the air as he approached.

"Hey, hey, it's okay, we're here to help." He raised both his hands, trying to be non-threatening. The girl, she looked young to him, continued screaming and twisting, trying to get free.

"Hey, wait, I'll undo them, okay, but you gotta calm down okay?" He knelt at the foot of the bed and the simple velcro straps were easy enough to undo but as he did the first one she kicked out at him. He sprang back in shock.

From the centre of her foot was a single large bone blade, extending out from between her large toe and her second toe and she kicked out at him as he backed away. Both feet had a blade each while her hands had a pair, even as she thrashed and twisted she was unable to attack the chain that held her to the bed.

"Holy shit, Huntress, look at that." He pointed and she shook her head, "another enhanced." She clicked her comms, "Poison, get down here. We need medical and maybe a sedative."

At her words the girl screamed even more, thrashing around trying to get free, "hey hey, it's okay, we're not here to hurt you," Monkey said and she glared at him, "honest, look, we're like you," and he extended his fingers into different shapes, "we're here to rescue you, please, just, calm down," and as she watched his hands stretch and change she narrowed her eyes, sniffing once more, "agree."

With both hands raised, he carefully undid her other food strap, making sure she didn't kick out at him with those talons of hers. Bulletproof yes, but he figured the thick steel door upstairs was to stop her if she escaped, and he didn't even want to find out if those wicked blades could cut him.

The girl tensed as Poison and Muse entered the room, gasping at the covered bodies. "Monkey? Is that her?" Poison asked and came over, the girl growled,

"Hey, it's okay, she's with me," and sniffing once more she glared but stayed still.

"I'm going to release your arm, okay? Please, don't attack me," and the girl nodded.

Monkey let out a sigh of relief as she let her arm relax as he undid the cuff around it and he moved to the other side, "okay, last one, please don't freak out okay," as she stared at him.

As the last cuff fell free she shimmied up the bed and rubbed her wrists, "water?" she asked and Poison handed Monkey a small bag with a straw on it. They had no idea what to expect here and had brought medical supplies, as well as emergency food and water.

"Hey, I'm Venom, this is Huntress, Poison is the one who gave you water, and Muse is the white one, okay, friends, really. We had no idea anyone was here or we would have tried to save your friends." Monkey explained.

"Monkey," she said and he sighed,

"Uh, that was a joke, okay, it's not Monkey."

She shook her head and sniffed, "Monkey," she slurped the water from the small pouch and sniffed once more, leaning forwards and sniffing the air, before coming over and sniffing at Venom's symbskin. Wondering if he should say anything it was too late, the girl wrapped her arms around his neck and climbed into his lap, "smell good."

"Uh, guys, little help?" he asked the three, hearing them try not to laugh.