Chapter 35

Echo finally calmed down enough for Spider-Man to speak with her. They all went back to her apartment.

Maya Lopez sat down on a kitchen table, clutching her arm. Spider-Man looked concerned. Nina crossed her arms and leaned at the window overlooking the alley.

"Do you have ice or something?" Spider-Man asked.

"I'm fine," Maya said.

"Stop acting tough. Get her ice from the freezer there." Nina said without taking her eyes off the window. Her training kicked in and felt like she was trapped with her only exit being the window. Maya couldn't tell what she said but her body language said something to her.

Maya hung her head low. She gritted her teeth. She was humiliated by Nina. Two moves and that was it. She can't fight her. Her ability to copy moves wouldn't even help.

"Here" Spider-Man gave her ice wrapped in a towel.

Spider-Man and Maya began to talk about the next move to take. Nina continued to look at the window. Something caught her eye. A quick streak of fire passed by. She recognized the person from the brief moment. The Human Torch. A reckless individual she concluded from reading his profile. She asked V if something was happening but V reported that nothing occurred. The Human Torch usually likes to travel via flight most of the times when he is not showing off his sports vehicles. Nina had to roll her eyes. She brought her attention back to the conversation Spider-Man and Maya were having.

"We have to act now," Before Spider-Man could respond Nina unfolded her arms and walked to the table. They both looked at her as she approached.

"No, you need to recover from your injuries. Give me the location of the vault. I'll go and retrieve the data." Nina spoke as the lower half of her helmet retracted to allow Maya to lip read.

"I-"

"You've been with Fisk for a while now. What's a couple more weeks? Play pretend. If you want to lock him up that is," Nina interrupted Maya.

"You're hurt. Maybe it's a good idea to wait until you fully recover," Spider-Man added kindly. Maya glanced at Nina and felt her intense look aimed at her. She slowly gave them a nod.

"The location?" Nina asked.

"We can wait until she's recovered," Spider-Man said.

"And leave the possibility of the information being taken? We don't know how often its moved or if its swapped. Its better to go now while the element of surprise is on our side,"

"It's here. It's stored in the basement somewhere," Maya spoke. She pointed to a port. Nina looked at it and headed to the window.

"Wait-you're going now?" Spider-Man asked.

"Of course, I'll let you know what I find," Nina took off before anyone could say anything.

Nina reached the location quickly. It was dark and she easily bended with the darkness. She stood on top of a building overlooking the port. She could see guards there. Questionable guards.

'Stealth'

'Stealth mode activated. 30 minutes remaining.' V spoke.

Nina flew slowly and entered the port. Her helmet switched to different vision settings to detect any anomalies. She quickly found an area underground that looked secured. She also noticed there was only one entrance and exit. The door was mechanical so V wouldn't be able to assist. Nina hummed as she thought of a plan.

She walked to an isolated area near the entrance and placed a small metal pebble. She moved to the entrance and activated the pebble. A large explosion occurred that caught the attention of all the guards. Everyone swarmed into position and began to investigate. Nina used this time to pry open the door with her hands. The combined power of the suit and her strength made it easy to force the door open. Her Stealth system shimmered slightly.

She was able to locate the vault deeper down the tunnel. The vault was old school. No tech at all. Nina took out a metal ball the size of a tennis ball and threw it at the center of the vault door. She hid behind one of the pillars and detonated the device. A muffed explosion occurred, and she looked to see a large hole created on the door. There was metal still melting to the ground from the intense heat the explosion generated.

She walked in and saw other items stored but found the USB device Maya mentioned.

'V, copy it' she commanded.

'Copying contents' As Nina gripped the USB device, tiny tethers connected to the device.

"That doesn't belong to you," a voice said behind her. She turned to look at Fisk and three other people with him. One had some sort of tail behind him. The second person was a tall grey skinned male. The third was smaller than the two but had what looked like electricity surrounding him.

"I would but someone paid good money for it," Nina made a lie on the spot. She knew Fisk had something on Norman Osborn. Saying what she said without naming anyone would allow Fisk to use his imagination on who it could be.

"I'll pay double"

"Tempting, but I don't go back on a contract"

"What a shame. Kill her" Fisk's grunts charged at me. The smaller of the two released an electrical beam towards Nina.

She dodges to the right and uses the tall grey skinned guy to block line of sight on her. She ducks a right hook and counters with a punch to the stomach. The grey skinned male was lifted slightly off the ground from the force of the punch. To Nina's surprise, he looked unhurt and threw her to a nearby pillar.

As she hit the pillar, something tried to pierce her armor. She looks to see a stinger coming from the other guy. She grabbed the stinger and hurled him to another pillar. He lands hard and makes a large dent on the pillar.

An electrical blast hits Nina in the face and causes her to stagger backwards momentarily.

'Files have been copied,' V reported.

"You pack the punch lil lady," as the grey skinned walked closer.

"Thanks,"

"Name's Tombstone. I look forward to crushing your bones" he said in a menacing smile.

"Ivy, and I look forward to seeing you try" Nina moved again to block the line of sight for the electrical guy.

Tombstone took off running and Nina matched him. He brought his hands together above him and aimed for Nina's head. She didn't move and allowed for the hit to connect but exchanged a punch to Tombstone's right side. His body shifted slightly but showed no signs of pain. He was expecting to see the girl in front of him yelp in pain but noticed she didn't move that much.

Nina used all her strength to punch him on his sides. Both punches were fast, but he repeated the same move again. He held his hands high and was about to hit Nina again before his body gave and he went to one knee.

"W-what" He had a disbelieving look. He didn't feel anything wrong.

"I see…" Nina whispered. She didn't want to bother talking with him. She now knew that while he might not necessarily feel the pain, his body internally does.

Those two body shots were full power and with the added damage from her suit, it caused a lot of damage.

An electrical blast hit Nina in the back making her stumble forward from the force. Smoke rose from her back. Angrily, she turned and took off sprinting at him. She closed the distance very quickly. He was shocked on how fast she was. Before she touched him, he teleported quickly away.

Nina was extremely annoyed. She eyed the exit and saw Fisk still blocking it. Tombstone and the guy with the tail were out for the moment which just leaves the guy with the electrical powers. Her thoughts were interrupted when the lights flickered as electrical energies were gathering.

"Let's see you dodge this!" He screamed. Arcs of electrical current traveled all throughout his body and increased in intensity as he absorbed more of the power around him.

Nina didn't have time to play with this guy any longer. She had wasted more than enough. Her trainers would have screamed at her for letting it last this long.

She lowered her body and took a sprinting stance. The move she used in Florida helping Tony Stark would work great here. Her suit was capable of flying via magic and allowed her to travel up to super sonic speeds. With a thought, she can instantly travel at any speed she wants. She took off with enough speed to create a shockwave. An electrical beam came straight at her at the same time.

Nina twisted her body to displace the energy that hit her, and she continued forward. When she reached him, she gently threw a punch at his face and stopped her flight. The force and power behind her speed would make her punch extremely deadly. She didn't want people to start thinking she was all blood and gore.

The punch threw him backwards and slammed against the wall. Nina looked to see that he was still breathing. That was good enough for her. She turned to see Fisk' angry face. She couldn't help but release a smirk.

"Thanks for the workout. I'll be going now" She said as she walked closer to Fisk.

"Get the drive. I don't care what else happens" Fisk said as he retreated. Nina stopped walking to look at her surroundings.

Who was he talking to? Nina thought. She confirmed that the three guys were still down and surveyed the area to see if she had missed one. Suddenly, she heard a familiar sound. A new person showed up wearing an identical Spider-Man suit.

So, he's the imposter. Nina thought. The newcomer extended his left arm and opened his palm. He was asking for the drive without saying words.

"The real Spider-Man would have said something corny" Nina said.

"I AM THE REAL SPIDER-MAN!" he screamed as he balled his hands.

Too easy, Nina thought. Easiest button she ever pushed.

Nina and the fake Spider-Man exchange blows. Their fight could be described as narrow missing and several counters blocked. Nina, however, had the advantage of her suit. While he did block some of her attacks, the pain from those blocks were taking toll on his body. It was like a piece of steel slamming against his arms and legs.

Nina saw her opportunity when she launched a low body punch. He had lowered his arm to take the punch. Seeing that, she used her full strength. She could hear the bones fracture from the blow. He fell forward and clung to Nina for support. She pushed him off her and released a kick to send him flying off to the far side of the wall. Nina knew what he had done that for. He was smart. He knew he would lose so he decided to take the hit and get closer to Nina. He's only objective was the drive which was now in his hands.

She turned to hear several footsteps coming. Nina decided to take flight and blast pass Fisk. She wanted to let them pretend they had won. She had her own copy of the files.

"Give me the drive," Fisk said as he saw it on the fake Spider-Man's hand.

"Consider our debt settled, Fisk" Tombstone walked past Fisk and left the area. Fisk turned to see the other two still recovering. This new person had handled them like they were amateurs. As he grasped the USB, he thought it would be better to keep it close to him until his appointment.

Nina looked from afar as Fisk held the USB in his hands. At least she got the information, she thought.

"Show me the data," she asked.

"Processing," V responded.

Inside Nina's helmet, the information started to display for her. She was a bit confused with the documents she was reading. According to this, a lot of the information regarding Norman's son have been falsified. A video started to play and displayed a rough quality video someone inside a water tube with some sort of black goo inside. The video zoomed in and Nina quickly identified him as Norman's son.

"Okay…why is that so significant?" Nina asked out loud.

"Norman's wife died due to complications with Oshtoran Syndrome. It is a rare heritable neurological disorder with other organ systems involved and the sympathetic nerve system."

"So…a desperate father trying to save his son." Nina sighed. She hovered over a building's roof. She landed and crossed her arms in deep thought.

Nina was a bit conflicted. She could understand and even rationalize why he went to great lengths to hide his son. It pained her that Lydia moved all assets to New Genosha. It would have been treated with the medical technology she had created. She remembered the two medical nanites she was given, but quickly discarded the idea of using one. They were difficult to make, and she only had two. They were only to be used in critical situations. Meaning either she or someone of significate value to New Genosha was dying or in a critical state.

It's basically useless. Nina thought. The whole point of going after this information was to get something on Fisk. She decided to go into a dark alley and store her suit.

Nina ventured out to the city and found a nice place to stay on 55th Street. Rent was not cheap, but it came fully furnished. She spent the rest of her time buying clothes and other necessities to bring back to her apartment. The following day, Nina went back to Maya's apartment.

Maya had a cast on her arm and was sitting on the couch as she noticed movement by her window. She was shocked to see the woman who put her in this state back so soon. She opened the window and Nina entered.

"Do you have any other idea where Fisk might hide information?" Nina asked as her helmet's lower partition retracted allowing Maya to lip read.

"What did you find?" Maya asked.

"Dirt on Norman Osborn."

"We can use it?"

"It's personal."

"…I would have to go back and check. I have a couple of ideas, but I need to go back to interact with him again." Nina thought about her idea. It would probably be the easier method. Fisk on some level trusts Maya so he shouldn't see it coming.

"Wait a few more days for your body to recover. You don't want to be fighting in your current state."

"…right," an awkward silence filled the air.

"…I'm sorry,"

"sorry?"

"I sometimes forget my own strength. I didn't mean to hurt you," Nina attempted to apologize.

"ha…yeah…you pack a hell of a punch." Maya attempted to make the situation less awkward.

"So I've been told," Nina recalled the fight from yesterday.

"Take your time to recover. If you need help, call this number." Nina wrote down a number that V had provided her to give out. It was originally to be used when she was accepted in either SHIELD or the Avengers.

"Okay, thanks." Maya accepted the number and Nina exited through the window.

Maya looked at her as she exited and the number she had in her hands. A small smile formed on her face. At least the person wasn't so bad.

Nina flew towards a nearby roof and decided to see if she could spot Spider-Man. She didn't see any movements around her area and traveled to the roof that they had first met. When she arrived, she saw him perched on a water tower. She descended to be right next to him. Spider-Man noticed as she came closer.

"Hey there! Excited to hear the good news," Spider-Man spoke.

"You'll be disappointed I'm afraid."

"Aw…kind of knew it was too easy. So what happened?"

"I got the USB information, but it turned out to be some personal information Fisk had on Norman."

"What information?" he turned to look at her.

"The private kind. I spoke with Maya. She'll recover for a few more days and try to find out more information on Fisk for us."

"…is that the best move?" he questioned out loud.

"Not much of a choice. She's the only one familiar and close to Fisk."

Silence filled the air quickly. She could tell he was thinking of something else.

"Fought your doppelganger by the way,"

"What?"

Nina began to explain what happened at the port and her encounter with Fisk and his men.

"Wait wait. You fought Scorpion, Tombstone, and Electro alone?!"

"So those are their names? And yes. Tombstone was the tougher of the two, but he stayed down. After I beat the three of them, your twin came in. Shattered his arm but he grabbed the USB from me,"

"…you shattered his arm?" He thought of Maya's fight previously. "Wait…if he took the USB, how do you have the data?"

"I copied it obviously."

"right…my bad. So what's in the USB?" he asked again. Nina turned her head to face him. He got the hint. "Sorry, it's just that I had a friend related to him." He wanted to say that his best friend was Harry Osborn and wanted to know if everything was okay with his dad but that would be very suspicious. He couldn't risk it.

A large electrical explosion from a distance drew their attention. Lights flickered slightly near them.

"Still want that tour?"

"Lead the way."