Chapter 7: Rising Power 1/2

Author's Note: All properties belong to their respective owners, Marvel, Respawn Entertainment, etc.

The title song for this chapter is the opening track off of one of my personal favorite AC/DC albums, called Flick of the Switch. The entire album has this great rough and ready feel to it, very aggressive and in your face from start to finish. If you like good hard bluesy rock music, especially the sound of live albums, you owe it to yourself to give the Flick of the Switch album a listen all the way through.

ravens18: Thank you for the kind words and I'm glad you're enjoying it. Yes, I know this is a bizarre concept. Honestly, I still have no clue how to really 'sell' it so any ideas about that would be great. No spoilers, but if those are the kinds of things you're looking forward to then stick around. I think you'll like what's coming up in the next few chapters.

As always, feel free to leave me some feedback, otherwise get ready to rock.

Power Without Question – Chapter 7: Rising Power

Need no excuse

To let it all hang loose

My body's blown a fuse

Rising power

We'll raise the night

Rising power

"Ugh" groaned Mary Jane Watson as one of her eyes cracked open for a moment, only to reflexively slam shut. "Who turned on the sun?" she asked as she jammed her face into the pillow and extended her arm to reach out for her boyfriend. "Peter, get the blinds…Peter?"

He wasn't there.

She thought back to last night. He had gotten her back to her apartment and she convinced him to stay. That's when her memory went fuzzy, she probably had a bit too much to drink. With a significant amount of effort, the Bugle reporter pushed herself out of bed and plodded over to the window and closed the blinds herself. "Definitely too much to drink" she mumbled as she made her way to the kitchen.

MJ opened the fridge and found a thermos with a note stuck to it and pulled it out.

Had to swing out, sorry about that MJ. Fixed this up for you, an old recipe of Aunt May's, a remedy for bad mornings, which I suspect you're having. Hopefully it helps, I'll see you after work.

-Peter

Watson couldn't suppress a smile as she drank the odd fruit flavored tea. Their relationship was definitely unconventional, but she remembered why she put up with Parker's unique traits. "Stuff works" she admitted as she went to check her phone, the haze starting to clear from her mind.

She had a voicemail from a number she hadn't recognized until she played the message. "Ms. Watson, I apologize for the call at this hour. I've sent additional information your way. If I get anything else, then I'll do the same as soon as I get it. See if you can make anything of it and get back to me if you have any leads, or, failing that, tell me what pieces we're still missing."

"Good Luck, and Godspeed."

"Alright Watson" she said aloud as she opened her laptop, "Let's see what we've got."

An hour later, and MJ was checking some of the last files that had been transferred before she would have to leave to work when her jaw dropped open. "Holy crap."

"Holy crap" muttered a shocked Cooper as he looked down at the large box that he found quite literally on his doorstop. Taking a careful look around before he picked up the parcel, Cooper was weary for obvious reasons, but took the package inside anyway.

He went into his bedroom and set the carboard box down on his bed before taking his data knife to it. "You have got to be shitting me" he muttered as she saw the first of the contents. It was a framed painting that Cooper couldn't help but smile at. It depicted an intentionally adorable cat rubbing affectionately against a familiar striped helmet with an x shaped visor. "So, she doesn't just steal paintings, she makes them too. Good to know" said Cooper with a wry chuckle as he set the piece aside.

That wasn't the most interesting thing that the Militia Pilot received. Removing a layer of bubble wrap he couldn't believe what was being protected by it. Reaching down, he gingerly picked up and held the electric guitar. He still hadn't wrapped his head around the different names his new home had for the same things from his old one, he didn't care.

This was an Aged Cherry Gibson SG, the lightning bolts on the neck signifying it was a special edition that was made in tribute to the lead guitarist from his favorite band from home. Matthew had been shocked to see it in that vault, and now, it was in his hideout.

"BT!" he yelled out, "find out some way to get us some perimeter defenses!" Even still, he couldn't help but grin dumbly down at the guitar cradled in his arms like a baby, or one of his rifles. Just because they had gotten away with their hideout being undefended didn't mean Cooper wanted to rely on dumb luck any more than he already was. Though he was happy with this surprising turn of events, there were still other problems he needed to worry about.

"Now only if we could get some good leads."

"If only we had some good leads!" growled Yuriko as she slammed her fist into her desk. The task force the Mayor had put together was just a reorganization of SWAT teams into a cohesive unit to be able to take down the Marauder. What it did not feature was any personnel or resources that would actually track down their target. That responsibility fell to Watanabe, Johnson, and Martinez.

The oldest of the three removed the toothpick he had been chewing on. "Osborn's just waving his task force around to show he's taking action. We need another lead, but Fisk's lawyers are keeping us out of Lau's apartment" reported Martinez. The two women nodding at the assessment.

It was Johnson's turn to pitch in. "Cap, this guy has to be based out of somewhere. All of the ammunition he goes through, it's all custom. So either he has a stockpile or the ability to manufacture it" she said. "We need to use this against him. Find out where he's based and drop the hammer, send in every gun we have to nail this guy."

Yuri's face remained impassive, any hints that she had been having similar thoughts remained invisible. Earlier that morning she had met with Mayor Osborn, and he had made his position clear.

"Captain Watanabe, whoever this man may be or what he wants is none of my concern. I will not have a killer roaming the streets."

"Mr. Mayor, we don't have the resources to track him down. Even if we did, all our evidence is circumstantial at best. Prosecution could be a nightmare if we don't build up our case."

"I believe you don't understand Captain; I'm not intending for the Marauder to make it to court."

To hear that from Osborn had shaken Yuri, no matter what, that man deserved the same rights as any other New Yorker, and to be led to believe that the Mayor was using SWAT as his own personal hit squad was less than reassuring. "But we don't know where that is Johnson" answered the oriental woman. "And if we can't find him then we have to bring him to us" said Yuri. "We need to find what he wants."

"Which puts us right back at Fisk" replied Johnson with a sigh. "With the Distribution Center a total write off, we need a way to find out what he was after at Lau's. But without a warrant…" she said as she threw her hands up in frustration. "We're fucked."

The three sat in silence before Yuri realized what was needed. "I need some a smoke" she said finally before standing. "I'll be back in ten, hold down the fort" she ordered as she went towards the stairs that led to the roof of the precinct.

Parker was swinging through the city, his work was done for the day and he was patrolling. For the most part, it had been quiet, he had stopped only a handful of crimes in the past few weeks, and that number had only shrunk with the arrival of the Marauder. The Vigilante wasn't someone the wallcrawler was expecting to encounter. His MO had been to attack specific targets in the night, he had never been spotted during daylight hours. Still, when Yuri had called and told him to meet her at the precinct to discuss the Marauder, he made for Chinatown without hesitation.

Peter landed on the roof behind the oriental Police Captain and walked up behind Yuri. "Spider Cop, overworked and underpaid, checked to see what the Captain had wanted" he narrated in an exaggerated gravelly voice.

He heard Yuri sigh and mutter something that sounded like 'for fucks sake' before she turned around. "Thanks for coming Spider Man" she began, sounding genuinely appreciative, one of the reasons he enjoyed working with her, "I want you to investigate a break in that occurred last night. I'll send you the address. It could be the Marauder."

"You don't know?" he asked, dropping the Spider Cop voice at seeing how seriously Yuri was taking this. Something was bothering the veteran officer, and it was disconcerting to the super-hero as well.

Yuri shook her head, "Not for sure, it was at the penthouse of Hannah Lau, a known associate of Fisk. It certainly fits in with how he's been targeting the Kingpin's operations. Lau wasn't hurt and none of the security personnel were killed, which is enough for lawyers to hold up a warrant to investigate the purpose of the break in." Watanabe chewed on her lip, one of her tells, she was definitely nervous. "Fisk is hiding something. The Mayor's priority is taking down the Marauder, but if we can nail Fisk as well…" she said, trailing off.

"I'll get right on it" he assured. If the Kingpin was planning something then it would have to be stopped, Fisk rarely thought small. "With his new assignment, Spider Cop set off, dispensing his own brand of justice" he rasped before leaping over the railing and began to swing through the city, almost able to feel the sigh originating from the precinct rooftop.

He soon reached the penthouse, "Best do this quietly" he told himself as he looked at the shattered window that was likely the Marauder's entry point. Instead of the obvious, the webhead spotted a ventilation shaft and quickly pulled himself to it. Slinking inside, he crawled through the vents and paused at a grate.

Down below, the head of security was on the phone with somebody. "No sir, concussions and broken bones aplenty, but no dead. Four of my men are still in comas, but the ones who are awake swear up and down it was him."

"Not like him to leave everyone alive" said Parker, assuming the 'him' was indeed the Marauder. "But if they didn't try to kill him then maybe…" he thought aloud, "he has done this before."

"No police yet sir, we're busy seeing exactly what was taken. Most of the sensitive materials have already been relocated." Taken? Thought Parker, this was a burglary? "I already sent teams to guard other locations. So far? A few art pieces are missing, a guitar, and an antique china set."

Parker's brow furrowed inside his mask, that was really out of the ordinary for the gun toting renegade. "In fact, that sounds more like Felecia" he murmured. But he had seen her the night this had all happened, she was at Club Solar and talked with him and Matt. "She never showed up after that though, and Matt didn't return from the bar either…"

It couldn't be, the soft-spoken southerner couldn't be the Marauder, could he? "Stop assuming Parker, take a look for yourself."

Before he did however, the guard below said one last thing. "The server? It was empty sir, nothing on it." There was a pause on the line. "Shit! That means he probably has all the data. I'll go through the logs myself and see what I can find…right away sir." With that, the man ended the call and pocketed the phone as he walked off, unaware he was being shadowed by Spider-Man in the vents above. After a few minutes, the man was outside a massive vault and dismissed the two guards at the booth before inputting the code to access what was inside.

As soon as the massive steel door began to open, Spider-Man silently opened the grate and hit the man with a pair of webs, pulling him up into the vent and webbing him to the ceiling of the confined space, making sure to cover his mouth to ensure he couldn't call for help. With that done, he dropped down and had a look around.

Judging from the still decent condition of the vault door, it looked intact enough that he doubted it had been forced open last night. Which meant whoever got in did so quietly. Moving to the security booth, he checked to see if he could find security footage of who was responsible. "Wiped, not surprising" he muttered as he took a quick look through the system. "Well, hello there" he said as he saw something unexpected.

It was one of his programs, or rather a modification of one, that he had given to Black Cat during their brief partnership. This all but confirmed that the thief had been here as well, were they working together? "What were you doing Felicia?" he whispered as he went inside the vault.

There were a small handful of items missing, but the vigilante ignored them and went to the small server bank. He tried the laptop, but found that it wasn't registering any of his inputs. "Why is the keyboard shaking like it's not attached to it?" he wondered before he pried slightly and the whole piece of plastic popped off. "Oh" he said lamely as he went to plan b.

Pulling out a custom USB drive, he inserted it and hoped the built in programs would be able to get into the system and get whatever may be left. "Yo boss! You almost done in there?" shouted one of the guards from outside. "Miss Lau is about to arrive!"

Peter immediately grabbed the flash drive and ran back outside the vault and pulled himself back up into the vents, placing the grate back into place. "Boss? Boss where'd you go?" asked the guard as he crawled back the way he came.

Back on the roof, he quickly began swinging away until he was safely out of the area and came to a stop atop a gargoyle statue. Pulling out the drive he looked at it, "what have you got for me little guy?"

"What have you got for me Ms. Watson?" said the electronically filtered voice on the other side of the phone, the Bugle investigator only slightly less unnerved by its cold tone than she had been.

Setting that thought aside, she took a breath and began. "Project Cinderblock, that's what Fisk is calling this, and it's big. He's invested millions so far, and not just in weapons, about two thirds of it has gone into construction equipment and supplies." She scrolled down her notes page, unsure what to make of the silence on the other end of the line. "Most of the stuff here is inventory for the construction equipment and what they're going to make. Looks like it's all commercial, office spaces and apartments. Only right now, none of Fisk's companies have property in the city to build these projects on."

The silence dragged on for a few moments before the Marauder responded. "What's the connection? Illegal weapons imports and questionable business strategies don't usually mix" deadpanned the vigilante, the irritation combined with humor was an odd mix.

Shaking her head, MJ gave the only answer she had. "I'm not sure, we're still missing pieces, but I did a little digging and found something interesting" she explained as she picked up a note pad and read through what her fellow journalists had given her. "Lau is currently contracted as a consultant at an architecture firm in New York owned by Fisk, I'm sending you that location."

What she didn't inform him of was that there was more, specifically, the second firm that employed Lau in a similar capacity. Either one could have held the info needed, it made more sense if they hit both at once, and if all went well, then the Marauder would be none the wiser. "One last thing. Ever since he's been trying to legitimize himself, Fisk is never around when a major crime operation takes place" explained MJ. This was a pattern she had been noticing ever since she and Peter had begun dating, for obvious reasons.

"And?"

"And he leaves for a nine-month long trip to Europe in three days."

Cooper had less than 72 hours to figure out the puzzle that they now knew was called 'Cinderblock.' He hoped that he could find more pieces of the puzzle at Lau's office, with the clock working against him he couldn't leave any options on the table. He was shacked up on a water tower, Hemlock BF-R and EVA-8 at the ready as he looked at the 80-story skyscraper.

He still felt that he was fumbling around in the dark without making any real progress. Not just on Cinderblock, but in making a new life. He was effectively living in hiding, his work as the Marauder was effectively a full-time job, and, ironically, he felt most vulnerable when he wasn't getting shot at.

"The target location is on the 62nd floor, southwest corner" reminded BT, causing Matthew to push all other thoughts aside. "I am not detecting any signs of activity within the target. Advise you move quickly Pilot."

Cooper pushed himself off the edge of his perch and tapped a mag against his helmet before sliding it into the magwell of the BF-R and chambering the first round. "Go time" he growled lowly as he fired his grapple and pulled himself towards the next building.

Using his STIM, grapple, and Jump kit, the Militia Pilot parkoured his way towards his target, slowly ascending as he went. By the time he reached his destination, he was still ten floors below and on the North face of the building, but the Marauder had a plan.

His boots impacted the side of the glass covered building, his jump kit making a constant whine as it pressed him up and into the wall as he sprinted as fast as he could towards the northwest corner before he leapt off and fired his grapple. Like a pendulum, Cooper slingshot himself around the edge of the building nearly 60 stories up before he detached and began running along the west side. While his right hand was pressed against the glass, keeping him steady, his left drew his tomahawk as he neared the southwest corner.

Repeating his daredevil move, he jumped and moved the axe to his right hand before firing the grapple upwards, reversing his fall and throwing him up as well as around the corner. The Pilot brought the pick side of the axe around and slammed it into the window as hard as he could and hanging on for dear life.