Arc Six. Chapter One Hundred Seventy. Sky’s The Limit

"Look, I'm sorry okay, but I ain't taking the cuff off," Brock explained to a very angry looking Liv. His partner, Jack, shook his head,

"Well, what did you expect? Nobody's happy with those on."

Last night Liv and Brock had gone for their drink, and as Brock went to take her arm, he slipped a silver metallic bracelet around her wrist, a smaller more easily concealed version of the collar. After spending the night interrogating her they were now heading back to Shield Academy.

"It's fine dear, but we will talk about boundaries once this is all over. You could have just asked. You know I worked for Osborn, a little death and mayhem isn't outside my job description." and Brock laughed while Jack smirked,

"Yeah, but we had to make sure doc, with you and the kid, Fury's not going to like what's about to happen and we need you on our side, no tricks."

"Ah, so this was really about Peter was it?" and Jack raised an eyebrow at Rumlow, who shrugged,

"What?" and as Jack snorted and shook his head, Brock repeated himself "what? So I like you, so what? That's that and this is business."

"Again, you could have just asked. I am an adult, not some stupid teenager. If you wanted to know about Peter and myself, you should have said, I swear Brock, this is worse than high school."

"So?" and Liv sighed,

"I have seen your scans. You are a very attractive man, well endowed and quite pleasant to be around. Yes, if Peter wasn't in the picture I could see us being more than just friends."

Jack checked his bag, "maybe you should check her cuff again," and Rumlow looked confused, "I'm your best friend and I think you're an asshole, if she likes you, it must be broke or something." and Rumlow laughed and batted him on the chest with a fist.

"Just get your shit together. Liv, I need you to call Peter, and get him and those other two to the west wing observatory, okay?" and Liv nodded, taking out her phone and sending Peter a text.

As he stared at his phone, he was hesitant to take Laura anywhere, but he needed to get back to Shield academy. She had woken and seemed to be in a good mood as she wolfed down more of the breakfast mix she had eaten when she was first here. She had given him a pitiful look and said, "sick, need comfort," and while he shook his head he still smiled as he mixed the eggs together.

Laura was already a lot calmer, forming more coherent sentences and stopped growling as much, using words rather than just noises. She still tilted her head and whined while using a fatal pout, but he figured that was more because she knew it was cute and was exploiting him for sympathy.

His phone dinged and as he checked the message from Liv he sighed, "right, Shield, and you need to come with me, are you okay?" and with a mouthful of egg and sausage Laura nodded, Wanda opting for just coffee nodded,

"Is it time?" and Peter nodded and sighed,

"Yup, so be ready."

The Academy was eerily quiet as the trio walked through its corridors. Even if Peter didn't know what was about to happen, he would have guessed something was up. Unless it was a holiday the place was never this empty and as graduation for the main student body was still several months away it would have looked strange.

Peter waved at Liv who smiled and waved them over, Rumlow was making some adjustments to the War Machine armour with another agent Peter had never seen before. They were busy loading drums of what Peter could only guess was ammo into the shoulder and wrist guns and didn't even acknowledge their presence,

"So good of you to come, Peter. We're doing the first test of the War Machine today and I know you like Stark Tech. There is an auditorium upstairs where you can see everything. Flash, be a dear and them to their seats. We prepared them just for you, it's the best place to get a good view." and she leaned over and kissed Peter on the cheek.

Smiling and kissing the back of Livs hand, Peter followed Flash up to the glass circular room, "uh yeah, it's a bunker, so they can do live-fire exercises. You guys get comfy and I'll get us soda, you want?" Flash asked and even Peter could see how nervous he was,

"No Flash, we're good. Let's just get the show started." and for a moment Flash had a blank look on his face,

"Uh yeah, yeah," and as he left he hit a button on the outside of the door and it slid shut with a hiss.

As they watched on the monitors, Rumlow and the other agent finished loading up the armour, sliding in several power packs and then the final arcstar into the chest cavity. Rumlow looked up and smirked as the front of the armour opened and stepping back into it, it closed around him,

"Hey Parker, you remember my first lesson?" and Peter shrugged and nodded,

"Well, you failed." and the War Machine armour powered on, the helmet lights sparking into life and the arcstar reactor flared. Guns clicked and chambered rounds and the shoulder cannons began to glow blue as their new Pulse cores came online. "Jack, get Flash and Liv back to HQ, I want to take care of these three myself," and as the other agent nodded, he led Flash and Liv away, neither turning to look at what Rumlow had planned.

"See, you think you're smart, you think you've got powers but us, we knew about you Venom, and Scarlet Witch and well, you ain't that impressive. Aliens will never match good old fashioned American Tech, plus a little nazi ingenuity.

That room was for the Hulk, and you ain't the Hulk. It's a shame though, but I'll take good care of Liv once you're gone. A man, nah, a kid like you, doesn't deserve a woman like Liv."

War Machine pressed a control panel attached to the wrist of his armour. "Evacuation protocol, engaged." came out of the speakers and the circular room flared into life. Red warning lights flashed and as Peter stood in the centre of the room, glaring at War Machine the room was suddenly catapulted straight up, through the auditorium roof and into the sky.

"Yeah, survive that fuckface." and War Machine lifted off and flew out after them.

Peter felt something hit the bottom of the room and the skyline, slowly at first and then faster, rose and disappeared below them. He guessed that Rumlow must be using the War Machine to push them higher, the best way to neutralize them was to take them somewhere a lot of power was useless, such as space. Shield must have figured that even Hulk needed to breathe.

"Wanda, can you create a pocket of oxygen?" and she shook her head,

"I can gather the air around me, yes, but not anyone else. My magic isn't that strong," and Peter cursed. He was fine, and so was Wanda but Laura would suffocate eventually. Even if the low temperatures wouldn't faze her regenerative abilities, having no air would.

"Laura, can you try the glass?" and even as Venom slid out and he drew his nails across whatever the rooms windows were made from there was no scratch and Lauras claws weren't any better, "Wanda?" and she shook her head, and as she floated over she lay a hand on it,

"Very thick, difficult but I could, but then what? we're over the clouds now and you would die.'' Laura had sat down and was panting already, the air in the room escaping quickly.

"Nope, I can breathe, my symbskin can make oxygen, it's just Laura," and taking a deep breath, "but I can make her a host, but," and he exhaled, "newly formed symbiotes tend to overload their hosts"

Wanda shrugged, Laura now laying down and starting to look very pale. Barely breathing.

"If Laura had impulse control issues before, then this will be a lot worse." and Wanda shrugged,

"Worse than being dead?" and Peter couldn't argue, although, if she raged, it might not be Laura that was in danger of dying.

"Okay, try this against the glass" and he handed Wanda the needle they had removed, "and I'll deal with Laura, just uh, be ready to move." and Wanda nodded solemnly.

As Wanda waved her hands, the red energy surrounded the needle and as it flew and impacted the glass it created a spiderweb of cracks, "how?" as she looked at the damage in shock,

"It uh, feels similar to the metal we recovered from Sokovia, I figured it was a super metal, enough to stop Laura from rejecting it and regenerating. Keep going, once you've cracked it enough for us to escape I'll deal with Laura."

Peter really didn't want to be trapped in the room with a homicidal symbiote enhanced Laura but as the sky's blue faded into a deeper black, the lifting stopped and both he and Laura lifted off the floor of the room.

War Machine, coated in a thin film of ice flew up and watched the three for a moment, before giving a fake salute, then the finger and flying off.

"Now Peter" and Wanda launched the needle at the glass, its thin but shard point penetrating the glass window and as the last of the air whistled and escaped Peter extended his symbskin over Laura and then as it retracted she was left with a coating of her own.

"Talon," was all she said as the colour deepened into black, and similar to Huntress she had tan claw marks across her legs, shoulders, and arms. As if Talon had copied his Dusk outfit rather than Venom her shoulders were covered in a thick black cloak that flowed down her back and her mask only covered half her face with dark tan crescent eyes, leading up to black pointed wings rather than ears.

"Are we good Talon? I'd rather not fight you in here."

We will fight you once we are free, and we will claim you as our prize if we win.

Even though Talon had spoken in his mind Wanda shouted, "screw later, Deal with the glass." She had punched several holes but each one was still insufficient to break the window.

Venom laid a hand over them, "Make one here and here," he pointed and stepped back as the needle whistled through the air. "Good, Talon, punch here when I punch here, and Wanda, push against at the holes as we do, okay?" and the two nodded "good, on three. One, two and three."

The group struck. Venom cracking a line between three holes while Talons lesser strength still cracked two more. With a final push from Wanda a whole section, large enough for them to fit through was pushed from the window,

"Now what?" Wanda shouted, as the three braced against the last of the escaping air.

"Now, fly out and lower us to the ground," Venom replied, there was no way to stop this, other than by using Wanda's powers. Even with two symbiotes, he doubted they could produce enough web or suspend something this large before it hit the ground.

"Are you insane, I can't lift something this heavy," and Venom shook his head.

Save air. You don't have to, just slow us down. Oh and maybe aim us away from a population centre, I don't want to kill anyone if we need to escape.

Wanda huffed and as the red energy enveloped the room the strain on her face was visible,

Just slow us down, don't try to lift it,

I am, now shut the hell up!

Talon had dug her claws into the floor as she sat on her haunches staring at Venom while he argued with Wanda. As the red glow permeated the whole room he was able to hold on with his feet but still had the problem of stopping,

Wanda, can you release the room when we're lower to the ground and fly out, use your power to make a platform we can swing from?

I'm not a jungle gym so no. I can manipulate objects not create platforms, do you not know what telekinesis is?

Venom sighed, I do, but it didn't hurt to ask. I'd rather not find out right after I'm smeared across the ground you could have made something for us to swing from. So can you lift us both, even for a second?

I probably could, I don't know, I've never tried to lift a person, only objects.

You fly! How is that different?

I fly, not make others fly, stop being annoying, stupid Venom man. You learnt o fly if it's that important,

IT IS RIGHT NOW! and Venom realised that the ground was rapidly approaching, no time, release the room and escape, Talon, go with her, I'll just leave it to dumb luck,

I can probably take her, she's a lot smaller than you, and Wanda let the glow envelop her and as she put a hand on Talons shoulder they flotation up and out the broken window.

"Well, at least it's over water," Venom said and leaping, he dived through after them.

There was nothing. Wanda had managed to aim them over the bay, and while the water gently sloshed below him there wasn't even a buoy to grab onto, well, shit, and he sent out a web line, trying to make a small parachute. Idiot and the black wingsuit he was supposed to be wearing as Dusk rippled from beneath his arms, spreading his limbs he glided down and trying his best to angle himself sped towards the water.

As Wanda and Talon floated along next to him they were both suspiciously quiet, and with a splash, he was on the water.

"Head in to New York, get to either Shield HQ or the academy. If they are after us then it's probably a full-on attack." Peter retracted the symbskin around his face and wiped the water from it.

"And what about you?" and he shook his head.

"Doesn't matter. I can't fly, can't do anything but swim and slow you down. They'll need help, please, no point in all three of us being stuck here." and Wanda nodded, carrying a compliant Talon, made off towards the coast.