Symbiote 0233: The Big Gun

[You should've told me that the elevator was coming up.] Gwen told Alex as she calmly walked through the corridor while camouflaged. Having already taken care of the two guards, she was looking for the way down to the negative fifth floor, where the man they were looking for would be found.

[I trust your spider senses.] Alex's casual answer made Gwen angry but she couldn't complain any more than huffing.

[Showing some concern would be nice.] She said poutily.

[I'll shower you with love, concern all sorts of other feelings, Gwen. But after we're done here.] Alex said before pausing, [Unless, of course, you're down for a quickie in the middle of the enemy's base.]

[As thrilling as fucking in the middle of enemy territory sounds, I would rather finish our job and get the fuck out of here.] Gwen said, [The feeling that I'm getting from this place isn't exactly the most comfortable.]

[Your Spider-Sense is getting stronger.] Alex said with a proud tone, [You're correct, this place does have an ominous vibe to it. That's the main reason that I didn't just portal us down there, causing you to have to jump through so many hoops. I presume that Shang-Chi has something besides the Ten Rings that can detect and maybe even combat my magical abilities.]

[You really have to clue me into these things, Alex.] Gwen chided, [We're both here taking a risk to infiltrate this place and you're telling me that you're hiding from me and that it's more dangerous than I thought it was.]

[I'm not hiding anything from you, Gwen.] Alex said, [I'm just using the opportunity to train both of our sixth sense abilities — The Silk-Sense that I took from Cindy and your Spider-Sense.]

Gwen went silent as, easily able to discern the truth of Alex's words. Even at the level three bond, Gwen was able to read Alex like an open book with the help of her Spider-Sense. That ability had only gotten exponentially stronger after he bonded with her blood and bones, forming the level-five bond.

Alex continued speaking as Gwen kept walking forward, [I was trying to use my Silk-Sense in a way that it would communicate with your Spider-Sense. Like how our other senses can interact in their own ways — touch being more direct while vision, smell, taste, and sight are somewhat less direct. I was trying to interact with your Spider-Sense using my sixth sense ability, allowing you to sense the danger that I could sense.]

Gwen made an impressed expression under her mask, [I don't really get what you were doing, but it sounds pretty cool. That's the reason I've had this eerie feeling ever since I entered the elevator shaft.]

[I was trying to get you to feel it ever since you entered the warehouse, it took me some figuring out before I could get it to work.] Alex told her. [Take a left here.]

Gwen followed along his directions, [Thanks … And sorry about being so whiney about every small thing.] Gwen mumbled with complicated emotions swirling in her head.

[You can talk to me about it, you know that, right?] Alex said as Gwen brushed past a guard and kept going, unnoticed.

[Once we're out of here.] Gwen said, [I'd rather have that talk while I'm comfortable and cuddled up with you.]

Alex had an idea about what Gwen wanted to say to him so he didn't push her. [As you wish, that second door on the right.] Alex said, [That's the staircase.]

[Did you see why they have so many floors?] Gwen asked Alex as she started descending to the negative fourth floor.

[Not on this floor. This place seems more like the barracks and armory for their workforce. I saw all sorts of traditional cold weapons alongside guns and even some rocket launchers and the like. The rest of the floor seems like the sleeping quarters.] Alex told her, having scanned almost the entire floor to find the way down.

[Do they really have so many people that they need so many floors just to house their people?] Gwen asked rhetorically.

[I think it might have to do with the bad feeling that we're getting. I can see them having smuggled enough people in here to fill up the entire five underground floors with just them, don't get me wrong, but I feel like there's something more going on here. We'll probably find out about it on either the next floor or the one after that.] Alex told her.

"Hopefully, it's just normal people that are filling up this whole space," Gwen spoke as she finally reached the fourth floor. Instead of continuing to descend downward, she decided to explore the fourth floor.

[You jinxed it …] Alex said just as Gwen opened the door that led to the fourth floor.

As Gwen's Spider-Sense flared crazily, telling her that whatever was here was extremely dangerous, she couldn't help but gulp and step back, [We should leave.] She said, her instincts were telling her to get the fuck out of there no matter what.

[Calm yourself, Gwen.] Alex said, [It's just some radiation. It can't do anything to you with me here.]

[We have to get out of here, Alex. My Spider-Sense is flaring like crazy.] Gwen told him, taking another step back as Alex realized something.

[That radioactive spider thing was more literal than just some sci-fi mumbo jumbo, I guess.] Alex said as if he'd understood something.

[What?] Gwen asked, [We need to get out of here, Alex.] Gwen repeated, stepping back again and closing the door to the staircase. Her Spider-Sense instantly calmed down as if a switch had been flipped, allowing Gwen to calm down as well. That was when she realized her abnormal behavior, [What exactly happened, Alex? I felt like when I fought Cindy the first time, she used some device to overwhelm my Spider-Sense. This wasn't as painful as then, but it was still pretty bad.]

[That, my dear Gwen, is the effect of radiation on you.] Alex told her, [You were just exposed to enough radiation moments ago to not only give you radiation poisoning but also mutate you to the extent that you would get another set of superpowers. At least according to the rules of the Marvel Multiverse.]

[What marvel multiverse?] Gwen felt confused.

[I'll tell you some other time. For now, all you need to focus on is that these guys seem to have bought all of China's currently mined Uranium-235 here.] Alex told her, making a grave expression appear on her face.

[Why would they —] Gwen couldn't complete the sentence as she felt her mask squeezing her face and rubbing her skin.

[Stop frowning so much. What if the expression becomes permanent?] Alex said, literally forcing her to fix her expression, [You've been frowning ever since we came down here. And it's only getting worse.]

[Alex~ Stop it.] Gwen laughed lightly and tried to grab her mask to get Alex to stop, [You can't expect me to be happy at seeing someone having smuggled shit loads of nuclear material into the country with the plan to destroy presumably everything.]

Her amused and laughing tone depicted a different picture than her serious words, [This is better.] He said about her expression, [You don't need to take unnecessary stress. It's just nuclear material for now. They haven't even fashioned it into bombs or reactors. And even if they do, it's most likely going to be for a ransom than anything.]

[I can't help but feel like Cindy is just a side quest in this man's plan.] Gwen mumbled.

[Well, he did come out as vying for world domination in his announcement speech. If not for Cindy, a different skyscraper would've been blown up. That's the only difference.] Alex said, [We should get moving. No point in exploring the radioactive no-entry floor.]

[Yeah.] Gwen agreed and started descending further, [By the way, if there was a staircase, why did we go through all those hoops to get into the elevator shaft?]

[Unlike the elevator door, the stairs have no electronic mechanism. I would've needed marginally more effort to look for the staircase and decided that the elevator was a better option.] Alex said.

[Marginally, you say …] Gwen's expression twitched as she recalled the close call she had, almost getting her head bashed in by the cabin of the elevator, a few minutes ago.

[You were fine. And what did I tell you about frowning?] Alex started massaging her face once again, forcing her expression to get normalized, [And you were fine. The elevator was the better route under any circumstances.]

[Fine~ Whatever.] She said in between giggles, but Alex kept rubbing, squeezing, and pinching her face, [Now stop it!]

Hearing him laugh in her head, Gwen shook her head with a small smile as she finally reached the lowest floor. As she opened the door, she recalled something, [Why didn't you feel overwhelmed like I did when I was assaulted by the radiation?] Gwen asked him.

[I guess I'm just built differently.] Alex said casually.

[Yeah?] Gwen wasn't impressed by his answer, [And what's the actual reason?]

[That kind of is the actual reason.] Alex said, [I derived Cindy's Silk-Sense into the ‹True Sixth Sense›, which is a slightly stronger version of her original ability.]

[I remember another universe's Cindy telling me how her Silk-Sense is more of a curse than a boon since it feeds her way too much information.] Gwen recalled, [My Spider-Sense only triggers when I or someone close to me is in danger. But she used to get all sorts of signals from her surroundings.]

[Exactly, here's where the built differently part comes in.] Alex said, [Unlike her, I can process enough information to rival multiple supercomputers in real time. The influx of information that used to overwhelm Cindy is nothing big for me. This is also why I didn't get affected by the flaring of my ability. I could keep my rationality and objectively understand the situation even under those circumstances.]

[It's at times like these when I cannot even fathom the kind of existence that you are …] Gwen said while feeling a sense of awe.

[Please, you'll make me blush.]

***

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