"Anderthorp Henton…"
Strange man with strange intentions.
No longer in the office, Felix was no longer in the suit. He was a changed man, switched into dark-blue slacks, a white shirt under a black trench coat.
He sat in the back of a black muscle car, windows tinted dark to hide him. Samantha was his driver and they weaved through the arteries of nighttime New York, headlights catching the wet sheen still clinging to the streets from an earlier rain. Samantha kept both hands on the wheel of the Camaro, spine straight as a ruler, checking her mirrors more than she strictly needed to.
"City's always changing," Felix mused.
City construction never stopped performing, although since it was night and post-rain, there were only the machines and objects left. Creature Z would never be forgotten for how it had gutted whole blocks, turned avenues into rubble fields, sent people fleeing with whatever they could carry. Now, driving through it, there were flowers again. Streetlamps flickered back to life in sequence down entire blocks. Scaffolding wrapped finished bridges like casts on healing bones. Bridges that he and Osborn heavily invested in and forced the completion of in order to aid in traffic and flow of the city. The government naturally agreed and wanted it too but it was the two of them that pushed for it truly.
Norman put tolls on those highways for a slice of profit.
'Not anymore. Sorry, Norman.'
Felix just wasn't that kind of guy. He had all the money he needed for life. As they drove under the bridge, his eyes kept focused on the side. He saw plenty of life in the buildings now, like a diner with its windows lit. Since they were in slow movement, Felix could see the handful of shapes hunched over coffee.
None of them knew the city was changing. Or perhaps they did. Perhaps those people in the diner were mulling over SHIELD or Spider-Man or the military. Perhaps. Scars didn't leave after all. They stayed and they changed people.
Murals bloomed across collapsed storefronts, kids with spray cans turning wreckage into something worth looking at. A three-story hole in a brick facade had been patched with plywood, and someone had stapled a hand-lettered sign to it: WE'RE STILL HERE. Samantha slowed at a red light beside a lot that used to be a parking garage and was now just a lot, weeds pushing up through the asphalt in defiant green fists.
Felix kept a look out. He wanted to keep helping as both Spidey and Felix.
The Camaro slowed as they came up on a chain-link fence sagging around a stairwell entrance, rust bleeding down the bars. The old station sign above it was half-swallowed by graffiti: 18th STREET. Samantha eased the car up onto the curb, threw it into park, and studied it.
"Is this it?" Samantha asked.
"Yeah. Thanks for being so understanding."
"I hope you know what you're doing."
"I do, I do. Don't worry."
"I will worry. It is my job."
Felix chuckled. He hadn't told Samantha the truth yet. At some point, he would. 'Sorry, Samantha. It's just because of Maria.'
Maria was clear on making sure people of Earth 65 did not know about Earth 2099. He tried to explain that it was Captain freakin' America. Maria didn't care. She was a tad cynical about trusting people and he did not push the matter too far.
Samantha killed the engine. Neither of them moved for a second.
"Stay put," Felix said, already reaching for the door handle.
"Understood."
He got out, adjusted his jacket against the night air, and slipped through the oval-shaped fence gap. Down the stairwell, past the busted turnstiles crusted with a decade of grime, into the dark mouth of the station itself. The wind still came up from somewhere below, hollow and cold, like the tunnels were breathing.
He found the men's bathroom by memory more than sight. Second toilet from the door. He knelt, pried the loose tile off the wall behind it, found the pipe waiting exactly where it always was, and twisted it: right, then left, then right again.
Clunk.
The toilet and the tiled wall in front of it slid open together.
This was where the portal was being built. This was where he and Czarina used to meet all the time.
Except this time, the hallway on the other side didn't look anything like it used to.
The last time he'd walked this corridor it had been bare LED strips and exposed conduit, sterile and gray, like a bunker built by grime and no imagination. Now the walls were a riot of color. Like good god, the purple made Felix squint a little. Spray paint layered over spray paint, half-finished murals bleeding into each other, a cartoon rat wearing sunglasses next to a fist punching through a brick wall next to what might have been a band logo. String lights zigzagged along the ceiling where the old fluorescents used to hum, tangled up with extension cords and, inexplicably, a disco ball rigged to spin lazily in the draft. It was very purple-y and red. The colours were not very complimentary.
Sniff, sniff. The place smelled like spray fixative and instant noodles. Felix stopped in the doorway and just looked at it for a second.
'Well. That's new.'
The old command terminal still sat at the center of it all, scaffolding climbing toward the half-finished portal like ribs around a heart. That part hadn't changed. The portal itself sat dormant, a black alloy ring, dark and waiting. But everything around it had been colonized by purple.
So much purple. Sheesh.
Also, a hammock was strung between two support struts, patched together from what looked like three different flags and a shower curtain, and in it, dead to the world, was Hobie. Boots still on, one arm draped off the side, knuckles brushing the floor, and a busted comic splayed open on his chest where it had slid down mid-read. A cassette walkman sat propped against his ear, the little foam padding on one earphone half torn off. Seemed like he was listening to alternative rock.
Past him, near the base of the portal rig, the yellow jacket-ed Xina Kwan crouched over an open panel of wiring with a soldering iron in one hand. Beside her, one arm crossed and the other pointing a flashlight, was Maria Hill.
It was all relief seeing them. He didn't have to hide as Felix or Spider-Man; he could be both.
What a strange feeling.
Maria looked up. "Figured you'd show up eventually."
"Am I that predictable?" Felix said, smiling.
"Yes."
Felix huffed a laugh and stepped past the hammock, pausing just long enough to nudge the toe of Hobie's boot with his own.
"Comfortable?"
Hobie didn't open his eyes. "Piss off," he mumbled, voice thick with sleep, "workin' nights."
"Looks like it."
"'M restin' me eyes."
"Have your beauty sleep, man."
A vague, unbothered noise answered him and Hobie's arm slid another inch off the hammock without him so much as stirring otherwise.
Felix let him be. He crossed the rest of the way to the portal rig, rolling his sleeves up as he went, and dropped in beside Xina and Maria.
"So, Xina, any thoughts?" Felix asked.
"Pretty much as primitive as I thought," the future woman replied.
Felix winced. "Sorry, I don't have a degree in portals."
"Agreed. You can't blame him, Xina," Maria said.
"I'm simply saying what the roof is," Xina said. He had no idea what that meant. Some kind of futuristic literary expression?
"Or being too cynical," said Maria.
"I am not cynical," Xina replied.
There was this weird slick of tension dripping from their words. Felix tried to smile as he glanced between them. 'I am so glad that everyone is getting along.' A sarcastic thought.
See, introducing Maria to them was… interesting. Hobie was more than okay with it. He looked her up and down, had her answer a couple weird questions, nodded, and said: "Better to wake up now than never."
Whereas Xina was more-so saying: "Once a spy, always a spy."
Explaining her circumstances didn't help. Xina didn't fully believe in it. She even took Felix aside to tell him that. Felix retorted, even in the possibility of her being a double-spy, it was better to keep her close than to let her wander around. At that, she agreed. So Xina tasked herself to keep an eye on her.
"What do you think? Still got a date for the portal's completion?" Felix asked.
"No." Bluntly, Xina shook her head and closed the panel. "First, the tech here just isn't sufficient for me. Second, you don't have enough power."
Felix deflated. "Are you absolutely sure?"
"Yes. This portal, from your schematics, only works one-way and works only once. Once a living organism goes through, even a bug, poof. Everything ruptures." Xina gestured with her hand and formed a boom with them.
That kinda was the original intent. This was initially intended for Czarina to go home after all. "What about your van? You got here with new portal technology, didn't you? Can't we borrow elements?" Felix asked.
"No."
"Why?"
"Because I hardly understand the technology myself."
Felix scoffed. So did Maria and she beat him to the big Q. "You built the shocking thing and don't understand it?" the spy asked.
Xina got up, glaring. "Are you daft? That's how technology works on our Earth. We put things together like, like putting the pieces of a puzzle together. Just because we put the pieces together does NOT mean we built the actual puzzle or that we drew the puzzle pieces."
Maria rolled her eyes. It looked like Xina had a good point. "So, you got the schematics for Alchemaxx's dimensional device, built the shocking thing, and got here…and are now stranded. Wonderful."
"Silence, you. The dimensional device is on cool-down."
"According to who?"
"To Marilyn. Like I mentioned before."
"Except I can't seem to confirm and ask Marilyn since you ordered her not to listen to me."
"Uhh," Felix, like a student between two strict professors arguing over a solution, decided to pose a different question. "For, uh, how long is the cool-down?"
"A week," Xina replied.
Maria just clicked her tongue. All eyes suddenly snapped to the van too. It was parked here in the shadows of the lefthand corner. That van contained Marilyn and the dimensional device. It was their blueprint.
"Power, huh…" Felix murmured. "Your van is powered by three arc reactors, right?"
He recalled checking the van's engine before. It was literally something straight out of the future, simple and yet absurd. The engine consisted of three arc reactors connected by thick tubes that zig-zagged. The arc reactor itself, Felix more than understood the concept of. However, the type of arc reactor inside the van was far, far advanced than anything he thought possible. He could literally plop it out of the engine. Apparently, switching arc reactors was a common thing on Earth 2099. As in, common enough that a kid carrying around an arc reactor to power his toy hologram was normal.
There was some history about the overproduction of arc reactors and that doing environmental damage too. Hobie gave a whole speech on it. It was pretty ridiculous stuff.
"Prototype arc reactors that recharge on their own," Xina corrected.
"And how did you manage to get your hands on those?" Maria asked.
"By planning a heist and hiring mercenaries to steal them from the factory where they were produced. Quite simple, really," Xina said cockily. "What, too hard to pull off? Aren't you supposed to be a spy?"
Maria's glare was deathly.
"Okay, okay," said Felix, getting between them, "play nice, you two."
There were humphs. Seriously, no wonder they couldn't make real progress.
"The portal is ultimately back-up and for my own curiosity." And Czarina too when the time came for that. "So I do appreciate your help on it."
"You're welcome," Maria and Xina replied at the same time.
"But…that's not what I actually came here for." At that, their heads turned. Felix continued, "A guy by the name of Anderthrop Henton approached me today."
"Anderthorp…Henton?"
Both of them mouthed the name with similar wide eyes. Felix nodded and listed his features, "Quite old with red skin, white hair—"
"Did he mention Eco Central?" Xina quickly asked, while Maria said, "Did he do something to you?"
Okaaay. Weird. Felix addressed them one at a time. "Yes, he did mention Eco Central. And no, he did nothing but ask me questions. Apparently, he and Norman planned for—"
"A private anti-pollution police force," Xina finished.
"Yeah." Felix gave them a look. "I suppose I was right to be suspicious then?"
"Yes. Good god, yes. Eco Central, they're from our Earth," Maria elaborated. "They work with the police to arrest political enemies as well as to better hide Alchemax's illegal and environmentally-unfriendly activities. Think of them as the public strong arm of the company."
"Where the Big Man does things in the background, they do it publicly. Everything is a show, a-a political scandal to maintain a firm fist of the city," Xina went on to say. "The power of the police combined with the wealth and influence of a megacorporations…they're impossible to stop. They say the officers in the Public Eye dream of one day joining Eco Central. It's the next step. The pay, the luxury, t-the elitism, it's…"
Public Eye, the Big Man, now Eco Central? Just how many strong arms of influence did Alchemaxx posssess? What the hell were they?
'And they're here. They're really here.'
There was this shuddering silence they shared. He could hear droplets of water falling somewhere.
"He wanted me to help establish it here…hrm. Is Andethorp Henton an executive member of Eco Central?" Felix asked.
"More than executive, he was Eco Central's disgraced CEO, that's what," Maria said. "And dead."
"Dead? What?"
"It was right about the time I left so I don't know the details," Maria admitted. All eyes then turned to Xina.
"Henton was killed by a sniper at an Alchemax Board Meeting." Xina's nose flared up. "After that, news flared up about his crimes. They say he had a tendency to openly discuss classified corporate information in front of secretaries or other staff, then casually murder them or sexually harass them to preserve the secrecy. The epitome of hedonism and arrogance."
"How much of that is a political agenda? A story Alchemaxx sold?" Maria accused.
"Oh please, I'm a professional hacker. I can dig up the truth."
Another exchange of humps.
"He's alive…but was assassinated…and now here…" Felix muttered. "Does that mean he's immortal or something?"
"Impossible. We live long lives, sure. I believe the current average life expectancy is a hundred and fifty. We're fitter, stronger, all that. But that's the work of modern medicine. Not immortality," Xina said. "No, no, this…"
Maria said it first: "He's a cyborg. They must be using his flesh…!"
At that, Felix actually froze up. "That…was a cyborg? No way, that's…my cameras should have detected it—"
"Cameras can be fooled and those cyborgs are built to fool. I-if he's a cyborg, then he must be apart of the Big Man's group!" Xina exclaimed. Somewhere in this cavernous secret base, water dropped. "Do you know where he is?"
"I believe I have Herbie tracking him—"
"No, you do not."
In the past, Felix's Spider-Sense would have warned him a long time ago.
Vworp-pop!
But not anymore. It struck at the speed of sound and before anyone could react. Looking down, he saw a hole in his chest. His heart was gone. Looking up, he saw the shock on the expressions of his friends.
No one saw it till it happened. Till the gaping wound in his heart.
From the dark tunnel, an invisible figure emerged visible. Red skin, long white hair: it was Anderthrop Henton. He was here. The cyborg, the creation of the future, his left hand a complex shape of a cannon fizzling with smoke.
"If you must break the law, do it to seize power. In all other cases…observe it." Step, step. Andethorp Henton approached with a fake smile. Every space, every ellipsis was a step. "Or...kill he who controls the laws, or...take his place."
From the hammock, Hobie sprung down, feet and a single hand planted. He had been asleep and thus his Spider-Sense did not go off. No one but Anderthorp Henton moved a muscle. That cannon, that speed, the shock of the hole in Felix, it caused whiplash and fear.
He was here.
The Big Man's ambassador was here and NONE of them had detected it. The silver, smoking cannon alone was confirmation of who he was and what he could do.
Blood splattered on the floor, hitting the shoes of the two ladies. The hole in Felix was a death-wish the size of a fist. Yet, Felix craned his head over. That was when even the cyborg with the cannon stopped moving. The hole....was no longer a hole. Muscles were coming together. The hole was being repaired.
Felix had only one thing to say.
"You should have continued observing."
The smile on the cyborg's face dropped like an anvil. That proud, hulking metal cannon dropped by an inch. "How in the world…?"
Felix's eyes blossomed with red. For the first time in a long time, he heard his voice.
'Weee…are back.'
Tendrils drooled down his eyes and ears and nose like string, coming together to form thread, metal, and finally, the scarlet new costume of Spider-Man. Mucky, sticky, but alive.
What didn't kill him made him stronger.