The auction was beginning. Felix and everyone else in his aisle were handed those little auction signs. His auction sign was labelled EB-2.
A hole appeared on the platform where Jefferson Davis stood. Felix squinted as from that hole, a table appeared. In the middle of the small table, contained in a glass, was the first item—a small vial.
"Up for auction, we have Mutant Growth Hormone, or MGH. A single dose of this, and you're guaranteed to have temporary superhuman abilities. Strength, agility, invulnerability—you name it!"
'A Super Soldier Serum but…temporary? That's not possible, even me and the Oscorp team haven't been able to create a stable version of the serum. So who…'
Jefferson could hear the mutterings and smirked. "You want credentials? Has anyone heard of Bruce Banner? This is his work!"
'Bruce Banner made this? Isn't he missing?'
Guess not if he made this.
Felix's glasses marked Ororo Munroe, the Princess of Kenya, raising her auction sign casually. "A hundred million dollars," she said, as if she were ordering a coffee.
A hundred million dollars. His whole networth essentially. Wow. Talk about money.
"Three hundred and fifty," Silver Sable called from right in front of Felix, her silver-white hair catching the light. Symkaria's top mercenary wasn't about to be outbid easily.
"Five hundred million," Ororo countered without hesitation.
The room fell silent.
'Talk about sealing the deal…'
The hammer dropped.
"Sold! To OM!"
Everyone was seated by letters. The richest of the rich got their own initials. Eleanor and Felix were probably near the bottom in terms of wealth. Everyone here were billionaires except them. Oh, and Ashley too. He sincerely doubted the mercenary thief was a billionaire.
Next up, a sleek, futuristic-looking rifle was rolled out onto the platform.
"Symkarian plasma rifle, direct from Silver Sable's own armoury," Jefferson announced with a smirk. "One of the most powerful weapons you'll ever lay your hands on."
Emma Frost, seated up front, raised her hand lazily. "Five million."
"Ten million," came a voice from the back—another high-roller, masked and anonymous.
Emma glanced back briefly, unimpressed. "Thirty million," she said with finality. No one dared challenge her. The hammer fell again.
"Sold to EF!"
Felix's attention went to the woman beside him, Ashley. She hadn't bid yet, but she was watching the auction with sharp interest, her fingers lightly tracing the edge of her little sign.
She was waiting for something like Felix was.
"And now, ladies and gentlemen," Jefferson said, tone of voice lowering as he smiled darkly, "the pièce de résistance. This is an item constructed by the greatest scientists of SHIELD and handed to their greatest agent! This is the legendary 'Little Thief'!"
Little This! This was what Kate wanted!
"The ultimate device for those seeking to uncover the truth—able to recreate and investigate any crime scene with perfect accuracy. For those of you in the business of secrets, this is your Holy Grail. Or perhaps if you are in the line of theft, well…let us just say it is calibrated with every facility and building in the world."
Felix felt a rush of anticipation. This was it. The reason he was here tonight. The table rose onto the platform. Little Thief sat there, contained in a glass. It was shaped like an old school Nokia phone. Heavy and thick with a small screen and big buttons. An antenna stuck out from the corner.
LITTLE THIEF IS SCANNING EVEN AS WE SPEAK.
'I know. My Spider-Sense is lightly sensing it too.'
That just gave him more of a reason to buy it.
Kate gave him everything she had in the form of a card. She didn't want to. She hated it but she had to. All ten million dollars she had saved up with the help of her parents—
"Starting bid: ten million dollars," Jefferson announced.
'Well, shit.'
Ten million was the minimum. Everything else was going to have to come out of Felix's pocket.
Before anyone else could react, Emma Frost raised her hand, her icy smile daring anyone to challenge her. "Ten and a half million."
Felix's hand shot up. "Twelve million."
All eyes turned to him, and for a brief moment, he felt the weight of every powerful figure in the room. He could sense Ashley's gaze on him too.
"Fourteen million," Emma said smoothly, not even glancing his way.
"Sixteen."
Emma paused. Ah, she must have now realized she couldn't read the mind of the bidder. That she didn't know how far they would go.
"Going once…twice…"
Emma looked over her shoulder and saw Felix. She smiled and mouthed, "Well, well, well."
She could have bid for more. She didn't.
"Twenty-five million."
Of course it wouldn't be so easy, it seemed. His friend Ashley raised her sign. She was smiling, pointedly tipping away from Felix. Felix glanced at her only once before raising his bid.
"Twenty-six million."
"Thirty million," Ashley said.
She was really going for this. 'I should have expected as much. She's a mercenary thief. With this device, she could go anywhere she wanted without exception.'
So whether this was because of a client or for personal reasons was impossible to tell. Not that it mattered. Felix refused to lose and promptly bumped up his offer. "Thirty-seven mill—"
"A hundred million."
That was Princess Ororo's humongous offer. Well, crud. Felix's jaw clenched. 'Going over a hundred million for me is…'
"A hundred and twenty million."
Barely within his means.
No one spoke for a moment.
Jefferson Davis was the happiest man here. "Going once…twice…"
A sign was raised. "Two hundred million."
And all of Felix's dreams were gone. He lowered his sign as did Ashley, who looked visibly irritated.
"Sold!" Jefferson Davis said. "To OM!"
The princess that was secretly the queen of Kenya. She had her whole country behind her. Felix was rich but like everyone else here, he fell short of someone that was made of old money; whose connections and pockets went back for eras. Money from the second world war, from centuries ago in the Indian Ocean coast where important ports like Mombasa traded goods with Arabian and Asian traders.
Her family had connections and wealth from all the way back then.
Felix stood no chance. Neither did Ashley.
'Sorry, Kate.'
His Advanced Glasses attempted to scan Little Thief. Unfortunately…
ERROR! GLASS SUBSTANCE NOT GLASS! GLASS-LIKE SUBSTANCE BLOCKING ANALYSIS!
So he couldn't copy the schematics either. He was stuck with losing and getting nothing in return.
'So much for Plan A and Plan B…'
That meant he had to go for Plan C. Felix did not like Plan C very much. However, seeing the table disappear into the platform, he knew only Plan C remained. Plan C, unfortunately, also intersected with the plan to capture Jefferson Davis.
A lot was going to happen in the next half hour. Felix was not looking forward to it.
The next item was already being presented: an elaborate, ancient mask, plated in gold and rumoured to belong to an extinct warrior society. Collectors probably fawned over it, but for Felix, it was just a means to an end.
"Next up—" Jefferson Davis announced, "The Golden Mask of Havasar, starting bid: five million."
Felix raised his hand and the sign immediately, before he even let the auctioneer finish.
"Six million," a sultry voice countered beside him.
Ashley.
Felix glanced at her from the corner of his eye, but she didn't meet his gaze. She was playing her part just as well. Her hand still hovered, her focus on the stage, her lips barely curving into a smile. She didn't care for the mask any more than he did.
'So her plan is the same as mine.'
"Seven million," Felix said, voice smooth, eyes forward.
"Eight," she countered casually.
A sigh rippled through the room as the other potential bidders dropped out. Felix knew that this game was about appearances more than anything else.
"Nine million," Felix said, locking it in.
Ashley sat back, the auctioneer's gavel came down, and the mask was his.
And luckily for her…
"This will be our final item of the night!" Jefferson Davis declared. A hush spread throughout the rich people. The final item: what would it be? "This is the Eternity Mask! It is said that Ben Franklin himself harnessed its magic to help win the American Revolutionary War—"
"Ten million!"
"Twenty million!"
The bids began anew.
In the end, however...
The sign belonging to AB rose and declared, "Thirty million."
Felix already predicted as much. Ashley bought the black mask.
"And sold to AB! The Club Scorpion is officially closed, people." Jefferson Davis gave a dramatic bow. "Please and thank you for your money. For those that have bought items, people will soon arrive to pick you up."
Those that did not manage to get what they wanted stood up and left. Felix leaned over to Eleanor. "Go," Felix said quietly.
Eleanor didn't argue. She gave him a final glance, filled with silent relief, before disappearing with the crowd of rich people. Felix watched her go, then turned to Ashley.
"This was fun," Ashley said, smiling.
"Very fun," he agreed.
In a couple minutes, the suited men arrived. The first batch came to Princess Ororo and Emma Frost at the front, then one row at a time, everyone else.
"EB-2." Ah, there he was. His suited guide had arrived. Felix stood up. "Follow me, please," said the man.
Like everyone else, they walked to the back of the auction platform and went through a big door. Through the door, they went down a staircase that twisted and spiraled deeper underground. The further they went, the more the air felt dense and cold. The decor grew sparser, more utilitarian. Ahead of him in the spiralling staircase was Ashley. She was being led in the same direction, her heels clicking softly.
Finally, their eyes were graced with a hall that could only be described as endless. Felix blinked twice.
'Just how many doors…?'
This hallway was lined with doors and the doors just kept going. The Advanced Glasses counted a total of two-hundred.
Wow. Who the hell made this place?
At every two doors, guards stood silently with guns strapped to their sides. Cameras dotted the ceilings. There was no shortage of surveillance here, and Felix knew exactly where all that power was coming from—the Sanctum above.
'Hopefully Yelena and Aaron make it on time.'
"This door."
His guide gestured to his door labelled 37. Felix opened the door. In the room was a single table and his bought item: the golden mask sat in a glass container, surrounded by invisible security lasers. Only because of his Spider-Sense and the Advanced Glasses did he realize the lasers were there.
The guard joined him and pressed his thumb to a scanner, deactivating the system with a quiet hum. The glass opened up. The mask was officially Felix's.
"Would you like it stored in a case?" the guide asked dully.
"I'll wear it," Felix answered.
The guide was surprised by that answer. "Huh?"
He picked up the mask and, uh, there was no strap. He put it to his face and it…stuck? Somehow? Okay, maybe the collectors were onto something with this. This was sticking to his face and he wasn't using his Spider-powers either.
"Thank you, sir," said Felix, "and good night."
As soon as the mask was in place, he balled his fist and drove it into the guard's stomach, knocking him out with a single punch.
The guard collapsed, and Felix stepped over him, straightening his jacket. He stared at the door, waiting. The button on his suit blinked red—Maria Hill's signal. The cameras were deactivated.
Ideally, this was supposed to happen when he bought Little Thief but beggars couldn't be choosers. He had to adapt.
The original plan was simple: buy Little Thief at the auction, come to this area to get it, have Yelena and Aaron deactivate the security, then find Jefferson Davis who should be nearby, beat him up, and have him arrested.
That last part was supposed to happen with Kate's help. Oh, and knocking out a guard also wasn't part of the plan. They didn't even know there was going to be someone like that.
"All's well that ends well."
He smiled beneath the mask and looked out into the hallway. With his Advanced Glasses, he could see all the bodies in all the various rooms, even Ashley. The white-haired woman was in the room opposite to his. Her assigned guard was…knocked out.
'Ha, she must have had the same idea.'
She was checking out her necklace, it seemed. What was she—
WARNING! WARNING! CAMERA-SELECTED EMP ACTIVATING!
"Wait, what?"
Bzzt!
Blink or you missed it. That was how fast it happened. Electrical currents spread throughout the room and through him. It was too fast to dodge, amplified by the cameras it had already touched. There was no sound, no evidence. It just happened.
"That was a highly-specialized EMP," Felix muttered. "But how…who…Ah, shit! The button-camera!"
His Advanced Glasses were okay though. He had reinforced that thing to be resistant to EMPs. The poor little button device wasn't built like the Advanced Glasses, unfortunately, so it broke apart.
"How did Ashley get her hands on that kind of EMP? Not even Elektra has anything like that."
Most important too…how did she hide it from him and his Advanced Glasses? What did that necklace do? What was it made of?
Felix was supposed sit tight and wait until Kate Bishop was able to come here. See, with the button-camera, Maria was supposed to find an improv opening. If not, then they would brute force their way with what they did know alongside Yelena and Aaron. Whatever worked first.
But with Ashley opening her door and entering the hallway, Felix was tempted. Inevitably, he fell into his temptations. He opened the door and stepped into the hall.
Not spotting him was impossible. They were directly across from one another, after all. She smiled, her expression hidden by a black space-like mask. "Well, well, if it isn't the man in the golden mask."
"I think I owe you for that trick you just pulled."
Not really, her EMP was actually quite useless since Aaron and Yelena deactivated them. However, he assumed it was better to butter her up and be on her side rather than be her enemy.
"Oh?" The thief cocked her head to the side. "That's certainly impressive. It wasn't supposed to be noticeable."
She stepped closer. Felix did not move and allowed her to come closer. Only her green eyes could be seen in the mask. Her fingers went up to his jaw, tracing it. She then grabbed his collar, fixing it with a slow, deliberate touch. "You know, we really have to stop meeting like this."
"Agreed. But, I also think we're after the same thing."
Ashley's voice dropped, playful but serious. "Team up for now?"
Felix nodded, his eyes meeting hers. "To Little Thief, then."
Ashley's lips curled into a sly smile. "I will lead the way." Her hands suddenly went deep into her breasts. Felix did not break eye-contact.
'Don't look. Seriously. Don't.'
Just let her rummage through her tits. Just watch as she pulled out…a monocle?
Ashley giggled, as if reading his mind, and put it to her eye. She scanned the area. "Hm…if these walls were made out of the same thing those glass containers are, this would have been impossible."
That monocle…
IT IS A NORMAL MONOCLE, DR. FAETH.
'No, it's not, Herbie. She's clearly seeing something and…I think my Spider-Sense is feeling something too.'
What was it then? Better yet…
"Found her." Ashley smiled. "She's in room 130. It's the last one to the left."
…who was this woman? She found Princess Ororo as fast as Herbie did.
"Oi, you—"
The guard ahead spotted them, gun already up and ready to shoot. Before he could press the trigger, Ashley was on him, moving with the kind of grace that was certainly unnatural. One quick motion—a precise jab to the throat, and the man dropped like a stone, unconscious before he could react.
Felix barely had time to admire her speed before the guard further up ahead saw them. His gun was halfway raised when Felix lunged forward. His fist slammed into the man's jaw with a sickening crack, sending him spiraling into the wall. The guard slumped down, unconscious, his weapon never leaving its holster.
Another guard.
Ashley was already there.
Every two doors, there was a guard. She knew that and shot him a brief grin, the kind of smile that said, "I like this."
Every guard they encountered fell before they could even raise an alarm, let alone fire a shot. Felix delivered crushing blows, his training taking over as he disabled each opponent with a single, precise strike. Ashley's movements were somehow equally as lethal—quick, agile, almost catlike. She had an economy of motion that Felix couldn't help but admire. Each of her strikes was calculated, efficient, designed to neutralize without wasting energy.
And yet…she was much slower than Felix, mainly because of her dress and heels. Heels were not an easy thing to move in. To be moving that fast still, to be beyond human in spite of that was truly impressive.
…but it didn't feel like she was fast enough to prevent all those guards from shooting.
His Spider-Sense was constantly buzzing, constantly warning him from being too close to her. He followed his instincts. He timed himself to be in sync with her, avoiding her while still knocking out guard after guard.
'I swear…' Punch to the throat from Felix to one guard, a heel-kick to the nuts by Ashley to the next guard. 'That guard…he touched the trigger, didn't he?'
He touched it and the gun didn't go off—or did he imagine that? According to the Advanced Glasses, the guns were perfectly functional. The EMP did nothing to them. Obviously, it was intended specifically for the cameras. So…was he going crazy?
The hallway seemed endless, stretching on with door after door, each marked with a number. Every two doors—bam! Knock out.
None of them stood a chance. Felix and Ashley didn't exchange words, just glances, understanding more and more of the other's rhythm. Felix in particular was able to analyze her movements since he was much faster.
Nevertheless, one guard after another went down.
By the time they were halfway through the hall, the unconscious bodies of the guards lay scattered behind them like discarded dolls. Not a single one had managed to get off a shot.
The final door.
The final set of guards—
"Wait."
His Spider-Sense went off and his arm sprung forward on instinct, blocking Ashley. The white-haired woman listened. She was breathing heavily, chest rising and falling.
Something wasn't right.
"Ah, I knew I sniffed some weird shit."
These last two guards were different.
One was short and muscular with wild, unkempt hair and a scowl that looked like it had been carved into his face. His knuckles flexed.
His Advanced Glasses immediately warned him of the man's skeletal structure.
PRIMARY ADAMANTIUM REPLACED AS MATERIAL OF SKULL SYSTEM.
This man wasn't just anyone. He was Wolverine—or, as Felix remembered from S.H.I.E.L.D. briefings, "The Immortal Mr. Murderhands." The man was a legend. His eyes narrowed as he stared at them, claws slowly extending with a metallic snikt.
Next to him was a woman, younger, but just as intense. Her dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and her hands were…
ADAMANTIUM DETECTED.
From her fingers—snikt—came four claws. Felix recognized her from S.H.I.E.L.D. as well—Kitty Pryde, the agent known as Shadowcat.
These weren't just guards—they were S.H.I.E.L.D.'s elite black-ops operatives.
He glanced at Ashley, who gave him a knowing look. "Fun, hm? I didn't think anyone else here had some claws to play with~"
Adamantium claws at his sides, Wolverine walked. "A pretty lady in a mask and a dude in a golden mask." His voice was gravelly, like someone who had seen and done more than anyone ever should. "Either you're a rich asshole who mistakenly came here or you're dead. Pick your choice."
Felix didn't flinch. His gaze was fixed on the Adamantium man with a cold stare.
"I'll ask one question," Felix said calmly. "Why are S.H.I.E.L.D. agents here, protecting the Princess of Kenya?"
Wolverine stopped. He didn't expect to be identified.
On the other hand, Kitty laughed. "Nice! That means we're allowed to kill you for sure! This is gonna be fun!"
Her claws pointed at them and Kitty licked her lips.
Ashley purred, her nails extended into sharp claws. In a backless dress, it was her only weapon and Felix didn't even know how she got it.
End of the line—room 130 was just behind them, but first, they had to defeat Wolverine and Kitty Pryde.