Many walls had been blasted apart. Items protected by thick steel and glass, once opulent and peaceful, now a shattered wasteland of debris and smoke. Felix stood over the auction master, his body barely holding together, blood dripping steadily from the inside of his golden mask. His healing factor was working—slowly. Every breath rattled in his chest, his lungs still recovering from the brutal internal damage.
He dropped to one knee and nearly joined Jefferson Davis in the world of dreams.
He waited. He stared. He healed.
Lungs, heart, arms…
"Oi, what the hell happened here?"
Yelena Belova.
Leaping over the debris were Yelena and the Prowler—Aaron Davis—clearly worse for wear but still standing.
"Hey, hey," Yelena ran up to him first, a hand on his shoulder, "Are you alright?"
He gulped for air and healed underneath his suit. 'So damn lucky,' he gasped out in his head. 'That my suit was left alone.'
Though blood could be seen dripping from his mask, there was nothing else. No hint that he was a superhuman undergoing the meticulous regeneration of his organs and flesh. Everything was covered. Gloves, glasses, everything was damaged adequately.
He was injured, certainly, and with the unconscious Jefferson Davis at his feet, had definitely fought.
But did that mean he was responsible for the explosions?
"Y-yeah, I'm good. What was that?"
It didn't look like that.
"No fucking clue," Yelena said, squatting down. "We got some time on our hands. Those two metal freaks—"
"Are still alive," the Prowler interrupted. He had been keeping watch of their surroundings.
And as he proclaimed, Wolverine and Kitty Pryde emerged. Wolverine's usual scowl deepened as he carried Princess Ororo like a bride. Kitty walked beside him looking murderous as ever. Her claws were already out, her eyes locked onto Yelena with a deadly gleam.
"We should kill 'em now," Kitty hissed. "Carter doesn't have to know."
Wolverine growled low in his throat, claws already retracted for the royalty in his arms. "That's enough," he snapped. "We're not risking Director Carter's wrath over this. We have the princess right here and now. Don't fucking risk it, Shadowcat."
Kitty did not budge. Her gaze went from Yelena to the menacing Prowler. "You're just gonna let them go? After they got in our way?"
Wolverine's gaze flickered to the Prowler, then back to Kitty. The princess needed to be protected and this situation had WAY gotten out of hand. His sense of duty outweighed the desire to spill more blood. "We retreat," he said firmly, leaving no room for argument. "This ain't worth the headache."
Kitty glared at him. "You're soft, Logan. You know that, right?"
Wolverine ignored her and walked forward. "We're taking the princess out of here. Now."
Kitty clicked her tongue in frustration but didn't argue further, though her eyes flicked to the blonde, the tension between her and Yelena was palpable. She shot one last venomous look at Yelena before walking past them with her partner, muttering, "Next time, you're mine," under her breath.
Wolverine gave the Prowler one final nod. "Truce," he grunted. "Don't make me regret it."
Yelena and Aaron did not exchange looks and waited. Waited until they did indeed carry the princess away from here. Any rocks that stood in their way were sliced up by Adamantium.
Felix gave a slight tilt of his head. He was fifty-percent healed and the fight was done.
'Good.'
Just as the dust seemed to settle, a low, pained groan echoed from across the room.
Everyone looked at Jefferson Davis, lying on the ground, bloodied and beaten. His skin was charred in his right arm and blistered from the overload, but somehow, Jefferson was still conscious, still clinging to life.
"Ha…" Jefferson opened his eyes. "Is that the Prowler I see?"
Aaron turned and walked over to him slowly. He knelt down beside his brother and only then reached up, pulling off his mask. The moment felt heavy—personal. This had to happen face-to-face.
"Jefferson…" Aaron said, his voice low, thick with frustration and something that sounded like regret.
"Ah, or wait, are you the Prowler? Or Officer Davis?"
"Stop it," Aaron said.
Jefferson laughed anyway. "So you were responsible for all this? For ruining everything?"
"...yes."
Jefferson's laugh was bitter, almost hollow. He struggled to sit up and continued to lay flat, coughing. Yelena had her guns pointed at him.
"You move and you're dead," the Russian blonde said.
"Relax." Aaron raised a hand without looking. "He's done. I can tell."
"You can tell? That's unfortunate. It means I haven't changed as much as I thought I did."
"No, you have changed," Aaron said. "What people like you don't realize is that no matter how much a person changes, from good to bad, some parts linger. Always. You have that same drive, that obsession to play games and win. Before, it was for justice. Now, it's for yourself."
Jefferson scoffed. "When did you become a thinker?"
"The same time you became a criminal."
"A criminal, huh? A criminal…so easy for you to say that, huh? You want to know what I did?" he rasped, his eyes flicking to Aaron with weary, greedy eyes. "I didn't do anything. I just worked. Lived my life. Had kids. Did the usual shit. And guess what I noticed? Crime always pays. Always."
Aaron's jaw tightened, but he said nothing.
"Rikers Island," Jefferson said. "Do you remember when I was stationed there? That was when I saw it. The biggest criminals in the world treated like kings. The Kingpin…he took care of the people that didn't snitch on him. Gave them everything. They lived better lives than me. They were happier than me. And I thought, 'Imagine if that was me. Imagine living like that—no matter what I did, no matter how bad I was, I was always happy. Always comfortable.'"
"So you left for comfort? Comfort?"
"Yeah, the same way everyone does. We play games for comfort. We have kids thinking they will give us comfort. Of fucking course I did it for comfort." Jefferson shook his head. "But I wasn't gonna join the Kingpin. That'd be suicide."
"So you stole his bag and ran," Aaron said, his voice clipped.
Jefferson's lips curled into a bitter smile. "What was more appealing, Aaron?" He turned to face the ceiling, eyes sharp. "Raising a son for eighteen years, dealing with a needy wife, putting all your time and effort into them, sometimes getting nothing in return—or taking ten million bucks, starting an auction business, and living like a king? I could fuck whoever I wanted, live however I wanted, no strings attached. The choice was easy."
Aaron's fists clenched, the fabric of his gloves tight. The tension, the hurt in his posture.
"You think it's that simple?" Aaron said, his voice tight with barely contained anger. "Have you even thought about Rio this whole time?"
"Rio…" Jefferson let out a harsh laugh. "Rio Morales. Yeah, that was her name, wasn't it?" He grinned, twisted. "I've been with so many hookers that I forgot."
Aaron's hand shot out, grabbing Jefferson by the collar. "You—!"
Jefferson laughed, despite his voice going softer. "I swear I heard her name too. When I was fighting. Right before all this. Ah, what a good reminder."
Felix must have hit him so hard that he wasn't remembering.
"Probably your conscience," Aaron said coldly, pushing his brother back down. "Scorpion."
Scorpion, not Jefferson. A seal of disapproval. A seal that this man was no longer his brother.
Jefferson chuckled weakly. "Conscience… I still had that thing? A pity."
Aaron's hand trembled slightly, his fingers tempted to grab Jefferson's collar and smash his skull into the floor. He let go, disgust twisting his features as he stood up.
There was no more fight left here—only a broken man who had chosen greed over family, and the brother left in the aftermath of that choice.
Aaron's Prowler mask dangling from his hand yet he was still that. Not a brother but the Prowler, silent and staring down at his brother as if waiting for something at the very last second—an apology, an explanation, anything. But Jefferson had already given him all he could offer.
There was no last second apology. There was only arrogance and greed.
"Maria sent the signal," Yelena suddenly said, a finger to her earpiece. "Let's go. The FBI will be here any second."
The final step of the plan: getting the FBI to swarm this place and arrest everyone that was here. Aaron clicked his tongue, popped something from his utility belt, and…
"Putting cuffs on an almost dead guy." Jefferson rolled his eyes.
Click! Jefferson Davis' wrists were tied.
"You'll live," Aaron said. "And just in case, I'm doing the legs too."
Click! The ankles were together and Jefferson wouldn't be able to move. Not that he could anyway. The force of the explosion had broken a couple ribs and damaged his hip too. Until he went to a hospital, he wouldn't be able to run.
The Prowler grabbed Jefferson by his bald head and stared him in the eye. "Do you remember your son's name?" he asked.
A different emotion flickered in the Scorpion's eyes. "...Miles."
"I'm glad you remember—because you'll never see him again."
His fingers tightened and smacked him into the ground, knocking him unconscious. A trickle of blood leaked from his nose. The Scorpion was not dead, but like this, the FBI would be able to capture him without issues.
"Let's go," the Prowler said. "There's an elevator at room 42 for emergency uses."
"It's how we arrived," Yelena told Felix. She was still down with him. "Can you stand?"
Ah, so the Prowler did manage to find an emergency elevator in the Sanctum. This part of the plan was very much reliant on Yelena and the Prowler's skills. Could they find the emergency elevator as guards and without the guards spotting them?
The answer was yes.
"I'll be fine."
'That conversation helped me heal up. I'm at ninety-percent now.'
His Advanced Glasses were operational too so he could confirm the elevator was working. Great. Time to go.
For the FBI, they left behind the greatest auction item of them all: the crime lord known as the Scorpion.
***
They were at the elevator and going up as expected, although there was lots of shakiness and tribulations. This elevator's quality was terrible. 'No wonder it's only meant for emergencies.' Felix's feet often left the floor.
"Eh? What the fuck?"
Through the noise and the shakes, something came up. Yelena was listening to what her earpiece was saying—what Maria was telling her.
"That Kate Bishop—she's fighting the lady that stole Little Thief," Yelena announced to the rest of them.
Kate versus Ashley? That…didn't sound good.
"I'm assuming she's losing?" Felix said.
"No shit," Yelena said. "Little Thief is a hologram device that scans your brain. If you're not stupid, you can use it in battle. Change the terrain to your liking. And I saw that lady thief walk out, there's something about her that's strange. Strange and very skilled."
'So I wasn't imagining it! I knew it!'
Ashley, this…this Black Cat thief…there was more to her than met the eye.
"And this elevator is an older model," Felix pointed out. "Probably built in the 1900s or something. This is gonna take a couple minutes."
Creaaaak!
"Woah!" Yelena lost balance and her shoulder slammed into the wall. "Christ! You said how old again?"
"1930s, maybe? I wrote a paper on the history elevators in my first year of—"
Another loud groan and shake. Even the Prowler had to place a hand on the wall to steady himself.
"Save me the lecture, doctor, tell me—can this go any faster?"
"It's an old pulley system. It can't go faster!" Felix yelled through the turmoil. The higher they went, the more unstable it became. His Advanced Glasses were built to stay fixed to him so no issue there. "Is Kate okay?"
"She's on the rooftop of the Sanctum. Maria is saying…" Yelena trailed off. "She's gone."
"Gone?" Felix repeated, eyes wide. "Gone…gone what?"
Felix and the Prowler turned to the Russian blonde. Yelena's mouth opened and closed, then remained shut as Maria explained the situation. "Knocked…knocked out," Yelena said. "And…taken."
Felix scoffed. "Taken by…by the thief? How!?"
"Tracking system, gone. Her mic and earpiece, totally fried. And according to Maria…she's already being carried off." Yelena paused. "She's stronger than she looks…apparently."
Ten whole minutes passed.
Ding!
The elevator opened.
"Kate...is gone," Yelena said in a low mutter. "Long gone."
***
The car ride home was silent. Maria Hill sat in the front, adjusting the radio. Yelena drove it. Aaron Davis, no longer in his Prowler suit, sat beside Felix with his laptop. He could switch between his normal suit and Prowler suit with a click of a button. Truly impressive technology that Felix had Herbie analyze for his own sake.
"The FBI has already searched the place top-to-bottom," Maria said. "Jefferson Davis is captured too."
Tapping into their comms, Herbie was able to confirm it. The Scorpion was taken into their custody. Due to the nature of his crimes and work, which involved theft from all over the world, the FBI was much better suited for the arrest of the Scorpion. They could gather up all the evidence first while keeping the Scorpion in captivity, hand him over to the NYPD, then bam. Slam with all the charges they were waiting for.
"And Kate is gone," Felix muttered.
"Kate Bishop knew what she was getting into," Maria said. "We aren't children playing in the fields. We are investigators. Detectives. Thieves. Soldiers. We should be thankful that she isn't dead."
"And getting potentially tortured is somehow better." Felix crossed his arms. "Look, how did this even happen? Why didn't you chase after her?"
"I tried but the car wouldn't work."
"...what? It wouldn't work?"
What the hell kind of excuse was that? And yet...knowing Maria, it had to be true. She wasn't the type to quit. If Kate was captured, hell, if he was capture, expect her change gears and chase like a madwoman.
But she didn't. She was telling the truth.
"Did you at least see where the thief took her?" Yelena asked Maria. "A general direction?"
"No. When I tried looking, a flock of pigeons blocked my view."
"That's bullshit, what?"
"I can't explain much of what happened," Maria admitted. "The comms were constantly buzzing in and out and the fight itself was difficult to follow due to the holograms. My guess is that the holograms gave off a signal that interfered and ultimately fried her comms and camera and earpiece."
"...no, I sincerely doubt that," Felix said. "Wave interference can only go so far. In all likelihood, she set off an EMP."
An EMP that Felix himself witnessed her using. Yes, that had to be it. As for the bad luck...he had nothing. Nothing except...
"Oh sweeties…don't you know where we are? We're under the Sanctum Sanctorum. We're in the earth of magic and magic…"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"...loves more magic. It's a rule of law where I come from."
Her mention of magic. Magic was real according to Reed and the Advanced Computer, but on this Earth, it was, well, nonexistent. So as a scientist and someone that believed in actually seeing stuff and believing in it, Felix had always been skeptical of magic. He presumed that magic was just technology humans couldn't understand but potentially could.
Except this was something he couldn't fathom at all. Technology that affected animals and cars toward a singular purpose? Technology that redirected bullets and people with zero contact? That just...that couldn't be technology.
"You are the scientist so I will trust you on that," Maria said.
'Honestly, I can't even trust myself. Magic...magic...'
Magic that brought bad luck...that was the most ridiculous type of magic. She mentioned the Sanctum but they were waaay underground so how did that work? How did a literal house help her in a situation kilometers below ground?
"And the car and birds were just bad luck, eh?" Yelena let out a sigh and opened her window. The wind was somehow a nice change. "Sir Aaron Davis, anything yet?"
Aaron had been furiously typing on his laptop this whole time. He was searching for Kate. "Nothing yet. I don't have access to all the cameras in the city so this is very much manual work."
'But I do.' Herbie was doing a city-wide scope. If Black Cat ever appeared on a camera, Herbie would know. But so far, nothing. It was a clean break-away.
Felix exhaled and buried his face in his head. 'Fuck…we got Jefferson Davis but we lost both Little Thief and Kate.'
Felix already felt guilty for what happened with Eleanor. He wanted to make it up for her by getting Little Thief.
On all accounts, Felix Faeth failed.