Continued from here part 5

New York Iron Hall

Lt. Guerrero stood in front of a monitor as she waited for her team to arrive. She watched as a news anchor reported on a large gathering of the Goblins that had started to form in Colorado and had begun to make many people nervous. Carla considered it a bad sign but decided to focus on her own work as her team arrived.

A man in some bulky armor stepped, "We ready to go Spider-Woman?"

Carla chuckled, "Oh I'm sure that call sign would go over well with the S.C."

The man named Frank shrugged, "Yea, probably have the whole lot of us executed for treason after the first report hit his desk."

She looked over the three men in her crew who had also made personal modifications to their armor, Frank, who went by the call sign Ox wore armor that was just shy of being Buster armor and built mostly for raw power. Bob Brito who went by Ricochet who wore a suit built for speed based mostly on Expressman armor tho a bit more sturdy and Monty Brice aka Assault whose armor was more akin to the old War Machine armor than the standard Iron soldier, loaded with more weapons and artillery than most fighter jets.

They sat waiting for orders from Carla A.K.A Arachne.

Mid-Town Manhattan

Ben was swinging along on patrol when he decided to go to the under city after getting bored. He swung down under the massive overpass to the part of the city where the sun was rarely seen. He often found himself wondering how the people up top lived with themselves knowing that they hid this place beneath them. The so called under city was populated with mostly homeless and people who could neither afford to live above or move so it was this or the Wilds.

Ben did find it a little weird that the city's Goblin thugs had disappeared but had decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

***

He had stopped around twelve muggins and one attempted murder since he'd arrived and was starting to think he'd have an easy night when suddenly his spider-sense went off. He stopped to assess the situation and noticed four Iron soldiers in personalized armor inspecting the areas he'd been that night. He watched silently not wanting to give away his position when he heard what sounded like an alert from one of them.

Suddenly it was raining bullets as Assault charged toward Ben's position. He managed to dodge but ended up being grabbed by Ricochet who attempted to ground him but Ben shot out a web and forced them into a wall using the Iron soldier to absorb the impact. He then leapt away as Ox attempted to bring him down with repulser fire. Spider-man easily dodged his fire but was caught in a hard light web as he tried to get away.

He looked over to Arachne stuck to a near by wall, "Hey, webs are my thing."

She then stepped onto the web, "Its public domain."

"Now you got jokes too, is nothing sacred?"

She then fired up her repulser, "Surrender now and maybe you won't be executed."

He struggled against the web, "Death or Lab rat, hell of a choice there."

She was distracted by a scream from a few yards over and looked to it for a second but when she looked back Spider-man was gone. He then dropped down from above and covered her face mask in webbing and swung off toward the screams.

When he arrived he saw Arachne's comrades standing in the middle of an angry crowd as a woman leaned over a dead body and cursed at the soldiers. Assault looked down, "Calm down lady, you're lucky I didn't level the damn block. I'd be doing the city a favor."

Ox turned to him, "Are you trying to start a damned riot?"

"I'd love an excuse to clear out these damned bums."

Ricochet attempted to force the crowd back while speaking through a built in loud speaker, "It was an accident people, you need to back up or you will be arrested."

Ox leaned down to the crying woman and whispered, "I'm sorry for this but you need to leave for your own good."

She glared up at him, "He murdered my son."

Ox knew she was right, Assault had a reputation for taking pot shots at people down here but Ox had no choice but to keep his mouth shut. He sighed, "Please ma'am I don't want to see anyone else get hurt."

She lowered her head, "Then you picked the wrong profession."

Ox then turned at the sound of Assault warming up his repulser as he aimed it at the woman's head, "You heard her big man, she don't want to go."

Ox noticed Spider-man out of the corner of his eye but didn't say anything until the web line yanked Assault's arm away from the woman. Assault and Ricochet charged after Spider-man as Ox helped the woman to her feet, "Its gonna get rough here."

Arachne arrived just as Assault opened fire on Spider-man but she stopped by Ox, "What's the problem?"

Ox turned his head, "You know what the problem is."

He then marched off as she spotted the dead kid on the street. She was angry but she put it out of her head as she charged in. Spider-man was deftly avoiding Assault's cover fire as he dodged Ricochet, Ox tossed a dumpster at him as Arachne attempted to ensnare him.He caught the dumpster in his web and hurled it toward her and then shot another web catching Ricochet and swung him around and slammed him into Assault sending them both crashing to the ground.

Spider-man then found himself standing across from Ox as the others tried to regroup. He was ready to fight but Ox motioned for him to go. He didn't question it and left as quickly as possible.

As the group came over Ox shrugged his shoulders, "He was just too quick for me."

***

New York Iron Hall

Carla marched into Col. Winchester's office and demanded, "I want him off my team."

"What'd Brice do now?"

She dropped down in a chair, "He killed a kid and damn near started a riot, not to mention he probably just made a hero out of the Spider in Under town."

"If I could I'd drop that prick off in the DMZ and forget about him, but he'd just have his daddy beg Fisk for another chance again. But you have a bigger problem."

She sighed, "What is it?"

He turned on a monitor, "Drone footage. Can you explain why Ox let the Spider walk?"

She stared in disbelief, "What the hell is he thinking?"

"Doesn't matter, he's being taken into custody as we speak."

"Wait, he made a mistake but you can't just..."

He cut her off, "He aided in the escape of a terrorist, by law I have no choice. He'll get a trial."

She laughed at that, "Has anyone taken in by us ever been found innocent?"

The colonel shook his head, "I'm sorry Carla, he made his bed."

***

Near Enid, Oklahoma

Kaine stopped Karen, "We just got a call, apparently there's a huge gathering of Goblins in Colorado, Web wants us to check it out."

Karen rolled her eyes, "Probably just another one of their glorified dog fights."

Kaine gave her an annoyed look, "Goblins have been leaving cities by the hundreds heading there, has there ever been a gathering that big?"

"Why would they make themselves such an easy target? The Iron monkeys don't like them any more than we do."

Kaine shrugged, "That's what we need to know, they're crazy but they aren't stupid enough to out right attack the Iron army which means they're more than likely coming for us if they are organizing anything."

(To be continued)