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This story takes place after the X-Men/Thunderbolts crossover
Chapter 1: Spiders in Space!
The Peak, in orbit over Earth
"You can say that I'm experienced. Am I experienced? Yeah, I think I am. But even though I was used to these kinds of assignments I was surprised to get the offer to be sent up here."
Jessica Drew, also known as Spider-Woman, was currently walking through the metallic halls of the Peak, the large space-station and headquarters of the organization called S.W.O.R.D. It stands for Sentient World Observation Response Department and is a sub-division of the peace-keeping organization called S.H.I.E.L.D. that specializes in protecting the Earth from extraterrestrial threats.
As she walked through the halls several cadets and officers looked at her, as if she didn't belong there. She was wearing her Spider-Woman uniform, which might attract some looks anywhere; it seemed superheroes of any kind weren't a normal sight on the Peak. After a while, she found herself in front of the door to the bridge and with the push of a button on the squared panel next to her, the door slid open noiselessly. She never imagined the bridge to be so large and began to take in what she could see, the wide array of different monitor screens saying unreadable things, the crowd of officers, statisticians and who knows what that stretched all the way to several large windows, all showing the green and blue planet they all came from. The crowd was mostly preoccupied and paid her little attention save for a red lizard-looking alien standing next to a green haired woman with equally green glasses, both of them had eyes locked onto her.
"Welcome, agent Drew. Welcome to the Peak." Abigail Brand announced. She wore a black and green suit with matching gloves and boots. Jessica slowly walked up to her on the platform she stood on. She greeted her with a hand shake and a forced smile.
"Eh, yeah, thanks. But I still don't know what I'm doing here." Spider-Woman said.
"Listen, Drew. I will tell you straight." Brand lost the smile and became more serious. "Something...quite embarrassing happened a short time ago. At least, embarrassing for us here at S.W.O.R.D. Not too long ago Earth was infiltrated by Skrulls. Some people even got replaced by them. The whole thing is kind of vague at the moment."
"And you knew nothing about this until now?" Jessica asked, thinking they should be the first to know if something like that happened.
"No, we didn't know." Brand answered, irritated. "But it also got us thinking."
"About what?" She asked.
"When the Skrulls invaded; the Thunderbolts and the X-Men were there to stop them.* In other words, super, erm... 'super-people'. Whatever the term is! All we have is soldiers who can barely work a gun. I figured we needed 'super-people' of our own." Brand continued in the same irritated tone. "We have chosen to give you that offer."
"Me?" She said, shocked. "Is it because of my background?"
"Oh, believe me, Drew. This will be worse than S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA combined." Brand said with an evil smile.
Jessica thought for a while. She did like a challenge and she was used to these kinds of things. But she really hated space. Then again, it could earn her a few extra bucks.
"She'sss doubting us." Sydren hissed when Jessica failed to answer.
"Yes, I know. Shut up. Let the girl think." Brand snapped back at him. A few more seconds of silence fell before she made up her mind.
"Count me in. I bet it's just a matter of time before I'm sucked out into the nothingness out there but what the hell. I like a challenge!"
The Gravity Well, an hour later
After her hasty recruitment, Jessica was introduced to the station. Or shown a map of where she could, couldn't and absolutely couldn't go. A place she was allowed to visit was the Gravity Well, the bar at the station.
As she walked in she was met with the light blue neon lights. In fact there were too many neon lights. Maybe it was supposed to give the place a more spacey feel; instead it just stung her eyes. The bartender slowly wiped a large glass clean with a white but greasy cloth and looked very bored, which seemed to spread across the whole bar. The bar was kind of large but still only a handful of cadets sat silently by the tables, chatting about nothing and taking small sips from their glasses that probably was filled with water. On the opposite side of the bar was a large window which showed a small part of Earth, just as India and Sri Lanka crawled up from the horizon. Jessica wore her costume save for her mask; over that she wore a newly obtained brown jacket, with the S.W.O.R.D. logo on the arm of it. She walked up to the bar and sat down on one of the stools before staring into the bartender’s grumpy face.
"A beer. Large." She said. She saw the grumpy look on the bartender's face. "Please?"
The bartender slowly took a newly wiped glass and poured up some watery beer. He put it on the table with a ringing bang. After a while of sipping some warm beer, the bartender suddenly muttered something inaudible. Jessica felt curious before asking "What was that?" in the nicest tone she could muster so she wouldn't anger the already irritated man who had easy access to sharp forks and knives.
"I said 'the bloody Skrulls have arrived'." He said with a booming voice that shook Jessica to her very core.
"The Skrulls?" She asked.
"Yeah. Haven't you heard about the Skrull infiltration?" The bartender asked her.
"Well, yeah. Like an hour ago." She snapped back at him.
"Some of them are being sent here for questioning. If you look closely you can see the transport ship taking them here through the window." The bartender told her and pointed a hairy finger towards the large window. Jessica stood up and walked up to the window. She almost pressed her face against the window to be able to see the ship. But there it was. From that range it looked like nothing more than a black dot over the Indian Ocean.
The landing deck
The bulky transport ship slowly flew through the blue gravity port, separating the landing deck from the cold space outside. The ship was old and rusty and parts of it had been ripped off from the many years of service. With a large bang it landed on the ground. Immediately a dozen green-clad soldiers ran up to the slowly lowering boarding ramp as pressure was released from the ship with a hiss and thick jets of venting atmosphere.
"Everyone ready!?" One of the soldiers that stood closest to the ship yelled. "PRISONERS ON DECK!"
Two armed soldiers, holding large rifles, walked out of the ship down the ramp followed by four smug looking Skrulls. They wore black and purple clothes; three of them wore brown robes over their usual clothes. They were also handcuffed with adamantium handcuffs and they wore control collars that would shock them if they misbehaved or attempted to shape shift to loosen their bonds. The leader seemed larger and walked in between the others. They were followed by a soldier like the armed ones at the front of the escort guard. Reaching into his pocket he removed a small device from his pocket, he pressed the central mounted button.
"Landing deck to bridge. The Skrull prisoners have successfully been transported." He said while talking into the device. Suddenly it started buzzing and a familiar voice came from it.
"Fantastic! Send them to the prison deck. ASAP! I will see you there in a few minutes." Brand's voice said.
"Roger that!" The soldier said before putting down the device into his pocket again.
"Do you really think you can contain us?" The Skrull leader asked.
"We know we can." The soldier answered.
"How can you be so sure?" He hissed. "You don't know of the Skrull's abilities."
"I sure as hell know you hate electricity down your spine as much as the next guy!" The soldier shouted before pressing a button on his belt, which triggered the collar the leader wore. The collar shocked the leader with 20,000 volts.
"AARGH!" The leader screamed as he cowered down on the ground. The streams of electricity stopped and the leader slowly pulled himself up.
"NOW!" He yelled. One of the soldiers in the lines suddenly broke position and shot down three others. They quickly died from the wounds in their chests and stomachs.
"What the hell?!" Another soldier screamed and dodged a bullet from the soldier's rifle. He managed to hit the shooting soldier in the arm, who then quickly reverted back into a Skrull. "He's one of them!" He yelled before being shot down himself.
The Skrull leader headed for a murdered soldier's belt and pressed on one of the buttons. The other's collars fell to the ground. Except for one. They quickly killed the rest of the soldiers.
"Hey! This won't come off!" He yelled, when he tried to pull it off his neck.
"Don't worry about it." The leader announced. "Where we're going you won't need to use your body."
One of the soldiers appeared to still be alive. She lay on the ground, twitching from agony. The leader walked up to her and grabbed her arm.
"Tell me. Where are the orbital engines?"
The bridge, some time later
Brand slowly walked around in a circle on the command platform on the bridge. She impatiently waited for a clear sign so that she could go down to the prison deck.
"Commander! Commander, come in!" She yelled into the com in her hand. "Dammit! You there! Try to find out why I can't get the communicator to work!" She ordered a passing technician.
"Yes, ma'am." He quickly answered and walked over to a console. He then started typing in some numbers on a keyboard.
Suddenly every computer screen, every light bulb and every annoying neon light went pitch black. Slowly the station itself started tilting. Several of the people on the bridge fell over and rolled down as the room tilted. Some screamed in horror.
"What the $£€# is going on here?" Brand yelled and headed for one of the computer screens that monitored the ship's activity. She passed Sydren on the way who held tight to a console.
"We have been hijacked!" He hissed.
"I know, it was a rhetorical question." She snapped back. "If I got a penny for every time this station malfunctions..."
She sat down and started banging her hands on the screen to make it work again.
<MONITOR FUNCTIONS ACTIVATED>
"I can't believe that worked." She said while pressing a button on the screen.
<AUDIO GRANTED>
"Okay, everyone. Listen up!" Her voice echoed in all of the halls of the Peak. "As you all seem to have noticed the Peak has been hijacked for the forty-seventh time, and counting. But I beg you, stay calm. Like every other time we either survive this or we are all goners. Anyone who is able to reach for the bridge, converge on my location on the double. And for the ones who can't...I hope you're armed."
To be continued...
*Read the full X-Men/Thunderbolts crossover here
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