Spider-Man. The House Of Venom

It was now a waiting game. They had no proof that the Asgardians were up to anything sinister, so they had to fall back on what they did know. Matt and his team, helped by Pepper went through every page of the new Asgardian Protocols. It was slow meticulous work, making sure that every law and rule was double-checked. There could be no mistakes and every loophole needed to be found. And only a lawyer could do it.

On day three, Peter received word from Charles.

Peter, we have a small problem, can you visit Avalon?

He mentally shrugged, Sure, open a portal and I can come through. He ignored the pained look from everyone else as he got ready. He was off doing something fun while they had work.

Peter stepped through the portal Blink had created and the atmosphere was bleak. Other than the air conditioning wiishing, there was no other noise. Even the first time he arrived he could hear the faint murmur of people, and the hum of electronics. The room was empty, and all the furniture had been removed, along with any decorations. The place was a ghost town. Even though it had been home to many for only a short time, Peter knew that it was still a painful loss.

“Yes. Thank you, Peter. Liv said you needed a distraction, and while I believe you may have briefly met, this is Kitty.”

A short woman held out her hand, and for a moment he thought it was Laura. Long brown hair, tied in a ponytail hung over her black uniform. It was tight leather with armoured plates over each thigh and her chest. 

“Right, I remember. Do you still work for Elektra?”

She shook her head. “Selene took me in. but uh I still do work for the X-men,” Kitty said, rubbing one arm as she smiled at Peter,

Charles coughed. “Yes, we all know he’s very handsome. But can we please disarm the nuclear reactors deep within the moon's core before the Nova Corps gets here? You can flirt later.”

While Kitty went bright red, Peter just shook his head.

“I see being de-aged didn't improve your sense of decent Charles, that was mean. And Kitty is dating Emma now right?”

Kitty nodded. Once Emma had called things off from the group she had split off completely. They had enjoyed his birthday, but it was a separation. One last fling. Like Pepper, it was now strictly business. He had heard from Felicia about a young brunette taking a shine to Emma, and now he knew who it was.

Charles paused, “I apologise. This,” he took in a snort of air, “incident, has many tempers frayed. Mine included.”

"We were doing our last sweep and we encountered a problem," Charles informed him.

"I doubt it's something needing punched, so why me?" Peter asked, and Kitty smirked.

"Yes. We can't deactivate the reactors. We phased them into a cavern, but now they are on, Kitty's power is disrupted by the energy."

"I still don't get it. Why me?" Peter asked.

Kitty stepped forward. "We know," she said with a small smirk, "you can survive in space. I can phase us down, you deactivate the reactor and we can bring it back to Avalon."

“It’s fine,” Kitty said, “I have my suit, but uh Peter?”

Kitty touched a panel on her belt and a suit unwrapped itself and surrounded her. “I can phase and breathe using the suit Forge made me. As long as we only take an hour per device then I'm good.”

“Great, I should be fine as well. My armour is airtight after Jean showed us how Helios adapted to space, so uh, how do we do this?”

Kitty grinned, “Easy, I grab you, take you to the cavern, you disarm the reactor and then I bring us back up.”

“Wait, what cavern?”

Charles smiled, “Well, we can't just phase solid matter and leave it. So we made a tunnel, had Kitty phase down a small device and let it explode, creating a housing for,” but Peter waved a hand,

“You drilled a mine shaft, right? It's fine, while geology isn't my strong point I get what you did, so uh, phase with me?”

Kitty nodded, “Sure, I've done it before. Organic matter just gets stuck, displacing the matter around it. It’s anything with an energy source that won't phase unless it’s properly-.” Peter raised his hand again, rubbing the other one on his forehead. “Sorry, just nobody ever wants to talk about how their powers actually work, so.”

Peter sighed and took out his phone, “Call this number,” and as he sent the contact details to Kitty, she frowned.

“Liv? The nerdy-looking woman with the glasses?” She said as she stared at the number.

Peter laughed. “That nerdy-looking woman is probably the most intelligent person on the planet. She would love to find out exactly how your powers work. If Emma agrees she might even give you a full physical.” 

Peter had no illusions that people saw Liv as a stereotypical nerd, and he didn't care. In her lab coat, with her hair, all scrunched back, she was amazingly hot. If they didn't look past that, that was their problem. They were the ones missing out.

Kitty tried to ignore the comment, blushed and instead focused on the task. “Uh, right. So, yeah, the reactors are about a kilometre down. So if something went wrong there was no fallout. So it’ll take a while, you can breathe right?”

Peter nodded, and let his armour coat him, “I'm good.”

Kitty shrugged, looking down at her own black armour. “Still a Black Cat, Peter. Black goes with everything.” As she held out her hand they phased down to the bottom of the shaft.

Can you hear me? I'm not telepathic but touching like this you should be able to read my mind right?

I can, so, uh, feeling better?

It had been over two years since Shaw but some injuries took longer than others.

Charles set me up with a therapist, and to be honest, being away from Bobby helped. Do you do that? I mean, do you worry and pick over your uh, others?

Peter laughed, yeah, if I did they would kick my ass. Gwen likes to be pampered when she’s ill, not that being Enhanced makes that a regular thing, but the rest, nope. If they want to be left in peace, I do.

Must be nice. I felt Bobby and the professor were constantly making sure I was okay, that Gambit hadn't crippled me. At least Negasonic understands and treats me like an adult.

They slowly sank into a dark cavern. Kitty cracked a glow stick while Peter adjusted his vision and the room lit up. He only needed to see the electromagnetic spectrum and the reactor shone into lines of light.

I can disable this here. The fissionable material can be bled away safely. He told her. Liv had redesigned the Arcstar reactors and they used deionized water. It wasn't difficult to make and wouldn't harm the moon. He powered down the reactor and waited until it was cool enough to open and empty. The water inside bubbled and evaporated in the hard vacuum.

The professor means well. I mean, it's probably not easy to see his students get hurt on missions. Kitty sighed. Especially when he didn't agree with that mission in the first place. Her frown changed to a scowl and Peter felt the surge in anger blossoming from her sadness. It still wasn't fair though, I mean Scott got the crap kicked outta him and he got a girlfriend and a new team. I was benched and mothered.

Peter had no reply to that. The internet was filled with images of female superheroes in compromising positions. There were even a few that didn't wear masks with indecent pictures spread all over a few news sites. People expected heroes to be strong macho men, and it was all bullshit.

At the height of her powers, Carol could probably have smeared Hulk across the solar system. Gamma-Extremis powered or not, Emma had shown Red he wasn't the strongest one there was. The whole male/female divide was about to get a lot smaller when an Augment could blow up a city.

Yeah, I get it, maybe not as much, but I do. 

Kitty was quiet after that, sitting and wrapping her arms around her legs as she watched Peter work.

Right one down, four to go, back up, recharge your suit and then the next?

Kitty nodded and held out her hand.

Draining and disabling the reactors wasn’t a difficult task, it was just slow and laborious. But as they were travelling through solid rock, on the moon, he felt that caution was the better part of valour. Slow and steady was much better than quick and explosively decompressed.

It was at the fourth reactor that an issue arose.

Uh Charles, do you have anyone else on Avalon? Peter asked as he stared at the reactor. Its core was brighter than the rest and its surface was covered in a patchwork mess of cables.

No, why? The only people here are the four of us.

Peter realised that Blink must be on the surface as well, and the ADAAM was offline. If you don't hear from us in five minutes, get back to the surface and get Jean.

Peter, that isn't very reassuring, if there is anything-

But Peter interrupted him. Charles, there is nothing and I mean that literally, nothing you can do. Kitty would have to come back and get you unless you can also phase through rock.

Fine, five minutes it is.

Taking Kitty’s hand, he explained what he was seeing.

Those cables are invisible to every one of my senses except my technopathic ones. Can you tell if the wall is shielded? I can see it, but I can't sense anything past it.

Kitty stretched out her other hand and felt around at several patches.

There is something there. Energy fields disrupt my powers, and whatever it is tingles but doesn't unphase me. You aren't thinking of just diving through, are you?

Peter shrugged, unless you have a better idea?

I do, we can go around. I can sense the density of the wall until we find a better entrance. I'm not hoping we can make it safely through that wall, and if there is something there then someone had to get it there. Which means there should be an entrance.

See, not just a pretty face. Bobby should listen to you more.

In the dark Peter failed to see Kitty blush, and shake her head.

Right, we go forward slowly, I’ll lead until we find the entrance. No pushing past me, you could phase into something and get stuck.

Yeah, Peter thought to himself. Or like Vision try to phase through something molecularly dense and get killed as it takes my head off. But he kept that thought to himself, and made a point to test Kitty’s powers with Vibranium, so she was prepared. He would hate to see anyone get hurt through his own stupidity.

They skirted the low-level energy field that Kitty could feel and Peter could see. It looked like strings of lights inside a giant cave of some kind. When they reached the entrance, it turned out to be exactly that.

Except it had a door.

The door wasn't hidden. It was under an overhang and the natural rock formation covered it in complete darkness. It was perfectly hidden, and looking around, there was no way to see it from anywhere other than the surface.

I want to take a look inside. How's your oxygen?

I have an hour, Kitty replied as she looked down at her wrist, and we’re at least twenty minutes from Avalon. Whatever you're doing, do it quick.

Peter shook his head. I can move across the surface. Head back. I won't need you for this part.

Kitty huffed, No, I won't leave you, we don't know what's in there.

Peter was about to argue but he felt the resolution coming from her, even if she was about to run out, she didn't care. He could feel the indignation coming from her, tinted with the desire to prove herself. He could feel her annoyance that once more she was being sidelined. While Peter didn't really want her to die while trying to prove a point, he also knew not to argue.

Fine, but once we’re inside if they have air you drop back into phase and use their air.

Kitty nodded, and the pair began to slowly move across the massive metal door, searching for a way in. On one side was a small hatchway. Kitty and Peter effortlessly phased through it and into an airlock, then through that.

Peter stared in shock as the area lit up to his senses. This wasn't just a cave of some kind, it was a hanger. And it was huge. Across one side were armoured suits beside racks of weapons. There were lockers, neatly sectioned off.

Be quiet and be careful, Peter warned. The area lit up his senses and it was hard to tell if they were alone. Kitty nodded and followed as he made his way to the largest group of energy signatures. As they moved through the hangar they found a row of fighter-sized spacecraft. Peter quickly counted and there was enough for at least a hundred of each.

I don't care, get back to the professor, right now. We can’t take this.

Kitty was about to suggest more scouting when a pair of green-skinned aliens walked into the bay. They were both in uniform, holding tablets and talking in a strange language. 

Peter's armour shimmered and disappeared while Kitty sank into the floor.

Yeah, not going to do anything. Two against that many will get us killed.

Kitty huffed, there were only two.

Two technicians, not in survival gear. But you don't have equipment for hundreds if you don't have hundreds. The base must be further in. We need backup, and we need a plan.