Author's note: Sorry for the long silence, everyone! Life has been really hectic lately because we just welcomed a new baby into the family. Thank you so much for your patience and support. To make up for it, here are 5 chapters at once, and regular updates start again from today.
Morris Bench poured himself through a drainage grate, his liquid form cascading onto the concrete floor of the Hydra safe house before coalescing back into a solid shape. Hydro-Man had officially "escaped" Spider-Man and returned to base. In reality, S.H.I.E.L.D. had deliberately let him go.
Flint Marko stepped out of the shadows. The Sandman folded his massive, granular arms across his chest.
They had discussed the defection plan before the Venice attack. Marko completely agreed with Bench's assessment. Whirlwind's execution had been entirely too swift. Madame Viper hadn't hesitated to burn her own asset the second things went south. It left zero room for error.
Anyone working for Hydra who watched that execution would feel an icy chill settle into their bones.
"Is this actually going to work?" Marko asked, his heavy brow furrowing. "Hydra isn't stupid, Morris. They know we aren't exactly true believers. They have to be watching us."
"Of course they're watching us," Bench snapped, pacing the damp floor. "That's exactly why we don't jump ship until S.H.I.E.L.D. formally guarantees our protection. They have to counter that magic kill-switch first. We put our lives above everything else."
Bench threw a hand in the air, sending a spray of water against the brick wall. "Look at us, Flint! What are we even doing here? Are we honestly trying to help some Nazi ghost-cult conquer the globe? It's a joke! We took this gig to get paid. We let them experiment on us so we could make more money."
Marko grunted in agreement. He didn't care about global domination. He just wanted a massive payout so he could live quietly. The only reason he had signed on with Hydra was because they were the only organization unethical enough to fund human mutation experiments.
Without their powers, they were nothing. But if Hydra was going to put them in the ground for simply losing a fight, the money wasn't worth the risk.
They needed S.H.I.E.L.D.
Back at the hotel, the Midtown High students were still reeling from the canal attack.
Jessica Drew sat cross-legged on her bed, a highly amused smirk on her face. "So. Let me get this straight. The second a giant water monster erupts from the canal, you were spotted sprinting out of Peter Parker's bedroom?"
Felicia Hardy buried her face in her hands. She wanted the floor to open up and swallow her.
Why had she taken the hallway? Why hadn't she just picked the lock on the window and grappled up to the roof? When she had slipped out of Peter's room with the explosive catalyst tubes, she had practically collided with three of her classmates.
"It was a misunderstanding," Felicia lied smoothly, lifting her head and tossing her platinum hair over her shoulder. "I went into the wrong room. Why is everyone so completely obsessed with my whereabouts?"
Jessica leaned forward, resting her chin on her hands. "If you didn't have his key card, how did you get inside?"
"The door wasn't locked!" Felicia snapped, entirely done with the interrogation.
Seeing that Felicia wasn't going to crack, Jessica dropped the subject. She let out a slow exhale, leaning back against the headboard.
"I heard Spider-Man pulled you out of the canal yesterday," Felicia said, shifting the heat off herself.
"He did," Jessica nodded. "And because he got that close, I finally locked down his exact height and build. Give me a few more days, and I could absolutely pinpoint which student he is."
Jessica paused, picking at a loose thread on her blanket. "But I've been thinking about it. My dad explicitly warned me not to dig into this. Plus, Mary Jane Watson is already running her own investigation for the Daily Bugle. I already thanked Spider-Man for saving my life. I think I'm officially dropping the case."
Felicia let out a quiet, internal sigh of relief. She turned her head, looking out the hotel window.
Her eyes narrowed.
The air hovering directly over the street outside was distorting. It wasn't heat shimmer. Thousands of microscopic water droplets were suspended in mid-air, bending and refracting the afternoon light. It was a signal. A highly cautious, localized broadcast.
Felicia smirked. I wonder if Parker is paying attention.
Peter was paying attention.
He crouched on the terracotta tiles of a Venetian rooftop, completely invisible. The stealth suit's active camouflage kept him perfectly blended with the surrounding masonry.
He waited.
A patch of condensation formed on the tiles near his boots. The water physically moved against gravity, dragging itself across the dry clay to spell out a single line of text.
CAN S.H.I.E.L.D. GUARANTEE OUR SAFETY? WHEN?
Peter couldn't give a direct answer. Nick Fury had already laid out the parameters. S.H.I.E.L.D. had absolutely no intention of cutting a legitimate deal. This was a stall tactic to drain Hydra's operational momentum.
Peter reached out, running a gloved finger through the condensation to scramble the words. He wrote his own message in the moisture.
WE HAVE A LEAD. HOLD YOUR POSITION. CAUSE NO CASUALTIES. WHAT INTEL DO YOU HAVE?
Hydro-Man immediately recognized the shift. This was the bargaining phase. He needed to prove to S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers that keeping him alive was worth the tactical risk.
The water rapidly reshaped itself into a list of aggressive demands. Hydro-Man wanted guaranteed protection from the mystical curse for himself and Sandman. He wanted full, unconditional pardons. He wanted to be entered into the system as a tainted S.H.I.E.L.D. witness with full immunity.
Peter read the demands and almost laughed. It was absurd. But he had to play the game. He wrote back, aggressively haggling over the terms, pushing back against the immunity demands.
It was an incredibly awkward negotiation. Peter was an invisible teenager furiously scribbling in a puddle, arguing with an assassin who wasn't even physically present.
Hydro-Man felt like a master negotiator. Because Peter was pretending to fight him on the terms, Bench assumed he held all the leverage. S.H.I.E.L.D. clearly didn't even know Hydra was pulling the strings. They just thought they were dealing with an illegal, transnational super-soldier ring.
Bench leaked just enough operational intel to secure massive theoretical concessions from S.H.I.E.L.D., carefully avoiding ever using the word 'Hydra.'
They finalized the phantom agreement. Both sides walked away feeling deeply satisfied. S.H.I.E.L.D. bought time. Hydro-Man bought a fake golden ticket.
Morris Bench let the water drop from the rooftop, his consciousness fully returning to his physical body in the underground Hydra bunker.
He walked into the main laboratory, feeling incredibly smug. That smugness evaporated the second he saw the blinking alerts on the primary monitors.
"Spider-Man and the Midtown High tour group just altered their itinerary," an operative reported, typing frantically. "They canceled the Athens layover entirely. They are moving straight to Budapest."
Bench froze. He turned to Dr. Arnim Zola, who was adjusting a series of mechanical dials on a centrifuge.
"So," Bench asked, crossing his arms. "Are you deploying us to Budapest to intercept?"
"No. We will do no such thing," Arnim Zola chuckled, his voice cold and metallic. "Budapest is a stronghold far above your operational clearance, Mr. Bench. Besides. We have other, more pressing issues to deal with here."
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