Chapter 17: Chapter Seventeen

Natasha patiently waited, once again in the water surrounding Osborn's artificial island, this time in the daylight- the bright beams of the sun playfully flickering in the waves, yet failing to reveal her body due to the invisibility enchantments. Her eyes glanced to the side, spotting the approaching shadow of a boat. With a steadying breath she slid up closer to the docks, waiting until the boat reached the position needed to be tied down before leaping from the water past the algae soaked area and onto the side of the dock. The sound of the water was drowned out, her invisibility holding steady as she smoothly got closer to the large gate opening in preparation to receive goods and people.

The guards moved mostly silently, the only conversations happening closer to the boat as the guards at the gate held themselves in a relaxed stance with their automatic rifles, their sharp eyes giving away their professionalism. 'Surprisingly competent.' Natasha noted as she slid close to the ground and through the gate. She curiously glanced at their reactions in passing, 'No instinctive movements? So the presence concealment enchantment is working as intended.' 

Those heavily experienced in dangerous lines of work always developed a sort of sixth sense- an instinct for when something wrong was happening. A niggling on the back of the neck, a twitch of the fingers. Their bodies automatically becoming tense as 'something' started happening. They were always the hardest to sneak past, security becoming more and more tense the longer an intruder was where they weren't supposed to be. 

Natasha wondered how easy some of her most difficult missions would have been with something properly disguising her 'presence' like Jasmine's enchantments did. She knew how to do it through her ki and meditation, but the effects were definitely more... encompassing with her niece's enchantments.

Pulling here eyes away she started moving, analyzing her surroundings as she went through the giant metal gate. Over the past two days she had done more preliminary investigation, with some scouting of Tony's bots in the waters. They found the submarine entrance they expected, but with no clue of the shipment frequency it was decided infiltration through it was temporarily unviable. No useable vents or other access ports were found yet. The few found far smaller than what Natasha could contort herself into. Thus, leaving the daytime infiltration, with far too little information for any of their tastes.

Tony and Jasmine were on standby as backup, ready to be alerted by a linked enchantment. Jasmine had yet to make a proper communication enchantment that could be easily moved, and there was a chance of any radio emissions being discovered, so Natasha was going in disconnected and silent until necessary.

So, she had to make decisions on the go. No pre-planning, but quick and accurate reactions to whatever she observed. She couldn't afford to be careless. If it wasn't for her distorted temporal perception, the mission would simply be 'go as long as she could before being discovered'. With it she had a chance to go completely undetected despite the paranoid levels of security.

She observed the inside of the gate, spotting guards dotted all around the simple concrete field, large opening leading further into the base. She noted what seemed to be the emitter and receivers for laser curtains in the large doorways, frowning. She glanced back at the steel gate and noted more placed where they couldn't be seen from the entrance. She noted the lights on the back end were still green and carefully backed a foot into the light curtain- no change in color or electronic movement to the quick scan of her mask. 'So the invisibility enchantment doesn't disturb those enough to set them off? Good to know.' 

She moved away from the gate, keeping low to the ground to reduce the chance of any distortions being spotted, smoothly and gracefully traveling the concrete field as trucks were moved out to lift supplies from the docks, escorts of guards following. 'These are not random hires or mercenaries. They're closer to special soldiers, trained and indoctrinated from childhood.' Natasha's eyes narrowed. 'They're not something even the US government can provide. Maybe SHIELD or SWORD, and if either of them are helping Osborn...' She set her lips in a line and continued. 'They have their own researchers. At most they'd send infiltrators to observe Osborn's attempts, not overtly provide so much military assistance. So some other organization is backing Osborn.' She glanced at the apparel of the guards again. 'No distinguishing features off hand...' Hopefully how they organize themselves would reveal a familiar pattern so she could pin their identities down.

She slid through one of the openings, glancing at the tunnels going further into the facility before further observing the area. A few doors dotted the ware-house esque room, with an elevator nestled in the corner. Workers nervously moved around under the watch of the armed guards. 'Forced labor?' She watched them for a bit, taking in the lack of tag-cards on the workers, tags most companies would use for basic security- allowing certain employees to access certain areas. She saw the blank, identification-less Oscorp 'tags' the soldiers had to access some of the doorways. Still, most entrances and doors had one or two guards despite also requiring said tags.

'Really, really tight security.' Natasha frowned, 'and this is only the outer portions.' Her eyes scanned around, 'Now, how do I handle these doors? Shame there's no marks for directions and the guards are mostly silent.' She slid near to a door and carefully scanned it and the nearby wall with her mask, 'Okay. There's no direct wires outside of the electrical power. That means it either doesn't record the opening and closing of the door, or it does it wirelessly.' She peered at the simple components, 'I'd be surprised, with the level of paranoia shown so far, if these didn't have some way to report whenever the door opens and closes...' 

Natasha took a distance from the guards who failed to notice her, 'Looks like it's back to the tried and true strategy of following behind someone without them noticing...' 

The ex-assassin would have sighed, she really didn't want to. She blinked, a random thought emerging, causing her to wryly smirk; 'I think I get the 'npc-escort' mission frustration now.' 

 

>>> In an OsCorp laboratory 

Gwen carefully took the beaker from the burner with a pair of tongs, keeping the camera to her back as she carefully shook out the green salt-looking dust onto the metal tray. Her dead eyes glanced at the solidified, highly unstable, animal based super-soldier serum. With a shuddering breath she placed the used beaker in the lab's sink, the camera above the door following her movement.

The room, or 'lab', was one of the smaller ones meant for 'individual' experimentation. There was enough room to move around in, and it was decently clean. But to Gwen it was nothing but claustrophobic, each day making her feel the walls pressing closer and closer... She forced out a shuddering breath, ignoring the shaking of her hands as she moved back to the metal tray, a metal ruler, a measured tea spoon, a bright focus lamp, and a set of advanced magnifying glass. 

She glanced at the magnifier, a shaky smile appearing and disappearing on her face. If it wasn't for the situation she'd be gushing over the advanced electronic apparatus that held itself mostly steady- like a chicken's head- while being light enough for easy use with one hand. Unfortunately being closer to a slave dampened whatever enthusiasm she had.

The fact she was likely about to kill herself didn't help either.

She pulled a stool to the desk, making sure the camera didn't move like she felt the walls were and was still to her back, and sat down. A brief dizzy spell came and went with the movement, Gwen ignoring the more and more common occurrence. With a casual flick she turned on the focus lamp, pointing at the green salt. Half out of curiosity, half out of her need for misdirection, she opened the magnifier and zoomed in on the dust, taking a few moments  to appreciate the smooth, ovular look of the individual grains.

Her heart beat painfully, throbbing rapidly to the tune of her increasing nausea. She tried not to show it. She hoped she didn't show it. 

Carefully she laid the magnifying device to the side, picking up the ruler and arranging the dust into a line. Her heart pulsed a hundred miles an hour. Portraying casualness she brushed the lamp to point away from the metal tray- hopefully, desperately praying, that it was pointing in the camera's lens as she intended. It wouldn't completely obscure the happenings, but enough to make her actions- positioned right next to the lamp- obscured. 

The guards wouldn't think much of it. Hopefully. She'd been doing it for the past month after she started to use the lamp. Her hands shook violently and she nearly dropped the ruler. It was time. She grabbed the magnifying lens from the side and brought it forward as if she was going to examine the dust even closer, leaning over the table. Anything to delay the guards reaction as she bent over till her nose touched the green dust. 

A second of hesitation. It's all she allowed herself as she started inhaling- the burn and pain nearly making her whip her head back. Tears spilled from her eyes as she kept inhaling through her nose, feeling the dust burn through her nasal cavity. With a gasp she realized the line was gone, blood now dripping from her left nostril as she sat back, her body wracked with sobs.

Not turning around she shakily picked up the metal tray and stood up, stumbling over to the disposal bin, carefully making sure the angle was away from the camera as she pretended to dump the dust in the hazard bin, placing the tray in the sink nearby. Her head lurched and she placed a hand on the countertop for support before trying to calmly walk to the desk, face hidden by her hair as best as possible. 

With a thump she collapsed in the stool, not moving the focus light as she rested her head in her hands. Her head painfully pulsed, her body heating up uncomfortably as she held in her urge to vomit. A giggle escaped her lips, blowing a bubble in the blood dripping from her nose. Absently she wondered if some fell on the floor. But, what did it matter? She giggled again. A feeling of incredible lightness tingled up her spine as her head tried to escape her stationary hands- like a balloon attatched to a pole. Her arms and legs felt like lead. Her skin started itching and she barely kept herself from shouting as her bones seemed to groan in her skin.

Blood dripped from her chin as she giggle again, blowing red bubbles as her gums started all bleeding. So what if it hurts? Why should she care? It doesn't. Denial for the win! She giggled. Again? She probably already did. Her gums spiked. It felt like that dentist was sticking in needles again. But she wasn't at the dentist? Odd. Her tongue poked her teeth, causing them to simply fall out of her gums. Gwen curiously looked at the teeth on the desk. They looked like beans. She giggled and slackened her jaw, making a game of poking her teeth out with her tongue, giggling each time one clicked and lightly splashed onto the growing puddle of blood. 

She let one of her lead hands flop onto the desk, supporting her head from floating away as she tried to wiggle her hands and poke the teeth, her hand flopping like a fish as she giggled and blew bubbles. With a minute of effort she managed to twist the unwieldy limb to poke at the little beans on the counter. Why were they there anyway? Gwen decided not to care as she enjoyed poking the hard little beans as the skin of her hand was covered in blood before it started peeling off. 

Gwen curiously looked at this new phenomena, smiling as the skin of her arm satisfyingly curled off like wood shaving, before shriveling and joining the red puddle that started dripping on the floor. She watched it fall apart and disintegrate in the blood, and laughed at the similarity between it and cotton candy in water. Maybe her skin was made of cotton candy? 

She let her other arm flop onto the desk, her head drooping before the room lifted itself to make her eyesight normal. 'Thanks room' Gwen bubbled out as she flopped her left arm over to her right, grabbing a bunch of curled skin and plucking it off the twisting and pulsing muscle and trying to get it to her mouth, giggling as she missed and slapped her cheek, knocking the bit of flesh off alongside more skin. With amusement she stuck her tongue through the new hole in her face. Her arm flopped back down onto the table, catching her attention.

With amazement she watched tiny leaves start to grow, a childish smile on her shambled face as she slowly became a tree. But a tree with grey bark? Weird grey gel crawled across the space between the growing leaves. Luckily it looked like the leaves would cover it. Gwen didn't like the color grey. The green of the leaves was much better. A burst of white and red caught her attention, and she gleefully wiggled as the five ends of her branches started blooming! She was a flowering tree! She wondered what color her flowers would be when she got past the budding stage? 

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A weight fell off her back and Gwen nodded in thanks to whoever helped her, before giggling at the sloshing sound they made in response. With effort she managed to turn her head, her neck twisting far enough to see her own back. Neat! She wasn't able to do that before. A smile covered her face as she curiously watched the wriggling skinless flesh of her back get slowly covered in grey goo, with more leaves appearing! Oh and there was another candy puddle on the ground behind her! Looks like someone dropped part of a lab coat in it though. And it looked like it was burning?

Gwen frowned. It wasn't burning, but there was smoke? And Gwen knew there was no smoke without a fire. What was she supposed to do in a fire again? She tilted her head, immediately distracted by the golden lace falling onto the ground, bunches bound with red candy and shriveled skin. She giggled and leaned forward to look better. Closer and closer she looked before she splashed in the puddle and giggled. When did she get down here? She flapped her lead limbs around and managed to roll over onto her stomach and breasts. Her eyes rolled upwards and noticed a bright red flashing light. Bright lights meant party right? Music party... Gwen hadn't been to one of those. Maybe it'd be nice?

But she probably couldn't be on the floor for one of those. Giggling she got her hands under her, now covered entirely in leaves! Though it looked like her buds hadn't bloomed yet. With a pop Gwen suddenly could hear again, a loud screeching noise causing her to frown. She glared at the red flashing light. Annoying. Gwen spit at it. A hiss and flash caused the light and sound to go out. Gwen curiously looked at the orange glowing slime fizzling in its spot. The sound was gone, so that was good. But apparently she was late to the party and it was canceled. That was sad.

Maybe she could find another party? 

A hiss attracted her attention and she looked up to the air vent, stumbling as she struggled to her feet. Her limbs didn't feel as heavy, which was good. But her head still felt light. Gwen giggled at the feeling, before pushing her tongue into her teeth. Oh! Her teeth were different. She opened her mouth and felt around with her tongue, bringing her hands up to her face and poking them in as well. She gurgled a giggle as she found she could stick both her hands in her mouth now. Her friends in fourth grade would be so jealous! An odd taste touched her tongue and she pulled her hands back out, tasting the air, before remembering she was supposed to smell for things! How embarrassing. 

She ran a hand through her long, stiff hair as she sniffed and trained her eyes back on the vent. What a weird smell. Gwen spit at it. Her spit was now orange! The mucus hit the vent with a sizzle, sparks shooting out midair as a heatwave tickled Gwen's scales as the room seemed to quickly burn. Gwen sniffed again. The weird smell was gone now. And there was now a different hissing. Though there was a new hissing now. Gwen eyed the vent she spit at and watched the orange mucous slide down the wall, leaving missing material trails in its wake. 

What was she doing? Gwen tilted her head as she tried to remembering. Oh right! She had to get home. Her Dad was going to be mad at her for being late. Her ears twitched and flattened against her head. That was going to be trouble, but first she had to get home! She looked at the door and sniffed in disdain. She didn't like this door. She swung her hand at it. With a shearing crack the handle broke as metal splinters scattered about. The door fractured and Gwen annoyedly kicked it with her toes. Her toes were big now! Oh and they also had buds? Or were those nails? Gwen shook her head and stepped through the doorway that was flashing with more redlights and noise. Her ears flattened against her head again. Those sounds were annoying.

A rumble shook the building, Gwen curiously looking down as she easily kept stable through the shaking, dust falling from the ceiling. She sniffed the air again. A shout from behind caused her to look over her shoulder. A man was pointing a gun at her. Gwen frowned. He should know not to do that. A loud bang hurt her ears and she blinked as a pebble lightly bounced off her snout. With a snarl she spit at the rude man, her new colorful mucus hitting the man in the chest. No, going through his chest? Gwen tilted her head at the mysterious hole in the man's torso before he collapsed. How odd. Well. That'll teach him to throw loud pebbles at people.

Now. Gwen looked around. How does she get home?

 

>>> At the deepest level of the Osborn Island Laboratories 

"FinAlly..." The Croc let out a loud hiss, his messy jaw opening in a grin as his miners stilled, stepping to the side as one as the ceiling of the tunnel they were digging upwards collapsed- concrete and tiles falling down. The Croc inhaled, smelling the particular stench of humans. His powerful heart pulsed in anticipation. "FINaLLY." A throaty chuckle escaped him. "FinAlly I Feassst!" A rumble built in his throat. 'Charge.' The rumble grew. He thought of Osborn and the rumble grew again. 'CHaRGE!' "ROOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAR-!" 

His jaws snapped shut as his army flooded around him, their eyes glowing with malice and hunger for the first time as they scrambled up the tunnel. A rumbling laugh echoed in the tunnel as he heard the yells and screams of pain, gunshots echoing in the underground chamber. With a bellowing laugh he stepped forward, uncaring for his soldiers as he waded through their charge, leaping to the roof of the tunnel in one go and landing in what appeared to be an underground warehouse. Bullets peppered his scales, causing him to snarl and command his minions to charge the few pathetic guards in their odd grey clothing. His eyes landed on the various boxes of weapons and materials lying about, several lizardmen ripping apart the workers. A forklift in the corner was overturned as the lizardman scurried to its next target, maw covered in blood. 

The Croc reveled in the smell of blood, the screams of the guards being eaten alive music to his ears. Joy filled his chest as he looked at the newly flashing red lights and sirens. His eyes landed on a pair of closed elevator doors, steel reinforcement doors slamming around it. He snarled, "yoU ThinK thAt cAn ssstoP, Me? OSBORN!?" His roar shook the cavernous warehouse and he lept, covering the distance to the elevator in two bounds, his claws slamming into the steel. With a laugh he tore through the inches of metal, "The OnlY thiNg You caN do isss DeLay..." He mocked, tearing the hole larger and exposing the elevator shaft. His army crawled around behind him as he stepped into the base of the shaft. With a deft swipe he cut the rapidly spinning cable. Metal screeching told him the elevator stopped ascending. With a malicious sneer he grabbed the hanging cables and pulled, feet digging into the cement as another metallic screech echoed down the elevator, alongside several snaps as the cables went slack. 

He started laughing, hearing the whistling as the elevator fell further and further. With a grin he stepped back out of the shaft and watched the large hulk of metal slam and crumple into the ground where he was standing. Dust flew, the ground the shook. Bits of blood splattered across his legs as he grinned and stepped into the crushed elevator, easily ripping apart the sheet metal and supports- exposing the shaft with no object to impede his army. 

"Go! FeASST!" His laughter was echoed by the whisper of scales as his minions silently started climbing the elevator shaft, eyes glinting in hunger.

 

>>> Upper Island Laboratories 

Natasha quirked an eyebrow at the sudden sirens. The guard she was following frowned and tapped his earpiece. ["Lower basement breached by what appears to be lizardmen. All free hands to the UW-1 Elevator."] The guard cursed. Whether due to his break being interrupted, or the combat being unwanted was unknown. Natasha's eyes glinted. 'At least it's not me being discovered. But, lizardmen? The Croc?' 

She silently followed the guard, debating in her mind. Coming to a decision she opened communications to Tony and Jasmine; "We have a situation," Her mask kept the sound of her voice from escaping and alerting the guard, "The Crocodile is attacking the island." 

["Now? Of all times?"] Tony cursed, ["What have you discovered so far?"] 

"Not as nearly as much as I would've liked. I've had to follow behind someone to open doors without detection. I've been to most of the 'upper' layer of the facilities. The labs are likely underground, but I have no idea how deep this place goes. I just arrived on the second floor following a guard going on break." 

Tony was silent, likely running his hand through his hair. Natasha continued following the guard who changed directions to go back to the elevator. "This guard needs to go deeper into the facility. Should I go overt and get information from him?" 

["Do it."] Jasmine's voice came through, a cold steel edge to it. ["Jasmine?"] ["She can't be passive anymore. Nat, see if you can find some way to send an fake SOS out. Specifically requesting assistance from the mainland."] 

Natasha smiled, "Smart. Will do. I know where their radio communications are. After that I'll start trying to find the scientists and Gwendolyn. I'm guessing you two will move after the SOS?" 

["I'll move some of the ME-I suits to position ahead of time. My response time will draw some questions, but it'll be fine."] Tony responded. 

"Then I'll see you two in a bit." The guard stepped into the elevator and turned around to punch in a floor, not able to react before Natasha placed a finger on his neck and activated Jasmine's paralysis enchantment, quickly putting in her own destination as she pulled the guard back and the doors closed. A shudder passed through the building and she curiously glanced downwards before returning her eyes to the guard whose eyes wildly looked about. "Now then," Natasha whispered in the guards ear as she placed her finger on the barest of his exposed skin, "I've got some questions for you..." a needle of truth serum was injected.