Deadpool Syndrome - Spider Soulmates

Chapter 16 - Everything I Ever Lost Now Has Been Returned

***GWEN***

I'm sure it's very well-known by now, but one of my biggest pet peeves is people feeling the need to protect me. Not that I can't appreciate it - and I do - but I wish people could trust me to protect myself.

By "people," I of course mean mostly the two most important men in my life. My dad, and Peter.

So when he pushes me ahead of him as we run from a metal-tentacled supervillain, I spare a moment to glare at him even as we keep running.

By the time we escape through the cyclone fence and get back onto the path, though, it seems that Doc Ock isn't interested in chasing us anymore. Maybe if Kraven were in his place, we'd have to keep running, but...

"He must've just wanted to scare us?" Peter asks.

"Gee, you think, Captain Obvious?" Pietro dusts himself off.

"Is everyone all right?" Sue asks, looking around. I join in a chorus of "Yeahs" and "Sures." "Good," Sue says. "Now what? We're not gonna try and go into that base again...are we?"

"Oh no," Bucky says. "Now that she's said it, that's what we're gonna do."

"Not necessarily," says Scott. "I can always just go in again. But not with the drone this time - I think I'll lead the charge with the ants."

The ground trembles under my feet again - but not in that earthquake way. Instead, it's in a Spider-sense way. I look down and hear something clinking in a nearby storm drain. A split second passes between the time I jump across the road and the time the grate over the drain pops out, unleashing one of Doc Ock's tentacles.

"Are you kidding me?" Peter groans. Right away, he and I start webbing the end of the tentacle. It works for a few seconds, until the tentacle pops open at the end, revealing a small, glowing red dot surrounded by three deadly, pincer-like appendages.

Pietro, however, has another idea. He approaches the tentacle, jumps up to grab it, then takes off running. He tugs it with him for about ten feet, but then stops short as the tentacle refuses to play out any more length. Cursing in Russian, he pulls harder and harder, but the tentacle refuses to budge. It's stretched taut between the drain and Pietro, like a piano wire on steroids.

"Stay where you are!" Wanda orders him. She raises her hand, allowing a long stream of red psychic energy to ripple into the air like an aurora. When it rises to a height of about ten feet, she brings her hand and arm down in a karate-chop motion, taking the light down with her and landing it right on top of the tentacle's shiny, silvery surface.

With a short scream, Pietro lets go of the tentacle's business end as the energy diffuses through it and shocks him. "What was that for?" he grumbles.

"I was trying to cut this thing in two," Wanda says, "but failing that, at least I've managed to short-circuit it!" She proves her point by poking the tentacle, which has now fallen to the ground, and is lying eerily still.

"For how long?" Sue asks.

"Don't ask me," Wanda says. "My telepathy only works on organic brains."

"Should we just keep running?" Peter asks, his hand on his ribs.

"And go where?" asks Steve. "We can't run forever!"

"Once again," Scott says, hurriedly stepping into his Ant-Man suit, "you forget who you've got with you! Auf Wiedersehen!" He presses the button on his glove as he's all suited up, then disappears from view, except for the tiny, speck-sized running man on the path at Pym's feet.

"Don't worry," Pym says as we all stare at the ground, trying to follow Scott's progress. "He knows what he's doing."

"Damn right, old man," Scott says. "Huh. The ants are actually running scared of this sea monster. Not for long, though." A patch of moving darkness rises out of the grass just on the other side of the fence, with the red parts of Scott's suit the only way to discern his presence. "Whoa! These babies are seriously spooked!"