Marvel: A Tale of Shadows

A few days passed in a blink of an eye. Now as the night was in full swing, Ethan stood on a roof several blocks away from the warehouse. He looked at the warehouse through some infrared binoculars as well as some buildings nearby.

"Two separate groups are watching the facility. I assume these are Shield and Hydra." Ethan said over his comlink.

"Well then, I guess we have to use your backup plan. Which I don't get why you wouldn't go with it from the start." Felicia said over the other end. He could hear the sound of sizzling as she cooked.

"What are you making?" He asked.

"Don't change the subject. And unsuccessfully making bacon."

"Well then-" He stopped mid sentence as he spotted something, "oh? Looks like someone else is scouting the facility. Hmm… unless… we want to go tonight." He suddenly declared. "Stop torturing the bacon and bring our bags we are going in tonight."

There was a flurry of movement over the comlink, "okay on my way. I was getting a bit bored anyway."

An hour later Ethan was opening a grate leading into the sewer.

"I now understand your hesitation to use this method. Thank goodness we aren't training tomorrow, I would reek." Felicia stated.

"Come on. We will blame those knuckleheads. But for now we are going to steal everything out from under their noses." Ethan explained as he entered the sewer, with a grin.

Once inside they walked for around 30 minutes before Ethan glanced at a map he had in his hands and stopped. He then looked around the wall before he pushed one of the bricks and then two other bricks as well.

When he was done there was a creak before a large section of the wall opened up. Ethan walked inside and Felicia quickly followed behind.

They walked into a large chamber. Looking around they only found two boxes of files that were tucked between a desk and a wall, "I think this is the only thing that got left behind. Should we just take the boxes?" Felicia asked.

"No, we will take the boxes but leave a message for whoever else is coming. Here, take my bags and put in the files. I will set up the message using these leftovers." He waved around the room at the various items. "Nothing lethal."

An hour passed and they left out of the door they came in. When they arrived back at the apartment they showered for a few long hours.

When they lay down in bed they each grabbed a file to read.

"All of the files are part of a Project Chimera X." She opened the file and instantly frowned. "Hmm… if I didn't hate hydra before I certainly hate them now."

As Ethan looked over his file he could readily agree, "I have a study on a psychic mutant and how their telepathic ability works. How about you?"

"I have a study that explains a mutant's ability to see in the dark. Looks like there are even theoretical formulas to replicate it." Felicia explained disdainfully.

Ethan nodded and continued looking over the file. It was disgusting the kind of studies they did. But it appears they discovered there is a section of the brain that the telepaths access for information. If it is blocked then telepaths can't access a mind. Even if their research was done in a terrible way they could still use it.

"I think I can make a telepath blocking device with this data." Ethan then continued, "I would honestly be amazed if it were not for the fact that these tests were completely inhumane. I also suspect they had a top notch scientist doing the research. See if you can find a name."

Felicia shook her head as she frowned, "nope I only have code names. How about you?"

"Hmm… the same. But it looks like the main backer of these projects was someone by the name of Black King; there are also mentions of a Hellfire Club." Ethan explained while he frowned. Apparently this Black King referenced the comparison of these powers to an associate of his, a young White Queen. As well as mentioning Charles Xavier by name. "Seems like this guy was a mutant himself who worked with other mutants."

"You are right. I also have him referencing specific chess pieces. Which I guess are associates of his. How was he able to smoothly operate out of Hydra?"

"That is a good question. But considering it was a defunct facility that was not properly emptied would explain it."

"What do you mean?" Felicia set down her file white turning off the light.

"More than likely there was a falling out between the groups. Which resulted in them becoming hostile. So likely all the scientists were either incorporated into the winning group or died." Ethan set his file to the side as he got prepared to sleep. "But the winning group did not have enough manpower or training to properly clear the facility in the post-war excursions. Which resulted in some important files being left behind."

"Hmm… lucky for us…"

—-------------------------------------------

Meanwhile at a high-end hotel.

"So we use the map of the city, a bark of a local tree, a drop of local water, even if it is disgusting, and this pendulum." The fair woman held the pendulum over the map and then started chanting. After a second of chanting the pendulum started moving and swung to two different parts of New York. One of the places was the residential area in Queens. While the other was just off of the Empire State Campus. They then blew the bark dust onto the map.

"What was that?" Loki asked. He had never seen those spells before.

"The first was a location finding for the person I have in mind, the second was a tracking spell so I will be able to track them down in the morning." Frigga explained as she stood up.

"Morning? Why don't we go now?"

"Because it is the middle of the night. It would be rude to show up now when they are trying to rest. Especially since we are trying to ask for a favor." Frigga started walking towards her room. "I am going to watch some of those T.V. shows you were showing me earlier. That one about cooking really seemed interesting."

Loki opened a newspaper as he sat down on the couch. There were several news stories; the front page story was about an infamous Rhino and its unstoppable rampage. Midgard has been strange recently, they started having strangely dressed people and people with more abilities appearing. He shook his head as he set the paper to the side and closed his eyes to take a quick nap.

—--------------------------------------------------

Early morning at Turnover & Hilt.

Ethan and Felicia were sitting at a table finishing up their meal when the building suddenly shook. They looked up at each other then around the room as they saw that several other customers were also mystified. Until the building shook again, but this time a man in a security guard uniform ran in.

"I apologize we are going to have to ask all employees and guests to evacuate out of the building. We will be utilizing the exit into the alley way. We apologize for the inconvenience." He then proceeded to talk quietly to Ethan's aunt for a moment. Ethan and Felicia exchanged a quick look.

"Help with the evacuation?" Felicia asked. Ethan nodded. They stood up and started assisting the employees with the evacuation. As they did so they noticed that all of the other floors were evacuating out as well. It was fortunately done quickly as they were making their way out they caught sight of a man twice the size of a normal person with three times the thickness. The man was dressed in a metallic rhino outfit.

While at the same time a person dressed in blue sweatpants, a blue and red sweatshirt, and a red balaclava with blue swim goggles was jumping around the room. Sometimes he would jump from surface to surface, even sticking to walls. Sometimes he shot some white semi-fluid out of his wrist, using it to fling himself around the room. All while flinging quips around. As they were the last ones out they firmly closed the security door.

Once outside they moved along the alleyway until they ran into Ethan's aunt who was waiting for them. "Are you kids okay?"

Before they got a chance to answer, the front entrance which was near them burst open as the bulky person from before ran into the blockade of police cars that had formed. The rhino man was moving erratically as his hands grabbed at some of the white gloop that was covering his face.

The wallcrawler leaped out of the hole the rhino man made. Ethan could hear several disgruntled people in the crowd, including a more noticeable man with salt and pepper hair and a thick handlebar mustache. "Why the hell did they have to do this now and where I am eating breakfast of all places?!?" The man yelled. "That damn wallcrawler with those annoying quips must be the reason for this."

The police meanwhile were scrambling trying to figure out what to do. Their bullets were bouncing off of the rhino man and he was clearly too strong to be taken down physically. Ethan looked down the street and realized that their brawl had not started here.

Ethan looked at his aunt and voiced his opinion, "I suggest you have your employees go home for the day. I think their fight is far from over. That kid has no clue how to take down the rhino man."

His aunt nodded before she turned around and waved her employees over to tell them to go home for the day. Ethan turned to Felicia who was standing next to him, "what should we do now?"

Felicia shrugged, "clothes shopping." Ethan flinched. "I need a more formal outfit for my interview. Besides, it isn't like you have anything better to do." Ethan sighed as he followed Felicia away from a brawl between two superpowered individuals.

Which would also be one of the first of many occasions where New Yorkers would be exposed to a superpowered brawl. As well as the first public appearance of the Spectacular Spider-Man. As well as the first time Spider-Man would run afoul of one J. Jonah Jameson.

—-----------------------------------

While Spider-Man and Rhino brawled it out in the street.

A curious pair watched from down the street. A man and a woman, with the woman being clearly older than the young man. They were both dressed in a suit and dress respectively. The woman wore a pair of sunglasses and a hat. As well as a gray fur coat, she looked like she was straight out of the seventies. The young man wore a black suit with a green tie and green outer coat.

The woman pointed at Spider-Man, "well that is one of them but I think he is a bit busy. Not to mention high profile. So we will have to go with the other one." The woman then pointed at a young man and woman as they separated out of the looky loos, "so I suppose we should go with the other one."

"They were in the same place?" Loki asked, confused.

"Yes, I suggest not thinking about it too hard. Things like coincidence tend to happen a bit too often when the Weaver and her apostles are involved." Frigga followed quickly after the pair, wondering how should introduce herself to this apostle.