Chapter 30: Decisions and Whiplash!
School has started once again today. The fight between lizard and spider's really did a number to the building. Felecia was still a bit traumatized, Wanda had recovered a lot, but still shows some signs. I really wanted to take Felicia as well, but we still weren't that close for me to tell her I own a planet. The Frankenstein's have completely been ruined, but I was having problems with actually the buyer's of the people they sell it to. They seemed to have not existed about 20 years ago, and suddenly appeared. The whole thing rings danger bells.
Banner has transformed into Hulk and escaped, with Ross on his tail. I have been thinking about what to do with Stern and Blonsky, should I let them go since they both get psychological effects from their powers and haven't done anything wrong yet, or should I kill them saying 'It's for the greater good.' Wouldn't that make me a hypocrite? Punishing Charles for his tampering, only to think of doing myself?
Aleksei has some how broke out of jail. The most common speculation is the one who hired him did it, but I know Norman had abandoned him, so it's someone else. Probably Fisk, but I am still looking for his location, so it will take time to confirm. He needs a lot of manpower and equipment to stop Defenders, so those are the best leads.
Hammer's presentation is in two days, so I have to prepare for that as well. I am planning to just take the Spider's there. Barbra went back to shield and our old history teacher returned. Well, Fury finally did something sensible. Tony has created the new element, and is fitting into all his suits. Guess he will have Iron Legion ready tomorrow, which is good. Oracle's currently recreating Badassium and adding it to Null-void mines. I have made plans to enter the savage lands and get the Anti-metal. That would be super helpful. And I have no danger from Sauron either.
The semester is about to end, and the exams will start, so I hope I can deal with Fisk before that, or MJ is probably gonna be mad about it.
*1 day later*
And, here we are at the Stark expo. Honestly, Hammer drones suck. To make sure the drones are light-weight for flight, they made too fragile. The coding is pretty good, I'll give Vanko that.
"You sure something's gonna happen?" Spidey asked.
"Yeah man, we could be down there." Miles said looking at the crowd, willing to join.
"Positive, the guy has all the drones on his command, plus they are fully loaded with weapons. If we don't stop them as soon as it starts, we could have many causalities." I said.
"Why in their right minds do they have weapons in them for a presentation.?" MJ asked, both confused and angered by their stupidity.
"Bet it's that genius Hammer's idea." Gwen said, in a tired voice. Yeah, he really make stupid decisions.
I had a clone of my down there with Pepper, to get her out of there. No need to take risks. And, here comes Tony's call.
T-"Alex, you at the expo?"
A-"Yup."
T-"Get Pepper out of there, Vanko's got all drones under him and will launch an attack."
A-"OK. Got it."
I said and cut the call. Then through my clone I said.
"Pepper we need to get out of here." Both her and Natasha looked at me surprised.
"Alex, I need to be here, I-" Before she could talk further, I cut her off.
"Tony just called and told me Vanko is alive and called him. He's gonna use the drones to attack everyone and Tony, so we need to get out now." I told her and the looked at Natasha. She understood why I looked at her and immediately called Fury.
"What? We need to get everyone out!" She said.
"Leave that to shield. We need to move now." I said and we started moving out. We entered the building, just as Tony landed in front of Hammer. All the suits aimed and Tony and he flew away. The flying one's followed with War machine while Terrestrial ones tried to shoot at first, but gave up and started to aim at people.
Before they could fire, me and Spider's leaped in and attacked. Their Venom blasts and Taser webs easily shut them down. Same with my Taser blasts. I had secretly inserted a code in Rhodes suit with technopathy back at Tony's home, so I just said one word "Oracle"
"War suit has reset to basic. All system's back to manual mode" she said.
In the skies, Rhodes suit interface changed and the suit, and it went back to his control.
"Tony I got my controls back" Rhodes said.
"About time, but how?" Tony asked. I took over their broadcast so only me, Tony, Rhodes, Oracle and Jarvis are in it.
"That would be me!" I said, while destroying the robot's below. Damn, he made too many.
"Enigma?" Rhodes said.
"Alex? Where's Pepper?" Tony said.
"DAMN IT TONY. DON'T OUT ME. I HAVE A SECRET IDENTITY DAMMIT" I yelled becoming pissed. Below, I took out wolf claws and started slashing in anger, much to the Spider's confusion why I suddenly became aggressive.
"Uh sorry?" he said avoiding missiles.
"Wait, Alex's Enigma?" Rhodes asked.
"...SEE WHAT YOU DID?" I started yelling again at Tony. " We are having a long talk after this you Robo-cop." I said.
"Don't call me that." He argued.
"I'll stop calling you that when you stop making stupid decisions!" I said making him shut up. I then showed up on Rhodes interface and said, "Please keep it a secret Rhodes".
He looked serious and said, "Don't worry. I'm not like Tony"
"Hey" Tony tried to say something but we ignored it.
Pepper had went to Hammer with Natasha and my clone, where she got Vanko's information and went away with Happy. While me and Pepper went to my car and headed out. Though a Dodge Challenger really attracts attention.
We destroyed all robot's while Shield and police force finally moved in. They started surrounding the area when I suddenly yelled, "Get out of here, all of these are bombs as well" and started running, and the Spider's followed. The police and agent's got alarmed and took a big distance as well.
Captain Stacy moved towards me and asked, "You sure these will explode?"
"Yes, we need to find the trigger and secure it. Probably Hammer or someone under him has it." I said, and he sent officers to look.
Suddenly Tony called "Al- uh, I mean Enigma, we need help at Queen's Botanical garden. You free?"
"Keep hanging in there, I'll come as soon as possible." I said and gestured the Spider's to follow. Other's were curious, but suddenly a helicopter like vehicle decloaked scaring them out. It was my version of The Bat, from the Dark Night Returns. I and Miles got in, while the other three stuck to the side and we flew away, leaving their jaws hanging.
We arrived on time to see Rhodes Ex-wife smoking on the ground.
"Hammer?" Tony asked him, while I locked my mini-missiles and fired, blasting Vanko away, leaving the two stunned. They turned around to see who fired, and saw the five of us jump form the Bat and land down.
"Don't worry Rhodes, I got your back." I told him with a thumbs-up, making him more embarrassed, while Tony laughed. Vanko suddenly came out and swung his whips at us, but Spidey and Arc got Tony and Rhodes, while we three jumped back.
"Stop interrupting me" he yelled.
"It's seven on one, you really wanna continue?" Tony asked, but Whiplash was lost in anger and started swinging around. We couldn't really get close, but the Spider's web grenades were enough to lock him, and Tony and Rhodes, followed up with the repulsor blast as they did in the movie, right on Vanko's face, destroying the armor.
"That's a cool finishing move" Spidey quipped in seeing it.
Ivan was barely awake and suddenly started laughing and the reactors around us started blinking red. We all quickly escaped and flew out of there, leaving an explosion in our wake.
After that, Tony and Rhodes went back, while I cloaked the Bat and dropped the spider's home, and went to my clone's place. I saw Tony and Pepper kissing with Rhodes looking away. I got the feeling of putting a sound blocking barrier, and my feeling was right. When Tony saw me, he said.
"Thanks a lot to help me taking out Vanko, and the drones. There would have been too many casualties."
"Wait, what help? Wasn't he all the time with me?" Pepper said confused. Rhodes facepalmed at his friend, while I stared at Tony with eyes shining and the color of Tony's face drained completely. 'I fuc*ed up' he thought.
*Next Day*
I gave a 2 hour long lecture to Tony about secret identities. At least he heard carefully. The senate finally agreed Iron Man technology was dangerous in wrong hands and backed down. It was also Fury's last ditch effort to get Tony. He didn't agree completely, but right now agreed for a consultant position in Shield. Fury needed that damn Anti-gravity engine for his Heli carrier. Though it wasn't perfectly made to fly something of that size, hence the turbines are needed as well.
Right now, I am watching the news,"... As of last night, the terrorist Ivan Vanko, which we now know as Whiplash, with collaboration with Justin Hammer, lured Iron man to the Stark expo and attacked him, endangering civilians in the process. But with the help of War Machine, and New York's vigilantes Enigma, and The Spiders, Iron Man managed to take Whiplash out with no major casualties. In a last effort, Whiplash tried to blow all the drones by self-destruct, but thanks to Enigma's early warning, most kept a distance from them, minimizing the damage..."
Hearing the news, I was glad there were no major casualties, or it would have been bad. Pepper agreed to keep me being Enigma a secret, but asked if the F4 knew. Huh, now I really wonder how they would react. Since today happens to be Sunday, I went to pay a visit.
Reaching the top floor of Baxter building, I heard Johnny and Ben arguing again. They really can do this all day. Seeing me enter, they stopped arguing though, "Alex? Hey, how you doin?" Johnny asked.
"Did you go to the Stark expo as well?" Ben asked a bit concerned.
"Yeah I did, but Tony gave a heads up, so I took Pepper and got out before the whole mayhem started." I said, to which Ben nodded.
"Damn, Tony should have called, I would have loved to help." Johnny said.
"He apparently did call you, but you were in such a deep sleep, you didn't pick up." Reed said as he came out of his room.
Sue immediately beelined and hugged me, then asked, "You're not hurt right?"
"Nope, got out before things even started" I said with a smile.
After that we had a long talk. After yesterday's blunder, Tony had taken all of the F4's numbers because Johnny's definitely wasn't enough. We talked about Reed's recent projects. I actually talked about Fury's intrusion in my house, which actually had Reed and Sue a bit scared about if Fury would do something back, while Johnny was laughing at his experience.
We talked till evening after which I left home, but was interrupted by Oracle. "Alex, you should see this." She said and pulled up a footage. It was from the airport. I looked closely and saw someone I didn't expect. Kraven, with one other person, who was worrying. Anthony Masters, aka Taskmaster. "Keep an eye on them by any means necessary" I said, and also sent one of my shadow clones searching for Fisk after them. Kraven had a magical side to his powers, so I completely concealed him. This was not a good sign. I accelerated towards home to figure out what's gonna happen in this city.
*Stay tuned for more...
I would appreciate if you guys tell me what I should do for Stern's and Blonsky. It would be appreciated. Thanks for reading!*
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone