The Strangest Feeling | Earth-56: Pilot part 1

Stephen

"Have you considered that that suit isn't built for stealth?" Stephen hissed.

They had made it thirty feet down the corridor. According to Friday, there were 600 feet to go, and Stephen doubted they would make it another ten what with the racket Stark was making. The stern-looking mask whipped around to face him, blue eyes glowing in the semidarkness. "Well, I can't call on my sentient clothing or my magical necklace whenever I need a hand, so I'm not about to take it off."

A humanoid creature clad in armor, complete with a helmet that seemed to cover its eyes but not a mouth full of crooked, needle-like teeth, rounded the corner in front of them, hissed, and launched itself through the air. Halfway through its journey a thread of webbing clamped its jaws together, quickly followed by another that immobilized its arms and tail. Parker leapt easily over their heads, landing lightly on the wall, and hurriedly shot out several more threads that caught the creature before it hit the ground. After safely securing the webbing to the walls and ceiling, he jumped down again, landing soundlessly and leaving it suspended in the middle of the passageway.

"Nice work, kid," Stark whispered, and set off again, the sound of metal hitting metal with every footstep painfully loud. Stealth definitely wasn't his forte. Stephen tried to think of a spell to contain the noise in an effort to take his mind off of the likelihood that Stark was going to get them killed. Parker kept pace on the wall across from them, soundless as ever.

"Friday, how are we - "

The doorway directly across from them slid open with a pneumatic hiss, and another creature stood staring at them. At least, Stephen could only assume it would have stared if it had eyes. Stark hit it with a blast of energy that sent it flying in the opposite direction, and Stephen barely had time to conjure a portal to keep it from crashing into the wall.

"Watch it!" he snapped as the portal spit it back out several feet straight up into the air beside them. Parker swooped in and caught it with a few strands of web before it hit the floor. At least one of them was on top of things.

Stark turned to give him what was clearly an annoyed look even through the faceplate. "Why are we even walking when you could wave your hands and portal us there?"

"It doesn't work like that, genius. I have to be able to visualize where I'm going."

"I'm going to take the genius part as a compliment," Stark replied without missing a beat.

"Mr. Stark?" Parker interrupted, eyes trained on something up ahead. "I think that's it."

Stephen followed his gaze to where the passageway ended at a large doorway directly up ahead, and then glanced back at the kid perched on the wall, staying very still. Stark looked back at him too, noticing something was off.

"Trouble?"

"Yeah, I think so," Parker said, eyes narrowed slightly in concentration. "Spidey sense is going crazy."

Stark took a step toward the doors.

"Stark, wait -" Stephen started, right as he raised both hands and blasted a seven-foot hole through the door. He didn't even glance behind him to see whether Stephen or Parker were following before he stepped through the smoldering hole into the control room. Stephen swore under his breath and followed, taking care to avoid the molten metal. Parker was a few steps behind.

He could feel eyes on him the moment he entered - many eyes. There must have been at least twenty of the armored creatures, and standing at the center of the large, dimly-lit room ringed with equipment and control panels a figure that was instantly recognizable as one of the Black Order, a long, three-pronged spear in her hand.