55 A wrong turn

The van starts moving as soon as we get inside. To my surprise, the terrorist commander no longer looks tense; she even removes her helmet, revealing her face, and some of the fighters follow her example. "Quite an ordinary girl," I note. Meeting her on the street, in a crowd of passersby, I wouldn't even notice her. She's a good-looking girl, but not a match for Wanda, the only memorable thing about her was her height, about six and a half feet, but I'd seen that before.

Sitting across, she looks at me with her cold eyes, a typical blond, bluish hue, and a satisfied smile on her face.

"You may not believe me," she begins kindly, "but I'm glad we didn't have to resort to extreme measures."

Yes, she certainly thinks she's taken full control of the situation - relaxed as possible for someone of her profession and qualifications.

"You make it sound like it's over," I say.

I think we've gone far enough away from the school that we don't have to worry about the lives of the students. And if they're relying on explosives that could have been planted in the building... they still have to be able to activate them. And that's not easy when you're trapped in a cramped room with a monster and cobwebs all over you.

"Don't you get it yet?" She grinned. "Didn't you feel it?"

What does she mean... what am I supposed to feel?

"That..." the woman points to the collar one of her handmaidens is holding, "isn't the only way."

And then she looks around the walls of the car with a meaningful look. Did she...

"I see you get it," she grinned, "now be a good boy and take off your bling and put on your collar."

So the whole machine is one big suppressor. I didn't know that a mineral could affect a mutant without direct skin contact. It probably requires a really large amount of the substance, I haven't had a chance to find out with the amount I was able to extract from the samples Wanda extracted.

"You say my powers are blocked?" I kneaded my right hand demonstratively, clenching and unclenching my fist, causing the soldiers on either side of me to tense visibly, to move involuntarily to the side.

I don't feel any change from before, but if the formula isn't stopped, it should be at its peak, and I have half an hour of activity before I turn into a monster.

"I'll risk checking," I punch the woman sitting to my right.

The bib of her body armor sags under the impact with a pained groan. The female soldier herself slams into the wall of the van with a painful sob, leaving the imprint of her back in the metal and transmitting the momentum of the impact to the car. The van twitches perceptibly, tilting slightly on its right side, but it's not what I expected. I hit it as hard as I could - the impact should have broken through the wall, or overturned the car, but it didn't. I could see that the transformation was suspended. Probably wouldn't count on regeneration.

"The party continues!" I grin.

Seeing the determination on the faces of my opponents, I have some misgivings for my life-the fighters clearly had no intention of dying, and were going to make the most radical way to see if my regeneration still works. No matter how well-trained they were, there would always be someone who would put his life above the priority of the mission. In this case, they'll open fire to kill. I had to improvise.

Unable to think of anything better, I shoot the web. More precisely, it's not even a shot, I just unlock the triggers, spraying liquid in all directions at once. Unusually thick, tightly intertwined threads fill the empty space, restricting the soldiers' movements, as well as my own.

Someone still manages to fire a few shots, apparently the cobwebs didn't hit the bolt of the machine gun, but there's not much point in this action. The bullets do not hit me, only impotently pierce the wall of the van in dangerous proximity to my left hand, and the shooter herself only gets completely entangled, like a fly caught in a spider's web.

But it's too early to celebrate my victory-that at the peak of my strength I could get rid of the web, and now I can't do that. But I have a backup plan.

Carefully, trying to move so as not to shackle myself even more, I reach with my left hand to the hoop on my right shoulder, where in addition to the vials with the Lizard serum and antidote to it, there are several cartridges with different modifications of the web.

So, this is a cartridge with a fast-dissolving web - not that... invisible web - again, not that... oh, this is what I need - a capsule with a solvent, which I hurry to use, getting rid of the cobwebs that cling to me.

I'm not the only one trying to find freedom, but soldiers have nothing better than hand knives. Seeing their futile attempts, I only smirk maliciously-with the current strength of the web, it takes something better than regular steel to cut it.

Finally, I completely clear my hands and torso of the web - now I need to somehow knock out the driver, cut off from us by the partition and therefore avoiding binding, or to damage the walls of the car enough to get out.

But I do not have time to solve this problem. The knot of white threads in front of my face suddenly disintegrates, giving way to the onslaught of the dagger's low-beating blade, with a glowing edge. I recognize this technology! Now I can be sure that my captors are somehow connected to Shield, or, at the very least, have access to their secret designs. I'll tell Fury when I see him.

"You're such a problem," the commander hissed, pointing her gun at me.

I can't dodge it-if I start twitching, I'll only get tangled up in the nets, so I'm left with the unhappy choice of relying on my regeneration or surrendering to the mercy of my opponent.

"I give up, I give up," I say conciliatorily, in order to buy some time to find a way to get out of the situation.

"Too late," she spits out and pulls the trigger several times.

Three gentle pushes to the chest inform me of my mistake - I shouldn't have counted on any indulgence from this woman. Maybe she just doesn't realize that my regeneration isn't working and I could die.

A cold, unpleasant feeling crept up my chest... strange-it was nothing like the effect of a gunshot wound. I stare in astonishment at the sprawling frost stain on my clothes. Iceers...

Feeling my consciousness float away, I clutch the invisible web cartridge in my hand with the last of my strength and push it into the bullet hole in the wall of the van.