POV Rio
"I want to get back into the fight," Steve Rogers requested.
"Are you sure? You've barely gotten back, don't you want to spend more time with your love?" I ask.
"I do, but I can't rest knowing Hydra is still out there causing harm. It was my duty to end Hydra, and since they're still around, I've got to get back into the fight," Steve replies firmly.
"He's not the only one that want's to fight," Carter adds.
"Okay, if you want to fight, then you can fight, but we're gonna need more people, and preferably more power," I reply.
"Who will you bring in?" Steve asks.
"I've got a few candidates in mind. Why don't you take a look at them?" I say while pulling up some files on my handheld computer.
The files were of various people of power I found so far. Some would join the Guardians of the Globe, which was what I was thinking of calling the super team I was thinking of making. Others were the X-Men, who would likely remain independent unless they chose to merge with our group. Then there were the few that didn't fully fit with the team idea or were not combatants, such as the science team I had built.
Ding
I get a notification for a tracker I had set up for various situations, and it seems one related to New York just happened.
'Oh? So Spider-Man has begun his journey.'
The acquisition of Oscorp was being finalised, and in that time, a certain group from Midtown High went on a field trip to Oscorp, and now Peter Parker had to leave early due to feeling ill.
'Now I just have to make sure his Uncle doesn't die. Peter will have bad enough luck, no need to make his life even worse.'
As I was thinking about this, a second alert brought something else to my attention.
"Excuse me for a moment," I say before leaving Rogers and Carter to head to the main computer to check some things.
The first thing I pulled up was the report from Norman about a second spider going missing.
'That can't be good.'
I pull out my compass and use it, but the results make me a bit more worried. The compass spins randomly, indicating the spider no longer lives. When I focus on the second spider, but this time I search for a dead one, I get a result.
'Well, let's go see where this leads.'
I teleport back to Earth and start looking around New York under a disguise. It takes a bit, but I eventually find where the spider is.
'Well... I'm not sure how to feel about this.'
The compass led me to the residence of Gwen Stacy. To make sure I wasn't accidentally getting a false positive, I searched for the first spider and found it was dead in Oscorp. I took it for the time being and went to go find the spider in the Stacy home. Getting in and out undetected was easy. Finding the spider in the cluttered room of Gwen was not so easy, and it was also a bit uncomfortable, but letting the Batman side of my mind take over made it okay.
Once I found the dead spider, I teleported back to the Watchtower and took the spiders to the lab, where I started to inspect them.
"Hmm, they both emptied their venom glands. How would anyone even survive such a large dose? Must be plot armour," I mumble to myself.
The results made me a bit worried. But as long as I kept observing Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy, I should be able to detect if they develop powers, and if they die, then that will be a real shame, but I had nothing to do with it.
I created some alerts and then left them at that, as I didn't care too much. I would likely recruit both of them even if they didn't have any powers, as they are very intelligent. Now, if they gained powers, then I might consider adding them to the Guardians of the Globe.
After dealing with that, I refocused on checking on a few important people I had been observing. Similar to Batman, I kept tabs on people of interest across the globe. The first was the odd choice of Von Doom Industries, which chose to go ahead with the space shuttle launch. Now, while I could understand a part of the reasoning, as they had bought all the needed supplies quite a while ago, and rocket fuel was hard to convert to more normal fuels, it would still cost them quite a lot of money when they could just sell the fuel and make a killing. But after looking a bit further, I finally understood why the mission was going ahead. NASA and various other space agencies would be sending up material into orbit during the launch. So both sides would save money on the trip. It likely helped that many rich people had a vested interest in the mission being a success, and it being a decent distraction from the state of the world.
Speaking of which, the world was doing a lot better. Sure, the economies of the world were still burning, but some countries were doing better than others. Moreover, energy is no longer an issue for a lot of people. North America, Europe, Japan, Korea, Parts of China, Parts of Russia, and Mongolia have all gotten access to either Stark or Wayne energy. South America and most of Asia were a bit harder to expand into due to instability in the region, but eventually, they would get power.
Organised Crime is down across much of the world, though that's because the High Table is a mess right now, and they have been gathering their forces to fight against a fake enemy. For instance, I had been keeping an eye on the Triad, which had gathered a massive force to combat Reznov. And when I say large, I mean really large for a criminal organisation. It was nearing 30k people, but they would soon learn that is a terrible mistake. Though that was mostly my fault, as I had sent them a letter telling them I was coming for them next, alongside the head of one of the Triad heads, who ran away.
A Few Days Later...
I finished the last preparations for what was about to happen to everyone inside the massive compound in a few minutes. The Triads had gathered allies from all over Asia and even other places, and while I could wait for longer, I had threatened them for long enough; it was time to deliver a crushing blow.
The first step was the activation of a massive magical barrier. I was dipping into some dangerous territory with this spell, as it was pretty close to dark magic. The reason was that it was fueled by souls or soul energy. I borrowed Ghost Riders' abilities for a few hours again and gathered the needed soul power to fuel this barrier long enough for the people inside to start dying, thus fueling the barrier even more. I did all this extra work to keep two particular threats under control. Two fingers of the Hand were present, and with their power being so above human, I had to be extra careful, as the stuff I was about to use on them was something I didn't dare risk spreading across the city.
"Well, as they always say, Bomb Voyage!" I say and drop the weapon while activating several hidden gas traps.
At first, there was silence with the faint hiss of the gas being released, that was until people noticed the massive yellow gas cloud falling from the sky and into their little base. There was confusion for a bit as they didn't understand what was happening, then the cloud reached them, and they started coughing violently. Skin exposed to the gas started to necrotise, and the victims started profusely vomiting and screaming in agony for those who could still breathe. Everyone started running, or at least those who had the chance to realise what was happening. Several put on gas masks, but that would only make their death far more painful.
Even if you don't breathe in the gas, it will corrode and rot your skin until it enters your bloodstream, where it will start tearing your body apart from the inside. The death would be pure agony as you rotted from the inside and your organs started to corrode. If you're lucky, you will choke on your own vomit and die. That was why the luckiest would be those either not present for this attack or those who died within seconds of breathing in the gas.
Bing
A few people make it to the barrier and start screaming in horror as they bang against the invisible barrier as the cloud gets closer. Some who saw what the gas does decide to take the quickest way out and kill themselves. Some reach the underground barriers and realise something similar, as the barrier creates a 3-dimensional cube that prevents escape. Some try to break out with weapons, but that doesn't even strain the barrier a bit.
That was until the two main targets sped towards the barrier. They were protecting themselves from the gas using their Chi, but that wouldn't save them forever, so they struck the barrier. When that didn't work, they chose to keep attacking this time with far more power. Unfortunately for them, the barrier had absorbed enough energy to be nigh indestructible. Any damage they did would be replenished by the constantly dying people in the barrier.
The two Fingers didn't stop attacking even as their limbs started to crack and bleed. Their bones broke, and the gas started to affect them, but even with them broken and bleeding, they kept attacking the barrier. But despite all that power, it wasn't enough, and they fell to the gas.
'Impressive perseverance. I wouldn't want to fight them head-on.'
I could have likely managed to kill them if they had attacked at the same time, but it would have been tricky. I did wonder if they were so desperate to escape due to their understanding of how deadly the barrier is.
'Or maybe they didn't trust I would leave a body behind for the other Hand leaders to retrieve.'
They would be correct on all accounts, as not only was this barrier likely capable of preventing them from resurrecting properly, if at all, but I also wouldn't leave any corpses behind to be resurrected.
I wait for an hour for the gas to dissipate before I enter the barrier.
"Nova 7 is a success," I comment as I start storing bodies and recording data.
Nova 7 was my improvement of the Nova 6 gas. I didn't want to risk the gas getting into the wrong hands due to how deadly it was, so I modified the original recipe with magic to cause the gas to transmute into ordinary water after one hour of exposure to the atmosphere.
I spent the next three hours cleaning up everything and making sure that every last drop of Nova 7 had successfully converted. I also killed the three survivors who were hiding in a safe room that was closed off from the outside. I also made sure to take anything of value, which was primarily a lot of guns and some gold, and even somewhat amusingly, a few barrels of oil.
"Well, that should cripple the High Table for the foreseeable future," I comment as I finish my work.
When I left, the entire compound was dead silent. I returned the power I borrowed from Ghost Rider and then moved on to seizing any asset the Triad had that was useful to me. There wasn't much beyond money, as most of their assets were guarded at that compound. Partially, they did that to keep it where it was safest, and the other was to add tracking devices to the loot to try to track me. Unfortunately for them, none of that worked out for them. Only after I got what I wanted did I retire for the night, or I guess morning at this point.