Chapter 9

Coming Down

The holding cell came to a stop and outside of the room were several armed guards with automatic weapons.

"Remember I want these things alive." Dr. Pym instructed them

"Yes sir" Major Wesely Cain replied. He had done other high risk extractions. But even he had never did something as unusual as this.

"Okay, here are the keys that allow you to get inside." Pym said as he handed off a couple of key cards. "Just be careful."

"Yeah I know, don't want your precious specimens, harmed." Another guard remarked.

"No, I mean you."

"Oh"

A couple of guards laughed and then Cain took the keycards and walked up to the first door. He inserted one card and the door opened. Cain went inside into the small corridor as did the other guards making it very crowded.

The second keycard took longer to be accepted. After a few seconds the sound of locks decompressing was heard. Then the door slowly opened.

At the doorway were two faces. One red the other black. Th guards were taken aback at the creatures. This allowed both of them to make a move.

The red one jumped up and clung to the ceiling while the black one punched the head guard in face. The guard crashed to floor and the others started to panic. A couple even fired there guns which created deafening noise. As the black one continued to attack with a flurry of kicks and punches. The red one looked on and dropped ahead of the fray. She was face to face with Dr. Pym.

"Amazing" Pym remarked

"I know, sorry I've got to do this." She extended her pseudo podia from her right arm allowed to clamp onto Pym's legs and pulled then out from under him. He dropped to the floor and knocked unconscious.

She turned to look than he was having trouble fighting off a couple more guards. She ran back in and gave a swift kick in the head for one guard and using the pseudo podia to push the other into the wall.

It was only a few seconds but now Mary Jane Watson and Peter Parker had a chance to escape.

"Great stuff" Remarked Peter through his costume.

"Yeah, saw it on Alias"

"Good show."

Before they were going to go around a massive complex they had never been before. Peter and Mary Jane allowed their symbiotes to change into clothes. Now they were trying figure their way out of a government complex in t-shirts and cargo pants.

"At least if we get caught." Peter said to Mary Jane. "They won't think you're Carnage."

Mary Jane nodded

They continued looking for a map somewhere in the complex. Making sure they wouldn't trip off security cameras. Both of them moved quickly through the cavernous halls. They made sure not to be seen by the video cameras.

"How are we supposed to get out of here?" Mary Jane asked

"I figure they probably have one of those "You are here" signs." Peter said

When they turned one corner, sure enough bolted to the wall was a massive map of the complex including with a 'you are here' sign. It indicated that they were on the 23rd sub-level, D section.

"So now what do we do?" Mary Jane asked

Peter looked at the map and tried to think of a way out. He then found one. There was an exit on the 18th sub-level. All they had to do was take an elevator onto that level and then find an exit. Peter showed this to Mary Jane and she agreed

"Good plan. But how do you suppose we get out of here without attracting tough guys with guns."

Peter smiled. He pointed to a couple of uniforms that hung on the wall.

"Those aren't going to fit us." Mary Jane

Peter smiled. "We aren't going to even touch them."

"Oh"

They quickly changed their symbiotes into the forms of those uniforms that many people in the complex seem to wear. It consisted on an orange jumpsuit, heavy black boots and a white hard hat. As long as no one looked closely, it appeared that Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson were just part of the complex's workforce.

They moved carefully through the halls as too not attraction. They actually appeared to do well as no one noticed. They quickly made it to the elevator that would take them to the 18th sub-level.

When the elevator arrived, Mary Jane figured that the rest would be easy. It was until there standing in the car were two heavily armed guards. She tried to calm herself down as she followed Peter into the elevator car.

Peter pushed the button for sub-level 18 and settled in the back with Mary Jane behind the guards. But Mary Jane felt like she was about to panic.

She started to feel like the walls were closing in on her. Her heart was pounding and sweat showered out of her skin. She didn't even realize that the sleeve on her left arm had reverted back into its crimson red skin of the symbiote.

Peter saw this and went over to her carefully as too not attract attention from the guards.

"You've got to be calm." He whispered to her. "Otherwise it's going to come out."

Mary Jane nodded and did her best to calm down. She took deep breaths and tried to think of calming images. Luckily the symbiote began to change and it was back to its form of an orange sleeve.

After that close call, the elevator stopped at the 18th sub-level. When Peter and Mary Jane got off and the doors closed behind them. It appeared that their ordeal was over.

"We made it." Mary Jane said

"Shh, don't say that, you'll jinx it."

"Oh right."

They moved quietly down the halls and found an elevator that said it would bring them to the surface. It appeared that this was there way out.

"Let me do the honors." Mary Jane said, she went over and pushed the small round button. They could then hear the whirring of machinery and in less then twenty seconds. The doors opened revealing another elevator.

Before they went on, Peter grabbed Mary Jane's hand and squeezed it tightly. It may have been a simple elevator ride. But it was also a journey that had started on that night in the hospital. It appeared that it was now coming to an end.

They went into the elevator car and pressed the button that would bring them to the surface.

When the doors closed and the whirr of machinery came. Mary Jane turned to Peter.

"Guess it would be best to change our clothes."

He nodded and smiled.

She returned the gesture.

Both stood there and concentrated. Their symbiotes shifted and flinched they returned to their original states and then changed into normal school clothes. While Mary Jane was very curious as to what the symbiote could turn into. It wouldn't be wise that she look like a runway model coming out of an elevator.

The elevator bell dinged and there was a pause. Then the doors opened slowly revealing bright light. After their eyes had adjusted they couldn't believe where they were.

The elevator had brought them to the ground floor of a mall. Mary Jane was familiar with this mall for that it was about thirty miles outside of the city and was the most popular mall at the moment.

"Guess some of those scientists want to have Hot Dog on a Stick for lunch." Peter remarked.

"Or in case they need to buy something for the holidays." Mary Jane replied

The two of them walked away from the elevator and headed towards the exits. They didn't know how long they were down there and were sure that there aunts must've been worried to death.

As they neared one of the mall's exits. Mary Jane looked into the large video arcade and focused on the machine in the center of the room. It was one of several dance video games where the player stepped on corresponding tiles and moved to the music.

"I think I'd do very well at that and I haven't played that thing once." Mary Jane said excitedly

"Yeah it can be your own private Flashdance."

"'Cept I won't be wearing those leg warmers."

"Hey I heard those are coming back."

"Sure they are Tiger, sure they are."

Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson left the mall and went about trying to get back home. But from this point on they were forever to be linked by fate and choice. It would take time for Mary Jane to be accustomed to not truly being alone. But Peter was ready to face that and everything else that would come to them. After living lives that were filled with loss they knew that they were going to be together and were ready to face anyone who was going break them apart. They may play hosts to alien symbiotes but now they would face the unknown knowing that they would by each other's side.

The End