This time she moved much faster, aiming her fingers at my throat, and all the technicality of her old style disappeared from her movements. "She's like a snake!" - it dawned on me. I knew Wilson was full of surprises, of course, but I hadn't expected this from her. I'd seen something like that once or twice before with Daredevil, and it was impressive. This attack, like a cobra, would probably have cost me a couple of weeks in a hospital bed if it had succeeded. But I, too, had given up games, and, despite Wilson's clear superiority in skill, had managed to intercept and stop the woman's arm.

"Wait," now that there were no witnesses and the cameras were down, I decided it was time to explain the situation to the girls, except...

Gwen didn't think to give me time to talk, and Wanda didn't stop at one punch. I beat back the second attack of the mercenary, but I missed a kick to the chest, with all the style and grace of a superheroine named Spiderwoman, and then a tentacle of a symbiote flew at me, forming something like a living hammer. It would have cost a normal human a few broken ribs!

I, however, am not an ordinary man, and I withstood these blows, and in order not to become a living projectile, spoiling the lining of the walls, and glued my feet to the floor.

Gwen and her companions looked at each other as she landed on her feet. The girls came at me from both sides without talking. And they did, I must say, in an orderly fashion. Bobby and Gwen were clearly getting used to each other from their superhero hobbies. So that's how the unfortunate ones who crossed their path during this time felt.

"Enough!" I threw back the tentacles that were trying to bind me, and I grabbed Gwen's arm to hold her back for a second.

Stacy tried to break free, but I held on tight. The girl's face changed, as if she'd had a hunch, and she looked back and forth between my face and our clenched hands.

"Calm down for a second! I'm trying to help you!" I let go of Gwen's wrist, and pointed my palms upward.

"Why should we believe you?" Bobby asked, licking her parched lips. Thankfully it was Barbara herself who did it, not her more familiar superhero role Venom, for some reason she was limited to tentacles and some arm amplification in this fight. Perhaps the symbiote is still too weak.

"You..." Gwen looked into my eyes as she rubbed her wrist, "I feel you' just like me..."

"What?" Bobby was taken aback.

"Do you have spider pants, too?" Wanda made a little contribution.

"Spider powers," Gwen went on, not paying attention to Wilson's joke, "he has spider powers, too... I get it..."

"Yeah, that's right," I smiled.

"I've felt something like this before... not exactly like this, but..." she was silent, and then carefully, as if afraid of her words, she asked, "Peter?"

"Yes, Gwen, it's me," I said that and deactivated my mask, revealing my real face to the girls, "I came here for you, but I was a little late, Wanda beat me to it."

"Fucking hell, what a twist!" As usual, Deadpool didn't hold back in her expressions. Heh, I missed that," and I thought I'd at least have to kick the author's ass to get you out of the shit you got yourself into.

"Peter?" Bobby asked, looking at me with genuine interest, as if she'd never seen me before in her life,  "You seem to have grown a few inches taller..."

"You just imagined it," I grinned a little nervously. I have brought some things back to the way they used to be, but the height, the build, and the appearance are not concerned.

"But how? We tried to find you, but it was all wrong," said Gwen, still speechless. "How did you escape? And how did you find us? And where did you get your spider powers?"

"It's a hell of a long story, I'll tell you all about it, but right now it's more important to get you out of here! S.H.I.E.L.D. will be here any second. In case you haven't forgotten, we're still at their base."

"Yes, yes, we were just about to..." Gwen took a step in the direction of their former escape route.

"No," I snapped at her, "that path is closed to you, it's all blocked up. Obviously, that's what they want you to do, isn't it? You can't go back the way you came in."

"But we don't know any other way," Bobby protested, "and neither does Wanda, she came in through that door."

"I know. Come on, let's go."

Fortunately, there were several other exits from the base. Such a huge and ramified project as this base was, it was impossible not to have them. It is a necessity that cannot be eradicated by any means, no matter how much effort one puts into creating a regime of strict secrecy. Of course, the creators of the base did everything to ensure security: all the obvious exits, like food supply routes, freight elevators and hangars were carefully checked, and the secret ones, like the one I am going to use, were not known to anyone but the highest officials.

But it's hard to keep something from a mole who has almost the highest level of clearance, or from someone who can playfully penetrate your network and at once cover every drawing and plan of a building, every nook and cranny of it. I... that's what I was, I found a few of them when I was looking for traces of Bobby and Gwen. That bitch Daisy gave me a big scare by showing that clip, even on the verge of total oblivion, I made time for my dear friends... who found themselves in this situation through my fault...

"So you're saying we're going to be in the VIP area of some bar," Bobby asked doubtfully, looking at the disguised exit.

"Yeah, this table and couch do look like they were pulled out of a dump like Lasky's." *

"Once you get to the surface, keep your head down, I need time to make arrangements with Fury for you."

"Arrange with Fury?" Wanda asked, incredulously, "Do you have any idea who she is? If you think you can talk her to death... I'll disappoint you, even I couldn't do that. And I'm good at it, you know."

"I have something to offer her that will make her forget about you."

"You'd really do that? Maybe run away with us? Who knows how things will turn out?" Gwen asked with genuine concern.

"I have everything under control, believe me. Wait for me at Wanda's house, I'll be back very soon."

Finally we were done talking and saying goodbye, and I sent the girls, strapped into a high-speed elevator disguised as a regular bar couch, upstairs.

And now Fury. After checking my clothes and making sure my nanomask was working properly, I headed back up. The base was still standing on its ears. Needless to say, it was only my pass and the looks of Phil Colson that got us safely to this place without getting into any more fights.

On the way, I bumped into my former escorts. The girls were receiving first aid. Nothing serious, just a couple of fractures and minor concussions. The Shield medics, if necessary, would have them back on their feet in a couple of days, though it was more likely that regular peacetime agents would simply be put on unscheduled leave. Though in light of what Fury will learn today, peacetime for the Shield has come to an end.

Note:

* We know this character by the nickname Ferret.