Spider-Man of Earth 65

Felix had been awake for a long, long while. After all, he was superhuman. He didn't need sleep. Pepper Potts did. The redhead was sleeping, her hair tousled and glowing in the soft light. She stirred as he moved, her lips curling into a lazy smile, clearly still basking in the haze of their shared intimacy.

She noticed Felix was already up and smiling. Legs crossed, in boxers, and charming as ever with his bed hair. 

"Good morning," she murmured, her voice husky from sleep.

Felix leaned over, brushing a kiss on her temple. "Morning."

She stretched languidly. "You're, haaah, are something else, you know that?"

"Likewise," Felix replied.

Pepper turned to him, propping herself up on an elbow. Her robe hung loosely around her. Felix smiled at her, the charm he'd used all night still lingering in his expression.

"Mmmm…" 

"Here, have some water." From the table, he gave her the glass and she lazily took it. Gulp, gulp, gulp. The water went down. "Mm, that was good. How'd you know I'd be thirsty when I woke up? Are you psychic?"

"No, just a guess."

He waited while Pepper stretched and yawned. "Gosh, I'm so tired. Is every night supposed to be like this?"

"Mhm."

"Mm." Her eyes closed, then opened. She looked drunk. 

Felix recrossed his legs, pretending to consider his words carefully. "I was just curious, Pepper. You know Anthony Stark, don't you?"

The sound that came from her lips was exponentially weaker. Drunker. "Mhmmm." 

"You don't still help him, do you? Like… if he needed something important hidden after the Oscorp attacks?"

Pepper's expression softened as she laughed lightly, brushing a strand of hair away from her face. "Tony? Tony hasn't needed my help in years. Haah…." Her pupils dimmed. "But you're right—back when everything was falling apart, he did ask me to take care of some things."

Felix tilted his head. "And did you?"

Her eyes glazed darker for a moment and she smiled wistfully. "I couldn't say no to him. After the Oscorp mess, he came to me, begging for a secure place for his work—his supercomputers, in particular. He was paranoid after the attacks."

Felix's face betrayed nothing. He leaned closer, his voice soft and coaxing. "Where?"

Pepper chuckled, as though remembering an inside joke. "There's an old research lab. It used to be Stark Industries' fallback facility, but it was decommissioned years ago. It's tucked away in the Santa Cruz Mountains in an old military base." She bubbled out a weak, mess of a laugh. "He thought no one would think to look there because it's so small and obscure. The access is buried beneath a vineyard of all things."

"Could you give me the coordinates?"

"Oh, sure. Suuure…" She sighed and uttered it out in a sigh. "Can't write it down because it's classified, hehe."

Felix kissed her on the cheek, brushing his hand gently along her jaw. "You're incredible, you know that?"

Pepper smiled sleepily. "Don't I know it."

With that, her head lolled and she fell asleep. What was that, you might ask? A special kind of pill that he slipped into the drink to coax the truth. Against stronger minds, it wouldn't have worked. But against a sleepy woman post-sex? It worked like a charm.

Felix slipped out of bed, dressing quickly. As he buttoned his shirt, he glanced back at Pepper, who was completely in dream mode. He walked to the bedside table, where the empty glass sat.

He pulled a different pill from his pocket and, without hesitation, dropped it into the glass. He refilled it with water and returned. The pill had dissolved instantly, leaving no trace.

The drug would fragment her memory of the morning. She'd remember the night, the passion, and the incredible connection they'd shared—but his face, his voice, and the details of their conversation would blur and fade like a dream. So if he ever wanted to actually conduct a deal with her, he still could. Just with her forgetting about all this.

Felix Faeth was a cautious man. Whether it was stopping ninjas or seducing a CEO, he planned for it. This had been no exception. This was what he had really wanted the whole time. 

Satisfied, he left the glass on the nightstand within her reach. "Sleep well, Pepper," he whispered before quietly exiting the suite.

Outside, the cool morning air greeted him as he stepped into the empty parking lot. He clicked the keys in his hand, and moments later, the Rustbucket roared to life, its engine humming as it pulled up to meet him.

Felix sat at the driver's seat while the door closed behind him with a soft thud. "Herbie," he said. "You heard Pepper Potts through the mic, right?"

"Coordinates confirmed. Beginning route."

The Rustbucket glided out of the parking lot. Felix leaned back in his seat, arms crossed. Soon, the city gave way to the rolling hills and dense forests of the mountains and Felix allowed himself a moment of quiet reflection. Pepper Potts had been more than he'd expected—intelligent, powerful, and breathtakingly beautiful.

He liked her. A partnership with her and Emma Frost would be amazing. He could do almost whatever he wanted in New York. Money would no longer matter.

He would be at the coordinates in an hour and a half.

******

South, south, south, he went. An hour and a half long drive as calculated.

Felix had ditched the city suit for something more practical: a black hoodie, dark jeans, and sturdy boots. The casual attire matched the setting, but his mind was anything but relaxed.

The vineyard was here. In the grassy green mountains of Santa Cruz, certainly removed. 

Felix was in the Rustbucket and peering right at the vineyard half a kilometer away. The roads in this mountain range were rough although drawn well enough to drive and navigate. There were plenty of vineyards here in Santa Cruz too. Stark wasn't alone here.

'Five in total. This one here is the sixth. However, very remote stuff. Smart of Pepper to chose this place.' 

Standing on the roof of the RV and looking through binoculars, he let out a low whistle. Rows upon rows of grapevines stretched across rolling hills. The place had an old-world charm, complete with a stone entrance marked with the name Cresthaven Vineyards in faded gold letters. The whole scene was picturesque, almost too perfect—exactly the kind of place that would make an ideal cover for something darker beneath the surface.

Pulling the Rustbucket off the main road, Felix or rather Herbie parked behind a cluster of trees. "Herbie, initiate stealth protocols," he said, leaning back in his seat.

"Stealth mode engaged," Herbie replied, the Rustbucket's exterior shifting slightly to blend in with its surroundings.

Felix opened a compartment under the dashboard, pulling out a small old tablet. It was an old college thing he used to draw stuff. Quite a bit of hours of spent on that when he first drew up Extremis. Anyway, with a few taps, he activated his Spider-Bots. Tiny mechanical legs unfolded from hidden compartments in the Rustbucket and the bots scurried out into the open like a swarm of metallic ants. All of them were paired with updated thrusters and a few combat features. 

"Alright, my little spiders," Felix murmured, eyes fixed on the tablet. "Let's see what we're working with here."

The Spider-Bots fanned out, their miniature cameras transmitting a live feed back to Felix. The tablet screen divided into grids, each displaying a different perspective as the bots navigated the vineyard.

The surface seemed straightforward enough—rows of grapevines, a rustic stone building that served as the winery, and a few smaller structures scattered around the property. Three of them total, Felix counted. There were people, too: workers tending to the vines, a couple of guards stationed near the main stone building, and a delivery truck idling by the loading dock.

The bots ventured closer to the stone building. Things got more interesting from there. One bot slipped through an open window on the second floor, crawling along the ceiling to avoid detection. The feed showed a small office with a desk piled with papers and an old-fashioned corkboard on the wall. Tacked to the board were maps and schedules—probably just vineyard logistics.

Another bot went from the first floor, slipping under the front door, and found its way to the kitchen. In the kitchen, the spider-bot darted under the stove and made its way under the refrigerator. 

Oh? The tiles under the fridge…

"Looks the same but it's definitely different material. Could be a coincidence but…"

The spider-bot scanned the fridge first. Yep, as suspected, it was highly advanced and designed to move. "Probably when inputted with a password." Since like every modern refrigerator, there was a display and everything. "It's local too. No internet connection, just the basics. That sucks."

The tiles too were intended to move. With the fridge still on top though, they would be impossible to move. Luckily, the combat features could kick in here. With a laser, the spider-bot created a tiny hole in the tiles and dropped through.

Night vision immediately activated and they went down a fleet of stairs.

"Shit."

Of course it wouldn't be that easy. At the end of the staircase was a heavy steel door with a keypad lock. A red LED blinked steadily above it. 

"Definitely not standard vineyard security."

He didn't bother trying with his lasers. This steel was identified as a special kind of military steel. The type that wouldn't melt under a tiny blue laser.

"Dammit, I can't hack it either. It requires a local card. Not connected to a server. Does thermal vision work? Nope. Some kind of radiation is stopping it."

If it was Detective Mode, he could probably have gotten a better view. However, for the Spider-Bots? A dead-end.

But not the others. Two bots were currently exploring the outskirts of the property. One bot discovered a camouflaged ventilation shaft hidden among a patch of overgrown shrubs. The second detected had dug deep until it touched steel. However, the steel was thinner here and it could detect faint heat signatures beneath the ground, suggesting a network of rooms or tunnels below the vineyard.

"Bingo. All Spider-Bots, go to the dirt. Investigate."

Pepper's mention of a former military base had been spot on. As the Spider-Bots probed further in the dirt, Felix began piecing together the layout of the underground facility. Using sonar mapping and heat sensors, the bots created a rough blueprint.

The main entrance was beneath the stone building and under a refrigerator. Under the movable tiles was a keypad-protected steel door.

With the help of the every single Spider-Bot working and sharing information, he got a good idea of what was through it: a long tunnel with various chambers. The bots identified at least three large rooms.

Room A: A massive space filled with rows of server racks. It would quite loud in emitting the distinct hum of active machinery. This, Felix, presumed, was where the bulk of Project JARVIS was located.

Room B: A storage area, its contents unclear but heavily guarded. Maybe old parts? Guns? Either way, it didn't seem to be the main access point to Jarvis.

Room C: A smaller chamber with strange, intermittent power surges—likely a testing or calibration lab. Put simply, where the main monitor of Project JARVIS was located.

Herbie further estimated the total property size to be 5,000 square feet. Maybe more if there were deeper levels.

After two and a half hours, Felix managed to get a peek into their security measures too. Cameras were strategically placed throughout the tunnels, though they seemed to rely on a rotating blind spot system. Heat sensors lined the walls, likely to detect intruders. Two patrols were visible underground.

"Probably hired mercenary from the east."

The spider-bots couldn't breach the steel doors or hack into the cameras themselves. One bot attempted to slip through the ventilation shaft but was halted by a laser grid just a few feet in. Felix noted that down—if he wanted to infiltrate, he'd need to find a way to disable those systems.

There was also the issue of battery life. The bots had about three total hours of operation before they'd need to return for recharging. Felix had already spent two and a half hours. He estimated it would take another three to fill them up in the RV. Felix glanced at the thirty minute timer and decided to pull them back before risking detection.

"Alright, little guys," he said, tapping the recall button. "Come on home."

He scouted the vineyard. The information was set.

"What to do, what to do…?"

If he had a moustache, he would be twirling it. Felix Faeth was in complete schemer mode. Thinking, thinking, thinking…

He wanted to do this without Spider-Man being caught—without Stark knowing. He wanted him to think he was a shadow. He wouldn't be able to complain to anyone about this either. There were no papers about this location on any Stark database. This was a raw, traditional way of hiding.

"Hm. I'll go in as Spider-Man. Turn invisible, walk around and put sleeping pills in the guards' cups. After that, I'll go to the kitchen. The fridge can't be hacked with Herbie since it's not connected to the internet, so I'll either have to guess the password or just pick it up and throw it."

Yeah, he wasn't throwing. He was more...sophisticated than that.

"Fingerprints. Detective Mode should be able to find them. I go down the stairs and face the steel door. It needs a card. Should I steal one from the one of the sleeping cards?"

Felix glanced at his Spider-Bots. They were almost outside the property. "Herbie, order them to stop and check on the guards. See if they have cards?"

They didn't need to go too deep. A simple x-ray vision and zoom-in sufficed.

"None of them have a card. Wait, don't tell me...?"

Well, shit.

"Stark. He's the one with the card. I get it. Room B, the room with heavy heat signatures...it's not because there's a lot of them, it's because they go there a lot to eat and sleep. He's making those mercenaries stay put. If the door is opening and someone is coming in, it HAS to be Stark. No one else."

He was going to have reconsider his plan of action...