#fubarfriday5

Registration for classes had finally opened up. As it stood, Peter’s GPA was JUST high enough that he qualified for early registration, but it was only just. He’d brought his list of classes to his advisor, and with her help, he’d been able to sort out a schedule that didn’t seem too terrible for the next semester. He was still going to be working at Stark Industries part time, but his responsibilities were increasing there, too, and he needed to plan his time wisely now more than ever.

He’d just started walking out of the building when his spider-sense started going off. The spider-sense hadn’t failed him yet, and so Peter followed his gut, and his gut said to find a professor he knew was cool and be there. On this campus? That meant Dr. Foster.

Peter almost sprinted across campus, and then up the stairs towards where the department map online said her office was. He was slightly out of breath when he reached the floor he needed, and had to take a moment to collect himself before he entered the area her office was said to be in.

Grant could not determine if Lazarus was a goddamn idiot or a goddamn genius. All he knew was that the news continued to blare warning after warning ( the walking dead, they called them -- and how the words sent a shiver down Grant’s spine ), and he was slipping into his jacket with two guns in his pocket to find the man responsible. He had played the devil’s advocate for more than one organization, and if he had to play it a little while longer to slip into Lazarus’s good graces and steal the stone from him once and for all, so be it. For the power he glimpsed on the television, it would be worth it; he could turn both SHIELD and HYDRA to ashes. 

Of course, he was not the only one hunting down the villain responsible. The X-Men prowled the streets, following the trail of ghosts Lazarus had brought forth. On the surface, he had nothing against the mutant team, but his personal feelings were immediately set aside for the mission. ( How many times had he grappled to gain control of that cold nothingness to keep a clear mind? ) He found Lazarus first, the smug bastard, but two of the mutants were not far behind. All he had to do was keep them occupied long enough to allow Lazarus to slip away once more among the crowd. 

Of all the places in the world to stage a takeover, the New York Library had to be the strangest Tony had seen in at least a month--ever since that encounter with the hostage situation in an ice cream parlor, that is, and that had been a messy--albeit interesting--encounter to say the least. There was no money to be gained in a library, no tech to steal, no codes to borrow--except perhaps a good education in the Dewey Decimal System--and so Tony couldn’t quite put his finger on it, why he and Steve of all people were being called on Avengers alert into a “situation” downtown. 

That is, until they’d burst into the doors and seen who they were facing up close. HYDRA. And not the spiffy, blend-in-to-the-future HYDRA they were used to dealing with, either, but the showy, 1940′s, black suit, red snakes, chanting, military formation HYDRA. Perfect. 

“Costume party?” Tony asked, slowing the Iron Man boot jets to a stop inside the opening hallway. He hovered over the floor while JARVIS scanned the room, calculating the heat signatures, weapons, you name it. Civilians pressed up against the bookshelves--ten by his count (the rest must have cleared out in time, bless them) though JARVIS picked up another fifty or so on the surrounding floors (most, it seemed, in Fiction) and over a dozen HYDRA agents. Several guns each. Heavy gear. Intimidating, sure, but outdated. That was the thing about HYDRA--even the ones that made it into the future naturally didn’t ever really pick up on the times. Steve had always been much better at that.