Looking for Susan and finding trouble!

Crouching near the holding cell in front of him and outstretching his hands to clasp the collar over the sleeping wendigo’s neck, Reed looked over to the guards and medical team keeping the creature contained and nodded to give them the go to cut the anesthetic keeping it asleep. Retracting his outstretched arms and wiping his gloved hands, Reed stood back up and looked behind him to the five reclaimed wendigos wearing his collars and let out of their containment cells. Three sat on the flight deck, still fatigued from the **** burning out of their system while Agent Carl and another stood looking down at themselves as if for the first time. In the last 20 minutes, Reed had taken the copies of his hunger inhibiting collars and gave them to the contained wendigo that were on the flight deck of the SHIELD helicarrier.

The best he was able to get from the ones that had awoken, were they had no memories of their actions prior to the collars latching around their necks. Almost as if the moment the hunger consumed them, there was nothing left of themselves to remember anything. Lost to an oblivion of hunger and rage. Something that made Reed curious after seeing the effects of his collar on their behaviour, making him wonder if their hunger was an outside influence instead of an amplified one. Nearby Doctor Strange conjured clothing for the reclaimed creatures; the men given pants and sleeveless shirts hemmed to their massive size and the women given the same, tailored to let their tails slip out from behind the rear of their pants. Captain America was speaking with the three sitting on the flight deck as they slowly regained their bearings and already the one in the cage was being let out, her face groggy but regaining some awareness.

“So… What are we doing with eyepatch here?” Asked Johnny Storm, poking the petrified SHIELD director and his staff as they remained stone stiff in place by Strange’s magic. “Are you gonna let him out? Because he looks like he’s getting madder and madder.”

“He’ll be released when he’s learned to behave rationally.” The Sorcerer Supreme chastised, crouching next to the caged wendigo Reed placed a collar over and conjured clothing for the female creature as it stirred awake and nearly bumped her horned head over the bars. “For now, our priority is to find and stop Taranaq before his horde grows any further.”

“And Suzie.” Bending at the knee to hug his son and daughter, Reed looked over to the Avengers and his friends as they conversed over what plan of action to take. He was grateful that the Captain took his side on the matter, watching Steve Rogers speak with Tigra and She-Hulk over what happened with his wife earlier today. “If only we had a way of finding her.”

Hearing his personal phone ring at his hip pocket, Reed picked up the phone and answered. “Hello? Peter… What is… YOU FOUND SUSAN?!” His voice carrying over to the others when he responded in surprise. Gathering around the man as he quickly stood up and listened on his phone, the Avengers trying to listen in while Reed paced on the flight deck.

*

Sitting on the brick wall of the alley they were hiding in and with a cellphone to his ear, Spider-Man kept his eyes peeled for either end of the alley for anything else to come for them while Daredevil and Black Cat stood waiting nearby. “Yeah… Don’t know anyone else who can turn people invisible or put up invisible walls, but I think we bumped into your wife… Yeah… Sorry, she wasn’t in a talking mood.”

Listening in with his heightened hearing, Matt nodded to what Reed explained to Peter over the phone, making Felicia curious, being left out of the loop. “What are they saying?” She asked, clutching at her arm, recovering from the cut, but the ache in her stomach continued to get worse.

“Turns out SHIELD had a wendigo named Taranaq, Susan Storm got cursed and now these things are spreading like rabies across the city.”

Putting his hand to the phone and looking back to the two, Spider-Man nodded to the pair. “Reed wants to know if any of us have been bit.”

Clutching her arm, Felicia looked sickly pale, and the way she looked back at Peter with pink eyes made the man worry. “Increased appetite, albinism… Yeah, I think we have problems here.”

*

“Just keep her fed, it will stall the transformation, just PLEASE, tell me where you found her… THANK you Peter, I owe you for this.” Closing the phone to his ear, Reed smiled and looked to his friends and family. “She was last spotted on the garden rooftop of a skyscraper across town, three blocks from Zuccotti park!”

“ALRIGHT EVERYONE, get in a transport, we’re heading there now to meet up with Spiderman.” Called out Captain America, the star-spangled super soldier rallying the rest of the SHIELD agents and Avengers with him while Reed and his family took their Fantasticar. The moment they took to the air, the entourage of vessels began to make their way to lower Manhattan to find and face the wendigo horde. Looking down from his side of the fantasticar, Ben could see wendigo heading the same direction they were.

“Hey! Looks like we got a crowd forming down there.”

Looking down from his own seat, Reed noticed several wendigos making their way towards lower Manhattan like they were, but as soon as they approached the financial district… One by one they disappeared. Becoming invisible. “Yes, she’s down there alright.”

“How are we going to get her back daddy?”

“If we can get this collar around her neck, she’ll be able to think like herself again… If we can spot her.”

“The REAL threat is Taranaq himself, if we can somehow subdue him, the wendigo under his control will follow.” Explained Doctor Strange.

“Big guy in charge of man-eating monsters? Sounds like the kind of guy who likes to sit back and watch his ‘pets’ do all the dirty work.”

Cracking his knuckles, Johnny rolled his shoulders, itching for a fight. “Which means if we want to find HIM, we need to draw him out… Any ideas?”

“I have one.” Answered Strange just as they made their approach. “But you might not agree with it.”

“If it helps us get Susan back, I’m willing to consider any idea.”

Looking down from his vantage point, Ben Grimm could see fires and devastation below, but the wendigos were nowhere in sight. Which only made him worry considering that Susan was strong enough to almost overpower him and Jen at their worst. “You sure we’re safe up here? Even Jen could jump high enough to swat us up here if she wanted.”

“Please… I can jump HIGHER!” Smirked the green giantess, leaning over Ben’s shoulder to look down at the city below. “I’m more worried of one of those things FLYING!”

“Well… Last I checked, the wendigo can’t fly.”

A sudden lurch of the Fantasticar and blaring sirens alerted the passengers to the driver’s side of the flying vessel, where a wendigo still wearing the tattered scraps of Jessica Jones’s clothing clawed at the metal hull. “THIS ONE CAN FLY STRANGE!” With a roar, the female wendigo punched through the engine keeping the vessel aloft and jumped away across to a skyscraper’s roof to land just as Ben lost control of the Fantasticar and began to spin into a nosedive. Falling like a rock, Ben tried to keep the vehicle stable with the remaining thrusters, ignoring the vertigo as the city streets spun in view.

“HOLD ONTO SOMETHING!” Ben yelled over his shoulder, the passengers behind him strapping down to brace for the coming impact. Managing to keep the Fantasticar stable, the blue flyer crashed into a roll, until it slid to a screeching halt at a cross walk where overhead the other SHIELD transports were attacked and brought low the same way, with Luke Cage and Daniel Rand joining the wendigo pack as well.