Strike the Heart.

Swinging from roof top to roof top, Lady Anti-Venom and Daredevil searched far and wide across the city of New York for the Blue Goblin and the missing kids. But after more than an hour, the pair were still empty handed. Landing on the roof of a high rise overlooking the Bronx, Daredevil lowered her head down to listen to the traffic below while Lady Anti-Venom hung upside down from a black web line overhead.

“Hear anything out there?”

“Apart from a few hundred arguments, traffic rants and secrets being whispered between people I’d VERY much like to shove these where the sun don’t shine…” Frowned the blind woman, gripping her batons with a **** grip. “No. The bitch did nothing but cackle on her way out the door, but she hasn’t laughed once since we got out here chasing after her. I can’t hear her. Her OR the kids. What about you? What can you see with your eyes? Not that they’d be any better than MY senses.”

“The symbiote is amorphous honey, my whole body is just one big eyeball!” Explained the black and white clad spider-woman. “I have a 360-degree panoramic view of my surroundings… But no, I haven’t seen any trace of her either. Her or them.”

“Sigh… What do we do?” Daredevil breathed sharply, crouching to tilt her head and try to listen in on the city below. “Where would that maniac take the kids?”

“And why?” Frowned Daredevil, the two heroines at a loss.

***

The SHIELD guards looked up to the green light overhead of the vault doors, the hiss of hydraulics letting them know the door was opening up as they took positions armed and ready. The moment the door hissed open, several weapons aimed for the space between the doors, ready to fire at anything out of the ordinary. Instead finding their director standing there pressing his coat down and staring back at his crew with a stern disposition. Behind him, illuminated by the Human Torch aflame, they spotted the Fantastic Four putting the last of the inhibiter collars on the ring leader of the Sinister Susans, all of whom were on the ground **** and depowered. Surrounded by smashed and ruined equipment and shattered overhead lights from the fight.

“At ease men, get in here.” The man waved to the Fantastic Four behind him. “Get our prisoners back in custody.”

Immediately the agents swarmed into the vault, surrounding the Four. A pair of agents checked over the vitals of the five women on the floor, finding them **** and bruised but alive, while the rest continued to train their weapons on the Fantastic Four who raised their arms over their heads with bored expressions.

“Oh come on…” Huffed Johnny with his hands up. “Not this again.”

“Really guys?” Snorted the Thing, staring down at a gun barrel pointed up his noise. “We’z just flatten the dames that took you all for a spin, you really think that’s the right idea?”

“I SAID at ease men!” Barked out Fury, joining the Four and exhaling angrily when the men slowly lowered their weapons. “THEY aren’t the enemy here. They never were! Get these five returned to the brig and make sure their collars STAY ON!”

With his hands at his sides, the SHIELD director watched as one by one the Sinister Susans were carted out in gurneys, checked over by the medical crew as they were taken out of the vault. Turning to look back at the Fantastic Four, Fury exhaled slowly, his anger deflated as he watched the last of the five taken out of the vault.

“Well done in containing those ladies.” Fury was genuinely impressed. The moment the lights were taken out, he couldn’t see a thing, but he could hear and feel every impact the family of Four dished out on the Sinister women who had taken his Helicarrier and him hostage. “How did you do it?”

“We first went to the brig to see if my wife’s variant left anything behind as clues, or at the very least the collars that could contain them.” Explained Reed, moving over to inspect the make-shift portal device Doctor Octopus had built and immediately snorted and shook his head. “There was a guard who survived, still in shock, but he explained to us all that Doctor Octopus had a weakness to her invisibility powers.”

“And those were?”

“She couldn’t see what she was doing when she was using them.” Susan piped in, using her powers to turn partially invisible and back again. “It’s easy to trip if you can’t see where your feet are going.”

Spotting one of the mechanical limbs discarded on the floor, Ben gave it a swift kick. “That’s why she used these to get around… She was wearing gloves so she could see her fingers.”

“I surmised in her many stints traveling the multi-verse to steal resources, she found different variants of us with our powers where she did not. She probably found a way to duplicate them but not perfectly, hence her little handicap.”

“Well… That still just leaves the last of her merry band of home invaders. We still don’t know where the Blue Goblin is.”

Seeing Maria Hill race past the guards hauling the five away, the woman stopped in front of the director with a pad in hand, panting for breath. “Director…”

“What is it Hill?”

“The team we sent to the Richards home, they haven’t reported back.”

Frowning, the Fantastic Four stared back at the two SHIELD representatives.

“What is she talking about?” Reed asked, not liking where this is leading.

“When we had the majority of your wife’s variants detained and you on the ship, I sent a team to arrive at your home to pick up the others and your kids to be brought here, both to keep in good hands and to process your ‘guests’ to be sent back home.”

“They haven’t answered back since the attack on the helicarrier occurred.”

Pulling free a portable phone from a slip in her belt, Susan dialed their home number and impatiently waited for the phone to ring. Her frown intensifying when she got no response. “It just goes to voicemail.”

Pulling free his own communicator, Reed switched it on and brought it to his ear. “HERBIE? HERBIE please respond.”

There was static on the other line, static everyone could hear that made the four nervous. There was a moment they feared the worse until the static cleared and Reed tried to speak into the communicator again.

“HERBIE?”

“Herbie’s not minding the door tonight Reed…” Spoke a woman’s voice on the other end of the line, raspy and high pitched, like the voice of a witch. A voice he and the others recognised. “I’m watching over the kids while your out. SAY HI TO DADDY KIDDOS!”

Hearing Valaria and Franklin cry out in the background, Johnny’s flames intensified, and Susan reached out for the communicator. Snatching it from her husband’s grip to bring it to her cheek to scream into.

“WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU, YOU WITCH!”

“Ooooh, testy, looks like our temper spans the multiverse after all. Good to know.” Cackled the voice on the other end, making Susan even more furious. “You want to see me and the kids? Here’s a hint, meet me at the same place we first met Reed ALL those years ago… You know the place.”

Reed leaned in, listened to the chatter on the communicator in his wife’s hands. “If you so much as harm our children you are going to…”

“It’s simple. Bring Reed to me on a platter and the kids go free without a scratch on their chinny chin-chin. Oh and come alone, we don’t want FAMILY matters interrupted by a bunch of unwanted guests now do we?”

The transmission died then and there, leaving Susan to breath in sharply and hand the communicator back to Reed who was already on his way out the vault door with Johnny and Ben in tow. Seeing the Four leave, Maria made to call them back when Fury stopped her.

“WILL YOU BE NEEDING ANY HELP? Fury called out to the Fantastic Four as they stormed out of the entrance, none of them answered back save for the Thing, who looked back at the two agents with a gruff disposition, slamming his fist into his palm.

Needing no other guess on what to expect, Fury looked to his second-hand woman and spoke low.

“In about half an hour, I want you to send a crew to clean up when they’re done and tell them to have a mop and bucket with them."

“Sir? You aren’t going to stop them?”

“Pff… As if we ever could.”