A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the four chapters are up on my Patreon for early access as well as the bsp;to vote on the dire of the story!

  Thaddeus and the girls call in some more experienced backup. It turns out to be the right call.

  -x-X-x-

  “You were right to call us in for this, kids. Though you’re lucky I’m not currently w for the DA’s Office. The legality of this little excursion is… highly questionable.”

  She-Hulk’s words wash over them all as she stands there with her arms crossed over her chest, standing taller than just about everyone in the room save for Thaddeus himself. Meanwhile, over at the bank of puters, Sue Storm is currently typing away, the brilliant blonde’s eyes darting bad forth across the s as she reads all relevant data on the manufactured mohey’re preparing to fight.

  In the end, Thaddeus couldn’t bring himself to advocate for just using the failsafe aroying The Facility’s creation, even if it was the safest option oable. Nor could anyone else, not with Cessily being so quiet about it. Maybe if she were more argumentative someone would have tried to vince her, but the fact that she was so accepting had inversely led to no one really wanting to be ‘that person’.

  At the same time, trying to fight the thing by themselves was obviously a bad idea. Even if they could mao take it down, the possibility of losing someone, and it’s ability to feast upon mutants to gain strength and power, meant that their mostly mutant team was not quite up for the task.

  Simirly, the idea of calling in the rest of the X-Men had ultimately fallen to the wayside as well. Calling in a bunutants to fight a monster made for defeating and ing mutants seemed like a bad idea upon further refle. Which just left the final option… calling in She-Hulk and the Invisible Woman.

  In the end, Thaddeus hadn’t been sure what to expect when he’d dropped Jennifer and Susan a line. He’d half-thought they might bring out their eeams, maybe. But Sue was still a bit estranged from the rest of the Fantastic Four because of her test (and likely final) breakup with Reed Richards, and Jennifer… well, she’d shown up alone and made it clear that the rest of the Avengers weren’t necessary for this.

  Getting them both this deep into the pound hadn’t been that difficult either. It just meant Thaddeus and Kitty went back out, him making sure the guards didn’t see anything with his psychic abilities and Kitty getting him through the walls so they could pick up Jen and Sue and bring them both back.

  Now here they all were, with Sue reading up ohreat and Jen… reading them the riot act?

  Bristling, Kitty is the one who responds to Jennifer’s provocation, her hands going to her hips as she scowls heatedly.

  “We’re not kids, She-Hulk. As fal… the Facility doesn’t have any mht to be here than we do. This clearly isn’t an above board operation for them, anymore tha boratory that they blew up.”

  Humming at that, Jennifer looks over at him.

  “Speaking of which, you definitely should have called me about that too. Even if only after the fact. You know that explosion has taken out pas, and water food few city blocks yeah? The emergency first responders should have been aware that it was tied to illegal experimentation for their own safety, and not just a ruptured gas main.”

  Thaddeus winces beh his mask, feeling appropriately chastised. She-Hulk was right, but obviously he hadn’t been thinking about that at the time.

  “As for what these mad stist types are doing here… tws don’t make a right. This nd and the buildings on it belong to someo there, meaning that we’re all trespassing, regardless of our reasons for doing so.”

  Jennifer’s words hang in the air for a moment, tasting rather sour judging by the pinched expressions that those with visible faces are currently making. Even the eyes of Gwen’s mask are narrowed in a someetunt manner.

  But then, the big green woman cracks a grin.

  “Like I said though, you’re all lucky I’m not w for the DA’s Office right now. And you know why I’m not currently practig as a Public Defender?”

  She pauses briefly before delivering the pune.

  “Because sometimes, evehe w says otherwise, you’ve gotta be able to set it aside to crack a few eggs.”

  With those words alone, Jennifer defuses the tension in the room. Albeit tension she herself had created… but Thaddeus realizes that’s just the statuesque woman’s way of breaking the ice. She got everyone’s hackles raised, and then made it clear she was on their side. Huh, pretty smart actually.

  “Now then, names. I’m She-Hulk, obviously. That’s the Invisible Woman, in case you didn’t know. And you all are?”

  Perking up now, Kitty is again the first to answer.

  “Shadowcat!”

  Followed by the others in a more loose, ragtag way.

  “Spider-Woman.”

  “Talon.”

  “Mercury.”

  Finally, Jennifer’s eyes turn towards Thaddeus aedly realizes that she’d actually only asked because she k was him uhe Mercury-Armor and she was clearly very excited to hear what his moniker was going to be. Suddenly feeling a little self-scious about his choice, Thaddeus flushes but after a moment finally answers.

  “Thunder.”

  From the way her face sches up, he tell immediately that the green-skinned heroine doesn’t like it. That said, he’s not expeg her to ht shut it down.

  “Hm… no. That’s no good.”

  “Excuse me?”

  But Thaddeus’ indignation sounds weak even to his own ears, and as if they were all waiting for a ce to pouhe others speak up as well.

  “It is kind of… iffy, if I’m being ho.”

  “I didn’t want to say anything, but it just doesn’t really suit you.”

  “You definitely do better.”

  “… I was holy just trying to make you feel better when I said ‘I dig it’, Thaddeus.”

  That st line from Mercury is for his ears alone, but that makes it cut all the deeper as his pride is cut to tatters by their sharp words. He sighs as he pantomimes clutg at his heart.

  “Traitors, all of you…”

  Still, he wasn’t that attached to the ‘Thunder’ pseudonym. In the end, Thaddeus supposed it was better to find out it was dumb now, over ter after it had stuck. Still…

  “So then what the hell should I call myself, exactly?”

  There’s a brief pause at that, but before anyone else make a suggestion, Jennifer’s eyes light up.

  “Breaker!”

  Silence falls for a moment, but it’s not a ning ohe others are all turning it over in their heads and have sidering looks on their faces. However, Jennifer isn’t done, her lips curling into a wide, wicked grin.

  “You know, as in Bit-!”

  “Alright! I’m done!”

  Whatever the big greey was going to say is cut off as Sue pushes off of the desk and away from the monitor, g her hands together to get their attention. All eyes turn towards her, but the older heroiands tall uheir gazes, not cowed in the slightest by all the attention.

  “You guys made the right decision, ing out here as soon as you did. Reading through Harkins’ records, I was able to glean his future pns… and as soon as tomorrow, he’d given the orders to start the produ of two more of these creatures. Right now, as far as I tell, this Predator X is the only one ience… and fortunately for all of us, we should be able to make it the st one ience.”

  Sue gives everyone a moment to let that wash over them before tinuing.

  “I thiween She-Hulk’s strength and my Force Fields, we reliably keep this thing from mung on any of you even if we let it out. That said, it still won’t be easy… and while killing it might be possible, I’m irely sure that’s the best way of pleting our stated mission goal aining the pieces of it that are from your friend. If any of you have anything else that might be useful in this moment, speak up please.”

  Only the dawn on Thaddeus that he DOES actually have a fairly useful power for this situation. It’s not something he’s had much opportunity to use, truth be told… but by this point, his version ue’s mutant ability is more than strong enough that it should have some effe the mohat Harkins and his Facility made… right?

  “I have something, yeah. If you immobilize the creature, then I try and drain it of its vitality and powers. Then, maybe that will weaken it enough for Mercury to take back what’s hers?”

  Sue doesn’t look all that surprised by his admission, probably because the question she’d been asking had mostly been directed at him and his hodge-podge of powers in the first pce. The others are a little bit more caught off guard, probably because they don’t know abue and now they’re w where he got such a thing.

  Regardless, in the end… it’s the best damn strategy they have. Stepping forward, She-Hulk is quick to take charge.

  “Alright, Talon and Spider-Woman, you two are heavies like me so you’re with me. We’ll be dealing with the parts that Invisible Woman isn’t c with her Force Fields. Shadowcat, I want one of your hands on Invisible Woman at all times and as soon as that thing is let out, I want you to make the two of you intangible. She doesn’t o be tangible to use her Force Fields, and if this stupid monster is smarter than it looks, it might try and go after her if it break free. As for Breaker and Mercury… yoing to be ihick of it if this whole pn of ours is going to work. Hope you’re ready.”

  It's a good pn. Tactically sound too. Thaddeus ’t help but be a little relieved that he called in Jennifer and Susan, because from the sound of it, they’d been the perfect reinforts. As everyone nods as into position, Thaddeus moves forward so that he and Mercury are stood just a few feet outside of the door to Predator X’s vault.

  Finally, from back over at the puters, Susahe vault door opening and Kitty grabs her by the shoulder the moment her hands leave the keyboard.

  Almost immediately, the creature inside of the vault begins trying to get out. Even before the rge door is finished cyg open, its fighting its way out. With Jennifer, Gwen, and Laura watg the sides and razor sharp Force Fields snapping ien the top and bottom, Predator X only has one way to ght at him and Mercury.

  Thaddeus sets himself in pce, having already activated the power he got from She-Hulk, increasing his strength and durability. He also reaches out to see if he get any sort of psychic purchase on the monster now that it’s no longer in the vault… but no. The thing itself is resistant to telepathic attacks, as Thaddeus had expected but hoped to be wrong about.

  Still, as it luowards him with rows of teeth and shiallic whips, She-Hulk interposes herself at the st sed, lunging in from the side. Her hulking green arms curl around Predator X’s huge thieck, squeezing down tight as she, along with Invisible Woman’s Force Fields closing in from all other sides, stop the thing in its tracks.

  However, only for a moment. As soon as it’s locked down, Predator X’s ‘flesh’ begins to squirm and surge, shifting under She-Hulk’s grasp.

  “NOW, BREAKER!”

  Lunging forward himself at her shout, Thaddeus reaches for Predator X’s face. Mercury flows away from his hands at the st sed, allowing his palms to sp unobstructed into the monster’s silvery mess of flesh. Then… Thaddeus activates Rogue’s power at full bst on the mad stist’s creation, utilizing his absorption abilities to their fullest extent for the first time.

  Predator X lets out ahly screech that rings through the boratory and causes even She-Hulk to cry out in pain. But Mercury’s full ce of the rest of his body protects Thaddeus’ eardrums from the damaging shriek, and he holds on all the harder, g into the monster’s moldable, shifting flesh.

  It tries to pull away, but Invisible Woman is ready for that it seems, because her Force Fields are behind it now as well, pushing it into his grasp and holding it ihaddeus keeps pulling on its vitality, keeps draining it… and feels all the stronger for it. Taking a step forward, he snarls as he thrusts his hands even deeper into the malleable creature. He finally finds something solid, like bone, and he grabs onto that with all his might, gripping down on it harshly and refusing to let go.

  It tries to fight back of course. But when it shes out at him, Mercury is waiting and any parts of it that Predator X tries to cut into him with are soon caught up in the progenitor of its metallic skin.

  “Yesss… e to mama…”

  At first, Mercury just pulls on redatives her. But eventually, the weaker the creature gets, the more she goes on the offensive as well, until spikes are shing out from his armor and into the beast, seemingly siphoning off its entire skin. The st parts of her stolen by that bastard Harkins flow into Mercury bit by bit… and then some.

  They grow together as they dismahe mutant hunter, Mercury’s armored form expanding in size as she skins the Predator X alive and Thaddeus’ own body also growing a bit within it. By the time they’re dohere’s not much left of the creature. It ’t even fight back as it colpses to the ground, a literal skinless husk of its former self.

  Pulling back, Thaddeus finds he towers over She-Hulk even more than he did before now, and he’s easily twice as tall as the other women in the room. It feels a little strange, being this powerful, but he certainly doesn’t mind it… aher does Mercury.

  “Oooh. To be whole again. Ah, I think I’m a bit more than just whole, Thaddeus. I thiook everything that thing had to offer.”

  She’s n. Thaddeus stands there feeling… spectacur, even as Sue orders them to put Predator X ba the vault, at which point they’re finally free to use the failsafe to destroy every st trace of the creature… or at least, what’s left of it after he and Mercury got doh it.

  All’s well that ends well, he supposes. Though… there is still the question of what es . He o debrief with Emma sooner rather than ter. And this… well, these past few days have just beehing after the other, haven’t they? Good lord, he’s due for a bit of a break…

  -x-X-x- The Vote: [X] Stick with Thaddeus' POV - 55%[ ] Switch to She-Hulk's POV - 27%[ ] Switch to Cessily's POV - 18%

  -x-X-x- If you'd like to read more of my work not seen on this website, check out Hentai-Foundry. and QuestionableQuesting. where I have over a thousand stories!

  If you'd like to tribute to funding my writing at all, check me out on Patreon./Cambrian

  Thanks for reading!