Several hours after Wolverine refused to be fed, he was now sitting propped up against the wall with the other agent feeding him some mushy and rotten raspberries. He scowled across the room at a smug-looking Spider as he chewed up another berry, unable to wipe the red juice running down his chin. 

Damn Spider. 

This was humiliating. It was bad enough that his arms were cramping from being wound up from the webs, but now he had to suffer through being fed like some child. He could feed himself perfectly fine. He wouldn't even try to run away. Where was he supposed to run, anyway, without inadvertently showing the Infected a way out? Give him some credit - he may not be Reed Richard or Tony Stark, but he wasn't stupid. 

The problem in this situation was Spider. That beast was as paranoid as Magneto. He was super protective and extremely defensive, especially when it came to his pack; he even had a special distasteful interest for Wolverine in particular. The mutant couldn't so much as sneeze without getting a suspicious stink-eye from his furry-warden.

He opened his mouth for another raspberry.

Spider snorted in amusement causing Wolverine to glower further. Gotta remember to give the kid a noogie when he's changed back, he thought to himself. A really big, hard noogie. Involving my claws. You know, if...

If he changes back. The unspoken thought was left like that - unspoken. It was bad enough that, last he knew, S.H.I.E.L.D was no closer to solving this virus than Professor X was too convincing Magneto that humans and mutants could co-exist; but now Fury also had to figure out how to get both he and the agent out of the Academy alive (he would be fine, it was the other agent that was the problem) all while keeping tabs on Spider and his pack to make sure some catastrophic disaster wouldn't happen.

He ate another raspberry.

Spider got down from his perch on the wall and walked silently over to them. The agent tensed and turned pale,  but forced himself not to look up at the beastly captor and, instead, stared intently down at the raspberries that were leaving red juice stains on his hands. The agents' hands shook. Wolverine always noticed the hungry look Spider got in his beady eyes when he looked at the agent - he didn't blame the other man for being afraid. Not when a tall beast with poisonous fangs and talons stared at him like he was an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Looking away from the agent, Spider addressed Wolverine in amusement, "See, not so bad."

"I can feed myself." Wolverine snapped back.

Spider shook his head. "Wolverine be fed," he stated firmly. Wolverine knew it was pointless to argue, Spider didn't take anything he said into account. So he instead glared at the arachnid, wishing he could unsheathe his claws and show the arrogant creature a thing or two.

The Agent held up another berry. Wolverine stubbornly refused it for a few seconds, his eyes locked on the center two of Spiders before he swallowed his pride and accepting the food. "Your berries are rotten," he told the arachnid criticisingly. 

Spider shrugged all of his arms, making his whole body shift up, not even bothering to look like he cared. "Wolverine eats what is given," he replied simply.

"I hate you."

Once again, Spider looked like he could hardly care. He turned away from the prisoner and lumbered toward their current guard, Zabu. Zabu got up from where he was laying and ducked his head down so he could rub it against one of Spider's hands. "Watch them." Spider told the cat, pointing to the two people behind him.

Zabu followed the referenced direction and then looked back at Spider, cocking his head a little. Spider pointed more intensely at the prisoner and gestured for Zabu to keep his eyes on them while repeating more firmly, "Watch. Them."

The cat seemed to get it. He mewled in understanding and lay back down on the floor, his yellow cat eyes fixated ahead. Spider left feeling satisfied.

_____________

Back in the shared dorm room the rest of the pack was training.

In a way...

Spider had them set up in pairs, each group battling another in a fight of skill and power. To him, it helped his pack with teamwork, this way they could fight properly with one another and get to know each other's fighting skills and weaknesses. He found a memory from Peter of some of the enemies training together to get better skill and functionality - why the memory had him there helping the enemies Spider had no idea. It was very stupid and perplexing.

Stupid and perplexing, yeah right. Peter grumbled. You say that about everything you don't like or understand.

~Fine, Spider thought, Peter is stupid and perplexing.

Hey!

Ignoring the voice and his rant of obscenities, Spider addressed his pack with a satisfied grunt. Tiger and Vulture were teamed up against Squirrel and Rhino. Tiger was an excellent teacher for Vulture and did an ideal job of keeping him focused and attentive - whenever he messed up or dove at the wrong moment, Tiger would send him a growl of warning and hiss of instruction.

Squirrel and Rhino worked well together. Rhino's hide was thick and tough, giving him the advantage against Tigers claws and Vultures talons. He was sturdy too, nothing, it seemed, could knock him down. But he also couldn't see far behind himself, making it hard to fend against attacks towards his back - but that was also where Squirrel came in. She remained perched on him, fighting and driving off any of the other two that came up from behind. If she had to leave his back, she was hasty and quick to get back on - Tiger and Vulture had a hard time pinning her down. The two groups were tough and evasive to one another, a good balance.

It was great.

But Spider also noticed that Triton was not present. Which was odd, because he was pretty sure he sent Squirrel to go fetch him. The arachnid looked inquisitively around the room. Hmmm, where could he be?

The training seemed to be going fine, both sides were still eager to fight and challenge themselves, surely they could go on a bit longer while Spider searched for their missing member. Nodding for them to continue, as they had slowed to look at him for any direction or comment, he walked back out of the room as the fight commenced.

Spider walked through the halls, being sure not to trouble the webs on the walls - he put too much time and effort into them only for them to accidentally get ruined - and walked along the center of the corridors.

His first guess as to where Triton would be was the Water Rooms. It's where Triton always was. Spider just hoped he was okay - he always worried when he had seen one of the pack members for a while. Who knows what could be happening in the prison. 

But, it seemed he didn't actually need to go find the meta-fish. Apparently, Triton had been looking for him. Triton came hurrying along the corridor, quickening his pace as soon as he spotted the alpha. The pack member was hissing and warbling frantically, edging Spider to get closer as he scooted back down the hall. Beckoning him forward.

Spider stopped in surprise. "What wrong?" he asked, a tad worried. Was someone in the prison? Another enemy maybe? HE KNEW IT!

Whoa, don't get your fur in a twist! I honestly don't think that's what's going on. 

Triton, whether he understood or not, hissed more frantically and scurried up to grab onto one of the arachnids many arms. He pulled Spider forward, still warbling quickly as he glanced fervently between Spider and whatever was down the hall. Yep, something was definitely up.

I think he wants to show you something. Peter piped up.

Yeah, Spider could see that - he didn't need Peter telling him.

Whatever, just keep telling yourself that.

Huffing at the voice, Spider allowed himself to be pulled down the hallway, toward whatever had gotten Tritons rapt attention. Eventually, they entered the Water Rooms, where the floor was submerged in water a few inches deep. The faucets were still running, filling the room up ounce by ounce. Spider found that sometimes they turned off and stayed off for a while - the first time this happened it resulted in a near breakdown for Triton. The first thought to explaining this horrible predicament was that the enemies were threatening to cut off their water supply if they didn't submit.

Or Fury just forgot to pay the water bill. Peter had snarkily commented.

Either way, the water always returned, so it wasn't too much of a problem, yet...

Triton led Spider through the water, back behind the stalls and curtains, to a small closet-like room that was hidden in the wall. It was a tight fit and filled with brooms and buckets. Spider searched for the word for it....a janitors closest? What was a janitor?

Peter whined, I swear, if Stan is the janitor works HERE too I'm gonna...I'm gonna....well, I don't know. But it won't be good!

Yeah, whoever this Stan character was, Spider was pretty sure they weren't here. Well, they weren't here for a while anyway. There was no distinguishable scent within the area, all it smelled of was dust, fiber, and...something sharp and unpleasant.

Those would be cleaners. You know, bleach and stuff. Don't blame them for stocking up on it though. Ever since Hulk used the bathrooms, Peter made a noise of disgust. It was the thing of nightmares.

Peter was no help. He shouldn't babble about useless information when he could be saying useful stuff. What does Spider care about this "incident", he needed to know if the - what was it? - bleach? He needed to know if it was harmful. It certainly smelled fatal. It was a horrible, horrible smell indeed.

Don't give me that attitude, Peter snapped, but answered anyway, Yeah, it can be harmful. Don't drink it, or get in your eyes, or smell it too often, or- you know what, just don't do anything with it.

Spider hissed at the chemicals. But, apparently, that wasn't what Triton had meant to show him. The meta-fish was leaning inside the small space, shoving the bottles of bleach out of the way and whining thrillful at something behind it. Spider peaked over Triton's head. Behind the racks holding the cleaners was a circular piece of metal with another circle poking out of the surface from a sturdy cylinder of metal. There was a crack in the wall behind it.

The word popped up in his brain. Hatch. It was a hatch.

When Spider leaned in closer, he detected something new mingling with the foul odor of the room. It was something equally horrendous, a smell that made him want to whimper and scratch out his own nose. But, that wasn't it. There was one more thing - another smell. Something salty, but crisp and wild. Spider recognized the scent immediately and centered his senses around it.

It was the ocean.

MUAHAHAHAHAHHAH! And done right there :P Sorry about such a long wait guys. I've been running around with things to do, but school just got out WHOOP WHOOP! I'M FREE! So, that should mean I get more time to update! HURRAY!

See in another update ;)

-Adios! (until next time)