Not going out to patrol as Spider-Man was a strange feeling. It was like he was only Felix Faeth again. Oh sure, there was this overall focus on bettering New York. But…that wasn't because of Spider-Man. That was just who Felix was.
His father had been a complicated mess of a man. A scientist that pushed him, hated him, and hurted him. He pursued the same job as him out of pressure but also with this hope that he could do better.
And he did. He was doing better than his father ever could. He sat in a larger chair with a greater weight and he could proudly tell himself that he was doing better than he was.
'So far,' the dark part of him said.
The muffled hum of a city that never truly slept lowered its voice at this point. Felix had moved from his desk to one of the sofas, his tie loosened, his shoes kicked off beneath the coffee table. The tablet in his hand displayed another round of executive candidate profiles, faces and résumés blurring together after the twelfth or thirteenth review.
Today was going to be more important than that though. Way more important.
Samantha's voice came through the intercom. "Your seven o'clock is here."
Yeah, yeah, he knew. He was ready. "Send him up."
Felix stood, stretched, and rolled his shoulders. The day had been a marathon with the additional meetings with Jennifer Walters. A hot woman but also a smart one in her field, and remember, he was not a lawyer nor did he have any understanding of it outside his detective work as Spidey.
Luckily, this meeting, this one he'd been looking forward to. Felix let out a smiling breath.
The elevator chimed down the corridor. Heavy footsteps followed, the double doors opened, and Luke Cage walked through them with a contagious smile.
Six-foot-six, shoulders that strained the seams of his yellow t-shirt, arms thick enough to make the fabric around his biceps look painted on. His head was shaved clean and his beard was neatly trimmed. He wore jeans and work boots and a leather jacket that had seen better days. Everything about him said working class, Harlem, don't start none won't be none—but his eyes were warm, and the grin spreading across his face was genuine.
"Well, well, well! I'll be damned!"
Again, Felix couldn't help but mirror his smile. "Luke."
They met in the middle of the office, and Luke pulled him into a hug that lifted Felix an inch off the floor. It was a little unexpected.
"Man, look at you." Luke set him down and held him at arm's length, those big hands gripping Felix's shoulders. "Last time I saw you, you were hunched over a lab table muttering about protein sequences. Now you're wearing a suit that costs more than my first car."
"I got lucky." He did not. "And you look good. The whole hiding thing go well?"
Luke's grin flickered. "Eh. It happened and it's done."
The first proper super soldier since Samantha Wilson. Fully able, fully capable, and technically owned by Oscorp in some ways. He had signed away some of his rights for the experiment, after all. And after the attack by the Red Goblin, well, Luke was forced to hide.
"But everything is all over, right?" Luke questioned. "I mean, I'm here, so I assume I am."
"Yeah, it is over. Sit." Felix gestured to the sofas. "You want a drink? I've got—well, a lot."
"Whatever you're having."
Felix poured two glasses of bourbon from the decanter on the side table. Luke took his and knocked back half of it in one swallow, then let out a long breath and sank into the sofa like a man who hadn't sat on something comfortable in a very long time.
"Nice place you got here." Luke looked around the office. The glass walls, the city view, and the furniture that probably cost more than most people's annual salaries. "Beats the hell out of a safe house."
"It's temporary. Once the restructuring is done, I'll be moving operations elsewhere."
"Seriously? From here?"
"Yeah."
"God damn. You better be moving to a penthouse or somethin'."
Felix sat across from him. "How are you doing? Really?"
Luke was quiet for a moment. His jaw worked, the muscle flexing. "Better now. Claire's...she's getting around to forgiving me. For all the hiding, I mean. The secrecy. The house." He let out a short laugh that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Turns out women don't love it when you get experimented on and get attacked and shit."
Felix winced. "I'm…sorry."
"Not your fault. You didn't put me there." Luke finished his bourbon and set the glass down with a clink. "Norman Osborn did. And he's dead now, so..."
"Good riddance?"
"Nah, can't say that. Ultimately, it was my decision. I was getting paid for it too. And this body man…" Subtly, with a small smile, he flexed his bicep. "Phew man. It feels good."
"Right. Fair."
"Businessmen be businessmen-ing, that's all it was." Luke met his eyes. "I know he was a snake, but…I'm not the type to celebrate a guy's death. So yeah."
It was a strange conversation. For Luke especially, it seemed his feelings on the matter were rather complicated. He didn't like Osborn. However…he did give him power. And no one, not even a good guy like Luke, would forget about the power of a super soldier.
"Anyway…" Luke leaned back, stretching his arms along the back of the sofa. "Heard you're the one running things now. Shit, man. The hell you doing as head honcho of Oscorp?"
Felix picked up his own glass and took a slow sip. The truth sat on his tongue—I blackmailed the board, I've got dirt on everyone,—but he swallowed it down with the bourbon.
"Norman's death left a hole," he said instead. "I was in the right place at the right time. The board needed someone with scientific credentials who understood the company's work. I fit the bill."
Luke nodded slowly, no trace of suspicion on his face. "Makes sense. You were always the smartest guy in the room."
"Ha, as if."
"Nah, truth." Luke shifted, his knee bumping the coffee table. "So what happens now? You gonna grow Oscorp into a bigger empire?"
"Oh no, Oscorp shutting down."
"...wait, what!?"
Oh right. Being in hiding meant Luke probably didn't hear.
"Oscorp name is dying and in its place—"
"Woah, woah, wait, explain this shit. Did Norman's death tank your stocks or some shit? Are you going bankrupt? Why is Oscorp suddenly dead!?"
"I'm breaking Oscorp into smaller companies. They'll be independent, focused, better run." Ideally anyway.
"But…it's Oscorp?"
"I don't really see a good future for this company. Neither does everyone else. Especially not with the protests with SHIELD. This mega-big, mega-influential organizations are not very popular these days."
"Really?" Now there was suspicion. "In my experience, guys and gals are more than willing to let these companies be as big as they like as long as they feel safe."
"Feeling safe and being safe are too different things, my friend."
"Hrm…" Luke shook his head. "I don't really get it but…you're not lying, are you?"
"Nope."
Luke processed this. "Gotta admit, when I first heard you were in charge, I figured maybe things would change. But dissolving the whole empire? That's..." He shook his head. "That's something else."
"Norman Osborn built an empire on exploitation. Human experimentation. Weapons development. Corporate espionage. You experienced that firsthand."
Luke's expression darkened. "Yeah. I did."
Felix leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "Luke, I'm not Norman. I'm never going to be Norman. I was never going to just grow this thing to be some massive corporation that oversaw everything."
"But if you did, couldn't you—I dunno—make a company that makes peace?"
"That's a naive idea. What am I going to do, put chips in everyone?"
"Well, no, but, well…"
"Cameras, security officers?"
"Yeah. Kinda. Like I said, people don't mind it as long as they feel safe."
"...sorry." Felix looked away. "I don't think I don't have a heart like that. I'm not built for it." There was a poignant silence. "How's Claire?" Felix asked to change the topic.
"Claire? Oh, she's great." Gratitude and relief flickered in Luke's eyes. "Appreciate that. The house, too. Claire nearly cried when she saw it. Didn't even ask too many questions about how I pulled it off. Do I have to thank you or your lawyers?"
Felix chuckled. "Me." See, the people responsible for moving and hiding Luke were part of Norman's personal task force. Half of them were hired guns, and the other half were lawyers. All quite loyal and on a hefty payroll. They made sure Norman's influence was absolute in Oscorp.
However, as soon as the hired mercenaries heard Norman was dead, they scattered like roaches. All of them.
The lawyer half either shifted loyalties to Felix, presuming he could match Norman's previous price, or were too loyal to Osborn. Regardless, enough of them stayed to keep the company going. There were some old law suits Felix instructed them to settle quickly. Norman was the type to barge over any and all with the sheer machine that was Oscorp. Felix was different. If the injustice was there, he informed the lawyers to give up and give the opposing party a generous settlement. The amount Felix would personally pay if needed.
He did this out of the kindness of his heart but also to just…move on from Oscorp. To move past Norman's legacy.
"I am curious though," Felix said, "about the hired men around you—"
"Oh, brother, they fled the moment the news broke. No loyalty there at all."
"Figures."
They shared chuckles.
"You pay a man to stand in front of a door, he'll stand there as long as the checks clear. The checks stop, so does he." Luke shook his head. "Probably back to bouncing at clubs by now."
"Probably."
The silence that followed was comfortable. Two men who'd been through separate versions of the same nightmare, reunited in the aftermath. Felix refilled Luke's glass and pushed it across the table.
"So what now?" Luke asked, accepting the bourbon. "You didn't call me here just to catch up."
"I wanted to offer you something. A position, if you want it."
"Security?"
"It's an option. You'd be good at it—better than good, you'd be unstoppable."
"With Captain America? Woof, that'd be a dream. But…"
"But?"
"My ex-wife works in the building. My current girlfriend will not like that."
"Ah." Fair enough.
"It's not that I don't want to work with you. I do. You're one of the good ones, Felix. Always were. But being in the same building as Jessica every day, crossing paths in the elevator, the cafeteria..." Luke rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, no."
"Then security is out." Felix nodded, already moving on. "But you're still a super-soldier. The only successful one after Samantha. And I created your formula myself, so technically—"
"I'm Oscorp property." Luke's voice was flat. "Yeah. I know."
"Not anymore. You're free, remember? But we still have a problem. A super-soldier walking around unaffiliated raises questions. The government will want to know where you came from. Competitors will want to study you. The press will want to interview you." Felix took a sip of bourbon. "I'd rather give you a cover that keeps you protected."
"What kind of cover?"
Felix set his glass down and leaned back. His mind was already working, slotting pieces into place. Luke was strong—physically, obviously, but also in terms of character.
"What's your resume like?"
"Uhh, been a cop before the experiment and a corrections officer at Seagate. Is that good enough?"
"Hrm…" Felix stroked his chin, thinking. "One of the companies I'm establishing is going to focus on urban infrastructure. Rebuilding neighborhoods, retrofitting old buildings, that kind of work. It's the kind of thing that matters in places like Harlem. Places you know."
Luke's eyebrows rose. "You want me to work construction?"
"You want to?"
"Uhh…no. Hell no." Luke made a small-X with his arms. "Nuh-uh. Sorry."
Felix laughed at his reaction. "What, you want a simple nine-to-five?"
"Is that too much to ask? I, like any normal person, wants to retire at the age of forty. Or even thirty."
"All that muscle and you want to sit around all day?" Felix joked.
Luke paused and thought about it. "Okay, maybe not sit all day…ain't there anything for me that mixes shit? I can walk and yell and do something, but it's easy? Come on, I'm sure there's something like that."
"Hm…"
"Come on, Felix. Help a brother out."
"Talk about shameless…"
"Hey, if it means getting a foot in and retiring early, I am more than happy about nepotism."
Felix chuckled. "Alright, alright. Look, I wasn't talking about actual construction work. I meant being an advisor. You know what those neighborhoods need. You've lived there, policed there. You understand the problems from street level. A CEO can read reports and look at spreadsheets, but you can tell them which blocks need attention first, which communities will push back, which contractors can actually be trusted." Felix picked up his glass again. "A solid C on the important scale, and it's something you'd be good at."
"Cool, cool." Luke nodded along, then asked the most important question. "How long do I gotta do this shit for everyday?"
"Eh, maybe twice or three times a week? Eight hours? It'll depend on the speed of the construction company."
"Sign me the fuck up then."
Laughing, Luke extended his hand across the coffee table. Felix shook it. The grip was damn firm. Luke probably couldn't help it with his new strength.
"Shit, man. New joke and a new house." Luke was smiling as he pulled back. "All of it—I don't know how to thank you. I won't forget this, you know?"
"Luke—"
"I mean it. Whatever you need, whenever you need it, you call me. I'm there. Not because you're signing my paychecks, but because you're family now. That's how this works."
Felix didn't know what to say to that. He was a little embarrassed about it. He didn't think himself worthy of it, whether as Spider-Man or Felix. He still felt like he could do better. Still. With Luke, he was just a guy, having a drink with an old friend.
"So when does all this happen?" Luke asked. "The restructuring, the new companies, all of it?"
"Should be done in the next months. I can't give a specific date. We've got regulatory hurdles, shareholder lawsuits, the usual corporate nightmare. But the foundation is solid."
"So…what do I get paid for now?"
"The usual hundred thousand."
Luke cracked a cocky smile. "Shit. Nice."
Perk of being partially Oscorp property. "As soon as the new company is formally established. I'll have the paperwork drawn up on the day. In the meantime, enjoy the house. Spend time with Claire. Let her forgive you properly."
Luke chuckled. "She's working on it. Slowly but surely." He stood, and Felix rose with him. "Thanks, Felix. For everything."
"Thank me when it's done."
"Nah. I'll thank you now." Luke pulled him into another hug—shorter this time, but no less genuine. "Take care of yourself. And try not to work too hard. You look tired."
"I'll sleep when I'm dead."
"Don't say that. I know too many people who meant it." Luke pulled back and clapped Felix on the shoulder. "I'll see you around. Call me when the paperwork is ready."
Felix walked him to the door and gave a wave till he was gone.
After Luke, well, there was somehow an even more pressing meeting. Felix couldn't wait for it.
***
It was late night. The Tower was technically closed. This meeting was off-the-books. This meeting would make and break everything.
His phone buzzed.
< Emma: He's on his way up. Just saying.
"I know," Felix said.
He pocketed the phone and turned from the window. The EPA representative had been handled. It was a long, tedious conversation about contaminated soil samples and remediation timelines that had required every ounce of patience he possessed. Jennifer Walters was somewhere in the building, her team already setting up in a conference room three floors down. The shareholder lawsuits had multiplied to six by the time the sun had set.
Whose turn was it now?
Felix exhaled and murmured to himself, "Come now, Mr. Mayor. I'm ready for you."
The double doors opened without a knock. Samantha stepped through first, gesturing, and in came the Mayor of New York City, Warren Wilhelm Jr. Better known to the public as Bill de Blasio, the mayor was tall and gangly, with a face that television cameras had never quite learned to love. His gray hair was swept back in a distinguished style. It was quite thick for a middle-aged politician. Most of them tended to be bald or in the process of balding in Felix's experience. His suit was dark blue, well-tailored but not ironed. He looked like he arrived in a rush.
The mayor's eyes swept the office in a single assessing glance—the desk, the sofas, the view of the city he nominally governed—and Felix watched him calculate.
"Ah, Mr. Mayor. Welcome!"
"Mr. Faeth." Flashing a smile, the mayor extended his hand. "Thank you for seeing me on such short notice."
Felix shook the offered hand. The grip was politician-firm, held exactly one second too long. "Yes, of course. Please, sit."
He thought maybe one day he'd be saving the mayor from assassins or something as Spider-Man. That that would be his first meeting. Nope. It was through this. Through being Felix. What a turn of events.
'My dad wouldn't believe this even if I told him.'
Mayor De Blasio didn't sit immediately. He moved to the window, looked out at the same view Felix had been studying, and clasped his hands behind his back. He appeared to be trying to take control of the room.
"I'll be honest with you," the mayor said, still facing the glass. "I've been getting calls all day. Senators, congressmen, union leaders, the heads of three different pension funds. Everyone wants to know the same thing."
"What's that?"
Mayor De Blasio turned. Those grey, hook-like eyebrows showed concern and reasonableness. Ultimately, a man trying to meet someone halfway. "What exactly are you doing to our precious Oscorp, Mr. Faeth, and can we talk about it?"
Felix moved to the chair behind his desk. He didn't sit, he just rested his hip against the armrest, a posture that said he wasn't intimidated by the office or the man holding it. "I'm dissolving Oscorp. I would have thought that was clear."
"Dissolving." Mayor De Blasio nodded slowly. "That's one word for it. Another word might be 'dismantling.' Or 'destroying.' Or—"
"Restructuring."
"—blowing up the largest single employer in my city." De Blasio's voice remained even, but Felix caught the edge beneath it. "Mr. Faeth, I understand you have concerns about how Oscorp has been run. Believe me, I've had my own disagreements with their leadership over the years. But there are ways to address those concerns that don't involve—"
"Continue." Felix gestured for him to go on.
"Sixteen thousand jobs in New York City alone." The mayor finally moved toward one of the sofas, but he didn't sit. He stood behind it, gripping the backrest. "Sixteen thousand families who wake up tomorrow not knowing if they'll have a paycheck next month. Do you understand what that does to a city? The ripple effects? The small businesses that depend on those workers? The tax base?"
"The jobs aren't disappearing. The positions are being transferred to independent subsidiaries."
"Independent subsidiaries that may or may not survive their first year." De Blasio's reasonable mask slipped slightly. "Mr. Faeth, I've been in public service for thirty years. I've seen this playbook before. A new owner comes in, promises restructuring, claims everything will be fine—and then six months later, half the workforce is laid off and the other half is working reduced hours."
"That's not what's happening here."
"How can you guarantee that?"
Felix picked up a tablet from his desk and held it out. "The transition plans are publicly available. Every employee has already been notified of their new position and salary guarantee for the next eighteen months. No layoffs during the restructuring period."
The mayor didn't take the tablet. He stared at it like it might bite him. "And after eighteen months?"
"Then they'll be working for stable, independent companies instead of a bloated conglomerate that has been supplementing its shareholders and executives over its workers."
"You can't—"
"I can." Felix let the words land. "The board has approved the dissolution. The necessary filings have been submitted. This is happening. And, did you know, I've been running the numbers and asking around recently. And guess what? Norman, in six months time, planned to do massive lay-offs anyway. But people don't care about that, do they?"
De Blasio's jaw tightened. The reasonable mask was gone now, replaced by something harder, more frustrated. "You're going to crash the stock market. Do you realize how much Oscorp is valued at?"
"And in its place will be a hundred smaller companies instead of one megacorporation."
"That won't work."
"Who told you?" Felix's voice rose. "Your megacorp overlords? Your lobbying groups?"
"I don't—" Mayor De Blasio looked pissed at the accusation. "I do NOT have overlords. And the only lobbying I do is in the direction of progress."
Mayor De Blasio stepped around the sofa, closing the distance between them. His hands were clasped in front of him now, fingers interlaced tight enough that his knuckles had gone pale. "Listen to me, young man. It is logistically impossible to divide a company this size. The accounting work alone—it'll take years. Look at Enron! You can't just—"
For two supercomputers, two geniuses from the future, a super spy from the future, and a team of specialists? Plus Emma Frost and her law firm? Felix smiled to himself.
'Please.'
"I hired the best accountants and lawyers in the city." Felix set the tablet back on the desk. "Jennifer Walters, Rosalind Sharpe, Mallory Book. They're already on retainer."
De Blasio's face went pale. Those names carried heavy weight. Rosalind Sharpe had built her reputation dismantling Fortune 500 companies that thought themselves untouchable. Mallory Book was the kind of litigator who made grown men weep during depositions.
"Y-your shareholders won't stand for this," the mayor managed. That stammer was lovely to hear.
"Oh, right. Gotta think about the shareholders." Felix tilted his head, mock-thoughtful. "Let me think about that."
He let the silence stretch. Outside, a helicopter passed overhead, its lights blinking against the darkness.
Felix finally shrugged. "The stock market is officiated gambling anyway. They'll be fine."
"Are you—can't you take what I am saying seriously!?" Mayor De Blasio's composure cracked. "Wall Street will hunt you and everyone you love. The institutional investors, the hedge funds, the pension managers—you think they'll just accept this? You think they won't fight back with everything they have?"
"They can try."
"We have government bonds tied up in Oscorp. City pension funds." Mayor De Blasio's threats were spoken in a dangerous hush. "We won't let this happen."
Sighing, Felix reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a single sheet of paper. He held it out to the mayor. "I already had those rescinded. Happy?"
Mayor De Blasio took the paper. His eyes scanned the text, the official notice from the comptroller's office, the signatures, and the timestamps. His hands trembled slightly as he read.
"You can't do that."
"I already did."
It was one of the first things he did. He used SHIELD as an excuse. Considering the conversation around that, there was protest. Yet, at the same time, there was understanding.
"This requires council approval—"
"Approved. Yesterday."
"The governor—"
"Also approved. Turns out, when you present elected officials with evidence that their pension funds have been propping up a company under federal investigation for weapons proliferation and human experimentation, they become very cooperative."
The mayor's mouth opened. Closed. Opened again. No sound came out.
Felix watched him cycle through the stages of grief in real time: denial, anger, something that might have been bargaining flickering behind his eyes before settling into a bone-deep exhaustion. Mayor De Blasio had built a career on navigating bureaucracies, on understanding where leverage existed and how to apply it. And he was realizing, in this moment, that the leverage he thought he possessed didn't exist.
"What do you want?" De Blasio's voice came out hoarse. "What is this actually about? You're not just shutting down a company. You're upending the entire economic structure of this city. Why?"
"Because it needed to happen."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only answer you need." Felix moved around the desk, toward the window. The city glittered below, indifferent to the men having this conversation above it. "Oscorp was a tumor. Tumors get removed. You can ask questions about the surgery afterward."
"And if the patient dies on the table?"
"They won't."
The mayor stood frozen in the middle of the office. His carefully constructed political persona had been stripped away, leaving behind a man who was tired, outmatched, and rapidly running out of options. Felix almost felt sorry for him. Almost.
"There will be consequences." The "mayor voice" finally returned in him. "Political ones. E-economic ones. You may think you've prepared for everything, but you haven't. Something will go wrong. Something always goes wrong."
"Probably."
"And when it does—"
"I'll handle it."
"Just like that?"
"Just like that."
The silence stretched between them, thick and taut. Then, slowly, Mayor De Blasio's shoulders sagged. He looked older suddenly, the lines in his face deeper than they'd been when he walked in. His hair too seemed to thin out.
"I'll tell the press you were cooperative," Felix said. "That this was a productive conversation. That the city supports the restructuring and the jobs will be preserved."
"I never said—"
"You don't have to say anything. The headline will write itself." Felix picked up his phone. "Samantha, please show His Excellency out."
The door opened. Samantha arrived and the poor mayor looked at her, genuinely afraid, then back at Felix. His eyes widened in the way of, "Holy fuck, that's Captain America."
He gulped. He looked between them and then just looked resigned, maybe.
"Have a wonderful rest of your night, Mr. Mayor."
Silently, with Captain America like as an absolute, the mayor walked toward the door. Each step seemed to cost him something. At the threshold, he paused, half-turning.
"You're either going to be the greatest thing that ever happened to this city," he said quietly, "or the worst mistake anyone ever made. I honestly can't tell which."
Felix just smiled and waved.
De Blasio shook his head once and walked out. Samantha followed, closing the door behind them.
Felix stood alone in the office. The city hummed below, millions of lives continuing without any awareness of the conversation that had just taken place above them. His phone buzzed again. Emma.
< Emma: How'd it go?
Felix cackled.
< Felix: About as well as we expected.