God no. Fights just don't translate well to written form unless they are advancing the plot significantly in some way. Keep them short and to the point. Use them sparingly.
Two Spiders on a Web (MCU Spider-Man and Spider-Gwen Crossover)
- Thread starter Eratas123
- Start date
- Modern Crossover Superhero
Hmm, something for the next chapter: would you guys be interested in Gwen actually being jealous if people flirt with Peter? Vice-versa as well with Peter getting jealous if people flirt with Gwen. I have the characters mention and slow slight signs of it but I wonder if it'd be fun to write actual jealousy and possessiveness since apparently certain amounts of it is a sign of a healthy relationship.
So....just saw Endgame. Know my plans for the story now: first I'll write the ending to tie into the canon, and then I'll do my own Spider version. The former allows me to skip all that complicated fighting and drama stuff and just skip to the epilogue while the latter will allow me to write a more Spider centric version with MCU Peter as the hero. Best of both worlds, yeah?
- Location
- Arizona
You know the best part of this story? The fact that because MCU was kicked out of his universe and all the other non-peter-parker spiders were able to hop into the MCU-verse to help out. Cause damn, post-Snap, MCU-verse needs all the help. That whole setup was freaking depressing.
Plus, I'd love to see the Spider Hordes join up for the Avengers Assemble moment. I guarantee at least one Spider has got to have sticky enough fingers to make sure Thanos doesn't get his hand into the Iron Gauntlet, thus preventing the I Am Iron Man part.
the thought occurs to me that, since Infinity Stones are canonically not able to function outside of their home universe, can the Time stone and strange predict the presence of the Spiders from other realities? Cause that'd be one giant excuse why Strange thought their was only 1 way for the plan to work.
Plus, I'd love to see the Spider Hordes join up for the Avengers Assemble moment. I guarantee at least one Spider has got to have sticky enough fingers to make sure Thanos doesn't get his hand into the Iron Gauntlet, thus preventing the I Am Iron Man part.
the thought occurs to me that, since Infinity Stones are canonically not able to function outside of their home universe, can the Time stone and strange predict the presence of the Spiders from other realities? Cause that'd be one giant excuse why Strange thought their was only 1 way for the plan to work.
EDIT (non-spoilers): Why the heck did I trigger a "your post is too short, this may be considered spam" warning? I'm literally using a spoiler as it's intended!
- Location
- Newcastle Upon Tyne
The Stone would still be able to predict their presence, but Strange would also see himself saying just one timeline and just to hedge his bets he wouldn't rely on them.
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Chapter 16 - A Normal Night Out
Been a bit. Before anyone asks: Yes I have watched Endgame and yes I have watched the Homecoming 2 trailer. I'm planning two endings: One is the canon Endgame ending with Gwen added and could possibly lead to a sequel fic where Gwen gets stuck in Peter's universe. The second one is an original, more Spider-centric ending.
So yes, I do have plans, don't worry.
Oh, and I've had people really against the threesome. Message received, we'll just stick to the cinnamon roll romance.
Chapter 16: Date Night
So...he just had sex. Holy shit.
Peter looked up at the dark ceiling with a look of disbelief. The adrenaline and high had finally worn off and now the entirety of what he - what they - did finally set in. They had sex. He went right past four bases and did a home run and it was...
...Actually, it was kinda awkward. He'd watched porn (and Game of Thrones, which was close enough) to know the basics of it, but it didn't change the fact that both he and Gwen never did it before. The last person he liked was Liz and after she moved away he was too busy being Spider-Man to really get into the dating scene. And Gwen...after all the crap the city piled on her she didn't even think about dating or...the other thing. The most she'd done was kiss that Miles guy.
Who Peter was very much not jealous of. No sirree. He just kissed one of the most amazing girls on the multiverse, why would Peter be jealous?
Movement at his side drew his attention. He gave Gwen a sideways glance and saw that she was matching his expression point for point: eyes wide, slight look of disbelief and her lips slightly parted.
God, he wanted to kiss her again.
"So..." Peter started, looking back up at the ceiling again.
"Yeah..." Gwen replied, equally soft. Her hands held onto the edge of the blanket with only her head and shoulders exposed. Both of them were still in their birthday suits, "Was it, uh, was it good for you too?" It was such a cliche line, Classic Gwen, but there was no cocky smile or wink. Instead she looked like she wanted the earth to swallow her whole. He could relate.
"U-Uh, yeah! Totally! It's..." No, he had to be honest! Honest, damn it! "Uh...actually it was kinda awkward. I mean, it makes sense. It was...It was my first time." His cheeks flushed. He was a teenager and there was the typical peer pressure of losing the 'v card' at his age. Flash never stopped bragging once he got lucky after prom. Apparently his date felt bad that 'Spider-Man jacked his car'.
"You too, huh? I guess that explains it." Her eyes suddenly widened, "N-Not that I'm saying you were bad or anything! I mean that-"
Peter laughed and finally turned to face her. Gwen's face was equally flushed and it was odd...and amazing to see. Gwen always looked so confident, so in control. Seeing her like that made him feel less like a dork, as Michelle called him, "It's fine. We were...we're both new at this. Makes sense that it was kinda...off." Again, not bad, but there was definitely some things they could've done better.
Maybe trying to add webs right from the get go wasn't the best idea...
A sudden gurgling sounded through the dark room. Gwen covered her face with a pillow and groaned while Peter laughed again, "We did get kicked out of that restaurant," he said eventually, "Let's have a re-do. No fancy places, no snobs. Who cares about dressing up anyway?"
"...I know a good burger joint nearby. Owner likes me cause I stopped a robbery."
"Lead the way."
Ten minutes later and they were sitting across one another from the aptly named Burger Shack. Peter bit into the burger with a light hum and relished in the taste of bacon and the secret sauce, "This is the best, right?" Gwen asked. She had some sauce on her cheek and she looked adorable, in his humble and unbiased opinion, "Don't even know why we went to that fancy schmancy place."
"It was bright and shiny and we wanted it." He shrugged back lightly. Peter liked this place. The owner was nice, the prices were good and the few people who did recognize them were polite. Only two people asked them for selfies, and they both said please! "Personally I blame the money for corrupting us. All that evil, seductive money turned us into something we weren't: Scrooge McSpiders. It was...horrible."
"Yeah, okay." She snorted and kicked him lightly under the table, "So I'm thinking we can get some patrolling done after this. Night's young and I really wanna let off some steam." He hoped that wasn't a crack at his performance, "Besides, it's been a while since we went on patrol together. We've been so busy with the app." Yeah, it was getting bigger by the day. Betty even mentioned whether they should start taking jobs from companies.
Speaking of...
"So, uh, I was gonna go and visit Mr. Stark in a couple of days." Gwen immediately frowned at that and he winced, "He's not that bad."
"Pete, he hired Frank Castle. 'Nuff said." Yeah, he heard about him from Gwen. Apparently he was 'clown town curly fries', "I just...I know you told me about how awesome and great and basically your dad-"
"I didn't say that."
"-your Tony Stark is," she continued unabated, "All I'm saying is you should be careful. Just because someone's a good guy in one universe doesn't mean he's a good guy here. There's probably a reason S.H.I.E.L.D's keeping tabs on him. I mean I told you about my version of Cindy, right?" The one who drained her powers and tried to take over the world. Also one of Gwen's friends and a hero in another dimension.
"Yeah, you did, but...what if he is a good guy? I mean that Osborn guy was smuggling in lightsabers and you're still talking to him!" Or at least trying to. Still hadn't taken any of her calls.
"Yes, talking. I'm not offering up nanobots." She sighed, "Look, all I'm saying is be careful, but...I have your back."
"...Thanks." He got why she doubted, but he had a good feeling about this.
Two days later and he was in Stark Tower. Well, Gwen didn't say he couldn't, "Hey, Underoos! How's it going over there?" Peter sighed. Maybe showing up in full costume was a bad idea.
"Just fixing up the structural integrity!" he shouted back. The nanobots were amazing. He'd heard about Wakanda sharing their tech but he never actually got access to it cause, well, he was 16 years old at the time and he didn't have access to labs with extremely high funding. To think just ten years ago Mr. Stark needed to drag his full suit everywhere. So inconvenient.
"Peter, there's a slight tear on the upper left end," Karen chimed in. Peter nodded and started binding them together, "The structural integrity of the suit was compromised heavily by your fight on Titan. If we'd continued using the suit in the current state it had been in the nanobots might have started glitching. You might have appeared in your underwear in public, which would be very embarassing."
"Yeah...I guess?" She was going somewhere, and he didn't like it.
"Yes, very. Though, I suppose you've reached that stage and more with Gwen already-"
He singed a cluster of bots. Mr. Stark looked up from his own cluttered table and looked at him warily and Peter waved him off, "Not cool, Karen," he whispered. At Gwen's request he'd held off on telling Mr. Stark about her, which Karen agreed with. Apparently she liked the idea of being a unique AI in this dimension, "No one else knows, so can we stop talking about it?"
"Yes, I simply wanted to tell you of how proud I was. Gwen is a fine young woman and I know you make each other happy."
"Oh, well...thanks."
"Also, if you need any help for your performance I downloaded some articles on thrusting technique-"
He burned half the suit.
Almost six hours later (and after fixing the suit) he and Mr. Stark were having Chinese on the balcony with a nighttime view of the city. It was...nice. Mr. Stark back home was always too busy with stuff to ever actually get some tech stuff done. Peter couldn't believe this Mr. Stark had a PMC. He didn't have an arc reactor and he was always neck deep into some tech project whenever he came to visit. He probably didn't have time to run one.
"I gotta tell ya, kid, you're a genius. And coming from me that's saying something." Mr. Stark having an ego seemed pretty set in stone. It was charming, though. Like Thor's goofy grins whenever people took pictures, "This tech is...it's decades ahead of what we have over here. Just last week we were discussing being able to carry my tech in briefcases. Could you imagine that? Briefcases."
"Uh...happy to help."
"...Which leads me to believe you didn't just stumble onto this. Lemme guess, another dimension?" The masks on his eyes widened and Mr. Stark smirked, "I'll take that as a yes. Hey, don't be surprised. I read the Captain America comics when I was a lonely rich kid with parents who never paid attention to him. I know you're smart, but you're not that smart. Tech like this is out of this world- or this dimension, in this case."
"O-Oh, well..."
"That and I'm a genius. It's what I do." He set down his chow mein, "So, how'd you end up here? Dimensional portal? Rift in the fabric of reality?"
"Not...exactly."
Peter told him everything. About his dimension, his Mr. Stark, Thanos...it took almost an hour and that was after cutting out so many details." Mr. Stark just listened and made some smarmy comments every now and then. Talking with him was nice. Reminded him of being back home with his Mr. Stark. He was probably out there now fighting Thanos and reversing what he did.
"So in your world I dress up in a suit and call myself Iron Man? I would've picked a better name, but sure." He leaned back on his chair and put a hand on his chin, "Still, that arc reactor thing you mentioned...real interesting. Sounds like a miniature form of perpetual energy."
"I don't really know much about it." He read up on the research papers, yeah, but only Mr. Stark really knew about how it worked; and he was really tight lipped about it - it was his, after all. Same reason he didn't just give away the blueprints for all his suits...though maybe H.Y.D.R.A infiltrating half of S.H.I.E.L.D and large chunks of the government also had something to do with it.
"Well, whenever you get back to your world I'd love to talk to your Tony." He suddenly stood up, "Speaking of, break time's over. I gotta get back to work. You should probably be heading back. Don't wanna keep you past your bedtime."
"Hey-"
"Kidding, I'm kidding!" He pulled out a stack of bills and tossed it to Peter, "There's 10,000 bucks in there. Bit more than your usual rate, but I didn't call you over for selfies and ubers."
"Mr. Stark, I can't accept-"
"You're taking it." He pushed back Peter's hand and smiled, "I know you're a hero and everything, but money makes the world go round and round. There's a difference between being charitable and being a schmuck. I didn't get to be where I am by passing up opportunities. So take the money, take the five star review I'm gonna give you and buy yourself and that girlfriend of yours something nice. You earned it."
"I...thank you, Mr. Stark-"
"Hey, it's Tony. Mr. Stark's the guy who made nanobots. I don't get to be called that till I crack this thing." He looked back at his lab, "Speaking of, really should get back to it. Same time in two days?"
"Y-You bet, Tony!" Peter swung away feeling like he was the king of the world...again. He felt like the king of the world a couple days ago too. Speaking of... "Hey, Gwen." He grinned as soon as her face came up on the lower right half of his view. Attaching the phone to his mask really made things convenient. Gwen was really grateful too, "Busy?"
"Nah, just got finished putting Koalla Kommander back in his pen." A very Australian sounding voice screamed in the background at that. Peter hadn't said anything to her, but the crime rate from this place was weird. Back home he was 'lucky' if he ran into a mugger every couple of days...and one time it was just a couple roleplaying in public, which was embarassing.
Here it was almost non-stop action. Chances were he'd run into some bad guy who needed stopping in-between his gigs and he'd had to cancel at least a couple of jobs cause of some hostage situation, carjacking or a villain 'seeking to make his name'; villain's words, not his.
It just made it more infuriating that the city treated Gwen so badly. She'd been the only one who patrolled for years and they still tossed her into jail.
"Pete? You there?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, just nodded off for a bit." He stopped and stood on the side of a building, "So you wanna go on patrol together?"
"Sure. Let's meet at the usual place. I'll bring the snacks."
He swung over to their spot and waited a couple of minutes before Gwen arrived sans mask carrying corndogs, "So, how was your date with our friendly neighborhood PMC leader?"
"It was fine." Peter into the corndog with a slight frown. Gwen still didn't like the idea of him spending time with Mr- Tony, "We worked on the nanobots, actually. Check this out."
He handed her the corndog and tapped the spider insignia on his chest, "Iron Spider program activating," Karen said. The nanobots spread from the insignia to cover the rest of his body in a semi-metallic sheen. Gwen whistled and clapped, "Activating combat protocols." Four metallic arms jutted out of his back. That was one of the things Thanos broke back on Titan.
"Nice." Gwen nodded in approval and, with a huge grin on her face, four equally large tentacles jutted out of her back and made Peter jump, "Hey, you're not the only one with tricks. I don't have fancy nanobots, but Ven does alright for me."
"Should we activate Instant Kill mode? It might impress her!"
"No, Karen!" Gwen didn't react to the sudden outburst. She'd gotten used to his and Karen's arguments, "Just...make sure to tell me if there's anything in the suit needs fixing."
"All systems stable. I believe going on patrol to test it out would be prudent."
"Karen says I should use it, but I'm not sure purse snatchers really need it."
"I think I've actually got something for that." Gwen pulled out her phone and tapped the app, "I didn't say anything before, but one of my dad's old police buddies offered me a deal. Said that she'd give me a heads up on any high profile stuff that needs a Superhero touch in exchange for our usual rate. I told her we wouldn't accept payment for that kind of stuff but I still took the offer."
"Is she good for it?"
"Well, she told me about a group of Supervills who probably would've killed a bunch of cops if they went in there on their own, so yes." As if on cue, the app buzzed and she read the message quickly, "Okay, bad news. Bunch of gunmen robbing a hotel. Hostages in the lobby and they've already shot a couple of officers. This is...we gotta be really careful."
"I got it. Let's go."
They swung to the hotel in mutual silence and stopped at the top of a nearby building that afforded them a good view. There were SWAT vants and numerous officers already at the front, "Alright, here." Gwen crouched at the edge of the building with Peter next to her, "Jean says that there are at least a dozen gunmen and they have no idea where they're keeping the hostages. If they storm in now they'll start shooting."
"So we gotta make sure we don't get spotted. Got it." He put Karen on speaker mode.
"Peter, I can give you a scan of the building. Please raise your wrist." Karen said. He followed Karen's instructions and a 3D scale model of the the building appeared on his lenses, "According to the scan there are 24 gunmen. 12 in the lobby, 8 on various floors searching room to room and 4 guarding hostages in the basement. Might I suggest prioritizing their safety first?"
"I agree with her." Gwen nodded, "Look, we should split up. I'll go through the roof and take these guys done floor by floor while you help the hostages. We can meet up in the lobby when we're done. Sound good?"
"Sounds good. Oh, wait, hold on." He tapped both of his eye lenses and made two copies before handing them to her, "Here, this should let you see those guys and which floors they're at."
She pressed the lenses to her mask and the symbiote absorbed it, "Okay, good. See you later." She kissed him for a precious few seconds before winking and swinging her way to the roof without the police spotting her. Peter pulled down his own mask fully and and snuck into the back entrance. According to the blueprint scan the basement was just a couple of floors down.
"Peter, the stairway is booby trapped with proximity sensors." Karen said.
"Proximity sensors? What kind of robbers have proximity sensors?"
"We can deliberate later. I sent a message to Gwen to warn her as well. Might I suggest taking the elevator? The power for the lifts have been cut so it should be safe."
"Good idea." He pried open the doors quietly and wall-crawled his way down the two floors. He was almost down to the bottom when his mask-phone buzzed, "Gwen, you alright?"
"Yeah, just took down two of these guys. Thanks for the heads up on the sensors," she said quietly, "Listen, I don't think these guys are here to rob the place. Proximity sensors, body armor, these guns...these guys are professionals. And they're searching room to room but not taking any of the valuables. I think they're looking for someone in particular."
"Any idea who?"
"No, but- shit, I gotta go."
The call abruptly cut and Peter had to resist the urge to call her back. She'd be fine, "Focus, Spider-Man. Come on." He pried open the doors and his spider-sense rang. Peter let go and flipped back up just before the unmasked not-robber poked his head in with a confused look.
"What the-" He looked up and Peter webbed his mouth shut before yanking him up and webbing him to the wall. He had to remember to tell the cops before they turned everything back on.
Peter jumped to the floor and ignored the heavy feeling in his stomach. Gwen was right. He only caught a glimpse, but these guys weren't amateurs: bulletproof vests, heavy duty assault rifles and security gear. And no masks. Something like that wasn't a good sign. If the hostages saw their face they could be ID'd and were loose ends.
Meaning they didn't have much reason to leave em alive to talk.
Peter clung to the ceiling and crawled his way to the room slowly. There was a single guard at the door. He needed to keep him from calling out, "Hmm..." He saw a trashcan down the hall and took a deep breath, "Please work." He shot a ball of webbing and the metal bin fell over with a loud crash. The guard immediately raised the gun and stalked forward warily, making sure to check his corners.
Thankfully no one ever looked up.
Peter landed behind him, webbed his mouth shut then slammed him into the ground before covering him in webbing. Peter walked to the door before stopping. Both gunmen were facing the door, "Peter, I suggest against using the front door in order to lower the risk of the hostages being harmed." Yeah, there were a lot of them. Getting them out would be hard. Hopefully Gwen knew what to do with the ones still in the rooms.
"Any other ways in?"
"According to the blueprints there's a ventilation shaft close by."
"Uh...yeah, over there." He jumped up the wall and pried the vent open gently. Hope no one billed him for that, "How are we gonna get them up with the proximity sensors?"
"I suggest using the elevator again." Well, one by one would be slow, but it'd be safe. Beggars couldn't be choosers. He stopped on top on one of the lower vents and took another deep breath. He'd land right behind the two and in front of the hostages.
Okay, time to do this.
Peter pushed through the grate and landed on the floor with a soft thud, "Splitter web!" he whispered quickly. The two weblines reached them just as they both managed to around. Peter pulled and tugged the guns from their grips, "Stun web!" Balls of webbing rapidly fired from his other wrist and knocked the two not-robbers back before pinning them both to the wall.
Nailed it.
"Okay, we gotta go." He went up to the hostages and broke all their cuffs, "Everyone follow me and keep quiet-"
"W-We can't!" An older woman interrupted in a panic, "There's a bomb! If any of us leave the room it'll explode!" She pointed to the small box almost hidden in the corner and then another proximity sensor above the door.
"Peter, I would suggest against disabling the sensor. We have no idea if it would trigger a failsafe or killswitch of some kind," Karen said.
"Oh...crap. Hold on a second, okay?" He knelt in front of the bomb and held it gingerly. It was high tech definitely, more than just a block of TNT attached to a timer. Good news was it wasn't a high yieled explosive. Bad news was it was a chemical bomb, which may or may not be wors, "Oh crap, crap, crap! Uh, okay. Karen, you got anything?"
"We can use the nanobots to destroy the trigger mechanism. Afterwards we can wrap the chemicals in armor web to ensure it doesn't spill." Armor web? He didn't know he had that, but cool. He could do this.
"Alright, everyone stay back. I got this." He put his hand on top of the very dangerous and deadly explosive and slipped the nanobots inside. Good thing he (mostly) knew how to control them, "Really wishing I had Ant-Man's powers right now..." He followed Karen's instructions to the letter and hacked through the programs and failsafes. One mistake and they all went boom.
His phone rang again, "Pete, we have a problem."
"Uh, kinda busy here-"
"I'm scoping out the lobby now and these fuckers are planting bombs. I don't think they plan to leave anyone alive. We need to get these hostages out of there now."
"I-I got it!"
The room was deathly silent, the only sound being the the struggling of the stuck not-robbers and the occasional muffled sob. Peter narrowed his eyes and swallowed nervously as the two minute mark passed and then...
"Peter, we have successfully defused the bomb. "
"Oh thank god." He covered the entire bomb in reinforced webbing and stuck it to the floor. He stood up and faced the hostages again, "Okay, the bomb's disabled. We can leave now."
"H-How do we know it is? What if we step out that door and that thing explodes?" A man in a suit with graying hair asked.
"The bomb's disabled, but we can't stay here. Spider-Woman said these guys were planting bombs all over the lobby and we need everyone as far away from this thing as possible in case..." In case they couldn't stop it, "Sir, you have my word that this bomb is safe. If I'm lying then I'm dead too."
"Yeah, that's easy for you to say. That mask's probably gonna keep you safe."
"Incorrect. According to the analysis the bomb contents of the gas are corrosive to the skin and would push through most filters. Even with the suit we would still sustain some damage." Karen 'helpfully' chimed in, "We don't have enough nanobots to make protective covering for everyone. You'll have to get them to trust you, Peter."
'Easier said than done.' Peter braced himself and took off his mask. Some of their eyes widened when they saw his face, "Okay, I know you're all scared, but I need you to trust me. I just want to make sure you all make it out of this safely. Okay?" He pocketed the mask, "There, now I'm in as much risk as all of you. So, could we please leave before it's too late?"
An uncomfortable quiet settled over the group before they all eventually nodded in assent. Peter took a deep breath and made his way to the door first. He'd need to take the first step. He looked up at the sensor, took a deep breath and stepped under it.
Nothing.
"Come on, everyone." He led them back to the elevator and made multiple ropes back to the ground floor along with a cushion at the bottom just in case,, "Alright, everyone climb. If you need help then tell me." The most physically fit climbed first while Peter took the elderly and children on his back and carried them up. It was slow, as expected, but he just focused on getting them out.
Peter dropped back down and and looked to the last two. A man in his early 40's and a 10 year old girl, "Okay, just you two left." The little girl shrunk back and hid behind the man, "What's wrong?"
"She's scared." The man held onto the girl's shoulders tightly. Her father, maybe? "I'm sorry, it's...it hasn't been easy."
"No, no, no! I get it!" He smiled reassuringly and knelt in front of the little girl, "Hey. What's your name?"
"A...Abigail..." She replied softly.
"Well, Abigail, we need to get you and everyone else out of here so me and Spider-Woman can take care of the bad guys. Okay?" She didn't respond. Not good, "Okay, okay, just...just close your eyes and count to 10 and it'll be all over."
A few seconds of silence passed before she eventually nodded. The man started climbing one of the ropes while Peter stayed close by, "Daddy, are you there?"
"I'm here, Abi. Don't worry."
The climb was slower, but it was a small price to pay to ensure the girl remained calm. Peter set her down on the floor as soon as they were out of the elevator and put on his mask again. He tapped the side, "Gwen, I'm getting the people out. Where are you?"
"Just dealt with the last three. I'll meet you at the lobby."
"See you there."
Leading over a dozen scared and high strung people wasn't easy, but he managed; helped that the hallways were empty. Peter opened the door to the back and looked around warily, "Okay, just go to the front with the cops and they'll keep you safe." All of them ran whispering varying degrees of 'thank you's'. Peter made sure they were out of sight before calling Gwen again, "I'm going to the lobby. Where are you?"
"Second floor entrance. Make sure they don't see you."
He followed Gwen's location on the map - Thanks, Karen - and crouched next to her so they could look down on the not-robbers below, "Hey." He could tell she was smiling under her mask, "So I tried to interrogate the guys up top, but no dice. Definitely professionals. Common crims definitely wouldn't be so tight lipped."
"What are you thinking?"
"Mercenaries. The gear and their tactics aren't your friendly neighborhood rent-a-thugs." Her eyes narrowed, "We should take out the guy with the detonator first. Wanna make sure they don't set off anything."
"What about the hostages in the rooms?"
"Wasn't many, actually. Just half a dozen, and I got em all out. Someone rented out most of the rooms...which really makes me buy into my theory that they're looking for someone specific."
"We can deal with it later. Let's get these guys."
"You first, Pete."
Peter aimed at the leader and webbed the hand holding the detonator before he swung down and kicked the guy right in the jaw, "Shit! Code S-M one! Repeat, code S-M one-"
"We heard you the first time, buddy!" Gwen swung down, wrapped her thighs against the side of his head then flipped and slammed him him face-first against the ground.
Was it weird that he found that kinda hot?
It was utter pandemonium after that. Peter ejected two lines of webbing and ejected himself forward to one of the lone gunmen. He kicked him in the chest with both feet, flipped back and kicked another as he landed, "Activating combat protocols." The four arms jutted out of his back just in time for him to block the combat knife that another merc swung at him.
Gwen flipped back to avoid a barrage of gunfire from a guy with a submachine gun and landed on a table, "Careful with that." She yanked the web from his grip and smacked another merc in the face with it hard enough to knock him to the floor, "Sorry, not a fan of guns!" She webbed the prone mercenary to the floor then jumped to the wall to avoid more gunshots.
Peter disarmed the knife wielding mercenary and pinned him to the wall with a barrage of stun webbing just before his spider-sense rang, "Activating bullet shield." The spider arms slammed together in front of him and morphed into a shield. Bullets pinged harmlessly off the surface and Peter could only marvel at just how awesome the suit was.
Gwen kicked the gunman in the face and webbed him to the floor, "Hands of the Spider!" He nodded gratefully and shot off a taser web at the guy rushing at her back to stab her, "Thanks! Let's finish up!"
Peter focused on three gunmen standing in a row while Gwen took care of the rest, "Web grenade!" He tossed three balls of webbing above the threesome's heads. The tiny spheres exploded with a small pop and all three of them were bound and yanked to the ceiling, "Web mine." He shot it on the close by wall and it grabbed one the last mercenary trying to sneak out the back.
He looked to Gwen just when she'd spun and slammed another mercenary into the ground, "Nap time." She flipped back upright and looked around the lobby with an impressed whistle, "Huh, I'd say that's a job well done."
He didn't get a chance to quip something back before the door was kicked open and the SWAT team charged in guns drawn, "Hands in the air!" The leader screamed. Peter shared a look with Gwen before reluctantly raising his hands with her following. It wasn't the first time he'd been held up by the cops. Even back home it took a while before the police decided he wasn't a villain.
They walked closer warily and looked around the unconscious and webbed up mercenaries. An older woman in body armor suddenly walked through the door and got to them before the SWAT leader could say anything, "Gotta take both of your statements." Her eyes brooked no argument. Gwen nodded and they both followed her out, getting wary looks from most of the team as they did.
They didn't stop walking till they got on one of the cop cars, "You're welcome, Jean." Gwen crossed her arms and leaned against the hood of the vehicle while Peter scanned the nearby ambulances. He saw Abigail and waved, which she responded to with a shy smile and a wave of her own, "Do you really need our statements."
"Makes it easier, especially now that you're public." The woman - Jean - sighed and brought a hand through their hair, "Can't say you two did bad, though. All the hostages are out without a single fatality on either side."
"I think the term you're looking for is 'good job'," Gwen snarked back, though he caught a slight hint of annoyance in her tone.
"Yeah, good job." The woman smiled faintly, "Know what, you two can make your statements tomorrow. Go home and get some rest. You two look like you need it."
Gwen nodded gratefully and swung back home with Peter right behind her. Despite the awkward finish he felt great. People were safe, the bad guys were going to prison and no one got killed. It felt good. Gwen crawled through the window first and called out, "Hey Betts, you here?" No response. She said she'd be staying over at a classmate's house late for a project, so she must've still been gone, "Huh...looks like it's just the two of us."
"Yeah...seems like."
They hadn't actually talked about what happened a couple of nights ago. It wasn't like they pretended it didn't it didn't happen, it was just...how do you bring it up? 'Hey, so we had sex and it was kinda awkward cause it was our first time? Hahaha, so you wanna go get waffles?'. A couple of weeks ago he hadn't done more than kiss someone, and that was Betty on a really badly thought out spin the bottle game. At least it wasn't Flash...
"So...good job back there." Gwen shifted the costume to a more lax t-shirt and pajama pants as she picked up some sodas from the fridge, "I know I haven't said it a lot, but it's nice to have someone watching my back. I'm not sure I would've been able to do that on my own."
"Pfft, you kidding me? I just slowed you down." He took off his mask and leaned against the table in what he hoped was a really cool way, "You were amazing back there. This place is lucky to have you."
"Yeah, well, I doubt they think so." She opened one soda and tossed the other to him. She took a long sip of the carbonated drink then let out a relieved breath, "We gotta go and talk to Jean tomorrow. I can go myself if you still don't wanna show your face."
"Bit too late for that." He took his own drink, "Besides, perks with being from another dimension. Not much to hide." He looked down at his can and licked his lips, "So...can we talk? About two nights ago?"
Her cheeks reddened slightly, but she did her best to look confident, "Wh-What about? And I thought we already did after we-"
"N-No, that's not what I meant." He sighed. Why was this so hard? "It's just...I'm scared that maybe rushed into the whole thing and that you're having second thoughts."
"What? No, no! I mean...maybe we did rush into it, but I don't have any regrets." She smiled and sat on top of the table next to him, "Look, Pete...I'm not good at this relationship stuff, but I know I like you. Who cares if we fuck up sometimes? No one said we had to be flawless."
"Yeah...I get it. Thanks." Peter smiled, "So...could we sleep together? N-Not that way, I mean-"
"I know what you mean. Come on, I'm beat."
Peter finished off his drink and followed Gwen into her bedroom after changing into a shirt and shorts. Gwen went into the bed first with Peter following after slowly. The mattress was pretty small, but they were able to fit comfortably after he pressed closer and hugged her waist, "Night, Gwen..." He closed his eyes and pressed his face against the crook of her neck, lips curled up in a smile.
"Night, Pete..." She yawned and they both drifted off into a peaceful sleep.
And then the apartment exploded. Okay, not really, but I was pretty tempted to leave this on another cliffhanger like them meeting Matt, Harry calling them to explain what was happening on his end etc etc. But I figured it'd be better if the two actually had a no strings attached victory and romantic moment so here you go. We'll see if this keeps up.
Oh, and the two leads had sex. I know some people are gonna be put off, but I'm hoping they talked about it in a mature enough manner. I was also going to have them have sex again at the end of the chapter in a more 'proper' way rather than the implied rush job they had before, but hopefully them taking it slower is better paced and more romantic/healthy.
Questions:
1. Do you guys wanna see Gwen actually being jealous of the attention Peter receives from admirers and vice-versa? I've had them mention being jealous but never actually showed it apart from Gwen making some snarky remarks on Peter going out with Patsy Walker.
2. So how's the romance so far? Sweet? Cliche? Unrealistic? I'm still thinking I rushed it.
So yes, I do have plans, don't worry.
Oh, and I've had people really against the threesome. Message received, we'll just stick to the cinnamon roll romance.
Chapter 16: Date Night
So...he just had sex. Holy shit.
Peter looked up at the dark ceiling with a look of disbelief. The adrenaline and high had finally worn off and now the entirety of what he - what they - did finally set in. They had sex. He went right past four bases and did a home run and it was...
...Actually, it was kinda awkward. He'd watched porn (and Game of Thrones, which was close enough) to know the basics of it, but it didn't change the fact that both he and Gwen never did it before. The last person he liked was Liz and after she moved away he was too busy being Spider-Man to really get into the dating scene. And Gwen...after all the crap the city piled on her she didn't even think about dating or...the other thing. The most she'd done was kiss that Miles guy.
Who Peter was very much not jealous of. No sirree. He just kissed one of the most amazing girls on the multiverse, why would Peter be jealous?
Movement at his side drew his attention. He gave Gwen a sideways glance and saw that she was matching his expression point for point: eyes wide, slight look of disbelief and her lips slightly parted.
God, he wanted to kiss her again.
"So..." Peter started, looking back up at the ceiling again.
"Yeah..." Gwen replied, equally soft. Her hands held onto the edge of the blanket with only her head and shoulders exposed. Both of them were still in their birthday suits, "Was it, uh, was it good for you too?" It was such a cliche line, Classic Gwen, but there was no cocky smile or wink. Instead she looked like she wanted the earth to swallow her whole. He could relate.
"U-Uh, yeah! Totally! It's..." No, he had to be honest! Honest, damn it! "Uh...actually it was kinda awkward. I mean, it makes sense. It was...It was my first time." His cheeks flushed. He was a teenager and there was the typical peer pressure of losing the 'v card' at his age. Flash never stopped bragging once he got lucky after prom. Apparently his date felt bad that 'Spider-Man jacked his car'.
"You too, huh? I guess that explains it." Her eyes suddenly widened, "N-Not that I'm saying you were bad or anything! I mean that-"
Peter laughed and finally turned to face her. Gwen's face was equally flushed and it was odd...and amazing to see. Gwen always looked so confident, so in control. Seeing her like that made him feel less like a dork, as Michelle called him, "It's fine. We were...we're both new at this. Makes sense that it was kinda...off." Again, not bad, but there was definitely some things they could've done better.
Maybe trying to add webs right from the get go wasn't the best idea...
A sudden gurgling sounded through the dark room. Gwen covered her face with a pillow and groaned while Peter laughed again, "We did get kicked out of that restaurant," he said eventually, "Let's have a re-do. No fancy places, no snobs. Who cares about dressing up anyway?"
"...I know a good burger joint nearby. Owner likes me cause I stopped a robbery."
"Lead the way."
Ten minutes later and they were sitting across one another from the aptly named Burger Shack. Peter bit into the burger with a light hum and relished in the taste of bacon and the secret sauce, "This is the best, right?" Gwen asked. She had some sauce on her cheek and she looked adorable, in his humble and unbiased opinion, "Don't even know why we went to that fancy schmancy place."
"It was bright and shiny and we wanted it." He shrugged back lightly. Peter liked this place. The owner was nice, the prices were good and the few people who did recognize them were polite. Only two people asked them for selfies, and they both said please! "Personally I blame the money for corrupting us. All that evil, seductive money turned us into something we weren't: Scrooge McSpiders. It was...horrible."
"Yeah, okay." She snorted and kicked him lightly under the table, "So I'm thinking we can get some patrolling done after this. Night's young and I really wanna let off some steam." He hoped that wasn't a crack at his performance, "Besides, it's been a while since we went on patrol together. We've been so busy with the app." Yeah, it was getting bigger by the day. Betty even mentioned whether they should start taking jobs from companies.
Speaking of...
"So, uh, I was gonna go and visit Mr. Stark in a couple of days." Gwen immediately frowned at that and he winced, "He's not that bad."
"Pete, he hired Frank Castle. 'Nuff said." Yeah, he heard about him from Gwen. Apparently he was 'clown town curly fries', "I just...I know you told me about how awesome and great and basically your dad-"
"I didn't say that."
"-your Tony Stark is," she continued unabated, "All I'm saying is you should be careful. Just because someone's a good guy in one universe doesn't mean he's a good guy here. There's probably a reason S.H.I.E.L.D's keeping tabs on him. I mean I told you about my version of Cindy, right?" The one who drained her powers and tried to take over the world. Also one of Gwen's friends and a hero in another dimension.
"Yeah, you did, but...what if he is a good guy? I mean that Osborn guy was smuggling in lightsabers and you're still talking to him!" Or at least trying to. Still hadn't taken any of her calls.
"Yes, talking. I'm not offering up nanobots." She sighed, "Look, all I'm saying is be careful, but...I have your back."
"...Thanks." He got why she doubted, but he had a good feeling about this.
Two days later and he was in Stark Tower. Well, Gwen didn't say he couldn't, "Hey, Underoos! How's it going over there?" Peter sighed. Maybe showing up in full costume was a bad idea.
"Just fixing up the structural integrity!" he shouted back. The nanobots were amazing. He'd heard about Wakanda sharing their tech but he never actually got access to it cause, well, he was 16 years old at the time and he didn't have access to labs with extremely high funding. To think just ten years ago Mr. Stark needed to drag his full suit everywhere. So inconvenient.
"Peter, there's a slight tear on the upper left end," Karen chimed in. Peter nodded and started binding them together, "The structural integrity of the suit was compromised heavily by your fight on Titan. If we'd continued using the suit in the current state it had been in the nanobots might have started glitching. You might have appeared in your underwear in public, which would be very embarassing."
"Yeah...I guess?" She was going somewhere, and he didn't like it.
"Yes, very. Though, I suppose you've reached that stage and more with Gwen already-"
He singed a cluster of bots. Mr. Stark looked up from his own cluttered table and looked at him warily and Peter waved him off, "Not cool, Karen," he whispered. At Gwen's request he'd held off on telling Mr. Stark about her, which Karen agreed with. Apparently she liked the idea of being a unique AI in this dimension, "No one else knows, so can we stop talking about it?"
"Yes, I simply wanted to tell you of how proud I was. Gwen is a fine young woman and I know you make each other happy."
"Oh, well...thanks."
"Also, if you need any help for your performance I downloaded some articles on thrusting technique-"
He burned half the suit.
Almost six hours later (and after fixing the suit) he and Mr. Stark were having Chinese on the balcony with a nighttime view of the city. It was...nice. Mr. Stark back home was always too busy with stuff to ever actually get some tech stuff done. Peter couldn't believe this Mr. Stark had a PMC. He didn't have an arc reactor and he was always neck deep into some tech project whenever he came to visit. He probably didn't have time to run one.
"I gotta tell ya, kid, you're a genius. And coming from me that's saying something." Mr. Stark having an ego seemed pretty set in stone. It was charming, though. Like Thor's goofy grins whenever people took pictures, "This tech is...it's decades ahead of what we have over here. Just last week we were discussing being able to carry my tech in briefcases. Could you imagine that? Briefcases."
"Uh...happy to help."
"...Which leads me to believe you didn't just stumble onto this. Lemme guess, another dimension?" The masks on his eyes widened and Mr. Stark smirked, "I'll take that as a yes. Hey, don't be surprised. I read the Captain America comics when I was a lonely rich kid with parents who never paid attention to him. I know you're smart, but you're not that smart. Tech like this is out of this world- or this dimension, in this case."
"O-Oh, well..."
"That and I'm a genius. It's what I do." He set down his chow mein, "So, how'd you end up here? Dimensional portal? Rift in the fabric of reality?"
"Not...exactly."
Peter told him everything. About his dimension, his Mr. Stark, Thanos...it took almost an hour and that was after cutting out so many details." Mr. Stark just listened and made some smarmy comments every now and then. Talking with him was nice. Reminded him of being back home with his Mr. Stark. He was probably out there now fighting Thanos and reversing what he did.
"So in your world I dress up in a suit and call myself Iron Man? I would've picked a better name, but sure." He leaned back on his chair and put a hand on his chin, "Still, that arc reactor thing you mentioned...real interesting. Sounds like a miniature form of perpetual energy."
"I don't really know much about it." He read up on the research papers, yeah, but only Mr. Stark really knew about how it worked; and he was really tight lipped about it - it was his, after all. Same reason he didn't just give away the blueprints for all his suits...though maybe H.Y.D.R.A infiltrating half of S.H.I.E.L.D and large chunks of the government also had something to do with it.
"Well, whenever you get back to your world I'd love to talk to your Tony." He suddenly stood up, "Speaking of, break time's over. I gotta get back to work. You should probably be heading back. Don't wanna keep you past your bedtime."
"Hey-"
"Kidding, I'm kidding!" He pulled out a stack of bills and tossed it to Peter, "There's 10,000 bucks in there. Bit more than your usual rate, but I didn't call you over for selfies and ubers."
"Mr. Stark, I can't accept-"
"You're taking it." He pushed back Peter's hand and smiled, "I know you're a hero and everything, but money makes the world go round and round. There's a difference between being charitable and being a schmuck. I didn't get to be where I am by passing up opportunities. So take the money, take the five star review I'm gonna give you and buy yourself and that girlfriend of yours something nice. You earned it."
"I...thank you, Mr. Stark-"
"Hey, it's Tony. Mr. Stark's the guy who made nanobots. I don't get to be called that till I crack this thing." He looked back at his lab, "Speaking of, really should get back to it. Same time in two days?"
"Y-You bet, Tony!" Peter swung away feeling like he was the king of the world...again. He felt like the king of the world a couple days ago too. Speaking of... "Hey, Gwen." He grinned as soon as her face came up on the lower right half of his view. Attaching the phone to his mask really made things convenient. Gwen was really grateful too, "Busy?"
"Nah, just got finished putting Koalla Kommander back in his pen." A very Australian sounding voice screamed in the background at that. Peter hadn't said anything to her, but the crime rate from this place was weird. Back home he was 'lucky' if he ran into a mugger every couple of days...and one time it was just a couple roleplaying in public, which was embarassing.
Here it was almost non-stop action. Chances were he'd run into some bad guy who needed stopping in-between his gigs and he'd had to cancel at least a couple of jobs cause of some hostage situation, carjacking or a villain 'seeking to make his name'; villain's words, not his.
It just made it more infuriating that the city treated Gwen so badly. She'd been the only one who patrolled for years and they still tossed her into jail.
"Pete? You there?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, just nodded off for a bit." He stopped and stood on the side of a building, "So you wanna go on patrol together?"
"Sure. Let's meet at the usual place. I'll bring the snacks."
He swung over to their spot and waited a couple of minutes before Gwen arrived sans mask carrying corndogs, "So, how was your date with our friendly neighborhood PMC leader?"
"It was fine." Peter into the corndog with a slight frown. Gwen still didn't like the idea of him spending time with Mr- Tony, "We worked on the nanobots, actually. Check this out."
He handed her the corndog and tapped the spider insignia on his chest, "Iron Spider program activating," Karen said. The nanobots spread from the insignia to cover the rest of his body in a semi-metallic sheen. Gwen whistled and clapped, "Activating combat protocols." Four metallic arms jutted out of his back. That was one of the things Thanos broke back on Titan.
"Nice." Gwen nodded in approval and, with a huge grin on her face, four equally large tentacles jutted out of her back and made Peter jump, "Hey, you're not the only one with tricks. I don't have fancy nanobots, but Ven does alright for me."
"Should we activate Instant Kill mode? It might impress her!"
"No, Karen!" Gwen didn't react to the sudden outburst. She'd gotten used to his and Karen's arguments, "Just...make sure to tell me if there's anything in the suit needs fixing."
"All systems stable. I believe going on patrol to test it out would be prudent."
"Karen says I should use it, but I'm not sure purse snatchers really need it."
"I think I've actually got something for that." Gwen pulled out her phone and tapped the app, "I didn't say anything before, but one of my dad's old police buddies offered me a deal. Said that she'd give me a heads up on any high profile stuff that needs a Superhero touch in exchange for our usual rate. I told her we wouldn't accept payment for that kind of stuff but I still took the offer."
"Is she good for it?"
"Well, she told me about a group of Supervills who probably would've killed a bunch of cops if they went in there on their own, so yes." As if on cue, the app buzzed and she read the message quickly, "Okay, bad news. Bunch of gunmen robbing a hotel. Hostages in the lobby and they've already shot a couple of officers. This is...we gotta be really careful."
"I got it. Let's go."
They swung to the hotel in mutual silence and stopped at the top of a nearby building that afforded them a good view. There were SWAT vants and numerous officers already at the front, "Alright, here." Gwen crouched at the edge of the building with Peter next to her, "Jean says that there are at least a dozen gunmen and they have no idea where they're keeping the hostages. If they storm in now they'll start shooting."
"So we gotta make sure we don't get spotted. Got it." He put Karen on speaker mode.
"Peter, I can give you a scan of the building. Please raise your wrist." Karen said. He followed Karen's instructions and a 3D scale model of the the building appeared on his lenses, "According to the scan there are 24 gunmen. 12 in the lobby, 8 on various floors searching room to room and 4 guarding hostages in the basement. Might I suggest prioritizing their safety first?"
"I agree with her." Gwen nodded, "Look, we should split up. I'll go through the roof and take these guys done floor by floor while you help the hostages. We can meet up in the lobby when we're done. Sound good?"
"Sounds good. Oh, wait, hold on." He tapped both of his eye lenses and made two copies before handing them to her, "Here, this should let you see those guys and which floors they're at."
She pressed the lenses to her mask and the symbiote absorbed it, "Okay, good. See you later." She kissed him for a precious few seconds before winking and swinging her way to the roof without the police spotting her. Peter pulled down his own mask fully and and snuck into the back entrance. According to the blueprint scan the basement was just a couple of floors down.
"Peter, the stairway is booby trapped with proximity sensors." Karen said.
"Proximity sensors? What kind of robbers have proximity sensors?"
"We can deliberate later. I sent a message to Gwen to warn her as well. Might I suggest taking the elevator? The power for the lifts have been cut so it should be safe."
"Good idea." He pried open the doors quietly and wall-crawled his way down the two floors. He was almost down to the bottom when his mask-phone buzzed, "Gwen, you alright?"
"Yeah, just took down two of these guys. Thanks for the heads up on the sensors," she said quietly, "Listen, I don't think these guys are here to rob the place. Proximity sensors, body armor, these guns...these guys are professionals. And they're searching room to room but not taking any of the valuables. I think they're looking for someone in particular."
"Any idea who?"
"No, but- shit, I gotta go."
The call abruptly cut and Peter had to resist the urge to call her back. She'd be fine, "Focus, Spider-Man. Come on." He pried open the doors and his spider-sense rang. Peter let go and flipped back up just before the unmasked not-robber poked his head in with a confused look.
"What the-" He looked up and Peter webbed his mouth shut before yanking him up and webbing him to the wall. He had to remember to tell the cops before they turned everything back on.
Peter jumped to the floor and ignored the heavy feeling in his stomach. Gwen was right. He only caught a glimpse, but these guys weren't amateurs: bulletproof vests, heavy duty assault rifles and security gear. And no masks. Something like that wasn't a good sign. If the hostages saw their face they could be ID'd and were loose ends.
Meaning they didn't have much reason to leave em alive to talk.
Peter clung to the ceiling and crawled his way to the room slowly. There was a single guard at the door. He needed to keep him from calling out, "Hmm..." He saw a trashcan down the hall and took a deep breath, "Please work." He shot a ball of webbing and the metal bin fell over with a loud crash. The guard immediately raised the gun and stalked forward warily, making sure to check his corners.
Thankfully no one ever looked up.
Peter landed behind him, webbed his mouth shut then slammed him into the ground before covering him in webbing. Peter walked to the door before stopping. Both gunmen were facing the door, "Peter, I suggest against using the front door in order to lower the risk of the hostages being harmed." Yeah, there were a lot of them. Getting them out would be hard. Hopefully Gwen knew what to do with the ones still in the rooms.
"Any other ways in?"
"According to the blueprints there's a ventilation shaft close by."
"Uh...yeah, over there." He jumped up the wall and pried the vent open gently. Hope no one billed him for that, "How are we gonna get them up with the proximity sensors?"
"I suggest using the elevator again." Well, one by one would be slow, but it'd be safe. Beggars couldn't be choosers. He stopped on top on one of the lower vents and took another deep breath. He'd land right behind the two and in front of the hostages.
Okay, time to do this.
Peter pushed through the grate and landed on the floor with a soft thud, "Splitter web!" he whispered quickly. The two weblines reached them just as they both managed to around. Peter pulled and tugged the guns from their grips, "Stun web!" Balls of webbing rapidly fired from his other wrist and knocked the two not-robbers back before pinning them both to the wall.
Nailed it.
"Okay, we gotta go." He went up to the hostages and broke all their cuffs, "Everyone follow me and keep quiet-"
"W-We can't!" An older woman interrupted in a panic, "There's a bomb! If any of us leave the room it'll explode!" She pointed to the small box almost hidden in the corner and then another proximity sensor above the door.
"Peter, I would suggest against disabling the sensor. We have no idea if it would trigger a failsafe or killswitch of some kind," Karen said.
"Oh...crap. Hold on a second, okay?" He knelt in front of the bomb and held it gingerly. It was high tech definitely, more than just a block of TNT attached to a timer. Good news was it wasn't a high yieled explosive. Bad news was it was a chemical bomb, which may or may not be wors, "Oh crap, crap, crap! Uh, okay. Karen, you got anything?"
"We can use the nanobots to destroy the trigger mechanism. Afterwards we can wrap the chemicals in armor web to ensure it doesn't spill." Armor web? He didn't know he had that, but cool. He could do this.
"Alright, everyone stay back. I got this." He put his hand on top of the very dangerous and deadly explosive and slipped the nanobots inside. Good thing he (mostly) knew how to control them, "Really wishing I had Ant-Man's powers right now..." He followed Karen's instructions to the letter and hacked through the programs and failsafes. One mistake and they all went boom.
His phone rang again, "Pete, we have a problem."
"Uh, kinda busy here-"
"I'm scoping out the lobby now and these fuckers are planting bombs. I don't think they plan to leave anyone alive. We need to get these hostages out of there now."
"I-I got it!"
The room was deathly silent, the only sound being the the struggling of the stuck not-robbers and the occasional muffled sob. Peter narrowed his eyes and swallowed nervously as the two minute mark passed and then...
"Peter, we have successfully defused the bomb. "
"Oh thank god." He covered the entire bomb in reinforced webbing and stuck it to the floor. He stood up and faced the hostages again, "Okay, the bomb's disabled. We can leave now."
"H-How do we know it is? What if we step out that door and that thing explodes?" A man in a suit with graying hair asked.
"The bomb's disabled, but we can't stay here. Spider-Woman said these guys were planting bombs all over the lobby and we need everyone as far away from this thing as possible in case..." In case they couldn't stop it, "Sir, you have my word that this bomb is safe. If I'm lying then I'm dead too."
"Yeah, that's easy for you to say. That mask's probably gonna keep you safe."
"Incorrect. According to the analysis the bomb contents of the gas are corrosive to the skin and would push through most filters. Even with the suit we would still sustain some damage." Karen 'helpfully' chimed in, "We don't have enough nanobots to make protective covering for everyone. You'll have to get them to trust you, Peter."
'Easier said than done.' Peter braced himself and took off his mask. Some of their eyes widened when they saw his face, "Okay, I know you're all scared, but I need you to trust me. I just want to make sure you all make it out of this safely. Okay?" He pocketed the mask, "There, now I'm in as much risk as all of you. So, could we please leave before it's too late?"
An uncomfortable quiet settled over the group before they all eventually nodded in assent. Peter took a deep breath and made his way to the door first. He'd need to take the first step. He looked up at the sensor, took a deep breath and stepped under it.
Nothing.
"Come on, everyone." He led them back to the elevator and made multiple ropes back to the ground floor along with a cushion at the bottom just in case,, "Alright, everyone climb. If you need help then tell me." The most physically fit climbed first while Peter took the elderly and children on his back and carried them up. It was slow, as expected, but he just focused on getting them out.
Peter dropped back down and and looked to the last two. A man in his early 40's and a 10 year old girl, "Okay, just you two left." The little girl shrunk back and hid behind the man, "What's wrong?"
"She's scared." The man held onto the girl's shoulders tightly. Her father, maybe? "I'm sorry, it's...it hasn't been easy."
"No, no, no! I get it!" He smiled reassuringly and knelt in front of the little girl, "Hey. What's your name?"
"A...Abigail..." She replied softly.
"Well, Abigail, we need to get you and everyone else out of here so me and Spider-Woman can take care of the bad guys. Okay?" She didn't respond. Not good, "Okay, okay, just...just close your eyes and count to 10 and it'll be all over."
A few seconds of silence passed before she eventually nodded. The man started climbing one of the ropes while Peter stayed close by, "Daddy, are you there?"
"I'm here, Abi. Don't worry."
The climb was slower, but it was a small price to pay to ensure the girl remained calm. Peter set her down on the floor as soon as they were out of the elevator and put on his mask again. He tapped the side, "Gwen, I'm getting the people out. Where are you?"
"Just dealt with the last three. I'll meet you at the lobby."
"See you there."
Leading over a dozen scared and high strung people wasn't easy, but he managed; helped that the hallways were empty. Peter opened the door to the back and looked around warily, "Okay, just go to the front with the cops and they'll keep you safe." All of them ran whispering varying degrees of 'thank you's'. Peter made sure they were out of sight before calling Gwen again, "I'm going to the lobby. Where are you?"
"Second floor entrance. Make sure they don't see you."
He followed Gwen's location on the map - Thanks, Karen - and crouched next to her so they could look down on the not-robbers below, "Hey." He could tell she was smiling under her mask, "So I tried to interrogate the guys up top, but no dice. Definitely professionals. Common crims definitely wouldn't be so tight lipped."
"What are you thinking?"
"Mercenaries. The gear and their tactics aren't your friendly neighborhood rent-a-thugs." Her eyes narrowed, "We should take out the guy with the detonator first. Wanna make sure they don't set off anything."
"What about the hostages in the rooms?"
"Wasn't many, actually. Just half a dozen, and I got em all out. Someone rented out most of the rooms...which really makes me buy into my theory that they're looking for someone specific."
"We can deal with it later. Let's get these guys."
"You first, Pete."
Peter aimed at the leader and webbed the hand holding the detonator before he swung down and kicked the guy right in the jaw, "Shit! Code S-M one! Repeat, code S-M one-"
"We heard you the first time, buddy!" Gwen swung down, wrapped her thighs against the side of his head then flipped and slammed him him face-first against the ground.
Was it weird that he found that kinda hot?
It was utter pandemonium after that. Peter ejected two lines of webbing and ejected himself forward to one of the lone gunmen. He kicked him in the chest with both feet, flipped back and kicked another as he landed, "Activating combat protocols." The four arms jutted out of his back just in time for him to block the combat knife that another merc swung at him.
Gwen flipped back to avoid a barrage of gunfire from a guy with a submachine gun and landed on a table, "Careful with that." She yanked the web from his grip and smacked another merc in the face with it hard enough to knock him to the floor, "Sorry, not a fan of guns!" She webbed the prone mercenary to the floor then jumped to the wall to avoid more gunshots.
Peter disarmed the knife wielding mercenary and pinned him to the wall with a barrage of stun webbing just before his spider-sense rang, "Activating bullet shield." The spider arms slammed together in front of him and morphed into a shield. Bullets pinged harmlessly off the surface and Peter could only marvel at just how awesome the suit was.
Gwen kicked the gunman in the face and webbed him to the floor, "Hands of the Spider!" He nodded gratefully and shot off a taser web at the guy rushing at her back to stab her, "Thanks! Let's finish up!"
Peter focused on three gunmen standing in a row while Gwen took care of the rest, "Web grenade!" He tossed three balls of webbing above the threesome's heads. The tiny spheres exploded with a small pop and all three of them were bound and yanked to the ceiling, "Web mine." He shot it on the close by wall and it grabbed one the last mercenary trying to sneak out the back.
He looked to Gwen just when she'd spun and slammed another mercenary into the ground, "Nap time." She flipped back upright and looked around the lobby with an impressed whistle, "Huh, I'd say that's a job well done."
He didn't get a chance to quip something back before the door was kicked open and the SWAT team charged in guns drawn, "Hands in the air!" The leader screamed. Peter shared a look with Gwen before reluctantly raising his hands with her following. It wasn't the first time he'd been held up by the cops. Even back home it took a while before the police decided he wasn't a villain.
They walked closer warily and looked around the unconscious and webbed up mercenaries. An older woman in body armor suddenly walked through the door and got to them before the SWAT leader could say anything, "Gotta take both of your statements." Her eyes brooked no argument. Gwen nodded and they both followed her out, getting wary looks from most of the team as they did.
They didn't stop walking till they got on one of the cop cars, "You're welcome, Jean." Gwen crossed her arms and leaned against the hood of the vehicle while Peter scanned the nearby ambulances. He saw Abigail and waved, which she responded to with a shy smile and a wave of her own, "Do you really need our statements."
"Makes it easier, especially now that you're public." The woman - Jean - sighed and brought a hand through their hair, "Can't say you two did bad, though. All the hostages are out without a single fatality on either side."
"I think the term you're looking for is 'good job'," Gwen snarked back, though he caught a slight hint of annoyance in her tone.
"Yeah, good job." The woman smiled faintly, "Know what, you two can make your statements tomorrow. Go home and get some rest. You two look like you need it."
Gwen nodded gratefully and swung back home with Peter right behind her. Despite the awkward finish he felt great. People were safe, the bad guys were going to prison and no one got killed. It felt good. Gwen crawled through the window first and called out, "Hey Betts, you here?" No response. She said she'd be staying over at a classmate's house late for a project, so she must've still been gone, "Huh...looks like it's just the two of us."
"Yeah...seems like."
They hadn't actually talked about what happened a couple of nights ago. It wasn't like they pretended it didn't it didn't happen, it was just...how do you bring it up? 'Hey, so we had sex and it was kinda awkward cause it was our first time? Hahaha, so you wanna go get waffles?'. A couple of weeks ago he hadn't done more than kiss someone, and that was Betty on a really badly thought out spin the bottle game. At least it wasn't Flash...
"So...good job back there." Gwen shifted the costume to a more lax t-shirt and pajama pants as she picked up some sodas from the fridge, "I know I haven't said it a lot, but it's nice to have someone watching my back. I'm not sure I would've been able to do that on my own."
"Pfft, you kidding me? I just slowed you down." He took off his mask and leaned against the table in what he hoped was a really cool way, "You were amazing back there. This place is lucky to have you."
"Yeah, well, I doubt they think so." She opened one soda and tossed the other to him. She took a long sip of the carbonated drink then let out a relieved breath, "We gotta go and talk to Jean tomorrow. I can go myself if you still don't wanna show your face."
"Bit too late for that." He took his own drink, "Besides, perks with being from another dimension. Not much to hide." He looked down at his can and licked his lips, "So...can we talk? About two nights ago?"
Her cheeks reddened slightly, but she did her best to look confident, "Wh-What about? And I thought we already did after we-"
"N-No, that's not what I meant." He sighed. Why was this so hard? "It's just...I'm scared that maybe rushed into the whole thing and that you're having second thoughts."
"What? No, no! I mean...maybe we did rush into it, but I don't have any regrets." She smiled and sat on top of the table next to him, "Look, Pete...I'm not good at this relationship stuff, but I know I like you. Who cares if we fuck up sometimes? No one said we had to be flawless."
"Yeah...I get it. Thanks." Peter smiled, "So...could we sleep together? N-Not that way, I mean-"
"I know what you mean. Come on, I'm beat."
Peter finished off his drink and followed Gwen into her bedroom after changing into a shirt and shorts. Gwen went into the bed first with Peter following after slowly. The mattress was pretty small, but they were able to fit comfortably after he pressed closer and hugged her waist, "Night, Gwen..." He closed his eyes and pressed his face against the crook of her neck, lips curled up in a smile.
"Night, Pete..." She yawned and they both drifted off into a peaceful sleep.
And then the apartment exploded. Okay, not really, but I was pretty tempted to leave this on another cliffhanger like them meeting Matt, Harry calling them to explain what was happening on his end etc etc. But I figured it'd be better if the two actually had a no strings attached victory and romantic moment so here you go. We'll see if this keeps up.
Oh, and the two leads had sex. I know some people are gonna be put off, but I'm hoping they talked about it in a mature enough manner. I was also going to have them have sex again at the end of the chapter in a more 'proper' way rather than the implied rush job they had before, but hopefully them taking it slower is better paced and more romantic/healthy.
Questions:
1. Do you guys wanna see Gwen actually being jealous of the attention Peter receives from admirers and vice-versa? I've had them mention being jealous but never actually showed it apart from Gwen making some snarky remarks on Peter going out with Patsy Walker.
2. So how's the romance so far? Sweet? Cliche? Unrealistic? I'm still thinking I rushed it.
- Location
- England
So, never did tell them about the guy webbed to the elevator shaft wall.
1. - not overly so. If it feels natural maybe a little, but Gwen has her boy.
2. - love the romance so far. Keep it going. Let me know if you elaborate on "using webs" over on a QQ thread as I would love to read it.
2. - love the romance so far. Keep it going. Let me know if you elaborate on "using webs" over on a QQ thread as I would love to read it.
Chapter 17 - And Update
For people who PM'd and asked if I abandoned the fic: no I did not, but please understand I have a far harder time writing this compared to Madhouse Blues so gaps are to be expected. Also that this fic wasn't meant to last this long. I only took it as a request someone made and didn't expect it to last more than 5 chapters; 10 at most. So yeah, I'm not feeling pretty stretched thin here.
With that said I'm ramping up to finish this fic within hopefully 5 or so chapters so we can move on to the sequel with Gwen being temporarily trapped in the MCU and involved in Far from Home. That should be a bit easier to write since that has an established plotline and the fun will be in how much I can change things.
And since people are asking for clarification, I have two endings. The first one is the canon Endgame ending with Gwen added while the two leads are still the same age - this leads to the sequel fic. The second one is a Spiderized version where Peter ages the 5 years normally and comes back to the MCU as an adult alongside the Web Warriors to fight Thanos. Both are mutually exclusive and I'm doing both, one after the other. Okay? Okay. Hope that clarifies it for people who ask what my plans are.
Side note - Yes I heard about the MCU Spidey split and I don't have much thoughts on it, so no need to bring it up. I'll let future films come before making a decision.
Chapter 17: An Update
"So you're dating jailbait Peter? Do I have that right?"
Gwen sighed and resisted the growing urge to push Cindy off the construction beam they were both sitting on. It'd been a while since she hung out with her and Jess so she thought, hey, why not hang out with the only female Spider-friends she had that weren't either alternate versions of her or Peter's daughters/clones/cousins/aunts. Honestly she didn't know why she hadn't done it sooner.
Then Cindy opened her mouth and she remembered why.
"He's 17, Cindy. And it's not like I'm 40..." She liked Cindy, she really did, but the older (yeah, right) Spider had a habit of putting her foot in her mouth. The bunker excuse could only last so long before she eventually called BS. She failed to see how being trapped in a bunker meant saying the most insulting shit without thinking twice and expecting everyone to be cool with it.
"Still, isn't it kinda weird? I mean that'd be like you dating the Peter from our dimension."
"Completely different, Cin, and you know it," Gwen shot back hotly. She knew their relationship would look...off considering her history, but she was willing to deal with it. If there was one good thing about being drafted to fight inter-dimensional Vampires it was understanding just how different things could be. Like finding out one version of Peter was journalist with a chip on his shoulder (lookin' at you, Noir) or that in a lot of worlds MJ ended up being a supermodel. Or a stripper. That last one gave Mayday nightmares for a week.
Her Peter was different from...'her' Peter. Ugh, this was confusing, "Leave her alone, Cindy. No need to drudge up that can of worms," Jessica said, her English accent cutting through the occasional chirping of birds and construction workers below, "I don't think either of us have any room to judge considering I'm dating a reformed Supervillain and you're going out with your ex-highschool boyfriend who's currently a ghost."
"Wait, seriously?" Gwen gave Cindy a look, "How exactly do the two of you..."
"..." Cindy's expression made it very clear she didn't enjoy the line of questioning.
So of course Gwen kept pressing. Fair was fair.
"No seriously, like do the two of you just sit next to each other and use your imagination or is it just like a thing where he can possess stuff and-"
"We don't sleep together, okay?" Cindy huffed in frustration, "The only time he can get solid is when he's fighting and the last time I was able to hug him was when he tackled me. We're trying to make it work."
"And you called my relationship weird because...?"
"She's got you there, Cindy." Jessica hummed.
"Alright, alright. Sorry, still not used to this whole girl talk thing-"
"Cause you spent 10 years in a bunker? Yes, we know."
"Actually I was gonna say it's cause I didn't have any girl friends back in high school and you're the first - and probably only - ones I have right now, but sure, that works too." Great, now Gwen kinda felt bad. Thankfully her next words removed any guilt, "Your thing is still weird though. I mean how's it gonna work when he goes back? Do you guys have interdimensional skype or something?"
"Everyone uses Discord these days, Cin," Jessica said, "Still, she does have a point. Long term relationships when you're separated by dimensions is a complicated affair. Even with the portal watches you'll need to to make compromises eventually."
"Yeah, eventually. I'm 20 years old, Jess. I'm pretty sure I don't have to think about buying a house yet." She rolled her eyes. This was the problem when most of her super friends were old enough to have kids and get the wedding bells. Even Cindy was pushing 30, though you wouldn't be able to tell that given how she looked and acted.
"Change of topic then," Jess said, "How's life as an unmasked hero now that you've sold out and stole Luke's shtick?" She smirked down at her.
"Very funny, Jess." Gwen rolled her eyes, "App's doing pretty well 're really swamped nowadays and the money's not bad. Pete's actually out right now doing some more gigs. I'll join him later." Honestly she wasn't sure why they still did it. They probably had enough to pay rent for the next ten years or go on vacation to Hawaii or something.
"You planning to go back to college?" Cindy asked.
"Do you?"
"Yeah, actually. Mom saved my old application letters so I just gotta tweak some stuff around. Thinking of going to journalism." Cause apparently her Jameson wasn't a ginormous asshole. Her and Noir's. Just another reminder how weird the multiverse is, "Maybe it sounds weird coming from me but you should really plan your future out. You never know when you'll lose that time..."
"And now we're getting to the heavy stuff." Jessica sighed, "Come on, let's go swing around and see if anyone needs a good punching. That should cheer us up." Jessica spun off the beam and let herself fall before either of them could say anything. Gwen and Cindy shared a look before the latter shrugged and fell too. Gwen just sighed and went after them.
Two hours later and she was taking up another gig. Another armored car escort, this time for Starktech - one van with a bunch of cars as support. No idea why Stark needed outside help to guard his stash but she wasn't complaining. She promised Peter she'd give Stark a chance and this counted. Let it never be said that she didn't compromise for the people she lov-
...
She almost missed her next swing. The blonde Spider shouted slightly in surprise and stopped at a nearby lamppost as the truck slowed for the red light. Love...huh. She'd said it a lot of times, jokingly or not. She loved her dad, she loved her friends...she loved Peter. Her Peter, the one who turned himself into a lizard. But she loved him like he was family. She didn't - couldn't - feel the same way for him that he did for her. For Spider-Woman.
"You're thinking too much, Stacy..." She swung again and rounded the corner slightly ahead of the van. She might have been a superhero who went to prison but she was still barely past her teens. Thinking about the L word or planning ten years into the future wasn't what people her age did.
Then again, making hero for hire apps wasn't what most people her age did either. She should've been going to classes and bitching about professors who gave out way too much work. She should've been blowing off her homework and sneaking into clubs with fake ID's. She definitely shouldn't have been following around an armored car to protect the business of a guy she didn't even like.
But it wasn't like she could be normal, not after that bite. Back when she first got her powers she relished being special. Even if she was still wearing a mask she loved the feeling of being above everyone else. Showing up on talkshows, swinging above crowds in Times Square. She loved it, loved the freedom it gave her, loved the feeling of being untouchable. She was more than Gwen Stacy - she was Spider-Woman.
And then Peter died and she still refused to be normal. She'd call it guilt, Murderdock would call it pride. Then she punched him in the face and felt better for a bit, "Help!" Her head snapped to the source of the sudden scream and she cursed when she saw a hooded man shove an old lady and steal her purse.
"Seriously?" She sighed and diverted to stop it. Peter was confused those first few days when he saw just how much crime there was in the city. Apparently back in his home he'd be 'lucky' if he ran into a bicycle thief. Hah, yeah, and she'd be lucky if she went through a day without seeing about half a dozen muggings, a couple of assaults and, if she was really 'lucky', another Supervill trying to mess things up for everyone.
She webbed the guy to the sidewalk and snatched up the purse, "Yoink." She swung back around and dropped it into the startled old lady's arms, "Call the police!" she said before swinging out of sight. Now maybe she could-
"Where the hell are you?" The van driver, Roland, growled through her mask phone (another free upgrade Peter got her). He wasn't a friendly guy and his voice sounded like someone who smoked ten packs and washed it down with gravel, which made him talking into her ear unpleasant.
"Yeah, sorry, there was this guy stealing this lady's purse-"
"We paid you to guard the van, not wander off and play Superhero. Do your job." He cut the call. Gwen grunted in annoyance and followed after the van again. Technically he was right, but hearing him growl right next to her still pissed her off something fierce. After this she'd definitely cut back on the bodyguard gigs. This city was way too chaotic to just focus on protecting one person.
She'd barely caught sight of the van before her spider-sense rang, "What the fu-" The van exploded. Gwen's eyes widened and she dodged to the side to avoid the next bomb that exploded just inches from her left, "Woah!" Time slowed down as her spider-sense activated again. Hands twisting on instinct, she aimed both webshooters to her sides and pushed twice. There was a chunk of bladed metal heading towards a small group of people and another headed straight down the road towards the cars behind the van.
Her web snagged the hunks of metal right before they made impact. Time returned to normal and the sounds of screams and screeching metal bombarded her ears, "What the fuck was that?!" Roland screamed. Gwen ignored him and tugged the hunks of metal up to the wall before webbing them to the surface, "Spider-Woman, did you see anything!"
"No, and screaming really isn't helping right now!" More bombs came from nowhere and shot towards her like bullets. She webbed up a wide net, caught the explosives then tossed them in the air, "You and your guys need to leave before you get blown up!"
"Not happening!" She almost banged her head against the wall when he and the rest of the team stepped out of the cars guns raised.
"Are you an idiot?! There's some invisible asshole chucking bombs! Get out of here!"
"Mr. Stark paid us to secure his product!"
"The product's toast or do not see the burning van?!"
He didn't answer and charged towards said flaming vehicle. Gwen cursed under her breath and swung close just in time to see another half a dozen bombs materialize just above them, "Watch out!" She made a net above them and tossed it up in the air again. This time it barely got past the rooftops before it exploded and Gwen was close enough that she felt the heat rush over her.
Gwen screamed and clung to the wall desperately to avoid falling to the ground, her breaths coming out in ragged gasps. The symbiote came with a lot of pluses but being fireproof definitely wasn't one of them, "Secure the package!" Roland shouted. Gwen looked down and found them pushing through the wreckage to pulled out the (somehow still intact) box.
Spider-sense.
She saw them now. Goblins on gliders - the same ones she and Peter fought all those weeks ago. Gwen grit her teeth and pushed off the wall to swing towards them. This time she was going to get answers.
"Package secured. Rendezvousing at alternative-"
The goblins all came down. Gwen kicked the closest one hard enough to take off its head and slammed it to the ground, "Run!" She punched another's head off and dodged to the side to avoid the overhead slash from the laser sword. Gwen kicked it out of its hands and cut through the chest of two more Goblin bots. So nice of whoever this was to color code the bots from the humans.
Screams from behind. Gwen cut down another bot and looked back only to be met with three of the security team, Roland included, being picked up by bots and taken to the air, "Hold on!" She swung up and took out the lowest bot then tossed the rent-a-guard to the nearest rooftop. The rest of the team aimed their guns but didn't fire, probably afraid of shooting the others.
"Get the package! Get the-"
"Give it a rest, Treece!" Gwen saved the second guy then swung towards Treece. The goblin bot turned around briefly and then, with mocking, mechanical chuckle, dropped the bearded security officer before flying away. Gwen grit her teeth and and caught Roland mid-fall with one hand and shot a line of webbing with the other. Not her best, but at least no one died (van was automated).
Roland pushed off her and ran to the van as soon as they were gone, "...It's gone." She looked past him to the still-flaming wreckage where, sure enough, the package was gone. One of the goblin bots must've took it while they weren't looking, "You idiots!" He rounded on the rest of the men, eyes wide and red, "Did none of you think to do your jobs?!"
"Hey, don't be too hard on them. They were just-"
"You're not exempt!" He stomped towards her and pocked her in the chest hard, "Them I can sort of understand, but what's your excuse for failing your task?"
"Excuse me?" Gwen batted his hand away a bit harder than she intended. To his credit he didn't flinch at all, "I literally just saved you and the rest of your men!"
"Your job was to secure the package, not play hero." She grit her teeth and resisted the urge to shove him away when he drew closer, "Next time do your job, hero."
"Oh, I'm sorry, you're right: I should've just let you and the rest of your guys go splat." She rolled her eyes while he glared down at her, "You know what, screw this. Gimme a bad review, I don't care. Have fun doing this on your own."
He looked like was going to scream something but she swung away before he could. She made sure to swing around the block to make sure if anyone needed help (nope) before swinging around aimlessly. She was angry, and whenever she saw her reflection on the passing windows she saw the eyes of her mask had sharpened and moved. The symbiote was angry too.
She stopped at a high up rooftop and took a deep breath, "Calm down..." Her eyes returned to normal and the suit stopped lurching all across her body. So that Treece guy was a jerk and ungrateful on top of it, so what? So was Jameson and half of this city. She'd dealt with it before and she'd be dealing with it again and again. If she let every jerk with a chip on his shoulder get her down she'd never get anything done.
Her phone suddenly rang. Her first thought was either Peter or Betty but the 'Unknown Number' flashing on the screen removed any thought of that, "Better not be another 'fan'..." Some asshole leaked her phone details when she got out of prison and she got non-stops calls and messages till she got a new secure line. Thank God her dad still had some police friends who had experience with this kind of thing.
There was nothing but the sounds of pants on the other end - another creep. Gwen was about to end the call and already planning to change numbers when a voice suddenly spoke, "Gwen..."
"...Harry?"
"Yeah..." He panted again. Gwen tried to ignore how familiar this all was, "Listen, I...we need to meet."
"Y-Yeah, of course. Where do you-"
"Not today. Gotta shake off her trail first."
"What are you- do you need help? I can-"
"The playground near the Parker house, tomorrow night. I'll be there. Please be there too."
The call ended before she could say anything back. Gwen looked down at the brightly lit screen and stuffed it into her pocket, "Damn it, Harry..." She took another deep breath and swung away to look for something to take her mind off things.
"So how long do ya think it'll be before you go back?"
Peter looked up from his experiment board and looked to Mr. Sta- Tony, "Huh?" It was the first time Tony had said anything since they got to work, which Peter didn't mind. He totally got it. When you were into your work you couldn't focus on anything else. He'd almost gotten caught by May more times than he wanted to admit cause he was tweaking his webshooters or mask.
Or because he put on the suit and didn't realize she was right behind him...
"When are ya leaving?"
"Wanna get rid of me already?" Peter smiled. It was easier to joke around with Tony. He was younger - the same age Mr. Stark was when he first became Iron Man - and he didn't have as much on his belt to make Peter felt intimidated.
"What? Me? Perish the thought." He waved a hand holding a laser through the air, which Peter considered more than a little careless, "I'm actually wondering how long I'll have you here. I'm not exaggerating when I say you're the best lab assistant I've had in a while. Everyone else I try to get into this it's in one ear out the other. Feel like I'm taking with a brick wall."
"Yeah, uh...that was kinda how like my Mr. Stark felt sometimes too." He was a lot less polite about it, though. The drinking didn't help, "But to your question, uh...I guess it depends on when my friends can find a way back for me." They were pretty tight lipped about what was going on over there. He didn't mind - he trusted they'd tell him when the time was right.
"Guess I'll have you around for a while then." He grinned, "Food break?"
"Yeah, I'm starving." He shucked off the goggles and stretched his arms above his head. He told Gwen he'd be taking gigs so she didn't know he was here. Technically Tony was paying him for his help so this counted, "What do we have?"
"Italian."
"Nice." He took the offered spaghetti and sat on his seat. It was odd how quickly eating with Tony Stark and working on nanobots had become. Most days he didn't even wear his costume anymore. He even went through the front door - Tony gave him a card for personal friends, "So, I'm curious. You really don't know Pepper Potts here?"
"Nope, not ringing any bells." He shrugged and dug into his own lasagnia, "There was a Piper I dated a couple of years ago. Leggy blonde, green eyes. That close?"
"No, definitely not." Peter breathed out softly. It wasn't that odd, he supposed. In this world he was Gwen Stacy's dead best friend but back home she was just a foreign exchange student he didn't really talk to. Both their dads were police chiefs, though, which was funny, "Oh, alright, how about Justin Hammer?"
"That old guy? Yeah, we bought out his company ages go. He's on the board now but it's more ceremonial."
"Huh, my Justin Hammer was, like, 30. And he was working with a Russian terrorist."
"Your home sounds like a weird place."
"Hey, you're a Superhero over there."
"Like I said: weird. Not bad though." He wiped some sauce off his white tanktop and Peter looked at where the arc reactor should've been. This world's Tony Stark didn't get into an accident, didn't get shrapnel near his heart.
Didn't become Iron Man.
"Hey, kid, I know I'm good looking but my eyes are up here."
"Huh? Oh, yeah, sorry just..."
"Thinking about your Tony?" Peter nodded, "Yeah, he sounds like a great guy. I mean, bolting a miniature reactor to his chest to keep himself from going out? Sounds like the kind of thing I'd do." He grinned, "I mean I wouldn't try it on myself, but I'm not the one who got almost blown up."
"Yeah..."
"Hey, speaking of alternate dimensions, how's your relationship with Spider-Gwen going?"
"Wh-What? Where did that come from..."
"I'm just curious. Tabloids've been going on and on about New York's premier super couple...actually, you're New York's only super couple. Captain America's celibate so you two are the only ones people can look to for juicy gossip. So gimme the details. I read that co-workers gossip all the time and it apparently helps them work together better."
"You sure about that?"
"Won't know if we don't try." Tony shrugged.
"Well...it's going okay." Peter stirred his noodles, "Things didn't go so well when we went to a fancy restaurant. We thought it'd be great and we could spend some of the money we were making, but..." He bit his lower lip, "The people there were...they hated Gwen. They didn't want to serve her food and the way they looked at her..." It still made his blood boil thinking about it. All she did and that was the thanks she got?
"Yeah, I figured." Tony sighed, "Listen up, kid: people hate success. I dunno what food joint you went to but chances are it's full of spoiled little trust fun kiddies or old, corrupt scrooges who stepped on everyone else to get to where they are. People like those, they're scared of what real success and power looks like, and the best thing they can do is look down from those big noses of theirs because what the hell else are they gonna do? Admit that all the money in the world doesn't actually help them look at themselves in the mirror without hating what they see?"
"You...sound like you're talking from experience."
"What? Me? One of the biggest trust fund kids on the planet who everyone thinks just inherited daddy's money? Course not." Tony grinned, "I'll admit one of the reasons I'm real excited about this nanotech biz is cause it'll be my legacy. Well, kinda. Technically it's the me from another dimension, but I get points for refining it!"
"Haha, you really are like the Mr. Stark I know."
"So you've said." He set down his food, "But hey, if you wanna cheer your girl up I suggest doing the netflix and chill all you kids are doing nowadays. And maybe a massage, girls like those."
"Mmm, I think what'd cheer her up more is finding out about that Goblin guy..." Peter set down his own food. Suddenly he wasn't feeling hungry, "We've been looking for leads but so far we haven't found anything." Gwen was getting worried. It was clear by now that Shadowcat had completely cut them out and any attempts to make contact with her or Mr. Osborn ended up with them getting stonewalled.
"Huh...I might be able to help with that, actually."
"Wait, really?"
"Yeah. I didn't wanna say anything earlier, but I hired Spider-Gwen through your app to escort one of my vans carrying some real high tech stuff. And don't bother asking what it was cause if I told you I'd have to kill you."
"Uh...right."
"Anyway, the van got hit by some suits of armor on gliders. Look familiar?" He raised the phone screen and Peter frowned at the image. It was pretty blurry but he saw the orange goblins all too clearly, "They got away with the package and I have a sneaking suspicion on who's funding these things."
"Who?"
"Norman Osborn." Peter blinked. That...was not what he expected, "He was the only one who knew I was going to deliver something and he's got good reason to wanna see me fail. Starktetch's the only company that can really hold a handle on Oscorp. That package was really important and without it Ozzie's got a sudden leg up on me. Fancy coincidence, huh?"
"But...are you really sure it's him? We talked about how it could've been his son Harry-"
"Harry Osborn? Yeah, I heard about that. Kid turned himself Goblin to get revenge on Spider-Woman." He clicked his tongue, "But no, I doubt it's him. You do know that those gliders and swords are Oscorp tech, right? Sure ol' Normie went on and on about how they were 'stolen' weeks ago, but if you ask me he's just covering his tracks. It's what I'd do."
"I...I dunno about this. Gwen really trusts him."
"All the better to stab her in the back. It's the people you trust the most that you never suspect. Why do you think she never saw it coming when both her best friends turned into Supervillains." Peter bit his lip and didn't say anything. It was a callous thing to say, but he wasn't wrong. Both Harry and the other Peter really messed up Gwen's life, "You want my advice? Check Osborn. I'm sure you'll find something worthwhile."
"I...yeah, I will."
"Good, cause I want that package back. And remember, no peeking or." He mimicked slicing his neck and Peter laughed under his breath, "What? I'm a businessman, Peter, so I needed something to make this worthwhile. Lucky for you Osborn stealing my stuff means I've got a lot of interest in you putting him behind bars."
"If it's him."
"Oh, it's him. My gut's never wrong about these things." He winked and stood, "Now come on, we gotta finish up. We're finally making progress on those self-replicators."
They worked on the nanobots for the rest of the afternoon before Peter swung back home with another wad of thousand dollar bills in his pocket. He really needed to treat Betty and Gwen to something, "Hey, I'm back." He slunk in through the window and took off his mask. Murderface looked up from his place on the bed and narrowed his eyes at him. That's how you know he likes you, according to Betty. Peter still kept a respectable distance away.
Gwen was asleep on the couch wearing her full costume sans mask. Peter smiled and opened the fridge to cook dinner. Betty was going out to dinner with her older brother so it was just the two of them. It didn't take long for Gwen to smell the food and wake up, "...You cooking bacon at night?"
"Yeah, something wrong?"
"No, just make sure to add some eggs." She shifted in place till her face was hidden from view.
"So...I heard you got a gig earlier."
"Yeah, working for your pal Stark. Didn't go so well." He could practically see the frown on her face, "Guy leading the entire thing's one of those 'mission at any cost types'. I save him and his team from going splat and the guy tells me I should've kept my eyes on the van. Ugh..."
"Guessing we didn't get paid for that?" Not that he minded much. He and Gwen mutually agreed fancy dinners were off the table till they found a place that wasn't filled with, sorry Aunt May, total fucking assholes.
"Nah, Stark sent over the money and even said sorry for that guy. Said he was just really into his job. Even thanked me for saving his guys."
"See? He's nice."
"If you say so..." Peter's brows furrowed. Why did she trust Mr. Osborn but not Tony? Sighing, Peter flipped the bacon and didn't say anything else. He didn't want to argue with her over it, especially after what Tony told her. Convincing her that Mr. Osborn was responsible was gonna be a heck of a thing.
Soon enough he'd finished cooking and they sat side by side on the couch watching a show in lieu of going to the dining table. Peter did his best to focus on his food and not on how warm Gwen was or how they blanket they shared forced them to stick to each other like glue. Even though they'd already done more than this a few days ago he still couldn't help but feel a little nervous.
He looked to to side and found Gwen engrossed in the show (some kind of teenage detective drama). Eventually she caught his stare and looked up at him with a smile, "What's up?"
"Uh, nothing, just..." he trailed off.
"Something wrong?"
"N-No, just...thinking about back home." It wasn't really a lie. He always thought about home, "I mean they told me that Aunt May was gone, and ...I don't really know how to feel about that. If she's like me then maybe she's out there in the multiverse too, you know? But what if she isn't and I'm just-"
"Hey..." Gwen held his hand and squeezed it gently, "We'll get your friends back, okay? We'll kick that Thanos guy's big purple ass and then we'll get that weird gauntlet thing and wish everyone back. It'll be okay."
"Yeah..." He squeezed her hand back, "I really gotta thank you again, Gwen. I mean if I never met you and the others I'd just be-"
"Hey, enough of that." She flicked him on the nose, "Seriously, you've thanked me how many times now? I get it, you're grateful and...I'm grateful too. I'm happy that I met you." Peter's face suddenly felt hot, "I mean I know our...relationship isn't normal, but honestly who cares? I like how we are and I like you. Screw Jess and Cindy for making it weird."
"Wh-What did they say?"
"They were going on and on about how difficult an alternate dimension relationship is. But hello? Portal watches! It's way faster than taking the bus!" She huffed, "And then they said something about how one of us'll have to move eventually if we wanna keep going. I mean they're not wrong, but they seriously need to mind their own business sometimes. We don't need to think about that kind of thing yet."
Peter looked down at the patterned blanket. Moving...well, they were right. Just a few months ago the thought of leaving New York never crossed his mind. He planned to graduate, go to ESU then find a job somewhere close by, preferably in Queens, so he could keep being Spider-Man. Mr. Stark said he had a position waiting at Starktech if he wanted it.
But what about now? Sure he and Gwen
"-earth to Peter. You there?" Gwen snapped her fingers in front of his face, "You alright? You're zoning out again."
"S-Sorry, just...thinking about what your friends said."
"God, not you too." Gwen groaned and flopped back on the couch, both hands covering her face, "Look, Peter, let's take things one step at a time, okay? I mean I love you and all but..."
...
"Did you just say-"
"Nope."
"But I heard you-"
"You heard nothing!" She grabbed the closest cushion and covered her face. Peter refrained from saying how cute it looked, "Could we just forget that little slip?"
"Uh-uh, no way!" He tried to pull the pillow off her face but it refused to budge, "Are you seriously using stick em powers?"
"You can't prove that I am."
"Come on, Gwen." He huffed and stopped pulling, "What's the big deal? I mean I love you too-"
"Don't say it." Gwen threw cushion away and sat next to him again, her expression unreadable, "Listen, Pete, I...I'm not used to this kind of thing, okay? After...my Peter died I didn't think about dating at all. I was so busy being guilty and trying to make up for that night at prom that..."
"Hey..." Peter cupped her cheek and made her face him, trying to ignore how his own heart raced, "None of that was your fault, alright? We all know that. You shouldn't have to keep punishing yourself for it."
"I'm not, I'm just...sometimes I still think that this is all a dream. That I'll wake up and Ben and May still hate me, that MJ and the others don't know who I am, that dad's still leading the taskforce to catch that murderer Spider-Woman and..."
"Gwen-"
"And that you aren't here." She laughed, soft and bitter, "God, look at me angsting like Noir. I look like an idiot." She sniffled wiped at her eyes before the tears could come, "It just...kinda feels like I'm moving a bit too fast, you know? I'm still getting used to the idea that you're here and-"
He kissed her. Gwen pulled away in shock and before he could decide whether to push or pull back she kissed him back, one hand grabbing the back of his head to steady them. It only lasted for a few seconds before they mutually separated, "...I'm not leaving you," Peter said softly, "I'll do anything to find a way back home but I'm not leaving you. You know that, right?"
"Yeah..." She laughed and look down. She wasn't crying, "Sorry for wigging out there. Dr. Strange actually said I should probably go to a therapist but I never really had the time."
"It's cool. If you ever need anything you can talk to me."
"Yeah, I know." Her next smile was infectious, "Alright, angst over, back to the usual Gwen Stacy. And right now I'm thinking patrol to let off some steam. Wanna come with?"
"You even have to ask?" Peter rolled his eyes as she shifted to her suit, "Show-off."
"You got nanobots I get the most awesome suit ever." She nudged her head to the window, "Come on, let's go."
They both swung away to their usual patrol route, unaware of the red headed figure watching them from the nearby rooftop. Matt watched the two Spiders disappear past a nearby building and chuckled.
They seemed in a good mood; too bad he'd have to ruin it by being the bearer of bad news.
That last bit got cringy towards the end but I figured we needed some more romance before delving into the plot. Next chapters will deal with Matt, Harry, Shadowcat, Stark and finally make some headway into solving this overarching plot so we can put an ending to this.
Questions:
1. Are there any slice of life segments you guys wanna see? We already got a concert with Mary Jane and a fancy dinner date with Gwen. Since I'm not that adept at writing romance suggest a venue to help visualize a segment ie beach trip, carnival etc etc.
2. For readers who are still here, what in this fic appealed to you? Sounds like I'm fishing for compliments but I'm legitimately curious since this isn't my best work. Is it just MCU Spidey's popularity? Cause it definitely isn't Gwen's given the response other Spider-Gwen fics receive. That and MCU Peter and Spider-Gwen is an odd pairing altogether.
With that said I'm ramping up to finish this fic within hopefully 5 or so chapters so we can move on to the sequel with Gwen being temporarily trapped in the MCU and involved in Far from Home. That should be a bit easier to write since that has an established plotline and the fun will be in how much I can change things.
And since people are asking for clarification, I have two endings. The first one is the canon Endgame ending with Gwen added while the two leads are still the same age - this leads to the sequel fic. The second one is a Spiderized version where Peter ages the 5 years normally and comes back to the MCU as an adult alongside the Web Warriors to fight Thanos. Both are mutually exclusive and I'm doing both, one after the other. Okay? Okay. Hope that clarifies it for people who ask what my plans are.
Side note - Yes I heard about the MCU Spidey split and I don't have much thoughts on it, so no need to bring it up. I'll let future films come before making a decision.
Chapter 17: An Update
"So you're dating jailbait Peter? Do I have that right?"
Gwen sighed and resisted the growing urge to push Cindy off the construction beam they were both sitting on. It'd been a while since she hung out with her and Jess so she thought, hey, why not hang out with the only female Spider-friends she had that weren't either alternate versions of her or Peter's daughters/clones/cousins/aunts. Honestly she didn't know why she hadn't done it sooner.
Then Cindy opened her mouth and she remembered why.
"He's 17, Cindy. And it's not like I'm 40..." She liked Cindy, she really did, but the older (yeah, right) Spider had a habit of putting her foot in her mouth. The bunker excuse could only last so long before she eventually called BS. She failed to see how being trapped in a bunker meant saying the most insulting shit without thinking twice and expecting everyone to be cool with it.
"Still, isn't it kinda weird? I mean that'd be like you dating the Peter from our dimension."
"Completely different, Cin, and you know it," Gwen shot back hotly. She knew their relationship would look...off considering her history, but she was willing to deal with it. If there was one good thing about being drafted to fight inter-dimensional Vampires it was understanding just how different things could be. Like finding out one version of Peter was journalist with a chip on his shoulder (lookin' at you, Noir) or that in a lot of worlds MJ ended up being a supermodel. Or a stripper. That last one gave Mayday nightmares for a week.
Her Peter was different from...'her' Peter. Ugh, this was confusing, "Leave her alone, Cindy. No need to drudge up that can of worms," Jessica said, her English accent cutting through the occasional chirping of birds and construction workers below, "I don't think either of us have any room to judge considering I'm dating a reformed Supervillain and you're going out with your ex-highschool boyfriend who's currently a ghost."
"Wait, seriously?" Gwen gave Cindy a look, "How exactly do the two of you..."
"..." Cindy's expression made it very clear she didn't enjoy the line of questioning.
So of course Gwen kept pressing. Fair was fair.
"No seriously, like do the two of you just sit next to each other and use your imagination or is it just like a thing where he can possess stuff and-"
"We don't sleep together, okay?" Cindy huffed in frustration, "The only time he can get solid is when he's fighting and the last time I was able to hug him was when he tackled me. We're trying to make it work."
"And you called my relationship weird because...?"
"She's got you there, Cindy." Jessica hummed.
"Alright, alright. Sorry, still not used to this whole girl talk thing-"
"Cause you spent 10 years in a bunker? Yes, we know."
"Actually I was gonna say it's cause I didn't have any girl friends back in high school and you're the first - and probably only - ones I have right now, but sure, that works too." Great, now Gwen kinda felt bad. Thankfully her next words removed any guilt, "Your thing is still weird though. I mean how's it gonna work when he goes back? Do you guys have interdimensional skype or something?"
"Everyone uses Discord these days, Cin," Jessica said, "Still, she does have a point. Long term relationships when you're separated by dimensions is a complicated affair. Even with the portal watches you'll need to to make compromises eventually."
"Yeah, eventually. I'm 20 years old, Jess. I'm pretty sure I don't have to think about buying a house yet." She rolled her eyes. This was the problem when most of her super friends were old enough to have kids and get the wedding bells. Even Cindy was pushing 30, though you wouldn't be able to tell that given how she looked and acted.
"Change of topic then," Jess said, "How's life as an unmasked hero now that you've sold out and stole Luke's shtick?" She smirked down at her.
"Very funny, Jess." Gwen rolled her eyes, "App's doing pretty well 're really swamped nowadays and the money's not bad. Pete's actually out right now doing some more gigs. I'll join him later." Honestly she wasn't sure why they still did it. They probably had enough to pay rent for the next ten years or go on vacation to Hawaii or something.
"You planning to go back to college?" Cindy asked.
"Do you?"
"Yeah, actually. Mom saved my old application letters so I just gotta tweak some stuff around. Thinking of going to journalism." Cause apparently her Jameson wasn't a ginormous asshole. Her and Noir's. Just another reminder how weird the multiverse is, "Maybe it sounds weird coming from me but you should really plan your future out. You never know when you'll lose that time..."
"And now we're getting to the heavy stuff." Jessica sighed, "Come on, let's go swing around and see if anyone needs a good punching. That should cheer us up." Jessica spun off the beam and let herself fall before either of them could say anything. Gwen and Cindy shared a look before the latter shrugged and fell too. Gwen just sighed and went after them.
Two hours later and she was taking up another gig. Another armored car escort, this time for Starktech - one van with a bunch of cars as support. No idea why Stark needed outside help to guard his stash but she wasn't complaining. She promised Peter she'd give Stark a chance and this counted. Let it never be said that she didn't compromise for the people she lov-
...
She almost missed her next swing. The blonde Spider shouted slightly in surprise and stopped at a nearby lamppost as the truck slowed for the red light. Love...huh. She'd said it a lot of times, jokingly or not. She loved her dad, she loved her friends...she loved Peter. Her Peter, the one who turned himself into a lizard. But she loved him like he was family. She didn't - couldn't - feel the same way for him that he did for her. For Spider-Woman.
"You're thinking too much, Stacy..." She swung again and rounded the corner slightly ahead of the van. She might have been a superhero who went to prison but she was still barely past her teens. Thinking about the L word or planning ten years into the future wasn't what people her age did.
Then again, making hero for hire apps wasn't what most people her age did either. She should've been going to classes and bitching about professors who gave out way too much work. She should've been blowing off her homework and sneaking into clubs with fake ID's. She definitely shouldn't have been following around an armored car to protect the business of a guy she didn't even like.
But it wasn't like she could be normal, not after that bite. Back when she first got her powers she relished being special. Even if she was still wearing a mask she loved the feeling of being above everyone else. Showing up on talkshows, swinging above crowds in Times Square. She loved it, loved the freedom it gave her, loved the feeling of being untouchable. She was more than Gwen Stacy - she was Spider-Woman.
And then Peter died and she still refused to be normal. She'd call it guilt, Murderdock would call it pride. Then she punched him in the face and felt better for a bit, "Help!" Her head snapped to the source of the sudden scream and she cursed when she saw a hooded man shove an old lady and steal her purse.
"Seriously?" She sighed and diverted to stop it. Peter was confused those first few days when he saw just how much crime there was in the city. Apparently back in his home he'd be 'lucky' if he ran into a bicycle thief. Hah, yeah, and she'd be lucky if she went through a day without seeing about half a dozen muggings, a couple of assaults and, if she was really 'lucky', another Supervill trying to mess things up for everyone.
She webbed the guy to the sidewalk and snatched up the purse, "Yoink." She swung back around and dropped it into the startled old lady's arms, "Call the police!" she said before swinging out of sight. Now maybe she could-
"Where the hell are you?" The van driver, Roland, growled through her mask phone (another free upgrade Peter got her). He wasn't a friendly guy and his voice sounded like someone who smoked ten packs and washed it down with gravel, which made him talking into her ear unpleasant.
"Yeah, sorry, there was this guy stealing this lady's purse-"
"We paid you to guard the van, not wander off and play Superhero. Do your job." He cut the call. Gwen grunted in annoyance and followed after the van again. Technically he was right, but hearing him growl right next to her still pissed her off something fierce. After this she'd definitely cut back on the bodyguard gigs. This city was way too chaotic to just focus on protecting one person.
She'd barely caught sight of the van before her spider-sense rang, "What the fu-" The van exploded. Gwen's eyes widened and she dodged to the side to avoid the next bomb that exploded just inches from her left, "Woah!" Time slowed down as her spider-sense activated again. Hands twisting on instinct, she aimed both webshooters to her sides and pushed twice. There was a chunk of bladed metal heading towards a small group of people and another headed straight down the road towards the cars behind the van.
Her web snagged the hunks of metal right before they made impact. Time returned to normal and the sounds of screams and screeching metal bombarded her ears, "What the fuck was that?!" Roland screamed. Gwen ignored him and tugged the hunks of metal up to the wall before webbing them to the surface, "Spider-Woman, did you see anything!"
"No, and screaming really isn't helping right now!" More bombs came from nowhere and shot towards her like bullets. She webbed up a wide net, caught the explosives then tossed them in the air, "You and your guys need to leave before you get blown up!"
"Not happening!" She almost banged her head against the wall when he and the rest of the team stepped out of the cars guns raised.
"Are you an idiot?! There's some invisible asshole chucking bombs! Get out of here!"
"Mr. Stark paid us to secure his product!"
"The product's toast or do not see the burning van?!"
He didn't answer and charged towards said flaming vehicle. Gwen cursed under her breath and swung close just in time to see another half a dozen bombs materialize just above them, "Watch out!" She made a net above them and tossed it up in the air again. This time it barely got past the rooftops before it exploded and Gwen was close enough that she felt the heat rush over her.
Gwen screamed and clung to the wall desperately to avoid falling to the ground, her breaths coming out in ragged gasps. The symbiote came with a lot of pluses but being fireproof definitely wasn't one of them, "Secure the package!" Roland shouted. Gwen looked down and found them pushing through the wreckage to pulled out the (somehow still intact) box.
Spider-sense.
She saw them now. Goblins on gliders - the same ones she and Peter fought all those weeks ago. Gwen grit her teeth and pushed off the wall to swing towards them. This time she was going to get answers.
"Package secured. Rendezvousing at alternative-"
The goblins all came down. Gwen kicked the closest one hard enough to take off its head and slammed it to the ground, "Run!" She punched another's head off and dodged to the side to avoid the overhead slash from the laser sword. Gwen kicked it out of its hands and cut through the chest of two more Goblin bots. So nice of whoever this was to color code the bots from the humans.
Screams from behind. Gwen cut down another bot and looked back only to be met with three of the security team, Roland included, being picked up by bots and taken to the air, "Hold on!" She swung up and took out the lowest bot then tossed the rent-a-guard to the nearest rooftop. The rest of the team aimed their guns but didn't fire, probably afraid of shooting the others.
"Get the package! Get the-"
"Give it a rest, Treece!" Gwen saved the second guy then swung towards Treece. The goblin bot turned around briefly and then, with mocking, mechanical chuckle, dropped the bearded security officer before flying away. Gwen grit her teeth and and caught Roland mid-fall with one hand and shot a line of webbing with the other. Not her best, but at least no one died (van was automated).
Roland pushed off her and ran to the van as soon as they were gone, "...It's gone." She looked past him to the still-flaming wreckage where, sure enough, the package was gone. One of the goblin bots must've took it while they weren't looking, "You idiots!" He rounded on the rest of the men, eyes wide and red, "Did none of you think to do your jobs?!"
"Hey, don't be too hard on them. They were just-"
"You're not exempt!" He stomped towards her and pocked her in the chest hard, "Them I can sort of understand, but what's your excuse for failing your task?"
"Excuse me?" Gwen batted his hand away a bit harder than she intended. To his credit he didn't flinch at all, "I literally just saved you and the rest of your men!"
"Your job was to secure the package, not play hero." She grit her teeth and resisted the urge to shove him away when he drew closer, "Next time do your job, hero."
"Oh, I'm sorry, you're right: I should've just let you and the rest of your guys go splat." She rolled her eyes while he glared down at her, "You know what, screw this. Gimme a bad review, I don't care. Have fun doing this on your own."
He looked like was going to scream something but she swung away before he could. She made sure to swing around the block to make sure if anyone needed help (nope) before swinging around aimlessly. She was angry, and whenever she saw her reflection on the passing windows she saw the eyes of her mask had sharpened and moved. The symbiote was angry too.
She stopped at a high up rooftop and took a deep breath, "Calm down..." Her eyes returned to normal and the suit stopped lurching all across her body. So that Treece guy was a jerk and ungrateful on top of it, so what? So was Jameson and half of this city. She'd dealt with it before and she'd be dealing with it again and again. If she let every jerk with a chip on his shoulder get her down she'd never get anything done.
Her phone suddenly rang. Her first thought was either Peter or Betty but the 'Unknown Number' flashing on the screen removed any thought of that, "Better not be another 'fan'..." Some asshole leaked her phone details when she got out of prison and she got non-stops calls and messages till she got a new secure line. Thank God her dad still had some police friends who had experience with this kind of thing.
There was nothing but the sounds of pants on the other end - another creep. Gwen was about to end the call and already planning to change numbers when a voice suddenly spoke, "Gwen..."
"...Harry?"
"Yeah..." He panted again. Gwen tried to ignore how familiar this all was, "Listen, I...we need to meet."
"Y-Yeah, of course. Where do you-"
"Not today. Gotta shake off her trail first."
"What are you- do you need help? I can-"
"The playground near the Parker house, tomorrow night. I'll be there. Please be there too."
The call ended before she could say anything back. Gwen looked down at the brightly lit screen and stuffed it into her pocket, "Damn it, Harry..." She took another deep breath and swung away to look for something to take her mind off things.
"So how long do ya think it'll be before you go back?"
Peter looked up from his experiment board and looked to Mr. Sta- Tony, "Huh?" It was the first time Tony had said anything since they got to work, which Peter didn't mind. He totally got it. When you were into your work you couldn't focus on anything else. He'd almost gotten caught by May more times than he wanted to admit cause he was tweaking his webshooters or mask.
Or because he put on the suit and didn't realize she was right behind him...
"When are ya leaving?"
"Wanna get rid of me already?" Peter smiled. It was easier to joke around with Tony. He was younger - the same age Mr. Stark was when he first became Iron Man - and he didn't have as much on his belt to make Peter felt intimidated.
"What? Me? Perish the thought." He waved a hand holding a laser through the air, which Peter considered more than a little careless, "I'm actually wondering how long I'll have you here. I'm not exaggerating when I say you're the best lab assistant I've had in a while. Everyone else I try to get into this it's in one ear out the other. Feel like I'm taking with a brick wall."
"Yeah, uh...that was kinda how like my Mr. Stark felt sometimes too." He was a lot less polite about it, though. The drinking didn't help, "But to your question, uh...I guess it depends on when my friends can find a way back for me." They were pretty tight lipped about what was going on over there. He didn't mind - he trusted they'd tell him when the time was right.
"Guess I'll have you around for a while then." He grinned, "Food break?"
"Yeah, I'm starving." He shucked off the goggles and stretched his arms above his head. He told Gwen he'd be taking gigs so she didn't know he was here. Technically Tony was paying him for his help so this counted, "What do we have?"
"Italian."
"Nice." He took the offered spaghetti and sat on his seat. It was odd how quickly eating with Tony Stark and working on nanobots had become. Most days he didn't even wear his costume anymore. He even went through the front door - Tony gave him a card for personal friends, "So, I'm curious. You really don't know Pepper Potts here?"
"Nope, not ringing any bells." He shrugged and dug into his own lasagnia, "There was a Piper I dated a couple of years ago. Leggy blonde, green eyes. That close?"
"No, definitely not." Peter breathed out softly. It wasn't that odd, he supposed. In this world he was Gwen Stacy's dead best friend but back home she was just a foreign exchange student he didn't really talk to. Both their dads were police chiefs, though, which was funny, "Oh, alright, how about Justin Hammer?"
"That old guy? Yeah, we bought out his company ages go. He's on the board now but it's more ceremonial."
"Huh, my Justin Hammer was, like, 30. And he was working with a Russian terrorist."
"Your home sounds like a weird place."
"Hey, you're a Superhero over there."
"Like I said: weird. Not bad though." He wiped some sauce off his white tanktop and Peter looked at where the arc reactor should've been. This world's Tony Stark didn't get into an accident, didn't get shrapnel near his heart.
Didn't become Iron Man.
"Hey, kid, I know I'm good looking but my eyes are up here."
"Huh? Oh, yeah, sorry just..."
"Thinking about your Tony?" Peter nodded, "Yeah, he sounds like a great guy. I mean, bolting a miniature reactor to his chest to keep himself from going out? Sounds like the kind of thing I'd do." He grinned, "I mean I wouldn't try it on myself, but I'm not the one who got almost blown up."
"Yeah..."
"Hey, speaking of alternate dimensions, how's your relationship with Spider-Gwen going?"
"Wh-What? Where did that come from..."
"I'm just curious. Tabloids've been going on and on about New York's premier super couple...actually, you're New York's only super couple. Captain America's celibate so you two are the only ones people can look to for juicy gossip. So gimme the details. I read that co-workers gossip all the time and it apparently helps them work together better."
"You sure about that?"
"Won't know if we don't try." Tony shrugged.
"Well...it's going okay." Peter stirred his noodles, "Things didn't go so well when we went to a fancy restaurant. We thought it'd be great and we could spend some of the money we were making, but..." He bit his lower lip, "The people there were...they hated Gwen. They didn't want to serve her food and the way they looked at her..." It still made his blood boil thinking about it. All she did and that was the thanks she got?
"Yeah, I figured." Tony sighed, "Listen up, kid: people hate success. I dunno what food joint you went to but chances are it's full of spoiled little trust fun kiddies or old, corrupt scrooges who stepped on everyone else to get to where they are. People like those, they're scared of what real success and power looks like, and the best thing they can do is look down from those big noses of theirs because what the hell else are they gonna do? Admit that all the money in the world doesn't actually help them look at themselves in the mirror without hating what they see?"
"You...sound like you're talking from experience."
"What? Me? One of the biggest trust fund kids on the planet who everyone thinks just inherited daddy's money? Course not." Tony grinned, "I'll admit one of the reasons I'm real excited about this nanotech biz is cause it'll be my legacy. Well, kinda. Technically it's the me from another dimension, but I get points for refining it!"
"Haha, you really are like the Mr. Stark I know."
"So you've said." He set down his food, "But hey, if you wanna cheer your girl up I suggest doing the netflix and chill all you kids are doing nowadays. And maybe a massage, girls like those."
"Mmm, I think what'd cheer her up more is finding out about that Goblin guy..." Peter set down his own food. Suddenly he wasn't feeling hungry, "We've been looking for leads but so far we haven't found anything." Gwen was getting worried. It was clear by now that Shadowcat had completely cut them out and any attempts to make contact with her or Mr. Osborn ended up with them getting stonewalled.
"Huh...I might be able to help with that, actually."
"Wait, really?"
"Yeah. I didn't wanna say anything earlier, but I hired Spider-Gwen through your app to escort one of my vans carrying some real high tech stuff. And don't bother asking what it was cause if I told you I'd have to kill you."
"Uh...right."
"Anyway, the van got hit by some suits of armor on gliders. Look familiar?" He raised the phone screen and Peter frowned at the image. It was pretty blurry but he saw the orange goblins all too clearly, "They got away with the package and I have a sneaking suspicion on who's funding these things."
"Who?"
"Norman Osborn." Peter blinked. That...was not what he expected, "He was the only one who knew I was going to deliver something and he's got good reason to wanna see me fail. Starktetch's the only company that can really hold a handle on Oscorp. That package was really important and without it Ozzie's got a sudden leg up on me. Fancy coincidence, huh?"
"But...are you really sure it's him? We talked about how it could've been his son Harry-"
"Harry Osborn? Yeah, I heard about that. Kid turned himself Goblin to get revenge on Spider-Woman." He clicked his tongue, "But no, I doubt it's him. You do know that those gliders and swords are Oscorp tech, right? Sure ol' Normie went on and on about how they were 'stolen' weeks ago, but if you ask me he's just covering his tracks. It's what I'd do."
"I...I dunno about this. Gwen really trusts him."
"All the better to stab her in the back. It's the people you trust the most that you never suspect. Why do you think she never saw it coming when both her best friends turned into Supervillains." Peter bit his lip and didn't say anything. It was a callous thing to say, but he wasn't wrong. Both Harry and the other Peter really messed up Gwen's life, "You want my advice? Check Osborn. I'm sure you'll find something worthwhile."
"I...yeah, I will."
"Good, cause I want that package back. And remember, no peeking or." He mimicked slicing his neck and Peter laughed under his breath, "What? I'm a businessman, Peter, so I needed something to make this worthwhile. Lucky for you Osborn stealing my stuff means I've got a lot of interest in you putting him behind bars."
"If it's him."
"Oh, it's him. My gut's never wrong about these things." He winked and stood, "Now come on, we gotta finish up. We're finally making progress on those self-replicators."
They worked on the nanobots for the rest of the afternoon before Peter swung back home with another wad of thousand dollar bills in his pocket. He really needed to treat Betty and Gwen to something, "Hey, I'm back." He slunk in through the window and took off his mask. Murderface looked up from his place on the bed and narrowed his eyes at him. That's how you know he likes you, according to Betty. Peter still kept a respectable distance away.
Gwen was asleep on the couch wearing her full costume sans mask. Peter smiled and opened the fridge to cook dinner. Betty was going out to dinner with her older brother so it was just the two of them. It didn't take long for Gwen to smell the food and wake up, "...You cooking bacon at night?"
"Yeah, something wrong?"
"No, just make sure to add some eggs." She shifted in place till her face was hidden from view.
"So...I heard you got a gig earlier."
"Yeah, working for your pal Stark. Didn't go so well." He could practically see the frown on her face, "Guy leading the entire thing's one of those 'mission at any cost types'. I save him and his team from going splat and the guy tells me I should've kept my eyes on the van. Ugh..."
"Guessing we didn't get paid for that?" Not that he minded much. He and Gwen mutually agreed fancy dinners were off the table till they found a place that wasn't filled with, sorry Aunt May, total fucking assholes.
"Nah, Stark sent over the money and even said sorry for that guy. Said he was just really into his job. Even thanked me for saving his guys."
"See? He's nice."
"If you say so..." Peter's brows furrowed. Why did she trust Mr. Osborn but not Tony? Sighing, Peter flipped the bacon and didn't say anything else. He didn't want to argue with her over it, especially after what Tony told her. Convincing her that Mr. Osborn was responsible was gonna be a heck of a thing.
Soon enough he'd finished cooking and they sat side by side on the couch watching a show in lieu of going to the dining table. Peter did his best to focus on his food and not on how warm Gwen was or how they blanket they shared forced them to stick to each other like glue. Even though they'd already done more than this a few days ago he still couldn't help but feel a little nervous.
He looked to to side and found Gwen engrossed in the show (some kind of teenage detective drama). Eventually she caught his stare and looked up at him with a smile, "What's up?"
"Uh, nothing, just..." he trailed off.
"Something wrong?"
"N-No, just...thinking about back home." It wasn't really a lie. He always thought about home, "I mean they told me that Aunt May was gone, and ...I don't really know how to feel about that. If she's like me then maybe she's out there in the multiverse too, you know? But what if she isn't and I'm just-"
"Hey..." Gwen held his hand and squeezed it gently, "We'll get your friends back, okay? We'll kick that Thanos guy's big purple ass and then we'll get that weird gauntlet thing and wish everyone back. It'll be okay."
"Yeah..." He squeezed her hand back, "I really gotta thank you again, Gwen. I mean if I never met you and the others I'd just be-"
"Hey, enough of that." She flicked him on the nose, "Seriously, you've thanked me how many times now? I get it, you're grateful and...I'm grateful too. I'm happy that I met you." Peter's face suddenly felt hot, "I mean I know our...relationship isn't normal, but honestly who cares? I like how we are and I like you. Screw Jess and Cindy for making it weird."
"Wh-What did they say?"
"They were going on and on about how difficult an alternate dimension relationship is. But hello? Portal watches! It's way faster than taking the bus!" She huffed, "And then they said something about how one of us'll have to move eventually if we wanna keep going. I mean they're not wrong, but they seriously need to mind their own business sometimes. We don't need to think about that kind of thing yet."
Peter looked down at the patterned blanket. Moving...well, they were right. Just a few months ago the thought of leaving New York never crossed his mind. He planned to graduate, go to ESU then find a job somewhere close by, preferably in Queens, so he could keep being Spider-Man. Mr. Stark said he had a position waiting at Starktech if he wanted it.
But what about now? Sure he and Gwen
"-earth to Peter. You there?" Gwen snapped her fingers in front of his face, "You alright? You're zoning out again."
"S-Sorry, just...thinking about what your friends said."
"God, not you too." Gwen groaned and flopped back on the couch, both hands covering her face, "Look, Peter, let's take things one step at a time, okay? I mean I love you and all but..."
...
"Did you just say-"
"Nope."
"But I heard you-"
"You heard nothing!" She grabbed the closest cushion and covered her face. Peter refrained from saying how cute it looked, "Could we just forget that little slip?"
"Uh-uh, no way!" He tried to pull the pillow off her face but it refused to budge, "Are you seriously using stick em powers?"
"You can't prove that I am."
"Come on, Gwen." He huffed and stopped pulling, "What's the big deal? I mean I love you too-"
"Don't say it." Gwen threw cushion away and sat next to him again, her expression unreadable, "Listen, Pete, I...I'm not used to this kind of thing, okay? After...my Peter died I didn't think about dating at all. I was so busy being guilty and trying to make up for that night at prom that..."
"Hey..." Peter cupped her cheek and made her face him, trying to ignore how his own heart raced, "None of that was your fault, alright? We all know that. You shouldn't have to keep punishing yourself for it."
"I'm not, I'm just...sometimes I still think that this is all a dream. That I'll wake up and Ben and May still hate me, that MJ and the others don't know who I am, that dad's still leading the taskforce to catch that murderer Spider-Woman and..."
"Gwen-"
"And that you aren't here." She laughed, soft and bitter, "God, look at me angsting like Noir. I look like an idiot." She sniffled wiped at her eyes before the tears could come, "It just...kinda feels like I'm moving a bit too fast, you know? I'm still getting used to the idea that you're here and-"
He kissed her. Gwen pulled away in shock and before he could decide whether to push or pull back she kissed him back, one hand grabbing the back of his head to steady them. It only lasted for a few seconds before they mutually separated, "...I'm not leaving you," Peter said softly, "I'll do anything to find a way back home but I'm not leaving you. You know that, right?"
"Yeah..." She laughed and look down. She wasn't crying, "Sorry for wigging out there. Dr. Strange actually said I should probably go to a therapist but I never really had the time."
"It's cool. If you ever need anything you can talk to me."
"Yeah, I know." Her next smile was infectious, "Alright, angst over, back to the usual Gwen Stacy. And right now I'm thinking patrol to let off some steam. Wanna come with?"
"You even have to ask?" Peter rolled his eyes as she shifted to her suit, "Show-off."
"You got nanobots I get the most awesome suit ever." She nudged her head to the window, "Come on, let's go."
They both swung away to their usual patrol route, unaware of the red headed figure watching them from the nearby rooftop. Matt watched the two Spiders disappear past a nearby building and chuckled.
They seemed in a good mood; too bad he'd have to ruin it by being the bearer of bad news.
That last bit got cringy towards the end but I figured we needed some more romance before delving into the plot. Next chapters will deal with Matt, Harry, Shadowcat, Stark and finally make some headway into solving this overarching plot so we can put an ending to this.
Questions:
1. Are there any slice of life segments you guys wanna see? We already got a concert with Mary Jane and a fancy dinner date with Gwen. Since I'm not that adept at writing romance suggest a venue to help visualize a segment ie beach trip, carnival etc etc.
2. For readers who are still here, what in this fic appealed to you? Sounds like I'm fishing for compliments but I'm legitimately curious since this isn't my best work. Is it just MCU Spidey's popularity? Cause it definitely isn't Gwen's given the response other Spider-Gwen fics receive. That and MCU Peter and Spider-Gwen is an odd pairing altogether.
ZFighter18
I'm not a god. I AM WHAT A GOD PRAYS TO.
- Location
- Maryland
I'd say it's a combination of the alternate universe deal, which is always fun, for interaction purposes as well as a mix of Peter's popularity. Spider-Gwen being an alternate helps but I can't lie when I say that she isn't my draw for this fic.
- Location
- Oslo
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Tony brings up so many red flags, that I worry he wants to start a revolution.
Or he might end up a red herring all along!
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@Eratas123 I dunno, it has nice character dynamic, between MJ, Gwen, Peter and others. I am not a comic book reader, so don't look up comic book fanfiction on purpose. So, it might be that Tom Holland carries his distinct charisma, that makes people check it out, and other than it's fun slice of life/relationship/superhero story. A lot of things like that are brushed over in bigger movie narratives and even TV shows, due to medium constraints.
In other words: It just works.
And while, I like the idea of Spider Man Noir on paper, reading a fanfiction of him being a fish out of water and clashing with modern/lighter sensibilities didn't attract me that much, if that makes sense.
If you'll write non-crossover Spider Gwen I'd notice, I might check them out, but I don't go out of my way to search them. So, don't forget to self-promote shamelessly, from time to time. Brain awareness and all that jazz.
Or he might end up a red herring all along!
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@Eratas123 I dunno, it has nice character dynamic, between MJ, Gwen, Peter and others. I am not a comic book reader, so don't look up comic book fanfiction on purpose. So, it might be that Tom Holland carries his distinct charisma, that makes people check it out, and other than it's fun slice of life/relationship/superhero story. A lot of things like that are brushed over in bigger movie narratives and even TV shows, due to medium constraints.
In other words: It just works.
And while, I like the idea of Spider Man Noir on paper, reading a fanfiction of him being a fish out of water and clashing with modern/lighter sensibilities didn't attract me that much, if that makes sense.
If you'll write non-crossover Spider Gwen I'd notice, I might check them out, but I don't go out of my way to search them. So, don't forget to self-promote shamelessly, from time to time. Brain awareness and all that jazz.
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Part of me hopes that Peter manages to actually turn this Tony into a hero through socializing him towards being a good person. I fully expect to have my hopes dashed in a big reveal of betrayal, but I still hold them.
- Location
- Oslo
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Fixed it for you.
But I agree with you. Hope, he'll help him to become a better man.
But not likely through his naivette...
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Hey you never know. Maybe 65-Tony'll influence Peter instead so he doesn't turn evil and kill the true hero Mysterio like he did at the end of Far from Home. It's such a shame that an up and coming hero like Mysterio was so brutally murdered by a so-called good guy...
- Location
- Oslo
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Don't you say.
They die too young, now.
P.S. I honestly did like this Beck, even I did know Mysterio from that one video game and 90's cartoon. Would've made a great hero, Dr. Strange style. A lot of Beck's design seems to be heavily inspired by Strange. Until his midway reveal.
They die too young, now.
P.S. I honestly did like this Beck, even I did know Mysterio from that one video game and 90's cartoon. Would've made a great hero, Dr. Strange style. A lot of Beck's design seems to be heavily inspired by Strange. Until his midway reveal.
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Still, you can't deny that, as much as it would make Peter angst, having MCU Spidey fighting against Iron Man would be a good fic all on its own. Something about the student having to surpass the master or all that jazz. In this case Peter gets his warmup before Thanos.
Chapter 18 - Some Progress Made
This is a bit shorter than usual but I really just wanted to get an update out and finished up the chapter (after the first 2000) in a day cause free time is limited due to work crunch. Hope you guys enjoy this one and don't be afraid to suggest ideas for segments/chapters cause I'm kinda writing by the seat of my pants here. Really didn't expect this story to last this long or get so much attention.
www.deviantart.com
Chapter 18: Some Progress Made
Patrol was fun, which was to be expected - spending time with Peter always seemed to make her day better. It was nice having someone watch her back, especially considering how shitty her spider-sense was. One good thing about having her identity outed was that she didn't have to rely on it to find places to change. She really didn't want someone taking a pic of her in her undies.
Made fighting less of a chore too.
"Spider-Man, duck!" Peter lowered into a crouch just before she roundhouse kicked the charging mugger right in the jaw. Peter shot a line of webbing behind her that got another thug in the leg and pulled, sending him sprawling to the ground in a clumsy heap. Peter was always confused that there were about 6-1 muggers to victims ratio. How did people get mugged in his universe?
Gwen flipped over the last thug and webbed him to the wall by his hands and legs, "Maybe a little time out will teach you a lesson," she quipped. He gave her a middle finger through the web - rude - so she webbed his mouth shut mid-rant. His conked out buddies could talk to the cops when they got here, "When will they learn?" She turned back and gave Peter a thumbs up which he returned with equal gusto.
The victim, two teenage girls who just screamed tourist, immediately forgot their panic and came up to them, "Oh my God! This is so cool!" The one to the right, a long haired brunette with a ponytail, squealed.
"Totally! New York!" Her friend, another short haired blonde, said excitedly. Before Peter could say anything the pair pressed up on both sides of him and the blonde raised up her phone to take a selfie, "Oh, the bitches back home are gonna be totally jealous! Score! Say cheese, Spidey!"
"Wha-"
They started taking selfies en-masse. Gwen was torn between being amused and telling them 'hands off!' when they suddenly turned to her, "H-Hey, what the-" They mimicked the same pose from before and Gwen had to keep the symbiote from snapping at them on instinct. A year in prison and months of crazy fans afterwards meant she wasn't exactly keen on strangers suddenly touching her.
Blondie started posting the pics while brunette rummaged through her purse and pulled out a 20, "Here. We didn't bring a lot since we just went shopping but this should cover the heroism fee?"
"The what?" She pushed the offered bill back and looked to Peter. He just shrugged, "Uh, we don't get paid to save people." They did get paid for selfies, but she'd consider this a freebie. She'd been giving a lot of those out lately.
"Woah, really? So, like, what was that site about? The Spider-Shoppe?"
"I'm sorry, the Spider what?"
"Yeah! Totally saw it before we went." Blondie tapped her phone and pulled up the site. Gwen and Peter looked over her shoulder and she grimaced at what she saw. Pages upon pages of products from hoodies to 'certified autographs' that looked nothing like her signature, "We totally bought a couple of Spider-Woman and Spider-Man tee's before we left. It was pretty expensive, though."
"This doesn't look the site Betty made," Peter said.
"Could we get back to the part where apparently we're asking for payment for hero stuff?" Gwen asked.
"Sure." Blondie scrolled the page down till they got to the bottom, "Says here that any and all official hero work requires a minimum payment of 50 dollars depending on how hard it is. Being saved from muggers is 50, saved from kidnappers is a 100 and any person directly saved from a supervillain owes you 150 to 200 depending on the villain. Except some guy called Bodega Bandit; apparently he's a freebie."
"I can't fucking believe this..." Gwen groaned.
The two of them said their goodbyes to the pair and swung away to a far off building, "Are you okay?" Peter asked when they landed.
"Not really." She let the mask fall away and brought a hand through her hair irritatedly, "I mean people make merch of me, I get that. Spider-Woman's technically public domain so I can't really do anything about that even if I wanted to. But this..." She made a web ball and tossed it to the wall in lieu of punching something, "Being Spider-Woman and helping people, it makes it easier to ignore all the bullshit. Someone trying to profit off of that, trying to take that from me, it just..."
She sat against the wall and Peter sat next to her. It wasn't as bad as last year when people cussed her out and ran away with fear, but it was still infuriating. Why couldn't she just help people? Why did everything have to be so damn complicated?"
"...You know, we can go after this guy." Peter mumbled. She looked at him curiously, "Like you said we can't really do anything about the hoodies and lunchboxes but I'm pretty sure him getting money from the people we save is illegal. Like if I gave a guy CPR and another guy tries to get money from him for it I can stop him."
"How are we going to do it?"
"I could trace the IP address with Karen...assuming this guy didn't use VPN?"
"VPN? I think you mean IPN."
"Your dimension's weird."
"Says the guy whose dimension has a 'nobel peace prize'. What kind of place gives a peace prize to the guy who made dynamite? Did the guy who made the revolver and the molecular bomb get one too?"
"No, and not the point. And it's atomic bomb by the way." He rolled his eyes (she didn't see it but she could tell) and tapped the side of his mask, "Alright, just gotta enter the website's name and- got it."
"Wait, seriously?"
"Yep. Says here the IP's broadcasting from a warehouse on some place called King street. Might still just be a VPN redirection but can't hurt to check it out."
"I'm game. Gonna give this prick a piece of my mind..."
King street wasn't too far off from where they were. She and Peter snuck through the window and she raised an eyebrow when she saw what was inside, "Those are holographic projectors," Peter said. Yeah, holographic projectors with her and Peter on them. Jumping, throwing punches, dodging a bullet...any kind of pose you could think of with the safe search filter on. Gwen suddenly felt less pissed off and more creeped the hell out.
"Stalker much?" Gwen muttered.
"I don't think it's that. Check it out." One of the holographic projectors moved to throw a punch before moving back to its still position, "I was wondering how this guy was getting paid for the hero stuff. Didn't think they was just running around and demanding money from the people we saved."
"What are you saying? That they're pretending to be us to get money?"
"Looks like."
"Ugh, why couldn't they just stick to posing for photos in Times Square?" She crawled sideways along the length of the wall, making sure to keep an eye on the projectors. A punch, a kick, a goofy pose...it was creepy just how much it looked like them, "I can just imagine these things with a hand out asking for money..." How many people did they trick already?
"I don't think it's just them." Peter zipped past her to the next room and she quickly followed, "Check it out." He pointed to the rest of the projectors. These ones showed villains. Some of them she recognized, but most of them looked new, "I'm guessing whoever's doing this is making villain attacks and then has the projection heroes stop them to get paid."
"How the hell did we not hear about this?"
"We have been pretty busy the past few days and this is a big city. I'm not surprised we missed it." He hopped off the wall and crouched near one of the ground projectors, "Huh...this tech looks kinda familiar."
"What do you mean?" She jumped down and crouched next to him.
"I can't really place it, but-"
Spider-sense. Peter raised his head too and they dodged away just in time to avoid the laser that came down from the roof, "Who dares intrude upon my domain?!" A loud, booming voice echoed around them, "Ah, it is my old enemies the Human Spiders! You were foolish to come here again after your defeat at our last confrontation! Do you so relish the feeling of loss so badly?!"
Wait a minute...she knew that stupid voice.
"Mysterio?! Seriously?!" Gwen stood up from her crouched position and growled in annoyance, "Of all the people it had to be you! You gotta be kidding me!" The guy was worse than Bodega Bandit! At least BB kept his crimes - and that was being very generous - to a minimum.
"I see you tremble with fear! Good, after your last defeat-"
"We kicked your ass, dude! You should be serving 20 to life - I saw the trial!" Gwen shouted, "Just...gah, I can't believe I actually thought someone worse was taking advantage of us! Of course it'd be you?"
"How's he even out of prison?" Peter asked, "I mean he put an entire crowd of people in danger. No way he got out on bail."
"Foolishness! No prison can hold me!"
"Actually, he's not the only supervillain I've seen running around after we stopped them. I saw that Boomerang guy robbing a bank a couple of days ago after you stopped his armored truck heist. Do prisons not exist here?"
"I cannot be-"
"Yes, prisons exist here. They just...it's complicated." Gwen shook her head. Apparently in his dimension when supervills got put in jail that was it. No escapes, no repeat crimes, nothing. What a world it'd be if she didn't have to worry about Dr. Sharktopus escaping the next week after she put him in jail. Maybe she'd take a vacation there if- when they found a way to send him back. Could even take her dad and the rest of the band too.
"Um...are you two-
"I don't see why it's so complicated. We stop the bad guys and they go to jail. Unless the prisons here have revolving doors they shouldn't be getting out. Actually, I really gotta ask, but how do muggers even work here?"
"I'm talking-"
"Oh god, not this again."
"Hey I'm just saying it's super weird that like 10 guys try to mug two people. Even if they did get the purse that's like 10 bucks for each of them if they're lucky. Really not seeing the point there."
"...Please don't ign-"
"I dunno how criminals think! I just stop them, I don't listen to their backstories and tales of woe."
"It still doesn't make any sense. How could-"
Spider-sense again. Gwen flipped to the wall and Peter jumped up to the roof to avoid the next smattering of lasers, "I will not be ignored!" Mysterio screamed. A hologram of him in all his fishbowl headed glory projected into the center of the room.
"Uh-oh, I think we made him mad," Peter quipped.
"Oh no, whatever shall we do..." Gwen's voice dripped with sarcastic fear.
"You two- I shall- Ugh! You will fall here!"
The projected images flew up towards them. Gwen dodged to the side and aimed at kick at the makeshift supervillain's mid-section. Her foot passed through his chest and stopped when it made contact with a metal sphere that flew through the air and crashed against the wall with a loud smack, the hologram disappearing immediately afterwards.
Peter webbed another hologram and smashed the sphere against the wall, "Huh, portable and self-moving projector tech. Cool." Peter said.
Gwen dodged the next laser and webbed the slot it came out of, "You can nerd out later, Spidey. We gotta deal with these guys first."
It wasn't exactly a battle for the ages. The drones couldn't do much more than a few (admittedly bruising) smacks and a few bursts of webbing clogged up the lasers easily enough. All while Mysterio gestured and screamed like he had a freaking seizure.
Gwen kicked the last drone to the wall and smashed it underfoot, "Freaking drones..." She shoved the scrap away and looked up at Mysterio's pontificating (thank you, college classes) hologram, "Right...so we just wrecked all your stuff. Can we finish this up already?" She just wanted to go home and forget about the entire thing. She still had that talk with Harry tomorrow, for spider's sake.
"No, I cannot be beaten! I shall retreat and face you once more I shall-"
"Karen says he's on the upper room on the right. You wanna do it or should I?"
"Let's do it together."
They jumped up to the designated spot and Gwen kicked down the metal door. Mysterio screamed and raised both hands to cover his fishbowl head, "H-Halt! Do not advance any further or you shall suffer the consequences!"
Peter webbed his helmet and tugged him forward. The one-way headpiece fell to the ground and Mysterio stumbled forward, arms flailing, till Gwen flipped and kicked him straight in the face. He crumpled to the ground and she webbed him down while Peter called the cops, "Can't believe we had to deal with this guy again..." She almost wanted it to be someone else. It would at least make her anger feel more justified.
"I kinda feel bad..." Peter said.
"Don't be. Even if this jerk wasn't using us to rip people off he should still be in prison after the shit he did at the concert." It was still a pain in the tush to get a gig sometimes cause people were worried a supervillain would attack on of their concerts again.
"I'm still wondering where this tech came from. This Mysterio guy doesn't seem like someone who could make all this."
"He did say he was a former special effects artist. Maybe he picked up some stuff there?"
"Maybe...I'll take one of the drones, maybe I can get something from it."
Her portal watch beeped, "Mayday says she wants to see us. She's...got an update on the whole 'getting you home' plan."
"R-Really?" The eyes of his mask widened and he practically bounced in place, "It's been a bit since we've got one. I kinda thought..."
"Hey, they wouldn't have left you hanging. Spiders look out for each other." He nodded after a moment, "Let's go see what they have for us."
The place wasn't too crowded this time. There was an Aztec looking Spidey above them checking over the web while off to the side she saw Mirror Gwen (the snake thing was a dead giveaway) talking to the Spider with two guns (staying far away from that) and another one in a black and red costume with long, crimson hair spilling hair out of her back (didn't that get stuck everywhere?).
Mayday, Noir and (oddly enough) Peni were all bunched up together close to the portal. Peter looked like he wanted to charge over to them before she put a hand on his shoulder, "Better we don't surprise them. Noir doesn't like it when people come up behind him." They still had to pick up some pieces from Spider-Pool when he tried to get touchy feel with him.
"Oh, there they are!" Peni smiled down at them from her place on top of her mech. She laid down on her stomach and propped up her head on her hands, legs swinging idly behind her. The girl was absurdly cute considering she was riding around a death machine with buzzsaws in its arms, "We were just talking about you two!"
"Yeah. I heard you have something for us?" Peter asked excitedly.
"It's a bit of a mixed bag..." Noir muttered.
"Yeah, it's both good and bad. Uh...good new first!" Mayday forcefully clapped her hands, "So we, uh, made contact with the Avengers. Or what's left of them. They're doing okay, I think."
"Is...Is Mr. Stark..."
"Yeah, he's okay. He and his wife Pepper Potts are living out in the woods on a cabin. It's real cozy. Um, and..." Mayday rummaged through a nearby backpack and pulled out a small, circular device, "He gave us this, said that if you were for real you'd be able to open it like how you cracked your training wheels program. No idea what that means, sorry."
"I do. Don't worry." Peter pocketed the device with a smile.
"There's something else you should know. That Thanos guy, big purple who destroyed your home? He's dead," Noir said.
"Wait, what?!" Peter's scream nearly made her jump. He stared up at Noir, wide-eyed, "D-Does that mean that everything's okay then?!"
"Not...exactly." Mayday took a deep breath and crossed her arms, "According to what we got from Captain America and Black Widow they actually killed him for a while now. Five years ago."
"Wh-What?!" Peter looked like he was about have a panic attack. Gwen held his left hand and squeezed, "B-But- H-How did- It's only been a couple of months since I got taken to Gwen's dimension! That's not-"
"We're just telling you what they told us, kid." Noir sighed sympathetically, "This ain't the first time dimensional travel's made time belly up. A while ago my home started getting smartphones cause we weren't careful enough. Whoever or whatever took you from your dimension apparently didn't care about the 'when' of it."
"B-But...if that's true then why isn't everything back to normal? They killed Thanos..."
"From what Captain America told us they did track Thanos down to the planet he tried to escape to and reverse what he did but the Infinity Gems...Thanos did something, made the gems useless. Even after they killed him there was no way for them to bring everyone back," Mayday said.
"So...that's it. It's over."
"Peter..." Gwen's grip on his hand tightened.
"Not quite." Peni said, somehow still smiling despite the somber atmosphere, "There's a reason we took a while to tell you about this. A couple of days ago there was this guy Ant-Man. You know him?"
"Uh...kinda. Fought him once." She saw the foootage of the airport fight. Scary stuff.
"Well, he says he was trapped in something called the Quantum Realm for five years and he didn't age at all. And now he thinks that they can use it to find a way back in time and get new Infinity Stones."
"Wait, what?"
"Go back in time, take the stones to the present and use it to undo what Thanos did," Peni said, "I offered to help them out with some of the preliminary tests and so far things look promising! I'm actually heading back to my dimension to see if I can dig something up. Even in 3145 time travel is mostly theoretical but there have been some people who went back. Most of them were one-way, but we could still use some of the principles."
"So...that's it? That's the plan now?"
"It's a better plan than nothing," Mayday said, "We're trying to see if we can integrate some of our portal tech too and if it'll help, but right now we're just in the planning stages. They just got the Hulk and Thor on board."
"This is...it's a lot to take in," Peter mumbled.
"It's not a garden of roses, kid, but it's something. If you trust that Stark guy and all the rest of his Avengers buddies then trust that they can fix this. They've lived in that nightmare for five years, they want to save the world more than anyone," Noir said.
"Five years..." Peter shook his head, "Wh-What about Aunt May and Ned? Are they..."
"We went to their apartments and followed a trace back on the old owners. They...didn't make it." Mayday looked away and pursed her lips, "I'm sorry."
Peter didn't say anything. Gwen mumbled a small thanks to the three and opened a portal back to her apartment. Betty and Murderface were nowhere in sight, leaving just the two of them alone in the small space? "Peter...?" He tossed his mask to the coffee table and collapsed face first onto the ratty couch without a word. No cries, no screams of rage, nothing. Just complete silence.
"Peter, I..." Gwen stopped. What was she supposed to say? Even from the beginning this entire thing was messed up and now it was even worse. He'd lost five years of his life, his aunt and best friend were gone and the only way they could fix this was travelling back in time like some kind of bad sci-fi movie. Even after everything she'd been through she couldn't help but doubt this would work.
"Five years..." Peter said eventually. He sat up and stared ahead blankly while Gwen took a tentative seat next to him, "After the first week here I thought that it was too much time, that back home the Avengers were doing were everything they could to find Thanos and I had to go back. But it's been five years. Five years of the world being half dead and stopping Thanos didn't do anything."
"They still have a plan..."
"Yeah, and there's nothing I can do to help cause the second we open a portal back me and any other Peter Parker gets turned to dust!" He stood up and started pacing, hands rubbing through his hair frantically, "And they're gonna use time travel! There's never been any proven basis for it!"
"Pete, we can travel through dimensions. Hell, you traveled through time technically. This can work." She hoped she sounded more sincere than she actually thought.
"I just...I don't know, Gwen. This is just...this all too much." He sat back down and covered his eyes eyes with his right arm, "All this time I thought that it was so simple. That all we had to do was go after Thanos and we can reverse everything that happened. But now it's been five years. Five years of half the entire universe being dusted and...May and Ned are gone and...and..."
Gwen pulled him into a gentle embrace. Peter reciprocated the gesture slowly, head pressed against her shoulder as he finally cried, "It's going to be alright, Peter..." She rubbed her hands in slow circles on the small of his back, "The Web Warriors are here for you. I'm here for you. We're going to do whatever we can to fix this and make sure that purple asshole doesn't win."
"He already did..."
"Not yet. Like Peni said, we still have a chance."
He continued crying for a few more minutes before eventually pulling back, "...Thanks, Gwen." He smiled at her through tearstained eyes, "I dunno what I'd do without you."
"Same goes for me." She smiled back as best she could, "Hey, what about that that thing 'Day gave you?"
"If I may, Peter, I should be able to help," Karen said, making Gwen jump in her seat. She forgot she was there, "That device appears to be a Starktech holomessage. I believe we can easily decode the lock."
"Yeah. Alright, let's do it." He nodded resolutely.
A few minutes and a couple of connected wires later and a holographic screen popped up above them. The man on the screen was all too familiar - Tony Stark except with an added 10 plus years in age. Peter's eyes widened and the hologram smirk, "If you're watching this then you must be who I think you are. How you doing, underoos?"
"Mr. Stark..." Peter looked like he was about to cry again.
"When your friends first came up to me I thought 'this must be some kind of trick'. I mean, alternate dimensions with Spider-Man or Woman or Emo Guy being a universal constant? Sounded just a bit too good to be true. Thought maybe Steve was pulling a fast one to try and get me on board with his whole friendship circle thing but then I figured, nah. He wouldn't be enough of a bastard to do something like that."
"So we got to talking. Spider-Girl says that you're alive, same age as when you got dusted back on Titan and the reason you couldn't go back was cause you nearly got dusted every time. Didn't ask for proof. I figured anyone who could copy your powers could just make a fake video with you in it. And...I didn't want to know. Scared, I guess, knowing that you were still out there and I couldn't do anything."
"And then old Steve-o comes to me with his...'time heist' and I still didn't know what to think. Made a life for myself. Pep' survived, Happy too. We've been making the most of it. Stark Industries is still there, but I don't really handle that stuff. I wanted to move on, forget how I failed everyone back on Titan and let Thanos get away. Then I started thinking about you. That if you're really out there and you found me just sitting in my forest cabin doing nothing you'd never let me hear the end of it. So after this I'm gonna go help Steve and the rest of them with this plan of theirs. Who knows, maybe we can actually pull it off. Billion to one chance."
Peter was crying again. Gwen debated on whether to cut the message now and save it for later when a new voice interrupted, "Daddy, who are you talking to?" Peter looked back up at the message just in time for a small four year old girl to waddle onto the screen.
"Talking to an old friend. You've seen his pictures around the house. Peter." Stark smiled and put the girl on her lap, "This little miss here is Morgan. I was gonna wait to introduce you till we got you back but apparently she's impatient. Wonder where she got that from?"
"He has a kid..." Peter smiled despite the tears, "He has a kid..."
"Peter?" The little girl looked at the screen with her big doe eyes, "Daddy talks about you sometimes and he always looks said. Are you coming to visit?"
"He can't answer, sweetie. This is a one way message. Actually, I've been blabbing long enough. Anything else I can say I can do it face to face when this whole Time Heist thing ends. Come on, let's go get some juice pops."
The message ended. Peter laughed, soft at first and then eventually louder, "He has a kid..." he repeated, "She's...She's adorable."
"Are you okay?" Gwen asked softly.
"Yeah. Seeing Mr. Stark again it...it helps." He wiped away the last of his tears and smiled, "Gives me something to look forward to when I get back. I just...I still wish I could help them, you know? Me and Peni talked about exploiting the whole 'glitching' thing but so far we haven't come up with anything."
"We'll get there. Trust me." She smiled, "And I guess I can see now why you really trust this guy. Guy sounds way better than the Tony Stark here."
"I still think you should give him a chance..."
"Maybe when he stops sending PMC's everywhere."
Her phone buzzed again. She tapped the screen and her brows furrowed at the singular message: 'Need to meet now' from Harry, "Is something wrong?" Peter asked.
"Uh...old friend of mine wants to meet."
"It's more than that, isn't it?"
"Yeah..." She licked her lips nervously, "He's the one Shadowcat was after, the guy she and S.H.I.E.L.D think is the Green Goblin."
"But you don't think so."
"No. I know Harry, he wouldn't go back to that. Not after what happened." She shook her head forcefully. Even if he still had the serum in his system he was stronger than that, "He said he wanted to meet at the old playground near our house in Queens." She didn't like it. It was too close, too easy for anyone targeting them to catch Ben, May and her dad as 'collateral damage'.
"I'm coming with you then. Maybe he can finally give us a lead on this Goblin guy."
It didn't take them long to get there. Gwen landed on the outskirts and shifted back into some casuals while Peter changed behind a bush (ah, the good old days before symbiotic suits). The last thing they needed was to draw attention to themselves, "I should probably visit Ben and May while I'm here," Peter said, "They invited me over for dinner but we've been so busy I always had to refuse."
"One thing at a time, Pete."
They got to the playground and Gwen froze when she saw that Harry wasn't alone, "Hey, Spider-Girlie. Fancy seeing you here." Shadowcat grinned and dragged her feet against the ground to stop the momentum of the swing she sat on. Not too far away was Harry, head hanging low and sitting in front of the sandbox, "Took your sweet time getting here, huh? Out on a date?"
"What are you doing here...?" Her fingers shifted to claws briefly before changing back.
"What do you think? I'm babysitting Osborn Jr." She gestured to him lazily, "S.H.I.E.L.D wants him in custody and I caught him just a couple of hours ago. He'd be on a cell right now if he didn't get his daddy to pony up for an extension. Better make those minutes count."
"And what makes you think I'll just let you take him?'
"Couldn't stop me last time. Really wanna try your luck again?" She grinned up at Gwen and willed the claws on her right hand to a solid state, "Careful, don't think that fancy suit of yours'll help when I shove these to your brainpan."
"Let's not fight." Peter got between them, "What happened to the Tinkerer? You said you'd keep us in the loop."
"No, I really didn't; you just assumed that. Not like it matters. Mason didn't have anything worthwhile and I got orders to go after Osborn Jr. again. That's why I didn't tell you, by the way. Figured you'd be a pain in the ass about it."
"Whatever. I'm not here to talk to you." She walked in front of Harry and offered him a hand, "Come on, let's get-"
Her words were caught in her throat when she saw the hand that grabbed her own: rough and scaly, the tips of the fingers replaced with sharp claws. Harry looked up and she bit back a scream at the sight of the Lizard like features that took up half his face, "Gwen..." His voice was rough. Monstrous.
"Harry...how? We cured you! We-"
"I was...taken." He stood up shakily, face locked in a grimace, "Dunno who it was. They took me and injected me with the serum, said that since I was one of the longest infected they could try to perfect the serum. Think they...they wanna create something like the Super Soldier serum. I got out a while ago, but I couldn't contact you. Hard to keep focus, to not attack people."
"I can cure you. The symbiote can-"
"I know, but that's not what's important right now." He shook his head, "Overhead them talking. Said they were going to use my...disappearance to their advantage. S.H.I.E.L.D knows I'm the Green Goblin so they're planning to frame my dad, make S.H.I.E.L.D and everyone else go after him."
"Do you know who it is?"
"I believe I can answer that," an all too familiar voice said.
Gwen turned around and growled when she saw Matt freaking Murderdock walking towards them. He looked like he'd seen better days - his suit was torn and ragged and his face was covered in a smattering of dried blood and bruises. Funnily enough she didn't have an ounce of pity for him.
Shadowcat raised a brow while Harry gave her a questioning look. Gwen's face was stuck in a grimace while Peter stepped forward hesitantly, "I...didn't think I'd see you again," he said softly.
"I owe you a debt, Mr. Parker, and I always repay my debts." He chucked lowly and stopped a short distance away, "I'd prefer not to get closer, if you don't mind. I can sense Ms. Stacy's animosity from here."
"What the fuck are you doing here?" she spat.
"As I said, repaying a debt." He tapped his cane to the dirt, "I promised Mr. Parker I'd find information with regards to the man behind this New Goblin. Judging by your heartbeat I assume he told you of our deal."
"What, did you think he'd lie to me?" She couldn't stop herself from sounding just a bit smug about that.
"No. He didn't seem the type." He shrugged, "No matter, I'll stay pay the debt back regardless. I've followed some leads from some of my old contacts and came upon a promising olive branch. Upon some...persuasion I managed to convince his men to give up his name."
"Wh-Who is it...?" Harry asked.
"Oh, I believe you've all met him. One of you in particular has been close to him in recent days." He looked to Peter and gave him a bloody, open toothed smile, "Anthony Edward Stark, better known as Tony Stark."
Like I said this is a bit shorter than usual but it's still decently meaty by fanfiction standards. Hopefully the plot moved along enough for people to remain interested since we've gotten some progress on both the MCU and Earth-65 plot.
Question:
1. Do you guys wanna keep it short and go for the ending soon or extend the story and lengthen how long it'll take 65-Tony/get MCU back home? I can't help but think this fic has gotten way longer than it should have but people still seem to like it so I'm unsure.
2. More lighthearted stuff for the MCU sequel fic, but how do you guys think Peter's friends would react to finding out he's dating Gwen; a college student who's at least 3 years older than him? Especially since the plan is she goes as a chaperone on the Europe trip. Can't imagine Ned or Michelle would just shrug it off...
Hell, if Tony survived I wonder if he'd be proud or confused.
Spidey's Ballet Skills by DianaNovelo on DeviantArt
www.deviantart.com
Chapter 18: Some Progress Made
Patrol was fun, which was to be expected - spending time with Peter always seemed to make her day better. It was nice having someone watch her back, especially considering how shitty her spider-sense was. One good thing about having her identity outed was that she didn't have to rely on it to find places to change. She really didn't want someone taking a pic of her in her undies.
Made fighting less of a chore too.
"Spider-Man, duck!" Peter lowered into a crouch just before she roundhouse kicked the charging mugger right in the jaw. Peter shot a line of webbing behind her that got another thug in the leg and pulled, sending him sprawling to the ground in a clumsy heap. Peter was always confused that there were about 6-1 muggers to victims ratio. How did people get mugged in his universe?
Gwen flipped over the last thug and webbed him to the wall by his hands and legs, "Maybe a little time out will teach you a lesson," she quipped. He gave her a middle finger through the web - rude - so she webbed his mouth shut mid-rant. His conked out buddies could talk to the cops when they got here, "When will they learn?" She turned back and gave Peter a thumbs up which he returned with equal gusto.
The victim, two teenage girls who just screamed tourist, immediately forgot their panic and came up to them, "Oh my God! This is so cool!" The one to the right, a long haired brunette with a ponytail, squealed.
"Totally! New York!" Her friend, another short haired blonde, said excitedly. Before Peter could say anything the pair pressed up on both sides of him and the blonde raised up her phone to take a selfie, "Oh, the bitches back home are gonna be totally jealous! Score! Say cheese, Spidey!"
"Wha-"
They started taking selfies en-masse. Gwen was torn between being amused and telling them 'hands off!' when they suddenly turned to her, "H-Hey, what the-" They mimicked the same pose from before and Gwen had to keep the symbiote from snapping at them on instinct. A year in prison and months of crazy fans afterwards meant she wasn't exactly keen on strangers suddenly touching her.
Blondie started posting the pics while brunette rummaged through her purse and pulled out a 20, "Here. We didn't bring a lot since we just went shopping but this should cover the heroism fee?"
"The what?" She pushed the offered bill back and looked to Peter. He just shrugged, "Uh, we don't get paid to save people." They did get paid for selfies, but she'd consider this a freebie. She'd been giving a lot of those out lately.
"Woah, really? So, like, what was that site about? The Spider-Shoppe?"
"I'm sorry, the Spider what?"
"Yeah! Totally saw it before we went." Blondie tapped her phone and pulled up the site. Gwen and Peter looked over her shoulder and she grimaced at what she saw. Pages upon pages of products from hoodies to 'certified autographs' that looked nothing like her signature, "We totally bought a couple of Spider-Woman and Spider-Man tee's before we left. It was pretty expensive, though."
"This doesn't look the site Betty made," Peter said.
"Could we get back to the part where apparently we're asking for payment for hero stuff?" Gwen asked.
"Sure." Blondie scrolled the page down till they got to the bottom, "Says here that any and all official hero work requires a minimum payment of 50 dollars depending on how hard it is. Being saved from muggers is 50, saved from kidnappers is a 100 and any person directly saved from a supervillain owes you 150 to 200 depending on the villain. Except some guy called Bodega Bandit; apparently he's a freebie."
"I can't fucking believe this..." Gwen groaned.
The two of them said their goodbyes to the pair and swung away to a far off building, "Are you okay?" Peter asked when they landed.
"Not really." She let the mask fall away and brought a hand through her hair irritatedly, "I mean people make merch of me, I get that. Spider-Woman's technically public domain so I can't really do anything about that even if I wanted to. But this..." She made a web ball and tossed it to the wall in lieu of punching something, "Being Spider-Woman and helping people, it makes it easier to ignore all the bullshit. Someone trying to profit off of that, trying to take that from me, it just..."
She sat against the wall and Peter sat next to her. It wasn't as bad as last year when people cussed her out and ran away with fear, but it was still infuriating. Why couldn't she just help people? Why did everything have to be so damn complicated?"
"...You know, we can go after this guy." Peter mumbled. She looked at him curiously, "Like you said we can't really do anything about the hoodies and lunchboxes but I'm pretty sure him getting money from the people we save is illegal. Like if I gave a guy CPR and another guy tries to get money from him for it I can stop him."
"How are we going to do it?"
"I could trace the IP address with Karen...assuming this guy didn't use VPN?"
"VPN? I think you mean IPN."
"Your dimension's weird."
"Says the guy whose dimension has a 'nobel peace prize'. What kind of place gives a peace prize to the guy who made dynamite? Did the guy who made the revolver and the molecular bomb get one too?"
"No, and not the point. And it's atomic bomb by the way." He rolled his eyes (she didn't see it but she could tell) and tapped the side of his mask, "Alright, just gotta enter the website's name and- got it."
"Wait, seriously?"
"Yep. Says here the IP's broadcasting from a warehouse on some place called King street. Might still just be a VPN redirection but can't hurt to check it out."
"I'm game. Gonna give this prick a piece of my mind..."
King street wasn't too far off from where they were. She and Peter snuck through the window and she raised an eyebrow when she saw what was inside, "Those are holographic projectors," Peter said. Yeah, holographic projectors with her and Peter on them. Jumping, throwing punches, dodging a bullet...any kind of pose you could think of with the safe search filter on. Gwen suddenly felt less pissed off and more creeped the hell out.
"Stalker much?" Gwen muttered.
"I don't think it's that. Check it out." One of the holographic projectors moved to throw a punch before moving back to its still position, "I was wondering how this guy was getting paid for the hero stuff. Didn't think they was just running around and demanding money from the people we saved."
"What are you saying? That they're pretending to be us to get money?"
"Looks like."
"Ugh, why couldn't they just stick to posing for photos in Times Square?" She crawled sideways along the length of the wall, making sure to keep an eye on the projectors. A punch, a kick, a goofy pose...it was creepy just how much it looked like them, "I can just imagine these things with a hand out asking for money..." How many people did they trick already?
"I don't think it's just them." Peter zipped past her to the next room and she quickly followed, "Check it out." He pointed to the rest of the projectors. These ones showed villains. Some of them she recognized, but most of them looked new, "I'm guessing whoever's doing this is making villain attacks and then has the projection heroes stop them to get paid."
"How the hell did we not hear about this?"
"We have been pretty busy the past few days and this is a big city. I'm not surprised we missed it." He hopped off the wall and crouched near one of the ground projectors, "Huh...this tech looks kinda familiar."
"What do you mean?" She jumped down and crouched next to him.
"I can't really place it, but-"
Spider-sense. Peter raised his head too and they dodged away just in time to avoid the laser that came down from the roof, "Who dares intrude upon my domain?!" A loud, booming voice echoed around them, "Ah, it is my old enemies the Human Spiders! You were foolish to come here again after your defeat at our last confrontation! Do you so relish the feeling of loss so badly?!"
Wait a minute...she knew that stupid voice.
"Mysterio?! Seriously?!" Gwen stood up from her crouched position and growled in annoyance, "Of all the people it had to be you! You gotta be kidding me!" The guy was worse than Bodega Bandit! At least BB kept his crimes - and that was being very generous - to a minimum.
"I see you tremble with fear! Good, after your last defeat-"
"We kicked your ass, dude! You should be serving 20 to life - I saw the trial!" Gwen shouted, "Just...gah, I can't believe I actually thought someone worse was taking advantage of us! Of course it'd be you?"
"How's he even out of prison?" Peter asked, "I mean he put an entire crowd of people in danger. No way he got out on bail."
"Foolishness! No prison can hold me!"
"Actually, he's not the only supervillain I've seen running around after we stopped them. I saw that Boomerang guy robbing a bank a couple of days ago after you stopped his armored truck heist. Do prisons not exist here?"
"I cannot be-"
"Yes, prisons exist here. They just...it's complicated." Gwen shook her head. Apparently in his dimension when supervills got put in jail that was it. No escapes, no repeat crimes, nothing. What a world it'd be if she didn't have to worry about Dr. Sharktopus escaping the next week after she put him in jail. Maybe she'd take a vacation there if- when they found a way to send him back. Could even take her dad and the rest of the band too.
"Um...are you two-
"I don't see why it's so complicated. We stop the bad guys and they go to jail. Unless the prisons here have revolving doors they shouldn't be getting out. Actually, I really gotta ask, but how do muggers even work here?"
"I'm talking-"
"Oh god, not this again."
"Hey I'm just saying it's super weird that like 10 guys try to mug two people. Even if they did get the purse that's like 10 bucks for each of them if they're lucky. Really not seeing the point there."
"...Please don't ign-"
"I dunno how criminals think! I just stop them, I don't listen to their backstories and tales of woe."
"It still doesn't make any sense. How could-"
Spider-sense again. Gwen flipped to the wall and Peter jumped up to the roof to avoid the next smattering of lasers, "I will not be ignored!" Mysterio screamed. A hologram of him in all his fishbowl headed glory projected into the center of the room.
"Uh-oh, I think we made him mad," Peter quipped.
"Oh no, whatever shall we do..." Gwen's voice dripped with sarcastic fear.
"You two- I shall- Ugh! You will fall here!"
The projected images flew up towards them. Gwen dodged to the side and aimed at kick at the makeshift supervillain's mid-section. Her foot passed through his chest and stopped when it made contact with a metal sphere that flew through the air and crashed against the wall with a loud smack, the hologram disappearing immediately afterwards.
Peter webbed another hologram and smashed the sphere against the wall, "Huh, portable and self-moving projector tech. Cool." Peter said.
Gwen dodged the next laser and webbed the slot it came out of, "You can nerd out later, Spidey. We gotta deal with these guys first."
It wasn't exactly a battle for the ages. The drones couldn't do much more than a few (admittedly bruising) smacks and a few bursts of webbing clogged up the lasers easily enough. All while Mysterio gestured and screamed like he had a freaking seizure.
Gwen kicked the last drone to the wall and smashed it underfoot, "Freaking drones..." She shoved the scrap away and looked up at Mysterio's pontificating (thank you, college classes) hologram, "Right...so we just wrecked all your stuff. Can we finish this up already?" She just wanted to go home and forget about the entire thing. She still had that talk with Harry tomorrow, for spider's sake.
"No, I cannot be beaten! I shall retreat and face you once more I shall-"
"Karen says he's on the upper room on the right. You wanna do it or should I?"
"Let's do it together."
They jumped up to the designated spot and Gwen kicked down the metal door. Mysterio screamed and raised both hands to cover his fishbowl head, "H-Halt! Do not advance any further or you shall suffer the consequences!"
Peter webbed his helmet and tugged him forward. The one-way headpiece fell to the ground and Mysterio stumbled forward, arms flailing, till Gwen flipped and kicked him straight in the face. He crumpled to the ground and she webbed him down while Peter called the cops, "Can't believe we had to deal with this guy again..." She almost wanted it to be someone else. It would at least make her anger feel more justified.
"I kinda feel bad..." Peter said.
"Don't be. Even if this jerk wasn't using us to rip people off he should still be in prison after the shit he did at the concert." It was still a pain in the tush to get a gig sometimes cause people were worried a supervillain would attack on of their concerts again.
"I'm still wondering where this tech came from. This Mysterio guy doesn't seem like someone who could make all this."
"He did say he was a former special effects artist. Maybe he picked up some stuff there?"
"Maybe...I'll take one of the drones, maybe I can get something from it."
Her portal watch beeped, "Mayday says she wants to see us. She's...got an update on the whole 'getting you home' plan."
"R-Really?" The eyes of his mask widened and he practically bounced in place, "It's been a bit since we've got one. I kinda thought..."
"Hey, they wouldn't have left you hanging. Spiders look out for each other." He nodded after a moment, "Let's go see what they have for us."
The place wasn't too crowded this time. There was an Aztec looking Spidey above them checking over the web while off to the side she saw Mirror Gwen (the snake thing was a dead giveaway) talking to the Spider with two guns (staying far away from that) and another one in a black and red costume with long, crimson hair spilling hair out of her back (didn't that get stuck everywhere?).
Mayday, Noir and (oddly enough) Peni were all bunched up together close to the portal. Peter looked like he wanted to charge over to them before she put a hand on his shoulder, "Better we don't surprise them. Noir doesn't like it when people come up behind him." They still had to pick up some pieces from Spider-Pool when he tried to get touchy feel with him.
"Oh, there they are!" Peni smiled down at them from her place on top of her mech. She laid down on her stomach and propped up her head on her hands, legs swinging idly behind her. The girl was absurdly cute considering she was riding around a death machine with buzzsaws in its arms, "We were just talking about you two!"
"Yeah. I heard you have something for us?" Peter asked excitedly.
"It's a bit of a mixed bag..." Noir muttered.
"Yeah, it's both good and bad. Uh...good new first!" Mayday forcefully clapped her hands, "So we, uh, made contact with the Avengers. Or what's left of them. They're doing okay, I think."
"Is...Is Mr. Stark..."
"Yeah, he's okay. He and his wife Pepper Potts are living out in the woods on a cabin. It's real cozy. Um, and..." Mayday rummaged through a nearby backpack and pulled out a small, circular device, "He gave us this, said that if you were for real you'd be able to open it like how you cracked your training wheels program. No idea what that means, sorry."
"I do. Don't worry." Peter pocketed the device with a smile.
"There's something else you should know. That Thanos guy, big purple who destroyed your home? He's dead," Noir said.
"Wait, what?!" Peter's scream nearly made her jump. He stared up at Noir, wide-eyed, "D-Does that mean that everything's okay then?!"
"Not...exactly." Mayday took a deep breath and crossed her arms, "According to what we got from Captain America and Black Widow they actually killed him for a while now. Five years ago."
"Wh-What?!" Peter looked like he was about have a panic attack. Gwen held his left hand and squeezed, "B-But- H-How did- It's only been a couple of months since I got taken to Gwen's dimension! That's not-"
"We're just telling you what they told us, kid." Noir sighed sympathetically, "This ain't the first time dimensional travel's made time belly up. A while ago my home started getting smartphones cause we weren't careful enough. Whoever or whatever took you from your dimension apparently didn't care about the 'when' of it."
"B-But...if that's true then why isn't everything back to normal? They killed Thanos..."
"From what Captain America told us they did track Thanos down to the planet he tried to escape to and reverse what he did but the Infinity Gems...Thanos did something, made the gems useless. Even after they killed him there was no way for them to bring everyone back," Mayday said.
"So...that's it. It's over."
"Peter..." Gwen's grip on his hand tightened.
"Not quite." Peni said, somehow still smiling despite the somber atmosphere, "There's a reason we took a while to tell you about this. A couple of days ago there was this guy Ant-Man. You know him?"
"Uh...kinda. Fought him once." She saw the foootage of the airport fight. Scary stuff.
"Well, he says he was trapped in something called the Quantum Realm for five years and he didn't age at all. And now he thinks that they can use it to find a way back in time and get new Infinity Stones."
"Wait, what?"
"Go back in time, take the stones to the present and use it to undo what Thanos did," Peni said, "I offered to help them out with some of the preliminary tests and so far things look promising! I'm actually heading back to my dimension to see if I can dig something up. Even in 3145 time travel is mostly theoretical but there have been some people who went back. Most of them were one-way, but we could still use some of the principles."
"So...that's it? That's the plan now?"
"It's a better plan than nothing," Mayday said, "We're trying to see if we can integrate some of our portal tech too and if it'll help, but right now we're just in the planning stages. They just got the Hulk and Thor on board."
"This is...it's a lot to take in," Peter mumbled.
"It's not a garden of roses, kid, but it's something. If you trust that Stark guy and all the rest of his Avengers buddies then trust that they can fix this. They've lived in that nightmare for five years, they want to save the world more than anyone," Noir said.
"Five years..." Peter shook his head, "Wh-What about Aunt May and Ned? Are they..."
"We went to their apartments and followed a trace back on the old owners. They...didn't make it." Mayday looked away and pursed her lips, "I'm sorry."
Peter didn't say anything. Gwen mumbled a small thanks to the three and opened a portal back to her apartment. Betty and Murderface were nowhere in sight, leaving just the two of them alone in the small space? "Peter...?" He tossed his mask to the coffee table and collapsed face first onto the ratty couch without a word. No cries, no screams of rage, nothing. Just complete silence.
"Peter, I..." Gwen stopped. What was she supposed to say? Even from the beginning this entire thing was messed up and now it was even worse. He'd lost five years of his life, his aunt and best friend were gone and the only way they could fix this was travelling back in time like some kind of bad sci-fi movie. Even after everything she'd been through she couldn't help but doubt this would work.
"Five years..." Peter said eventually. He sat up and stared ahead blankly while Gwen took a tentative seat next to him, "After the first week here I thought that it was too much time, that back home the Avengers were doing were everything they could to find Thanos and I had to go back. But it's been five years. Five years of the world being half dead and stopping Thanos didn't do anything."
"They still have a plan..."
"Yeah, and there's nothing I can do to help cause the second we open a portal back me and any other Peter Parker gets turned to dust!" He stood up and started pacing, hands rubbing through his hair frantically, "And they're gonna use time travel! There's never been any proven basis for it!"
"Pete, we can travel through dimensions. Hell, you traveled through time technically. This can work." She hoped she sounded more sincere than she actually thought.
"I just...I don't know, Gwen. This is just...this all too much." He sat back down and covered his eyes eyes with his right arm, "All this time I thought that it was so simple. That all we had to do was go after Thanos and we can reverse everything that happened. But now it's been five years. Five years of half the entire universe being dusted and...May and Ned are gone and...and..."
Gwen pulled him into a gentle embrace. Peter reciprocated the gesture slowly, head pressed against her shoulder as he finally cried, "It's going to be alright, Peter..." She rubbed her hands in slow circles on the small of his back, "The Web Warriors are here for you. I'm here for you. We're going to do whatever we can to fix this and make sure that purple asshole doesn't win."
"He already did..."
"Not yet. Like Peni said, we still have a chance."
He continued crying for a few more minutes before eventually pulling back, "...Thanks, Gwen." He smiled at her through tearstained eyes, "I dunno what I'd do without you."
"Same goes for me." She smiled back as best she could, "Hey, what about that that thing 'Day gave you?"
"If I may, Peter, I should be able to help," Karen said, making Gwen jump in her seat. She forgot she was there, "That device appears to be a Starktech holomessage. I believe we can easily decode the lock."
"Yeah. Alright, let's do it." He nodded resolutely.
A few minutes and a couple of connected wires later and a holographic screen popped up above them. The man on the screen was all too familiar - Tony Stark except with an added 10 plus years in age. Peter's eyes widened and the hologram smirk, "If you're watching this then you must be who I think you are. How you doing, underoos?"
"Mr. Stark..." Peter looked like he was about to cry again.
"When your friends first came up to me I thought 'this must be some kind of trick'. I mean, alternate dimensions with Spider-Man or Woman or Emo Guy being a universal constant? Sounded just a bit too good to be true. Thought maybe Steve was pulling a fast one to try and get me on board with his whole friendship circle thing but then I figured, nah. He wouldn't be enough of a bastard to do something like that."
"So we got to talking. Spider-Girl says that you're alive, same age as when you got dusted back on Titan and the reason you couldn't go back was cause you nearly got dusted every time. Didn't ask for proof. I figured anyone who could copy your powers could just make a fake video with you in it. And...I didn't want to know. Scared, I guess, knowing that you were still out there and I couldn't do anything."
"And then old Steve-o comes to me with his...'time heist' and I still didn't know what to think. Made a life for myself. Pep' survived, Happy too. We've been making the most of it. Stark Industries is still there, but I don't really handle that stuff. I wanted to move on, forget how I failed everyone back on Titan and let Thanos get away. Then I started thinking about you. That if you're really out there and you found me just sitting in my forest cabin doing nothing you'd never let me hear the end of it. So after this I'm gonna go help Steve and the rest of them with this plan of theirs. Who knows, maybe we can actually pull it off. Billion to one chance."
Peter was crying again. Gwen debated on whether to cut the message now and save it for later when a new voice interrupted, "Daddy, who are you talking to?" Peter looked back up at the message just in time for a small four year old girl to waddle onto the screen.
"Talking to an old friend. You've seen his pictures around the house. Peter." Stark smiled and put the girl on her lap, "This little miss here is Morgan. I was gonna wait to introduce you till we got you back but apparently she's impatient. Wonder where she got that from?"
"He has a kid..." Peter smiled despite the tears, "He has a kid..."
"Peter?" The little girl looked at the screen with her big doe eyes, "Daddy talks about you sometimes and he always looks said. Are you coming to visit?"
"He can't answer, sweetie. This is a one way message. Actually, I've been blabbing long enough. Anything else I can say I can do it face to face when this whole Time Heist thing ends. Come on, let's go get some juice pops."
The message ended. Peter laughed, soft at first and then eventually louder, "He has a kid..." he repeated, "She's...She's adorable."
"Are you okay?" Gwen asked softly.
"Yeah. Seeing Mr. Stark again it...it helps." He wiped away the last of his tears and smiled, "Gives me something to look forward to when I get back. I just...I still wish I could help them, you know? Me and Peni talked about exploiting the whole 'glitching' thing but so far we haven't come up with anything."
"We'll get there. Trust me." She smiled, "And I guess I can see now why you really trust this guy. Guy sounds way better than the Tony Stark here."
"I still think you should give him a chance..."
"Maybe when he stops sending PMC's everywhere."
Her phone buzzed again. She tapped the screen and her brows furrowed at the singular message: 'Need to meet now' from Harry, "Is something wrong?" Peter asked.
"Uh...old friend of mine wants to meet."
"It's more than that, isn't it?"
"Yeah..." She licked her lips nervously, "He's the one Shadowcat was after, the guy she and S.H.I.E.L.D think is the Green Goblin."
"But you don't think so."
"No. I know Harry, he wouldn't go back to that. Not after what happened." She shook her head forcefully. Even if he still had the serum in his system he was stronger than that, "He said he wanted to meet at the old playground near our house in Queens." She didn't like it. It was too close, too easy for anyone targeting them to catch Ben, May and her dad as 'collateral damage'.
"I'm coming with you then. Maybe he can finally give us a lead on this Goblin guy."
It didn't take them long to get there. Gwen landed on the outskirts and shifted back into some casuals while Peter changed behind a bush (ah, the good old days before symbiotic suits). The last thing they needed was to draw attention to themselves, "I should probably visit Ben and May while I'm here," Peter said, "They invited me over for dinner but we've been so busy I always had to refuse."
"One thing at a time, Pete."
They got to the playground and Gwen froze when she saw that Harry wasn't alone, "Hey, Spider-Girlie. Fancy seeing you here." Shadowcat grinned and dragged her feet against the ground to stop the momentum of the swing she sat on. Not too far away was Harry, head hanging low and sitting in front of the sandbox, "Took your sweet time getting here, huh? Out on a date?"
"What are you doing here...?" Her fingers shifted to claws briefly before changing back.
"What do you think? I'm babysitting Osborn Jr." She gestured to him lazily, "S.H.I.E.L.D wants him in custody and I caught him just a couple of hours ago. He'd be on a cell right now if he didn't get his daddy to pony up for an extension. Better make those minutes count."
"And what makes you think I'll just let you take him?'
"Couldn't stop me last time. Really wanna try your luck again?" She grinned up at Gwen and willed the claws on her right hand to a solid state, "Careful, don't think that fancy suit of yours'll help when I shove these to your brainpan."
"Let's not fight." Peter got between them, "What happened to the Tinkerer? You said you'd keep us in the loop."
"No, I really didn't; you just assumed that. Not like it matters. Mason didn't have anything worthwhile and I got orders to go after Osborn Jr. again. That's why I didn't tell you, by the way. Figured you'd be a pain in the ass about it."
"Whatever. I'm not here to talk to you." She walked in front of Harry and offered him a hand, "Come on, let's get-"
Her words were caught in her throat when she saw the hand that grabbed her own: rough and scaly, the tips of the fingers replaced with sharp claws. Harry looked up and she bit back a scream at the sight of the Lizard like features that took up half his face, "Gwen..." His voice was rough. Monstrous.
"Harry...how? We cured you! We-"
"I was...taken." He stood up shakily, face locked in a grimace, "Dunno who it was. They took me and injected me with the serum, said that since I was one of the longest infected they could try to perfect the serum. Think they...they wanna create something like the Super Soldier serum. I got out a while ago, but I couldn't contact you. Hard to keep focus, to not attack people."
"I can cure you. The symbiote can-"
"I know, but that's not what's important right now." He shook his head, "Overhead them talking. Said they were going to use my...disappearance to their advantage. S.H.I.E.L.D knows I'm the Green Goblin so they're planning to frame my dad, make S.H.I.E.L.D and everyone else go after him."
"Do you know who it is?"
"I believe I can answer that," an all too familiar voice said.
Gwen turned around and growled when she saw Matt freaking Murderdock walking towards them. He looked like he'd seen better days - his suit was torn and ragged and his face was covered in a smattering of dried blood and bruises. Funnily enough she didn't have an ounce of pity for him.
Shadowcat raised a brow while Harry gave her a questioning look. Gwen's face was stuck in a grimace while Peter stepped forward hesitantly, "I...didn't think I'd see you again," he said softly.
"I owe you a debt, Mr. Parker, and I always repay my debts." He chucked lowly and stopped a short distance away, "I'd prefer not to get closer, if you don't mind. I can sense Ms. Stacy's animosity from here."
"What the fuck are you doing here?" she spat.
"As I said, repaying a debt." He tapped his cane to the dirt, "I promised Mr. Parker I'd find information with regards to the man behind this New Goblin. Judging by your heartbeat I assume he told you of our deal."
"What, did you think he'd lie to me?" She couldn't stop herself from sounding just a bit smug about that.
"No. He didn't seem the type." He shrugged, "No matter, I'll stay pay the debt back regardless. I've followed some leads from some of my old contacts and came upon a promising olive branch. Upon some...persuasion I managed to convince his men to give up his name."
"Wh-Who is it...?" Harry asked.
"Oh, I believe you've all met him. One of you in particular has been close to him in recent days." He looked to Peter and gave him a bloody, open toothed smile, "Anthony Edward Stark, better known as Tony Stark."
Like I said this is a bit shorter than usual but it's still decently meaty by fanfiction standards. Hopefully the plot moved along enough for people to remain interested since we've gotten some progress on both the MCU and Earth-65 plot.
Question:
1. Do you guys wanna keep it short and go for the ending soon or extend the story and lengthen how long it'll take 65-Tony/get MCU back home? I can't help but think this fic has gotten way longer than it should have but people still seem to like it so I'm unsure.
2. More lighthearted stuff for the MCU sequel fic, but how do you guys think Peter's friends would react to finding out he's dating Gwen; a college student who's at least 3 years older than him? Especially since the plan is she goes as a chaperone on the Europe trip. Can't imagine Ned or Michelle would just shrug it off...
Hell, if Tony survived I wonder if he'd be proud or confused.
Mockingly-Tricky
Ketchup Enthusiast
- Location
- Happy Funtime Candyland
Oh shit.
Welp. It's not a Spider-Man story if Peter doesn't lose someone he cares about.
Madou Sutegobana
Autocorrupt has been disabled.
- Location
- Twin Realms Mandala
I really like that this Peter has seen Mysterios face and is familiar with his tech and background.
- Location
- Oslo
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Well, they can't be all guilt-ridden saviors of the universe. I'll take what I can get.
If I remember correctly, that 90s cartoon Tony Stark was a raging asshole egomaniac, who almost singlehandedly shattered his team and drove them away, no magic needed. For a kids cartoon it was surprisingly dark in terms of MC's relationship dynamics. I remember being infuriated at this show at the time for being so... gloomy.
Crayz9000
Deranged Bounty Hunter
- Location
- Improbably superpositioned
Didn't Far from Home take place after Endgame?
Or do you mean that when he goes back, he'll recognize Mysterio sooner?
Madou Sutegobana
Autocorrupt has been disabled.
- Location
- Twin Realms Mandala
The latter. While Peter may realize that not alternate versions of a person may not have the same personality, knowing that Mysterio uses illusions in one reality would make him more likely to notice that the creatures Mysterio is 'fighting' are illusions.