Spider-Man: The New Phoenix Saga

Prologue

This story takes place after an unwritten Spider-Verse story that would crossover several of my series every series and story I write is connected as part of a larger narrative but not every one necessarily crosses over. Before I started writing this I had the first arc and a half worked out as I knew it was going to be a long time before I committed myself to writing it I decided that offering the full first chapter and then waiting months or years for an update would be too much of a tease so I choose to write the first little piece of what would have been the opening chapter just a simple starting point to set the story up this is that first segment. The world of this tale is identical to the 616 immediately after Spider-Verse with the exception that this universes Cindy Moon never got spider-powers and became Silk as the 616 is the only reality she was bitten by the spider.

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Peter had just returned from Spider-Verse and was devoting a lot of time and attention with Parker Industries he still couldn't believe that no one had noticed when he'd been possessed by Otto Octavius and Felicia's abrupt transition into a wanabee Kingpin supervillainess left him left him completely scratching his head. He was just closing down when he received a call he was wanted at the Baxter Building. When he arrived it appeared that nearly all of Earth's heroes were assembled inside. Reed quickly explained that his instruments had detected the Phoenix Force this came as a surprise to some and not so much to others wasn't the whole point of a phoenix that it died and was reborn even if it had been eliminated or dispersed by Hope and Wanda as long as there were beings in the universe that drew breathe it was only a matter of time until it regained its strength. Though Reed's tech had detected a growing concentration of the Phoenix's energies there appeared to be some interference from the earth's magnetic field its location just couldn't be pinpointed though it seemed to be moving. Every hero that could be spared was enlisted to search for it if they had to scour the earth no one wanted it hadn't been hard to find volunteers no one wanted a scorched earth. Peter knew from experience how serious this situation could be and he put it on his To Do List tomorrow at Parker Industries he'd try to devise some means to narrow down the location of the Force that wasn't already being utilized. During his webbed commute home there was a mass exodus of Central Park New York being what it is he had to deal with these on a fairly regular basis whether it was Paladin, Man-Beast, Nightmare or even Thanos. As he catapulted himself in he saw that it was the Mole Man's monsters he'd encountered them once or twice before and he thought he knew them well enough to know their disposition was more friendly neighborhood than their usual revenge/conquer the surface dwellers routine. Their master was nowhere to be seen but the largest monster in the park what appeared to be a three hundred foot caterpillar that had only managed to half-develop into a butterfly vomited a nearly spherical object into the air then descended back through the tunnel it had created followed closely by its cohorts. If this had been during Parker's amateur days he might have assumed it was some sort of bomb or monster egg but there was no mistaking what it was. The odds of the universe just handing it over to him were ridiculous it demanded a little use of his trademark wit he was almost done crafting his remark when he stopped so as not to jinx himself he knew from experience something like this could never be this easy not without some unexpected complications. A simple leap over the gazebo and he was within reach of the object. The flaming orange egg was nearly nine feet tall and there was simply no way of knowing how much it weighed without giving it a try. Spider-Man tentatively touched the Phoenix Egg it responded with a vibration so subtle he wouldn't have noticed it if it weren't for his heightened. Peter took a step back and paid careful attention to his spider-sense as several cracks began to appear on the egg he reached for his Avengers ID card but there simply wasn't time several jets of the Phoenix Force leaked out they curved and snaked rapidly in his direction he tried to take cues from his spider-sense but it didn't register sufficient physical danger to give his reflexes information on how to dodge up to his usual standards. In less than ten seconds Spider-Man was hit in mid tree-swing by four ribbons of the Phoenix Force. He felt immediately different not in a potentially catastrophic way but something much more familiar it was as if it had brought him physically and mentally back to where he was in Back In Black. As soon as he recovered he turned his attention back to the egg which shattered. Out of it emerged a resurrected Jean Grey. Levitating she reached out to read his mind so as to aid in dealing with the confusion of the general situation Peter felt the intrusion for a few brief seconds oddly not bothered in the slightest there was brief crawling sensation in his head then the current was reversed in a way it felt like he imagined it would if he had spinnerets he could fire from his skull. Without warning they were both repelled from one other about twenty feet and fell to the ground as they passed out.

Warning!: The Following is an extremely long and spoilery authors note if you don't want spoilers just skip them.

I want to establish right from the start that I'm not an X-Men buff I appreciate them and believe they deserve the very large role they have in Marvel but outside the films my experience is limited to the first fifteen issues of All New X-Men the Firestar mini-series from the 1980's and the first twenty five of the original Pre-Claremont series as well as the TV show Wolverine and The X-Men and the first season of X-Men Evolution. There will be a number of mutants in the first arc but this story is comprehensive and will reach into many other corners of the Marvel Universe. This story was inspired by a collection of ideas that I had for an interactive story someone made on another site called Infinity Madness but ultimately I never got around to it. I knew I wanted to explore some of these ideas and directions the breakthrough came from the convergence of two trains of thought. First I was thinking about what I had done in my AVX story and while the Phoenix will see some exploration later in the series that story was a part of there was a lot more I could do with the freedom of a story devoted to it. But I would not have had the inspiration to do so if I hadn't thought about Cyclops. Whether it's Jean, Emma or Psylocke female telepaths seem unusually drawn to him this is no doubt connected to his mental makeup in some way so that got me thinking about when JMS had Peter talking at the beginning of one issue of ASM about vibes and how there is a scientific basis for them. If Scott's mental character was attracting those capable of reading his mind than could Peter's nobility draw people even without a lot of meaningful interaction after all brainwaves are specific patterns of electromagnetic activity and electromagnetism is how Peter's body is able to cling to surfaces if it's already been proven that people give off vibes by the electromagnetic interaction of something as little as shaking hands than wouldn't someone with Peter's powers leave a much stronger impression? Could that be why he had been able to draw the interest of as many attractive women in the past? What if this ability went much deeper would be amplified ten no a hundredfold when he is at his full potential with his Other Powers? I'd already demonstrated Peter having a psychic effect on fellow spider-totems in AVX so this comes as only an extension of what I did and will further explore with Spider-Woman when I get back to that series. What if his Other powers came with a defense mechanism a psychic virus that would remove someone's astral form take it to some spider-totemy world until their astral form was properly conditioned and reunited with its body? And what would the soulless person so to speak be like in the meantime? And then there was the last question with the Phoenix on the loose on earth and Earth's hero's no doubt scrambling to find and deal with it how could this enhanced Spider-Man and Phoenix increase their power? It's only natural that The Phoenix Force and The Web of Life/Spider-Totemic System would have an intimate connection to one another in the cosmic scheme of things this story is basically intended to chronicle a strong but ultimately unsuccessful attempt by these two forces to prevent the Secret Wars in the aftermath of Superior Spider-Man crippling The Web of Life.

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