Title: I thee web
Author: Niklas "Hawk" Jonsson
Summary:
A response to WenDee's 'Pair Jean up with someone else then Scott' challenge. What if the red-haired bombshell ended up with your friendly neighborhood Spiderman? :)
***** Disclaimer *****
The regular stuff, most of the characters in this fanfic belongs to Marvel and the rest are a result of my sick'n twisted'n hyperactive imagination. I do not make any money on this and I don't have much of it to begin with so please don't bother suing me. You won't get much out of it.
***
I'm not to graphic (most of the time...), but there are some references to sex, violence and bad language in almost all my stories, this one is no exception. ;D I trust that you won't be too offended, it's all a part of life and I won't start edit things like this out of my stories just because some people don't like to read about it. You have been warned...
***
I'm from Sweden so English is not my native lingo, please forgive any grammatical, spelling or whatever other errors I've made. Feel free to send me corrections if you want, my knowledge of foreign accents is also rather non-existent so some of the dialogue might seem strange.
***
I love getting e-mails, feel free to send me feedback, requests for other stories, spelling and/or grammatical corrections, money or something else to cheer me up at:
hawk@telia.com
or
iamhawk@yahoo.com
For my latest stories, check out Hawk's Galaxy at:
http://hem.passagen.se/hawkgts/
***** Stop reading this shit and move along to the rest *****
"....." = Speech
*.....* = Screams/Emphasis
/...../ = Thoughts
*/.../* = Telepathy
~.....~ = Translations
+.....+ = Sounds/Radio/Telephone/Computers
"Spiderman." said doctor Otto Octavius without much suprise as I crept out of the dark vent and into his 'secret' hideout. The small time crooks and informants I 'asked' about him all through the morning gave fairly good directions. I suppose he must have allowed the information about his whereabouts to leak, probably for the sole reason of luring me down here. He looked down at his left wrist and the fairly cheap clock he was wearing. "You certainly took your time. I hope you didn't have any trouble finding the place?" he queried almost politely. "Can I offer you a drink or shall we get started right away?" he continued and held up a empty wine glass in my direction and gestured at the half-empty bottle on the table in front of him. There was a glass already on the table, filled to the brim with red wine.
"I'm an AA member Octopus." I tell him. "Are you aware of the dangers of alcohol? What it does to your body? I'd be happy to give you a pamphlet if you're interested."
"Cute." he replies. "I guess we'd better get going then." he tells me, puts down the empty glass and reach for the full one. He puts it to his lips and slowly tilts his head back, draining the entire glass in one long swallow.
*/Look out!/* a voice screams in my mind at the same time as my spindersenses goes wild. I leap upwards and only barely manage to avoid being hit by the four steel arms that smashed into the wall I had been crawling on just a few hundreds of a second earlier. Doctor Octopus is faster and deadlier then ever. To bad that he won't get a chance to enjoy it.
*/Feel free to jump in anytime honey./* I think through our mind- link and leap out of the way as his metal arms strike out at me again.
"This is good exercise doc, you could make a fortune if you started your own gym." I taunt my opponent to distract him and pull his attention away from me. It almost works too good, one of his metal arms tear into my suit and gives me a minor scratch on my left thigh. "Hey! Don't do that, you have no idea how much a Spiderman outfit cost these days. I'm thinking of starting a factory in some out of the way country where I can get cheap labor, if you villains are going to continue making a mess of them, I need a way to cut down on the production costs." He has lost his cool by now, he's merely snarling and growling at me as his arms flay wildly at me. I still have to use all my speed, dexterity and skill to stay away from them though. But the distraction is working marvelously, I see her slip into this large underground chamber with her usual ease. "By the way doc, I don't believe I've introduced you to my wife yet. Jean, Otto. Otto, Jean." I say with a snigger as I leap to Jeans side and slip inside a protective telekinetic shield. His arms flay wildly at it, but it's in vain. He doesn't stand a chance against her shield. "In addition to being stunningly beautiful, she's also a powerful telekinetic *and* telepath. Say good night doc." I tell Octopus who now is so enraged that he's hitting the shield with his bare hands. Thanks our mind-link, I 'see' how her psionic energies hurl at Otto's head and slip inside his skull, his eyes goes wide for a brief moment and then he limply falls to the ground as my darling knocks him unconscious with her awesome mental powers. "Way to go Jeanie." I exclaim and then become silent as I see how she reaches out towards Octavius again, I don't know what she does, but I can feel the complexity of it all. When she finally pulls back, she's sweating and looks a little bit pale. "Honey? What did you do? Are you all right?" I ask silently as I slip my left arm around her waist and lean her into my body.
"I'll be all right, I'm just a little exhausted." she replies and wipes some beads of perspiration off her forehead. "I broke the mental connection he has with his metal arms. He won't be able to use them anymore, he's not any more dangerous then your ordinary intelligent madman." she continues and smiles tiredly at me. I'm speechless and cannot form a coherent sentence, so I settle for pulling both our masks up a little bit so I can give her a passionate kiss. We continue doing this for a while until we both mutually breaks the kiss, the mental link is useful for a lot of things. I pick up Octavius and then we concentrate on navigating through these sewers back up to the surface again. When we've left doctor Octopus at the nearest police station, we have a thanksgiving dinner to attend. We've been invited to the mansion and after a heated discussion decided to accept. I still don't feel comfortable around Scott or Logan and even Warren is giving me the creeps sometimes. Ever since I married Jean two years ago, things have been a little tense between the two of the X-men and us. I used to be on a friendly basis with them, but when Jean and I started dating, things became a little awkward. But the outright hostility didn't start until she picked out a stray thought out of my mind during a Sunday dinner at the mansion. I remember it as if it were yesterday, she gasped and just blurted out 'You're going to ask me to marry you?'. I choked on my potato and Henry had to perform the Heimlich before my airways cleared again. Scott left the room, Logan just stared at me and Warren looked plainly disbelieving. When I had regained my composure, I got the box out of my pocked and went down on my knees in front of her. I can't remember what I said, but I'll never forget the look on her face as she slowly took out the ring and placed it on her finger with a look of utter amazement and joy. It took almost a full minute before she was able to blurt out a strangled 'Yes!' in reply to my proposal. We got married two months after that, much to the suprise of my friends and the people at the Bugle who hadn't even met Jean before they found out about my proposal. Aunt May was a little disappointed, I know that she had been hoping that Mary Jane and me would end up together. But I don't think we were meant to be anything more then good friends. She and Jean hit it off nicely though, so nicely in fact that Mary Jane showed up at the wedding as one of the bridesmaids. Jean tried staying at the mansion for a few months, but she eventually left the X-men. To make a long story short, she is now known all over New York as 'Green Spider'. Her new outfit is nice, a green skin-tight uniform that has made things awkward more then once for me as I have to crouch more then usual to hide a telltale bulge in the front of my pants. She has started wearing a facemask, but lets her long hair flow freely. I made a belt for her, it's just like my own. I even managed to foist a couple of web-shooters on her, but I've yet to see her use them. Watching her use her telekinesis to 'swing' through town is a little unnerving, I'll admit that. But it sure is impressive and she doesn't leave a trail of web after her that any cleaver bad guy can follow. Not that any has ever used my net to follow me, but you never know when some cleaver villain thinks of that. I've been waiting for that thought to pop into their minds for years now. It's also rather amazing what she has done to my reputation. Once we first showed up together and defeated Venom, forcing his symbiot to part with its host, Eddie Brock, we've become celebrities. When a lucky photographer managed to snap a shot of us two kissing after defeating a band of terrorists in a post office, the press went wild. 'Spiderman and his girlfriend, Green Spider, defeats terrorists!', 'Spiderman and Spiderwoman, true love?', 'Kiss of the Spiders!' and articles like that made sure of our fame. All through my career, I've been treated more like a criminal then a hero with a few exceptions. Ever since my lovely wife joined me in the crime fighting business, we've both become bonafide heroes. A few interviews with the media where we expressed out views on mutants has made more good for human-mutant relations then any other event. The Friends of Humanity are mocked all over town, pro-mutant groups are cropping up all over and the newly elected mayor is a mutant herself. New York has become for mutants what San Francisco is for homosexuals. Those are the thoughts my mind occupies itself with as we turn the unconscious Octavius over to the police and swing back to our apartment. I see Ben Riley leaving the building, heading in the other direction. He has made a name for himself as well, the name 'Scarlet Spider' seems to be sticking despite all his attempts to get rid of it. Thanks to Jean, the confusion we might have felt thanks to the scheming Jackal was minimized. What he did to the two of us made her so furious that she let loose with all her might, Jackal is now a patient at Ravencroft where doctor Kafka is trying to shake him out of his cationic state. Jean is an awfully sweet and caring woman most of the time and it takes a lot to make her angry, but once something or someone drives her over the edge, I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of her fury. Norman Osborns attempt to get back into town? Well, his plans were certainly torn to shreds when Jean managed to snap a few pictures of him trying to kill Ben. He now has his own cozy little cell at Ravencroft where he'll serve his life time sentence until he's considered well enough for a transfer to the Vault. I'm moody and lost in thought all the way to the mansion, I don't even notice when Jean pulls up in the driveway and parks the car. I blink in confusion as I feel a slight pain on the back of my head as my wife slaps me to get my full attention.
"What?"
"Behave now dear." she lectures me. "Generation X and X-force are here as well, X-factor was coming but had to go on an urgent mission. You can't go around with your head in the clouds all through dinner." she admonishes me. I cannot help but to feel slightly nervous, I've met Generation X more then once and I kinda like the kids. I've never met X-force though and it seems like there's some new X-men around somewhere as well. Lots of new people who knows nothing about me except that I 'stole Jean away from the mansion where she belongs' as Scott Summers once told me. I just hope that it's won't be too bad.
"Ooookay. Now let's see here. X-force is led by Nathan 'Cable' Summers, the son of Scott Summers and Madelyn Pryor, who was a clone of you. The co-leader is Beatrice AKA 'Domino', a former mercenary. Other members are Roberto 'Sunspot' Da Costa, Tabitha 'Meltdown' Smith, Jimmy 'Warpath' Proudstar, some alien called Shatterstar from another dimension, Dani 'Valkyrie' Moonstar, Theresa 'Siryn' Cassidy, Maria 'Feral' Santos, Illyana 'Darkchilde' Rasputin and Julio 'Richtor' Richter." I say and think hard as I try to remember the lectures Jean has given me during the last couple of days. "Jimmy is related to an old member of the X-men who died years ago. Theresa is the daughter of Sean Cassidy and Tabitha is the girlfriend of Sam 'Cannonball' Guthire who recently joined the X-men. Illyana is the younger sister of Piotr 'Colossus' Rasputin of Excalibur. Am I correct this far?" I query with a look over at my wife.
"100%." she replies with a bright smile as a reward for my efforts.
"Sam is one of the new X-men, another is doctor Cecilia Reyes who hasn't picked a codename for herself yet, I've already met Sarah AKA 'Marrow'. Joseph is believed to be a clone of 'Magneto' and the last one is Niklas 'Hawk' Jonsson. Any mistakes?"
"Nope. I'm proud." she replies and gives me a brief kiss before sliding out of the car. I take a moment longer to compose myself and then we walk together over to the front door.
***
"They look good together, don't they?" I hear my husband ask as he sneaks up behind me and wrap his arms around me. I lean back into his chest and rests my head on his left shoulder.
"They sure do." I murmur as I look out through the window. From the angle I'm standing in, I've got a perfect view over the porch where Scott and Ororo are standing next to each other. They're leaning on each other and I smile slightly. I've always known that Ororo loved Scott, but never made a move on him because he either loved me, grieved me or loved Madelyn. Since I started to date Peter and finally married him, she has been moving in on him, carefully insinuating herself into his life more then ever before. I talked to her on the phone just three days ago and asked her for an estimate of when she thought he'd cave and fall into her arms as a lover, not as a troubled man in need of comfort. She took perhaps fifteen seconds to think about it and then replied 'Two weeks, perhaps as many as three.'. I don't think she will have to wait that long, I know his thoughts. He just doesn't think that she would ever consider him as anything more then a friend. I'll talk to her about it later this evening. A kiss or perhaps just a few not-so-subtle hints from her that she wants more then friendship and he will be all over her.
*/Oh, I see that you've noticed them./* I suddenly hear in my mind and I turn around to come face to face with Jubilation Lee. Peter knew my intentions as soon as I did, so he smoothly turned around with me without loosing his hold on me.
"I didn't know you were a telepath now Jubilee." I tell her with a question in my eyes.
*/Well.../* she transmits to the two of us and then sends a barrage of pictures to explain just why she's now a telepath. I knew about how she went missing with Niklas and how it turned out that they ended up stranded on a island somewhere in the Pacific ocean, but I hadn't heard that she had to turn into a telepath in order to get off that island. I look around the room and find Niklas talking to Illyana and Shatterstar in their own corner of the room. I look back at Jubilee and smile at her.
"Nice catch Jubilation." I congratulate her with more honesty then I felt earlier when I greeted the two of them. I didn't know as much then as I do now, I'll admit that I was a little worried that 'little' Jubilee dated a blood-sucking vampire. But after seeing from her images that he tried to kill himself in order to prevent himself from feeding off her, I now know that she's in no danger from him. I turn back to the window and Peter turns around with me. Jubilee comes to stand beside us and we all three grins as we see Ororo stand in front of Scott. We can't hear what they're saying and their faces are concealed in the shadows, but we can see that Ororo slowly moves closer, puts her right hand on the back of Scott's head and gives him a tender kiss. It doesn't remain like that for long though, almost before we know it, Scott recovers from his stunned stupor and cradles her head in his hands as he deepens the kiss. It takes almost five minutes before they stop showering each other with kisses. A sudden play of light illuminates their faces and a few tears slowly make their way down my face when I see both their smiles. The fact that Scott has been miserable ever since I left the mansion has given me horrible nightmares more then once. I knew how much he loved me, but I just couldn't return everything he felt for me. Ororo can, she loves him just as much as I'm sure that he loves her. I turn around in my husband's arms and glue my lips to his passionately, almost startling him with my intensity.
"Good idea..." I hear Jubilee murmur as she walks away from us in the direction of her new boyfriend. */If you're going to keep that up, you'll need to get a room before you shock the hell out of the people in this room./* she transmit to the two of us.
*/Likewise.../* I reply as I catch a brief look at what she has in mind to catch her boyfriends attention, I bet they don't have any need of mistletoe around Christmas. I don't let this distract me from thoroughly kissing my husband though.
***
"So, you'll invite us to the wedding?" I ask Ororo when I've managed to get alone with her later in the evening. She merely smiles without a hint of suprise at my knowledge of what happened earlier.
"That I will my friend." she replies in that formal, clear voice of hers.
"Any estimates of how long it will take him to propose?" I query mischievously.
"The Bright lady willing, no more then three months." she replies seriously. "If he doesn't propose by then, I will." she tells me and smiles brightly.
***
"I just think it's amusing, that's all." protested my husband as we were driving home in the middle of the night. We declined the offer to stay at the mansion in favor of driving home to the privacy of our apartment. I have two meetings scheduled for tomorrow and I know that Peter wants to head over to the university to check out a project that he's working on. Who would have thought that I would become a counselor? I'm combining my work with studies, I'm well on my way to a degree in Psychology. It's not really necessary, but it would be nice if the relatives and friends of the ones I'm counseling would stop calling me quack, amateur nutdoctor and all the other nasty things they tend to think/say when they find out that I don't have one iota of professional training for this line of work. But despite the ridicule I have to suffer, it pays our bills and then some. The ridicule tends to stop once people see the progress my patients do, but it still hurts my feelings since I not only get the verbal treatment, but also the unspoken thoughts.
"Amusing?"
"Yes, Scott even sidled up to me and apologized for his behavior since the two of us married. Warren and Logan were still sort of stand-offish, but treated me more warmly after the kiss then ever since my proposal." Peter replied with a little grin. "But the really fun part was the seconds after Logan found out about the kiss. I thought he was going to tear Scott apart."
"He was." I admitted. "I persuaded him to stay calm." That's one thing that haven't changed much during the years, I'm still required to jump in to settle these little things before they get out of hand. Charles is to polite to reveal knowledge of things he picks up with his powers, Elisabeth isn't really the calming type and Emma is more likely to make things worse. Jubilee might be able to fill in for me, but since her power has to be consciously activated and gives her a headache, she isn't constantly picking up background thoughts like the rest of us. Monet is too aloof to bother much about the petty troubles of the people around her. Jono is too focused on his own troubles to really make an effort to solve the problems of others, unless it's something *really* serious. Peter reaches over and gives my hand a squeeze before he moves it back to the steering wheel, he's not used to driving and I know that it makes him feel uncomfortable. But he always makes an effort to drive at least half the way whenever we're taking the car somewhere. I know that he used to drive a motorcycle when he was younger, so he shouldn't be so nervous about riding a car, but it's not often that he finds himself in need of artificial transportation anymore. If he is going somewhere, he just jumps into the suit and web his way around the city. "There's Ben." I comment as I see the 'Scarlet Spider' swing onto the roof of our apartment building. Peter drives us into the garage where we park the car in our spot. It'll probably remain here until the next time we go up to the mansion, that's almost the only times we use it. We both stop by at Ben's apartment on our way to our own since I felt faint echoes of pain from him when we reached our floor. It turns out that he had a fight with Hobgoblin and a bomb sent a piece of metal shrapnel into his left leg. It's nothing too serious, but he'll probably limp for a week or two. We offered to take him over to the mansion for the Thanksgiving dinner, but he declined. He and Jessica shared a dinner at a nice restaurant before she left to spend tomorrow with some relatives in Gotham City. When he was on his way back to the apartment, he ran into Hobgoblin. We still haven't found out who the new Hobgoblin is, but I expect it'll all work out, sooner or later. As we slip into our own apartment and cuddle up against each other in our bed, I cannot help but to wonder what would have happened if I had remained with Scott and the X-men. As my loving husband hugs me closer to his chest, I dismiss those thoughts as unimportant, no matter what would have happened, it couldn't be better then this.
THE END!
Author: Niklas "Hawk" Jonsson
Summary:
A response to WenDee's 'Pair Jean up with someone else then Scott' challenge. What if the red-haired bombshell ended up with your friendly neighborhood Spiderman? :)
***** Disclaimer *****
The regular stuff, most of the characters in this fanfic belongs to Marvel and the rest are a result of my sick'n twisted'n hyperactive imagination. I do not make any money on this and I don't have much of it to begin with so please don't bother suing me. You won't get much out of it.
***
I'm not to graphic (most of the time...), but there are some references to sex, violence and bad language in almost all my stories, this one is no exception. ;D I trust that you won't be too offended, it's all a part of life and I won't start edit things like this out of my stories just because some people don't like to read about it. You have been warned...
***
I'm from Sweden so English is not my native lingo, please forgive any grammatical, spelling or whatever other errors I've made. Feel free to send me corrections if you want, my knowledge of foreign accents is also rather non-existent so some of the dialogue might seem strange.
***
I love getting e-mails, feel free to send me feedback, requests for other stories, spelling and/or grammatical corrections, money or something else to cheer me up at:
hawk@telia.com
or
iamhawk@yahoo.com
For my latest stories, check out Hawk's Galaxy at:
http://hem.passagen.se/hawkgts/
***** Stop reading this shit and move along to the rest *****
"....." = Speech
*.....* = Screams/Emphasis
/...../ = Thoughts
*/.../* = Telepathy
~.....~ = Translations
+.....+ = Sounds/Radio/Telephone/Computers
"Spiderman." said doctor Otto Octavius without much suprise as I crept out of the dark vent and into his 'secret' hideout. The small time crooks and informants I 'asked' about him all through the morning gave fairly good directions. I suppose he must have allowed the information about his whereabouts to leak, probably for the sole reason of luring me down here. He looked down at his left wrist and the fairly cheap clock he was wearing. "You certainly took your time. I hope you didn't have any trouble finding the place?" he queried almost politely. "Can I offer you a drink or shall we get started right away?" he continued and held up a empty wine glass in my direction and gestured at the half-empty bottle on the table in front of him. There was a glass already on the table, filled to the brim with red wine.
"I'm an AA member Octopus." I tell him. "Are you aware of the dangers of alcohol? What it does to your body? I'd be happy to give you a pamphlet if you're interested."
"Cute." he replies. "I guess we'd better get going then." he tells me, puts down the empty glass and reach for the full one. He puts it to his lips and slowly tilts his head back, draining the entire glass in one long swallow.
*/Look out!/* a voice screams in my mind at the same time as my spindersenses goes wild. I leap upwards and only barely manage to avoid being hit by the four steel arms that smashed into the wall I had been crawling on just a few hundreds of a second earlier. Doctor Octopus is faster and deadlier then ever. To bad that he won't get a chance to enjoy it.
*/Feel free to jump in anytime honey./* I think through our mind- link and leap out of the way as his metal arms strike out at me again.
"This is good exercise doc, you could make a fortune if you started your own gym." I taunt my opponent to distract him and pull his attention away from me. It almost works too good, one of his metal arms tear into my suit and gives me a minor scratch on my left thigh. "Hey! Don't do that, you have no idea how much a Spiderman outfit cost these days. I'm thinking of starting a factory in some out of the way country where I can get cheap labor, if you villains are going to continue making a mess of them, I need a way to cut down on the production costs." He has lost his cool by now, he's merely snarling and growling at me as his arms flay wildly at me. I still have to use all my speed, dexterity and skill to stay away from them though. But the distraction is working marvelously, I see her slip into this large underground chamber with her usual ease. "By the way doc, I don't believe I've introduced you to my wife yet. Jean, Otto. Otto, Jean." I say with a snigger as I leap to Jeans side and slip inside a protective telekinetic shield. His arms flay wildly at it, but it's in vain. He doesn't stand a chance against her shield. "In addition to being stunningly beautiful, she's also a powerful telekinetic *and* telepath. Say good night doc." I tell Octopus who now is so enraged that he's hitting the shield with his bare hands. Thanks our mind-link, I 'see' how her psionic energies hurl at Otto's head and slip inside his skull, his eyes goes wide for a brief moment and then he limply falls to the ground as my darling knocks him unconscious with her awesome mental powers. "Way to go Jeanie." I exclaim and then become silent as I see how she reaches out towards Octavius again, I don't know what she does, but I can feel the complexity of it all. When she finally pulls back, she's sweating and looks a little bit pale. "Honey? What did you do? Are you all right?" I ask silently as I slip my left arm around her waist and lean her into my body.
"I'll be all right, I'm just a little exhausted." she replies and wipes some beads of perspiration off her forehead. "I broke the mental connection he has with his metal arms. He won't be able to use them anymore, he's not any more dangerous then your ordinary intelligent madman." she continues and smiles tiredly at me. I'm speechless and cannot form a coherent sentence, so I settle for pulling both our masks up a little bit so I can give her a passionate kiss. We continue doing this for a while until we both mutually breaks the kiss, the mental link is useful for a lot of things. I pick up Octavius and then we concentrate on navigating through these sewers back up to the surface again. When we've left doctor Octopus at the nearest police station, we have a thanksgiving dinner to attend. We've been invited to the mansion and after a heated discussion decided to accept. I still don't feel comfortable around Scott or Logan and even Warren is giving me the creeps sometimes. Ever since I married Jean two years ago, things have been a little tense between the two of the X-men and us. I used to be on a friendly basis with them, but when Jean and I started dating, things became a little awkward. But the outright hostility didn't start until she picked out a stray thought out of my mind during a Sunday dinner at the mansion. I remember it as if it were yesterday, she gasped and just blurted out 'You're going to ask me to marry you?'. I choked on my potato and Henry had to perform the Heimlich before my airways cleared again. Scott left the room, Logan just stared at me and Warren looked plainly disbelieving. When I had regained my composure, I got the box out of my pocked and went down on my knees in front of her. I can't remember what I said, but I'll never forget the look on her face as she slowly took out the ring and placed it on her finger with a look of utter amazement and joy. It took almost a full minute before she was able to blurt out a strangled 'Yes!' in reply to my proposal. We got married two months after that, much to the suprise of my friends and the people at the Bugle who hadn't even met Jean before they found out about my proposal. Aunt May was a little disappointed, I know that she had been hoping that Mary Jane and me would end up together. But I don't think we were meant to be anything more then good friends. She and Jean hit it off nicely though, so nicely in fact that Mary Jane showed up at the wedding as one of the bridesmaids. Jean tried staying at the mansion for a few months, but she eventually left the X-men. To make a long story short, she is now known all over New York as 'Green Spider'. Her new outfit is nice, a green skin-tight uniform that has made things awkward more then once for me as I have to crouch more then usual to hide a telltale bulge in the front of my pants. She has started wearing a facemask, but lets her long hair flow freely. I made a belt for her, it's just like my own. I even managed to foist a couple of web-shooters on her, but I've yet to see her use them. Watching her use her telekinesis to 'swing' through town is a little unnerving, I'll admit that. But it sure is impressive and she doesn't leave a trail of web after her that any cleaver bad guy can follow. Not that any has ever used my net to follow me, but you never know when some cleaver villain thinks of that. I've been waiting for that thought to pop into their minds for years now. It's also rather amazing what she has done to my reputation. Once we first showed up together and defeated Venom, forcing his symbiot to part with its host, Eddie Brock, we've become celebrities. When a lucky photographer managed to snap a shot of us two kissing after defeating a band of terrorists in a post office, the press went wild. 'Spiderman and his girlfriend, Green Spider, defeats terrorists!', 'Spiderman and Spiderwoman, true love?', 'Kiss of the Spiders!' and articles like that made sure of our fame. All through my career, I've been treated more like a criminal then a hero with a few exceptions. Ever since my lovely wife joined me in the crime fighting business, we've both become bonafide heroes. A few interviews with the media where we expressed out views on mutants has made more good for human-mutant relations then any other event. The Friends of Humanity are mocked all over town, pro-mutant groups are cropping up all over and the newly elected mayor is a mutant herself. New York has become for mutants what San Francisco is for homosexuals. Those are the thoughts my mind occupies itself with as we turn the unconscious Octavius over to the police and swing back to our apartment. I see Ben Riley leaving the building, heading in the other direction. He has made a name for himself as well, the name 'Scarlet Spider' seems to be sticking despite all his attempts to get rid of it. Thanks to Jean, the confusion we might have felt thanks to the scheming Jackal was minimized. What he did to the two of us made her so furious that she let loose with all her might, Jackal is now a patient at Ravencroft where doctor Kafka is trying to shake him out of his cationic state. Jean is an awfully sweet and caring woman most of the time and it takes a lot to make her angry, but once something or someone drives her over the edge, I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of her fury. Norman Osborns attempt to get back into town? Well, his plans were certainly torn to shreds when Jean managed to snap a few pictures of him trying to kill Ben. He now has his own cozy little cell at Ravencroft where he'll serve his life time sentence until he's considered well enough for a transfer to the Vault. I'm moody and lost in thought all the way to the mansion, I don't even notice when Jean pulls up in the driveway and parks the car. I blink in confusion as I feel a slight pain on the back of my head as my wife slaps me to get my full attention.
"What?"
"Behave now dear." she lectures me. "Generation X and X-force are here as well, X-factor was coming but had to go on an urgent mission. You can't go around with your head in the clouds all through dinner." she admonishes me. I cannot help but to feel slightly nervous, I've met Generation X more then once and I kinda like the kids. I've never met X-force though and it seems like there's some new X-men around somewhere as well. Lots of new people who knows nothing about me except that I 'stole Jean away from the mansion where she belongs' as Scott Summers once told me. I just hope that it's won't be too bad.
"Ooookay. Now let's see here. X-force is led by Nathan 'Cable' Summers, the son of Scott Summers and Madelyn Pryor, who was a clone of you. The co-leader is Beatrice AKA 'Domino', a former mercenary. Other members are Roberto 'Sunspot' Da Costa, Tabitha 'Meltdown' Smith, Jimmy 'Warpath' Proudstar, some alien called Shatterstar from another dimension, Dani 'Valkyrie' Moonstar, Theresa 'Siryn' Cassidy, Maria 'Feral' Santos, Illyana 'Darkchilde' Rasputin and Julio 'Richtor' Richter." I say and think hard as I try to remember the lectures Jean has given me during the last couple of days. "Jimmy is related to an old member of the X-men who died years ago. Theresa is the daughter of Sean Cassidy and Tabitha is the girlfriend of Sam 'Cannonball' Guthire who recently joined the X-men. Illyana is the younger sister of Piotr 'Colossus' Rasputin of Excalibur. Am I correct this far?" I query with a look over at my wife.
"100%." she replies with a bright smile as a reward for my efforts.
"Sam is one of the new X-men, another is doctor Cecilia Reyes who hasn't picked a codename for herself yet, I've already met Sarah AKA 'Marrow'. Joseph is believed to be a clone of 'Magneto' and the last one is Niklas 'Hawk' Jonsson. Any mistakes?"
"Nope. I'm proud." she replies and gives me a brief kiss before sliding out of the car. I take a moment longer to compose myself and then we walk together over to the front door.
***
"They look good together, don't they?" I hear my husband ask as he sneaks up behind me and wrap his arms around me. I lean back into his chest and rests my head on his left shoulder.
"They sure do." I murmur as I look out through the window. From the angle I'm standing in, I've got a perfect view over the porch where Scott and Ororo are standing next to each other. They're leaning on each other and I smile slightly. I've always known that Ororo loved Scott, but never made a move on him because he either loved me, grieved me or loved Madelyn. Since I started to date Peter and finally married him, she has been moving in on him, carefully insinuating herself into his life more then ever before. I talked to her on the phone just three days ago and asked her for an estimate of when she thought he'd cave and fall into her arms as a lover, not as a troubled man in need of comfort. She took perhaps fifteen seconds to think about it and then replied 'Two weeks, perhaps as many as three.'. I don't think she will have to wait that long, I know his thoughts. He just doesn't think that she would ever consider him as anything more then a friend. I'll talk to her about it later this evening. A kiss or perhaps just a few not-so-subtle hints from her that she wants more then friendship and he will be all over her.
*/Oh, I see that you've noticed them./* I suddenly hear in my mind and I turn around to come face to face with Jubilation Lee. Peter knew my intentions as soon as I did, so he smoothly turned around with me without loosing his hold on me.
"I didn't know you were a telepath now Jubilee." I tell her with a question in my eyes.
*/Well.../* she transmits to the two of us and then sends a barrage of pictures to explain just why she's now a telepath. I knew about how she went missing with Niklas and how it turned out that they ended up stranded on a island somewhere in the Pacific ocean, but I hadn't heard that she had to turn into a telepath in order to get off that island. I look around the room and find Niklas talking to Illyana and Shatterstar in their own corner of the room. I look back at Jubilee and smile at her.
"Nice catch Jubilation." I congratulate her with more honesty then I felt earlier when I greeted the two of them. I didn't know as much then as I do now, I'll admit that I was a little worried that 'little' Jubilee dated a blood-sucking vampire. But after seeing from her images that he tried to kill himself in order to prevent himself from feeding off her, I now know that she's in no danger from him. I turn back to the window and Peter turns around with me. Jubilee comes to stand beside us and we all three grins as we see Ororo stand in front of Scott. We can't hear what they're saying and their faces are concealed in the shadows, but we can see that Ororo slowly moves closer, puts her right hand on the back of Scott's head and gives him a tender kiss. It doesn't remain like that for long though, almost before we know it, Scott recovers from his stunned stupor and cradles her head in his hands as he deepens the kiss. It takes almost five minutes before they stop showering each other with kisses. A sudden play of light illuminates their faces and a few tears slowly make their way down my face when I see both their smiles. The fact that Scott has been miserable ever since I left the mansion has given me horrible nightmares more then once. I knew how much he loved me, but I just couldn't return everything he felt for me. Ororo can, she loves him just as much as I'm sure that he loves her. I turn around in my husband's arms and glue my lips to his passionately, almost startling him with my intensity.
"Good idea..." I hear Jubilee murmur as she walks away from us in the direction of her new boyfriend. */If you're going to keep that up, you'll need to get a room before you shock the hell out of the people in this room./* she transmit to the two of us.
*/Likewise.../* I reply as I catch a brief look at what she has in mind to catch her boyfriends attention, I bet they don't have any need of mistletoe around Christmas. I don't let this distract me from thoroughly kissing my husband though.
***
"So, you'll invite us to the wedding?" I ask Ororo when I've managed to get alone with her later in the evening. She merely smiles without a hint of suprise at my knowledge of what happened earlier.
"That I will my friend." she replies in that formal, clear voice of hers.
"Any estimates of how long it will take him to propose?" I query mischievously.
"The Bright lady willing, no more then three months." she replies seriously. "If he doesn't propose by then, I will." she tells me and smiles brightly.
***
"I just think it's amusing, that's all." protested my husband as we were driving home in the middle of the night. We declined the offer to stay at the mansion in favor of driving home to the privacy of our apartment. I have two meetings scheduled for tomorrow and I know that Peter wants to head over to the university to check out a project that he's working on. Who would have thought that I would become a counselor? I'm combining my work with studies, I'm well on my way to a degree in Psychology. It's not really necessary, but it would be nice if the relatives and friends of the ones I'm counseling would stop calling me quack, amateur nutdoctor and all the other nasty things they tend to think/say when they find out that I don't have one iota of professional training for this line of work. But despite the ridicule I have to suffer, it pays our bills and then some. The ridicule tends to stop once people see the progress my patients do, but it still hurts my feelings since I not only get the verbal treatment, but also the unspoken thoughts.
"Amusing?"
"Yes, Scott even sidled up to me and apologized for his behavior since the two of us married. Warren and Logan were still sort of stand-offish, but treated me more warmly after the kiss then ever since my proposal." Peter replied with a little grin. "But the really fun part was the seconds after Logan found out about the kiss. I thought he was going to tear Scott apart."
"He was." I admitted. "I persuaded him to stay calm." That's one thing that haven't changed much during the years, I'm still required to jump in to settle these little things before they get out of hand. Charles is to polite to reveal knowledge of things he picks up with his powers, Elisabeth isn't really the calming type and Emma is more likely to make things worse. Jubilee might be able to fill in for me, but since her power has to be consciously activated and gives her a headache, she isn't constantly picking up background thoughts like the rest of us. Monet is too aloof to bother much about the petty troubles of the people around her. Jono is too focused on his own troubles to really make an effort to solve the problems of others, unless it's something *really* serious. Peter reaches over and gives my hand a squeeze before he moves it back to the steering wheel, he's not used to driving and I know that it makes him feel uncomfortable. But he always makes an effort to drive at least half the way whenever we're taking the car somewhere. I know that he used to drive a motorcycle when he was younger, so he shouldn't be so nervous about riding a car, but it's not often that he finds himself in need of artificial transportation anymore. If he is going somewhere, he just jumps into the suit and web his way around the city. "There's Ben." I comment as I see the 'Scarlet Spider' swing onto the roof of our apartment building. Peter drives us into the garage where we park the car in our spot. It'll probably remain here until the next time we go up to the mansion, that's almost the only times we use it. We both stop by at Ben's apartment on our way to our own since I felt faint echoes of pain from him when we reached our floor. It turns out that he had a fight with Hobgoblin and a bomb sent a piece of metal shrapnel into his left leg. It's nothing too serious, but he'll probably limp for a week or two. We offered to take him over to the mansion for the Thanksgiving dinner, but he declined. He and Jessica shared a dinner at a nice restaurant before she left to spend tomorrow with some relatives in Gotham City. When he was on his way back to the apartment, he ran into Hobgoblin. We still haven't found out who the new Hobgoblin is, but I expect it'll all work out, sooner or later. As we slip into our own apartment and cuddle up against each other in our bed, I cannot help but to wonder what would have happened if I had remained with Scott and the X-men. As my loving husband hugs me closer to his chest, I dismiss those thoughts as unimportant, no matter what would have happened, it couldn't be better then this.
THE END!