It was an average day in New York. J. Jonah Jameson was ranting about Spider-Man, kids were getting bored out of their minds at school, and the Web Warriors had just finished stopping an Oscorp robbery. They watched from a nearby rooftop as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and Damage Control moved in to start the clean up.

"Well that was easier than I thought it would be," Scarlet Spider commented, eying Black Cat suspiciously in case she tried anything.

"Yeah," Iron Spider agreed,"It looks like the super villains are losing their touch."

"Actually, I think we're just getting better," Spider-Man replied with a laugh.

Kid Arachnid did a backflip,"Oh yeah! We are killing it! You know why? Because we're awesome and they're way too easy. I bet that in a few months, we'll be Avengers, no doubt."

"I hear that," Agent Venom gave Kid a fist-bump as Spider-Woman let out a small laugh as she shook her head. Suddenly a thunderous sound tore through the air. All eyes looked up at the sky where a large, swirling vortex had appeared out of nowhere. Spidey might have pegged it as a portal into one of the alternate Spider-verses if it wasn't so clearly not. This one actually looked more akin to a black hole, though the ring of strange glyphs around the edge was certainly a unique add-on.

"Was anyone expecting an inter-dimensional visit today?" He quipped," 'Cause I think we're about to get one."

He was proven correct about two seconds later when the portal flared up and something shot out through it, falling into Central Park with a loud boom. Then the vortex closed, disappearing as though it had never been there. The team stood there for a few seconds, stunned into silence by the odd turn of events.

"So," Kid Arachnid said after he finally thought of something to say,"Who wants to go first?"

—

Ten minutes later they were making their way through the park, with Kid scouting ahead after it was unanimously decided that he would go first. As they walked, Spider-Man thought over the design of the portal in his head. It was unlike any he'd seen before, and that was saying something.

"Unreal."

Iron Spider's quiet voice brought him out of his thoughts,"What's that, Cho?"

"I've been going over the reading my suit was able to save from that portal," the kid genius answered, his eyes never leaving his holographic screen,"It's incredible. The sheer amount of energy that was radiating off it, even for a few seconds, was unlike anything we've encountered before."

Spidey's eyes widened a bit,"Really?"

"The closest thing I can compare it to is the Arc Reactor powering Stark Industries, and even then—"

"Guys!" Kid Arachnid's shout drew their attention to the black and red teen who was frantically running toward them, coming to a stop just in front of them,"You'll never believe what it is!"

"A giant piñata filled with candy!?" Everyone gave Venom a flat look,"What? I'm hungry."

Scarlet let his face fall into his hand, muttering something about 'stupid teenagers' as Spider-Man turned back to their youngest member,"Lead the way, Miles."

He gave a nod, then turned and took off web-swinging through the trees, the others following suit as Iron Spider flew behind them. It was barely a minute of wondering what the objet could possibly be before they stopped swinging/flying and dropped to the ground in stunned silence. Laying in front of them, having smashed through a good dozen trees, was a giant, robotic, black cat. A few moments passed.

"What the—"

A sharp jab in the arm from Spidey cut Scarlet off, knowing the curse word he'd wanted to say, the former shooting the latter a glare for it as he briefly rubbed his now slightly sore arm. After a short staring contest, they turned back to the robot cat, letting the silence fall over them once again.

"So...can we go in?" Venom asked, looking to their leader for an answer. In turn, Spider-Man just glanced over to Iron Spider,"Cho?"

"Working on it," he replied, already scanning the massive robot and going over the data. A few seconds later and they had their sort-of-answer,"It looks like this thing runs on the same energy that made up the portal. It's structure is incredibly intricate, made of some kind of alloy I've never seen before," Agent Venom and Kid Arachnid shared a secret 'Do you have any idea what he's saying?' look behind the rest, then shrugged to each other in sync before continuing to listen,"It seems to be hollowed out— a ship of some kind."

"Who the heck makes a ship look like a cat?" Spider-Woman spoke up.

"Good question," the tech-head continued to scour his data for an answer, but came up with nothing,"I have no idea. I doesn't make much sense in terms of aerodynamics, but then again, that might not have even been a concern if it's meant for space travel."

It was Spider-man's turn to ask a question,"Is there anyone inside?"

"Not sure. Whatever this thing's made out of, it's blocking my bio and thermal scanners."

He turned back to the giant cat-ship, now getting the weird feeling that it was, more specifically, a lion. Why he got that feeling, he wasn't sure, but he'd file it away for later. Coming out of his thoughts, he caught the tail end of Kid Arachnid and Agent Venom arguing with Iron Spider and Spider-Woman over what the pilot might look like, with Scarlet offering the occasional 'That sounds dumb.' with his arms crossed in his signature way. Spidey waited for a small opening in conversation to get their attention and say,"It doesn't matter what they look like. Our first priority is making sure they get medical help if they need it. Then we can discuss whether or not they look like Alien," he turned to his nerd buddy,"Did your scan detect an entrance we could use?"

Iron Spider brought the holo screen up again,"There are multiple possibilities," three areas lit up green, showing the entire mussel, a hexagon on top of the head and a rectangular shape on the chest,"But I'm not sure which are primary and which are secondary."

"So, what?" Kid scratched his head curiously,"Do we just knock and hope that they hear us?"

Cho shrugged,"Worth a try."

The six heroes split into three teams of two, Kid Arachnid and Iron Spider took the chest door, and Venom and Spider-Woman investigated the crown of the head while Spider-Man and Scarlet walked up to the lion's mouth. It was kind of intimidating, giving them a strange sense of fear, like it would suddenly spring to life and swallow them whole. Ridiculous, they knew, but that didn't stop the worry from sprouting at the back of both Spiders' minds. They stopped a foot from the white metal, just staring up at the dark yellow eyes that almost seemed to be watching them. Scarlet turned to his leader,"Are you feeling that?"

"I thought it was just me, but yeah," Spidey replied. Ever since they'd gotten so close to the lion, an unusual, tingly sensation had worked its way up his spine to the base of his head, not entirely unlike his Spider-sense, but different to the point where it became a strangeness neither of them recognized. After a brief period of having a conversation with their masked eyes, Spider-Man moved slightly forward, rapped his knuckles on the ship's hull and called out,"Hello? Is there anyone in there?"

They waited.

—

Hello there, curious reader!

In case you're wondering about that part between Spidey and Scarlet; no, neither of them will pilot Black. I just put that in there because I get the impression that they might be able to feel the Black Lion's energy due to their Spider-Sense, and because their both pretty good leaders. Even if Scarlet is a bit temperamental.

It might be off from what would actually happen, but hey, I'm no expert on how Quintessencs interacts with superheroes.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this. And if you did, make sure to leave a review, especially if I got something wrong—literally, anything wrong.

Review=me posting the next chapter.

Later, Pala-dudes!