The Spider-Man in the High Castle, an Avengers fan-fiction.
Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers, all credit goes to Marvel. I also don't own The Man in the High Castle.
Chapter One: Similar Yet Different.
New York City.
The wall blew out and a loud alarm cut through the silent night air. The freshly born embers of a fiery explosion brought an eerie and foreboding light to the darkened road, cutting a silhouette of five distinctive figures.
A man with wings, a large figure with a horns, an odd figure with a domed shaped head, a muscular man with a furry collared coat, and a figure with a long tail. Adrian Tooms, Alex O'Hern, Quentin Beck, Sergei Kravenoff, and Matt Gargen.
"Damn it Gargan, we didn't want to raise an alarm," shouted Tooms. "They'll be on us in minutes."
"Not if we run," said Kravenoff.
Running with the speed of a cheetah, the man sped off down the street, however he did not get far as long stream of what appeared to be webbing stuck itself to the man's leg. Before he could respond a powerful tug drew him from the ground and like a streak of light a powerful kick had been delivered to his face, breaking his neck instantly. The killer landed gracefully onto the ground while the dead man's body dangled from the web.
"Damn it," cursed Gargan. "Tooms, get out of here. We'll hold him off."
"That's what you think," the mystery man said.
The O'Hern charged forward while Tooms flew away. Beck and Gargen stood ready, knowing that this was not going to be an easy fight.
"You guys just never seem to learn do you?" said the group's agile attacker as he dodged the horned man's attack.
The flying man, Adrian Tooms, managed to reach the hideout, hopefully with his enemy slowed down to a point where the operation could begin. He identified himself to the guards and ran down to the makeshift laboratory that had been assembled. He beheld two figures standing near a strange machine.
"Adrian, do you have it?" asked one of the men, who had four mechanical tentacles on his back. Otto Octavius, chief scientist.
"I do," said Adrian, retrieving a flash drive from his belt.
"Where are the others?" asked the other man, their leader, wearing a powerful suit of armor. Norman Osborn, the most wanted man in the world.
"Parker showed up," said Adrian. "We might not have long before we're compromised."
"Then we have no choice," said Osborn. "We start the operation now."
"We've only ever run simulations," said Otto. "For all we know this could scatter your atoms."
"If Parker is onto us we're all dead anyway," said Osborn. "We have to start this operation now."
Otto took the flash drive and entered it into the machine.
"At best we can only send you but for all we know it's a one way ticket," said Otto. "Still, not such a bad result."
"I'm coming back old friend," said Osborn, placing an armored hand on Otto's shoulder. "Even if this thing sends me to Hell and I have to recruit Satan and all his demons. I am coming back."
Otto threw a smile at his old friend. The two had been through so much in all their years fighting against Parker and his allies. Whether this desperate act led to victory or defeat, it was an honor for Otto to have shared the battlefield with Norman.
"Once more onto the breach my friend," said Otto.
An alarm rang out and from above the sound of gunshots interrupted the thoughts of the three men. Working quickly Otto finished his calculations and activated the machine.
"Hurry Norman," said Otto.
Grabbing his helmet, Osborn entered the machine and four beams of energy struck him. The process was painful and it almost felt as if Otto's fears that Osborn's atoms would scatter but he knew this was working. His physical form became transparent as the light became brighter and the last thing Osborn saw before he vanished from this world, was the door bursting open and the image of a squid with a skull proudly displayed on the chest of his sworn nemesis Peter Parker, officer of the Overlords, Hydra's Mightiest Heroes.
A different New York City.
"You guys just never seem to learn don't you?" asked Peter Parker, secretly known as the Amazing Spider-Man.
"I'll learn you bug brain," yelled the Rhino.
"That's not grammatical Rhino," said Spider-Man, having dodged Rhino's charge.
Before he landed though, Spider-Man suddenly found himself caught by the talons of the Vulture, who was about to throw him onto the sharp tail of the Scorpion.
That was before a red, blue, and gold blur slammed into Vulture and then into Rhino. Scorpion was still poised to strike the falling Spider-Man before a pair of Adamantium claws slashed through his tail.
"You didn't?" yelled Scorpion.
"I did," said the gruff voice of the Wolverine, before knocking out the villain with a single blow.
His claws retracted of course.
"I totally could have handled him," said Spider-Man.
"Sure," said Wolverine.
"Hey I've tangled with these idiots more times than I can count," said Spider-Man. "I know all their tricks."
"Really, then why are there only five idiots and not six?" asked Wolverine.
Looking around Spider-Man indeed noticed how indeed there had been five and not six sinister villains. Before Marvel and Wolverine came along he had already managed to deal with Kraven and Mysterio before being swamped by Rhino and Vulture. Indeed there had been a missing moron to this merry band.
"Yup, I'm missing good old Doc Ock," said Spider-Man.
Suddenly Spider-Man felt a very familiar buzzing in his skull.
"Never mind, he's coming," said Spider-Man. "Hold on Chucklehead."
"What are you..."
Before Wolverine could protest Spider-Man grabbed the feral mutant and leaped into the air, webbing the side of the nearest building as the ground beneath them burst open, revealing a large octopus shaped robot.
"This is the last time you will interfere with my plans Spider-Man," the voice of Doctor Octopus yelled out from the robot's speakers.
"What exactly were these guys up to before you came along," asked Captain Marvel, still holding onto Rhino and Vulture, as she rose to meet her allies.
"I'm not entirely sure, I think Tooms has something," said Spider-Man. "Honestly when I show up these guys usually forget whatever screwy plan they have and just decide it's 'Kill Spider-Man' day."
"I can understand why," said Wolverine.
Before the three could continue the robot raised four out of its eight appendages and fired what appeared to be repulsar rays.
"Oh boy someone's been playing in Tony Stark's toy chest," said Spider-Man leaping out of the way, and still holding onto Wolverine.
As she had flown away, Captain Marvel threw the Rhino at the machine, only for the robot to bat the villain away like a fly.
"Alright, that didn't work," said Marvel.
With one hand now free, the other still holding Vulture, the cosmic Avenger unleashed a flurry of energy onto the machine. It forced the dreadful machine to stumble but it was able to regain its composure fairly quickly and fired back.
Marvel had been able to dodge the several beams that came flying towards her.
"Time to make like a can opener," said Spider-Man, leaping onto the robot with Wolverine in tow.
Landing on the hull of the robot Wolverine quickly began to make a cut into the machine, only for a tentacle to come up and knock him off. Spider-Man had been able to dodge and attempted to shoot a web to his beleaguered ally, but was caught in the arms of the octopus before he could.
The tight, mechanical grip of the machine began to crush Spider-Man's body as he was brought to the green tinted windshield of the cockpit, where Doctor Octopus sat at the controls.
"After all these years, victory is mine," said Doc Ock as he began to have the machine crush Spider-Man.
Witnessing this, Captain Marvel felt a rush of righteous rage and shot out like a rocket. However before she could make contact she too was caught by one of the large mechanical tentacles.
Doctor Octopus then focused his attention back onto Spider-Man and resumed attempting to crush his longtime foe.
But suddenly the controls froze and his onboard computers rang out about how his systems were being hacked.
"What is this?" cursed Ock.
Despite all his best efforts Octavious found that he could not regain control of the robot as it began to release Spider-Man and Captain Marvel. As he continued to panic over the hack he noticed a shadow seep over him. Looking up he saw what he at first believed to be the image of Iron Man but the color scheme was reminiscent of Captain America.
The red, white, and blue armored figure raised a hand and fired a repulsar blast into the cockpit.
Prying himself out of the grip of the giant robot octopus, Spider-Man noticed the armored figure coming down with an unconscious Doctor Octopus in his arms.
"Tony?" he asked. "Does Cap know you're stealing his color scheme? I mean I know you've got the lawyers but still. Or is this your version of cosplay?"
The armored figure said nothing and merely dropped off Octavious and flew away.
"Okay, silence, definitely not like Tony," said Spider-Man.
As he began to move to Ock the arachnid Avenger felt a sharp pain in his chest. His best guess was that a few ribs had gotten crushed before not-Iron Man did whatever he did to stop it.
"Are you okay?" asked Captain Marvel, floating over to Spider-Man.
"Nothing a few thousand pain killers won't fix," said Spider-man.
"Are you okay to swing?" she asked, a worried tone in her voice.
"Would you believe me if I said yes?" asked Spider-Man.
"No," said Captain Marvel. "Come on, Logan's back on his feet and he can handle the cleanup. If he's pissed about it there's a bar nearby. Let's go home."
Before Spider-Man could protest, Marvel put her arms around him, allowing her chest to meet his, effectively drawing his mind away from making any form of protest. She took off gently and flew at a calm pace. Soon enough she landed down at the apartment she, in her civilian identity of Carol Danvers, shared with Peter Parker.
They were an odd pair, a wise ass and a hard ass, but somehow they had managed to click and made it work. Peter had an alternative way of thinking that Carol found amusing and oddly insightful at times. Carol had a fierce determination that Peter caught on and used his own scientific brilliance to advance himself in his work at Horizon Labs. Apparently his work was so good Tony even said he was considering buying Horizon just to avoid the competition.
They also shared a lot of the pains in their lives. His long conflicts with men like Norman Osborn and the death of his first love Gwen Stacy. Her rape by Marcus and having her powers stolen by Rogue.
For two years they had been together. Peter had even introduced her to his Aunt May, and she approved. Not only did she approve but she also gave Peter some important advice, among other things.
Today had been a close call if not for the not-Iron Man guy that showed up. The old Parker Luck couldn't be pushed forever.
'You know what you have to do Parker,' he thought as he removed his shirt, revealing the nasty bruises all over his torso.
"It doesn't look too bad," said Carol. "You've definitely had worse."
"Definitely," Peter agreed.
"Perhaps a hot soak would help?" she said with a wink.
"Yes," said Peter.
Carol smiled and began heading towards the bathroom to get things ready, removing her boots in the process. Working fast Peter rand to the bookshelf where he had hidden Aunt May's little gift in between the pages of a book. Quickly grabbing Carol's boots he placed them where he knew she'd grab them to dress in the morning and set the surprise in the right boot before going to join Carol.
However he began to feel a lighter form of his spider-sense tingling. Not the usual sensing of danger but a definite sense that he was being watched. Leaping around quickly he saw that the figure he confused for Iron Man was indeed hovering outside his apartment window.
"Let's save the questions and get right to it," the figure said, opening his face mask to reveal Norman Osborn.
A universe away, the limp form of Otto Octavious was dragged from his place on the ground. His mechanical tentacles torn from his back in a nightmarish struggle. He knew the fate that was awaiting him but he did not care, even as men in dark green coats dragged him to his old foe.
"I've fought Osborn long enough to know that he's not suicidal," said Parker, removing his mask. "I also know he's no coward. A fool and and Undermensch, but no coward. That is his only redeeming quality. So where did he go? What is this machine?"
"For one who claims to belong to a race of supermen I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding out," said Otto. "Kill me then you monster. My mission is complete and I have no fear for you to exploit."
Parker chuckled darkly and pulled his pistol from his belt and fired point blank into Otto's skull.
"He was right," said Parker. "For an Ubermensch such as myself this will be child's play to deduce. Hail Hydra."
"Hail Hydra," responded the platoon of soldiers under his command.
They were men who had followed Parker into battle numerous of times. Earned glory with him that was highly praised in the Hydra Herald under media overseer Jameson. All for the name of the glorious North American Hydra Reich and the Hydra Supreme Stephen Rogers.
Author's Note: I've had something like this in mind ever since I saw the Arroverse's crossover even Crisis on Earth-X. Also it's therapeutic given as I haven't had it in me to work on anything Marvel for at least two years now, personal reasons.
I was actually convinced to work on this story thanks to a friend 'Writing Avenger 2016', whose also got some good stories of his own, including The Mighty Avengers, which I encourage all who read this story to read as well.
Next Chapter: A World Without Hope.