A/N:I have one quick announcement before I proceed with the other notes: I have just sent out a query letter to a couple of agents in New York City and there is a high possibility that the first book in my three novel series will be published! I have been writing them for three years, and I am immensely pleased with what I've done. If I get anymore news on this, I will definitely share this with you all.
Well, I finally got around to writing this. This one didn't quite turn out the way I had planned it, but it was fun writing it, so I look forward to what you have to say about it. Thanks to all of my reviewers, including the one who offered a review anonymously. If you read this, please feel free to let me know who you are, as I would love to respond to your reviews.
Please let me know if there's anything I need to change or fix. Thanks in advance.
1
Peter Parker heard Mary Jane's voice as he rose up from his bed, tired from a late night jaunt stopping Electro from gaining access to an armored car filled with millions of dollars worth of gold. "What's that?" he asked, yawning.
Turning his eyes to the door of their bedroom, Peter saw Mary Jane and noticed the look of uncertainty on her face.
"I said that our newspaper's been burned up," Mary Jane said, frowning.
"Burnt up?" Peter asked, as he laid his back against the wall.
"Yes. Someone burned our newspaper and did the same thing to the other neighbors as well. It seems that the power's out too."
Peter pushed off the covers of the bed and stood up, saying, "I'll go check it out."
Mary Jane smirked. "Not looking like that you aren't, tiger."
Furling an eyebrow, Peter looked down at himself and realized he needed to put on some clothes. "Oh," he said, nodding, "I might need to do that."
"It doesn't matter, though, Peter. We need to head over to New Hope Baptist anyways."
Peter stared into her jade eyes for a moment and then nodded as he located the clothing that he had rented from a nearby designer's store for the occasion. "I almost forgot," he said, his eyes sinking. "I have to give the eulogy for Aunt May today."
2
Earlier that day
Jonathan "Johnny" Storm read the Front Line and spat out his coffee, splattering Aunt Petunia's favorite nephew Benjamin J. Grimm—better known as the Thing—in the head with it.
"Hey watch where you're shooting that stuff, Matchstick!" Thing shouted out, as his pink bunny slipper flew off of his cragged feet.
"This isn't good," Johnny said, rising to his feet and ignoring Ben's protests. "Not today. He can't deal with this today. I have to stop this now. Flame on!"
Igniting into a brilliant flame, Johnny flew out of the Baxter Building, knowing what he had to do to protect his friend's sanity.
3
Peter and Mary Jane arrived at New Hope Baptist thirty minutes after leaving their home. They were several hours early for the funeral service, which was how the pastor of the church, Michael, had preferred it to be. Peter had only talked to the man once on the phone, but he had seemed to be nice enough; Aunt May and his new father-in-law, J. Jonah Jameson Sr., had loved attending his services before she had died.
Pulling into the parking lot in the car that he had bought from an acquaintance of Hobie Brown's, Peter sighed as he exited the car with Mary Jane and continued into the doors of the church.
"How are you, Peter?" Mary Jane asked, grasping his hand.
"About as well as I can in this condition, MJ," he said.
"I think your speech will be wonderful. May would have loved it."
"Thanks, MJ. I know she would have too."
They entered a hallway and found Minister Michael standing outside of a door, staring at a statue of the crucifixion. Michael noticed them and nodded his head as he walked toward them.
Michael extended his hand and shook Peter's first and then Mary Jane's. "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Parker," he said. "I'm sorry we had to meet under these circumstances."
Peter nodded. "I wish this situation was better, but it isn't. Thank you for what you've done for us."
"Yes, we really appreciate it all," Mary Jane said.
"It is my pleasure to help you in this dark time," Michael said. "Mr. Jameson is waiting inside of my office. Please follow me."
Doing as instructed, Peter and Mary Jane walked behind Michael and then entered the room that he had indicated earlier, where Peter found J. Jonah Jameson Sr. sitting inside.
He rose when they entered and said, "Hello, Peter. Mary Jane. Minister Michael and I were just talking about the service."
"And we both agreed that you would have the final say on the matter once Mr. Jameson and I were through speaking," Michael said. "Would this be acceptable for you, Peter?"
"Yes," he said, sitting down with Mary Jane. "Let's discuss this more."
4
The holographic representation of Reed Richards floated above Johnny Storm's left hand, and asked, "Now you do recall that Peter specifically told us not to attend the funeral, right? If we were to attend people would start to ask questions about how Peter knows us. I also heard that you'd called some people using our frequencies, but I couldn't figure out who."
"Yes, Reed, I know that," Johnny said. "I'm not going to the funeral. I just need to get a few people together to make sure Peter stays there."
"And why would that be? Ben told me that you flew out of here in a hurry, so I assumed that you were heading over to May's funeral."
"It doesn't matter, Reed. You just stay by the Negative Zone portal and wait for Sue to get back, and make sure Ben stays there too, just in case something happens. I've got something to take care of."
"Okay, but be careful."
"Reed, I'm not a kid anymore; I can take care of myself."
"Oh, I didn't mean to infer that—" Reed said, but Johnny cut off the transmission.
Smirking, Johnny landed on top of an apartment building and waited, knowing that the people who had responded to his earlier transmission were near. A moment later, he saw the form of a metallic web cling to the building and a young man with a cybernetic arm land right next to him.
"Steel Spider, I presume?" Johnny asked, extending his hand.
"Yes," he said, taking Johnny's hand. "It's a pleasure to finally meet the Human Torch."
"Call me Johnny."
"Then I'm Ollie. It's still a pleasure to meet you."
"I wish it were under better circumstances."
"Hey; it's the way a hero's life works. Some days it's all fine, and other days the hero that you've based your life on gets threats in the newspaper while he can't respond to it."
"Yeah, I understand. Spidey's told me a lot about you and I heard what happened to you with the Mac Gargan Venom and the Thunderbolts."
Ollie stared at his cybernetic arm. "Got it from the Tinkerer. He owed me a favor once I busted him out of the Negative Zone Prison. I'm not bitter at Reed for building it. We all did some crazy things during the Registration Act."
"Yeah, I—" Johnny started to say, but found two figures approaching them.
To the left of them Hobie Brown, better known as the Prowler, leapt onto the apartment building right as Thomas Fireheart, the Puma, scaled down the building next to them and landed in a crouch. Before either of them could speak, a dark energy field appeared from nowhere and a woman bathed in light exited a shroud of pure dimness.
"Cloak, Dagger, Puma, and Prowler, glad you could make it," Johnny said, nodding.
"Why is it that you have called us all here?" Puma asked, snarling. "If what your message told me is true, why does Spider-Man not handle this affair by himself?"
"Because he can't. Spider-Man is dealing with a death in the family and he doesn't know about any of this, so I decided to gather some his most trusted allies to deal with this problem in his stead. Obviously you care enough about him to come when asked to."
"If Spider-Man cannot fight his battles, then we shall do it for him," Dagger said. "It's the least we can do. Who exactly are we up against?"
Johnny paused, but then said, "The Sinister Six."
5
Peter stepped out in front of the congregation and began his eulogy, "My aunt May, who some of you may know better as May Reilly Parker Jameson, was like a mother to me when my parents died protecting America from the machinations of a Red Skull impersonator."
He waited for the words to sink in and watched the crowd, finding Carlie Cooper sitting next to Norah Winters. Cringing inwardly, Peter remembered how close he had been with the two of them in the world created by Mephisto and how everything had still happened there, at least in his own mind, even though in the new reality he had ushered in with Mephisto's defeat he had always been married to Mary Jane. The duality had caused him endless confusion and he preferred not to think too much on the subject, because it worked better that way.
"She and my uncle Ben raised me as their own and did whatever they could to make sure that I could live my life to the fullest. I was never the most popular child growing up, and I was always concerned about my status in the world, but the two of them always reminded me that I was who I was meant to be and I could make myself into a better person through these trials. It wasn't long after Uncle Ben died that Aunt May told me how she had always worried about how she was raising me and how differently I might have been if my mother and father had been alive to rear me instead. I told her not to worry about it, because she was doing wonderfully."
Peter caught a glimpse of a wheelchair-bound Flash Thompson being carted into a pew near the front by his caretaker and, more recently, his renewed girlfriend, Sha Shan. He spared Flash a smile and returned his gaze to the audience.
"Over the years I faced many trials and I was often concerned about the welfare of my aunt May, but time after time she proved me that she was much stronger than I gave her credit for. Without her guidance I never would have been able to fully break out of my shell, and it was her constant vigilance that made sure I never strayed from what I wanted in life." He paused. "I miss her."
6
In the middle of a crowded Broadway, Boomerang lashed out at the police officer trying to take him down with a stun gun and backslapped him into a car, right as the Spot plunged a patrol car into another dimension. Right as Boomerang began to congratulate his teammate on his success the sting of the Scorpion's tail ran into the armor on his right arm and impaled it into the ground.
Turning to his left to see what had happened, Boomerang found the Scorpion, Vulture, Mysterio, Rhino, Chameleon, and the Sandman staring back at him.
"Why are you interfering here?" Boomerang demanded, as he used one of his weapons to free himself from the Scorpion's grasp. "We're trying to do a job!"
"And you are interfering with our quest to rid ourselves of Spider-Man, fool!" Mysterio said, stepping forward.
Out of the shadows, Shocker appeared and blasted Mysterio out of the way. "Listen, I hate the bug as much as you do, but we're getting paid to bust out the vibranium in the exhibit here for a ton of cash, so go have your revenge elsewhere."
"This is preposterous!" the Vulture screamed. "There is no reason for all of you to be here at the same time as we are! Our benefactor told us to bring Spider-Man here because there was a trap for him that would activate once he came!"
"Good going, birdbrain," the Rhino said, grimacing. "Now, bug boy probably heard you blurt it all out for him."
"Oh shut up, Rhino, you idiot!"
"Enough!" Sandman shouted, sending out two sand arms to keep Rhino and Vulture from coming to blows. "Chameleon, you were the one who brought us together; who told you about this trap?"
"I do not know," the Chameleon said, shrugging. "All I know is that he told me to find you and to bring Spider-Man out of hiding."
"Which was why I put that ad in the paper!" the Scorpion growled. "Why isn't he here yet?"
In the distance, Mysterio pulled himself out of the rubble and groaned. "Oh, you are all idiots!" he yelled. "Why spend so much time shouting and bickering when you could spend it to fight back against the people who hit me!"
The Shocker stood beside Boomerang and the Spot, as their two other members—Grizzly and Tombstone—joined them.
"Listen," the Shocker said, "all we want is that vibranium and we're gone."
"And all we want is Spider-Man dead," Sandman said.
"So let's just leave each other alone and move on with our lives."
"Agreed. We'll—" Sandman tried to say, but he was interrupted by a mechanical tentacle that bashed his face in.
The supervillains looked up and found the Human Torch, Steel Spider, Puma, Prowler, Cloak, and Dagger heading toward them.
Johnny fired off a volley of fire at the Spot and Tombstone, hitting the latter and causing Spot to flee into his dimension. Fearing for his own safety and knowing the job was botched, the Spot gave up on his job and decided to escape while he could. Tombstone's body impacted the right side of a wall and he swore furiously.
Cloak and Dagger targeted the Scorpion, Rhino, and Vulture, as Dagger threw shards of light into them, causing all three to cry out in agony as their vitality was slowly taken away from them. Cloak transported down to the Rhino and enveloped him into his dimensional cloak, and the Rhino tried desperately to escape from it, as the coldness surrounded him.
The Steel Spider continued his assault on the Sandman and threw out a cryonic grenade, which captured the lower half of the Sandman's body inside a block of ice. Before the Sandman could react, Ollie punched his face into his body and used his mechanical arm to send out a wave of sonic energy that sent the rest of Sandman all over Broadway.
Puma landed a blow on the Chameleon that sent him straight into Boomerang and then into Mysterio, who accidentally threw a holocube over at the Grizzly, who was now consumed by the false image of a hellish wasteland where he could no longer breathe. The Prowler came into finish them off as he slashed open Mysterio's fishbowl.
Johnny torched the land in front of Tombstone, who coughed from the fumes around him and fell down on the ground.
In the distance Johnny saw a large rocket equipped with smaller munitions approaching them at immense speeds. Johnny tried to warn the others, but an explosion howled out in the street and Johnny barely realized that Cloak had concealed all of them inside of himself in order to protect them from the blast. Johnny felt the smooth light of Dagger making sure that none of them succumbed to the darkness within Cloak's dimension. Moments later, Cloak let go of them and they returned into Broadway.
Examining the ground, Johnny found the villains all knocked out underneath the rubble, so he barked out an order to recover them before they could wake up. Scanning the skylines for the source of the explosion, Johnny found the outline of a man wearing a large skull on his shirt and knew immediately that they were dealing with the Punisher.
"Flame on!" he shouted, heading toward the anti hero with blazing speed.
The Punisher noticed his approach and halted in place, waiting for the Human Torch to reach him before he said, "Scum like this think they can announce their intentions to wreak havoc just because of some petty attempt to kill a great man."
"You were trying to kill them, Castle," Johnny said, crossing his arms and suspending his body in midair. "I appreciate the help, but what you were trying to do is not needed here."
"I wasn't."
"You weren't what?"
"Trying to kill them," the Punisher said, scowling. "I overheard the transmissions that you sent to Spider-Man's allies and learned why he couldn't stop them because he'd had a death in the family. Out of respect for him I didn't kill them…yet. Tell Spider-Man that I offer all of my condolences for his loss and that he should learn to use his skills more efficiently."
Johnny's jaw dropped. The Punisher respects Spider-Man that much? he asked himself. No way.
"Thank you for your help then," Johnny said. "You should leave now; that way you can make sure the police don't catch up with you."
The Punisher smirked. "As if I need you to remind me," he said, activating a glider that he had confiscated from the Green Goblin, and making his escape.
7
"There are times that I wish Nathan were still here, but his death helped her to realize that she needed to move on with her life and that his sacrifice must never be forgotten," Peter said. "He was a great man and one I deeply respected and from him I learned more about myself."
Behind him Peter heard the sniffling of Anna Watson and heard his wife offer her some comfort, as he began to feel the starts of a tear form on his eyes as well, but he brushed it aside before it became noticeable. He couldn't break down yet; he had to wait until he finished.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I suppose you can understand why I'm like this. Anyways, it was during a rough time in our lives that MJ and I needed her counseling, and May stepped in to make sure that we knew exactly what we needed to do to stay whole."
Peter paused when he heard a commotion in the crowd and waited for his spider-sense to react to whatever was going on, but was surprised when it didn't. Craning his neck, he found that the sounds of shouting were coming from outside of the church. Before he could react, the doors were opened by the bodies of two policeman, and a metallic tentacle protruded from the outside, marshaling the arrival of Doctor Octopus into the halls of New Hope Baptist.
Clenching his fists, Peter realized that his spider-sense was still not going off and then he wondered if somehow Otto Octavius had managed to find a way to shut it off. He disregarded the idea as the supervillain was one of many who no longer knew his secret identity.
"I am sorry for the interruption and the rude entrance," Doctor Octopus said, using his tentacles to walk closer to the pulpit.
A brief movement to his side let Peter know that Mary Jane was moving Michael out of the way as Jay Jameson stepped toward him, but Peter brushed him off, curious to understand just why Octavius was there interrupting the funeral service.
Doctor Octopus descended from his tentacles and stood next to Peter and Jay, as he then turned his gaze over to the coffin that held May's body. "I have come to pay my last respects," Octavius said, revealing a bouquet of roses that he placed within the coffin. "May, my dear, you were once precious to me. True, I was using you to further my own goals, but after some time I grew to care for you. I hope you will forgive me for what I have done, but I cannot stop now. My genius must be realized for the whole world to understand. Farewell, May."
Doctor Octopus turned around and began to leave the funeral behind.
"And Parker, tell Spider-Man that I made sure that no one would dare cause disruption at her funeral by hiring them to attack him elsewhere and that I am sorry for the deception."
Without another word Octavius left them behind and never returned to the church. Peter looked out in the crowd and discovered J. Jonah Jameson trying to get the police to track Doctor Octopus down, but Peter knew Octavius would not be found unless he wanted to be.
"Well, I can't say that I'm particularly happy that Dr. Octavius decided to appear here today, but I am glad that he did it in a manner befitting a grieving man," Peter said. "Now, as I was saying, May was a comforter in our darkest days and provided me with more knowledge than I ever would have gained from another.
"As you all know she was taken quietly, with her family at her side. She often told me that she always wanted to be beside her closest family when she…passed away. I'm glad that the good Lord deemed it sufficient for her to leave us in that manner. I wish there was more that I could say about her…but I'm not really able to right now." Peter batted away a tear from his eyes and clenched his right fist, trying to stop himself from losing it too soon. "My aunt May was my mother, and I will always cherish the memories I have for her, and there is nothing that will ever stop me from honoring her memory."
Peter heard Mary Jane stand up behind him and let her take his hand, as he cried, while Michael led the congregation into singing "You Never Let Go."
8
Peter sat with Harry Osborn, Mary Jane, Jay, Flash Thompson, Sha Shan, Betty Brant, Joe Robertson, and Debra Whitman as they regaled each other with stories of Aunt May.
"I remember one time I was making fun of Peter's glasses in the seventh grade," Flash said, chuckling. "And then the next day I was sneaking around his house to cause some mischief, and I started smelling some apple pie. I was so worried about finding it that I didn't notice that May had 'accidentally' dropped it onto my face."
They erupted into laughter, as Flash sipped his drink.
"Imagine that," Sha Shan said, rolling her eyes, "you trying to cause trouble."
"And what about the time she managed to trick the Chameleon into eating some Ambien-filled cookies?" Betty asked.
"That was hilarious," Joe said, recalling the day the Daily Bugle had run the story. "Why exactly was the Chameleon there anyway, Peter?"
Mary Jane and Peter exchanged glances.
"Well at the time Aunt May was dating Edwin Jarvis," Peter said. "The Chameleon was trying to use her as a hostage in order to extract some information about the Avengers."
"What ever happened with them?" Debra asked.
"They just kind of…drifted apart," Mary Jane said.
She and Peter both knew the truth that Jarvis had been taken over by a Skrull during the Skrulls infiltration of Earth and that when the real Jarvis had come back he had been horrified to learn of what the imposter had done in his absence, and the two had gone their separate ways.
"Hey, it all worked out in the end," Harry said. "Right, Mr. Jameson?"
"Oh yes," he said, managing a weak smile. "She was something else."
"Yeah," Peter said, smiling. "She was."
9
Johnny Storm sat on the Statue of Liberty and waited patiently as they sun set in the west. He had left a message in the sky for Spider-Man to follow, as per their usual arrangements. As far as Spider-Man knew, Johnny was only checking up on him by telling him what had happened on his day off during the funeral as they had arranged before, and not in any way worried about him.
A web-line reach the top of the Statue of Liberty's torch and Spider-Man followed soon after it, as he sat down beside Johnny.
"Nothing much happened today, man," Johnny said. "Looks like you didn't miss much. How did the funeral go?"
"As well as can be expected, I suppose," Spider-Man said. "Glad to know I didn't miss anything that would have required my attention."
"Yeah, guess we just got off lucky."
"You know, something funny happened earlier today. It was really odd, and it made no sense to me at first."
"Really? What was that?"
"Now, you see, my wife told me that all the newspapers on our street were all burned up this morning and the power was out too. But the really funny thing was that the moment we left our home, the power came back on."
"They were?" Johnny asked. "Now how could that have happened?"
"I know," Spider-Man said, shrugging. "It's almost as if someone with access to forms of technology that could cause further forms of technology to stop working and come back on at the appropriate time and then find a way to burn up all the newspapers as well. I wonder why?"
"Beats me."
"Maybe they wanted to keep someone from finding out that something bad was going to happen that day. You know, I think Valeria and Franklin have the ability to cause technology to short out if they want to."
"Well, yeah, but why would they want to stop you from learning something?"
"Good question. Perhaps if there was someone they trusted who asked them nicely to help them out in some grand scheme they could have done that. Though as to the true identity of that person, I guess we'll never really know. He'd have my thanks for not letting me find out about the Sinister Six calling me out on the date of my aunt's funeral."
"I guess we'll never know then. I'm sure if this person did know you'd say that he'd be happy to know that they helped you out some."
Silence passed for a moment and they smiled.
"Hey, do you remember that time that you made me wear that Fantastic Four outfit and left that 'KICK ME' message on the back?" Spider-Man asked, laughing.
"Yeah, that was hilarious," Johnny said, laughing with him.
"You're a good friend, Matchstick," Spider-Man said, patting him on the back.
"Yeah, and so are you, Web-head," Johnny said, smiling as he flew away, leaving Spider-Man alone. "See you later, man."
As the Human Torch flew off, Spider-Man smirked, knowing that the note that he had webbed to Johnny's back wouldn't burn off, thanks to its unstable molecule makeup. Tomorrow, Johnny would know once he took a look into the tabloids that the message "KICK ME" had been on his uniform.
Chuckling at his own wit, Spider-Man sent a web-line out to the nearest ferry and began his journey back home to his wife.
A/N: The next chapter will focus on Spider-Man as he helps out Steve Rogers and Captain America in Madripoor by tracking down Madame Hydra.
I have something to say first before you leave: I've got a plan on how the next few chapters will be written and it goes like this. Every two days I plan to have written at least one chapter on six projects I am working on. Why? Because I'm arrogant enough to think I can do it, and it's a lot of fun in the meanwhile.
To start, the first two days will be to write a chapter of Repercussions, which I have just done. The two days after that will be me writing a chapter for my novel, Pyrrhic, which I have designed as sort of an American homage to Battle Royale. The next two days I'll be editing and planning for stories I have already written or plan to write on down the road. The two days following that I will write a chapter for my Star Wars fan-fic The Chosen. The next two days I will be writing a chapter for my zombie novella, Bastion, in which I will eventually put into a collection of other novellas that I will write once I finish it. Finally, the last two days I will be working on my Zenith series, which takes place in a world where Charles Martel lost the Battle of Tours and the world was changed forever, especially since super-powered humans called Zeniths have now shown up across the globe. After that is done, then I shall start anew with another chapter of Repercussions and so on, so expect a new chapter about every twelve days. It all depends on how fast or slow I do everything.
Until next time...