Sorry for being a couple days late, I kind of wrote myself into a corner a couple times, anyways I hope this chapter sedates your hunger for awhile, don't worry next chapter is going to half-action, quarter-magic, and quarter-hostile takeover. Also I threw in some references and jokes for humors sake.

11.

No Rest for the Righteous


Spidey was feeling anxious, it seemed like that Ol' Parker luck transcended time and space, and with the eminent threat of a nuclear meltdown, things seemed at an all-time low. But they don't call him "The Amazing Spider-Man" for nothing.

"Will the dampener rods alleviate the piles blast radius?" Spider-Man said as he walked over to the control panel taking a look at the readings first hand.

Dr. Stein was surprisingly impressed at how much Spider-Man seemed to know about their current predicament. "Yes, but not by much, the blast radius will still engulf half the city" Dr. Stein and Spider-Man knew that that would cause countless deaths, not to mention the resulting fallout.

"Wait, Dr. Stein!" Daisy Williams came forward from hiding in the corner, she was still flabbergasted by the whole ordeal that had transpired around her. "Your F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M matrix, didn't you say that it could absorb excess radiation and convert it into ambient energy?"

"Yes, that could work. Spider-Man the matrix is in my personal laboratory, if the adapter can be plugged into the reactor itself it could absorb the radiation and minimize the blast radius to just the power plant." Dr. Stein had a look of panic, relief, and desperation on his faced as he relayed the information to the wall-crawler.

Spider-Man turned and began to rip the thugs he had webbed up earlier off the ground and walls, Dr. Stein and Daisy watched in amazement as he webbed them all together in basically one big ball before picking all of them up with one hand. "Better get them out of here. Don't worry I know this nice little lamppost outside that they would love to hang out with"

Before Dr. Stein could finish his sentence Spider-Man was already out the door. Peter went ahead and thought it better to radio Nightwing just in case this plan didn't work.

"Nightwing" Peter called as he crawled along the walls looking at every door hoping to find the one with Dr. Steins name on it.

"Hey web-head, what's the status inside?" Nightwing asked.

"Yea we have a bit of a problem"


Deathstroke was known as many things, a Terminator, a Mercenary, a Solider, and a Husband. There are some things in his life that he wishes he could take back, things he wishes he could do over. But as fate would have it being a father was not on that list.

"I hope this plan of yours is worth the wait" Ravager questioned.

Slade was looking over blueprints for some kind of warehouse with Psimon looking on the other side of the table giving them a once over as well.

"Your condescending tone doesn't help this along any faster Ravager"

Ravager wasn't one for patience, she was a fighter, a warrior. She was only concerned with being the best with proving that there was no-one better or deadlier than her. She hoped this Spider-Man was worth all the trouble, from what she had heard he wasn't someone to be trifled with. She would judge that for herself.

"So, I have win his trust first?" Ravager asked.

"Yes, just long enough for us to get a sample" Slade turned and faced Ravager and walked up to her.

Psimon looked at the two mercenaries he noticed a noticeable size difference between the two, Deathstroke stood a good six-inches above her. He could tell by her attitude that she had no fear for him. He didn't need his telepathy to notice that.

"Remember though, the rest of the league and the children are aware of who you are" Psimon made sure to state the most crucial part of the plan.

"You need to get him alone, make sure he has none of his idiotic friends nearby" Psimon then grabbed the blueprints to the warehouse, looking at the plans to make sure everything was in place.

Ravager then noticed on the table there were multiply pictures of Spider-Man in various shots. There was a couple of him swinging through the city, executing moves that even trained acrobats would have trouble doing. There were shots of him taking on multiple assailants, leaping over them and webbing them up in a fashion that left them unconscious and yet were non-fatal.

"His morality is his weakness," Ravager picked up the photo and showed them to Deathstroke and Psimon. "Notice how he takes caution to never kill his opponent, if we are able to get him in a hostage situation he could potentially became cautious, thus easier to pin down"

Slade grabbed the photos from Ravager, raising his eyebrow, he was impressed. Guess the apple didn't fall far from the tree, if you shake it hard enough.

"If this works out, we could be looking at a significantly large payment from our benefactor" Deathstroke said in a rather confident manner.

Psimon looked puzzled, he still didn't know who was paying for this little operation. For some reason he couldn't read Deathstroke's of Ravagers mind. He did sense the presence of another telepath that had obliviously shielded their minds from any unwanted guests. Whoever wanted this done definitely wanted to stay anonymous.

Deathstroke looked at his Qpad for the time and saw that it was almost 2 O'clock A.M. "OK we have 4 hours before we get in touch with our guest, so be prepared for any curves balls he might through" Slade squinted his eyes. "This one is known to be a talker."


"Wait what's about to blow up?" Nightwing looked at the power plant in confusion and disarray.

"The reactor, the nuclear pile went into overload and now it's about to level half the city!" Spider-Man yelled through his com-link as he ran through the halls looking for the exit.

"Ok this little mission, just turned into a league problem" Nightwing was looking around for civilians to make sure none would be around in case they wouldn't be able to contain the blast. He was sure Captain Atom could absorb the excess radiation, he was basically a living reactor.

"No time we have less than 5 minutes before the reactor goes critical" Spider-Man crawled along the walls still looking for the exit.

"Also if you see a man with thick black hair named Danton Black run out, he's to blame for this little catastrophe." Spider-man nonchalantly said. "Also could you make sure some trash doesn't get left behind too, I'll be sending them out shortly?"

Spider-Man jumped onto the floor with the unconscious thugs when he finally saw the main entrance.

"Got it, I'm still calling the league anyway" Nightwing released the button on his com and reached towards his communicator on his arm to contact the league. "Nightwing to watchtower, we've got a nuclear meltdown imminent, requesting assistance."

Just as Nightwing released his com he saw the main entrance open and a large ball of people get thrown 40 feet through the air, over his head, and towards a lamppost on the other end of the street. Before the thugs could hit the ground he heard a THWIP, and a web shot forward and latched the thugs to the lamppost leaving them dangling.

"Huh, not bad" Nightwing said in admiration.

As he admired Spider-Man's handiwork he noticed a man run out of one of the buildings end exits in a panic. He assumed it was Danton Black and noticed him run away once he noticed him. No quicker than he had turned, Nightwing threw a bola that tangled both his hands and feet before he even fell to the ground.

"Sorry pal, but the buses don't tend to run this late in this part of town."

Spider-Man reached the end of the hall and saw an office that had the words Dr. Stein written on them. "Bingo, ok doc said I couldn't miss it" The wallcrawler looked around the room and noticed a strange looking box sitting on a pedestal. It looked like a small hollow cube, with what looked like a glowing sun in the center.

"Guess this is it" Spider-Man stated and he examined the cube. No sooner than he had spoken the words he was swinging back towards the lab.

He noticed Dr. Stein and Daisy standing near the consoles examining the readings as he entered. "Got the matrix-thing." Dr. Stein and Daisy turned around, with Dr. Stein looking with relief.

"Thank heavens you found it." Dr. Stein grabbed the matrix from Spider-Man's hands and began to grab some cords he had already set aside on the console.

Peter looked on nervously as the Doc hooked cords to the matrix and entered commands on its keypad. He noticed that the entire room had started to heat up and was so busy getting the matrix that he hadn't noticed that everyone was sweating bullets. He prayed that this matrix lived up to its reputation.

"Got it, all we have to do now is hook it up to the main reactor," Dr. Stein lowered his head in fear, "But it will require someone to go directly into the reactor to connect it."

"But the radiation suits are on the other side of the reactor, we could never reach them in time!" Daisy looked at Dr. Stein and Spider-Man waiting for one of them to respond.

"I know, we won't survive the radiation exposure." Dr. Stein stared at Spider-Man seemingly knowing what comes next.

Spider-Man stepped forward with a sense of fear, irony, courage, but more importantly responsibility. "Yea, yea, I get it. Hero makes the ultimate sacrifice to save millions"

Spidey grabbed the matrix and looked straight at Dr. Stein in a humble manner. He could tell the doc felt a bit of guilt for knowing it would come to this, but Peter knew that this was just part of the job. He had no regrets towards what he was about to do. His only regret would be that he didn't get to tell Aunt May goodbye, and that….. He was sorry.

"You know, I always thought I would go out in a blaze of glory, eating too much of Tony's pizza, sitting in a recliner, watching a Yankees game." His attempt at humor garnered a small and yet sad chuckle from Daisy and Dr. Stein.

"Well spiders can't be choosers." Spider-Man looked back towards Daisy and the doc, "You two get as far away from here as possible, there's a dude in spandex who sounds like Jesse McCartney waiting outside, he'll get you somewhere safe." Spider-Man then jumped on the console and reared back a punch that broke the glass towards the reactor.

Daisy and Dr. Stein ran towards the door and for the main exit, hoping that Spider-Man's sacrifice would not be in vain.

Peter jumped in front of the reactor, he could feel and see the raw heat that was radiating from the reactor, if he wasn't about to die he would have loved to have a chance to study it. "Ok Pete, nothing too difficult, just hook this bad boy up and hope it absorbs enough radiation to lower the blast radius"

Peter grabbed the main ends of the reactor cords and the similar hookups on the matrix. He inserted the cords and noticed a rumble from the matrix, a low hum came from the reactor and the matrix as it went critical. He knew things were about to get dangerous as he felt the whole building shake, he did a backflip and landed on top of the console were broken shards of glass lay scattered across the console and floor.

"Guess I should at least try to run, unless I want to be street pizza" Peter ran towards the door and felt the ground crack and fall through, he turned and saw a piercing light come from the reactor as it went critical.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE MY LAST WORDS ARE STREET PIZZA!" He covered his eyes as the blast knocked him threw two walls and out of the building.

Dr. Stein felt the blast imminent and saw the exit wide open. He saw the man who he assumed was Nightwing standing at the entrance of the building. He looked behind and noticed the blast coming towards him. Without thinking he quickly shoved Daisy who was in front of him into Nightwing who ducked to the ground for cover.

"DR. STEIN!" Daisy cried as she looked up after the blast and noticed that all that was left of Dr. Stein was his and his coat.


"J'onn, take this... Iron Man to the lab. Maybe further examination will give us some clues on the agenda of Doom." Said the Caped Crusader.

J'onn gave a simple nod as he walked towards the lab, just as he began walking three more figures appeared through the Zeta-tubes.

Superman walked forward and put a hand on Kid Flash shoulder, "You should go with Manhunter," he gave Kid Flash a reassuring smile.

"Maybe you can help Spider-Man shed some light on why this Doom character would make a doppelganger of one of his earth's heroes when he gets back" stated to Man of Steel.

"Wait, why do you want me to go, I should be checking on the Queen." Said Kid Flash. He turned and looked towards the earth from the watchtower in self-loathing.

"It's my fault she got captured in the first place" he solemnly stated.

"That's not true Kid, you did the best you could." The Man of Steel placed a reassuring hand on Kid Flash's shoulder. "You can't be prepared for everything, sometimes bad things happen know matter how far you plan ahead." He said.

Just as he finished his sentence they both heard a signal through there com-link. "Nightwing to watchtower, we've got a nuclear meltdown imminent, requesting assistance."

"This is Superman Nightwing, we read you, what's the situation? " The man of steel made his way to the central monitor were he saw Batman and the Atom assessing the situation.

"Spider-Man and I were out on patrol when we received a call from an assistant at the new nuclear power plant" Batman traced Nightwing's com to his location on the monitor as he spoke. The league had access to a wide array of satellites that could pinpoint a targets location thanks to a generous donation from a local Gotham philanthropist.

"There had been a break-in at the labs and they had captured a physicist named Dr. Stein." Nightwing said he was still waiting at the exit with a tied up Danton Black laying on the street in front of the plant. "Spider-Man entered and took down the criminals before someone activated the nuclear pile"

"Right, we have your location" Batman said as he brought up a picture of the power plant onto the monitor.

"Readings show that the reactor is already past the dampening rods maximum input, we'll have Superman through a zeta tube right away" assured the Atom.

The man of steel quickly flew towards the nearest Zeta tube and looked waited for Batman to insert the coordinates. He heard a large thud and noticed Batman smash his hands down on the monitor.

"The zeta tubes not responding!"

"It must be the residual radiation emanating from the reactor, jamming the Zeta tube connection" The Atom said as he scanned the readings showing from the monitor readings.

"So we have no way to get down there as long as the reactor is in play!?" All that was seen was a red and blue blur go through the window of the watchtower, Superman flew as fast as he could to the earth.

The watchtower safety features quickly activated as a large steel door closed were the window used to be stopping the vacuum from pulling anything or anyone out. The caped crusader regained his footing as he turned and looked at the monitor hoping and praying that Clark would get there in time, and that Dick would be OK.


Peter felt a pain in his stomach, luckily it only hurt when he breathed out, and considering the luck he's had recently he's calling it a win. He tried to move his body and noticed he couldn't see anything. He knew he wasn't dead because he figured in the afterlife you wouldn't feel pain. He shifted his body trying to move and heard rumbling. He must have been under rubble, Peter gave a large push on the big concrete slab that lay on top of him and felt it move.

"I hate this part" Peter whispered as he pushed with all his might on the slab. He felt the remaining pieces move and saw moonlight. He stood up above the rubble and looked around, there was nothing left of the power plant, it had been completely demolished. He rubbed the back of his head and stretched.

"Man I'm going to feel this in the morning" The wall crawler felt his body to make sure everything was still were it was supposed to be.

"Arms check, legs check, head check check" Peter was suppressed he was still alive. Considered he just survived a nuclear meltdown. Maybe that Parker luck wasn't as bad as he….."WAIT!"

"Oh no, no, no, no" Peter said as he ran across the rubble looking for Nightwing, Daisy, and Dr. Stein. He had completely forgotten about them. He had been so focused on the meltdown, hadn't made sure they had gotten to safety.

He was feeling more concerned he looked around for any signs of life. He couldn't hear a sound except for the sound of police and firetruck sirens in the distance.

All of a sudden he heard a shift, and turned around and jump nearly 30 feet to where the shift was. He heard a small grunt and struggle as a large slab of concrete started to rumble on the debris.

"NIGHTWING! Please don't be dead, Batman will kill me." Peter ran over and grabbed the slap and pulled it effortlessly off of the ground.

"Took you long enough" Nightwing grinned as he held Daisy in his arms with his elbow covering both their heads from the debris.

Peter breathed a sigh of relief as he pulled Dick and Daisy up from the ground. They both looked worse for were, Nightwing's mask was cut in half with the arm he had used to hold up the slab tore up with cuts all over.

"Whoa, that's a pretty nasty cut you got there, you okay?" Peter asked.

"Yea, it's just a flesh wound, how about you, you good?" Nightwing replied with a reassuring grin. "Honestly I'm surprised that you still alive after surviving a direct nuclear blast"

"Don't worry about me, I've been through worse." Peter looked towards Daisy, "Are you okay?"

Daisy looked relatively fine with just a few bruises and her shirt torn a bit. Good thing Nightwing had covered her, otherwise she could have been a lot worse. Peter noticed that she didn't look too relieved, she was sobbing and Peter pondered for a minute before he realized something. Where was Dr. Stein?

"Wait has anyone seen Dr. Stein?" Peter asked as he looked around and at the somber faces of Daisy and Nightwing.

Daisy continued to sob. "He pushed me out of the way before the blast hit"

Nightwing placed his hand on Spider-Man's shoulder, "He…. didn't make it Spider-Man, he saved Daisy at the last second, I wish I could have done more."

Peter felt strange, he didn't well know the man, but from what he could tell from his brief time with him, he was a good and honest man. And now he was gone, he could have been married, or had children, and now he would never be able to see them again.

Peter let out a heavy sigh and clenched his fist. He was angrier with himself, than he was sad. "I should have been there to get you both out!" Peter yelled at no one in particular.

"Spider-Man it wasn't you fault, you were making sure the blast was contained" Nightwing rebutted, "Look around you, there isn't a single other building destroyed"

Peter looked up and looked at his surroundings, sure enough there wasn't a single building demolished in the area, only the building they were standing on was reduced to rubble. That didn't exactly quell his feelings on Dr. Stein. This wasn't the first time he had run across this situation. Uncle Ben, Captain Stacy, Gwen, he had all let them down. Though he knew in his heart that they would say otherwise, he has done so much with his life, saved countless lives and put others before himself every day. Because he will never forget that old saying, that he has repeated constantly in his head every day.

"You were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice in there, I know that Dr. Stein would be proud of what you have done" Daisy said towards Spider-Man as she flashed him a small smile.

"Yea I know, still… I feel responsible for not being able save him. Hopefully he's in a better place" Peter said as he looked towards the moon. It was a crescent moon this evening, he noticed something coming towards him. He looked closer and notice something red flapping behind it. Was it a bird, a plane? Wait it was Superman.

"Well look who decided to show up to the party" Spider-Man said with his usual flare.

Superman landed right beside Nightwing and surveyed the remains of the building. "Well looks like you had everything under control after all"

"Well, we did our best, but we didn't save everyone" Spider-Man looked towards the ground staring at the hole where he pulled Nightwing and Daisy from.

Nightwing approached Superman, "There was a scientist, Dr. Stein, and he didn't survive the blast" Superman looked towards Nightwing and nodded, then he approached Spider-Man.

"Don't worry, the league will inform his colleagues and any family members, we'll make sure his funeral bills are taken care of" Superman looked down towards Spider-Man who nodded his head in assurance.

Superman turned and looked towards the end of the street where he saw about a dozen men webbed to a lamppost and a man in a lab coat struggling to get free from a bola, clearly thrown by Nightwing. "So, I see you made some new friends?"

Spider-Man, Nightwing, and Daisy all looked towards the struggling man looking at him in contempt.

"Oh yea, I almost forget about Mr. Black here" Spider-Man said as he walked towards him. "He had gotten chummy with these thugs here before we intervened"

"Good work, you showed great character today Spider-Man, you saved the city, brought criminals to justice, and protected the innocence" Superman made sure Spider-Man got the proper admiration he deserved, hopefully to relieve him of some of the pressure of losing Dr. Stein.

Spider-Man turned his head and rubbed the back of his head. No one could tell but he was blushing under his mask. It did mean a lot coming from basically this worlds Captain America, he had the same courage, jawline, and Boy Scout attitude that good old Cap had. It was uncanny how similar this world was to his.

"Don't forget that he was going to give his life to stop the reactor" Daisy stepped towards Superman.

"Really? Wait, what happened?" Superman was a bit dumbfounded by this information.

Daisy was nervous talking to the man of steel but spoke up, "Spider-Man had to take the F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M Matrix into the reactor in order to reduce the blast radius, honestly I'm surprised he isn't dead" Daisy looked towards Spider-Man with curiosity.

"Well sorry to disappoint, personally I thought I would be dead too" Spider-Man brought his hands up in confusion while looking over his body.

"You must be more durable than I thought" Superman stated, he knew that Spider-Man was durable, his bone density was at least 20 times stronger than the average humans. He knew that he wasn't bulletproof, he could tell when originally scanned his body. Aside from noticing his amazing biology, he noticed that he had scars on his body, some were from a gun, and other looked to be from bladed weapons.

"Yea I had a theory about that, you see my powers came from a genetically irradiated spider bite, instead of dying I became who I am today" Spider-Man explained, "I always wondered if that made me immune to radiation" Everyone present stood in awe, they had no idea that his powers came from radiation.

"Well, I guess your question was answered the hard way" Nightwing said breaking the awkward silence. "I always assumed it was a magic spider that bit you"

"Yeah, I remember this old crazy guy named Ezekiel who once told me the same thing" Spider-Man replied.

Everyone present turned to see police and firefighters pulling up to the scene, they all stood in wonder at the site before them. Superman started to make his way over to them. "I'll take things from here and make sure Mr. Black and his friends are relinquished to the proper authorities"

Spider-Man and Nightwing nodded, and before Spider-Man could say something to Nightwing he was suddenly in Daisy's hug. "Thank you Spider-Man" she looked up towards his face, "I'm sure Dr. Stein would feel the same way" She waved her goodbye as she made her way to a police cruiser.

"In the meantime we should head back up to the watch tower, so we can be debriefed on the whole Doom situation" Nightwing said towards Spider-Man.

"Right, I've curious on what Dooms planning on next." Spider-man replied.


"Recognized B27 Spider-Man, Recognized B01 Nightwing" Spider-Man and Nightwing entered the watchtower, the interior of it never ceased to amaze Peter, it really was a sight to behold. No sooner had he had walked in that a red and yellow streak appeared before him. Peter was taken back by Kid Flash, the kid really knew how to make an entrance.

"Hey yea Spidey, what's happening. Heard you got caught in a nuclear explosion, haha that is defiantly not crash" Kid Flash ran around Peter and examined his entire body looking at the bruises and cuts he had sustained during his previous endeavor.

"Yeah, it was pretty intense, it's not every day you can tell someone you can survive a nuclear meltdown." Spider-Man put his hands up to stop Kid, "Just slow it down a bit, I'm still a little rattled by the whole experience" Peter put his hands on his hips and did a back stretch. It's a good thing he had an increased healing factor, otherwise he would probably be in traction for a week.

Nightwing made his way up towards the main monitor, and started to pull up surveillance videos. The video in question had been of the interior and exterior of the recently demolished power plant. The time stamp showed it was 30 minutes before Nightwing and he showed up.

Peter eyed Nightwing curiously "So, you going to find up what Mr. Earhart and his colleagues were up to?" Spider-Man asked.

Nightwing continued to pull up surveillance video and records of everyone present at the plant, he turned his head and briefly looked at Spider-Man before he replied. "Yea, I'm going to cross reference any data on these thugs and anyone who worked at the plant, see if I can find any leads"

Kid Flash looked on dumbfound by the information while Peter just nodded his head. "So I heard from blue boy that you had that Iron Man duplicate in the lab" Spider-Man said, Kid Flash perked up at the sound of that, he had been looking forward to examining that crash looking robot"

Superman's little pep talk had an effect on Kid Flash that allowed him to drop his solemn demeanor, and allowed him to go back to his previous personality. Before anyone could stop him he sped off in a yellow and red blur towards to lab.

Nightwing turned and faced Spider-Man who was still a bit surprised by Kid Flash's sudden departure, Kid Flash reminded him of another speedster he had met on his earth. The dude was a bit of a jerk but he his heart was in the right place, and his sister was a looker too.

"Spider-Man, I'd like you and Kid Flash to analyze this Iron Man android, maybe you can help shed some light on what we're dealing with and if it can be traced back to Doom" Nightwing said straight to the point, Peter was less than excited to examine the fake Iron Man. It put less than peaceful thoughts into his head.

"So wait, no offense, but why do you want Kid Flash to help me analyze fake Iron Man?" Asked the wallcrawler. He felt confused, it wasn't that Kid Flash was an idiot. The man could process information faster than a supercomputer from what he had heard, but that didn't mean he knew what he was doing.

"So you can watch him. He can get a little, rowdy when left alone." Said Nightwing, trying his best not to downgrade Kid Flash.

Peter felt hounded, getting sent to an alternate earth, becoming broke, getting adopted, and joining the junior Justice League can really take a toll on guy. Not to mention surviving a nuclear meltdown, and having to deal with one of his earths most dangerous villains. This was just not his day.

Peter made his way towards to lab when Kid Flash came running towards him. "Something bothering you Spidey," questioned Kid Flash. Peter brought himself out of his own little world and tripped on his own feet while walking. "Seems like some of that awkwardness that I had before my powers decided to stay," Stated Peter, remembering back to when he was at Mid-Town High before he got his powers.

He was always the odd man out back then. Even though he got the best grades - and still does - he always felt like the odd man out.

"Though being constantly ridiculed and bullied by Flash didn't help either." Back then he was a wallflower. He'd always tried to stay away from the in-crowd, not because he was afraid, more so he didn't want to be someone he wasn't.

You would think with all of the enhanced reflexes he wouldn't have tripped so easily, but that good Ol' Parker luck defied the laws of physics and realities.

Kid Flash stood to catch Peter before he caught himself, he stood looking worried for Peter, wondering if that power plant incident had took more of a toll on him than he had thought. "Sorry, I was thinking of something else."

Peter knew that this Iron Man duplicate led to more questions being asked than answered. He could account for why Doom would build a robotic servant to do his bidding, but he thought he would use one of the many duplicates he had made of himself. He had no idea why he would use someone else, let alone an Avenger. Though if Doom could build a fully functioning Iron Manic, then there no telling what other dangerous things he had built in his time in this world.

"Dude, you look like you've been trapped in the mode, you ok?" Asked Kid Flash, he had been waiting in the lab looking at what was left of that crash red and gold android. He had never seen anything like it, he had seen pictures of it on Peter's camera. It defiantly was a hero based on the way Peter had referred to it, he thought it looked oddly similar to Red Tornado, especially in the facial area. He could tell that the whole ordeal had seemed to be making Peter worried.

"Yeah, I'm good." Stated Peter, "We Science Majors are known to get lost in thought, it's actually very common." Peter had tried to put himself back into the matter at hand, but he couldn't help but feel as though he was missing something. There was more to this fake Iron Man than the eye could see.

Spider-Man and Kid Flash walked into the lab were Batman and the Atom were examining the fake Iron Man. They had him spread out on a lab table with the chest plate removed and the face mask open revealing what looked like a comatose Tony Stark.

Peter still couldn't believe that Tony Stark was Iron Man, the more he thought about it though the more sense it made. The press stated that Stark had given one of his bodyguards some tech to promote Stark Industries by being a hero. Tony Stark was one of Peter's idols, aside from the casual drinking and partying Stark had a brilliant mind, he had hopes of working at Stark Industries one day. Knowing his luck though, he would be lucky to get a job at Horizon Labs than Stark Industries.

Maybe Stark wasn't Iron Man, maybe it was just some sick joke from Doom. But Doom wasn't exactly known for his humor, (Peter knew that first hand), putting a fake Tony Stark inside a knockoff Iron Man armor didn't scream funny. Either way Peter knew that he had to put a stop to whatever Doom was planning.

"Man this thing is so crash" Kid Flash ran around the robot picking up parts and looking at them nearly faster than the eye could see. "Can I try it on?"

The Atom, or Ray Palmer as he had been told quickly snatched the gauntlet that Kid Flash was holding out of his hands and put it back on the table. "No you can't, this is a highly sensitive operation, I would appreciate if you didn't touch anything" Dr. Palmer said in a nervous stern tone.

"Sorry" Kid Flash said with his hands up in an (I don't know manner.)

Dr. Palmer pulled a larger overhead telescope from the ceiling down towards the center of the armors chest plate and began to examine it. The wallcrawler and speedster watched for a minute before Dr. Palmer stopped and turned towards them both.

"This tech is like nothing I've ever seen, this mini reactor seems to be the main power source. I still can't fully determine what exactly is powering it" Dr. Palmer pulled out the mini reactor and held it in his hand. "From what I can tell one of the main compounds seems to be Palladium, also aside from powering the suit, it seems to be an electromagnet"

Peter looked on surprised, he had always theorized that Iron Mans suit had been powered by some radioactive element. Something as powerful as Iron Man doesn't run on batteries after all. "May I" he gestured to Dr. Palmer for the reactor and took a look all over it. He been to pace the floor as he examined it. He couldn't believe he was holding the power source of Iron Man, well one of them at least. Iron Man had multiple suits, one of which was meant to take down the Hulk from what he had seen on the news.

"But what's really interesting is that this Palladium core is completely drained" Dr. Palmer stated as Spider-Man handed the reactor back to him.

"Wait, so it's out of juice?" Kid Flash asked.

"Yes, this reactor wasn't meant for prolonged use, by my estimate it could only run for about 6 hours" Dr. Palmer answered as he looked at one of his monitor that was running a diagnoses on the reactor.

Now that had Peter confused, he had seen Iron Man in action, he's seen him let loose unimaginable amounts of power and still keep fighting. By Dr. Palmer estimate he shouldn't have been able to continue as long as Peter has seen him.

"That's strange, I've fought along Iron Man before and seen him exert this much power, and still keep on going" Peter said as he walked over to Dr. Palmer monitor himself and looked at the diagnoses for himself.

By this time Batman had made his way over to the monitor as well and examined the readings.

"It could be that he had multiple exchangeable reactors on hand" Dr. Palmer guessed.

"I don't think so he had only one reactor that powered the suit, and I've been to Avengers Tower many times, and he wore it for hours on end. Captain America once told me he didn't take it off for a week" That raised a curious and shocked expression from Dr. Palmer and Kid Flash. Batman on the other hand just had the brooding face he always had on.

"It could be that there is an unknown factor here, this armor is made up of parts from Wayne Enterprises, Star Labs, Lexcorp and least a dozen other companies" The caped crusader added. "I've crossed referenced the parts serial numbers with current records, most of them were either reported missing or stolen a week ago"

Spider-Man put his hand up to his chin and began to ponder answers. "It could be that Iron Mans armor is powered by an unknown source, and that Doom needed a patsy to do his dirty work" Spiderman went over to the table and looked over the armor. "Know that I look at it, this is one of Iron Mans earlier armors from when he was first starting out" Spider-Man turned and face his colleagues. "That would explain why you were able to take the android down so easy. No offense but you wouldn't have been able to so easily if it was one of his newer armors" Spider-Man looked at everyone present and noticed they looked a bit surprised and offended.

Batman broke the awkward silence as he pulled up shipping manifests. "That's not what concerns me though, based on these shipping manifests it seem that doom secured enough parts to build at least 20 of these androids, and based on what I could find, the tracking chips implanted on the tech had been disabled before they were stolen"

"That's defiantly not crash" Kid Flash said as he pointed towards the monitor. All this techno babble gave him a headache, sure he could process information faster than anyone, but that didn't mean he liked understanding science stuff.

Peter didn't like the sound of what he was hearing at all, there no telling what Doom could be planning. You would think that a guy who had access to advanced technology and magic would do his own dirty work. Doom though, thought that dealing with is problems personally was beneath him.

"Wait, that's it" Spider-man announced shocking Kid Flash and Dr. Palmer.

"That's what?" Asked Kid Flash.

"That's how we track Doom. Through magic. I just remembered that Doom is also known for his sorcery on my earth" Spider-Man stated, he had almost forgot that he could do magic, Doom himself used a combination of technology and magic to make a deadly combo.

"Possibly, Dr. Fate is currently on a mission, but Zatanna is in Las Vegas doing a show. She could create a spell to locate if not spy on Doom" Batman replied, his tone never shifting from its serious demeanor.

Just as Batman finished talking Nightwing walked in he put a hand on Peter shoulder and pulled him aside. "We found everything we could on those thugs and Danton Black, turns out he had been embezzling from the company that was funding the project, so he's going to jail" Spider-Man was content, Black seemed like a snake in the grass, good to know he was brought to justice.

"In the meantime I think you should head back to the apartment, we've all had a long evening; and based on what you experienced tonight I say you've deserved it" Nightwing, and everyone else in the room acknowledged Nightwing and agreed, except Batman who just stood there.

"Sounds like a plan, let me know when Z is ready with that spell, I want to be here first hand when we find Doom" Spider-Man yawned as he walked out the lab and towards the zeta tubes, he was glad to get some much needed rest. He still felt responsible for all of Dooms shenanigans though.

"Right we'll contact you later tomorrow if we have any more questions or updates" Batman replied.

"Sounds good Bats" Peter replied as he headed to the zeta tubes before Kid Flash appeared right in front of him.

"Spidey, you sure you don't want to go on a patrol or anything?" asked Kid Flash in a suggestive manner. Peter could tell he wasn't one to stop and smell the roses, he was still ready for action.

Peter hated to leave his friend hanging but he was beat. "Sorry Bart, but I think I'm going to get some much needed rest"

Kid Flash sighed but perked up with a grin understanding. "Yea I get it Spidey, you deserve the rest"


Peter exited the zeta tube, it still felt weird entering and exiting those things, he always felt a bit dizzy from them. Peter exited the phone booth were the zeta tube was, and jumped shot a web up to the top of the building and pulled himself up doing a perfect somersault as he landed on the roof. As soon as he turned to run along the roof top he felt a static shock.

Peter would've thought he saw a ghost if he was normal, it scared him so much that he fell straight on his behind. It looked like it was running towards him, but what was even stranger was that it looked like Kid Flash. Whatever it was went straight through him, as he turned around to see where it went it was gone. He stood back up and looked around, he hadn't heard or smelled anything, and his spider-sense didn't go off. "Huh, maybe I've been hanging around Bart longer than I thought" He dismissed what just happened as sleep deprivation, and maybe excess radiation from the reactor. Either way he was too tired to care.

He swung from the buildings with the greatest of ease, it was a calm night. Nothing but New York breeze and the smell of cheap hot dogs, just how he liked it. The apartment came into view and he felt a sense of calm fall over him, it was good to be home. (Well temporary home anyways) He made sure no one was looking his way as he started to open the window, he could see the sun starting to come up, and knew that he was defiantly sleeping in today. Just as he opened the window he heard a woman scream in the distance.

He sighed and shook his head, that parker luck, never misses a cue. He looked towards were the scream came from and smiled. "No rest for the righteous" He made sure to reload his web shooters as he swung towards the scream. He hoped he wouldn't arrive too late, the scream seemed to be coming from the lower east side of New York. Peter stopped mid swing and shot a webbed towards an abandoned warehouse he saw in the distance, when he heard the same scream again.

He landed on the ledge of the building and made his way in. "So can I come in this way or do I have to break my own window" he said as he entered a broken window and jumped down on the floor of the building. He looked around for any sound of the scream and shockingly saw nothing.

"Looks like I'm late for the party" Peter said as he walked further into the building. He noticed a table at the far end of the warehouse that had blueprints on it. The table wasn't what put Peter on edge though, it was the fact that the table was wiped clean of dust while the rest of the building wasn't. Before he could even look at the blueprints he felt his spider-sense.

Standing behind Spider-Man was a man clad in orange and black body armor with a long looking white ponytail coming from his half orange mask, and a woman with white hair bound and gagged.

"Whoa, looks like I walked into the wrong building" Spider-Man said as he put his hands up defensively.

The man in orange and black was covered with all sorts of weapons, swords, guns, knives, and what he thought was either grenades of smoke bombs.

"So you're the famous Spider-Man, thought you'd be taller" said Deathstroke.

"And I thought people actually cut their hair, jeez dude, I think the My Little Pony convention was yesterday" Spider-Man said as he burst out laughing.

Deathstroke looked annoyed, he breathed in and out calming himself, he heard ravager slightly giggle under her gag on the ground and gave her a stern look. He knew that this Spider-Man was good at getting under peoples skin.

"Call me Deathstroke, don't worry I'll make this qui-" Deathstroke was cut off by Spider-Man intense laughter.

"I'm sorry dude, I just can't you seriously with that hair" Spider-Man stood with his hands on his knee laughing. He was really getting a kick out of this guy.

Slade Wilson was defiantly going to enjoy what was about to come next.


Lyle Cobbett now regretted ever having entered G. Gordon Godfrey's program for youngsters. Rather, he regretted that his parents ever talked him into it. They had caught him smoking wonderful things he liked to call 'Mary Janes'. Harmless stuff really, when compared to that new Metaplex stuff. But his parents had gone all paranoid with him and despite his bad behavior, Lyle wasn't the type who wanted to disappoint his parents. So he did nothing to stop them from sending him to G. Gordon Godfrey's funny farm. After a further moment of reflection, Lyle realized that he really shouldn't be blaming himself. He really should put all of the blame squarely on his parents' heads. If he ever got to see them again, that was.

He was in a strange place, and he knew that nothing good was going to happen to him. In silence, he prayed for God; when he understood how useless that would be in such a place, filled with fire and dread, he prayed for Superman.

There was a chuckle. Lyle Cobbett shuddered before he looked up.

An old heavy-set woman in a baggy gown was staring at him with evil eyes, surrounded on both sides by beefy men in silver armor with silly pointed helmets and goggles that made it seem as if they had googly bug eyes. By the way in which they behaved towards the old lady, the men – if one could call them that – seemed to be mentally impaired. It was either that, or something far worse. Lyle couldn't help but wonder if these men in silver armor had been lobotomized. He really shouldn't have stepped into that bright booming hole along with everyone else.

The old woman came close to Lyle, and she began to sniff at him like a vicious dog studying its meal. She was a mere inches away from him; her stench almost made him gag. Only the overwhelming fear the old woman inspired seemed to keep the bile from coming out.

"I can see why Godfrey sent you here. You would make a poor Justifier" the old woman said with a sneer that seemed – at least to Lyle – to be dripping with contempt. "You certainly don't have what it takes to be one of my soldier-boys"

"Only the best boys can be one of your soldier-boys, and wear the pointy helmets Granny gives us" on of the men in silver armor said with a dumb grin.

The old woman rushed towards the man and snatched his weapon from his hand. She then proceeded to give him a nasty thrashing with it. Lyle was shocked by the old woman's violence – and by the fact that the man in armor didn't even fight back.

"Don't ever speak out of turn!" the old woman growled out as she continued pummeling him. The man allowed the old woman to beat him into the ground until there was nothing left but a bloody pulp.

The other soldier-boys hadn't react at all to their fellow's beating. They stood still and continued to grin like imbeciles until the old woman was done. They finally moved to drag the battered soldier-boy's body away from the old woman's presence.

The old woman walked once more towards Lyle.

"Now, what was I saying before that naughty soldier-boy interrupted me?" she rolled her eyes and then let them down upon Lyle "Ah yes, making you useful. Soldier-boys, restrain this whelp" Lyle suddenly found himself being held by strong hands. He struggled to get free; he tried to kick, bite and scream, but it was all pointless. The old woman took no notice of the youth's struggles. She snapped her fingers; the pointed head of one of the other soldier-boys perked up in attention.

"Bring me the vial" she said.

The soldier-boy disappeared into the next room and came back carrying a large syringe with a big needle filled with some glowing green goo that looked horribly familiar. Lyle shuddered as he looked at the needle.

"No! God! No!" he yelled out.

The old lady scowled and slapped Lyle hard across his face.

"No blasphemy. Not here, and not before me. Now be a good boy and stop fidgeting!" she hissed out. The old woman raised the syringe, and brought it down upon the youth's neck. It was such a small prick, yet Lyle had never felt such intense pain before in his life. It was like being stabbed with a rusty knife with a poorly serrated blade. And then, there was the burning sensation; as if the skin, flesh and muscles of his neck had all caught on fire simultaneously.

Lyle screamed out while his body began to shake and contort violently. More soldier-boys appeared to restrain him; but the more that came, the more difficult it seemed to hold him down. As much pain as he was feeling, he was also beginning to feel strong – immeasurably so. He looked down at his hands and arms and he could see his skin turning a pale green as his blood vessels started to glow through the skin. And then burning sensation which he felt on his neck invaded the rest of his body in a sudden surge.

"Don't be afraid" he heard the old woman say as his mind slipped away. "This won't hurt for very long my darling"

Her voice soon faded away, hardly discernable from any other noise reaching his ears.

Lyle was vaguely aware of his own screams. Through his delirium, he saw the old woman wave her hand and an army of soldier-boys holding chains dragged him through a nightmare scenery of non-Euclidean geometry. He was aware of turning his head upwards and looking at strange objects hovering in a red sky. He thought he heard one of the soldier-boys call them dimension traps, but by then every sound came to his mind in muddled form; every ping and ting seemingly combined to form a painful cacophony. He was finally released into a pit filled with monstrous deuterostomes of diverse form, all glowing as he was.

Everything before him was hideous and terrible. No one creature was alike. He saw strange things similar to Tardigrades but with heads similar to the bodies of starfish. Other things seemed reptilian. He swatted several away, only to look at an oddly clawed hand. A strange form approached him. Without even thinking Cobbett jumped at the thing and he began to bite at it with a mouth that was not human. What little that remained of his human mind slipped away shortly afterwards, replaced by a beast that hungered for flesh and blood, mindful only of the shocks given to him by his tamers.


The police and firemen had all but left the power plant, it was early in the morning as the sun started to come up. There was still rubble and steel beams all over the place, the cleanup crew wouldn't arrive till noon. The site was all but quiet, except for something struggling to get free. A piece of concrete slab started to move as a hand appeared out of the ground and shifted the slab out of the way. It was a man, or rather men who stood up from the debris, both men looked at themselves and then at each other. They examined each other's face and when they touched hands one of them disappeared. The single man stood alone and examined himself again. He looked forwards towards the city with a scowl, and discarded his lab coat as he made his way through the rubble and towards the city. The lab coat in particular had a name on it. Danton Black.


Well that's it so far, let me know what you think in a review, and message me if you have any questions. I'm not sure when the next chapter should be up, I don't plan on making this monthly thing. Depending on how things are going here I should be able get one up by about April 20th or around that. Maybe sooner, maybe later, trying to predict when I'm going to finish is a pain.