Chapter X – Sins of Our Fathers Part 1
New York City
Two Days Later, Christmas Eve
Stacy Residence
8:23 PM
Knock knock, someone called on the door of the home of the NYPD Captain of Police George Stacy, father of Gwen Stacy. It was dinner time and the family was already sitting by the dinner table, George stood up to answer it. He opened the door and was met with a tall dark figure in a trench coat and journalist hat contrasting with the white snow. "Are you Captain Stacy?" The man asked.
"I am, is there something you need?" George asked, his previously warm face turned into one of suspicion once he laid on this figure.
"Is Gwen home?" The man asked again. This time George responded more aggressively once he heard Gwen's name.
"What do you want with my daughter?!"
"I just want her to come out…" The darkness around the man began to move; several tentacles flew off the man's face grabbing the old captain by the neck and started to choke him. "…to play."
Christmas Day
9:20 AM
Peter had gotten a phone call from Mary Jane in the morning, telling him that something had happened to Gwen and her parents. Peter immediately put on his costume and swung as fast as he could to find out what happened to one of his best friends. On his way there, he noticed Korra running towards Gwen's house as well; she must've been called MJ too.
Korra was running at top speed, Mary Jane sounded really worried on the phone so that meant she had to see what occurred. Suddenly she was grabbed by the waist and was flying through the air to the amazement of the people walking in the streets. "Really, one of these days you're going to make me hate you." Korra said to her 'captor'.
"Relax, this is the faster route." Spider-man said to her in a joking manner. "Also, merry Christmas to you too, 'Avatar'."
Once they arrived to Gwen's home, they found the police already there. Peter swung to a nearby house stopping on its roof. "Alright, you go on ahead, I have to change." Peter told Korra.
"See you there." Korra replied, she used airbending to slowly descend into the ground unnoticed and headed towards the crowd of people surrounding the scene. She made her way through the people, she saw Peter there already.
"What took you so long?" Peter asked her.
"Whatever. Hey, aren't those Gwen's dad and mom?" Korra asked once she spotted Gwen's parents. They were going to approach them but were stopped by a police officer.
"Sorry kids, this is a crime scene." He said to them. But then Captain Stacy intervened.
"Let them in." The old captain told the officer, he allowed them to go inside the home, the duo followed him. Inside was Mary Jane comforting Mrs. Stacy who was shaken and crying, the police detectives were already looking at the damages inside the home. "I know you are Gwen's friends and I thank you for coming here, especially since its Christmas."
"No sweat sir, what happened? Where's Gwen?" Korra asked. Peter looked around the living room which was a mess; there was something odd in this place. Off putting to his spider-senses.
"Gwen…Gwen has been kidnapped." Captain Stacy replied with a saddened and angry voice. "It happened yesterday…we were having dinner…her mom had just taken out the turkey when he knocked at the door."
"He?" Peter asked.
"It was as if I was looking at death itself…he knew Gwen by name…then he attacked me…us." The captain said sitting on his couch next to Mrs. Stacy, hugging her. MJ stood next to her friends.
"The detectives can't find anything, it's like they were attacked by a ghost." MJ told them. "I just hope that Gwen is okay."
Peter then noticed a bullet hole near the door, "You shot him?" Peter asked again.
"He threw me against the wall, I was able to run towards my office to get my revolver, I shot him but the bullet just went pass through him like a shadow."
Peter looked at the bullet hole, the police had already retrieved the round inside but the impact zone had something in it. Something that anyone with the naked eye couldn't see but Peter could sense, this same old feeling… "No…" He whispered.
Once outside Peter was still thinking of the possibility of him being the perpetrator, how this time he had gone towards someone who couldn't fight back. Peter decided not to swing around in his Spidey outfit and instead walked with Korra back to the Avengers Mansion. "Something in your mind?" Korra asked.
"I think I might know who did it…" Peter replied.
"You do? How?"
"Call it a feeling, when I was inside Gwen's house I felt something I hadn't felt in months." Peter said, "Something really bad."
"Something bad? Tell me."
"It's Eddie; I could feel traces of the symbiote in the bullet hole…thanks to some weird connection that it left in my head." Peter responded, oddly enough this connection was only effective when pieces of the symbiote were away from Brock because Venom himself was invisible to Peter's spider-senses. "He's going after my friends, starting with Gwen, since it can't get to you first."
"That son of a bitch…!" Korra said angrily. "There must be a way we can stop him!"
Peter took out his cell phone and called Mary Jane, "MJ? Hey can you not answer the door to anyone but Harry, Korra and I tonight or the following days? Or go out anywhere at night? I'm just worried, tell your aunt too. No problem, bye."
"Think she's okay with it?"
"She was weirded out at first but she understands." Peter said, "And no, he could be anywhere right now."
Then Peter's phone ringed and he answered, "Hey bro, what's up?"
"Eddie? Eddie! Where's Gwen?!" Peter yelled, Korra was alarmed by this.
"She's somewhere safe and sound, for now. How about you and Korra head down for a tea party in the sewers? It ought to be a nice family reunion. See you there." The call was dropped, now Peter knew where they were. It was obviously a trap but he had to save Gwen.
"He's in the sewers…" Peter said. "I have to go and save Gwen."
"It's a trap."
"I know, but I have to do it."
"Then I'm going with you."
"He wants that, two birds with one stone."
"Gwen's my friend too, and besides I carry the fire." Korra said lighting up a small flame on her opened palm. "I have to deal with my bodyguard up there."
"Bodyguard?"
Korra pointed upward, Peter then saw a small dot in the blue sky. "Doesn't he get bored?" Peter asked.
"Not really, I guess that's one of his godly powers too. C'mon, let's get him off our backs."
Avengers Mansion
11:13 AM
"Glad to see you back, Madame Korra." Jarvis said opening the front door, "Is this your friend?"
"Yeah, this is Peter." Korra introduced him. "Is Cap in?"
"Master Rogers is currently pre-occupied with some governmental business, but Master Iron Man is upstairs in his workshop."
As Korra and Peter went upstairs, Thor arrived just after them. "Jarvis, is the feast almost ready?!"
"Yes, Master Thor." Jarvis replied as he shook his head at the Avenger's relentless want to eat food. "Ms. Van Dyne and Mr. Barton are preparing the turkey."
"Good news! Thor loves this mortal holiday!" Thor yelled in joy as he walked towards the dining room.
In the second floor, Peter looked at the very expensive paintings decorating the mansion's halls…its very big halls. He had never really seen or been inside a mansion like this one, except for Harry's house which was a bit smaller than this. They stood in front of a metallic door at the very end of the hall having walked past the Wasp's room…well it was her and Hank's room but he spent his time in the basement more than with her, and Hawkeye's room.
"So, this is the workshop." Korra said, "Are you ready to see all of the awesome things that Iron Man keeps inside?!"
"You bet!"
Korra knocked at the steel plated door, it immediately opened with the armored Avenger standing in front of them. "Korra, who is this?" He asked upon sighting Peter.
"Um, this is Peter Parker. One of my friends."
"G-Good to meet you, Mr. Iron Man, sir." Peter was a bit nervous; there he stood…the Iron Man himself in all of his shiny red and gold awesomeness.
"Actually I just came to ask you if I could skip dinner." Korra said.
"Skip dinner? Janet won't like that, especially since it's her famous Christmas dinner." Iron Man replied, "Alright, I'll deal with her. Just try to be here by 6 PM, no later or I'll send Panther to look for you."
"Panther? The Black Panther is here?" Korra asked.
"He just got here. Just be safe out there alright? And you, kid, no funny business you hear? I'm legally and morally responsible for Korra here." Iron Man told Peter, who was currently wetting his pants.
"We're just hanging out with some other friends, don't get too worked up." Korra replied. As they walked away, not having seen the inside of the workshop, Iron Man had already scanned Peter's face with his armor and collected his voice patterns using the mansion's security systems.
He took off his helmet and used his computer to verify Peter's voice, it sounded oddly familiar, and he went through a gazillion of vocal recordings of various individuals, including several super-heroes. A match! "Well…I'll be damned." Tony said once he saw who Peter was.
New York City
2:30 PM
The duo entered an alleyway so they couldn't be seen by the public; there was a sewer hole there. Rats hid inside trashcans and dumpsters, Peter had already changed into his Spider-man costume. "You know…I don't think I thought of the smell." Korra said.
"You can purify the water right?" Spidey asked.
"I think so."
"Then you'll be fine, come on we gotta find Gwen." Spidey said removing the manhole lid, only darkness and emptiness from here on out…and a lot of poop. "If we are lucky we could find the Ninja Turtles." Spidey jumped into the manhole feet first.
"Funny." Korra said jumping inside after Peter.
New York City's Sewers
2:34 PM
"Ugh…" Korra tried not to vomit as she and Spider-man walked through the goo-y and pasty sewer waters. "How are we going to find Eddie?"
"If I know Eddie like I know, he would want to find a place that's really big and roomy. Like the central processor of the sewer where the sewer water is cleaned and sent to sinks everywhere." Spidey replied.
"Note: Never drink tap water." Korra said. "So, what happened between you two? Why does he hate you so much?"
"Eddie and I, we knew each other since we were kids." Spidey said, "Our parents were friends, especially my dad and his dad who worked together at Oscorp. They were scientists looking for a way to make cures for many illnesses."
"That's really cool!"
"Yeah, but something happened…they were developing this suit. This suit was made to fight cancer, and possibly cure it. Eddie…he got leukemia, his dad was devastated. This made him more passionate about the development of the suit. But then Osborn, Harry's dad came to them and told them that the suit would be sold to the Army once it was finished." Spidey told her, "That drove him over the edge, and my dad told him that they couldn't do anything about it. The next day he was gone, taking with him a bunch of the details and paperwork of the project. Osborn told my dad to replicate it but he only knew the basics, Eddie's dad knew much more of it."
"They couldn't sell the suit…what did they do with it?" Korra asked.
"It was kept in Oscorp until…I had a fight with the Green Goblin there. We wrecked through the building, I followed him to the vaults where they kept their decommissioned projects. Goblin punched me and sent me flying into a vault, it cracked open the safety and the black goo fell on me. I saw the inscription…Project: Venom." Spider-man revealed.
"You were…"
"I was the symbiote's first host. At first it felt great, I defeated the Goblin, and I felt like a new man capable of doing amazing things. But then the suit began to take control of my actions, it started to influence my thoughts. So I went to Reed Richards and gave him a sample of the suit, he told me that it was alive." Spider-man stated. "The suit was a living being; it had been kept in hibernation for years. My dad and Eddie's dad had made life, alien from us and any other animal on the planet. It fed on my emotions and proteins; feeding off me, it made me aggressive and prone to extreme violence to not only my enemies…but to my friends too."
"After that I buried that sucker under six feet of concrete. I don't know how Eddie got it but now they are both death set on ruining my life." Spider-man said, "Now, I have to end it."
They reached a chasm; sewer lines riddled the entire cavernous space. "We have a cave below the city?!" Korra asked. "Why haven't we fallen under yet?"
"Probably those steel columns and pipelines going everywhere." Spider-man noticed the number of columns and the like all over the place, "An amazing engineering feat I might say, they did everything with little to no advanced tech."
"So how are we gonna cross this place? The railings are all rusted out." Korra stated noticing the catwalks gone to hell. "Hold on, I can airbend my way to the other side while you can web-swing."
"Airbend?"
"That's what I call my air powers. Come on." Korra made a small tornado below her feat, strong enough to carry her weight. Spidey swung towards the other side, everything seemed quiet, no movement. He had to be cautious, Venom could by-pass his spider-sense and could attack him from any direction, or he could attack Korra. Spidey landed on top of a steel pipe, sticking to it.
"Hmm…" He murmured to himself, the lights still kinda worked and the place was not too dark. Peter could see the catwalk system going around tubes, old panels and ancient waterworks. "Spider-sense!"
He quickly turned and saw one of the Lizard's experiments tackle him into the catwalk which began to loosen up by the weight. "Holy anchovies!" Peter shouted as he kicked the reptile man off him. Korra went to help…
"What the hell is that?!"
"One of Connor's old experiments…there might be more." Spidey stood back up, "These things are tough so you might want to…" Electricity flew past Spider-man striking the reptile abomination and crisping it. "What the…"
"Thor showed me how to control my lightning attacks." Korra said, "What? It's just cold fire."
Then they heard the roar of several more reptile abominations coming from they had come from. "I guess there is no stepping backwards." Spidey said, he didn't want to rumble with five of these things…they were easily as strong and agile as him, and he doubted Korra could pull of off a chain electrical attack just yet. "Let's move!"
But once they reached the other side, more of these began to appear. The duo was completely surrounded, "Eddie must've scared them off their nest and forced them this high up." Korra thought.
"Sounds about right." Peter replied, "Alright, we can take them. At 1…2…3!"
Avengers Mansion
3:30 PM
Steve was still looking at the deep space probe reports, the Kree fleet was still incoming. They would be entering the Oort Cloud, they were moving fast. Nova reported that the fleet was being led by Ronan the Accuser, now he knew that if he wasn't stopped then a bloodbath was going to occur if he arrived to Earth.
"Ronan…this won't end good." Steve said looking at all of the mission logs the Avengers had ever taken. All filed by himself and Fury, and some by Stark. "Highly aggressive, impatient and relentless. The traits of a tyrant."
Steve was recording this chat in a tape, as a Captain's Log of sorts. "SHIELD has multiple spacecraft ready to counter-attack; several other nations like Russia and Britain are mobilizing their respective forces to join us. Alpha Flight and Big Hero Six are also joining our ranks."
He began to draw battle strategies on a piece of paper in case of landfall and they had to fight in the cities. "Diversions would keep the higher armed Kree soldiers at bay here and here, while Thor and Iron Man take them from the front. SHIELD soldiers will use their cannons to fire down any incoming gunships." Steve sighed; he hadn't made a battle plan like this since he stormed the Skull's castle in 1945. "We'll need at least forty .45 turrets to penetrate their energy shields and heavy armor, and that's just one battalion of light infantry and sentries."
Cap had made several space plans and tactical readings, all of them targeting capital ships and destroyers. Like a naval operation, destroy the command vessels first and then take out the planet killers. "We might need more help that we thought." Steve saw that they were still outnumbered; they would need every single army and hero in the world to repel this type of offensive.
"Steve?"
He turned to see the Black Widow standing in the doorway of his room; Steve turned off his tape recorder and stood up from his desk. "Natasha, you came."
"Tony invited me, said that he wanted all Avengers in for the Christmas dinner." Natasha replied, "I came to see you."
"I was just finishing up the battle plans for Nick and the World Leaders." Steve said, "It's really good to see you again."
"Hey…how did Fury get out duty?" Cap asked.
"He didn't." The two walked towards the dining room to meet the others. Walking down the stairs, they found Iron Man standing on the living room constantly calling into his communicator. "Tony, what's going on?" Widow asked.
"It's something wrong with one of the locators." Iron Man replied.
"Locators? You mean those things inside the member cards of every Avenger?" Cap asked.
"Yeah. I gave a member card to Korra…it went offline completely a minute ago. I can't bring it back online, something's wrong." Iron Man responded. "I have to check on her."
"Did she go out alone?" Cap asked.
"Who's Korra?" Natasha asked the Cap.
"A…a very special girl who came to for help for her equally special problem." Cap answered, "Anyway, Tony, who did she go out with?"
"Peter Parker."
"Parker? The Daily Bugle photographer?"
"Yeah. I have to go out to find her."
"No, I'll go." Cap said, "Tell the others that Fury called."