A Spider's Focus

by lyokoMARVELanime

After a battle with his greatest arch-nemesis throws him into the world of Cocoon, Spider-Man eventually finds himself joining forces with the L'Cie heroes in their quest to save their world and defy their fate all while battling monsters, solving mysteries, and challenging the conspiracies of the Fal'Cie. Just another Wednesday for your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man huh?

11. Rampant Reunions

AN: Hi-ya everybody! Welcome back to A Spider's Focus, for the conclusion of the adventures in Palumpolum.

Hope: I kinda thought we'd be in my hometown a little longer than just two chapters.

AN: Dude, have you seen the length of the last chapter, or this one for that matter? And believe it or not, this was all going to be one chapter, originally.

Snow: Wow. Way to overextend yourself on your estimates.

AN: Yeah, yeah. Moving on, let me start by answering to everyone who posted a review asking if I've considered doing certain crossovers. At the moment, I'm trying not to start on anything new, since I already have quite a few stories that I'm already actively focusing on. The ideas you guys suggested are interesting, but I'm not likely to start on anything similar to them any time soon. I realize that you're just asking if I've considered the ideas, but I just want to make this point clear.

More to the point, I just want to say that at the moment, the only Transformer crossover story ideas I've had lately would be my ideas for my next Gundam&Transformers crossover, Transformers 00 (See profile for more information), and a couple of different Star Wars&Transformers ideas (again, see profile for more information)

Vanille: Hey, about the latter of those two, would Ahsoka be in either of them? [notices everyone giving her odd looks] What? She's cool.

AN: The often-believed-to-be-airheaded-redhead is right. Ahsoka is cool.

Vanille: Hey!

AN: And yes, Ahsoka would be in the Star Wars&Transformers crossovers. As for the ideas that were suggested in reviews, I'm afraid I would not be able to do either of those ideas justice, seeing as I don't really know that much if barely anything at all about the anime that were suggested. I would have to spend a good deal of time looking into both series before I felt comfortable enough to try and write a story about those series.

In other response news, namely in answer to the reviewer "Odin's Eye" regarding whether or not I've ever thought of a Thor crossover, I've never really thought about it before, mostly because nothing's ever really come to mind that I thought I could work with. I appreciate the compliment when you say that you think I could handle it well though, so maybe I'll look into possibly trying something. Though I should warn you, most of the Thor stories I know of typically involve the other Avengers or just other Marvel characters period, so there's also that to think about.

Spider-Man: Hey, I've got a question. When are we going to hear another expose about the Marvel universe in my point of view in this story again? Or more specifically, one that's about the other Spider-Heroes, because I'd like to hear some more details about them, and I'm sure everyone else would too.

AN: All in due time, Spidey, and that actually reminds me of a few questions that were posed by a now-regular-reviewer, "Monkey D. Conan". Some of your questions will actually be answered this chapter, but I will go ahead and say now that we will be seeing Vanille and Sazh again next chapter at the earliest, and regarding your idea about Vanille talking about a marriage ceremony now that Fang's called Spidey and Lightning out on their obvious attraction to each other, I doubt that's going to happen, at least any time soon, but I can definitely see her doing that, and having stars in her eyes the entire time as she does.

Well, I think that covers just about everything...[glances left, right, up, down, and every other direction for a minute] Nobody trying to give away spoilers...no Deadpool trying to break in...Hope nothing extremely bad happens in the next few seconds...Huh, I guess we really are in the clear for once. Is it sad that I kinda find that disappointing? Oh well. On with the adventure everyone.

I do not own anything from any Spider-Man or Final Fantasy franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.

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Chapter 11: Rampant Reunions

A Little While Earlier…

It came as little of a shock that Lightning was barely able to say much of anything, but it was surprising that Spider-Man had kept quiet throughout Fang's recounting of her and Vanille's tale, and on how they had gotten to where they had before the Purge had started. Of course, that probably had something to do with the fact that part of him was still processing the idea that Vanille was actually from Pulse, or Gran Pulse as Fang insisted on them calling it, but that would have only been an idea that someone who did not know Peter would probably be thinking. In all honesty, it really was not that much of a shock to Peter as to where Vanille really came from after he thought about it for a second, especially when you also consider that Fang's style was very similar to the rather cheerful redhead's. No, what really had his head spinning was the fact that everything involved in Fang's story had only happened over the course of a mere five days. Sure, he had been through some things that had taken a much shorter time than it had seemed before, but given what Fang was telling them about, it was a bit much to swallow if you asked him.

"When we came out of crystal stasis, we didn't remember our Focus or what we'd done. All we could do was wander Cocoon, looking for what we'd lost," Fang recounted for the two. "That eventually led us to the Euride Gorge Energy Plant. I figured getting close to Cocoon fal'Cie would bring something back, but it did no good. Vanille wanted to just give up and go, thinking that our Focus didn't matter, but I wasn't about to call it quits that easily, not while there was a chance that Vanille would become a monster. At that point, I came up with another idea: we were supposed to be enemies of Cocoon, so I figured that if we played the part and raised some hell, it would jump-start our memories."

"The incident at the energy plant…That was caused by you and Vanille," Lightning guessed, remembering that Amador had mentioned something about it to her on the night of the fireworks festival before all of this had happened.

"Yep," Fang nodded. "I decided we should try smashing the fal'Cie out there in an attempt to get our memories back. Probably would've gone through with it too, had that kid not wandered in and surprised us. Cute little guy too, I have to admit, which just made it all the more messed up that he got made a l'Cie because of us. We didn't stick around too long after that aside from checking to see if the kid was okay, mostly because we could hear his dad coming, and there was no doubt that security was going to be hot on our trails shortly afterwards. Eventually, we got to an elevator, and Vanille tried begging me to consider giving up and forgetting about our Focus again. She thought we didn't need it, but I knew better. It was unfair, sure, but if we didn't complete our Focus, we'd end up as Cie'th, and the fal'Cie would start making more, like your sister."

"Why would the fal'Cie make Serah a l'Cie at all if you had just woken up and barely even started your jobs, though," Spider-Man asked.

"How should I know? All I know is that we didn't do our job right, and it probably figured it needed her for extra insurance. It doesn't really matter now though, does it," Fang shrugged a bit somberly. "Besides, even if we did call it quits, there was no way those soldiers would've let us go. They would've lynched us in the street, so I took the only action that was open to me. I sent Vanille on her way, making sure she wouldn't be able to get back, and fought off the soldiers myself to buy her some time, promising her I would come and find her no matter where she went. By the time I took care of 'em all, Vanille was long gone. After that, Raines and his Cavalry found me. I never stopped searching for Vanille, but I couldn't find her. Her, or our Focus."

It was certainly a touching story in its own way, and just from listening to all of that, Spidey was able to pick up on quite a few different things regarding Fang's character. Some of those things were already obvious to him after having spent time with the Pulsian woman, namely her determination and courage, but others were things he only realized after listening to her tell her story. The one thing that stood out the most was that Fang cared a great deal about Vanille, almost like an older sibling or a parent. The latter idea seemed a bit odd in Spidey's mind though the second it came to him, so he quickly decided that he was better off thinking of the relationship between the two Pulsians as more of a sisterly-like bond. He could understand wanting to do whatever you could to protect a younger sibling like that; he had a couple siblings of his own in the forms of Ben Riley and Kaine, the original and current Scarlet Spiders, and he also had a young protégé that had looked up to him like a younger brother, so he could not help but sympathize with Fang's situation a little, even if he did disagree with the methods she had chosen to pursue in order to reach her goals. Looking over to Lightning, he could tell she was able to see all of this too, but at the moment, her mind was a bit clearly more focused on something else, and he had a good idea on what that was.

"So, you're telling me Serah will come back to life someday, too," Lightning questioned, proving Peter's suspicions right with that one sentence.

"Yep," Fang nodded. She then paused for a minute before adding, "Like I said, we didn't do our job right. That's why it made her a l'Cie." She had to let out a sigh afterwards before finishing, "We messed up. Sorry."

Peter could just hear the gears grinding in Lightning's mind as she processed all of this while glaring at Fang, and when the rosette suddenly marched over to stand in front of Fang, he instantly tensed up a little in preparation for what she was going to do to the woman from Gran Pulse. Thought it was mostly in case he needed to hold her back from doing anything too drastic. Fang looked up at Lightning with a sad look on her face, showing how genuine she was in her apology, but that did nothing to prevent Lightning from slapping her across the face. When Light's hand struck Fang, Spidey could not help but wince a little, knowing firsthand just how hard Lightning's punches could be, and also because the sound seemed to be loud enough to startle a few nearby birds as well. Afterwards, he just watched with baited breath in case anything else happened, while Fang just rubbed her jaw a little where Lightning had struck her.

Eventually, Fang looked back up at the ex-soldier and asked, "That it?"

"You sure better hope so," Lightning cautioned after a minute. "But whether we're square, that's up to Serah."

Fang could only stare at her for a minute before she said, "You sound exactly like Snow."

"Yeah, not the best thing to tell Light," Spidey pointed out, and Lightning only reinforced his point as she huffed and turned away with her arms crossed.

"Doesn't change my point, and Snow didn't hit me," Fang revealed.

"Wait…He already knows this," Lightning exclaimed in surprise.

When he heard that, Spidey immediately thought back to when they ran into Snow back at the station just before sending him off with Hope, and he immediately slapped his forehead as he realized, "Oh thwip! That's what he was trying to tell us earlier! Now I feel bad for webbing his mouth shut."

"If it makes you feel any better, I actually liked it when you did. Any chance you can do it again sometime in the future if I were to ask," Lightning asked with a small smile.

"Somehow I knew you were going to say that eventually," Spidey smirked in reply.

Fang simply smiled at the two's little back-and-forth, mostly because it was raising her spirits a little, along with one other thing. "Wow, that's a load off. Glad I apologized," Fang sighed in relief as she stood up from the pipe she was sitting on and stretched a little.

"You apologized so you'd feel better," Lightning questioned in disbelief.

"…Guess so," Fang admitted.

"I think I'm starting to see where Vanille gets some of her strangeness from," Spidey commented. "You know, in my experience, most people apologize for reasons that go beyond just making themselves feel better."

"Hey, first off, I never said I wasn't being sincere, and second, Vanille's always been the way she is, even without my influence. I just did my best to teach her how to rein it in by…a lot before she got herself into really serious trouble," Fang immediately defended. She then turned to Lightning and asked, "How about you? Feel any better now that you hit me?"

Lightning just stared at the spear-woman for a minute before she sighed a little and replied, "It didn't change anything."

"Uh-huh. Tell that to my jaw," Fang muttered in reply as she rubbed said jaw, earning her a hidden smirk from Spidey.

Peter was very tempted to make a joke out of that comment, but right now, they had more pressing matters to attend to. The first of those matters, and the most obvious one, was meeting up with Hope and Snow again, be it at the former's home or sooner, and he still was not receiving a signal from the Spider-Tracer he gave Hope. That would probably be a cause for concern right now, but Spidey was able to keep cool and stay optimistic by thinking that it was probably just because they were out of range at the moment. On the other hand though, there was also a chance that something was interfering with the signal, and considering what he suspected about PSICOM's newest science member, that suddenly seemed a bit more likely, but only by a small margin. There was also the chance that something in the city's structure was blocking the signal as well, but either way, he did not want to think like that. He just had to hope that they were simply out of range for whatever reason for the moment, which was all the more reason for them to get moving again.

"Well I don't know about you ladies, but I think we've rested enough for now, so what do you say we get moving again," Spider-Man suggested, jumping down from the wall he was perched on.

Both Lightning and Fang nodded in agreement to his suggestion, and the former then stepped around the corner to indicate the direction that they needed to move in order to reach Felix Heights. "Still a ways before we get to Hope's place," the rosette said.

"All the more reason to pick it up," Fang commented.

With that said, Lightning indicated a large gate just ahead of them that they would head through and the three were setting off once again. They did not have to go too far to reach it really, and all they really had to do for the most part was climb up a few ladders and stairways. Even with the short distance to their next destination, they did not kid themselves into thinking that they would not encounter any soldiers, and of course, those suspicions proved to be true. It was not anything too serious for the most part; just a few of the standard PISCOM troopers and an Orion mech or two. At least, that was the case until they had came to a stop just before the gate that they were hoping to go through, because said gate had one vicious guard dog waiting in front of it for them.

"Another Behemoth! How do we keep running into these things," Spidey groaned at the sight of said monster, this one being a dark, gold-yellow color, and possessing a much more dangerous feeling than the ones that he had encountered up until now.

Spider-Man's question went largely ignored, as the two fierce women were a bit more preoccupied with just charging into the fight against the beast, so he could do nothing more than join in on the fight as well. For the most part, this particular Behemoth was no different than any of the other ones that the web-head and his friends had fought so far, and that made it fairly easy to beat it back while avoiding whatever attacks it threw out at them. Lightning and Fang handled most of the attacks against the beast while Spider-Man kept nimbly dodging its strikes and immobilizing it with his webs so that the two would have more openings to exploit. That was not to say that Spidey did not get in a few shots of his own, because he did occasionally have to jump in and attack at the Behemoth head-on, normally so that Lightning and Fang could heal from whatever injuries they received when they did get hit. At other times, he would also just jump in and attack when it seemed like that would be more effective at giving the other two openings than his webbing it up would. Unfortunately, it did not remain as smooth sailing for very long.

Just when they thought that the Behemoth was about to go down for the count, the beast suddenly let out a deafening roar and then stood up on its hind legs while drawing a monstrous sword from somewhere, putting the two women on slight edge at the sight while Spider-Man gaped in shock at the new development. "And I thought these things were freaky before," Spidey muttered.

"Not getting scared, are you," Fang teased.

"Psh, please! I've seen way scarier things than that," Spider-Man easily quipped in reply, and he quickly his point by lunging right at the beast and jabbing it in the stomach. His blow did stagger the Behemoth a little, but not for a very long time, as it was soon swinging its massive blade at the web-head merely seconds later. This was not a concern though, as Spider-Man had easily sensed the attack coming, and managed to flip out of the way before the blade could hit him. Once he had landed again, he pressed on in his attack by lunging forward again to spin a couple of kicks into its head. He then used the monster itself as a springboard so he could spin back from it while snagging its sword arm with a couple of web-lines. The minute his feet had hit the ground, Spidey immediately pulled back on the webs until they were taut, keeping the monster from immediately swinging its weapon at the two charging femme fatales.

Lightning and Fang did not waste any time in pressing the advantage that Spider-Man had given them, and surprisingly, the former of the two was working a little l'Cie magic into a few of her strikes. After thinking about it for a minute though, it did not come off as too much of a surprise, because since Fang was rarely using any magic, and Spidey was unable to do so, it did make sense that it would fall to Lightning to become the one who would be casting a majority of the spells. Thankfully, it seemed that even without constantly using magic like Hope had, Lightning had managed to get a quick handle on quite a few spells, especially in the case of any magic that enhanced her sword strikes in some way. Maybe it was due to her training as a soldier, or maybe it was some other reason, but right now, no one really cared all that much. After all, who would really be questioning anything that gave them the advantage when they were facing down a massive bestial opponent with a sword? That line of thought would have to be reconsidered though, because Lightning was quickly getting tired out, as evidenced by how her movements were becoming more and more sluggish as the fight went on, until finally, it got to the point where she was unable to defend herself from the Behemoth's next sword swing. The result of said blow was Lightning getting thrown across their current battlefield and into the gate that they were hoping to pass through, where she fell unconscious.

Seeing Lightning get hurt caused something to snap in Spider-Man, because his eyes narrowed in pure rage, and it was all directed at the Behemoth that had inflicted said injury, and which Spider-Man was now flying towards with a quick web-slingshot. This time when he hit the monster in its torso, not only did stumble back by a few feet or so, but he also used his adhesive powers to stick to the creature and swing himself around onto its back while wrapping a web-line around its neck. After getting onto the monsters back, he fired another web from his free hand, completing the noose he had started forming with the other one, and he was soon riding it like it was a wild, rampaging bull. Not that he had difficulty doing so, seeing as he could stick to anything fairly easily, but there was a reason why he used his webs to make a set of impromptu reins, which were now secured in one hand, while the other was clenched into a fist as he constantly pounded into the Behemoth's head over and over again in rapid succession.

From where she was standing, Fang found herself unsure if she should rush over and help or if she should stay out of the way, because with how brutally Spider-Man was fighting, she was worried she might get in his way or end up hurt if she were not careful. Another minute of thought made her decide that she was better off doing something to help Lightning, so she quickly rushed over to start trying to rouse the ex-soldier while applying whatever healing magic she could to help the headache that Lightning probably had after colliding with the wall like she had. When Lightning finally started coming around, both ladies were soon turning their attention back to the fight, only to see that Spider-Man had switched from beating in the Behemoth's head to striking some powerful blows into its spine, making it stumble and fall to its face just as the web-head had relinquished his hold on the web-lines that were tied around the beast to leap high into the air. When he came down again, he landed feet-first on the Behemoth's head, hard, and like that, the monster was out cold with very little chance of getting up again anytime soon if at all, leaving Lightning and Fang both in silent awe at the sheer power behind such a brutal strike, never mind where that brutality had come from.

Spider-Man must have noticed the two ladies' stares, because he easily flipped off of the monster's head a couple seconds later and slowly walked over to the two, almost as if he were afraid of what they would say after seeing him fight like he had. When he did reach them, Fang had to ask, "Think you've gotten that out of your system?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm good," Spider-Man panted.

"Thought you didn't kill," Lightning pointed out.

"Well this thing isn't exactly human, and besides that, I may not like killing, but I do understand that sometimes it is necessary. I'm just lucky enough that I've hardly ever had to kill my enemies, personally," Spider-Man shrugged. He then moved over to kneel down next to Lightning while Fang stood up straight to try and get in touch with Snow again, and asked, "What about you? Are you okay? You got hit pretty hard just now."

"I'm fine," Lightning brushed off though she was touched by his concern if the fact her cheeks had gained a slightly pink tinge was any indication. She just had to hope that he would think it was a trick of the light from the sunset or something that was more due to exhaustion, considering she was actually feeling a bit tired just now.

It turned out to be the latter case, as Spider-Man quickly helped move her to a seat on the nearby stairs and said, "Well either way, you should take it easy for a little bit. Not only would that kind of injury be a problem in the future, but all that spell casting can't have been very good for your stamina."

"Right," Lightning nodded in thanks as she leaned back a little to relax a bit better. When Spider-Man suddenly sat down next to her, she was tempted to rest her head on his shoulder, but she quickly dismissed that thought even as her blush grew a little bit. Not only would that make her seem like anything other than the independent woman she tried to be, but there was also no telling how Peter would react if she did that, so she made sure to keep the idea in her head. Even if it was a very tempting idea, especially with him just sitting right next to her, one that only grew stronger when he gently wrapped an arm around her all of a sudden, which only made her relax a little more for some odd reason.

The moment was soon interrupted though when Fang groaned out, "Damn thing's still jammed." The spear-woman then flipped the phone shut and sighed, "Eh, he can take care of himself."

Knowing that she was referring to Snow, Peter could not help but take a chance to poke some fun at the guy and said, "Knowing him, it might be more accurate to say that Hope's taking care of him, since he's too busy rushing in recklessly."

"You might be right about that, but I don't think you should talk when it comes to being reckless," Fang commented.

"Uh, excuse me? How am I reckless?"

"Oh I don't know. I'm sure everyone would just throw themselves at a Lodestar Behemoth that was in its second form with no weapons other than goop-shooters and their bare hands before riding it like a wild, untamed, bucking chocobo."

"First off, they're web-shooters, not goop-shooters. Second, you're not one to talk about crazy, reckless actions. You're the one who wanted to smash a fal'Cie just so you could get one set of memories back."

"Hey, it made sense at the time, and I was feeling really desperate."

As she watched the two banter back and forth like this, Lightning found she was unable to stop a scowl from forming on her face while an uneasy, ugly feeling took form in the pit of her stomach. Spider-Man seemed to have become quite chummy with Fang for someone who had been interrogating her for answers just a short while ago, and it also appeared as though he were enjoying it a little too much from her perspective. More than that, Fang had a bit of an odd smirk on her face for every quip she threw out at him that Lightning just wanted to tear off for some reason. The real kicker was how easily they were doing so, and with how little venom, like they were just two best pals messing around with one another. Lightning did not know what she was feeling at the sight of this or why she was feeling something soon unsettling at all, but she did know that she wanted to make it stop, and she knew of only one way to do so.

"Hey, Fang," Lightning cut in as she pulled herself out of Spidey's hold, getting a hum from the person she was addressing and a hidden, furrowed brow from the web-head. "The others are safe, right? If any of us got caught, they'd make an announcement."

"Maybe for you two and the others, but me, I doubt they would make a big deal about," Spider-Man pointed out.

"I wouldn't be so sure," Fang dismissed. "We may know that you're not a l'Cie, but to everyone else, that idea's still up in the air. Either way, yeah, they would make an announcement. They'd have to let everyone know that the big, bad l'Cie can't hurt 'em no more. These Cocoon people…bunch of cowards and blowhards."

"Ahem. You do remember that Lightning's standing right there, right," Spidey reminded the Pulsian, indicating the rosette when he did.

Said rosette was just scowling once again, not over Fang's remark, but more over how it seemed like Spidey and Fang were falling back into their banter battle not two seconds after she had cut in, and she was not going to have that. "'These Cocoon people' have spent centuries under fal'Cie law, in constant fear of a Pulse invasion," Lightning sharply reminded both of the other two. She then lowered her head in shame as she added, "If it weren't for Serah, I'd have been out there too. Hunting l'Cie. Would've been nothing but targets to me."

"Somehow I doubt that," Spider-Man argued, surprising Lightning a little. "If you really were on the other side of this, then would you really still be going through with it if you saw that one of the l'Cie you were hunting was just a kid like Hope, or really just anyone who looked human at least?"

Lightning was not sure how to answer that, and that seemed to be something that happened to her a lot recently. Everything she had learned in such a short amount of time since she became a l'Cie was making her head spin with questions, concerns, and a thousand other things. Still, the fact that Spidey seemed to have enough faith in her to think that she would not have just kept following orders and gunning down l'Cie like they were just another bunch of targets if she eventually met one who was like Hope like that did help ease her worries a little bit, but not by that much. It took a few words from Fang to draw her out of the storm in her mind.

"Well to be fair, Gran Pulse is actually just as twisted as this place," Fang revealed. She then looked up in thought as she recalled, "'Cocoon's a floating nest of vipers, ready to strike.' Or so I thought."

"So you became a l'Cie to fight the 'vipers,' and destroying the nest is your…I mean our Focus now," Lightning filled in.

"I'd like to point out once again that we don't know that for sure," Spider-Man reminded Lightning. "There is still a chance that Snow's right in saying that we're supposed to save Cocoon from Ragnarok or something. Maybe the idea doesn't have a lot of ground to go off of, seeing as the only thing supporting it is Serah's last words before she turned to crystal and what that fal'Cie said to me when it tried and failed to turn me into a l'Cie, but it is still a possibility."

"Wish I were as optimistic or naïve as you are, Bug-boy," Fang remarked as she stood up and looked out to the horizon with Lightning, not knowing that Spidey was giving her a flat look in response as she did. Even if she did know, that did not stop her from saying what she felt like she had to say. "Until we woke up here, we'd been in crystal stasis. Which means, we must've completed our first Focus."

"But you can't remember anything about it," Spider-Man filled in.

"Nope," Fang groaned in annoyance, though it was more due to the fact Spidey had mentioned than it was due to being reminded of it. "Why can't I remember that part, though? My childhood's clear as day, but the one thing I need…it's just gone. Blank. Like an empty page. I reach for the memory, and nothing's there. Then there's my brand. It's all messed up. Vanille and me, we lost our past and our Focus."

"And now, you want to find them," Lightning asked. "Be a Pulse l'Cie? An enemy of Cocoon?"

"I'm with Lightning. Are you sure that's what you want? I mean, maybe the change to your brand is a sign that Vanille was probably right when she said that you didn't need your Focus anymore," Spidey suggested. "I mean, what if you did do your job right and you were just released so that you could live out your lives without any worry from what being a l'Cie might bring…You know, aside from the obvious fact that everyone here hates l'Cie and all?"

"Seriously, how are you able to look at things like that so easily," Fang asked.

"When you've lived my kind of life, you tend to learn how to take a 'glass-half-full' kind of perspective whenever you can. That or you just learn how to blame yourself for just about everything that goes bad," Spider-Man shrugged.

Fang did not know how to respond to that, aside from a small smirk that quickly washed away as she answered the earlier question. "It doesn't matter either way. Pulse and Cocoon can rot for all I care. If I don't figure out our Focus soon, Vanille's gonna be a Cie'th. I'll tear down the sky if it'll save her."

Both Lightning and Peter could hear the raw passion in Fang's voice as she had spoken about how far she would go for Vanille, and they knew that it was the same kind that one would use when speaking of what they would do for family. They recognized it because it was a feeling that they both knew quite well. For Lightning, it was the same with her in regards to Serah, while for Peter, it made him think back to both his aunt and to his late clone/brother, Ben Riley, and his living one, Kaine. Peter could still remember the day when he heard about how Ben was dying due to some sort of cellular degeneration that turned out to be a side-effect from how he was created, a side-effect that was also affecting Kaine at a much more rapid rate, and how he had scrambled to do everything he could to find a way to cure them both. He may have succeeded in the end, but he still hated how there was nothing he could do to save Ben from dying a hero's death not long afterwards. Still, neither he or Lightning had much of a place to criticize Fang for her actions, unless they wanted to be called a pair of hypocrites, but that did not mean that her intentions and plans did not leave them feeling a little worried.

True, they did respect and admire Fang for her dedication to Vanille and making sure that the girl did not turn into a monster, but the methods she had used so far to keep that from happening were rather questionable. The prime example being that she encouraged the idea for the two to try to smashing the fal'Cie that was providing power to the cities of Cocoon just so they could jog their memories, and there was also the fact that she had ended up allying herself with an organization she knew almost nothing about just to track down where Vanille had run off to after they got separated. Sure, those could be described as the actions of someone who was desperate, and Fang was clearly looking for any way she could get her hands on to keep Vanille from turning into a Cie'th, but from what they could tell, Fang was not one to let desperation or many of her other emotions to get the best of her when something so important was at stake. That self-assurance may have been admirable at times, but in a matter like that it was definitely something to be worried about.

They were soon pulled out of their musings a few blocks later when Fang suddenly paused again and called back, "Hey, Lightning. Spider-Man."

"Call me Light," the ex-soldier told the Pulsian in response, feeling that Fang had earned the privilege at this point.

"And you can just call me Spidey," Peter quickly added on, showing that she had his attention as well.

"Did either of you see Vanille's brand," Fang questioned, smiling a little at the fact she was now on friendlier terms with the two.

"No," Lightning admitted.

"The minute I realized where she was going to indicate that it was, I made a point to look away," Spidey informed Fang.

While the answers the two gave were disheartening for Fang, the latter one gave her an opening she simply could not pass up. "Oh really? You saying you weren't a little tempted to let your eyes be graced with the view?"

"Hey, whoa! First off, I was raised to be respectful to women, and second of all, she's a bit too young for me, in case you hadn't noticed, crystal stasis or no," Spider-Man immediately protested.

"Funny. That didn't sound like a no," Fang said in a sing-song voice.

Spidey was instantly sputtering and stuttering any excuses that he could bring to mind, only to stop short when he realized, "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

"A little bit, yeah. It's always fun to see someone so sure of himself getting as flustered as a nervous school girl," Fang admitted. "Although, it would probably be even funnier if I could see the look on your face."

"Huh, nice try, but you're gonna have to do a lot more than that to get a look at the face under this mask," Spider-Man easily quipped, his confidence now returned.

"Now that sounds like a challenge. Besides, why hide behind the mask at all? You horribly scarred or disfigured under there or something?"

"Well I wouldn't go so far as to say 'horribly'…"

"Was there a point to your earlier question," Lightning interrupted, her tone quite irritated one might note.

Fang had to smirk a little more at Light's intrusion, knowing just what that particular rise from her could mean, and her expression stayed that way even as she turned to face the two in order to answer Lightning's question. "Want to know how long until it's Cie'th city? Just look at your brand," she explained. When the two shot her looks that inquired for more, she added, "You start getting more arrows, and then finally an eye. Once it opens all the way, you're done. Let's have a look."

That threw the two a little bit until Lightning suddenly found herself turned towards Fang while the spear-woman started to unzip her turtleneck to the point where her brand was visible, much to her embarrassment. She barely even registered when Fang told her not to be shy, as she was more preoccupied with how Peter was reacting. When she saw that he had looked away while blocking his view with one hand, she could not help but let out a silent, discreet sigh of relief, and it became a bit more noticeable when Fang reported, "Nowhere near. You got time." The spear-woman then glanced over to Spidey again and smirked as she added, "Wow, you really are the type to go and do something like that."

"Again, raised to be a gentleman," Spidey reminded her.

"Well cut it out. It's kinda creepy to actually meet one in this place." Fang's teasing was halted once again when Lightning let out a small cough after zipping her turtleneck up again, and Fang immediately returned to the main topic of their current conversation. "Well, even if it does seem like you've got time, you still never know. Some people, doesn't take so long. You get a nasty shock, it can speed up the process."

That news immediately made Spider-Man think back to the moment when Odin first appeared before them in the Vile Peaks, and a small exchange of glances with the woman in question instantly told him that Lightning had the same thought. It was no surprise really; Lightning's outburst and their confrontation with the Eidolon would leave even the most stoic person shocked to some degree, and Hope did mention that Lightning's brand had changed a bit afterwards, so that served as plenty of confirmation to what Fang was telling them. Still, they had to wonder why she was telling them this now, at least until they heard her speak up again. "Vanille's brand must be pretty far along by now."

"I don't know about that. From what I've seen, despite the appearance that she tends to give off, Vanille does seem like a tough nut to really crack easily," Spider-Man reassured Fang. It probably would have helped if he was more than half sure of his words though.

Fang must have picked up on his hesitance, because she did not seem to relax at all, and yet still showed quite a bit of confidence when she declared, "Either way, I've got to save her and get her home."

"To Pulse, you mean," Lightning asked.

"To Gran Pulse," Fang corrected. "I hear that the Sanctum prevents people from leaving Cocoon. I'd like to see 'em try and stop me."

"Well so long as your plan doesn't involve killing anyone or easily buying into what people say about the Purge like Vanille did, I don't think I'll have too much of problem there," Spider-Man told her with an underlying warning tone. One that Fang could only smirk in reply to, at least until Lightning spoke up in her defense.

"At least she has a plan, unlike me," the ex-soldier said, much to the other two's surprise. "Without Serah, without a future, there's nothing to plan for. There's no way out of this mess, and no way to fight it. I'm stuck trading blows with the Sanctum, but that's no plan. Even if we were to show that people don't have any reason to fear us, or finally abolish the fear of Pulse, where's that leave us? With nothing to fight for…I might as well be dead."

"Whoa, whoa, time out! Don't you dare go and start saying stuff like that," Spider-Man interjected, startling Lightning with how panicked he sounded. You could not really blame him though, because from where he was standing, Lightning's words were sounding very suicidal; far more so than anything she had said before now since this whole mess started, and he was not about to let her go down that kind of path. "You've got plenty to fight for, Light, and there are people who are still counting on you to stay alive, not because they need you to protect them, but because you're their friend. You're my friend, and I'm not going to let you give up on anything like that."

"And let's not forget your sister," Fang added, drawing all attention to her. "Spidey's right. You've got plenty to fight for, Light. Think about it. Don't you want to see Serah, after she wakes up?" She did not need to wait for an answer, because Lightning's silence and the look in her eyes was answer enough. "That's your future right there. All you've gotta do is survive. It's simple!"

"Right," Lightning drawled, sarcasm clearly evident.

"Hey, she said it was simple, not easy," Spidey pointed out. "Besides, if anyone doesn't have much of a future to fight for it's me." That got the two women's attention, as they did not expect him to say something like that. "Sure, I've got a reason to fight now: keeping you and the others safe, but after this is over, then what? I go around chasing muggers and other low-class criminals like nothing ever happened and like I've always lived here? I've got no way home, and no one to go home to even if I did and wanted to go. Aunt May isn't going to be coming back like Serah, and let's face facts. If it weren't for my whole 'great power and great responsibility' shtick, or the fact that we're friends, I probably wouldn't have stuck around with you guys for so long now. When this is over, and it will end well for everyone if I have any say in the manner, I'm not going to have anything worth fighting for."

That surprised Lightning, and yet at the same time, she felt a bit ashamed as well. She had spent so much time thinking about herself after the revelations that she had been having lately, she had not once stopped to consider how this was going to affect Peter in the long-run. Sure, she knew that he was probably pretty messed up after learning what he did about his aunt and in regards to how much time had passed back in his universe since he had been gone, and she had done her best to help him with that, but she still should have realized that he would be worried about something like that before now. Before Madame Web had appeared before them, he had been looking for a way to get back home and helping out in Bodhum simply because he was able to make a difference while he was there. Now though, who knew if he was even going to feel like he could keep being Spider-Man or even just keep going in his life, period? The idea of losing Peter in anyway honestly frightened Lightning in a way that she did not think was still possible for her, even if she did not openly show it. She wanted to reach out, hold him tightly, and beg him to not talk or even think like that. She wanted to tell him that he had just as much to fight and live for as she did. She wanted to do so much in order to make him stop thinking like that, but at the same time she had no idea why she would want to do all of that. Well, she had one idea, but that was still one she was denying as much as she could, given how it had proven to be so much of a distraction to her already. All the same, in the end, she ended up doing nothing more than staring at Peter in disbelief, worry, and a bit of panic, wanting to do something but unsure of what.

Thankfully, Fang had an idea on what to do and thus came to Lightning's rescue, though the rosette was not entirely thankful for it. "You kidding me? From what I've seen, you've got plenty to fight for," the spear-woman told Spider-Man. "Not just because you've actually saved quite a few people here already, if rumors are to be believed, but I could just tell that you care a great deal about Light and the others, and they seem to care about you, too. You've got friends here. They're part of your future. Besides, Snow told me you didn't give up so easily, so why should you start now?"

It was clear that Fang had given him a lot to think about, but all the same, the two women knew that he was giving her a thankful smile for her words. Lightning may not have liked the fact that Fang was the one who had ultimately cheered Peter up, but she was still glad that he seemed to be doing a little better now. It did not mean that she was going to be okay with how friendly Fang and Spidey seemed to have become in such a short amount of time, and in an attempt to not deal with that, she decided to press on, thinking the two would follow after her when they saw her moving. She did not get very far, because they all ended up freezing in their tracks when they suddenly heard a beeping sound from close by. While Fang and Lightning both tensed up a little at the noise, Peter immediately raised one of his web-shooters to eye-level and hit a control on it that immediately generated a small, three-dimensional holo-map on their surrounding area, which displayed two distinct markers: one of which appeared to be his mask inside of a circle, which was in the center of the map, while the other was a red, upside-down triangle. It looked odd to the other two, but to Peter, it looked like good news.

"Finally! I'm picking up a signal from the tracker I gave Hope," Spidey cheered, drawing sighs of relief from Lightning and Fang as they stood down from their battle-ready states. They did not stay relaxed for long though, as they soon heard fast-approaching jets from overhead, and then looked up just in time to see a number of PSICOM aerial forces whooshing past, all in the same direction.

"Spidey, please tell me that they're not heading where I think they are," Lightning lightly begged.

"I wish I could," Peter replied. "The signal from Hope's Spider-Tracer is definitely coming from the exact same direction that those guys were just heading in."

"They've found 'em," Fang exclaimed in a slight panic, and to make matters worse, they were soon greeted with the sound and sight of an explosion off in the distance. They had little reason to think that it had been on an area where Snow and Hope were, but given what they had just seen, there was little other reason that they could think of for such an explosion other than PSICOM attempting to attack the two.

That was reason enough for Lightning to turn to Peter and immediately demand, "Spidey, you need to get us there, now!"

Spider-Man looked at her for a minute before he asked, "Why Lightning, are you asking me to get us there via the Spidey-Express?"

As much as she wanted to say no, she knew that it would be the fastest way there. It did not mean that she was going to kid herself into thinking that Peter would not be teasing her about how this was her idea instead of his later, but somehow, she still managed to swallow her pride, step closer to him, and say, "Yes, now start web-swinging."

"Ma'am, yes ma'am," Spider-Man jokingly saluted before scooping Lightning up into one arm while gesturing for Fang to get up on his back. Once the spear-woman had done so and secured her arms around him, Spidey said, "In case of emergencies, exits are located pretty much everywhere and anywhere. Please keep a secure hold on your friendly neighborhood superhero at all times, and no flash-photography or throwing up. Any questions before lift-off?"

"Yeah, are we going to go anytime soon, or are you just stalling until you've managed to cop a feel on Light," Fang asked, smirking a little when she saw how the ex-soldier's face lit up at the end.

Spider-Man just glanced over his shoulder at her for a minute before saying, "You know I can very easily drop you on the way there, right?"

"But we all know you won't," Fang teased.

Spider-Man said nothing in response, and instead just elected to swing the three of them into the air, getting them on the fast, web-swinging track to Snow and Hope's location as fast as he could. All the same, he still ended up thinking, 'Nobody would know. Nobody. Well, Lightning would know, but she wouldn't say anything if asked not to, right?'

---

Hope was not sure how long he had been out, but it had to have been at least an hour or so since he and Snow were blasted off the terrace. At least if the slight sunlight he was feeling on his face was any indication, then it was probably still somewhere close to the middle or final stages of twilight, but what he was really confused about was why he was able to feel so much of the sunlight right now in the first place. He was sure that he and Snow had landed in an alleyway that was covered by a great deal of shadows, so he should not be feeling any sunlight right now. More to the point, he felt like he was resting against something soft, or at least something that was softer than the hard ground, while something obviously had a firm grasp beneath his legs, as if to hold him in place, and he quickly assumed that meant that someone was probably carrying him somewhere. That alone was enough to stir him back to consciousness a little more quickly, but the explosions that he heard that sounded distant yet still close to where he was did help get him the rest of the way. He was more than ready to start struggling out of the person's grasp and fight them when he realized who the individual holding him up was.

"Hey. You okay," Snow grunted in greeting when he saw that Hope was awake. Snow had woken up sometime before the kid had, and then carried Hope back up to where they were before so that they could resume their trip to Hope's house, and from what the kid could see of his expression, it had not been an easy feat, because Snow looked exhausted.

Hope was confused as to Snow's current state of tiredness, but he brushed if off long enough to answer the blonde's question and said, "Yeah, I think so."

Snow nodded before Hope could say anymore, and then held up his hand to Hope, allowing the boy to see he was holding the knife he had been given. "That's Light's, isn't it," Snow asked once Hope had taken it back.

"How'd you…" Hope started to ask.

"That knife was a present from Serah, to keep her safe. She trusted you with something that important then you should be the one to carry it," Snow explained as he started to slowly move forward, while Hope pocketed the knife, though it was not without a somewhat noticeable limp.

"You're hurt," Hope exclaimed.

"It's nothing," Snow tried to reassure him, only to fail when he got past a small flight of stairs and collapsed in the middle of a courtyard, much to Hope's concern. Snow immediately started pulling himself up again though, grunting and groaning about how he had to keep going while he did, only to end up using a lamppost for support so that he could stand up straight while clutching his side. When he was standing again, he looked to Hope and chuckled at the sight of the kid standing up all on his own, looking no worse for wear. "Look at that. All that effort and you don't even need any help."

"But you clearly do," Hope stated as he moved to try and help Snow. He was not sure what he could do, seeing as there was no way he was strong enough to support Snow's weight on his own, but he had to do something.

"Relax. Just let me…catch my breath," Snow waved off, but his reassuring look soon turned panic when he saw something approaching in the distance, and closing fast. When it finally got close enough to get a good look, it landed right in front of them, allowing them to get a good look at it. At first glance, Snow thought it was an Ushumgal Subjugator, but there were various different lines of circuitry and armaments on it that made him think otherwise. For starters, its shoulders seemed to house some type of cannons on them, while the wings appeared to have been augmented with a sleek metal that seemed to be razor sharp. Its legs also seemed as though they could now split in half for some odd reason, but the most terrifying difference was how it had a set of six, metal tentacles that ended in sharp pincer claws extending out from the middle area of its body, with three on either side. Whatever this thing really was though did not matter to Snow at the moment. All he knew was that it was a monster that PSICOM had sent to kill him and Hope, and the blonde was not going to let that happen.

Unfortunately, Snow was not going to be able to do anything to stop this beast, because the minute he told Hope to get back, the beast slammed one of its large wings into him, and sent him flying into the nearby wall, where he fell unconscious. The worst part was that when Snow did get hit, Hope was sure that he heard a sickening crack that could only mean that something was now definitely broken if it had not been already. Seeing what had happened because of Snow's actions, Hope narrowed his eyes at both the self-proclaimed hero and the monster that had hurt him, and shouted, "Always the hero. You want to die? You can't. I won't let you!"

What happened next would have surprised Hope a while back, seeing as he would not have thought he would ever do anything to help Snow at that time, but after everything that had happened now, and how they had reconciled just recently, Hope felt that it was only natural that he would rush forward, boomerang ready, and start fighting this massive beast in defensive of the unconscious Snow. Maybe some of the blonde's recklessness was rubbing off on him, because Hope knew full well that he probably stood little chance against a monster like this on his own, but he was not going to just sit back and watch so that Snow could be left to die if he could do something about it. He was just glad that he had his l'Cie magic, because otherwise, he was sure that he would likely have been a goner just seconds after stepping up to face this thing.

One of the first things that Hope did was use a Libra spell to get some information on this monster, but he was surprised to find that, despite the changes, the spell still identified this thing as an Ushumgal Subjugator. Hope had seen such monsters in books before, and he could not ever remember one looking like this, be it the untamed version or otherwise. He did not think about that matter for too long, as he was quickly forced to dodge a few blasts of energy from the beast, which were quickly followed by a blast of powerful shockwaves from the cannons on its shoulders. Hope quickly slapped on the web-shooter than Spider-Man had given him, and aimed it towards the cannons, thinking he might be able to keep them from firing if they were clogged with webs, but he was soon slapped aside by one of the six tentacles just as he was about to fire. He saved himself from being hit by another pair of tentacles by using his boomerang to block the attacks, and then rolled to his feet once again as he threw a pair of Fira spells at the monster. When the fiery blasts hit the beast, Hope had to smirk a little, thinking that he must have dealt some serious damage that time, but when the smoke cleared, he was shocked to see that there was not even the slightest scratch on it. Sure, there were some points on the Subjugator's armor to indicate that it had been blasted by fire, but those areas were merely blackened by soot than anything else, proving that it had quite the resilient armor. After throwing every offensive spell he had at the monster, Hope was able to realize that the same held true for every type of elemental blast it was met with.

To make matters worse, the beast easily showed off a few more of its special offensive capabilities by swinging one of its wings in a wide arc, and releasing a series of large, sharp talons, like the ones that he and Snow had encountered earlier on, and said talons easily sliced through the wall behind Hope like butter, much to his horror. Seeing such a deadly attack prompted Hope to cast as many defensive spells as he knew on himself, just to make sure that if he did get hit, it would not lead him to suffer too serious an injury, but he was still not sure if it would do him that much good. He then went to work doing whatever he could to slow it down, be it with magic, with his boomerang, or with a few web-blasts every now and then, but if Hope was doing any damage, it was obviously not enough, and it certainly did not show at all. Eventually, his rush to stay ahead of the beast came to an end, as it split one of its front legs in two, and used the front half of said leg to knock him onto his back, where he dropped down, too exhausted to really stand on his own at this point.

Hope was sure that this was it as the monster slowly drew closer and closer to him, its split leg now fusing back into one again while the cannons on its shoulders prepared to fire at as close a range to Hope as it could manage, until suddenly, a barrage of Impact-Webbing suddenly exploded on the Subjugator, coating most of its legs and the joints in its wings in the adhesive substance. A moment later, Spider-Man suddenly swung over both Hope and the monster he was fighting, and snagged the Subjugator with a web-line so that he could slowly pull it away from the young man it was just targeting. The monster did not move very much for a moment, but when Hope gave a little push by throwing a Fire spell out, it slid back quite a bit more. It was at that moment that Fang and Lightning came running onto the scene, just in time to see Spider-Man release his web-line and slide under the monster before it could crush him beneath its massive form.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Hope. Traffic was terrible," Spidey joked as he came out of his slide next to the kid in a crouch, his eyes focused entirely on the monster that Hope had been fighting.

"Not a bad job though, kid," Fang complimented as she spun her spear out for battle.

"Where's Snow," Lightning asked.

"He's okay," Hope replied, nodding to where Snow was lying with his head.

When Lightning saw where the blonde was laying, clearly alive but in no shape to fight, she nodded to Hope and reached for her gunblade, ready to enter the fight. "Sure you're up to this? This isn't like any of the others of its kind, so it could be the Doc's beast," Fang asked, wanting to make sure that Lightning was ready after what had just happened.

"Thing will never know what hit it," Lightning confidently replied as she spun her gunblade into sword mode with a simple flourish of movement.

"Somehow, I get the feeling that it might," Spider-Man said, and before anyone could say anything, the web-swinger stood up straight and moved to stand right in front of the others, just as the beast was preparing to attack them again. Despite the clear danger, Spidey did not move a muscle. Instead, he just stared it down, until he finally shouted out, "Hey, if you can hear me through this thing, then I've got something to tell ya, so listen up. To be quite frank, I'm really disappointed. Picking on kids? I thought for sure you of all people had higher standards than that, and don't even get me started on how bad a job your doing at concealing your identity. I mean come on! Everyone knows that if you want to keep a secret identity, you shouldn't sign your work, but then again, you never could resist a chance to boast about your genius…Doctor Octopus!"

The minute that Spider-Man had uttered that name, the beast seemed to freeze in its tracks, its weapons powering down while any attacks it was preparing to throw were completely halted. That alone confirmed that its controller could hear Spidey, and he was fully intent on continuing with his prodding. "Well hey, look at that! You can hear me. Surprised to see that someone here knows who you are, or are you surprised that someone other than the PSICOM higher-ups know you? I mean, there's no way you would be surprised that I still remember who you are given our long history, right, Otto Octavius? Or do you prefer just Doc like all the other guys in PSICOM are supposedly calling you?"

Eventually, Spider-Man got a response, much to everyone's surprise. You could not blame them though, because not one of the Cocoon citizens had ever heard of someone being able to send an audio transmission through a monster before, and yet, now it was happening right before their eyes and ears. "Arachnid," a voice snarled through whatever transmitter was on this modified Subjugator, proving that the individual did indeed know Spider-Man. "So you survived our little trip through the nexus of reality as well. At this point I feel it would be a waste to be surprised by your resilience and continued interference in my work, Spider-Man, and yet, I must admit, that I am surprised that you now stand before me again."

"Well technically, I'd only be standing before you if we were face-to-face, Otto, but beyond that, the feeling is mutual. I know I definitely wasn't expecting to see you again, though it does not come as a surprise that you're still on the wrong side of things," Spider-Man retorted.

"I would say the same of you, Spider-Man. I had long since thought that you cared about others, so I had a hard time grasping the concept that anyone bearing your moniker would ally with such dangerous threats as these Pulse l'Cie. Yet here you are, aiding such threats while forsaking the rest of this world. If anyone is on the wrong side here, it is you."

That earned the monster a disbelieving look that was clear as day even though it was hidden behind Spider-Man's mask. "I'm sorry, I must've heard wrong. I could've sworn that I just heard Doc Ock say that he was actually buying the crap that the Sanctum was selling about Pulse and its l'Cie."

"The recent Purge is proof of the threat that Pulse possess to this society, and I intend to right the many wrongs of my past by doing what I can for the people of Cocoon. I had thought that you would see reason and assist me in this Spider-Man. After all, I am trying to follow your example and do things for a greater good."

"Oh my god. You're actually serious," Spider-Man gasped. "Doc, I know you're smarter than this, so how can you honestly believe something so stupid without question? Have you not been watching what PSICOM has been doing here? Did you seriously not see the fact that you were just trying to kill a kid who was only defending himself and his friend? Look at these guys! They are all citizens of Cocoon, but because they were made l'Cie, everyone's decided that they're monsters because of old superstitions and propaganda that the Sanctum has done nothing but feed for years!"

"Uh, I'm not from Cocoon," Fang pointed out.

"Fang, that's not helping, so please shut it," Spider-Man informed the spear-woman, his tone showing no room for argument.

"From my standpoint, it seems more likely that you have been tainted by Pulse as well, Spider-Man, and as a result, you too, must be eliminated. You may find this hard to believe, but I do wish it had not come to this," Doc Ock said through his monster, which was now gearing up for a fight again.

"Well look at that. You've finally said something that's actually right. I do find it hard to believe. I know you just want an excuse to prove that you're superior to me again, so do us both a favor and don't try to hide it with some so-called 'noble cause,'" Spider-Man retorted, dropping down into his own battle stance, which prompted the others to resume their own battle stances as well.

Just like that, a spectacular battle had begun between the massive monster and its four targets, only this time there was no mistaking how it was being controlled by someone who had a very thorough and tactical mind, and it was one that was giving most of them quite the runaround. Thankfully, Spider-Man had been fighting the mastermind behind this beast for several years of his life, so he was able to make very decent predictions as to how the monster would attack them, and he was also able to pick up on some weak points in the Subjugator's augmentations. As such, Fang was directed towards the joints in the wings, while Lightning focused a lot of attention and ice-based magic on the tentacles in an attempt to disable or slow said appendages down. Hope was left to support the team with healing and protection spells for the most part, but he also made sure to lend a few blasts of webbing to Spidey when he could, and it was a good thing he did, because Peter really needed it at the moment, given that he was doing a little bit of everything. He spinning, swinging, flipping, and running all around the monster in an attempt to do whatever he could to keep it from harming any of his friends, and every time he spotted a chance to shut down any part of it, he took it with gusto. The only downside was that he had put quite a bit of strength behind every blow he made against this thing, because it seemed that Octavius had given it augmented armor like the kind that his old foe Rhino wore. He was just glad that was not the case for the entire body of the monster, and he was still able to take advantage of the weaknesses and drawbacks of every piece of tech that Ock had added to this beast.

That remained to be the case for quite a bit of the fight, especially in regards to what he had dubbed the Shocker Cannons, because he and Hope spent a good deal of the fight webbing those up to the point where they would get jammed and send an electric feedback into the monster, which left it vulnerable to Lightning and Fang's attacks, until he made a small error that cost him quite a bit. Despite the warning from his Spider-Sense, Peter was not able to react fast enough to the tentacle that was being swung his way, and ended up being swatted aside as a result. Luckily he was not too seriously hurt, but one of his web-shooters was not so lucky. The impact from the blow must have been too much for it to take, or perhaps Octavius had been hoping to hit it when he attacked him, but either way it did not matter, because now, one of his trusted wrist devices was seriously damaged, and he doubted that he would be able to stop and fix it without the proper tools, let alone in the middle of a battle. Realizing this, Peter's hand instantly reached for his belt, only to be reminded that he had given away his only spare web-shooters to Hope and Snow when he felt nothing in the area his hand went for. Any other time, Spidey would think that he could handle with just one web-shooter, but in this situation, he was not so sure. That did not stop him though, as he was soon back getting back into things, even if it was with a handicap.

Spider-Man's inability to use both web-shooters did not go unnoticed by any of the others, but out of all three of them, only Hope was able to think of an idea on how to remedy things. He knew that he could just toss the web-shooter he was using to Peter, but there was no telling how much of its web-fluid he had used by this point, so for all he knew, he would be giving Peter a replacement that was nearly empty. Thankfully, he knew where he could get another web-shooter from, hence the reason why he shouted for Fang and Lightning to help Spider-Man and keep the monster's attention off him for a little while. When the two nodded in response, Hope quickly scrambled over to where Snow was lying and immediately started searching the blonde's pockets until he finally found what he was looking for: the spare web-shooter that Spidey had given Snow way back at Lake Bresha, and from what Hope could tell, it did not seem like Snow had really used it at all. At another point in time, one would probably have scolded Snow for not using such a useful tool, but Hope was just glad that Snow still had it on him at all, and he immediately jumped up to run back over to the fight.

"Spidey! Catch," Hope shouted once he was close enough, getting Peter's attention just in time to see the silver haired boy throw the wrist device over to him. Upon seeing what Hope had thrown towards him, Spider-Man instantly leapt for the web-shooter, moving the damaged one from his wrist to his belt while in mid-air, and he easily caught it just seconds before he landed on the ground again, where he slapped the fresh one onto his wrist.

The device easily locked into place just in time for Spider-Man to spin around and fire out a flurry of webs that saved Lightning from being hit by one of the Subjugator's tentacles, while simultaneously clogging up the Shocker Cannons once more and saving Fang from getting blasted by them, and the three instantly sprung forward to throw an all-out assault at their foe. Spider-Man started off with a few quick jabs and kicks before launching himself into the air, allowing Lightning to come in, gunblade swinging in vicious, powerful arcs that sent the beast stumbling right into Fang's flurry of jabs and bashes, easily destroying one of its legs. Another leg soon went afterwards, thanks to a well-placed combination of spells from Hope, coupled by a particularly powerful toss of his boomerang, and the beast was soon pinned down on the ground again, when Spider-Man suddenly used a pair of web-lines to catapult himself down into it feet first, crashing it into the ground with a powerful boom when he did. Spider-Man then leapt clear of the monster with a tremendous back flip through the air, and the others immediately unleashed their most powerful spells on the monster, finishing it off entirely until there was nothing left.

Seeing that the fight was over, everyone breathed sighs of relief, some panting in exhaustion, and Hope took the chance to approach Spider-Man and Lightning both. The first thing he did was remove his borrowed web-shooter from his wrist so that he could hand it back to Spidey, and he then pulled out Lightning's knife to hand it back to her. When the two had their respective tools in hand, they looked to Hope with questioning gazes, asking why he was giving these back now, and Hope could only smile as he reported, "Operation Nora turned out to be a huge success after all."

Hearing that immediately clued them both in as to why Hope was giving his borrowed items back to their rightful owners, and Peter had to smile a little at the fact that the kid had found his answer at last, along with the fact that it turned out to be the right one. Lightning was also happy to hear this news, but it was clear from the expression on her face that she was more worried about what had happened to Hope before she and the others had arrived. Hearing that news did give her some relief for many different reasons, but that did not stop her from enveloping Hope in a tight hug, much to nearly everyone's surprise, and whispering to him, "You'll be okay. We'll keep you safe."

"Lightning," Hope gasped. "I…Me too. I mean, at least I'll try. I'll try to watch out for you, too."

Lightning then stepped back and stared at the boy for a minute before she let out a small, teasing smile and jabbed him in the forehead, earning an amused chuckle from Hope. "Hey, what about me, Hope? Don't I get some guarantee of protection," Spider-Man playfully whined, cutting into the moment.

"I would, but somehow, I don't think I'd be able to keep that promise. You get yourself into some pretty crazy trouble," Hope teased.

"You say that like I go looking for it or something," Spider-Man retorted as he ruffled the kid's hair, much to both Hope and Lightning's amusement, even as the former tried batting his hand away.

"Don't forget about this one," Fang called out, drawing everyone's attention to her and the unconscious Snow.

"That one will be all right," Lightning scoffed in reply. She then moved over to swing one of Snow's arms over her shoulder so that she could lift him up to his feet, and smiled a little as she added, "He's too stubborn to die."

"Like you're really one to talk," Spider-Man pointed out as he grabbed Snow's other arm. "More to the point, I think that really applies to all of us at this point."

Everyone got at least a small chuckle out of that one, and they were soon following Hope the rest of the slow, short trek to his home with smiles on their faces. For the most part at least, because Hope just had to ask Spidey one quick question. "So who's this Doctor Octopus guy you were talking to just now?"

Spider-Man tensed up a little, but the moment was so quick that only Lightning had noticed since she was standing closest to him. He knew that the rosette was likely throwing him a worried look afterwards, but Spidey did not let it bother him too much as he replied, "Let's get to your place first, Hope, and I'll fill you guys in on everything then. Though, I would prefer to only explain after Snow wakes up, if nobody minds."

There was no argument against his request, but all the same, it was clear that when they got to Hope's house, they were going to be doing a lot more than planning their next move. They were also going to be getting quite a few overdue answers from the web-head of their group. The only concern there was just what questions would be answered, and how would they react when they had received said answers. It honestly made Lightning a little worried for Peter's sake, because there was no way he was not at least a little bit nervous.

---

Despite the short and uneventful remainder of the trip to Hope's house, no one had relaxed their guard until Hope had gone up to the building and rang the doorbell. Even then, they were still nervous when Hope's father came running out, but the look of relief he had on his face when he saw the boy at the door did make them feel a little easier. From what Spidey could tell, based on appearances, it looked like Hope's father, Bartholomew, held a very important position in whatever job he held, based on the rather nice suit that he wore, and from the look in his eyes, Peter could tell that the man did indeed care a great deal about his wife and son, despite what Hope believed. If anything, Peter had a hunch that Bartholomew just had a hard time really showing that he cared, and that had likely translated the wrong way to Hope given his current age. His suspicion only became more founded when Hope told his father about what had happened to Nora, because after hearing the full story, Bartholomew had broken down and cried heavily over the loss of his wife. Thankfully, Hope had refrained from telling him until they had all come inside, and while he was a bit wary of inviting Spider-Man into his home, Bartholomew did not hesitate to allow the masked man into his home when he saw that Spidey was helping to support the still unconscious and injured Snow. The fact that Hope had vouched for the web-head also helped Spidey's case in his father's eyes.

Afterwards, Lightning and Spidey had carried Snow to Hope's bedroom while the boy had talked with his father and Fang did something in another room. They may not have been fully aware of what Fang was doing, aside from trying to call in a report to the Cavalry and checking the news, but they did know that the Estheims needed some time to themselves, so the two decided to stay out of their way for the moment, busying themselves by tending to Snow. The two easily managed to get Snow bandaged up and soon decided to just sit off to the side to keep an eye on him, knowing that Snow would likely try to jump right up too quickly when he woke up if he were left on his own. During the time that they were waiting, Lightning had decided to turn on the news to see how things had progressed. Needless to say, neither she nor Spidey were too pleased with what they were hearing.

It came as no surprise that the Sanctum was still hunting them, or that the military's campaign to hunt down and eliminate them. What did get under their skin though was what else they learned. Apparently there were nearly twenty-five hundred people being held in quarantine by the Sanctum just because they were suspected of having come into contact with one of their group, and from what they could see on the television, they did not look too happy about it. More than that, according to the news source's polls, a large majority of Cocoon's citizens were in favor of an immediate Purging for those same people. They would have kept listening in had Spider-Man not shut the television off in anger. Thankfully, he was not angry enough to the point where he would have broken it due to losing control of his strength, but Lightning was still a bit annoyed by the fact he had shut it off all the same.

"I know you don't like it, but right now, that is the best source of information we have regarding what's going on out there," Lightning told Peter as he dropped down on one of the chairs near the bed Snow was resting on.

"Well I don't think we really need to listen that much more to know what's up," Peter pointed out.

Lightning had to admit that Peter did have a point there, but she could see that something else was bothering him, and she had a good idea what that was. Still, it did not hurt to ask just to be sure. "Are you okay? I mean, after what happened just a while ago…"

Peter knew what she was referring to, and immediately replied, "I'm fine, Light. I just…I knew that Doc Ock was probably still out there somewhere in the multiverse, but I can't believe that I never once thought that he could've ended up here as well. Honestly, I think it's really more why he's with the Sanctum that has me concerned than anything else."

"Do you think he really believes what they've told him," Lightning asked.

"Yeah. The conviction in his voice is proof enough. More than that, when Octavius believes he's in the right regarding anything, he'll always stand by that belief. That's just one of the reasons why he's so dangerous." Spidey then let out a tired sigh and said, "I just wish Fang knew a little bit more about where he is right now so I could go and talk with him. I'm not sure how much good it would do, but it is at least worth a try given how things had been between us before we were pulled here." After taking a moment though, he looked to Lightning and asked, "What about you? How're you holding up after the day you've just had? I can't imagine what must be going through your head right now."

Lightning had scowled a little at the mention of Fang's name, but her features quickly softened again at the level of concern in Peter's voice when he asked her that question. "Well…like you said: it's been a real rollercoaster of a day. The revelations I had regarding the fal'Cie, how we ran into Snow again earlier, what we learned about why this whole mess started…I doubt anyone would have an easy time dealing with that," Lightning admitted. She saw Peter nod in concession of this, and then continued on saying, "But despite all of that, I think the one thing that keeps going through my mind is how we've learned that Serah really will come back someday, at least if Fang and Vanille are any indication."

"I can see why that would be a huge thing for you," Peter nodded once again. "I mean, one minute you're fighting in order to get justice for what happened to your sister, and the next thing you know, it turns out that it may not be entirely necessary because she'll come back soon? I doubt words could really describe what that must feel like. But hey, at least you're still going to get your sister back someday soon."

"Assuming I'm still alive when she does come back," Lightning pointed out, reminding the web-head of how low their chances of survival were at the moment, along with the fact that Fang and Vanille had been in crystal stasis for hundreds of years.

"I get the feeling you will be. Like I said before, Snow's not the only one around here who's too stubborn to die," Spider-Man joked in response. He then had to pause in thought for a moment before he finally said, "You know, suddenly I want to introduce Fang and Vanille to Captain America just because I want to see all of their reactions to meeting someone else who spent several years on ice like that."

Lightning would have laughed at that little joke, but the fact that he had brought up Fang again made her mind go back to how friendly he was being with her before, and she was soon scowling once again as she turned away from Peter with her arms crossed. "Maybe you should go and tell her about that, since you two seem to have become such good friends all of a sudden."

That got Peter's attention, though it was more Lightning's irritated tone than the actual statement. "What're you talking about?"

"I'm just saying you two seem to have gotten really close in such short time, despite that not-so-spotless record of hers up until now. Figured you would've gone to find her so that you two would be able to share a few more laughs right about now instead of hanging around me and Snow," Lightning grumbled in reply.

"Look, I'll admit that Fang does seem pretty cool despite the mistakes she's made since waking up from her not-so-little nap, but I wouldn't call us 'best friends' or anything like that," Spidey defended. "And even if we were, why are you getting so upset about it?"

"I'm not. I just don't see how you two could've gotten so close in such short time," Lightning protested.

Peter would have said something in retaliation, but before he could, another thought occurred to him. It may have seemed a little crazy, but considering the circumstances and everything that he was seeing and hearing at the moment, it did make a lot of sense. Still, that did not mean the idea was any less out-there, and that was what drove him to react the way he did when he thought of it. "Oh my god," Peter gasped just before he burst out laughing.

"What's so funny," Lightning demanded, having been caught completely off-guard by Spidey's sudden laughter. Instead of an answer, all she received was a quick look from Spider-Man before he started laughing once again, riling her up a little more as a result. "What?"

"I just…I just can't believe…" Peter tried to say through his chuckles as best as he could. He could tell that it was just getting Lightning angrier, but at the moment, there was barely that much he could do about it. When he finally got enough control over himself, he looked Lightning dead in the eye and enlightened her on what he found so humorous. "You're jealous, aren't you?"

That surprised Lightning, right to the point where she had to quickly spin away from Peter in order to hide the faint blush that was forming on her face, and start fiddling with her survival knife as she denied his accusation. "No, I'm not."

"You are! You're totally jealous," Spidey exclaimed, a bit too excitedly one might note, before he started laughing a little bit again. "Big tough Lightning is jealous of the Pulsian spear-woman just because Fang can keep up with me in the old quip-pro-quo department."

"Shut it! I'm not jealous, especially not of that weird spear-woman," Lightning insisted, now turning to face Peter fully, only to reveal how red her face was becoming.

"Then why are you blushing?"

"I-I am not!"

"You are so! Your face is practically offsetting the color of your hair, Cathy!"

"I said I'm not blushing, I am not jealous, and once again, wrong guess!"

"Hey, keep it down, will ya? What's a guy gotta do to get some sleep around here," someone suddenly cut in with a groan, startling the two a little before they turned to the third and final occupant of the room as he slowly started to sit up.

"Oh, uh, sorry Snow," Spider-Man apologized while Lightning moved to gently push the blonde back down.

"And lay down. You shouldn't push yourself just yet," Lightning gently told him.

The fact that Lightning was the one telling him to take it easy was surprising on its own, but add in the fact that she was doing so without sounding like she hated his very being ended up being what really threw Snow for a loop. Still, he was not going to argue with her and immediately complied with her wishes, being very grateful for it a second later given how much it hurt when he was trying to sit up a minute ago. He then glanced over at the two when they sat back down next to the bed, and spotted the survival knife in Lightning's hands. "Huh. I see you took the kid's toy away," Snow commented.

Lightning glanced down at the knife for a minute, having forgotten that she had it out in the first place just now, until she finally corrected, "He gave it back to me. Said he didn't need it anymore."

"Go figure," Snow nodded, knowing full well why Hope would say that. He could still remember just how much lighter the weight on his shoulders had become after receiving Hope's forgiveness, and that brought a real smile to his face.

"More importantly, how're you holding up, big guy," Spidey asked.

"Ah, nothing to worry about too much. I'll be good as new before you know it," Snow reassured him with a quick thumbs-up.

"Glad to hear it, but don't try to rush anything, all right? The last thing anyone needs is for you to get yourself killed by jumping into something you're not ready for," Spider-Man advised.

Snow nodded in response to that, and was about to say something else, when Lightning suddenly spoke up, catching him off-guard with what she had to say. "It was too much," the rosette explained. "What happened to Serah. All I could think about was, 'What could I have done?' I hated myself for not trusting her. It hurt too much. I couldn't face it. Luckily, a good friend was around to help me do so, in his own way." Snow and Spider-Man both had to smile a little at hearing Lightning say that, but they still found their gazes locked on her as they waited to see what she would either say or do next. They did not have to wait too long for that. "Look, Snow…I…I'm sorry. Forgive me."

"For what," Snow asked, completely surprised and confused about what he was supposed to forgive Lightning for. Sure, he could think of a few different things on a very long list, but he was not about to make this any harder for Lightning than it likely already was. Besides, he wanted to hear it from her.

"Everything," Lightning admitted as she stood up and looked away from him, almost in shame.

It felt like quite a few lifetimes with how tense it had suddenly become to Spider-Man, and he could not help but glance back and forth between Snow and Lightning as he waited to see how Snow would reply, hoping that the blonde would not say anything that set Lightning off. He knew that Snow was most likely not the type to do something like that in these kinds of situations, but there was still the possibility. In the end though, he felt himself tense up a bit when Snow finally laid back, smirked, and said, "If you told me your real name, I suppose I could."

Spidey was sure that Lightning would have reacted much differently than she did, but he was still very relieved when all she did was let out a short laugh and say, "Have Serah tell you when she comes back."

"Deal," Snow agreed with a smirk.

It was a nice little moment that had fallen between the two who had long since been at each other's throats ever since this had started, but despite his best efforts to keep quiet and let it live, Spider-Man could not help himself from commenting on it. "Now that's not fair. He gets to have Serah tell him when she gets back, but I've still got to try and guess what your name is," he playfully whined.

Instead of killing the moment like he feared he probably would have with his comment, he only ended up drawing a round of laughter from both Lightning and Snow, even as the former said, "Well look at this way, that might still be a ways off, so you've still got time to guess before he finds out. Besides, you're the one who's insisting on figuring out for yourself."

"She's got you there, Spidey," Snow chuckled.

Spider-Man was about to give a clever retort to them both when Hope suddenly came into the room, getting all three's attention. "My dad said he'd like to see you guys. He wants to talk," Hope informed them. He then directed a glance at Spider-Man and added, "That goes for all of us, including you."

"Are you sure," Spider-Man asked.

"Yeah," Hope nodded. "I don't think he actually believes the stuff that the news is saying about you, at least, not after I told him about you, so…"

Snow slowly sat up again, having an easier time with it this time around, and then exchanged a couple of looks with Lightning and Spider-Man before the two both nodded, and after Snow had retrieved his coat, shirt, scarf, and necklaces, they all followed Hope into the sitting room. When they arrived, they saw that Fang was already their waiting for them along with Bartholomew, the former of which was sitting on the armrest of one of the armchairs while the latter was seated at the couch on the opposite side of the table. After leading them over, Hope took a seat next to his father, and from that coupled with the smile on the boy's face made it quite clear that things between Hope and his father had worked out very well. Snow took a moment to stare at the two before he sat down in the chair directly opposite of them, and Lightning stood next to the chair to Snow's right. Spider-Man would have perched himself on the nearest wall, but considering that the closest ones were directly behind the couch or where the living room TV was set up, he figured that he would be better off just standing, so he took a spot next to Lightning, much to the rosette's hidden pleasure.

It was rather tense for a few moments, and while no one needed to guess as to why that was, they all still remained silent for quite a few minutes, each waiting to see who would break the silence first. Eventually, Snow finally took a deep breath, looked Bartholomew straight in the eye, dropped to his knees, and bowed his head as he said, "The blame is mine. I couldn't save her."

Despite how many details were left out of his statement, everyone was well aware that Snow was referring to what had happened to Nora. Even so, Spidey had no intention of letting Snow shoulder all of the blame on his own, and quickly added, "You're not the only one at fault, big guy. Despite my best efforts, I just wasn't fast enough to help. I share just as much blame as you do."

Bartholomew looked between the two men who were shouldering so much blame for what had happened to his wife before he finally rested his head in one hand a bit wearily, like he was getting tired of hearing something again and again. When Hope saw this, along with hearing what his two friends had said, he quickly threw in his own two cents, and told his father, "If it wasn't for Snow, I wouldn't be here right now, and Spider-Man has done more for me than I can ever repay, and not just in terms of saving my life either."

Bartholomew let that sink in for a minute before he looked up again, fixed his gaze on the two men and asked, "Snow…Spider-Man. Did Nora…Did she say anything to either of you?"

"Hope," Snow replied. "She said to…to get him home."

"She asked me to keep Hope safe," Spider-Man then revealed.

The man looked to his son for a minute, receiving a nod in response to his silent question, before he looked back to the two, silently studying them both, and said, "And that's exactly what you've both done."

Hearing that drew sighs of relief and gratitude from every other person in the room, because they all knew that this was Bartholomew's way of saying that he, like his son, forgave both Snow and Spider-Man for what had happened to his wife, and that he was grateful for what the two did in order to bring his boy home. Seeing that it was resolved turned to be such a relief that Lightning felt that she had to sit down, due to having been so worried and tense about how Hope's father would have reacted before, and she was soon comfortably seated in the chair she had previously been standing next to while Spider-Man stood up again to stand between her and the seat that Snow had previously occupied. At that point, Bartholomew felt that he had to air a few thoughts that had been on his mind since the group had showed up at his door.

"Face to face like this, it's hard to believe you're all dangerous fugitives," Bartholomew admitted. "But the entire world is scared to death of you l'Cie. No, not even just you. People who've helped you, bumped into you…Sometimes it's even just people who've walked by one of you. They think they're 'tainted' and want every one of them Purged. Not only that, but the Sanctum is so insistent that you're a menace that it seems like they want everyone to think that you're just as bad as the l'Cie, Spider-Man."

"Trust me, I've been called worse," Spidey shrugged, nonchalantly.

"Besides, the Sanctum's a puppet of the fal'Cie. To them, our lives don't mean anything at all," Snow nearly shouted. No one could argue with that, and Snow was not about to let anyone start worrying, so he added, "We'll stop this. Take down the Sanctum, and save Cocoon."

"Oh here we go again," Spidey sighed, just noticing how Lightning glanced away in slight shame due to how she had been of a similar mindset not too long ago. "Snow, we can't just go in there and 'take down the Sanctum.' We'll only be proving them right to fear l'Cie if we do that, and it won't stop there. Everyone will want to take up arms against us and start up a real witch-hunt for anyone who has so much as looked at a l'Cie in a friendly way."

"He's right you know," Bartholomew agreed, putting a damper on Snow's energetic mood. "I'd rather not do so, but can you imagine it? The rampant violence?"

"You don't need to ask us about that," Lightning informed him, remembering what had happened when she had suggested a similar course of action earlier on, and now feeling a little ashamed that she had. "Spidey's already made it quite clear that if we were to do something against the Sanctum like that, we'd only be making it much worse for us, and everyone else. When the government's control is gone, the citizens will revolt, and that's a best case scenario."

"So, what then? We're supposed to just smile and eat a bullet," Fang asked as she stood up to make sure that she was able to meet everyone's gaze. Her own eyes locked on both Bartholomew and Spidey as she added, "That means both of you, too."

"Yeah, I'm well aware of that, and I'd get involved in this again in a heartbeat," Spider-Man confidently replied, standing tall and proud as he did.

"And I know I'm part of this as well," Bartholomew scoffed with a smile of his own. "I'm on your side of the fence. Harborer of l'Cie and a menace, and a public enemy."

No one needed that reminder, especially considering that this man was the only family that Hope had left. They were well aware that coming to this place was putting a target on his father's back and they did not want that, but at the time, they did not really have time to think of any other options, even some of them were planning on bringing Hope here to begin with. Still, it did not keep them from feeling that they should have thought this through a little better, as Hope proved when he vocalized all of the group's thoughts in one sentence. "Coming here was a bad idea."

Hearing his son say that weighed heavily on Bartholomew's heart, and he was not about to let Hope think like that in regards to where he had lived and grown up so far. So, he immediately leaned over to place a reassuring hand on his boy's shoulder, looked him straight in the eye with a comforting look, and reminded Hope once again of something he had just said earlier. "This is your home." When Hope smiled to his father in thanks, Bartholomew laughed a little at seeing his spirits lift, and then stood up to address the group at large. "We're all here. Let's figure this out together. But first, I think there's something that we need to address to be sure that we're all in this together to the end."

At that point, Mister Estheim's gaze turned towards one particular occupant of the room, and his line of sight was quickly followed by the others to that exact same person, who was instantly looking around at everyone in confusion. "What? What're you guys looking at me like that for," Spider-Man questioned.

"It's nothing personal, Spider-Man, I assure you, but you are the only one here who is hiding his face completely behind a mask, and we need to be able to trust one another in this situation," Bartholomew explained. Fang wholeheartedly agreed with Hope's father, but she did not say that out loud or give any indication to the matter. Snow and Hope were of a similar mindset, since they knew that their own trust in Spider-Man was well-founded, but that did not keep them from feeling like they deserved at least a little more of a show of trust from him than they already had.

Unsurprisingly, Lightning was the only one who was against the idea. "You can trust Spider-Man, but he does have his reasons for keeping his identity a secret. People he cares about could be put at risk if too many people know who he is. Friends and family could be used as hostages against him by the Sanctum," the rosette tried to argue.

Someone likely would have countered that Lightning was only disagreeing on this because she already knew who the web-head was, but Spider-Man beat everyone to the punch by placing a hand on her shoulder and reassuring her, "It's okay, Light. He is right. Everyone here has more than earned the right to know by now after all we've been through together."

"Does that include Fang," Lightning asked, reminding him that Fang had barely known them for even half as long as the rest of their group had, albeit with a slight edge to her tone.

Spidey would have called her out on it by saying that she was showing signs of jealousy again, but he knew that there were other reasons for Lightning's skepticism in that regard. Fang did hold a lot of responsibility for their being in this situation to begin with, so the matter of whether or not she could really be trusted was in question. Fang hung her head for a minute, knowing all of this, but she was relieved to hear Snow come to her defense. "Trust me, Light. Fang's one of us through and through. We can trust her."

Seeing how sure Snow was of this, along with an equally sure nod from Hope that showed the kid believed in her as well, Lightning finally conceded and nodded to Spider-Man, telling him that he should do whatever he thought was right when he was ready. It took a moment or so before he did anything more, but all the same, Spidey did eventually reach up, and pulled his mask off in one swift tug, revealing his face to everyone in the room. When they all got a good look at his face, most of them could not believe how young he looked, or even how certain and confident the expression he held was, but out of all of them, Snow was the one who looked the most shocked, as his eyes were as wide as dinner plates the minute he saw whose face was behind the mask. After letting everyone get a good look at him for a few minutes, Spidey finally said, "My name is Peter Parker, and I am your friendly neighborhood, Spider-Man."

Everyone continued to stare in silence for a few more minutes until Fang finally broke the air of quiet with a smirk and asked, "Huh, I kinda thought you'd look a little younger."

"Said the woman who's been a shiny lawn ornament for how many centuries again," Peter retorted with a smirk of his own.

While Fang just laughed his comment off, Hope smiled up at Peter and said, "You know, you actually look just like I thought you would." When Peter threw him a confused look in response, he easily elaborated, "Like someone who's kind, honest, brave, and a good friend."

Peter smiled in thanks to Hope for his comment, not knowing that Lightning was giving the kid a similar smile at the same time, and then looked over to the kid's father, just in time to see Bartholomew walk around the table until he was standing right in front of Peter with his hand out, and say, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mister Parker, and thank you for what you've done for my boy."

"You don't need to thank me, Mister Estheim. I would gladly do it again in a heartbeat if I had to, and please, call me Peter," the Queens-born hero replied as he shook hands with the man before him.

The moment was soon interrupted though when Hope glanced over to the biggest person in the room and announced, "Uh guys, I think we might've broken Snow."

All attention was soon diverted from the unmasked Spider-Man and over to the blonde in question, who they all saw just sitting there gaping in shock at Peter, barely even moving at all. For a minute, they thought he might have stopped breathing, but they relaxed a bit seeing all the visual signs that confirmed he was. Still, the fact that he was not saying or doing anything else was what had them worried, so Peter slowly made his way over to him and asked, "Snow? Hey Mister Hero? Cocoon to Snow, you okay?"

Even when Peter waved a hand in front of the blonde's face, he showed barely any outward reaction, until finally, he did move, but not in a way that any of them were expecting. When he finally did move, it was only to roll his head a little bit before he fell to the floor with a hard thud. "Well…that happened," Fang commented as she moved to stand next to Peter as they looked down at the blonde.

"Yep," Hope confirmed as he did the same with his father.

"He fainted."

"Yeah."

"Found out who Spider-Man is and he fainted."

"That he did."

"Any particular reason why he would've fainted?"

"Well he and I met both as Peter Parker and as Spider-Man, and given that I've had years of experience making sure that no one suspects the two of being one-and-the-same, I'm pretty sure he never would've guessed because of my mad acting skills," Peter lightly boasted in response to Fang's question.

It was at that point that Bartholomew turned to see why Lightning was not a bit more concerned about the blonde, considering that he heard Snow was supposed to be her sister's fiancé, and he quickly became worried when he saw that the rosette was shaking a little, while doing her best to keep her mouth pressed into a thin line. "Uh Miss Farron…are you all right?"

When the others turned to face her, allowing her to get a full look at Snow again, Lightning could no longer stop herself, and they were greeted with an unbelievable sight that many people would likely have paid good money to have seen. Lightning Farron, the hardened ex-soldier, burst out laughing, right to the point where she was clutching her sides in pain from laughing so hard. "Huh. So it turns out that Lightning can laugh that hard," Spider-Man noted with a teasing smile. 'And she has a really cute laugh too…GAH! Focus Parker! Now is not the time to be day-dreaming about how pretty Lightning's laugh is! Even if it is really cute…ARGH! STOP IT!'

Luckily, Lightning's laughter was able to rouse Snow pretty quickly, but he still seemed a bit groggy, since he glanced around for a minute until his eyes rested on Hope and he said, "Hey Hope. I just had the weirdest dream. We were at your place, and Spider-Man had unmasked himself to reveal that he was actually…"

"Hi Snow," Peter waved, still holding his mask in one hand.

"Hey Peter," Snow replied before turning back to Hope so he could continue, only to pause and look back again. He was silent for a few more minutes before he finally managed to say, "Oh…That wasn't a dream, was it?"

"Nope," Peter confirmed. "I am indeed Spider-Man."

"And I wish I had a camera for that," Lightning giggled, showing she was starting to regain control of herself, but just barely, as evidenced by how she seemed to start laughing a little harder just by looking at Snow.

Snow just looked at Lightning in confusion for a minute, questioning why she would need a camera, and why she seemed to have somehow caught a case of the giggles, a feat he thought was nearly if not completely impossible up until now, until it finally clicked for him, and he immediately bowed his head in embarrassment. "Please don't tell anyone about this," Snow groaned. "The guys will never let me live it down if they found out."

"So does that mean we can tell Serah about how her big, tough hero fainted when he found out Spidey's secret identity," Hope asked with a teasing smile that matched the ones that everyone else was quickly gaining, while Lightning seemed like she was about to burst out laughing again after hearing that.

Snow just groaned like he was in agony after hearing Hope's question, and it likely would have drawn another round of uncontrollable laughter from Lightning with the others joining in afterwards, had they not suddenly found any chances for relaxation and laughter suddenly flicker out along with the lights in the room and the house. "Don't need a Spider-Sense to know what this likely means," Peter commented as quickly donned his mask once again.

"Any ideas where they might be coming from," Lightning asked as she and the others all jumped to their feet and braced themselves for the fight that was coming.

Spidey remained silent for a minute, trying to focus his trusted sixth sense in an attempt to gain an answer to Lightning's question, until he just groaned, "No. My Spider-Sense is going so crazy that it's almost like it's stuck in permanent tingle."

"I take it that's bad," Fang commented, her hand slowly reaching for her spear.

"Oh yeah, it's pretty bad. All I can tell you is that they're either going to hit us with something really big and dangerous, or they're going to just hit us from every side all at once," Spidey informed her.

No one was entirely sure which scenario they preferred over the other, but they soon discovered which one they were going to end up in when Lightning's gaze immediately jumped up to the ceiling as she shouted a warning to them all just seconds before the glass was broken in, allowing several smoke grenades to fall around them. Everyone was soon coughing a little as the room filled with smoke, and from the sounds of breaking glass that were coming from nearby, it was clear that PSICOM's forces were now coming into the house through the windows, thinking that they could use the smokescreen as a cover. What they did not realize was that most of the group was ready for this sudden intrusion, thanks to both Lightning and Fang's skills and training, and Spidey's Spider-Sense, which he finally managed to focus a little better so that he could tell where the enemy soldiers were, despite the smoke in the room. Snow had attempted to get Hope to move into the back of the house where it was safe, but he could not hide the fact that he was still not ready to put up a fight yet, and Hope made that quite clear to him after he had guided his father to the blonde.

"You're not ready for this," Hope insisted as he helped Snow up as best as he could. "I'll stay here. Snow, help my dad!"

Snow stared at the kid for a minute, until he finally just grinned and clasped hands with Hope to show that he understood. The blonde then lead Bartholomew out of the room to safety just in time to avoid getting caught in a soldier's line of fire along with Hope, but thankfully, Spidey came to the rescue with a quick web-line that disarmed the soldier before his finger could even begin to squeeze the trigger. The wall-crawler then left Lightning to knock that same soldier out with a hard spin kick, and after sparing a few webs to keep that same soldier down and out of the fight, he fell in beside the rosette along with Hope and Fang, and the four were soon jumping into battle once again. They may not have wanted to fight right at this second for so many reasons, but that did not mean that they were not at least a little ready for this, so they just had to grin and bear with it as they tried to keep Hope's father safe.

For the most part, the soldiers invading the Estheim residence were no worse than the typical brand of troopers, even though a good number of them were using stun batons and guns in an attempt to bring them down, but there were still a few in there that were using jetpacks in order to fight them. That made the fight fairly easy for the most part, but it could only go so smoothly for so long, and that was proven the minute that more soldiers using Shocker gauntlets came raining in on them, bringing more powerful hits and destructive blasts with them the minute their feet had hit the floor. The four made sure to stay as clear of these people as possible for the most part, but Spider-Man was glad to try and take these particular soldiers on, personally, seeing as he had experience dealing with people who used such weapons. He was incredibly thankful to see that the gauntlets still had that one flaw that caused them to short out when they were jammed up by a bit of webbing, and that proved to be a strategy he could easily exploit, especially since the gauntlets sent out quite the electrifying feedback when they got clogged up which either knocked out the soldiers or left them stunned long enough for him or one of the other three to deliver a finishing blow. At least, it was an easy strategy, but it only lasted for a short while.

After he had spotted another soldier with Shocker gauntlets, Spidey immediately prepared to jam up the weapons in question with his webbing, but when he hit the trigger all that came out of his web-shooter was a fizzling sound, which meant that it was likely empty. He did not worry about it too much, seeing as he still had his other web-shooter, but his concern immediately grew when he only received the same results from the second web-shooter as well. "Oh no," Spider-Man gasped as he continued trying to fire the web-shooters in hopes that they still had a little bit of web fluid left. "No, no, no, no! Not now! Please tell me these things are not out of web fluid now!"

The soldier Spidey had been trying to fire webs at did not miss the web-head's obvious distress, and he was soon smirking beneath his helmet as he charged Spider-Man, his gauntlet primed to take out the superhero. In his haste to attack Spider-Man though, he never noticed anyone else coming at him until after Lightning had kicked him away and disabled his gauntlets with her gunblade. With that particular assailant dealt with, Lightning looked over to Spidey and said, "Don't tell me you're out of webbing again."

"I would if I could," Spider-Man sighed as he ejected and crushed the empty cartridges. When he reached to his belt for a fresh pair, he made another disheartening discovery that was not going to benefit them at all. "Uh, more bad news. I'm down to my last pair of web fluid cartridges. After this, I'm out of webs."

"You can't be serious," Fang groaned after knocking another soldier into the air that was then knocked out by Hope's boomerang.

"I thought you said that you had plenty of spares," Lightning pointedly noted.

"You'll recall that I said that back in the Vile Peaks, which was quite a while back. Not only that, but while I haven't been able to use my webs all that much before we got to Palumpolum, that changed quite a bit afterwards, especially considering what I've had to do in order to keep moving quickly through the city, or whenever we got into fights," Spider-Man countered while lunging for a soldier that was coming at Fang from behind, knocking him out with a hard punch before taking down two more by spinning a pair of kicks into them.

"Well you'd better do whatever you can to make 'em last," Lightning advised while she and Fang tag-teamed to take out the last four soldiers on the ground. Hope and Spider-Man then followed that up by taking out the last airborne soldiers thanks to Spider-Man using the enclosed space of the house to get over and around them so that he could knock them down long enough for Hope to finish them off with some fire magic, but even with all the soldiers inside the house down for the count, there was still the matter of the ones who were waiting for them outside. Knowing this, the four immediately made their way to the window as cautiously as they could, and after they knelt down to take cover behind the wall, Lightning, Fang, and Spidey took a small peak out to see what was waiting for them. What they saw was not promising for their odds at all.

"Who ordered the battalion," Fang asked, showing that she was still able to keep some sense of clever wit about her even with the massive amount of troops surrounding the house with guns primed to fire at anything that came into the lights that the massive airships were now shinning down on the premises.

"Don't look at me. I wanted Mexican," Spider-Man quipped in reply. When he received blank looks from the others, he sheepishly explained, "It's a kind of food that's typical in a certain country back where I'm from."

No one said anything in response, as they merely turned their focus back to the situation before them. As she analyzed the enemies outside, looking for any weak points in their formation that they could exploit, Lightning just had to comment on what she believed PSICOM's next move would be, saying, "They'll take out the whole building next."

"That's not helping, Light," Spider-Man pointed out, dryly.

Lightning just rolled her eyes at Peter, and then glanced over to where Snow and Bartholomew had retreated to. Upon seeing them kneeling in the doorway to the next room back, she waved them forward while mouthing for them to come up. Snow did not hesitate to race forward as best as he could, guiding Bartholomew along until he was situated alongside Hope, after which, he collapsed against the wall behind Fang and Lightning while Hope and his father checked each other over for any injuries while staying well out of the soldiers' sights. Once he had regained his breath and looked outside, Snow narrowed his eyes as he started forming what could just barely be called a plan, considering how risky it was. All the same, he was not one to hesitate on taking action to help his friends, so he settled on his decision and just muttered, "My turn."

Lightning, Fang, and Spider-Man each turned to him just in time to see the blonde stand up and remove his coat and shirt, letting his bandaged torso be shown once again, and they all quickly caught on to what Snow was doing. As much as they hated the idea, they knew that Snow was going to go through with it no matter what they said, so they all stepped aside and allowed him to take his shot. Once he had stepped into the position that Lightning had previously occupied, Snow took a deep breath to calm any nerves that were working up, and raised his coat up so that it would be completely visible to everyone outside. The minute the soldiers saw his trusted jacket, they opened fire, peppering it with several rounds of bullets, and Spidey had to admit, he was surprised that it gained a smaller number of actual bullet holes than it should have. If it were another time and place, he would likely have been wondering just what Snow's coat was made of, but their current situation took precedence over anything else right now. That did not mean that he had to like what Snow was clearly planning, and it seemed that Lightning was of the same opinion since she tried to protest against this crazy plan.

Snow just raised a hand to silence any arguments that anyone had, and then turned his attention outside as he shouted, "Don't shoot! I'll show you what a l'Cie looks like!"

Shockingly, the storm of gunfire ceased a couple of seconds after Snow had made his declaration, and once he was certain that no one was going to fire anymore, he dropped his coat and stepped into the light with his hands raised in surrender. He carefully made his way over the broken glass and out the window, until finally, he found himself standing outside in what he felt was the perfect position for every single soldier in the PSICOM battalion to get a good look at him. Even though he could see a few targeting lasers on his person with a simple glance from the corners of his eye, Snow did not make any attempts to move back or reconsider his idea. Instead, he just gathered his courage, took a deep breath, and shouted, "Me! I'm a l'Cie! Surprised? Expected some kinda monster? I'm flesh and blood like you! An ordinary citizen of Cocoon! Don't you get it? This has been our home our whole lives! How could we even think about destroying it?! We want to protect this place just as much as you!"

Snow's actions and words definitely had quite the effect, as everyone in the house could soon hear the soldiers muttering amongst themselves in disbelief. Some of them were wondering if Snow was telling the truth, while others remained steadfast in what they believed and tried to insist that the blonde was lying. All the rest were just trying to get their comrades to keep their focus on the matter at hand, but it was still obvious to the ones that the battalion was targeting that those same soldiers were just as thrown for a loop as the rest. It was starting to seem like Snow might have gotten a little sense into these men, until a new voice suddenly spoke up, while the search light on the airship moved to highlight the speaker, allowing everyone to see him. "You must be Snow Villiers," the man mused as he moved to stand before both Snow and his troops. "Yaag Rosch, PISCOM Division."

"Oh great," Lightning whispered in dismay, knowing that there was little chance of anything Snow said just now getting through to him.

Her reaction did not go unnoticed, at least not by Spider-Man, and he immediately made his way over to her and asked, "Do you know that guy?"

"He was one of my instructors while I was training in the Soldier Academy," Lightning replied a bit sadly. "Even back then I somehow knew he was dedicated and willing to go to great extremes in order to protect Cocoon. I guess this just confirms it."

That sounded too awfully familiar to Spider-Man, since a few members of his rogues gallery were also people he had known at one point or another, be it as a teacher of in some other manner, so he had a pretty good idea what Lightning was feeling right now, knowing that one of their enemies had been her teacher at one point. Even so, that did not mean his blood did not boil a little as he listened to what Rosch was saying to Snow. "I understand your plight; however, the Pulse threat is not so easily dismissed. The very existence of you l'Cie puts every last one of us in danger," Rosch calmly stated. "Tell me, do you really think your life is worth more than the lives of millions of Cocoon citizens? I do not, and so it falls to me to order your execution. It's that simple. It is my responsibility to see you put down. Your lives are forfeit."

Rosch then turned away from Snow, making to leave, but Snow was not about to let what the lieutenant colonel just walk away so easily without getting a few more words in. "Aw, cut the crap," Snow shouted to Rosch's back. "You want l'Cie, then kill l'Cie! Why do other people have to die? The Purge has gotta stop!"

"Do you think we want to Purge our own people," Rosch angrily demanded as he spun around to glare at Snow once again. "If any trace of Pulse remains, the populace will erupt into chaos. Without sacrifice, without the Purge, Cocoon will die!"

"Oy, how bigoted can you get? Seriously, when are you going to stop spouting pathetic excuses and start telling us the actual truth," Spider-Man finally shouted, startling everyone. He had heard enough of what he believed to be utter crap, and he was not going to just sit back and let it slide, a point he made quite clear as he stepped out into the light to stand alongside Snow, arms raised to show that he had no intention of fighting right now.

"SPIDER-MAN," Snow and Rosch both gasped in shock.

"I get that reaction a lot," Spidey commented, but since it lacked his usual, humorous tone, one could tell that he was going to be getting serious. This fact was further enforced when he locked his gaze directly on Rosch, no doubt glaring at the man from behind his mask, and said, "You say you don't want to Purge the citizens of Cocoon, and I can tell that is somewhat true, but the fact that you're willing to open fire on a crowd just to eliminate a small number of people makes me have a hard time believing that, Rosch. You can lie to yourself and your men all you want, but don't you dare try to lie to me or my friends by saying that everything you're doing is because it's for the betterment of Cocoon. More importantly, don't even think about trying to give me any of that 'needs of the many versus the needs of the few' crap."

"You dare…" Rosch snarled.

"Yeah, as a matter of fact, I do," Spider-Man interrupted, cutting off any monologue Rosch was about to spew before he could get another word in. "I've had people telling me that we can't save everyone before, and I do acknowledge that as a fact, but I will never, and I mean never think for so much as one second that we shouldn't at least try to save everyone. All life is precious, and that means if any amount of lives are threatened, we need to make every effort we can to save them all and not just kill off a few so that more can live. Being willing to sacrifice yourself for the greater good is one thing, but it's another thing entirely when you go and needlessly take innocent lives in the way you and your forces have been doing while claiming it's for the greater good! There's always a better way to protect the innocent. That's something you seem to either fail to understand or have just forgotten."

Rosch simply looked on at Spider-Man for a minute before he finally scoffed, "How naïve. You really think you can make any difference and save everyone, including Mister Villiers and your comrades behind you? You are Pulse l'Cie, and in spite of anything you all do to help Cocoon, they will hate and scorn you simply because of the Pulse taint you all carry."

"And that's another thing," Spider-Man cut in once again. "Why don't you just admit that you're simply afraid. Afraid of anything Pulse-related because you simply don't know anything more than what the Sanctum fal'Cie have told you, and because you don't understand Pulse at all. I can understand being afraid of something strange and different from you; I've seen that fear turn good people to do terrible things, but all that fear ever does is bring suffering to both sides. Have you ever once stopped to think that maybe if you tried taking a look at Pulse for yourself instead of just listening to the old stories that the Sanctum and its fal'Cie have sold you, you might find out that things are much different now?"

"Nothing will ever change about Pulse. This is not a mere superstition; it is a fact," Rosch insisted, though you could hear a bit of wavering in his voice, indicating that his resolve was shaking, even just a tiny, little bit.

"Sheesh. I've met some stubborn people in my life, but you sir, have to be one of the top contenders for the top spot on the list," Spider-Man quipped. He would have said more, but before he could, someone started dropping smoke grenades into the area, and given how Rosch and the PSICOM soldiers were looking around in panic and confusion, it had most likely not been any of them.

A minute later, Spidey had pulled Snow down in case anyone suddenly started firing blindly amidst the confusion, and when the sounds of explosions started going off, that likelihood only grew a little more. The possibility soon became reality when Spider-Man heard gunshots, and he was quickly glancing upwards in an attempt to see through the smoke, only to see the silhouettes of the various soldiers suddenly start dropping while one was turning this way and that in an attempt to ascertain the situation around him. That last silhouette was most likely Rosch, if Spider-Man had to guess, and when he noticed another soldier raising his rifle towards the man, the web-head simply reacted on instinct. With all his might, he sprang forward and shoved Rosch out of the way, pulling them both down under the rain of bullets just seconds before the gunner had fired. When the gunfire ceased, Spider-Man snapped a web-line at Rosch's previous assailant, yanked the weapon away, and sprung forward to knock the man out with a hard punch to the head.

Turning back to where Rosch was sitting on the ground, Spider-Man was greeted with the sight of the PSICOM leader just gaping at him, unable to believe what had just happened, and it showed in his voice when he eventually stuttered, "You…You s-saved me?"

Spider-Man slowly made his way over to Rosch until he was standing over the man and said, "Like I said, unlike you, I believe that we need to at least try and save everyone that we can without killing others." He let that sit for a minute before he suddenly snapped his fist into Rosch's head, knocking him out cold, and finished, "Doesn't mean I'm not still going to punch you. In case you forgot, you're still threatening my friends."

It was at that point that the smoke finally seemed to be clearing up, and from what Spider-Man could tell, any soldiers who were not already unconscious or dead had beat a hasty retreat. This was good news of course, but it was a small blessing in the face of how there was still a large airship bearing down on him and Snow, and Spidey doubted that he would be able to disable it as easily as he had getaway helicopters and cars, especially when he was on his last two cartridges of web fluid. Even when Lightning, Hope, and Fang came rushing out to try and help him and Snow, he had a hunch that fighting a ship like this would be no easy feat for them right now. They were all tired, their weapons and equipment were likely in desperate need of maintenance or repairs, and if they were not careful, the Estheim residence would likely be brought crashing down due to a stray shot, killing Hope's father, who was still inside. That did not deter any of them from wanting to at least try, because none of them were going to go down without a fight, but thankfully, they did not have to do either of those things.

Just before any of the group could make a move to attack, the airship was suddenly hit by a large beam that cut through it like a knife through butter, and the ship was soon dropping down from the air like deadweight while the five all turned to the source of the blast. When they finally found said source, their eyes were greeted with another ship that was slowly closing up its main cannon as it descended towards them. When it finally became level with the ground, the doors opened and allowed a small squad of troops clad in the colors of the Guardian Corps to jump off and run towards them. The five immediately braced themselves for a fight, not wanting to let their guard down in case these people were not friendly, but surprisingly, not one of the soldiers raised their weapons towards them. Instead, they simply stood at attention as their leader stepped forward with his gun holstered over his shoulder, until he was standing before the group.

"Heya Fang," the leader greeted as he pulled off his helmet to reveal a mess of shoulder-length brown hair and a teasing smirk. "Need a ride?"

It was not until Fang finally sighed in relief that the group finally relaxed, and some of them could not help but smirk a little as the spear-woman retorted, "Don't get cute, Rygdea."

"Friends of yours," Spidey asked.

"Mmm, more like business partners, really," Fang shrugged.

Before any of the others could comment, Rygdea's eyes fell on the web-head and he immediately asked, "Are you Spider-Man? Like…the real Spider-Man?"

"Uh, yes," Spider-Man hesitantly replied. The next thing he knew, Rygdea and his men were all snapping to attention and saluting him, much to everyone's surprise.

"Sir, it's an honor to finally meet you," Rygdea said. "We've heard a great deal about both your exploits in Bodhum, and about your efforts during the Purge from Snow. The fact that you willingly risked your life to save so many people alone makes you quite an interesting individual in our books, but to hear that you're fighting for the same cause as us is nothing short of welcoming."

"Thanks…I think," Spider-Man slowly nodded.

"Right, let's move it," Fang waved, cutting the meet-and-greet short, and she was soon leading the way to Rygdea's airship, with the others following after a few seconds later.

As he was going, Spider-Man noticed that Hope had paused for a minute to look back at his house, and he could have sworn that the kid had whispered a quick, well-wishing farewell to his father when he did. Hearing Hope mention his dad reminded Peter that he had not seen Bartholomew since he had stepped out to talk with Rosch, and he just had to make sure that the elder Estheim was all right. That was why he quickly jogged over to Lightning and whispered, "Hey, what happened to Mister Estheim? He didn't get hurt at some point did he?"

"He's fine. Just tied up back in the house," Lightning reassured him. Knowing that Peter was giving her a look that requested an explanation for the latter comment, she quickly added, "We had him tied up so that he would be able to sell the story that we threatened him and forced him to help us. It was the only way we would be able to keep him from getting dragged any further into this than he already was. At least this way, Hope might still have a father to come home to when this is over."

Spider-Man immediately nodded in understanding. Sure, Hope's dad would likely be facing a lot of problems due to coming in contact with them, but if anyone knew that he had willingly provided them with any help, there was no telling what could have happened. The kid had already lost his mother, and more to the point, he and his dad had just started patching things up. There was no way they were going to let him lose any more family than he already had. Still, that clearly did not stop Hope from looking back at his house once they were aboard the ship and lifting off to wherever these allies of Fang's were taking them. When he saw the kid's downtrodden expression, Spider-Man instantly patted the kid on the shoulder, reassuringly, giving him a silent promise that they would it through this, and that he would be back when this was over. The web-swinger may not have had a home to go back to anymore, but Hope still did, and Spider-Man was going to do everything in his power to make sure that the kid would. He was just glad that he was not alone in that mission, as one would tell you just from the reassuring smiles that both Snow and Lightning were throwing Hope's way as well.

---

AN: Wow. Lotsa stuff happening. Fang's recounting of her history after she woke up, the unveiling of Doc Ock and why he's working with PSICOM, the talks that happened at Hope's house, and even the most recent confrontation between Rosch and Spidey. Yeah, it was necessary for that to happen.

Fang: Not to mention we saw Lightning get jealous.

Lightning: I did not! How many times do I have to say that I wasn't jealous?!

Spider-Man: You mean, how many times until we actually believe you...Yeah, I don't think that number exists, mostly because no one's going to buy it.

AN: And the funny stuff just keeps on coming with Spider-Man unveiling his secret identity to everyone. Namely, Snow's reaction when he found out.

Lightning: [bursts out laughing again, dropping to floor as she does]

Snow: Oh come on! It was not that funny!

AN: Yeah it was. Why do you think it was in there? Yeah, I had planned on that being Snow's reaction right from the start of this thing, and that Lightning would react the way she did to said reaction. And let's not forget about some other details that were mentioned this time around, namely on the more serious side of things, like what Spidey mentioned about Fang's brand being changed after she woke up. Yeah, if you forget about how the fal'Cie made more l'Cie afterwards when Vanille and Fang didn't get right to work, I honestly think that Vanille might've had a point when she said that they didn't need their Focus anymore. I mean, why else would Fang's brand be all faded out like that, and not once change until that first confrontation with Dysley? What if, that alteration was just a sign that our favorite Gran Pulse girls were free of their Focus and could now just live life they way they wanted, huh? Sure, it would've been hard at first, but the possibility is still there.

Fang: There was also still the chance that we did need our Focus, and if we didn't finish it, Vanille would've turned Cie'th.

AN: I never said otherwise. I'm just saying, you might've been a little too high-strung about trying to remember your Focus so that you could get it done that you did not seem to ever think that it was possible that you didn't need to worry about it anymore. Anyone else agree with me on that? Huh? Come on, don't be shy and say whether or not you agree with me and Spidey in your reviews. Oh, and by the way, expect a few things to go nuts now that we've got Doc Ock and Spider-Man knowingly going at it again, because yeah, things are really starting to pick up now that Spidey knows one of the top three contenders for the top spot in his greatest villains list is on Cocoon. You'll see what I mean come next chapter, along with a few other things as well.

Spider-Man: What's that supposed to mean?

AN: Here's a hint to see for yourself: Onto the Preview!...

Our heroes return to the Lindblum, where Cid Raines is waiting to greet them so that he may explain the true mission of the Cavalry , along with how they will need everyone in their little team in order to accomplish this goal. Knowing this means locating and retrieving Sazh and Vanille, the others take a moment to catch their breathes at last while also doing everything they can to prepare for the next storm that they will be facing. As a part of this preparation, Spider-Man does everything he can with Hope's help to make sure that all of his equipment is at its best, while also filling the others in on the story behind Doc Ock. Just what sort of new tricks will the web-head be unlocking, and when the time comes, what will be waiting for the l'Cie heroes and their wall-crawling friend? Things are really going to be heating up, next time.

Please read and review, and swing on back for next time fellow true believers!