The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents arrived in a matter of minutes, silently taking the corpses of the Mandarin and his children, before begrudgingly offering the heroes a ride to the Tricarrier. Spider-man knew that the team would have to return to Fury to review the mission, but he wasn't sure about what the Avengers did with regards to that. They were more affiliated with S.H.E.I.L.D. than actually working with them. However despite this the Ultimates and a handful of Avengers were now cramped into a quinjet and taking off towards the Tricarrier.
Spider-man's body was aching as he sat down, after all that's what being punched through a building does to you. None the less he forced himself to twist his back so to look out the window and watch as the quinjet carrying the villains to their final resting place began to leave the city. "So it really is over?"
"Maybe there are a few soldiers left, but that's why Cap volunteered to stay behind. You know that and press release." Iron Man explained quietly. He was intently focused on the quinjet that was now just a spot in the distance. "3 years and it ends like this." He muttered, turning back and smiling at Spider-man. "You saved my life back there, thanks."
"It's no problem." Spider-man laughed, "It was all I could do. Literally, I couldn't stand up."
"I still can't." Nova sulked, his muscles burning in pain.
"Give it a few minutes, you're still recovering from the stress you were put through." Giant man said, breaking away from his conversation with Veil, who had woken up less than a minute ago. "Ok, you seem fine Veil." He said once he returned his attention to her. "But just in case take it easy today and drink plenty of water."
"Thank you Dr Pym." Veil said, then looked around and whispered "Could I talk to you later about my powers?"
Giant man paused for a moment, looking around and checking that no one was listening too intently, then smiled and nodded "Of course, I think I have some good news too." Veil grinned at this, before turning to Iceman and asking him about what had happened.
Across the Quinjet Hercules was trying to get Power-man to arm wrestle him. "Come now, I saw that power out there. A little bit of fun." He begged.
"Dude, you're almost as strong as Thor, even I'm not that-" Power-man tried to explain.
"Not almost!" Hercules frowned in reply, before whispering "seriously, why does everyone say that."
"Better public image." Amadeus Cho replied. "But hey, at least you got that beer sponsor."
"Ah, the Lionskin Lager brand. Instead of paying me they offered a lifetime's free beer." Hercules smiled fondly. "They regretted that decision in a day."
"Aye, and they regretted it particularly on days where the two of us shared drinks." Thor smiled fondly, to which Hercules grinned back, suggesting that the two should do so again soon.
"I feel like I've been forgotten about." Power-man muttered to Iron Fist, who nodded, unsure if that was a good thing or not.
They landed on the Tricarrier five minutes later, and walked over to the simulation room, which had been set up to simulate a briefing room, the actual briefing room being far too small for the crowd of heroes. Over thirty people crowded into the room and at the centre stood Director Fury.
"You did a good job everyone. I don't really know how to describe this, but frankly if not for you, this city would be in ashes right now. If The Mandarin had launched this attack just a few years ago New York would have been conquered." He explained "Super humans or not, his militia was too large in number to be held off by the NYPD and S.H.E.I.L.D. alone."
"We were lucky Iron Man took out the tanks before they got into the city. The few that took another route almost took down a block before I got there." Ms Marvel explained, standing next to Fury.
"Well, Captain America is still down there helping with the remaining scraps of The Mandarin's attack, but for now I think you all need to just get away from the chaos." Fury said, giving a rare smile, "But none the less, I'll leave this room up for you to remain until you're ready to go. I know some of you will probably need this before today properly impacts them." He directed his last comment mainly at the Ultimates, who were a little confused about the meaning. After that however he turned around and left, nodding at Ms Marvel to follow.
Spider-man quickly ran outside after the short briefing was over, pulling out his phone and ringing his aunt to tell her he was fine and would be home soon. She was concerned but he explained that S.H.E.I.L.D. wanted to talk to everyone they saw about the incident to find any spies, or something like that, and although concerned she accepted his story. As he hung up, feeling terrible for lying to his aunt like that, he looked over and saw White Tiger standing there.
"You okay?" She asked, to which Spider-man nodded.
"I think I'll leave in half an hour or so. I want to talk to the Avengers a bit, but I really need to go home and see her." He explained.
"Sounds like a good plan." White Tiger smiled, "But it is important that you stay around for a while. At least like this the day will end somewhat happily."
Spider-man paused at this "I wonder just how long it will take to recover from this?" He thought out-load, and White Tiger sighed.
"Don't try to take all on yourself." She sternly urged, "I know what you're like."
Spider-man sighed, then changed the topic "So it has been what, two minutes? Do you think a fight has broken out yet?"
"Peter they're super heroes, not a bunch of children." She said as the two walked back towards the simulation room. "Now I think about, we could use this time to get some connections with some Avengers. I mean the team is effectively a prep-school for the Avengers, but we could set up some one-to-one missions."
"Wait, you haven't already? With the number of missions I've been on with a random Avenger I'm like an honorary member." He beamed in reply.
"Lucky you." She muttered sarcastically.
"Hey now, don't be jealous, we're all going to be on the Avenger's anyway regardless of how many special missions we get. If you really want to have a one-to-one mission though you can talk to Iron Man or Thor, they always like to have help… unless there's a fight."
"Peter, they're super-heroes. They don't just start fighting at…" She opened the door and almost walked straight into Hercules, who was flying through the air from a single punch by Thor. It seemed that despite broken limbs the two had begun to fight. "…random."
"Come on Thor!" Hercules bellowed, "You call that a punch, Amadeus could hit harder than that."
"Thanks for using me as an example Herc." Cho muttered, hiding behind a desk and playing on his Gameboy Color. "I'll keep cheering for you behind here."
"So how often does Hercules randomly start fighting people?" Nova asked behind him, not realising the boy next to him was the same one who hacked into his Xbox Live account a few weeks earlier.
"He's a Greek demi-god warrior, so basically at any opportunity. Fun guy to be around though." Amadeus smiled.
On the other side of the room Iron-man was chatting with the Sentry and Wasp, the three ignoring the fight as if it was a common site.
"I just wish I was there earlier. I could have saved someone else. My lateness… I wonder how many deaths are on my hands." The Sentry sighed, idly blocking an accidental hit by Thor.
"You, Hulk and Doctor Strange are the only reasons we're even here now." Wasp said in reply.
"Yeah, stop taking everything on your back." Iron Man sighed, "Also how did you know you arriving early would help. They may have focused on you and taken you down."
"I guess…." The Sentry muttered, not feeling a great deal better.
Meanwhile the fight had become more savage as Hulk had joined in, ultimately leading to the clash growing in volume and destruction. "Do you think someone should do something?" A voice came from Spider-man's left, and he turned to see Jonny in a hospital robe.
"Jonny!" Spider-man yelled with a smile, grabbing the guy "You're ok."
"Be careful of the stitches." Jonny advised with a smile, causing Spider-man to instantly release him. "Now you're worrying too much man."
"We've been worried about you, Cloak told us about the bleeding." White Tiger explained.
"But if you've been concerned about me, imagine how I've been feeling with you." Jonny frowned, "I was stuck in a hospital bed not knowing if you guys were alive or dead or what…. It was hell."
Spider-man went to say something however Iceman and Veil ran over, grabbing him in a bear hug "Stitches, why does everyone assume I don't have them?" Jonny coughed, before hugging the two back. "Good to see you guys too."
"Next time a psychopath runs around New York you wait for us!" Bobby ordered, his smile dropping and his voice taking a serious tone. "Otherwise we're done Jonny."
"Iceman!" Veil yelled, giving him a stern look.
"Sorry… I just don't think I could live on if I lose anyone else. All of you are important to me." He paused, remembering the X-men. "It would tear me apart."
Jonny smiled, hugging him once more "We aren't going anywhere." He grinned at his young friend.
"Yeah, don't worry about it." Spider-man calmly replied, before noticing Cloak and Dagger walking over to them.
"Good to see you're ok Jonny." Cloak said quietly, as Dagger ran up to join the hug.
Jonny finally broke free of everyone's embrace and turned to his teammate. "It's all thanks to you Tyrone." He said, sounding truly thankful.
Cloak looked down, trying to hide his smile as Dagger skipped over to him and grinned, pulling Cloak around despite being a whole foot smaller than him. After a moment she released him then explained "Well we we're going to pop back to our rooms for a power nap. With the constant use of our powers we're a bit low on energy." She explained.
"Oh, right. When do you think you'll be back?" Spider-man asked, to which Dagger pondered, stroking her chin.
"An hour at the most." She beamed.
"Ok, well I'll probably be gone by then, so just in case I don't see you again, you both did great today." Spider-man smiled.
Dagger reacted to this with all the subtlety of a bulldozer. First the largest frown he had ever seen in response to him going, followed by jumping up and down in joy at the compliment. Cloak on the other hand nodded in respect and appreciation of the comment.
As the two heroes walked down the corridor, saying their farewells, Spider-man noticed that Giant-man had finally gotten involved, pulling Hercules and Thor away from each other while the Sentry and Wasp calmed down the Hulk. "If we break this place we'll have to pay for repairs and the Tricarrier will be down for a while." Giant man said to the pouting gods.
"I would have won if not for matters of cost." Hercules grinned after a second, to which Thor scoffed.
"Perhaps you need to check thine eyes. It was I who was the superior fighter." Thor said, causing the rage to build once more.
"It really is like watching children." White Tiger sighed, her opinion on the Avengers dropping quickly.
"Come on Tiger," Spider-man smiled "Give children some credit."
White Tiger chuckled at the comment, looking over to see the rest of the team join them. "Cloak and Dagger headed off already?" Power-man asked, looking behind them.
"They'll be back in an hour or so." Iceman explained.
"Oh, cool." Power-man said, "I was going to give him some tips for dealing with grappling and using his strength. A bit more training and he won't even need to use teleportation. He'll be able to take them down with pure technique."
"Although if they have any martial arts training…"Iron Fist muttered, giving a grin to his friend.
"That a challenge?" Power-man smiled.
"Can you two stop?" Nova sighed "We just had a super hero fight and after a battle of gods you two will embarrass us in front of the Avengers."
The two looked at Nova, rolling their eyes at each other. "Fine, but I'm surprised you're not trying to talk to anyone." Power-man said.
"W-well when there are so many Avengers it's intimidating." Nova muttered, nervously playing with his thumb "One or two on their own is fine, but you add some more and it gets crazy."
"Aww, our little Nova is shy." Spider-man teased, causing the rest of the team to laugh, much at the hero's embarrassment.
"Shut it webhead!" Nova shouted back, forgetting his lecture to Power-man and Iron fist from just seconds ago.
"I know it is hard to keep your cool around your heroes," Iceman said sagely, "I speak from experience, I once was in a room with all of the X-men. Talk about feeling star-struck."
From the other end of the hall they heard someone walking. "I'll tell you what bub, if I see that Kevlar-skull asshole that shot me in the face I'm going to Snikt him in the-" Wolverine growled to the other hero, another mutant called Angel. The two stopped as they saw Bobby, whose face dropped at the site at them.
The three were silent, then Iceman began to run, the two heroes attempting to pursue, however a wall of ice cut them off. "Bobby, get back here!" Wolverine shouted.
"Iceman we just want to talk!" Angel yelled next to him, sounding desperate. After a moment they realised the hero was long gone and yielded. Angel turned around, looking at Spider-man "Hey, are you his new teammates?"
"Err…" Spider-man began.
"Yeah," Jonny butted in, cutting them off, "So what?"
"Could you get Bobby to talk to us?"
Jonny looked at him and shook his head as politely as possible, "Sorry, it doesn't look like he wants to speak to you at the moment."
Wolverine grabbed him by his shirt and picked him off "Look bub, he was our teammate long before yours, now hurry up and lets us talk to him!" Despite Jonny's attempt to not show it, it was obvious to his team mates that he was worried about the stitches opening.
Spider-man quickly grabbed Wolverine's arm, applying enough pressure to show the hero that it was in his interest to let go.
"Come on Wolverine, calm down." Spider-man smiled, to which Wolverine complied after a moment, releasing Jonny, who scrambled to his feet.
"Look, Bobby is our friend." Angel explained, seeing things were getting out of hand, "And frankly for the past couple years we haven't even known if he was still alive. He ran away when the Xavier institute went public, but it was before we set anyone up with suitable foster families to take care of those who wanted to remain anomalous."
There was an awkward silence then Veil said "He thinks you all hate him."
Wolverine growled at this, causing her to shrink behind Jonny. "Damned idiot. He had just lost his best friend and then was going to have his secret identity revealed to the entire country; we would never blame him for leaving."
After a few seconds of silence the two heroes looked at each other, silently agreeing to drop the subject until another time, and then walked past the team entering the simulation room, Angel thanking them for their time. After a moment Jonny and Veil said their farewells too, chasing after Bobby to see if they could get him to return. With everyone else gone the rest of the team entered the simulation room after the former X-men.
The next thirty minutes were pretty fun for everyone. Spider-man got to chat with a good number of the Avengers and Giant-man gave him some contact details in case he ever wanted a summer job, finding him to be one of the most intelligent teenagers he had ever met.
White Tiger meanwhile effectively got confirmation that she could join the Avengers in the form of Speedball, who seemed to have been in a program like the one they were currently on, although no one really wanted to talk about the details. Nova on the other hand got as many autographs as physically possible, rushing back to his room to stick them up. Interestingly he also gave his first one out, to the Sentry, who felt that he was as big a hero as anyone in the room.
Iron Fist had a long discussion with Doctor Strange about the nature of mortality and what was just and right, which Spider-man found dull as hell, and focused instead on Power-man, who had let Hercules finally get his arm wrestling match, and although the winner was already set in stone, Power-man put up a good fight.
Spider-man was also impressed to see that the scientists, such as Iron-man and Giant-man, had already worked out how the Mandarin's High Evolutionary serum worked. To Spider-man it sounded something like a group of nanobots that contained a precursor molecule which could be altered to trigger an adaptive response. The nanobots would assess the current stress and release the appropriate molecule to trigger a required super power or physical transformation in the host. As there were a finite number of nanobots, once one stress over powered the others some transformations would be lost to focus on the most important, thus why the Sentry and Hulk's attacks caused the Mandarin to lose his resistance against magic.
"What about the cyborg girl?" Quicksilver had asked after hearing this explanation, intrigued about the other two as much as the Mandarin's transformation.
Iron-man proceeded to explain how he was taken hostage a while back so to create a mobile life support system for a young girl. That girl turned out to be Sasha Hammer, who was promptly upgraded by her father's scientist to become a weapon. He suspected as well the mother must have opposed to this, thus why the Mandarin had killed her.
Before they could explain Mimic's powers however Spider-man noticed the time and had to run, somewhat regretting leaving so early.
As he exited the Tricarrier and swung through New York, however, and saw all the chaos it hit him: the Mandarin had destroyed at least a third of the city. He stopped on a rooftop and stared at the destruction. He had asked earlier how long it would take to fix this, and now he looked around he saw it wasn't something that just ended after a day like all the other missions. This would have ramifications for years.
His mind flashed back to the sights he had seen, the corpses scattered across the ground, people together in death, abandoned in their final moments or making the ultimate sacrifice, no matter what they were just bodies now. He slumped down putting his head in his hands and pondered all the crap that was going on.
He had been so focused on the super-villains and the fighting that he hadn't really taken time for all the chaos to sink in. He had acknowledged people had died, however had been so focused on the Mandarin and then the Avengers he never really thought it was this many, or what it really meant for them to be dead, but now it all hit him in a wave of emotions. Horror, shame, guilt, sadness and a feeling of uselessness filled his mind as he leaned over gagging as though to throw up. After a few minutes of this discomfort he composed himself and swung through the city once more, the images of all the dead still filling his head.
He realised this must have been what Fury had meant and why the heroes were there, to help talk to him. He chuckled to himself morbidly. Of course it was now of all times the realisation would truly sink in. The Parker luck at work.
Peter arrived at his house, which was far from the chaos thank god, and saw Aunt May sleeping on the veranda. He walked over, gently shaking her, "Aunt May?" He asked, and she slowly woke up.
"Peter?" She asked slowly, before jumping up and hugging him "Peter, thank god you're alright."
"Ouch." Peter groaned, his bruises stinging from the contact. His aunt let go and he smiled "Sorry I'm late."
"I saw the news about all the destruction that was going on and when MJ arrived she said you had disappeared before those thugs attacked your school I got so worried." Aunt May spluttered.
"Sorry," Peter muttered, looking away, "I was trying to help a few people out from around the area…"
"Peter, that was very dangerous!" she yelled in reply, before stopping and taking a deep breath "But it was a good thing of you to do."
"Thanks." Peter smiled, although his eyes gave away the strain on his mind. Aunt May looked at him, reading those eyes, but he shrugged her off. "So what's for dinner?"
"I guess we could have the pizza in the freezer." She said after a moment, which caused Peter's spirits to rise slightly. At least there was a pick me up at the end of the day.
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Another Mini-chapter complete. As you can probably tell this was more of an epilogue to the last one. I chose to do this one from the heroes point of view and I plan to release another for the villains that will give insight into how this event effected Kingpin, Kravin and Kelly in the next mini-chapter, as this event will have ripples from now on. I was not exaggerating when I said that a third of New York City is heavily damaged.
On another note, the next full chapter should be up in April, then I'll try to get a chapter a month during the summer. I have a bit more time during the holidays and the next chapter is pretty short. I'm also hoping to get the Kingpin stuff done by around august, it is only the first act of this storyline.