Answers to reviewers' statements or questions:
gunman: The Helmet shall remain a mystery for now, but it's origin and how it's connected to the Web of Life and Spider-man will be revealed in due time. Frank's family was targeted because the unknown man working with Mordo, like I hinted at has a history with Frank and was hoping to get a little revenge on the man, he was also hoping that Mordo would kill Frank and not risk the possible birth on the Punisher but we all saw how that ended, don't worry the identity of the man will be revealed when Frank pops back up later down the road. As for where Zatanna, Nick and Constantine went, they sort of bail once they saw the League was there and figured that they weren't needed plus yeah it was mainly because they didn't want to answer any questions Nick in particular who was also pissed that what he wanted wasn't what was in the coffin, Peter will question them bailing when he ones into them again and what it was that Nick was hoping to get from it. As for why Kaine left, well he wanted to since the beginning but never got a good enough chance to do so or reason, the arrival of the Justice League gave him just that plus he thought that they may try to take him in with the whole killing a few mages and nearly killing one of their members. Steve was annoyed both by Peter and Wanda's lack of professionalism and because he saw Diana's reaction and felt a little bit more jealous of the wall crawler. Why Diana was pissed was because one she doesn't really like Wanda which has been hinted at given the two's brief interactions of each other through this arc, another is Diana is aware that Peter is attracted to her to what extent she isn't fully aware of but seeing another girl, one she doesn't like catch Peter's attention then openly make out with him in front of her, well it left her feeling a little tiny bit jealous. As for why it took a week for Peter to do anything with the Helmet was because he was having others take a look at it and kept it locked up in the Watchtower and waited to see if releasing it did anything, after seeing all was okay for the most part he decided to take it back to his place. As for what Kaine's been up to, that'll be mentioned this chapter and shown a bit next chapter
Aniimeziing: It's not Jean Grey or Mephisto or some other demon lord and as for this still being a Peter/Diana pairing, I'm intentionally keeping people lost in that regard, make it seem more authentic on wheatear Peter will get back with her, find a new love or maybe even get a harem…won't know for a while I'm afraid. Sides I think it keeps things interesting
felpere8Ranco: Yes Venom and Carnage will appear, the latter will be the main villain for a future story arc I have in mind
Galabrax: The helmet is connected to the Web of Life, in what form or fashion will be revealed but not anytime soon. The next arc will be after these two small little filler chapters, give me and Spidey some rest before going into the next crisis, but if you're asking for a hint well let's just say that Peter is about to meet the living weapon. Yes some will notice something odd about Peter and investigate it, Mephisto knows if you're wondering and he has plans for the Void. As for how many pre-Flashpoint people are showing up I'd say at this moment around four barring Kaine. The others are the pre-new 52 Superman and Lois obviously, don't know if I should count their kid or not, Julia Carpenter who show up soon and one other person that I'm keeping a secret for now
Captain Redshirt: To some extent you are right in that the helmet is part of something bigger but that's all I'm going to say for now. And don't worry Frank will be reappearing and he ain't gonna let Mordo or his unknown accomplice get away with what they did to his family
justafan: We'll see a bit of Wanda next chapter and as for why Diana seems so bothered, it's mainly because she see's Peter as a close friend, best friend really and just doesn't want to see him get hurt in a sense plus she may be aware that Peter is attracted to her, she isn't aware of the full extent but she knows enough that he may have tried to make a move on her if she wasn't with Steve at the moment. Things will only get complicated for them as time goes on and more women showing interest in Spider-man won't help matters
High-Wolf-King: I'm thinking of doing something like that with their characters. Not really a relationship per say, they'll get close don't get me wrong but since she's physically a teenager and he's a good several decades older than her it might be a bit weird for both of them. May have it that she has a crush on him but I do have something in mind that'll be a subtle if not an outright obvious 'F you!' to Superman in regards to him being with Wonder Woman
spiderman1fan: He's just a more powerful version of his 616 counterpart
Fenrir44: Some of them will be appearing and I will say that at least three of them will show a sort of interest in Spider-man, won't reveal who because of possible spoilers but I may add a few more in for sort of the down chapters and in-between arcs moments like these two chapters will be used for.
Disclaimer: I don't own any Marvel or DC character seen, mentioned or used in this story
Seventeen years ago…Peter 20, Diana 4,986
"I'm boooooored!" Peter groaned out as he sat with Diana in the monitor room of the new Justice League headquarters. An orbiting satellite called the Watchtower
Peter wanted to call it the Death Star, mainly because of the large nuclear like canon it had, something he thinks is a bit over kill, and because it looked like something out of Star Wars but was quickly overruled
"You should have brought a book then Peter" Diana said with a grin as she was reading a small novel that detailed the history of the Amazons in great detail, most of which she was seeing was inaccurate or untrue at all "Or perhaps you could have used this time to do your homework so you don't fall behind again in class"
"Please, like I would do homework for class when I'm sitting in a giant satellite that looks like it's from Star Wars or even Star Trek!" Peter gestured to the technological marvel around them
"Well you can always settle for watching the Earth, we should be about to pass over the North Pole and may get to see the northern lights that I've heard about" Diana said as she turned a page
"Or Santa and his army of underpaid elves and magical altered deer" Peter snorted as he glanced up at the planet he calls home and laid back in his chair "Still hard to believe I'm in space…always wanted to be an astronaut when I was younger and well here I am…kinda"
Diana nodded as she marked the page she was on and placed the novel down and joined Peter in looking down at their home with a distant smile "I know what you mean…when I was a child I always dreamed of reaching for the heavens and beyond…"
"Well here we are princess…among the stars themselves" Peter said with a grin as he glanced down at the various screens to see if anything was going on in the world and frowned when he saw something interesting "Hello what's this…?"
He clicked on the panel and brought the issue to the larger screen in front of him and began to monitor it
"Something come up?" Diana looked towards Peter with a curious expression
"Yeah and from the looks of it, one of our kind of problems" Peter said as he pressed a few buttons and brought the issue up on the main screen for Diana to see
Her face morphed into a frown as she saw what was happening and quickly contacted the other members of the League
"This is Wonder Woman, we have a situation in the arctic circle" the princess said and waited for a response as Peter prepped the teleporter
"What is it?" the voice of Superman responded
"It appears a research station is under attack by a group of terrorists" Diana said as she reviewed the current situation
Superman was quite for a moment before he responded "I don't think I'll be able to get there in time Diana. Toy maker has teamed up with Metallo and they aren't making things easy for me"
"Understood, what about the rest?" Diana asked only for Peter to answer this time
"Hal's in space with Manhunter and won't be back for another day, Flash is currently chasing after my ex's brother Quicksilver, Aquaman is trying to negotiate a truce between two warning mermen tribes in the pacific and Batman isn't answering his com…as usual" Peter said as he stood up and made his way towards the teleporter
"Where are you going?" Diana asked as she stood up and followed after the wall crawler
"To have a snow ball fight with some terrorist, why you wanna come?" Peter asked over his shoulder "We may even get to see those Northern lights!"
Diana watched him go for a moment before looking back at the dashboard and contacting Superman "Spider-man and I will handle it, we're keep you posted"
"Alright, I'll try to get there as fast as possible" Superman said before he ended the call and Diana flew after Spider-man who was already at the teleporter
…
"Well I'm disappointed" Spider-man said as he finished webbing up the last of the criminals in a thick warm blanket of his webbing, modified to regulate heat to keep from freezing and shattering in extreme cold
"How so?" Wonder Woman asked as she wrapped her lasso back up and placed it on her waist
"We're in the North Pole and I don't see Santa's workshop anywhere!" Spider-man shook his arms comedically which caused Diana to chuckle at the younger man's antics, finding them refreshing compared to the older more serious men
Granted the Flash was of a similar mindset but Peter's youth made his attempts to lighten the mood better somehow
She looked over at the horizon and saw that the sun was about to set and the temperature was beginning to drop. The frigid air didn't affect her much and Peter assured her that his suit was more than insulated enough to keep him warm on top of having a naturally higher body temperature on account of his genetic enhancements.
She heard the sound of a cape rustling in the wind and turned to see Superman descending down to her and Peter along with their group of thwarted terrorists
"Sorry I'm late" Superman gave them a sheepish smile "Toy man brought out a giant robotic clown snake thing that was re-enforced and had small red sun lamps all over it"
"Yeesh that sounds creepy" Spider-man commented as he looked up at the night sky and gave a small whistle of appreciation at the sight of so many stars visible "But since you feel so bad about missing out on mine and Wonder Woman's epic snowball fight with a bunch of gun tottering cheaters, why don't you take these guys back?"
Superman eyed Peter for a moment before he gave the young man a knowing smile and wink "Sure, it'll help me feel better after all"
"You don't have to Superman, Spider-man and I can-" Wonder Woman began only for Superman to wave off her objections
"No, its fine. Sides I don't think you'd want to miss out on that" Superman nodded behind her and Spider-man as he grabbed the pile of webbed up men and rose into the air with a smirk "See you guys at the Watchtower"
He then shot off into the night sky leaving the Amazon there with a confused look on her face as she turned to see what it was he was referring to not missing when her breath caught in her throat.
The sky was filled with different hues of green, purple and white lights dancing across the sky in a spectacular light show
"By Hera…" Diana said in awe at the lights
Peter watched her expression and chuckled "Their called the Aurora Borealis, or Northern lights…when the conditions are just right the magnetosphere is disturbed by solar winds and it changes the trajectory of charged particles in the air and pushes them into the upper atmosphere where the energy is lost and you get…this"
"Their beautiful" Diana said as she watched the natural light show with a small smile on her illuminated face
Peter almost agreed with her that the lights were beautiful…but her, watching them with that small little smile with the light reflecting off her armor and lighting her face up…
It made her the most beautiful thing he's ever seen in his life…he could feel even the Void deep inside him seemingly purr at her appearance which said a lot about her appearance that will be seared into his brain for years to come
Peter watched her for a long moment, the only sound being the artic winds and his own beating heart pounding like a drum as he watched Diana before turning his gaze upwards at the natural phenomenon
'Yeah…Beautiful…' Peter thought with a hidden smile as he and Diana watched the Northern lights together in silence
…
Peter was shaken out of his memory as he heard a faint buzzing sound coming from Hal who was leaning in the back of his chair to the point that Peter was waiting for him to fall out of it just so he can laugh
"You gonna answer that Hal?" Peter asked with a blank tone as he went back to monitoring the world beneath them
"No" Hal said as he brushed some dirt off his suit "Crazy ex that won't leave alone, so I've resorted to not answering her calls"
"Yeah like that's gonna make it better. It'll just either piss her off or make her all the more determined to get you" Peter commented
"Yeah well I think I can handle anything she can throw at me with this" Hal held up his glowing ring
"So long as she doesn't throw anything yellow at it" Peter snickered
Hal groaned in annoyance "For the last time, that's a myth. Yellow doesn't affect my ring unless it's constructed by a yellow Lantern ring which is powered by Fear, the complete opposite of Will Power"
"If you say so Hal" Peter joked as he leaned back in his chair and cracked his neck "So how are things in the vast reaches of space?"
"Alright for the most part" Hal shrugged as he created a small game of solitaire with his ring and began to play while also keeping an eye on the monitors before him with a critical eye "The Kree and Xandar Empires have finally called for a cease fire, so it may finally put an end to their three hundred-year long war"
"Three Hundred-year space war? Man, sounds brutal" Peter commented
"It was, even the Lanterns were hesitant to get involved because of how powerful the Kree are, but according to some of the other Lanterns I know, this war was nowhere near as bad as the one between the Kree and Skrulls"
"How so?" Peter asked with a raised brow
"That war went on for close to three million years!" Hal looked at Peter with a dead serious expression "Imagine World War two on steroids and then each side is given weapons from a combination of Halo, Star Wars and Mass Effect…"
"Damn…sounds like Armageddon" Peter whistled
"That war destroyed over three galaxies and left another seven in a state worse than Europe after both World Wars combined. Even to this day some of those galaxies are still trying to rebuild" Hal said with a distant look in his eye "Would have been worse but thankfully the Skrull eventually surrendered, not by their choice but at the rate they were going, extinction was a high possibility from what I'm told"
"What happened?"
"They lost their planet to some super ultra-powerful cosmic being called Galactic or something" Hal said with a yawn "Afterwards, the Skrulls more or less retreated into uncharted space and haven't been seen since except for the occasional scout ship that vanishes just as quick as it pops up"
Peter hummed at that as he returned his attention back to the monitors and sighed at something he saw "Great…we have a problem in Rio…"
"What kind?" Lantern asked
"The kind that Aquaman needs to deal with" Peter said as he contacted the King of Atlantis to tell him that a bunch of goat sea monsters were attacking, not hurting anyone so far, just scaring the living day lights out of people
Just another day at the office he supposed as Arthur picked up and asked what was going on
…
"So how's things in Gotham going?" Peter asked as he and Batman were on monitor duty a week later "Anything interesting happen?"
Batman's response was silence as he scanned the various monitors closely
Peter waited for a response before continuing on "How's Robin doing, staying out of trouble I hope"
Again, he was met with silence from the caped crusader which caused Peter's brow to twitch in mild annoyance at seeing that Batman was ever the anti-conversationalist
"By the way, tell Alfred I said thanks for the cookies he made the Team. They were great" Peter said only to receive silence in return which caused Peter to sigh and go back to monitoring the various screens before him
Half an hour of silence passed before Spider-man spoke again "So I got to ask, how do you do that whole vanishing when someone looks away for a second? I mean is it some sort of cloaking device, teleporter or are you secretly a speedster?"
"Training…practice" Batman said dryly as he flipped through several news channels on a small screen to see if anything serious required League intervention
"Oh…well that's cool I guess" Peter said as he stretched his arms over his head before he remembered something and snapped his fingers "Oh yeah, next time you try to stalk me while secretly in New York so you can figure out who I am and all that, can you not sit back and watch me get my butt kicked by Shocker?"
Batman didn't make any outward signs that he was surprised that Spider-man knew he was following him, but Peter saw the ever slight tightening of his exposed jaw and smirked under his mask
"Sorry Bats but you're a few years away from being able to sneak up on me of all people, let alone stalk me through the night"
"…We'll see" Batman said with ever slight hint of a challenge in his tone
"Yeah…I guess we will" Peter chuckled as he flipped on a news channel and groaned at who was on it
"Once again that wall crawling menace proves to be a danger to our city! And even worse he's in cahoots with the Scorpion as they fight over the money that the wall crawler clearly planned to have stolen before turning on his partner to get all of your hard-earned money for himself!" yelled a certain Hitler mustache wearing mayor of New York City with a video of Peter's fight with Scorpion the other day playing next to him at a news conference
"God why me? Why does Jonah hate me so!" Peter whispered quietly in dread and swore he heard the faintest chuckle from Batman
…
"So how did you get your powers anyway… if you don't mind me asking that is" Flash spoke as he was zooming across the monitor room in an attempt to keep his mind busy
"Oh you know…bit of science here…some mystic stuff there and a tad bit of fate to bring everything together" Peter said vaguely as he was watching a video of Wonder Woman fighting several Harpies and winning 'Is it weird that I'm turned on by her kicking a bird lady monster's teeth in?'
"Oh come on there has to be more to it than that!" Flash pleaded as he quickly scanned through the monitors at 'Flash Speed' before resuming his zig zagging around the room
"Not all of us have a super cool origin story Flash" Peter said dryly
Safe to say Peter was less than happy to be paired with Barry this time around. Mainly because it means being in the same room with the guy, who unintentionally screw his life over all because he missed his mommy
'Okay that's a bit harsh but come on! I've lost family, Superman lost family, and half the other members of the League have lost a parent of sibling to some asshole, but you don't see us going back in time to change it and some of those people could! Hell it's kind of a prerequisite to being a hero' Peter thought before he shook those thoughts away and tried to remain focused on the story playing while also keeping an eye on the other monitors in case something comes up
It was then that Barry appeared next to him, his arms crossed and a frown on his face "You don't like me much do you?"
"What makes you say that?" Peter asked with a quirked head, his red lenses narrowing in interest
"It just…it just seems like you don't like being around me is all. Your pretty chatty with the rest aside form Batman since he isn't really a conversationalist despite the fact he's the leader and all but with me, you always seem sort of tense. Like your resisting the urge to hit me or something"
Peter's brows shot up under his mask at that rather…accurate statement before he shrugged "I don't hate you Barry…it's just…I have a bad history with speedsters that I've come to see as friends that end up betraying me in some form or fashion is all and I'm still waiting to see if you'll do the same while at the same time knowing you won't"
"Oh…" Barry said with a sad loo on his face
"I'm sorry Barry, it's not fair to you, I get it and I hate how I'm doing it…but I've lost a lot to people with your kind of powers and well…it's kind of hard to not to expect the worse from you or dislike you to some degree" Peter said as he pinched the ridge of his nose "And I sound like a power racist now that I think about it"
"Is there even a word for that kind of thing?" Barry asked with a small laugh
Peter couldn't help but snort "I don't think so, then again with the influx of super powered beings running around, I'm sure something like that will pop up but until then I'm going with…powerist"
"I can see it now, race war between guys who can fly and guys who can control the weather" Barry said with a shake of his head
"Hate crimes committed by telepaths against people who can talk to animals" Peter said as he scratched the back of his head
"Just wait until the hate against metas from the non-powered populace begins again, because someday down the line it will" Barry said as he looked over at the various news feeds
"Yeah…" Peter said as his gaze settled on one particular news feed
It was a senator by the name of Robert Kelly and his views that meta humans were a danger to humanity…
'Let's just hope that day isn't soon…' Peter thought as he and Barry both began to watch Senator Kelly's speech
"…Least you don't dislike me as much as this guy's seems to" Barry nodded towards the man
"Yeah well that's because I have one advantage he doesn't" Peter said
"What's that?" Barry asked as he looked towards the Justice League's second in command
Peter turned to look at the man "He doesn't have the chance to get to know you like I do and have his opinions changed"
At that Barry smiled and held out his hand "Barry Allen…the Flash"
Peter took his and shook it "Peter Parker…Spider-man…and yes with a hyphen because I'm that much of a diva"
It was an hour later that Batman showed up to take Barry's place that he saw the two men joking about something related to hot dog stands and pretzel shops before they noticed his presence and gave him a nod of greeting
"Oh hey Bat's, my time to clock out?" Barry asked the caped crusader who nodded
"Sweet" Barry said before he turned to Peter and gave the man a nod "See ya Thursday webs!"
He then zoomed off towards the teleporter while Batman took Barry's seat "How'd it go?"
Peter eyed the man with a thoughtful expression under his mask before answering "Something tells me you already know…"
Batman didn't respond while Peter snorted in amusement and went back to viewing the monitors and waited for Superman to come relieve him. After several minutes of silence Peter finally spoke
"Thanks for that by the way…"
"…Your welcome Spider-man…with a hyphen"
…
If there's one thing that Peter can say about this Superman other than he's decided to go commando and not wear the little red speedo thing on the outside of his armored suit, it's that the guy was a bit too gun ho and broody from time to time
Nowhere near Batman's level or even his, he has plenty to brood over, but the guy just doesn't seem to inspire people as much as his Superman did not to say he doesn't it just wasn't to the same degree…
He was also a bit too arrogant for his liking, but Peter kept mum on the manner, dealing with the boy scout was more Batman's thing while he made sure the rest of the group kept in line and didn't try to either kill each other or kill Batman when he's pissed them off by withholding something they believe they had a right to know about
"So how are things in New York going?" Clark asked as he and Peter had just return from stopping a plot to level half of Metropolis orchestrated by Lex Luthor…allegedly that is. There was no real evidence tying him to the crime after all
"Oh you know, same old same old" Peter said with a shrug "Criminals running rampant overlooking the fact that I live there and now the Punisher is running around along with Scarlet Spider when he's not barreling through another city for the hell of it"
"Met him the other day" Superman said with a frown "The Scarlet Spider I mean"
"And how'd it go?" Peter asked, already having an idea based on both men's personalities and Kaine's habit to be an ass
"He was in Metropolis and nearly killed three gun men and scared the person he was trying to 'save' half to death with his methods" Superman said as he folded his arms across his chest and gave Peter a hard look
"Yeah well that's Scarlet for ya" Peter said with a sigh of disappointment "Always one for violence and trying to act like the love child of me and Batman for some weird reason. It's like eh thinks that Bat's and I actually like each other enough to do that!"
"Why haven't you stopped him? It's clear he's getting out of control and his methods are bit too violent, even by Batman's standards" Clark pressed
Peter couldn't help the surge in annoyance in being told what to do in regards to his brother and narrowed his lenses at the Man of steel "Look, you worry about your rouges and such while I'll handle mine my way"
"I'm just saying that-"
"I know what you're getting at Superman, but beating the crap out of him or throwing him in prison isn't as easy as you think" Peter said as memories of his and Kaine's less than stellar past flashed through his mind
The two in the early days got along as well as fire and water, it was more often than naught Ben and Jessica having to play the middle men, or woman in Jess's case, to keep the two from tearing into each other like two rabid pit bulls on Bane's venom
"How so?" Clark asked confused at that statement
Peter held up a finger "First he's as smart as me-" then a second finger "-Secondly his moral compass is a bit more crooked than mine is, as his restraint-" and finally a third finger "-Thirdly he isn't the type to take orders from anyone but himself and under the most dire life or death circumstances will he ever listen to me"
"So you're going to do nothing then?" Superman asked with a look of disproval "You're just going to let him continuing running around until he finally goes too far?"
"I never said that, I just said it's not as easy as you think to get him to stop" Peter snapped
"Well you better get him under control or I'm taking him in next time I seem him" Superman threatened
Peter couldn't stop the snort of grim amusement as he turned to leave "Go luck Superman…you're going to need it and then some"
Superman watched Spider-man leave with a look of disproval on his face, not liking his teammate's seemingly disinterested attitude in regards to the Scarlet Spider or his lack of faith that he can handle him if push comes to shove…he also couldn't help but feel that Spider-man had just in some small almost unnoticeable way threatened him to not go after his 'brother'
It wasn't until Peter was back in New York that he gave his dark brother a call and settled for leaving a message he knows the red and black spider will take to heart
"Stop pissing off Superman and the others or I'll send Wonder Woman after your ass and post the beat down on YouTube"
Safe to say Scarlet Spider's actions were reportedly toned down and less violent for the next several months
…
"Have you ever seen if you can talk to spiders?" Aquaman asked out of the blue as he and Spider-man were in the monitor room, it was a slow day and the two men were struggling to stay awake
"Like what you can do with fish?" Spider-man asked with a yawn
"In a manner of speaking" Aquaman nodded as he fiddled with his trident
Peter nodded at that before shrugging "Kind of, will I used to but not anymore. Though Scarlet can still communicate and order them around"
"Why can't you anymore?" Arthur asked
"It's not a very interesting story" Peter warned
"Not like got anything else to keep us occupied for the next two hours" Arthur said dryly
"Point" Peter laughed before he settled down and began to explain how it is he lost the ability, being mindful to keep some things secret "I met this guy that hated me because I sort of took his father's attention away from him and he got all jealous about it. Which I'm still confused over because the guy's dad wanted me dead but I guess that slipped his mind…anyway he decided to use a group of kids to lure me into a trap and set of this sort of device that would temporarily neutralize my powers"
"How'd he pull that off?" Arthur asked surprised
"Not sure myself, but it worked" Peter lied smoothly, knowing how it happened "Thankfully I was able to survive long enough for my powers to sort of reboot except for the spider telepathy thing"
"He sounds dangerous" Arthur commented
"Nah, he was nowhere near as bad as his father was thank god, in the end he was just some little self-entitled brat" Peter said as he stood up from the seat and stretched until he heard a distinct popping sound in his back "Well I'm going to get something to eat, hold down the fort Aquafresh"
"I'm going to kill Hal for that" Arthur muttered to himself while Peter laughed
"You better hurry then, guy has a legion of pissed off alien and earth women gunning for his tail"
"Oh god that makes it sound like I'm an ex-girlfriend of his" Arthur groaned out
…
"So how are your new upgrades holding?" Peter asked as he saw Cyborg returning from S.T.A.R Labs
"Pretty good all things considered" Cyborg said with a grin "I think I even improved the Boom tube portals"
"How so?" Peter asked interested
"Well I think I can make them open longer and use them to reach other planets now" the cybernetic man revealed as he showed Spider-man the information who watched it intently
"So you could in theory open up a Boom tube on say Pluto?" Peter questioned
"Yep" Cyborg nodded in satisfaction at his accomplishment
"Well let's test it out" Peter said as he stood up and synched his suit with the Tower's systems "Always wanted to visit Pluto"
"Think your suit can handle it?" Cyborg asked as he gestured towards the man's suit
"Don't worry kid, if I can survive on Venus with this thing for half an hour I think I can survive on Pluto. Not open that portal up so I can get a Pluto rock for my collection!" Peter clapped his hands eagerly
Cyborg shrugged and opened the Boom Tube and watched as Spider-man stepped through without any hesitation on his part. It wasn't until the Portal closed that Cyborg noticed something wrong with the coordinates
"What the hell?" Victor said to himself as he quickly scanned what happened and paled at what he saw "…Oh shit"
Meanwhile Peter had stepped out of the portal to see…
A legion of Parademons in the heart of a military barracks on Apokolips
Peter's eyes bulged as he started at the equally surprised soldiers of Darkseid as the portal closed behind him
"…"
"…"
"…I come and peace and don't want to be taken to your leader?" Peter squeaked out before the Parademons launched themselves at him "AHHHHHHH!"
Back on the Watchtower Cyborg was quickly trying to open another Boom Tube to pull Spider-man back when a portal suddenly opened and Peter fell out of it, shooting his Venom blasts into it
"CLOSE IT CLOSE IT CLOSE IT!" Peter shouted out as several Parademons were forced back inside before a tall red headed woman with an Amazon like body pushed through
"Where do you think you're going baby?" Knockout, one of Darkseid's Fury's said in a dark lustful tone as she reached to drag Spider-man back to Apokolips "Come on handsome, we're going to have a party!"
Cyborg quickly blasted the woman back through the portal with a super charged blast from his cannon before he cut the connection and slammed the portal close
Peter let out a sigh of relief as he collapsed on the ground "Oh thank you god that was too close"
"Sorry" Cyborg said with a grimace "I'll… I'll work on that…yeah"
"You do that kid…because I do not want to experience that kind of hell again anytime soon" Peter said as he climbed to his feet and shivered in dread at the thought of Knockout getting her hands on him
Safe to say, Cyborg made it his life's mission to perfect his calculations of boom Tubes and where to open them and where not to
…
If there's one thing that Peter's glad stayed the same about Diana in this new reality, it's that she was still easy for him to read…most of the time
She still had a lot her old little ticks that usually help Peter figure out what kind of mood she was in and if she was bothered by anything
"It's like he forgets I'm an immortal warrior!"
…It also helped she spoke her mind a lot and wasn't one for beating around the bush
"What happened?" Peter asked as he turned to see Diana rubbing her brow in aggravation while also messing with his mask, the right lens was acting a little funny
"The other day I got into a skirmish with a small pride of Nemean lions that had somehow made it to D.C. and one of them nipped me in the side" Diana said as she gestured to the still bandaged side, her armed bustier laying on the seat next to Peter
"And I'm guessing Steve didn't like that?" Peter guessed as he tried to keep his gaze focused solely on her face and not her strapless red bra…or toned core…
"He completely flipped out and when on a half hour long triad about how I should have waited for him and his men or call in help when it looked like things were getting out of hand" Diana fumed as she folded her arms under her chest and had unknowingly pushed them up a bit, causing Peter to let out a slight whimper of desire that also escaped her notice
"Give the guy a break Di, he's just concerned for you is all" Peter said as he let out a couch and turned back to the various monitors, trying to kill his slowly building arousal
"But I can take care of myself" Diana rebuked "I've been trained in the arts of war by Ares himself, I'm the strongest Amazon in Themyscira and have learned even more about fighting from both you and Batman and some of the trainers in the base I was staying at ehen I forst came to man's world!"
"Well when a man see's the woman he loves hurt, it tends to make them do some rather dumb and irrational things, I used to do the same thing when it happened to my wif-" Peter immediately cut himself off when he realized what he was about to say
Sadly, Diana saw it and questioned him with a curious expression "…Your married?"
The atmosphere in the room grew somber and dark, but not in a bad way
"I was…" Peter said as he placed his mask on the dashboard and went back to watching the monitors as memories of his marriage with Diana flashed through his mind, from the day she said 'I do' to the last words she ever said to him as his wife…
'Go get'm tiger…'
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to-"
"It's alright Di…it's been almost two years now anyway" Peter said with a dejected sigh 'Two years…feels like it was only yesterday me and Diana were making lunch plans when Demogoblin attacked…'
Peter was so deep in his thoughts that he almost missed what Diana said to him as she sat down in the seat beside his "What was she like?"
Peter gave her a brief glance and weighed the options of talking about her without giving anything away 'Times like this where I wish I could lie like Bruce can…'
After a few moments, he answered "Like you…strong, confident and not afraid to kick ass when the situation called for it"
Diana smiled at that "She sounds like a great woman"
"She was…you would've like her" Peter said as he laid back in his chair "It's funny, she could easily kick my ass with one arm behind her back and barely get winded and yet every time I saw her in trouble I didn't see some powerful kickass woman…all I saw was the person that I loved in trouble and I felt like I had to do everything in my power to keep her safe…even if half the time it was her saving my ass from the fire"
"Something tells me she held that over your head a lot" Diana giggled
"Oh like you wouldn't believe" Peter chuckled "In fact we sort of had this little competition on who can save who more often than the other"
"Who ended up winning?" Diana asked as she leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs
"She did of course but I'm proud to say where she won in quantity I won in quality" Peter said with a slightly prideful tone
The two both laughed and settled into a slightly more cheerful silence then earlier before Diana took a deep breath and asked the question that unknown to her Peter was expecting to be brought up
"…What happened to her?" Diana asked
"…"
"…"
"…She was taken from me" Peter said quietly as he turned to look at Diana who had to fight back a faint blush at the intensity of his gaze "And I'm going to do everything in my power to get her back…"
…
And done.
So next chapter, another down time for Spidey will show him interacting with Wanda again, seeing how things at his company and Miguel are doing, what Kaine is up to and how Peter is handling the fact that the Punisher is running around in his city