Author's Note: So, this is the series finale. If you're reading this that means you read through all those chapters I wrote when I was first writing this all the way until I began my own original series (accessible in my profile), so you can see I improved a lot. (:D) Or, at least I'd like to think I have. lol
Marvel owns it all, I hope you enjoy!
War and Peace
Stepping out of the portal was none other than Sarah's first recruit, Ryan Pace, who had come to help the team of metahumans at the darkest hour of war, just as he promised. Everyone infiltrating the base as Spider-Woman had told them had found their way up to the platform. Once getting past the robots, the group moved into an interior sector, setting off multiple alarms. Into this hallway, spikes, probably tipped with poison (a little old fashioned) flew from the walls as all exits began to close. Sharon used her telepathy to try to hold it off, Abby aiding her, and trying not to feel useless.
"Hey! That's not the only reason!"
Whoops. Forgot she learned how to break the fourth wall after she got struck by lightning. Making yourself look crazy won't help you! Yuri shot ice shards to fill in the holes to no more could come out. Everyone dodged the spikes, the two Spider-People, having an extra edge via spider-sense, also looked out to make sure no one else was hit. As a corridor was closing, Card took out a scrap piece of paper and used it as an explosive, using his power to energize the paper past its maximum extent.
The bunch got out at the last second before the exit slammed and bolted itself closed, but Spider-Woman and Spider-Man got separated from the group as they fell through a trap. They found themselves in what appeared to be a holding cell. Spider-Woman banged against the cell door, then broke into tears.
"Whoa, Sarah, we're gonna get outta here!"
"I know, it's just….everything that's happened…..all I wanted was to be a great detective. Now my friends are at war, I could die in any battle – "
"And you got a nasty flesh wound too. We've come this far, I'll get you out of this, just not sure how. I'm not as strong as I used to be."
"Yeah, that's something else I noticed. What's with you?"
Brent struggled for a minute, knowing it would upset her. He set her down on a wooden bench in their cell, and began the story. "Look, remember when I told you I was the son of Spider-Girl?"
"Yeah."
"That actually disgusted me. She's my sister."
"WHOA! WHAT? You LIED To ME?"
"Wait! I have a loophole! I mean explanation! You see…..my name was Ben Parker. I'm really the son of Spider-Man…..the first one. After the Hero Registration/Relocation Act, they not only hid my family and used our stories as entertainment for cover, they changed our name. When I told you….I didn't know you then. I figured it was a shorter story, and you bought it. I figured everything was fixed."
"So they just messed with your life like that? I COULD KILL'EM!"
"Sarah – "
"Hey! We're at war now! I'm allowed to kill! And how is that related to your strength?"
"Got my powers prematurely. Bloodline runs thin after a couple times. Only way for the bloodline to return to normal is if, well, next generation Spider would have to have a spider mom and dad. "
"Oh, um, yeah, I get it. But we better find a way out of here."
About five minutes passed by and nothing came to them. They were trapped. The enter cell was surrounded by all kinds of traps – laser sensors, security cameras, robots. Out of the blue, a plasma bolt fired from the other side of the room, destroying the robots, another fire taking out the security cameras. With a double-back flip past the sensors, landed none other than ShadowGirl. Not surprisingly at her side was Nebula, and nauseatingly at her side was Abby Morden. As she saw Spider-Woman and Spider-Man looking at her, Nebula responded, "Your rescue party has arrived! And don't get me started on how I fished this thing out of the ocean! What luck! It's waterproof!"
Abby telekinetically tore apart the cell walls, not the bars, THE WALLS! After Abby clung herself to Brent, and after Spider-Man demanded a restraining order, the group was on their way to the main control room, thinking that must be where Commander Core must reside. While they were running, Spider-Woman slowed down to talk to ShadowGirl, letting the others race ahead of them.
"Wait, Mel, how did you catch up with us? Last I saw you, you were just arriving to the front."
"What can I say? I'm good, and you guys wasted time locked up. You'd think your spider-sense would have given you a clue!"
All Sarah could do was smile, not because she thought that was funny, though she kind of did, but because she was just happy to see her friend again. As they began to pick up the pace, there were surveillance videos all around of the rest of the team in progress. The two sides were still neck and neck, no clear winner. Sarah held the cut across her stomach, no longer bleeding. The videos showed the recruits holding off against the SHIELD agents, and the partners she was separated from, fighting off interior soldiers.
Spider-Woman returned with ShadowGirl, Nebula, Abby, and Spider-Man. She seems to have interrupted a conversation between them, and heard Nebula say that she was ready to put the whole "criminal empire by blast-point" thing behind her and start up a relationship with her date. Seeing how there was only one guy in the room, Sarah entered a state of panic, but reminded herself that Brent isn't her boyfriend anymore. She grabbed him by the arm discreetly to talk to him privately.
"I heard Neb…"
"And I talked to Card. You and him?"
"Yeah, gettin' there. You and Neb?"
"Uh-huh. Spider-sense…wanna kick some butt?"
"Thought you'd never ask!" as it turns out, what was setting off their spider-sense was more soldiers defending the interior lines. As the group fought them off, Sarah couldn't help but to feel a small achievement. She and Brent were friends again. Fighting like before. In an instant, Spider-Woman had an idea and used two side walls and her webbing to catapult herself into the soldiers. Spider-Man used a different technique, shooting a line of webbing to each soldier and letting them hit each other. ShadowGirl and Nebula, or as she now calls herself, PowerStrike, used their staffs to majorly injure whoever attacks them, given PowerStrike's shoots plasma bolts. Card carried pieces of the paper plane they arrived in to use as a weapon, being sure to fight alongside Spider-Woman.
As the group pushed forward, it became apparent Conduit found his way in and tried shutting down the power supply. This worked, but only to an extent. The security films and perimeters were offline, but the lights, other electrical systems and such were still functional. He shot a bolt of electricity to bring down the last metallic door standing in their way at the end of the last corridor. There they all saw Commander Jason Core standing in the middle of the main room of the helicarrier. He was in his mid-twenties, but had a serious expression on his face, filled with anger, as if he had experienced such encounters. For him, this was personal.
Card, Spider-Woman, ShadowGirl, Conduit, Abby Morden, PowerStrike, and Spider-Man stood side by side in front of him, Card reaching for Spider-Woman's hand, herself growing a smile. Powerstrike began saying, "OK, Commander, I'll give you 5 seconds to call off your army or you can call yourself Swiss Cheese!"
Spider-Man reached on her shoulder, whispering, "Um, Neb, I don't think that shows that supers come in peace!"
Spider-Woman took the floor. "Look, Mr. Core, we only attacked because, you messed up a lot of lives with these Hero Acts, and all we want is to be able to live like normal people, but still be able to help in the way others can't, in the way that people have been doing for years, and saved the world, or even the universe numerous times! I realize SHIELD can handle most threats, but having to hide who we are, what we can do, that is no way to live. "
Spider-Woman's speech didn't faze him. Commander Core rose what looked like a machine gun, shouted "Supers have caused enough trouble!" and began open firing. Everybody felt that is was this moment where they were going to be killed, but Groaylesasd used his psychic abilities to shield all the bullets from the recruits. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as Random, Viscous, Eureka, and Groaylesasd had reached them from the front lines.
"I was about to do that!" Abby busted in.
Dang it Abby! You weren't about to do that, so stop interrupting my stories!
"But I was!"
Were not!
"Were so!"
Were not!
"Were so!"
"Ok, Abby's lost it, and by that I mean more than her obsession of me." Brent began. "I vote we put her in a padded cell before we continue to confront the commander. Who's with me?"
"That won't be necessary." said a voice in the distance. Everyone turned to see an elderly man with an eye patch coming their way, with a lady by his side whom Sarah recognized as Summer Madstone, the woman who first briefed her on the symbiote and the happenings at SHIELD.
"Commander Fury! You're supposed to be retired!"
"Jason Core, this issue was easily resolvable, and in no means was it ever worth going to war for our reasoning. Let the capes and costumes come back. Surely they couldn't do anymore damage than you already have."
"But-but, there is a lose symbiote and – "
"Already being separated from the host body."
"And all the destruction the supers have caused – "
"Are no more devastating than the destruction you're army has unleashed; this would never have happened under my command! You are hereby stripped of all power, rank and title. You are dismissed, or would you prefer to be escorted out?" he said gesturing toward agents who seemed to have quickly changed sides. They held SHIELD grade ammunition to him, but he knocked the guns out of the way and began to run. Before the recruits could start chasing after him, Ryan Pace opened a portal and used his staff to create a wind that would suspend the depowered commander to the wall, out of breathe as the winds would churn in a way that would deprive him of oxygen.
Somehow he was able to sputter out, "You….you can't do this to me Fury…..you don't have the power to…."
"Consider me reinstated."
Still loyal followers of this costume-hater sounded, letting the recruits on guard for battle, but found the battle already over. Sharon was telepathically levitating some bodies as her little brother Yuri used his ice powers to slide in the rest of them on an ice bridge. Nick Fury turned to Spider-Woman and Spider-Man with a look of admiration and promised them the matter would be resolved. They did it. The recruits won the war.
Afterwards in a safe section of the helicarrier, the group was finally able to relax, and Card, Random, Viscous, Groalyesasd, and Eureks were discussing putting their team back together. In honor of the war that was just won, they decided to call themselves The Recruits. In the mean time, Sarah couldn't get her mind off Card, even though Melody was confessing to her a little infatuation with Conduit. Sharon picked up Yuri with victory and spun him, letting him enjoy what was the first, and soon to be many of his adventures. Ryan Pace saw how metahumans of this dimension didn't need his help, and went on his way through a portal, without a word, to assist people throughout the universe.
Sarah Typhon savored her personal victory. Her friends were back together. She reunited a team, one member of which started as annoying, but she is really beginning to like. Capes and costumes are no longer seen as the past, or covered up as being seen as the stuff of fiction. People can be themselves again. Life was good. Of coarse there was still Abby, but in general. Spider-Man congratulated her on everything they had accomplished together, and left to talk to The Recruits. Still, Spider-Woman couldn't help but think of the sparkling person under his mask and thought maybe….Just maybe…..
