This is a bit shorter than usual but I really just wanted to get an update out and finished up the chapter (after the first 2000) in a day cause free time is limited due to work crunch. Hope you guys enjoy this one and don't be afraid to suggest ideas for segments/chapters cause I'm kinda writing by the seat of my pants here. Really didn't expect this story to last this long or get so much attention.
Patrol was fun, which was to be expected - spending time with Peter always seemed to make her day better. It was nice having someone watch her back, especially considering how shitty her spider-sense was. One good thing about having her identity outed was that she didn't have to rely on it to find places to change. She really didn't want someone taking a pic of her in her undies.
Made fighting less of a chore too.
"Spider-Man, duck!" Peter lowered into a crouch just before she roundhouse kicked the charging mugger right in the jaw. Peter shot a line of webbing behind her that got another thug in the leg and pulled, sending him sprawling to the ground in a clumsy heap. Peter was always confused that there were about 6-1 muggers to victims ratio. How did people get mugged in his universe?
Gwen flipped over the last thug and webbed him to the wall by his hands and legs, "Maybe a little time out will teach you a lesson," she quipped. He gave her a middle finger through the web - rude - so she webbed his mouth shut mid-rant. His conked out buddies could talk to the cops when they got here, "When will they learn?" She turned back and gave Peter a thumbs up which he returned with equal gusto.
The victim, two teenage girls who just screamed tourist, immediately forgot their panic and came up to them, "Oh my God! This is so cool!" The one to the right, a long haired brunette with a ponytail, squealed.
"Totally! New York!" Her friend, another short haired blonde, said excitedly. Before Peter could say anything the pair pressed up on both sides of him and the blonde raised up her phone to take a selfie, "Oh, the bitches back home are gonna be totally jealous! Score! Say cheese, Spidey!"
"Wha-"
They started taking selfies en-masse. Gwen was torn between being amused and telling them 'hands off!' when they suddenly turned to her, "H-Hey, what the-" They mimicked the same pose from before and Gwen had to keep the symbiote from snapping at them on instinct. A year in prison and months of crazy fans afterwards meant she wasn't exactly keen on strangers suddenly touching her.
Blondie started posting the pics while brunette rummaged through her purse and pulled out a 20, "Here. We didn't bring a lot since we just went shopping but this should cover the heroism fee?"
"The what?" She pushed the offered bill back and looked to Peter. He just shrugged, "Uh, we don't get paid to save people." They did get paid for selfies, but she'd consider this a freebie. She'd been giving a lot of those out lately.
"Woah, really? So, like, what was that site about? The Spider-Shoppe?"
"I'm sorry, the Spider what?"
"Yeah! Totally saw it before we went." Blondie tapped her phone and pulled up the site. Gwen and Peter looked over her shoulder and she grimaced at what she saw. Pages upon pages of products from hoodies to 'certified autographs' that looked nothing like her signature, "We totally bought a couple of Spider-Woman and Spider-Man tee's before we left. It was pretty expensive, though."
"This doesn't look the site Betty made," Peter said.
"Could we get back to the part where apparently we're asking for payment for hero stuff?" Gwen asked.
"Sure." Blondie scrolled the page down till they got to the bottom, "Says here that any and all official hero work requires a minimum payment of 50 dollars depending on how hard it is. Being saved from muggers is 50, saved from kidnappers is a 100 and any person directly saved from a supervillain owes you 150 to 200 depending on the villain. Except some guy called Bodega Bandit; apparently he's a freebie."
"I can't fucking believe this..." Gwen groaned.
The two of them said their goodbyes to the pair and swung away to a far off building, "Are you okay?" Peter asked when they landed.
"Not really." She let the mask fall away and brought a hand through her hair irritatedly, "I mean people make merch of me, I get that. Spider-Woman's technically public domain so I can't really do anything about that even if I wanted to. But this..." She made a web ball and tossed it to the wall in lieu of punching something, "Being Spider-Woman and helping people, it makes it easier to ignore all the bullshit. Someone trying to profit off of that, trying to take that from me, it just..."
She sat against the wall and Peter sat next to her. It wasn't as bad as last year when people cussed her out and ran away with fear, but it was still infuriating. Why couldn't she just help people? Why did everything have to be so damn complicated?"
"...You know, we can go after this guy." Peter mumbled. She looked at him curiously, "Like you said we can't really do anything about the hoodies and lunchboxes but I'm pretty sure him getting money from the people we save is illegal. Like if I gave a guy CPR and another guy tries to get money from him for it I can stop him."
"How are we going to do it?"
"I could trace the IP address with Karen...assuming this guy didn't use VPN?"
"VPN? I think you mean IPN."
"Your dimension's weird."
"Says the guy whose dimension has a 'nobel peace prize'. What kind of place gives a peace prize to the guy who made dynamite? Did the guy who made the revolver and the molecular bomb get one too?"
"No, and not the point. And it's atomic bomb by the way." He rolled his eyes (she didn't see it but she could tell) and tapped the side of his mask, "Alright, just gotta enter the website's name and- got it."
"Wait, seriously?"
"Yep. Says here the IP's broadcasting from a warehouse on some place called King street. Might still just be a VPN redirection but can't hurt to check it out."
"I'm game. Gonna give this prick a piece of my mind..."
King street wasn't too far off from where they were. She and Peter snuck through the window and she raised an eyebrow when she saw what was inside, "Those are holographic projectors," Peter said. Yeah, holographic projectors with her and Peter on them. Jumping, throwing punches, dodging a bullet...any kind of pose you could think of with the safe search filter on. Gwen suddenly felt less pissed off and more creeped the hell out.
"Stalker much?" Gwen muttered.
"I don't think it's that. Check it out." One of the holographic projectors moved to throw a punch before moving back to its still position, "I was wondering how this guy was getting paid for the hero stuff. Didn't think they was just running around and demanding money from the people we saved."
"What are you saying? That they're pretending to be us to get money?"
"Looks like."
"Ugh, why couldn't they just stick to posing for photos in Times Square?" She crawled sideways along the length of the wall, making sure to keep an eye on the projectors. A punch, a kick, a goofy pose...it was creepy just how much it looked like them, "I can just imagine these things with a hand out asking for money..." How many people did they trick already?
"I don't think it's just them." Peter zipped past her to the next room and she quickly followed, "Check it out." He pointed to the rest of the projectors. These ones showed villains. Some of them she recognized, but most of them looked new, "I'm guessing whoever's doing this is making villain attacks and then has the projection heroes stop them to get paid."
"How the hell did we not hear about this?"
"We have been pretty busy the past few days and this is a big city. I'm not surprised we missed it." He hopped off the wall and crouched near one of the ground projectors, "Huh...this tech looks kinda familiar."
"What do you mean?" She jumped down and crouched next to him.
"I can't really place it, but-"
Spider-sense. Peter raised his head too and they dodged away just in time to avoid the laser that came down from the roof, "Who dares intrude upon my domain?!" A loud, booming voice echoed around them, "Ah, it is my old enemies the Human Spiders! You were foolish to come here again after your defeat at our last confrontation! Do you so relish the feeling of loss so badly?!"
Wait a minute...she knew that stupid voice.
"Mysterio?! Seriously?!" Gwen stood up from her crouched position and growled in annoyance, "Of all the people it had to be you! You gotta be kidding me!" The guy was worse than Bodega Bandit! At least BB kept his crimes - and that was being very generous - to a minimum.
"I see you tremble with fear! Good, after your last defeat-"
"We kicked your ass, dude! You should be serving 20 to life - I saw the trial!" Gwen shouted, "Just...gah, I can't believe I actually thought someone worse was taking advantage of us! Of course it'd be you?"
"How's he even out of prison?" Peter asked, "I mean he put an entire crowd of people in danger. No way he got out on bail."
"Foolishness! No prison can hold me!"
"Actually, he's not the only supervillain I've seen running around after we stopped them. I saw that Boomerang guy robbing a bank a couple of days ago after you stopped his armored truck heist. Do prisons not exist here?"
"I cannot be-"
"Yes, prisons exist here. They just...it's complicated." Gwen shook her head. Apparently in his dimension when supervills got put in jail that was it. No escapes, no repeat crimes, nothing. What a world it'd be if she didn't have to worry about Dr. Sharktopus escaping the next week after she put him in jail. Maybe she'd take a vacation there if- when they found a way to send him back. Could even take her dad and the rest of the band too.
"Um...are you two-
"I don't see why it's so complicated. We stop the bad guys and they go to jail. Unless the prisons here have revolving doors they shouldn't be getting out. Actually, I really gotta ask, but how do muggers even work here?"
"I'm talking-"
"Oh god, not this again."
"Hey I'm just saying it's super weird that like 10 guys try to mug two people. Even if they did get the purse that's like 10 bucks for each of them if they're lucky. Really not seeing the point there."
"...Please don't ign-"
"I dunno how criminals think! I just stop them, I don't listen to their backstories and tales of woe."
"It still doesn't make any sense. How could-"
Spider-sense again. Gwen flipped to the wall and Peter jumped up to the roof to avoid the next smattering of lasers, "I will not be ignored!" Mysterio screamed. A hologram of him in all his fishbowl headed glory projected into the center of the room.
"Uh-oh, I think we made him mad," Peter quipped.
"Oh no, whatever shall we do..." Gwen's voice dripped with sarcastic fear.
"You two- I shall- Ugh! You will fall here!"
The projected images flew up towards them. Gwen dodged to the side and aimed at kick at the makeshift supervillain's mid-section. Her foot passed through his chest and stopped when it made contact with a metal sphere that flew through the air and crashed against the wall with a loud smack, the hologram disappearing immediately afterwards.
Peter webbed another hologram and smashed the sphere against the wall, "Huh, portable and self-moving projector tech. Cool." Peter said.
Gwen dodged the next laser and webbed the slot it came out of, "You can nerd out later, Spidey. We gotta deal with these guys first."
It wasn't exactly a battle for the ages. The drones couldn't do much more than a few (admittedly bruising) smacks and a few bursts of webbing clogged up the lasers easily enough. All while Mysterio gestured and screamed like he had a freaking seizure.
Gwen kicked the last drone to the wall and smashed it underfoot, "Freaking drones..." She shoved the scrap away and looked up at Mysterio's pontificating (thank you, college classes) hologram, "Right...so we just wrecked all your stuff. Can we finish this up already?" She just wanted to go home and forget about the entire thing. She still had that talk with Harry tomorrow, for spider's sake.
"No, I cannot be beaten! I shall retreat and face you once more I shall-"
"Karen says he's on the upper room on the right. You wanna do it or should I?"
"Let's do it together."
They jumped up to the designated spot and Gwen kicked down the metal door. Mysterio screamed and raised both hands to cover his fishbowl head, "H-Halt! Do not advance any further or you shall suffer the consequences!"
Peter webbed his helmet and tugged him forward. The one-way headpiece fell to the ground and Mysterio stumbled forward, arms flailing, till Gwen flipped and kicked him straight in the face. He crumpled to the ground and she webbed him down while Peter called the cops, "Can't believe we had to deal with this guy again..." She almost wanted it to be someone else. It would at least make her anger feel more justified.
"I kinda feel bad..." Peter said.
"Don't be. Even if this jerk wasn't using us to rip people off he should still be in prison after the shit he did at the concert." It was still a pain in the tush to get a gig sometimes cause people were worried a supervillain would attack on of their concerts again.
"I'm still wondering where this tech came from. This Mysterio guy doesn't seem like someone who could make all this."
"He did say he was a former special effects artist. Maybe he picked up some stuff there?"
"Maybe...I'll take one of the drones, maybe I can get something from it."
Her portal watch beeped, "Mayday says she wants to see us. She's...got an update on the whole 'getting you home' plan."
"R-Really?" The eyes of his mask widened and he practically bounced in place, "It's been a bit since we've got one. I kinda thought..."
"Hey, they wouldn't have left you hanging. Spiders look out for each other." He nodded after a moment, "Let's go see what they have for us."
The place wasn't too crowded this time. There was an Aztec looking Spidey above them checking over the web while off to the side she saw Mirror Gwen (the snake thing was a dead giveaway) talking to the Spider with two guns (staying far away from that) and another one in a black and red costume with long, crimson hair spilling hair out of her back (didn't that get stuck everywhere?).
Mayday, Noir and (oddly enough) Peni were all bunched up together close to the portal. Peter looked like he wanted to charge over to them before she put a hand on his shoulder, "Better we don't surprise them. Noir doesn't like it when people come up behind him." They still had to pick up some pieces from Spider-Pool when he tried to get touchy feel with him.
"Oh, there they are!" Peni smiled down at them from her place on top of her mech. She laid down on her stomach and propped up her head on her hands, legs swinging idly behind her. The girl was absurdly cute considering she was riding around a death machine with buzzsaws in its arms, "We were just talking about you two!"
"Yeah. I heard you have something for us?" Peter asked excitedly.
"It's a bit of a mixed bag..." Noir muttered.
"Yeah, it's both good and bad. Uh...good new first!" Mayday forcefully clapped her hands, "So we, uh, made contact with the Avengers. Or what's left of them. They're doing okay, I think."
"Is...Is Mr. Stark..."
"Yeah, he's okay. He and his wife Pepper Potts are living out in the woods on a cabin. It's real cozy. Um, and..." Mayday rummaged through a nearby backpack and pulled out a small, circular device, "He gave us this, said that if you were for real you'd be able to open it like how you cracked your training wheels program. No idea what that means, sorry."
"I do. Don't worry." Peter pocketed the device with a smile.
"There's something else you should know. That Thanos guy, big purple who destroyed your home? He's dead," Noir said.
"Wait, what?!" Peter's scream nearly made her jump. He stared up at Noir, wide-eyed, "D-Does that mean that everything's okay then?!"
"Not...exactly." Mayday took a deep breath and crossed her arms, "According to what we got from Captain America and Black Widow they actually killed him for a while now. Five years ago."
"Wh-What?!" Peter looked like he was about have a panic attack. Gwen held his left hand and squeezed, "B-But- H-How did- It's only been a couple of months since I got taken to Gwen's dimension! That's not-"
"We're just telling you what they told us, kid." Noir sighed sympathetically, "This ain't the first time dimensional travel's made time belly up. A while ago my home started getting smartphones cause we weren't careful enough. Whoever or whatever took you from your dimension apparently didn't care about the 'when' of it."
"B-But...if that's true then why isn't everything back to normal? They killed Thanos..."
"From what Captain America told us they did track Thanos down to the planet he tried to escape to and reverse what he did but the Infinity Gems...Thanos did something, made the gems useless. Even after they killed him there was no way for them to bring everyone back," Mayday said.
"So...that's it. It's over."
"Peter..." Gwen's grip on his hand tightened.
"Not quite." Peni said, somehow still smiling despite the somber atmosphere, "There's a reason we took a while to tell you about this. A couple of days ago there was this guy Ant-Man. You know him?"
"Uh...kinda. Fought him once." She saw the foootage of the airport fight. Scary stuff.
"Well, he says he was trapped in something called the Quantum Realm for five years and he didn't age at all. And now he thinks that they can use it to find a way back in time and get new Infinity Stones."
"Wait, what?"
"Go back in time, take the stones to the present and use it to undo what Thanos did," Peni said, "I offered to help them out with some of the preliminary tests and so far things look promising! I'm actually heading back to my dimension to see if I can dig something up. Even in 3145 time travel is mostly theoretical but there have been some people who went back. Most of them were one-way, but we could still use some of the principles."
"So...that's it? That's the plan now?"
"It's a better plan than nothing," Mayday said, "We're trying to see if we can integrate some of our portal tech too and if it'll help, but right now we're just in the planning stages. They just got the Hulk and Thor on board."
"This is...it's a lot to take in," Peter mumbled.
"It's not a garden of roses, kid, but it's something. If you trust that Stark guy and all the rest of his Avengers buddies then trust that they can fix this. They've lived in that nightmare for five years, they want to save the world more than anyone," Noir said.
"Five years..." Peter shook his head, "Wh-What about Aunt May and Ned? Are they..."
"We went to their apartments and followed a trace back on the old owners. They...didn't make it." Mayday looked away and pursed her lips, "I'm sorry."
Peter didn't say anything. Gwen mumbled a small thanks to the three and opened a portal back to her apartment. Betty and Murderface were nowhere in sight, leaving just the two of them alone in the small space? "Peter...?" He tossed his mask to the coffee table and collapsed face first onto the ratty couch without a word. No cries, no screams of rage, nothing. Just complete silence.
"Peter, I..." Gwen stopped. What was she supposed to say? Even from the beginning this entire thing was messed up and now it was even worse. He'd lost five years of his life, his aunt and best friend were gone and the only way they could fix this was travelling back in time like some kind of bad sci-fi movie. Even after everything she'd been through she couldn't help but doubt this would work.
"Five years..." Peter said eventually. He sat up and stared ahead blankly while Gwen took a tentative seat next to him, "After the first week here I thought that it was too much time, that back home the Avengers were doing were everything they could to find Thanos and I had to go back. But it's been five years. Five years of the world being half dead and stopping Thanos didn't do anything."
"They still have a plan..."
"Yeah, and there's nothing I can do to help cause the second we open a portal back me and any other Peter Parker gets turned to dust!" He stood up and started pacing, hands rubbing through his hair frantically, "And they're gonna use time travel! There's never been any proven basis for it!"
"Pete, we can travel through dimensions. Hell, you traveled through time technically. This can work." She hoped she sounded more sincere than she actually thought.
"I just...I don't know, Gwen. This is just...this all too much." He sat back down and covered his eyes eyes with his right arm, "All this time I thought that it was so simple. That all we had to do was go after Thanos and we can reverse everything that happened. But now it's been five years. Five years of half the entire universe being dusted and...May and Ned are gone and...and..."
Gwen pulled him into a gentle embrace. Peter reciprocated the gesture slowly, head pressed against her shoulder as he finally cried, "It's going to be alright, Peter..." She rubbed her hands in slow circles on the small of his back, "The Web Warriors are here for you. I'm here for you. We're going to do whatever we can to fix this and make sure that purple asshole doesn't win."
"He already did..."
"Not yet. Like Peni said, we still have a chance."
He continued crying for a few more minutes before eventually pulling back, "...Thanks, Gwen." He smiled at her through tearstained eyes, "I dunno what I'd do without you."
"Same goes for me." She smiled back as best she could, "Hey, what about that that thing 'Day gave you?"
"If I may, Peter, I should be able to help," Karen said, making Gwen jump in her seat. She forgot she was there, "That device appears to be a Starktech holomessage. I believe we can easily decode the lock."
"Yeah. Alright, let's do it." He nodded resolutely.
A few minutes and a couple of connected wires later and a holographic screen popped up above them. The man on the screen was all too familiar - Tony Stark except with an added 10 plus years in age. Peter's eyes widened and the hologram smirk, "If you're watching this then you must be who I think you are. How you doing, underoos?"
"Mr. Stark..." Peter looked like he was about to cry again.
"When your friends first came up to me I thought 'this must be some kind of trick'. I mean, alternate dimensions with Spider-Man or Woman or Emo Guy being a universal constant? Sounded just a bit too good to be true. Thought maybe Steve was pulling a fast one to try and get me on board with his whole friendship circle thing but then I figured, nah. He wouldn't be enough of a bastard to do something like that."
"So we got to talking. Spider-Girl says that you're alive, same age as when you got dusted back on Titan and the reason you couldn't go back was cause you nearly got dusted every time. Didn't ask for proof. I figured anyone who could copy your powers could just make a fake video with you in it. And...I didn't want to know. Scared, I guess, knowing that you were still out there and I couldn't do anything."
"And then old Steve-o comes to me with his...'time heist' and I still didn't know what to think. Made a life for myself. Pep' survived, Happy too. We've been making the most of it. Stark Industries is still there, but I don't really handle that stuff. I wanted to move on, forget how I failed everyone back on Titan and let Thanos get away. Then I started thinking about you. That if you're really out there and you found me just sitting in my forest cabin doing nothing you'd never let me hear the end of it. So after this I'm gonna go help Steve and the rest of them with this plan of theirs. Who knows, maybe we can actually pull it off. Billion to one chance."
Peter was crying again. Gwen debated on whether to cut the message now and save it for later when a new voice interrupted, "Daddy, who are you talking to?" Peter looked back up at the message just in time for a small four year old girl to waddle onto the screen.
"Talking to an old friend. You've seen his pictures around the house. Peter." Stark smiled and put the girl on her lap, "This little miss here is Morgan. I was gonna wait to introduce you till we got you back but apparently she's impatient. Wonder where she got that from?"
"He has a kid..." Peter smiled despite the tears, "He has a kid..."
"Peter?" The little girl looked at the screen with her big doe eyes, "Daddy talks about you sometimes and he always looks said. Are you coming to visit?"
"He can't answer, sweetie. This is a one way message. Actually, I've been blabbing long enough. Anything else I can say I can do it face to face when this whole Time Heist thing ends. Come on, let's go get some juice pops."
The message ended. Peter laughed, soft at first and then eventually louder, "He has a kid..." he repeated, "She's...She's adorable."
"Are you okay?" Gwen asked softly.
"Yeah. Seeing Mr. Stark again it...it helps." He wiped away the last of his tears and smiled, "Gives me something to look forward to when I get back. I just...I still wish I could help them, you know? Me and Peni talked about exploiting the whole 'glitching' thing but so far we haven't come up with anything."
"We'll get there. Trust me." She smiled, "And I guess I can see now why you really trust this guy. Guy sounds way better than the Tony Stark here."
"I still think you should give him a chance..."
"Maybe when he stops sending PMC's everywhere."
Her phone buzzed again. She tapped the screen and her brows furrowed at the singular message: 'Need to meet now' from Harry, "Is something wrong?" Peter asked.
"Uh...old friend of mine wants to meet."
"It's more than that, isn't it?"
"Yeah..." She licked her lips nervously, "He's the one Shadowcat was after, the guy she and S.H.I.E.L.D think is the Green Goblin."
"But you don't think so."
"No. I know Harry, he wouldn't go back to that. Not after what happened." She shook her head forcefully. Even if he still had the serum in his system he was stronger than that, "He said he wanted to meet at the old playground near our house in Queens." She didn't like it. It was too close, too easy for anyone targeting them to catch Ben, May and her dad as 'collateral damage'.
"I'm coming with you then. Maybe he can finally give us a lead on this Goblin guy."
It didn't take them long to get there. Gwen landed on the outskirts and shifted back into some casuals while Peter changed behind a bush (ah, the good old days before symbiotic suits). The last thing they needed was to draw attention to themselves, "I should probably visit Ben and May while I'm here," Peter said, "They invited me over for dinner but we've been so busy I always had to refuse."
"One thing at a time, Pete."
They got to the playground and Gwen froze when she saw that Harry wasn't alone, "Hey, Spider-Girlie. Fancy seeing you here." Shadowcat grinned and dragged her feet against the ground to stop the momentum of the swing she sat on. Not too far away was Harry, head hanging low and sitting in front of the sandbox, "Took your sweet time getting here, huh? Out on a date?"
"What are you doing here...?" Her fingers shifted to claws briefly before changing back.
"What do you think? I'm babysitting Osborn Jr." She gestured to him lazily, "S.H.I.E.L.D wants him in custody and I caught him just a couple of hours ago. He'd be on a cell right now if he didn't get his daddy to pony up for an extension. Better make those minutes count."
"And what makes you think I'll just let you take him?'
"Couldn't stop me last time. Really wanna try your luck again?" She grinned up at Gwen and willed the claws on her right hand to a solid state, "Careful, don't think that fancy suit of yours'll help when I shove these to your brainpan."
"Let's not fight." Peter got between them, "What happened to the Tinkerer? You said you'd keep us in the loop."
"No, I really didn't; you just assumed that. Not like it matters. Mason didn't have anything worthwhile and I got orders to go after Osborn Jr. again. That's why I didn't tell you, by the way. Figured you'd be a pain in the ass about it."
"Whatever. I'm not here to talk to you." She walked in front of Harry and offered him a hand, "Come on, let's get-"
Her words were caught in her throat when she saw the hand that grabbed her own: rough and scaly, the tips of the fingers replaced with sharp claws. Harry looked up and she bit back a scream at the sight of the Lizard like features that took up half his face, "Gwen..." His voice was rough. Monstrous.
"Harry...how? We cured you! We-"
"I was...taken." He stood up shakily, face locked in a grimace, "Dunno who it was. They took me and injected me with the serum, said that since I was one of the longest infected they could try to perfect the serum. Think they...they wanna create something like the Super Soldier serum. I got out a while ago, but I couldn't contact you. Hard to keep focus, to not attack people."
"I can cure you. The symbiote can-"
"I know, but that's not what's important right now." He shook his head, "Overhead them talking. Said they were going to use my...disappearance to their advantage. S.H.I.E.L.D knows I'm the Green Goblin so they're planning to frame my dad, make S.H.I.E.L.D and everyone else go after him."
"Do you know who it is?"
"I believe I can answer that," an all too familiar voice said.
Gwen turned around and growled when she saw Matt freaking Murderdock walking towards them. He looked like he'd seen better days - his suit was torn and ragged and his face was covered in a smattering of dried blood and bruises. Funnily enough she didn't have an ounce of pity for him.
Shadowcat raised a brow while Harry gave her a questioning look. Gwen's face was stuck in a grimace while Peter stepped forward hesitantly, "I...didn't think I'd see you again," he said softly.
"I owe you a debt, Mr. Parker, and I always repay my debts." He chucked lowly and stopped a short distance away, "I'd prefer not to get closer, if you don't mind. I can sense Ms. Stacy's animosity from here."
"What the fuck are you doing here?" she spat.
"As I said, repaying a debt." He tapped his cane to the dirt, "I promised Mr. Parker I'd find information with regards to the man behind this New Goblin. Judging by your heartbeat I assume he told you of our deal."
"What, did you think he'd lie to me?" She couldn't stop herself from sounding just a bit smug about that.
"No. He didn't seem the type." He shrugged, "No matter, I'll stay pay the debt back regardless. I've followed some leads from some of my old contacts and came upon a promising olive branch. Upon some...persuasion I managed to convince his men to give up his name."
"Wh-Who is it...?" Harry asked.
"Oh, I believe you've all met him. One of you in particular has been close to him in recent days." He looked to Peter and gave him a bloody, open toothed smile, "Anthony Edward Stark, better known as Tony Stark."
Like I said this is a bit shorter than usual but it's still decently meaty by fanfiction standards. Hopefully the plot moved along enough for people to remain interested since we've gotten some progress on both the MCU and Earth-65 plot.
Question:
1. Do you guys wanna keep it short and go for the ending soon or extend the story and lengthen how long it'll take 65-Tony/get MCU back home? I can't help but think this fic has gotten way longer than it should have but people still seem to like it so I'm unsure.
2. More lighthearted stuff for the MCU sequel fic, but how do you guys think Peter's friends would react to finding out he's dating Gwen; a college student who's at least 3 years older than him? Especially since the plan is she goes as a chaperone on the Europe trip. Can't imagine Ned or Michelle would just shrug it off...
Hell, if Tony survived I wonder if he'd be proud or confused.
Review Answers:
CaesarKrest - Yeah, the lack of conflict is definitely the clashing between the leads is the main difference for me. Actually makes it harder since they mostly agree on everything.
Titan616 - After this chapter there's no chance Peter would trust Mysterio; at the very least he'd never give him EDITH.
Tellemicus Sundance - Yeah, romance just isn't my forte. That's why Looking Glass keeps it to the side for the most part.
G. Ward - Look up some Spider-Gwen fics since I know a couple of good ones. If you still want them then gimme a PM :)
MattVosty - Tony Stark bad? From all indications, yes.
Redneckjesuswantsahug - As stated before, I don't take requests for other Spiders to show up. This isn't that kind of fic. And yes I know you're joking. As for the pairing, don't you find the lack of drama/edge boring? There's not much tension since they basically get along great from the word go.