Part 4 - Resurgence

Chapter 66 - So It Begins

Teresa did a double-take when she read the line-up for the day's arena fights. She wasn't in a usual last-one-standing match. Instead, she was in a 1V1. However, that wouldn't be much of a problem if it wasn't for her opponent: Gwendolyn Maxine Stacy. At least the Empress had done Miles the courtesy of not shaming his family name.

Miles was woken by a knock on the door to his bedroom in Peter's house.

"Come in."

Peter chucked an envelope to him. Miles groggily opened it while his friend watched. He read the letter inside and frowned first, then his his expression changed to horror.

"What is it?" Peter asked.

"'Dear Mr Morales, you have been invited, as a VIP guest, to attend the arena fight between Her Imperial Majesty Gwendolyn Stacy and long-standing champion Teresa Chelsea.' Peter, what do I do?"

"You go along and see who wins, I guess."

"Oh god, this is because of last night."

Miles paced with his hands on his forehead.

"What happened last night?"

"She tried to kiss me, I pushed her away. She must think I like Teresa. Peter, Teresa kicked Gwen's ass at Pandora's vault, didn't she?"

"Until she hesitated to shoot her."

"And now Teresa hates Gwen with a passion. I have to stop this!"

"I'd start by getting dressed. We can figure out a plan once we're there."

A member of staff showed Miles and Peter to a box fitted with luxurious furnishings. They had only just sat down when the announcer came on and said:

"All rise for the Emperor Lucifer!"

The spiders stood, knowing Lucifer could kill them in a second if they showed any form of rebellion, especially at close enough distance to punch him. The devil gave Miles a wicked smile as he passed, his eyes flashing red. Fear consumed the spider, but he refused to bow to it. The Emperor took his seat just in front of Peter and Miles' bench. The announcer spoke again.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to a very special event!" The stadium erupted in roars. "Today we see the fight between the Empress and long-standing champion Teresa Chelsea! Bring in the contestants!"

A gate opened at either end of the oblong arena. Gwen was in her programmable matter spider suit, Teresa was in her standard arena fighting outfit. The roars from the crowd were deafening. Miles felt his heart pounding. He had known, as soon as Lucifer was introduced, that the devil had had something to do with this. He was either going to lose the person he loved more than anyone else, or a close friend. Usually he would have been routing for Gwen, but this fight had come from a misunderstanding. Peter glanced at his friend, seeing he was in distress. There was nothing he could do to help him right now.

"Two fighters enter! One fighter leaves! Who will be the reigning champion? Let the fight...begin!"

Miles covered his ears, partly to block out the crowd, partly out of distress as he rocked back and forward trying to bring himself to terms with what he was about to witness. Neither deserved to die fighting over him. One of them didn't even like him in that way, and nor he her. Lucifer glanced back at Miles, smiling to himself. It was working: the leader-to-be of the rebellion was being taught what even the thought of resistance cost.

Gwen and Teresa circled each other. Teresa moved first, feinting towards Gwen then kneeling down and slamming her fist into the ground. A blue and white projection snarled at the Empress, charging at her like a rabid dog. Gwen drew a magenta katana, slicing it through the projection but seeming to have no effect. She dropped the weapon and fired a burst of energy from the palm of her hand. Teresa was knocked out of her position and the projection disappeared. The commander had a feeling she was outmatched at the moment; she had to even the playing field. She sprinted around, scuffing her feet so that it threw up dust that blocked Gwen's view, before slamming her fist down and letting loose another blue and white figure which leapt on Gwen, pulling her mask off. Gwen grabbed it by the throat and snapped its neck, peering into the dense cloud for any sign of her opponent. Teresa...no, the buffed up projection sprinted through the cloud and began to throw punches. Gwen blocked each in turn before headbutting it and killing it in much the same way as the previous. The crowd was deafening, but she didn't care. All she cared about was getting Miles back. The dust had cleared enough for the Ethereal spider to see the modified human. She sprinted at Teresa who took the kick, only to grab her leg and hurl her into the the ground. The commander was almost screaming with rage as she threw punch after punch, into the Empress' face. Gwen clawed at Teresa's face, ignoring the hits, trying to find her eyes. However, just as she found them, she wasn't entirely sure what happened. Teresa was hurled off, skidding through the dust, just as confused as the spider who got to her feet, drawing a katana to kill the ex-commander with. Instead, she was facing Miles.

Peter hadn't even noticed his friend was gone, but he certainly was. Lucifer's face was contorted with rage as he stood up to get a better view. The arena had gone silent, waiting to see what would happen.

Miles didn't face either of the fighters. He was breathing heavily, blue electricity coursing through his veins. He couldn't watch anymore; he had had to intervene. He wanted to say something, Gwen and Teresa wanted him to say something, the crowd wanted him to say something...but he didn't know what to say. What was he doing? And in front of literal Satan who had decided it was time to join the party, floating down as if held by invisible strings. The spider faced his nemesis; now was the time to declare the official beginning of the rebellion.

"Who are you to defy this order?" The devil snarled, his eyes blazing red.

"My name is Miles Morales, and I will not stand by as you twist everyone to do your bidding."

"Twist? Let's see how much you twist."

Miles suddenly felt as if he was being stretched and turned into a helter-skelter, wrapped around an invisible pillar. He fired a web at Lucifer who didn't seem to do anything, but still the sticky projectile dropped out the air like a stone. Meanwhile, it was as if someone had cast a healing spell on the wounds in Teresa and Gwen's friendship. With a nod at each other, they attacked the Emperor; Teresa sending a blue and white projection while Gwen barrelled into the devil with magenta wings folded into a delta shape. Lucifer hurled her away with a flick of his wrist before snapping the head clean off Teresa's projection. He pinned his three enemies to the dust and approached Gwen. She struggled but couldn't break free.

"Of course you would leap at the chance to seize power." He reached to his back: a scarlet-bladed sword appeared in his hand. "Of course I would never lend you the Scarlet Crucible to kill 682. It was supposed to kill you."

"No!" Yelled Peter, planting a foot in the back of Lucifer's head.

The devil stumbled before swinging the blade around. It barely grazed the hair on the spider's head, but that was all it took. Peter tumbled, lifeless, into the dirt. The crowd erupted in cheers, letting out chants of 'Lucifer'. But it was far from over. All of a sudden, around fifty dimensional rifts appeared, disappearing to reveal mostly spider people with a few others. Edward stood with his hands behind his back.

"So, Lucifer. Face-to-face at last."

"Melbourne."

"Good to know you still remember me. I won't be the only one."

A barrage of missiles rained on the Emperor, followed by two repulsor shots. Tony Stark landed with his Iron Man suit as Captain America hurled his shield. Lucifer caught it in mid-air, hurling it back at twice the speed before turning to tackle the Superior Spiderman who had leapt on him along with Arachnosaur and far too many people called Peter Parker. Edward morphed into Venom, hauling Miles to his feet. Miles saw the Scarlet Crucible swing, striking Peter Parkers from Earth-99062 and Earth-120703. Gwen helped Teresa up, gripping the commander's wrist even after she was upright.

"I'm sorry."

"Prove it."

Gwen let go, engulfing herself in magenta fire and charging towards Lucifer who had just cut down Spider-Cop. The devil threw his arms out, flattening the spider army, and suddenly morphing into a horrific monster that made them scurry away in terror. Seemingly scorched skin covered his body, wings spread behind him. Even the audience looked terrified.

"You will bow to your Emperor!"

Miles stood up again, refusing to let his fear take hold.

"No. We won't."

Lucifer took one look and smirked before disappearing to wherever it was he planned to sit out the duration of the war. Miles knelt down next to Peter B Parker's body and shook it; his friend didn't move. He closed his eyes, wondering what MJ would say when she heard about her husband's death. He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"There's a lot of people watching." Said Edward.

Miles gritted his teeth and stood up, looking around at the crowd who watched intensely. This was like no fight they had seen before; the tickets were definitely worth the money.

"You have all seen what the Empire does. It takes everything from everyone, it takes away your freedoms, it kills those who don't conform. Now is the time to change that: the Empress is on our side, the Emperor is a coward. A time will come when you will have to choose a side; think very carefully about who you want to fight for."

With that, he typed 9559 into his dimensional watch and warped away.

A few hours went by, in which time Edward provided a briefing on how the rebellion would operate. Due to the lack of numbers, a direct engagement wouldn't work. Instead, they were resorting to guerrilla tactics to disrupt the day-to-day operations of the Empire until support grew. Miles was in 9633, sitting on top of a house that was about in the same spot as his had been before Helltreader had destroyed the Sun, taking the rest of the solar system with it. He had no idea how this was going to go; the rebellion was now officially active in the eyes of the Empire. Lucifer would stop at nothing, no matter how much blood was spilt, to stamp it out and hold on to power. His thoughts turned to Gwen. Like her, he wanted more than anything to split her and the plate. But she was the only one with even a fraction of the power required to take Lucifer down. And on that thought, she seemed to appear out of nowhere as if him thinking of her had drawn her to him. She smiled, hovering in front of him suspended by magenta wings before sitting down next to him.

"Everything is going to change." She said quietly.

"Yeah. I just hope we can win this."

"Lucifer won't actively fight until we've trashed enough of his forces to know it's pointless. When he does, we have to be ready."

"We can't get to that point unless we have an army."

"The Reapers aren't the only fighting force. Military responses are handled on a tier system. Tier one is police, two is standard military, three is standard military with air support from Phantoms, four is the home fleet and five is the Reapers."

"Home fleet?"

"It's a bunch of ships pulled together from before the Empire that had too much potential to just be scrapped. Most have been outfitted to be solely warships. Do you remember the SGC Arachnid? It's one of them because of its bombardment cannon. She's had a load more weapons stuck on, but she's the same ship at the core."

"It hardly matters. We still need an army."

"Normal people will rise up if they have something to look to. Maybe a symbol, or a person."

Miles put an arm around her; she cuddled a little closer.

"I'm sorry." She whispered.

"For what?"

"For the Empire, for merging with the plate, for the arena fight."

"You don't have to say it. I know you are. Just...hang in there and you'll prove to everyone else that you are."

"They hate me. Everyone knows the story of the founding. Some blame Teresa, most blame me. They'll have my head when all is said and done."

"They'll come round. I won't let them lay a finger on you."

She shrugged his arm off. Miles could tell the plate was taking hold of her from how she spoke now: a cold, taunting tone.

"What am I saying? Stop sitting here thinking about it all and let's do something about it."

She flew away. Miles decided to focus on the long road ahead. The people needed a symbol to rally around, and he had the perfect idea.

The former Sol Galactic Command headquarters was still standing, but the Sol insignia had long been torn away and replaced with the imperial flag. Miles fired a web onto its side and began to scramble up. People looked to see what he was doing, recognising him from the arena fight now a day ago. It had been aired live to rub extra salt into the wound, but that had backfired. The symbol was bolted on instead of painted, and it was made from bullet proof stained glass. It couldn't be shattered, so Miles did the next best thing. He began to pull at it with all his might. The bolts groaned and he heard the steel cracking until it finally gave way, tumbling down to the street below. People ran out of the way as Miles pulled out a can of red spray paint. He drew a red shape with ten corners to symbolise each of the streams of the multiverse. Next he drew a shield around them to symbolise their being protected. Finally, he added eight lines coming out to look like the legs of a spider: a personal touch more than a symbol. He swung down and looked up at his handiwork, ignoring the piles of shattered glass that had been the imperial emblem. So it had begun.

Crossovers in this Chapter

- Lucifer
- Avengers
- Venom