So this story-arc is going to be partially based on the "Identity Crisis" saga in the Spider-Man comics, with bits of the "Clone" saga as this chapter introduces my version of Ben Reilly. He's not an actual clone of Peter Parker, but he is similar to Peter much like how Ritchie was similar to Ash in the Pokémon: Indigo League anime series. Anyway, hope you guys enjoy!

Episode 36: Two of a Kind!

After Brunnhilde parted ways with Thor by heading back up to the mountains, he joined up with MJ and Peter. Together, they made their way down to La Vie City. Immediately, they were distracted by the neon lights and rush of people constantly moving even in the mid morning.

"This is certainly nothing like my hometown," Thor remarked.

"Yeah, well, this is nothing compared to Yortown," Peter responded. "I wonder if Quill's around here, or if he's gone ahead to Sokovia City."

"Probably the latter," MJ guessed. "Though I'm surprised we didn't meet up with him in Sakaar, or that Gwen girl."

"Maybe they smartly chose not to stay in the cave with the Korg, or chose a different route over the mountains," Peter speculated.

"But they went on the same route we did, and they were ahead of us by at least two days," MJ pointed out

"Guess we'll never know until we meet up with them again." Thor yawned. "With that said, why don't we rest in this town, considering we ran around Sakaar for an entire day?"

"Sounds good to me," Peter said as he looked down at Spidermin. "I'm sure our Marémon are pretty exhausted too."

"I thought you wanted to get to Sokovia City to get the next Infinity Stone Badge," MJ reminded Peter. "And I need to get there to earn my second Affection Ribbon."

Thor then noticed a large television screen near a casino, and something on it caused him to point at the screen. Peter and MJ followed Thor's gaze and were surprised to see an image of Pepper Potts with the bulletin 'Missing Due To Mysterious Anomaly in Sokovia City'.

"What?" MJ remarked. "How can that be?"

"Looks like it either just happened, or maybe it occurred while we were in Sakaar," Peter guessed. "I hope Quill and Gwen aren't missing too."

Just as Peter spoke, other images of people that were missing appeared which included Peter Quill and Gwen Stacy.

"Great," MJ frowned. "I bet this has something to do with that Scarlet Witch."

"Scarlet Witch?" Thor blinked. "You mean Wanda Maximoff, Sokovia's Realm Champion?"

"Duh!" MJ said in a sarcastic way. "It's what the media called her after that botched mission the Avengers were involved in, which led to the Sokovia Accords."

"Oh, yeah, the law that forced the Avengers to register themselves as government enforcers instead of continuing as an independent vigilante-style group," Peter recalled. "That led to the Civil War event, which Tony Stark and Steve Rogers participated in."

"Fortunately, I wasn't involved in that as I was busy dealing with other stuff in the original Asgard realm," Thor stated.

"All right, enough with the history lesson," MJ interrupted. "So what are we going to do about the current situation?"

"I still think we should rest here for now," Thor suggested, yawning again. "Then once we and our Marémon are fully recovered, we'll plan the next move."

"Makes sense to me," Peter agreed.

This made MJ sigh. "All right, but we're not going to stay longer than two days. We still need to have enough money for the rest of the journey."

###

After cruising around the hotels, the three found one place that offered rooms at reasonable prices. Known as the Mercury Rising Hotel, it was a large silver building with a large thermostat imbedded in the center building. The lobby inside was just as nice as the exterior, though surprisingly there wasn't a lot of people. Among the few occupants in the lobby was a tired-looking African-American woman in a business suit at a large desk and a young girl with braided hair sitting in a chair next to the doors.

"Look, Mommy, we've got customers!" cried the young girl.

Startled, the woman in the business suit got out of her tired daze and looked at Peter and his friends. At first, she looked surprised and then quickly hid it with a polite smile as they approached the desk.

"Welcome to the Mercury Rising Hotel," the woman said. "I'm Cassandra Mercury, the hotel's owner, and the little girl over there is my daughter Abigail."

"But you can call me Abby," the young girl insisted.

"Um, hi," Peter said sheepishly. "Do you have any rooms available?"

"Yes," Cassandra nodded. "Would you like three separate rooms with one bedroom each, one room with two beds, or a suite?"

"The suite," Thor insisted, reaching into his blue vest pocket where he pulled out several gold coins. "Will Asgardian Gold be good enough?"

"If you want to exchange it for dollars, then yes," replied Cassandra.

"Fine, then," Thor agreed.

Cassandra then took the coins and traded them for several hundred dollar bills. Once Thor took the bills, he then asked, "How much for a suite?"

"500 dollars for one night, please," Cassandra announced.

Realizing that all of the bills he got amounted to 300 dollars, Thor looked embarrassed.

Groaning, MJ placed two 50 dollar bills on the desk. Peter reluctantly did the same, which satisfied Cassandra to take all the bills away. She then registered them into her computer and then gave them three copies of a card key.

"Hope you have a pleasant stay," Cassandra said cheerfully.

"Sure thing," Peter smiled back.

As Peter looked in front of him, he bumped into someone. Staggering back, Peter beheld a boy that looked almost like himself except with short blond hair instead of brown. Then at the boy's feet was a Marémon that looked like Spidermin, except with no black webs over its spider-like body. Instead, it had a blue body with a red-colored head and matching red limbs.

"I'm so sorry," Peter apologized.

"Don't worry about it," replied the other boy as he walked past Peter.

"Wait," Peter insisted. "I couldn't help but notice you have a Spidermin, though its coloring is different from mine."

"That's because it's a Scarspide," the other boy answered as he looked over his shoulder. "You know about those, right?"

"I think so," Peter said nervously.

Looking disappointed, the other boy turned away. "With that naive attitude, you're not going to survive in this town for long."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because I've been here long enough to see people come here with dreams and full pockets of money, only to lose them all in one gamble. There's also a couple of gangsters currently at war in this town, so you'd best be on your toes. If you need help, though, just ask for Ben Reilly."

"And where is Ben Reilly?"

"You're looking at him."

Peter's eyes widened as the blond-haired boy left the hotel with his Scarspide trailing behind.

To be continued…