Author's Note: I hadn't initially planned to have this be the tenth chapter, but it was pointed out to me that I hadn't featured a Marvel universe yet, and I figured that since I had this idea mostly figured out anyway, I should just go ahead with it. You're in for a real treat, if I do say so myself.
Earth-78227
Midtown School of Science and Technology, New York City
The hallways of the school casually referred to as Midtown were quiet and empty. It was a very sunny afternoon, with the rays of light coming in through its various large windows being just as effective as any set of bulbs. The calmness came to an abrupt end with the loud ringing of a bell, one which indicated that the school day had just officially come to a close. The doors to the many classrooms were opened by the diverse students of the learning establishment, who were now either heading towards the doors or to their lockers. One of said students was an Anglo-American girl with fairly long blond hair and pale blue eyes who was dressed in a short sleeved rouge blouse, a knee length white skirt, and deep brown shoes. She had her bangs held back with a simple headband.
"You look nice today, Betty." another female student said as she passed by.
"Thanks, Jennifer." the girl, Betty, replied.
Betty walked over to a particular locker, presumably her own, opened it up, and looked around somewhat nervously as she peeked inside of a knapsack she had inside her locker. She then zipped it up before pulling it out and placing it over her shoulder and walking away after closing her locker. As she walked, she couldn't help but overhear a less than pleasant interaction between two male students.
"Hey, where's your little penis?" one of them asked the other in a rude, mocking tone.
"Come on, Flash. Leave me alone." the other groaned, clearly annoyed.
Betty looked bak see the two other students, who she easily recognized. The one who was being a jerk, called Flash, was a rather unimposing Guatemalan American with dark hair and eyes. The one he was bugging was a more stout Filipino American who also had black hair. Betty stopped and turned to them. The two both looked at her.
"Ned has better things to do than deal with you, Flash." she said, crossing her arms.
Flash scoffed at her words.
"Like what? Putting a Lego set together?" he sarcastically asked.
Flash strided up to Betty and flicked a finger at her ear. She glared at him in return.
"I was just asking him where Parker was. Relax." Flash condescended to her.
"I already told you earlier that Peter's sick." Ned snapped. "In fact, I'm bringing him his homework so he can do it over the weekend."
"Oh, that's really sweet of you, Leeds. Could you do me a favor and give him a slap on that bouncy little ass of his for me?" Flash asked jokingly.
Betty and Ned then exchanged glances and cracked up.
"Even as a joke, that's a really weird thing to ask me to do." Ned said.
Ned then simply walked away and Betty chuckled as Flash hit the nearby wall in frustration. He then turned back to her.
"You probably think you're a little hero for that, don't you? Let me educate you on something; No one needs Betty Brant to be their knight in shining armor." Flash reviled her.
He then stormed off in frustration towards his own locker and Betty rolled her eyes as she walked in the other direction to leave the school.
"Not armor maybe…but I've sure got one cool suit." Betty said hushedly to herself.
She walked out of the school along with a stream of several other students. Once again, Betty couldn't help but overhear another conversation. Well this one was between friends, it wasn't about something particularly pleasing.
"Nazis! Actual Nazis are attacking!" she heard a guy exclaim in the distance.
Betty followed the voice to the side of the school, where the guy she had heard was standing with a girl and pointing to something on a smartphone he was holding.
"Oh great. Just what our country needs; Nazis rampaging in the street." the girl sarcastically said as she looked. "So…this is happening right now?"
"Yeah." her friend confirmed with a nod. "My big bro just sent me this vid. He was having lunch at Alphonso's Deli when they showed up and started attacking people in the street. I hope he can get outta there in one piece."
Upon hearing this, Betty dashed away from the school. After a couple minutes of running, she was able to find a secluded area in the trees behind the school.
"This will have to do for now. I don't have time to lose." she said to herself.
Betty opened up her bag, revealing what looked to be a folded up ensemble made of an orange and purple colored material. She then ducked behind some trees, out of sight.
"Alphonso's Deli isn't too far from here. I should be able to get there in time to help as long as I hurry." Betty told herself.
Within less than a minute, Betty came out from behind the trees. She was now dressed in the garb she had stashed away in the knapsack she had retrieved earlier, with it now covering her completely, even her face and head. The orange segments consisted of the mask, most of the chest and arms, and the feet, and had a stylized spider web pattern on them. The purple segments made up the rest of the outfit, save for a small black emblem on the chest and a different, larger emblem on the back that was also orange, but lacked the web pattern. The mask also had large white lenses for her eyes, rimmed with black. Her gloves also had black sections around them that extended onto her wrists. The outfit was smooth and had a soft shininess to it. It was form-fitting as well, revealing that Betty was secretly more muscular than one would assume her to be.
"Alright, time to go check this out. This may be a job for Spider-Girl!" she proclaimed.
Alphonso's Deli
Inside the small sandwich shop called Alphonso's, a group made up of both employees and patrons were huddled behind the main counter. Screams and the sounds of a fight could be heard, coming from outside. One of the white apron-clad staff members, a plump African-American man with a bushy black beard, nervously peeked up from the counter to look out at the street through the glass door. What he saw did not make him any less nervous.
"God help us." he spoke as he watched on in horror. "Please, send the Avengers. Just send anyone who can help."
Out in the street were three men and two women, all of whom were Caucasian with their faces exposed. The group was turning over cars, smashing in storefronts, and brutalizing several unfortunate, panicking people who had had the misfortune of just being in the area at the wrong time. One of the men was a huge musclebound brute with brown hair whose sleeveless black shirt had a giant red Iron Cross print on the front. He grabbed a woman who was trying to run away and lifted her up with one hand, before throwing her into another man who was also trying to flee.
"Hahaha! Send a message to Jewish masters, scum! Tell them Iron Cross is onto their game! Hahaha!" the man, who called himself Iron Cross, laughed.
Another one of the men, a blond, was dressed in a tight yellow spandex suit covered with black leather straps that held a metallic case with a swastika on it to his back. The costume extended over his hands and had sharp metal talons affixed onto the tips of his fingers, even the thumbs. He used these to slash at the door of a car, trying to get to two men who had locked themselves inside. The two were now hugging one another and trembling, afraid of what would happen when he broke through. It appeared that the man in yellow had already slashed up the car's tires so they couldn't speed away.
"Once I get in there, I'm going to kill you two faggots!" he shrieked. "I, the mighty Golden Eagle, shall be the doom to all those who choose to engage in sodomy! Leviticus 18:22! Leviticus 18:22!"
"We're not the freaks here, you maniac!" one of the men inside the vehicle cried out.
One of the women of the group ran up to the car her ally was still tearing at. She also had blond hair, and was dressed in jeans, a black bustier top, a dark blue flared jacket, and a skull and crossbones necklace. She wore black sunglasses and carried a metal seeing stick, indicating that she was blind. The woman screamed like a wild animal as she started to repeatedly strike at the windshield of the car with her cane.
"Glad to see you come and join me in my righteous endeavor, Blind Faith!" Golden Eagle greeted her.
A few feet away, an elderly Sri Lankan woman was leaning on the front of another small storefront. She was holding onto a sobbing infant. The woman seemed to be injured and unable to stand up on her own power. Above her loomed the third man and the second woman. The woman, a blonde, was wearing a white crop top and mini shorts and had arms made of shiny metal, with swastikas engraved onto the shoulders. The man had brown hair and wore a white shirt with the flag of the Confederate States of America printed on the front, green cargo pants, and a black biker vest with spiky metal shoulder pads. The skin on his arms looked odd, possessing a slimy texture.
"We don't have any room in this country for dirty brown filth like you!" the man barked at the old woman. "Burn her, Heatmonger!"
"With pleasure, Backlash!" the woman, called Heatmonger, said as she produced a small plume of fire from a slot built into her right hand. "Any last words, you…um…kanacke, I guess?"
The old woman said nothing as she wept, looking down at the baby in her arms.
"What? Are you a retard who can't speak English or something? This is America! Either learn the language or leave!" Heatmonger snarled, her voice full of disgust.
"I think you should be the ones leaving!" an unexpected voice rang out.
Just then, before Heatmonger or Backlash could move to harm the woman and the baby, strings of sticky white fluid were shot at them from above. Backlash jumped out of the way, narrowly avoiding it, while Heatmonger got pinned to the pavement by the material.
"What?! No one dares to mess with my Aryan Brigade!" Backlash shouted in rage as he frantically looked around to try and see where the attack had come from. "To me, men! …and also Blind Faith."
Iron Cross, Golden Eagle, and Blind Faith all dashed over to where Backlash, who was apparently the leader of the group, was standing.
"There!" Golden Eagle pointed up.
It was a figure in shadow clinging to the side of a nearby building. The figure leapt down and landed it on the roof of the car that Blind Faith and Golden Eagle were trying to break into. Betty had at last arrived at the scene as Spider-Girl. Back inside Alphonso's Deli, the people who were hiding behind the counter got up.
"It's Spider-Girl!" one of the patrons announced to the others.
"Awesome! I have to get a video of this for my brother!" another one, a young man, exclaimed.
"No way, kid." the bearded staff member said. "I'm happy she's here too, but we still have to get outta here. We aren't saved yet."
"You're right." another employee, a woman, agreed. "Spider-Girl is out numbered."
A bright light then appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the restaurant. It formed into an only vaguely humanoid mass that crackled with energy. Everyone inside stared at it in utter confusion.
"What in the world is that?!" the bearded employee yelled.
Back outside, the Aryan Brigade also reacted to the arrival of the masked hero.
"Well lookee here; it's that web slinging goody two shoes!" Backlash snorted.
"I'll give you one chance to stop this. No one else has to get hurt." Spider-Girl told them.
The four scoundrels laughed in response.
"You're crazy if you think you can take me down by yourself!" Iron Cross boasted.
"Oh no. I have to beat up some Nazis. I'm so conflicted." Spider-Girl sarcastically taunted them.
Iron Cross charged forward at her. Spider-Girl leapt off of the car and flipped over in the air while shooting some onto the brutish Nazi's open hands. She shot out another strand of webbing that she used to swing over to a nearby lamppost, landing gracefully on top of it. Iron Cross saw this and changed course to head to the lamppost.
"Stop!" Backlash called out. "She's trying to…"
"Prepare to die, Spider-Girl!" Iron Cross bellowed, ignoring his leader.
Spider-Girl stayed perched atop the lamppost and watched Iron Cross reach it. He grabbed onto it and began to try to shake her off of it, only to then have it dawn on him that this is what she had wanted to do. His hands were now stuck to the lamppost.
"I'm rubber, your glue. Etc. etc." Spider-Girl quipped before she leapt off of the lamppost.
Blind Faith and Golden Eagle lunged at Spider-Girl the moment she landed on the ground. Golden Eagle swiped at her head with his talons while Blind Faith attempted to trip her up with her cane. Spider-Girl just barely managed to avoid being struck before jumping up and kicking them both in their faces at once, causing them to stumble back.
"That felt good, I've got to admit. You're all very easy to hate, not unlike one of your idols." Spider-Girl mocked them.
"Don't you dare insult Laura Ingraham, you bitch!" Blind Faith snarled.
Backlash simply watched on, seething in anger. His team was being humiliated and he hated that.
"I was talking about the failed painter with the crappy mustache, but whatever." Spider-Girl retorted.
Blind Faith then sprung back up and tried to tackle Spider-Girl, but was met with a powerful kick. During all this, Golden Eagle dashed away. The kick from the wall-crawling heroine sent Blind Faith flying towards the lamppost that Iron Cross still had his hands stuck to. Coincidentally, Iron Cross had only just then managed to rip the lamppost up from the sidewalk. Blind Faith slammed right into her burly teammate with such force that it caused him to fall over. His head hit a fire hydrant so hard that it began to spray out some water, and the impact made him go unconscious. Blind Faith was still awake, but now pinned Iron Cross and the lamppost. Backlash stepped forward to finally join the battle. He had seen enough.
"You'll pay for standing in our way!" Backlash yelled in rage.
His slimy looking arms then transformed into two large, fleshy tentacles. Spider-Girl tried to jump away, but Backlash managed to coil his stretchy appendages around her before she could. He squeezed onto her tightly with them.
"You're the one who's going to pay, Backlash! I'll make sure of it! " Spider-Girl declared.
Backlash opened his mouth with the intention of verbally countering the superhero he had in his grasp, but he stopped when he heard the sound of an unsettling laughter. It was Golden Eagle, who was now standing over the same elderly Sri Lankan woman that Backlash and Heatmonger were threatening earlier. She screamed in fear as the villainous white supremacist yanked the crying infant from her arms.
"Nuwan! No! Do not hurt my Nuwan!" the woman pleaded.
"Shut up, you worthless hag!" Golden Eagle cackled.
Spider-Girl desperately tried to break from Backlash's grip, but even then knew she wouldn't be able to do so in time.
"No! Don't!" Spider-Girl cried out.
Backlash squeezed onto her even tighter than he already was.
"Good work, GE." Backlash complimented his yellow clad follower. "I think it's time you broke out the wings."
"Finally! This should be a blast!" Golden Eagle hollered.
He slapped the metal case strapped to his back with one hand while dangling little Nuwan around with the other. The case opened up and unfurled a large pair of sharp metallic wings. Golden Eagle looked over at Spider-Girl with a crazed twitch in his eyes.
"Want to know what I'm gonna do, you Spider-Whore? I'm going to fly up a mile high and drop this little mud stain!" Golden Eagle announced.
"No way am I gonna let that happen!" a man exclaimed from behind him.
This surprised both the villains and Spider-Girl, and they all looked to see who it was that had just inserted themself into their conflict.
"Who said that?" Golden Eagle questioned as he turned around and stepped back.
The man now stood revealed to all of them. He was a man who appeared to be of mixed East Asian and European ancestry, with tousled black hair and brown eyes, who . He was wearing a garment that could be best described as a sleeveless men's unitard. It was azure blue in color and had a texture to it that resembled small scales, and had a bronze waistband. He also wore some wrappings and bands that were the same blue and bronze colors around his wrists and ankles. Otherwise, he was exposed, which showed his respectable physique off for all to see.
"Umm…Who are you?" Spider-Girl asked.
"Not anyone who can help you, you fool! The Aryan Brigade is undefeatable!" Backlash boasted.
The mystery man confidently smiled.
"To answer your question, Spider-Girl, you may call me Amphibian." he spoke. "As for me not being a threat to these monsters…"
Amphibian paused on that and suddenly reached out at Golden Eagle's wings. He then ripped the metal wings off of his back with ease before tossing them away. Golden Eagle gasped, but it was short lived, as he was then elbowed hard right in the face by Amphibian. He then twisted the villain's free arm behind his back. Golden Eagle screamed in pain as the sound of the bones in that arm breaking echoed through the air. Golden Eagle let go of baby Nuwan, but Amphibian let go of the now broken arm to catch the baby boy.
"…I would say that's far from an accurate statement." Amphibian finished as he handed the baby back to the elderly woman.
The two men who had locked themselves in the car earlier quickly exited from it and ran over to help the elderly woman get back on her feet. Amphibian smiled and handed little Nuwan back to her. She hugged the baby and then allowed the two younger men to help walk her away to safety with them.
"Nice work! I like you already, mister!" Spider-Girl complimented Amphibian.
"Where did you come from?" Backlash demanded to know.
"From Alphonso's Deli over there, but before that I was in a whole other universe altogether." Amphibian answered.
"Maybe you should have stayed…" Backlash growled.
Spider-Girl could then feel that Backlash's grip had loosened, likely because he had been distracted by the arrival of this new costumed warrior. She immediately moved to take advantage of this and used all her strength to break free from the tentacle and leap forward, landing next to Amphibian..
"What?! No! Get back here!" Backlash shouted at her.
"I'd prefer not to, if you don't mind. Actually, scratch that, I want it to bug you like crazy." Spider-Girl said coolly.
She looked up at Amphibian, who looked down at her.
"Even though we just met, I think we both know what this is." Spider-Girl said to him.
"Oh really? Because I was thinking this was a superhero team up." Amphibian asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Now that's what I'm talking about." Spider-Girl replied.
The two then charged forward at Backlash. He shot his tentacle arms forward at the two, only for Amphibian to grab hold of them and swing Backlash right into the brick wall. Spider-Girl quickly shot webbing at his tentacle arms, using even more than usual so it would be impossible for him to move them at all.
"Well now that he's been dealt with, I should probably explain some things to you." Amphibian said to Spider-Girl. "I come from another uni…"
"Burn! Burn!" a familiar voice shrieked.
Amphibian was then hit from behind by a blast of powerful fire, and he cried out in pain. A worried Spider-Girl turned to see that it had come from Heatmonger, who was shooting the flames out of the flamethrowers built into her mechanical arms. The reprobate's clothes and body were covered in singed white goo, indicating that she had managed to melt through Spider-Girl's webbing from before and free herself. It appeared that Heatmonger had only gone unnoticed because she had already been out of the fight for so long. Now she was back, and it was clear that her abilities made her an actual threat to the hero who went by Amphibian.
"Stop it! You're going to kill him!" Spider-Girl called out.
Heatmonger shot more fire at the ground between Amphibian and Spider-Girl, causing the young adventurer to instinctually back away. Amphibian tried to move to get out of Heatmonger's range, but was struck by the Nazi villainess' flames once more.
"That's the idea! We are going to illuminate all of you SJWs and libtards! Diversity is a cancer that only the Aryan Brigade can save this great white nation from! We are the only true American patriots! Heil Hitler!" Heatmonger wildly ranted.
Spider-Girl began to move to help Amphibian, fire be damned, but then paused when she saw a figure sneaking up behind Heatmonger several steps away. It was a large, bearded black man in a white apron that had the name and logo from the front door to Alphonso's Deli printed on the front. He was carrying something in his right hand as he approached. He noticed that Spider-Girl had seen him and he mouthed something to her. Spider-Girl then folded her arms, her demeanor changing.
"So, did your parents name you Heatmonger or what?" Spider-Girl asked slyly.
Heatmonger became perplexed and ceased blasting Amphibian for a moment. Even with his powers and durable costume, he had still been weakened by the fire and wasn't ready to retaliate just yet.
"What? Of course not. My name is Lucia Coolidge." she answered.
"Wait. A woman named Coolidge who is all about fire? There's a joke in there somewhere. Of course, you're already a walking joke." Spider-Girl insulted her foe.
"What makes you think that?" an offended Heatmonger asked. "Backlash says that I'm awesome…for a broad who was born without arms."
"Well, first of all, you use the terms 'SJW' and 'libtard' like you're one of those shitty YouTubers who say Indiana Jones 5 is gonna bomb because there's a woman in the main cast, as if that's never been a thing before. You probably think calling something 'woke' still means something for crying out loud." Spider-Girl retorted. "Second…and this is more important… is that you're too blinded by your bigotry to realize that you would've been killed in Nazi Germany."
"Wh…what? Sh…shut up…I don't know…" Heatmonger stammered.
"Lucia, the Nazis you idolize hated the disabled. They saw them as subhuman. You and Blind Faith over there? You would have both been killed." Spider-Girl continued. "Do you really think you would be a part of this team F but others had found another Nazi sympathizer with powers did have both their arms? Backlash is just using you."
"Lies! Nothing but lies! I'm gonna make you into a pile of ash!" Heatmonger roared in anger.
JHeatmonger moved to shoot her fire directly at Spider-Girl, but before she could, the deli staff member, who had been silently inching closer and closer the whole time, lifted up the object in his hand. It was a large metal meat tenderizer, which he swiftly slammed hard into the back of Heatmonger's head. He repeated this action two more times, drawing some blood in the process. Heatmonger collapsed onto the ground.
"Should've worn a helmet." the deli worker quipped.
Amphibian staggered over to the still leaking fire hydrant and started to drink from it and splash it on his face. The contact with the water ever so briefly caused his skin to take on a bright orangish red color before fading to normal again. Now fully healed, he walked over to Spider-Girl and the man from the deli who had unexpectedly come to help fight the Aryan Brigade.
"You. I saw you in the restaurant, where I first arrived in this reality." Amphibian stated.
"That's right. I was too freaked out to say anything then." the man said. "I was going to run away out the back with the others, but just as we were all heading out, that couple came in with that woman and her grandson. I asked them why they helped her, and they told me they did it because it was the right thing to do and that it'd be cowardly to not do their part to help prevent a tragedy. That inspired me… Alphonso hired me right before he passed away, when nobody else would give me a chance because of some mistakes I made as a kid. He loved this neighborhood more than anything. I couldn't just stand by and watch it get wrecked."
Spider-Girl placed an orange gloved hand on the man's shoulder.
"I probably could've stopped her on my own…but I'm happy you helped when you did." Spider-Girl thanked him. "You may want to get out of here though. We wouldn't want the cops deciding to make you the villain in all this."
"Do you think that they would seriously do such a thing?" Amphibian asked, his heart dropping.
"Possibly. Maybe watching the news with my step brother is making me too cynical." Spider-Girl said, taking her hand off the man's shoulder and rubbing the back of her head.
"Honestly, I just want to get home and see my lady. She's not gonna believe this." the man chuckled as he walked off. "Thank you both!"
After the man was out of sight, Amphibian looked down at the younger superhero before him.
"Spider-Girl, I didn't just come to this universe to help punch evildoers. I was sent here specifically to meet you and tell you of something of grave importance." he confessed to her.
"Sure, Amphibian, I'll hear you out. After all, you came to my aid when I needed it." Spider-Girl responded. "Not here though. We should go somewhere quieter. I can already hear the sirens. These five'll be locked up in the Raft before the day's over."
A lonely factory rooftop, a short time later
Spider-Girl sat on the edge of the rooftop with Amphibian standing behind her. The sunset was just beginning to appear in the sky. She stood up and turned to face him, removing her mask and letting her hair free to be blown in the wind.
"This is a nice version of New York you have here." Amphibian commented as he looked off in the distance, eyeing the top of the One World Trade Center.
"Yeah, I guess we do." Betty said. "So you're from another world in the multiverse, you say?"
"I am." Amphibian confirmed. "Tell me, how is it that you already understand the concept?"
"It's not that weird an idea to me. The Avengers, the big hero group here, have said they've been to alternate Earths." Betty grinned. "…oh, and this group called the Defenders have apparently met the protector of another world before. They haven't told me much, but apparently he was, no joke, a samurai rabbit. They didn't really tell me how it all went down though."
"Wow. Now that's a story I would've liked to have heard." Amphibian said. "Unfortunately, I'm going to have to return to my own world soon. I'm part of a team there, the Squadron Supreme."
"That's all fine and good, but what is it you were sent here to tell me? A warning about a threat to my world?" Betty asked.
"A potential one, yes." Amphibian confirmed. "One of the members of my team is a man called Hyperion. He is incredibly powerful, the last remnant of a race called the Eternals. A while back, a version of Hyperion from another universe invaded my home universe. Unlike the Hyperion I call my friend, this one was an evil conqueror who left his own Earth in ruins. Though we were able to fight him off, he escaped. We now fear that he is out somewhere in the multiverse, waiting to make his next move."
"So you came here to warn me in case he comes to this universe? How?" Betty asked.
"Arcanna, one of my teammates, is thought to be the most powerful magic user on my Earth. Some even call her the Sorceress Supreme. She was able to cast a spell to send all us Squadron members to other worlds, ones she glimpsed into to find heroes for us to speak to." Amphibian explained.
"She sounds like an impressive lady." Betty commented.
"Oh yes. She's quite a looker too. Seriously, I've seen women openly reconsider their sexual orientations the moment Arcanna walks into the room." Amphibian laughed.
He then grew much more serious, remembering that he had limited time.
"But back to the matter at hand; We're worried the evil Hyperion may resurface on another world soon, but even we can't patrol the whole multiverse. It's impossible." he said. "So we decided that the best course of action was to entrust different heroes on a number of Earths with something that can help them, should he come to menace them instead of us."
Amphibian opened a hidden compartment on his bronze belt and took out a small sliver of glistening red stone. He held it up to Betty's face.
"It's…beautiful. It looks just like red beryl." Betty said.
"Beautiful…and dangerous. This is called Argonite. It is the only known substance that is able to harm Hyperion. It's like poison to him. If one were to shoot him with a bullet made of it, he would very likely die from it." Amphibian informed her.
He then placed the shard in Betty's hand.
"If the evil Hyperion comes to this world, this could prove to be the key to stopping him. Arcanna believes you are the one best suited to guarding it, in case that day ever comes." Amphibian said.
"Why me? Why not the Avengers?" Betty asked.
Amphibian placed his hand on her shoulder and smiled at her.
"Don't doubt yourself. You are a brilliant and capable young woman. Even if Arcanna hadn't told me to give it to you, I would've done it anyway after seeing you in action." Amphibian assured her.
Amphibian's body then began to glow with crackling energy. He stepped back, still smiling at Betty.
"It looks like the spell is wearing off. Goodbye, Spider-Girl, and good luck." Amphibian said.
Betty reached out with the shard of Argonite still in her hand.
"Amphibian! " Betty called out.
The light consumed Amphibian and he disappeared along with it. Just like that, he was gone, returned to his native Earth. Betty looked down at the shard again.
"Hmm. Looks like I'm stuck with this now. Alright, Amphibian, I'll do my best if something happens. I just hope it doesn't come to that." she said to herself.
Betty then tucked the Argonite away in her suit, pulled her mask back over her face, and swung away on a line of her webbing as the warm light shined off of her orange and purple Spider-Girl suit. Once she retrieved her normal clothes and books from where she had stashed them away behind her school, but he would be going home to take a well-deserved rest. To the other students at Midtown, like Ned, Flash and, if he hadn't been out sick, Peter Parker, this would've been just another normal day of the week. For Betty it wasn't that. No, it had been a very wild day for her. She didn't mind though, because she knew those were guaranteed to happen so long as she was the breathtaking Spider-Girl.
Introducing Earth-78227, the home reality of Elizabeth "Betty" Brant, aka The Breathtaking Spider-Girl!
Some Notes:
- Earth-78227 is inspired by the reality with the same numbering from the canon Marvel Multiverse, which was introduced in the seventh issue of the first volume of What If?, which explored what would've happened if a number of Peter Parker's supporting characters, including Betty, had been the one bitten by the spider.
- This is an "MCU-ified" take on the same idea as that Earth; Betty is a blonde because she looks like Angourie Rice, her costume is a palette swap of Peter's Stark suit from Civil War and Homecoming, etc.
- Instead of the impractically skimpy outfit from the comic that inspired it (Not that I have a problem with stuff like that), I elected to have Betty wear a more practical, traditonal costume, where the difference from the normal Spider-Man's one is its color. I went with orange and purple because that's actually what Steve Ditko originally colored the suit as before it was changed to red and blue. So Betty's actually an inversion of the "villains wear secondary colors" thing you often see in comics.
- Amphibian is from Earth-712, which is home to him and the rest of the Squadron Supreme. Like with Betty's home reality, this is a "MCU-ified" take on the universe, with liberties about it taken, as demonstrated with Amphibian himself (more on that below). The Squadron hasn't fallen apart due to infighting (yet) as they're currently focused on preparing for the evil Hyperion to return, where ever that may end up being.
- A detail that's unique to this version of Amphibian is that his skin turns orange-red when he's submerged in water, along with temporarily gaining aquatic features the longer he's in there. This is because he is a mutant, and is a reference to both the orange parts of his first costume, his original hair color, and the less human look of the female Amphibian from Supreme Power, which was an Ultimate Universe-style take on the Squadron...which I'm not all that fond of honestly, but whatever.
- I picture Amphibian as being played by actor Ian Anthony Dale. I have two reasons for this; The first is because Dale was among the actors on a list of potential choices for the MCU's Namor the Sub-Mariner that I read a couple years ago. The second is that Dale played Davis Lee on the short lived NBC series Surface, which had a plot involving sea monsters.
- Dale is half Japanese, half white, in case you didn't know. That's why Amphibian isn't a white redhead anymore.
- I'm honestly not sure why I went with Amphibian over any other Squadron Supreme members. Perhaps I subconsciously thought of it because Amphibian's real name is Kingsley Rice, a riff on Arthur Curry/Aquaman, whom Amphibian is Marvel's pastiche for and, as mentioned above, Betty is supposed to be an alternate version of the MCU's Betty played by Angourie Rice.
- The Aryan Brigade, while native to Earth-78227, are a team of villains from the pages of DC Comics. They first appeared in the tenth issue of Justice League Task Force, and I decided it'd be best to go with the original lineup of the team instead of including any of the later members like Bonehead.
- Yes, that was indeed a reference to Miyamoto Usagi from Usagi Yojimbo there. I thought it'd be a cute nod to the events of In Hand and Foot.
- Lastly, the description of what Argonite, Hyperion's equivalent to Kryptonite, looks like is actually a reference to the infamous fantasy novella The Eye of Argon, where the titular item is described as a "scarlet emerald", which is another name for red beryl.
Phew! Well, that everything for today. I hope this proved to be an enjoyable and exciting read and that you check out the next chapter when it come. I wouldn't expect the eleventh chapter to come out very soon though, as the next thing I have planned is a special one-shot I'll be writing in celebration of Halloween. Keep an eye out for it, because well...
...Scooby Dooby Doo, where are you? We've got some work to do now...