This contains spoilers for my story "The Dark God of Thunder." Though at this time it's being rewritten, so do what you will.
I hope you enjoy and watch me divert from pre-existing canon.
Warning: this story features interdimensional travel.
XXX
Izuku winced in pain as he slid into bed, trying to ignore the pain from when Kacchan blasted him after school for getting in his way. He tried his best to hide it from his mother, but she kept asking if everything was okay at school. He lied and said everything was OK and just went into his room until dinner. It hurt less when they started eating, but the burn still felt sore when Izuku sat down.
He was glad when he and his mother finally finished, and he could go back to his room to watch superhero clips. Watching some of his heroes fight evil-doers helped him forget about his troubles.
Inko watched her son shuffle off to his room, his mannerisms betrayed how hurt he was. She honestly wished he'd tell her what was going on at school, but he chose to keep it bottled up. It honestly wasn't healthy for him to do so. Inko tried to push these thoughts away as she turned on the news.
Several hours later, Izuku woke up to the sound of screaming from outside his window. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he pulled back the curtain to look, not seeing anything for a few moments; until a young woman began running down the street, clutching her arm as she looked around in fear. The six-year-old boy watched as a wriggling mass of red tentacles and spikes landed on top of her. The next moments would be burned into his memory forever as a horrific scream erupted from the woman.
The monster happily tore her to pieces, greedily devouring its prey as it recovered biomass. The current host it had bonded to was already starting to die, but he'd do for a bit longer as Carnage finished devouring the girlfriend. The symbiote had just finished licking blood off a severed arm as it tilted its head towards the nearby house, seeing a traumatized kid looking at him in horror.
Izuku saw the monster looking at him as he took several steps back, his fight-or-flight instincts kicking in when the door opened behind him.
"Izuku, we need to leave," Inko said as she grabbed her son. However, both of the Midoriyas froze up as the monster launched itself at the window. The next few seconds were a blur as Izuku was thrown into the hall, and the creature broke in, its pseudopods slicing up the room. Izuku and Inko made it to their living room when it finally caught up with them, a tentacle slicing through Inko's leg and dropping the mother to the ground.
Inko tried to ignore the pain as she looked at her kitchen and used her Quirk to pull every dish, utensil, and object she could onto the monster. The only reason she hadn't passed out was thanks to the adrenaline coursing through her veins.
"Keep running, Izuku!" She shouts to her son as the monster is bludgeoned and stabbed repeatedly by the flying objects. Unfortunately, all this seemed to do was piss the monster off as it pounced on her and shoved various sharpened pseudopods through her body. Inko almost blacked out from the pain as its clawed hand wrapped around her throat.
"No DYING YET, I PREFER MY PREY TO BE WARM AND WRIGGLING," Carnage said as it got to work draining her. It had almost recovered from Thor's lightning attack and then getting lit on fire by Johnny Storm, which was a good thing since his current host was finally used up.
"Get away from my mom!" Izuku says as he runs at Carnage with a frying pan. The symbiote let out a bark of laughter as two of its tentacles slashed across Izuku's body, leaving deep cuts across his chest with one running down his face and neck.
"NEXT TIME, TRY NOT TO ADVERTISE YOUR ATTACK!" Carnage said as it got back to feeding on the mother as her son watched helplessly.
XXX
Batman rushed down the street; his guns were drawn as he tracked the monster. He doubted he had enough ammo, or firepower for that matter, to kill the thing, but he'd make it hurt.
"How's it going, Jason?" Rose Wilson asked her fiance over comms. They found her a safe place to hold up after her arm was broken in the last battle.
"I'm currently following its path of destruction, but I think I'm getting close," Jason Wayne answered as he rounded the street corner. Down the road, he saw the remains of Carnage's victim and a hole in a nearby house. If he was quick, he might be able to save whoever was inside.
Not wasting any more time, Jason slammed into the front door, breaking the lock, and allowing him to see Carnage with its latest victim. The symbiote screamed in pain as Batman's explosive rounds riddled its body, blowing massive chunks away, though its healing factor was hard at work repairing the damage. With its current meal already dead, it rushed Batman, who used his last bullet to blow up the symbiote's head. Carnage took a few moments to regenerate the lost body parts, allowing Jason enough time to activate his shock gloves.
Massive amounts of electricity ran through Carnage's body, when the two came to blows, as it sliced its claws into Batman's armor. Batman's armor was much thicker than the symbiote had dealt with previously, so he was able to do some damage with this new opening. Eventually, it got a few lucky hits in, causing blood to flow down Batman's armor. With its opponent now weakened, Carnage threw Batman out of the house and prepared to pounce on what he believes will be his latest victim.
Jason rolled upon hitting the ground, ignoring the pain coursing through his body as he clasped his helmet, making sure to disconnect it from the rest of the armor. When Carnage was in the middle of its jump, Jason flung his helmet into the symbiote's open mouth. It had a few microseconds to process this before a fiery explosion erupted from the thrown helmet.
Jason watched the flaming symbiote start to flee, and he would've pursued it if he hadn't heard crying from the house. When he rushed back inside, Jason saw a boy with dark green hair and freckles desperately reaching for his mother. Izuku turned to look at the stranger as his strength failed him, darkness clouding his vision.
Jason didn't hesitate to begin pulling medical supplies from his utility belt, working to save the boy's life. The Batman began bandaging him up, all while sirens could be heard in the distance, getting closer.
XXX
Endeavor burned away the webs that covered the warehouse, ignoring the cocooned bodies that fell to the ground as he did. The other heroes quickly evacuated a few that moved as he made his way further inside. It didn't take him long to find the nest, especially as the horrific creature screamed in pain as it dropped a child to the ground while grabbing its face. The heinous creature looked ready to use its six arms against the hostage when the fire-based hero attacked, blasting away the monster.
Wasting no time, Endeavor pulled the little girl free from the webbing, and all the pink, horned girl could do was cry as the Pro-Hero checked her for injuries, his hands bandaged up the wound on her neck. Mina Ashido continued to cry as she was led out to an ambulance and as her mother fought off a pair of paramedics to comfort her daughter. They were the only family left after that monster was done.
Itsy-Bitsy hissed in pain as her flame-coated body smashed through the wall. It wasn't the most painful thing that happened to her. That belonged to her daddies trying to capture her. However, she didn't like that someone interrupted her Japanese buffet or that the horrible child that hurt her wasn't adequately punished. She would have to make sure to find her another day.
XXX
Peter had been awake on his hospital bed when his family finally arrived. There was his younger sister, Teresa, who was busy leading the herd of Spider-Children to their father. It was a difficult job, but she had a lot of experience doing so. The children, six of them in total, had been wondering what happened to their father but were happy to see that he was alive, and then they promptly dogpiled him with hugs. The oldest three were Mary, Ben, and Richard Parker; they are (genetically) eight-year-old clones of Peter, who took them in after finding the triplets in the same lab that Carnage and Itsy-Bitsy escaped from. In another life, they would have been (Ultimate) Jessica Drew, Ben Reilly, and Kaine. The next pair are his twins, Benjamin and May Parker, his five-year-old children by Gwen Stacy. This left the last one, his two-year-old son, Felix, his son by Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat. As for the whereabouts of Gwen Stacy and Felicia, both were killed by people targetting Peter, Norman Osborn and Hammerhead respectively.
"How bad did it get?" Peter asked his sister after his children gave him some space. Except for Felix, who lay curled up on his father's chest to take a quick nap.
"We fought off Raiden's invasion, but we took some hits," Teresa answered honestly. "I think every team took some damage or lost people. Cap is retiring, he lost an arm to someone while killing Red Skull, and he's handing the shield down to Eli. Johnny, Living Lightning, and She-Hulk are missing, the Avengers think they were fighting the Regime when the portals collapsed. You already know what happened to Deadpool."
Peter clenched his fist as he thought back to the multidimensional battle against the insane Thunder God and the Regime. Then his mind drifted to his final battle with Osborn and Wade's sacrifice. The memory caused his eyes to widen in realization.
"Teresa, Norman grabbed a woman named Cassandra before I fought him. I couldn't make sure she was okay before I had to face him, but have you heard anything about him?" Peter asked, internally pleading that she was safe.
"Don't worry, Peter, I'm alive," The Black Bat of Gotham said as she entered the room. She had survived, thankfully, but she could see how tense Peter was at the sight of her crutches and cast. "Don't worry, Goblin just roughed me up after I stabbed him in the eye."
"I still should have done better making sure you were okay," Peter said, ignoring the strange looks his kids were giving Cass. Especially when the young woman ended up using her one good arm to hug Peter, who used his strength to hold her up. "If I was just a bit faster-"
"Don't blame yourself," Cass said as she looked into his eyes. "You didn't know Osborn was out."
The pair just stared into each other's eyes some more before Teresa cleared her throat. "So, big brother, would you care to introduce the nice lady to the rest of your family?"
"Right, Cass, this is my family. My oldest girl is Mary. My two boys next to her are Ben and Richard, Ben's the blonde one," Peter pointed to the various members of his family. "These two are my twins, Benjy and Mayday; Felix, my youngest, is the one asleep right now." Peter hears his sister clear her throat. "And that right there is my baby sister, Teresa."
"It's so nice to finally meet you all," Cass said as she shook Teresa's hand.
Teresa just raised an eyebrow, "So, what kind of relationship do you have with my brother?"
"A friend and confidant," Cassandra offered as she shared a small smile with Peter.
Teresa looked about ready to snark when Benjamin walked over to Cassandra and looked into the vigilante's eyes. "Are you a superhero?"
"Yes, I am. Where I'm from, I'm a hero known as the Black Bat," she answered as she took a seat and began regaling the children with tales of her adventures in Gotham. Peter couldn't help but smile at the sight before Teresa poked his shoulder.
"Seriously, how are you feeling?" Teresa asked her brother, earning a sigh from the beaten hero.
"I'm done, Teresa," Peter answered. "With being a hero, putting myself in danger. I almost got trapped in another world, where I could have died constantly. It put a lot of things into perspective, and I don't think I can keep going."
"Are you sure? You always said you had a responsibility because of your powers."
"Teresa, it's because of my powers that we lost Uncle Ben and Aunt May, not to mention that I lost Gwen, Felicia, Harry turned into a supervillain, and I had to make a deal with the Venom Symbiote to stand a chance against what the Sinister Six became." Peter saw his sister flinch and instantly regretted revealing that last bit. The last time she had been around the supervillain team involved the death of Aunt May, and Teresa being electrocuted by Electro. She still had the burn scars.
"Is it still... in you?"
"Yeah, but I'm having it stay hidden for now. I'd rather not freak out the kids," Peter answered honestly. "I think I might have gone a bit overboard when I fought them again. Did I kill anyone?"
"You didn't, thankfully," Teresa answered as she sat by her brother, Felix still sleeping peacefully in his father's arms. "Eddie's in a coma after SHIELD pulled him from a burning building. You ended up breaking Octavius' back, so I don't think we have to worry about him. Harry, Kraven, Scorpion, and… Electro are back in prison. Logan ended up killing Rhino, so we won't have to worry about him breaking out again. The only one missing is Mysterio, and I'm worried about where he could be."
Peter was ready to ask more questions when he noticed Nick Fury leaning in the doorway. "Sorry for interrupting, but I have something I need to talk about with Peter."
"You can drop the act, Talos; Fury would never apologize if he had something to discuss," Peter said as the Skrull dropped his disguise.
"It was worth a shot, but I have to work on my act," Talos let out a sigh. "The Defenders recently took down a HYDRA cell in the city and freed a bunch of kids who were being experimented on. One of them has a connection to you."
"What kind of connection?" Peter took the file Talos offered and flipped it open. Most of his little horde had been distracted by the shapeshifting alien, but Cass moved to Peter's freed side and read the file after seeing how tense Peter became.
Project Silk: Cindy Moon
"She was the only survivor of Project Silk, HYDRA's attempt to make a Spider Army. Everyone else had either horrifically mutated into monsters or died before the changes could happen. The scientist in charge of the Project, Slott," Talos' eyes drift to May and Benjamin, whose ears were immediately covered by their older siblings. "Had his head smashed in by Cindy when she was released from her cell."
"How is this possible? I burned every file on the Oz Formula and everything in Warren's notes. There is no way they could have-" Peter's words falter at the picture on the next page. It featured a young man who looked exactly like him, except that he had a hole blown through his head. "Unless there was another clone. When was Fury going to tell me about this?"
"He had no plans to do so, especially since this particular clone attempted to kill everyone close to you, including yourself, before replacing you as a 'Superior Spider-Man.' Luckily, he went after the wrong person first."
'The kind who'll do anything to protect him.'
Cass flinched at the memory of Wade when she argued with him.
"Wade killed him and wanted to protect you," The Black Bat mumbled.
Peter clenched his fists, crumpling the file slightly, only calming down when Cassandra placed her hand on his arm. "I'm glad Fury is finally deciding to tell me about this, but why wait until now?"
"Because he felt you should meet that girl and decide what you'll do with her," Talos answered. "She's only a few rooms away. Whenever you're ready, you just have to walk down."
XXX
Herman Schultz, The Shocker, downed some beer with his old friend Abner Jenkins, Mach-IV, a few days after one of the funerals they had attended. Frederick and James were dead, and both former villains couldn't help but feel guilty that they roped them into being Thunderbolts. Sure, they decided to stay on even after Electro fried Atlas and Techno; but the only reason Ross even recruited them had been at the pair's recommendation. Now, Boomerang and Speed Demon were dead, at the hands of an interdimensional supervillain speedster.
"Room for one more?"
Herman and Abner would have told whoever had asked to beat it, but they froze when they realized it was Steve Rogers who stood next to their table.
"Sure thing, Captain," Herman tried to sit up straight, but he lost the ability to do that several beers ago. He had to grab the table to keep from falling, but Steve grasped his shoulder to hold him steady. "Thanks, Captain."
"Just go ahead and call me Rogers," Captain America said as he sat beside the pair. Though he wore civilian clothing, Steve was recognizable to anyone sober enough to walk, which weren't many given it was almost time for the last call. "I'm sorry about what happened to your friends. I may not have known them well, but they fought by our side. To fallen friends."
"To fallen friends!" Abner and Herman follow suit before draining the last of their glasses.
"So, Rogers," Abner began. "What brings you to our little corner, and how did you find us?"
"You are probably the only people who go out to drink in your uniform."
Both of the former supervillains looked down, having forgotten they hadn't bothered to change into civilian clothes.
"As for why I'm here, several of the Avengers are retiring after that last fight."
"I heard the announcement, like everyone else on the planet. Are you sure Eli is up to the task?" Herman asked, setting down his glass.
"I've trained him, and he's been working with the Young Avengers for a few years," Steve answered. "Plus, you saw how he did during the Incursion into Central Park. I think he's ready to be an Avenger, though I'll still be around if he needs any help. However, I'm here to offer you an opportunity to continue being heroes."
At this point, Abner also set down his drink, "What do you mean, Rogers? The Thunderbolts were disbanded, and we all got pardons."
"It doesn't mean you have to stop doing good work," Steve says as he slides a pair of envelopes towards them. "I'll leave you to your drinks, but I hope you consider the offer. The rest of your team has already been asked."
XXX
There is a lot to unpack since this is going under revision, which means I'm essentially restructuring the entire story to fit with my rewrite for "The Dark God of Thunder."
Now for some worldbuilding stuff to give some details about the worlds I've included.
The Regime is led by DC villains this time, with no heroes going evil to form an Authoritarian government.
Peter is 22 years old and has been Spider-Man for eight years by this point. This, along with having a bunch of kids, is why he's retiring from being a hero. Cassandra is 21, so they're very close in age.
The Thunderbolts are a government-sanctioned team that lets enhanced criminals and former villains have the chance to redeem themselves.
I hope you let me know what you think. Especially in regards to The Black Bat, since I'm trying to write her as being kind of blunt.