Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel or DC
Universal Collision: The Trailblazer
Chapter 4: Web Warriors
Julia Carpenter's Sanctum had a more personal touch than what Peter was expecting. He believed there would be some kind of haunted house, a mansion of mad wonders. They had stepped through the portal and into a house, but it lacked any dust, the books were of both science and the theories of magic and there was technology too, computers the kind that Oscorp had used back in its hay day. Ben and Anna looked around in awe, towards the sky light shaped like a web. Julian removed her coat, placing it on her chair. Her hand lovingly touched the picture frame on her desk, it showed her without her shades, her arm wrapped in an embrace with a face that was familiar to Peter.
"Peter 3," he whispered, loud enough for the Sorceress to hear.
"I come from a world similar to the one the other Peter you encountered came from, I too was altered by spider venom, it would have killed me if my Peter didn't save me with a blood transfusion," Julia explained.
"So you guys went from sharing blood to sharing…"
"Toothbrushes," Peter interrupted Felicia's statement.
"We aren't kids anymore dad," Anna rolled her eyes.
"It wasn't instantaneous, he was mourning his lost love Gwen Stacy, eventually he came to love me, and we worked together as Spider-man and Spider-Woman," Julia stated.
"By how did you get onto our Earth?" Ben asked.
The sorceress brought her hands together, using eldritch energy to conjure a construct. It took the form of a Hispanic girl wearing a denim jacket.
"This is America Chavez," she said, and the three Parkers snorted, nearly breaking off into full on laughter.
"America, seriously?" Anna asked.
"What were her parents called, Colonialism and Immigration Chavez?" Ben asked.
"Inventive kids, but that joke won't age well, let's just leave it as the Multiverse being weird," Peter said.
"Indeed, Chavez is unique in the fact that she is capable of creating portals across the Multiverse, alongside the likes of the Scarlet Witch and the Phoenix, it makes her a Nexus being," Julia explained.
"And America ended up coming to your world, didn't she?" Felicia asked.
"She did, America was running from an entity, creatures created from witchcraft that were capable of going into other worlds in the Multiverse. Peter and I tried to help her, but he was killed, and I was injured just as America in her shock teleported us to another world," Julia slowly pulled off her glasses, making Anna and Ben turn away in horror.
The pupils of her eyes were white, and there were the signs of burns around her eyes. Despite their being no light in her eyes though, they seemed to react and be capable of some limited form of sight. To demonstrate she released a psionic web across the Sanctum, pulling a book to her grip.
"Chavez was moving through the Web of reality, the way we perceive reality and traverse it," she opened the page and this time a hologram emerged from it.
Bigger than the previous construct of Chavez, the web showed numerous windows of other worlds. Those worlds were connected by strands of webbing, adding to the analogy. Anna looked up in awe of a world where a Spider-girl swung through the streets of New York. Ben saw both a spiralling metropolis protected by a futuristic Spider-man, and a black and white street patrolled by a Spider-man in a fedora and turtleneck. A small smirk crossed Felicia's face when she saw a version of herself, the cat like motives of her costume replaced by webs with lenses on her mask. Peter scanned the windows, seeing a Spider-Cop, a cyborg Spider-man, a Spider-pig and worlds where he wasn't Spider-man at all, but it was instead Gwen or a dark-skinned boy who wore spider costumes.
Then his eyes landed on two windows that were quite close to one another. One showed a young Peter Parker meeting a red-haired girl.
"Good for you Peter-Three," he whispered.
Finally, he saw an even younger Peter, this one in full costume, sitting on the edge of a building, alone.
'It'll get better Peter-One,' he wanted to say to his younger counterpart.
"Is that why you summoned us here, to fight this thing hunting Chavez?" he asked Julia, who shook her head.
"When I arrived on your world, I was treated and trained by the previous Sorcerer Supreme, Wen Wu, we were able to discover the source of the demons," her hands tightened around the book, before she turned another page. "America has found safety though…"
"As we always do," Ben quipped, exchanging a high five with Anna.
"The girl is where she needs to be, actually, she's in the same world you were once sent to Peter," Julia said.
"Wow, small Multiverse," he muttered.
"There is something else moving across the Multiverse," she tapped the sides of the books, recreating the hologram of the web.
But this time they were shown blank windows, and broken threads of webbing. Then there came decimated worlds where heroes had lost. Peter gasped when he saw his younger counterpart lying amongst piles of dead Avengers. Anna brought her hand to her mouth, seeing one world where she was in a hospital bed. Ben stepped back slightly when he saw another version of himself, holding the tattered remains of his father's mask. Felicia's face though was unreadable, even as she watched her own younger self crying over the body of her Peter.
"Someone has been attacking realities, even destroying them," Julia said.
"Do we know who it might be?" Ben asked.
"I suspect that it may very well be connected to this young man," Julia said.
She formed one final construct, a silver haired boy holding a red and white sword.
Sieg cut apart two more pruning batons. He looked towards Mobius, seeing the doors open behind him. Men and women with heavier armour and rifles emerged. Before they could fire though, J'onn came up through the ground, passing his hands through their chests. Sieg remembered the move Vision would use, partially solidifying his limbs through people to knock them out. It was a dangerous manoeuvre that required precise timing and an awareness of one's physical body. Vision and it seems J'onn would have easily been capable of killing people with that move alone. Adding J'onn's 'Martian rays' from his eyes, his already Kryptonian levels of strength and his telepathy made him a powerhouse in a league separate from Superman, and far surpassing Vision.
"Running out of guys," Mobius whispered.
"That and more," J'onn said.
J'onn's legs twisted and coiled, turning them into a snake like coil. He slithered fast across the floor, knocking down one TVA soldier after another. His arms extended, his fingertips became like spaghetti, worming their way into the armour of the more heavily equipped Pruners. The Martian's eyes glowed, instantaneously absorbing information about the armour from the minds of those wearing them. Within those seconds of breaching the armour, he understood which parts inside it to remove to shut them down, even to make the armour fall apart. When the last pieces of one Pruner's armour fell apart, he received a punch to the face from Sieg.
The boy was using his sword as a board now, hitting enemies with the flat of it and dirtying his hands with hard punches to their faces. He landed in front of Mobius, shocking the TVA investigator. Mobius went for his own baton, but Sieg grabbed his arm.
"In the words of a hero of my world, THIS ENDS NOW!" Sieg yelled as he performed a Judo throw, throwing Mobius over his shoulder.
"I prefer that guy's brother," Mobius muttered, before he was slammed back first against the ground.
Again, J'onn came through the floor and grabbed the sides of Mobius's head.
"I am sorry," he said with glowing eyes.
Mobius yelled in agony, images flashing through his head. His legs thrashed about, and he tried to get out of the heroes' grip. But the images kept going into his mind, J'onn lowered his head in sympathy, thinking of the life that was taken from him as well. Eventually J'onn and Sieg separated from Mobius, out of both necessity and the fact that the work was done. Mobius got off of the floor, watching the fight not with his previous wonder but growing concern and regret. His voice cracked as he let out a deep breath and his eyes began to shine with tears.
"It was a lie, it was all, all a lie," he whispered.
Across the Multiverse
"Let me make something perfectly clear, this is not a textbook definition of my weaknesses, you may encounter a pattern with my counterparts, but do not make the mistake of believing that we are all the same. For a time, all I ever wanted was control, to create the kind of world I wished to have. So, I utilised technology and the discovery made by the most unsuspecting of men, Scott Lang!"
As and after Gryphon had briefed them, the heroes of Oli's league got to work. He and his partners Black Canary and Speedy travelled to a world that had breached the conditions of the sacred timeline. It was a world where instead of Thor becoming worthy of the hammer, it was Jane Foster who took up the hammer in the wake of Thor's death by the Destroyer. TVA agents arrived, trapped the new Mighty Thor in a time field and attempted to destroy their world with a Pruning charge.
Suddenly, Dinah unleashed her sonic scream, destroying the charge before it could be activated. Taser arrows hit the TVA soldiers, filling them with much more forgiving pulses of electricity that what Foster would have given them. Once they were unconscious, Oliver picked up the temp pad, looked to the still open time door and then at the freed Might Thor. He smiled as he had a sudden idea.
"Most people of my century remember him as a joke. But I always found Scott Lang to be perhaps the most fascinating Avenger, here was a man who lost time, again and again, when he was sent to prison, when he became lost in the Quantum realm, it all comes down to time lost. Time is something all people see as precious yet ultimately end up wasting. The one who controls time is the one who controls everything, the most important aspect of the universe."
Arthur Curry, the Aquaman and his wife Mera were the ones to travel to and save a world the TVA dedicated a force of armour warriors to prune. The common mistake people made with Arthur was the assumption he was all about talking to fish. Clad in his orange mail shirt and green gauntlets, he delivered punches that astonished the armoured soldiers. One punch was enough to dent armour and send heavy opponents flying. His strength was enhanced as his durability was, how else was he capable of swimming fast across the ocean and through its darkest depths, depths that would have crushed the Aquaman naysayers. Since leaving Oli's league, he had gained new responsibilities and a new weapon. Twirling his gold trident between his fingers, he broke the Pruning equipment the TVA used.
Likewise, his wife commanded similar power through her hydro kinesis. Water within the very atmosphere itself became her tools to meld weapons, and she was already a natural fighter. In her sleek green scaled suit, she dispatched the TVA soldiers, and those she missed were caught by this world's first modern day protector and the reason the world was targeted. Ant-man moved between enemies, knocking them back with single punches despite being of a small size. When he grew to full size, he revealed the red and black shirt he wore, the white trousers, the belt with an arc reactor on the buckle and the silver ant-head shaped helmet with red lenses over his eyes. Then he revealed the face of Tony Stark, student of Hank Pym in the place of Darren Cross.
"If I could not control time, then I would of course use time, history would be my greatest weapon. With it I could study my opponents, the kind of lives they had lived, what their real names were under their masks (for those cared to or were smart enough to keep a secret identity) what their physical or psychological weaknesses were and what drove them. On the physical level, I could get a hold of weapons, styles of fighting lost to the centuries, and with my own mind I could create devices that could use time itself as a weapon."
Michael Carter, known to the present century as Booster Gold, was used to time travel. He had been to the Vanishing point, to the end of time and back again and had even prevented the universe from falling apart due to meddlers in time. Some people remembered the Legends of Tomorrow as the greatest preservers of time, and that was Booster's fate. He had to be the greatest hero no one knew, the man who was all smiles on the surface. But Booster knew himself that he was being the kind of man his sister would be proud of. He grinned his practiced celebrity smile as he blasted some of the TVA soldiers away.
"Ladies," he winked at the people who had disrupted the sacred timeline.
"You want to save worlds, I want to stop the Director, so save worlds, and turn time into my weapon. A weapon we will use to destroy the TVA, their temp pads are a rudimentary device I created for even the simplest of mind to operate, they were easy to mass produce, which is why they are so fragile. They are your way into the very heart of the TVA, to a city outside of time."
Time doors opened across the TVA, Ravonna widened her eyes when she saw the heroes of supposedly dead worlds emerged. Green Arrow appeared before her with Speedy, Black Canary and the Mighty Thor.
"Eat my hammer," Jane said.
She threw Mjolnir, destroying the bench Ravonna sat on to judge others. Her latest judgement pulled the collar off of his neck. On his world, Matt Murdock had killed the Kingpin, the sacred timeline deemed he wasn't supposed to. It didn't take him long to team up with the other nonpowered vigilantes.
"Eat my hammer, seriously," Mia cringed as she pinned a TVA soldier to the wall with her arrows.
"Enhanced hearing right, you may want to block your ears for this next part," Oli said to Matt, both of them fighting back-to-back with the TVA troops.
Black Canary took a deep breath and screamed, the sonic wave created further destruction and threw Ravonna through a wall. It was in that room that another time doorway appeared, and gigantic ants began to crawl through.
"I NEVER KNEW THEY WERE THAT BIG!" TVA analyst Casey yelled as the ants stampeded through his workstation.
His drawer was knocked open, scattering stones of different colours across the floor. Ant-man Tony Stark stood on top of one of the ants, then grew to giant height as Mera released a tidal wave. Hunter-B15 moved with her men through the corridors of the TVA, prepping their weapons. She wasn't shocked when a portal opened behind her. What did shock her was Booster Gold running for his life.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he repeated.
The outraged battle cries of an army of women followed his pleas, and what came through the portal made Hunter-B15 finally back away in fear. Atop their winged horses flew the Valkyrie of Asgard, from a world where they were able to claim victory from Hela. Such chaos should have resulted in a massive number of casualties. But as the destruction spread, a white and black blur moved through the city. People were taken away from danger, saved from debris, from stampeding ants and angry Valkyrie. The destruction of the TVA was to come with no casualties, as the heroes aimed to save the people brainwashed by the authority. Ravonna noticed that she, and the rest of the people were being herded, gathered in one place by the blur. She tried to run, only to hit a solid chest.
"Sorry about all of this, but there are some things you all need to know," Superman said.
Gryphon emerged from his time portal, much to the shock of all the TVA members.
"Director…" Ravonna never finished, as she and every one of the TVA staff was suddenly frozen.
Gryphon kept his hand raised, particles of nanites forming the purple glove of his armour.
"As agreed, no casualties, they'll stay locked in time until they awaken back in their normal lives," he said.
"And you will return them?" Clark asked.
"Ordinary men struggle to keep their word, I am no ordinary man Mr Kent, I'll have plenty of time to send them all back to their mundane lives. Time however is running out for you Superman, you'd best return to your world and your fortress swiftly, before my variant gets there," Gryphon explained.
He opened a time portal with his other hand, Clark looked back at the victims of the TVA before he rushed through the portal.
"Who the hell is Siegfried Reilly?" Anna asked as she and Ben looked at the holographic image.
"Not unique amongst the Multiverse, there are other versions of him," Julia said.
She waved her hand, conjuring two more images, one of a Sieg wearing a black suit with a yellow X on his chest surrounded by characters Peter found cool, though he wouldn't have wanted to meet the short guy with claws. The other showed Sieg in red and white armour, holding his sword over his shoulder as he faced a man in purple and green alongside a group of 'Young' Avengers that included Peter-1, an archer girl, a dark-haired boy with a red cloak and a girl in red and blue.
"But this version, is unique in the fact that he joined multiple Multiverses together, and in that act, he opened the Multiverse to other threats, Crisis, Darkness, forces of Anti-life, Conquerors," Julia whispered the last part as Peter put his mask on.
"So why don't we find and help this kid?" he asked.
"That's assuming he's in danger," Felicia added.
"People will seek him out, to study the power he used, to replicate it if they can, either way we have to find him to understand it and contain that power," Julia explained.
"Again, that's based on the assumption that he could access that ability again, there must have been several circumstances behind this event," Spider-man stated.
"Shouldn't we get started?" Ben asked.
"Yes, we shall," Julia rotated her hand, her eyes glowing underneath her shades.
Her web like portal suddenly created a great 'boom' noise, as if shattering the space around it. Where once there was Julia's desk, was now set a blue web portal that showed a bridge in Central Park. Peter recognised even variants of central park, this one certainly seemed a lot greener, moss was even growing on the stone. They followed Julia through and arrived in a world different from theirs. It was not just a greener central park, but a world of flying cars, more advanced buildings and even the sky was different. The air smelt cleaner to Peter, but the sky was a different matter in the fact that it showed in orbit with Earth some kind of massive artificial construct.
"That would be Asteroid M, I'm imagining you've got the same reaction I had hidden under there," a voice spoke from above.
Peter turned, his spider-sense flaring in recognition of another spider. This Spider-man had the same red and blue as his costume, but he was wearing a helmet and had orange webs across his suit. He was also crouched on top of a round flight platform; the roar of its engine reminded Peter of Osborn's glider, but its style and decorations were more spider like. The new Spider-man climbed off his glider, which folded into a backpack as he removed his mask. It was a familiar face, with a smile that Peter missed.
"Harry," he gasped.
Ben and Anna looked between one another, both concerned when their father removed his mask. They had heard bad things about both Osborns, from both their parents, but they both knew there was a lot of suppressed love for the deceased New Goblin. Harry grinned slightly, tucking his helmet underneath his arm.
"It turns out if I hadn't been talking during that presentation…" Harry's voice drifted as he let Peter come to the conclusion himself.
"Don't you just love What Ifs?" another voice asked.
Peter looked up and narrowed his eyes as someone identical to him came down from one of the trees. He had the same voice, the same face (but a bad haircut) and the same suit, except it was black.
"Please tell me you just really liked how the suit looked," Peter groaned.
The black suited Peter grinned, showing off filed teeth before his mask covered his face. Anna and Ben walked closer to their father as they felt the ground rumble. Branches of the trees were split apart, ripples formed on a puddle with the tremors and the younger spiders shook their heads in denial.
"You've got to be kidding me," Peter said.
"Welcome to the weird Multiverse Peter," Harry said.
Ben shifted nervously, looking at the white eyes of a red scaled T-Rex.
"He used to be called Devil Dinosaur, you'll never guess what he got bitten by in his universe," Symbiote Spider-men snorted as he walked into the woods.
Julia led the new arrived Spiders forward, though they and their thief companion were much more cautious. Mechanical spider legs dragged against dirt, the back they were attached to belonged to another doppelganger of Peter, but the fingers of his gloves were sharper, he wore his web shooters on the outside and the blue of his costume was replaced with black.
"Tell me, is the new recruit another preposterous oath, or have you actually brought a Parker of intelligence?" the Spider-man asked.
"Definitely another universe, because only in another universe would Dad talk like that," Ben said, only for Anna to shush him.
"So you are the brats of this Parker, is this what we are reduced to, recruiting children now?"
"We should give them a chance, I think they might surprise you," Harry said.
He looked over his shoulder at the teenagers and winked, though it didn't encourage either of them. The pompous 'Peter' stood, huffing as he regarded Peter.
"A rudimentary design to bolster your suit, though judging from your knees and that subtle shift of your back I would say you would be one of the older Peter Parker variants, wonderful," the man drawled.
"Oh lay off him Superior, at least he isn't a pretentious arse like you," another Spider-man sitting by one of the trees said.
"Peter-1," Peter said hopefully.
"Nope," the Spider-man removed his mask, revealing the face of the younger counterpart Peter recognised.
His mask had the same design as Peter-1's, but the blue of his costume seemed to form a Union Jack shape on his chest.
"Billy Braddock, nice to meet you," the British Spider-man said, and Peter shook his head.
"Please tell me it doesn't get weirder after this," he said.
"Oh it can get much, much weirder after this," Harry said.
He motioned to two more Spider-men as he spoke, one with six arms, shredded parts of his costume and a furry face with six eyes and pincers in place of his mouth. The second Spider-man could only be described as a zombie, with his rib cage showing and shredded flesh on his face.
"Weird is relative Peter, to us your world is weird," spoke another voice from above.
Peter looked up and saw the apparent leader of the Spider-men, his mask was identical to his, but he wore a blue suit with a red spider on the chest, padded red gloves and a red cape.
"Spider-man, meet this world's Amazing Spider," Harry said.
"Welcome to the Warriors of the Great Web," Spider said.
"Web Warriors, cool," Ben said.
J'onn wanted to approach Mobius, wanted to offer him some kind of comfort to ease him through the experience. But he had already violated the man's mind in one way, telepathy for 'one's own good' was a slippery slope. He had pushed Mobius down the path, everything else was up to him. The former TVA investigator was on his knees, his face morphing as he processed each memory that had just been given to him.
"They took everything from me," he whispered.
"I'm sorry," Sieg said.
"Everything we were led to believe was a lie, the order, the Multiverse, what was the point of us living, of us killing for all of that?" Mobius asked.
"I don't think that's a question anyone can really answer, until you decide what to do with it and about it," Sieg said.
"What do you know?" Mobius asked bitterly.
"I know that sometimes we can try so hard, but fail anyway, I know that sometimes bad things happen and there is no point to them, no meaning, they don't lead to anything better, just more pain, and sometimes the answer is that an awful thing happened for no reason, or the most tragic and evil of reasons," Sieg explained.
"The loss of my world was nothing compared to the loss of the woman I loved and my daughter," J'onn said.
This time he touched Mobius's shoulder, returning to his human form.
"Mars could have been wiped away and I still would have had my world if they were alive, it isn't always too late though to forge something new for yourself, only if that is what you want," the Martian explained.
"I don't know what I want," Mobius said.
"I'd be worried if you did know, just the fact that you have these memories, and they have made these feelings in you is proof that you have a life beyond what the TVA claimed to give you, and you can do with that life whatever you want Mobius," J'onn explained.
"What I want right now, is to kill the director," Mobius slowly got off of the floor. "For all time," he muttered.
At that moment another time portal opened, and the trio looked towards it. A familiar 'whoosh' put J'onn and Sieg at ease as Clark flew into the fortress. He lowered his head and let out a sigh.
"We did it, we stopped the TVA," he said.
"You haven't, not really, you see he's never going to stop until he has complete control, and his idea of control is understanding whatever power is inside that boy's sword," Mobius explained, pointing at Sieg.
"I can't imagine what you've gone through, but thank you for telling us that, no one would fault you for…"
"Save the kind words, the Martian already gave me that pitch, right now, I want to make the Director, or whatever other variant we encounter of him pay, and right now the best way I can imagine outside of running him over with a Jet Ski is telling you all what he might be planning."
Clark nodded in gratitude, ready to get to the bottom of Gryphon's motivations too. Any peace they had though was interrupted again as another chronal portal opened. This one however instead of being a doorway, was chaotic; surging with energy that released sparks across the fortress. Sieg and J'onn braced themselves for whatever might come through, and Clark listened, he couldn't see through the portal, but he could hear what was happening on the other side. A weapon was being charged; Clark could feel what it was before the projectile even flew out of the portal. He flew in the way of bullet, knowing where it would go. The Kryptonite bullet struck Clark's chest, sending specks of blood onto the floor.
"NO!" Sieg yelled.
A second bullet was fired and this time, Clark was pushed out of the way. Multiple rounds tore through Mobius's chest, the man fell back and looked at the blood on his hand in shock. The Director emerged from the portal, but he was not what the three heroes expected. His skin had begun to pale, his lips cracked with splits at the corner of his mouth, patches of green had spread across his greasy hair and dark rings formed around his now green eyes. He held in his hand a rifle with a glowing green line travelling across the barrel.
"All things considered I think my foray into the Multiverse could have gone a lot worse," the Director grinned.
"He experimented with Joker venom Kal," J'onn said.
"Yes, I'm pretty sure you don't have to be psychic to figure that one out, HA!" the Director grimaced, his expression becoming firm. "I didn't want to kill Mobius, out of all the people I have manipulated in world after world, he was the one I liked the most. Because despite the manipulations to his memory, he still remained a good man who believed he was doing what was right for the Multiverse," then the Director showed a toothy grin. "Gullible people are always the easiest to manipulate," he said, and the three heroes looked at him in anger.
Sieg screamed, rearing his head back and letting out a yell of pure fury. He flew at the Director swinging his sword down and catching it on the Director's gun.
"NOT BAD HA! BUT NOT WHAT A HERO WOULD DO RIGHT!" the Director yelled.
"SIEG GET AWAY FROM HIM!" Clark yelled.
But he was too late, as the portal opened behind them, and both fell through. Sieg found himself airborne again, rolling until he slammed into hard ground.
"You haven't quite figured out how to be a hero have you, that killer instinct hasn't faded, there's a reason the sword is your weapon," the Director said.
Sieg got off of the floor; he looked at where he had landed. It was a city, but a ruined one filled with greenery growing through the windows. The Director fired his gun, hitting Sieg in the shoulder. The young man was able to deflect some of the bullets and fly at the Director, who laughed and ducked underneath the blade, using his rifle as a club to deflect Sieg's strikes. With a snarl of defiance, Sieg pushed and grinded his sword against the rifle chipping away some of the stock and pushing the Director back. Again a portal opened and as the rifle snapped the Director fell back with Sieg flying after him. They were in the sky, the sky of a hellish world where pillars of fire rose from pits on the desert ground. Sieg could make out an Omega symbol carved into the sands below them, but he focused on the Director, who grabbed hold of his shirt.
"You want to kill me don't you, you crave my death, yearn for my death, pray for it," the Director said.
He accentuated each statement with a head butt, making Sieg dizzy. But even with blood on his nose, Sieg still struck, barging against the Director. A portal opened through the omega symbol just as they both hit the ground. Directions and gravity changed through the portal, and the two fighters flew instead sideways and into the ongoing traffic of a futuristic city. Cars flew through the air, swerving to avoid the pair as they landed on a rooftop.
"Of course I want to kill you," Sieg admitted.
"Not just me though is it, many people like me, because there are always people like me," the Director said.
Sieg tackled him, both flew off of the roof. He dragged his sword across the alley wall, holding the Director by the collar of his shirt. But the Director delivered a kick to Sieg's gut, throwing both of them to the floor as they landed. People had gathered around them, and as Sieg stood he was shocked to see that they all had clown like make up on.
"Wow, schway look man," one of the Jokers said to the Director.
"Why thank you," he reached into his coat pocket, removing an advanced pistol.
The director fired an energy beam into the air, dispersing the once amazed, now fearful gang members. They ran past Sieg, pushing him, obscuring his view and shoving against his shoulders. A beam flew towards him, leaving him with barely enough time to block the block. The Director then ran at him, hitting him across the side of the face with the handle of his gun. He followed up with a punch that further dazed Sieg, making his ears ring and vision blur. Sieg managed to cut the gun apart just as they fell through another portal. This time, the shift was easy, but Sieg was stunned again by a knee to the gut. He coughed, recovering from the blow just as the Director disappeared around the corner of a shelf.
"Oh god," Sieg looked at the shelves around him.
He could see Spider-man's web shooters and mask, Wolverine's skeleton, the Punisher's torn shirt. All around him were shelves of trophies dedicated to heroes and villains. There was a familiar hum behind him and Sieg turned, just in time to deflect a repulsor blast. The Director had an iron man Mark 3 gauntlet on his arm. He fired another blast, hitting Sieg in the chest and throwing him across the room.
"You get tired of it, one bad guy after another," the Director said.
"Yeah," Sieg coughed, regaining his bearings and pushing against his sword. "I do get tired of people like you, ruining people's lives…you knew there was no point to it all, that the Multiverse wasn't something that could be stopped or controlled, but you did it anyway, and you took people and turned them to your own," he explained.
"I did," the Director chuckled.
He took off of a display case Captain America's shield, slipping the iron man glove off to take the Ebony blade from the opposite case. It broke out into a close quarters fight, their weapons, shield and sword cutting through the supports for the display cases. The Director managed to cut Sieg across the cheek, and Sieg countered with an elbow to the man's face. He locked their swords together, having the advantage in strength but not skill. Despite his loss of sanity, and despite living as the Director of the TVA, he still remained a warrior capable of conquering his opponents. He shoved Sieg through one of the cases with his shield, throwing items across the floor, the white queen's cloak draped over Sieg, obscuring his view as he tripped on Dazzler's roller blades. The Director raised his sword to finish Sieg when a voice broke out.
"Hey, what the heck Reckless, why are they ruining my place?"
The Director and Sieg turned their heads, seeing the scarred and near naked Wade Wilson, wearing a red and black bath robe and holding a box of tissues and a unicorn plushie.
"Do you hate Deadpool kills the Marvel Universe that much? You haven't even read it, oh, unless it's the concept of the story you hate, well this platform isn't the place for you to take shots AAAGH!" Deadpool screamed as the Director's shield slammed into the wall behind him.
His head rolled across the floor, the merc with the mouth rolled his eyes.
"Well hopefully this isn't what the MCU will do to me," he said.
The Director picked up the Kingpin's cane, cutting through the White Queen's cloak as Sieg jumped off of the floor. He struck Sieg with the cane, staining the opal on the stick with blood. Sieg brought his sword into a half-sword grip, bludgeoning the Director.
"You ruined all of those lives, all for control, because you thought that you had the right to take control, that for whatever reason the world needed it, or you deserved it, or you were qualified to do it, but it's all the same," Sieg brought his sword down, cracking the Ebony blade to the Director's shock.
"A sad little man, making up for his insecurities, for his tragedy, by burning the world if he has to," this time it was Sieg's turn, accentuating each statement with a strike until the Ebony blade shattered in the Director's hands.
He grabbed one of the shards, though and leapt at Sieg like a madman, stabbing Sieg in the wrist. Then he took hold of what was left of one of the shelves and bashed Sieg across the head. For a few seconds, Sieg fell to the floor, unconscious.
"That's not loaded," Deadpool said to the Director, who had picked up Zemo's ludger.
He threw the pistol and kicked Sieg in the gut, drawing bile out of the boy's throat.
"You're right, about burning the world, about control, but it isn't just about my tragic back story…"
"I hate those, why can't villains just be bad now? You can have complex villains that don't have some sad back story," Deadpool said.
"What if I told you that it was my destiny to be the bad guy, to do the worst things, that I was fated, chosen, cursed even to be the one who caused pain, destructive and tragedy?" The director asked, dragging the plank across the ground.
Sieg looked to where his sword had fallen, too far away, but there was a familiar red and purple helmet near him and a certain mercenary's head.
"Oh no, please don't tell me you're going to do what I think you're going to do."
"My destiny wasn't just to conquer, but to make it so that others could be the best version of themselves!"
"Hey that's what that guy said in Loki Season 1, MCU and pitch meeting references are tight!" Deadpool said.
"But maybe there was a way to break through destiny, to create an entirely new Multiverse where the old rules didn't apply anymore, all I would need is your sword," The director said.
He raised the plank over his head, as Sieg pushed his arms against the floor to get up. Just as the Director brought the plank down however, Sieg put Magneto's helmet on, the wood snapping as it struck him. He then picked up Deadpool's head by his nose.
"I was afraid this was going to OW! DAMN IT! STOP! DISRESPECTING! ME! RECKLESS!" Wade yelled between each strike, before Sieg pushed the Director back with a head butt.
This time the Director was near consciousness, blood flowing out of his nose. Sieg removed Magneto's helmet, placing it respectfully on the floor, whilst tossing the head over his shoulder.
"Your plans for me in Secret Crisis better be great Reckless!"
Hey that's the title of Reckless-MS's other story.
"Making references to other stories is tight!"
Ugh, another pitch meeting reference, Reckless must really be low on ideas, She-Hulk is funnier than this.
That isn't fair, no one one's allowed to make fun of She-Hulk without being called a misogynist.
"Wait a minute, you could have done that before?" Deadpool asked after Sieg summoned his sword from across the room.
"My concentration was broken by the concussion, it was easier to use what I had right in front of me," Sieg said.
The Director spat a blob of blood onto the floor, grinning at Sieg as he pulled his Multiversal Tem-pad out of his pocket.
"Not so fast," Sieg said, running after the Director through the portal.
"Great, you guys go to the next world, leave me here," Deadpool sighed. "Why is my body still walking around? Do I not do that weird baby regeneration thing Fox had me do, oh I see, it's a 'follow my voice' gag, well you've disrespected me enough Reckless, I'm not…OH COME ON!" Deadpool yelled as his stumbling and blind body accidentally kicked him across the room.
Sieg collapsed through the portal; multiple transportations across reality had begun to take their toll. He looked at the new world and his voice cracked as he gasped, eyes glistening with tears. There were ruins around him, ruins of a mansion that Sieg recognised, and bodies too. Though some of the faces were different he could recognise who the people were supposed to be. Their black costumes with yellow Xs on the chest gave it away as well. Cyclops, Beast, Nightcrawler, amongst others and far less remains like Angel's wings or Xavier's wheelchair.
"The X-men, no," he said.
Suddenly, Sieg felt an immense pain in his back, something tore through his lower spine, cutting through his flesh into the other side of his chest. Three pronged blades tore through his shirt, and he looked at the blades in sad shock. His eyes rolled into the back of his head for a moment, as he tilted it slightly and saw the Director standing behind him. The man's lips had curled sickeningly into a statue like permanent smile. He was standing in a dancing pose and his partner was a metal skeleton with blades on the wrists.
"Believe it or not, this universe's X-men have been dead for some time, they didn't even need me to kill them, this was a world where the X-men failed," the Director yanked the claws out of Sieg's back, letting him fall face first to the floor.
"Sentinel Services take over, imprisoning every mutant alive, or the Essex corporation forms control asylums, or the mutants become extinct with your dear idol Logan being buried in an unmarked grave, the last of the X-men," the Director cackled as he danced with the skeleton.
"Let him go," Sieg seethed.
"It my boy it, not even Wolverine could heal from this, just like nothing can save this world. You see what I'm trying to teach you boy?"
"Shut up, I don't care, let it go!"
"For every infinite world where good wins, there are an infinite number of worlds where indecency, inaction, evil succeed, New Mutants and Gifted weren't enough to save this world!" the Director pulled his head back and laughed hysterically.
"I'LL KILL YOU!" Sieg yelled.
His eyes flashed read, but before he could do anything, the Director unceremoniously dropped the skeleton onto Sieg. Part of the boy wondered just how much Wolverine weighed at times, this Wolverine was significantly taller than the man Sieg had fought alongside, even looked up to. Even without pounds of organs, layers of skin, muscle and beer induced fat, the Adamantium skeleton alone weighed a ton to Sieg, trapping him against the dirt, pushing his cheek into it. Dirty water seeped into Sieg's eye, giving him a dark view of the Director dancing over the grave of the X-men.
"If it's any consolation, at least somewhere in the Multiverse there's a version of you who escapes this, maybe," the man couldn't smirk or grin, it was an action he was permanently doing now.
His voice was affected by the state of his mouth, teeth locked to permanently flash a toothy smile. The man's eyes though showed a triumphant joy when he grabbed Sieg's sword off of the floor and admired it.
"Finally…" the Director said.
"NOT YET!"
He looked to his left, just as a web like portal opened, revealing Spider-man and his children, and the warriors of the Web.
"WEB WARRIORS ASSEMBLE!" Peter declared.
Next Chapter 5: Corrupt mode unleashed
Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
Web Warriors: Took some familiar ones with a live action spin
Spider-Britain: Bit of a joke in that Tom Holland, or Andrew Garfield, just neither putting on an American accent.
Spider-Dinosaur: Because dinosaurs are cool and so is Spider-man.
Harry Osborn Spider-man: What if it was Harry Osborn bitten by the spider, it's an episode that'll appear in my What if Spin off. His costume is based on the current costume addition Peter has in the comics, given to him by a reformed (for now) Norman Osborn.
Symbiote Spider-man: Bully Macquire chose the symbiote, nuff said.
Zombie Spider-man: pretty much self-explanatory
Mutated Spider-man: If movies adapted the 'mutation disease' arc of Spider-man TAS.
Superior Spider-man: I mean you guys know what is coming with this guy.
Amazing Spider: Based on the Earth 11638 version of Spider-man seen in comics.