answers to reviewers questions or statements:
Mr No Bo Dy: It's the Black Widow, can one ever really stop her?
Omni-Creator Kami of Anime: Your implying that these woman are right in the head to begin with. Sure it's obvious to them that Peter is practically a ticking time bomb, but you know what they say, the grater the danger, the greater the reward. That's likely not the actual saying but you get the idea. Just because Peter's a part of the Web of Life doesn't mean he's the Center, there's only ever one at a time and that's the main Marvel 616 Spider-man. And when did I say that Julia and Miles are gonna preach be holier than thou crap to him? Peter's not going to get any sort of random universal power boost in any shape or form in this story so drop it now. And you are overestimating the Batman's influence in the superhero community outside the Justice League, a lot of them either distrust or outright dislike the Dark Knight for a number of reasons, most of it is because of the man's secretive, manipulative and condescending nature. The Justice League can barely tolerate him half the time.
Dopeenight: Like it seems he's on the road of recovery and everyone lets out a collective sigh of relief only to gasp in horror when they look back and see that Peter had just butchered a kindergarten class because he though they were assassins or something? Very, very likely.
MCRasengan: Peter's gonna have a fun relationship with each of the Former and current Robins.
Hbarrera98: I'm basing Peter's declining mental state more off that of Senua from the Hellblade games. Highly recommend them. Just wait until Nightwing appears and a few of Gotham's Rogues that I think Peter will mesh pretty well with. Several things will be ruined for Peter before he leaves Gotham. White Rabbit may make a brief appearance in this and may end up in a sexual act with Peter... maybe.
crocojack7890: Possibly.
DCMarvelfan2K20: We will next chapter.
DeimosVulcan12: It'll be bad enough that the Justice League will involve itself. A few other spiders will make their appearances in this. Talia nd her faction will contend with a few members of the Light but not the organization itself. Peter isn't going to abandon Talia and start his own faction with no resources, practically no manpower aside from Laura and maybe her bother and father, maybe, all because he seems to have let Talia manipulated him into fighting for her. Peter and Silver have never met in this story so their relationship is non existent at the moment. Talia and Shiva aren't enemies, they just don't care for one another.
adam3565: Scorpion will be in this.
Disclaimer: I don't own any Marvel or DC characters seen, mentioned or used.
There are several perks to having a spider-sense.
The first is that you'll be alerted to any sort of danger to one's self and, depending on the danger, be able to completely avoid it and remained unscathed. The second perk is that it helps with web swinging as it seems the mysterious precognitive sense seems to influence where Peter shoots a web line to swing from so that he doesn't accidently latch on to a broken piece of a building's surface and go tumbling down to the earth below. But by far the best perk is that it was next to impossible to sneak up on Peter when he was asleep, no matter how deep or light it was. The moment someone was moving towards him within ten feet with some sort of intent that wasn't exactly friendly, it more or less jumpstarted him to full awareness.
Sometimes it'd even move his body of it's own accord if the situation was dire enough, like if a bullet was shot at him.
So when Jade snuck into Peter's room just half an hour before noon dressed in a pair of lime green spandex pants and a matching sports bra with a mischievous grin on her face, Peter's spider-sense remained as silent as the grave. Even when she silently crawled on tot he bed and slowly approached his sleeping form like a cat on the prowl, it didn't even so much as whisper to Peter that something was off.
"Helooo handsome..." Jade whispered as she slowly straddled Peter's hips and leaned down so that her lips were just brushing Peter's.
Peter made a series of unintelligible sounds as he shifted but otherwise remained perfectly asleep. Jade pouted playfully at this before grinning and proceeded to walk her fingers up Peter's chest and towards his collar bone. Seeing little to no react to her wandering hands, Jade began to slowly rock her hips against his own. Peter stirred a little more from the brief pricks from Jade's nails and the feeling of her hips grinding against his own but otherwise remained blissfully ignorant of Jade's proximity to him, though she could tell her grinding was having some influence over him as she felt him begin to slowly stiffen.
"Well I suppose I could wake you up another way, but let's save that for the second date, hmm?" Jade said with a giggle as she made to grab Peter by the throat before his eyes suddenly shot open and stared into her very being with an almost animalistic like rage.
In the literal span of a human heartbeat, Jade found herself thrown off Peter by enough force to knock the wind clean out of her before her back slammed into the wall and a muscular arm pressed itself against her throat, nearly breaking her neck rather than cutting off her air way. She let out a choked cough as she struggled to remove Peter's arm from her neck but found the limb immovable before Peter's face suddenly leaned in towards her's.
"Is there a reason you tried to choke me just now?" Peter asked, all trace of exhaustion gone as he stared at the dark haired beauty with a glare.
"W-Wasn't... g-g-going... to... c-ch-choke y-ou... m-much" Jade gasped out as she struggled to stay conscious.
Her toes were just barely able to touch the floor before she began to move her legs up the wall in a attempt to possibly kick herself off it and dislodge Peter's arm from her throat before his body pressed against her's, pinning her to the wall.
"Sadly... I actually believe that" Peter said before he suddenly stepped back and watched as Jade slid down to her knees and coughed as she tried to force the oxygen back into her lungs "You know you could've just shaken we awake like a regular person"
"Where's... where's the fun in that?" Jade said in between breaths before her eyes widened slightly at the lack of clothes on Peter's body "So you like to.. sleep... in the nude? Good to know"
Peter blinked at this before he realized that he was still naked and quickly looked for something to cover his lower half with "Sorry!"
"Don't be" Jade said as her eyes remained on a particular part of Peter's body and found herself licking her lips at the half erect cock he possessed 'Ooh now I can see why Talia was making such wonderfully delicious noises. I'd be screaming my head off to high heaven if that beast was pumping into me like a jackhammer'
The fact he may have been bigger than her ex-husband when fully hard was just icing on the cake.
"So is there a reason why you woke me up at..." Peter paused in slipping on a pair of sweat pants and glanced at the clock and frowned "Noon? Huh... feels later than that"
"I wanted to spar with someone" Jade answered with a shrug as she picked herself up and brushed a few strands of hair behind her ear "Natalia is still preoccupied with her latest toy and Psylocke and Honor are protecting Mistress Talia for the day. So, that either leaves you or one of the dozens of little yes men and women below us and I want an actual challenge this morning... afternoon"
"What makes you think I'd be a challenge?" Peter asked with a raised brow.
"Call it a gut feeling" Jade said before she smirked "I'm sure your good at giving girls a gut feeling"
Peter frowned in confusion at this before he saw what or more accurately where Jade was looking at and growled "Stop that!"
"Stop what?" Jade asked with false innocence "I'm simply admiring the... gift, you've been given. I've met few men that held such a weapon"
"Well go find those few men and admire theirs!" Peter said as he strode past Jade, his destination, the kitchen for something.
He didn't even make it ten feet from his room before he ducked and Jade flew over him and landed in a crouch. Without bothering to look back, Jade placed her hands on the floor and pushed herself back with her feet kicking out, intent on delivering a double kick towards Peter's head before one of his hands grabbed her by the ankle. Jade winced in pain at the pressure her ankle was grabbed before she was suddenly dragged through the air and over Peter's shoulder before being slammed into the ground.
"AGH!" Jade hissed out through gritted teeth before she yanked her foot free from Peter's grip and quickly jumped back up to her feet.
"I'm not in the mood for a spar Jade" Peter said with a sigh as he turned to leave "All I want is something to eat... well drink, but you get the idea-"
"RAAAHHHH!" Jade rushed forward and sent a flurry of jabs towards Peter's body, focusing on pressure points and nerve clusters.
Peter simply brought his arms up and either blocked or deflected Jade's strikes, her movements while fast to a normal human, seemed slow from his point of view. After almost a solid minute straight, Jade stepped back, her breath coming in short, harsh breaths while sweat began to build on her brow. Peter wasn't even winded as he lowered his arms and gave Jade a bored look.
"Your good, but I was expecting... well a lot more from one of Talia's people" Peter said.
"Normally I coat my nails in poison" Jade said with a smirk as she held a hand up and wiggled her fingers "Sometimes it only takes a single small scratch"
Peter's eyes narrowed as his eyes briefly flickered down to his arms where there was a few small shallow scratch marks on his forearms and wrist "And I'm guessing if you did coat them, I'd be in a little bit of trouble by now"
"Maybe, maybe not" Jade admitted with a shrug as she gave Peter a devious smirk and leapt towards him with a kick aimed for his head. Peter leaned back until the upper half of his body was almost perpendicular with the floor and watched Jade sore over him.
Jade landed in a roll and quickly shot up to follow up her attack only to receive a near bone shattering punch to her face, causing her head to snap to the side with such force it was a wonder her neck didn't break. Before she could even process the pain her face was now in, she received a punch to the gut that knocked the wind out of her and lifted her off her feet by a few inches before a hard kick connected with the exact same spot and sent her flying down the hall and out into the main living room. Peter silently stepped out of the hall and watched Jade wither in pain on the floor, groaning as she tried to push herself up only to fall on her back and stare up at the ceiling.
"Still want that spar Jade?" Peter asked as he slowly made his way over to the injured woman and crouched down next to her.
She shot him a glare before she struck out with a hand with the intent to rake her nails clean across his face, maybe gouge out his eye, before Peter's hand caught her wrist and he slowly lowered the hand and arm to the ground. Jade let out a frustrated growl as she tried to attack with her other hand before Peter suddenly straddled her hips and pinned both hands above her head with one of his while the other rested just over her throat. Jade tried to push Pete off her but found his weight unyielding and the pressure on her neck was slowly increasing. Faced with either passing out or admitting defeat, Jade ceased her struggled and simply laid there, staring up at Peter with narrowed eyes.
"Now, I'm gonna let go of your hands and I'd like it if you stopped trying to attack me before I even have my morning cup of coffee" Peter said with a pointed look before he briefly glanced at the window "Well it'd be afternoon coffee, but I could maybe go for some afternoon tea too but I'm kind of craving something bitter, dark and leaves me with a small feeling of regret when I'm done with it before getting some more"
A coy grin grew on Jade's face at this "Is that right?"
Peter quirked a brow at her sudden change in demeanor before he felt her push her chest up until her bra was straining against her bust and he could feel her breathing increase.
"Perhaps, I can substitute your coffee with something more... pleasurable" Jade said with a purr as she did her best to buck her hips against Peter's "I can leave you feeling all those things you want and so much more... I promise I won't bite... often"
"I'm good, but I've learned the hard way what happens with you sleep with someone that has half of their body coated in some kind of venomous, toxic, poisonous thing" Peter said as he suddenly stood up and backed away from Jade.
The lethal beauty simply sighed and slowly sat up and rubbed her wrists while Peter headed for the kitchen. He could hear and sense Jade following him at a close distance but it seemed for the moment, the spar between them was over.
'Or she's just waiting for the right moment to attack' Peter thought before he realized something and held back a groan of annoyance 'And I walked right into a kitchen filled with things she could use to try and hit me with'
"Your a strange man Mister Parker" Jade said as she took her seat at the kitchen island while Peter headed for the fridge and began to scan it's contents for something he could throw into a blender.
"How so?" Peter asked as he grabbed a number of fruits before closing the door with his hip and searched the kitchen for a blender to use before he found it next to the coffee machine.
"Not many men or women would be against the possibility of sex with me" Jade said with a smirk.
"Like I said, I learned the hard way what happens when you take someone like you up on that offer" Peter said with a shiver as he dumped his fruit into the blender and clasped the lid over it before hitting the start button.
"Oh, with who?" Jade asked with interest.
"You ever hear of a woman called Viper?" Peter asked dryly as he watched the fruit inside, skin and all, being sliced and shredded by the blenders blades.
"I have" Jade said with a nod before she frowned "Wait, you slept with HER?"
"I was young, lonely and I didn't realize who she was at the time" Peter said in his defense 'Though it did later answer why my spider-sense kept going off every time I was near her'
That... and Logan told him it was a bad idea.
"Disgusting" Jade said with a snarl.
"Oh trust me, I know" Peter said with a shiver.
Viper seemed like a nice woman, blonde hair, a small cute little beauty mark, a libido the size of a mountain and she was a accomplished biochemist! The only draw backs were that she was a meta that possessed a variety of abilities that mirrored some of the most poisonous reptiles on earth. And she wanted to dissect Peter and study his recent, at the time, digestive fluid producing glands that had developed inside of his gums, mainly along his incisors.
"And I thought I had low standards" Jade said with a scoff "And I slept with and married Kruen Musenda"
"The Spitting Cobra?" Peter said with a laugh as he turned back towards Jade with a grin "No wait, you actually married that guy?!"
"I was young!" Jade said in a mocking tone.
"But that guy's like... he's like the Tommy Wiseau of assassins. And not in a good way" Peter said as he turned his attention back to his now mostly liquefied breakfast/lunch.
"And Viper is the equivalent of Pamela Anderson!" Jade said with a very un-lady like snort as Peter poured the contents of the blender into a cup and found a seat across from Jade.
"Maybe when she was still with Baywatch" Peter muttered.
"Like that is much better" Jade said with a eye roll before she noticed a damp spot on the floor beside her chair and made a face at it "Absolutely no class"
"Huh?" Peter said as he took a drink of his 'meal'.
"There's a small evaporating puddle of either Natalia's ejaculation or her newest plaything" Jade said with a straight face, causing Peter to nearly choke on his drink.
"W-W-Wait, wh-at?" Peter coughed.
Jade responded by pointing down at the spot as Peter leaned over the kitchen to try and see "No class at all, leaving her or her toy's cum like that"
Peter blinked at the spot for a moment before he looked at Jade with an incredulous expression "why the hell hasn't anyone cleaned that up yet?"
"I told the cleaning service to wait until I was done with my spar" Jade answered with a shrug as she stood up to leave "Since we appear to be done, I shall let them know they may commence with their duties"
"You know, I think it's more along the lines of their afraid of you and possibly the others being the reason why they haven't come up here yet. Can't say I blame them, not wanting to be in a penthouse sweet with a bunch of women that can tear a country apart on their own" Peter said as he took another, smaller, sip of his drink as he watched the Vietnamese beauty slowly circle the table and past him.
Jade smirked as she leaned down and planted a small peck on Peter's cheek before she stood and headed for the door with a obvious sway in her hips. She stopped to glance back at Peter and gave him a feral grin and wink.
"When your... up for another 'spar', don't be a stranger. My 'door' is always 'open'" Jade cooed in a tone full of promise before she left to summon the hotel's cleaning services.
Peter stared after her for a moment before he laid laid his head on the table and sighed.
"I swear that woman's my ex-wife's long lost twin"
...
Across the city in the district of Old Gotham, Talia sat at a small table towards the back of a small little Greek restaurant she selected to have lunch in. Her placement gave her a clear view off the entire establishment's other patrons, the door to the kitchens, the restrooms and the front entrance. She for the life of her couldn't bother to remember the name of this restaurant, some generic name that had Athens or Athena in it to be a callback to Greece. The service was pleasant enough even if some of them probably never received an education higher than High School. The food thankfully seemed to be authentic Greek and for a moment Talia could almost, almost think she was in Greece enjoying a wonderful meal.
'Until I remember that this is Gotham and there's a possibility that Poison Ivy has tainted the vegetables in some manner' Talia thought dryly as she read a email on her phone from one of Gotham's crime lords that have pledged themselves to her so long as she made sure he would replace Black Mask as the new Kingpin of Gotham.
The message wasn't very long, just the man expressing his interest in finally meeting Talia face to face tonight at the Gala and hopes that their partnership will be long and fruitful.
'So long as you deliver Mister Manfredi, it shall' Talia thought as she closed the email and selected another to read.
So far things were going smoothly, her operations were ready to commence and she's already found a possible sight that the Black Mask holds Cain's potential recruits. Now all she needed to do was have Widow survey it and than she could deploy Psylocke and Silencer and a squad of her men to shut it down. She briefly considered sending Peter and Laura in instead, but decided against it. Peter, for the time being, was her ace in the hole and she'd rather not prematurely tip her hand and force her sister or Cain to escalate things... yet.
"And people say I'm not the considerate one" Talia hummed to herself as she read through several more emails before she noticed that she received a text from Jade.
Curious, the woman opened the message only to scowl at the image that was sent to her.
It was Natalia, still passed out, with an equally passed out Laura sleeping next to her... in Natalia's bed... nude.
"Of course she'd sleep with her..." Talia said as she reached up to rub her temple "Alcoholic Russian beauty that sleeps with anything with a pulse and a attractive bartender that seems to have a fetish for spiders, what could go wrong?"
Still, perhaps this could be a blessing in disguise, of sorts. It might keep Laura off Talia's back and maybe even make the girl somewhat more pleasant to speak to.
'And... it might distract her from Peter' Talia thought with a growing smirk as the gears in her head turned 'He'll be less distracted and more focused in executing my orders'
As Talia's mind raced through the possible benefits of Laura being in a relationship with one of her guard, even if it is strictly sexual, a man suddenly came to a stop at her table. She thought it was perhaps a waiter and turned to ask if there was a problem when she stopped and took in the man's appearance and attire.
He was roughly six foot, perhaps an inch or two taller and possessed a full beard that was greying along with his hair. He had a few scars on his face, the most prominent being on his left cheek bone. His clothes looked like a suit of some sort, though the tie was missing and the jacket was left unbuttoned and looked like it hadn't been washed in days. Talia stared at the man as he slowly slid into the seat across from her with a frown as she tired to put a name to the face she was looking at before it clicked.
"James Howlett"
"Talia al Ghul" The man smirked as he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms across his chest "Call me Logan"
"Your the Wolverine" Talia said, her eyes narrowing slightly "The original"
The Wolverine, the man in front of Talia, was as near a legend as an assassin and or mercenary could get in this line of work. The man had close to a sixty year career that took him all over the world, and if the rumors were true, even into outer space. The Wolverine was stated to be the original Task Force X operative, and for a time, the only one before he left the US government's service and struck out on his own. The only person alive currently that was close to rivaling this man was Slade Wilson and even he didn't have a body count as high as the Wolverine's. Talia remembered hearing her father speaking of the desire to recruit the illusive and by than near mythical assassin and perhaps even make him his heir, but Ra's never seemed to be able to find the man and a small part of Talia was grateful.
'If he did, I'd likely have been given to this man' Talia thought.
"I am, but I'm not as pretty as the second one was... or as merciful" Logan chuckled as he reached down for the menu and gave it a quick once over "Hmm, how's the salad here?"
"...I'm told it's good" Talia answered as she leaned back in her chair "Why are you here? I would think you'd be off on some remote island, enjoying your retirement. From what I've heard and read about you, you've more than earned it"
"I was..." Logan said with a nod as he set the menu back on the table before he leaned forward and rested his elbows on the edge of the tab and brought up his interwoven hands to rest in front of his mouth "But when someone shoots up a safe house that my daughter's on again and off again boyfriend is staying in, I tend to bring my head up out of the sand and see what's going on"
"Cain's people had tracked me to-" Talia began before Logan raised a hand, cutting her off.
"I don't care whose fault it was that the place got shot up or why! All I care about is the current state of my daughter and her annoying yappy bed warmer" Logan said with a annoyed look on his face.
"That 'annoying yapping bed warmer' is my oldest and closest friend Mister Howlett" Talia said in a cold voice as she picked up her glass and took a small sip of it's contents "You'd do well to remember that before I do it for you"
She was under no illusion she could hope to take this man in a fight, not with close to a hundred years at least of combat experience and a nigh unrivaled healing factor and near indestructible skeleton with claws to match. But she will not have someone think they can bad mouth her friend and get away with it.
"Oh trust me, I know all about the hijinks you and that little brat were up to when you were both two skinny little rats scraping by in a literal hell hole in the middle of the desert and your time under your father" Logan said with a snort, amused more than anything by Talia's anger "I swear, the way the guy went on and on about you, made me wonder if your dear old dad booted him for the Shadows just because of that"
"My father had his reasons" Talia said with a sigh "I do not agree with them, nor do I know all of them, but what's done is done. He's back with the League now"
"Only, there isn't much of a League anymore, is there?" Logan said with a knowing look in his eye "I may've been out of the game for a while, and most of the people I used to work with either died or got the hell out when I did, but even I heard about what happened"
"Than you also see why I needed Peter" Talia stated with a pointed look "With how my forces are now, I wont stand a chance against either Nyssa or Cain"
"I see that you lost your father and you latched on to the last familiar thing you could think of" Logan said with a thoughtful look on his face "But... I'm sure you've seen that he isn't... all there anymore"
"I saw" Talia said with a grimace as her mind flashed back to the wolf pack and the hidden room in his basement.
God knows what else the man's been up to in the past decade.
"Yeah..." Logan said with a slow nod "That... that may have been a little bit of my fault"
At this, Talia's gaze snapped up and seemed to darken "What do you mean?"
"It's not what you think" Logan said, holding his hands up "I mean that, I saw the signs that Parker was... he was slowly starting to lose it. But at the time I didn't really see it as a problem, and I couldn't afford to bench him"
"What happened?" Talia pressed for details, desperate to know what exactly set her friend on this descent into madness.
"I think it just finally caught up to him" Logan said with a distant expression on his face "The trauma of growing up in that Pit, the life of a Shadow, being exiled and on his own, than the missions me and my team took him on. One day it all just got too much for him and he just... snapped"
"What do you mean snapped?" Talia asked.
"You ever heard of the massacre in Florianópolis?" Logan asked with a sigh of dread.
Talia's brow furrowed in confusion as she searched her memories of any reports of a massacre in Florianópolis before her eyes widened as a particular news report came to mind, dated just a little over eleven years ago.
"That was him? He was there?" Talia asked in a low voice.
"Yep" Logan said with a nod "Arguably he was the one that started it and it sort of spiraled out of control from there. I personally wasn't there when it all went to hell, I just showed up at the tale end to get the bastard out of there once the city was more or less put on lockdown..."
Talia remained silent as Logan continued to explain what happened while she did her best to digest the information. The massacre in Florianópolis that Logan was referring to was a series of grizzly murders over the course of three days of several prominent crime lords and their families along with dozens of their men, close to thirty police officers that were receiving bribes from said crime lords, law enforcers, three times as many civilians that were simply caught in the crossfire and several military officers after the Brazilian government ordered a brigade into the city to hunt down the perpetrators.
In the end it was concluded that a rival criminal element was beyond the murders but the ones who carried out the deeds were never found. The total death toll and the property damage in the end was close to on par with some of the Joker's most heinous crimes since his appearance a decade ago.
"After we got out of there, the team more or less split up. Seeing a bunch of kids no older than seven being ripped apart had a way of killing the appeal of being an assassin for hire to most" Logan revealed as he ran a hand over his face "Laura took Peter north to Alaska, got him some help I think, while I found a nice little place out in Norfolk Island to retire to. Granted I'm gonna have to move now, but it was nice. Peaceful"
"I apologize that your retirement has been interrupted, but I need Peter" Talia said before she made a face "And your daughter refuses to leave"
"She's territorial like that" Logan said with a chuckle "Got it from me m'fraid"
Talia's eyes narrowed as she folded her arms across her chest and appraised the man before her "So... what are you going to do now?"
"Me? I ain't gonna do a thing" Logan said with a shrug as he pushed his chair back and stood up "Laura's a big girl and she'd hate it if she knew I was poking my nose in her business. And Pete? Well he's a smart kid, and he's tough. He'll be alright, though he may come out of this whole thing a few pints of blood shorter"
"Than what was the purpose of this meeting?" Talia asked with confusion.
"Or, I just wanted to meet my little girl's new boss is all. See what she's up to now" Logan answered as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet and retrieved a few bills from it and placed it on the table "And... to get your scent"
Talia quirked a brow at this before Logan suddenly leaned forward, his expression dark and a notable growl in his words before he held a hand up and three metal claws slowly popped out from between his knuckles with an almost inaudible 'snikt'. Talia's eyes darted to the three metal blades for a moment before they settled back on Logan's face.
"Just in case I need to come find you... and cut your goddamn head off"
"I'll keep that in mind Mister Howlett" Talia responded as her eyes narrowed while struggling to hold Logan's glare before the man smirked in grim amusement and leaned back and retracted the claws and gave her a two finger salute as he turned to leave.
"Heh, I'm starting to like you kid. Good luck with your overblown family drama crap. Believe me, from a guy with half his career centered around it, your gonna need it" Logan said as he departed Talia's table and headed for the door.
Talia watched the man go before she turned her attention towards the money he left on the table and scowled "Not even the correct currency"
Still, 'A' for effort, she'll give him that.
...
And done,
Next chapter, Leviathan is born and Peter attends a Gala...