Issue 3: Recovery

The Chimera, Battleworld

Peter Parker sat up, his mind still in a haze. The last thing he remembered was yelling out during an intense battle and everything going black as soon as they arrived. He didn't remember going to a bed or even collapsing from exhaustion. He looked to his sides, noticing Strange and Weiss keeping an eye on him.

"Oh hey guys…" Peter yawned, stretching as he did so, "...What happened?"

"We ensured the Champions escaped. You fell the moment we arrived at the Chimera, President Carter ensured we had a new base of operations. Everyone insisted we keep a close eye on you as you still ended up in that state despite your comparable lack of injuries." Strange explained.

Weiss used Dust to make Peter a makeshift ice pack to cool him down, and she started speaking, "Unfortunately, they got away with the Cosmic Emeralds. If only Sonic didn't hesitate…" she muttered.

Rubbing his head, Peter said, "Something's been up with him ever since the Infinity War. Ruby and I can probably get it out of him. But thanks you two… So glad we brought you along for this."

With a grin, Weiss said, "It's not how I imagined spending the week, but it's better to keep an eye on you, Summoner."

"Glad you accept my cool title." Peter quipped, looking more somber a second later, "Some leader I am huh? I led you all into a trap and now Sephiroth and his gang have the eneralds."

"Nuh uh. Not this again." Weiss shook her head, "You saw that people needed help, and you went to help. You didn't do anything. Now are you going to mope or be the leader that already got us through two of these wars?"

Spider-Man managed a grin, putting back on his mask, "...Well I could always kick Sephiroth's butt. We Champions don't back down, we haven't before, and I'll make sure we never will."

The Schnee heiress replied, "Good."

Peter stood up and went to explore the Chimera, reminiscing, "Been a while and at the same time not since I've last been in here."

"Talking to yourself again?" Yang joked from her room, getting Peter's attention. Peter peeked his head into her room, "What? You know you can come in."

The wall-crawler smiled, "Yeah I know. So… how are you doing?"

"...Tired, a bit sore I'll admit. Can't wait to get my hands on them so I can knock their lights out." Yang admitted.

Peter nodded, "Neither can I admittedly."

Yang sighed, "I hate how badly they kicked our butts and I HATE how we're already back to saving the universe. I thought we could get just a tiny break after everything that happened, that we won't have to worry about cosmic gods ending our lives before we can blink."

"This'll be different, honey. We got the Champions by our side, a world full of warriors that will join us in an instant, nobody's died or faded into crystals. I promise this will be different." Peter assured Yang, wrapping an arm around her.

"It better be." Yang lightly huffed, "We need a vacation after this."

"No kidding." Peter replied. He rubbed his forehead, "As much as I want to stay, I got some things to take care of, but I'll be back."

Yang smiled, "I'll be fine. Do what you have to do, I'll probably just nap."

With a nod, Peter stood up and walked out. As he wandered the Helicarrier, he bumped into Miles, who was also still in costume, "Oh hey Pete…" he greeted his partner in a dejected tone.

"Hey Miles. You doing alright? You used a lot of power back on the field." Peter wondered, genuinely concerned for his well-being.

Miles looked down, "Yeah…" he paused, then continued, "Look, I'm sorry about what happened when we fought Mysterio. I should know that you knew what you were doing… and because of that we messed up."

Peter put a hand on Miles' shoulder, "I should apologize too. You were only looking out for me, and you know, I appreciate it. From here on out, we got each other's backs, but not in a way that messes us up."

"Got it." Miles agreed.

"About time you woke up." Kaine muttered, walking by with an arm wrapped around Blake, "You just passed out. Needed a nap?"

"I guess? Worn out too, Blake?" Peter asked his Faunus friend.

Blake nodded, "Had to overwork myself in that fight. I'm fine, just need a bit to get back on my legs."

"Well I'm sure Kaine here would be upset if he had to let go of you." Peter quipped towards his brother.

Kaine rolled his eyes, "Shut up, Parker…"

"Who knew he was such a softie?" Miles chuckled with Peter.

"Yeah right? Big tough Scarlet Spider loves his girlfriend so much!" Peter replied.

Kaine glared daggers at the Spider-Men, noticing Blake get a small chuckle out of it, "Of course you find it funny."

"Well he isn't wrong." Blake commented, "Not like I care anyway."

The Scarlet Spider rolled his eyes and just kept walking, leaving the Spider-Men to snicker at the clone, "See? This is why it's fun having you around, you're the only Spider that laughs at my jokes." he told Miles.

"Y-Yeah…" Miles said, "That was fun."

"I'll talk with him later when he's not mad. Right now we should focus on our next step, and I could use your help." Peter told his crime fighting partner, who nodded.

The Spider-Men walked into the main room of the Helicarrier, seeing the War Table was on. Standing near it were Carina and Sonic. Peter waved to his friends, "Hey guys. I see you're both fine." he greeted.

"Y-Yeah. I'm a bit tense but I'll be better." Carina admitted.

Sonic nodded, "I'm here to keep her company. I'd be off searching for Sephiroth on my own, but you guys need me."

"You're not kidding about that, Sonic. We can't head out until we KNOW what we should do." Peter explained.

"Should we reach out to Battleworld's Barons and Baronesses? Let them know what had happened while we were gone?" Carina asked.

Spider-Man nodded, "Yeah, I can do that real quick." he activated the War Table, surprised to find that each House Leader responded almost immediately, "...Okay we have A LOT to explain." he admitted.

"We saw what happened. Was Galeem really cut apart like that?" asked President Sharon Carter.

"Yeah… but the one that did it isn't our friend." Peter sighed, "He's called Sephiroth, and he manipulated things to lure us here. I take it we were a Galeem contingency?"

"Aye. While we can tend to most threats in this realm, Galeem and Dharkon would be too much for us." War Thor explained to the wall-crawler.

Peter continued, "The Master Hands also weren't back, they were fakes created by my foe, Mysterio."

"I sensed something was amiss…" Madame Web muttered.

"And that leads me to the next thing, some of the Champions betrayed us: Bowser, Eggman, Ganondorf, Dark Samus, Ridley, K Rool, Goblin… it turns out they were working with Sephiroth the whole time and wanted to catch us by surprise. Now we have a whole army of villains after us this time." Peter revealed.

"We understand. We shall put our domains on high alert, and warn you if we find a threat connected to this Sephiroth." Baron X replied to Spider-Man.

Stark Prime chimed in, "And in case we forget to mention it. Your world's Iron Man came in with Mega Man. He's all patched up and ready to join the fight again."

"Thanks. In the meantime, we're gonna head out in search of them. Good luck, everyone." Peter said, ending the call and letting out a loud sigh in disappointment.

Sonic raised an eye ridge, "What's up, Pete?"

Spider-Man shook his head, "Tired. I'm not sure how can even do this, Sephiroth already looked strong, but now he has the powers of Galeem and Dharkon with him. Approaching him's gonna be tough."

"Cloud seemed to know the guy. We should talk to him." Sonic suggested.

Miles shrugged, "It wouldn't hurt. I feel like he's beaten him before."

Peter nodded, "Yeah, you're both right. You coming, Carina?"

Carina shook her head, "You can tell me later, I'll be waiting in case one of the Barons calls about our enemies."

"Got it. Let us know."

Meanwhile Cloud leaned on a wall, his arms folded and eyes closed. He heard footsteps, knocking him out of his stupor. Opening his eyes, he saw Sonic and the Spider-Men, saying, "Oh hey. Here about Sephiroth I assume?"

"Yeah, we're predictable like that." Peter quipped to the soldier, "You know more about Sephiroth than any of us. What can you tell us about him?"

Cloud paused, his head down, thinking of how to explain this. After a moment of thinking he finally spoke, "...He's a powerful man, with powers rivaling that of a god, he was essentially a lab rat. He's deluded, insane, seeks godhood and has a very personal grudge against me. I'm not sure why he's doing this… but this is probably about me just as much as it is godhood, and I HATE standing here and doing nothing."

Sonic scratched his head, "You and me both, Cloud. Is there a way we can beat him?"

With a shrug Cloud said, "Luck. Lots of it, especially now that he has the powers of Galeem and Dharkon with him.."

"Luckily winning with luck is what we do best." Peter quipped, "We'll round up any Champion who can fight."

A few moments later most of the active Champions grouped together around the War Table. Tangle raised her tail to ask a question, "Are we going to kick bad guy butt again?"

"Kind of." Peter replied, "Some of us are… well still recovering physically from giving it our all against Sephiroth. I wanted to be sure there were some of us here who could still fight while our heavy hitters are down."

Mario nodded, "Of-a course. But how can we-a do this? Sephiroth has-a the powers of Galeem and Dharkon."

Link spoke, "A while ago we faced another godly being with their powers, it was tough but we won in the end." he said, recalling the events of the Infinity War.

"It cost a lot too…" Miles muttered.

"We need the Cosmic Emeralds right?" Samus asked.

"We DID have them but Sephiroth took them…" Carina sighed, giving Sonic a quick glare.

Cloud replied, "Those Cosmic Emeralds you all keep talking about might be our one chance at stopping Sephiroth, we have to find a way to get them back if they're as powerful as you all say they are."

Spider-Man said, "We need to strategize, lure them out and get the Cosmic Emeralds. For right now we'll split into teams, see if we can get them to come to us. We'll start with two, with 5 heavy hitters each and whoever wants to join."

"Who are these teams?" Link questioned.

"Myself, Miles, Sonic, Mario, and Ruby will lead one team. Strange, Weiss, Shadow, Logan and Fox will lead another." Peter revealed, "If anyone wants to join us, just say so, we have plenty of space."

"Hmph." Shadow huffed.

"What about Kaine?" Ruby wondered.

Peter shrugged, "I offered, he didn't want to be a leader. I told him he can still join us whenever he wants."

Weiss sighed, "Hopefully this works…"

Unknown, Battleworld

In a hidden laboratory, a legion of supervillains sat around, all looking at Sephiroth. "Bwahaha! That was awesome! The look on Mario's face was priceless!" Bowser laughed.

"You were great, Papa!" Bowser Jr cheered his father proudly.

"You did great too, Junior." Bowser complimented his son.

Sephiroth huffed, "Enough. We're here to discuss what had transpired and to ensure our new allies are in on this."

Sitting in chairs were inhabitants of Battleworld: The Spider-Queen, Killmonger, Wilson Fisk and the Red Minister. All of them joined this legion's cause.

"Quite a strange organization, not what I expected." the armored Kingpin admitted to the others,

Eggman stroked his mustache, "Ohoho! It's quite brilliant isn't it, Fisk? See, Wily and I had encountered each other. Upon learning of our enemies, we decided it was time to branch out, and that's when we found everyone here, the enemies of the so-called Champions… and former members."

"Not like I wanted to be there in the first place." Osborn admitted.

"I'm only here for the pay. Couldn't care less about all this world dominating." Wolf grunted, folding his arms.

"And you will get your sum in due time, Wolf. Right now our focus is on the Champions and for me, Cloud Strife. It seems lending the powers of the gods has done all of you wonders in our endeavors." Sephiroth revealed, hinting that he gave everyone the remnants of Galeem and Dharkon to give them a boost in this war.

"It has!" Eggman laughed, "My exosuit has never been stronger! And with the Cosmic Emeralds, we're unstoppable!"

Wily twirled his own mustache, "Indeed! They'll go perfectly with our Genesis Engine!" he gestured to the large machine behind them.

Sephiroth nodded, "Ah yes. That. How much longer until it's finished?"

"Quite soon. Though I do believe I have come up with an idea." Eggman revealed.

"Hm?"

Eggman continued, "The machine may not be ready yet, but it has enough power to give us an advantage. The Champions are no doubt scheming against us as we speak, and with this Genesis Engine, perhaps we can ensure another loss to their cause!"

Sephiroth smiled, "I do like the sound of that. Very well, activate it."

Eggman laughed, using one Cosmic Emerald to start up the Genesis Engine. With the press of a button, it was turned on, creating a powerful wave that altered the fabric of reality.

Chimera

Miles walked to the War Table, where he saw Peter trying to use it, "Hey Pete, what are you doing?"

"Trying to send a distress signal. It should reach Mobiant Earth since we can go and leave at ease now." Peter explained. He did so… but got no response, "Huh?" he did it again, getting nothing again. "Um… Strange?"

"Yes, Spider-Man?" Doctor Strange asked, preparing his team for departure.

"Can you see if you can reach Mobiant Earth real quick and get Cap or someone to help us? My beacon isn't working." Peter asked.

Strange nodded, "I shall try." he used the Tesseract and a portal to leave, only to return seconds later, "...Peculiar."

"What happened?" the younger Spider-Man asked.

"I-I cannot reach our home… it's been blocked off…" Strange revealed, "Blocked by an unknown force… It seems we are on our own yet again…" he sighed.

The Spider-Men's lenses widened, their bodies tensing up upon hearing what Strange had just told them, "...WHAT?!"

MJR Here: A shorter chapter to balance out all the action that had transpired. These calmer chapters won't be as long as the main action, but things will still move forward in them. And yeah, the Genesis Engine will prevent the Champions from receiving back-up, the team is stranded till the end of the story.

Jacob9594: Thanks.

superjoeyf721: Yes. Funnily enough in Remake he's voiced by Tyler Hoechlin, who has also played Superman on the CW.

Next Time: The First Departure! Against a Troop!