THE BATTLE OF THE QUEENS, PART 4: THE QUEEN OF DIAMONDS (QUEEN WASP).

After the Style Queen altercation and a lot of movement of influences from both Gabriel Agreste and Norman Osborn, and even a little from Tony Stark at Pepper Potts' request, the Gabriel Summer-Autumn Collection Fashion Show was repeated the following day, this time without incidents or akuma attacks.

And as it had been before the Style Queen's attack, the show had been such a success that, much to everyone's surprise, Audrey Bourgeois had agreed to be part of the event again.

And after the event had ended, a press conference had been formed, with reporters, cameramen and photographers surrounding in droves Gabriel Agreste, his assistant, his two young models and the young designer who had been the center of attention for the hat that had been presented as a complement to the collection, among which again stood out Nadja Chamack, J. Jonah Jameson and Peter Parker.

"How did you discover the young sensation of this year?" Nadja Chamack asked Gabriel Agreste.

"A school competition was held at the Françoise Dupont College, Miss Dupain-Cheng stood out brilliantly among the multiple participants, and succeeded in the end despite certain inconveniences with a contestant who plagiarized her design to the smallest detail." Gabriel said.

"Miss Dupain-Cheng, how does it feel to know that your hat was the center of attention in Mr. Agreste's collection?" Asked a reporter.

"I... Um... It's... a great honor..." Marinette said as she fiddled with her fingers.

"Is it true that you and Miss Watson had trouble getting along at first?" Asked a reporter.

"Nah, we were just competitors in the Style Queen photo contest, but since Peter Parker, the guy who took the photos that we both competed with, is a mutual friend, we got along just fine after a short while." Said Mary Jane with a smile.

"Miss Dupain-Cheng, what do you think of people who say that young Parker is your boyfriend?" Jameson blurted out suddenly.

"Jameson, I'm gonna kill you!" Peter roared as he blushed.

"He's not my boyfriend! Stop saying that already!" Marinette snapped as she blushed too.

"Alright, I think those were enough questions." Gabriel said. "Our models need to rest, so I kindly ask you to leave."

Some reporters grunted in annoyance at the request, however, all of them slowly retreated, except for the J3 Communications photographer, Peter Parker, who walked up to Marinette.

"I'm sorry for Jameson's recklessness, he's usually a nice guy... when he's not yelling... or writing lies... or being a jerk altogether..." Peter said.

"I know, I saw the way he treats you and how he yells at you every five seconds."

"Ah, that? Nah, he's in a good mood, he yells whenever he is. Get worried when he's quiet, that always means that he doesn't like something or that something is wrong."

"Well, my dear friends, I think everything went smoothly, after that ugly incident yesterday." Alya said to her Ladyblog as she approached her friends. "And now I find myself with the center of attention of today's show, my friend Marinette, and her dear boyfriend, the official photographer of Spider-Man, Peter Parker."

"Stop saying we're dating!" Marinette and Peter snapped while blushing.

"Any words for my followers? Who are confused by the news presented by the Daily Bugle's web edition about yesterday's events with Style Queen."

"What are you talking about?" Marinette asked.

"The Bugle says that the heroes of our city were helping the Style Queen."

"What?!" Marinette and Peter snapped.

The photographer quickly took out his cell phone and searched the Bugle's website, while Marinette looked at the screen over Peter's shoulder.

Once the page was loaded, Peter and Marinette felt a growing rage as they read the headline on the cover: Iron Lady saves Paris from the Arachnid Menace and his allies!

"This is bullshit!" Peter snapped. "Miss Potts never said she fought Spider-Man!"

"It gets worse, keep reading." Alya blurted out.

The pair of teenagers kept reading until they saw a photograph of their stumble on the red carpet before the start of the Fashion Show.

"Our photographer showing his support to his girlfriend, the star designer of Gabriel's Gala?!" Marinette read indignantly.

"That's it! I'm gonna rip the mustache off Jameson's face!" Peter roared.

"Easy, Pete, it's more of a compliment than a mock." Said a buff blond haired guy as he ruffled Peter's hair.

"Oh, you're Eddie Brock, right? Peter's scientist friend." Said Alya. "Any words for my followers about Spidey, Ladybug and the other heroes?"

"Well, I don't know these Queen Bee, Rena Rouge, American Son, Ladybug and Chat Noir, but until now I've seen that although Spider-Man can make mistakes, he always seems to worry about people and help as much as he can."

"Ha! You wish, boy!" J. Jonah Jameson's resonant voice snapped behind Eddie. "Spider-Man and all the supposed heroes go out there, believing themselves above the law, being vigilantes and thinking themselves as heroes, but they're not! They only cause problems!"

"Jameson, you wouldn't acknowledge a hero or even though he hit you on my face, and I'm about to prove it..." Tony Stark snapped while he and Pepper approached the group.

"Anyway, I hope you had taken good photos, Parker." Jameson snapped. "I gotta go, send the photos to Robbie as always, and if they're crap, consider yourself fired!"

With that said, the group of people arched an eyebrow while Peter sighed heavily and looked at the camera in his hands.

'At least they'll give me some extra cash to be the Daily Bugle's official photographer in this event...' Peter thought.

"Pepper, remind me to get Jameson off the list of people I send Christmas cards to..." Tony sighed.

"You already did after the Skrulls affair." Pepper said.

"Well, remind me not to include him again. Ever."

"That Jameson is a very fun guy." Let out a voice that made Tony and Marinette sigh in exasperation.

At that time, Mario Dupain, Marinette's uncle, approached the group and ruffled Marinette's hair, who moved away from him to fix her hair.

"You did well, Bedbug, I'm proud of you." Mario said. "I see that you're no longer that scaredy little girl who was panicked to be in public."

"Don't call me Bedbug..." Marinette murmured.

"Your niece is exceptional as a designer." Gabriel said Agreste as he approached Marinette. "It's surprising that someone so talented is related to you, Dupain."

"This time I gotta agree with Gabe here. Peter's girlfriend is a very good designer, maybe she'll end up surpassing you in the future, Gabe." Tony let out. "And above all, it's impressive that she's the niece of a failure like Mario."

"Apparently someone is still upset because the MIT professors gave my projects better grades than his..." Mario laughed.

"Don't you dare to call me Gabe again, Stark..." Gabriel snapped.

"Peter is not my boyfriend, Mr. Stark..." Marinette growled while she crossed her arms.

"For the first time, you say something reasonable, Stark." The owner of Oscorp while he and his son walked up to the small group. "Miss Dupain-Cheng, she has a pretty great vision, even I don't know anything fashion and I have to admit that she is very good in this, her talent has impressed me. And that's not easy."

"Thank you, Mr. Osborn." Said Marinette as she bowed at Norman Osborn.

"And Peter, I have to thank the excellent job you do as Harry's tutor."

"Adrien also helps with that, Mr. Osborn, it's not easy to teach Harry." Peter chuckled.

"Har-dee-har, very funny, Parker..." Harry said sarcastically.

"Certainly, I know how... reckless and stubborn Harry can be, but I really appreciate that you and Adrien have enough patience and time to make sure Harry doesn't waste his capabilities and time." Norman said as he pulled out an envelope from the inside of his jacket. "This must be enough to cover the inconveniences and to show my gratitude for the gesture, Peter."

"You don't need to, Mr. Osborn." Peter said as he rejected the offer. "I do everything for a friend who I consider a brother."

"Humble, employed and a good friend." Said Mario before he smiled at him. "I see you got yourself an excellent boyfriend, Bedbug."

"It's the qualities that Ben and I taught him in the absence of his parents." May Parker said as she put her hands on Peter's shoulders.

"An excellent work, May, you truly molded good ol' Dick's son well." Mario said before he sighed. "And I'm sorry about what happened to Ben."

"You two know each other?" Said Gabriel, Norman and Tony.

"Richard and I were friends from work and MIT, from there I know Ben and May, although I could never meet little Peter." Mario explained as he leaned with a hand against the youngster from Queens. "Also, for some strange reason, all of us ended up getting together again, as in MIT, only those who unfortunately left us some time ago are absent."

"I guess that friendships so strong doesn't break over time." Eddie chuckled as he hugged Peter with one arm.

"Eddie... I can't breathe..." Peter gasped.

"Well, Parker, I have to say that you're just like your father, a weeping whiner who has more luck than he deserves." Mario said before he approached Peter threateningly. "So I'll only say that if Marinette ever sheds a single tear for you and you're not dying, I'll make sure you are, is that clear?"

"Uncle Mario, Peter is not my boyfriend! Leave him alone!" Marinette snapped.

"Besides, Peter is a good boy, he would never hurt his girlfriend." Aunt May said with a smile.

"I hate you, Aunt May..." Peter muttered under his breath.

"I was just making sure, May. Tom can be many things, but menacing is not one of them."

"Back to the topic." Norman snapped as he calmly took Peter's hand and placed the envelope in his hand. "I know that you and your aunt need this, and don't see it as a gift, it's something you've earned, Peter. Being humble is fine, but you always have to look out for yourself and those you care about before all things."

Peter glanced at the envelope and sighed, giving his Aunt May a doubtful look, who also sighed and smiled at him as if to say: That's your choice to make.

Peter sighed again and tried to hand the envelope back to Mr. Osborn, but Harry stopped his arm and shook his head.

"Keep it, as a friend I ask you to." Harry said.

"But..." Peter said.

"Neither I nor my father are gonna take it back because neither of us takes no for an answer. So face it, you earned it, even I must admit that tutoring me isn't easy."

Peter grimaced, then sighed in resignation and put the envelope in his pocket, making Norman Osborn nod in satisfaction.

"That's better." Norman said as he put a hand on Peter's shoulder. "Always remember that a great action deserves a great reward, and when it comes to you, don't hesitate to take it. You won't always get what you deserve, so a little ambition never hurts when the opportunity presents itself."

"I'll keep that in mind, Mr. Osborn." Peter said, still uncomfortable for having been forced to accept money.

"I hope you're not trying to buy my intern, Norman." Tony said as he got behind Peter.

"Take good care of him, Stark, that boy will one day be an even better inventor than you or me, and if the opportunity arises, I will not hesitate to give him an internship at OsCorp so that he can see how superior we are to Stark Industries."

"Tell that to the income of my company, even with the drop in my shares for stopping all weapons development."

"I wish you wouldn't talk about my nephew as if he were merchandise, it's not nice to hear things like that." Aunt May snapped as she glared at Tony and Norman.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Parker, I didn't mean to be so reckless." Tony said.

"The same I say, I only look for the best so that Peter can fully exploit his potential." Norman said.

"Well, he's the only one who can decide that, and for now he trusts Mr. Stark, so so do I... Despite how unconventional he may be as a mentor." May snapped.

Norman and May gave each other a cold look, while Peter and Harry looked at them with concerned eyes, then the duel of looks stopped when a woman cleared her throat, drawing everyone's attention to Audrey Bourgeois, who had a hand in her hip and looked directly at Gabriel Agreste.

"Audrey, I hope the parade has been to your liking." Gabriel said as he approached Audrey to kiss her hand. "And I want you to know that I fired the person who caused the misunderstanding yesterday. There's only one place for Audrey Bourgeois and it is the front row."

"Don't apologize, Mr. Agreste, it's not your fault that Audrey is such a bitch." Pepper snapped.

"Quiet, Potts, nobody spoke to you." Audrey snapped without giving Pepper any importance. "And I'm glad to hear that, Gabriel, although I must say that your Gala was... adequately good, there's something that doesn't add up..."

As she said that, Audrey walked over to Adrien and inspected him from head to toe, fixing her eyes on the hat he was wearing, then she took it for a closer look and said:

"This is not a Gabriel Agreste, it's something else..."

"Certain. That hat was made by my intern's girlfriend." Tony said as he put a hand on Peter's shoulder.

"Would you stop with that nonsense about me dating Marinette already?" Peter snapped.

Audrey Bourgeois spared Peter and Tony a glance, then fixed her gaze back on the hat and glanced at its designer, who was nervously fiddling with her fingers as MJ and Adrien put a hand on her shoulders to show their support to her.

"You were the one who created this piece, right?" Audrey said to Marinette as she slowly approached her.

"Y-yes, Mrs. Bourgeois." Marinette said with all the courage she could muster.

"Yes, mom." Chloé said as she snatched the hat out of her mother's hands. "She's Marinette Dupain-Cheng, the loser, and she made that horrible hat because she thinks she's a designer, she even had the nerve to sign it. Look..."

Chloé glared maliciously at Marinette as the designer and MJ glared at her, while Audrey retrieved the hat and examined the signature Marinette had put on it carefully.

"Well... I only have one thing left to tell you, Dupain-Cheng..." Audrey said before smirking. "This bowler hat is absolutely fabulous."

In that second, everyone around froze upon hearing the rather friendly and happy tone with which the Queen of Fashion had expressed about Marinette's hat, especially Chloé, who gave her mother a glare that mixed indignation and disbelief while she kept looking at Marinette with a smile.

"You clearly have vision, young lady. Not everyone can get ahead of everyone else in the world of fashion, but you genuinely can." Audrey said as she admired her hat. "Glitter has had its moment, but it's running out. Feathers, on the other hand, are the future."

"T-thank you..." Marinette said as she smiled.

"You are certainly exceptional, Dupain-Cheng, but you are not the only one who has impressed me this afternoon." Audrey said as she shifted her focus from her to MJ. "You are not a conventional model, Watson, you don't need the cameras to show off, the cameras need you. You're very lively on the catwalk, you don't let the outfit be the star of the show, you add your own sparkle to make it look even better. You directly took all my attention when you were modeling."

"I just do something I wanted to do since I was a child, Mrs. Bourgeois, I don't do anything out of this world. Except being myself, but I can't help that." MJ chuckled.

"I like your attitude, Watson, surely you will become the best model in the world." Audrey said before looking at Peter. "As for you... You're Jameson's photographer, the one who sells him the pictures of that spider menace that he uses in his silly newspaper, right?"

"Great, another hater..." Peter sighed.

"That's right, but Spider-Man is not a menace, Audrey." Tony snapped.

"I'll only believe it because you say so, Anthony, and I trust you." Audrey said as she winked at Tony. "Getting back to the point, Parker, you impress me as a photographer. Since I saw your shots in the contest I organized where Watson won, I noticed that you have talent, you managed to win the first two places in my contest, after all. Many photographers twice your age and experience have not even dreamed of achieving something like that."

"I'm just lucky, both shots were by chance, as for the pictures of Spider-Man, I only take to help my aunt." Peter said.

"Nonsense. You waste your talent on Jameson and his school paper." Audrey said. "And I've been thinking about this a lot, you three would definitely surpass Gabriel without a problem if you worked together and had the proper guidance, so I want the three of you to come with me to New York."

"Wow, I'm very happy for you guys." Adrien said in a sincere tone as he put his hands on MJ and Marinette's shoulders. "Don't you think this opportunity is great for them, Chloé?"

"WHAT?!" Chloe yelled indignantly. "You have never offered ME to go with you to New York EVEN ONCE and you go and offer that opportunity to three complete strangers with no talent!"

"Cassandra... I mean, Chloé, it's precisely this type of childishness for which I prefer to have your sister Zoé closer than you..." Audrey tried to say.

"SHE IS NOT MY SISTER!"

"And to be honest, Carmela, YOU are the one who has no talent at all." Audrey said nonchalantly as she looked contemptuously at her daughter. "Parker, Dupain-Cheng and Watson are indeed exceptional, enough to really impress me, while you... Hmph, the only thing exceptional about you is that you are related to the mayor of Paris, the personal intern of the owner of the Life Foundation and the Queen of Fashion. You are nothing more than a capricious and bratty girl who fails to stand out in absolutely anything, not even being the queen of your school, I already heard about that mutant you had for a friend and that both your friend Felicia and Miss Watson have much more respect, fear and admiration from your classmates than you."

At that moment, the people around couldn't help but feel sorry for Chloé, who was looking at her mother with tears in her eyes before running off.

"That was excessively cruel, Bourgeois." Pepper snapped.

"I perfectly understand the feeling of wanting a child to stand out, but even I have to admit that it was too much." Norman blurted out.

"And I thought there was no one more petulant and rude than Alistair Smythe..." Eddie sighed.

"That Audrey Bourgeois is a monster." Aunt May said.

"Honey, it seems to me that you overdid it with Chloé." André Bourgeois snapped.

"That girl needs to learn her place and shine by herself to stop being a big disappointment to me." Audrey said before turning her attention to Peter, Marinette and MJ again with a smile. "My private helicopter will take off from the roof of the Grand Paris Hotel at 8 pm. If you want to make it to the top, don't be late."

With that said, the Queen of Fashion strutted out of the Grand Palace, not before winking at Tony, followed by her husband, who still had a bad taste in his mouth from Audrey's outburst with Chloé, while the Queen of Fashion received angry looks from most of those present, and smirks from Gabriel Agreste and Norman Osborn.

(In another part of Paris)

In the Green Goblin's secret lair, the real Norman Osborn grinned wickedly as the pane of glass in front of him opened a small window and turned transparent.

"Oh, Audrey, and here I thought you were totally useless..." Norman said as Coffee approached him. "And you said that helping Gabriel with his Gala was a waste of time."

"No, I said it was an extremely strange thing coming from you." Coffee snapped. "You're one of the villains who have managed to beat up the Avengers and yet you're selflessly helping someone, this Audrey thingy was a great coincidence."

"You wouldn't understand." Norman said as he shrugged. "Gabe and I have history together. But that will be for another time, it's time to give little Chloé something so that she can finally shine in the eyes of her mother... Coffee, aura of malice, surround me!"

The little kwami was sucked into the OsCorp owner's Miraculous, transforming him into the Green Goblin, who then took a pixie from his bag, charged it with dark energy and released it, letting it fly freely as he smirked.

"Go get her, my little pixie, and give her the power she longs for..." The Green Goblin said as the pixie went out the window.

(Far from there)

Chloé Bourgeois was crying and running again, and just like when it had passed because of Sabrina, a figure wearing a black suit with white details and a jump rope for a tail, was following her running over the roofs of the buildings, trying to think of how she could help her friend after another one of her self-imposed espionage missions ended with Chloé receiving harshly true words that brought tears to her eyes.

'This wasn't what I was expecting to find after yesterday's curious Gala. Without a doubt, Audrey Bourgeois is a bitch.' Black Cat thought. 'And I used to admire her achievements. Ugh, I hope mom doesn't find out or she'll never let me live it out... Never mind, I have to find somewhere to detransform and catch up with Chloé.'

Black Cat jumped over a chimney and landed at the bottom of an alley, managing to see Chloé walk past the entrance to it.

"Ivoire, claws..." Black Cat tried to say before noticing something out of the corner of her eye.

Before Black Cat could detransform, the girl managed to see a small green flash fly in front of the alley entrance, which made her eyes widen, recognizing it immediately.

For its part, the pixie flew at full speed towards Chloé while Black Cat ran out of the alley in an attempt to prevent Chloé from being caught by the pixie, however, when she took her weapon to try to get Chloé away from it, the pixie touched the spoiled girl's glasses, stopping her in her tracks as a green figure appeared in front of her eyes.

"Chloe!" Black Cat yelled.

"Queen Wasp, I am the Green Goblin." Said the voice of the Green Goblin in Chloé's mind. "Your mother thinks you're useless, but I'm here to give you the power you crave to prove her otherwise. And as a show of your aptitude and skill, you will defeat Spider-Man and his friends, and bring me their Miraculous."

"Those idiots will be nothing compared to me, Green Goblin..." Chloé chuckled.

"No, Chloe!" Black Cat yelled as she ran towards her evillized friend.

A dark aura covered Chloé just before Black Cat got to her, transforming the girl into an inverted-color version of Queen Bee, wearing a mostly black outfit with a couple of yellow lines forming a V on her abdomen, a black and yellow top on her waist, a black mask with yellow details that covered her blue eyes with purple irises, her hair had turned black and her skin had turned a yellow color to match the details of her suit.

The instant she finished her transformation, Queen Wasp opened her eyes and grabbed Black Cat by the arm, throwing her over her shoulder with a judo move, making the girl crash into a car badly and end up denting it.

"Don't you dare touch the Queen again, commoner." Queen Wasp snapped.

"I don't know what you're up to, Green Goblin, but you made this personal by evillizing Chloé..." Black Cat snapped as she grabbed her jump rope and got up with difficulty. "I'm not gonna let you be a puppet of that lunatic in a Halloween costume!"

"Did you just call me a puppet?" Queen Wasp asked indignantly.

"Great, she's not only evil, she's deaf..."

Queen Wasp roared, raised her hand and shot a yellow beam at Black Cat, who took it square in the chest and crashed into the same car as before.

Black Cat growled again and watched Queen Wasp throw her top at a chimney and use it to swing back to the Grand Palais.

"Damn, I always end up being a superhero..." Black Cat muttered.

With that said, the girl in the black suit threw her jump rope at a lamppost and used it to swing behind Queen Wasp, hoping to catch up with her and de-evillize her before she caused some havoc that required the intervention from the heroes of Paris, or worse, from Iron Man.

(Back at the Grand Palais)

The small crowd of people left behind after Gabriel's Gala had begun to disperse since the altercation between Chloé and her mother, all of them with a lot of questions on their minds, except for Gabriel Agreste, who was just trying to think of a way to escape so he can use Chloé to his advantage.

For their part, the three teenagers who had been given the chance to rise to the top by Audrey Bourgeois were talking to their tutors and their friends, trying to weigh the pros and cons of the Fashion Queen's offer, while they were still surrounded by Eddie Brock, Aunt May, Madeline Watson, Norman and Harry Osborn, Pepper Potts, Sabine Cheng, Tom Dupain, and Tony Stark.

"It's like a dream come true." Marinette sighed.

"I know, right?" MJ said with a grimace. "And yet..."

"I don't know about you, but personally I'd rather reach the top for my scientific skills and not as a photographer." Peter sighed. "But on the other hand, I wouldn't want you to not achieve your dreams if I back down from this offer."

"And it wouldn't be fair for us to ask you to give up on your dreams to fulfill ours..."

"We're in a bind..." Marinette said.

"Whatever you choose, you have our full support." Madeline said as she hugged her daughter.

"I think that's the problem, Mrs. Watson..." Peter sighed. "We need someone to tell us what to do."

"And that's another problem, Peter." May said as she put a hand on her nephew's shoulder. "You are the only ones who can decide that."

"But how do we know what is right?" Marinette asked.

"Just imagine the possibilities." Tom said cheerfully. "Honestly, I support you in whatever you decide, Marinette, even if it takes you away from me. Though if you do leave to New York, I would try to open bakery there to stay by your side."

"Tom, calm down." Sabine said very calmly. "You're getting ahead of yourself."

"If I may interrupt." Pepper said suddenly. "Audrey Bourgeois is not a person you should trust. I say this from my own experience and because I have known of many people who had a similar opportunity, whom she used to get to where she is. I even hired a couple of those people for Stark Industries."

"Ah, so that's where those surprise hires out of nowhere came from..." Tony laughed.

"As I was saying, Audrey Bourgeois is not someone to trust. I can't decide for you, but I can suggest you not accept her offer."

"And even if your girlfriend doesn't know me, Pete, I'd suggest that you three pay attention to Miss Potts' advice, that Audrey chic is as despicable as Alistair and his father were." Eddie said. "And I have experience recognizing a bully when I see one."

"And I'll just add that Audrey is the tenth on the list of people I prefer to avoid, I even prefer to spend an afternoon with Norman and Gabriel." Tony blurted out.

"You're an idiot, Stark..." Norman growled.

While the young people pondered and weighed the words of the CEO of Stark Industries, the specialists continued to dismantle the entire stage and the catwalk, when suddenly, a rumble was heard outside the building, then a figure in a black suit was thrown inside the Grand Palais through the door, causing it to go through one of the false walls that had been placed for the Gala, alerting everyone, especially the bearers and the Avenger present.

After a few seconds, the figure that had crashed into the false wall grunted in pain and stood up, surprising Mary Jane a little.

"Black Cat?" Mary Jane asked. "What are you doing here?"

"Trying to stop her from causing damage..." Black Cat snapped as she stared at the entrance of the Grand Palais.

"Dear mother, I hope you're looking carefully..." Queen Wasp said as she entered the Grand Palais. "That was just a sample of how exceptional I can be!"

"Everybody out!" Tony snapped as he took his Mark VIII from Happy.

Queen Wasp smiled mischievously and raised her hands, creating with them a huge horde of small wasps that glowed in yellow. Then the villain made a gesture and made the wasps quickly surround everyone present with some kind of wall, preventing them from escaping.

"Enough, Chloé!" Black Cat snapped as she prepared her jump rope to attack.

"I don't like to attack children, but it seems to me that someone urgently needs discipline..." Tony said as he donned his suit.

"Ah, the famous Iron Man... Mom is obsessed with you..." Queen Wasp said. "I wonder how devastated she will be if I destroy you..."

"Try it."

Queen Wasp smirked and fired a yellow beam at Iron Man, who intercepted it halfway with one of his repulsor beams, however, it had all been a trap so that part of the horde of wasps became some sort of giant fist and hit the Armored Avenger hard, sending him crashing into the wall.

But unfortunately for Queen Wasp, due to focusing on Iron Man, Black Cat took the chance to pounce on her and knock her down, trying to finish the fight once and for all by trying to claw the tiara off that Chloé's sunglasses had become when she was akumatized, unfortunately, Queen Wasp released one of her arms and punched Black Cat in the cheek, managing to get the girl off her and prevent her from destroying her tiara, then Queen Wasp jumped up and mentally commanded the fist that had hit Iron Man to do the same to Black Cat, sending the girl slamming into another wall in a bad way.

Once the hindrances were out of the way, Queen Wasp turned her full attention to Mary Jane, Peter, and Marinette, who instinctively took a step back in fear and frustration at not being able to transform while they were surrounded.

"You three..." Queen Wasp said. "You three will serve to demonstrate how exceptional I can be."

"You won't take them..." Pepper Potts said as she stood in front of the teenagers.

"Don't worry, ape in rags, you're also coming with me."

Pepper raised an eyebrow and felt how something surrounded her and lifted her from the ground, noticing shortly after that it was part of the swarm of wasps of the evillized villain. And worse yet, Queen Wasp had also captured Peter, MJ and Marinette with the rest of the swarm.

"Take a good look, mother." Queen Wasp said. "I was able to beat Pepper Potts effortlessly and you couldn't even be Style Queen."

"Great... I'm a hostage again... At least this time Tony has his armor..." Pepper sighed.

Just then, Queen Wasp was sent back with a repulsor ray, then everyone turned their eyes and saw Iron Man raise his arm and deploy the sonic disruptor that Pepper had used against Style Queen.

"Modulate the disruptor to disintegrate those energy wasps, J.A.R.V.I.S!" Iron Man ordered.

"Already did, sir." Reported J.A.R.V.I.S.

The wasps released Peter, Mary Jane, Pepper, and Marinette, then turned into some kind of giant fists that tried to hit Iron Man, but Iron Man just smirked under his mask and fired the disruptor, destroying the swarm with ease.

"Is that the best you got?" Iron Man asked.

Queen Wasp roared and created more energy wasps, throwing fist after fist at Iron Man, who only managed to create a deflector shield to protect himself, being sent backwards with each impact.

For her part, Black Cat threw her jump rope at Queen Wasp, taking advantage of the fact that the villain was distracted, then jumped on her and knocked her down again, preparing her claws to destroy the tiara, but Queen Wasp fired a couple of beams from her hands, knocking Black Cat off her, then using part of her wasp swarm to catch her and throw her at Iron Man, who deactivated his deflector shield to catch the cat-powered girl, before they both took a hit from one of the fists formed by wasps, which made them go through one of the walls of the Grand Palais.

Then Queen Wasp snapped her fingers and her swarm covered Mary Jane, Peter and Marinette again, however, before they were caught, Adrien frowned and pushed Mary Jane out of the wasps' reach but taking her place by mistake, just as she had done for him when Style Queen had first tried to attack him.

Fortunately for the redhead, Queen Wasp was too self-absorbed feeling satisfaction at having defeated Iron Man and Black Cat, so she didn't even notice the change and left the place, being followed by her swarm while inside the Grand Palais, the people were finally hurrying away, with three teenagers going to different hiding places to put on their suits.

Meanwhile, Iron Man grunted and stood up, noticing the still dazed Black Cat beside him.

-"The kid has a lot of explaining to do after this..."- Iron Man growled as he stood up.

-"Trust me, tin head, I try to have as little as possible to do with your beloved pet..."- Black Cat moaned as he stood up.

-"Anyway, nice try, girl, but leave the superhero job to the professionals."-

-"This is personal for me, Stark. You won't leave me out of this."-

Iron Man rolled his eyes, assuming that the girl under that mask was a friend of Chloé Bourgeois, and since he was more interested in rescuing his pupil, the latter's girlfriend, his own girlfriend and the Watson girl, he simply sighed and turned his back on Black Cat.

"Whatever, I don't have time to deal with teenage heroes... J.A.R.V.I.S., track down the girl." Iron Man said.

"I'm not a hero..." Black Cat snapped.

"Actions speak louder than words, girl, and after what you did with Morbius and the Brotherhood, I'd say that you definitely are."

"Ugh, fuck you, Stark..."

Iron Man couldn't help but chuckle as J.A.R.V.I.S. marked Queen Wasp's position on his HUD.

"Mr. Stark!" Two women shouted, attracting Iron Man's attention.

At that moment, Iron Man gasped as May Parker and Madeline Watson approached him, both with worried looks on their faces.

"Please, Mr. Stark!" May said. "You have to save my nephew!"

"And also my daughter!" Madeline said.

"Don't worry, Mrs. Parker, we'll rescue the kids and get little Chloé before she gets hurt." Iron Man said as he took flight. "Come on, Cat Girl! Chloé is doing her drama near the Grand Paris Hotel!"

"I'm Black Cat, Stark!" Black Cat snapped as she used her jump rope to grab hold of one of Iron Man's boots.

Meanwhile, after being saved by Adrien and with Queen Wasp leaving the Grand Palais, Mary Jane Watson managed to hide behind a false wall and pulled her kwami out of her fanny pack.

"I gotta save Goldilocks." Mary Jane said.

"You must be careful, your Majesty, remember that your identity must not be discovered, and I still wouldn't trust that Black Cat, or Iron Man." Pollen snapped.

"We'll worry about them later, Pollen. Buzz on!"

For his part, inside the Osborns' car, Harry was grabbing his backpack and quickly throwing the straps over his shoulders, but just before activating the armor, Norman Osborn put a hand on his shoulder and stopped him dead in his tracks.

"This is your chance, Harry." Norman said. "Your chance to prove how superior we Osborns are to Starks."

"My concern is that my friends could get hurt, so I'm not gonna make any mistakes." Harry said firmly. "And I'm not gonna let Chloé get hurt either."

"Good, but above all, don't let Stark analyze the suit. Your armor's AI can detect if Stark tries to do so, so try to keep moving so he can't get a clear reading."

"I'll keep it in mind, father."

With that said, Harry got out of the car and activated his armor, taking off almost immediately, as Norman Osborn's LMD smirked.

Not far from there, Gabriel Agreste looked around and smirked mischievously, however, his smirk disappeared as he wanted to look for his son to take him to a safe place while he thought of a way to get ahead of the Green Goblin, since the boy was nowhere to be seen.

"No..." Gabriel sighed. "Nathalie! Where's Adrien?!"

"I-I don't know, sir..." The assistant murmured. "I lost sight of him during Queen Wasp's attack..."

"You're useless! I'll have to find him myself!"

With that said, the designer ran out of the Grand Palais to hide behind a pillar at the entrance and watch Iron Man and Black Cat fly away, followed by American Son and Queen Bee.

"Damn... with Iron Man and all those new heroes... I can't risk it, but I have to find Adrien..." Gabriel said to himself. "I still can follow them closely... Nooroo, dark wings rise!"

A flash of light covered Gabriel Agreste's body and transformed his civilian outfit into Hawk Moth's costume, then he came out of hiding and started jumping between buildings and lampposts to chase Queen Wasp, just to make sure his son was fine.

(Meanwhile)

Queen Wasp chuckled as she approached the hotel that belonged to her father, where a luxurious car was parking near the entrance.

And just as the car came to a stop, a pair of hands created by energy wasps tore off the rear doors and forced Audrey out of the vehicle.

"Ugh, Abraham... err, André, do me a favor and fire the valet..." Audrey snapped without giving importance to her situation. "She's terribly inefficient, rude and her outfit is horrible."

"Hello, dear mother..." Queen Wasp said with a mocking tone. "You said I wasn't exceptional, but I'm here to prove you wrong..."

"Ugh, Caroline... I mean, Chloé, you're a terribly spoiled brat... Let go of me once and for all and stop being such a drama queen."

"But the fun is just beginning..."

With that said, Queen Wasp led her mother and her prisoners off to the Eiffel Tower.

However, when she was on the banks of the Seine, Queen Wasp received a repulsor ray in the back that knocked her down and made her fall a couple of meters before being caught by her swarm of wasps, then the girl turned expecting to see Iron Man, but instead she saw American Son, while Queen Bee and Rena Rouge landed behind him, followed by the arrival of Iron Man and Black Cat.

"Ok, this is worrying me already." Iron Man said suddenly. "Where do so many teenage superheroes come from?"

"Chloé, that's enough, you have to stop." Black Cat snapped.

"You keep ordering the Queen what to do... " Queen Wasp said with annoyance.

"There's only one spot for a girl dressed in black and yellow who has the title of queen and it's mine." Queen Bee said. "Now, give up and we may not hurt you..."

"This is not the time for such threats, Queen Bee..." Rena Rouge said.

Queen Wasp got mad as she heard Queen Bee, then she created even more wasps, lifted several nearby cars and threw them at the heroes, causing Iron Man and American Son to create deflector shields around everyone, making the cars crash against them, further infuriating Queen Wasp.

"You are a huge nuisance!" Queen Wasp snapped as she fired her yellow beams at Iron Man and American Son's shields.

"Alert: Deflector shield integrity at 57%." Reported J.A.R.V.I.S.

"I can see it, J.A.R.V.I.S!" Iron Man snapped. "Kid, J, switch the shape of the deflector shield so the others can attack!"

American Son rolled his eyes and changed the shape of his deflector shield at the same time as Iron Man to create a barrier instead of a dome, and taking advantage of the fact that Queen Wasp was still attacking the barriers, Black Cat, Queen Bee and Rena Rouge jumped over the barriers and charged at Queen Wasp, managing to make her cease her attack on Iron Man and American Son.

Queen Wasp dodged a punch from Rena Rouge and a kick from Black Cat, but was unable to dodge Queen Bee's spinning top, who instead of launching a direct attack, slid on the ground and tied the villain's legs to knock her down and make her fall face down on the ground.

Retracting her weapon, Queen Bee threw her top at one of the swarms holding her friends and Pepper, but the swarm blocked the top without any trouble.

Queen Bee again retracted her weapon, and unfortunately, Queen Wasp launched another small pair of swarms at her, Rena Rouge and Black Cat, creating giant fists with which she hit them and send them crashing across the Seine.

"I've had enough!" American Son snapped.

American Son undid the deflector shield and used his armor's thrusters at full power to charge full force at Queen Wasp, managing to grab her by the shoulders and smash her into the same wall Black Cat, Queen Bee, and Rena Rouge were previously slammed into by the evillized girl's attacks.

The armored boy managed to grab Queen Wasp's tiara, but she shot yellow bolts right into his chest, knocking him down and causing him to drop her tiara.

The evillized girl growled and tried to take the tiara back, but she was sent back by a repulsor beam, and promptly tied up by Queen Bee's spinning top and Black Cat's jump rope.

"This ends now..." Iron Man said as he picked up the tiara.

"On that we agree!" Queen Wasp roared.

Before the heroes could react, the entirety of Queen Wasp's swarm released the prisoners and charged at the heroes, causing Iron Man to be slammed into the ground by a giant sledgehammer, while the rest of the swarm forced American Son, Rena Rouge, Black Cat and Queen Bee to get away from each other and stay on the defensive.

Queen Wasp smirked and jumped back, landing right behind her prisoners, letting out a little gasp as she noticed that a certain redhead was missing among them.

Wasting no more time, Queen Wasp jumped in front of Marinette, Pepper, Peter, Adrien and Audrey, stopping them in their tracks and glaring at the group.

"Where is Mary Jane Watson?" Queen Wasp growled.

"Chloé, please, stop now." Adrien asked. "Hurting Marinette, Peter and Red won't make you feel better..."

At that moment, Queen Wasp, she let out a frustrated growl at hearing Adrien, then picked him up by his shirt and glared at him.

"Why did you call her Red?" Asked Queen Wasp. "You never used pet names with me and you've known me long before you met her..."

"MJ asked me to..." Adrien said sincerely. "She doesn't like to be so formal..."

"Ugh, you're the drama queen, Carrie... I mean, Chloé." Audrey said as she walked away. "When you finish acting like a brat, I'll wait for your apologies, I just hope it's before 8 pm."

At that moment, Queen Wasp released Adrien and roared before lunging at her mother, knocking her down and grabbing her by the neck, cutting off her oxygen supply.

"Apologies? APOLOGIES?!" Queen Wasp roared as she tightened her grip on her mother's neck. "YOU'RE THE ONE WHO TURNED ME INTO THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE! I JUST WANTED TO BE ABLE TO EARN YOUR FUCKING RESPECT AND LOVE!"

For the second time in her life, Audrey Bourgeois felt terrified and tried to free herself from her daughter's grasp, but she was way stronger than her and slowly she began to feel that the lack of oxygen clouded her mind, causing her little by little to lose consciousness.

But luckily for them, Pepper, Peter, Marinette and Adrien pounced on Queen Wasp and distracted her long enough that she unconsciously let go of Audrey and she was able to gasp heavily to catch her lost breath, while Queen Wasp shrugged off her attackers.

Then, the villainess turned with a murderous look and lunged at Peter and Marinette, lifting both of them by the neck.

"You..." Queen Wasp said as she tightened her grip on Peter and Marinette's necks. "You caused this..."

"This... is your own fault..." Peter said breathlessly.

Queen Wasp growled and tried to tighten Marinette and Peter's necks more, but in an unexpected and agile movement, the photographer from the Daily Bugle kicked the villain in the stomach, managing to suffocate her enough for her to unconsciously release her hold on him and Marinette, however, Queen Wasp recovered from the surprise attack almost immediately, roaring and firing her beams at Peter and Marinette.

The nerd was knocked back after taking the shot to the chest, but Marinette was shielded by Adrien, who was also knocked back by Queen Wasp's attack.

On the other side of the river, Queen Bee managed to get rid of the wasps that were attacking her by transforming her top into her lightfoil, managing to destroy them all, deciding to go directly after the Queen Wasp and make sure that her friends were not hurt by her, but seeing how the evillized girl sent Peter, Marinette and Adrien backwards with a couple of beams, she gasped in horror as she saw that none of them moved after the attack, and that Peter and Adrien were obviously having difficulty breathing, as well burns on the chest and back, respectively. Immediately afterwards, something deep inside her mind prompted her to look directly at the obvious cause of her friends' injuries and feel as if a fierce fire began to run through her veins, then, following a primal instinct heightened by the feeling of rage within her, Queen Bee let out a roar of pure anger as her eyes gave off an intense bluish glow, then she leaped across the Seine and lunged at Queen Wasp, smashing her into the riverbank wall and roaring before lifting her with ease and slamming her back into the ground brutally, then standing up, grabbing Queen Wasp by the legs and slamming her face down to the ground, before Pepper and Audrey's astonished gaze.

Meanwhile, Marinette managed to get Adrien off her and let out a little cry of horror when she noticed the burns on Peter's chest and Adrien's back, which although they did look minor, they were still worrying, since they had received the beams at close range.

"Adrien! Peter!" Marinette said horrified.

"Leave..." Adrien moaned as he tried to get to his feet.

"Take... Miss Potts... with you... go..." Peter moaned breathlessly.

"No... I have to help you..."

Before she could do anything, Marinette simply heard someone let out a threatening roar, followed by the shock of seeing Queen Bee acting more out of rage, pummeling Queen Wasp with terrifying ease.

Before she could do anything, Marinette simply heard someone let out a threatening roar, followed by the shock of seeing Queen Bee acting more out of rage, pummeling Queen Wasp with terrifying ease.

Meanwhile, after being slammed face-first into the ground, Queen Wasp roared and managed to kick Queen Bee in the face a couple of times, stunning her enough for her to break free of her grasp and jump to her feet, but it was of little use, because as soon as she put both feet on the ground, Queen Bee attacked her again, still roaring and letting her see that her teeth looked more like fangs.

Without giving her time to react to protect herself from her, Queen Bee delivered a couple of well-aimed punches to both cheeks of Queen Wasp, followed by an elbow to the solar plexus and kneed her hard in the face, which caused a trickle of blood to flow from Queen Wasp's nose.

Still having a hard time staying on her feet, Queen Wasp didn't sit idly by and lunged at Queen Bee, managing to dodge another punch, deflect a fourth blow and headbutt her opponent, then slammed both palms into her ears, leaving Queen Bee very stunned, then she grabbed her tightly by the hair and kneed her in the face and in the abdomen, which suffocated the heroine and allowed Queen Wasp to hit her with both hands on the back, making her fall to her knees.

"That's where imitators belong..." Queen Wasp panted as she wiped away the trickle of blood that flowed from her nose. "... kneeling before the true queen..."

The villain's words only made Queen Bee even angrier, and as such she tackled Queen Wasp, knocking her down and, before she could fight back, the heroine began punching Queen Wasp in the face with all her might.

On the other hand, the energy wasps that were still attacking Iron Man, American Son, Rena Rouge and Black Cat dissipated from one moment to another, and taking advantage of that, they turned to Queen Wasp and let out a gasp when they saw Queen Bee still hitting the villain, which greatly alarmed Black Cat.

For her part, Queen Bee continued with her savage attack on Queen Wasp, leaving her face very swollen and full of bruises and wounds, and struggling to stay conscious, when suddenly, Black Cat tackled Queen Bee and held her against the wall for a moment, however, Queen Bee proved stronger and easily lifted her by the arms to toss her aside and try to lunge back at Queen Wasp, but Iron Man projected a deflector shield around her as American Son landed next to Peter and Adrien.

"Ok, officially I'm alarmed." Iron Man said while Queen Bee hit the deflector shield with all her might. "What the hell do Miraculouses do to the youth of today?"

"I don't know, Queen Bee already seemed crazy to me, but this makes me believe that she is more of a psychopath." Black Cat said, making Queen Bee angrier.

"Not helping, cat girl." American Son snapped as he checked on his friends. "It seems that the attack was not so serious, they suffered barely first-degree burns, but the blow left them dazed and breathless."

"You and Fox Girl get them out of here, Cat Girl and I'll take care of Killer Bee and little Chloé..." Iron Man said.

Meanwhile, a luminous figure was projected in front of the villain's eyes and suddenly, the Green Goblin's voice was heard inside Queen Wasp's mind.

"Get up and kill them!" The Green Goblin snapped. "I can't believe your stupid mother is right! Even Queen Bee is much stronger and more skilled than you!"

At that moment, Queen Bee and Queen Wasp let out a scream, the first being one of pain as she fell to her knees on the ground while she gasped, and the second one of anger and rage as she rose up and created a huge swarm.

"NOBODY IS BETTER THAN ME!" Queen Wasp roared.

"Dammit..." Black Cat said as she adopted a combat stance.

Without thinking twice, Rena Rouge picked up Peter and Adrien, throwing them on her shoulders while gesturing American Son to pick up Marinette, which the youngster in armor did instinctively and they tried to get away from the place, but Queen Wasp stopped them dead in their tracks, creating some kind of dome with her swarm.

Upon hearing Rena Rouge and American Son's attempt to escape, Queen Wasp turned to them with her eyes giving off a purple light and still visibly battered from her fight with Queen Bee.

"EVERYONE WILL PAY FOR DISRESPECTING THE QUEEN!" Queen Wasp roared.

With that said, Queen Wasp attempted to fire a beam at American Son, who threw Marinette over his shoulder so he could project his forearm shield, but before the villain could fire her beam, Queen Bee's top hit Queen Wasp in the shoulder, getting her and the others' attention, making them look at her as she panted heavily and grimaced as if she was enduring a lot of pain.

"I'm still... not... beaten..." Queen Bee said between panting.

As Iron Man and American Son stared at Queen Bee in amazement, a couple of alerts lit up on their helmets, showing them that the bee-themed girl was pretty hurt.

"Multiple muscle tears and sprains detected." Said J.A.R.V.I.S. while he analyzed Queen Bee.

"No... Not again..." An alarmed Iron Man muttered under his helmet. "Killer Bee, you can't keep up the fight..."

"You think so..." Queen Bee growled as she tried to ignore the pain in her body. "Fuck..."

"You have guts, impostor, I admit it, but your flagrant offense against Queen Wasp cannot go unpunished..." Queen Wasp said as part of the swarm lunged against Queen Bee. "Die..."

Before the swarm could reach the red-haired heroine, Black Cat stepped in, twisting one end of her jump rope quickly like a shield, managing to withstand the impact and glaring at her friend.

"Enough already, Chloé..." Black Cat said firmly. "I've had enough of this madness. I didn't want to come to this but if turning you back to normal means I have to play superhero with psycho bee, her friends and Iron Man, and that I have to hurt you, I'm gonna do it..."

"That's what you think, commoner!" Queen Wasp roared.

Queen Wasp tried to fire her lightning bolts again, this time against Black Cat, but the girl dodged the attack and pounced on Queen Wasp, with her claws ready to destroy the tiara, helped by Queen Bee, who refused to fall due to her wounds, as the swarm of energy wasps headed to recapture the prisoners.

Rena Rouge and American Son carefully lowered their friends and began to fight back the wasps as fast as they could, trying to prevent Peter, Marinette and Adrien from being captured again, while Iron Man created an energy shield to protect Audrey, Pepper and himself.

"Don't let them catch me again, Anthony!" Audrey begged as she hid behind Iron Man. "I don't know why Carla is making such a tantrum!"

"Would you shut up?! All of this is your fault!" Pepper said. "If you weren't the worst mother in the world, none of this would be happening!"

"How dare you talk to me like that, ape in...?!"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP NOW, AUDREY!" Iron Man roared furiously. "The only reason I'm protecting you is that I'm a fucking Avenger, but since this is your fault and you insist on being nothing more than a nuisance and an annoyance, I should leave you at the mercy of your daughter to learn a lesson!"

At Iron Man's words, Audrey was stunned and speechless, because she couldn't believe that her beloved Anthony had spoken to her that way.

However, she didn't have time to remain stunned, because at that moment, Iron Man carried Pepper in his arms and leaned a little, gesturing with his head to climb on her back, which she did automatically.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., electrify the annoying blonde's arms." Iron Man said.

"Already did, sir." Reported J.A.R.V.I.S.

"Fox Girl, Copycat, take the boys and follow me!" Iron Man said.

"YOU WILL NOT LEAVE!" Queen Wasp roared after sending Queen Bee back with a kick.

"Your fight is with me!" Black Cat said before throwing one end of her jump rope against Queen Wasp.

Black Cat managed to tie Queen Wasp up, then spun her around and threw her straight at Queen Bee, who met her with a punch to her face while she grunted as a twinge of pain ran all over her body.

As Black Cat and Queen Bee continued their move against Queen Wasp, Iron Man used his suit's sonic disruptor to create a hole in the wasp dome, while Rena Rouge and American Son picked Marinette, Adrien, and Peter up once more. Afterward, the trio of heroes jumped through the hole in the dome, taking Pepper, Audrey, Marinette, Peter, and Adrien away from the fray, leaving them in Chloé's room at the Grand Paris Hotel.

"You should be safe here." American Son said.

"I'll take care of getting help for the boys. You go help cat girl and bee girl." Pepper said as Iron Man put her down.

"Good plan, Pep. Also make sure my plane is ready to fly back to New York as soon as we finish giving little Chloé a lesson in manners."

"You know you don't need to ask for that, I'm always one step ahead of you, Tony, otherwise you couldn't go play superhero with your friends."

"And that's why I love you so much, Pepper. Let's go, kids."

"Don't boss me around, Stark." American Son said.

"Don't tempt me to sue you for copyright infringement, kid..."

"I'm surprised how much the Avengers fight with other heroes…" Rena Rouge said as she rolled her eyes.

Rena Rouge jumped up as American Son and Iron Man took off again, at the same time that Pepper picked Peter up in her arms to place him on the bed, instructing Audrey and Marinette to do the same with Adrien, but letting the blond rest on a sofa.

"M-Miss Potts… I have to…" Peter whispered as he tried to get up.

"All you have to do is rest, your friends and Tony have everything under control." Pepper said in a rather motherly tone.

"But... Queen Bee..."

"Tony can help her, besides, cat girl watches her back, she's trustworthy, or didn't she help you all with Morbius and the mutants?"

"Yes... but... the Feral Mode..."

"You survived that and much more damage, your bee friend will be fine." Pepper said. "You're not in a position to go out and play hero."

"I always get up... with great power..."

"... comes great responsibility, I know, kid, I know. You're truly admirable, but this time it wasn't your other self that was hurt." Pepper said, genuinely concerned for Peter's well-being. "Think of yourself just this once, the world will still be standing, we're talking about Tony and your friends, after all."

Peter sighed and looked up at the ceiling, internally cursing the fact that Miss Potts was as stubborn as Mr. Stark, though it made it clear to him why, as different as their personalities might be, she and Stark were such a stable couple.

On her part, Marinette was indecisive and very conflicted.

On the one hand, she was very worried about Adrien's condition, because although the injuries were not very serious, the boy still couldn't move well and had some difficulty for breathing.

And on the other hand, she felt the need to go help Queen Bee, Rena Rouge, Black Cat and Iron Man, because they would surely need to repair the damage caused by Queen Wasp, also that Queen Bee didn't look in good condition and she didn't want her to get hurt more.

But there was a big problem with that, and that was that she couldn't just leave to transform. If she were with anyone else, she could clearly throw them off her scent by making it look like she was going for help, but with both women having practically unlimited resources, plus Pepper genuinely caring about their well-being, she couldn't play the disappear card without looking suspicious, and without a doubt, Miss Potts would discover her identity without a problem, since she was Iron Man's right hand.

'I need a miracle to get out of this... or at least that the others can take care of this...' Marinette said internally as she looked at Adrien with a worried look.

"If you care so much about the health of the paparazzi and pretty boy, you could use this." Said a deep voice.

At that moment, everyone in Chloé's room gasped and turned towards the balcony entrance, where there was what appeared to be a man in a superhero costume similar to those of the Miraculous wearers, consisting of a blue T-shirt with a golden collar, a matching cap and boots, the classic black eye mask that thieves use, gray pants with a small adornment similar to that of Rena Rouge but that seemed like a raccoon tail, a small red backpack on his leg and a cane with a gold hook on his back, who also had in his hand some kind of bluish balm, which made Pepper frown as soon as she saw it.

"That's Horizon Labs property!" Pepper snapped.

"Meh, Dr. Crawford won't mind, she has five other samples." The man said nonchalantly as he shrugged. "Besides, she created it to heal people and they both need some help."

After saying that, the man threw the jar at Marinette, who caught it and looked at it in disbelief.

"Try not to freak out when you put it on Goldilocks." The mysterious man said as he winked at Marinette.

With that said, the man jumped back, landing on the balcony railing, and jumped back again, falling toward the street.

"Great, he's back…" Pepper sighed.

"You know him?" Peter asked.

"J.A.R.V.I.S. found it in a S.H.I.E.L.D. database. He calls himself Raccoon Thief and he's kind of an anti-hero."

"A S.H.I.E.L.D database?" Marinette asked.

"Tony loves to annoy Nick Fury and Maria Hill so he gets into their databases from time to time, plus we have S.H.I.E.L.D. since we used to sell them weapons when we still had that division at Stark Industries."

"That criminal works for S.H.I.E.L.D?" Audrey asked.

"I'm not sure, but since Fury has Black Widow on the payroll, so it's possible." Pepper sighed. "I guess you can use the jar, Marinette, I'll deal with Modell and Crawford later."

Marinette sighed and looked at the jar in her hands, then swallowed hard as she realized that Adrien was looking at her as if she expected him to apply the contents of said jar to him.

"Marinette..." Adrien said.

Marinette felt her pulse quicken and her mouth suddenly go dry, then she began to open the jar with trembling hands and tried to focus on the glowing blue substance inside it, and before continuing, Adrien raised his arm slowly and took the jar, surprising Marinette a little. Then the blond model took a dab of that shiny ointment on two of her fingers and carefully applied it to his chest, hissing a little.

"Are you okay?" Marinette asked.

"Yes... It's just that... it's cold..." Adrien laughed forcefully.

"All this is an outrage." Audrey snorted. "Having to run away from Cecilia's tantrums because she didn't want to hear the truth about her."

"Just shut up already, Audrey, this is all your fault." Pepper said as she stood up. "If you were a decent mother..."

"I'm a much better mother than you, Potts. I have at least one successful daughter and one mediocre one, you don't have any."

"Because I haven't tried to have children."

"Or rather because nobody has wanted to have them with you, and even Anthony knows well that having children with you would be a total waste of his genes, since unlike him or me, you are just a miserable peasant who will never live up to it to be his partner..."

At that moment, Audrey Bourgeois fell to the floor with a reddened cheek, while Pepper glared at her and held her hand up.

After that, before the astonished looks of Adrien, Peter and Marinette, Pepper bent down and grabbed her rival by the collar of her outfit and brought her close to her face, still glaring at her.

"Listen to me and listen closely, Audrey Bourgeois, because I will only say it once!" Pepper roared. "I'm already more than fed up with your damn mania of belittling and insulting me since I had the fucking misfortune of meeting you when I was 19 years old! And I'll put it into words your little slut brain can understand! Tony Stark loves me and I love him! Period! And if you think that you have a chance to break my relationship with him or make me believe that I'm not worthy of him, you're very wrong! I know how much I'm worth and Tony hates you even more than Norman Osborn! And I know because you're his tenth least favorite person in the world and Osborn is the eleventh!"

"You lie! Anthony loves me!" Audrey roared.

"Keep fooling yourself! But you're not going to mess with my relationship again! Understood?!"

After saying that, Pepper threw Audrey back to the ground and went over to Adrien to take the jar and walked back to treat Peter, luckily for the photographer, very carefully despite her obvious anger towards Audrey, while the latter tried to compose herself and, out of sheer survival instinct, she kept her mouth shut despite how much she wanted to insult her rival, while Marinette and Adrien were still staring at the CEO of Stark Industries in astonishment.

Meanwhile, in a nearby building, Hawk Moth watched the whole scene and couldn't help but curse himself for not being able to stop Adrien from being hurt by Queen Wasp, both for having to let his sworn enemies and Iron Man end up getting him to safety, although he still wondered who the hell was that guy in the raccoon suit who had appeared out of nowhere and disappeared so quickly. The only thing that was clear was that Iron Man and Pepper Potts knew about him, judging by the way miss Potts acted after his disappearance and her acceptance of the strange vial that he had given them so unreluctantly and without hesitations.

And as Hawk Moth continued to ponder what was happening, someone cleared his throat behind him, instinctively leading him to draw the hidden sword on his staff to attack, only for the person who had cleared his throat to deflect the blade of his weapon with some sort of golden hook and chuckled.

"Don't worry, I'm not here to capture you." Raccoon Thief said.

"I don't talk to heroes, I just defeat them..." Hawk Moth growled without lowering his guard.

"It doesn't look like it with your long losing track record at the hands of that bunch of hormonal teens in colorful tights, but anyway, I'm not a hero, you can ask Stark when you see him."

"What do you want?"

"I just want to warn you something: Your search will lead to ruin if you go on with it."

"You don't know anything about my search..."

"I know everything. Believe me, you're already a couple of steps away from losing everything, so you have two options from now on: Either you kill those brats once and get their Miraculouses, putting a big target on your forehead and the Avengers with a gun pointed at said target. Or you give up and stop being such an idiot."

"You don't know nothing about me..."

"Of course I know everything, Hawk Moth..." Raccoon Thief said before smirking mischievously. "Or should I say Gabriel Agreste?"

At that moment, Hawk Moth's eyes widened and he tightened his grip on his sword, then tried to plunge his weapon into the anti-hero's heart, but the anti-hero simply dodged, tripping him so that he ended up falling face-first against the floor.

Before the villain could fight back, Raccoon Thief put a foot on Hawk Moth's hand, stepping on it hard enough so that he couldn't move it.

"I know who you are and what you've done, Gabriel." Raccoon Thief declared. "I also know what you plan and why. I know every dirty little secret of yours..."

"What do you want? I don't do business with blackmailers..." Hawk Moth said between clenched teeth.

"I just want you to stop your stupid things. I'm not going to reveal your secret because I don't need to, you yourself will end up making a mistake that would cause the same as if I revealed your identity to the public, but worse, and it will be much more fun to watch." Raccoon Thief chuckled. "I've said what I had to tell you, it's just a warning about the future. Besides, let's face it, if you were really willing to get rid of those kids, you would've done it by now. The Goblin, Zemo, Fisk, that weird bird from California, that Rita Repulsa girl, they're all truly evil, you're not. And that's just a handful of the guys on Earth that you're up against in the race for Absolute Power, let alone heavyweights like Dormammu, Doom, Magneto, and Loki."

After saying that, Raccoon Thief made another backflip and disappeared again, leaving Hawk Moth with a bad taste in his mouth and a decision.

Whoever was under that mask would be the first to know how far he truly was willing to go in order to fulfill his goal.

After that, Hawk Moth left and headed for his secret lair, thinking of a way to get rid of that meddling idiot.

(Back on the Seine)

Black Cat and Queen Bee pounced on Queen Wasp, who despite not showing it, was quite badly injured by the previous beating that Queen Bee had given her, which the heroines took advantage of to manage to kick her in the stomach, sending her back and then tried to throw their weapons to trap her once and for all and de-evillize her.

However, the swarm managed to block the heroines' weapons, allowing the evillized girl to throw her own spinning top at her attackers, tying them both up and throwing them in the direction of Canal Saint-Martin, where they both rolled on the ground, trying to steady themselves again.

After a couple of meters, they both managed to stop and get into battle stance, with Queen Bee letting out a growl and a hiss of pain.

"Are you okay?" Black Cat asked.

"I thought you didn't like me..." Queen Bee panted.

"And I don't, but I need you to be able to restrain her with your power."

"We need to incapacitate her more, otherwise I might fail..."

"Leave it to me..."

At that moment, Black Cat and Queen Bee dodged a couple of attacks from the swarm of energy wasps, but to the bee heroine's dismay, Queen Wasp took the opportunity to lunge at her, tackling her and slamming her back into Canal Saint-Martin.

Queen Bee screamed in pain, but was soon silenced when both fell into the water, where Queen Wasp tried to hit her, but thanks to the resistance of the water, Queen Bee managed to block the blows and managed to kick her rival in the chest, pushing her away enough for Black Cat to tie her jump rope around Queen Bee's waist and pull her out of the water, catching her in her arms and lowering her to the ground so she could catch her breath.

"This isn't going well..." Black Cat said.

"No shit, Sherlock..." Queen Bee panted. "I have an idea..."

"What do you have in mind?"

"Well, if I'm right about you, I'll assume that your power is Bad Luck..."

"You're observant."

"I need you to attack her while I distract her, once you manage to hit her with your power, I'll sting her with mine."

"Do you think you can distract her enough?"

"We have no choice..."

"Don't be stupid."

"I'll be fine… just stay out of her sight…"

At that moment, Queen Wasp jumped out of the water, looking even more furious than she had before. Afterwards, the girl landed in front of her opponents and called her swarm, surrounding the heroines and herself again.

"I've had enough of you two..." Queen Wasp growled.

"The feeling is mutual..." Queen Bee said.

"Finish them off!" Said the Green Goblin in Queen Wasp's mind. "So you can easily take care of the other pests and force Spider-Man out of wherever he's hiding!"

Queen Wasp said nothing and simply stepped out of her wasp dome, then snapped her fingers and the dome began to close around them.

Queen Bee and Black Cat growled and gritted their teeth, after which Queen Bee reactivated her light foil and lunged at the wasps, but they formed some kind of tentacle and hit her in the stomach, making her fall on her back.

"Damn..." Black Cat said. "Are you...?"

"Stop asking if I'm okay, because obviously I'm not!" Queen Bee snapped as she gasped. "Better help me think of a way out of this before they turn us into RAR files!"

"Ugh, computer humor..."

"You didn't think it was such a bad joke if you understood it."

Meanwhile, outside of her shrinking dome, Queen Wasp smirked and created another small swarm to jump on top of it and try to get away from her place, hoping that those two idiots would finally stop pestering her.

But to her misfortune, a flute hit her in the back of her head and knocked her down, leaving her dazed as Iron Man and American Son modulated their repulsors to destroy the wasps imprisoning Queen Bee and Black Cat, with the cat heroine yelling in pain as she covered her ears before glaring at Iron Man and American Son.

"Aim at the wasps, not me!" Black Cat snapped.

"You complain later! Now's our chance!" Queen Bee said.

Meanwhile, Queen Wasp groaned as she rose to her feet, clenching her fists and teeth so tightly that her mouth was soon filled with a taste of copper again, then she screamed in frustration so loud that it momentarily stunned the heroes, especially Black Cat, then she created a swarm ten times the size she had when the fight started and spread it all over the place, lifting cars and uprooting nearby trees and lampposts to threaten the heroes with them.

However, Queen Bee and Black Cat got ahead of Queen Wasp, hitting her on the chin and then kicking her in the torso at the same time, to which Queen Wasp responded instinctively by shooting two beams at their chests, just as she had done earlier with Adrien and Peter, causing the three teens to end up falling on their backs, with Black Cat immediately getting up using the momentum of Queen Wasp's attack and having to dodge a car that almost hit her.

After seeing that the other heroes were having a hard time with Queen Wasp's swarm and knowing that both she and Queen Bee would be hurt more if the fight went on any longer, Black Cat quickly thought of a strategy as she dodged more of the swarm's attacks, managing to notice Rena Rouge, who was doing the same, having a sudden revelation and, once she was close enough, Black Cat said to her:

"Tails! I need you to create an illusion!"

"What kind of illusion?" Rena Rouge asked as she dodged a road sign and a tree.

"Anything! Tin Heads, cover Tails!"

Iron Man and American Son simply fired a repulsor ray at a car which part of Queen Wasp's swarm hurled at them and then created a deflector shield around Rena Rouge, who quickly twirled her flute in her fingers and brought it to her lips, producing a soft melody and creating a ball of light at the other end of the flute. After this, Rena twirled her flute again and hit the ground with the end of her weapon that had the ball of light.

"Mirage!" Rena Rouge yelled.

Meanwhile, Queen Wasp and Queen Bee stood up and glared at each other, then both grabbed their respective spinning tops and hurled them at each other, clashing their weapons multiple times until they ended up entangling them by mistake and pulling on the ropes to try to continue attacking each other when suddenly, the sky clouded over and powerful thunder was heard, accompanied by the blinding light of a powerful lightning, which distracted Queen Wasp and the heroes around, making the heroes laugh and causing her a deep terror in Queen Wasp upon seeing the God of Thunder, Thor Odinson, landing near Rena Rouge with the rest of the Earth's Mightiest Heroes jumping out of a Quinjet flying near Iron Man, with their weapons ready to strike and the Hulk letting out a deafening roar.

"You're so screwed, Chloé..." Queen Bee said with a smirk.

"I hate to admit it, but it's true..." Said the voice of the Green Goblin in Queen Wasp's mind. "There's no way you can take on the Avengers by yourself..."

"No... I... I can do it!" Said a fearful Queen Wasp. "I'm exceptional!"

"It's obvious that you're not, you're less than ordinary. Sitsevitch, Dillon, Octavius, Toomes, Morbius, Connors, Watson, Osborn, and even your mother are much more exceptional than you. You couldn't even beat Queen Bee."

The words of the Green Goblin did nothing but infuriate Queen Wasp, who screamed again in frustration and commanded her entire swarm to throw everything it was carrying against the Parisian heroes and the Avengers, causing Iron Man and American Son to end up taking evasive maneuvers, Rena Rouge and Queen Bee dodging the objects with various acrobatic jumps.

However, the Avengers stood still in place, causing Queen Wasp to gasp as they each immediately disappeared after being hit by the various trees and lampposts her swarm threw at them, then she grunted in frustration and glared at Rena Rouge, who had a smirk on her face as she saw that her illusion had been successful.

"NO ONE FOOLS THE QUEEN...!" Queen Wasp roared.

"Your reign is over!" Black Cat shouted. "Misfortune!"

Queen Wasp gasped and turned just in time to see Black Cat throwing a punch at her, only to notice that her fist was covered in purple energy.

Black Cat hit Queen Wasp square in the stomach with her blow, immediately transferring all her Bad Luck energy to the villain and making her fall on her back.

Queen Wasp grunted and jumped back to her feet, having the misfortune to step on a pile of leaves that were wet and slip on them, falling again but this time on her face.

At this, Queen Wasp began to get mad and she jumped again to try to pounce on Black Cat, who simply sidestepped to the left so that Queen Wasp ended up crashing face-first into the wall.

Meanwhile, Queen Bee took advantage of Queen Wasp's momentary daze and grabbed her spinning top to run as fast as she could towards the villain.

"Sting!" Queen Bee shouted.

Upon hearing the heroine, Black Cat smiled and moved to the right as she tripped Queen Wasp, causing the villain to stumble until she met Queen Bee's lunge, who touched her forehead with her power, stopping her dead in her tracks and causing the swarm to stop moving as well.

"Finish this once and for all!" Rena Rouge snapped.

"I agree..." Black Cat said as she easily grabbed Queen Wasp's tiara off. "Mind doing us the honors, Killer Bee?"

Queen Bee just rolled her eyes and snatched the tiara from Black Cat's grasp, then dropped it on the ground and stomped on it, breaking it and freeing the pixie from it.

"And how do we purify the pixie without Spider-Man or Ladybug?" Rena Rouge asked.

"Like this..." American Son said as he raised one of his repulsors.

Without saying anything else, American Son fired a repulsor ray at the pixie and erased it from existence, causing Iron Man to sigh, as Queen Bee dropped to the ground on one knee.

"I thought I was the only one who knew about that." Iron Man said.

"The whole Morbius thing a few days ago was quite revealing for everyone." American Son sighed. "And so was all this too..."

With that said, American Son landed next to Queen Bee, who was down on one knee and panting heavily, while Black Cat helped Chloé as Queen Bee's Venom effects wore off.

"Are you...?" American Son tried to say.

"Finish that question... and I swear I'll beat you up so hard... that you'll feel the answer in your own flesh...!" Queen Bee snapped as she panted.

"Calm down... he's just worried about you." Black Cat sighed.

"What happened here?" Chloé said as Black Cat helped her up.

"Copycat, take Chloé to the Grand Paris Hotel." Iron Man said as he carried Queen Bee in his arms. "I have to take the Killer Bee to Stark Industries to make sure she gets patched up."

"Wait! I can't! You can't find out my secret identity!" Queen Bee said alarmed.

"Oh, please, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and the Avengers know the identity of Spider-Man and we haven't revealed it yet. Trust me, you'll be fine."

"I don't trust you, Stark." American Son said.

"Neither do I trust you, or her, or Fox Girl, or Cat Girl, but until now you've behaved well and have shown at least to tell the truth when it comes to fighting for good, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt."

"Wow, I'm honored." Black Cat snapped in a sarcastic tone.

Iron Man said nothing and simply took off, speeding towards the Parisian Stark Industries complex, leaving the other heroes sighing heavily.

Meanwhile, Rena Rouge and Black Cat noticed that their collars beeped and one more of the five marks they had disappeared, which alerted them a bit.

"I gotta go." Black Cat said.

"Me too, I don't have much time." Rena Rouge said.

"And I need a recharge, but I still have enough juice to take Chloé to her hotel room." American Son snapped.

Black Cat and Rena Rouge nodded and jumped in opposite directions, then both disappeared from view, while American Son lowered one knee to the ground and gestured for Chloé to climb on his back.

"Come on, we gotta go." American Son said.

"I don't..." Chloé sighed. "I don't wanna go home..."

"It's because of your mother, isn't it?"

"How do you...? Oh, right, the press... Must've been Parker, he does it to Spider-Man too after all..."

"In any case, it would've been J. Jonah Jameson and not Parker. Jameson is known for his contempt for the Web-Head and his sensationalism." American Son said. "But no, I just know your mother and I saw your outburst with her while you were Queen Wasp. As for your mother... I know from a good source how difficult it is when you don't meet your parents' expectations, but the truth is that the only expectations you should meet are your own, especially with a mother as toxic as Audrey Bourgeois."

"Don't talk like that about my mother!"

"You have to admit it, girl, she's a terrible person. And now that she's on top, no one wants her around her because of her attitude, do you really want to be like her when you grow up?"

"Yes... I mean... I don't know..." Chloé hesitated.

"I'll be frank with you. You are a very bad person, Chloé Bourgeois, no less than half of the akumatizations in the city happen because of you, however, I know that there is more to you than what you show by being bossy and mean to everyone around you, I know that you can change. And I'd suggest you to give it a try, especially after your only friend slapped you in front of all of Paris..."

"Sabrina is an idiot and one day she'll come back begging to me…" Chloé said as she crossed her arms. "But it'll be too late, Felicia is a much better friend than her."

"Maybe, but think about it, do you really want to keep trying to win the appreciation of a person who doesn't have the slightest hint of feelings for you and who is so repellent that no one wants to be around? Because I know for a fact that even Lydia Hardy hates your mother and she doesn't want her near her, let alone people like Tony Stark and Norman Osborn. So I ask you the question: Are you willing to lose the only person who still genuinely cares about you for trying to be like your mother?"

"But Adrinkins still adores me."

"But for how long? Do you think Adrien will like someone who behaves like Audrey Bourgeois?"

Chloé hesitated for a moment and pondered American Son's words, thinking about her possible outcomes and weighing her next decision.

(Meanwhile, at Stark Industries)

Moments after Queen Wasp's defeat, Iron Man landed inside an office, the window of which opened as the Avenger entered, then Tony Stark sighed and lowered Queen Bee carefully to the floor as his suit opened and folded back into a briefcase, while Queen Bee's outfit glowed brightly and disappeared, causing Mary Jane to try to hide behind Stark's desk, but she just ended up unceremoniously falling to the floor, screaming in pain, just as her tired kwami managed to fly up to her face and put a little paw on her cheek as a sign of concern.

"Your Majesty!" Pollen said.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., get the Cradle ready." Tony said as he approached Mary Jane to help her up.

"Already did since the Feral Mode damages on Queen Bee's body were detected." Said J.A.R.V.I.S. while a machine with a large glass tube came out of a wall.

"Damn..." MJ groaned as Tony picked her up.

"Stay away from her!" MJ's kwami snapped as she glared at Tony.

"Don't worry, as I said, I don't gain anything by revealing the girl's identity. Unlike mine, I know how to keep the secret identities of others." Tony said as he took MJ to the machine.

"Still... my kwami said..." MJ murmured.

"Spider-Man said the same thing, but here we are, six months later."

Without another word, the glass tube lid of the machine opened and Tony placed MJ inside, with Pollen hovering over the girl's abdomen in an attempt to calm and protect her, then the lid of the machine closed and an orange light turned on and made the girl and the kwami feel a strange but comforting warmth.

"What is this...?" MJ asked.

"A healing capsule. A prototype." Tony explained. "It won't heal you completely, but it'll allow you to stay incognito. I designed it after I realized that the Avengers need to heal as quickly as possible, especially when Spider-Man, and apparently everyone who wears a Miraculous, gets hurt in Feral Mode."

"What's that... Feral Mode thing...?"

"I don't know for sure yet, Strange only told me that it happens when one of you is under a lot of stress or has a very big adrenaline rush, and that it gives you a boost of strength, speed and resiliency, but in exchange for resulting in... well, this."

"God... I hate it..." MJ growled.

"You are not the only one." Tony chuckled. "So... You're Gabriel's model and my intern's friend, your name is Mary Jane Watson, right?"

MJ swallowed hard at that point, then looked up a bit and looked at Pollen directly, as if waiting for her permission, to which the little creature sighed and nodded to her owner.

"Yeah..." MJ admitted.

"Curious, really curious..." Tony murmured.

"How long do I have to be in here?"

"About 20 minutes, after that there's a risk of developing cancer."

"What?!" Said MJ and Pollen in unison in an alarmed tone.

"Don't worry, if I hadn't tried that on me before, I wouldn't have put you there."

"Really?"

"Well actually I tried it with Hawkeye, but it's the same, I've already made sure it's safe to use, plus I always run simulations to make sure my inventions have at least a 75% chance of success before the field test."

"How... comforting..." MJ sighed sarcastically as she rolled her eyes.

"Changing the subject: How come you became Queen Bee?"

"Doctor Strange selected me and gave me the Miraculous... Not much to say..."

"Strange..." Tony sighed in exasperation. "I definitely have to have a long talk with him about lunging children into danger..."

"In defense of good ol' Doc, I'll only say that we wouldn't have defeated the Sapotis, Riposte and Queen Wasp without me and Rena Rouge."

"According to the ATS' scans, Miss Watson is right, sir." Said J.A.R.V.I.S. "Spider-Man, Chat Noir and Ladybug's skills would've been insufficient to defeat those akumatized, and in the worst case, we would've lost them."

At that moment, Tony Stark heaved a sigh and flopped onto the couch in the office, taking a moment to think and curse fate.

It was true that he was a man of science and facts rather than one of superstitions and beliefs, however, at times like this, he couldn't even imagine who could be so cruel as to use a bunch of teenagers to protect the world, especially in a world where the Avengers existed.

Though of course he knew them, they were two deranged elders and a lunatic in a cheap wizard's outfit.

However, there was the problem that Hawk Moth and the Green Goblin were still on the loose, and while Spider-Man had proven he could handle whatever life threw at him and came out of just about any situation alive, Peter was still a kid, and while his team was a bunch of kids, together they had shown an even greater unity than he and the Avengers had, plus despite getting hurt on a few occasions, it was more because they were a bunch of rookies.

And while he didn't even know why it bothered him so much (which was a lie, because he knew exactly why), he had to admit that the Avengers were currently too busy to deal with the Goblin and Hawk Moth.

"I guess I can let it go for now, but I seriously have to talk to Strange about using children as pawns in a game of chess…" Tony sighed.

"Thank you, Mr. Stark..."

"But... I don't want any more risky maneuvers, almost losing Spider-Man to his Feral Mode in the Goblin Nation was enough. I don't want another hormonal teenager too stupid to know that she has to take care of her own health."

"Spider-Man told us that..."

"I know Underoos' motto well, but that only proves me right, he's as stupid as he's brave."

"And that's why you see yourself reflected in him, right?"

At that moment, Tony gave an incredulous look at MJ, who had an impassive and expectant look, although judging by the Avenger's reaction, she knew that she would end up reluctantly agreeing with him.

"Are all redheads that perceptive?... Anyway, I won't deny it, the kid is too similar to me, although more humble and a bit less smart." Tony sighed. "And that terrifies me, I take stupid risks without hesitation all the time, I don't want him or any of you to do the same."

"Believe it or not, we're careful with what we do." MJ said.

"It doesn't seem like it since we're in this situation."

"Maybe you're right, Mr. Stark, but there's also a reason why you trust Spider-Man, and why you're not trying to take my Miraculous from me like Master Fu and Ladybug did."

"Why does every group of heroes in this world try to self-destruct at least once?"

"I don't know, but I do know that as long as Ladybug, Chat Noir, American Son, Rena Rouge, Spider-Man and I are together, nothing will stop us."

At that moment, a short alarm sounded and the healing pod opened, allowing MJ to get out and stand up, feeling some pain in her right ankle and calf, but fortunately she was at least able to move without problems.

"Wow..." Said an astonished Mary Jane.

"Take it easy and rest, as I said, you're not completely healed so don't push yourself." Tony said as he reactivated his Mark VIII again to put it on. "J, make sure my private workshop is ready for my return, I'm going to need to fix the armor. And for my flight to be scheduled for noon tomorrow, I need to speak to young Parker as soon as possible."

"Miss Potts has already taken care of the flight, sir, and your workshop is ready since Queen Wasp's defeat." Reported J.A.R.V.I.S.

"I love the efficiency of my closest allies."

Once Iron Man had his armor on, he again carried Mary Jane in his arms and Pollen hid in the girl's fanny pack, then Tony's office window opened again and the Armored Avenger shot out of it, heading back to the Grand Paris Hotel.

(Meanwhile)

Black Cat had entered her room in her mother's penthouse and detransformed, causing her kwami to come out of the cat's paw pendant dangling from her necklace and her mother catch it with her hands to place it on the small bed above her. bedside table where the kwami slept.

"I must admit, child..." The cat-like kwami panted. "You're more of a hero than you claim."

"I'm not a fucking hero, I just wanted to save my friend." Felicia said sharply.

"Whatever you say, brat, but I agree with Stark, your actions speak more than you want to admit."

"Shut up and eat, Ivoire, I have to go to the Grand Paris Hotel." Felicia snapped as she took a marshmallow out of a small jar next to the little bed.

"What for?" Asked the kwami as she began to eat the marshmallow that her owner gave her.

"Chloé. She'll likely need support especially if Parker, Dupain-Cheng and Watson accept her mother's offer."

"Something tells me they won't."

"It's the same, someone must get Audrey Bourgeois down to earth and if Miss Potts doesn't, it'll be me."

"Very noble of you, Felicia."

"Anything for Chloé."

"I still don't understand your fondness for her."

"She's like me, Ivoire, a diva from high society who is marginalized in a world full of peasants who don't have the slightest idea how to deal with us."

"Funny, in my time we called it being a brat."

"Ugh, you're impossible..."

"I'm just trying to keep your feet on the ground, girl. You humans are very classist and stupid, I want you to be better than that." Ivoire said before swallowing the last piece of her marshmallow.

"Whatever. Now that you're done, it's time to go." Felicia said as she turned to her balcony window. "Ivoire, claws out!"

In that instant, Felicia was turned back into Black Cat and jumped over the buildings again to reach the hotel where her friend lived.

A few minutes later, Black Cat arrived at the hotel and soon had to hide as she heard something approaching her.

Not long after, she noticed Iron Man landing on the roof of the hotel, noticing that he was carrying Mary Jane Watson in his arms. Not giving it much thought, the girl sighed and slipped into the ventilation system, moving through the ducts to a maintenance closet and dropping into it after removing the air vent.

"Claws in." Black Cat muttered before her outfit was changed to her civilian outfit.

Once she was detransformed, Felicia hurried out of the maintenance closet and headed for her friend's room.

Meanwhile, in Chloé's room, Peter and Adrien were walking up to Miss Potts wearing a pair of souvenir T-shirts, which featured a picture of the Eiffel Tower over the colors of the French flag and were at least two sizes too big for both, although they were both grateful that they were no longer bare-chested.

"Is this the only thing you could get?" Pepper asked.

"In my defense, I'm not paid enough to be able to buy something from a Parisian boutique, less when all the designs are created by Gabriel Agreste..." Happy said. "Besides, I still don't know the city well."

"Don't worry, Mr. Hogan, I appreciate the favor." Adrien said kindly.

"I'm not gonna complain, Happy." Peter said.

Before Happy could complain about Peter calling him on a first-name basis, the door to the room suddenly opened and Mary Jane ran in, being followed by Tony Stark as the redhead lunged at Peter and Adrien, hugging them tightly and muttering some things.

"Are you guys ok?! Oh my god! You guys got hurt!" Mary Jane said worriedly. "And you, Adrien! Why did you do such a stupid thing like taking my place when Queen Wasp tried to kidnap me?!"

"You did the same for me with Style Queen..." Adrien said as he returned the redhead's hug.

"You're an idiot..."

"Adrien was just returning a favor, that's how friendship works, MJ." Peter said.

Before MJ could reply to Peter, American Son landed on the room's balcony and let Chloé off his back, just before taking off again to simulate flying away from the hotel, landing on the roof, causing his armor to fold back into a backpack and then enter the hotel again to head to Chloé's room.

Meanwhile, the group of people in Chloé's room turned to her and the girl walked towards them, her eyes lowered and her hands intertwined, looking humiliated and apologetical.

And before anyone could speak, the bedroom door opened again and Felicia ran in to hug Chloé tightly.

"Oh, Chloe!" Felicia said in a tone of relief. "I'm glad you're ok!"

"Don't worry, Felicia. Black Cat and Queen Bee saved me, with a little help from Iron Man, American Son and Rena Rouge." Chloé sighed as she hugged her friend back.

"Ugh, you're acting like a little girl again, Chloé." Audrey Bourgeois said as she strutted over to her daughter. "And don't think I've forgotten your offenses against me, you will receive your punishment for being so impertinent..."

"Don't you dare get close to Chloé..." Felicia said as she stood in front of her friend protectively.

"You're not gonna stop me from disciplining my daughter, you impertinent girl..." Audrey said as she raised her hand threateningly.

"Don't you dare even try to lay a hand on those girls, Audrey..." Pepper snapped as she grabbed Audrey's arm. "Because if you do, I'm gonna break your arm on the spot..."

"Stop touching me, you ape in rags!" Audrey snapped as she tried to slap Pepper with her free hand.

Before Audrey could strike Pepper, a hand stopped hers and pulled her away from both Pepper, Chloé and Felicia, and when Audrey was about to yell an expletive at the brute who had dared to throw her to the ground, she was met by Tony Stark's angry look.

"That's enough, Audrey!" Tony yelled. "I won't let you dare to threaten those girls, much less my girlfriend!"

"B-but, Anthony... she attacked me a while ago!" Audrey snapped.

"Yeah, only because you kept complaining about Chloé and insulting Pepper." Peter said with a frown.

"And ultimately, Miss Potts taught her a lesson." Marinette said.

"And I think it's time that we also do the same." MJ said as she approached Audrey. "Thank you for the offer, Mrs. Bourgeois, but I'd rather join the Masters of Evil than work for a person as despicable as you."

"And J. Jonah Jameson may be the editor of a fourth-rate newspaper and a total neurotic, but at least on the inside he's a good person. Not to mention Mr. Stark." Peter snapped. "So I'd be crazy to leave an internship at Stark Industries and my job at J3 Communications for you... plus Jameson would probably kill me..."

"I'm not going either." Marinette said firmly. "I'm not going to build my career in fashion design with the help of someone as petulant as you."

Inspired by the bravery of the three losers in front of her, Chloé approached her mother and interrupted her before she could respond to the teenagers who had rejected her.

"And I'm tired and I realized how stupid I've been trying to be like you, mom." Chloe said. "I've tried everything to earn your love and respect, but you still prefer to belittle me and compare me to the abomination that lives with you in New York! Well, I'm tired of trying! I don't want anything to do with you anymore!"

"How dare you...?!" Said an indignant Audrey.

"They dare because they can, Audrey." Tony said as he approached his intern. "And I'm really glad that you've shown your true face to them and that all of them are smart enough to tell you to go to hell."

"But Anthony...! You can't...!"

"I can't? Ha! I'm Iron Man, darling, I can do everything." Tony said before making a gesture to the teens, Happy and Pepper. "Let's get out of here, I think we've all had quite a long day and I'd like a shawarma."

"I don't think you'll find any of those things here, Mr. Stark…" Harry said as he entered the room. "And damn, I missed all the action..."

"Don't worry, I'll tell you on the way." Adrian said. "It was amazing, really."

"Who are you and where was the Adrien Agreste who didn't enjoy gossip?"

"You can thank me for that." MJ said as the group left the room.

As the group of teens and adults left the room and began whispering among themselves, Audrey just stood there with her mouth hanging open and totally stunned by what she had just been through.

"Wait! You can't do this to me!" Audrey said desperately. "Don't ignore me! I'm Audrey Bourgeois!"

"Fat chance, Mrs. Bourgeois, we have more important things to do." Harry said before closing the door.

After the last rude gesture by the Osborn heir, Tony Stark turned to see the group of teenagers talking animatedly and felt a hint of pride as he saw them so united, remembering calmer times in which he had gotten into more than one mess with Mario Dupain and the constant fights between him and Norman Osborn, which Gabriel Agreste had to get into to separate the two.

And as she reminisced about the good times at MIT, Chloé Bourgeois felt freer and calmer after her outburst with her mother, but she also felt like an outsider among the group of people she had repeatedly despised, but somehow, they made no protest about her presence, although they seemed to ignore her anyway.

"...and that's when Chloé basically told her to go to hell." MJ said animatedly. "Honestly, I hadn't seen something so incredible since the Morbius thingy."

"It's because Chloé is an amazing girl." Felicia said. "I'm surprised that someone as useless as Audrey Bourgeois is her mother."

"Should I remind you how much you admired Audrey until a few months ago?" Harry chuckled.

"Shut up, Harold..."

"Calm down, Felicia, we all make mistakes after all." Adrien said with a slightly mocking tone.

"The redhead is definitely a bad influence on you, Goldilocks."

"Bitch please, I'm the best influence for Goldilocks." MJ said.

"It's nice to see you two not trying to kill each other." Peter blurted out.

"It's a brief ceasefire, Parker, don't get it wrong." Felicia said.

"Yeah, I only tolerate both because I respect the guts they had to face Audrey Bourgeois, especially Chloé." MJ snapped.

"I guess it's better than nothing."

"Um... Red?" Chloe hesitated.

At that moment, MJ stopped dead and turned to look at Chloé, somewhat surprised that the blonde had called her by a nickname that she actually liked instead of the usual insult, coupled with the fact that the girl sounded much less irritating than usual and much more courteous.

"What's the matter?" Asked a truly curious MJ.

"That thing you said... about respecting my guts... are you serious?" Chloe asked.

"Don't take what I'm about to say wrong, but I'm not like Felicia and you, I'm honest and if someone really impresses me, I'll admit it, no matter how much I hate that person." Mary Jane explained. "And I know all about guts to stand up to an abusive parent... I know how difficult it can be and how it is when you try to do it without help..."

At that moment, MJ began to tremble a little and her breathing became a little more ragged, but the moment he noticed it, Peter pulled the redhead towards him and hugged her, stroking her hair in a comforting way, managing to calm her down and avoiding another panic attack like the one she had the day her mother left the hospital.

"Better?" Peter asked.

"Yes..." MJ sighed with a smile. "I'm really glad to be your friend, Tiger, you're always there when I need you."

"You can't leave the nickname aside even right now, right?"

"You complain a lot about an amazing nickname, Tiger."

As they watched MJ and Peter's interaction, Chloé raised an eyebrow not understanding what had happened, however, Felicia narrowed her eyes and stared at her redheaded rival, recognizing a certain pattern and getting an idea of why MJ had reacted the way she did.

"Well, I have to admit, Watson." Felicia said suddenly. "I guess we're not all that different. I can tell you have guts and principles, I can respect that."

"Same here, Hardy, I was definitely surprised to learn that you have a heart under all that petulance." MJ chuckled.

"But don't get me wrong, Watson, this only makes me really believe that I have someone who can be a rival of care."

"Curious, I was about to tell you the same thing."

As MJ and Felicia got into a little staring contest, Adrien walked over to Chloé and placed his hand on her blonde shoulder, causing her to blush a little.

"Are you feeling alright, Chloe?" Adrien asked concerned.

"Y-yes..." Chloé said blushing. "I-in fact... I feel much more liberated..."

"Glad to hear it." Adrian said. "I'm sorry about what happened with your mom, but I'm glad to know that you can change and that you're not like her."

As she listened to her friend, Chloé felt odd, remembering American Son's words towards her and rejoicing for the first time in her life that she had made the right decision.

Although of course, Adrien knew that she still had a long way to go to change, and she'd probably have setbacks, but he was not going to leave her alone.

And while Chloé was still thinking about the talk she had had with American Son, Harry put a hand on her other shoulder, snapping her out of her stupor and making her look at him, noticing that the boy was also looking at her with a smile.

"You are a great person when you put your mind to it, Chloé." Harry said. "And I'm really glad to see that you've taken a step in the right direction."

"Well, Harry, I think even I have to know when someone is just plain despicable." Chloe said. "But don't think I'll tolerate Parker or Dupain-Cheng for this, they're still ridiculous, utterly ridiculous."

"Figures." Harry chuckled as he shook his head.

The teenagers shared a laugh together and, as he watched the small group, Tony Stark simply smiled to himself and thought:

'I think I figured out who are the group of heroes Spider-Man hangs out with. At least most of them.'