So guys and gals, here we are. The end of A Spider's Mark. Hopefully this will be a satisfying conclusion to this whole story, so enjoy.
Times Square.
Peter awoke amidst the fire and smoke around him. He knew that the whole area around him was going to be one big crash site if no one was evacuated before the helicarrier hit the ground. Only problem was that he didn't know where the crashing helicarrier was going to crash land.
He attempted to stand up, but felt a sharp and burning pain in his right arm. He looked at it and saw it was covered by debris from Stryker's ship. He pushed it off and saw that his arm was cut to hell, from his elbow to the palm of his hand.
"Fuuuccck" Peter thought to himself. The pain was near unbearable and he was worried he was going to pass out. He webbed his arm all the way around the cut. It wouldn't heal on it's own, but it would stop the bleeding. He got up from the floor and realized he's still in the crashed drop ship. He looked around, but saw no sign of Stryker. He started to walk out when he noticed a blood trail on the floor.
"Guess your luck is starting to run out." Peter said to himself. He grabbed a pistol off the floor and followed the trail.
Airborne, Above New York.
"We shouldn't have left him." Widowmaker argued. She was on a ship with Wrench, Baptiste, Jean, Sombra, and the critical conditioned Scott. They were all trying to calm Widow down, but she was too hysterical to listen.
"He's not gonna die. I've known him long enough to know he'll find a way to cheat death." Wrench said.
"Besides, we got more issues to worry about." Sombra added in. "Like how are we going to prevent a whole helicarrier from destroying half of broadway?"
Jean turned her attention to the conversation. "It would be a long-shot, but I could try to redirect it to the Hudson River."
"Cause it wasn't already polluted enough." Wrench said sarcastically.
"Lives are in danger, and you wanna crack jokes?" Jean replied. Wrench went quiet in response. Baptiste started to talk.
"Well the first thing would be to tell people to get out of broadway. Evacuate them just in case."
"We wouldn't have enough time to do that." Jean said. Sombra chuckled as she brought up her HUD and starting typing.
"I love a challenge." Sombra said as she hacked into ad screen in Broadway. She was able to hack it without a problem and had it on standby. "What do we say?"
Everyone was stumped on how to convince thousands of people to stop what they were doing and get the hell out of where they were. Widowmaker spoke up.
"Peter said he was going after Stryker." Widowmaker said.
"We know that." Wrench said. "What you getting at?"
"Couldn't we track Stryker and find out where they both are? Knowing how those two fought, they might've crashed around Manhattan." Widowmaker said. Her idea was backed up by Baptiste.
"We could. Talon drop ships have trackers built into them. It would just be a matter of isolating a suggested location, since we don't have immediate access to Talon records." Baptiste said. Sombra immediately got to work on finding Stryker's ship. She was able to find the location of it and hacked into local CCTV. She saw that Stryker survived the crash, but was seriously injured, leaving a blood trail. She also saw video of Peter getting up and following, but took the courtesy of scrambling his face to protect his Spider-Man persona. She then uploaded the video to the Broadway screens with the message "Evacuate out of Times Square and Broadway."
"Hopefully this'll be enough." Sombra said. "Now...about redirecting that helicarrier."
Times Square
Peter kept following the blood trail as it led to a store hit by Stryker's crashed ship. Also everything was intact, except for a few tables and chairs. He picked up a chair and put it in front of a table and put his arm down on it as he leaned back on the chair. He sat there for a few minutes until he heard a voice from behind him.
"Mind if I join you?" Peter turned around and saw Stryker, bloodied and weak. There was blood dripping from his head and a wound on his side he was covering with his hand. He pulled up a chair opposite of Peter and sat down. "Guess you won..."
"Wasn't about winning." Peter said. "If it was, I lost years ago."
"That's my line. But I guess it applies to both of us either way." Stryker pulled out his flask full of whiskey. It had a skull engraving on it, most likely just to show his power over people when he drank from it.
"You took my friends, hell my family away, and you lost years ago?"
Stryker sighed. "It was way before that." He chuckled a bit. "I lost...when I decided to upgrade that god forsaken killer named Logan."
"Weapon X..." Peter said. Stryker took a sip from his flask.
"Someone did their homework."
"You were gonna make him into a weapon for the army. If that went well, you would've mad more mutants and sold them to the highest bidders." Peter rationalized. Stryker smiled as he shook his head.
"Not. Even. Fucking. Close."
"Then why launch an assault on the mansion? Why kidnap the X-Men?" Peter needed a answer as to why all these years leading up to now, why they had to be taken.
Stryker leaned back as he looked at Peter. "Imagine having the chance to make sure you could prevent thousands , maybe millions of unnecessary deaths. All due to war. But..." He stopped to take another sip of his whiskey. "It required you to make tough choices."
"So you kidnap people and force them to fight in a war they weren't part of?"
"You don't get it..." Stryker said. "World War 1 and 2, the Cold War, The Ominic Crisis, all wars and battles that could've been stopped if everyone was kept in check. That was the main goal of Talon."
Peter didn't believe a single word. "Keep everyone in check? You can't control the world Stryker. Even you should know something like that."
"If you say so." Stryker put his flask down on the table and pointed it at Peter. "Want it? Not like I'm going to be using it anymore."
Peter was reluctant to take the flask, but against his better judgement he took it anyways. Stryker's voice started to get raspier.
"There's going to be another war. And whether you like it or not everyone is gonna have to take a side. Overwatch, The Avengers, The X-Men. Only, it's not going to be a foreign threat..."
"What do you mean?" Peter asked in confusion.
"The Avengers are already tearing each other up after that business with Ultron. I already know you got evidence against me, showing everything that Talon's been doing. It'll be enough to re-instate Overwatch." Stryker smiled. "With that, it'll be All out war."
"You know I won't let it get that bad." Peter said.
"I hope so." Stryker said. "For your sake and the worlds beyond." He then grunted in pain from his injury as he pulled out his revolver and placed it down on the table. It had a skull with two cutlasses behind it engraved on the handle.
"Stryker..."
"Don't Peter." Stryker said. "The pain is unbearable. It's either I die quick or slow."
"But..."
"No there's no middle ground." He smiled a bit. "Can't be on the fence this time. Make a decision."
Peter had to admit, every part of him wanted to kill Stryker. Make him pay for putting him through all this bullshit. But, he was already breaking his promise to Uncle Ben and the promise he made to himself. He wasn't a psychopath, but wasn't anywhere near a saint. He couldn't consider himself a hero. With that, he took the gun and aimed it at Stryker's head. His eyes closed as he pulled the hammer back.
"Thank you" was all Peter heard after he pulled the trigger. After the ringing stopped, he opened his eyes to see the now lifeless body of Stryker. Peter got up and took the flask and gun Stryker gave to him and left the store. He was greeted by a ship hovering over him, with the spotlight on. Peter looked at the light, then started feeling weak. He tried to maintain himself, but fell on the ground and closed his eyes.
Subconscious.
"Welcome back Peter." Peter opened his eyes and saw nothing but darkness around him. He knew where he was once he turned around and saw Madame Web.
"Madame Web. We gotta stop meeting like this. What, with me being on death's door all the time?" Peter quipped. Madame Web let out a soft chuckle as she crossed her arms.
"While that is true, I'm impressed."
"You are?"
"Why wouldn't I be?" Madame Web said. "You defeated Talon, got your friends back, and got your powers back."
Peter sighed once he heard powers. It was nice to have them back, sure. But when he didn't have them for half of his life, he felt normal. Human. It was sort of relaxing, in a weird "I can die at any moment" way.
"Can I ask you something?"
"What is it Peter?"
"Do you think I can still be a hero? After all the people I've killed?" Peter asked. He needed a answer to the second question eating him alive, and who better to answer than the person who's been watching his actions his whole life.
"It's not a question of if I think you can still be a hero, that's something you have to ask yourself Peter. And find out your own answer." Madame Web said. Peter chuckled a bit as she said that, almost as if he was defeated.
"Always the cryptic one, huh?" Peter asked.
"I can't tell you how your fate turns out. You, and all the other Spider-Men decide your journeys. This one for example." Madame Web showed Peter a fracture of her webs, which showed a younger Spider-Man in Japan, fighting people in an arena type setting with three other people. They all looked around 15 to 16 years old.
"This Parker comes from another universe, where heroes are more celebrated. Doesn't make it easier for him, as he needs to have a license to do heroic acts."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"To prove my point. You decide what happens in your life, not me." Madame Web said smiling a bit. "And I'm sure you want to be back with your friends around now, right?"
"That would be nice." Peter said with a faint smile. Everything around him began disappearing, and from that a bright light emerged.
Real world.
Peter woke up slowly to see Rogue hovering over him. He started sitting up on the bed while Rogue made sure he didn't try to do more than that.
"You alright Pete?" Rogue asked.
"Well, my arm was slashed and I collapsed in the middle of Time Square. I'm just peachy." Peter said sarcastically. Rogue rolled her eyes.
"One day, your luck is gonna run out Pete." Rogue said. Then her voice got lighter. "We were all worried about you."
"I know." Peter replied. "I...I'm sorry."
Rogue looked confused. "For what?"
"For leaving you, and everyone else." Rogue looked at Peter like she was about to cry, but was holding herself back.
"Peter...you didn't-"
"I did, ok? I was scared and angry. We thought after Storm and Beast appealed to the government, we'd be fine. Then Stryker happened." Peter felt leather on his cheek, and his head was turned to Rogue's way.
"Ah didn't hate you for it Peter, none of us did." Peter grabbed Rogue's hand as he felt tears coming down from his eyes. Rogue in response got up from her chair and brought him into a close hug, careful not to accidentally sap him. The embrace went on for a while, and the two of them stayed down there for hours.
Peter was finally home.
2 months later
Once the dust truly settled, and all was said and done with, New York and the rest of the world continued as normal, with a few Exceptions.
First was the immediate cease and desist of Stryker's entire platoon, as fear of any of them were remaining Talon operatives. Everyone was put up for trial, and anyone who was in the dark about Talon activities were let go to their families and friends. The ones who knew were given the harshest punishment possible, maximum security prison on the RAFT, the same prison Spider-Man and The Avengers locked up their villains.
Overwatch was officially reinstated, by orders of the UN. All operatives, secret or not, were given a clean slate and allowed Overwatch to watch over the globe, along with each countries' government and if needed, assistance from The Avengers.
The Rogues of Talon: Max, Sombra, Widowmaker, Reaper, and Baptiste all went their separate ways. Sombra stuck with the X-Men, not for personal gain but to help them especially since they missed so much in the world. Reaper and Widowmaker stuck with Overwatch, but not before a emotional goodbye from Widowmaker to Peter, thanking him for setting her "free". Maximilen opened his new casino in New York, which allowed both Omnics and Humans to gamble away their money, equally.
Baptiste left on his own path. He had joined Talon because he thought they wanted to make a difference in the world. It hurt him when he found out the difference they were concerned with was how much money they were making and how much power they had. He left contact with everyone, going as a loner Vigilante, although rumors say that he runs with a group of Space Bounty Hunters.
Sydney went back to the Payday gang, but not before her and Wrench "hooked up" as Peter called it, for a night of constant moaning, cursing, and wall banging from everyone in the mansion to beg them to quiet down.
The X-Men quickly adapted to the new world around them, but their mission didn't change. More mutants came and left, most seeking comfort, most seeking control over their powers, but most looking for a family. With the help of the new leader for the original X-Men team: Jean, Xavier was able to provide just that for the mutants.
Harry Osborn heard about what Talon was doing to the world, specifically how they caused the explosion that destroyed Australia. He originally went their to secure a way to help get Osborn Corporations on the global Market, but found himself in a war to bring order to the untamed wasteland. While his mission to save Australia was a successful, the victory would cost his life, and he would be remembered as one of the people to bring Australia back into the land it was before.
As for Peter Parker, his journey taught him a few things. How vulnerable he was all these years, how much of a hypocrite he is, how he's probably the worst leader ever. But as he finished his mural on the side of the Xavier Mansion, he realized one thing. Even without his powers and all odds stacked against him, he preserved through it all and saved his hometown plus the world. Even if it wasn't his ideal circumstances, he was still a hero, in heart.
As Peter looked at the mural, he looked over every part, making sure not to miss a single brick. He put his spray paint can down in front of it and backed away.
"Sorry it couldn't turn out differently." Peter said. "We loved you Scott." He put Scott's Visors down in front of the mural as well.
"And we're sure as hell gonna miss you." Peter walked away from the wall, going back into the mansion. Before he went it, he looked at the words he put on it.
"Loving Boyfriend, Strong Team Leader, irreplaceable Friend"
Annnd with that, there's the end of "A Spider's Mark." Now a few things real quick.
1) I'm sorry if the ending was kinda of boring or not enough weight to it. I honestly wanted a good ending to end this story with, yet through my own indecisiveness I feel like this is a lackluster ending. So once again, sorry.
2) Yes there will be a sequel involving this version of Peter Parker. Although it will probably be a while, seeing as I wanna get more chapters out in my other Story "Here comes the Spiderman".
3) Why was Space bounty hunters underlined and bolded? Well, all I'm gonna say is that it's a sequel to a character in this story, but won't involve Peter as a main character. And no, it's not Guardians of the Galaxy.
4) I'm sorry if this story wasn't written as well as you wanted it. Again this was my first story, so the writing and things like that would be trash in my opinion, but things only get better with time. So here's to new stories and ideas.
And with all that done, once again I want to thank each and everyone one of you who stuck with this story, even when I went Missing for a while. So once again, have a good day and until next time.
