Author's Note: I've been working on this new multi-chapter story for a while now. This is set after the events of Test Tube Troubles, the Tales of the Beyond chapters featuring Earth-92131, and also Chapters 10 and 15 of Glimpses. I have some special surprises in store with this one. With that being said, please enjoy.
Earth-92131
The Sanctum Sanctorum, New York City
An astoundingly melancholic air filled the rooms and halls of the unusual building known as the Sanctum Sanctorum. It was a feeling that made those it loomed over feel like they were going to burst, and the one named Peter Parker didn't need his enhanced senses to be able to tell that it was indeed affecting not just himself, but all of the various superheroes who had gathered within the Sanctum that day.
"She has to know we're all here, right?" Peter spoke up. "We are not exactly easy to miss. This may even be a bit much."
He awkwardly looked around at all of the others who were there with him. A practical smorgasbord of very well known and less well known heroes from all over were there alongside him around the foot of the Sanctum's enormous central stairway; Wonder Man, an uncostumed Sam Wilson, Hellcat, and Sersi were representing the Avengers, the Thing, the Invisible Woman and their small robot helper were representing the Fantastic Four, Medusa and Triton were representing the Inhumans with the young hero Inferno accompanying them as their guide, Night Thrasher, Speedball, Aegis and Turbo were representing the New Warriors, and Living Lightning, Shooting Star, and Red Wolf were representing the Rangers. The others who were currently unaffiliated with any team consisted of Beta Ray Bill, Shang-Chi, American Eagle, Motormouth, Komodo, and Capitã Brasil. Even then, with all of them there, Peter couldn't help but feel like it was odd that no members of one especially famous team had come.
"I don't care if this is 'a bit much', web-slinger," Night Thrasher huffed. "The lady should be expecting visits like these nowadays."
Peter's identity as Spider-Man had increasingly become an open secret within the superhero community over the years, especially since he had to slow down his crime fighting to a degree after Mary Jane had given birth to May, their daughter. It was such an open secret that, much like Wilson, he wasn't in his costume.
"There's no need to start an argument," Red Wolf interjected. "You both have a point; Us coming here all at once could be seen as extreme, but the current situation caused by Dr. Strange's absence is itself extreme."
"Yeah, 'extreme' is right. An extreme pain in the butt!" American Eagle snapped. "She's got my sympathy, but all this magic crap has gotten out of hand. I'm not a magic guy…Even if some still assume I am because of that terrible piece that the Daily Bugle put out about me."
"Oh yeah, I remember that. They actually used one of my pictures of you for that one. It was honestly kind of embarrassing." Peter rubbed his temples. He thought how things had gone downhill at the Bugle after it got bought out by some big corporation.
The Thing strode over to Beta Ray Bill and playfully nudged his shoulder.
"You're lucky they never wrote about you. They'd probably say you were a horse that got bit by a radioactive Thor." The Thing jested.
Beta Ray Bill just backed away, appearing to be more confused than anything else. The Thing shrugged at this, accepting that his attempt at humor didn't land.
"If Strange's wife isn't going to meet with us and you people aren't even going to stay on topic, I may as well return to Attilan." Medusa frowned. She made two portions of her long, voluminous red locks fold over each other like they were arms.
"Oh, is that so, your majesty? You probably think we're beneath you." Capitã Brasil scoffed, glaring at the queen of the Inhumans.
Medusa promptly began to walk up to the green and yellow clad Brazilian heroine, ignoring Triton trying to hold her back. Shang-Chi stepped into her path.
"We didn't come here to fight each other, Medusa." the famed Master of Kung Fu stated.
"Oh this ain't good." Aegis gulped. He touched his enchanted breastplate, as if to remind himself how fortunate he was to have it on.
Medusa began to move her hair to force Shang-Chi out of her way, but then stopped when she heard the sound of a weapon being drawn. She looked over at Shooting Star, who was pointing her pistol-like 'Star-Stunners' at her.
"Don't look at me like that - You know these are non-lethal. You're the one who looks like she wants to strangle folk." the blond haired markswoman remarked.
The Texan heroine then felt a hand on her wrist, one that felt like it was tinged with low-level electricity. It was Living Lightning. She looked up at him and he shook his head no at her. She promptly put her Star-Stunners back in the holsters on her belt.
"Stop it! Stop all of this!" Sam Wilson snapped. Everyone turned to look at him. "We're all on the same side."
"He's right. We're all just stressed because of these magic incidents." the Invisible Woman agreed.
Medusa then felt the gentle touch of hand on her shoulder. She then saw that it was Komodo, which was quite a surprise. Medusa wasn't even sure she'd even been in the same room as the human-reptile hybrid girl before, yet here she was, looking at her, the Inhuman queen, with understanding eyes. The two stared at each other.
"…are they gonna kiss? I think they're gonna kiss." Speedball half-whispered to Motormouth.
"This isn't Saving Face, blondie. Put a sock in it." the Londoner hissed back. Later that day, she would have a chuckle at the irony of her being the one who had to tell someone to keep quiet.
Medusa sighed, lowered her hair, and went back to stand with Triton, Inferno, and Flint, who were understandably relieved. They would've fought by her side if it was necessary, but were glad it hadn't come to that.
"I was getting nervous there for a sec." Flint confessed.
"I'm…I'm sorry," Capitã Brasil then said, looking at Medusa after silently looking at some of the others. "It has been very tiring dealing with monsters and warlocks on my own."
"Not many super freaks like us down in São Paulo, I take it?" Turbo asked, briefly playing with her long black hair.
The Brazilian superheroine nodded yes. Peter held back the urge to make a corny joke about a certain Rick James song. MJ liked to tease her man by saying that his quips were being replaced by dad jokes and he couldn't do anything to stop it.
"That must prove a true burden," Sersi discerned. Her eyes then lit up and she chuckled to herself. "Oh, you're from Brazil, you say? I once threw a party in Rio once in the nineteen-thirties. So many babies were conceived!"
Before anyone could even try to address or ignore what Sersi had just said, the front doors to the Sanctum Sanctorum were swung open and light and noise from the street outside poured inside. Four new arrivals walked into the Sanctum, with none of them requiring any introductions. Even if they did, the X symbols on all of their outfits made their affiliation as clear as day.
"Nice of you X-Men to show up." Hellcat smiled, an eyebrow cocked up behind her blue-black mask.
Indeed, the four were members of the team of globetrotting mutants known as the X-Men. The blue furred mutant codenamed Beast bore a friendly grin. Rogue, who was dressed in her new dark green and white ensemble, followed behind her. To Rogue's left stood none other than Jubilee, who looked annoyed to be there. Her eyes fell on Peter, but she frowned and darted her eyes away from him when he tried to wave to her. To Rogue's right was a young Indian girl in red and black. She was Shilpa Khatri, aka Trinary, a technopath who had only recently been recruited to study at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters as a student. Even though she wasn't even thirteen yet, she had begged to come.
"You may have ended up coming here for nothing," Night Thrasher said. "We've all been for a while and Strange's lady still hasn't come out."
"There's no harm in at least trying, Mr. Taylor, but your concern is appreciated." Beast responded.
"Speak for yourself, Hank," Jubilee looked around at those around her, as if they'd done something to upset her. "There are more important things we could all be doing."
Peter could feel his heart sink. He knew what she was alluding to.
"Like what?" Inferno questioned. He crossed his arms. "In case you haven't noticed, Jubilee, a bunch of the creeps that Doctor Strange would normally deal with are running wild. Gorgon got kidnapped by the so-called 'Minotaur Queen' last week."
Triton shuddered just thinking of what they had to do to get his cousin back. Ever since then, Gorgon had become obsessed with writing parody covers of Blue Öyster Cult songs and playing the accordion like he was an Inhuman "Weird Al" Yankovic. None of the Inhumans could explain how him being kidnapped by Minotaurs had resulted in that, but it was the truth nonetheless.
"Like Sin-Eater, Inferno! I'd bet that none of you have even tried to find him!" Jubilee loudly accused them all.
"Jubilee, don't! That ain't true, sugah!" Rogue gasped.
Jubilee ignored Rogue and pulled away from her fellow X-Men, to their clear dismay. She marched over to where the four Avengers were standing.
"You're supposed to be 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes', yeah? Explain how you can't even catch one guy!" Jubilee shouted. Some spittle from her mouth landed on Wonder Man's red sunglasses.
"Hey!" Hellcat growled. "Don't you-"
Wonder Man removed his glasses and looked at Hellcat, who cut herself off. He then looked over at Beast, before looking down at Jubilee with sympathy in his red energy tinted eyes.
"Do you really think we haven't tried? All of us would put Sin-Eater behind bars right now if we knew where to find him, Jubilee. …I thought you knew that." Wonder Man said.
Nobody said anything, not even Jubilee. She simply closed her eyes and began to walk back towards the other three X-Men. Peter tried to reach out to try to stop her so he could say something to her, but even he wasn't sure what. Memories flashed through Peter's mind of the night when he and Detective Terri Lee were nearly killed by Stanley Kao, the Sin-Eater with poison gas. If it hadn't been for the sudden arrival of Black Cat, Peter could've very well died, leaving Mary Jane a widow and their sweet little May without a father. He thought of how he and Colossus had gone off to hunt for Sin-Eater after the death of Jubilee's old foster dad, and how upset the young woman was by being told to stay out of it for her own safety. They had found nothing then, and no leads followed. Still, even though he had nothing more to offer her, Peter still wanted to try. His attempt to do so was interrupted by a sudden blast of violet light that spread throughout the room, which then shook around as if there were a minor earthquake outside.
"Clea?!" Peter gasped.
"Leave! All of you leave!" Clea's strained voice echoed throughout the building. "My love is dead and cannot aid you! Now leave me be!"
"But we just got here!" Trinary bemoaned.
The glow of Clea's magic began to twirl around everyone in the room as they tried to keep themselves from falling down.
"What is this?!" Bill snarled. "This is the thanks I get for filling in for Thor?!"
"Wait! Stop!" Living Lightning cried out.
A still unseen Clea didn't respond using any words, but instead with an extremely bright flash of purple and white. It was so intense that everyone had to force their eyes shut or shield them with their arms.
"Cleaaaaaaaa!" Peter shrieked.
After a moment, before even opening his eyes, Peter could feel that something had changed. He didn't hear any of the other heroes' voices, not a one of them. He instead heard the ringing of a doorbell, the tweeting of small birds, and the roar of an old lawnmower in the distance. He felt the touch of a soft wind on his face and hair.
"Oh. Now I get it." he realized.
When Peter opened his eyes, he found himself in the neighborhood where he lived, standing barely a couple feet from his own home, just as he had suspected. Clea had transported them all away to their homes and respective bases. Peter rubbed his head.
"I guess I was right after all," he said to himself. "All of us were too much for Clea. Poor thing."
The web-slinger then strolled over to his home. The car was in the driveway, which meant Mary Jane was home. Not a day went by when Peter felt grateful that he had finally found her in the universe that he had before she was lost forever. But travelling through the Multivetse was the past and, as interesting as he had found the worlds he had visited, he felt he could be content with not having it be a part of his present.
"MJ, I'm home," Peter said while opening the door. "In case you're wondering, the check-in on Clea did not go w—were we expecting company?"
Mary Jane was sitting on the couch in the living room, with Ciara and Azari seated to her right and Francis standing next to the couch to her left. Chun-hwa was sitting on the carpet, holding baby May and letting her play with her face. Santo popped his head in from the entrance to the kitchen.
"We weren't, Tiger, but it looks like we've got some anyway," Mary Jane answered. "…and, well, they've got quite a story for you."
Earth-555326
Latveria
A lone man stood at the heart of a spacious and pristine testing lab. The dark gray of his armor and mask and the green of his hooded cloak and tunic could be seen in the reflection on sturdy, metal plated walls. He turned to look at a computer screen that was embedded in one of the walls.
"Computer," the man began to speak. His voice was craggy and harsh, and he had a Eastern European accent which was hard to define. "Begin recording."
This was a man who was both known and dreaded by many across the globe because of his formidable intellect and ruthlessly petty nature. This was a man who had clashed time after time with the family of adventurers called the Fantastic Four. This was a man who would sooner destroy everything he had built if it meant he wouldn't lose it to another. This was a man with an ego that dwarfed Ego the Living Planet a hundred times over.
"By your command." an artificial voice rang out.
This man was the infamous Doctor Victor Von Doom, the uncontested regent of Latveria, sworn archenemy of any being who ever looked at him the wrong way, and, though he'd never admit it, an avid enjoyer of tooting the Sub-Mariner's large horn. The screen he was looking at began to record him with a small camera. A separate camera in another part of the room also honed in on Doom.
"On this day, I, Doom, relinquished one of my four magnificent reality traveling vessels to another." Doom spoke.
He pressed down on a button attached to a nearby desk and one of the walls split in two, revealed to be a door. When it opened fully, the three large machines could be seen set up on a bulky platform covered in blinking lights. There was a noticeable open between two of them, which no doubt was once filled by the one he had just said he had given to someone else. They all looked like stylized versions of Doom's hooded, masked head, almost like they were robotic busts.
"Since three remain for my own use, it was a small price to pay in exchange for the Jackal's services," Doom elaborated. "He knows he can't cheat me out of what I was promised, as each ship keeps an automatic log of the path taken by the others. Warren knows this, so even if h—"
Everything turned to a mess of jumbled pixels and Doom's voice became distorted. The computer screen suddenly cut to black. The screen reflected the faces of Tony Stark and Gabriela Sepulveda. Tony and Gabriela turned away from the screen. Behind them stood the ten youths who had taken on the role of the Avengers of their world, as well as Santo Vaccarro, one of the last living students of the X-Men. All of them looked shocked, save for Ciara, who instead appeared to be grimacing. They were all in the same lab from Doom's video, which was in recognizably worse condition due to years of going unused. The wall that had opened up in the video was torn open, revealing the platform, but with only one of Doom's other three reality traveling ships remaining.
"Now you should understand why we wanted to tell you all at once." Gabriela brought an end to the silence.
"Does…Does this mean what I think it does?" Pym asked.
"Yes, Pym," Azari nodded. "It means that the ship that the Masters of Evil used to escape Ultron - the same one we used to return home - wasn't the only one."
Azari had recently taken a leave of absence from his duties with the Wakandan survivors living in Mount Bashenga so he could be a part of this meeting. Going into it, he didn't know what to expect, but he certainly hadn't been expecting this.
"So that's what happened to my father!" Ciara suddenly exclaimed. "He fled this universe, to save himself from either Ultron or someone onto his plans for…for…"
"For us." Mary finished for her.
Santo clenched his right hand into a fist. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. Iqbal softly placed a hand on the rock skinned mutant's back. None of the ensemble failed to notice this.
"This…this must be why we haven't been able to find Hildegard!" it dawned on James.
"Now it makes sense," Sidney nodded. "Pedro's note said that Warren left with her, but he couldn't have known he was going to a parallel universe."
Francis looked at the sole ship on the platform. The gears in his head were turning.
"We have to go get her back!" Santo shouted.
"Verily! The first Jackal must answer for what he did!" Torunn held up her sword.
Ciara winced at that. For all these years, she had assumed that her biological father had perished when Ultron razed New York City, but now she knew that he was out in the Multiverse, which was something that the first five Next Avengers had only told her stories about.
"Now that we know the ships can track each other, I may be able to send the Masters of Evil's ship to the same universe…or even universes…that Warren's went to." Tony said.
It was then that Francis stepped forward. He didn't want anyone to miss what he almost had in all of the commotion.
"Not to rain on anyone's parade, but take a count of Doom's ships, people." he brought up.
Pym flew past the torn up wall and over to the platform. It took less than two seconds for it to all click together, for both himself and the others as well; Doctor Doom had given one ship to Warren and the Masters of Evil had stolen the one that they now had. That meant that there should've been two left on the platform, yet there was only one. While they couldn't be certain when it had happened, it was clear that the second remaining ship had been taken.
"If we're going to find Warren, we're going to have to split up." Francis said.
Earth-92131
The Watson-Parker Home
Peter and the Next Avengers were now all sitting at the table in the house's kitchen. Mary Jane had taken May upstairs to put her down for a nap.
"…so after Tony reactivated the log in the ship that the Masters of Evil used to escape to the Powerpuff Girls' universe, we split into two teams. It turns out that one of the ships - The one our group is following - stopped on this Earth before suddenly going to another. We figured it would be a good idea to check with you in case you encountered him." Francis finished.
Peter leaned back in his chair. It was clear that he was quite floored with all the information. The Next Avengers all looked at him, waiting for a response.
"Wow. That was…a lot to take in! Sure is fortunate that I'm already experienced in the Multiverse department!" Peter exclaimed. He rubbed his temples for a moment. "…Look, I have a lot of questions, but they can wait!"
Peter hopped up from his chair and tore off his regular shirt, revealing his famous red and blue costume underneath it. Everyone smiled at him, and he smiled at him.
"Look, I'm not the same as the Spidey from your world; I never dated Gwen Stacy, the Miles Warren I met didn't go by 'Jackal', and, obviously, I was never killed by Ultron. However…" Peter paused. He then pulled his signature mask over his face. "…I think I may actually know where you can find some answers before you head to that next universe. Come on!"
Earth-78227
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Betty Brant had never felt more fortunate to get a chance to stretch her legs. After a plane ride that had taken nearly an entire day in the air, no one could hold that against her. All of her classmates from Midtown who had also signed up for this field trip felt similar, as all of them were taking the chance to readjust after their long flight. On the topic of said students, Betty couldn't help but hear two of them conversing with each other.
"I can't believe I let you talk me into this, Ned." Peter groaned.
Peter Parker was leaning up against a wall adorned with huge posters advertising upcoming blockbuster films such as Hoopla the Snake 2, Quidditch Through the Ages: The Secrets of Ping Pong Ping, and The North Pole.
"Seriously, Peter? We're in the 'Lucky Country'!" Ned grinned playfully. "Here we can finally 'get lucky' with Australian girls. Australians lo-"
"Yeah, 'Australians love Americans', right?" Peter scoffed. He readjusted his black framed glasses. "You said the same thing about European girls, Ned. Yet what happened when you tried to set me up with that Moldovan exchange student?"
"I've apologized for what happened a thousand times, dude! How was I supposed to know she was a lesbian? I don't know that language!" Ned threw up his arms.
Betty couldn't help but giggle to herself, especially since she was pretty confident that her two nerdy classmates didn't know she was eavesdropping. Her smile quickly vanished when their conversation took an unexpectedly morbid turn.
"Come on, P. Lighten up," Ned urged his buddy. "…At least Flash couldn't come! Poor him!"
That had caused Peter's annoyed frown to morph into an amused smirk. Ned began to pretend to claw at Peter, who backed up to the wall and pretended to cower in fear. Betty could barely believe what she was seeing.
"I'm gonna gobble you up!" Ned roared.
"Eek! Please don't hurt me!" Peter laughed.
Betty squeezed her hand into a tight fist. Her disgust was apparent on her face. It was only then that the other Midtown students there began to notice what Peter and Ned were doing.
"Oh please let me go, Grizzly, sir! I'm too big a loser to die!" Peter continued.
Ned then mimicked biting down on Peter's legs. Betty looked at her other classmates. Like her, all of them looked appalled. Flash Thompson was supposed to be on this trip, but he wasn't and they all knew why that was. At that moment, it was as if Betty's mind traveled back in time. She could still recall what had happened to Flash on that awful day; It had been just a couple days shy of three weeks earlier, and school had just let out for the day. Everything had seemed normal until a loud, artificial growl boomed through the air.
"Was that another damn Tesla crashing?" she had heard a girl wonder.
Barely anyone else had time to even question what it was before the source of the sound came barreling down the street, knocking cars out of its path. It was massive and mostly brown in color.
"A grizzly!" a boy had cried out.
It hadn't been a real one, but a mechanical being stylized to resemble such a creature. It growled again and the students walking out of the school screamed and scattered in all directions in response, which provided the perfect cover for Betty to slip out of sight and switch into her Spider-Girl suit as fast as she could before going out to face the mechanical beast.
"Holy smoke! It's at least 18 feet tall!" she had gasped.
The ursine terror was on the attack, ripping up pieces of pavement as it chased after one particular student who was desperately trying to get away. Betty had quickly realized that it was Flash. As Spider-Girl, Betty ensnared the metallic brown painted monster's legs with her webbing, but she had been just one second too slow. Its metal claws had torn into Flash's legs and were stained with his fresh blood. Betty rushed to him as he wailed in agony.
"Someone call 9-1-1!" she shouted. "I don't care who!"
Betty still didn't know who it was who had heard her, but she did know that she had never felt more grateful to hear the blare of an approaching ambulance's siren. They could do more for her wounded classmate than she could.
"Spider-Girl…I…I…knew you…would…" Flash weakly moaned. He touched a hand to the side of her mask. "…Save me…be...?"
Flash then passed out in her arms. She then heard the mechanical bear, the Grizzly as it would soon be known, growl again. She looked at it and stared at its glowing white eyes. The growl then changed into a distorted laugh. Even with the distortion, Betty could hear the cruelty in it. Then the Grizzly's eyes went black and it broke apart into pieces.
"I will find you." she then whispered .
After that, Flash was put on a stretcher by paramedics. Before she could swing away, one of them caught her arm.
"Thank you, Spider-Girl. This boy would likely be dead right now if it weren't for you," they had said. "We've got it from here."
A part of Betty wanted to follow the ambulance as it rushed to the nearest hospital, but she knew that wouldn't help at all. Instead, she swung home, snuck in through her bedroom window and cried to herself for god knows how long. Her parents soon overheard her and found her there, looking more relieved than they had ever been before. The news outlets were already covering the story, which was how Betty had learned that agents of SHIELD had come and taken the remains of the Grizzly robot to be examined. She hadn't realized that night had fallen until she saw the footage of SHIELD vehicles surrounding her school, where Principal Morita was sobbing to himself on the front steps.
"I will find you." Betty then whispered again.
Yet, despite her best efforts, she hadn't. Over the following two weeks, Betty had interrogated any person she could think of as Spider-Girl, but had found nothing. No one had a clue where the Grizzly had come from. If the folks at SHIELD had any theories, they hadn't shared them. Eventually, her parents noticed the state she was in, reminded Betty about the special school trip to Australia that she had signed up for months earlier, and pleaded with her to go and have a good time for the sake of her mental health. They ended up making a pretty good argument for it, so Betty had agreed. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, she had felt like she could forget about the Grizzly. Only Peter and Ned had just ruined that.
"Stop that! Stop that now!" Betty then screamed at the pair. They looked at her, confused by her outburst. "You guys are horrible!"
"What're you talking about, Brant?" Peter stood up and crossed his arms. "We're just having fun."
"Fun?!" another student seethed. "Maybe for you, Parker, but you didn't see what happened like some of us!"
"I think our version is better than the real thing!" Peter laughed. He looked at Ned, expecting him to laugh too. When Ned didn't, Peter glared angrily at him.
"Well…I…uh…" Ned stammered. He looked at Peter nervously.
"Oh please, Ned. Talk about being useless." Peter flicked Ned's forehead.
Peter then turned to where Betty had been standing to smirk at her, but she was gone, having slipped away. Nearby, a door that led outside had been opened. A couple minutes later, many of the people of Sydney would be surprised to see the unexpected sight of the superheroine called the Breathtaking Spider-Girl hopping across their rooftops. She spent a good stretch of time letting herself get lost in the moment as she took in the sight of Australia's most populous city on a gorgeous, sunny day.
"This is a nice change of pace already!" Spider-Girl remarked to herself. "I can't believe that Ned is friends with such a colossal jer–"
"What is that?!" a woman shrieked.
She looked down to the street, where a large mass of crackling energy had suddenly appeared in the middle of a random street. She swung down to investigate. Almost instantly, the light began to fade and Spider-Girl gasped at what she saw appearing in the light. Neither could one figure emerging from said light.
"Oh you've got to be kidding me!" Spider-Man groaned.
Next time, we'll see where Peter led the Next Avengers and how it resulted in them ending up in Spider-Girl's universe, see the introduction of Miles Warren/The Jackal I, and secrets will be revealed. Also, I'd like to give a special thanks to Movie-Brat for helping me behind the scenes. One major contribution was their suggestions for some of the various heroes who appeared at the Sanctum Sanctorum. And now...
Some Notes:
- The second team's own adventure will eventually be detailed in another story that I plan to call "Circuits and Sorcery". However, while it will be occurring at the same time as Fathers and Daughters, it's for further down the line, as I have other stories I want to get started first.
- The "By your command" line from Doctor Doom's computer servant is an intentional reference to the Cylons from the original Battlestar Galactica. I thought that would be a fun little inclusion.
- Capitã Brasil is based on Captain Brazil, a character who was created for an episode of The Super Hero Squad Show as a member of that cartoon's Captain America's "All Captains Squad".
- I picked Australia as a setting as a reference to Angourie Rice being Australian. In general, the idea of her and the other Midtown students (along with some of Ned's dialogue) is inspired by Spider-Man: Far From Home. I found it fitting since this story is Betty's second appearance in Infinity Crisis, following her introduction in Glimpses (She has the Argonite shard Amphibian gave her stored somewhere safe if she needs it).
- The movie posters in the airport in Sydney are Earth-78227's in-universe versions of several big franchise films. Specifically, "Hoopla the Snake 2" is their Sonic the Hedgehog 2, "Honeydukes" is a parody of Fantastic Beasts (and was also a flop *snickers* and "Ping Pong Ping" is a fake character meant to make fun of how Rowling more embarrassing choices for names), and "The North Pole" is a stand-in for The Northman, but with a gritty Santa Claus and Christmas elves instead of vikings. Just try to wrap your head around that last one!
Thanks for giving my work a look!