"Come on, Beck."

It was late at night at the police precinct, as the building was slightly sleepy, with only a few police officers working the night. Two of them were dragging Quentin Beck, otherwise known as Mysterio, through the building. Beck was roughly brought to an open holing cell, and thrown inside, the cell door closing behind him.

One of the cop's looked at the man in disgust. "You're gonna be here until you get transferred to Ryker's. 'Til then, say hi to your new roommate."

The cops walked away, as Beck propped himself up off the concrete floor. He looked to his right, to see a bald man, at least sixty, looking at him from the bed.

Toomes rolled his eyes. "Great, they're making me share," he complained, sitting up. "As if being confined in here wasn't enough punishment."

Beck frowned. "It's not exactly pleasant for me either," he said, frustrated. He then looked at Toomes. "Wait, I recognize you. You were the one that attacked Norman Osborn."

Toomes nodded. "That's right. I was so close to killing him," he lamented.

"What did he do to you?" Beck asked.

Toomes stared dead at Beck. "He betrayed me. What about you? Why are you stuck in here?"

Beck loudly sighed. "I stole from every place in New York that I saw, as the Spider-Man."

Toomes' eyes went wide. "Spider-Man!?" He snarled, fury flashing on his face. "Did he throw you in here as well!?"

Beck nodded furiously. "Yes!" He confirmed. "That idiotic bug stripped me of my disguise, and webbed me down for the police to catch!"

"Argh!" Toomes groaned. "He stopped me from getting Osborn! That pest is ruining our lives!"

"Agreed!" Beck stated. "If only there was some way we could-"

Suddenly, the lights in the building went out, blinding the two criminals in the cell. The sounds of confused grumbles from the police officers inside filled the air, before they felt the ground start to shake.

"What the hell is that!?" One of the officers asked in another room, before a loud crash echoed through the precinct. "OH MY GOD, IT'S-" The voice was cut off by a pained gargle, as the two crooks heard the sound of electricity crackling.

They could hear the heavy footsteps of several police officers running towards the disturbance, only for tortured screams to follow. After a few seconds of quiet, the lights turned back on, as the cell door was ripped off it's hinges, by a man with four long, metal arms.

"Mister Toomes, Mister Beck," Otto Octavius greeted, a sinister smile on his face. "It's time to make all of your dreams...into reality..."

"I just don't get it. Stilts? You're using Stilts?"

It was another day in New York City, as Spider-Man was fighting perhaps one of the weirdest criminals he had ever faced. He had responded to a mugging, and had found a man in a metal suit, with super long legs.

"Leave me alone!" Stilt Man pleaded, as he strode down the road, trying to get away from the hero who was casually swinging next to him.

"But you have stilts!" Peter exclaimed. "Do you know how weird this is for me? I feel like I'm at a circus. Stilt Boy-"

"Stilt Man!" The would-be criminal corrected.

"Yeah, yeah. Stilt Man. You really didn't have another gimmick, did you? Might I make a few suggestions on a different outfit? A deadly quilt, perhaps?"

"Shut up!" Stilt Man yelled, as he flailed his arm at Spidey, not going anywhere near the web slinger.

"Oh my god, you don't even have any way to defend yourself, do you!?" Peter exclaimed, completely amused. "You're just stilts! Do you get how sad that is?"

"I'm terrifying!" He defended, as he kept trying to get away, to no avail.

"Ok, I've had my fun," Peter said, as he quickly got in front of the ridiculous criminal. Peter shot a web line in between two light posts, making Stilt Man trip, and having him fall face first on the street.

"Ow!" Stilt Man complained, as Spider-Man walked up to him.

"Quit whining," Peter said. "You got bigger problems." With that, Peter webbed the man down to the ground. "Like the fact that you're Stilt Man."

He heard some police sirens in the distance, making Peter alert. He looked down at the struggling criminal, and satisfied with the fact that he wasn't going anywhere, decided to swing away. "See ya Stilty! Try to be cooler next time!"

Peter nimbly swung through the air, the cool breeze feeling nice as Spring was officially here. He was able to take off his under armor a while ago, and now he's just enjoying himself instead of freezing when he's web swinging.

Peter was interrupted by his thoughts, when he heard his cell phone ring. "Uh oh," he commented to himself, as he landed quickly on the top of a nearby building, before pulling it out, and flipping it open. "Hello?" He asked, as he brought the phone to his ear.

"Hey Pete," a familiar, sweet voice greeted on the other end.

"Gwen!" He greeted excitedly, as he rolled up his mask to his nose, happy to talk to his girlfriend. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," she sighed, bored. "Since the school's been closed down, I have no idea what to do with my free time."

Peter understood. Since he stopped Mysterio and found out that he was Principal Beck, the school board decided to close down Midtown High temporarily while it conducted an 'investigation' into the matter.

"Did they find anything?" He asked, as he sat on the edge of the rooftop.

"Apparently he was stealing school funds," Gwen said. "At least that's what MJ heard. And God knows where she gets her sources from."

"Remember that time she heard the janitor was really a mutant?"

"Oh yeah!" Gwen exclaimed, giggling slightly at the memory. "Stan the Janitor, able to shoot lasers out of his eyes."

"Sounds legit," Peter joked, the two laughing.

"So what are you doing right now?" She asked. "You at home?"

"Uh, no, I'm kind of spandexing right now."

"Spandexing?" She asked, incredulously.

"Yeah, what would you call it?" He asked.

"Not spandexing, that's for sure. Seriously, being a hero is cool, don't make it lame," she joked, good natured.

"Too late," he quipped.

"Anything crazy today?" She asked.

"Well, I fought the Terrifying Stilt Man," he informed her.

Gwen went silent on the other end.

"Hello?"

"Stilt Man?" She asked.

"Yeah, I know. He had metal stilts."

"You have such lame villains," she snickered.

"My villains are awesome!" He defended. "Don't hate!"

"One of them was our principal."

"The greatest evil of all."

"Lame," she laughed.

Peter laughed along with her. It was strange, having someone else he could talk to about this stuff who wasn't directly involved in the life. Talking to the Avengers was one thing, but talking to a friend, much less his new girlfriend? That's completely different. "So, how's your dad doing?" He asked, a bit concerned.

"He's ok," she told him, a sound of relief in her voice. "He's doing a lot of physical therapy right now. He might need a cane, but other than that, he's ok."

"Oh thank God," He said, happy. "I was really worried there."

"I know. That's why we're dating."

Peter smiled, as he could just picture her smiling as well. Suddenly, he heard a beep on his phone. "Ah dang it, Gwen, I gotta go, I'm getting another call."

"Ok, talk to you later Pete," she said. "Bye."

"Bye," he said, as he hung up the line, and answered the other call. "Hello?"

"Peter," he heard a familiar, manly voice on the other end.

"Clint?" He asked, a bit confused. "What's going on?"

"You don't have school, and you sound like you aren't busy, we need you to come over," he told him, seriously. "Ben and Johnny are here too."

"Uh, why do you need me to come over?" Peter was confused.

"We need a forth guy for Mario Kart," he told him, directly.

Peter paused for a moment, processing what he just heard. He rolled down his mask. "I'll be right over," he said, quickly hanging up. He shot a web, and started to swing towards the tower, ready to rumble.

"Has he sent in a report?"

"Negative. He's gone quiet."

"Do you think he's been compromised?"

"Impossible. He's been conditioned to be the perfect operative. I'm afraid this may be the worst possible scenario."

"Which is?"

"He's gone rouge."

"Don't do it!"

Peter, wearing his costume sans mask, was sitting on the couch, controller in hand, next to Hawkeye on his right, Johnny Storm on his left, and the large, rocky, Ben Grimm on the end, all in civilian clothes, all playing Mario Kart on Tony's flat screen, and all getting really competitive about it. Natasha, also in normal clothes, was sitting on the adjacent chair to the four guys, reading a book, completely uninterested in their game.

"Peter, I see you have it. Don't do it," Clint warned.

"Sorry Barton, but I have it. I got to use it," Peter said, Johnny snickering next to him, seeing the situation at hand.

"Peter, don't!"

"You're first, he's in second," Ben observed. "Do it, Peter!"

"No!" Clint said.

"Too late," Peter smirked, as he furiously tapped at his controller.

"No, no, no, no no no no no, NO!" Clint said, the video game declaring that Peter won. "You did NOT just blue shell me!"

Natasha flipped a page in her book. "I think he did," she stated, not taking her eyes off her novel.

"I blue shelled you," Peter admitted. "And I won."

"That's not a real victory!" Clint yelled. "I demand a rematch!"

"Calm down," Ben laughed. "It ain't like we're not gonna keep playing."

"Yeah, take your loss like a man," Johnny snickered, as Clint stared daggers at the two.

"Clint, just admit it," Natasha piped up. "You're bad at video games."

"I am NOT bad at video games," Clint argued.

"The other day when you were playing you got chased down by the army."

"So? That happens all the time in video games."

"It was a tennis simulator," Natasha stated, making the others laugh loudly, Peter and Johnny falling over themselves, and Ben placing his arm on the back of the couch, howling with laughter as well.

Clint, meanwhile, fumed, embarrassed. "Fine, so I'm not the best at Mario Kart. Bet I can beat you at Halo."

Johnny scoffed. "I'm game. Peter sucks at shooters."

Peter raised an eyebrow. "What're you talking about!?" He asked. "I kicked your butt last time!"

"Please!" Johnny shrugged off. "Watching you play a shooter is like watching Ben trying to use a smartphone."

The Thing furrowed his orange brow. "Hows about you keep yappin' and see what happens to ya?" He threatened.

"I'm just sayin', you look like you're from the stone age. You already have the complexion."

"Why you little-!" Thing went to strangle his teammate, before the door behind them slid open, earning everyone's attention.

Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Tony Stark, and the surprising form of Nick Fury appeared, all looking quite disturbed.

At seeing the SHIELD director, Hawkeye and Black Widow rose up at full attention, as the three non-SHIELD agents looked at each other in curiosity.

"At ease," Fury stated, making the two relax a little. The other three shared a look, before slouching slightly more into the couch. Fury, seeing them, rolled his good eye. "Stop screwin' around, we have a situation at hand."

That made everyone rise to attention, the tone in Fury's voice giving them an uneasy feeling. Ben looked at Reed, to see the distressed look in his best friend's eyes. "Strech, what's going on?" He asked, concerned.

"It's Victor," He said. "He's up to something."

Johnny chuckled slightly, easing up. "Seriously, that's it?" He asked. "We've beaten that clown how many times? We can kick his butt again."

"This is serious, Johnny," Sue dreadfully said.

"Stark," Fury ordered.

For once, Tony complied. "JARVIS, show up the schematics."

The image on the television suddenly switched to a 3D model of a cylinder-like device, with various plans next to it. It slowly rotated, showing off several strange attachments to it.

Johnny squinted at it. "What is that?" He asked. "Looks weird."

"It looks like a rocket," Ben observed.

"At first glance, yes," Reed agreed, before stretching the upper half of his body to get closer to the monitor. "However, when you delve deeper into its infrastructure, it doesn't have many similarities to any rocket that was previously developed. In fact, it uses a completely different chemical structure for fuel."

"That," Tony added. "And the fact that it has several theoretically unstable compartments on the sides, and it leads us to believe that it's way more than your daddy's rocket."

"So," Natasha started. "What exactly is it?"

Peter's eyes widened, as he recognized several of the chemical formulas written by the model. "It's a nuke..." he quietly figured out, causing panic from the ones who were unaware.

"That's right," Reed confirmed, grim. "Victor created his own nuclear weapon. And it seems to be more powerful than any other weapon on Earth."

At that moment, Captain America walked through a sliding door, a serious look on his face. "Are you debriefing them?" He asked Fury.

"Yes. We just got to the fun part," Fury dryly added.

"America ended the war when they dropped the bomb on Hiroshima," Steve stated. "It's one of my biggest regrets that I wasn't around to try and find another way, but it happened, and the Japanese rebuilt. This," he pointed to the monitor. "Is apparently 95 times deadlier than that. So powerful, anything that gets hit will be gone forever."

Peter stared wide eyed at the monitor. He was staring at the model for a weapon that could potentially wipe off humanity.

"Now, naturally, considering its creator, we don't really want to take a chance on this thing. Which is why we're invading Latveria," Fury revealed.

"What?" Clint asked, confused. "Don't we need permission from the Pentagon before we-"

"Agent Barton, we do not have time for the suits in Washington to stop bickering with each other," Fury stated. "Right now, the weapon's unfinished. In a few months time, when we can do this the 'right way', it may be too late. So we invade now."

"Operation: Secret War?" Natasha asked, dead serious.

Fury looked at her for a second. "That's right."

Clint didn't seem to like the idea. "That's only for-"

"For Omega level International threats, that's right," Fury interrupted. "Which this is. This is my call, and I've had advice from two of the brightest scientific minds in the world today. The operation begins Thursday, and if everything goes well, we'll be done in a month's time."

"A month!?" Peter exclaimed. "I can't go away for a month!"

"Peter, it's ok," Steve started. "No one's expecting you to-"

"Like Hell no one's expecting him!" Fury barked. "He's integral to the plan!"

"But, my aunt-" Peter tried to explain.

"Are you serious, kid!?" Fury yelled. "This is a matter of national security. I don't give a damn about your secret identity when it compares to this!"

"Fury," Tony cut in, standing in front of the director of SHIELD. "Calm down."

Peter stared at the billionaire, studying him. He was in a look better shape than the last time he saw him, as he was wearing an expensive looking suit, with his hair being styled once again. However, his hair was a bit longer, and his facial hair a bit thicker and unkempt. He appeared like he was stepping back into his former self.

"Stark, the last thing I need is-"

"The kid's an intern of mine," he stated, giving a tired smirk. "He just needs to tell his aunt that he won a trip to Europe for a month for a future business leaders summit."

"I won a what?" Peter asked, a bit confused.

"You heard me. Just explain it's a vacation," Tony told the kid.

"I...don't know if that'll work," Peter honestly said, thinking about it.

"Just say how important it is, yadda yadda," Tony stated. "Ok?"

Peter thought for a moment. "Ok."

Fury sighed slightly. "Alright. The rest of you, remember, Thursday. Dismissed."

With that, everyone scattered, all leaving the room except for Tony. He quickly grabbed Steve's shoulder, and waited for everyone else to go. He saw Spider-Man swing off the balcony behind him, before turning back to Steve. "Get on your nicest evening wear. We're going somewhere."

"Perhaps the calcium is making it unstable?"

"Fool. That's the only reason the formula wouldn't kill the user outright."

Norman Osborn was at his main lab in Oscorp, as he was currently in a think tank with some of his top scientists, trying to replicate the super soldier serum using the prototype that was given to him.

"Maybe an extra phosphide molecule could balance it out?" One of the scientists suggested.

"No," Osborn dismissed. "It wouldn't mix with the chlorate that's already in there."

"Ammonia?" Another one, a girl, thought.

"Are you trying to turn this into mustard gas? No," Norman scolded. He thought to himself, frustrated, trying to figure out why the formula was so hard to crack. If only he had Steve Rodgers, if only he could analyze his blood...

He might as well forget it. Rodgers would never volunteer, and there was no way he could quietly kidnap Captain America. Not when he's on the Avengers.

Osborn needed to think of something fast. He needed results. Why they needed an exact replica of the formula was completely...

Wait, they don't need an EXACT replica. Just something to get the job done."

"We're done trying to recreate the formula," he announced, to the utter astonishment of his workers. "Right now, we use this as the base. And we create our own super solider formula."

Osborn gave a devious smile, proud of his idea, and ready to execute it.

"Peter, I'm not sure that's such a good idea."

Peter was in the living room of his small house in Queens, talking to his beloved Aunt May about a trip to Europe.

"But Aunt May, it's really important to me!" He argued, trying desperately to convince her. He saw how angry Nick Fury was at him, and he really didn't want to see it again.

"I know, but, to go to another continent, it's just..."

"This could really help me!" Peter said. "If I could go to Europe to go to this convention, colleges would love me! I could go anywhere I wanted!"

"Peter, it's another continent," she repeated. "And I don't know who you'll be with. It could be dangerous."

Peter immediately thought of the irony that a vacation to Europe would be dangerous, even though what he was planning on actually doing was ten times more deadly. Not to mention the fact that psychopaths would try to hurt him on a daily basis. But no, backpacking around Europe would be what got him.

"Aunt May, I-"

He was cut off by a knock at the door, making the two pause and look at it.

"Are you expecting anyone?" Peter asked.

"No. I thought it was for you," she told him.

Confused, Peter went up to the front door, and opened it, making his eyes widen, and his aunt gasp in surprise.

Tony Stark, wearing a three piece suit and sunglasses, stood before him, with Steve Rodgers, wearing a blue plaid shirt and khakis while holding a cake, standing next to him.

"I hope we weren't interrupting anything," Tony said, with his trademark smirk on his face.