Before we start today, I've got to say that I'm HYPED for "Spider-Man: No Way Home" coming this December! As a long-time Spider-Man fan, it'll be great to see him swing back into movies, though where Peter Parker goes there might be different from where he ends up in this story!

Anyway, let's get into our first action scene of this story…


As the water monster started throwing its arms around, Peter tried firing a web at it, only for the shot to get drowned out by the water. "Okay, that isn't going to work here," Peter said.

"Yeah, fighting a water monster with webs isn't the best idea, unless you have water-resistant materials," Shocket deadpanned. "You know, we're going to need a name for this guy. How does Hydro Man sound?"

The newly named Hydro Man soon turned its attention towards the screaming people on a nearby bridge.

"Oh no you don't," Peter said, as he and Shocket ran towards the bridge. The two heroes made their way there quickly, jumping over poles sticking out of the water and vaulting up onto the bridge as people ran for cover.

"All right, humans, get clear!" Shocket shouted. She aimed her Multi-Launcher up at Hydro Man, firing off a quick-freezing round that incased one of the monster's hands in Ice. Hydro Man just raised its other fist and punched at the heroes, sending them flying back and soaking them to the bone.

"Okay, just one ice round isn't going to cut," Shocket spit water out of her mouth.

Suddenly, mysterious green energy came out of nowhere, blasting hydro Man and making the monster move back. Looking towards the sky, Peter saw a new figure flying down in green smoke. He was wearing gold and green armor with a smoky dome over his head, a purple cape flowing in the wind. This new hero flew down and attacked Hydro Man, blasting it with green energy.

"One of your friends?" Shocket asked.

Peter shook his head. "That's new to me, too."

The ottercoon nodded, then pulled out a mask and handed it over to Peter. "Here, take this. It's one of my Uncle Quill's spare space masks, so I'll need it back when you're done."

Peter thanked Shocket and put the Star-Lord mask on, just in time for the battle to seemingly turn in Hydro Man's favor. Shocket hopped onto Peter's back as they zipped up to the top of the bridge where the new hero was floating.

"Excuse us, sir!" Peter called, getting the hero's attention. "We can help! Let us help. I'm really strong and I'm sticky."

"And I can use guns!" Shocket added, hoisting her Multi-Launcher onto her shoulder.

"I need you to lead it away from the canals," the hero ordered, flying down the waterway as Hydro Man gave chase.

Peter then swung the two into Venice, using his webbing to prevent any buildings from falling onto the civilians below. Shocket helped out as well, using rounds of ice to freeze any rubble that Peter missed. The two followed Hydro Man, saving as many people as they could along the way while moving away from the water.

"This web-slinging stuff is awesome!" Shocket cheered, catching her breath as they landed on a roof. "Oh look, it's the Da Vinci Museum down there."

As if on cue, Hydro Man took a swing at the mysterious hero, missing but hitting a nearby clocktower instead.

"Oh, come on," Peter sighed, swinging the two of them over to prevent the tower from falling.

Peter expertly swung them around the tower, using webbing to wrap the cracks up while Shocket shot ice to enhance the structural integrity. Once that was done, the landed in the bell tower, looking down to see how the fight was going. The new hero was doing his best to keep Hydro Man away from the canals, but the water monster launched a fist that hit the tower Peter and Shocket were in, causing it to fall once more.

"Oh, come on!" Shocket groaned. She fired a few shots of ice down at Hydro Man while Peter shot out web lines to hold the tower up. "It's bad enough that we've gotta play keep away with that thing, but now tower defense as well? I swear, you don't have to worry about property damage as much is space."

"Yeah… good for you guys," Peter said sarcastically.

"Watch for the bell!" Shocket said, giving Peter enough time to duck before he could get decked by the bell in the tower.

"Thanks," the young hero replied. "I've got it up here, you try to stabilize the tower at the bottom!"

Shocket nodded, sliding down the side of the crumbling building as the mysterious hero and Hydro Man continued their battle. The ottercoon used more ice to try and give some structural stability, then pulled out some gravity mines to push the building back into place. Once she was sure the building would hold (for now), Shocket watched the battle taking place nearby.

Creating some sort of magic ruin, the new hero summoned smoky hands, restraining Hydro Man to prevent it from attacking. With some effort, the hero pulled the water monster apart, sending water everywhere as it was defeated. Seeing this, Peter sighed in relief, letting go of his webs as the tower they were in fell relatively safely to the ground.

"That guy just kicked that water's ass," Shocket joked, checking on Peter as he sighed in relief.

"Yeah, but who was he?" the teen asked, getting a shrug from the ottercoon.

"I dunno, but we should be glad that he was here," Shocket replied. "Great job with the tower, by the way. We make a pretty great team."

The two shared a fist bump, then quickly made themselves scarce from the scene, doubling back around to rejoin their friends.

[***]

That night, the class watched the news report in their hotel, everyone speculating on what the attack on Venice meant.

"It's aliens, it was to be," Ned said.

"Doubtful," Shocket said. "I've seen plenty of weird shit up in space, but a guy made out of water is new to me."

"Buzzfeed says there's a sailor named Morris Bench that was exposed to an experimental underwater generator and got hydro powers," Flash said, looking for answers on his phone.

"Yeah, you should definitely believe everything you read on the internet," MJ said sarcastically, sitting on the stairs with Shocket.

"Spider-Man could take him," Flash said quietly, though Shocket smirked at the statement. If only Flash knew that Spider-Man was in the same room as him…

"What do you think it is?" Mr. Harrington asked his fellow teacher.

"You know, being a man of science… witches," Mr. Dell answered.

Meanwhile, Peter was on a call with his Aunt May, trying to convince her not to call the Avengers to come and investigate and/or call of the school trip. No, no, no we want to stay."

"It's good thing I packed your suit, huh?" May said. "I can't believe you forgot it."

"…Yeah," Peter said, not wanting to worry his aunt even more.

"So who was that guy were with," May asked. "Was that Mr. Strange?"

"Doctor Strange, May," Peter corrected. "And no, I dunno who that was. It was a new guy. We were trying to help him, but- "

"Wait, we?" May said in surprise.

"Oh, right, I didn't tell you yet," Peter said. "We got a new student on the trip. She's a kid of one of the Avengers- the raccoon guy, remember him?"

May rolled her eyes. "Right, the one that was with that group of A-holes. Anyway, I- Happy, that's my lunch."

Peter quirked his eyebrow. "Happy's there?"

"Yeah, it's Happy. He came by to volunteer," May explained. "And he's hanging around the office. He wants to say 'hi.'"

"Hi Peter," Happy greeted.

"Hey Happy," Peter replied slowly. Why is Happy hanging around my Aunt, again!? He thought.

"Sorry, I'm working hard here. I gotta do a leaflet drop," Happy said.

"What are you doing?" Peter questioned.

"Don't worry, I'm taking good care of your aunt," Happy assured, though that did not assure Peter in any way.

"So, how's the plan going?" May asked once she took the phone back.

"There's been setbacks, for sure," Peter said, looking over at Brad as he tried getting next to MJ, only for Shocket to scare him off.

"Trust your instincts and you'll be fine," May said.

"I know. Love you. Bye." Peter hung up the phone and turned his attention back to his classmates, whom were all still trying to figure out what the new hero's deal was.

"Who is that guy?" Betty asked.

"He's like Iron Man and Thor rolled into one," Brad said.

Shocket laughed. "Yeah, like Tony or Thor would be caught dead in that dorky outfit," she snarked. "I've seen blind aliens with a better fashion sense that that guy."

"Yeah," Flash nodded. "He's alright, but he's no Spider-Man."

MJ scoffed. "What is it with you and Spider-Man?"

"What?" Flash questioned. "He's just awesome, okay? He protects the neighborhood, and you know, he's inspiring. He inspires me to be a better man." It was at the moment Peter walked over to the rest of the group, prompting Flash to acknowledge him with a, "Hey, dickwad. Thought you drowned."

And any respect I had for Flash is now gone, Shocket thought, sighing. On the TV, a news reporter talked about the event, though due to it being in Italian, most of the group didn't understand what she was saying.

"It sounds like his name is Mysterio," Brad said.

"'L'uomo del misterio' is Italian for 'man of mystery,'" MJ translated. "They don't know who he is."

"Mysterio. Cool name," Ned and Betty said, smiling at each other as they realized what had happened. "Babe!"

"Sounds more like a dork name for a dorky costume," Shocket said. "So, MJ, did you get to see any of the action? I was there, you know?"
"I didn't see much, I was running," MJ shook her head. "What about you, Peter?"

"Oh, I was running too," he replied quickly. "So… Eiffel Tower tomorrow. Should be great."

"Yeah, I read it was secretly built as a mind control antenna to create an army of the insane," MJ said. "Which is why it's my favorite destination on the whole trip."

The two smiled at each other, then quickly turned away. Shocket smirked and slunk up the stairs, letting the humans have their time together while she got ready for bed. Once she got up there (and changed into not-soaked clothes), the ottercoon took inventory of her arsenal, until a weird scent came to her nose. Sniffing around, she let out a growl as a distinctly alien scent was coming from one of the boys' rooms. Pulling out her guy, Shocket snuck out the window and climbed over to where the scent was coming from.

"Alright, you shape-shifting imposter, come on out," she called into the dark room. "I've dealt with enough aliens to know that you're- "

She didn't get a chance to continue as a tranquilizer dart sunk into her neck, knocking the ottercoon out as a man in an eyepatch loomed over her. Meanwhile, Peter and Ned were entering their room for the night, only for the man to tranquilize Ned as well, making Peter turn around to face him.

"So nice to finally met you, Spider-Man," the man said.

"You're Nick Fury," Peter recognized. "And you just shot Ned."

"It's just a mild tranquilizer," Fury replied. He pointed to Shocket on the floor. "Your alien raccoon friend got a bit too curious as well. They'll be alright. So good to finally meet you. I saw you visiting Tony in the hospital, but I didn't think that was a good time to exchange numbers."

"No, that would've been really inappropriate," Peter nodded.

"That's what I just said," Fury deadpanned. "The important thing is, you're here. I tried to bring you here, you avoided me, and now you're here. What a coincidence."

"Wait, was this a coincidence?" Peter questioned.

Fury continued. "I used to know everything. Then I come back five years later, and now I know nothing. No intel, no team. And a high school kid is dodging my calls." He placed down a device on the table, bringing up a holographic globe. "Here's what I do know: A week ago, a village in Mexico was wiped out by a cyclone. Witnesses say that cyclone had a face."

Ned started snoring, while Shocket groaned in her sleep, muttering something about "green-skinned shapeshifters."

"Three days later, a similar event in Morocco," Fury got Peter's attention again. "A village was- "

Mr. Harrington came knocking on the door, though Fury was just out of sight in the corner. "I'm just making the rounds. Making sure if people need counseling after today's traumatic events."

"No, we're okay," Peter replied.

"Great, cause I'm not actually qualified to do it anyway, so goodnight," Mr. Harrington closed the door, leaving Peter and Fury alone once more.

"That was my teacher, sorry about that," Peter apologized. "What were you saying."

"A village was destroyed by what may be another world-threatening-" Fury said quickly. A knock at the door, this time it was Betty calling for Ned. Peter sent her away. "That's why it's imperative-" Mr. Dell started talking about bacteria in the water. If another person touches that door, you and I are going to be making more hospital visits. Suit up."

Fury tossed Peter's Spider-Man outfit to him, while also picking up Shocket and bringing her with them.

[***]

Shocket gasped as she woke up, reaching for her gun as she did so. "Skrulls!" she shouted.

"Uh, what?" Peter asked.

Shocket then noticed that A) they were on a boat with the eyepatch guy and B) Peter was in his Spider-Man outfit. "Okay, I must have missed something," she mumbled. "Why are we with a Skrull?"

"What does that even mean?" Peter asked.

"Skrulls are shapeshifting aliens that can impersonate anyone," Shocket explained. "And Mr. Eyepatch her smells exactly like one."

"Skrulls haven't been on Earth since the 90's, kid," Fury replied. "Though I'm told that they leave a scent on those they interact with."

Shocket gave a distrustful hum but chose to drop the subject for now. She'd interrogate this 'Fury' guy later. "Alright, Peter, tell me what I gotta know for this to make sense."

"So, Nick Fury here, Director of SHIELD, has asked us to help stop a world-ending disaster," Peter explained quickly.

"Huh, so I guess this vacation is going to be more interesting," Shocket said. "Why didn't you just call my family? Saving planets from world-ending threats is kind of our thing."

"Have you tried getting Star-Lord to pick up his phone?" Fury asked rhetorically. "I'd also like to keep this miss contained to Earth, thank you very much."

Shocket sucked in her breath. "Oh, yeah, Quill is pretty bad at actually reading a message in time. That's what my mum is for."

After a brief pause, Fury took out a small case and handed it over to Peter. "Tony left me to give these to you when the time was right."

"Really?" Peter said. He opened the case, revealing a pair of designer sunglasses like those Tony normally wore.

"'Uneasy lies the head that wears the crowd,'" Fury said cryptically. "Stark said you wouldn't get that because it's not a Star Wars reference."

Peter and Shocket chuckled a bit, then got serious again once they reached their destination. They had arrived at a secret underground facility, presumably one SHIELD had set up for this operation.

"You can lose the mask," Fury told Peter. "Everyone here knows who you are. You'd only be feigning anonymity and breathing through spandex for no reason."

Once inside the base, Shocket grinned as she eyed all the advanced spy technology on display. Sure it wasn't as advanced as any of the stuff her father had made, but there was something nostalgic for her about the way humans created their tech. Kind of like how despite its age Star-Lord insisted on having a cassette player in the Benatar.

"Over there is Maria Hill," Fury introduced a woman working on a computer. Shocket noted that Hill had a similar Skrull smell to Fury. "That is Dimitri." A man with a beard inspected his gun. "And this is Mr. Beck."

Shocket and Peter looked is surprise as the mysterious hero they had worked with now stood in front of them. Was he secretly and Agent of SHIELD?

"Mysterio?" the two said at the same time.

"What?" Beck questioned.

Peter shook his head. "Doesn't matter. It's what our friends have been calling you."

"Well, you can call me Quentin," Beck said, shaking Peter's hand. He eyed Shocket but turned his attention back to Peter soon after. "You two handled yourself well out there today. I saw what you did with the tower. We could use people like you on my world."
"On your world?" Shocket questioned. "Are you an alien in disguise too?"

"Mr. Beck is from Earth, just not our Earth," Fury explained.

"There are multiple realities, Peter. This is Earth-616, I'm from Earth-833," Beck added.

"I'm sorry, are you saying there's a multiverse?" Peter asked. "Because I thought that was just theoretical. I mean, that completely changes how we perceive the initial singularity. We're talking about an internal inflation system. How does that even work with all the quantum- It's insane."

As everyone turned to look at Peter, Shocket let out a low whistle. "Wow Peter, when you get into something, you can really ramble on about it."

Peter flushed and looked away. "Sorry, it's just really cool."

"Don't ever apologize for being the smartest person in the room," Beck said.

"Second smartest," Shocket boasted, only to be ignored again. Letting out a huff, the ottercoon shook her head. "Anyway, what's this all have to do with that Hydro Man we saw today."

Beck brought up a diagram of the universe on a nearby holo-table. "They were born in stable orbits within black holes. Creatures formed from the primary elements: Air, Water, Fire, Earth. The science division had a technical name; we just called them Elementals."

"Versions of them exist across our mythologies," Hill stated.

"Turns out they're real," Beck nodded.

"Like Thor," Peter said. "Thor was a myth, now I study him in Physics class."

"And he's kinda my uncle," Shocket said, getting a surprised glance from Beck. "What? Your dad bonds with a space pirate god and he gets family rights. At the very least Quill got a shock when he realized that Thor beat him to being my first uncle."

"This myths are threats," Fury brought the conversation back to the main topic.

Beck nodded in agreement, changing the holo-table to show a map of Earth-833. "They first materialized on my Earth many years ago. We mobilized and fought them, but with each battle they grew, got stronger. I was part of the last battalion left trying to stop them. All we did was delay the inevitable."

"The Elementals are here now, attacking the same coordinates. Our satellites confirmed it," Hill stated.

"So thank Mr. Beck for destroying the other three," Fury said. "There's only one left: Fire."

"The strongest of them all," Beck explained. "The one that destroyed my Earth. The one that took my family."

Shocket looked as Beck fiddled with a ring on his hand, understanding it as a human sign of marriage. "Hey, sorry about that," she confided. "I know that losing family sucks."

"The Fire Elemental will be in Prague in approximately Forty-Eight hours," Hill said.

"We have one mission: kill it," Fury stated. "And you two are coming with us."

Shocket grinned, ready to fight a giant fire monster, but Peter was more nervous about the situation.

"I'm sorry, did you say Prague?" he chuckled nervously. "Mr. Fury, this all seems like big time, huge superhero kind of stuff. And I mean, I'm just a Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, sir."

"Bitch please, you've been to space," Fury scoffed.

"And you've fought an intergalactic despot, technically twice," Shocket added.

"I know, but going to space was an accident," Peter said. "Sire, come on, there's gotta be other people you can use than two kids. What about Thor?"

"Off-world," Fury said.

"And he's got his own drama to deal with," Shocket muttered.

"Okay, um, Doctor Strange," Peter said with less confidence.

"Unavailable," Hill stated.

"Captain Marvel," Peter suggested.

"Don't invoke her name," Fury said.

Shocket raised an eyebrow at the super spy but didn't say anything. "Look, Peter, it's obvious that every other hero has their own bloody mess to deal with, so we're the best and only option for the job."

"Sir, look, I want to help, I really do," Peter said defensively. "But if my aunt finds out I left my class trip, she'll kill me." He gestured to his Spider-Man costume. "If I'm seen like this is Europe after the Washington Monument, my whole class will figure out who I am and then-" He stopped and took a deep breath. "The whole world will figure out who I am, then I'm done."

"I still don't see why your secret identity is so important," Shocket said.

Peter looked to her, then sighed. "When I first got my powers, I didn't use them responsibly, and because of that, I lost someone important to me. He always said that people with great power have the responsibility to use that power to help others that can't help themselves." He looked Shocket in the eyes and said, "I don't- no, I can't lose someone like that again, and the more people that know that I'm Spider-Man, the more likely the people I care about will get hurt."

Shocket was moved by Peter's words, giving a nod of understanding. "Okay then, secret identity is important to you. I'll do everything I can to keep it safe."

"If it's so important to you, why don't you get back to your teachers before they get suspicious," Fury said dismissively. "Dimitri, take Parker back to the hotel, please."

Dimitri took Peter out of the base, but Shocket stayed behind a bit longer. She eyed Fury, then gave a hum, signaling for the two to have a conversation away from the rest of the SHIELD team. "You're not going to let him get out of this that easily, are you?" she said.

Fury shook his head. "We need him to help out, whether he wants to Spider-Man up or not. As for you…" Shocket let out a small gasp as Fury's eye briefly changed color. "You weren't on my list of beings that are on Earth. What's a Guardian of the Galaxy doing here?"

"I could ask the same of you, Skrull," Shocket said.

"fair enough," Fury said. "The real Nick Fury is currently working on a larger project, so I was put in his place to keep up appearances. It's a long story, but the short of it is that we met back during the early days of SHIELD, and Captain Marvel was involved."

"Say no more," Shocket stopped him. "If Carol was a part of it, then I trust her… mostly. As long as you're not part of some sort of secret invasion, I'll play my part here helping Peter." She looked around and took a glace at Beck. "Think we can really trust that guy's story, though?"

"He's been right about the first three elementals," Fury said.

Shocket sighed. "Fine, fine. I'll help Peter out, you keep doing your 'Fury' stuff, and Mysterio over there can save our world. But I'm still going to keep my eye on him, just in case."

"As you should," Fury nodded.

With their conversation over, Shocket sneaked back to their class' hotel, getting a good night's sleep before the real adventure began tomorrow.


Author's Note

Wow, this might be one of the longest chapters I've written! I decided that I'll be making bigger chapters for this story, so that while it may take longer to get out, you readers can have more to go through in return. The Hydro Man fight isn't that much different, but Shocket at least keeps Peter from knocking his head against the bell like an idiot. I get that the MCU Spider-Man is still working on his Spider-Sense, but that scene always made me cringe in the movie.

Also, to explain again for those that didn't read "Half-Worlders," Lylla saved Tony using the Phoenix Force in this world, but he's still injured enough to have to permanently retire as Iron Man. In-between stories there was a big Avengers party for saving the universe in place of Tony's funeral, and that's where May and Peter presumably meet the Guardians of the Galaxy, formally at least. Also yes, Shocket calls Thor her Uncle and the two totally have gone on a space adventure together.

And "Fury" is here! But of course, with Shocket being from space, she'd know what a Skrull smells like. She doesn't know that it's Talos, but currently her mind is more set on helping Peter than questioning why Fury is using a doppelganger. Mysterio is definitely on her radar, however, so Shocket will be making sure that Mr. Beck keeps his facts straight.

Also, about the other heroes being absent, I'm guessing that most of them are off doing their own stories, like what we're going to see in the Disney+ shows or in the upcoming movies. Don't expect any big cameos, however, besides maybe an off-hand mention.

Next Time: SHIELD hijacks the vacation, and Peter tries out Tony's gift.