-Aftermath-

"Something has to change Peter", Steve Rogers spoke from behind his large desk. The door to his modest office was locked, and most sound couldn't escape the thick walls.

"The mayor has been breathing down our neck over the Spider-Man issue. He doesn't understand how the Marvel Knights could keep losing you time and time again."

"Uh..." Peter felt like he was back in highschool in the principal's office trying to talk his way out of being suspended for being late for the 100th time. "I haz skillz?"

Steve's face didn't even twitch. "Well those skills are coming back to bite us."

The commissioner rises with a cracking pop in his back and stands at ease. "Son, sooner or later we're going to have to make a push for you. There's already talk of Spider-Man getting preferential treatment by other departments. With our man- er, PEOPLE power, it's hard to justify why we can't catch you."

Peter knew it would come to this eventually.

"And not just you. A few of your friends were seen during the last crises, and the mayor's office is wondering what we're going to do about them."

That was a thought he hadn't considered. All of a sudden, numerous Spiders just burst out of the woodwork. Peter asked for time to think about it.

"... you have a week."

-Check Up-

"Why us?" Hank Pym asks over his set of notes.

Banner was adjusting the equipment to the side of Peter while McCoy's heavily encrypted security hologram form consulted.

Peter raised his head from the medical bed he laid on. "Huh?"

"Why us? I would think you would consult Reed with this." Pym gestured to him.

Peter laid on his back, 6 arms spread at his sides. He gave the question some thought, "well, Reed and Stark gave this a try last time my body was acting funny. Didn't find out a whole lot, except the basic 'better, faster, stronger' upgrade. Figured this time, maybe some people that tend to think a bit outside the box might have better luck."

Pym accepted the answer. It was true. But it left out the other reason.

Last time Peter had a full scientific checkup, the data had eventually been used to harm him.

No, even if Pym, Banner, and McCoy weren't available, Peter still wouldn't have gone to Reed. Not out of suspicion of what he might do with it, Reed was generally an ok guy.

But even a super genius like him was occasionally susceptible to subterfuge. And given Stark's recent behavior, no one would put it past Iron-Man to be spying on the big brain.

Anything that Mr. Fantastic might find could possibly be picked up by intelligent spies.

Whereas Pym's secret lab, shrunk to fit inside a die sized cube of adamantium and hidden inside the body of some android body he was currently working on, seemed reasonably paranoid enough that it could deter someone looking for the latest gossip.

Banner spoke up from some monitoring equipment. "Fantastic."

"Amazing", Peter replied offhand. "What ya got doc?"

Pym moved around to look at the readouts while Banner explained. "You appear to have a new system of tubes spread throughout your body. It appears to be connected, at least slightly, to your pores and to what I assume is your resivior of organic webbing?"

The man on the table rose his head to allow his jaw to hang in shock.

Pym picked up the description. "I see. Some of this 'webbing circulation system' seems concentrated at spots around your sides. The material I theorize exudes from your pores and forms that familiar shape."

Last time he had four extra arms, they were flesh and blood. Flexing and moving the extra appendages, he gave the assembled nerds a rundown.

"I got full range of motion for all of them, can wiggle all the fingers too." He used them to feel everything within reach. "Tactile sense is a little subdued. Like they're half asleep or something. Can barely register temperature too."

Pym's eyes seemed to glow with interest. "How can you feel if they're just shells of semi hardened webbing?"

McCoy snapped his fingers, "your wall crawling aura! Your daughter allowed me to analyse her abilities while she was a guest here. She mentioned her particular skill in repelling objects as well as adhering to them."

The hologram form pulled several holo screens up with the data. "My hypothesis is that your enhancements are formed subconsciously. It is the manipulation of your-"

"Stick-em powers", Peter interrupted.

Ignoring the chuckles from his other associates, McCoy continued. "Adhesive abilities, not only sticking, but now amplified as they are, pushing away as well, that give them motion."

Banner sped through the information floating in front of McCoy. "I see. And the multitude of fine webs inside the shells act as tendons and such."

"And seeing as it's technically a part of him", Pym continued, "I would guess the adherence/repulsion aura, probably combined with his Spider-Sense, gives him some pseudo feeling from those arms to his brain!"

Peter set up quickly in shock, concentration slipping enough that the arms fall right off. April mentioned being able to push things with her powers, but they figured it was exclusively for herself.

He slides off the table and picks up a severed web shell arm. He stares at it for a moment.

He sure picked up some strange bells and whistles. He sure wished this latest upgrade came with a manual.

He turns to the others, each wearing bemused looks.

"Well that was productive, who's up for lunch?"

-Changes-

She wasn't a hero anymore.

The cure stripped her of her powers, making her just a normal young woman. Except, she's never been normal since she was born.

Created, really. A copy of another person. Not even an exact copy. Some kind of Rule 63 joke pretending to be normal.

At least when she had powers, that gave her some kind of weirdness to blame everything on.

Laughter interrupted her musings. Pete and Doreen, Miles and Nancy, eating and sharing some funny story.

Why did she come here with them? She was a fifth wheel, which was sadder than a third wheel because there was twice the people to forget you were there.

She slipped away and dumped her half eaten burger and left.

Pete and Peter insisted on her having some kind of defensive measures. Peter had some old design that miniaturized a web shooter into a bracelet. He added an extra spray for mace, and a tiny tracker disguised as some kind of doodad.

It was touching in a way, but just rammed home the fact that she was taking up space.

She contemplated disappearing when someone bumped into her.

Stepping back and arming her "bracelet", she dropped the aggression when she recognized Kaine.

She lifted an eyebrow, "what are you doing here?"

He looked about as comfortable as she was feeling, "Pete and Squirrely were worried about you when you left. They asked me to check up on you. I was nearby so I figured, what the hell."

Well, she wasn't forgotten. That was nice. "What now then?"

He looked around for inspiration. Finding none, he asked, "want to talk about it?"

She barked out a laugh at the absurdity of him wanting to talk, but smothered it when he glared at her.

She coughed to clear away the remaining giggles. "No offense Kaine, but I doubt you want to talk about feelings."

He could kind of relate to her. He was a copy as well. Of the same guy too, except from another dimension.

But there was a big difference between the two, and she didn't mean height.

If he was offended he didn't show it. "Fair enough. Where you heading?"

She thought for a moment. "I don't know, I just had to get away and I started walking."

Kaine nodded in understanding. She didn't give him enough credit. Their situations weren't exactly the same, but he probably understood her more than anyone else.

"Mary doesn't open the club till later, I can get us free play on the pool tables if you want to lay low for awhile and blow some steam?"

The tough, ex villain looked at her with concern mostly veiled with indifference.

He cared. He was horrible at showing it, but he cared.

She considered it. "Ok. I'll humor you this time."

Passing by him, she slugged him in the shoulder. She missed her strength.

"But if you introduce me as a little sister or something, I'll swat you with the biggest rolled up newspaper I can find!"

Kaine grunted and turned to follow her.

-The Right Path-

He sat high on the side of a skyscraper, just watching the flow of traffic below him. The sun had set recently, and the lights of the vehicles below lit up the streets like embers floating away from a bonfire.

He was expecting company. Somehow, he knew when and where this company would show up. Chalk it up to some nuance of his Spider-Sense.

"You lied to me", Spider-Man said out loud, not taking his eyes off the street.

In the corner of his eye, he could see her casually walk down the building on his left. She bent and pushed her back against the structure like him, and they sat there in silence for a moment.

Julia Carpenter. The second woman to call herself Spider-Woman. The current Madam Web.

After "Spider Island", she had presented him a choice. Continue on as Spider-Man, with all the pain and responsibility and guilt. Or, take the cure. The Web would find another hero, and he could bow out and start a normal life.

He didn't give it another thought. He kept his powers, not willing to subject someone else to that kind of life.

Knowing what he did now though, he realized...

"You played me like a fiddle."

The psychic next to him let out a breath. "What I remember is, I gave you two options, and trusted you to take the right one."

"By lying."

"Yes, the cure wouldn't have worked on you. But you didn't need to know that at that time."

Feeling his anger build, he grit his teeth and asked, "why?"

"Cassandra had a dream she passed on to me", she began. "A vision of a golden future. So far separated from now, it may never come to be. But what she did, the things she told you and had you do, was all towards this unreachable goal."

She stood up again and walked in front of his view. "Every little thing she did, everything I do now, is to reach as close as we can to that point. Yes I lied, but you didn't know that then. And it was important at that time that you thought it was a real choice, to keep you on the right path. To prove once more what kind of hero you are."

He clenched his fists. "And what if I took the cure?"

Julia held out her hands to her sides, palms down. From his angle, it looked like she could direct the flow of traffic like a marionette. She knew how to play up the drama.

"A myriad of different futures could have happened. Too many for me to narrow down." She then held hers arms as if fighting off the cold. "Some too horrible to remember."

He watched her, uncertain if she was playing him now. For this vision of her's, he had been through hell. He was lied to, manipulated, and tortured for this thing of her's.

But to reach some sort of paradise where his friends and family could be free of the forces he fought against, could he do anything else?

"I hope this is all worth it lady."

-SHIELD-

Sure enough, it happened.

Spider-Man swung to a high rooftop where a lone brunette woman waited.

She appeared alone anyway. Spider-Sense registering six potential dangers in a half circle surrounding the back of the lady within striking distance said otherwise.

Odds were they were her back up.

Probably used his cloaking and sound dampener tech too.

Jerks.

Landing a few yards away from the lady, he crossed his arms and got straight to the point. "What do you want Hill?"

Maria Hill, current commander of S.H.E.I.L.D., quirked an immaculate eyebrow before responding. "Spider-Man. Surely you know you couldn't hide them from us."

"Not for long anyway, and don't call me Shirley."

A tiny frown showed the quip struck home. Score one for the Spider.

"I'm not here to be difficult Peter", the casual use of his real name slightly rattled him, but he recovered quickly. "Just answer a few questions and we can go our separate ways."

Spidey grabbed his chest, "you're breaking up with me? But what about all the good times we shared?"

The glare she threw was easily Dr. Doom level. "If you could be serious for a moment-"

"You're right", he interrupted. "There were no good times. Fine, I want the kids on weekends and half the Hill-a-carrier."

"Spider-Man-"

"Cut right down the middle!"

Fists clenched, she gave the command. "Tag him. We can interrogate him instead."

A moment passed and the hero yawned.

Eyes widened as Hill turned to see what could have happened to her people.

She almost hit her nose on the Scarlet Spider's chest.

"Nice thing about his sound tech", he began informing her as she stepped back, "you don't hear a thing when they get knocked out or fall to the ground."

She reached for her sidearm instinctively until Spider-Man quickly plucked it out of her holster.

"Sorry, are we unnerving you?" Spidey asked as he casually crushed her gun in one hand.

"We have that effect on people", Scarlet commented. She WAS getting a little disoriented following their talk.

"I gave Jigsaw arachniphobia once", Spider-Man helpfully supplied with a modest shrug.

Hill stepped away from the duo to get both of them within her sight. If they wanted to do something, there was no way she could stop them, but she wanted to at least see it coming.

"So Hill", Spider-Man asked with hands on his hips, "what were you saying? I get so shy when invisible armed men are aiming weapons at me."

The agent stood at attention, unwilling to appear vulnerable. "Your family that appeared. We want information."

The two Spiders glanced at each other before focusing on her once more. The original rubbed his masked chin. "Ok, what do we get?"

"What do you want?" Hill asked through clenched teeth, and immediately regretted it.

"A Spider pony."

"Absinthe. The good imported stuff."

"A Commodore 64. It's for a friend."

"Learn Japanese on tape. I'm a little rusty."

"Jameson to shave his mustache."

"I want ten pounds of coffee beans."

"I want him to have ten pounds of coffee beans."

"Steak dinner with you. You're buying."

"Why would you want that?"

"I don't know. I'm hungry, and it worked for you and Carol."

"We are NOT talking about Carol."

"ENOUGH!" They were giving her a headache. Even more than usual thanks to there being two of them.

"What we want", the seriousness of Spider-Man's tone drew her immediate attention. "Is for you to leave them alone. No inquiries. No taking people out of school to interrogate them. No raid in the middle of the night-"

"Aracely gets cranky if you interrupt her beauty sleep", Scarlet Spider chipped in.

"Nothing, Hill. You want to know something? I'll tell you. You come to me. They are not a threat to you."

"Unless you don't play nice", Scarlet added for dramatic affect.

Moving her hands to her hips, Hill scoffed. "I have S.H.E.I.L.D."

"We got Bruce Banner on speed dial", Spider-Man quipped, some humor once more in his tone.

Hill weighed her options.

She didn't want a war with Spider-Man and his group. She may have been hasty wanting information any way possible. Hill had all intention to leave them be, baring a few questions. There was actually standing orders from Fury for this exact situation to not interfere. His rare show of faith placed in Spider-Man to keep a handle on anything in his immediate neighborhood.

The hero didn't need to know that though.

"Fine. S.H.I.E.L.D. will be ordered to avoid interaction with any Spider within your circle, unless seeking cooperation in the field or in prevention of criminal acts."

Hill got the impression the two were blinking in disbelief.

"Um, ok then", tension lifted from Spider-Man's shoulders, and Scarlet Spider seemed to relax slightly.

She took that as her cue to leave and passed the two to check on her people, if she could find them.

"What about my dinner?"

Hill turned to see the darker Spider waiting for her reply as the other facepalmed.

She wondered if Spider-Man thought it was a bad idea.

She smirked.

"There's a good hibachi place off of 5th. Their steak is excellent. Friday at 1900 hours." She made a show of checking him out, and getting the impression Spider-Man was stunned in disbelief.

"Keep the suit on."

-Mayhem-

"What did you want to talk about dad?" April sat on her bed.

The remodel added two extra bedrooms. So that's a room for him, Laura, the baby, and now April.

"Just wanted to see how you were." He glanced around the empty room.

"I'm fine. Really excited about moving in."

Peter looked down at the small pack that held all her belongings. "We'll have to pick you up some more things."

She agreed. The silence stretched on and got a bit awkward.

"So", Peter tried. "You and April? Or you and May?"

"It's just me now", she tucked a bang behind an ear. "The Anti-Venom thing, it bonded us deeper. I have both memories, like I've lived both lives. I don't have a whisper in my head. It's kind of lonely, but I feel... whole now."

He nodded. Best he could hope for he guessed. She did look happier, less haunted.

"Well April, I'm just a few rooms down. And Laura is here too in case you want to talk."

Her smile made his day. "Thanks dad."

"No problem Spider-Girl", the proud father figure headed for the door.

"Mayhem."

Peter turned around to face her.

April let her costume form around her clothes. She smirked. "Call me Mayhem."

-Touching Base-

The apartment was finished. It was time for a party.

Peter stood back and just watched the group gathered around the table and in his living room.

Mary was talking to Kaine about her new girlfriend she met, and Kaine was steadily trying to tune everyone out and eat. Miguel brought Carlie and they were having a private conversation, most likely less than professional. Even Matt and Elektra had shown up.

April was talking to Anya. It was good to see them get along. After finding out no one was trying to steal her Spider-Girl shtick, Anya calmed down and warmed up to her extended "family". Aracely eventually dragged Laura and Jessica into the conversation. Literally dragged.

Pete and Doreen were laughing with Miles and Nancy. Nancy figured out the Spider secret and Doreen vouched for her so she came.

He watched them all with a large grin. This was all he ever wanted.

He cleared his throat, "so, Spiders. What's everyone's plans now?"

The collected chatter slowed to a halt.

Mini him was the first to speak up. "Well, I got tests coming up. That was just a one time thing, I don't plan to put the webs back on."

Doreen slipped her hand into his and gave a squeeze. They really made a nice couple.

"Same here I guess?" Miles Morales. The Miles from THIS earth, still sucked up into the Spider business. "I mean, this is pretty wild Spidey, I mean, Peter. I don't think I'm gonna put on a costume and jump straight into heroics. Gotta finish school."

Jessica pretty much said the same, except she was dealing with the loss her powers. Whatever her genetics, the cure stripped her of Pete's "OZ infected" spider abilities. So it was plain old Jessica, working on her degree.

Peter nodded to them. If only he could have made that decision when he was their age.

"I bought a club." Every eye zoomed to Mary.

"...how?"

She smiled and threw an arm around Kaine who was trying unsuccessfully to hide behind his plate.

Peter grabbed the bridge of his nose and sighed.

"Hey", Kaine defended, "I was trying to help. Red can run it, and we have a base of operations/steady job if anyone needs one."

"Ok, ok. I gotcha", Peter waved it off. They were adults and knew what they were doing. He couldn't condone the way the capital was made, but they're not him. Well one was, kind of. But they were very different people.

Didn't help that he was glad they all had something they could fall back on.

So Mary had a club, and wasn't jumping around in tights. Kaine had a job as her bouncer lined up and rarely got out in the red and black pj's, unless Aracely could talk him into patrolling every once in awhile. Or he needed an influx of cash...

Miguel was wrapped up in trying to figure out what was happening to the future. He didn't get out as Spider-Man 2099 much.

Anya and April. They both wanted to continue the fight. The Spider-Girls. They could make a good team.

"Well girls, that sounds good. I'll talk with Steve, see what we can do about making you deputies or something." Peter informed them.

He'll have to do what he can to keep the heat off his family.

"What about you Peter?" Miguel eyed him over his sunglasses.

"Heh, well", he scratched his head. "Talked with Steve about running around so much as Spider-Man. And with everything happening lately, I got to re-prioritize."

He took a deep, steady breath. "There's enough of us, I don't feel bad about taking some time off. I'm sure Steve will be happy Spider-Man will be off the Knight's radar for awhile. And we got a few cases where Peter Parker could probably do more good in the lab than on the street."

"So until further notice", he paused for dramatic affect.

"I'm retired."

-Clubbin-

Kaine took a look around the club. Just a few hours till it opened.

MJ was behind the bar taking inventory. She knew the area inside and out since she got the job bartending weeks ago.

Several people had mistaken her for this world's Mary Jane Watson. To change that, she had cut her hair into short spikes and wore clothing showing off her slightly more muscular physique. She had also began introducing herself simply as Mary.

Shortly after she got the job, she helped him get hired as a bouncer.

He didn't NEED to work. Robbing from crooks paid fairly well. But, it was nice to feel somewhat normal. Go out, interact, work, get paid.

They never got to meet the lady who was selling this place, only the guy who was selling it for her. Only heard that she was trying to cut ties and that this place was already rebuilt at least once. The mystery lady was tired of sinking money into it.

So after some prodding from MJ- er, Mary and Aracely once the redhead bribed her with candy, he gathered some loose change he had laying around and sprung for the place.

She swore she would pay him back eventually.

If only he could figure out why this place felt so familiar.

"Alright Kaine!" MJ derailed his train of thought.

"The Deep End is ready for business!"

"The Talk-

He carried his bag tight and made the last few steps to her front door.

Glancing over himself and finding everything in place, Peter Parker knocked on the door.

Carol Danvers opened the door with a chicken leg hanging from her mouth.

Eyes wide, she plucked it from her mouth and coughed.

Peter smirked. "Cravings?"

Her smile was a bit sheepish before she shook it off. "What are you doing here?" Her eyes were drawn to the bag.

He opened the bag and pulled out a bottle and some glasses. "Was wondering if you were up for that talk now?"

Her horrified face was quickly turning to anger.

Peter's confused gaze traced her line of sight to the bottle and wine glasses. "Oh, OH, Carol no!"

He turned the bottle around showing the lable.

"It's just fancy grape juice! You don't think I'd try to give you alcohol do you?"

Carol bit her lip and looked away. "I... I don't know what to think about things anymore."

Peter sighed.

What was going on between them?

"I can come back later..."

Carol grabbed his arm gently when he turned, "wait Peter."

They locked eyes and Carol moved slightly to the side gesturing to her home.

"Come in. Please."