"Years ago, about when I first started, I was in a group called Freedom Force."
The figure of the second Spider-Woman with a brunette male holding onto her waist could be seen swinging through the city streets above several scenes of chaos.
"The group was pretty much Mystique's old Evil Mutants team with a couple of add-ons. One of whom you should NOT speak her name out loud if you remember."
"Candle-Jack?"
She ignores the quip with a small smirk.
"Destiny was a member. I don't know if you remember her?"
Peter, clinging to her AND the promise of not putting on his own costume, thought for a moment. "Old pictures maybe, but nothing immediately comes to mind in a face-to-face."
That's what she thought. She swings to a building and runs across the face of it for a few yards before jumping and starting a new swing. Part of her relishes the feel of swinging through the air like old times, another part was hoping her passenger would slip off so she wouldn't feel so off balanced.
No such luck though. He never slips.
"She could see the future. Pretty accurately. And some of us figured she may have been a low-level telepath as well, but we could never prove it."
She could feel his nod in her side.
"That was her spirit in my body."
Her confession was nearly enough to shock him loose, but they were near their destination anyway. She held onto him and did a few flips in the air, just because she could, and they both stuck the landing.
"Destiny? Not Cassandra?" He figured it would have been the old Madame Web.
She led him to the door on the roof. "No, but they're half-sisters."
Peter follows her in shock.
"I know, right? Destiny, or Irene Adler, her father left her mother and she eventually remarried. They get the precog from their mother."
Down the steps they went. "Wait. So Cassandra was what, a mutant?"
"Apparently", Spider-Woman remarked. "Who eventually found Spider-Religion."
Spider-Woman found an office floor that was apparently deserted and led him through the cubicles.
"I don't have time to hold your hand Pete. There is no "Great Web" for us."
Peter took it in stride. Shock him once, shame on you. Shock him twice, shame on him. Shock him three times, you might be Electro.
"So what does that mean?" He followed her to an important looking office. "That we fought a war with energy vampires for nothing?"
"Not for nothing", she tells him while ripping the door handle off and walking inside. "There is a "Great Web" and you did fight for it. It just doesn't affect US."
Walking behind the moderate sized desk, she turns the chair to face the computer and gestures for him to sit down.
"I've always relied on the kindness of strangers", Peter quipped before making himself comfortable.
"Our power", she sat at the corner of the table while he worked. "The connection we feel sometimes. Its hard to describe. You were bitten by a spider that was bombarded with radiation at a science exhibit. Said spider supposedly passed along its "magic" to you. Or you became a spider powered Mutate and the mysticism came later. There is beings out there that certainly believe you are something."
"But I'm not?" Peter half listened. "All those bullies and my guidance consular were right?"
"What you are, what any of us are", she paused for dramatic effect.
"Is ourselves."
Peter hummed to himself while bypassing the log in screen. "Nice story Jules."
"Ass", she called him affectionately. "I mean, we have always been what we made ourselves. You especially. You weren't just given power. You earned it."
"Yay me", his mood fell. "So if I give it back, will it bring everyone we lost home?"
Spider-Woman sighed. "I wish."
He continued typing for a few moments before she spoke again.
"I don't think Anasi or the Great Weaver or whoever just gave you powers. I think it was an accident that you got them, yes. But I believe you earned whatever favor you seem to have. All that you are now", she motioned vaguely at his whole body, "is a product of everything that you were given and experienced."
Peter continued to type, but he nodded along while she was explaining.
"I think you've been evolving Peter. We all have. Aside from clones", Peter coughed hard drowning out the C-word, "or other versions from other dimensions, we're all not the same."
He navigated the records he found while she continued.
"I know it sounds like I'm rambling. But I need you to understand."
Peter sags in his seat, finding what he came for. The building they were in, the phone company building, was bought some time ago by Stark Industries.
"There's been forces at work here that stretch backwards and forwards for decades", she tells him as he slowly stands up.
This particular phone company produced cheap but reliable phones for the market.
"That's why I brought you here, so you could understand."
The phone in question has been a go-to communication device for several people constantly moving.
"Destiny mostly left me alone, only on occasion taking over to nudge you in the right direction. She erased her presence from my mind each time and would leave me alone until next time. I now remember bits and pieces of what she would see."
He breathed in slowly and let it out.
"She had to work her plan around his, whatever he seems to be up to. There's two ways we're all being pulled and neither are good."
Logan favored this kind of phone when he didn't carry something McCoy developed.
"And another party. Something almost completely invisible. Something that seems to cause nothing but chaos, nothing but-"
"Drama", Peter interrupted her. It's something he's been considering himself lately. But he'll have to deal with that later.
Logan didn't have a phone activated when the picture of that Silk woman was sent to Carol. Who sent the picture? The text?
The subject of an old company E-mail on the monitor burned into his mind.
"Stark bought the company. We won't be changing the name, it appears he wants to keep this as low key as possible."
Why? Why mess with him? With Carol?
His breathing was calm, but his hands crushed the side of the table effortlessly.
So, mystery guy, Destiny, and Stark are taking a swing at him? But at different angles, and it appears they're getting in each other's way.
"What can you tell me about this Julia?" His tone was even. He prayed to Thor that he didn't snap if she told him she couldn't reveal outright what she knew again.
Luckily, he wasn't dealing with Madame Web any more.
Spider-Woman walked to the window to look out. "Tony has it out for you. I don't know why. But it took him this long to get things in order. Time travel was one thing. He's also not alone. He's got allies, people that hate your friends. I think he's scared. Scared of you, or what you might become."
A buzz startled them and broke the tension. Peter pulled out his phone and read a text from McCoy.
"Kevin Sydney."
Peter hummed and put his phone back. He'll deal with that later. But for now-
Another buzz had him rolling his eyes and looking at his phone again.
Instead of a name, it appeared to be a long, rambling text from Emma.
While he was reading his phone, Julia knew something had changed. The previous tension came back with a vengeance. She could hear the telltale skitters of thousands of spiders appearing from every crack and corner. She could feel them swarm around him, a behavior she noticed that they would display when he was particularly emotional.
Spider-Woman turned and looked into the slowly darkening room, spiders starting to cover the windows. Near the desk, she could see the glow of the monitor being slowly choked off. The light from his phone soon being the only source.
Before that light too was erased, she could see the haunted, hurt look on his face.
Something had changed. And it wasn't for the better.
The backlight finally went dim, and in the inky blackness, she heard a scream, that gave way to a monstrous roar.
-Emma's Room two minutes ago-
Emma Frost paced around in her room staring at her phone.
She typed, erased, and typed again. Each time making her more and more frustrated.
She sat on her bed and looked at the long explanation she tried to compose to him, to explain the things she had done.
The message was to the point, but felt so impersonal.
Kitty was right, she needed to tell him in person.
She placed her phone on her end table near her bed and went to pull Hank out of his lab. No one had seen him leave it for a few days, and she could use good company while she planned how to confess.
She heard a thump before she left her room and turned around.
She swore she placed her phone solidly on the table, but there it was, face down on the carpet.
She went to pick it up and gasped in horror.
"Message Sent"
Her shaky hands dropped the phone back on the floor and she cradled her tearing face.
"Oh god, what have I done?"
-Beast's Lab five minutes ago-
The fight was ferocious, but he came out on top.
He always considered himself to be the better fighter, if it came down to brawn before brains.
An alert on the phone caught his attention and he answered.
"Salutations boss", he responded jovially.
He listened for a few minutes and answered questions as adequately as he could.
When the conversation was over, he had his new orders.
"Let us depart swiftly then", he spoke to his unconscious victim, and proceeded to drag him by his furry leg.
Fiddling around on his phone, he took care of his business and opened a secret door out.
"I am most curious to see how this plays out", he spoke through his smiling fangs, and wiped the blood from his nose onto his fur.
-Future Foundation eight minutes ago-
They were at a standoff.
The robotic "alien" who masqueraded as a young girl's friend turned out to be one of the Avenger's deadliest foes.
And to Hank Pym, he still considered this enemy his son.
His son who had young Franklin and Valeria in his hands.
Having answered a suspicious emergency call from Reed earlier, Hank had flown over the skirmishes in the streets to enter the FF building and walk in on the original 4 looking for an opening to get the kids away from the android.
"Let them go Ultron", Hank kept his voice as calm as he could and stepped forward. "Take me."
Ultron's face, recently built by the young genius girl into something happy and friendly, had been partly melted off and showed Ultron's own remodeling underneath. He cocked his head to the side in a mockery of human thought, as if he hadn't already processed thousands of scenarios.
Franklin pounded his fist on the android before he was casually thrown to his mother.
Hank walked close to Ultron and was seized by the wrist. He could feel access to his Pym Particles was blocked.
Reed stepped away from Susan and Franklin and approached the android, "I will take Valeria's place."
A self-modification to his vocalization device allowed Ultron to bombard Mr. Fantastic with specific frequency sonic waves. Grabbing his ears in pain, Reed's elastic body appeared to sag into a partially formless pile.
"Your parents care for you, child", Ultron commented as the others rushed to help Richards to his feet.
"A shame all parents could not show such concern", Hank grimaced as the metal hand on his wrist squeezed slightly.
"Your ego is as large as the planet that shares its name, Richards. I have what I have been sent for. The rest of you matter little", Ultron gloats as a hidden compartment opens in his chest and he deploys a small cube amongst the FF.
Susan immediately covers it with an invisible shield.
Ultron casually turns and half-way drags his captives to a nearby elevator.
Hank and Val watch as most of her family swings at the air around them, seemingly fighting unseen enemies. Reed looks on at them in pain from his semi-formless state on the floor.
"It is fortunate that you thought to equip me for defense", Ultron says to his younger captive. "The schematics for one of Mysterio's holo devices were of much use."
Valeria holds back angry tears. The mockery stings much worse coming from the hollow voice, than the cheerful tone she had picked.
Dragged to Pym's jet, Hank is knocked out by Ultron and she is tied away from any vulnerable electronics.
The jet takes off and young Val finally lets her tears fall.
"This is all my fault."