Issue 2: Unwelcome Change

West of Ylisstol

After helping out the Shepherds save a town, the Avengers agreed to join them on their trek back to Ylisstol to learn more about this world and how Spider-Man is a great legend talked about in stories of old. It has already gone dark and the heroes are still nowhere close to the capital of the kingdom, finding themselves in a dark forest surrounded by giant trees.

"I told you. It's getting dark already! Ech! And now the bugs are out!" Lissa complained, shoeing away the noisy flies besides her.

BGM-Fire Emblem Awakening OST-Agh! Won goph in mah mouph! Blech! Ptooey!

Weiss growls as she's not a big fan of bugs either, "I'm starting to regret not staying at that town. All these noisy, disgusting bugs are buzzing around and crawling all over and-." She starts coughing when she feels like she swallowed a bug, much to the amusement to the jokesters of the team.

"Aw, come on now, you two. Hardship builds character. Want to help me gather firewood? Want to help me gather firewood?" Chrom asked the delicate girls.

"Tpht! Tpht! Yeeeeeuck! ...I think I also swallowed one…" Lissa said, spitting out flies from her mouth, "I'll pass on finding firewood, thanks. I think I've built QUITE enough character for one day!" She said.

As they talk, Knuckles' stomach growls in hunger, "Aw, man, I'm seriously starving. I could go for some food right now."

"Yes, I should think a little hunting and gathering is in order. Now, who wants to clear a campsite?" Frederick asked somebody to help set up camp.

"I'll do it." Peter accepted.

"You sure?" Blake questioned him if he knows how to build a campsite.

"I was part of a science boy scout camp one summer when I was five." Peter told her.

"And how well did THAT turn out?" She glared at her friend, crossing her arms to make herself serious.

"Uhhh…"

"Let me help before you blow something up, you klutz." Blake responded.

"It was a SMALL explosion." Peter assured her.

"Me and Ruby will get the firewood. Let's go, Rubes." Sonic said.

"Okay!" She excitedly responded. The two reckless speedsters used their speed to cut through dozens of the nearby trees, causing a small part of the forest to timber down on top of them.

"I think we have enough firewood." Robin said, hearing the embarrassed quicksters' sheepish chuckle.


A few minutes later…

The united group have managed to build a fire while everyone but Lissa, Weiss, and Frederick are eating animal meat they hunted. "Mmm-hmmm! Tasty! This stuff is better than the meat from Angel Island!" Knuckles said, taking another monstrous bite from his bear meat.

"Mmm…It's been too long since I last had bear meat. Delicious!" Chrom said, taking another bite from his dinner.

While she eats, Yang notices Lissa and Weiss haven't taken a single bite from their meal, "What's wrong, guys? Dig in before Knuckles finishes it all."

"He can have it! I'm not eating animal meat! That's disgusting! What if it's diseased? I don't want to get sick!" Weiss complained, throwing her food to the hungry echidna, making him really happy.

"This stuff smells like old boots! Wait, I take that back. Boots smell better!" Lissa said, kindly passing her food to the ever-joyful echidna.

"Ah, yeah! This is incredible!" He said, taking big bites from the girl's food, disgusting them that he has no manners.

"Every experience makes us stronger, miladies. Even those we don't enjoy." Frederick said to the stubborn maidens.

"Uh-huh? Then why aren't YOU eating, Frederick?" Weiss and Lissa glared at the nervous knight.

"Me? Oh, well…I'm not hungry. I…I had a large lunch! Yes, quite." He replied with a nervous chuckle and unconfident smile.

"Yeah right, Frederick!" Lissa said, immediately catching onto his lie.

"So the Chaos Emeralds, what are they again?" Chrom asked Spider-Man while they're eating.

"Oh, y'know, seven gems of unlimited power. Collect the whole set and the world can become your plaything." The hungry web-slinger nonchalantly gave a brief explanation of what the Chaos Emeralds are to Chrom.

"Is it wise to talk about ultimate power so casually?" Frederick asked.

"Yup." Sonic casually replied, finishing the last of his dinner.

"Sounds like something we have at home," Chrom said, knowing his kingdom possess a power that could rival the emeralds in its destructive capabilities. "We'll do everything in our power to help you re-collect them before they could fall in the wrong hands."

"Thanks, Chrom." Peter smiled, happy to have such wonderful allies.

BGM End


Later

BGM-Fire Emblem Awakening OST-Something is very wrong

After finishing their dinner and sharing some stories, the united heroes have all fallen asleep for the night. While they, Peter's spider-sense warns him of imminent danger, forcing him to wake up. "…Huh?" Spidey said, getting up.

"Peter? What's wrong?" Chrom whispered to the wall-crawler, with him and his sister, as well as Sonic and Ruby slowly waking up from their nap.

"Spider-Sense tingling?" Ruby asked with a serious tone.

Spidey nodded, "Big time. Don't know where though. It feels familiar…. I'm gonna take a look around and see what's up."

"I'll join you." Chrom said, standing beside his new friend.

"We'll come too." Sonic said, with Ruby and Lissa nodding in agreement.

Peter smiled behind the mask, "Heh. Thanks, guys."

BGM End

They all follow Spider-Man deeper in this dark forest, hearing nothing but their own footsteps. "It sure is dark…And quiet. Where did the birds go?" Lissa commented the absence of any noise in the area.

"Spidey, what's your spider-sense telling you?" Sonic asked their leader.

"Give me a second." Peter's mystic eyes glow once again so he senses the entire forest for any sort of danger lurking within the shadows or skies. 'What's this sensation I'm feeling? It's so unnatural.' He thought, sensing a mysterious force he's having trouble determining.

At that very moment, the entire earth starts to shake below them, almost keeling them over. "Aaah! Chrom!" Lissa shouted, holding onto his dear brother for safety.

"Gods, what-Argh! What is this madness?!" Chrom asked.

"I dunno, but stay close! Something's coming! I know it!" Spidey advised to his friends. Suddenly, an enormous earthquake hits the whole forest, collapsing several trees that are approaching the heroes. 'Oh no.' Peter thought, before turning to his friends. "Everyone! Run! Go!" He shouted, hurriedly grabbing onto Lissa to web swing her out of the collapsing forest, with Sonic, Chrom, and Ruby not far behind them.

"What's going on?!" Ruby shouted, noticing the ground splitting apart as lava floods the area and incoming fireballs burning more trees.

"We'll ask that later! Let's keep moving!" Spidey replied, avoiding the incoming fireballs from the sky as Lissa clenches tightly to his costume and buff chest.

As they run, Sonic notices a gap right next to them. "Hey! This way!" He gestures everyone to jump down the gap for safety. At a further distance, the heroes stop running to catch their breath, but that didn't last long as Spidey senses another great threat about to appear, just as Lissa notices it too.

"Guys, what IS that?!" Lissa directs them a weird portal opening up in the sky.

"That's the same portal that brought us here! What's it doing?!" Sonic asked.

From the giant hole in the sky, a couple zombie-like men creepily enter through the portal and fall down to the ground, greeting the heroes with their creepy glowing eyes. "Zombies? Where are they from?" Spidey asked as he sees them slowly approaching them with their axes and other weapons.

"Ruby, protect Lissa." Chrom orders the Huntress while drawing out his sword.

"Got it." Ruby nodded, holding onto her Crescent Rose so she could protect her new friend.

The male heroes prepare to fight these new enemies and rush towards them for an assault. "It's not all the time I fight zombies!" Sonic grinned, spinning through the chest of multiple zombie soldiers.

"I'll say! At least this way, I won't have to hold back!" Spidey responded, brutally knocking out the head of one zombie with a swift punch, throwing its body to another small group approaching him.

Chrom, as expected with the swordsman with no superhuman powers, is having the most trouble with his zombie. One of them starts to attack him, and Chrom strikes it down with his sword, but afterwards, to his shock, the undead solider quickly recovers, turning its head fully, and attack again. Chrom blocks another attack and kills it off with a stylish stab to its back, evaporating into smoke.

"AAAAHHH!" A familiar maiden screams in terror.

"Lissa!" Chrom turns to a zombie cornering the poor girl to a tree while Ruby is pre-occupied with a small swarm of these zombies.

"Somebody protect Lissa!" Ruby shouted, using her semblance to slice through some zombies at blitzing speeds.

"That was supposed to be your job!" Spidey retorted. Peter was about to go swing to Lissa's aid, but senses someone else coming out of the portal, a mysterious masked swordswielder with short blue hair jumps out of the portal, and in a quick second, blocks the zombie's attack from killing Lissa with his sword, struggling to maintain the block.

"Is he with you?" Spidey asked Chrom.

"I thought he was with you." The swordsman replied to the web-slinger.

The mystery swordsman grunts while trying to protect Lissa. "Help!" He shouted to anybody close enough.

"…Right!" Chrom responded with a war-cry, distracting the zombie long enough for him and the mystery man to stylishly cut the monster down to smoke.

"That was awesome! Not bad, dude." Sonic said to the new swordsman after he and Ruby finished off the remaining zombies.

"Yeah. You made quite the entrance. What's your name?" Chrom asked the new guy, who silently replies with a small head turn to him.

BGM End

Before they could their mysterious ally any further, they are interrupted when Spidey senses more trouble. "Guys, we can ask for his autograph later! There's more incoming!" The webhead said, directing them to more of those zombie men making a rampage across the forest, with one chief zombie leading the destruction.

"They don't give a guy a break, huh?" Sonic asked.

Right then and there, the other Avengers and Shepherds arrive on scene. "Ruby! Are you okay?" Yang asked, hugging her sister to the point of almost crushing her.

"Not if you keep hugging me like that…" Ruby gasped, prompting her big sister to let go of her.

"Milord! Milady! Are you hurt?" Frederick asked Chrom and Lissa about their safety.

"Guys!" Lissa said, so relieve to see her friends to their rescue.

"We got here as soon as the earthquakes hit!" Tails said.

"What are those things?" Blake pointed them to the zombies terrorizing the land.

"Are such horrific creatures commonplace in these lands?" Robin asked.

"They're not from Ylisse, I promise you that. Maybe one of your worlds?" Chrom asked the Avengers.

"We never saw zombies like these before." Weiss replied.

"No one is injured, then? Thank the gods…" Frederick said, relieved.

"Thank the masked guy that saved Lissa!" Ruby told them about the mystery swordsman that saved Lissa not long ago.

"Masked guy?" Tails questioned her.

"Yeah! If it wasn't for him, I'd be…Hey, where did he go?" Lissa asked as she notices her savior is long gone.

"Let's not worry about him. I can sense he can hold his own," Spidey told her, "Right now, let's take care of the enemy in front of us. I dunno where'd they from, but we have to stop them from escaping the forest. Avengers. Shepherds. Assemble!" He shouted, getting everyone ready for a good fight.

BGM-Fire Emblem Awakening OST-Assault (Galvanized)

The united heroes launch an impressive assault against these mysterious zombie creatures. The blond Avenger Yang unleashes a devastating uppercut to an axe-wielding zombie, launching him to the air for Frederick to pierce through with his impressive lance. Robin instructs Knuckles to throw a giant boulder at a row of zombies so he could electrify it with his thunder magic, smooshing the enemies while being constantly electrified.

"Hahaha! You zombies are way too slow!" Sonic taunted, sliding under an archer for Chrom to kill.

While Ruby and Blake are working together against the zombies, impressingly using their skills to the fullest, Spidey has another, crazier idea. "Watch out! Coming through! Spider holding giant tree! Be careful!" Spidey warned them, holding onto a giant tree using his new gravity-powered webbing to smack around the zombified army right off the field, then, by combining his gravity webbing with his ice webbing, the crazy webhead surrounds his fists with them and punches the ground so hard, a gravity-ice explosion hits the entire area, freezing all the zombies.

"Hehe. That was cool. Get it, get it?" Spidey asked, getting a laugh from Ruby and a face-palm from Blake.

Nearby, Tails shoots down a zombie with his arm cannon, while Weiss cuts down a few with her rapier. While they're fighting these small swarms of creatures, they are met with unexpected help, "Captain Chrom! Wait! I'm coming!"

"Huh?" Weiss and Tails turn to a red-headed woman on horseback approaching them.

"Agh, I knew I knew I shouldn'ta left 'em." She said, holding onto her bronze lance.

"Who are you?" Tails asked this newcomer.

"The name's Sully. Nice to meet ya," The cavalier introduces herself, "All right, you ash-faced freaks! Which one of ya wants to try my lance on for size first? I know just the spot for it: shoved right up your-."

"Hold, milady!" A male-sounding voice approaches them.

"Muh?" The three turn their heads to a blue-haired man holding a bow approaching them.

"Life may be long, but attraction is fleeting! Would you leave me in your sweet dust? Leave war to the warriors, dear bird! A beauty such as you need wage only love." He flirted with Sully.

"What is he talking about?" Weiss asked.

"I have no idea. Who the hell are you?!" Sully asked the archer.

"Ha! Is the lady intrigued? Of course you are—it's only natural. I am myth and legend! I am he who strides large across history's greatest stage! The man who puts the "arch" in "archer"! My name, dear lady, is Vi—."

"Sorry, Ruffles—no time for this. Onward!" Sully and the others hurry to the battlefield, leaving behind this new guy.

"Virion! ...Er, my name. It's Virion. W-wait! Where are you going? Pray, at least tell me your name!" New guy, Virion, shamefully introduced himself to the three.

"I'm Sully. ...And I'm a Shepherd." She introduced herself.

"My name is Weiss Schnee, and this guy is my friend, Tails." Weiss points to the two-tailed fox standing beside her.

"Hi. Nice to meet you." Tails happily greeted the archer.

"Yes, yes, that's precious," Virion said, not seeming to care about those kids, only interested in the red-headed beauty in front of him. ""Sully"! How divine! A starkly beautiful name, as befits its owner, truly. Will you marry me, my dearest Sully?"

"You just MET her?! Why marry someone you never met?!" Weiss asked him.

"I'll say. Is this a joke? It must be a joke. 'Cause when I put my boot through your face, that's the punch line." Sully said, threatening the archer, who doesn't seem all threatened.

"I realize my manly figure and noble bearing can be overwhelming. 'Tis common! So please, don't feel pressured to answer right a—."

"How's THIS for an answer?!" Sully kicked Virion in the chest, knocking him to the ground, getting Weiss and Tails to laugh at his expense.

"OOF! G-goodness, but those shapely legs certainly can kick, can't they... P-please, milady! Allow me to accompany you, at least! Mine is a cold, empty world without you. I shall be your most willing servant, and you, in turn, will give my life purpose…" Virion proposed.

"I say we take him. Having a long-ranged fighter could prove useful." Tails said, thinking they should invite Virion to help them out.

"You sure?" Weiss asked the Mobian fox.

Sully sighed, "Fine…Anything to shut you up…What? Stop staring at me like that!" Now with Sully and Virion part of the team, the heroes are almost done vanquishing the remaining enemy forces.

On the other side of the forest, the mysterious masked swordsman is fighting alone against a swarm of zombies, cleaning them up with a slick slash through a single crowd without hesitation, but seemed to have missed one that's about to crush him with its axe.

"Hey, ugly! Kiss my foot!" Spidey quipped, swing-kicking the zombie before he could seriously hurt the swordsman.

"Thanks." He replied to the Spider.

"No problem. You saved my friend's life. It's the least I could do." Peter said, standing back-to-back with his new ally while surrounded with more zombies. They both notice the zombie chief walking in front of its army, speaking to the heroes with a groggily voice, no distinct words they could understand as it all just sounds like noise. Spider-Man attempts a conversation with the chief by closely speaking in the exact same tongue, almost mocking him in some way.

"What are you doing?" The mystery swordsman asked the spider, confused of his strange ethics.

"Telling him we come in peace and that we should be friends." Spidey replied, only for that not to be the case as the mystery man forces Peter to duck from the chief's axe swing to the head. "Nope. I think I pissed him off."

"Ryaaaaargh!" It growled, commanding his men to attack the two. Quickly, Spider-Man summons his mystic purple aura, forming a giant, spiked right-hand fist with his webbing to plow through the zombies with one powerful punch.

"Impressive. How did you do that?" The masked swordsman asked the webhead.

"That? I just combined my super-awesome aura with my webbing. Watch this." Spidey uses that same technique to forms a glowing web sword and starts cutting the zombies down to size with stylish movements. With the help of his new ally, Spidey blocks an axe swing from the undead chief, kicking him in the chest. The masked man weakens the zombie with a clean sword slash. "TIMBERRR!" Spidey shouted, pulling a nearby tree down on top of the chief, defeating him and causing him to disappear in smoke.

BGM End

"Ah right! We won one! High five!" Spidey puts his palm up in the air for the masked swordsman to respond with his own palm but just stands there, leaving him hanging. "Not gonna give a spider a high-five? That's rude, y'know." He said, just as the rest of his friends from different worlds approach him.

"It seems all the creatures are vanquished. Spider-Man and this young man took care of the others." Frederick said as the silent swordsman stays silent.

"Um, I never got to thank you…for before. So…thank you. You were very brave." Lissa thanked her savior.

"You saved my sister's life. My name is Chrom. Might I ask yours?" Chrom kindly asked the man.

"You may call me Marth." He gave them his name.

"Whoa! Marth?! Seriously?! Long time no see! How you doing?" Sonic asked, recognizing this Marth character.

"Sonic, you know this guy?" Weiss asked the hedgehog.

"Know him? I kicked his BUTT during that universal tournament I told you about, remember?" Sonic responded.

"Right, with the plumber and the Pokemon. I can't believe those actually exist. Man, the multiverse is weird.' Peter thought those last few sentences in his head.

"You certainly fight like the heroic king of old. Where did you learn your way with a sword?" Chrom asked him.

"I'm not here to talk about me. This world teeters at the brink of a horrible calamity." Marth told them.

"Really? I would've never guessed from the large portal in the sky followed by the zombie apocalypse." Spidey joked.

"What you saw tonight was but a prelude. You have been warned, Spider-Man. You and your Other will be essential for the coming battles." Marth ominously warned the heroic-spider.

"Is that all you have to say?" Peter asked but doesn't get an answer as the masked swordsman silently walks away. "Okay. I guess that's all he has to say."

"Not much for conversation, is he?" Robin said.

"It appears his skills lie elsewhere. I wager we'll hear his name again... But for now I'm more concerned about the capital. We should make haste." Frederick said, prompting everyone to start walking towards the capital of the kingdom.

"It was nice to see Marth again, but I dunno, something about him seems different. I don't remember him wearing a mask when we last met." Sonic said, pondering Marth's strange appearance from out of nowhere.

'From my personal experience, wearing a mask means you have something to hide,' Spidey said in his thoughts, since he's all too familiar with masked-wearing heroes such as himself, 'So what does this Hero-King have to hide that he doesn't want anyone to know? And what is this horrible calamity he's talking about? I'm not going to like the answer to this, am I?' He asked himself as they continue walking through the forest as sunrise hits the skies.


BGM-Rockman. EXE Beast OST-Next Episode Preview

Sonic: I'm Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog. We've finally arrived at the capital and seems that everything's okay. The Exalt's not hurt, for starters, and everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. So what is this about Spidey being a legend all about anyways? Can we finally get a proper answer to that?

Next time on D-Avengers: The Fell Awakening:

Legends of the Hero-Spider

Sonic: You really do seem pretty famous here, Pete. Hehehe.