Issue 13: Timely Reunion
Houston, Texas, Inside the Suite Room of the Four Seasons Hotel
"I WANT TO COME," exclaimed a 15-year-old cheerful Mexican girl named María Aracely Penalba to the one and only former evil clone of Peter Parker, Kaine, also known as the Scarlet Spider. Ever since he came back to life, Kaine has, begrudgingly, settled down as Houston's very own protector, saving the city more times than anyone count. He also saved the mysterious Aracely and decided to protect her as well, if not she would've been deported back to Mexico where she would be vulnerable to "strange attackers" that want her dead. Now Kaine is packing his things for New York when he heard from his brother, who was worried that Morlun might come after him, but Aracely continues to annoy him, insisting she should tag along.
"We're a team! You NEED me! We SAVED each other! I fought werewolves! You're prone to death!" Aracely said.
"Aracely…" Kaine spoke when walking across his room
"I can do stuff! I can make people SCARED! I could make a costume," The rambling Mexican girl continues talking while Kaine silently packs his costume, "You can't leave me unattended! I'm really irresponsible! Except in whatever way I can help you! I'm a great travel companion! I think!"
"Aracely…"
"Come ON! You HAVE to let me go! I just…I just…I just…"
"Aracely!"
"I just REALLY want to go to New York, and I want to see Blake again!"
"Shut up! You're going!" Kaine said, as he was planning on bringing her for the ride anyways.
The Next Morning
Up on the tallest rooftop of Houston, Kaine and Aracely, both in their costumes, wait patiently to be picked up by Blake. "Why are you doing this to me?" Kaine asked his annoying sidekick about her new hooded blue-and-green costume with strange markings.
"What?" Aracely questioned his question.
"The costume." Kaine replied.
"It's great, right? In this, you can call me "Hummingbird." Aracely said, showing off her new costume.
"Whatever." Kaine replied, crossing his arms.
"Are you excited to see Blake again?" Aracely asked about their relationship.
"I guess." Kaine simply replied.
"Is it because you like her?"
"Sort of."
"Like, like her, like her?"
"No."
"I can sense you're lying."
"Stop reading my mind." Thankfully for Kaine, as he's tired of being interrogated any longer, he spots the D-Avengers' personal Quinjet, the Web Cyclone, approaching their location. The jet hovers above the rooftop their standing and slowly descends, revealing the cat Huntress herself as she walks out of the hanger stairs.
"Blake!" Aracely happily runs to hug her faunus friend, who gently accepts it.
"Hey, Aracely. Nice to see you." Blake smiled, then turning to Kaine, "Kaine." She simply greeted her troublesome mentee.
"Belladonna." Kaine replied.
"Been keeping out of trouble?" Blake asked with a playful smirk.
"Not until you called me. So what are we dealing with?" Kaine asked as they enter the jet.
"We'll inform you along the way." Blake replied.
"We?" Kaine wondered who she's referring, but just as he enters the cockpit of the jet, he groanly learns who.
"Hi, Kaine!" Spider-Man happily greeted his dear clone, wearing his "Spider-Lord" knight costume while piloting the jet.
Before they take lift off, Scarlet Spider silently starts to walk out, not wanting to deal with Parker's annoying attitude any longer than five seconds, but Blake nonchalantly grabs his hand, saying, "C'mon, Shy Spider," dragging him to his seat, much to his annoyance.
En Route to Manhattan
The Web Cyclone flew at hypersonic speeds over the seas as the heroes make their way to New York. On the way, Spidey and Blake has been filling Kaine up on everything that's been going on recently involving Morlun and the Ylisse-Plegia War.
"So let me see if I got this straight…" Kaine spoke after the long debriefing, "There's an immortal cosmic vampire-like hunter that's been eating Spider-Men for centuries, is now here and wants to eat us, and to a certain extension, Blake, and not only we have to avoid him, we also have to go back to that other dimension to find the remaining Chaos Emeralds before all hell breaks loose." He said.
"Yup." Peter casually replied like it didn't sound like a big deal.
"Cool!" Aracely responded.
"We've also detected an Exo Stone over there last night and need to retrieve that as well before another version of hell breaks loose." Blake mentioned to Kaine.
"Sound fun?" Spidey asked his brother.
"Hell no," replied Kaine, "But this does explain the recent nightmares I've been having lately. It felt like someone's been watching me outside the hotel. Stalking me throughout Houston. Waiting for the chance to strike me down." He said, remembering during one sleep he sensed someone was watching him from outside his room, which was really Morlun actually.
"Why ARE you in Houston? I thought you wanted to go to Mexico?" Spidey asked, remembering during their last adventure together Kaine wanted to go to Mexico.
"And I still do, but there have been a…change in plan." Kaine replied.
"Does it involve this girl?" Spidey points to Aracely, who gleefully flies to his side, spooking him to see her beside him.
"Hi! You can call me Aracely, and Kaine is my champion! I don't know who I am or how I got my powers but I was attacked by a fire salamander and Mexican werewolves, who work for The Coyote, who speaks to me in my dreams!" Aracely constantly spoke with a rapid tongue, much to the speechlessness of Spider-Man, who never imagined he would meet someone who talks as much as him. Completely confused what she's talking about, Peter silently turns to his brother for more constructive information.
"I saved her from some human traffickers and been keeping an eye on her or else she would be deported and vulnerable to those that's been trying to kill her. She also has telepathic powers." Kaine explained to Peter.
"Ah, that's sweet. You developed a sense of responsibility. No wondering you're protecting Houston. Now where's my $50?" Spidey requested.
"I'll give it to you later!" Kaine replied, adding to his annoyance is Blake's giggling from the back. "So are the rest of your team coming with us?" The clone asked when they arrived above Manhattan.
"Yup, with some old friends joining the adventure." Spidey answered as he lands the Cyclone inside the underground hanger below Avengers Mansion. As the four exit out of the ship, they are greeted by the rest of the D-Avengers, as well as Amy Rose and Shadow the Hedgehog from Mobius, and even Sun Wukong and Ilia Amitola from Remnant, the latter group Kaine seems to be in good relation with.
"Hey! Kaine! Long time no see!" Sonic waved at the Scarlet Spider as he approaches.
"Sup, bad boy. How's Blake's personal, one and only mentee doing?" Yang greeted the clone.
"Okay, I suppose." Kaine replied without sounding irritated or annoyed as the first time they met.
"Wow. Three words that didn't involve shouting. Blake really has you on a leash, doesn't she?" Yang teased Scarlet, angering him until Blake passed by and calmed him down.
"Kaine, stop." She commanded.
"Tch. Fine." Kaine grunted, walking past the smirking Yang. As he walks away, Hummingbird runs up to meet the other members of Team RWBY.
"Hi, my name is Aracely. What is your special powers? What can we do for fun? Do you like shopping? I like shopping. Hey, is anyone else hungry?" She constantly talked, much to the confused look of Team RWY, especially Weiss since she reminds her so much of Ruby but more annoying.
"Um…hi…" Ruby carefully responded to the Mexican telepath, "Kaine, where did you find her?"
"At a port!"
"Oh, okay."
Kaine sighed, then proceeds to resume his conversation with the outworldly faunus. "So why are you guys coming along?" He asked Sun and Ilia.
"We want to help, and we don't have anything else much to do." Sun scratched his head.
"You do know this Morlun guy will come after you if you come with us, right? It's best you stay here and out of trouble. Don't want to see you get hurt." Kaine said, genuinely caring about his friends' safety.
"Uh, Kaine, he's primarily after you and Spidey, remember? We're friends. We want to help. Besides, you miss us." Ilia said, implying Kaine has interacted with these faunus during his time in Houston.
"No, I don't."
"Not even me?" Ilia formed a sly smirk on her muzzle.
"Nope, but if you want to come, fine. Just don't do anything stupid." Kaine said before walking away.
Nearby, Spidey and Shadow are having a conversation of their own. "So Shadow, why you'd decided to tag along?" Peter asked the ultimate hedgehog.
"Heard you fought Grimadoom at that other world and wanted to take him out myself." Shadow explained in a stoic tone.
"Understandable, and I don't think I need to ask Amy why she's here." Spidey said, turning to Amy flirtatiously standing next to her "boyfriend," much to Sonic's nervousness. Seeing that everyone is here and accounted for, Spider-Man gets them prepped up for departure. "Alright everyone, if we're all ready to go, let's head out! You'll love this place!" He promised.
"Just don't drag us to any wars." Kaine said.
"I'll try." Pete said, opening up a wormhole to Chrom's world, but for some reason, his spider-sense warns him to something odd about the portal. 'That's odd. Spider-Sense is telling me the portal's unstable, but I'm not scanning anything wrong with it. Probably warning me that Chrom smashed another wall during training. I'm sure it's nothing.' Peter ignored his spider-sense and stepped in, with his united friends joining him a second after.
Ylisse, Ylisstol
The united, inter-dimensional heroes safely walk out of the portal that teleported them outside the capital city of Ylisse. "Heh-hey, we're back. It felt like years since we've left." Spidey said, observing his surroundings.
"But it's only been one day." Ruby told him.
"That's why I said "felt." Peter replied, leading his friends into the city. The friends who weren't here the first time are certainly enjoying themselves to see how different this world is compared to theirs, enjoying the free food samples and the kindness of the civilians.
"Wow. This place is incredible. I've never seen anything like it." Amy said, walking past some town maidens trying out different clothing.
"Oh wow! Cool! Guys in wearing knight armor! This is so awesome!" Sun said, passing by a group of highly trained knights.
"And the food here is delicious!" Aracely said with her mouth full of food samples, which serves to make her even more hungry.
"It looks like everything has been fully rebuilt after the war." Tails observed his surroundings, noting that everything and everyone is fully alive and well.
"In just a day? Ylisse took quite a beating. Even with Ferox's help, I don't think it was possible to rebuild everything in such a short amount of time." Weiss pondered.
"Something does seem a bit off. Are you sure we're in the right world?" Sonic asked Pete.
Right across from the pondering Avengers, Lissa, Robin, who has been recently promoted to Grandmaster class, and Nowi were in the middle of a funny conversation about Lissa scaring Robin with a frog, until they are surprised to have spotted their inter-dimensional friends.
"Hey, isn't that…" Robin starts speaking as he notices his old friends approaching.
"Spider-Man! Ruby!" Lissa shouted, which was loud enough for them to hear and figure out their location.
Ruby gasped happily to see her new friend once again. "Lissa!" She said.
Lissa happily runs up to embrace with her friend. "I've missed you! Finally! Things were getting pretty dull around here." She said with the both of them laughing.
"Hey, guys!" Nowi waved at the Avengers, running along with Robin to greet them properly.
"Hey, you two. It's nice to see you again. Robin. It seems you've been promoted to Grandmaster. Awesome, man." Spidey gave the friendly tactician a proud brofist.
"Thanks, Spidey," Robin smiled, turning his face to the Kaine and the other newcomers joining them. "So, are these more of your friends?" He asked the webhead.
"Yup. They wanted to check this place out. I'm sure you've already recognized my brother." Peter directs his thumb back to Kaine.
"Nice to meet you. Kaine, was it? My name is Robin." Robin reach out his right hand for Kaine to shake, but the clone seems to refuse his friendly gesture and ignores him.
"I don't like you." Scarlet simply responded, confusing Robin.
"Uh, rude. Is he seriously your brother?" Lissa asked the friendlier spider of the two.
"Don't mind him. That's how he greets people." Peter joked.
"To MOST people, but something about this guy…I just don't like." Kaine said, despite possessing no spider-sense, senses something inside of Robin he's not too friendly with.
"I can assure you, Kaine, I'm no bad guy if that's what you're thinking." Robin said.
"I hope you're not, or else I'm showing no mercy." Kaine threatened the tactician.
"So how's Chrom handling being an Exalt?" Sonic asked to change the topic to something less grim and threatening.
"What's an Exalt?" Sun asked.
"Pretty much the king." Knuckles answered.
"Oh, okay."
Robin chuckled, "He's doing fine. We've managed to successfully rebuild the halidom after the war. Now everyone's enjoying a time of peace. We can take you to meet him right now."
"Sweet!" Amy responded.
"He's going to be so ecstatic to see you all again. It's been two years since we've been together." Lissa said, having no idea the words she just spoke out of her mouth confused the ever-living shock out of the D-Avengers.
"H-Hold on a second! Two years?!" Yang asked with a slight hint of surprise covering her voice.
"Yeah. What took you so long? You said you'd visit the next day. We waited and waited but you never showed up. We thought you got eaten by that Galactus person I was told about." Nowi answered, puffing her cheeks.
"But we ARE visiting the next day! What's goin' on?!" Spidey asked.
"Maybe there was a small hiccup in space-time that sent us two years in the future." Shadow guessed.
"Really?" Aracely said.
"Parker, what did you do?" Kaine asked his brother.
"Why're you always blaming me for this stuff?" Peter replied, even though he sensed something was wrong with the portal but chose to ignore it.
"Do you want me to start?" Kaine asked, planning on listing off all of Peter's past mistakes since he does possess his memories.
"No, no, that's okay," Peter shrugged in response, "Just be glad it wasn't 10 years in the future. I hear it's not nice there. Hehe." He joked, having no idea he's not far from the truth as the group heads for Ylisse Castle.
Ylisse Castle
BGM-Fire Emblem Awakening OST-"It appears the capital was spared the chaos"
While in the amidst of a conversation with Frederick, Exalt Chrom, wearing the appropriate robed attire that fits the ruler of Ylisse, was approached by one of his soldiers, ending his conversation with the Wary Knight.
"Sire, a messenger from Regna Ferox." The soldier spoke to his prince.
"See them in at once." Chrom responded.
"Yes, milord." The soldier exits so he could allow an old friend of his, Raimi inside the throne room.
"Prince Chrom, I come on behalf of Khan Regnant Flavia." Raimi told the exalt.
"Flavia? Well, this is a surprise. Is something amiss?" Chrom asked.
"I fear so, milord. The khan requests your presence at a summit as soon as you're able." Raimi said.
"What's happened?" Chrom wondered.
"Our western neighbors of Valm are no longer acting so neighborly. The emperor, who they name the Conqueror, has launched warships against us." Raimi revealed.
"An invasion? Are you certain of this?" Chrom questioned.
"Yes, milord. The khan hopes to meet with you in Ferox, if it please you." Raimi said.
"What do you make of this, sire?" Frederick questioned his prince.
"Ill business to be sure. Raimi, we will meet with Flavia at once…" Chrom said, with Raimi responding with a bow before leaving the premise, passing by the returning Avengers who have just walked in, surprising her and Chrom.
"Sir Spider-Man! It is an honor to greet you once again!" Raimi bowed down to the returning Hero-Spider of Legend.
"She actually called you "sir?" Kaine questioned his brother.
"Awesome, right? I'm apparently an old legend here." Spidey replied.
"Who's bright idea was to make you a legend?" Kaine asked.
"Heh. Late as always, aren't you, Spidey?" Chrom smiled, happy to see his outworldly friends after two years in his world.
"What can I say. We lost track of time." Spidey punned, rightfully earning a groan from the more serious party members of the group.
Chrom lightly chuckled, finding the pun somewhat humorous. "Your jokes are as ageless as ever. It is good to see you all again, and I'm happy you're here at this moment. I have a meeting with Flavia about some warships approaching from Valm and I hope you could join me."
"Why are they sending warships?" Tails asked.
"We don't know for certain, but we're going to find out." Frederick answered.
"I'm sure it's nothing we can't handle. Anyway, where's Sumia? You guys "get it on" and have a kid yet?" Yang asked, making Chrom a little nervous.
"I'm here. Welcome back, everyone." Sumia walks in with her newly-born, blue-haired daughter cuddling in her arms.
The Avengers and friends gasped when they saw the cute little baby. "She's adorable! What's her name?" Amy asked the mother.
"Lucina." Sumia happily responded. Everyone except for Scarlet and Shadow run up to greet the baby, who's very happy to see them as evident with her adorable laughter.
"Aren't you the cutest! Let me hold her." Ruby requested from Sumia, gently holding the child in her arms before passing her onto the rest of her friends.
"Congratulations, Chrom." Sonic said to the proud dad.
"You two definitely deserved this after everything you've been through. I'm sure your sister would be proud." Spidey genuinely said, giving Chrom a firm handshake.
"Thank you, Peter." Chrom replied.
The two sympathetic warriors turn back to the lovely commotion involving the baby, with everyone making a funny face to get the kid to laugh. "Hehehe. This is fun. Kaine. Shadow. Do you want to make the kid laugh?" Weiss turned to the anti-social experiments.
"No!" They responded.
"You two have no hearts. How 'bout you, Pete?" Weiss asked her friendly spider-friend.
"Alright. I'll give it a shot." Peter gently holds onto Lucina, but as he brings her closer to his spider symbol on the chest, she starts crying. "I don't think your daughter likes spiders!" He said while trying to calm her down.
"Or she's aware of your bad jokes." Sumia told him.
"That's not true!" Spidey said, only for the baby to laugh, making everyone else laugh that it is true and causing him to groan in defeat. Peter takes another look at the baby and notices the Brand of the Exalt in her left eye. 'It's the Brand of the Exalt. The blood of Naga flows through her veins as well…' For some reason, though, there's something about this child that feels reminiscent to Peter, 'It's weird. I feel like I've met this child before. Those eyes and the hair, and the face…Where have I seen her before…' He thinks back to a certain warrior he met recently, the young woman that went by the name, Marth. Slowly, but surely, Peter starts to connect the dots between her and this baby Lucina he's holding. 'Wait…could she be…'
While Peter was in deep thought, Sumia walks up to kindly take her baby out of his arms. "Sumia, are you coming with us to Ferox?" Ruby asked the wife of Ylisse if she's going to attend with them.
"Of course. It would be amazing to work with you of all again." Sumia smiled.
Chrom, understandably, immediately rejects her idea to accompany them. "B-But Lucina is newly born! She needs her mother now." He argued.
"Can she not be wet-nursed as you and Lissa were? That is House Ylisse's tradition, is it not? Lucina is a strong child; she takes after her father. The Brand in her left eye is not your only gift to her." Sumia calmly argued back.
"I'm worried about more than our child. ...I'm worried about you." Chrom said.
"That's sweet. But I'm still coming." Sumia responded with a stern tone.
Chrom sighed, knowing he stands no chance against a woman, especially his wife "...I know better than to argue once your mind is made."
"Wow, Sumia really has you trained well! Whh-kssssh!" Lissa teased her big bro, getting everyone to laugh, much to the displeasure of Chrom.
"Lissa, you're not helping. Just promise me you'll return at the first sign of danger, Sumia. Lissa and I had Emm of course, but we lost our parents when we were young. I want Lucina to grow up with her whole family around her." Chrom said.
"I'll be careful. I promise." Sumia said.
"I will ride ahead and assemble an escort, milord." Frederick said.
"Thank you, Frederick." Chrom responded.
"I'm quite impressed, Chrom. You make a fine ruler. You've come a long way from tending sheep!" Robin complimented with a smile.
"You tend sheep?" Kaine asked with confusion, not knowing if Robin was joking or was being serious.
"Ha! Have I truly changed so much?" Chrom asked, ignoring Kaine's question.
"Nah. You're still a klutz. And a bit naïve." Spidey insulted.
"And what makes you, jokester?" Chrom sternly asked the warrior spider, unamused by his little insult.
"Same thing as you: a leader, but for you exclusively, a father." Spidey said, implying that he and Chrom aren't so different from one another.
Chrom smiled after understanding what he truly meant, "I've tried to do my best. My sister left a weighty legacy. I do all I can just to live up to it."
BGM End
Castle Ferox
Khan Flavia waits patiently for Chrom and his Shepherds to arrive to discuss the matters with Valm. As she starts to get bored of waiting, she was jump-scared back to see Chrom, recently promoted to Great Lord, Robin, Spider-Man, and Shadow appear from out of nowhere using Chaos Control, Shadow's specialty to travel far distances, especially when he's in hold of a Chaos Emerald.
"What the-?!" Flavia is startled by their sudden teleporting act.
"Hey, Flavia. Thought we decided to take the FastTrack." Spidey joked while Chrom and Robin feel a bit squeamish since they are not used to traveling through space-time.
"You never cease to surprise me, Spider-Man. Great to see you again." Flavia chuckled.
"I apologize I could not come sooner, Flavia." Chrom said after recovering his strength.
"What matters is you are here, Chrom." Flavia replied.
"Is it true these "Valmese" are sailing warships towards here? What can you tell us?" Shadow asked the West-Khan.
"Not much more than that, I'm afraid. The details remain hazy. Just a moment... Oaf! ...Where are you, you big, bald—Chrom and the Webhead is here!" Flavia shouted to hurry the lazy khan into the throne room.
"Ah! Spider-Man. Chrom. I knew you'd come. We have someone you should hear from. I believe you've met? He claims to have insight into Valm's intentions." Basilio gestures an old archer friend of the Shepherds, who is accompanied by his beautiful servant.
"Hey, you're the Fake Hawkeye, right? Vivi?" Spidey recognized the blue-haired pretty boy.
"It's Virion, Web-Spider." Virion annoyingly corrected the Spider.
"That's sweet, Verizon. Who's your lovely assistant?" Spidey asked when he turned to the pretty lady beside the archer.
"I am his humble servant, Cherche. Greetings, sire and spider. You honor us with your presence." Cherche kindly bows to her lords.
"A pleasure, Cherche. Perhaps you could speak on your master's behalf?" Chrom asked as he rather listen to someone that doesn't continuously boast his own ego.
"That may speed things along, yes..." Cherche said.
"So whaddya have for us?" Spidey asked.
"First, concerning our origins…We hail from Rosanne, a fertile territory on the continent of Valm. Milord is the head of House Virion, and the rightful ruler of Rosanne. A fact he often reminds us of—and loudly." Cherche explained.
"Ha! Is she not a true wit? She gets it all from me, you know." Virion boasted, much to the rolling eyes of everyone in the room.
"So what brings a noble and his charge all the way across the sea?" Shadow asked.
"The Valmese," Virion answered, "Theirs was an unremarkable nation once. Tiny, almost pitifully so. Had our continent not shared its name, you might almost have forgotten it existed. And so Valm might have remained, if not for Walhart the Conqueror. One by one, he has taken the surrounding realms into his growing empire. I had no choice but to ru... Er, that is, to RECRUIT new allies to aid my people. That's why I've come." He finished, nervously.
"You ran away!" Spidey laughed loudly, making Cherche chuckle as well, much to the embarrassment of Virion.
"How would you react if you're being chased by killer robots that are shaped like eggs and octopi?!" The embarrassed Duke asked, immediately getting Peter to shut up when he mentioned robots that remind him of someone else.
"Hold on! Robots that look like eggs and octopi? That must mean Eggman and Octavius." Shadow said.
"And the rest of the Masters of Evil, I presume." Spidey added.
"The who?" Basilio asked, having the slightest clue what they're talking about.
"I remember you once told me about them. Villains from your worlds working together with this "Dr. Doom" character, right?" Chrom said.
"Yeah. I'm assuming Grimadoom told them about the Chaos Emeralds and are here to collect the rest, and possibly the Exo Stone hidden here. How long have they been here?" Spidey asked Cherche.
"About a month ago from my understanding. The ones you call "Eggman and Octavius" have allied themselves with Emperor Walhart, combining their resources to form an unstoppable army." Cherche answered.
"A month before us, huh? Guess they must've experienced the same glitch in space-time. Wonder what's the cause of that?" Shadow pondered to himself, trying to figure out why the time-space of this world is acting a little unstable.
"We'll figure it out later. Anyways, continue milady." Chrom gestured Cherche to continue explaining her story on Valm.
"Right. While milord hastily gathered his valuables and guided his people to safety... I alone remained to keep an eye on the Valmese crisis. I was there as Rosanne was swallowed up by Emperor Walhart's overwhelming forces. In the end, I, too, fled here to Regna Ferox seeking asylum." Cherche explained.
"To my great relief, I might add! Eligible women are one of Rosanne's most precious natural resources! It would be a shame to waste any, even one who cuts off her lord and ma—." Virion babbled again until he was interrupted by his servant's fake laughter.
"As I was saying…" She said.
"Yes, yes, all right, it was only a jape! Please, by all means, you may con—."
"So, begging your pardons, but perhaps it is time to cut this long story short: Walhart and his new allies has conquered our continent and now seeks to conquer yours." Cherche finished for her dear milord.
"She claims the Valmese fleet will be at our shores tomorrow. We'll know soon enough if her story proves true." Basilio said.
"I speak only what I know for true, good people. As does my lord. ...At least, with respect to this matter." Cherche smiled.
"There's that wit of yours again! Aha! That wonderful...needling, chafing wit." Virion complimented.
"I believe you both. Basilio, we must secure your ports as soon as possible." Chrom ordered.
"You should know that Valm has the strongest cavalry in the world. You will want to station troops with experience fighting mounted troops." Virion suggested.
"Thanks for volunteering, buddy." Spidey said to the archer, much to his shock.
The Next Day at Port Ferox
As predicted, a whole fleet of high-tech Valmese warships have started to invade Port Ferox with armies filled with cybernetically-enhanced Valmese thanks to Dr. Eggman and Dr. Octopus, increasing their power and strength 10x. In addition, they are accompanied by the standard badnik horde and octobots, with orders to destroy everything and everyone in sight, bringing ruin to the whole town.
On a nearby ship, the primary commander of this fleet, Dalton is threatening a common villager. "You dare board our ship, worm? I'll not discuss terms with a peasant; I will issue demands to all! Citizens! Soldiers! Hear my words! The Conqueror himself, Emperor Walhart, claims dominion over these lands! You will grant your new emperor your ships! You will grant him all your provender! You will grant him your loyalty and your every possession! And you will surrender this land's greatest treasure, the Fire Emblem, as well as those Chaos Emeralds! Do this, and your lives will be spared. Resist, and your lives are forfeit! Now, kneel! And swear fealty to the mighty Valmese Empire!" He demanded the whole town to surrender.
"B-but if you take all that we have, how are we to make our living? Without food and ships, people will starve! Would you have us all die?" The villager nervously asked the malicious captain.
"…You'll do for now." Dalton raises his spear to kill the villager, but someone pulls it out of his hand with his webbing. "What the-?!" Before he could turn his head, he is punched in the face by the ruthless Scarlet Spider, who has come to save this poor villager.
"Y-You're the Spider-Man!" The man said.
"I'm not Spider-Man! I'm the Scarlet Spider! Now, c'mon!" Scarlet hurriedly grabs hold of the villager and web swings out of there before enemy soldiers turn fire to him. After letting the Ylissean Army distract the enhanced Valmese, Kaine takes the man to a safe zone before he could reunite with the Shepherds and Avengers.
"Nice going, Scarlet Spider," Chrom complimented the clone hero, "These savages will never listen to reason. Everyone: Prepare to engage!"
"But, wouldn't that bring another war?" Ilia worriedly asked the prince.
"I've had time to ponder Ylisse's place in the world, Ilia. ...And my own. We must stand against evil, in all its forms, or there can be no peace!" Chrom said.
"Woohoo! Now we're talking! Bring it on!" Sonic smirked confidently as they all head for battle.
BGM-Shadow the Hedgehog OST-Westopolis
Despite facing overwhelming odds they greatly underestimated, the united warriors still put quite an amazing resistance, mostly thanks to the highly skilled and powerful superhumans that are toppling the Valmese like they are nothing.
"Remember what I taught you!" Scarlet said to Sun in the amidst of fighting cyborg Valmese.
"Right!" Sun responded. The monkey-skilled faunus takes advantage of his agility to strike down multiple Valmese with his staff, spinning it around to deflect bullet fire from incoming Egg Pawns which Kaine effortlessly stab with his stingers.
"Hold on!" Donnel, a new member that joined the Shepherds about two years ago, shortly after the Avengers left, stabbed an unsuspecting octobot that was approaching Kaine with his lance.
"Thanks." Kaine responded to the kid.
"No problem." The Shepherd with the southern-farmer accent smiled before they are forced to take cover from more Valmese and Octobots.
Nearby, Amy angrily smashes a few bots with her hammer, unintentionally scaring the cyborg Valmese near her. "You want some?! Come and get some!" Amy gestured them to fight her, only to be surprised when they run away. Despite them being cowards, they are still a threat, so Amy slams a couple of large crates right at them, knocking them to the ocean.
"Chaos Spear!" Shadow fired bolts of chaos energy, stunning the fools that stood in his way so Ilia, Cherche, and newcomer Anna could dispose of them easily.
"Nice work, Sir Shadow." Cherche praised the black hedgehog before they are bombarded by missing gun fire from Egg Pawns.
"We're not done yet! Take them out! Now!" Shadow commanded.
"Only if I make a buck!" Anna quipped, cutting through the robot army with her steel sword.
The battle between the Valmese still goes strong. It's almost impossible to know when the chaos will end. Spidey web-pulls some Valmese underneath a steel crate above them, triggering Chrom to throw his sacred sword to cut the rope and topple over the goons, but thanks to their cybernetics, they were easily able to break free with a powerful shout.
"Wasn't expecting Valmese soldiers to be so strong." Chrom commented, striking at one with his blade.
"These guys have been cybernetically enhanced, no thanks to Ock and Egghead's handiwork." Spidey mentioned, webbing up the small fry, and with one loud battle cry, he vaults them over his head, slamming them to the ground hard, but before he could find another buddy to beat on, his Spider-Sense warns to him to a punch from Dalton, which was strong enough to plow him through a couple steel crates.
"You are nothing! A speck of sand on the boot of the great empire!" Dalton taunted. The Valmese captain turns his attention to Chrom, who looks ready to fight him to the death, but that opportunity turned to Hummingbird, who descended from the air to personally fight against Dalton on her own.
"Hummingbird! Stand down!" Chrom ordered Aracely, but it would seem she's confident in handling her own.
"Hehe. Ready to die, kid?" Dalton taunted the Mexican telepath.
"You're scared. I can feel it. It's okay for you to be scared." She said with a blank face, using her telepathic powers to manipulate his emotions.
The now frightened Dalton slowly backs away from Hummingbird, incredibly scared what to do now. "I'm not…I'm…G-Get away from me! Get away from me! By the gods, get away from me!" He runs for his life, screaming scared, with Chrom and a returning Spider-Man trying to figure out what just happened.
"…What…did you just do?" Chrom carefully asked Hummingbird.
"I made him scared! Awesome, right?" Aracely asked, acting incredibly cheerful again.
"I…think so…What are you again?" Spidey asked, wondering more than ever what kind of person Aracely really is.
"I don't know." Aracely nonchalantly replied.
"Are you some sort of demi-god?" Chrom asked, mildly joking when saying that.
"Hmmm, I think so." Aracely smiled, making things even more confusing than ever for these confused warriors.
BGM End
Few minutes later, the Ylisseans managed to quell the danger at the port, but at the cost of many lives. "Chrom, is that all of them?" Robin asked his friend.
"Yes, but victory's come with a price…" Chrom sadly replied.
"The town is in shambles, as is my army." Basilio informed them.
"This is most troubling news. Feroxi soldiers are the finest east of the long sea. If they are having trouble, we are ALL in trouble." Frederick said.
"Even with us, we still had trouble. This is gonna be a problem indeed." Spidey said, referring to how even super-powered warriors like the D-Avengers still had trouble taking down Valm's incredible forces.
BGM-Sonic Riders OST-Eggman Again!
Then, while everyone was in the middle of discussion, a sudden pop-up holographic screen is projected to the skies from a destroyed egg pawn, depicting a laughing Dr. Eggman for everyone to see. "EGGMAN!" The surprised D-Avengers said simultaneously to see their old egg-shaped foe once again.
"Eggman?!" Chrom repeated, now meeting the maniacal doctor from another world for the first time.
'Well, well, isn't this a surprise. It's been a while, hasn't it, Avengers? I was wondering when we'd meet again.' Eggman maniacally grinned to his enemies.
"Eggman, look what you've done! This town and many lives have been lost because of you!" Sonic said to his arch-enemy.
'It would seem no matter which dimension I visit; no one ever appreciates my work,' Eggman continued to grin sinisterly, 'As I'm sure you fools have figured out by now, the Eggman Empire has joined forces with the Valmese Empire. Together, we have conquered Valm and plan to conquer Ylisse next. What you've just experienced was only a taste of our power. Octavius is already headed this way with a new fleet of warships. In a matter of weeks, the whole country will be ours to control, then the world.'
"That's never going to happen, villain!" Chrom said to the mad doctor.
'Ah, so you're Prince Chrom. It's always a pleasure to meet royalty.' Eggman smirked.
"What's the Masters of Evil's plan this time, doc?" Spidey asked.
'What else? To gather ultimate power to take over the world. Hand over the Chaos Emeralds you've collected, as well as that Fire Emblem I've been hearing so much about.' Eggman demanded.
"You didn't say please?" Yang joked.
'Hmph. If that's the case, we'll just have to collect them from your dead corpses. The future is ours! You don't even know it yet!' Eggman let out his daunting Santa Claus laugh before turning off communications.
BGM End
"Was that guy for real?" Basilio asked, not seeing how Eggman could really pose much of a threat.
"Trust us. That guy's a pain in everyone's butt, no matter the world." Knuckles responded.
"Hate to say it, but we have no way to repel them. We'd be slaughtered. Can't think of any way to handle an attack from the sea…" Chrom pondered before turning his focus to Robin for advice. "Robin, what do you suggest?"
"Hmm... Their greatest strength is their cavalry, which puts us at a disadvantage... on land. But if we were to catch them at SEA..." Robin said.
"Do you guys even OWN warships?" Sun asked them.
"Unfortunately not, neither does Ferox." Chrom replied.
"Tails. Spidey. You two are smart. Build us an army of ships." Lissa requested the genius mechanics.
"One ship? Yeah, no problem. Could be done in a day. Hundreds of them? Nuh-uh. That'll take forever, and we don't HAVE forever." Spidey answered.
"And it's risky using Chaos Control to teleport an entire army to unknown enemy territory, especially when another fleet is heading this way." Shadow gave his thoughts and ideas.
"So we'd need aid from a kingdom that does..." Basilio starts pondering some ideas in his head that might help them.
"You have someplace in mind, oaf?" Flavia asked.
"Perhaps a land that borders the sea, with enough wealth to afford this campaign?" Basilio said.
Tails gasped after figuring out the only place on this world that might have the resources they need. "Plegia!" The two-tailed fox exclaimed.
"Bingo, kid." Basilio praised the little genius, but predictably from Chrom, he immediately rejects the idea.
"No. Absolutely not. Out of the question." Chrom quickly dismissed the thought of even requesting help from the country that put his kingdom through hell during the last war.
"What's the deal with him?" Kaine asked.
"Plegia killed his sister." Blake answered.
"That sucks." Kaine nonchalantly replied.
"Chrom, I know this is a terrible plan, most of them are, but from what I've heard they have A LOT of ships." Spidey said to convince Chrom to reconsider.
"And gold! More importantly, we have a fart's chance in the wind without them." Basilio added.
"The oaf is right. ...Crude, but right. There's only one path forward." Flavia said.
"Don't let the past blind your judgement, Chrom. Some of our angsty guys knows what THAT'S like." Sonic slyly points to Shadow and Kaine, who glare at the hedgehog with annoyance.
After putting in some thought, Chrom reconsiders his options. "... ...Very well. Send a messenger and request a summit immediately. Let us pray this new king is more reasonable than their last."
"Indeed." Robin said.
"You know, Robin... For your first time against Valmese forces, that was an impressive victory. You and Chrom have both grown quite adept. You should be proud." Flavia praised the tactician.
"Especially when they were enhanced and accompanied by powerful mechs. You Ylisseans AREN'T so weak, after all." Shadow complimented the Shepherds, even forming a small smile to signify he means what he means.
As time pass, the united heroes work together to repair Port Ferox until they heard from Plegia. Thankfully, it took no time at all, as Frederick has returned with some good news. "Milord, we have word from Plegia. They have agreed to meet with us at their outpost on Carrion Isle. A poor venue should things go sour, as the island's name makes plain. But then I don't see we have much of a choice."
"Cautious as ever, Frederick the Wary. Don't worry. We'll get our ships. This threat hands over all of us—Plegia as well. They must see that," said Chrom, "Spider-Man! You and Tails start constructing our capital ship! The rest of us will head to Carrion Isle!" He ordered as everyone leaves for Plegia.
"Good luck. Hope nothing bad happens there. Oh, who am I kidding? There's ALWAYS something bad happening, and I can sense it even from here." Spidey ominously said, having a wicked feeling the meeting with Plegia is already going south.
BGM-Rockman. EXE Beast OST-Next Episode Preview
Spider-Man: Sup. It's your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. As obviously expected, things don't go as plan when we met up with Plegia's new ruler, Validar. This guy's giving me the creeps, him and his Risen Army. What?! Morlun again?! I don't have time for this! Kaine, we're gonna have to work together on this one! With me?!
Next time on D-Avengers: The Fell Awakening:
Oh Sacred Rivals
Spider-Man: This guy is becoming more annoying than irritating!
KFX Here: Kaine's back, along with returning faces. So I'm sure some of you are wondering what Kaine's been up to since Spider-Island DX, so let me list it down:
For the majority, Kaine has been, more or less, following the exact same adventures as he did in his solo 2012 comic series, Scarlet Spider Vol 2
During his time in Houston, he's tangled with Cinder's crew
Had an adventure with Shadow and Raven Branwen
Had multiple anger management sessions with Blake
Visited Menagerie once along with Blake, "begrudgingly" befriended Sun and Ilia
And last but not least, unintentionally had a run-in with Adam Taurus and beat the ever-living crap out of him
I have no plans ever writing a spin-off series about these adventures, but if anyone's interested, go right write them yourself. Gonna need my permission first.
