Disclaimer: Spider-Man and other Marvel-related content belong to Disney Marvel Entertainment. Any other content that includes OCs or plot points belongs to me.
Chapter 38: The Grand Scheme of Everything Part 3
A minute and 30 seconds is all the time they must get to the first evacuation location, or else they'll miss the deadline or run into symbiotes. At the same time, innocent bystanders get caught in the mix-up. Peter swung fast and hard; not too far behind him were Spinneret, Silk, Spider-Cat, and Teresa alongside Firestar, flying with them. They said no word to each other as they followed their unofficial 'leader.' The plan was straightforward when Peter debriefed them back at the tower; they were going to stay together and watch each other backs covering them from any potential symbiote attacks. Also, they were going to follow the tracker to find the evacuation points to help SHIELD get as many civilians into the aircraft as possible.
Black Widow said evacuees would need help on the rooftop, but for some reason, the tracker was leading them to a location on the ground. They realized the damage the hurricane caused and the debris on the streets with cracked buildings. Helping people where rescue personnel could not also be another daunting task, but one thing at a time. They travel a few more minutes before landing in Gramercy Park. From their viewpoint, they can see the survivors are hidden within makeshift barriers while a few trees are knocked to the ground.
Noticing the shelter of a metal barricade, they see a group of people looking in every direction, ensuring that they aren't ambushed by the symbiotes. Spider-Man quickly surveys the ground making up a plan as he hears overhead, "This is S.H.I.E.L.D APC 019; we see you and the rest of your squad Spidey down there. Protect those civilians as we try to land, then we'll work together to get them to safety."
Turning back to his companions, he gives direct orders, "Alright ladies, this is it! Here's how we will do this, Spinneret; you are with Spider-Cat you two get the east and west entrance to the park, Silk to the north of that fountain, and Teresa…you know what, I can't call you by your real name anymore."
"And why not?" Teresa places her hands on her hips, "What's wrong with using my real name?"
"First rule of the superhero business is keeping an alter ego. It keeps your identity hidden from enemies and the general public to protect oneself from legal ramifications, pressure, or public scrutiny and protect friends and loved ones from harm secondary to their actions as superheroes." Spidey explained, "Thus, your new codename is Spider-Velvet…."
Teresa did a double take; "You know what? We'll discuss this hero identity later, more in private. And I'm not going to be called Spider-Velvet either!"
Spider-Man says, "Alright then, it's up for debate, but you get the south side." To Firestar, he says, "Firestar, you will be doing an ariel assault; make sure you burn any symbiotes that may want to take away civilians or get too close."
"You got it, Spidey!" The mutant girl gives a salute before taking off.
"Same thing with you girls. Make sure no symbiotes get passed you, but I know it's easier said than done." They set up a parameter observing the area with the plan in motion. Spider-Man goes to the barricade and knocks on it, "Hello, your friendly neighborhood rescuer is here to bring you, people, to safety." He opened the barrier and was met with a tomato to the face, "They love me; they really love me."
"Get out of here, menace!" One civilian says.
"I rather take my chances with the symbiotes than trust you."
'If I had a dollar for every person who threw garbage at me, I would be a rich man.' Spider-Man sighs heavily. This was Jameson's fault, to begin with; if it wasn't for him, Peter knows the city would love him more.
"Okay, that's enough! There is no time for this nonsense!" A deep and gruff voice calls out, "That was rude, Spidey's here to make sure you are okay, and this is the thanks he gets?"
Well, that was a voice that Spidey hadn't heard in a while; he shakes head as he found a man standing at 6' 6" shaved head where he last saw him with a complete set of hair and as Power Man in their first encounter when a building was on fire when he took MJ to that retro 70's disco theme club that one time and the other when Jameson hired him to take him out. He wears a yellow sleeveless suit on top, and the rest is black, and he has metal plates on his biceps and ankles and wears yellow boots and sunglasses. His black pants sport a chain named 'CAGE' belt buckle; the large man flips his glasses, "Well, I will be a monkey's uncle. It is you Spider-Man."
"Power Man, or do you prefer Luke Cage? Long time no see."
"I'll say. You don't drop by Harlem anymore; you usually come swinging when on patrol."
"Hey, I follow up to make sure the people are alright in that part of this fair city. Besides, it's not the only place that needs to be patrolled. I mean, you are there, aren't you?"
"That may be true, but even I can get overwhelmed, especially with the gang wars happening every other Thursday. I heard of a gang war in front of the hospital some time ago, and a girl with similar powers to yours stopped it. Associate of yours?"
Nodding his head, Spider-Man replies, "Yeah, my girlfriend…."
"This is S.H.I.E.L.D APC 019 standby for landing."
All eyes are on the craft as it lands in the middle of the park; Spidey turns his attention to Cage, "Anyway, I would like to catch up with you, Luke, but as you can see, we need to get these people out of here."
"Right, I feel you. What can I do to help?"
Just then, Firestar drops in, hovering a foot off the ground, "We got symbiotes coming inbound, lots of them."
"Help me evacuate everyone here in the park while we do that; I got my crew on the job to make sure that these things don't get near any near civilians."
"Sounds like a plan."
"And make sure they don't get in the crossfire." He turns to Firestar, "Light them up!"
The redhead smirked and then flew up in the air before she gathered energy firing a heat ray from her palms into two separate directions causing the symbiotes to pause their advance. At the same time, some got burned, releasing their host. Cage and Spidey took this as their cue to get the good citizens of New York out of the barricade.
The other girls are respectively fighting their own line of symbiotes; it was good that Firestar provided aerial support; it kept them at bay. However, A few of them managed to break through the defense, crawling quickly toward Spider-Man and Cage.
"Oh, great symbiotes."
Spider-Man hands off a child to the SHIELD agent; he jumps over their heads and unleashes a tendril attack ensnaring four symbiotes simultaneously before he pulls them towards himself knocking them up in the air slamming them down, effectively knocking them out cold.
'If I can make a suggestion, you can rip the symbiote off using the tendril.'
'Worry about that later! Dealing with these grunts takes priority.' Spidey launches himself toward a symbiote using a web line, then rides the same creature as a surfboard, crashing it towards its companions; "How many of these guys are there?"
"Help!"
Spider Sense blares to life as Spidey sees a male civilian dragged away by a symbiote toward Teresa's location. He doesn't need to lift a finger as his sister whales on the symbiote trying to kidnap the man. He takes him to the aircraft before returning to her post to fend off more symbiotes. Again, his Spider-Sense screams, and he catches another symbiote with a tendril; before it can get close to the barricade. He slams it down.
"I see you got an upgrade." Cage slams a creature to the ground before he knocks out another one.
"Yeah, I have. Like it?"
"Please, I got an old suit that put you to shame." Cage says with a chuckle.
"Hardy har har."
With Angelica's air support and the girls working on the ground diverting the symbiote's attention, along with a few close calls of some of the civilians being captured, they managed to evacuate the civilians in the S.H.I.E.L.D. aircraft. It was strange that if the symbiotes were hit hard enough, they would dislodge from their host, prompting the heroes to rescue them much more quickly before the symbiotes could reclaim them. After that, both Parker siblings absorbed those creatures into their suits, making them stronger.
Though let it not be said that good citizens of New York were not armed and scrapping for anything to keep the symbiotes away from themselves. After the last civilian entered the aircraft, the loudspeaker sounded, "Thanks for the assist, but more people require help. The next location will appear on the radar; another APC will meet you there."
The vehicle took off, now leaving six people behind. When they gather, Luke is introduced to the crew of Spider-Man as he points them out, "Cage, I want you to meet the team, Silk my girlfriend and protégé…."
"Hello."
"Please to meet you, little lady." He responds kindly, shaking her hand.
"Spinneret, a longtime friend who recently got into crime fighting."
'Yeah, friend…' The title of a friend or just being in the friend zone stung more than she could imagine. She had a tight smile on as she shook hands with Cage. Meanwhile, Scream silently observes through the eyes of her host's interaction with the others. It knows deep down that Mary Jane wants Peter back, but she will respect his wishes no matter how bad her feelings were/are hurting. Something that will not do or if it has anything to say about this situation, Scream will bide its time and wait for the grand opportunity to help her host.
"Next up is Spider-Cat…"
"Hmmm, don't tell me you have a knack for Black Cat and Spider-Man?"
The sandy blonde time traveler lightly smiled, shrugging, "What can I say? They are my favorites."
Luke nods as Spidey continues, "Firestar, a very close ally and another friend." The redhead smiles and shakes her head. Luke does the same, "And last but certainly not least Spider-Velvet."
Teresa twitches at the name but remains silent; she will get Peter back for that later; she specifically told him not to call her that. The redhead looks at Cage folding her arms, giving him a slight nod, then looking away.
"Not much of a talker, I see."
"Yeah, unfortunately, she's not much of a social butterfly. Ladies, I want you to meet Luke Cage; we met a while back."
"Indeed, we have. Now tell me, what in the world is going on here! New York City has been overrun by these freaks; more and more people are getting in the way!"
"What makes you think I have anything to do with them?"
Luke raises an eyebrow crossing his arms, "Does the fact that they have similar powers to yours might be why I'm asking you, Spidey."
"Fair enough…" The tracker begins to beep rapidly, "I'll have to explain it on the way. We got other locations we need to get to ASAP."
"Lead the way, and I'll do my best to help you guys."
Meanwhile, a car horn blares in another part of town as it is flung into the air. Ms. Marvel catches the vehicle landing it on its wheels before she fights off Juggernaut. She strikes him in the abdomen, but he quickly grabs her arms, slamming her down multiple times on the ground before tossing her away. She is about to crash into a building if Superman had not caught her in a bridal catch; the blonde reorients herself, "Thanks for the assists. But I can handle myself." Carol says before shrugging the interdimensional man off her.
"That's gratitude for you." X says, coming beside her, "Any idea how we can make this quick as possible?"
Ms. Marvel pauses for a moment; she has never faced off with the Juggernaut before, nor does she know what exactly they are dealing with. Given his dangerous nature, Storm was supposed to be here to inform them how to stop him. Still, they decided to split up for her to help her friend Wolverine while she and X went ahead to potentially slow down this guy from causing more destruction.
"No clue. Looks like we are going to improvise." She states, powering up her fist.
"I was afraid of that." X gets into a fighting stance
"Well, I go high, you go low." Carol responds, "Unless you have a better plan than that?" She stares at the man beside her; the man shakes his head, "Good, now let's go!"
They flew at the amused man standing for them to come with his arms folded; he grinned, "Come." Both struck at him at the same time with powerful blows. However, he stood unmoved, smiling at them evilly, "Was that supposed to hurt? Don't make me laugh! I'm the Juggernaut; nothing can hurt me!"
"We'll see about that!" Ms. Marvel defies him as she rears up her fist to strike again. This time Cain catches her fist before he twists her arm behind, causing her to yelp from the sudden movement.
X came in quickly at high speeds to knock him back to let go of Carol. However, that did little to the man as he didn't budge a centimeter. Eyeing him carefully, the young interdimensional man had his thought racing, 'Okay, this is not going to be a cakewalk as I thought it would be.'
Many who were unfortunate to face off with Cain Marko have confused his single-mindedness for lack of intelligence. How wrong they were; the man grins before laughing at the misfortunate face of Superman X, "I'm the Juggernaut! Ain't nothin', ain't nobody, can beat me!"
"Everyone has a weakness Juggernaut, even you. Now let her go!"
His massive fist came over Carol's face and legs; she tried to pry him off but could not. He holds her above his head; "You want her? HERE!" With great force, he throws the woman to the man of steel in training.
X catches Ms. Marvel sliding back a bit, kicking up some dirt from beneath his feet, the ground starts to tremble, and before Ms. Marvel can react, she is shielded as both heroes are knocked back a significantly great distance, with Superman taking the full brunt of the impact. They flew to an apartment building scaring the residents from within, groaning from the pain he held unto Carol.
The blonde felt the impact of the charge, and even though she didn't feel its full effect, she was in a state of disbelief. She turns in his arms, looking at him as if he's grown a second head, "Why would you do that?"
"I…*ergh*…did it…because it's…err…the right thing to do," X says, grimacing with each breath. Carol makes a mental note of this but decides not to make the situation worse than it is as they both get to their feet. "I was taught to protect those weaker than myself, including to protect the opposite sex."
"I don't need your protection. I'm more than capable of handling myself…." She looks back at Juggernaut before a small snort escapes her, "But…thank you for your concern."
"Ah, so you do tend to act more human with politeness. It suits you better than being 100% of the time a military soldier or your arrogance." Carol looks at him, annoyed, yet he continues, "When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom."
The blonde blinks, "What is that supposed to mean?"
"Ah, but that's just it. I've given you a hint on how to be a proper human being, a key of some sort…learn this well: 'Humility brings wisdom while pride will bring embarrassment.'"
"Ahem…" A cough interrupts him, and both heroes look back at the people in the apartment, "Look, this is very awkward, but if you need a moment, then I suggest you go somewhere private to relieve this spark between the two of you."
Both these heroes' cheeks turn a shade of pink before stepping outside. X freezes the opening created; they didn't need more symbiotes than were crawling around New York City. The two heroes scan the area for Juggernaut X, enhancing his vision by combining both his heat vision and x-ray vision to make an infrared vision allowing him to seek the heat signature.
He finds his footprints recently imprinted by the giant of a man as it goes towards the north. Not wanting to lose their red giant, he is about to move quickly when Savannah comes crashing into him, sobbing uncontrollably.
Staggering in the air as X hugs the young girl, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Super Storm? What happened? Why are you crying?" Distraught, the sobbing continues as she starts to hiccup, and the hug gets tighter, "Super Storm…."
"Why is she crying? What did you do?" Carol asks, rubbing the girl's back.
"You better check that assumption that I had anything to with it. Super Storm came crashing into me like this…." The young man strokes her back, following his attention back at the young girl, "Shh, shh, shh…calm down…." Cupping both sides of her face after dislodging her embrace, X investigates her distraught yet hyperventilating person, "What happened?"
"She…she…they…they…I…I…I…"
The young hero places a finger on her lip, silencing her, "I'm going to remove my finger. Please calm down and tell us what you want to say?"
Nodding shakily, she takes deep breaths as Ms. Marvel later instructs. Finally, calming down, still hiccupping a little while wiping her red puffy eyes, she says, "S-storm…has…been captured…by V-venom…."
The news sends a shock to the man of steel; he grits his teeth while clenching his fist. He muses back using X-ray vision and sees Venom. It looks like he was gloating at his new recruits. X didn't bother hearing the conversation as he saw a familiar white-haired mutant, "Damn! I should have been there!"
"We were focused on stopping Juggernaut, Storm chose to help her friend, and we agreed to split up. It's unfortunate, yes…but if you save her now, we'll lose Juggernaut."
"It'll only take me not even a nanosecond to save her."
Ms. Marvel frowns; she doesn't want to get into another argument with Superman, time is not on their side, and there is a lot more destruction that she would rather avoid. The blonde woman decides, "You go after our lovely steamroller, and I'll take care of your friend. Yes?"
"Try not to rough her up too much."
"No promises."
X grabs Super Storm by the hand, zooming after the red giant. Ms. Marvel turns around to fly off to rescue their symbiote-controlled allies. Just as she passes, another force slams right into her. Angrily she stares at her assailant; the attacker is blonde-haired with jack-o'-lantern optics, mouth covered.
"Who are you?"
Her answer is the other blonde woman holding her against her shoulders as Ms. Marvel is slammed into the ground.
"I've been waiting for you to be alone, Carol!" The attacker says with a grin. The time-traveling woman looks down at Ms. Marvel with her arms folded, watching the woman coming out of the debris, wiping off the dust, 'Perfect, now to capture her and ensure she stays out of the way, then I can finally kill Silk.'
With an angry look, Carol stares at the floating being above her; she snarls, "Lady, I don't know who you are, but you picked the wrong day to mess with me!" With power flowing through her being, she charges up a photon blast before she unleashes it upon her attacker.
The assailant simply dodges the attack and fires back an energy attack. She grins as the attack hits its intended target, hearing an angry growl as Ms. Marvel bursts forth from the ground, enraged. Chuckling, the anomaly motions her hand comes hither, which the blonde woman happily obliges.
She goes in hot, tackling her attacker before she lets her go and punches her back; the mysterious woman creates an implant of her figure on the ground, with Ms. Marvel following up her assault with a ground punch to be met with a spinning roundhouse kick to the face knocking her away into an unsuspecting car. Gritting her teeth, she snarls as the assailant with jack-o'-lantern eyes punches her location.
Quickly she dodges the punch by rolling above the car before landing on the edge of the crumbling roof of it. The blonde woman punches her face before following it up with a gut punch; the other woman grunts in discomfort as the two grapple.
"Impressive, Carol. Your skills have improved over the years; not bad for a self-taught martial artist."
"How do you know about that?!" Carol strained out, trying to push back her opponent.
"Wouldn't you like to know, sweetheart." The woman mockingly says, then proceeds to headbutt Carol in the face causing the blonde to yelp and clutch her face for biting her tongue. Ms. Marvel is blasted away again by an energy attack, followed by her attacker crushing her head near a building, "Is this the best you have to offer? Pathetic! I faced countless enemies in battle, beating them all except for four! I expected more from the famous wielder of binary. You are nothing compared to me and my power!"
The attacker grabs Carol by the throat, tossing her into the air through a building. The unknown woman hovers to where the dust is spilling out of the building, then suddenly blurry figure charges at top speed at her. Yet, the assailant dodges and counters with an uppercut to the gut causing Ms. Marvel to lose her breath and spit up saliva mixed with blood. Her attacker follows up by grabbing her ankle and slamming her to the ground before landing a blow to her abdomen using her feet as piledrivers.
"GAH!"
"I hoped that you put up more of a fight, Carol. To say that I'm disappointed is the understatement of what I feel right now."
Groggily, the said woman manages to get to her knees, spitting out more blood from her mouth as she says, "Is that all you got?"
The jack-o'-lantern eye rises, and the woman crosses her arms, "Hmph, still have some fight in you, I see. No matter; this fight is over anyway." She reaches behind her pulling out a collar; how she kept that item hidden this entire time is beyond Ms. Marvel.
Regardless, Carol lets out a war cry flying towards the time traveler anomaly; as the blonde does this, the other woman flips over the charging attack, and pile drives her to the ground. She flips off her as the deputy of all 50 states of America slowly rises to her feet, "To think you would have ascended to the status of Captain instead of staying 'Ms.'"
Clutching her head with one hand, Carol shakes off cobwebs of her mind, "Ergh…W-what are you talking about?"
"It doesn't matter." The time traveler states then proceeds to lift Carol to her feet while she is still woozy from the last attack and begins to punch her in the gut twice, face, and then follows up with a knee to the stomach.
Finally, Carol drops to her knees before she plants face down on the ground; now standing over the beaten hero, the time-traveling anomaly places the collar around her neck and then activates it by pressing a button on the side. The collar is now green, indicating that it is working; the woman kneels in front of her beaten foe, cupping her chin to see her face, "Hmph, had you been smart and absorbed some of my photon energy, your body's resilience and endurance gets extended to an even greater degree. But this is my win, and you lose." The jack-o'-lantern eyes mask opens to reveal the face of Carol Danvers; the suit morphs into a leotard with black gloves and boots that go halfway to her biceps and thigh while a white spider emblem takes the majority of her costume with a lightning bolt in its center. "Now I need that scarf…"
Future Carol removes the fabric from her past counterpart's neck, adjusting it to wrap around her waist just above her hips. The woman takes her counterpart's earpiece to make sure she doesn't draw suspicion to herself. She looks in a store mirror; the white spider emblem had to be changed; she wills the suit into her classic leotard with the yellow lightning bolt, then focuses on her past self, "Now, to make sure you don't ruin my plans." She lifts her past self in a bridal carry before taking off to an unknown location. Smirking, she says, "I should thank Corey for making a contingency plan when we first met. That gas he knocked me out with made a perfect serum to neutralize me and isolate the DNA that gives me my power; very clever on my beloved part to enhance the collar function."
Meanwhile
The following evacuation location was near the docks on the West Side. It didn't take our heroes long to get there. He noted that Cage found an abandoned motorcycle and jump-started it to keep up with the web slingers; these creepy crawlers were everywhere. What on earth was going on here? The news started to spread for every civilian to stay indoors, which would be the safest route. Still, unfortunately, reports have been coming in that not even in their homes were people safe from these creatures.
Luke stayed clear of any infested walkers littering the city streets. However, there were still too many to count, and the numbers kept climbing. Spider-Man surveys the area and then looks at the tracer; they are near the docks, and the tracer starts to beep furiously when it points at one skyscraper building.
"Looks like that's our intended building to help the survivors."
"Great, the sooner we get these freaks out the way, the sooner lives will return to normal."
Teresa snorted, "After this, what will be considered normal?"
Suddenly, the ground began to shake, and spider senses began to go haywire for three spider-themed heroes as they saw symbiotes tossed like ragged dolls in the distance. At the same time, an enormous man came charging like a rhinoceros, seemingly as if none could stop him.
"OUT OF THE WAY! THE JUGGERNAUT IS COMING THROUGH!"
The heroes jumped out of the way just in time as he tore through debris like a hot knife through butter. They watched in awe as the man tore the symbiotes apart, knocking them out of the way. Silk notices that some of the symbiote walkers went limp after colliding with the building roughly.
"He's killing them!"
"WHAT!" Fury builds up in Peter; he swears to get this man for taking these people's lives too soon. Did this man not care that there was a crisis going on here?
Just when he is about to say something, two blurs, one blue and the other black, crash into Juggernaut yet do little to no effect on the man. A laugh escapes him as he stops to turn around to face both Super Storm and Superman, "Is this the best you can do?"
X comes in to take a crack at him, but he swatted away, feeling every bone in his body rattle from the hit the giant of a man gave him. Super Storm quickly goes in front of the man with an angry look, her eyes glow red, and she fires beams from her eyes. She spun around the man creating a tornado while traveling at hypersonic speed.
Everyone's jaw slacked to the floor; this little girl had that much power? The wind howled as lightning crackled. Super Storm lets out her fury with her beams flying out of her eyes, yet for the Cain Marko, it is like that annoying gnat flying around your ear. He extends his hands, catching Savanah in his clutches, abruptly stopping the tornado she made on her own before he punches the young girl in the face with enough force sending her flying a mile away in the Hudson River.
"HAHAHA, that only tickled. Don't make me laugh."
Superman X groans as he clutches his face getting up steadily. Spider-Man comes to his side, helping to establish him on his feet.
"You alright?"
"Never better." X remarks
"Well, I guess this is Juggernaut?"
"Indeed, a tough nut to crack, but everyone, including him, has a weakness. I just haven't found one yet."
Peter notices a black and blue on his cheek, "X, you better check that bruise; it's a nasty one you got there."
Touching his cheek, X hisses in pain. He could feel his healing factor being a little messed up; it was impossible unless it was a mystical item messing with his energy field, "Damn! We are equal in strength, but there is one critical difference that would allow him to beat me…."
"That would be what now?"
Before X can say anything, major thumping, and quakes can be heard and felt from the trembling of the ground. Cain growls as he charges at both heroes, who react swiftly by dodging him, one using super speed and the other his reflexes. The red giant crashed into a car, causing a small explosion; X's eye twitched, and he quickly flew to Cain, leaving Spider-Man behind before calling out to his friend.
"Stubborn fool," Spidey says, shaking his head.
Spinneret comes to Spider-Man, "So I'm going to go out on a limb and say that's Juggernaut."
"Correct."
They watched as Superman dodged a mighty punch to the ground and zips in midair before landing one of his own powerful punches only to be hit in the chest and abdomen, sending him to the ground, Marko leered over his opponent, trying to stomp on him but X proves to be his equal in strength coming to a stalemate.
"We got to help him!"
Peter holds back MJ, "Divide and conquer. I'll help Superman with our jolly red giant; you take this device and get the girls to the top of that building." He points out, "Take Cage with you too and have Firestar circle around the building, burn off any symbiote-control civilians before they reach the building, and try to help S.H.I.E.L.D. evacuate civilians, got it?"
MJ makes a mock salute, "As you command, captain..."
"Very funny, red." The spider-themed vigilante hands the redhead spider the device, "Hop to it. MJ nods as she leaves. Silk had other plans and walked up to Peter, "Silk, help the others."
She shook her head, "I'm staying with you."
"This is not the time to be arguing! We don't know what this guy is capable of or what we are up against."
"Well, judging by the way Superman is struggling, I say he's pretty tough." Silk comments looking at the man of steel in training being knocked away by a punch. She winces as he crashes into a car, causing another explosion. A blur quickly zips by them, causing the wind to speed up, ruffling Cindy's hair, much to her chagrin, as it became a hot mess of disarray.
Spider-Man braced for impact from the strong gust, putting his arms in an 'X' formation, taking the brunt of the force as debris flew everywhere. A mighty crack is heard then it is followed up with a yelp.
"YOW!"
"Is that the best you got!"
Spidey turned in time to see Juggernaut implant the young teen to the ground before he pounded her mercilessly, creating a hole in the pavement. The man laughs as he looks down at the young teenage hero unconscious beneath his feet, "Hmph, you don't learn, do you, girl?"
TONK
Cain raises his head to stare at Silk; within his helmet, a brow raises as she exclaims, "Oh, come on! That had to hurt even a little?"
"So, hotshot, you want to take on the Juggernaut too?" He walks up to the duo, towering over them. Silk took a step back, as did Spider-man.
"I might reconsider…"
He cracks his knuckles, "I'll pulverize you just as I did with your friends. So, which one of you two wants to go first?"
"How about me?"
X came in swinging; however, his knuckles rattled against the man's helmet in mystical armor, his mouth contorted in a grimace, yet he did not cry out in pain. Marko chuckles, grabbing Superman by the ankle before slamming him down on the ground and delivering a mighty uppercut punch to the dimensional hopper's face sending him into orbit.
Stunned is the word right now to describe what is going through the heads of Spider-Man and Silk. The Asian female blinked owlishly, "Umm…considering that I read many comic books, Superman should have been invulnerable to any form of physical attack unless someone is stronger than him or…has kryptonite…."
Juggernaut grins, "Now that the distractions are out of the way, prepare yourself for me!"
Chuckling Spider-Man quips nervously, "Is it too late for us to be friends?"
Juggernaut rushes over to the spider-duo punching the ground and creating another hole into it, the two dodge his attack, but he quickly follows up with a double punch which both avoid with their spider reflexes staying ahead of the punches as the enhanced man starts to wildly throw his punches in every direction to land a hit on the two.
"Hold still so I can squash like the bugs that you are!"
"Technically, spiders are arachnids," Silk says.
"Why do you villains always get that wrong?" Spidey follows up, "Besides, we're not dumb enough to wait for heavy hitters to hit us. Do you know how much the hospital bill would be like? An arm and a leg!"
"Oh! And I'm dumb enough? HA!"
"I…*dodges punch*… didn't say…*dodges another punch*…that!"
Silk dodges a kick by flipping over him, "You have serious issues, you know that? I mean, really, who are you anyway, and what do you want?"
Still not relenting from the dodging duo, the magically enhanced man says, "I'm Juggernaut, I am invincible, and no one and nothing stands in my way. I will visit my dear brother Xavier; he and I have a long overdue family reunion."
"Yeah, I'm sure with that kind of attitude, he'll be delighted to see you!" Spider-Man says, "I don't want to do this, but you leave me no choice. Take THIS!"
THOK!
"YEOW!" Peter's hand starts to tremble, and he grabs it to stabilize it. Silk flips over the giant red man rushing towards her counterpart.
"You, okay?" She places a hand on his shoulder.
"I knew that I should have done that! I just hope he isn't mad about it."
Rolling his eyes, Cain shakes his head in disbelief; he'll give it to Spider-Man; the web-slinger certainly had guts to punch despite not knowing how powerful he was, "Good one, wallcrawler, but not good enough." Cindy's spider senses go haywire, causing the two to clutch their heads in pain, allowing Marko to swat them away, "Why don't you give up? You can't stop the unstoppable, and I'm done playing around with you."
He walks away, making thumps on the ground, causing it to shake.
Both spider-themed vigilantes look at the retreating back. Silk is getting worried this man is going after Professor Xavier; who knows what he might do if he gets his hands on him, poor Corey and Savannah are out for the count, so it was up to them.
"Can we use our webbing to slow him down?"
"There's an idea."
The two quickly catch up to the giant red man and spray webbing from a lamppost to buildings. The colossal man is unimpressed, "What is this stuff? If this is a joke from you web-slinger…." He tears right through the webbing, taking parts of the building with him and unhinging the lamppost by the roots, "…Then I am not laughing!"
"No freaking way! That webbing is stronger than steel!" Spidey blinks, "Oh man."
"How many times do I have to say it?" Cain pounds his chest, "I'm the unstoppable Juggernaut, and nothing slows me down!"
Silk nudges Spidey, "Well, any bright plans? I've done all that I can do."
"Humana, Humana, Humana comes to mind…"
"Grrreeaatt."
It was chaotic on top of the high-rise building S.H.I.E.L.D agents doing their best to not allow civilians to end up infected with a symbiote shot and killed some of the creatures. The small team of Angelica, Mary Jane, Luke Cage, and Teresa assisted the troops from the crawlers scaling the building. Firestar flew around the building, burning off any symbiotes while trying to free the civilian using her microwave power. However, it wasn't easy, for it seemed like an endless wave of these infected New Yorkers kept coming.
The redhead's eye twitches as she sends a fireball toward the ground, blasting or burning away any symbiote that would try to close to the building. Though they are not mindless creatures, they knew that this a person could manipulate fire in that manner they decided to scale the building in a different part.
When Firestar saw they were leaving her to scale the building in a different location, just as Peter requested, she circled the building to continue her attack. While she did that Spider-Cat was on the building, wall-crawling around, knocking away symbiotes from reaching their destination on the top of the roof.
She does a spinning twirl kick, then grabs a symbiote absorbing the creature to her suit to reveal a civilian, a teenager. She sighs and scales the building rapidly to the top to find more chaos ensuing. She looks around briefly before making her way to the S.H.I.E.L.D transport.
At the same time, Spinneret slams another symbiote down using a tendril attack, then follows up with a diving kick to another one using two web lines. The redhead knew she wasn't the most outstanding fighter with introductory defense class under her belt. Still, she could feel her movements being controlled by her own symbiote. She shuddered a little; this suit pushed her comfort levels to the limit. She wanted to get used to wearing it, but memories of Peter and Eddie come to mind, mostly Brock. Also, it didn't help that a symbiote invasion was happening here in the Big Apple.
"This would cause a lot of nightmare fuel for a while. How does Spider-Man keep going through all this?"
Suddenly, she does an involuntary spinning back fist knocking away another symbiote. It hisses at the redhead, crawling on all fours like a jungle cat stalking its prey. Never taking her eyes off the creature, MJ tenses for a little while, waiting to see what it will do; though luckily for her, the supermodel didn't have to do much as Teresa comes in by jumping then slamming down on it then begins to absorb the symbiote freeing the civilian from it.
"Not much of a fighter, I see." The other redhead comments helping the victim to his feet, then handing him off to a S.H.I.L.E.D agent, "You keep hesitating, and you're going to end up dead."
"Thanks for the tip, but as you can clearly see, I don't do much heroism. Spider-Man was supposed to train me to hone my skills."
"Well, there is a first time for everything. Speaking of which, where's Silk?" Teresa says.
"She's with Spider-Man."
"Why?"
MJ shrugs, "I don't know.
An irritated growl is heard from her throat. When they are done here on the rooftop, Teresa will give that girl a piece of her mind. Despite having S.H.I.E.L.D agents blast these symbiote creatures off the rooftop and Firestar's ability to burn. They were now down by one fighter and had enough trouble keeping these freaks off the rooftop.
It was an endless wave of these creatures spawning like crazy, and where was Superman in the middle of this?
"Where is Superman X? We could use his help now?"
"Don't know. Last I checked, Superman was fighting with Juggernaut."
"Super Storm?"
Again, Spinneret shrugs.
"SWEET CHRISTMAS!" A rumbling caused the vibration to occur underneath their feet; they looked to see Luke pounding the rooftop making spider webs.
"HEY!" Luke looks back at Spider-Velvet "Watch what you're doing! The rooftop can't handle that type of abuse!"
"I have complete control of my strength; I know what I am doing. So don't worry, you're pretty little head!" Luke said, "Besides, you need to hit these creatures hard enough to save the civilians, or did you not notice?"
To that, Teresa had no reply. Of course, she noticed that little tidbit, but that didn't mean they had the right to destroy property. "Just watch it, okay?"
"I'm just as concerned as you are; I want this to end as well as everyone does."
Spider-Velvet holds a tight mouth and then shouts, "Look out!"
Luke looks to see a bruiser symbiote behind in time, but tendrils knock him back toward Teresa. While it didn't hurt, that didn't mean that Cage appreciated being something rag doll in being pushed. He gets up, ready to fight the bruiser symbiote; just then, a blue blur comes out of nowhere, circling the building at super speed. Firestar touches the ground panting; it was getting tiresome to fly around the building trying to burn off symbiotes from reaching the top even with Spider-Cat helping; it is overwhelming, "Good timing Superman."
"Superman?" Luke questions; he's never heard of this person before. The blue blur, yes, but Superman? No… "Who is Superman?"
When the blue blur stops, it reveals the man clad in navy blue and a dark red uniform with a familiar 'S' on his chest; he says, "I am Superman."
Luke blinks, commenting, "Whoa… I've never seen you around here before. I heard about the blur…."
"That was me…." X says, I've not made my day view for a grand entrance for the public to know, but I feel this event will change that. My public appearances are limited knowledge at best."
"You sure know how to make quick work of these monster freaks."
"Hmm…" X says nothing else as he scans the area. Not long after, MJ managed to get into his view.
"Is Spider-Man, okay?" She asks worriedly.
"I don't know. I was knocked into space unconscious for five minutes. I decided to come down to help you guys, seeing that you are about to be overwhelmed."
Appalled, Spinneret screeched, "You've left Spider-Man and Silk to that monster?! ARE YOU CRAZY!"
Given his super hearing, X uncovers his ears, "Very unpleasant, but yes. I can't stop him…"
"What does that mean?" Teresa now growls, getting in his face, "Just because there's a tough opponent doesn't mean you run away from a fight! My brother is out there fighting, who knows what, and here you are saying you can't stop him? What kind of superhero are to abandon those who need help."
Luke can see the mouth of Superman grit, yet he bared no teeth at…at…what was her name again? After a few seconds of contemplating, it didn't matter; he got in between them, "Now hold up there, y'all, let's not fight between us. We bigger fish to fry."
"If I could help, I would, but there is a critical difference between us: I can't seem to hit or slow him down. Even Ms. Marvel was having trouble with Juggernaut as he knocked us down. We couldn't slow him down."
Teresa bit her tongue now; if Carol couldn't slow down this guy and Superman couldn't, this guy must be tough to beat. She curses under her breath; MJ looks ready to leap off the building to help Peter.
"I can't blame you for not stopping Juggernaut…" Firestar spoke up, all eyes on her now, "Cain is the stepbrother of Professor Xavier, and it took the combined effort of both the X-Men and Brotherhood to take him down, so I've been told. Trust me, he is not easy. In case you have forgotten what Ororo said Spider-Velvet, he is not someone to be trifled with, especially when one wields a mystical armor."
X grimaces while Spinneret and Spider-Velvet look at her in disbelief. Spider-Cat then asks the group, "Are we having a party or something I wasn't invited to?"
"Knock it off."
The time traveler then looks to find her companion, "Where's Super Storm?"
"Here I am…" The timid voice of the other time traveler sounds. Her clothes were wet, and the water dripped from her hair as she wrung it out.
"Try spinning like a dreidel; that should dry you up quickly."
"Oh, I've never thought about that…" S. Storm blushes, embarrassed, drying herself off instantly. Spider-Cat takes her younger friend to a secluded part of the rooftop to speak with her.
"This is S.H.I.E.L.D APC 201; all civilians have been evacuated. Please move on to the next location on the radar; we have a few more stops."
Before anyone can say a word, a mighty BOOM is heard. X using his x-ray vision sees that Juggernaut has come out of the ground, probably from a trap that Spider-Man and Silk laid out. He watches as the two bouncings arachnid-themed heroes bounce all over the man but soon tire out.
Pulling a sigh, he looks towards Spinneret, "I'll help Spidey with Juggernaut. You guys get going. Super Storm will be you to help out with the symbiotes." X takes off in a silent whoosh leaving everyone to turn to another S.H.I.E.L.D. APC to board it.
Back with Spider-Man and Silk, they flip off the head of the tall man with Spider-Man telling him, "Hold it there, tiny!"
Cain looks at him bemused and decides to humor him as he stops in front of the wall-crawling duo, towering over them as he looks down upon them, "Alright, little man, you have my attention. What do you want? Can't you stay out of my way?"
To Cindy, it was like staring at a giant; she swallowed dryly. She thought Corey was tall, but this guy looked much taller than him. She quickly grabs ahold of Spider-Man subtly. Peter gives her a hand, a squeeze trying to reassure her.
"Sorry, Juggy, but no can do! NOW!" Quickly the two Spider duo flip over him. "Besides, I'm not a little man. It's Spider-Man as in … 'Amazing'…along with the 'Speculator' Silk."
Cindy's cheeks heated at that name, as she thought, 'He thinks I'm speculator?' Then again, there was a lot she wished Peter would say to her. As far as she's concerned, Peter hasn't complimented her, given all this craziness with the symbiotes.
As the two bounce over Juggernaut, they try to wrestle him to the ground putting a lot of strain and effort with Spider-Man commenting, "Come on now! They say the bigger you are, the harder you FALL! SO, FALL *UNGH*!" A minute later, the two are panting hard, 'This is ridiculous! I'm better off wrestling with a tank! He won't budge at all!'
'Well, any more bright ideas?'
'I'll think of something.'
'Well, I hope you figure that out, for he is on the move again!'
"Stay out of my way, little man! While you are at that, why don't you give up!" He walks away, "You can't possibly stop me."
The spider duo jumps on his back, arm wrestling both his arm into submission behind his back, "That's one thing you'll learn, Jugs, 'Giving up' isn't in our vocabulary, nor do we know the meaning of the word!" Silk says with determination.
"Hey, let go of my arms!"
"Nope, we will stick to you no matter what!"
Try as he might, Cain could not shake the two. He pauses momentarily as he looks at the building in a corner, "Alright, since you won't let go, enjoy the ride!" He begins walking towards the building.
"Uh, Spidey?"
"Yes?"
"I don't like where he is going."
Before Peter can say anything, Juggernaut walks into the building and comes out of the other side free of Silk and Spider-Man, "Blasted Nuisances."
Behind the wreckage of the shop lies both Silk and Spider-Man withering in pain as the store is in ruins. "Urgh…I can't believe he actually walked into the building…."
"You're telling me my whole body hurts…." Silk comments
"And whose fault was that for sticking to him?"
X helps Spider-Man and Silk to their feet.
While dusting themselves off and trying to get their mind to stop hurting, Peter, annoyed, says, "Well, I don't see any bright ideas, you Superman. You can't just muscle your way out of everything thing."
"Like you did, Peter?"
Peter's slumped shoulder and deadpan tone said all, "Yeah, like you promising to break my legs if I don't comply with sitting put."
To this, Corey had no reply; Cindy asked between the two, "Okay, can we please focus on how we will stop big, tall, and red?"
"Let's quickly recap his feat, Invulnerability…."
"Super strength…" Silk mentioned.
"Stamina and loads of it."
"Can walk through almost anything…." Suddenly, a phone rings, interrupting the trio's analysis of the red-clad in red. Corey spots it on the wall as the ringing continues three times before it silences, "Anyway…."
*BRRIINNNG*
Irritated by the interruption again, Silk answers it; clearing her throat, she says, "Hello, Silk speaking. Yes, he's here…um, you wish to speak with him?" The Asian woman looks at her boyfriend, "Spidey, it's for you…."
"For me?" Spider-Man looks at X as he shrugs. He walks over, taking the phone. "Hello, your friendly neighborhood hero speaking…." He listens to the other side of the line, "Uh-huh…and how do you this? Who are you anyway?"
"Whose he talking to?" Silk asks, nudging Superman.
Corey keeps silent as he hears the conversation flow; from what he hears, the person calling is Madam Web. Now there was a name he hadn't heard in a while; he also wanted to know if Peter had any previous experiences with the woman. She was going to be a vital asset to Peter later.
"Hello~, Earth to Corey come in Corey…I am talking to you."
"Cindy, please try not to use my real name in public…we have cameras here as well…."
"Oh…whoops…"
"Don't worry about it. I had Gam-Vil erase the footage that says our real names. Just be mindful of your surroundings in the future."
Spider-Man hangs up the phone, "Well, that was weird."
"So, who was it?"
"She calls herself Madam Web. Apparently, she is giving some newsflash that defeating Juggernaut the old fashion way will not cut it since he is virtually unstoppable. She says he wears mystical armor from the Temple of Cyttorak by obtaining the Crimson Gem. She didn't go into details for that, but M.W. said with that armor, he's invincible, and nothing is going to stop him."
A look of realization hits X, 'Of course, I completely forgot that. Thanks to the power of Cyttorak, Cain Marko is on a whole other level, and the only thing that is removable is his helmet which makes him susceptible to psychic attack. Oh great…'
"So, we'll take the armor off…." Silk chimes in, "How hard can that be?"
"It's pretty tough." X replies, "That armor will not come off unless the wear wills it, and I don't think that is going to be the case; however, the only thing that is removable is his helmet to allow psychic barrage to hit his mind. We better move if we catch up to our friend because I see he is thinking about heading into the Hudson River."
Cain stared at the water, his own reflection staring back at him. When was the last time he was able to experience freedom? How long has it been since Marko could feel the sun's heat on his skin or see the sky again? Not that he cared for something so trivial, but freedom will have to wait as he thinks about his blasted stepbrother, "Xavier, just you wait. You'll pay for making spend time in prison, then my revenge will be complete."
*TWUNG*
"Hmm?" Cain turns around to catch a beam from midair, "So, someone is tossing girders at me, eh? Well, that's too bad…" He crushes the metal beam with his bare hands, twisting it into the shape of a pretzel, "…For them…."
From a construction site not too far from Juggernaut's position, Silk was dumbstruck, "Like wow…I didn't expect him to do that."
"We have his attention. Now what?"
"Try not to get killed."
"Hmm…good plan, but did you have to use the old firetrap, which they are ripping apart, to start building a new Metrobank building?"
"It was the closest thing to getting Juggy's attention."
With the ease of a man smashing through Styrofoam, the Juggernaut enters the demolition site, which was paused due to the out-of-control symbiote invasion. Both Silk and Spidey spider senses go ballistic as danger from the man is present below them. X jumps down, landing with a thud and making spider webs. The Juggernaut and Superman face off again, neither moving an inch sizing each other up.
From their vantage point, Silk and Spidey viewed this as a Western showdown, like two-gun slingers ready to shoot at any given notice. It is a little too silent; a gentle breeze caresses the cape of the interdimensional caped crusader. The tension is so thick that you can cut it like butter; X makes a fist, and his knuckles crack from the tightening.
"Didn't learn your lesson last time, did you?"
"No, I did. I know to keep my distance. Nothing, and no one can hurt you but let me ask; what do you want with Xavier?"
The man crosses his arms and grins, "Just a little family reunion. Nothing that concerns you at all."
"When you attack my mentor, it does concern me."
"And what are you going to do about it, pipsqueak? Are you going to fight me?"
"No, not really. Your armor powers come from Cyttorak, but the armor that I have…."
"Who cares!" Juggernaut charges at punching the ground with great force while Superman dodges the punch in midair. The man growls and then tries to swipe at him, yet the man of steel in training quickly escapes them.
"There is a difference between you and me, Juggernaut. You need momentum, and once you get going, nothing stops you but me? I'm ready even on the fly! Besides, you can't touch me while I am in the air."
"Hmph! Maybe so, but that doesn't mean your friends are!" He goes to the corner of the building, lifting it up as if it were tissue paper.
With their agility, they jumped off the piece and flipped over a truck, "I can't believe what I'm seeing!" Silk cries as she and Spider-Man watch in awe-struck horror as the building splits from the primary component, "He ripped it through like tissue paper!"
"We'll have to improvise then…." Spidey spots a crane with a wrecking ball. "I think I have just the thing." Quickly Peter hooks the wrecking ball from its resting place and twirls it, "Watch it, Silk, this three-ton steel ball will be flying places today! Heads up, Juggy! It's time to play a game of-HEY!"
X looked at Spider-Man unimpressed as he held the ball by the chain, "What makes you think that a wrecking ball is going to hurt him? Think about it for a moment…"
"Would you get off my case, man!" Spider-Man spider-senses tingle as the tall man comes forward, "Time to do something drastic…."
Spidey then spots a fuel truck in the distance; an idea pops into his head as he zips over to the vehicle and jump-starts it. He looks at the tall man from within the cubby, "Alright, tough guy, let's see if you can handle this!" It was good that there was some distance between them, or else this would be difficult to pull off.
Seeing what he is about to do, X quickly carries Silk in a bridal carry before zooming high above the demolition site.
"HEY! What are you doing? We've got to help Spider-Man."
"Your boyfriend is about to go nuts with that tanker truck."
Silk gave X a confused glance as now they were high above the site. She hears the truck horn blare twice before a vast explosion overtakes the area moments later. "PETER!" She screamed; X held her tight, "Let me go!"
"Last I checked, Symbiotes hate fire, and sonics don't get your costume burned." Silk sulks a little before they descend; she can feel the heat as if a furnace was taking place down in the site. Taking a huge breath, X puts the fire out with his artic super breath as he touches the ground, releasing Silk.
Frantically, Silk jumps over, looking for her counterpart, "Spider-Man!"
"Spider-Man!" Silk calls out again; she can feel her throat tightening, "Peter…."
"I'm right here."
Gasping, the Asian woman sees a metallic chrome down peaking from behind girders. She races over, tackles him into a hug, then pounds his chest, "YOU, MORON! YOU INCONSIDERATE JERK! ARE YOU TRYING TO GET YOURSELF KILLED! You…you…"
"Relax, Cindy, I'm still here." He hugs her tightly as she buries herself into him.
"Don't do that again…" Her voice cracked yet muffled.
"Spider-Man!"
"No freaking way." Spidey looks up as Silk does the same out of the deadly inferno and comes out a silhouette approaching them. "No, that's impossible. No one could have survived that…."
Before Spider-Man and Silk's disbelieving eyes, the impossible happens. A mighty, lumbering figure steps out of the inferno, his body washed with flames which he doesn't feel as he crushes a fire hydrant cooling him off instantly. Cain Marko snarls, "You're a dead man."
"So, any more bright ideas?"Silkasks
"Ugh…I got nothing…." Spidey chuckles nervously as the man approaches him, "You don't waste words, do you?"
"No. I don't kid around either, so laugh while you still can!" Cain slams his fist on the girders as the duo jump, "For it will be your last!"
"We got to do something!"
"How many times do I need to repeat myself? Get it through your thick head, sweetheart; I'm the Juggernaut ain't nothing, and no one can stop me!"
'He must have a weakness! Now I see why Corey had such a hard time with him. If Superman can't deal with him, then who can?'
'Don't give up too soon, Parker, but a little suggestion aim for the head.'
With Symbian suggestion, Peter latches onto Cain's helmet, "Tell you what laughing boy-before you end my career, I'd like to have a quick peek at your kisser! Okay?" From his position, Spider-Man can feel the warmth of the helmet from the inferno. He is still puzzled how the Juggernaut is not even burned, "*UGH* Let's just take this off! *UGH*"
"GET OFF! I know what you're trying to do, but I won't let you!" He spots a wall, "I'll scrape you like I did before!"
"Oh no! Not again!" Quickly thinking Spider-Man covers his eyes with his arms.
"HEY!"
"That helmet can be a liability, can it, Juggy? For instance-if, I cover your eyes holes, you can't see where you are going!"
"Spider-Man, be careful."
"Don't worry, Silk, I got it covered!"
"You miserable little creep! If I can't scrape you off, I'll RIP you off instead!" Cain reaches for his costume, trying to tear off the web-slinger from his face, but Spidey proves to be a nuisance as well; his suit keeps slipping through his fingers for some reason causing the man to lose his cool even more. After failing to rip him off, he switches tactics; "Fine! Go ahead and hold on! Do you want to hang around? Then I'll pound the life out of you!"
The beatings began, and Silk was terrified for her boyfriend as he held on tightly. 'He'll do it too…' She thinks, 'Peter get out of there!' Cindy is helpless in wanting to help Spider-Man there is nothing she can do to help, and even if she does, she'll be knocked out entirely.
X stands by Silk placing a hand on her shoulder after knocking out the inferno; she looks at him in despair. Her eyes pleaded with Superman, but he shook his head from side to side. If X could help, he would, but unfortunately, dealing with a mystical-enhanced man knocked the sails out of him the first time. He wasn't too sure if he could take another blow like that without losing consciousness. It was one thing to fight Thor and Hulk; X could match them in speed and strength and lifted Mjolnir, which surprised the thunder god. Still, it was a whole other ballfield to mess with, something he didn't have much immunity to; after all, it wasn't the hammer he was dealing with here. They can only watch and pray with bated breath as Spider-Man tries to hang onto the unstoppable Juggernaut.
The pain that was going through his body was nauseating, Peter could feel his mind and the world spin around him, yet he would not be deterred in trying to hold on just a little bit longer to stop this man; 'GAH! Even with the symbiote lessening the blows, it's like being hit by Rhino, only worse!'
With each blow, Peter could feel himself slipping, that is, until a giant…
SQUELCH
"What the h***?! I can't move my legs… they're stuck!"
"Huh…" Panting hard, Peter looks around and then chuckles, "Well, how about that! Congratulations, stumble foot! You slogged right into recently poured-out freshly wet cement!" He jumps off Juggernaut, landing on the dry ground; he turns back to face the man, "Looks like I finally found something that can hold you."
Infuriated, Juggernaut yells out, "What do you mean! COME BACK HERE!"
"Yeah, how about no…." He deadpans, "After all the pounding you gave me, I'm going to be feeling this for a week or more."
Lifting his fist, the sinking man strikes the concrete, "I'm the Juggernaut! Nothing can stop me; do you think cement will? I smash through cement, clown!"
"Wet cement, Juggy? You're a man sinking in quicksand!"
"It doesn't matter when I touch the bottom-!"
"Bottom is about 40 feet down! Workers make a deep foundation when they work near a river!"
"It still doesn't matter! I'm the Juggernaut, you hear! I can't be stopped! I don't need air! I don't need *URRK!*" He finally sinks, much to the relief of Spider-Man.
Finally, Peter collapses to his knees, tired from the beatdown Juggy gave and using his adrenaline to keep him together, "You may be 'unstoppable,' but I'm willing to bet by the time you try to make your way out of there…if you can…the authorities will already have come up with a way to detain you. Hope you have a nice, long life and career as part of the foundation."
"Peter!" Cindy crushes him in a bear hug causing him to wince in pain, "I'm sorry. Are you alright?"
"Oh, you know, typical Spidey fashion…." He strained out, "Taking a beating before collapsing…I think I'm going to faint…ugh~" Peter leans on Silk losing whatever conscious he had.
X looks down at Spidey; one thing he admired about the webhead was that he never knew when to give up, even when the odds were stacked against him. He watches as Cindy hugs Peter, lightly stroking his face, "Rest, Peter, you had a rough day…."
"We should get moving. The others might need our help."
"Corey, can I ask you something?"
The young man lifts Peter over his shoulders with ease and carries Silk by the waist as she wraps her arms around his neck, then takes off in silent take-off.
"Ask away." He replies in a normal voice.
"Why couldn't you stop Juggernaut?"
The flying man takes a moment to analyze the situation, "One of my two weaknesses is magical items or enhanced beings. Juggernaut is in the latter, plus a class of his own, and could easily overpower me. Despite him moving slowly, the man matches me is strength. I've never really had a chance to deal with beings far stronger than I mind. Remember what I told you during the interview."
"I remember…not even a full year into the superhero career, and it came crashing down. You know you really didn't elaborate on details…."
"I don't want…" X says, "I don't want to relive that pain again." His eyes went hard, "I pray you don't have someone like Darkseid here, but I'm afraid there is."
"Who?"
"Don't worry about it, at least not now. Now let's catch up to the others."
The ride to find the others went into silence, Cindy's mind still reeling from the attack of Juggernaut. It was one thing after the other, a nonstop barrage of situations; she really needed to know if this superhero business was right for her. After all, you can only do this for a certain amount of time. For now, she will help where she is needed.
Lizards hideout
Venom and new recruits decided to make themselves scarce and left to head back to their lair; today was a complete bust. Juggernaut could not be contained nor controlled. Venom had been knocked out briefly. He tried to keep up with the man deemed unstoppable, yet interference happened, but all was not lost; he gained two new recruits from that accursed Spider-Man his allies.
"The delicious irony." Mystique chuckles, "Fighting for the side of good, now you are fighting on our side. Oh, Charles will have a field day for this." That chuckle soon turned into a frown, "Though that girl called you 'mother,' are you hiding anything, Ororo?"
"Get off my case, Mystique. I've not known a man."
"Still a virgin then." The shapeshifter chuckles, much to the ire of the weather manipulator.
Venom growled, then suddenly went still; he marched forward, opening the door. He looked around the space of the Lizards lair; he could sense something was there. He looks to the far end to see Riot, Lasher, and Phage playing cards on the table while a man clad in red is on a makeshift hammock. Puzzled by the comer, he looms over the man sleeping on it. He snores loudly, then Venom spins the hammock knocking the man to the ground.
"OKAY! WHOSE THE WISE GUY!" The redhead man barks as the symbiote covers him from head to toe.
"Who are you?" Venom says, folding his arms.
The man chuckles as he recognizes Venom; "Why, Pa, don't you recognize me? I'm your offspring!"
"Offspring?!" Then Venom places a hand on his chin, thinking for a moment. "Yes, Yes…we recall replicating, twice actually."
"Yes, here's the deal I want in!"
"In, you say?"
Carnage cackles, "I know about your little feud with our masked wall-crawling friend Spider-Man. I am willing to help you."
She-Venom comes in, staring at Carnage, "It's you! The one who hurt the innocent bystanders!"
"Yes, me! And I'll do it again!"
Venom had much to consider; Eddie would disapprove since he does not hurt innocent people. However, Brock wasn't in control anymore, Venom was free to do what it wanted and how it wanted, and nothing would stop that until that blasted bug was dealt with. The other half of him dared to join up with Parker, but now it would move on with the plan. First, to get off this island, it needed something big to transport the army of symbiotes but what?
Venom muses for a moment. Perhaps gaining a new ally from his offspring would be beneficial after the more, the merrier. "Forgive us, but we don't know your name."
"It's Carnage!"
"Hmm, offspring, why do you want to join us?"
"Chaos, man, it's all about the chaos. I love that everything is a mess around here. Buildings are on fire, riots in the streets, and, more importantly, I see mass destruction everywhere. It's like a dream come true."
"You have a very shallow way of thinking, Carnage." A new voice rang out.
"Whose there!" Venom spins around, facing the door; he can see a silhouette walking towards them, but he doesn't know. Who it was Immediately, the symbiotes went on the offensive stances surrounding the door entrance. They hear the clicks of heels coming closer and closer to them, and the tension begins to rise more and more as the footfalls come closer.
The figure comes into full view, a leotard with black gloves and boots that go halfway to her biceps and thigh, while a white spider emblem takes much of her costume with a lightning bolt in its center. Her jack-o'-lantern eyes came into view, "Hello, Venom, I think we can help each other on this endeavor you started."
Mystique exclaims, "It's you again!"
"Indeed."
Venom then interrupts, "Who are you?"
"Call me an ally." The blonde-haired woman says, "I want to contribute to helping you take down Spider-Man."
This had Venom intrigued. He looks at the woman before calling off his allies, including symbiote Wolverine and Symbiote Storm. He walks up to her sizing her up; the two are silent, observing each other as two tigers circling, waiting for the other to strike. The others waited to see what would happen.
"Interesting indeed…" Venom licks his teeth, "Tell us why are you doing this? Why should we recruit you?"
"Because I'm the only one with security clearance to get you off this island. Think about it?" She says, "Taking over New York is nothing, but what if you can expand the invasion even further?"
Now this got him interested, "We're listening?"
"Have you ever heard S.H.I.E.L.D?"
LXD: Wow, has it been 4 months since my last update? How time flies…anyway, hello to all my readers, subscribers, and happy people out there. I am back with a new chapter after an unintentional hiatus. I won't go into details, but a lot has happened to cause my delay in this fanfic between personal life, my job, and a lot of in-betweens I couldn't find time to write with all the commotion going on. After this update, I will start making the next chapter, so stay tuned. I must admit this story has grown a little in followers and favs after a few months of silence, and I am glad and thank everyone who sees the potential of this story. We have one or two more parts to get done. I know I said I wanted to part 2 & 3 in one chapter, but given how long I've been away, I decided not to do that. Anyways, thank you so much for your patience with me. As always, please leave a comment, review, sub, or fav; I'll see you in the next chapter soon.
Responses to the reviewers:
Guest: Well, my friend, here is a new chapter hope the wait was worth it.
TW: Thank you
Death Fury: Thank you.
king56: I'm glad you are enjoying it so far, and I hope you stick around until the end. Though I'm not trying to bias here because it's my story, are you sure it's a rigid transition? I read my fanfic multiple times to make sure every flow. Is the flow not there?
Drag7: See the PM I sent you, but I also want to clarify something. Peter will always have an opinion, whether good or bad, and you can see that in the comics, tv, and video games. I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel here. I'm trying to stay true to every character as best I can, and I think adults can act immature as well, but I don't know what you mean by that; they act like silly children in heat. I'm not sure what you are seeing that makes you say that. I'm not trying to be biased since it is my fanfic. About build-up, I don't know what you want? I try to build this fic up, retooling what's already there; like I said, I'm not reinventing the wheel. I'm sure you read better Spider-Man fanfics out there written by authors who can write better than I can. As I said before, I'm a veteran amateur; I can do so much. Despite that, I don't have the support of a co-writer or beta to help flesh out this story more unless you are willing to do so, but I doubt it. As I mentioned before in previous responses, I won't seek out a beta because it's like finding a needle in a haystack. Plus, bad experiences with betas, save for one, don't sit well with me. I'm flying solo; that's why I depend on the reviews and opinions of the reviewers to see feedback. Not everyone is going to like the story I put out while others will; others will tell me to quit writing for what? For bad writing? Please…I want to see those people create their own stories and see if they won't get the same treatment, but I digress. With that said, I do hope you stuck around, but if not, thanks for reading anyway.