Peter instantly knew he wasn't in his part of the city before long. For one, there were no corner stores or abandoned cars or even houses. There was a big bridge over head surrounded by water on one side and construction things on another. Cranes, cars, dingy and rusting buildings galore.

He grinned. Sweet.

"You're easy to impress, aren't you?" Venom commented. Peter for the most part ignored it, but still scoffed indignantly when it felt like it was pushing the subject. He felt that the people outside looking at a five year old boy stare at them as he was driven away.

Then, they were all gone. The thin rail that separated the side walk from the water was gone and replaced by a high stone wall. Peter didn't know how long it took, but the next thing he knew they were well off the road and on an all-white one. To his surprise, a dock with a boat floating a few yards away from them, with the captain or whatever they called themselves were standing at the ready.

He didn't know why but he felt the urge to notice a quaint looking flower shop opposite from the water.

"Let's go." The Director of SHIELD said, undoing the locks he had engaged when Peter wasn't paying attention and opened the doors. Nebo came around the back to open the door for the two children next to Peter, but they shied away toward him as he hesitantly opened his own door and got out with him.

Peter walked after the two children who were being waved toward the boat by Nick. He could have sworn he heard something like a "stay here" inside his head or something, but shrugged it off.

When he got there, the driver looked from to the other two children and then at Nick with a bemused expression. At least it looked like that. Peter couldn't really tell because of the cloth covering a majority of his face and an orange book covering the place where he guessed his mouth was.

The Captain let down the book. "General Fury, may I ask what you are doing with three toddlers at sundown?" Nick glared at him. He sounded almost amused.

"That's classified information." Nick said, his eyebrow twitching ever so slightly. "Sure it is, General." He didn't believe him.

What was he doing with the three of the- oh. The car thing and shopping cart and… oh. He forgot. Peter shook his head and stared at the boat, suddenly finding it fascinating.

"Governor's Island, Coming up…" In a less than enthusiastic voice, the Captain said Nebo ushered the two children and Peter toward the inside of the boat.

'So this is what a boat looks like? It's bigger then my entire room!"

"Forget the boat, what're we going to do?" Peter's head snapped up. The voice inside his mind felt like it wasn't pleased and he had gotten used to it not talking for the day. 'What do you mean?' He asked, then shivered. He could almost feel it roll its eyes. "You're not in any way at all bothered with this?"

'Why should I be?' Peter retorted, trying to find a response. 'What else can we do?'

"Good point…" The voice paused. "We could run?"

'No.' Peter flatly rejected the proposal, crossing his arms and shook his head.

He hadn't noticed the other two sticking to him like glue since they got on the boat until now. When he looked at them they backed away. Instead of paying attention at the girl looking at him and the boy noticing this and pouting, he looked at the scenery, or lack thereof.

Peter found himself looking all around him at the things on a boat with a wide smile. This was… so awesome!

Meanwhile, Nick was looking forward to the small mass of land that was getting closer and closer by the minute with a determined glance. In his hand, he held his cell phone that had yet to be turned on again. Something fishy was going on, and it wasn't the water either.

In the corner of his eye he caught a bright purple glint coming from Peter. He looked around and tilted his head in curiosity, forcing the confusing thoughts away for the time being. The glint was coming from a necklace, something that he hadn't noticed Peter had been wearing all this time, since it was hidden in his shirt. It was an odd mix between indigo and metallic, making it become a very and very shady purple that in this light, was really shiny. It almost looked like… no, it couldn't be.

It had been so long ago by now, he laughed still at the thought of it. His successor and his fiancée and her sister had given their best friend and the sister's fiancée a necklace that looked exactly like that. Though, he remembered it as blue in color and being much smaller with a string instead of steel.

"Kid," he muttered, but Nick knew Peter heard him. "Where'd you get that?"

Peter looked over and backed away at sight of the slightly intimidating man looking down on him. "What necklace?" Nick pointed to the nape of his neck, right where the collar of his shirt began. "That one."

"Huh?" Peter looked at the small glint it was giving off and frowned deeply. He was sure he put that weird necklace back in the box where he had found it! "I thought I put this thing back…" He muttered, making it obvious to Nick that he didn't even know he had been wearing the thing. "I found it. In a box." Nick grunted and appeared to let it go, though the train of thought he had recently aborted was changing his attitude, and it wasn't noticeable at all. Given he always looked like he was angry no one could tell the difference.

Nebo walked over to Peter and looked at the necklace and whistled in earnest. "That's some nice bling-bling you got there noodle boy." He glanced over Peter's shoulder and said straight into his ear and Peter jerked forward.

"Nebo you sound like a damn fool when you talk like that. Just sit in a corner and do something productive." The man let out a childish groan before a grin came onto his face. Peter followed to where his eyes were looking and nearly growled. He then noticed the girl looking at him with those weird white looking eyes of hers. He shivered and looked away. They were kind of… creepy.

"Hello little girl." Nebo grinned down at the white eyed youth. Peter's glanced at and he thought the look on his face was creepy too. "What's your name?" The white eyed girl started to play with her fingers and looked around for a second or so before she finally stuttered out an answer. "Mina…" Nebo's grin widened further. Nick raised an eyebrow at him and he shrugged. "What? I'm doing something productive!" Mina stepped back a bit and started to stare at the ground, casting Peter a shy glance before looking at her feet again.

Nebo's grin split into a half devious smile and a creepy smirk on his face. "Brat come over here will you?" He asked aloud, not even bothering to turn around to face Peter. Peter blanched and shook his head. "No."

"What? Why not?" Stepping backward to the railing, Peter replied, "You're creepy."

Mina giggled and Nebo sputtered out something, but all Peter heard was, "Why you," before Nick interrupted. "He has a point. You never were good with kids, even when you were one. You always had that disturbing look on your face like you were ready to gobble them up. It was a bit creepy to me a few times too now that you mention it…" Peter smiled cheekily.

"Yeah, yeah gang up on me why don't you, you jerks. Get over there," he pushed Mina over to Peter, eliciting a mouse like squeak from her and walked over to Nick. "She's a mutie." He said quietly, so that they wouldn't hear them. The General raised an eyebrow. "You make it sound like a bad thing. Can the day get any worse?" He left the question hanging and rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed.

Nebo nodded, his face scrunching up a little. "I've seen the girl's eyes before. Can't exactly remember where, but there was an entire clan of 'em. She's probably from a family that came here and didn't have the best of luck." Nick nodded silently and crossed his arms. "What makes you say that?"

"Well, this was on the other side of the world. Do you see any people walking around with their eyes looking dead as hell?" Nick grunted in response. "Thought so. If I remember right, those eyes of theirs are supposed to have x-ray vision or something. No wonder why some of them worked in hospitals."

Nick almost didn't want to ask where the others worked, but he did anyway. Nebo shook his head. "Remember that case I told you about a few months back? Where someone made a point of killing mutants if they didn't agree to go along with their terms? That was HYDRA. These guys were some of their agents. The ones in the hospital were working on the inside; killing anyone who managed to survive if they were their patients."

There was a long pause before either of them spoke again. "What about the boy?" Nick asked, rubbing his nose again. It had become a habit. Nebo "Hm'ed" for a second or so before answering. "Same case as the girl. Family comes from the other side of the world to here thinking they can get away from persecution, and they get a rude surprise in return. They worked for HYDRA too. The two brats' parents probably came here to get away from HYDRA." He frowned.

Nick knew how HYDRA operated. If you weren't with them, you were against them, and that made you the enemy. If you were an enemy… you were dead. But if you were with them, it was because of the medical benefits. After all, who could beat the promise that for every thing you lose, something better and stronger would take its place?

He rolled his eyes. Bull crap.

In any sense he didn't want to think what happened to these kids' parents, but it was necessary. "What could the boy's family do?"

Well, if my theory is right, which it probably is, then I'd say that they were feral."

"What?"

"You know, animalistic. The neighborhood where they lived was pretty good though. They had a lot of dogs, too. I had taken some notes on them but-"

"You erased them for your 'notes', you perverted idiot." Nick rolled his eyes.

"Anyway, they're like werewolves, without all the hair. I had pissed off one of them when I flirted with his wife. Actually, he called her his 'bitch' but I don't think he meant it in a bad way. She had kindly referred herself as his mate and-" Nick slapped him upside the head again. "Get to the damn point already!"

"They used the dogs. It was like they could speak to them. Next thing I knew, I was getting double teamed by some punk and his mutt. Annoying little bastards they were. When I finally explained to them it was an accident, they introduced me to their 'society'. Apparently they have all of their senses heightened on par with dogs. Hearing, sight, strength of a human sized mutt, the whole nine-yards. And claws sharp as hell too." He ran his hands across his forearms and winced.

Nick nodded once more and looked between the two children for a brief second. Things were getting interesting now. "Okay. Now, the last things I want to know before my head explodes is How in the hell do you know all of this? W-Where did you find these people?"

Nebo shrugged. "Some village."

"A-And what country? Japan? China? Europe? What?"

"Oh no this place was in one of the biggest forests I had ever seen. If I didn't get there when I did, I would have probably gone insane. I wouldn't be surprised if it was on the map either. It could be a pocket dimension from that time the Negative Zone exploded out, though."

"How do I not hear about these things?"

"You're always in your office with paperwork and stuff." Nebo stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "That place-where the dog people were I mean- smelled like unholy piss too. They 'marked' their things just like mutts, but in my opinion they took it a little too far. Where ever that craphole is now the property values are probably all shit."

Nick frowned ever so slightly, "I expected as much." He sighed. "Take out the Christmas tree and put me under it. God I'm getting too old for this."Nebo patted the man on the back and chuckled. "Come on teach! Don't tell me that a senior citizen like you is getting tired already? Just think of when you took me and Natasha in and this'll be a cinch!" Nick glared at him. "Maybe not, but I sure as hell ain't taking them in. Except maybe the noodle brat. He's got spunk."

"Please you just want to corrupt him with your books like you did with me. Why not the other one?"

"He's going to be a big one. Trust me. I can see that in his eyes too. The girl could go either way, but she'll be a secret one. It's always the quiets ones, teach." Nick laughed a sardonic laugh and slapped Nebo's hand off of his shoulder. "Don't let Natasha hear you say that. She'll knock you through the door again. While it's locked."

"Pfft, whatever. I'm not afraid of that alcoholic sucker."

"Speaking of which… Here we are." Nick looked at the mass of land which was now only about thirty or twenty feet away and sighed again.

During their conversation that they knew was being overheard by the driver, Peter was looking at Mina curiously. She didn't look to creepy up front, but she would keep looking at him with her eyes on the ground like she was scared. After a few seconds of silence between the two of them she spoke. "H…Hello." He leaned forward, barely able to her that little squeak.

Mina shuffled her feet shyly, "T-Thank you for saving me…" Now that he heard. It wasn't a product of her voice being raised, but because she had said something worth listening to, at least to him that is. "It was nothing special. Anybody could have done it really," he straightened up a little and puffed out his chest and felt Venom roll it's 'eyes'. "I helped too you know."

'Quiet you.'

"Yes… U-Uhm, a-are hurt?" She asked, tilting her head up ever so slightly so he could see her face again. "Nope," he froze for a second and leaned in closer the next, causing her to darken in pink and flinch back. "Are you blind?" He obnoxiously asked. Of course he didn't know that but those eyes of hers had been bothering him for a while. Maybe that was why she looked down all the time, so she wouldn't walk into anything.

"She's shy."

"Uhm… no… my eyes- they were always like this…" She started to play with her fingers again."So they've always been so weird and freakish like that? Lucky her."

"Hey be quiet!" Peter hissed at the creature aloud. By the time he realized what he said, the girl had flinched back and covered her hands with her face. "Nice. Now throw her over board so we don't have to deal with weirdness."

Peter ignored the rude comment and attempted to correct himself. "I-uh, not you! I meant…" Mina looked at the ground and looked back up at him and looked back down again, her mouth opening and shutting before she could say anything. Peter groaned a little. "Y-you have something in your hair," he pointed at her forehead and she jumped back a little. He rolled his eyes.

"I'm not going to hit you," she let out another squeak but didn't stop him from pulling a piece of glass from her hair. Peter looked it over and shrugged his shoulders and tossed it into the water.

"T-Thank you. Again…" He looked at her and smiled a little. "No problem. Again- oh! Who's that?" She followed his finger to the boy behind her who had been slowly moving forward ever since he had been talking to her. He had noticed a little, but pretty much ignored him until now.

The other boy scowled lightly at him and pulled Mina behind him and barred his teeth at him. Peter furrowed his eyebrows, "Hi to you too." The boy pushed Mina behind him more and his eyes turned into slits, surprising Peter a little. The tingling in the back of his head went off faintly but he could still feel it. He scratched his head. 'Why now of all times?'

The sight of the boy's teeth getting longer along with his fingernails getting longer. 'Oh! That- ohhhh… '

To the side, Nebo slapped Nick's shoulder twice. "You said you wanted to know what they could do, don't pass up the chance Old Man."

Nick shook his head and rolled his eyes when the slit-eyed boy growl at Peter. "Separate them." He spoke with commanding finality that would make almost anyone obey. Keyword: almost. Nebo scoffed and slapped his hand on the shorter man's back. "When else are we going to see what they can do? Now is a better time than any, besides, if we had a camera and some popcorn we could have a movie!" Nick slapped the hand off of him again but didn't say anything else. He had a point. Well, half of one, he couldn't count on him to think too hard when he wasn't serious.

He looked at Peter and then to the boy and girl and muttered with some small amount of interest, "He's protective of her, hm." Then, he filed away the way boy's eyes were repeatedly dilating and shrinking into slits, as though they had trouble staying that way, but the fingernails stayed the same. That could be of some use later, he supposed.

He looked back at the three children and was surprised to see that the girl looked as if had given up fighting a useless and pointless battle after protesting only once. Any other time he would have thought she was just scared or weak willed from the personality of hers he had seen, but the way she pouted and slightly glared at the back of his head told him that she had experienced it before, and enough times to be used to it.

And then there was the little enigma of the group. He didn't look at all unsettled, like he was expecting this. It was either that or he was stupid and calm, or stubborn. Somehow Nick didn't doubt that somehow these two traits managed to coexist without a hitch.

Years of being in situations with superheroes had taught him that if someone or something is doing something dangerous to be on guard and not taunt them. Maybe the kid was a tiny bit screwed up in the head from earlier and that's why he stuck his tongue out.

He glanced at the other boy, Jake and saw he did look like a feral animal, somewhat. Both canines were elongated and he was doing a pose that dogs did when they challenged something. His legs were poised back and he was hunched over like one as well. The General frowned. This was becoming interesting, and coming from him, that meant something. Nebo elbowed him twice and raised his eyebrows repeatedly. "Eh? Eh? What I tell ya? I was right!"

Peter, following along with the oblivious notion that the other boy wished to play with him, continued on. Although, the Symbiotes was confused as to why it had come out as an insult, more or less. It had tried to influence him to use those webs of his to bind him to the ground, but he jumped out of the way instead. "Missed me!"

Jake lunged at him with one stretched out, partially clawed hand, eyes sharp like a razor. Peter jumped back again, landing at the back of the boat, perching precariously on the rail. "Nanana nana!"

Nick stepped forward to stop him since the kid's legs were pretty stubby and not very fast, but Nebo gripped his arm with a wide grin while shaking his head. "Look." Nick scowled and grunted out, "Wha- oh."

Not a foot away from where he once was, the boy had tripped. As he hit the ground he let out a puppy like whimper and held his knee. The General smirked a little. "What did you expect to see? He's five." Nebo commented, only to get a slap to the side of the head.

"Enough! Settle down now." He called out just as Mina ran to the whimpering little boy. "Jake!" She exclaimed.

"Your name is Jake? Well it's not very original, is it? You should have a classic name like Bob… or Joe! Yeah, or an awesome one like mine." Peter commented, shrugging cockily. A silence followed.

"General Fury, we're here." The driver, obviously not being able to read the mood as his eyes were stuck in the book, broke the silence which had, unknowingly become stagnant and uncomfortable. Of course, Nick knew that. The kid was staring at the other kid with a cocky smirk that looked severely out of place, and it was one he knew well.

He cleared his throat as the boat closed in to the dock and the small, almost silent humming of the engine stopped. Two people that Nick had been expecting to see when they arrived were standing right to the side of the boat, one of them a woman with a scowl on her face and her hair tied back into a ponytail with a tuft of hair hanging over her face. With her hands on her hips like that she almost looked motherly. Though knowing no mother figure could drink anyone he knew under the table and still be sober enough to throw a table around the room like a paper weight, he ignored it.

The other one was a young man with a faint, almost barely visible scar on his nose, and calm, serious expression on his face. His hair was tied back in a black bandana and on his torso was an equally black vest. Actually, he was pretty much covered in black, Nick noted absently. Although, his composure was frequently broken went every few seconds he twitched like something was crawling all over his skin.

"Ah," Nick nodded toward the driver before turning around to the people outside of the boat. "Romanoff, Mulligan." He nodded once more, as was the traditional way of addressing other people in his line of business, or at least the overly clichéd precedent in his opinion. "Thank you for coming."

"Hi!" Peter yelled exuberantly, jumping off the rail and onto the ground with ease, and then running to the front of the boat and around the General's legs. Though Nick saw that that smirk was gone and replaced by a wide, playful smile. "Hi." This would have been okay if it were for his perching on one of the poles that went in the water.

Natasha Romanoff, aka the Black Widow, crossed her arms and quirked an eyebrow at Nick. "Is there anything you would like to tell us, General?"