Answers to reviewers and questions:
gunman: Grail will show up within the next five or six chapters.
Adtr509: The Jean Grey I'll be using will sort of be the White Crown only in this instance she doesn't have the entire Phoenix with her. It'll be split between her and Peter.
J.E.P. 1996: The War World one will, mainly because it'll have more women in it and Peter won't be in the middle of fighting a war that, if lost, means the death of all humanity. Sadly, no. Mainly because I kind of ship Marcus and Anya more than Peter and Anya. If Peter tried to make some moves on her, Fenix would run him through with his Chainsaw
Guest: That story is for a later date.
Cyclopz: Bobbi and Sofia would be the only ones he'd have on his squad when he's not with Delta because of the possibilities of him and Baird mouthing each other off. Brand has her own squad and Thecelia is a woman from a breeding farm.
Dr. Sugarcakes: It'll be similar to Marvel's Secret wars in that there will be these sorts of kingdoms set up all over this planet that Doom's made, only instead of a dozen or so it'll be hundreds. Won't visit all of them but this time Doom saved more universes and ones from the DC multiverse as well and Peter will be the sort of ruler of his little slice, though it won't be too hard for him, hell he won't even need the Phoenix fragment to control his part, that's just to make sure the other inhabitants don't try to take over his place
Dante 101: The Phoenix can help in that regard to some degree, enhanced stamina and all that. In the comics during the final incursions where Earths of alternate universes were colliding with each other, Doom harnessed the power of the Beyonders by using Molecule Man as a conduit for their power
Dawn of Kitsune: Different type of Peter Parker, he'll have to kill to survive in this world but he won't be a sociopath or anything like that and thankfully most of the story will be him killing the Locust or Lambet.
Yorhart Meltz: No Peter's been in Onyx Guard for just only six weeks, like he graduated from the academy and was assigned his squad the day after the UIR surrendered but he'll still be pretty new to the whole thing and might as well still be a cadet to some of his peers like Sofia is. Peter will be a sort of jack of all trades kind of fighter, close range, long range, heavy weapons and the likes, being part of a sort of black ops elite unit means he's going to have to be versatile, like in the comics. The Phoenix Force can allow him to move at speeds like that, Jean could travel to other planets when she was its host.
Beta Reader: The Undying Will
Disclaimer: I don't own any Marvel or DC characters seen, mentioned or used.
"So… if you became a bad guy, how would you kill off the Justice League?"
Superman, whose eyes were closed as he settled into a sort of state that wasn't asleep, but not conscious either, shot open in surprise before looking over at his longtime friend in bewilderment.
"Uh…excuse me?"
Spider-man, who was leaning back in his chair, glanced over at Superman with a shrug. "If you went evil, how would you wipe out the Justice League? Like, take no quarter, wipe them all out kind of evil."
"Oh…" Superman said as he stared at Spider-man for several moments, even secretly eyeing him up and down with his X-ray vision and microscopic vision along with enhanced senses like hearing and smell to make sure that it was Peter Parker, not some shapeshifter, robot, or some other kind of construct "What uh… what makes you ask that?"
"Eh, just something Power Girl mentioned about how her world's Superman went all evil because of Darkseid and how he killed some of her world's heroes and it got me thinking ever since." Peter said as he rubbed the back of his head.
"When was this?" Clark asked with a quirked brow.
"She, uh, came by my work the other day to speak with my boss on Horizon Labs working on a joint venture with her company and we got to talking after…" Peter trailed off with a cough.
Clark stared at Peter for several moments before he shook his head "You're an animal…you're starting to be worse than Hal and Ollie combined. I mean, first Lois and now Karen? When will it end with you?"
"Well in my defense, I am half spider and spiders are pretty sexually active creatures." Peter stated with a shrug, not bothering to bring up the fact he's also slept with Diana twice, the second time being a threesome with Carol.
After a few moments, and finding that Peter seemed to be there, he gave a slight shrug. "Depends on whether I'm facing down the whole League at once or its members separately."
"Separately, taking them all on at once sounds like suicide, even for a guy like you." Peter said as he glanced at the vast array of monitors in the room and saw that so far nothing too bad has happened yet.
After a few minutes of silence, Clark finally spoke. "Well if I'm going to be taking out members permanently, guess I would start with Batman first. Take out the tactician and the rest will be somewhat easier to beat, I suppose."
"How'd you take out Bats?" Peter asked with a quirked brow. "Isn't he always expecting you to one day go rouge or something and has countermeasures to stop you?"
"Yeah and he could stop me… if I gave him the time to." Superman said with a thoughtful expression on his face. "When you think about it, it wouldn't be that hard for me to kill him. I could hit him with my heat vision from several miles away in broad daylight when he's Bruce Wayne. Those, uh, windows of his at Wayne Tower can barely stop a fifty-caliber bullet fired from a high power rifle, my several thousand-degree eye beams won't have much trouble getting through that."
"So to take out the world's greatest detective, all you have to do is blast him with some heat vision in broad daylight?" Peter asked with a frown. "Huh, not very creative…"
"Well, I can always race down to Gotham, run my hand through his chest and crush his heart and race back here all in the span of two heartbeats." Clark said with a shrug. "Peter, at the end of the day, Bruce is a very killable man. The best thing to do is overestimate him and use overwhelming force, almost comical force to beat him. Or just take a gun and shoot him in the face in broad daylight from a skyscraper several hundred meters away"
Peter hummed at that as he and Clark continued to monitor the monitors for several minutes before Peter spoke again. "Okay, so you take out Batman, whose next and how?"
"Aquaman," Superman said as he keyed in a few commands on a holographic screen, "since that guy is almost as good a tactician as Batman and can rally others, plus the trident of his can kill me if I let him get close enough. Best thing would be to break his arms and legs and drop him in the middle of a dessert and make sure he can't call for help."
"Jesus that's brutal man…" Peter said with a grim chuckle.
Clark shrugged. "If I'm going to be evil and kill of the Justice League, might as well go all the way and make it brutal if for nothing else then to demoralize the rest before I get to them."
"Fair point." Peter conceded.
"After that, I'd go with Manhunter, break up a sort of mental communications they can have, keep them isolated and unaware of what's going on for as long as possible. He'll be tricky given he's a powerful telepath, can turn invisible and shapeshift. He's like Apocalypse but green and less homicidal."
"Well, his weakness is fire." Peter pointed out as he turned towards Clark and gestured towards his eyes. "Can't you just burn him until he's ashes?"
"Yeah, but it's not like he's going to stand there and take it, plus it's more of a phobia then an actual weakness like Kryptonite is for me." Clark said as he cupped his chin. "I could always throw something together in the Fortress that can kill him. The perks of super speed and being able to think faster than a human on top of having a genius intellect."
"So who's next in your rampage?" Peter asked with a nod.
"Well after that, it'd be taking out the likes of Firestorm to prevent the creation of Kryptonite which I can do by finding a way to revert him back to Ronne and professor Stein and after that, it'll be as simple as killing any other human when you're as strong as me." Clark said with a shrug. "Then I'd move on to magic which would be a lot more difficult to beat."
"Who'd you start with? Zatanna or Captain Marvel?" Peter questioned.
"I'd start with Billy since he's one of the very few that could ever go toe to toe with me in an all-out fight. Plus, with him being magic doesn't help since that stuff can harm me just as bad if not worse than red sun energy or Kryptonite." Clark answered with a frown. "Zatanna, well, so long as I don't let her speak, I think I'm good in that regard since most of her really powerful and even lethal spells need to be spoken… least the ones I'm aware that she can cast. Who knows, she might be able to cast some instant death spell on me without saying a word."
"True…" Peter said before he snapped his fingers. "What about me?"
"What about you?" Clark asked with a raised brow.
"How'd you kill me off?" Peter asked.
Clark stared at him for several minutes as his mind raced for a possible answer before speaking. "I just have to move faster than your spider-sense and the rest is easy. Just a fraction of my strength should be enough to kill you in one hit."
"Oh…" Peter's shoulders slumped "That's it? Just move faster than my spider-sense and reflexes and boom, instant death?"
"Well to be honest, you're not that high up the totem pole in power. I mean don't get me wrong, if you knew I was coming for you and had time, little as it might be, you might actually pull something off that beats me, but like Bats…" Clark trailed off with a shrug. "I just gotta move faster than you can and hit you harder than you can take."
Peter sighed at this as he leaned against the console with his chin in his palm. "When you say it like that, you make me sound weak and lame"
"Well I need sunlight to make my powers work. Just knock me out and place me in somewhere that doesn't get sunlight and after a while, I'll be pretty human and killable too." Clark pointed out.
"Well yeah but you've absorbed a lot of solar energy since you've crashed here, might take a while." Peter responded.
"Not if you somehow drain the energy from me, which a lot of people can pull off. Or just have me exhaust myself, catch me before I can recharge and then… well I'll be at your mercy then." Clark said as he let out a yawn. "Or use my senses against me. That super hearing of mine can be a real problem if I'm fighting someone that uses acoustic based attacks like Banshee from the X-men."
"Or I can just have Jameson yell in your ear." Peter snickered.
"No need, I can hear him from Metropolis sometimes." Clark said with a dry chuckle.
Peter laughed at that, knowing he might be telling the truth given the sensitivity of his hearing before he saw Green Lantern, it looked like Kyle, race by. "What about a Green Lantern? How'd you take them out?"
Clark followed Peter's gaze with narrowed eyes. "Hmmm…well their rings create constructs that come from their thought and well I can move faster than a human can think so…super speed and rip the ring off them, crush it to make sure they can't use it and then…easy as killing a human with my powers."
"Man, you really put some thought into these answers." Peter said.
"Like I said earlier, pays to be able to think faster than a human. I might not be able to think at the same speeds as a Flash like Barry or Wally, but I can think a lot faster than you or Bruce ever could." Clark replied.
"Point." Peter said with a nod before a thought came to him. "Say, how is it that Batman can always pull out some Kryptonite from his belt when you're fighting? With your speed and reflexes which are second to the Flash, shouldn't you be able to see him do that and stop him before his hand even makes it one inch towards it?"
"Well most of the times we've fought, I was under another's control and I was fighting its influence. Tends to slow me down since most of my attention is on regaining control of myself…"
"So, Bats can only ever beat you on the draw because you're too busy helping him beat you when someone takes over your mind or something?" Peter asked.
"Yep," Clark said with a nod. "And before you ask about his mechanized armored suits, very few of them have long range capabilities. I can just pull back and use a combination of my frost breath and heat vision to weaken the armor or go for the joints and limit its mobility and then…no more Dark Knight."
"Heh, so Bats has only ever been able to beat you because you were handicapped?" Peter asked with a snort of amusement.
"Well, that and because I've never gone for the kill and neither has he. Plus, he's had time to plan ahead on how to beat me before the first punch is thrown." Clark stated as he viewed a few more screens. "What about you? How'd you take out the Justice League if you went evil?"
"Me?" Peter pointed to himself before waving his hand in the air. "Heh, my attempts wouldn't be as dramatic given three quarters of this team's members outrank me in power and resources. But to take out people like Batman, any of the Green Lanterns so long as they don't fly to another planet, Green Arrow, Black Canary and all of the other very human members...science!"
"Science?" Clark asked with a chuckle "Really?"
"Hey, I have a doctrine in biochemistry and I'm thinking of getting one in biology, chemistry, and physics since I'm smarter than half the people out there who have a doctrine in those fields according to some of my co-workers at Horizon Labs. I'd just whip up a pathogen or parasite and covertly infect various members of the League and let it take its course."
"How would you stop someone from curing it or finding a way to beat it?" Clark asked
"A little tweaking on my part could have it constantly self-adapting and evolving, but by then it'll be too late for quite a few or at least get them into a position where it'll leave them easier to kill. It's kind of hard to fight a guy when you're suffering from a fever that's near fatal and your body's organs are starting to shut down." Peter said with a shrug. "Sometimes it's not the big bad monster that kills ya, but the small little microscopic one that does. I mean how many people have died more from some sort of pathogen then a gun or knife?"
"A lot, now that I think about it" Clark said, starting to see why Peter would go this route. "A lot of men from the American Civil war didn't die because of a bullet, but from disease because of unclean medical equipment and harsh conditions."
Peter nodded. "Exactly, and if that doesn't do in a lot of them, well I'm a pretty good engineer and mechanic. Hell, I could probably build something just as effective as Bruce could in my lab at Horizon to take you all out."
Clark laughed at that as the two settled into silence and resumed watching the various screens, news channels and other devices that help them keep a watchful eye over the planet. After a few moments Peter began to laugh which caught Clark's attention.
"What is it?"
Peter sent the image to Clark. "Just look."
Clark quirked a brow at this before he glanced at the image and couldn't help but start to chuckle himself.
It was a recording of the Hulk sitting in a large pond in the middle of a park, splashing water around like he was a small child and not one of the most powerful beings on earth with Power Girl, Captain Atom, and over a hundred ARGUS and SHIELD agents on standby just a few hundred meters away.
It was clear to him that Hulk saw them, but since they haven't made a move towards him, the green goliath didn't see a reason to respond with aggression…yet.
After a few moments Clark chuckled as he watched several ducks swim around the Hulk, seemingly unafraid of his presence. "Hard to imagine how violent and destructive he can get when you seem him acting like a child."
"The big man just wants to be left alone Clark, and sadly people like Waller or Fury forget that little detail and attack him every chance they get. I'm positive that Karen and Atom being there are to dissuade ARGUS and HEILD from attacking him rather than make sure Hulk doesn't go on a bloody rampage." Peter said.
"You think they'd be enough to stop him if it did come down to that? Power Girl and Captain Atom, I mean." Clark asked as he nodded towards the two floating heroes.
"Eh, they'd slow him down maybe but given that it took you and the Sentry who was pretty much throwing everything he had at the Hulk, I'd say you'll need Supergirl, Manhunter, Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman, and Juggernaut to help out since by the time you all get there, Hulk will be plenty mad from his fight with Power Girl and Atom and you're going to need the extra muscle." Peter said.
"I'm not sure Marko would be willing to help us stop a Hulk rampage, he actually might make it worse." Clark said with a frown.
"Oh, uh, Marko's not Juggernaut anymore. He got disowned by Cyttorak or something and now Colossus in his new avatar apparently." Peter said.
Clark's eyes widened at this. "Really? Since when?"
"It was a few weeks ago. Wolverine didn't give me the full details but apparently the big Russian brother of the X-men is now the new Juggernaut. From what I've gathered he doesn't seem to be in the same league as Marko though." Peter said with a thoughtful expression on his face. "Which might be a good thing given how nigh unstoppable the original Juggernaut was."
"Oh trust me. I know how tough he was." Clark said as he rubbed his chest "Once made the mistake of trying to physically stop him. I think he cracked my entire rib cage when he collided with me."
"Well once he gets moving, he's pretty much incapable of slowing down unless he decides to or you somehow get his helmet off and sick a telepath on him." Peter said as his own fight with the crimson brute came to mind. "Me, I was lucky he was going easy on me and he underestimated just how crafty I can be."
Clark nodded at this before looking back at the screen before a thought came to him. "Has Hulk ever faced the original Juggernaut?"
"Yeah, a few times. Why?" Peter questioned.
"Well who won?"
Peter thought about it for a few minutes before he shrugged. "I think it's a tie. Hulk won some and Juggy won some."
"Must have been some fight." Clark said with a whistle.
"Well the world is still here, so I think we can safely assume it wasn't that bad. Now, had it been one of them against Doomsday that might be a different story." Peter said as he flipped through a few news channels for something to hold his interest.
"Well given that Doomsday is in the same weight class as either of those two and just as stubborn, I'm pretty sure the fight will only ever end when one of them doesn't get back up." Clark said as his mind raced back to his own fight with Doomsday and began to mentally compare his later bouts with Hulk and Juggernaut.
"Who'd you place your money on if the three ever got into a fight?" Peter asked with a curious expression on his face. "Hulk, Juggy, or Doomsday?"
Clark didn't even bother thinking, he just blurted out his answer. "Hulk."
"Really?" Peter asked. He was half expecting to hear Doomsday.
Clark glanced at Peter with a deadpanned expression. "You really want to bet against the Hulk?"
"…"
"…"
"…Like regular old Hulk that speaks like a kid or the Hulk that came back to Earth a while back after getting kicked off it by ARGUS and pretty much kicked the collective crap out of the entire superhero community until you and Sentry both tag teamed the guy and gave him everything you got until you laid half dead on the ground on the verge of blacking out and Hulk and Sentry reverted back into Banner and Reynolds respectively?"
"That one." Clark said with a shiver. That was one fight he'd never forget.
Peter nodded. "Well, what about Juggernaut? He's pretty much capable of infinite strength too and well he arguably has more brains than Hulk depending on the incarnation and a hell of a lot more than Doomsday who is all growls and glares with the occasional roar."
"He'd last longer than Doomsday I reckon since he's practically immortal and the only thing the Hulk can do is either out punch him or put him somewhere where he can't move but then the same could be said about Hulk. Doomsday, hard as it may sound simply just needs to be beaten to death. I mean I did it."
"But shouldn't Doomsday be immune to being punched to death?" Peter asked with a skeptical look. "I mean once he dies, he comes back unable to die the same way again."
"It's more he can't die from the same amount of force I shot him with that killed him the first time. Hit him harder and then that should do it. Hulk and the Juggernaut are both capable of that if given enough time. One from anger which will grow pretty fast in a fight against Doomsday and the other from the whims of his cosmic backer, assuming Cyttorak doesn't dump Marko and make Doomsday his new herald or whatever it's called." Clark said with a shrug.
"Huh… well when you put it like that." Peter said with a nod.
"Plus, do you want the Hulk to find out you betted against him?" Clark asked with a chuckle.
"Oh god no." Peter said as held his head in his hands. "I'd never walk again!"
…
And done.
Next chapter, Spider-man and Black Canary join forces as Peter discovers more of Dr. Ivo's AMAZO tech being used by one of the crime lords in his city and the chapter after that, lemon!
I know I said the two would also compare villains but I decided to save that for another chapter. Plus I need to brush up on a few of their respective rogues that will be mentioned to make sure I get their power set accurate.