Meanwhile, on a desert island not too far from the Bermuda Triangle, five teenagers who were no more than about sixteen going on twenty (if not given a separate age for each member) were relishing in a beautiful vacation amongst a lost paradise of nature, playing tether ball, making sculptures out of sand, reading romance novels by Stephenie Meyer or just swimming about in the azure shaded ocean. Four boys and one female were having the time of their lives, as such teenagers often do, in the environment of antimodernism that could only compare their location with castaways, shipwrecks and feral children. The teens in question were trainees from Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, or S.H.I.E.L.D. for short. They were known specifically as the Amazing Spider-Man, Nova the Human Rocket, White Tiger, Power Man and Iron Fist.

At fifteen years of age, Peter Parker was the quintessential example of a poindexter. Living with his Aunt May and Uncle Benjamin in the Queens neighborhood of New York City, he was a bookworm and a geek, but on the other hand he was a straight A student at Midtown High who was favored by his teachers and cared less by his peers. During Dr. Eric Schwinner's demonstration of harnessing radioactivity, a small latrodectus mactans, otherwise known as a black widow spider had inconveniently dropped down right in the middle of the ray. Wounded, it bit Peter's right hand and from that moment on, it had been given him the powers, strength and agility of a spider. The radioactivity and his newly invented web shooters earned him the new alter ego of Spider-Man; Pater tested his new devices and his strength further into a commercial field from a TV show to a boxing competition with wrester Crusher Hogan. If he was able to pin Hogan in three minutes, Peter would win a $100. Eventually he was successful.

Everything was going fine for Peter. He was thinking of re-upping for another show when two weeks later, somebody shot his Uncle Ben in the chest twice with a .45 magnum. The burglar, Dennis Carradine, was caught red-handed in a deserted warehouse, so Peter took matters into his own hands and soon gained a selfless experience, knowing that with great power there must also come a great responsibility. During his spare time as Peter Parker, he became a freelance photographer for the Daily Bugle, ran by the notorious John Jonah Jameson, who perceived vigilantes like Spider-Man as a threat towards a peaceful society and even ranted about the subject to the public and to himself. His second best girlfriend May Jane Watson, was also aiming for a job as a journalist at the Bugle to be closer to Peter. All the same, he had been hired by Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D. to become the Ultimate Spider-Man and lead a quartet of trainees (or rookies) into the war against evil and protecting the innocent.

Samuel Alexander lived in Carefree, Arizona. Born and bred to a Hispanic family, consisting of his father Jesse, mother Eve and younger sister Kaelynn, he too led a normal life…until the exact day his father went missing. During his search on his skateboard, he tripped on a pebble, hit his forehead, woke up in the emergency room where he met Rocket Raccon and the assassin Gamora and was trained by the duo to become a full-fledged member of the Nova Corps just like his father. Nick Fury had caught wind of this and he successfully attempted to train Sam for S.H.I.E.L.D.. Sam agreed on the condition he'd search for his dad right after a year of service. As a transfer student at Midtown High, he was very cocky to his peers and at times, a bit of an annoyance…especially to Peter, but not to his own family.

Ava Ayla came from a long line of White Tigers. Her father was a White Tiger, her brothers Hector and Fillipo were White Tigers and even her mother was a White Tiger until the day she died. Inheriting Hector's amulet, Ava moved to Avengers Academy before going on to New York as a trainee for S.H.I.E.L.D.. With black hair, chocolate brown skin and sixteen years of age, she was extremely disciplined. When first meeting Spider-Man, she was dissatisfied with his abilities and semi-humorous attitude. But after attending Midtown High, she would always lend a hand (or in her alter-ego's case "paw") or two in assisting Peter and his teammates.

Luke Cage was muscular African American whose identity as Power Man was masked by his sunglasses. He was raised in Harlem, and spent much of his youth in a gang called "the Rivals", committing petty thefts with his best friend Willis Stryker. Realizing that his actions were deeply effecting his generous and doting parents, James and Esther, Luke repented his sons by remaining at the presence of his mother and father, who were later appointed S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists. They based their research on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, hoping to use their son as the test subject of a new variant of the Super-Soldier Serum, which could enhance a person's strength. On the eve of the test on a research plane, a "leak in the department" altered the terrorist organization Zodiac, they attacked the plane and James and Esther's research survived into their son. As he fell from being pushed into the ocean, his boy's strength increased and while he splashed into the water, Esther and James were taken hostage and their plane had crashed into the ocean as well. Remorseful, Luke returned to New York to complete his education at Midtown High, where he was enlisted by Nick Fury to join the S.H.I.E.L.D. Training Program.

Daniel "Danny" Rand was a smart blond haired kid from a wealthy family, whose father Wendell was CEO of Rand Corporation, a multi-media company of technology, construction and product manufacturing. When he was seven years old, he began to see that his whole life was laid out for him: A procession of social events, gatherings, meetings, phone calls and financial negotiations. As he grew older, Danny began to see how narrow-minded his parent's friends were, including some of his own with their Donald Trump-esque dignity. He knew that he could be so much more than just the average businessman-someone who could have a balance between rich and poor with a sense of pity and sympathy for those less fortunate than himself. To his luck, Wendell was skilled in martial arts, having learned it from the ancient Chinese city of K'un-Lun. Danny took his father's footsteps for his own good and became Iron First with only one final test to prove his worthiness: a battle with the dragon Shou-Lao in order to absorb a little of his power. Once that power was absorbed, Iron Fist was officially born. Although he was destined to rule K'un-Lun, Danny had to complete his education as a human being of the outside world, voicing his opinions through on-the-spot proverbs to anyone with a problem of sorts. His connections in the Rand Corporation went through to S.H.I.E.L.D. and he was allowed to take part in the training program with Spider-Man, whom he saw only as a worthy ally for his skills of wild melee attacks.

It all started on a cold day in August (literally) when Sam used the S.H.I.E.L.D. database to relocate the team to an island one hour and thirteen minutes away from Queens. Peter had slept in and the team came over to pick him up (once he was dressed in his Spider-Man suit) for a winter training course in the Catskill Mountains because school was closed. But Sam, tired of the inexorable acclimatizing that was forcing him to delay the search for his father, thought of a better idea: they were going to play hooky against Agent Phil Coulson's video briefing on their watch phones, telling them to report to S.H.I.E.L.D. Station I.C.E. for snow camping, avalanche preparedness, blizzard trekking, ice water scuba diving and other mandatory winter related activities. Coulson also informed the young heroes that their transport, a quinjet, was waiting for them outside John F. Kennedy International Airport before the video ended.

So after Sam explained his idea in less thorough detail, Spider-Man and his amazing friends packed their beach essentials, drove to the airport via taxi and made their way to the runway where the quinjet was sitting in the cold temperature. Once inside, Sam found the island, redirected the coordinates and took off for the new destination-right under Nick Fury and Coulson's noses. The passenger compartment of the quinjet was big enough to give the five high schoolers enough room to undress into their swimsuits, with Peter taking his time in a private, yet much smaller compartment that also served as the restroom. The other boys had their eyes closed (the quinjet was on autopilot), when Ava stripped down to change into her swimsuit: a pink bikini and shorts, a white boho maxi skirt and a light pink Hawaiian hibiscus flower attached to the right side of her 5'5" long brown hair.

"We're gonna get in trouble, that's all I'm saying," she said when they arrived. "But at least we'll be warm."

Danny took his turn to change in the restroom, leaving Sam and Luke to change into their own swimsuits and sunglasses, away from Peter and Ava's misdirected eyes for privacy. The two males exchanged embarrassed smiles when they were completely undressed.

After three quarters of three minutes, when Luke and Sam were already prepared, the quinjet made a soft landing on the sandy beach that could be seen for over half a mile in length.

"I have found paradise," said Danny, taking in the ocean breeze. His swimming trunks were an olive green color with black sunglasses and he wore a yin and yang necklace held by black string.

"Now that's what I'm talkin' about!" shouted Luke, observing the view. The rims of his sunglasses were light blue and his swimming trunks were pale red. Underneath his left arm was a royal blue beach chair.

"Awesome!" cried Sam and took a nosedive into the sand. His swimming trunks were cyan with PRU blue rims for his sunglasses and he too was carrying a beach chair, but under his right hand. He also wore sandals like the other three boys and had a brown string necklace held by a stainless steel clip.

"Welcome to paradise," Peter thought quietly. His swimming trunks were a dark imperial blue color with grey rimmed sunglasses. He was the first to lead the team out of the ship as he carried a towel around his arms.

About a minute later, Danny was sitting on a leaned coconut tree with his legs pulled up to his chest for a slightly higher view while the others stayed on the ground. Ava was sitting her chair, Luke stood by the tree with Sam resting his left hand on the bark of the tree. Peter sat on the sand, his legs crisscrossed, staring at the soft particles of sand, the very same sand that had been used to create glass and pearls.

"How did you guys find this place?" asked Luke.

"This was all Sam's," Peter replied. "Just before we took off, he found something in the database."

Sam smirked.

"It was filed under 'classy'," he finished.

The others looked at Sam as if they had swallowed a lemon. Sam himself, exchanged an expression of oddity.

"What?"

"You mean 'classified'?" Ava snarled.

"If Coulson squawks, I'll tell him I accidently entered the wrong coordinates."

"Do the math," Peter explained, drawing an "SD" in the sand. It was followed by a plus sign and a symbol of the sun.

"Snow day plus tropical island is greater than or equal to the wrath of Coulson."

But Sam neither cared nor heard any of his mathematical nonsense, all he wanted was a swim in the shimmering ocean. With a loud whoop, he held his hands to his knees and cannonballed into the water with a hard splash. The drops flew on for six meters and fell back into the ocean for a very quick sun shower with no clouds in the sky.

"Come on in, guys," Sam shouted after them.

The teens removed their sunglasses and ran after Sam into the relaxing warmth of the salt water. The water was as warm as the sand, if not less cooler, and they might have been swimming in a shark infested pool, but there were no sharks for miles around, and it was safe to say that there was no disturbance other than the breeze of the wind, rushing through the bushes in a faint sound of a child's laughter.

Peter was half a mile away from the beach when he thought to have heard the laughter. Just before his spider-senses could warn him of any imminent danger, he turned around and saw nothing but the island. The tinge of a shadow was likely to have been a sign that the teens were not alone.

"its paradise," Peter shrugged. "What could possibly go wrong?"

And they continued to play in their own private pool, splashing Peter with two scoopfuls of water, soaking his hair. They pranced around and horseplayed in the water for another hour before settling back on the sand for another set of activities. Danny stretched his arms into the open air, letting his arms dry from the water that soaked his body with a sigh of deep mediation. The very same meditation he had constantly done on mornings and evenings as part of his Iron Fist alter-ego.

"Ah, there is no beauty like that of unspoiled nature."

His eyes were closed as he said this. K'un-Lun was full of people who respected the environment and were almost afraid to leave their home. The outside world as they had called it, was too risky and felt that the inhabitants of another country (or planet) would not be accustomed to their ways unless if necessary for educational reasons.

After a split second, Danny lowered his arms and asked his fellow peers:

"Why would a place like this be in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s database?"

"I bet it's Fury's super-spy secret hideaway," Sam answered as he used his father's Black Nova helmet as a sand bucket. "What do you suppose he does here?"

I'll give you one guess. Peter could only imagine several agents, including Fury and Coulson having a nighttime luau in their finest traditional island attire. Even the Avengers were there. Black Widow having a strip tease for the men, Captain America throwing his shield only be intercepted by an arrow from Hawkeye, Tony Stark doing the cha-cha with Thor and Maria Hill and Bruce Banner doing the limbo rock, only to transform into the Incredible Hulk, upset with his loss of not going under the bar because his chest had kicked it up.

"Let's not ask questions we don't want answers to," snapped Peter in a morbid mood. "Just enjoy."

For the next three hours, the team of trainees played around the beach doing own little activity, like Sam creating a sand sculpture of his helmet while Danny made squiggles around the helmet with a branch stick he had gotten from near the bushes and it had already been broken from a strong force of nature. Peter found Ava sitting on her chair reading what looked like a math book borrowed from the school. Curious, he released the book from Ava's hands.

"Hey, that's my math homework!" she protested.

Peter looked deep into the contents of the book and saw that the hints of sexual innuendo was nothing to do with math (aside from how many times a person can have sex). He removed the dust jacket with his right fingers, slowly at first then with a quick flash, as it was exposed that the book Ava had been reading was Thundering Hearts, a heavy novel from Coulson's collection of literature based around the Avengers and their own personal lives.

Now that she had been caught reading a "chick-flick", Ava giggled with a soft deportment. She continued to read the 200th page to herself.

Luke had his arms open, shouting, "Over here!"

Peter took three steps back holding a football in his right hand.

"Go long!" he shouted.

And he threw the ball like a javelin. Luke ran over catch it, landed perfectly in his hands and the strength of the ball forced him down into sand-right onto the mouth of Sam's Nova helmet sculpture.

"My bad," Luke chuckled nervously.

Sam glared at him.

"That was for my dad!" he shrilled, clutching the black helmet. "And this is for me."

And he dumped an entire payload of sand onto the dark hair of Luke. Luke himself, was glad that none of it got into his eyes.

"It isn't wrong," murmured Danny to his peers, "but we play at the right place and the right time…which we are, but not in this case."

He gestured his right hand to the sculpture, noting the damage done. Peter felt a tingle from his spider-sense that coursed through his cerebrum and out of his cranium.

"TIME OUT!" he shouted. "Who's trying to mess up our fun?"

Sam and Ava walked over to him.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"My spider-sense is tingling."

It was one of Peter's most oft-quoted catchphrases.

"I think you're just guilt tripping over ditching Coulson," Sam remarked in a kind manner.

He nudged his left elbow romantically at Ava's right shoulder. The color of their skin was startling.

"How about a butt-whoopin' to get you over it?"

Sam's eyes were on Ava's shoulders, but his voice was aimed directly at Peter and he presented a volleyball from behind his back (which he had gotten out of the quinjet three minutes ago). He tossed it over to Peter, who caught it almost immediately.

"You're on," said Peter with narrowed eyes.

Five minutes later, a game of volleyball was set up. Peter, having bought his webshooters in the event of an emergency, formed a net connected by two palm trees. Ava acted as the impromptu coach with only rule in mind:

"Okay rules of the game, no one uses their powers."

Sam stood opposite to Peter on the other side of the net, he held the ball with tight fingers in his left hand and jumped four feet into the air, throwing it. Peter thrusted his body to the floor face first with open hands, aiming to catch the ball. However, he was able to succeed in bouncing the ball upwards towards a charging Ava, who somersaulted high into the palm tree, kicked away from it with her ballerina feet and struck a hard shot at it. The ball flew right into Sam's nose, jerking a full expose to the left side of his face, any harder and he would have gotten a nosebleed.

"What happened to 'no powers'?" he asked offensively.

"I said 'no powers', not 'no skills'," Ava confessed.

The next match was Danny on the right and Peter still on the left. Danny held the ball precariously in his right hand as if it were the egg of an extinct animal, ready to re-introduce the world to a long forgotten species.

"A thing can only be that which it is," Danny muttered in consolation.

Without warning, he jumped five feet into the air and kicked the ball with his right foot. Carefully concentrating, Peter locked his hands together just as the ball made contact with his hands and he threw it so high, you could barely tell where it was-until it landed behind a fortress of bushes.

"Great," said Ava with dismay. "It rolled into the jungle."

Peter walked over to get it without even announcing his volunteer.

"Hold onto your helmet, Sam," he said, pointing two of his right fingers at the Hispanic-American. "The next spike has your name on it."

Sam felt dismayed.

Peter walked into the dark green arena of vines and creepers. He was nervous at every step of the way and a rumbling was heard, but it was not his stomach from a lack of nutritious food. A strong gale blew through the trees and nearly tore the greenery out of their stems. He looked behind, almost certain that someone had been watching him when he heard the sound of a screech. There were no signs of life anywhere except for a few insects that were too small to see.

"This isn't creepy at all," Peter confirmed, placing his right hand on his heart for courage. "Good thing I'm not the nervous type."

But as the words escaped from his mouth, large gusts of wind came rushing into the forest, blowing the follicles in his hair and nearly blowing the trees and bushes out of their roots. Peter felt as if he were in an earthquake. The awful din lasted for another second…and it stopped-followed by the ringing of a cell phone that had been in Peter's right swimsuit pocket only after he had gone swimming in case S.H.I.E.L.D. called (even if he did, the phone was a water proof Samsung).

Nervous and fearing that he had been caught, Peter slowly removed the phone from the pocket and pressed the green call button. He didn't even notice the name of the person calling until it was too late.

"Hello?" he spoke in a soft, quiet voice, expecting a loud blare from Coulson or Fury. But instead…

"Peter?" the voice belonged to Sora.

Four months ago, Sora, Donald and Goofy had visited Midtown High on an exploitation tour where they met Spider-Man (as Peter) and helped him against an attack on the school by three members of the Frightful Four: Klaw, Wizard and Thundra, who were searching for Spider-Man and they threatened to destroy the entire facility if he did not show up with everyone inside. They had been tipped off by their fourth member Trapster, who had placed a tracer under Spidey's right arm from a previous battle, to which he had been captured. As a reward for their efforts, Spider-Man revealed his identity to the trio (in a secluded locker room) and thanked them for a "special performance".

Anyways, Peter did have the chance to tell Sora about his new "team", considering they had left a day after the incident and he did not know how to respond after not seeing each other for four months.

"Sora? I-It's been a while," Peter was surprised by this unexpected call, even less when he had given Sora his phone number prior to the departure, thinking that Sora would need his services again for some other day.

"Where are you, Peter?" asked Sora, pushing his right ear into the phone. "It sounds windy out there and it doesn't sound anything compared to the wind in New York."

"The guys and I are on an island Sam found in the S.H.I.E.L.D. database. It's snowing in New York and Coulson told us to meet him at some 'I.C.E.' base, but we decided to have our own little vacation."

Sora, holding a little naughtiness in his veins, nodded away from Peter's eyesight and asked him in a very temptations manner. He didn't even bother to ask Peter "who is we?" out of curiosity.

"How would you like to spend the rest of your vacation here with me in San Fransokyo? I'm sure the guys at S.H.I.E.L.D. won't mind looking for you there."

"As in right now?" Peter was unsure. "My friends and I just got here."

"Well then, how about tomorrow morning? You might hate me for saying this, but I want you to train some new superheroes from a tech college about the proper use of super powers and agility."

Parker's eyes narrowed. Training a group of college age superheroes was just about as tantamount as being a part of one.

"Come again?" Peter asked incisively.

"San Fransokyo is in jeopardy against an army of Mafioso and we could certainly use your help. With all our combines forces, we might be able to stop them from making some type of invention that could…I don't know-bring an apocalypse to the entire city?!"

"How cliché."

"But this is a real-life cliché."

"I don't know, Sora. I've already got enough on my hands to last me a whole day."

"Then why don't you come to the city tomorrow morning? You'll have fun for the rest of the day and tomorrow you can check into a hotel under your real name. I hope you can accomplish this, Peter…you're the only one I can trust into doing a good job with rookies."

"How many of these new superheroes are there?"

"Six."

"That makes eleven…but I'll see what I can do."

Peter hung up, thinking about his decision as he placed the phone back into the pocket. San Fransokyo was on the other side of the country, and if they were to leave now, they would get there by sundown. Placing his right fingers on his chin, he wondered if these new superhero wannabes had any potential of understanding great power and great responsibility. He thought for two minutes and just when he was about to think it over for another five, his decision had been made. He looked back at the light at the edge of the jungle, remembering frightening noises and unknown disturbances that caused his spider-sense to tingle. The ball he had been searching for was six feet away from him under a large overgrown leaf. Peter picked it up and made his way back to the beach where he saw his friends-looking anxious and waiting impatiently for the ball.

"I just got a call," Peter spoke after six seconds of silence. "It's from Sora."

Ava shook her head with a sign of unfamiliarity. On the other hand, she was relieved that they did not get a call from Fury or Coulson.

"Who's Sora?" she asked.

"Didn't I tell you before?" Peter widened his arms.

"The guy with the spiky head?" Sam asked with gesturing index fingers.

"That's the guy," Peter nodded. "He says we should move our vacation spot to San Fransokyo. At least we'll be a lot far from Coulson than here."

Then something came from the bottom of Luke's toes just as he was about to reply, not belonging to a crab, but a discomforting pile sand that seemed to have a mind of its own. Looking down, he announced his reply as he struggled to remove his feet.

"I think you're right, bro. I don't what the hell is up with this sand."

At last, Luke removed his feet and Sam made an unenthusiastic yawn.

"All this fun has made me beat," Sam looked to his friends. "I need a nap…at home?"

"We can't risk facing Fury about this place," snapped Ava.

"He'll find out anyway," Danny replied like there was no tomorrow.

The rest of the young superheroes agreed in his case and Sam slumped his shoulders so low, that they could have fallen off and lay in the sand to rest with no life to live.

"Sora did say we could stay until tomorrow morning, but if this is the case, I think now would definitely be a good time."

Peter said this with absolute certainty, but it seemed that his friends had overstayed their welcome and were thinking of spending the rest of their fun filled day in a crowded place.

"Ok, let's go," Sam admitted with defeat.

So the teens packed their essentials back into the quinjet, about to take off…but Peter's spider-sense reckoned without a rolling pile of sand creeping towards the bay door. Like a gopher tunneling through a mole hill, whatever was under the sand found its way under the bay door of the jet and formed an arm…all by itself. Almost in an animated-like fashion, the sand leapt into the jet, pounding the steel floor with a quiet ambience of piling sand drowned out by the crashing waves of the ocean and found a pill shaped capsule made of glass used for capturing specimens.

None of the quinjet's passengers ever saw the sand unlocking the capsule with a solidified hand and quietly entering it as the aircraft took off into the sky.