The Watcher looked down to Central City, a week after letting Jessica go and Peter taking over Mercury labs, watching as a man wearing a hoodie marched into the bank whist messy whilst messing with something attached to his wrist.
That's when one of the guards at the door noticed it and got a little suspicious. "Sir? Can I help you with something?"
"Thanks." He said, moving his hood back to reveal a crusted face that looked as if it were made of rock. "I'll be just fine." He then flicked something that started to whirr on his wrist, sending the entire bank into chaos.
Several members of the bank suddenly burst into tears; others became angry to the point that they started to attack others.
"Sir, you can't be back here." Someone inside the vault warned him as he walked inside.
"Nothing to get that upset about." The man said as he walked in, leaving the girl to curl up into a ball in terror.
Peter, Johnny, Sue and Jennifer were alerted on what was happening and quickly were making their way there.
"It's like the whole place turned against each other at Cunningham and Stampere." Cisco informed them as they made their way over.
"Wait, that's where I used to bank." Bette informed them.
"Once super criminals started becoming the norm, I went mattress." Cisco admitted.
"Not the weirdest thing you admitted." Peter was sorry to say as he was the first to arrive as he swung in, shattering a window on the second floor, seeing someone was carrying a gun over to someone who's curled up and crying in the corner.
Peter quickly made it over and shot a strand of webbing at the gun, yanking it out of her hands. "Yoink!"
Sue made it in and saw a bunch of people beating on someone. Immediately using her powers, creating a forcefield around the victim to protect them.
Johnny looked around, and just had no idea what to do. "Well...what do I do?"
"Stay out of the way." Jennifer demanded as she walked over and passed him towards the group of angry people. She walked over to the shielded victim, pulling the people away from him as someone made their way out the back.
Peter watched him leave and wondered if he should go after him when he was attacked by one of the guards and immediately knocked him out without even looking at him.
That's when they started to notice the room started to calm down and they should get out before the police show up.
"Somethings happening in the city and everyone wants to pretend like it isn't. But it is, and I think we should do something about it." Eddie tells the captain of the precinct.
"My boyfriend had decided we need to eat healthy at home, so work is the only place I can eat what I like." Singh says, ignoring Eddie while holding a Sloppy Joe. "Sorry, were you saying something, detective?" He asks Eddie, finally listening to what he's saying.
"The Fantastic Five, the gang of superheroes, whatever they call themselves; they were all spotted at the bank this morning." Eddie explains his suspicions.
"You mean the bank that was robbed of half a million dollars, where a dozen people tried to murder each other, where Spider-Man showed up to calm them down with his team that saved the city a few days back, and you think our attention should be on arresting them." Singh clarifies what he's asking.
"I can't explain how they get to and from crime scenes so fast. But we need to figure out who they are and what they want." Eddie states to Singh.
"Why don't you ask your girlfriend? She writes about them all the time." Singh states, not exactly interested in going after vigilantes doing what's right.
Outside the office, Barry is listening to every word as Iris approaches him. "Hey, what's going on in there?"
"Uh...I think Eddie's trying to convince the captain that Spider-Man and friends are public menaces." Barry replies to her.
"Excuse me?" Iris asks and looks to Eddie leaving the office.
"So, after weeks of trying to convince you that the Fantastic Five are real, now you do believe in them you're trying to have them arrested?" Iris asks Eddie
"Thanks, Barry." Eddie tells Barry, knowing he didn't want to tell her.
"Sorry." Barry apologizes, not really thinking about it.
"No worries." Eddie tells him and looks to Iris. "The captain shot me down. Look, I'm not feeling like lunch. I'll see you later."
"He's just jealous." Iris states.
"Of the Fantastic Five? Should he be?" Barry asks her, unsure of how that works.
"No, I'll see you later." Iris says and leaves.
"Barry, don't you have a date to get to?" Joe asked him, getting Barry to look and notice the time.
"Oh, right. I gotta go." Barry said as he rushed off to meet Caitlin at Jitters.
Ripley started to wake up and looked over to see a glowing red stone and a few people around it.
"The Evolution Stone has revealed her true strengths." The second figure said.
"I can't believe it." Reed said. "With this, we can make an army."
"With time, yes."
"Anger. Hate. Aggression." Harrison said as he walked out of Caitlin's labs.
"A jedi craves not these things." Cisco stated in a Yoda voice. "What? No one is feeling that quote?"
"We need to get you a girlfriend." Johnny was sorry to say. "Where's Sue?"
"She's with the kids, trying to examine the power level they have." Tess answered.
"Everyone in there went nuts, except for this one guy that I saw walk out like nothing was happening." Peter stated as he walked around the room.
"This guy?" Tess asked as she pulled up the security footage of the rocklike face man as he was on his way out.
"Yeah, that's him." Peter confirmed. "Anything on facial?"
"Funny thing. There's nothing." Bette informed him, showing they have zero recognition of the man.
"That's a first. Reach out to Fury, see if he can find anything." Peter shrugged.
"If this metahuman has the ability to engender irrational feelings into his victims, he can do a lot of damage. Feeling neophobia, depression, anger there could be a lot of things he could do." Harrison stated as he wondered how it's possible.
"I don't think we're dealing with a metahuman." Tess interjected as she rewound the footage and showed him enter the building and mess with his wrist.
"He's messing with something on his wrist." Jennifer examined. "What is it?"
"No idea." Tess shrugged. "We'd have to get our hands on him or see him closer to find out."
Peter then got two texts, one from Hank and the other from Iris saying they need to talk. "Oh, great. I need to get going."
"What's happening?" Ben wondered.
"Well, I took over Mercury Labs due to Tina's death, meaning I need to go and check out every problem and every project happening down there." Peter sighed and walked over to the case to grab his suit. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
"Good luck." Tess tells Peter as he made his way out.
Peter swung over and made it into Hank's labs and saw he had something on the works and wondered what he's been working on the past few days.
"Hank, what have you uncovered?" Peter asked.
"Well, it seems that HYDRA has been working on a few machines for interspace travel, and even one to keep eyes on the kids they kept...prisoner." Hank explained, a little bit ticked at the thought of kids being used as experiments for HYDRA.
"Why do I have a bad feeling coming?" Peter wondered.
"Actually, it's not so bad." Hank then pushed a button on the remote he has for his printer, and they looked over to the room holding it and it revealed a...robot?
The robot had four tiny legs that you could blink and miss it. He had a glowing green screen in the middle, two arms that reminded Peter a bit of Otto's arms, just without the threatening claws at the end, just replaced with tiny pinchers. He also had a control console on his chest, and also two ears on the top of his head, which was connected to the body by a small tube. A black screen for a face that once awoken brought up two yellow circles and a straight yellow line underneath them for eyes and a mouth.
The robot looks at the two humans and just stood there.
"So...who's supposed to talk first?" Peter wondered, no idea what to think. "We supposed to do something or was he supposed to do something?"
"You kinda have to ask him to do something." Hank informed Peter, gesturing to the robot. "But how about we start with this...introduce yourselves."
"Hello." The robot greeted Peter. "I am H.E.R.B.I.E. A Highly Engineered Robot Built for Interdimensional Exploration."
Peter looked over to Hank who had a proud smile and Peter looked a little dumbfounded. Hey, he's seen robots like this before. Just ask the Spider Slayers.
"Congratulations, you created the first version of Skynet." Peter stated to him. "This is what HYDRA was hiding this whole time?"
"Yeah. I uploaded him with all the knowledge of space that HYDRA had in their accounts, and also with the knowledge of the kids in the base." Hank explained to him, looking to H.E.R.B.I.E. and smiled. "And hey, the fact I can do this proves that Ultron isn't just a fantasy."
That's when H.E.R.B.I.E. short circuited, his head spinning around and running into the wall. Peter looked back to Hank with an unconvincing look on his face.
"There might be a few kinks that need to be sorted out." Hank admitted with a sheepish look.
"You know I have the power to fire you now, right?" Peter asked jokingly as he then walked back over to the window to go meet up with Iris.
Iris was at Jitters after closing, waiting in for Peter to make it as he landed on the table in the middle of the room.
"Been a minute, Iris." Peter greeted her as he dropped down on the table and sat there.
"Spider-Man." Iris greeted him. "It'd be great to call you by your real name."
"We've been over this." Peter reminded her as he got off the table and started wandering around the place. "You're already closer than I like anyone to be. But...you're gonna keep endangering yourself, might as well make sure the facts are the thing that's being spread."
"Fair enough." Iris guessed and decided to get to the reason why she was here. "Listen, my boyfriend, he's a cop. And he thinks you and your team are dangerous. Trying to convince his boss that you're a menace that needs to be stopped. Just thought you should have a heads up."
"Not to worry, I have friends within our heroes I'm blue." Peter assured her as he shot a web to the ceiling when the others contacted him.
"Yo, Pete, you there?" Cisco called in.
"What's up?" Peter asked.
"Cops got a ping on our Rockbiter buddy." Cisco informed them. "We already sent the others to meet you there."
"Send the location to my mask, I'll meet them there." Peter promises and turns to Iris. "Sorry to chat and swing like this."
"Bet you say that to all the girls." Iris told him.
"What other girls?" Peter asked, that being a terrible line he leaves for people he doesn't see on a daily basis. He then made his way out and swung off to find his friends and their...Moodswinger.
Cisco probably has a better name.
The other four made it to the location before Peter could and saw their man getting surrounded by the police. They were currently in an abandoned warehouse where they found some futuristic technology and the man they're looking for.
"Hands up!" One of them demanded.
"Don't move!" Yuri cried as she aimed her gun with everyone else.
"Jeff, cuff him." Joe West demanded as one of the officers approached when he froze before reaching him. "Jeff? What are you waiting for?"
He then turned to the other cops in anger. "You don't get to tell me what to do!" And he aimed his gun at them.
"Get down!" Yuri cried out.
The guns went off and a dozen of small projectiles went in to kill the guards when Sue interrupted with a forcefield, and the others went to take down their villain.
Sue then used another forcefield to contain the cop before slowly approaching and when she was close enough, closed the field down and punched him in the face.
"I'm getting sick of these weekly villains." Sue confessed.
Johnny flew in and landed right in front of him. "Where do you think you're going?"
The man then started to back away when Jennifer came and punched him, surprised that it actually hurt her as she looked down and rubbed her hand.
"Ow." Jennifer commented.
"Where do you think you're going?" Ben asked as he grabbed the guy before he could reach his wrist. "Don't think we'll fall for the same trick twice."
"Really?" He asked with a grin. "It seems you already have."
"What's he talking about?" Johnny asked when suddenly his sight changed from an abandoned building, and he found himself in space. "What the hell?"
He then stated to hear alarms and started to realize he's in his worst nightmare. On the Nostromo from Alien. Walking through the ship, Johnny tried to find a way off when his powers suddenly left him, rendering him powerless.
"No, no, no!" Johnny cried as he looked around and tried to flame on again, but nothing was working.
Hearing something snarl, he looked around just as some acid dropped down from the ceiling. Shivering in fear, Johnny looked up and saw his childhood nightmare brought to life.
The Xenomorph.
Johnny let out an ear-piercing cry, as the alien leaped down and tackled the hero.
Ben however was getting a different treatment as when he opened his eyes and was met with a scorched Central City, and all of the people he knew and loved were bleeding out or broken.
"No, no!" Ben cried as he ran over to them and kneeled down to Susan to try and feel for a pulse...if that's even possible. "Susie! Come on, stay with me.'
"Ben..." Susan choked out in between the blood. "Why...why'd you do it?"
"What?" Ben asked, shocked to hear that he's done this. "How? Why?"
"Easy." Someone familiar said as Ben looked back and saw Reed Richards walking over and had a grin as wide as could be. Without stretching his face at least. "Because you've always been loyal to me, my friend."
"Reed!" Ben cried, running over but then his entire body stopped before his fist could reach his face. "What...what did you do?"
"I didn't do anything, Ben." Reed said as he placed a hand on Ben's shoulder. "You just remembered who you're loyal to."
Ben then started to panic as his worst fear is betraying the people he loves, or at least not having the guts to protect them from people like Reed.
Jennifer however had a simpler one. When she opened her eyes, she saw she was back in the courtroom in her human form and saw as the judge slammed his hammer down.
"Ms. Walters, you have not given me any evidence to conflict with your statement that Reed Richards has been abusing his wife or his children." The judge informed Jessica, confusing her.
"What?" Jennifer asked, forgetting immediately that something shouldn't be right here. "Look at the marks! Look at the injuries! She tried to hide them because she's afraid of him!"
"Not enough plausible evidence." The judge said when Jennifer then noticed that Reed was there with a wide grin.
"You!" Jennifer snarled and raced at Reed, but then Reed vanished with Sue and the kids, and as much as she tried to find them, she could only hear her own voice echo that she failed to help and save her friend.
Ray Porter as Psycho-Man
