Epilogue: Forever, Fight as One
On the roof top of the Morales' apartment building, three young adults gathered around a table. "No, no, Miles, you can only use this amount of points. You'll be able to use more when you level up, but you have to start at the level one." Gwen said as she and Peter tried to help Miles make sense of the Dragons and Dungeons character sheet.
"And why a Rogue to start with?" Gwen squinted her nose, "You always struck me as a in your face type. I figured you'd start with a Fighter, Ranger, or oh, yeah, Barbarian! Way more your style!" Gwen punched the air while faking electrical sounds, "Zap Punch!"
"It's called Venom Strike, you know this," Miles rolled his eyes, "As for Rogue? Well…" he turned invisible for a moment, then held up his hand, "Sneaking around is kind of my thing, too."
"Plus," Miles sat back, "I'm Roguishly charming," he added, making Gwen roll her eyes.
"Charm is a Bard thing, Miles," Peter Parker of Earth-65 said and adjusted his glasses. "Rogues put more focus on stealth and movement."
"Can I mix classes?" Miles asked curiously.
"Can you sing?" Peter asked, and he and Gwen watched curiously.
"Needless to say, I keep her in check
She was all bad-bad, nevertheless;
Callin' it quits now, baby,
I'm a wreck Crash at my place, baby, you're a wreck," he sang as he dramatically moved his body. "Thinkin' in a bad way, losin' your grip
Screamin' at my face, baby, don't trip
Someone took a big L, don't know how that felt
Lookin' at you sideways, party on tilt,
Ooh-ooh-ooh!"
"You can't mix classes," Gwen replied deadpan.
"Why?" Miles looked at his girlfriend with a hurt expression. "I'm not that bad…"
"Well, you're not …" Peter scratched the back of his head.
"Who actually sings that?" Gwen asked.
"Post Malone!" Miles replied curiously. "Why?"
"Let's keep it that way," Gwen crossed her arms and smirked at her boyfriend.
"Ouch, Gwen," Miles took a pained expression and clutched his chest.
"Did I hurt his little feelings? Maybe I need to kiss them all better?" Gwen moved in for a kiss, neither noticing Peter glancing away.
The flirty banter was cut off when a pair of police helicopters flew overhead. "Guess we're going to have to pause the game." Miles stood up and removed his jacket, revealing his black and white Spider-Man suit underneath.
"My suit isn't finished yet, but I can maybe borrow…" Gwen glanced to her watch.
"No, you and Pete have years to catch up. I'll go help and be right back," Miles shook his head.
"You sure?" Gwen asked, worried.
"Sure I'm sure, hang out with Pete, and I'll be back before you know it." Miles smiled as she hugged him.
"Ok, be careful, Spider-Man," Gwen gave him a soft kiss before he stepped back and pulled on his mask. Miles backflipped off the roof, and the two watched him swing after the copters.
They remained silent for a few moments before Peter spoke up, "You really love him, don't you?"
"More than anything," Gwen clutched her chest. "He's amazing…" Gwen noticed her best friend looking slightly downcast. "You ok?" She asked in concern.
"Yeah, just very glad that you've finally found someone that makes you happy, Gwen," Peter replied, then turned back to the table. "Come on, let's see what we can do to simplify this for the n00b…"
Spider-Man narrowly dodged Rhino's charge as the super-powered criminal ran through another wall, trying to take out the hero. "Maybe I should have let Gwen borrow my old suit again…" he whispered to himself before responding to his spider-sense about a painfully large chunk of concrete thrown at him.
"Yo, Rhino, missed me!" He said, swinging to another wall but was knocked down when another chunk of concrete almost hit him. "Whoa!"
"Hey, your aim is getting better, Al, but you could still use a little work," Miles taunted as he took a swing and tried to web up the towering villain.
With a series of webs and using his powers to stick to the ground, Miles tried his best to keep Rhino from charging away from him. "Want me to come that way, huh?" Rhino turned toward the hero and started to charge.
"Uh oh…" The lenses of Miles' mask widened as his spider-sense went off, but before Spider-Man could respond, the sound of a flying metal discus filled the air, then a red and white object slammed into Rhino's face, sending him stumbling backwards.
The discus bounced off the Rhino and flew backwards to the hand that threw it. The tall, powerful-looking man dressed in a red, white, and blue military-style armored suit attached the colorful shield with an emblazoned star to his arm. The upper part of his face was hidden by the winged helmet with a large A on his forehead. "mind if I lend you a hand, son?"
"Wow, you're… oh, man…" Miles stammered as he stared at the Star-spangled Avenger.
"I definitely would love to talk to you, Spider-Man, but we might want to get this situation sorted beforehand," Captain America nodded toward Rhino, who was getting back to his feet. "I'll hit him low; you hit him high."
Miles couldn't form words but nodded, and the two heroes charged toward the villain. Forcing his shield before him, Captain America rammed into Rhino's body, sending him off balance while Miles swung in with a charged venom strike, hitting him directly in the face, knocking him out.
Once the towering villain hit the ground, Miles made short work of webbing him up securely. "That should do it," Captain America nodded in approval of Miles' work. "Do you have a moment for us to talk?" he said, thumbing toward the nearby rooftop.
"S-sure, I mean, of course, lead the way," Miles tried to keep his voice from cracking and watched as the hero leapt and parkoured his way to the warehouse rooftop. "Damn…" he whispered to himself before he fired a webline and followed.
"What's this about?" Miles asked, landing before Captain America, who had placed his shield on his back.
"Your accent? Brooklyn?" Cap asked curiously.
"Yeah?" Miles was still on guard, but his spider sense was silent.
"Very nice, me too," Cap nodded, removing his helmet to reveal his well-kept blond hair. "Call me Steve."
"I'm sure this isn't just an introduction…" Miles asked, one of his eye lenses raising with the question.
"We wanted to talk to you, Spider-Man," Steve replied.
"We?" Miles asked, and a moment later, a man in a red-and-gold armored suit flew down from above them and landed next to Steve. Then, an arrow attached to a cable hit the ground near Miles, and a girl around Miles' age slid down it, dressed in a purple and black suit with a purple domino mask and a recurve bow. What got Miles' attention was her uncanny resemblance to Gwen, but with black hair tied in a ponytail with purple tips instead of pink. She flashed Miles a smile, showing a gap in her front teeth before she stepped back to allow another young woman with blond hair in a white bodysuit and green vest to slide down the cable. "Hi!" She greeted, pushing up her goggles and smiling at Miles before joining the other girl.
On the other side, what looked like two insects suddenly grew into a man and woman in insect-themed suits. The man's suit was red and black while the woman's was yellow and black with four pixie wings on her back.
Then, a massive, well-built man with long blond hair in blue armor and a cape holding a large hammer landed beside them and gave Miles a nod.
"One more's coming," Cap smiled, and then a short, skinny man in a flannel shirt and purple jeans climbed up the fire escape, panting. "Thank you for joining us, Dr. Banner." Cap then glanced around the team. "Spider-Man, allow me to make introductions. This is Tony Stark aka Iron Man, Hank Pym the Ant Man; his partner and wife, Janet Van Dyne also known as the Wasp; Thor Odinson, god of thunder and lightning; Dr. Bruce Banner, Yelena Belova codenamed White Widow, and Kate 'Hawkeye' Bishop. We're The Avengers." Miles glanced around the group and whistled in mock admiration.
"Impressive introductions all, but I'm getting serious flashbacks to the Spider Society," he said, ready to run or fight. "I soloed about two hundred of those jokers when they tried to tell me I wasn't supposed to be Spider-Man, so I could probably deal with…" he made a show of counting their heads, even though he immediately clocked them as they appeared, "the eight of you, if you wanna go."
"On the contrary, Miles," Cap took a step forward, "you've earned that mask and that name. And there's no one in this universe, or any other, who can take that away from you. And regardless of how tonight goes, they'll have to go through me to try."
"Then what is this?" Miles asked, "And how do you know my name?"
"We've been watching you for a while, Spider-Man," Cap nodded, "And…to be an Avenger is to be one of Earth's Mightiest Heroes. You have to be one of the greatest, most courageous, self-sacrificing as well as caring heroes on this Earth," he explained. "And, Miles Morales, we believe you are one of them, so I won't twist your arm, and I won't try to force you or bribe you. I only ask if you would consider joining us, if you would consider becoming an Avenger."
"Speak for yourself, Cap," the red-and-gold Iron Man armor opened as Tony Stark stepped out in a three-piece suit and approached Spider-Man. "Alright, listen up, Webs."
"All this is great, you know," he motioned toward his Spider-Man suit, "the whole 'doing whatever a spider does, friendly neighborhood' schtick. You rock it, kid; you own it, but I don't give a shit about any of that." Tony threw his hand toward the others. "They all are here for the common good. Superhero save the world from bad guys, avenging those who we can't save, yada yada yada, and I am too, BUT all that said…"
"I want that," Tony pointed toward Spider-Man's head, "I want Miles Morales."
"What?" Miles blinked in surprise.
"I read your paper," Tony nodded, "Your theories on interdimensional quantum entanglement are genius. I need a brain like that at Stark International. I saw you have applied to Princeton, so here's my addition to Cap's noble 'world's mightiest bleh' offer. Join up, slap an A on that suit, and you get a full ride courtesy of myself, paid internship at Stark, full benefits, five weeks paid time off, Roth IRA, life insurance, which I note is difficult to come by for people in our line of work, as well as a fully furnished apartment at Stark Tower, which has a private subway straight to the university." Miles' eyes were wide as saucers at this point.
"Talent like yours," Tony grunted in excitement, "building that up is an investment." He glanced to see Cap's eye roll, "I mean, so is having Spider-Man help us with the whole world-saving on the weekly. I'm just saying the real hero is who's under the mask, right? And I mean to nurture that, too."
"Done, Tony?" Cap asked as he stepped up, and the businessman nodded. "So…" Cap held out his hand to Miles.
"What do you say, Spider-Man?"
The End
To Be Continued in…
Opportunity Knocks
