Peter and MJ were fast asleep in bed when they suddenly got a wake-up call. It wasn't the alarm clock. Instead, their daughters burst into their bedroom and began jumping on top of them excitedly.
"Daddy! Mommy! Wake up!" May cried.
"It's Christmas morning!" April cried excitedly.
"Okay, okay, we're up," Peter laughed.
"Going to the living room while mommy and daddy put on their dressing gowns," said MJ, laughing as well.
The girls excitedly rushed out of their bedroom with unbelievable speed.
"I guess we can't blame the girls; it is the first Christmas we're spending as a family," said MJ as she got out of bed and grabbed her dressing gown.
"True, and I remember doing the exact same thing when I was their age," Peter chuckled.
MJ sighed. "Unfortunately, my father was never in a festive mood, even on Christmas morning."
Peter wrapped an arm around her and kissed her. "Hey, none of that. We're one big happy family here, right? So let's go and celebrate like one."
"After you, Tiger," MJ smiled.
They made their way into the living room, and the girls were already managing through the presents underneath the Christmas tree.
"I've never had so many presents," said May.
"I've never even had a Christmas," said April.
"Girls, why don't you open our presents first," Peter suggested, pointing at two presents.
May grabbed the red one while April grabbed the blue one, and both girls excitedly began ripping off the wrapping paper. May got a chemistry kit and April a sewing kit, and both of them seemed happy about their presence.
"This is awesome, Daddy!" May beamed.
"Thank you, Mamma," said April.
"You're more than welcome, sweethearts," MJ smiled.
"We've got something for the two of you as well," said May.
May and April then handed them a crayon drawing, along with Aunt May, Jarvis, and all their friends.
MJ was in tears. "It's beautiful."
"We'll have to hand this somewhere," Peter smiled, wrapping their heads. "Oh, and that reminds me, MJ, here's your present."
Peter gave her a Barton. When she opened it, MJ's eyes widened, and inside was a pearl necklace.
"Peter, you shouldn't have," she said.
"Anything for my beautiful wife," Peter smiled. "You want me to put it on?"
"Yes," she said, pulling her hair back so Peter could put the pearl necklace on her.
"It's so pretty," said May.
"You look so beautiful, Mamma," said April.
"It's wonderful, Tiger," said MJ, kissing him and giving him his present. "And this is my."
Peter tore the wrapping paper off and saw it was a series of most recent science books, quantum theory and robotics. Peter recognised the title and was certain they had not been published yet.
"How do you manage to get these?" Peter asked, amazed.
"With my feminine wiles," she smiled. "I know they're not as flashy as the pearl necklace he gave me, but you are a difficult man to buy for."
Peter smiled as he put the books down and pulled her into a hug. "MJ being with you is the biggest present I could ever ask for."
"Smooth talker," MJ smiled.
The two of them then kissed passionately while the girls looked on gleefully.
After the New Year, they were back to business at Parker Industries, and Gayle was going over income over the past six months they had been in business.
"It's now safe to say that Parker Industries has become a successful business," said Gayle. "We may not be on par with Stark Industries yet, but we're certainly fighting for competership with companies like Roxxon and Hammer Multinational."
"What of Alchemax?" Harry asked curiously.
"They are our main rival, but I would say that we are on more friendly terms compared to most companies," said Gayle.
"That's a relief," said Harry.
"I still think we're far away from any joint product with them, though," said Gayle. "However, our profits continue to climb with our new, improved line-up of prosthetics, and the Cyro Cube has saved many lives. Not to mention our new line of protective headgear and noise-reducing headphones."
Harry smirked at Peter. "Guess your misadventures as Spider-Man are actually paying off."
"Hey, I do a massive amount of work here," said Peter, looking offended.
"I'm only teasing," said Harry.
"And I imagine our profits will go up once we make the Webware available to all consumers," said Gayle.
Peter leaned back in his chair. "You know things are starting to look up. Of the past few weeks, there hasn't been any disaster; I could seriously get used to this."
Min then entered the room. "Uh, Mr Parker, I just received a message from Mr Modell. He requests your aid at Horizon Labs; I get the impression that something bad is going down there."
Peter sighed. "And I spoke too soon."
Peter made his way to Horizon Labs as quickly as he could and discovered the emergency was, in fact, Jonah trying to shut the place down. Max warned him that the journey was rather angry, so he took down the Spider-Jammer towers, which he no doubt wanted to use against Peter and the others.
Additionally, he got word that Grady Scraps had created a time machine. He actually showed it to Peter but saw the end of the world on the other side. They desperately try to figure out what could happen to end the world, but Peter suddenly realises that leaving the gate open led to the destruction of the world, and it closed just in time.
Then there was the sudden fact that Max kept Michael Morpheus's existence, who apparently was an old friend, a secret from the rest of the staff. Peter stumbled upon him, and the two of them fought until Max broke it off.
Then, finally, he talked about a failed extraterrestrial mission involving his son, which nearly got him killed. Thankfully, Peter, Gwen, and Johnny, who apparently did not die in the Negative Zone and managed to return home, were able to save the space station and John's life.
Peter did his best to persuade Jonah not to shut down Horizon Labs, pointing out all the positives that come out of it. Sadly, Jonah was his usual unreasonable self, and he stormed out, threading the shutdown place.
Later that day, Peter and MJ were walking down the street; they now had an apartment as Aunt May looked after the girls.
"I swear, ever since he became mayor, Jonah has become even more unreasonable," Peter sighed.
"Jonah is all bluster; he might have made a comeback with a whole Spider-Island incident without one last long," said MJ, wrapping her arm around his and resting her head on his shoulder. "Now, enough about Jonah. We have the apartment all to ourselves now, so what you see, we have some fun?"
Peter smiled. "I like it when you talk dirty."
Unfortunately, they were suddenly interrupted by a sudden change in the climate. Suddenly, they were hit by a massive heat stroke, and the man responsible was none other than Otto Octavius.
Somehow, he positioned satellites across the Earth's atmosphere, magnifying the greenhouse effect across the planet.
"To the good people of North and South America and any travellers in the Arctic or Antarctica and currently anyone facing the sun," said Otto. "I, Otto Octavius, have just proven the existence of the greenhouse effect, which many of you have been ignoring for so long. Now that you have to come to grips with it, you are forced to confirm its existence."
"Not seriously advertising global warming by baking the entire planet?" MJ stared.
"It would appear so. I knew he was up to something big, but I didn't think it would be this," said Peter.
"It sounds like he's trying to make himself the saviour of the planet," said MJ.
"He always did have a big ego, but I don't think this is his endgame," said Peter.
"And what you say, little costume change?" MJ suggested.
"I need to head back to Parker Industries and pick up a few things, but if you can't hook up with Gwen and Ben, we'll meet up at Avengers Mansion," Peter instructed.
"You got a coach," said MJ.
The two of them immediately dashed off in different directions. Once there, he put on the new costume he had been designing. He added components from some of the villains he faced, creating a sort of armour to help battle against.
The Avengers were already discussing the current situation.
"I hate to be the one to say it, but considering all the alternatives and is a certified genius," said Tony.
"Only certified, all right, a certified nutcase," said Hawkeye.
"What I'm saying is, what if he has come up with a way to preserve the planet," said Tony.
"Have you taken leave of your senses, Stark," said Thor.
"Don't get me wrong, I still see Octavius as an egomaniac, but his idea does seem to be working," Tony argued.
"We all know he's dying; sooner or later, the problem will solve itself," said Steve.
"By that point, it might be too late," said Peter as he and the others entered the room.
"I see Red is not the only one with a new look," said Jess, noticing Peter's new look.
"I came dressed for the occasion," Peter shrugged. "But my new look is not why I'm here. I've only got two words for everyone here… Avengers Assemble!"
They quickly made their way to the Palazzo Sentorio in Rome, with the G8 holding an emergency summit. So far, many of them were leaning towards the idea that Octavius had single-handedly proved the existence of global warming.
"Don't you all realise that you're debating whether you should join a maniac who created a giant robot octopus?" said Peter as he and everyone made their way onto the floor, which caused a stir.
"Excuse me, gentlemen and lady," said the speaker, looking at MJ. "This is a closed session. Under what nation's authority are you—"
"Under my authority," said Thor. "I am the heir to the throne of Asgard and the people for me on my trusted councillors."
MJ then stepped forward. "We do apologise for the outburst, but we wish to spread our own opinion regarding Otto Octavius. While he may be a scientist, none of you should forget that he's a mad scientist, and he put who knows how many people at risk just to make a point."
"And with all due respect, young lady," said a dignitary as he rose to his feet. "We have a chance to end the greatest threat our environment has ever faced, and I don't see any evidence to the contrary."
Then, to everyone's surprise, Peter launched himself at the dignitary. It all became clear as he ripped the man's face clean off, revealing the Chameleon.
"And here's all the proof you need to the contrary," said Peter. "Doc Ock placed a spy within your important meeting to implement all of you."
Steve walked up to him. "There was a risky play, Avenger. How did you know?"
"My helmet's audio is key to identifying the Chameleon's specific heartbeat," Peter explained.
"That is most unfortunate, my friends," said Otto as he appeared on the monitor. "As you all know, I have very little time on this Earth, and I was hoping to speed things up. However, thanks to Spider-Man's interference, I have no choice but to take more drastic measures. My satellites still have enough charge left in them to teach you all one final lesson."
Peter then reached for his comm. "Iron Man? Are you in a position? Doc took the bait."
Tony was hacking into the satellite, reading into the track down Otto, but apparently, he expected this, making it almost impossible for them to track him down. He also gave them an ultimatum: 24 hours to make up their minds, or else he would fry the planet. Additionally, he demanded the release of the Chameleon.
"I can't believe we're letting him go," said Ben as they watched him fly off.
"We can follow him and see if he leads us to Ock," said Gwen, clenching her fists.
"We better do it quickly. Everyone is leaning towards supporting Octavius," said MJ.
Peter looked at her. "Spinneret, it's not too late for you to go back home."
MJ turned on him. "Oh no, I'm coming with you whether you like it or not."
"Look, I'm not questioning your fighting skills, but we're going to begin the Sinister Six, some of my worst bad guys. I would never forgive myself if something happened to you."
"And I wouldn't give myself if something happened to you," said MJ softly. "Peter, I've got powers now, and I want to help you and the others. I'm sick and tired of sitting at home worried about you constantly. Now that I have these powers, I can help make sure you get back home alive."
Peter sighed. "All right, but try not to do anything crazy."
Peter was able to place a spider trace on Chameleon, so they were able to track him down. Sadly, the other Sinister Six members, which consisted of Rhino, Sandman, Electro, and, strangely, Mysterio, were waiting on the offshore beach.
Somehow, he managed to get back to their universe, which was not surprising considering that he was the one who originally made the gateway. Thankfully, he didn't seem to know Peter's identity; in all honesty, he wasn't certain he even knew it.
The immediate battle between the Avengers and the Sinister Six was not going well, but Spider-Man's new armour was specially designed to combat the Sinister Six. He could see through Mystrio's illusions and was protected from Electro's attacks.
Electro found himself being absorbed by Thor's hammer, which immediately sent him flying off into space. Unfortunately, Otto was well prepared for the Avengers and had made countermeasures against them, so they were falling one by one. The only ones still standing were Peter and his group.
"Looks like Octavius was well-prepared," said Gwen.
"How come we're the only one still standing?" MJ asked.
"Because there aren't that many countermeasures against our powers," said Ben.
"If we take Otto down, the rest will fall," said Peter.
"Ah, my cyber-control helmet," Otto noted. "You wish to use at a controlled my arms. It might have worked if I had not made a few improvements."
Peter yelled in pain as he was suddenly electrocuted and fell to his knees.
"So how are the only ones left standing," said Gwen.
"The odds certainly do not seem to be in your favour," said Sandman as he towered above them. "We were able to take down the likes of Hulk and Thor. Do you really think you bugs stand a chance against us?"
"Anyone's got any ideas now would be a good time," MJ hissed.
"Spider-Man, I hope you got a trick up your sleeve?" said Ben.
Sadly, Peter was out of tricks. He could see a way out of this when suddenly there was a huge explosion right where the quinjet had crashed and landed. Otto was temporarily distracted, as were the rest of the Sinister Six, but when they looked back, they saw that Peter and his group had disappeared.
"No!" Otto roared. "I only took my eyes off them for a moment! Where are they?"
"My helmet senses aren't picking them up anywhere," said Mysterio as he dragged Jess into Otto's giant robot. "Gotta give them credit on this one; that was one hell of a disappearing act."
"Regrettable, but we cannot stay and hunt them down, not with world leaders waiting for my next move," said Otto as he grabbed Tony.
They grabbed the Avengers and ordered Otto's giant robot to sink beneath the waves.
Once they were gone, a woman with silver-white hair and dressed in silver removed was best described as an invisible cloak off of them. Peter immediately recognised her as Silver Sable, someone he worked with for quite a number of years.
They were now making their way to Sable's stealth craft with Natasha, who she rescued from the crashed Qunijet.
"Not that we don't appreciate the save, Silver, but why us and not heavy hitters?" Peter asked.
"I work closely with you, Spider-Man, along with Scarlet Spider and Ghost Spider, and you three have the most experience against Octavius," she said as they climbed aboard. "As for the redheads, they were the closest."
"The closest?" Natasha fumed.
"Can't say I disagree with her, considering I did just start my hero career," MJ admitted.
"Hello, Spidey, you there?" said a voice in Peter's comm.
"I know that voice," said Peter. "Grady Scraps?"
"Hope you don't mind that I hacked into your secure line from our last adventure," said Grady.
"Spider-Man, this is Max Modell," said Max. "The talking to you from Parker Industries, Mr Lyman was kind enough to allow us to use the building to assist you. Mayor Jameson has cut electricity from Horizon Labs, but we're all here to help."
"All apart from Peter Parker himself," Sajani muttered.
Harry narrowed his eyes. "As I explained, Peter is currently out of town with his wife, and they wanted a peaceful getaway."
"Not much chance of that," said MJ.
Things got worse as the 24-hour deadline passed, and Octavius demanded the G8's response. Regrettably, no country disagreed with him. Then, Octavius demanded that his associates have their criminal records expunged and give them two billion dollars in each of their bank accounts. As for Octavius, he asked for the construction of an Academy named after himself.
He went on to explain that you'd already mass-produced his microsatellites across and that all he required from the nation's use of their missile silos to launch a satellite into space. They were all seen due to the secret camera on the Prime Minister of Symkaria.
Natasha recognised one of the locations Octavius had shown and was now flying directly to the Sahara Desert.
"You can guess who's going to be guarding that place," said Ben.
"Yeah, and all we have to do is find a man who can turn himself into sand in the middle of the desert," said Gwen, looking at Peter. "Do you have any ideas on how we do that?"
"Actually, it is more accurate to say we need to find one grain of sand within one man who can turn into sand," said Peter.
"I'm afraid you've lost me," said MJ.
"Just trust me on this," said Peter. "With a little help from Horizon Labs, we should be able to track Sandman down and take him down."
They soon reached the factoring question and discovered that Octavius had completely automated the place with his octobots. They successfully infiltrated the place, destroyed every single bottom, and placed explosives in it, but when they got outside, they came face-to-face with Sandman.
"Ock knew you would come here, Spider-Man," said Sandman, towering over them. "He thinks of everything."
"Really, Flint?" said Spider-Man. "It wasn't particularly difficult figuring out who would be guarding this place in the middle of the desert. This just gives a chance to knock another piece off of Doc Ock's board."
"Unlike the last few times we faced Webhead, I now have the entire Sahara desert to feed me," Sandman roared. "You won't find enough water to wash me away or enough fire to turn into glass."
"Then it's a good thing. I came prepared," said Peter, who immediately struck him with a cloud of green dust. "Everyone lenses on!"
Peter had sprayed Sandman with a special concoction that would reveal the one grain of sand in Sandman's body that wouldn't change, which housed his consciousness. The next step was showing Sandman images on a special app that Horizon Labs were able to cobble together. By showing him the pictures, they forced him to morph into them, making him transform at their command.
Then, in his confusion, Peter managed to snag that one grain of sand from Sandman's body, making him their prisoner.
"That was incredible, Tiger," said MJ.
"Thanks, but it sure wasn't easy," said Peter.
"And we were able to destroy those satellites," Ben added.
"I'm afraid not," said Gwen regretfully as she returned from the facility. "We just checked every single one of those satellites, and they're just hollow shells."
"This facility was nothing more than a decoy," said Natasha. "I had hoped we could end this here."
"We may have failed our main objective, but at least we were able to capture a prisoner," said Sable.
They had spent the past three days attacking Octavius's missile sites using hit-and-run attacks. Then, when they attacked the site in North Korea, they came face-to-face with Rhino.
They were able to take Rhino down, and SHIELD agents immediately attacked them. Apparently, Octavius had made all the world leaders make Spider-Man global enemy number one, so now they were being hunted down.
"I can't believe we're being chased by SHIELD," said MJ in disbelief. "I mean, ain't we supposed to be the good guys here."
"Sadly, Octavius has made himself the saviour of the world, so any moviemaking instead makes us look like the bad guys," said Gwen.
"They might also be concerned that Octavius might turn to satellite against them; I mean, they can potentially be used as weapons," said Ben.
"All we can do now is keep on these assaults and try to weaken Octavius as much as we can," said Natasha.
"I think we need to go more on the offensive," said Peter.
"I agree with Spider-Man; we're getting nowhere with these hit-and-run attacks," said Sable.
Peter then looked at Sandman, who was currently trapped in a containment tank. "And I think it's time we interrogate our prisoner once more."
Sandman had been very uncooperative, but after threatening him with some corrosive acid, he finally talked. Additionally, with the assistance of Parker Industries, Horizon Labs had been researching these satellites they acquired on their raids, but every time they tried, they disintegrated, making it impossible to track them in orbit.
Spider-Man then addressed every hero in the world, asking them to help him fight Octavius. Sable gave a short speech, telling everyone that he was a true hero and that she trusted him.
Sable smiled at Spider-Man. "I meant every single word. You are an amazing man, one that I trust with my life."
MJ immediately rose to her feet. "Trying to make a move on my man, are you?"
"My apologies, Spinneret. I was unaware that he was taken," Sable apologised.
"It's all right," said MJ, wrapping her arm around Peter's. "My hubby seems to have a way of attracting beautiful women to decide; it's unavoidable."
"If things had turned out differently, I might have married him instead of you," said Gwen.
Ben rolled his eyes. "I'm his clone, and you get all the beautiful women fumbling over him."
"Personally, I don't see what they see in him; I find that sense of humour to be rather annoying, a trait you share with him," said Natasha.
Heroes, along with a few villains, around the world began attacking the silos and tried to disrupt the manufacturing process. Peter and his group found a factory in Symkaria and Romania but found the place completely deserted. Octavius then appeared on the monitor, claiming his victory as he had already launched the satellites.
Peter tried desperately to goad Octavius into proving that he was trying to save the world, but instead, he began burning everything facing the sun. When they finally managed to exit the facility, they found that Symkaria had been burned to the ground.
Sable was understandably upset and became even more enraged when Octavius appeared right in front of them. As they battled Peter, the situation was rather weird; while it was not strange that Octavius wanted to destroy him with his own tentacles, mass murder on a grand scale wasn't his style.
Octavius was no stranger to murder, but killing half the planet's population was a little overkill, especially when he was trying to make out that he was the planet's saviour. It then dawned on him that this was all an illusion courtesy of Mysterio, and they were battling against Chameleon, who was in some sort of specialised mechanical suit.
Octavius began controlling the suit remotely because he wanted to be the one to kill Peter, but this merely confirmed Peter's theory. He was able to stop Chameleon's battle suit with some magnetic webbing he had developed.
"So he's been wasting all our time on this wild goose chase," said Natasha furiously.
"Good thing his ego got in the way," said Gwen.
"That's the problem with having an arch nemesis; they always want to be the ones to take it down permanently," said Peter.
"You would know you have three of them," said Ben.
"Looks like he is now down to three," said MJ, then looking at the others. "What's our next move?"
"We merely interrogate our prisoner," said Natasha, bent down towards Chameleon.
The two of them began talking in Russian, and unsurprisingly, Natasha was able to get him to talk. Peter then convinced Mysterio to switch sides, pointing out that those two billion dollars he got would be useless if Octavius destroyed the world.
Mysterio then guided them to Octavius's secret base in Guatemala. When they got there, the Avengers suddenly attacked them, who were mind-controlled by Octavius.
Peter suddenly realised that Octavius had twisted everything he had designed to help people into his crazy plan. They continued to battle against the Avengers. Natasha managed to pin Clint down, but Tony took the two of them out. Sable defeated Steve, who was holding back, and MJ took down Jess.
Since Thor was under Octavius's mind control, he was no longer worthy of wielding his hammer. Ben and Gwen tackled him and took him down. Mysterio then helped by sending out an EMP that deactivated the Autobots Hulk and Thor.
Octavius activated his remaining missiles, but Thor, Tony and Hulk took off after them. Mysterio gave Peter and Sable a jet to go after Octavius while Gwen and the others tended to their wounded.
They managed to infiltrate Octavius's hidden bays, which turned out to be a giant robotic octopus, but they were blocked by Rhino. Peter did try to reason with him, but after the loss of his wife, he was more than happy to see the entire will burn around him.
"Spider-Man, go," said Sable. "I'll keep them busy while you go after Octavius."
"Sable, no, he's too strong for me," said Peter.
"If you don't them, the entire world dies; now go!" she yelled.
Peter ran off without looking back and eventually encountered Octavius.
"Spider-Man, you're just in time to see the end of the world just a simple push of a button," he said.
"Are you mad?" Peter yelled as he began dodging Otto's tentacles. "You're going to kill everyone on the planet?"
"Not everyone I have calculated that 0.08% of the Earth's population will die," he said.
"You really are mad you're planning to kill over 7 billion people?" Peter yelled.
"But those who will survive will be able to rebuild and start a whole new civilisation thanks to me," Octavius smiled.
"One problem you've miscalculated," said Peter. "The heat you're generating will cook 99% of the world, but it could easily cook the other survivors' brains. They want to be able to remember you."
"No, that can't be right," said Octavius.
Peter then used this opportunity to take him down, and now the entire base was beginning to explode. He quickly grabbed Octavius and fled just before the place exploded. He landed on the Horizon lab science boat, which sailed off to meet him with Max and his staff on board.
"Spider-Man, you did it," said Max. "You save the world."
"No, I didn't," said Peter as he looked at the sinking base. "Someone died."