(Avengers and Ambitions)

Jebest4781: Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked it.

Spectacular Webhead 11: Yep, I think we all know it was about time for Peter to be back where he belongs. And thanks for understanding, I just need to work on some other stuff to make sure I don't get burnt out.

Gamelover41592: Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked it. Peter coming back is a huge win for our heroes for sure, but it's definitely gonna lead to some drama, starting with Eddie/Venom.

962: Agreed.

Guest: Yep, Peter being back is long overdue. Wolverine will come back soon enough, but Black Cat is more than likely a long ways away. Peter and Eddie still have some bad blood they have to work through, no doubt about that. Also yeah, the Avengers are gonna come into play before too long. As for which versions, you'll see soon enough. And I do have plans for Peter to get a few upgrades before too long, the same with Karai getting her arc.

Greer123: You and everybody else I think.

Spiral-Voltron-Zero0Q1: Yep, Peter being back is long overdue, and thanks for understanding about my other stories.

Anonymous: Yep, that about sums it up. The same with the second one.

C.S. Allen: Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked it. Doc Ock and his new Sinister Six will be fully complete soon enough, and I've got a few ideas on who the newest member will be. Jackal has his own agenda with Shredder, the same with Martin Li (though that one is a pretty long ways away), and the Avengers are about to come into the fold. I figured Harry giving Stockman a sort of peptalk would show a bit of his character development, and leave it open for what kind of new path Stockman will take. I don't really anything about the comic Mutanimals, but Tiger Claw does have a part to play, the same with the others. You'll see soon enough.

SuperJoeyF721: Yep, I figured this was long overdue.

TheIrishman1999: Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked it. And I appreciate your understanding about taking my time with this. Peter being back is long overdue, the same with April and her dad, but it doesn't stop a new Sinister Six from forming in the shadows. You'll see what Tiger Claw, Slash and Venom get up too soon enough, the same with Jackal going to the Foot. As far as Stockman goes, I've got a few ideas for what he'll be up to, but he's not working for Bishop, who isn't the same as the 2003 series. Don't bother asking again, that part isn't happening. As for the Newtralizer and the Punisher, that's a pretty cool idea, but we'll see if it pans out. And don't worry about Connors, he'll come back himself in due time. That idea with the female characters is pretty interesting if nothing else, so we'll see if it pans out. And yeah, I've heard this idea about Shredder and Karai meeting Norman Osborn, believe me. I did think about Bullseye too, but I decided I was going a little bit too heavy on the Daredevil stuff, so I've got someone much better in mind.

5FingerDeathFist: You never know, anything is possible here, of course the final decision is mine in the end. Silver Samurai returning isn't very likely, truth be told he's just someone that I thought it would be fun to include, and he doesn't really have ties to anyone in this story other than Wolverine. Shredder will have his part to play in the Goblin Nation crisis, trust me. Not a bad idea for Raph and Billy, I'll keep it in mind. I haven't seen Star Wars Clone Wars or Bad Batch, but I get what you're saying. I haven't played the games you mentioned, but they are pretty interesting to think about. Also, Tom Clancy novels? Not a bad idea.

Lyoko2003: Malefor does sound pretty interesting. When the invasion rolls around, you'll see what I have planned, don't worry.

MercWithaMouth1: Interesting idea, we'll see where it goes. But yeah, the Avengers under the control of the Kraang would probably be a worst case scenario. But the Thunderbolts would most likely be a bit too much, at least along with everything I've already got going on. And trust me, there will be much rejoicing for when people find out about Peter's return. As for April's mom and Irma, we'll see but I won't promise anything.

Frosty Wolf: Yeah, Grunge just can't catch a break in this series. Kraven definitely does remind me of a Thundercat, though that does nothing to put him at the level of someone like Wolverine, and he definitely needed to get put in his place. Peter being back is definitely overdue, and he's got a lot to catch up on, in more ways than one. I get what you're saying about Stockman, but keep in mind the dude was the but of a joke way before he got mutated, so turning him human again only got him back to where he was before, without respect from anyone.

Shakespeare RZA: I never watched Breaking Bad myself, but you're actually closer than you think regarding Doc Ock's new Sinister Six. As for how that goes, you'll see soon enough.

GTA Godfather: Oh don't worry, you'll see them soon enough, though for the record, Mark is still around right now. Liz is the only one that left for the Xavier Institute. And yeah, I'm sure that Harry will have at least one of these moments about his father before his arc is wrapped up, trust me. Yes I am a fan of anime obviously, but I'm not into Death Note.

EDsonic: We'll see how that goes. Keep in mind that goes against the whole secrecy thing that they're known for.

Anonymous: Well said, and RIP to Tang Shen and Emily Osborn. Also I checked out that fic you mentioned, and it does seem fairly interesting, though I do appreciate you prefer my story over that one.

Guest: You're about to find out.

: I know exactly how you feel. I've had the opportunity to do both of those things since I started this story, and it has been absolutely worth it.

King of 2211: Believe me, you and me both.

Guest: You're about to find out.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The night was calm throughout the city, but a celebration was in full swing.

"Look alive bros, and the lady and sensei, it's pizza gyoza time!" Mikey bolted into the lair with a large box in hand, which he promptly opened up in front of the other Turtles, April, Casey and Splinter to reveal a large container of pizza gyoza dumplings "We're going with nothing but the good stuff for tonight."

"About time, I'm starving. Now fork them over." Raph was quick to reach for one of the gyoza, only to be met with one of Mikey's nunchucks smacking his hand hard enough to make him pull away "Hey!"

"Forget it bro, nobody's eating a thing until Pete and Gwen gets here." Mikey was immediately met with odd looks from those present "Hey I'm hungry too, but you don't see me foaming at the mouth. Not this time anyway."

"I do not believe that is the concern my son." Splinter looked towards Mikey "I believe they are more surprised by the fact that you are the one preventing pizza from being eaten."

"Hey trust me, any other day these gyoza wouldn't have made it to the Lair. But this is a big deal tonight, and you guys all know why." Mikey breathed a sigh as he closed the gyoza box and cast a glance upwards 'It's been a full week since we finally got a real Retro-Mutagen working and managed to turn both Peter and Mr O'Neil human again. For once, it seems like things have been cooling off, at least a little bit. No word out of the Foot Clan or the Kraang, and best of all, nothing out of those psychopaths in the Goblin Nation. Which works for us, because it gives us time to prepare for whatever crazy huge threat to the city pops up next. But that can wait, at least for now, because tonight it's time for something we've been waiting to do all week. As soon as the man of the hour gets here."

"Hey guys." it was at this moment that the Spider Cycle pulled up outside and Peter was the one to step off and make his way into the Lair, with Gwen by his side her arm linked in his.

"And there he is, the man of the hour himself!" Mikey was quick to catch Peter in another bro hug, amidst the other Turtles (including a begrudging Raphael) applauding his appearance.

"Okay seriously guys, a little bit much."

"Perhaps, but this is an occasion worth celebrating." Splinter took a few steps towards Peter and gave him a small smile "I believe I speak for all of us my child, when I say that we are pleased to have you back with us and fully healthy."

"Hey believe me, I'll settle for not being stuck as a giant spider monster and getting things back to some kind of normal… Speaking of which, any chance we can pick up where we left off with my training?"

"Of course. Whenever you wish. But as I said, tonight is for celebration."

"Works for me. Mikey?"

"Already got the good stuff." Mikey gave a wide grin as he held up the container full of pizza gyoza for Peter to see "But first you gotta fill us in. It's been a whole week since you've been back, so how's that whole thing going?"

"Where to start…" Peter breathed a sigh as he sat down, with Gwen sitting next to him "It took a good chunk of the week just to convince May to let me out of the house. I know how she can be, and I know she means well but… How do I put this nicely?"

"But you feel like you need space or you're gonna lose it." Gwen finished for him "And not to mention the fact that the last time you left the house, it ended with you being stuck as a giant spider monster and going missing for two months."

"True, but she doesn't know about the spider monster thing." Peter was met with the Look, and so he let out a sigh "Fair, but I'm not giving up on my point. Anyway, we finally got her to let me out of the house on the condition that Gwen kept an eye on me… Which I'm definitely not complaining about." that caused the look to subside, and so he went on "So yeah, it pretty much went like this…

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

nd now forA Peter's first day back at school…

"Like I said, today I tried getting back to my usual routine, and all of the usual crap that went with it."

"Great, back to the alma matter…" Peter's expression was fairly dull as he looked up at the building in front of him 'Midtown high hasn't changed a bit, the same for the rest of the city by the look of it… So I'm guessing the same can be said for the people…'

"You know you have to go in at some point."

Peter looked over to see Gwen standing next to him "You know people say that, but it never actually makes things any easier."

"How about this instead: You stopped an alien invasion, took down a giant Death Star and saved the world last September. You can't be scared of going back to school."

"Not scared of the people so much as of what waits for me in there: Relationship drama, all of the work I've missed while I've been gone, and about ¾ hating me for one reason or another, justified or not." he looked away, only to be pulled back towards Gwen by her cupping his face with one hand and kissing him on the cheek.

"There's also me in there you know, and I'm part of the ¼ of the people here that does anything but hate you."

"And that's a much better motivator to do this. Alright, here goes." Peter took a breath and made his way into the building, with Gwen staying by his side and slipping her hand into his, being met with various stares from the other students and a few faculty members that caused him to cringe, though it lessened when he felt Gwen's grip on his hand tighten, until…

"Hey." the walk through the halls was stopped by none other than Flash and standing before the two of them stone-faced… until the former gave a smirk and actually began clapping, with Hobie doing the same, and then the rest of the surrounding students and faculty following their lead "I think we were all wondering when you were gonna show up. Good to have you back where you belong Parker."

"...Well okay then." Peter shared a look with Gwen, only for her to give him a broad smile, which prompted him to reciprocate it. It was then that he locked eyes with Harry within the crowd, the two of them staying silent, but then exchanging a small smile.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Now for Spider-Man's first day out on patrol…

"Believe it or not, apparently it wasn't just Peter Parker that people missed. A lot more people than I would've guessed too."

"And here we go…" Spider-Man took a breath as he swung his way across the skyline of New York City, with Ghost Spider by his side "Letting New York bask in all of the controversy that comes with yours truly."

"Maybe but they're still New Yorkers, and you gotta love them." Ghost Spider let out a chuckle underneth her mask as she webbed a line right next to him "Seriously, just stop and think about all of it from their perspective. The city has to face one disaster after another, from a giant alien invasion to a huge alien worm causing earthquakes that nearly tear Manhattan apart, and the next day they just end up cleaning up and moving on like nothing happen, and still going through daily life as they deal with everything in between."

"You're not gonna hear me object to that. Some of the "in between" on the other hand, a guy can do without." he prepared to web another line, but paused when he noticed a few civilians on the ground looking up at him 'And here we go in 3… 2… 1…'

"Hey look, it's Spider-Man!" to his surprise, a lot of people on the ground began cheering and waving at him "We were wondering when you were gonna show back up! Good to finally have you back Webhead!"

"...Okay, definitely wasn't expecting that."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

And now for his first day back at the Bugle…

"But then I got reminded of that old saying, how the more things change, the more things stay the same."

"Enough with all of this new bullshit already!" being who he was, Jameson wasted no time in ripping into Foswell over the latest story "Goblin Nation this, Goblin King that, nobody cares about any of that! Police reports and eye witnesses say that a giant monster with Spider-Man's logo was rampaging across town and harassing people every which way! Spider-Man, from menace to monster! That's the lead story we're doing!"

"Look at them the right way, and they're actually the same story." this was when Peter made his way into the office, which caused them to go silent, along with everyone else in the office as he pulled out a pile of pictures from his bag "Figured you were gonna want pictures. Spider-Man was stuck as a giant monster thanks to what's believed to be the work of the new criminal group calld the Goblin Nation, but was reverted to the hero that people know and love, butcher that however you want, thanks to the efforts of one Turtle Titan and Nightwatcher, with some added assistance from a new figure taking up the name Hobgoblin."

"...Give me that." Jameson snatched the pictures away from Peter and began looking them over fervently "Foswell where's that story?"

"It's right-" Foswell didn't get to finish before the paper was ripped from his hands, and then the two of them found themselves on the receiving end of Jameson's glare.

"What do you want, a standing ovation? I've got breaking news to publish, now get the hell out of my office before I staple you to a flagpole! OUT OUT OUT!"

"If you say so boss." Peter and Foswell shared a look as they made their way through the glass doors, until…

"PARKER!" the voice of Jameson stopped Peter in his tracks, and then it led to an envelope being shoved into his free hand "Make me keep your paychecks on hand for that long again and you'll find yourself in the unemployment line long enough they're gonna be stomping over your back! If you're well enough to get off your sorry hyde after two months then you can get whatever pictures we need to show this city the true colors of that menace!"

"...Good to know." Peter just accepted the envelope and glanced over at Foswell as he made his way out of Jameson's office "Here I thought he'd actually be happy to see me back."

"Hey you know that old saying, the more things change the more things stay the same. Plus some people just aren't good at expressing that sort of thing, even if they want to ." Foswell gave a shrug, then a small smile as he patted Peter on the shoulder "But he's thinking the same thing as the rest of us. It's good to have you back Peter, really."

"Thanks Mr Foswell, really." Peter looked over to see matching smiles coming from the other staff members in the office (Betty Brant, Robbie Robertson, Ned Leeds), and he couldn't help but give a smile of his own.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

And now back to the present…

"So yeah, that's about the sum of it." Peter gave a shrug as he downed another pizza gyoza on his plate "Not everybody is super thrilled that your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is back, such as the ever jolly Jameson and a couple of his people I ran into on the way here, but I'm gonna take what I can get. Truth be told I'm just surprised there weren't more of them."

"Such a thing actually does make more sense than you realize." Splinter looked up at Peter from his own plate "I myself known this for a fact, at least with artists. When they pass into death, their work becomes much more valuable and well known."

"So you're saying that people started appreciating me more because they thought I wasn't gonna be coming back?" Peter's expression dulled at the thought "Yeah, that sounds about right."

"Well I just think we should be glad that you're back." Leo gave a grin as he caught Peter in a quick fist bump, along with Donnie and Casey.

"Trust me, it feels good to be back. And to know that being gone for two months isn't gonna make me miss out on graduating or anything."

"How exactly did you manage to pull that off?" asked Donnie "Even if your absence ended up being excused, wouldn't you be missing out on required credits?"

"I did ask about that when I met with the principal this afternoon, but apparently they were willing to overlook some of the details of my… unexpected absence. Mainly letting go of any of the non-essential assignments I missed out on. Basically the smaller things they mainly assign as busy work. So long as I do the important stuff and hand it in as soon as possible, I won't miss out on graduating."

"I'm surprised they actually agreed to that."

"You and me both, but apparently they were convinced to be lenient thanks to an anonymous recommendation in my name that led to a big donation from Rand Industries."

"How the shell did that happen?" Raph gave a raised eyebrow.

"No idea, but I heard about it from Mr Murdock and he just winked at me. At least I think it was a wink, I can't tell behind the sunglasses."

"At any case, I did say that tonight is for celebrating your return, so this is a time to enjoy with the company present." Splinter turned to address the whole group "But I warn you my children, our fight is far from over, and will continue as early as tomorrow. There is still much for us to do to resolve the current crises."

"Trust me sensei, we know that all too well. But that's why it's all the better we've got each our team to help us see this through." Leo glanced around at the others until his gaze fell on Peter, the two of them engaging in another fist bump "And speaking of having a team to have our back, as much as I'd like to spend the night celebrating freely, we've gotta address the elephant in the room with its own giant tower on the Upper West Side."

"Actually that's only for now." Donnie told him "According to the news Tony Stark actually sold the tower, and they're relocating to a new facility upstate, but the actual auditions as they put it, are being held in the Avengers Tower, kind of a last hurrah for the tower before they move everything out."

"You think it's got something to do with those rumors about them expanding?" asked April.

"Those rumors have all but been confirmed. Plus I've been checking news updates and it turns out that while they did add a few new members, they plan to continue the expansion and invite any heroes willing into their ranks for what they call the New Avengers."

"In any case, Wolverine was the one who got us the meeting with the Avengers, so I say it's time to take the most of it." Leo turned to the rest of the group "You know what we have to do."

"You bet we do, just think about!" Mikey leapt to his feet and pulled his Turtle Titan suit out of god only knows where "They're taking any heroes that wanna join up? You guys know what this means right? Imagine that, Turtle Titan and the Spider Duo as part of the Avengers!"

"Mikey, we're doing this to bring the Avengers in on what's been happening with the Kraang and the Goblin Nation. If they're going to launch another invasion, we need all of the help that we can get. Wolverine set up the appointment, so we've gotta make a good impression."

"Yeah I know, but who's to say we can't do both?"

"Mikey…"

"Hey I'm with him, multitasking exists for a reason." Peter leapt to fist feet and caught Mikey in a quick fist bump.

"Fine, but don't forget the priority. Getting them on board with stopping the Kraang invasion once and for all."

"So what, we all get to meet the Avengers? Dude, that's kickass!" Casey caught Raph in a quick high five.

"Not all of them. I'm the leader, Peter and Gwen are the actual heroes, and Mikey is the only one of us that's actually met the Avengers."

"To be fair, I only met War Machine and Wasp dude." Mikey gave a shrug.

"Regardless, the four of us should go in and bring them up to speed. Also they are the greatest heroes on the planet, so we need to make sure we make a good impression. The rest of you oughta stay out on patrol for the Foot, the Kraang and the Goblin Nation."

"Of course you make us miss out on the good stuff." Raph scowled and looked away.

"Relax, this is just the initial meeting. You'll get the chance to meet Hulk and smash everything in sight together soon enough."

"Or Hulk will think Raph is an imposter and smash him into paste. Which I actually kind of want to see now." Pete ignored the dirty look Raph was sending his way, and so he turned to the other Turtles "So when are we gonna do this?"

"I'm thinking tomorrow l would be best. The sooner we get a jump on this, the better for all of us. Besides, the last thing any of us need right now is for another new supervillain to pop up out of nowhere when we're trying to get stuff done."

"Welcome to pretty much my entire career as Spider-Man."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the start of the B plot…

'Okay, just a little bit more here and… there we go.' at the same time, a certain Scarlet Spider was hard at work in a certain lab, mixing a certain chemical compound in a beaker, then poured it into a small cartridge and loaded it into a device on his wrist 'There, one more round of web fluid done easy. I just wish I knew how to figure out the whole organic webs thing worked. I mean does it come out of the wrist or does it come out of anywhere else? I mean it's not like I'd want to shoot them out of my butt, it's just-' he was cut off by the sound of a door opening.

It was then that a Kraangdroid in a human disguise made his way into the lab "The one known as the Scarlet Spider, that which is known as the Goblin King entrusted Kraang with addressing that which is known as-"

"Dude, I've been dealing with web fluid stuff for hours and frankly I don't have enough patience for this. Can you just get to the point?"

"Okay. Here." the Kraangdroid handed an object to Scarlet, that being a letter, and promptly turned and walked out of the room, the door shutting behind him.

"...Works for me." so with that in mind, Scarlet took off his mask and opened up the letter as he began reading its contents 'That Kraang said this is from Father… I have pressing matters to attend to tomorrow, and Dr Warren is currently preoccupied with gaining further allies for our cause. I entrust you to ensure operations run smoothly until I return. Consider this to a test. So that's it then…" he paused and looked down at the letter, then looked back up with eyes full of resolve "I won't let you down Father. I'll show you what I'm capable of."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with further setup of the A plot…

"Alright I'm just gonna say it, I don't like this." one soldier clad in a yellow hamzat suit holding a blaster glanced over at the other (AIM soldiers) "We've been losing business to those freaks from TCRI and HYDRA for months, they almost wiped us out. That's bad enough as it is, but this thing… what the hell even is it?"

"The hell if I know what it actually is." the second one gave a shrug as he looked over to two other soldiers carrying an electronic pod into an aircraft "I heard that it's something that escaped the Vault during the whole freaky Death Star thing, butwe only got it back after the Controller got taken out by that Turtle guy."

"You mean Turtle Titan?"

"Yeah him, but whatever it is it wants to get the hell out of there."

"Hey keep it down guys, it's hard enough to concentrate with this thing as it is!" the two AIM soldiers carrying the pod barked back at the others… only for that to be the exact instance they ended up dropping the pod, causing the door to crack open, and a black-colored hand shot out and grabbed the blaster one of them was holding, yanking it back into the pod, resulting in a blinding red flash and an explosion that covered the area in smoke "What the hell?!"

"It got loose, shoot it down now!" the soldiers started shooting blindly within the smoke, albeit to no avail.

"Someone report, I need a visual-" the soldier was cut short by something grabbing it by the shoulders and dragging it back into the smoke, leading to the soldiers shooting blindly again, only for the creature to blitz through the smoke and take out the AIM soldiers one by one, without even giving them time to scream.

"Oh god… Oh god…" the last soldier tried to scramble away through the smoke as the creature loomed over him… only for it to be stopped by a beam of yellow energy that pushed it back far enough for the soldier to get away "Oh thank god…"

"Enough of this." another figure in an AIM uniform, albeit a modified one (Scientists Supreme) and another group of AIM soldiers emerged from the smoke with another electric pod "Hurry and contain the creature, quickly."

"Yes sir." a group of AIM soldiers quickly ushered the creature into the electronic pod, locking it so it couldn't get back out.

"As disastrous as that could have been, it was a fine demonstration of this creature's power. Now let's make haste, I want to be prepared and ready to target Stark Industries within the hour."

"If I may Supreme… are you sure this is worth the risk?"

"What I'm sure of is that come tomorrow, AIM will have its long overdue revenge on all those who have wronged us… starting with that wretch Stark."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Another day came, and the sun was shining over the skies above New York. And the B plot.

'Okay, focus Scarlet, time to show Father what you can do. He calls this a test, well you're going to pass with flying colors.' Scarlet Spider took a breath to compose himself as he made his way down the halls of the main base, the doors swinging open in front of him to reveal a familiar duo of supervillains (Beetle and Subprime) making their way out "Okay good all of you are here, so we can get started on- And you're waling away from me, why are you walking away from me right now?"

"That's generally what you do when you're finished with a conversation. Now if you'll excuse me, someone needs to let Rhino out of his cage. That is to say, someone who can actually keep him on his leash." Subprime rolled her eyes as she walks away, ushering Beetle with her, while leaving Scarlet both fuming and speechless at the same time.

"What- But that's not- But I was-"

"Snarking to be a dick aside, the meeting's over kid."

Scarlet whipped around to find another figure in a trench coat standing before him "What are you talking about Gargan? My understanding was that we were supposed to have a recruitment meeting this morning."

"Morning to you too kid." Gargan rolled his eyes "Anyway they put in a vote to reschedule the whole meeting thing, you can thank Subprime for that idea. Long story short, you're free to go do your thing, filling those gadgets on your wrists."

"I already filled my web shooters, and I'm more than capable of-" Scarlet was cut short by the blue vest on his torso falling to the ground in front of him "-doing anything that doesn't involve sewing or fabrics. Don't judge me."

"In that case you're lucky you're saying that to me and not the others." Gargan paused and cast a look down at the vest, then stifled a chuckle "But yeah, that's… that's just bad."

"Watch what you say, you're forgetting who I am."

"Yeah yeah, the son of the Goblin King and the great successor to Spider-Man… or you would be if he hadn't popped back up a few days ago." Gargan looked down at the vest, then back over at Scarlet "You know I never got to know the original Spider, but I've got a few friends that have met him. He's tough and crafty from what I've heard, but you know what really makes him stand out from the rest? His spirit. He never gives up, even when this whole crapsack of a world comes crashing down on him. But you…"

"I… I'm better than Spider-Man. I know I am." Scarlet looked down at his feet "I was given these powers as a gift, to show that I'm superior to him in every way. Father said so."

"Hate to say it kid, but you don't have that same spark, and as you are right now, you don't have a hope in hell of getting the others to respect you. In their eyes, you don't deserve you wear the symbol on that vest. The only real thing you've got going for you, as far as they're concerned, is the fact that you're the Goblin King's favorite."

"Then… Then what do I do? How do I prove to them I can do this? I want to prove my worth to Father, to the Goblin Nation as a whole."

"Actions speak a lot louder than words kid. Sometimes you can't wait for a chance to present itself, go out there and look for it, then grab it by the horns. I know there's more people that the Goblin Nation and the Kraang have had their eyes on for one reason or another, like that one girl, O'Neil I think her name was."

"So… if I bring the O'Neil girl to us, then I'll prove myself to the others…?" Scarlet seemed hesitant, but then he looked up at Gargan "Then I'll do it."

"Right, because that's what they respect. People who do exactly what they're told. Might want to think about that kid." Gargan tipped his hat and walked down the hallways, leaving Scarlet alone with his thoughts.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hours passed, and the sun was fully shining over the skies above New York.

"Kind of crazy when you think about it." April glanced over at the other redhead walking beside her, that being Mary Jane, as the two of them "Feels like forever since the two of us got to hang out and talk like this. The past few months have been crazy."

"True, though to be fair you did keep your distance from pretty much everyone." MJ pointed out dryly "Probably cause I tried to talk you out of hating the guys."

"Yeah… not my finest hour." April cringed at the memory "At least I finally got my head out of my… well you know. And in other news, we got both my dad and Peter back, so things should finally be getting back to normal."

"Here's hoping. So you're gonna meet up with the guys at their place?"

"That's my plan. Peter, Gwen, Leo and Mikey are actually gonna get to meet the Avengers and bring them up to speed about the Kraang. I figured I'd go help out Donnie with making another retro-mutagen. Peter and my dad are back sure, but there's still a fair number of people that got mutated, like Dr Connors and Jameson's son. As for Casey, he and Raph, I mean Nightwatcher, are probably gonna go beat up thugs or something. What about you? More theater stuff for you I take it?"

"That's one way to put it. I'm heading over to the Lincoln Dynamic Youth Center, they've got another play in the works over there. One of the classics, Romeo and Juliet."

"That's about as classic as it gets."

"Without a doubt. Guess who's lined up to play Juliet."

"Of course you are. Well in that case, I say make the most of it."

"Doing what I can. Say hi to Tiger and the others when you see them. Speaking of which, him and Gwen are doing alright?"

"If by that you mean she's barely left his side since he got turned back, yeah."

"I figured. Gotta give it to Gwen, she struck gold with Tiger and she's never letting it go… for better or worse." MJ's face fell slightly as she looked away, which didn't go unnoticed by April for a second.

"Wait hold on a second. MJ do you… do you like Peter?"

"...You know Tiger did ask me out once pretty early on after I met him, when everybody from school took that trip to Coney Island. I shot him down, mostly because I wanted to be a free agent and keep it that way." MJ paused and glanced back at April "But truth be told, part of me does kind of wonder how things would've turned out if I took a chance on him."

"He… He has been single since then."

"Maybe, but that doesn't mean he was ready. Or that I was. And when he was, she was waiting for him. That's how it was meant to go."

"MJ…"

"Tiger- Peter and Gwen belong with each other. That's all there is to it. Whatever could've gone down between me and him, it wasn't meant to be. Free agent, remember? I'm getting what I'd wanted."

"If you say so…" April's gaze softened as she patted MJ on the shoulder, but stopped as her gaze hardened and she looked up at one of the neary buildings, only to not see anything suspicious "Huh."

"What's the matter?"

"I thought I felt something… Nevermind, it's probably nothing. April paused and looked back up at the buildings, then back towards MJ "You know what, how about I come with you and offer up some moral support?"

"You sure?"

"Hey, it's what cousins are for, and it's about time we get the chance to hang out without having to do stuff for the Spider Support Squad."

"Hm. Fair enough. Alright then girlfriend, let's do this." MJ gave a smirk, and she and April went on their way… unaware of a figure clad in a red bodysuit and mask following them from afar via webslinging.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the A plot…

"Okay, let's see if I've got this." a tall man with black hair and a goatee, clad in a black long sleeved shirt and jeans (Tony Stark) stood in front of the doors to Avengers Tower, looking over the figure in front of him "So you wanna join up with the Avengers huh?"

"Yep, and not just me!" the figure, a young woman with brown hair in a ponytail and a big bushy tail out of her back (Squirrel Girl) stood in front of Stark with several squirrels surrounding her on all sides "You can just call me your friendly neighborhood Squirrel Girl!"

"Uh huh. I get the feeling someone's gonna fight you on the trademark for that one. Okay, liking the spirit, not so fond of your little sidekicks and what they did to Hulk's secret stash inside. And I'm looking at the one with cheese puff on his face for that one."

"You can't prove Monkey Joe did that!"

"Pretty sure JARVIS begs to differ. As for you two…" he turned his gaze to the next two behind her "You guys think you're a good fit?"

"You got that right." two figures, one a dark-skinned man covered in a cloak (Cloak) and a young woman with blonde hair clad in a white bodysuit (Dagger) stood side by side "Trust me, together we can handle anything. Day and night, darkness and light."

"Little bit Disney for my tastes, but okay." Stark paused and looked over the trio "Look guys, if there's one thing we can all vouch for, it's that it takes more than just some powers, a gimmick or a cool suit to make somebody a hero. You might think you're a hero, but your actions tell the real story, trust me on that. Let me get back to you on that, and we'll keep you posted. Bye." so on that note, he quickly made his way back inside, the door shutting behind him, and he let out an exhausted sigh "Here I thought Moon Knight was gonna be the only exhausting nutcase we had to try out."

"This coming from the man who tried to make a pass She Hulk?" it was at this moment that another figure, a redheaded woman in a brown blazer and skirt (Pepper Potts) made her way into the room and shot a rasied eyebrow at Stark.

"Relax, that's just me messing around. Besides, she's one of the few of these guys I haven't gotten a migraine from yet. Please tell me that's the last of them today."

"There's still one more appointment, and apparently one Mr Logan put himself in as a personal reference for them."

"Oh yeah, Wolverine. That's either gonna go great or horribly." Stark paused as the sound of vibrating drew him to pull out his cell phone "What's up Steve?"

"Tony good news, we're ready to move the rest of your armors out of the Tower to the new base upstate. How's the drive for the New Avengers oing?"

"Got one more of these appointments and then I'll head down and join you." Stark hung up and glanced over at Pepper, only to see her shooting a raised eyebrow at him "What, I'm selling the Tower so we gotta move everything, and frankly these people are a lot less exhausting to deal with than the likes of Squirrel Girl or Moon Knight. Seriously, I need a drink just thinking about guys like them."

"No drinks until after work hours, you know the rules." Pepper told him firmly, and then her gaze softened "Also, don't forget that the Iron Man stuff was taking your time away from other priorities, even before the Avengers started up."

"Hey believe me, you think I don't know that? I'm moving the armors upstate to keep places like this, not to mention the people in it, from being targeted. I don't think we need a reminder of what happens here like once a week. Bottom line, I'm not letting anyone else become a target, least of all you." Stark breathed a sigh and rubbed his temples "So what's this appointment about that Wolverine set up?"

"A bit on the more… unique side, compared to some of the others."

"Unique in a migraine inducing way?"

"Depends on whether or not you're a Jameson fan." it was at this moment that Ghost Spider dropped down onto the scene in front of him, followed by a cloud of purple smoke and the emerged of Leonardo from within the shadows.

"...I give you points for making an entrance." Stark paused and sized the two of them up, then gave a smirk "So the female Spider-Man lookalike in the flesh, I was wondering when I'd get the chance to finally meet you. The same with I'm guessing the Halfshell Kid or something?"

"The term is Turtle Titan and no, that would be my younger brother." Leo told him, trying to keep himself composed "Unlike him, I… don't normally show myself around other people for a few rasons… some more obvious than others."

"Dude I'm on the same team as the likes of Hulk and Thor, aka a giant green goliath and a literal god. A giant turtle with swords isn't really that much of a stretch. So what, you guys here to try out for the New Avengers?"

"Depends on who you ask."

"Turtle Titan is more leaning towards multitasking as far as tonight goes, and I wouldn't say no to it myself… specially if it involves getting to see some of your tech, assuming that's on the table." Ghost Spider paused and shared a small glance with Leo, and she was quick to compose herself "But getting to the main point, we're actually here because we need to bring you up to speed on a serious threat. As in, end of the world with a giant Death Star sort of threat."

"And now you've got my attention." Stark's gaze hardened for a moment "Let's take this one up to the meeting room, which they make me call it so it sounds professional." and so he led the two of them to an elevator, only to notice Leo quickly returning to the shadows "Let me guess, stay in the shadows all secret warrior type?"

"Um… something like that." Leo muttered quietly.

"Relax I get it, secrecy and all that. Kind of goes with the whole secret identity thing too, so I get it, trust me." Stark pulled out his phone and tapped the screen a few times, resulting in a series of loud beeps "Security cameras are down, nothing's gonna see you. Now come on, or I'm gonna have to get Pepper to drag you in."

"I'm not really-" Leo was cut off by Pepper grabbing him by the arm and pulling him into the elevator before he could react, before she walked away down the halls "Um… I didn't see that coming."

"There's superhuman strength, peak physical human strength, and whatever the hell she has going for her, which for the life of me I've been trying to figure out for years."

"...Okay then."

"Girl power, it can be your best friend or your worst enemy." Ghost Spider gave a simple nod of understanding as the elevator doors closed, then he glanced over at Leo "Anyway, so far so good I guess."

"That's one way to put it. Didn't expect you to geek out over the sight of him though, you realize we're here on serious business."

"Of course I do, but meeting someone like Tony Stark, aka the smartest man in the world, is also the chance of a lifetime. Besides, you expect me to believe you wouldn't be the same if it wasn't the likes of Captain America in front of us?"

"That's besides the point."

"I disagree. Speaking of which, aren't we missing Turtle Titan and Spider-Man right now?"

"Remember the plan, they're trying to get the word out from multiple angles. Which means the two of them actually might meet Captain America before us. I am so jealous right now."

"I freaking knew it." and so the elevator continued upwards, carrying the three of them along with it.

What none of the group wer aware of however, was several identical blue vans pulling up around the outside of Avengers Tower, filled to the brim with familiar figures in yellow hazmat suits and a certain electronic pod.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the other half of the A plot…

"Okay, this is the last one." a dark-skinned man in a military uniform (James Rhodes) pushed a button on a high tech pod and turned towards the other figure in the room "That's the new one he's been working on, right?"

"That's right." the other figure, a robots figure clad in red white and blue with a white star on the front and a shield strapped to his back (Captain America) gave a simple nod "He's been calling it the Mark 9, though personally I don't really see the distinction between them."

"My understanding is sleeker, shinier and better weapons. Of course it would probably mean a lot more if he upgraded War Machine the way he did for the Iron Man armor."

"Have you ever just asked if-" Captain America paused and gave a cautious look at the ceiling above them "Rhodey."

"It's okay. If it's who I think they are, they're friends. At least one of them is." Rhodey followed his gaze up towards the ceiling "You know this room is for authorized personnel only, and trying to sneak around inside Avengers Tower doesn't really help your case you know."

There was a pause, and then a cloud of purple smoke engulfed the hallway, and when it finally dissipated, Turtle Titan was standing before the two of them, with Spider-Man dropping to the ground next to him "Sorry man, ninja training dies hard."

"You're looking at a former soldier so trust me, I get it." Rhodey let out a chuckle as he shook hands with Turtle Titan "I've got a few ideas for why you're here. Let me guess, you came to sign up?"

"Well actually-" Turtle Titan paused, then shook it off as his gaze hardened "Trust me, that's super tempting but no, we're here on the real stuff. The same with my bros and the lady."

"You mean Ghost Spider and the other Turtle with Tony right now." Captain America's overall demenaor relaxed, but only slightly as he stopped reaching for his shield "I see."

"Trust me on this, despite all of the crap Jameson spews out through his mustache, we're the good guys." Spider-Man held up his hands in defense, then Ghost Spider paused and looked over at him "Speaking of which, I don't think we've been properly introduced Captain. Sir. You see, I'm-"

"Turtle Titan and Spider-Man. Believe me, the Avengers are well aware of who the two of you are, along with Ghost Spider and mentions of a Nightwatcher. We'v actually heard about you from Wolverine, he put in a good word for all of you. The same with Wasp when she had a brief encounter with Turtle Titan some time ago" Captain America paused, then gave a small smile as he held out his hand to the two of them "That's good enough for me. Any friend of Logan is a friend of mine. I've also followed your work closely since you made your debuts, and to be frank I'm fans of your work up to this point."

"Wait, for real?" Spider-Man paused and shook his hand, with Turtl Titan doing the same "Sorry, it's just… I don't really receive a lot of positive press from the big leagues like you guys. Also I'm a huge fan and trying desperately not to scream."

"I appreciate the effort. So, you said that you and your friends were here on business?"

"Yeah pretty much. To get right to the point we came to warn you about a serious threat. As in, alien invasion being plotted in the shadows kind of threat."

"I see." Captain America's gaze hardened once again, along with Rhodey "You officially have our attention."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the B plot…

'Okay, so far so good…' Scarlet took a breath as he finished peeling off his red bodysuit and mask and stuffing them into the front pocket of the red and blue hoodie he wore, along with a pair of jeans, and made his way out of an alley next to a large building with a sign next to the front door, which he promptly made his way finding himself in a large theater area a 'Lincoln Dynamic Youth Center. Bigshots like that always like having things named after themselves for the sake of compensating for something Alright time to focus Scarlet, it's time to deal with what's probably going to be the most brutal challenge of your life… interacting with your own age group. God only knows what these kinds of people are into. Note to self, make sure not to look into anyone's internet search history. Now let's see, where to find the O'Neil girl. It's not like I've got any chance of a redhead just pop up next to me at random.'

"Oh, hey. You here to audition?" a voice drew Scarlet's gaze over to the side, only to find a certain redhead in a pink shirt, a navy blue jacket and a pair of jeans standing a short distance away from him.

'...Not really what I had in mind, but that works for me. Mostly because… damn.' Scarlet paused for a moment as he took in the sight of the redhead before him, but was quick to compose himself "I didn't really come to audition or anything… If you have to call it something, I was just gonna go with satisfying curiosity. It may not be good to cats, but that doesn't mean it's bad for everybody."

"Fair enough I guess." the redhead let out a chuckle as he saw him cringe and look away at the recollection of what he just said "Heard it once you said it huh?"

"I heard it in my head. I just didn't hear how it actually sounded until I said it out loud."

"Always the way of it. Anyway sorry to kill the curiosity or however that goes, but they don't have any more openings in the cast."

"That definitely sounds like the way of it." Scarlet paused and lookd up at the group putting a scene together on the stage, albeit not particularly well "So what play are you guys putting on anyway?"

"Pretty much the standard one, Romeo and Juliet. Classic for a reason. The only downside of it right now is we're a little short handed."

"I thought you said the cast was filled."

"The cast yeah, but the stage crew is pretty short handed because it's as close to the bottom of the theather magnet pecking order as it gets."

"Like a dude with a master's degree surrounded by a bunch of people with doctorates."

"...Big Bang Theory reference?"

"Yep."

"Respect." MJ gave a nod of approval, and then a thought occurred to her "Probably not the most appealing idea, but if you did want to branch out and see what's up around here, maybe you'd be up for offering some services?"

"I'm not so sure of-" Scarlet cut himself short when he noticed April wandering behind the curtains on the stage, then cast a glance over at MJ and looked her up and down for a moment, before a small grin spread across his face "I think I can find the time."

"Awesome, you're already a step up above the other guys around here. Not to be that girl right now, but I'm pretty sure they're the reason why extras usually get cut out."

"Hey Watson, check out the setup for the balcony scene!" one guy on stage tried to hoist an object into the air via a rope… only for his foot to get caught and him to get hoisted into the air himself, before falling to the ground with a loud crash.

"...You believe me now?"

"Oh yeah." Scarlet gave a simple nod of understanding "So Watson is the name huh? Sounds kinda familiar."

"I was part of last year's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at Midtown, and the full name is Mary Jane Watson, or MJ as my friends call me."

"Mary Jane huh? I approve. You can call me… Ben. Ben Reiley." Scarlet paused and looked down at himself 'Ben Reiley? Where the hell did I get that from?'

"So, you think you can help out getting the stage crew into shape? Maybe try adding in a few special effects? And do it on a budget of around $20?"

"Oh, we're going that hard on it huh? Well, my Father never taught me to quit in the face of adversity. Just show me where to go and I'll do it."

"Works for me. Now follow me."

"With pleasure." Scarlet, now Ben, promptly allowed MJ to grab him by the hand and lead him backstage 'Track down the O'Neil girl, check. Bring her back to Father to prove myself, still pending. Secondary objective, see where things lead with the gorgeous redhead touching me and oozing sex appeal.'

'So I guess you can find good help these days… Though I guess that depends on how well he does with this.' MJ paused and cast a glance back at Ben, the two of them locking eyes for a brief moment before she turned away 'Not a bad looker either… though something about him does seem kind of familiar…'

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the A plot…

"Okay, so let me see if I've got this." Stark turned away from the windows of his office and back towards Spider-man and Leonardo "So these guys call themselves the Kraang, they're a bunch of a tiny squids that run around in Stormtrooper bodies."

"That's the short version, but essentially yes" Ghost Spider's gaze hardened quickly underneath her mask "They're aliens from another dimension, not exactly smart but lots of dangerous tech to back up the whole "world domination" plan they're trying to pull of."

"Not really anything new for us, but go on."

"They're a lot more dangerous than you think, even if they're not really smart." Leo took a step towards Stark "There's no telling how high they number in their home dimension, and the tech and weapons they have at their disposal is way more advanced than anything we have here on Earth."

"Gonna pretend not to be offended by that, but okay." Stark paused and glanced out the window at a certain skyscraper sitting in the distance "And you're saying these guys are the ones behind everything coming out of TCRI, hiding in plain sight this whole time? Even after you guys blew up their base during the whole Death Star crisis last year?"

"Yes, but it gets worse. Apparently now they can activate portable portals that can take them anywhere at any time."

"Okay, now you're branching into real concern territory."

"And even without their tech and weapons, the mutagen they've been using is a hell of more dangerous and unpredictable. I can only imagine the kind of monsters that can pop up because of that stuff. Trust me, I'd know." Ghost Spider cringed at the thought of Peter's mutation into the Man Spider, but calmed slightly after receiving a hand on the shoulder from Leonardo "Right, sorry about that… anyway, if the last few months are anything to go by, the first invasion failing, that Death Star is actually called the Technodrome by the way, isn't going to stop them. All that did was slow them down, and now they're planning their comeback."

"So in short, they could be ready to launch another invasion at any time, assuming they haven't started already." Stark paused for a moment and was about to say something else… only to be cut short by a pulse washing over the building, causing a blackout that left the entire Tower shrouded in darkness "Uh… This isn't gonna be the Kraang by any chance is it?"

"God I hope not, cause we are totally unprepared." Leo paused and shared a look with Ghost Spider and Stark "I now realize that I say that entirely too often when it comes to these kinds of situations."

"Welcome to the club kid, it's all part of the hero gig."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the B plot…

'It's times like this I feel like I have too much free time.' Ben gritted his teeth as he used his enhanced physical strength to move a large metallic device through the auditorium towards the backstage area 'Then again it does have its advantages, like leading you to create an amped up projector that can make an entire scene setup literally out of thin air. Convenient as hell, but I doubt anyone is going to complain. Plus if it can make yours truly look all the better in front of one miss Mary Jane, then there's no harm in it.'

"Hi, are you the new stage crew member guy MJ mentioned, Ben something?"

'And then there's the main mission.' Ben turned around to see April standing before him, and he was quick to put on the friendly act "More of an impromptu thing than anything else, but yeah I guess that'd have to be me. Just call me Ben, Ben Reiley."

"Cool. April O'Neil, nice to meet you." she held out his hand, which he shook briefly "So, I heard you were doing something about special effects?"

"That's one way to put it, but not an inaccurate way if this is anything to go by." he gestured to the device in front of him "To give you the short version, it's sort of an amped up hologram projecture that makes sustained hard light holograms."

"Oh, cool. So what, do you call them soligrams?"

"I wanted to, but apparently one of Iron Man's rogues gallery trademarked that already. Smug son of a bitch." Ben scowled at the thought, but quickly shook it off as he turned back to the projector "Anyway kind of a stroke of luck on her part she found me, I was here doing my own thing until I ran into her. And lucky for me, it looks like I ran into you.'

"Right, MJ did kind of mention that…" April pausd for a moment as her gaze hardened "Then here's the thing… If you have your own stuff to do that's one thing, I get that… The thing is that it's been rough for me and just about every one of my friends for the past few months, and MJ is no exception. Mostly in terms of her social life. Theater has always been something she loves doing, and this is something she's been looking forward to. I just… I don't want to see this get ruined for her over anything, okay?"

"Relax, I'm not in this to screw people over for shits and giggles." Ben paused and cast a look over to where MJ was reading through a copy of the script "So let me guess, she's a really close friend of yours?"

"Think a little more personal. She's my cousin." April glanced over to see Ben tense up at that revelation "You okay?"

"Yep, just… rethinking how I make decisions. Give me a minute." Ben quickly walked away from her, albeit now screaming internally 'You've gotta be fucking kidding me, the target is the freaking cousin of the gorgeous redhead? Why am I not surprised… So at this point, it's either get the target and screw over any chance with the girl, or get the girl and let the target go free, and end up proving yourself a disappointment to Father. Fuck.'

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the A plot…

'Okay, one thing I've learned from spending years around Tony Stark is that blackouts are never a good thing. Or it means he's got another one night stand.' Pepper cautiously made her way through the darkened hallways of Stark Tower towards one of the elevators… only to stop in her tracks and let out a gasp as the doors opened in front of her.

"Hello there Miss Potts." the Scientsits Supreme only needed to give a simple hand gesture before his fellow AIM agents surrounded Pepper with blasters in hand " status report."

"We've already checked it over." one of the soldiers held up a scanner "All communications have been jammed, nothing gets in or out of the tower."

"Excellent. Now then Miss Potts, I don't suppose you know who I am?"

"Oh gee, let me think for a second…" Pepper shot a smirk at him "You're some kind of angry beekeeper?"

"Not quite. I am the Scientist Suprme, the leader of the Advanced Idea Mechanics, and I am now in control here."

"Okay, so what do you want?"

"I'm so glad you asked." Scientist Supreme directed her attention to where the elevator doors opened up to reveal two AIM agents with the electronic pod "The machine these men carry with them is referred to as Technovore, and it was created with one purpose: to consume. Release the creature."

"Yes sir." one of the agents pressed a button on a control pad, causing the pod to open up to reveal a large red and black creature (Technovore), prompting the soldier to press another button and activate a panel on the creature's back.

"I have reprogrammed Technovore with the purpose of seeking out Arc Reactor technology, much like what is housed in the Avengers Tower… and like what Tony Stark has housed in his chest. So to answer your question Miss Potts, what do I want? What I want is for Technovore to consume." the Scientist Supreme then ushered himself, Pepper and his fellow AIM agents into one of the elevators, the doors closing in front of them.

"Consume…" Technovore on the other hand slithered its way down the halls in search of its prey… mainly the Arc Reactor in Stark's chest.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the hero in question and his group…

"Come on, come on…" Ghost Spider gritted her teeth as she tried to pry open the doors to the office, albeit with little success "Magnetically sealed, and lot stronger than I thought they would be. I'm guessing that's by design?"

"You can thank the Hulk for that after the last time his tantrum wrecked the tower." Stark told her dryly "But whatever happened shut down my own com link too, it means I can't get through to the rest of the Avengers."

"And that definitely has to be saying something."

"Like how my T-phone isn't working either." Leo gave a scowl as he stowed his T-phone back into his shell "So much for calling my brothers for backup, so what the shell gives? Is this some kind of super blackout?"

"I wouldn't say that, none of the surrounding buildings were effected." Ghost Spider pointed to the buildings sitting outside the office windows "No blackout, and nothing that looks like a power failure either. It's like someone created a dead zone all around us."

"Interesting. You know your science stuff huh?" Stark shot her a raised eyebrow.

"That's one way to put it, but right now we're all-" Ghost Spider was cut short by a familiar ringing going off in her head, followed the sound of a mechanical growling in the distance 'Yep that's about right, the Spider Sense never pops up soon enough to make any actual difference in the situation. Any chance that's your next appointment?"

"I sure as hell hope not. I also hope it's not one of my exes, and frankly that seems a lot more likely. And more terrifying."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the B plot…

'Okay, let's see here… balcony scenery, check. Street fight where Tybalt gets karmic murder, check.' Ben continued his work on the projector in preparation for the play, though his thoughts began drifting as he glanced over to where MJ and April were talking 'So to get the O'Neil girl I'd have to get past MJ, so any chance of winning her over is a bust… Then again I suppose I could try recruiting her into the Goblin Nation. One look at her is all that I need to know that she's already loads more worthwhile than most of those gun-toating dumbasses. Why we keep them around I'll never know… Not that I can ever question Father's judgement without being bitch slapped into next century.'

"So you're the new special effects guy huh?"

"You know there's a person attached to what these hands can do… which sounds really wrong now that I hear it out loud." Ben looked back and saw a dark-skinned figure with hair slicked back standing before him "But yeah, that's me. Ben Reiley."

"Hobie Brown." Hobie gave a simple nod as he examined the device "Looks like some kind of amped up hologram projector… at least on the surface. There's more to it is there."

"Hard light holograms that I can summon or de-summon at the touch of a button. And no, I can't call them solograms, thanks to that one guy that got his ass kicked by Iron Man."

"Doesn't really narrow it down. So what, you part of stage crew too?"

"Not exactly. I'm the guy playing Romeo."

"...Okay, I wasn't expecting that." Ben paused and turned around to look Hobie over for a good moment "You do look kinda familiar. Big theather guy?"

"Something like that. I've played a few roles at the center here before, and it led to me playing Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, so now I'm kinda just seeing where it takes me."

"And they're okay with you just showing up and taking the lead?"

"I didn't just take the part man, I auditioned for it. They gave me a chance and I showed them what I can do."

"...They gave you a chance huh?" Ben gave a small scowl at that as he turned away "With some people, even chances have to be earned… especially if people put you on a freaking pedestal all the time. Then you're either a gift from god or a privileged brat, depending on who you ask with those little sons of-"

"Dude?" Hobie snapped his fingers in front of him "You know I'm still here right? You kinda started monologuing."

"Oh. Sorry, just started thinking out loud I guess."

"Yeah I noticed, something about even chances having to be earned. Try doing a crap ton of job interviews, then you get the right to dump existential bullshit on the rest of us. Long story short, the job market is BS." Hobie breathed a frustrated sigh as he turned to walk away.

"So I've heard, now if you'll excuse me I've gotta get this thing up and running. The things we do to win over chicks that ooze sex appeal." Ben rolled his eyes as he pulled a cloth out of the front pocket of his hoodie to wipe some sweat from his forehead… only to falter when he took notice of what it actually was, that being his mask, and he quickly stowed it away as he turned to fully face the projector 'Praying to the love of god nobody saw that.'

But someone did see, that being none other than Hobie himself, having glanced back at Ben at just the right time 'Okay, knockoff Spider-Man mask is one thing… But didn't I hear Stacy say something about the Turtles and Daredevil running into some kind of Spider-Man lookalike in his own costume? Something doesn't seem right about this… But if this is the same guy, assuming it even is him, what would he want here?'

"Hey Hobie." this was when April made her way over to him "MJ is ready out on stage to start rehearsing, she wanted me to come let you know."

"Right, rehearsal…" Hobie paused and looked back to see Ben glancing at April while working on the projector, then he turned back towards April himself "Yeah, the thing is… My mom just texted me, she needs me at home."

"Right now? In the middle of rehearsal?"

"She's busy at work and I'm the oldest of nine, somebody's gotta make sure they don't set my house on fire. I'll make it up to you guys later, so see ya." Hobie gave a two finger salute and was out the door without another word, pulling his cell phone out as he did so 'Better shoot a text to the friendly nieghborhood dipsticks to let them know about this… and it's not going through, that's just perfect.'

"You've gotta be kidding me…" April on the other hand could only watch as Hobie took his leave of the Youth Center "Well so much for that…"

"So much for what?"

April glanced back to see MJ making her way back stage "Get this, Hobie just took off in the middle of rehearsal."

"Of course he did." MJ let out a sigh as she placed a hand to her temples "Well it could be a lot worse, at least it's not in the middle of the actual play or something."

"I guess, but doesn't that still mean you're down a partner for rehearsing? I mean I could do it myself if I had a copy of the script…"

"Nope, apparently the director wants us to do it, as he puts it, au naturel. No scripts, just from the memorization. In short, she sees you with a script in hand on that stage and she's gonna start to shriek at you like she's Gilbert Godfried's twin sister. It's a load of crap, but she's the only one they've got here. Unless you've got some kind of crazy photographic memory and can memorize ridiculously fast, I think we're pretty much SOL for today." MJ paused as she shared a silent look with April, then slowly turned her gaze to where Ben was still working on his hardlight projector "I wonder…"

"Hey can you two not stand there? I'm about to test out the hardlight projection and I don't want to run the risk either of you getting crushed." Ben poked his head up from behind the projector and paused when he noticed the two of them looking at him "Okay, why are you looking at me like I'm about to become one of the Flayed from Stranger Things?"

"Just about to confirm a hunch… How good are you at memorizing?"

"Photographic memory kind of runs in the family, I got it from my Father. Why?"

"That's all I needed." MJ gave a little smirk as she made her way over towards him "Hey Benji, can I call you Benjy?"

"I'm guessing this is the part where you say you need something from me?" Ben raised an eyebrow while trying to fight off the temptation to blush at her being so close to him.

"Since Hobie just ducked out, I need someone to help me rehearse that can memorize the lines in the script really fast… You think you can help a girl out?"

"Um…" Ben's blushing only deepend I'm the special effects and tech guy here, I don't think I'm really-"

"Please?" MJ's smirk turned a bit more sultry as she got a little bit closer to him "I'd be really grateful for this…"

"...Anyone have a copy of the script handy?" Ben was met with a copy of said script immediately being thrusted into his hand "Give me 20 minutes. I'm about to go from a lowly stage hand and grease monkey to being a star. Pretend I didn't just say that." and so he walked away as he began to look over the script.

"And there goes our new Romeo."

"Uh huh. Hey Juliet, quick question." April shot her a raised eyebrow "I'm all for quick problem solving, but wasn't that kind of manipulative on your part?"

"I'm not thrilled about doing stuff like that, but you know what they say, desperate times call for desperate measures. Plus it's not like I'm just using him, I'll pay him back for this." MJ paused as her smirk widened a little bit "Besides, from what I've seen he is pretty cute…"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the A plot…

"Hurry and commence with the download." the Scientist Supreme motioned for the AIM agents to start their work on the Tower computers while he continued holding Pepper at gunpoint "I want every single bite of data that Tony Stark and the Avengers own."

"Okay hold on, let me see if I've got this straight." Pepper shot a raised eyebrow at the Scientist Supreme "You mean you're doing all of this to steal Tony's computers?"

"Oh it's not that simple Miss Potts, it's so much more than the computers. AIM has come to take everything."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with another part of the A plot…

"Alright, we're set up and ready to fire." two AIM agents finished setting up a laser gun pointed at the doors leading to the armory "What are we looking at in there?"

"The scans show there are at least two suits of armor inside." the leader of the group stowed away his scanner and turned towards the others as he backed away "Hurry and take them."

"Right." so they activated the laser gun that began firing a beam of energy at the door, melting a large gaping hole through it, causing the rest of the door to burn away and leaving a large cloud of smoke as they advanced into the Armory with their guns pointed, until…

"Hey guys, pretty sure Comic Con was last month!" Spider-Man suddenly blitzed through the smoke and dealt one of the AIM agents a roundhouse kick before instantly webbing another to a wall "Not bad design on the costumes, I'd give you a 7 out of 10."

"Yeah not bad, but they got nothing on the real deal! Booyakasha!" Turtle Titan quickly grabbed hold of one AIM agent with his kusarigama and hurled him into the agents two that were aiming the laser gun, sending all three of them tumbling to the ground "How many more of them?"

"Based on how hard my Spider Sense is going off, I'm gonna go with a lot of them."

"Both of you get back!" this was when Captain America burst through the smoke and hurled his shield at the group of AIM agents, knocking them to the ground and ripping through the laser gun, cuasing it to detonate and blow them all away. With that taken care for the moment, he cast a glance back to Spider-Man and Turtle Titan "Nice work out there."

"Still not used to getting compliments from one of the big leagues, but thanks." Spider-Man was quick to take out the last AIM agent with a single elbow to the back, knocking him to the ground in an instant, allowing the group to get a good look at them "Hey hold up, aren't these the same guys we fought with War Machine back on Halloween?"

"They're with the Advanced Idea Mechanics, or better known as AIM." Captain Ameria frowned as he got a good look at them "They're a group of supercriminal scientists that use technology for the sake of making profit."

"Advanced Idea Mechanics huh? Here's an idea for them: Don't go attacking the home of Earth's Mightiest Heroes if you don't wanna get your asses handed to you." Spider-Man took a quick fist bump from Turtle Titan, even earning a small chuckle from Captain America "But real talk, that doesn't really sound like anything new as far as the whole supervillain thing goes."

"They really aren't." Rhodey gave a scowl as he made his way out of the smoke "Like I said, these guys have been a pain in the ass for me and Iron Man since before the Avengers. They've got a personal grudge against us too."

"Most of them usually do, , we've got one of our own and he's wicked scary. These guys have nothing on Shredder, trust me." Turtle Titan shuddered at the thought "So what, they thought they could take you guys?"

"In a straight up fight? They're stupid, but they aren't that stupid. Knowing how they work, they most likely just came to get their hands on Tony's tech and armors."

"So what, does that mean that Controller guy is back too?"

"No I checked last week, he's still locked up in SHIELD custody. It's probably one of the other factions."

"They've got others?"

"The leader of AIM isn't super consistent, they've more or less divided into various factions over the years. One of them is led by the Controller, one by the Scientist Supreme, and then there's the ones led by MODOK."

"Is he the one that looks like that giant head with the tiny arms and legs?"

"That's the one."

"Figures these guys made him, I saw a picture once and he made me wanna throw up in my mouth a little bit." Spider-Man gagged slightly at the thought, but paused as a familiar sensation went off in his head "Anyway I'm probably not one to give orders Colonel, but if you're gonna put on your hero face now's the time, as in get on that suit of armor and start blowing stuff up before they do that to us."

"A little bit late for that son." Captain America quickly held up his shield as another group of AIM agents showed up on the scene and began firing at the group.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the faction leader…

"Excellent, already at 54%. It shouldn't be long now." the Scientist Supreme gave a smirk underneath his helmet, but paused as his communicator began buzzing "Report, what's going on over there?"

"We've reached Stark's armory and managed to gain access to it, but we've encountered three other heroes in the building."

"Which ones?"

"Captain America, and the ones knowns as Spider-Man and the Turtle Titan."

"Kill all of them quickly, and take the Captain's shield off of his corpse. And whatever happens, get those armors." and then he shut off the communcitator.

"Not going too well for you guys, huh?" Pepper gave a raised eyebrow.

"I wouldn't act so overconfident if I were you Miss Potts. There is going to be no rescue coming for you. This entire building is under the control of AIM. We are the greatest collection of minds this planet has to offer, and the Avengers are nothing compared to our science."

"Really now? Then that makes this a little bit confusing, because I thought you said you were here to loot this place."

"I'll have you know that this is personal. Tony Stark and his companions are going to pay for throwing me in prison as if I were some common criminal."

"You mean a common looter." Pepper was quickly silenced by a gun being pointed at her face and her being grabbed by the arm.

"I would watch my tone if I were you Miss Potts. You should really be more respectful to the man who's about to bring down Iron Man and take down both Stark Industries and the Avengers in one fell swoop." he pointed to where the AIM agents were still working at the computers… and an image popped up on the screen with a certain caption.

"Arc reactor: Access granted."

"Excellent… now team three, move in and plant the bombs."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the main target…

"Okay, quick question…" Ghost Spider looked over at Stark and Leo as an ominous noise began to permeate throughout the building "Does anyone else hear what sounds like some kind of electronic slobbering?"

"Oh trust me, we all hear it." Stark buttoned up his shirt slightly to cover the Arc Reactor in his chest, and then glanced up at the sound of rumbling "This is gonna be bad…"

"Consume." it was at that moment that Technovore came bursting through the ceiling, throwing everyone to the ground at the force of its entrance and was quick to pounce on Stark, tackling him to the ground and preparing to feast on him.

"Get the shell off of him!" Leo drew the attention of Technovore by hurling a smoke bomb at him and was quick to slash at him with both of his katanas drawn, easily luring Technovore away from Stark… but at the cost of Leo himself being pounced on instead, with tendrils emerging from the creature's mouth and slowly closing in on his face, until…

"Keep your slimy hands off of them!" lucky for them, this was when Ghost Spider quickly latched onto Technovore with a webline and hurled it to the ground with as much force as she could, creating a sizable dent in the floor, but doing little to deter it otherwise "You guys doing okay?"

"Well we almost got eaten, but otherwise we could be worse." Stark let out a groan as he pulled himself to his feet.

"Okay good, now I have one question." Leo was quick to rebound as he grabbed his katanas and pointed it at Technovore "What in the shell is that thing supposed to be?"

"One of my old baddies, it's called Technovore. It's a nanotech AI that was created for the sake of destroying data, until it ended up getting into an experimental nanobot program, then it went out of control and ended up eating just about everything it could get its hands on."

"So what does it want here?"

"Well if I had to guess-"

"Arc energy signature located. Consume." Technovore locked its gaze onto Stark, onto the light coming from his chest to be more specific, and prepared to pounce.

"It's after the Arc Reactor I have in my chest. I'm thinking that now would be a good time to get the hell out of here."

"Way ahead of you." Ghost Spider leapt at the office doors and took them down with a single blow, and then she and the others took off running down the halls of the tower "Quick tip for the future, those doors might have been designed to be Hulk proof, but the proportionate strength of a spider is something you do NOT want to underestimate."

"I'll take that one on board for the future." Stark rounded a corner, with the others doing the same, only to come to a stop when they saw a group of familiar figures in yellow hazmat suits waiting for them with blasters readied "AIM agents. Well that makes sense."

"So there he is." one of the agents pulled out a communicator "We've got visual on Tony Stark, along with two others."

"Then stop wasting time and shoot Stark before-" the voice of the Scientist Supreme was suddenly cut short.

"Tony you have to hurry, they're going to blow up the main reactor! Tony!" the voice of Pepper came through the communicator before it was suddenly cut short.

"Pepper… they've got her…" Stark's gaze immediately hardened "This just got personal."

"Then let's not waste any time." Ghost Spider latched onto the AIM agents with weblines and immediately hurled them into each other, knocking them to the ground in an instant and giving her the chance to web them up… right before her Spider Sense led her to throw herself, Stark and Leo to the ground right before Technovore soared overhead and pounced on the group of immobilized AIM agents, bringing its claws down on them, much to the horror of the heroes watching "Oh god…"

"Yeah trust me, I've been there too, it's not fun." Stark was quick to grab the attention of both her and Leo "But we've got bigger problems right now, we've gotta get to the Arc Reactor and fast."

"Shouldn't we focus on finding a way out of here?" asked Leo.

"No, if AIM detonates the main Arc Reactor then it's gonna take out the whole building, along with god only knows how much else."

"...That sounds like something you really shouldn't be keeping in your home."

"Well it wasn't supposed to be turned into a bomb!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the other A plot group…

"I'm starting to see why you think these guys are kind of tedious." Spider-Man leapt out among the blaster fire to take out a few AIM agents with a few shots of impact webbing, blowing their blasters out of their hands and leaving them pinned to various walls and the floor "What was it they said about these guys, take one out and two more pop up in its place?"

"You're thinking of HYDRA actually, but it rings true for others." Captain America blocked a ray of blaster fire with his shield and used it to take out a few other AIM agents as they closed in on the group "Though with the way things are going, I doubt we should hold off on getting reinforcements."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that the three of us hold off AIM as long as we can so Rhodey can get to his armor and provide some backup. In three… two… one! GO!"

"You heard the Captain!"

"You bet your web hole we did! Booyakasha!" Turtle Titan readied his kusarigama and charged through the blaster fire, with Spider-Man shooting volleys of Impact Webs and Captain America hurling his shield and beating down any AIM agents in front of him, allowing Rhodey to sneak through the chaos in the direction of the armory.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the B plot…

"Okay, a little bit more and… there we go." Ben breathed a sigh of relief as he finished looking over the copy of the script in his hand and stowed it on a nearby table 'Thank the lord that I have a photographic memory… or thank Father, as I'm sure he'd wish for me to say. Not going to lie, I never thought I'd end up being part of a profession that involves men dressing up like women for all the world to see… Those were really weird times.'

"See you on stage Romeo. This oughta be fun." MJ gave a small smirk aimed at Ben as she took her leave.

'Fun is one word to describe it… Now if only I wasn't here for work stuff.' Ben watched as MJ make her way out onto the stage, albeit stopping to talk to April for a moment, which prompted him to let out a sigh 'Speaking of work stuff, I'd better take care of that before I get too caught up in the play being the thing.' and so he made his way over to a corner backstage and pulled out his cell phone as he dialed a certain number "Gargan, it's me."

"Okay first question, how in the hell did you get my number?"

"Doesn't matter."

"I disagree. Now what's this about?"

"I finally managed to track down the O'Neil girl we talked about before, she can be found in the auditorium at the Lincoln Dynamic Youth Center. I'm earning my place and showing everyone in the Goblin Nation what I can do, just like you told me."

"Of course you are… Seriously, you try to give a kid a little guidance and the next thing you know you're getting badgered every time you turn around, even when you're trying to grab a cigarette."

"What was that?"

"Hey Ben?" this was when April poked her head out from behind the curtain "MJ is ready when you are."

"I gotta go, but you'll get to meet her soon enough, I swear." so Ben hung up and pocketed his cell phone before making his way out onto the stage while April herself made her way towards backstage "So you know how to use the hardlight projector?"

"I can only promise to try."

"And there's my answer. Just push the buttons one at a time when they light up and try not to get too close to where the light comes out or you might end up getting blinded."

"...Good to know." and so April made her way over towards the projector and began to look it over… while keeping as far away from the front of it as she could.

"Alright then." with that taken care of, Ben turned his attention towards MJ as the two of them took to the center of the stage "Okay, so what scene are we starting with?"

"Going with the classic as far as I'm concerned." MJ gave a small shrug "Okay with you if we start with me on the balcony?"

"Depends on how well your cousin can get the hardlight hologram up and running."

"I think I got it actually." April pushed a series of buttons on the projector, causing the stage to be covered in makeshift scenery of a balcony.

"Good enough for me, you ready to do this?"

"I'm on it." so with that in mind, MJ climbed her way up onto the makeshift balcony and let out a sigh as she began "Ay me."

'Okay, here goes…' Ben took a breath as he began to do his own part "O speak again bright angel. As glorious to this night, being over my head. As is a wingèd messenger of heaven Unto the white-upturnèd wondering eyes. Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him. When he bestrides the lazy puffing clouds. And sails upon the bosom of the air. "

"O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name, Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I'll no longer be a Capulet."

"Well damn…" Ben let out a low whistle "You definitely know what you're doing, looks like you really are in your element. Makes you wonder why they bothered having men dress up as women back then."

"They were weird times."

"So I've heard. Not like these days are much better. Should we try that again?"

"Alright, why not? I'm kind of feeling this part in particular." MJ gave a small smile as she began again "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name, Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I'll no longer be a Capulet."

"Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?"

"'Tis but thy name that is my enemy. Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. What is Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face. O, be some other name Belonging to a man." she paused to collect herself "What's in a name? That which we call a rose. By any other word would smell as sweet. So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called. Retain that dear perfection which he owes Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name, And, for thy name, which is no part of thee, Take all myself."

"I take thee at thy word." Ben leapt up towards the balcony and grabbed on with one hand to pull himself up "Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized. Henceforth I never will be Romeo."

'Well now… Looks like I'm not the only one who knows their stuff…' MJ fell silent as she leaned in a bit closer, with Ben doing the same "Good night, good night…"

"Sleep dwell in thine eyes, peace in thy breast… Oh would I were sleep and peace, so sweet to rest…" Ben trailed off as his eyes closed and leaned in, with MJ doing the same… and then their lips connected.

'Alright, you go girl!' April on the other hand just watched with a broad smile at the sight of the kiss, to which she also took a picture of it but it quickly faltered as a sensation went off in her head, causing her to turn towards where she could see several motorcycles pulling up outside containing numerous riders wearing familiar pumpkin masks, causing April to go pale in the face at the sight 'Oh no…'

Another moment passed before the two of them pulled away, and Ben finally spoke, albeit while pink in the face "Wow, that uh… Yeah, I think you've got something there."

"Yep, I think I'm starting to get the hang of it now." MJ climbed her way back down onto the stage floor "But you know, I feel like I'm gonna need a lot of coaching."

"Well I like to think I've learned enough to be a good teacher on some level." Ben paused as his cell phone went off, prompting him to walk off towards backstage, albeit stumbling slightly as he did so 'Dammit, of all the times for these dipshits to need me…'

"Okay then… I guess…"

"MJ!" this was when April came rushing onto the stage and screeched to a halt in front of her "I think we- Okay first of all, points for the kiss."

"I know right? He's better at that than I thought he'd be."

"Yeah congrats and all, but we've got a big problem."

"What kind of problem?" MJ received her answer in the form of the sound of gunfire ringing through the air, followed by several pumpkin soldiers bursting through the doors and pointing their guns at him "Oh. That kind. Any ideas?"

"Just one, get back and pray Donnie having too much free time pays off!" April pulled a series of smoke bombs out of her pockets and threw them to the ground, creating a cloud of purple smoke she tried to wave towards the soldiers with her tessen. What came next was the sounds of gunfire going off, lots of slashing, screaming and a loud splattering noise.

"April? April where are you?!" MJ let out a series of coughs as she tried to navigate her way through the smoke, only to end up falling off the stage as a result… but luckily for her a pair of arms caught her before she hit the ground, taking her aback over who it was "Hobie?"

Sure enough, Hobie was the one that managed to catch MJ, and he gave a smirk as he set her back on the ground "So does this get me a spot on the Spider Support Squad?"

"We'll talk about that later, what the hell is going on? Where have you been?"

"Trying to call in the backup in the form of the aforementioned spiders and turtles that run all over the place in tights, but the two I actually like, along with the Spiders themselves, aren't answering any of my calls. Apparently being the friendly neighborhood heroes doesn't do shit for getting good cell phone service."

"Fair enough I guess. But back to my first question, what the hell is going on?!"

"From the looks of it I'd say we just got ambushed by the Goblin Nation, and while I'm pretty sure you're gonna hate this part… I think your new tonsil hockey partner is one of them."

"Wait, you mean Ben? Where the hell did that come from?" MJ's expression was incredulous, to put it very mildly "Sure he might kind of look like Tiger, but that doesn't mean-"

"I saw him holding onto a mask that looks just like the one that Daredevil showed me, and I'm pretty sure that's him there." he pointed to where Scarlet Spider could be seen on the other side of the windows slinging April over his shoulder "And if he really is in league with them, I think they just made off with O'Neil."

"Let's just put a pin in that one for the time being. Now how the hell do we get my cousin back from those psychopaths?"

"The only way we can… calling in the rest of the backup, aka the smart turtle and the one that has horrendous anger issues, and prey they actually answer their damn phones."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, outside the Youth Center…

"Will you quit squirming and hold still?" Scarlet Spider was fast losing patients as he finally managed to pin April to a wall long enough to bind her in a thick cocoon of webbing, and then he turned to the group of pumpkin soldiers mounting their motorocycles "Speaking of which, what the hell are you guys doing here? I didn't give you orders to show up here."

"You can thank Gargan for that one." the leader of the group told him "He's the one who told us about you picking up the O'Neil girl, now we just have to meet him at the rendezvous point so he can bring her back to the base."

"Oh. Okay good, that speeds things up a little bit I guess. Then let's hurry up and get over to that rendezvous point." Scarlet Spider was about to web a line, but paused as he glanced through the center windows to see MJ frantically dialing on her phone, and he let out a sigh 'I guess it's like Father says, sometimes you have to cowboy up and do what you have to do… No matter how much it might suck…'

"Scarlet Spider?"

"Sorry, just thinking. Let's go get this over with."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the A plot…

"Okay, this isn't working as well as I would've liked." Ghost Spider tried to use her enhanced strength to pry open a certain set of doors, to which she glanced back at Stark and Leo "I don't suppose you Hulk-proofed every set of doors in the tower?"

"Trust be told, those are actually magnetically sealed. With Adamantium." Stark gave a shrug, but this quickly faltered at the sound of metallic shrieking in the distance, courtesy of the next appearance of Technovore "Aw crapbaskets."

"Oh, you say that too. Nevermind, we've got him!" Ghost Spider pounced towards Technovore with a burst of strength, with Leo doing the same.

"Consume… must consume…" Technovore blitzed past the two of them with a burst of speed and pounced on Stark, throwing him to the ground and swiftliy embedding its tendril tongues into the Arc Reactor in his chest, causing him to scream in pain, until…

"BOOYAKASHA!" Leo swooped in at the last second and managed to cut off Technovore's tendrils with a single slash of both katanas, causing it to recoil and allowing Ghost Spider to latch onto it with a webline and throw it down the hall, giving them the chance to pull Stark back onto his feet "You okay?"

"I… I'll manage…" Stark let out a groan of pain as he clutched his chest, but he quickly steeled himself to the best of his ability as he saw Technovore rebound "Both of you hurry and get out of here, you have to get to the Arc Reactor and stop AIM."

"You can barely stand, there's no chance either of us are going to leave you."

"Consume…" Technovore set its gaze back on Stark as it prepared to charge again… only to pause and look down as something else drew its attention, prompting it to burst through a set of nearby elevator doors and crawl its way down the shaft.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the other half of the A plot…

"Seriously, you guys call yourselves the Advanced Idea Mechanics?" Spider-Man leapt through the smoke and debris that covered the room as he tore through one AIM agent after another, his assault ending by dealing one a roundhouse kick and webbing another to the ground, with Turtle Titan and Captain America continuing their own assaults "Here's an idea for you: Get better ideas."

"How's this for a better idea!" one AIM agend held up a rather large energy cannon, firing a blast that created an explosion powerful enough to send the three of them hurtling backwards, which also allowed him to advance towards the Armor "This is 221, there's no sign of the third man and I'm proceeding with armor extraction."

"Yeah, piece of advice buddy…" heavy footsteps echoed throughout the armory, and from the smoke emerged the hulking form of War Machine "You might wanna rethink that." and then a single blast of a Repulsor was enough to send the AIM agent hurtling out of the armory and then crashing to the ground, and then he advanced forward just as the other heroes were recovering from the blast "You guys okay?"

"Pretty sure everything is on fire right now…" Spider-Man let out a pained groan as he picked himself up, with Turtle Titan and Captain America doing the same "But no more than usual, so I'm gonna say yeah, we're good."

"In that case, both of you duck." and so he readied just about every blaster and rocket launcher his armor had just as the next wave of AIM agents began firing at him, which also prompted him to go on the offensive.

"Okay… why do I get the feeling that thing running is going to be bad?"

"Becuase it probably is, if it's going where I think it's going." Stark looked down the elevator shaft, then cast a glance over at Leo and Ghost Spider "Any chance either of you have a way to get us down there fast enough to catch it?"

"We may not be Avengers, but that doesn't mean we don't have a few tricks up our own sleeves for stuff like this." Ghost Spider promptly slung Stark over her shoulder and leapt down into the elevator shaft, with Leo climbing down after them, riding on the elevator cables using his twin katanas.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the main bad guy group…

"This is growing tiresome." the Scientist Supreme was quickly running out of patience as he turned to the AIM agents seated in front of him "What's the status?"

"The download just finished." one of the AIM agents pulled a drive out of the computer and handed it to the Scientist Supreme "We just gained access to Stark's entire mainframe, which includes Arc Reactor and armor schematics, along with every encrypted file on the Avengers or otherwise."

"Excellent." the Scientist Supreme accepted the drive and pulled out a communicator "Team Three, status report."

"Team Three reporting in. There are six minutes left on the explosives we planted on the Arc Reactor, we're pulling out."

"Understood. Team Two, what's the status on the armor transport?" there was no response "Team Two report in, what's your status?"

"Wow, that definitely doesn't sound good." Pepper gave a smirk and a raised eyebrow "So much for having everything under control."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the current team getting their asses whooped…

"Well damn." Spider-Man let out a low whistle as he and the others watched War Machine go to town on the remaining AIM agents, blowing them back with ease "Not gonna lie, it feels really good to see them shooting at someon other than me for a change. No offense."

"None taken, I know the feeling." War Machine continued his assault on the AIM agents and finished them off with a swift barrage of rocket projectiles "Not gonna lie though, after what these assholes put me through last time I went up against them, that actually feels pretty good."

"No kidding man, it's way cooler having you on our side this time." Turtle Titan gave a wide grin as he kicked the last AIM agent in the face hard enough to send him crashing to the ground in a heap.

"The feeling's mutual. Now nobody say anything about that being the last of them cause that's just gonna make more of them show up."

"And in 3… 2… 1." Spider-Man finished his countdown just as a familiar sensation went off in his head "My Spider Sense agrees with you, we've got company."

"Of what kind exactly?" War Machine received his answer in the form of Technovore bursting through the doors and pouncing on him, sending the both of them careening through one of the walls.

"Of that kind would be my guess." and so Spider-Man webbed a line leapt through the hole after them, with Turtle Titan and Captain America both following his lead.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the B plot…

"Okay I get it, this isn't exactly ideal for you." Scarlet Spider let out a groan as he rubbed his now bruised kneecap "But that's just flat out uncalled for."

"This coming from the guy that webbed me up and kidnapped me." the glare April was sending his way only intensified "The phrase "pot calling the kettle black" comes to mind here."

"Fair, irritating as hell but fair. Emotions are running high and all that, plus you're pissed about being kidnapped."

"Oh please, people try this at least once a week. If it wasn't you and the Goblin Nation flunkies it was probably gonna be the Foot or the Kraang again." April rolled her eyes, but then her gaze turned hardened as she was seated on the rooftop in front of him "That's not even the part that gets under my skin most. I thought you were a decent guy… Ben. Assuming that's even your real name."

"...It isn't actually." Scarlet paused as he lifted his mask to reveal his face "Ben Reiley is a name I kind of just came up with on the fly, I don't really know where it came from."

"Doesn't really matter if you ask me, it's just another mask." April's scowl deepend, but now with a hint of hurt "But you know what's even worse than stabbing us in the back and up and kidnapping me? You used my cousin like some cheap fling, and made her think you actually care about her."

"...You mean MJ don't you?" Scarlet's gaze softened, if only slightly "Yeah, that was… really unexpected, if you wanna sugarcoat it. I won't say I didn't feel anything for her."

"Well you've got a hell of a way of showing it." April just looked away from him, but paused and turned her head as much as she could "Great, now there's more of them."

"Say what now?" Scarlet paused as a familiar sensation in his head alearted him to a helicopter appearing above them, along with one particularly large pump grabbing April by the webs that bound her and hoisting her up into it "Oh good, the backup."

"That's one way to put it. Another is that I finally got to put my helicopter license to good use for once." Gargan (wearing his hat and trench coat to conceal his face) poked his head out of the helicopter, pausing as he looked at April's bound form, then down at Scarlet Spider "So you really went through with getting the O'Neil kid huh?"

"Yep, you can't say I'm not a man of my word. So can I have my vest back now?"

"Oh yeah, that. Sure whatever, do what you want with it." Gargan pulled out the blue vest in question and threw it down to Scarlet Spider.

"Yeah, I really did it… So I can wear this proudly now, right?"

"Can you? Can you really?" Gargan was met with silence, and so he made his way back to the pilot's seat "See you back at the base kid." and so the helicopter promtply flew off into the distance, taking April with them.

"I… I did what I said I would…" Scarlet looked down at the vest as he put it on "I proved my worth to Father… I can wear this proudly, I know I can… right?"

"Oh believe me, my group is very proud of your actions today."

Scarlet looked back and saw a purple doorway open up behind him, and a familiar female figure walk through it "Subprime. What are you doing here?"

"Nothing too big, just checking in on how your little group is getting on. But from the look of things, I'd say much better with you choosing to take the initiative. Having the O'Neil girl at our disposal should help us progress our plans very nicely." Subprime gave a smirk as she pushed up her glasses "April O'Neil is a feisty one for sure, but we'll snuff that fire in her belly before too long. She'll regret making the choices she did in time. The same with another someone we've come to know in your little group."

"What does that mean?"

"I get the feeling you're going to find out before too long. Now if you'll excuse me, I have one or two things I need to take care of." and so she stepped back through the purple doorway behind her without another word, said doorway closing immediately after.

'Regretting her choices…?' Scarlet paused and looked at the retreating form of the helicopter 'If she is… then she might not be the only one…'

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the A plot…

"Sounds like the Scientist Supreme gave the okay, which means we can finally get the hell out of here." one AIM agent finished packing his duffel bag and slung it over his shoulder, then cast a glance over at one of the others "So what was that thing you were talking about again?"

"Oh yeah, it's called the Wilhelm Scream." the other AIM agent told him "It's like that one in Star Wars where the Stormtrooper falls."

"Right, you know I love that scream. Doesn't it go like this?" he attempted an imitation of the scream, only to fail.

"No, I think it's more like this." another failed attempt to replicate the scream.

"No that's not it either, I think it's more like-" their conversation was cut short by a scream that came a very short distance away, courtesy of Technovore and War Machine crashing through the walls and landing on the ground around them, the former trying to dig into the Arc Reactor in the latter's chest "Actually I think that's it."

"Cool. So what the hell do we do now?"

"This whole place is gonna blow up, what the hell do you think we do? Run like hell!" the two of them turned to run… only to suddenly find themselves pinned to the ground via webs "Oh come on!"

"Seriously guys, when has that sort of thing ever actually worked?" Spider-Man landed on the ground in front of them with Turtle Titan by his side just as Captain America moved to take out the rest of the AIM agents present.

"I always hate this part." the last AIM agent resigned himself as he held up a blaster and moved to fire at Captain America… only for something to latch onto his back and send him spiralling around the room and then hurtling towards the group, allowing Captain America to punch him out and leave him to fall to the ground.

It was then that the line retracted itself, revealing Ghost Spider having connected to him with a webline as she arrived on the scene, with Stark and Leo right behind her "Sorry to keep you guys waiting."

"Say sorry by getting this thing off of me!" War Machine on the other hand was still struggling with trying to free himself of Technovore's grasp.

"On it!" Spider-Man leapt towards Technovore and latched onto it with a webline, with Ghost Spider doing the same, the two of them using their combined strength to rip it off War Machine and hurl it across the room, sending it crashing to the ground a fair distance away "You heard the man, down boy."

"Nice of you to finally join us." Ghost Spider gave a playful grin under her mask.

"Hey I was with them the whole time, if anything I should be saying that to you. Anyway down to business, what do I need to know about what I think is a teched out version of the Mind Flayer from Stranger Things?"

"Short version, nanotech AI monster AIM brought in to harvest my organs." Stark told him dryly as he turned his gaze over towards the Arc Reactor "And we've got problems right now, as in a LOT of problems."

"No kidding, so what's our plan here? Also quick warning, expect me to geek the hell out over meeting you face to face when we're not in mortal danger."

"Duly noted. Anyway we've got big problems, we're not gonna have enough time to disarm the bombs AIM planted."

"What bombs? I was talking about that thing." Spider-Man pointed to where Technovore was picking itself up "You got a plan?"

"Actually I do. We're gonna give Technovore exactly what it wants, the Arc Reactor. Just not the one in my chest."

"Consume…" Technovore locked its gaze onto Stark and immediately pounced on him with its tongues looming towards his chest.

"Let him go!" Ghost Spider leapt in front of Stark and grabbed onto Technovore, using her enhanced strength to push him back, despite various tendrils latching onto her arms and legs to try and throw her off

"Hang on, I've got you!" Spider-Man swooped in next and fired numerous volleys of electric webbing at Technovore, stunning it long enough for him to latch on with a webline and throw it back to the ground "Gw- Ghosty!"

"I'm on it!" Ghost Spider leapt towards Technovore and fired her own volley of electric webbing at it, stunning it for a moment, but then it just latched onto her wrists with its tendrils and began to crush them.

"This is bad, Technovore is gonna keep adapting to them." Stark quickly rushed his way over towards War Machine "Listen Rhodey, you've got access to JARVIS so I'm gonna need you to do this. Have him connect to the emergency backup of the mainframe, start reactivation of the Arc Reactor at 200% capacity and overload it."

"Hold on, overload the Arc Reactor?" War Machine gave a raised eyebrow "Pretty sure that ain't supposed to be a good thing."

"Just trust me, I know what I'm doing."

"Alright. JARVIS… do what he said." War Machine was met with a pause, followed by the Arc Reactor staring back up, creating a vortex of energy that rose out of the center.

"Consume…" the energy coming from the Arc Reactor was enough to draw Technovore right to it, prompting it to poke its head inside and began to consume the energy in question.

"I get it, give it too much to handle. Alright JARVIS, finish it now!" this was met with the vortex expanding outwards, destroying the bombs planted by AIM in the process.

"Everybody get back!" Spider-Man and Ghost Spider latched onto Stark, Leo and Turtle Titan with weblines as they leapt onto the backwalls and used their webs to keep everyone from being blown away, with War Machine flying up to join them as the vortex continued to send a wave of energy permeating around the area, leaving the group to watch as Technovore continued to feed on the energy until it expanded… and finally exploded, causing the shockwaves to subside and the room to return to normal.

"Okay, so… that happened." War Machine returned to the ground and glanced at Stark as he was set back down by Spider-Man "I gotta ask though, how did you know that wouldn't end up setting off the explosives?"

"Simple, cause they stole that design from me." Stark gave a cocky smirk… but it quickly fell away as something else dawned on him "Oh shit, they've got Pepper!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, outside the building…

"Tell me Miss Potts, what was that about me not being in control?" the Scientist Supreme merely tightened his grip on the blaster he held to Pepper's temple as he led her to their carrier parked outside of Avengers Tower, with his group of AIM agents following close behind him "Contact the AIM base, let them know we're going to need engineers to-" he was cut off by the sounds of cries of pain, and looked back to see his group of AIM agents sprawled out on the ground.

And who should be standing over the downed AIM agents but Spider-Man, Ghost Spider and the Turtle Titan, with War Machine and Captain Ameria close behind them "Pretty sure there's a line in here about quality over quantity or something. Give me a minute, I'll figure it out."

"You won't have the time to. Or should I say, she won't." the Scientist Supreme let out a snarl as he aimed his blaster at Pepper.

"Hey!" it was at this moment that two more figures floated down onto the scene, the first of which being Tony Stark himself, finally clad in a suit of Iron Man armor, with War Machine by his side "Drop the blaster, this is the only warning you're getting. It's over."

"You truly believe it's over? Keep in mind that I still have your precious Pepper Potts, I still hold all of the cards!"

"Yeah, about that…" Pepper promptly dealt th Scientist Supreme a kick to the chest, followed by an elbow to the jaw that knocked him to the ground in an unconscious heap.

"Girl power, anyone with a brain fears it." Iron Man gave a smirk underneath his mask as he and War Machine dropped to the ground to meet Pepper at eye level "You okay?"

"I'm fine, but I expect this to be reflected in my bonus."

"Done. And in addition to that, how about I make it up to you over dinner?"

"I'll be holding you to that." Pepper gave him a small smile… but it quickly fell away as another realization dawned on her "Dammit they downloaded the hard drive, all the data from the tower mainframe!"

"You talking about this?" Turtle Titan held up the drive in question, causing Pepper to breath a sigh of relief "Hey I might not be the big brain of the team, but the party dude's got a few more surprises to him. Give me some credit."

"No arguments here." Spider-Man gave a smirk underneath his mask as he caught Turtle Titan in a fist bump "Definitely couldn't ask for better partners than you and Ghosty here."

"And definitely shows." Iron Man took off his helmet, revealing the face of Tony Stark as he made his way over to the group, Ghost Spider and Leo in particular "I really have to thank all of you for helping us with this, especially the two of you. You stayed with me, and you even saved my life."

"It's just part of the hero gig, really." Ghost Spider rubbed the back of her neck in a sheepish manner "We just did what we thought was right."

"Well that's probably the only reason I'm not dead, the same with the rest of us. So it's only right we return the favor." Stark turned his gaze towards Cap "Any chance the others told you what's going on?"

"Spider-Man and Turtle Titan already filled us in on the situation." Captain America turned his gaze towards the four of them "Like Tony said, thank you for your help today. And when the time comes for you to fend off the Kraang's next invasion, the Avengers will be there at your disposal."

"Thank you for that =, truly." Spider-Man shook his hand, with the others all doing the same, but then he paused and looked his cell phone, his gaze turning hard "Gonna have to put talks on hold for now, from the looks of it we're needed somewhere else."

"Yeah I know, Scarlet Spider is back." Leo turned to the others "This could be a problem, so we had better get moving. Get the Spider Cycle and Stealth Bike, we don't have any time to waste on this."

"Got it." Spider-Man was about to take off as the others did, until…

"Spider-Man." the voice of Captain America stopped him "Before you go, there is one more thing I wanted to tell you. About what you said to me earlier."

"You're gonna have to be more specific. I'm not giving up quips, at this point it's pretty much my defining shtick."

"No not that, trust me lots of us do that in a fight. About what you said earlier, how you don't receive much in the way of positive press as you put it."

"You read the Daily Bugle and you know why."

"I personally choose to stick with the New York Times." Captain America let out a chuckle "The Bugle itself doesn't tell the whole story. Not the one that I learned at least."

"Okay… why do I get the feeling this is going to lead to you discovering my internet search history?"

"Believe me, that's a line I choose to stray as far away from as I can. Mostly because I don't hold much taste for the internet."

"You're not missing much."

"I know." Captain America paused as his gaze softened slightly "But like I was saying, I know who you are, and I know what you've done. What you do. I've talked to the police, the firemen, the people that you've helped. I've heard their stories about how you saved lives. How you never asked for recognition, or reward, or even thanks. It doesn't matter what anyone else says, be they the newspapers or the politicians, or even the whole world. They don't define who you are. You do. And not by your words, but by your actions. The truth will come out, and people will come to understand the hero you really are. But until then, you'll have to keep fighting. Just as you always have." he gave a small smile.

"Woah…" Spider-Man was left in awe for a moment, before he finally found his voice "There any chance you're looking for a sidekick?"

"I appreciate the offer." Captain America's smile widened slightly "But I think it's safe to say that you already have a team."

"...Yeah. Yeah, I do." and so Spider-Man webbed a line and swung away after the rest of his group without another word.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the B plot…

'I can't believe I'm doing this…' Scarlet Spider gritted his teeth as he webbed a line and swung his way after the helicopter, with April clear in his line of sight 'Am I really doing this, willing to go against Father just for some teenage girls? Well I guess I just answered my own question, now didn't I?'

'So what, they wanna take me back to the Goblin King, hand me over to the Kraang just like how the Shredder did? Like hell that's going to happen.' April glanced around to see that none of the pumpkin soldiers or Gargan were paying attention, albeit seeing Scarlet Spider swinging along in the distance 'But if I'm gonna do this, I'd better do it now.' so she carried on with her escape plan, subtly using the sharp edge of her tessen to cut herself free of the webbing, but just as she was about to finish the job…

"Nope." a hand snatched the tessen out from her hand, courtesy of none other than Gargan "You get points for trying kid, but you're gonna have to learn a little more about being subtle before you can pull a fast one against somebody like me."

"Gargan!" this was when Scarlet Spider suddenly landed on the side of the chopper and drew the attention of everyone present "We need to talk."

"Kid I'm kind of in the middle of-"

"Right over here!" this was when April finally managed to free herself of the webs binding her, to which she kicked the large pumpkin soldier in the crotch, causing him to topple over, then did the same to Gargan, stunning him long enough for him to catch her tessan… and then jump out of the helicopter without hesitation.

"...Okay, what the hell?!"

'Please please please, let this work!' April shut her eyes and braced herself as she hurtled closer and closer to the street below her, until…

"I gotcha!" lucky for her, this was when Donnie leapt onto the scene and caught April in his arms before she could make impact, though the two of them were left to hit the ground with a loud bang, the impact being cushioned thanks to Donnie using his shell "You okay?"

"Yeah… Yeah, I think so…"

"In that case, what the shell were you thinking?!"

"That it was better than being kidnapped for the umpteenth time, that it was about time I tried to rescue myself for a change… and that I knew you'd be there for me, since you always have been up until now."

"...That's a good answer." Donnie had to force down the blush creeping up along his cheeks, though he and April did exchange a small smile.

"Hey, I hate to kill the moment but we're kind of busy here!" this was when the Shellraiser drove up onto the scene, with MJ rushing out and grabbling April in a tight hug "You okay?"

"I'm not dead, so I'm gonna count that as a win." April paused and looked inside the Shellraiser to see only Raph putting on his Nightwatcher suit, and Hobie in the driver's seat "Where are the rest of them?"

"The hell if I know, I tried calling them for like an hour." Hobie gave a shrug "Apparently having the chance to meet up with Earth's Mightiest Heroes doesn't automatically mean good cell phone reception. Ergo, here we are with the only two that bothere to pick the hell up."

"Huh. Fair enough I guss, at least that's the end of-" April was promptly cut short as she placed a hand to her temple "Actually hold that thought, we've got company."

Sure enough, it was at this moment that the helicopter landed on the rooftop on the other side of the street, and a group of pumpkin soldiers, led by one particularly large one, dropped down onto the street in front of them "Did you little shits really think you were gonna get away with trying to screw over the Goblin Nation? You don't know the first thing about what we can do, and what we're gonna do to this city once the Goblin King is ready."

"In that case here's a thought: We kick your asses before he shows up." Nightwatcher leapt out of the Shellraiser and proceeded to uppercut the big thug hard enough to send him crashing to the ground in an instant, prompting the others to ready their guns and rifles, with MJ, April & Hobie all taking shelter bhind the Shellraiser as Donnie readied his bo staff alongside him, the both of them preparing to charge, until…

"Hold it!" this was whn Scarlet Spider suddenly dropped down onto the scene "There's no point in fighting here like this, not now."

"There is when you show your face you smug little-" Nightwatcher didn't get to finish before he got grabbed by the arm in the middle of an attempted punch, and subsequently pinned to the ground by Scarlay Spider putting him in an arm lock.

"See that's why it doesn't matter if you where the mask, that little shit fit right there is all the proof I need to know that you're the angry turtle." Scarlet Spider picked Nightwatcher back up and threw him over to Donnie, then turned to the group of pumpkin soldiers "I was doing this mission under… false pretenses. I was mistaken. The Goblin King doesn't need the O'Neil girl to carry out his plans, if there's anodyne can figure out how to perfect the Kraang's mutagen without her it's him. Besides, she and her companions don't deserve to be part of what we're going to create… just like how I don't deserve this." he pulled off his vest and threw it to the ground as he turned to the others, locking his gaze on where MJ stood with Hobie as they came out from behind the Shellraiser "You can go this time, but if you try anything we'll have to deal with you. Please don't try anything."

"...Alright, I think that's enough of this. I've gotta get back to the Youth Center, rehearsel still calls after all." MJ turned to climb back into the Shellraiser, but pause as she turned back over toward Scarlet Spider and handed him a small piece of paper "If you see Ben, tell him to call me if the whole pumpkin mask thing doesn't work out." and then she entered the Shellraiser without another word, with Hobie and April doing the same.

"Come on guys, we should get going." Donnie picked Nightwatcher back up, the two of them sharing a look and glaring at Scarlet Spider with suspicion, before they entered the Shellraiser and the group drove away.

All the while, Scarlet Spider just leapt onto a different rooftop and watched the group drive away into the distance, then looked down at the paper MJ gave him in his hand 'Okay, so… that went well I guess. And now I wait for the consequences to blow up in my face.'

"So let me see if I got this." another voice drew Scarlet's attention to where Gargan was climbing out of the helicopter above him "You went out to try and capture the O'Neil girl, befriended her and a few others, and chose to stand against the Goblin Nation to protect them?"

"Yeah." Scarlet looked away from him "Yeah, I did."

"Hm. Not too shabby kid." Gargan patted him on the shoulder, earning a raised eyebrow from underneath the mask "I figured you had some cojones in there somewhere. Plus you're what, almost 18 or something? I figured you were gonna want to meet people your own age at some point. You got your phone on you?"

"Yeah, why?" Scarlet pulled out his phone in question, only for Gargan to snatch it and hand it back to him after a moment.

"Congratulations, you got Instagram now. Try setting something up there and see how it works out for you. But steer clear of Twitter, trust me when I say you don't want or need to get stuck in any of that crap. Anyway, I was just gonna drop the O'Neil girl off back at Midtown. You were right when you said the Goblin King was going to figure that mutagen stuff out on his own. The Kraang are the ones that really need her. Besides, if you ask me we've already got plenty of idiots willing to go out in pumpkin masks and do stupid shit."

"Okay… So then, are you going to tell Father about this?"

"That depends, you willing to tell him about your little excursion today, or your first kiss? Or how about the time you teamed up with Daredevil and one of those Turtle guys just to screw over Mysterio?" that was enough to make Scarlet freeze on the spot, and yet Gargan just let out a chuckle "Relax, I'm just screwing with you. But considering I mainly joined up with this group because they were threatening my fiancee, I'm not exactly rushing to tell them anything."

"Oh… I see." Scarlet looked down at his feet "Sorry to hear that."

"You and me both, but you're doing better at the whole empathy than about 90% of the dipshits in this group. Yep, call it a hunch but I get the feeling you're gonna do the Spider thing justice when the time comes."

"Thanks. I think." Scarlet Spider took one more look at Gargan, then webbed a line and swung away into the night without another word.

"And now to deal with this." Gargan breathed a sigh as he turned back to the chopper "The last thing is to have those hacks breathing down my neck again."

"Then I suggest you think of that next time you decide to double cross us."

Gargan whipped around at the sound of a familiar voice, just in time to see a small blinking light coming from his trench coat "What the hell is this?"

"Nothing too big, just a small tracking device and two way communicator. I figured it would come in handy with you one of these days."

"Don't give me shit Subprime, just tell me what you want?"

"You should know that some people tend to thrive when the stakes are high, and you tend to like it that way from what I've seen. At least if you choosing to give information to our enemies is anything to go by. Don't think I don't know."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Interesting. Seems to me you don't value your own life that much. But what about the life of your fiancee?" that was enough to make Gargan freeze on the spot "Good, seems to me like you finished playing stupid. Too little too late though. I'll be sure to pass on that little fact of life as I'm waiting for Beetle to do his thing."

"Don't even think about it you little-" Gargan cut himself short as the communication did, to which he gritted his teeth and rushed back over to the helicopter, leaving the pumpkin soldiers on the ground behind.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, on the other end…

"Alright, he has the message. You know what to do."

"Understood. Target acquired." the Beetle landed on a rooftop overlooking a certain diner, his gaze locked onto a specific blonde woman he could see through the window, and he readied one of his blasters "Firing in 3… 2… 1." he was about to fire a single shot at her, until…

"Ahem." another voice drew the Beetle's attention, right before a set of metal tentacles grabbed hold of him, repeatedly smashing him into the ground around him and ending it by throwing him off the rooftop prompting him to activate the jets in the back of his suit and retreat into the skies above "Hm. As I expected." with that in mind, Doc Ock glanced down at the diner and saw the figure of the woman retreat, to which he tapped an earpiece "Octavius to base. The would be victim is safe."

"Way to go Doc, now what's next?"

"Patience my dear Electro, the next step will come momentarily." Doc Ock cast a look up as a certain sound drew his attention to the helicopter hovering towards him, to which he gave a smirk of triumph "And right on cue."

"Where is she?" once the helicopter landed, Gargan leapt out and grabbed Doc Ock by the front of his shirt "Let me guess, Jackal or Subprime sent you didn't they? I swear if anything happens to Sarah I'll rip your-"

"Calm yourself Mr Gargan, I assure you that your fiancee is quite safe. If you don't wish to take my word for it, see for yourself."

Gargan didn't answer for a moment… though he did pull out his cell phone "Sarah?"

"Hey babe, what's up?"

"Just calling to check in. everything okay on your end?"

"Aside from some customers being assholes, more or less yeah. You?"

"Just dealing with work stuff, kind of tense."

"Got it. Well hang in there babe, 9 to 5 exists for a reason."

"Unless overtime is a thing or your boss is a dick. Listen I gotta get moving, I'll see you tonight, okay? Love you."

"Love you too, later babe." and then the line cut off.

"Okay, so she's safe… Good." Gargan breathed a small sigh of relief as he turned his gaze back towards Doc Ock "Whatever you and your cronies want with me, don't think I'm gonna let you lay a hand on her."

"Quite the opposite Mr Gargan. In fact, I'm here to help you." Doc Ock paused and had his metal tentacles lower himself down to meet Gargan at eye level "That is, if you help me."

"With what?"

"You see, I'm aware that you've been coerced into helping a group of… unsavory individuals with their ambitions. Unpleasant to be sure, but a man of your talents likely gained a fair amount of information from your time under then."

"So the short version, you want me to tell you what I know about them."

"And perhaps to join our ranks You'll be compensated of course. Perhaps not in the traditional sense, such as with finances, but the difference is that my group has substantial reach. We can guarantee protection for your fiancee and anyone else you need, so long as you give us what we need."

"Hm." Gargan paused for a moment and looked down at Sarah "So I join up with you guys, I play ball, and you'll keep her safe."

"With all of the power that myself and my organization have at our disposal."

"In that case… What's first?"

"A wise decision my friend." Doc Ock gave a smile as he wrapped one of his mechanical arms around Gargan's shoulder "Now then, allow me to welcome you to, as we can now officially call it, the new Sinister Six. So tell me, what opinion do you have on arachnids?"

"I'm not fighting the spiders."

"I wasn't really referring to them, but more along the lines of… a scorpion."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the heroes in transport…

"Not gonna lie, I didn't miss ending up in situations like that." MJ breathed a sigh leaned against one of the walls of the Shellraiser "I think I'm gonna leave the whole "risking my life" thing to people who can actually handle it."

"Good call. Trust me, it doesn't get any more fun." April paused as she looked over to see Raph, Donnie and Hobie doing their thing in the various stations, then turned back to MJ "Girl talk for a sec. Are you okay?"

"You mean finding out that the guy I was into was working for some freaky criminal group? It wouldn't be the first time." MJ gave a shrug, but then she let out a soft sigh "Doesn't mean it doesn't suck though."

"I know what you mean… Just hang in there. One thing I've learned through everything is that meeting the right people just takes time. If it happens it happens, you can't force it. But given enough time, it just… happens I guess." she glanced over at the others, until her gaze soon fell on Donnie, to which she gave a small smile.

"So basically, let things run their course. Okay, fair enough."

"Hold up guys, looks like we've got incoming." Hobie brought th Shellraiser to a stop on the side of the road and opened the doors just in time to see the Stealth Bike and Spider Cycle pull up next to them "About freaking time you guys showed up."

"Give us a break man, it's been a hell of a day." Spider-Man let out a long sigh as he leapt into the Shellraiser, with Ghost Spider, Turtle Titan and Leo right behind him "Try having your first meeting with the Avengers get interrupted by a bunch of high tech beekeepers and nearly getting your face chewed off by an AI nanotech knockoff of the Mind Flayer from Stranger Things."

"...Sounds like you guys had a hell of a day."

"I'd rant about it more, but from the sound of it you guys had your own stuff going on."

"That's one way to put it. To give you the short version, I think I finally met this copycat spider that we've been hearing so much about." April pulled out her cell phone and showed a couple of pictures to the group "And I'm pretty sure my cousin has the hots for him."

"...There's a lot to unpack here, isn't there?"

"Speaking as the only one of us that's met him more than once, not to mention knowing some of the baggage he has, you have no idea." Leo told him dryly.

"And we still don't know who he really is, what his deal is or anything like that?"

"Not as far as I know." Leo paused and glanced down at the picture "Though call it a hunch, but when we do find out, I get the feeling we're not gonna like the answers."

"Speaking from experience, I can tell you now we definitely won't."

A/N:

Well it took a bit longer than I planned, but this story is finally back, and we're coming back in swinging, pun intended. While we did have a brief celebration at the beginning over Peter's long-awaited return, we also had to get down to business given the current crises, so we had to alert the big guns.

That's right, we finally meet the Avengers. Not all of them, but at least the two biggest ones, Iron Man and Captain America themselves. I know what versions a lot of people wanted me to show, but this is more meant to be an amalgamation of a few different versions, as in having elements of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Avengers Assemble, and some bits out of the MCU and even United They Stand. That last show might not be well liked, but it was my introduction to characters like Vision, Tigra and Falcon, so I've got a bit of a soft spot for it. Plus its intro theme is kickass, you can't deny that. Anyway, since we're meeting the leaders of the Avengers, along with seeing War Machine again, I figured it would be cool to have them team up to take on the same group that they fought the first time they teamed up, that being AIM in this case, along with one of Iron Man's more underrated enemies, at least in my opinion: Technovore.

In terms of subplots, we get to see more action from the Scarlet Spider, with him meeting more of our heroes and getting to meet a certain young woman that caught his attention, that being miss Mary Jane Watson herself. And even beyond that, it seems Gargan's brief tenure with the Goblin Nation has come to an end, but at the cost of him joining up with the likes of Doc Ock and his group, albeit for the sake of protecting someone he holds dear. Looks like things are growing more intense by the chapter. How this will end, only time will tell.