Mass Effect: Spider and Wolf

*Sigh* I'm sad now. No, nothing happened in my life, I'm just surprised and a little sad no one bothered trying to guess the easter eggs I had hidden, or not so hidden for most. I was so ready for someone to point out the Graystillplays reference. I mean, how many times have you heard "Meaty Bits" and "Deer" being associated outside of that wacky Youtuber?

Well, enough moping, I have a chapter to get to. But first, reviews!

atrelis: Loving the story so far! I hope the rest of the team accepts Lucy

Me: Glad you're enjoying the story.

shypunk:

thank you for the chapter and for writing.

Me: And thank you for enjoying it.

dragosdumitru27: Hey man, later on Marrok could also secretly recreate SHIELD where all species in the mass effect universe are welcome to join to promote equality and fight the reapers.

Me: I did think about that actually and normally that wouldn't be too good an idea, as SHIELD was still answerable to higher authority and thus this version would have to be as well. However, I DO have something SLIGHTLY similar in mind as far as the species equality AND fighting the Reapers go. So look forward to that.

PheronPyscho: Great chapter, once more. Also colony defence ideas: Jumping spiders, trapdoor spiders and to really fuck with people giant huntsman spider. *salutes* leaving the rest till next time!

Me: GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HEAD! LOL, but seriously, after your last comment on colony defense, I did in fact have the trapdoors planned as well as the huntsman. Jumping Spiders not so much, as I feel those would be best in urban areas like the Citadel or large cities. I do have a few other spider types for colony defense planned, though, so don't you worry.

Azai Jin: Thanks for the chapter. About letting Castis know ... I would say to wait, as he is already letting a lot of people know real quick. When are we in the timeline by the way? You know, what year is it right now, because I am having a little trouble seeing how much time has passed since he arrived in Mass Effect! Looking forward to reading much more.

Me: Glad you enjoy it. For Castis, I can accept that. There's literally DECADES of time before the events of the first Mass Effect game, so he'll have his chance. And I can understand your confusion. I am thinking of using the 'year' date to at least show when things are, at least when a significant amount of time has passed. As it's been slightly over a year since the First Contact War, it's the year 2158. I did put down in, I think chapter 5, that a year had passed, but I do understand if that alone isn't very helpful. Like I said, I'll try adding dates when a significant amount of time has passed.

Welp, that's everyone. I'm only now noticing a lot of repeat readers in my reviews. Not complaining about that, but I'm surprised with how many views, favorites, and followers this story has that I'm not getting more. Meh, oh well. I understand not everyone wants to review. Anywho, onto the story!

Oh, one more thing. If you read my replies to reviews in the last chapter, you'll remember I responded to someone having concerns about the STG. You'll also remember that I said I had something planned for them. Well, you shall find out what that something is, this chapter! And trust me, I think you'll enjoy this bit of sadism.

Marrok sat in the chair of the Shadow Broker as he waited for his team, his OG group that's been with him since the company's fledgling days. The corpse of the dead yahg had been removed, along with all other corpses, and spaced. AFTER all weapons, armor, and anything useful or of value was removed of course. Hey, he may have respected the former Shadow Broker, but that didn't mean he wasn't still annoyed he had to go out of his way to deal with the prick.

It had been a few days since the successful take over of the Shadow Broker's operations. For now, he had several copies of Lucy dealing with the reports and information collected. Several things had already been sent to him that were flagged as important. Namely anything involving Reapers, the operations in the Terminus Systems, and something he was surprised to see and wasn't expecting. Something called 'The Collectors'.

After looking over it, he found that he didn't exactly like these Collectors and judging from the advanced tech they used and would trade, they had to be agents of the Reapers. He had no proof of course, but that's what his gut was telling him. He would need to either capture one or dissect one to learn more.

He looked up as he heard the door at the end of the room open and saw Wrage entering along with the others. "Everyone is here, pyjak." He announced as he led the group to Marrok.

"So, you leave out of nowhere, don't tell any of us where you're going, and the next we hear, you need us to be brought here, in the ass end of nowhere I might add, no questions asked. Can we FINALLY be told what's going on?" Lanaria asked with an exasperated tone, her mandibles twitching to show her irritation.

Marrok smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry, but several things I'm about to share with you need to be told in secrecy and as much as I ensure our company building to be spy proof, I don't want to take any chances." This seemed to unnerve the group, minus Wrage, as anything that can make Marrok this serious must be very important.

Lenannia sighed. "Well, given the shit we've gone through with you so far, I suppose we can accept that." The asari offered a smile.

Marrok nodded. "Thanks. Now, first off, the reason why I asked you HERE specifically is because we're in the HQ of the Shadow Broker." This caused their eyes to widen in shock. "And you're looking at the new Shadow Broker." That had their jaws drop.

Brosk looked about, his four eyes taking in everything with a more critical mindset. "That…..would explain a LOT actually. Taking the Spiders before we were sure they were ready, along with the weapons and armor, making sure NO ONE other than the bare minimum knew, taking the smallest warship we have for speed and stealth." The batarian looked back at Marrok. "But that's not the only reason why you wanted us here, is it? While that certainly is vital information, it wouldn't require all of us to come here."

Marrok nodded. "You're right. It's not." He sighed. "As you all know, I haven't really been forthcoming with….anything about myself really. Anything you all know is either what you've seen or what conclusions you've come up with. However, with me being the Shadow Broker now, and Wrage somewhat in the loop, I feel it was time to tell you all EVERYTHING."

This stunned most of the group. Yes, Marrok never really came out to talk about his life story, but neither did anyone else. They weren't expecting him to talk about it, but none of them would lie and say they weren't the least bit curious. Ironically, it was Folsa who said what they were thinking. "You don't need to tell us anything. We all have things we don't feel like sharing with others."

Marrok chuckled. "Maybe, but what I have to say affects the galaxy. And I'm not joking nor exaggerating." He said, his face becoming deathly serious. This caused them to pause, rarely having seen such a face. The last time any had seen that face was when a human customer began accosting Lanaria, being very rude and hateful, more than likely having either been part of the First Contact War or lost someone who was involved. Marrok had dealt with the human, literally nearly ripping the man's arm off while close to also tearing his head off. Since then, everyone knew not to piss off Marrok. They knew he was strong and could basically beat the tar out of someone with both arms tied, but they never had seen him angry.

Marrok continued, knowing he had their attention. "First, to make things progress smoother, I'd like you all to meet our seventh member, one who's been with us since FAR before I met any of you. Lucy?"

One of the monitors changed to show Lucy's avatar, a bright blue eyed and young looking human girl with long crimson hair that looked like a waterfall with how wavy and smooth it looked. "Hello there everyone. A pleasure to FINALLY meet you all properly."

Lanaria blinked at this. "Another member? How long have you known her?"

Marrok smirked. "All her life, considering I created her."

This stopped their brains for a good bit. Created? But she looked perfectly human, how could a human create another human without procreation. Then it hit them. If she wasn't human. "You…..You created an A.I.?" Brosk said with a tremor in his voice.

Marrok sighed. "Before any of you panic, I want you to note three things. First, Wrage is perfectly calm. He's known about this for a while now, around a few months, and he's perfectly calm and not even keeping his guard up." They turned and sure enough, Wrage was just chilling against the wall. "Second, I created Lucy WELL before First Contact, and had no idea of the laws, but even if I had, I wouldn't have killed Lucy like that. She's her own person and has more than earned her right to live. And third, Lucy has been part of the company since day one. If she wanted us dead, she would not need much to get the job done."

This brought the coming arguments short as they began to think. "Well, it would explain how you can get so much done so quickly. Like that drone that got us off the ground in the first place." Folsa said.

"And how every time I found an issue in our cybersecurity, it would be resolved almost instantly." Brosk added.

"And how just about every calculation I've had troubles with seemed to just make sense all of a sudden." Lanaria groaned as she rubbed her face. "How did we not see it sooner?"

Lucy grinned. "I'm just that good."

Jenannia looked at Wrage. "So, you knew about this?"

Wrage nodded. "Yeah, he felt he needed someone to know about her for the combat aspects and decided to let me in on it. I will admit, I was wary, but it didn't take me long to figure it out like you all did just now."

Lanaria looked at Marrok. "Ok, that is big, but why do I get the feeling that Lucy is the LEAST concerning thing you have to tell us? Never thought I'd say that about an A.I."

Marrok smiled at this. "Well, you're all going to think I'm insane, and I mean far more than usual. But, here goes." He breathed deeply. "I'm not from this universe."

Silence. It was so deafening that even the monitors and the sounds of the ship were muted. Jenannia was the first to speak. "Are you taking any-"

"I am completely sober and not on any drugs whatsoever." Marrok sighed. "I know it sounds completely insane, but I do have proof."

The group looked at each other, Wrage included, skeptically, before looking back at Marrok and nodded.

He smiled before looking at Lucy. "Would you mind?"

Lucy nodded with a smile. "You got it. I'll start with something from a good while back. I'm thinking that fight with the Sinister Six." She said before all the monitors changed into one large monitor and showed a recording. It was a sort of hodgepodge of different angles, mostly from different cameras.

They all saw Marrok facing against a giant man in a rhino outfit, another in a green armored suit with a scorpion like tail, one man throwing electricity and turning into electricity, another with a green outfit, a purple cape and some kind of glass helmet over his head while seemingly doing something but the cameras couldn't pick it up, a man who had four metal tentacles coming from his back and an final man literally made of SAND! And all of them were attacking Marrok at once while he was doing rather well, but taking a good beating.

They also noticed that he didn't have the same suit as he did now. In fact, this suit, red and blue in color, looked weak in comparison, almost…. "Is that suit made of fabric?!" Lanaria nearly screeched, bringing the other's attention to the fact.

Marrok chuckled. "Yeah, that's me in my early days. I was…..I think around seventeen at the time."

Wrage snapped over to Marrok. "WHAT?! You were just a kid?! And you were fighting THAT?!"

Marrok nodded. "What you see is a group that some of my enemies had formed called the Sinister Six. The members changed from time to time, but it was always six. That giant bastard in gray with the horn is called Rhino. Let me put it this way, he's strong enough to butcher twenty krogan that have guns AND are in Bloodrage." They felt an icy chill coat their spines. "The one with the tail is Scorpion, he was genetically modified with the DNA of a scorpion and given a suit to match that. He's able to match me in many ways. The freak that turns into electricity is called Electro, able to turn into living energy and use electricity and even lightning. The idiot with the fish bowl on his head is Mysterio, the reason you can't see him do anything is because he is a master of illusions. Many times he almost got me through them. The dude with the shades and four metal arms is Doctor Otto Octavius, Doctor Octopus, Doc Ock, take your pick. Those metal arms move with the same tech that our Spider forces power armor does and they are made of some strong stuff. The last guy is Sandman. As you can see, he is LITERALLY made of sand."

"But WHY are you fighting them? Why are they your enemies?" Folsa asked.

"Because they are criminals, Supervillains, while I was a Superhero." This got his flat stares. "I know it sounds like a bad attempt at a joke, but this is my Earth and things like this were VERY common. Not saying a massive portion of the planet had powers, but a good chunk did while another good chunk had other means of power."

Brosk tensed up. "Wait, by powers…..you said that was your early days and that suit was fabric, NOT the suit you're wearing right now. Are you saying you had your powers that far back?"

Marrok smirked. "You're catching on. But let me just save you the trouble. When I was around fourteen, just starting my high school years, I was at a science presentation. It was about the studies of radiation. I won't go into details, but during the test, a spider got caught in the experiment and found its way to me. It bit me and the radioactive venom bonded to me and began changing me. I was already considerably fit back then, but my body changed to be even stronger. I found I also had the abilities of a spider, the strength, reflexes, speed, flexibility, the ability to stick to walls, and senses."

They all looked shocked before Folsa began rapidly speaking, sounding frantic. "That's impossible! Radiation doesn't work like that! A bite from an arthropod, unless it was the size of your hand, even radiated, wouldn't give you powers! At best you'd get the normal symptoms of itching, swelling, redness, and other such things and at worst you would die from the venom, radiation or the reaction to said venom!"

Lucy cut in. "Remember, this is a different universe, the laws of reality can be different. I mean, on our Earth, we haven't left our home planet and made colonies yet, but we've met several different Alien races who either wanted to attack us, destroy us, enslave us, befriend us, or eat us. I can't tell you how many times we've had to fight off an alien invasion."

This silenced Folsa while the rest digested what they were told. Jenannia swallowed a lump that formed in her throat. "So….this would mean that you're a walking violation of Citadel law?"

Marrok shrugged. "I mean, aside from Lucy, pretty much. I am genetically altered and basically became a super soldier in a way. But yeah, I was a hero back then, doing what I could to stop criminals and protect people, even though I was basically a vigilante. I wasn't the only hero either." The video of the fight ended and changed to a few different videos. One of Iron Man with one of his suits in action, Captain America taking on Hydra, the Hulk fighting Abomination, the Fantastic Four fighting Doctor Doom, even Deadpool fighting gunmen, while Deadpool waved at the camera. Marrok mentally sighed, leave it to Deadpool to do something weird.

But it was the fight between himself and Carnage that got their attention. "WHAT IN THE GODDESS' NAME IS THAT?!" Jenannia screamed at the sight of the blood red monster.

Marrok sighed. "THAT would be Carnage. A symbiote that merged with a mass murderer named Cleetus Kassidy. The bond was so strong that they referred to themselves as 'I' instead of 'We'. The Carnage Symbiote was born from the Venom Symbiote." The video changed to show Venom and Marrok fighting. "The symbiotes are called the Klyntar, an alien race that need a host to survive and in return, they grant the host amazing abilities, namely the powers of EVERY OTHER HOST before it. And guess who once had the Venom Symbiote."

If aliens could pale, everyone just did. "Spirits. And you were just a child. How did you even survive? And more to the point, WHY were you fighting in the first place? It's one thing for a turian seeing as just about everyone is a soldier, but from my understanding, humans don't really allow their youth to join the force at such a young age."

Marrok frowned at this. "I…grew up alone. I had no parents and I refused to stay in an orphanage. I lived in a rather bad area of the city, but the people there looked out for one another and they took care of me. When I learned I got these powers, I did my tests, saw just what I could do, even made my first web shooters." The nanites in his armor shifted before moving from his right arm, while some stayed to form said webshooter. "I figured if I have spider powers, might as well have the webbing too. But once I got everything, I knew what I had to do. I began cleaning up my neighborhood. I fought and took down gangs and criminals that thought my home was a good place to set up. I tore apart drug operations, various gangs, even took down a crime boss, minor though he was. I made sure my home was safe and that everyone knew that my home was NOT to be fucked with. The ONLY gangs I never touched were the ones that actually were trying to keep our neighborhood safe. So I made sure they had all the guns and gear that those I took down had. Told them to keep doing what they were doing and that so long as that didn't change, I would be on their side. With that done, I set my sights on the rest of the city of Manhattan. All while still going to school."

Brosk wanted to say something, but looked unsure how to ask. Finally, he just shook his head and spoke. "You said you WAS a hero. Past tense. If it isn't too much, why is that?"

Marrok went silent at this. For a while, it looked like he wouldn't answer, but finally he spoke. "I WAS a hero, until one night I stopped being one. Lucy, show them." Lucy frowned from her monitor before the screens changed to an image of a green skinned man with pointy ears and was riding a strange hover glider. The main thing that unnerved them was that manic grin.

Something about the image caused Wrage to growl. "And….WHAT is that?"

Marrok made his own growl. "THAT is the Green Goblin. One of my greatest challenges and the most HATED of my enemies. His real name was Norman Osborn, owner and CEO of OSCORP. He too is something of a super soldier like myself, but instead of a spider bite, he went through a gas accident. It gave him massive strength and warped his mind. Normally, I would defeat such an enemy and put him in a special prison to help him return to normal. But many times he just intentionally returned to being the Goblin."

Lanaria frowned at his tone. "I'm sensing that's not why you hate him so much."

He breathed deeply. "Yeah. I was still in school. I was seventeen, during the time of that video of the Six. I had….met someone. Someone that…I cared about." He smiled as the image on the monitors changed to show a young woman with blonde hair and a black headband, beautiful blue eyes and flawless skin. "Her name was Gwen Stacy. I….She and I got to know one another when she stood up for me to some bullies."

This got them all to look surprised. "Wait, bullies? As strong as you were and are, you had bullies?" Brosk asked incredulously.

"I went by the hero name Spider-Man, to hide my identity to protect those I cared about, so no one knew I was a hero. Anyway, we got to know each other and found we had many things in common and…we started dating. The time we spent together was the best time of my life." Marrok then lost his smile. "Then HE showed up." The image changed and showed a recording of that fateful night. Goblin held Gwen by the throat while standing on top of the George Washington bridge, Marrok standing there helpless. "Goblin had learned who I was and took Gwen hostage, knowing it would draw me out. He wanted to hurt me, badly. And so, he threw her off the bridge. I tried to get to her, but she was falling too fast." The recording was basically following his tale word for word. "I shot a web line to grab her, but the instant it latched, instinctively I knew I had fucked up, but my mind and very soul denied it." The vid showed a web attaching to Gwen's leg and a loud CRACK was heard. "Goblin had left, laughing all the way, while I lowered her down and went down with her. I checked on her but…." The video played it out while he was pulled into the memory.

"Don't worry baby, you're safe now. You're_" Marrok stopped as Gwen's head just rolled to the side, her chest not moving, no pulse. "G-Gwen? C-Come on now, stop joking around. We have to go to school Monday, we have a test. We're gonna study tomorrow, remember?" His voice was breaking up, as no matter how he denied it, slowly the truth was taking over. "Gwen…please…don't leave me. I need you." He pulled Gwen tightly against him as he buried his face into her neck. "Gwen…I love you…come back to me…please."

As he wept, in the back of his mind, he heard a voice. Now, for the entirety of his time as Spider-Man, from the moment he got his powers, he had felt this strange voice, this feeling, in the back of his mind, always nudging him on how to use his powers, but also to kill. So many times when he had criminals at his mercy, that feeling, what he assumed was the spider instinct, told him to kill, but he never did. He ignored it, pushed it to the back of his mind. But now, at his most vulnerable, that voice was back, and it wasn't an instinct like he assumed. No, he knew now.

It was the very Spider within his veins.

"What are you doing?" The voice asked, no, DEMANDED. "Why are you STILL. HOLDING. BACK? Have you forgotten what he said to us? What he did?" The memory came of Goblin declaring that after Gwen's death, he would kill everyone Marrok knew and cared about. "Jameson, the people who believe his drivel, the police, they think you're a monster." The voice was close now, as if right by Marrok's ear, before it whispered. "PROVE THEM RIGHT."

Something snapped in Marrok as he threw his head back and unleashed a wailing roar that sounded nothing like a human and more like a demonic beast in agony.

When the police arrived only minutes after the roar, all they found was Gwen's body, laid peacefully.

Marrok came back to the present just as the roar in the vid ended and the vid ended with it. He saw the looks of his friends. Jenannia was struggling to hold back tears, Lanaria stared hard at the still image of Marrok holding Gwen's body, Brosk had all four eyes closed and his head lowered, and Folsa looked pale, or older, he wasn't sure.

It was Wrage, who looked like he was going to murder everything in sight, who spoke. "That pyjak deserves the slowest death imaginable."

Marrok held back the smile at that. Strangely, it was comforting to hear him say such things right now. He then continued. "I had basically snapped and began hunting for the Goblin all throughout Manhattan. And…well…" The monitors changed again, this time showing news headlines and images. Pictures of bodies torn apart, mangled, ripped open. Several of the headlines caught their attention.

Spider-Man Killing Criminals. Spider-Man Rampages. Was The Daily Bugle right about Spider-Man?

Just a few of the headlines. Then the images changed to show Green Goblin. Or, what was left of him. The body was mostly mulched and minced meat. The only thing intact was the head, the face stuck in an expression of terror and agony. They also saw the headline. Spider-Man kills Norman Osborn, A.K.A. the Green Goblin.

They all had different expressions, but it was mostly nausea for those with weaker stomachs and grimaces from the rest.

"The day Gwen Stacy died was the day Spider-Man died and I showed Goblin just how much I was holding back. From then on, I changed my methods, along with my name. I went by Wolf Spider and stopped pulling my punches. I stopped giving so much of myself for the sake of others and began focusing on myself. I figured if I did well in life, I could not only improve my crime fighting, I could help other people with my inventions. Much like in this universe."

Folsa cleared her throat. "You…You said there were other heroes. I imagine they weren't just sitting around while you…did THAT."

Marrok chuckled. "No, no they did not. I didn't kill any of them, but I wasn't in the mood for any of their 'this isn't you', 'you can't do this', 'you need to stop this'. Honestly, I don't even remember what they tried to tell me, I was just too much in a blood rage. The spider part of me had basically taken over and I was letting it. It wanted blood and I was willing to give it. Heh, even Wolverine, a guy with a healing factor that puts krogan to shame and an indestructible metal coated skeleton, one of the toughest S.O.B.s there is got decked by me and knocked out in one hit. The Hulk tried to stop me, I vaguely remember him telling me to control my anger, but I webbed his face, and hit him with everything I had to shut him up. Pissed him off, but it dazed him enough that I was long gone. I was nearly stopped once, but Deadpool, who I considered my best friend, got involved and managed to get them off me long enough. I lost count how many heroes tried to stop me, but I wasn't going to be denied."

Wrage nodded proudly. "Good. Son of bitch like that didn't deserve the air in his lungs."

Jenannia wiped the tears from her eyes before looking at Marrok. "But you said this was from another universe. If that IS true, then how did you end up here?"

Marrok sighed. "Well, to explain that, I need to talk about my greatest enemy, the one that pushed me to my absolute limit." The images changed once more, this time it showed a rather dapper looking man. He seemed rather handsome with a solid jaw, long black hair that looked smoother than silk, wearing a purple undershirt, white vest, black slacks, dress shoes, and a black coat with white cuffs. But it was the red eyes that unnerved them. "This is Morlun. And never in my life have I had a more difficult fight. When I fought him, I was more experienced, had better tech, with my, at the time, most advanced suit which increased my abilities, putting me on the same level as some of the more powerful heroes."

Lanaria's mandibles twitched. "How…How difficult was the fight?"

In response to her question, the image changed to an image of Manhattan. "This is Manhattan before we fought." It changed and the image was vastly different. "This is Manhattan DURING our fight." Many buildings were reduced to rubble, roads were torn up, cars, trucks, buses, even train segments were tossed about and looked to have been used as weapons. It honestly looked like an orbital bombardment was unleashed.

"W…What kind of ship caused such destruction?" Folsa asked, even though she knew that wasn't caused by a ship.

"No ship. That damage was done as a result of my fight with Morlun. Several times I forced buildings to drop on him, sometimes with me as well, and he just wouldn't stay down."

"He one of those 'supervillains' you mentioned?" Wrage asked.

"Well, yes and no. He's evil, no doubt about it, but he wasn't there for some grand scheme to take over the city or the world or whatever." Marrok paused before breathing deeply. "The real answer is complicated and I'll be willing to explain, but the short version is that he basically wanted to eat me."

That seemed to have everyone become nauseous, even Wrage. "He's a cannibal?!" Jenannia screamed.

Marrok shook his head. "No. Cause he's not human."

"He's an alien?" Brosk asked, surprised.

"No, worse. He's a creature called an Inheritor, a psychic, vampiric creature that feeds on…well, best I can call it is life essence. They don't feed on blood, but the very energy that keeps you alive, it's hard to explain. But for him, I was 'pure' and would satiate his hunger. Granted, I wasn't going to just roll over and die, if I was gonna kick the bucket, I was going to take this fucker with me. But I fought that bastard for two days, TWO DAYS STRAIGHT. I had nothing to eat or drink, and the son of a bitch wasn't even tired. I tried everything to kill him, but nothing seemed to work."

"And where were the OTHER heroes in all this?" Wrage growled, not very happy that Marrok was fighting such a powerful foe alone after all the shit had been put through already.

"Morlun chose the perfect timing to attack me. The Fantastic Four were traveling in another dimension, don't ask for your own sanity, the Avengers were helping Thor with a problem in his home of Asgard, and anyone else that could help had helped the people evacuating after I learned Morlun was coming for me and were keeping them safe in case I failed. I had managed to escape Morlun the first time he attacked me and expected him to attack innocent people to draw me out, so I basically begged the rest of the heroes to just get the people to safety while I faced the fucker. The heavy hitters were gone and the remaining heroes weren't enough to face that monster. Some were strong enough, but they didn't have the speed or reflexes to keep up. So I was on my own."

This didn't please the group, not one bit. "So…how did you win? You clearly won, seeing as you're still alive." Brosk asked.

"Well, I didn't. Not right away anyway. I don't know what happened, maybe I got a lucky shot, maybe he was actually starting to get tired at last, but I landed a rather nasty punch and finally drew blood. Seeing this, I directed my spiderbots to collect the blood that fell to the ground while the fight went on and had Lucy analyze it. Turns out, due to feeding on 'pure sources', Morlun's DNA was basically perfect, with the genus of every animal. It was basically like fighting me, but on super steroids. And this gave me the idea on how to beat him, but I would need to escape to pull it off." Marrok sighed. "Barely, I was able to by dropping another building on top of him. I took off and got to work, knowing I had less than a few minutes at best."

Folsa, along with everyone else, looked intently as she spoke. "And what was this sudden solution?"

Marrok stared at them for a while before answering. "I had to flood my body with radiation, enough that I risked it killing me." This froze everyone, but not for long as Janannia, Lanaria, and Folsa yelled out together.

"YOU DID WHAT?!"

"Calm down. It was a calculated and needed risk. Because of how 'pure' and 'perfect' his DNA was, I knew it wouldn't have the same defenses as normal humans and would be weak to radiation. So, after I managed to escape, I headed straight for the nearest nuclear power plant and injected myself with enough radiation to kill a normal person. The only reason I survived was because I already had radiation within me due to the spider bite, so yeah, I'm also slightly radioactive, but not enough to make anyone sick or kill them over time. I was greatly weakened though. When Morlun came and tried to feed on me, the radiation burned him, giving me the chance I needed. With what strength I had, I began to tear into Morlun, showing no mercy. By the time I was done, Morlun was nothing but a charred husk."

Lanaria stared hard at Marrok. "And…how does this Morlun end with you in our universe?"

"Because Morlun wasn't the only one. Remember when I mentioned he was called an Inheritor?" The monitors changed once again to show more people that looked similar to Morlun. "This is his family. And Morlun wasn't even the strongest. Now, remember when I mentioned the Fantastic Four was in another dimension when my fight happened? Well, these guys can travel through the Multiverse."

"The Multiverse?" Folsa asked.

"You can look up the details yourself, but basically, humans, and I'm sure other species, have theorized that one universe will have an infinitely growing number of alternate universes. Some so similar you could spend an asari lifetime trying to find the difference. And others so different that they might as well be unrelated entirely. Well, these bastards have proven that is true. They hunt what are called Totems, every creature has a source Totem, from birds, to reptiles, to fish, to insects."

"To spiders." Jenannia whispered with wide eyes.

Marrok nodded. "Now you're catching on. Well, for some reason, they started focusing on the Spider Totem, and I had learned that not only was the Multiverse real, but that I wasn't the only Spider." Again the monitors changed and each showed a different Spider person along with their identity. From the OG Spider-Man, to Spider-Knight, to Spider-Punk, Spider-Ninja, and so many more. But Marrok's eyes were focused on a single one.

Ghost Spider, Gwen Stacy.

While everyone was surprised seeing this, it didn't take long before they noticed where Marrok's gaze was locked and a few gasped. Didn't take much for them to connect the dots.

Marrok chuckled, but there was no mirth. "You have no idea how hard it was for me to not just embrace her. But she was young, much younger than me as I was already thirty when I was brought in to help my fellow Spider Heroes. She was still sixteen. But I think everyone expected I held some feelings for her." He shook his head. "Anyway, I was found by a few of their Spiders when they came to my universe and discovered I had managed to kill my Inheritor with no outside help. They figured my skills would be needed. And after they told me what was going on, I honestly wanted to just leave it be, but one look at Gwen changed my mind. The Inheritors were a threat to not just one universe, but the whole multiverse, or as everyone called it, the Spider-verse. You see, we spiders are part of something called the Web of Life and Destiny and there's a center point to that web. From my understanding, there were two that were that center, the original Spider-Man, and the Master Weaver. I could be wrong, I just knew that while the rest of us were important to keeping our universes safe, these two were much more so for all of the Spider-verse. One being the protector and the other the one that ensures the web is maintained. I don't know, I never paid attention to it, I just knew that these two were too important to allow the Inheritors to get a hold of." He sighed as he rubbed his eyes.

"So you ended up beating them, right?" Jenannia asked.

Marrok frowned. "We did. But at a cost. We lost a few of our Spiders, they were good people, but they're universes would be protected by those who have lost their universe before this operation. We were in the home stretch, me, the original Spider-Man Peter Parker, Gwen, Miles, and several others. But we were ambushed by nearly ten Inheritors. There was no way we could fight them off AND make it in time. So I forced them all to continue without me as I held them off." The images changed to a recording of Marrok fighting off ten Inheritors at once, and getting his ass kicked, before four broke off and chased the other Spiders while Marrok managed to keep the remaining six focused on him. Even the fight with Morlun didn't compare to the damage being done in this fight. Marrok was fighting almost like a savage animal.

Marrok chuckled. "I knew I wouldn't survive, but if I could keep them from getting what they wanted, that was all I cared about. But as I was in the middle of the fight, a white light covered everything and before I knew it, I was standing in a black void." It was then the recording changed to when he ended up in that void. "I met someone who had been a good ally to me for years in my own universe, but had also been one to other Spiders in other universes. She told me that while we had succeeded in stopping the Inheritors, there was a price. ONE universe was destroyed."

The realization was clear to everyone. "No…" Lanaria whispered.

Marrok nodded. "Normally, I would have been dropped into another universe and aid the Spider there or be the Spider there if one had already perished. However, she told me that there was another universe in need. One that didn't have a Spider and never would if I refused as it wasn't part of the Web of Life."

"I'm just going to guess the obvious and say that she was talking about this universe." Wrage stated.

Marrok nodded. "Yep."

"So how did you get to our universe if it wasn't part of this Web of Life?" Brosk asked, a little confused.

Marrok smirked. "Well, that's where The Other came in." The recording showed The Other revealing itself.

"KALROS'S TITS, THE FUCK IS THAT?!" Wrage bellowed while the others stared in horror at the colossal spider.

"That would be The Other. I never learned their name, but basically The Other is the God of Spiders. It was through The Other and Madam Web, the woman, that I got here, but it wasn't easy."

After everyone calmed down, Folsa cleared her throat. "And, just why did they send you here? You said she told you our universe was in need."

Marrok nodded. "Yeah, she told me how this universe, or at least this galaxy in this universe, suffered a cycle of death and destruction that had been going on for billions of years." He went silent as he just let the recording do the talking. The scene changed to show the Reapers attacking planets and ships of designs none of them had seen before. The scene fast forwarded to show other ships of different designs and did this over and over until it landed on designs some did recognize.

"THOSE ARE PROTHEAN SHIPS!" Jenannia screamed out.

Marrok nodded. "Yes. From what I was told, the Protheans called these things Reapers. Every fifty thousand years, they come and wipe out all advanced life before retreating back to dark space. And before you ask, neither Madam Web nor The Other knew WHY they were doing this, as because this universe isn't part of the Web of Life, they don't have that strong of a connection, which is why it needed both Madam Web AND The Other to send me. The best they could do was view the history, at least some of it, and pick a point in time to send me so I wouldn't be stranded in space or a lifeless rock."

Lanaria's eyes widened. "Shanxi."

"Got it in one. I ended that invasion to save as many lives as I could. After Lucy and I hacked into any omnitool and the ships, we got plenty of information to use. And the rest is history."

The silence was almost as deafening as when he first announced he was from another universe. Brosk groaned as he rubbed his head. "This…is a lot to take in. I don't even know what to say."

"I do." Folsa said. "What you went through is something no one should have been able to go through and come out as intact as you. This does explain so much of your more insane ideas and such. And the fact that you already had such advanced technology without the use of Element Zero explains even more."

Marrok smiled. "Well, sometimes it takes an outside perspective for innovations to happen."

Wrage sighed before smashing his fists together. "Alright then, how we gonna kick the metal asses of those Reapers then?"

Jenannia sighed at this. "Of course YOU'D be thrilled."

Lanaria laughed. "He wouldn't be him if he wasn't." She looked at Marrok. "Well, I think I can say for all of us that you have our support. We'll do what we can to help."

Marrok smiled. "Thanks. I was prepared to use the Shadow Broker's information to help prove I was telling the truth about the Reapers, even if you didn't believe I was from another universe."

Brosk snorted. "Boss, you've done a lot in the short time you've been in this universe. If you can do all that in just a year, I want to see what you can do in the time it'll take before the Reapers get here. So, yeah. We'll help."

Marrok nodded. "Well, the thing we need most is people who can help us, those who either have great influence with their respective governments or have skills that can help us greatly."

Folsa spoke up. "I know a few colleagues that share my opinions, even if they never said it out loud. I also know of a skilled young Salarian who's being scouted for the STG. His skills in genetics are almost at my own level and I have no doubt he'll eclipse me as he matures."

Brosk nodded. "There's a few Batarians who don't follow the Hegemony's way of life and want to change it for the better, get rid of slavery and all that. While not too impressive right now, if given a good push along with having the proper tools, they can gain ground and later become a powerful ally."

"I have a few friends in the Hierarchy that could help us. Plus, if I remember correctly, Castis is friends with the Primarch, so you might be able to bring him in as well." Lanaria added.

Wrage grinned. "I know of a Krogan merc who would be a good help. You convince him of this and provide the proper help, he'll go and take over his clan to change the Krogan. I can also head back to Tuchanka and talk to Clan Nakmor, even take over if I really have to. But I know the Clan Chief, he's stubborn, but reasonable."

Jenannia smiled. "You should also talk to the Consort."

Marrok raised a brow. "The…Consort?"

Jenannia nodded. "Yes. I understand most see her as just a…well, someone to help with stress and such, but in truth she holds great power in the Asari Republics. If you were to allow her to meld with you, you could gain her aid almost instantly. I have very little pull, but I can use it to get you a visit to her without waiting for a reservation like others would. But you would have to see her within a short time frame so my aid in that area can only go so far."

Marrok smiled at her. "So long as you can get my foot in the door, I'll handle the rest."

"I hate to break up this cute little powwow, but I do have some news that's happened recently." Lucy cut in, drawing attention. "One of our data servers was just hacked into by the STG."

This alarmed everyone, other than Marrok who just stared. "Which server was it?"

Lucy grinned. "The R.R. server."

Marrok smirked at this. "Well, then we're fine."

Folsa blinked. "Fine? FINE?! The STG just hacked into the company and stole valuable data!" She groaned. "I KNEW I should have tried to work on defenses to stop them!"

"Relax." Marrok said, causing her to pause. "I expected someone to try and steal data from me, seeing as how I'm just popping out new shit every couple of weeks or so. So I made sure everything was locked down air tight, EXCEPT for one area. Oh sure, I only made it SLIGHTLY easier, but it was still a cyberdefense fortress, but it would have been the only logical place for anyone to try and hack into without being found. And the data that was there is a trap. They downloaded it, but the moment they try to upload it to ANYTHING, the special little virus that's attached to the data will spread like fire with sawdust. In fact, Lucy, how long ago did this happen?"

Lucy smirked. "It happened around two days ago."

"Then I'd imagine they would be experiencing my little surprise right about now." Marrok said with a sadistic grin.

Sur'Kesh, home world of the Salarians and capital of the Salarian Union. It is a beautiful planet, filled with wonders of nature that Earth would probably weep to behold. This world was also the center of all of the operations of the STG, and so was considered the most secure when it came to information.

It was also in complete and utter chaos at the moment.

When the STG agents that were sent to steal from Phoenix Inc. returned, they handed over the data drive to their superiors, and the moment they plugged it in and began uploading, EVERYTHING went wrong. A virus that was hidden in the data went into their systems and before they could even try to stop it, it was already spreading, to their omnitools, to their data servers, to other buildings, within the day it had spread to the entire planet. The virus though didn't attack or damage their systems, didn't data mine and send their information, it didn't even delete anything. To be truthful, every Salarian on Sur'Kesh wished it did, for what it left behind, while not bad at first, soon became a nightmare.

Everything that had speakers began letting out a strange sort of music and everything that could create images showed of a human with reddish brown hair, a striped dress shirt and a coat over that, dancing side to side. The music was catchy and the dancing was good, but when the song ended, it would start again, and again, and again. Every time they thought they purged the systems of whatever they were trying to fix, that damned virus would reinfect it and the song and vid would play AGAIN.

It took three weeks to purge all of Sur'Kesh of this evil. But pockets of the virus still remain, as if in hiding, waiting, as if it KNOWS when to strike. And that seemed to be the case as now and then, when an STG agent or even some of the politicians tried to use their omnitools or a terminal or even a kiosk, the virus would infect it and that song and dance would return.

The Salarians on Sur'Kesh, and perhaps the whole race, have learned and now FEAR, the Rick Roll.

HOLY FUCK! This is the LONGEST chapter I have EVER done! I'm surprised by how long it got to be, but I needed to get as much done in this one as I could as it was really just Marrok having to tell his friends what is basically his life story, so this was basically a filler, but it did give context to Marrok and how he's different from the baseline Spider-Man. And also, I wanted to take the time to show how awkward it should have been involving the different Spider-heroes. I mean, we know that several different Peter Parkers were either dating, or great friends with Gwen Stacy, and yet, to my knowledge, please correct me if I'm wrong, we don't see a SINGLE instance where one Spider-Man who lost their Gwen interacts with Spider-Gwen. It's always 'Mary Jane' this, 'Mary Jane' that. I've lost my respect for that woman long ago and she's WAY TOO OVERDONE in terms of being Peter's love interest. Give Gwen some love DAMN IT!

Sorry, rant done. In any case, do you think I went too far with the Salarians?

…

NAH!

I don't know if I'll be making chapters this long in the future, but don't count it out. Anyway, that's all from me, hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'll be working on the next one in a bit, have a pleasant day!