If you had asked Doreen what life was like now after being mutated, she would've said mostly the same as not being a mutant. Sure she was faster, more agile, and could climb places no normal mortal man ever could, but other than that, it was really no different than being her already awesome self.

If she had to pick one, just one downside … it would be the jock asking if she needed a strong man to get 'rid of her heat'. "So what did you say to get him to back off?" She asked Jessica, eating a peanut butter sandwich in the school cafeteria.

"I grabbed him by the shirt collar in front of the other jocks and made him look weak by comparison, and told him if he tried anything else, I'd rip his nuts off." Jess shrugged.

"And here I thought you were afraid to use your powers." Doreen smirked.

"I barely had to do anything, just grab him by the collar, nothing else. Really it was just him being a pussy in general." Jess nodded. "Besides, I'm getting the hang of it. I now only break half the buttons on your microwave when I make myself breakfast."

"Oh, so that's why Mom asked me if I was making popped acorns again." Luckily, her parents were more than happy to take in Jessica on her behalf, so now they were practically sisters. "But still, good for you. You'll be holding hands with Peter Parker any day now."

"Don't push it, Doreen." Jess grumbled. "He has a girlfriend already."

"That didn't stop him from talking to you the other day, Miss Softie." She teased.

"We just talked as friends, nothing more." The girl said. "Keep it up and I'll start asking when you're gonna date."

"Go ahead, I'm an open book, you can't make me bashful." She grinned. "You should see the forums online. I'm pretty sure I got five percent of the furry community on my tail now…literally they want to do things with my tail."

"Chttt." Monkey Joe commented, coming out from her bushy appendage.

"Yeah, he's my new defense captain." Doreen pointed out, handing him a nut.

"Wait, captain? How many squirrels do you keep in that thing?"

"Depends on the day. Some of them wake up early from hibernation, some go back to sleeping, and some just like being lazy bums." She shrugged as she tossed some nuts into her tail. "Right now, I'm counting thirty at the moment."

"How does the school allow you to bring that many?"

"They're still too afraid to approach me. Last week I totally BOMBED my trig test, but the teacher was so freaked out by me she gave me a free A."

"… You know that's breaching supervillain territory right?"

"I didn't do it on purpose. I'm really trying to make sure everyone knows I'm no different than anybody else at this school, like how three days ago I got hit in dodgeball … of course most of the other side was just trying to aim at me in general, but my point stands." Doreen explained. "The bushy tail is just a quirk, like anyone else."

"You are a woman among women, Doreen." Jessica shook her head as she ate her lunch.

"I aim to please." She clicked her tongue as she poked the girl's shoulder. "So, finally feeling natural about the superhuman thing?"

"There's nothing natural about it, there's no unconvincing me of that." The moody girl responded. "The only thing I'm grateful for is being able to open any pickle jar without issue…when I'm not breaking it into pieces."

"That's still a start." Doreen smirked. "You're strong, Jess, that's just who you are, and that was before you got it amped to super levels. Now it's just been… highlighted a little more."

"I wasn't strong. I was just a background girl." Jess rolled her eyes.

"You had an attitude and never took anyone's crap."

"I'm cranky and love to call out BS." She argued back.

"That's being strong." She hit her friend's shoulder. "Own up to being awesome."

"I have nothing to prove to anybody and no reason to do anything." Jess sighed. "Once I control my strength fully, it'll be better for everyone if I never use it."

"Don't be like that. You got powers, it'd be a shame to not use them." Doreen pleaded. "Like if you have to ability to do something, you should-"

"If you go on and tell me something like 'with great power comes great responsibility', I'm going to throw up." Jess rolled her eyes. "Also you haven't really done anything normal people haven't."

"Not all heroes have to punch through walls everyday." She said. "Being a hero is just...being in the right place at the right time, no matter how big or small the situation."

"That's not me, Doreen. When trouble comes, you may want to run towards it. I, on the other hand, want to stay as far away from it as possible." Jessica shook her head. "Now can we drop this line of thought?"

"So we can go back to you and Peter?" She teased.

"You're insufferable, you know that right?" Jess slammed her head against the table, slightly cracking it.

"Not insufferable, Unbeatable." She smirked. "Come on, as your best friend, I'm obligated to see you happy, and when you're not putting down airheads, you're smiling when you think about Mr. Nerd himself."

"I hardly know him..." Her best friend groaned.

"That's what conversation is for."

"He has a girlfriend..."

"And he could get another one."

"... If you suggest that this is some sort of harem anime I will strangle you, powers be damned."

"What, no, I'm not that invested in it." She laughed. "I'm just saying you're the type of girl that takes what she wants."

"Oh yeah, I'll just walk up to him while he's all cozy with Liz Allen, pick him up by the shirt and ask him to go out with me." She rolled her eyes. "That's about as likely as you going out with one of those turtle guys."

"I mean, the one in orange was kind of cute." Doreen admitted.

"... I'm gonna go back to eating and ignore the implications of what you just said." Oh come on, like that was gonna be the WEIRDEST thing to happen to them.

Casey looked down at his current predicament. "So … why is my arm webbed to the wall?"

"Because you were breaking these guys' ribs." Spidey answered.

"... And?" Things had been going GREAT for the last week. Fighting off crime, doin sick moves, and best of all, getting tips from the one and only SPIDER-MAN himself!

Although it was kinda confusing with his mixed signal look at times. "This was a group of purse snatchers."

"Exactly! They were robbing an old lady!" He shouted. "If they're that scummy, then we need to hit them harder till they don't have the strength to get back up."

"I get that, but one of the guys was starting to cough blood." The web head glared. "Had you continued, you might've punctured his lung and made him choke."

"... But he's a creep." Casey argued.

"That means make em look silly and give them to the cops, not beat them up till they're crippled." The hero argued. "That's the path of Frank Castle."

"Hey, my dad worked with him, he was a good cop..."

"And he went on a blind one man army purge against the mafia that painted downtown Manhattan red with blood." Spidey shot back. "When I'm around, no one dies. Every life, every person you see on the street, no matter who they are, is someone's father, brother, mother, son, sister, friend. The moment you take that away from someone, I shut you down for good. Fail to see that, and you might as well throw away that mask now."

"... Alright." He nodded. Casey could see that from a perspective. "We can still punch them right?"

"You're not going to give this up, are you?" Spidey shook his head.

"Of course not. Like I said, if something is happening and I am able to stop it, it's on me to deal with it." Casey nodded fervently. "Like, even if I don't have powers, it's my responsibility to do something."

"You make this so much harder than it needs to be." The hero sighed. "We need to set up some ground rules though." He said sternly. "I already lost people to this line of work, and I don't wanna lose anymore, alright?"

"You got it Spidey!" This was the first super hero that New York ever had, it would be dumb to not take his advice.

"Rule number one, NO taking on superpowered baddies without my supervision." He said. "Crooks like these chumps are fine, but those hockey sticks aren't gonna take you far trying to solo an army of self cloning giant mutant squirrels."

"You got-wait, mutant squirrels?"

"How do you think that Squirrel Girl got her powers?" He asked. "As far as I'm aware they're dead at the bottom of a sewage drain … hopefully …"

"Wait, if you know about Doreen, then shouldn't we bring her into-"

"I'm barely agreeing to team up with you, give me time before I choose to bring the hyperactive teenager into the fold." Spidey shook his head. "And that brings me to rule number two - no bringing anyone else into the vigilante life. No convincing, no coercing, and avoid telling as many people as you can about it."

"But I have this one guy who'd be awesome! He's got a suit and-"

"If he doesn't want to take part, you shouldn't force him." The hero said sternly. "He's free to make his own choice just like you are." He sighed. "I can't stop you from telling people about it, cause I'd be a hypocrite if I did and I have my own support system, but avoid crossing your super life with your civilian life as much as possible. I doubt your parents would be okay with you coming inches away from having your head cut off on a nightly basis."

"True...and my sis would kill me." She was such a worrywart.

"Speaking of, rule number three, avoid slip ups like saying you have a dad and sister when the mask is on." Spidey said. "Most of the underworld believes I'm a young adult with zero attachment aside from the occasional mutant, and it's better to keep it that way."

"Yeah that checks." He nodded. "You guys got wrecked by the thirty year old Puckmaster!" He shouted to the crooks on the ground.

"Go… eat liverwurst… grandpa." One of the goons grunted in pain.

"Rule number four, don't stick around to talk to police and/or the media." Spidey kept going. "Both will actively try to figure out who you are and pin the blame on you for everything that goes wrong."

"Don't you ever feel tempted to just punch Jameson in the face?" He asked as they began climbing the side of the building.

"All the time, but I'm content with knowing that no matter how many mistakes I make, I'll never wear Hitler's mustache." Casey snorted. Screw what people said, Spidey was definitely a man among men.

Shriek once more tried to scream, unable to form even a single sound with all the equipment lodged on her face and neck. Stupid high tech restraints. Why the fuck were businesses like Oscorp even helping with security? Shouldn't they be like regular corrupt businesses and sell weapons to foreign nations? That's how Tony Stale-something made his living.

But nooo, they had to spend it all on security, leaving Sandra in a padded room with a bolted jacket keeping her arms and legs pinned, leered at by a bunch of creepy crazies. What, just because she looked like an animal now didn't mean she had to be treated like one! So what if she had a tail and could literally scream someone to death, she still needed to use her fucking arms and legs for pete's sake!

"Alright, we're giving you your daily feeding, then we're gonna go off to group therapy." Her attendant said with that sickeningly sweet smile. What's the point of the group if she couldn't even communicate!? The lady hooked up some tube to her muzzle, force feeding the bland slob straight into her throat.

"Gggggjhhhhhh." Oh what she wouldn't do to make this bastard choke on this gunk before smashing their head into paste. Shriek bet that they enjoyed looking at her pathetic weak state, fucking perverts leaching over defense brain dead fucks all day probably had dirtier minds than she did.

And she would be able to … if it wasn't for those HEROES. Spider-Man, Turtles, they ruined her fun. She got to do whatever the hell she wanted and they just had to show up and ruin it all. No police could stop her, she was free damn it! It wasn't like she was killing anybody important, just the people that were screwing her over. Not her fault that was practically everyone she came into eye contact with.

She would show them. She'd get out of here one day and rip their entrails out and use them to paint the city red. Maybe then they'll know next time to leave her the fuck alone. But for the moment, she was stuck strapped down and being pushed through the halls like a fucking baby.

"Why the heck isn't this bitch in jail?" She heard one of the attendants ask. Oh the things she'd say to them.

"Psych test showed she was mentally unstable, though I think that's just the defense for her to avoid the death penalty." She heard another say.

"Some criminals manage to get all the luck." She tried to scream, but again, muzzle.

"Oh don't I know it." Someone laughed. "I still love how you guys wanna psychoanalyze me like I'm a poor lost soul who can be saved. I'd call it cute if it wasn't so pathetic."

"For god's sake-would someone get Cletus's straight jacket back on!?" A bunch of guards came rushing forward as they all converged on a skinny looking ginger guy. "How the fuck does he keep slipping out of it?"

"Oh come on doc, we gotta keep some secrets or it wouldn't be interesting." The man cackled as he was wrapped up just like her. "So, when did we get animals to attend therapy? Or is 'eating other things' wrong for a natural predator?" He asked in a sarcastic manner.

"Sure, here ya stinkin animal." The bastards just dumped her right next to the guy as they smirked. "Maybe if we lock you two in a cage together, you'll do the world a favor and kill each other." Oh die in a ditch.

"I swear I'm the only one here with a heart." Her attendant rolled his eyes. "Don't mind them Sandra, Cletus just makes everyone … uncomfortable."

"I can make things more comfortable. All I need is a whisk, some Oregano, and your entrails splattered across the ground." The ginger cackled madly. "Don't even bother with the nice act; Mr. Care Bear. The lady's eyes clearly say they would rather shove its face in a blender than listen to another word you have to say."

Aww, a guy who knew what she was really thinking, so rare to see in the world. "Mhmmmhn." She nodded in agreement.

"Not hard to tell, you either get attended to by the asshats that just want to make a buck or the bleeding hearts that naively think what they do matters." The man, Cletus apparently, smiled. "What they don't know, or rather, refuse to acknowledge, is that orders, rules, stability, it's all meaningless in the face of chaos. People don't kill because of some arbitrary ideal of morality holding them back. They're afraid of looking bad, scars of letting out their inner carnage. So if I were to kill a man, and not care about what people think….what's to happen? God certainly doesn't give a damn if I kill."

"Mmm." Exactly, if he did the big man would just smite them on the spot.

"Precisely! If no power in the universe can stop you from killing, why hold back? Why deny what you want!?" The man began laughing as he shook violently in place. "Hanahahaha! The world is a big bloody oyster for you to stab over and over and over again!"

"Mmmmmh." Finally, some decent companionship. Where was THIS when she was on the lamb?

"Reed Richards, experiment three o seven, introducing electricity into the nervous system to gain a reaction from the Kraang copse." An alien species, right under his nose. Between this and what happened to him and his family, Reed might as well be celebrating Christmas for the next four months, possibly five. "Body seems to be made out of eighty percent brain matter, likely indicating high intellect. However, the molecular structure doesn't support the original growth, giving great credence to this being extraterrestrial. Or in a more likely case given the unique atoms located in their machines, another dimension with its own set of physics."

"Perhaps their botched speech in the suits as well as their incoherent dialogue outside of it is due to a mistranslation of words." Sue wrote down, fortunately being in lab partner mode instead of 'take me out on a date mode' at the moment. Half from actual curiosity, and half because they destroyed her favorite coffee shop and she seeked vengeance. "Or since their species is composed mainly of brain matter, then perhaps they've simply 'evolved' beyond the need for vocal cords. The coordination they had with each other along with the psionic energy readings would indicate a hive mind is likely involved."

"If that's the case, let's set up some frequency receptors. I want to see if we can pick up anything from radio to microwave once we cause a nerve reaction." Reed said, grabbing some measuring equipment. "If we can figure out whatever frequency they run on, maybe we could follow it to a source."

"You guys still playing mad scientist in here?" From the ceiling, Johnny was floating above them, juggling fireballs in his hands, likely going to drop one and leave a series of smoldering holes in the floor.

"Johnny, just because you're immune to your own heat doesn't mean everyone else is." Sue said with a frown. "You're gonna blow out the AC at this rate."

"So? Winter's here. If things get cold, I'll just warm the room up."

"And have you figured out how to transmit waves of heat without igniting the oxygen in the air and setting something on fire?" Reed asked without even looking up.

"Does 'just' molten metal count?" Johnny asked skeptically.

"I appreciate that you're exploring the depths of your abilities, but that's why I run private tests in the lab." Reed reminded him. "If you went supernova-"

"I know, I know, I could burn all the air in the atmosphere. I'm hot, but not that hot."

"I can attest to that." Ben came in, one hand holding a newspaper, another holding about twenty pizza boxes. "Far as I'm concerned, you're still the same snot nosed hot head you were as a baby firecracker."

"And you're still the grim and ugly Ben Grimm." Johnny shot back as he grabbed a box. "So when are you two gonna stop playing doctor and start asking what we can do with these powers?"

"Well I have been thinking on using a way to stretch my arm into a vortex that would constantly increase in velocity as it retracted, holding onto a generation type device in order to create a new source of energy." Reed said aloud.

"You lost me at vortex." Ben said bluntly.

"He's going to spin his arm really fast and use it as a battery." Sue simplified the process. "Although given the amount of solar energy that comes off of you Johnny, you could likey do the same but much easier."

"Well yeah, sciency stuff." The man rolled his eyes. "But I was thinking … superhero!"

"…..If that's a punch line to a joke you're building up, I fail to see the humor in it." Reed stated.

"Oh come on." Johnny rolled his eyes. "Imagine it, just like comic books. Caped crusaders of justice with the powers to stop crime. New York's already the center of weird after all. Heck, we already have the name!"

"A name I did not consent to, just fyI." Sue grumbled. "Now I'm stuck with people calling me the Invisible Girl because of you!"

"You should go to your PR team and get a new super name before it's trademarked then." Johnny shrugged. "I already did it with Human Torch. Ben and Reed haven't gotten any nicknames at all."

"Johnny, the last thing you need is more media attention. You had enough of that before having super powers." Reed stated. "And with aliens and mutations becoming more and more common, public scrutiny is likely going to become more rampant sooner rather than later."

"Which is why we need to look like good people instead of things to look under a microscope … yes Reed, I AM looking at you." Johnny retorted.

"When I'm looking under a microscope, I'm studying something that could benefit mankind on a global scale. I fail to see how galavanting across midtown would be beneficial to anyone." Why did having powers need to equate to fighting and violence? His powers would clearly be more of use to studying and research.

"Because I'm pretty sure if you could marry science equipment, you would."

"Well he isn't wrong there." Sue muttered.

"And it will be beneficial for the fact that New Yorkers won't have anything to fear as long as Earth's greatest heroes are looking after them!"

"Oh yeah, hero." Ben said sarcastically. "Cause a LOT of people are gonna be runnin' to this face." He gestured to his head. "Face it kid, we're just a buncha of freaks that were useful one time." Ben's transformation was Reed's biggest regret over the accident…. which was why he needed to study these powers as much as possible in order to find a cure.

"Not that I agree with Ben's pessimism." Susan added to the conversation. "But do you really think any bank robbery justifies you flying in and shooting flames at them?"

"…I mean, as long as it isn't worse than first degree burns…" Everyone was giving half lidded looks to the showboat. "What, I said first degree. That's sunburn at worst. No one's going to get mad over sunburn."

"Unless you repeatedly attack the infected area and give people skin cancer." Reed retorted. "We're scientists Johnny, not a task force. If trouble comes we'll help, but we shouldn't go looking around for every criminal in the street. There's much more important things to concern ourselves with than petty crime, like the Kraang for example." He turned back to his experiment. "I'm still baffled as to what caused the weapon to break down in the first place." Reed spat out. "Much as public support is appreciated; we weren't the ones that took it down. I'd rather not have an unknown variable laying about."

"My guess? The first hero to swing around New York City." Johnny said. "He probably felt comfortable with us taking down the robo brain guys down there, went up, and gave them a good smack down for humanity." He never understood the boy's hero worship of vigilantes.

"And we're sure they're down?" Ben asked. "And you know, not just lavishing it up in the ocean?"

"That's a good point, they don't breathe our oxygen, so surviving down there with a couple of tanks could be possible." Reed began looking through where the lungs should've been. "Their respiratory and circulatory systems seem almost reversed to how they function compared to a human's. The physics of their dimension must run completely different to our own if this is how their species evolved, likely one with lower gravity, hence the reduction of height and physical strength."

"If that's the case, shouldn't they be crushed under the weight of their own armor?" Sue asked as she looked over the materials.

"Maybe it's why they went down so easily." Ben shrugged. "I mean, Reed managed to break them with punching, even ignoring his power's he's not the most muscle bound stud of the group."

"It would explain why most of their metallic alloys on their armor seem to break easily in spite of how refined it is." Reed took a deeper look. "Hmm … if I could just isolate the alloy, I might be able to create a metal detector for Kraang based technology. Locate whatever fell onto the streets."

"I'll contact the Global Defense Force and inform them." Sue nodded. "You, on the other hand, should head to bed. You've been up for the last thirty six hours again, and you promised me you'd never go above forty hours without sleep during the work week."

"Which means I still have two hours of work if I manage to combine it with dinner." Reed said.

"We have pizza." Johnny held out a box.

"... Second thought, sleep seems nice." Pizza and science never mixed well, especially when Johnny was around. Besides, he may be a scientist, but he was a new yorker as well. Pizza was a must….most of the time.

Curt found himself sighing in relief. He was worried he would have to end the year closing down the lab. No funds to keep them afloat and no Eddie working with them. It seemed like all was lost. It was only due to the, rather unexpected, help of Norman Osborn that everything could finally get back to normal. And they have such prestigious help too in Miles Warren…

Although… something in Curt found himself rather suspicious of the man. It wasn't like the new help had a bad track record or reputation, far from it….but something about how the man carried himself rubs him the wrong way. It was like the man almost wasn't in the same room as everyone else half the time, like he was observing everything like an experiment.

But he didn't want to go and outright accuse the man of anything. So he waited to simply see what he was working on … and was quite shocked of the results. "Mr. Warren … I couldn't help but notice that the files for the lizard regeneration project were open." He calmly confronted the man, not wanting to sound accusatory. His experiment … his shame. The creation of a monstrosity that almost ruined his family.

"Hm?" The scientist looked over his shoulder. "Oh, yes, I looked it over and compared it to my mammalian research. They were quite similar, however, you missed the mark on a simple step. Light shocks of electricity need to be introduced in order to stabilize the primal DNA. Too much so and you could end up creating a feral beast." Was that…was that why he had no control over himself as the Lizard. If he could introduce that-no, no, he already went down that road and almost ruined his life. He wouldn't be tempted again. "I want you to open back up this project." The man stated, drawing him out of his thoughts. "Too much good gone to waste I say."

"No."

"I'm sorry, beg your pardon?" Dr. Warren raised an eyebrow.

"I said before we wouldn't be going back to this, and I stand by my word." He said.

"... Then I'll have to make the research public if it's concluded." Warren stated. "I'm sure someone out there will find it usable."

"You can't, it's mine-"

"Oh no, with how many similarities it shares with my research, I'm quite confident that, in a court of law, I could very well claim it as my own. If I wanted to, I could sue you for fraud and copyright. I could win, and the scandal could ruin your reputation, as well as your wife's. We wouldn't want that to happen, would we?"

Curt growled at that. "No….no we wouldn't."

"Then I believe it would suit us best in the long run if you let me continue with our research." The man gave him a smile that made Curt sick to his stomach. As soon as he could, this man would be gone from his office. Maybe he could make a complaint to Osborn.

"Mr. Connors?" He turned to see Gwen and Peter walk into his lab. "It's nice to see you again."

"You to Gwen … Peter." There was still some awkward tension there. Connors couldn't blame the boy for a mistake, not when he made his own. "It's….good to have you back."

"I'm glad to be back." He smiled. "I hope to make your trust worth it."

"I hope so too." With what Miles Warren no doubt had planned, Curt needed more of that now than ever. "You two wouldn't have happened to see Eddie around. Me and Martha wanted to give him his old job back, but we haven't seen him since we let him go."

Peter flinched. "No sir … haven't seen him since Thanksgiving."

"He was right next to me at the parade… then suddenly that… monster grabbed me from out of nowhere." Gwen shuddered.

"Monster you say?" Warren asked. "You wouldn't mind if you and I talked about it later? For reference sake."

"No problem…Mr...?"

"Miles Warren, at your service. And you are Gwen Stacy and Peter Parker." The man shook their hands. "My brother Aaron talks about you two frequently."

"Aaron …" Peter's eyes widened. "Oh my god you look EXACTLY like our science teacher!"

"Twins. And I'd like to think I have kept my body more in shape than he has." The man stated. "I look forward to working with both of you. It should keep things quite lively around here." Curt didn't like how he phrased that, and he highly doubted that was going to change anytime soon.