Won't really make any excuses for disappearing for over a year, but I do want to say that it's been an unexpectedly hard year. Trying to find out what I can do to get back into it, especially as the next year is dawning on all of us whether we like it or not. So, I figured I'd do something that I've been kind of itching to do.

So, here's the preview for a new fic running with the idea of the Ed's being in the Marvel universe, with Eddy being Spider-Man, Ed as the Lizard, and Double D as Doc Ock. It's going to deal with a few more crossovers as I figure them out, but don't be surprised to see some of the old crew since that is a favorite crossover of mine. I'm thinking at least an addition of DCSHG would be a good way to move things forward.

I'll let the preview speak for itself here and hope you guys enjoy!

If there had to be one word to describe New York City, especially during its busiest moments, it would most likely be hectic. Some would say chaotic. Others could even say it was a "nightmarish place that no one should live in."

The people that did describe it that way didn't actually live there. New Yorkers that did called it home.

"I'll kill you, you goddamned insect!"

"It's arachnid. A-Rach-NID! Get it right Pete!"

…Though New Yorkers would also probably state that those earlier descriptions were also very true.

"For the last time, it's Trapster! I rebranded years ago, how have you not gotten that right." The supervillain in question threw out a bomb at the figure dashing around him. It was thrown back at him, nearly coating him in adhesive before he could move out of the way. "I've fought the Fantastic Four, show me a little respect!"

"I'm pretty sure you've fought everyone at this point, Triple P, and you haven't even been able to solidly beat one." Quips were thrown out as much as glue, coating the area immediately around Trapster- formerly known by his less favorable alias, Paste Pot Pete- in even more sticky substances. "You've heard the definition of insanity, right? Because unless you're happy being taken down over and over again, you might need to change careers."

"Shut up you rambling-" Trapster was interrupted with a kick to the chest, forcing him onto his back and into a pile of glue. He cursed, reaching for something to dissolve it before having the vial and snatched from his hand. "Hey, give that back!"

"Not a chance, Pete. Can't have you missing your latest appointment with the cops." The figure eventually stopped, flipping onto a lamppost as he handled the solvent. "And this little baby will be going with me for now. Don't think I don't know about you selling this to some of the locals who aren't too fond of me here."

For anyone that wasn't familiar with him, they'd see a young man wearing a peculiar costume consisting of red, blue, and gold. He delicately put the solvent into one of the pockets of his leather jacket, flexing his gloved hands. He double checked the armor that layered under the jacket, making sure the red plates, blue cloth and golden spider symbol weren't covered in paste. The blue tights were thankfully untouched as well, though the golden sheen of the knee pads was duller. He adjusted the mask, colored red with black webbing, yellow lenses narrowing at Past Pot Pete

"Besides, consider it payment for nearly messing up my costume." The figured kept quipping, flipping upside down and shooting a web from one of his wrists so he could hang upside down. "Do you know how much it costs to clean glue from my costume? It ain't cheap!"

"Go to hell Spider-Man!"

"I'm already there!" The aforementioned Spider-Man tilted his head at the sound of police cars coming from the distance. "I think I hear your ride home coming. Make sure to say hello to them for me!"

Spider-Man didn't wait for a response, raising a hand shooting a web from his web-shooter. Tugging on it, he started to zip away from the scene before the cops could make it. While he was sure they wouldn't shoot at him this time, he didn't want to deal with the hassle of being asked for a witness statement. It wasn't like people weren't videotaping the fight anyway, himself included if the drone did its job. Speaking of which…

Swerving around one of the skyscrapers that dotted the city landscape, he called the drone over and as he landed onto a secluded rooftop. He let it float over, the dingy little thing made from spare parts wavering before landing and giving him access to the hardware. The vigilante let out a hum as he pulled out a flash drive and used a port on his suit to see if the pictures on it were good enough to use.

"Some blurry shots here and there, this one might be good for a wide shot," Spider-Man muttered to himself, stroking his chin. "Bugle might like the one shot from below. Might be the only one I can say I took with an actual camera…"

"Picking something out for Jameson already?"

Spider-Man nearly jumped out of his skin. He turned his head to glare at the voice, already feeling petulant. "You really need to stop doing that, Sockhead. Seriously, you're on that freaking glider-"

He received a flick to the forehead for that, 'Sockhead' letting out a growl. "Proper names when out in public, Spider-Man. Six years of this and you somehow still let that slip?"

"Give me a break, Kraken." Spider-Man waved off the concern, going back to messing with the drone. "I've been careful, and no one else can get on this rooftop but us. Lay off and help me get something ready before Jonah blows up one of our phones asking for pictures."

The other vigilante huffed, reacting only to grab the flash drive thrown his way. It wasn't like he was wrong. J. Jonah Jameson was obsessive enough to do something like that after all. He plugged into the side of his visor, ready to pick out a few good pictures as Spider-Man fixed up the drone.

In contrast to the colorful superhero, Kraken's uniform was darker and less complex. His torso was covered in body armor with a metallic sheen, the cracks almost glowing a neon green and connecting in the middle to form a stylized octopus. The rest of his costume was colored black, including the shirt, dark pants and hood that went over his head. The metallic face cover he had on had the same metallic sheen as his armor, the only break in it being the glowing, octagon shaped eyes that were a bright green.

"I see a few that could make the front page." Jonah always paid more for any that did, meaning that they always aimed for the perfect 'money shots.' "Though, I do think we might need to edit some of these to show a little more contrast between you and some of the graffiti."

"Nah, Jonah always seems to sense it when we edit anything before turning it in. He threw a fit when that one guy tried to send in AI photos of us, remember?" Spider-Man finished with his check-up, patting the drone as it beeped and started to fly out of reach. "What are you doing out here, anyway? It isn't your shift yet for at least a few more hours."

"Need I remind you that we have responsibilities outside of our super suits?" Kraken pointed off towards one part of the city, tilting his head. "We still have time, but you do have a tendency to dawdle when wearing the mask."

It took a moment for the other vigilante to remember what he meant, cursing loudly. He twhipped a web out, turning to Kraken briefly. "Last one there has to carry the prototype!"

Kraken sighed, knowing that any rebuttal would be useless as Spider-Man darted away. He kicked a pedal on his glider, adjusting the pack that hung on his back, and grumbled one final sentence under his breath before launching away.

"He's acting like we won't have Lizard do it."

Like any superhero story, there's always an origin story. This didn't change, especially in a world with a tendency to create them.

And like any other origin story, it started around six years ago when a spider landed onto the hand of one particular student on a field trip-

"Ed, what the hell are you doing?"

A large figure that had been laying lazily on the rooftop looked over to see a much smaller one standing over him. He paused the tape recorder, giving a shrug. "Nothing."

The scene would've looked strange to anyone, seeing how the larger figure was essentially a giant lizard of a man. The "creature" wore what looked like a full-body swimsuit, colored a dark purple and with a fur collar around his neck. He put the recorder in a utility belt of the same color, standing up and being careful not to swish his tail too much. The needle that was on the end of it was pointed upward so it wouldn't end up causing undue damage to the building.

"Doesn't look like nothing." The shorter figured reached up to brush his hair, narrowing his eyes. "And you're still the Lizard, so that means you're going to make us late. I know you like the prehistoric look, but we don't have time for it."

"Sorry Eddy, I was just getting a little bored." Ed shrugged, leaning over to grab a duffle bag, and opening it. "I'll get changed in a second. Just having some fun before we get started."

"Yeah, do it on your own time." Eddy flicked his wrist, a line of webbing shooting out and grabbing the recorder from his friend's hand. "And what did I tell ya' about narrating our life stories? We aren't making comic books until we can get that copyright away from Stark. And we can't afford lawyers unless we get a deal like this through."

"Eddy, you're being too hard on him. It wasn't like we hadn't kept him waiting."

Eddy groaned, not even looking behind him as a third figure joined them and adjusted their tie. "Weren't you lecturing me first about being late earlier, Double D?"

"That's because if I hadn't shown up in person, you would've either arrived late or not at all." Double D finished adjusting his own clothing. "Though, he is right Ed. We aren't getting that loan if you're still covered in scales."

Ed sighed, but they were right. He started to focus, though he let out one last comment. "I still Lizard could get us a loan if he wanted to."

"With what identification?" Double D turned to Eddy, ignoring the sound of cracking bones that came from Ed's way. "We have all of the patents ready, but is there anything wrong with the generator? We can't afford to have it breakdown in the middle of the demonstration."

"I've checked it three separate times since you put me in a traffic stop. It's working at full capacity and be ready." Eddy patted the device sitting beside him. It was travel sized, but he was sure it could power up city blocks if it had to. "Nobody's going to care about arc reactors if we get PCO Particles off the ground."

"If we get the loan." Double D could hear the cracking stop, prompting him to finally look over at Ed. "Need any help with the tie, Ed?"

"I've got it. It's just a clip-on." Ed put it on, adjusting it before moving to deal with the loose sleeve on his right. In a few practiced movements, he was able to fold it up and clip it closed so it wouldn't flutter about. "…are you sure I can't just find a middle ground transformation? Left hand handshakes are weird."

Both of them shook their heads, prompting Ed to sigh. He rolled his right shoulder, briefly wondering when he last transformed. It always felt weird turning human after being Lizard for too long.

"Alright. The plan is to go in, apply for the loan, and we'll have the money we need to get our business going." Eddy lifted up the device again, pointing right at it. "This is going to be our key to success, and we're going to play up every angle we can get to make this work."

"This isn't a scam, Eddy. We have all the necessary paperwork that we need, so there's no need to deny us." Double D did feel confident, for once. It wasn't like they were coming in with products made out of a junkyard like a good amount of their other inventions. "I've triple checked and we have all necessary requirements that won't flag us as a flight risk when it comes to paying it off."

"Yeah, but the ol' Parker Luck loves throwing curveballs." Eddy scoffed, putting down the generator. "Besides, even if we got all the paperwork, you know someone's going to give us lip for our age."

Eddy moved to have Ed hold their portable generator, moving to point at his face. "What are you going to do when the pigeon goes for a handshake?"

"Give them a weird look when they go for the wrong arm." Ed stated like he'd been told a hundred times before. He would've given a sincere salute if he could.

Eddy turned to Double D, repeating the action. "And you?"

"I'll say many polysyllabic words in order to make our arguments to support our endeavor are met with agreement." Double D said, completely deadpan in his delivery. "Which I still think is a very poor idea if we want to get our message across."

"That's where I come in, Sockhead. Every group needs a face guy, remember?" Eddy whirled around and started marching over the fire escape. "We're losing burning daylight, so let's get going before we get cold feet."

The two did follow along, if only somewhat reluctantly. The three went downward onto solid ground, moving closer to the bank. Some had more trepidation than most, Ed feeling a little off-put as they head across the street towards the entrance. He would've reached for his phone to see if there was any crime nearby, but his only hand was occupied.

"Hear anything from Madame Web today?" Ed could see Eddy look at him with visible annoyance. "Maybe something about some local disaster that we need to keep an eye on?"

"Ed, we're not leaving until we get this loan. Besides, I haven't heard from her in weeks, so maybe cool it a little." Eddy grumbled. "And even if she calls us, I'm putting her on vibrate. I'm not letting superhero shit get in the way of everything today. Paste Pot Pete was just to build confidence."

Ed felt a grimace crawl across his face, but a pat on his shoulder from Double D did pause the anxiety long enough for him to get distracted by the bank's furnishings.

"You can't blame him for feeling nervous, Eddy." Double D let a rue smile cross his face, feeling a tinge of bitterness flit through him. "It's not often we're in a bank that isn't being robbed by a villain of the week."

Eddy grunted. Fair point. Not like he was used to it either.

After checking in, the three were able to take a seat and wait for someone to actually get back to them. Eddy made sure to give back any dirty looks they received as Ed spaced out and Double D started to check over their prototype.

It gave them time to think. God did Eddy hate having time to think. Either he'd be interrupted from having any good thoughts, or he'd all the time in the world to think about anything remotely bad. And Ed deciding to play a hand at narrating made him think back to how it all started.

"Six years, right?"

Eddy snapped out of his brooding to give Ed a weird look. "Six years of what?"

"Six years since we started doing all of, y'know," Ed waved a hand around, trying to be vague. "All of that. With the spider, the serum, the stuff with Osborn? It's been almost six years. I was thinking maybe we could celebrate?"

"It would be nice to celebrate surviving as long as we have. This goes well, we can even celebrate early." Double D put the prototype to the side, feeling sure all of the safety checks were in order. "I think we've saved up enough paychecks that we can splurge a little bit."

"…Maybe we can stop by one of the bodegas and see if they got that brand of jawbreakers we like." Eddy raised a hand and pointed directly at Ed before he could interrupt. "After this is over. Don't make me sound like Sockhead more than I have to, Dr. Moreau. And put your glasses on, Double D! The poindexter look is what sells this."

He got an eyeroll at that, but Double D was already getting his glasses out and putting them on his face. Eddy was glad he stuck with the circular frames for the fake pair. Helped sell the look completely.

Despite feeling a little on edge, Eddy did figure it wasn't a bad idea. Few people would've survived six years working as a superhero. Or, at the very least, two years of minor vigilante stuff and four years of hero work. All of that was semantics though. Eddy would admit that it would make for an interesting comic book, though.

It was around six years ago that Eddy had something happen to him that, despite all logic, shouldn't have been a massive thing; he was bitten by a spider during a fieldtrip to a science lab. A spider bite that ended up being a lot more than that, as it left him sick in bed for three days straight. The superpowers had come after, and despite the panic that caused after he showed Ed and Double D, it wasn't like it wasn't cool at the time.

"I still remember you being unable to get yourself off the wall of the first time you started wall crawling." Ed laughed, forcing Eddy to snort. "We had to pull you off that old, rusted car, and you took the door with you."

"At least it was better than having explain how you nearly caved in one of May's walls one time." Double D mused. "At least one we could blame one on superglue or the like. How a 12-year-old would break the support beam to a house, which would've taken some time."

Eddy rolled his eyes. "Right. At least it went better than those times when we tried to make money off of it."

Trying to do a "fake" strongman act was one of the first things Eddy had done with superstrength. A few parlor tricks with the weird sense of balance he'd picked up. Heck, they even did knife tricks involving his spider-sense, sans real knives. Then there was that time he tried to help Aunt May and Uncle Ben with…

…It wasn't fun reminiscing that part anymore.

"At least it went better then when Ed drank an untested science experiment." Eddy raised a finger at Ed, forcing his friend to shut up. "And no, I'm not going to ever forget that. Still think that was a stupid move."

"And yet I was able to become the Lizard." Ed pumped his hand up before putting it back down to rub the back of his head. "Now we just need to have Double D get some superpowers from a lab accident, and we're a complete set."

"I'd rather not, thank you." Double D adjusted his glasses, looking smug. "I'm very proud of being the only one here smart enough to avoid getting myself mutated, thank you."

A round of laughter erupted from that joke. It was good to laugh, despite everything that it meant. It was followed by some silence as Eddy noted that one of the tellers was heading their way now.

"It's showtime, people." Eddy got up, putting on his best salesman smile. "Let's get this going before the old Parker Luck kicks in."

As they all got up and got ready for their appointment, a sliver of dread slipped in after the comment. Then again, what was likely to go wrong during a half hour interview anyway?

A few streets away, a moving truck was driving down the streets of New York, nondescript and not standing out from any other vehicle inching along in the big city. The driver muttered to himself as the light in front of him turned red again, making even more late than he already was for the next job.

"Last time I take directions from anybody in this city." First day on the job and he was likely to get fired. Would be the third job this month. "Seriously, how is anybody expected to drive around here with idiots throwin' glue around? Maybe that spider-guy is a menace after all."

The driver considered his options, which consisted of two items; continuing to go towards his destination and get yelled at for being late, or just drive off now and get yelled at later. His hands itched for his phone or a cigarette, not sure which one was preferable. At least he could hit the bar first if he needed it.

Knock, knock.

The knocks on the glass prompted him to look out his window for a brief second. "Go to hell, buddy, I ain't moving any faster than-"

He was interrupted as the window was smashed, a curse ringing out as he tried to avoid getting slashed by broken glass. He didn't get far as a hand covered in black armor grabbed him, pulling him out of the truck roughly. He didn't get a look at his attacker before he was roughly thrown to the side into the passenger side door of another vehicle.

"There wasn't a need to be that rough, sir." The driver curled into himself from pain, unable to hear the digitized voice coming from one of the assailants. "Not like he's one of the targets here."

"Shuddup. Top brass didn't say we had to avoid hurtin' people if we had to. Besides, we need to get this show on the road." Another voice stated. There was the sound of the truck shifting and groaning as something heavy moved into it. "Get in the back. I've got the address for that bank already, and if our intel is correct, we have to get there in ten minutes when the others arrive. I'm going to have to take some shortcuts already, so don't take up any more time."

The driver was slowly getting his bearings back as he heard the truck leave, some crashes ringing out as he got to his feet. He looked in the direction he heard the pandemonium as the moving truck pushed all other vehicles out of the way. He groaned.

"Knew I shouldn't have moved to this stupid city." He muttered to himself.

At least he had a valid reason for missing work today.

Still trying to figure a few things out, so we'll stop here for now. As soon as I complete the first chapter, I'll make sure to update this with some kind of update showing it. Again, still conceptual in some parts, but I'll at least have the hook ready and raring to go. If you have any suggestions, I'll take them into consideration.

Hopefully writing will pick back up soon, and I hope to talk to some of you all once again.