Along Came Some Turtles

by The Legendary Dragon Reaper

Peter's life is again falling apart at the seems, but meeting some new friends, who just so happen to be mutant turtles armed with ninja weapons, might just be what he needs to turn things around. And a good thing given the new threats that are lurking in the shadows. Crossover/ continuation of Spectacular Spiderman with TMNT 2012. Support my Patreon. /TheLegendaryDragon Reaper.

47. Big Trouble in Little Chinatown

(Big Trouble in Little Chinatown)

22jward: In the words of the Eternal Dragon, your wish is granted.

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

Gamlovr41592: Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked it. And just wait, we haven't even reached the peak of absolute batshit insanity just yet.

Spectacular Webhead 11: Yep, it took Spider-Man everything he had to bring the Green Goblin down the first time. Imagine what it's going to take them now.

C.S. Allen: That's a dramatic understatement. Now snake Karai and the Lizard are out doing god knows what, and Foswell dying made the whole thing even more personal. The only thing that our heroes can do now is prepare for when the Foot, the Kraang and the Goblin Nation make their next move. Two Face seemed like the most logical choice out of all the villains we've seen so far, but they were all really well done. Those kinds of movies do sound like Mikey's thing, the same with the other Turtles on some level.

TheIrishman1999: Yeah, I figured you weren't gonna be happy about Karai in this one. No need to worry, I've got plans for her when the time comes. Just bear with me until then. Also RIP to Foswell, along with the others. Also good mentions for redemption arc. Just gonna throw this out there though, don't expect Karai and Shinigami to hook up.

Matt: You'll see when the time comes. Just remember, regardless of whoever goes, there's still a fair bit waiting out there for them.

Lyoko2003: Yeah, trust me when I say that a lot has happened, and there's still a lot more to come. And yes, RIP to Foswell. And don't worry, Karai and Dr Connors will get their happy endings in due time. The same with Ben Reilly. But their hardships aren't over yet, the same for the rest of our heroes.

Guest: Interesting ideas, I'll be sure to keep them in mind. And for the record, I was toying with the idea of Baron Mordo appearing at least once in this fic, though when is the big question.

NERDY JETFIRE: Yeah, I figured people would be happy about the Tatsu vs Daredevil fight going down.

Angel2023: Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked it so much. I'll definitely keep your ideas in mind going forward.

5FingerDeathFist: First, yep. Second, fair. Third, I get what you're saying and I'm not a huge fan of love triangles either. That being said, I do enjoy that episode a fair bit, and I've got some ideas for how to make it into something different yet similar, but still enjoyable. And you don't have to worry, Shinigami will show up when the time is right, and Karai won't have to be alone for longer than necessary. The same with Dr Connors, he'll get help too in time.

Guest99: Personally, I always considered Mutant Apocalypse to be mor of a What If story arc than anything else. A fun watch, but not actually canon, which really works out for the best if you ask me. It would've been way too bleak a note to end the series on.

GTA Godfather: Interesting ideas. I'll keep them in mind if nothing else.

Fulcrum: Well said, she's an inspiration. And I might add that in when the time comes, but we still have a long way to go before then.

The Chosen: Good choice of song, I'll definitley keep it in mind.

Godzillaboy2021: Yep, the Green Goblin has returned and revealed himself to our heroes, and now they know just how serious the situation is. Foswell's sacrifice won't be in vain, not as long as Spider-Man has something to say about it. And yeah, the Lizard returning was a long time coming even in Spectacular, even bigger and more powerful than before. Don't count on the good guys giving a warning to Shredder, even in the worst of circumstances he'd never agree to work with them.

MercWithaMouth1: Deadpool and Wolverine was a masterpiece in every sense of the word. I haven't seen The Penguin but I know a guy who has and he thought it was good. I'll get to that one at some point for sure.

Guest: Sorry, I consider that story pretty much over.

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Another day came, and with it another rainstorm, and a period of mourning.

'I feel like I've only been coming to these kinds of things a lot lately.' Peter (once again clad in a black suit) served as a pallbearer and carried one corner of Foswell's coffin, with Ned Leeds, Robbie Robertson and J Jonah Jameson serving as the other three pallbearers, and once they reached their destination he backed away and watched as the coffin was prepared for lowering into the newly dug grave 'It's only been twice in the past few weeks, three if you add in the one for Harry's mom after the Technodrome… then add in Uncle Ben. Too many if you ask me. So much for being spectacular.

"Hey." Gwen stood by his side, clad in a black dress of her own holding an umbrella, and gently gripped Peter's hand "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking I screwed up, and a good man is dead because of it. On top of everything else that's pumpkin or goblin related."

"I would say that you need to give yourself a break, but I know you too well now. If I didn't then we may have other problems." Gwen let out a soft chuckle, earning a small smile from Peter as the two of them stepped up and placed a single rose each on the coffin "I wish I had something to say that could make you feel better, but I know exactly how you feel, so I know that nothing can make you better right now."

"I'm sensing a "but" coming."

"But there are two things we can do, at least in my eyes. One, make sure we're prepared for when they come back. Two, we take things one day at a time."

"Fair enough I guess." Peter paused as a familiar sensation washed over him "And three, prep for the migraine we're about to get."

"What do you mean?"

"You're about to find out in three… two… one."

"Parker." it was at this moment that Jameson made his way over to him, only to pause when he saw both him and Gwen together "Um…"

"Right, introductions and all that. Boss this is Gwen Stacy, my girlfriend."

"Daughter of Captain Stacy?"

"That's me." Gwen gave a shy smile as she shook hands with Jameson "He's had a lot of good things to say about you. And a lot of other things.'

"Likewise. Anyway I hate to intrude, but… Parker, a word?"

"Hate to intrude, since when?" Peter bit his tongue as he noticed Gwen giving him the Look, and so he let out a sigh and followed Jameson until they were a short distance away from the rest of the crowd "Call it a hunch, but I get the feeling this is gonna be about tomorrow's headline?"

"Just because someone has a hunch doesn't mean it's always right."

"Unless it's yours."

"Exactly."

"Figures." Peter paused and glanced back at the crowd "How did Mrs Foswell take it?"

"About as well as you think. Just be glad you're not the one who had to break the news to her when we found out." Jameson was met with the sound of a bitter chuckle "Something funny to you?"

"Just thinking about the irony. Any other time we had a story I'd hear you screaming at the top of your lungs about how Spider-Man is to blame for it. The only difference is this time I think you would actually be right to."

"...That's how you see me huh?"

"That's how everyone sees you."

"Yeah well, fair enough." Jameson breathed a small sigh as he glanced back to where Foswell's coffin could be seen being lowered into the grave "I was just gonna say that today is a day to do two things: To reflect and mourn, to give men like Foswell the respect he deserves. And to make a vow: Never again. It stops here. You say that I blame everything on Spider-Man, and you're not the only one. But I don't blame him for this. Horrific acts like what happened to Foswell are the responsibility of those who committed it. But if our city is going to be kept safe, then we can't tolerate the lawlessness that Spider-Man and his ilk represent… and we also can't allow our own personal grudges to get in the way of fighting the good fight and doing what has to be done for the people. This is our city, and by god, it's time for us to take it back."

'...Huh. It's times like this that make me remember that under all the screaming and the Hitler moustache, he's actually a human being.' Peter glanced back over to where dirty was being piled onto Foswell's coffin 'He's right about one thing. Never again. It stops here. It's our city, and it's time for us to take it back. Starting tonight with helping the guys look for Karai.'

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Nightfall came, and the search was in full swing… along with other activities.

"Alright boys, there it is." Fong poked his head out of an alley to a certain museum in front of them on the other side of the street "Now we're looking at the good stuff."

"But Fong, what's the plan?" Sid gave a raised eyebrow "How the hell are we gonna break into the museum in the first place?"

"How else? If you wanna steal then you gotta steal a key." Fong gave a smirk as he held up the key in question.

"What if the Spiders or Turtles show up?"

"That's why Shredder let us use the big guy for tonight's little shopping trip." Fong's smirk grew wider as he gestured to the shadowy hulking figur looming behind them "Now let's move."

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Meanwhile, with the search party…

'Come on, you have to be around somewhere.' April made her way across the rooftops, keeping her gaze moving in every direction, until she took notice of something in an alley below and pulled out a pair of binoculars 'Is that… Nope, just a cat rummaging through a trash can. For the love of god, looking for one mutant in New York City is like trying to find a needle in… Well, in New York City.'

"That is an absolute load of crap and you know it! I went through years of training and getting my shell handed to me by Splinter to get to where I'm at now!" Nightwatcher barreled his way onto the scene "And unlike you and your girlfriend, some of us actually have to earn these kinds of skills."

"And I've only trained for a total of six months, yet there's video proof of me kicking your shell at least half a dozen times." Spider-Man grabbed hold of a webline and swung his way down onto the rooftop, landing in on of his signature poses "That's gotta be all kinds of embarrassing for you."

"Not half as embarrassing as it's gonna be when I shove my sais up your-"

"For crying out loud, will you two keep it down already?" April was quick to shut the two of them up "In case it slipped your notice, we're supposed to be looking for Karai."

"Yeah I know, we just-" Spider-Man cut himself short as a familiar sensation began going off in his head, to which he glanced down to see the Purple Dragons breaking into the museum "Huh, one of those times where the Spider Sense actually turns out to be useful."

"And one of those times where I get to hit something. Guess this night isn't gonna completely suck after all." Nightwatcher gave a grin under his mask as he leapt off the rooftop and made his way onto the roof of the museum, with April quickly chasing after him.

'Why do I feel like this is gonna go sideways faster than the Star Wars sequels?' Spider-Man was about to chase after the two of them, only to stop as his Spider Sense began glaring in his head once again 'Oh yeah, because it's my life. Crapbaskets.' and then he turned his head just in time to catch a quick glimpse of a hulking brown figure charging at him… and then grab him by the face.

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Meanwhile, with the museum heist…

"Alright the big guy's got the spider distracted, looks like we're in the clear." Fong led the rest of the Purple Dragons inside the museum, and the three of them looked around until his gaze fell onto a rusty dagger in a display case "Now we're talking, finally something actually good in this dump."

"Any idea what it is though?" Tsoi gave a raised eyebrow.

"Who the hell cares? Steranko is gonna pay through the roof for it either way, if you ask me we just hit the motherlode."

"Is that what you think?" a new voice caused the Purple Dragons to whip around and find none other than Nightwatcher standing before them, sais barred "There's only one thing you're about to get and it's me stabbing you in the skull."

"And me, I'm also here." April pointed out dryly from where she stood beside Nightwatcher and pulled out her tessen.

"Yeah sure, whatever you need to tell yourself." Nightwatcher stuck an arm out in front of April to shield her from a vase that Tsoi threw at her, and then he pounced at both Tsoi and Fong with his sais barred.

"I got this one!" April didn't waste any time in dodging Sid's attacks, taking the chance to jab him across the cheek and strike at him with her tessen 'Huh. Not gonna lie, that's one hell of a confidence booster.'

"Not too shabby O'Neil. Let's see if you can do a little bit like this." Nightwatcher gave a smirk as he dodged Fong's attempts to hit him with a helmet, ending it with a kick to the face that sent him hurtling across the room, followed by throwing a sai at a terra cotta statue, causing the head to fall onto Tsoi, knocking him out cold "Now that's what I'm talking about, and it shows what actual skill can do. I'd like to see that ninja wannabe spider just what-"

"Shit shit shit!" it was at this moment that Spider-Man came bursting through one of the walls of the museum… or rather, got thrown through it and wound up crashing into Nightwatcher, both of them being sent hurtling to the ground "Ow… Why is my life like this…?"

"What the shell?!" Nightwatcher bolted to his feet and immediately rounded on Spider-Man in a rage "What are you doing?!"

"Having a slumber party like a 12 year old girl, what do you think I'm doing?" Spider-Man let out a groan as he leapt back onto his feet "Pretty sure I just got drop-kicked off a roof by what I can only assume is a high tech Yogi Bear cosplayer."

"Big whoop, that stupid cartoon has nothing on yours truly!" sure enough, through the hole in the wall came the hulking form of a guy in a high tech bear suit "Nobody screws with the Grizzly without getting a set of claws through the eyes!"

"Yeah sure, you're barely a challenge." Spider-Man rolled his eyes as he dodged a series of slashes from Grizzly's claws "So what's your game big guy, trying to make a getaway with a picnic basket full of diamonds?"

"Oh trust me, the Goblin King said that I was gonna get a lot more than that when I rip you apart with my claws!"

"...The Goblin King sent you?" the mention alone was enough to make Spider-Man's gaze turn hard as he dropped into a stance 'And suddenly this just got personal.'

"Now you're about to see why the Grizzly isn't someone you wanna screw with!"

"Big whoop, I'm not impressed with the overgrown Yogi reject." Nightwatcher suddenly leapt in front of Spider-Man and dealt Grizzly an uppercut to the jaw hard enough to send him hurtling backwards "Look I've seen this before dude, I know how thugs and henchmen under the bigger bads go. At this point it's pretty much boiling down to stereotypes. It's either the pretty ones with the huge egos, the weird ones with all the freaky powers, orwith guys like you, it's the big tough stupid one."

"Hey, I'm not stupid!" Grizzly stopped himself by pressing against the back wall of the museum and let out a snarl "Take that the hell back or I'll kill you!"

"Alright fine I give, you're not tough."

"That's better." he relaxed slightly.

'And he's gonna figure it out in three… two… one…'

"...HEY! That's it, I'm gonna pound your sorry asses!" Grizzly grabbed onto a giant terra cotta statue next to him and used his rocket boots to launch himself forward and attempt to smash it over Nightwatcher's head.

"Go find a forest fire to piss on!" Nightwatcher ducked under the terra cotta statue and tried to advance on Grizzly… only to be caught in a bear hug and slammed against a wall.

"Now my patented bear hug is gonna shut you up once and for all!" Grizzly was about to tighten his grip on Nightwatcher further, until…

"Hey!" a quick shot of electric webbing on the foot of Grizzly's armor, electroctuing him on the spot and leaving him to crash to the ground out cold, courtesy of Spider-Man as he held out a hand to Nightwatcher "Looks like you were right, he wasn't tough. You okay?"

"What the shell do you think you're doing?" Nightwatcher leapt back onto his feet and was quick to round on Spider-Man "I had that guy!"

"Yeah, cause it looked like you had him when you were about to get your shell snapped like a freaking twig."

"I could've gotten out at any time I wanted to!"

"Then try not spewing fire at me and go deal with the purple dumasses, I'll handle Yogi's evil twin on my-" Spider-Man was cut short as his Spider Sense began glaring, and he looked down to see Grizzly grab him by the ankle "Aw crapbaskets."

"The evil twin is always the stronger one!" Grizzly wasted no time in swinging Spider-Man around wildly, using him to hit both Nigthwatcher and April before slamming him directly into the ground "Case and point."

"Yeah well… You're not exactly clear on the whole Spider-Man thing are you? Truth be told I let myself get a little distracted for a second." Spider-Man immediately rebounded and leapt onto one of the museum walls "But real talk for a second, of all the exoskeleton suits you could've gone with, you chose a bear? Well I guess it makes sense. They already did every cop story there is, now they've completely run out of animals to use for supervillains."

"You won't be saying stuff like that when I rip you apart!"

"Keep telling yourself that." Spider-Man wasted no time in laying a swift yet fierce barrage of punches and kicks into Grizzly, leaving him stumbling around in a stupor, and then he moved to finish it with one final blow, when…

"I got him!" Nightwatcher suddenly leapt over Spider-Man's back, dealing Grizzly a solid fist to the face, sending him crashing to the ground in an unconscious heap "And that's how you get things done.

"...Okay seriously, was that really called for?"

"Just showing you what happens when someone decides to but in on your fight and stick his nose where it doesn't belong."

"You mean trying to show me up for one stupid reason or another."

"You won't be calling it stupid when I shove my sais up your-"

"Hey! In case it slipped your notice, we've got other problems." April was quick to shut both of them up and directed their attention to the open doors of the museum "The Purple Dragons got away while you two were fighting Yogi's evil twin, not to mention each other."

"...Aw crapbaskets."

"Oh yeah, way to get things done Batfake." Spider-Man commented dryly, which only wound up setting Nightwatcher's angry glare back on him.

"Like you got any room to talk, at least I know what side I'm on."

"And we're on this again, because of course we are."

"You might as well admit it, you're just as bad as Karai."

"Okay, we're gonna put a pin in your hate kink for yours truly for now." Spider-Man paused to try and collect himself "Try saying that around any of the others, especially around Splinter, and see what happens."

"I'm saying what the rest of you don't have the guts to! Karai is a lost freaking cause, plain and simple. She was raised by the Shredder, the guy whose literal purpose in life is to kill all of us! What the hell do you guys want to do, hold hands with him and sing freaking Kumbaya? Am I the only one who remembers what Karai and Tatsu did to Murakami?"

"She's not the one who did it."

"She didn't freaking stop him either! She's just as guilty as far as I'm concerned!"

"And that's a big chunk of why you're wrong." Spider-Man grabbed Nightwatcher by the wrists and looked him dead in the eye "Somebody's gotta say it, since you sure as hell aren't gonna get it drilled through that thick shell of yours: You're not always right, especially not now. Karai's done a lot of bad stuff, but Shredder was the one who brought her up. She didn't ask to be pulled into this whole freaking blood feud, just like you guys didn't ask to live in the sewers and how I didn't ask to be Spider-Man, or how April didn't ask for the Kraang to hunt her down for god only knows how long."

"If you're gonna make a point then freaking get to it already."

"My point is that Karai did a lot of bad stuff sure, but I was raised to believe in second chances and have faith in people. She's not the one who cut Murakami down, no matter how much you might wanna blame her. How the hell do you think you'd turn out if you got raised by that walking cheese grater? Besides, for all the bad stuff she's done you can't say that she hasn't done a fair bit of good. Let's not forget, all of us have screwed up royally in one way or another at this point. I never forgot how it's my fault my Uncle Ben was killed." he paused for a moment to try and compose himself "But he always said we can choose the kind of people we want to be. As far as I can tell, Karai already made that choice even before she found out Splinter was her real dad. Don't forget that she kpt her word, she never told Shredder about who I am even after all the crap that happened at the docks."

"Yeah, you stabbed us in the back." Nightwatcher gave a scowl and looked away.

"After you guys wanted to stab her in the back first. She was willing to go behind Shredder's back to help us because she could see the bigger picture, because she knew the Kraang had to be brought down. Even before she knew the truth, she chose the kind of person she wanted to be, and that's all there is to it."

"...You would side with her over that, wouldn't you?" Nightwatcher's scowl deepened as his gaze turned back toward Spider-Man "You are so freaking smug, you know that? You think this whole freaking world revolves around you don't you?"

"Pot calling the kettle green right about now."

"What, you think that I can't survive one fight without the all powerful Spider-Man holding me up by my freaking shell? Well I got some news for you webhole, the rest of us got along just fine while you were gone! I sure as hell didn't lose any sleep over you!"

"Raph!" came the sharp reply from April, only for it to go unheard.

"You don't get to just take off and come back and act like nothing happened! The rest of them might be fine to just get over it, but I didn't forget how you stabbed us in the back!"

"I was doing what I had to do to protect the people I cared about!" Spider-Man's gaze turned hard with anger underneath his mask "I'm not gonna apologize for that! Or are you just pissy because it was your idea to back stab Karai and take out Shredder?" he was met with silence, and so chose to continue on "Figures, it always has to be about you doesn't it?"

"Shove it up your web hole! At least I know how to stand by my team when it counts, you don't see me turning my back on them or driving them off!"

"You're full of absolute crap, I can name at least three times when you did that! You drove Leo off when you kept griping about his leadership and it led to you getting your ass handed to you by Snakeweed, you drove Donnie into trying to rescue April's dad on his own, and then you drove Mikey off by acting like he doesn't know a damn thing, and that led to Bradford turning into a freaking zombie werewolf!"

"You weren't even here for that one, how do you know about that?"

"They tell me things because I actually listen to something other than my own screaming ego most of the time. Maybe if you tried that once in a while, the others would actually bother to listen to you for a change."

"Is that what you think?" Nightwatcher's scowl grew even deeper "I was right about what I said before. We didn't need you then, we don't need you now. If you ask me, you should've stayed gone."

"...I'm gonna go check in with Aunt May. I'll see the rest of the group later. Here's hoping you at least keep your trap shut for once." Spider-Man's expression turned hurt under his mask, but he quickly forced it down as he webbed a line and took off from the scene… swinging right past where Turtle Titan, Donnie and Casey were perched on a nearby rooftop, listening in on the argument.

"Good riddance." Nightwatcher pulled off his helmet to reveal the face of Raphael, only to take notice of the dirty looks he was getting from the others "What?"

"What do you mean what?" April promptly rounded on him "Why the hell did you have to say that to him?"

"Someone had to say it, cause it sure as hell wasn't gonna be you guys."

"No bro, nobody had to say that." Turtle Titan leapt down to Raph's level and pulled back his cowl to reveal the face of Michelangelo "I don't get why you had to say that?"

"And I don't get how the shell the rest of you could've been so easy to just let it slide. Unlike all of you, I sure as hell haven't forgotten about what he did."

"We haven't forgotten either. The biggest difference is we're not latching onto a pointless grudge like a metaphorical parasite." Donnie told him dryly.

"And I don't forget about people screwing us over to save their own skin."

"So what ar you saying man?" Mikey's gaze hardened with anger "You're saying if it were up to you then Pete would've stayed gone?"

"I sure as hell wouldn't lose any sleep over it." Raph was met with more glares of disapproval, to which he just gave a scowl and stormed away from the scene.

"...Okay, time to talk about pretty much anything else." Casey broke the silence that permeated the rest of the group and cast a glance over at April "Gonna guess you guys didn't have any luck on the Karai front?"

"If the little lover's spat over there was anything to go by, no." April breathed a sigh "We did end up having a run in with the Purple Dragons."

"Wait hold on, you guys went and kicked their asses without me? Some friends you guys are turning out to be."

"We almost had them, but then we ended up having to fight a guy in a high tech bear suit that prompted way too many Yogi Bear jokes." she pointed to Grizzly's unconscious form still lying on the floor of the museum "He got taken down pretty fast, but they slipped away during all of that."

"Come on April, I doubt we got much to worry about anyway." Mikey gave a shrug "Those guys are like a level one boss battle, it's not like they can even do anything on their own."

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Meanwhile, with the runaways…

"Well that flat out sucked." Tsoi let out a heavy sigh as he and the rest of the Purple Dragons stopped running and ducked into an abandoned alley "We got our asses kicked again, and we didn't get a damn thing out of it."

"That's just cause you and the big guys are losers. Check this out." Fong gave a smirk full of triumph as he held up a certain object in his hand, that being the dagger from the display, which he promptly tried to pull out of its sheath, only for it to fly out of his grip, leaving it to fall to the ground with a thud… and then for it to start glowing "Okay, what the fu-"

"At last!" a triumphant laughter echoed throughout the alley as a blue light emerged from the dagger, taking on the form of a glowing man in Chinese robes and a hat "Greetings to you Purple Dragons. You may now bow befor your new master, Ho Chan!"

"...Say what now?"

"I said bow!" the newly named Ho Chan promptly zapped each of them with small bolts of electricity, instantly sending them to their knees.

"Wait wait wait, hold on a second." Fong was the first one to look back up at Ho Chan "What the hell are you man, some kind of ghost?"

"As I said, you may refer to me as Ho Chan. I was once one of the greatest practitioner in the most ancient and powerful forms of the Mystic Arts which, to the ignorant and untrained eye, may be mistaken for magic." he summoned a series of green spheres of energy in his hand to prove his point, then gave a scowl "I would have been the ruler of this universe, had I not been trapped within the ancient dagger centuries ago by that foolish bald woman." he let out a series of fake sobs, but then got VERY close to the faces of the Purple Dragons "Truth be told we are not so different, besides the fact that all of you are simpering idiots."

"...Cool." Sid glanced over at Fong "What does simpering mean?"

"It'll take more time to explain than I want to. But my point is that I know how to make you fools truly strong, powerful! If you are willing to serve me that is." he gave a wicked grin as he stowed away the dagger in the belt of his robe "What do you say?"

"I'll tell you what to say." Fong gave a smirk as he leapt to his feet, with the others following his lead "When do we start?"

"Right now actually." Ho Chan summoned a series of electrical bolts, enveloping the Purple Dragons in them and hoisting them into the air in the process "For the moron (Fong), you will be granted the power of lightning! For the stupid idiot (Sid), you shall become thunder! And lastly for the numbskull (Tsoi), you shall become the wind!" with another surge of electricity stemming from his hands, he enveloped the Purple Dragons in their new respective elements (Fong in blue lightning, Sid in green thunder and Tsoi in a cyclone of wind, all with matching hats), prompting them to bow down to him "Listen well my henchmen, together we shall combine our power and conquer this world. Yes, now go and find me a lair of opulent beauty, one that is worthy of the divine power I possess!" and cue the maniacal laughter.

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One quick trip later…

"Okay hold on, what the hell is this supposed to be?" Ho Chan gave a scowl as he cast a look around the interior of the Purple Dragons' hideout, and suffice to say, he was less than impressed with what he saw "This is supposed to be your lair of opulent beauty?"

"Yes master, this is our lair. It was the best we could do for you on short notice." Fong bowed his head to Ho Chan… just as a rat scurried across the floor in front of them.

"...Well I suppose it will have to do for the time being."

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Meanwhile, with the B plot…

"Hold on, I'm getting a text from the guys." Leo pulled out his T-phone as he sat in the driver's seat of the Stealth Bike, and he let out a sigh "Okay yeah, that's not good."

"Something wrong?" Ghost Spider gave a raised eyebrow from where she was perched on a wall above him.

"Mikey just texted, apparently Pete and Raph are at each other's throats again." that was enough to make both of them cringe "Great, we needed more of this like we needed Mikey to try and force his pee-shake on us again."

"...Do I want to know?"

"No you do not. I was hoping we could've been past this."

"Hold on, is this still about that night with Karai and the Kraang ship at the docks?"

"That would be the one. It took a few days before we saw him again after that, and the first thing that Raph did was try and bite his head off. It took 20 minutes to make them shut up, if Splinter hadn't shown up they probably would've been at it all night."

"So I heard. Mikey did tell me a few bits and pieces of it." Ghost Spider cringed at the thought of the aforementioned incident "Based on what I have heard, you're not wrong."

"To sum it up, this whole ridiculous feud between the two of them is creating a bad atmosphere for the whole team. We can't afford to let bad blood get in the way of things, especially not with the likes of the Kraang invasion and the Goblin Nation to deal with. We have to do something about this. The only question is, what?"

"That's the hard part from what I've heard. Mikey mentioned you guys have tried to calm Raph down as much as you can, and I did a little bit for Pete myself, but it doesn't seem to be working out too well. Maybe we should try and get Splinter to talk to them?"

"I… don't think that's really an option right now." Leo cringed at the thought "He hasn't exactly been… present after what happened to Karai."

"Right, healing his spirit. Can't say I blame him for it. Speaking of Karai, we need to keep up with the search for now, see if we can find any traces of where she went."

"I've been looking up here myself, but I don't see anything really-" Ghost Spider was almost immediately cut short by the sound of an explosion, followed a column of smoke rising up in the distance "Yeah okay, that one's on me. Never say anything like that, it's just asking for anything bad to happen."

"Duly noted. We should check it out either way though, right?"

"Yep." and so Ghost Spider webbed a line and began swinging her way towards the source of the explosion, with Leo following close behind her on the Stealth Bike.

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Meanwhile, with the A plot…

"Leo just texted, apparently him and Gwen have to try and do damage control for some crisis they found over in Mahattan. I'm guessing that means there's no chance of them finding Karai tonight either." Donnie let out a sigh as he stowed away his T-phone and glanced over toward where Raph was reading a magazine "We might have to face the facts, maybe Karai is just gone for good."

"About time someone said it." Raph commented dryly without looking.

"The difference being that we're not happy about it. Try saying that to Splinter's face and then you have the right to talk."

"Not like we're gonna see that anytime soon bro." Mikey let out a sad sigh as he made his way out of the dojo "He's still doing the whole meditation thing… what did Leo call it again?"

"Healing his spirit."

"Yeah, that. The whole thing with Karai mutating really messed him up. I don't like seeing him like this." Mikey's gaze hardened as he glanced over at the others "We gotta keep up with the search, maybe go grab the others."

"I know April and Casey are hanging out at the ice rink." Donnie paused and noticed the raised eyebrow he was getting from the other two "What?"

"You're gonna try and break them up aren't you?" Raph asked dryly.

"No! What, you think just cause she's friends with another guy I can't be perfectly secure with the two of them being alone?" he was met with more looks, and so he let out a sigh "Fine, fair enough. Besides, they aren't alone, they're with that one goth friend of hers, Irma I think her name was. I got a look at her at one point, and honestly something about her sent a chill up my shell."

"Probably just overthinking it, goths are usually into pretty freaky stuff."

"I don't know bro, Pete mentioned something about that too once. Speaking of which we could use Pete's help too, we can go and pick him up at his place." Mikey leapt to his feet, only to pause when he noticed Raph scowling again "Like it or not bro, we're gonna need all the help we can get searching for her."

"You say that like he's gonna be any actual help. He'll probably just end up getting caught in her coils and shoved into her gut like something out of the Jungle Book."

"And that's a pretty big part of why you're not driving." Donnie told him dryly.

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At the same time, Ho Chan was still less than thrilled about his new surroundings, and quickly called the Purple Dragons to his side, interrupting them while they were fighting amongst each other and getting a grip on their new powers, and ordered them to bring them a young woman with a very special power that could return him to his physical form… that being April.

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Meanwhile, with the B plot…

"Okay, this definitely isn't good." Leo brought the Stealth Bike screeching to a halt on a freeway, only to find a truck flipped over onto his side, with a familiar logo on the side 'TCRI… So this van belongs to the Kraang… that can only mean so many things.

"So what are we looking at here?" Ghost Spider leapt to the ground next to Leo and paused as she got a look at the van "Oh man, that's not good." it was then that a familiar sensation went off in her head, right before an explosion erupated in front of them, forcing the two of them to take cover in the Stealth Bike under the shell shield "And neither is that."

"Explosions are never good, so what the shell was that?"

"Something nobody would wanna screw with if they valued their life." it was at this moment that a hulking figure clad in a metal mask, a vest with a set of crossbones over it (Crossbones) and a set of metal gauntlets made his way through the smoke as he tightened the grip on one of his gauntlets "You shouldn't have gotten involved with one of our operations."

"Uh huh." Leo shared a look with Ghost Spider "I don't suppose there's any chance of this being a horrible misunderstanding? Mostly because this guy is REALLY big. I think the Avengers told me about this guy when we met with them, a mercenary working for HYDRA.'

"Pretty sure you know the answer to that from the mask alone kid." Crossbones took a step toward the two of them "I'll make this simple, if you don't wanna die then walk away. And that offer is only gonna last until I end up getting bored."

"If you know who that van belongs to, you know that's not an option." Leo's gaze hardened as he drew his katanas, with Ghost Spider getting into a stance "We can't let you get away with that cargo."

"Hm. You like to talk a big game kid. Let's see how you do with that once I rip you right out of that shell of yours." Crossbones cracked his knuckles and began advancing towards the two of them.

"We'll see about that." Leo cast a quick look over at Ghost Spider "You go get the van driver out of there, assuming he isn't a Kraang or something, I'll deal with the big guy."

"Alright, but be careful." Ghost Spider quickly leapt over Crossbones' head and swung her way onto the top of the van, finding a figure sitting in the driver's seat "Looks like a real one, not just a Kraang."

"Then get him out of here and-" Leo was immediately cut short by one of Crossbones' gauntlets slamming directly into his face hard enough to send him hurtling to the ground.

"Go ahead, see if you can keep talking big you little shit!" Crossbones pounced toward Leo and moved to stomp down on his chest, only for Leo to roll out of the way and leap back to his feet, but this only motivated Crossbones to continue advancing on Leo with a rapid series of strikes from his gauntlets.

'He's big, but it doesn't do anything to detract from how fast he is or how hard he can punch. I'm starting to see why the Avengers warned us about this guy.' Leo fended off Crossbones' attacks and moved to try and slash at him with his katanas, only for one to be knocked out of his hand and for him to receive a brutal headbutt to the face from Crossbones, followed by an uppercut to the jaw that sent him hurtling back into a nearby brick wall, and even then he had to go onto the evasive to avoid Crossbones' follow up attacks.

"You remind me a lot of Captain America. He never knows when to quit either."

"I'm gonna choose to take that as a compliment." Leo was backed up against another wall with a gauntlet pressed agains his throat, followed by the other gauntlet protruding a knife "But I guess you didn't mean it like that."

"Captain America dropped a fucking building on my face!" Crossbones prepared to drive the knife into Leo's head.

'Shit!' Leo cranked his neck to the side at the last second, leaving the knife stuck in the wall behind him, giving him the chance to slice through it and the gauntlet with one clean stroke of his katana, slicing it in two and leaving a long and bloody gash along Crossbones' arm 'That was close. And it looks like that one trick Splinter showed me paid off. Good to know.'

"I have more than one of those you little shit!" Crossbones summoned a knife out of his other gauntlet and began slashing at Leo with it in a rage… only to be stopped in the middle of his charge by a webline latching onto his gauntlet "What the-"

"Right over here!" this was when Ghost Spider pounced towards Crossbones and landed a solid roundhouse kick to the chest, sending him crashing to the ground in a heap, and then she held out a hand to Leo "You okay?"

"A little battered and bruised, but I've definitely been worse." Leo accepted the hand and let himself be pulled back onto his feet "Not hard to see why that guy is on the Avengers' hit list, he was definitely a tough one. I probably would've been in real trouble if you hadn't jumped in when you did. The question now is, what do we do with him?"

"I already put in a call to my dad, a few officers should show up in the next few minutes to take him in. We probably shouldn't be here when that happens."

"Good call. Speaking of which, do we have any idea what he was after?"

"I meant to bring that up to you when I had the chance. I had a quick talk with the van driver, turns out he's a regular human who's just working for TCRI, and it turns out he was heading for some kind of safe house on the edge of the city meant to contain this." she pulled out something from behind her back… in the form of a canister filled with a very familiar substance.

"A canister of mutagen? They only had one in there?"

"Apparently the Kraang said that this canister was "special." The driver didn't give any specifics, all he knows is that apparently this is what the Kraang have been "working with" scientists all over the city on for months. I don't suppose you have any ideas what that means?"

"I… might, actually." Leo frowned in thought "Back when we first tried getting Kirby's dad out of a Kraang prison, he told us that they were grabbing scientists to help them modify mutagen, since apparently it doesn't work in our dimension like it does in theirs. If this is what they've been working towards…"

"That means they might have finally finished perfecting it. This isn't good, is it?"

"Definitely not. We'd better take it back to Donnie's lab, we can analyze it there."

"Yeah, that's a good-" Ghost Spider cut herself short as a familiar sensation went off in her head, leading her to cast a look around, only to find nothing 'No sign of an enemy… maybe cloaking of some kind.'

"What's wrong?"

"I can't say for sure but… I think we're being watched."

"The Kraang or HYDRA again?"

"I don't know, but if I'm right then we shouldn't risk leading them back to the Lair just yet. I do have another idea though. ESU isn't too far from here, and I know Dr Connors' lab isn't being used since… you know."

"Right… You think we could analyze it there?"

"It couldn't hurt to try at least." Ghost Spider was met with the sound of sirens blaring in the distance "We'd better get moving."

"Right." so Leo was handed the canister, leapt into the Stealth Bike and took off in the direction of ESU, with Ghost Spider webbing a line and swinging after him.

What they didn't notice however, was two people were watching them from a nearby rooftop, the first of which, a woman with short red hair in a black bodysuit (Black Widow) glanced over at the other "They're heading for the labs at Empire State University."

"And they took Crossbones down, so good for them. Less work for us." the other one, a man clad in a purple and black suit with a quiver of arrows strapped to his back (Hawkeye) cast a glance over at Black Widow "Not that I don't appreciate you getting us out of the book club meeting, still haven't forgotten what Hulk did at the last one. But why are we trailing them like this instead of just, I don't know, talking to them?"

"Someone's gotta figure out what the Kraang are after, and old habits die hard."

"...Yeah well, if it gets us out of book club then I'm all for it." so on that note, Hawkeye mounted the motorcycle parked behind them, with Black Widow sitting in th driver's seat, and the two of them took off across the rooftops of New York City.

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At the same time, April and Casey were hanging out at the ice rink with Irma, only for this to get interrupted by the arrival of the Purple Dragons, now armed with the powers that were given to them by Ho Chan. Casey didn't hesitate in squaring off with them despite this, only to quickly be blown away by their new powers, giving them the chance to grab both April and Irma and escape with them the same way they appeared: through a hole they blew in the roof of the ice rink.

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Meanwhile, with the A plot…

"Okay, there we go." May was hard at work in the kitchen as usual, and her smile grew wider when she saw Peter make his way in through the back door "Peter, I was wondering when you were going to come back around."

"Yeah sorry, I kind of got held up with the guys, and Jameson needed me to take a few pictures of this one crime scene." Peter let out a sheepish chuckle, but then his gaze turned serious for a moment "How are you holding up though?"

"I'm getting by, same as anyone else is these days." she breathed a small sigh, and was almost immediately met with Peter rushing to her side "Easy dear, I'm not about to fall to pieces."

"Maybe not, but I don't want you pushing yourself too hard at FEAST or anything. I mean your heart attack was about a year and a half ago sure, but…"

"The people at FEAST need help, if that means I have to lose a few hours of sleep to make sure they get what they need then so be it." May's expression softened when she saw Peter's worried expression "You don't need to worry, I'm fine. Okay?"

"...Okay."

"There we go." she gave a small smile and ruffled his hair "Now in the meantime, how are things with you and the Turtles?"

"Oh they uh… they're good. Mikey's being Mikey, the same with the others…"

"I take it there's a problem?"

"That's… one way to put it. Raph and I have… we're not exactly BFFs. We never really have been. I mean I didn't really bond with him over anything like I did the other Turtles, but even then the two of us…"

"So you're quarreling with him?"

"Yeah, it's just… it's hard to explain." Peter glanced away for a moment.

"Harder to explain than the four of them trying to team up with the daughter of Splinter's former friend, then choosing to betray her and you telling her about it, leading to their plan failing and them being hurt over it?" that was enough to make Peter's gaze snap back towards her.

"You… knw about that?"

"Yes, I tend to hear things. Also Michael told me at one point, he came over for dinner a lot while you were gone and we did a fair bit of talking." May paused for a moment as her gaze trailed over toward a picture frame sitting on a small table by the stairs "Take this from a voice of experience Peter: Whether it be with friends or relationships, one thing they have in common is that the most important thing is honesty. That's what got me and Ben through a couple of rough patches, and even me and Anna Watson."

"You had rough patches with them?"

"Oh sure, especially when I was your age. So tell me, are you honest with them? Do they know why you do what you do?"

"I… I try to be at least. I just-" Peter was cut short by the sound of an engine revving outside, and he cast a glance out the window to see the Shellraiser pull up on the street directly outside the Parker household, followed by three shadowy figures moving through the front yard 'Okay, I guess the cavalry is here then. So then what's-'

"CRISIS!" Donnie suddenly popped up in the kitchen window "April! Purple Dragons! Magic lightning bolts! Fancy chinese hats! CRISIS!" and then he fell flat on his face.

"...Okay, so I think you met Donnie now." Peter shared a look with May, then poked his head out the window to see Donnie face down in a plant "Somebody wanna translate?"

"Purple Dragons apparently got magic powers and Jones got his ass kicked, now they went and kidnapped April and her weird goth friend." Raph told him dryly "Now get your crap so we can go and get her already."

"Yeah yeah, give me a second." Peter gave May a quick kiss on the cheek, grabbed hold of his brown satchel bag and moved to rush out the door, during which he noticed Raph glaring at him, so he locked eyes with May through the kitchen window, so he let out a sigh and turned his gaze back to Raph 'Be honest with him. Not exactly high end advice, but better than anything else I've got to work with right now. Okay look Raph, if you're gonna hate on me would it kill you to do it without being obvious?"

"What would be the point if you already now?"

"And I get why, I don't need you shoving it down my throat."

"So what then?" Raph immediately rounded on Peter in his anger "You saying you just up and forgot about what you did?"

"Kind of hard to forget when you keep shoving it down my throat. You think I don't regret it? I do."

"About time you admit it, you backstabbing son of a-" Raph was cut short by the sound of the door being thrown open, which prompted Raph to disappear into the bushes.

"I think that's enough of that." it was at this moment that May made her way out through the backdoor and looked down at the bushes "You don't need to hide, I know you're there. Also I see your brother still panicking in my shrubs."

"...One of those nights you really wish was just a bad dream." there was a sigh, and Raph made his way out of the bushes and promptly slung Donnie's form over his shoulder "So… hey there, I guess. May, right?"

"And you're Raphael. I'd ask how you are, but I think we already have an answer." May cast a look in between Raph and Peter "Still though, this actually works out well. I've heard a fair bit of what's been going on between the two of you, and given what I've seen just now, I don't want this to escalate, and I think it's safe to say none of the others do either."

"So… where are you going with this?"

"I'm asking that you come home with my nephew once your business is done."

"I'm sorry, what?" Peter gave her a raised eyebrow "Where are you going with this?"

"Essentially, I'm going to counsel you. I did plenty of it in high school, and now it's time to put those skills to good use."

"So basically you're gonna give us therapy?" Raph jerked a thumb at Peter "If anybody needs that it's gonna be him."

"No, you both need it. This level of resentment is dangerous. I've seen with my own eyes what can happen when it's allowed to fester, and I doubt this time will be any different."

"I can think of a couple reasons why it's different, starting with all this." he gestured to his own turtle body.

"Granted, but that doesn't the fact that you two have issues that need to be resolved. I'm asking you to let me try this for your own good. So what do you say, are you willing?"

There was pause as Peter and Raph glared at each other, and then the former spoke up "If you think it's worth it then I'll give it a show."

"Raphael?"

"Alright, fine." Raph gave another scowl.

"Excellent, I'll see you both later tonight. You won't regret this." May gave her typical warm smile and made her way back into the house without another word, the door promptly shutting behind her.

"...What the hell just happened?"

"I'm pretty sure the two of us just agreed to do to couple's counseling with my aunt." Peter told him dryly.

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Meanwhile, with the lair of opulent beauty…

'Seriously, this is ridiculous.' Ho Chan gave a scowl as he cast a look around the Purple Dragon hideout 'Has the definition for the term "opulent" changed in the last 2,000 years?'

"Master." it was at this moment that Fong and the rest of the Purple Dragons flew onto the scene in front of Ho Chan, with April and Irma in their arms "We have returned with the girl, as you instructed."

"Aha, excellent my idiots." Ho Chan gave a wicked grin as he floated towards April and got a good look at her "Yes you have power in you, a powr that you have barely tapped. Yes, that power will soon belong to Ho Chan." then he turned his gaze toward Irma "And you, yes you have a unique power within you as well. Power that I do not understand yet. A power that you will explain to me, or you will suffer my-" he was cut off by the sound of grunting "What in the name of-"

"To hell with this!" April gave Sid a sharp elbow to the jaw hard enough to blow him back and free herself of his grip, and then she pulled out her tessen.i

'A power within me that he doesn't understand? Does he know I'm not human? No calm down, I can't assume anything. Right!" Irma tried to kick Ho Chan in the shin, only to literally pass right through him "What the- What are you, some kind of ghost?"

"Indeed I am." Ho Chan gave a smirk "I have been cursed without flesh for centuries, ever since I was betrayed by my former student, that bald wench. Women, am I right?" he let loose a flash of blue energy from his eyes, enveloping Irma's and knocking him out cold, and then he released swirling bolts of energy from each hand, binding Irma and April during the latter's continued failed attempt to escape "The power at my command is ancient and vast, but the both of you show to me powers that I have never encountered. A power that Ho Chan will take to become pure flesh and blood once more and rule over this universe!" he let out a maniacal cackle, but then his gaze hardened "Now then, we shall start the ritual!"

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Meanwhile, with the B plot…

"Okay, here we are." Ghost Spider used her enhanced strength to pry open the skylight, giving her and Leo the chance to leap down onto the floors of the lab "The Connors family lab."

"Right, Peter told me you guys used to intern here before you met us." Leo cast a quick look around, only to pause when he noticed Ghost Spider looking downcast "You okay?"

"Yeah, it's just…" Ghost Spider paused as she pulled off her mask, revealing the face of Gwen Stacy, her expression solemn "I have a lot of memories here. Me and Peter both do."

"So I've heard. This is… a lot for you, isn't it?"

"Kind of. It's where Electro was created, along with the Lizard. After that I thought Pete had just abandoned us to take pictures and make money… It wasn't until I saw him with you at his uncle's grave that night that I understood why. Then everything with the Symbiote, Eddie, the Connors leaving and then everything that happened with Miles Warren… A lot has happened in this lab, good and bad… But even despite all of that, this lab meant something to me. It served as a place for ideas and hope, dreams to make the world a better place."

"No one says it can't be again. We just have a lot of work to do before that."

"Like finding Dr Connors and turning him human again." Gwen paused as she looked over at a series of vials on a nearby table "Call it a hunch, but I get the feeling the Gene Cleanser won't be of much help this time around."

"Based on what I've heard, probably not. But we did come here with a job to do, so we'd better get to it." Leo held up the mutagen canister "Let's see what this thing is made of."

"Right." Gwen poured a small drop of mutagen onto a small plate and began looking at it under a microscope, and her eyes widened at what she saw "Wow."

"What is it?"

"If I'm right, this kind of mutagen turns matter into some sort of crystallized substance. And it's making my Spider Sense go off like crazy."

"Mind if I take a look?" Leo glanced down into the microscope, and his eyes widened at what he was seeing "Oh god, I think I recognize this."

"You do?"

"Assuming I'm right about this, and frankly it's a 50/50 shot, this is the same type of crystal that was in the Kraang's power cell we got from Leatherhead last year." Leo quickly stuck the lid back on the canister "This can only end so many ways, and frankly all of them are bad."

"So then what should we-" Gwen was cut off by a familiar sensation going off in her head, which prompted her to immediately put her Ghost Spider mask back on over her face as she leapt back a short distance "Leo get back!"

"What-" Leo didn't get to finish before a small object suddenly dropped onto the scene in front of them, enveloping the lab in a cloud of smoke, followed by something ripping the canister out of his hand "Hey!"

"The phrase "not a toy" comes to mind right about now." the mutagen canister quickly ended up in the hand of Black Widow as she and Hawkeye entered the lab through the skylight and landed on the ground in front of the two of them.

"Woah…" Leo shook off the disorientation he was feeling, and was left in awe when he got a good look at the new arrivals "Black Widow and Hawkeye?"

"And you're Ghost Spider and one of the giant Turtles." Black Widow studied Leo up and down for a moment "Just from a glance I can tell you're not this Turtle Titan I've been hearing so much about, your physique and build are different. The same goes for the Nightwatcher too, I can assume?"

"No, I'm neither of them. Though I can confirm that at least one of them has a poster of you hung above their bed."

"Them and god only knows how many others. Not hard to see why." Hawkeye held out a hand to Leo and helped him back onto his feet "Heard a lot about you too, the blue turtle that showed up at Avengers Tower the day AIM tried to ransack it, along with this Turtle Titan and those two Spider kids, saved Stark's life from… whatever the hell Technovore was supposed to be."

"I read the file Hawkeye, I know what there is to know about them." Black Widow cast a look toward both Leo and Ghost Spider "I've heard a lot about you two, the same with Spider-Man and the Turtle Titan. The others that met you think that you all have potential. But there are far too many things I don't believe myself until I see them with my own eyes. For example, this right here." she gestured to the canister in her hand "And based on what we heard from you two just now, I suggest you tell us what you know about it."

"That's fair. The more prepared we are, the better." Leo shared a look with Ghost Spider, then turned his gaze back toward Black Widow and Hawkeye "I'm guessing Mr Stark and the others told you some details about the Kraang?"

"Not much, but Stark isn't exactly a wiz at that." Hawkeye gave a shrug "You wanna give us some background?"

"Right. The thing with the Kraang is that they're aliens from an entirely different dimension from our own."

"Nothing really out of the ordinary, fighting aliens is more or less how the whole Avengers thing started out to begin with."

"When they first came to our dimension, they brought the mutagen with them. Also we learned where it comes from recently, and frankly it's actually pretty disgusting."

"The stuff that turns people into monsters, the whole mutation day thing, we've been working through the details of that ourselves." Black Widow noted "But what do they hope to gain from that?"

"Based on what I've been told, mainly since this was before I joined their group, the mutagen doesn't work here like the Kraang thought they could." Ghost Spider told her "As far as we can understand it, we have different laws of physics from what exists in their dimension. It's also why they were kidnapping scientists all over the city, to help them modify the mutagen so it does what they want."

"So I gather. And what makes this canister so much more special than the others?"

"As far as we can tell, this may be what they've been working toward. The Kraang have been trying to to terraform the earth to make it into a new home for themselves."

"Uh huh." Black Widow shared a look with Hawkeye, and then she stowed away the canister in her suit "Thanks for the information, the professionals can take it from here." she turned on her heel and prepared to take her leave of the scene.

"Hold on a minute." Ghost Spider was quick to speak up, causing Widow to halt "With all due respect, we've been working on investigating the Kraang for the better part of a year, the rest of them even longer than me. We know what's at stake here."

"We've dealt with aliens and interdimensional threats before, we're the professionals and we're trained for these kinds of situations."

"And we're the ones who stopped a giant interdimensional Death Star from terraforming the entire world last year." Leo pointed out "I think it's safe to say this is more in our wheelhouse than you're giving us credit for."

"Look kid-"

"Widow hold up a second." Hawkeye got her attention "He's got a point. They know more about this than anybody else on the planet, and they're the ones who saved it before. I think they've earned a fair hearing over all of this."

"...Fine. So what do we-"

"Hold on." Ghost Spider held up a hand as a familiar sensation went off in her head… a split second before another cloud of smoke enveloped the lab "That's never good."

"None of you move!" the smoke was quickly cleared away to reveal a large group of soldiers armed with guns pointed at the group, all of them sporting a familiar symbol involving a skull with tentacles on it "Hand over the canister!"

'More HYDRA thugs.' Ghost Spider shared a subtle glance with Leo 'Looks like Crossbones had more backup than we first thought.'

"You have experience with the Kraang, I'll give you that. But the Avengers have had plenty of experience dealing with the likes of them before." Black Widow immediatley pulled out her set of twin electroshock batons, each of them surging with electricity, with Hawkeye drawing his bow and a single arrow from his quiver "You guys really think this is gonna work any better than it did with the other thousand of you?"

"Yeah well, cut off one head and two more take its place! Hail HYDRA!" and so the soldiers charged forward at full speed.

"Hang back for now, I've been wanting to let off a little bit of steam." Black Widow didn't waste a second as she met the HYDRA soldiers in the middle of their charge, ripping through each one of them with ease via her batons, electroctuing them and knocking them to the ground before they could react.

"You know I'd say we should help her but…" Leo paused as he watched Black Widow continue beating down the soldiers in her way "I think she's got them covered."

"Oh yeah, she definitely doesn't need help with that group. Just one thing you guys are gonna want to keep in mind…" Hawkeye paused as more HYDRA soldiers dropped down into the lab and began surrounding them, which prompted him to load three arrows into his bow and fire them simultaneously "Like the lead dumbass said, cut off one head and two more are gonna take its place. HYDRA cronies are usually pretty easy to take out, but more just keep popping up to take their place. It's basically the same as with gray hairs."

"Okay, now I'm starting to understand." Leo drew his katanas and dropped into a stance "Any chance you have suggestions then?"

"Take a page out of Thor's book and aim for the head."

"Duly noted. So divide and conquer?"

"That's the plan."

"Sounds like a good one to me." Ghost Spider didn't waste any time as she began punching and kicking her way through one HYDRA soldier after another amidst their attempts to shoot her, eventually culminating in her latching onto one of them with a webline and hurling him directly into the others, sending them crashing through a wall and leaving a gaping hole, causing her to cringe at the sight 'Ooh… You know Warren might be a scumbag, but he wasn't wrong when he said that stuff like that is why the lab went through funding so fast.'

"Relax, we'll have Stark pay for that. It's pretty much our go to." Hawkeye rolled his eyes as he fired another series of arrows that took out a group of HYDRA soldiers in one shot, then cast a look back at the others and gave a nod of approval "But at the very least, it looks like you guys have a few solid moves."

"Looks like I'm not the only one." Leo wasted no time in cutting down two HYDRA soldiers simultaneously "You've got some pretty impressive skills yourself. What's your story?"

"Long story short, I'm a good shot and it took me places, good and bad. You?"

"I had a good teacher, he's a giant rat."

"Right, I think Wolverine mentioned something about that, an old friend of his training a bunch of teenagers."

"That's us. He's a master of his craft, trained me and my brothers in our respective weapons for years. I personally went with swordsmanship."

"I've got a bit of experience in that myself. Not exactly a time in my life I'm proud of, but I can at least put the skills to good use."

"Can't argue with that." and so the two of them charged in opposite directions to continue their assault on the HYDRA soldiers… right before a gunshot and a grunt of pain rang throughout the lab.

"Got her, I finally got the bitch!" as it turns out, one soldier had managed to graze Black Widow in the torso, causing her to grunt in pain and lose her grip on the canister, giving him the chance to grab it "Crossbones will definitely be pleased with-"

"Nope!" a webline suddenly yanked it out of the soldier's hand, courtesy of Ghost Spider "Trust me when I say, you guys will be thanking us for this in the long run." and then she dealt that soldier a roundhouse kick to the chest hard enough to send him crashing into a nearby wall "That on the other hand, not so much."

"Alright shut up, enough of this!" everything seemed to come to a halt when a group of HYDRA soldiers drew the attention of the others, specifically to where three of them held Black Widow with guns to hear head, from three different points "There's three of us and only two of those little shock sticks, there's nothing you or those amateurs can-" he was silenced by the other two soldiers being shocked by the electroshock batons… and he was met with a boot being slammed into his crotch, resulting in the sound of a loud crunch, which left the soldier to grip his crotch in pain and fall to the ground.

"Okay, be honest with me." Black Widow glanced at the downed soldiers "Did you really think that was going to work?" and then she began going to down on the rest of the soldiers.

"And it looks like I was right." Leo and the others watched as Black Widow continued beating down on the remaining soldiers "She defintiely doesn't need any help. And now I have an even greater understanding of why Raph keeps a poster of her above his bed."

"Like I said, him and god only knows how many others." Hawkeye immediately fired a single arrow at a soldier attempting to attack him from behind 'My son may or may not be one of those people.'

"Okay, I've had just about enough of this." Black Widow finished off the last group of soldiers by electrocuting two of them with her electroshock batons and dealt the third one a brutal kick to the face hard enough to send him crashing into a desk, destroying it on impact "And that should be the last of them. For now."

"Probably for the best, I was starting to feel a little bit redundant." Ghost Spider cast a look over at the others "So what's our next move?"

"Now we move onto the fun part." Black Widow gave a smirk as she picked up one of the unconscious soldiers "We get some information out of these idiots."

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Meanwhile, with the A plot…

"I got a visual." Spider-Man swung his way onto a perch on a lamp post, giving him a good view of a certain abandoned warehouse where he found the Purple Dragons on guard outside, and he motioned for the remaining Turtles and Casey to advance forward while staying hidden, then leapt down to join them "Looks like this is the place, but something feels way off."

"I kinda like the looks of those hats though." Turtle Titan glanced out at where the Purple Dragons stood on the other side of the street "They might be total pushovers, but they at least got some style."

"True and I'm probably gonna take one from them when this is over, but I'm serious. My Spider Sense is going off like crazy."
"Yeah right, it's just the Purple Dumbasses, how tough could they really be?" Nightwatcher drew both of his sais and didn't waste a single second as he charged toward the Purple Dragons at full speed… only to immediately be met with Tsoi unleashing a blast of wind powerful enough to send him hurtling backwards and crashing into a lamp post with a loud bang "Okay… they're a little bit tougher than I thought… also ow…"

"Now do you see us freaks?! Do you see what we're capable of?!" Fong didn't waste a second as he fired a barrage of lightning bolts at the group from his fingertips, forcing the others to go on the evasive.

"Word to the wise guys, the best way to fight them is to DODGE!" Spider-Man wasted no time in dodging and weaving around the various lightning bolts, using his weblines to pull himself in different directions, only to be met with Tsoi sending him hurtling through the air with a blast of wind, but he managed to use this to launch himself toward Fong and land a kick to the back hard enough to send him crashing to the ground "I already went toe to toe with Electro about half a dozen times at this point, there's nothing Magic Fingers over there can throw at me that I can't work around!"

"Then how about one of these!" Sid flew up behind Spider-Man, grabbed him by the back of the head and unleashed a blast of green thunder at point blank range hard enough to send him hurtling to the ground with a mighty crash.

"Yep… that'll do it… ow…"

"Spidey hang tight bro, we got this!" Turtle Titan braced himself as Sid charged at him, and he quickly began fending off his attacks with his nunchucks and kusarigama chain, eventually finding an opening and dealing him a roundhous kick to the face hard enough to send him crashing to the ground "I got the big guy!"

"And Casey Jones has the other two in the bag! GOONGALA!" Casey charged forward on his bike and lobbed a barrage of hockey pucks at Fong, eventually landing on that hit him in the face hard enough to send him crashing into Tsoi "Take those idiots down already!"

"With pleasure!" Donnie didn't waste any time as he landed a series of strikes on both Fong and Tsoi with his bo staff, leaving both of them battered and bruised on the ground "Okay we can't waste any more time, let's go get April and her friend."

"Yeah, you know if there's time for Irma. You think we can convince him to let April go and just keep Irma?"

"Classy Jones, now pipe down and let's move!" Donnie moved to make a quick beeline for the warehouse, with Turtle Titan and Casey right behind him, until…

"Well what do we have here?" it was then that the spirit of Ho Chan appeared before them and studied the group intently "Ah behold, a duo of tortoise warriors and another moron, but a fairy capable one it seems. It is said that the great turtle helped the god Pangu to create the world." in an instant he unleashed bolts of electricity that enveloped the group and levitated them into the air "So it is only fitting that these turtles, and their idiot human friend, shall help Ho Chan to rule it as his own! For the staff wielder, you will be granted the power of lightning! For the human buffoon, you shall become thunder! And lastly for the turtle in the stupid costume, you shall become the wind!"

With another surge of electricity stemming forth, the group was envelopd in their new respective elements (Donnie in blue lightning, Casey (without his hockey gear or mask) in green thunder and Mikey (without his Turtle Titan costume) in a cyclone of wind, all with matching hats), prompting them to bow down to him "How may we serve the great Ho Chan?"

"Oh, you will serve me very well." Ho Chan let out a chuckle, only for it to be interrupted by the sound of soft groaning.

"But master…" Fong and the rest of the Purple Dragons picked himselves off the ground and looked over at Ho Chan "I don't understand… why…?"

"Why do you think? It's because you're all a bunch of losers." and then Ho Chan sent the group running away screaming with a barrage of lightning bolts "Now get out of my sight before I send you all to the Abyss of Infinite Morons!"

"Okay, glowing eyes and elemental stuff are never good." it was at this moment that Spider-Man swung his way back onto the scene, with Nightwatcher tailing close behind him, only for both of them to stop in their tracks when they saw what was going on "Oh crapbaskets… Any chance you guys are still in there?"

"They're in there alright, except your guys are now my guys! Bye bye for now!" Ho Chan gave a mocking wave and disappeared from the scene in a blue flash.

"So… I'm thinking this is the part where we run like hell."

"Are you kidding? No chance in hell I'm leaving them like this, if I gotta beat Casey and my brothers black and blue to snap them out of it then I will!" Nightwatcher brandishd his sais and charged at the group at full speed… only to immediately be met with a blast of lightning that burst forth from Donnie's fingertips, electrocuting him on the spot and sending him hurtling back toward the ground.

"I gotcha!" Spider-Man leapt forward and caught Nightwatcher before he hit the ground, though the force of the collision sent him skidding backwards a short distance until he finally managed to stop himself "So, what did we learn here today?"

"...Just shut up and get the freaking Shellraiser."

"In other words we run like hell, got it." so Spider-Man slung Nightwatcher over his shoulder and made a beeline for the Shellraiser, avoiding various blasts of thunder and lightning as he did so, until he pried the doors open and pounced inside, and then they took off down the streets at full speed, with Mikey and the others flying after them and firing various elemental attacks at them.

"Okay this is ridiculous, let me freaking drive the thing!" Nightwatcher grabbed hold of the wheel, with him and Spider-Man to fight over control of it and sending the Shellraiser careening all over the street.

"Are you out of your freaking mind?! You don't know how to drive!"

"Neither do you, you said it flat out like a dozen times!"

"Yeah but at least I admit it, and it's better than getting our faces blown off!" they swerved to avoid a car heading their way and Spider-Man jerked the steering wheel as far to the right as he could, sending the Shellraiser hurtling into an alley, then pulled on the breaks until it came to a screeching halt and turned off the lights, leaving Mikey and the others to fly past them and away from the scene. It was only after they were gone that Spider-Man breathed a small sigh "They're gone."

"But check this out, we got some other company." Nigthwatcher pulled off his helmet to reveal the face of Raphael as he gestured to a certain something on the screen, to which he leapt out of the Shellraiser and opened up the loading dock in the front, allowing him to get a good look at what, or who, was inside "Oh you've gotta be shitting me."

"What?" Spider-Man poked his head outside, only to find the Purple Dragons hiding inside the loading dock, to which he ripped yanked the three of them out and subsequently webbed them to one of the walls of the alley "Care to do the honors?"

"With pleasure." Raphael immediately pointed a sai at Fong's face "You got three seconds to start talking before this thing goes through your eyes!"

"It came out of this freaky dagger we stole from the museum, like a spirit." Fong moved his arm as much as he could to pull out the dagger, prompting Raph to snatch it from him "He promised to give us great power, but once we had it he had the power to control us."

"Like what he's doing to the others now." Spider-Man's gaze hardened as he drew closer "Keep talking."

"All I know is his name… he's called Ho Chan."

'...Well shit, so much for making him keep talking.'

"That's all we need." Raph stowed away his sai and turned to Spider-Man "Now let's go find this freaky ghost guy and kick him in his holes."

"We can't do anything yet, we've gotta regroup and come up with a new plan." Spide-Man then proceed to pull out his cell phone "And to that end, we have three things to do."

"Like what?"

"First, I'm shooting a text to Captain Stacy to send a couple guys over to round up these three idiots. Second, I need to head back up to stock up on a few more cartridges of webfluid. Third, and my least favorite yet probably the most important of them all… we need to go to couples counseling with my Aunt May."

"...You've gotta be shitting me."

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Meanwhile, with the B plot…

"Oh god, my head…" the HYDRA soldier let out a groan and opned his eyes, only to find that he was unable to move and surrounded by darkness "What the- Where the hell am I?"

"Shut your hole!" a single light flashed in his face to reveal Leo standing before him with one of his katanas drawn "I'll be asking the questions here dirtbag! Time for you to start singing like the canary you are!"

"Hold on a second." the flick of a switch turned the lights back on, courtesy of Ghost Spider as she shot a raised eyebrow at Leo "What the heck are you doing?"

"Interrogating him." Leo was met with a series of confused looks, to which he blushed slightly and let out a chuckle "I… tend to watch a lot of cop shows when I'm on my own, I needed a new show after I finished Space Heroes and I picked up a few things." then he turned his gaze back to the HYDRA soldier "Now start talking before this goes on your permanent record!"

"This is so full of holes it's not even funny." Hawkeye pointed out dryly "First of all, you never asked him any questions so he can't answer you. Second of all they're international criminals, so the whole permanent record thing doesn't mean shit."

"...Ah. Got it." Leo took a step back "Let the professionals do their thing."

"Smartest thing you've done since the lights came back on." Black Widow promptly stepped up to the HYDRA soldier as her eyes narrowed "Talk. Now."

"Okay I give!" the soldier immediately buckled under Black Widow's glare "Just stop with the eyes already, it burns!"

"That's years of training paying off. Now spill, what do you need the canister for?"

"Crossbones wanted the rest of us to go with him while he brings it to a rendezvous point of some kind."

"Rendezvous for what?"

"I don't know, but with everything happening in the city with the Goblin Nation and these freaky new monsters popping up, it's all kinds of chaos! A couple of our guys got hit with the canisters on Mutation Day, and HYDRA wanted to try and reverse engineer them to make an army of mutants they could control."

"It's always about control with these idiots." Black Widow rolled her eyes as she struck a point on the soldier's neck and knocked him out cold, then turned to the others "Alright, so here's the deal for the newbies: HYDRA operates under strict radio silence during secure missions."

"So the others don't know that Crossbones was caught?" asked Ghost Spider.

"No, which means they'll likely still head for the rendezvous point."

"So if we beat them there then we can set a trap for them." Leo finished for her.

"Hate to break it to you kid, but "we" doesn't mean what you think it does in this case. You did your part, now me and Hawkeye can handle this on our own." she was immediately met with glares from both Ghost Spider and Leo, not that this did anything "We're the professionals here, we didn't get this far by letting a couple kids stick their noses into our business."

"To be fair, that probably goes both ways." Hawkeye drew her attention "Keep in mind that their group was the one who stopped the whole Death Star thing last year before we even got there, and they know more about this mutagen stuff than anyone else. It couldn't hurt to have them along for the ride, at least as some backup."

"...Fine. But we call the shots."

"By we, you mean you."

"You said it, not me. And we're not leaving these HYDRA troops here unguarded before they can be taken in."

"I'm on it." Ghost Spider pulled out her cell phone and began going through her messages 'Huh, so dad is over in Chinatown apprehending the Purple Dragons. I guess Pete's group is doing okay on their end.'

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Meanwhile, with the A plot…

"Thank you both for coming back." May sent an encouraging smile an encouraging smile toward where Peter and Raphael were seated at the kitchen table, and promptly sat down a plate with a slice of pie in front of each of them "This is a good sign, it's clear that the both of you want to resolve this."

"That's one way to put it." Raph commented dryly as he started working on his pie and jerked a thumb at Peter "I'm just gonna say that I wanna figure out how to put up with being stuck around the backstabber. Also this pie is freaking amazing."

"Yeah, because that didn't get as old as Ghost Nappa twice as fast." Peter rolled his eyes as he moved in on his own slice of pie "I'm not a freaking backstabber, anyone that isn't you can see that."

"We wouldn't be here if you weren't, but apparently I'm the only one who gets that, and why the others won't let me shove my sais up your-"

"Okay okay, both of you calm down." May was quick to intervene "I didn't ask you both here to point fingers or assign blame to anyone."

"Even if they're totally to blame for all of this? He's the one who ratted to Karai about our plan to take down Shredder, he completely stabbed us in the back!"

"Oh for crying out loud, I didn't tell her about the plan for the hell of it." Peter was quick to jump to his own defense "She figurd out who I am and where to find me, not to mention the people I care about. And there's the fact that we made a deal with her and you wanted to go behind her back to begin with."

"So it doesn't matter what she'd do to us because the plan didn't work?"

"Don't start putting words in my mouth, you're the one who-"

"Alright, let's not get off topic." May cut back in "So Peter, how about it? Did you think about how your decision would impact the Turtles?"

"Yeah, and I also thought how it would impact you guys."

"Meaning?"

"Karai approached me at school, that was how I knew she found out about me. And she knew where to find me, and to find everyone I care about. She wanted to use me as a way of putting in a good word with the guys, so everything was fine until they came up with the idea to set a trap for her dad. Even if it did work, what was to stop her from coming after us for revenge? And if she did come after me, what would that do to you or Gwen or Mary Jane? The Turtles are one thing, at least they can defend themselves, but the rest of you…"

"I see…" May gave a small nod of understanding "So did it help?"

"We still did what we set out to do before the idea of the trap came into play, and Karai promised to not tell anyone about me but at the time I thought I pretty much wrecked my relationship with the Turtles. What I did kept myself and you guys safe, but at the time I didn't know if it was worth making a call like that. The only real solace I had was that Karai kept her word."

"Yeah, that's as far as you know." Raph let out a scoff, earning looks from Peter and May.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly what it sounds like. You think thy're on your side and the next think you know they turn on you and try to kill the people you care about just to make a point or sever your ties or spide you or something."

"You are blowing this way out of proportion, I know you're not Karai's number one fan or anything but-"

"Hold on." May cut in once again, her gaze hardening slightly "Peter dear, would you give me a moment alone with Raphael? I'd like to speak with him in private."

"Um… okay." Peter glanced between May and Raph, then quietly made his way up the stairs without another word 'Not sure where this is gonna go, but if it helps us get through this then I'm all for it. Plus it gives me the chance to stock up on more web fluid and maybe do some research on whatever the hell Ho Chan's deal is.'

"Okay, now that we're alone… It wasn't just Karai or Peter you were talking about just now, was it?"

"So what if it wasn't?" Raph let out a low growl, only to flinch under the stern look May sent him, to which he turned away from her "I don't wanna talk about it."

"Talking about things is why I asked you to come here to begin with." May's gaze softened as she gently gripped one of Raph's hands "I need you to be honest with me, that's the only way this is going to work. Anything you tell me won't leave this room, it stays between us, and there will be no judgement. Now what's bothering you?"

"...Fine." Raph let out a sigh and turned back towards May "Awhile back while Pa- Peter was still… gone, something happened. Donnie was working on trying to find a cure for the mutagen to turn him and April's dad back to normal. I mean that's what he was trying to do, and he ended up almost blowing us up. I was pissed at him for that, plus a couple other things, so I said screw it and took away the mutagen he was working on, kept it in my room for safe keeping. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but…"

"But?"

"But my pet turtle Spike got into it, and he mutated. He started calling himself Slash, said the two of us should strike out on our own. Seemed like a cool idea at the time… until it turned out he went freaking nuts and tried to kill the rest of my brothers. We barely managed to stop him, but that was when it hit me… Spike was gone. And he wasn't coming back. I mean he did, he's kind of on our side now, I guess. It's complicated, but…"

"But?"

"But it was my fault. If I hadn't blown my top and taken the mutagen to where he could get into it, none of that would've happened. My brothers sure as hell made it pretty clear that it was my fault too. I said I'd keep the mutagen safe, and it almost got us all killed."

"And you felt guilty about it then?"

"I mean, for awhile yeah… I still kind of do." he lowered his head slightly.

"Which raises another question: Is it possible that you're taking the guilt you feel over that, and projecting it onto Peter?" that was enough to make Raph pause for a moment.

"I… don't know."

"In that case, I think we have our answer." May paused for a brief moment as her gaze softened slightly "Adding onto that, I know how it feels to have a… let's say falling out with a friend over something important to you. You think you're on the same page until suddenly, the moment comes when you're not. I know how it feels, and I know how much it hurts… But to hold onto those kinds of feeling ke that for so long doesn't do any good, and that doesn't make it right to take your anger out on anyone else you may be angry with."

"That's… not what I'm doing."

"That's not what I've heard. From Peter, from Michael or Leo, even from Yoshi. I know how that feels, trust me. Sometimes when someone feels hurt or betrayed, they take something small and end up turning it into something much bigger, whether it needs to be or not. The same goes for where they choose to direct it. But my experience tells me that when you do that, there's only one person you wind up hurting the most, and that's yourself. And possibly those around you by extension."

"...Fine." Raph let out a sigh "Maybe I was pissed at myself more than him, maybe I wanted to keep being pissed at him. Being pissed is how I do things best. Plus he never even apologized or acted like he felt bad. It's like he thinks it's okay."

"I think he's made his stance on that clear by now. But I think Yoshi said it best to you boys. Sometimes there is no right and wrong, only choices to make. You have to make them and live with whatever the consequences may be, for better or for worse."

"I just… all this time I still feel angry when I think about it."

"It's been a long time since then. Does it really still feel that way to you?"

"...Maybe not as much."

"Good. Now here's the thing: My understanding is that your brothers are in trouble and need help, and whether you want to admit it or not, you can't do this on your own. And you shouldn't have to do it alone. So what are you going to do about it?"

"I… I don't know."

"Actually, I think you do." May gave a smile as she patted Raph on the shoulder "So I suggest you go out there and do it."

"...Alright." Raph paused and looked back down at his plate "After the pie. Seriously, this stuff is freaking awesome."

"Now you know why the others kept coming back." this was when Peter made his way down the stairs and back into the kitchen with a few papers in hand.

"You find anything we can use?"

"Not unless you think we can intimidate him with a bunch of crappy Chinese restaurants that all have the same name, and all suck on the same level. As for actual info, I did find this one article about him though, and frankly it looks like it came from he guys who do Teen Titans Go."

"Are you for real?"

"The first thing it mentions is that he goes back as far as the Shang Dynasty, and then it goes way downhill. Let me give you the abridged version: Highlights include mentions of Ho Chan falling down a hill after tripping on what he calls a small yet very dense turtle, his magic powers coming from him getting a concussion after falling down said hill, him travelling west in search of an even fancier hat, getting better at magic due to repeatedly cursing anything and everything that helped him, and the death of his wife from an aneurysm casued by tea being spilled on her brand new white robe."

"...Wasn't there a movie about something like that? Some chick found a rat in her soup and literally died face down in the bowl."

"Yep, I think it was called Despereaux or something. Anyway aside from all that, legend says the only thing that can defeat Ho Chan is the mystic dagger coming from someone who referred to themselves as the Ancient One."

"...Am I being punked?" May finally spoke up as she grabbed both plates and brought them over to the sink "I feel like you're punking me."

"I wish I was Aunt May, I really do. Anyway me and the giant turtle have some stuff to deal with, but I'll be back as soon as I can." Peter gave May a quick kiss on the cheek, and then he and Raph took their leave through the kitchen door, only for Peter to hold out one arm in order to stop Raph in his tracks "Hold it."

"...Shit." Raph let out a long groan "We're doing this now, aren't we?"

"Yep." Peter let out a sigh "Look man I get it, you're more into the whole brooding loner thing. You sit on a rooftop brooding about how you're the only one who can get stuff done, I did a lot of that myself."

"I'm supposed to believe you were the brooding loner type?"

"For a little while when I had the Symbiote… and a couple months after the last time I fought the Green Goblin." Peter's face fell at the memory "I was in a rough place. Almost all my friends hated me for one reason or another, I couldn't be with the girl of my dreams, and no matter how hard I tried to do the right thing, the whole city was calling me a menace and a murderer. At that point I closed myself off, pushed people away. I was like that for a while, even thought about just getting rid of the powers for good… until I met the four of you."

"You make it sound like a bad thing. That's my whole deal, I love stuff like that."

"I noticed. Plus I never really bonded with or got to know you the way I did the others. We never really connected in any real way, did we? Yeah the others can kind of get on my nerves too, and at first there were a bunch of times I thought I'd be better off going on my own again."

"That's my thing. When they piss me off I don't even bother with them, I just go off on my own and do my own thing. A lot more of that since I started the whole Nightwatcher thing."

"So I've heard. But every time I do think about going on my own, I think about all the times you guys have bailed me out when I got into trouble. I've made mistakes and I've had to make tough calls and I've made a lot of wrong ones, I'm not gonna deny that. But I'm trying to do better, on a lot of fronts. And I know the rest of you are too, but we can't do that if we don't at least try to trust each other." Peter turned to fully face Raphael "Aunt May and Uncle Ben taught me a lot of things, but one of the most important ones is that how a family works involves learning from your mistakes."

"Yeah well, you're forgetting one thing. You and me and the others, we're not a family. We're a team." Raph started making his way back to the Shellraiser, until Peter spoke again.

"Isn't that supposed to be the same thing?" that was enough to make Raph pause and fall silent, at least for a moment.

"...Great, Splinter taught you how to win an argument. Just freaking perfect." Raph let out a loud groan, and then he turned around to face Peter "But I get it, alright? Plus the guys are in trouble, and there's no chance either one of us can take out the Chinese knockoff of Casper and rescue them on our own. There's only one way we're gonna get this done, and that means we've gotta do it together. That's what you were gonna say, right?"

"More or less." Peter held out a fist to him "We good?"

"About as good as we're gonna get. Raph gave him a quick fist bump, only to pause when he noticed something below them "Uh…"

"Yeah, I felt it." Peter glanced down to see what looked like a ring of sparking orange light appear beneath their feet "Any chance this is another thing Donne was working on?"

"...Motherfu-" Raph didn't get to finish before the light grew into a full on hole that immediately sucked both him and Peter into them in an instant.

Left behind in their place was a small piece of paper where they stood, reading 177 A Bleecker Street.

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Meanwhile, with the B plot…

'Not how I thought the night was going to turn out.' Leo shared a look with Ghost Spider as the two of them followed Black Widow and Hawkeye to the outside of a supposedly abandoned warehouse 'Start out the night trying to stop a Kraang truck, next thing you know we're teaming up with two Avengers. Lucky for us this is in my wheelhouse, stealth and infiltration are exactly what ninjas are all about-'

"Stop." Black Widow held out a hand to stop Leo and Ghost Spider in their tracks, and she poked her head around a corner to see a group of HYDRA soldiers lurking inside, to which she pulled out a few sts of headphones and hand one to each of the others, then another device to record the conversation between the aforementioned HYDRA soldiers.

"I said he'll be here so he's gonna freaking be here. The boss is gonna make sure Crossbones doesn't get in the way of any of our operations again, trust me on that."

"So the rendezvous Crossbones was heading for is really an ambush." Black Widow shared a look with the others "Sounds about right for HYDRA."

"And it looks like our plan to beat them here is a bust." Ghost Spider muttered "What's our move now?"

"Change of plans, they mentioned a boss, which for them can mean a few possibilities. Either way it's pretty obvious HYDRA has a bigger plan in play, so we're gonna need to gather more surveillance."

"Whatever our plan is, we can't afford to wait for too long." Leo noted "I've got a fair amount of experience in stakeouts myself, and you never have long before something happens and you need to stay alert. Unless you end up waiting around for hours on end bored out of your mind."

"Saving the world from terrorists with a god complex isn't boring, and trust me when I tell you that espionage is never dull for too long."

"Yeah that's true, and-" Ghost Spider cut herself short as a familiar sensation went off in her head, which immediately prompted her to latch onto the others with weblines and pull them back just as an explosion rang out, blowing a giant gaping hole in the wall of the warehouse.

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Meanwhile, with the A plot…

"-uck!" Raph let out a yelp as he fell out the other end of the portal and hit the ground with a loud thud… and was immediately met with Peter landing on top of him, which earned an audible groan of pain from him "Seriously? Why the hell does stuff like this always happen to me?"

"In this case, probably because you're the one with the giant shell on your back. If it's not meant for this then I don't know why you have it at all." Peter commented dryly as he leapt upright and then pulled Raph onto his feet, and then the two of them managed to gett a good look at their new surroundings "So… where the hell are we now?"

"How the shell am I supposed to know?" Raph paused as he took another look around "No idea where we are, but it looks like something out of Harry Potter. Or Downton Abbey."

"...Downtown Abbey? Seriously?" Peter shot him a raised eyebrow.

"What? I'm like an onion. I got layers."

"And a couple other things, but May was trying to get us to not want to strangle each other, so I'm gonna keep it to myself for now." Peter cast a glance up at the large circular window with elliptical shapes in the center "Wanna bet we're stuck in some other dimension?"

"Yeah, it's called Greenwich." an unfamiliar voice drew their attention back to the window above them, where a new figure was floating towards them, clad in an elaborate blue robe with yellow and red accents to it, a red cloak over his shoulders and a gold medallion hanging around his neck, along with a head of dark hair with gray streaks and a goatee (Dr Strange), as he landed in front of the two of them "Huh. You're a lot less prepubescent than I thought you'd be."

"One more time?"

"Honestly with the way your female counterpart was described, I figured you'd be a lot more scrawny than this. And I never heard mention of the giant turtle."

"Okay hold up, what?" Peter's gaze quickly hardened as he moved to grab a small object in one of his pants pockets, with Raphael brandishing his sais.

"You can stow away the weapons, I didn't bring you here to pick up a fight."

"Then why did you-" Peter was immediately cut off by the figure snapping his fingers, leaving him and Raph to recoil as they suddenly found themselves in a different room space "And again I say, what?"

"Basic teleportation." the figur leaned against the back wall with his arms crossed "It beats having to take stairs."

"Uh huh. So what, New York has Harry Potter stuff going for it now?" Peter gave a raised eyebrow as he picked up an object out of what looked like a decorative arrangement of arrowheads suspended in mid-air… only to end up knocking several more of it off, to which he tried to fix it with little success, causing the figure to cringe visibly.

"Okay first of all, the preferred term is Master of the Mystic Arts. Second of all, you can stop touching stuff now." that was enough to make Peter drop the arrowheads and step away from the display.

"Alright I've had about enough of this crap already." Raph immediately drew both of his sais and pointed them at the figure "Start talking Hufflepuff, who the hell are you, why are we here and why shouldn't I drive these things into your gut?"

"My name is Dr Stephen Strange, and I brought the two of you here to bring you up to speed on who and what you and your friends have been trying to deal with." Dr Strange paused for a brief moment, and then in an instant the three of them were in another room, now seated in furnished chairs "Want something to drink?"

"We aren't here for-" Peter cut himself short when he found himself seated in a padded chair, with a cup in hand "Um… I'm not really much of a tea drinker."

"Coffee then?" he waved a finger, causing the cup to turn into a steaming mug of coffee in an instant.

"...Can you do iced?" another snap of fingers and the cup morphed again, allowing Peter to take a gulp of iced coffee "Huh. That's cool. So first off… You mentioned something about a female counterpart?"

"So I've heard at least, I mean you are that one right? The kid running around in that colorful onesie. You know the Spider-kid, Spiderling or something, and he's the Bat Turtle or whatever you call him."

"Wait, you mean Spider-Man?" Peter immediately stiffened "I uh… I'm the kid who takes the pictures of him for the Daily Bugle."

"Uh huh. So I'm supposed to believe that suit in there isn't yours?" Dr Strange waved a finger, and in an instant Peter's typical blue shirt and brown pants disappeared to reveal his Spider-Man suit.

"...I have no comment."

"That's about what I thought." Dr Strange waved a finger again, causing Peter's clothes to reappear over him "Relax I'm not going to rat you out to that idiot in the Bugle or anything, I try not to put myself out there with stupid people. Truth be told I'm mostly doing this because your partner helped us out awhile back, and I'm returning the favor."

"I assume you're talking about… Ghost Spider?"

"That's her. A few months ago, she stopped that a freelance thief that broke into the Sanctum and stole the Wand of Watoomb while me and my… let's go with partner… Wong were in Nepal on business."

"Wait, I think I heard about this." Raph looked over at him "Was this when Black Cat stole that freaky portal wand to try and get away from the Goblin Nation?"

"That's the one. I'm guessing you know a little bit more about that then?"

"I heard what I heard, and Wolverine mentioned she was ballsy and stupid to try and steal from a place like that."

"Place like this you mean. And frankly Wolverine isn't wrong, not many are stupid enough to try and steal from the Sanctum Sanctorum, even less with people who don't know anything about what they're trying to mess with. Anyway she helped us out by stopping all of that, so now I'm helping the two of you out to repay the favor to her."

"Right, and this is the… Sanctum you said?" Peter cast a look around "So this isn't some kind of alternate dimension?"

"Nope, it's housed right in the middle of Greenwich Village. Pretty good location too."

"Oh, so Sullivan Street?"

"Bleecker Street actually. Anyway to give you the short version, the Sanctum is built at the very intersection of cosmic energy currents, and the Masters of the Mystic Arts were the first ones to seek them out. Some of these walls have been here for thousands of years. They also shot at least one episode of the Equalizer here back in the 80's."

"Huh. Cool." Peter shared a look with Raph, and then turnd back to Strange "That's cool and all, but just to get this out of my system… Is this all real or are we getting punked?"

"Come again?"

"I mean this is all cool and stuff, but sorcerer? Mystic arts? Cosmic energy? Freaking magic? Is this all for real?"

"Okay look, I already went through that when I met Tony Stark and Reed Richards, can I meet at least one smart person who doesn't turn out to be a giant pain in the ass?"

"If my brother Donnie is anything to go by, no." Raph told him dryly.

"Good to know. Anyway like I said, I've had this argument before so I'm just gonna skip to the end of it. There's an old saying about it, magic is just science we don't understand yet. Arthur C Clarke."

"...Touche." Peter leaned back slightly in his chair and took a sip of his iced coffee "So, you said something about repaying Ghost Spider for the whole Black Cat thing?"

"Yeah, basically we owe her so I'm gonna pay her back by helping the two of you out with your little Ghostbuster problem."

"Ghostbuster?" Peter shared another look with Raph "You know about Ho Chan?"

"I heard of him through the magic grapevine awhile ago, and I sensed it when he was freed from his prison."

"So you're gonna help us?"

"Not directly, this is mostly a quick bit of exposition before I have to leave on some business for awhile. Anyway since I can't exactly do it myself, I brought you two here to get you up to speed on Ho Chan and how to defeat him."

"I found an article on him earlier, it talks all about his backstory and how to use the dagger to defeat him."

"Don't take that one at face value, we just published that awhile ago to ward off the conspiracy theorists."

"So it's not true?"

"A good chunk of it is, other details we mostly put in for fun. Short version, his wife dying from that aneurysm because of tea being spilled on her robe left him grieving and broken, and he sought answers through the Mystic Arts. He had a talent, but he was headstrong and reckless in his approach. Though this didn't stop him from being offered the title of the Sorcerer Supreme, the leader of the Masters of the Mystic Arts."

"Was that the Ancient One that was mentioned in the article?"

"No, but he was in the same order around the same time as her. Eventually she was chosen over him to be the next Sorcerer Supreme. He was outraged and tried to take the title and powers for himself, but the Ancient One stopped him and sealed him away in an ancient dagger, forged from the same metal as this: the Eye of Agamotto." he gestured to the item that was hanging around his neck "Forged by Agamotto himself, the first Sorcerer Supreme. The only downside is, they only had so much of the material left when they forged the dagger so it didn't hold up as well over the past couple of centuries. Which means trying to use the same one on him again probably won't work."

"Dammit." Raph grumbled "So much for getting to stab a ghost."

"Lucky for us, turns out they had a backup lying around in the back of the archives here in the Sanctum, so you two can use that."

"...Alright, we get to stab a ghost. Let's do it."

"Works for me, now let's go get it." Strange pulled himself to his feet just as their surroundings changed to a different room (the Sanctum library), causing Peter and Raph to stumble, while he himself pulled out one book and flipped through it "Give me one second first."

"Okay, you gotta stop doing that." Raph let out a sigh as he leaned against a bookcase "What the shell are you doing anyway?"

"Just checking to see if the new dagger requires any additional spells or modifications… Nope, it looks like we're good." he snapped the book shut, and then they teleported to another room, only for him to turn and find Raph had the bookcase with him "Yeah, we don't need that." then he up and sent Raph and the bookcase back to the library "There."

"Son of a-" Raph recoiled and wound up breaking off one of the shelves of the bookcase, and then he rounded on Strange in a flash of anger "Would you stop freaking doing that?!"

"Then stop touching stuff."

"Pretty sure that's not the issue." Peter commented dryly, only to look down and see his iced coffee spilling a few droplets on the ground, and then refilling itself.

"Agree to disagree." Strange turned towards them as they reappeared in the common area of the Sanctum… which left Peter and Raph rolling down the stairs.

"Okay I'm with him, can you stop doing that? Also I feel like we could've just walked."

"Could've, but this is more fun." Strange opened up a small portal overhead, and a small dagger dropped down and landed in his hand, which he promptly handed over to Peter, and then he went on to open up a portal "This is what you need, and that'll take you to where you need to go."

"Right, I think we can take it from here." Peter held out a hand to Strange, prompting him to shake it "Thanks for your help with this, as… strange as it's been."

"Yeah, I get that way more than you think I do."

"Oh and one last thing." Peter shared a look with Raph before turning back to Strange "I don't know if you've heard, but since last year-"

"You're about to ask if I'll help you out with the Kraang invasion when the time comes."

"You know about them?"

"I keep a watchlist of individuals and beings from other realms that may pose a threat to this world, and the Kraang fall around the middle of that list."

"So you'll help."

"If I can. Like I said, I was about to leave on business, which in this case involves heading to the Dark Dimension to prevent an incursion from destroying our realities. I'll be gone for a while, but if I can make it back in time I'll help how I can. So chalk me up to a maybe."

"That's… better than nothing, I guess."

"Alright I have to go myself, so good luck and buh-bye." and on that note, Strange slung the portal toward Peter and Raph, sending them hurtling through it, before opening another portal and stepping through it himself "Clea, here I come."

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Meanwhile, on the other end of the first portal…

"Shit shit SHIT!" Peter let out a yelp as he wound up falling face first into a group of trash cans gathered in an alley, with Raph landing in the dumpster next to them with a loud crash 'Why is my life like this…?'

"I'm just gonna say it… I freaking hate magic…" Raph let out a groan as he pulled himself out of the dumpster and land on the ground with a thud "So much."

"One of those things we actually agree on." Peter leapt upright and held out a hand to Raph, which he took, and pulled him back to his feet "Also this: We never speak of this."

"Works for me. At least we got something to stab a ghost with." Raph glanced down at the mystic dagger Peter held in his hand.

"The problem is we still have to get past Mikey and the others to use it on him."

"Can't we just snap them out of it?"

"Not unless you know something strong enough to break magic mind control."

"Actually, I got one thing." Raph reached into his belt and pulled out his T-phone "I was gonna wait to use this coupon for Antonio's the next time I royally screwed up, but I guess now's as good of a time as any."

"Mikey is one thing sure, but I doubt that's gonna work on Donnie and Casey."

"Donnie is a maybe, Mikey ain't the only Turtle that likes pizza, but Casey… Yeah, you've got a point there." Raph paused and shuddered slightly "I was hoping I wasn't gonna have to use this at any point."

"Use what?"

"Once we go pick up the Shellraiser we gotta make a stop by the Lair… there's something I'm gonna have to grab out of my room."

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Meanwhile, with the B plot…

"Yeah that's true, and-" Ghost Spider cut herself short as a familiar sensation went off in her head, which immediately prompted her to latch onto the others with weblines and pull them back just as an explosion rang out, blowing a giant gaping hole in the wall of the warehouse.

"Oh good, you showed up." the smoke cleared away to reveal Crossbones stepping towards the group "I was beginning to worry that I wouldn't get the chance to kill the lot of you myself." he drew a blade from one of his gauntlets and moved to charge, until…

"Nope." Black Widow immediately pounced on Crossbones and landed a roundhouse kick to his chest hard enough to send him hurtling back, then cast a look at Hawkeye and the others "I can handle him, the rest of you deal with the others."

"What others?" Leo received his answer in the form of a truck pulling up nearby and several HYDRA soldiers spilling out, all of them armed with rifles "Oh. Them. Right."

"Well it's like they say, it ain't a party until someone starts trying to shoot you in the head, so you know what that means!" Hawkeye drew a series of arrows from his quiver and immediately began firing at the surrounding soldiers "It's time to party!"

"Took the words right out of my mouth!" Ghost Spider began dodging and weaving around the gunfire coming at her from various positions, with Leo taking the chance to cut down as many as he could in front of him, until a loud surge erupted throughout the area.

"You get points for trying little spider." as it turns out, Crossbones had taken a taser shot to the neck courtesy of Black Widow… only to grab it and use it as a means to throw her hard enough to send her hurtling backwards "But I don't work like that anymore. You got Cap to thank for that one."

"Well so much for that plan." Leo helped Black Widow to her feet, leading to the two of them, along with Ghost Spider and Hawkeye, being back to back as the soldiers closed in "Any other ideas?"

"We have to pull a stall drop." Black Widow told him.

"I have no idea what that means. Is this what the guys feel like when I use hand signals?'

"Take a dive, just keep quiet and follow my lead." Black Widow pounced at Crossbones and launched a series of attacks at him, ending it with slamming one of her shock batons into the side of his head.

"It ain't gonna work there either!" Crossbones grabbed Black Widow by the throat and took the chance to slam her face first into the ground, supposedly leaving her out cold "You know this ain't the first time I've had an Avenger lying at my feet, and it sure as hell ain't gonna be the last time either." he drew a knife from his gauntlet and moved to finish her, until…

"Stop!" Hawkeye held up his hands and dropped his arrow, motioning for Leo and Ghost Spider to do the same "We surrender, just don't kill her. You win."

"Hm. Two Avengers and a couple of brats, not a bad day's work." Crossbones gave a smirk under his mask as he watched Black Widow get restrained by two soldiers, with one of them handing the mutagen canister back to him "That's one small step for HYDRA, and one giant leap for yours truly. Appreciate the contributions."

"Sure you do." Leo shared a look with Ghost Spider 'I'm just gonna say it, these people better know what they're doing, Avengers or not.'

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Meanwhile, with the A plot…

"Okay, looks like the coast is clear." once the Shellraiser came to a stop, Spider-Man poked his head out to make sure no one was coming and then leapt out into the open "You got the manhole cover cannon loaded up?"

"Enough of those things to choke a horse." Nightwatcher leapt out after him and landed on the ground with an audible bang "So how long do you think we've got before they show up?"

"If I had to take a guess-" Spider-Man was cut short by the familiar sensation blaring in his head, just before a flash of lightning touched down in front of them, and the others appeared before the two of them "I'd say they're gonna show up right about now."

"Trespassers! You shall pay the price for defying Ho Chan!" Mikey, Donnie and Casey spoke in unison as they clasped their hands together and unleashed a powerful cyclone that was quick to suck both Spider-Man and Nightwatcher into it.

"...Yeah, this could be going better."

"Oh really, cause I thought this was going so well." Nightwatcher's tone was oozing sarcasm, but it was quickly cut short courtesy of Mikey zapping him with a powerful blast of lightning with enough power to send him hurtling toward the ground, and subsequently landing on the roof of the Shellraiser.

"Thanks but no thanks, if I wanted to get fried like bacon I'd go track Electro down! Get your own gimmick!" Spider-Man tried to fire a series of impact webs at the group, only for Donnie to blow them away with a blast of wind, forcing him to try and weave his way around the webs instead, only to then find the three of them surrounding him on all sids "Aw crapbskets, we're doing this now?"

"For your defiance of the great Ho Chan, you shall be punished!" Mikey, Donnie and Casey were quick to hurtle towards Spider-Man at full speed.

"Yeah, let me think about that… Nope!" Spider-Man quickly began fending off the series of attacks being hurled at him by Mikey and Donnie, sending one flying with an uppercut to the face and a kick to the chest, until Casey suddenly came at him and struck him with a blast of thunder at point blank range, sending him hurtling to the ground with a loud crash, to which he let out a groan as he picked himself back up "Okay… ow… That could've gone better… In a lot of ways…"

"Like this one for instance!" Nightwatcher drove up in the Shellraiser and immediately fired a few shots from the manhole cover cannon… only instead of manhole covers, it was piping hot pizzas and one other item that landed on the ground with simultaneous thuds.

"Pizza…? Cannot… resist… the urge!" Mikey was the first one to break down and instantly blasted himself toward the ground to grab hold of one of the pizzas.

"Knew that was gonna work."

"Keep away from that! It's mine!" Donnie and Casey on the other hand were fighting over the other item.

"Definitely knew that was gonna work."

"Yeah okay, you get that one." Spider-Man leapt back onto his feet and cast a quick glance over toward Nightwatcher "I gotta ask though, why the shell did you have a life sized poster of Black Widow?"

"You really have to ask? Freaking look at her dude."

"You got the hots for Black Widow? You know she's a trained assassin, a big time Avenger and could kick either of our asses any day of the week."

"Exactly dude! What a woman."

"...Yeah okay, I can relate. How did you know that was gonna work on those two?"

"Because Casey is horny as hell and Donnie has a thing for April, so I figured it was close enough to work on her."

"Huh. Fair enough. Alright enough stalling, let's go get April already." and so the two of them made a mad dash for the Purple Dragons' hideout "Also quick word to the wise, the metal armor you got on doesn't mesh well with lightning."

"You're telling me that now?!"

"We've had a lot going on!"

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Meanwhile, with the B plot…

"Now this is definitely gonna make my day." Crossbones gave a wide grin under his mask as he looked at the captives being held in the containment cell in front of him "A couple of teenagers in stupid costumes is one thing, but bringing two Avengers into the mix? This had better reflect in my bonus." and then he turned on his heel and made his way out of the room without another word."

"Okay, I've got a couple of questions about this." Leo cast a glance over at Black Widow as the two of them, along with Hawkeye and Ghost Spider, sat in a containment cell in the back of a HYDRA air carrier "The first of which is, why did you bring the mutagen? I'm not an expert in the whole super spy trade, but I know enough to know that's a horrible idea. If they actually touch any of the ooze-"

"They won't, they know it's too valuable to them." Black Widow gave a smirk as she pulled a small device out of her pocket, allowing her to override the lock on the cell "As for why we threw the fight to begin with, now Crossbones is giving us a free ride to their leader, so me and Hawkeye can finally figure out who's calling the shots."

"He's working for HYDRA, don't we already know that?"

"It's really more a question of which faction."

"There are different factions?" Leo shared a look with Ghost Spider.

"If we bust this unit then another one is just going to pop up in its place. Now we have to bust the guy at the top and the whole plan falls apart, which brings us one step closer to bringing them down for good."

"Ah… I didn't think of it like that."

"Think of it this way, it's kind of like what you guys have been doing." Hawkeye patted Leo on the shoulder "You learn and make shit up as you go."

"Yeah, pretty much. Any advice for the newbies?"

"Just stay sharp and be ready to pounce when the time comes, with these guys you don't get a second chance."

"Got it." Leo and Ghost Spider both gave simultaneous nods, though the conversation was cut short by the feeling of shifting beneath them "We must be landing."

"Like I says, stay sharp and be ready to pounce."

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One quick landing later…

"Make sure those cells are secure, I don't want anything getting in the way of me being paid for them." Crossbones watched as the cell containing Leo and the others was carried off of the air carrier, and then he looked over to see another carrier "And here comes the man of the hour, or in this case, the man of my paycheck."

"I guess this means we'll be facing the boss?" Leo received his answer when the doors to the new carrier opened up to reveal a figure that left him taken aback "Um… anyone else see that right now?"

"You mean a guy with a TV face in the chest of a robot body?" Ghost Spider cast a look over at him "Yep, I see it."

"Good, I'm not the only one."

"So here you are." the figure emerged from the carrier, a metallic male figure with broad shoulders and a camera instead of a face present on the stomach on a yellow TV screen, along with purple sleeves (Arnim Zola) and came to a stop in front of Crossbones "And it would seem that you have led my troops to victory Crossbones."

"As if there was ever any doubt." Crossbones gave a smirk as he held up the canister "Once you manage to reverse engineer this mutagen, you'll be able to create an army of mutants totally under your control, just like you wanted. Of course it should go without saying, this isn't going to come cheap."

"Of that, I had no doubt."

"Okay good, looks like this plan of yours worked." Leo glanced over at Black Widow "At the risk of sounding like my brother Raph, can we just beat the crap out of them now?"

"Great minds think alike." Black Widow gave a smirk "I think I'd like your brother."

"Well he does have a giant poster of you hanging above his bed."

"So do most teenagers. Now who wants to do the honors?"

"If there are no objections…" Ghost Spider promptly kicked the door of the cell hard enough to send it hurtling outwards and slamming into the face of a HYDRA soldier, sending him crashing to the ground in a heap and allowing the group to escape from the cell "I'd say sorry for crashing your little get together, but the thing is, I'm really not."

"Stand back Zola, I'll contain them myself. HYDRA!" Crossbones gave the call and summoned another large group of HYDRA soldiers onto the scene, and the second they appeared all of them immediately firing their weapons, with Leo, Hawkeye and Black Widow immediately going to town on all of the soldiers crossing their paths.

"Go ahead guys, come at me with everything you've got!" Ghost Spider wasted no time as she ripped through almost all the soldiers in her path, even managing to throw off Crossbones when he tried to pounce on her, sending him crashing to the ground "Is that all you've got?"

"Not even close!" Crossbones rebounded almost immediately and leapt at Ghost Spider as he let loose a furious barrage of attacks, eventually managing to hit her with a knee to the chest that sent her hurtling backwards "No way in hell you're gonna beat me on your own kid. I've gone toe to toe with Captain America himself, you're nothing compared to me."

"I know Captain America, I've fought with him once before, and trust me when I say, you are as far from Captain America as you can get." Ghost Spider leapt at Crossbones and landed a series of her own attacks, in the form of a punch to the chest, a knee to the jaw and ending it with a solid roundhouse kick to the face, sending him crashing to the ground in an unconscious heap "I think I just proved my point."

"Enough!" it was at this moment that Arnim Zola chose to step toward the group amidst the downed forms of several HYDRA soldiers "A pitiful attempt is beneath us! HYDRA is so much more than every other pitiful organization in this world, and we are not about to be defeated by-" he was immediately cut short by a katana being driven through his face from the back, causing him to fall to his knees.

As it turns out, Leo was the one that literally stabbed Zola in the back, and then proceeded to cut him clean down the middle "And I'd say Ghosty isn't the only one to prove a point."

"HYDRA! Retreat!" Zola gave the order… or the half of him that could still talk did, prompting the remaining soldiers to pick up the two halves of Zola and make a beeline for the carrier, which took off mere moments later.

"And they got away… just great."

"Even if they didn't, chances are another one probably would've just filled in the power gap by morning." Hawkeye and Black Widow made their way over to Leo and Ghost Spider "The rest of us got the ones that didn't get away though, so points for all that. Nice work guys."

"Thanks. I have to say, it means a lot coming from the likes of you guys. Big time Avengers I mean. You guys are about as much of the real deal as heroes can get."

"Trust me, we're just working with what we've got. We're not the only heroes in the world, a lot of people tend to forget that. We're just the ones with the best PR, and I'm pretty sure that's just cause of Stark."

"And because of other reasons, but we're not getting into that." Black Widow took a few steps toward Leo and Ghost Spider, and then gave a small smirk "But I have to admit, I am fairly impressed at what you two pulled off today."

"You mean because we kind of stumbled into this whole thing, even if it ended up turning out for the best?" Ghost Spider shared a look with Leo "Truth be told, we tend to do that a lot."

"True, but based on what I've heard you, at least the Spiders and that Turtle Titan, have a history of inspiring other people. If all of you are like this, then I'm starting to get why Cap and Stark think you lot are worth keeping an eye on."

"Uh huh. We'll be sure to keep that in mind."

"Just kep doing what you're doing and be ready for when things go to shit, cause that's when you really need to bring your A game." Hawkeye patted both of them on the shoulder, but then he turned his gaze to Leo "As for you though… meet me at this address in about an hour." he pulled out a small card and handed it to Leo "I got something I want you to take off my hands."

"What sort of something?" asked Leo.

"Call it a hunch, but it's something I think you can put to better use than I did."

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Meanwhile, with the A plot…

"Yes yes, coming along nicely." Ho Chan let out a chuckle as he continued the ritual, writing various glowing kanji in mid air and sending them hurtling into April and Irma "So close now, just a bit more time and my ambitions will be brought to fruition!"

It was at this moment that Spider-Man and Nightwatcher ame creeping up the stairs and bore witness to Ho Chan at work on his ritual "Okay, so whatever he's doing it looks like he's not done yet."

"Assuming we have any idea what the shell he's doing." Nightwatcher paused and cast a quick glance over at Spider-Man "Hey here's a thought, what's stopping us from going up to him and whacking him while his eyes are closed."

"Yeah call it a hunch, but I don't think that's gonna work."

"Why the shell not?"

"Because I'm pretty sure he can hear everything we're saying."

"...Aw crapbaskets."

Sure enough, Ho Chan had picked up on every word they were saying, and he was less than happy at the idea "Whack me? You don't go and wack a master who's lived more centuries than you morons can count! You will beg for mercy, and then you-"

"Guys watch out, you have to get out of here!" April tried to break free of Ho Chan's hold and send a warning to Spider-Man and Nightwatcher, only to go unheard from her mystic prison.

"Now I will call forth my servants to put an end to your physical existence once and for all, while I finish regaining mine!" Ho Chan made a series of hand motions to try and summon forth the others… only for nothing to happen, leaving him taken aback "Strange, my warriors will not respond to my commands. It's as if some untold power even greater than my own is holding them outside."

"Yep, the magic of a badass gorgeous redhead in ridiculously tight leather." Spider-Man then cast a glance toward the window, where they would see Mikey letting out a magic wind-enhanced belch that sent him flying through the air "Also the magic of New York pizza."

"Fascinating. I'll have to remember that when I reestablish my control over them."

"Try doing that when I drive my sais through your skull!" Nightwatcher made the first move and pounced at Ho Chan with his sais pointed forward… only to end up literally going right through him.

"Oh dear, it looks like you missed." Ho Chan let out a chuckle as he extended one of his arms and backhanded Spider-Man as he tried to launch himself at him, sending him crashing into one of the back walls with a loud bang, before turning his attention back to April "Now then, where was I? Oh yes, siphoning your essence to restore my physical form."

"Like hell I'm gonna let that happen!" April continued trying to fight her way out of Ho Chan's hold, to little success.

"That's the beauty of it my dear, you don't have a choice." Ho Chan unleashed a blue wave of energy from his eyes that enveloped April, and then energy began flowing out of her body and into him, causing him to begin turning flesh colored "Yes, yes! I think it's working!"

"Works for me, now you can feel THIS!" Spider-Man launched himself at Ho Chan and landed a solid roundhouse kick to the face, sending him hurtling backwards.

"OW! What in the seven hells do you think you're- Wait a minute." Ho Chan paused and looked down at his hands, and then he let out a jovial cackle "Pain! At last, glorious pain!"

"...Okay this just got weird, and I mean the bad kind of weird."

"Don't you understand you fool in the stupid costum? For the first time in centuries, I actually feel something again!" Ho Chan's smile widened as he began dodging the various attacks from both Spider-Man and Nightwatcher "At last, Ho Chan is almost human once more!"

"Then it's gonna be that much easier to drive these into your eyes!" Nightwatcher pounced his way toward Ho Chan over and over again, eventually managing to drive one of his sais through his chest… only for Ho Chan to disappear and reappear behind him, landing a swift series of strikes that pushed him up against a wall, before he found himself being grabbed by a giant glowing hand "What the-"

"You like? This is a spell of my own personal creation! Giant hands, everybody loves the giant hands!"

"Yeah, I love them like I love getting to kick your teeth in!" Spider-Man webbed a line and moved to launch himself toward Ho Chan, only to find himself caught by the other hand.

"And the giant hands get stuff done."

"You mean like this!" Nightwatcher pulled out the dagger and hurled it at Ho Chan… only for him to catch it with one hand easily, causing one giant hand to disappear and freeing Spider-Man as a result.

"No magic necessary for that one, it's all in the reflexes." Ho Chan's grin widened as he began tossing the dagger in mid-air "See now, this is the difference between me and that filthy bald wench! She would've stood around prattling on about her ideologies, maintaining order and all of that nonsense! She never understood how to actually put these powers to good use, which is why I should've been chosen as the Sorcerer Supreme instead of her!"

"Yeah well, we choose you to shut the hell up!" Spider-Man latched onto the dagger with a single webline and took the opportunity to hurl it at at Ho Chan… and embedded it right into his chest "And quick word to the wise, spider powers include super fast reflexes armed with ninja training from a rat!"

"Wait no, no no NO NO NO!" Ho Chan could only scream in agony as he was enveloped in a blue light, releasing Nightwatcher from the giant hands and unleashing a powerful whirlwind of blue energy, causing him to disappear in a white flash, leaving only the dagger behind, echoing with his screams.

"Well that was a bigger pain in the ass than it should've been." Spider-Man let out a sigh of relief as he placed the dagger back in its sheath, with Ho Chan's screams being silenced entirely as a result "Thank god, I can finally hear myself think again. Is that what it's like for other people to listen to me talk?"

"Try listening to Mikey after he ate that 12 pack of doubled glazed apple fritters. It was total hell for me." Nightwatcher let out a groan as he pulled himself back to his feet, and then he made his way over to Spider-Man "So uh… nice work."

"Thanks, you too." Spider-Man paused and glanced over at him "So… we good then? Like for real?"

"I figured I'd ask you that. If you wanna be." he held out a fist "We good then?"

"...Meh, why not?" Spider-Man gave a grin under his mask and caught Nightwatcher in a quick fist bump "Nothing like beating the crap out of a ghost to make quality bonding time right?"

"Guys!" this was when April came rushing down the stairs toward thm, carrying the unconscious form of Irma with her "So what happened, is he gone?"

"Yeah, we stabbed him with a magic dagger." Nightwatcher told her dryly "Didn't you see any of it?"

"To be fair I was basically stuck in magic ghost limbo, it's not like I could turn my head."

"...Oh. Right."

"Yeah. So anyway who was the big hero here, Pete or Raph?"

"Actually… it was a team effort." Spider-Man and Nightwatcher shared a grin and a bro-style handshake.

"So… you guys are okay now?"

"More or less." Spider-Man paused at the sound of moaning, and the two of them looked down to see Irma starting to come to "I think we got other things to worry about right now. Any ideas what we're gonna do about her?"

"I got this, worse comes to worse I can just say she got a bump on the head and whatever she thought she saw was a bad dream." April paused at the sound of a loud crash "You might wanna go check on the guys out there though."

"I swear if they screwed with my Black Widow poster, someone is sure as hell gonna get stabbed in the eyes!" Nightwatcher brandished his sais and made a mad dash for outside.

"...Okay, so today happened." Spider-Man shared a look with April, then paused and pulled out his cell phone "And apparently Mikey wound up stuck on the Chrysler building, but he says he got a good view. Meh, Empire State Building has a better one." he paused and looked down at the dagger in his hand "Only question now is, what the hell do we do with this?"

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Meanwhile, with the B plot…

"Okay not going to lie, I have questions about this." Leo cast a glance over at Hawkeye as the two of them made their way into what looked like an abandoned warehouse "The first of which being, where exactly are we?"

"Just a little something off the grid I set up awhile back. Something I don't really like to share with the Avengers, aside from Widow that is." Hawkeye pushed a button on a control panel on one of the back walls, causing another door to open up, revealing another room that he made his way into, motioning for Leo to follow him.

"Like a safe house of some kind?"

"Not exactly. More like a storage unit for something important." Hawkeye flipped a switch on the wall and turned on the light fixtur above… revealing a mannequin clad in an all black suit with a unique looking sword strapped to the back "I try to make sure nobody gets their hands on these, for a couple of reasons."

"I… I don't understand." Leo glanced over the suit until his gaze fell on the sword "What are you trying to say?"

"Pretty much the whole world knows me as Hawkeye, but a long time ago I used to go by a whole other name: Ronin. It's a part of my life that I'm not proud of. Not something I like to talk about either, so not many people know about it. Just the Avengers and a couple others that I don't plan to name."

"Fair enough, but it raises one question." Leo turned to look Hawkeye in the eye "Why show it to me? You can't trust me as much as them after just meeting me today."

"Of course I don't. But with the way I saw you fight today, I figured maybe you can do better with it than I did, use it to do some actual good… Plus I like to think of this as sort of a good will gesture, and a way of saying this." he held out a hand to Leo "If you and your buddies ever need any help fighting the good fight, you can count on the Avengers to have your back."

"I… I'm grateful for this, truly." Leo gripped Hawkeye's hand and firmly shook it "Truth be told, I'd settle for you guys being there to help out when the time comes to fend off the Kraang's next invasion. Can we count on you for that?"

"When it counts, never have a doubt about it kid."

"Good enough for me." Leo gave a small smile, and then he glanced up at the suit "Call myself Ronin then? You know what, I kind of like the sound of it."

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Meanwhile, with the A plot…

"Alright I think we've had enough fun for one night, and frankly I got school to deal with in a couple of hours. Just one last think we have to take care of first" Spider-Man cast a glance over at Nightwatcher as the two of them made their way onto the end of the dock, with the sun rising over their heads "Care to do the honors?"

"As if you had to ask." Nightwatcher gave a smirk as he held up the dagger "Anything else you wanna get out there before we do this?"

"Please!" Ho Chan wasted no time in begging and pleading from within the dagger "I can make you powerful, rich! Whatever you desire, seriously!"

"Right now what I desire is you shutting the hell up!" and on that note, Nightwatcher threw the dagger into the ocean, leaving it to sink into its depths "And that's one headache I sure as hell hope doesn't come back."

"No arguments here." Spider-Man caught him in a quick fist bump "Anyway I'd better get going, I promised Aunt May I'd stop doing all these all nighters with you guys."

"Fair. So see you later for training?"

"Count on it." Spider-Man gave a two finger salute, then webbed a line and swung away into the skyline of New York City 'I still can't help thinking about what Jameson said to me, because it's one of those times where he's actually right. The Goblin King is about to find out the truth for himself: This is our city, and it's time for us to take it back. And we're gonna do it together, as a team.'

A/N:

After everything that's happened with our heroes over the course of the last couple of chapters, I think it's safe to say that our heroes needed a win for a change, no matter how small it might be. And the overall lesson of this chapter is, given the coming conflict, they can't afford to let personal grudges get in the way of doing what has to be done.

To that end, rather than focusing on the love triangle between April, Donnie and Casey, this chapter instead focuses on a dynamic I've more or less neglected over the course of this story: the relationship between Peter and Raphael, or lack thereof in this case. As mentioned in this chapter, Peter has some kind of relationship and something to bond over with each Turtle (being the funny one or the heart with Mikey, science and nerd stuff with Donnie, and Space Heroes and the sense of duty and responsibility with Leo), with the sole exception of Raphael. On top of that, they have been on pretty bad terms with each other since the events with the Kraang Stealth Ship, for those of you that remember.

Adding onto that, the plot also gives Peter and Raph to meet another new hero of the Marvel universe, in the form of the Sorcerer Supreme himself, Dr Strange. I mean the villain of this one is the ghost of an ancient sorcerer, it would be a huge missed opportunity to not have him.

As far as the B plot goes, we get to see Leo on another mission away from the rest of the Turtles, this time a team up with Ghost Spider taking on the likes of HYDRA, specifically the mercenary Crossbones and Arnim Zola. In addition, cameos by two more Avengers in the form of Black Widow and Hawkeye, the latter of whom ends up giving a certain good will gift to Leonardo: the Ronin suit. Truth be told, part of the reason for me doing this was to give Leo a hero identity like Turtle Titan is to Mikey and Nightwatcher is to Raph. You guys will see it in action in due time, don't worry.