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.

49. The Invasion: Prologue

(The Invasion: Prologue)

Spectacular Webhead 11: Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked it. Yeah trust me, a truce with the likes of Doc Ock and his group isn't going to last long. That spectacular fic of yours sounds really interesting, I'll have to keep an eye out for it.

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

Gamelover41592: Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked it.

Irishman1999: Ironically, the Invasion took place in winter in the canon series, but here it takes place at the beginning of Summer. But trust me when I say that I've got A LOT planned for the season finale. You are right in that New York will likely never be the same again after you see what happens next, for better or for worse. And please try to be patient with Karai, I have plans for her later on, but it will take a bit of time before they come to fruition.

Guest: I will not spoil anything… But you will see who will appear when the time comes.

Godzillaboy2021: Nice job catching the reference to Transformers Prime, I wasn't sure that anyone would notice that. But yeah, I do get Optimus and Meagtron vibes from Spider-Man and Doc Ock. And I know what you mean, it feels like it was just yesterday watching Peter Parker start 11th grade. And trust me, I've got ideas for the introduction of the Goblin-Buster armor when the time comes.

DepressedCrow7544: I appreciate the feedback, and I'm glad to see you enjoy my story up to this point. I'll keep that in mind for the future.

MercWithaMouth1: Interesting idea. And don't worry, that happens all the time. I'll keep the rest of your ideas in mind for the future too.

Matt: Venom was with the Mighty Mutanimals initially, but after Eddie was separated from the Symbiote again, he went off to find his own way and take some time for himself, so his time with them is effectively over.

Angel2023: Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked it. I thought about trying to find a way for Leo to appear as Ronin, but I couldn't see a way to do it without feeling like it was shoehorned in, especially with everything else going on. Your ideas are definitely interesting, and I'll keep them in mind going forward. And thanks, Sparking Zero was totally worth the wait. Aside from a few missions and battles that made me want to freaking scream.

NERDY JETFIRE: Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked it. Harry is one thing, but Hobie has been shown to have connections to numerous other areas, so no real surprise with him Given how we're getting close to graduation, I figured it was only right to give some of the other students of Midtown a chance to shine, even if not all of them. Also glad to see another fan of Iron Man: Armored Adventures, especially since it was my introduction to Iron Man. And I'm pretty sure that reporter was just exaggerating.

Frosty Wolf: Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked it. Graduation is a huge moment in anyone's lives, and frankly they need it after everything that's been going on. And everything that will be going on before long. Nice job catching onto the Owl House stuff, and that's actually a pretty accurate description of Coulson. Yeah, Harry has been getting a lot of grief lately, though he did bring it on himself. And there's gonna be more to come before long. I didn't really see much to change about the A plot, but yeah, the part at the end was what I was anticipating the most. It seems like a good idea now, but it won't be long before that goes south in pretty much the worst way possible.

Mr. E: Truth be told I had never actually heard of Muse before this, but I'm definitely eager to see what Daredevil: Born Again has planned. And who knows, I might go to it for some ideas for my story in the future.

Lyoko2003: Simple, because I already have someone else that I'm going to pair Karai with when the time comes. As for who that is, you'll have to wait and see.

NERDY JETFIRE: Thanks, and a happy Veteran's Day to you too, and everyone else.

GTA Godfather: Truth be told I still haven't seen the Penguin series myself, but I have heard a lot about it. And you're not wrong, it sounds like this version does have a lot of similarities to the likes of Hammerhead. You may wanna remember that later on for this story. But I mean WAY later on.

Draco Mercer: Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked it. I haven't actually played Spider-Man Friend or Foe myself, but I wouldn't be against the idea of combination attacks at some point in the future. Also nice job catching the Owl House and Transformers references.

5FingerDeathFist: I actually haven't played the Batman game yet, but based on your description it sounds like it's definitely worth checking out at some point. Sorry, but by this point the Rat King is pretty much dead, if returning to the undercity towards the end of season 4 is anything to go by.

Fulcrum: Yep, RIP to Tony Todd. I knew about him voicing Venom and Dreadwing, but the fact that he voiced Darkseid and Megatronus Prime took me by surprise. Also interesting fact about those voice actors.

BlackCobra1607: Yeah I've heard it from a couple of others, and I have read the fic Same Difference before, the same with a few of the others you've mentioned. I'll definitely keep them in mind for the future. I'll check out that video you mentioned too, it might have some good points to keep in mind.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Another day came, and with it a momentous occasion was fast approaching.

"Okay, I gotta be honest with you about this." Peter glanced down at the yearbook in his hand as he and Gwen made their way down the halls of Midtown High "I genuinely did not see any of this coming."

"See any of what coming?" Gwen shot him a raised eyebrow "Getting people to willingly sign your yearbook?"

"Pretty much yeah, frankly having one person beats last year by a freaking mile." his face fell slightly at the thought "For a number of reasons."

"Yeah, that… wasn't a particularly happy time for any of us." Gwen's face fell slightly and she cringed at the memories "Harry was… not in a great state of mind around then. I tried to stay by his side as much as I could. I didn't really see you much around school then."

"I wasn't really in the mood to be social among my ever stimulating peers." Peter rolled his eyes slightly "Aside from… obvious reasons, breaking up with Liz when I did led the rest of the in crowd, aka Sally Avril and a good chunk of the football team, to basically mark me as kill on sight. Add that to the already existing drama, and I thought it was better if I just went and kept my distance from everybody for awhile. Truth be told the only person I really talked to from our crowd during that time was MJ, and even then I didn't let myself get too close. For awhile I just felt… alone. Until I met the Turtles, the same with April and Splinter. It feels like the really did change things for me."

"More than just things changed for you. I think you changed too. A lot more than you may have realized." Gwen was met with a raised eyebrow, and so she continued "When I saw you again on the first day of school, you tried to avoid me… and I get why. But when I did see you then, and even moreso later when I saw you and Leo at your uncle's grave… I could tell that something had changed inside of you. I saw that you looked more… resolute, sure of yourself and a lot less conflicted."

"...I didn't really think about it much. But I guess I was, in a few ways." Peter glanced back down at the yearbook in his hand, letting his thoughts drift to past memories "After my last fight with the Green Goblin, before I met the Turtles and the others, I was… at a loss. I had lost pretty much all my friends, I didn't get the girl and my other side was branded as a murderer and hated by pretty much everyone. I thought Spider-Man was my destiny, and that me being in the mask was needed… but after all of that I wasn't so sure. And frankly I wasn't even sure that I liked it anymore. Or that I even liked myself. Not really. But then I met the guys, and they really helped me to turn things around. Not only that but… I think the time I've spent with them really helped me to figure out what I want to do. And the person I really want to be."

"That's… a lot."

"Understatement of the decade. Not the only one either." Peter let out a chuckle as he turned his gaze toward Gwen "I'm not the only one who's changed over the past year. Not going to lie, I never I thought I would see you… let's go with get your own night job."

"Among other things. I never thought I would let Mary Jane talk me into a makeover, and yet here we are." Gwen paused and looked at Peter "Actually now that I think about it, that might be all I have as far as growth goes. I didn't really have a lot going on that didn't revolve around you did it?"

"I wouldn't say that. You were pretty well rounded to begin with, but you're a lot more confident and outspoken than you used to be, and now you don't even have to use the Look."

"That is true. Plus it's not just us, take a look at everybody else." she gestured to the other various students bustling throughout the hallways "I think we've all come a long way, in our own ways."

"You're not wrong. Just take a look at Flash and the others." he gestured to where Flash and a few others were looking through their yearbooks "To think he's actually graduation this year, and honestly it's happening at least 8 years sooner than I thought it would." he paused when he noticed her giving him the Look "Oh come on, you can't tell me you haven't thought that at least a dozen times."

"...I will neither confirm nor deny."

"And there you go."

"Hey Parker." it was at this moment that Flash made his way over to Peter and Gwen, with Kenny and Randy trailing close behind him "I think we all know this has been a long time coming…"

"Stuffing me in a locker again?" Peter shared a look with Gwen and gave a shrug "Screw it why not, one more for old time's sake?"

"Don't think I didn't think about it, but no. I was gonna say sign our yearbooks." Flash held out his yearbook, with the others doing the same "You know, cause it's been a lot of good stuff and bad the past couple of years."

"No argument here, so who did you guys steal these from? You know you get your own."

"We didn't steal them from any nerds or anything like that."

"I kinda wanted to, cause why not right?" Kenny gave a shrug, only to be silenced by both Flash and Randy elbowing him in the gut.

"Plus I promised Sha Shan I was gonna be the guy she thought I was." Flash finished writing down a message in Peter and Gwen's books, with Kenny and Randy doing the same "Alright I think that's done, see ya around. And piece of advice, don't screw up with the girl Parker. It took way too long for you guys to hook up."

"Okay, gonna need to backtrack after that." Peter looked over at him "You knew about that before we even got together?"

"Oh please, everybody had a pool going on how long it was gonna take for you guys to finally hook up. I had you guys making out on Valentine's Day."

"Seriously?"

"He ain't wrong." Randy muttered "I had you two hooking up on New Year's Eve."

"You guys were all in on it?"

"Not just the football team. Pretty much everybody, except for Osborn anyway. Honestly we just wanted to get a couple extra bucks." Randy gave a shrug, and then he, Flash and Kenny went on their way.

"...Apparently they made a betting pool on my love life. I don't know how I'm supposed to feel about that."

"I didn't think they were actually doing it." Gwen muttered "I heard rumors, I just didn't think they were true."

"Guess the rumor mill actually does pan out once in awhile. Good to know." Peter glanced at the retreating forms of Flash and the others "But in all seriousness, it's kind of a little hint to how importnat this week actually is. We're not just finishing up high school… we're saying goodbye to a lot of people we might end up never seeing again."

"Yeah… going our own ways, moving onto what we're meant to do with our lives. And who we're meant to become in the grand scheme of things."

"Even if high school itself was pretty much a scalding hot mess for the most part… but call this selfish if you want, but it's actually a good chunk of why I was so for graduation not getting cancelled."

"So like a big goodbye thing?"

"Yeah, that's one way to put it." Peter's face fell slightly "You know truth be told, I think I wanted this big sendoff sort of thing so I wouldn't feel sad, cause that's how it goes. Goodbyes are inherently sad, they mean something is ending. And this one is pretty sad in itself because it was… well again, it was pretty much a scalding hot mess, but it was an important one. I think you pretty much said it best, it helped make us into who we're meant to be. Plus I guess it's not all sad either. We're moving onto the things we love, our dreams and what we're meant to do with our lives, and we'll always have the memories of the time we spent together. Even if I am down a couple of months compared to everybody else for… obvious reasons." he cringed at the thought, but was quick to shake it off "But we've got one last big day where everybody's gonna be together, so I say we might as well make the most of it."

"Not a bad way to put it Parker." it was at this moment that Hobie made his way over to the two of them and held up his pen "Mind if I get in on the whole yearbook thing? I sign yours, you sign mine?"

"Works for me." so Hobie pulled out a pen and began writing in Peter's yearbook, then Gwen's as he handed his own yearbook to each of them "Also solid 9 out of 10 on the speech, really hits home how much you've honed the Talk no Jutsu."

"It wasn't really anything big, I just did what my Aunt May taught me to do: Speak from the heart… you know, when you actually have some idea of what you're saying."

"Way too relatable."

"Speaking from the heart?"

"Nope, it being a matter of whenever the hell you know what you're saying." Hobie finished writing and handed Peter's yearbook back to him "Plus I get it, crazy to think four years here and it's suddenly over just like that. Moving onto the next step. Speaking of which, what's your plan from here?"

"Personally I'm aiming for ESU, aiming for its awesome science program. All goes well maybe I can do some more direct learning under Dr Connors once he's… you know."

"Back? Sounds like a solid plan to me." Hobie gave a nod of approval, and then he turned his gaze toward Gwen "So what about you Stacy, something similar?"

"I'm planning on going to ESU myself." Gwen gave a small smile, though it wavered slightly as she noticed Peter shooting her a raised eyebrow "I did think about a few other options, but… I think I know where I want to be. Where I should be."

"Fair enough, you do you."

"Speaking of which, what's your plan for next step?"

"Personally I'm taking a little bit of time at home, I've got my family to think about before going for my own thing. That being said, I do have a couple ideas for a tech startup."

"Nice." Peter gave a nod of approval "Gotta wonder what everybody else is planning to do from here."

"I've actually been keeping track of that, with some help from Watson on that front." Hobie took out a notepad from the pocket of his jacket and began looking it over "For starters, Thompson and Kong are both planning on enlisting in the military."

"...God help us all."

"Well at least I'm not the only one who thinks we're screwed. Kong even said not worry about them, worry about the enemies of our country. Frankly it's not them I'm worried about, so much as pretty much everyone else." Hobie cringed slightly at the thought, then went back to looking at his notepad "Let's see here… Robertson is aiming for the Air Force, said he wanted to follow in the footsteps of Colonel Jameson. Grand and Watson are both aiming for the Fashion Institute of Technology, Avril mentioned aiming to become a professional gymnast, 50/50 shot of that working out if you ask me."

"All comes down to her wonderful personality." Peter's tone was oozing sarcasm, which he quickly regretted when he noticed Gwen giving him the Look.

"Death glares aside, you're not wrong. Anyway, the last one I've got on here is Sha Shan aiming for the SUNY Downstate Medical School."

"Huh. Good for her."

"Yep. Oh yeah that reminds me, Thompson knows about your itsy bitsy night job."

"...What?!"

"Also as far as that pool goes, I had you guys hooking up after you took out the Green Goblin last year."

"Seriously?"

"I was in crippling debt, we already established that. But I'll give you one guess who won the whole deal."

"...It was Mary Jane, wasn't it?"

"Yep."

Alright that's all I've got on the social updates front, see ya." Hobie gave the two of them a quick two finger salute and took his leave.

"Huh. Guess social exposition has its perks after all." Peter blinked a few times, and then he turned his gaze back towards Gwen "So you're really sold on ESU already?"

"I did say it to Hobie after all. I want to go where you go." Gwen gave him a small smile "I know where I want to be, and where I need to be."

"Fair enough, but you did mention being a upfor a scholarship to Oxford. You applied for it and everything like months ago."

"True, but to be fair that was before I… let's go with got my own night job. A lot of things had to change for me after that. I got these new powers and I knew I had the responsibility to use them for the right reasons, in the right way. And in the right place."

"I get that, trust me I do… But I don't want you to just give up a huge opportunity like that so easy." Peter pulled a folder out of his backpack and handed it to Gwen, then gently took both of her hands in his "I did some research online and got some info on Oxford last night, just look it over and really think about this before you turn it down all the way, alright? I just don't want you to jump ahead of this too fast and end up regretting it."

"Okay… Okay, I get it." Gwen gave him a small smile just as the bell rang throughout the halls of Midtown "I'd better get going. I love you."

"I love you too." Peter gave a small smile of his own as he broke away from Gwen and began walking down a different hallway 'I just tried to push my girlfriend, who it took way too long to finally get with because of my own stupidity and countless other reasons, to go to college halfway across the world. How much of an freaking idiot am I?'

"Not too shabby Parker, way to be smooth about it."

Peter glanced over to see Casey making his way over to him "What are you talking about? Also how did you crop up on me without my… other sense noticing?"

"I guess Casey Jones is just that good." Casey gave a smirk "Takes a rare level of awesomeness to get past your… I dunno, Peter Tingle or whatever you call it?"

"Please for the love of god, do not start calling it the Peter Tingle. It's called Spider Sense, I've got a guy working on the trademark."

"Alright alright, don't get your webs in a bunch." Casey rolled his eyes "But seriously, way to pretend to act supportive of the girl, real smooth stuff."

"Who said I'm pretending? Gwen worked her butt off for an opportunity like this and I really think she deserves it. It wouldn't be right for her to give it up that easy, or for me to let her blow it off or anything like that."

"So what, you want her to move halfway across the world?" Casey gave him a raised eyebrow as the two of them started walking.

"Of course not, but I want to support her in whatever she wants to do. And to be totally honest, I don't need you trying to make me out like a jackass."

"Hey I know I'm a jackass, but at least I ain't lying about how I feel about a girl moving halfway across the world cause I didn't say anything about it." Casey was met with silence.

"...You know it's weird, but I feel like this is the longest conversation we've ever had."

"Pretty sure it's the only one on one talk we've ever had."

"Case and point. And on that note, I think I'm done." Peter gave a wave and walked off down another hall 'And knowing my luck, someone else coming in three… two… one…'

"Rough one huh Pete?"

'Eh, could be worse I guess.' Peter glanced over to see Harry standing a short distance away at his locker "That's one way of putting it. I'm gonna guess you heard that?"

"I heard a little bit." Harry gave a shrug "But Gwen and the Oxford thing?"

"You know about that?"

"I heard her mention it once or twice. But I thought she was set on going to ESU."

"That's what she says, but I can tell she didn't really put much thought into the Oxford thing, so I just want to make sure she doesn't write it off too fast. I want to support her with this, and not to dump it on you but I just want somebody that's gonna be on board with me supporting her for a big opportunity like this."

"I'm on board with it. Go Pete. Yay." Harry pumped a fist with little enthusiasm.

"...You're just pulling that out of your ass aren't you?"

"Wouldn't be the first time. Trust me, I've got some experience in that."

"That's not a jab at me is it?"

"Didn't mean for it to be, but if you jumped right there when you heard it, I think that's gotta say something." Harry was met with silence, at least until he looked down at his phone "I gotta deal with this, I'll see you later. Maybe." and so he quickly walked away from the scene 'Just a few more days. First graduation, get my diploma and get out of the way… and that's gonna be when everything changes. Literally everything.'

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Nightfall came, and rain was pouring down over the skies above New York City.

'To think that my greatest fear has finally come to pass.' Shredder sat alone in the throne room of his Lair, allowing his thoughts to drift 'Karai, my daughter… You were always so promising, even from such a young age… You continued to show that promise even as the years went by, even when you chose to turn against me… Up until the moment where you lost everything, even your humanity… Forgive me… I should never have allowed things to escalate as far as they did that night… I will ensure that Splinter and his turtles will suffer for the horrible curse that they have inflicted upon you… Be patient my daughter. You will be cured soon, and our revenge is nearly at hand…'

"Sensei." a voice snapped Shredder back to reality and drew his gaze to where Tatsu knelt on the floor in front of him "The time is growing ever closer. Our newest associate has come, he claims that he wishes to hear your decision in person."

"Hm… I am not surprised."

"So what do you wish to do?"

"Both factions have proven themselves to be dangerous allies… but at the same time, it was thanks to them that we have been provided with much technology, resources and connections, while asking for very little in return."

"This is true… But you yourself taught me that the most powerful weapon in the arsenal of a ninja is deception, and they are masters of it. Especially the one who refers to himself as a king within his orgnaization." Tatsu's gaze turned harder underneath his oni mask "They will more than likely betray us, a fact I am sure you are already well aware of. I have seen many of their kind myself, believing that we are little more than pawns to use as they see fit."

"Hm… a sentiment that I share towards them." Shredder's own gaze hardened "I want you to send our… associate in. I wish to speak with him face to face."

"As you wish sensei." Tatsu stood and bowed to him, then took his leave of the room without another word.

"So the time has finally come." Shredder pulled himself to his feet, drawing the blades from one of his gauntelts as he did so "At last we shall meet face to face… Norman Osborn."

Sure enough, the doors to the throne room opened, and from the darkness emerged none other than Norman Osborn himself, clad in his typical black and purple suit and tie, a confident smirk spreading across his face as he came to a stop "That we do, an occasion that I myself have been looking forward to for some time Oroku Saki. Or rather, it's my understanding you choose to have others refer to you as the Shredder if I'm correct."

"And as I have been made aware, you choose to further yourself under the alias of the Green Goblin."

"That is an acceptable choice, though I mainly choose to refer to myself as the Goblin King in present times." Norman paused for a moment and looked over Shredder, and his smirk grew even wider "If I may say, I have been a great admirer of your work for some time. Your reputation precedes you, and I believe that you and I share a number of similarities: Both men of endless ambition, a solid understanding of how the world works in this day and age, and not being afraid to make it ours… But there is one thing that probably unites us the most…" his smirk morphed into a dark scowl "The burning desire for revenge against the filthy wretch who took everything from us."

"Hm. A sentiment I understand very well." Shredder retracted his blades back into his gauntlets and looked over Norman "But I know enough about you based on your own reputation, to know that you came here to do more than just bootlicking."

"How very true." Norman was quick to compose himself as he pulled out a tablet from the pocket of his suit "Am I correct to assume that Dr Warren has brought you and your forces up to speed on the momentous event?"

"He has, and he has been… adequate in my plans."

"I would expect nothing less of the good doctor. So then, with the fated day growing closer by the hour, I need to know: What is your final decision?"

"Before I give you that, answer me this." Shredder's typical scowl darkened underneath the faceplate of his helmet "If I agree to help you in your endeavors, then you will hold up your end of our bargain, correct?"

"It really is a simple matter. Once we seize control of the city, I will ensure that the Goblin Nation and the Kraang don't interfere in your apprehension of the one you refer to as Splinter and his turtle disciples. But in return for that, I ask that you leave Spider-Man and the Ghost Spider to me." Norman's smirk turned malicious "I want to make sure that they suffer by my own hand."

"Do as you will with them, so long as Splinter and the Turtles are delivered to me when the time comes." Shredder paused for a moment, and his gaze softened, albeit only slightly "And once I find Karai, you will reverse her mutation and turn her human again?"

"That is a simple matter, one that I will attend to myself when the time comes. But in return for these conditions…" Norman's smirk grew even wider "You and your forces will aid myself, the Goblin Nation and the Kraang in seizing control of New York City and subduing the so-called heroes that defend it. Once the city has been placed under our full control, we can move onto the next step… the world itself."

"So long as you uphold your end of our agreement, I will uphold mine."

"That's all I need to hear." Norman let out a small chuckle "The day we make our move is going to be the day that everything changes."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Another day came, and with it the sun shining brightly over the skies above New York City.

"I have to be honest, I really didn't think we were going to get to this point." Gwen looked over at the rest of the group, that being Peter and the Turtles, along with April and Casey, as they sat around the common area of the Lair "I still can't believe we're graduating from high school in just a matter of hours. I don't even know where high school went."

"Well you know what they say: Time flies when you're swinging across the city in a spandex bodysuit, fighting superpowered crime lords and trying to save the world from a massive alien invasion." Peter gave a shrug and a grin, causing Gwen to giggle slightly.

"I can't argue with that. At least we get to go to ESU together."

"Yeah. But not forgetting about… other offers along the way, right?"

"I know." Gwen gave him a smile, though it came off as rather forced, but that subject was soon dropped as she turned her gaze toward April "So I know that Mary Jane is planning to go to the Fashion Institute of Technology, but what about you?"

"I've applied to a couple of places." April gave a shrug "But I'm actually thinking of going to ESU myself, they've got a great journalism program."

"Journalist huh?" Leo gave a raised eyebrow "I didn't expect that."

"I'm thinking about some science based courses myself, maybe because of everything I've seen in Donnie's lab, but I did a lot of investigating and stuff to get info on the Foot and the Kraang, so I guess I kind of developed a knack for it. Lois Lane eat your heart out, am I right?"

"Yeah, you totally blow Lois Lane out of the park." Donnie muttered, which earned a small smile from April, causing him to blush and start stammering "I- I mean Lois Lane is like the standard but you're not- I mean you-" he was promptly silenced by a shot of webbing hitting him in the face and covering his mouth.

"You're welcome." Raph noted dryly, and then handed Peter's web shooter back to him "Trust me, that was for the best."

"Speaking as someone who's been in his shoes, you're pretty much right." Peter stowed away his web shooter and let out a sigh "I gotta be honest, my life has just been so crazy for so long by this point. I mean with everything going on with the Foot and the Kraang, not to mention all of the supervillain stuff, and now the Green Goblin being back… God, we've had a crap ton going on."

"Welcome to the club dude." Raph cast a glance over at Casey "So what's your next move gonna be Jones?"

"I got a coupl of ideas." Casey gave a smirk as he leaned back in his chair "But I'm gonna wait awhile before I do that."

"So what are you gonna do until then?"

"I talked that over with my dad awhile back, he said I had to figure out something to do, and I think I got it. I'm gonna take the year off."

"...So basically you're gonna do nothing." Peter commented dryly "Pretty sure Elvis said that about five minutes before he died on the toilet."

"Hey I thought this through alright, I swear. Rich kids do it all the time, think about it. Once they get out of high scholl they take a year off, head to Europe and figure out what they wanna do with their lives. So I'm gonna do that myself."

"Except you're not gonna go anywhere or do anything. In other words, you're gonna be a bum in the grandest European tradition."

"Hey come on, it ain't like I'm gonna sit on my ass doing nothing. Somebody's gotta help you guys fight off all the scum running around the city." Casey's smirk grew wider "Plus all goes well, maybe I can hook up with those Heroes for Hire type I heard about. Either that or join up and become a SHIELD agent.

"Yeah… I'm not so sure how well that's gonna pan out."

"Eh, I gotta give it a shot if I can make some cash from the whole hero gig, but I get what it is you're saying Parker. Not like I'm a 100% team player or anything, Casey Jones at his core is a solo vigilante of the night, a mysterious lone hero in a world full of evil."

"...Not really where I was gonna go with that, but you do you." Peter patted him on the shoulder, then paused as he pulled out his cell phone "Got a text from Eddie, he said he and the rest of his new team, gonna have to work that out later, wanna go over some kind of game plan for when the Goblin Nation make their move."

"Probably for the best." Gwen leapt to her feet as she pulled out her phone, with Peter doing the same "We can bring him and my Uncle Mac up to date on what we've learned so far, plus see if they or the others learned anything that can help us. We'd better not take too long though, call it a hunch but I don't think my dad would be happy if we missed out on graduation."

"No kidding, Aunt May would take my head off. She's one two women in the world that I don't want to get on the bad side of."

"I know the feeling, the only difference is she doesn't need to use the Look in order to get people in line." Gwen let out a chuckle, then paused and looked down at her phone "And speaking of which, we had better get going if we're gonna get there with time to get ready."

"Good call. Plus if all goes well, and that's a pretty big IF knowing how the Parker Luck likes to bite me in the web hole, we might actually work out some kind of plan to take on the Goblin Nation without turning it into a huge citywide fire fight."

"Now this is what I'm talking about." Mikey gave a wide grin as he leapt to his feet and wrapped an arm around each of them "Still can't believe the big day's here, you guys are sure as shell gonna go places… And after all the crazy adventures and missions we went on… You guys are gonna be moving way up in the world… Moving onto bigger and better things, and all that good stuff…" he paused as his face fell slightly "I gotta learn to stop talking don't I?"

"I still haven't, can't expect anyone else to." Peter gave a shrug, then a small smile as he took the chance to wrap his own arm around Mikey "But just because I'm graduating and heading off to college in the next couple months doesn't mean anything is changing, I'm still gonna be there for New York as the ever Spectacular Spider-Man, and I'm gonna need both my partners to help me keep my crap together."

"Partners huh?" Mikey gave a smal smile of his own "Ain't forgetting that."

"Nope, and I'm not forgetting the rest of my team either." he glanced around at the rest of the Turtles, along with April and Casey, and then to where Splinter was emerging from the kitchen with a cheesesicle in hand, and then he pulled out his Spider-Man mask and stuck it on over his face, with Gwen doing the same with her Ghost Spider mask "Alright we'd better get going, all goes well we'll have some kind of game plan worked out before we get our diplomas. See you guys later." and so the two of them each gave two finger salutes before taking their leave of the Lair and web-slinging their way down the abandoned subway tunnel.

"Speaking of plans, we should try and work on some of our own." Leo was the next one to pull himself to his feet and turned to face the others "For starters, we all agreed that we need to keep up the search for Karai, so Raph and Casey, you guys head out there next and see whatever you can find."

"Got it, just give us a minute to gear up." Raph and Casey shared a fist bump, and then the two of them took their leave of the room.

"In the meantime, the four of us-" Leo was cut off by the sound of a phone ringing, to which he let out a sigh "Okay seriously Donnie, you have to start putting that thing on silent."

"Actually that's me, sorry." April let out a nervous chuckle as she pulled out her phone "Oh hey, what's up Irma? No I'm fine, the other day was just… a lot. Yeah I know, graduation, I've really been looking forward to this. Really, you wanna meet up now? Um… give me one second real quick." she put her phone down and glanced over at the others "Any suggestions as to what I tell her to get out of meeting up?"

"No real harm, you might as well go meet up with her." Donnie gave a shrug.

"Are you sure about that? I mean we have an invasion to plan for…"

"You'd have to leave soon to get ready for graduation anyway, and frankly I think we can all agree you earned this. You've been through a lot in the past couple months too, so I think you deserve some downtime right about now." Donnie gave her a small smile, one that she returned, causing his face to turn red.

"...Alright." she pulled her phone back up "Yeah, now can work for me. Alright, I'll meet you over at the Silver Spoon in 15." and so she hung up and turned to the others "I know this isn't the best time, but…"

"Don't worry, Donnie is right. You would've had to leave anyway." Leo assured her "Go ahead and do whatever you have to do, we'll call you if we have anything."

"Just make sure to keep me posted." April gave a nod as she grabbed hold of her stuff and took her leave of the Lair.

"Okay, so it's just the three of us to try and figure this out."

"Hold that thought bro, gonna need a few minutes." Mikey got down on his knees and began to work at the TV.

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to see if we can get this thing to livestream so we can watch Pete and the others graduate from here."

"...Okay, fair enough." Leo shared a quick look with Donnie "I guess that means it's just the two of us for the time being."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the wayward web-slingers…

"Okay it shouldn't be too far now." Spider-Man continued swinging his way across the skyline of New York, with Ghost Spider trailing close behind him "You were right, turns out we really didn't need to bring the Spider Cycle with us after all."

"Yeah, I figured we wouldn't. We're both pretty adept at the whole "swinging over the city in ways so crazy Russian gymnasts could only dream of." Ghost Spider let out a chuckle, though it quickly subsided when she took notice of his sullen demeanor "You okay?"

"What? Oh yeah, just thinking I guess."

"About Eddie?"

"What gave me away?" he was immediately met with her giving him the Look, and so he let out a sigh as the two of them came to a stop on a rooftop "Okay yeah, it's Eddie. It's still kind of hard to wrap my head around the idea that me and him are on the same side again. I know he wants to take down the Kraang just as much as the rest of us do, and I should be happy that we're working together but… I gotta wonder if this whole thing is for real. Like if he's back to being the Eddie I know, assuming he was ever really him at all… or if this is all some kind of elaborate ruse he and Doc Ock are cooking up."

"Ah… well when you put it like that, I can't say I blame you." Ghost Spider let out a sigh as she took both of his hands in hers and gave a small smile underneath her mask "I know how you feel, believe me I really do. With everything that's happened to Eddie, all the things he'd done while he was bonded with the Symbiote… it was hard to look at him like he was the same person, the big brother that had been by our side for all these years. But you haven't seen all the things from him that I had over the months you were gone. Even when he did still have the Symbiote, he was willing to cast aside his own feelings to help us take on the Kraang and the Goblin Nation, and even saved our lives a few times and the city at one point. To be honest, those were the first times in a really long time where it felt like I was looking at the Eddie we knew, not just Venom or anything else. Now the three of us are finally back together, and to be honest, it feels really great. We have a lot of work ahead of us, with the Kraang invasion coming and having to fight the Goblin King and the Goblin Nation, not to mention the Foot Clan and whatever else is still out there, but it doesn't seem that bad when we're facing it together. I won't deny that I was worried at first, but I don't regret giving Eddie another chance. And honestly, I think part of me knew deep down that, even after everything that had happened, we'd find some way for things to work out the way they're meant to."

"...Look at you, scary as all hell the one second and being all sunshine and shooting out wisdom that would put Uncle Iroh to shame the next." Spider-Man let out a chuckle as moved to fire off another webline "I guess we'd better get moving, see what Eddie and his new group of misfits have up their sleeve."

"Better look alive kid, cause you're about to find out." it was at this moment that a figure clad in green armor leapt onto the rooftop and hit the ground in front of Spider-Man and Ghost Spider with a loud "So tell me something, how's it feel to be official high school graduates, not to mention valedictorian?"

"Ask me again when I have my diploma and I have to give the speech." Ghost Spider let out a chuckle as she enveloped Scorpion in a tight hug "Good to see you Uncle Mac."

"The feeling is mutual kid, but as much as I hate to ruin the moment we don't have time for all the usual pleasantries. In case it wasn't obvious, Doc Ock is gonna-" Scorpion was quickly cut short when his suit was suddenly enveloped in a powerful surge of electricity, which quickly forced the Spiders to retreat to the other side of the rooftop "Do that for starters."

"What are you-" Ghost Spider was cut short by her by Spider Sense blaring in her head, alerting her to a beam of energy bursting forth from the tip of Scorpion's tail, forcing both of them to leap to opposite sides of the building "What the heck is going on?!"

"Not doing this by choice, the suit is acting like it has a mind of its own and I'm about 40% sure this is the beginning of the machine uprising. Figure out the details later, for now just quit asking questions and dodge the freaking lasers!"

"Yeah we get the whole dodging thing, Team Four Star already beat that into the ground almost as much as they did Ghost Nappa!" Spider-Man quickly cut the snark short when his own Spider Sense began going off in his head, just in time for him to avoid an orange blur that blitzed in front of him, albeit receiving a set of claw marks across his side that drew a small amount of blood 'Well that's great to start the day, first Gwen's uncle ends up going haywire and now I've got a freaking Thundercat trying to turn me into a pelt for like the tenth time. On the plus side, gotta thank Splinter for teaching me how to anticipate the movements of one of the MANY guys that want me dead. Really Kraven, we gotta go through this again?"

"Kraven would think you would know the answer to that by now Spider." Kraven gave a smirk as he got into a stance with his claws barred "No matter how long the hunt may take, no prey will ever escape from Kraven. I will track the smell of your fear to the ends of this very Earth and back."

"Not that it's going to do you much good." Ghost Spider rebounded and leapt back onto her feet as she readied her webshooters "You couldn't take either of us down alone, so you decided to bring in some backup to even the odds?"

"Is how the way of the jungle works girl, the pack helps to corner the prey so that the alpha male may crush them beneath his claws."

"Great, so who else can we expect to join your merry band of misfits?" Ghost Spider received her answer in the form of her Spider Sense going off, forcing her and Spider-Man to dodge the oncoming purple mechanical tail that barely missed piercing her torso 'That didn't look like the tail attached to Uncle Mac's suit, does that mean there's- Okay no more games, whoever is still here come out and show yourself!"

"I believe that would be where I come in." it was at this moment that a new figure appeared on the scene, floating down onto the rooftop in a high tech hoverchair, revealing himself to be a male figure with a brown mullet, which quickly caught her attention "We meet again, Ghost Spider I believe you call yourself."

"Wait a minute, aren't you…"

"Alistar Smythe. I'm quite sure that you remember my father, a brilliant inventor by then name of Spencer Smythe." he was met with silence "Don't worry, I'm not here because I blame you for his death. That in itself I hold one Miss Manfredi accountable for, along with a certain other, and believe me when I say that I intend to make her suffer for it."

"Then why come after us with what I can only assume is another scorpion robot?"

"Essentially yes. And to answer the first part of your question, I'm doing what I must to ensure that comes to reality, so for the time being I have to follow orders and work alongside the others here."

"Which others exactly?"

"See for yourself." Smythe jerked a thumb upwards to where two figures in winged suits (those being the Vulture and Eddie Brock) dropped down from the skies, followed by Electro flashing onto the scene with a rapid surge of electricity.

"Excellent, the Sinister Seven has finally gathered in full force." things finally came to a head for a moment when Doc Ock himself appeared on the scene, lowered onto the rooftop via his set of mechanical tentacles "Tell me Spider-Man, you recall what exactly it was that I said when we had first agreed to the little impromptu alliance between us?"

"Gonna have to be more specific." Spider-Man told him dryly "Call this hypocritical if you want, but in case it slipped your notice Doc, you like to talk A LOT."

"Your sense of humor never fails to irritate. As I told you previously, my motives for offering an alliance to you were self and such an arragenemt was temporary at best. I told you that we would be the ones to wring the life out of you and conquer this city, but when we did that it would be on our terms. Granted that was supposed to be once the Goblin King had been disposed of, but as the old saying goes, there's no time like the present."

"Uh huh. You know that actually lasted longer than I expected." Spider-Man's expression grew dull with annoyance underneath this mask "Alright I've gone through this twice already, and to be honest we're kind of on a tight schedule right about now, so I'm pretty sure we both just wanna get this crap over with. You can start by explaining how the hell you're pulling the whole bloodbending thing on Scorpion over there."

"Bloodbending you say? While I do appreciate the reference, it's a tad more complicated than just that."

"Not that complicated Doc!" Scorpion shot a glare at him from where he was crouched down on the ground by the rest of the group "I'm not doing any of this!"

"That much is true at the very least." Doc Ock let out a chuckle "I believe you'll find that suit of yours to be more than just a multiplier for your combat capabilities Mr Gargan, it contains a sophisticated neural interface not unlike the one that allows me to control my arms. The big difference being that it allows me to have direct access to your nervous system."

"Then I just have to take it off. Consider this my resignation from your little club, so hasta la vista." using what willpower he was able to muster, Scorpion pushed the button on one of his gauntlets to deactivate the suit… only for nothing to happen "Aw crapbaskets."

"I think you'll find removing the suit to be quite impossible my friend. The neural interface of the suit has now integrated into your nervous system, into your skin. It's essentially become a part of you, so long as I hold control. Do not forget that you chose to accept my offer Mr Gargan, you chose to be a part of this team. It's too late for you to change your mind now."

"Not too late for me to quit and shove this tail up your-"

"I'm afraid it is my friend, seeing how you no longer have a choice in the matter. You see, you will no longer have any control over yourself. One additional detail regarding the neural interface of your suit, it allows me take control so that you do as I will you to do. You fight for the Sinister Seven as the Master Planner wills. Rest assured though I will keep my word, your beloved fiancee will remain safe throughout our campaign. If nothing else, I am a man that will honor my word to my companions, whether they be with me willing or otherwise.

"Great, of course he's got something like that planned out cause why not?" Spider-Man let out a sigh, and then he turned his gaze towards the laster member of the Sinister Seven, that being none other than Eddie "You know a pretty big part of me wants to believe that the whole thing about using the suit to control the user applies to you too. And I'm pretty sure that the same can apply to Ghost there."

"Uh huh." Eddie felt himself grow visibly tense, but paused to compose himself "I'm sensing a "but" coming somewhere in here."

"But there are two things that keep inching their way into my head. One, remembering a lot of stuff that's already gone down between us, with or without your clingy ex. Two, a wise man who happens to be a rat once told me and a couple of others how dangerous it can be to believe in something just because you want it to be true." to that end, Spider-Man's gaze hardened further, but not with any visible anger "Doc isn't making you do this. You're with these guys all on your own, aren't you Eddie?"

"...Of course you'd figure it out." Eddie's expression remained neutral as he took a few steps forward "Guess I shouldn't be surprised, you always did know how to figure a way into stuff and but your nose in where it doesn't belong bro, why stop now?"

"Seriously, you're still on the revenge thing? I thought we were getting past this."

"What did you think was gonna happen, we were gonna be all hunky dory and go back to the way things were before like nothing ever happened? If you thought that then you're even more naive than I thought you were, and that's saying something." that proved to be more than enough to make Ghost Spider flinch visibly "But believe it or not, I'm not teaming up with these guys just to try and spite the two of you. We got bigger stuff to worry about right now."

"Then why team up with these dipsticks?"

"Because as much of a pain in the ass as this is turning out to be, the Doc and the others here get what you don't: Sometimes you gotta be willing to get your hands dirty if you actually wanna get stuff done." Eddie paused for a moment and gave a scowl "Like I said to Gw- Ghost Spider over there, you two Spiders have the exact same problem. For You're soft. You got all these amazing powers, but you don't have the stomach to actually do what needs to be done. You've gone up against guys like them time and time again, but you don't have the stomach to finish the job with any of them, no matter how many chances you had to do it. So it's time you either get on board or get the hell out of the way and stop ruining stuff like this. If the Goblin Nation and especially the Kraang are gonna go down, it's gotta be against a united front."

"A united front? That's what you're calling this? Take a look around." he gestured to the other members of the Sinister Seven, though his gaze fell onto Scorpion in particular "You really think you gotta call it a united front when at least one of the guys has to be trapped in a suit that controls him and you're led by the Squidward wannabe over there." he jerked a thumb at Doc Ock himself "Or god only knows whatever the hell the rest of them are in this for."

"Revenge/ the hunt/ following Doc." came the simultaneous chorus from Vulture, Alistar Smythe, Kraven and Electro.

"Ask a stupid question, get the obvious answer thrown in your face."

"Don't bother trying with the Talk no Jutsu on me, it's not going to work." Eddie's gaze turned hard as he looked over at Ghost Spider "You can't say that I didn't warn you about this when we first called our little truce. I did tell you before that me and him, we had some shit we had to get through, with or without my… let's go with Other."

"Yeah… Yeah you did." Ghost Spider looked up at him, though despite the mask her expression was able to clearly convey her hurt and disappointment "And you're right about one other thing. In order to beat the Kraang and the Goblin Nation, we can't be divided. But you're forgetting that we didn't draw the line, people like the Goblin King and the Master Planner did. It's still there. And you just crossed over it." she turned her head away from him… right before her Spider Sense went off, a split second before one of Doc Ock grabbed her by the head with one of his tentacles and then each of her arms and one leg with the others.

"I believe Mr Brock over there has already made his choice, as have the rest of us. The time has come my friends, now go forth and help your comrades to destroy the Spiders!" Doc Ock gave a smirk as he slammed Ghost Spider into the ground a few times before throwing her towards the rest of his group, followed by Scorpion firing a beam of energy at her from his tail (albeit against his will), sending her hurtling across the street and crashing into the opposite building.

"Ghosty!" Spider-Man didn't hesitate in trying to rush over to help her, only to find himself being snatched up by a pair of talons and hoisted high into the air "Son of a-"

"Don't tell me you didn't see this coming." as it turns out, Eddie was the one who had managed to snatch Spider-Man via his wingsuit and talons, his voice low enough so that none of the other Sinister Seven members could hear "I'm pretty sure we both know this by now… but the line that separates friends from enemies isn't as clear as people want to believe it is. Once that line is crossed there's no going back over it… no matter how much you might want to. No matter how ashamed you might be. Things can never go back to the way they used to be."

"Yeah… things have changed… because I'm not letting you push me around. I said it before and I'll say it again, I'm not afraid of you anymore." Spider-Man dealt Eddie a sharp headbutt to the face hard enough to make him recoil and drop him, allowing him to use a webline to pull himself back into the air, only to be met with his Spider Sense going off just before the scorpion robot (controlled by Smythe) dealt him a sharp kick to the chest, followed by Electro hitting him in mid air with a powerful blast of electricity, causing him to cry out in pain as he fell towards the ground below, until…

"I got you!" Ghost Spider swooped in and grabbed Spider-Man by the arm before he could hit the ground "You okay?"

"More my dignity than anything else, assuming I actually have any left." Spider-Man let out a groan as he webbed a line and began swinging alongside Ghost Spider "Any suggestions about this?"

"You've fought them as a group before, you're the better choice to take the lead in dealing with them. What does your experience tell us?"

"That if we try to take them all on at once then we're screwed, unless you got a Symbiote that can fight your battles for you while you're sleeping. We gotta try and gain some distance, it works better with the whole divide and conquer thing unless-" Spider-Man was cut short by his Spider Sense blaring, just in time for the two of them to maneuver out of the way of an energy blast from Scorpion, followed by Vulture swooping in past them "Like I said, try the divide and conquer move!"

"Got it, I'll try and start by grounding the bird!" Ghost Spider latched onto Vulture's back with a webline and moved to try and disable his wings in the form of punching the back on the back of his suit, only to end up recoiling in pain, the same with his headpiece.

"Like I said to the first Spider, this dog isn't too old to pick up a few tricks. Reinforced with stainless steel for extra protection, and relocated the power source for my suit, so I won't be going down as easily as before."

"To which I counter with, boot to the head." Spider-Man suddenly dropped down and landed a sharp kick to Vulture's head, sending him hurtling to the ground and directly into the center of a large web below, leaving him bound… but also leaving Spider-Man open to be grabbed by the arm by the scorpion robot and thrown to the ground with a loud crash.

"Spidey!" Ghost Spider tried to rush to Spider-Man's side, only to once again find herself being grabbed by Doc Ock's tentacles.

"That's the thing my dear, the so-called heroes of this city aren't the only ones that know how to learn from previous mistakes." Doc Ock wasted no time in throwing Ghost Spider across the street to where one of his companions was waiting.

"Dammit kid, move!" against his will, Scorpion pounced at Ghost Spider and unleashed a beam of energy at point blank range, sendingh her hurtling to the ground with a loud crash, to which he cringed visibly 'Dammit… Sorry kid, not much I can do in this situation. But you're smart, you'll figure out a way. I got no reason to doubt that.'

"Yeah… this isn't working…" Spider-Man quickly helped Ghost Spider back onto her feet and the two of them retreated onto a nearby rooftop "If my history lessons were anything to go by, trying to take on these guys all at once is pretty much asking to get your face slammed into the ground."

"So I've learned." Ghost Spider lifted up the bottom part of her mask to spit out some blood "So what do we do?"

"We gotta fall back for now, try and regroup and think of a plan." with that said, Spider-Man latched onto a manhole cover in a nearby aley "All goes well, at least a couple of them can't follow us down here."

"Kraven will not be denied his pray!" Kraven let out a snarl as he tried to pounce toward both of the Spiders, only for them to slip down into the sewer before he could reach them, to which he unleashed an animalistic roar.

"That will be quite enough my feline friend." Doc Ock made his way into the alley, with Eddie, Scorpion, Electro and Smythe right behind him "I shall head down myself to conduct the search through the sewers, you will accompany me. The rest of you on the other hand, I will need to free the Vulture so he may rejoin us. Electro…"

"Don't worry Doc, I still remember from last time." Electro let out a sigh "None of my powers down with the water, I got it."

"Wise decision. In the meantime, I'll need you and the others to help Mr Smythe with making some final preparations for his own personal project." Doc Ock gave a nod and made his way down into the sewers, with Kraven following behind him.

The arrival of the Sinister Seven members in the sewer didn't go unnoticed by Spider-Man and Ghost Spider as the two of them hid in the shadows of the sewer, quickly taking the first chance they could to retreat into another tunnel and gain some distance from the group 'Good thing the stench of sewage helps to mask our scents so Man's Worst Friend can't track us down as easily as they'd like, but what I wouldn't give to get some backup right about now. The Turtles are one thing, but seriously, where in the shell are the Avengers whenever I'm stuck fighting for my freaking life?'

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the hero group in question…

"We got your message ." Captain America strapped his shield onto his back as he made his way into a certain lab, with Black Widow and Hawkeye trailing close behind him, and found Stark typing away at a large computer console in the center of the room "So what's the situation Iron Man?"

"Take a look at this." Stark directed the group's attention towards the monitor sitting in front of them "Last night the energy sensors I installed after the AIM attack on the tower went ballistic. It was only for a few minutes, but they began to pick up huge fluctuations of interdimensional energy, concentrated various different locations around the city."

"You think this means the Kraang are finally getting ready to launch their invasion?"

"If what we heard from the Turtles and the Spiders are anything to go by they could be, plus they did mention the Kraang being able to open up smaller portals wherever they want. But that isn't the weird part."

"We're talking a huge alien invasion and that's not weird for us?" Black Widow asked dryly.

"It stopped being weird years ago. Anyway the thing is, whenever these readings popped up I could only assume it was one of these portals, but my scanners didn't pick up any alien life signs emerging from them."

"So what then, they using some kind of cloaking field or something?" asked Hawkeye.

"That was my guess at first, but I screwed around with the settings a little bit and I figured out what the problem was. Whoever was coming out of these portals wasn't alien, they were full blooded human."

"So they've got regular folk helping them out?"

"The Spiders and the Turtles did mention that they teamed up with this Goblin Nation, and god knows word's been going around about them lately."

"Which raises another question." this was when Wasp suddenly popped up in front of the rest of the group "If these Goblin Nation guys are really working with the Kraang then what are they planning to do?"

"Pretty sure it's gonna be something bad, that's usually how this goes."

"That is a matter of perspective." a new voice drew the attention of the group to where a new image appeared, revealing a hooded figure clad in a purple and green suit "But if you really are worried then I can confirm for a fact, you should be. For it's only a matter of time, as it always has been, until the moment of truth comes."

"Oh boy, villainous monologue with the face covered never ends well." Stark breathed a small sigh "I'm gonna go ahead and guess you're this so-called Goblin King we've been heaving so much about?"

"That is the name I have chosen to go by in recent times, yes. And to give you a fair warning, anyone and everyone that gets in the way of my ambitions will not receive mercy. But I can expect you already knew of that, didn't you? Earth's Mightiest so-called Heroes are clearly no strangers to walking into the jaws of death time and again."

"I chucked a nuke into an alien wormhole, what do you think? But tell me something Great Pumpkin, what are insurance rates gonna be like with you and the Stormtrooper rejects taking over the planet together?"

"First off, what makes you think that I intend to share this world with the Kraang? I'll have you know Mr Stark, that there's a war brewing between the new world order and the newest, AKA my world order. The winner will be the one that understands how the world works today, and isn't afraid to make it his. If you meet that criteria, come and show me face to face. Otherwise, I'll be more than happy to put some of your assets to good use." and then the image of the Goblin King disappeared… but the communication itself didn't cut out before alerting the group to the sound of explosions and screaming in the background.

"Okay, that… that never ends well."

"Yeah no shit, screaming and stuff blowing up is never good." Hawkeye noted dryly "So what the hell is our plan?"

"Whatever it may be the fact is clear, people are in trouble and we have the responsibility to step up and protect them. Avengers, assemble." Captain America made the call as he pulled his shield off his back.

"Yeah, still waiting for the others to show up." Black Widow pointed out dryly.

"Then let's make sure we have something to work with by the time they get here. Iron Man, is there any chance you'll be able to track the Goblin King?"

"I'm already recalibrating my scanners." Stark told him "But right now he could be anywhere in the city, maybe in the world."

"Pardon me sir." the voice of JARVIS drew the attention of everyone present "But there has been a security breach at Avengers Tower, an intruder within the Arc Reactor chamber."

"...Or he could be breaking into the Tower. Go after one of my assets, obviously he means the Arc Reactor because why the hell not? Okay Cap, do the thing."

"As I said before, people are in trouble and that's what we're here for." Cap's gaze hardened as he tightened his grip on his shield "Avengers, assemble."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the main hero couple…

"Well that could've gone better, even by my standards, but at least we lost them. Turns out sewer water is great for covering our scents." Spider-Man let out a sigh of mild relief as he dropped off the roof one particular sewer tunnel, only to see Ghost Spider still hanging up there staring off into the distance "You okay?"

"Honestly? No…" Ghost Spider's expression was solemn underneath her mask as she leapt back to the ground "I didn't think it would happen like this."

"Honestly with everything that's happened, it's kind of easy to forget you've never actually gone up against Doc Ock and his usual band of merry misfits before. Kind of crazy to think that before I met the Turtles and learned about the Foot and the Kraang, they were probably the biggest problem I still had to deal with. Never thought I'd say this, but things were definitely a lot less complicated back then."

"True, but I don't even mean them… I mean Eddie." the mention of his name alone was enough to make both of them flinch "I know things have changed so much, but I thought… I thought he was still in there. The Eddie that we used to know I mean… Even after everything he's done, I thought we could trust him…"

"...Yeah. I did too." Spider-Man's face fell underneath his mask "I know how that feels, and how much it hurts… And to be honest, it's been a lot longer for me but it still hasn't gone away. The whole thing sucks… but if Eddie is with Doc Ock and his cronies by choice, then we gotta take them all down. Including him. It sucks I know, but somebody once told me that if man's a man, then he has to honor his responsibilities."

"Well I'll be damned." a new voice drew the group's attention "So the kid does know how to listen after all."

Spider-Man and Ghost Spider whipped around to find three figures standing at the end of the sewer tunnel, one clad in a familiar yellow and red suit with gauntlets on his arms, one hulking figure in a blue suit (Ox) and a shorter figure in a green and red suit, and the former was quick to let out a low whistle 'Great, the New Enforcers back on the scene. Well time to do what I always do, piss off my enemies until they wanna kill me. Well I'll be damned, if it isn't my favorite trio of knockoff rodeo clowns. How's life in the circus been treating you boys?"

"Come a little closer bug and you're about to find out." Ricochet burst forward at full speed and began to bounce off the various walls of the sewer tunnels faster than the eye could see, and he made a beeline for the Spiders mid-bounce… only to be stopped by Ox grabbing him with his giant hands and yanking him back to the ground.

"Take it easy partner, remember that we're here on business." Shocker held out a hand and quickly helped Ricohchet back to his feet "That goes for you and your little missy too Bug, but I'm gonna be leaving the exposition to the boss when he shows up."

"Boss huh?" Spider-Man shared a look with Ghost Spider, then turned his gaze back to Shocker and the New Enforcers "I'm gonna go ahead and guess that's everyone's least favorite knockoff of Frosty the Snowman?"

"Your with is as humorous as always." it was that moment that Tombstone himself emerged from the shadows and came to a stop in front of Spider-Man and Ghost Spider "That is to say, very subjective. But to remind you gentlemen, and the lady present, I believe we have more pressing matters to attend to at the moment."

"Good to see you too Tomby, you never fail to ruin the moment." Spider-Man crossed his arms as his gaze hardened, with Ghost Spider taking a step forward alongside him "So you wanna give us a clue as to why exactly you show up down here like the Slender Man? Seriously though, you even got the same skin tone as him."

"So I've been told. But as I told you in the last time we met face to face, the past is the past and we cannot and should not allow personal bias to get in the way of what needs to be done."

"Credit where it's due at least." Ghost Spider levelled her gaze on Tombstone "At least you can look at the bigger picture. The same can't be said for a number of people I can think of."

"At least some of whom I believe we both are thinking of. But in any case, I believe we have more pressing matters to attend to."

"Aka Doc Ock and his band of misfit minions." Spider-Man noted dryly.

"Correct, and I see you're still getting straight to the point. So you can maintain the things you learn." Tombstone gave a smirk of approval, but his gaze hardened "In any case, I believe the time has come for us to put our own differences aside to attend to a common threat, mainly in the form of the good Doctor Octavius and his own organization wreaking havoc up above. The bad blood we previously shared no longer matters, not in the face of this conflict and other dangerous overarching adversaries."

"Among others, we gotta have a talk about that at some point. But to make a long story short, is this your way of saying you want the six of us to team up against Doc Ock and his cronies up there?" Spider-Man gave a raised eyebrow from underneath his mask "Any chance that's gonna last longer than my truce with Doc and his cronies?"

"At the very least, it will last long enough to ensure that the threat he and his allies pose will be taken care of." Tombstone's gaze hardened slightly as he held out his hand "But be warned that once the good doctor has been subdued, along with whatever other substantial threats may be lurking, as I've heard of in recent times, it will be back to business as usual."

"...Yep, that sounds about right." Spider-Man shared a long with Ghost Spider, and a long moment passed, before the two nodded at each other, and he turned back to Tombstone… and shook his hand, with Ghost Spider doing the same "And I wouldn't have it any other way."

"I see you can be relined upon to listen to reason." Tombstone gave a smirk of approval "It would seem you have learned a few things since our last encounter."

"I'm making the best call to save the city, wouldn't be the first time I've teamed up with guys who tried to kill me before. Now cool it with the small talk, you got some kind of plan?"

"Admittedly since our last encounter, I have had certain… contingencies put in play, just to make sure I am prepared for these kinds of situations."

"Like what?"

"Check and see for yourself bug." Shocker made his way over to one of the walls of the sewer tunnels and pressed on a particular brick, which caused a doorway to open up "Now let's move it before the giant Furries show up here looking for you."

"Right. And in all seriousness, once Doc Ock and his misfit minions are dealt with, we're gonna have some other stuff to talk about." Spider-Man continued following the group through the new passage as he loaded another cartridge into his web shooters 'Gotta get the new models for these things up and running when I get the chance.'

"I gotta ask this at some point." Ghost Spider looked over at Spider-Man as the two of them trailed behind Tombstone and the New Enforcers "Can we actually trust them? I mean I'm all for having new allies to fight the Sinister Seven, but how do we know they aren't going to turn on us the first chance we get? And wouldn't we be better off calling the guys?"

"Yeah I thought about that, but a couple points to make. One, it's a better call for us to keep guys like him nearby than let them run around on the loose. We did that with Doc Ock since he got out of Ravencroft and look how that turned out. Not to mention letting Eddie go off to do his own thing all this time. Plus I'm pretty sure Tombstone knows by this point that as long as the two of us are around, he can't have his way. Two, I checked with the guys and they're all kind of doing their own thing right about now. Raph and Jones are on patrol searching for Karai, April is off meeting up with that got friend of hers before graduation, Mikey's trying to figure out how to live stream the graduation that we still gotta get to after this, and Leo and Donnie are trying to come up with a solid plan to fend off the Kraang invasion. Which I'm gonna try and bring up with Tombstone once Ock's cronies are down."

"Which I will be more than happy to listen to, assuming that my own understanding of the city's current status is correct." Tombstone stopped the group in their tracks, and then he turned to face the Spiders "But now we have to go over our plan of attack on the good doctor. For starters, this passageway will lead into one of my warehouses in the Financial District, and from there we can move to launch a counterattack. But first, we should go over the abilities of each of our new adversaries. I'm sure that we're already aware of the good doctor himself, as well as the likes of the Vulture and Electro."

"Aka the first two supervillains I ever fought. There's Kraven for starters, and I've got a pretty good grip on what he brings to the table." Spider-Man paused for a moment and broke out the

Russian accent " Kraven climb and leap like leopard, run fast as cheetah, and possess strength of lion!"

"...The accent needs work." Ricochet commented dryly.

"Screw you man, I spent months working on that. Anyway then there's Scorpion, he's stuck in a suit of armor that enhances his strength and agility, and as we just found out less than an hour ago, it's got a neural interface that keeps it basically glued to him like a second skin and lets Ock control it however the hell he wants. As for the… I don't know, second Vulture guy, we don't really know. Probably just another carbon coby of Vulture or something."

"Don't wanna go assuming that just yet." Shocker pointed out "The doc's a lot of things, pain in the ass for sure, but predictable ain't on that list."

"No argument there. And then there's the last guy in the hover chair and the mullet… and I have absolutely no idea who he is."

"I'm pretty sure I do." Ghost Spider muttered quietly "While you were… gone, apparently Silver Sable commissioned a scientist to build a giant robot to capture me. Da- Captain Stacy and Turtle Titan ended up coming to rescue me."

"I can vouch, I heard a lotta what was going down." Shocker noted "The Big Man here wanted me to keep tabs on the competition, turns out some were making moves on the lot of you, like with the Sable woman."

"So I learned. Anyway with their help I managed to escape, and we all got out safe when the building started burning… but the scientist who built the robot didn't get out in time."

"I know very well who you're referring to." Tombstone frowned for a moment "Spencer Smythe, a robotics scientist and a master of his craft. It's no wonder why Silver Sable would insist on going to him to try and defeat you. I had heard word of his death some time ago, so the one that you encountered must have been Allistar Smythe, his only son."

"We got a look at what he has, a giant scorpion robot."

"Assuming he only stopped with one. You've only seen one up to this point, but if Mr Smythe is anything like his father, we may very well end up having to expect a whole army before the day is out." Tombstone paused and looked up at the rest of the group "Fortunatley for all of us, I may have a plan to subdue all of our enemies simultaneously. I can imagine that once you retreated from your first encounter with their group, you fled here into the sewers, correct?"

"That's right."

"And you've witnessed by now it may very well be impossible to defeat all of them when they're united, therefore the best strategy is to divide and conquer."

"Sounds decent enough to me at least. They've got three down here in the sewers, the other four doing god only knows what back up top." Spider-Man shared a look with Ghost Spider, then did the same with Tombstone "Here's what I'm thinking. We split into two teams. One stays down here to deal with the search party, the other goes back up to deal with the rest of the misfit minions and probably a little bit of emotional baggage." he paused and looked around at the rest of the group "And it's probably better to try and divide it up evenly."

"You wanna elaborate on that one bug?" Shocker gave a raised eyebrow from underneath his mask.

"I'm saying that if we wanna make sure of fair play when we split up, we try and split it up kind of evenly. There's four of you guys and two of us."

"In other words, you want to keep an eye on myself and the New Enforcers so that we can't have our own way, whether you're around or not. Well played." Tombstone gave a smirk of approval, though his gaze quickly hardened once again "I'll be taking the liberty of travelling up to the surfacee myself, and I can only imagine one of you Spiders will be going as well."

"Try narrowing it down further Tomby, if you're headed after the cronies up top then I'm going with you."

"To keep an eye on me you mean."

"You said it, not me. So one of the Trio de Dangers over there is gonna come then?"

"If we're adhering to your plan of action, then yes." Tombstone paused for a moment as he cast a glance over at the New Enforcers "Now then… Ox. You'll accompany myself and Spider-Man to the surface to combat the members of the Sinister Seven present up there. And judging by the process of elimination, I can only assume that will leave miss Ghost Spider down here to contend with Doctor Octavius himself, along with his own present companions, with added assistance in the form of Shocker and Ricochet."

"And to make a long story short, get them while they're split up and beat the ever loving crap out of them."

"Essentially yes." Tombstone pushed another button on the side of the wall, causing it to open up and reveal a set of doors, which opened up to reveal an elevator "Or in laymen's terms, divide and conquer."

"Except they're already divided so now it's time to conquer." Spider-Man and Tombstone shared a nod, and then he turned his gaze toward Ghost Spider "You cool with this?"

"Yeah… Yeah, I think so." Ghost Spider looked over at Shocker and Ricochet, then turned her gaze back toward Spider-Man and gripped her hand reassuringly "I guess I'll see you on the other side?"

"Yep, just one last chance to kick some ass before the big moment." Spider-Man gave a nod, and then he made his way into the elevator with Tombstone and Ox, the doors shutting behind them almost immediately after 'You'd better be ready Bro, because I'm coming for you. The same with the rest of your buddies. But until then… You know before I forget Tomby, as much as I wanna puke at the idea of it, I think I'm gonna have to take a page out of your playbook."

"In what regard exactly?" Tombstone raised an eyebrow.

"You called me up out of the blue once awhile back to give me a heads up about a guy that's all kinds of bad news. Long story short, Shredder isn't the only one in the city you gotta worry about right now."

"I'm well aware of the activities of the Goblin Nation. They've actually made various attempts to move in on some of my territory."

"So I've heard, but I'm not talking about them. Since I beat the Green Goblin last time, I've been in the middle of-"

"Spectacular, spectacular, Spider-Man. Spectacular, spectacular, Spider-Man." the brief conversation was cut short by the sound of quiet singing behind them, earning Ox a series of looks from both Spider-Man and Tombstone "What? It's catchy."

"And kinda gives me deja vu. Where did you hear that?"

"A kid in my neighborhood, heard he's been mixing that song for awhile."

"...Good to know. Probably gonna have to talk to Hobie about that one later.'

"You were saying?" Tombstone drew his attention back to him.

"Right… You ever hear of guys calling themselves the Kraang?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the wayward heroine…

"Okay hold on, let me see if I've got this." April shot a raised eyebrow at Irma as the two of them made their way down the sidewalk "What's it called again?"

"It's most commonly known as having a case of schadenfreude." Irma told her "It originates from the German language, it refers to enjoying the failings of another."

"You speak German?"

"No not really, just a little something I picked up. Spend enough time on the internet and you tend to pick up a few things."

"Fair enough I guess. Not like I'm one to judge." April gave a shrug "I actually did learn a little bit of Japanese from… a couple of friends of mine."

"You talking about these mystery friends of yours that you refuse to let me meet?"

"Yep, those are the ones." April paused as she took in the raised eyebrow Irma was sending her way "Getting a sudden interest?"

"Not so much sudden as steadily accumulating over a period of time. As in all of the times that I've heard you talk about them yet refuse to introduce me to them."

"...Oh god, we're doing this now aren't we?"

"Yes, yes we are." Irma paused at the sound of vibrating and looked down at her cell phone 'A message from his majesty the so-called Goblin King. Looks like he's progressing on his part of phase one, getting Earth's supposedly Mightiest Heroes out of the picture. Which means it's about time for me to get Miss O'Neil into position.'

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the above ground villains…

"Okay I know the Doc doesn't like it when people question him, but I gotta ask this at some point." Electro glanced over at where Alistar Smythe sat in his hover chair "Doc said that your family was really good with building robots right?"

"That is correct." Smythe gave a simple nod "My father taught me everything I know about robotics, and Doctor Octavius offered me the chance to avenge him while simultaneously honing my own skills in the craft."

"Okay… Cause he said you were gonna build him an army or something… and you only showed off the one scorpion bot so far."

"First of all, I refer to it as the Scorponok. Second of all, he did want me to create an army but I came up with a more elegant solution that would satisfy us both."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning why would you make an army, when you can have someone or something make an army for you?" Smythe gave a smirk, only to be met with blank staring from Electro.

"...Isn't that why the Doc brought you on?"

"Okay, perhaps I need to give some more context here." Smythe pulled out a tablet from within his hoverchair and began typing away at it until it showed the image of a scorpion, which he held up to Electro "You see this here?"

"Okay I get the Doc has a fondness for scorpions, but he wants you to build an army of them for him?"

"Not quite. Scorpions are a rare and fascinating species, as Doctor Octavius himself is very much aware of, but the key here is that they have the ability to self-replicate through a process known as parthinogenesis. To put it in laymen's terms, it has the ability to make clones of itself. And on another front, both myself and the doctor have been experimenting with a certain mutagenic substance that's been causing chaos around the city over the recent months." he pulled out a canister of mutagen and placed it into the back of the Scorponok robot's tail "As far as we can understand, this substance mutates anything it touches, be it living or non-living. Combine that with a scorpion's capability for reproducing copies of itself, and anything this substance comes into contact with can be made into another Scorponok robot under our control. The wider they spread, the more added into their ranks, and by extension an ever growing army."

"And you get to just with back and watch it happen. Well damn." Electro let out a low whistle, but paused when he glanced over to see Eddie tinkering with his suit away from the rest of them, and so he made his way over to him "Kind of crazy when you think about it."

"Yeah, sure." Eddie just kept fiddling with his suit without looking up at him.

"Kind of crazy to think a tiny little scorpion would be enough to give the Doc a whole freaking army."

"Uh huh." Eddie failed to notice the annoyed look Electro was giving him.

"And look at that, it looks like of them just started spewing out peanut butter."

"That'll happen."

"Oh and look at that, it turns out the Earth's core is actually full of nougat."

"Life can be like that." Eddie briefly paused at the angry surge of electricity Electro was putting out, but still went back to tinkering.

'Fine Brock, you wanna be like that, time to break out the big guns. You know Smythe is using one of his camera bots to try and look at Dr Kafka in the shower."

"I'll kill him!" Eddie bolted to his feet in a rage and briefly emitted a surge of purple energy, only to pause when he noticed the look Electro was giving him "That was a low blow."

"Hey don't blame me cause you're the one zoning out, if that wasn't gonna be enough to snap you out of it then nothing would."

"...We'll call that one a draw." Eddie's face fell as he looked away "I gotta other stuff to think about anyway."

"Look we beat the Spiders back once already, we just gotta stay focused and keep our cool and we'll beat them down again no problem. Would've worked the first time Doc put together the team up if I didn't have Rhino dropped on me. And had a Christmas tree dropped on me the second time. He does that a lot now that I think about it."

"It's one of his things, but it's not that. It's just…" Eddie let out a sigh "Thinking about what she said before. Ghost Spider I mean."

"The Spider chick? What about her?"

"She said before that with all of this, the fake alliance and turning on them in less than a week, siding with you guys… she said I crossed a line. What if… What if she's right?"

"Well if you ask me, who gives a crap what the Spiders think? The first time I met the OG, he made a fool out of me and ripped my freaking helmet off. If you ask me he deserves to get his webhole handed to him."

"I got my own gripes with him, but Gw- Ghosty… she's not like him. She never actually did anything to hurt any of us. I mean except Smythe, I can't really say for sure what went down with the two of them."

"Not directly with him, but it's kind of a long story. Anyway don't look so down about it, just look on the bright side." Electro patted Eddie on the shoulder "We just gotta keep following the Doc's lead, then soon enough we'll be in charge of the whole city and we'll get to do whatever the hell we want."

"Uh huh… But what if I'm not so sure about what I want anymore?"

"If you're gonna have a moral crisis, pretty sure now would be the time to do it." came a dry voice, courtesy of where Scorpion was forced onto all fours crouched by Smythe's chair "Not to mention figuring out a way for me to get my freaking body back."

"I'm sure that would be on the table if any of us believed you wouldn't use your tail to blast us in the face the first chance you got." came the equally dry retort from Vulture via comlink from where he flew in the skies above on patrol, followed by a brief pause "Hm. Probably something else to look into when we get the chance, if Mr Brock's previous testimony on other matters is anything to go by?"

"What are you talking about?" asked Eddie.

"If memory serves, you mentioned that you previously allied yourself with that group of mutated Turtles against the organization known as the Kraang, correct?"

"Yeah, you said something about teaming up with them yourself awhile ago."

"That I did, but in different circumstances. You mentioned that at one point you discovered that one Miles Warren, or the Jackal as he calls himself now, was conducting cloning operations in league with the Kraang on one April O'Neil if I'm not mistaken."

"What about it, she trying to come at you or something?"

"No, but I do have a visual on her, and my scanners are showing… some sort of anomaly close to her. Since my encounter with those Turtle creatures and the Kraang, Otto has upgraded my own scanners to pinpoint any nearby Kraang technology within range."

"What kind of Kraang tech?"

"Some sort of camouflage no doubt, given that they're walking down a sidewalk in the middle of the day without drawing any attention."

"Wait, hold on a second." Scorpion suddenly spoke up from his place on the ground "Can you send me the footage from your scanner?"

"Why?"

"I hope to god I'm wrong about this, but I think I know what you're looking at."

"Fine, just give me a moment." there was a pause, and then a beep, allowing Scorpion to get a look at the footage on his visor, causing his face to go pale underneath his mask.

"Oh… Oh god no… This is really bad…"

"What is it, what's wrong?"

"I know what, or who you're looking at with the O'Neil girl. That's not just another random human disguise for a Kraangdroid, that's their second in command. Subprime." that was enough to make a few people's blood run cold.

"Are… Are you sure…?" Eddie was the first one to break the silence, albeit his voice very soft and his teeth grinding furiously "Are you absolutely sure you're seeing Subprime?"

"Don't forget that I was with the Goblin Nation for awhile, I got to see a lot of the higher ups with them and the Kraang. Not to mention Subprime was the one who conscripted me into that hell hole in the first place. I'm pretty damn sure I know what she looks like."

"Son of a bitch…"

"...Not gonna lie, didn't see that coming." Electro broke the silence "Now it's looking like the whole "stabbing the Spiders in the back so soon" thing wasn't the best idea. But does that mean we're about to get a freaking alien invasion?"

"Yep… and a lot more than that."

"We gotta tell the Doc about this."

"A lot more than him. We gotta tell the Spiders and the others about this." Eddie leapt back to his feet and put his suit back on, but just before he could activate it he was stopped by the sound of a loud crash… and then a giant slab of concrete hitting Electro in the face hard enough to send him hurtling to the ground "What the-"

"Aw dammit, you were right." as it turns out, Spider-Man had swooped down onto the scene, with Tombstone and Ox not far behind him "Turns out the big guy can throw further than me. I wanna call BS on that, but we got other stuff to deal with. Like idiots one through five over there."

"Idiots?!" a burst of electricity erupted as Electro leapt back to his feet, visibly seething with rage "Alright, listen here you wall crawling son of a-" he was immediately cut short by a giant web falling over him and pinning him to the ground, but he was quick to burn through it with another blast of electricity.

"Cool it with the language Thunder Thighs, pretty sure there are kids nearby." Spider-Man was quick to leap upwards to dodge the blast of electricity, only for his Spider Sense to alert him to where Scorpion was lunging at him, which he managed to maneuver around… just in time for the Vulture to swoop in and deal him a sharp kick to the chest hard enough to send him flying a short distance, until he managed to rebound on the side of a building "Hey quick word to the wise Vulture, quit while you're behind. You're not even original anymore."

"The same can be said for you webslinging brat!" Vulture swooped in and began flying over the battlefield, dodging the barrage of impact webbing being fired at him.

'Okay if last time is anything to go by, trying to lure them away isn't gonna work so easy, so I guess I'm gonna have to get creative. Plus he was really protective of that colorful headset of his before, so try and make a grab for that then.' so with that in mind, he leapt onto another building to avoid Vulture's attempt to swipe at him and latched onto him with a webline.

"Not this time wall crawler!" Vulture spun in mid air to sever the webline, only to find another one latched onto his torso that Spider-Man used to launch himself into the air "Stop it you fool, you don't understand what-"

"Not as fun as the coaster at Coney Island, but still a fun time either way." Spider-Man took the chance to land on his back and fired a single shot of electric webbing at the Vutlure's head piece, resulting in a sizable surge that caused it to short out, leaving Vulture to cry out in pain and lose consciousness, and Spider-Man to pin him to the side of the wall in a large web 'Okay one down, four to go up here. So which one is gonna be next to-'

"Head's up kid!" Scorpion suddenly pounced on Spider-Man and fired an energy beam from his tail at nearly point blank range "In all seriousness this isn't the time to fight, believe it or not we actually are on your side."

"You I believe, Doc Ock and his pack of Oompa Loompas, not so much. Just give me a minute, all goes well and I can find a way to cut Ock's link to your suit. Either that or Gwen will."

"Forget about that, you gotta listen kid. The Kraang are about to make their move, Subprime is already-" Scorpion didn't get to finish before a car suddenly hit him in the face, courtesy of Ox throwing it at him, and getting sent crashing through the wall behind him.

'Subprime? Didn't Eddie say that was name of the Kraang who… killed our parents? Gonna have to look into that later. In the meantime, who's next?'

"Hey web freak, get a load of this!" Electro suddenly launched himself upwards with a rapid surge of electricity and began firing a series of blasts at Spider-Man, forcing him to go back on the evasive.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, in the sewers…

"Evidently the Spiders are both very skilled in the practice of evasion." Doc Ock gave a scowl as he and Kraven continued making their way through the sewers "I don't suppose you've been able to relocate the scent of either arachnid?"

"The spiders, they mask their scent well. Kraven has been unable to-" Kraven paused and took another sniff around him, and he let out a low growl "Yet Kraven has caught another scent, one that is unfamiliar."

"Really now? It would seem that the Vulture's claims of Spider-Man having garnered some new terrapin allies bear fruit after all."

"No." Kraven took another sniff and gave a scowl "This scent I detect, is not reptillian. It is the scent of man, and it comes from-" he was cut short by a wave of green energy ripping through the wall of the sewer tunnel in front of them and sending Kraven flying through the wall behind him.

"Oh? This should be interesting." Doc Ock gave a collected smirk as he took notice of the figure emerging from the smoke in front of him "I have to say this is quite the surprise, here I thought such a role was beneath you Shocker."

Sure enough, Shocker was the one to emerge from the smoke and debris, readying his gauntlets for another blast "That's where ya wrong Doc, cause nothing wrong with a man honoring some of his responsibilities. Especially not if the take is worth our while."

"Our while?" Doc Ock readied himself for Shocker's next attack… only to be met with a red and green blur blitzing across the tunnel in the form of Ricochet bouncing off the walls, while also ramming Doc with enough force to send him careening backwards, though he quickly used his arms in order to stop himself "Ah I see, so the Enforcers have entered the fray. I can only assume that this includes the involvement of one L Thompson Lincoln."

"The chief is going topside to help the main bug take out the rest of your crew, but in the meantime you and the walking furball over there are gonna be dealing with us."

"You and your fellow Enforcers I take it? I'm well aware of what you can do Shocker, the same with your friends."

"Maybe, but you haven't seen what the ladybug has got up her sleeve yet."

"Ladybug you say?"

"Pretty sure he's talking about me big guy!" it was at this moment that Ghost Spider emerged and perched herself atop the roof of the sewer tunnel "So how do you wanna do this doc, where do you wanna start?"

"I believe it would be best to start with your impalement!" Doc Ock lunged at Ghost Spider in a rage and let two of his tentacles fly forward, spinning rapidly and creating makeshift saw blades at the end of each arm.

"I've already had enough of close calls with that to last a lifetime, do yourself a favor and try to come up with something new!" Ghost Spider leapt away to avoid the tentacles, only for them to carve through the roof of the sewer tunnel (revealing the sun shining above them), and then she went back on the evasive "Now!"

"On it little missy!" giving an opening for Shocker to unleash a burst of energy from his gauntlets to send Doc Ock bursting through the roof of the sewer tunnel and into the open street above them "Hate to break it to you, but that ain't gonna be enough to put the big man down for long."

"I figured as much. You two take care of Kraven, I'll go after Doc Ock." Ghost Spider webbed a line and launched herself up through the hole in the sewer tunnel toward the street above.

"Well you heard the lady partner, guess we're gonna be on cleanup crew for now."

"Meh, could be worse." Ricochet rolled his eyes underneath his mask "At least this cat is gonna be a hell of a lot easier to clean up after."

"Doesn't mean it's gonna be easy to put it down though."

"Be silent welps!" Kraven let out a snarl as he leapt back to his feet, just in time to avoid a blast of Shocker's gauntlets, taking the chance to pounce at Shocker and pin him to the ground, using his claws to crush one of the gauntlets in his hand.

"Hold it whiskers, you're getting a face full of me now!" Ricochet launched himself forward and began bouncing off the walls as he made a beeline toward Kraven at full speed.

"You waste your efforts, Kraven the Hunter will not be deterred by lowly creatures as weak as yourselves!" Kraven managed to dodge and weave his way around most of Richochet's bounces and strikes… only to eventually find himself with a gauntlet pressed against his back "You think this will be enough to stop Kraven?"

"At the very least it's gonna be enough to send a message." Shocker fired a blast at Kraven's back at point blank range, sending him hurtling forward and giving Ricochet the chance to land a series of blows on him from numerous angles, providing Shocker the chance to fire one more blast at him in mid air, sending him hurtling out of the tunnel and toward the street above "You don't look down on the Enforcers without getting your face caved in."

"No arguments here partner." Ricochet glanced up at the gaping hole above them "So what, we go back up the ladybug?"

"I'm doing that, you go back up Ox and the Chief. They still got more numbers."

"Got it, see you later partner." Ricochet gave a two finger salute, and (literally) bounced out of the tunnel and into the open street.

'Great… now to see if that elevator of chief's is still gonna work.' Shocker turned to make his way toward the elevator in question… right before a metal tentacle burst down into the tunnel, latched onto Shocker by the ankle and yanked him back up to street level before he was able to react.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the A team…

'This is proving to be problematic.' Tombstone found himself quickly being forced onto the evasive by simultaneous barrages of both electrical bursts and energy beams, courtesy of Electro and Scorpion respectively "I can understand why the doctor chose to recruit the two of you into his ranks, both of you are clearly proving to be more troublesome than expected."

"In case it slipped your notice Jack Frost, I'm not doing this for fun!" Scorpion found himself being forced to pounce at Tombstone with his claws barred, only for Ox to burst onto the scene and deal him an uppercut hard enough to send him hurtling through the air, though he managed to rebound and land on the ground a short distance away from the group "I'd be a lot more pissed about that if I wasn't being controlled like a freaking puppet. Not like I have a choice in any of this."

"If there's one thing I've learned in my line of work my friend, it's that you always have a choice in everything you do. If you wish to be free from your oppression, be it physical or mental, then you don't wait for someone to give you the chance. You take the initiative and make one for yourself." Tombstone dodged another beam of energy from Scorpion's tail, as well as a stream of mutagen from the tail of the Scorponok robot (leaving it to hit a nearby maxilbox) and then he turned his gaze toward Ox "I believe it would be best for us to divide and conquer with these enemies. If memory serves, Tinkerer made your suit to be non-conductive, correct?"

"Right." Ox gave a simple nod.

"In that case you try and lure Electro away from here, while I handle the Scorpion and his other half myself, perhaps with help from our wall crawling friend up there."

"On it." with that in mind, Ox used a burst of enhanced strength to launch himself at Electro, grab hold of him and subsequently drag him away from the scene.

'Good, that should narrow things down in our favor, if only slightly.' Tombstone glanced up to see a familiar red and blue figure perched on a wall above him "I take it one Mr Toomes has been dealt with?"

"I got Vulture stuck on a new perch taking a long overdue old person nap." Spider-Man gave a smirk under his mask as he leapt to the ground next to Tombstone… only for the two of them to look over at the mailbox doused in mutagen morphing into a new form, that being another metal scorpion robot "And apparently that's a thing now, because of course it is."

"The fact that this strange ooze is able to produce copies of the original robot?"

"I'd bother trying to explain how the ooze works to you, but frankly trying to figure that out is like trying to understand why anyone thought making the Velma show was a good idea. For now just start busting some metal tails, and don't let the ooze touch you."

"Duly noted." with that said, the two of them braced themselves and prepared to charge towards the two scorpion robots.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the wayward one on one battle…

'Not good.' Ox found himself going on the evasive, his mind racing as he avoided the numerous blasts of electricity being sent in his direction by Electro, leaving them to hit various metal objects and structures in their path 'The suit is non-conductive, but if something happens to damage it then I'm in trouble. Big city, lots of metal stuff… but what's non-metal, aside from the pavement?'

"The gloves are off now big guy!" Electro launched himself forward with a surge of electricity and took the chance to launch a nearby car at Ox, hitting him dead on with it and causing it to explode on impact, sending him hurtling high into the air "You might have a fancy insulated suit working for you, but just because I can't fry you directly doesn't mean that I can't blow you to hell and back! So much for the strong silent type, am I right?" he received no reply, until the sound of yelling caused him to look up "What the-"

"Up here!" as it turns out, Ox was high in the air and hurtling down towards Electro at rapid levels of speed "Explosion assists with acceleration, plus factor in elevation and velocity, plus an insulated suit, and now I'm about to make it count."

"...Oh fu-" Elector didn't get to finish before Ox landed on him, resulting in a sizable impact that shook the surrounding area violently… and left him in a crater in the ground in an unconscious heap stuck underneath Ox.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, back with the wayward sewer team…

battle of arachnids…

"Okay this might be because of personal experience, but if you feel shaking like that coming from Manhattan it usually means something bad and/or crazy." Ghost Spider looked over at the sight of the large plume of smoke rising in the distance "I don't suppose anyone knows what that was?"

"Calling it a hunch, but I'm gonna guess Ox went with the old belly flop routine. Works like a damn charm with the-" Shocker didn't get the chance to finish before a metal tentacle grabbed him by the arm (the one with his only remaining gauntlet) and hurled him into the air, providing the chance for Kraven to backhand him hard enough to send him down the street.

'Dammit, looks like he recovered faster than I thought.' Ghost Spider's gaze hardened as a familiar sensation rang through her head, albeit not fast enough to avoid getting hoisted into the air by the leg by a metal tentacle.

"I can imagine that Electro may have gotten his hands a bit more full than expected. No matter, I will simply come to his aid and assist him once I've finished with you." Doc Ock went on to plow forward as he pinned Ghost Spider underneath his tentacles "Now then my dear, let us see if will break as easily as your male counterpart would."

"Is that what you think?" Ghost Spider managed to press two fingers to her palm and launch a webline onto Doc Ock's face, allowing her to pull him in and knee him in the face, sending him stumbling back and giving her the chance to free herself in the process "Because I'm pretty sure that you've never actually beaten him, even when it was six on one."

"Believe me, I'm well aware of such triumphs in his favor. That's why this time I brought seven of us, and together we're going to rip all of you limb from limb!" Doc Ock let out a snarl as he launched himself forward.

"The difference is that he's not alone this time either." Ghost Spider grabbed one of his tentacles and used it to yank him to the ground with a loud crash, only to find herself grabbed by the waist and thrown into a nearby lamp post.

"And I tend to learn from my mistakes." Doc Ock quickly raised himself with his tentacles and tapped the ear piece he wore "Octopus calling Kraven, the Shocker can wait for now. We need to subdue the Ghost Spider quickly and then go and assist Electro. Kraven, do you read?" the only response he received was high pitch static noise, to which he let out a snarl and grabbed Ghost Spider with a tentacle before she could recover "No matter, Doctor Octopus needs no additional assistance to ensure you pay for interfering with my ambitions."

"I'm willing to give you an IOU, but that's about it." Ghost Spider was promptly thrown through a support pillar of a nearby building, causing part of the building itself to crumble away with the debris falling towards a crowd of bystandards, to which she rebounded and launched herself at the crowd and unleashed a web large enough to catch the debris before it could hit anyone, and then she cast a frantic look at the crowd "Hurry and get out of here, make sure to call the police and-" she didn't get to finish before a tentacle grabbed her by the chest and threw her back to the ground with a loud crash.

"Your kind is the cause of my troubles! Of all of our troubles!" Doc Ock was left snarling as he loomed over the downed form of Ghost Spider as he used two of his tentacles to pin her arms down "This city would be mine to rule, I would have the respect I have been denied for so long, if it wasn't for the likes of you PESTS!"

"...Respect? Is that really what all of this is about?"

"I have gone too long with the boot heel of the powerful and rich pressed against my neck, and I will not allow wretches like them or foolish children like you and Spider-Man to deny me the recognition I deserve!"

"The only thing I recognize about you is that your a power hungry sociopath who just causes all kinds of destruction when he doesn't get what he wants."

"You call it destruction, but I call it a display of my power. With great power comes great fear, and with that great fear shall come the great respect I have been denied for so long. And what greater display of power is there then ending the life of one insufferable arachnid!" he was about to bring down one of his tentacles toward her face… only to be stopped by a large furry figure hitting him square in the back, sending him crashing to the ground, and after a moment he picked himself back up and looked over to see the unconscious form of Kraven lying on the ground next to him "Let me guess, I take it we have a certain Shocker to thank for this development?"

"You said it best Doc." it was at this moment that Shocker made his way back onto the scene, now down both of his gauntlets and most of his uniform shredded, but still standing triumphant and unwavering "You already know damn well what I can do."

"Hm. Indeed I do, and I believe the inverse applies as well. Case and point…" Doc Ock's scowl deepend as he used his arms to rip a large piece of concrete from the road and hurled it at the two of them with all the strength his arms had.

"I got it!" Ghost Spider fired to weblines, one to pull Shocker out of the way and another to grab the slap of concret and throw it to the ground directly in front of Doc Ock, resulting in a cloud of dust and debris.

"I will NOT be denied what is rightfully mine!" Doc Ock burst forth through the cloud and let his tentacles fly forward for one final charge.

"You know you call yourself the Master Planner, talk about wanting to be respected for your genius, and yet you don't see your biggest problem." Ghost Spider launched herself forward, grappling her way across the onslaught of tentacles until she got close enough to deal Doc Ock himself a roundhouse kick to the chest hard enough to send him hurtling to the ground with a mighty crash, giving her the chance to swoop in and land directly on top of him "Okay, now to figure out how to-"

"Go for the thing around his gut." Shocker told her "Tap the big round part on the front, it's where he keeps the battery."

"Right." Ghost Spider didn't waste any time in tapping the compartment on the front of Doc Ock's harness, causing it to open up and allowing her to pull out the battery pack, which in turn caused the tentacles to power down and hit the ground with a series of thuds "And just like that, it's over."

"No… Not so long as… the Master Planner breathes…" Doc Ock tried to will himself upright, only to be stopped by Ghost Spider placing a hand to his chest… and intimidated into not trying again by her giving him the Look 'That is… surprisingly intimidating…'

"You know the answer to this is actually fairly simple." Ghost Spider's gaze hardened as she knelt down to look Doc Ock in the eye as she wrapped his body in a layer of webbing "If you really want people to respect you as much as you say you do, then try using that great mind of yours to help someone other than just yourself. Just take a look at the rest of your teammates like the Vulture or Electro."

"They… They respect me."

"Because you didn't use fear. You actually helped them, and from what I can tell you do care about them. Try doing that for other people and it might actually get you somewhere in the long run." with that said, Ghost Spider finished webbing Doc Ock and leapt back to her feet as she turned her gaze to Shocker "At the very least that's two down."

"Three if that big showcase earlier was anything to go by." Shocker pointed out "Got four more to go at most. Only downside is you're gonna have to do it without me Ladybug, without the suit I ain't gonna do too much good."

"At this rate I'll take anything you can offer, but for the time being we should go and help out the others however we can." with that said, Ghost Spider slung Shocker over her shoulder and took off towards the remaining battlefield via a webline.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, at the long awaited event…

'Looks like the moment of truth is just about here.' MJ (clad in her cap and gound) cast a look over at the various crowds of fellow students clad in their own caps in gowns, and then she let out a sigh as she glanced down at her phone 'Gotta be honest, I never thought I'd see the day come with everything that's happened. Hell of a road to get here though, and I'm not even one of the people risking their lives on an hourly basis.'

"Ready for the moment of truth?"

MJ glanced over to see Ben (clad in a red collared shirt and a pair of jeans) making his way toward her through the crowd "That's one way to put it. Assuming we don't have to deal with any more suppervillain stuff. At least it's lucky for us we've got you here."

"Far as I heard that one officer, Captain Stacy I think it was."

"Gwen's dad."

"Yeah him, he was about to call the whole thing off after the whole Mysterio incident, but he talked it over with the other Spiders and apparently he got reassurance they'd keep an eye out for any bad stuff happening in the city. After they made an alliance with Doctor Octopus and the rest of his new Sinister Seven."

"And that was enough to reassure him?"

"Hell no, far as I know they're the ones who kidnapped his daughter at one point to try and blackmail him into taking over the world. That and pretty much all of us think he's going to try and screw everybody over when he gets the chance, so the captain asked me to protect everyone here just in case something happens."

"Uh huh." MJ paused and looked Ben over for a moment "And I'm guessing there's another part you left out?"

"Not really left out, so much as didn't yet mention I've got some extra backup in the form of the local celebrity over there." Ben jerked a thumb at where Sandman could be seen taking a picture with a group of students "Turns out he's garnered a ridiculously huge cult following, and it didn't help to get a little bit of extra backup. Also I'm terrified of getting recognized by anybody in the Goblin Nation, and there's a 70% chance I'm gonna use him as a meat shield."

"Okay then." MJ's gaze softened slightly as she fiddled with the collar of Ben's shirt "Real talk for a second, are you sure you're feeling up for this? Pretty sure this is a lot for you to be dealing with after… You know…"

"Learning that the guys who created me are pretty much the incarnation of evil? I'm not dead, so I'm gonna roll with that and go from there." Ben forced a grin, though it faltered slightly as he turned away from her 'Though aside from that, pretty sure anyone would be as far from okay right now as they could get. How the hell am I supposed to tell anyone that I'm just a genetic clone of Spider-Man made by a guy who's basically the equivalent of Josef Mengele being a giant green furry? But that isn't important right now, we've got bigger things to worry about than me.'

"You still with me?"

"What?" Ben shook his head clear and looked back at MJ "Yeah sorry, just… musing a little, I guess. But still, big day for you."

"Not just me, for pretty much everyone here." MJ cast a look around at the other students "I've got my whole future ahead of me. All of us do really."

"Yep. Whatever it may bring, good or bad."

"Gotta look at the bright side here and there, right? Nothing else matters right now. Not all the supervillain attacks, not all the relationship drama, not the freaking alien invasion. None of it matters in this moment. I doubt anyone will object when I say that we've freaking earned this, all of us."

"Probably even more, how many classes have had to put up with as many supervillain attacks and alien invasions as you guys have?"

"The ones I can think of are Tiger and Gwen, and their little superhero club, which also includes my cousin." MJ paused and looked down at her phone "And speaking of which…"

"Still nothing from either of the Spiders?"

"Nothing, all I'm getting is news alerts about supervillains rampaging over Manhattan in some all out brawl."

"What about O'Neil?"

"I texted her and she said she's on her way, she was a little busy."

"Preparing for the coming invasion?"

"For the most part, but right now she was meeting up with that goth friend of hers."

"Goth friend?"

"Yeah her name is Irma, purple hair with the thick glasses, way too smug and makes your skin crawl. Sound familiar?" MJ glanced up and took notice Ben's gaze hardened "You okay?"

"...I got something to check on later. For now you'd better go get ready, I think the whole thing is about to start." Ben gave MJ a reassuring smile, though it quickly fell as he walked away 'Okay that sounds off… So O'Neil is friends with some goth chick that sounds way more familiar to me than she probably should? I might have to look into this later on… But for now, I'd better get dressed to, how did they put it? Oh yeah, to make the donuts.' and so he took off to find a place to get changed into his… let's call it work attire.

"Good afternoon everyone, thank you for coming." it was at this moment Principal Davis made his way up onto the stage and came to a stop at the podium, prompting everyone present to take their seats, be it graduates or spectators "Allow me to welcome you to this year's ceremony, one that I'm sure many of you feel is long overdue. In some ways it is. Personally, I look at all of the students before me and think back to the first time I saw all of you pass through the doorways of this school and I look at you now, the newest graduating class of Midtown Manhatten Magnet High School. I knew then that you were in for big changes, and the theme of change has never been more important for all of you than it is today. And I tell you now that as you go out into the world, which is changing just as rapidly as all of you, I cannot stress enough how important it is that you take control of your futures. And I understand how you feel. For some of you, it may have seemed like this day would never come. For others, it may have come far too soon. You may even be wondering whether or not you're ready for this. For what will come next. But I look at you and say with absolute certainty, that you are. When I look out at this year's graduating class, what I see is a group of survivors. I see hope. I see a bright new world with a special place for each and every one of you…"

'A special place for us… Sounds kind of nice…' Scarlet Spider listened to the speech as he made his way out into the open and took a perch atop a flag pole, casting a look out into the skyline of the city 'Guess I'll have to figure that out myself at some point… But for now, we've got bigger things to focus on.'

'A special place for every one of us… He's more right than he knows…' from his place within the crowd, Harry Osborn was also listened to Davis' speech and looked down at his phone 'And my place is going to be ready before any of them realize it. They have no idea what they're in for, none of them do. Not even Peter or Gwen… assuming they ever actually get here. Seriously, I know the superhero thing takes up a lot of time but I didn't think they'd miss graduation, not when Gwen is giving the valedictorian speech. What the hell is taking them so long?'

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the remaining battlefield…

"Okay at some point I just have to ask, why the hell is my life like this?" Spider-Man found himself going on the evasive to avoid the strikes of the primary Scorponok robot, only for a familiar sensation ringing in his head to make him whip around in time to find the mutated duplicate attempting to strike him from behind… only to be met with a lamp post being used to beat it into the ground until it lay motionless "But then again it's got its perks, maybe I'll send you some roses this time around Tomby."

"Given our last physical encounter on Valentine's Day, I'd say such a sentimental gesture would be long overdue." Tombstone noted dryly as he landed on they round next to Spider-Man "But you should know that wasn't me."

"Wait, what? Then who?"

"You're looking right at him." it was at this moment that Scorpion landed on the ground next to the two of them and breathed a long sigh of relief "God it feels good to be back in control of my own body."

"So it seems that you chose to listen to me." Tombstone cast a glance over at Scorpion "As I had told you before, you always have a choice on who you allow to control you. To be free from the ones that oppress you one cannot wait to be given the chance, they have have faith in their own sense of self, to take the initiative and make it for themselves."

"This isn't a freaking Disney movie Big Man, the power of believing in myself doesn't really do much in the grand scheme of things. I'm pretty sure this means that someone took out the Doc, and I've got a pretty good idea of who."

"You and me both." Spider-Man caught Scorpion in a quick fist bump, only for his Spider Sense to go off just in time for him to leap away from the group… and immediately get snatched into the air by a winged figure, and his gaze immediately hardened furiously when he got a look at who it was "Great, I should've figured you were gonna come after me." so he dealt the figure in question a swift yet brutal headbutt hard enough to free him, allowing him to land on a nearby rooftop "Well I hate to break it to you bro, but the gloves are off now."

"For the love of- Would you just hold on a second?" Eddie lifted up his mask to reveal his true face and held out his hands "I'm not looking for a fight."

"Yeah well, pretty sure the rest of your little boy band over there begs to differ." Spider-Man cast a look over at where Alistar Smythe was controlling the Scorponok robot from his place in his hoverchair on the street below.

"Look Pete you gotta listen to me, there's something seriously wrong here. That O'Neil girl that you're friends with, she's-" he was cut short by Spider-Man kicking his legs out from under him and sending him crashing to the ground.

"You're not getting your hands on her. Or any of them." Spider-Man lifted up his mask to reveal the face of Peter Park, his gaze hardened with visible anger "Never again."

"Bro you don't get it, you just listen to-"

"You seriously expect me to listen to you? After everything you've done? All the times you tried to hurt the people I care about, just to spite me? Then you try and act like you're finally acting like we're on the same side again, and just stab us in the back." Peter pulled his Spider-Man mask down over his face "Sorry bro, but you've run out of chances with me."

"...So we have to do this the hard way then." Eddie pushed a button on the front of winged suit, which caused a silver battle suit to appear over his body, complete with metal tubes connecting to a specific part located on his back "I can't let you take me down Pete."

"Then go ahead and try to stop me. I'm done pulling my punches with you Eddie, and frankly we're done talking."

"Fine, I will!" Eddie launched himself at Spider-Man as he grabbed him by the waist and then proceeded to talk him to off the rooftop and toward the street below "Pete please, just-"

"Too late bro!" Spider-Man managed to kick Eddie off of him in mid-air and managed to stop himself from falling with a webline latched onto the building next to him, giving him the chance to land safely on the ground "Don't think I'm gonna make this easy for you."

"...Fine. I'd be insulted if you did." Eddie pushed a button on one of his ganutlets and unleashed an enormous burst of purple energy with enough force to send Spider-Man hurtling backwards a sizable distance.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the remaining battle…

"...Okay, so that happened I guess." Scorpion looked up in the direction Spider-Man had been whisked away, and then he cast a look over at Tombstone "So I guess this means that we're on our own for dealing with my copycat over there?"

"So it would seem. And on a similar note…" Tombstone rushed forward and leapt over the back of Scorpion in time to strike the duplicate Scorponok robot with a led club, causing it to fall to the ground and lay motionless "Now then, shall we get down to business?"

"If by that you mean rip into these things like Optimus Prime does in the live action Transformer movies, then let's get to scrappling."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that. Believe me when I tell you that such a task isn't going to be as easy as you like to believe it will." this was when Alistar Smythe made his way toward the two of them in his hoverchair and pushed a button on the tablet seated in his lap, which caused the main Scorponok robot to unleash a spray of mutagen, forcing Tombstone and Scorpion to leap out of the way, leaving the ooze to hit various metal objects in its path (parked car, bench, stop sign, etc) and causing them to transform until they too took on the form of several smaller yet still menacing Scorponok robots.

"...Well shit, you never see a Scorponok in Transformers do that."

"As much as I appreciate someone who understands a solid Transformers reference, I'll have you know this is far more than just a mere single mechanical scorpion." Smythe gestured to where the main Scorponok robot stood beside him "You see my friends, Scorponok Prime here is more than a mere fighting machine. The unique mutagenic serum coursing through its tail is able to do many remarkable things, many of which are actually very grotesque and horrendous."

"Dude I did some work for the guys who made the ooze, you have no idea."

"I'll take your word for it. The results of using such a substance can be… unsettling to be sure, but if it can be harnessed correctly, you can make it a force to be reckoned with. For example, combine this serum with enough scorpion DNA and you can access that creature's capability for parthinogenesis, and turn just about anything it touches into another robotic scorpion that the primary can control as I see fit. Observe." Smythe pressed another button on his tablet, causing the new Scorponoks to start firing energy beams from their tails, resulting in a series of smaller explosions that sent Scorpion and Tombstone hurtling backwards.

"Well this could be going better."

"Perhaps, but it does raise a few questions." Tombstone leapt back to his feet and cast a glance over at Scorpion "You mentioned you at one point worked for the creators of this… ooze, as you referred to it. Is there perhaps a limit to how many duplicates the primary can create?"

"Hell if I know, and frankly hell if I care. Right now my vote is that we get over to the main deal and stop it from shooting out any more of them." with that in mind, Scorpion pounced forward and fired an energy beam from his tail, hitting Scorponok Prime and sending it crashing onto the top of a nearby car.

"Well said." Tombstone paused for a moment as something caught his attention, and then he gave a small smirk "And I believe that we're also in possession of the same thing Mr Smythe here has."

"And what's that?"

"It's called the backup!" it was at this moment that a green and red figure blitzed onto the scene, using his enhanced speed to bounce off of various walls and buildings and smash through every Scorponok robot in his path until it came to a stop, revealing itself to be Ricochet "Sorry to keep you waiting chief."

"On the contrary, I believe you're right on time."

"About 5 minutes ago wouldn't have been so bad either." Scorpion commented dryly "Also I'm pretty sure we're still outnumbered."

"And it's about to get worse." Smythe pushed a button on his tablet, prompting Scorponok Prime to unleash another stream of mutagen onto nearby objects, resulting in the creation of two more Scorponoks.

"I got this one boss." Ricochet launched himself forward amidst the barrage of energy beams being fired by every Scorponok until he managed to get close to Scorponok Prime, dodging an energy beam from its tail… only to end up getting caught in between its mechanical claws.

"This creature is capable of clawing its way past the limitations of the animal kingdom, and now it's going to do the same to you." Smythe pushed a button on his tablet and had Scorponok Prime hurl Ricochet forward at full strength, sending him flying backwards and hurtling into a nearby building with a loud crash.

"Well when in doubt, time for the fastball special!" Scorpion latched onto Tombstone by the leg and hurled him towards Scorponok Prime, giving him the chance to land a smash attack to its head… right before an energy beam struck Tombstone at point blank range hard enough to send him hurtling back into Scorpion, sending both of them crashing to the ground in a heap "Ow… I thought that was gonna go differently."

"They always do." Tombstone leapt upright and pulled Scorpion back onto his feet by the back of his tail "Evidently our current approach isn't working, so we need a new approach to the current situation."

"Fine then Big Man, show me you can put that bring albino brain of yours to actual good use for a change."

"To my understanding, Mr Smythe over there is using a tablet to control Scorponok Prime, and thereby control the other Scorponoks by extension, am I correct?"

"If the large ham in the hoverchair spouting about it is anything to go by, then yeah."

"So all we have to do is close the distance between us and him enough to grab hold of said tablet ourselves and use it to shut down Scorponok Prime, as well as the others.

"Assuming we have any idea ow to get close enough to grab hold of it without getting doused in the mutagen or blown to-"

"Right over here partner!" it was at that moment that Ricochet came bouncing back onto the scene and drew the attention of Scorponok Prime and sending the two of them hurtling toward each other amidst the swarm of already existing Scorponok robots, with Ricochet ripping apart each one in his path with ease while also sending Scorponok Prime crashing into a wall.

"...Yeah okay, I think that could work." Scorpion paused at the sound of a loud crunch, and looked over to see another group of Scorponoks closing in on him "Aw crapbaskets." and then he found himself getting swarmed by them.

"I have to say, you both put up quite the fight against my creations." Smythe gave a smirk as he watched Scorpion being overwhelmed by the Scorponoks "The data I've collected from this will be very helpful in improving my designs even further. But as for this battle itself, I think it's just about over."

"I wouldn't be so quick to claim victory if I were you."

Smythe whipped around at the sound of a voice… only to be met with Tombstone stomping one foot down on the front of his hoverchair.

"It's been said that those who declare victory prematurely are often dealt the most painful of defeats. Also with potential humiliation." Tombstone gave a small smirk as he pushed down further with one leg and held out a hand to Smythe "Now then, the tablet if you please, lest we have to make this more… unsavory." he was immediately handed the tablet in question, and with a few quick swipes he managed to make Scorponok Prime stop in its tracks and fall to the ground with a thud, which in turn caused the remaining Scorponok clones to do the same "And I believe that should do it."

"Wouldn't have said no to a little less evil gloating." Scorpion rolled his eyes as he managed to pick himself up and gestured to a large bite mark in the torso of his suit "Guess that means it's up to the kid to wrap things up from here."

"In that case, I doubt we'll have to wait too long from here."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the battle between brothers…

"Huh, looks like Tombstone is actually good for something after all." Spider-Man glanced down to see Tombstone and the others claim victory over the Scorponok robots "I guess all that's left is to wrap things up on my end." and so he leapt forward with the intent of doing just that.

"Don't think I'm making it easy for you bro." Eddie managed to catch Spider-Man by one of his wrists and crush it, resulting in the sound of a loud crack, before he dealt Spider-Man a fist to the gut that sent him staggering backwards.

"Yeah well… why would you start now?" Spider-Man removed his crushed web shooter from underneath his glove and tossed it to the side, only to suddenly be sent hurtling backwards by a burst of purple energy emitting from Eddie's armor, sending him crashing into a wall directly behind him, though he managed to rebound in time to avoid the manhole AC unit being hurled directly at his head and use a webline to hurl it back at Eddie, hitting him dead on "But to give you fair warning, that's gonna go both ways."

"Like you ever make things easy." Eddie brushed off the rest of the debris from himself just in time to be met with a layer of webbing wrapping around his arms and torso, though he was able to break through it with ease "Case and point, you should've started making this stuff stronger when you had the chance."

"Tell me something I don't know, like how much this is gonna hurt." Spider-Man leapt over an attempt by Eddie to lung at him and landed on top of Eddie's shoulders to try and grab hold of his wings, only to find himself blown off by a burst of purple energy that sent him hurtling off of him, followed by Eddie dealing him a roundhouse kick to the chest hard enough to send him flying off the roof and crashing to the ground of the street below.

"I was trying you warn you." Eddie flew down to the ground to meet Spider-Man at eye level and picked him up in a bear hug before he could recover "If you would just stop trying to fight me and listen for-"

"Don't Eddie, just… don't, okay?" Spider-Man cast a look around to find no civilians and was able to maneuver one arm enough to lift up his mask and reveal the face of Peter Parker, his expression angered but also solemn "It didn't have to go like this. You had a chance to stop with all of the hating… and then you go and join up with guys like these… You know you said that I was a user, that I'd do whatever it took to get what I wanted… even it ended up hurting the ones I care about. Well guess what you're doing now."

"I… I'm doing what I have to do. If gotta take you down to do it then I will. I already proved that before." Eddie tightened his grip around Peter's waist, resulting in an audible cracking, though it was drowned out by the sound of loud mechanical whirring, something that didn't go unnoticed by Peter.

'That sound, Eddie is using hydraulic servos to power this armor. I knew it, they ripped this suit right off of Silvermane didn't they? That means they've got the same weakness, assuming the hydraulics are… there we go. We're done talking." once he caught sight of it, Peter quickly pulled his Spider-Man mask back down over his face and dealt Eddie a headbutt, forcing him to recoil enough to free Spider-Man from his grip, allowing him to leap over Eddie's head and locate the hydraulic located on the back of his suit, which he promptly ripped out with a webline, causing Eddie's armor and wings to power down.

"No, no no!" Eddie was left to look on in horror as the weight of his powerless armor forced him to his knees, though he managed to maneuver one arm just enough to push the button on his chest, causing the armor itself to release him, leaving him to fall out and grab Spider-Man by the ankle.

"End of the line Eddie. It's over." Spider-Man looked down at him as he wrapped Eddie in a thick layer of webbing and turned to walk away, only to be stopped by Eddie grabbing him by the leg 'Oh god, he really wants to drag this out doesn't he?'

"Bro you don't understand, the Kraang and Subprime are-" Eddie was promptly silenced by a shot of webbing over his mouth.

"Stow the bros. That's done." Spider-Man looked down at him with a mix of anger, sadness and hurt, before turning his back on him and making his way over to Tombstone and Ricochet "So that's all of them as far as I can tell, aside from Ock and Kraven."

"We already took care of them on our end." this was when Ghost Spider dropped down onto the scene with Shocker slung over her shoulder, along with the unconscious and immobile forms of both Doc Ock and Kraven, which she promptly sat down next to Eddie.

"That makes five of them, just gotta round up the rest of them."

"Way ahead of you." this was when Scorpion leapt back down onto the scene carrying the unconscious form of Vulture with his tail, and Ox trailing behind him carrying Electro over his shoulder, and he sat them down next to where Smythe sat in his now powerless hoverchair "That makes all seven, so we're good for now. No need to worry about the kid here, turns out all it took to turn off that hoverchair of his is the off switch on the bottom."

"Works for me, time to get down to the real business." with that said, Spider-Man turned his gaze back to Tombstone "So like I was trying to mention to you earlier about the Kraang…"

"Essentially a far greater threat than anything any of us could know." Tombstone's gaze turned hard and serious "Our feuds and squabbles have been confined to this city, but they threaten the world as a whole. Whether we approve of such a thing or not, we're all in this together, and that in itself is the best chance we have at surviving the coming conflict. So as such, when the time comes for the conflict in question… I will fight at your side, if for nothing else then to protect my own assets and interests."

"So long as you aim those assets at them instead of us, we're okay with that." Ghost Spider gave him a nod, and then turned her gaze toward the New Enforcers "Can I assume that applies to the rest of you too?"

"Like I told the bug, if a man's a man then he'll honor his responsibilities." Shocker told her flatly "Following the Big Man is one of mine, so we've got your back in this."

"Good. Now we just have to figure out what to do about Doc Ock and the others."

"Let me worry about them." Scorpion leapt to his feet and finally retracted his armor to reveal the face of Mac Gargan, and he breathed a sigh of relief "I'll keep an eye out on the band of merry misfits over there, you guys do what you gotta do to get ready for the big fight. But before all that, I think you got something else you gotta do."

"No arguments here." Spider-Man paused as he looked down at his cell phone "And we've already crossed into the threshold of being comically late."

"Then we'd better get moving." Ghost Spider webbed a line, but paused and cast one final look over at Gargan, and she gave him a small smile underneath her mask, one that he returned, before she swung away from the scene, with Spider-Man doing the same.

"And then there were four." Gargan looked back at Tombstone "I'm guessing this is where we go our separate ways until the time comes?"

"That's where I'm headed anyway." Shocker let out a sigh as he started walking away "I need a freaking drink after all that."

"It's 11 AM."

"And I got claw marks in places I didn't know they could reach, I earned it. Call me if you need me Chief, but not until then." Shocker gave Tombstone a quick two-finger salute, and then he took his leave of the scene, with Ox and Ricochet following close behind him.

"Then there was one."

"Soon to apply only to you. If the given threat is as serious as I've been made to believe, then I have my own preparations to make." on that note, Tombstone turned in his heel and walked away from the scene without another word.

"Yeah you do that, the same with the rest of us." Gargan turned his gaze towards where the rest of the Sinister Seven (now reduced to six) sat around each other "You did keep Sarah safe from the Goblin Nation until now, and I'm grateful for that… But I'll be damned if I let anyone use me like a freaking meat puppet for their own ends. Just call this a little show of how far I'll go to do what I have to do."

"A point that we share my friend. Such a shame, you would've made a fine addition to our ranks if you were properly loyal."

Gargan whipped around at the sound of a new voice… only to see a purple flash before a metal hand gripped him by the throat and unleashed a surge of electricity powerful enough to send him flying backwards and crashing to the ground in a heap.

"Oh well, I suppose they can't all be as enlightened as the rest of us." the Jackal gave a wicked smirk as he loomed over the bound forms of Doc Ock and the others, and then he tapped the com link he wore "Jackal to Goblin King, the so-called Master Planner and his followers have all been thoroughly subdued. I trust everything is ready on your end?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the hidden mastermind…

"Jackal to Goblin King, the so-called Master Planner and his followers have all been thoroughly subdued. I trust everything is ready on your end?"

"Just about ready on my end." It shan't be long now…" the Goblin King gave a wicked smirk as he watched the Arc Reactor surge with purple-colored energy "Just a bit more time, and I'll have taken the first step toward making my ambitions into reality.

"Osborn!" the moment was rudely cut short, courtesy of Iron Man and the rest of the Avengers (Captain America, War Machine, Wasp, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Hulk, Thor, Falcon, Black Panther) arriving on the scene in full force "Go ahead and give it up while you can, about to take your ugly green butt down for good. Step away from the Arc Reactor and surrender before this gets uglier than it has to be."

"Is that what you think Mr Tin Man? Well I don't know what your talking about, because this little Goblin here wouldn't be caught dead commtiting a misdemeanor. You can ask everyone's least favorite wall crawler about that."

"Hulk doesn't need to ask anyone to know who to SMASH!" Hulk let out a roar as he pounced forward and dealt him a fist to the face hard enough to send him hurtling across the room and towards one of the walls at blinding speed.

"Well what do you know…? Forget about leg day, apparently Big Green over there doesn't skip any day." Goblin King unleashed a burst of green energy from both hands to stop himself from crashing directly into the back wall, albeit blowing out a chunk of it in the process, which also allowed his glider to soar into the building just in time for him to avoid a strike of Captain America's shield and duck under a blow from Thor's hammer, as well as a few Repulsor blasts from Iron Man and WarMachine "And apparently some people just love to come in and ruin the party. Guess I should've taken Spider-Man's advice, put out a few snacks for the guests. But at the same time, goes to show the importance of knowing how to DODGE.'

"Warning, high concentrations of unknown energy source detected." the voice of JARVIS rang throughout Avengers Tower.

"Ah like the old saying goes, timing is everything." Goblin King's smirk grew ever wider at the sight of the energy surrounding the Arc Reactor growing more potent, prompting him to push a series of buttons on the gauntlet he wore on his arm "Lucky for me, I at least thought to bring one giant party favor. Here's hoping everyone's ready for a big BANG!"

"This is bad, he's harnessing the power of the Arc Reactor to turn it into one gigantic interdimensional portal! Cap, Hulk, Thor, somebody hurry and take it out!" Iron Man was quick to give the order.

"Hulk doesn't need to be told to SMASH!" Hulk let out another roar as he pounced at the Arc Reactor, with Thor aiming a blast of lightning.

"Well too bad the party has to end so soon, but let old Gobby give you lot a nice little going away present!" Goblin let out a cackle as he pushed one last button, unleashing a large surge of purple energy from the Arc Reactor.

"FOR MIDGARD!" Thor fired a blast of lightning at the Goblin King as he and the others were about to close in… only for it and him to disappear from view mere inches away from the face of the Goblin King, with the other Avengers disappearing one by one in an instant, until all of them had faded away.

"Well well well, so much for Earth's Mightiest Heroees. If that was all it took to earn that little title, they might as well have added Squirrel Girl into their ranks! The Avenger are no more, and this world is just ripe for the taking!" Goblin King let out a cackle full of triumph, though after a moment it died down and he pulled off his mask to reveal the face of Norman Osborn, and he quickly tapped the ear piece he wore "Goblin King to Subprime. Phase one is complete, the Avengers have been scattered across the 10 Dimensions. I did my part and now it's time to initiate phase two. Get the O'Neil girl into position. The nearby squad of soldiers should take it from there." he paused for a brief moment as his smirk grew wider and even more wicked "The time has finally come, at long last the reign of the Goblin King is about to begin!"

A/N:

Well we're getting there folks, just one step closer to the end. First off, sorry this one took so long to get out. I've had a lot of stuff going on. Work stuff, family issues, and I spent about a weel and a half binging the new Sparking Zero game, which was totally worth it, aside from one Bonus Battle that was so hard I felt my brain boiling with rage. For those of you who played the game, I think you know which one I'm talking about.

But getting onto the chapter itself, I've included just about everything I can think of in this one. Alliances being broken almost as quickly as they were formed, new alliances being built on the ashes of the old one, betrayal and heartbreak, friends and loved ones being ripped apart from each other, and all of this was just in the first part. Truth be told I was going to include everything from the invasion, but when I saw how high the word count was getting when the actual invasion hasn't even started yet I decided it was better to split it up into two separate chapters. I don't normally do this, especially not when it comes to something as big as the season finale, but I don't want to make it too long and running the risk of losing people.

For starters, we have Doc Ock and his Sinister Seven (himself, Electro, Vulture, Kraven, Alistar Smythe, and unwilling Scorpion, and Eddie Brock in a suit of amror like Silvermane's but with Vulture wings mostly because I couldn't come up with anything better to give him that didn't involve another Symbiote and I'm not ready for that yet) finally making their move and trying to take control of the city for themselves, with Eddie once again betraying the heroes by siding with Doc Ock's group. As such, Peter has decided that the bridge between him and Eddie has been burnt completely. For now anyway. I've still got plans for Eddie, you'll see them for yourselves when the time is right.

Then we have the more insidious forces working in the shadows, in the form of Subprime luring April into the right position for her part of the plan, and even more significantly, the Goblin King taking the Avengers out of the picture so that their plans can go off without significant interference. Truth be told figuring out how to take the Avengers out of the picture was the hardest part for me, especially since I had to do it without nerfing them or making the Goblin seem too OP, even if he is to begin with. So I came up with the best compromise I could in that regard: Take them out without taking them out. Or to be less oblique about it, scatter them across dimensions so they can't interfere.

Oh and one last thing, I want to thank everyone who's reviewed, favorited and followed this story since it was first published, especially those who helped me get to an enormous milestone. This is officially my first story to hit 1,000 reviews! I would never have been able to make it this far without all of your support, and I thank each and every one of you.

That's it for now, I'll be working on the REAL season finale by the time this gets uploaded. I'll definitely get it out by the end of the year, but after that I'll be taking a much needed break from this story to work on some of my others. And maybe explore ideas for using these stories to make some money, maybe set up a or something similar. Let me know what you guys think of that. Once I get that up and running, I'll put the link to it in my profile page and maybe an update on the story just to get the word out. It's probably the closest I can get to publishing my stories and making a little bit of cash. After all, what's the worst that can happen? Anyway that's all for now, happy Thanksgiving 2024 to those of you who celebrate it. To all of you, thank you for reading up to this point and stay safe out there.