Issue 21: Avenger's Initiative Part III

Peter and MJ shot out a line of concrete webbing as they jumped around.

Magneto used sharp blades of metal shrapnel to slice their webs to shreds, but that didn't deter either Peter or MJ as they sent out their web-lines to tag him again.

Erik raised his hand and blocked the incoming webs with a wall of iron sand and sent the wave of that very same sand towards the heroes.

Johnny shot off a blaze of white-hot fire that melted the steel around him. However, Magneto learned from his past mistake and kept the metals from overheating and losing their magnetic properties.

Now, the trio of heroes had molten pieces of slag chasing after them.

"Johnny, stop helping!" Peter shouted in an annoyed tone.

"Relax I got this!" Johnny said starting to cool the metals by absorbing the heat.

Magneto took this opportunity to forge the metals into tempered steel swords that started chopping away and stabbing at them.

"Johnny, stop helping!" MJ shouted with a frustrated expression.

"Fine!" Johnny shouted as he stopped messing with the metals and pouted.

Peter was aiming to remove Magneto's helmet, every web-shot he aimed was directed towards the Vibranium cap, and his persistence was starting to annoy Magneto,

While Angel was staring at MJ and Peter she mumbled with wide eyes, "Peter and MJ, are Spider-Man and Spider-Woman?!"

Peter shouted in his mind, "Damnit! I forgot about her…So much for the deny, deny, deny, plan. Man, I suck at this whole identity keeping jig."

Magneto suddenly stopped, and floated in place before saying, "Why do you interfere? Just let me take my fellow mutant way."

MJ stood by her side as she asked Angel, "What do you want to do?"

Angel looked back at Peter and MJ before she smiled at Johnny and said, "I don't want to go. I want to stay with my friends."

"You heard her! Now be a well-behaved evil-mutant-Hiter, and stay here until I say you can leave! Preferably in cuffs!" Peter shouted, throwing off Erik's state of mind again.

Magneto was so pissed off at Spider-Man he completely blacked out in a furious rage. Peter swore he could see the Mutant Villain's eyes glow red and emit a visible aura of hatred.

Gulping at what he brought upon himself, Peter sent a message to MJ through the Symbiote and told her to stall until Charles gets here, "He can erase the memory of Magneto ever seeing our faces."

"Guys, keep him here," Peter said aloud.

"Why do we want him to stay? From what I've seen so far, this guy is kicking our butts. Wouldn't it be better to run?" Johnny asked while guarding Angel.

"He saw our faces dummy! While you parade your identity like some common sponsorship program, our identities need to stay secret. Our family isn't exactly super-powered." MJ said flicking Johnny back in the head.

Peter sent out his new and improved shock-web technique, using his Electrokinesis to power and coat the line of webbing,

Magneto tried to block it with a plate of Iron, but when the lightning infused webbing hit, Erik felt himself lose control of the object and frowned as it fell to the ground.

"What did you just do?" Magneto questioned.

"Electro....Wait, that's none of your business! You're the bad guy! Why should I tell you?" Peter shouted.

He had used an Electromagnetic pulse to scramble the frequency of the magnetic field surrounding the metal, although this trick wouldn't work on a Magneto that better understands his power, for now, it was good enough.

Peter controlled the magnetic field and returned it to normal. But, he wasn't sure if he could keep this up for long, his control was and practice with his Electrokinesis was rather lacking.

Think of it like Magneto able to broadcast to one radio channel, and by Peter sending out his own and opposite radio wave, it scrambled and disrupted the overall wave.

By repeating this method, the magnetics around the object Magneto tried to control become chaotic and uncontrollable for his current mastery of Ferrokinesis.

If Magneto did have good enough knowledge of his skill, he could just adjust and return the magnetic field to regain control, but Peter wasn't going to give him the time to figure that out. 

While he started shooting his lightning webbing and getting closer to Magneto, Peter managed to notice that Johnny was idling.

Peter then growled and shouted, "Johnny, keep him from flying away."

"Now I can do something?" Johnny asked with a look of surprise.

MJ and Peter both shouted as they launched another line of electrified webbing, "Johnny Start helping!"

"Johnny, stop helping. Johnny, start helping. Make up your minds already!" The Human Torch shouted as he flew into the air and got behind Magneto.

Peter slung his webs into the air and decided to go full electro form.

His suit suddenly flashed and Azure-Blue color before it glowed like lightning. Peter then shot into the air with an insane burst of speed.

At this moment, Peter's new energy form shocked Johnny. He thought back to how Peter used his powers when they were fighting for their lives in the Negative-Zone and said, "Did he copy someone who had a power similar to mine?"

Peter shot past him and launched a lightning bolt that exploded into an EMP.

Sensing danger, Magneto stood on a piece of metal and used it to launch himself out of the range of Peter's attack.

Johnny, however, shot a huge blast of fire at his back. Magneto dogged the attack before he raised his hand and sent a minivan flying at Johnny.

Peter flew by and continued to assault Magneto with blasts of Electro-Magnetic Pulses while Mary began shooting her electrified webbing at all the metallic substances surrounding Magneto.

Peter grabbed the minivan Magneto was using as a projectile with a quickly webbed net. As the car safely lowered towards the ground, Magneto struggled to lift it back into the air.

When the Mutant Villain was about to break Peter's by webbing by stretching toward the sky, MJ jumped on the top of the car while shooting webs around the ground and nearby trees. Spider-Man then thanked MJ as he shot another blast of electricity at Magneto.

Magneto grunted before he narrowly avoided the Azure Blue bolt that ran by the side of his face.

"Hey that was somebody's car and from the looks of it a soccer mom. What are going to do if they can't drive home?" MJ shouted as she was slowly getting the hang of using her Electrokinesis.

Magneto dodged the trio of heroes' continuous assaults with ease. Every time they got close to landing a hit, Magneto would maneuver or block with a pile of iron sand.

"What should I care for mundane things as these?" Magneto said as he waved his hands pulling up dozens of cars from the parking lot.

Peter growled as both he and MJ webbed them all to the ground while Johnny shot fire blast at him and shouted," "Seriously do you think nothing of other people and their problems?"

Peter then blasted several E.M.PS in the air, forcing Erik to dodge by gaining higher altitude as he shouted, "Even if you're a mutant your behavior is simply unacceptable. What if the owner of this vehicle is poor and can't afford a new car? What if they camped out in their car and you just threw their home?"

Magneto's hand twitched as he said, "Why should I care for the lives of humans. I only care about Mutants."

"What if they were Mutants?" MJ shouted as she shot her first electric blast.

Magneto dodged it and actually hesitated, Peter saw this as a chance and attacked with the best weapon he had at his disposal, his mouth, "Look at what you did to the hotel, someone put good money to build this, and I don't think their insurance covers Mutant Terrorist attacks."

Peter could tell he was getting Magneto to lose focus, just a few more insults and he would completely lose focus, "Look Mutant-Hitler, I think we got off on the wrong foot. Couldn't you, well, I don't know, contact her like a normal person?"

Magneto's eyes started to grow bloodshot, as Peter continued to berate him, "Sorry, I forgot you don't consider yourself normal. So, let me rephrase that for you. Couldn't you contact her like a sane and civilized member of the human society? Like, couldn't you have gone to her house on knocked on her door, or even waited for her to come walking out the hotel the next morning and say, hey I was your old man's friend. Wanna come to join my Mutant Nazi group?"

"Annoying Bug!" Magneto had finally lost it. He sent up every piece of metal he could in the area and readied it to be thrown at the trio-of heroes.

Peter grinned as he moved into position beside MJ and nodded. MJ's eyes widened as she received a telepathic message and nodded back.

Peter then flew over to Johnny before saying, "We have to turn his attention out over the ocean and away from the public area."

Johnny looked around and nodded his head before the two dashed off over the ocean.

Magneto was no longer aware of his surroundings. He was solely focused on Peter when he suddenly shot out thousands of metallic constructs from smaller pieces of metal shrapnel to entire cars and even a few empty boats.

Peter grinned as he and Johnny played defense. Peter was dodging through the tornado of debris by using his Spider-Sense while webbing a massive net to catch all of the objects being thrown at them.

"Hey Johnny, this stalker can't take a hint, can he?" Peter shouted as he ran off the surface of a car.

Johnny did his best to avoid Magneto's attacks by following behind Peter and joined him in insulting the Mutant Leader.

"Yeah, I get ya, Spider-Man. But you can't reason with a Nazi. Their heads are full of crap," Johnny quipped.

"Shut up! Just shut up already!" Magneto shouted at the top of his lungs.

Peter continued to chide Magneto by saying, "No, maybe he's losing his mental faculties. After all, he is pretty old and is wearing his underpants on the outside."

"I'll kill you all!" Magneto shouted as he unleashed all his power.

Suddenly, a web-line and a cone of microwave-type fire shot at Magneto's back. The Mutant Leader tilted his body back and waved his hand. A pile of debris managed to intercept the flames but not the web that struck his helmet.

"Stay on my tail Johnny!" Peter shouted as he let his Spider-Senses guide him through the storm of metal.

A burst of light eclipsed the area as Peter switched to his Flame-On form and quickly closed the distance between himself and the foe in front of them.'

Magneto turned around after he glared at the girls. Peter then acted. With a single yank of MJ's hand, she pulled his helmet off while Peter and Johnny slammed their fists into Magneto's face.

Magneto shot back into the ocean and tumbled out onto the beach.

Before he could act, Magneto suddenly felt his body slowly started to heat up thanks to Angels Microwave pulses. He quickly tried to run away and reform a metal disc to stand on when MJ appeared from behind and sent a burst of electrical-webbing at his back.

Johnny dashed in front of Magneto and punched him in the face sending him flying backward.

Peter then Webbed Magneto's chest and pulled him into the air before slugging him in the jaw.

Erik flew back towards the ground and crashed into the sand while Peter slammed into his gut with both of his feet.

Erik coughed up a mouth full of air alongside a tooth that Peter's Symbiote managed to grab and tuck away.

"You think this enough to stop me!" Magneto shouted as he tried to gather his powers.

However, when he reached out to the metals surrounding him, he couldn't feel them anymore.

"What did you do?!" Magneto shouted.

"You feel that light electro-magnetic current running across your flesh," MJ said as she continued to zap Magneto's back.

Peter grinned as he patted Erik's head like he was a child and said, "It's disrupting your ability to control metals. Kind of like a skin-tight faraday cage."

"You, what do you plan on doing me now?" Magneto question, still stunned by the fact he got beaten by a group of kids.

"Right now, I want you to go to sleep," Peter shouted as he punched Magneto again, and this time, he managed to knock him out.

With Magneto out cold, Peter ran to his hotel room and grabbed a pair of Power Suppressant Cuffs he had been working on for months now, and returned to place them around Magneto's hands. He really had to thank his little trip to the Renew Your Vows Universe's Peter for giving him a pair to study.

"Good job guys!" Peter shouted as he looked around and started to clean up the mess.

Johnny flopped down and complained, "Why are you doing that? I'm bushed!"

Peter grinned and sent out his Symbiote to recover Johnny's stamina before saying, "Now you have no excuse."

Johnny grumbled and said, "Sure, and this way you can improve your own power at the same time."

"Hey, you get better at controlling your own power as well, so why are you complaining?" Peter shot back.

MJ laughed at the boys bickering and started to join when Angel walked up to MJ before asking, "Can your suits really help people learn to control their powers?"

MJ nodded her head and said, "Yeah, I haven't tried it out yet though."

Realizing she could barely control her powers, Angel looked to MJ with a pleading expression as she asked, "Can I try? I mean, I want to help clean up the place too."

MJ mulled it over and decided that since Peter could use the flame on ability, it might be a good idea to help her Symbiote overcome its weakness to fire.

What MJ didn't know was that by letting Angel wear the Symbiote, she was doing more than just helping her master her powers. MJ was also fixing the genetic fault in her Mutant Genome. Angel's power was a two-way street, a double edge sword since her ability to control microwaves also gives her cancer.

But with the Symbiote Spiderling's help, the Gene was altered so that she is also became immune to the radioactivity her mutant power generates.

Peter took the time to make sure he call the X-Men, but after several missed calls, Peter got the message that no one was going to pick up.

"Hooh, boy, I hope the mansion hasn't blown up...again." Peter thought as started dragging in the net he made over the ocean.

While Peter pulled in all the wreckage, Johnny took care of any repairs that required engine work or intense flames. The Spider-Couple took care of the dents like it was magic.

With their super-suction power, they could remove any dent. Johnny made that painfully obvious when joked about them making their own dent removing business.

Many citizens, who were already alerted to the situation, crowded around the group and helped out the heroes, it was mostly the people at the beachside hotel, but even a few neighbors chipped in as well.

MJ and Peter continued to patch up what they could with concrete webbing to fix any holes in the road or walls of buildings, and afterward, they used their Electrokinesis to pinpoint metals on the beach and place them in a pile for Johnny to meltdown and repair where needed.

Once they had all the raw materials, Peter and MJ used their Symbiotes to rebuild and repair any structural damage done to the surroundings.

When everything was said and done, almost four hours had passed, the place wasn't perfect but it was close to it.

When Magneto woke up, he felt that his powers had disappeared before he shouted, "What did you do?"

"Relax, you're powers are only sealed temporarily. I can't have you remembering our faces. Once Charles arrives and wipes that image from your mind, we'll be on our way." Peter said before sighing in disappointment.

"I see. So, I really lost this time..." Magneto lamented.

"All that power and such misplaced usage on responsibility, you know if you tried to do something creative with your powers you'd be capable of incredible things. Did you know you could leave this planet to terraform Mars and other similar planets with your power? You could build entire cities, help create a positive image for mutants, and even make your own resources. If you really cared for Mutants, you could have run away and made another home far from any normal person. Somewhere no one could harm another mutant again," Peter explained as he thought of a certain what-if scenario from his previous life.

Magneto was stunned, he never thought of using his power to terraform an entire planet, but after hearing that all it would take was for him to magnetically charge certain metals around the Core of Mars, he would've have created his own utopia, where war wasn't needed.

"Magneto, I know somehow, someway you'll escape wherever they imprison you because you're powerful, far stronger than you realized. Everything, in reality, is made with atoms, and every single one of these atoms is held together by magnetic fields. You could do far more than terraform a world, with the right application of your power, you could create a world of your own. A paradise just for you and your kin," Peter continued to lecture the villain.

Magneto was making quite the face, confusion, regret, and disappointment in himself when Peter said, "But what did you do with all that power, you chose to abuse it, bring harm to others, and make ruin innocent lives. You've become so set in your ways that you are blind to any other possibilities and all the suffering you inflict upon others."

Peter said this one last thing to Magneto before they heard finally heard the sound of the Blackbird Jet approaching, "Listen, Magneto, a nonpowered-mutant human that you hate so much, who is also my parent, lives by a certain code I chose to live by myself. A code I hope that every human can live by someday, with great power comes great responsibility, although it's just a simplified quote from the French Enlightenment Writer, Voltaire, it rings true to its statement."

Magneto couldn't believe he was being lectured by a kid when a group of the X-Men showed up expecting the worst-case scenario.

There was Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean, Gambit, Rogue, and Nightcrawler. Everyone was geared up and ready to fight, however, to their surprise, Magneto had already been defeated and the place had been cleaned up.

Peter waved his hands, "Hi guys, what took you so long?"

Jean walked over to Peter and said, "Your minds' I can't read them, it's like a wall has been put up. I can't even see your mental barrier anymore."

"We got our suits upgraded," Peter stated as he pointed to his head and continued by asking, "Can you do us a favor? I don't care if you let him keep the memories of our meeting, fighting, and talking. But can you scrub our real the image of our real faces from his mind? If that's too much to ask, could you blur it or put a mosaic over it?"

Jean smiled and said, "I think Professor could do something like that. But...did you really take out Magneto?"

Peter looked around to the rest of the group. "The 4 of us did together! Go team Spidey!"

"Oh, we are so not calling ourselves that!" Johnny and Angel shouted.

"Okay, then you got anything better?!" MJ and Peter stood side by side and crossed their arms.

"Storm Troopers!" Johnny exclaimed.

Angel and the rest looked at him with a bland expression before saying, "That's taken."

"How about the Amazing Friends!" Angel said with a beaming smile on her face.

"How about the Amazing Spider-Friends!" MJ said making them laugh.

"So fire girl, decided on a superhero name yet?" Peter asked with a curious expression.

Angel nodded her head before she answered, "I'm thinking Firestar!"

The X-Men look at them like, "These are the kids who beat Magneto?" Are you kidding me?" 

Peter saw Rogue checking Magneto's body, "How come he so compliment? What's the matter Magneto? I thought you'd be raising hell."

Magneto rolled his eyes and looked away from the party of heroes.

Peter then turned to Rogue and said, "Those cuffs he's got on are a gift. If you can figure out how they work, you can find a way to suppress your ability just by wearing an accessory. I could make you one, but Hank can easily replicate it."

Rouge jaw dropped as she looked to Magneto who couldn't use his powers, "Is it true, are these cuffs really suppressing his mutant gene?"

"Yep, it's true," MJ confirmed as she put one around Rouge and gave her a hug.

Rouge was surprised by the skin to skin contact before she began to cry, she didn't have to give up her powers, and now she had a way of controlling it.

After chatting with the X-Men and watching them load Magneto onto the Blackbird, Peter then smiled under his mask and webbed into their rooms before grabbing their baggage.

Once he returned to everyone's side, Spider-Man joking panted and said, "I'm exhausted. Johnny, lead us to where our friends are, let's go home."

Johnny picked Peter up by his hand and Angel carried MJ, they flew away, after they got out of view they undid their outfits and reunited with their friends. Johnny had placed them in the nearest town and they spent the whole night worrying about their friends.

Liz and Harry thanked Johnny and Angel for saving her best friends by hugging him.

"Naw! It's my job to save normies like these two," Johhny said as he gave his super-powered friends a wink.

"Car Jocky!" Peter said sticking his tongue out at Johnny.

"Nerd!!" Johnny replied.

The two bumped heads when Johnny stated, "You are so gonna get your butt whooped on M.C the next time you visit the Baxter building."

"Please your game is still too weak to defeat me. I'm undefeated in Mario Cart! Not even Reed's flexible fingers can touch my record time." Peter flipped off Johnny.

After seeing them loosen up, Liz actually laughed, "How can you two act like this, after what happened today?"

Peter and Johnny smiled, "Well Pete's been to our place before, and he's experienced what it's like to have a Super Hero as a best friend. So, explosives situations like the one we just experienced are the norm for him."

MJ smiled and said, "And we were saved by Spider-Man once!"

Liz and Harry looked at them and said back in unison, "You too?!"

Peter pulled out his phone and showed a picture of the other world Spider Fam waving with them and the rest of their family.

The two thought it was a little strange that they seemed bigger than what they remembered, but attributed that to the stress they were under when they were getting mugged.

"How come you didn't tell me?" Liz and Harry shouted.

"We could ask you the same thing, we knew that you guys were dating for a while," Peter and MJ responded.

"You guys already knew?" Harry said looked a bit ashamed,

"We saw you two while we were on a date," MJ replied.

"How come you didn't say anything?" Liz asked.

"Because we figured you'd two tell us when you were ready," Peter answered with a smile on his face.

Peter heard the Blackbird flying back when he then said, "Let's go back to the Hotel, and call a cab, and go home. I'm beat! How about you guys"

Everyone else suddenly said, "I agree!"

Angel then looked at Johnny and grabbed his sleeve before she asked, "Hey, can I come and stay at your place?"