Issue 36: Trials of Merlin Part VII

Peter explained what he knew about her and her circumstances, but he didn't miss the emotion his girlfriend was sending out.

"So she's a biology expert as well, huh? Well...um… just be careful around that woman!" MJ said with more of her jealousy leaking through.

"Oh my god! You're jelly!" Peter said laughing.

"Am not!" MJ replied.

"You can't lie to me when we connect like this, I can feel your emotions, and now you're angry." Of course, the connection worked both ways, MJ could feel how happy he was.

"And now you're really angry. Ahem, I can only say one thing in response to save my Spidey Bacon. MJ I love you, and only you." Peter smiled as he felt her embarrassment and love, "That's better! Ah, and now you're angry and happy." Peter laughed.

"Um...Spider-Man, you're doing it again." Gwen was waving her hand in front of his face when Spider-Man said, "Sorry, I'm communicating with my Girl Friend right now."

Gwen didn't know why but hearing that hurt a little, she slapped her cheeks and thought, "What's wrong with me, I know he has a girlfriend. Get it together girl." She looked to Spider-Man and said, "So what are you reading?"

"How to learn ancient Summarian, and that one is Coptic, Akkadian, Biblical Hebrew, and this one is the beginners to magic theory," Peter said as he felt like his brains were scrambling.

"You can't possibly be studying those, they're all dead languages."

Wong came by and spoke out in Sanskrit, as per his training, while he studied he would only speak in the languages he was learning, "How is your Latin coming."

"Vescor me vos calvitium callidus idolon,(eat me, you bald sneaky spook.)" Peter said out loud.

"You're not very funny, but at least you learn quickly," Wong said the first half in Celtic and the other half in ancient Chinese.

"Bitch, I'm hilarious! Ah! That's not fair, I haven't finished the Ba-Shu Chinese scroll yet." Peter shouted in Gaulish, an ancient Celtic tongue.

Gwen was speechless and thought, "My god do they even understand each other. It sounds like gibberish to me." Gwen walked over to the book and saw the key for the dead language and started seeing the English translation provided.

"This is all made up right!?" Gwen asked.

Wong and Peter looked at her while raising a single eyebrow. Peter smiled before saying, "Spiderette, you're wearing an alien Symbiote that has a copy of my spider powers from an alternate reality, and you think having a lexicon to dead languages is strange?"

"You got a point," Gwen said as she started reading one of the books. 

Peter smiled as he looked at her and said, "That's it! You're wearing an alien Symbiote that has a copy of my spider powers from an alternate reality...Wong can you track recent breaches into our universe."

Wong gave him a confident look and nodded. 

"Good, what do you say to a good old-fashioned team up?" Spider-Man stood up and started walking towards the door.

Gwen was starting to follow after when Peter turned back and shook his finger while saying, "No, I was talking to Wong, you stay here, it's too dangerous for you right now."

"I think I can take care of myself right now," Gwen said smiling as she flexed.

"I wasn't talking about you being in danger. I was talking about you putting other people in danger." Peter wanted to add you could just give up the Symbiote and go back to a normal life, but he was afraid that the Symbiote would start freaking out again.

Gwen shoulders hunched over, and she sighed in resignation, "Fine."

Before they left Wong looked back and said, "Don't touch anything, don't go anywhere. Stay where you are."

As the door closed Gwen went back to where the books were and sat down, she crossed her arms grunted like a grumpy kid. While she was stewing in her frustration, a voice crept into her head, "Why do you go against your nature?"

Gwen looked around with a frightened expression, "Who's there?"

The Symbiote's head appeared out of the suit, and looked at Gwen with a curious expression, "You want to go, so why don't you?"

Needless to say, Gwen was freaking out. However, she prepared herself for this since Peter informed her about the ways Symbiotes communicate. She took a breath and thought back to the conversation she had with Spider-Man. 

"It's a baby, just explain it," Gwen thought before saying, "Sometimes following your desire isn't the right thing to do. All actions have consequences, and not all of them are good. What if I hurt someone by accident? Or what if I get hurt because of my incompetence and inexperience?"

The Symbiote looked to her and said, "But I can protect you. I can make you strong!"

"I happy to hear that, but as I said, I need you to grow and better understand Humans, how we act, what emotions we have, what our ideals on good and bad are. We'll take things slow okay."

The Symbiote retreated into the suit mulling over what she said, as she picked up a book on Latin to pass the time. 

Peter and Wong were standing on top of the Brooklyn Bridge, Wong's hands were glowing as he stared through the transparent substance he frowned, "Two beings came through this portal, one a man much like yourself, the other a Symbiote." 

Peter took a sample of blood and ran a scan on it.

Webster finished running the scan and said. "The D.N.A is from Peter Parker." 

In shock that another version of himself could be in his world at this very instant, Peter looked around franticly for the other him. They followed the blood until the trail ran dry.

"I guess we should scan for the Symbiote," Peter mumbled and started looking around the city, but just like his search for Kaine, he found nothing.

"Damn it, if I just had a piece of the Symbiote I could track it. The blood trail ran dry too. Maybe I can hack into some satellites and search for that other worldly radiation Webster mentioned." 

Wong patted his shoulder. "Back to reading then." and with that said Wong teleported back to the Sanctum without Peter. 

As he was webbing back to return to his studies, Spider-Man heard an explosion in the direction of the Baxter building's location.

Peter sighed as he changed course, "Please don't let it be bugs again."

After flinging himself over several buildings, he landed on the edge of a building, looked around, and said, "Oh, it much, much worse."

A green-robed man in full body armor was assaulting the Fantastic four in front of their building.

The hero quickly jumped down and shouted, "Call Furry."

Webster began calling seconds before Peter called out to the villain, "Hey the middle-ages called, they want their wardrobe back!"

He slammed into Doom's back sending him flying away before one of Marvel's biggest bad guys stopped mid-air and said, "Who dares?!"

Peter landed his back flip and then said, "Webster record everything."

He stared at the man known as Victor Von Doom and took a deep breath before the villain threw a few chunks of debris at him. 

Peter dodged them and was about to say something quippy when Fury answered, "What's up kid?"

"If it isn't my favorite Furry, Fury," Spider-Man said laughing, "Get it? Because you're one letter off from being someone that loves animal a little too much."

"I'm hanging up!" Fury said when Peter quickly responded, "Doom is sitting outside the Baxter Building causing havoc. Him being from Latveria and all, I was wondering if it was okay to punch him a little."

"Is he on Latveria soil?" Fury asked.

Peter jumped off a large chunk of asphalt and webbed out catching them and throwing them back at Doom while saying, "Unless you count the dirt he's throwing at me, then no."

"Then get me evidence of him attacking Americans on American Soil and then I'll send in back up." Fury responded.

"Victor Von Doom, cease all your actions at once, this is American Soil, not your Latveria's Embassy! What you're doing is nothing short of an act of declaring war!" Spider-Man shouted at the top of his lungs.

Doom paused as Reed and Johnny appeared beside him, "Yo! Webhead what's up?!" Johnny said putting his arm around Peter's neck.

Peter cracked back, "The same as usual, Matchstick! Fighting crime, searching for an alien life form, studying magic, and apparently, opposing one of the world's most dangerous super-villains. You know, just your average day in the life of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. How about you Reed?"

"You know me, just trying to be Mr. Fantastic," Reed said as stared down Victor.

"So, care to tell me why the King of Latveria is attacking?" Peter asked seeing that Doom was still struggling on whether to continue attacking.

"We found something in the Negative Zone, and Doom wants it!" Reed explained.

"Where's Sue?" Peter asked once more.

"She's guarding the object with Ben. No pregnant women on the battlefield." Johnny said smiling.

Peter looked back to Doom and said, "So tell me, you dummy dense Doom dude, what's your decision? Lose all embassy rights in America? Or go home like a well-behaved dictating metal man?"

"Who are you!?" Doom raised his hand, ready to attack at a moment's notice.

"Didn't you hear Johnny!? I'm Hyperion nice to meet you." Peter raised his hand ready to try and defend against Doom's assault, "What? You're not the only one who can wave his hand menacingly!"

Doom then shouted, "Silence Arachnid!"

"Whoa, you got it right! I guess you're not as dumb as I thought you are, still pretty dumb compared to Reed and me...but that's not a fair comparison," Peter saw Doom's finger's itching, "Come on, lose your cool, attack us on live television! Webster, are you streaming this?"

"Every last image and word Peter," Webster responded.

Peter laughed and said, "Who taught you how to dress? Did your mom take fashion tips from a goblin?! Hopefully not the gobbie I'm thinking of."

Doom's eyes went wide at the mention of his mother. As a green beam formed around his hand, he dashed towards Peter and blasted out with a powerful type of repulsor weapon.

However, Peter was fast enough to dodge and activated his Ferrokinesis and caused Doom to start tripping.

Sensing something was off, Doom activated a magical force field around him that disabled the hero's control over his body. 

"Damn magic!" Peter thought as Doom continued to dash towards him, "Why does my my Doom have to already know magic?!"

Spider-Man grimaced in pain as he thought of what he had to do to end this as quickly as possible.

Johnny and Reed were about to attack when Peter threw them out of the way with a couple of weblines.

Doom's fist hit his armor and scared the ever-living shit out of Peter. The strange metal that Victor's suit was made of was very powerful magical material that wasn't completely metal in nature, so it actually managed to get through his defenses. 

The blow hit the Hero's body with the full force of a thousand tons, causing a shock wave to appear and push everything in ten feet of them back into the air. As the dust cleared, Doom's fist had pierced Peter's heart and held him suspended in the air.

Peter coughed up blood that filled up his mask while the Symbiote started freaking out to start repairing the damage, "That the best...cough...you got?"

"You're as persistent as a fly," 

He then saw Doom raise his hand and prepare another blast of energy aiming to blow off his head, "Cough...Not in the face. Not in the face...cough..."

"Goodbye, Arachnid. You will hinder my plans no longer,"

Peter grabbed Doom's arm and said, "So I hope you realize, this means war!"

"Heh, too young. You know nothing of politics. All I need do is silence every witness for good."

Peter pointed to the big screen add-display in the distance showing Doom's appearance.

"Smile, you're on candid camera..."

"Incredible! You would give your life you exile me from this Nation?!" Doom said with sheer anger and slight admiration in his voice. 

"Who said anything about dying?!" 

Peter Webbed Doctor Doom in the face with his shock webbing combo, surprising Doom for just long enough to allow Johnny to send him flying with a powerful plasma blast. 

Torch then grabbed Peter and shouted, "Spidey you still with me?!"

Peter could feel his heart rapidly repairing itself, when he gave Johnny a thumb's up and said, "So think you guys can listen to me for a second? I have a plan!"

Peter quickly told them his plan of attack when Doom came charging back in a blind rage. Spider-Man jumped forwards and punched Doom's fist. However, this time his Armor was just barely holding up.

The shockwave caused his bones to fracture and healed constantly, but it didn't break apart like before. 

"Reed! Slingshot!" Peter webbed back and jumped off of Reed's arm which bent back before it shot back into place, sending Spider-Man's fist flying into Doom's face. 

A loud crack was heard as Doom's feet came off the ground.

Peter jumped over to another part of Reed's arm that was crisscrossing around Doom like a cage and used the elastic man's limbs to launch powerful blows. He landed punch to the villain's gut, a kick to the shoulder, a chop on the top of his skull, a spinning elbow to his chin.

Spider-Man's punches and kicks continued to echo with loud booms before Doom suddenly yelled out in pain and frustration.

After climbing a decently high up distance, Peter then used his organic webbing and Reed's arms as a mold to form a perfect cylinder while they hovered over the top. 

Peter then twisted his body up and punched Doom onto the ground, landing on his stomach while shattering the ground around them.

Before Doom could register just how badly he had been hurt, Spider-Man jumped out of the web cylinder and shouted, "Light him up, Johnny!"

"You got it web-head!" Johnny jumped to the top and shot in a powerful pillar of white flames. Thanks to the webbing's durability and heat resistance, it held up against Johnny's fire and didn't cause a massive area of the city to meltdown.

"Enough!" Doom shouted as the webbing actually exploded,

Peter jumped back to see a green orb floating around Doom, his eyes were bloodshot, and was staring glares of killing intent towards Spider-Man! 

"I will Kill YOU ALL! FOR I AM YOUR DOOOM!"

"That old line? You got to talk to your writer, Doctor Doomy, that's more likely to make a guy laugh than strike fear into them."

The space around him started to warp as Peter quickly sent in his webbing, tagging Doom on the chest. The anti-magic property of the organic webbing disrupted his spell seconds before Peter pulled himself over and Kick Doom into the air.

Then he webbed the villain and pulled him back down onto his fist. The blow sent Victor's head flying back up along with the rest of his body. 

Johhny appeared beside him while Spider-Man used his lightning form and focused the electrical current into the webline, creating a very powerful beam heat beam contained by a magnetic field.

At the same time, Johnny activated his Nova form and the two shot at full power into the sky, lighting up the entire neighborhood like it was daytime all of the sudden.

"Is he dead?" Johnny asked quickly undoing his Super Nova form so as not to waste energy.

"Not likely, don't you know Doom's nickname? At Shield, they call him the unkillable man." Peter responded seeing an emerald-green glow in the sky.