Issue 80: A New Age Part 17

Peter changed his clothes to a long sleeve red shirt and blue jeans before opening a portal to Tony's place.

He walked up to Pepper's office and popped his head in, "Hey, Pep, can I borrow you for a second?"

"Sure, Pete. What's up?"

"I need you around to keep Tony from doing anything…well drastic."

"Right…so what's this about?" Pepper lifted a brow.

"His parents,"

"Oh, this is serious,"

"Where is Tony?" Peter asked.

"He should be in the garage, as usual,"

"Right, well…sigh...let's get this over with," Peter walked off with Pepper leading the way.

He went down a few floors when he saw Android Jarvis in a full on Alfrid butler get up.

"Good morning, Peter. It's nice of you to visit,"

"Yeah, it was a good morning, sorry about ruining it for ya," Peter sighed again.

He walked inside to see Tony fixing up something on his workbench. Stark turned to Peter and smiled, "If it isn't my favorite arachnid. So, you gonna spill what you had to say now?"

"Tony…take a seat," 

Stark gave him a deadpanned stare before saying, "I am sitting."

"Right…god I'm terrible at this…well the good news is we have your parents' killers in custody."

"What the hell are you talking about, Peter? My parents died in a car crash."

"You see, that's the bad news…Webster pull up the file."

The video played showing the murder of his parents. 

Tony started hyperventilating when he suddenly looked at the file's information about the assassin. He summoned his armor when Pepper got in front of him and hugged him.

"Tony, I'm so sorry…but whatever you're planning stop,"

"Let me go, Pepper."

"NO! I know how much hate must be filling you, but you can't give into that. You have the guys in custody."

"They were hired by Roxxon!" 

"You can't just attack a company, Tony. You'll be labeled a Terrorist! Everything you built, all the changes you went through to better yourself, you'll be throwing them all away."

Peter webbed Tony's feet to the floor and said, "Listen to your wife."

"We're not married yet!" Both of them shouted at the same time.

"I know, but that got you off kill mode, didn't it robo-man?" Peter flicked his forehead, "Can you think straight yet? Because if you want to take down the company, I just thought you should know that there are easier methods than committing career-suicide."

"He's right, you know?" Pepper added.

"I doubt they go down easy, but you can do a whole lot to cripple the company, and from what I can tell, they have a lot of dirty laundry that needs to be aired out. Start thinking like a businessman, Tony. That's the right way to take them down."

"Now sit down and cool off," Pepper demanded.

Tony pouted a bit and said, "I…can't…my feet are webbed to the floor."

Peter held his laughter back and quickly removed the webbing and let Tony decompress. He could tell he was still fuming about what he learned, but at least he was thinking with his head instead of his darker emotions.

"Look, it looks like you need some space right, so I'm going to head off, but I'll come and check in on you every now and then," Peter patted his friend's shoulder and whispered, "Call me if he does anything stupid."

"Thanks, Peter. Say hi to MJ for me."

"Can do, Pep," Peter opened a portal, "Tony…I'm…sorry. I didn't want to be the one who told you this…but…"

"Kid, it's okay. I'm thankful, really."

Spider-Man shook his head, "I gave you this information hoping you'd be responsible with it, so don't make me regret this. Please, Tony, I don't want to see my friend being hauled off to jail."

"I hear ya, Pete…thanks…for being there for me."

Peter gave him a hug and said, "I know what you're going through. I'm sorry I can't do more."

Tony patted his back and sighed as he saw Pepper smiling while wiping the tears from her face.

"I will lie if anyone questions me about this, but Peter, being your friend has made me a better person. I won't let you down. Meeting you is one of the best things that has happened to me in this life. You, Mary, Pepper, Happy, and Rhodey are probably the only people I can call my best friends. What I'm trying to say, is thanks for looking out for me kid."

"Hey, they don't call me the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man for nothing," Peter chuckled as stepped back and said, "Take care you two."

Spider-Man portaled out and appeared on top of a skyscraper. He suited up as he said, "Well, I guess I better get in my rounds first."

Peter jumped off before he webbed to a nearby building and swung with all his strength, throwing him miles up into the air.

"Yahhoooo!" Peter webbed out another line. 

Even though he could fly and teleport, nothing beat web swinging. It helped him get his head off things and focus on the task at hand. Dealing with Tony's issues was a whole can of worms he didn't want to open.

There was the drinking, the age of depression, and his bad guy phase.

"Well, what are friends for. Oh, man, he can't even get drunk anymore. I guess I'll just have to look out for crippling depression and fits of murderous rage. The things I do for my friends."

Peter stopped above a ledge and leaned out to look around, "Okay, let's focus on my Danger Radar. It's been quiet lately, crime is down, deaths are at an all-time low, and JJJ isn't on my back about B.S. I keep waiting for the hammer to drop, but…"

He heard a yell for help and jumped off before swinging over 2 miles in less than a second. Spider-Man landed to see…a girl with a cat stuck in the tree.

"Well, not a mugging," Peter chuckled as he hopped onto the branch and said, "Come here fella."

The cat ran over and hopped in arms before he jumped down and handed the feline menace over, "Take care, little missy, and next time, try snacks and a basket full of blankets. Cats fall for that every time."

"THANKS SPIDER-MAN!" The girl cheered happily as he webbed away.

Peter swung low and ran his hand across the ground while the crowded streets took pictures and whistled.

Peter pulled up as he flung himself into the air flipping and landing on a wall. He then looked off into the distance and shot out two lines before turning himself slingshot that soared above the rooftops. 

"Okay, focus your senses, come on. The day is just getting started," Seconds after honing his senses, Peter could hear the sound of an alarm going off.

"I doubt that's another cat in a tree," Spider-Man glided towards the building while using his webbing to speed up until he landed on a ledge overlooking an apartment complex.

"Well, it's not in a tree, but it is most certainly a cat," Peter snickered as he hopped down and turned invisible.

He walked inside and moved close to the Black Cat and coughed into his hand before saying, "You know that stealing is illegal."

Felicia jumped as she looked around, "Okay…maybe I should take a break. Kaine said he'd take me out to dinner, maybe I should reward him."

"Well, if it helps you stop stealing," Peter held back his laughter.

"Okay, seriously, who's there?"

"Your conscience, I know it's been a while since we've talked, but…you should know better kitty." 

Hearing his voice, she frowned and said, "Kaine? This isn't funny."

Peter couldn't help but laugh as he removed his invisibility, "Seriously, cat, why are you here?"

"Spider-Man?"

"What? Where? I want his autograph!"

"Funny, shame Kaine doesn't have your sense of humor," Felicia rolled her eyes.

"So, how is my brother from another portal doing," Peter crossed his arms.

"Better, less moody than when he first got here."

"Nice to hear, oh, and you tripped a silent alarm," Peter pointed to the windows.

"WHAT?" Black Cat nearly jumped.

"Getting rusty?" Peter asked.

"N...no…ugh…Kaine and I had a fight. He thinks I need a break, I kind of told him to piss off."

"Ooh, sorry. MJ and I had a bit of spat too. Also, why are robbing this place?"

"Wait? The wonder couple had a fight? This I got to hear."

"Felicia, why are you here?"

"Guy likes to steal priceless pieces of art from the less fortunate. I was hired to get it back," Black Cat grinned.

"For a price?"

"For a price," Felicia nodded her head.

Peter placed his hand on the vault she was trying to break into and ripped it off. All he saw was 20 stacks of gold bars and a few dozen rolled up paintings."

"Just paintings, huh?" 

Felicia lifted a brow and said, "Did you think those poor old Jewish couple could afford me? No, they knew he keeps it with…"

She pulled out a golden bar that had a Nazi stamp on it while stuffing her bag. 

"Strangest thing, this guy disappeared a while go, made my job a heck of lot easier, you wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

"Cops are here," Peter smirked.

"That was fast," Felicia purred as she pulled out her claws.

"No hitting cops, Felicia. I haven't done anything to the Guild you're building because I like what the management is making them do. So don't go making me change my mind."

"Was that a compliment?"

"Felicia, I'm serious."

"Relax, Spider. It's not for them," Felicia tore into the wall beside the safe and grinned as she pulled out a stack of journals, "Ledgers and locations for art and treasures the Nazis plundered during WW2."

"Neat, gonna give it back?"

"Not all of it," Felicia grinned.

"I could care less for the gold and gems, but the Art has to be returned…cops are coming up the stairs." Peter activated his invisibility.

Felicia ran towards the window and jumped out while Peter followed from behind. When the cops got there, only a single gold bar laid on the table as evidence to whose house they were protecting.

Spider-Man followed her back to the Guild and turned off his cloaking ability while walking beside her, "Sooo, what do you do when you two fight? I mean, to make amends and stuff?"

"Have great make up sex," 

Peter coughed a few times, "I…er, well, that's an idea."

"Well, first, you should tell us why you're fighting." Kaine shouted from behind the bar. He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt with loose fitting shorts and sandals.

"Kaine? Are you drunk? How? We can't get drunk!" 

"Well, with Tony's stuff, I can. Dude," Kaine chuckled.

"How'd you, when did you…you impersonated me, didn't you?"

"They never suspected a thing…hic, the perfect crime,"

"You taught my brother to break into Avengers tower?"

"No, I taught him to break in anywhere he wants," Felicia smirked.

"So…why you fighting? Not to brag, but I actually have some experience in dealing with some of your…issues," Kaine took another shot of what ungodly proof alcohol Tony had brewed up, "Is because she wants you to hang up the webs?"

 "No, MJ's a hero in this world too. We would never ask each other to give that up."

"So, did ya kiss another lady?"

"No! Big no! I'm faithful spider," Peter sat across from him while Black Cat put away her spoils and joined the two spider-bros.

"Well, out with it!" Cat asked as she took a cup for herself.

"Well, so…I may have agreed to let Fury make plans in case one of the Avengers or heroes go off the rails. You know, brainwashing, mind-swapping, the whole shebang of issues that come with being a super powered team."

"You did what?" Black Cat went wide eyed.

"Sounds smart to me, what's the problem? Hic..."

"The problem is a team isn't supposed to plot their own teammates' demise," Felica yelled.

"That's what because you don't know when that'll happen, luv…Wait, I said that wrong."

"I think what my drunk brother is trying to say is, you don't know how devastating the consequences are when these things eventually happen. You've never experienced what happens when it all goes wrong."

"And you have?" Black Cat lifted a brow.

"I can peer into the Multiverse, I've seen quite a few bad endings," Peter replied with an honest expression.

"My Spidey couldn't do that, hic," Kaine mumbled.

"Actually, he can, he just needs to learn magic," Peter chuckled.

"Still doesn't make it right," Felicia added.

"Doesn't mean he was wrong either," Kaine rolled his eyes.

"So, why are you two fighting," Peter changed the subject.

"I wanted to go the beach and relax for a while, but nooooo, Kitten here wanted to work, she never stops working."

"I told you that a series of jobs came up that were just too good to pass up."

"That's what youz said the last time, and the time before that, and the time before that,"

"What do you want me to say? It's been a busy time trying to revive a dismantled thieves guild while trying to recreate their original purpose."

"I want you to relax for a day, you've been on edge all week," Kaine groaned.

"I wouldn't ask you to stop hero-ing, why would you ask me to stop?"

"Because even I take a couple days out of the week for myself. Today was one of them, and instead of relaxing on the beach with my very hot girlfriend, I'm stuck down here running jobs for the newbies."

Felicia sighed before she leaned over the counter and said, "Honey, while I love the idea of spending time with you, it's just not a good time for a break. I promise you, after I finish up with the list, I'll…" She whispered the rest into his ear.

Kaine lifted a brow and blushed a bit, "How many?"

"I have six locations left,"

"That'll take you a couple of days," Kaine shook his head, "Three, after the next three, you take a god damn break."

Felicia pouted as she put her lower lip out and said, "Aw…come on baby, I'll make it worth your while. Trust me, the wait will be worth it."

"Okay, I'm leaving, this is getting a bit too uncomfortable."

"Sure you don't want to join? I mean, technically you're both the same,"

"NO! WE'RE NOT!" Kaine and Peter shouted at the same time.

Felicia busted up into laughter as she said, "I thought you had a sense of humor, Spider-Man. If I knew you were this innocent, I would have teased you earlier in our career."

"Have a nice day, I have crimes to stop…and an apology to work on," Peter sighed as he opened a portal to the top of the Empire State Building.

With a leap he closed the portal behind him and thought, "At least Kaine seems to have calmed down a bit. I'm happy for him."

As he webbed out, he kept an eye for any crimes, but other than a few store robberies, it was pretty quiet.

When he finished his patrol, he went home and saw MJ talking with a film company about getting her girls into movies.

"What, no. I want Misty Beck for my SFX team. I don't care if she has a contract with you. I've seen what she can do, and you've violated your contract by not allotting the proper work hours. My lawyer will be in contact with you… No, you made it personal the moment you tried to pull one over on me. Have a good day." MJ hung up as she sighed and threw herself on the couch.

"Rough night? Sounds like the dogs were barking," Peter sat beside her.

"Still mad at you," MJ looked the other way.

"Babe, I know you disagree, and honestly, I understand,"

"Do you? Are you okay with them coming up with a plan to kill me?"

"Never, I'd never want that, MJ. I hate the idea myself, but it doesn't mean it isn't necessary. If you got your body stolen or were under the effects of mind control, wouldn't you want a plan to save you?"

MJ huffed, "What are the odds,"

"Normally I'd say very slim, but we live a universe with gods and demons, there is no perfect grantee in life, and the plans will of course try the peaceful methods first, but occasionally, drastic measures should be taken."

Peter wrapped his arms around MJ, "I promise to do everything in my power to keep them from being implemented, but to not have them when needed is not only foolish, but dangerous too."

MJ pouted as she laid her head on his shoulder, "Still sucks."

"On that point, I agree." Peter kissed the top of her head, "So, is the Beck the same person I'm thinking of."

MJ recalled her time with her alternate self and said, "Yeah, I figured that I'd keep Mystero 2.0 from being born by giving her a fair chance. Gal has talent and her tech makes developing movies really cheap."

"She's not a...you know...robot is she?" Peter asked with a curious expression.

"I gave her background check, she's legitimately his daughter...though I don't know how she feels about us basically turning her father into a vegetable. But from what I've gathered, she does not like her father."

"Hey, that was all Ghost-Spider. So, it's a win-win, right? You get a talented special effects team and prevent the uprising of another dangerous villain," Peter chuckled.

"Yeah," MJ laid her turned the t.v on.

"So, what kind of movies did you get them?"

"I'm trying to get Jess to play Cleopatra, Angel wants an action movie, and Glory said she wanted to do a RomCom. I've had some…issues with the current management from Hollywood. There are some creepy things happening there."

"Something we need to investigate?" Peter lifted a brow.

MJ shook her head, "I've already told California's Avengers branch to look into it."

"So, what kind of creepy are we talking about, vampires, or organized crimes?"

"No, missing persons and crimes against children…not to mention the whole Harvey and Epstein scandal. I don't trust a Hollywood that traffics people."

"Oh…wow, that's…terrible," Peter shook his head, "Well, I'm looking to seeing the arrests."

"Me too…"

Peter sat on the couch with his wife to be for a few hours, watching television when their family got back from work. 

He's a superhero, has the hottest wife to be in the galaxy, and was able to spend quality time with his family. Peter could definitely say that he's enjoying his life to the fullest.

"I swear, if it wasn't for the time difference in our house, I'd say we live super busy lives," MJ chuckled.

"Thank the lord for magic," Peter snickered.

"You know, Pete, I've been wondering how the TV is able to work in unison with the outside," Marie spoke up.

"It's the same principle you use for our clocks. It linked outside of the temporal spell, so we get what's going on out there without sacrificing our time in here. The images were seeing are cloned particles that only change when the one or the other changes, right?" Richard spoke up.

"Eh...you got the whole-time clock thing right," Peter answered.

"But wouldn't that mean we're watching something at a quicker pace? Isn't this basically peering into future events? I mean it is ten hours for one outside the house?" Richard tapped his chin.

"We'll not necessarily. In fact, if it's not part of the temporal acceleration bubble we're living in, we should be seeing this in ten times faster than what's happening outside, but we're overlooking the obvious. If he can speed time up, he can slow it down too," Marie smirked.

"Mom's dead on with the idea I can slow time too. But you're forgetting Occam's Razor. The simplest solution is often the best solution. I just turn off the time dilation and set up a trigger setting for when the television is on live. Of course, this doesn't apply to things like streaming services like Netflix or something that's been prerecorded," Peter laughed.

"Magic is so complicated. I think I prefer science," Richard sighed before asking his wife, "So, speaking of science, how was school?" 

"Better. We've missed a lot, and I've had a lot to catch up on. However, I'm still the smartest Parker," Marie chuckled.

"That's debatable," Peter snickered.

"Dinner's ready!" May called out from the kitchen.

"Woot! I'm starving!" Peter looked at his uncle rushing to the kitchen.

"You better hurry, Sport, or I'm going to finish it myself," Ben laughed.

"Nothing stopping me from enjoying May's meals," Peter stood up before his phone rang, "I really need to stop jinxing myself."

"Just one day, Fury. It's been one day without you calling me!"

"Well excuse me, but I'm not the one making the physics in London spaz out. I got all my egg heads working on this one, and since you specialize in this kind of crap, I figured I'd give you a heads up."

"Oh, well, in that case, maybe I should help," Peter groaned as he realized that the Aether must be making an appearance.

"I'll make my way over in ten minutes. So, how are things going for you these days? Anything interesting going on? I mean, do you even have hobbies that don't involve solving the world's problems? Maybe a Wife…husband?"

"Just do your damn job," Fury groaned as he hung up.

Peter quickly scarfed down his meal and said, "Come on, MJ. We got physics to fix."

"Who broke it? I swear, if Strange lost another Bamf,"

"Grrr…" The Bamf in question growled.

"Of course, I'm not talking about you, precious!" MJ petted the underside of the creature's chin.

It had been a while since they learned about the Bamf MJ named Curt with C. The family was both fascinated by the creature's ability to teleport and a little weary of his existence. However, they had all warmed up to the fella.

"You know, most people get dogs, not interdimensional beings as pets," Richard said, being the only one who still had some weariness towards the 'demonic' being.

"We're not most people, and Curt isn't a pet. He's family," Peter pat the creature on the head.

"Mmnnhmm!" Curt agreed.

"Come on, Tiger. Let's get to work," MJ opened a portal to London.

The minute they passed through, they both saw their sensors acting up.

"Whoa, this is wild. It's kind of like the readings your Reality Topaz give off."

"Yeah, but countless times stronger," Peter replied as he opened another portal.

When they hopped through, they saw an argumentative Jane Foster and Thor looking kind of scared.

"You don't call, you don't write! Why the hell haven't you visited?!"

"Jane…I'm,"

"In trouble," Spider-Man said, putting a long emphasis on the word trouble.

"Spider-Man! Lady Mary, it's good to see you two again," Thor said with a smile on his face.

"You too, goldilocks, so where's the reality stone?"

"Reality stone?" Thor's eyes widened.

Peter walked over to Jane and said, "Now that is interesting, it's bonded with you. No, it's something else. A creation of the Reality Stone? Maybe a containment field?"

"We can figure that out at Asgard. Lady, Jane, please come with…" Thor went to touch her arm but was blown back by a powerful wave of energy.

Peter managed to put up a force field in time to protect the officers in the area and MJ. 

Jane nearly fell down, but Thor was able to catch her, "Are you okay?"

"I…what happened?" Jane asked as she tried to stand back up.

"Hold on to me," Thor said as he looked up, "Heimdal, open the Bifrost!"

Peter grabbed MJ's hand and put his arm on Thor's, "Mind if we come with."

"Too late to say no," Thor said as a beam of light fell down on them and transported them to another world.

They stood at the entrance to Asgard with Heimdal looking at them with interest.

"We have to do this more often," Jane said as Thor gently put her down.

"Wow…this tech is incredible!" MJ squealed, "Peter it's part magic and part technology! It's MAGI-TECH!"

"I can see that, and please don't take it apart. I'm not so sure they'd understand," Peter pointed at Heimdal.

"Right…sorry, kind of lost my cool there," MJ blushed.

"Welcome to Asgard," Heimdal said as he closed the portal.

Peter smirked and said, "Well, Thor, care to show us around?"

"It would be my pleasure, but first, maybe we should do something about Lady Jane's condition."

"Right, actually, I might be able to do something about that. But first, we'll need to scan her body. I need to know what I'm looking at." 

"Come. Lady Jane and Lady Mary will get a punch out of seeing our technology," Thor laughed.

"It's you'll get a kick…you know what? Nevermind, I'm getting tired of that joke," Peter walked off with Thor leading the way.

They saw the golden spiraling city in the distance and awed at it while Thor had a shit-eating grin on his face the whole time.

"Holy crap! Is this all made of gold?" Jane asked.

Peter summoned a pebble sized piece of led and said, "Eh, it's not that impressive. Gold is worthless if you know alchemy."

Jane's jaw dropped as she watched the stone turn to a nugget of pure gold, "Wait, Alchemy is real?" 

"Interesting. I did not know you knew magical arts," Thor commented.

"Oh, yeah. We were trained by the Sorcerer Supreme of Midgard after the whole alien invasion thing happened," MJ answered.