Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit.
You’ve really outdone yourself now, Pete.
Couldn’t just take the day off from university like a normal person. No, you had to follow the weird black vans and discover some crazy Illuminati-looking group that apparently traded in kids.
Was he freaking out?
Maybe a little.
With another careful heave, Peter quietly lifted the webbed-up group of kids onto the catwalk. It was a damn miracle he’d managed to swing around and escape with almost a dozen kids, but somehow, he’d done it.
Gunfire, explosions, and screaming echoed through the warehouse, making his ears tingle. For whatever reason, the crazy kidnappers weren’t pursuing him, and Peter wasn’t about to question the one lucky break he’d gotten tonight.
Were the kids okay?
Peter quickly scanned them and let out a breath when he found all of them uninjured, aside from being unconscious.
His stomach still turned.
Intellectually, he knew human trafficking existed. But knowing about it and having it shoved in his face in the form of a giant pile of abducted children were two very different things.
How could anybody do something so monstrous?
Peter clenched his fists as he turned back toward the fighting. He could—
One of the kids groaned.
God, what was he doing?
Slowly, Peter forced his hands open and drew in a deep breath. His anger could wait. Saving them came first.
The problem now was figuring out how to actually do that.
He’d scoped out the warehouse beforehand, and there weren’t a lot of exits. No skylights for him to bust through, and the few windows along the sides of the warehouse could barely fit a single person, much less a pile of unconscious children.
That left the front and back doors.
The back led closer to the bay, which would limit his swinging. Maybe if he snuck through the front?
Peter slowly crawled along the ceiling, trying to get a better look at the fighting.
A crack of thunder split the air, followed by a dozen screams and another staccato burst of gunfire. Right after that, a massive wave of red energy crashed into the ceiling, nearly shaking Peter off it.
On second thought, the back door was fine.
Peter quickly webbed up the kids again, making sure nobody could slip out. It would be hell to remove all of it later, but that was better than a kid falling while he was swinging.
Now he just needed to—
The back of his head tingled.
Peter dodged and shoved the kids off the catwalk in the same motion.
As they fell, he snapped a line of webbing after them, anchoring the tangled pile to the railing. The old metal catwalk groaned under the sudden shift in weight, but the web held as the children dangled safely below.
A dozen ninja stars struck the catwalk right where he had been standing a heartbeat earlier.
“Leave the children, and we’ll spare your life, freak.”
A trio of red-clad ninjas had appeared on the catwalk.
Ninjas too? This day just wouldn’t stop getting weirder.
“Freak?” Peter planted his hands on his hips. “I’m not the one cosplaying as ninjas.”
One of the ninjas snarled and unsheathed a blade. “You—”
A web shot smacked him right in the face.
Peter didn’t give him time to finish. His other wrist snapped up, firing a line to the ceiling. The web caught, and he yanked himself forward, swinging feet-first into the ninja’s chest.
The man slammed backward and rolled across the catwalk.
Another ninja lunged from the side, sword heading right for Peter’s ribs. Peter ducked under the strike, felt the edge hiss over his head, then twisted on one hand and kicked the attacker’s legs out from under him.
Before the ninja could hit the ground, Peter webbed his ankles and hands to the catwalk.
His spider-sense screamed.
Peter bent backward just as a blade sliced through the space where his head had been. He fired two quick webs, one to the ninja’s wrist and another to the railing, then yanked.
The man’s arm snapped sideways, and the sword clattered out of his grip.
Peter flipped over him, landed behind his back, and plastered him to the railing with three fast shots of webbing.
The first ninja finally cut the webbing from his face with a furious gasp. He struggled to his feet and gripped his blade with both hands.
“Dude, take a hint.” Peter pointed at his two downed buddies.
His only reply was a scream as the ninja charged.
Peter sighed, hopped over the slash, and fired a thick spread of webbing across the man’s chest. Another shot pinned his legs. A final one stuck him face-down to the catwalk in what was no doubt an extremely uncomfortable position.
“Get comfortable.” Peter cracked his neck. They were surprisingly fast; he’d give them that. Way different from his usual muggers. “It’ll be a few hours before that comes undone.”
The downed ninja didn’t seem angry at all. He started to chuckle. “Your eyes fail to see the truth even now.”
Peter frowned.
What sort of mystic hubbub was—
Oh shit, the kids!
Peter jumped off the catwalk and saw that the web holding them had been cut.
Crap.
The battle still seemed to be raging near the front, so he swung toward the back. God, he hoped he wasn’t too late.
A huge crash ripped through the air.
Peter stopped mid-swing and caught himself on the wall, his feet sticking to the metal as he stared.
A girl with red hair and a white streak was absolutely going to town on the ninjas.
One came at her from behind, blade raised. She spun before Peter could even shout a warning, caught the man by the wrist, and flipped him over her shoulder like he weighed nothing. The ninja slammed into two others hard enough to send all three skidding across the floor.
The girl ducked under one slash, kicked the first ninja in the stomach, then grabbed the second by the front of his uniform and hurled him through a stack of crates. Wood exploded everywhere.
Jesus Christ.
A ninja tried to leap down on her from the catwalk. She looked up at the last second, caught him out of the air by the ankle, and swung him into the floor with a thunderous crack.
Peter winced.
The last ninja hesitated.
The girl didn’t. She rushed him fast, drove her elbow into his chest, and swept his legs out from under him. Before he could recover, she slammed him into the ground hard enough for cracks to web out from the impact.
Peter slowly lowered himself from the wall, hands raised.
“Uh… we cool?”
The girl paused, chest rising and falling as she looked him over.
Then her eyes widened.
“Oh, yeah! You’re Spider-Man,” she said, her accent thick with surprise. She straightened a little and gave him a quick thumbs-up. “I’m—”
“Lady Iron Fist,” another woman said.
Peter turned as a woman in red ninja robes stepped out from the shadows.
The red-haired girl’s face twitched.
“…Yes. I’m Iron Fist.” She cleared her throat and glanced toward the unconscious kids. “Could you give us a hand? We need to get them to safety.”
Peter sort of just stared at the super martial artist woman, then at the other ninja.
“…Sure?”
As the sounds of battle still raged through the warehouse, Peter and his new ‘friends’, booked it while carrying the kids out.
God, could this get any weirder?
He just wanted to be the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Not whatever crazy nonsense this was. Hopefully it’d be all back to normal after all this….—Did this Earth just have a boner for Hydra?
I scowled as I teleported away again.
A wave of red energy ravaged the ground a moment later, tearing through concrete like it was wet paper.
Wanda Maximoff stood in the center of several Hydra soldiers, the power of her Chaos Magic blaring loud and clear to my new Sensor trait. Whatever had been done to Wanda in this reality had given her access to her magical bullshit early, instead of the limited stuff she wielded during the early stages of the MCU.
Which was, frankly, fucking terrifying.
I sympathized with Wanda. Really, I did.
But I also didn’t want to risk ending up on the wrong side of a reality-bending witch.
The only saving grace was that Wanda didn’t seem like she wanted to be here either. The giant collar locked around her neck made her status with Hydra very clear.
I teleported again, appearing behind the group with my lightsaber already slashing toward them.
Or at least it should’ve been.
My lightsaber, the same one that could cut through steel, slowed to a near halt as the red barrier surrounding Wanda and the remaining Hydra soldiers flashed.
Another bolt of red energy shot toward my face.
I teleported away again.
Frankly, this whole fight might’ve been a wash.
I frowned as I crouched in the rafters, staring down at the chaos below. I was about ninety percent sure Wanda was either throwing the fight or holding back to some degree.
Whether that was because she wanted to spite Hydra or because she couldn’t fully control her fucky reality-bending yet, I had no idea.
Half the Hydra soldiers who’d come with her were already dead, but I’d done jack shit once the survivors started camping close to Wanda.
Some sort of mind control? A bomb collar, maybe? Or something more advanced?
Maybe if I could cut it—
A distant thump-thump-thump reached my ears.
I glanced toward the broken windows as the beat of an approaching helicopter grew louder. Whether that was reinforcements, the cops, or a freaking news helicopter, I didn’t know.
But time was running short.
Then I noticed the notification hovering in the corner of my eye.
[Feat Achieved! Savior of the Children]
[+1 Silver Gacha Ticket]
As much as I would’ve loved to free Wanda, sticking around for the show was probably a bad idea.
[Rolling Silver Gacha Ticket]
[Explosive Tag Deck]|Common Item|Naruto — A leather deck that contains a set of standard Explosive Tags produced in the Hidden Leaf Village. When imbued with energy, these tags explode with decent power behind them. The user can set how long the tags take to detonate and, with practice and prepared energy, can trigger them remotely. One set contains 5 tags that restock every 24 hours.
The Explosive Tag Deck fell into my hands.
I couldn’t help but grin.
Perfect.
“Hey, up here!” I shouted.
Wanda and the Hydra soldiers turned to look up.
Which gave them a perfect, up-close view of a giant block of stone.
My hand rapidly slapped every explosive tag onto the THWOMP as I poured in as much energy as I could.
“THWOMP!”
I didn’t stay to see the results.
A dozen chained teleports carried me out the door in a blur.
The ground shook a moment later as the explosion tore through the warehouse. I doubted it would break through Wanda’s reality-bending barrier, but it would make one hell of a mess for Hydra to clean up.
[Feat Achieved! Kilgrave Buried]
[+1 Silver Gacha Ticket]
As I ran, I glanced up and spotted several helicopters beelining toward the warehouse.
Have fun in Hell, Kilgrave.***Sorry for the slight delay folks. Pharmacy wants to kill me by not having my meds lmao.