Crouched in the shadows underneath an aging billboard atop the roof of an apartment building, Peter Parker doublechecked the adress written in elegant hand on the invitation he was holding, then back across the street towards the crumbling old hotel that the adress belonged to. And not for the first time, he was questioning wether or not he was walking into a trap by following it. But whoever wrote the invitation had...known things, things he hadn't even told Stark, and even if he had, this didn't seem like Stark's style.
It didn't matter, if there was ANY chance of saving Aunt May like the writer promised, he'd walk into Hell with both eyes open.
MJ had wanted to come along, but while the invitation didn't say anything about coming alone, Peter had refused, wanting her to stay behind with May, though the unspoken fear was as always that he didn't want to risk losing her too. The familiar stab of guilt shot through his stomach, the anger at his own idiocy for listenting to Stark, for endangering his family just so the rich jerk could have a poster boy for his stupid Registration act. For gods sake, Fisk was in PRISON, and his family still wasn't safe! They'd never be safe again thanks to Stark, and thanks to himself.
Shaking the miserable thoughts away, Peter shot out a web and swung across the street, skittering across the crumbling brickwork of the hotel with practiced ease. Most of the rooms were dark and empty, and the ones that weren't he could see sparse and ancient furniture inside, as well as the occasional ragged-looking occupant. Atop the building was an old penthouse that had probably been luxurious once, but now looked every bit it's age.
That is, until he pushed one of the windows open, and found himself staring at a shockingly clean and white conference room, which was far too big to even fit inside the building. Inside, seated around a long white metal table, were five people, three of which were unexpectedly familiar.
"Luke? Jen? Kurt? What are you guys doing here?"
The blue-furred form of Kurt Wagner AKA Nightcrawler nodded in greeting at him "I belive you vill have to ask our host for details, mein friend."
The tall, heavyset man at the end of the table waved at him "Spidey, so glad you could make it! I did not want to have to go with my B-option for your spot on the list."
....
Spidey looks understandably apprehensive as he crawls through the window and eyes the room suspiciously. I'm really only using the hotel as an entrance for this little pocket dimension I threw together just so we could have a meeting undisturbed, so it's far larger than it needs to be. Everyone got a different adress that they would have the easiest time accessing, poor Abigail I just directed to an unused storage room door in Camp Hammond and had it lead here instead, while Luke and Kurt's invitation led to an old barbershop in Harlem and a small catholic church in Brooklyn respectively.
Noting his apprehension, Cage steps in "Look Parker, calm down, I know it's a bit weird but we're here for the same reason you are" He holds up the invitation I sent him, and Kurt and Abigal follow his lead. "So sit down and let's hear the man out. Jen says he's on the up and up."
Spidey glances at Jen "How come you don't have an invitation, Jen?"
She points her thumb at me "I came with him."
"That just raises further questions!"
"Parker, just sit your ass down so we can get this over with." Cage says, and Spidey finally slides into the only remaining empty chair.
"Thank you, Mr Cage!" I stand up to adress the room in what I hope looks authoritative and not just like I'm trying too hard. "Now, some of you might already have heard about me on the news. My name is Ginnungagap, and I'm currently..." I make a quick calculation in my head "in the top 3 of the strongest mutants on the planet, give or take."
Abby gasps "You're the Magic Man! Mr Gyrich was yelling about you on the phone during training earlier today!"
I sigh "I had no part in the creation of that name. I go by Ginnungagap. And the reason I brought you here today is because of Tony Stark." There's varying degrees of anger between the members of the group, especially from Cage and Jen. "Yes yes, we all agree he's a prick. Which is why I decided that he, Reed and the rest of his little group of know-it-alls didn't deserve these".
I open my hand, and with a flash of light, the Infinity Gems appear floating above my palm, filling the room with brilliant colors. Spider-Man half rises from his seat as he recognizes the Gems. "These, ladies and gentlemen, are the Infinity Gems. Cosmic artifacts of unimaginable power, each controlling a different facet of space and time. And I've called you here today to make you their new guardians."
There's a moment of silence. Then Cage steps in "You're kidding, right? Ain't these things like, Fantastic Four levels of dangerous? I punch people until they fall down, that's my thing. Not... phenomenal cosmic powers or whatever you're offering here."
"Actually, Mr Cage, I chose you because you punch the RIGHT people. Okay, that's a simplistic way of putting it, but long story short, I belive you all have the right character to not only keep the Gems safe, but also use them in a responsible and productive way to make a better world for everyone, not just desperatly maintain the status quo! All of you have been screwed over by Stark, the government and the SRA one way or another, you all know what it feels like to be the victims of authority."
"Umm, excuse me?" Abby says, drawing everyones attention "But... why am I here? I'm not a hero like them, I never even wanted to be! I just wanted to use my power to fly! The Initiative basically owns me anyway..."
"Which is why I'm offering you the chance to fly all you want, anywhere you want. Abigal, you are the perfect example of the abuse of the SRA, they didn't give a damn about what you wanted in life, they just saw you as a useful tool and decided to turn you into a weapon, just because they were the government and you couldn't stop them. The Space Gem will give you the power to tell them to go to HELL!"
Cage frowns "If you're so damn powerful, can't you just wriggle your nose or whatever it is you do and change the whole world to be exactly the way you prefer it? Why do you even need us?"
He's got a point "Because I'm not interested in turning the world into my playground, and even if I did, I'm not a God, I don't magically know the consequences of every action I take. If I wanted a perfect, orderly model world I'd just get into miniatures or something. I was actually planning to interfere even less than I am, but I realized that just ignoring suffering when I had the power to change it was just as irresponsible. I don't intend to do everything myself, but I do intend to do something. And so can you."
Kurt wrings his hands anxiously, his tail whipping behind him "I am...torn. On one hand, it is true what you say, I like many mutants have suffered greatly at the apathy or outright malevolence of the government, but this kind of power... I am not certain I am suited for it. Ve are but men. Or vomen as it might be." He smiles at Jen and Abby. Jen just rolls her eyes humorously but Abby smiles back. "But I cannot deny that you yourself have done truly great things with the power you have. I am inclined to accept."
Jen nods "I wasn't sure either, but he's right, the SRA has gone WAY too far, it's intentions might have been understandable, but they've taken it way beyond what it was supposed to legislate, and Stark and Reed have made some serious ethical breaches. I'm going to be kicking myself for a long time for being gullible enough to fall for Starks crap. Atleast by keeping one of the Gems I might be able to undo some of the damage I helped cause."
I seem to be winning them over, but Spidey isn't convinced just yet "Hold on... I agree that Stark has... he's done a lot of bad things, both to us and to others, but I'm not sure this is the right thing to do either. We shouldn't be able to just stomp over everyone else just because we're powerful enough to ignore the consequences of our actions!"
Oh boy, here we go. "Parker, are you seriously going to turn down the chance to heal your aunt just out of a misguided sense of responsibility?"
He looks away, and I hear him mutter something that sounds suspiciously like "Great power, great responsibility"
I sigh and rub my eyes tiredly "Letting someone you love DIE because you're terrified of any choices that aren't directly negative to yourself is an insane approach to responsibility!"
He grips the table, and I can see the metal deform under his strength"...you don't know what you're talking about!"
Oh, for gods sake. "You were willing to come here when you thought this was a trap just on the off chance it could help May, but now that you stand to GAIN something from it, it's suddenly wrong? That's not responsible, that's just anal!" I take a deep breath, there's no point in losing my temper over this. "Look, I'll make the choice easy for you. Wether you say yes or no, I'll fix her."
Spidey freezes "What?"
"I'll fix her, good as new. Better than new even. Mentioning healing her was just a way to get you down here anyway, if you chose to accept the Gem, you could have done it yourself, but since apparently that would mean being irresponsible somehow, I'm taking away any ambiguity for you. It is now a literal yes or no question. You can walk right back out into your regular life as a wanted man who can't even visit his own wife. Or, you can make a choice that happens to benefit yourself as well as everyone else for once in your life, and make sure no one ever hurts your family again."
The Gems float away from my hand and head toward their prospective owners, the Time Gem to Jen, the Space Gem to Abigail, the Power Gem to Cage, and the Soul Gem to Kurt.
The Reality Gem hovers in front of Spidey, awaiting his decision.
A long moment passes as everyone in the room stares at him.
"...alright. I'm in."
....
"Has anyone seen Boylen?! She didn't turn up for training today! I swear, if that little brat has gone AWOL, I'm having her thrown in the Negative Zone prison until she's old enough to retire!"
Henry Peter Gyrich was on the warpath. This past week had been an absolute mess, what with that new mutie freak showing up and undoing years of work getting the superhuman population under control. One of the Initiative cadettes deciding that her training schedule was just a suggestion was just the icing on the cake.
Naturally, her teammates had NO IDEA where she were, miserable little superpowered snots always watched eachothers backs. Of a bigger concern was that Pym didn't know where she was either, and he usually kept a pretty close eye on everyone at the camp. Pressing his finger against the communicator in his ear, Gyrich snarled "She can't just have up and left, Green! It's not like she could just waltz out the door, and even if she flew, we have sensors all over the damn place! So where the hell is she?!"
A blur of movement caught him off guard, and in front of him, a blond, teenaged girl dressed in casual clothes and carrying a bundle of something under her arm suddenly popped into view as if out of nowhere.
"What the- where the hell have you been, Boylen?! And why aren't you in uniform? You think this is a damn summer camp?! When I get through with you-"
"HERE'S YOUR DAMN UNIFORM, YOU INSUFFERABLE ASS!!" With a scream, Abby threw the bundle of cloth in his face, almost knocking the surprised Gyrich over. "IF I EVER SEE YOUR FACE AGAIN, I'M TELEPORTING YOU TO PLUTO! Oh, and by the way? I QUIT!!" With that, both Abigail Boylen and Peter Gyrich vanished from Camp Hammond.
Gyrich didn't go far, as he found himself dropped in the East River, no worse for wear other than a ruined suit and a minor cold. This didn't do much to improve his attitude.
...
"Wow, kinda wish I had thought of that." Jen laughs, leaining over my shoulder as she watches Gyrich's humiliation on the screen I conjured up to make sure Abby got out of Hammond alright.
"I think pretty much every hero in New York has thought of that at one point or another. Gyrich is kind of a jackass." I turn the screen off and it pops out of existance, before getting out of my chair and walking over to the window and looking out across New York. "Well, we got the Gems handed out, hopefully it will work out the way I've hoped. It's surprisingly hard to get people to accept unlimited cosmic power for some reason."
Jen hums and stretches before walking up next to me. She's stepped out of her heels but even without them, she's almost half a head taller than I am, which is a new experience. Not exactly unpleasant though. "When you've been in the hero business as long as most of us have, you tend to get wary of people who come bearing ultimate power. I honestly think we're all just waiting for you to reveal some horrible catch to all this. Like, you'll make all our dreams come true, but we'll be your slaves or something."
"Oh I can't do that, I'm not a telepath! I'd have to erase the current you entirerly and construct a new you that's wired from the ground up to obey me." I wait for a moment on purpose even as I feel Jen staring at me in horror "And that would be wrong."
"Jerk" She smiles and shoves me playfully, which considering her strength still almost knocks me off my feet. "So, now that you've handed out the cosmic artifacts, what's the next step for Magic Man?"
"Don't call me that! And let's see, first I was thinking dinner. And then space."
"Space?"
"How about we look in on how Bruce is doing?"