Author: Thank you for all the wishes. That means a lot to me. I am still recovering but I will start posting chapters slowly now. Until I can write daily again.
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Night In New York City.
The Avengers were training in the simulator inside the Avenger Tower. Tony finally joined the training after Kai allowed him to do a heavy exercise. The objective of this practice is to recover a stolen item that was being guarded by an army of robots.
"One day…and you're all fixed? Being an Avenger has its own perks huh," Barton smiled and was thanking himself internally for joining the Avengers. Basically, if they are still alive, they can be saved by using MediQuick. Barton shoots out several arrows, allowing Natasha to pass the blockage that was created by the army of robots.
The new benefit needed secrecy, so everyone who knew about it already vowed to keep it a secret. Even the SHIELD faction keeps that thing as a secret as it was more of a private healthcare instead of a SHIELD's priority for information.
"Do you have any medical trouble Barton, you can talk to the kid," Tony said through his Iron Armor as he helped Steve to lessen the pressure of being in the frontline.
"Why do you call him a kid, anyway? And where is he?" Natasha said with dissatisfaction. She then jumped upward over the running big green giant.
"HULK SMASH PUNY ROBOTS!" Hulk moves through where Natasha was standing and starts to smash.
"Not only him…even Kai is skipping practice these days," Steve said. He noted to himself about the needs to tackle the discipline issues in the team.
"Kai has his reasons…" Natasha defended Kai quickly.
"Ryan said he will not be joining the combat battle. After all, his strength lies in the gathering of an information and battle command," Tony said to back up the missing kid. For him Ryan will always be a kid. He looks similar to a 20 year old kid without traces of getting any older so this statement does support Tony.
Steve jumped acrobatically and arrived at the stolen item location. "Got it," he said as he grabbed the silver tube from the altar. The moment the tube was lifted, all the robots stopped their attacks and deactivated themselves.
"Phew, that was…exhilarating," Barton said as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"15 minutes and 14 seconds to finish the objective. And that was in the easiest mode," Tony said in a slight dissatisfaction. He knew that they could do better than this.
"Wait, easy mode?" Hulk said as he ripped out the head from the robots.
"Yeah, this was the first level of combat practice that Ryan had created," Tony explained.
"Then what are we waiting for? Crank up the difficulty!" Barton said as they got ready for round two.
However, Tony received an alert at that time.
"A tiger-like humanoid is attacking Midtown High!"
…
"Another one? That means…" Ryan got the notice of the attack from Albus. If another incident appeared here in New York…that must mean that Jackal was here!
'Why was I unable to think about that…why am I…'
A strand of thin illusionary spider silk that was attached to his back shakes violently.
Ryan's purple eyes started to glow viciously as the feeling of being watched came back.
'Why is…my common sense altered!'
The illusionary spidersilk couldn't hold it anymore and snapped, freeing Ryan from its influence. He prepared himself to get to the scene, but he was stopped by Gwen before he could go.
"Bring me with you," Gwen said, begging Ryan to come.
"But Gwen…it might be dangerous…"
His viciousness melted instantly when she appeared.
"Ryan…he is my uncle…if there is any chance that I could bring him back…I-"
Ryan hugged Gwen before she could go on.
"Okay, I'll bring you. But you will need to wear your suit, alright?"
With him being around, he will be able to protect her. Ryan loves Gwen wholeheartedly because of that, he knew that if he denied her request, she would try to do this on her own, and that would put her in a dangerous situation.
'I guess this is my fate now that I've fallen for a superhero,' Ryan thought to himself as he watched Gwen take off her clothing. She changed into a skin-tight suit instead of wearing her usual clothes.
Ryan scanned for the Jackal using his army of stealth drones that he mobilized around Midtown high. It was night time, so the people there were only the janitors and the security guard, so he didn't have to hurry. Also, the Avengers had been mobilized there so he could rest easy.
"Why'd you take them off?" Ryan said as he leered at the extremely tight wear Gwen was wearing.
Although he enjoyed the view, her suit that he created can adapt to any type of clothing she wears, especially when he had upgraded it with a nano-tech and magi-tech. Gwen activated the new suit and the cubic box in her hand glowed with a gold and silver pattern.
"I don't want my clothes to be a factor. I want to end this today no matter what ," Gwen said while flashing steel-like determination in her eyes. The nano-suit wrapped itself around her body, making her look like an iron-spider with white and black theme.
The suit has many versions; the Mercy Battle Angel, the stealth spider and the iron spider that Gwen was wearing right now. She requested Ryan to make her a spider themed suit multiple times, and he finally gave in.
Of course, he had ripped off the suit from any entanglement from the web of destiny through his magicraft carving on the suit. Unless she was bitten by a spider, she won't become entangled in the spider-verses business.
"I see…" Ryan said with a hint of worry in his tone. Then, his spider drones managed to find a trace of the Jackal through a sewer line.
"Activate your smell filter Gwen. It's about to get stinky…" Ryan said as he built a 3-D model of the sewer routes in his brain, while ordering the spider drones to follow the trace of the Jackal. The spider scanned the footprints of the animals, and isolated the other footprints using digitigrade legs as a perimeter.
'Weird…were there giant turtles inside the sewer?' Ryan thought as he read through the footprint list inside the sewer.
"I have no time for that. I need to focus on Jackal at the moment," Ryan muttered out loud. Then, he hugged Gwen by her waist. "I found him, Gwen. Get ready…"
Less than a minute later, Ryan and Gwen disappeared from the penthouse. They had some business with her uncle, so they needed to knock on his door without making an appointment.
…
Midtown High.
"Roar!!!" The Tiger humanoid roared loudly as he slobbered all around the couple of high school students who had sneaked inside the school for a raunchy night.
The students in their underwear shivered while hugging each other as the humanoid tiger drew closer.
"I'm sorry Liz, all I wanted was for us to lose our virginity in the place where we first met. Now we're going to get eaten by a tiger, " the african-american teenager apologized to his girlfriend.
The tiger drew closer, and its drool dripped onto one of the teenager's head.
"I'm sorry too, Duke. But I have to confess something. I already lost my virginity with my step-brother!!"
Liz said with urgency as the tiger pounced onto them. The teenagers yelled, and before the worst could happen, a red streak flew horizontally onto the tiger and pushed it away from the teenagers.
"Turns out tigers really do hunt at night time," Tony said as he stopped his momentum and let the tiger smash into the wall.
"Tony, the civilians?" Captain said as he walked in front of the terrified teenagers.
"No one else around the area Cap, we're safe," Tony replied.
The roof of the classroom collapsed as the big green abomination jumped inside the school, cracking his fist as he looked angrily toward the kitty.
"Hulk, the more collateral damage you do the less amount of chocolate you will get," Tony said as he saved the debris from falling onto the students from the right. Steve does the same thing on the left.
"Hulk, take it outside," Steve ordered.
"Gladly," Hulk grinned as he grabbed the giant kitty.
"Meow?" The humanoid tiger forgot what he sounded like as he faced the Hulk. Outside, Barton readied a tranquilizer arrow and Natasha had redirected the press and media from this area.
The disaster apps notification saved a lot of lives, but some reporters now started using it so they can get the next headlines for their company. Ryan didn't care at all if any monsters or supervillains would attack the reporters as it was their choice to be there in the first place.
"It is weaker than the Rhino. I guess it is rejecting the transformation," Kai said as he observed the beast from the air. The tiger was becoming weaker and weaker under the fist of the Hulk. It couldn't go any longer and fell to the ground.
"HULK IS THE STRONGEST!" Hulk yelled as his foe was vanquished.
"We don't even need to be here don't we?" Barton said with a chuckle as he eased his bowstring and put the arrow back into his quiver.
Hulk raised his arm up to show that he was the victor. Kai landed smoothly between Hulk and the tiger to check up on the unconscious animal.
"We need to immediately transfer her to my lab. Her life is burning out," Kai said as he checked the vitals of the tiger using a small scanner Ryan had made.
"Wait, that's a 'she' ?" Barton asked in confusion. On the first hand, how the hell did Kai know? On the other hand, how are they going to bring the half-ton, 3 meter tall tiger back to the Avenger tower?
Kai injected the tigress with a stabilizing fluid to stop her transformation.
"Hulk, grab her," Kai ordered the big green monster and summoned his wings. Hulk nodded and did what he was told. Kai flew toward the tower while Hulk jumped using his thicker than tree trunk green leg, 1 kilometer at a time.
"I'm jealous," Barton said while seeing the superpowered members get back to the tower easily. Meanwhile, he needed to hitch a ride from someone.
Natasha revved up the hoverbike Ryan made and stored inside the Avenger tower. The sleek white bike was available for any members who wanted to use it, but there are only two of them. One of which was used by Captain America.
"Hop on Princess," Natasha said teasingly toward Clint.
"Yeah, so I lost in a rock-scissors-paper game. Next time I'll definitely win," Clint climbed to the back of the bike reluctantly. Natasha grinned at his misery and they got back to the tower.
Inside the school.
"The tiger was caught and is on its way toward the tower," Tony informed.
"Great. We are done here. Did you find any traces of the culprit?" Steve asked. One humanoid monster was a coincidence. Two of them were part of a meticulous planning.
"I am scanning the nearby areas for any leads. You can get back inside the tower cap," Tony said as he flew outside the broken walls where the tiger broke in.
Steve turned toward the teenagers that were shivering in fear.
"I'll let you go this time. But breaking into the school at night is considered vandalism. Do you understand?"
"Yes Captain!"
"Great. Now put on your clothes and go back home," Steve said as he hopped onto a bike hovering at the side of the broken walls, waiting for him.
The teenagers peeked from the broken walls and saw the captain figure disappear among the New York skyscrapers.
" Good things the Avengers are here, " Duke mumbles.
"Duke…about what I said before… " Liz tried to explain.
"What did you say?" Duke was puzzled. He didn't remember anything. He only remembered the tiger's teeth.
"N-Nothing.." Liz said as she breathed in relief. Not only her step-brother, but there was also her neighbor's kid, her step-sisters, and many more.
The unlucky Duke will be regretful after spending 5 years together with his current girlfriend, but she only focused on girls at that time so she just invited him to her activities. They will be living happily afterward, even getting married and having a cute baby together.
…
Inside the sewer.
Ryan and Gwen appeared in front of the ugly monster that was watching the tigress fighting the Hulk from his small lab.
Jackal instantly puts his guard up against the intruder that cames out of nowhere.
"You-" Jackal's word was cut off as he recognised the people that appeared in front of him.
"Gwen?" Jackal muttered as his sight focused more on the female beside him.
"Uncle Raymond. I'm here to stop you," Gwen said in a sad tone, bracing herself for the upcoming confrontation.
"No Gwen! I am not ready to stop!" Raymond said with a glint of madness in his eyes.
"You! YOU BROUGHT HER HERE. YOU AVENGER WANNABE!" Jackal turned to Ryan and yelled, almost lunging at him.
However, Gwen stood in between them.
"Uncle Raymond. It's… not too late.. You can turn yourself in. I promise I'll find a cure for you. So that you'll be a human again…"
"Ha!" Raymond scoffed before he burst into laughter. " HAHAHA!! And why do you think that I want to become weak, frail and overlooked…by humans ever again?"
"With my genius mind, I will be able to bring forward the next evolution of humans! And make the best version of ourselves!"
"By becoming a monster?"
Gwen's remarks caused Raymond to become angry.
"I'm disappointed in you Gwen. I figured you… of all people… will be able to understand what I am doing!"
"...Maybe when you will become like me, you'll change your mind!"
Jackal grabbed the spider serum vial and tried to lunge at Gwen, wanting to transform her into a hybrid, like him.
Ryan already casted multiple spells to support Gwen, but he didn't need to interfere with the battle.
Gwen shoots out her webbing toward Raymond's face. While he was distracted and blind, she jumped around him, tying him with the webbing.
"This won't stop me," Raymond said menacingly as he ripped off the webbing with his incredible strength.
Raymond had mixed a lot of animal genes inside of him, making his hybridization more complex than the other experiments.
"Then how about this," Gwen said while thwip-ping an ionized web toward her used-to-be uncle and electrocuted him. Jackal yelped after getting tased and pretended to fall into the ground.
"Uncle, don't pretend," Ryan said as he noticed what he was trying to do.
After hearing his remarks, Gwen shoots out multiple taser webs, knocking and shocking Raymond intensely. His uncontrollable grip on the tempered glass vial caused it to crack as he was seizuring.
When he was finally knocked out, his grip loosened from the spider serum, causing it to roll to the side of the room. The serum leaked out from the cracks, and pooled around the syringe.
A small, red and blue baby spider was basked inside the serum before it ran away. Ryan saw it, but he didn't stop it. What he did was put up a soul trace on the baby spider so he will be able to know where the spider is.
Jackal finally changed into Raymond as he lost his consciousness. Gwen looked at the sight of her uncle and tears fell from her eyes.
Ryan walked near her and patted her head.
"You did a good job Gwen," Ryan comforted her as she bawled inside his embrace.
Ryan brought Gwen to one of his hidden bases which was equipped with all the things that were required to cure Raymond. They restrained Raymond inside a transparent cell that was built with tempered glass, and started their research to remove the Jackal gene from Raymond.
"Uncle, what have you done?" Gwen was shocked when she analyzed the gene inside her uncle's body. The gene was so messed up that it was hard to call Raymond a human anymore.
Ryan entered Raymond's mind when Gwen was busy researching. He had given her the advanced gene knowledge to aid her.
In terms of researching capabilities, her creativity surpassed him. Ryan could do it on his own, but this was more of a Gwen story.
After reading all of Raymond's memory, Ryan understands Raymond's obsession with the hybridization experiments. His face became solemn as he found out some disturbing things.
He wanted to get rid of the Jackal personality, but he found out that he needed to cure Raymond first from his condition. Otherwise the Jackal will come back instantly, making his effort futile.
"Ryan, what are you doing?"
"Just checking up on him. What did you find out, Gwen?"
"His genetic composition has changed drastically, even if we can remove the animal gene, the remaining ones won't be able to support his existence as a human anymore," Gwen said. Extreme stress was piling up on her brain, almost causing her to have a breakdown.
"Just why? Why is he so obsessed with these things?" Gwen asked, her eyes teary.
Ryan was silent. He shook his head a few times and helped Gwen with the research.
"I will make up for the missing genes, don't worry Gwen," Ryan said as he tried to use white magic to make up for the incomplete gene on the sample Gwen took out of Raymond. After a few tries, he was finally able to do so with extreme difficulty.
Ryan and Gwen spent some time inside the research lab to cure Raymond. At the same time, Ryan contacted Tony and told him that the culprit was caught.
"I'm sorry Tony. I will give him to you after I cured him," Ryan said after Tony asked him to transfer the culprit to the authorities.
"Why do you need to do this yourself? Is there anything you're not telling me?" Tony asked. His instinct told him that something more is behind this incident.
Tony knew that the culprit was Raymond i.e. Gwen's Uncle. He was the one responsible for the human experiments as SHIELD had put him inside a wanted list.
Ryan knew that if he sent Raymond to the authorities, Hydra would try to silence him. So he needed some time to process Raymond correctly.
"Don't worry Tony. I will handle this matter, so just keep SHIELD away from this," Ryan asked for a favor.
"Only you and I know about this matter. If you say you need time, then you can have it," Tony said affirmatively. He trusted Ryan to do the right thing, so he didn't worry too much about the culprit not getting to the authorities.
"You can tell the victim that the culprit was caught. SHIELD still didn't know her identity, right?"
"Nope. We did it so quickly that SHIELD couldn't even see the tiger's tail."
Tony decided not to tell SHIELD about the victims identity, lest the agents decide to capture her too, like they did to the Rhino.
Inside the Avenger Tower. Kai had handled the cure for the tigress, causing her to change into a beautiful Puerto Rican woman.
After thanking the Avengers, Ava Ayala went back to her home, and vowed never to remove the tiger pendant her father gave her ever again.
"The one time that I removed it, I was turned into a literal tiger. Uhh, that small d*ck (beep) (beep)"
After cursing for an hour, she finally let her anger flow down. When she went to sleep that night while wearing the tiger pendant, she didn't realize that the tiger pendant was flowing, as if responding to her transformation before.
…
Mount Wundagore.
Ryan in his Marduk suit appeared in the vicinity of the mountain. Then, he flew for a while to find the place that he saw in Raymond's mind.
"I think Cthon temple was also here, so I will check it out later," Ryan muttered as he flew toward his destination.
He later landed on a big cavern that seemed to be ripped out from the earth. Ryan looked around the cave, and finally noticed what was going on when he saw the scribbles on the walls of the cavern.
" So, High Evolutionary huh. I wonder where he went," Ryan said solemnly as he found out why Raymond was so obsessed with the hybridization of humans and animals.
It is because during his younger age, Raymond was lost in the mountains and saw the scribbling on the cave walls by chance. That was when he became obsessed with the experiments.
Ryan checked the trace around the cave where a citadel used to be.
"Around 20 years huh."
The citadel was gone with its inhabitants. Ryan didn't know where they went to and if they would ever come back, but if that time comes, he would get ready for it.
When the citadel was thriving, a Sokovian human woman had lived inside the city all through her life before she got married. Not knowing what happened to her, she fell in love and got married to a young Sokovian man and moved to their country.
When she visited the citadel to share the good news after 5 years of marriage, she realized that the city was gone one day before she came there.
9 months passed since her last visit, and a pair of twin babies was born. The male baby was given the name, Pietro Maximoff. The female baby was given the name, Wanda Maximoff.
Their mother, the first 'activated' mutant gene carrier in the colony, was extremely elated when she received the baby in her arms, even naming the female baby based on the place from where she used to live. The Wundagore mountains.
The High Evolutionary found out that the X-gene inside the humans needed a cosmic level of energy to be activated, so he decided to go to the universe to search for it and he found a parallel earth when he returned.
The cavern inside the Wundagore mountains rumbled as Ryan held his arm toward the scattered notes of the High Evolutionary sculpted into the walls. Then, the walls crumbled, erasing all traces of the civilization there.
Ryan then teleported out from the cavern before the ceiling crumbled on top of him. He turned his gaze onto the Cthon temple as he felt some type of gaze on him, again. He smirked at the direction of the temple and disappeared from the location.
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