The group watched as the jeeps all left before heading back inside, where Peter was waiting for them. Moving forwards he hugged his duplicate, "thanks MJ," and her skin rippled and she returned to her usual self.
"That hurt Pete. It's not easy to shrink down several cup sizes without warning."
He hugged her close and kissed her on the side of the neck and hugged her close, "I know" but he just stood and held her, "I'll make it up to you."
Liv moved forwards, "sorry Peter, but this isn't over." and he sighed against MJ and frowning, stepped back,
"Fine, fine, lay on the worse news." and as he looked around at the collection of worried faces, "I'll make something to eat." The group slipped and headed to the dining area. "Oh and remind me to thank Flash later." The little show outside required several fakes, and while Peter hid, Flash and MJ provided the necessary decoys. Once he was away from Ross, and the beatings his body began its normal healing, and he was sore and stiff but with food would be perfectly fine within the hour.
The food was simple, a pot of hot chocolate, made by melting real chocolate in cream and milk, followed by fried eggs with bacon. It was quick and easy and everyone would eat it.
Loading up the pan with eggs, he slid the sheet of bacon into the oven and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. It had been close, Ross was too strong, and even Tony could have taken him out easily if he hadn't been holding back. He also had the small problem that Emma was off doing god knows what with the Mind Stone and that in itself could be a major issue. He had to trust that whatever she wanted it for, she would exercise restraint.
As they ate, Peter made his way around the table, stopping by each woman and sitting with them. They had been lucky, or the government had been stupid, either way, no one was hurt and he could relax.
As he got to Liv, who sat on his lap and let him feed her bacon pieces she chewed them while she spoke. "It's amazing and defiantly alien."
Peter scrunched up his face, "Alien? Did it come with the Klyntar or is it something else?" alien machines sounded bizarre, especially ones that were experts at adapting to Earth's technology.
"This is something else, but it's also not extraterrestrial. The metal is a mix of terrestrial and alien metal, but the power it gives off is strange and honestly, Peter, if you told me a metal could absorb and adapt to different energy powers, I would never have believed you. I think Trask found something and used it to build Sentinels."
As Peter stole some of Liv's omelette and then gave her a bacon kiss on the side of the face she laughed and wiped it clean, "and we know where they are. We triangulated the signal, which wasn't hard considering how powerful it was."
"At least you get that road trip, so where?"
"Cheyenne Mountain," Liv told him,
Peter looked surprised, "Like the show?"
Liv laughed, "Yes but it's not like that. It's a military base alright, but this one is also the Sentinel Command Centre."
"Think Fury will let us borrow his plane?"
Liv glared at him, "considering we paid for the fuel he used, and have been outfitting him with weapons and armour, free of charge, it's not his plane, he just thinks it is. Natasha?"
Natasha put down her fork and shrugged, "it won't be hard to steal even if he says no. I mean, Maria and Scott spend most of their downtime together, So Nick is alone, even if he decides to be obstinate."
Peter kissed Liv once more and moved over to Natasha, who scooted over and leaned against him, "but let's ask first okay. We have few allies as it is without antagonising them, oh and uh, my dad wants to meet you, and uh my mom. My sister wants to meet Flash, and I might have bonded her with Widow to stop the Red Room poisoning from killing her, so if she gives you a strange look, just ignore it."
Peter laughed and lifted a piece of bacon, "let me guess, spy training, tell a subject a whole bunch of bad things right after a stressful situation so they're too tired and exhausted to care about it, right?"
Natasha leaned over, took a bit of the bacon Peter was holding and shrugged, "nope, you're simpler than that, tell you lots of bad stuff then I dunno ride you senseless. You're too simple for complicated psychology." Natasha leaned over and squashed herself against him "Booooobs" Natasha joked as she rubbed herself against him, "See?"
Peter finished the bacon and shrugged, he was about to argue but as each person around him was nodding, he just sighed, "fine, I guess they also want to see about work?" and
Natasha nodded, "You did promise to fix them, and my mom is also a biochemist, I'm sure she'll love Gwen."
Peter laughed, "No Gwen," and as Gwen looked over confused, "No seducing Nat's mom."
Nat laughed and batted him on the shoulder. "Oh like you didn't think of it, and the same goes for my sister. No. You can have as many as you want, but siblings and I kill you."
Peter laughed, "I have MJ and Friday," and MJ winked but Friday looked up from her breakfast and stared at him.
"Fine, fine. Peterisapervert protocols accepted," and while Friday laughed, she was still picking at her food. "How are you holding up?"
Friday sighed and put her fork down on her plate, Peter moved from Nat and Friday stood and curled up on his lap. Normally, Peter had been resistant to Friday's attempts at seduction, but today he would let her, today was rough on everyone.
"Jo called, Tony is in bad shape, and so is Vis. But what did they expect? I'm just," and she sighed and looked at her plate again,
"Torn? You don't know whether to go to the tower and see Tony. If either of them wants to see you. And you don't want to deal with it if they don't."
Friday looked down at her plate and nodded.
"Call Pepper, and take her with you. Tony and Vis might be angry at me, and they might take it out on you, having a friendly face with you will help."
Friday smiled and nodded.
"Right, so now. Ivan, Jean, and Selene, plus updating Shuri. My parents are both out of jail already, Mom called me while I was dealing with Ross. Curt is registered and with the CLS up and running is considering depowering himself and getting an artificial arm."
Liv leaned forwards, "Ivan is fine. Matt called and while his visa was problematic with Hammer, I made sure it wasn't for us. It was all technicalities according to Matt, even the little stunt of everyone calling you Peter was just an act. They needed you contained. This isn't going away this time Peter. You played rough and now they played dirty to deal with you. I'm sorry, but Venom has to die this time, and properly."
Peter leant back in his chair and sighed, "I know. I know I was rash and angry, but I try, I really do. Liv. Set up a meeting for Parker Inc, and get Liz here too." and Peter's brow furrowed, "what happened with Eddie and Cindy?"
Gwen laughed, "Eddie was enjoying his day off with Betty, and uh, yeah it was all over before he got his pants back on, and Cindy, yeah. They pushed Pete, and well, she pushed back, right into a wall and then several faces. She and Ghost get on great, a little too great, Too bad those charges will stick. They might have started it, but Cindy really needs to work on her anger management."
Peter rubbed a hand over his forehead, "Yeah. Get Matt to bail her out, just I dunno dock her pay or whatever Pepper says is appropriate." and Liv laughed, "yeah I'm a bit slow I guess, already done?" and she nodded, "good. We need to spin this our way. Evil robots are getting tiresome, and I heard Ross. Find out who set this stupid thing up and," and he leaned forwards, "this time I'm using the Stone. I'm tired of stupid shitheads thinking using untested AI or some random piece of tech to build their crap is a good idea. I'm tired of Tony using any excuse to steal tech, or Doom to play his stupid games."
The room was quiet, "As long as you don't go too far dear, we support you," and the others nodded,
"But uh, use it for what?" Wanda asked, "I mean, are you going to make them all jump off a roof?"
Peter laughed, "Nope, but everyone has a button. They went after my mom, so let's see where we can hurt them back. Bank accounts, mistresses, illegitimate children. I will take every dirty little embarrassing secret and show the world just how dirty every one of them is. Start with Malik, we already know he's dirty, and work our way through everyone. Target leaders, presidents, anyone who's in the news right now over giving Augments and Enhanced shit for just being themselves."
Friday looked up, "Not Tony though, please. If Jo or Vision find out,"
Peter raised a hand. "No, I know how to hurt Tony, and that ball is already rolling. I won't go after him physically Friday, I promise. But he will pay, I'll make sure he pays."
Friday looked down at her breakfast, and Peter knew she was conflicted. Tony had gone after Peter, but they were all caught up in it, and if Tony had won, would he be as welcoming, would he have taken her back with a smile and a kind word. Friday knew he would have, but there would have been a hidden blade under it all, a snarky comment here, an implication of more owed. Deep down she was glad Peter had won, she just hated that they also lost.
Peter looked over at her, "Hey, it's okay. Tony was hurt but not bad enough that he won't recover. We already know Ross had something over him, we just need to find out exactly what and we go from there. I'm not going to hurt Tony or anyone if they were guiltless, it's only the assholes I want to pay, okay?"
Friday nodded, but still looked downcast.
"So, for now. My mom, Your mom, the Senator that arranged this, Coulson and anyone else? Might as well get the list started while we're here."
"Some guy called Talbot, defiantly an asshole," Natasha added,
Carol looked hesitant, "Pete, I don't want you going after Monica." and he shrugged
"This isn't a hitlist carol, it's a shitlist. We need to know who is going to cause problems, and so Captain Marvel is on it. We won't go looking but we now know that the government recreated whatever gave you your powers. So, just the two?" and everyone nodded, "then I vote. Party first. Get your family here Nat, get mine, get anyone who wants a say in what happens next. A big meal always makes that better and plus, might as well celebrate the win, even if it was you know, a bit suspect." but nobody cared, a party seemed like a good idea and phones were brought out and plans were made, "and we also need to deal with the Mind Stone. Too many people now know about it, and it's going to make us a target."
Peter sat back, "It's not just Emma now. If Charles or Selene get wind of it we'll have every telepath knocking on our door to grab it, and some will ask, others won't. We need to start preparing for bigger picture events. The Sentinels caught us with our pants down, and it could have ended with us in jail or worse."
The group looked solemnly at each other. Peter was right. It was only the combined efforts of Matt and Pepper that saved them from prison, and the fact that Hydra's screw up meant there was no evidence of anything illegal. Almost every person sitting at the table was guilty of major crimes, from theft all the way to murder, and they were lucky nobody had been caught. They all knew that the thing with luck was that it never held,
"Uh Wanda, Can I ask a huge favour, and I will do anything, and I mean anything," Peter asked as he pulled Wanda to one side, making sure nobody could hear him. As he took her hand she nodded, and with a small twinkle in her eye, agreed to his plan.