Chapter 280:
–Layla–
"I'm back, and I've brought two tag-alongs…and a prisoner," I called out while entering the house.
A second later, I was ambushed by a redhead missile. It was Mary Jane Parker. "Thank you! Thank you so much for bringing him back to me!" she thanked me with tears in her eyes.
I patted her on the back as she sobbed into my shoulder. "You're welcome. I was happy to bring Peter back." Without him, I would have been running around like a headless chicken, although we were kind of in that situation again, unfortunately.
Mary Jane let me go and finally noticed the three people standing behind me. She glared at one of them in particular. The Prowler was standing next to his nephew with his mask removed. I had stripped him of all his weapons and bound his hands behind his back with chakra metal. He wasn't breaking free without some serious help.
"You!" Mary Jane snarled at him. "What are you doing in my house!?" If looks could kill, this man would be extra dead.
"It wasn't my idea to come along, I didn't have a choice," the Prowler said while shooting a glare in my direction.
I just smirked at him in return.
After the villains "heart-to-heart" with his nephew Miles, he tried to escape from the rooftops as if he didn't try to kill me. I obviously didn't allow that to happen. He tried his best to fight back against me, but his tech weapons did not have enough oomph to actually do any lasting damage to my HP. He was now sporting a black eye, multiple other bruises, and a fractured tibia.
I brought him along so we could all find out what he knows. He claimed he was under new management. I wanted to find out what that meant by that. I wanted to know why the deal with Fisk was broken.
Mary Jane glared one more time at the Prowler before turning to Miles and Gwen. "Welcome to my home, Miss Stacy. You look just like you did when we all went to high school together! The multiverse sure is strange," she remarked.
Gwen perked up. "There's an adult version of me in this world?"
Mary Jane nodded. "Yep, she was the smartest girl in our school. She eventually became a molecular biologist and works for a fancy tech company now in California. We still keep in touch online."
"That's cool."
Mary Jane didn't bother greeting Miles. If anything, I don't think she was very happy to see him either. I'm pretty sure she knew he was the reason her husband died in the first place.
"You can all proceed to the living room. It's a bit crowded in there, though," Mary Jane told us.
I walked through the house and found quite the cast of characters waiting for us.
"Hello, oink!" A cartoon pig waved at us from the couch. He introduced himself as Peter Porker, otherwise known as Spider-Ham. My disappointment at him not being named Spider-Pig was immeasurable.
[It was probably trademarked by the Simpsons…]
"Good evening…" A black-and-white Spiderman nodded at us while fiddling with a Rubik's cube. His name was unsurprisingly also Peter Parker. His hero name was Spider-Noir. He spent his nights solving crimes and punching Nazis.
I could respect that.
"Supreme Goddess-sama! You're back!" Peni ran forward and immediately latched onto me. "Everything's going to be okay now that you're here! I'm so excited to work with you!"
"It's good to see you again too, Peni. Good work bringing the other Spider-people here. Now we're only missing the one in Fisk's custody."
"The psychopathic killer version of me? I'm not looking forward to meeting him," Peter said as he walked into the room. He was holding two steaming cups of coffee in his hands and was nice enough to hand me one. I wasn't physically tired of course, but mentally I definitely needed a pick-me-up.
I took a sip and nodded at Peter. "At least Fisk has the Spider locked up for now… I hope."
"You hope?"
I pointed behind me at the Prowler and the two teenagers. Peter looked at them in confusion. He wasn't expecting me to show up with others when all I went out for was the flashdrive.
"Um, hi," Gwen waved awkwardly at Peter. "Sorry for intruding. I'm Gwen Stacy, otherwise known as Spider-Woman. I came to help."
"Welcome, Spider-Woman. We're happy to have you!" Peter told her with a smile.
"And I'm Miles…otherwise known as…Miles," the kid next to her said even more awkwardly. He did not have a hero name picked out. Miles couldn't go with Spider-Man considering I had brought spider-Man back to life.
"And I'm the fucking Prowler. How the fuck are you alive? I thought we killed you!" the villain exclaimed at Peter. He looked like he had seen a man raised from the dead or something…
Peni stuck her tongue out at the Prowler. "Stupid non-believer. Bringing back the dead is child's play for the Supreme Goddess. She has the power to resurrect entire worlds if she so wishes!"
I can do that?
[You can do that? Damn, future Layla must kick some serious ass. I wonder what level you are after 1000 years?]
Miles and Gwen both looked at me in alarm. "You're a Goddess? I thought you were just an Angel," Miles asked in confusion. "Isn't there only one God?"
"Not in my home universe, there isn't," I said with a shrug. "And yes, I am the Goddess of Angels. That's more of a recent development."
"None of that is important right now," Peter interrupted. "I want to know why the Prowler is in my living room. Why did you capture him, Layla? I thought we had a deal with the Kingpin."
"I thought we did too," I grumbled before turning to the Prowler. "Start talking. What did you mean when you said you were under new management?"
"I ain't telling you assholes shit. I invoke the Fifth," he said smugly.
"None of us are lawyers," Peter said.
"Then I definitely ain't telling any of you shit!" The villain taunted us before turning to his nephew. "Come on, Miles. Didn't I teach you that family comes before everything? You got spider powers now, don't you? Help me escape, and let's blow this joint."
"Whoa, kid! Your uncle is the Prowler?" Peter asked in shock. I could see a small flicker of regret in his eyes before he shook his head and dispelled it.
"Uncle Aaron… I'm not going to help you. I want to be a hero!" Miles declared. "I want to be like Dad."
[Hm, that declaration sounded pretty heroic. I think you've been too hard on this kid, Host. He's barely older than your own Univeres's Spider-Man.]
'Maybe you're right, System…'
The Prowler looked conflicted before he relented and let out a tired sigh. "I always said you were the best of us, Miles…" He turned his head away from his nephew and looked back at me. "Alright, what do you want to know? I'll talk."
I asked him why Wilson Fisk broke our deal and if there were any other potential villains coming after us.
"I have no idea what Fisk has planned. I'm just his muscle whenever he pays me. Besides, I haven't even talked to him in the past few days. It was his new side piece who gave me my orders," he explained to me.
"Side piece?" Peter muttered in confusion before speaking up. "That's impossible! Fisk would never cheat on his dead wife. He literally built the super collider just to bring her back from the dead!"
Peter makes a fair point. That's definitely strange, but who knows when it comes to villains.
"That's all I know," the Prowler said. "I received a call directly from his phone, but it was a woman giving the orders. She told me that Fisk wanted that flash drive back immediately and that he didn't care how I got it. Since I failed, I'm sure there will be other villains coming to collect—"
BANG!
The Prowler's final words were cut off as a bullet smashed through the nearby window and slammed into his forehead. Blood and brain matter splattered across the room. Some of it ended up splashing on his nephew, who was standing right next to him.
"Uncle Aaron! NOOOOoo!" Miles screamed in despair.
"Shit! Everyone get down! There's a sniper!" Peter yelled as he dove into the kitchen to protect his pregnant wife. I could hear her screaming in panic from the other room.
"Oh snap! They're after our collective bacons!" Spider-Ham squeaked out as he ducked behind the couch. He was just in time as the wall behind him exploded into dust from another high-caliber bullet.
"A man was just murdered. Now is not the time for jokes," Spider-Noir said, tilting his head slightly to the side to avoid having his own head blown off. A bullet whizzed by his mask, missing my less than a centimeter, yet he remained cool and collected. He seemed very used to being shot at.
Peni hopped into her robot immediately. I wasn't surprised that it was completely bullet proof. She still looked to be on the verge of tears though from what she just witnessed.
Miles was still standing over the corpse of his dead uncle in shock. He was trembling but otherwise wasn't moving at all.
"Get down, Miles!" Gwen yelled at him while dodging some shots aimed at her next.
Miles still didn't move, even as a red dot suddenly appeared right on his chest. I quickly stepped in front of him and blocked the next shot. I felt a large bullet harmlessly bounce off of me.
I supposed I should handle this before anyone else gets killed. I spotted the snitter standing on a roof a couple of houses down from us. I sprinted out the broken window and quickly hopped across multiple rooftops. I reached the sniper before he could chamber his next shit.
I vaguely recognized him as another Marvel villain, except not a very popular one. The biggest clue was the bullseye tattoo plastered across the villain's forehead.
His eyes widened in shock at how quickly I reached him.
"I'm going to need you to cut that shit out." My hand lashed out and ripped the sniper rifle from his grip. With another squeeze of my fingers, it was snapped in half.
"I will not fail! I never miss my mark once I have a target!" Bullseye reached into his pocket and pulled out… a deck of playing cards. An unopened deck of cards. "Dammit, why do they make the plastic so hard to remove nowadays!"
I stood there stupefied as he complained loudly while fiddling with the plastic wrapper.
[What the fuck is he doing?]
He finally managed to pull it off and dumped all the cards in his left hand. He grabbed one card with his right and grinned at me victoriously.
"What the fuck is even happening right now…" I muttered.
"In my hands, everything becomes a deadly weapon! Now die!" he flicked the card at me with surprising speed and accuracy. He would have made a decent act in a circus.
The playing card spun rapidly as it hit me directly in the throat. I don't know what he was expecting to happen here considering he'd watched a literal bullet bounce off of me.
"Well…shit," he said when he realized he wasn't going to be able to hurt me with some playing cards.
I heard someone quickly approaching from behind. Gwen Stacy landed on the roof next to us, although I couldn't see her face. I don't know when she even had the time to put it on, but she was dressed in her white Spider-Woman costume.
[Super heroes always wear their costumes underneath their clothes. Kind of like underwear.]
Gross…
Spider-Gwen zoomed past me and punched Bullseye hard in the stomach. He doubled over and started vomiting all over the rooftop. She delivered another strike to the back of his head that rendered him unconscious. He collapsed on top of his own pile of vomit.
Double gross…
"Er… Good work, Gwen?" I said questioningly. She didn't really need to follow me out here; I had it handled.
"Sorry, I just really wanted to punch something. Miles is my friend… sort of," she said with a slight pause. "His uncle might have been a villain, but he didn't deserve to die," she sounded pretty certain of that declaration.
I didn't voice my obvious disagreement. The Prowler had no problem killing children. The only reason he didn't try to kill Miles and Gwen was because Miles was family.
"Miles is devastated, he can barely move. Can you bring his uncle back to life?" Gwen asked me hopefully.
"I'm not going to resurrect a villain, Gwen. There would be no point. He'd just be spending the rest of his life in prison regardless. And if he escaped, anyone else he killed would be on me," I explained.
I could tell she was frowning underneath her mask. "That's… I understand," she sounded like she was going to argue but changed her mind.
I patted her on the shoulder. "It might sound cold, but it's probably better for Miles this way. He wanted to be a hero, and now his uncle won't be around to corrupt him into becoming a villain."
Gwen gingerly picked up the unconscious Bullseye by the back of his jacket, avoiding getting any puke on her costume.
We hopped off the random roof and started making our way back down the streets. I could already hear sirens in the distance. Neighbors were peeking their heads out of their front doors now that the gunfire had stopped.
Gwen gave them all a small wave as she dropped the villain onto the street. A couple of shots from her web shooters stuck his hands and feet to the floor in case he woke up and tried to get away.
The other Spider-Men and Peni were already outside. I could sense that Peter had stashed his wife inside the secret bunker underneath his house. How he even managed to build such a thing was a complete mystery to me.
"This is a mess," Peter said as he noticed all the attention we were getting from his neighbors. Most of them were gazing at him in shock—he was supposed to be dead, after all. Others were simply staring at the other Spider-People and Peni's mech robot in surprise.
"People were bound to find out you were alive at some point."
"HEY, EVERYONE! What did I miss?" I could hear the telltale sounds of more web shooters going off nearby. Another Spider-Man landed next to us.
Another new Spider-Man? "Did we miss one?" I asked out loud. There were way too many Peter Parkers now! It was getting annoying and confusing!
"Oh, you didn't know about him?" Spider-Gwen asked us. "This is old man Peter Parker. He's like the sadder version of the Peter in this world because he got fat and Mary Jane dumped him. I met him with Miles yesterday after they broke into Doc Ock's lab."
Everyone started giving him looks of pity underneath their masks. It was crazy how much emotion could be displayed from those Spider-Masks.
[They're just made of cloth. Those expressions shouldn't even be possible!]
"Hey!" the latest arrival complained from beneath his own mask. "I'm not fat, and MJ did not dump me!" As he said that, an obvious patch job tore in his costume, and his large belly flopped free. He glanced down in embarrassment. "Okay… Maybe I've let myself go a little bit," he admitted.
"None of this is important right now," this Universe's Peter spoke up. "We have the flash drive. We should all head to the super collider. Once we reverse it, you'll all be able to go home. Layla and I will then shut it down permanently and deal with Fisk."
"Sounds good to me," Spider-Noir said.
"That plan is pork-tastic!" Spider-Ham added.
"Aww, I wanted to spend more time with the Supreme Goddess," Peni whined inside her robot. A second later, she let out another shriek of pain as everyone not from this Universe started to violently glitch in place!
"Owie…"
"Son of a pork roast! That hurts!"
"That was unpleasant…"
Gwen placed her hands on her knees and started panting. "We need to get out of here."
"Can you open a portal to the collider, Layla?" Peter asked me.
"No problem," I held up my hand, and the portal started to manifest in front of us.
"WAIT!" Miles shouted loudly as he ran up to us. "Where are you all going?" He turned to me with a look of desperation. "You can't just leave like this! You need to bring my uncle back to life! You have to!"
"I don't HAVE to do anything, Miles. And I'm not going to resurrect a villain. I'm sorry, but your uncle's in a better place now. Somewhere he can hopefully be redeemed," I told him. 'After Lady Death tortures his soul for a few hundred years for daring to attack me, of course…' I added in my head.
I didn't need to mention that part to Miles.
"You can't decide that!" Miles complained angrily. "You have to bring him back to life! You brought Spider-Man back!"
"Me?" the older fat Spider-Man asked. He was out of the loop.
"No, he means me," the other one corrected.
"Whoa, we can bring people back to life now? How much did I miss out on? I knew I shouldn't have stayed up so late last night watching those old Dr Phil reruns. I just wanted to know if Marcus was really the father…" he grumbled to himself before turning to me. "I don't believe we've been introduced. I'm Peter Parker, otherwise known as Spider-Man," he said while politely shaking my hand.
Despite letting himself go a bit, he actually had some pretty good manners.
"Nice to meet you, Spider-Man. I am Layla of the Fallen—"
"QUIT IGNORING ME!" Miles stomped his foot on the ground so hard that the pavement cracked.
"Don't you dare disrespect the Supreme Goddess!" Peni barked at him. Her robot's holographic eyes glared at Miles.
"Miles," Gwen hissed at him. "You're not wearing a mask, the neighbors are recording us, don't give away that you have powers." She walked up to him and tried to calm him down.
"I don't care about any of that!" Miles pushed her away from himself with all of his strength. She let out a yelp as she went flying over 10 feet.
A couple of neighbors gasped at the display. I noticed that many of them were recording on their phones. I snapped my fingers, and over a dozen people nearby yelped at the same time. I sent out a small burst of Divine Energy that fried all small electronics, including phones.
"I just saved you from revealing your superpowers to the world, Miles. Go home and cool off for a few days. If you still want to be a hero, I'm sure Peter will agree to train you once this is all over." I could write off his previous disrespect because his villainous uncle had just been killed, but I wasn't going to tolerate any more from some kid I barely knew.
Miles sent me a hateful glare before quickly storming off at speeds far beyond what an ordinary human should be capable of…
[That's not a great sign.]
I already helped him once. If he gets caught on camera, then that's on him. We all watched him turn the corner and vanish. Where he ran off to was anyone's guess.
"All right then, let's get back to it." I held up my hand again and created a portal that led directly into the control room of the super collider. Everyone quickly hopped through, their eyes scanning the room for potential danger. "We're not alone in here," I called out. I could feel a tremendous amount of killing intent, and hunger…
"I love pork!" a deep, grungy voice shouted from the ceiling.
Spider-Ham let out a squeak of fright as a red mass slammed into him. There was a disgusting squealing noise followed by spurts of cartoon blood spilling all over the floor. Spider-Ham's headless body slumped onto the floor.
Standing next to the corpse was another Spider-Man. Except this one was radiating pure hatred. The suit around his body was blood red, wriggling in place as if it was alive.
I think it was. I think this was the Spider who was supposed to be locked away by Fisk. He was paired with a symbiote, and I knew which one it was by the color. "Carnage," I said his name.
"Hehe, you've heard of me? I'd be flattered if I wasn't so hungry. I haven't eaten anyone in days!" he complained. The Spider's mask started to deform as rows upon rows of razor-sharp teeth appeared in its place. A second later, he swallowed Spider-Ham's entire head in one gulp…
Shocks of outrage and horror erupted from all my companions. Carnage simply laughed at them mockingly while licking his lip with a disgustingly long tongue.
"Now, now, pet. That was rude. Don't go killing everyone off before I even get to introduce myself." A woman's voice echoed around the room. The air shimmered next to Carnage, and a woman appeared beside him out of seemingly nowhere.
[She was probably just being dramatic and keeping herself invisible the whole time.]
She looked upon the assembled Spider-People hatefully and upon me curiously. "Hello, children of my horrid little sister. I am Shathra."
XXX
A/N: Poor Spider-Ham… He became num nums.
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