It was a day like any other, birds were flying, children were on their way to class, some were crying with sadness for their deceased relatives, others were crying with joy for the birth of their first born, it is also on this day that a man in black can be seen, people slowly recognise him and murmur amongst themselves.
Everyone somehow knows him, after all, in New York who fights against criminals, wearing the epithet "The Reprending", so the streets have titled the vigilante Spider-Man, the first of his kind.
But today is not a normal day, Spider-Man knows it, standing in the street he watches the sky with hundreds of people as giant robots approach his direction.
Many people don't know what's going on, but Spider-Man knows and quickly raises his hands, spreading webs from his hands, he starts to run and then jumps, the swinging takes the robots away from the civilians and they now try to follow the arachnid who turns down several streets, making the chase turn into something serious.
—Sentinels, this is definitely not a good sign.
So despite himself, Spider-Man decides to act and after swinging from the bottom to the top, he releases his webbing, spins in mid-air and shoots his webbing straight at one of the pursuing Sentinels, quickly swings underneath it and spins around, landing on the back of the machine that was threatening to destroy him.
—It's time, Partner.
The artificial creature (or alien, one never knows) begins to leak from Spider-Man's hands into the circuitry inside the Sentinel, following the vigilante's thoughts and mental commands, causing the machine to continue flying but now taking a different course.
—Let's end this!
Spider-Man exclaims as he now stands on the Sentinel's neck and flies through the air towards the other robots that shoot laser beams killing innocent people, whether they are old people or children, they don't differentiate between gender or age, this does nothing but annoy the vigilante more and more.
The next thing that happens is that the Sentinel controlled by the symbiote raises one of its arms and fires without a second thought at it's robotic comrades who in their programming are not allowed to attack each other to begin with, i.e. they are simply cut down by the same beams they were killing people with.
Now, as good as this sounded, the robots were now falling towards the people, but, Spider-Man was present, and he fastly finished exterminating all the Sentinels and decided to launch himself off the Sentinel after ordering it to shoot itself in its core, with that done the vigilante began to throw webs like crazy catching each Sentinel to prevent them from falling on the crowd that was running back and forth.
Using the buildings around him, Spider-Man managed to create webs large enough to trap each of the Sentinels, this took a lot of precision which luckily the spider had. So now what stopped the Sentinels from falling and crushing everything in their path were giant webs that stopped them from doing so.
With all this done, Spider-Man climbed down a building and when he reached the ground he asked aloud.
—Is anyone hurt? If they are, the person next to them should call an ambulance. Also call the police and the fire brigade. Now... mutants, come here and listen to me carefully.
It is at that moment that the people who were there start to split up, from the crowd a couple of dozen people come to where Spider-Man is standing, as they are all together Spider-Man knows that they don't have much time.
—The Sentinels will keep coming, you must escape New York as soon as possible, if you have mutant relatives in this county I would tell them to do the same, go to the countryside, there is no one there to check the mutant population. Make small groups, it's much easier that way. If you can't get away, use the sewers. Sentinels can't see through all that concrete.
With these words, several mutants nod their heads and one of them, a young girl of the same age as the vigilante, peers out from among the mutants and asks the arachnid the following question:
—What about you, Spider-Man, aren't you a mutant too?
Quickly, the vigilante replies in his usual serious tone, undaunted by whatever is going on.
—I'll get to the bottom of this.
This was the last thing the mutant known as Spider-Man said before he cast his webs and began to swing once more, now checking the air from time to time to see if any Sentinels returned for a civilian or himself, but none appeared for what felt like hours. And when they did, it took only the arachnid's skills to defeat the machines and keep his city safe.
But the spider's work was not yet complete, for as he kept swinging from side to side he noticed something that seemed to be a deal between two gangs in which money was involved.
And when he was about to intervene he saw the helicopter approaching, unconsciously the vigilante knew what he had to do, so he swung hard to finally let go when he reached the highest part, for the time he was in the air he extended a web towards the lower part of the helicopter, catching the flying object in a few seconds, it was right there that he used his symbiote to create multiple extra arms that extended to the lower part of the helicopter launching him there.
—Were you going somewhere?
Spider-Man asks as he climbs into the helicopter and sees everyone present pointing guns at him, he automatically knows what's coming so he simply says a single word.
—Boo.
Quickly the bullets fly and begin to pepper the vigilante who pretends to fall backwards but in reality swings underneath the flying vehicle using the symbiote to keep him glued to the vehicle. The next thing he does is climb up behind the helicopter and extends his arm until he grabs the foot of one of the gang members with his left hand and throws him out of the helicopter into the lake they are standing on.
—Now... Are you going to shoot me or what?
It seems they finally showed some intelligence and lowered their weapons, so Spider-Man held out my hands and I threw them each into the vast sea, leaving only the driver next to the vigilante.
—Land. Now.
Then, Spider-Man's arm turned into a big blade and the pilot had no choice but to land slowly, as the vigilante came down he saw how the deal had stopped to look at the whole situation.
—They will fall.
It was at that moment that Spider-Man recognised everyone, or rather, where he was at, even the man who was handing over a briefcase, he thanked his strange memories for that.
-Surrender, both sides. Now.
These orders would have been more than enough for New York criminals, but the hijab-wearers did not understand any of this, or rather, they ignored this order, pointing their guns at the vigilante, who shook a little and his suit fired each of the bullets that had been fired before at the white hijab-wearers, killing a couple of them and leaving their leader alive.
—I-I'm out of here, keep the damn money—The criminal tried to flee but an arm caught him, this was Spider-Man's inhumanly extended arm thanks to his symbiote, who said—. No, you're not.
Suddenly, the vigilante's spider-sense made him let go of the criminal leader and leap into the air, dodging a volley of bullets that were aimed at a large man who, when slowly shot, revealed his true colour, a grey one. Yes, this man was Colossus, a future X-Men, but currently he was just another criminal.
—M-Mutant! He's a mutant! Let's get the hell out of here!
Within seconds the men backing Colossus had left him, and the vigilante turned to see the helicopter pilot pointing a gun at them, the latter knocked out by an elongated punch from Spider-Man.
—It's what I thought...
Colossus lets go as he looks at the sky turning from metal skin to human flesh, then Spider-Man tells him one thing.
—It is not a sin to live, especially if you were born a mutant.
With these words Spider-Man goes to the briefcase thrown with the real money and sees that it is enough, but instead of keeping it he decides to throw it to Colossus.
—... Why?
Asks the metallic mutant towards the arachnid, who then responds as he goes to imprison the only one of the criminals he had been able to knock out.
—Use it for yourself or to help others, that money despite it's filth it should fall into the right hands, and yours are still on time.
Saying these words Piotr stands silently looking at the briefcase now in his hands, so he decides to do something and puts the briefcase on the ground while he turns and approaches Spider-Man.
—How can I help you?
The vigilante turns around and, seeing the mutant's determined gaze, points his index finger at the weapons on the ground.
—We have to gather them up and take them somewhere, it's dangerous to leave those guns just like that.
So both the metallic mutant and the arachnid mutant begin to pick up all the weapons and put them in one place. Spider-Man also ties the driver to a nearby pole with a piece of metal left over from one of the cars destroyed in the shooting.
—Phone. Do you have one?—Spider-Man asks Colossus, and then both mutants hear another voice interrupt the scene—. I think I can help you with that, gentlemen. In return, I would like to speak with you for a moment.
At that moment the vigilante created a scythe with his arm which extended to be inches away from the throat of the unknown person, this turned out to be a young red-haired girl with short hair and pretty eyes, you could also see the costume of... Hero? costume she was wearing, which was mostly black with yellow tones.
—Identity. Now—Spider-Man demanded, not even hesitating for two seconds to put his guard up, for all day he had been facing everything from criminals to sentinels, and the reality was that he was getting tired, so his irritability was increasing with every passing second—. Tin Man, with me.
Piotr was confused of the scene itself, but he recognizez instantly the words of Spider-Man and trusted the vigilante over this mysterious girl.
—You should put your scythe down, you know—The redhead says as the tension builds and she seems to open her eyes for a few moments, before saying the following—. You... you didn't put your scythe down.
—Why would I?—Spider-Man asked, tilting his head slightly, inwardly he had an idea of who this person was, but he definitely wouldn't fall for her games—. Objective of yours, now.
Seeing that she had no other choice, the redhead reached out her hand and before she could do anything the scythe had already become a noose around her neck.
—Move and die, or stay and live.
That was enough for the redhead to understand the situation and to finally let go of the soup.
—I came to talk to Piotr about an opportunity, an invitation to the X-Men, a group of mutants trying to do something different. But I didn't expect to meet... you, Spider-Man, did I?
It was then that the vigilante nodded and stood still, waiting for any sign to end her life without any remorse, for his senses screamed to him that this girl was nothing more than as big a threat as when he fought Sabretooth.
—Our offer is the same to you, of course, you would have to reveal your true identity to us but after that you would be one of the team.
When the redhead said that, she felt her neck being released from the rope, knowing that she had caught the interest of the spider and also of the tin man who was looking at the watcher next to her as well as the lady.
—So, what do you say? Ready for a new adventure?—Asks the femenine X-Men, to which Piotr simply nods, so the girl asks once more, adding a familiar nickname for the known vigilante—. And you, Spidy?
—Will I still be able to defend my city?
Spidy asks the redhead, who thinks about his words, and while he wants to give a specific answer, he also knows that the X-Men travel across the world, so he doesn't want to lie, it is at that moment that Piotr speaks, but both the arachnid and the redhead realise that this is not the same Tin Man.
—Spider-Man, I communicate to you from my place, and I understand your concerns, I must say that your help would be welcome as well as your knowledge about the city, but we won't force you to go on every mission, we will only invite you to them and you can decline them if you like. Does the invitation sound better that way?
Spider-Man knows it's not Piotr, he can tell by the way his body is petrified and he speaks as if on automatic, this makes him uncomfortable but he decides to ignore that and answer once.
—I accept your proposal, now leave Tin-Man.
Quickly Spider-Man could notice how Piotr returned to normal and the latter wondered wonderingly.
—Did I miss something?
It was then that Jean sighed and shook her head, gesturing for them both to come with her, but not before calling the police to come and confiscate the weapons as well as arrest the pilot.
So now our dear vigilante is in a different situation, he is getting more and more involved in this vast world, now, the question is... Will he be able to survive the harshness of the world he has to live in?