Scarlet Starlight | By : DarthMeow504 Category: zMisplaced Stories [ADMIN use only] > Spiderman Views: 35790 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 3 |
Disclaimer: This is a work of non-profit fanfiction. The Marvel Universe, the DC Universe, the Image Universe, and all characters and elements thereof are copyright their respective companies. Additional disclaimers within. |
[Author's note: Spider-Man and all related characters are copyright Marvel. Red Sonja was created by Marvel, with rights later passing to Dynamite Entertainment. One or both of them own her, I don't. The concept of merging Sonja and MJ originated in an old issue of Marvel Team Up written by Chris Claremont. Additionally, in this continuity Mary Jane did not become a model or actress until recently, instead following a more normal and average career path akin to the Spider-Man comic strip. Also, she never permed her hair. Ever. Fuck you, Todd MacFarlane.]
Chapter 4: Swords, Sorcery, and Spiders
Immediately after getting the priority call regarding Spider-Man, the four heroines had proceeded directly to the Avengers West facility and entered through an emergency entrance without even so much as getting dressed. From there, they dashed into a machine of Stark design that wouldn't seem out of place on an episode of the Jetsons. Almost like a human car wash, the machine proceeded them on a conveyor belt through a process where they were sonically and steam showered, dried, their hair ultrasonically detangled, and a metamaterial substance sprayed on their skin that under guiding beams of the machinery resolved itself into fresh copies of their costumes. The entire process clocked under two minutes, and was designed for speed to enable heroes to dress and prep for action in the absolute minimum amount of time in an emergency situation. When they emerged, Thor was waiting for them and ready to open a vortex to where Spider-Man was, even as a screen showed live television footage of the arachnid-themed hero wearing the midnight blue-black version of his famous outfit and engaged in battle with several costumed criminals. The four women mentally steeled themselves for action, and stepped through the vortex portal to join the fray.
-----
For Peter Parker, it had been one bizarre and deeply worrying day. He'd returned home to find his apartment occupied by another family as if he'd never lived there, and over the course of the rest of the day his job claimed he didn't work there and people he'd known for years acted like he'd spit in their cheerios. Worst of all, he couldn't find Mary Jane, though fortunately he had managed to find out that she was safe and doing fine --without him, as the former friend had been so happy to inform him. So, as soon as it had gotten dark he'd done what he usually did when the world weighed heavy on his shoulders. High above the streets of New York, swinging through the steel and glass canyons of the city, he could organize his thoughts in peace and try to make sense of whatever was going on.
Of course, it was just his luck that the peace couldn't last. His spider-sense had shrieked an intense warning, and it enabled him to just barely evade a powerful blast of lightning which turned out to have come from his old foe Electro. Worse, Electro wasn't alone, he had what seemed to be some variation of the Sinister Six with him. He'd already spotted Doctor Octopus, Venom, and the Scorpion and he would be surprised if they were alone. Worst of all, he kept swearing he heard a chillingly familiar laugh, but he hadn't spotted the Goblin yet. Still, he had a feeling he would before this was over. As it was, any one of the four enemies he'd seen were a tough match and all four of them would be an uphill battle even if there were no more reinforcements he hadn't seen. If the Green Goblin was indeed waiting in the wings, the odds would go from difficult to near impossible.
It certainly seemed that someone, perhaps the Goblin, was directing traffic for the villains this time around. Instead of haphazardly attacking him individually, allowing him to evade their clumsy assaults and use them against each other, this time they were organized and acting as a team. That was a new development and very bad news indeed. They were corralling him, limiting his mobility, maneuvering to keep him contained and herd him into one another's attacks. It was all he could do to keep a half step ahead and avoid them, he'd failed to mount any form of effective counteroffensive of his own. He'd quickly begun to abandon thoughts of victory and turn his thoughts to escape, but the way they were working together was making that impossible. And as if to add insult to injury, a small crowd had gathered below and in it he saw a news van with the Daily Bugle emblem plastered on it. It had probably started following him when he was webswinging, and now it had a front row seat to this losing battle.
It was while he was distracted noting this fact that things went from bad to worse. As he dodged attacks from Electro and Doc Ock, he'd been maneuvered to where he could be tackled by Venom. Still unable to be detected via his spider-sense, the symbiote-wearer was the perfect one to blindside him and he'd succeeded in doing just that. He felt thick fists pummel the back of his head so hard the rooftop under his face cracked, and then he was thrown through the air to be grabbed by familiar metal tentacles. By the time he'd cleared his head, he saw Electro grinning before him, prepared to electrocute him as Doc Ock smartly positioned his tentacles in such a way that they'd ground out through Spider-Man but not himself. He braced himself as he thought and fought desperately for a way out of his predicament, but it was for naught as he saw Electro's fist flare with arcing electricity and felt the world slow to a crawl as that deadly electricity arced out towards him.
It never got there, intercepted instead by a blue streak from the corner of his eye that interposed itself between him and Electro. Not one to let an opening pass him by, he utilized the moment of surprise to his advantage, twisting and flipping in Doc Ock's surprise-slackened grip to fire one webshot to his face and the other a blast of impact web to send him reeling. He leapt on him to finish him off with a punch to the head, but the freakish mad scientist managed to pull his tentacles in and flail them in desperate defense, knocking Spidey away before he could deliver that finishing shot. Still, he was near-blind now and seeking only to scramble away, scratching him off the list of immediate threats. He glanced around quickly to take stock of the remaining three, only to find each of them engaged with a new foe. The blue streak turned out to be the blonde Avenger Ms. Marvel, and she was facing off with Electro as the familiar red and yellow garb with raven hair identified the woman fighting the Scorpion as her teammate Spider-Woman. That meant the quick moving orange and black striped one fighting Venom could only be Tigra, yet another Avenger. What were the Avengers doing here, and where were the others? Not that he was about to look the proverbial gift horse in it's proverbial mouth, of course, but he couldn't help but be curious even as he moved to secure Doc Ock and then move in to assist his most welcome benefactors.
It turned out not to be necessary. Electro made the mistake of upping his attacks against Ms. Marvel, pouring more and more energy into her as she stood in air and absorbed them all. Enraged, he leapt on her to deliver a powerful grapple shock which was usually even more deadly than his lightning arcs, but it was he that screamed instead of his erstwhile victim. The sights and sounds of electricity arcing and the smell of ozone filled the air, and then there was a sound like an exploding transformer and a flash of light that was nothing short of blinding.
When his vision cleared, he saw the heroine floating where she'd been, with Electro down and out at her feet and twitching in unconscious agony. She herself had changed, her skin was red and her outfit changed to match, with her golden hair replaced instead by a wreath of red-gold flame, and she was glowing with a halo effect so bright it turned the New York night as bright as noon. The sense of pure awsome power radiating from the woman was palpable, and the villains were not blind to it. Abandoning their fight with the other women, they turned tail to bug out just as fast as they could get the hell out of there. The Scorpion leapt straight off the side of the building, while Venom popped a webline and swung away in another direction. Doc Ock wasn't so lucky, half-blinded as he was, and as Spider-Man closed in from the front the villain backpedaled into a perfectly placed kick from a white, fur-trimmed boot that could only belong to his occasional partner the Black Cat. He crumpled like a rag doll, tentacles curling around him and going limp as he passed out. It was over.
As the not-so-good Doctor dropped, Spidey spotted a familiar rocket trail in the sky, receding into the distance as it too fled the scene. He'd been right, the Goblin had been there. It was almost certainly he who had been directing the other villains, coordinating their attacks and movements from his vantage point far above the fray. That was a new thing, typically the Goblin hadn't gotten involved with the others. This time had been different, and it had almost cost Spidey his life. He owed these women for saving his skin.
He was just about to thank them when he noticed Jessica and Felicia glaring at him with Ms. Marvel and Tigra backing them up. He didn't know what he'd done, but they were reacting like so many of his other friends had that day, reinforcing the mystery of what exactly was going on. He put up his hands to stammer a plea to cut him some slack when Felicia fixed diamond-hard eyes on him and spoke.
"And just where have you been, Spider? You have a lot of explaining to do."
He was just about to respond that he had no more idea than they did, when he was stunned by the arrival of a new woman that took the others by surprise as well. A stunning, very familiar redhead who wore what appeared to be a version of his old red and blue-black outfit but made from some sort of metal, medieval armor and held a gleaming, wickedly edged rune-inscribed broadsword. Sapphire eyes as hard and sharp as the blade she bore fixed on him as she spoke.
"Aye, I'd like to hear this explanation as well."
-----
"...and that's the whole story, I swear. I don't know any more than that, and I was honestly hoping that you'd be able to clue me in."
Felicia was stil scowling at him as if she didn't quite believe him, while Jessica was examining him with the intense scrutiny of a police detective doing an interrogation, dissecting every word and scrap of body language and inflection for clues to his truthfulness. Ms Marvel, having since transformed back to her normal form after bleeding off the excess energy she'd absorbed from Electro, simply stood guard at the entrance to the den room in Avengers Mansion they'd moved to after the confrontation on the rooftop. Whether she was guarding against his escape or against potential interruptions was hard to say, but it was probably both. He had no illusions that he was on friendly ground here.
The redhead he'd ordinarily recognize as his wife had simply remained silent, absorbing this with an expression of stone-faced intensity that could mean she wanted to kill him or merely that her chainmail was pinching her somewhere uncomfortable, she was impossible to read. To his surprise, it was Tigra who spoke first.
"He's telling the truth. He's confused, upset, and on the edge of despair. No deception or hostility in him at all."
Jessica sighed, accepting this as she relaxed her guard. Ms Marvel remained in place at the door, but her softened expression was comforting as it showed that she no longer considered him a potential enemy. Felicia let out a feline growl --wait, since when could she make cat noises?-- and stalked off to pour herself a drink from the room's minibar. Clearly, she was frustrated by losing a target for blame... whatever had happened while he'd been away, it had hurt her. His heart ached for her, seeing her so upset, but right now he couldn't help her.
Jessica frowned. "It appears we have ourselves quite the mystery."
It was then that Peter noticed that the red-haired warrior woman he knew as Sonja had closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, her entire mannerism had changed and when she spoke, it was with the voice of his wife, Mary Jane. She was still in there! His heart leapt in hope as he listened to her words, and she clearly had the attention of the others in the room as well.
"As near as I can tell, this began not long after the whole Superhuman Civil War thing... after Peter revealed his identity, his Aunt May --you guys remember her, right?-- well she was shot by a sniper hired by the Kingpin. Peter lost it... he was inconsolable. Blamed himself for the whole thing. He tried everything to save her, but it was no use. Then... when we were at our most desperate... a demon appeared to us. Called himself Mephisto. Demanded our marriage in exchange for her life."
All eyes were on her, bearing mixed expressions of shock, sympathy, anger, even disgust, all except for Felicia who bore a grim scowl like she knew all this already. He himself was reeling... none of it made sense! He was trying to make some sort of heads or tails of it when she continued.
"I... was terrified for him. Scared to death he'd get himself killed, or worse yet kill himself or just plain snap from the guilt he was putting himself through. He was trapped between responsibilities to me and to her, and it was no-win for him... he wouldn't and couldn't make the choice. But not doing what it took to save her was killing him. So I did the only thing I could think of... I told him to accept the deal. Talked him into it. Figuring to save him and her now, and find a way to fix it later. And I did."
He was about to voice his objections, there was no way this could be true, none of it, but Jessica softly shushed him and bid him to let her finish.
"I remembered a time, before we were married, where I'd touched an ancient sword in a museum and been possessed by a warrior woman, someone who knew how to kill demons. She was the only person I could think of that could help me... so I arranged to get my hands on the sword again. And like before... she came. Red Sonja of Hyrkania... my other half now. I can't really explain it, but we share this body now. And we... know things from each other. She can speak english and knows enough to get by in our world through me, and I know how to fight and handle weapons through her. And together... we found the demon. And we slew him."
They all absorbed this incredible tale quietly, reacting in their own ways, before Jessica softly urged her on. "And then what happened?"
"Peter... disappeared. And so did Aunt May. He'd been living with her ever since the deal went through, and... he'd lost his job, and began freeloading and acting like an immature ass, sleeping around and getting drunk and in general acting like a fratboy. It was infuriating, but I kept telling myself that if I could find and kill the demon, everything would be ok again and things would go back to how they were. That I'd get my husband back. Then, I succeeded and he vanished instead. This is the first I've seen him again since "
They then looked at him, and he was quick to speak up. "There's no way! For one, why in the hell would I ever reveal my identity? I've always known what would happen if my enemies knew, and from what you said that's exactly what did happen. If it hadn't been her, it would have been you, and I'd die before I let that happen!" And then he paused. "And besides... I know it's impossible. Aunt May couldn't have been shot, my fault or otherwise. She died of natural causes last year."
All eyes shifted back to MJ/Sonja, who frowned and said "But you did... you went on television, with Stark, you were the poster boy for Registration... and the Aunt May that died was an actress that had taken the real one's place."
Peter blinked. "Oh that's preposterous! An actress, really? Are you serious?"
Jessica chuckled softly "You have to admit that does sound pretty ridiculous."
MJ sighed. "I suppose it does sound crazy, but one way or the other it happened and as far as I know it's the truth."
Jessica looked to Tigra, who confirmed. "She's telling the truth as she knows it.", and then Felicia chimed in. "I've known Peter longer than anyone here but MJ and I can confirm it all."
Peter sighed. "I don't remember anything like that, and I don't know what this Civil War or Registration thing is about either. Somehow, I missed all of it."
Jessica shook her head. "Then this doesn't add up. We have two conflicting stories that are both true to the people telling them. So either the two of them experienced an entirely different set of events, or someone has some false memories."
Ms Marvel spoke up. "The whole thing seems just weird to me... and last I checked isn't Mephisto an entity level demon? Warrior or not I find it hard to believe this woman could have killed him."
Another voice added assent to her words, a huge blonde man with icy blue eyes that he hadn't noticed enter. "Aye... Mephisto rivals the eldest gods in might. Anyone or anything slaying him would be quite a feat."
The redhead scowled, and when she spoke again it was with Sonja's accented voice. "I assure you, unless the demon can live with his head separated from his neck he is quite dead and by this very blade."
Ms Marvel spoke again. "We're dealing with magic here... not everything is necessarily how it seemed. Maybe he only let you think he killed him. How could you know for sure?"
She opened her mouth to reply, but Jessica answered for her. "I know who could find out."
-----
[to be continued]
[Note: No sex in this chapter or the next, but there was a fight scene in this one and will be one in the conclusion of chapter 4 as well, and after that the sexy fun will resume, I promise!]
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