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Chapter Text

The Three Kidnappings – Spidey Version

In the Superior Spider-Man suit, Peter was web-swinging home from making sure Miles was okay at the hospital. All seemed right in the world; he had his body back, Ock would live and hopefully wake up, Venom was probably gone for good this time and Peter could get back to his old life.

“All I have to do is get home, take a long nap and then toss this costume out for my good old red and blue. Nothing can ruin this day!” Spider-Man said, just before his spider-sense kicked in.

“Why do I say things?” Spider-Man managed to get out before being hit what felt like an explosion and the world went black.

-

A week later:

“Crime rates are soaring ever since the now helpful Spider-Man went missing. The last known sighting was at Midtown High, defeating the alien called Venom. What has happened to our aggressive guardian? The Daily Bugle has tried reaching out to known associates of the wall-crawler, but the few we can contact have made no comment,” the voice of Jameson asked before switching to a new story while Anna Maria sat by Otto’s bed. Like the normally harsh newsman, she was concerned about where Peter was. She had not seen him since the day they brought Otto’s mind back to his body.

“Peter, where are you?” Anna asked sadly, trying to figure out what happened to her student when she heard a voice next to her say, “Parker?”

-

One more week later:

“Still no sign of Spidey; what a weird few weeks we’ve been having. First Parker becomes a complete jerk, then Spidey goes all wild on criminal and now he goes missing!” Ghost-Spider said to Spider-Girl as they caught a Spider Bot and tried to hack it to find its central control location if they found that maybe they could get a clue to where their own was.

“Even Miles said he checked all his usual sources. I can’t believe he knows Spidey’s real identity but still won’t tell us! It might give us a better idea to-Ow!” Spider-girl replied, trying to access the system but got electrocuted instead by some sort of defense the robot had.

The Spider Bot then leaped away, the pair of female spiders giving chase until other Spider-Bots fired warning shots to halt the pair in their tracks.

“If you wish to find Spider-Man, then please cease interfering with my creations’ patrols routes. I’m already going over the footage from the day week he went missing in hopes of finding him,” The voice of Otto Octavius stated from one of the robots before they walked away, leaving the two female spider-powered heroes blinking in confusion. Both soon went pale at the idea of their former teacher turned villain having an army of machines at his command.

“Ock has control of Spidey’s tech; this won’t end well!” Ghost-Spider exclaimed, getting a nod from Spider-Girl. Both ignored Otto’s declaration of being the robots’ creator, figuring it was his ego making him feel like he was the owner now that he had control.

Both knew the police would be little help against such advanced machines, so figured it was time to call on the professionals for help, the Avengers.

-

Ms. Marvel struggled to escape the helicopter that kept chasing her. Ever since Spider-Man went missing, reporters had hounded any Avenger they could get near due to Spider-Man having worked with them in the past. It did not help that she was the current favorite target due to her not living at the tower, so waiting for her to make the usual track to said tower for training or missions from Jersey was their way of questioning her. It did not help her and him and been seen having sodas on the roof of a nearby restaurant one time a few weeks before his change to being a jerk.

“How can he be such a pain when he is not even around?” Ms. Marvel growled as she kept running, hoping she could think of an escape plan or at least have one of the other Avengers come along to help.

As the News Chopper tried to get ahead of Ms. Marvel in hopes of cornering her when both Spider-Girl and Ghost-Spider appeared. Ghost-Spider distracted the pilot while Spider-Girl grabbed Ms. Marvel.

Once they lost the News Chopper with some quick turns through the more narrow paths between the buildings, the trio stopped in an ally where Ghost-Spider quickly said, “We need to warn you about something really big!”

-

“Stretch is not usually this late. You think the reporters are getting that bad?” Iron Man asked Captain America as the pair got ready for the next wave of training droids.

“You’ve been too casual on the issue of Spider-Man being MIA, Tony. It might be time for us to at least look into what is going on in his personal life. If he is missing there as well…” the Captain started to say, just as drones opened fire and he was forced to block the incoming fire with his shield.

“The kid is fine, probably using another new tactic for a supervillain he is tracking,” Iron Man stated casually, the Captain guessing the billionaire still held a grudge from the previous encounter with the wall-crawler.

“I don’t know Stark, even with his new approach to crime-fighting, this seems too sudden. Regardless, bad attitude or not, he is still a kid and we can’t ignore the possibility he is in trouble,” Black Widow commented as she flipped over a drone and swept its legs out from under it.

“If he is in trouble, let him stew for couple more days. It will set the boy straight,” Hulk state gruffly, just before he slammed two drones together and throw the remains at the other attackers.

“It's sad when Hulk is the voice of reason,” Iron Man joked as he took to the air and rained repulsor fire on the drones. This ended when Ms. Marvel burst into the training room and suddenly had to avoid said fire.

“Training program stand-down! Are you alright, Kam?” Black Widow asked as the petite girl tried to catch her breath from both the run to the room, plus avoiding getting blasted from both Iron Man and the drone.

“Y-Yeah…sorry for being late, but after Spider-Girl and Ghost-Spider got me away from another news chopper, they drop a news bomb that freaked me out. Spider-Jerk’s robots got hacked by Doc Ock. As much I hate the guy right now, I don’t want his little army of drones in the hands of a supervillain!” Ms. Marvel explained quickly, knowing Cap was getting ready to lecture her on not following safety procedures without good reason.

Hearing this saved her from a dressing down, but it did start a different issue for Ms. Marvel. A grilling on all the details the other two girls had told her.

-

Two days later, Iron Man was still trying to hack the signal that controlled the Spider Bots. They could not target the machines directly, as the goal was to avoid attracting Octavius’ attention even if it would be easier to use one of the Spider Bots to make a connection.

Meanwhile, the other Avengers had been keeping a close watch on said robots’ activities. So far, it seemed like they had done nothing but patrol the city like they since Spider-Man created them. But they could not risk lowering their guard until they knew what Octavius had planned for a small army of armed drones.

‘How much of this security from the kid and what is from the not so good doctor?’ Iron Man wondered as he worked, finally starting to get somewhere on tracing the signal when the face of Otto Octavius appeared on the screen.

“I might have been able to work faster if not for your constant interference Stark! But I might as well make use of your annoying habit of sticking your nose in my business to send you the location of our mutual aquatints. I would go myself, but I must assume the Spider Bots would not be enough and ‘The Octopus’ being sighted would only cause panic,” Otto stated in an annoyed tone, though there was a clear hint of concern in his eyes as well.

At first, Iron Man wanted to demand why Octavius was leading them to Spider-Man, when he realized something and instead asked, “What do you mean ‘sticking my nose in your business?’ I’ve only met you once during the Stark Expo, long before you were a…”

Otto facepalmed and grumbled something along the lines of ‘you are supposed to be a genius?’ before saying in exasperation, “Note my accent and wonder who else has spoken with it to you recently. Or do I need to ride you like a surfboard again as an additional hint?!”

Iron Man went slack-jawed in his armor as he added the facts up before responding, “You and I are going to have a LONG talk about once this is over!”

“As if you would be able to find me unless I wished it. Now go save Parker; I owe him for ensuring I survived upon returning his body to him when all I wanted was for him to save Anna Maria and Flash from Venom,” Otto countered, before ending the transmission, much to Iron’s annoyance.

‘I’ll find you, you egotistical pain in the butt! But first, save Pajamas!’ Iron Man thought as he called the Avengers to assemble at the tower for a rescue operation.

-

Over a Week Ago:

Spider-Man woke up hanging on a cold steel wall with his limbs in an X-shaped position in a dark factory-like room.

“Finally awake, I see,” The man in green goblin tech armor said darkly, flanked by several others, some holding shock sticks.

“Goblin tech…Norman?” Spider-Man managed to ask weakly before one of the goblins with a shock stick gave him a powerful jolt.

Spider-Man screamed for several seconds before the attack stopped and the one in green armor opened his faceplate to reveal Adrian Tombs.

“You’ll wish I was that thief, Osborn! Now, let's see if we can find out why the sudden change in tactics and the location of the central control location for those annoying Spider Bots of yours. I rather not need to worry about them until I have completed my preparation,” Tombs demanded while Spider-Man tried to catch his breath.

“Which is what? Prove your genius by stealing his son’s tech?” Spider-Man got out before getting another shock from both the first goblin and second one joining in.

“So, Osborn stole this tech from his own son, did he? I’m not surprised, but I’m the one asking the questions here. Now, where is the central control location?” Tombs demanded as he signaled the pair to cease their shocking the young hero.

“Don’t…know what…you are AAAAHHHH!” Spider-Man started to say, not knowing Otto had created the machines since none had been present when he arrived in the arm harness. The villains knew what he would say quickly enough, so they began shocking Spider-Man for the third time.

“Play dumb all you want, boy! You will tell me what I want to know!” Tombs stated as they continued to torture Spider-Man with electricity.

-

Over the next few days, it was a constant torture session for Spider-Man. Electrocution, beatings and even searing heat were used to cause as much pain as possible. But since Spider-Man did not know the location Tombs wanted, he could not tell them even if he wanted to.

The only thing the sessions resulted in was the ‘superior’ Spider-Man suit getting left in tatters. Spider-Man’s upper body completely bare and bare enough of the lower portion to cover the private area. The mask was barely holding together, both lenses ripped out and had the part over his mouth torn away, so far no one cared about who the boy behind the mask was, only getting the desired information.

Much of Spider-Man’s body was covered in burn marks, cuts and bruises from every attempt to make him talk; now, the usually chatty superhero was barely able to scream from how horse his voice had become from every attack made on him.

Tombs had even tried truth serum, yet Spider-Man still insisted he did not know anything about the Spider Bots. Tombs did not believe him, so the torture continued.

The few times Spider-Man could sleep were filled with dreams of getting rescued by Miles or the Avengers. Some got confusing since the last one had him ‘waking up’ in a hospital room with Ms. Marvel in one of those short skirt white nurse outfits with the hat. He was unsure what was about to happen after that because as the brown-skinned girt was going to say something, he got woke up by a punch to the gut.

“You could not let me finish that one?” Spider-Man barely managed to get out as the goblin tech goons pulled him from the wall and dragged him to a large bucket of water. They quickly shoved his head and held it there for several seconds before letting him come gasping for air.

“Tell the boss what he wants to know, Spidey, then maybe you can go back to whatever dream you were having,” Barkly Blitz mocked as the other Wake Goblins/Riders laughed. Tombs had given them orders to get the information any way they could, just avoid killing Spider-Man until they had what he desired.

After coughing up the water, Spider-Man gasped out, “I can’t tell what I don’t know!”

Barkly rolled his eyes behind his goblin mask and signaled for them to shove the hero’s head back into the bucket. They did this several more times before they heard a voice roar out, “Back off!”

Barkly turned in the direction of voice just in time to get a massive fist to face from an outraged Ms. Marvel, who quickly retracted her arm back. At the same time, Iron Man flew in at full speed to blast the pair holding Spider-Man while Black Widow, Captain America and Hulk took down the other Wake Riders before they could even try and defend themselves.

Ms. Marvel quickly pulled her friend away from the bucket and patted him on the back as he coughed up the water. When their eyes finally met, Spidey weakly said, “So much for finishing the other dream, though this one is not so bad.”

“Dream?” Ms. Marvel asked in confusion, trying to figure out if Peter was joking or was delirious.

“Yeah, the one where we’re in the hospital and you are in a…” Spider-Man started to say before Black Widow sprayed the boy with sleep gas from her gauntlet. Unlike the rookie Avenger, Black Widow knew Spider-Man was probably going to say something he would probably not say in a more lucid state, despite his usual joking nature having him say weird things.

As Ms. Marvel looked at her teammate in confusion, Widow just smirked and said, “Ask him when he knows he’s not dreaming.”

As the pair got the unconscious hero to the Avenjet, Iron Man and Captain America let Hulk ‘politely’ ask who thought up the scheme to kidnap Spider-Man. The Wake Riders quickly gave up the information, though no one knew another person was already dealing with Tombs.

-

Tombs was heading for the Cellar to free Electro, planning on recruiting her as one of the leaders of his Goblin Nation, when the Spider Bots ambushed him.

“How can you’re program be that advanced that you know to attack me without direct orders, you annoying machines!” Tombs demanded as he blasted away most of his attackers. He was shocked when one of the survivors replied with a voice he knew well.

“They know because I’m controlling them directly, Tombs!” Otto stated as he kept firing upon the villain to distract him until his backup arrived.

“Octavius! When did you wake up and how did you get control of those machines! I’ve been trying for weeks!” Tombs demanded as he tried to destroy the final few Spider Bots until he heard yelling and looked to see the second Spider-Man, Spider-Girl and Ghost-Spider chasing several more of the small machines.

“Ock, once we are finished with these things, we are hunting you down for shooting at us!” Ghost-Spider declared and the trio closed on their attackers until they saw Tombs fighting Spider-Bots as well.

“I shot at you because I knew you would not come here willingly, so I lured you to the one he kidnapped Spider-Man. The Avengers should have already saved him, so all that is left is you to deal the Tombs!” Otto called out through the Spider Bots before pulling them back to give the trio room to deal with Tombs.

“Vulture in goblin tech armor…Harry is not going to like this. Let's nab him first, then track Ock down!” Miles suggested, getting nods of acceptance from his friends before they leaped into action against former Vulture.

Tombs tried to escape by flying away, but Spider-Girl and Ghost-Spider grabbed him with a web line, holding him in place for a well-aimed Venom Punch from Miles to blast him into unconsciousness and leaving him webbed up for the police.

The trio had tried to track down the Spider Bots afterward, but Otto had them scurry away during the brief battle with Tombs.

-

“Arg…my head!” Peter groaned as he woke up in a hospital bed, trying to figure out if this was another dream until a voice he knew spoke up from a chair next to his bed.

“So, we are in hospital; what am I supposed to be wearing?” Kamala asked, making Peter blinked and recalled what he was saying before everything went black on him.

“Wait…the thing with the bucket was not…” Peter started asked until his face went red in embarrassment, making Kamala raise an eyebrow at her friend’s silliness. She still had not clued into what he was saying, thinking it was just one of his jokes.

As Peter tried to make his voice work to try and come up with a less humiliating story than the truth when his Aunt May barged into the room with a panicked expression on her face.

“Peter! Where have you been for over a…who is this?” May asked when she realized Kamala was in the room, though Peter was still trying to get his voice to work from his friend’s question. It was a good thing Kamala moved to save the day since she could not tell Peter the possible cover story for May Parker arrived.

“I’m Kamala. Peter and I met while he was still taking pictures for the Daily Bugle. I was one of the students at Bilderberg on short term program from Jersey when Peter followed Spider-Man onto the campus. I had to help him keep his head down when Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel started fighting AIM. Spidey contacted me when he found Peter’s phone after saving him from that Vulture guy alongside the Avengers,” Kamala explained, hoping the story would help smooth things over with May Parker until Peter could catch up with everything from the mind swapping.

‘Wonder why Tony said I should take some leave for a few weeks? I know most of Peter’s friends besides Miles are going to be giving him the cold shoulder for a while, but he and Widow have giving me these weird knowing looks ever since save we saved him,’ Kamala wondered as May looked back forth between the two teenagers.

Soon Kamala got a weird feeling when May a hint of that same knowing look as she said, “It's good to meet you, Kamala. Why don’t you join Peter and me for dinner once he allowed to leave? I get to meet so few of his friends.”

“I’m flattered, Mrs. Parker, but my faith gives what most find as unusual dietary restriction, so I’d rather not be any trouble,” Kamala explained, feeling the need to escape this situation for some odd reason. Why did it feel like she was falling into a trap? From a rather sweet lady, no less!

“None sense, we can talk about the details while we let Peter rest. He is looking rather faint,” May explained, giving her nephew a wink while gesturing Kamala to follow and both teens were at a loss for what to do.

Meanwhile, a lone Spider Bot spied on the conversation, Black Widow being the one doing the spying in the Spider’s Nest with a hogtied Otto on the ground next to the computers the super spy was using.

“Kam, what are we going to do about that naïve nature of yours,” Black said while smirking, then looked down at Otto, who struggled in vain against the restraints.

“Now, Mr. Superior Spider-Man, Stark and I want a word with you back at the tower!” Black Widow said almost evilly, her grin filling the young man with dread. Both adults wanting to see how arrogant Octavius could be without a set of robotic arms or a spider-powered body.

Chapter Text

The Three Kidnappings – Ms. Marvel Version

Spider-Man landed on the ground after he and Iron Man took out the Regent’s transmitter, while Hulk slammed the villain around for throwing him. Spidey would have asked how Regent managed to pull that feat off, but something far more pressing needed addressing.

Spider-Man looked to Cloak and asked, “Please tell me she is still in there because you did not have enough power to get all of them out at once.”

“She?” both Cloak and Dagger asked in confusion, thinking they got all the Avengers, but Earth’s Mightiest Heroes had a feeling who Spider-Man was referring to.

“Guessing you’ve been trying to contact her?” Black Widow asked, her tone neutral, despite the current feelings about the young man after the incident with MODOK.

“Yeah, been trying since yesterday, since she had been picking up, I figured she must have been one of the first to get attacked by Regent here. When I was in that void for a bit, I did not see her with you guys, so been trying up until I met with Chief Watanabe. Praying I might have just missed her since I was in a rush to use the ion displacer to escape. Too bad both it and the rocket boots burned out or I might have been able to get you guys out sooner,” Spider-Man explained, quickly calling up the holo screen on his web shooter and selecting to redial Ms. Marvel’s number.

Meanwhile, both Cloak and Dagger were still trying to figure out what was going on, but Regent started laughing weakly through the pain Hulk had inflicted upon him before they could ask.

“Fools, so focused on me you ignored the news coming out of Jersey. A glowing boy and a girl with hair made of electricity attacked on her the same day I made my move on the tower!” Regent mocked, making the collection of heroes go wide-eyed. For Spider-Man, it was due to the news in general, but for the Avengers, it was due to them knowing the pair the youngest member had been fighting.

The first to regain the ability to act was Spider-Man, who ran for the side of the Cellar closest to Jersey and dove into the water, the Avengers blinking in confusion.

“Are you still sure about those scans, Stark?” Black Widow asked, just as much for her own sake since the boy had done a complete 360-degree turn and was back to old self as far as she could tell.

“No, no, I’m not. I’ll get the kid and drag him back for another set of them while you guys call for a lift back to New York so we can look into what happened to Ms. Marvel,” Iron Man instructed before flying off to grabbed the rapidly swimming form of Spider-Man.

Cloak, hearing this said, “Um...assuming you don’t need to lock us back up, I might be able to get you to the tower once I had a chance to rest. Both Dagger and I are drained from that last teleport to do it right away.”

Captain America raised an eyebrow at this and said, “Prisons like this are criminals, not fellow heroes. I think we can work something out, even without the offer for a lift back to the tower.”

“Heroes?” Both Cloak and Dagger asked in confusion, not expecting to hear them called from Captain America of all people.

-

A couple of days ago:

Ms. Marvel was on her way to the pickup point to be taken from Jersey to New York for training at Avengers Tower when a bolt of electricity shot past her head and she turned to see Kaboom in the alley below.

“How the heck did you get out of prison? Do we really need another round before you figure out you can’t beat me? And that was before I became an Avenger!” Ms. Marvel exclaimed as she dodged a second bolt of electricity from her first superpower foe.

“You got lucky the first time and the second time you have that blonde bitch with you!” Kaboom growled as she began running away. Had the lightning-based Inhuman had not insulted her idol, Ms. Marvel might have realized this was strange, but her anger blinded her as she gave chase along the rooftops until they reach a recently cleared lot for a new construction project.

‘Good, a nice wide open space for me to Embiggen and end this quick!’ Ms. Marvel thought as she tried to launch herself ahead of Kaboom, who was trying to hop the fence once she got close.

As Ms. Marvel touched down, Kaboom was looking back as if to where she was trying to figure out where her adversary was, only to feel a tap on her shoulder.

“Over here, Boomy, time for your knuckle sandwich!” Ms. Marvel said a bit too cockily, but she was angry and wanted just to let it out, she was not paying attention to the fact Kaboom was far too calm and she turned around and grinned evilly.

“I got a better idea, princess. How about you take a nap!” Kaboom said, just before Ms. Marvel got hit in the back of the head by something solid, followed by an explosion that knocked her out.

-

A short while later, Ms. Marvel wakes tied to a chair and noticed her scarf on the ground near her feet. Her bracelet was there as well, the compartments left open and the various small items it once held scattered about, including her ‘work’ phone, the screen smashed in.

In anger, Ms. Marvel tried to use her powers to break free, only to feel herself get shocked harshly by something around her neck.

After a short bout of screaming from the pain, Ms. Marvel finally felt whatever was electrocuting her stop and started gasping for air. She raised her head when she heard a familiar pair of voices laugh and saw Kaboom and Kamran coming from out of the shadows.

“Oh joy, my evil almost ex and his partner in crime are working together again! You guys somehow trick the system your reformed or did you somehow break out of prison after Captain Marvel and I put you there?” Ms. Marvel demanded in a defiant tone, only to see Kamran casually take out a device with a red button and push it to cause another round of shocking.

After it finally ended, Kamran replied casually, “I got out on good behavior, though I was only home long enough to pack what I could carry in a single suitcase, seeing how my parents disowned me. Kaboom needed someone on the outside to blast her an exit, all so we could pull this off.”

Ms. Marvel wanted to know what ‘this’ was, but Kaboom started speaking up this time.

“Though on my way out, I made sure to get one of their lovely shock collars. It detects a meta human’s power use and gives them an equivalent response based on the power output of the wearer's effort. Probably even worse for you since you don’t like electricity, do you?” Kaboom mocked the young heroine, remembering a strong blast for her powers negated the polymorph’s. The only trick was she needed to upload enough volts to do it, something Kaboom knew would have been challenging in a straight-up fight, now that Ms. Marvel was even more skilled thanks to her training with the Avengers. That was why the pair had been sure to ambush her over an old fashion brawl.

Finally tired of the gloating, Ms. Marvel growled out, “And I factor in this how?”

The defiance that remained in Ms. Marvel’s tone got her shocked again, for a whole minute this time, before Kamran let up and replied smugly, “Well, since we know Lineage will not allow us to return to his growing Inhuman crime syndicate; we figured we would at least trade you for some the money to move on with our lives.”

Ms. Marvel thought that made sense in a twisted way. Lineage was an Inhuman who believed Inhumans created by the Terrigen Wave were superior and was creating a sort of Inhuman mafia. Kamran was part of this group until he was assigned to use his connection to her family to recruit her and failed to do so once she knew Kamran’s true colors.

In an attempt to redeem himself for his failure to get Ms. Marvel to join Lineage’s growing gang, he and Kaboom kidnapped her brother Aamir to try and turn him into an Inhuman. But whatever the strange gas that was believed, Terrigen Mist at the time failed to transform Aamir, but Captain Marvel helped her save her brother from the pair of failed criminals. It had also been the event that got Ms. Marvel her chance to become an Avenger since she somehow impressed Captain Marvel during the whole incident.

‘From what we could tell, Lineage left Jersey for who knows where after all that, it would make sense he would love to get his hands on me for the inconvenience!’ Ms. Marvel deduced in her mind while Kamran leaned in uncomfortably close to her face.

“We would have been a lovely couple, but you made your choice. Now you're going to be my ticket to a big payday to move on with my life!” the young man declared. However, he was not surprised Ms. Marvel was still looking defiant, so he looked to Kaboom. The woman took out her phone and showed a clip of Spider-Man being consumed by a dark void and Jameson saying similar attacks being done to the Avengers.

“No one is coming to save you, Kamala. Plus, with the shock collar, you can’t save yourself. This time, you lose!” Kamran stated firmly, smirking as the defiance on the heroine's face crumbles to a look of despair.

To add insult to injury, the pair of villains activated the collar again. They planned on making sure Ms. Marvel lost as much fighting spirit as possible to ensure she did not try to escape.

-

Present-day:

Spider-Man was placed on the couch a bit roughly by Hulk; both he and Iron Man soaked from a short struggle to drag the boy back to the Cellar for Cloak’s teleport. Iron Man resorted to taking the web-shooters from the young man to tie him up.

“Well, at least he did not ride you like a surfboard this time, Stark,” Black Widow said with a smirk, one that changed to confusion when she heard squeaky ‘I what?’

The Avengers looked to the boy in confusion as he seemed to be processing this information like it was the first time he heard it. Something Black Widow realized he had done before, back when she mentioned it when Regent was still limiting himself to long-ranger and out-of-sight tactics.

“Explain!” Black Widow demanded, wanting to get this issue out of the way so they could focus on finding Ms. Marvel.

“I-wha…arg! Fine, I was trying to avoid throwing someone under the bus, but I kind of just got from a…mind swapping the day before Regent’s attack. So far, the last two days have been filled with me running into one mess after another in my personal life. I did not know he ruined at least some of my hero connections, too!” the confused and frustrated wall-crawler explained, making Cloak’s eyes go wide and he realized something.

“That’s why you acted like you did not know me? “ Cloak asked, getting a nod from Spider-Man, while the Avengers breathed a sigh of relief. They were glad it was a simple explanation as to why Spider-Man had a sudden change in mindset.

“Okay, lesser crisis resolved, now how about we focus on the missing short and cute Avenger? I’ll be more than happy web swing aimlessly around Jersey until you guys think of something,” Spider-Man suggested, hoping to avoid getting grilled on who had mind swapped with him. However, he wondered why the Avengers gave raised eyebrow expressions.

“What?” the naïve boy asked, not knowing he had triggered a potentially dangerous state of mind in the Avengers. There was a reason they often gave her orders and never let her do her own thing when on missions. They were protecting their youngest member. The only thing keeping Spider-Man from being smear on the wall by Hulk was that he was genuinely unaware of what he just said.

“You just stay right there while we figure out a plan, soldier. Cloak and Dagger, please make sure he does not do anything stupid,” Captain America instructed while the rest of the team headed off to being making the strategy to find Ms. Marvel.

Spider-Man looked down at the webbing that kept him bound and called out, “At least give me back my web-shooters! It’s not like I can use them like this!”

The request was ignored while the other two heroes sat on either side of him, Dagger saying in a reassuring tone, “You should just sit tight and let the professionals worry about this. Ms. Marvel might be your friend, but she is their teammate. They won’t let her down.”

Spider-Man was about to counter with a comment that he doubted either of the pair would just sit by while the other was in danger when a familiar voice spoke up, “You obviously know nothing about Spider-Man if you think he would ever just sit by when someone is in trouble. His friends, in particular, cause him to do things that are simultaneously foolhardy but noble.”

The trio looked over to see a lone Spider Bot enter the room from the balcony. Cloak and Dagger stood ready to fight it but stopped when Spider-Man said, “Oak, what is that thing?”

“A Spider Bot, one of many I made while I was you to aid me in patrolling the city and a sort of fire support when needed. Now, let’s deal with that webbing and then I’ll tell you where to go,” Otto said as his robot fired a spray at the webbing and it snapped like it was nothing.

Dagger created two light knives to attack the Spider Bot, but Cloak stopped her and asked, “Why are you so helpful all of a sudden? You did not bat an eyelash to bring us down for wanting to make the one who harmed us pay, but you’ll aid the man who battled you several times?”

Otto let out a groan of annoyance before saying, “Let's just say I have reformed and avoid going over an overly complicated explanation that will waste our time. I had already known of Ms. Marvel’s kidnapping and sent Spider Bots to do some light scouting while aiding you all at the Cellar. I had done so as a trump card, thinking it better the Avengers spearhead the investigation, but if they do not wish to make use Spider-Man's dumb luck at stumbling onto things, then I’ll force them to deal with a rogue spider! Plus…once Spider-Man finds out the details of my interactions with the Avengers previously, I want to use my help as means to convince him not to web me to a wall!”

“Great, I’m being bribed not to get upset with you. Anyway, where do I need to go?” Spider-Man asked, surprised a compartment opened up and a pair of black web-shooters dropped out from the Spider Bot.

No one noticed Black Widow spying on the group, the Avengers wanting to be sure young man did not sweet-talk the now rookie heroes into letting him go since this was a much more friendly version of the wall-crawler. The precaution seemed to be paying off differently.

“Cap, get the Avenjet ready. Spidey is about to lead us right to Kamala!” Black Widow whispered in her com device while Otto told Spider-Man of an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of Jersey.

-

Lineage forced the weakened polymorph to look up, her captors using the collar over and over again, plus forcing her to watch and listen to the news reports of her friends being destroyed. Even the news of Spider-Man getting taken out hurt her badly.

‘Even if he had become a jerk, he did not deserve to die like that!’ Ms. Marvel thought weakly as Lineage grinned at her defeated state.

“I thought you might have been lying when you said you managed to capture her, but here the one who ruined both my Jersey and New York plans so thoroughly,” Lineage stated, making one final insult to injury by ripping of Ms. Marvel's mask. Despite already knowing who was behind it already, Lineage knew it would add to the humiliation for Kamala, a fact proven when she weakly tried to hide her face by looking down.

“Don’t bother Ms. Khan; when I’m done with you, your secret getting out will be the least of your worries. These two have asked for a rather generous sum for you and I plan on making you earn it back severalfold! I can think of many ways the once-mighty Ms. Marvel can so that banks alone should be a simple case. Perhaps the one your father works at can be your first target?” Lineage continued to mock, grin only growing wider at the look of fear in the girl’s eyes. He could tell Kamala still had some will to resist, not surprising considering how strong-willed she was, but Kamran and Kaboom had given him an excellent starting point with the previous couple of days of pain.

“Speaking of money,’ Kaboom spoke up impatiently, getting a nudge from Kamran, but Lineage just ignored and snapped his clawed fingers for one of his men to bring over a large suitcase.

Kamran took the case and quickly opened it up to check the contents before nodding to Kaboom and the girl tossed the control to the collar to Lineage.

As the man was about to catch it, a web line snatched it mid-air, while a voice called out from the shadows up the ceiling, “Sorry, but the sale of those who wear red and blue is prohibited in the New Jersey area!”

As the voice Kamala knew well finished speaking, she heard a beep and the collar feel from her neck. The sight of the vile device hitting her lap then sliding off to clatter to the floor reignited her will to fight and she screamed out, “Embiggen!”

As Ms. Marvel broke free of her restraints from her increased size, she locked her eyes on the location of Kaboom and Kamran and slammed her fists down on the spot, her rage the only thing keeping her going after two days of torture.

The pair dove out of the way of the attack, Kamran holding tight to the suitcase full of money, while Lineage called out for his two bodyguards to take action.

Exile, bring that girl down, Sheath get me my money back!” Lineage calls out, thinking this was some kind of double-cross. Too bad for him, it was much worse, as Spider-Man, Cloak and Dagger dove into the fray.

“How are you alive? They made me watch footage of you getting swallowed up by some kind of void!” Ms. Marvel asked in shock as her ‘former’ friend dove at Lineage and knocked him to the ground with a powerful punch to the face before webbing him to the ground.

“Never believe what you see on TV or the internet, Ms. M! Avengers are okay as well, will give you the details once the…is becoming a demon a superpower now?” Spider-Man started saying in his usual friendly and joking tone until the one called Exile glowed with a mix of purple and black energy and became a creature as a giant horned demon.

At the same time, a girl with a Mohawk gave chase after Kaboom and Kamran, only to be intercepted by Dagger, the blonde holding a light dagger in each hand, making the one who had to be Sheath raise an eyebrow and smirk.

“I would say nice trick, but I can do that shit too!” Sheath stated as she made two green energy blades and the two women began slashing at one another with their energy weapons.

Kamran and Kaboom thought this was the perfect set of distractions to escape with the money, only to have Cloak block their path.

Kaboom tried to blast Cloak with lightning, but he captured it in his void as he did to Regent’s fire blasts, then sent it flying at Kamran once Kaboom stopped in confusion at what was happening.

“What the hell?!” Kaboom yelled as she watched both Kamran and their payday get blasted away, turning back blast Cloak, but he dove in and swept her legs out from under her and ending the fight by bringing his fist into her face.

Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel dealt with Exile, Spider-Man distracting the giant demon long enough for Ms. Marvel to get a few hits in, though in her weakened state, she clearly could not bring the other Inhuman down.

“Okay, not bringing the Avengers was a bad idea! Mental note, double-check to make sure I did not leave a few brain cells in Ock's old mechanical arms during that last mind swap!” Spider-Man yelled as he fired webbing at one of Exile’s eyes, making him recoil out of reflex, while Ms. Marvel looked at Spider-man in shock.

“Wait, I was closer to being right than Tony? I’m so rubbing that in when I see him! Okay, I thought it was aliens, but I was still closer to being right!” Ms. Marvel asked, getting excited she could make fun of Tony for weeks on that bit of info. ‘People sometimes just change’ her stretchy butt!

Ms. Marvel’s laps in focus almost cost her though, as Exile let out black and purple flames from his mouth, forcing her to shrink to normal size in hopes of avoiding getting hit. Exile had counted on this though and raise his foot to stomp on her. At the last second, a beam of energy strikes him in the chest.

The pair looked over to see Iron Man had flown through one of the broken windows and was unleashing a unibeam on the demon-like creature, while Hulk smashed through the wall of the warehouse, flanked by Black Widow and Captain America.

“Saved your life Stretchy, so no rubbing anything in for you!” Iron Man joked, while Hulk did what he did best and smashed Exile until his energy construct of a demon formed shattered, creating a blast of energy that hit Ms. Marvel with enough force to knock her out due to her injuries.

-

Ms. Marvel awoke in the medical room of Avengers tower, an IV in her arm. She knew from previous injuries it was a custom IV meant specifically for her, so she got tone more calories and nutrients then a normal one. This supported her healing factor and gave the power the needed resources to heal her fast.

“Good to see you awake. Guess that stuff Mr. Stark made really does help,” the voice of Spider-Man came from the doorway, making Ms. Marvel turn head to see her friend entering, holding a tray of food.

“Yeah, you don’t want to know how many times they had me hooked up to a bag of this stuff after a hard mission just so they were sure I would go home without freaking my Ammi out. How long was I out?” Ms. Marvel asked, hoping her mom would not be too mad she was missing for a few days.

“A couple of hours, just long enough to miss the chewing out I got from Mr. Stark and Captain America for going off to save you with Cloak and Dagger. They told me to report here every day for the next month for training alongside you and interns. Not sure why they have interns training with superheroes, but I was not going to argue with them,” Spider-Man explained as he put the tray down, wondering why Iron Man gave him a wink at saying it would be alongside Ms. Marvel. Or why he felt very warm in the face while thinking about it.

Ms. Marvel winced at hearing this, figuring her friend had not heard about the Avengers Intern program, so gestured to a chair next to her bed while saying, “You might want to sit down, Spidey and I’ll explain.”

Down the hall, Tony was counting down with his fingers until Spider-Man’s voice yelled out, “THERE IS A WHAT PROGRAM?!” making him, Black Widow and Captain America smirk.

“This is going to be an interesting month. Think he’ll be ‘worthy’ to be dating our protégé after it's over?” Black Widow asked as the trio walked away from the sounds of sobbing.

“Pajamas is worthy, just too dense to realize he has a crush. Let's see if a month of helping Kamala get back into a fighting form softens a few mental walls for him,’ Tony replied while Captain America shook his head.

“Well, it took a plane crash to confess to the girl liked, here hoping Mr. Parker does not need something that extreme,” the Captain America commented as they headed for the living room to check of Cloak and Dagger progress on cleaning up the front room under Hulk’s watch. The pair were supposed to keep Spider-Man out of trouble, not help him pull off a rescue mission!

Chapter Text

The Three Kidnappings – Spider-Man & Ms. Marvel Version

“Almost there,” Spider-Man thought as he got closer to Avengers Tower after his failed attempt to call Ms. Marvel and only ended up sounding like a fool.

He passed over the park near said tower when he heard the sounds of weapons fire coming from among the trees. Never a good sign in general. This close Avengers Tower meant it was probably worse.

Spider-Man dove down using his web wings to glide in and saw Ms. Marvel running from several AIM goons. Unlike previous times he had faced them, the evil science organization, they had several dozen of these skeletal robots supporting them. The strange machines were trying to swarm the young heroine. However, the yellow-clad forces kept on firing without concern of the polymorph’s futile attempts to fight back because their mechanical minions forced her to focus more on not getting dogpiled.

“Hey, didn’t your mothers ever teach you that is not how to treat a lady!” Spider-Man called out as he stopped gliding and did flip in mid-air to fly feet first into the mob of robots, knocking several over and scatters the rest, while AIM forces ceased fire and the second hero’s arrival. Ms. Marvel was shocked at first but quickly shifted a furious glare that caused Spider-Man flashbacks to his encounter with Gwen and Anya this morning.

“You…you jerk! First, that stunt with MODOC, then you’re stupid phone call giving away my position when hiding from these guys and now you show up thinking you’re saving the day!” Ms. Marvel screamed in anger. AIM had used some new teleporting technology to send many forces into the tower, preventing the Avengers from organizing. Worse, several AIM soldiers in purple suits kept target her specifically, forcing her to shrink to hide and she was sneaking out of the tower to contact the others for advice when her phone went off, the call Spider-Man had made!

‘Great, just great! Ock messed up my friendship with Ms. Marvel too! I got no clue what a MODOC is, but I’ve been seeing that look all day!’ Spider-Man mentally ranted, not knowing that his focus on Ms. Marvel nor her rant was dooming them both, as one of the AIM soldiers made a call to his superiors.

“Both targets are present, I repeat, both targets are present. Send in SPIN strike teams on my location!” the man stated urgently, while Spider=Man got chewed out by Ms. Marvel.

“Look, I get it you mad, but I did not know you were…” Spider-Man started to say but got cut off by Ms. Marvel's second rant wave.

“It shouldn’t matter if you knew because you busted our friendship, so why do you think you can phone me as nothing happened?! Even if you were trying to apologize, you have not earned the…oh no!” Ms. Marvel started screaming until she saw several more teleports happen. AIM soldiers in grey and black suits with heave weapons, several drones with a more orange color and several white synthoids with proper armor rather than the ones that look like the skeleton version that had been attacking her earlier.

“SPIN forces, I hate SPIN forces!” Ms. Marvel managed to say, just before the troops fired rockets at them and drones unleashed a barrage for energy blasts alongside the robots. Neither teen had a chance to dodge or defend themselves as everything went black as they felt their strength get drained away.

-

Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel groaned as they woke up inside a rectangle-shaped chamber in a much larger room, the sides translucent made of a transparent substance, both held in the air by energy tethers coming from the corners of the cell.

“Huh, getting Deja Vu from the special police holding facility. Though this is comfier than the chair they had me…” Spider-Man started saying, but was cut off by Ms. Marvel groggily saying, “Stop talking!”

“Spider-Man raised an eyebrow at this and joked out of habit, “Have you met me? I quip, joke and chat nonstop!”

The comment only set Ms. Marvel off and had her scream out, “I SAID STOP TALKING! MY HEAD IS KILLING ME AND I’M STUCK IN A CELL WITH THE WORLD’S BIGGEST JERK! THE LEAST YOU CAN DO IS SHUT UP!”

This did silence Spider-Man for the moment, but only because, under his mask, he was seething. Yet again, he was on the receiving end of Ock’s actions and he was quickly reaching his limit.

Ms. Marvel mistook the silence for obedience and began saying, “Good, you seemed to have smartened up since the last time we ‘worked’ together! Now just hang there while I figure out how to save…”

“No,” Spider-Man respond calmly, almost eerily so, this time cutting Ms. Marvel off, who blinked in confusion at first, before her expression became cold and stared right at the other teen hero.

“What did you just…” Ms. Marvel started to demand when Spider-Man cut her off a second time.

“I said no if anyone is going to save us, it will be me. You told me plenty of stories of where you just sat back and let the other Avengers do the planning during an escape. I meanwhile have saved myself plenty of times, so leave the saving to the pros!” Spider-Man stated firmly, making Ms. Marvel grow furious.

“I’m the Avenger. You are just a jerk who thinks he can do whatever he wants!” M. Marvel countered, only stoking the Spider-Man fire of anger.

“No, you are a glorified sidekick to the real Avengers, given how you always complain how they order you around during missions during both our first team-up and when we hung afterward! Bet they recruited you because they needed a cute mascot!” Spider-Man countered, making Ms. Marvel's jaw go slack at the comment, shocked her ex-friend went there of all places!

Before the argument could continue, the tethers deactivated and the pair dropped to the ground. The end nearest to Spider-Man lowered into the ground and a voice the two superheroes had not heard in a while spoke up.

“And here I thought I might need to weaken you two while you were in the cage, but given there is no sign your ability cooperate, I think I’ll let you keep that extra stamina. You’ll need it for my special version of AIM’s Hive facilities!” Monica called out of the speakers while an elevator door opened on the far side of the room.

The two teens glared at each other, their emotions running hot due to their argument, but both knew they needed each other.

They remained on opposite sides of the elevator, not talking in hopes of avoiding causing any more friction between them. However, both wished for some boring elevator music to make the extremely long ride more bearable over dead silence.

Just as the elevator stopped, Spider-Man felt his spider-sense go off and quickly created a web shield and blocks the door, much to Ms. Marvel’s confusion.

“What are you…” Ms. Marvel started to ask but got her answer by the blaster fire that began once the door open.

“I know you hate me, everyone does, but can we have a truce until we get out of this place?” Spider-Man asked, praying his shield would hold under the attacks, while Ms. Marvel nodded her head despite looking confused.

‘He jumped in front of the door to shield us, yet last time we met, he used me, Widow and Iron Man as a distraction. What is with him lately?’ Ms. Marvel thought for a moment before shaking it off and quickly glanced into the room to see what style of layout they had.

It was just a simple large square room, with a raised platform in the center, Ms. Marvel noting it had a control point Tony would often use his programs to hack, but Monica must be ‘allowing’ it to be marked for whatever test she was putting the pair through.

“Get to the center platform and try and stay in that circle. I’ll try to keep as many off you as I can!” Ms. Marvel instructed, getting a nod from Spider-Man and the two superheroes dove into the fray.

Ms. Marvel sent out an enlarged palm to send the waiting AIM keepers scattering, allowing Spider-Man to reach the control point.

From there, Spider-Man dodged and flipped over the incoming fire, using web shots to blind attackers or web lines to pull them to him and them flying into their allies, while Ms. Marvel did her best to take out the keepers when they close together.

The pair had barely finished the troops off when a new wave teleported in. The air filled with security-type drones and ground forces consisted of proto-synthoids.

“Not sure if I should be glad or worried, they are going easy on us!” Ms. Marvel commented as she backpedaled from some of the synthoids as they attacked her, while Spider-Man looked at her like she had a second head.

“This is easy? Do I want to know what hard looks like?” Spider-Man asked fired to web lines as an equal number of drones and pulled them down to his level. He then kicked them into a swarm of synthoids, which were promptly smashed by Ms. Marvel’s massive fists.

“These are just the base models; if Monica wanted to kill us right away, she would have at least used the kamikaze versions of the synthoids. Even worse, AIM has much bigger and deadlier machines than these. It's part of the reason Avengers are not around during a crisis in New York. We’ve been handling places like these Hives, plus any of the usual big bads that require the tea,” Ms. Marvel called back as she performed a whirlwind attack to finish off another mod synthoids before increasing the size of her palms and smashing the last of the drones with by crushing them with a clap.

Spider-Man started to breathe a sigh of relief when yet another wave teleported in. This time it was synthoids in yellow armor along with a slightly larger yellow robot with an energy shield that reminded him of a riot shield used by the police.

“Riotbots and regular synthoids instead of more proto versions, more serious than before but still not the specialized version or the heavy troops,” Ms. Marvel commented casually, making Spider-Man go pale under his mask.

‘Either she is far too used to this or I got a long way to go before I ever become an Avenger!’ Spider-Man thought as the Synthoids fired some grenades at him, but he snagged them with web lines and flung them back in their direction, while Ms. Marvel dove at the three Riotbots with another whirlwind attack that smashed through their energy shields.

Due to Spider-Man countered to the explosive projectiles and Ms. Marvel taking out the strongest of the third wave, the third wave was defeated quickly. Both were ready for a fourth when the elevator on the other side of the room opened up.

“Okay, AIM is up to something if they are not using their usual five-wave system on us. I thought Monica was out for revenge for us arresting her, but I’m worried this is a test of some kind like she said before. If it is, then it can’t be good what she plans on doing with the data,” Ms. Marvel said in a worried tone, not liking this situation one bit.

Spider-Man silently agreed though he was glad for the less tense mood between them. He prayed it would last for longer than just getting out of this place. He had lost enough friends today, thanks to Ock’s actions.

As the two entered the second elevator, Ms. Marvel asked, “What has been happening with you lately? The last time we met, you were a jerk who used us to distract MODOC so you could get   the mental device, now take point in keeping us both safe from the first attempt to bring us down.”

Spider-Man wanted to ask what a MODOC was or who specifically he had used as a distraction, but instead focused on the main issue, what had happened to him to make it seem like he was having some kind of split personality disorder.

“It’s complicated and I can’t prove any of it, not unless Ock wakes up from his coma and is willing to back me up on it,” Spider-Man answered, getting a confused look from Ms. Marvel. Why one of Spider-Man’s greatest enemies would back him on such an issue or how he would be connected to it.

Before Ms. Marvel could ask for clarification, though, the elevator stopped making them pair know it was time for the next round.

The door opened to reveal a hallway; one the made the teenagers move cautiously down. Ms. Marvel knew hallways had small squads of defenders from previous Hives. Spider-Man, on the other hand, knew being careful in an enemy facility was a good idea.

Around a second corner were five green-colored proto-synthoids that gave off a green mist. Plague Synthoids, Kamala hates plague types and their blitz counterparts due to their tactic of charging the enemy and self-destructing.

“Can you web them up before they attack? They love to get in close and explode, which will leave behind a poison gas,” Ms. Marvel explained, getting a nod from her partner for this mission and watched him crawl up the wall and get above the group of robots.

It was a quick attack; Spider-Man fired two web lines to grab two enemies and pull them up to the ceiling and web them in place. Then, as the other three started to react, he landed on one, performing a backflip off it as the three began to destroy themselves, landing away from the toxic mist.

As Spider-Man landed, the purple light of AIM’s teleporting appeared overhead, green drones being what came to reinforce the synthoids, plague-style security drones.

“That is enough poison for today!” Ms. Marvel called out as she sent out a massive palm like she was high-fiving the targets, smashing them before they could fire off their projectiles.

As Spider-Man watched the wreckage of the drones land on the ground, he looked to Ms. Marvel and asked, “This still looking like they are going easy on us?”

“Remember the forces that knocked us out? That is just some of the heavier artillery without using the most dangerous machinery. I’m worried those kinds of foes are coming soon,” Ms. Marvel answered, making Spider-Man shiver a little before the pair headed down the hall.

They soon came across a large set of glass doors, seeing a group of five enemies, one being one of the ‘weaker’ deadly machines Ms. Marvel had just mentioned. Each with a glowing blue energy field.

“Just great, elite squad, they got energy shields to make them that much tougher. The two purple ones are long-range snipers and can teleport around a lot. The two blue machines that look like the Riotbots from before are made for close-range blade combat; watch out if they come at you with their whirlwind attack. The big yellow machine, that an Exo suit. That is their big hitter, so we got to try and take out the Stilleto Riotbots and the Peacekeepers before dealing with him if we can,” Ms. Marvel explained, trying her best to give Spider-Man what tactical advice she could come up with. She was usually the one getting the tactical advice instead of being the planner when with the Avengers.

“The Peacekeepers don’t look all that peaceful,” Spider-Man grumbled as he got ready to dash in while Ms. Marvel pressed a button on the console to open the doors.

Both dashed in, going after the same Stilleto Riotbot to quickly overwhelm its shields. Unfortunately, this only managed to bring the defensive field down before it started its evasive actions, the second jumping at the two superheroes with the whirlwind attack Ms. Marvel warned about.

The two Peacekeepers and Exo lined up their shots, the giant machine firing a barrage of blaster fire from its Gatling arm, while the two soldiers lines up their shots with red target lasers before firing a purple energy blast.

Both Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel cease their attack on the first robot due to this, but not before Spider-Man web its feet in place, causing weapons fire to damage it harshly. The second one continued its pursuit, its shields holding under the barrage.

The two Peacekeepers teleported away to the far sides of the room. At the same time, the Exo changed from firing its weapon to charging Spider-Man and the second Riotbot moved after Ms. Marvel, Spider-Man quickly vaulting over the clumsy machine. At the same time, Ms. Marvel bent out of the way of each sword swipe and punched the robot in return.

The two Peacekeepers took shots when they could, teleporting soon afterward. It slowed the two heroes down in their attempt to bring the second robot down, but another charge from the careless pilot of the Exo sent the robot flying and brought the number of attackers down to three.

Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel then split up to take on each of the Peacekeepers, forcing the Exo to split its attention as it tried to figure out which of its comrades to help. Ms. Marvel, being used to dealing with the AIM teleporter, quickly brought his shield down and slammed him into the ground with enough force to knock him out.

Spider-Man, meanwhile, was slowed down by the Exo choosing to focus on him while he tried to take out the last Peacekeeper, leaving the mech open to an Embiggened Ms. Marvel to hit it from behind.

As the giant yellow machine recoiled from attack, Spider-Man web lined the final Peacekeeper to pull him toward a waiting punch that broke through the energy field and sent the man flying into the wall.

By the time Spider-Man turned to help with the Exo, he had found Ms. Marvel ripping out the power pack that in its back, rendering it useless to the pilot inside.

“The second challenge done, here is hoping this is a five-floor Hive and not one of their bigger ones!” Ms. Marvel grumbled, as the floor beneath them parted and she jumped down, followed by Spider-Man as he headed for the elevator’s usual location in this style of room.

“You’ve been to a lot of these, haven’t you?” Spider-Man asked, given how his friend did not hesitate to go this way.

“Counting this one, it's my 5^th Hive. Though one of those was a ‘Mega Hive,’ a sixteen-floor version of these things and most are usually five or six, so that like going through three Hives at once,” Ms. Marvel answered as they entered the elevator for the next floor.

“And this has been easier than usual? I’d hate to see normal or hard!” Spider-Man asked in exasperation as he sat down on the floor while Ms. Marvel rolled her eyes.

“That last one was closer to normal. But we got something more critical talk about, what does how you’ve been acting like a jerk and loose cannon got to do with Doctor Octopus? Tony did every scan on the list and you checked out on all of them! No mind control, no cloning, no nothing!” Ms. Marvel stated, crossing her arms, though inwardly was praying there was something her leader had missed. Spidey was like his old self; people might change, but not this fast or often!

Spider-Man was silent for a moment, making the young girl think he was not going to answer, when he finally said in a weak voice, “I was in the Horizon server when you ran into Otto in my body. I only got my body back yesterday during the fight with Venom at Midtown High.”

From the way Spider-Man spoke, Ms. Marvel guessed he felt she would not believe him. The only reason she did not correct him on the belief was the elevator stopped. Ms. Marvel knew that was a sign to focus on the dangers of this floor first before helping her friend.

As the door opened, the pair had to dive onto either side of the doorway as an energy beam came flying in. Once the beam died down, Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel looked to see a large blue human-shaped machine coming down the hall from a large, circle-shaped room. Two Riotbots flanked it, though these had wearied purple glow that made them look like holograms instead of physical objects.

“An Adaptoid, plus two Phase Riotbots, this is not good!” Ms. Marvel managed to say before the two robots dove towards the elevators while the Adaptoid made its way there slowly.

The two teens did their best to fight the Riotbots in the hallway, but their out-of-phase state made attacking them impossible, only exiting it a brief moment to strike before returning to their invulnerable state.

“Any tips for these things?” Spider-Man called out as he tried to figure out the Riotbot’s attack pattern, while Ms. Marvel bent out of the way of her attacker’s strike and did a counter she liked to call a hip check to stunt it for a moment to give the robot a solid hit.

“Just wait until you get used to its timing and strike just as you dodge…look out!” Ms. Marvel started to instruct Spider-Man, but at the last second, saw the Adaptoid had finally reached them and grabbed Spider-Man by the back of the neck.

The vile machine drained a portion of Spider-Man’s strength while Ms. Marvel was forced to finish her Phase Riotbot off, though as she moved to help him, the second Riotbot attacked, forcing her back on the defensive.

At the same time, the Adaptoid slammed Spider-Man into the ground and then raised its foot to stomp down on the web-slinger. Fortunately, his spider-sense snapped him out of his daze enough to roll out of the way before the foot made contact.

The Adaptoid tried to prepare another energy beam from its face, but Spider-Man managed to fire a web shot to blind it, buying him a few more precious seconds for Ms. Marvel to defeat the second Riotbot.

“Hey, power stealer! Leave my friend alone!” Ms. Marvel screamed out as she drew both her firsts back while increasing their size for what she called the double-barrel punch, slamming it into the Adaptoid while it fought the webbing on its face. The move transition into the catapult, a move where she planted her massive palms into the ground and launched forward while increasing the size of her feet to hit Adaptoid with a double power attack combo.

The advanced machine could take the punishment though and lunged forward with a powerful punch that would have connected if Spider-Man had not fired a web line at its feet and pulled its legs out from under it.

As the Adaptoid hit the ground, Ms. Marvel brought her fists down hard on the robot’s body, smashing it over and over until its mangled form gave of shorts of electricity.

Ms. Marvel panted heavily from the battle, but as she turned to check on Spider-Man, she found him hugging her and saying softly, “Thank you and I’m sorry.”

Ms. Marvel figured the ‘thank you’ was for the friend comment, but she was confused about why he was apologizing. Even more confusing was why she felt so weird at him hugging her.

“N-no prob, mind swapping is hardly the weirdest thing I’ve seen as an Avenger. But…why the apology?” Ms. Marvel asked though she wanted to ask why the hug, but she was already having trouble processing the situation without making it weirder.

It seems Spider-Man finally realized what he was doing let go, his posture implying he was embarrassed by his actions while saying, “O-Oh, that was for the whole sidekick comment from earlier. I know that is a touchy subject for you.”

-

In the monitor room, Monica’s eyes narrowed at what she was seeing. She had expected the two to be at odds with each other after watching them argue in the cell, yet had managed to work together from the very first encounter. If anything, they were getting too friendly with each other!

“Please tell me we are getting the needed data from…whatever this is!” the Scientist Supreme demanded harshly, hating being forced to watch some kind of teenage level soup opera.

“Yes, ma’am, the only thing we seem to be having issues with is this ‘spider-sense’ Spider-Man is said to have. Everything else is nearly at 100%,” one of the scientists at the terminal answered, as others continued to processes the combat data from both the Hive and information gained from other sources.

“Good, begin transferring the data and add in the enhanced sensory package. That should compensate for some of it. We need our final challenger ready for the last floor if they survive the next encounter!” Monica ordered as she watched the two teens finally start heading down the hall.

-

As the two reached another clear glass set of doors, both gulped at what they found in the center of the room that was the same as the previous floor.

There were three Adaptoids, but like the previous, each seemed to have an elements theme, one coated in flames, the other giving of ice and wielding a massive mace-like weapon and the final one floating air like it was telekinetic.

“Great, all three of the more advanced kind of the basic model we fought a moment ago. Can you try and take out the Adept Adaptoid? It’s the one that is floating around in the air. I’ll try and keep the Cry and Assault models focused on me for as long as I can,” Ms. Marvel suggested, getting a nervous nod from her friend who seemed to be trying to analyze the situation for the best way to win.

“Well, I fought Ock when he gave himself mental powers. Okay, I needed help to win, but these guys seem to focus on slow hard-hit attacks, so it's not impossible,” Spider-Man said as Ms. Marvel reached for the control panel and opened the doors, both dashing in.

Ms. Marvel did a full-body Embiggen to make herself a tempting target as she could be, while Spider-Man headed straight the Adept.

The purple machine instantly made pieces of debris float around it, blocking Spider-Man from getting close, but he did cling to one of the larger pieces, causing an error in the Adept’s programming. Unfortunately, none of its data had prepared it for that method, as it was mainly programmed to fight the Avengers.

At the same time, Ms. Marvel tried to attack the Assault and Cryo models as best she could, but the Assault increased the heat of its flame aura enough that her attacks would burn her simultaneously. On the other hand, the Cryo model was still hard to bring down because it is that durable, so bringing it down was proving difficult while worrying about its partner.

‘This is so much easier with a full team!’ Ms. Marvel thought as she avoided ice and fire attacks, until much to her horror, the Assault model must have detected the Adept’s hesitation and began throwing its fireballs in Spider-Man’s direction.

“Spidey, incoming!” the polymorph called, her warning plus his spider-sense allowing him to keep the Adept between him and incoming barrage.

The explosions that followed destroyed the debris and hit the Adept, causing it to think the Assault model was an enemy and telekinetically throw it into the wall, leaving it open to a direct attack from Spider-Man from behind.

The wall-crawler swung overhead and landed on its shoulders, grabbing its head with both hands, pulling with all his might. But, unfortunately, the Adept’s program could not choose which target to focus on until it was too late, its head coming off with a spark of electricity and falling to the ground as Spider-Man did a clumsy flip to land on the metal floor.

“And I thought the Hulk was brutal!” Ms. Marvel called out as she picked up the Cryo unit in her massive hand and slammed it into the ground before proceeding to stomp on it until it stopped moving.

“Was not sure how to take it out fast, so went with the first thing to come to mind. I blame it all the chaos that is my life lately, plus nearly dying several times before getting my body back. Wonder if I need to take a break from the hero life for a while?” Spider-Man called back as he used a web line to snag the Cryo model’s weapon and pull it to him.

Spider-Man then proceeded to make a clumsy charge towards the Assault model and hammer away on it as it got back from the Adept’s attack. The bulky weapon was difficult to wield, but it helped him devastate the Assault model with only a few hits when combined with spider strength.

The floor opened up beneath them again and the pair headed elevator, thought Ms. Marvel stopped in front of the door and sat down, much to Spider-Man confusion.

“You know there will be a fight the second the doors open, so let's take a break. Ms. Ego Supreme can wait for all I care!” the young Inhuman stated, smiling as her friend sat down beside her.

As the two rested to regain their strength, Ms. Marvel asked, “How bad has it been since you got your body back? Going by what the other Spider-Man told me when Oak went up against Sandgirl and the encounter Iron Man, Black Widow and I had, I bet he made a mess in other parts of your life as well.”

Spider-Man flinched at this question but forced himself to say, “Well, two of my closest friends won’t even say anything to me. The man I idolized in my civilian life would probably call security on me if he catches on his facility’s property; it looks like my life is up in flames. Nothing too bad at home, but that is one small victory in a whole world of a mess I need to clean up. Here is hoping the other Avengers believe my story so I can at least fix that half of my life.”

Ms. Marvel gave him a sympathetic smile as she patted him on the back while saying, “Don’t worry, I’ll talk to them. The worse that can happen is you just keep doing what you usually do and the others will come around. True, that will probably get Jameson out of your corner, but even any hesitant Avengers will see actions speaking louder than words.”

“Jameson will hate me again? Oh no, what will I ever do?!” Spider-Man replied sarcastically, the pair silent for a moment before they burst out laughing.

After a moment of enjoying the positive atmosphere, Spider-Man asked, “So, what do you think the reason for this is? If they were attacking in force, I would be assuming some kind of revenge scheme for Bilderberg, but if they’ve been holding back, then they are after something else.”

Ms. Marvel thought this for a second, unsure what the goal could be. AIM may be a criminal organization, but they were still heavily invested in science and logic. They would have a higher purpose in mind if they were toying with them like this.

“I’m not sure. I bet revenge is still a factor, but not the only reason or like you said, AIM would have already dealt with us. The SPIN forces had us down and out, so if revenge is the end goal, would have been destroyed then and there,” Ms. Marvel said, finally getting up from her spot on the floor and holding her hand out to Spider-Man.

“Guessing it times to find out the hard way then,” Spider-Man said as he took his friend standing up as a sign to get going. Probably for the best, their captors would make them move if they sat around too long.

The two superheroes board the elevator, not knowing they had allowed the enemy more time to fine-tune their opponent.

The door opened to reveal an extremely large circle-shaped room with only one enemy waiting for them, one Ms. Marvel did not recognize. Instead, it was a new version of Adaptoid that was shorter and sleeker in design and shade of red similar to Spider-Man’s costume, with a yellow lightning bolt on its chest like Ms. Marvel’s.

As the pair carefully approached the new machine, the voice of Monica called over the speakers, “Congratulations, ‘heroes’ you made to your final test! AIM thanks you for your contribution to the completion of the newest Adaptoid, the Spider-Marvel. All your powers, tactics and fighting styles placed into the most advanced machine at AIM’s disposal!”

The machine began moving after this declaration, sending out an enlarged fist much like Ms. Marvel's own Embiggened punches, one the pair avoided but were shocked that the Spider-Marvel sprang forward with speed and agility equal to Spider-Man’s. This Adaptoid did not have the slow movements of its predecessors.

“I hate to ask this while a major villain group is listening, but got any weaknesses that might apply to our friend here?” Spider-Man called out as he tried to avoid a whip-like punch from the Spider-Marvel, only for a web line from its other hand to hit him in the chest and yank him towards the Adaptoid.

The only thing that saved Spider-Man from a punch that was both Embiggened and fueled with spider strength was Ms. Marvel coiling around the Adaptoid in an attempt to tie it up, but the machine shrank in size and jumped away before returning to its previous state.

As the two heroes stared in shock, Ms. Marvel finally responded to the question Spider-Man asked by saying, “We don’t have the means to exploit anything that comes to mind for my powers, anything you can suggest for your side?”

A shake of Spider-Man’s head signaled he was not much help either, forcing the two to try and fight something that had the best of their abilities in one body. Sadly it was a futile gesture; the Adaptoid knew their moves inside and out and out predicted them at every turn.

The longer the battle went on, the more stamina the two super teens used, while the Spider-Marvel was a machine so had limitless energy.

In a desperate attempt to turn the tide in their favor, Ms. Marvel did an entire body Embiggening, attempting to slam down the Spider-Marvel with both fists. However, the Adaptoid easily avoided the blow and ran up Ms. Marvel’s arm, enlarging a single limb and delivering a devastating strike to the young polymorph’s face, knocking her down and looking like she was struggling to remain conscious.

“Ms. Marvel!” Spider-Man screamed and attempted to attack the Spider-Marvel as it was still in the air from hitting his friend.

The Spider-Marvel detected this attempt though fired a web shot at the wall-crawler's face, for once him being the one blinded while his opponent took the chance to slam him into the ground.

Spider-Man groaned in pain as the Spider-Marvel stood ready to finish him off but was stopped when a giant hand grabbed the evil machine and slammed it into the ground.

Ms. Marvel returned to her usual size after this, getting too weak to maintain her giant form. She tried to drag herself to Spider-Man’s side but soon found webbing soon pinning her down.

The last thing she saw was the foot of the Spider-Marvel hitting her in the face before her world went black.

-

Both teens groaned in pain as they woke up back to back and bound in webbing, surrounded by AIM forces. Monica was with them and her newest weapon, the Spider-Marvel Adaptoid, standing at her side like a bodyguard.

“Our volunteers that contributed to AIM’s newest weapon have finally woken up. It might not have the same raw power and potential as soldiers we sought to create using Captain Marvel, Captain America and Hulk. However, it still has demonstrated abilities that put it on par if not surpass our other four Adaptoid models,” Monica gloated over her defeated foes. At the same time, they regained enough focus to realize the gravity of the situation.

“Looks like this is it, Spidey. Not the way I wanted to go, but glad we could mend things before the end,” Ms. Marvel said weakly, wishing she could look him in the eye to say it, but the webbing prevented her.

“Same, though, figures the one time I don’t stutter like a fool around you would be on our last day. I really wish I could figure out why I do that,” Spider-Man responded, not knowing she was smiling for a moment at this until Ms. Marvel’s eyes widen in realization.

‘Wait, does Peter have…a crush on me?” Ms. Marvel thought, as Monica rolled her eyes at the teenage drama before and raised her hand to signal her forces to prepare to fire.

“Destroy these fools before I hurl at this overabundance of teenage hormones!” Monica called out, just before a roar was heard and a crash came from down the hall.

“I know that sound…oh, you guys are in so much trouble!” Ms. Marvel said with a grin, though she was trying to fight with her epiphany about Spidey’s possible feelings for her. More importantly, how should she respond to them?

Monica almost ordered her troops to finish the pair off before the Avengers arrived, but then the sound of thunder and energy blasts was heard approaching, signaling the need to prepare their defense.

“AIM, get into position to stop the Avengers while the data for the new Adaptoid is uploaded to…wait, who is this? What do you mean you’re the Superior Spider-Man?” Monica started saying until she stopped to listen to a transmission and said a name Spidey or Ms. Marvel thought they would never hear again.

“What is Ock up to?” Spider-Man mumbled before he saw Monica go livid at whatever response she got.

“AIM, we must protect the new Adaptoid at all costs! Whoever this ‘Superior’ Spider-Man, he just deleted our data! The current model is all we have left!” Monica ordered, just as the Avengers came into view.

It was not just a few Avengers either. It was virtually the whole team! Iron Man and Captain America led the charge, but at their backs were Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Captain Marvel, Black Panther and Winter Soldier!

“Oh wow, kidnap a member and you get one heck of a rescue team. Any chance they can at least get me to the outer limits of New York before throwing me off the plane?” Spider-Man tried to joke weakly, but his nervousness about encountering Avengers. He was unsure if Ock was working with them, thus explaining some details, or this was just perfect timing and was still on the jerk list.

“Will, you both, stop tal-“ Monica started to say but got cut off by the group of heroes forcing their way into the room, no match for the overwhelming force gathered to save the youngest Avenger in her moment of need.

The battle was brief, the only real asset of power being the Spider-Marvel Adaptoid, which promptly got crushed by the onslaught of Captain Marvel, Hulk and Thor. The trio of heavy hitters being extensive in their methods of making sure the new model was unsalvageable.

As the vile machine was taken care of, Iron Man cut the webbing with his laser and freed the two teenagers, Black Widow looking right at Spider-Man and asked, “So, got any interesting stories for us Webs?”

Spider nervously poked his two index fingers together and said, “Um…I just got back yesterday from Ock old arm harness…please don’t kill me!”

Black Widow raised an eyebrow at this but went wide-eyed as she watched Ms. Marvel pull him into a hug and glare back at the older woman.

“We’ve been through a lot today, Nat. Can you not torture him until he has had a chance to rest?” Ms. Marvel stated, making everyone stare at her and Spider-Man.

Iron Man was the one speak next, opening his faceplate to look Spidey in the eye and demanded, “What are your intentions with our protégé young man.”

Spider-Man fainted after this.

-

Peter woke up in a medical room he did not recognize, still in his costume, minus the mask and web-shooters, which were on the table next to the bed. He also noticed an unmasked Ms. Marvel in the bed next to his, reading some comics until she noticed him stir from his slumber.

“Oh, hey Pete, sorry about the grilling Natasha and Tony were giving you. Nat is overly cautious and Tony was just joking around. Steve gave Tony a good talking to, though Nat will probably be coming to have a less intense version of what happened in the Hive, just to be sure Ock was telling them the truth,” Kamala explained, getting out of the bed and making sure her friend was okay.

“That still sounds terrifying, to be honest, though at least Otto cleared up that issue. Now several more messes to go and maybe I can have some semblance of my old life back,’ Peter said as he tried to get up, though he was a little weaker than Kamala due to his healing being more advanced, but not an outright healing factor like Kamala’s.

“Easy, Peter, we have both been through a lot, but good news, it's only been a day. AIM was only a few hours away from New York by Avenjet. That ‘Hive’ was strictly for testing, so it was smaller than even a standard Hive. Easy to build close to New York without attracting attention,’ Kamala explained as she kept Peter steady, though he still put his gear back on despite needing more rest.

“Good, I need to get home, so my Aunt does not worry too much. The last thing I need my home life tanking,” Peter said as he tried to head for the door but felt Kamala keep her grip on his hand.

“I’m only letting you go if you promise to meet me at the smoothie shop you like so much tomorrow morning. I want to talk about something…far away from any prying ears,’ Kamala said firmly, leaving no room for arguments, so Peter nodded nervously but was glad to see his friend’s gaze soften at this and let him go.

-

Peter sat at a table waiting for Kamala when he saw Gwen and Anya enter. The trio met gazes, though the other two girls had much colder expressions, while Peter’s was timid. It was like blood in the water for the sharks as his two former friends marched over to his table.

“I know I have not been….” Peter started to say but got cut off by Gwen, who was still furious with the young man.

“Save it, Parker! If you think the whole timid and innocent act will salvage our friendship, you’re wrong!” Gwen hissed, Anya nodding her head firmly in agreement. Peter was unsure how to respond without escalating the problem. Fortunately, someone else who was less retrained stepped in as a young brown girl put herself between Peter and the angry pair.

“Back off, the situation was out of his control. If that is not good enough for either of you, then be somewhere else!” Kamala growled back, though she easily saw the similarities between herself and how these two acted before she found out about the mind swapping.

“And what do you know about it you….” Anya started to demand, but the smoothie shop called over to know if there was an issue, which made the pair leave to avoid trouble, allowing Kamala to sit down while peter looked stunned.

“Sorry about that, Peter, but after hearing what you’ve been through lately and could not let that slide,” Kamala explained, while Peter just nodded wordlessly, not sure how to feel about what happened. It felt nice having someone stand up for him, but he still wished he could have made up with his two closest friends next to Miles.

After a moment of silence, Kamala finally asked, “Peter, have you ever had feelings for someone before?”

This made Peter look up in shock, not knowing Kamala was equally nervous about this meeting. She phrased her question that way to ease Peter into the mindset that would help him realize his possible crush on her since she never confessed before herself. She had no clue on how to approach the topic on her own.

“That’s why you wanted to talk away from the tower? Who do you have a…oh…oh! I…this is a bit awkward!” Peter managed to say, getting a small smile from Kamala, who admitted the same.

“If I’m wrong, feel free to say so Pete, I’m not trying to force you. But…I admit dating someone who shares the same ‘hobby’ does make things simpler so if you wanted to try….” Kamala started to say, but Peter stopped her by giving her a peck on the cheek to test the waters.

As Peter pulled back, he got scared when he saw Kamala give him a mild glare. He was going to apologize until she pulled him back in for a proper kiss.

After a few seconds, she let go and they parted, the young girl stating firmly but kindly, “Next time, commit! We do it all the time on the job, so no being a wimp at this!”

Peter smiled at that and nodded, before tasking Kamala's hand in his own, his brain slowly catching up with heart, not knowing they were being watched.

-

“It would be really easy for me to take him out. Just say the word!” Hawkeye said into his communicator while watching the scene through a pair of binoculars, Black Widow swatting his arm in annoyance.

“No, let Kamala decide who she likes. Besides, it’s the real Peter Parker, not the version where Octavius is in control. That is the one you could shoot!” Widow scolded the archer while the other Avengers watched from the tower through footage being sent to them by the pair.

“The only one who gets to kill him is me. She shares my name, which means I get first dibs if he hurts her!” Captain Marvel stated while Tony gave her a warning glare.

“Back off, I’ve been keeping my eye on the kid; I think he could make a good member with a little more time to work things out,” Tony countered, while Captain America stepped in to avoid a battle breaking out.

“Okay, folks, shows over. Let's get back to work cleaning up after AIM’s attack. We’ll stay out of Kamala’s way until something happens!” the war hero ordered, dispersing the team so they could get the tower back in order. And give the teenagers some peace while they figured things out.