Chapter Text
The sky above the battlefield was now nothing more than a giant fissure, a crimson-and-silver gash where two realities collided in a cosmic scream.
For eight long years, Earth had trembled under the onslaught of a never-ending Incursion. A war of absolute attrition in which yesterday's worst enemies, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Doctor Doom, the Brotherhood of Mutants, and many others, had been forced to forge a last-ditch alliance to confront the universe that threatened to engulf them.
"For eight years, blood and steel have united those who once harbored eternal hatred for one another. Heroes and villains have fought side by side to stave off the end of their world."
Amid the ruined landscape, matter itself was disintegrating. Magneto erected bastions of molten metal to protect the last survivors, while Thor unleashed divine storms alongside Doctor Doom's energy beams. But the space-time continuum was cracking inexorably. Reality was crumbling as their opponents continued to attack desperately.
"But no pact, no force in the world could delay the inevitable: the Ultimate Incursion, the collision of two universes that had eluded the God-Emperor Doom."
At the center of the cataclysm, perched on a rocky ridge dissolving into the void, Spider-Man was on his knees.
His mask was half-torn, revealing Peter Parker's bloodied face, his eyes brimming with tears. In his arms, held close to his chest, Jean Grey was slipping away. The immortal flame of the Phoenix was dying along with the universe, leaving her exhausted body in a trail of faint golden sparks that shot toward the dark sky, while a bullet had pierced her body.
"Don't go... Don't go..." Peter pleaded in a broken, desperate whisper, clutching desperately at the trembling hand of the woman who shared his life amid the chaos. "Stay with me... Don't leave me... I beg you..."
Jean gently placed the hand Peter was holding against her cheek, brushing away a speck of dust with infinite tenderness.
A faint smile stretched across her lips as the green of her eyes darkened.
"I love you, Peter..." She murmured with her last breath before her body grew heavy and still.
"And in the shadow of the end of all things, even love and absolute power had to admit defeat."
Peter buried his face in the crook of Jean's shoulder, weeping over the loss he faced as the sky exploded. A blindingly white shockwave engulfed the universe. The Incursion's final collision pulverized both worlds into total oblivion.
Then, silence.
Driven by this cosmic energy, matter reorganized itself. A new Earth was born, a peaceful, ordinary world governed by the strict laws of reality, where superpowers were nothing more than drawings on paper, performances by actors accompanied by special effects, and where the dimensional war had never taken place.
But beneath the surface of this reinvented Earth, hidden here and there, the powers and souls of heroes and villains had survived, locked away in battery-shaped trinkets.
"From the ashes of shattered worlds, a new universe was born. Yours. But, sealed away in the shadows, they remained imprisoned for eternity."
The dull thud of the twenty-dollar bill on the glass counter echoed like an insult in the dim light of the secondhand store.
"Thirty dollars. Not a penny more, Nathan." The manager snapped, adjusting his glasses on his greasy nose. "Your radio's fixed, sure, but nobody buys these antiques anymore."
Nathan gritted his teeth. He ran a frantic hand through his messy chestnut curls, his face marked by fatigue. At twenty-two, his youthful appearance and delicate features often made him look a few years younger, but the worried crease between his eyebrows told a very different story: a lack of money.
"I spent four hours on it, Mr. Henderson." He protested softly. "The motherboard was completely fried!"
"And that's all I can give you. Take it or leave it."
Nathan swallowed his pride, grabbed the bill, shoved his hands into the pockets of his worn-out jacket, and stormed out of the store.
Unfortunately, those thirty dollars were gone in no time. It started with a hot dog to fill his stomach a little, then a trip to the laundromat to wash the clothes in his bag, and finally a shower at a gym. That left him with only 10 dollars while he waited to find something to repair and buy the necessary supplies.
If he wanted to survive in this city, he was going to have to find better-quality parts. And for that, he knew just the place.
At two in the morning, the e-waste sorting center on the outskirts of town was deserted.
Or so it seemed.
Slipping through the torn fence, his backpack wedged against his shoulder, Nathan made his way through the mountains of obsolete components.
With only a small flashlight clenched between his teeth to guide him, he methodically rummaged through the recycling bins, separating intact circuit boards and household appliances still worth salvaging, which he immediately stuffed into his backpack.
"Come on, come on..." He grumbled as he continued searching.
He unearthed an old processor in perfect condition when a harsh light swept across the warehouse.
"Hey! You, over there! Don't move!"
"Shit..." Nathan muttered.
Without a second thought, he shoved the processor into his bag, reevaluated his haul, and took off running as fast as he could.
The voices of two night shift workers echoed through the complex, accompanied by the heavy thud of their hurried footsteps.
Nathan leaped over a pallet, navigated a sharp turn, and sprinted toward the emergency exit leading to the street. He burst through the swinging door at full speed, glancing back to check the distance between himself and his pursuers, when suddenly...
THWACK!
He collided head-on with a figure coming from the opposite direction. The impact made him stumble, but he managed to regain his balance just in time.
The young woman standing across from him brushed a strand of her long, fiery red hair out of her face, startled by the collision. Her piercing blue eyes immediately caught Nathan's bewildered gaze.
"Oh, damn it! Sorry, I'm sorry!" He blurted out on the fly, without stopping his run.
He dashed into the entrance of the nearest subway tunnel.
Behind him, the young woman stood motionless in the middle of the sidewalk. She didn't scream or complain. Her eyes followed the boy's silhouette as he disappeared down the dark staircase. At the very moment their eyes met, a strange feeling of familiarity washed over her.
And yet... she didn't know him... and despite that, everything inside her screamed the opposite.
Downstairs, Nathan was racing down the stairs four at a time, ignoring the "No Entry" signs. Darting onto the abandoned subway tracks, he plunged deep into the disused tunnels, where dust had been accumulating for decades. He ran until the sound of the fugitives was nothing more than a distant memory, out of breath, his heart pounding wildly.
Reassured that he was out of danger, he ventured a little further into the darkness, guided only by his flashlight. He came upon a boarded-up gate leading to an abandoned platform. The rusted metal plaque still bore a name: Roosevelt Train Station.
"A disused train station?" He murmured, fascinated.
Amid the cobwebs and rubble, an old New York City R17 subway car lay there, abandoned.
"Well, I've found a place to crash that's out of the elements. It won't be much different from usual, since it's a subway car." Nathan thought to himself as he approached the car, intrigued.
He then forced open the creaking door of the car and slipped inside. But inside, it wasn't an ordinary subway car.
The leather seats had been ripped out to make room for metal consoles covered in a thick layer of dust.
While wiping a window with the palm of his hand, Nathan discovered a clandestine laboratory. The technology inside surpassed anything he had ever seen in his life: translucent screens that were turned off, complex wiring, and, engraved on the metal of a central console, a stylized "Stark Industries" logo on some equipment and "OsCorp" on others.
Logos he'd only ever seen in movies before ending up in this shitty situation.
"What the hell is this?" He wondered, before assuming that some fan had put them there to look cool on his machines before abandoning them.
Then he noticed something in particular.
In the center of the main office, resting on a deactivated pedestal, were two unusual objects.
The first appeared to be a device with a complex, high-tech design in black, red, and turquoise, adorned with tubes, buttons, and mysterious inscriptions, featuring a circular speaker at its base and a gray handle on the side, giving it the appearance of a high-tech analysis or control tool.
The second appeared to be some sort of battery or cylindrical metal capsule with a futuristic, aggressive design, featuring a jagged, jaw-like opening on its front face that revealed a black spider symbol on a red background with a black web pattern.
"What is this...?"
Fascinated, Nathan stepped forward and picked up the battery. The object was surprisingly heavy and warm to the touch. Examining its structure, he instinctively pressed the mechanism at the top and turned the switch-like knob a quarter turn.
Immediately, the image on the front swiveled to the right, replacing the spider symbol with a perfect rendering of a man in a red and blue suit weaving webs.
"Wait, what..."
Nathan didn't have time to finish his sentence. A blinding burst of energy shot out from the object.
A shockwave violently knocked the young man back, hurling him against the metal wall of the train car. As he collapsed to the floor, paralyzed, lines of golden and scarlet light snaked beneath his skin, seeping into his veins, transforming every cell in his body in an intense but brief burning sensation.
A foreign voice, warm and tinged with a hint of irony, echoed for a fraction of a second in his mind: "Good luck."
Nathan's vision blurred. His head struck the wooden floor of the train car, and complete darkness engulfed him.
Next to his limp hand, the battery emitted a faint hiss. The top swiveled on its own in the opposite direction, revealing once more the simple symbol of the spider. Then the light went out, leaving the laboratory plunged back into silence and darkness.
At that very moment, a man entered his luxurious penthouse.
He was in his late twenties, with brown hair dyed gray and slicked back, and was wearing a black suit and tie with a green shirt and a pin set with a ruby on the small pocket on the front of his jacket. Hanging from his chest pocket was a company ID badge from "FATAL IndustrieS", featuring a photo of him and the name: Nathaniel Demerest.
When he entered the living room, he moved a DVD case from his video collection. This caused it to slide aside, revealing a small staircase leading to a room where each wall was lined with numerous shelves holding batteries similar to the one Nathan had found, featuring symbols of various Marvel heroes. But there were many more that were quite different. These were black and featured batteries similar to the one Nathan had found, with symbols of various animals, both fictional and real, on them. Some even had symbols of objects.
"Years of collecting you..." He said, looking at all the objects on the walls. "And I still haven't found it."
He then turned toward the other side of the room, where there was a tub in which an unconscious woman with red hair was floating; her fingers were blackened, and she was wearing black pants, a red top, a crown of the same red, and a wedding ring on her left pinky finger, creating a stark contrast with the black on that specific finger.
"Don't worry, my love..." He said, placing his left hand on the tub, revealing a wedding ring identical to the one on her finger. "We've waited so long... we'll be reunited soon, I promise you."
Then he turned toward the many shelves, reached out his hand, and one of the batteries was drawn into his hand.
"After everything I've set up, I'm tired of waiting... And some of you will be useful to me in finding her HeroGear."
Silence reigned once again in Roosevelt Station.
When Nathan opened his eyes again, the first thing that struck him was the surreal brightness of the darkness. The darkness of the abandoned train car was no longer a black wall, but a landscape of shades of gray, sharp contours, and microscopic details. He could make out every speck of dust floating in the air, and the sound of a drop of water falling fifty meters down the tunnel echoed in his head with the precision of a metronome.
"What the..."
His own voice sounded unnaturally tremulous. Nathan tried to sit up abruptly, but his movement was so sudden and violent that he slammed himself against the ceiling of the car.
Instead of knocking himself out, his hands and feet instinctively clung to the rusted metal wall.
He hung there, upside down, his heart pounding. Panicked, he tried to pry his right hand loose, but his skin clung to the metal as if gravity itself had reversed direction. With a frantic effort of concentration, he loosened his grip and let himself fall. He landed on both feet with a perfect, cushioned landing, with a lightness he'd never possessed before.
He looked at his hands. His muscles seemed firmer, his reflexes sharp as blades. The exhaustion and hunger that had been gnawing at him after his single hot dog had completely vanished, replaced by an electric energy that made every nerve in his body buzz.
The warm voice he'd heard for just a moment, that "Good luck", had fallen silent for good. Whatever had spoken those words had vanished after passing on its gift to him, leaving Nathan alone with this colossal power.
He looked down, staring at the HeroGear still lying on the floor, deactivated, before picking it up. His gaze then turned to the device lying next to it on the desk.
Driven by an uncontrollable curiosity, Nathan grabbed the device. As soon as his fingers closed around the handle, a discreet interface lit up on the display, and a female voice came from the speaker.
"Initializing… HeroGear user detected. Please insert the HeroGear." The voice stated in a robotic tone as the screen displayed an upward-pointing arrow.
Puzzled, Nathan flipped the device over, spotting a shallow, circular slot accompanied by what appeared to be some sort of protective cover. He then looked at the battery, assuming it was the HeroGear in question, and inserted it into the slot while rotating the piece next to it, engaging a safety mechanism that prevented the HeroGear from falling out.
Hero! Log In!
"HeroGear recognized. Spider-Man. Calibration beginning..."
A progress bar appeared and quickly reached 100%.
"Calibration complete. Begin the transformation process. Please press the right button."
The screen then displayed an arrow pointing to the device's only two buttons.
Driven by curiosity, he pressed the indicated button.
The device emitted a short sequence of notes reminiscent of the theme song from the 1960s Spider-Man cartoon, followed by a flash of light. Before Nathan could even move, a particle of energy woven into strands of red and blue light shot out of the device.
The high-tech material spread along his arms, wrapped around his torso, climbed up his neck, and covered his face.
In less than two seconds, the threads wove themselves into a perfect suit, hugging every centimeter of his body. The suit echoed Spider-Man's iconic design, featuring a bright red torso and boots crisscrossed with a fine black web and bearing a dark spider emblem on the chest. The rest of the outfit featured a shiny blue fabric with metallic sheen, as well as a compartment at his waist on the left side, seemingly designed to hold the device, and two metal pieces at his wrists, complemented by a mask with large white eyes outlined in black.
Nathan raised his gloved hands to his face, examining the black canvas pattern on the red fabric of his cuffs.
"Is that... a costume?" He murmured, his voice slightly muffled by the mask. "This thing... it's a suit of armor."
He glanced at his reflection in a broken windowpane. The image the mirror showed him was that of a symbol, a hero straight out of a comic book or a movie. But beneath the costume, Nathan's heart was pounding as he gradually realized that his life could finally change.
A few days later, a tremendous racket erupted in a wrestling arena.
An all-pervading, incessant sound that kept growing louder reigned there. The place was huge, packed with drunk people, all wanting the same thing: to see guys get beaten up.
One person in particular was standing in line behind other amateur wrestlers, most of whom were dressed in outfits of questionable taste. At the front of the line, a jaded-looking blonde, her face caked in makeup and sporting a botched perm, was registering them and jotting down the essential information.
The hallway where he stood, running along the outer perimeter of the arena, was cramped and reeked of mold. A pipe in the ceiling dripped a trickle of water into a bucket that had to be emptied as quickly as possible.
The wrestler in the center of the ring was known as Bonesaw McGraw. He stood at least two meters tall and weighed nearly 135 kilos of muscle, at a glance. His massive chest glistened with sweat; he had long, tousled black hair, a dark beard, and a look so deranged that one might wonder if McGraw was really just putting on an act.
At that very moment, McGraw was taking down an opponent he was making short work of, throwing him to the ground and delivering a devastating flying elbow strike right to the chest.
"Down the hall, all the way to the ramp." The receptionist said to the man ahead of the one waiting his turn. "Next!"
She eyed him up and down, the man whose turn it was finally to sign up.
"We don't have a featherweight division here, little fish. Next!" She said curtly.
The man didn't let it faze him.
Seeing the three thousand dollars vanish before his eyes, Nathan hurried to reply.:
"I know what I'm getting into. So sign me up for this fight, I'll take care of that Randy Savage clone who forgot to get his rabies shot." He said, matching the woman's curt tone.
She stared at him, as if trying to figure out not whether he was crazy, but just how crazy he was.
"All right." She said slowly. "You understand that the NYWL is not responsible for any injuries you might… and will likely sustain by participating in this event, and that you weigh less than seventy kilos, participating of your own free will."
"Yeah." He answered.
She sighed as one might when bidding farewell to a man on death row.
"Down the hall, then up the ramp. May God be with you."
Behind him, the man set off along the path she'd described, while a man dressed as Xena waited his turn.
Bonesaw McGraw was in the process of dispatching an unfortunate individual dressed as a clown. Bonesaw hurled the clown against the ropes, sending him tumbling back into the center of the ring. For the finishing blow, Bonesaw then lifted the clown and tossed him into the stands.
"The winner!" exclaimed the referee, raising one of Bonesaw's arms while he raised the other and the bell rang.
The man waiting for his turn noticed a screen mounted nearby, showing the ring. Bonesaw was about to sit down on a stool in a corner, surrounded by women in bikinis. They were wiping him down, giving him drinks, and massaging him. He wore a proud smile, and the man could understand why.
What straight guy wouldn't be thrilled to be surrounded by sexy girls in skimpy outfits?
Bonesaw stood up shortly afterward and began flexing his muscles. The crowd cheered as he put on a show after his brief rest.
"Next victim!" The wrestler announced in a voice so loud that he didn't need a microphone to be heard throughout the arena.
The image on the screen then changed, and the announcer reappeared.
"Let the next victim enter the ring now!" He declared dramatically.
Then he disappeared from the screen, revealing two young women with ample bosoms.
They, the women, not their bosoms, paraded around the ring carrying a banner that read: "3 minutes for $3,000."
The commentator then finished his walk and found himself standing just outside the curtain, continuing his commentary.
"If he can last three minutes in the cage with Bonesaw McGraw, the sum of three thousand dollars will be paid to..."
Then he peeked over the curtain, covering the microphone with his hand for a moment of privacy, and stared at the man with obvious skepticism.
"Seriously?"
"I made a bet with some friends that I'd show up like this." The man explained. "At least this way, even if I lose, I'll make a little money."
"Yeah, but still, it's not exactly original."
"Just think, this will create a buzz on social media. It's good publicity, with the movie coming out soon."
The host raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips slightly.
"Not a bad idea. So should I introduce you by name, then?"
"Better that way." The man chuckled softly.
The host gave a thumbs-up in agreement.
Then, without hesitation, he resumed speaking into the microphone, as if he hadn't stopped.
"… The sum of three thousand dollars will be awarded to..."
The curtain began to open. The man took a deep breath to calm himself, trying to slow his racing heart.
"...the spectacular... the sensational... the incredible... Spider-Man!"
The audience gasped as the curtain rose at exactly the right moment, and Nathan, in a realistic Spider-Man costume, though without the device around his waist, was finally visible to them. The surprise quickly gave way to cheers, with more and more people chanting Spider-Man's name while others pulled out their phones to film the scene.
Bonesaw's challenger walked slowly but confidently toward the ring, glancing left and right and waving confidently to the crowd as the production team played the climactic part of the main theme from the 2002 film trilogy, which they'd had to scramble to find in order to fit the moment as quickly as possible.
Bonesaw's "assistants" were waiting for him on the ramp, like a pack of hungry wolves. They hurled as many taunts at him as possible, pretending to feel his muscles while yawning. They taunted and insulted him, staying true to the provocative spirit of this kind of sport, and they put their hearts into it, especially one of them, who had black hair styled in a bob with magenta-pink highlights on her dark strands, as well as numerous colorful tattoos adorning her arms and décolletage.
She winked at him while she was taking part in the bashing, standing face-to-face with him where the spectators couldn't see her, discreetly signaling her true intentions.
The clown participating in the skit was now in a wheelchair, and the camera's microphone picked up his words.
"I can't feel my legs anymore… I can't feel my legs anymore…"
"Maybe he'll get cast in a remake of Rambo." Nathan joked, not realizing that the microphone had also picked up his words, making the crowd laugh.
Then, when he reached the ring, he performed a jump of a height that was impressive for an ordinary human. This was followed by a somersault as he landed in the ring, striking the iconic pose of a comic book hero, which sent the crowd into a frenzy of excitement.
He then stood up, striking a more relaxed pose, as chants of "Cage! Cage! Cage!" rose from the crowd.
Suddenly, a flat structure made of metal bars appeared above him. The challenger looked around as the cage closed in on him and crashed down onto the ring's padded floor with a thud.
"Let the guards lock the cage doors!" The announcer's voice boomed, and the stagehands immediately wrapped huge metal chains around the corners of the cage, trapping the fighters inside.
"They didn't warn me about the cage. Are you sure about this?" Nathan asked one of the stagehands, pointing at the cage.
"Hey, Spider!" Bonesaw yelled, and the crowd roared in approval. "You're not going anywhere! You're mine for three minutes. And for three minutes, you're my puppet!"
"It's more like you'll be mine. After all, I'm the one who weaves the webs." Nathan retorted with a smile beneath his mask.
Bonesaw wasted no time and lunged at Nathan with force and speed.
Nathan leaped forward, dodging Bonesaw as she slammed into the cage wall with a deafening force. Convinced that Nathan couldn't avoid her, she had thrown herself headlong into the charge. The impact was so violent that he was dazed for a few seconds. His vision blurred, and he had to shake himself to recover from the shock, all the while staring at the bars with a dazed, almost accusatory look.
Then he turned to see Nathan, clinging to the cage wall at the other end of the ring, high enough to look even more like the real Spider-Man.
"What are you doing?" Bonesaw asked, surprised.
"I'm putting on a show for the crowd while buying some time." Nathan answered cheerfully. "Three minutes isn't long, so we might as well have a little fun."
Then he jumped, preparing to kick Bonesaw, who dodged it just in time, causing Nathan's foot to slam into the floor.
To his great surprise, he barely felt the impact.
Then, suddenly, Bonesaw grabbed him and pulled him backward, causing him to slam into Bonesaw's arm, had he not dodged at the last moment by ducking his head.
Then, with a swift movement, he broke free from the wrestler's grip, performing a backflip to the other side of the cage. He clung to it for a moment, then fell back to the ground.
"Yeah! Go, Spider-Man!" Shouted one of the spectators, a father who had come with his young son on his shoulders.
Others in the crowd joined in, clearly thrilled by the show Nathan was putting on.
He then felt a slight headache, sensing danger before hearing Bonesaw charge at him again, and Nathan effortlessly leaped into his outstretched arms.
It felt as though Bonesaw was moving in slow motion. But this time, he didn't just dodge the wrestler. Instead, he took off with one hand and performed another somersault, landing balanced on the ropes on the opposite side of the ring from Bonesaw.
"Not a bad costume. Though it's a bit Matcho-Man-esque." He said to his opponent, as if chatting in a laundromat while watching his laundry dry. "What's it made of? Spandex? I considered using Lycra for mine, and it itched like crazy."
But Nathan had been bragging too much, letting Bonesaw get close while continuing his tirade.
With a quick, precise move, his opponent grabbed one of his outstretched legs.
"I've finally got you, insect!" He screamed before spinning Nathan around in a twirl that sent him crashing into the cage wall.
"Ouch." Nathan groaned softly. "Me and my big mouth…"
The crowd's reaction was mixed. Some applauded the violence, while others hoped for a surprise. Clearly, they liked this guy dressed up as a superhero.
Bonesaw dragged him away from the edge of the cage and left him sprawled on the floor.
"I understand better now why they chose you for the three thousand dollars for three minutes." Nathan said, feeling dizzy and trying to pull himself together.
Bonesaw lunged at Nathan again, whose spider-sense warned him of the imminent danger. Nathan, suddenly alert due to the intensity of the warning, looked up just in time to see Bonesaw jumping at him, an elbow strike flying toward his hand.
In a second, that elbow would slam into Nathan's chest, most likely breaking several of his ribs.
Luckily for him, Nathan didn't need a full second. With a swift movement, he brought his feet up and struck Bonesaw in the chest just in time to redirect the colossus's force and speed against him.
At that precise moment, Nathan snapped his legs out like a python biting its prey and hurled Bonesaw across the cage, where he slammed with all his might into the iron bars. From the impact, the cage shook, and Bonesaw threatened to collapse onto the mat, but it still held.
Bonesaw then staggered toward Nathan, but just then the bell rang, ending the match.
Nathan couldn't believe it. Neither could the crowd. A long, deathly silence reigned. Then, with one voice, the crowd erupted into a joyful chant.
"Spider-Man! Spider-Man! Spider-Man!"
The stagehands removed the chains, and the cage was pulled out of the ring just as the referee stepped in and raised Nathan's arm in victory.
"The winner!"
"Give a round of applause for the new champion... Spider-Man!"
When Bonesaw finally staggered over to Nathan, Nathan decided to show some sportsmanship and lifted one of the wrestler's arms. This caused the crowd to cheer even louder, while the wrestler looked at him in surprise.
Outside the building where the wrestling match was taking place, a man wearing a poncho to protect himself from the rain was standing on the roof of a building right next door; he then pulled out a large pistol and loaded a HeroGear into it, just as one would load a bullet into a sniper rifle.
That's when a distorted voice came from the pistol.
Hero! Log In!
He aimed the gun in front of him and fired, sending the HeroGear flying before it suddenly came to a stop and a massive cloud of black smoke formed around the object, then condensed into a more tangible shape.
"Find the HeroGear in that building," the man ordered, pointing to the one where the wrestling match had taken place.
The form, not yet fully formed, nodded before leaping high into the sky.
Nathan was in the promoter's office, upstairs at the arena. It was shabby, and a phone book was propped up in the corner of the desk.
He was wearing the same clothes he'd had on when he discovered the station; the suit he'd been wearing was packed in his backpack, while he stared at the hundred-dollar bill the promoter was holding out to him.
"Now get out of here." The promoter said curtly, wiping his bald, sweaty head with a handkerchief.
"A hundred dollars!" Nathan exclaimed, indignant. "The ad said three thousand!"
"What?" A voice called out from outside the office before bursting in, flinging the door open to reveal a furious Bonesaw. "You're at it again with your bullshit. Don't you know your scams are getting you fewer and fewer guys?"
"Check again, you idiot." Snapped the promoter, visibly irritated. "It said three thousand dollars for three minutes. He knocked you out right before the bell rang to end the count. For that, I'm giving him a hundred dollars."
He walked around the desk and waved a thick cigar in front of Nathan's face, ignoring Bonesaw.
"And you're lucky, too. You made my best fighter look like a wimp."
Nathan felt rage rising inside him. He grabbed the man by the collar of his shirt and lifted him with disconcerting ease. It surprised him as much as it did the promoter, but he didn't let on.
"Listen to me carefully, you bastard. Because I hate repeating myself." Nathan growled, shoving him up against a wall. "My little performance must have gotten you some hell of a lot of publicity with all the people who filmed the fight. And I followed the rules of your ad. So you're going to give me the money you promised. Or else I'll go back into the ring in my suit and tell everyone still in the stands that you're refusing to pay me. And after that, I'll come back and tear your whole office apart. Is that clear?"
"You should do what he says." Bonesaw chimed in. "I took his punches. And even though I could tell he was holding back, he hit hard."
The promoter nodded and handed over the remaining three thousand dollars.
Nathan looked at the bills, then took them and shook the promoter's hand before leaving the office, followed shortly afterward by Bonesaw.
"Hey, kid!" The wrestler called out, causing Nathan to stop and turn toward him. "That was a good fight."
Nathan smiled and held out his hand to the wrestler, who shook it respectfully.
"Thanks." He said with a slight smile as he stuffed the money into his bag. "You're nicer than you looked in the ring."
"It's just a role, even if it's fun to play." Bonesaw laughed. "And I saw how Anna was looking at you when you stepped into the ring. She might not have seen your face, but you really caught her eye."
"Anna?"
"The girl with the pink hair." The wrestler clarified. "If you want to meet her for a drink, and maybe have a good time, she always smokes a cigarette in the alley next door before heading home."
Nathan nodded in agreement.
"I... I'll think about it." He said, a little hesitantly. "Don't you think I'm a little too young for her?"
"You're of age and all grown up. So, you're good." Bonesaw laughed. "So, if you explain to her that it was you under the costume, it'll work out."
Nathan was about to say something when a loud crash rang out just as the ground began to shake.
"It came from the showers." Bonesaw said, pointing to the door to the right of the lockers.
They opened the door to find that the ceiling and the tiled floor of the shower were pierced by a hole, with debris from the ceiling scattered throughout the shower.
They then looked through the hole in the floor and saw a mass of smoke in the ring that dissipated, revealing a humanoid colossus whose skin was a combination of hardened leather and padded yellow chitinous plates, with a head covered by a golden metal structure adorned with slits for incandescent amber eyes. His arms ended in gigantic, vibrating masses followed by three-fingered hands, each finger ending in black obsidian claws, generating visible shockwaves with every movement and causing the ground around him to tremble.
The two men, not knowing what to do, fled the scene.
At least for Bonesaw.
Nathan, meanwhile, found a secluded spot in the building, hid there, and pulled from his coat the device he'd used to transform himself on the subway train.
"What is this thing, Ana?" He said, panicked.
"I don't know, I didn't see that "thing". But the energy signatures of two HeroGears have been detected about ten meters away." Answered the device in a robotic, feminine voice. "And my name isn't "Ana". It's "Hero Analyzer"."
"If I'm not mistaken, that's the distance between us and the ring." Nathan grumbled. "That means this thing is after someone who's somewhere in the ring. And it's going to cause as much damage as it takes to get them back."
"It would seem so."
"So I've got no choice… damn it."
Nathan then took the Spider-Man HeroGear out of his pocket, flipped open the top to reveal the superhero's image, inserted it into the Hero Analyzer, and closed the safety flap over it.
Hero! Log In!
He pressed the button, and a particle of energy woven into strands of red and blue light burst from the device, enveloping Nathan's body as the same jingle rang out.
In the arena, the monster clapped its hands together, sending a shockwave that shattered the ring floor beneath it, revealing that it appeared to be hollow.
The monster was about to grab her when two strands of web stretched out in front of it, just as Spider-Man delivered a double drop kick straight into the monster's back.
The impact produced a dull thud, as if Spider-Man had just struck an ultra-dense leather mattress. The colossus barely flinched. He slowly turned, his amber slits of eyes fixed on the Web-Slinger.
"Did you dress up as a couch or something?" Spider-Man joked as he landed nimbly on the ropes, which remained intact. "Because your padding is damn effective!"
In response, the creature raised its metal maces and slammed them violently together.
BOOM!
A vibrating shockwave, almost invisible to the naked eye, swept through the entire arena. The ring floor shattered. The air itself seemed to contract. Spider-Man's spider-sense screamed in his temples a fraction of a second before the wave struck his body. Propelled backward, Spider-Man slammed violently into a pole. His eardrums buzzed through his mask, his sense of balance completely disoriented by the raw acoustic frequencies.
"Warning: High-frequency vibrational discharges detected." Warned the neutral voice of the Hero Analyzer's A.I. attached to its mount to Spider-Man's left. "The suit's integrity may be compromised in the event of prolonged exposure."
"You're a little late with that warning!" Retorted the Hero, clutching his head.
Meanwhile, the creature ignored Spider-Man and strode heavily toward the center of the shattered ring. It sank its powerful obsidian claws into the rubble of wood and steel, tearing out an entire section of the floor.
Beneath the broken planks lay a piece of HeroGear bearing a symbol of two red "D"s connected together, covered in dust and forgotten for years.
"Second HeroGear signal located beneath the ring floor." Ana confirmed.
"No way are you getting your hands on that!"
Ignoring the pain in his limbs, Spider-Man shot a web cable at the small, glinting object at the bottom of the hole. With a flick of his wrist, he snatched the hidden HeroGear just before the colossus's monstrous hand came crashing down on it. The flying object landed in Spider-Man's palm, and he immediately attached it to the Hero Analyze with a strand of web.
"That's very disrespectful of my integrity." The AI commented.
"Just give me a belt with compartments to store them in." Spider-Man retorted.
"Suggestion noted."
Furious at having been outmaneuvered, the colossus let out a deafening roar. The structure of leather and golden plates covering his body began to vibrate at a frenzied pace, building up a monumental amount of kinetic energy in his two gauntlets.
The ground around him was cracking before his very eyes. He was about to unleash a destructive shockwave capable of bringing down the entire arena.
"If that shockwave is released, the whole building will come crashing down on me." Spider-Man realized. "I have to turn his own power against him!"
Driven by instinct, Spider-Man lunged forward. He dodged an initial sweeping arm strike by leaping over the colossus, then fired a continuous barrage of webs directly at the monster's two vibrating fists.
THWIP! THWIP! THWIP!
In a split second, Spider-Man frantically bound the creature's two arms together, trapping its fists in a mass of ultra-dense web that he immediately anchored to the steel pillars of the cage that had fallen after the previous attack.
"Let's see if you like your own music!" Spider-Man shouted.
The creature unleashed its vibrational pulse, but with no way to vent the energy outward, the shockwaves resonated in a closed loop inside its own metallic arms. Sparks flew. The colossus's leather-and-metal carapace began to crack with a yellowish glow, unable to withstand the resonance.
Spider-Man then pressed the right button on the Hero Analyzer again.
Hero Finish!
A red and blue flash of light coursed through his suit, channeling energy from the Spider-Man HeroGear down to his legs as he shot a web at the ceiling and secured the other end to the creature.
Spider Strike!
Stepping onto the web thread and sliding along it, gaining speed as he moved forward, Spider-Man shot forward like a meteor, feet first. His energy-charged kick struck the center of the colossus's torso at the exact moment his own vibrations were cracking it from the inside.
WHAAM!
The impact was spectacular. A flash of red and blue energy lit up the entire room.
The colossus let out one final distorted roar, a sound of tearing metal and shattering glass. Cracks of light shot through his entire body. Then, his physical form suddenly disintegrated, dissolving into a gigantic column of black smoke that billowed up through the holes in the ceiling.
Pushed by the blast's shockwave, Spider-Man landed back on his feet in a controlled slide, one hand resting on the ground.
In the center of the destroyed ring, where the creature had stood a second earlier, an object fell with a distinct metallic clink.
Spider-Man approached cautiously and picked up the HeroGear. The logo on it was a stylized shockwave, depicted as a double vertical lightning bolt with a sawtooth edge.
"HeroGear identified: Shocker." Ana announced.
"So that monster was the second HeroGear." Spider-Man murmured as he picked up the object to web it onto the Hero Analyzer. "Any idea how this happened?"
"I don't know. For more information, an analysis of the HeroGear is recommended. However, as a precaution, I recommend getting used to this kind of encounter."
In the distance, the shrill wail of police sirens grew louder in the New York night. Casting one last glance at the ravaged arena, Spider-Man shot a web toward the roof's gutter and vanished into the darkness before emergency responders arrived, after retrieving his bag.
No sooner had he stepped out than he spotted Anna, the girl who'd winked at him when he entered the ring, emerging from the alley, no doubt on her way home.
He probably would have joined her, if what had just happened with the colossus hadn't been more urgent. This didn't fail to disappoint him.
On the other side of town, in a small apartment bathed in the pale light of the streetlamps, the young woman with red hair couldn't fall asleep.
Ever since her run-in near the recycling center, a persistent buzzing had been echoing in her chest, like a private radio frequency that only she could pick up. The face of the boy with chestnut curls kept replaying in her mind, accompanied by a sense of immense loss, a suffocating grief she couldn't explain.
Driven by an irresistible impulse, she got up and walked toward the old wooden dresser at the back of her room. In the bottom drawer lay a small metal box she'd found months earlier at a flea market, but had never managed to open.
Tonight, the box glowed with a faint golden light.
Trembling, she picked up the object. The box unlocked on its own with a soft click, revealing a HeroGear bearing a symbol shaped like a fiery bird on a green background: the Phoenix.
She took the object and, like Nathan before her, rotated the top of it a quarter turn, changing the illustration so that instead, it showed a woman with voluminous red hair in a green jumpsuit with yellow gloves and boots, as well as the same symbol as in the previous illustration on her chest; her face and neck were entirely black, as if to hide who she was.
This time, instead of a shockwave, an explosion of psychic flames, blindingly golden, burst forth from the HeroGear, illuminating the room with a divine glow. The energy did not burn her; it surged into her, shattering the barriers of her memory.
Flashbacks of memories flooded her mind: Eight years of all-out war... The sky torn apart by an Incursion... The battles... The Phoenix's flame... And above all... him.
His bloodied face, weeping with every tear in his body as she slipped away in his arms amid the cosmic chaos that was drawing to a close.
"It was you..." She murmured through a stifled sob, staring into the darkness of the night. "You're here..."
The young woman collapsed to her knees on the hardwood floor, her eyes wide open, tears streaming down her face. The entirety of another life's existence, suffering, and love had just merged with her very being.
She pressed a trembling hand to her heart, which was pounding wildly. She finally understood why the gaze of that boy she'd passed on the street had shaken her so deeply.
The energy of the HeroGear subsided, leaving the room in silence, but in Jean Grey's blue-green eyes, a spark of cosmic flame would never be extinguished again.
"Peter..."