Chapter 9
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There's a new hero in New York City.
She also wears a mask and is pretty protective of her identity.
Peter has interacted with her as Spider-Man a few times.
He likes her.
She's pretty cool.
Even if she is from... ugh... New Jersey..
She had had to flee when The Department of Damage Control practically upended her life. Her family had figured New York with its plethora of heroes and vigilantes would make it easier for her to still be a hero while also keeping her identity and family safe.
She hasn't been offered a place in the building, yet, the thing is, having heard her speak, she has a huge family, the anonymity she has as a hero could be at risk every day, all someone would have to do would be figure out the math on the new hero in town versus the hero in Jersey with the same description and oh look someone moved from Jersey to New York at the same time this superhero appeared... The building could be safer or more dangerous for her.. Clint was figuring out the logistics.
Apparently she was very obviously a kid still which complicated matters somewhat in a legal sense.
Peter felt guilty because he had no idea what laws he was sort of getting Clint to kind of unknowingly break for him seeing as he too was a kid but with no legal guardian.
A giant portal from another world unleashing hell upon the earth once again may have been the kick in the teeth no one needed but it potentially was the kick in the ass that Peter did need to get him to reveal that he needed people.
Up on a rooftop Frank ran, a huge knife in each hand.
Frank jumped.
He landed on the back of a Chitari whale looking type creature, he killed the rider with a few efficient vicious slices.
Yelena was catapulting off of Bucky like a human springboard, up, up into the air she went, a nice spiral twirl with which she was using to rapid fire at aerial attackers and then she landed on the roof of building all graceful then spun on her heel, went running full tilt off the edge of the building in a similar manner that Frank had done. A knife in each hand and launching onto the back of one of the whale like things. Once the rider was dead she was the one in control of the mount. Frank too now had his own whale to which he was using to attack their attackers from higher up.
Peter has heard the new hero being called Nightlight by some, though she prefers Ms. Marvel, and Peter can see how she ended up with the unwanted name Nightlight when she throws her hardened light at attackers and uses something she calls Embiggen to non-lethally smash others because apparently, like Peter, she also has qualms about killing.
Deadpool and Daredevil are fighting humanoid figures about eight feet from where Peter and Ms. Marvel fight other humanoid creatures along with creatures with wings from a slightly more elevated platform on the roof, Deadpool and Daredevil are just below them and about three to four feet from their platform that's about four to five feet high.
There's so many of the creatures. Peter is low on web fluid and Ms. Marvel is obviously getting low on energy.
It seems like unless someone finds a way to close that portal that all hope will be lost.
Ms. Marvel turns to Peter, trembling and scared as more swarms gather.
"I have a confession." She tells him shaking, scared, crying. "I shouldn't be out here doing this.. I'm just a kid." She takes off her mask. "I don't think I even know what I'm doing. I'm not even helping any at all."
"Hey.. hey.. no, no.." Peter says soothingly "You're doing great. Awesome actually. No wait.. Marvelous." That gets a laugh out of her "This situation is just.. messed up.. Wanna know a secret?"
Ms.Marvel nods.
"I'm just a kid too." He says with a slight chuckle and also takes off his mask. This has Ms. Marvel letting lose her tears for real and she runs and hugs him and they both cry together. "Oh god.. We're both just kids!"
Suddenly Daredevil was up on the platform with them along with Deadpool.
"You're both crying.. Why are you crying?" Daredevil asks.
"I'm just a kid and I don't wanna die and the stupid bad guys just keep coming, there's no end in sight, there's only so many of us and we're gonna lose and they're gonna kill us all!" Ms. Marvel rambles as more tears come cascading down.
"We're just having a moment." Peter says and when he realizes Deadpool is staring at his and Ms.Marvel's unmasked faces he suddenly feels self-conscious and pulls his mask back on then bumps his shoulder against Ms. Marvel's and gestures to the hand that holds the mask and mines putting it back on which she hurriedly does so as Peter brings attention back to himself by speaking again. "I'm almost out of webs. I don't know how much longer we can keep the extraterrestrials at bay. Even all of us with all of our powers and strengths aren't going to last forever against this kind of onslaught. We need a plan and we need it now."
"Didn't all the Chitari robots all just kind of die once the portal closes last time?" Ms. Marvel asked.
"Yeah. But we don't know what's powering the portal this time or where what's holding the portal opened is. It could be on the other side for all we know." Daredevil replied.
"What are you all standing around yapping for?" Frank asked as he slid off the back of his whale that he had landed on the next roof over and hopped over the small gap between the two and stalked over to where the four were gathered.
"There's too many and they keep coming!" Ms. Marvel cries "We'll all die if we don't find a way to get that portal closed! And I don't wanna die!"
"Hey. It's okay. No one wants to die and no one is gonna die.. okay.. it's okay.." Peter said soothingly grabbing her into another hug "We'll figure out a way to get the portal closed. We just gotta find out what is powering it and from where."
"Can you try to sense it at all?" Frank asked Daredevil.
"There's too much going on .. I can't.." Daredevil groaned almost as if in pain after taking a moment of trying to strain his senses.
"Here.. my mask is designed for helping me with my heightened senses.. maybe if you put it on.. it'll help you with yours.." Peter took his mask off again.. Frank did a double take so hard he might have given himself whiplash.
"You.. you're just.." Frank stammered.
"A kid.. yeah.." Peter looked down feeling scared that outing himself means he's gonna have to go back into the system that failed him so badly last time. "We can get into all that some other time.. just.. right now..." He held the mask out to Daredevil and gave it an emphasizing little shake "You can face that wall and we'll all turn around to give you privacy and no one has to see your face." Peter says. "Please, it's gotta be worth it to at least try."
After a second Daredevil nodded and took the mask from Peter's outstretched hand.
As Peter had said everyone else turned around and Daredevil made the switch between masks.
Almost immediately Daredevil stumbled sideways with a yelp "Woah!.." Daredevil shouted "This is. What. Is. This?.. I can.." and then there was a wet sounding laugh like Daredevil might actually be crying. "Oh. Oh my god.."
"What?" Frank asked "Red, what's going on?"
"This is the best I have ever been able to use and focus my senses.. Frank.." here Daredevil's voice drops to a whisper "It's so good. It's almost like being able to see again."
"Uh.. wow.. that's gotta be.." Frank says taken aback.
"Yeah." Daredevil replies with a tearful chuckle.
"So can you sense where the device powering the portal might be?" Frank asks.
"Yeah.. it's uh.. not good.." Daredevil says.
"Inside of the portal?" Frank asks.
"Inside of the portal." Daredevil confirms with a nod.
"So the only way to shut it down.. is for someone to be trapped inside?" Peter asks as he gets closer to Frank and Daredevil.
Frank and Daredevil nod grimly.
"So we really are all going to die?" Peter asks and now his own tears are coming full force.
"Sorry kid.." Frank replies "Earth had a good run while we were at it."
"Where exactly inside the portal is the device?" Peter asks.
"Don't even think about it. No way we send someone to be stuck in there especially not a kid." Frank grouched.
"So what?.. Let the whole world just die?" Peter challenged angrily. Then Peter took a deep breath and calmed down. "What if.. What if no one had to be stuck on the other side?" Peter asked.
"What do you mean?" Daredevil asked.
"I think.. I have some ideas.. maybe.. I might have a plan?" Peter stammered.
"What do you need us to do, Spidey!" Deadpool asked cheerfully before anyone else could say anything "Spider-Man Number One Fan and Fan Club President at your service!"
Peter laughed a little but was glad Deadpool wasn't suddenly acting different or weird about him being just a kid.
"Okay.. Ms. Marvel uses her Embiggen to reach in as far as she can go.. I walk along the light of her Embiggen then use my Webs to reach the device and pull it in then we power it off here and no one gets trapped. Plus we take away their device so they can't just power it back on and just restart the invasion only seconds after we end it."
"That's great plan but didn't you just say you were almost out of webs? What if whatever you have left won't reach the whole rest of the way?" Daredevil asks.
"Crap.." Peter says "You're right.. Hey Deadpool can you call Venom?"
"On it!" Deadpool hops away to get cellphone signal.
"Venom can probably extend himself enough to reach it especially with Ms. Marvel's help." Peter supplies for everyone else.
"My name is Kamala Khan." Ms. Marvel says and takes off her mask again and stands next to the still maskless Peter.
Peter smiles at her. "I'm Peter Parker."
"Alliteration Buddies!" Deadpool exclaimed and hugged both Peter and Kamala.. "Oh right.. Yeah.. I'm Wade Wilson. We should start an Alliteration Buddies Club.. ooh no.. a Superhero Team.." Wade wondered off and started to ramble to himself about teams and clubs and alliterations. He was still making up rules for the club as he fought off more incoming Chitari.
"Did he ever say if Venom was coming to help or not?" Frank asked.
Kamala and Peter looked at each other then at Deadpool and together shouted as loud as they both could "WADE!!!"
Wade summersaulted back over "Huh? What?.. Oh yeah.. that.. Venom's on his way. He'll be here in like five minutes.'
As he said that black inky mass was hauling itself onto the roof.
"Maybe he said five seconds.." Wade muttered.
Once Venom was fully together on the roof he froze at the sight of the maskless Spider-Man and the maskless Ms. Marvel "We're letting babies fight in wars now?" Venom asked.
"Not cool!" Ms. Marvel shouted "Spider-Man can bench press a moon and I can probably crush a skyscraper in one go if I actually tried!"
"Even though you're both strong you're both still just babies." Venom replied.
"Well one of these babies have a plan and we need them both and you to pull it off." Deadpool says and it sounds chipper and happy but Deadpool's eyes are narrowed like if Venom doesn't play nice there'll be real trouble.
"Fine. What do you need?" Venom asks.
So they tell Venom the plan. And then they tell everyone else in the field the plan using the coms.
In the end they have to create a human chain. Ms. marvel using Embiggen to reach into the portal as far as she could possibly go. Venom stretching himself as far as he could possibly go, Spider-Man being gripped in Venom's tendrils ND stretching his web as far as possible and Wade hanging off the web while holding onto Daredevil's feet and Daredevil making the grab for the device and even then they almost couldn't do it needing at least another two feet. Luckily Daredevil's billy clubs could extend giving them enough reach to get the portal device.
Getting them all back through the portal was a trial but luckily, Kate, Yelena, Clint, Bucky, Moon Knight and Logan all realized what was going on and regrouped to help pull everyone out of the portal.
Once the portal was closed everyone froze in shock at the sight of the unmasked Spider-Man and the unmasked Ms. Marvel.
"Um..." Peter stammered with a sheepish wave and a duck of his head as he tried to hide his face behind Daredevil who was still wearing his mask.
"Oh my god." It was Kate's voice "I finally have other superheroes close to my age to hang out with!"
And just like that the tension was broken.
But that didn't mean they all wouldn't have a lot to talk about when they got back home.