NOVEL NEXT Epilogue. Beyond Infinity
Peter was sat at the table, drinking a cup of coffee, he had just finished dealing with Carnage, again, and once the red-skinned asshole was safely in Shield custody it was brought up once more that the Mark Three needed to be fitted and tested. His aching stomach was a testament to that.
Liv had taken the Mark Two and gone over it, and then over it again, and it seemed like every new enemy they fought, Liv added more and more to the armour, until now, hopefully, he thought, she was actually happy with it.
Not that Peter was complaining. He had enough of everyone giving him crap over sealing away the stones, and Stephen had been particularly salty about losing his precious Time Stone. Peter held his cup, breathed in the delicious aroma of the very expensive brew and sighed. He was just glad to be home.
The warehouse was buzzing, and everyone was here. Not only the regular family members who lived here, but Shuri was visiting from Wakanda, taking a well-earned break for once, as was Hela. Liv had asked that everyone get their armour done at once, to save time. Even the second team were here, and Laura had taken Logan next door for a quick spar in the newly fitted Danger Room that hung above the secondary warehouse homes.
He sat and watched as Liv moved between each of the warehouse's new team members. Dealing with Eddie first, as without a symbiote his armour was the easiest. The new Scarlet Spider armour was actual armour and was the easiest to fit. Clip the back harness to the frame around his chest and make sure it didn't catch anything he, or Betty, might need. Once he was sealed up and tested the armours deployment systems, and made sure it fitted, Liv sent him next door to the danger room to test it, Logan was happy to put anything through its paces.
“Just don't scratch the paint,” Peter shouted as the red, blue and white armoured form test-fired the thrusters on the back and using the manoeuvring thrusters, headed to the second warehouse.
Friday was next, as her suit could be interfaced with her systems directly, giving her more control over its systems. Like Eddie, hers was a full suit, and while she had no hesitation with Peter there to strip from her symbskin into the armour, Cindy rolled her eyes, grabbed hers and changed in one of the spare homes. Friday had never quite learned the lesson on human decency, and really didn’t care if Peter or anyone for that matter saw her naked.
Her armour clicked into place, and as Liv stood back, the red, blue and silver armour of her Iron Spider suit, whined as it powered up.
“Arcstar online,“ Friday said, “Thrusters online, Full flight systems online, Tracking and Support stems online,” She lifted an arm and the wrist armour expanded, “Starburst online,” and as the energy weapon, based on Tony’s repulsor whined and powered down the wrist cannon circled again and, ”Web shooters online, grapple gun online.” the slick armoured helmet, smooth back from Friday, “Yup, it's strange being connected to another machine, but seems fine boss.”
Friday stood and let the armour systems lids in and out of the deployment pack on her back, the armour was much slicker than the last one, with a smooth domed helmet, almost similar in design to a crash helmet. Smooth almond-shaped pauldrons protected her shoulders and the V armour coming down her front protected everything else.
Liv had already worked on her symbskin, and while she could withdraw it ton her body it was now connected to not just the armour pack, but Friday herself, and she could alter its skin tone as well as her physical features. She was happy though, to stay as a facsimile of MJ, who had no issue with her synthezoid ‘twin’.
“Right, next door, You can join Eddie,” Liv told her and Friday nodded and happily skipped to the tunnel.
Liv marked notes on her tablet, and shouted to Cindy, “Come on, we’ve not got all day.” and Cindy scowled as she came out, half-dressed.
“I can't get the damn pack on properly, Ghost is yelling about it tasting funny.”
Liv frowned, “Peter dear, close your eyes for a second.” and inserts he squeaked his char around until he was facing the other way, “thank you.”
Ghost fully enveloped Cindy, “it is itchy and tastes like poop,” she said
Liv laughed “I won't even ask how you know what that tastes like, but hand.”
As Octave slid over Liv she took Ghost’s hand and they connected. The two symbiotes sharing their senses. “I see.” Octave said and tuning Ghost Spider around placed her other hand on the pack, “One of the boards is faulty,“ and after a second, “I can replace it later, for now though, I rerouted it. Now try.”
Ghost slid back, leaving Cindy naked in the room, and while she grumbled, Liv adjusted the straps, clicked the power on the harness back on and ghost slid out once more, activating the armour. Ghost Spiders was the same design. Each Mark Three shared the same features, it was only WEB Inc that shared the red, blue and preferred colour, with a white spider design on the front. Cindy had chosen black.
“Much better,” and she waved a hand as she moved to head next door.
Peter squeaked his char around, “You all know I can pretty much sense everything going on around me, and it's not like she hasn't just walked into the bathhouse, told me to,” and he made quotes in the air, “ ‘stop fucking staring at my tits’ and gotten in the tub with me.”
“Woman's prerogative dear. She and Friday are trying to stay monogamous,”
Peter snorted, “yes, they are both very trying.”
Liv chuckled and shook her head. “Right, now that those are done, we should fit everyone else for theirs,” and she began to unload a small trolley with the packs on it.
Once she reached Hela she raised an eyebrow, laughed and just said “don't be ridiculous.” and summoned her own Asgardian battle armour. “Although, flying would make smiting my enemies so much easier,” but as she pursed her lips, “No, no, I think I prefer my own armour.”
Carol also had an objection, “I don't know if Sword will let me use AIM tech, it might be seen as, you know what. I'm the general, so screw it,” and grabbed her own suit.
“Okay, a quick rundown.” Liv said, “The suits have advanced helmet sensors and advanced web-shooters and as Tony won't let us use repulsors, arcburst cannons. With a small attachment to the back, containing an ArcStar reactor, the suits are capable of long-distance flight. All are made from adamantium, with a vibranium under armour, to bolster the suit's defences.” Liv moved and grabbed her own armour, a slightly bulkier design, “and as requested, only Peter and my suit have two extra arms.”
Soon everyone was stood in their own suit of armour, retracting and testing the various functions. Peter wasn't fit enough for his, he would have to wait until he had healed a bit more, for now though, as he watched the group he was happy.
The last pack sat in the trolley, which he knew was fully black, with the new AIM Enhanced team logo, a white spider, but facing down rather than up. He still wasn't entirely happy about using Eddies old name, but Venom was still wanted in connection with several crimes, some very provable crimes, and sticking to the shadows was fine for now.
Each team member had chosen the colour scheme that suited them best and matched their symbiote. Felicia had chosen grey with black plates and white trim, Laura had used black with grey plates and orange trim, Natasha used black with red plates and red trim, Liv had went for black with green plates and white trim, Gwen chose black with white plates and a pink design, MJ chose black with red plates and blue trim, Wanda picked black with red plates and grey trim, Jean picked all red and finally Shuri chose black with gold plates and silver trim.
Once everyone had been fitted for their armour, a strange lull descended on the warehouse, and the women all split into various parties. Peter was just glad to finally get some rest, the pain of being stabbed was still there. His stomach muscles and organs were healing nicely but all he wanted was to sit and drink his coffee in peace. His promise of not letting the villain gut him had once more fallen though and he was recuperating after their last mission.
Even with Wrath becoming more prominent in the underworld, and suits of less conspicuous armour Peter was still happy with things. The Augments were staying quiet, with the American Augment Society happy on Genosha, Charles and the X-Men taking care of Avalon and the newly christened Sanctuary where the mansion sat, and even Eric, with the Brotherhood hiding out on Asteroid M, were staying low.
Sure, Tony was being Tony, and social media was plastered with Morgan Starks first word, first step, first everything, and he was pretty sure the only reason the proud father wasn't live-streaming her twenty-four/seven was Maya threatening to beat his ass if he did.
He hadn’t heard squat from Coulson or Shield, but a phone call from Ross let him know that they were still there, the official Enhanced Augment Agency of the US, still pushing for more and more Omega level Augments to join their already full roster.
While it was a small step up from the ARCA, the government finally figured out how to get Augments on their side. They bribed them. Even Peter whistled at the benefits package offered, with a highly competitive salary. Sure you were fitted with a power dampner and a tracker but when you could buy a yacht, a lot of Augments really didn’t mind. The PICCA was as fair as they could make it, and even Charles had nodded and it was signed into law soon after.
He must have been looking forlorn as Gwen, Liv, M.J, and Carol all came over with a strange look on their faces.
“So, Pete.” Gwen said, smirking at him “you’ve got a bit of explaining to do”
Peter frowned and shrugged “Been fighting all week, haven’t had time for anything else Gwen, so?“
“Oh no Mister, you see, this kind of thing takes time” MJ cut in and took out a thermometer from behind her. “Nine months roughly.”
Peter frowned again and looked bemused. “You’re ill?”
“It’s not a thermometer Pete you dumbass, it’s a pregnancy test.“ Felicia said, shaking her head.
“And we checked dear, not just the test but a proper exam, and even me, still fire in the old oven yet eh,” Liv said, smiling and winking.
One by one each woman took out their own, each with a grey double line on it and put it on the table in front of Peter.
“All, all of you?” Peter stammered and they nodded “not just us” and Hela and Shuri walked out of his home waving their own.
Logan came forward with Laura “you’re lucky kid, she beat the tar outta me to stop me from gutting you”
Laura growled at him and turned to Peter, “yeah, told you to stick it in my butt, idiot,” and added her own to the pile, “stupid Monkey. Call him gramps, he’ll hate it,” and it was Logan's turn to growl.
“Intergalactic booty calls are great if it's once in a while but, you know, there was that vacation where we were supposed to go sightseeing but, someone kept you in the hotel all week, so,” Carol shrugged, and put hers down too
“Seems it’s not the only thing you’ve been training,'' said Nat with a small smile and a wink, of everyone he knew she would be the most excited, and the most scared, but it didn’t matter, her happiness radiated from her like a warm sun.
“And uh, me too,” Jean said hesitantly, “but you know, maybe not let Charles be the godfather, I uh,” and Peter laughed, Charles had been trying to get Jean back to the mansion for a while now, but with her officially joining Peters team, there was no future for her with the X-Men.
“You know, being almost king of two worlds doesn’t mean you get to be as free as you think,” Hela said, raising an eyebrow and handing over a test of her own, “You’d better hope she takes after you,” she added with a wink, and waiting to be last, with a shy smile, even Shuri lay one down.
“I have already informed my brother, and my mother is not a happy woman Peter, I know we have been putting off the marriage, but now,” and she stared at the pile, “now you have a lot of explaining to do.”
Peter stared. Eleven, eleven tests, all positive.
“See, it seems that the only thing keeping us from getting pregnant was our symbiotes and once they realised that meant no babies, well. You know the rest right? Dad.”
The enormity of the situation hit Peter like a truck, he had eleven different partners, once Hela put a stop to adding more. She had only allowed Jean after seeing her, called her “sister” and then stayed as far away from her as possible.
Staring at the eleven positive tests in front of him he jumped to his feet
“FUCK YEAH!”
“Ow, ow,” and each one stared at him as he pulled the damaged and torn muscles, sitting back down in his chair and holding his stomach in pain, and shook their heads.
This was the father of their children…
