Chronicles of the Spider

Sinister War Part 1 - Resolve

Earth 616

Present Day

"What do we got?" Captain America asked as soon as he stepped in the room. The rest of the heroes inside consciously or unconsciously snapped to attention at his entrance. He was followed by Iron Man, fully armored up except for his helmet, which was retracted, and Thor, who clutched his famed hammer. However, the hammer had been rendered powerless earlier, so now it was just a very heavy, fancy hunk of metal.

"It's not great, Cap," Jessica Jones sighed. "They've chosen sides. Soon enough, the city's gonna see open war on the streets between bad guys, with no regard for collateral damage."

"That's not to mention the lockdown the President has imposed on the city," Mr Fantastic added. "Due to Li's corruptive influence, there's really no way to tell if someone's possessed by Mr Negative, or not. Hank, Tony, and I are working on a broad range scanner that should be able to isolate the Darkforce and Lightforce energies in the populace, but until then, the lockdown's the safest way to go."

"That also means that once we get into the city, we're not coming out," Daredevil concluded grimly. "Not until every one of them is defeated. We have no way of knowing if the corrupting touch can influence us wide range, and not even telepaths are able to fully detect changes in personality until it's too late."

Emma Frost looked like she wanted to protest, but then fell silent. While they were able to tell possession, Mr Negative's corrupting touch just enhanced the negative emotions of the host, meaning that it could be anyone. It was not easy to tell who was corrupted and who wasn't, even for a telepath.

"Who's on which side?" Captain Marvel asked, looking over at Maria Hill. "Who picked Osborn, and which ones picked Octavius?"

"The Sinister Six are with Octavius, the Superior Spider-Man," Maria announced, prompting sneers of disgust and scowls of outrage at the very mention of the title.

"DON'T!" Laura boomed from her place. "Don't you dare call him that. There's only one Spider-Man. He's dead. That thing is nothing more than a pretender!"

"There's actually three Spider-Men right now," Scarlet Spider interrupted from the corner. "One's Octavius, another's the kid in the black and red suit that's hanging around, and the last is my brother."

"Kaine, uh, Peter's not-" Spider-Woman tried.

"-I wasn't talking about Peter, Drew," he snapped, barely holding in his irritation at the woman who'd beaten and ostracized his brother. "Ben's back, and he's taken on Peter's mantle as Spider-Man. He's getting a lot of corporate sponsorship behind him, and many people are actually hoping to see him take back the city."

"Who else?" Steve asked, not wanting to get even more distracted. "Who's joined the Goblin?"

"Kingpin," Daredevil growled. "Osborn made some kind of deal with Fisk. He and his gang are on Goblin's side. Which obviously means that Hammerhead and the Maggia are with Octavius. Tombstone is undecided, so that's gonna be fun to see. The Syndicate joined Osborn as well, along with the 'All New Sinister Six', led by Shocker. Most importantly, HYDRA's joined Octavius, and AIM's joined Osborn. The Hand is currently undecided, but their leaning towards Osborn as well."

"Ma'am!" a young agent rushed through the door, stopping all conversation. Ignoring the superheroes in the room, he ran to Hill and whispered in her ear. Hill's eyes widened sharply, before dismissing the agent and turning towards Stark in fury.

"Did you leave the plans for your suits at Avengers Tower when you left?" she growled at the confused billionaire.

"No?" he answered hesitantly. "Why?"