Of Replacements and Blood Brothers

11

Stark Tower, after cemetery incident.

Tony had returned to the tower carrying a lump of crumpled red and gold metal. Everyone was confused until he told them the story. They immediately went out to look for the threat. Even Loki, who had been sulking for the last few days. He though maybe that this mysterious person had something to do with Peter's disappearance. The Avengers looked all over the city and scanned every human but didn't find anyone who fit the description of the man Tony had met in the cemetery. They began to search worldwide for the man just in case he would be a later threat, which he would be for Tony and Keener, not the rest.

<•>

Peter, back in the forest.

Peter came back to his home in the forest realizing that he had not gotten any weapons. It was fine though, he soon found a little mine for iron and he used his powers to melt the ingots and shape them into two twin double edged swords. They were black like his powers and personality and Peter liked them. He put them in metal scabbards the same color and put them on his back in an 'X' shape. There were leather straps holding them up and in all honesty, Peter liked his new look.

In the forest good supplies were hard to come by. Peter used everything he found to improve his living conditions. He wove ropes out of grass and made pulleys. He used those to make a system so he would always have fresh water from the stream under the tree. He made plenty of hideouts and bungalows in case of emergencies. He dried meat, fish, fruits and berries for later use. Maybe back then, Peter had had the thought of having guests over. He never stopped building and improving until he decided to go to the city once more for the last supplies for his new suit.

<•>

Peter jogged to Manhattan quickly. He went to a couple of stores before running into trouble.

HYDRA agents, at least a hundred had surrounded him in the middle of a busy street. Their leader, one of the agents who was put in charge of him back in Russia sneered at him.

"Shadow, you will come back with us to avoid punishment. If you don't, we will have to use force." The leader apparently didn't know that Peter had discovered his powers.

"I'd like to see you try." With that Peter summoned the Force and blasted all the HYDRA agents backwards. He then took off running once more.

The Avengers arrived at the scene five minutes later where all the HYDRA agents had died. They saw the footage and Tony confirmed that the man with the powers was the one he had met at the cemetery the other day. The Avengers knew that they had to find him now, especially since HYDRA had an interest in him. Or was he a former HYDRA?

<•>

Peter was scared. He had only tried to use a tiny portion of his powers and he had ended up killing all the agents. He had never tried his powers on real people and he was surprised on what this tiny portion could do. Peter ran back to his base in the forest and scaled his tree. He sat atop it, breathing heavily. 'God,' he thought wearily, 'just this much power is enough to kill a hundred men. What can I do when I get the full hang of it?' Peter sighed, 'and I thought I had mastered all my powers on that ship. Clearly not. I still have plenty space to explore and learn.' From then on, Peter practiced everyday. His powers were just like Wanda's without the mind manipulation and such but were much stronger. He could control objects by just thinking about what he wanted them to do and could make things out of the black aura. Once Peter made a bow and arrow and he shot a bird. That was his dinner that night.

Peter could hunt like a pro now. Everyday he hunted something to either smoke, dry or eat immediately. He would throw one of his swords at a distant animal and it would hit its mark. Then Peter would summon the dead animal towards him and skin it or cook it. Of course, he could just use the Force to kill his prey but he wanted to practice his sword skills. He had made some new web solution from the chemicals he had bought in New York. His new Spider-Man suit was complete. It was completely black with silver lenses and a silver spider in the middle of his chest (his web-shooters were attached as well though he usually had another pair on his wrists at all times). He rarely wore it though, since he had the black clothes he had bought. Peter made a couple of water-skins and some warm jackets and pants for the winters ahead. He made a couple of storerooms which he would organize weekly and they were full of food and goods. Peter made himself a little platform at the very top of the tree and he had a little hammock secured on the tallest branches. He had a rope ladder leading to a lookout above the top layer of leaves from his platform (which had became his room) so he could see for miles and miles. He enjoyed lying in his back every night and watching the stars and galaxies. It reminded him of his past life with his family. His real family, not the second one.

Days blurred together and before he knew it, a year had passed. He trudged back to the city and visited his parents' graves again. Telling them everything that had happened in the past year. Then, suddenly, he felt something: a rumble deep within the ground. Peter ran out of the cemetery and onto a busy street. Pedestrians were looking at the ground in horror as it split apart and things came crawling out. The things were mutants, horrible mutants. Like a Chituari had a baby with a snake that had just shredded it's skin. These aliens were human-like and they immediately started to kill every human in sight. Peter noticed that there were HYDRA symbols burned into every one of their chests. He was scared. People was running as fast as possible towards the borders of the city. Peter ran with them. He ran back to his home in the wilderness and sat on the tree for a while. He didn't know why he didn't use his powers, it had happened suddenly and Peter didn't know what to do. He sat there for a while and then decided on trying to look for where the HYDRA agents behind this was. He put a power shield around his treehouse and made sure that nothing but humans and animals could come and leave it. Peter wanted it to be a sanctuary. And it did become one later on.

<•>

Avengers

The ground tumbled and Chitauri/alien things burst from the ground. They had a HYDRA mark burned into them so obviously they were HYDRA. The monsters were killing everything in sight and the Avengers suited up and joined the battle. They arrived at the battle scene and quickly evacuated the people to the borders of the city. The Avengers recognized the man in the middle of it all. It was Herr Strucker. He was wearing a metal suit similar to Tony's Iron Man suit but it was much bigger.

"Ah, the Avengers," Strucker smiled maniacally, "you have come to witness the end of the world."

"Why have you done this?" Thor boomed.

"A little pawn of mine had ran away a year ago. Stark, you have encountered him more than once. He was our greatest creation and he escaped. We can't risk for him to go against us so we have to find and kill him. Even if millions of lives are lost." Strucker grinned evilly, "as for you, Stark. You will regret foiling my plans greatly." He charged at Tony who blocked a blast and attacked. They held for a while until Strucker realized something was wrong and turned around to see.

Everyone in the city was evacuated at this point and were heading towards the secure bunkers that the Avengers had built out of vibranium. Tony's suit was getting notified of creature attacks all across America. Obviously HYDRA wanted something in America since none of the other countries had had creature attacks. Also, most of the people in the big and small cities have already arrived safely at the many bunkers the Avengers had funded to build in case of an emergency.

Strucker cursed in Russian.

"You are stalling for the safety of the people. No worries, I will get what I want. And when that happens," he laughed evilly, "you can only do nothing but watch. This, is the apocalypse." Strucker's suit flew away, leaving the Avengers to deal with the creatures that surrounded them.