HenryJonesJr

CLOSED - Ultimate One Universe: Season One

Update: MME's going to be delayed a bit. The setup's going to require a little more time than the original date and there are still some logistical things to work out, so we're extending it to kick-off at around the 375 post mark.

So good news! Everyone should have time now.

@Master Bruce

Thank god

CLOSED - Ultimate One Universe: Season One

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"So you're not gonna say it back, huh?" Mary Jane asks as the two of us walk behind Harry and Peter, making sure there's enough of a distance between us so they can't hear what we're talking about. The four of us are on a double date, leaving a movie. Thankfully, this time there's no horrendous explosion causing me to run of and change into tights. "I gotta say it's not the move I would have made, but hey, you do you. You're still together so clearly he's cool with it."

I smile nervously at her, "Yea, he seems totally fine about it. Meaning he totally isn't fine with it. But he's doing a really, really good job of hiding that fact. And I've already crushed him hard enough. I feel like if I bring it up or push he's gonna go crazy and all this is really going to blow up. I don't want that to happen, you know? But I also don't know how long we can go on go on like this. It's gonna come to ahead eventually. I dunno."

"There are an awful lot of thoughts flowing through that pretty blond head of yours," MJ's eyebrows raise as I motor on. "I know you're smart and all, but not even Peter's brain can work as quick as yours is right now."

"Not funny, MJ," I shoot back. "This is serious. Well, as serious as teenage relationships can be."

"Don't trivialize," she sticks her tongue out at me. "You could get hit by a bus tomorrow and it could be your last relationship."

"Yea, I don't think that'll happen," I scrunch my nose up and shake my head. "I dunno. Lately I've been thinking it'd be better if I broke it off now. Before anything bad really went down between the two of us. It might save our friendship."

She considers what I'm saying, a look of mild shock painted across her face. I know she wants the two of us to work out. I know she just wants us to be happy. Unfortunately MJ often has problems seeing beyond the fact that those two things could be diametrically opposed. Maybe Peter and I aren't meant to be together. Especially considering what Johnny has told me.

"Listen, I can't tell you what to do," she shrugs after a few moments. "But if you think that's really for the best, maybe it's not the worst idea in the world. I like the four of us as friends. I definitely don't want to lose that."

Wow, a level-headed, mature, unselfish response from Mary Jane Watson. Maybe I should be worried about tonight. This is like finding a five leaf clover. Just jumping right over four. That's how amazing it is.

"Yea," I shake my head, still unsure. "I dunno. I have to think about it. Let's catch up to the guys."

When we come up behind them, Harry is explaining something new at Oscorp to Peter, "I think you need to get on the robotics project, Pete. Dad says it's definitely going to save the company. Stark, Luthor, and Wayne are circling them for a takeover. At least that what I've been able to assume from how Dad's been talking. I don't know. But the robots! He says they're crazy smart. They're finally gonna put him where he deserves to be."

Harry has always been proud of his father, as he should be. Norman is a great man, but he's always lived in the shadows of others. The Luthors, Waynes, and Starks of the world have just always been more famous and successful. I can't imagine being a person of Norman's intellect and always seeing others talked about ahead of you. It must be infuriating.

Harry wears his emotions on his shoulder. He always has. So it's easier to see how that affects him. Harry is often bitter about his father's diminished status in the media and scientific community. It may just be his young age, but Harry is desperate for his father to be where he thinks he deserves to be.

If companies really are looking at Oscorp for a takeover, it doesn't bode well for Harry's inferiority complex. If Oscorp gets bought out, he's going to be completely devastated.

"I think I'll stick with the healing project," Peter throws his arm around his friend. "I'd love to be able to find a cure for cancer or something."

Ugh. Why not stick a knife right in my heart. Peter's been on that ever since my mom died. It's the sweetest thing in the world. My tragedy gave him direction, almost in the same way that Uncle Ben's death gave me mine. Of course Peter didn't give my mom cancer, so it just makes me even shittier.

Self-loathing is not where I want or need to be right now.

"Okay, enjoy hanging out with the vermin," Harry shrugs back. "But the robots are totally top of the line. They'll be able to build sky scrapers in months, maybe even weeks. Dad even has them learning using cells from the lab. It's crazy."

"I'm definitely going to have to check this out," Peter agrees with him.

"Yea, best to have our supergenius ready for when Harry's dad releases Skynet on us," I chuckle.

"Not. Funny. Gwen," he glares at me.

"Lighten up, Francis," I shoot back, my tongue sticking out at him.

"Yea babe," MJ adds in, "no need to lose it."

"Fine, fine," he rolls his eyes. "But don't be surprised when I tell you I told you so. Oscorp is about to be back in a big way!"

**********

"So that was fun tonight," Peter smiles as we reach my door. Mary Jane and Harry have peeled off already, leaving the two of us to go the rest of the way on our own. "Even if the movie was kinda crappy."

"Seriously," I think back to the cinematic turd we just witnessed. "Very rarely do I root for the giant shark, but come on Jason Statham. You're better than that."

"Is he though?" Peter cocks his head to the side.

"No. No he is not."

The two of us laugh as I unlock the door.

"So, one more night of freedom after tonight, huh?" he says.

I almost ask what he's talking about, before realizing that, yes, in two days our senior year of high school will have started. A sudden, inescapable sense of dread overtakes me. I thought I had so much time. I thought it was so far in the future. But no, it's here. I'd rather take on the Enforcers and Sandman at the same time.

"Yea, crazy that high school is coming to an end," I muse. "May it burn in hell forever."

"Oh come on," he laughs. "It's not that bad."

"No, it really is," I admonish him. Peter loves school. When you're a super genius like him it makes sense. Not that I'm some slouch or anything. But I'm bored. High school is too easy. Maybe that's why I now prefer to punch giant Russian guys in the face. Just a little more engaging. "But college is gonna be awesome."

I've been looking forward to college since Mom died. It's probably not fair to Dad, but I just want to live life on my own for a while. The problem is, now that I'm New York's resident superhero, I don't know if I can leave. Not that there aren't great schools in the city, of course. But it's not the same as going away.

"Yea, I can't wait."

"Peter," I laugh, "you could be there now if you wanted to be."

"I know," he smirks and looks down at his feet. "But I don't want to go without you guys."

When he looks up I plant a kiss on him, "I wouldn't want that either. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

**********

My phone ringing wakes me from a light sleep. It's only nine, not late at all, especially for me. After Peter left, I just kind of dozed off. I guess after everything I've gone through recently, I need to crash just a little bit.

"Hello?" I answer groggily.

"Gwen," Dad's voice comes over the other end. "Listen, I just want to let you know I love you, and stay at home."

Instantly my stomach drops. Something's wrong.

"What is it?"

"Just...well...the Silk Cartel has started open warfare. The city is chaos. I'm not gonna be home tonight."

As he explains what's going on, I'm already getting my Spider-Woman suit ready to put on.

"Okay, Dad. Keep safe. Just make sure you come home."

"I will, sweetheart. Love you."

"Love you, too, Dad."

And I'm going to make sure you're safe tonight.

CLOSED - Ultimate One Universe: Season One

When you're not sure if you're gonna make it under the wire before the next MME

CLOSED - Ultimate One Universe: Season One

<Snipped quote by Byrd Man>

It mostly serves as an "advanced warning, this is shit, I won't blame you for skipping reading it" notice.

@Retired

That's okay I don't-

_{In before someone makes a joke about not reading my posts anyways.}

@Retired

Damn it, never mind.

CLOSED - Ultimate One Universe: Season One

So Gwen's life is about to get spectacularly shitty. Fair warning.

CLOSED - Ultimate One Universe: Season One

In the blink of an eye, the Flash is gone, leaving me alone in the museum, the water that was pumping out of the broken fire sprinkler already slowing to a trickle. It's a miracle that Flash was here today, to tell the truth. Without her, I never would have been able to clear the room of the Khandaqi art, and probably would have destroyed it with the water plan. That's all I need. To have the gangs of New York after me as well as creating an international incident by destroying priceless national heirlooms. I'm sure that would go over real well.

A paper floats through the air and I snatch it, revealing the Flash has left me her number. I guess she really was serious about that teaming up thing. Good to know. And did she mention she knew Superman? Oh man I need to get Superman's number. If I move for college he'd come in really helpful.

I swing out of the building as the police head in, finding the incapacitated Maggia troopers webbed to the floor.

"Peter," I call my boyfriend. "We need to talk about what just happened."

"You okay?" he asks.

"Fine," I respond. "But we have a new superhuman on the block. Flint Marko. He can...turn himself into sand? It's weird."

"Marko? Like the mob guy?" he's clearly shocked. "How in the blue hell did that happen?"

"I don't know, but we're going to have to figure out how to take care of him. Because next time I'm not gonna have the Flash backing me up."

"Yea, I can get to work on-WAIT!" he stops mid-sentence, realizing what I just said. "The Flash? As in, the superhero? She was there? What was she like? How does she not burn up at the speeds she goes? How did she design the suit to stand up to the speed as well? There are so many questions I want to ask her."

I should have seen this coming. Of course he would haev way too many questions for the lady that can go insanely fast. Hell, I have questions too. She should teoretically burn up at the speed she moves. But then again I shouldn't be able to climb up walls whenever I want to, yet here we are.

"Peter, I appreciate your passion, but we need to focus," I remind him.

"Right, scary sand man," he corrects himself. "You wanna come over for dinner? Aunt May is at her weekly bridge game tonight."

"Yea, that sounds good to me. I feel like Dad's gonna be real busy tonight anyway."

**********

The Black Tarantula paces angrily in his penthouse. He had paid out of pocket for the opulent home, believing it would be his throne to oversee his new kingdom. Instead, he is now dangerously close to losing everything he has worked for. The Kingpin and the Maggia are a more powerful and agile enemy than he ever could have expected. His advisers in South America had been adamant that the Kinpin had become fat and complacent. They told the Tarantula that he was ripe for the taking, and that if the Silk Cartel could topple him, they would have the run of North America. That would give them the Western Hemisphere, which would put them on the path to dominating the world.

Now, however, everything is different. The Kingpin is pushing back, and they now have their own super-powered enforcer. To make matters even worse, the Enforcers were broken out of prison without the Tarantula knowing, and he now has no idea where they are. They may have been able to level the playing field against Spider-Woman and the one the media is now calling the "Sandman".

But as it stands, there is little hope for him. Meaning it is time to put the situation into his own hands.

"I don't know where he came from," Otto Octasvius, who has been watching the crime boss pace for minutes finally says. "A former colleague of mine was working on some kind of similar project, but we never saw any results like this."

On a screen hanging on a wall in the large living room, security footage of the Sandman's attack on the museum. The Tarantula got it from a guard at the museum who owes the cartel some drug money. It's good to have some people across the city that owe you favors.

Still, the footage doesn't do anything but turn the cartel leader's stomach. The Sandman, Flint Marko, is powerful. Powerful enough to survive an encounter with both Spider-Woman and The Flash. With that kind of fighter on their side, the Maggia stands a strong chance of wiping the Tarantula's mean off the map.

And he couldn't have that.

"I do not care where he came from," the cartel leader rumbles at the scientist. "I want to know what I'm going to do about it."

As much as he doesn't like outside counsel, he has to admit that the scientist has been invaluable since the cartel came to New York. Octavius and his AIM organization have given him sage advice and weapons to fight in the city. But they haven't given him the final victory he desires. His patience with the genius sitting at his table is wearing thing.

"I think you need to get aggressive," Octavius says bluntly. "You're on the defensive, and will continue to be that way until the Maggia pushes you out of the city. It's time to stop playing conservatively. Time for some shock and awe."

"And what would you do, if you were me?"

"Send your men into the city," he stands and walks over to the window and looks out over the city. "Hit all the Maggia's positions that we know about. Take them off guard. They'll be over confident. Probably drinking to the new super powered solider on the field. They'll be fish in a barrel. And may I remind you, I gave you a leg up yourself. You have a few doses left, correct?"

"Yes," Tarantula nods. "And maybe it's time I take Spider-Woman out as well."

"Sounds like a solid plan."

**********

"So he's literally...made of sand?" Peter looks at me over a Chinese takeout box, chop sticks waving around like he's conducting the conversation. "Like, sand."

"Yea," I nod after swallowing a big bite of crab rangoon. "Like the annoying stuff that gets in your swimsuit when you're at the beach. But like a tidal wave of it. You remember that scene in The Mummy? It was like that."

"Ironic considering the-"

"If you were about to make a museum joke, please don't."

"Fair," he shrugs. "Okay, so maybe I'll work on some more webbing bombs. You said water affected his compositional cohesion. Maybe if we embed some of the webbing inside him it'll disrupt him even more. Either that or we get you a Super Soaker."

"Yea, I can see it now: 'Hold on Marko, I have to pump up my gun. Just a sec.'," I scoff at the suggestion. "Jameson would have a field day with that one."

"Yea, I'll get to work on the bombs," Peter nods. "Without them, I dunno what else we can do. This is nothing to mess around with."

"Yea," I shrug. "Such is the life of a superhero."

CLOSED - Ultimate One Universe: Season One

So far no one in the game is worthy of Gwen's affections.

Also she's a teenager so that doesn't help.

CLOSED - Ultimate One Universe: Season One

@HenryJonesJr I dislike your goblin.

@Sep

I mean, it’s only the first one :shifty eyes:

CLOSED - Ultimate One Universe: Season One

Villain, at least how I see mine...in planning...because most of them haven't shown up

Rhino

Sandman

Scorpion

Vulture

Mysterio

Green Goblin

CLOSED - Ultimate One Universe: Season One

As the Flash talks about her own troubles, I head over and kick at the grate that Marko disappeared down. Just great. Marko was dangerous before he became a living sand sculpture. Now he's got...well scary amounts of power. I'm no slouch, but I have no idea how I could have stopped him on my own. The Flash was a serious amount of help, as someone who can run at like the speed of light usually is...I would imagine.

The next time Marko shows up, I may not be lucky enough to have help. On that day, am I going to be able to contain him? Will I be able to save the innocent people around me and keep them out of harm's way?

"There'll come a day when all of this will reach the ones you love."

Johnny Storm's words echo through my head. Up until this point, all I've come across are mob hit men and weirdos. Sure Sytsevich is gigantic, Harkness has impeccable aim, and Delilah is a crazy martial artist, but they're normal people. Hell, even Firebug is just a guy in a suit. A fancy, napalm throwing suit, but a suit none the less.

But this thing with Marko is something different.

This is real, raw power in a guy not much smarter than the sand he's made out of. That much potential destruction in the hands of someone with no lines means untold amounts of things. And what if he's just the first? What if there are more like him on the way?

How am I going to stop people like this?

"I wish I had divine wisdom to impart on you, but really-" She shrugged "-I'm probably not a lot better at this than you are. Don't get me even started on Superman. He may be the man of steel, but he doesn't know how to talk to a woman." Her phone buzzed again and she sighed, pulling it out of a pocket. She didn't activate it quite yet to see the message instead she just eyed Spider-Woman for a moment. "You know, when you think about it we really should think about some form of group dynamic for us heroes and heroines."

Looking down at her phone she saw it was a message from Barry. Tempted to ignore it at first, her phone buzzed again. The next message put all thoughts of ignoring it out of her head.

["911. Man in Yellow. Come now, your place."]

All colour in her face vanished.

@Sep

Flash's words rouse me from my own thoughts. A group of superheroes fighting together. After everything that Johnny had told her about his world, that doesn't sound like a bad idea at all. If something as big as what happened there happens here, having a line to the rest of the superhero community would be invaluable. They might not win, but it would certainly give them a fighting chance. That's all they could really ask for.

"You know, forming a group wouldn't be a bad idea," I nod as I turn back to her. "We worked well, if not a little sloppy, here. If what I've recently heard about ever happens here, being on a texting basis with the rest of the Super Friends might give us an upper hand. We can clearly use all of those we can-"

I look up, realizing I'm in my own world yet again. I really, really need to pay more attention to people when they're talking to me.

Flash's demeanor has changed on a dime. I can immediately see something's bothering her, "You good?"

**********

From a grate in front of Otto Octavius, a brown, grimy slurry emerges. As it pumps itself out of the opening, it sheds the moisture in its composition, mixing itself with a fresh pile of sand Otto brought with him. Flint Marko is now something even more incredible than Octavius could have ever imagined. If Warren's experiment had gone through to its completion, he would have been powerful, sure. But the power surge needed to break the Enforcers out of prison has created something even more spectacular. Marko can't just control sand. He now is sand. His consciousness is now housed in a single grain of sand, which can in turn control any particle of the substance in its vacinity.

Flint Marko is now one of the most beautiful beings Octavius has ever seen.

Sure, this type of superpower isn't marketable to AIM's customers, but that doesn't make it any less impressive.

Plus, being one of a kind mad Marko more pliable and open to Otto's suggestions.

"The freakin' Flash was there!" Marko seethes at Octavius as his face forms seemingly from thin air, like a reverse disintegration. "How the hell am I supposed to steal stuff when there's two freakin' superheroes around?"

"I'm sorry, Flint," Otto smiles condescendingly. "Last time I checked I can't look into the future. When I can, I'll make sure to give you every possible thing that can go wrong with your missions. Deal?"

"Yea, sure," he grumbles. "But I still didn't come away with any loot."

Octavius waves his hand at his new friend, "It's irrelevant. We've set the trap. Now all we have to do is wait for our rivals to fall into it."