From his loudspeakers he heard him call her pathetic and as he landed he raised two hands at the creature, Hexen remembered the Iron Man armour, and in this reality, he had gone even more overboard.

Ironmonger was huge, twice the size as Iron Man and was covered in cannons, even Warmachine would have been embarrassed at the amount of firepower Tony had bolted to the armour. As well as two shoulder-mounted cannons, each arm had a small missile launcher in the upper arm, two cannons slung under each forearm and a heavily armoured repulsor disk on each palm. Thick spikes studded the leg plates, to ward off anyone tryin to grapple him, and rather than the sleek boots, Hexen could see thicker thrusters on the back of each leg, with several exhaust ports at the top, making them look like small flamethrowers rather than part of the flight system. The whole thing was still painted the gaudy gold colour, but rather than red, it was shiny metallic emerald green, 

“Stark!” it hissed, and he laughed.

“Then you know to stand down, I’ve got back up, and you've got nothing.” but the creature, pacing back and forth hissed at him,

“Pathetic in every world.” and as Ironmonger fired two repulsor blasts, Hexen dodged and darts of symbskin flew at the armour.

Raising an arm, a bright blue energy shield materialised on his arm, “yeah, still got nothing”

Hearing in his earpiece, “Wrath, ETA one minute,” and Tony tutted,

“Cancel that, it's just a weirdo in a suit.” but as he finished speaking he heard a screech from behind him.

As his camera swivelled he saw the blade, too late drive itself through his side, and another of the strange monsters was there, her form like tight latex over naked skin, “We are Rage” she yelled and as she was about to draw her arm back, his missile launchers swivelled and fired several missiles point-blank into her face, blowing her backwards

“We have two hostiles now,“ he spoke over the comms

“Wrath, in 5, 4,3 and now” War Hawk replied.

A whistling noise ended with a sudden thump as the half-naked body of a malnourished and shaven-headed man impacted against the ground. Even Hexen stopped and stared at the body, twitching as blood seeped from broken flesh.

The body made a whistling noise before it grew into a scream and the man sat bolt upright, chemical vials on his head and down his spine hissed and injected him with pale blue liquid and he contorted and transformed,

Gamma, Hexen hissed, no matter and she strode forwards and stabbed the growing monster in the chest, we know how to deal with gamma

As Wrath grew, he swatted the creature away with a single tire size hand,

“Wrath strong, Wrath, Wr-” and as he clutched his chest he gave Ironmonger a sad smile, and his flesh began to burn.

Tony's HUD registered that whatever the creature had done was causing Wrath to burn through the formula faster than his body could heal. His rockets ignited and he took to the sky watching the giant man begin to swell and, in a flash of green light, explode, sending him tumbling and making his radiation sensors scream in alarm at him.

The devastation was horrific. Buildings were demolished around where Wrath had landed, bright smears of blood and pieces of countless men, women and children littered the alleys where the shockwaves had been funnelled. The circle where he landed held one smoking foot, the remains of Wrath and even it crumbled into ash as the de-powering formula Hexen had injected him with finished its work.

Even Hexen had been blown away in the explosion, and they were trying to stand on shaky legs as the noise still rung in its ears,

Better? Do you listen now or want to complain more and fight?

I, what? And he looked at the devastation around him

Shit, was?

No, you took knowledge, used something bad against someone, and made another of us to play with.

Hexen looked over and saw the broken form of the other host, she had been thrown by the blast and caught the corner of a building,

I made another? How is that even possible, 

The blonde, we recognised her and you felt desire for her and wanted to mate, you lost yourself and we can discuss this later, not every threat is gone.

Hexen stepped top one side as an arrow, barbed and coated in thick foul-smelling paste shot past him, 

We need to go. There. And she pointed to a sewer cover that had been blown free in the explosion and was currently buried in a brick wall. Move or we die, this will bring more than we can manage

Taking a last look Hexen sped towards the sewer and dived in, landing on all fours before the brief light flickered and a craft hovered over, 

Run run run, Hexen shouted and Peter took off in a random direction.

He could hear the residual shouting match going on above him, but the voices soon faded as he made his way through the dark tunnels of the old New York sewer system.

While Doom had revamped a lot of the upper city, the old building works, covered by years of construction were still here and it was more than a maze, it was a death trap. Several times Peter had to use Hexen to avoid falling into an open hole, water gurgling down to where Hexen couldn’t see. 

What happened up there? He finally asked her, breaking the silence as they walked.

We did, we are hungry, like children, we scream and cry and lash out, and the Peter knows how to calm us, learned how to, but we. we are sorry, we lost ourselves in your anger and you raged, and fought.

Will it happen again?

No, it gets easier, not so much baby now. Just shh for now, light ahead.

Even in the gloomy darkness, Peter could see the gentle flicker. It must have been a candle as the shadows danced on the rusty pipeworks of the sewage system.

Hexen wrapped herself around him, and as he quietly crept towards the light he crouched down as low as possible,

Shit, as he saw the tunnel open up before him he hid behind an L shaped drainage pipe, it's the rebellion.

In the cavern workers gently removed brick and soil from the tunnel floor by hand and with small shovels. They were almost silent, barely talking and Peter saw the leader, or who he thought was the leader making gestures with her hands, rather than talking.

We need to be careful, if this is the rebellion they might just shoot us rather than talk, and as he made to move back the woman's eyes spanned to his direction and her hand signals became erratic,

They know we are here, and I can sense several people coming towards us, if they are instant on being silent then we may be able to avoid fighting or bloodshed,

Uh, I’ll have to trust you on that, and Peter moved from the shadows with his hands up.

The woman's eyes tracked him, and she raised one hand with a long thin blade in it and the other pointed to a door. It was rusty but the silver circle around the airlock style wheel seemed to indicate it was well used, and recently too. As he kept his hands up he moved over and he motioned for him to open it, pressing the blade into the small of his back.

Will that hurt me? Peter asked Hexen

She laughed no, we are ready if need be, do not panic and we will be fine.

As the door silently slid open Peter could smell the oil, they were definitely paranoid about making noise, and he wondered if there were seismic indicators buried underground.

As he was sent into the room the door slid closed and there was a hiss of a seal activating before the woman pressed the knife to the back of his neck,

“We get strays down here, but no one gets past our security. Spy or saboteur?”

Peter kept his hands up, “neither. I uh, I’m on the run.”

The woman snorted, “Peter Parker is on the run, and you expect me to believe that?” And she pressed the blade onto his neck.

“They wouldn't send their son unless they were planning something. Talk or I kill you now”

“Uh, don't freak out,” and Hexen slid down Peter's arm and covered his hands, revealing the grey symbskin, covering his hand in razor-sharp fingernails. “I got powers, and my parents attacked me. Stark and the big guy came after me too and I escaped into the tunnels.”

Peter felt the blade's pressure ease on his neck, “Ironmonger and Wrath are in New York? Who else?”

“The arrow guy, I didn't see anyone else, and uh New York?”

A second voice sounded from the shadows and a tall, muscular man, with a single metal arm, said, “You're in New York, the city’s real name,” and Peter recognised him. Why wouldn't he, it was the original Captain America, traitor of the USA.

“So, mutant?” And Peter shook his head,

“Alien, it uh, speaks to me.” and Steve laughed,

“Aliens huh? That’s a new one. Nat? Got aliens in the Federation?”

The woman, and now that Peter got a better look at her, she was scarred. Half of her face had been badly burned and the hair was shaved on that side, as he stared she glared back at him, and he mumbled an apology,

“No names, I still think he's a plant, we should just kill him and continue.”

“Uh, guys. I know who I am, but uh, I can help. I need to help,” and Peter began to tell his story, starting with the abduction of himself and Mary, to the death of Wrath and his trek through the sewers.

“Well, that's quite a story. Not after a rock though. We have our own reasons for going to Grand Central though. Good to hear Wrath is dead though. He cost us a lot of lives.”

“Wait. You believe me about the red gem?” And Nat nodded, 

“We had a similar stone in Russia, captured it when the Red Skull fled from the original Doombots,”

“The Space Stone,” Peter had encountered it before.

“The red one, it uh changes reality, it changed reality, Hexen tells me that we were all different, that it was better. If we can get the stone to my friends then we can change it all back.”

Steve looked over at Natasha. “Your call, this is your op. I'm just here as muscle.” and she nodded.

“Where?” she asked and Peter hesitated, 

Taking a breath, “you know this is a big ask right, I mean, the two people I’ll take you to are the only two who know what's going on,” but Natasha shrugged,

“Then don't, and we end things here, we go back to our mission and you uh,” but she never finished that sentence.

She will try to kill you if you do not agree,

Try? and Hexen laughed,

Yes try, we know Natasha Romanov, from the other life,

Did you trust her?

Hexen giggled, how do you think we know how to fight, Peter? She is our friend, lover, and teacher.

Fine, fine. “Bleecker Street. My friends are at Bleecker street,” and Steve and Nat looked over at each other

“The mutant from this morning?” Peter nodded, and Natasha sighed. “Well, then we have a problem, as we already caught the chatter. Doom is raiding Bleecker street today, and he will be there himself. We’re not going anywhere near there.”

“You won’t fight Doom? Are you guys not the rebellion?” and Nat laughed while Steve shook his head,

“Doom is way more powerful than anyone knows. He isn't like his father, that suit isn’t just armour, it’s more.”

Peter knew that Stephen was a magician, maybe Wanda as well. If any pair could take out Doom it would be those two.

Natasha rubbed her forehead, “fine, we might be able to actually hurt Doom if we surprise him. We’ll take your mission,” and as she turned Steve nodded and they moved to discuss their plan,

What was that?

Hexen giggled, we used the Stone, she was ready to kill you, and he would have not stopped her.