Arc Six. Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Eight. A New World

Peter had recovered and watched the rest of the heroes take care of the final mess. Magneto was impressive, and even as Jean and he took the fractured remains of the helicarriers and dumped them back into the Shield HQ bayside dock, Peter had still been amazed at just how powerful the pair actually were.

Of course, now he had a bunch of pissed off mutants, Hulks and Shield agents all bearing down on him. He shook his head, he shouldn't have had to bribe his way to getting help and hopefully, some of their requests weren't exactly too bad.

His stomach still hurt and while Laura and Wanda sat making themselves useful, Emma had sniffed her coffee, pulled a face and refused to drink it. Damn snob, he thought but after helping defend the warehouse, she got a pass, at least for now.

As he lay in bed, his stomach stitching itself together nicely he watched the news surrounding the failed attempt to takeover Shield. As usual, the WSC and Fury were spinning it in a more favourable light,

In other news, Shield Director Nicholas Fury has released a statement,

A terrorist organisation, claiming to be the resurgence of the nazi organisation Hydra, today infiltrated and attempted to take over the latest Triskellion project. In a valiant attempt to hold them off while the latest airships were brought back under Shield Control, several members of Shield lost their lives.

For a full list, you can visit thedailybugle.com, but J.J had this to report,

Damn terrorists, we all saw how they attacked, energy weapons, sci-fi ray guns, taken from the damn aliens. Floating mutants are now flying in our airspace, and were they there to help or in fact were they a part of the take over attempt. I lost another good friend, Alexander Pierce to these menaces. A rally for my organisation, Humanity First will show the world that these "mutants" are a threat and that god-fearing, honest Americans should be careful.

Peter clicked the remote, turning J.J off. He was tired of listening to him spew hate over everything, Magneto and Jean had saved New York from something unimaginable and all he did was spin it, using another dead asshole to push his agenda.

In curiosity Peter had visited the Humanity First website and saw a thinly veiled racist almost neo-nazi group, spewing hatred of anything different and using the Goblin attack, Venom, and now "Mutant" to push an agenda of banning all genetic research, banning all medical procedures using genetic manipulation, and worst of all, sending known power users, aliens and anyone else with a deviant genetic marker, they were calling the X-Gene, to an internment camp.

While the media were labelling them as Mutants there were already calls for that to be classed as a slur and the proper term homo augendae was put forward, the other homo imperious or powered human was rejected outright for fear that ideas of conquest or imperialism would be conjured. Peter just preferred new human, but as any evolution would be new, augmented became the norm.

Gwen's own research into the X-Gene had thrown up some interesting results as they were basing their rhetoric off of an old science paper authored by Charles Xavier himself. Peter hadn't really been surprised. If the man was sheltering mutants then of course he probably had a way to identify and track them. It was just one more thing to add to the pile of 'it's a brave new world' list. Armoured suits, gamma hulks, Enhanced, Symbiotes, and now Augmented humans.

The one thing they did know now, augmenting already augmented humans was a bad idea. Gwen had taken samples from Laura and Wanda and after exposing them to the formula watched as their cells, at first, became empowered but then degraded at a much faster rate, almost dissolving into nothing more than cancerous mush. While Peter had misgivings about the man still, and Jean's behaviour hadn't done anything to dissuade him, he did send word to make sure that no one touched any kind of formula, as it was deadly to an augmented.

He stretched and felt a slight pain in his stomach, while Laura had done a good job of trying to gut him. He had taken the advice of everyone and taken a day to relax. He could heal quickly but unlike Laura quickly meant sloppily and lots of food and rest was still on the table.

She had taken up residence in his home, even Logan's attempt to dislodge had proven useless and he had heard the screaming and something being broken, he really didn't want to know what but as Logan came down, growled at him and then left, he guessed it wasn't anything important.

Wanda had also taken up permanent residence. Citing that her father had become even smugger now that he had saved New York, gotten a pardon for whatever he had done in the past, and was happily living on Genosha. Pietro had taken one look at Peter and scoffed,

"Of course the dumbass is the only one hurt," but as Wanda took him to one side, smacked him on the back of the head while explaining about Natasha, he gave Peter a sheepish look and never came to visit again.

His request had been simple,

"Wanda is to stay away from you, you are a bad influence and I won't see her hurt." Peter nodded and shrugged,

"Uh Wanda, your dad says you're not allowed to live here anymore, sorry." and she laughed.

"I am not a child, If I wish to stay here I will." and Magneto left, angry but unable to compete against the man his daughter had chosen to be friends with.

Peter just shrugged, "How did he expect that to go?" and Wanda just tilted her head, and pointed,

"That one, I will get my things once you are feeling better." and choosing the home Peter originally lived in, she had made her choice.

It was Natasha everyone was worried about. Stark had taken one look at the suit, "really?" as he looked over at Liv who shrugged.

"I adapted Peters CLS as a life support function into the suit. Nanofiber needles that can take over the person's nervous system and create a copy of their neurological pathways. It gives the suit an autonomous mode in case the pilot is badly hurt. The armour is fully functional, even with Hydra's tinkering. Leave her in there and she'll be fine, hook up some IV's to the suit and it'll take care of the rest." The idea had originally been to scan Rumlow and see if they could create a neural clone, but this worked just as well. If it kept Nat alive while she healed then everyone was happy

Tony looked at Liv, "At least one of you is smart, oh and now you owe me two."

Peter stared at him, "I owe you nothing dipshit, I saved your ass twice already."

but Tony just smugly grinned at him, "and I took out one of the carriers, a whole bunch of bad guys, all at your request. So you owe me."

Outside he pressed the front of his suit a blue shimmer crested across him, a suit of Iron Man armour slowly built itself over his clothing and as the smug Tony smiled, "yeah, got your symbcells to survive outside your body. Like my new nanotech?" he gave a sloppy salute to Fury and flew off back to Stark Tower.

Peter wasn't worried about Stark, it was Natasha everyone had been fretting over. While the suit and Widow worked she was unresponsive. The suit would move and could be laid down, they had already been adding in fluid and protein IV's to keep Natasha hydrated and fed, even taking care of the neatly packaged waste from the back of the suit. So far though, she hadn't woken up and even as Peter tried to reach out to Widow through their link, she was unresponsive as well. All they could do was wait.

Thankfully, the cleanup of Shield had been left to other professionals, Peter and the others had been given grace and sent on holiday. Fury promised that after everything Peter, Wanda, and Laura would be full agents given their part in the insurrection and for now, stay low, stay quiet.

Of course, that did not apply to anyone else. Gwen and Felicia still ran the Black Cats and floating the idea to her about Emma, she had pulled a poker face and just said "I'll think about it" before the three, at Felicia's request, had headed into Gwen's home to talk about it. As he heard muffled laughter, and a faint smell of cream but not sex, he knew that talks had gone well.

MJ was back on the fence about her work. She had gotten several theatre productions auditions, several more parts in both TV and movies. The Iron Man film release had sparked a whole spat of hero movies and every film studio wanted a piece of the pie, and as she had performed above expectation, a piece of MJ as well. Her problem was more parts meant more locations, meaning more time away from home. The money and the fame were what she wanted, but the lifestyle wasn't. As such, she spent more time pondering her future than practising her lines.

She was still torn. Taking part in the training was fun, fighting wasn't so much and after seeing the state Peter and Natasha were in, again she had decided to give it up once and for all.

"It means leaving home though, for maybe a few months at a time. If I'm shooting on location in England or somewhere else I won't be home."

And it doesn't matter, because you will always have a home, and people to come home to, he sent her across the shared link.

Smiling she patted her thighs and he snorted as he climbed onto her lap and she held him, normally it was the other way around but for once, the closeness and comfort were his to enjoy.

Liv had been antsy about her plot concerning Rumlow and as Peter healed she busied herself around him, feeling a pang of imaginary guilt as far as Peter was concerned. It wasn't like she cheated but Rumlow had touched a nerve. They know that even now with Laura moving closer, Emma dropping hints, Selene making waves and Wanda's lack of shyness, that their family might grow again. Liv had been made to feel that it was wrong, Rumlows point of attack, to prize her away from her family was just that, that six women with one man wasn't fair. Peter was selfish and Liv suffered because of it.

How could she explain she never felt neglected. Peter had once brought it up but no one did. The warehouse was a family and even the most compatible of couples needed time apart. They all had their own lives, they all had their own careers and interests, and they never felt that the rest took liberties with that. Of course, MJ had taken Peter's nighttime away from Liv and part of her guilt was in fact loneliness. Missing out on her daily excursion into Peter bedroom was a part she had come to depend upon, his rock to her hard place.

Even in that, with it being his turn to need help, Peter had taken Liv as his nurse. Gwen and the rest were too busy during the day and Laura and Wanda were too inexperienced to look after him. While a quick shower was always called for, Peter made sure that Liv could take liberties, a stomach needed healing but his hands were perfectly fine and a very suitable substitute for what she really wanted.

Over the course of the week, Life returned to normal, Laura and Wanda picking and moving their things in. A message, sent by courier, stating that General Ross and his Thunderbolts would be visiting at the beginning of the week was the only damper on a positively glowing household.

With his injury healed fully, and the training returning to normal the only major upset was his inability to use the showers at the same time as the rest. Laura shrugged and even after being scolded by the Professor apparently had no issues with nudity, it was Wanda, seeing the rest strip and even washing each other, turned as red as her code name and hid in her home, refusing to use the communal showers while Peter was there. He relented though, a facility for everyone was only fair when the majority could use it, and they reluctantly agreed. It wasn't like he didn't have a shower in his own home, and really they were just complaining they couldn't have sex in it.

Emma had just tutted though and arrived the next day with a selection of hand creams, body washes, and expensive-looking bathing suits, "I want to use it, and I refuse to use anything inferior," was all she said before handing Peter a bill, which he just handed to Felicia, who rolled her eyes, and slipped it to Liv while she wasn't looking.

The only conversation he wasn't looking forward to was with Aunt May. She knew he was working for Shield, as they had celebrated the news together, and she knew about the attack on not only Shield HQ but the academy. Wanda had let it slip, Peter had been hurt, and while he was fine she needed to wait until he was better before she came.

What Wanda didn't understand was that as Aunt May tutted and crossed her arms, that Peter knew he was in trouble and delaying it would only make things worse.