Harlem Brawl

A/N: A lot of you probably aren't going to like this chapter, but stick with it. The reasons for the MC's inaction with his power despite his ability to end the whole situation in an instant will be explained at the end of the next chapter.

.~.~.~.

"Breaking News!" The news anchor announced with a serious face.

"Good Morning New York, my name is Joshua Chaplin. Last night, all over the city, several reports have come out of criminals being found by the police, tied up in a sticky-web-like substance around the city. Over fifty-three alleged drug dealers, sexual assaulters, and thieves were strung up throughout the city with evidence of their crimes being webbed up nearby for the police to go over. This 'Spider Family' as Twitter has named it, marks the first new superhero team in New York since the 1970s in the so-called '2nd Generation' of superheroes and heroines other than the Fantastic Four."

A picture blurry picture of Gwen, MJ, and Peter all in their spider uniforms appears on the screen as he says this.

"The NYPD has released the following statement." The feed cut to a recording of a press briefing for the police. "While we appreciate the help of the 'Spider-Family' in this matter, we do not condone vigilantism in the city of New York and ask that these individuals not take the law into their own hands in the future." Captain Stacy announced to the crowd of reporters before the news crowd began to assault him with questions.

The feed swapped back to Chaplin "The somewhat muted response of the police department has received criticism and sparked debate all over the internet with some calling the statement 'too soft on vigilantism' while others speculate this to be the start of the '3rd Generation' of Heroes. More on this story at ten..."

I shut down the TV and looked over at said Spider Family who were fidgeting around under my intense glare.

"You lot do know that I'm the one who paid for your outfits, right?" I commented.

"Y-yeah." Peter said, volunteering himself to be the spokesman for his little lovers.

"And you know what I said about the heroics, right?" I said, narrowing my eyes.

"You wanted us to finish training under Master Shiva first." He replied.

"And while you guys have completed the combat training, you still didn't complete the stealth, infiltration, and ambush tactics," I said, pinching the bridge of my nose.

"It was just a small outing. Beating up some thugs and drug dealers! Nothing too crazy." He commented.

"Yeah, and you gave us those suits yesterday too! they were made from the vibranium weave right?" MJ asked.

Being both a fashionista and a mechanical engineering nerd, the suits were like a wet dream for her. I could imagine her wanting to take them out for a spin being the main driving reason they decided to skip training yesterday and go out patrolling for the first time.

"I know, it's almost like you were begging us to try them out in combat." Gwen moaned.

I let out a tired sigh and looked at the three of them. Despite essentially stealing millions of dollars worth of equipment and taking it for a joyride, they seemed to be actually repentant of their actions and even apologized to me afterward and before I had to find out through Emma or the news. That said something about their levels of responsibility, but I wasn't too sure about them essentially skipping class, martial arts class, but still, and going out without telling me.

"Look, I'm not mad, ok? I'm just a bit disappointed you did it without me but... if you guys think you're ready, then I won't stop you." I said, sighing in defeat.

"You're not mad?" Peter asked, getting a nudge from Gwen and MJ, saying 'can it!' they were happy I wasn't going to revoke their suit privileges, especially since they were so stylish and cool.

"No, I'm not. Look, you guys. You're all very strong and unless you run into a supervillain like what Superman fights, you'll probably be fine, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be prepared..." I commented.

"So... you're saying we have your blessing?" MJ asked hesitantly.

I weakly waved my hand. "Fine, fine. But no hero work tonight. Let's have a multi-date tonight." I said, getting to the REAL reason I called them all over after they admitted their mistake to me.

"Multi-date huh? Sam and Jean finally got you to make it official?" MJ teased.

"Yeah. I gotta protect my girls from people like Osborn you know." I commented.

Gwen smirked. "Are you sure you're just not upset that Cassy left? Master Shiva did say she was sending her to Gotham to get more experience."

"I'm not the one who was devastated by that, Eve was," I commented somewhat somberly.

Turns out, Sandra (Lady Shiva/Taskmaster) wasn't too pleased with Cassy for allowing herself and me to fall into the situation (ambushed) with SHIELD. Sure, nothing bad happened, but she expected more from her daughter, so she sent her away for summer vacation to train under Batman. It sucked because while I didn't really feel anything for Cassy romantically, she was kinda like my cute younger sister who I liked to pamper. I could have stopped it with my powers, but Sandra kinda had a point. Cassy had outstanding senses and training, but not enough experience in the field, and I wasn't going to have her do that in New York right now.

"So then this date is for Eve's sake?" Asked MJ with a smug grin.

"Caught in 4K," I admitted, completely hiding the fact that that was only part of my plan for tonight.

The girls giggled and Peter gave me a wry smile. "Alright girls, let's not tease him too much." He said, sounding eerily like Uncle Ben in that instance.

I shook my head at that. "We're going to Luke's house in Harlem for a party," I commented.

"I see, Luke huh? Who else is coming?" MJ asked

"Pretty much everyone in the Class," I said.

"Will there be enough space for us?" Gwen asked.

"Yeah, he lives on the bottom floor, and in his neighborhood, all of the houses share the same back-yard park, thing... so we're going to have a cookout," I stated.

Peter smiled. "Alright, I'm in. When do we meet up?"

"Let's all meet at my house at 5. We can take the subway and then a bus to get there." I said, to which the others nodded in agreement.

"Good, see you then," I said as I picked up the suits the three of them had laid out on the table and walked away.

'Tonight's going to be interesting.' I thought.

...

"Man this place is so crowded!" Jean complained.

"You still getting headaches around a lot of people?" I asked her.

"Yeah. I wonder why this keeps happening recently?" She said as she rubbed her temple.

I smiled and gave her a little poke on the nose, which caused her to recoil in embarrassment for a moment as she wasn't expecting the sudden contact, even if she didn't mind it too much. She also didn't notice the pain begin to fade away as she did so.

"Geez, you surprised me there." She said, still a bit bashful.

"Haha. Well, at least you can rest easy knowing we've finally locked down this hunk for ourselves." Eve said, still happy that I made us official, so now she can stop worrying too much about me running off with other women without her. She snuggled up close into my chest while we sat on the last leg of our bus trip.

I smiled and bushed some of Eve's hair out of the way of her face. "Sorry that I worried you so much. I just wanted to give it some time to see if our feelings really were just love and not lustful friendship." I said, feeling a bit guilty.

I DID mean what I said. Both Jean and Eve were very different from their comic book counterparts, plus neither of them developed their powers at the age that they should have, so I was a bit concerned. Nonetheless, I did feel attracted to both of them. It may just be the physiology of humans of this world that make it possible, but I felt true love for both of them, which is weird, considering people generally only felt true love fo one person at a time, and while they can like others and even be possessive over them, actual True Love between multiple people was rare.

I pulled both of them into a hug as we sat there, enjoying the moment before we were so rudely interrupted by Peter. "Now whose the lovebirds?"

"Stop it Peter," MJ said, lightly snapping his chest. "Damian's just shy, after all, rich people like him have to be extra careful they don't bring golddiggers into their harems, especially since they tend to be bigger."

"I still don't understand how an old fart like Warren Buffett can juggle both stock trading and twelve wives." Gwen quipped.

Everyone smiled awkwardly at that. It was a bit strange, but we were suddenly all half-thrown from our seats as the bus came to a screeching stop ahead of us. We looked ahead and noticed there was a tank rolling in from the alley ahead of us, followed by several other army units as they began to pour into the street.

The pedestrians all began to speak in worried tones as the bus doors opened and a soldier, a Sargent from the looks of the rank on his chest, walked up and address us.

"Alright everyone off! This area is now off-limits for your own safety. There's a monster battle going on!" he said.

As is fitting of a comic universe that's semi-cinematic, the moment he finished saying that, the building a block in front of us exploded. Orange and Yellow flames poured out of the front facade and thick black smoke began to emanate from it.

Everyone screamed and most of the people were trying to get off the bus to run away in a panic. I held Eve and jean close as they cowered into my embrace while giving a knowing look to Peter and the girls. They too looked panicked, but only a bit, as they knew it was Hero Time for them.

Unfortunately, they didn't have their suits on them, so they couldn't immediately swing out. The Sargent shouted loudly, giving everyone instructions to exit the bus after a heated discussion with the driver in which he realized that this bus in particular, had a faulty gear system and couldn't reverse, yet due to the lack of funding for public transport, they couldn't afford to fix it so long as it still ran fine going forward. There'd never be a need to reverse a bus in the first place... or so they thought.

We all piled out and into the street, hearing several roars and explosions nearby. Most people ran away, but our group managed to meet up safely across the street.

"What the hell I going on!?!" Eve yelled

"I don't know, it seems like two monsters are going at it on the news!" Alex said, showing everyone his phone with a live stream of a three-way battle between the Hulk, Abomination, and Wendigo of all things.

From the looks of the fight, the Hulk wasn't exactly in tip-top shape, but there wasn't much we could do about it, or so everyone thought. The view zoomed in on the damage for a moment and we noticed the Abomination throw a car at one f the Military choppers, clipping its wing and sending it spiraling. We looked up and saw it coming straight at us and all ducked for cover.

*BOOM*

I made subtle use of my powers to ensure everyone was alright and not injured, yet we were all separated. I got thrown through the glass window of the store nearby and the chopper's impact collapsed part of the storefront, cutting me off from them. Peter, Gwen, and MJ all made it into the alleyway next to the store and part of the flaming metal wreck cut them off from the others in the group.

Thankfully, we could still see each other and due to the weird comic laws of the universe, if we yelled, we could still communicate. I pretended to look like I was struggling to get to my feet and looked around. I wasn't exactly injured, but if I was totally fine, people might get suspicious looking back at the event in the future, so I pretended to be banged up.

"Guys!" I called out to them. "Is everyone ok?"

"Yeah, we're fine!" Peter yelled back from his group.

"Damian are you alright!?!" I heard a concerned yell from Jean.

"Yeah, I'm fine! I'm stuck in here though, I'll try to get out through the back, you guys run. See if you can't help people out on your way!" I yelled back to them.

Everyone agreed. Peter and my eyes met and I gave him a reassuring nod. MJ and Gwen saw this and instantly knew it was time to work, so they took off to slip into costume. Hopefully, while they're taking their clothes off, their hormones won't get the best of them and they'll get to fighting rather than fucking.

I made myself invisible and proceeded to fly up into the air to get a grasp on the situation. The Hulk and Abomination were going at it hard while the Windigo seemed to be stunned and only barely conscious at the moment. Strangely, nerdy Alex O'Hirn and his girlfriend Stephany were running toward the fight, when they saw a small child near the Windigo who was trapped by a piece of fallen debris.

Stephany stopped for a moment and hesitated when her eyes saw just how close the beast was to the child, but Alex rushed in even faster. He may be a turbo nerd and stereotypical high school whimp, but he was actually quite fast on his feet, even getting offers to join the track team. I wasn't sure how it happened, but the news chopper that was flying overhead was actually recording the feat.

Alex arrived just in time for the Windigo to shake himself off. The nerd then helped push the fallen piece of debris off of the kid in an instant. He was definitely hopped up on adrenaline, as in one smooth motion, he instantly threw the injured child over his shoulder and began to sprint away as a loud roar echoed behind him. The monster had found a new target.

The Windigo lept after poor Alex and just before the people at home thought they were going to witness a massacre of a child and teenager on live TV, Three figures literally swung into action. All three together gave a simultaneous full-speed kick to the monster's jaw, throwing it backward and into a U-Haul truck on the other side of the street. The Spider Family had arrived on the scene.

I smiled at this and watched as Stephany, a deep blush on her chocolate-skinned face, rush over to her boyfriend and gave him a deep kiss, probably giving the people at home a good show, before they both ran away. Deciding that that was enough heroics for today.

I turned my attention away from them as I looked toward Eve and Jean. They were helping a few older women out of their house which was in the line of fire. As the three came down the stairs, they came face-to-face with an Angry Abomination, who'd just been thrown through a wall by the Hulk.

He spit out a tooth and shook away the daze before his eyes landed on the group. A wicked smile crept onto his face as he gazed at them for a moment. They all locked up in shock as they thought they were going to die. Of course, that wasn't going to happen but I wasn't quite ready to reveal my powers yet, so I decided to appear behind the monster across the street, just out of view from anyone watching. I picked up an empty can from there, imbued it with the essence of 'Taunt/Aggro', and threw it at the Abomination just as he took a step forward threateningly to teh group of women.

Of course, defeating him wasn't my goal. I was just capitalizing on the situation to earn cool-points with my girls later while also saving them from certain death. Of course, for threatening my girls, he'd definitely have to pay, but for now, at least, it was time to put on a show.

The can bounced off the side of his head and he turned toward me, extremely annoyed.

"Hey, buddy! You don't look so tough! Why don't you stop picking on the ladies and come take on someone your own size!" I said, obviously taunting him, which worked.

I had to immediately dive out of the way, as the Abomination charged straight at me and through the wall behind me, barely missing a charging tackle.

"Damian!" I heard a cry from across the street. I looked and saw it was Jean rushing towards me. The Abomination roared loudly as he punched his way through the wall of the building, arriving in front of me. From an outsider's perspective, it looked like he was about to clobber me, even though I was already prepared to jump over his attack and kick him in the teeth.

Unfortunately, my moment was ruined when I heard a shout from behind.

"NO!!!" Jean yelled throwing her hand forward. A small dim white light emanating from her eyes. Abomination was suddenly flung through the building again after receiving an invisible blow from somewhere, though I knew it was a psychic bolt from Jean.

"Jean!" Eve yelled as she ran towards us.

I arrived just in time to catch Jean before her head hit the concrete and craddled her softly for a moment. She was unconscious but looked to be in pain. I tapped her on the head, easing that pain and resisting a psychic pull coming from her. I wasn't 100% certain, but it looked like the Pheonix was alive and well inside of Jean's head and wanted to have a conversation with me.

"After we get done here," I whispered as Eve arrived.

"Damian, how is she?" She asked but quickly.

"She's fine. Just unconscious." I replied, picking Jean up in a princess carry.

We turned to run away but before we could, once again, the Abomination returned to attack us looking mighty pissed off. I smiled as my eyes met his and walked away, ignoring him completely.

"This guy thinks he can just walk away from me!?!" Roared the Abomination as he prepared to lap forward once again, but froze in place when I stopped and pointed past him.

Abomination lifted an eyebrow and turned to where I was pointing, only to see the Hulk's angry fist approaching his face at supersonic speeds. His eyes widened before the strike hit him, shattering part of his skull and burying him into the floor, triggering a small earthquake in the process, out cold.

Hulk roared into the sky, victoriously before turning to the stunned crowd. I gave him a thumbs up, which he smiled at before leaping up and away just as the military came rolling in. Seeing that he was leaving, I assumed that Wendigo had also been taken out, which I double-checked with my powers.

Yup, the Spider Family had him nice and webbed up in Chi-enhanced webs he couldn't escape from easily. Not that it mattered, he was out cold, probably from the Hulk and them working together. Otherwise, I'm sure either the Hulk or Peter and his girls would have come to our rescue against the Abomination.

Eve and I, still carrying Jean, slipped out of the area before we were stopped by the military. It took us a while to get out of the busy streets and into the less populated back roads. It was there when Eve let out a sigh she didn't know she was holding in and tears fell from her face. We stopped at a small nearby bus stop and collapsed onto the bench that was there. I laid Jean down on my lap while Eve sat on my right and held me tightly.

"I was so scared, Damian! I was so scared!" She said, still shaking from the experience.

I gently stroked her back for a while as I comforted her for a bit. "It's ok to be scared, it was a scary experience," I told her.

"I thought I was going o die... *hic* I thought YOU were going to die! Why'd you throw that and get that monster's attention!" She cried, gripping hard onto my shirt.

"I'm sorry I scared you," I said. She flinched and looked up at me and into my eyes.

She was a mess. her hair was all ruffled up, her makeup was ruined, her eyes red, and she had dust and dirt all over her, but she still looked like the cutest thing in the world right now. I don't know what came over me, but I bent down and gave her a passionate kiss.

We stayed like that for what felt like a while but was probably only a few moments. We continued to look deep into each other's eyes and just stare, mesmerized by each other, before we heard a loud clearing of a throat to get our attention. We both flinched and turned our attention to the person who was trying to get our attention, only to see that it was Luke Cage.

"Sweet Chrismas, next time you guys decided to go at it, try to make sure its not in front of me, alright." He stated.

The both of us retreated a bit and I shook off my malaise while Eve pulled out her purse and wiped her face. "Sorry about that. Why are you here?" I asked him.

"You guys do know your right next to my house, right?" He said, pointing three doors down to the only townhouse with its front porch lights on. "I saw what was happening on the news and came to find you guys when it was safe, but it looks like you found me first."

"Oh, yeah, the party!" Eve realized.

"Something tells me we aren't going to have it now." Luke wryly commented. "Come on, let's get you guys inside. We probably shouldn't let Jean stay out here too late. She could get sick if we let her sleep in the cold."

We thanked Luke for his hospitality and went inside. Luke was living all by himself at the moment. He said his parents were off on an overseas trip for the weekend, which was why we were able to have a party now. I laid Jean down on the couch and Luke provided us with a blanket for her. Eve was also tuckered out and passed out on the loveseat, so Luke gave me another blanket for her.

"I'm going to go see if I can't find everyone else. Funny enough, the pizza I ordered still came even though a couple of neighborhoods over was turned into Desert Storm, so help yourself." He joked.

I gave him a thankful nod before he walked out of the room.

...

(3rd POV)

The battle in Harlem was over. The military and news crews descended upon the remains of the six blocks of West Harlem destroyed in the fighting like vultures. For the most part, the Spider Family was left alone to help clear debris and take injured people to the nearest hospital. They used their webbing to stop the bleeding of several critically injured individuals, which helped save over a dozen lives.

Luke unintentionally formed an impromptu search and crew when he arrived along with some of the other concerned civilians while the fire department was busy putting out the spreading blaze caused by a gas main exploding and a gas station being stuck by tank fire by accident when the Army was battling the Windigo.

Police were constantly taking statements from everyone and their dog trying to come up with a coherent timeline of events as well as a list of the missing and dead. It was total chaos.

Alex, for his part, was eventually identified by the press and caught by them when trying to find the mother of the boy he rescued. They really didn't care about how they were making his job impossible, as the various news crews surrounded and bombarded him with questions about his act of heroism. Being the gigachad he was, he simply replied 'I just did what I thought was right,' and then asked them to get out of his way so he could find the lost boy's mother.

The tearful reunion of the boy and his mom was also captured live on camera, giving the people watching at home a sort of 'happy end' to the night's broadcast.

It took several hours and was well into the early morning hours of the next day when everything began to calm down. There were still dozens of casualties and billions of dollars in damages and many livelihoods forever ruined, but everyone knew that things could've been a lot worse.

Damage Control eventually took over all operations within the zone, compensating families and business owners for their losses while also beginning the cleanup process. It'd take weeks, but eventually, this area would be better than it ever was.

On the flip side, the Spider Family officially debuted to the public as heroes. They were extremely popular with the public and military after their actions which saved dozens of lives.

While all of that was going down, Damian was having a conversation with an eldrich abomination occupying the mind of his girlfriend.