C158 Spider-Man (Patreon)
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“This way.” Peter says as he turns his back and walks back the way he came.
Nebula stared at his back in silence, contemplating whether she should attack or not. After all, she still had all of her weapons, and even if she didn’t, her body is practically a living weapon thanks to her dear old dad.
Though she seemed to miss her window of opportunity, as Peter turned around and waited for her to follow.
“Come on. We’ll miss the show if you take too long.” Peter says, confusing Nebula even further than she already was.
“?” Nebula simply stared for a moment before finally following after Peter.
As they traversed the large ship, Peter made some small talk.
“What’s your name?” Pete asks as he points to his mask. “I can't tell you mine, but you can call me Spider-Man or Spidey for short.”
“Why?” She asks, feigning disinterest.
“Well, I fight crime on earth, so I try to keep my identity a secret. That way my family and friends can live their lives without worrying about retaliation from whoever I happened to p*ss off in the process.”
“Hmm, I see.” She answers without much enthusiasm. “Nebula.”
“Hello, Nebula.” Peter says excitedly as he starts digging for information he already knows. “Why were you with these Kree?”
“...” She doesn’t answer this time.
“Because based on the way you were looking at Ronan in the security footage, I could tell that you hated his guts with a fiery passion.” Peter says as she rolls her eyes at his obvious observation. “He’s dead now, by the way.”
“Really?” Nebula asks uncertainly.
“Yup, I did it myself.” Peter says as he spins the hammer between his fingers.
“I wish that I could’ve seen it firsthand, or killed the b*stard with my barehands.” She comments with a hate-filled look.
“So, are you a cyber woman or something?” Peter asks, hoping this question would draw on her daddy issues and get her talking about Thanos.
“Why? Do you think I’m ugly too?” Nebula spat out angrily.
“No, I think you’re quite beautiful, but sadly for you, I’m a taken man.” Peter says as he turns to look at her. “Why? Do you think you’re ugly?”
“...” Nebula goes quiet as they stand unmoving in a metal hallway. “I didn’t use to look like this. At one point, I was completely flesh and blood.”
“Huh...” Peter says as he smiles under his mask. “I didn’t think you’d open up like that. You seem very... prickly.”
“Shut up and keep walking, Spider-Boy.” She says with a huff and a glare.
“It’s Spider-Man...” Peter says as they walk the rest of the way in silence.
...
Finally arriving at the destroyed control room, Nebula caught sight of the entire Avengers crew.
“Yo, this is Nebula.” Peter says as they enter the room.
“Thanos’ daughter?” Fury asks as everyone becomes alert at the drop of a hat.
“How do you know that?” Nebula asks back as she grips her pistol tightly.
*Slap*
Before anyone could get serious, Peter slapped Nebula on the back of the head, causing her to loosen her grip on her pistol and glare in his direction.
“No fighting.” Peter orders.
“You know that’s apparently the daughter of the man that sent these armies here, right?” Peggy reveals with a concerned look.
“Now I do.” Peter says with an uncaring shrug. “Though we won’t be fighting. She’s my guest. At least, for the moment.”
Many people didn’t seem to agree, as even Nebula looked at Peter with a funny look on her face, though he ignored all of them.
“Jarvis, what’s the Chitauri’s arrival time?” Peter asks.
“13 minutes, sir. They’ve already entered our solar system.” Jarvis answers dutifully.
“Have you and Tony made the strategy?” Peter continued his questions.
“Yes, when the Chitauri arrives, we will hail them, pretending to be a Kree Officer. I’ll relay orders for them to take a certain position, and once every ship is in our sights, we’ll launch the attack.” Jarvis explains.
“Good, since we don’t know what type of defenses they’ll have, double whatever firepower you already planned to use.” Peter orders after a second of thought. “Tony can always make more missiles. After all, it’s his family's specialty.”
“Hey!” Tony yells from across the room. ”We don’t do that anymore!”
“Really? How many missiles are in your suit right now?” Peter asks as enters a thinking pose. “Let’s not even get into how many more Iron Man suits you have, which all probably have missiles in them as well.”
“Okay... Maybe I still do that, but I don’t sell them anymore.” Tony gives in to Peter's logic.
“I never said you did.” Peter shrugs as he looks out of the large observation window. “Is that their ships?”
Far off into the black void of space, Peter could see tiny specks getting larger as time went by.
“Yes, that’s the army my father gave to Ronan.” Nebula reveals as she steps up beside Peter.
“Jarvis, positions!” Tony commanded.
“Yes, sir.” His trusty AI replies.
Instantly, every Kree ship fired up and sprung to life, maneuvering into predetermined locations.
As this was happening, Peter and everyone else watched the incoming fleet get closer and closer.
Similar to the Kree fleet, the Chitauri seemed to have a Flagship as well. While the other 19 ships were around the same size as the normal Kree ships, the flagship, so to speak, was probably about 2 or 3 times bigger than Ronan’s.
‘Oh, yeah...’ Peter remembered something as he saw the giant spiky bug-like ship. ‘Wasn’t that the ship that controlled all of the soldiers and other ships?’
In the Avengers movie, the battle of New York ended when Iron Man took a nuclear missile that was meant to hit Manhattan and redirected it through the portal linking Earth to Thanos' domain. The nuclear missile then obliterated the Chitauri command ship, which controlled every Chitauri and Leviathan, causing them to die all at once.
‘Should we just destroy the command ship and steal the rest?’ Peter wondered, though he didn’t know how to explain where he got his information from. ‘Whatever, we have enough ships. We can always collect the scrap from their ships for research.
Thinking of this, Peter turned to Magneto, who was watching the different alien army's arrival.
“Erik, can you collect the scraps from their ships? I don’t want any of it to fall to earth or get stuck in orbit.” Peter asks.
“Yeah! We can study it too.” Tony says excitedly.
“Sure, no problem.” He agreed easily.
As they were talking, the alien armada got close enough for Jarvis to make contact.
“Relaying orders to enemy ships...” Jarvis says as he goes silent.
Within minutes, the Chitauri ships break formation and maneuver into a new trajectory, following Jarvis’ false orders.
“It worked.” Tony says, vibrating with excitement.
“It’s wonderful when a plan comes together.” Peter mutters as Nebula watches her father's army fall into a trap.
Weirdly enough, she didn’t feel the urge to help or warn them. In fact, Nebula felt eager to see the downfall of her father's carefully thought-out plans.
The destruction of her father's army incited the burning vengeance that Nebula has been keeping under control for all of this time.
“You don’t like your father very much, do you?” Peter asks as he sees the hateful look on Nebula's face as she glares at the incoming army.
“I hate him more than anyone in the infinite universe.” She admits in the moment.
“Hmm, is he the one that did that to you?” Peter asks, pertaining to her cybernetic upgrades.
“Yes.” She answers curtly.
“Want to get revenge?” Peter asks like the devil with an offer for her.
“...Yes.” Nebula admits through clenched teeth.
“Enemy army in place. Awaiting orders.” Jarvis says as the Chitauri fleet stops downrange from the Kree ships.
“Shields up and weapons ready!” Peter orders.
“Shields booting up...” Jarvis says as each Kree ship glows in a blue light. “Shields ready. Missiles ready. Beam Cannons charging...”
“You said you wanted revenge, right?” Peter turns back to Nebula.
“I do.” She answers resolutely.
“Weapons ready!” Jarvis informs everyone.
“Then order the attack.” Peter tells her, getting shocked gazes from everyone in her room. “Destroy your father's fleet as the first step of your revenge, and we’ll help you finish it when the time comes.”
“You don’t understand. He’s stronger than you can imagine...” Nebula's face twists with uncertainty as she makes excuses.
“And we’re stronger than you think we are.” Peter says as he rests a comforting hand on her shoulder. “This is your chance. You won’t get another. Either take it or return to your father empty-handed.”
Nebulas instantly wavered, as a failure of this magnitude would mean another piece of her would be ripped away and replaced with cybernetics.
Peter tinkered with the idea of revealing the infinity stones in his possession, as that would definitely bolster Nebula's faith in him.
It certainly seemed to work in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, where Nebula joined forces with Ronan against her father after the Kree warlord took possession of the Power Stone.
Though Peter knew it was best to keep the stones a secret and would continue to do so.
“...” Nebula's hands tightened into clenched fists as her eyes went bloodshot and her heart beat like a racehorse. “Fire!”
A/N: 1579 words :) GN