It started with a blinding flash of blue lightning ripping through the rolling, bruised clouds of the Wasteland.
The desperate survivors of the American Midwest looked up, shading their eyes against the sudden, unnatural storm. They didn't see a decaying zombie or another irradiated warlord. They saw a teenage boy swinging a legendary hammer. Peter Parker flew across the sky, his mask retracted, letting the harsh desert wind whip through his brown hair. Everyone in this broken world knew Peter Parker had died forty-five years ago. Seeing his face again, bathed in the crackling, divine light of Mjolnir, was a jolt of pure, unadulterated awe.
Deep within a rusted, decaying fortress, the ancient Baron Zemo watched the sky through a cracked telescope.
The geopolitical landscape of the Wasteland had violently fractured over the last forty-eight hours. Magneto was dead. His vast territory, alongside the smoking ruins of Hulkland, had been officially seized. Clint Barton, wearing his classic purple uniform and a glowing red Deathlok prosthetic eye, had broadcast a pirate radio signal across the continent. He declared himself the new lord of the Midwest. The broadcast carried a simple, terrifying promise: This land is under the protection of the Avengers.
And Clint wasn't operating alone. He had spent the last two days building a roster.
His first recruits were the two dimension-hopping lunatics, Peter and Wade. Clint used their raw firepower to aggressively settle some old scores. He hunted down his former teammates from the Thunderbolts—the traitors who had sold the Avengers' security codes to the Red Skull decades ago.
Clint didn't stop there. He dug into the dusty corners of the wasteland and pulled a handful of battered veterans out of retirement. He found Melissa Gold, the Songbird, the only former Thunderbolt who actually deserved a second chance. He tracked down his former protégé, Kate Bishop. He recruited Yelena Belova, the second Black Widow, pulling her out of the Florida swamps. He found Forge, the mutant inventor, hiding in a bunker. He even rebooted Viv Vision from a scrapped hard drive.
And rounding out the new 'Sunset Avengers' was Ashley Barton. She had officially dropped the incredibly baffling "Spider-Bitch" moniker, donning a makeshift red and blue jacket and claiming the title of Spider-Woman.
Logan didn't join them. The old Wolverine wanted to stay on his farm. But when a gang of local thugs showed up the next morning to demand protection money, Logan didn't hand over his cash. He popped six adamantium claws and left the thugs bleeding in the dirt. The old dog had finally found his teeth.
The Sunset Avengers didn't march east to challenge Red Skull's capital. Not yet. They focused on entirely securing the West Coast. Red Skull, sitting in his throne room in New Babylon, wasn't foolish enough to launch an offensive while a kid wielding Thor's hammer controlled the skies.
The newly formed team moved with terrifying efficiency.
They breached a buried Weapon X research facility deep in the Rocky Mountains. The bunker was held by Avalanche and a battalion of heavily armed Hydra remnants. The fight lasted less than ten minutes. Avalanche tried to shatter the bedrock, but Peter dropped from the ceiling, the Iron Spider waldos pinning the mutant to the floor before he could trigger a localized earthquake. Zemo, the ancient mastermind behind the Thunderbolts' betrayal, tried to flee down a reinforced corridor. Clint drew his bow. The vibranium broadhead punched cleanly through Zemo's sternum, dropping the Baron dead on the spot.
Deep inside the Weapon X vault, they made a massive discovery. They found an entire stockpile of the Super Soldier Serum that Hydra had spent the last four decades trying to synthesize. It was a goldmine of tactical resources.
With the West Coast stabilized, Peter had one final errand to run before leaving this universe.
Two days later, Peter stood on the outskirts of New Babylon, the irradiated graveyard that used to be New York City. He slipped silently through the crushed, skeletal remains of the Baxter Building.
He didn't come looking for a Hulkbuster suit. He came looking for the future.
Deep in the sub-basement, Peter wiped the dust off a rusted console. A battered H.E.R.B.I.E. unit flickered to life, its optical sensors cracked. The little robot confirmed the grim reality. Reed Richards and Susan Storm hadn't successfully navigated the timestream. They were gone. They weren't coming back to fix this world.
Peter let out a heavy sigh, but he kept moving. He found the hidden vault Reed had constructed beneath the foundation. The biometric locks were dead. Peter used Venom to physically pry the titanium vault doors apart.
Sitting on a dusty pedestal was a small, unassuming metal device. The Ultimate Nullifier.
It was a cosmic artifact of incomprehensible power, originally stolen from Galactus. It possessed the ability to completely erase any target from the fabric of reality. Peter carefully placed the device into his dimensional storage compartment. If the Sunset Avengers were going to defend this world against the inevitable return of Galactus, or if Peter's own universe needed a trump card against cosmic threats, they needed the Nullifier.
As Peter walked back out into the irradiated sunlight, a massive strategic plan clicked into place inside his head.
Could we transform this universe into the central command base for the Spider Alliance? Peter thought, his golden lenses scanning the ruined skyline.
The West Coast of the Wasteland had been heavily nuked by Red Skull. The ambient nuclear radiation was high, but not immediately fatal to anyone with a healing factor or a reinforced suit.
Peter knew the dark secret of the Inheritors—the immortal vampires who hunted Spider-Totems across the multiverse. The Inheritors fed on animalistic life-force, but they were absolutely terrified of nuclear radiation. It poisoned them on a cellular level.
Building a multiversal refugee camp and staging ground in the Wasteland was the perfect tactical move. The ambient radiation served as a natural, impenetrable fortress against the Inheritors. Furthermore, the local villain population was currently gutted, the civilian population was sparse, and the newly formed Sunset Avengers could provide heavy security. Judging by the arrogant behavior of the Spider Legion and the Spider Gods, they clearly didn't know about the Inheritors' radioactive weakness. They were just trying to punch their way to victory.
Peter had found his fortress.
"Thank you, kid," Clint said, his voice thick with uncharacteristic emotion. "For everything."
Clint pulled Peter into a tight, firm hug outside Tonya's Auto Repair shop. He let go and turned to Wade, giving the mercenary a reluctant, firm handshake.
Clint looked down at Peter's empty hands. "You really aren't taking the hammer with you?"
"No," Peter smiled softly, adjusting the straps of his backpack. "That hammer is the hope Thor left for this timeline. I felt the enchantment. Whenever someone here is finally willing to take on the responsibility, they'll be able to lift it."
Peter didn't need Mjolnir. The combined, terrifying versatility of the Venom symbiote and the Iron Spider armor was more than enough firepower for his duties back in Earth-616. This broken world needed the thunder more than he did.
"Besides," Peter smirked. "If I ever run into a cosmic threat and really need to borrow it, you wouldn't stop me from swinging by, right?"
Clint let out a raspy, genuine laugh. "You're welcome back here anytime, Pete."
"Count on it. I might be bringing a whole lot of friends to this desert eventually," Peter said. He reached into his pack and pulled out a sleek, silver Stark-tech lockbox, pressing it into Clint's chest. "Oh, before I forget. Give this to Ashley. She's going to need it."
Peter tapped the control pad on his wrist. The salvaged Spider Legion ring glowed with a blinding red light. A jagged dimensional vortex tore open the air behind them.
Clint watched them step backward toward the portal. He popped the latch on the silver box. Inside rested a pair of pristine, state-of-the-art mechanical web-shooters and two dozen pressurized cartridges of high-tensile web-fluid.
Clint chuckled, shaking his head. "Where exactly in this flat, empty wasteland is she supposed to swing from?"
Wade threw an arm over Peter's shoulder as they stepped into the red vortex. "So, Spidey, you think the little bug inside that magic ring actually glows in the dark, or is it just a battery thing—"
The portal snapped shut.
With a sickening lurch of dimensional displacement, Peter and Wade materialized inside the sleek, pristine laboratory of the Earth-616.
The harsh fluorescent lights blinded them for a fraction of a second.
Click-clack.
The distinct, chilling sound of heavy ordnance locking into place echoed through the room.
Peter blinked. He was entirely surrounded.
Tony Stark hovered three feet off the ground, his Iron Man repulsors whining with lethal charge. Captain America stood firmly by the door, his vibranium shield raised. Black Widow had twin Glock pistols aimed squarely at Wade's forehead. Hawkeye—the younger, unbroken version—had an explosive arrow pulled taut on a compound bow.
"Wade Wilson," Steve Rogers commanded, his voice echoing with absolute military authority. "Drop your weapons and submit to custody immediately."
Wade slowly raised his hands in the air. He slowly turned his head to look at Peter.
"Spidey," Wade whispered. "Tell me you're seeing this. Are they serious right now?"
Peter didn't hesitate. He pulled a pair of heavy, magnetic Stark-tech suppression cuffs from his utility belt. He grabbed Wade's wrists, slammed them together, and locked the cuffs tight. A blue EMP field sparked over the metal, neutralizing Wade's tactical harness.
"Honestly, Wade?" Peter sighed, taking a step back. "I have been waiting to do that all week."
PS: It looks like the Wasteland timeline isn't completely dead yet! Moving forward, it won't just be a bleak post-apocalyptic dungeon for Peter to fight through—it's going to be transformed into the official, radiation-shielded base camp for the Spider Alliance and a refugee center for the multiverse! Next up, we return to the main universe to deal with some classic street-level problems.
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