In the Far From Home movie Peter remembered from his past life, the Elementals were just smoke, mirrors, and combat drones cooked up by Quentin Beck. But here in Universe 616, Beck was currently running a completely different hustle back in New York. Plus, Nick Fury wasn't exactly the type of guy to get outsmarted by a glorified laser show.
The Elementals were real.
And with Felicia Hardy suddenly added to the roster, this trip was rapidly devolving from a high school vacation into a black-ops nightmare.
Peter followed Cindy Moon through the back doors of a dingy Queens convenience store. Past the mop buckets and boxes of expired bleach, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s highly classified safehouse turned out to be just a bare concrete storage room. No holographic tactical tables. No Helicarrier uplinks.
Just Nick Fury, sitting alone on a stack of Diet Coke crates.
"Let me guess," Peter said, crossing his arms. "The entire 'Global Education European Cultural Tour' is a massive hoax. S.H.I.E.L.D. rigged my school's itinerary so I could play pest control across the Atlantic."
Fury didn't blink. "You're a smart kid, Spider-Man."
"So why me?" Peter gestured broadly to the empty room. "Why doesn't S.H.I.E.L.D. just hire a local European superhero team? Or, I don't know, call the Avengers? If these Elemental guys are tearing up cities, dropping Iron Man on them seems a lot more efficient."
Fury crossed his legs, leaning forward slightly. "The Avengers are a hammer. European hero syndicates are walking bullseyes. They're too loud. If we send you, no one notices a high school kid on a field trip until it's time for Spider-Man to actually swing. It buys us the element of surprise."
Peter reluctantly accepted the logic. It was a stealth op. He shifted his weight, narrowing his eyes behind his lenses. "Fine. But what's S.H.I.E.L.D.'s actual endgame here? Why the sudden interest in a bunch of European weather anomalies?"
"That's classified," Fury said smoothly. "Just like how your Avengers conveniently forgot to share certain data files with us, I don't share everything with you."
Fury stood up, his leather trench coat sweeping around his ankles. "But I will tell you this: the Elementals aren't natural disasters. They are the latest, most devastating results of illegal human experimentation. Specifically, the Weapon Plus program."
Peter stiffened.
"We have reason to believe the architects of that program left a massive trail of evidence in Europe," Fury continued, his single eye locking onto Peter. "The same trail your parents were tracking when their plane went down."
Peter let out a slow breath. He reached out as Fury handed him a thick manila dossier. He flipped it open. His expression flattened.
According to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s intel, the Weapon Plus scientists had isolated the four classical elements—water, fire, wind, and earth—and grafted them onto four human test subjects.
First up: Morris Bench, codename Hydro-Man. Former U.S. Navy sailor. He caught three felony charges while on shore leave, went to prison, and vanished from his cell. When he resurfaced, he annihilated a S.H.I.E.L.D. warehouse in Venice. Bench didn't just control water; he could completely liquefy his own cellular structure, making him entirely immune to physical trauma and granting him an insane regenerative healing factor.
Second: Mark Raxton, the Molten Man. A former scientist at an Oscorp subsidiary lab in France. He tried to fence experimental liquid metal on the black market, suffered a catastrophic lab accident, and disappeared from the ICU. Now, he was walking magma. He could turn his body into a superheated fluid, absorb external flames, and melt through bank vaults just by standing near them.
Third: David Cannon, Whirlwind. A registered mutant. He originally used his supersonic spinning abilities to rob banks until Hank Pym put him behind bars. He vanished during a prison break. The Weapon Plus program had heavily modified him. Now, his entire body was a living vortex. He didn't just spin; he commanded localized hurricanes and manipulated regional weather patterns.
Last was the earth element: Flint Marko, the Sandman. A former French Foreign Legion mercenary. Marko could control silicate matter with his mind. Worse, he could alter his own molecular density at will—shifting from a cloud of blinding dust to a solid, impenetrable block of sandstone in a fraction of a second.
"That's everything we have," Fury said, watching Peter close the file. "We can't confirm if they're operating as a coordinated team yet. They haven't been spotted in the same city at the same time. But the bio-signatures on their modifications match perfectly. Someone built them to be a set."
Peter tapped the edge of the folder against his leg. "Right. So my class trip is actually a hunting expedition. Me, Agent Silk, and the Black Cat." Peter rubbed the back of his neck. "I still don't get why I'm the best counter for these guys. I punch things. You can't exactly punch a tornado."
"You'll adapt," Fury said dryly. He reached behind the soda crates and pulled out a sleek, matte-black metallic briefcase. He popped the latches and spun it around. "To guarantee the surprise attack, we need to keep your identity entirely isolated from your usual New York operations. I had the lab fabricate a brand-new, untraceable stealth suit."
Peter looked down into the case. It was black tactical mesh, lined with dark webbing, completely stripping away the iconic red and blue.
It was the Night Monkey suit.
Peter stared at it. He slowly reached into the case and picked up one of the gloves. He held it up to the fluorescent convenience store lighting.
"Uh, Fury?" Peter asked, his voice deadpan.
"What?"
"This suit is specifically designed to keep my identity a total secret, right?"
"That is the tactical objective, yes."
"Right." Peter wiggled his bare fingers, which were poking entirely out of the fabric. "So why do the gloves have the fingers cut off? Are you actively trying to leave my highly identifiable fingerprints at every major crime scene in the European Union?"
Fury froze.
The Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. stared at Peter's exposed fingertips. He stared at the suit. He stared at the wall for a long, agonizing five seconds.
Without a word, Fury reached out, snatched the suit out of Peter's hands, stuffed it back into the briefcase, and snapped the latches shut.
"I will have the lab make... adjustments," Fury said, his voice completely devoid of emotion.
Marvel Fun Fact:
Did you know? In the comics, the "Elementals" weren't just a Mysterio illusion—they were actually four immortal, extra-dimensional humanoids named Hellfire, Hydron, Magnum, and Zephyr, who ruled a kingdom on Earth before Atlantis even existed! In this fic, however, we are blending that concept with classic Spidey villains (Hydro-Man, Molten Man, Whirlwind, and Sandman) for maximum chaos!