The bus ride to Valencia was a sun-bleached, air-conditioned crawl. Peter slumped into the window seat, letting the vibration of the tires rattle through his skull. He leaned his head against the glass, glancing out at the passing Spanish countryside before shifting his eyes toward Cindy.
He kept his voice barely above the hum of the engine. "Can you get a line to Fury?"
Cindy blinked, turning her head. S.H.I.E.L.D. training kicked in instantly; her posture remained entirely relaxed, betraying nothing to the classmates sitting around them. "...Okay. Did something happen?"
"No. Not exactly," Peter muttered, picking at a loose thread on his jeans. "But I need some answers. Fast."
Peter's brain had been running on a loop for the past three hours. Logically, he knew there couldn't be a direct connection between the Taranto spider research and the Winter Soldier assassinating his parents. If Hydra had controlled the Taranto operation, they never would have let Richard Parker walk out of Italy with a crate of genetically modified spiders.
Furthermore, Richard had hidden his research notebook in Uncle Ben's basement before he left for his final mission. Dad couldn't have predicted the future. He couldn't have known what he was walking into. Unless Richard Parker was secretly Kang the Conqueror, the timeline just didn't add up.
Cindy watched his fingers shred the loose denim thread. She gave a single, tight nod. "I'll make the call."
"Tell him we're boarding a boat to Naples this afternoon," Peter added, keeping his gaze fixed on the seat in front of him. "Ask if he can meet me before we cast off."
"You're tapping your foot," Cindy pointed out smoothly. "You're agitated. Sure you're okay?"
Peter forced his heel flat against the rubber floor mat. "Yeah. Just doing math."
As it turned out, Nick Fury didn't need to wait for Naples.
The moment the Midtown High group spilled out of the convoy in Valencia, Cindy bumped her shoulder against Peter's. She slipped a folded receipt into his palm. A nearby address.
Peter broke away from the group while Harrington was distracted counting heads. He ducked through two alleys and pushed open the heavy wooden door of a closed tapas bar.
Nick Fury sat alone at a corner table in the shadows. He looked thoroughly bored, swirling a glass of lukewarm water.
Peter pulled out the chair across from him. The metal legs scraped loudly against the tile. "Where did my parents' plane go down?"
"A plane crash," Fury said, his single eye locking onto Peter. "You know this. It was a cover, but the crash itself was real."
"Before that," Peter pressed, leaning over the table. "Where did they take off from?"
"Budapest," Fury replied, taking a slow sip of water. "Just like Walter Hardy. Anyone poking around European super-soldier programs invariably ended up in Budapest. It's a chokepoint." Fury set the glass down, a distinct sharpness entering his gaze. "Did you find something, Spider-Man?"
Peter sat back, exhaling a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. "Taranto, Italy. My dad went there early on for Project Savage Force. He was sourcing the original spiders."
"I know," Fury said flatly. "He claimed he had 'personal business' to attend to. He had friends on the ground in Italy who helped him isolate the specimens. Unfortunately, we never found out who those friends were."
Peter's jaw went slack. He stared at the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. "You didn't know?"
"Policy," Fury grunted, leaning back and crossing his arms. "Savage Force was a Military-contracted project. S.H.I.E.L.D. couldn't legally intercept Military intelligence unless it overlapped with active terrorist cells. Do you honestly think I sent your parents to Europe because I was bored? I sent them because splinter groups were deploying super-soldier knockoffs, and my agents needed technical support to trace the biotech."
If hostile forces hadn't started deploying augmented soldiers, Fury never would have contacted the Parkers. Because the Military outsourced Savage Force to Osborn Technologies, Fury had found a loophole to bring Richard Parker in.
"So... the Military told you to back off, and you just rolled over?" Peter asked, his voice dripping with skepticism.
"Obviously not," Fury said, his expression completely devoid of humor. "We investigated. But whoever helped your father in Taranto was a ghost. Our agents swept the city. No records, no names, zero clues."
Peter gripped the edge of the table. "Could his contact have been Hydra?"
"Think it through, Parker," Fury countered. "If Hydra already had the capacity to engineer those spiders, why bother infiltrating us? If the contact was Hydra, they would have just exposed him, killed him early, and replaced him inside S.H.I.E.L.D. with their own expert. But they didn't. Richard lived, and Hydra stayed in the shadows."
They stared at each other across the small table. Two completely different puzzles, overlapping with no clear edge.
"So, the Taranto spiders have nothing to do with what killed them?" Peter asked.
"Maybe. Maybe not," Fury said. He planted his hands on his knees and stood up. "But we hit a dead end. Perhaps you should go take a look for yourself. That's why you called me, isn't it?"
Peter didn't answer.
"I can requisition another LMD to cover for Peter Parker on the school trip," Fury offered, adjusting his leather coat. "Meanwhile, Spider-Man takes a detour to Taranto."
"What about the Elementals?" Peter argued, standing up with him. "They're going to adjust their tactics. What if they go after my classmates?"
"I'll handle the Elementals," Fury said. He offered a grim, confident smile. "You chase the spiders. Leave the heavy lifting to Nick Fury."
Peter watched the man walk toward the back exit. Leave it to Nick Fury, Peter thought.
Not S.H.I.E.L.D. Given how deeply Hydra had embedded themselves in the agency, Peter wasn't sure who he could actually trust anymore.
Meanwhile, on the other side of Valencia, Silver Sable stood in the center of a heavily fortified warehouse, her arms crossed tight against her chest.
She had just received the latest combat analysis on the Elementals. They weren't tech. They were spiritual entities. Magic. Bullets and explosives were entirely useless. Sable didn't waste time fighting wars she couldn't win. She had immediately contracted the problem out. The Wild Pack was stepping back; a different roster was stepping up.
The heavy steel doors rolled open.
"Hello, Miss Sable. I am Captain Britain. You may also refer to me as Captain Avalon."
A towering man stepped into the warehouse. He wore a skin-tight combat suit emblazoned with the Union Jack, radiating an absurd amount of confidence. Brian Braddock. He was the leader of the British superhero team Excalibur, his immense power drawn directly from the Amulet of Right—the ancient magical artifact forged by the sorcerer Merlin.
He wasn't alone.
Three figures flanked him. The first was Psylocke, the telepathic ninja whose eyes tracked every exit in the room. The second was the Black Knight, a descendant of Arthurian legend, the cursed Ebony Blade strapped across his back.
The third was Meggan Puceanu. The elemental empath.
Meggan could commune directly with the forces of water, fire, wind, and earth. She could shapeshift into werewolves, vampires, and dragons, or effortlessly mimic human forms. Her codename in certain circles was the Goblin Princess. And despite her mythical powers, her abilities stemmed entirely from the X-gene. She was a mutant.
It was a tactical strike team built from Arthurian myth and mutant genetics. If America had Avenger, Britain had Excalibur.
And against magical Elementals, they were exactly who needed to be on the front lines.
PS: Marvel Fun Fact!
Captain Britain (Brian Braddock) and Excalibur are deep cuts from Marvel's UK lore! Created by Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe in 1976, Brian gained his powers when Merlin and his daughter Roma offered him a choice between the Amulet of Right and the Sword of Might. He chose the amulet, becoming Britain's magical protector. Meggan, his eventual wife, is indeed an elemental shapeshifter and mutant.
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