[Third person POV]
Aria stood to the side with her arms tightly crossed, her lips pushed into a pout as she peeked towards Peter from behind Gwen's leg.
Peter sat on the ground, his legs folded beneath him in a meditative stance. His eyes were closed, his breathing steady, and his hair shifted with the faint currents of wind. His hands rested in front of him, thumbs pressed together, his posture calm and focused.
He exhaled slowly, and as his breath escaped, faint sparks began crawling across his skin. Within seconds, the sparks intensified, snapping into arcs of lightning that crackled and hissed against the air. The wild discharge danced across his arms and shoulders, streaks of blue light leaping outward in sharp bursts. The longer he sat, the wider his field of control grew—until even the scattered remnants of his suit, which had been blown apart in the earlier chaos, began to respond.
Each fragment shimmered faintly, outlined by thin threads of electrical energy before they started to lift, rising slowly from the ground. Metal, carbon fiber, and threads of nanoweave hovered weightlessly around him, drawn together like the shattered remains of a puzzle waiting to be solved. One by one, they were pulled toward his body, clinging and locking into place over his clothes and skin with magnetic precision.
The spider insignia formed first, bright and bold across his chest. The symbol pulsed with raw energy before bursting into a brief flash of white-blue light. From there, strands of woven material unspooled across his form, reforming his suit piece by piece. The hood unfurled dramatically, catching the wind as it billowed out behind him. Cracks and tears welded shut as his bio-electricity threaded across the seams, fusing everything together in a storm of sparks until the suit gleamed as though it had never been broken.
When the reconstruction was complete, Peter opened his eyes, electricity still flickering faintly within the blue glow of his lenses. With a swift motion, he vaulted back to his feet, landing lightly. He let out a long sigh, rubbing the back of his head in a sheepish gesture that clashed with the power he had just displayed.
"Alright, everyone," he said, his tone carrying the weight of a leader, "let's try sharing ideas on what to do next. Because honestly? I've got no clue how to handle Ross. If he goes back to the military, that's an accident waiting to happen—and I'd rather avoid that kind of mess."
"I say we take everyone back to the base," Gwen suggested, pressing a thoughtful hand against her chin.
Felicia's head whipped toward her, disbelief written all over her face. "What?" she said shocked, "That's a terrible idea! You want to bring Ross—Ross, of all people—back to our hideout? Next thing you know, we've got the entire U.S. military kicking down our front doors."
Gwen rolled her eyes, unimpressed by Felicia's dramatics. "We'd be teleporting in, obviously. And besides, we need the equipment at the lab to properly examine everyone. We don't know if there are any lasting side effects—or worse, hidden variables we haven't considered yet."
Aria finally spoke up, her voice calm but carrying weight. "I suggest contacting Agent Nicholas Fury."
Her words immediately shifted the group's attention toward her, but before anyone else could respond, Harry shook his head sharply. "That's an even worse idea. If we hand Ross over to S.H.I.E.L.D., we might as well hand him directly to Hydra. And that's not just a risk—that's a full-blown disaster waiting to happen."
Felicia crossed her arms, her expression darkening. "Why is Hydra even still a thing anyway? Why aren't we tearing them down? Enough time has passed. Don't you think it's about time we finish this once and for all?"
Peter and Aria exchanged a look, then shook their heads almost in unison. "We're not ready for that," Peter explained, his tone firm. "And I don't mean strength-wise. You guys really don't understand just how deep Hydra's roots go."
Aria raised her hand and summoned a holographic projection into the air. A globe shimmered above her palm, rotating slowly until it zoomed in on a stretch of ocean.
Gwen leaned closer, frowning. "Wait… that doesn't make sense... Not to brag but I know my geology well, I don't remember any island being out there. It's supposed to be nothing but clear water."
"Exactly," Aria replied, her voice steady as the projection sharpened into the image of a large, concealed landmass. "What you're looking at is a hidden island—an entire mass of land erased from every map, every satellite feed. Hydra manipulated the world into believing it doesn't exist. Father and I call it Hydra Island, and we believe it's just one of their many headquarters scattered across the globe."
The map glowed brighter as Aria rotated the image, showcasing sprawling structures and advanced defenses across its surface. "Its technology is unlike anything I've seen before. Sophisticated, layered. It even managed to block my scans several times, which is… troubling. If this is only one of their bases, then Hydra is much stronger, and far more dangerous, than we ever imagined."
"Basically, we're trying to track down every possible Hydra member before even thinking about attacking," Peter explained, his voice tight with exasperation. "But it's turning out way harder than we thought. Their reach is enormous—deep, subtle, everywhere. The number of potential members could easily be in the millions." He rubbed his temple, the weight of weeks of secret research showing on his face. "We're not just talking about Hydra's foot soldiers. We're dealing with sleeper agents, sympathizers, offshoot cells… and organizations like A.I.M. that may or may not still be tied to them. It's like pulling a single thread from a web that stretches across the whole planet."
MJ frowned, clearly struggling to process the scope of it. "But… shouldn't that be easier with Aria?" she asked, glancing toward the girl with the glowing jewel embedded in her forehead. "I mean—she literally has the Mind Stone. With that thing she could connect to every single mind in the universe if she wanted, right?"
Aria gave a small, humorless laugh and shook her head, lifting a finger to the gem. "You guys are seriously overestimating just how much control I actually have over this thing." The stone pulsed faintly as she tapped it. "The Mind Stone isn't some magical button I can press to scan the universe. It has… well, for lack of a better word, a will. A mind of its own. At most, it works like a hyper-advanced brain augment for me. It gives me consciousness on a level no normal human could ever process, like mixing a supercomputer with psychic abilities. Basically, it's a super-brain—but it doesn't hand me infinite access to people's thoughts."
She sighed, her shoulders slumping as if admitting this was harder than she wanted it to be. "Maybe in the future, if I keep training, I might be able to reach the kind of potential you're talking about. But right now?" She shook her head firmly.
"Think of my brain like a muscle. It's still relatively new to all this. The more I train, the stronger it gets. But if I try to push past my limits, I risk… backlash." Her tone darkened. "And trust me, you don't want to see what happens when a mind enhanced by an Infinity Stone collapses under strain."
MJ fell silent, chewing on her lip. The group seemed to mull that over for a moment, the weight of Aria's words settling in.
Finally, Lizzy spoke, breaking the tension. "Okay, I think we're spiraling a little too far off-topic here." She folded her arms, eyeing Aria curiously. "Let's circle back. You mentioned contacting Fury earlier. Why exactly do you think that's the right move?"
Aria straightened, her tone shifting back to a calm and pragmatic register. "Agent Fury has connections to the government—more specifically, direct access to the President himself. Ross is… technically government property, whether we like it or not. He's still a General. If we keep him here, we're basically guilty of kidnapping a high-ranking government official. And the way things look, with the condition he's in, it'll look like we experimented on him. That's enough to paint us as the most wanted group in the entire nation overnight."
The others exchanged uneasy looks at her blunt assessment.
Peter let out a slow breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. "We're not going to resolve this just standing here and going in circles. First things first—we focus on what matters right now." He lifted his head, his tone firm but not harsh. "Ghost's suggestion makes the most sense. We take everyone back to the base and run full examinations. Make sure they're safe. That's our priority. We'll figure out what to do with Ross and the government when the time comes."
The group nodded in agreement, some reluctantly but none offering further protest. Gwen extended her hand, her eyes narrowing in concentration as a glowing circle began to carve itself into the air. A swirling portal shimmered into being, its light washing over their faces. One by one, the team stepped through, their silhouettes vanishing into the swirling energy.
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