It all began with a flash of lightning from a dark cloud. Not a zombie, but a god of thunder.
To be precise, it was Spider-Man, holding the Mjolnir, but without his mask. Everyone already knew that the dead Spider-Man was Peter Parker, which was why it was even more shocking to see Peter Parker reappear in this world.
The old and decayed Baron Zemo watched everything quietly. A lot had happened over the past few days. First, Magneto was dead—or so some said. In any case, Magneto's territory had changed owners. Old Man Hawkeye, with his necromantic lock-on eyepatch, announced that he was taking over Hulkland and Magneto's territory, declaring himself the new lord. In his own words, America's Midwest and West would once again be under the protection of the Avengers.
How many Avengers could there possibly be?
The answer was, surprisingly, quite a few.
First were Peter and Deadpool, who had come to help temporarily. Their first step was to help Hawkeye deal with his old enemies, his former teammates from the Thunderbolts. These were the people who had betrayed the Avengers, which allowed Red Skull to get his hands on internal data from the Avengers' base. These included the size-shifting Atlas, the bootleg Captain Marvel, Moonstone, and the villain codenamed Mach-X.
After that, he really did find a few old-timers who were willing to come out of retirement, such as the only forgivable former Thunderbolt, Songbird, his former apprentice Kate Bishop, the second Black Widow Yelena Belova who was living in Florida, the X-Men survivor Forge, and Vision's daughter, Viv Vision. Of course, there was also Old Man Hawkeye's daughter, the new Spider-Woman, Ashley Barton. The girl originally planned to give herself the codename "Spider-Bitch," which was a choice no one could quite figure out.
Logan chose not to come out of retirement, but he dared to show his claws to the people who came to his house demanding protection money, so perhaps that was a good thing.
In any case, this "Twilight Avengers" team had been formed. For now, they had no plans to go east to find trouble with the Red Skull. Instead, they were focused on taking care of the problems in the west.
As for the Red Skull, he wouldn't make a move until the giant Mjolnir hovering over his head was gone.
Because of this, Peter and the others were able to sweep through this world so quickly. He smashed open the old Weapon X research facility beneath the Rocky Mountains. Inside were a minor villain named Avalanche and an army of Hydra soldiers. The Twilight Avengers charged in and quickly took care of the enemies. As one of the main culprits who had infiltrated the Thunderbolts as Citizen V, Zemo was simply shot with a barrage of arrows by Hawkeye.
They also found an unexpected surprise: the Super Soldier Serum that Hydra had painstakingly researched for 45 years and finally managed to replicate!
In Universe 616, Hydra could practically mass-produce the stuff...
Finally, there was only one last thing to do.
A few days later, on the outskirts of New Babylon (formerly New York City), Peter walked into the ruins of the old Baxter Building. In the basement of this place, an old Hulkbuster armor was parked. More importantly, this place was the key to understanding the future of this universe. If this universe's H.E.R.B.I.E. had a barely functional time machine, it meant that this universe's Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman had died in a chaotic time-stream. If not, it meant that they would one day return. But Peter wasn't here for that.
He was here for one thing: the Ultimate Nullifier.
The Ultimate Nullifier is a powerful artifact in the Marvel Universe that can erase an entire universe. To be more precise, anything it's aimed at will be erased. This was originally Galactus's private collection, but the Fantastic Four stole it and brought it back to Earth to use against Galactus.
If he could get his hands on that, then whether it was for a future Galactus invasion or for the Twilight Avengers of the wasteland to protect themselves, they would have a powerful trump card. After all, Peter now knew what had happened in this universe and would be leaving soon. After he left, they would have to fight countless villains on their own, so they would need some kind of last resort.
Or perhaps…
"Could this universe be turned into a base for the future Spider-Alliance?"
Peter muttered to himself as he walked through the Baxter Building. The wasteland, especially the West Coast, had been hit by the Red Skull's nuclear bombs, resulting in a certain level of nuclear radiation. But this level of radiation wasn't lethal.
The villains who wanted to perform the Web of Destiny ritual and hunted "inheritors" across the multiverse were very afraid of nuclear radiation. In other words, building a base here would effectively protect against the Inheritors' invasion. From the attitude of the Web Gods, they didn't know the Inheritors' specific weaknesses, they were simply fighting them with their own strength.
So, building a base here had its advantages: the villains were weak, the population was sparse, the locals wouldn't refuse to have the area rebuilt, and it could resist the Inheritors' invasion.
[Foreigner detected.]
Seeing the old robot H.E.R.B.I.E., Peter sighed. Reed and Sue wouldn't be coming back through time to save this world.
"Thank you for everything you've done for my universe."
Old Man Hawkeye hugged Peter and Wade one last time. He took the Ultimate Nullifier that Peter handed him and asked, "Are you really not going to take that hammer with you?"
"That's the hope this universe's Thor left for you. Anyone who is willing to bear that responsibility can lift Mjolnir."
Peter didn't intend to take Mjolnir with him. This universe probably needed it more. Besides, the power of Venom plus the Iron Spider suit was more than enough for him in the current Universe 616. What's more…
"If I really need this hammer one day, you guys wouldn't stop me from using it, would you?"
Hawkeye laughed heartily. "You're welcome to come back and visit anytime."
"I will. Maybe one day I'll bring a lot of friends to this wasteland," Peter said with a smile, handing the last box to Hawkeye. "Oh, by the way, this is for Ashley. She'll find this useful."
Watching the two figures disappear into a dimensional rift, Hawkeye opened the box in confusion. Inside were a web-shooter and the formula for web fluid.
"Where in this big wasteland would you find buildings tall enough to swing from?"
On the other side, Deadpool was chatting and laughing with Peter. "You think the spider in that ring will actually glow..."
With a flash of light, the two of them returned to the Baxter Building in Universe 616. As soon as they were back, the fully armed Avengers aimed their weapons at Deadpool.
"Deadpool! Surrender your weapons and come in for custody immediately!"
Deadpool looked at Peter.
"Are you serious?"
"Yeah."
Peter took a pair of handcuffs from out of nowhere and put them on him. "I've been wanting to do this for a long time."
Just from looking at it, quite a few people are still alive in the wasteland… The Wasteland universe will have some more content later, but it won't be a dungeon to grind. It will be repurposed into a hub for the Spider-Men and a refugee camp for the multiverse.
Was the foreshadowing in the last chapter too heavy-handed? I feel like a lot of people don't like the Web Gods' setting and plot.
Next, it's time to return to the main universe. Kraven and Vulture are already on the schedule.
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