Parker Residence



"Sure, Cat. I'd... appreciate that. Thank you."



"Guess you're going to see him before I do. Tell him..." She frowns. "Tell him... She frowns harder, and her hair starts turning white again. "Don't tell him anything, I guess. If he even asks, tell him I'm in Mexico on family business. He'll either know what I'm talking about or he doesn't deserve to."



There's exactly as much security on April's phone as you'd expect from a reckless teenager; the only concession to secret identities is the absence of pictures of people in partial costume, or groups of heroes in-and-out of costume, probably imposed by those heroes themselves, and probably only after-the-fact.

Her contacts list is interesting, though it's the Watcher's call if any of the phone numbers match up to this timeline. (Please? It'd be way more interesting if they did.) Unfortunately, it's also about as organized as you'd expect from a reckless teenager: "dad", "mom", and "mayday" are pretty obvious, but the rest might as well be encrypted-- and most of them refer to people who don't exist.

Bus Station

April passes the time until her bus leaves by buying a stack of magazines about celebrities, superheroes, and current events and reading them cover-to-cover. They are the only luggage she has, or needs, for the loooong three-day bus ride to El Paso.

Eddie turns his head and smiles, "So you are what got Venom riled up." He chuckles, "Yeah Venom was teaching the kids how to ensure a person looks over their shoulder forever after he got mouthy in front of a kid." Deep voiced chuckles are heard from his hoodie as its eyes wink, "Could not let Brown show me up either. "

Eddie rolls his eyes and looks back to Black Cat, "Bravado aside I figured you weren't out for a stroll. The slums don't have the shinies a classy fem-fatale like you tends to hunt. What can we help you with?"

"You'd be surprised how much stuff gets stashed here."  She shrugs.   "Even if it smells like pee.  Everybody just looks at the outside."

"Any of those symbiotes up for adoption?  Not for me."  She looks away from the multicolored cloak of goo for a moment.  She's pretty used to Klyntar.  Lots of time with the Spider back when he was the Venom host.  But the dreams she's having are bad enough without sharing her head with an alien.

"You remember Flash?  Pete's friend?  He lost his legs in Afghanistan."
She waits for him to at least nod in response.

"I had a talk with April.  She was telling me about her timeline and I think maybe he'd be good at this stuff.

Just... don't tell him it was my idea."  In this timeline, Felicia had dated Flash for a couple months before ghosting him.  Being Felicia Hardy around him all the time and not the Black Cat had been exhausting.

The other Flash had probably been boring too.  But if he'd raised the Scarlet Spider he's probably not all that bad.

"Spiderman knew of this Flash...they were not pleasant memories," emanates from Eddie's hood. "He was a dumb kid big guy. We'll check him out. No promises though. The kids aren't ready to deal with PTSD-related symptoms. But if he's not doing what my stupid self used to do and drink myself stupid we'll look him up."

He blinks, "April? Fuzzy on some names since the kids and Venom kinda trapped me to make Sheppard possible. Whos future kid or cousin is she?"

In reply to Venom (msg # 30):

"And yet the Spider hung out with him on purpose all the time.  I guess when most of your friends try to kill you it's harder to manage."

"I was sure you'd noticed when she showed her face yesterday."  It's been a week, but Felicia's only slept sporadically.  Days are hard.

"April Parker.  Her and her sister aren't gonna exist here, her mom disappeared.  That's gotta mess you up.  She's Venom's kid too.  Or grandkid.

Nothing's ever simple with the Spider, of course."  Felicia loves that part.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:49, Thu 17 Mar 2022.

Eddie sighs and rubs at the bridge of his nose, "Which means she had to grow up with all my lethal protector delusions in her head....and all that hate. Poor kid."

He laughs at the final line, "True he can't go five feet without saving something and pissing off some super-powered weirdo by accident. The kid gonna be okay? I got an apartment sitting vacant near the park if she needs a bolthole. Likely needs a clean up, can't bring myself to revisit all the ghosts there."

A purple mass raises out of his shoulders in the vague shape of a cat that lays down as if on a flat surface to nap, "And purple wants me to offer it to you as well. Just please don't hide loot there, half the lease is in my ex-wife's name. Keys are inside in a safe, never needed to walk considering Venom."

He looks out over the city, "If you see the Spider let him know we are gonna stick around the slums and keep pot from boiling over. But someone is raising prices for goods for the kitchens. We are keeping trucks safe but we aren't detectives."

"I think she turned out ok.  She's got someone out of town to visit."

She shrugs.  "I'll let her know about the place when she gets back.  I'm crashing with the Spider for a few days.  Need someone I can trust around when I sleep right now."

If Felicia relays that message to the Spider she's gonna get caught up in fixing this thing pro-bono.  She could just speak up now and get a cut.  "The Kingpin hasn't been seen since the incident.  Someone's still running that org but a bunch of wannabes probably think this is their chance." 

The Venom swarm aren't detectives.  Alternate future Felicia is.  Working with whoever she left Flash for, a person that 100% can't be the father.  Helps her go straight, but ironically.  None of the queer girls Felicia knows fit that bill.  "I might take a look later.  You see me out of costume, act like you've never seen me before."

It won't be worth it, but none of the jobs she's done lately have been, except the shield.  Staying busy keeps her from what's in her head.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:31, Fri 18 Mar 2022.

Eddie nods and chuckles, "Someone like me was always far too low on the social ladder for a gal like yourself. And we don't get out of costume anymore. Not sure if the kids left anything human behind back at the big fight."

He walks to the edge of the building's roof again looking out, "Keep an eye on him cat. Killing really digs into him and he lets it stew. Make him take you somewhere normal or something vacation style. Anyway, we got to move, haven't seen the truck for St. Elizabeth's go by yet, and its an hour late."

A tendril shoots out from his shoulder to connect to a nearby building, "The kids say it was good to see you." And he swings away into the night.

"I'd ask him, if I thought he might go." she says, sadly.

"I'll text you if I find anything."

And then the Cat is off in the other direction.

He stood alone on the rooftop, listening to the wind, and the noises it carried. The city wasn't silent, but it seemed largely at rest for the moment.

I missed Purim, Moon Knight thought, suddenly. Even he wasn't sure where the thought came from. But suddenly the voices in his head were all silent, as though expecting a response.

They didn't have long to wait.

That's one of your Jewish holidays, Khonshu replied in his mind. The one with the cookies and the costumes, right?

Behind his mask, Moon Knight rolled his eyes and sighed.

Sure. It's the one with the cookies and the costumes.

You wear a costume every night, Khonshu replied, although if Moon Knight had ever dared call his sacred raiment a costume, Khonshu would have had words. Do you want me to buy you a cookie?

No, I do not want you to buy me a fucking cookie, Moon Knight snapped. I was just thinking about how it was my favorite holiday as a kid, and now I don't even pay attention to when it comes around.

You serve a different God now, Khonshu said, coolly.

I serve you. I don't worship you.

You make it sound like there's a difference. You do great works in my name.

I still don't worship you.

And why is that, exactly? I have given you power and wealth beyond the imaginings of the average man. That is what most people pray for. So why do you withhold your devotion from I who have raised you from the very dead — more than once — and bestowed upon you all my gifts?

Because my god kicked your ass.

Khonshu fell silent for a moment, and when he spoke again it was with an unfamiliar tone to his voice. The God of the Moon was laughing.

Very well. Keep your God, and your religion, and your stupid little cookies.

Fine. I will.

Fine.

All the cool Gods have cookies.

I heard that.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:40, Fri 25 Mar 2022.

The most likely reason that Moon Knight can hear Daredevil shuffling on the asphalt across the roof is because Horn-Head lets him. Regardless of accident or intention, Daredevil is on the other side, about 20 feet away, well out arm's range even with a lunge, and enough distance that a projectile could be dodged in plenty of time. When Daredevil notices Moon Knight noticing him, he steps slightly out of the shadows and the lights of the city bring out the red in what few parts of his costume he chooses to reveal. Still, the tone of his voice is casual, almost conversational. "How's it look from up here?" But he doesn't step farther from the section of the roof he's requisitioned, in the shadows of the city and his maybe/maybe-not ally. Unless Moon Knight can see in the dark, Daredevil's hard and ready grip on his billy club is hidden.

Moon Knight doesn't flinch as Daredevil reveals himself. The red-clad hero might be able to sneak up on Moon Knight, but it takes more than that to startle the Fist of Khonshu.

"The city sleeps restlessly tonight," he said, looking out across the rooftops. "The mark of Carnage is everywhere still."

Daredevil stays where he is and still but he might be looking at the same spots in the city that Moon Knight is. "Are you planning to murder everyone else with it?"

"Murder?" Moon Knight didn't turn to face Daredevil yet. Instead, he looked up at the moon, which was full and bright. "I didn't murder anyone. I enacted justice, as mandated by the God of Vengeance.

"That's a little holier-than-thou coming from the man who threw Bullseye off a building. The only difference between us is that you failed to kill your enemy."

Felicia's Penthouse
Luckily, phones from this alternate future use an older version of USB and transferring everything to a waiting burner just needs an adapter.  At a quick glance of the phone the biggest surprise (other than what kind of name is Sabreclaw) is that the contact list has Felicia's actual number.  Not one of the burners that she uses for Black Cat business... those change monthly.  Her real number.  The one she talks to her mom on.  No one's called that since all the disappearances.

She'll look through the rest of the phone later.  For now, she needs a job to keep her mind off of everything else.
Eddie wants to figure out who's squeezing the shelters.  So she may as well investigate.  Felicia finds a brown wig and some clothes that are way too big for her and puts them on over the cat-suit.  She's not going in there without her gear.  It's bad enough she can't wear the mask.

Bus Station
While April is waiting for the bus, a man approaches her, asks "April?" and hands her an envelope with a cat sticker and her name.

Inside is a new phone, charger, and bluetooth headset.  A sticky note says "PIN is his birthday."  It requires an immediate change.

April's photos are already there.  The contact list consists of two items:

Cat
Eddie

A text from Cat reads: Eddie says you can crash at <address> if you need a place.

Inspecting closely will reveal that all new files are being sent one-way to an email address associated with "Cat."

St. Elizabeth's
With some worn clothes, her lack of sleep, and the ring of purple bruises around her neck, it's easy to look like she needs help.  She tells them her name is Katia, pretends to only speak French (to avoid prying questions) and offers to help out in the kitchen.  If she gets a chance, she'll setup a few cameras.

The darkness and Moon Knight's apathy hides Daredevil's very slight flinch at the words. "That was... a long time ago. The difference from this being that I had run out of options then. Killing seemed to be the only option you had any interest in," Daredevil says. "Now you seem like you would be more concerned about a holiday from seven months ago than the fact that you took a life. Do you even care?"

Eddie sighed as he cleared road debris, "You know I never really looked into who gets paid to clean up after all these so-called hero battles." One of the chunks splinters into smaller chunks as a red tendril flicks out slashing at it, "Nice shot red! Right between the rebar!" Eddie lifts the now smaller chunk tossing it into a nearby dump truck without looking towards it and wipes at his brow with a rag put into his hand by a purple tendril, "Well we got the road clear in time for another patrol. Let us hope the goons tonight are carrying enough for a bucket of chicken."

Eddie laughs as multiple tendrils yank him into the air towards their normal patrol routes, "I knew that would motivate you!"
This message was last edited by the player at 14:50, Fri 15 Apr 2022.

"Every life I take is etched on the few remaining tatters of my soul," Moon Knight replied to Daredevil. "But killing Carnage...? No, I don't really care. Someone should have done that a long time ago. Spider-Man, probably.

"How do you feel when you let a killer live, and he goes on killing? Do you even care?"

Mexico City

After three days on a bus... and two more days under a bus... it felt good to walk in the sunshine again. Stretch her legs. Slap some people around. Her Spanish had been a little rusty-- poor, brave Luis-- but it was coming back to her. This city... This city was magnificent. I wish I'd gotten to see it like this. She spent a couple of days just walking the streets, riding the public transit around in circles, and talking to people.

Tracking an international assassin wasn't easy. Not even for an experienced crimefighter. Not even for someone who knew him as closely as any other living being-- not even Mayday, who knew and cared about everyone. April had burned through all of her American blood money in a hurry and replaced it with Mexican blood money, which proved to be no less flammable; this suited April's purposes perfectly, as earning money would bring her prey closer to her even faster than spending it would.

Case in point, the half a dozen men in unmarked military fatigues and facemasks, strewn about her cheap motel room like forgotten toys. "Estoy. Buscando. La Tarántula. You assholes are not--"

RAT-A-TAT!

An automatic rifle lit up April's back, far worse then her neglected spider-sense. Serves me right. Mayday's begging me to pay more attention.

April lashed out with a tentacle, slapping the soldier-- metaphorical or literal? both? doesn't matter-- in one direction and his rifle in another. "Stay down, puto, or the next one's sharp." She stretched upright and rolled her neck. "I don't care one way or the other about your dirty money. You've gotta make a living, right? But you tell me where to find the Tarantula, or you tell the Tarantula where to find me, or I'm going to start making myself at home right in the middle of your territory. All up in your business. Forever."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:36, Thu 28 Apr 2022.

"There are processes in place to stop those from killing. The system has its faults, but it's better than wanton murder by fools with capes that should never have been allowed out of their cells," Daredevil says to Moon Knight. "Your intentions to kill by killing ultimately don't protect lives and apparently any consideration to save anyone doesn't even give you pause, not leaving much value in what you call a soul. You consider yourself a killer even as you excuse yourself from culpability. What is to stop some warped clod from taking judgment and murdering you in the name of some pathetic sense of self-righteousness? What happens to your sad heroic self-righteousness then?"

As Daredevil droned on, Moon Knight yawned, bored as he was with the hero's blather. There were processes in place? He sounded like a lawyer. Worse, he sounded like an idiot. Killers like Carnage thrived on these supposed processes, letting the law keep them alive just to kill again. Moon Knight briefly considered saying some of this, but decided against it. Daredevil had clearly made up his mind.



"I never claimed to be a hero," he said when Daredevil finally stopped. "And if someone who does decides to kill me...? I've been dead before. It didn't stick.

"You bore me, Devil. You preach at me like a Catholic priest on a Sunday morning, but you're not actually going to do anything about it. I wasn't the only one who had a hand in killing Carnage. Or are you going to try to drag us to jail for our sins? Or worse, are you going to lecture us all on the virtues of letting killers live?"

Mexico City

Four... Five... Six... April had cased the little café already, but she took advantage of the opportunity to feel-- perhaps even savor-- the inconsequential threat the cartel's snipers posed to her. Her elusive quarry made eye contact from across the room; like her father, he was so much younger than she remembered him. She gave the killer-for-hire a smile and a shy wave of her hand... and immediately felt like an idiot.

She crossed the room, pulled out a chair, and sat across from... who is this man, really? Who is he to me?

"Chocolate caliente, por favor." She held up two fingers to the waiter. "Thank you for meeting with me, Tarántula. Kaine."

Kaine hid behind his coffee cup. "You're well-informed. And your approach doesn't scream 'law enforcement'. Who are you?"

"My friends call me 'April'."

"And your enemies?"

"I don't have any enemies."

Kaine blinked in surprise, and almost laughed out loud. "You've spent the last two weeks tearing up the entire Mexico City underworld. You've got three different cartels with three different bounties on your head, you're wanted by the federales, and I'm thinking about killing you myself."

April frowned. "Yeah, fair. But none of them are really my enemies; they're just keeping me from getting what I want. I could kill them all if I wanted to, but I just want them to get out of my way so I can stop hurting them."

"Sure, that's totally not disturbing at all. Who are you?"

"It's complicated." April sighed. Here we go. "You... don't know me yet, but I've known you all of my life. We go way, way back... and kinda sideways. It's complicated, I said."

"You said. Make it simple."

April rolled her eyes. "Fine. Once upon a time, there was a young couple-- let's call them Peter and Mary Jane, and in this story, they were married and they had a little baby named May. But one dark and stormy night, an evil goblin stole her away. They searched and they searched, but they could not find where the evil goblin had hidden their baby. Peter's friends were Earth's mightiest heroes and the kingdom's cleverest spies, but they could not find Baby May."

That, at least, had finally garnered Kaine's full attention.

"But Peter had a brother, an evil twin that nobody talked about. Peter hated his evil twin as much as he loved him, and the evil twin loved Peter as much as he hated him. He tracked the evil goblin to his lair and slew him. He found Baby May and he carried her home to Peter in his arms. And then he disappeared again, for many years, until Baby May grew up and needed a grizzled old mentor to help her follow in her father's footsteps."

Kaine did laugh this time. "That is one impressive line of bullshit. But Pete and MJ never got married. Never had a kid. And if they did, she wouldn't have ended up leaving a trail of destruction through Mexico City to ask me to be her Mister Miyagi. I can't give you what you want, kid, but I'll give you airfare if you promise to leave Mexico tonight and never come back... and maybe I can keep my associates from following you home."

"I already told you... I'm not May. She was the best of us. I'm just a defective copy. I'm nothing but her you, Uncle Kaine."

Kaine stared at her, speechless.

"I want you to come home with me. I can help you. These were the worst years of your life, and I can help you get away. I know you want that more than anything... but I can't make you trust me, I can't make you come with me. So, if you want to stay here and keep fighting for someone else's drug money, I'll leave you alone. But I'm taking Ben's hoodie with me. One of us is going to wear it again."

[-FIN-]

Some people know La Tarantula is Kaine. Some people know Kaine is a clone of Spider-Man, and that there was another clone named Ben who died. Nobody knows that Kaine has been holding on to Ben's hoody for all these years.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:47, Sun 01 May 2022.

Their wounds still fresh from the deadly ordeal with Carnage, the heroes of that night each dealt with the fallout in their own ways. Some, like Domino and Spider-Woman, chose to lay low. Having ensured Kasady was down for the count, they departed with whatever spoils they had earned and went back to their private lives. Mayhem left NYC for Texas, searching for an answer of what to do with the life she had regained. This world she had arrived into was both different and familiar, and she soon found a potential guide in the hard-boiled Kaine Parker. Though Kaine had been like family to April in her universe, they were strangers to each other in this one. Still, she hadn't come all this way to find him only to return to NYC alone, had she...?

Back in New York, the Black Cat was wracked by horrible nightmares brought on by her encounter with the Ghost Rider. Whether unable or unwilling to reckon with whatever inner demons the experience had stirred up, she was eager for a distraction. Perhaps that was why she struck an unlikely crime-fighting partnership with the reformed Venom. Since bonding with the symbiotes he freed from Kasady's control, Eddie Brock's abilities had changed in ways he was only beginning to understand. But despite the vast power at his fingertips, Brock remained ever focused on becoming a friendly neighborhood hero. He was as likely to spend his nights helping the homeless as he was fighting supervillains. And now he and Felicia Hardy were going undercover to nab the mysterious culprit who was ripping off the local food banks...

As for the mettlesome Moon Knight, he seemed to have responded to the stress of his encounter with Cletus Kasady by throwing himself into his work. With the new powers granted to him by his alien symbiote, "Lunacy", he took his crime-fighting to new levels, earning a fearsome reputation amongst the supervillains of New York. Word had gotten around that he'd played a major role in Kasady's defeat, even killing one of Carnage's "Family" members during the course of the night-- the brutal "Bushman". No doubt it was this murder that had gotten the attention of the virtue-preaching vigilante, Daredevil, who even now confronted him atop a moonlit rooftop...

Continued in my next post.

Moon Knight's question to Daredevil hangs in the air for a good, long moment. At first, it might seem that the horned hero is merely considering his response. But if one were to look closely, they might notice a subtle, almost imperceptible change in his body language. From the slightest shift in his posture, an astute observer might realize that there is something else in the environment diverting his attention from the moonlit mercenary. It the smell of something burning. Even if Marc hasn't yet noticed it himself-- and he may well have-- he certainly couldn't miss the sound of Khonshu's derisive laughter...


Next, something for Venom and Black Cat.

Felicia Hardy's first day undercover at St. Elizabeth's, where she had planned to investigate the mysterious theft of food and charitable goods, begins with a rocky start. In fact, unless she awakens very quickly, her first shift may not begin at all.

Another Carnage nightmare. This time, she's re-watching the moment when the black-suited Spider-Man pinned Cletus Kasady to the ground in Yankee Stadium, a balled fist poised to pound the killer's exposed face into bloody pulp. At first, Felicia is all but cheering him on, as he hits Cletus once, then twice, and three times. Again and again, Kasady takes the blows, laughing in his maniacal way all the while.

In the far reaches of her unconscious mind, Felicia remembers: Daredevil will step in right about now. He'll talk the Spider down, and we'll all do this dance a while longer until Ghost Rider holds Carnage still and Domino finally--

No. Wait. Something's wrong. This time, the Devil isn't here. And Kasady is no longer laughing. Instead, the only sound to be heard is that of a broken man gargling his own blood and shattered teeth. Why won't the Spider stop hitting him? It's too much. Way too much. Felicia tries to call out, but finds she can't even make a sound.

The next time Spider-Man raises his fist, it hangs in the air for trembling eternity. Felicia tries to call out to him: No! Peter! but she still can't form the words. And so she watches helplessly as the hero's symbiote-covered fist changes into a blade. A red spray wets the grass as Peter drives it straight down into the killer's exposed face.

*SHUNNNK*

As Felicia wakes with a start, she can still hear his voice, choked with sobs: "Why? Why didn't you stop me, Felicia? You just stood there! Did you ever even care?"

By the time she gets her breathing under control-- long enough to realize she's late for her first shift-- she can't help but curse the fact that her powers only cause bad luck for others, and not good luck for herself. C'est la vie, eh, "Katia"?

But then again, it's only a couple of minutes past her start time... and this is volunteer work, not a typical nine-to-five. They're probably thankful for whatever help they can get, even coming from someone who's less than punctual. If she hightails it, she thinks, and plays up the confused immigrant girl angle, she might just sweet-talk her way into the good graces of her new boss. What was her name again? Mimi? Mary?

Whatever. She'll find out when she gets there.

I'll be setting up Venom's scene next, along with everyone else's, and then we'll get to rolling dice. Thanks all for your patience and continued interest.