"Is it confirmed that the Avengers have arrived in Europe?"
"Confirmed."
Scorpion, Mac Gargan, watched the news and remarked, "At least for now, we don't need to worry about the Avengers."
"Speaking of which, how do we handle the others?" Electro asked curiously. In terms of enthusiasm, he and Scorpion were likely the most eager members of the team to see Spider-Man suffer. Facing the question, Otto Octavius remained silent for a moment before giving his answer.
"Someone else will be responsible for handling them."
In truth, Otto had made a deal with a certain Mr. Griffin. The Winter Soldier appearing in Europe was a trap—one that wasn't even set by Hydra. It was orchestrated by someone else utilizing Hydra's movements.
As for who this "Griffin" truly was, Otto no longer cared. He only intended to execute his own plan. The Fantastic Four, the Defenders, the X-Men, and even the main Avengers were all being neutralized for him. In return, Otto and the Sinister Six had only one objective.
To completely annihilate Spider-Man.
"Let's move, Dillon."
"I can't. Those damn Avengers did something; I can't interface with the New York power grid," Electro muttered, cursing under his breath. He turned to Otto. "What now? Plan B?"
The entire operation was supposed to start with Electro, the team's most powerful asset. Plan A involved Electro absorbing the electricity of all New York to seize control of the grid and the entire city. Plan B was for Electro to generate an electromagnetic storm to completely paralyze New York's power, allowing them to take over manually.
Otto wasn't surprised that the Avengers had found a way to target Electro; no one wanted a repeat of the Raft prison break. He was, however, quite surprised that they had actually succeeded so effectively. Otto adjusted his glasses and thought carefully.
"No, we change tactics. Mr. William Baker, prepare to bring a sandstorm to New York."
Sandman grinned.
On the morning of June 1, 2013, the citizens of New York saw a sky full of yellow sand rising. Subsequently, a massive, terrifyingly tall Sandman appeared in the city. At that moment, the main force of the Avengers was in Europe. Peter, staying behind at Avengers Tower, watched this scene and calmly finished his glass of water. He then asked Ultron, "Can you reach the Fantastic Four?"
"Communications with the Fantastic Four are unresponsive."
Where did they go this time?
Peter grumbled to himself. He instructed Ultron to contact the X-Men and immediately suited up. Venom, who hadn't showcased his abilities in a long time, was also feeling quite excited. To face the Sinister Six, they had to go all out.
[Go, go, go!]
The giant Sandman stood tall. He did nothing else but follow Otto's instructions, constantly using his sand to interfere with the surrounding power lines and sabotage the system, preparing the way for Electro to invade New York's power grid. As he slowly pushed forward with the plan, he saw Spider-Man approaching.
Peter first attempted to use magic, trying to condense Sandman's spiritual essence and pull it out—this was the countermeasure he had prepared specifically for Baker. However, this idea was ruthlessly rejected; his magic was almost entirely useless against Sandman.
"Alright, William, look what we have here," Peter said, landing near the giant and staring at him. "Did you guys get a new circus ringmaster? Or did you hire a brand-new magician for your show?"
"About that..."
Sandman manipulated fine sand to appear behind Peter, slowly coalescing into a human form intended to restrain him. "Belasco sends his regards, Spider-Man!"
"What? Belasco?"
Peter was genuinely shocked by the name. After a brief moment of thought, he immediately deduced the only link connecting these events. "Is Otto working with Kang the Conqueror?"
"Who's that?"
The sand particles binding Peter were instantly heated into glass by a burst of bio-electricity and then torn apart by Peter. However, Sandman, currently immune to physical attacks, quickly reformed himself and used the swirling yellow dust to mask the movements of his teammates.
Then, Peter's Spider-Sense went off, but something was different.
He had only felt this specific sensation from one other person. He performed a backflip, dodging an attack from Scorpion's mechanized tail and a punch from Sandman. Simultaneously, he fired a web to snag the tail of the Scorpion, who was ambushing him from behind. "Scorpion? Looks like someone forgot how I ripped his tail off last time. You don't want the new one either?"
"You won't survive this time, Spider-Man!" Gargan grinned savagely, jerking his tail and engaging Peter in a brief tug-of-war. Peter watched the ground crack beneath his feet, shocked as he was yanked toward Scorpion, and barely managed to raise his arms to block a punch.
The strength of that punch far exceeded Peter's previous impressions of Scorpion. He stared at Scorpion, whose face was obscured by the sandstorm, calculating when his backup would arrive.
Reasonably, with Illyana available, the X-Men should have been able to arrive via teleportation almost instantly. With the help of the White Queen's telepathy and the X-Men's offensive, he could break the Sinister Six quickly.
But they hadn't arrived.
Peter took a deep breath. He feared the X-Men were in trouble. Moreover, it was unlikely the Sinister Six had gone to deal with them; the X-Men had likely encountered a problem in the short time since he had called for aid.
After receiving Spider-Man's call for help, Cyclops set out immediately with a portion of the X-Men. Aside from Logan, who stayed behind with Rogue and a few students to investigate Mr. Sinister, the rest intended to use Magik's teleportation to head to downtown New York.
However, the moment they entered Limbo to transit, Illyana was forced to stop. A man sitting on a purple chair was watching them within Limbo. The X-Men had never met this man, but having shared intel with the Avengers, they knew who he was.
"Kang the Conqueror?"
"It was quite easy to guess your route, mutants," Kang sneered, standing up from his chair. Cyclops immediately opened fire on Kang, but in the next second, Kang vanished. They landed stumblingly and looked around. Illyana was certain she hadn't activated a teleport, yet they had arrived in this place. A sandstorm swirled around them; it seemed they had arrived in New York during Sandman's attack.
"Where is this?"
Cyclops looked to Emma, hoping she could use her telepathy to scout the surroundings. Just then, a lean, grey-skinned man wearing burlap robes stepped out of the sandstorm. His face was marked with blue patterns, and he looked at the group that had suddenly appeared in the storm with confusion.
"I am En Sabah Nur. Slave to the Pharaoh Rama-Tut." He looked at them. "Who are you?"
The Kang Dynasty, start!
Just kidding, it starts after the Sinister Six lose.
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