Arc Eleven. Chapter Three-Hundred Twenty Three. Prime Suspect

“That isn't going to happen Nimrod.” Venom said, As he lifted his arm cannon Venom and Ravage both sent out a line of webbing. They knew they wouldn't stick to Nimrod’s body, but with the two webs acting as a bola, they wrapped around his torso.

“Ignorant fools,” Nimrod shouted, and flexing he tore through the webbing easily. “None shall stand before the might of oof-” Widow had gone up to the ceiling and gotten behind him, as he broke free, she swung down and kicked him in the back of the head, sending him sprawling.

As he stumbled, Venom send out a line and snagged one foot, while Ravage took off, and barreled into him, sending him tumbling to the ground.

“We have back-up and once they’re here we can-” and he was interrupted as the lights flickered and came on,

We have access and Optimus has restarted the fusion reactors. Did you find the command centre? He felt Arcee ask him,

Uh yeah, and Megatron, Nimrod is a cannibalised Cybertronian

Peter figured that Trask, unwilling to give up his goldmine of alien tech would come here and take pieces of the Decepticon, using it to build prototypes. With no access to doors or other systems, he could only scavenge what was here, and without further investigation, he figured that they had dismantled Megatron to get him out of the small tunnel they built. It wouldn’t surprise him if there were more Cybertronians with missing parts.

“Autobots?” Megatron shouted and raised the cannon at Venom, “Pathetic. None shall stand before the might of Megatron.” As the end of the cannon flared and fired, a bright purple bean streaked across the room and exploded against a console, sending the occupant of the chair flying.

“Hostile Action Detected. Safety Protocols Engaged.” Came a robotic sounding voice from a speaker somewhere in the room.

And Nimrod clutched at his head silently screaming, the strange banded armour over his body flexing and distorting as he writhed in pain.

“Uh, what?” Venom stood from his crouch. He had been ready to attack, with the trio behind him, but the lights turned to red and Nimrod lay on the ground clutching his head.

Optimus enabled the security systems. We were caught by surprise before, the Decepticons had snuck aboard the ark, disabled key systems and then attacked. We were overwhelmed and many died. Arcee filled him in,

Right, so what do we do about Mega-rod? Nah, Nimatron?

Arcee chuckled, leave him, the noise disrupts our central transformation cog. His body is trying to forcefully transform but cannot due to a blocking signal. It is incredibly painful and debilitating. He is enough of a Cybertronian that it worked. His powers must utilise our transformation abilities.

Peter could imagine and thought that sounded incredibly painful. But, for a race that could transform parts of themselves into whatever they wanted, how else would they keep them contained. It wasn't like they could put them in jail.

The door to the command centre opened, and Arcee, Optimus, Bumblebee, Ironhide, and Jazz all entered wearing white helmets. “We can take him from here. I must access the main computer. I would appreciate it if you could contact your government. We do not wish to cause panic when we start reactivating systems.”

Peter smiled and nodded, it was Optimus's polite way of telling him to go away, and as he nodded at the other three Optimus and his crew began the grim task of moving and cataloguing the fallen.

Arcee smiled, and as Peter passed, she spoke to him, I will remain here for now, but please, do not think we are ungrateful. We have friends who are in hibernation, but many are not.

Peter smiled back at her, It’s fine. We’ll get Earth alerted, and if you need help, you know where we are.

As the smaller group left the Cybertronians to their task, they headed back out through the now lit spaceship. Peter could see where fighting had taken place, and the walls were covered in scorch marks. They followed the tracks and excited out the way they had come in,

“Well, who exactly do we call?” Peter asked Natasha and Carol, “I mean, it’s not like Shield, Sword or the military are exactly on friendly terms with us, and as soon as we give anyone warning they’ll know we stole the Autobots from Hoover Dam.” and 

Carol laughed and shook her head, “We call all three. Let the Autobots deal with them. This isn't our fight, and it's also not our problem. Optimus made that perfectly clear. If the Earth has been visited by aliens then we need to put on some big boy pants and grow the hell up.”

Peter shrugged and finding a decent rock, sat down.

Natasha shrugged, “I agree with Carol. It’s not our problem anymore. If Optimus needs our help, then we help, if not, leave it to the suits to figure out. You, however, need to go home and kiss some serious ass over Arcee.”

Peter laughed and stood, stretching, “your just jealous cause I got alien booty, giant robot alien booty.”

“Not the only one, “ she said with a wink, as he wasn’t aware of just what Arcee and Natasha had been up to when returning the RV

“You know Pete, technically I'm an alien as well,” Carol said, tilting her head, “wait, we all are, the Klyntar are aliens,” 

Peter shrugged, “But not giant robots, there is an important difference” and carol snorted and batted his arm. 

“Dork. Call Wanda and get her to come pick us up. I’d rather be at home making these calls than in the middle of nowhere.” Carol said, and she was right. Sitting at the base of a cold mountain wasn’t exactly thrilling.

Arcee, we’re going back to our home, we’ll set up meetings with Earth's authorities from there so you have privacy. If we do it here the military will swarm this place. Let Optimus know we’ll be back in contact, and let us know when you're done.

Will do Peter, and thank you. Natasha gave me the means to tap into your communications, so I may make a ‘booty call’ if need be. Megatron is contained and in a holding cell, and we can finally start rebuilding. Optimus asks, can we count on your assistance again?

Peter was surprised that she’d even ask, of course, but I guess you mean with the repairs as well as the military?

He felt Arcee mentally nod. We need supplies, rare metals and possible power sources, we do not wish to be held hostage during the negotiations.

Dont worry Arcee, keep our involvement quiet, keep Reboot's existence quiet and we can help without anyone knowing.

We shall Peter and good luck.

A yellow portal opened as Wanda motioned at them,

“I am not a taxi Peter, you could have just flown back, or bothered Mariah,” Wanda complained as Peter and the rest stepped through the portal and kissed her cheek one by one,

“I know, but this way, you get to practice, and I get to see you.” She faked anger but was smiling, “plus, it's kinda important, and I need to be home.”

Peter walked up the stairs and into his home, dialling the number Coulson had given him. He would deal with Shield, while Carol contacted Ross.

“I need to make an appointment with the director, tell him tis about Hoover Dam, and Ross should be getting a call as well.”

With the Sentinel incident, Coulson was no longer on speed dial, and all Peter was left with was a messaging service that he knew Coulson checked once in a while. Ross had been true to his word and got off scot-free. As far as everyone was concerned he was following orders and doing his duty. Flash and Steve were gone from the Avengers Initiative and a new team, the New Avengers were being paraded around by the media.

His phone bussed, 

We know, the report came in an hour after you left, tomorrow Nine am, Ross will be there, come alone - Coulson

Yup, it was going to be another one of those days.

Throwing his phone on the chair next to him, Peter sat back and rested his hands on his head, he pulled a few faces and huffed, leaning over and grabbing his phone again

Meeting with Ross and Coulson about our new friends, pretty sure they’ll call you, Even if they don’t you need to be there. tomorrow at Nine.

Ad with a small scowl, he messaged Tony. The government wasn't about to hand him the contracts to deal with the Cybertronians and he knew Stark was their poster boy now. He had stood up to Venom and taken one for the team. And he was leading the New Avengers in Steve's place.

His phone buzzed and he laughed as he checked the message,

Yeah, they already did, guess who’s cleaning up your mess at the Hoover Dam, and now this? I should bill you.

Peter shook his head

Yup, go ahead and I’ll sic Pepper on you, and Peter laughed to himself, but seriously, what I need to discuss makes the Dam look like a lego set. You’ve seen the remains, there are more. Don’t start messing with them, the species they belong to wants them back, tell you more tomorrow.

He had been as vague as possible, as he knew Stark would be going ballistic trying to figure out if these were alive or not. Peter knew he would lose his shit over meeting Optimus and the rest.

His last message was to Charles. He knew he needed to get him on board with his latest idea, and he was the best source of information, as he already ran one school. 

What he was not looking forwards too was putting all four of them in one room together.

Charles?

Yes, Peter. Jean let me know to expect your message.

I would like some advice, about a school.

Charles sat back in his chair, surprised that Peter of all people would suggest such a thing.

Why dont you come up and we can discuss it, or are you still playing with your giant robot friends?

Peter laughed, Yeah, can I take a rain check on that, and send you my outline. It's been one of those weeks.

Charles chuckled, “of course, I'm sure the X-Men would be happy to spend time with Jean, if she is free, then give her your file.”

Thanks, Charles, and Peter cut the psychic link.

Peter turned his phone off for the rest of the evening. May and Curt both had everyone's number and if it was really important, everyone else knew where he lived. He had more important things to deal with right now, and heading downstairs he slipped out a green flag onto the bathhouse and set one of the tubs filling.

He wanted a bath and an actual soak. He was never dirty and a shower took care of anything his symbskin missed but submerging in an almost intolerable hot water was a pleasure few could match. It soothed and relaxed aching muscles, worked into areas even nimble fingers couldn't reach and he sighed as he lay there with his eyes closed.

He heard Gwen and MJ come in, and slip into the pool, “hey Pete, whatcha thinkin?” Gwen asked.

J was now a spokeswoman for AIM, and much to her annoyance actually needed to study. Some booth babes as they were derogatorily called were just eye candy but that brunette trying to pitch a sale had to know her stuff and wasn't just there as a piece of bait. Much to MJ’s annoyance.

When Gwen came up with a new cosmetic, it was shipped to Emma for marketing and sales, where MJ usually shot the commercials. It was her face on every billboard but she was also expected to know the actual chemistry behind everything. When no symbiote on Gwen, they couldn't even swap around to learn it by osmosis and Gwen took an hour each day to lecture MJ on what exactly the formula enhanced creams and cosmetics did.

While White Cat cosmetics were now slowly becoming the go-to brand, Gwen had also branched out with two new lines. Health foods and drinks.

Her Regenex sports formulas, protein mixes and isotonic energy drinks were flying off the shelves, and her Rejuvin-Eight line of medicine was currently still under FDA testing but everything pointed to a release within a few months. A line of formula enhanced cold remedies and other sundry medicines would be just as successful. Gwen was making more money than everyone combined, and even Parker Inc and Octech, with a lot of industrial contracts, couldn't touch her bottom line combined.

“Life, stuff, hitting thirty. General things,” he admitted

“Uh oh. Going to have your mid-life crisis?” Gwen teased him and he laughed

“Yup, gonna build a robot suit, swing around New York fighting crime and make out with beautiful sexy women, all to prove I’m not past it.”

Gwen snorted, “Shit, is that it? Sign me right up,” she added, laughing with MJ