"I can"t stay here all night!" Gwen shouted. Peter, looked to her and shouted in a threatening tone "Listen to me." Her Symbiote reacted to her fear and struck out at him, thankfully it couldn"t do squat to his suit. "Calm down, the Symbiote is reacting to your emotions, it doesn"t understand what to do."Gwen quickly started to breathe in and out, while thinking "Calm down." over and over again.
The Symbiote responded to her and started to return to normal. "If you go out now you could endanger your loved ones by wearing that, the Symbiote is like an exposed nerve, sensitive to even the slightest change in your emotion. Oh, and if you get a craving for brains I suggest using chocolate since what the Symbiote is craving Phenylethylamine or the Dopamine our brains produce when eating it."
"Spider-Man are you a scientist!?" Gwen"s eyes went wide, when Spider-Man said, "I know my way around a chemistry set, alright."
Spider-Man and the new Spiderette chatted for a while, Gwen was a studying to become a geneticist and was interning at Horizon Labs, she was 2 years older than Peter in this world, and was in her first year of college. While the two chatted, MJ was walking through a large hallway with Doctor strange, they arrived at a throne room that was mostly made of marble. A woman with long red hair that almost touched the ground sat in her stone-like throne alongside Black Bolt, standing next to them was Crystal who was staring down Maximus, Black Bolt"s insane younger brother.
"King and Queen of the Inhumans, I am Doctor Steven Strange, Sorcerer Supreme." Steven bowed and MJ did so as well, "Raise your head Strange," Madusa said, nodding her head at Black Bolt, "Why have you come to Attilan?"
Strange looked at Black Bolt before he answered, "Many years ago when Attilan was first built, the Sorcerer Supreme and the first King made a pact, should the world ever be threatened by their old enemies, they would once again unite." Strange looked at Maximus and frowned before continuing, "The key you took back, is part of that pact, can I ask why you chose to reclaim it?"
Maximus smiled and said, "Brother, should we kill him he brought a human to our kingdom."
Black Bolt looked at Maximus and shook his head in disappointment then suddenly back at Strange, after communing with his wife, Madusa said, "I understand that this one is a Hero who protected the earth from invaders, however, we have no recollection of such a pact."
"That"s because it took place around 25 thousand years ago." Strange pulled out a parchment and placed it out in front of them when Maximus heard this he thought of what something that he had been searching of for a very long time, thinking Strange might know of the Prima Materia tried to peer into Strange"s mind, unfortunately for him, there are consequences for trying to invade a Sorcerer Supreme"s consciousness, Maximus screamed out as foam started gathering at his mouth when Madusa was about to attack Strange, Crystal suddenly jumped at Maximus screaming, "You b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"
Crystal punched him in the face and part of her body was engulfed in flames, water and lighting surrounded her as she blasted towards Maximus with the intent to kill, just as she was about to strike, Madusa curled her hair at her and bound her up, "Crystalia, what are you doing?"
"Let me go, sister! I"ll kill him that b.a.s.t.a.r.d made me his slave, sealed my personality and made me do his bidding for the last 3 years, now let me go!" Crystal yelled.
Strange frowned, "I"m sorry but it appears your brother attempted to search my thoughts, he managed to make it through most of my defensive spells, unfortunately for him, he encountered my rebound spell. Right now his mind has fractured a bit, imagine if you could take all of your mental energy and form it into a punch, well he essentially just punched himself in the brain, really hard."
Crystal looked to him and bowed, "Thank you!" Madusa looked conflicted, she a superior Inhuman of the Royal family had no idea that Crystal was being controlled. She turned to Maximus and fury could be seen radiating in her eyes, "WHY?" Madusa shouted as she wrapped Maximus up, "Why did you betray us?"
"Because you follow a madman! He killed our parents! He doesn"t deserve the throne!" Maximus shouted as she tightened her grip around his body, "It was your fault that he had to use his powers, do you think I know nothing of what happened, do you think Black Bolt never told me of your betrayal. The only reason we kept you close, was to keep an eye on you in case you tried to sell your own people again, I just didn"t know your powers had manifested, you did well hiding it."
Black Bolt stood up and looked disappointed in his brother, when Strange said, "I"m sorry to interrupt this family moment, but I can offer my a.s.sistance." He then sent a telepathic message to Black Bolt and the two conversed for a while, after reaching some kind of agreement, Strange"s hands lit up and powerful red bands came out and surrounded Maximus and then Strange brought out a strange artifact that looked like a spine.
He threw the Crimson Shackles of Cyttorak on to him and they watched as the magical relic imprisoned his body and mind in a metal exoskeleton. "These shackles will seal in all his mental abilities and is quite unbreakable, only those who speak the keyword will be able to release him."
Madusa was still holding back a p.i.s.sed off Crystal who was doing everything she could not to blow up and attack him again when MJ walked up said, "Are we finished here?"
Strange sighed before he turned to MJ and explained, "The King has allowed us to keep one of the keys to their city, but in exchange, I have to do something for him. He wants me to create a barrier for magical protection around his city, this will take me a couple of days so why don"t you help young Crystal." Strange looked to Crystal and said, "Couldn"t you accommodate young Spider-Woman here, perhaps you should show her around, it"s not often that a human gets to walk around Allitia."
"If you don"t mind answering, could you tell me why you"re taking back all the keys to your city?" MJ asked.
"It"s because we are moving, we"ve recently gotten into a spat with the Atlantians, we either risk war or move again." Madusa explained, "I was ordered to gather them up because they were only designed to travel around the earth." Crystal continued.
"Where are you taking this place?" MJ asked.
"To the moon," Madusa said, looking at MJ with interest. "Tell me what kind of human are you? Are you a mutant?"
"No I"m a Mutate; just your everyday lab designed superhuman mutation formula, although some other things such as my suit help!" MJ answered.
"It"s as we thought Husband, the human"s technology grows too powerful, soon they would easily be able to find us. It appears your decision to leave the planet was the right choice." Madusa claimed.
Black Bolt nodded his head when Madusa asked Crystal, "Could you give us some time with the Sorcerer?"
Crystal nodded her head and led MJ out of the Throne room. As they walked away Crystal turned back and apologized, "Please forgive my behavior earlier, my mind was not my own."
MJ waved her hand, "It"s no problem, can"t say I"ve ever had my mind controlled before, but having done so must be the best excuse for rude behavior." MJ held out her hand, "Let"s try this again, I"m Spider-Woman."
Crystal smiled and shook her hand, "My name is Crystal."
The two chatted for a while, mostly about what it was like living in a city, and what the other species were like, "We"ll my...Spider-Man told me that there is no real difference in race, you may be Inhumans, but from what I can see you"re no different than any other Human, Mutant, or Alien that I"ve met, though the only aliens I"ve met so far tried to take over the world."
Crystal then replied, "But I have power"s and am genetically different and superior to most of mankind."
MJ shook her head, "So what? You feel and have desires just like the rest of us, the only difference that matters is how we act, and what we choose to do. It"s our actions that define us as a "person" not our race." Crystal smiled, she had always been curious as to what living outside would be like, as she was showing MJ around the city"s many sites, when MJ asked, "Is Atlantis real, and why the sudden decision to relocate to the moon of things? I mean it"s the freaking moon?"
Crystal looked a bit fl.u.s.tered and upset when she responded, "Actually, yes it is, and the person who rules over it, is a total..."
"What!? My father is a total what?" A young man with long black hair lept down from a nearby building, he wore a scaled armor, with black vestments. He marched up next to Crystal and frowned, "You"re going to become my wife someday. So you better learn to respect my father."
"Kamar!, The Inhuman"s do not marry outside their race, why does your father insist on forcing this matter!? You do know that I would sooner run away than becoming your bride."
"Then father would just wage war on the Inhumans, there is nowhere you can go that we can"t find, if you run, Atlantis"s armies will rise up and destroy Attilan." Kamar frowned and reached for her arm, when MJ grabbed it, "Could you go away? You smell like fish," MJ seeing the situation had answered her own question, then looked to Crystal wanting to help her out.
Kamar looked at Spider-Woman in disgust, "Filthy land dweller, remove your hand. Crystal what is this human doing here?" he pulled his hand back and said, "You land dwellers will meet your fate in time."
MJ frowned when Crystal snapped back. "She is a guest of mine, you have a problem with my friends? What are you doing here anyway, and how did you get past our defenses?"
"Your Attilan has no magic training, while our kingdom has spent thousands of years perfecting ours, even my dull sister could get in here without even needing to try." Kamar boasted like the spoiled child that he was.
MJ laughed, thinking of the deal Black Bolt just made, when Crystal said, "You can"t just come here uninvited! You think we are afraid of you just because you know magic doesn"t mean you can follow us anywhere."
Kamar reached out for her collar, and was about to start demanding things when MJ webbed his mouth shut, "You know I really hate pushy guys. Come on Crystal lets go." MJ webbed over to a nearby high rise before grabbing Crystal and swinging away, Kamar was about to give chase when he fell on his face. He looked down at he feet to see webbing around it.
"Did I misjudge, is she an Inhuman too?" A blue light pulled the webbing from his body and he frowned as he saw them webbing away.
As they swung across the city Crystal shouted happily, "I can fly, but this is really fun for some reason!" Crystal shouted fascinated by Web-Slinging. "I know, I can use my suit to fly, but something about the fall and becoming weightless for a few seconds is really exciting," MJ replied as she landed on a nearby building.
"So your family is planning on running away because of an arranged marriage?" MJ asked.
"No they are relocating because they don"t like war, there are these beings called the Skrulls, and Kree, they are enemies to all of humanity, and we can"t afford to lose our people with such a treat looming over us."
MJ became upset the more she heard about the enemies that existed outside of earth, the desire to grow stronger was burning more than ever before when MJ swallowed her pride and asked, "Crystal how strong are you?"