Owner	Pose
Peter Parker	Spider-Man finished Patrol Route Seven about five minutes ago and is webslinging home. He is distracted. Now isn't a bad time to be distracted, he knows this trip home like the back of his hand, but this route travels along the periphery of Manhattan Island, and tonight he is taking a slight detour. The Smallpox Hospital has a few memories for him. Many of them unpleasant. But it seems like a good place to contemplate unpleasant things...like what may happen to the Big Apple... He lands on a roof beam in the west wing of the abandoned hospital, looking across the river to the Manhattan skyline. Is the Big Apple about to get baked?
Ben Reilly	"Hey." Ben doesn't aim to surprise Peter, but his sudden call out from within the ruins seems to spring from nowhere. It's no surprise that they share a lot of the same 'thinking places', this one included. Ben leaps an easy several feet into the air, landing further along the beam and taking up a remarkably similar resting position. "You too, huh?"
Peter Parker	Spidey is finishing off a text to Ted Kord when the...Other Spider-Man?...lands. The message is quick and to the point. <Ted? Spidey. Listen, can you come to the Smallpox Hospital Ruins on Roosevelt Island?> A few dots as he ponders, then finishes with, <...come as the Blue Beetle if you can.> A second after he sends it, another Spider-Man arrives! The guy in the red suit and the blue hoodie is...reminiscent of his own first suit. Only this guy...WAIT, he knows him! It's been awhile, but it's the Scarlet Spider. "Uhhh...hey. Long time, no see, Scarlet. I..." he looks around. "Uhhh...how have you been holding up?"
Ben Reilly	"Not for lack of trying," Ben answers, lazily reaching up to pull his mask off. He looks a little more dishevelled than last they met - blonde hair longer and shaggier, stubble around his jaw. He tucks the mask away into his belt, laying down horizontal on the roof beam and folding his hands on his stomach. "I went to Gotham for a bit. Metropolis. And come on with the crime-fighter names. We aren't exactly a mystery to each other, Pete." He shakes his head slightly, staring up at the sky. "Still feels weird to say."
Ted Kord	Ted Kord gets the text. He was just finishing getting his hair cut and beard trimmed neatly. the first time he closed his full face mask on it... was not fun. His scream scared the drones. He brushes away the mirror Bobo offers and says, "Code Blue!" He raises his arms and stands very still or tries as the bots converge on him, kitting him out in the familiar blue uniform. For once it isn't snug. He did lose weight!! He gets lifted up and placed in his pants, he really did put them on both legs at a time, gets his boots and triggers the aero-discs that snap onto his feet. A bot opens the skylight for him and he streaks to Roosevelt Island. He sends Peter a text to let him know his ETA and position.
Peter Parker	Spider-Man is about to say something when the alert comes in. A pointer also pops up, with the distance at 12.3 miles and counting down rapidly. "Yeah, well, now you're going to meet someone ELSE who knows who I am, and it looks like he'll be here in less than a minute." He paused, then adds, "I told him because I trust him. Your call on how much you want to trust him with. But I wanted to talk to him about this whole disaster-movie situation..."
Ben Reilly	"I mean, if he's seen your face, he's seen mine," Ben adds lazily, turning his head where he's laying to look towards the distant approach of the Blue Beetle, "I call dibs on not having to explain it, though." A moment later he squints his eyes into the distance, frowning slightly. "Wait, who is it?"
Ted Kord	Ted Kord activates his night vision mode and spots the two figures. He drops down out of the sky and the discs detach and fly onto his back. "... whoa. Is everything OK?" Because Peter is very protective of his secrets. Now there are two Peters. This is strange and in a bad way. Mind control? Evil double from that lousy alt Earth? The BB gun is in his hand. "Will the real Spidey... please tell me what I food I am /always/ in the mood for and had cryo frozen at one point?
Ben Reilly	When the Blue Beetle arrives and starts to ask 'questions only the non-clone would know' Ben rolls his eyes and turns his head away from the man. "Are you serious?" he mutters to himself, letting his head fall back down and thud gently on the roof beam he lays upon. As Peter's about to answer, Ben cannot help but chime in: "It's probably the one who doesn't look like he slept in a dumpster, my dude."
Peter Parker	Peter sighed. "Aunt May's apple pie. I still haven't told her, but there's three she just finished making for you to welcome you back." He sighed. "Blue Beetle...i'd like you to meet the Scarlet Spider. Real name Ben Reilly, as in my Uncle Ben." Another pause. "Ben is...well, he's my clone."
Ted Kord	Ted Kord holsters the gun. "Did he call me 'my dude'? No matter. There was a rash of evil doubles around here a while ago. Anyway, nice to meet you, Ben. I'm Ted." He retracts the hood and mask and pulls the goggle down around his neck. Ted extends a hand to Surfer Spidey. -I wonder f he needs a few bucks?
Ben Reilly	"Or Peter's my clone, the jury's still out," Ben answers with a sniff, before sitting up and looking towards Peter with a grin, "I'm just kidding. I'm not going to steal your life. Honest." "Yeah, I know who you are. I keep up with tech news. All the fancy gadgets and toys I can't afford. There's got to be something Zen about that, right?" He reaches to shake Ted's offered hand, giving him a saccharin smile. "Nice to meet you, Ted. You're a lot more buff in person."
Peter Parker	Peter nods and sighs. "Yeah, he's kinda snarky. No idea where he gets that." He takes a deep breath, then says, "Well, Ben, I was going to talk to Ted about this Event we heard about last night. I live in Queens, but...what the heck is supposed to hit Manhattan, and can't anyone do anything to stop it?"
Ted Kord	Ted Kord rolls his eyes a little. Then counts off his fingers, "Superman, Wonder Woman, Tony Stark, Reed Richards, any and all Green Lanterns. Honestly guys, I love Booster and Dmitri but if it came down to use trying to stop that whatever... something is really messed up. I think the mayor just likes yelling to panic. You want, I'll send Aunt May to Florida or somewhere. My treat." He looks over curiously at Ben, "So you working for anyone? Still in school?"
Ben Reilly	"I've seen it," Ben answers, suddenly shedding the snark to sound serious, "The asteroid, I mean. JF09. The Titans and I went up there in a shuttle. It's ... not a rock. It's, well, I don't know how to explain it in any way that makes physical sense. But they're angels. Or aliens. Aliens that look like angels. The whole 'meteor' thing, they said, is because we ... " He clears his throat, emulating a deep and authoritative voice: "Cannot comprehend their true forms." He shakes his shaggy blonde head, brow furrowing. "Either way, there's a lot of them up there." The offer to send Aunt May to Florida perks his interest: "Yeah. Pete, I think you should take him up on that. Get her out of the way. I want to trust the big guys, but I don't think even Superman can stop that many whatever-they-ares." The question from Ted prompts a raise of his eyebrow: "I work at Pepe's Pizza. I've got his high school education up here," with one hand he points at Peter, tapping his temple with the other, "But that's it. Can't exactly afford college when you don't technically exist."
Peter Parker	Peter frowns. That's...a lot to take in, especially since he still goes to church with Aunt May every Sunday. He looks a little uncomfortable, but his eyes slowly look to Ted. "Would you really? I mean, I would like to see her out of the line of fire, even though we're not on the Island. We don't really have any relatives anywhere she can stay with." It isn't easy to ask for help in this way. He'd done so well to keep Harry from thinking he was only interested in him for money. But Ted did offer...and these were desperate times.
Ted Kord	Ted Kord swats Peter on the arm. Not that he could hurt him. "With all the work you've done for me, all the good you did for this city, with the time you were there when I lost it? You have to ask? I can have a car ready for her in an hour. Name the place. You should go help her pack and all that and tell me when she's ready except she won't go without you. You can say you're working with me. I... am leaving town. I have obligations and fuck the aliens. Can assume any form. They pick angels. Why not Corgis, or swimsuit models? So Ben did you tell them their rock or collective, whatever, is scaring a bunch of people as it appears to be attempting a probe of the planet's core at mach 30?"
Ben Reilly	"Uh, yeah, Ted, we did," Ben answers, scratching the back of his head with a sigh, "Believe it or not, they don't seem to really care. They're unmaking the universe, apparently. Unless some champion can do something at some point. Answer unclear, try again later." He breathes a sigh of relief. Even if sending Aunt May to Florida doesn't really feel like a permanent solution being as all of creation is being threatened. Still, the Sunshine State is out of immediate harm's way.
Peter Parker	Peter nodded, then paused. "Before I suggest anything...you said something last night. Something about declaring war on someone...can you elaborate, please?"
Ted Kord	Ted Kord ponders this for a moment. "Well that changes everything. I mean maybe it all comes down to me? Maybe I'm that great champion... bwa-hahahahahaha. Right. I'm going with Captain America for that pure of heart angle. What's that? War? I talk too much when I drink. Uhm yeah. Long story but the short version... I've been buying lithium and selenium from a quaint little Central America nation, Santo Rico. Someone tried to kill me because of this. Turns out Santo Rico is ruled by a collection of assholes who jail a lot of dissidents to then work them to death in these mines. So... I am spending a lot of money to get an honest dissident elected president to ask the UN for further help. I leased land for my own mine, began paying the workers, educating them, giving them modern living arrangements and in doing this, I built a huge voting block without them realizing this. I intend to give them an honest election. When I said 'war' well I was fighting it with money. Not bombs and guns. There's enough of that. I can use some muscle to keep the voters safe and not intimidated, and make sure the results are counted fairly. The UN is lending a hand with that."
Ben Reilly	"Well, that sounds like ... not my business." Ben rises to his feet, stretching out his back and rolling his head on his shoulders. He stands the exact same height as Peter, too. He wanders over to his clone-bro, reaching out to offer him a secret handshake - dap, backslap, forward slap, thumb war, shake, complete - then offers a casual sort of wave to Ted. "Good luck with everything, Ted. Thanks for taking care of Aunt May for m - for us. And Pete? Stay safe, okay? These angels are no joke. I'm not leaving the city, but I wouldn't blame you if you did."
Peter Parker	Peter looked to Ben after the handshake, nodding to him. "You got Spider-Comm. Stay in touch." He looked back to Ted, but he was smiling slightly. "That's a pretty sneaky way to do the right thing, Ted. I'm impressed. It's above-board, fair, and helps people on a fundamental level. I suspect they'll never know what hit them."
Ted Kord	Ted Kord nods and looks a little embarrassed. "Yeah well... I read the Foundation Trilogy GHU knows how many times. 'Violence is the refuge of the incompetent. It's a last resort. Also hearts and minds. An educated and well fed voter is a despot's nightmare."