Chapter Thirty Six:

Peter was secretly watching Ben and Jean talk from his corner of the air craft. He was watching only in part to MJ pointing it out, Peter didn't like to pry into another person's relationship. MJ was being way nosier than he, himself thought they should.

"We'll, they don't seem..." Peter started.

"Shh!" MJ cut him off mid-sentence, "I'm trying to listen!" She whispered screamed at him.

Peter didn't see why they should be so interested it was a little obvious she was letting him down easy. He had seen it a million times... up close and personal. It stung every time, and he almost hated watching it from this distance.

"MJ, we should really…."

"Shh!" MJ interrupted him again and gave him a vicious glare.

Well… apparently, she was a lot more invested into their conversation than he had expected.

"Everyone, suit up! We will be arriving in twenty minutes!" Beast's voice said over the coms breaking everyone out of their individual conversations.

MJ's expression made Peter wonder if he should keep the blue man away from her for the foreseeable future. Although he didn't know how he would manage the feat when she was going to be staying on the ship while they were on the ground… 'Well good luck blue man.' Peter thought internally.

Ben shook himself away from the conversation with Jean. It was her right to decide on when she wanted a relationship so he wasn't going to brood about it too much. Strapping on his web shooters Peter approached him putting a hand on his shoulder.

"So, what happened?" Peter asked. Yeah MJ put him up to asking the question… He had agreed in part because she wouldn't leave him alone until he asked but he was also interested as well.

A look of understanding crossed Ben's face before he replied, "She uh, has a boyfriend… it wasn't a good time. Ya know?"

Nodding his head Peter was feeling a little awkward, he had started this questioning due to the pressure MJ had put on him but now he didn't know how to continue questioning. He spotted MJ speaking with Jean making it seem easy, he tried not to glare at the pair of red heads.

Sighing Ben continued without being prompted, "If the guy wasn't such a Flash Thompson, I probably wouldn't be so frustrated. I mean she is choosing to be with a guy that uses his head to crush beer cans… Maybe I'm dodging a bullet." Yeah, he didn't really feel like that but it felt good to express himself a little.

"Wait like Flash… Thompson?" Peter asked imagining his high school bully.

"No, much worse… He out Flash-es him." Ben said with a small smile.

"That is unbelievable…" Peter said looking stunned.

Getting a stern expression on his face Ben switches gears to a more serious one. "Peter, if things go sideways get Jean out of there and don't look back. There are people that have done right by me and I don't want them hurt... Jean is one of them." Ben knew Warren was a twisted man, and he probably already had a plan to remove him from the equation. So, he didn't want to leave it up to chance if Warren had a magic button that would make him fall apart like Kaine, he didn't want to be a burden.

"Nothing is going to happen; I got your back brother." Pete said reassuringly.

Smiling Ben didn't say anything as he fit his mask over his face.

---

Kaine noticed the plan flying at a lower altitude and began to prepare himself for the upcoming battle. He couldn't do much about his stiff limbs but even on a bad day he could take the two spiders' easily. Suddenly he received a splitting headache and he started to receive visions of the near future.

Ben and Peter in a large circular dome high in the air on a metal platform… They were standing in front of… Warren and another clone with a familiar red headed girl in his grasp. The clone stood taller than himself and had a glazed look in his eyes… and he was holding MJ over a vat of boiling green substance in massive containers.

The vision continued but without realizing it Kaine's grip on the Phoenix slipped away and he crashed into a large sand dune. Luckily enough for the clone the ship was flying slow enough that with his enhanced abilities he received very little damage from the fall.

Standing up the clone had a crazed look in his eyes, "Dammit to hell!" He cursed if he didn't make it in time MJ would be gone forever. Seemingly more informed about the situation than anyone else Kaine ran at high speeds through the desert to attempt to catch up with the air craft.

---

Scott was very tempted to do what the metal headed man said but he couldn't. Scott was a lot of things but he couldn't lead his team into a battle and abandon them half way. But what he could do…

"Get out of here. If you don't leave within the count of five all bets are off." Scott's brows were furrowed. He couldn't do much but letting them go could be explained away. He might have to answer a lot of questions but this was still within his power as team captain.

With a smirk still on his face Magneto and the blonde floated into the air and started away. The look on the X-men's faces were confused and more than once he was asked the question 'What the hell are you doing?!' But he just held out his hand and watched as the two would be 'foes' escaped into the distance.

A voice sounded in his head as they disappeared from view, "We will be waiting for you…" presumably from the blonde headed telepath.

"Scott, we need your team at the dome it is protected by force fields and we need some power to break our way in." Storm's voice came over the commlink.

"Right, on our way!" Scott said ignoring the questioning looks of his team. Yeah there will be hell to pay for sure. This wasn't over. Now he knew his brother was out there somewhere and he would find him one way or another.

---

Storm and Logan's team had met up with Rogue at the base of the broken dome and it wasn't long before Fury came as well. He was tall, dark and could be considered handsome as well... Though most of the females couldn't think about that for the moment.

When Scott arrived he seemed worse for wear although his team seemed to have taken the least amount of damage out of anyone there. The look on their collective faces were unreadable but it didn't take long before someone explained what happened.

Scowling, Storm decided he would have to be benched for a while and possibly monitored for the time being. She would hate for the kid to do something stupid.

---

Inside the broken dome base another release of gas came from a metal container that held a blonde beauty. Warren had been waiting for a while for her to awaken, he had already planned every word he was going to say to her and how he would slowly but surely convince her he was the only one that actually cared for her.

Eye brows wrinkled as if she was confused for a moment before she opened those crystal like blue eyes. Looking around the lab the confusion slowly faded from her eyes when she spotted the old doctor in front of her.

"I I thought I died?" Like music to Warren's ears her voice exited her lips in a whisper.

"You did, I brought you back." Warren smiled as he replied.

Confusion written on her face she asked, "You, brought me back?"

Nodding he was about to go into detail when her next words stopped him dead in his tracks.

"What universe is this 161 or 165? Maybe another one altogether…" Gwen rambled to himself.

"I don't understand Gwen, don't you remember me?"

"Don't call me that so familiarly I know all about you Mr. I clone anything that moves Warren. My name is Gwenpool try not to wear it out." Stepping out of the cloning container she started to put on the clothes Warren had set aside for her.

"Wait, something must have gone wrong in the cloning process. Step back in and I'll see if I can fix this…"

Kicking Warren in the chest he went flying towards the far wall in the lab. Right as he was about to make contact with the surface Spidercide appeared stopping the collision. Warren was about out of his mind but as he looked up Gwen had jumped out of the broken dome and disappeared from sight… laughing like a crazy person as she went.