Welcome to Gaia! ::

After a brief detour by the headquarters and home of the Fantastic Four and the Future Foundation, which took longer than the elder Web Slinger had expected with Reed Richards enlisting Peter to help with one of the myriad experiments he had ongoing at any moment, the pair of Parkers were once again on their way...riding in style as they caught a ride in the Fantasticar!

As the Spider-Men, along with Mr. Fantastic, flew over the Upper East Side of Manhattan, Ben suddenly grabbed the sides of his head and groaned, before looking every which way in an apparent panic.

"What's the matter, Ben?", Spider-Man asked in concern as his nephew was freaking out. "Is something wrong?"

"My head...", replied the Scarlet Spider as he continued thrashing around in the back seat. "It feels like there are a million tiny fire ants crawling around on my brain"

"That sounds pretty much like my spider-sense, a sort of sixth sense that my clones and I have that alerts us to danger. Looks like you've got it, too. Funny, though...I haven't had a peep out of mine all day."

"Well, how do you make it stop? It HURTS!", Ben cried, absolutely terrified of this new and unfamiliar sensation. Suddenly, his eyes went wide as saucers as an image flashed in his mind. "I see something! It looked like there was a pale skinned guy cornered in an alley..."

"Okay, calm down kiddo," Spidey said reassuringly. "The intensity of the reaction varies, depending on the severity of the threat, and ranges from a little tickle to feeling like your skull is on fire. It looks like yours might be more sensitive than mine, like your dad's was, since it usually only responds to personal danger...he mentioned seeing visions when his spider-sense went off. Did you see anything else?"

"No, but I think I recognize that alley..." Ben said as he released his safety harness, finally coming to an understanding about what was going on in his head. "It's not too far from where we stopped that bank job a little while ago! I'm going over there!"

With that, Ben leaped out of the moving -and airborne- vehicle, and quickly snagged the nearest building with a web line, rushing headlong into action without even considering the fact that he only had a basic grasp of his abilities, and no real idea of what he might be getting himself into!

Nick glared up at his captor with disdain. He couldn't believe that after hiding this for seven years, a stupid tugofwar set him off and revealed him for what he was, right in front of his father. It was careless, and now he was going to pay with his life. He couldn't move his left leg without searing pain surging through him again, and so he was forced to watch this woman reload her weapon, and he used the last of his mitant energy to wrap ice around the wound to keep himself from bleeding out while he waited. It was almost funny, and he couldn't help but chuckle.

"Heheh...wouldn't want to deprive the Purifiers of their kill, would I? Why don't you just load the damn bullet in the chamber and stop wasting my time beautiful? Or do you think you need the full magazine to kill me?"

She might be a gun-totting assassin intent on killing him and collecting her fee, but Nick had to admit, she had a pretty face. That, and she was fun to mess with. Hell, if he was going to die, he might as well have some fun. Maybe that was the blood loss talking. Nick's body was beginning to warm up again, and color was returning to his body. His hair defrosting, and his eyes returning to his normal color. This was an aspect of his powers he had no control over quite yet, his body temperature turning to absolute zero once he began using his abilities.

"Do you just like to hear yourself talk or are you just practicing your 'bad girl' voice, because if you wanna keep talking and not shoot me, i'm good with that." He said with a stupid grin.

Private Investigator Lou Ramone stands outside of the building in which his office was located. He's about 5'8, scrawny, dressed in a shabby looking white leisure suit. His black hair is greased back, the smell of cheap cologne follows him everywhere he goes. There was a riot going on, it actually happened quite frequently where Lou lived. Frequent or not, they never quite endeared themselves to the man, so he preferred to not get himself involved, keep his hands clean.

A bit cold, he shoves his hands into his pockets, where he kept his cell phone, wallet, and a lighter. A frequent employer had told him it was always a good idea to have a rest period in between his jobs, kept the heat off him. It was advice he took to heart, it'd been about two or three weeks since he last took any work.. But unfortunately, Lou could only live on white bread for so long, and with rent coming up on him, it was time to get some cash, pronto.

He dropped the cigarette and crushed it under his foot, before heading back into his office..

"This is it..." Rogue said, spotting the action taking place down below from the rooftops. Alicia, Hope and Pixie were on the roof with her, Shadowcat was inside a wall watching the action, waiting for her cue. With the distraction the Scarlet Spider so timely provided, they had their opening to save the mutant in distress.

"Okay girls, block her off, then ah'll give Kitty the okay to phase the boy through the ground and we'll get out of here."

"Oh...no good Rogue," Hope chimed in, sensing the boys powers, "his body temperature is way below freezing. If you touch him..."

"That's a'ight," Rogue interrupted, "Pixie, once the wall is up, we'll need a portal to drop him through to our safe zone at the mansion. Kitty, once he's through, phase me under the ground and ah'll take out the Purifiers, give 'em one heck of a headache. We'll see if we can't mess up blondie's day too. While we're takin' care ah business, the rest of y'all go through the portal and make sure the kid is safe. We'll meet up with you later. Got it? Let's go girls."

Alicia was ready to engage in a more violent manner, but she noticed something about the assassin that gave her pause. The facial structure...the hair and eyes were wrong, but could it be? She shook her head, she knew she had a job to do, but she didn't want to take the risk. She decided to remain passive and not burst the girl into flames. Pyras pointed her hands at the ground between the mutant and the assassin, focusing hard. She was still getting used to her powers. At first, all she could make were explosions that appeared spontaneously when her powers flared. Only now could she create spark, which would erupt into a controlled burn. Beads of sweat rolled down her face, but she finally got it right, and a wall of fire erupted between the mutant and the assassin, eliminating the line of sight. Once that was established, PIxie opened up her portal, letting Nick drop right through.



Nick was more than a little surprised that the wall of fire spontaneously shot up between himself and the assassin, wondering if this was some new napalm weapon he didn't know about, or if another mutant was attacking him. He didn't have much time to think about it, because he soon found himself falling through the ground.

"AHHHHHH!" He shouted out in fear as he fell through the ground, to another ground. He landed hard in a field, which quickly began to freeze over due to his residual negative body temperature. Looking around, he didn't recognize where he was, or what was going on, or who was doing this to him. Today could not get much weirder.

As Nick fell through the portal, Rogue was already getting busy. Hope jumped through the portal following Nick, and Rogue was on the ground, and quickly phased through by Shadowcat. Kitty kept Rogue's head just above the ground so she could see what she was going, and she reached out her hands and touched as many Purifiers as she could, knocking them out cold. Once the majority of the gang was down, Kitty sent her back to the portal, and she jumped through under cover of fire. Once Rogue was clear, Alicia let the fire dissipate, and jumped through herself, leaving Kitty behind. She didn't want this assassin getting away, so she would reach up on the way back and try to phase her legs through the cement, sticking her in place before going back to the surface, and leaping through the portal as it closed off.

- A Darker Place For Your Mind To Be -

Gabe now found himself in a dimly lit hallway, the walls lined with doors as far as he could see. He was so confused and didn't know where to go, he called out but it was all for not. Gabe decided his best chance was to go down the hall and maybe he could find a way out. After a while of walking in a seemly endless straight line, he finally stopped when he noticed he had passed the same painting multiple times. He stopped in front of the door that was right next to the painting and it happened to be marked with the number one. Gabe turned and ran down the hall as fast as he could and stopped at the painting again, looking at the door to the right and saw that it was the same door as before. He had been in an endless straight line, he was stuck in a loop. Gabe thought for a moment and decided that he was going to try the doors and see if any of them led to a way out. He stood in front of the first door, his hand shaking as he reached out for the handle, slowly turning it and swinging the door open. What met Gabe's eyes was a scene he was all to familiar with, but it was a little different. A young blonde man was on his knees in front of Azuriel, but Azuriel wasn't doing the same thing he had done to Gabe, Azuriel had one of his swords drawn and was holding it over the young man's head and with a blink of eye he flicked his sword and the young man's head was split in two pieces. The scene faded like a cloud and was replaced by another young man who quickly got the same treatment as the first man. It became clear to Gabe that he was watching Azuriel's memories of searching for a body to take over. The scene suddenly changed again but this time it showed something very familiar to Gabe. Gabe was watching himself on his knees in front of Azuriel, but this time it was different he could understand what Azuriel was saying. "Finally I have found my body! I can finally be whole once again," Azuriel said to the Gabe that was kneeled on the ground. Before when Gabe had been in the position all he heard was Azuriel speaking in tongues, "What did he mean? His body?" Just as Gabe finished his question a force violently threw him into the hall way and the number one door slammed shut behind him. The hall way then started changing, it was shirking. Gabe stood in one spot until everything stopped moving, and when it did, he was standing in front of a single door with four walls all around him. His only choice was to open the door in front of him which he did. This time his eyes were fixed on two figures standing in the middle of an empty field, he noticed one was Azuriel and the other was unknown to him. "Azuriel you must find another mutant to take over, but remember once fused in this way you will be bonded together and no magic will free you. It is not until the death of the mutant will you be able to claim the power for your own and move on to another victim," the stranger said to Azuriel, "This time I want you to find a mutant with a rapid healing ability so you can take more damage with out risk, but this one can be tricky with the power the mutant possesses he could over come you and he in turn can take everything we have worked for." Azuriel nodded and took off into the sky, and the scene faded away. "WHAT? I'm not a mutant," Gabe said with confusen. Gabe stood there for a moment when a hole opened in the floor and he dropped out of the hall way and back into his own mind, when he landed he heard Azuriel speaking to him, "Now I can't have you running free that long, you might find something I don't want you to," Azuriel said with a laugh, "To fix your confusion let me just unlock some of your old memories for you so you can see what you really are." Images flashed before Gabe's mind, things long forgotten for different reasons. When he was five years old he cut his own finger off with a kitchen knife and it grew back before his parents ran into the room and took the knife from his hand. When he was 16 he wrapped his new car around a tree and sent his body flying out the windshield, someone had called the police from their house but by the time the cops showed up his bones and body were healed and he had walked off. When he was 22 years old he took a hockey punk to the mouth and he swallowed his teeth, but when he had the doctor check him all his teeth were in his mouth and whiter then ever. Other images flashed through, minor cuts, bruises, and such that went away in a flash. Azuriel was right, Gabe was a mutant and this is the first time he realized and now he was going to die. Gabe yelled in a mix of emotions, he wanted out of this place and he wanted control. Then suddenly he was flying through the air, but he could only see out of one eye and noticed he couldn't control one half of his body. "WHAT!? How is this possible? How did you get out!?! Azuriel barely got his words out when Gabe's body began plummeting to earth because Gabe had collapsed the wing he controlled. "******** you Azuriel!" Gabe yelled as his body crashed into the middle of Central Park. The force knocking both Gabe and Azuriel out and putting Gabe's body at least ten feet under ground.