Marvel EXE's Tell The Tale

**Marvel EXE's Tell The Tale** is an introductionary series of six issues, each introducing a core member of the univere that the EXE Story Group is creating.

## Issues

### The Boy That Was Bitten

A schoolbus arrived in front of the Osborn Laboratories as the teacher of the class Mr. Harrington tells the class to form up around him. One of the students is Peter Parker and one of his best friends is Ned Leeds. As they enter the laboratories, they are welcomed by Gwen Stacy, a Junior Research Assistant that introduces them to Norman Osborn, the founder of the company and the laboratories. While Ned and Peter bicker, Gwen tells them off for causing a disturbance and they then are led through the experimental species garden. As Peter attempts to make some pictures for the school paper, he is bumped into by Flash Thompson who makes fun of him. This causes Ned to stand up to Flash, but Flash pushes him aside and Peter is helped up by Liz Allan, a girl in his class on which he secretly has a crush. Liz scolds Flash, and Ned offers to find Mr. Harrington, but Peter tells him it is okay. He fixes up his camera and his jacket, but feels a stingy bite in his neck. He slaps away what he thinks is an ordinary spider, but one of the scientists later retrieves the spider, revealing it to be a genetically altered spider found dead, which sparks the interest as they couldn't have died from natural causes. Peter catches up with the rest of the group and this time Flash is told off by Gwen Stacy about loudly proclaiming he is bored. Later that day as Peter arrives at the home of his Aunt May, he is welcomed home by his Aunt and Uncle Ben Parker, who is also furious that he went to Osborn Laboratories. As Peter heads to bed that night, he overhears Uncle Ben tells Aunt May that Osborn got Peter's parents killed, a fact that they never told Peter. As Peter falls asleep, he awakes later that night with a jolt as he finds himself hanging upside down on the ceiling, asking himself what happened to him. In the tag scene, Norman Osborne is contacted by one of the scientists, telling him they found footage and the footage reveals that Peter was at the scene before the genetically altered spider was found dead.

### The Red Room

A young Natasha Romanoff was in a foster care home in Stalingrad in 1988 when a local rebel cell that wanted to liberate Stalingrad from the oppressionist regime of Russia attacked the city and destroyed many buildings including that of Natasha's foster care family. Natasha, at four years old, remained alive, by hiding in the cellar with her older foster sister Katenka Timofey. When Russian forces liberated their part of the city, Natasha and Katenka met Ilya Fyodor who took them in and brought them to the training regime of the Red Room Academy. Here they were taught in rapid succession to blend in in the western world, learning English every day, learning their habits and learning to blend in. When failed, punishment would follow, a feet both Natasha and Katenka underwent, hours of ballet dancing practice, to make the girls unbreakable. But rumors went through the halls of the academy, the Sovjet Union was falling apart and this led to the girls believing that their harsh live would be over at some point. Instructor Fyodor knew better then to let them have their guard down and made an example out of a girl that was close to Natasha and Katenka, killing her with a head shot in cold blood. They were then moved to another location, away from the living world, where they were forced to march kilometers each day with a bare minimum of clothing. This made the girls even stronger, but also thinned the lines, because once a girl broke down, she was left to die in the cold and harsh environment. Natasha and Katenka promised each other to never let that happen to either of them. Then one day as the Graduation Ceremony was fast approaching, Natasha, Katenka and the other girls had a training session outside. Instructor Fyodor forced Natasha and Katenka to spar. Natasha clearly was the better one of the two and overpowered Katenka in the end, but refused to finish her off. Put under psychological strain by Fyodor, who one by one forced Natasha to watch as he broke the necks of three other recruits, Natasha snapped and killed Katenka, before pledging her allegiance to the Red Room. Instructor Fyodor congratulated her as she had passed her final test before she was taken by Fyodor's men and to a medical facility. Years later, Natasha, now integrated into the American society, subdued her target, a wealthy and influential business man and was about to head for the extraction point, when she noticed someone following her, taking aim with a bow and arrow, only to knock the first arrow away and engage the assassin.