I Might Be Wrong

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Taking place shortly after **Operation: Zero Tolerance**, the world begins to move on as our intrepid heroes deal with the aftermath. This storyline takes place during those two missing weeks when the world attempted to come to terms with **SHIELD'**s corruption and what the heroes did in response to rising threats from their past and present.

## **Synopsis**

### **The Return of The OGs**

As **Ren Carter** leaves Las Vegas to further her Epitaph training and get more in touch with her roots, **Shay Daniels**, **Andre Lucas**, **Quasimoto**, and **Hendrix Shays** are forced to reckon that **Alexis May** has suddenly returned to life. Shay handles it worse than them all, as Alexis doesn't remember their relationship. The day after Ren left, Shay woke up to find that Alexis had made breakfast for **Hooligans** and that **Ford Easton** and Levi King had moved in. Ford cites that since **SHIELD** is gone, he will finally become a full-time member. Levi states he has nowhere else to go, so he decides to stay and do some good.

Breakfast is awkward, and whenever Alexis breaks the silence, commenting on how Shay is unnaturally quiet around her, this begins a rather more significant conversation as Levi states it is going around. Shay says it is nothing, but Ford mentions that her being alive is weird, and that's when the group facepalms. Just as Shay, Ford, and Levi get a ping that they have to respond to a villain, Alexis demands a conversation with Shay. Ford and Levi leave, but that's when Ford exclaims an exploitive from the front door as **Jane Harper** stands alive and well.

After Shay and Ford handled a break-in at the Vegas location of Stark Industries and reported it to Pepper, Shay, and Jane finally had a moment to talk to each other. Jane revealed all she had gone through with her father, the TMNT, her return to the heroic side, and everything that went into that. At the same time, Hendrix had found **Bernard Smith** out in the desert, wandering after returning from the multiverse, and much like hooligans, they threw a party in celebration.

### **Hopefully, More**

Elsewhere, **Tony Stark** returns to the land of the living and is legally resurrected. **Pepper Potts** hands **the company** back over to Tony but takes a CFO position as a personal reward for her hard work while he was incarcerated at The Raft. While happy he is back, Pepper fills Tony in on what has occurred while he was gone and introduces him to the team she formed in response to him being away, The Defenders. However, the darker news is that Obadiah Stane has managed to get himself out of prison early and has designs for Stark Industries.

Tony suits up and flies to Stane International to get answers from Obadiah. However, Tony's lack of practice results in him getting jumped by Obadiah's newfound team, The Syndicate, which results in Pepper having to save Tony and retreat to Stark Industries. Pepper summons The Defenders, and the group begins to investigate The Syndicate when they arrive. At first, Tony is standoff-ish by the help, but Pepper pulls Tony to the side. Here, Pepper tells Tony that when he first donned the suit, he started something bigger than himself.

Pepper stated that everybody in the room who fought during the superhuman war against SHIELD traces their origins to two significant points: the creation of **Captain America** and Tony Stark becoming Iron Man. She then tells him that he has a choice: to become something greater than what he lost in The Raft or be a civilian, and Tony rises to the occasion and assumes leadership of The Defenders. Unknowingly, this brought a thought deep within him.

### **To Bond With Brothers**

At the same time, **Bucky Barnes** moved into his childhood home in Brooklyn with the help of **Dakari Onasi**, who assisted him in helping him buy furniture and other appliances. While Dakari left much of the house intact, he updated some things for modern times. However, the bigger surprise came whenever Dakari secretly invited **Steve Rogers** to Bucky's home one day. When the two entered, Steve was waiting for Bucky after making dinner and throwing on the baseball game. Dakari made a wisecrack, and Bucky commented on how Shay rubbed off on Dakari. The king left shortly after that, and the two brothers-in-arms embraced and had a fantastic dinner.

Towards the end of the night, as the two watched classic baseball games, Steve asked about the superhuman war against SHIELD and why Bucky decided to help those, as he called it, "**Vegas** **boys**." Bucky explained that it was, in a way, therapeutic and that they helped him as much as he helped them. As Bucky spoke, Steve remembered what it felt like to be on a team and smiled at the thought of Bucky asking Steve about his plans now that he was out of the ice. Steve stated that he hadn't thought about it, and Bucky offered him a place to stay while he figured it out.

As the night winded down and the two men went to their rooms, Steve couldn't sleep and found Bucky in a similar position, reading a tablet on the couch. Steve asked what was going on, and when he sat down next to his friend, it was here that Bucky revealed the files that Ren Carter had stolen from SHIELD about the Weapon Plus Program, The Ad Astra Project, and all of videos of them experimenting om Bucky, Ford Easton, and others. Without another word, Steve nearly broke the tablet and stated that he had discovered what his plans were, and the two decided that they were going to hunt down the remnants of these programs. Later, Steve and Bucky have done nothing more than bond and become closer brothers than before. Bucky taught Steve about the modern world with Shay's help, and Steve kept Bucky sane and forced him to continue his therapy sessions with members of Myrth.

### **Rise**

Shay and Jane were inseparable during the party and spent most of the time talking. However, when Bernard came over to talk to them, he commented on Alexis being alive, and that's when Shay told them what had happened at the end of the superhuman war against SHIELD. How he asked **Areus** to fix his identity problem, and how Alexis returned to life. Bernard tells Shay to watch out for Alexis, and Jane reiterates this point while Bernard rejoins the party. As Bernard leaves, Jane kisses Shay, and this begins their relationship.

However, **Owen Morgan** reaches out to Shay and **Manny McClain** for help. Owen meets them at the Hoover Dam to explain that a villain named Morgan Le Fay has been searching for an artifact known as the Darkhold and believes it resides in Denver, Colorado. Shay cracked a joke about Lord of The Rings, to which Manny punched him in the arm, but Owen also commented on Lord of The Rings, which led to Manny claiming that children surrounded him. Owen stated that Manny and Shay were the only people he thought of to handle a supernatural situation, Shay for his historical mind and Manny for his occult experience; thus, Owen dubbed the group: The Midnight Sons.

The Midnight Sons would travel to Denver and get there right when Morgan Le Fay had begun to attack the Occult Studies teacher at DU. Shay would save the professor, but Morgan dispatched both Manny and Owen and gained the Darkhold, which the professor was safeguarding. In an instant, Morgan teleported the group to Avalon, where Morgan began to utilize the Darkhold to tamper with the mystic properties of the Otherworld to destroy it.

However, Shay began to sing to distract Morgan, who was confused by the fact that he was rapping **"Drill Music In Zion" by Lupe Fiasco**. This distraction led to Owen being able to attack Morgan from behind, and Manny followed up with an attack on the front, harming her. With her concentration broken, Shay utilized Fukushū to stab the Darkhold. While the book was damaged, it vanished shortly after that, much to the confusion of everyone.

With Morgan Le Fay imprisoned within the depths of Avalon, Owen bid Shay and Manny farewell as they were teleported back to Las Vegas and New York, respectively, but not before Shay said that they should do this again, which made Owen smile. A few hours later, Owen ventures into the mural hall of Castle Camelot and discovers that he unintentionally fulfilled a prophecy from a mural and saw that The Midnight Sons would be needed again in a larger capacity. Elsewhere, a young woman begins to activate her mystical abilities.

### **Forward, Always**

Back in New York, Tony has been fending off vultures coming for his company. However, while he has fended off his company from all, there is one that is consistently trying named **Monica Eden**, a woman that Pepper has fended off for some years now. Shifting his complete focus to Monica Eden, as Obadiah has since gone underground with The Syndicate, Tony learns that Monica is more involved than Tony initially realized. He knew of Monica's obsession with **The** **Daniels** **Family**, how Monica has worked up the corporate ladder at **Dynamics Industries**, and more.

Learning this leads Tony and Pepper to a dinner Monica Eden will attend. The primary goal was to spy on Monica by implanting a digital bug on her phone. However, Tony found something else that captured his attention the entire night. On his best behavior, Tony finally sat down with Pepper. What originally started as a covert ops mission quickly became a date as Tony dropped his playboy aesthetic and opened up to Pepper with her seeing Tony more than her boss and as Iron Man. In the end, Tony and Pepper danced after they ate and left, becoming more than friends and finally beginning a relationship. All the while, Tony multi-tasked and had Jarvis install the bug.

### **Four Walls and A Roof**

After spending too much time as Tarantula, **Jane Harper** began implementing a system within Shay's life. It's a relatively new concept called "Work-Life Balance." While as sarcastic as that may have seemed, Shay didn't have this, but Jane forced Shay to stay home for the night with her. They intended to watch movies Jane missed while she was gone, but she also had a secondary objective. Jane had learned from Ren that Shay changed, which she began to pick up on. Whereas **Ren Carter** grew into this trusting and confident person, Shay became a hardened and borderline ruthless vigilante, which worried them.

However, during the first movie, Shay's phone went off with a call from Pastor Ray, who called Shay to help him as **The Knights Templar** attacked churches in Vegas. Hoping she could see Shay in action to witness the change visibly, Jane agreed to go with Shay, and the two arrived at Pastor Ray's church in West Vegas. Sadly, The Knights Templar got there first and were already raiding the church with plans of burning it down and killing Ray. However, Shay and Jane snuck in before they did anything and cornered the group, using the darkened chapel as cover.

Shay and Jane took out the outliers and left three around. However, Shay broke rank and told them to kneel after revealing himself. While the group leader and the other did, one attempted to pretend like he had the upper hand, which led to Jane appearing from the darkness. Outmatched, the man kneeled. The leader claimed there must've been a reason why Shay or Jane didn't take him down immediately when they first walked in. However, as the leader spoke, Shay recognized him and remembered that he was the one who beat him in combat whenever Owen first became Black Knight at the Hoover Dam. His name was Martin. Then, Shay remembered a promise that was made to Martin that if he saw him again, stitches wouldn't fix what he was going to do to the man. Coldly, Shay told him he didn't want to waste the webbing, which shocked Jane.

Martin begged about how he would quit the Knights Templar and that prison would reform him, then stated that their paths would never cross again. While Shay did contemplate killing him, he told him that he would cross someone else's path and then said to him that it didn't matter because he already made him a promise. Without hesitation, Shay unsheathed his claws and scratched Martin's face, blinding him in one eye and then rendering him unconscious. Jane beat the other two to unconsciousness but was horrified by Shay's change. When Pastor Ray saw what Shay had done and how blood seeped into the floorboards, he sadly commented on how this was the Lord's house. Grimly, Shay responded that it wasn't, telling Ray it was just four walls and a roof.

### **Dramamine**

In the dark future of 2100, **Diego Perez** finds himself reading stories about the heroes from the past after being given access to Matthew's notes. However, he finds one hero particularly interesting as he is the progenitor of why Diego is who he is: Shay Daniels, The Spectacular Tarantula. Though Diego's reading is halted by a ping on his netlink about a Dynamics-Stark convey being attacked by Jack O'Lantern. Springing into action, Diego and Matthew fight Jack O'Lantern, but during the fight, Diego discovers that Dynamics-Stark was moving Phalanx-based psionic disrupters, and due to Jack O'Lantern's negligence, one of them goes off. The disrupter sends Matthew's abilities into overdrive, and he accidentally transports himself, Diego, the disruptor, and Jack O'Lantern to the past.

In 2023, **Shay Daniels** was taking a quiz for one of his history classes when a bright blue light flashed off-campus. Immediately, Shay got up to leave, but when the teacher asked if he was done, Shay quickly finished the exam and slammed it on the professor's desk while leaving. The professor went to speak, but Shay shouted that question three was wrong, and when the door closed, he lunged into the air and began to swing to the light, changing on the way. When he got there, in full costume, Shay saw Diego and Matthew waking up. Confused, Shay asked what happened, and when the two saw Shay, Matthew shouted an exploitive while Diego asked for the year.

After a brief conversation and all of them moving to a rooftop, Diego and Matthew settled into the past while explaining who they were. Shay joked about Back to The Future, which made Diego frown. However, it was here that Matthew finally realized that Jack O'Lantern wasn't near them, and Diego commented on how the disruptor wasn't there either. Just then, Diego and Shay's Spider-Sense went off and synced up with each other, and they both turned to The Strip. Shay asked Diego what the disruptor was made out of, and he explained that it was made by an alien race that wouldn't show up for a few more years in the past. Immediately, the three sprung into action after an explosion occurred at the Stratosphere.

When they arrived, the trio discovered that Jack O'Lantern had fused with the Phalanx technology and was overtaken by the Techno-Organic Virus. Diego warned them both from getting too close to Jack O'Lantern, but for Matthew, it was too late as he was already fighting. This led to Matthew becoming infected with the virus. As it began to spread, Diego told Matthew to use his telekinesis to hold it back, which worked and allowed Matthew to stay alive but forced him to retreat to maintain focus. Down to two, Shay and Diego utilized their webbing to fight Jack O'Lantern. The fight ended triumphantly as Shay and Diego uppercutted Jack O'Lantern while activating an EMP.

With Jack O'Lantern subdued and webbed, Diego and Matthew thanked Shay for his efforts. However, Diego explained that what causes his future is the death of the superheroes. When asked if they will meet again, Diego makes a Back to The Future reference, stating that he guarantees it. As Diego and Matthew return to 2100, Matthew asks Diego if he believes that they could help stop the cataclysmic event that killed the heroes. At first, Diego doesn't respond but then tells Matthew that he wants to be a hero, so he will try to help, even if it means they are erased.

### **Thursday**

However, on the last day of the second week, as all of the heroes had gotten to places where they were comfortable and the world had seemingly returned to normal, **Connor Carter** had other plans. Dynamics Industries had rolled out a new program to improve the city of Las Vegas and Toronto through highly advanced drones, known as "Droids." It was rolled out to assist first responders and help solve crimes faster. However, the darker intention was to discover the identities of superheroes and, thus, began a new saga for the heroes. Monica Eden stood there with Connor Carter, which worried Pepper and Tony, and Dynamics having their hands in the remnants of SHIELD, which angered Steve and Bucky. Lastly, Connor and Monica's obsession with Hooligans worried the superhero community in Vegas.

As the superhero community wakes up to this news, Shay starts to believe that he may have been wrong to ask Areus to alter his identity.

## **First Appearances**

* Otherworld
	+ Avalon
		- Castle Camelot
* The Syndicate
* Morgan Le Fay
* The Midnight Sons

## **Notes**

* This marks the return of Jane Harper & Bernard Smith as well as Levi King joining Hooligans.
* The title of this storyline comes from the last sentence with Shay stated, "I Might Be Wrong."