Marvel-X - Spider-Man 2099

	Spider-Man 2099: Possessing the mutant abilities of the original Spider-Man, Nichos Jessup is the latest hero to wear the webs. Living in Xavier City with his mother and younger brother Sam, Nic is forging a new legend. Now as Spider-Man, Nic hopes to help forge the future!
	Kessa Halle: Best friend of Spider-Man, Kessa Halle possesses spacial distortion powers, enableing her to teleport, distort reality, create wakes of distortion energy and charge objects with that energy. Kessa's dream is to become a member of the X-Men, and is coming closer to that dream each day.
	Rumble: The young man known only as Rumble is a descendant of Wolverine. He has displayed several of Logan's powers, but little else is known about him.
	Iron Maiden: One of the last of Tony Stark's descendants still working at Stark/ Fujikawa, Amy Dower was injured by a clone of Hulk 2099 and now needs a prototype armor to survive, much like Iron Man did in the twentieth century.
	Punisher 2099: One of Stark/Fukjikawa's clones, Jake Gallows has a new lease on life. Loyal to Stark, Jake has been ordered to kill Spider-Man, and any other superhero with him.
	Miguel O'Hara: The original Spider-Man of 2099, Miguel is the current wielder of the hammer of Thor, Mjolnir, which was given to him by Captain America before his death in space. He can lift it but not access its other powers, but it signifies his status as leader of the free world.

"Clone"

written and edited by Tony Thornley

with an X-Men 2099 assist by David Wheatley

Nic Jessup pulled his coat closer to keep out the cold. It had been raining in Xavier City ever since he had arrived home from New York City last week.

Nic's mother, Doc Jessup, was glad that the exterior of the former Four Unity Plaza was completed. In that short week, Four Unity had been almost completely converted into Summers Memorial Hospital under the direction of Doc and Xi'an.

Nic saw a familiar form approach him, Kessa Halle. Kessa was Nic's best friend. She was also a powerful mutant, with spacial distortion powers. She dreamed of joining the X-Men.

"Hey!" Nic answered, offering his arm. Kessa took it. The two walked the rest of the distance to school in silence. They entered the school and left their coats in lockers.

"Hectic," Nic replied. "Mom's spending most of her time at the hospital. Sam's in the middle of one of those weeks. And-" He leaned closer so only Kessa could hear. "-I still haven't heard from Miguel about Ben."

"It's been a week since he died,

" Kessa said. "You'd have thought he would have found something by now."

A sudden noise made Kessa and Nic jump. There stood Joren Drake. He was a mutant like Nic and Kessa, but he was a jerk. He would always brag about his ancestor, Bobby Drake, the X-Man once known as Iceman. Many people were sick of him, including Nic and Kessa.

"Hello Halle, Jessup," Joren answered. Another thing about him that everyone hated was the way he called everyone by their last names. Kessa didn't seem to mind, but Nic sure did. "The two of you been watching the news nets?"

"Oh, well, you'd think you mother would be able to get something, being a doctor and all. Anyways. There's some rumors about something big going on at Stark/Fujikawa. Something about their genetic division."

"Well, most of the planet. They say that Stark/Fujikawa has revived all the superheroes of 2099."

"What?!" Nic cried. He'd heard rumors about Ravage

's return and a hero in New Attilon City calling himself Venom

- which struck Nic as bad since Venom was one of Spider-Man's deadliest enemies- but something like this was unreal.

"Yep. Some are even saying that Spider-Man was the first one of these guys." Joren walked off smugly.

The Punisher was cursing. Someone in S/F had let it slip. Now his secret army of supermen weren't so secret. If he found the little git who let this slip, he'd blow his brains out. Now was the time to act, while this news was still in a rumor stage.

Jake decided he'd need to do something big. Like killing Spider-Man in the middle of Xavier City. That would prove that they meant business.

"Yep. How could have S/F revived dead heroes? Clones! Shock, this is horrible." Nic ran his hand through his hair. "What if they're not really heroes? I mean, they could have revived them to be bad guys. Think about it. An army of veritable supermen to do your bidding. Whoever controlled those things would be invincible!"

"Jammit!" Kessa grunted. "It makes sense Nic. We've gotta tell Miguel. He'd know what to do."

"I'll go talk to Xi'an during lunch," Nic said. "He'll help me get through to Miguel. There's something else I needed to talk to him about anyways."

"By Thor, I am!" By that Kessa knew Nic was serious. Nic was a Christian, not a follower of Thor. The only time any Christians used that phrase was when they were dead serious, willing to bet on the name of a dead hero.

Several feet away a young man heard it all and knew what to do at lunch. Follow Nic Jessup.

Miguel poured over his notes from the past week. All the tests he had run on Ben Reilly's blood showed next to no results. To his knowledge, all existing cloning techniques left a distinguishing tag in the DNA. Alchemax, Stark, Milatech and others all left distinctive tags in cloned DNA, since they all used different techniques.

But Miguel had found nothing. There were no tags, not even one that was an unknown. Whoever had cloned Ben Reilly had a method that left nothing behind in the DNA. The persons who had come up with this technique was brilliant. And that scared Miguel.

Spider-Man swung over Xavier City. He loved the freedom of the webshooters Ben had given him, and Miguel's old Spider-Man costume fit in better in Xavier City than his replica of Peter Parker's. Nic headed for Xavier City center. He swung past Summers Memorial and was nearly to the city council building when a blast of plasma hit him out of nowhere.

Nic knew that the rain had helped lessen to strength of the blast, and for that he was thankful. Spider-Man dropped to the ground and scanned the square. Onlookers had already started to gather, even though Spider-Man's challenger hadn't shown his face. The tension in the rain was starting to thicken. Then a line thunked into the ground. A man slid down the line from the rooftops.

Nic knew who it was from the skull emblem across his chest. The Punisher. Spider-Man tensed. Ironicly one of the first villians Nic had faced was one of the first Miguel had faced. And here he was.

"Patience," Nic joked, "it seems that so many of you villian types don't have it."

"Too bad!" roared a voice from across the square. A young man rushed the Punisher and knocked him over. He was short, burly young man, no older than sixteen. He wore a spandex suit, similar to that of Logan, the legendary X-Man. He lept to his feet, and two large bone spurs erupted from his hands.

'Yeah,' Nic thought, 'sure. Another descendant of an X-Man. What a way to make my day!'

"You picked a good day to die Rumble," Punisher growled. He raised the multi-blaster and leveled it at Rumble's head. He pulled the trigger, but the gun jerked to one side, harmlessly discharging into an alley. A thin line of webbing was attatched to the blaster.

"I'll show you nice, bub," he replied. A roar erupted from behind the Punisher. Rumble. Punisher wasn't able to keep up with two targets. Nic liked that. The feral youth attacked the Punisher.

The tussle was brief. The Punisher elbowed Rumble in the ribs. Rumble retorted with a slash across his chest, but Punisher easily dodged. Punisher lept up over Rumble's head, and brought his feet down on his neck. The maneuver knocked Rumble out. Punisher turned to face Spider-Man.

Nic was already in the air, his foot extended in a kick. Punisher attempted to block the kick, but it was too little, too late. Nic connected with the Punisher's jaw, breaking it with a satisfying crack. Spider-Man landed and used the Punisher's broken jaw as an advantage. He slammed his fist into the older man's jaw. The Punisher screamed.

Nic suddenly remembered the blaster slung over the Punisher's shoulder. It appeared that the Punisher did too.

"It's over Spider-Man," he said, leveling the blaster at Nic's forehead. No matter what he did, Nic was doomed. "Say goodbye."

"Goodbye!" came a cry from above. Repulsor rays struck the multi-blaster. Punisher dropped it before the exploded.

"YOU!" the Punisher cried. The Iron Maiden landed between the Punisher and Spider-Man.

"Yeah," Punisher said, "and they told me to kill you. I'm not stupid though." He looked at Rumble, who was just getting to his feet. "I know that Spidey has a back-up, and she's probably on her way. I know I'm outnumbered. I know when to run." He slapped a hidden switch on his chest, and his back seemed to ignite. The Punisher escaped into the sky.

"Rumble," said the other youth, rubbing his neck where Punisher had kicked him. Iron Maiden nodded to Rumble.

"This is only the begining," the Maiden said. "I saw what these clones were programmed to do. They're coming here. They're destroying the city to prove that they're more powerful than the X-Men. Then they're going to kill Miguel to prove that Stark is dominant. We have to stop them."

"Whoa!" Spider-Man exclaimed. "A wee bit pessimistic are we?" Nic forgot what he had said to Kessa earlier that morning. "The Punisher was a single isolated incident. So one of Stark's clones went bad."

Miguel was distacted from his work on Ben's blood sample by the window exploding inward. He instantly grabbed Mjolnir, and stood with the mallet in a defensive stance.

"Just because the Punisher attacked me, doesn't mean that Miguel is going to die, or Xavier City is going to be destroyed."

"Hulk kill O'Hara!" bellowed the creature. Miguel swung Mjolnir at the Hulk's head. Hulk grabbed Miguel's arm and picked him up over his head. He swung Miguel over his head several times and threw him up against the wall. Miguel started to black out as Alchemax security rushed into the room, firing on the Hulk.

Spider-Man raised his arm and shot a strand of webbing towards a nearby building. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to speak with Xi'an." Nic swung towards the city council building, leaving Iron Maiden and Rumble at the site of the battle.

The Punisher landed outside one of the Savage Land's numerous caves. He killed the jet pack and went inside. He first went to a mirror in the living quarters he had set up for himself and looked at his jaw. It was a simple matter, and would heal quickly with the healing factor Stark had granted all their clones. He took his jaw in his hands and set it, so it would heal right. Then he entered another chamber.

This second chamber was far more advanced than the crude dwelling he had just exited. Several individuals were in the room.

"Yessir," said one of the clone foot soldiers, "but unsuccessfully. Alchemax security stopped him from killing O'Hara. He's headed here."

"Then he didn't complete his mission, you moron," Punisher yelled. "I ask S/F for top of the line, they give me bottom of the heap."

Punisher smiled. "No, I forgot about you two." He turned to the source of the voice.

"We need to warn Xi'an," Miguel ordered, getting to his feet. After none of the security people did anything he turned to them. "NOW!!!"

Nic in civilian dress entered the Council Chambers to find Shakti and Victor hard at work trying to break in to the Stark/Fujikawa computers. Did they know what was going on?

"I need to speak to Xi'an," he said as Victor turned around to see who had entered.

"He's not here right now," answered Ten Eagles. "There's a couple of things we're working on. Why do you think no X-Men showed up to help you out there? Can you vouch for the Iron Man that just arrived."

"Okay," he said. "Nic, we'll let you know when Xi'an gets back, but if you'll excuse us, we're busy at the moment." Nic nodded and left the council building as quickly as he could, wondering what could have made Xi'an leave the city so suddenly.

He awoke. After nearly a century of sleep something called to him. Something powerful. He went to the window of his European castle to stare into the Transylvanian night. Much had changed. A new blood flowed in the land. He could feel its power.

He stretched and thought something. The prophecy that the X-Man had made just before he started his decades long nap. The team of power that would arise out of the Savage Land. Was this why he had been awakened?

He bellowed into the night. "The youths of power shall fall before the might of Dracula, Lord of the Undead!"

In Spider-Man 2099 #7: Who are the Slingers 2099, and why does Dracula, Lord of the Undead, want them, well, dead? Be here when four heroes unite to become the first superteam of the 22nd century, and Spider-Man isn't one of them. Plus, Miguel must face his past, and an evil lurking in it.

And in Spider-Man 2099 Annual #1: Who is the fourth Slinger? Kessa, Iron Maiden and Rumble discover a prophecy concerning the identity of their teammate and must figure out who it is before the menace of Dracula destroys them. Plus, an bonus back-up story on the past of Nic Jessup.