It had felt as though he was being ripped into tiny little pieces as his body had started to fade away into ash. He tried desperately to fight it off-clinging onto Mr Stark as he begged him for… something. He wasn't sure what he thought Mr Stark could do but pleaded none the less, repeating over and over that he didn't want to go. Mr Stark lowered him to the ground as gently as he could manage and shortly afterward Peter muttered a quick apology to the man and his body faded away.
And suddenly he could see again-he felt whole again. He sat up and looked down at his hands-still covered by the new suit. He wiggled his fingers and chanced looking around. Where was he? He couldn't have been that other planet because Thanos had destroyed it-this one was green and seemed to be teeming with life. Was he dead? Peter wasn't sure but how could be be anything but dead? He'd disintegrated right in front of Mr Stark!
"Mr Parker." He heard a familiar voice nearby and glanced around to see Doctor Strange-he vaguely remembered that Strange had gone too. "Can you stand?" He asked. Peter shrugged and then gave it a shot-glad to find he still had working legs beneath him.
"Yeah." He answered the other. "Where are we? Where are the others? They should be here too, right?" He rattled off a few questions. Doctor Strange looked him over carefully-probably checking for injuries or something along those lines, before finally answering the question.
"A different universe." Strange informed him. Peter's eyes widened and he immediately started to look around again.
"Whoa! Really? So you mean we're not-" He stopped himself from completing the question as Doctor Strange raised an eyebrow at him.
"Not what?" He pressed.
"Not… you know…" Peter trailed off.
"Dead?" The word came out so blunt that Peter nearly winced. "No, it doesn't appear so." That was a relief.
"So, Thanos failed?" Peter asked quickly, hopefully. When Doctor Strange didn't say anything and only continued to look at him, he continued on. "I mean-he meant to wipe out half the universe right? If we're just in a different universe then we can get back, right?"
"I'm afraid it isn't that simple." Strange explained. "We're aren't dead, no. However, travel between the multiverse is particularly tricky-especially when there are billions of people that undoubtedly made the trip as well." Peter seemed to deflate and let out a sigh.
"So… we're stuck here? There's gotta be something we can do to get back!" He said insistently. "Do you know what planet this is?"
"Titan." Doctor Strange supplied. "I believe it is the same version Thanos gave us a glimpse of with the reality stone." Peter nodded like he was following along. However, he wasn't really, in all honesty he felt even more confused. He'd heard about theories regarding multiple universes-but this was completely different.
"So, uh… how do we get back?" They could get back, couldn't they? Doctor Strange hadn't answered if they were stuck or not but they couldn't be stuck because he couldn't do that to May! She needed him and he needed to get back to her. "Where are the others?"
"Mr Quill and his crew went off a while ago to explore." Doctor Strange still wasn't answering the question he really wanted answered and it made Peter fear the answer just a little. He sucked in a breath and looked around for the third time.
Somewhere, off in the distance there was some form explosion and both Peter and Strange whipped their heads in the direction it had come from. Doctor Strange frowned thoughtfully and Peter did what he did best, he shot one of his webs up to the nearest tall object and swung himself upwards.
oooOOOooo
"What the Hell is going on here?" A gruff voice demanded as a man with a red overcoat rounded the corner with three other people in tow. The Doctor let out a loud cough and waved the smoke away with his hand.
"Oh! Sorry!" He told the man. "I wasn't expecting it to do that-It shouldn't have done that." He rattled off quickly before returning his attention to the fuse box he'd just exploded. The man frowned at him and moved towards him-his friends right behind him.
"Mind explainin' why you're blowing up-whatever that is?" He asked. The Doctor just shrugged and put his sonic screwdriver in his mouth as he messed with the wiring.
"Oh, sure! Let me just go about telling everyone exactly what my plan is-" He grumbled against it-completely intelligible to anyone. He took the screwdriver out his mouth and pressed the end-the tip lit up and it hummed softly. "If you must know, I'm trying to to get information! Speaking of-How's it going in there Pond!?" He turned his head to shout at the little blue box-or better known at his TARDIS. Amy popped her red-head out of the box and gave him a quick thumbs up.
"We're good to go here, Doctor! The TARDIS is downloading that information as we speak!" She called out.
"What information? Who are you?" The man asked quizzically. The Doctor just sighed.
"I'm The Doctor, and you?" He returned to what he was doing.
"Star Lord." The man offered, standing up a little straighter in hopes of looking impressive. The
Doctor wasn't impressed and just nodded. "And this is my crew, Drax and Mantis." He introduced his two friends.
"Star Lord, then. Are you-"
"What's going on here?" A new voice came through and the Doctor looked up to see someone covered in some kind shiny metal pajamas with a spider imprint on them, clinging to the side of a building like it was normal. Maybe it was, who was he to judge? Shortly after the wall crawler, a man with a goatee dressed in a red cloak and blue tunic floated up-that wasn't normal.
"Oh great, just what I needed. An audience." He muttered grumpily.
"Um-Doctor." Amy's concerned voice had him turning back to the TARDIS. "The TARDIS is saying something about temporal disturbance 59AB10 -is that bad?" The Doctor felt both his hearts skip a beat.
"59AB10?" He repeated, stepping away from what he'd been doing and walked over to the TARDIS.
"Actually, it's an eleven now." Rory interjected from inside the TARDIS. Even worse. The Doctor turned immediately to the newcomers and scanned the nearest one-Star Lord.
The Doctor completely ignored the protest and glanced down at the reading before scanning the others and read the reading there as well. "Where did you come from? How did you get here?" He demanded of the man he'd scanned first.
"If I might-" The newly arrived man interrupted before Star Lord could offer an answer. "The answer to that question is quite simple-we were snapped out of existence in our universe and wound up in this one-on this universe's version of what I presume is Titan." The Doctor turned eyes on him, watching him closely.
"Yeah, this is Titan." He confirmed. "You know about the multiverse?" He questioned.
"Yes. I Practice the Mystic Arts-Doctor Strange." He offered. Recognition flickered into the Doctor's eyes and ran a hand over his face.
"Mystic Arts? Okay… okay…" He muttered to himself, several thoughts racing through his head.
"Doctor… what's that?" He heard Amy asking by his left elbow. He had far too much be doing at the moment-he didn't need this on top of everything-although this was a much more pressing concern.
"You might liken him to a sorcerer." The Doctor explained-Strange nodded to show he agreed with the sentiment. "I've never met one before-but supposedly, they protect reality by drawing power from other universes."
"What, like magic?" Rory pressed, incredulously from his other side. The Doctor was hesitant to call it that but that was probably the most apt description based on what he'd read all those years back the academy.
"If you'd like." He said dismissively to Rory, looking Strange over carefully.
"Hang on-you said you were 'snapped' out of existence-what do you mean?" Rory asked the sorcerer.
"It's a long story. Do you have infinity stones here?" The small person perched on the wall asked, raising his hand like he was in school.
"Every universe does." The Doctor stated, starting to get a really bad feeling about why someone would ask about one of the most guarded secrets of the universe. Coupled with the fact the TARDIS was warning him of a temporal disturbance-yes. He had a really bad feeling about this.