When Spring Break was over, Peter had to go through the drag of fixing his sleeping schedule. He'd been going out every night as the Mystic Spider and dealing with the crime in the city that the Heroes Guild hadn't been able to. When school started after the last day, he was greeted by Cindy, who walked with him to his locker. They were luckily right next to each other, so that left them plenty of time to talk.

"I've heard from the Ancient One that you are getting a hero's license." She said as she grabbed her books.

"Yeah." Peter replied. "What do you think?"

"I think it is foolish." She said bluntly. "The role of the Sorcerer Supreme is to guard the universe, in secret if they must. Not to play hero."

"Guarding the universe is playing hero, Cindy."

"Regardless...I think you endanger us by pursuing this path."

Peter closed his locker. "I already had this conversation with the Ancient One. Look, we'll have to agree to disagree, because there's no way you can rationalize me letting people suffer while I twiddle my thumbs and wait for the Pantheons to give my dad an order."

Cindy sighed. "I suppose in your mind, I cannot. Peter...I am merely advising you to be careful. That is all."

"Of course." Peter said. "I'm going to be careful."

As the days went past, Peter enjoyed the fact that he was at least okay with the more popular groups in school. Flash even seemed to stop bothering him, and opted to ignore him altogether. That was good, it was progress. Some people high-fived him or said hello to him as he walked down the hall, which was a nice change from the usual ignoring if he even existed.

"Damn, why are you guys so popular now?" Harry asked at lunch.

Gwen shrugged. "We went to a party, now everyone sees us as actual human beings. High school is strange, isn't it?"

"Very." Peter said. "But it's nice to not get bullied now. Even Flash seems to respect me."

"Look at you guys, movin' up." Harry smiled. "And Paris was nice, thank you for asking."

Peter chuckled. "How was Paris?"

"Dude. The girls there? Amazing. I got like, five communication runes there." Harry said, smirking.

Gwen playfully rolled her eyes. "How are you going to be in a relationship with five girls?"

Harry chuckled. "Carefully and with a lot of skill."

After lunch was over, Peter went through the usual slew of boring classes, slacking off more often than he'd like to admit. School was always something he had an easy time doing, but it was boring to him. Especially now that he was the Sorcerer Supreme, fighting crime, protecting people. The various lessons in hermeticism and applied runesmithing, however, would doubtlessly be invaluable in helping him become a better crime fighter. The rest of the Order seemed to rely purely on sorcery for some reason, never using more modern applications of magic such as runecraft or arcane mathematics. Peter decided that he'd change that, that as he became a full fledged Master of the Mystic Arts, he'd modernize sorcery. Maybe then everyone would stop being afraid of it.

When school was over, he went straight to the College and began studying magic of his own accord. He hadn't been looking into sorcery over spring break and he wanted to change that. If he was going to be the Master of the Mystic Arts, he was going to have to show initiative. The books of Sorcery were almost endless, but Peter luckily was a quick learner. He looked into the forms and katas for forms of Sorcery such as Chaos Magic, Necromancy, Thaumaturgy, and Calamity Magic. He even looked into the journals of previous sorcerer supremes on how to create new forms of sorcery, and how to make contracts with other gods.

If Peter wasn't studying, he was working on his presentation to the government for registration. He had to present himself as a competent hero, which he believed he was already. Upon checking the Licensing Database, Peter found out that there'd be several tests to show that he'd be able to protect innocents, work as a team with other heroes, listen to orders, and give out orders. He thought he could do all of those, but focused on practicing diffusing hostage situations while going out as Mystic Spider.

Every once in a while, May would wonder what he was doing, and Peter would have to lie over and over again. He knew that he'd have to keep doing it...but as long as it was for a good cause, it was fine, right? He had to keep believing that, believing that practicing sorcery was the right thing to do, despite the law. He had to believe that being the Mystic Spider was the right thing to do.

"Everything is fine, mom." He'd say to her. "I'm just trying to be out and about more...that's all."

The reassuring smile, the excuse...it was becoming routine, all too easy. He hoped that it wasn't making him a bad person.


Hero auditions were being held in the Heroes Guild headquarters, as they always were each year. Heroes Tower was at the heart of New York City and at the center of the Basilica of Saint Beleth, the headquarters of the Church of the Azure Flame, the church that Paladin serves. The entire area took up a city block, high buildings and cathedrals adorned with silver and gold, which shined in the sun. At the front of the church, a huge bonfire with a blue flame was lit, a flame that blazes for all eternity, day or night, except on Observance Day where the flame went out to honor the death of Genis, the church's Messiah.

Peter stood in line with about a hundred other heroes. He thought coming very early would give him the advantage of time, but he still ended up in the back of a very long line. It wasn't until high noon that he was even inside of the building, and it took a few more hours after that until the door to the audition room was even visible. Several times while waiting, Peter's magic mirror vibrated. He had to ignore several calls from Cindy. Didn't she know he was doing something important?

She obviously doesn't approve of this hero thing. Maybe she's trying to keep me from doing it. Peter thought when he ignored the final call.

The audition room was a basketball court with bleachers in the back, which were empty. When Peter walked in, he saw the three figures seated at their desks and nearly had a heart attack. Seated were the Iron Knight, clad in his armor except for his helmet, revealing his raven black hair and stylized beard. Next to him was Paladin, clad in his blue and white armor, his shield slung onto his back. His helmet was off also, revealing his slicked-back dirty blonde hair, his full, straw-colored beard, and his intense blue-green eyes. The last person that sat was someone else Peter recognized but was considerably less exciting: Prime Minister Phil Coulson, a man with graying and balding black hair, short height, and stout build, wearing a simple black suit.

"Thank you for coming." The Paladin said.

He's thanking me. Peter thought.

"State your alias, please?" He continued.

"Mystic Spider, sir." Peter said. Even though he was nervous beyond belief, he was still able to keep his cool.

"Ah, so he's real." The Iron Knight remarked. "What are your powers, kid?"

"I'm a magus that has the abilities of a spider." Peter lied. "You know...I can shoot web constructs, I'm a little stronger and faster than the average human...I also have precognition, which helps me predict my opponent's movements."

The three went silent as they wrote something down.

"Okay." Paladin said, standing up. "Let's start with your ability to assess threats. I'm going to-"

Peter's hearing seemed to shut off, because he didn't hear a word that Paladin said after that. Instead he heard the sounds of violence: screaming, death. The sounds of lightning crackling and bolts of energy flying, colliding with walls and making rock come crashing down. In his mind's eye, he could see Cindy, who was looking directly at him.

"Peter! I've been trying to get a hold of you!" Cindy yelled over the sounds of battle in the background. "You need to come to the college, we're being attacked!"

What? Attacked? By who? Peter thought back. He knew how this worked. Cindy had projected herself into his mind, he had to think to respond.

"We don't know! Come quick!"

The mental projection stopped abruptly. The last thing he saw was the image of Cindy being attacked from behind.

"...Kid?"

Suddenly, his hearing was back. He looked at the three behind the table, two of the greatest heroes on Earth stared at him, confused. Paladin was projecting some kind of light image by Peter: a family huddled together in fear, with a faceless bad guy pointing a wand at them. Peter imagined that he had to defeat the bad guy and keep the family from getting hurt. That is, if he was staying.

"S-Sorry!" Peter said quickly, opening a portal. "I have to go! Maybe we can do this later?"

Before any of them can answer, he stepped through.


Peter swung as fast as he could to the base of operations for the Order of the Spider. When he got there, the first thing he saw was carnage. The ward that had hidden the entrance's existence seemed to be broken, because he saw the door and it was busted off of his hinges. When he walked in, he noticed that the various statues were broken down, and the corpses of monks littered the ground. Ahead, the entrance to the manor was destroyed, leaving behind a gaping hole with rubble at its feet. Peter vaulted over the rubble and saw more bodies, some seeming shaking violently in place, some laying limp...as if the very life had been sucked out of them.

As Peter advanced quietly down the hall, he caught a glimpse of Cindy stuck under rubble. She appeared to be conscious, but badly beaten. Her eye was purple with a nasty-looking bruise, and there was a nasty cut on her arm. Rushing to her side, Peter lifted the rubble and pulled her from under it. Her leg was bent at an angle it shouldn't be bent at, which made it clear that she wouldn't be walking...well, ever again, unless Peter helped her.

"Hey, I've got you." Peter said, talking through her whimpers of pain. He placed a hand over the wound and made a hand sign, pouring his will into the wound. It slowly began to heal itself, the bone mending and the wound closing. Once it was done, Peter felt exhausted. That was the first time he'd used healing magic for anything other than a small cut. He felt like if he cast one more spell, he'd collapse.

"Cindy...what happened?" He asked, highly concerned.

"They had an army...we weren't ready. We didn't know how they knew where we were...how they knew what we had." Cindy said. "And that man…"

Peter heard a loud explosion coming from the direction of the Ancient One's office.

"Let's go!" Cindy said, getting up. "He's going after your father!"

When they got to Ben's office, it was already too late. Peter kicked open the door, prepared to fight, but he saw a large, deformed figure standing on top of his dad. The figure looked barely humanoid, his body covered in a cloak that almost obscured his features but barely covered his massive hunched back. His right arm was a massive, gray crab claw, and his left arm was just a bouquet of five thick tentacles that looked to be prehensile like fingers, holding a large blue gem that looked like an eye. When Peter and Cindy came in, he spun around to face them, and then gave them an inhuman smirk.

More tentacles hung from his pale face as if to mimic a beard. His skin was covered in moving barnacles, and his eyes were cloudy as if covered with cataracts. When he blinked, his eyelids moved horizontally instead of vertically, and when he smiled, he revealed a row of teeth that were as sharp as a shark's.

"Ah, if it isn't the new Sorcerer Supreme." The figure purred, his voice sounding as if he'd been gargling salt water with swollen tonsils. "I have to thank you for not being here in your Order's hour of need."

Peter looked down and saw his father laid out on the ground. Instead of looking like his usual sturdy but older self, his dad looked emaciated, almost beyond recognition. He wore the same robes of the Ancient One, except now his skin was as pale as bone. A gaping hole was also on his forehead, but not bleeding. Like some of the corpses outside, it was as if the life had been sucked out of him. Peter rushed to his side, and the entity stepped aside to allow him to grasp the gravity of the situation.

"You...you killed him…" Peter said, his voice shaky. "You bastard..!"

The figure laughed, a horrible sound. "Worry not, young one. You and all you know will join him in the next life soon."

Cindy shot a web at him, but it stopped in mid air without him even looking at it. He simply glanced at Cindy and she went flying back, slamming into one of the bookshelves.

"I must take my leave. I have a master to revive...and now all will be possible with this." He held the orb to his forehead, and it flashed with a brief glow. The figure's eyes began to glow an ethereal blue, and the orb glowed as well as if it were a third eye.

"So long, sorcerers." He said, and with that, he disappeared.

Cindy groaned and got up, walking to an object that looked suspiciously like a statue of Mr. Moon. She whispered some words under her breath and made a sign with both of her hands, and the statue transformed. Mr. Moon fell onto his knees, looking around in bewilderment as if he were in the middle of a battle. When he realized that it was all over, he got up, brushing himself off.

"Where is Octavius?" He asked his daughter.

"I do not know…" Cindy said. "But it seems he took the Eye of Agamotto from the Ancient One."

Mr. Moon grimaced. "Then all is lost, it seems…"

"No...dad…" Peter was beginning to sob as he futilely shook his father, hoping to any god that would listen that there was a spark of life still inside of him. "Dad! I already lost you once! This can't happen!"

"Peter…" Mr. Moon placed his hand on his shoulder.

Peter shook him off and began sobbing on his father's skeletal chest. His dad was gone...really gone this time, and this wasn't fake. There wouldn't be an extraordinary day revealing to him that he was alive. There wasn't a single spell in the entire College that could raise the dead, not without some dire sacrifice or the risk of bringing him back without his soul. The room went silent as Peter sobbed...he said to Ben that he needed to trust him, but instead he was out trying to play hero. Ben trusted him and now he was dead.


AN: And you probably thought this Peter would keep Ben :^)

Sorry for the short chapter! I'm actually making one more today to make up for the fact that it's short. This chapter marks the transition from the beginning of the story to the middle.

Fun fact: the Eye of Agamotto is actually the Mind Gem of this universe ;)