Peter and Cindy fell for what felt like an eternity. There seemed to be no end to the darkness that had opened below them, no end to the infinite expanse of nothingness. Peter realized that, if there was a bottom, the velocity would turn his and Cindy's bones to liquid as soon as they hit it. He didn't want that. It seemed that he came to that realization too late, however, because the "bottom" was coming down at them fast.

"Peter, do something!" Cindy chided at him.

"I'm workin' on it!" Peter said. He pressed his palms to his chest, then laced his fingers together - the gesture that activated the runes on his cloak. The cloak materialized behind him, glowing with his blue-purple aura. It expanded, wrapping around Cindy and spreading out. The cloak continued to expand until they formed wing-like appendages, which caught the air and immediately slowed their fall, as if it were a parachute.

When they hit the ground, it was less of a bone-shattering impact and more of a "they would have broken their legs if they didn't land in a roll" impact. Peter's cloak disappeared as they rolled back onto their feet, and he sighed in relief.

"I never thought I'd say this, but…" Cindy said. "Thank the Gods for runesmithing."

"Thank Lord Howard Stark, you mean." Peter corrected. "But I mean, I guess you can say he's a god."

Cindy rolled her eyes. "Where are we?"

Peter looked ahead. As far as he could tell, they were on a much larger version of the floating rock platforms above. While those were the size of football fields, this one seemed to be about the size of a large skyscraper. Ahead was a thin road that led to a massive arch, and beyond that, Peter couldn't see anything.

"No idea." Peter said. "But can you sense that? The distortions are ahead. We must be close to the focus."

They advanced ahead, balancing on the road that connected one side of the island they were on to the other. When they walked through the arch, they ended up somewhere completely different. As far as they could tell, they'd been transported to a massive cave. Strange carvings were along the walls, symbols that caused Peter's mind to do nervous, gibbering backflips if he looked directly at them, so he decided to keep his gaze ahead. As they advanced through the cave, they came across a room of Brotherhood cultists, sat on various pillars of rock with their eyes closed. They seemed to be deep in meditation. Unlike the cultists that Peter had previously encountered, they had strange paintings of black rings around their eyes, which extended across their face like tentacles.

As soon as Peter and Cindy entered, they opened their eyes, looking directly at them.

"Hello?" Peter asked. "Uh...Jeff told me that D&D was being hosted down here, but um...I didn't know costumes were mandatory."

"Interloper!" One of them hissed.

"C'mon." Peter shot back. "Can you even spell that?"

They floated off of their pillars, green-black auras surrounding them. One of them shot a beam of black energy at Peter, but he ducked backwards, webbing a rock behind him and spinning, bringing the rock around and slamming into the cultist's side. The rock shattered with how hard it was slammed into the cultist, and sent his body flying into the stone wall at his side. Cindy vaulted over Peter while he was in a crouched position, projecting a shield made out of webbing to block one of the beams of energy that were shot forth from one of the cultists. It was obvious to her that they had an advantage at range, but judging by how thin they were, they only focused on magic.

She sprinted to one of them, her shield shattering from another beam of energy. She discarded the shattered pieces of her magic, hopping onto the nearby wall and running at the side. The cultist shot another beam at her, but she jumped at the last minute, and instead stone shrapnel went flying everywhere. Cindy landed on the man's shoulders, wrapping her thighs around his neck and throwing her weight forward, making them both flip. Cindy landed on her back, and now she had the cultist down too. She had him in an arm bar.

Another cultist took the opportunity to aim a blast at Cindy, but Peter webbed his hand while he aimed, pulling him towards him. Peter hopped up as he came towards him, landing in a punch directly at the top of his head, which ended with the cultist being floored. His precognition picked up a blast being shot at him in a few seconds, so he dodged, and instead the blast got a cultist that charged at him with a green ball of energy that suspiciously looked like it was going to explode. When it fell to the ground, it did exactly that, but Peter was mid-dodge, so he couldn't move. The force sent him flying backwards into a pillar of rock, which collapsed, making the pieces fall directly on Peter.

Cindy released the cultist she had and sprinted towards Peter to aid him, but she was blocked off by a wall of stone that suddenly protruded in front of her. She hopped onto it to crawl onto it, but the stone floated into the air, turning onto the side she was on. Her precognition picked up that it was going to slam down to the ground, so she narrowly jumped off, landing in a roll right before the stone slammed downward, shattering with the sheer force of its movement.

Okay. Cindy thought. They're sorcerers...but good ones.

She barely dodged a ball of energy speeding forth at her, and her precognition picked up it exploding on impact. She was in the air from her dodge, so she couldn't move any further, but Peter blocked the energy shockwave with a web-shield similar to her own. He'd gotten out of the pile of rocks he was under, covered in thick coatings of hardened webbing that covered his entire head, which protected him from the impact of the rocks.

"Um, I'm pretty sure you guys are cheating." Peter said. "You can only use death beam once per day!"

The cultists were unamused. They continued to blast them with their beams of energy, which Cindy and Peter danced around in unison. Cindy descended on one of the cultists with a drop kick that sent him flying, and Peter was right behind him, catching him and wrapping his arms around his waist, using the momentum to German suplex him. He did a backflip over the cultist's unconscious body to dodge another beam of energy. The cultist was going to shoot another beam at Peter, but was immediately stopped by the wad of thick webbing - shot by Cindy - which collided with his face so heavily that he fell over. Instead the beam went flying in a random direction, bouncing all over the walls until it randomly hit Peter.

Peter was ready for it. He opened his soul, receiving the energy to make himself a conduit. The foul power coursed through his veins, reaching his very soul in an attempt to corrupt it. He resisted, closing his eyes and allowing the thoughts to flow through his mind. He knew how to withstand attacks to his soul; the more he resisted, the worse it would be for him. The whispers quieted and he felt a cold, agonizing pain. He infused the power with his aura, claiming it, taking it as his own, then shot it forth at the remaining two cultists. The energy hit them like an almost solid force, sending them flying backwards into the closed gate behind them, breaking it off of its hinges and opening the way to the next room.

"Ye Gods. If I handled that kind of power, I'd be insane too." Peter shuddered. "Alright...another thing to talk about with the therapist I promised my mom I'd get. Let's go."

They advanced, stepping over unconscious bodies and through the gate. Once they went through, they were in a large room with what was very obviously the focus at the center. At the center of the room was what looked like a totem pole, except instead of the faces of animals he could recognize, the pole was stacked with the faces and models of nameless beasts from dimensions beyond his own. At the very top was something that was so unholy that Peter could barely look at it. From what he could discern, it had a body similar to that of a dragon's, sitting in a squatted position with a head resembling an octopus, tentacles extending, gripping at the air.

The worst part was that he could feel that this totem pole wasn't all there was to this. The pole wasn't an object, it was a physical manifestation of a...thing that existed beyond conventional four dimensions. What he was looking at was like glancing the clipped toenail of a giant. It was only a part of the larger being, and due to how sensitive to magic Peter had trained himself to be, he could feel its presence. He could feel the viscous, milky fluid of its physical form grabbing at his very soul. He knew why nobody could be in the presence of this thing. It was driving Peter mad, and the only reason he wasn't a gibbering chimpanzee is because he'd trained himself to have automatic mental defenses.

Needless to say, Peter averted his eyes. He saw Cindy do the exact same thing.

"Do you feel that like I do?" He asked.

Cindy visibly shuddered, which made Peter do the same thing. He'd never seen anything elicit that type of reaction from her.

"Yes." She confirmed. "I can't even look at it...and I'm certain that being in this...this thing's presence for any prolonged period of time will have a lasting effect on us."

"Then let's take it quick. All we have to do is get a piece of it…"

Peter slowly walked towards the thing, trying to keep it outside of his direct gaze but within his peripherals. He knew there were weird things out there in the multiverse, but this...this was something entirely different. He reached out to touch it, creating a blade out of hardened webbing in his other hand so he can cut a piece off of it, and then…

"What do you think you are doing?" A voice with a heavy accent demanded, seemingly coming from everywhere and nowhere.

An invisible force sent Peter flying backwards. It was...immense, like being carried away by a wave in the ocean. He couldn't stop it, and it sent him colliding with Cindy. They tumbled backwards, but Peter recovered fairly quickly. He got up, trying to spot the origin of that force, and finally she revealed herself.

Out of seemingly nowhere, a figure appeared. She was tall and thin, wearing a black loincloth that went down to her feet, and a black strap that covered her breasts - and nothing other than that. Her skin was dark, and covered in the same strange symbols that were inscribed on the walls, which glowed a ghostly green-color. Her hair was long and in dreads, decorated with various bone charms and beads. Her eyes were completely black - irises, scalera, everything. She was beautiful, very much so in an otherworldly sense. Peter got the sense that whoever she was...well, she wasn't exactly human in the classical sense.

"Um…" Peter said, her otherworldly presence rendering his mind blank. "S-Saving the universe…?"

She laughed, and her laugh echoed through the room, shaking the entire world. Peter knew this was some serious power, power on the scale beyond any sorcerer that he had previously encountered. When your magic was strong enough, your aura would distort reality itself. If anything, she seemed to be as much of an anomaly as the totem pole at the center of the room.

"How predictable." She said. "But why save the universe? It isn't particularly special. One of many, really. And as easily destructible as the rest."

"Who are you?" Cindy demanded, seemingly having the same difficulties as Peter.

"I suppose you deserve to know the name of the one who will destroy you." The woman said, her arm extending. A black, seemingly living energy gathered in her hand, extending into a construct. The construct extended, gained color, form, turning into a bejeweled wooden staff with a skull at the top, its eyes glowing.

"I am Calypso." She said. "Sidhe Sorceress of the Autumn Court. Consort to Cthulhu."

Oh. Peter thought. I guess we're going to die, then.

He knew that if this woman was a faerie, a sidhe on top of that, then she immediately outclassed both him and Cindy a thousand times over, along with any sorcerer that Peter had ever met. Humans had magic, the sidhe were magic, change and chaos personified, their raw ability only held back by the very specific and strange rules that they had to follow at all times.

"Peter, something is coming!" Cindy warned.

Something was indeed coming. Reality blurred around them, and suddenly they were in a different environment entirely. Around them was a completely flat, featureless land. A blue sky with eight suns was above them. Calypso stood above them, floating in midair.

Okay, Peter. Think before she vaporizes you. He thought.

The fae had to follow a set of rules that were called the Game of Immortals, named such because they were so incomprehensibly powerful, that life was nothing but a game to them. That meant this fight, by default, was nothing but playtime for Calypso. Peter knew of the rules only vaguely, and only from personal research in grimoires, not from actually learning them firsthand. Humans had erased nearly all knowledge on faeries, and that's because simply knowing about them validates their existence. As long as one validates the existence of the fae, then they can be affected by the fae.

Peter had a feeling closing his eyes and chanting, "I don't believe in faeries" wasn't going to help him out here.

He knew of a few rules that remained constant through all of the sources in his research: the fae cannot lie, they cannot harm mortals except in self-defense, and they can not directly achieve that which they want, it must be achieved through bargain. Any of the famous heroes throughout history that had bested faeries did so through guile, not because they weren't formidable warriors, but because directly fighting a faerie was suicide. They could play with reality like play-dough, shear the atoms in Peter's body. That was a common ability of these things, not even to mention the High Sidhe or the Faerie Kings or Queens.

Peter had at ruled out that Calypso was going to directly attack them. It wasn't that she didn't want to, it's that she couldn't. That didn't mean that she couldn't kill them, however. The fae had long become masters of getting around their own rules. While Calypso definitely couldn't harm them directly, she could put them in conditions where they would die. If she wanted, she could teleport them to the highest building in Manhattan and let them drop until they hit the ground, or teleport them to a planet without oxygen and watch them suffocate. The teleportation technically wouldn't be the thing that had killed them, it would be an "unfortunate" result of where they'd been teleported to.

Then Peter got an idea.

He would have to force her to harm them, but it would have to be in offense, not self-defense. Peter knew that the fae liked their games, and they also hated losing. He knew that they were powerful immortals, but they had the emotional maturity of three year olds. They were great, wise, and terribly easy to offend. Getting Calypso to harm them would be somewhat easy.

"Peter, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Cindy asked.

They looked at each other.

He was.

"So uh...Calypso, was it?" He asked the Sidhe. "Yeah, um...so what's the plan here? I know you can't just blast us out of existence like you'd be able to with any other creepy crawly in existence."

"If you must ask," the Sidhe Sorceress said, "I am going to leave you both here to starve to death."

"Yeah, but we're sorcerers." Peter countered. "Can't we just like...leave?"

"I had created this dimension outside of the multiverse proper." Calypso said. "It does not connect to the superflow. You cannot go back to your universe with conventional dimensional travel. Only imperial-level power can save you."

Imperial-level. Peter thought. Those were spells accessible to only Gods and high-level demons, beings like King Thor or Dormammu, and the Sorcerer Supreme at his or her highest level of potential. Peter knew a few imperial-level spells, but he knew casting one right now would destroy him, especially since they were outside of the multiverse, making Peter unable to call upon other-dimensional sources of power. By all intents and purposes, what Calypso said was true.

"Right." Peter said. "Well, Calypso - that's kinda weird to say. Can I call you Cally?"

Calypso's eyebrow twitched. Finally, a reaction.

"No." She said flatly.

"Well, Cally, you've kind of put us in a bind here, and-"

It looked like Calypso's wrath was easily provoked, because she immediately changed the environment again. They were no longer on the formless plane where they'd be left to die. Now they were in what appeared to be a volcano. Peter and Cindy were falling down towards a plane of lava, but they both barely managed to save themselves by webbing themselves towards one of the walls. They stuck to it, watching nervously as the lava burst upwards, almost reaching them. It was so unbearably hot that Peter knew he'd burst into flames if it weren't for the magical properties of his armor. He knew the enchantments in Cindy's armor weren't as powerful. They had to get out of there as quickly as possible.

"You've irked me." Calypso said with an icy calm to her voice. "So I will play around with you more. You will either die from the dire conditions of the plane I decide to drop you on...or your minds will shatter from exposure. And I will watch."

Peter believed her. They had to end this quickly, because Calypso was only going to up the ante from here.

So Peter tried the Felicia Hardy method of taunting.

"Kinky." He shot back.

The world changed again, and now they were on solid ground. As far as Peter could tell, they were on some kind of frozen lake. Snow and wind raged around them, immediately chilling Peter to his bones.

"Death by frostbite, really?" Peter called out, yelling above the winds. "Come on! How can that be fun to watch?"

"Peter." Cindy warned.

Peter's precognition kicked in, and he dodged the massive, furry body of a wolf that was about the size of an aircar. The wolf skid across the ice, eventually stopping itself. It was obviously not a normal wolf - first of all, they were never that big, and second of all, its teeth were the size of Peter's arm.

It was a dire wolf. And it had friends.

The glowing eyes of several other dire wolves glowed behind it. Peter knew these things formed packs, which was strange because each one was capable of taking down twelve men individually. Peter and Cindy definitely weren't twelve men.

But they were two sorcerers.

One of them lunged at Cindy, and she immediately went on the defensive. She created a shield of webbing, which the dire wolf collided with mid-lunge. The shield wrapped around the wolf, and the giant killing machine began to struggle, his body wriggling about in his bonds. Another lunged at Peter, but he quickly reformed his hardened webbing armor, catching the massive thing in his arms. The slippery ice below made him skid across, and he eventually fell on his back, but that put him in a dire position. The wolves began to group around him, biting and tearing at the armor, which was only held together by his willpower.

Cindy shot a massive web, catching two of the dire wolves in a thick net. They went flying, and Peter managed to get the remaining one. He lifted it, exerting all of his strength to move the six hundred pound killing machine off of him. He dropped it and webbed it to the ground, keeping it from moving any further.

It looked like the wolves were gone, so Calypso re-appeared above them.

"Hm. I thought that would be your demise." She said, visibly annoyed. "No matter. We are in an infinite multiverse...meaning, infinite ways for you to die."

She snapped her fingers, and the environment changed again. They dropped on top of what appeared to be a ruined building, falling through the roof. They fell until they hit the ground floor, which was unlucky for them, because at the ground floor were a horde of zombies. Most of them were naked or sporting ruined clothes, but a few looked different. One of them wore what appeared to be a torn apart devil costume, another wearing a red and blue costume with webbing designs, which would look cool if it weren't for his exposed torso.

"What kind of bizarro universe is this?" Peter asked.

"The hunger…" They moaned. "Flesh...FOOD!"

Peter definitely didn't want to stick around first. The one wearing a red and blue torn costume whipped his hand forward, and his veins wrapped around him. Peter tried to resist being dragged to him, but this guy was much stronger. Thankfully, Cindy came in for the save, using a blade construct to cut Peter free and grabbing him in midair. She swung outside of the building, landing on the wall of a nearby ruined skyscraper.

"This universe will be your demise." Calypso said, appearing right ahead of them. "You will be devoured and left hollow shells of yourselves."

"That's just messed up." Peter said. "Was that vein-dude supposed to be me?"

Peter looked down and saw the zombies gathering around the building Peter and Cindy were on, almost as if they could sense him.

"So what, you're going to let a bunch of undead guys eat us?" Peter asked. "That's screwed up, yeah. But I mean…"

"What he's trying to say, is…" Cindy said. "The zombies are scary, but where's the horror? This is very conventional. I mean, any manner of necromancer can do this. You're a Sidhe sorceress...and so far you hadn't been particularly horrifying."

"Right." Peter agreed. "Aren't you Autumn Court types obsessed with fear? I mean...I'm not shaking in my boots yet."

Calypso's face contorted into an expression of pure fury. Peter could tell that she was frustrated, almost at her boiling point. Just a little bit more of a push…

"Fools!" Calypso growled. "I am Calypso of the Autumn Court! Apprentice to Dutchess Saoirse of the Autumn Three! You do not know terror until you've invoked my wra-"

"Ye Gods, Cally." Peter said, feigning boredom. "Can you hurry it up? We don't have all day."

"DO NOT INTERRUPT ME!" Calypso screamed.

They teleported again, this time back to the plane that they were at first. Calypso appeared directly in front of them now, her form warping, becoming taller and thinner. Her arms and fingers extended, becoming almost skeletal. Her face and head grew, her skin stretching taut along her face, making her appear to be some manner of insectoid. Peter suddenly felt terrified, very terrified. He wanted to run, but he also knew he couldn't run.

He hoped that his research was correct. Otherwise, they were both going to be rendered unto dust in a second.

"DIE, INSECTS!" She screamed, the entire dimension shaking with her wrath. She gathered a ball of bright, multicolored energy, which radiated heat with the intensity of a dying star. "DIE! DIE! DIE!"

"Hold up! Time out!" Peter said.

Calypso stopped, Cindy looked at Peter with wide eyes.

"You're totally about to directly kill us, aren't you?" Peter taunted, his words moving a little quickly due to how terrified he was. "That's against the Game of Immortals."

Calypso returned to her "normal" form, her features still contorted in fury.

"Way I see it, since you were about to break the rules of the game, we beat you." Peter said.

"No." Calypso said. "I can just not kill you."

"But let's be honest." Peter said. "I've already shown I can get under your skin. So you can continue playing with us, yeah, but I'm just going to keep pushing you. Again and again until you finally get sick of it and decide to kill us."

"I can just drop you on a planet without oxygen." Calypso said. "You'll die, and you won't be able to say anything."

"Yeah, but where's the fun in that?" Peter reasoned. "I mean, you've lived for a long time, and will live for a long time after this. You're a being of myth, and my entire lifetime is but a blink in the eyes of your eternity. You're just going to ruin your fun over a simple mortal? Come on, now."

That seemed to give Calypso pause.

"So you've won." Calypso said. "Fine. Then I will cease toying with you."

"You promise?" Peter asked.

Calypso paused again, then she nodded her head infinitesimally. There seemed to be hesitation, but she didn't seem to have any other options.

That gave Peter exactly what he wanted.

"Great! So go ahead and transport us to where we were. I'll be taking a piece of that totem now." He said.

"No." Calypso said. "I have made a contract with Otto Octavius. I will protect the totem."

"See, that's where we have a conflict of interest." Peter said. "You wanna protect the totem, we want to take a piece off of the totem to protect from Otto and his Brotherhood's madness spells. The thing is, Cindy and I aren't going to stop until we have a piece of that totem. You're going to have to stop us because of your contract, which will lead to you toying with us - because you can't directly kill us - and...well, that'd be a violation of your promise. Another contract you made. So it's damned if you do, damned if you don't, huh?"

Calypso was silent for a long while, and then she gave another small nod.

"Your logic is sound." Calypso said.

"If only there was a way you could keep both deals at once, you know?" Peter said. "I mean...you have to protect the totem, you can't toy with us. Wait! I know. A reality warper like you can surely give us a piece of the focus without us touching the totem, right?"

Calypso remained silent.

"I think if you give us the totem," Peter continued. "Everything will be fine. The scales of fate will remain balanced, and Queen Mab won't come after you to unravel the dreamstuff you're made out of. Yeah?"

"And why should I help you?" Calypso asked coldly, glowering.

"Outer Sorcery is illegal among us humans." Peter said. "I can imagine it's the same for the fae, considering the creepy crawlies it deals with. Imagine if the word got out that you, Calypso of the Autumn Court, apprentice to Saoirse of the Autumn Three consorted with Cthulhu of all things."

Calypso narrowed her eyes, which made her look like a feral cat about to pounce.

"You wouldn't." She said.

"I'm the sorcerer supreme. I can. Calypso, take this as my oath: if you do not give us a piece of the totem as a focus, I will tell every being I come across that you consort with Cthulhu. I wonder what your king or queen would think. I wonder what would happen to your status if they found out."

Calypso's expression was alien and unreadable. As Peter studied her inhumanly beautiful features, he saw a trace of an emotion he could just barely recognize: fear. To the fae, status was everything. It was the very fiber of their existence. That is why they often organized in courts: there had to be some sort of class structure to them, or their very existence would begin to unravel.

"Fine, Peter Parker." Calypso said, and when she said Peter's name, he felt a strange feeling pass over him. He felt the weight of Calypso's power on his soul. "You drive a hard bargain. I will give you a piece of the totem pole. And you will leave. Understood?"

Peter nodded, putting on a smug smile. "Yes ma'am."

Wordlessly, Calypso snapped. Suddenly, Peter and Cindy were on the streets of New York, just over the manhole that they'd went into to get to the Tunnel Network. In Peter's hand was a mini version of the totem pole that was underground, except this was much easier to look at. When Peter extended his magical senses to observe it, however, he felt the horrible power wash over him, and he immediately withdrew them.

"Gods, that was terrifying." Cindy muttered. "Only you could annoy a sidhe to the point of almost violating the Game of Immortals."

Peter grinned widely, even though she couldn't see it under his mask.

"What can I say? I have a gift." He said smugly. "Let's contact Sharon. We've got a defense charm to make."

AN: We are almost at the end of this origin story, ladies and gents! The purpose of this chapter was to have a fighting scene where, for once, the solution wasn't punching them in the face, as well as introduce the fae (and this universe's version of Calypso). Also, yes, the universe she'd transported them to was Marvel Zombies. Thank you for reading this chapter, all feedback is appreciated! Help me grow as a writer, guys.