Part 1 - Fires of Revolution

Chapter 3 - The Second Assignment

Gwen skidded across a roof. It was 8:59AM. Any moment now the portal would open. She sat down on an air conditioning vent and watched the seconds tick away on her phone. She took a deep breath as the clock moved to 9AM. Would Conall keep his word? Somehow she had a feeling he wouldn't. She didn't trust him.

A couple of minutes later, Gwen's phone moved to 9:01AM. It was as she thought: Conall had lied. She most likely would never see Miles again. She flicked to her photos app and stared sadly at the picture of them on the bus back from Hudson Valley. She closed her eyes and clenched her fist. Why had she led herself to believe Conall had been legitimate? Nothing but a fraud with fancy magic tricks. Suddenly, her spider sense burst into a flurry of warnings. She opened her eyes and looked up to see a golden swirl of flames. Immediately, she put her phone away and sprinted through before it could close again.

A second later, Gwen was standing in Conall's office. Miles was sitting on a seat in front of the desk with Conall in his usual place. She could tell that Miles was mildly infuriated, but Conall seemed to display little sign of emotion. Yet her senses told her he was feeling something much stronger than he usually did.

"Sorry for being late. Miles was feeling a little jumpy.

Gwen narrowed her eyes. This sparked her distrust once again. Why would Miles be angry?

"Why?"

Miles looked at her.

"He's sending us on a mission, not on a date like he said."

Gwen looked back at Conall who lifted a finger, as if to crush an insect that may randomly walk beneath it.

"You gave us your word."

"I gave you my word I would allow you both to meet up at an allotted time. And anyway, I don't see that either of you have much of a choice. I've made up my mind: you two will go on this mission. Besides, it shouldn't be too hard, I hope. You'll travel to dimension 2095, New York. There you'll meet with Dr Stephen Strange who is a friend of mine. He hasn't been answering my messages, and that's bad news when he has the job he does. I want you to check everything is OK there, resolve any issues you find, then the rest of the day is yours to spend together in that dimension. I'll bring you back at 9PM tonight where I'll debrief you, then send you home until the next mission, or next Sunday at the same time."

Gwen sat down on the chair next to Miles. These hadn't been here the day before. She wondered where they were from.

"Why us? Not someone else? Why not go yourself?"

"Because I have other jobs to do. Besides, neither of you can complain. You get to spend time together, as you will do on all the other missions I send you on. This one should be simple. Just do it. The more time you waste here the less you have there."

Miles looked at Gwen.

"We should never have agreed to this."

"Miles, I think this is gonna be OK. And he does have a point about us being able to see each other on other missions as well. It isn't just the Sunday dates."

Conall lowered his finger slowly. Gwen wondered if he had been preparing to swat her like the insect she imagined, had she shown any signs of aggression towards him. Miles grit his teeth.

"Fine. But you better not make us do this again. Sundays are special days for us. You can't take that away."

"Actually I can take whatever I want, now get going."

Another gate appeared. Miles got to his feet and stormed through. Gwen looked at Conall for a few more seconds before getting up and following. Conall closed the gate and shook his head.

"Maybe they have a point." Said a robotic voice, the same as the one that had responded when he had asked for the doors to be closed.

"I wouldn't know. I have no time for a normal life to try and find out."

"Then perhaps you should treat their lives with a little more respect, instead of just specks of dirt on the fabric of time and space?"

"I'll give it some thought."

Gwen placed her hand on Miles' shoulder.

"We'll make up the time somehow."

"I know, but he gave us his word. How could he break it?"

"We can talk about it later. Let's get this done."

The pair looked around them: this New York was quite different to both of their own. One building in particular stood out amongst the masses of Manhattan. It was a tall, white one with a large letter 'A' on its side. They were sticking to the steep side of another massive building. It seemed to be the tallest around.

"Any idea where this Dr Strange could be?" Asked Gwen.

"He said something about looking for a big circular window with a symbol built into it in a sort of brass colour. He called it a Sanctum."

"That could take a while."

"That's my point! New York is massive!"

"Maybe our phones know something?"

"Doubtful."

Gwen pulled hers out, silently begging it to connect to some form of mobile data network. As she unlocked it, the picture of her and Miles appeared. Miles smiled when he saw it.

"You still have that?"

"Of course."

"And you were staring at it, like you used to?"

"Conall seemed like the type to be on time no matter what. I'd have thought he would do things on time to the second. When the gate didn't open for over a minute I began to think he was a fraud. I don't trust him, just like you. But if we're to keep seeing each other we have to do as he asks, or he'll tear us apart. Quite literally."

Miles nodded.

"Right. Now look up this Sanctum thing."

Gwen looked at her phone again. Thank goodness: it had connected to mobile data. She opened the maps app and quickly typed in 'sanctum'. It searched for a moment before returning three results: one in London, one in Hong Kong and the closest one in New York. She looked around her, trying to match the landmarks to what was marked on the map.

"It says this building we're on is called 'Freedom Tower'. That one with the 'A' is the Avengers headquarters.

"That last one sounds hopeful. Avengers sounds like a group of heroes. The sort of place you'd find an accomplice of Conall's."

"No, it says the Sanctum is…" She moved he phone around a little, switching it to an AR mode which allowed her to see exactly where her destination was from her view, "That way."

"Uptown?"

"Seems so. Race you, Spiderman."

Gwen stuffed her phone away and hurled herself off the side of the building. She fired a web at the side of the next skyscraper over and pulled herself along. Miles was close behind.

Nearly ten minutes later, the pair arrived outside their destination.

"I win!" Said Miles with a grin.

"Only because I stopped to check we were almost here."

"If it makes you feel any better, but I still won fair and square."

"Alright; you won."

They stared up at the building. There was the window Conall had mentioned.

"That's definitely it."

Miles walked up to the front door, closely followed by Gwen. He knocked on it and took a step back to be even with Gwen. Suddenly, they found themselves standing inside, looking at a staircase which led up to an identical window to the one in the roof.

"I don't know what's going on but you two had better explain who you are right now." Said a stern voice behind them.

They turned to see a man floating above another flight of stairs which led down to the door, held seemingly only by a red cape which drifted behind him. Two orange, highly decorated circles were in front of his hands, like small shields. A cut with dried blood smeared his forehead.

"We…don't really want to tell you our names. They're kind of secret. But we were sent by Conall to find out why you haven't been responding to his emails."

The man looked at each of them in turn.

"I have many reasons not to trust spider people at the moment. I was just robbed by one dressed entirely in black a white. That being said, you claim to be from Conall and only a person with significant knowledge of the multiverse would know of him."

The man floated down in front of them and climbed the last couple of stairs onto the landing they were on.

"My name is Doctor Stephen Strange, but I trust you already knew that."

"We had some idea." Replied Miles.

"Good. Because I need your help."

A split second later they were seated in armchairs in a room, both holding a steaming mug of hot chocolate. Strange sat in one opposite them. Miles and Gwen looked at each other in surprise.

"You can take your masks off. I care little for your identities, nor do they matter in this world."

Miles removed his and began to drink his hot chocolate. Gwen followed suit, but took more cautious sips at first in case this was a trick. Strange continued to talk.

"How much do either of you know about the dimensions?"

Miles gulped down another mouthful then said:

"We know they work like a…conveyor belt. They start at one point and move along infinitely, but others split off from them to form parallel dimensions."

"Correct. But did you know that there are multiple start points for dimensions?"

"Start points?" Pressed Gwen.

"Different ways in which the dimensions form. Some form with no concept of time, such as the Dark Dimension. Others more like 01, or like the normal Earth we all know. Each of these start points has its own separate system of conveyors. In each system, there are a variety of extremely powerful objects which hold the system together. In this dimension there are six infinity stones. I guard the Time Stone, or did until one day ago when it was stolen. I have been searching for it, for without our chief weapon, our system is doomed to be consumed by darkness."

"You want us to help you get it back?"

"I am led to believe it is still within this dimension, and still in New York."

"If that's what we've got to do, then let's do it." Said Miles eagerly.

"Be careful. This thief was quite powerful. Mainly because of his advantage of surprise."

"We will be. Come on, Miles. The sooner this is done, the better."

Miles put down his mug and stood up.

"We'll bring it straight back." Gwen reassured Strange.

"Good. Otherwise I will have to start my next email exchange with quite the complaint."

Miles and Gwen landed on top of the Avengers tower an hour later. They had been swinging aimlessly to try and come up with a plan to retrieve the stone.

"This is hopeless. We'll never find it before 9PM." Said Gwen.

"There has to be a way. If I had one of the most powerful objects in the dimension, where would I be?"

"I don't know, kiddos. But I'd get out of here now before I fine you the bills for cleaning those windows."

The two spiders turned to see who it was this time. A red and gold suit of armour was hovering nearby, flames burning furiously from its hands and feet.

"Who are you?" Asked Gwen.

"What? Never heard of Iron Man before? How about Tony Stark?"

"Hey! I read a comic with you in once!" Said Miles.

"Those...probably exist. Shouldn't I be getting some of the profits? Anyway, go away kids. This is a restricted building. Highest security."

"But it's in the middle of Manhattan." Gwen pointed out.

Stark looked around at the other buildings.

"Good point. What do you want?"

"We're looking for something called the Time Stone. It's supposedly really powerful."

"Really powerful, huh? Wouldn't happen to be related to the Mind Stone by any chance?"

"Err…no idea."

"If that's what you want, I'll help you find it. Sounds like something we need to hand over to my buddies at R&D."

"We can give it to Doctor Strange. He probably works for them."

"Strange...what a strange name. Hey Jarvis, check the Stark Industries personnel logs and find someone called Strange."

"No matches, sir."

"Clearly he doesn't work for them. Leave this to me, kids. This is for the adults to deal with."

"We have our instructions."

"Shut up and skip town. Before I have you put in cuffs for trespassing."

Miles and Gwen looked at each other, but decided to heed Stark's warning. They jumped from the building and swung away to one nearby.

"What do we do?" Asked Miles.

"Logically, we would follow him. He'll lead us straight to the stone."

"Then what?"

"We take it before him and give it back to Strange."

"Let's do it."

They sat and watched Stark floating around the Avengers tower for a few minutes as he looked around. Suddenly, he shot off towards the Hudson River. The pair swung after him as fast as they could.

Only a few minutes later, the pair landed in a dark alleyway. Stark was standing face to face with a familiar figure. He turned when they landed.

"Didn't I tell you kids to hop it?"

"Yes, but we have instructions."

"That doesn't matter. What I say outweighs what you say."

"Wrong, Stark." Replied a voice behind them.

Strange floated down, his two orange shields held ready.

"And who are you, wizard man?"

"My name is Doctor Stephen Strange. And that stone is mine to protect."

"If it's anything as powerful as the Mind Stone, or the Tesseract, it belongs to Stark Industries."

"I would recommend you don't put all your faith in them."

Seeing their chance to escape, the familiar person began to scramble up the wall like a shadow. Stark fired up his engines but was restrained by large orange ropes from Strange.

"Go, spider people. Get the stone." Strange told Gwen and Miles.

They obeyed and scrambled up the wall behind the shadow. The shadow reached a street on the other side of the building and leapt, landing on the wall opposite. They clambered up it and turned, then stopped. Miles and Gwen made the leap with ease and climbed up after the shadow who remained standing still. They stopped short, shocked by who they were looking at.

"Noir?" Gasped Miles.

"Hello Miles. And Gwen."

"What are you doing here? And why are you stealing things?" Asked Gwen.

"I was sent here by an associate who told me the wizard with this shiny pebble was using it to help the Nazis in my dimension."

"That can't be true."

"I question it as well. It is like that cube. I'll figure out its secrets one day."

"Did you ever solve that?" Asked Miles.

"Yes, and no. It still keeps its true purpose from me."

Suddenly, there was a roar behind them.

"Right kids. You've really screwed the pooch now." Said Stark.

His suit was scratched badly but still seemed fully operational. Strange descended once more between them, a much larger number of injuries all over him.

"These kids are beyond your understanding, Stark."

"Hardly. When has a person ever managed to confuse me?"

Stark raised his hand and fired a repulsor shot at Strange who deflected it with his shields before one transformed into a semi-circle. With that, Strange fired a series of bursts of energy at Stark who dodged them with ease. Stark tore towards Strange and punched him in the face. Strange's cloak stopped him from falling off the building, but flew his unconscious body away from the scene.

"There goes the wizard."

Miles fired a web shot at Stark, tying him to the ground. Gwen looked at Miles in surprise for a second before joining in with helping to pin Stark down. However, it lasted merely seconds before their opponent broke free. His wrist opened and a rocket blasted itself towards them before exploding, causing the roof below them to crumble, but also throwing them over the edge onto the street below. Gwen caught herself with a web, and caught Miles' hand to stop him from falling. The drop wasn't far, but it may hurt hitting concrete at high speed. She swung him onto the wall and looked up, just in time to see Stark flying down, a green stone glowing in his hand.

"Stay out of things that don't concern you, kids. Or you'll get hurt."

Miles fired another web, this time at Stark's hand. He caught it and began to pull, trying to prise it open to get the stone. Stark kept his hand shut but let himself be pulled in before smashing his fist into Miles' chest, causing the wall to crack. Gwen knew when she was outmatched, so made no attempt to fight. Instead, she grabbed Miles and fired a web to carry them both away.

When Gwen was convinced they were far enough away, she landed on top of a roof and lay Miles down. He was unconscious, and most likely had a number of cracked ribs. She sat down next to him and sighed. All she could do was wait for him to wake up. Why had they ever agreed to work for Conall? If this was what they spent their lives doing, it was only a matter of time until they were both killed. Was their relationship really worth it? Yes, it was. She loved Miles, and she was intent on never letting anything stand in the way of that. Miles began to stir. He groaned and clutched his ribs. Just as Gwen had suspected.

"This is one miserable date." Mumbled Miles.

Gwen chuckled.

"We have to get back somehow. Do you think that code word thing Conall had us use yesterday still works?"

"If you can remember what it was, then try it."

"Something like…pro terras?"

A gateway appeared in front of them.

"That worked. Come on."

Gwen helped Miles to his feet and supported him as they walked through the gateway.

On the other side, Conall was watching curiously. With a flick of his finger, he spun one of the chairs in front of his desk, round to face the gateway which he shut behind them. Miles grit his teeth as he sat down, still clutching his ribs.

"Cracked ribs, a nasty bruise. I'd say you were punched pretty hard." Observed Conall.

"He was. By some Tony Stark guy." Replied Gwen.

"Ah. Stark. What did you do to upset him?"

"Landed on top of a tower with a big 'A' on the side."

"I see. And Stark got mad at that."

"He got mad because we were trying to help Strange get the Time Stone back."

"And did you manage?"

"No. Stark got it."

"Hmm…oh well."

"Oh well? An apparently really powerful object just fell into the hands of a mad man! And you say 'oh well'?" Exclaimed Gwen.

"Yes I do. So long as the Time Stone remains in its dimensional stream I have little worries. Who guards it is of little concern. In fact, Stark is far more powerful than Strange. Strange is a good friend of mine, but he isn't particularly strong against someone like Stark."

Gwen glared at Conall.

"You mean Miles had his ribs smashed for nothing?"

"They're hardly smashed. A couple of cracks. And yes."

"You realise his dimension will be without a Spiderman until they're healed?"

"Oh yes. But it was coping just fine before any spider people turned up. In fact, arguably it has become worse. Supervillains almost never appeared before you guys did. In fact half of them just want revenge for you guys killing their families in one of your attempts to clean up a massive mess."

"You're…"

"Just telling the truth."

Gwen looked at Miles with a worried expression. He would be fine, just out of action for a few days, maybe a week at most.

"I suppose this means I'm going solo on the missions now."

"That depends on what comes up. Anything easy I'll call you in."

"Why just the easy stuff?"

"As has just been shown, you two aren't exactly great at ranged combat. You're both the melee sort. With only one of you, someone like Stark could crush you like a spider."

"That isn't worrying at all…"

"Unless you want to sit around and get depressed by the state of Miles, I think it's time you went home."

"Right. OK."

Conall raised his hand and opened a gateway.

"Hey, how will Miles get home? He can hardly walk."

"I'll sort that. Now go."

Gwen stood up. She took a last look at Miles, then walked through the gateway home.

Crossovers in this Chapter

- Avengers