Peter 3

I gaped at the newspaper, unable to believe it.

1942?

As in World War 2, Nazis, and FDR?

Peter 1 and I helped Peter 2 stand upright. Poor guy. He lost everyone from his universe. I glanced at Peter 1 to see how he was coping. There was nothing about his expression that suggested he was sad. He just looked more serious. Peter 1 popped the first question.

"What can we do then?"

Loki shrugged.

"Stay here, I suppose."

When Loki spoke, I saw something flash in Peter 1's eyes. Was it…resentment? Anger?

Whatever it was, it quickly disappeared.

"We can't stay here." Doctor Strange said. "If our own universes are in danger, then we need to find a way to save them."

"Are there other timelines out there?" Wanda asked.

The Ancient One nodded. "There are many universes out there. However, they are vastly different from your own."

"But…are they in danger too?" Loki asked.

"I fear so."

"It's like the domino effect." Doctor Strange said. "One falls, the rest fall too."

"We can't just stay here." Peter 2 said, his voice breaking. "If people are in trouble, we can't let them die….like….like the others."

He was about to say MJ.

If we were going to save everyone's universe, I was all for it. Everyone except Loki probably had personal motivation. They needed to get their friends and family back.

That would've been me a while ago. But ever since Aunt May died from terminal cancer a few years ago, I didn't have anyone I was particularly close with in my own universe. But I would happily do it to save the two Peters' loved ones and for everyone else that died in the crazy storm. With great power comes great responsibility, after all.

"If we're going to save these universes," I said. "Where do we even start?"

The Ancient One smiled.

"That answer lies in a different universe."

"Which means we need to get multiverse hopping." Peter 1 said.

Doctor Strange gave him a weird look. "Multiverse hopping?"

"Yeah." Peter 1 said seriously. "Multiverse hopping."

"That's not a thing."

"It's a thing." Peter assured him.

"No offense, but it sounds like you just made that up on your own." Loki said.

"It is very much a thing." I said, coming to Peter's aid.

"Focus." Wanda urged.

"How do we multiverse hop?" Peter 2 asked.

"That requires a very powerful spell that is very uncontrollable. It goes beyond the boundaries of what is known in the mystic arts." the Ancient One said.

"That should be easy." Doctor Strange said. "We used a memory spell that brought multiple people to the same universe."

I was gonna point out that the memory spell was pretty hit-or-miss. It dragged me, Peter 2, and our old enemies to Peter 1's universe. Why just us? Why not Mary Jane, Harry Osbourne or even Gwen?

The Ancient One had a grim expression. "With your universe gone, your powers don't work here. Try it."

Wanda, Loki and Strange all created a small ball of energy simultaneously in the palm of their hand.

Suddenly, the energy died down. Their hands began to shrivel and turn gray. All three of them winced in pain. Suddenly, the magic balls shot across the room.

"Get down!" Peter 1 shouted and shoved me and Peter 2 to the floor.

The magical orbs ping-ponged against the walls a few times before they collided and exploded into a flurry of sparks. This time, Wanda or Strange didn't put up a protective shield. They couldn't.

"Okay." Peter 1 said, rising to his feet. "Good to know."

"And none of you can use another's magic because your bodies will reject it in harmful ways." the Ancient One said.

So no portals, I guess. Man, those things made traveling really easy.

Wanda and Loki looked a little disoriented. But not Strange for some reason.

"Well, this just eliminates a lot of options." Doctor Strange said, crossing his arms. "What else can we do?"

I remembered some of the research I did. The only scientist at this time who even tampered with the multiverse theory was Albert Einstein. Suddenly, an idea popped in my head. "What about Loki's tempad?" I suggested. "We could travel back to the present or even the future."

"That might work." Peter 2 said. "Maybe we should aim for the 2200s'. I bet multiverse theory improves a lot by then."

Peter 1 grinned. "We can find a way to break the space-time continuum and be right on our way."

"The tempad's dead." Loki said.

"Dead?" Peter 2 repeated.

"Yes. As in it's out of power."

Peter 1 raised a sarcastic eyebrow. "The TVA created time machines that need batteries? What happens when you're stranded in a year without electric outlets or triple A's?"

Loki chuckled lightly. "The tempad requires a massive amount of power, boy. Much more than a lightbulb."

"Oh, so the TVA hands out portable chargers?" Peter 1 said with more sarcasm.

"A commercial spaceship that can hold 20,000 individuals is barely enough." Loki retorted.

"So the amount of megawatts that are needed must be enormous." Doctor Strange said.

"The only thing in 1942 that can come close to that level of energy is an atomic bomb." Wanda said.

"Or an infinity stone." the Ancient One added.

"What?" Peter 2 and I said.

"That makes sense." Wanda said. "After all, six infinity stones wiped out half the population of the universe."

Did she say that trillions of living organisms were killed with a few rocks?

"So are we talking universal genocide?" I asked.

"But at Liberty Island everything looked fine." Peter 2 said.

"That's because everyone was brought back a few years ago." Wanda said.

"Like resurrection?" I asked. This wasn't making any sense.

"No." Doctor Strange said. "Thanos sought after the six infinity stones because he believed that killing off people would provide more resources for the survivors."

"And this is the purple alien you mentioned earlier?" Peter 2 asked.

The other Peter nodded. "I was with Doctor Strange, Iron Man, and a couple other good guy aliens on this planet called Titan and we had to fight Thanos."

My eyes got big. "There are other aliens?"

"Who's Iron Man?" Peter 2 asked.

I couldn't believe that not only did Peter 1 fight an alien on a different planet, but he also met other aliens.

Peter 1 shrugged. "Yeah. They thought we worked for Thanos at first and one of them put a blaster to my head and threatened to shoot me unless we told him where his girlfriend was."

When we first met, Peter thought telling us he was an Avenger was going to impress us. If he wanted to impress us, he should've started with the detailed story about the fight with Thanos.

"Let's go back to magic stones and the alien with crazy ideas about population control." Peter 2 said.

"If infinity stones are our only option," Wanda started.

"And we can't leave Earth," Peter 1 added.

"Then our only chance at going to the present is to get the tesseract." Doctor Strange said.

"And that's one of the stones?" Peter 2 asked.

"It's the space stone, technically." Loki said. "But right now, it's being used by Hydra, a Nazi science organization."

"Soon to go rogue." Peter 1 said.

Finally, I was in the loop. In my universe, there was a Hydra organization too.

"There is another problem," the Ancient One said.

The timeline model made of lights appeared again.

The Ancient One pointed to blank space at the end of the line.

"This should be the year you came from. However, the timeline ends right here."

She gestured towards the last few light particles.

"In the 1960's."

"It just ends?" Wanda asked.

"Is this an apocalypse?" Loki asked.

Maybe this alternate timeline had an atomic war like the US and the Soviet Union threatened to do. Only in this timeline, it actually happened.

"If it is an apocalypse, the entire timeline is cut off. That would impact not just our world, but the rest of this universe." the Ancient One said.

"So we can only time travel up until the late 1960s'?" Doctor Strange asked.

"And we're stuck in this timeline." Wanda assumed.

Trying to curb a spiral of loss and despair, I spoke up again.

"We can work with this. In the 60's, there were top-secret government projects in Russia and the United States with the intent to prove the multiverse theory. Some of them came pretty close."

I read a few files that said there were some Russian and American scientists that designed devices to change dimensions. They didn't work so well, but maybe we could get one of those blueprints and use it to build our own machine. Wanda, Strange, and Loki gave surprised looks.

"And you know this- how?" Loki asked.

"I did some research into the multiverse after I got back. Looks like it's going to good use now."

"If anything," Doctor Strange said. "That's our only hope of saving the multiverse."

"Attaboy, Pete." Peter 2 said while the other Peter patted me on the back.

"But how do we get the tesseract if it's guarded by Nazis?" Peter 1 asked.

"We could pull an Indiana Jones: Last Crusade." I suggested.

"Oh, yeah." Peter 2 said with a smile.

"Great movie." the other Peter added. "But do you know anyone who has some Nazi uniforms?"

"This would be so much easier if we could go back a few years to when the space stone was being hidden in Norway." Loki lamented.

Now that sounded like a great story for another time.

"What about Captain America?" Peter 1 asked.

I vaguely remembered Peter mentioning something about how the shield that they installed onto Lady Liberty was once Captain America's shield.

Wanda shook her head sadly. "If we bring Steve into this, it could disrupt future events."

"But this timeline ends in the 1960's! Steve will still be in the ice by then." Peter pointed out.

"You're on a first name basis with this guy?" Peter 2 asked.

"Yeah." Peter 1 said. "I met him a few times, Wanda was friends with him, and Loki…"

The excited look on his face died down. Loki's jaw tightened.

"Let's just say we didn't get along well." The Norse god said.

"That's an understatement." Peter 1 muttered.

While we were volleying ideas, Doctor Strange stayed silent. Finally, he spoke up.

"If memory serves, I think the Allies are going to get the tesseract in a few months."

"Cool!" I said. "We can team up with them."

He grimaced. "Well, people are going to ask a lot of questions if we just show up."

"I'm not sure how much the TVA is monitoring this branch, but we should stay low-key." Loki said.

"There's only one safe way to infiltrate the US army without our powers and without disrupting the timeline." Doctor Strange said.

Suddenly, it clicked for me. Oh, boy.

"No." Loki said, shaking his head. "No."

"It's the only way." Strange said apologetically.

"It's a terrible idea!"

It was overly complicated, time-consuming, and too cautious. But I didn't see any other options.

"If it'll bring MJ and the others back, I'm game." Peter 2 said.

"Come on, guys." Peter 1 said. "It'll just take a few months."

I looked at the two Peters then back at Strange, Loki and Wanda.

The Ancient One gave me a nod.

"Well, it looks like we're signing up with Uncle Sam." I said.

And that wraps up chapter 10!

This is going to be longer than the other stories I've written. Unlike the Spiders and the Soldier, this one isn't going to be divided into different parts.

But the multiverse plot allows a lot of freedom to write and explore and I really like the direction this is going in.

Thanks for reading!