Chapter Five: Power Rampant

A/N: I want to remember Stan Lee for all the stories he gave the world. I don't know what Stan Lee would think of this story, but I don't think he'd write it like I am. Here's to Stan the Man who we can't replace.
And Steve Ditko, who drew Spider-man first.

"Ned!" Peter said.

"What?" Ned replied, glancing back over his shoulder.

"Don't go wandering off," Peter ordered.

"I know, I know," Ned sighed, Peter had been worried since they had gotten here. They were walking in a green mountainous region that seemed to stretch forever. Ned was sure it had been at least four or five hours since they had entered the Soul Stone and so far they had seen nothing but an idyllic landscape under a dull orange sky. As they walked past another clump of trees, Ned stopped and stared. "I feel like we're in a computer game."

"How do you mean?" Peter replied.

"Those trees are exactly like the ones back there." He pointed to the ones that they'd passed fifty yards back. "And I'm pretty sure that I saw this exact bird's nest an hour ago."

"If this place is all in Thanos' mind…," Peter began.

"Then he's trying to save on space," Ned said.

"You're right about that," s little girl's voice came from behind the trees.

Peter and Ned were both startled and jumped. It wasn't because they were scared of little girls, it was because they had been thinking about Thanos. Peter was trying to be brave, but he was seriously dreading this whole thing of going to confront the purple murderer. It burned under his skin that he had lost, and he could still see Thanos' smug grin, and he was upset that he'd died begging, and that he couldn't remember Mr. Stark without remembering how unheroic and pitiable their last conversation was. Because Peter had risked his life frequently fighting crime and should've been prepared and shouldn't have freaked out like that.

"I mean, look at me," the green girl said. "He literally made me shorter to save on space."

"He made you?" Ned asked.

She nodded. "I mean, he made me look like I was when he first kidnapped me and told me I was his daughter."

"Why?" Peter said.

"Because he can," she said. "And because I can't fight him very easily if I'm only six years old. I want to kill him."

"Well," said Ned. "We want to make him bring everyone back."

"He has to be killed," the girl said. "He cannot be reasoned with."

"How do you know?" Peter asked.

"I am Gamora. I am his daughter that he killed and trapped in the Soul Stone. He won't listen to me and he won't listen to anyone."

"You're the one they were looking for?" Peter said.

Gamora cocked her head and waited for Peter to explain.

"So, I'm Peter Parker, an Avenger from Earth." He sat down on the grass so as not to be staring down at her. Ned followed suit.

"Peter's home worlds" Gamora said.

"Huh?" they replied.

"My Peter, Peter Quill," Gamora said.

"And this is Ned – my best friend, but he wasn't with me then. Anyway, Ironman, Doctor Strange, and I took over a ship driven by Ebony Maw who had kidnapped Doctor Strange and was going to the planet Titan. The Guardians of the Galaxy came and were looking for you. Then Thanos came, and Starlord heard that you had died and got very angry. We lost and Thanos got the time stone and left."

"Is Peter, I mean my Peter, okay?" Gamora questioned.

"Uh, no, I'm sorry," Peter glanced away, and swallowed. "He… he he turned into dust before me."

"And the others?" Gamora looked fierce for a six year old, Peter thought she was trying not to cry.

"Uh, the big guy died too and Mantis."

A tear squeezed itself out of Gamora's stony face and she turned away. "Hey, hey." He put his hand on her shoulder and she hid her face in his shoulder.

"We were just trying to do the right thing for once," Gamora said.

"Yeah," Peter said.

She scrubbed her face clean with her sleeve. "I'm sorry, you guys are the first people I've seen here."

"You're fine," Peter mumbled. "Don't be sorry."

"No, I'm usually not like this," Gamora said.

"I don't think anyone is going to blame you," Ned added.

Gamora looked like she was going to say something, but didn't, then she stepped back. "How did you get here?" she asked.

"We asked an angel to help us get into the Soul Stone," Ned said.

"An angel," she scoffed.

Ned and Peter blinked and glanced at each other.

"I don't believe that," she said. "Angels don't exist. How did you really get here?"

"We're dead," Peter said, voice hollow from trying to keep it steady. "We're not very happy about that and we found an angel and asked him to bring us here."

"Angels don't exist!" she growled. "You're probably a trick from my father."

"We're not a trick," Ned said. "Look, look at Peter – he's Spider-man – he saves people. Why would we want to help Thanos?"

"If you're a trick, maybe the Guardians are still alive and you're lying," Gamora said blankly. She didn't know anything about Spider-man and was too upset to care.

Peter's mouth gaped open for a second as he was left speechless.

Ned thought a bit. "What sort of tricks can Thanos do?"

"Each of the stones is a monster here," Gamora whispered. "You could be from the reality stone, so you could just look like earth people."

She looked away. "I've refused to speak with my father for the last month. He might've sent you to spy and lie to me."

"Look, we're not lying," Ned said.

"I know that you don't believe us," Peter said, "but take us to one of these monsters and we'll fight it for you."

"You don't have any weapons," Gamora scoffed.

"He's Spider-man," Ned said. "And I'm…"

"On the winning Academic Decathlon team," Peter added.

"We'll beat him through the powers of spiders and knowledge!" Ned said.

"Okay, that just sounded weird," Peter said.

"But not as weird as when we actually win," Ned said.

"This is ridiculous," Gamora said. "My father has no sense of humor so maybe you are telling the truth. I'll take you to the power monster. If you can defeat it, then I'll know that you are not a reality stone in disguise. Plus, we might as well be doing that as standing around here."

〇

It was a few hours later when they reached a different sort of landscape, the ground turned to a quartz and glowed with a violet hue. Peter started using his spider powers to grip the ground as he walked and avoid slipping, but Ned had to walk carefully to avoid slipping on it like it was ice. The landscape in the soul stone obeyed the laws of physics and Ned could no longer walk up ninety degree inclines, or run extra fast, or do any of the things he couldn't do on earth. Peter wasn't really sure how his spider-powers – which he had thought were solely genetic – had followed him to the afterlife, but he wasn't going to complain. The atmosphere was biting cold and felt like it was taking something out of you. The kind of cold air that if our heroes had been alive and breathing would have scratched at their throats with every breath. His bare feet didn't like the cold and he webbed slippers for Ned and himself. They had forgotten to bring shoes. Shoes weren't worn in heaven, Uncle Ben had told him that was because it was holy ground.

Gamora trudged onward. "The power monster is on the other side of that hill." She said, pointing upwards toward a crystal mesa. They squinted at it as they walked and saw what appeared to be a gateway through. Light ghostly glowed through the crystal, shrouding everything in lavender, but off to the side of the gateway, a massive shadow of a creature crept back and forth.

When they got to the mesa, Ned and Gamora stayed off to the side while Peter wall-crawled up the cliff face.

Despite his spider-powers, Peter still slipped on the cliff like a spider on glass, but after a few rough minutes, he made it up to the top. He stayed low to the ground and crawled along the top. Carefully, he peered over the edge to the other side. He didn't see the monster, what he saw was a large room-like building. On the inside, the cliff walls were flat, like a building. There were a lot of broken things littered on the ground. Peter wished his spider-sense would tell him where the monster was, but of course it never worked like that.

Using a web-line, Peter lowered himself slowly down the floor. He looked around, but he couldn't see the monster. He now saw what the broken things were: a broken bed, a smashed table, shattered trophies, and other things. It would've looked like a haunted house except there was no dust on the items.

The light was coming from the ground in the center and on the center was a large anvil. Peter sneaked over to it and saw tiny bits of various broken things scattered around the base. Perhaps this was where the power monster broke things. He turned around again and looked toward the gateway that led through the cliff walls. The gateway was empty.

He instinctively reached to his pocket to pull out his phone and call Ned before remembering that he didn't have it. Realizing this, he walked over to the gateway. On the side was a huge lever that could be pulled to open the doors. He grabbed it and tugged hard. The doors opened. At first he didn't see anyone, so he took a few steps forward. Just as he was turning his head something rammed his left side with a dull thump and he skidded to the ground. Tiny hands clapped over his eyes.

"Hey!" he shouted.

"Oh, uh, sorry," Ned said, ingloriously using Peter's shoulder as a crutch as he shoved himself back up to his feet.

"Sorry, Spider-man," Gamora added, "We thought you were the monster."

"Ummm, I never found the monster," Peter said, sitting back up. "No one's in there and everything's broken."

"Not exactly home sweet home, then," Ned joked.

"You can say that again," Peter said.

"Not exactly home sweet home," Ned started saying again before Peter joined him.

"Jinx!" the boys said simultaneously.

"You guys are impossible," Gamora said.

"If we overachieve the impossible, then nothing is out of reach," Ned said.

"I don't know what to think of that logic…," Peter began, then paused. His spider-sense was going off and in the time it took him to remember what exactly his spider-sense felt like (he hadn't been in danger for a while), he heard and felt hoof beats and turned just in time to see a monster burst from the gateway. In a blink he had pulled Ned and Gamora clear of the monster and jumped onto the top of the gates. Gamora clung piggy-back around his throat and Ned bear-hugged them both as he relied on Peter for balance.

Looking down they stared at the monster.

It had four hooves like a centaur, but its top half was not exactly human. The creature was much bigger. Above each of the hooves was a second foot that held claws. The tail was broad like an alligator's. Great big hands carried a mallet. The eyes were wild and had narrow pupils like a cat. Horns sprung from its head.

Peter webbed a net between the door and the wall so that his friends could stay away from the monster in that.

Then Peter leaped off the door and landed facing the monster. "Thought I'd stop by and buy a little coffee." Peter said, walking to the side to pull the monster's attention away from his friends.

"What?" the monster asked.

"Yeah, so you can talk," Peter said. "I wanted to chat, ask about your hobbies." Peter didn't really feel comfortable fighting this dude, they were out in the open and there wasn't anything to web onto to give Peter the typical Spider-man edge. There wasn't even a trashcan that he could repurpose as a weapon. "But your taste in furniture isn't that great. I mean, I like the minimalist living approach as much as any New Yorker, but you're taking it too far."

"I am Power. What I find I break," Power said.

"Or your anvil does it for you," Peter jabbered back at him.

"Fool," Power's voice quaked. "I am the anvil!"

Power charged at Peter, hooves causing the ground to rumble. Peter jumped into the air, letting Power charge underneath him. Peter shot webs at the creature's face as it rumbled past.

"Arrgh!" Power shouted, pulling off the webbing as he turned.

"Must be a lonely life, breaking everything you touch," Peter said.

"I am Power," Power replied. "Power Rampant!" Lasers fired out of his eyes and Peter had to do a lot of flips to avoid them.

Peter didn't know what would happen if Power hit him, but he didn't want to find out.

The lavender light that had been under the crystal floor in the hollow mesa had travelled under Power's feet. It gleamed fiercely, casting Power and Peter in stark shadows. The light was so bright that Peter couldn't tell the difference between it and the lasers anymore. A beam struck his shoulder and he yelped in pain. He webbed Power's shoulder and swung onto his back.

Power immediately changed. Instead of flesh he turned to metal. Suddenly he was the giant anvil Peter had found back in the room. The anvil tumbled, trying to flip over onto Peter. Peter dodged. He sprung away from the anvil back towards the mesa.

The anvil tumbled end over end a few more times and then transformed back into a raging beast.

The beast charged and Spider-man leapt onto the side of the mesa. He looked over at his friends and saw Ned, he couldn't see Gamora, but he didn't have time to think about that. The anvil transformed back into the monster. It charged and leapt up toward the side of the mesa, hands swiping at Peter's ankles.

Peter leapt back and flipped onto the top of the mesa with a quick fired web. He shot webs at Power Rampant as it leapt to charge him again. The webs hit their mark, catching the monster in the air, and Peter quickly stuck the ends to the top of the mesa.

For a couple seconds the monster roared, then slashed at the webs with his clawed feet.

For a moment Peter saw it running away, but then it turned and charged toward Ned. Ned was still on top of the door, where Power Rampant couldn't reach. But then Power rampant body-slammed into the giant door. It started closing and Ned was losing his balance. Peter jumped and web bungeed Power Rampant so he went flying towards them. Web-lining the door last minute, Peter fell between the monster and the door just in time for Ned to fall on top of him, slamming him into the ground.

"Sorry, Spider-man, Sir!" Ned said.

"Unnugh." Peter moaned. "Why are you calling me 'sir' I'm not even wearing a mask?"

"Old habits… Woah!" Ned's answer turned into a shout. Power Rampant hadn't exactly forgotten about them, he was using his laser eyes again and Ned tugged Peter out of the way to miss the searing beams.

"You will be conquered, like everything I touch!" screamed Power Rampant. Peter looked back at his fearsome face, but it suddenly contorted in pain. The monster's feet went limp and it collapsed onto the ground. Gamora jumped off its back holding a bloody knife. She ran to Power Rampant's neck, brandishing the knife, and Peter slammed his eyes shut because he seriously did not want to see what she was going to do.

A sudden gust of wind hammered him into the side of the mesa and he squinted, purple dust whipped through the wind and there was no monster to be found. Gamora looked up at them, and, even though she looked sad, Peter was as scared as all get all of her. But his spider-sense still told him she was a friend.

Shakily, Peter walked over to her, she was staring down at her palm, in her palm a purple gem hologram hovered over her skin.

"What's this?" she asked, her face holding a very old expression but her voice very young.

Ned poked at the hologram, looking at it. "Every part of my nerd brain thinks you just won the Power stone's allegiance away from Thanos."

"Well, that's good," she sighed, then fell down exhausted. She was stuck in the body of a little girl, after all. She looked innocent again, like a normal kid, even Peter was still shaken by her killing of Power Rampant.

Peter looked out at the horizon. "Oh no."

"What?" Ned asked.

"…A shadow of Mordor…" Peter was mentally worn after the last battle didn't really know how to describe what he was seeing. In front of him, the horizon was disappearing, everything was vanishing into a black void. It was moving so fast, Peter picked up Gamora and Ned grabbed his shoulder as the void swept over them. It felt like they were sliding, sliding down a tall slide in a dark cave, like an indoor amusement park ride where your ride starts dropping in the dark and you have no idea how far you'll be falling or for how long.

〇

Miles Morales was not having a good day. His dad had gotten super-worried about him. He knew Miles had been lying, he didn't know what it was about. He had that look like when parents start telling you not to do drugs. It made Miles feel awful, because he really tried to be a good kid and he definitely never wanted to do drugs – he didn't want to mess up his life.

He, of course, could not tell his dad about the superpowers. His dad was basically anti-superhero. It went something like this:

"Son, there have always been people out there that are going to tell you that some people are better than you, because of how they look, but now we're in a world where some people are basically worshipped because of some sky-high 'super-power' they have. People are basically saying that these people are inherently better, more evolved than us. It's only a matter of time before these enhanced individuals use their powers to take over the world and make us all slaves."

Miles would nod, it was much easier to not debate his dad. His dad was Sargeant Davis the man that could talk criminals into crawling out of basements and giving themselves up to the NYPD. The man who dealt with another kind of crazy. The kind of man who has to deal with people spitting at him and hating him all day as part of his job. Miles wasn't about to even bring up superheroes to his dad unless he wanted to hear another lecture.

"Just work hard and be a decent man, Miles, that's the best way," his dad always said at the end.

Miles had been waiting for a couple of days and had barely had a chance to practice his spider-powers in between school and the library. He'd tried crawling on his bedroom ceiling, but it had a "popcorn" finish that just came off on his fingers and dropped him onto the bed.

He was getting stronger, sports at school had been disorganized since the dust crisis, but he'd still had to run laps, they came easier and easier and the coach had his eye on him.

This afternoon his dad had evening police meetings. Miles was to take the subway back to their apartment in Brooklyn, but he intended to make a little stop on the way.

He hopped on the subway and looked down at his algebra homework. Forty minutes later he was stepping out at the Wakanda Embassy. He might not be able to contact the Avengers on his own, and he might not be able to go to Wakanda to look for them, but he might as well ask for help.

Miles walked into the embassy. Everyone in the lobby was wearing a business suit. In his muddy jeans and hoodie, Miles felt seriously underdressed. He discreetly slipped over to the information booth.

There was a tablet with a holographic sign-in form. The secretary looked up at him. "Are you here for the tech exhibit?" she asked in her clipped Xhosa accent.

He almost thought about lying that he was, but he was sick of hiding who he was. "I'm here for the Avengers."

"The Avengers are not here," she said.

"I know, they're in Wakanda," he said. "I need to talk to them."

"Their headquarters are upstate."

"I can't get there, I don't have a car."

"I do not see how I can help you."

"Just tell me how I can contact them," Miles said. "They haven't answered my emails."

"I'm sorry, but I really do not see how I can help you."

Miles didn't know what to do, so he held up his hand to the panther statue that sat on the booth and used his spider-powers to lift it into the air with only his touch.

"Very fantastic," she said.

"I have superpowers," Miles explained. "Please, tell me how to contact the Avengers so I can be a superhero."

She looked amused. "The Avengers will not make you a superhero."

"What?" he said, thinking she was mocking him.

"You will make yourself a hero," she said. "You become a hero and then they will find you."

"Oh," Miles said. "…Thanks." He walked out the door and crossed the street. He looked up at the building in front of him. The first thing he needed to do to be a spider-man was to conquer his fear of heights.

Okay, okay, Miles didn't have a phobia of heights, but he wasn't exactly the kid who asked to go rock climbing at summer camp. He just had a regular fear of heights that probably had kept him safe.

Right in front of him was a pretty tall building. He pulled the drawstrings on his hood to keep most of his face covered and put one sticky hand on the wall. Then he put the other on the wall. He swallowed and realized that he needed to hurry before people started staring at him. He started crawling up the wall. He crawled fast: it was more of a scamper up the side. Before he knew it he was at the top of the building. Manhattan spread out under him, it was beautiful from up here. Isolating to be far from all the people, but almost of a transcendent quality that let him feel like he was one with the sky and the clouds.

His dad was right; compared to regular people, Miles was a god because he was now one of the enhanced. People would love him. Everything would be great.

But to be greater he would have to be a hero.

He'd have to be worthy.

And he wasn't a god.

He was just a young man who wanted to bring his mom back.