Spider-man Guilt-Trips the Marvel Universe Chapter 6: Reality Changes Under Our Feet, an avengers fanfic

A/N: I wrote the second half of this when I had a fever. So, let's blame any strangeness in this highly speculative fanfiction on that, shall we? Also, there's now a Spider-man trailer, and it's great! So go see it! Watch the international trailer too. Posted 1/21/2019

Miles Morales had all Saturday to himself. His dad had weekend shift, his homework was done, and he'd even turned in an article for the school newspaper. Yes, his school still printed a newspaper. Newspaper articles were quaint, but for a school focused on journalism filled with nostalgic teachers, they were a necessity. And, apparently, a major interest of the editor at the Daily Bugle. The editor's name was Jay Jonah Jameson and he frequently hired interns from Miles' high-school and paid for the printing of the school newspaper.

Yesterday, JJJ himself had been speaking in the auditorium, and the school held a special rally griping about superheroes. Miles' had to take notes on the rally for his Comp. class and he hung off the side of his bed and reread his notes. Miles' thought that only one point was worth remembering:

"Where were the heroes?"

Miles' phone buzzed.

He looked over and sighed, it was a message from Youtube, not Ganke, his old friend from before the dust crisis.

Then he glanced again, it was an official message from the Avengers. He unlocked his phone and loaded the video, pacing on the wall while he waited.

"Hello, this is Bruce Banner." The video began. Bruce was standing in a sort of city hall building with press microphones everywhere. "I am speaking to you today on behalf of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avenger's Initiative. The last nine weeks have been hard on all of us. The worst part is waking up every day and wondering what's going to happen next. As you may know, an alien named Thanos killed half the population, but what we haven't told you before is how he did it, because we hoped to solve this on our own. We haven't done that yet. So on our website we've put together an encyclopedia about everything we know about Thanos and the dust snap so that the geniuses out there – 'cause we know that you're out there – can contribute their own suggestions. It doesn't fix our loss or our pain, but it does move us forward in the right direction."

Miles scrolled down to the video description and clicked on the link.

This Thanos guy was something else: he was the most powerful and smartest, he could teleport, time travel, change reality, and that wasn't including whatever the soul stone let him do. For a second, Miles let himself just think about Thanos' powers. How were they going to defeat a guy that could teleport to the other side of the universe the moment they found him? How could they trick a guy with the powers of the mind stone? How could they even wound a man who could change reality and heal himself in the blink of an eye?

Maybe if they snuck up on him, Miles thought, immediately going into "camo" mode to practice. Camo mode was really distracting. The second Miles' stopped thinking about it he turned visible again. But it really worked. Miles' stared down at his phone that now appeared to hover in midair. He was going to have to keep practicing this.

He crawled on the wall over to his closet and opened the door to the crawlspace. He pulled out a dusty duffel bag and unzipped it to find his Spider-man hoodie. The great thing about this jacket was that it zipped all the way up and then up some more, the hoodie zipping closed over his face. The bad thing about the jacket was that it was hard to see out of, especially at night. The eye holes were covered with a white mesh and caused lights to glare.

But… Miles still loved the jacket, and most importantly, it disguised his identity when he was practicing his powers.

He slipped on the hoodie over a tank top – it was already hot outside for this time of year. After a few seconds of using his spider-sense to check for bad-guys, he jumped out the window to the balcony over the alley and scampered up the opposite wall of the apartments. He stood on the roof and practiced the hand-sign he'd seen the Spider-man doing before he whipped up a web from his wrist, but it still wouldn't come. Maybe that was the tradeoff for having powers of invisibility. As far as he knew, the Spider-man didn't have any invisibility powers, but then, how would he know? It's not like people would photograph Spider-man when he was invisible.

Or maybe, Spider-man didn't have webs, maybe those metal things he had on his wrists weren't just to protect his wrists, maybe they were to make the webs.

He ran to the edge of the building and leapt to the next roof. He could do this easily since it was only an alleyway and fairly narrow. The next street was much wider though, so jumping it wouldn't be safe. He crawled down and then he jumped up onto a bus and lay flat on his stomach on top of it, using his spider-powers to stick firmly to the roof.

No. He slapped his forehead. People are going to think I'm a hobo Spider-man.

He thought deeply and turned invisible again.

Five minutes later he was still invisible, so far so good, but he'd only traveled four NYC blocks because of the traffic. It would be faster to run, and he was getting a headache from making himself invisible.

He jumped off the bus onto the sidewalk and turned visible, causing four or five people to step back in shock.

"Spider-man!" a woman gasped.

"He's back!" said an older man.

"How was space and Wakanda?" a third person chimed in.

"Um," Miles said. "Can I get back to you on that?"

Miles ran off as fast as he could, spider-reflexes making him dart in between people and cars much faster than regular people could. Idiot, he thought, you let those people think you were Spider-man. But… I am a Spider-man. But not that one! Um, this is confusing. Maybe I should make my own costume. Hmmm. Spider-guy? Unoriginal. Arachnoman? No, too villain-ish.

In the meantime he saved two pedestrians who were nearly run over by cars, caught someone's runaway Schnauzer, and disarmed a bodega robber. I'm in the right place at the right time, he thought. Does that mean more bad things happen when I'm around, or is it just that I never noticed them before?

A while later he jumped into a tree and sat down, he had run very fast for the last twenty minutes and was getting tired of dodging pedestrians. Thankfully, he was near some tall buildings that he could climb for practice.

After clearing his mind and catching his breath, he climbed one. He was getting better at this, he had also found out that he liked crawling up brick buildings much more than glass and metal ones. It was especially hard to stick to the glass.

It had been a couple hours and he was nearing the bottom of a building he was crawling down. He was still up high enough to ignore the cameras and people on the sidewalk below. Apparently, wall-crawling fascinated a bunch of people.

Suddenly, something sticky thwipped him on the shoulder. He turned his head. It looked like a spider-web thread but it was thicker than a real spider's webbing and there weren't any spiders on it.

He turned and his eyes followed the line to its end. On the other end was a brown-haired middle-aged woman, standing on the roof of the next building which was eye level with him.

She put the webline on the massive heating vent on the next building and webbed it down.

Miles' pulled at the webbing on his shoulder – it didn't budge. He grabbed the web with his hands and took a leap. He was going way too low and was going to hit the next building. He started climbing the web as fast as he could, but he reached the next building too soon and bumped it about ten feet under the roof. After breathing in the air that was knocked out of him he crawled up to the top of the roof and stepped over, heart beating quickly in suspense.

The woman smiled, but it was a worn smile, like she'd been through a lot. That isn't anything unusual. Miles thought. Not since the dust.

"I'm May Parker," she said.

"I'm, um, uh, well I was trying to have a secret identity," Miles said.

"So you can be Spider-man," May said.

"Yeah," Miles said.

"Well, if you're going to be Spider-man, you're going to need these. And the formula." She took off the wrist gauntlets – they were early versions of what he'd seen on the early Spider-man, back when he wore the real cheap costume with goggles.

"You're just giving them to me?"

"Well, you're Spider-man, so you need webshooters."

Ah, webshooters, that's what they're called. "But, you don't know me."

"I know you want to be a hero, and you're going to try to be one no matter what, so I'd rather see you safe and help you out," May said, insistently.

"Who did you get them from?"

"My nephew was Spider-man."

Was? Was!? Miles was sure the eye pieces of his hoodie bulged with shock.

"At first, I wanted him to stop. He was too young, but then, he'd always be too young in my mind to go up against criminals. He told me that he had to do it; that because he could stop crimes meant that he had a responsibility to stop them. I couldn't talk him out of it."

Miles felt for her, he unzipped his hood so she could see his face.

"I – we lost him. Along with the other half of the world. I'm just glad that he got to do something good… To make a difference." Tears were in her eyes and before Miles knew it she had wrapped him in a hug. He felt his eyes sting as he wondered if this hug was really because her nephew wasn't there for her to hug. But… it felt sort-of like his mom hugging him.

So he hugged her back.

"Now, don't feel like you have to be Spider-man for me or anyone else," Aunt May said, stepping back, hands on his shoulders. "Take your time and be the hero that you want to be. And take time to grow. You don't have to do everything at once."

"Okay," Miles smiled. "It's good. I'm Miles, by the way." It was good to finally tell someone that he was Spider-man. He wished so hard that his dad would change his mind about superheroes. He didn't like being alone.

"Nice to meet you, Miles. I just wish… I… Well, if there's anything you need just call me," She said, handing him a business card.

May Parker, Licensed Realtor
135 W. 50th St.
New York, NY 10020
511-5480

"Uh, thanks." Miles smiled slightly, trying to lighten the mood. They stood and looked at each other for a second. Ask her if she can introduce you to the Avengers! Miles' thoughts ran. No, I only just met her. "Um, Mrs. Parker?"

"Yes?"

"How did your nephew do it? I mean, how did he start?"

"Well," she began, shifting her weight between her feet. "I'm not entirely sure. He kept it a secret from me… at first. Then that Tony Stark found him, and then I found out by accident. I mean, one day I walked into his room and he's dressed as Spider-man and suddenly it all makes sense! I mean! Why he's always running late, why he doesn't tell me what's bothering him, why he was always losing his backpacks…"

"And you were okay with him being Spider-man?" Miles asked.

Aunt May looked away. "I didn't want him to be Spider-man. It was dangerous. But I didn't tell him he couldn't, because I knew he'd do it anyway."

Miles blinked, deep in thought.

"Knowing was better than not, I mean, with him sneaking out at night, I wondered what was happening. I worried a lot, and I worried after I knew the truth too. But, here's the thing, Peter believed it was his responsibility to fight crime and Tony Stark was giving him equipment and I couldn't honestly talk either of them out of it."

"Tony Stark was giving him equipment?"

"Stark found out Peter's secret first and went straight to telling him to be a superhero without telling me. I mean, he took Peter to Germany to fight against Captain America without telling me. And then he gave Peter a spacesuit and told Peter not to follow him into space. I mean, what did he think Peter was going to do?" Okay, so Aunt May was a little anxious.

And this is one reason I don't tell my dad. Miles thought. Still, maybe his dad wouldn't ground him in house-arrest for the next century if Miles ever spilled his secret.

"Stark will probably find you too," Aunt May said. "He'll make you a hero if you want. Your life's going to change and when that happens you always lose something. Just make sure you don't lose the best parts."

"Okay," Miles said. "I'll do my best." But, he thought, I've already lost my mom and my friends. My dad would ground me forever if he knew what I was doing… I'm not sure there's much left to lose.

They said goodbye and Miles left the rooftop, chaotically trying out webshooters for the first time. He got a few new bruises as he hit walls and flagpoles, but there was something exhilarating about swinging between buildings and he hardly felt the bruises until he made it home.

〇

There was darkness and a feeling of nothing like when you are waking up from a dream and your mind's almost awake but you still can't move. It wasn't hot or cold. Peter didn't know what to make of it.

Half a second later, Peter, Gamora, and Ned were suddenly back in the middle of one of the identical clumps of trees, tripping over their own feet onto the dark ground. Neon lights glinted out from the edge of the trees, but the trees were dark and hid them. Peter slowly got to his feet and turned around. Behind them, the land vanished into a sheet of darkness. He put his hand in the void, and he couldn't feel it. He swiftly pulled it back out into the yellow glow unharmed. Gamora was yawning and Ned was already pulling himself through the trees to see what was causing the glow.

Gamora curled up and fell back asleep… Peter looked at her and yawned. The ground was uncomfortable, but falling through nothingness had made him incredibly tired. It was weird because normally he had to worry about too much sensory input distracting him, so he had thought nothingness would be peaceful. But the nothingness had choked his senses. Although the clump of identical forest was not exactly home, it had what seemed to be artificial bird noises – although Peter hadn't seen any birds, and he concentrated on these and fell asleep.

It wasn't a peaceful sleep, and he didn't feel rested when Ned shook him awake. "Ned, you're worse than a room full of alarm clocks…," he mumbled and Ned chuckled.

"I'm tired," Peter grunted. "How are you still awake?"

Ned looked forward stoically for a second then said, "I wasn't the one doing the fighting."

"How long have you been awake?" Peter asked. There wasn't an atmospheric change in the soul stone, the lighting simply varied by whatever part they were in at the time. It was impossible to know when to sleep and when to stay awake.

"A very long time."

"So, back in heaven?"

"No," Ned said. "I know you slept a lot, though."

"Well, yeah, do you know how much sleep you lose when you're up half the night superhero-ing, then studying for AP classes all day? It's great not to have to do anything!" Peter said in his laziest voice. "Anyway, stop pulling my leg, I saw your room up there and you had a bed in it."

"It didn't feel like my room without one, that's why," Ned said. "Most souls don't need sleep, you're just a sleepy-head."

"I don't believe this," Peter replied, but then, he'd practically used the expression 'I'll sleep when I'm dead' to exhaustion being Queen's Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man, so it was possible he took it a little too literally. "Uh so, what's our next mission?"

"Well, I did some scouting," Ned said, pointing to the red glow coming through the trees. "There's some sort of building in the clearing, the thing is, it is always changing."

"The red glow…"

"…Is the Reality Stone," Ned said, looking around. "But that's not all. I saw Thanos."

"Thanos?" Peter asked.

"Yeah. Oh man, this one's going to be so hard! If we start winning, he'll just use the reality stone to make it so that we aren't," Ned said.

"He can't do it all the time," Peter said. "On Titan he did use it, but he couldn't use it continually. There are three of us so we can break his concentration."

"Well, that didn't work on the Collector's planet," a girl's voice broke in and Peter and Ned spun around to see Gamora standing behind them. "You know, in the future you might try including all your accomplices in on your plan."

"Do you have a plan? Like… a winnable plan?" Ned asked.

"If I had that, everything would've been fixed before you even got here," Gamora said, crossing her arms and walking to the treeline.

"Makes sense," Ned said.

They stood and thought furiously. If thoughts could talk, the noise would be deafening.

"Wait!" Peter said.

"I've got it!" Gamora said simultaneously.

"What?" Ned asked.

"You first," Peter said.

"My father – uh – Thanos – doesn't know that you are here," Gamora said. "I will go out alone. Meanwhile, you sneak around and ambush him."

"That plan sounds great! Better than mine," Peter said.

They set about doing this. Peter and Ned set off first. They had to step quietly, which meant walking through a dark forest was an arduous task. Using the red glow from the building where the reality stone was, they circled around the back of the building.

"This is so exciting!" Ned whispered, louder than Peter wanted.

"Dude…," Peter whispered back.

"Superhero battle," Ned said. "So cool."

"So much work," Peter said. "Next time, you're getting bitten by that radioactive spider."

Meanwhile, Thanos had fortunately not overheard their bantering. Instead he was sitting at the edge of his tent, or cabin, or bank, or whatever it happened to be at the moment. He had been using the reality stone in real life and so that was what he was thinking about in his mind and soul. Thus, his mind appeared inside the soul stone.

He had been very alone. Thanos couldn't risk anyone stealing his gauntlet and he had been teleporting himself on a frequent basis from planet to planet using the tesseract. He hadn't had need to use the power-stone recently and hadn't noticed that he'd lost its allegiance. Also, his left hand hurt. He didn't want to risk taking the gauntlet off and had very bad muscle cramps. He heard soft footfalls and looked up to see the childish Gamora stepping out of the forest.

"Ah, my daughter," he said. "It's been too long."

"You're not my father," Gamora hissed. "And the only reason I'm breaking my vow to not speak to you is because there is no one else to talk to."

"I knew you'd come around," Thanos said.

"I'm trapped in your mind. It's not like I can go anywhere else."

Thanos looked at the ground, and the red stone glowed very bright. Suddenly there was an empty chair for Gamora and a coffee table with drinks and food.

"I'll always have my daughter," Thanos said.

"You're… you're a murderer!"

"But you'll always be here, in the soul stone. You'll live forever because I'll keep the soul stone forever. In fact, I've saved you."

"This is not a paradise," Gamora said. "It's hell. It's boring and treacherous like your mind."

There was a creaking noise and the building behind Thanos, which had currently reverted to a tent, was falling in on itself. Thanos stood up and turned around in time to see Peter and Ned squirming their way out of an overly large tent canvas.

"That wasn't supposed to happen," Ned said.

"Who are you?" Thanos' voice boomed.

"I'm Ned Leeds… and this is Pete."

"Earthlings!" Thanos said. "You destroyed my tent."

"But… it was a bodega twenty seconds ago," Peter quipped. "It seemed sturdy enough at the time."

"You can't be here," Thanos said. "You can't be in the soul stone, unless…" He thought for a second, his right hand rubbing his chin. "I know. You are ghosts."

"You're a murderer," Ned said. "And we're going to stop you."

"I'd like to see you try," Thanos said, he grinned and the red glow brightened. The ground broke into two halves under the tent the boys were on, and before they could scramble away, the tent and they plunged deep into the ground. Peter cast a webline to the skies, but it didn't hit anything and they continued to fall. The tent snagged on something and the Ned grabbed a rope while Peter clung to the tent with his spider-powers. Peter scrambled to the top, the tent was caught on a jagged craggy outcropping. He lay on top of it for stability and started pulling Ned upwards.

"Thanks," Ned said as he climbed over. "Where are we?"

"I'm not sure, I can't really see anything."

"I guess the spider didn't give you super-vision?"

"You wanna see me with six eyes?" Peter joked.

"I'm good," Ned said.

"Okay, listen. I'll lead the way, you put your hands on my shoulders. My spider-sense will keep us from falling off any ledges. That's how we'll get down from here."

In this way, they traveled along the precipice, having to turn back frequently when reaching sudden drops. They had been walking this way for an unknown number of hours when they saw a green glow rising from below the horizon. The fact that they could see anything was exciting and they walked faster to the edge. Sure enough, there was a brilliant green glow on the floor of wherever they were. Peter shot two weblines on Ned's jacket and he rappelled Ned down the edge of the chasm. When Ned had safely reached the bottom, Peter crawled down the wall.

The greenlight was coming from a cavern. They walked to it and started walking inside. The cavern was almost a tunnel. The height and width were perfect for a person as tall as Thanos and the floor was smooth. They turned the corner. The green time stone rested on top of a round column. They were a few feet away from it when they suddenly found themselves at the cave entrance again.

"Cool," Ned said. "Instant teleportation."

"We must've done something wrong," Peter said. "Let's try again."

They walked back, a little more careful and slowly than before, except this time, Ned made a point of moving one of the rocks near the entrance. Peter looked all around and felt for his spider-sense. He never felt anything and just as they reached the stone they were suddenly back at the mouth of the cave. The rock Ned had moved was back in its original spot.

"Great," Ned said. "It's a time loop."

"We're doomed" Peter said.Miles Morales had all Saturday to himself. His dad had weekend shift, his homework was done, and he'd even turned in an article for the school newspaper. Yes, his school still printed a newspaper. Newspaper articles were quaint, but for a school focused on journalism filled with nostalgic teachers, they were a necessity. And, apparently, a major interest of the editor at the Daily Bugle. The editor's name was Jay Jonah Jameson and he frequently hired interns from Miles' high-school and paid for the printing of the school newspaper.