Who Is Peter Parker?

by Stannis is the one true king

Reaction fic for the Homecoming trilogy, set after NWH. Spoilers ahead for NWH, ofc.

22. How Peter Parker Broke The Multiverse

Seen a few people annoyed by how MJ is acting, don't worry, she won't still have this attitude at the end of NWH, but she's just learnt that she's been living a lie for months, her first reaction, quite understandably, is anger towards Peter. It'll fade. Before then though, I said nobody new until after NWH. I lied. There's someone else coming this chapter.

I've been full of Covid and Angst this week, Covid from you know, Covid, angst from reading NWH fix it fanfics that make me want to cry. Yay. Anyway, on with this.

"OK, time out. I need to discuss and digest this first, and I think it's time for a few secrets that clearly people are keeping bottled up to come out. What do you mean, Peter is the one who made us all forget him?" Bruce asked, askance.

"He got the wizard to do the spell." MJ sniffled, wiping her eyes.

"How? How could he? Why would he?" Tony asked, confused and worried.

"It will be explained in the clips. For now, watch." The Watcher's voice spoke up again.

"Why should we?" Kate asked. "I think most people in here deserve the answer."

"You shall all get it, in time. When you do, you'll understand why the course of action was taken. I ask you all to keep quiet on the subject for now." He replied in a voice that brooked no argument. After a few grumbles, they all nodded their assent, even MJ, who looked mutinous at it. "As a thank you, I shall present you a gift of a new audience member."

"Peter?" Tony asked hopefully.

"I'm afraid not, Stark." The Watcher said as a glow filled the room once more. As it faded, a woman stood before the room looking confused and scared, a bag in her hands as she panted.

"Where am I? How did I get here?" She asked, confused after what she bad just been through.

"Fear not, you're safe now." The Watcher spoke again, appearing before her, as she screamed, the rest of the room too stunned to move or speak still.

"Who are you?!"

"My name is Uatu, or The Watcher. I have brought you here to see the events leading up to where you come from, and what comes next for you and others, May Parker."

"May..." Happy breathed, seeing her in the flesh before them.

"Happy? What's going on? Where are we? Where's Peter?!"

"May, I don't know how to tell you this..." Happy started, trailing off as she looked desperate.

"Please, tell me, where's Peter?"

"May.." Tony began as she turned to him, looking stunned.

"YOU! But you...you're...you're dead!"

"I am and I aren't. Long story." Tony grinned.

"Can someone please tell me what's going on? Why are there two people dressed like Peter? Why is there a giant black goo head sticking out of that man? Why am I in a room with several dead people?!" May began to panic. "I was running, Norman, he...what happened to Peter?"

"May." Happy said, getting her attention back to him. "I'll explain it all to you. Just take a deep breath, alright?"

"Ok." She said, trying to calm herself, whilst still looking around, as if waiting for Peter to appear.

"Well, I don't get all of it myself, so I'll explain what I can. Basically this man who has brought you here, the Watcher, is it?" Happy asked at the ceiling.

"Yes."

"Yes, well anyway, him, he's brought us all here to watch these videos about Peter and his time as Spider-Man, and events that affect us all regarding him. You're from the fight in the apartment, right?" Happy asked as May nodded slowly. "Most of us are from a few months after that. Tony, Steve and Natasha are from just before they brought you all back with the Snap. We've seen Peter starting as Spider-Man, and just finished the events with Beck in London and his identity being revealed."

"Why are we all here though? Where is Peter? Why are we being shown this?" May demanded to know.

"Listen, Mrs Parker, to fix everything, shortly after where you come from, I think, Peter had Doctor Strange here-" MJ pointed out the wizard. "-Cast a spell, so the entire world forgot him. We've been watching these to help us understand him apparently, and to get our memories back. I've just got mine back, and I'm sorry, but I'm gonna kick his ass when I see him again. As for where Peter is, we've got no clue. He isn't here." She said, finishing off with a glance towards the other two Peter Parker's she knew were in the room, who were actively trying to look as non suspicious as possible.

"WHERE IS MY BABY?!" May turned frantic as she looked around, stared up at the ceiling where the strange figure had vanished too. "WHERE'S PETER?!"

"Fear not, May Parker. You shall be reunited, in time. For now, please, sit, reunite with friends, and learn what has happened to young Mr Parker's life. I warn you though, even with all you do know, it is not a pleasant experience."

With that horrifying thought in their heads, everyone began to watch again, May choosing to sit near Happy.

The scene opened on the news report about Mysterio's death at the hands of Spider-Man, as Peter saw a crowd below on the street begin to swarm around MJ, demanding to know if she was dating Spider-Man and if she had helped him to kill Mysterio.

"Why would she have killed anyone?!" Ned raged at the screen. "Stupid idiotic people!"

"Ned, relax, this is all in the past, at least for me. I don't know why you don't have all of your memories back, but you'll get it, I'm sure." MJ said. "Speaking on that, how come you remember Peter, Mrs Parker?"

"Why would I forget Peter? He's my nephew!" May asked, wondering why MJ would possibly think that.

"The spell would have effected her, but I am not entirely without my own powers." Uatu spoke up. "I have held it back from May Parker."

"Couldn't you just remove it for us all?" Clint asked.

"Yes. I could." The Watcher stated.

"Well do it!" Cindy demanded.

"No."

"Why not?" Natasha asked.

"Once you finish this recording, I'm sure you'll understand why I have spared May Parker from forgetting her own nephew. As for the rest of you, I'm sure you'll fully remember Peter by the end of all of this." The Watcher explained.

"They better not harm MJ at least." Abe said, crossing his arms.

"They don't." MJ reassured him. "Peter got me away from them."

Peter jumped down to get them away from her as the crowd attacked him, trying to unmask him and saying he assaulted them as he grabbed MJ and took off swinging her away again.

"It doesn't matter what he does, now this is out, they'll have people suspicious of him the entire time until this spell." Hope shook her head sadly.

"The court of public opinion is cruel and unfeeling." Matt sighed. "He's just a kid, he doesn't deserve this."

"He's anything but a kid, not with everything he's experienced." May told him. "He'll always be like a son to me, but Peter has not been a kid for a long while now."

Swinging MJ to the top of a nearby bridge, as tourists took photos, Peter answered a phone call from Ned, both yelling dude at each other until MJ reminded Peter she was still there, hanging up, Peter grabbed her again, apologising as they discussed what to do now.

"Hey, did that say Roosevelt?" Spider-Man 2 asked.

"I think so?" Bruce said.

"Huh, we have that too in my universe. I once saved a bunch of kids in a Roosevelt cable car from a guy named Green Goblin." Spider-Man 2 said, not missing the slight flinches that May, MJ and Happy gave at that name.

Natasha, Yelena and Clint also didn't miss the flinches, and frowned, eyes narrowing.

"My dad will kill you."

"I'm sure after the Vulture, Peter's really scared of your dad." Abe grinned.

"He was pretty scared when he first met him." MJ smirked, before scowling. She was angry with Peter, he had done the unthinkable to her, she couldn't be nice about him now. He had hurt her, he had let her down and he had tried to control her, control her decisions. He could rot for all she cared. Really, he could.

"I thought you said he really liked me?"

"I think that ship may have sailed, Roos." Tony sighed.

"Yeah, well not anymore."

"Definitely not if he's a Bugle fan." Betty shook her head. She loved working for the Bugle, it was a foot in the door towards a career in journalism after all, but...hang on...the Bugle...PARKER! Betty gasped.

"Peter?" Betty asked suddenly, to the wider room, getting Ned and MJ's attention at least.

"What is it?" Ned asked, worried at the sudden change in Betty's demeanour and the shocked tone.

"The Bugle. I work for them, remember?"

"Yeah, but what about it? Sure, they're clearly out for Peter, and I remember they hate Spider-Man, but that's not on you." Ned said, as the wider room began to pay attention to it.

"We got a new photographer the other week, someone who has been really good at taking photos of Spider-Man, Jameson raves about them, even if they won't admit they like them." Betty explained, noticing everyone looking at her. "The new guys name is Peter Parker."

"He's working for Jameson? Taking photos of himself? That's hilarious." Quill roared with laughter, most of the Avengers, Midtown and the Guardians joining in.

"Smart move, kid." Spider-Man 2 nodded.

"I did that too." Spider-Man 3 whispered to his alter self. "I assume you did too?"

"Yeah, worked for him for years. In my world at least, he wasn't such a bad guy. He lied to Norman's face about not knowing who took the photos of Spidey, even after he'd only known me for a few weeks."

"That sounds nice. I barely met Jameson myself in my world, I mostly just sent stuff in online to them." Spider-Man 3 said.

They decided to head to Peter's as they began swinging through the streets and the subway tunnels to get back to Peter's apartment as fast as they could, going past Flash, who was stunned at the reveal of the news on his phone, exiting the subway tunnels by Delmar's new shop, Peter hurried to his, entering with MJ through his bedroom window.

"Jesus, I really was an idiot. I look like my entire world was shattered." Flash shook his head.

"I mean, it was when you learnt it here, wasn't it?" Ned teased him as Flash glared at him half-heartedly.

"Shut it, Leeds." He said.

"The bedroom, moving fast there." Tony wiggled his eyebrows at MJ who flushed and looked away.

At Peter's, May was showing Happy the door as he cried about the end of their relationship, as she said it was a good time and that's why they called it a fling, that they flung. A crashing sound came from Peter's room as Happy charged back in, opening the door, the two of them saw MJ helping Peter get dressed into normal clothes and spoke about having safe sex before May introduced herself to MJ.

"I'm sorry, Happy." May said to him, seeing how badly the breakup had affected him again.

"Don't be, it was my fault. I read too into it." Happy said with a pained smile.

"I do love you, don't get me wrong, and I had fun, I'm just not ready for something like that, not after Ben. I don't know if I ever would be." May said as Happy winced.

Happy wasn't going to break the news to her, she didn't deserve to spend the entire time watching this on edge to see her own death. He'd be there if she needed to talk afterwards, if she needed someone to support her, but he wasn't going to ruin this for her before it had too.

"We weren't having sex!" MJ groaned as she looked around the room at some of the glances being sent her way.

"Well, I know that now." May went bright red.

Peter sat them down in the living room and said he wanted to discuss their relationship as he rushed around closing windows and curtains as people outside called out to him, until they saw a news report of some helicopters circling outside, reporting that Spider-Man's identity had been revealed. Peter then showed them the awaiting helicopters.

"Kid can't catch a break." Sam sighed.

"Well it was certainly one way to get onto the news." May grinned.

"Maybe it won't be so bad."

"Famous last words." Tony said resigned to the circus that was clearly going to follow Peter around.

"Governments around the world launch investigations into Spider-Man, AKA Peter Parker, AKA the web-headed war criminal!" J Jonah Jameson reported on his show in his living room as several news reports showed Spider-Man having paint thrown on him by a Mysterio supporter and investigations in London found the drones used to attack the city belonged to Stark Industries.

"He does this in his living room? That's hilarious!" Quill roared with laughter at the sight, the other Guardians seemed somewhat confused, but they all cracked grins at the sight of Quill having fun. If they got the gist, the man did seem pretty pathetic, even if he wasn't attacking Peter, a guy who seemed decent from what they had seen.

"They're throwing paint on him?" Thor asked. "Is this significant in any way?"

"It's a way of showing displeasure non violently." Sam told him. "Though it's a dick move."

"Pepper's going to be having a nightmare with that." Natasha noted as Tony looked down. He had left Pepper and Morgan alone to deal with all of this. He had failed them. He knew he had failed them, no matter what anyone else might have said on the issue. He had failed Pepper, he had failed Morgan, he had failed Happy and Rhodey for years, he failed the Avengers and he failed Peter.

'Here lies Tony Stark. Father. Fighter. Failure.' Tony glumly thought. 'That is what any memorial to me should read. I let them all down, creating E.D.I.T.H, spending more time on Iron Man than my family. I let everyone down.'

Peter and May where then interrupted by a knock on the door and a yell of "Federal agents! Open up!" Opening the door, she was greeted by an agent "Department of Damage Control. We have a warrant for the arrest of Peter Parker." They entered, seizing the Iron Spider suit, the E.D.I.T.H glasses, and photos of Peter with MJ and Ned.

"They better not hurt a hair on his head." Nebula growled.

"I gave them to Peter as gifts, they're his. How dare they take them from him!" Tony shouted, outraged and incensed. "I funded the DoDC, they can be damn sure Stark Industries is pulling any and all funding for them now."

Peter defended himself from the agents, telling them Beck killed himself and Fury could explain everything.

"I don't think that Skrull thing is going to speak up for Peter for some reason." Clint snarled.

"Are we sure nobody in here is a shape shifter?" Scott laughed nervously.

"We can't afford to not trust each other. But I'm sure the Watcher could tell us." Bruce stated.

"None of you are Skrulls." The Watcher confirmed.

"Nick Fury has been off planet for the past year."

"How do they know that and the Avengers don't?" Yelena asked, perplexed.

"I have no idea, maybe Fury trusted them more than us? He does hardly know most of the current Avengers." Bucky suggested.

"He should trust the Avengers are there to do the right thing, as they always have been." Steve replied. "He should trust that we will always fight for what's right."

"What?" Peter asked, as Ned, MJ and May were also brought in to be questioned, May and MJ both yelled at him to not say anything without a lawyer.

"Good advice." Clint nodded.

"I've studied all of their tricks." MJ jutted out her chin as she looked towards them as if challenging someone to contradict her.

"Miss Jones-Watson."

"Watson?" Spider-Man 2 asked.

"Yeah, but I don't go by it. Why?" MJ asked.

"The MJ I know in my universe, her surname is Watson." He explained.

"Interesting." MJ said, in a tone that said she really wanted to avoid talking about that name.

"Miss Jones. I don't go by Watson."

"Fair. I respect the bluntness." Spider-Man 3 nodded to her, as she gave him a small smile in return. She wasn't going to out who they were, it wasn't these two Peters she was angry with, and they had said at the beginning they were told not to reveal their names, she didn't know why, but she felt this Watcher just liked drama by this point.

"Miss Jones. Why do you want a lawyer-"

"Because it's her right to have one there?!" Matt asked incredulously.

"Well put." Steve said, the lines of his mouth tightening as he frowned. The USA was built on ideals of fairness and equality, why were these guys trying to avoid the rights of the Constitution, they worked for the Federal Government! Even if agendas changed, and nobody could fully trust people in power, to try deny people their constitutional rights? It seemed nothing got better after all of this, not really.

"If I have nothing to hide?"

"Damn, getting to the core of it from the get-go." Cindy marvelled.

"You'd make a fine lawyer." Matt complimented her.

"Thanks, but I couldn't give my life away to some soulless corporation, no offence, Mr Stark." MJ nodded to Tony, who waved it away.

"I was thinking more of a defence attorney, or someone who represents the little guys, like I do." Matt smiled at her, as MJ paused to consider his words.

"Unless-"

"This guy is about to have a rude slap down, isn't he?" Flash grinned.

"Yup." MJ smirked.

"Unless I'm guilty? I'm very aware of your tactics and my rights." MJ told the agents. They said she was bright, what was she doing throwing her life away to help a vigilante like Peter Parker?

"I think she'd be risking her life more by being known as an associate of him and cutting off all ties with him." Kate stated.

"Absolutely. Peter would do anything for his loved ones." May asserted. "He'd do whatever he could for anyone, as that's who he is, but he'd never stop to help his loved ones."

"Believe me, I know." Tony laughed. "Did I ever tell you about the time he webbed Rhodey up for hours after he thought Rhodey was yelling at me?"

"I was picking webs out of my suit for days!" Rhodey groaned.

The DoDC then interrogated Ned, offering him snacks and agreeing he shouldn't speak with them, then asked him what it was like when MJ told him that Peter was Spider-Man, Ned said he knew first and was his guy in the chair, the DoDC agent then said "So, you were Spider-Man's main accomplice?"

"I fell for it like an idiot." Ned groaned, putting his head in his hands as MJ and Betty tried to cheer him up, telling him it wasn't his fault, he was excitable like that.

"I would like my words stricken from the record." Ned meekly mumbled.

"Sadly it doesn't work like that, kid." Matt said gently to the young adult, who nodded sadly.

May was then interrogated, with the DoDC telling her to lawyer up as child endangerment was a bad charge and she was a terrible mother figure, letting him go out and fight crime.

"MAY WAS NEVER A RISK TO PETER!" Happy roared at the screen.

"We know she isn't, Happy." Tony called to his old friend. "But these guys are trying to get a rise out of you all, you know that."

The scene showed DoDC seizing tech from Stark Industries before it cut to a photo of Happy, providing no comment, as Happy sat in the Parker apartment, telling Peter and May that at least they used a good photo.

"I mean, is it?" Thor asked as Happy glowered at him.

"I just hate that Pepper and Morgan are getting sucked into this." Tony crossed his arms.

"It's not too bad now, but I'll see what I can do to help more when I get back." Rhodey promised him. "I should have done more to begin with to limit government meddling."

A man came onto screen holding a walking stick and thanking someone on the phone, sitting down, it revealed the face of Matt Murdock.

"Ah, here you are, Matt." May smiled at the lawyer.

"At last we see why I was brought here." Matt beamed back at her.

"Well I have some good news, Peter. I don't think any of the charges against you are going to stick." Matt said as Peter, Happy and May thanked him and celebrated the good news.

"Due process finally works!" MJ said sarcastically as Matt laughed.

Matt then told Happy that he would need a really good lawyer, as charges against him for missing Stark tech would probably be filed, as Happy panicked. Matt then warned Peter that the court of public opinion would still be against him, even if he had dodged his legal issues.

"The public are fickle." Bruce sighed.

"No charges will happen, Pepper won't let that happen to you." Tony reassured Happy.

"I know, this all happened already for me, remember?" Happy grinned.

"The Forehead of security, correcting moi?" Tony gasped mockingly.

A brick came flying through the window, Matt, his back to it, reached out and caught it as everyone looked shocked. "How did you do that?" Peter asked him.

"Yeah, how did you do that?" Nebula glared.

"Peter was about to catch that. Him doing it I can understand, but your back is to it, and I hate to point it out, but you can't see it!" Ned gasped.

"I'm a really good lawyer." Matt explained.

"Now, the truth, How did you do that?" Natasha asked, eyes narrowed, noticing the rest of the room had also turned their full attention to Matt.

"Like I said, I'm a really good lawyer, that's all." Matt weakly tried to defend himself.

"Watcher person, can you tell us?" Cindy asked.

"Matt Murdock, I'd just tell them if I were you, it will be brought up later if not." The Watcher spoke up from somewhere else, as Matt sighed.

"Fine. Have you ever heard of Hells Kitchen and the vigilantes who operate around there and the surrounding areas?"

"I've heard stories, urban legends. Most of them are about a decade old, but I'm assuming the Snap impacted them as well." Clint said. "I know I never ran into any of them when I was the Ronin."

"Are you saying you know something about them?" Rhodey asked.

"What do you know about the Devil of Hells Kitchen?" Matt asked.

"Daredevil?" Yelena asked. "He is a very skilled fighter, I've seen reports and videos, he wears a funny mask, or sometimes just covers his upper face entirely though. What does he have to do with this?"

Matt sighed and cursed aloud for a moment, before noticing they were all focusing intently on him for an answer.

"I'm Daredevil." Matt admitted. "As I can't see, no point having my eyes exposed, it wouldn't do anything anyway and may give away my identity."

"You're Daredevil?! I've seen all the videos, I looked you up, you're a legend!" Kate said excitedly.

"I'm not, please, I'm just doing what I can." Matt said.

"Your actions are a bit on the extreme side from what I've heard." Steve frowned.

"I've never said I was perfect, far from it." Matt shot back. "I try do what I can through the justice system, if it were up to me, that would solve everything, but I know it doesn't and won't. It can be corrupted, it can be perverted. I have the skills to help in another way, and despite any reservations, I know I have a duty to help however I can. Look, I don't like the Avengers, not really, you're all big and flashy and honestly, you don't care about the little guy. I know, before you say anything, that you do fight for the good fight as it were, you do try to help, but you do overlook the few for the many. I don't do that. I work to help everyone, it's why I have to say, Spider-Man has my respect at least. He does care for the neighbourhood. Am I a good man? I can't say, I'd like to think I am, but I can't say for sure. But do I try? Yes. That's the difference, I try, you Avengers, you don't care." Matt finished. MJ looked impressed, as did Yelena, whilst Kate and most of the Avengers looked mutinous.

"Moving quickly on." The Watcher spoke up, heading off a rant from any of the Avengers.

Peter read the note attached to the brick, reading "We Believe Mysterio" as May said they needed somewhere safer to live.

"Of course you believe him, whoever threw the brick, you're an idiot." Quill said.

"The brick isn't an idiot, it can't think." Drax informed Quill, who looked like he wanted to say something but decided against it, just staring open-mouthed at Drax.

Cutting to Long Island, Peter and May moved into an apartment, with Dum-E inside, as Happy walked through the door, welcoming them to his place.

"DUM-E!" Tony cheered.

"What's a Dum-E?" Abe asked.

"One of the first robots I ever made, years ago. I guess Happy got him after I...left." Tony trailed off.

"I took good care of him, Tony." Happy promised him. "Pepper said that you had always wanted him to go to me, something about me and him both driving each other insane?"

Peter was then shown scrubbing to get the green paint out of his suit when he went exploring, finding a box labelled Stark, he muttered about Happy.

"What are you hiding?" Rhodey asked Happy with a look of concern.

"Nothing bad! It helped, in a way!" Happy defended himself.

"What is it?" Tony asked.

"One of your replicators, that's all!" Happy insisted.

"Why do you have that?"

"I didn't want the government taking everything of yours, and it ended up helping Peter." Happy explained.

On a call with MJ, Peter said how he had just sent off his application for MIT, she said she had too. They talked about whether she was being too pragmatic, as Peter reassured her he loved that about her, and she was an optimistic, people person who loved sports, before Happy's snoring with a sleep mask on disturbed them.

"I'm a fountain of optimism, just ask anyone." MJ deadpanned. "Can't beat the sports team we support, right?"

"Absolutely." Drax nodded.

"It's sarcasm man." Quill whined at Drax who looked confused.

"She does not like the sports? But she has an athlete's build!"

"How?!" Rocket demanded to know

"Does any part of you feel relieved about all this?" MJ asked him.

"Relieved that his life has gotten ruined?" Rhodey asked incredulously.

"Relieved that he didn't have to live two lives anymore." MJ corrected.

"Ever since I got bit by that spider, I've only had one week where my life has felt normal, or kinda normal. That was when you found out. Because then everyone who was in my life who I wanted to know, knew. And it was perfect. Now everybody knows and I am the most famous person in the entire world. And I'm still broke." Peter joked as MJ laughed.

"That sucks." Spider-Man 2 said. "To have the best version of your life, to have it ripped away, I've got some experience of that."

"You do?" Spider-Man 3 asked him quietly, from what he heard, Peter and MJ in his world had made it work, hadn't they?

"Yeah. I've lost things, lost people, you know how it is. I mean, I said me and MJ made it work, that was a lie, we're friendly, sure, and keep good terms for our kids, but we split romantically years ago."

"You have kids?" Spider-Man 3 asked, shocked.

"Yeah, a boy and girl. Ben and May." Spider-Man 2 smiled.

Happy then told them to wrap it up as he needed his eight hours sleep, as they hung up.

"Need more than eight hours there Happy." Tony grinned.

The scene cut to Midtown High and Betty Brant covering the first day of school for the Daily Bugle.

"I'm back!" Betty cheered. "Will I be in this one more than the last one as well?"

"We barely saw you this year as you got that intern position at the Bugle." MJ reminded her.

"So, I'm not going to be in this much?" Betty asked.

"No, this is your only time in this recording." The Watcher confirmed to her as her smile faded. She liked being in the previous ones, it was a shame that she seemingly had little to do with Peter when his identity was out. When they got back, she'd make sure to befriend the photographer.

"We're here covering the first day of senior year for Midtown High's most famous student, Peter Parker! Go get 'em tiger, or should I say, Spider?"

Spider-Man 2 laughed at that as the others turned to him.

"I mean, it was a good pun, I guess, but what's so funny about it?" Betty asked him.

"In my world, my partner would always say "Go get 'em tiger." to me. I just thought it was funny, that's all. Plus, I attended my Midtown, we were the Tigers there too."

"Hey, same here!" Spider-Man 3 pointed out.

Peter held MJ's hand as they walked between a crowd, half of them holding banners supporting Peter, the other half condemning him as a murderer. Behind them walked Ned and Flash, now with blonde hair. Ned was stopped for comments, as Flash interrupted, saying he was Peter's best friend and plugging his new book, Flashpoint, about his story and his friendship with Peter.

"Public opinion never gets one hundred percent positive, let me tell you that." Spider-Man 2 said.

"I can relate." Matt agreed.

"I've heard stories, of what you've done, mostly when I was the Ronin." Clint told Matt. "I just want to say, you kept criminals scared and probably made the Avengers jobs slightly easier, at least until the Blip. So, thank you."

"I don't do it for thanks, Mr Barton." Matt said.

"I know, but you deserve it. You're as heroic as any Avenger, even if your methods are usually a bit more violent than our own, with regards to ordinary people."

"Well thank you, I guess." Matt noted, smiling slightly. He supposed he could grow to like at least some of the Avengers, they clearly didn't mean all the property damage. Plus the Accords were super illegal anyway, and Matt hated them.

"Why are you claiming to be Peter's best friend?" Ned asked Flash, who looked stunned.

"I don't even remember that book at all, what happened to it?" Sam asked.

"About ninety percent of it was changed to fit in with the spell, and it plummeted as a result of clear and easily checkable falsehoods." The Watcher told them as Flash frowned. It sucked that it was a best seller for a few weeks and then was gone suddenly from the best selling lists, collapsing down the charts on places like Amazon.

"I wanted the clout of being Spider-Man's best friend, even if I didn't have a clue who Spider-Man was or if he even knew me at all." Flash explained, shaking his head. "I'm sure it made more sense before this spell though, when I actually knew who he was and what I was talking about."

As they reached the doors, Peter was ushered inside after going through a security check, being left alone as MJ was checked, whilst people asked her if she was going to have Peter's spider babies. Getting inside the halls, Peter was accosted by several teachers, who showed him a shrine they had built to him, as his gym teacher said he believed Mysterio and Peter was a murderer.

"Spider babies, really?" MJ raised an eyebrow.

"Would any kids of his have his Spider DNA?" Bruce wondered aloud.

"No idea." Tony shrugged.

"No." Spider-Man 2 stated.

"So Coach Wilson is a conspiracy theorist too?" Abe asked, shocked. The guy was odd, but he wouldn't have pegged him as a conspiracy theorist.

"Yeah, but he's a harmless idiot." Ned explained before the angry looks the Avengers were giving the screen could move into anything else.

Peter then walked through the halls, the students of Midtown parting before him, as they all used their phones to take photos of him and film him.

"They've known him for years! How rude!" May protested.

"It's the life of a celebrity sadly." Cindy said. "To have photos taken even in your most private moments, to not truly be able to walk away from the general public, to be at the centre of their attention all of the time."

Peter and MJ talked on the roof of the school, laughing at what the press said about him as he asked if they could just stay up there together, moving in to kiss, they were interrupted by Ned, asking about whether they could finally get some privacy up there.

"Come on man, uncool!" Quill called out Ned who blushed.

"I'm sorry! It's not like I knew, was it?" Ned cried.

"Don't worry, Ned, I don't blame you." MJ smiled at her best friend. She looked at the scene with a frown, those were happier times, even if the entire world knew their names, because those were times that it was just the three of them against the world, times she felt were the best of times.

The three of them discussed their plans for college, with Peter saying MIT was the goal and he could Spider-Man in Boston, that they could get a three person house together. They also mentioned how they had linked their backup schools so no matter what, all three would be together. MJ then tried to pour some water on the ideas.

"Yeah, mad crime in Boston." Flash chuckled.

"We were all going to get a place together?" Ned asked, eyes wide as he felt unshed tears welling up inside of it again.

"Yeah, dork. I know it's just you and me now, but yeah." MJ told him.

"Well why can't we still do that?" Ned asked. "When we get back, and we find Peter again, he can come live with us still."

MJ said nothing as she sat back, thinking all of this over again. Ned meant well, but she definitely didn't see that happening anytime soon.

"If you expect disappointment then you can never really get disappointed." MJ explained sadly, as Peter looked at her in sorrow, determined that they wouldn't miss out.

"Got to have faith." Steve said.

"We're in, that's the main thing." MJ said, cutting off the conversation.

Peter went through rejection after rejection before meeting up with Ned and MJ at the coffee shop she worked at, saying they only had MIT left, all the others had said no. Reading through it, Peter's face fell.

"Kid..." Tony breathed. He was going to do something about this, some rework of his charitable donations to MIT, they were going to let Peter Parker attend, come hell or high water. He would find a way to make it work, even with this spell that apparently makes everyone forget Peter exists. He'd find a way, he was Tony Stark.

He asked MJ, she said no as well, as they turned to Ned.

"I'm sorry." Happy told them.

"It isn't anyone's fault, except Beck and his friends." MJ replied.

"In light of recent controversy, we are unable to consider your application at this time." Ned sadly read out.

"This is bullshit!" Yelena decried.

"It's unfair, but that's America for you." MJ drily replied.

"This is totally wrong, isn't there anything we can do?" Kate asked.

"The Spell undid this. Ned and I are in MIT now." MJ told them. "But thanks for the offers." She smiled.

"This is so unfair, I didn't do anything wrong, you guys certainly didn't do anything wrong." Peter said.

"Life isn't fair like that sometimes, kid." Bucky said, not unkindly. He had plenty of experience of an unfair life. Steve and Sam both laid their hands on Bucky's shoulders in a show of moral support.

"Expect disappointment and you can never be disappointed." MJ blithely said.

"That's a horrible philosophy to live by still." Scott shuddered.

"Yeah, she's a glass totally full kind of person really." Betty winked as Scott snorted.

Flash then walked through the door, celebrating as he wore a new MIT hoodie, before finding out the others didn't get in as they actually were Peter's friends. He then left, saying he had to go to a party for the new admissions anyway, bidding them farewell.

"YOU ARE A WEASEL, MAY I EAT YOU?" Venom spoke up.

"W-What?!" Flash asked, scared.

"Venom, we've talked about this!" Eddie hissed.

"I'M SORRY, MAY I EAT YOU, PLEASE?" Venom asked again as Flash paled further.

"No?" Flash squeaked.

"FINE, BUT I DEMAND WE EAT SOMETHING, EDDIE!" Venom turned to his host.

"We can eat more chickens!"

"I HATE THEM, BUT FINE." Venom pouted.

"I mean, I was just excited, I thought they'd get in, clearly." Flash defended himself.

"We know." Cindy reassured him.

"You seem like less of an idiot in this one than the last one." Thena told him.

"Thanks, but I'm probably only less of one as I'm probably in this one less than the others." Flash admitted. "When we get back, since Peter seems to still know us, if MJ is right about this spell thing, when we find him, I'm apologising for all the dick things I ever did to him and everyone else."

"That takes real courage, Flash, is it? To admit to your mistakes like that." Matt smiled at the young man.

"Yeah, speaking of mistakes." Steve spoke up. "I've been doing alot of thinking during all of these, and I want to apologise to you, Tony."

"To me? Why?" Tony asked, confused. Hadn't he and Rogers already agreed to bury the hatchet on the Barnes thing by now?

"I messed up. I still think the Accords were wrong, and I know you thought they were right, I know you've agreed maybe they weren't the best, I mean, the DoDC thing alone shows that, but I'll admit, oversight, it isn't always a bad thing. My issue was it needed to be oversight we could trust, oversight that would let us function when we were truly needed."

"I understand, Steve, I do." Tony reassured him. "But I'm glad you can see my points. We did need oversight, in the future, it seems we will still need it, to an extent anyway. Sure, maybe the UN wasn't the right choice, it certainly seemed they tried to back-stab us during the whole Zemo mess, forcing us apart, sending you guys to the Raft, but we do need something, we weren't any better than the villains if we refused to be accountable to the people who we say we're there to protect."

"I'll tell you what, if we get through all of this, and somehow change this so we don't die, we'll hash out a new Accords, together? All of us, a way to have oversight but also be able to go to the places we're needed, to fight the battles that they never could." Steve offered his hand out, as Tony grasped it.

"I'd like that, I have missed the team, and all of you guys, but once they're done, I think I may hang up the suit. The world has better heroes than Iron Man now. Once Thanos is beaten, and we're all still alive and laughing about it, I'm retiring." Tony told them.

MJ and Ned said they wouldn't change a thing they did, ripping up their letters, until Ned said he had to show his mother his, and took it. MJ was told to take down the Halloween decorations, and seeing a likeness of Doctor Strange, Peter got an idea.

"Standing by your friends, truly honourable." Druig smiled at them.

"This is where the start of this horrible idea has come from, hasn't it?" Wong asked.

"I'd be lying if I said no, I imagine." Strange remarked.

Getting to the Sanctum Santorum, Peter was greeted by two teens shovelling show, as Wong greeted him, calling on Stephen to deal with it. Stephen came in, ridiculing Wong for forgetting to maintain the seals on the Sanctum doors, as a blizzard had come from Siberia to cover the place in snow. Wong told him that the Sorcerer Supreme was too busy for menial tasks like that.

"I am too busy!" Wong stated.

"Sure you are, or you're just forgetful." Strange continued their argument.

"I have other duties, you are the protector of the Sanctum, it's on you!" Wong told him again.

"Fine." Strange said, finally admitting defeat, as Wong smiled and turned back to the screen, Strange noticed Wanda watching him and gave her a wink. This was not over by a long shot.

"Wait, I thought you were the Sorcerer Supreme?" Peter asked Strange.

"So did I." Tony frowned.

"Yeah, about that..." Strange started as the screen continued.

"No, he got it on a technicality because I Blipped for five years." Strange explained.

"Well, that." Strange shrugged.

"What sort of technicality?" Wanda asked.

"I was dead, I guess, so it counts against me." Strange sighed. "I'm sure I'll get the position before long."

"You're a Sanctum guardian, I am your boss, deal with it, Stephen." Wong grinned at him.

Peter congratulated Wong as Strange continued to complain about it and say how he would have done better as Wong slapped him down.

"Strange, you look so done." Steve said as Strange glared at the screen. Why did this have to keep reminding him of Wong getting the position he seemed destined to have?

"I'm really sorry to bother you Sir-"

'Call me Stephen-'

'Yeah, still seems weird.'

'Everyone who loves you, we...we'd have no memory of you.'

Stephen Strange bent forward, grabbing at his own head for a moment, before sitting upright again, eyes wide and alert.

"Stephen?" Wong asked with alarm.

"I remember. Oh god, Wong, I fucked up so badly." Strange told him, alarmed.

"Calm down, Strange, how did you fuck up?" Wanda asked, her and Wong helping Strange to his feet as the three magic users broke away from the main group to form their own conversation, the rest of the room looking over curiously.

"I cast the spell, I think we all knew that, but I just remembered all of it, the trigger was him calling me Sir, I remembered, I helped fuck this all up, I helped ruin the kids life, even if it wasn't the aim, and I've cut him off from everyone. I could have thought up something else, I could have tried something different, I've left a child alone in the world. I did what I thought I needed to do for the good of everyone, but what if I did it just as it was the easiest choice? I swore an oath, to save lives. How does ruining a life count as saving it?!" Strange freaked out to the other two, the only ones who may have an idea of what they could do to help in the room when it came to magic. He knew the others weren't all that magically clued up, and he had the feeling that the Watcher, even if he could help, and he probably could, would just string things along and try get concessions from Stephen.

"Stephen, look at me. I don't recall all of this, but I do know you. You wouldn't do anything if there was another way to do it." Wong tried to tell his friend.

"Strange, I know how you're feeling, believe me, I thought I had ruined lives, in fact, I did. I struggled, in my grief. I almost tore through the multiverse after a long lost dream. The reason I didn't totally collapse into madness? You. You came to me, you helped me see the Darkhold was corrupting me, that Agatha was winning every time I used it. You helped me learn to harness my power, and helped me to move on from Vision and the twins, to realise that I was living a lie, and even if they did exist somewhere else out there, I couldn't take them from their loved ones for my own sake. You're a hero, Stephen, and I'm sure Peter doesn't blame you for anything that happens in these, understand?" Wanda asked him, as Stephen nodded, the three of them moved back to the main group, not saying a word of what had happened, as the screen resumed, Stephen stared at Wanda, deep in thought.

She had been angry when they first arrived, having flaunted magic when he had chastised her for using such things at Westview and afterwards, but she had thought over what they had done, how Stephen had tried to help her, helped her channel her magic in the orchards, how she had studied at Kamar-Taj for weeks on end, devouring all she could on her powers, on the legends of the Scarlet Witch. She wasn't perfect, far from it, and she knew she'd need years to fully come to terms with her life so far and her powers, but she knew Stephen wouldn't give up on her, not like some others had done. She glared at Steve for a moment, thinking of how he had abandoned her and left to go be with Peggy, before focusing back on Stephen. He, at least, had stayed to help her. He hadn't abandoned her.

"Why did you all walk off?" Scott asked.

"I remembered. They were helping me to process all of it." Strange simply stated, looking at the screen and ignoring the looks from those who wanted to know more about what he had remembered.

"Please, we saved half the universe together, I think we're beyond you calling me Sir." Stephen said, as he lit a fire for the two of them.

"That's a neat trick." Ned said, awed.

"Thanks, Mr Leeds." Stephen said, voice unusually quiet as he looked over at the boy. "Maybe I can show you how to do it sometime?"

"You'd show me magic? My lola says we have magic in my family, I'd love to learn it if I could!" Ned babbled.

"Ok. Stephen." Peter smiled.

"His smile is so cute." Cindy cooed, looking at MJ out of the corner of her eye as she said it, seeing her classmates eyes harden and her mouth tighten.

'Yep, she's still in love with him, now just to get the dork to admit it.' Cindy thought, looking over to Betty, watching MJ as well, and nodding as she got her gaze.

"That feels weird but I'll allow it." Stephen told him.

"Would you allow me to call you it?" Wanda asked him, jokingly, as Stephen arched an eyebrow.

"I thought you already were going too?" He asked her warmly as she beamed at him.

Peter explained that when Mysterio revealed his identity, it screwed up alot of people's lives and he wondered if Strange could change time so Mysterio never did. Strange explained that he couldn't, he no longer had the Time Stone, and he wasn't risking the timeline as Peter's life got messy.

"Come on Strange, have a heart." Bucky frowned.

"I'm doing what's good for the entire world, not just one person." Strange explained. "I'm sorry for Peter, really, I am, but clearly I was making the right choice here, and from what's happened later on, it's clear I was right to refuse at first."

Peter said he was doing it to help MJ, Ned, May and Happy, as Strange considered a spell that could work, the Runes of Kafkall. Wong said not to use it, Strange asked if Peter hadn't been through enough already, Wong simply said to leave him out of it as he headed to Kamar-Taj through a portal, as Stephen said he'd help Peter.

"I wish I had listened to you, Wong." Strange admitted.

"It's always wise to listen to me." Wong said with a serious face before cracking up after a moment, stopping when he saw the pained look on Stephen's face. "I'm sorry, Stephen." Wong whispered to him after a moment.

"Don't be, like I said, it was all my fault. I could have looked for something else, I could have tried to get the kid to listen to reason a bit more than I did with all of this. I messed up just as much as Peter did, if not more. I deserve all the hate I feel is going to be coming my way after all of this." He sighed, looking at the Avengers watching the screen, knowing a few of them, especially Tony, would likely hate him after this video was over.

"Yeah, hasn't he been through enough?" Sam asked, turning to Wong.

"I didn't mean it like that!" Wong protested, breaking away from Stephen to deal with the room. "I only meant not to risk the stability of the entire universe, it's kind of our role to prevent the universe destroying itself."

Strange told Peter about the history of the Sanctum, that it was built on ancient powerful boundaries and the Sorcerers weren't the first to try harness the power of them. He then started to prepare the spell, before saying "Nice knowing you, Spider-Man."

"I wonder how many other civilisations and entities have tried to use it before?" Wanda asked.

"Countless." Strange murmured to her.

"Wizards." Sam smirked at Bucky who scowled.

"I'm not getting drawn into this, Wilson, I keep telling you."

"Are you two going to just kiss already?" Yelena asked them.

"I DON'T LIKE HIM!" Sam yelped.

"NO!" Bucky yelled at the same time, both men turning slightly pink.

"Nice knowing you, Spider-Man?" May asked, not having received the full story from Peter.

"He's a noble, self-sacrificing, idiot." MJ growled.

"Excuse me?" Peter asked, confused.

"Yeah, I'm wondering why he's saying that and why you're all looking like it's a death sentence." May demanded.

"The entire world's about to forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. That includes me."

"So I'm assuming this is why Peter's been struggling with these people from other worlds?" May asked. "He said some visitors had come due to a spell messing up, and that he was trying to help us all with it, but he didn't explain what the spell was."

"Wait, everyone? Can't some people know?"

"Yeah, why can't some people still know?" Hope asked.

"Because that isn't how this particular spell works, sadly." Strange explained.

"That's not really how the spell works." Strange explained, still casting as he spoke.

"Then why don't you use something much less reckless?" Tony hissed.

"Believe me, Tony, if I could change all of this, I would." Strange told him. "I'm sorry, truly, for everything."

"What do you mean, what else is worse than what we've heard?" Tony asked. May died, Peter forgotten, what could be worse than both of them?

"Nothing's worse, but there's more bad things in this than just those things." Strange explained.

Peter then began to ask about MJ, Ned, May and Happy, as Strange got angrier and struggled more and more to contain the spell. Peter eventually said that everyone who knew before Mysterio revealed it publicly should still know, as Strange gave a yell and a bright flash consumed the room.

"I hate to break it, but you knew the kid, you should have known he'd blabber like that and tack things on he needed." Happy said to Strange who frowned.

"Maybe, but he was still an idiot not to specify them all to begin with."

"It's at least fifty percent your fault, Doctor Strange, Sir." Ned spoke up, as Strange levelled him with a glare, he met it with a stern look of his own. "You cast the spell, you didn't think of any other way to help him, so that's on you. You know it is."

"I can't fault you, Leeds." Strange admitted quietly after a moment.

Strange then laid into Peter, saying how the spell had been changed six times and if he hadn't shut it down, something catastrophic could have happened.

"Peter only changed it five times." Matt noted, smirking at Strange.

"Ok, fine, I added myself, happy?" Strange scowled.

"Stephen, listen, I am so s-"

"Don't apologise, Peter!" Natasha called out, winking as Strange glared at her.

"Call me Sir." Stephen told him.

"Ouch." Bucky said.

"Sorry, Sir." Peter said sadly.

"He looks like a kicked puppy, please tell me you kissed him better after this, Michelle Jones?" Yelena asked MJ who sighed.

"Not exactly, no." She told them.

"After everything we've been through, I somehow forget you're still a kid. Look, Parker, the problem isn't Mysterio, it's you. Trying to live two separate lives." Strange told him. He needed to choose. But if he had pleaded his case to the colleges and they had rejected him still, there was nothing more he could do to help.

"I mean, I guess that's fair, all things considered, if he's tried every route, there's nothing else you can really do." Bruce said.

"We haven't seen him call them?" Rhodey asked.

"You mean I could have called them?"

"What does he mean, he could have?" Tony asked.

"Yeah."

"I can do that?"

"I thought he was meant to be a genius, Tony?" Steve asked.

"Just because I'm smart doesn't mean I'm not dumb." Cindy said with a straight face as all the former Midtown students and Kate laughed.

"I'm sorry, are you telling me, that you didn't even think to plead your case to them before asking me to brainwash the entire world?" Strange said, closing in on Peter, tone and gaze like steel as he did.

"I mean, when you put it like that, it does sound kinda bad." Eddie said.

"He didn't mean it like that!" Tony protested.

"Oh he absolutely didn't, I can tell." Druig said.

"Got some experience." Makkari signed with a smirk as Druig flushed.

"I was trying to help them!"

"Are you enhanced?" Steve asked with a wary look at Druig.

"In a way, I guess you could say that." Sersi gave a small smile. "We all are, except Sprite there."

"I was." Sprite said. "But something happened, so I'm just normal now."

"What are your powers?" Clint asked.

"You may get a chance to see them in action, sometime." The Watcher interrupted. "For now, back to the Peter Parker story."

Peter panicked and said he didn't think of it, or that he could do it, before the scene cut to him outside the Sanctum, the doors closing shut on him.

"That's gotta be upsetting." Ikaris said quietly.

Peter then called Flash to ask where the MIT party was, so he could plead the case for Ned and MJ to go to MIT, after agreeing to tell everyone that Flash was his best friend and legitimising Flash's book, he told Peter the VP of Admissions was there, but she had left to go to the airport already.

"Well, I really dropped the ball there, didn't I?" Flash asked. "I should have just said where she was earlier, not made him agree to call himself my best friend."

"If it's any consolation, he never did." MJ smirked.

"That's more than fair. Hey, Mr Watcher, will I get my memories back of how I treated Peter?" Flash asked, a bit worried to know the answer.

"Yes, you all shall do. Some later than others however." The Watcher replied.

Peter swung to the bridge where traffic to the airport was stalled, waving to a news chopper that was filming him, before changing his suit back into civilian clothes as he looked for the lady, Flash sent a photo of her for him, but all Stark Industries tech was disabled, including E.D.I.T.H and Karen, so Peter had to look himself. Finding her car, Peter went and knocked on her window as she put down Flash's book, rolling it down, he began to awkwardly pitch that MIT needed to be smart and take in Ned and MJ, and to not be dumb like a version of him who didn't have their help would have been. Before he could finish his speech though, he felt his Peter tingle going off.

"That's alot of nerd babbling. How do you stand him doing it all day?" Yelena asked MJ.

"I don't!" MJ squawked.

"I see she even thinks your book was awful!" Ned laughed as Flash flushed.

"Alright, it wasn't the best work anyone has ever done." Flash admitted.

"He's really not helping his case here, is he?" Cindy asked.

"I'd give him about fifty-fifty odds of it working." Tony stated. "But my hopes plummet with every word he's babbling."

"Is that his tingle going off again?" Happy asked.

Looking around, Peter saw people running away as the driver of the car got out, leaving the VP trapped inside, Peter had donned his Iron Spider suit again as the bridge gave way ahead of them, with gigantic metallic arms coming out of the ground, as the dust cleared and Peter was crouched in a fighting stance, a man, wearing dark glasses and supported by four metallic arms smiled at him.

"What the fuck is going on?!" Kate asked.

"Who is this guy?" Rhodey asked.

"Just wait and see." Strange told them.

"Hello Peter."

"How does he know Peter?!" Tony asked.

"Has anyone ever seen a guy like this before?" Steve wondered.

"You'll see soon enough." MJ promised them.

"Hi...Do I know you?" Peter asked him.

"Yeah, do you know him?" Natasha asked.

"What have you done with my machine?"

"His machine? What is this guy on about? Does he work for Vulture or something?" Abe questioned.

"Sir, what machine?"

"Yeah, that's what I want to know!" Natasha said.

"The power of the sun in the palm of my hand. It's gone."

"The power of the sun? Does he mean an Arc reactor or something?" Tony asked.

"A portable sun? How would that work?" Thor pondered.

"Sir, if you stop smashing cars, we can work together and I can help you find your machine." Peter tried to assure the newcomer.

"See, now that's a hero. Even totally confused, he's trying to help this random newcomer." Steve stated.

"What's this guy wanting though?" Tony asked.

"You'll see." Spider-Man 2 said.

"Wait a minute, do you know about this?" Bruce asked the two Spider-Men.

"We get involved in this at some point, yeah." Spider-Man 3 acknowledged.

The man told Peter to catch if they wanted to play games, throwing cars full of people at him, Peter was knocked from the bridge but caught the car, helping the people to escape, before being grabbed by the metallic arms and thrown around again, the man yelling that his fancy new suit wouldn't save him as he did.

"New suit? He's had the Iron Spider for a while by this point!" Tony protested.

"Should have killed your little girlfriend when I had the chance." The man said, as Peter used the metallic legs in his own suit to help him up, glaring at the man as he asked what did he say.

"He didn't go after MJ, did he?" Natasha asked, looking at the girl in question.

"No, he didn't." She smiled, as everyone seemed even more confused.

"Now that's a man who is in love." Kate whispered to Yelena, seeing the look of determination through the mask that Peter adopted on hearing that threat.

"Looks like we've got competition." The man said, addressing his own arms.

"Is he talking to them like they're alive?" Phastos asked, both horrified and intrigued at the same time.

Peter and the strange man began to battle each other throughout the bridge, knocking cars around and slamming each other into signs, as the man wrapped Peter in his arms again and tried to force his head into a helicopter rotor, he managed to break out, charging to save the VP from her car that was perched on the edge of the bridge, calling out his name, as the new guy tried to smash him with building supplies.

"Damn, this guy's got some serious strength in those things, and clearly no morals about harming civilians." Scott frowned. This wasn't looking too good for Peter.

Peter managed to get her car webbed to the underside of the bridge as the new man approached again, catching Peter and pinning him to a wall. The man remarked he was impressed by Peter's new nanotech suit, as his arms absorbed some of it to increase their own power before he used a spike on his arms to try kill Peter, the nanotech in his suit moved to protect his chest, revealing his face. Seeing his face, the man removed his glasses to get a good look at him.

"GET OFF OF MY TECH!" Tony roared as the man stole the tech from Peter's suit to enhance his metallic tentacles.

"At least there's enough still in it to protect Peter's chest." Bucky smiled.

"Why does the man seem so confused to see Peter all of a sudden?" Sam pondered.

"You're not Peter Parker." The man said, confused.

"Erm...he is?" Kate asked, totally confused.

"Yeah, who else is Peter Parker and Spider-Man?" Ned asked.

"I'm sure we'll find out what the nice man is confused about before too long." Strange explained.

"We better do, as this is making no sense whatsoever." Yelena grumbled.

"I'm so confused right now." Peter remarked, wondering what the man meant. The man questioned what was happening as the arms began acting on their own accord, as Peter got a notification that his tech had a new device, and asked if he wanted to pair with it. Doing so, Peter found himself able to control the arms with his movements. The man protested, telling the arms that they obeyed him, as Peter laughed. Peter then used the arms to force the man to walk to the top of the bridge again, using them as well to save the woman and her car.

"You show him Peter!" Scott cheered.

"Don't ever doubt Stark tech." Tony sneered at the screen.

"So, we gonna find out why this guy was trying to kill Peter anytime soon?" Bruce asked.

The woman thanked Peter and called him a hero, as he protested, she said she would speak to admissions about Ned, MJ and him, he said he didn't need her to speak about him, as she said she would. She then told the new man that he should be ashamed of himself, as Peter kept him wrapped up in his own mechanical arms. Peter's tingle then went off again, as he heard a clanging noise, a small golden and green ball landing on the ground, exploding as Peter put the nanotech over his face again.

"Woo Peter!" Quill cheered, seeing that MIT were going to give him a chance after all.

"But if MIT are giving him a chance, what's the issue? Problems solved, right?" Bucky asked.

"I fear it isn't going to be quite that simple." Nebula frowned.

"Who's the new guy with the green get up? He looks like an elf." Cindy said.

"Green Goblin." MJ whispered, horrified, thinking over everything that had happened with Osborn. How could she have not even thought he'd show up? What would everyone do when they saw what he had done, how he had finally broken Peter?

A man on a glider appeared above the bridge, laughing manically as he did.

"This guy's a real creep." Hope shivered.

"Osborn?" The man in the arms asked, as the green flying guy approached, Peter suddenly saw himself in a different place, as a golden glow enveloped him.

"The tentacle guy knows him?" Steve asked.

"It'll be explained." Strange assured them all.

"Where did these guys come from though? They seem to be villains, but Peter doesn't know them and clearly none of us do either?" Kingo asked.

Peter looked around in confusion as a green monster threw itself at a glass window behind him, making Peter jump as he turned around, seeing the man from the bridge throw himself at another window behind Peter. A hand touched Peter's shoulder as he jumped with a yell.

"WHAT IS THAT?!" Venom asked, stunned at the sight of a giant lizard.

"It appears to be a lizard, you're literally a goo monster from space, and yet a lizard freaks you out?" Eddie asked him.

"THAT THING IS NOT NATURAL!"

"You're not natural." Eddie shot back as Venom turned to glare at him.

"Be careful what you wish for, Parker." Strange told him.

"Are you a genie now?" Betty asked Strange, who pinched the bridge of his nose.

"It's just an expression, are all kids these days idiots?"

"No, I was just being sarcastic with you, Sherlock." Betty shot back.

"What?" Strange asked.

"You're right, he does look alot like that Sherlock show's actor, doesn't he?" Cindy remarked, eyes widening.

"I am not an actor." Strange glared. "I don't look like this Sherlock. Can we please just move on?"

Strange explained the spell that was meant to make everyone forget Peter is Spider-Man had actually pulled people in who knew Peter was Spider-Man, from every universe. The man with the arms asked what he meant, if this was like a birthday party, pretending to be magic. Peter asked what he meant, Strange asked the man with the arms if he knew a Peter Parker who was Spider-Man. He said yes, Strange asked if this was him, gesturing at Peter. He denied it was, as Strange gestured to Peter and said "See?"

"The multiverse..." Bruce breathed.

"I mean, we are right here." Spider-Man 2 said, gesturing to himself, his alter, Eddie and Venom.

"I mean, it's one thing to have someone say it, it's another to see it like this!" Tony said. "String theory, is that real too?"

"Big time." Spider-Man 3 grinned.

"Wait, so the Spider-Man he knows is also Peter Parker?" Ikaris asked.

"Most Spider-Men are, in most universes, from what we've gathered." Spider-Man 2 said.

"Are you two?" May asked, to no answer.

Strange told Peter to go find the others who had been brought through, starting with the "little green elf" that Peter had seen, Strange remarking that man sounded jolly, before the universe unravelled or worse, Wong found out what had happened. Peter asked how he was meant to bring them back to the Sanctum, as Strange fired a spell, trapping Peter in one of the cells. The man with the arms asked how he did that, Strange said plenty of birthday parties. Strange then released Peter, charming his web shooters, and telling him to hit the visitors with it, and it'd send them to the dungeon. Peter said he'd need help to do it.

"That's heresy, tampering with my tech like that!" Tony protested.

"If anything, I improved your work, Stark." Strange winked at him.

"I wonder who he'll call?" Kate asked sarcastically, as everyone looked at MJ and Ned.

Ned and MJ walked into the Sanctum as Ned said "I can't believe I'm in the Sanctum Santorum!"

"Neither could I." Strange remarked.

"The Sanctum always does look awe-inspiring, the first time you enter it." Wanda said.

"I'd love to see it sometime." Kate grinned.

"No, no more teens destroying my property!" Strange growled.

"Your property?" Wong asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm the Sanctum guardian, like you said, so it's mine. My precious." Strange said, staring down Wong, both men threatening to crack with every passing moment.

"Neither can I." Strange said drily.

"You look so done with this idea already." Wanda told Strange.

"I was." He admitted. "I'm loathe to admit, but clearly they needed each other, all three of them."

Peter welcomed the two of them as they discussed what had happened, Ned telling Strange that maybe he was magic as he had tingly fingers in his family, Strange told him he should consult his physician about tingling fingers.

"Now you think it may be magic?" Ned asked.

"I know it is, Mr Leeds. You've got-"

"-Doctor Strange magic." Ned whispered quietly.

"Ned?" MJ asked.

"I remember it all, MJ. God, what am I even doing? What was he even doing? We need to find Peter, we need to fix all of this, now." Ned began to babble, as MJ and Betty tried to calm him down.

"We'll help him, Ned, you know we will." MJ promised him. "Right after I've kicked his ass for breaking his promise and leaving us."

"I'll be right there with you doing that." Ned promised her. "I thought we were best friends? How could he do this? How could he not come back?"

"Ned, look at me." Betty said, cupping his head in her hands, turning his gaze to her. "It's ok. Everything is going to be ok, we're going to see what this says, why he did it, and we're going to reunite with him, alright? I promise you, it'll be alright." Betty finished, moving closer and pressing her lips to Ned's before breaking away, bright pink.

"Y-You..." Ned trailed off, stunned at what had happened.

"I-I-I..." Betty choked as well, shocked at what she had just done.

"It's about time you two nerds got back together." MJ teased.

"We're not!" Both protested at once as most of the room laughed.

"Well, do you like her?" Kate asked Ned, who blushed before nodding.

"Do you like him?" Cindy asked Betty who followed suit.

"There you go." Flash smiled.

Strange told them to sort their mess and to focus on the negatives, not the positives, as MJ said he did a dangerous spell without knowing the repercussions, so it was his fault that it all happened, and Strange needed to say please. Strange then said please, and banished them to work in the Undercroft, which Ned said sounded cool.

"You got him to use his manners? Shocking!" Wanda jokingly told MJ as Strange looked mutinous.

"I can just ban you all from the Sanctum in the future." Strange warned.

"No you can't Stephen, you need me there to train me on how to use my powers better." Wanda told him with a smirk as Stephen narrowed his eyes and frowned.

Peter apologised for what was happening, as Ned explored the cool magical artifacts and said it was the coolest thing ever to happen to him and he didn't care, MJ said it was totally ok and she was fine with it, provided Peter run it by them in the future so they could workshop solutions.

"Yeah, I'd like to workshop things in the future, especially concerning magic." MJ said, with a look at Strange.

"I'm keeping you all away from magic in the future, other than Leeds." Strange promised.

Peter showed Ned and MJ the crypt as the man with the arms asked who these two were. Peter introduced Ned and MJ and asked what his name was.

"You're only just asking his name now?" Rocket asked, stunned.

"We had alot of other things on our mind!" MJ defended herself.

"I'm still wondering how you work, like, are you a magic raccoon or?" Spider-Man 3 asked, eyeing Rocket up who growled at him.

"No, he's just a trash panda." Quill laughed, as Drax and Mantis joined in, Rocket turning his glare to him.

"Now I wish we hadn't brought you back with that Snap." Rocket said.

"You'd be lost without all of us." Nebula said as Rocket shrugged.

"I guess, but still, I'd be captain with no challenges if Quill wasn't there."

"We can just maroon him sometime." Nebula suggested as Rocket grinned.

"Agreed."

"Hey!" Quill protested.

"Doctor Otto Octavius."

"Really? That's his name?" Rhodey laughed.

"That's the best villain name I've ever heard!" Scott stated.

"I'm definitely looking him up on our return, make sure there isn't one of him in our universe." Tony promised.

"I feel for him, I mean, imagine all the bullying he got over that name." Hope joked

"No, seriously, what's your actual name?" Peter asked, as the three of them laughed. Ned then asked if the other being was a dinosaur, as he looked over at them.

"Poor Otto." Spider-Man 2 muttered.

"Nope, just a lizard." Spider-Man 3 said.

Peter got to work trying to clean his suit as they searched for references to the green elf on Tiktok and other socials, MJ looked over a beard dye that Strange had lying around and Peter told May he couldn't drop by the shelter to get the suit cleaned as he had to catch these guys. Eventually found something about some flying monster attacking a military base just outside of NYC.

"I'm never letting it go that you dye your beard, Strange." Tony wheezed.

"I'm going to cast these Runes again just for that." Strange warned them all.

"So, this Osborn, or whatever the Doc called him, he's attacking military bases now?" Rhodey asked.

"Not quite." MJ smiled sadly.

"It's gotta be the guy I saw on the bridge, right?" Peter asked the other two.

"I mean, how many others are there? Must be him." Scott said.

"It's impossible." Octavius spoke up.

"How? I mean, that guy fits the bill of would attack military bases." Yelena remarked.

"You know him, don't you? On the bridge, you said his name." Peter turned to him.

"Are they from the same universe? Does their Peter not know how to keep his identity hidden?" Natasha wondered.

"Norman Osborn. Brilliant scientist. Military research. But he was greedy, misguided..."

"Sounds like Tony before Afghanistan." Happy said.

"I was never greedy." Tony pointed out.

"True, but it sounds like this guy could have been your mirror."

"He's anything but." MJ shuddered. From what she had seen and had been told by Peter, Tony Stark was a man who always meant well, and tried his best. Goblin was anything but that.

"What happened to him?"

"Yeah, I've been wondering why this guy is talking about this Norman guy like something terrible happened." Sam stated.

"WE TIRE OF YOUR QUESTIONS, BOY!" Octavius roared at Peter as he and MJ took a step back.

"Well someone got out of the wrong side of their tank this morning." Cindy laughed.

"He isn't a real octopus." MJ deadpanned.

Peter turned back to the others as Octavius continued. "It can't be him."

"Why?" Betty asked.

"Why?" MJ asked.

"Hey, that's what I said!" Betty exclaimed.

"Because Norman Osborn died, years ago." Octavius explained. "So either we saw someone else, or you're flying out into the darkness, to fight a ghost." He said as the screen showed Peter's shock.

"But we all saw him, he isn't dead?" Clint asked.

"What's going on with all of these people?" Bruce wondered.

"He isn't a ghost." Ned simply stated.

"Definitely not." Strange agreed.

The scene cut to Peter swinging through woodland as MJ and Ned spoke on his phone camera, keeping an eye out as Peter landed. He looked around, as the sun set, not seeing the ground moving in the background. Suddenly, he stopped, as the Peter tingle kicked in, as behind him in the sky, a man appeared, seemingly made of electricity, coming from the nearby power lines.

"Ok, so now we've got an electric man?" Thor asked. "I wonder if he could go up against me?"

'Max...' Spider-Man 3 thought sadly, seeing the man forming in this new world, he was probably confused and scared, having just come from fighting Peter in their universe.

Peter asked the man if he was from another universe, being ignored, MJ said to web him, the magic web passed harmlessly through him, sending a tree to the Sanctum Crypt. The attack did alert the figure who began to fire bolts of electricity at Peter, who thanks to Ned and MJ yelling, was distracted and hit, his phone fried as he fell to the floor.

"Great, so now Peter has no backup and his webs aren't doing anything to trap this guy like Strange set it up? How's he meant to get the electric guy to calm down?" Kate asked.

"I'm sure he's got a plan, doesn't he?" Sersi asked those who knew what had happened.

"It'll become clear in a minute, I'm sure." MJ told them.

Suddenly a wall of dirt rose into the air to block the electric attack as a man's face appeared before Peter.

"Did...Did the ground just move?" Clint asked, shocked.

"You're not hallucinating, Barton, I saw that too." Yelena remarked, mouth agape.

"Peter, it's me, Flint Marko! Do you remember?"

"There's another guy here as well? That's five now!" Tony remarked.

"That's all of them, don't worry." Ned informed the others. "Just the five."

Peter quickly explained he was a different Peter to the one Marko knew and he needed his help to stop the electrical guy. Marko quickly went to work covering him in a whirlwind of dirt and sand as Peter began to web the electrical pylons to drain the energy from the area and from the electrical man. Eventually Marko stopped as Peter pulled the plug, and the electrical man returned to the ground as Peter and Marko also reunited.

"I bet that was quite a shock to this Marko guy." Natasha stated.

"I'm just glad we have one good guy at least amongst all of these visitors." Bucky said.

"We'll see if they remain a good guy. At least they stopped the electrical man." Hope noted.

"Different Peter, weird." Marko said as Peter unmasked, Peter smashing his hand as he went for a handshake and apologising, Marko told him not to worry about it.

"Well at least he has manners." Sprite said.

The electric man then appeared before them, saying he had his body back, as Peter told him he was in a different universe. The man said he was feeling the power of the new universe, it was different and he liked it. Peter explained it was his fault they were both in this universe.

"Great, so another madman who just wants power?" Steve sighed.

"It's not your fault, kid. Not entirely anyway." Tony said. "Isn't that right, Strange?"

Strange just sighed and nodded his head.

"You all just gonna stand here and act like I ain't butt ass naked?" The electrical man asked.

"I'd rather we did, yes." Thena remarked.

"I am." Marko told him as Peter got the man some clothes then blasted him to the Crypt.

"Well, that was a pretty anti-climatic capture in the end. At least Peter got him some clothes first." Kate said.

"What did you do to him? Did you kill him?!" Marko asked, turning on Peter who tried to explain, asking Marko to trust him, Marko said he didn't and swung for Peter, who shot him to the Crypt too.

"I mean, I can understand his reasoning, you didn't explain it to him, just attacked another guy and made him vanish and then attacked him too, I'm sure he's terrified." Bruce stated.

"Could have stayed calm and tried to talk about it at least." Happy shrugged.

"What is this?" Marko asked as he bounced off of the glass holding him.

"Wizards dungeon." Ned smirked as MJ choked on a laugh.

"You picked the wrong side...Connors?" The man asked, seeing the Lizard creature laughing.

"The lizard thing has a name?" Thor asked.

"I want to battle this creature, he seems like he would be a strong foe!" Drax remarked.

"No, you really don't." Strange informed him.

"Wait, you know this creature?" Otto asked.

"Are they from the same universe, like this Doctor Octavius and Osborn fellow seem to be?" Sam wondered.

"Yeah." Ned told them.

"Not a creature. A man. Doctor Curt Connors.-"

"I never mentioned, I had a Doctor Connors in my universe who taught me." Spider-Man 2 whispered to Spider-Man 3.

"No way, did he turn himself into a lizard as well?"

"No, but I mean, gotta keep my eye out, he always could do." Spider-Man 2 chuckled.

"Let's hope he doesn't." Spider-Man 3 shivered, not wanting Peter-2 to have to go through fighting a respected mentor like he did, he didn't want Peter-2 to be hurt, at all, in any way.

"Yeah, let's." Spider-Man 2 smiled back at his younger alter, seeing the younger man pale slightly, he wondered what was going on in his head.

"From the same universe?" Ned asked MJ, awed.

"Yep." Ned answered his younger self.

"- He was a scientist at Oscorp when I worked there. A brilliant scientist, until he turned himself into a Lizard. Then he tried to turn the whole city into Lizards! It was crazy!"

"What's Oscorp?" Rhodey asked.

"It's a company, in most universes. It doesn't exist in your universe however." The Watcher explains. "It's somewhat similar to Stark Industries, in that it's a military contractor. The man on the glider, Norman Osborn, he's its founder and head in all universes it exists in."

"Ah, so is that glider thing Oscorp tech?" Tony asked as the Watcher nodded.

"It wasn't crazy, Max, it was the next step in human evolution." The Lizard spoke up. "Speaking of which, what happened to you? Last I recall you had bad teeth, glasses and a comb-over. Did you get a makeover? You know I could give you a real makeover."

"Let me guess, into a Lizard?" Sersi asked.

"I want to know what made this guy's appearance change." Scott stated.

"Let me guess, into a Lizard?" Max stated.

"Hey, that's what Sersi just said!" Ikaris remarked.

"Precisely."

"Well, at least he's got a plan, even if it is a horrible one." Natasha noted.

Marko told them to shut up and asked where they were, MJ said a wizard's dungeon as Max panicked, she said there wasn't a way to sugar coat it, it was a dungeon and belonged to a wizard. Max said they could keep their magic, he wanted a taste of that new energy as the lights flickered in the room. MJ then called Peter, who said he was staying behind to fix the damage the fight with Max caused, before he was blamed, and said he couldn't do any of this without MJ. Ned told her to ask Peter if the tree was a scientist or a monster, Max said it was just a tree.

"I mean, there was no way to sugar coat it, it was a wizards dungeon." MJ defended herself at a few looks.

"I suppose the Undercroft is a name that would cause apprehension." Wong mused.

"Yeah, they're gonna blame the kid for that for sure, Jameson will do a witch hunt." Tony frowned.

"A tree monster, really babe?" Betty asked Ned.

"Hey! Weirder stuff has happened!" Ned protested.

"That's a fair point." Eddie agreed. "I mean, just in this room alone, weirder stuff has happened."

In an alleyway, Norman had taken off the Goblin mask and was hiding the glider and other stuff under some rags, as the mask called to him, calling him a coward and saying they had a new world to conquer. Norman turned to it, begging it to leave him alone.

"Wait, it's two different people almost?" Bruce asked. "I've got some experience with that, if he can communicate with this other self, it must be rough."

"Norman is the sweetest guy really." May said. "Goblin, the other version...not so much."

"A world to conquer? Pretty sure the Avengers would stop him before it got to that." Betty said.

"We're not invincible, sadly, and I have a feeling this Goblin would be a hard foe." Thor remarked.

"Sadly, true." MJ said, looking down at the floor, worrying most of the room. What did Goblin do to Peter?

"Hiding in the shadows. Hiding from who you truly are."

"No!"

"You can't escape yourself!" It said as he picked up a rock and smashed the mask, running away as the Goblin's laughed echoed behind him.

"Damn, I feel bad for this Osborn guy, he clearly wants no part of whatever this is." Rhodey said.

"I don't think the Goblin character will give him much of a choice." Wanda stated.

Fixing the damage, Peter got a call from May, telling him the guy he was looking for had just walked into FEAST and asked for him.

"I bet that shook him up." Druig mused aloud.

Landing at FEAST, passing a billboard that someone had tagged "Mysterio was right" onto, he charged in, changing his suit as he asked people where May was, rushing to the kitchen, he found her sat with a dishevelled Norman, calming him.

"He looks so worried for you." Yelena told May.

"He was raised right, raised to care for others." May informed her.

"It seems he got it from you." Tony smiled at her. "You don't know this guy, but you're trying to help him."

"If you can help others, you have a moral responsibility to do so." May shrugged.

"Norman Osborn?"

"In the flesh." Scott quipped.

"I saw Spider-Man in an ad for this place, and I thought he could help me. But you're not him." Norman said to Peter, clearly shaken.

"Well if he knows another Peter, then he'd definitely think that." Steve said.

"I'd love to meet another Peter." Tony said.

"Believe me, you don't want too." Strange said, giving the other two Peter's in the room a sideways glance.

"Wait, so you want Spider-Man's help?"

"Well if he wants to get away from this Goblin persona, I can't think of anyone else he'd probably trust more, if Spider-Man has a history with him." Abe reasoned.

"He-He just wandered in." May explained.

"He must be so confused, poor guy." Kate sighed.

"I didn't know where else to go. Someone else is living in my house. Oscorp doesn't exist, and my son..." Norman broke down. "Sometimes, I'm not myself. I'm...someone else. and every time he's in control I can't remember and now I'm here and I don't, I don't know what's going on with me!" Norman cried as May told Peter he was lost, in his mind and the cosmos, asking if they were all like this.

"Poor guy, to find everything you knew doesn't exist, it must be daunting." Hope felt her heart going out to the poor Norman, clearly he just needed help, but she was sure if anyone was going to be able to give it, just judging from these videos, it was Peter.

"He has a son?" Clint asked.

"Harry Osborn." Spider-Man 2 quietly said. "They exist in most universes as well."

"Do they exist in both of yours, I'm guessing?" Natasha asked.

"Harry was my best friend." Both Spider-Men spoke up at once.

"In both? What a coincidence." Yelena remarked.

"Wait, was?" Tony asked.

"Was." Both of them confirmed again, a sad tone in their voices that nobody wanted to pry with.

Peter said they were as May said they needed his help, Peter told her it wasn't his problem or responsibility, as May said it was, telling Peter to look around, and what they did was help people. He needed to help these people get fixed, rather than just sending them home and hoping they got help there.

"You know, I just realised something." Spider-Man 2 whispered to his alter.

"What?" Spider-Man 3 asked.

"Pete said it isn't his problem, the day Ben died, I told someone that I missed the part where it was my problem when someone asked me to help stop a thief who had stolen from a guy who screwed me over."

"I told a guy that it wasn't my policy after he asked me to chase down a thief when he'd refused to let me off a few cents on a drink as it was his policy." Spider-Man 3 said sadly. "That thief then killed Ben."

"My guy, I thought he'd killed Ben as well for the longest time." Spider-Man 2 said. "I just hate that we can't change this for Pete, he's telling them that it's not his issue, and we know what happened between Goblin and May. I just hate that we can't help him."

"Parker luck." Spider-Man 3 nodded sadly.

At the Daily Bugle, now in better studios, JJJ ranted against Spider-Man some more, before receiving a call that Peter had just left FEAST with his aunt and some other guy, JJJ told the guy on the phone to follow and that he would be right there, leaving the studio.

"This jerk again, I really need to buy his company then shut him down and get him blacklisted somehow." Tony mused to himself.

"Why can't he leave Peter alone?" May frowned.

May pulled up in the FEAST truck outside of the Sanctum with Norman and Peter, Norman thanked her as he left, with Peter thanking her for cleaning his suit, as May left the two of them, Peter took Norman inside the Sanctum.

"Norman does sound like a nice guy pretty much." Steve admitted.

"He was." May agreed.

Peter introduced them to Mr Osborn, as Norman corrected it was Doctor Osborn.

"Definitely got the ego that Tony had." Natasha teased.

"These are my friends, Ned and MJ."

"Mary Jane?"

"Mary Jane?" Cindy asked.

"In other universes, Spider-Man, especially Peter Parker, has a girlfriend called MJ, but it stands for Mary Jane in those universes." Spider-Man 2 explained to the room.

"I can't imagine you as a Mary Jane." Ned told MJ who nodded.

"It's Michelle Jones, actually."

"Now that sounds more natural to me." Flash agreed.

"Fascinating." Osborn remarked as he headed towards the Crypt.

"I can only imagine how fascinating it must be to be in another universe." Bruce marvelled.

"No, don't even ask about sending you to one, ever." Strange warned him, noticing the faraway look in the eyes of Bruce and Tony.

"Do you think there are other Ned Leeds'?" Ned asked in wonder.

"Yes, there is." The Watcher informed Ned, who smiled. He'd like to meet them sometime.

"Octavius?" Norman asked as he approached Otto.

"This is going to be an awkward reunion, I'm sure." Quill stated.

"Osborn?"

"Well, he ain't dead, Doc, clearly you had your info wrong." Scott remarked. The spies in the room narrowed their eyes though, they could feel something was off about all of this. It wasn't going to be Beck again, or anything...was it?

"What-What happened to you?"

"I'm gonna assume he means the giant tentacle arms?" Kate asked.

"What hap- you're the walking corpse."

"Nope, pretty sure he's alive." Bucky said, confused more and more by the second by this.

"What are you talking about?"

"Yeah, what is he on about? Norman is clearly alive." Betty noted.

"You died, Norman. Years ago."

"But he didn't!" Sam stated. "He's right there."

"You're insane." Norman chuckled.

"I think the tentacle arms gave away he probably was." Phastos said. "Remarkable technology though."

"God I love it here." Max piped up.

"He would." Spider-Man 3 whispered to his alter.

"What are you talking about? He's standing right there, he's not-" Peter spoke up before Marko interrupted.

"Yeah, of course he isn't dead!" Sprite said. "It would take phenomenal power to maintain that as an illusion, so unless he faked his death, he didn't die, Octavius."

"Dead? They both died. Fighting Spider-Man. It was all over the news. Green Goblin? Impaled by the glider he flew around on. Then a couple of years later, you, Doc Ock, drowned in the river with your machine." Marko said as Norman and Otto both looked confused, Otto sneered at it, saying he had Spider-Man by the throat, he had stopped him from preventing his machine working, when suddenly...he was there.

"Jesus, Peter's not getting a break, is he?" Steve asked sadly.

"They both die, fighting...Peter?" Cindy asked, aghast. "But Peter's so nice, I doubt any version of him could do that!"

"He killed people in the first recording we saw." Ikaris told them.

"He killed mindless monsters that would have ripped him apart, and he wasn't happy about it!" Ned rounded on the tall man. "Peter couldn't sleep for days afterwards! He told me he woke up screaming and crying as he'd killed these things, and he didn't have a choice, they wouldn't have backed off or ever stopped, he had no choice!" Ned finished his rant. "I'm sure these other Peters, whatever happened, didn't have a choice either. They even said Ock drowned with his machine and Goblin impaled himself, Peter didn't kill them, he couldn't!"

"They must be so confused." Yelena said quietly. "To have suddenly arrived there when they last remember somewhere and something completely different."

Max spoke up that he was whopping Spider-Man's ass, he was about to become a being of pure energy as Spider-Man had tried to overload him then suddenly..."Oh shit, I was about to die."

"Damn, what was he trying to do and how was overloading him gonna stop him?" Bucky asked.

"Well if he's powered by electricity, overloading him would cause him to shut down, if he becomes pure energy, it's what he wants, to get more energy, and it saves the city from him." Spider-Man 3 rationalised.

"Sounds like you've got experience." Natasha remarked.

"He's called Electro, he's not just in one universe." The Watcher stepped in.

"Max, do you know, do I die?" Lizard spoke up, worried.

"Does he?" Ned asked.

"Yes, eventually, they all do." The Watcher explained.

The camera focused on Ned and MJ approaching Peter who looked confused and sick by what he was hearing. Other versions of him had killed these men?

"Yeah, whatever the plan was, it's gone now. There's no way he will let you send these guys back to die." Tony said.

"Yeah, I should have thought about that at the time. Parker's too bloody noble for his own good." Strange grumbled.

"Did you help him to help them, Stephen?" Wanda asked softly. "Like you helped me?"

"It's why I helped you, Wanda." Strange replied, just as softly, gazing at her. "Because Spider-Man showed me there was a better way to deal with problems, rather than just killing it or banishing it. I could help. I could be what I once was, a doctor. A healer."

"Yeah, Peter would never let them die without trying to help them first, it's not who he is." MJ grumbled. "Bloody self-sacrificing idiot."

"But you love him regardless." Mantis said.

"Yeah, I do." MJ admitted. "God, I want to be so angry with him, I want to hit him, to yell at him, to curse him out, but I can't, I think if he were here now, I'd just hug him and kiss him and tell him everything was alright, we'd be ok. I want to be angry, I want to hate him, but I can't, you're right. I love him."

Strange then appeared in the room, congratulating Peter on catching Goblin and banishing Norman into a cell as Peter objected. Strange then said he had the spell ready to reverse, to send these visitors back to their own times and places.

"Come on, you can't do that! Look at them! They need your help!" Sam protested.

"Wilson, please, just watch." Strange said, dipping his head down, thinking of his past brash actions regarding this.

"Strange, we can't send them back. Not yet." Peter tried to plead as the visitors begged for their lives, Norman calling for Peter to let him out.

"They're literally begging for you not to kill them." Scott hissed at Strange, his tone unusually angry. "Hear them out."

"Tic tac is right. Have a heart." Sam agreed.

"Why?"

"Why? Can you literally just not hear these guys?" Bucky asked, disgusted.

"'Cause some of these guys are gonna die." Peter said, in a tone that said that was all that mattered.

"That's exactly why. If we can save lives, we have a responsibility to do so." Tony agreed. "I supported the Accords as I was sick of recklessness and risking lives that didn't need to be risked, this is a situation where you can save lives, don't risk them now."

"Parker. It's their fate."

"But it doesn't have to be! You can change it!" Wanda told Strange.

"I know that now, but at the time, I didn't, I didn't want to hear it." He admitted.

"Come on, Strange. Have a heart."

"Yeah, exactly!" Sam agreed.

"In the grand calculus of the multiverse, their sacrifice means infinitely more than their lives." Strange explained, as Peter looked stunned and the visitors looked terrified. "I'm sorry, kid. If they die, they die."

"Are you saying that Natasha and I, our lives were worthless compared to our deaths?" Tony asked, voice eerily calm as he turned to face Strange, eyes blazing.

"No, I'm saying to the universe, it was. To your friends, your loved ones, your lives mean so much, they meant so much, but to the wider universe, your sacrifices, like these men on screen, means so much more than your lives ever did." Strange softly said, eyes downcast, refusing to look at the rest of the room, he didn't want to see the anger and the hate he knew would be directed at him right now.

"If my life meant nothing compared to my death, then I'm calling bullshit on that." Natasha said. "But if you're asking if I'll go back and die, to save the universe, to bring my loved ones back? I'll do it in a heartbeat." Natasha finished as Clint and Yelena both looked stricken at her. "I'm here for now, aren't I? We've got these moments, let's make them count, eh?"

Peter shot a web at the box holding the spell, Strange looked at him and said "Don't!" as Peter grabbed the box and ran, blasting Strange into one of the cells as he left, Ned and MJ said they'd try stall him.

"RUN, PETER, RUN!" Venom cheered as Strange looked at the alien with disdain.

"Remind me to find a way to banish you back to your own universe quicker. Mr Brock can stay at least."

"Oh thank God." Eddie said as Venom scowled.

"EDDIE IS MINE. I GO WHERE HE GOES." Venom adamantly stated.

"Defend Peter!" Yelena told MJ and Ned sagely, as they nodded in total agreement.

"This is why I never had kids." Strange said, walking out of the cell he shared with Marko, Marko tried and bounced off of the glass. Easily passing Ned and MJ, Peter got outside and began to swing, heading through a portal and landing back where he started. Turning around, he saw Strange leaning against the doorway. "Give me the box."

"Well I guess it was too much to ask that the wizard would be stopped by muggles." Sam remarked.

"I'm not a wizard!" Strange protested. "I'm a sorcerer!"

"Which is a wizard without a hat!" Sam shot back.

"Just...Just don't." Bucky sighed.

"So, are Strange and Peter gonna wizard fight?" Hope asked.

"My money's on Strange." Abe, Bucky, Clint, Ikaris, Phastos, Kingo, Druig, Wong, Matt, Eddie, Venom, Rhodey, Thor, The Guardians group and Thena said.

"Mine's on Peter." Cindy, Sersi, Sprite, Makkari, Sam, Steve, Tony, Yelena, Scott, Hope, Wanda, Happy, Betty, Flash, Kate and Natasha said, Wanda giving Strange an apologetic look as she did.

"I already know the outcome so I'm not getting involved." Strange remarked, as the others nodded in agreement. They already knew, so they weren't getting involved in this.

Peter refused as Strange vanished the portal web-shooter from him, Peter tried to swing away again as Strange made a portal so Peter webbed himself, he then summoned Peter towards him, separating his astral form from his body as he landed.

"What is that?!" May yelped, seeing Peter's body and his spirit separated.

"DID YOU JUST KILL HIM?!" MJ demanded, rounding on Strange.

"You know he didn't die here." Strange reminded her.

"Oh my God, I'm dead!" Peter cried as he saw himself floating.

"Wait, didn't you do this on Titan, when fighting Thanos?" Steve asked, recognising the signs.

"Good observation, Captain Rogers." Wong nodded to the man.

"You're not dead, you've just been separated from your physical form." Strange said, going to grab the box from his unconscious body, his hands moved the box around so Strange couldn't grab it.

"How is he doing that?" Wong asked Strange.

"I suspect his heightened senses and this tingle allowed his body to move like this, even without a soul inside of it." Strange reasoned.

"How are you doing that?" Strange asked as he tried to get it, Peter took the chance to try swim back to his body, getting into it again and jumping away from Strange.

"I take it that it isn't meant to do that?" Yelena asked.

"It's unheard of for someone to be able to move their body at all when their astral form is outside of it." Wong said. "The only time I've seen anything similar is Wanda, and hers was more of a projection, rather than her actual body moving."

"Peter really is one of a kind." Kate stated.

"That might be one of the coolest things that has ever happened to me, but don't ever do that again." Peter told him, swinging away with the box this time.

"Can we do that with my training?" Ned begged Strange.

"Possibly." Strange smirked. Oh, he was going to put Leeds through the wringer for what had happened to him with Parker, and for Leeds using his sling ring for most of a day.

Peter found the Cloak of Levitation chasing him, slowing him down as Strange rounded a corner, a magazine showing Liz calling Peter a liar, as he forced Peter into the Mirror Dimension, following after him.

"Isn't Liz the girl from the first one?" Clint asked.

"Yeah, she was our classmate, she blipped as well." Abe stated. "I guess she was angry at Peter for capturing her dad when it came out he was Spider-Man?"

"Why is your cloak after Peter? I thought he liked Peter?" Scott asked.

"Yeah, but now it needs that box back. It answers to me, even if it clearly likes the kid." Strange told him.

"What's this place?" Tony asked, scared for Peter.

"It will explain." Strange said.

"What is this place?" Peter asked as trains flew at him, buildings collapsed and reformed around them.

"Well?"

"It says!"

"The Mirror Dimension, where I'm in control." Strange said, as he caused the Grand Canyon to appear above Peter's head.

"A whole new dimension?" Sam asked.

"It's not new, but yes, we saw it in the Titan battle as well, I trapped a blast from the Power stone in it." Strange said.

"It's not meant to be used beyond training really, anything that happens in it doesn't impact the real world, so we can practise our magic safely there." Wong explained.

"Can we go there?" Wanda asked.

"We'll give it a try for your training." Strange assured her.

"Strange, stop, can we please talk about this?" Peter begged.

"Yeah, can we please talk about this?" Steve begged.

"Parker, don't you understand, in the multiverse, there are an infinite number of people who know Peter Parker is Spider-Man, and if that spell gets loose, they're all coming here!"

"Does that mean every villain we've ever fought could come here?" Clint asked.

"In theory, yeah, there could be more Vultures, Mysterios, Zemos, even Thanos." Wong stated. "It's why we don't mess with spells that travel the boundaries between known and unknown magic and space." He finished with a look at Strange, who avoided his eyes.

"Look, I know, I get it, but we can't just send them home to die." Peter tried to reason with Strange.

"Because it's wrong to do that without trying to save them first!" May agreed.

"It's their fate. You can't change that anymore than you can change who they are." Strange told him.

MJ gave a little snort at that, as did Ned as Strange rolled his eyes.

"But what if we could? What if we could change their fate?" Peter asked.

"It's a nice thought, Peter, but I'm not sure if it could happen." Happy said.

"I'm sure the kid will surprise us all." Matt told him.

Strange then bent the train they were on around Peter, using the cloak and portals to get the box from him and leaving Peter behind, the Mirror Dimension crashed into itself, revealing different forms.

"Woah, that is so trippy, how do you stand to look at it all?" Yelena asked.

"Years of practise." Strange replied.

"Wait, that looks familiar!" Tony said.

"No, it can't be one, can it?" Bruce asked.

"I think it is!" Tony said excitedly.

"Of course the nerds figure it out." MJ said as Ned also looked excited at the sight. She had to admit, even she found it fascinating, how the Mirror dimension looked and how Peter had managed to use it to his advantage.

"Wait a minute. Is that an Archimedes spiral? The Mirror Dimension is just Geometry? You can do Geometry, you're great at Geometry!" Peter psyched himself up as he webbed the various formations around the spirals.

"The great Stephen Strange, undone by mathematics." Wong said as Strange groaned.

"I'm never going to live this down, am I?"

"No." Wong assured him. "I'll remind you daily."

"It's over Parker, I'll come pick you up when it's done." Strange said, preparing to leave Peter trapped in the Mirror Dimension.

"I wouldn't be too sure on that." Spider-Man 3 grinned.

"Hey Strange, you know what's cooler than magic? Math." Peter said as Strange was entirely webbed up.

"AND THE WINNER IS...SPIDER-MAN!" Betty cheered as those who had said Strange would win looked askance.

"H-How?" Bucky asked, floored.

"Never bet against a determined Peter Parker." Spider-Man 2 shrugged, also grinning as he saw his youngest alter outwit a doctor in one of their own fields.

"Don't do this." Strange warned him as Peter took his Sling ring.

"Peter, yes." Ned grinned.

"I'm sorry Sir, but I have to try." Peter said, stepping through the portal, it closing behind, trapping Strange in the Mirror Dimension.

"Not a word." Strange threatened as he saw a few faces, especially Tony, grinning from ear to ear as they turned to him.

Ned asked what happened as Peter explained he had just beaten Doctor Strange in a fight, Ned took the Sling ring as Peter said he was trapped but he wasn't sure for how long.

"Longer than it should have been." Strange muttered as Wanda flashed him a sad smile.

"You could have just left us to die, why didn't you?" Otto asked.

"Because that's not who he is." May firmly stated.

"Because that's not who he is." MJ told them all.

"Exactly!" Cindy cheered.

"I think I can help you guys, if I can fix what happened to you, then when you go back, things will be different and you might not die fighting Spider-Man." Peter explained.

"I really hope that happens, there's been too much death in these already." Kate said.

"Sadly that's the hero gig, sometimes, lives are lost." Natasha sighed.

"Are they back and normal in your world?" Spider-Man 3 quietly asked his alter self.

"Yeah, they're all back, currently they're all getting the best help money can buy, courtesy of Oscorp, and Doctor Osborn and Otto work with me on new projects." Spider-Man 2 explained (Look, it's never stated outright if time travel works in the Sony universes the same as the MCU, I'd like to believe they're all together, so Sony universes get Back to the Future time travel in this fic, not MCU time travel)

"Ah yeah, I was gonna say, Doctor Connors and Max are both normal now in my universe, which was a help." Spider-Man 3 said. "Much easier to get them into custody when not super powered. I visit them both weekly, trying to cheer them up, help them get through their issues, it's taking time, but, I think we're getting there. They both know I'm the version they met here now, so at least they don't have to pretend they didn't go to another universe, as I'm pretty sure the me that they knew until a few weeks ago would have had no clue what they were on about." He babbled, noticing the way Spider-Man 2 softly smiled at him, the way the lines around his eyes crinkled as he spoke. He could feel a warm feeling in his chest as he took in his older alters features, and turned away as he felt a blush rising.

"What do you mean fix us?" Max asked.

"He means to help you." Matt said.

"Our technology is advanced." Peter started as Norman interrupted.

"I'm gonna assume you'll be using my tech to help them." Tony insisted.

"I can help you. You know, I'm something of a scientist myself. Octavius knows what I can do."

"That he is." Spider-Man 2 muttered. "Doctor Osborn always was a brilliant scientist."

Octavius refused as Peter told them he couldn't promise them safety, but he could promise them a chance to have a second chance at a life, and wasn't that worth trying for?

"It's always worth a chance of a better life." Natasha said, eyes gleaming. "Both of my families have taught me that over the years."

"Trust me Peter, when you try to fix people, there are always consequences." Lizard told him.

"i don't like the sound of that." Scott frowned.

"Very ominous." Hope agreed.

"You don't have to come. I also didn't know you could talk." Peter acknowledged. "But if you stay here, you're gonna have to deal with the wizard."

"I don't want to deal with Strange when he's not wanting me dead, I'll pass on that." Tony joked as Strange scowled.

"Ah, so we go along or die. Not really much of a choice, is it?" Lizard said.

"In the circumstances, I think it's all you're going to get." Rhodey remarked.

Marko said he just wanted to go home as Max said he'd go along with it, as he didn't want to be killed by a guy dressed like dungeons and dragons. He asked Peter what the plan was.

"Yeah, I wouldn't want to be either." Abe called out.

"He just wants to go home." Kate cooed. "Marko is definitely the nicest of the five."

Peter told Ned and MJ to go take the box, if anything went wrong, he'd text MJ to press the button and send the visitors home, but to keep it away for their safety, saying they had already done enough for him.

"Smart, always have a backup plan." Clint approved.

"Well we wouldn't let him do this on his own." Ned told them.

"We're a team, for better or for worse." MJ agreed.

Ned and Peter shook hands and MJ kissed him as they left, the visitors remarking they believed MJ when she said she would send them all back without hesitation, Lizard saying there was no way she was Peter's girlfriend.

"What does he mean by that?" May asked.

"They think I'm too intimidating to be with a puppy like Peter." MJ smirked. "Believe me, he's got some real steel in him, as you've all seen."

He invited the visitors to come with him, they agreed too, Max saying if it went sideways, he'd fry Peter from the inside out, before the scene cut to Happy's and all of them going into his apartment, Peter asked May where Connors was, she said he wanted to stay inside the FEAST truck.

"You won't harm Peter!" Scott said. "Bug brothers!"

"You know he's not a bug. It's Arachnid twins." Natasha told him.

"I'm a Widow too. Arachnid triplets." Yelena shot back.

"I can understand him wanting to stay in the van, being a giant lizard and all will draw attention." Clint reasoned.

Ock remarked Peter would kill them all, as Peter said he was up first, setting up the fabricator to make cures for them all as Norman, May and Max watched, Max's eyes lit up at the sight of the arc reactor powering it and all the energy within it. As it smashed the kitchen wall as it extended out, Ock reiterated that Peter was going to kill them all.

"He's not going to kill you all. But I am worried about how that Max, Electro, whatever, is eyeing up my tech." Tony frowned.

"Well hopefully he won't get ahold of an arc reactor. That would be bad news indeed." Thor agreed.

Cutting to their work, Peter explained to Norman how the tentacles were controlling Otto, as the chip he had to control them was fried, saying it explained how he was so miserable, as May poured Otto a drink of water, asking if he wanted salt water instead as he was an octopus, as Otto just looked confused by her questions.

"It must be agony." Bucky agreed, remembering back to his own time as the Winter Soldier, not being in control of his actions.

"Hey, we're all here for you, Buck, you know that." Steve and Sam both told him, noticing the look on Bucky's face at those words.

"Thanks guys." Bucky smiled at them.

"Well it's not my fault I thought he was an Octopus, weirder things have happened!" May defended her past self.

Max spoke to Marko, saying he liked who he was in this new universe and all the possibilities the energy of the place offered to him, as Marko said they just needed to hang tight until he cured them all and then they could all go home. Marko asked how Max got like that, he said the place he worked experimented with electricity and he fell into a vat of electric eels. Marko said he himself had fallen into a super collider as Max said that everyone has to watch out for what they fall into.

"What is it with villains and getting powers from falling over? I know if I fell over, all I'd get would be a concussion." Ned joked.

"Well, let's not test out giving you any latent super villainy, shall we?" Wong asked.

Going back to Peter and Norman, Norman said how extraordinary it all was, both the chip and Peter.

"Is he trying to poach my boy?" Tony glared.

"Irondad." Kate coughed.

"Well he isn't wrong, Peter's a genius." Bruce remarked. "I'd love to get into a lab with him when we get back and just let him run wild, see what he can do, what new theorems he can come up with."

"If you need a job and you're willing to commute to another universe..." Norman left the offer hanging as Peter pulled off his goggles, noting that the chip was functioning and it was time to put it into Octavius.

"No multiversal hopping ever, especially for a job." Wong and Strange said, especially at the look of the Midtown and younger Avengers groups.

Otto told Peter to leave him alone as Peter forced him to hold still to insert the chip, threatening when he got out to rip Peter apart before the chip took effect, knocking Otto out. Peter looked worried as Otto was unresponsive, the rest of the room looking scared as well, until Otto suddenly awoke.

"Oh thank God, for a moment I was worried he had committed manslaughter." Matt gasped.

"It's so quiet. Those voices, inside my head. I almost forgot." Otto spoke up.

"I think it worked." Clint breathed.

"I told you, kids a genius!" Tony cheered.

"Otto." Norman said.

"Old friends, reuniting." Cindy smiled.

"Yes, Norman. It's me." Otto laughed as Peter released the arms back to Otto's control, Marko was shocked it had worked to cure him.

"Well, he is a genius and working with advanced technology of mine, of course it worked." Tony huffed.

"I'm sure it's just overwhelming for them all." Rhodey told Tony.

Otto then used one of the arms to return the nanotechnology he had taken from Peter's suit back to him.

"Well at least he isn't planning to steal any of my tech." Tony grumbled.

"I wouldn't discount that Electro though just yet." Happy glared at the screen.

"I'm grateful, dear boy. Truly. How can I help?" Otto asked as he shook Peter's hand.

"One more egghead working on it, will help it go quicker I guess." Natasha noted.

Happy then left Peter a voicemail, saying he had seen the visitors coming in on the doorbell cam, asking who they were and asking Peter to call him back.

"I was so confused by all of it." Happy admitted. "Just a group of random guys going into my place, I didn't know what to think of it all."

"How does it feel, Norman?" Otto asked as it headed back to Norman and Otto working on cures for everyone else, Norman included. "You're about to become whole again. No more darker half. Just you."

"That's a nice thought, him, whole again, away from that Goblin persona and evil voice." Abe shivered.

"Just me." Norman said, his back to Otto and his voice somehow different.

"Something doesn't feel right about that, did it?" Natasha asked.

"No, it felt off." Clint agreed.

"Definitely sounded wrong." Matt concurred.

"What else could go wrong for him that already hasn't though?" Yelena questioned.

Peter set Max up with a device to draw the excess electricity out of him, awkwardly explaining electricity to Max who looked at him unimpressed. Max then asked if the legos were Peter's before he headed off to check on another device, before Max started to worry.

"I don't like this, I feel he's about to freak out and attack Peter, try to escape." Flash worried.

"I'd like to test his electricity against mine." Thor declared, eyes lighting up. "I'm sure I could teach this Electro a thing or two about lightning."

"Something doesn't feel right." Max said.

"No kidding, this entire scene seems to be tension building." Betty remarked.

"Leave it alone." Marko warned him. "The sooner you guys get through this, the sooner we go home."

"All Marko wants is to go home, he doesn't care about schemes or anything." Ned remarked with a smile.

Outside the building, a Daily Bugle van pulled up and JJJ got out to meet his informant, who said Peter was inside, JJJ blasted him, saying he needed incriminating footage of Spider-Man, and he had already called the Department of Damage Control on Peter. Inside the nearby van, Connors remarked "And so it begins."

"That rat!" Scott yelled.

"So he's actively going to make this situation a million times worse." Bucky shook his head.

"Connors seems to want this to fail for some reason." Sam noted.

"If it fails, he can try attack Peter again, that's probably why." May worried.

Peter suddenly stood up in the apartment, his Peter tingle going off, as he walked around, Norman and Otto asked what was wrong, he said he didn't know as he looked around, everyone gathered around him as Norman walked towards the window, Otto looked at him as Max asked why Peter was just staring at him. Peter then fired a web, sticking Norman's hand to the window, he then turned and smiled at Peter.

"Is that what Peter's sense is like?" Quill asked.

"It looks so surreal." Hope gasped.

"We also have senses like this, and yeah, it can feel really out of body and weird at times." Spider-Man 2 confirmed.

"I knew something was wrong with Osborn." Natasha said, biting her lip in worry.

"That's some neat trick, that sense of yours."

"Hang on, why is his voice and teeth different?" Happy asked.

"Norman?" Otto asked, confused.

"I don't think that's Norman..." Clint gasped, as everyone else in the room paled, hearing that.

"Norman's on sabbatical, honey."

"Oh God." Abe whispered.

"Goblin." Peter whispered, looking to May who sneaked out of the room.

"He's here." Eddie said, as Spider-Man 2's face darkened. The Green Goblin. His greatest and oldest enemy. He just wished he had found Peter-1 quicker, maybe he could have prevented some of this.

"No more darker half, did you really think I'd let that happen? That I'd let you take away my power just because you're blind to what true power can bring you?"

"He's insane." Kate stated.

"He does have a point." Yelena shrugged. "He just uses his powers for the wrong reasons."

"What does he have a point on?" Steve asked sharply.

"People with true power, people like you for example, Captain America, can take what they want. They just don't, as they have a moral code. He doesn't."

"You don't know me." Peter told him.

"Sadly, I think he does." Tony remarked. "If he knows another Peter Parker, and it sounds like this other one is similar to you, Roos, then he does have a good idea about how your thoughts work and your moral compass, and he'll exploit it."

"Don't I?" Goblin asked. "I saw how she trapped you, fighting her holy moral mission." He said as May nodded to Peter, she had all of their cures in a bag. "We don't need you to save us, we don't need to be saved! These are not curses, they're gifts." He finished. Max looked at his chest and the nearly finished extraction, Marko looked reflective. Otto shook his head and tried to argue against it, as Goblin spat at him "Quiet, lapdog."

"My moral mission?" May laughed. "Peter knows right from wrong, and he knows he can help others, that's not a moral mission, that's just basic decency."

"You don't know what you're talking about." Peter said.

"He really doesn't." MJ agreed, her eyes blazing as she knew what was about to come and all she could feel was glad that Peter wasn't here to see all of this again.

"I watched you from behind Norman's cowardly eyes. Struggling, to have everything you want, whilst the world tries to make you choose. Gods don't have to choose." Goblin said. "We take."

"You're not a God, you're just a lunatic!" Cindy insisted.

"May. Run." Peter said as Goblin and Peter ran at each other, Max ripped off the extractor and pulled the arc reactor from the fabricator towards him, as Marko turned to sand and Goblin threw Peter into the stairs. May headed down to the lifts as Otto tried to get Max to stop, Max said he preferred Otto before, blasting him out of the building, as Marko and Max followed through the hole left behind, heading away from the building, as Otto caught himself and also ran away. The lifts not working, May ran down the stairwell. JJJ on the ground below recorded what was happening as Lizard burst out of the truck and fled, seeing it, he asked if the cameraman had seen that.

"Damn, now they're all splitting up and going against the plan!" Steve moaned.

"Didn't take Max long to decide to steal the reactor." Tony frowned.

"I see Otto at least tried to stay good, but he's fleeing now as well." Kate sighed.

"This is where I'm from." May remarked. "I was running down the stairs, carrying these cures when I was here." She said, gesturing to the bag she had brought with her. Opening it though, she saw it was empty.

"I have removed them for now. They're not needed in here." The Watcher explained as she looked confused.

"The look of confusion on his face at Lizard escaping though, that's so funny!" Mantis cried as most of the rest of the room laughed at JJJ's shocked face.

Goblin punched Peter through the glass, his powers allowing him to keep his footing as he threw himself at Goblin, Goblin grabbed his arms and threw him through another window. Following behind and grabbing Peter, Peter webbed the ceiling above and flipped them over, planting his feet into Goblin, he webbed down and pushed down with all of his force, sending them falling two stories, smashing into Goblin as they landed. Peter tried to swing away as Goblin grabbed his leg and pulled him back down, punching Peter as the Daily Bugle helicopter shone a spotlight onto the two of them.

"Damn, they're really going all out against each other!" MJ yelped. She had seen Peter after the fight, and he looked bad, for obvious reasons, but to see the fight itself happening, it was horrifying.

"Peter...my baby boy..." May whimpered, seeing him being smashed through a window and thrown into concrete floors, unable to help him. "Please, Mr Watcher, I need you to send me back to help him!"

"When you return, no time shall have passed, May Parker. Please, calm." The Watcher said to her. "You must see what happens next."

"Peter's got some serious techniques at least, he's come a long way since the airport." Bucky smiled. "He's got some serious skills, he should be proud of them."

"He shouldn't need to be using them like this at all!" Betty cried out.

"No, I agree, but it's better he's able to handle it if its happening to him." Bucky agreed.

Goblin then threw Peter through a wall into a corridor, as Peter got up, Goblin approached again, taunting him.

"How is this guy still standing?! Peter's thrown him around like a rag doll his fair share of times as well!" Sam remarked.

"The serum that gave him his powers also gave him crazy super strength." Spider-Man 2 explained. "It does to all of them when they make the formula, he can almost go toe to toe, in an extended fight, Peter should win, but it will always be a close fight."

"Strong enough to have it all." Goblin told him, blocking some debris Peter threw at him, he punched Peter in the chest, sending him flying across the hall. "TOO WEAK TO TAKE IT!"

"No, he's too good to just take it." Tony hissed.

"This guy's crazy strong!" Sersi remarked.

Peter then jumped on him, wrapping his legs around him and repeatedly hitting Goblin in the face as hard as he could, as Goblin grinned and laughed as he did. Peter yelled as he repeatedly hit Goblin, the man moving before slamming Peter through the floor to the hallway below.

"He's been hit, these blows would probably cripple a normal person, and he's laughing as Peter does this?" Matt asked, askance. "Goblin is far too dangerous, he's got nothing to lose and everything to gain."

"PETER!" MJ yelled, seeing him being thrown through the floor.

"He's alright, we meet up with him after this." Ned told the rest of them, who looked shocked at what was happening and MJ's reaction. "We just never saw what happened here."

Goblin walked away as Peter limped to the edge of the hall, the helicopter blasting the glass of the window with how close it was, Peter jumped outside and began to climb the side of the building, back towards where Goblin was, struggling to catch his breath, he looked down to see JJJ far below, smiling at him.

"God I want to hit him with a repulsor blast so much right now." Tony growled at JJJ's smug look.

"Now I gotcha." JJJ said.

"You small, spiteful, little man." Betty spat. "Peter has never done anything wrong to you, he even poses photos for you. That's it, when we go back, I'm resigning. I'd rather have my morals intact."

"I'll leave a note before this heist thing, whilst I'm doing everything else." Tony told her. "I'll ask Pepper to take you on as a Stark intern, clearly you're smart enough to be on, going to Midtown."

"That'd be amazing, thank you!" Betty gushed. This may have just been the best career choice she ever made.

Peter was then suddenly attacked from above, as Lizard grabbed him. "I told you there'd be consequences!" he yelled, throwing Peter through another window. He then raced up the building again as Goblin grabbed Peter and lifted him up, slamming him into the ceiling before smashing Peter down into the floor again, the two of them fell through the floor, and kept falling, smashing every story on the way down to the lobby of the apartment complex.

"Connors, you traitor!" Sprite yelled.

"How is Peter still standing after all of that?!" Bruce asked, stunned.

"Well, I think that settles the debate on strength, I don't even think Bucky or I could still walk after that." Steve admitted.

"No, he's definitely more durable than us." Bucky agreed. "Can probably lift more than us as well."

"I'd like to try him with my hammer." Thor mused. "Just to see..."

"He absolutely could." Tony cut Thor off.

They collapsed into the lobby just as May arrived there herself, cures still in hand. She pulled out the cure for Goblin and approached them.

"Be careful, May. Goblin's too unhinged to try reason with." Abe warned.

Nobody caught the look on the faces of Happy, Ned, MJ and the two Spider-Men.

"Your weakness, Peter, is morality." Goblin said, wrapping his hands around Peter's throat. "It's choking you! Can't you feel it?" He asked, a demented look in his eyes as he grinned down at the struggling Peter.

"He better get his hands off of him, now!" May shouted.

"Peter will throw him off, you know he will." Clint fervently said. "The kid doesn't give up."

May ran over and jabbed the cure into his neck, as he stumbled away, Peter was able to catch his breath. Goblin then turned to May in a rage. "It didn't work." He said, putting his foot on Peter's back, pushing him back down. "Norman was right, he got it from you. That pathetic, sickness. He tried to fix me, now, I'm gonna fix you." Goblin said, holding Peter's head up, Peter, struggling to talk, begged May to run as she picked up some debris to defend herself with, not seeing the glider arrive at the front doors behind her.

"How didn't the cure work?!" Tony asked, stunned.

"He's going to hurt one of you, you need to get out of there, now!" Matt called out.

"How are they meant to stop this guy? He's unhinged and unwilling to back down." Yelena frowned.

"May, run, please." Peter begged as the glider flew in, smashing into May and sending her flying, as Goblin jumped onto it, turning to Peter as he got to his feet, a pumpkin bomb in Goblin's hand.

"May, please, run!" Happy begged, knowing what would happen but still wishing it could change, somehow.

"That's one of the bombs he used on the bridge, that blew it up." Sam said, recognising it.

"A dangerous weapon." Spider-Man 2 stated.

"Peter, Peter, Peter. No good deed goes unpunished. You can thank me later." He said, activating the bomb and throwing it towards May, flying away as Peter dived for the bomb, the explosion sending Peter flying once again. Goblin threw another at the police cars outside, exploding them and causing police and JJJ to run for safety as the DoDC arrived in their trucks.

"Are they both ok?!" Steve demanded to know, turning to the ceiling.

"Watch." The Watcher simply stated.

May got to her feet and struggled to Peter, both of them reuniting, both badly injured from the attacks and the blast. May hugged him as they both told the other they were ok, Peter said he thought his ribs were broken.

"At least you're both alright, you'll be fine, just need to get some medical help." Kate said optimistically, Scott nodding.

"I've got a bad feeling about this still." Clint stated.

"This is all my fault, May. I should have just listened to Strange and let him send them back."

"No, you did the right thing!" May insisted, still somewhat shocked at having seen Goblin target and attack her as well. "You're helping them, that's all that matters, that's the right thing, to help them."

"No, you did the right thing." May assured him, shaking her head. "They would have been killed, you did the right thing."

"Yes, yes you did do the right thing!" May agreed.

"It's not my responsibility." Peter told her as she told him to ignore what Norman had said about her moral mission.

"Sadly, it is, kid." Tony said sorrowfully.

"Yeah, he knows it is." May told him.

"Peter, listen to me." May said, "You have a gift. You have power. And with great power there must also come great responsibility." May finished.

"Wise words." Bruce remarked as May smiled softly.

Nobody noticed either Spider-Man wipe their eyes slightly as they took in the scene.

Peter said he knew as she recommended them both leave, taking a few steps, May said she needed to lie down for a moment, Peter helping her to lay down. DoDC troops piled out of their vans and headed towards the building, guns raised, as Peter told May she was ok and asked what had happened to her.

"Peter...It's alright." May softly said to the screen, wishing he could hear her. What else could she say, what else could she do? She had a good idea of what was going on and it frightened her. Not for her own sake, she'd see Ben, and Richard and Mary again, but for Peter, leaving him alone in the world.

"It's not though." Natasha said, bitterly. She felt her heart going out to the kid in these, and he didn't deserve this, May didn't deserve this. "You don't deserve this."

"We don't always get what we're owed." Steve said quietly.

"Why aren't they trying to help? Just grabbing their guns and pointing them towards it, they should be helping!" Rhodey protested.

"Because they're assholes." Bucky spat.

"Just need to catch my breath." May told him as Peter assured her he was right there and they could catch their breath before leaving. Peter then began begging someone to get an ambulance as he found the bleeding, May looking at him in confusion and worry.

"Oh God." Sam whispered, horrified at the scene playing out before them.

"No, she's ok, she is. She just needs to catch her breath, remember?" Cindy asked, tears in her eyes at the sight.

"I don't think this has the happy ending we all want." Wanda said sadly.

"What happened?" May asked as Peter wiped her face, telling her she was ok and calling out for help some more.

"Save your breath, just focus on Peter." Tony whimpered.

"I'm still here for now, Stark." May told him with a sad smile. "If this is what has to happen, then I'll go to it, as I have too, but I want you all to promise me, you'll look out for Peter when you get back."

"We will." Everyone from the present chorused.

"I just need to catch my-" May trailed off as Peter kept saying "I'm right here, I'm right here." Then May's head turned to the side, Peter telling her she was ok and it was just the two of them, as May stopped breathing.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't there to help, if I had been, maybe I could have-" Happy broke down crying, unable to finish as he felt the walls closing in on him, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't see, what was happening?

"Happy, breathe." May said, taking his hands in hers. "I'm still here for now. Please, focus on my voice. What happened is not your fault, at all. It's only the fault of the Goblin. I don't blame you, I don't blame Peter, I don't even blame Norman. It's only the Goblin. Alright? Please, look at me. I'm here, I'm not going anywhere, not yet. So, please, breathe."

Happy nodded, wiping his eyes and taking deep, steady breaths to calm himself as he listened to her.

"May?...May?...Can you look at me, May?...May? May? What are you doing, May? Please, will you just wake up and talk to me, please?" Peter cried and begged as the troops closed in on him, guns raised.

"God." Betty whimpered as she felt herself crying at the scene, looking around, there wasn't really a dry eye, other than Venom, and could he cry at all?

"I'm sorry, Маленький паук." Yelena said.

MJ and Ned just wrapped their arms around each other and hugged, tears down both of their cheeks.

Happy then pulled up between them and him, looking into the ruined lobby, he could see Peter crying and May's body on the floor. Troops aimed their guns at Happy as he looked devastated, his eyes cast downwards. He raised his hands and climbed out of the car as the troops forced him onto the bonnet and cuffed him, he yelled for Peter to run as the troops yelled for Parker to come out with his hands held up. Peter kissed May's head, telling her how sorry he was, as the troops opened fire, one clipped Peter, but as the dust settled, Peter was nowhere to be seen, as a tear rolled down May's cheek.

"THOSE FUCKERS!" Venom growled. "I DEMAND WE EAT THEM ALL!"

"You're not going to get a protest from me for once, if we go back there somehow, we're eating them." Eddie nodded, furious.

"I'm just sorry I can't be there for you, Peter." May cried.

"This is not your fault, remember?" Tony told her. "I'm just sorry I can't change this for you."

"Tragedy. What else can I call it?" JJJ's voice echoed as Peter stood in the rain, May's bag of cures at his feet, looking at the broadcast on a large public screen. The rain and blood mingled together in Peter's hair and on his skin, pouring down to join his tears, as JJJ continued to ramble on. "What more need be said? The damage, destruction, you saw it with your own eyes. When will people wake up and realise that everywhere that Spider-Man goes, chaos and calamity ensue? Everything Spider-Man touches comes to ruin, and we, the innocents, are left to pick up the pieces. J Jonah Jameson, reporting. Good night, and God help us all." He said, as the broadcast shut off, leaving Peter, soaked in rain, tears and blood, staring at the black screen before him.

"God..." Everyone whispered, seeing the scene and the look of total dejection on Peter's face.

"He broke him." Bruce said quietly.

"I fucked up so badly." Strange told Wong and Wanda quietly. "He's lost so much, and I took even more from him."

"You didn't." Wong tried to reassure him. "You did what you needed to do, that's all, Stephen."

The scene cut to Ned and MJ at Ned's home, seeing the news report about the battle and reporting the death of an unnamed civilian, as MJ told Ned she was going to press the button to send them all back.

"Good, send them back before they can cause any more damage." Steve urged.

"Fortunately, a better option presented itself." MJ said cryptically, wiping her blood red eyes from the last few scenes still.

"Like what? What could possibly be better than getting these dangerous criminals out of our universe?" Natasha asked.

"Just watch." Ned urged.

Ned said how he wished they could see Peter, as a yellow light fizzed in the room. MJ told him to do it again as they realised he was wearing the Sling Ring from Strange, he did it again, waving his hands, as a portal lasted slightly longer before collapsing. Ned then stood again, saying "I just wish we could see Peter!" As a portal opened, showing Spider-Man looking around an alleyway.

"You found him already?" Tony asked, surprised.

"I've got Doctor Strange magic." Ned proudly smiled as Strange rolled his eyes.

"This is why I'm teaching you, Leeds, but please, stop calling it Doctor Strange magic."

"No promises." Ned shot back.

"Is that him?" MJ asked as Ned's lola mentioned how he was magic. Ned said it had to be as the two of them started yelling for Peter to come to them, Spider-Man raised his arm in greeting then ran towards the portal, hopping through it to reveal a Spider-Man in a different costume.

"Hang on, that looks alot like your suit." Natasha accused Spider-Man 3.

"Trust me, it isn't mine." He smirked at her.

Spider-Man called out he was a nice guy as Ned's lola began screaming and ran, before he whipped off his mask to reveal a different Peter Parker.

"Why'd you lie?!" Scott asked.

"Well, I think it was the Watcher, you contacted us at the start, right? Asking us not to say anything?" Spider-Man 3 said.

"Yes." The Watcher simply stated.

"Wait, so are you Peter Parker?" Clint asked, to no response.

"Who the hell are you?" MJ asked.

"Just tell us." Rhodey stated. "Are you Peter, or are you not?"

"I literally give my name in a minute." Spider-Man 3 informed them.

"I'm Peter Parker, I'm Spider-Man. In my world, and then yesterday I...I was just here." Peter-3 said as MJ remarked it wasn't possible for him to be Peter.

"Peter?" May asked, turning to the young man in disbelief.

"Hi, May." Peter-3 smiled at her warmly.

"Peter..." Tony breathed, taking in the appearance of this other version of his protege.

"Mr Stark." Peter-3 respectfully nodded.

"Why didn't you tell us that you're Peter?" Sersi asked.

"I was asked not too." Peter-3 chuckled. "Plus Happy, MJ and Ned were keeping my secret too."

"We did only remember recently though!" The three in question protested.

"Wow...String theory...multidimensional reality...and matter displacement...all real?" Peter-3 asked excitedly.

"Is there any universe Peter Parker isn't a giant nerd?" Bruce asked.

"Nope." Peter-3 grinned.

"Yeah." Ned told him.

"I like how easily you're taking this, babe." Betty told him.

"At this rate, I'm expecting all sorts." Ned stated.

"I knew it." Peter-3 grinned. Ned mentioned to MJ it had to be due to the spell as Peter-3 asked if magic was real here as well, looking like all of his wildest dreams had come true.

"Nerd." Spider-Man 2 whispered to his alter.

"So?" Peter-3 grinned, blushing at the twinkling in Spider-Man 2's eyes. "It's not like you're not a giant nerd too."

"Touche." Spider-Man 2 grinned back.

"Prove it."

"How?" Cindy asked MJ.

"Prove what?"

"Prove you're Peter, I'm assuming." Bucky stated.

"Prove you're Peter Parker."

"Do many of you carry ID on you?" Peter-3 asked, winking at MJ as the heroes denied they did.

"i don't care an ID on me. Kind of defeats the whole anonymous superhero thing." Peter-3 said as MJ threw a loaf of bread at him, hitting him.

"Yeah, exactly!" Yelena remarked. "It does defeat the point, Michelle Jones."

"Well I know that now!" She drily shot back.

"Why'd you do that?"

"Probably to test your reflexes." Sam noted. "Not a bad move actually."

"Do you have the tingle thing?"

"Do you?" May asked, drinking in the sight of another version of her nephew.

"I do, but not for bread. It's for danger, bread isn't a threat." Peter-3 smiled softly.

"I have the tingle thing, but not for bread." He told her, confused. "Can you not throw the bread again?" he asked as she grabbed another piece. "You're a deeply mistrusting person...and I respect it."

"That's so sweet." Kate cooed as Peter-3 blushed.

Peter-3 then jumped and stuck to the ceiling, Ned and MJ eyed him, he shrugged as if it to say "See?" MJ told him to crawl around, throwing more bread when he said it was plenty of proof and he wouldn't. Ned's Lola came and asked Ned something, as Ned asked Peter-3 to get the cobweb from the corner, which he did. Coming to the floor again, they accepted he was another Peter Parker.

"Am I just a performing monkey?" Peter-3 groaned as everyone laughed at the antics that Ned and MJ put him through.

"You're a performing spider monkey, get it right." Abe joked as Peter-3 scowled.

"I miss my universe already." He pouted.

"So I opened the wrong portal to the wrong Peter Parker?" Ned asked.

"I'm sure the next one will find our Peter." Tony smiled. "Not that I'm against seeing any Peter Parkers really."

"Yeah, I guess you just keep doing it until we find the real one." MJ told him.

"Put some ice on that burn." Sprite giggled as Sersi beamed. She had taught her well.

"Ouch." Peter-3 said, turning to them.

"That's the right mood, is it?" Phastos asked.

"Close enough." Cindy laughed.

"Find Peter Parker...Find Peter Parker...FIND PETER PARKER!" Ned called out, doing the circles as Peter-3 asked what was happening and MJ shushed him.

"Gotta let him focus, man!" MJ fake told off Peter-3, who put his hand over his heart, mockingly offended.

A portal opened behind them, MJ looking at it, as another man walked out, looking up at them, it was yet another Peter Parker.

"Peter?" May asked again, turning to Spider-Man 2.

"Yeah, it's me, May." Peter-2 smiled. "Well, another version anyway."

"How many more Peter Parkers are there?" Happy demanded.

"Just the three of us, at least in this." Peter-3 assured him. "Right?" He asked the Watcher.

"Oh there are infinite Peter Parkers and most of them are Spider-Man in their universes, but yes, for this adventure, it's just the three of them." The Watcher confirmed.

"Look at you, both of you, heroes." May told them with a grin as the two Peters moved towards her, she opened her arms as they moved into them, the three Parkers wrapping each other in a hug. "I know I'm not your May, but you're both still my nephews."

"You're still our aunt." Peter-2 insisted as Peter-3 nodded as they all broke apart and sat down once more.

"Great its just some random guy." Ned said.

"Anything but." Cindy laughed, as everyone took in the sight of the three Parkers sat together.

"Hello." Peter-2 said, waving at them. "I hope its ok, I just came through this...oh, it just closed."

"Is there any universe where the kid is rude to anyone?" Clint asked.

"I've had my fair share of rudeness." Peter-2 shrugged.

"I doubt that very much." Betty laughed.

"You're Peter." MJ stated.

"An amazing deduction." Flash teased her as MJ shoved him.

"Yeah...Peter Parker." Peter-2 told them.

"The one and only, when ignoring the others." Peter-2 remarked.

He then spotted Peter-3, the two of them attacked each other, thinking the other was an imposter, before Peter-2 managed to web Peter-3's shooters.

"Why did you attack each other?" Cindy asked.

"Well we didn't know who the other one was, so were wary." Peter-3 explained.

"Wait, if you're Spider-Man too, why didn't you just say that?" Ned asked.

"Hiding the identity." Peter-2 shrugged.

"I generally don't go around advertising it. Kinda defeats the whole anonymous superhero thing." Peter-2 explained.

"That's what the other Peter said!" Kate stated.

"That's what I just said." Peter-3 grumbled.

"Exactly!" Eddie agreed.

"That's what he just said." MJ remarked.

"Is there an echo in here?" Matt joked.

Lola asked them to clean up their webs as Peter-2 remarked he had been looking for their Peter since he got there, having a feeling that he needed his help, Peter-3 nodded and said he needed their help.

"He really did need your help, more than any of us know I think, and he isn't here, I know he'll have said it, but I want to say it as well, thank you, both of you." MJ said, turning to the two Peters. "For everything you did, for him, for the universe and for me."

"It's what we do." Peter-3 grinned, looking at Peter-2, who nodded at him.

MJ explained that they were all Peter had left at the moment. Peter-2 asked if there was anywhere he would go, Peter-3 interjected about getting away from everything, showing how issues got all of them sometimes. Peter-2 said for him it was the top of the Chrysler building. Peter-3 said it was the Empire state for him, better views. MJ said yeah there was somewhere like that.

"Those are some pretty sweet views. I've used them as nests before." Clint stated.

"I flew up to them too, they are nice." Tony concurred.

"Wait, why did the screen turn off?" Ikaris asked.

"I figured you deserved to know more about these two, so before you see what happens next here, I'll be taking you back in time to see the events that led up to this for these two, the lives of the two Peter Parkers before you, and how their choices shaped their destinies." The Watcher explained.

"Do we have to?" Peter-2 asked.

"I'd rather not." Peter-3 agreed, thinking on what it would likely show.

"Sorry, but they need to see. We shall start with your first few years." The Watcher told Peter-2. "These events will cover your dealings with the villains you have seen Peter from this universe face, showing how they became the villains they are now."

Holy heck. Morbius. There's still a week in most places until release, so the director decides "Let's do a spoiler filled interview" and my God, this movie is gonna be a trainwreck. I was hyped for it, but now, no. I shall be making references to Morbius in NWH chapter 2, but as you can see, I'm doing the Raimi trilogy AND the Webb duology BEFORE NWH 2, so expect a few weeks to months until that drops. Jesus, this film. Most of the bad stuff is to do with Michael Keaton as well, just saying.