WARNING, MAJOR SPOILERS FOR NO WAY HOME FOLLOWING. PLEASE, DO COME BACK AFTER YOU HAVE SEEN THE FILM.
"Where are we? What's going on?" Tony Stark asked as he opened his eyes. The last thing he remembered, he was in his lab, looking over the last measurements for the Quantum tunnel. Time travel, it was crazy, but it had to work, it just did.
"Tony?" A new voice asked, Tony saw Steve Rogers was there before him, the rest of the Avengers scattered around near the two of them.
"Cap? What happened?"
"I don't know, wait...Sam? Bucky?" Steve asked, turning to look at the other Avengers in the room and seeing the two of them, looking different than the last time they had met. Bucky was in his usual attire, with a short hair cut, and Sam was in a largely white costume, with, was that his shield? How were the two of them even here?
'Thanos had….Oh God.'
"Steve...Tony? How...How are you here?" Sam asked, Bucky just looked shocked. Looking around, there was a few other surprises with the rest of the Avengers.
"Wanda? What happened to you? I heard something about you and Westview? Liking the new look though." Bucky said.
"Kate?!" Clint called out, his face had multiple cuts. "Where are you? Wait….Steve? Tony?….NAT?!"
"Who's Kate, Clint?" Natasha asked, her eyes wide at the sight of her fallen friends before her and Clint, looking so different to how he had just moments ago. Where was the Mohawk?
"How are you all here?" Clint asked, his eyes narrowing. What was going on here? What was Kingpin playing at?
"Clint? What do you mean, how are we all here?" Tony asked, confused.
"Thanos….the Stones….that's when you're all from, isn't it?" Clint asked, seeing the white quantum suits that Steve, Nat and Tony were wearing.
"Yeah...wait...from? Does this mean it works? We won?" Tony asked, seeing those he had seen disappear in Wakanda before him.
"Wait, are you saying the rest of you are from after we stop Thanos? Why aren't we from then as well? Where are we, when are we, anyway?" Steve wondered.
"Steve..." Bucky started, raising a hand softly towards him.
"We die, don't we? Somehow, stopping him. It's why we're from a different time, earlier than the rest of you, why some of you look like you've seen ghosts." Natasha simply stated, as Clint cringed away from her, looking down to the floor. Steve and Tony looked stunned as everyone else in the room seemed to move slightly further from them.
"Wait, aren't you Ned Leeds? You look older." Tony said, noticing a few kids to the side, slightly away from the Avengers, mostly looking at the heroes in awe.
"How does Tony Stark know your name?" Flash Thompson asked Ned who looked surprised.
"I-I have no idea." Ned stammered out. How did Tony Stark know who he was?
"You work with Spider-Man, don't you? I think he's mentioned you...for some reason." Tony drifted off. Odd, he knew he knew Spider-Man, but how did Spider-Man know this random kid? How did Tony know this random kids name? Did Spider-Man talk often about him? He couldn't quite place it.
"Spider-Man talked to you about me?" Ned asked, his voice full of wonder. "I mean, I've helped him out before, sure, but I didn't think I'd be worth mentioning to an Avenger." He joked.
"How would Spider-Man know you?" Flash asked incredulously.
"Because I'm his guy in the chair." Ned said.
"Then you know who he is under the mask?" Betty asked, excitedly.
"Erm, well, no." Ned admitted sheepishly. "He's always been protective of his identity, doesn't want anyone to get hurt or something, so I've never found out."
"Ah that sucks, I'd love to shake his hand." Flash said, pouting.
"Wait, why don't I know his name? I've seen him unmasked before, I'm sure of it." Tony said. "But I can't, it's like there's a blank there. How is this happening?"
"The Runes of Kafkall." Strange spoke up suddenly, quietly, from the corner, his eyes wide in shock.
"The Runes of what?" Clint asked, not even surprised anymore.
"I SAID MAGIC WAS REAL!" Scott Lang interrupted, shouting excitedly at Hope Van Dyne.
"What are these Runes?" Steve asked Strange seriously.
"One of the big three man, I told you." Sam whispered to Bucky who glared at him.
"Not the time."
"One of the most powerful spells we sorcerers have." Wong began to explain as Strange looked sick.
"Why does the wizard look sick?" Thor asked. If Loki were here still, maybe he'd know what was going on.
"I can see why that would be bad. I don't know everything about them, but from what I've read, that's an extreme measure." Wanda said as people turned to her, wondering if she would finally just tell them what they were and why it sounded so bad.
"Can someone please just explain what all this is and what is going on? How are all of these people here? Why isn't Spider-Man here? What's these Rune things?" MJ asked.
"The Runes border the line between known and unknown reality." Strange finally spoke up, finding his voice. "They're an extremely dangerous spell for a reason. They rewrite reality, as it were. They're a rune...for forgetting."
"Forgetting what, Strange?" Tony asked as he felt all the blood flow from his face. Looking around, he could see the other Avengers and the young people who all seemed to know each other had similar expressions.
"Mostly it's used for events, like a party that got out of hand or something, but it could also be used for...a person."
"You don't mean, Spider-Man, do you? It's why he's not here, isn't it?" Clint asked.
"Why do we all remember Spider-Man though, even if he's not here, if your magic worked?" Happy Hogan finally spoke up. He had been through a lot, losing Tony, losing May, not really a word from Spider-Man in months. Now Tony was here? Why couldn't May be here with him as well?
"No, it can't be Spider-Man, the runes are very specific, if it were him, we wouldn't remember him, even here." Wong mentioned. "Though I am unsure as to why he isn't here."
"Wait, I think I might know." Tony spoke up, as the others wondered how they could remember Spider-Man if the runes have wiped him out, with him not been there.
"What is it, Tony?" Bruce asked, and Tony just had to ask him at some point, before all of whatever this was, ended, how he was back in his original body again.
"I have helped Spider-Man for years. Ned here is his guy in the chair. We all have a connection to him in some way, I'm assuming?" Tony asked, looking around as they all nodded.
"Spider-Man saved all of our lives in D.C back in 2017." The former Midtown students admitted.
"Then how come nobody knows who he is under the mask? What does he look like? Even his name? Surely, he can't have hidden it for years, not from us all, especially with what we've been through." Tony said as the others put the dots together.
"Whoever he is, under the mask..." Ned started before trailing off.
"It would make sense." Strange admitted. "When I think of Spider-Man, I can remember events with the two of us, yes, but there's some parts of it, it just feels foggy, like I should know what occurred, but I can't quite place what it is. I think his civilian identity, the man under the mask, we used the runes, for some reason, to remove all knowledge of it from us."
"But when were they used?" Tony asked.
"It had to be recently." Wong said. "I think we would have noticed these gaps much more if it was a longer stretch."
"Then why can't Cap, Widow or I remember him either?" Tony asked.
"Because you came here." A new voice said, turning they saw a figure standing there in a familiar suit.
"Spider-Man? How are you here, and who is that?" Rhodey asked as another figure walked over seemingly out of nowhere, wearing a slightly different but still recognisably Spider-Man suit.
"I'm Spider-Man." The first one said.
"I am also Spider-Man." The newest arrival agreed.
"It's just, we are not your Spider-Man. To save some time, the multiverse is real, we're from other universes, ones where most of you likely don't exist, there was never an Avengers in either of our universes." Spider-Man 1 stated.
"We helped your Spider-Man before with an issue, before we went back to our worlds. We were both back at home, doing our own thing, when we felt a tug, and were here. We saw the rest of you begin to arrive, we were gonna say something, but I felt this force stopping me from moving until just now." Spider-Man 2 stated.
"So did I. I also found this note, saying you all needed to remember your Spider-Man. Apparently the magic of the runes means we can't even share our name with you all, since it'll undo the spell and cause some issues, so we'll take a spin on something you'll likely see. We agreed to dub your Spider-Man as Spider-Man 1. I'm Spider-Man 2." Spider-Man 1, or now 2, stated.
"I'm Spider-Man 3 I guess." Spider-Man 3 grumbled, before they both removed their masks, revealing two older men with different facial features, but both with dark hair.
"So, why are the two of you here?" Strange asked, he remembered something about three Spider-Men, but the details were foggy to him at best.
"I...don't know. The note says about remembering your Spidey, which, I mean, we do, but we can't just tell you. You have to learn for yourselves. I guess we're here mostly to provide answers to questions if we can, although we don't know a lot of it ourselves." Spider-Man 3 told them.
"Shall we get on with it?" Spider-Man 2 asked.
"Get on with what? We're just in this giant room. Is there even any seats?" Flash asked.
The room suddenly plunged into darkness for a second, as people tried to figure out what was going on, the lights returned, showing a large screen and two rows of seats in a semi-circle around the screen.
"I guess we take a seat." Clint dryly remarked.
"Wait, should we go over introductions first?" Spider-Man 2 asked. "I mean, us two know almost none of you, and all we can say is we're Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3."
"I'll start I guess. I'm Tony Stark, genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. Also, you know, Iron Man. I'm from 2023, and I guess wherever we are now, I'm dead? Gotta say, thought it would be a lot weirder to hear myself just casually say that I am no longer on this mortal plane at the time I am currently in. You know, deceased? Gone? Atomised maybe? How do I die, anyway?"
"Tones." Rhodey said softly, coming over to put a hand on his best friends shoulder as Happy did the same at the other side.
"Maybe we save that for later, what do you say, boss?" Happy asked Tony who nodded, glad to have been pulled out of that existential spiral for now.
"I am Steve Rogers, Captain America, also from 2023." Steve simply said. Was he dead? Nobody seemed to have said outright he was, had they?
"My name is Natasha Romanov, the Black Widow, also 2023."
"Clint Barton, Hawkeye, somewhat retired, 2024."
"Who is Kate?" Natasha interjected. "You called for her when we all first got here?"
"Kate...she's my partner. I've been helping her clean up a Ronin related mess in New York, it's Christmas 2024 for me right now. Christmas Eve in fact, we were in the middle of a fight at the Rockefeller centre when I got here. It was me, her and some of New York's finest and bravest against an entire Eastern European tracksuit mafia and their boss, a guy named Kingpin."
"I'm Colonel James Rhodes, or Rhodey, also known as War Machine, I'm from 2024."
"Sam Wilson, used to be the Falcon, now Captain America, from 2024."
"I'm dead, aren't I?" Steve asks.
"Steve..." Sam starts before Steve interrupts.
"Look, I want you to be my replacement, Sam, I really do, you deserve it, but why can't anyone give me a straight answer? Am I dead or am I alive?"
"I'm James Buchanan Barnes, or Bucky, The Winter Soldier or White Wolf. I'm from 2024. Also, Steve, you're not dead. You just retired." Bucky clarifies, watching as Steve calms down. He hates not telling him everything, but it's for the best. Can't have Steve change history or whatever whenever whatever this is is over.
"My name is Happy Hogan, head of security at Stark Industries, from 2024."
"Doctor Bruce Banner, The Hulk, from 2024."
"Wanda Maximoff, The Scarlet Witch, 2024."
"Doctor Stephen Strange, 2024."
"Wong, Sorcerer Supreme, 2024."
"Michelle Jones, soon to be MIT student, 2024."
"Ned Leeds, also soon to be MIT student, 2024."
"Betty Brant, intern at The Daily Bugle, 2024."
"Flash Thompson, soon to be MIT student, 2024."
"Abe Brown, US Army, 2024." (He survived the snap apparently, gonna assume a lot of young people joined the military when the world would have been in turmoil) Abe said, saluting to Rhodes, who saluted back.
"Cindy Moon, Med student, 2024."
"So, are we finally going to watch whatever they want us to see?" Bruce asked.
"I guess so." Tony said as they all sat down, the screen flashing up with a few words.
MJ summed up what everyone watching thought.
"Who is Peter Parker?"