Web of Infinity

by cdog21

Lost in a world that is both familiar and utterly alien, Peter Parker has to figure out a way to make a life for himself on this alternate Earth. All while dealing with the fact that he happens to be the only male to have superpowers in a world made up of female superheroes and villains.

3. Neighborhood Part 3

Previously

While exploring Metropolis, Peter is forced to deal with a mutated Dr. K. Rochelle Abernathy after her demonstration of a prototype reactor based around Kryptonite goes awry. Peter is eventually successful in defeating the mutated doctor, meeting famed Daily Planet reporter, Lois Lane, in the process.

---

Abandoned Warehouse
Morning

'Be it ever so humble...'Peter thought as he looked around the warehouse that would serve as his new home.

He'd gotten lucky his first week on this new Earth. The weather had been pretty pleasant, so sleeping under the bridge in a web hammock had been manageable. Unfortunately, it would never work as a long-term solution to his housing problem, especially once the weather turned. On top of that, he only had two web cartridges left once he refilled his web-shooters after his fight with the good doctor yesterday. He knew that he needed to find somewhere more permanent so he could rest, recharge, and plan his next moves properly. This meant that finding somewhere to set up a homebase, now had a time limit on it.

After his dance with Abernathy, Peter got back on the train and continued his journey through the city. Where his focus before had been learning the lay of the land, now he had his eyes looking around to spot a place that would serve as a suitable base of operations for the future. Surprisingly, Metropolis wasn't lacking in real estate when it came to the "uninhabited buildings" market.

To the world at large, Metropolis was seen as a 'City of Tomorrow'. It was a shining beacon of optimism and forward-thinking. However, no matter how bright and futuristic a city might be, there was always a darker underbelly lurking in the shadows. For Metropolis' City Hall and Chamber of Commerce, that underbelly was officially called Southside. To the rest of the city, it was more commonly known as Suicide Slums.

With abandoned factories and warehouses, and surrounded by poverty-stricken neighborhoods, Suicide Slums looked more like a third-world country in comparison to Metropolis' more affluent districts. To a homeless, multiversal traveler it was a buyer's market. His initial thought in finding a place to stay had been to scour the neighborhoods looking for a regular old abandoned house. He dismissed that option after a few minutes when he thought about the potential danger the other residents might be caught in if someone with a chip on their shoulder ever managed to track him back to where he was laying his head.

With that in mind, Peter decided to take a page out of the bad guy's handbook and moved his search over to the industrial area of the district. There were plenty of spaces that had potential, but the ones that he'd come across were either too big and thus a waste of space or were so worn down and exposed to the elements that they were useless for his needs. He eventually found a two-story abandoned warehouse off of Sullivan Street.

Structurally the building was sound. No holes he needed to patch up or walls that needed repairing. Its windows, though dirty, were still in one piece and allowed enough natural light to illuminate the interior spaces. However, the inside of the building left much to be desired. The inside was as much of a dump as he'd been expecting, with old crates and discarded machinery scattered all over the place, but it looked like it had simply sat empty ever since the warehouse had been boarded up. There was an office on the second floor that could easily be renovated into a bedroom and the wide open area of the first floor meant he had plenty of room to build another lab in. Despite its dilapidated appearance, the building had promise as a place where he could build his new life.

"Hmm, I can work with this." Peter mumbled, the wheels inside his head already spinning with possibilities as he looked around the place. He categorized the things that would require his immediate attention or could be put off for later.

The creaky stairs leading to the second floor hinted at their years of disuse, but they held his weight as he ascended. The offices on the upper level seemed more intact than he had expected. A desk against one wall, a couple of chairs scattered around, and dusty windows that still allowed glimpses of the city outside. The chairs looked like they were on their last legs, pun not intended, but the desks looked like they were still sturdy enough for use. Peter walked back out of the office and stared down at his new home. A lot of work was going to have to get done before the warehouse was where he needed it to be, but he was happy with what he had found.

"Well, I guess today's cleaning day." Peter said aloud before vaulting over the safety railing and landing gracefully on the warehouse floor.

---

The Spire
New Troy, Metropolis

Alexandra Luthor was a woman of many talents. As a teenager, she lead her high school in setting new state track records. During her wild 20s, she'd worked for some of the biggest names in the industry as a lingerie model. However, it wasn't her athleticism or her good looks that Lex considered to be her greatest asset. No, for Lex Luthor, her greatest asset had always been her intelligence.

Growing up as the daughter to the CEO of a multibillion-dollar company, Lex had a lot to live up to. The name Luthor was synonymous with the highest of standards, so the young girl had worked her ass off to make her father proud. She aced her way through high school before graduating from MIT with a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and physics. Lex possessed one of the most gifted minds in the world and right now, that mind was trying to predict how the world would react to the revaluation of a male metahuman.

"-Abernathy's rampage was brought to an end when the scientist was defeated by Metropolis' newest hero, Spider-Man." Mercy read aloud. "A male superhero? Didn't see that one coming." Mercy flipped the paper over to show a contemplative Lex. "The colors are a little boring, but his costume certainly puts on a nice display. I mean that ass has got to be made out of marble."

Lex's eyes flicked over to the front page of today's edition of The Daily Planet and to the picture taken by Jimmy Olsen showing Spider-Man standing triumphantly over Abernathy's unconscious form. "Olsen has a good eye. That picture makes him look... heroic."

Mercy turned the paper back around to look at the picture again, a lascivious smile slowly spreading across her lips. "If he looks that good in costume, I can't wait to see what he looks like without it."

Lex rolled her eyes at Mercy's comment. "Do you have to be so crass?"

Mercy's grin grew. "What? I'm just speaking the truth."

Lex didn't bother to respond to her. Instead, she stood from her chair and walked over to the wet bar she'd installed in her office. She poured herself a glass of Macallan and walked over to stand in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of her 100th-floor office and stared down at the city below. Mercy knew that Lex didn't touch her 25-year-old single malt unless a problem really had her stumped for a solution. Knowing that the billionaire businesswoman tended to get lost in her own thoughts when she got quiet like this, Mercy sat down at Lex's desk and started working on today's crossword puzzle while she waited.

"Whaling ship commanded by Captain Ahab?" Mercy muttered to herself.

"Pequod." Lex answered after another sip of her drink.

"What?" Mercy asked.

"Pequod. P-e-q-u-o-d." she replied. "That's the name of Ahab's whaling ship in 'Moby Dick'."

"Have you figured out the answer to whatever it was you were just thinking about yet?" Mercy asked, writing down the answer Lex had given her.

"If I'm being completely honest, then no I haven't." Lex admitted. Mercy's head shot up as she stared at Lex in disbelief. It didn't take the brunette's genius-level intellect to pick up the reasoning for Mercy's incredulous look. "Don't give me that look, Mercy. I might be one of the brightest minds of the era, but I'm not omniscient."

"B-But you always know everything!" Mercy cried.

"No, I try to PLAN for everything." Lex clarified. "I put myself in the shoes of my opponents and then I try to come up with a contingency for any move I might make if I were in their position."

"So everything that you and I do is because we're facing off against your imaginary doppelganger?" Mercy asked sarcastically.

"In a sense, yes." Lex answered, not rising to Mercy's bait. "Only in this case, my opponent is the entire world."

"What are you talking about?"

"Spider-Man." Lex said simply. The look on Mercy's face told Lex that her friend wasn't connecting the dots, so she went into further explanation. "Any good scientist worth their doctorate would want to gather as much empirical data on a subject as possible. That means finding a way to test and record the limits of his abilities. Strength, speed, etc. After that, you would want to gather several samples of his DNA." Lex took the paper out of Mercy's hand and flipped it back to the front page to look at the picture of Spider-Man and Abernathy. "He's certainly spraying enough of it all over the place." Mercy gave Lex a funny look as she wondered if the brunette had realized what she'd just said. "Oh, would you get your mind out of the gutter." Lex scolded her as she flipped the picture around so that Mercy could see it and pointed at the webbing tying up the unconscious doctor. "His body is producing webbing the same way a spider does. That means the webbing he used to capture Abernathy would also contain his DNA!"

"Ohhh." Mercy said after she realized what Lex was talking about. A smirk played on her lips as another thought quickly followed that realization. "That's not the way I would have gone about getting it, but whatever works."

"Hopefully, a sample of that could be acquired as well." Lex said in response to Mercy's innuendo.

"So how do you want to go about doing this?" Mercy asked.

"That's the problem I'm having trouble with." Lex told her. "Anybody with common sense is going to want to learn who Spider-Man is and where he comes from. They'll want to know if he's the only male in his family that possesses the metagene or if it's in the DNA of other men within his bloodline. The clandestine government agencies might use a softer touch when it comes to getting answers, but there's plenty of people in the world who will have no problem having his corpse answering the questions instead." Lex said, right before a more depraved thought crossed her mind. "What if he gets captured and they try to use him for breeding stock to make their own metahuman army?"

"Well, I guess one way or another he's about to get fucked."

"A little more vulgar than how I would have put it but yes, Spider-Man is 'fucked'." Lex replied with a frown on her face.

---

Daily Planet
Same Time

Claire Kent, a Kansas farm girl and mild-mannered reporter, was parked in front of her computer putting the finishing touches on her latest article. She had just hit print when the latest edition of the Daily Planet was plopped down on top of her keyboard.

Claire picked up the paper and opened it up to see the headline that read 'SPIDER-MAN SWINGS INTO METROPOLIS: THE FIRST MALE METAHUMAN REVEALED!'. Beneath it was the picture of Spider-Man standing over a defeated Abernathy.

"How come you didn't tell me about the newest member of the superhero club?" Lois whispered to her girlfriend.

"... Because I didn't know about him." Claire replied as she read through Lois' article about the incident. She hadn't gotten home until three this morning after she spent all day yesterday helping with rescue efforts after an earthquake triggered a tsunami over in Thailand.

"Really?" Lois said with genuine surprise.

Claire lifted an arched eyebrow as she turned away from the newspaper to look at Lois. "You do know that omniscience isn't one of my abilities, right?"

"Well, duh." Lois rolled her eyes. "But you've got super hearing and those x-ray peepers. I figured you would have spotted him swinging around the city by now."

"No, I haven't." she replied with a frown. "In fact, you asking me about him is the first time that I've ever heard of a 'Spider-Man'." Claire answered before she turned back and continued reading the article. "Are you sure this is the real deal?"

"Trust me, sweetie, he was very real." Lois replied playfully.

"Should I be worried?" Claire asked teasingly as she gazed at Lois over the top of her glasses.

"You might be the 'Maiden of Steel', but Spidey definitely has the 'Buns of Steel'." Lois answered before leaning down and capturing her girlfriend's lips in a brief kiss.

"Mmm, that's what I thought." Claire mumbled against Lois' lips before she pulled away to look back at the picture of the arachnid-themed hero and wonder what his arrival meant for the world.

'I'll have to keep an eye out for him.'she thought.

---

Peter's Warehouse
Evening

"This place is finally starting to feel like a home." Peter remarked to himself.

He'd been at it all day long, but the results of his hours of sweaty effort were starting to show. He'd spent most of the day clearing out the main warehouse floor of the debris and pieces of machinery that'd been left behind after the warehouse was abandoned. He never knew what uses he might have for the machinery, so he'd stored it in the corner for possible use. Once he had gotten done with all of that, Peter had gone out and used the majority of the money he'd taken off the would-be muggers to buy some essential supplies. After a few trips back and forth from the store, he was close to being broke again, but he'd purchased everything he needed for the time being. Along with the cleaning supplies to get everything cleaned up, Peter bought a small camping stove, a pot to cook and boil water with, a few cans of non-perishable food, and an inflatable bed to sleep on.

Tackling the second-floor offices was as much of a chore as the main floor had been, but it was more sweeping and washing things off rather than hauling trash all over the place. Soon, the offices were swept and cleaned, desks and surfaces had been washed off of dirt and grime, and formerly dusty windows now allowed a clearer view of the city outside.

With the warehouse now in a more livable state, Peter decided to head out on patrol. Once he was in his costume, Peter made sure to give his equipment a thorough check before leaving. Taking the time to make sure he had everything he needed before leaving the house was a habit his Uncle Ben had gotten him into as a kid. As Spider-Man, it was doubly important to make sure, which is why he always made sure his hero gear was in working order before leaving the house for the day.

"Well, that's not good." Peter muttered to himself as he replaced the web cartridges in his web-shooters and discovered that he only had three refills left on his utility belt. 'I'm gonna have to figure out a way to deal with my money problem soon or I'm gonna be walking everywhere.' he thought, before slipping his mask on and walking towards the office windows.

Peter climbed out onto the ledge before closing the window behind him. He took a deep breath of the fresh night air before he launched himself off of the ledge into a dive. He fired off a webline that latched onto the next closest building and sent him swinging forward with the momentum from his dive.

"Woohoo!" Peter whooped excitedly as he flew through the air. Even after all these years, the thrill of web-swinging never seemed to get old.

---

Chinatown District
New Troy, Metropolis

An older gentleman carrying a folder in his hand opened the door to a little "hole in the wall" spot named 'Byrne Side Bar' and stepped inside. With only three customers in the place, it was easy for the trenchcoat-wearing man to spot the person he was looking for, sitting at a table at the back of the establishment. The man walked over to the bar and ordered a whiskey before making his way toward the back with a drink in hand. Before he could even utter a word to the person sitting at the table he heard a voice in his head.

'Come and sit down, Lawrence.'

Lawrence's steps faltered momentarily at the voice in his head before he walked over and sat down at the table.

"I already told you once before, Dekan, we talk by using our lips or we don't talk at all." Lawrence said, not bothering to hide the irritation in his voice.

"And I told you to address me by my proper name." 'Dekan' replied.

"Whatever, 'Faust'." Lawrence said, not giving a damn. "What do you have for me?"

Lawrence scowled before setting the folder on the table and sliding it across to his client. Faust returned Lawrence's scowl with a smirk before removing a thick envelope from inside his jacket and placing it on the table. Lawrence immediately grabbed the envelope and began counting the money inside.

Faust paid his companion little mind as he reached for the folder and started going over the information Lawrence had gathered. Unfortunately, as thorough as Lawrence was in his investigation, the file was lacking the one thing he actually wanted.

"What is this?" Faust asked.

"That's it, it's all right there." Lawrence answered.

"What? I paid you to find me the-"

"The 'Heart of Cronus', yes I know." Lawrence interjected. "Like I said, everything you're looking for is right there in that folder."

Faust looked through the folder once again, this time he was paying a little more attention to what Lawrence had laid out in the files. It was a picture of a small statue that captured his attention. A small, marble statuette of a robed woman with a serpent wrapped around her shoulders. The statue itself was not that impressive. In fact, Faust couldn't help but think it was rather gaudy. What was interesting, however, was the inscription at the bottom of the statue.

Xanthe of Athens.

"Where is the stone?"

"Right where I found it." Lawrence replied as he swallowed his drink and gestured to the bartender to bring over another.

"I paid you to recover the stone!" Faust exclaimed angrily.

"No, you paid me to find it. Which I did." Lawrence said, taking the fresh drink from the waitress and sipping on it. "You want to own it? Well... that's gonna cost you more than I think you've got."

Faust's eyes narrowed as eldritch flames began swirling in their dark pits. "Trickery and half-truths. I thought you a nobler soul."

"No, you thought that I was a fucking chump." he replied calmly before taking a sip of his drink. "You've got everything you need right in front of you to get it yourself.

Faust raised the photo of the statue up and showed it to Lawrence "This is where it is?"

"Yup."

"And where is this little trinket."

"In a museum on the east side of town." Lawrence answered. "That statue along with a whole bunch of other old shit got donated to the Metropolis Museum of History after the owner of that stuff kicked the bucket."

"Hmm." Faust pondered the information. "Perhaps a more hands-on approach will be necessary."

"Hey, do whatever you want, it's none of my business." Lawrence replied before draining his glass and setting it back down on the table. "I would wish you luck on your future endeavors, Faust, but we both know that I don't."

As Lawrence stood up to leave, Faust called out to him. "Lawrence, before you leave, I was wondering if you might do me a small favor."

Lawrence turned around and stared at Faust for a moment, before shaking his head. "Fine. What do you want."

"Would you be so kind as to return my money and then go into the men's room, take that pistol out of your pocket, and blow your brains out?"

Lawrence's eyes widened and his body seized up as Faust's telepathic command went to work rewiring his brain to carry out the order. Or at least that's what was supposed to happen. After a few seconds had passed Lawrence began to relax, a smile crossing his face as he started laughing.

"You're a real riot, Dekan. Did you really think I'd sit down and do business with you 'mumbo jumbo' types and not make sure I had protection?" Lawrence told him before pulling the collar of his button-up shirt aside to reveal an intricately designed tattoo etched into the flesh of his shoulder. "If you were anywhere near as powerful as you wanted to be, you wouldn't have to pay guys like me to help you steal objects that don't belong to you in the first place."

"Well, it would seem you've outsmarted me, Lawrence." Faust said calmly before a smirk crossed his lips. "Gentlemen!"

The other two bar patrons, one white and the other black, stood up from their table and walked over to where Faust and Lawrence were standing. The glassy-eyed look the two of them held immediately revealed that neither man was in control of their actions. They grabbed Lawrence by his arms, forcing them behind the man's back.

"You're going to have to forgive me, but I'm afraid I have to cut our little meeting short." Faust said as he stood up and started to walk away. "Take him out back and beat him to death, please."

The two men dragged the struggling Lawrence to the bar's back door. The bartender and waitress, their minds under the same magical coercion as the two bar patrons, never even paused in their conversation to look in the direction of the man fighting to free himself.

---

It had only taken a couple of hours swinging through the beautiful city before Peter figured out that web-slinging in Metropolis was going to be a little different than what he was used to back in New York. The night started out on a pretty good note... depending on your point of view. Peter had stopped an older man from being mugged, captured a couple of jerks who had been robbing a liquor store at gunpoint, and left the police a webbed-up present who had been trying to steal someone's catalytic converter. Not a bad showing, but as his patrol moved him further out of the Southside district, and into the more prosperous sections of Metropolis' New Troy borough, Peter noticed a drop in the presence of the criminal element. The streets in this section of the borough were cleaner, the older homes and neighborhoods giving way to taller and more modern buildings. It was clear that this part of Metropolis benefited from a significant presence of law enforcement. If things stayed quiet like they were, then he might just head back to the warehouse and call it an early night.

"Aaaaaaaahhhhhh!"

Or maybe not.

Peter swung off towards the source of the screaming and found an older man getting wailed on by two larger guys in an alleyway. That being said, even though he was getting his ass kicked, the older man was putting up enough of a fight for it not to be one-sided. He might have even had a chance if one of the men hadn't been caught in the back with a thrown trash can. The man got knocked down onto his hands and knees, leaving him vulnerable to the kicks and punches the two men began laying into him.

"And just when I was about to call it a night!" Peter shouted as he swung down and landed a dropkick on one of the assailants. The force of the impact was strong enough to knock the man into a brick wall and he crumpled down onto the ground unconscious. The second assailant didn't even flinch at his partner being taken out and continued to beat on the older man like Peter wasn't even there.

"Hey, I'm talking to you!" Peter's words went unnoticed and the guy kept beating on the downed older man. "Alright, fine, have it your way!"

Peter fired a webline at the man's back and pulled hard. The man stumbled backward, letting go of his victim as he struggled to regain his balance. A spinning heel kick to the side of the head took care of that problem and the man joined his partner in dreamland.

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how we resolve conflict peacefully." Peter quipped before turning his attention back to the man who had been beaten. "Hey, sir, are you alright? Do you want me to take you to a hospital?"

Lawrence looked up, his vision blurred as his eyes focused on the figure above him. "Y-your soul..."

"Huh?" Peter's face scrunched up in confusion under his mask.

"Y-your soul...is... is in danger..."

"My what is in what? From what?!" Peter asked, but before the older man could answer Peter felt his Spider-Sense go off. He turned around to see a man standing in the doorway behind him. As much of a silhouette as the doorway provided, Peter could tell the man was a few inches shorter than he was. However, his clothes were layered, concealing his actual size. The man was also wearing a fedora pulled low which concealed most of his facial features. "And you are?"

"Hmmm, not what I expected, but still, you will do quite nicely." Faust said.

"I'm sorry but we're fresh out of whatever it is you're looking for." Peter quipped, taking a couple of steps away from the strange man.

"Listen. I was going to head over to the Metropolis Museum of History and rob it, but how about you do it for me instead." Faust commanded as he performed several quick gestures with his hands and whispered something under his breath.

"...Okay." Peter responded, his tone now devoid of any of its normal energy and with a dull expression on his masked face.

"Come along now. So much to do, so little time to do it." Faust instructed before leading Peter out of the alley and leaving Lawrence to pass out from his injuries.

---

Metropolis History Museum
Later

The halls of the Metropolis History Museum stood silent as John Hadley, a security guard with ten years on the job, walked through the building on one of his hourly patrols. While it could get boring checking the same windows and entrances over and over, night after night, John preferred the monotony that brought over the kind of excitement Metropolis tended to experience nowadays. The last spot on his patrol was the museum's front entrance. He tugged at each of the handles on the entrance's heavy glass double doors to make sure they were still firmly locked. Satisfied that everything inside the building was as it should be, John pulled his radio off of his belt and pressed the talk button.

"Front entrance secure. All clear." John reported, his voice a low murmur in the quiet building. "Heading back to the security station."

"Roger that." A female voice responded over the radio.

John released the talk button on his radio and clipped it back onto his belt before turning around and making his way back to the security station. As his footsteps faded down the corridor, a subtle change stirred in the air. Moments later the glass doors of the main entrance swung open without a sound as Peter and Faust walked inside.

"I want you to find this and bring it back to me." Faust ordered as he handed the photo of the statuette to Peter. "If anyone gets in your way, eliminate them."

Peter's face remained devoid of any emotion as he looked at the photo of his objective and nodded. He leaped up to the ceiling and crawled across it down the corridor, leaving Faust behind as he disappeared into the darkness.

'Soon.'Faust thought, a sinister smile gracing his lips as he turned and walked back out of the building to wait.

---

The museum was dark and quiet as Peter made his way through the building searching for the statue. The magic controlling his mind forced Peter to follow the commands of Faust, but it allowed him to act in a manner that was still in line with his normal behavior. In this case, Peter's preferred use of stealth when searching through places he shouldn't be in allowed him to move unseen through the museum's hallways and corridors. Even when he found himself crawling on the ceiling above one of the museum's guards, the man didn't notice a thing. Eventually, Peter's search brought him to the wing of the museum, which hosted artifacts from European history. In the section of the room displaying exhibits from Greek and Roman cultures, he spotted the object he'd been sent to retrieve.

Peter dropped down from the ceiling, landing with near silence, and made his way over to the exhibit. He looked around for a moment, but his Spider-Sense was never triggered, revealing to him that there were no hidden alarms that might be triggered if he acted. With that thought in mind, Peter fired off a webline and snatched the statuette from the pedestal it was displayed on.

Just as Peter was about to jump back to the ceiling so he could leave without being seen he felt a low buzz from his Spider-Sense warning him that he was no longer alone.

"Pretty sure that doesn't belong to you, handsome." A voice spoke up from behind him.

Peter spun around, coming face to face with a beautiful woman standing on the other side of the room. She was a little shorter than him and had a slender, but athletic build as well as medium-length wavy black hair. The most unique thing about the woman was not her looks, but rather the outfit she was wearing. A black coat with tails over a pair of black spandex shorts, a white single-breasted shirt, black fishnet stockings, and matching thigh-high boots. A satin bow tie, white gloves, and an honest-to-God top hat completed her ensemble.

"You don't strike me as the 'sword and sorcery' type." the woman quipped, her tone playful, as she looked him over. "You want to tell me why you're trying to steal that statue?"

Peter didn't answer, his mind under the control of Faust's magic had no desire to respond to her questions.

"Playing the strong, silent type, huh? I can work with that." she said before pulling out a card from her coat pocket. "How about this, if you give me the statue, I'll give you my number."

The woman's confessed desire to possess the statue marked her as a threat to his mission. Peter's brain, under the influence of Faust's magic, demanded that he eliminate that threat.

Without any sort of hesitation, Peter launched himself across the room towards the woman, his right hand drawn back to deliver a lethal punch. The woman's eyes widened at his aggressive approach, her expression changing from a confident smile to one of shock at his incredible agility. As his fist aimed for her head, the woman managed to pull a large black cane seemingly from thin air and deflect his attack. Still, the force behind the blow threw her off balance, a fact the mind-controlled Web-Slinger took advantage of to press the attack.

Peter fired a web at the woman to trap her but she said something he couldn't hear and suddenly a translucent shield with strange symbols on it appeared in front of her, blocking the webbing. He tried punching her again, this time aiming for her stomach, only for another shield to block that attack as well. Peter heard her speak more gibberish right before metal chains wrapped around his body and restrained him.

"Now see what you made me do. You could have just given me the statue. We could have gone out for a little dinner, a little dancing, and then we could have capped the night off with fireworks. Instead, somebody had to go and be a jerk about it." The woman quipped.

Peter struggled against the chains constricting his body. The woman looked surprised to see that he was easily able to remain standing. If he had been more familiar with her, he'd have known that the weight of chains wrapped around him usually drained the fight out of her opponents by the sheer exhaustion of trying to carry something so heavy. However, his strength was not natural and as such, it was nothing too difficult for him to handle.

"What are you-" the woman started before Peter flexed his powerful muscles and snapped the metal links of the chain. Her eyes widened in surprise at his sheer strength before he lunged at her once more. This time she was ready for Peter's incredible agility as she gestured at him with the cane and yelled out an incantation. "HSAMS!"

Peter was instantly blasted through the air by an unseen force, the statue being knocked free of his grip. He flew into a wall and landed with a solid thud, a painful groan being torn from him by the impact. The woman approached him cautiously, another spell ready to be fired off. Peter, still under the thrall of Faust's magic, slowly got back to his feet. He remained silent, his mind focused solely on retrieving the statue and eliminating anything that got in between that.

"Something's not right here." she said thoughtfully.

Peter didn't respond to the comment and instead rushed her. Before he could close into striking distance, Peter jumped up, flipping over the woman and firing a webline at her shoulder. The woman easily dodged it, but the repositioning to avoid it left her in perfect position for the webline he fired off from the web-shooter on his left arm. The sticky rope of webbing attached to the boot of the leg she had pivoted on and Peter pulled hard, yanking her off balance. She hit the ground hard, her cane rolling away from her.

Peter charged his seemingly disarmed opponent ready to land the final blow. What he didn't know was that the cane wasn't the weapon he needed to be worried about, she was.

"Tahw seog pu..." she said as a green glow surrounded Peter and his body shot up in the air like a rocket. The unexpected motion caught him completely by surprise and the momentum slammed him into the ceiling, knocking him senseless. "...Tsum emoc nwod!" the woman finished, sending Peter crashing back to the ground.

The displaced New Yorker groaned in pain, his vision blurry as he pushed himself up. Despite the agony his body was in, Peter's mind was still focused on killing the woman.

"Got to give you props. You are one determined guy." the woman complimented as she looked down at the statue she'd recovered. "Why is this thing so important to you?" When Peter once again refused to answer her question, she realized that Peter's refusal to speak might not have been by choice.

Peter had finally gotten himself into a sitting position and was getting ready to lunge at her again. He didn't get very far though, as the woman looked back at him and uttered, "Peels ekil a ybab."

Peter's body froze mid-motion and he slumped face-first onto the floor. As the magically induced drowsiness overcame his enhanced body, the last thing he saw before the grip of unconsciousness took him was the woman's boots when she stopped to stand over him.

---

Morning

'This bed feels so nice and comfy.' Peter thought as he snuggled deeper into the comforter.

For a moment, he allowed himself to luxuriate in the softness against his tired body. Then, reality began to creep back in as he remembered he didn't own a bed this soft. His eyes snapped open and he quickly sat up in the bed as he took in his new surroundings. Sunlight filtered through the partially drawn curtains of a tastefully decorated hotel room. It looked like the kind of place where rich businessmen and politicians stayed when they were in town for a conference... or visiting their mistress.

Before Peter could continue his perusal of the room, the door to the bathroom opened and a familiar figure emerged.

"Well, hello there, sleepyhead. Guess you finally decided to join us." the woman said as she walked into the room wearing a fluffy white robe and running a towel through her damp hair. "How are you feeling? No headache or nausea?"

"What? How... when... where-" Peter sputtered out as he tried to put all the questions swirling around in his head into actual words.

"Why?" the woman finished for him. Peter lifted a confused brow at her casual attitude as she grabbed two cups sitting on the table and brought one over for him. "Here, you look like you could use some coffee."

"Thanks." Peter said as he took the offered cup and sipped the drink. "...Wow, that's really good."

"You're welcome." the woman smiled as she sipped her espresso. "It's not too often that I'm the one buying the drinks."

"So, um, where am I?" Peter asked, the coffee starting to help clear the cobwebs from his head.

"My suite at the Lexor Hotel. Don't worry, you're safe now."

"Cool." Peter said before taking another sip of his drink. "Guess that leaves the questions of who are you, why am I so woozy, what am I doing here, and most importantly, why am I in your bed?"

"My name is Zatanna Zatara." the woman said to introduce herself, a playful smile spread across her lips. "As for why you feel woozy, that would be the after-effects of my spell. And the reason why you're in my bed is because I needed a place to put you while I took a shower.

"Right." Peter said as he reached up to scratch the itch on his nose only to realize that he hadn't been wearing his mask. "...You took off my mask."

"Of course I did. I couldn't exactly make sure your face wasn't bruised up with that thing on, could I?" Zatanna said, pointing out the obvious.

"You can't just take off my mask like that!" Peter exclaimed as he pulled the covers up in some weird attempt to hide his secret identity from the woman who'd been taking care of his unconscious body for the last few hours. "T-There's rules for this kind of thing! It's in the superheroes handbook for dummies!"

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I have no idea who you are amongst the billions of guys on the planet." Zatanna laughed before turning serious. "Listen, and this is very important, do you remember how you got here?"

Peter became very pensive as he tried to remember what happened. "Well, let's see. I remember swinging around the city on patrol, I'm Spider-Man so swinging around on webs is part of my schtick."

"Of course it is." Zatanna muttered with a roll of her eyes.

"Anyway, I saw this guy getting beat up in an alley... and I went to stop it." Things started getting a little hazy for Peter after that. "At least I-I think I did."

"What happened to you after that?" Zatanna prodded.

"There was... there was another guy there. Older, graying hair, wearing a suit." Peter shook his head. "I-I... he... he told me to steal a small statue from some kind of museum." Peter frowned as he remembered more of what the man had told him to do and he looked up at Zatanna in horror. "...He told me to eliminate anyone that got in my way. I-I tried to kill you."

"Yes, you did." Zatanna agreed, nodding her head.

"I'm so sorry." Peter apologized, the shame of his actions filling his voice.

"It's okay, Spider-Man. Whoever this guy is, he had you under a spell that compelled you to follow his orders with a single-minded focus. What happened was not your fault." Zatanna assured him.

"I tried to hurt you."

"You wouldn't be the first cute guy to do so and probably won't be the last." Zatanna teased him.

A blush appeared on Peter's cheeks at Zatanna's proclamation that she found him attractive and he looked away from the gorgeous woman sitting next to him. He fake coughed into his hand to try and get over being flustered at her teasing.

"So, uh, what was the deal about that statue anyway?"

"I'm not sure." Zatanna replied. "It was a statue made in the image of a seer named Xanthe. She lived back during the times of ancient Greece, y'know Zeus and all those guys. Anyways, the statue used to belong to my dad, but after he died a bunch of stuff got stolen from a 'storage locker' he'd owned. A lot of the things stored in there registered on the danger meter, with that statue maxing it out." she explained before standing up and walking over to where she'd hidden it and showed it to Peter. "Which is weird since I don't feel anything malicious coming from this thing. I don't think it can summon anything, but my dad has this warded to hell and back. There's something inside of it he never wanted to get out."

"Evil genie that grants your wish, but instead of giving you a bacon cheeseburger it gives you a veggie burger with tofu bacon." Peter guessed.

Zatanna laughed. "No, not exactly. It's got a warding spell on it that has an intent base trigger."

"A what base what now?"

"It's a magical booby-trap." Zatanna said. "If somebody with ill intent picks up the statue, it'll activate whatever kind of spell Daddy placed on it."

"I guess I know why 'what's-his-face' sent me after it, instead of doing himself."

"Mm-hmm." Zatanna hummed in agreement. A knock at the door interrupted their conversation, making both Peter and Zatanna glance toward it. Zatanna put the statue down on the bed and got up to answer the door. "That should be the room service I ordered. I figured you might be a little hungry."

"Starving, actually." Peter confirmed as his stomach let out a loud growl, prompting the hero to place a hand over his bare belly.

Zatanna smiled and walked over to the door, her hand reaching for the handle. "Well, I hope you like pancakes and bacon because I ordered the works," she said with a wink. Just as her fingers brushed the doorknob, the door burst open with a violent crash, sending her flying backward.

"ZATANNA!" Peter exclaimed as he jumped out of the bed to help her.

Several hotel employees charged into the room, their faces twisted into expressions of unnatural rage as they moved to attack the duo. Peter's first instinct was to use his web-shooters to take them down. Unfortunately, Peter didn't know where Zatanna had put them so he was forced to go hand to hand. Leaping in front of her to block the intruders from the downed sorceress, Peter delivered a hard roundhouse kick to the first employee. It should have dropped the man cold, but instead, it only staggered him.

"Spider-Man, be careful!" Zatanna warned. "Those people are being controlled by low-level demons called 'Shades'. They don't have a physical form, so they have to take a host."

Peter dodged several wild swings from their attackers before replying. "Well, isn't that peachy!" he exclaimed, throwing a punch that connected with a jaw. The hit didn't even seem to bother the man, he just kept swinging. "Want to tell me why punching them in the face isn't working?"

"The demons don't feel anything, but the people they're possessing do." Zatanna told him before blasting one of their attackers away with a spell. "We need to exorcise the spirits without harming the hosts."

"Any ideas?" Peter asked as he ducked a swipe that almost took off his head and turned it into a leg sweep.

"I need you to keep them off me while I cast the exorcism spell." Zatanna instructed, her voice calm and focused despite the chaos around them.

"Got ya!" he cried as he flipped over the head of one of the possessed employees. He grabbed the man by the shoulders and used the momentum of his jump to flip him and toss him out the broken door. Peter then kicked one of the attackers in the back and spun around to deliver a powerful back-fist, dropping the woman. "You've got until the count of three!"

"Ot stirips gindih dniheb tneconni ecaf... " Zatanna began chanting. A glowing blue orb started growing between her spread hands. "...I llac ot eht tsoh sluos ot tcejer siht nosiop..." The light from the blue orb grew in intensity bathing the room in a blue aura. "...Dnes ssenluof kcab ot krad stip morf hcihw ti denwaps."

Peter could see black wisps of smoke coming off of the possessed people's bodies as the blue aura spread over them.

As animalistic as Shade demons were, there was enough intelligence to realize when they were in danger. Knowing that they were about to be destroyed one of the demons broke off from the pack, going for their real target which rested unguarded on the bed. The possessed man grabbed the statuette, only for the protection cast on it by Giovanni Zatara to activate. An inhuman scream of pain escaped from his mouth as the veins inside the host's hand bulged grotesquely. The magic continued to spread up his arm and through his body, causing the same physical deformity and increasing the pain being caused by the spell. Between Zatanna's exorcism spell and the magic protecting the statuette, the shade's time on this plane was all but over, but like any wounded animal, it sought to fight against its fate. The shade inside of the man forced its quickly deteriorating host to shamble over to the large window before throwing itself and the statuette through it.

"NO!" Zatanna cried out as she watched the demon jump out the window and send its host to his death, and in essence, escaping with the statuette. Furious at the loss of an innocent man's life, Zatanna's anger charged the spell even further, changing it from a banishing exorcism into a purifying one to destroy the demons inside the other possessed people. "HTIW CITSYM THGIL I DNAMMOC EEHT OT NRUB!"

For Peter and Zatanna, it was like a spotlight had turned on in the room and then expanded outward. The light bathed every square inch of the room, blinding them. For the shade demons possessing the human hosts, that light was like being bathed in the celestial fires of the sun. Their dark essence was burned away from their victims, in a manner that could only be described as a cleansing agony. Once the purifying light faded away, the human hosts were freed with the injuries incurred during their possession their only reminder that something had happened to them.

Zatanna walked over to the window and looked down. As she had feared, only the man's body remained on the ground, The one behind all of this had absconded with the statuette. "Goddamnit!"

---

Zatanna Zatara's Home
San Francisco, CA

A portal opened up just outside the gates of a powder blue Victorian-style home. Moments later, Zatanna and Peter walked through the portal before it closed behind him. Peter couldn't help but stare at the beautiful house and its surroundings. From the architecture alone, he instantly pegged the two of them as being somewhere in San Francisco.

"Wow. This is where you live?" Peter asked as he followed Zatanna through the gates.

"Whenever I'm not out on the road touring." she answered as she unlocked the front door of the home and walked inside. "Home sweet home."

"Swanky place." he said as they stood in Zatanna's foyer.

Zatanna's home was an eclectic blend of mystical artifacts and modern comforts. A perfect style for the modern sorceress always on the go.

"Thanks. You want a drink or something?" Zatanna asked.

"Uh, no, thanks. I'm good." Peter replied.

"Okay. Go ahead and make yourself comfortable." Zatanna said, gesturing to a plush couch. "I need to gather some ingredients for the potion."

Peter sat down on the couch, a couch that probably cost more than three months of his salary at Bugle, and laid back to relax. He tried to rest his tired mind, still processing what happened back at the hotel.

After her exorcism spell had finished, and she made sure the formerly possessed employees would be okay, Zatanna was forced to call the authorities. There had been a moment of panic for Peter since he only had his Spider-Man costume to wear, but a quick clothing spell had him wearing a fashionable pair of jeans and a matching button-up shirt to meet the cops. They'd answered all the requisite questions during which Peter learned that Zatanna seemed to have a reputation with law enforcement. When she told the detective in charge that the deceased employee had been sent to attack them and jumped to his death before she could free him from his possession, he'd actually listened. The detective asked if anyone had threatened either of them, but Zatanna told him that there were plenty of dark magic users who might hold a grudge against her. When Zatanna insinuated that Peter was just a pretty face she'd picked up for a fun night together and that he just got caught up in the crossfire, had him blushing like a tomato and oddly offended at only being a "one-night stand".

Zatanna had brought them back here in an attempt to track down the man responsible for all of this.

"So, how exactly is this potion going to work?" Peter yelled.

Zatanna moved around her kitchen, pulling jars and vials from various cabinets. "When people cast spells on things, a residual of their magical signature lingers, like when someone wearing cologne walks out of the room but you can still smell it. Magic is like a fingerprint, everybody is different, even among family members. When you extract the magic used on something, it can be used to identify the caster or, as in our case, lead you to them." Zatanna explained. "Unfortunately, it also has a decay rate. Wait too long and the only thing a practitioner would be able to do is tell if you've ever been touched by magic or not, which is why I'm in such a rush. Freeing you from this guy's control, sped up the clock on an already short time frame. You might feel a bit... strange after drinking it but don't worry. It's just the magic working."

"Strange how?" Peter asked, raising an eyebrow.

A few minutes later, Zatanna walked into the living room with a mug in her hands. "Nothing too bad. Just think of it like a magical energy drink." she said as she handed him the mug.

Peter looked down at the mud-colored mixture and took a sniff, which he instantly regretted. "Smells like old gym socks."

"Sorry about that. Unfortunately, it tastes like it too." Zatanna told him, trying not to laugh at his face.

"It's fine. I'm sure I've eaten worse." Peter muttered.

Peter took a breath before throwing the contents of the mug down his throat. Immediately, he could taste the foul, bitter, and musty flavor. The reality-displaced hero had to fight the urge to immediately spit the disgusting brew back out and instead swallowed it.

"Oh my god!" Peter gagged. "I don't want my tongue anymore!"

Zatanna gave a sympathetic wince. "I did say it was gonna taste bad, right?"

Peter threw a withering look at the magician, who was obviously enjoying his reaction. "How long will it take to start working?"

"That depends on the individual the spell was cast on and the magical power that was used to do it." she answered.

"Got a deck of cards we-" Peter was interrupted by a sudden discomfort in his belly. That feeling quickly changed to a growing warmth growing within him. "I-I think it's starting to work."

"You okay?" Zatanna asked as she watched Peter's face scrunch up as though he was trying to poop.

"Yeah. Just a little weird feeling." Peter replied. He felt his Spider-Sense start tingling as the warmth spread through his body, leaving a jittery, energetic feeling within him. His senses felt heightened, and for a moment, everything seemed sharper and more vibrant.

"Whoa," he muttered, blinking rapidly. "That's... intense."

She nodded, watching Peter closely. "It's working. Now, sit back and relax, Peter. I'll handle this next part." Zatanna sat cross-legged on the floor in front of him, her eyes closed and hands raised as she began to chant softly. A glowing eye formed in the center of her forehead moments before she opened her eyes and stared into his own. "Laever s'retep arua!"

Zatanna's words sounded like they'd been whispered directly into his brain, but before Peter could voice his observation, his skin began glowing. The glow increased in intensity, before floating off of him like embers from a fire. These "embers" gathered together and coalesced into a large cloud of colors, floating above him.

Zatanna examined the shimmering cloud of colors floating above, trying to identify the traces of the dark magic left behind by their magic user. As she studied his aura though, she started noticing abnormalities that confused her. There were colors in his aura that didn't make sense for someone who wasn't a regular practitioner of magic to have and the shape of his aura had formed in a way unlike anything she'd seen before.

"Something wrong, Zatanna?" Peter asked, his voice bringing her back to reality.

"No, nothing. Just... looking at something," Zatanna answered, trying not to show her concern. She moved her hands, gently manipulating the aura cloud to get a better view. "You... Peter, how did you get your powers?"

"It was an accident." Peter told her. "I was at a science exhibit watching a demonstration for a device called the Neogenic Recombinator. It was designed to manipulate and control the genetic structure of living things. A spider wandered into the middle of the demonstration and it was mutated by the Recombinator. That same spider bit me and passed on its mutations, altering my body at the DNA level."

"A genetic mutation?" Zatanna repeated as she looked at the aura.

"Yeah. Why?" he asked.

"Because there are anomalies in your aura and one of them is consistent with someone who's been influenced by a higher being." Zatanna said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Peter looked at her and raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "Are you saying a 'god' gave me superpowers?"

"No." she answered, shaking her head. "At least not in the way you're thinking. It's more like whoever this entity was, chose you to be bitten by that spider. I think it was your destiny to become Spider-Man."

Peter stared dumbly at Zatanna after her revelation. "...Any idea why?"

Zatanna shrugged, her eyes still fixed on the aura cloud. "It could be for any number of reasons. Maybe it saw something in you or maybe there was a greater cosmic plan. Spirits and higher beings often have motives that are beyond our understanding."

"Great," Peter muttered, "so I'm not just a regular guy with spider powers. I'm the chosen one."

Zatanna couldn't help but smile at his sarcasm. "There's more to it, though. Your aura is... different. It's not just about the connection to this entity. There's something else, something... different."

Peter saw Zatanna make another gesture with her hands right before he felt the familiar tingling of his Spider-Sense. The low warning buzz continued for a few moments as a frown grew on Zatanna's face.

"You're like a puzzle piece that doesn't fit." Zatanna stated.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Peter asked.

"It's like... you're out of sync with the rest of the world." she told him. "The colors in your aura are completely backward and the patterns I'm seeing inside of it shouldn't exist in a mortal being. You don't make sense!"

"What?" Peter said, confused by her declaration.

"I'm seeing things similar to what I've seen in beings originating from a different dimension, but it's like it's written in a different language. It's like trying to write cursive English using Japanese kanji. The only way this makes sense is if your metaphysical being was based on an entirely different..." Zatanna trailed off as the realization of what she'd discovered dawned on her.

"Zatanna? You doing okay?" Peter asked. He didn't need to be a detective to realize that she might have just discovered he wasn't from the neighborhood.

"Holy fucking shit..." Zatanna whispered as her eyes kept switching between looking at his aura cloud and his face.

"I-I, uh, I can explain. See, um, I'm from-" Peter stuttered.

"-Another reality." Zatanna said in awe, cutting him off.

Peter nodded. "Yeah, that."

"I didn't think that this was possible." Zatanna said as she looked at his aura like it was the answer to life's greatest mysteries. "I mean sure, alternate dimensions are a thing, but they all work by the same metaphysical rules. It's similar to how the rules of law can differ between countries. Over here we drive on the right side of the road, while across the pond, they drive on the left. All the anomalies and discrepancies in your aura. It makes perfect sense!" Zatanna exclaimed.

"Okay, good. I'm glad I don't make sense." Peter joked.

Zatanna rolled her eyes at his sarcasm before looking at him with genuine curiosity. "Peter, you're living proof that the multiverse exists! What's your world like? Is it different from how it is here?"

"Not really. In fact, except for some slight changes in detail, it's a lot like this world." Peter explained.

"Like what?"

"Well, there's a lot more superheroes back home than there are here. Like a LOT more." Peter said. "Also, the President is a black woman. That's pretty awesome. Oh, I'm also not dead either."

"Wait. What?" Zatanna exclaimed, surprised. "What do you mean, you're not dead?"

"The Peter Parker of this world, he died from an infected spider bite." Peter clarified. "I guess that goes hand in hand with your 'destiny' theory."

"I'm sorry you're dead, I guess," she said sympathetically.

"It's fine. He had a hard life and now he's at peace with his family." Peter told her. "I figured once I got settled, I could use Peter-2's information to build a new life off of."

"I know someone that could help you with the whole 'new identity' thing," Zatanna offered.

Peter thought it over. Having an identity would definitely help him when it came to having funds, that money he took from those guys who tried to mug him was running dangerously low.

"You'd be willing to help me? Even after all of this?" Peter asked.

Zatanna gave him a warm smile. "If you can't lend a hand to a fellow hero who's fallen on hard times, then what are you fighting for?"

Peter smiled and held his hand out to Zatanna. "Thank you. It means a lot."

Zatanna took his hand and gave him a friendly squeeze. "Don't mention it."

The two held hands for a moment longer before realizing what they were doing. Both of them broke contact and avoided eye contact with the other, blushing slightly.

"So, did you find what you were looking for?" Peter asked, changing the subject.

"Oh, right." Zatanna said, getting up off the floor and pulling an empty vial from her pocket. "Tcartxe cigam."

As Zatanna's incantation echoed softly in the room, the aura above Peter shimmered before a sliver of inky blackness was drawn from the cloud and pulled into the vial.

"Is it just my paranoia working or is oily blackness not of the good?" Peter asked, pointing to the vial.

"No, it means pretty much what you think it means. Whoever cast that spell on you is a very bad person." Zatanna answered. She walked over to a world map hanging on her wall and grabbed a push pin out of a jar. She dipped the pin in the oily black liquid and whispered, "Tniop ot noitacol."

As Zatanna spoke, the tip of the pin began to glow bright red before it was launched forward out of her hand, piercing the map. Zatanna walked over and saw the pin stuck to the map, indicating the person they were after was located somewhere in the southwest of England. It only took a few seconds for Zatanna to figure out what was so special about that general location.

"Figures." she whispered.

"Care to share with the rest of the class?" Peter asked.

Zatanna turned her gaze away from the map to look back at him from over her shoulder. "You ever been to Stonehenge?"

---

Wiltshire, England
Later

Stonehenge was one of the great wonders of the ancient world. People from all over the globe came to visit the ancient site Located in a field in the county of Wiltshire, England, the site was a place of mystical power as several ley lines converged beneath the massive stones. For centuries, people gifted with the mystic arts have used this place for both good and evil. Evil beings with incredible power were defeated in this place by champions of good Men and women channeling the planet's natural life force that leaked out of the thin barrier between the realms of the magical and the mundane.

Tonight, it would be the site where Faust's ascension to godhood would finally be achieved.

Felix Faust had been one of the most powerful sorcerers alive back in his time. Even death was not enough to stop the necromancer. Passing through the centuries as a disembodied spirit might have robbed him of his physical might, but it did nothing to lessen the man's intellect. He knew of ways that he could return to the land of the living and, once there, the means to place him back at the top of the food chain. Dekan Drache was that way.

Dekan was like most modern practitioners of the mystic arts, greedy and always on the lookout for an easier way to gather more power. Though his own power was only mediocre when compared to other magic users, Dekan was the kind of person to always one to rush into things. That hunger to have more made him an easy target for Faust. When Faust promised Dekan that he could increase the power his body possessed tenfold, the man wasted little time in accepting the sorcerer's deal. The fact that Faust neglected to explain to Dekan that his power would only increase AFTER the ancient sorcerer's soul took over his body, destroying his own in the process, was what happened when one made Faustian bargains.

With the moon at its peak in the night sky, Faust had everything he needed for his ceremony.

"My minions, heed my words." Faust said as he turned from the pedestal in front of him to the dozens of zombified corpses shambling around the area. "Destroy anything that gets near us. Nothing shall interrupt me tonight. If they are foolish enough to attempt it, rip their bodies apart and feast on their entrails."

The zombies moaned in a pseudo-acknowledgment of his order. Given that they were reanimated corpses of dead humans, many of their higher brain functions were not restored when they were raised from the graves and bestowed a twisted form of life, but many of the same primal instincts that animals shared, so too did humans. These abominations might not know how to plan out thoughtful stratagems for battle, but the natural instincts of fight or flight were still active within the creatures, allowing them to be able to react in such a manner.

Faust returned his attention back to the pedestal and picked up the case holding the statuette, a clever way to get past the relic's defensive spells. "Revelare te." the ancient sorcerer chanted.

The air around the statue shimmered and rippled for a second before the spells that Zatanna's father had warded it with collapsed. The statuette disintegrated into a pile of dust before Faust pushed the debris aside to reveal a dark green gemstone that had been hidden inside the statuette for millennia.

The Heart of Cronus was an item from time immemorial. No one was truly sure of the gem's origin. Whether or not it actually was the heart of the Titan, Cronus, none could say. What could not be denied though was its incredible power. With it in their possession, Mortals could reshape the world into whatever form they desired. They could sway the minds of people with the same ease as it took to breathe. With the Heart bolstering their strength, they could stand toe to toe with the gods of ancient myths and legends. The last person to wield the Heart was a sorcerer who sought to rule the world and challenged the King of the Gods himself. The battle left Zeus tired and with minor injuries, but it showed the true power the Heart of Cronus could bestow on a being. Most of its energy had been spent during the cataclysmic battle with the Olympian, leaving it to become a beautiful gem to be coveted for the wealth it could provide as it passed hands down through the ages. The seer Xanthe once spoke of its restoration during the 3rd Century BC, but none heeded her warning since its existence had long turned to myth by that point in history. What irony then that the Heart's resting place would eventually be a statue made in her very image.

"At last." Faust whispered, taking the gem and holding it in his hands. The jewel was cold to the touch, but the sorcerer felt the barest hints of the power it once possessed. He placed the stone back on the pedestal before he sat down on the ground before it in the cross-legged position. Faust began the incantation that would pierce the barrier between worlds, allowing its energies to flow freely which he would then channel into the jewel to restore it to its full strength.

---

Meanwhile, Zatanna and Peter had just arrived at the outskirts of the ancient site. Luck had been on their side since the immediate area was saturated with so much magic, that their arrival through a portal Zatanna had conjured went completely unnoticed. Right now, she was using a pair of magically constructed binoculars to observe the situation at Stonehenge.

Dozens of zombies were scattered around the area, guarding the perimeter.

"What's the situation?" Peter asked as he looked off in the distance toward the ancient monument.

"He's brought a lot of moaning friends with him." Zatanna quipped as she watched the shambling corpses.

"Is this a cliche? This feels like a cliche?" Peter muttered before he turned more serious. "How many do you think there are?"

"Too many for a straightforward attack." Zatanna replied. "But we don't have a lot of time to waste trying the quiet approach either."

Peter nodded. "I'm all for a plan that gets us past them without me becoming zombie chow."

Zatanna hummed in agreement as she tried to figure out the fastest way in and then her eyes lit up with an idea. She walked over to Peter and placed her hands on the spider symbol of his costume. She closed her eyes as she slowly drew in the magic of the surrounding area to power her spell.

"Uh, Zatanna, what you doing?" Peter asked, nervously.

"Shh." she replied. "I need to concentrate."

"Um, okay."

After a few seconds, Zatanna opened her eyes and chanted, "Sselb siht nam htiw yloh htgnerts os that eh yam ekirts nwod sih seof htiw suoethgir thgim."

A soft glow surrounded Peter as arcane symbols appeared all around his body. He felt a rush of energy surge through like he just downed the biggest pot of coffee ever made.

"Whoa. What did you just do?" Peter asked, feeling giddy.

"Just a little something that should help even the odds a bit." Zatanna replied. "If he wants to bring out zombies, then I can pull out a paladin."

Peter looked at his hands and realized that he was glowing. He could feel his cells vibrating faster than they ever had before. He felt like he could do anything, leap over a building in a single bound or run a mile in ten seconds.

"This is awesome!"

"The spell is just temporary, so don't let it go to your head." she explained. "But for the next ten minutes, every punch or kick you land will have the same blessed effect as if Jesus Christ himself was bitch slapping those things."

"I'm on mob duty then." Peter surmised.

"Yep. While you're dealing with them, I'll handle the one behind all of this. I don't know what he has planned, but I'll need my full focus if I'm going to stop him."

"Okay, let's do this." Peter said before he started walking in the direction of Stonehenge. He had only taken a couple of steps forward when he was stopped by Zatanna pulling him back to her by his arm. "What's up?"

"That power-up wasn't the plan I came up with to get us in there. That was just to give you something to help you fight better." Zatanna said.

"So, what is the plan?"

Zatanna smiled before she took him by the hand and said, "Ylf ekil a tekcor!"

The two of them shot into the sky at incredible speed as they flew higher and higher. The arc of their magically induced flight guaranteed they'd land right in the middle of the site. As they started falling back to the ground they could see the one responsible for everything sitting cross-legged in front of a pedestal with a glowing green stone atop it.

"Glowing is a bad thing right?" Peter shouted.

"Very bad!" Zatanna confirmed.

As they got closer to the ground, Peter realized that Zatanna wasn't attempting to slow their descent.

"You can start slowing us down at any time now!" Peter shouted as they continued to plummet.

"That's not part of the plan." Zatanna shouted as any effort to try and maintain stealth would be wasted effort because of their close proximity.

The one who was obviously in charge, if the long, dark-colored robes and matching headdress with a golden coronet were any indication, looked up as they descended toward the ground, not the least bit concerned. The zombies had also noticed their arrival and were beginning to gather up to attack them.

"Zatanna, now would be the time to slow us down!"

"Citetnik Egrahcsid!" Zatanna shouted.

The moment Peter and Zatanna touched down on the ground, Zatanna's spell transferred the force of what would have been a crash landing and turned it into a massive shockwave that spread out from their impact zone. The zombies directly underneath where they landed, and within two feet of it, were completely destroyed by the shockwave generated by their impact. Many of the others were knocked off their feet or thrown back, including Faust who was pushed back several yards away.

"Nice entrance." Peter commented as he stood up in the crater they'd formed and saw their devastating effect on Faust's forces.

"They felt our impact for us." Zatanna said as she stretched out her body. "You know, science."

Peter blinked owlishly before he suddenly leaped over Zatanna and landed a heel kick right into the face of a zombie that had been charging toward her. The creature's head was completely destroyed with the rest of its body following immediately after as the entire zombie exploded into ash. "Uh, was that supposed to happen?"

"Paladin. Remember?" Zatanna said before she fired off twin blasts of mystical energy at a pair of zombies approaching her, destroying them.

"Got ya." Peter called out before he leaped into the fray and started tearing through Faust's undead minions like a hot knife through butter. The zombies crumbled under Peter's incredible strength with each of his mystically empowered blows causing the decayed flesh and bones to disintegrate into dust.

A roundhouse kick to one, transitioning into a backhand blow to another, then a spinning butterfly kick that took out a trio of the undead creatures. After years of experience with his Spider-Sense alerting him to potential danger, Peter had long since learned to follow the preternatural instinct, allowing him to evade the wild swings and attempts to grab onto him. Despite their numbers, there was no coordination or thought in the creatures' attacks, there was only the desire to consume. This lack of higher intelligence made it easier for Peter to allow his body to go on a sort of Spider-Sense-guided "autopilot". There was no conscious thought involved in the way his arms, legs, and fists flew through the air, but the results were the same. Zombie after zombie was felled by his fists and feet.

"That's amazing." Zatanna muttered as she watched him tear through the zombies.

"Yes, yes, yes. It is a very impressive display." Faust said sarcastically, getting back up from the ground. He didn't appear to have suffered any major injuries from their opening attack. However, his irritation at their interruption was quite obvious. "Stupid girl! You have no idea who you have challenged on this night!"

"A heartless psycho with delusions of grandeur, who's probably going to get his ass handed to him in the next couple of minutes." Zatanna retorted.

"I am Felix Faust and you will rue the day you ever crossed my path." Faust snarled. "Fulgur Sagitta!"

A giant arrow made of pure lightning emerged from Faust's hands and shot out toward Zatanna, but the young woman was already casting a spell of her own.

"Citsym Dleihs tcetorp em!" Zatanna countered.

Her spell created a shimmering blue dome that surrounded her. The force field appeared just in a nick of time as the bolt of electricity slammed into the shield, creating a crackling discharge upon impact. Some of the discharged energy splashed onto some of the nearby zombies, destroying them instantly.

"Impressive. For a child." Faust said before his mouth opened inhumanely wide and he unleashed a torrent of fire straight at her.

Zatanna was quick to respond as she dropped her protective spell and shouted, "Ordyh tsalb!"

An enormous blast of water fired out from her hands and clashed against the flames, causing steam to erupt from the two elements' conflict. The two powerful spells were locked in a stalemate, the fire's heat and destructive power equally matched by the water's immense pressure. However, Zatanna's stamina was beginning to wane under the strain of the continuous use of the water spell. Faust was in a similar state as her, but If he could keep the intensity up for a little while longer, he could overpower the witch and destroy her.

Zatanna gritted her teeth and began to channel more of her will and power into the spell, but the torrent of flames was growing stronger. The stalemate was quickly shifting in Faust's favor. Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, Zatanna spotted something moving through the air toward Faust. The ancient sorcerer didn't take notice until the last second before the body of a zombie Peter had thrown at him slammed into him and knocked him down. The unexpected attack caused him to lose focus on his spell and he was blasted across the ancient grounds by the force of her attack.

"You're welcome." Peter shouted as he webbed a couple of zombies together and used them like a makeshift weapon to take out another group of undead.

"Thanks." Zatanna panted, wiping the sweat off her brow. She knew that Peter's attack wouldn't keep Faust down for long so she called on her magic and summoned two giant stones from the ground. "Skcor bmotne mih!"

The rocks lifted off the ground and rose into the air before they were launched toward Faust. He was about to conjure up another spell before they crashed down on top of him, trapping him underneath their considerable weight.

"You should stay down this time, Faust." she warned as she took a moment of respite to catch her breath. The sound of something landing behind her caused her to tense up, another spell on the tip of her tongue and ready to be released, when she heard Peter speak up.

"Is he finally down?" Peter asked, causing Zatanna to let out a sigh of relief.

"I don't know, but here's to hoping." Zatanna said before looking around at the rest of the battlefield. "What about you? Zombies taken care of?"

"All good here." Peter replied, a little tired, but no worse for wear. "And thanks again for the refills on my web cartridges. I'd have hated trying to deal with all of this with the couple of cartridges I had left."

"No problem. I-"

"You fools think that it's over, don't you?" the voice of Faust interrupted.

Both heroes turned to look at the giant stones that Faust was trapped beneath glowing with an unnatural red light.

"Um, that's not a good sign is it?" Peter asked as he felt his Spider-Sense start tingling at an 11.

The rocks suddenly exploded, pieces of debris scattering in all directions, as Faust floated up into the air. Not only was the Heart of Cronus now in his hand, he was looking angrier than ever.

"You interrupted the ritual before the Heart of Cronus could be fully restored, but even the minuscule amount of power it currently possesses was more than enough to make me into a demigod." Faust declared, his voice having taken on a distinctive flanging effect that sounded as if there were two of him speaking at the same time.

As a display of his newfound power, Faust simply gestured with a hand before a wave of telekinetic force sent them flying into one of the stone pillars. They hit it with enough force that the air was knocked out of their lungs before they crashed back to the ground.

"This is not how I was expecting the day to go." Peter groaned.

"Par for the course for me." Zatanna muttered.

Faust looked at the two of them with disdain in his eyes, like they weren't even fit enough to be in his presence. He raised both hands up into the air and a storm cloud started forming above them. Flashes of light arced between the dark clouds, with the telltale rumbles of thunder.

"As entertaining as your feeble attempts to deny my ascension have been, the hour is getting late and I do need my uninterrupted eight hours of beauty rest." Faust stated. "So, allow me to put you out of my misery."

Peter's Spider-Sense flared and he quickly picked up Zatanna before leaping away. Mere moments after he'd cleared the area, a giant lightning bolt struck the exact spot they'd been lying in. A charred hole was left behind in the grass, showing the power behind the attack. His Spider-Sense was triggered again and he rolled to the side to avoid the next bolt that had been aimed at them. Lightning strikes repeatedly exploded the ground around them as Peter was forced to stay on the move. If he hesitated for even a moment, it would be game over for the two of them.

"Zatanna, we need to come up with some kind of plan before our gooses are cooked!" Peter shouted, narrowly dodging another lightning strike.

"I know, I know!" Zatanna replied, clinging to Peter for dear life as he continued to jump and roll out of the way of Faust's attacks. "That stone Faust is holding is called the Heart of Cronus. I read about it once in one of my dad's tomes. It can take a mortal and basically turn them into a god."

"If he's so powerful now, then why isn't he snapping his fingers and turning us to dust?"

"Because we interrupted the ritual to restore the Heart's full power." Zatanna answered. "The stories said that it was destroyed, but I guess it was just depowered. It looks like Faust was trying to use the leylines running under Stonehenge to bring it back to full strength. We stopped Faust from finishing the process, but he still managed to infuse it with enough magic to put him in a new weight class."

"So he's only a demigod. And here I was thinking that this would be hard." Peter said, the sarcasm dripping from his words as he bounced off one of the stone pillars to dodge another lightning bolt. "Is this heart thing attached to him or something or can we just snatch it from him?"

"Yeah, but it'll be pretty tricky."

"Tricky how?"

The two took refuge behind another one of the pillars as the barrage of lightning ceased.

"We're out of his weight class, magically speaking, so a head-on fight against him is not a good idea." Zatanna explained. "But if we can distract him long enough to close the distance, we might have a shot." A pensive look came over her face before she continued, "Peter, do you think you could keep him occupied for a bit?"

"Oh sure, I'll just hop over there and we can have a nice, leisurely chat about the weather. That sounds like fun." Peter said dryly.

"I'm going to need you to buy me a few uninterrupted seconds to cast a spell." she told him. "I'm going to tap into the power of the leylines to power the spell and while I'm doing that, I'm going to be completely defenseless. If Faust spots me..."

"Gotcha." Peter replied. He didn't know what Zatanna was planning, but if she was willing to trust him to keep her safe, then he was going to do just that. "Just say the word and I'm there."

Zatanna nodded, grateful that Peter was willing to go along with her plan. "First things first though. Ymmud Annataz rof Retep!"

A full-sized dummy, dressed up to look exactly like her, appeared in Peter's arms. At first glance, it looked just like the real deal. It wasn't until you stared at it for a few moments that you could tell that it was a fake.

"You go left and I'll head right. He'll be focusing on you why I'll be out of the way setting up for our grand finale." she said before giving Peter a quick kiss on the cheek. "Be careful."

"You too, Zatanna."

Zatanna muttered another spell, turning herself invisible, before she hurried off. Once Peter could no longer hear the sound of her footsteps as she ran away, he readied himself.

'Come on, Parker, you've got this. A few seconds, all she needs is a few seconds.'he thought to himself. With a burst of speed that few could match, Peter took off in the opposite direction Zatanna had gone in. He weaved over and around the stone pillars, never giving Faust a clear shot as he dashed across the grounds.

The moment the sorcerer spotted Peter's colorful costume and the decoy he was carrying, magical glyphs formed in the air around him and began rapidly firing bolts of purple energy. Peter jumped, leaped, and slid underneath the bolts, and dodged to the side, using the large slabs of stone for cover. He was barely able to stay one step ahead of the deadly energy projectiles as they rained down around him.

"Why won't you just stay still and die?!" Faust snarled, his patience reaching its breaking point. He made another series of hand gestures before a pair of massive arms exploded from the ground. Those arms were attached to an equally large creature as it pulled itself out of the hole it had created. Made of stone dirt, and wood, the creature was humanoid in appearance but stood at over ten feet tall. The creature was quickly joined by two more of its kind crawling out of the ground.

Peter sighed as the three giants began lumbering toward him. "The hits just keep on coming."

---

When they split up, Zatanna didn't hesitate to put some distance between them as she made a mad dash to find some cover so she could cast her spell. Peter seemed to be doing an admiral job of drawing Faust's attention as she heard the numerous explosions going off behind her. She stayed low and out of the line of fire as she made her way across the makeshift battlefield. She almost got hit by a stray lightning blast, but she managed to find cover to protect herself from the worst of it. Once she felt that she was at a safe enough distance, Zatanna took cover behind one of the standing stones and kneeled on the ground.

"I llac ot esoht degnorw yb eht eno deman Felix Faust. I hceeseb uoy ni rou emit fo deen. dneL su ruoy htgnerts os that ecitsuj yam eb dnuof." Zatanna repeated over and over as she called out to the souls of those Faust had harmed in the past, summoning them from the other side. Soon the sound of whispers started growing louder in her ears and a smile slowly came to her face as the spirits answered her call.

A fog slowly rolled in across the grassy plains. Faust's attention was focused solely on destroying Peter and the stand-in he was holding. By the time he created the golems to try and destroy Peter, the doorway between this life and the next had already been opened.

"What in blazes?" Faust asked, noticing the fog that had begun to envelop the grounds. The fog grew thicker, engulfing the entire area, and causing him to lose sight of the young man and his decoy.

Spectral forms started to take shape within the fog. Some were dressed in garb from the Middle Ages. Others wore clothing that was a bit more modern in design, but they all had one thing in common: an intense hatred toward the man responsible for their untimely ends. They rushed forward as one, washing over the golems Faust had created, and tearing into the creatures with their ghostly hands.

"I don't know what's happening, but I'm hoping it's a good thing." Peter said as he backflipped over a hammer strike from one of the golems that had broken free of the spirit army before leaping forward and landing a rising knee strike to the golem's "face".

More of the ghosts appeared, this time headed for the source of their pain.

Faust snarled in frustration. "Be gone, wretched spirits!" he shouted before making a sweeping motion with his arm and banishing any of the spirits that tried to attack him directly. Still, Faust had lived for a very long time, and there was a long list of people he had harmed during that span. For every spirit that was sent back to the afterlife, there were more to take its place, eager to extract their pound of flesh.

Zatanna ignored all of this as she focused her mind and began to draw power directly from the leylines running underneath her feet. The air around her shimmered like a haze on a hot summer day as she felt the ancient magic filling every fiber of her being. It was an ecstasy she had never felt before and it was intoxicating. She wanted to lose herself in the experience to allow Zatanna to fade and become one with the magic, but she knew that she could not. If she allowed herself to continue down that path the magic would consume her and annihilate her very soul. She opened her eyes and saw a world of colors she could never imagined. The magic that felt like it would burst her from tethered her to the leylines. For these few short moments, Zatanna was the closest thing any human had ever come to being magic itself.

Zatanna climbed back to her feet and walked out from behind the stone pillar, the ghostly fog parting around her like the Red Sea had parted for Moses. Her long raven-colored locks billowed around her on an absent wind with her playful cyan eyes replaced by pure white orbs that glowed with mystical energy. The magic had given Zatanna the power she needed. Now it was time to use it.

"Hguone." she whispered.

The three golems Peter had been facing, suddenly ceased their attempts to break free of their spectral assailants and froze. Their eyes, which had once been glowing with unnatural life, dulled and then extinguished as their massive forms crumbled into heaps of dirt, stone, and wood. Peter looked over in her direction, but Zatanna's attention was solely focused on Faust.

Faust, tired of the ghosts' pathetic attempts to harm him, released a magical flare that cleared the area around him, banishing all of the summoned spirits back to the land of the dead. With the ghosts now dealt with, Faust turned his attention back to them, but he was not expecting what he saw when he finally spotted Zatanna and, for the first time since their battle had begun, felt genuine fear.

"What have you done?" he asked, a tremor of uncertainty creeping into his voice.

"What was necessary." Zatanna replied, her voice sounding like multiple people were speaking at once.

A circle of mystical runes ignited around Faust, blazing with white-hot intensity. Chains of light sprang forth from them, wrapping around his limbs and torso. He struggled against the bindings, but the more he fought, the tighter they became.

"No! You cannot hold me!" Faust bellowed, his voice taking on a similar reverberation to Zatanna's. He clenched his fist around the Heart of Cronus and his entire body glowed a bright red before shockwaves of raw energy burst forth from him. Peter was forced to take cover as one of the shockwaves hit the stone pillar he'd been standing behind, shattering it like it was made out of glass. Still, the chains held. "You stupid brat! How long do you think you can channel that much raw magic before it will destroy you?"

Zatanna didn't bother acknowledging his statement as she looked at Peter and joined her mind to his. Normally, such a spell would have required focus on the caster's part, but with the amount of raw arcane power she was channeling, it came as easy as breathing.

Peter was watching the battle between Zatanna and Faust from the sidelines, waiting for an opening he could exploit when what he could only equate to as a "movie" played out in his mind. He could see himself darting behind one of the stone slabs to slip out of Faust's sightline before he quickly moved behind the sorcerer. Faust and Zatanna threw verbal barbs at one another as the evil magic user again attempted to use the Heart to attack her. The other Zatanna cast a shield to protect herself... then the movie ended.

Peter wasn't sure what the purpose of the vision was, but then Zatanna's voice was in his head. 'Now is your chance, Peter. Go!'

Peter didn't question her or hesitate. He obeyed and ran right for the stone pillar he'd seen the other version of himself hide behind. He waited three seconds before leaving the cover, just like in the "movie". Just as he had seen, the battle between Faust and Zatanna played out the same way, with Faust's main focus being entirely on the magical duel he was having with Zatanna and not on his sneaking around.

"You cannot hope to stop me. This is the dawn of a new age. And you, little girl, will not be alive to see it!" Faust growled as he unleashed twin beams of ruby energy from his eyes.

The beams struck Zatanna's protective sphere, causing her to slide back a bit from the force of the attack. A bit of gleeful laughter escaped Faust's lips as he finally realized the girl had reached her limits; however, it was all a ruse. Zatanna merely wanted his attention focused on her, which is why he never saw the red and blue blur jumping through the air until Peter's hand snatched the Heart out of his grasp.

"What?!"

"Got it!" Peter called out as he landed back on the ground and started running towards Zatanna.

"NO!" Faust screamed, the loss of the Heart visibly weakening him as the red glow that had surrounded him dissipated. He would have fallen back to the ground if he had not been suspended by the chains Zatanna had summoned from the glyphs floating around him. The ethereal chains tightened around him, but it did nothing to diminish his anger. He continued to scream curses as Peter passed the Heart of Cronus to her.

"Here you go, Zee." Peter told her.

"Thanks, Spider-Man." Zatanna said as the stone was placed into her hands. She immediately felt the power still radiating from within the stone, but with a flare of her mystical might, she discharged it back into the natural energies of the earth, turning it back into the pretty-looking gem it had been for millennia. "And to make sure no one else can ever use this again..." she said as she channeled the power inside her and guided it to the hand holding the stone. Her hand shook with visible strain as she squeezed the Heart. It resisted her mystically empowered super-strength for only a few moments before it shattered into a million pieces.

"You think that this is over, but it has only just begun." Faust declared. "No prison can hold me and when I break free, I will make the suffering I put the both of you through last an eternity."

"I know that's why I-" Zatanna's words were cut off as an intense pain suddenly lanced through her body, causing her to cry out and fall to her knees.

"Zatanna?!" Peter shouted, rushing over to her side.

Faust, still bound by the chains of light, laughed weakly. "The foolish girl is channeling something no living creature was meant to possess. It's one thing to tap into the energy of leylines, but the bitch isn't just tapping into it, she's channeling all the energy produced by a nexus directly into her being." he explained. "It's like trying to swallow the ocean all at once, there's nowhere for any of it to go. Her body and soul are about to pop like an overinflated balloon."

Zatanna gritted her teeth, fighting through the agony. "It hurts so much... my insides... feel like I'm burning from the inside out..." she said, her body beginning to shake as she held in a scream.

"Tell me what to do?" Peter begged her.

"It's too late for her." Faust laughed.

Zatanna glared at Faust through the pain. "It... it might be too late... for me...". She raised her hand and the world behind Faust shattered like glass, revealing a swirling vortex of energy. An opening to the World Between Worlds. "But you... will never harm anyone... ever again!"

"Wait! You can't do this!" Faust yelled before Zatanna released the chains binding his body and banishing him through the tear in reality.

"Zatanna!" Peter called out, but she could no longer hear him.

Tears rolled down her face as Zatanna felt the energy-burning her up from the inside out. She fought through it as she cast another spell. "Erotser Siht Dnal!"

A wave of magic spread out over the area. Like the rewind button had been pressed on the world, the damage caused by the battle was undone. The stone monuments were repaired and returned to their original positions, the holes in the ground vanished, and the taint of the dark magics used were cleansed from the area. All the destruction that had been done was reversed, like the events of tonight had never even occurred.

The spell finished just in time as Zatanna's head reared back and she screamed into the night as a geyser of brilliant white light exploded out of her eyes and open mouth. The raw mystical energy was expelled from her body, returning to its natural state. Once all of the power was released, Zatanna slumped forward unconscious.

Peter caught her in his arms before she could fall to the ground. His eyes frantically scanned her body for any signs of visible injury, but she looked fine for the most part. He could feel her pulse beating and her chest was rising and falling, so that meant she was breathing on her own, but she wasn't responding to his attempts to wake her.

After a few minutes of panicking over where he could go to get her help, Peter felt Zatanna begin to stir in his arms. He laid her head down on his lap just as her eyes fluttered open and she gave him a tired smile. "Hey, Spider. Did we win?"

"We won." Peter assured her.

"Good, good..." she said, her words slurring a bit.

"How do you feel?"

"You ever had a strenuous workout and then the next day everything about you felt sore and you didn't even have the strength to get up to take a piss?" Zatanna asked as she lifted her to check that everything was back to the way it should be. "Imagine that and then add drinking fire to the mix and you're about halfway there."

"So I guess this means you don't want me to carry you home."

Zatanna laughed softly as she laid her back on Peter's lap and relaxed. "In a little bit. Right now, I just wanna sit here and rest my eyes for a minute."

"You take all the time you need, Zatanna." Peter said as he laid back to look up at the stars in the clear night sky. "All the time you need."

---

A/N: Sorry for the delay. I planned to have this out earlier, but I ended up rewriting this chapter like four or five times. Faust and Zatanna weren't even supposed to be more than a cameo fight that Peter intervened in. I like this version better because it'll make a scene that I've already written feel more earned. I'm going to finish up a test chapter for BtVS/Marvel story on my P-word and then get to work on White Knight and TV Land.

In the next chapter, Spider-Man finally comes face to face with the Maiden of Steel and has to help her deal with a type of evil he's never encountered before.