Why didn't the wizard warn me?
“What do you mean that I can’t stay here?” Peter yelled angrily at Doctor Strange. It had been 2 years since Strange had casted the spell to make everyone forget him. Even though Peter had lost everything and everyone he cared for, he had just started to get used to his new life. Now all the progress he had made was being thrown down the gutter.
“I mean that the universe is forgetting you. It’s tearing apart at the seams due to you living here. I had noticed that something was wrong in the lists of spells I had done since I became Sorcerer Supreme again.” Strange floated over to a book on the nearby shelf and opened it.
“Listen kid-Not a kid- doesn’t matter. I need to send you to a universe that doesn’t have a version of you, because your existence is damaging.“ Strange gets into Peter’s face. Peter backs away and stammers out,
“What.” His breath started to get louder as he repeated himself.
“Now that you’re done arguing with me, we need to move up to the roof to perform the new spell.” Strange opened one of his portals and walked through to the rooftop. As Peter followed, the reality of the situation finally caught up with him.
‘This is really the end. I can’t even say goodbye to Ben and May’s graves.’ Strange starts to draw a symbol in chalk and tells Peter to stand in the middle. As he does so, Strange tells him to not move or speak when he starts the spell.
“Any final words you would like to say?”
“Yeah. Wish me luck in whatever awaits me.” Strange nods and starts to read out the spell from his book. As he chants the last words, Peter’s vision goes dark and his spidey senses go off all around him. It felt as if he was falling. When he finally got his senses back, he looked for anything that was familiar. He caught the sight of his reflection in a puddle on the ground.
“What? Why do I look younger?” He was glad that when he went to meet with Strange, he had grabbed his suit and the glasses Tony had left for him. He no longer could use any of the suits that needed facial or vocal recognition, but he was able to hack his way into Edith and Karen.
“Hey Edith, how old am I?” The AI responded back to him with the answer of 15. He then asked if there were any messages for him.
“Mr. Parker, there are 2 messages for you. Would you like me to play them?”
“Yeah.”
“Hey kid. If you’re listening to this, that means that something went wrong during the second snap and-” Peter froze at the sound of his mentor. He hadn’t listened to this message since Tony had died(he didn’t know if it was due to his hacking making all the recorded messages delete themselves or because he didn’t want to face the reality of losing someone he saw as a father figure).
“Edith, please skip this one.” The AI moved on to the next message which was from Strange of all people.
“Peter, I sent you to a version of our reality where everything is almost identical. You should be able to stay in this reality, if not go to their version of me. Otherwise, don’t contact anyone who might have known you.” Peter didn’t know how he was able to send a message across universes, but who was he to question magic.
“Guess I should find some place to stay tonight.” Peter looked up to the setting sun. It looked similar to the one from his universe but the sky looked cleaner.
“Edith, can you find some nearby abandoned buildings? Also, what’s in the news today.” Peter slid his web shooters on(even though they were mainly for show now that he had the ability to shoot webs from his wrists naturally). He could remember how the last time he used them was right after the spell was casted. It turned out that all he needed to do was be in so much emotional pain that it felt like he was going to die to be able to produce his own webs. May’s death had hit him harder than he ever thought it would.
“There is an abandoned building 1 mile away and the most recent news is that Stark Tower is accepting tour groups again.”
‘What? They haven’t done tours since Tony died. I have to get access to the internet.’ Peter took off the glasses and pulled on his Spider-Man mask. He proceeded to swing to the abandoned building, following the instructions that Karen was telling him. She was way sassier compared to Edith. It almost made him wish that he could go see his old friends and family. He reminded himself of the message from Strange as soon as he got the feeling of being homesick.
“Peter the building is on your left.” Karen broke Peter out of his thoughts. He searched from the ground for an open window that he could enter through. In the distance he could hear the familiar sound of repulsors getting closer and closer to the building. He climbed up the wall to a shattered window he spotted and collapsed to his knees once inside.
“Listen Pep. I don’t know what was triggering the attack alarms. There is nobody here.” That’s Tony. How is that Tony? Peter swore that if this was another sick trick of Beck’s, he wouldn’t show him mercy.
“Tony?” Peter murmured, almost giving away his position. He covered his mouth as soon as he heard Tony asking FRIDAY to scan the area for heat signatures.
‘No, he heard me. This is bad, this is real bad. Strange gave me one instruction and I couldn’t follow it.’ Hot tears run down his face as he tries to stay quiet.
“Who's there? You know I can see your heat signature.”