coveted magics, 4
“So you know how I said I’d see if Ms Marvel wants to join in and come train with you?” Peter called out, cutting into the middle of Teddy’s third warmup lap around the Playground. It had been two weeks since Teddy’s first training session, when Peter had initially made that offer, and he’d finally found the time to contact Kamala and see if she wanted to come in. He would have done it sooner, but he’d been busy both physically and emotionally, between college and settling into the new apartment with Harley and navigating the delicate minefield of making Wanda feel well and truly welcome.
About ten seconds prior, FRIDAY had quietly announced Kamala’s arrival at the rooftop access point just like Peter had requested, so that only he would hear it. He was really just indulging himself in manufacturing some harmless drama, since neither his protege nor the new arrival were expecting to be introduced to somebody they already knew.
Teddy skipped to a rather enthusiastic stop, and lit up with a wide grin. “Yeah! Why, is she gonna come?”
Finding himself mirroring Teddy’s infectious smile, Peter nodded. Honestly, training Teddy was quickly becoming one of the most fulfilling things in Peter’s increasingly joyful life. It was hardly surprising, not since all the reading he’d done after all three of Claire, Daredevil and Jess had handed him an unofficial cPTSD diagnosis almost a year prior. He had a hell of a lot of attachment trauma, and supporting a younger teen like this was a lot easier than re-parenting his own inner child.
“FRIDAY, could you let our guest inside, please?” Peter requested, and wiped the smile off his face to at least try and seem like he hadn’t intentionally planned the chaos that was about to ensue.
A moment later, a small square hatch slid open above. A series of purple crystalline platforms appeared and disappeared in a descending pattern as Kamala leapt down one after the other until she was on the ground. Peter watched as she looked up, and saw Teddy. While she herself was wearing a mask to conceal her identity, Teddy wasn’t. Peter had assured him that Ms Marvel would keep his identity a safe secret, so he had decided he didn’t want to hide it.
Unshockingly, Kamala gasped. “Teddy?”
Teddy squinted. “Hang on, I know that voice!”
Kamala sighed, and pulled off her mask. “I really gotta get one of those voice changing thingies. Well, Peter did say I could trust you, so… Hi.”
This time, it was Teddy’s turn to gasp. “Holy shit, Kamala? You’re Ms Marvel?? So when Zoe talked like she knew Ms Marvel personally…”
“Yeah, she’s known for a while now. I can’t say I expected one of the Coles Gays to be the kid Peter said he was training, but it’s a kind of fun surprise!” Kamala responded.
And then Teddy pointed a lightheartedly accusatory finger right at Peter. “You knew this whole time! You’re sneaky!”
“Like a spider?” Peter teased, and finally let his pent up laughter loose. After a quick internal debate, he decided to keep the other surprise he had planned under wraps. It wasn’t going to be as big of an exciting deal for Kamala as it would for Teddy, but Peter yet again wanted to see how his new protege reacted. Plus, he’d had to work hard and deal out quite a large helping of encouragement to set it up.
Teddy groaned, and rolled his eyes. “Peter, you’re fired. Hey Kamala, wanna be my new mentor?”
Kamala shrugged, and nodded. “Sure, sounds like fun! So, what can you do? What’s your whole thing? Do you have like, powers or fancy technology? Or are you so absurdly good at something like archery that you can keep up with enhanced people anyway or something?”
Peter took a small step back and grinned to himself, making the decision to let this play out naturally. He didn’t think he was going to need to work especially hard to get Teddy and Kamala to connect with each other, and now they were doing it all on their own. Peter was more than happy to just watch whatever would unfold. A small part of him felt a pang of sadness that Harley wasn’t here with him to witness this. The closer he was getting to Harley now that they were officially together, the more Peter yearned to share all sorts of little experiences with his boyfriend. Plus, he still wanted to get Teddy and Harley to meet.
Before his very eyes, Teddy’s whole appearance shifted. Peter didn’t quite know how to describe the way in which it changed, but after a few seconds, he was looking at two Kamalas. Peter had known that Teddy could morph between being green and not, but had never witnessed the kid shapeshift in any other ways until now. It was an impressive skill, and Peter idly wondered if he could help Teddy improve the speed of his transformations with some practice.
“Woah,” Kamala beamed, jumping closer to get a better look at Teddy’s transformation. She inspected it thoroughly, before stepping back and giving an approving nod. “That’s really close!”
Teddy huffed, and shifted back to his usual appearance. “Dammit! What did I miss?”
Kamala folded her arms. “Well, you got the wrong shade for my eyes and some of the details of my costume are a bit off. But otherwise it really was close! So, you can shapeshift?”
“Yup,” Teddy nodded proudly. “And I’m strong and fast, too. Peter and I tested things with that Super Soldier Trainer thing, and I can bench about eight tonnes. Which, honestly, is pretty much nothing compared to mister Spider over there.”
With a dropped jaw, Kamala warily turned her face and eyes towards Peter. “Uh… I mean I guess it makes sense because I saw you launch an actual super soldier through a building that one time, but… dare I ask how much?”
Peter sighed. Knowing how excitable both Teddy and Kamala were, he wasn’t going to get out of this one. If he tried to avoid the question, they’d only keep asking. “Well, I can bench about 120, but obviously I usually hold back a lot because I don’t want to hurt anyone. And actually, that’s something you won’t have to worry about when training with Teddy. He’s pretty damn good at that too.”
Kamala gulped. “Hold on. 120, like, 120 tonnes?”
Peter nodded. Suddenly he wasn’t missing Harley at his side in this particular situation, because he knew his boyfriend would betray him and join in with the others. Just as well that Harley was catching up on sleep with an afternoon nap.
In Peter’s bed.
Peter and Harley’s bed.
Fighting down a blush, Peter shook himself and redirected his attention back to Kamala and Teddy. “Okay, what do you say we get this show on the road? You two could warm up some more with some sparring. Teddy, you’ll have a lot to learn from sparring with Kamala. She’s basically developed her own fighting style that blends in her powers for mobility and momentum, and it’s pretty damn effective.”
“I know,” Teddy responded excitedly, stepping into a loose fighting stance. “I’ve seen the videos!”
Kamala squealed; she always got especially bouncy and chipper when people talked about her activities as Ms Marvel. In her, Peter saw parts of himself – a very eager superhero fan suddenly given powers of her own, who needs plenty of time to adjust to the fame and recognition.
“Okay, this is awesome,” Kamala declared. “Alright Teddy, here I come!”
With that declaration, Kamala and Teddy both launched into action. Peter mostly watched, occasionally piping in with feedback for either of them – but in this session, it was largely unnecessary. Kamala was already giving Teddy plenty of feedback on her own. Sometimes she’d tell him that he should hold back a little less, and then Teddy would go a little bit too hard and become apologetic until Kamala got up, dusted herself off and proved to be perfectly well intact. Otherwise, both Peter and Kamala pointed out gaps in Teddy’s guard and wasted movements, and praised his good hits and defenses.
This went on for quite some time – perhaps a whole twenty minutes, which was especially impressive on Kamala’s part given that she supposedly didn’t have any kind of enhanced stamina. That said, Peter was starting to wonder if that was actually true, especially because of how well she was keeping up with both Teddy’s speed and strength. Plus, she’d taken some hits that would have broken a normal human’s bones. Perhaps there was more to her powers that she herself hadn’t yet realised?
Regardless, it was almost time for Peter’s second surprise. He had asked Wanda to show up about half an hour into the training session, to give Teddy and Kamala time to adjust to one another and get used to how each other fought. It was going to be pretty important, given what Peter had planned.
Right on cue, one of Harry’s orange shimmering portals opened up right next to the Playground’s kitchen. Wanda stepped through it first, followed by Harry himself. “Hi! Sorry, I thought I’d just pop into the kitchen and grab a couple cans of beans for some cooking with Gwen, and I gave Wanda a lift.”
Peter fought off a frown. He knew that was a lie and that Harry was covering for Wanda, but he didn’t want to show it. He wanted to give Wanda the space and comfort she needed rather than her feel judged for a perfectly understandable fear of travelling across town on her own. Harry just as quickly disappeared into the kitchen while Wanda made her way closer to Peter and the others.
“Hi Wanda!” Kamala exclaimed cheerfully, waving. Peter chuckled a little. The combination of Kamala being a total superhero fangirl and knowing that Wanda wasn’t the evil monster the world thought she was meant that of course she was going to be over the moon to train with the Scarlet Witch herself.
“Er, hi,” Wanda responded, a little taken aback by the young hero’s enthusiasm.
“So you’re the famous Scarlet Witch, huh?” Teddy remarked, a warm smile on his face. When Peter had explained that Wanda wasn’t so bad after all, Teddy had taken it in stride and truly trusted him. Peter suspected that it helped, seeing Wanda in an almost-baggy hoodie with her hair messily tied back in a way that reminded him of Aunt May on her more tired, messy mornings.
Wanda shrugged, a smile working its way onto her face. “I suppose I am. Has Peter here told you why I’m here?”
“Not yet,” Peter answered, shaking his head. He gestured over to Wanda with his arm. “Wanda here is going to help you guys with your training today. Not many people get the chance to learn in advance how to fight against magic users. Given that Wanda is one of the more skilled magic users around, I thought it was a good idea to ask her to join us every now and then.”
“Based,” Teddy said approvingly.
Peter, giving into his more comedic urge, immediately responded. “Based on what?”
Teddy snorted, and Wanda raised an eyebrow in confusion. Peter shook his head at her, and she just shrugged.
“I just want to warn you both in advance, my magic is a powerful thing and I wouldn’t want either of you getting needlessly hurt,” Wanda then said. “I would understand if you chose not to train with me.”
“Oh come on, are you for real?” Kamala quickly complained, some kind of mix between amusement and affrontedness on her face. “I’ve literally been to space! I fought the Kree all over space! I’m putting together my own superhero team! I can handle a little magic.”
Lacking anything as grand to tack onto that, Teddy kept things simple. “I trust you, Wanda.”
Wanda exhaled slowly, and then nodded. “Very well then. I shall run you through similar training exercises I conducted with the Avengers many years ago, as a starting point. To start, I’m going to strike you both with a weakened bolt of magic, so that you know what it feels like. Then, we’ll work on the fuller extent of what magic can do.”
Peter smiled, and stepped back. Wanda was going to do just fine at this, and Peter hoped it would help her loosen up and feel more comfortable in Boston.
“…wait, you’re putting together a superhero team?” Teddy suddenly blurted after several minutes of training with Wanda. “Can I join someday?”
“Hell yes you can!” Kamala enthusiastically responded. “That brings the Young Avengers to three!”
Looking out across the Charles River, Harley couldn’t help but think back to the last time he was here and smile. He’d come here last with Peter, on the way to that one tattoo studio where they’d both gotten their semi-colon tattoos done. They’d stopped here and talked about the tattoos, realising that they had even more of a shared understanding than they’d previously thought. Grim as the context may have been, it was just another moment where Harley had fallen for his best friend more.
The fact that everything was going so well was, well, almost unfathomable to Harley. It was something about his outlook on the world that made him feel that way. And now Harley understood where that negative outlook came from, ever since he’d been given a diagnosis of complex PTSD a couple weeks prior by his therapist. Now it all made sense. His attachment trauma made him have a hard time trusting in actually good enough relationships, even though he’d had nothing but that ever since moving to Boston.
But things were going well, with everyone. And Peter had just last night agreed to come along to the Lakehouse for Thanksgiving. Harley had already texted Pepper to let her know, and now he was about to call his mom. For some reason, he decided he wanted to go for a walk first and so he’d ended up all the way back past campus on Harvard Bridge.
Mindful that he was in public and there was a little bit of foot traffic passing him by every now and then, Harley reminded himself to avoid talking about any superhero activities. He fished his phone out of his pocket, pulled up his contacts and dialed the very first number on his favourites list. The line rang twice, and then his mom picked up.
“Harls! How’s my favourite son?” Macy Keener’s voice rang out.
“Hey Ma. You know that line doesn’t work, right? I’m your only son,” Harley rebutted lightheartedly.
“That you know of! I coulda had some other secret kid once upon a time,” Macy joked.
“But you didn’t,” Harley replied simply.
“But I didn’t. So, what’s new in my darlin’ boy’s life now?” asked Macy.
Harley smiled. “Well, Pete said he’s down to come with to Thanksgivin’. Thought I’d give you a heads up so you ‘n Xander can be on your best behaviour.”
Macy chuckled. “Oh, we’ll both be sure to embarrass you as best we can, darlin’. But jokes aside, that’s real excitin’! How are things goin’ with the wonder boy? Been a moment since your last update.”
Harley frowned. It had been a while since he’d called his mom, and he usually made a point of making time to chat with her at least every few days, if not more often than that. But the last week had been so busy between college work and a rise in crime as a new group were trying to gain a foothold up in the northern parts of the city. Perhaps that’s why Harley made a ritual out of walking to the river for the call.
“Yeah, sorry. Been real busy this last week. Things with Peter are honestly goin’ great, and I’ve been doin’ a lot of work with my therapist on just… lettin’ myself have the nice thing. I’m startin’ to stay over at his apartment more often and I’m thinkin’ of tellin’ him that I wanna move in full time in a week or so. I… I feel like I’m ready, you know?”
“Oh Harls, I’m so proud of you. Just so you know, Xander and I will be arrivin’ a good many hours after you and Peter. We decided to turn this into a little mom and kid road trip to see some sights along the way, so we’ll be poppin’ in around evenin’ time. That okay with you?”
“Sure, no problem. That’ll give Peter some time to adjust to things with Pepper and Morgan, too. I, uh… I haven’t told him yet that Morgan sort of remembers him. I just know that if I tell him before, he’ll stress out way too much. This way I can just let things happen, and he can have some time to adjust and process before meetin’ new people. So, any specific plans for this road trip?”
“Hmmm, let’s see.” Macy paused. “Of course we’ll be stoppin’ by Nashville for some of that Tennessee city food Xander has been so eager to try. Then we’ll head up to Cincinnati for a bit. I’ve been huntin’ around for therapists for Xander, and there’s one that looked like they’d be a good fit for xem who does telehealth, and the timin’ works out great to have a first session in person and see if xe likes them or not. There’s this new queer museum in Pittsburgh that Xander wanted to check out too, and I figure it’ll be a great way for me to learn some more about the two of you’s experiences. Yeah, that’s about it!”
“Wow, sounds jam-packed. You’ll both have to let me know if that museum is any good. If it is, I might just have to persuade my friends to go for a road trip! Anythin’ else new with you?” Harley asked. He had long since observed that his mom believed herself to have a rather ordinary, monotonous life with nothing exciting worth mentioning. But Harley knew that wasn’t true – Macy liked to work with her hands on more relaxing crafts in her down-time, and despite having dropped out of high school and never pursuing any further formal education, she was extremely well read. Harley had made a point of occasionally asking his mom about her craft work and reading every now and then, and always enjoyed hearing the bits and pieces she’d share.
“Oh, well, Xander’s been showin’ me allthese new pride flags, and we’ve been cross stitching some designs based on them together! I must say, I really feel like a lot more people would be far happier with their lives if we had all these little terms and identities when I was growin’ up. Sad how that kinda thinkin’ doesn’t fly well here in Rose Hill. Now, before I pop off and let you back to your day, I did have one question for you about the Thanksgivin’ plans.”
“Sure, what’s up?”
His mom hummed for a few seconds, and then spoked. “I wanted to know… Is there anythin’ I should be mindful of when I talk to Peter and try get to know him a little?”
Harley smiled. He appreciated how thoughtful his mother was so, so much. “Actually, yes. I think it would be better if you don’t ask him about his past before MIT unless he gives you the okay. It’s a very… raw topic for him, so wait until he volunteers that information to you. I’ll have a chat with him too, and see what he thinks, boundaries-wise.”
“You do that, love. Okay, talk to you soon?”
“Yeah, I’ll give you another call in a couple days. Maybe in the evenin’ so Xander’ll be around too. Love you!”
“I love you too, Harls. Stay safe, okay?”
“Of course.”
With that, Harley ended the call and decided to stay on the bridge for a little while longer just to enjoy the fresh air and the view.
The guilt of being so wealthy was something that often weighed upon Harry, when so many people were barely hanging on or all the way into poverty. Usually, he eased his mind by reminding himself that OsCorp functioned as an organisation that paid every single employee enough to live off and have a good quality of life, and had an entire team dedicated towards researching and connecting with worthwhile charities to make a real impact with excess profit. On top of that, Harry knew that he himself had his own vision for how to distribute the funds when he inherited the company and turned it into a non-profit.
But right now, Harry was so damn grateful for the wealth and what it allowed him to accomplish. One particularly relevant example was his own private library with a collection that he had worked for years to amass. Perhaps, when he no longer had need of it, he would donate it to one of the Sanctums around the world. But right now, this collection of arcane texts may very well save his own life, and the lives of many others. Because Harry knew something was wrong. It had been ever since the destruction of Wundagore, but he’d never been able to place exactly what that wrong feeling was, or what it was trying to tell him.
Now, the feeling was growing. Harry remembered Wanda mentioning someone who was still imprisoned in Westview who might have an interest in restoring Chthon’s influence in the mortal plane. He was vaguely aware that SWORD and the FBI had tapes of some of what had occurred in Westview, but there was no real way he could get his hands on those. Between that and the fact that he really didn’t want to bother Wanda with this when she was finally starting to feel at ease here, Harry’s remaining option was to hit the books.
He had an entire shelf of texts dedicated to Chthon, and another with various historical mentions of groups and individuals who were either directly or tangentially related to Chthonic activity. He’d read most of them, even the dusty old scrolls he had to hold so gently so they didn’t crumble beneath his fingertips. And… well, he had a really bad feeling about what texts he should be looking at right now.
The problem was that his gut feeling was sending him in the direction of the stuff of nightmares. His own early teenage nightmares, even. Because Harry had started collecting occult texts like these roughly around when he turned thirteen. It was around when he decided it was time to take up on his natural abilities and research magic so that he could grow more powerful. So, with his father’s blessing, he began seeking out and purchasing whatever texts he could find. Some of them were credible, the rest were absolute crap.
The worst of the lot had been a span of items from across the centuries that taught him who his mother truly was. He’d always known that his mother could do magic. She hadn’t taught him anything herself, but Harry had picked up his most early skills simply by watching her. It was only when he was thirteen that he learned her true identity.
Agatha Harkness was known around the world by many names. The Salem Survivor, the Cannibal Witch, the Lady of Darkness, Chthon’s Right Hand, and so on. Each story he’d read had brought him knowledge of worse and worse atrocities committed by the woman who had brought him into the world. It took him two years to get past the guilt of it all. Now? He was simply just terrified of her.
But he had to see what he could find. If his gut instinct and memory were right, there was one specific text in this library that might prove this all to be more than just a hunch. Agatha being referred to as Chthon’s right hand supposedly wasn’t that much of a hyperbole. Her origins were simply in stealing the powers of other witches to grow her own magical strength. But then the histories recorded that Agatha had discovered a prophecy about the Scarlet Witch. The more recent recordings and theories were mixed; some suggested that Agatha had wanted to be the one to mentor the Scarlet Witch, others said that she wanted those powers for herself.
But which of those might be true wasn’t what Harry needed to check. It was if she had been the user of Chthonic magic in Westview that Wanda was talking about. And to connect all the dots, Harry gently lifted a scroll off one of the shelves. The scroll was protected by magic and thusly in good shape, but out of habit he kept his grasp delicate.
The title read ‘Passage of the Darkhold through Land and Time’. With an entirely accurate title, it detailed the known locations of the Darkhold throughout history. There were precisely two entities known to have possessed the Darkhold the most often, even with how much the book changed hands. One was the Sanctum, and the other was Harry’s own mother. The most recent entry on the list was…
Fuck, Harry thought as he checked the final entry.
The most recent known movement of the Darkhold in this text was apparently that it had been stolen off the corpse of the Master of the London Sanctum just under one month after Harry’s mother disappeared. Which meant it was more than likely that Agatha had been at Westview.
Which also meant that Agatha may well be free of Wanda’s bindings by now. When Wundagore was destroyed, a surge of Chthonic power flooded into Harry’s body, which was the source of his now moderately sizeable power. The Sanctum report of the events included Doctor Strange’s account that Wanda herself was crushed under the falling structure. So… wasn’t it possible that Chthonic energy, free of Chthon’s control, had sought out and entered into others with connections to Chthon? Perhaps it had saved Wanda by giving her the strength she needed to protect itself.
If that was true, it was reasonably likely that some had found its way to Agatha, giving her what she needed to break free from Westview.
Fuck, Harry thought again. I can’t tell Wanda. I can’t tell anyone about this, not yet.
Wanda had only just started getting comfortable here in Boston, and she deserved that. She deserved every chance to set down roots and heal, and if Harry told her that Agatha was likely free and back on the hunt? She would either flee, or go hunt Agatha down. Somehow, he needed to figure this out.
But how was Harry supposed to deal with Agatha fucking Harkness, the focus of his childhood nightmares?