Another Day?
(New York, Uptown)
Felicia Hardy, most popularly known as the Black Cat, is impatiently tapping her foot with her arms crossed under her chest as she waits for her former beau to finish conversing with whoever he's talking to on his earpiece.
After spending an hour and a half watching him beat Daredevil's record of purse-snatchers caught in a day, she now has to wait for him to be informed of what to do next.
Cause if he doesn't do it the world will catch on fire.
She didn't know what to expect when she ran into Spider-Man again. Sure maybe a bit of jealousy after she almost hooked up with his friend Daredevil, it's kind of why she did it in the first place, but she certainly did not expect to be involved in a world-ending scenario. And while it would have a fun night, the Hornhead didn't really meet her standards. The guy got a call and bailed just as they were about to start. Spider-Man may not always be a hundred percent attentive, but he at least finishes what he starts.
'Maybe not right away but he does call and meets up later,' she thinks to herself as she continues to listlessly watch him talk to some guy named Grady, 'Who apparently created a doorway to tomorrow that showed the world catching on fire at ten after three.'
That's what she understood at least. Spider stepped through it and the world ended because he was missing for a whole day.
"Got it thanks, Grady!" Spider-Man finishes his conversation and turns his attention to her, "Alright. I got some idea about what I'm supposed to do next."
"Yay."
He sighs at her lack of enthusiasm, "Look I know you aren't the world-saving type but we don't have a choice here," he turns and walks away, "Trust me I'm about as happy as you are."
She rolls her eyes in irritation of the bitterness in his voice, "Seriously, Spider, get over it. So I hooked up with a friend of yours. It's not a big deal."
"I'm not talking about that," how he gives an irritating look with his mask on still astounds Felicia, "I'm not thrilled about it, but I meant that you being involved just makes this harder for me. I don't like the idea of you being in the line of fire."
She feels a warmth swell in her chest at his protectiveness of her and rolls her eyes as she tries to resist the urge to smile, "I'm a big girl Spider. I can take care of myself."
He leaps up on the ledge and crouches, giving Felicia a great view, as he looks down at the streets, "The number of times I had to save you, says different."
She keeps her eyes on his backside as walks up beside him before she leans on the edge and gives him a coy smile, "And how do you know I wasn't just trying to get you to hold me real close?"
"Because as much as you enjoy me swooping in and catching you, you prefer to show off."
She leans towards him with a seductive attitude, "Don't act like you don't like it when I show off."
He leans in too but his tone remains the same, "As much as I want to continue this back and forth, we got stuff to do."
Her smile is replaced with a pout, "Aw, but that's like foreplay with us."
"Cat," he says in a warning tone.
She rolls her eyes before she straightens her posture, "Fine, but tell me this. How is me watching you do your thing helping exactly?"
Apparently in the newspaper from tomorrow, the one where the world didn't end, he is shown to be catching the purse snatchers on his own. So her getting involved in that was a big no.
"I don't know," he mumbles out with a shrug before he fixes his gaze down below, "But what I do know is that a fortune teller told us that you need to be with me to save the world. So if I have to pull a Luke and Yoda on you then I will," he opens her mouth to retort before he points at her, "No 'riding' jokes."
She closes it and another pout appears, "Darn. And I had a good one too," she shrugs and refocuses, "Alright well what's next on the list?"
"Well, I just beat DD's record on the number of purse-snatchers caught in one day," he then holds his head up high, "Eleven."
She rolls her eyes before she asks, "How does stopping some petty purse-snatcher save the world exactly?"
He looks down in thought as he gets a momentary flashback as he responds, "You'd be surprised how much a petty thief can impact the world," he shakes his head to refocus, "Anyway, Grady says there is a car chase going on that's about to go past us."
They did not have to wait long as a speeding blue vehicle barrels down the streets with two police cruisers chasing it.
"A Prius?" Spider-Man says in bewilderment before he shakes it head in disappointment, "If he's stealing it I can understand. But if that's the getaway vehicle then that's just sad," she smiles at his joke as he leaps off the ledge, "Try to keep up with me!"
She quickly rushes after him and swings by him with her grappling hook. All the while she has a big smile on her face.
'Black Cat and Spider-Man together again,' she thinks to herself as she keeps up with him, 'The way it's supposed to be.'
(Horizon Labs)
Back at the illustrious think tank, a limousine pulls up to the front of the building garnering the attention of several bystanders and passersby. One side of the passenger door opens and out steps Tony Stark, suit and shades. Steve Rogers steps out from the other side in more casual clothing, a suede jacket, T-shirt, and denim jeans.
Steve looks at the building with concern, "I don't think this is a good idea, Tony."
Tony doesn't turn to the war veteran as he keeps his sights set on the building, "Give me one good reason why not."
Steve walks around the limo to stand by the billionaire and speaks quietly, "You know he wants to keep his two lives separated."
Tony nods as he proceeds to walk to the building, "And that's why we're not in uniform and not looking for the spandex one. We're in our casual clothing and looking for an associate of ours. "
Steve looks to see several people whispering and pointing at them while they take pictures, "It'll still put a lot of attention on him."
"Hey, people don't question him being close to Richards." Tony points out, with a smidge of an edge.
Steve doesn't argue with him on that. Mostly because he can sense a little bit of jealousy and resentment coming from the genius man. Ever since he's been reminded of who Spider-Man is, he's been coming up with ways to prove to the younger hero he's trustworthy. In the first week after the younger man's resurrection, Tony has been heavily involved in evaluating and analyzing Spider-Mans increased power and new abilities. From his increased strength, the stingers, new precognition that gives him visions of the future, and him being the host to the Phoenix force, Tony has been restless in formulating solutions.
He's gotten a few good ideas that Steve feels would make a big positive impact in the young man's life, but the Avengers leader does worry that the financier of the hero teams might be trying too hard. Also, he might be overlooking some factors. Ethically and morally.
They enter the facility and look around to see if they can find the secret hero. They see people mingling while a few notice them and become surprised at their presence but do not approach them.
Tony, seeing Peter isn't anywhere obvious, walks up to some random person, who is talking to another female scientist, "Excuse me."
Uatu Jackson and the woman he was talking to, who is dark-skinned but not as dark as the young man, look at him, "Yeah what's-" Uatu's eyes widen as he realizes who he is talking to, "oh my god. You-you're-"
"Yes yes," Tony puts on a faux snotty attitude while he slicks his hair back, "We know who we are. Very famous people. One is a brilliant man with smoldering good looks and the other is my associate."
Steve gives him a dull look before he looks at the young man, "Can you tell us where Peter Parker is?"
"Peter?" Uatu says in surprise and tries to remember what his fellow think tank member is, "Uh, he's got double D's today."
"…Boy, a lot happens in an hour."
The woman who was quiet from shock speaks up, "It's a term for Double check Duty. He's got to check a coworker's math on something."
"Oh well that's a shame," Tony nudges Steve with his elbow and gives him a smirk, "Would have been a great topic for conversation."
Steve gives him another dull expression. Even after years of dealing with Tony, he still finds his friends' humor to be insufferable. Oddly enough, he and Peter share that trait.
The woman, who gets a glint in her eye that reminds Tony of people like Osborn or Hammer, speaks in an uppity manner, "Personally, I don't think it'll do the man any good to have Parker check his math."
Steve and Tony look at the woman curiously and wonder why she would say that. They know Peter to be a smart man, often said to be as smart as Tony or Reed, yet this woman doesn't seem to think so.
'Ex-girlfriend?"' Tony thinks as he studies the woman and sees she has a nametag on her lab coat. Sajani Jaffrey. Not a bad-looking girl but if he had to compare her to the guy's usuals, she definitely does not measure up, 'Maybe he turned her down?'
"Can I help- Captain Rogers?" Max Modell says as he walks up from behind them, "Tony?"
Tony forgets the woman for the moment as he turns around to look at a fellow genius and philanthropist and then gets a big smile and opens his arms, "Maximilian! Good to see you!"
Modell raises an eyebrow at him, "I'm surprised to see you," then he gets a concerned expression, "Is there another incident you want us to get involved in?"
Tony lowers his arms and offers a handshake, "Relax. If that was the case we would be in our work clothes."
Max is certainly relieved to hear that. In spite of how much good he knows his people can do, he prefers not to involve them in world-ending disasters. Though it does seem they have been unable to avoid doing as of late, he still prefers to leave it to the professionals.
"They're here to see Peter," Uatu says to his boss bringing him out of his musing.
"Peter?" Modell says in surprise as he looks at the billionaire questioningly.
Tony shrugs dismissively, "Wanted to talk to him about something. You know, collaborate and all that."
The woman scoffs derisively and Steve turns to regard her, "Problem?"
The woman keeps her uppity attitude as she says, "I don't have a lot of respect for Parker is all. The guy is way too easy-going in my opinion."
Tony, who doesn't like hearing this woman belittle Peter, raises his eyebrows as he gives her a small joyless smile, "Well, we genius types have a tendency to be a bit dismissive when things bore us."
The woman thinks on that for a second, before she shakes her head, "Well that's not the case for him. The guy was on the track for a doctorate before he settled for a bachelor's," she says both of them derisively, "Guy couldn't even work on getting a doctorate."
Okay, now Tony really dislikes this woman.
"Listen uh…"
She gets a smug look, "Sajani Jaffery."
Tony clicks his tongue, "Okay, Salami, a bit of advice," the smug look is replaced with a frown, "Don't act pretentious when you have no real standing in the scientific community."
"Excuse me," Sajani gets offended, "I happened to have been the scientist that created reverbium. A synthetic version of vibranium."
"An unstable version from what I read," Tony says with a scoff as he walks away without so much as a glance back at her.
Everyone present watches him as other scientists try to talk to him but he brushes them off. The man is not in the mood to talk to anyone. He may be overreacting but the woman clearly does not have a positive opinion of her co-worker. Also, that look in her eye reminded him way too much of other business people who thought they can manipulate him by making someone else look bad and themselves look good. And the billionaire is not okay with that.
Uatu watches him for a second more before he turns to the other two gentlemen, "Does he know where he's going?"
Steve shakes his head as he continues to watch his friend walk away, "No. He likes dramatic exits as much as he does entrances."
Max nods, not knowing Tony as well as Steve but still knowing how he is, before he turns to the WWII vet and says, "Well I was going to inform the two of you that Mr. Parker had left for the day."
"See?" Sajani points out contemptuously, "Guy barely shows up and feels like contributing an hour of his life is enough to make a difference."
Rogers gives the young woman a hard look, "I'm sure he has his reasons."
Like he's out saving lives as Spider-Man, but he doesn't voice such a thing as he and she look at each other unwaveringly.
Max clears his throat as he senses the tension between the two, "Well let's go after Tony, shall we? I'm slightly terrified at the thought of him being involved in one of my people's inventions."
Rogers breaks his gaze from the woman and looks to the man in assurance, "He wouldn't do anything that would endanger anyone here."
"I'm more worried that someone would go overboard to impress him."
(Third Avenue and E. 37th ST)
SSSCRREEEECCHH! BAM!
The speeding vehicle tries to make a sharp turn but flips over when it does, making other cars swerve out of the way to avoid it. It tumbles and Spider-Man swoops in just in time to catch it before it hits a group of pedestrians that were waiting for the bus.
"Oof!" Spider-Man says before he sets the car on its side and wipes his forehead, "Whew! For a small car, it sure does pack on the weight."
He looks at the area and other than some taxis on curbs and cosmetic street damage, nothing was really damaged. He leaps on the passenger door and pulls the driver's door off. He then proceeds to pull out the driver by the scruff of his Gucci sweater and sets him on the tipped car.
The man shakes his head before he sees he's on his car and becomes shocked, "Dude! My car!"
The Queens-born hero gestures to the tipped vehicle, "This is what happens when you decide to go for a joyride. And in a Prius," he gets a playful pensive posture, "Though you do look like the type that would drive one."
The man doesn't find him funny and points at him threateningly, "I'm gonna sue you for this!"
"Sue me?" Spider-Man scoffs, "Yeah, good luck with that," he leaps down the car and motions him to a policewoman walking toward them, "Meantime, why don't you explain to the nice officer why you were speeding down the streets and endangering the lives of these nice people."
He hears a gasp and turns to see Black Cat on top of the car looking into it with a dramatically alarmed face, "And with a baby in the backseat!"
The Webhead and the people close by gasp in shock but then become bewildered when instead of pulling out a baby, Black Cat pulls out a big bag of weed.
"Cannabis Sativa, otherwise known as Mary Jane Watson," she covers her mouth at her faux pas, "Oop! I mean marijuana."
Some of the people laugh at her joke as she hands the bag to an officer while two others haul away the criminal, "They're setting me up! That's not mine!"
She rolls her eyes at the pathetic attempt to blame them before she turns her attention to her partner for the day, who looks to be having an epiphany.
Mary Jane Watson. Marijuana.
"How am I just realizing this?"
God did she have a horrible father.
Cat gives him an incredulous expression, "You seriously did not know about that?!"
"Give me a break! I don't think about those kinds of things!" Spider-Man shouts before something else sinks in, "And you were not supposed to be involved in this!"
"Well as much as I enjoyed sitting back and watching you do your whole superhero thing, I got bored. "
"Cat, we have to-!"
"Uh, Spidey?"
Remembering he's on a timetable, he refocuses and speaks into his earpiece, "Yeah, sorry, Scraps. Go ahead."
"Something weird just happened."
Spider-Man gets worried, "What?"
"The bad tomorrow is kind of… faded."
His worry leaves and is replaced with confusion, "Say what?"
"Well more like I can see the bad tomorrow but there's like a faded good tomorrow too."
Spider-Man gets silent for a moment before he realizes what this could mean and he looks at his partner for the day and quietly says, "We're changing it. Bad tomorrow is going away."
The notorious thief crosses her arms as she haughtily says, "So my getting involved was a good move."
He gives her a flat look as he thinks about the situation more. It could be just his activities are changing things back to the way they were, but it's never that simple with him. He stopped those purse snatchers and Grady said nothing had changed. But Cat got involved in this and suddenly there's hope. If indeed her getting involved in his activities will help get the world back to where it was then why didn't Julia say anything?
Hell, why didn't the paper?
"What about the paper? Does it mention Black Cat helping me in any way?"
He hears some papers rustling on the earpiece which he can guess means Grady is looking through the rag, "Nope. Still the same. No mention of Black Cat helping you out in anything."
The Webhead thinks on it some more, "Okay so maybe they avoided mentioning her?" Spidey looks at his ex, "Either way, you got to get more involved now," she nods with a shrug and he nods in thanks, "What's next, Grady?"
"You got to make a delivery."
"Delivery?" Spider-Man and Black Cat get perplexed before Spidey sighs, "Fine. Pizza or Chinese takeout?"
"It's more kosher."
"AAARRGGHH!"
They whip their heads to one of the crashed taxis where a driver is staring into it with a frightened face and a crowd of people are standing behind him. The two partners rush over and look inside to see a pregnant woman who seems to be in immense pain.
"Oh god!" Spider-Man panics as the concept of the woman losing her child enters his mind, "Are you okay?!"
The cab driver looks at the hero with a frightened expression, "I was on my way driving her to the hospital! She said she was just going for a routine check!"
Spider-Man looks at the woman and his analytical mind comes to a conclusion, "The crash must have made her go into labor!"
"ARGH! SOMEBODY GET THIS FRAKAKA KID OUTTA ME!"
Spider-Man panic leaves him for a moment as recognizes the slang as a Jewish term, "Oh, that's what he meant by kosher."
"Spider!" Black Cat shouts at him.
"Right, sorry!" Spider-Man gets down on his knees in front of the woman and looks to Felicia, "Get to the other side!" Felicia nods and does so and Peter looks back to the woman, "Okay, ma'am, I'm here to help."
"Spider-Man."
A voice he assumes is Grady's comes through the line, "Little busy here!"
"It's Steve."
Uh-oh
(Horizon Labs)
Steve stands with Tony and Max Modell as the three of them look into the time window that is showing them a possible future.
A future where the world is on fire.
After being escorted to find who Peter was working with today they find that the scientist was standing by a doorway that shows a world on fire. Their initial reaction was of course thinking the young man was a villain or some but he quickly explained that it is a doorway to tomorrow that he had created. Apparently, when Peter had stepped through it, the world caught on fire. Mr. Scraps then explained that the door allows someone to skip over the next twenty-four hours of their life.
"In other words, it shows you what'll happen if you're missing for a whole day," Grady finishes nervously explaining to the three of them.
Modell looks like he's about to have a heart attack while Tony looks at the doorway with an analytical expression and Steve has a serious one as he talks into the earpiece.
"Spider-Man can you explain-"
"Cap I'm a little busy!"
"Busy with what?" Steve questions, "What is it that you are involved in, soldier."
Tony turns to his teammate before he looks at the inventor of the time-displacing doorway and says, "Put him on speaker."
Grady nods as he places the newspaper he has under his armpit before he pulls out his phone and does as asked.
"AAARRGGHH!"
And they all recoil at the sound of a screaming woman coming from his phone.
"Just keep pushing! I got the head!" Spider-Man voices in excitement before it changes to disgust, "Ew~ it's all slimy."
They all look at the phone in bewilderment as Grady lifts the newspaper and points to an article, "He's delivering a Jewish woman's baby."
Tony takes the Daily Bugle paper from tomorrow and looks at the front page. Showing Silver Sable and J. Jonah Jameson shaking hands after a pride parade for Skymeria was held. Unless he's mistaken, that was supposed to be today. Tony peruses the articles of the paper and notes all the mentions of what Spider-Man is supposed to do. But what he doesn't see is what he did that prevented the world from catching on fire.
"Mazel Tov, it's a boy!" They hear from the phone and some applause too, "Anyone have a towel?"
(Third Avenue and E. 37th ST)
As people applaud him for a job well done, Spider-Man looks at the woman holding the baby and thinks back about his would-be daughter he was reminded of. He still doesn't know the circumstances that revolved around her. Was Mary Jane pregnant when they made the deal? If that was the case, then she probably didn't know because there is no way in hell she would trade their little girl's life for his aunts, right?
If he knew, he definitely would not have made it. He'd kill a man before he did that.
Felicia walks up next to him and can see he has a melancholy face, again his mask somehow expressing that, and nudges him, "You okay Spider?"
He looks at the woman beside him and decides to play it off by saying, "I am so much more appreciative of all the mothers out there."
She nods while she crosses her arms, "I'm more appreciative of contraceptives."
He smiles in amusement at that. One of the best qualities Cat has is the fact she can keep up with him in the joke department. She used to be able to get one over him by making him blush, but he's gotten used to it. For the most part.
"Spider-Man?"
"Oh, crud," the part-time Avenger says in a panic as he remembers where the Avengers leader's voice is coming from, "Cap, what are you guys doing there?!"
"Tony wanted to talk to Peter Parker but Mr. Scraps here is telling us that Peter ran out to inform you about what was going on here."
Not too thrilled at the prospect of his two separate lives coming together like this, he tries not to dwell too much on it since he has other priorities and instead focuses on the matter at hand, "I can explain."
"Your friend already did," well, at least Grady did half the work for him, saving him a lot of time, "What he hasn't told us is why you thought of doing this by yourself."
"That's the thing," Spider-Man starts as he sheepishly rubs the back of his neck, "Madam Webb said that I can't get the Avengers involved."
"Why not?"
"I don't know~," he moans out as he slumps in exhaustion, "She never goes into details about these kinds of things."
Fortune tellers. Ugh.
The buxom beauty by him raises an eyebrow at him inquisitively, "This is a common thing for you?"
"Yeah."
"...Seriously?"
"I'm not happy about it either," he grouses.
Personal or professional, it never is a simple matter with him.
"Who is that?"
"Black Cat is with me," the Webhead tells the Avenger leader.
The other end of the conversation goes quiet for a few moments before another voice pops up, "Spidey, it's Tony," he now has a strong suspicion about whose idea it was on coming to his place of work, "Looking at the tomorrow newspaper here, I don't see any mention of Ms. Klepto."
He sighs, because of the situation not because of the nickname since that is accurate, and says, "Again, I was told this is for the best."
And once more a few seconds of silence before he hears Tony's voice, "Well, whatever you two seem to be doing it's working because it looks like I'm looking into some reflected glass window from this… what are you calling this again."
"The Breakroom of Tomorrow! Row, row."
"Nice presentation,' of course Tony would like that, "Anyway, from what Scrappy is telling me that's a good thing. Means bad tomorrow is going away."
"Great!" Spidey feels elated from that bit of news, "While I'm busy doing this you try to see how the door works exactly. Didn't have a chance to look it over."
"When would you have had the chance to look it over?" Modell, his boss, asks.
He panics again as he finally realizes he is on speaker, "Uh."
"I think he means that he would have popped by if he had the time. But considering how tight of a timetable he's on…"
"Oh."
Spider-Man lets out a sigh as he feels a huge amount of relief from Tony's quick thinking. Even though the man is responsible for him and Cap being there and risking his exposure, he is thankful they're trying to be careful.
At least he hopes they are.
"Alright Thwippy, we'll let you and the pretty kitty save the world yourselves," Spider-Man is glad that Felicia can't hear what they're saying, "But don't do anything I would do, 'cause I don't think Red would let you live to regret it."
He opens his mouth to retort but a loud bell ringing stops him as he turns his attention to the large clock tower. And he looks up to see it's three o'clock.
"Damn it! I'm running out of time!" Spider-Man shouts before he leaps up and Black Cat follows after him with her grapple gun, "Tony what's next?!"
Some frantic rustling of paper and then he hears the billionaire say, "A big villain fight near Madison Square Park!"
"Got it!"
(Sanctum Sanctorum)
Mary Jane stands in the middle of some weird room where she is being tested to see if she can learn magic. The room is in the basement down below the house and has a whole lot of artifacts that have some bizarre designs on them. She can see some armor and weapons on displays and labels to tell her what they are. And she would be reading them except that she can't due to her only being allowed to stand in the middle of the room while Strange and Wong test to see if she can learn the mystic arts.
Dr. Strange is in front of her standing behind a podium with Wong by him. They are looking through a book while Wong is gathering a few items by forming a few small portals. At first, she thought that it was a potion of some kind but then she saw that it was just rocks and a bowl. She would be questioning them on what they are doing but Sonja decided to strike up a conversation.
One that she is not fond of having.
"I still don't understand why you are against my outfit," Sonja asks her.
MJ, not wanting the two men in the room to hear her, has her head turned away and quietly says, "I'm telling you that it's not suited to wear in public."
"You wear skimpy clothing to earn a living."
She frowns at the cheapshot of her career choice, "That's different."
"How?"
"…It just is."
Okay, maybe the difference doesn't put a favorable light on MJ's career but that does not mean it's a lesser reason.
"You know I can see inside your mind."
Mary Jane closes her eyes and groans internally. One thing she is not loving about this situation with Sonja is that she no longer has any private thoughts. On her way to the Sanctum, other than thinking about what magic she will possibly learn, MJ was having some internal musing about what to do with her career now that she was a part of the superhero life. And Sonja was weighing in. The alternate timeline warrior spirit made suggestions that the supermodel/actress was not too fond.
MJ takes a moment before she comes up with a reason to not wear the bikini, "It's not practical."
"It's not cumbersome, I can move freely, and it also allows me to use my body to distract my adversaries."
MJ frows at the practical reasons before she sees a hole in them, "What if we're fighting women?"
…Mary Jane's lips form into a straight line as she can feel Sonja raise an eyebrow at her in her mind. Basically telling her that the gender of the enemy makes no difference to Sonja.
"Ahem, Miss Watson?" Wong calls out to grab her attention, "Are you ready?
She nods and they begin to prepare. Wong walks to point of the drawing on the floor and places a large red stone on it.
"What's that?" MJ asks.
Wong looks up at her and holds up one of the stones in his possession and politely explains, "These are precious gemstones. Rubies, sapphires, diamonds,," she looks at him in surprise as she knows how expensive such things are, "We keep a few in case of emergency. The magical properties they have will be very instrumental in the spell."
Mary Jane watches him place more stones on the ground and she asks, "What exactly do they do?"
"It's not so much as what they can do, but more to what they can be used for," Wong explains as he sprinkles something on the valuable rocks, "Many valuable stones have magical properties."
MJ gets perplexed before she shakes it off and asks, "Did the two of you have to go through this when you started out?"
"No," Strange decides to answer her while he reads a book intensely, "Normally mystics can sense if someone has an affinity to learn magic," he closes the book and pushes the floating podium aside, "However due to your unique circumstances I needed to do some research on how to properly test you."
"My circumstances?"
"I sensed magic from Sonja's sword, but not from you," Strange elaborates.
She becomes confused, "And her being inside me doesn't give me magic?"
"I don't know. Her possession of you is one I've never seen," he steps up in front of her and waves his hand to make some magical energy appear above her, "You said her magic abilities came from a blessing of the goddess Scáthach, yes?"
Mary Jane nods in confirmation while watching the magical energy form into a similar design as to the one on the floor, "It's what she told me. In that other life, she said the goddess answered her prayer and blessed her with power. She had peak physical strength, agility, and quick mastery of all weapons," Sonja has yet to reveal why she prayed, but MJ sensed some turmoil so she didn't press, "She also said her sword is now magic because of the years of slaying magical creatures and stuff."
"Makes sense," Wong says as he places the last stone on her left, "There is magic in blood. All blood."
Strange nods, "True. Anyway, the answer to your question about her or you being able to learn magic, well like I said, her power came from a goddess. That and add on to the fact that she can swap weapons out at will means she should be able to learn magic."
"Should?"
Wong stands cordially by Strange and explains, "The way it works is that we mystics draw power from all sorts of sources. From different dimensions to our own and power from other beings to our very soul."
Strange gestures to her, "However, like yourself, not everyone is capable of such things."
The supermodel frowns a bit in confusion, "But you said Sonja already has magic."
"She is able to use a form of magic. That doesn't necessarily mean she can do all magic," the sorcerer Supreme clarifies and gestures to his friend, "Wong here can't use all the same magic I can, but he still can do some."
MJ looks at Wong who nods in confirmation, and he doesn't seem to be insulted by his friend's words, before she looks back at Strange, "Okay, so what does that mean for us?"
"Due to Sonja being connected to you, both mind and soul, she might not be able to use magic," he tells her and she gets a bit discouraged, "And if she can, then there might be some adverse effects to the uses of different magic."
Now worry seeps into Mary Jane, "Like what?"
"Say she is casting a spell and she is drawing power from her soul," the doctor gestures to her "What if she were to accidentally draw it from yours?"
The model does not like the sound of that.
"Or if she were to cast a spell and draws power from a realm that leaves adverse effects on the caster."
"You mean like dark magic," she winces as she can feel Sonja's anger at the mention of such things, "She hates dark magic."
Strange nods in approval, as does Wong, and says, "That's good. But there are spells that aren't necessarily dark spells but do draw power from dark dimensions."
She nods in understanding before she gestures to the design on the floor, "Is this one of them?"
"No this would be a first-time spell," she becomes bewildered and he raises his hands in a placating manner, "Again, your unique situation required us to do some research and make this up more or less. The glyph on the floor is part of another spell that allows the castor to perceive the soul of the individual in the center."
MJ tenses up, "Does that mean you'll read my mind?"
"No," Strange shakes his head and the tension in her leaves, "It'll show us if you or Sonja can use magic. The ruby stones are sort of conduits to allow the goddess Scáthach's blessing through."
"Didn't realize that girls' best friends are magical?"
"It's more like they're conduits for magic," Strange explains, "You'd be surprised how many stones are used for magic purposes similar to silver or copper in electric appliances. Sapphires, rubies, diamonds, and all sorts of stones are used in the same way."
MJ is certainly surprised to hear that, "Not exactly public knowledge," she jokes before something occurs, "Actually now that I think about it, there are some B-list action movies that have the bad guys stealing diamonds to power doomsday devices."
She remembers the date nights Peter and she stayed in and they watched bad movies together. Him pointing out the flaws in the logic and science while she made fun of the acting and design. She also remembers auditioning for such films and thought how ridiculous the concepts were. Peter never made fun of her for doing them but she did get some heckling from other actors and actresses.
Strange and Wong smirk in amusement as the doctor says, "It was a low level mystic that got into the movie business who introduced the concept."
"And thanks to him, such things are now dismissed and regarded as movie nonsense. On that, we are very grateful."
Strange nods and hums in agreement before he claps his hands and says, "Okay let's get started."
The Sorcerer Supreme chants and waves his hands around and the glyphs both above her and below begin to glow in a blue light. The precious gemstones that are at the edges of the glyph begin to glow as well and then float into the air. Wisps of energy begin to waft off them and towards her.
She nods before she stands still. She is a bit uneasy, the whole thing is new to her after all, but she trusts the doctor despite what he did the night prior.
The wisps of magic eventually reach her and surround her. She feels a tingling sensation in her spine before she feels like something is being pulled out of her. She then feels like she's floating before she realizes she is. Two ethereal images start to form in front of her and she becomes surprised when she recognizes it as herself and Sonja.
The wisps of magic then circle them both in a pattern of eight and they reach out for each other. The wisps seem like they try to enter the handshake but are being blocked. As if there's an invisible bubble that is preventing them from doing so. When the two images' fingertips touch the wisps of magic become very weird. They start to shoot all around the place and even beyond the circle she is in.
Eventually they all shoot back into the crystals they came out of and the two images fade as she floats back down to the ground.
"That was interesting," Sonja comments and MJ agrees.
She looks at the two mystics and sees the doctor has something of a disappointed frown while his friend has a pensive one.
"I'm sorry to say," Strange starts off, "Sonja cannot learn magic beyond what she can do."
Mary Jane can feel disappointed emotions from Sonja as she asks, "Why not?"
"For a lack of a better term, the two of you are merged," Strange says and she starts to feel some guilt ride up, "Due to your own inability to perform magic, Sonja cannot do magic outside of what she can already do. She is a spirit and you are her vessel. It's something like a computer and a program. If you are incapable of meeting the requirements then she can't do it."
MJ frowns both despondently and confusingly, "But she was blessed by a god. Doesn't that count for something?
The former surgeon shakes his head, "Thor is a god and has magic too, but he can't perform magic as I can," MJ did not know that but it makes her feel a bit better, "You meet the requirements to be her vessel and she can use her own magic, but beyond that, I'm afraid you can't do much else."
Mary Jane tries to hide her disappointment at her inefficiency, "It was a long shot in the first place," Sonja's encouragement does not help, "We will not be a burden. We are more than capable of standing by him."
As the famous actress listens to the warrior spirit inside of her, Wong has a pensive frown. He saw how the spell was reacting to her. While the magic did not enter into her it did seem to want to. It was encircling both her and Sonja. The research he did stated that if the spell was performed one of two things would happen.
Either the wisps of magical energy would go through her showing she and Sonja can do magic or be repelled entirely. That wasn't the case here. Instead, the wisps of magic encircled them both and then beyond the glyph.
Wong is certain that means something.
(Madison Square Park)
Spider-Man punches the armored villain, FACADE, hard enough to launch him into the air where the villain tries to activate his boosters but they malfunction thanks to Black Cat's bad luck powers.
"Nice job, Cat!" Spidey shouts from his crouching position to his partner, "Don't suppose you can do that to his entire suit!"
"Where's the fun in that?!" Black Cat shouts as she leaps into the air and fires her grapple gun and it attaches to FACADE's foot. She vaults over him and pulls on her line to flip him upside down. At that point, she stops her bad luck powers and he is propelled to the ground by his own boosters, which sends him crashing onto the ground.
"Fools!" FACADE shouts at them as he gets back up, "Do you think this armor is a simple trinket that it will-"
Spider-Man lunges at him and sinks his fingers into the armor to tear it off with little effort. The villain is stunned for a moment and Spidey capitalizes on it by ripping more of the suit off bit by bit. Until all that's left is a man with a helmet in his underwear.
Fweew~!"Wow, Spider you've been holding out on me," Felicia says in an impressed tone while she watches Spider-Man leap onto a lamppost and fire a web line at FACADE to hang him by the chest before he fires multiple shots to secure his foe, "Didn't know you could do that."
He leaps down to the ground and picks up the pieces of the suit, "Pressed for time. Can't play with him."
Felicia looks up to the Clock tower nearby and indeed sees they only have minutes left. Not liking the prospect of the world ending and her having some regrets, she feels the need to say some things. Things she has been keeping to herself for a long while now.
This entire day has been a great day for her. She got to spend it with her Spider. It may be because she was told she had to or she'd die, but she's still happy she did. It was like old times. She watches him from afar as he does his boy scout routine before she gets bored and decides to jump in to help. She watches his back and he watches hers, and if he's willing they'd later scratch each other's backs the way she likes.
Spider-Man and Black Cat. The way it should be.
But the problem is he doesn't see it that way. All because she doesn't like the guy underneath the mask. At least that's what he told her. She doesn't really remember who he is underneath the mask.
And that makes her wonder. Does she want to die not knowing who he is underneath?
"Congratulations," the mysterious armored man says out of breath from his web cocoon, "After so long you have finally defeated me. Now you will know who I am and why I have-"
"Yeahyeahyeah, we'll get to that later," Spider-Man interrupts him before he places his finger on his ear, "Someone tell me that, was it!"
"Still got a faded hell world here with a glassy breakroom," Spider-Man groans in frustration as he leaps into the air and sets himself on the clock tower and Black Cat lands above him, "Oh Max, shame on you. Store brand coffee. Couldn't even spring for Starbucks."
Spider-Man rolls his eyes in agitation, "Tony focus! We got minutes here!"
Black Cat looks down and sees he means that literally! He told her that at three twelve the world ends by fire. She hasn't seen this door to tomorrow so it hasn't really sunk in for her. But her ex's panicky attitude does make it seem like it's going to happen. Thoughts are running through her mind on what she should do next as the clock below her ticks.
"Kid, that was it!"
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
"The paper says you didn't do anything else today!"
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
Spider-Man grabs his head in frustration, "Argh! There's got to be something else!"
Tick. Tock.
Black Cat bites her lower lip in nervousness.
Tick. Tock.
"Spider," she calls out to him as he looks to be in pain.
Tick Tock!
Spider-Man thinks about all the people he's failing.
Tick. Tock.
His family.
Tick. Tock.
His friends.
Tick. Tock.
He is about to fail them all.
Tick. Tock.
"What am I missing?!"
TICK TOCK!
"SPIDER!"
TICK TOCK!
Spider-Mans eyes begin to glow.
TICK TOCK…