One blind mouse
As soon as I stepped through the portal I was met with chattering voices, one being my dad’s.
“Please, Scooby-doo this shit. Sabrina, glad you’re back, help Peter and his ‘crew’”
I nodded and turned to Peter beside me, behind him his girlfriend MJ and best friend Ned stood. Although I have never formally met them, I know lots about the two.
“Hi! You must be Ned and Mj! My nam-“
“You’re Wither!? PETERb You never mentioned you knew Wither How do y-“
Peter shoved his face into hands, rubbing them up and down.
“Let’s just go downstairs.”
We all made our way down to the undercroft, truthfully it was extremely neglected. Cobwebs hung in corners, dust settled everywhere. However past the initial ‘study room’ there stood a few figures in our magical jail cells. The most notable being a man with large octopus-like tentacles protruding from his back. Peter’s voice carried itself through the room but the words went through my ear and out the other. I felt my foot knock into something, and I was face to face with the octopus man himself.
“What do you want, pesky little girl.”
I frowned at his words but said nothing, instead craned my neck to look at the other cell, then back to his.
“Peter what’s the deal with this guy”
“Oh umm yeah he’s kinda a villain from the multiverse who hates peter parker but not me peter parker, I guess another peter parker.”
I hummed in understanding and went back up the stairs, cozying myself in a chair. Next thing I know Ned is pulling a chair from across the table to sit on.
“Soooo I know Peter asked me not to tell you this buttt… You’re my all time favorite superhero! I swear I’ve always wanted to meet you in or out of costume. And you know thanks for the service for our country, err umm i mean world I guess.”
I let a chuckle out from the back of my throat, and he seemed to like that I didn’t take offense.
“Thanks Ned, but between me and you. I’m just like you, a normal teenager whose dad is Dr.Strange.”
Ned’s eyes widened in surprise, clearly he didn’t know this.
“Wither’s dad is Dr.Strange! I just thought you got taught under him! Oh my god this confirms so many of my theories and-. Right, sorry, you’re just like us.”
I shrugged and turned my back to Mj and Peter’s hushed conversation. She leaned in close to him, and he was clearly slightly stammering through his words.
“Right, what did my dad want us to do?”
Through many cans of soda, bags of popcorn, tossing popcorn games. We had finally managed to find the perp, and now Peter swung through a dark forest. He had duck tapped his phone to the suit so we could see everything he was. It was smart but yet so incredibly dumb at the same time.
“I really don’t know how you do this without throwing up.”
Mj’s face contorted into a scowl at the intense swinging motion on the screen. Peter’s head suddenly jerked to another direction, near some trees.
“Did you guys see that?”
“No. It's really dark.”
Peter kept moving in circles, his quick movements made even me get a little dizzy. Suddenly he stopped
“What's happening?”
”Peter, what is it?”
He seemed to stop, all at once. His head stuck in one direction.
“Are you getting the tingle thing? Is the tingle thing happening? Is your tingle tingling?”
Mj’s reference to peter’s ‘tingle’ made a slight chuckle emerge but I covered it up with a cough.
“Are you guys seeing this?”
“Yeah.”
A shape of a human hovered, all blue, standing on top of a live wire.
“Osborn?”
“No. He was green. This guy's blue. You wouldn't happen to be from another universe, would you?”
Peter called to the man above but he seemed completely unfazed. I leaned closer to the screen letting my eyes soak in the image.
“What's he doing?”
“ I don't know. Looks like he's charging.”
“I don't like this. Just web him.”
Mj’s voice tried to appear calm but the underlying anxiety was clear. Peter suddenly casts. web out to the man, but instead it passed right through him. In an instant a giant tree came through to one of the cells. Peter was suddenly left swinging through the cell towers and surrounding trees
“Go left, left! Go left!”
”Wait! Right, right!”
We were all yelling directions at Peter left and right, although he seemingly ignored us.
“Guys! This is not helping!”
Suddenly his body crashed into the ground and the computer dulled down to a black screen.
“No, no, no.”
“What happened?”
We all sat with various looks of worry, Ned’s extremely visible and Mjs only slightly peering through.
“Should we help him? Go fight that guy?”
Ned was furiously smashing the keyboard, his eyes filled with worry and terror.
“Don’t worry, I’ll go help him. Both of you wait here.”
I kept my mind on Peter Parker and started to swirl my hands, the tiny sparks forming fast. The inside of the portal looked to be a dark sky with trees, just the place. Stepping fully inside, the portal closed behind me. The trees around me burrowed over top but a few feet left they thinned out into a sidewalk? I let my feet follow the path, until the familiar sound of water rushed into my ears. The fountain from earlier, this was Father Demo Square. My powers never were wrong, perhaps Peter was already done fighting? I few groans erupted from
behind me, deep and animal-like. My head trails the sound to a man. A man wearing a spider-man costume, laying on the bench. The exact same bench I had eaten lunch earlier today, and by the looks of the costume the exact same man. Peter Parker, that’s why the spell didn’t work, this guy was fresh in my mind. I slowly walked to his snoring form and poked his exposed cheek several times. No response. I became more physical as I shook his shoulders. Still nothing. Out of sheer desperation I head to the fountain and gather a handful of water. I held the water over his face and finally let the floodgates go. His eyes opened instantly and crazily looked around, he sat up suddenly. His eyes were wide and scared but when he met mine they stopped.
“You! You’re- S-Sabrina! What’re you doing here?”
“Just taking a stroll.”
He allowed himself to take deep breaths, the front of his suit maybe 3 inches away from his neck was drenched in water.
“And you spilled water on me because?”
“You wouldn’t wake up.”
He let out a small huff like sound, he swung his legs over the bench to meet the ground. We both stood in silence, his eyes remained on mine, even when I turned my head to look at the deserted park. It was cold enough tonight to make me shiver. This peter guy must be freezing, I felt really bad for him even if he did seem crazy.
“Follow me.”
I turned around and held my breath, focusing on Palmer St. The small golden portal opened and I walked through it. Peter however stood on the other side, completely frozen in some sort of shock.
“Come on.”
My voice seemed to snap him out of his daze and he stepped one foot forward. I reached ahead and grabbed his hand, yanking him through before the portal closed. I started my small walk in the direction of the store, I prayed Peter was following me. The sound of his footsteps behind me helped solidify that theory thankfully.
“Where are we going? No offense but I don’t trust you too much.”
“None taken, there’s an abandoned furniture store somewhere here. The alley next to it has lots of couches and stuff nobody bothers to pick up. Beats a bench.”
I stopped in my tracks, peering into the dark alley ahead and continued my footing down the dark path. The light from the street lamps only reached a few feet into the alley, but it was clear of the discarded furniture littered around. Peter was close on my tail and pushed past me to a brown couch in front, he jumped on it and instantly melted. It seems his entire body relaxed and he curled in on himself, almost like a cat. I removed my white sweater that I had thankfully put on just before helping Peter and the friends, oh my god Peter! I quickly threw the sweater over his almost sleeping form and he murmured in response.
“See you around Peter, stay warm.”
I backed myself out of the alley, my feet almost tangling in on themselves at the pace I was going. In the dark I failed to notice the figure walking down the street. I quickly stumbled into them, losing my footing and almost bringing us both down. Thankfully a warm hand had gripped my arm, saving me from my hard fall.
“Are you ok, miss?”
The man who I could see now wore small oval red sunglasses and held a white cane was clearly blind. Now I feel like a jerk and an idiot. His mouth was turned down into a slight frown, anger?
“I’m so sorry I am just in a rush to get home.”
He looked back into the alleyway, tilting his ear slightly in the direction. But he soon turned back to me.
“I’m walking you home.”
“Yo that’s a little weird, middle aged blind man I met two minutes ago.”
“Middle age? Not true but this street is no place for a teenager at almost midnight.”
I gave a little hm and stopped for a second, before letting my feet carry me down the street. Even if he was a psycho he was obviously blind, and my sling ring always rested against my fingers just in case. I looked back at him and he seemed paused in the middle of the sidewalk.
“Aren’t you coming?”
My voice reached his ears and he began to catch up to me, the clicking of his cane ringing closer and closer to me. We walked side by side for a few silent moments, but soon he was talking .
“My name's Matt Murdock, just so you know I’m not a creepy person.”
The name rang through my head like a bell of familiarity. I had known that name from… Peter! He was telling me about his lawyers after getting arrested!
“You know Peter Parker?”
“Yes I was his lawyer a few months back, obviously you know him.”
“We’ll yes but me and Peter are best friends like seriously. Oh right My names Sabrina Strange.”
“Wither? Surprised to meet you in this circumstance, what after defeating Thanos you wander around alleys?”
“Well occasionally, turn here.”
We both made a left and turned onto the familiar bleecker street. The cool air pressed against my skin and a few goosebumps ran through me.
“You probably get this often but how is it, balancing both superhero and normal life?”
Matt’s words were laced with curiosity no doubt and to be fair it wasn’t a question I got often.
“We’ll for starters my identity was never a secret which was great, but it means everyone knows me for something. I can’t usually go to other cities without people harassing me so I stick to the neighborhood.”
The air grew comfortably silent as Mr.Murdock digested my answer, his hand clenching at his side.
“This is my house, and thank you for helping Peter with his, you know.”
Mr.Murdock looked in surprise and held his cane in front of him.
“No problem, stay safe kid.”
I smiled gently at him even though he couldn’t see it. And opened the sanctum’s door.