Year Long Vacation, Anyone?
Gwen’s style was not what Peter would have pictured it to be, though he couldn’t really say what about it surprised him. She really had an assortment of very fashionable styles that she cycled through each day.
At school she was immediately quite popular among- well quite honestly- everyone. She was pretty and quick witted, athletic and easy to talk to. She immediately fit in in a way he never had. It was like it was effortless for her.
When he had first enrolled in his school after the spell, the girls had flocked to him, trying to offer him a warm welcome. But he had been so awkward in trying to act like he hadn’t known them all for as long as he could remember that they’d soon lost interest.
Peter and Gwen were in most of the same classes which was nice because it made it easier for him to shut out the presences of Ned and MJ.
Peter found himself becoming friends with Gwen and outside of their forced companionship, Peter thought that he would have really liked to be her friend if she’d been in his world from the beginning. In their free time during the days they were either sitting in a cafe doing homework or holed up in their apartment researching endlessly. At nights they went out spider-ing and found that they worked surprisingly well together.
In late January, they had their first breakthrough. Peter and Gwen were using BARF to scour Peter’s memories when they came across something that gave them pause. Doctor Strange had said that Nick Fury had been off world for a year. Which meant that the Nick Fury Peter had interacted since then had been some imposter, a stand-in of sorts, likely recruited by Fury himself.
“I wonder if the spell extends to space.” Gwen said, chewing on her pen cap.
“Only one to find out.” Peter said and pulled his phone from his back pocket. He used EDITH to retrieve Nick Fury’s number and quickly dialed it in. He put his phone on speaker and watched it ring.
On the third ring it cut off and Fury’s distinctive voice said, “Hello?”
“This is Spider-Man, I need to speak with Nick Fury.” Peter said, subconsciously deepening his voice.
Gwen had to put her hand over her mouth to stifle her snicker.
“Speaking.” Fury said, his voice slightly annoyed.
“Are you?” Peter asked, narrowing his eyes despite the fact that Fury couldn’t actually see him. “Because last I checked Fury was in some space bunker and you were waltzing around pretending to be him.”
However was on the other end of the phone sighed and then their voice morphed into something that wasn’t quite human. “Fine, you got me. I’m Talos, a skrull. I’ve been working with S.H.I.E.L.D and Fury for decades.”
“Right.” Peter said. His mind was reeling. “Can you get Fury on the phone?”
There was a long bout of silence and then, “Hello? Parker? What the hell is going on down there?”
“Fury?” Peter asked, not allowing in any of that hope. “You remember who I am?”
“Of course I do. Talos wouldn’t quit complaining about how big of a pain in the ass you were to him during the whole Mysterio incident. Told me your identity got revealed to the world but then I’m checking the news and suddenly no one seems to know who you are anymore. What the hell is going on?” Fury repeated.
“Strange preformed a spell for me to make the world forget I was Spider-Man, only we screwed it up trying to keep my friends and aunt and Happy from forgetting about me. It fractured reality a little and then all of these bad guys started popping up all over the place, after Spider-man’s from alternate realities in the multiverse. And to send them back, Strange had to preform the spell as it was originally intended, so now no one on Earth remembers me.” Peter explained.
After a second of silence Fury said, “But since I wasn’t on Earth, I can remember you, is that right?”
“We think so, yes.” Peter replied.
“We?”
“Uh, yeah, I’m working with a Spider-Man, well a Spider-Woman, from another reality. She’s trying to help me figure this out. Her name’s Gwen.”
“Hi.” Gwen said with a little wave at the darkened screen.
“You can’t see her but she just waved.” Peter supplied helpfully.
“Listen, Peter.” Fury said, ignoring Gwen completely. “I think Strange sabotaged you.”
“What?”
“He’s gone mad, he’s off the rails, been practicing some very dark stuff. Wong has been sending his concerns to S.H.I.E.L.D in case things get out of hand. Strange is stronger than Wong, if they have to fight each other, Wong knows Strange would win.” Fury said.
“I fought Strange, in the mirror dimension.” Peter said. “And I won.”
There was a stunned silence on the other end before Fury said, “Well that’s probably it then, he felt threatened by you so he manipulated you into letting him preform that spell. He wanted you off the board.”
Peter cursed under his breath. “He wanted us all off the board.”
“What does that mean?” Fury asked.
“When the first spell got botched, other Spider-Man’s started coming to this reality. That spell was the only way to send them back to their realities. He wanted them out of the way because he knew he couldn’t beat all three of us, not even in his own dimension.”
“Peter there’s something else.”
“What is it?”
“We believe that Strange orchestrated Tony Stark’s death.”