Find Her
To Peter’s surprise, they didn’t go far. Just to a second room of the warehouse. This one had a ceiling with a height more reminiscent of an office building and Peter figured that it had been whoever ran this warehouse’s office.
Strange crossed his arms, leaning against a dust covered desk at the center of the room and looking at Peter expectantly. “So, how are you going to find her?”
Peter settled himself in the far corner of the room, distancing himself as much as he could from Strange. “Well, when Tony died, he passed an AI to me, called EDITH. She has access to practically every database in the world. And if she doesn’t have access already, she can hack it.”
Strange sighed. “So that’s your grand plan, huh? Rely on Stark technology to save the day.” He voice was lifeless, emotionless and Peter’s heart began to thunder in his chest, so forcefully he thought it was in danger of beating right through his skin and falling to the floor at his feet.
“Don’t underestimate it. It is the most advanced piece of artificial intelligence in the world. If there is anything that can find her, it’s this.”
Strange closed his eyes for a long time, and his face was so vulnerable in that moment that Peter flashed back to previous conversations with Strange, conversations in which he had looked at Strange like the hero of the story, not the villain he had turned into.
Peter inhaled deeply and muttered. “I’ll need my bag, EDITH is in there.”
A moment later the bag in question was on the desk. Peter was hesitant to cross to it, because it would bring him uncomfortably close to Strange, but he forced himself to set aside that lingering fear and hurried over to the bag, unzipping it and pulling out the glasses. He slid them onto his face and was greeted by EDITH’s customary, “Hello Peter. What can I do for you today?”
Peter smiled in spite of himself. “Hey EDITH. I’m looking for someone, Christine Palmer. She was a doctor here in New York before she took a trip to Australia and vanished without a trace. Can you find her?”
“Doctor Christine Palmer. Yes, facial recognition scans tell me she was last sighted in security cameras throughout the national airport of Sokovia after getting off of a direct flight from Sydney, Australia. She was accompanied by a man in his mid forties. They left the airport together without collecting any baggage and got into a black SUV in the pickup service line. The SUV drove south out of the checkout and was seen traveling southeast for five hours before going off grid.” EDITH responded promptly.
“Great. Do you know who the man is?”
“He is one Garfield Daniels, a criminal found guilty of seven accounts of murder in the first degree, conspiracy against governmental establishment, conspiracy to murder, government employee assassination, biological weapons threats, attacking a federal facility and bombing of a government affiliated building. He is wanted in nineteen counties but was declared dead after excess amounts of blood matching his DNA was found in Siberia in 2021 in a suicide bombing scene he had previously claimed responsibility for.”
“Does he had associations with any known terrorist organizations?”
“No. Though he is certainly a terrorist, he has not claimed to be part of any known organizations, nor has he ever had any partners.”
“So that the hell is a dead man walking doing with Christine Palmer?”
“So she has been kidnapped!” Strange shot up, looking at Peter expectantly.
“We don’t know that yet.” Peter said placatingly. “She was just caught on security cameras with a known terrorist who faked his own death. We don’t know what that means yet.”
“Yes we do.” Strange snapped, closing in on Peter and pointing a finger in his face. “Where is she?” Peter hesitated and sat there with his mouth open, not wanting to answer. “Where is she! You tell me right now. Or do you want me to go in there and kill one of your friends, just to show you how serious I am?”
When Peter still didn’t answer he backed up and stalked towards the door, magic flaring like nails on a chalkboard around the room. “Sokovia!” Peter practically shouted the word. “She was last seen in Sokovia, 250 miles southeast of the National airport.”
“Sokovia?” Strange asked, freezing where he stood, one hand still on the doorknob. Peter was anxious to get him away from it, away from the looming threat of his friends’ deaths. So he kept on talking. “She got off of a plane there with Garfield Daniels. They didn’t have any bags on them, nor did they pick any up. They got into a nondescript black SUV and traveled for five hours before they fell off the grid.”
“We’re going.” Strange said. “Right now.”
Before Peter could come up with any reasons why this was a bad idea a portal had formed between them and magic was pulling Peter through the portal along behind him. And just like that they were in the middle of a Sokovian street, standing directly below the traffic cam that had captured the license plate number to the SUV Christine had been in.
It was dark out, but Peter had no way of guessing the precise time since he had no idea what time it was back home. Luckily for them the streets were all empty, so there was no one around to witness their magic. Peter strode to the edge of the street and used EDITH to pull up a map of the country, highlighting exactly where they were. He was shocked to find that only six miles south of them was a known HYDRA base that had yet to be infiltrated and dismantled by SHIELD. Apparently during the blip it had had a resurgence of support and increased its security by tenfold. It was known to house the only targets Ronin had failed to disembowel when he’d tried.
If Ronin couldn’t even successfully get inside, how were they supposed to? And if Christine had really gone in there, was she even still alive? Peter’s stomach churned. What would Strange do to him and the others if he found her dead? In this fragile state would he be able to cope?
Peter really didn’t think so, knowing him, he thought that her death would be Strange’s final breaking point. He fiddled with his finger nails, picking at the layers of grime underneath them uselessly.
Strange came to his side and peered at the hologram before Peter. “What are these purple spots?” He asked, pointing to the one just beside the red dot that was Peter.
“Those are all of the surveillance cameras.” Peter replied, inching away slightly.
Thankfully, Strange moved away a moment later, heading back into the street and looking down towards the next intersection where the next camera was marked to be. It was a hundred yards down at most. “That can’t be right.” Strange said. “This was the last camera to pick up on the SUV, you said.”
“It was.” Peter replied, confused himself now. Against his better instincts he moved to join Strange in the street.
“But look. That camera down there would have picked them up if they continued driving this way. And there aren’t any turn off points anywhere between these two cameras.” Strange pointed down the road and Peter realized he was right. Unless the car had parked in one of the spots lining the street and never left that spot again, it made no sense for the car to have never appeared on another camera. “Could magic be involved?”
“I’m going to use a spell to try and trace any magic remnants in the area.” Strange said, “It’ll only take a few moments.”
“Right. Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.” Peter said, backing away from Strange. “I’m going to go to the next camera, see if maybe it’s broken.” He hurried down the road to the intersection that housed the camera and ran a quick scan with EDITH that showed the camera as being entirely functional and that it had not been disabled at any point.
Peter pretended that he was still running tests and instead used EDITH to send a group message out to MJ, Ned and Gwen.
Are you guys okay?
Two minutes later a response came through from MJ. Followed by another message, and another and another.
MJ: Yes, we’re fine.
MJ: We’re all back at the apartment, we’ve been looking at maps trying to figure out where the warehouse is.
MJ: No luck so far.
Ned: OMG Peter where are you are you okay did he kill you
Gwen: obviously he’s not dead if he’s texting us right now
Gwen: unless strange took his phone and is impersonating him right now
MJ: Tell us something only Peter would know
Peter: guys seriously we don’t have time for this, Strange is preforming a spell right now on a random street and we’re in Sokovia right now and I have no idea how I’m going to get back or what the hell I’m going to do
Peter: I’m pretty sure Christine is gone
Ned: that’s definitely Peter
MJ: SOKOVIA????
MJ: Why the hell are you in Sokovia?
Peter: Shit, I think Strange finished the spell
Peter: I’m sending you the address of the warehouse
Peter: find a way to get everyone else out in case this goes sideways
Peter: Pepper can help
Peter: Be careful
He sent the address to the warehouse which had been found, curtesy of EDITH and then transferred her back over to a system scan of the camera as Strange walked over to where Peter stood. “Any signs of magic?” Peter asked.
Strange shook his head. “Not except for the portal I used to get us here.” His eyes latched onto the camera. “So, was it deactivated or something?”
“No. It has been operating on full functionality this whole time.” Peter said.
The two of them spent the next hour and a half canvassing the entire stretch between the two cameras for any exit routes the SUV could have utilized to avoid detection, but they came up empty. There were no alleyways or parking spots that could be occupied long term. Peter was stumped. Absolutely stumped as to where the car could have gone. Had the cameras been hacked and looped at some point to disguise the SUV’s travel?
He stared at the road, analyzing the possibilities. The car could’ve started levitating and gone straight up. Or maybe the road opened up and devoured it. He laughed at the absurdity of it. Maybe it shrunk to the size of an ant with Pym Particles… or maybe it turned invisible with SHIELD cloaking technology.
Peter was just turning to Strange to tell him his more likely theories when Strange said, “Wait, I’m picking up on something. Something incredibly powerful has been nearby, not even one hundred miles out.” Peter froze. He didn’t know what to say, because he was suddenly remembering who else was in Sokovia right now. And he was realizing that Strange could only be talking about one person right now, whether he knew it or not.
Wanda Maximoff was close by and Strange was definitely going to go after her.
“Wait!” Peter shouted but the slingring portal was already huddling towards him, forcing him through just behind Strange. And just like that the two of them were in that valley where Wanda had taken residence, mountains surrounding them. The moment they entered the area everything flooded red, it was as though the world itself had changed hues.
Strange tried to summon his magic, spinning on the spot, but none came to him. Peter stumbled away from him. He needed to get out of here. He didn’t have his suit or web fluid. He didn’t even have his phone. All he had was himself and EDITH.
He had no idea what state of mind Wanda was in now, but if the red was any indication, she did not appreciate their presence. Strange was suddenly gasping for air and sliding down to his knees. His face was red and pained as Wanda stalked into view. Her eyes were red- inhuman and her smile was devilish.
Red energy solidified and snaked around Strange’s limbs like chains, holding him to the spot. As Wanda approached, he backed off quickly.
“Where the hell are you going?” Strange snarled. “Help me!” His voice was booming, enraged, desperate. “You set me up! When I get out of this, your friends are all dead!”
“Don’t worry.” Wanda said, turning to Peter. Her Sokovian accent was in full effect, so heavy that Peter struggled to understand her at first, since he was so used to her American accent. “He won’t be getting out of this.”
Peter paused. “You’re not going to kill him, are you?”
Something in Wanda softened at the question and the red tint to her eyes faded somewhat. “You should go, Peter. Return to your friends. It is a long flight ahead of you.”
“Not that long.” A voice said from behind him and he turned to find Ned standing there. A portal alight behind him. He was smiling, though stress was evident in his features, highlighted and enhanced by the red hue the world had taken. Through the portal, Peter could see colors like normal. Did that mean that Wanda had really dyed the world here red? Magic hurt his brain.
“Goodbye, Peter.” Wanda said, turning back to Strange and stalking towards him.
“Wait.” Peter called and Wanda paused again, looking over her shoulder at him. “What are you going to do to him?”
“I am going to purge the darkness.” Wanda replied simply. “If he has any humanity left, he will survive.”
Peter inhaled deeply. That was the best he could hope for, he decided. Either Strange would be saved for a chance at redemption, or he was unfixable and would die. He blinked hard, trying to convince his body to move, to go through that portal.
Strange got Natasha and Tony killed.
Strange kidnapped him and all of his friends after trying to kill them all.
Strange was the reason his aunt was dead.
Peter turned away and walked through the portal.
It closed behind him and he turned to look at Ned. “You’re getting really good at those.” He said tiredly.
Ned nodded, displaying his slingring proudly. “I stole it from the Sanctum as soon as we got back here. Used it to get everyone out of that warehouse. They’re all at SI right now. Pepper has hidden Tony, Pete and Parker away, but the others are making their statements for the police. I figured you’d want some peace and quiet for a bit before an interrogation.”
“Thanks.” Peter flopped onto the couch. His head was pounding and he could feel a stress headache forming at the back of his head. He slung an elbow over his eyes, blocking out the minimal light in the room provided by the kitchen’s little chandelier hanging above the table. He was so tired from the stress of everything that had been going on in these last several months.
Even now he wasn’t sure if it was over. Would it ever be over? There were always going to be more criminals, more people who needed to be stopped, that was never going to change. But that personal stake he had in all of this, the fact that this was a Peter Parker problem, not a Spider-Man problem, that was what troubled him. That was what made all of this so very draining.
He laid on the couch, drifting in and out of sleep for a few hours before rousing himself and getting to his feet. He knew it was time for him to go to Stark Industries and meet with the police. “Do the others know that I’m back?” Peter asked as they walked down the street towards SI tower.
“I’m not sure.” Ned replied. “I texted everyone but only the Peter’s and Tony responded. So the others might still be in questioning. No idea if they’ve even seen the message.”
The walked the remainder of the journey in silence, with Peter lost in his thoughts.
He had let the need for revenge cloud his judgement and now Strange might be dead as a result. He had left him there, at the mercy of a madwoman more powerful than anyone else in existence because he blamed Strange for his aunt’s death. Now if Strange died, it would be on him.
Wanda was strong, so strong. It wasn’t like Peter trying to save Strange would have had any success. The thought didn’t do much to comfort him.
As soon as he entered the building he was bombarded by dozens of reporters flashing their cameras and asking questions. The police were quick to separate peter from the hoard and pull him into one of the smaller conference rooms on the ground floor.
Before the questioning started the police sent in a medic to check him over for injury. Once they realized he was perfectly fine, the medic packed up her things and hurried from the room to allow the questioning to begin.
“Mr. Parker, in your own words, please tell us what happened prior to your disappearance.” One of the officers prompted gently. Another of the officers was standing in the corner of the room, jotting notes in a little notebook despite the fact that Peter had not yet spoken. It set Peter on edge, but still he explained everything from the moment Strange had appeared in their apartment, to the deal they had made in the warehouse dungeon. “How did you escape?”
“Strange took us to some town where he thought Palmer might have been and Wanda Maximoff showed up and saved me. She took him somewhere and then Ned used a sorcerer’s slingring thing to come find me and take me back here.”
“Do you have idea where you were?”
Peter shook his head. “All I can really tell you was that it was dark, probably the middle of the night because the streets were empty. But we come here through the portal and its day, so it must be on the other side of the world.”
“Thank you. That’ll be all for now. If you think of anything else that we might find useful, feel free to stop in to the precinct or call our non emergency hotline.” The officer handed Peter a business card.
“Thanks.” Peter muttered, leaving the room to find the others.
“Where is everyone, FRIDAY?” He asked the moment he stepped into the elevator.
“Hello Peter. I am glad you have made it back alright.” FRIDAY greeted. “Everyone is up in the penthouse right now, would you like me to take you to them?”
“Thank you, FRIDAY. It’s good to be back.” Peter said with a little bit of a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. The elevator shot up with such speed that reminded Peter of the first time he’d ridden it and nearly hurled up his guts. It stopped smoothly and the doors slid open.