Stephen Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth and the foremost mystic arts master in the known universe, hovered effortlessly in the freezing winds above the Empire State Building. He radiated the kind of terrifying, absolute power that usually meant a cosmic-level apocalypse was right around the corner.
But none of that mattered to Peter right now. What mattered was that it was September 2012, and the timeline keep messing up.
"Excuse me, who are you?" Peter asked, his hand instinctively resting on his web-shooter.
"Strange. You may call me Doctor Strange," the man replied, his red cloak snapping sharply in the wind. "I am the Sorcerer Supreme. It is my sworn duty to protect our reality from supernatural, magical, and inter-dimensional incursions."
Peter blinked behind his lenses. He couldn't help the snort that escaped his nose. "Sorry, is 'Strange' your actual name, or is that a stage name?"
"My surname is Strange. Thank you," the sorcerer replied, his eyes narrowing into a cold, hard glare.
Seeing the man's expression harden, Peter immediately dropped the smile. "Right. Sorry. Look, I actually have a rough idea of what you're talking about. I've had contact with the Web of Fate. I know about the totems. These are my abilities. I know exactly what I'm doing."
"You know nothing, Spider-Man" Strange snapped, floating mere inches from Peter's face. "Do you have any concept of the sheer volume of spells I just had to cast to stabilize our local universe? I had to manually suppress the abnormal vibrational frequencies you just generated. I am well aware that your soul is anchored by the Spider Totem. I know you are its current avatar. It is your ultimate responsibility to navigate the multiverse to preserve your kind. But that does not grant you the right to act like a reckless infant."
Peter crossed his arms, leaning back against the cold metal antenna. "So what you're saying is, I'm basically a multiversal microwave, and I just tried to reheat reality using tin foil?"
"Precisely," Strange said, his expression softening for a fraction of a second before the realization hit him. His jaw clenched tight. "No! Good lord, that is not how this works!"
Over the next ten minutes, hovering hundreds of feet above Manhattan, Doctor Strange delivered a grueling, highly condescending lecture on basic multiverse mechanics.
Every single jump between universes physically tore the barrier of reality. Some of those tears could be artificially repaired—like the crude dimensional portals Reed Richards was theorizing. Other tears were catastrophic and permanent. The Web of Fate was a unique exception; it existed entirely outside the standard multiverse structure, meaning Peter's jumps didn't shatter the reality barrier itself. That was the only reason Peter hadn't actively destroyed Universe 616.
However, every time Peter used the Web to instantly teleport, he struck the multiverse like a tuning fork.
"You leave a massive vibrational wake in both the origin and target universes," Strange explained, pinching the bridge of his nose in deep annoyance. "What you did tonight was essentially broadcast a distress beacon to the entire multiverse, screaming that you are a living, breathing dimensional gateway."
Strange dropped his hand, locking eyes with Peter. "What happens when a hostile, cosmic-level predator intercepts that frequency, intercepts you, and uses your corpse as a key to launch a multiversal invasion? Nothing is impossible, kid. Even if you kill yourself to stop them, your dead cells can still be weaponized to pry reality open."
Peter swallowed hard. The cold wind suddenly felt a lot sharper. "Uh. Okay. So...?"
"So, I am placing a limiter on you," Strange stated, raising his hands. Glowing, intricate golden mandalas manifested around his wrists. "I am weaving a localized binding spell into your aura. It will make it physically exhausting for you to tear open a spatial rift. It will force you to stop and actually consider if your little parlor trick is strictly necessary."
Strange thrust his hands forward. The golden runes slammed into Peter's chest, sinking harmlessly through the fabric of his suit and settling deep into his bones with a heavy, warm pulse.
"And if you ever abuse the Web of Fate again just to beat up some street-level thug," Strange warned, his voice dropping to a deadly whisper, "I will polymorph you into an actual, literal spider and drop you in the middle of the Sahara Desert."
It wasn't a threat. It was a promise.
Peter nodded quickly, rubbing his chest where the magical heavy sensation lingered. "Understood. Message received loud and clear. Out of curiosity... how old were you when you learned magic?"
"I took the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme a year ago," Strange said, adjusting his collar. "And if it weren't for some temporal anomaly causing a certain kid to be born three years ahead of schedule, I wouldn't have been dragged into this position for another three years."
Strange shot Peter a knowing look. He wasn't overtly complaining, but the implication was terrifyingly clear. Peter's mere existence had drastically accelerated the timeline.
Strange turned, raising his hands to conjure another portal.
"Wait, Doctor!" Peter called out, stepping forward.
"What now, kid?"
"Are you... planning on joining the Avengers?"
"I made my jurisdiction very clear," Strange replied smoothly, pausing at the edge of his sparking portal. "You people protect the world. I protect reality."
"Right, but doesn't the world currently have some things that are a massive threat to reality?" Peter pressed, fishing for information.
Unaware of the trap, Strange gave a curt nod. "It does. Loki's scepter from Asgard. It is currently the only Infinity Stone remaining on Earth. If you manage to locate it and hand it over to the Sanctum for safekeeping, this planet will be significantly safer."
Peter froze. His heart hammered against his ribs. "The only one?!" he blurted out. He instantly realized his mistake and tried to backpedal. "I mean... there's more than one of those things?"
"Infinity Stones are cosmic singularities," Strange lectured, clearly tired of the conversation. "The Space Stone was hidden on Earth by Odin centuries ago, housed inside the Tesseract. But the Asgardians reclaimed it. Therefore, only one remains."
Peter's mind raced. Only one remains.
The Time Stone wasn't at the Sanctum Sanctorum. The Eye of Agamotto was missing. In fact, it was entirely possible the Time Stone had never been on Earth in this universe at all.
This was a catastrophic deviation. Strange had become the Sorcerer Supreme much earlier, he though since New York invasion happen the same way it happen in the Avenger movie just with different cast, maybe some thing from the MCU might happen and he can have his meta knowledge as an advantage, you know like Coulson gathering his team.
I mean it still season one so Agent of Shield should still follow the MCU timeline, right? Peter thought.
"What happens if someone collects them all?" Peter asked, his voice tight.
He took a deep breath, waiting for the answer. But the air was silent.
Doctor Strange was already gone. The sparking portal had snapped shut, leaving behind nothing but the faint smell of ozone. Peter stood alone on the spire, looking out over the sprawling, glowing grid of Manhattan. For the first time since the spider bit him, a suffocating wave of pure, unadulterated dread washed over him.
The future wasn't just dangerous. It was completely blind.
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