187 Trick 186: Saving the Universe

A while later

Ace left the Spiderpeople in a school gym, walking out of a school with tons of new profiles and records from all sorts of different universes. He sent them all to Steve and looked up at the sky before humming to himself, muttering "Should probably send them all back now…"

He disappeared with a sigh, "But this is much more fun, Spiderlings everywhere! Hehe~"

Ace appeared over the Statue of Liberty to see 3 Spidermen fighting a gaggle of villains! Ace froze and his eyes sparkled as he waved his hand, portals opening up all around the Statue of Liberty as everyone stopped, looking around.

The Spiderpeople were freed and landed on the Statue of Liberty along with all the villains that crossed over!

It was a Spider-Party!

The Spiderpeople looked at each other before turning to the villains and starting a massive fight!

Ace sat on the torch, watching the fight as gigantic purple rifts appeared in the sky around them with white figures standing in them.

People dressed as Goblins flew around, cackling as they threw out pumpkin bombs, only to be attacked by Spidermen, dozens of Sandmen coming together into an Ultimate Sandman, Doc Ocks, Venoms, Electros, a lounge of Lizards, everything!

Ace recorded everything in excitement as he pulled MJ and Ned to him, keeping them safe. Ace took the Sling Ring from the two and asked "Where's the box?" as continued recording, Ned replied anxiously "The Box blew up!" MJ said in shock "What the hell is going on?!"

Ned shouted "So many Peters!?" Ace clarified "Actually that's not true. There's Peter Parkers, Ben Reillys, Miles Moraleses, Gwen Stacys, Mary Janes, Ben Parkers, May Parkers, all sorts of Spiderpeople! Isn't it magical?"

Ned's eyes sparkled and asked "Is there a Ned Leeds Spiderman?!" Ace laughed and shook his head, Ned almost cried and Ace pointed at a certain Spiderman, saying "But that Spiderman right there is actually a mind swapped Otto Octavius who became a Hero after realizing what it means to be Spiderman."

Ned and MJ were dumbfounded and Ace controlled the tablet to record as he freed his hands, continuing "And did you know, there's even a Spiderman that is a Cluster of Spiders in the shape of a man? Apparently, Peter Parker fell into a pit of Spiders and they devoured him alive, taking on his will and becoming Spiders-Man! Oh and there's a cat Spider-Man, a pig Spider-Man, and a bunch others!"

Ned and MJ covered their mouths in shock and horror, watching the Spiderpeople fight the bad guys.

Peter landed in front of them and took off his mask, saying "It's me! What's going on?!" MJ said quickly "The Wizard brought all the spiderpeople here! There's even a Spiders-Man that ate you alive and became a hero, but he's just a cluster of Spiders!"

Peter was dumbfounded and shouted "Oh my god! That's horrifying!" before turning to Ace, asking quickly "Sir! What do we do?! The spell…" Ace's eyes took on a sly light and he lied to Peter, "The spell won't work. We can't reverse it anymore. Look up, they're all here! It's a tragedy but we'll become a Spider-Verse now, the Hub of Spider-People forever!"

Peter turned pale and shouted "That-! There must be another way! Everyone is coming here because they know I'm Spider-Man, right!?" Ace sighed and nodded, "Basically. Everyone who knows you're Spider-Man is coming through, not even making everyone forget you're Spider-Man will fix this. It's too far gone. Soon every person in this reality will become Spider-People! We'll live in a Spider-Society!"

Peter was horrified and held his head, unable to believe the damage he caused, Ace sighed "The Box exploded, the Villains are here and they won't stop. There's nothing that can be done! These are the consequences, Peter…"

As he pointed his hands at the rifts, shooting beams trying to close them with 'great effort' sweating buckets from the difficulty!

Peter sat there, thinking quickly before saying "I have an idea!" Ace looked at him and Peter licked his lips, asking "What if everyone forgot Peter Parker." Ace froze and stared at him in shock as he continued "They all came here cus of me but if they don't know me then everyone should be fixed right?!"

Ace swallowed and replied "Kid, you realize what you're asking, right?" MJ shouted "No! Peter, you can't! What about us!?" Peter looked at them and said "Don't worry, I'll come find you after, it's not a problem, right?"

Ace's eyes widened and he stared at the kid, this kid… He just lied right to his girlfriend and best friend, just like that… Ace smiled secretly under the hood, gratified that this kid is finally growing up…

Peter calmed MJ and Ned down, lying right to their faces, asking "Can you send them to a safe place, please, Sir?" Ace looked at Peter while waving his hand, MJ and Ned disappeared instantly and Ace asked "Are you sure about this, Spider-Toddler? You are throwing away your entire life here. You won't have any friends, family, nothing."

Peter clenched his fists and said "This is all my fault… It's because I was selfish and irresponsible before, I even… I even got May killed… With Great Power, comes Great Responsibility, I understand that now. So even if I have to lose everything, I don't care…" he looked up at Ace and smiled "Because that's what Heroes do, right sir?"

Ace pulled his hood off and smiled gently at Peter, saying "You've grown up from the kid I saw at the Expo. Took you a while, Peter." Peter chuckled and forced a smile with watery eyes, "Too long, Mr. Cloak."

Ace smiled gently and rubbed his head, saying "It wasn't too late, Peter. I'm proud of you, I'm sure Tony is too." as he clapped his hands.

Everyone froze in place, turning to Ace, who looked down at them saying "It's over, time for you all to return to your homes. To all the Spider-People, thank you for your cooperation, your reward is to return with all your enemies forgetting that you're Spider-Man."

He raised a finger above his head as a bright purple ring appeared, spinning around insanely fast as more and more rings appeared around it, spinning perfectly in the shape of a sphere made up of rings.

Ace's eyes glowed bright purple and he said "Goodbye, Spider-Man." as the purple orb froze in a flat pattern before exploding out in a circular wave, crossing the entire planet, passing through everyone and infecting the rifts.

The people from other universes started disappearing one by one into speckles of light, Ace was extremely thorough. His spell was no joke, even Mephisto would be dumbfounded.

The spell was extremely complicated but it essentially affected only positively. This Peter Parker would be forgotten by the world, all media and pictures, recorded video, mentions of Spider-Man's identity, etc had disappeared, been warped to exclude Peter. However, his birth records and identification he would need, remained so that he wasn't completely helpless.

In addition! The original villains that were cured were sent back with a small bit of magic to prevent them from dying instantly in the position they were in when they were dragged here.

The rest of the villains had their memories of Peter Parker wiped, however certain individuals were excluded from all universes. Examples being; Mary Jane Watson, Gwen Stacy, May Parker, Ben Parker, Ben Reilly, Miles Morales, and Peter Parker. If they knew Peter was Spider-Man, they would still know, and if they didn't, nothing would change.

Ace had to be extremely delicate and intricate because he could ruin a ton of lives if he simply cast a forget Peter Parker Spell. Imagine you return home and your own family doesn't even know who you are!

That would be a nightmare and Ace was a hero not an asshole.

So it was extremely detailed, however Ace managed to create the necessary parameters, even adding fail safes like 'Individuals known as Norman Osborn, Eddie Brock, Otto Octavius, Curt Connors, Max Dillon, MacDonald Gargan, Adrian Toomes, Cletus Cassidy, Alexei Sytsevich, Alexei Kravinoff, Quentin Beck, and Wilson Fisk specifically will forget the individual known as Peter Parker'.

This was on top of all villains to Spider-Man forgetting about Peter Parker but keeping the Knowledge of Spider Man in their own universes. As well as normal people retaining their knowledge of Peter Parker and Spider-Man being separate entities.

In short, very complicated. But Ace didn't study magic all this time for nothing! He exempted himself and Tony from their own Universe only!

This was the little reward Ace granted Peter for his mature decision. However, he now had to go explain the situation to Tony and tell him not to interfere with Peter's life. They would keep an eye on him just in case some unexpected events followed after the spell was cast.

Ace didn't want any more magical problems coming from Peter and his job was to make sure that everything was fixed. It was a bit of a long process now only because the spell was so complicated. It needed to be monitored for any unexpected anomalies that might occur after the fact.

Ace watched as Peter swung away and the rifts in the sky closed back up, returning everything to normal.

He sighed and shook his head, muttering "Really… a long way from when I first met you kid, good luck." as he looked around, curling his fingers.

All the paraphernalia of the villains and some Spider-Men were pulled up to Ace, who disappeared, leaving the Statue of Liberty as it was before, he didn't like the Shield on it anyway.

Ace returned to Avengers Mountain and went to find Tony, saying "Hey, I need to talk to you." Tony looked up from the machine he was working on and said "Sure, what happened? Nice interview by the way, real professional!"

Ace's lips twitched and he replied "I can't have some fun? It's just a joke, jeez… Anyway, come with me, this is kinda private." T'Challa and Banner looked over and Tony snorted in amusement "Alright, secret-lord, let's go."

They went to another room and Ace cast a barrier, saying "So, guess what I just came across! A Cluster of Spider-People. I sent you the files along with Steve." Tony nodded and said "Yeah, I know. I saw 'em, what about them?" Ace explained what happened from start to finish before saying "Right now, only you and me remember the kid."

Tony froze and slowly sat down, falling silent for a few moments before asking "The kid really did that?" Ace nodded and Tony smiled slightly, "He's all grown up…" Ace patted his shoulder and said "Tony, I left you in the loop because I figure you should remember. Your relationship with the kid is really deep but…"

Tony looked at him, saying "I shouldn't go see him is what you're saying." Ace replied "Maybe it's for the best to let him be on his own and mature… If you're always holding his hand then he'll just keep being a kid. The other Spider-people I met, they all went on their own, they didn't have you. He's not Ironman Jr, he's Spider-Man!"

Tony held his chin and thought about it silently. Ace sighed "I'm gonna steal his Iron-Spider suit when he stops using it… Hopefully, he stops using it. That way, we'll know, he's maturing. We can still keep an eye on him, and we have to, but Tony specifically helping him will only hurt. Look, did you have help after your family died?"

Tony replied "No." Ace nodded, "See? This is the way things should be. No Hero got anywhere without suffering a bit. He can't have all his mistakes swept under a rug and taken care of by someone else, he has to face the consequences of his own actions! That's why I didn't just fix everything."

Tony looked at him and he continued "Yes. I could've fixed it all without any of this but he wouldn't learn. I care for the kid too, he's a good kid. It's time he grew up." Tony looked back at the ground and swallowed, "Fine! Okay, I get it. Don't need a speech from the superstar media king. What else you got for me?"

Ace smiled and dropped a ton of paraphernalia he collected from the other Universe people, saying "This is what they all left behind. Could be useful, could not be, I don't know how these machines, gadgets and gizmos work, so you handle it."

Tony looked at the stuff and snorted in amusement "A glider? A mechanized Rhino suit? Machine Wings? What is all this?" Ace scratched his neck and chuckled "I don't know, bad guy stuff. Look there's even robotic tentacles that were punched off one of the Doc Ocks! Anyway! It's your field of expertise! Not mine!" before he threw his hands up and walked out of the room, adding "I'm done with Spider related things for a while! Plus, it's Christmas in a few months…"

Tony waved "Yeah yeah… Get back to work!" Ace laughed, "Yes, boss!"