Issue 42: Trials of Merlin Part XIII

1 month had passed before Peter and MJ had finished their ancient language classes. After memorizing and becoming fluent in over a dozen dead languages and some still living ones, they were finally ready to start learning spells and considered to be geniuses amongst other Sorcerers that came before them. Though, they couldn't take all the credit. The boost they had as Super Humans played a part in why they were so good at memorizing new information.

Peter and MJ both sat on a meditation pillow inside a complex magical array, Strange walked circles around them and continued to make small adjustments to the design of the array as he explained. 

"Everyone has affinities towards certain magics, and you two lucky dogs have more than a few of them."

"Says the guy who has an affinity for all forms of magic." 

Strange hit him on the head with a teaching ruler. "Quiet. This magic circle will let your astral forms visit these realms briefly to loosen your mind and allow the aspects of Magic to reveal themselves to you."

When he finished he said some Latin words and their minds were sent on a spiritual trip across the many realms, Peter saw a massive web hanging in the void, on the web were glowing dots that represented different realms of glowing with their own unique forms of power. 

Suddenly his mind was thrust into these immaterial planes of existence, Peter felt the bonds that connected everything together, atoms, molecules the energy that glued them together. 

Next, his mind shift over to a realm of pure fire, almost as if he was sitting in the heart of a star, no even hotter than he could imagine. It was like everything burned away, only leaving raw heat and pure power. Thinking that he had discovered the source of Johnny fires, he couldn't help admit that it does indeed come from a dimension of heat. This place was like the universe before the big bang. 

Once upon a time, 14 some odd billion years ago, a cosmic explosion released an immense amount of heat and pressure. All the particles and energy in our universe, once confined to space about the size of a dime, before they raced away from one another at tremendous speeds. As the hot particles cooled and continued to expand into space, matter formed and the stars and galaxies of our universe were born. 

Johnny could tap into this realm's power that was probably equivalent to the temperatures of an active Big Bang; temperatures that far exceeded 1 billion degrees Kelvin the scientists theorized for Pre-Bang universe.

Next, he visited a realm of pure lightning, the light blinded everything that existed, only a rapidly moving positive and negative charged molecules existed and were only in an excited state. It was if the realm mirrored the laws of conductivity and electrical manifestation.

Next, he found himself at a spring pure water that spread out for eternity, he didn't know what to think of this one, because he didn't have the ability to control water as he touched it he felt a surge of vitality enter his body, "A recovery realm, no this is something more, I can't quite understand this, eternity?"

The last place he visited was a bright red realm that was filled with a red mist, only pure unadulterated power could be felt coming from this plane, Peter then felt his body shift back to the web before he was pulled back reality.

MJ had a similar experience for the electrical world, except she noticed several other small dots beside the classical elements, one was completely grey and represented pure force, or telekinetic energy, the 4 classical elements each resided in a world of burning infernos and flaming vortexes, an endless blue sea with the addition of ice and snow, a world of endless stone and dirt, and air, free and endless forms of gasses. 

MJ tried to explore the others but thought back to her door metaphor with Cyrstal, "These are doors I haven't opened, not even Crystal has opened yet. How much power does that girl have?"

MJ came back to reality around the same time as Peter. They looked at each other in amazement and disbelief. Even noticing their shocked expressions, it didn't surprise them considering what they both just got back from. Their minds were still reeling through the visions and feelings the countless sensations they just went through.

"Reading about it was one thing, but experiencing was another," Peter thought as he stared at MJ.

With this, the two were allowed to begin their magic training and for another two months, other than patrol the two didn't see a single ray of sunlight.

Peter and MJ were going over some advanced spell crafting formulas when Strange came in. He looked over Peter's paper and said, "This is interesting. You're taking a logical approach to magic, breaking it down into science and rebuilding it in your own structures."

"I kept thinking why we still needed to use dead languages, then I thought that it wasn't the words that were important but the meaning they imbued them with, for instance, "Ignis!" Peter lit a fire using his magic, and said, "When they thought of the word they imbued the aspect of the very nature into the word, after years of pouring their imagination and meaning into them the words themselves became magic. Science has always separated itself from supernatural means, so our words don't carry the same meaning. I aim to fix that."

MJ then said, "We're trying to use computer code, everything in the universe can be boiled down to a single language, zeros, and ones, if we can program our spells, we can create complex matrixes to pull energy from the other realms and execute our spells with frightening accuracy and control."

"It's impressive you two managed to continue your hero work and get this far. Everyone has their own understanding of magic, and it appears that you two found your way," Strange commented.

Peter and MJ stretched their arms, when MJ turned to her boyfriend and asked, "Any news on Eddie?"

"None yet, I've been checking in with Fury periodically and nothing so far. Where ever Eddie is he is keeping low, there haven't been any reports of his sightings." Peter sighed while standing up. 

He walked over to the library shelf and pulled out a book on universal truths. Lately Peter's understanding of Magneto's power had shot up another level, he could now create electromagnetic fields around him that can deflect most kinetic energy. He even managed to use those fields to create electricity, adding to his Electrokinesis power.

MJ had made a new spell that impressed even Doctor Strange, she could use her magic to stimulate other peoples healing factor, it would cut time off their lifespan, but if your bleeding out from a gunshot wound I don't think they would mind losing a few minutes to hours of their remaining longevity to survive.

She was in the process of developing a unique tracking spell, using a toothbrush that they managed to pull from his Dormroom she placed it on a map and raised her hand and watched as a white array melted the toothbrush, and dropped over the map, the material flowed like mercury until it landed over central park. 

"Again?!" MJ slapped her head, "This is the last bit of Eddie's genetics we could find, his position has been jumping across the map, but S.H.I.E.L.D scans turned up nothing."

Peter walked over to her and placed his hands on her shoulders before saying, "Come on, we need a break."

MJ let out a sigh of frustration before taking a breath and smiling, "Wanna go on a date?"

Peter smiled watched as she suited up, "I love your idea of a break." 

They were both suited up, he followed her and went out on patrol to clear their heads. While MJ and Peter webbing down a street, a figure watching them from the shadows looked up seeing the sun was starting to set and said, "He's so young here." 

Kaine was in his full Scarlet Spider outfit and using his stealth mode to hide. The only reason he wasn't at his usual bar, was because he was out of money, and was searching for a new source of cash. However, that proved to be harder than he originally predicted. The Spider-Couple kept the place pretty tidy, even the drug dealers had mostly been cleaned out.

As he hopped away, he spotted a certain Black Cat jumping from along the rooftops and smiled, "Well kitty, I think it's time for a little payback." 

Keeping up with Felicia proved to be no problem for him. He watched as she snuck into an apartment condo and exited a few moments later with a bag on her waist full of gems. He waited for her get a far enough away from the crime scene when he webbed up her feet.

With a look of surprise on her face, Felicia fell down before she felt the bag being pulled away.

"No fair Spider, you didn't give me a heads up," Felicia said as she cut the webbing and threw herself into the air, landing across from Kaine with a cocky smirk. 

"Now come on, you wouldn't steal from a defenseless girl like me, would you?" Felicia smiled as she tried her best to look like a weak and helpless maiden.

Kaine laughed, "Wow! Cat, you and I both know you're no defenseless little girl. Trained by the world's greatest thief at a young age, you were exposed to a verity of different martial arts, not to mention you're reaching for your grappling hook."

Kaine placed the gems inside the suit before saying, "Much smaller than a bag full of cash." and then turned his suit into stealth mode becoming invisible and sound absorbent. 

"I think I'm going to enjoy stripping that suit off of you," Felicia purred seductively.

Kaine was about to web away when he saw his line was cut quicker than it could attach to the neighboring building. The moment it appeared Felicia made her move, she pounced on Kaine. Using her bad luck to affect his senses for a split second, she managed to land on top of him.

"Wow! Your body is..." Felicia smiled as she sat on his abs, "Careful Cat!" Kaine removed his stealth, "I don't want to hurt you, I'm out of cash, and studied your M.O. I know you only steal from bad guys, so can you really blame me?"

Felicia smiled and said, "You need some cash!? With your powers couldn't you just hire yourself out to the Avengers?"

"It's complicated," Kaine replied.

"She placed her hand near his mask and said, "Oh, how complicated?"

As she was about to remove his mask he grabbed her hand and said, "I can't let you do that,"

"Please get a room, this may be a rooftop, but there are people that web-sling around here!" Peter's voice echoed out as he landed on a billboard. 

"Wow! Another Spider-Man, do you think he's you from another universe?" MJ said looking upset at the scene before her. 

"I think so. You're the Scarlet Spider right?"

"How does he?" Kaine started to freak out when he felt Black Cat get up and say, "The straight arrows showed up, guess it's time for me to leave." 

MJ tried to shoot her webbing at Felicia but felt her web shooter's malfunction, "That's not supposed to happen?" 

Felicia threw out a smoke pellet and disappeared. However, Kaine, realizing that Black Cat had stolen back the gems, cussed in his head before he tried to web away. 

Peter stood in front of him and held his hands up, "Come on Kaine, I just want to talk."

Kaine frowned as he removed his mask, "How do you know about me?" 

Peter smiled and said, "We went to another universe for a while and I got to speak with a different world version of myself that was far more experienced. He told me a lot of stuff to help me prepare. Our universes may be different, but I'm sure you understand that they have many similarities between them."

MJ looked at him making Kaine realized there could only be one red-headed Spider-Girl that he knew of. It appeared that this Kaine wasn't from the 616 universes but one that closely followed its history. He was actually from the 18119 Universe that was the home of Annie Mayday Parker. 

Peter was surprised to hear that the Kaine he was talking to was from the 18119 Universe and had disappeared a few years before they arrived. The Renew Your Vowes version of Peter had told him that he was still looking for his brother.

MJ stood next to him studying Kaine, "Still, to think that someone had cloned you, this is..." 

"Weird, crazy, wrong," Kaine said putting his mask back on.

"I was gonna say awkward, what's it like to be a clone of someone? Do you have their memories or habits, I mean there's a whole can of questions I want to ask!"

Kaine was a little surprised by MJ's honesty when Peter said, "Do you have a place to stay? If you want, I can use a Bamf to send you back to your universe."

Kaine looked at him and paused before asking, "Are there any clones here?"

Peter shook his head, "Nope, and there won't be any of me. At least, not if I have to say anything about it." Peter paused before he said, "Sorry, I meant to say, no one in this universe is going to get my universes genetics to clone me! You're welcome to stay as long as you want, as long as you stay out of trouble."

"You're not going to give me the whole Great Power shtick?" Kaine asked.

Peter webbed over to a building and said, "Why? Looks like you know a lot about it yourself already! If you're lost now, take a break in this world and relax for all I care, it's not like there are lives you could be saving."

Kaine started to respond, "You're being sarcastic aren.." 

"Yes, I'm being sarcastic!" Peter interrupted.