Issue 45: Trials of Merlin Part XVI

Peter looked around then asked, "Look calling us both Spider-Man isn't going to fly, so do any of you know this universes designation number?" 

Suddenly Doctor Strange appeared through a portal and said, "I think I can help you with that."

Peter smiled and said, "Oh, good I was beginning to think that no one knew."

Steve Rogers then asked, "What does he mean by Universe Designation Number?"

"There are an infinite number of Multiverses where alternate versions of yourself live. For every choice not taken in our universe there exist one where that path was chosen. Each of these universes have their own number designated by the Web of Life and Destiny, that which lies at the center if the multiverse, our universe is numbered 616."

Peter almost stumbled over, "Oh, boy. This is the Prime Universe. Should I?" Peter then thought hard as he considered to whether or not he should interfere with this world's history. He then looked at the faces of people he considered to be his heroes, sighed, and said, "Peter you removed your mask in this world, didn't you?"

"Yes, biggest regret of my life." 616 Peter responded.

"Okay listen up, if you really want to take back what you did, you work with Strange and ask Xavier to wipe the world's memory concerning your real identity, you don't even have to wipe it, you could simply censor the event in their minds so they can keep the event but not your identity. You could also ask Strange here to make a spell so that everyone besides those you trust implicitly forgets."

"Wow!" 616 Peter said as he listened to his counterparts when Strange interrupted "To do something like that, I would need an incredible source of energy something along the lines as the Power Infinity Stone." 

Peter rose up his hand and revealed the Power Ruby, "I have about 30 seconds of run time with this. You know what it is capable of!" 

"That's? So the Merlin stones have chosen a master."

616 Peter said, "What's a Merlin Stone and why don't I have one?"

Strange looked excited as he stared at his universe's Spider-Man, "You may not have them now, but the appearance of a version of you just put you on the candidacy list." 

616 Peter grinned at the thought of getting something that could power a spell of that magnitude.

The visiting Peter looked at the those in the room and asked, "Can you guys fill me in on what's happing? Mainly, where we are during your timeline?" 

Steve sat down and began explaining. It took a few minutes, but as they finished their story Peter sighed and said, "This is a tough call. On one hand, I fully agree with Steve's reasoning, the right to protect ourselves and our identity is a fundamental right all United State Citizens are afforded. Technically, as long as we don't break the law were perfectly within our rights. On the other hand, there's no doubt that a hero registration act could work out, as long as the list is in the right hands."

Steve frowned and said, "No one can handle that kind of power!"

Peter smiled and responded, "Someone has to, and I think you'd do a pretty good job being the only owner to the Hero Registry, the world is growing, and they need training, hell I was scouted by shield, when I was 16, and you trained me personally Captain, you taught me how to use my power and that is was nothing more than a tool to amplify and impose morals properly. I learned to never becoming a slave to my power, mastering my abilities to the point of having perfect control over my body, and to always minimize damage to the city. All this would have been impossible without your guidance."

"And he was trained by Cap? I've been solo my whole life!" 616-Peter groaned.

"Only more super-powered beings are going to pop up the future, especially when the if the House of M's event is undone by Hope. They need someone Captain, someone trustworthy like you."

Logan shot up and said, "What did you say?"

"Hope Summers from another universe will appear here someday, and she'll use the power of the Pheonix to undo the House of M's effects. They return the world to how it was supposed to be. A word of advice, have her train a K'un Lun, and have Spider-Man there to teach her as well, once the Phoenix comes and Hope is prepared, have Scarlet Witch join her and don't fight the power she'll receive. She knows what must be done."

"How do you know all this?" Logan asked. "Different realities many similarities, I just happen to see the universes were the best and the worst outcomes of this ridiculous Civil War you're all having."

"The best outcome?" Steve asked.

"You and Tony end this squabble, reconcile and you take up the list as I mentioned before, therefore ushering in an age of glory for all Mankind, where heroes are respected and work hard to earn that respect."

"The worst outcome?" Logan asked.

Peter looked down and shook his head before saying, "This argument intensifies until either Captain, dies, or you all die together. Of course, this is just advice, there's no telling how this information will affect the outcome of this universe's future, the choices that you make will determine how you shape your destinies from here on out."

616 Peter shouted as he slapped Logan on the shoulder, "Good for you man, looks like there's hope yet for the human race."

"Only you don't call us Mutants," Logan looked at Peter and smiled as the two Spider-Men said, "Of course, we're all Mutants!"

Clint slapped his forehead with an annoyed expresion, "I can barely handle one Spidey, now there are two!"

Everyone laughed before Peter asked, "So, where is Tony?"

"At Stark Towers!" Jessica Drew, aka Spider-Woman, walked inside "Heya Pete, care to explain why there are two of you here?"

616 Spider-Man was about to explain when Peter put his mask back on and Webbed her face and punched her through the wall.

"What the hell are you doing?" Clint shouted as he raised his bow at him. 

"Remember that you all die scenario I talked about?"

Peter webbed her body and pulled her back revealing an unconscious Skrull. They're an alien species who are obsessed with conquering earth, and like all Skrulls, her skin was green and had multiple wrinkle lines on her chin. 

Now that she was unconscious, he had proof that she had shapeshifted into their ally and probably had been impersonating her for some time. 

"Skrull!"616 Peter shouted, as everyone in the room gasped. 

"How?" Everyone was wondering how Peter managed to discover a Skrull as they can fool just about any scan.

"My suit can detect the biological differences between humans and alines, and I'm also trained in magic, so I have the scan spell hard-wired into the suit's function," Peter explained. 

"Um, is anyone else here a Skrull?" Luke asked, Strange then used his magic and said, "You're all clear."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when the Spider-Men's Spidey-Senses went off. 

Peter pulled everyone together with his webbing and shouted, "Take us to Stark towers, now Strange!" 

Strange didn't hesitate as he teleported everyone to Avenger's tower, including their friends and families that were on the floor below. Just as this happened, the building they were in previously exploded from a rocket shot by a Skrull scout party.

"Targets eliminated, we lost the matriarch we have to report this to the elders." The Skrull said as he teleported back to his ship, the few dozen Skrulls surrounded him and nodded their heads as they followed suit.

Over at Avenger's tower, Tony who was brooding on the top floor was suddenly surprised by it filing up with people, "What the?" Tony suited up and said, "Suprise attacking me is a little cowardly don't you think?" 

Peter used his webbing to wrap up Tony so he couldn't move, "There's a new Spider-Boy?" Tony said as he stared at Peter, "I guess you didn't learn your history, Spider-Man's webbing is strong, but my suit is...." 

Tony was trying everything he could to break out of the webbing making Peter laughed, "Sorry Tony, but that isn't coming off unless I want it to, I'm not the same 'Spider-Man!' you know about."

"Peter!" MJ shouted putting a dying Aunt May on her hospital bed that they were teleported with. 

In this part of the timeline, because the 616 Peter Parker had revealed his identity on public television, Kingpin had hired an assassin to target the people in his life and Aunt May had been shot because of it, thanks to Strange and the rest of Captain America's team, they managed to keep her alive on life support. 

They were in the hospital before they felt the floor give way and falling in here.

616-Peter ran over and he helped make sure that the life support equipment was still functioning, "We have to get her to a medical station!" 

Peter walked over to her and smiled, "I got this."

His Symbiote covered Aunt May making his counterpart more than surprised, 

"That's!" 616 Peter shouted, "Yes a Symbiote, probably your biggest mistake giving up on Venom too soon. He was an infant in human terms of understanding, Peter. It viewed you as its parent. It didn't know any better and needed you to teach it. It's funny… things only seem to go wrong for us when we overlook our responsibilities." 

616-Peter was stunned, he never thought of Venom like that. He had simply believed that it was more harmful than good.

Peter quickly patched up May's body and healed any cancerous cells in her body, he also gave a bit of his Chi giving her back some of her youthful vibrancy, taking off 20 years of from her appearance. Her skin had smoothed out quite a bit, and her hair now was mostly black with a streak of white running through it. 

As he pulled back his Symbiote MJ and Peter gasped in astonishment before May opened her eyes, "Peter? Mary Jane?"

The two held her hands and started crying, "I'm so glad you're okay!" Everyone else in the room also joined in on the tearful reunion.

Tony watched as they explained away what just happened in amazement, Peter then turned his head towards Tony who was turning red from embarrassment because he still hadn't been able to break the kid's webbing, "I'm happy May is okay Peter, but don't think this means you win, Cap, come to your senses, please, we can't fight this thing forever."

"That's what we're here for Tony, to talk, no more fighting, we need to settle this peacefully," Steve replied.

"You just don't get it...Wait, what?" Tony looked over to them and saw the unconscious Skrull Queen being held by Peter. 

Spider-Man removed the Skrull imposter's hero mask and said, "We have bigger problems right now, if you guys keep this up, you'll weaken S.H.I.E.L.D, and the worlds Heroes susceptible to invasion."

Peter threw over the webbed up Skrull as he used his ability to remove the webbing from Tony. He then looked at the leftover webbing, and as he stored it away, he looked back to MJ and May. "If MJ can protect herself then Peter would have a lot less to worry about," 

Peter thought how to handle that issue as he turned to Cap and Tony to say, "You two have a lot to talk about, so I'll leave you to it. I want to talk to Strange about developing a Skrull identification device."

Tony was still quite speechless when Cap walked up to him and said, "I'll explain."

Peter walked over to MJ and took off his mask, Aunt May and MJ's eye's widened as Peter tugged on 616 Peter's shoulder and said, "Daddy, aren't you going to introduce us?"

Logan, Luke, Danny, and Clint started busting up, 616 Peter turned pale as MJ and May gave him scornful looks. 

"Peter, that has to be the best joke you ever told." Logan slapped his shoulders while wiping the tear from his eye. As he looked at their expression, the short bestial man laughed again and fell to the ground while holding his stomach.

"It wasn't that funny!" 616-Peter shouted as he turned back to MJ and May and began to explain. Adult-Peter looked to his other for confirmation, but Peter wasn't ready to stop and threw in a couple extra jabs, "Daddy why are you saying this, don't you love me anymore?"

MJ and May stared at him in shock and spoke in unison, "It really is Peter."

Peter laughed and said, "So Aunt May what do you think about me being Spider-Man? I haven't told my May and Ben yet as was wondering how you would handle it?"

Aunt May touched Young Peter's face and said, "Incredible, it's like staring at an old photo. I have always been proud of you Peter," She gave him a hug before looking over to her Peter and said, "Always."

Adult-Peter smiled and rubbed the back of his head when the words his counterpart spoke earlier rang out in his head, "Uncle Ben is alive in your universe?" 

"Yes, it seems the major difference in our world is that I always wanted to be a hero, even before the Spider bite that changed our lives forever. Oh, and does MJ have Spider-Powers in this word as well?" Peter asked with a cheeky smile on his face.

This time it was MJ's turn to be surprised, "I have Spider-Powers in your universe?"

Peter laughed and replied, "Yep, bitten by the same Spider as a matter of fact."

"Sorry as much as I'd like..." MJ suddenly looked really down.

However, Peter smiled and interrupted her by asking, "Do you want Spider Powers too?"

Peter and MJ went wide-eyed, "I, that's impossible right?"

Peter pulled out a full spider costume from the bag of infinite space. It looked like the Ben Riely Spider-Man outfit he wore when he took over for Spider-Man after the clone saga. 

It was his first work on enchanting his knowledge into a suit. Basically, the enchantments would allow those wearing it to have powers equal to Spider-Man's most basic power, so essentially, all the same powers of the 616 Spider-Man. It was also made out of his organic webbing, so it was highly durable and resistant against force, psionics, and magic."

Strange looked over the work and said "Fascinating, you made this?"

Peter laughed and said, "I had your help of course." 

"After all, there was once a 'what if?' comic written about Doctor Strange giving Peter a similar suit once that acted like a Symbiote but was entirely magical in nature. Or was it Symbiote Peter becoming Sorcerer Supreme. I swear I remember a comic where Spider-Man gets a magic suit," Peter thought before shaking his head.1

He then handed it over to MJ and said, "You two are always better together in any reality that I travel."

MJ recognized the suit as he grabbed it and said, "This design?"

"Yep, I used unstable Molecules to make it so you can change the look if you want." Peter said smiling. 

616 looked at the suit and said, "No fair! How come she gets a cooler suit than me?" 

Everyone laughed as MJ hugged Peter and said, "Thank you!" 

616 Peter then grabbed Peter's shoulder and said, "Hey kid get off of her, or am I gonna have to get a stick to swat you off of her?"

"Relax, she's my girlfriend in my world. I'm not dumb enough of to try anything with your MJ," Peter let go.

"Yeah, I imagine other me doesn't appreciate you ogling another me," MJ chuckled.

The two Peters looked at each other and laughed.

616-Peter shook his head and said, "Seriously, thank you, for everything."