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chapter nine
INTRUDER ALERT
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"LET ME OUT OF here!" Octopus Man shouts as he bangs his fist on the invisible barrier caging him inside his cylindrical prison. Blue pixels spread from where his hand strikes, causing Lena's heart to leap into her throat for a moment. That visual serves as a reminder of how Mysterio had revealed his illusions using the same fashion. Blue pixels are not a pleasant memory for her.

She tears her attention from the man and focuses on Stephen Strange. He has a cut marring his left cheek, causing blood to leak down his face in half-dried rivers of crimson. His usually impeccable black and gray hair is in disarray with tendrils falling over his forehead. Uneven pants escape from his lips like he's struggling to catch his breath, his chest heaving up and down.

"Can you please explain to us what is going on?" Peter pleads. Now that he's calmed down from the fright that Strange had given him, Lena releases her firm grip on his arms, but keeps the tips of her fingers on the crook of his elbow.

"That little spell that you botched where you wanted everyone to forget that you are your superhero alter egos, it started pulling in everyone who knows you are those heroes — from every universe into this one."

Graham's brows furrow. "What do you mean by 'from every universe'?"

"Who are you?" Octopus Man demands, seeming to accept the fact that he can't escape his prison by pounding his fists on the barrier. "Where am I?"

"I think it's better if we don't engage with him, because, frankly, the multiverse is a concept about which we know frighteningly little," Strange tells them as if the mechanical-armed man hadn't spoken.

"The multiverse is real?" Peter questions, a bit of awe in his voice.

"For real this time?" Lena cuts in. "Because last time we were told that, it was a lie, and it was very disappointing."

Quentin Beck's story about being from another Earth had all been part of his plan to swoop in and become the greatest hero ever known. Maybe, without realizing it, he'd actually been onto something with that whole alternate universe spiel.

And, just by looking at Strange, Lena can tell he's not kidding. This is a man who would be the world's worst practical jokester. He probably only watches the weather channel and says his favorite color is beige. But now, he's frazzled, his appearance is disheveled, and his brain seems to be working in overdrive as he fights to put the pieces of their predicament together.

The man heaves a long-suffering sigh. "This shouldn't even be possible."

"But I thought you stopped the spell," Peter says.

"No, I contained it, but it would appear that a few of them squeaked through." Strange motions toward the invaders. "After you three left, I detected an otherworldly presence. I pursued it into the sewers, where I found that" — he points to the ginormous lizard, whose head jerks toward them as soon as the trio looks at him, causing them to quickly avert their gazes — "slimy, green son of a gun."

"Spell?" Octopus Man repeats, his mechanical claws tilting almost condescendingly. Lena had no idea that pieces of metal could display emotions until now. "Is it magic? What is this, a birthday party? Who is this clown? What is this madness?"

"Watch this," Strange says to the trio of teenagers. He turns toward the captive. "Do you know a Peter Parker who is Spider-Man?"

"Yes," the man replies.

"Is that him?"

"No."

"What about a Graham Seager who is Specter?"

"Sounds familiar."

"Is that him?"

"I don't think so."

"A Lena Santos who is Havoc?"

"I did."

"Is that her?"

The reply doesn't come as immediately as the others had. Lena shifts from foot to foot, anxiety increasing her already hyperactive mannerisms, as Octopus Man's irked expression drops. He swallows and looks at Lena as if seeing her for the first time. All the other times, he'd simply dismissed her, but now, there's a part of his expression that almost seems... wonderstruck.

"You're Lena?" he questions. Instead of annoyance, his voice is tinted with pain. She nods. "You're alive?"

"Uh, as far as I know, yes," she confirms, shifting from foot to foot. "Sources will say that I'm alive."

She doesn't know why she's joking at a time like this. Her brain is still struggling to catch up with the fact that this is happening.

This is a side of the strange man that Lena hasn't seen before. His lined face has always been hard, the wrinkles pronounced in the way he furrows his brows, creating a chasm between them. The darkness of his eyes had been filled with hatred and a longing for revenge. But now... now all of that is gone. His facial muscles are slack, and even the mechanical claws of his arms tilt as if assessing her.

Feeling scrutinized under his stare, Lena shifts her weight again and glances at Graham to see if he's noticing this odd reaction, too. Her friend's expression is pinched in a What-the-hell manner, so she isn't the only one who finds this whole conversation odd aside from the fact they're apparently talking to a guy from another dimension.

But Stephen Strange rolls on, apparently unperturbed by the way this talk is going. "See? Okay, here's what we gotta do. I don't know how many of these visitors we got—"

"We saw another one," Peter informs him. "On the bridge. He was like a... Like a flying green elf."

"Well, he sounds jolly," Strange remarks sarcastically.

"Yeah, he threw a bomb at us," Graham says blankly.

Strange ignores this information and starts to walk into the other half of the basement, which looks like a storage room with better lighting. "Why don't you start with him? I need you to capture them and bring them here, while I figure out how to get them back before they destroy the fabric of reality, or worse, Wong finds out."

"Uh, Doctor Strange?" Peter pipes up.

"What?"

"My friends and I just got a second chance at getting into MIT. If the school sees me fighting these crazy monsters—"

"Hey, watch your mouth!" Octopus Man exclaims.

"I'm sorry," Peter says timidly.

"You are kind of a crazy monster, man," Graham tells the tentacled guy with a nonchalant shrug. Lena nods in agreement. Octopus Man appears offended, his mouth turning into a deep-set frown.

"You're seriously still talking about college?" Strange questions exasperatedly.

He shoves his hand outward, blasting Peter with some form of invisible magic that rips the nanotech control panel of his Spider-Man suit from his forearm. It flies across the room and lands on Strange's wrist with a metallic clang. When he waves a hand and forms an orange ring around it, ancient runes become etched into its surface.

"Hey, what did you just do?" Peter demands.

"This."

Strange holds his arm out and shoots Peter with an orange laser. Lena yelps when she watches him disintegrate into sparks, her brain filling with static. Sparks. Ashes. Dust. For a second, her mind goes absolutely blank. She doesn't think before blasting energy from her gauntlets straight at the sorcerer. He easily blocks it with a holographic shield, summons her nanotech chest piece to himself, and shoots her with a laser as well.

"NO!" Lena screams, her throat ripping raw as she prepares to fade to nothing. But she blinks and she's still in the room— only she's seeing it from a different angle. The force of teleportation causes her to fall flat on her backside in an ungraceful movement, feeling stupid in her civilian clothes with her wig and mask still on. Strange had stolen her suit.

"What the—?" Before Graham can even finish his question, Strange nails him in the chest with the same laser, causing him to teleport into a third empty prison cell. He bangs his fist on the invisible barrier to no avail.

"Hey!" Peter exclaims. "You can't just—"

He sprints forward and immediately bangs his head on the barrier wall, causing blue pixels to spread from the point of impact.

Octopus Man regards Strange with confusion. "How did you do that?"

"Lots of birthday parties."

Lena's blood boils in her ears. Even if Strange had just saved them from getting blown up by Little Elf Man's bomb, he'd taken her suit. He'd taken the suit that Tony had made for her. And after all Strange and Tony had been through together, she'd assumed that if anyone would understand the importance of Tony's inventions to her, it would've been him.

She releases an enraged scream, trying to expel an abrupt burst of energy in a ring around herself, feeling like a kettle that's just started to steam. Only nothing happens. The buildup of energy stays contained within the confines of her skin.

Strange walks to a sculpture made out of rock and twists a circular component. The barriers around their cells drop down, causing Peter and Graham to stumble out of theirs. Lena merely stays on the ground with her chest heaving.

The sorcerer flings Lena and Peter's nanotech pieces back to them, causing Lena's chest piece to latch to her body.

"One shot: send it to me and move on," he instructs, his voice flat and dismissive as he turns away. "You're welcome. Get to work."

Lena grits her teeth so hard an ache spreads across her jaw. She throws her arm outward, releasing her pent-up burst of energy at Strange.

He blocks it with a shield and glances at her over his shoulder. "Don't make me keep you in that cell, Santos."

Maybe hating one of the most powerful sorcerers in the world is a bad idea, but Lena sort of loathes him right now, anyway.

"Uh... sir?" Peter asks tentatively.

Strange sighs. "Now what?"

"I know this is our mess, and I swear to you that we'll fix it, but we're gonna need some help."

-♕-

"I can't believe I'm in the Sanctum Sanctorum," Ned says as he walks into the foyer, looking around at the frost-covered room in awe.

"Neither can I," Strange mutters.

Ned is accompanied by MJ, the twins, Abe, and Cindy— aka their whole gang of friends who'd known about their superhero identities before the rest of the world. They each look stunned at the winter wonderland that the entrance had been converted to, but now it's partially melted and water drips from the ceiling.

"So, how did you know you're made of magic?" Ned inquires. "Because my nanna says that we have it in our family and sometimes I get these tinglings in my hand..."

Strange stops walking up the grand staircase and turns. "You should talk to your physician."

"Lena!" Cindy exclaims once she catches sight of her. The shorter girl tries to run and hug her but slips on the half-melted ice on the floor, resulting in her sliding chaotically into Lena's arms. Lena catches her and makes sure Cindy is steady on her feet before letting go.

"Hey," Lena greets her, finding a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. Her heart feels lighter now that her friends are here to help.

"I'm so sorry for dragging you guys into this," Peter says. "You just gotta help us find these guys."

"You don't have to apologize," MJ reassures him. "You got us a second shot at MIT."

"And we're ready to kick some other-dimensional bad guys' asses," Max adds.

"Or bad girls," Owen interjects. "We don't need to assume anything."

Abe points at him and nods.

"So, how did the bad people get here?" Ned asks.

Strange pauses on the steps again. "They screwed up a spell trying to get you into college."

"Wait, what?" all of their friends question in unison.

"I thought it was a magic laser," MJ says.

Ned gaps, "You did it with magic?"

"I mean, I didn't want to go to college that badly," Max says.

Graham shoots him a glare icy enough to rival the frost surrounding them. "Good, because we also did that to make the rest of the world forget about our identities and make our lives easier, not just so you could go to college."

"Let's just focus on the good news, okay?" Peter suggests.

"No, let's just focus on the bad news," Strange pipes up from his spot on the second level. "As of now, you have detected zero multiversal trespassers, so get on your phones, scour the internet, and... Scooby-Doo this shit!"

MJ laughs sarcastically. "You're telling us what to do, even though it was your spell that got screwed up, meaning that all of this is kinda your mess."

"That's what it sounds like to me," Abe agrees.

Strange looks at them with a tilt of his head, mildly offended.

Continuing on her roast, MJ adds, "You know, I know a couple of magic words myself, starting with the word 'please'."

Strange allows her words to process for a second before pulling a thoughtful face. "Please Scooby-Doo this shit." He quips a smile and turns away. "You can work in the undercroft."

Ned's mouth opens in an excited gape. "The undercroft?"

'The undercroft' turns out to be a fancy name for the basement of the Sanctum. Half of it contains the magical, power-restricting jail cells that Octopus Man and the huge lizard are locked in, but the other half is cluttered, dodgy, and... surprisingly normal for the home of sorcerers. A desk with books and a game of Yahtzee on it is shoved against the left wall, while dust-coated laundry machines are to their right. The only light sources are bare bulbs that hang from the wooden ceiling.

"Badass," Ned comments. At least he can find the good in anything.

"It smells like something died in here," Cindy says with her nose scrunched in disgust.

"Probably that rat over there." Owen points to a rat carcass near the far right wall, causing all of them to shudder. They've seen enough of the creatures while living in New York City that it isn't a surprise, but also not a welcome sight.

While the rest of the gang starts exploring, Peter remains serious. "Guys, listen. About this whole spell thing..."

"It's totally okay," MJ promises.

"For real?" Graham asks.

"Yeah. I mean, I get it." MJ shrugs. "You were just trying to fix things. And so... maybe just run it by us next time, you know? That way, when you're thinking, 'Hey, I'm about to do something that could break the universe', we could like, help you workshop something or brainstorm ideas."

"To be fair, we had no idea it could break the universe until the universe started breaking," Lena clarifies. "We were not warned of the consequences beforehand."

"We could have started an online petition," Abe suggests. "'Help get these teenage superheroes and their friends into college.' A lot of our classmates would probably sign."

"Mr. Harrington would," Cindy says.

"And Coach Wilson would probably send an appeal to get it taken down," Owen points out sourly. "He made me run an extra five laps in gym class 'to repent for my brother's sins'."

"But still, no big deal that this happened," Cindy reassures them. "We're always here to help."

"Ned?" Peter asks.

The boy had been too busy picking up various artifacts — like an ancient-looking crossbow that Lena winces while imagining it in his possession — to participate in their conversation. He glances up at the sound of his name. "Oh, dude. I don't care. And seriously, not a big deal. Oooh..." He notices a machine in the corner and jogs up to it. "A torture rack!"

He pulls one of the springs, causing it to bounce back into place with a metallic whir.

"That is a pilates machine," MJ corrects him. She points to the other half of the room that contains the magical jail cells. "That is..."

"The crypt," Peter finishes.

"Why is everything named so weirdly here?" Max questions while they wander closer to the cells. "It looks more like a dungeon to me."

"Evil jail," Owen suggests.

"Jail is already pretty evil," MJ points out. "The prison system is in desperate need of reform."

"Truth."

MJ then launches into a plan. "Okay, so we get the rest of the guys. You zap them, Doctor Magic will send them back and, when we get into MIT... round of stale donuts, my treat."

"And we can try to contact the other universities the normal way," Graham says. "I don't want to have to save an administrator from Juilliard during an intense battle with multiversal monsters. I'd rather just, like, send an email."

Ned joins them, armed with the crossbow. "Let's catch some multiverse men."

"Hey!" Octopus Man exclaims. "Who the hell are these kids?"

"Why is he so angry all the time?" Lena mumbles under her breath.

"These are our friends," Peter replies, pointing at each person down the line as he names them. "This is MJ, Cindy, Abe, Max, Owen, and Ned."

Ned waves pleasantly. "Hello."

"I'm sorry, what was your name again?"

"Dr. Otto Octavius," the man replies.

Lena can't help but snort. She slaps a hand over her mouth, feeling guilty for a moment, until she realizes that the rest of her friends are laughing, too. The name is just too absurd for any real person to have. But Octopus Man stares at them incredulously, slightly offended by their amusement.

"Wait, no seriously, what's your actual name?" Peter asks.

He receives a blank stare in response.

Ned points at the giant lizard in the next cell. "Oh, is that a dinosaur?"

"Someone didn't learn from Jurassic Park," Owen comments.

The group spends the next few minutes preparing for their mission. Peter grabs his Spider-Man suit from Ned's backpack, finding the fabric still stained horribly from a green liquid someone had thrown at him. He scrubs furiously at it in the sink with Aunt May giving him advice through the phone. Ned types furiously at his laptop from a wooden table in an attempt to locate more of the intruders.

The others primarily spend their time snooping around. MJ finds the goatee template for Strange's iconic facial hair and holds it up to Lena, who can't help but snicker. Abe washes a load of laundry that had been sitting in the machine for who-knows-how-long. Cindy helps Lena get the dust and debris out of her Havoc suit and silver wig, while Graham sits smugly because his shadows cover up any stains on his costume. The twins break something when Owen accidentally fires the crossbow.

Once all of the pebbles have been picked out of the synthetic fibers of her wig and the dirt has been cleaned from her silver suit, Lena finds her eyes drifting to Dr. Octavius. His metal arms have been locked into place. Even though he jerks around, obviously trying to move them, they remain in the same position— with each arm peering around him like they're watching the action, too.

She slowly approaches him before she even realizes that her feet are leading her there. The man looks at her, his expression morphing from stubborn displeasure to surprise before he quickly covers it up.

"What do you want?" he asks gruffly, tearing his gaze away.

"I want to know more about you," Lena replies. She sits cross-legged in front of his cell, wrapping her arms around her knees and clasping her hands to lock them into place. Her next words come out carefully. It's evident that he's like a ticking time-bomb and the wrong word will send him into a fit of rage, meaning she won't get anywhere with her quest for answers. "When we were on the bridge, you asked Peter if he dared to speak my name, and you got mad every time he said it. Then, here, you said you 'did' know someone named Lena Santos. So, I guess my question is... what happened?"

Octavius is silent for so long that Lena begins to think that she'd pushed too far. The seconds stretch on without a single word, the air filled with nothing but the indistinct chatter from her friends in the background. Her shoulders slump with defeat. But then he speaks.

"Lena Santos... was the smartest girl I've ever known."

Octavius's deep-set brown eyes are faraway as he speaks, seeming not to look at this reality but the one from which he arrived. His voice lacks the razor-sharp edge it usually carries. He appears, for the first time since their paths crossed, vulnerable.

Lena swallows thickly. Her voice comes out quiet when she asks, "Was?"

"She was one of my interns," he says. "Lena was only a teenager, but she was as smart as any colleague of mine." A chuckle falls from his lips. "Probably smarter than me. She was helping me with my project — building a fusion reactor — with the added aid of her classmate, Peter Parker. That must be when their alter egos met."

The smile fades from his face. "I didn't even know she was Havoc. But one night, there was a catastrophic failure in the structure of a nearby building they were in, and the police found her body crushed under the rubble. And they saw him. Spider-Man, fleeing the scene. Peter Parker, letting his friend die."

Lena's breath is shallow in her lungs. The story had landed like a sucker punch to her gut, leaving an ache that spreads to the rest of her body.

"It was his fault, and he knew it," Octavius snarls, his eyes now locked on where Lena's Peter scrubs his stained suit at the sink.

She shakes her head vehemently. "Peter wouldn't do that. Even in another universe, he wouldn't."

Octavius's steely gaze drifts back to her. "Then why did he run?"

Lena refuses to believe that. It couldn't have been his fault. She loves Peter enough that she would trust any version of him wholeheartedly— and that story goes against everything Peter stands for. He'd carried Adrian Toomes from a ring of flames after his wings had failed. He'd tried to reason with Quentin Beck. Every challenge they've faced together led to him trying to save people, not cause them harm.

She's saved from furthering the argument by Ned exclaiming, "I got one, I got one, I got one!"

Lena gives Octavius one last lingering gaze before turning around.

"I'll give you a piece of advice," the man says quietly. "Don't trust that boy."

A shudder goes down her spine, but she shakes it off and joins the rest of her friends as they surround Ned's laptop. Her hands rest on the rickety table as she peers at the screen and the fifty tabs pulled up on Ned's web browser.

"I mean, you can take the guy out of the chair, but you can't take the chair out of the guy," Ned says proudly.

"You're literally sitting in a chair," Graham points out.

"Figure of speech, my dude."

Peter approaches from the sink, placing his chin on Lena's shoulder and inquiring, "What did you find?"

"There's a 'disturbance near a military research facility outside of the city, and witnesses say they saw a monster flying through the air,'" Ned reads from the news article on his screen.

"That's gotta be the guy we saw on the bridge, right?" Peter asks.

"That's impossible," Octavius pipes up from his cell. His back is turned to them, almost like the thought had taken a physical toll on him.

Peter, Lena, and Graham all share glances. Is there a chance that they'd come from the same universe?

Peter lifts his chin from Lena's shoulder and takes a few steps closer to Octavius. "You know him, don't you? On the bridge, you said his name."

"Norman Osborn," he replies. "Brilliant scientist. Military researcher. But he was greedy. Misguided."

"What happened to—"

Before Peter can even finish, Octavius abruptly whirls around, his voice enraged as he screams, "WE TIRE OF YOUR QUESTIONS, BOY!"

Graham widens his eyes and makes a "whew" sound with a whistle.

"'We'"?" Abe mouths. Lena had noticed that word usage, too, almost like he's referring to both himself and his mechanical arms. Are they sentient?

"Okay," Peter says, stiffly turning back toward their group. "We gotta go. Where are we going?"

"It can't be him," Octavius interrupts again.

They're all thinking the same question, but are afraid to ask it. Octavius's story makes Lena guess she'll have a better chance of reaching him than anyone else. So, she takes a deep breath before asking, "Why?"

"Because Norman Osborn died— years ago. So either we saw someone else... or you're flying out into the darkness to fight a ghost."

The setting sun casts an orange glow over the treetops as Lena flies overhead, concentrating mostly on the bubble with Graham encased inside of it so she can push him along. He'd refused to swing and hasn't been to the random forest Ned had directed them to, so this is his only other option.

"This is humiliating," Graham says with a frown as Lena guides him through the air.

"Not so great when you can't shadow travel, huh?" she questions with a teasing smirk.

"You could've just swung with me," Peter says through their comms. He's at a lower altitude than them, using parallel power lines to swing from.

"Absolutely not."

"Keep an eye out on those trees," MJ says, her voice also coming through their ears. Lena had given them an extra comm, but they can also see what's going on via Peter's phone that's secured to his chest with webs. "We don't really know where this guy is. Peter, I genuinely don't know how you do this without throwing up."

Darkness sets in rapidly. The once purple-and-pink clouds become a shady, lightless blue, blocking the moon from illuminating their surroundings. The forest below looks more like a chasm of inky black. Lena can only see the power lines from the red lights that blink from the tops of the towers.

"Here, Lee," Peter says, starting his descent down into a pocket of the woods with fewer trees. Lena aims toward the same spot and pushes Graham with her.

"I've got it from here, thanks," Graham says, melting into the darkness of dusk and emerging on the ground. Lena rolls her eyes and dissolves the bubble.

The lack of distraction allows her to land smoothly beside the two boys on the dirt. Peter had turned his suit inside out to hide the paint, so instead of his iconic red and blue, he's wearing black with gold thread. Graham, of course, matches with his black suit and the shadows surrounding him. Lena sticks out like a sore thumb in silver with cyan-accented gauntlets.

A shiver shoots down her spine from the complete blackness of the forest. The trees are only visible by their dark silhouettes, and it's absolutely silent. Even with their slow, cautious footsteps on the soft soil, there's not a single sound that permeates the eerie quiet.

Peter holds out a hand to stop the other two in their tracks. He whispers, "Did you guys see that?"

Both Graham and Lena shake their heads. Peter has enhanced eyesight, but they're stuck with boring normal eyesight, so it's hard to see anything.

"No," MJ says in their ears.

"It's really dark," Ned adds.

"Pitch black, man," Owen pipes up.

"Okay, shh!" Graham hisses. All of their voices sounding at once is distracting.

They walk several more steps, glancing into every dark crevice that something sinister could be hiding in. Then Peter stops once again. He goes rigid in an all-too-familiar stance, meaning he senses something that the others can't.

Max asks, "What's going on? I can't see anything."

"Peter, what is it?" MJ questions. "Are you getting the tingle thing? Is the tingle thing happening? Is your tingle tingling?"

"MJ!" Lena exclaims.

"Okay, sorry."

Peter activates the laser around his wrist — a gift from Strange — causing an orange ring to glow around it. Lena does the same with her chest piece, allowing the ring to travel down to her gauntlet. She has to remember that her left will expel her energy, but the right will shoot out a teleportation laser. Maybe she'll just eject her powers from her hands so she won't have to worry about a mixup.

Graham sighs and takes out his own laser: in the form of a Nerf gun.

"Loser," Owen's voice says.

"Hey, it's Nerf or nothing," Graham argues, loading the chamber.

The sound of power surging fills their ears. The trio turns around to see a figure high in the sky above the power lines, drawing electricity from them and pulling it toward his body. He radiates a bright blue color that's similar to that of Lena's powers.

"Are you guys seeing this?" Peter asks their friends.

"How can we not?" Cindy questions. "He's brighter than the sun."

"Osborn?" Ned asks.

"No, he was green," Peter says. "This guy's blue." Speaking to the figure, he yells, "Uh, you wouldn't happen to be from another universe, would you?"

Obviously, there's no reply.

"I don't think he heard you," Graham says sarcastically. "Why don't you shout a little louder next time?"

"What's he doing?" MJ inquires.

"I don't know," Peter says. "Looks like he's charging."

"Ask him if he can charge my phone while he's at it," Max says. "It's at twelve percent."

"Can someone lock Max in one of those cells?" Graham pleads.

"I don't like this," MJ cuts in. "Just web him."

Peter shoots a laser-web at the figure, only for it to pass straight through him and hit a tree. It disappears in the blink of an eye as it teleports into the Sanctum.

Lena gulps. "Shit."

The figure's eyes flash open, glowing pure white against the blinding blue of the rest of his body. Both arms stretch out toward them. Lightning detonates precisely where they'd been standing, only Peter had flipped out of the way, Graham had melted into the shadows, and Lena had put up a force field that the electricity strikes instead.

She launches herself into the air so she's above the man, projecting energy from her palms in an attempt to subdue him. But all it does is go through the man like he's intangible. That puts them at a severe disadvantage if there's nothing they can do to stop him.

Lightning continues to surge from his hands, shooting at Peter as he swings through the trees. The branches burst into flames where the electricity strikes instead. Smoke rises into the sky, adding to the gloom of their surroundings that are illuminated only by their assailant's powers.

"Go left, left! Go left!" Ned shouts.

"Wait!" MJ protests. "Right, right!"

"WHO ARE YOU GUYS TALKING TO?" Graham screams in a mix of frustration and confusion.

"EVERYONE SHUT UP!" Lena shouts louder. "I have an idea!"

She flies closer to the electric guy and projects a force field around him before he can notice her approach. The blue-tinted circle encloses him, cutting him off from his supply of power from the lines, and also preventing him from expelling any lightning outside of it. He twists in mid-air and roars in anger, but Lena keeps the shield firmly in place.

"Lena!" Graham yells through their comms. "Peter's down! I repeat, Peter is down."

"What?" she shrieks, her heart leaping in her chest. She turns her head to frantically search through the trees. "Where?"

"Come to the ground; I'll take you there."

The minor distraction had created a hole in the force field. Electric Guy uses it to his advantage, shooting a bolt of lightning near her while her head is turned. The force of the close blast is enough to knock Lena from the sky, causing her to plummet to the earth without the time or sense to scream.

Squeezing her eyes shut, she braces for the impact that will likely break several of her bones, only it never comes. Arms wrap around her and a bright yellow flash illuminates the space behind her eyelids before she perceives nothing but pitch blackness. Then she hears the near-deafening blows of lightning striking the earth one after the other, but nothing hits her.

"I've got you!" Graham shouts over the noise.

Lena peels her eyes open to see Graham crouching down with her in his arms. He must've shadow-traveled into the air to catch her and transported them back here, which appears to be some kind of safe zone. Peter is lying on the ground, and the thing blocking them from getting killed by lightning is a huge mound of dirt... with a face.

"The dirt," Lena says breathlessly, slightly dazed and fried from the blast. "It has a face."

"The dirt has a name too," the dirt guy says. "Flint Marko."

"We'll explain everything, but first, can you help us stop this guy?" Peter asks Flint.

He nods. "Okay."

Lena is grateful that this mound of dirt is very nice.

"You try to surround him and Graham and I'll pull the plug," Peter says. "All right, let's go."

Lena groans when she starts to rise, but Graham pushes her back down. "Oh, no you don't. Stay here and put a force field around yourself. We'll come back to get you when this guy isn't trying to murder us."

"No," Lena protests blankly.

She grits her teeth and shoots up into the air before Graham can do anything, forming a shield around herself so she won't get fried this time. Flint approaches in the form of a cloud of dirt that rises increasingly higher. He intercepts the lightning, appearing to take no damage from it as he looms closer. Lena shakes her head to clear it and blasts another force field toward Electric Guy, cutting off his lightning bolts before they hit the ground.

Flint's dust tornado climbs up into the sky until it wraps around Lena's force field. Her arms jerk with every blast that Electric Guy attempts to make, but she holds it firmly in place even as her arms begin to shake.

The sound of dogs barking and snarling fills her ears. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Graham's shadow monsters tearing at the metal of the power towers with gleaming teeth, ripping the pieces to shreds in seconds. Peter is calculating exactly the right angles to take the towers down with his webs. As the shadow monsters shred, it makes the towers lighter so Peter can pull them toward him, causing the cables to snap.

As soon as they do, Peter tumbles out of the air from the lack of leverage. Lena holds the force field around Electric Guy with one hand and catches him in a bubble with the other, allowing him to drop to the ground safely and land in a crouched position.

Flint's tornado slowly disappears as Electric Guy sinks toward the earth. Lena follows them, keeping the shield in place until the lightning strikes come to a halt.

Graham and Peter flank either side of her. Peter yanks off his mask with a gasp, making his hair stand straight up in an unruly mess. If Lena wasn't still half-dazed from almost being struck by lightning, she may have giggled.

Flint Marko materializes beside them in the form of a man made of loose dirt, regarding Peter thoughtfully. "Different Peter. Weird."

"Nobody ever seems to know us," Graham mumbles to Lena. She stays silent, not revealing the truth about Octavius's history with her alternate form. It's too much to explain right now.

Small fires surround them from the countless lightning bolts that had struck the area, making Lena's eyes sting from the smoke. Sparks fly out of the snapped cables. Molten pieces of metal litter the fried grass, making Graham wince at the destruction.

"Thanks," Peter says to Flint, holding out his hand for a low-five. When they smack palms, Flint's hand dissolves into the wind upon impact. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it," Flint says.

Electric Guy is no longer blue. As he rises to his feet, Lena notices his dark skin and black hair. Bits of electricity shudder from his chest like the electricity lives inside him. And... he's naked. Lena keeps her eyes trained pointedly at his face.

He turns, examining his flaming surroundings for a moment before holding up his hands in awe. "I got my body back."

"Hey, um, this is gonna sound really crazy, but, uh, this isn't your universe," Peter informs him.

"There's really no easier way to phrase it, is there?" Graham wonders.

Electric Guy asks, "Another universe?"

"Uh-huh," Peter confirms.

Flint frowns. "What?"

"That's what I was feeling," Electric Guy says, almost to himself. "The power. It's different." A smile lifts his lips and exposes gleaming white teeth. "I like it."

His irises shift from dark to a bright golden hue, making Lena stiffen in case she needs to put up another shield between them.

Flint holds up his hands in defense. "Easy, buddy."

"It's actually our fault that you're here," Peter says, motioning to the trio.

"Why would you tell him that?" Graham asks through gritted teeth.

"Like... Like the universe?" Electric Guy questions. "Or the woods? I hate the woods."

"I meant the universe, sir."

"So what? Y'all just gon' stand here and act like I ain't butt-ass naked?"

"I am," Flint replies.

"That was kinda the plan," Lena confirms.

"Yeah," Graham adds.

"Uh, no, no..." Peter is the only one to protest, glancing to his left to see some construction uniforms in a half-destroyed shed.

Once Electric Guy is dressed in a bright yellow jacket, pants, and steel-toed boots, Peter blasts him with the teleportation laser to send him to his cell.

Lena cringes. He should not have done that without explaining it first.

"What was that?" Flint demands. "What did you just do to him?"

Sensing the mounting tension, Peter rambles, "No, no, no. It's okay."

"Did you kill him?"

Flint rises to a taller height, solidifying until he appears to be rock, fists forming at his sides.

Peter holds up his hands. "Whoa, listen. I can explain everything. You just have to trust us, please."

"I don't trust you. I don't know you!"

Right when he lunges, Peter blasts him with the laser and transports him away.

"Damn," Graham grumbles. "We're making all kinds of enemies. Peter, why does everyone from these alternate universes want to kill you? Can't you have a multiversal friend come through?"

"Alternate-me was Octavius's intern but then died and he thinks alternate-Peter is responsible," Lena deadpans. "So I guess he's fond of me."

Peter jerks his head toward her. "Wait, what?"

He pauses, his eyes going wide again. Lena has now learned to look behind him when this happens. When she does, she notices a woman dressed in a bright purple and gold suit drifting straight toward them from the air, a cape made of golden dots of light trailing after her.

"Nope." Graham takes out his Nerf gun and blasts her with the laser before anything else can happen. When Peter and Lena stare at him, he asks, "What? Did you wanna fight for our lives again?"

-♕-

Back at the Sanctum, the group stares at their collection of multiversal intruders— Otto Octavius, the giant lizard, Flint Markus, Electric Guy, and the lone woman.

"Those two know each other," Abe informs them, pointing to Electric Guy and the lizard.

"They're from the same universe?" Graham questions.

"Like Octavius and Osborn," Cindy confirms with a nod. "Only, uh, apparently the lizard is named Curt Connors and he tried to turn the entire city into lizards."

"And guess what?" Max's eyes gleam with excitement. "That electricity guy's name is also Max! I've been trying to summon some lightning. Check it out."

He slightly couches, tensing his entire body and scrunching his face while grunting.

"You look like you're going to shit your pants," Owen tells him.

"I told you, kid, we're not the same person," Electric Guy says. "Unless your last name is Dillon."

"It's not," Max sighs, returning to his normal stance and hanging his head in disappointment.

The nameless woman hasn't uttered a single word thus far. She sits against the stone wall of her cell with one leg bent and the other outstretched, watching all of them under a scrutinizing gaze. Lena is able to get a good look at her for the first time. She has long, dark hair and light brown skin that appears darker in the dingy lighting of the crypt. She could be anywhere from twenty to twenty-five, making her the youngest one they've captured thus far. Her expression is cutthroat. Just looking at her makes Lena uneasy.

Her brows furrow in thought. "Wait, so if Octavius and Osborn know each other, and the li— Connors and Dillon know each other, then..." She points at Flint and the woman. "Are you from the same universe?"

"Oh, I have no idea who she is," Flint says with a shrug.

"Neither do I," Dillon adds.

"None of you guys know her?" Graham asks.

"I've never seen her before," Octavius says.

"No, but she would make a very nice lizard." Connors pulls his mouth into a smile, exposing razor-sharp teeth. It's the first time Lena has heard him speak. She's not sure what she expected him to sound like, but she did not think he would have an English accent.

"Bite me," the young woman quips.

"Oh, gladly."

"That was disgusting," Owen says with a cringe. "Is there a way we can mute his cell?"

The sound of the front door opening and closing causes all of them to freeze in unison. It echoes from upstairs, along with footsteps that creak along the ice-coated floor and travel down to the undercroft via squeaking floorboards.

"What are the odds that one of them just walks through the front door?" Graham whispers.

"I say slim to none," Abe replies.

"Hello?" a voice calls out from the main floor. "Strange?"

"What are the odds that one of them just walks through the front door and knows Stephen Strange?"

"Shut up and let's find out," Lena says, grabbing his and Peter's arms and hauling them toward the stairs.

They walk up the steps, feeling the temperature steadily drop as they enter the frosty main level. All three of them are still wearing their suits — minus their masks — so they're prepared to fight if need be. Strange will totally kill them if they break anything mid-battle, but if they die instead, he'll be even more pissed. That would mean he'd have to find all of the other invaders himself.

Standing in the middle of the foyer is a dude. He wears a white suit with accents of gray, the sleeves ending in gauntlets that appear to glow. A silver circlet is nestled on a head of messy black hair.

"Uh, hi," Peter greets cautiously. "Can we help you?"

The guy turns. He's young, probably in his early twenties, and has a white mask framing his dark eyes in a similar fashion to Lena and Graham's. Lena half expects him to comment on Peter's Spider-Man suit like the others have.

Instead, he asks, "Lena?"

She's stunned into silence. Graham and Peter glance at her, waiting for her to say something, but this is the first time that a multiverse person has acknowledged her first.

Finally, she finds her words. "Sorry, do I know you?"

The boy huffs what sounds like a laugh even though she hadn't been joking. "Come on, Lee. Don't act like you don't recognize your own brother."

______

a/n:

the nerd squad when otto says "we tire of your questions":

lena when otto suggests that tobey!peter was responsible for her alternate self's death:

connors and electro seeing each other in their cells:

IT'S ALL COMING TOGETHERRRRR!!!! ASFMAKLFGEKGNEAWIG AKFAEVAGKEGTW4TG  AWT485U43Q VGEGAL Q!!!!!

IT WAS SO DIFFICULT TO KEEP THIS FROM YOU GUYS BUT READING YOUR REACTIONS WILL MAKE IT SO WORTH IT

i'm so excited to reveal more of my plans... because trust me.... the party is JUST getting started >:)

also i wrote most of this while under the influence of nyquil and way too many vitamins to combat the plague that has decided to overtake me, so sorry if the diaglogue/monologue seems whackier than usual. hope you enjoyed my half-delusional humor

—kristyn

this amazing gif banner was made by vividparacosm!!!! THANK YOU EM YOU ARE SO TALENTED AND I LOVE YOU!! i went back and added it to the end of every chapter and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future because it is just gorgeous.