Issue 46: Trials of Merlin Part XVII

"Spider-Babe, Spider-Gal, Spider-Wife..." 616 Peter was mumbling this while rubbing his chin, 

"What are you doing?" MJ asked with a curious expression.

In response to her question, both of them looked at her and said, "Trying to think up a cool superhero name for you."

"How about Spider-Woman." MJ said, 

"Taken." Both of them said in unison. 

"Anyways, speaking of Spider-Woman, don't you think we should do something with her? If the Skrulls were impersonating her then she wouldn't have any value to keeping her around." 616 Peter said thinking that they lost a friend. 

"Actually, the fact the Skrull was able to mimic her powers would suggest that she is still alive. Peter, can you work with Tony and me to build a device that will scan our…er your world's outer atmosphere for Skrull ships."

The older Spider-Man looked over to Tony who was conversing with Steve. He thought of all the crap Tony had put him through and swallowed his anger and gripped his fists tightly. 

"I can," 616 Peter responded simply.

Peter smiled and said, "Good! So Strange, can you help me replicate this spell matrix." Peter held up his hand and a glowing white magic circle appeared above his hand, Strange stared at it in astonishment, "Incredible you actually took a scientific route for you spellcraft and succeeded?"

616 Peter then said, "Wait, why is that so important?"

Strange looked to Peter and said, "I can see why the Merlin Stones chose you now, did you know that you weren't the first to take this path? It was actually Merlin was the first tried to mix science and magic, and from what I've read, it wasn't nearly as advanced as you made it." 

Strange looked to Peter's 616-universe counterpart and said, "Your other self here didn't just make his own way of casting spells, he created a form of spellcraft that specializes in making magical items, anyone can use."

"So, can you help me make a couple of components for the machine we need to build?" Peter questioned.

Strange looked at the matrix and said, "It would take us all night to build this."

Peter then turned to Tony and shouted, "Hey Tin Can!"

Iron-Man looked over to Peter. Having been informed of his history by Steve, he realized that he was actually here to help, "What is it, Kid?"

Peter held out his hand and used a simple light hologram spell to show his schematics for a worldwide Skrull Scanner. Tony looked over and nodded his head, "It's solid work, but wouldn't it be better if you altered the coding like this." Tony imputed some data and used a hologram projector of his own, "This way the scan will reach the far side of the moon."

616 Peter then said, "Couldn't we set this up to create a worldwide EMP, Tony, this too dangerous, you need to add safety precautions, are you trying to send us back to the stone age?"

"Good catch Pete, I almost missed it..." Tony looked at 616 Peter and sighed, "Look I'm sorry Peter, I know I asked a lot from you, but..."

"But nothing, Stark. I trusted you when you told me that no one would get hurt, and you betrayed that trust, I don't know if we can be friends again, but for now I'm willing to put up with you for the greater good," 616 Peter responded, clenching his fist to fight off his frustrations.

Aunt May grabbed his arm and said, "I'm okay now Peter."

Peter placed his hand on his counterpart and said, "I know what Tony did was messed up, but he his heart was in the right place." Peter then glared at Tony, "You didn't prepare for any of this. You just opened the package and started building without reading the instructions first, headfirst into the fire, like always."

"I don't think that's fair," Tony looked away.

Fair?!" 616 shouted, "If you had prepared even a portion of the security you protect your company assets with to someone you're expecting to unmask, would MY AUNT HAVE BEEN SHOT. The Hero Registration Act wasn't a bad idea, but you went in without a plan, a proper plan, and you lied to me about that, Tony. You said they'd be protected! YOU FUCKING RUSHED JOBED THE WHOLE THING!"

Prime-Peter took a breath and finished by saying, "You're a grown ass man, maybe next time before you start a world conflict, you ask for help in preparing everyone for this, so every family is taken care of, and no hero has to worry about their identity being found out by their villains."

"I don't think I've been scolded like that since my dad," Tony reacted with a look of shame.

"Well, I feel like I got a chip off MY shoulder, now let's get to work, those Skrulls aren't going to defeat themselves," Peter said as he nudged his older self while they headed towards Tony's lab.

"My shoulder, cause we're both the same person. I get it," 616 chuckled.

While the Avengers worked through their issues, the Spider-Heroes mostly spent their time working together on the device. Tony and Cap managed to work through their problems and agree on a method to stop their fighting. Steve Roger's would be the sole owner of the list of hero identities, and only one person at a time would ever be allowed access to the documents, in the event of his death, a single person will inherit the title and responsibilities that come with it, so the current owner must find a successor once they take up the job.

Peter was working alongside his counterpart with glee when MJ came in the room walking on the roof using the Suit Peter gave her. 

As she landed, she wrapped her arms around her husband and said, "You know, I think I get it now, why you do what you do. Honestly, if I had this kind of power, naturally I'd have to act. I can see why you can't sit still when someone's in danger."

616 Peter grabbed her hand and said, "I'm just glad you have something to protect yourself with."

Peter looked at them and laughed when MJ asked, "So why did you develop this suit? It seems kind of odd for you just to have one laying about like that."

"I actually made it in case I lose my powers or Symbiote." Peter looked to his counterpart and said, "After all, it wouldn't be the first timeline it has happened in, no harm in being prepared."

"How many realities have you traveled?" 616 Peter asked, "I know about a few dozen or so, but have only visited 2, excluding my own."

"Why are you here?" MJ asked.

"A test from the Merlin Stones, even I don't know why I'm here yet, so I just decided to be the hero I am and help out, you know since I have nothing better to do," Peter replied as he stuck his head into the contraption they were building. Using his powers, he massively cut down on the build time.

"So how do you have all these powers?" 616 Peter asked.

The younger counterpart laughed, "I told you losing Venom was your biggest mistake. It copied your powers why wouldn't it be able to copy other powers as well?" 

Peter then pulled a miniature version of the Symbiote's head out the suit and said, "This is Webster, my parents made him, and I used Strange's magic to educate and impart my spirit and life experiences into it. Essentially, I let it live a life believing it was Peter Parker using my own memories as a catalyst to help it understand human morals and behaviors."

"Huh…interesting methods…but do you wipe their previous memories?"

"No, mine hadn't bonded to anyone, so it was blank. It wouldn't wipe a sentient being's memories, well…not unless they deserve it."

"So, the difference is in my universe they're aliens," 616 rubbed his chin.

"Bingo! Oh, and thanks to someone from another universe bringing in one of the Alien Symbiotes to my universe, we discovered that this teaching method works on them as well. So, if you get a chance to confront Venom again, you should try to make up."

"But..." Prime-Peter looked to MJ, to which she smiled and said, "As long as you don't bring home a monster, then I don't mind." 

616 Peter then hugged her as he gave her a kiss and then turned to Peter who was manipulating metal into the shell of the satellites they would be launching, "Still really impressive though."

Tony came back in to see how much work had been done and was surprised as he commented, "Wow! With this much done, it should only take a few hours to finish the rest."

Peter then walked over to Strange, "The rest is on you two for the mechanical aspect, Strange and I will take care of the magical components."

616 Peter and Tony looked at each other. Tony still feeling guilt over May getting wounded, and not being able to help because of bullshit political reasons when he knew he should just push that crap aside and do the right thing. 

616 Peter was doing everything he could to not bop Tony upside the head. He couldn't help but think of May getting shot every time he looked at him, but he chose to try and look past that. After all, it was his choice to remove his mask, so he wouldn't shy away from the responsibility that he shared for causing the incident.

The two both sighed and held out their hand, "One more chance?" Tony asked.

"One more time, I'm going to trust you one more time." 616 Peter shook his hand and the two started working. 

"I still can't believe he managed to make all the components by hand. Even managed to make all the circuits and routers, down to the smallest detail."

Tony looked at the young Peter Parker and said, "He's got a lot of talent, feeling a little jealous?"

616 Peter smiled and said, "Maybe a little disappointed in myself for wasting my potential, after all, if he able to do so much at his age, then what have I been doing all this time? I mean, do you know how long I've put off getting my bachelor's degree? I like teaching, but I'd like to do something more with my life as Peter Parker, heck maybe I'll ask Strange to teach me some magic too."

Tony lifted a brow, "Well, you're certainly smart enough to graduate collage altogether, but what are you going to do about work?"

616 Peter looked at Tony and said, "Well, I'm not working for you again, maybe I'll see if the Baxter building will put up with me."

As the two started to get to work Peter and Strange began creating the Spell Matrix for the scan spell, "I still can't believe you managed to turn a simple Spark Spell into a spell matrix that would only need electricity to power it."

"Hey, I couldn't have achieved this without your guidance," Peter commented, making Doctor Strange smile with a bit of pride. 

The 4 of them worked tirelessly throughout the night. Tony and 616 Peter insisted on making constant improvements, to the scanner's capability, so by the time they finished it, the device had increased its range from the dark side of the moon to the entire length of their solar system."

Peter was sitting on the roof of Avengers Tower, and staring into the sky. After geeking out with his Heroes and accomplishing a childhood dream, he decided to take a break. He had to admit, this world's Heroes are far smarter than in his, and was far more experienced too. 

Peter sighed as he thought, "Why did the Merlin Stones bring me here, what is it that I'm supposed to do?"

"Sometimes the answers will just come to you, it may take time so you should just continue to do what you think is best," Strange said as he appeared beside the young hero. 

"Peter, Captain America has called for you all," Jarvis rang over the comms.

Peter got up and followed him into the large living room where everyone was gathered in and shook Cap's hand.

"Thank you for joining us, Parker, is it okay if I call you that, calling two people Peter is a little confusion."

"Sure, Steve, and I understand, why do you think I call Stephen by his last name." Peter said while pointing to Strange.

As the wayward hero sat down, Captain America looked around at those sitting beside him and said, "Listen up everyone, Tony and I have come to an agreement, if you all trust me, then at the next announcement about the bill being passed, Tony will announce me as the one to handle your identities and only me. With this, you can keep your identities a secret, and still work as superheroes, with the exception of only me knowing."

Everyone started discussing the situation when Power Man stood up and said, "Cap the whole reason we started this is because the government was asking for too much and pushing their authority and business into our personal lives. If you're in charge of the registration, we know you won't abuse it and bring harm to us because you've been dealing with this stuff far longer than any of us."

Iron Fist stood up next to him, "I have to agree with Luke, you've seen the best of times, and the worst Captain, if there was one man I trusted with my name, then it is you."

Everyone started to speak similar remarks when Steve started to smile, he once again felt the warmth of comradeship that he did before with his fellow Avengers and admitted that it felt good for some semblance of it to be back.

The star-spangled hero then turned to Peter and said, "Thanks to this visitor, we managed to avoid a worse-case scenario. Tony and I have been trying to interrogate the prisoner for hours now, but she won't crack. An Avenger of ours has been kidnapped and is being held somewhere against her will, our planet has been invaded by Skrulls and we haven't even noticed. Thanks to the combined efforts of these four, we've managed to make a global scanning device."

"Universal Scanning Device!" Tony corrected.

"Sorry, Universal Scanning Device… We've also made multiple portable scanners as well." Cap then threw out a pair of glasses to Hawkeye, "Put them on."

As Clint put on the glasses, he noticed a very computer-esque style visual effect as a circle hovered over the faces of everyone revealing them as human. Clint then passed them around so everyone could see, when the last one confirmed that they were all human they breathed a sigh of relief. 

"As you can see, everyone here can be trusted. I think an honorable start to reforming the Avengers would be stopping an alien invasion, don't you?" Captain America asked rallying the Heroes into action as they cheered.