Issue 74: A New Age Part 11

As the Portal closed behind him, Peter walked over to where Strange usually was, meditating upstairs.

He sat down and waited for him to respond, only taking him minutes of relaxation before the sorcerer finally spoke up.

"Something I can help you with, Peter?"

"For one, you can hand over the Time Stone so I can dispose of them."

"Is it that time already,"

"Don't worry about the Ancient one, in fact, I have a proposal for you," Peter lifted a finger.

"I accept,"

"Like I was saying, if you don't agree…wait what?" 

"I accept," Strange smiled.

"Aw, why'd you have to ruin this for me. I had all sorts of whacky and strange," Peter wagged his eyebrows, "Gimmicks to make you agree."

"Yes, I saw them, quite annoying I might add," 

"Right…time stone," Peter passed over a few items, "Here's a Key to my lab, you're a doctor, shouldn't be too hard to figure it out, and give Jean and Wanda the upgrades too."

Strange opened up the Eye of Agamotto and revealed the stone before Peter tossed into the pocket dimension that existed outside their universe.

"Clever, they're inactive in other universes, so they won't generate any energy for radars to pick up on."

"And it keeps them from being snagged up since I'm the only one that knows the exact spatial coordinates of the vault."

"Why not keep them there forever?" Strange asked.

"It's the stones. I believe they have great importance and destiny. At the peak of Entropy, it will be the Phoenix that becomes its wielder. The universe will be reborn."

"Ahh…I see, it appears I still have much to learn," Strange chuckled.

"Just a bit," Peter snickered.

"Not all of us have access to the Multiverse, Spider-Supreme," Doctor strange gave a knowing smirk.

"Yeah, I found a shortcut, so what? You're just jelly," Peter laughed.

"Just a bit," Stephen snickered while holding up his thumb and index finger, "So, I'm curious, what's got you so antsy,"

"Hah, insect joke, never heard that one before. I've been dying to work on something for a while now. I've just been pretty busy lately."

"Well, good luck," Strange nodded his head as he watched Spider-Man leave to his lab on Venus.

Once the portal closed, he walked over to the computer and started typing in a series of equations and started running a simulation.

"It'll take at least 30 hours to run this simulation," Webster announced.

"Really?"

"We're talking about building a universe, Peter. It's going to take time,"

"Right, right, right," Peter snapped his fingers and made a time acceleration spell around the super computer.

"Now it'll take a fraction of the time. My limit right now is speeding up time by 10 hours, so it'll only take 3." 

Peter then sat down to meditate, "Okay, let's get my Merlin Stone practice in while I wait."

"Sir, perhaps use the Soul Emerald. It is your least used gemstone," Webster suggested.

"Ugh…fine," Peter sighed. It's not that he didn't like the gemstone, he just didn't like messing with souls. Don't know why, but it just weirded him out and made feel uncomfortable. Not to mention, he'd hate to piss off someone on Death's caliber. Messing with souls was a sure fire way to alert all the most powerful entities in the cosmos to his presence.

"That's not the kind of attention I want right now," Peter shook his head and started to think of a alternate way to use his stone.

"What if I use it on myself. Could I track my soul's birthplace back to its origin," Peter thought as he closed his eyes and focused on his soul.

"Huh…I can, let's follow it and see if I can't return home,"

After searching for a bit, Peter tilted his head, "Universe 38119…wait a second…I've heard that one before."

He thought hard before opening his eyes in realization, "Oh…Huh…Get out, I'm from the universe the 90s Spider-Man went to and met with Stan Lee…That's actually really cool."

Peter laughed at his origin and said, "I guess this makes Stan a prophet or the One Above All's incarnation. No wonder they're in every universe."

The 90s Spider-Man was the one he watched growing up. He'd have to pay a visit sometime in the future. It's been his dream to help the guy out after he lost MJ at the end.

Peter sighed as he tried using his Soul Emerald in a different manner, "I got soul tracking down. I've made an A.I a soul. I'm pretty sure I communicated with Ben's soul in Universe 1610, and I know I can manipulate the souls of others…but what else can I do. Return the souls of dead people and resurrecting them is definitely possible, but that comes with pissing off Death. I know she doesn't like people stealing souls from her."

Peter ran his hands through his hair in frustration, "Ugh! I just can't think of anything!" 

"Maybe I can combine it with my physical powers to attack a person's soul. I know plenty of beings in this universe that are impervious to such attacks…hmm…this isn't a bad idea. I can either kill or cripple their souls."

Peter continued his train of thought until it hit him, "Wait, I could make copy souls and read their minds to gain their knowledge…"

Testing it out, Peter activated his emerald for a second before he used both magic and the Reality Topaz to recreate Otto Octavious' 616 soul.

Using Charles' mind-graping abilities, he stole all the scientific knowledge from the copy soul and dispersed it. To avoid any privacy invasions, he made sure to stay out of any personal stuff and solely focused on the scientific genius that was 616 Doc Oct.

"Wow…dude really is crazy smart," Peter took a breath of fresh air, "But cramming decades of data and scientific methodology wears me out. I feel like I just went through a 1,000 classes in one minute. I can actually feel my brain throbbing."

"However, it has its uses…I could learn what a bad guy is planning without actually reading his mind…I could use it to learn of tech, but I don't like this method…feels way too cheap, and it takes the fun out of learning it yourself."

Peter got up and started tinkering around until he had built a large circular gateway and grinned, "Hehehe. Well Thanos, if this doesn't prove you wrong, I don't know what will."

Using a small amount of Tritium, he started up the machine and watched as it formed a star.

"Stars are the biggest resource makers in the universe. Well, now I can say I forged a star. I wonder if I can get the dwarves to teach me their methods. Ooh, now I want my own Nedavellir."

Peter also wanted to test his strength against an Asgardian too.

"Should I ask Thor for a spar? Using the Power Ruby, I'm sure I could fight with him…maybe I should look in to increasing my strength more. I know the Celestials created gods, and I just so happen to have their spinal fluids and brain matter…"

Peter pulled out a vial of the stuff and tapped his foot on the ground, "I really don't want to become an omnipotent being right now. I still feel I have a lot to do as a human…but, I guess I should prepare for the worst. Building a Super Soldier Serum with this as its base might be able to make me as strong as a god…I just hope there are no side effects."

Peter started working on the formulas and possible ingredients and for the first time in a long time he had a challenge. Whenever he tested the blood with his own, it would undergo rapid and wild evolution. It could take him years to modify it in a useful manner.

He got to work and didn't even notice his phone's alarm blaring for over twenty minutes.

"Huh? Oh crap. I'm supposed to be teaching Combat and Biology class at Avenger's Academy!"

Peter noticed that his time until his super-computer finished his calculations was only a few minutes away, he sighed, "Ugh, lot's to do, I'll get back to you later. I should have put a time bubble around the whole lab. Which reminds me, I have to do the same for Richards, get him up to date with what's been going on, and I have to take down Hydra tomorrow. I can't wait until Avengers take all this off my back and get back to daily patrols."

Peter opened a portal to the school and got to work. He taught alongside scientist such as Hank Pym, Otto Octavious, Curt Connors, Henry McCoy, his own mother, and a few dozen of Spider-Man's old nemesis were working in this school. With cutting edge technology, resources, and a hefty paycheck, the scientists were right at home.

He spent about 8 hours teaching science and advanced technological engineering before heading off to see the Avenger recruits. Peter didn't want any incidents like what started the Civil War in the Ultimate Series. So, heroes under the age of 18 were forbidden from fighting crime without a license, and to get one, they must have had adequate training and completed the promotion exam.

He took some ideas from My Hero Academia but made a few changes. For one, you're allowed to keep your suit and gear, secondly, regardless of whether or not they had their license, they could engage the villains if they were in the right place at the right time after calling the authorities, thirdly, a body cam had to be on whenever they were in the field, and lastly, they had the same courtesies and benefits spies had, which meant that their identities would be kept secret for as long as they wanted to.

Of course, if their identities were ever ousted their immediately families and closest friends would enter a form of witness protection. 

Peter went to the Danger Room and met up with students. Unlike other classes, this one wasn't separated by age groups. The hero thought that it would be a bad idea to segregate the combat and situational lessons because it would be detrimental to their training. You're not always going to end up fighting someone the same age, and having experienced a loss from someone more experienced or more powerful despite their age is a good lesson for them to learn.

He looked into the room on the other side of a one way window and smirked as he saw the first group of kids enter.

Amongst them was a 16 year old Miles Morales and a 17 year old Gwen Stacy. Her outfit was almost a perfect match for her Ghost Spider variant and Miles had on what looked like his own black and red version of the MCU one Peter recognized from Tom Holland's first appearance in the movies.

Peter watched as the room came to life and started preparing a series of hero tests. They fought against robots that impersonated the abilities of well-known villains, rescue operations, environmental disasters, and hostage situations. 

There were mutants like Arch-Angel, people with tech like Amadeus Cho, and of course, empowered people like the Spider-Heroes. He couldn't help but feel proud as the two Spiders not only completed their training, but excelled at it due to their unique abilities.

Peter watched the students change out the roster and gave his advice before looking at the two Spider-Heroes and said, "You two, come meet me after class. I'll be waiting on the roof."

"Yes sir!" The two shouted as they gave a salute.

"Put your hands down, I'm not in the military," Peter chuckled as he dismissed the class.

The classes continued for another 3 hours straight, and when it finally ended, he went to the roof. He only had to wait a few minutes before the group showed up with excited expressions on their faces.

"Pete!" Miles held his hand.

Peter gave him a high five, "Good to see you again, kid," Peter chuckled, "Dig the suit, you make it?"

"Yeah…I had some help from a friend though," Miles rubbed the back of his head.

"So, Gwen, enjoying the school?"

"It's great! Besides getting to geek out over ALIEN TECH, I get become a better hero," Gwen smirked.

"Yeah, I bet. But I didn't call you up here to catch up. Care to tell me what you were doing patrolling?"

Peter pulled up video footage of them going on nightshifts in their neighborhoods.

"Uhhh…" Gwen's eyes darted around like fish in a bowl.

"Are we in trouble?" Miles asked.

"Pthbb, no. While you have to abide by the rules of the school, we can't exactly stop Vigilante behavior, nor should we want to. The most we can do is try to convince them or at least instill morals that align with our own. Just try not to get caught."

Peter opened a portal to his old underground lab, "Come on, follow me."

The two followed through and gasped when they saw the old abandoned train station that had been reconstructed into a lab.

"I used to use this place back in my rookie days. It's yours now. You don't have to pay for anything and you don't have to worry about people tracing it back to me."

"How'd you pull that off?" Gwen asked.

"I purchased it under a false identity."

"Is this really for us?" Miles started geeking out as he looked through the carts and saw various pieces of technology.

"Yeah. I know how hectic the grind can be. Feel free to make yourselves at home. Oh, and the password for the door is Spider-Cavern. Don't forget the hyphen."

The two chuckled.

"I'd love to stick around and give you guys a tour, but I'm a busy man these days," Peter looked at the Symbiote and asked, "So, is Spiderette behaving?"

"Oh, ever since you got me those unstable molecules, she hasn't been an issue. No more chocolate cravings either."

"Good to hear," Peter looked at the suit and said, "Take care of your partner, Symbiote."

"I will…" The voice echoed through the room, making Miles jump.

"Who said that?"

"I did," A small head appeared on Gwen's shoulder.

"Ahh!"

"Relax, Miles. It's a friend," Gwen chuckled.

"I hope so," Peter sighed before looking away and opening a portal, "If you two are going to go out patrolling, change your appearance or costume. The Spider-Heroes are students at Avengers Academy now, so if you get caught, you could lose your chance to become public heroes."

"Right!" The two said at the same time while Miles poked Gwen's suit, "How does it do that?"

While Gwen started to explain, Peter left the room and returned to his lab. He started by enchanting the building with the same time acceleration spells and pushed the effects to the max.

Now he could spend 10 hours for every hour outside.

"I'll do the same to my house and a few other places," Peter mumbled as he walked over to the super computer.

"Good, it's done. Hmm…so it is possible…"

Peter ran through all the formulas and advanced physics at a rapid pace. When he finished, Peter smirked and sat down before focusing all of the stones together to give birth to an entire universe the size of a torso-sized bubble.

Inside it were dozens of pinwheel galaxies that spun around before Peter placed it into his Power Ruby.

"Power Ruby's Evolution has begun. Time limit improved by 0.5 seconds."

"Oh, man. This is going to take a while," Peter said as he continued to use up his gemstone's powers and made entire galaxies for his Power Ruby's improvement right up until he ran out of time.

Peter smiled and worked on other projects while he waited for them to recharge.

Once he felt like he had done enough, Peter went home and worked on enchanting his house.

Once that was finished, he went over to the Baxter Buildings to do the same. First was the one in Watker and then the one Manhattan.

When he got there, he saw the whole crew working on the project that would get Ben back to normal.

"How's it going everyone?!" Peter said as he hopped down from the roof.

"Peter!" Johnny shouted as he wrapped his arm around his friend's neck and hung from his shoulder.

"It's been a while," Sue smiled.

"What are you doing here, web head," Ben waved as he walked over.

"Oh, just setting up a temporal shifting spell."

"A what?" The group asked at the same time.