Sanctuary II.
On the throne, Thanos slowly opened his eyes, gazing at the three Infinity Stones on his Infinity Gauntlet, frowning slightly.
"A bad omen?" he murmured, sensing a disturbance in the gauntlet, and summoned Ebony Maw.
"Great Lord Thanos, you called for me," Ebony Maw bowed.
Thanos spoke, "Loki hasn't returned, has he?"
Ebony Maw nodded. "No, he hasn't."
Thanos took a deep breath. "He's failed, then."
He raised his hand, staring at the gauntlet. "We should've gone straight to Earth."
The gauntlet's surface shimmered, as if responding.
Thanos' lips curled, a glint of anticipation in his eyes. "I'm curious what crisis could challenge me, even with the Infinity Stones."
As he spoke, the dim command room lit up with a massive blue wormhole.
A swarm of red-and-blue figures emerged.
The leader, clad in metallic armor, had pale blue eyes glowing in the wormhole's light.
Beside him, a Spider-Man in a magical cloak held a floating blue Space Stone.
On the other side, a Spider-Man wielding Mjolnir embedded a green Time Stone in the hammer's handle, green ripples spreading.
Behind them, a group of eager Spider-Men readied for battle.
Among them, Tony and the Avengers glared at Thanos with hatred.
The Chitauri invasion of New York had killed many. The purple figure was the culprit.
Thanos scanned the group, his gaze settling on Charlie, growing serious.
Unlike the other two flaunting their stones, Charlie had an Infinity Stone but no intent to use it.
The gauntlet warned Thanos: this one was the most dangerous.
He agreed.
But he was confident. No matter their numbers, he was the universe's mightiest.
Expressionless, he rose, pacing before the throne.
Thanos drew his double-bladed sword, gently brushing dust from it.
"Last time, I failed. You destroyed Sanctuary I. I know failure—thinking victory's assured, only to lose. Failure is a fog. Through it, we glimpse light. Destiny always arrives. Now it's here—or rather, I am."
He swung his blade, eyes commanding. "I am destiny!"
His bold declaration stunned the Spider-Men.
Three seconds of silence, then whispers erupted.
"What'd he say?"
"Is this his pre-fight ritual?"
"Oh man, that's a bad habit."
"My gosh, this guy's nuts."
The scene grew lively, some Spider-Men laughing.
"Haha, he thinks we blew up Sanctuary I?"
"He's got the wrong guys. Stark, care to clarify?"
"No, maybe discuss failure and destiny with him."
"This is absurd. I didn't even go to college. What's he on about?"
"I did, but his words? Nonsense. Is this his tough talk?"
"No, no, he's trying to sound classy."
"You're all wrong. Big bosses say stuff before dying to ease the embarrassment. He's just early."
"That makes sense."
"We should play along, or it's too awkward for him."
"Yeah, let me think…"
"Got it! Seen Sailor Moon? Strike a cool pose and shout—"
"In the name of the moon, I'll punish you! Biubiubiu~~"
The Spider-Men bantered, their antics making Thanos frown.
Times had changed. Dramatic speeches were out.
So be it.
His eyes sharpened, raising the gauntlet, its stones glowing.
Buzz~
Before the stones activated, a flash streaked.
Crack~
Giant Ant-Man Peter grabbed the gauntlet, yanking hard.
"I got it! Go!"
The Spider-Men swarmed Thanos.
"He fell for it!"
"The distraction worked!"
"What a dope."
"No one escapes a Spider-Man's trick!"
Under Thanos' grim gaze, the Spider-Men charged. Ebony Maw used telekinesis to tear metal from the command room, trying to stop them.
Boom!
Thunder flashed, shredding the metal. Mjolnir's lightning smashed Maw's head.
"Your turn!" Thor-Peter roared, hurling the hammer at Thanos.
Golden portals opened. Supreme Peter split into countless clones, golden chains binding Thanos.
Electric arcs flared. Charlie, atop Thanos, blurred into nine clones, firing web-beams that sliced the ship, blocking Thanos' escape.
Caught, Thanos sensed death.
Weird webbing spread from the gauntlet, its three stones blazing.
Buzz~
Purple light erupted from Thanos, molten lava surging, orange light rippling.
Rumble!
The Power Stone's force shattered the ship, debris and shockwaves sweeping the planet.
A mushroom cloud rose, tearing through Chitauri and ships, forming a massive crater.
Time passed.
The dust settled.
In the crater, ship wreckage and red-and-blue suit fragments littered the ground, indistinguishable bodies scattered.
At the center, Thanos, armor battered, rose from the sand, panting, eyes weary.
Empowered by the Power Stone, he was unharmed.
The bugs were gone.
He'd won.
Not yet.
He looked up, pupils shrinking.
A blue wormhole opened, dozens of figures emerging—only a quarter of the original group.
Supreme Peter had used the Space Stone to save some, but the Power Stone's might was too much.
No matter. They had the Time Stone.
Thor-Peter raised Mjolnir, a lightning vortex summoning a net of thunder webs, pulling Spider-Men's bodies from the sand.
Buzz~
Green light flowed through the webs, but the bodies didn't stir.
Thor-Peter's face fell. "How? The Time Stone can't save them?"
"Haha, surprising?" Thanos raised his gauntlet, showing the orange Soul Stone. "Their souls are gone. The Soul Stone's kills can't be undone, unless you take my other three stones. Can you?"
He smirked, unleashing another purple shockwave.
Boom!
Tony and others were blasted away.
Roar!
Hulk dove from the sky, charging Thanos like a missile, only to be punched a kilometer away.
Crack, crack, crack~
Hulk plowed a thousand-meter trench.
Zzzzt~
Web-beams shot toward Thanos, magical webs spanning the sky, laced with lightning.
With the Time Stone, Mjolnir struck Thanos hundreds of times a second.
Webs and crimson beams followed, but Thanos stood firm.
Under purple light, he mocked their efforts. "Give up. Even with Infinity Stones, you can't beat me."
He punched, sending Mjolnir flying.
"What?" Thor-Peter gasped, then was buried in the ground by a heavy fist.
Boom!
The earth shook. Thanos tore through magical webs, ignoring the beams' heat, summoning meteors.
"Come on!" he roared, meteors crashing indiscriminately.
Rumble!
Meteors fell like doomsday.
Spider-Men fled, unable to resist the Reality Stone's power.
Boom!
A meteor exploded, burning a Spider-Man's mask.
"Oh, crap, you're not Peter—you're Ben Parker!" a Spider-Man shouted.
Grimy Ben Parker sought cover. "Don't sweat the details. I just wanted to fit in."
"I know." The other Spider-Man removed his mask. "Funny, I'm not Peter either."
Two middle-aged men exchanged smiles.
"Hi, I'm Ben."
"Me too. Nice to meet you."
Boom!
A meteor reduced them to dust.
Charlie, watching, clutched his head. "Damn it! That's it—Ben Parkers posing as Spider-Men. No wonder we didn't spot them."
"And the numbers don't add up," Lizard-Parker said, dodging debris.
In the apocalyptic scene, he yelled at Supreme Peter, "You've got three stones and still can't beat three-stone Thanos? Useless!"
"Then you try!" Supreme Peter opened a portal before Lizard-Parker.
"Fine!" Lizard-Parker dove in, only to be punched back out by Thanos.
Bang!
He crashed into molten meteor fragments, consumed by flames.
Charlie: "…"
He deserved it.
Another meteor wave fell, the ground collapsing.
Earthquakes spread, lava surging, the planet turning fiery red.
In the hellish battlefield, Thanos pummeled Thor-Peter.
As Thanos reached for the Time Stone, Charlie's clone whisked it away.
"Our teamwork's garbage. We need all three stones on one person," Thor-Peter shouted from a lava lake.
Supreme Peter hesitated but agreed.
"No time, Peter, catch!" Charlie tossed two stones to Supreme Peter.
"What?" Supreme Peter caught them, stunned.
He hadn't expected Charlie to give him all three.
A purple shockwave hit, sending Charlie crashing into a crater.
Lava swallowed him.
As it covered his face, he raised his hand, shouting, "Peter, even if you can only save one Aunt May, give it everything. Please…"
He sank into the lava.
Gurgle~
Bubbles burst on the surface. Supreme Peter clenched his fists, eyes blazing.
"Only one Aunt May… Why give me this chance? You had one too. I get it—whose May doesn't matter. She's Aunt May!"
He spread his arms, the three stones orbiting his head.
Buzz~
Three-colored light lit the sky, blue wormholes swallowing meteors.
Green light froze lava, returning it to the planet's core.
Golden light enveloped Supreme Peter.
With the Mind Stone, he saw the cosmic Web of Fate through the haze.
Not his first time sensing it during magic studies.
Now, he connected to Spider-Man's destiny.
He became the Sorcerer Supreme and Spider-Man.
Destiny's gears turned.
Magic cost him family, friends, love.
He learned the Web's secret but couldn't change it.
He could save everyone but those closest.
A curse. Spider-Man's lonely fate.
Was a god behind it?
If so, let it end!
In his last battle, he perished with a leech-totem vampire.
Unsure if it died, he knew he'd be free.
But fate mocked him with the Resurrection Match, a chance to save Aunt May.
Not just from the match, but from countless Spider-Men sacrificing everything.
Supreme Peter shouted to the Web, "If you're Spider-Man's god, lend me more magic. I need power. Grant me strength!"
Starlight poured down, magic flooding him.
The planet glowed.
A god was born.
Thanos shielded his eyes. "What… is this?" he gasped, awestruck.
The stones' light dimmed.
In a meteor fragment's shadow, a red-hot Charlie, like a boiled shrimp, panted against a boulder.
"So hot, nearly cooked."
Thor-Peter, battered, glanced at him. "You're alive."
"You're not dead, so why would I be?"
"Fair. Your words hit hard."
"Had to, or he wouldn't go berserk."
"You planned that?"
"Duh."
"I'm jealous."
"Don't be. Next time, I'll say it to you, trigger your 'daddy mode.' You'll match him."
As Charlie spoke, Supreme Peter, empowered, unleashed a fierce assault.
Buzz~
Boom!
Countless clones spread, golden blades sweeping the battlefield.
Thanos gritted his teeth, maximizing the Power Stone.
Boom!
The ground cracked, Reality Stone lava surging, only to be trapped by the cosmic Web.
"Again!" Thanos leaped, a purple streak shattering clones.
Orange light filled the sky, clones collapsing, leaving Supreme Peter soulless.
"Now!" Thanos roared, his punch tearing a thousand-kilometer atmospheric hole.
Boom~~~
His power shredded everything, but Supreme Peter's soul used dimensional magic, turning the world into his playground.
Charlie marveled. "Casting magic as a soul? He's a god now?"
"Won't last," Thor-Peter noted.
Charlie nodded. "Enough for now."
In the dimensional space, Supreme Peter's power soared, chaining Thanos with stone-infused magic.
A time wheel bloomed, a space tunnel crossed dimensions, and a cosmic web strand descended.
"That's…" Charlie gasped. "The real Web of Fate!"
Thor-Peter gaped. "It's real?"
Charlie realized something.
The strand, defying time and stones, bound Thanos' wrist.
Thanos' fate spun: failure, destruction, death.
Sensing his end, Thanos' fierce expression softened. He sat on a rock.
Disappointment, reluctance, regret… turned to a sigh.
"I accept my fate. But when I'm gone, I hope newborns eat under clear skies… paradise."
His legs turned to ash, spreading upward.
"We won," Thor-Peter exhaled.
Charlie shook his head. "Not yet."
He'd played dirty, not handing Supreme Peter the victory so easily.
His eyes locked on the "magic god" in the sky.
There, on Supreme Peter's cloak, was the weird webbing.
It was moving!
Buzz~
As Thanos nearly vanished, the webbing touched Supreme Peter's stones. The time wheel vanished, the cosmic web faded, and Thanos' body restored.
"I… I'm not dead?" Thanos stared at his hands, incredulous.
Supreme Peter, failing to finish Thanos, lost his magic, noticing the webbing too late.
"What's this… No!"
The webbing unleashed the stones' power, and he plummeted.
Thanos screamed.
"No!"
Pfft!
Blood sprayed, evaporating in the heat.
Charlie's web-beam severed Thanos' arm, webbing snatching the gauntlet.
Buzz~
Wearing it, Charlie clenched his fist.
Boom!
Thanos' body shattered into dust, shocking everyone.
"Thanos is dead!"
"It's Charlie Parker!"
Venom-Parker, battered, pounded the ground, cursing. "Damn it, he won!"
Supreme Peter, grounded, realized, "You sneaky bug, playing my emotions!"
Thor-Peter sobbed, "No! Why am I so slow?"
Thanos was dead, Aunt May's crisis resolved.
Charlie won.
But no prompt appeared.
So…
Surviving Spider-Men sensed something wrong.
They relaxed briefly.
"There's still a chance."
"Wait, if Thanos wasn't Aunt May's death threat, then what?"
They looked at the sky, where the three stones were wrapped in weird webbing.
The webbing grew, forming a black humanoid.
The stones became eyes on a black Spider-Man's face, eerie.
"Charlie Parker, I underestimated you," it said, looking down. "Congrats on getting three stones and killing Thanos. But as long as you stay here, nothing changes."
Charlie frowned, understanding.
As expected, the black Spider-Man opened a wormhole, leaving without fighting.
No need.
Trapped on this planet, the Spider-Men had no competitors.
Neither Supreme Peter's portals nor Charlie's magic could cross galaxies without the Space Stone.
Supreme Peter realized this, despair hitting.
"We've lost."
The Spider-Men slumped, but Venom-Parker screamed, "Stop him! Don't let Charlie Parker—oh no, we're done."
"Charlie Parker?" They noticed Charlie was gone.
"How? Without the Space Stone, how'd he teleport across the cosmos?" Supreme Peter was stunned.
...
Earth, Stark Tower.
"May, don't worry. No one can beat all those Peters, not even a god," Pepper said, handing May a coffee.
May nodded absently, sipping and setting it down. "I'm not worried about Peter. It's this thing in me I'm not used to."
Black liquid writhed, forming a demonic face.
"Hey, old lady, I saved you. Now it's just us. Eat this woman—I want her head."
The symbiote covered May, forcing her toward Pepper.
Pepper screamed. "No, what are you?"
"I'm a symbiote. No name yet."
Covering May's face, it grinned. "Food doesn't need my name."
"I can name you," Charlie's voice cut in.
The symbiote flinched, shrinking into May, not daring to emerge.
With Venom-Parker's memories, it knew Charlie's terror.
To survive, it played nice.
"You're GoodBaby," Charlie said, pleased.
Pepper and May relaxed.
May wiped her brow. "I can't control it. Can you get it out?"
"Probably not," Charlie shrugged. "If it leaves, you die."
May sighed. "I feel like a monster."
"You are," Charlie said.
May: "…"
"Peter, you're great at comforting," she said, glaring.
"I'm not Peter. I'm Charlie, Charlie Parker."
He looked out the window.
That thing was on Earth, maybe near May.
No matter. He'd find it.
Raising the gauntlet, the stones flickered.
The room's TV glowed, weird webbing and three stones vanishing into a wormhole.
It knew it couldn't beat Charlie.
"What was that?" Pepper groaned. "Always weird stuff."
Charlie waved it off. "Just a run-of-the-mill Spider-Man."
"Spider-Man?" Pepper and May exchanged confused looks.
Charlie stared where the wormhole vanished, thoughtful.
It was good at hiding. Unless May was stripped bare, it couldn't be flushed out.
A waiting game, then.
Charlie made an excuse, moving into Tony's penthouse, living with two middle-aged women.
Seven hours until the mission ended.
Charlie stuck close to May, guarding her.
"Kid, this is the bathroom," May said, exasperated, at the door.
Charlie considered. "Two stalls?"
"Just a toilet," May said, face dark.
Charlie grinned. "Hurry up."
Bang!
May slammed the door, fuming.
Charlie returned to the living room, freezing at Peter Parker and Mary Jane.
"Peter?"
"That's me."
"You didn't fight Thanos?"
"What's a Thanos?" Peter shrugged. "No one told me."
Charlie scratched his head. "Guess Lizard-Parker missed you without your suit."
Before Peter could reply, a noise came from the bathroom.
"Ah!" May's scream.
They rushed over, finding only a tissue.
Peter leaped through the shattered window.
Charlie stared after him, thoughtful.
Leaving via the window meant it wasn't the Space Stone-wielding webbing.
Someone else.
He hadn't forgotten the nine May Parkers, absent throughout.
Fuming, Charlie said, "No honor! Attacking during a bathroom break? That's cruel to May—unforgivable!"
He drew a circle, vanishing into a portal.