11

Ned was still passed out on the floor when Peter left their hotel room with Nick Fury. Peter hoped that his friend would be okay and not swallow his tongue or anything while he was gone. He felt pretty awful, considering that the only reason Ned was experiencing his current predicament was because of Peter.

“Stark left these for you.” The authoritative voice interrupted his wandering guilty thoughts.

Peter suddenly snapped to attention, and for a quick second was surprised to findthat he was riding in a speedboat with Nick Fury. Then he remembered putting on his Spider-Man costume, leaving the hotel room, and going with Nick on some kind of secret mission. To somewhere. To do something.

“Really?” Peter asked with both a bit of excitement and a bit of sadness, as he accepted a small case from the spy. On the outside, it read, STARK INDUSTRIES.

“‘Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.’ Stark said you wouldn’t get that because it’s not a Star Wars reference,” Nick told him, and then laughed.

Peter was sure that he got the reference. It was from The Lord of the Rings. Had to be.

They arrived at an unknown location, although pretty much every location around Venice was unknown to Peter at this point. He was underground, walking through what looked like some kind of giant wine cellar. There was a small group of people milling about, focusing their attention on various computer stations.

“You can lose the mask,” Nick informed him. “Everyone here’s seen you without it. You’d only be feigning anonymity and breathing through spandex for no good reason.”

Peter felt a little uncomfortable taking off his mask in front of Nick’s crew, but decided that the spy was probably right. He removed the mask from his face, and held it tight in his hands.

“Over there, we have Maria Hill,” Nick said, pointing to a tall woman in a dark jumpsuit. “That is Dimitri. And this is Mr. Beck.”

Standing right in front of Peter was the strange figure wearing the green costume and cape, the one who had fought the water creature earlier that day.

“Mysterio?” Peter asked impulsively.

“What?” Beck replied, confused by the name.

“Doesn’t matter,” Peter brushed aside, slightly embarrassed. “It’s just what my friends have been calling you.”

The man in green smiled. “Well, you can call me Quentin. You handled yourself well out there today. I saw what you did with the tower. We coulda used someone like you on my world.”

“Thanks,” Peter responded automatically.

And then his brain actually processed what Quentin just said.

“I’m sorry,” Peter questioned, wondering if he’d heard correctly. “Your world？！”

“Mr. Beck is from Earth,” Nick revealed. “Just not yours.”

Yours? Peter thought. Doesn’t he mean “ours?” And wait, there’s more than one Earth?

“There are multiple realities, Peter,” Quentin explained. “This is Earth Dimension 616. I’m from Earth 833.”

It was a lot to take in at once, but Peter’s scientific mind was more than up for the challenge. “I’m sorry, you’re saying there’s a multiverse?” Peter quizzed him, his voice growing excited. “Because I thought that was just theoretical. I mean, that completely changes how we understand the initial singularity. We’re talking about an eternal inflation system, and how does that even work with all the quantum—? That’s insane!” His thoughts were swirling faster than his mouth could keep up.

Peter took a deep breath, and realized everyone was staring at him.

“Sorry,” Peter apologized, calming down. “Just really cool.”

“Don’t ever apologize for being the smartest one in the room,” Quentin countered, encouraging the teen’s enthusiasm, and Peter grinned.

Nick laughed in a way that said, Smartest one in the room? Oh, really?”

“Anyway,” Maria interrupted, trying to get everyone to focus.

In front of them, a display lit up, showing the Earth. But as Peter understood it, this wasn’t a representation of Earth as he knew it. This was the Earth Quentin hailed from.

“They were born in stable orbits within black holes,” Quentin began. “Creatures formed from the primary elements: air, water, fire, earth. The Science Division had a technical name. We just called them...Elementals.”

Peter watched the screens as these “Elementals” appeared before him.

“Versions of them exist across our mythologies,” Maria acknowledged.

“Turns out the myths are real,” Quentin added.

“Like Thor,” Peter mused. “Thor was a myth, and now I study him in my physics class.”

“These myths,” Quentin warned them, “are threats. They first materialized on my Earth many years ago. We mobilized and fought them. But with each battle, they grew. Got stronger. I was part of the last battalion left trying to stop them. All we did was delay the inevitable.”

“The Elementals are here now, attacking the same coordinates,” Maria announced direly. “Our satellites confirm it.”

“Should thank Mr. Beck for destroying the other three,” Nick credited their savior. “There’s only one left. Fire.”

“The strongest of them all,” Quentin cautioned. “The one that destroyed my Earth. It’s the one that took my family.”

Peter noticed that Quentin was turning a gold band on his left ring finger.

“I’m sorry,” Peter commiserated. He was still coping with the painful loss of his mentor and friend, Tony Stark. But to lose your family and your entire planet was a horrible thing to imagine.

“And it will be in Prague in approximately forty-eight hours,” Maria added.

Nick looked right at him, and Peter thought that he was going to pass out. “We have one mission,” Nick declared. “Kill it. And you’re coming with us.”

“I’m sorry, did you say ‘Prague?’” Peter asked. “Mr. Fury, this all seems like big-time, you know, HUGE Super Hero kind of stuff. And, I mean, I’m just a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, sir.” This was way out of his league.

Nick gave him a look, and it wasn’t pleasant. “Please,” Nick said. “You’ve been to space.”

He wasn’t wrong. Still, Peter wasn’t ready for this. “I know, but that was an accident,” Peter pointed out. “Sir, come on. There’s gotta be someone else you can use. What about Thor?”

“Off-world,” Fury said.

“Okay, um...Doctor Strange,” Peter suggested.

“Unavailable,” Maria said.

“Captain Marvel,” Peter fired back.

“Don’t invoke her name,” Nick said, and Peter instantly wished he hadn’t.

“Sir, look, I really wanna help,” Peter professed, feeling his stomach tie up in knots. “I do. But if my aunt finds out I left my class trip, she’s gonna kill me. And if I’m seen like this in Europe after the Washington Monument, my whole class will figure out who I am, and then—and then the whole world will figure out who I am. And then I’m done.” He didn’t want to think about how difficult and dangerous it would be if everyone knew his identity.

Nick looked at Peter, who wasn’t sure if Nick was going to say something harsh, or just fire one of those knock-out darts at him and cart him off to Prague while he was asleep.

“Okay,” Nick surprisingly accepted without argument. “I understand.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Peter found the easygoing response from the notoriously demanding spymaster incredulous.

“Why don’t you get back before your teachers miss you and become suspicious,” Nick suggested calmly. “Dimitri. Take him back to the hotel, please.”

The large man with the black mustache and the Turkish accent looked at Peter like he was something found in yesterday’s trash. “Yes,” Dmitri complied, reluctantly.

“Thank you, Mr. Fury,” Peter called as he walked out of the room. “And uh, good luck.”

Nick said nothing.

“See ya, kid,” Quentin chimed in.

“Yeah, see ya,” Peter responded. Then, as he passed by Maria Hill, he offered a polite “Bye, ma’am.”

Maria barely looked up from her computer and replied, “Yeah.”

On the way back to the hotel, Peter thought he would feel relieved. And he did. Sort of.

But he also felt kind of awful. Like he had just made the wrong choice. Like maybe he should have stayed behind to help.

Because when a person could do what Peter could, but they don’t, and then bad things happen...then whose responsibility was it? Peter was beginning to feel a sense of déjà vu.