Chapter Text
SPIDER-MAN UNMASKED
As we are sure many of you may know two years amid the battle for Earth, web-slinging superhero Spiderman sacrificed himself in order to defeat Thanos and his army of aliens. Just this morning footage has been leaked from Stark Industries that shows him unmasked for the first time.
Peter slumps back in his chair, tugging his hood to make sure that his face is still hidden. His identity has been leaked. He’s not even sure how it could have possibly happened again. After everything that happened with Doctor Strange and Peter two and three everyone should have forgotten him. He’d made sure there was no footage left. And what does it mean about him sacrificing himself in the battle against Thanos? Tony was the one who gave his life to save them all. Peter’s not even sure he was useful at all in the battle, he’d barely held onto the gauntlet and he definitely would have lost it if Captain Marvel hadn’t swooped in and saved his ass.
He risks a glance around the nearly empty library and hopes that no one had recognized him on his way in. Everything had seemed normal that morning but his senses were on high alert and he couldn’t figure out why. Maybe this footage leak had something to do with it. He’d woken up that morning in his usual room at the motel where he’d been staying since being forgotten. He’d grabbed a couple of packs of powdered donuts from the pathetic excuse for breakfast and then slipped out before anyone could ask him anything that might give too much away. His eighteenth birthday had just passed but no one ever seemed to believe him when he said how old he was and he had no documentation to prove himself. He’d gotten lucky that the clerk that had checked him in that day hadn’t bothered to ask him for anything. With one more glance around the room, he leans back towards the computer monitor to keep reading.
To everyone’s shock, Spider-man’s real identity has been revealed as Peter Parker, a sixteen-year-old from queens who many had thought lost to the blip. (picture displayed shows Peter Parker, his last school picture from before the blip) A look back at Spider-man’s history leads us to believe that he was just fourteen years old when he first came onto the scene as the friendly neighborhood hero that protected the streets of queens. Many now wonder about Stark's involvement in the boy’s adventures as a superhero. Did the billionaire inventor know his young age when giving him a suit of his own? Did his guardians know about all of this? Thousands have already taken to the internet demanding answers from both. We will be sure to keep you all
up to date as more information on the situation comes to light.
Peter drops his head to the desk, his breath leaving him all in one puff. This is not his universe. He shouldn’t be here, he’s got no idea how he even came to be here. Yesterday he’d been in his own universe where no one even knew he’d ever existed. He’d gone out on his patrol, snuck a few pictures of himself swinging around in his normal suit to sell to The Daily Bugle (he really had to thank the other Peter two for that idea). He’d been working himself harder than usual, spending more hours patrolling and doing his best to avoid any run-ins with any avengers that might be lurking around the city still. He remembers getting into a particularly rough fight with some guy that looked like a Rhino sometime after nightfall. He’d been feeling battered and bruised when he got back to his motel, so tired that he’d fallen face first into his -bed still fully clothed with his backpack on. Not the first time he’s done that, probably not the last either. He’s glad for it now though, He’d still had his backpack, wallet, and suit when he’d woken up. He hadn’t bothered to check for any of his other belongings before leaving though so who knows what he had left.
He can’t sit here all day, there are a lot of things he should be doing. He needs to figure out what exactly happened and how to get back to his own universe. This must be similar to what happened with the other Peters. He’s clearly gotten tossed into some other universe. One where apparently Peter Parker is dead, Peter Parker is dead because in the battle for Earth he sacrificed himself to defeat Thanos’s army. He sacrificed himself. Peter’s breath catches in his throat. The Peter in this universe sacrificed himself. Like Stark had sacrificed himself in his universe. Peter sits up fully again and scrolls down to the video, hitting the play button.
The footage shown is all from the battle of Earth. Peter’s pretty sure it’s mostly recordings from the different hero’s suits. He recognizes the voice of the Falcon as he sees himself swinging through Doctor strange’s portal, He sees himself dropping down onto the ground, his mask off as he rambles through his explanation of what had happened when he woke up on Titan and realizes that it’s taken from the iron man armor. This footage wasn’t stolen from Stark industries it was stolen directly from Tony and Peter is sure that whoever did it was in for a world of hurt or at least the lawsuit of a lifetime.
Pretty much everything that happens in the footage is exactly as Peter remembers it happening himself until suddenly it’s not. The Peter in the video is laying on the ground, the gauntlet and infinity stones clutched in his arms. But as Captain Marvel lands in front of him and he stupidly introduces himself like a dork, a group of the weird creepy aliens swarms her and there’s more coming for him and it’s clear from the vitals displayed that he’s panicking and then he’s sliding his hand into the gauntlet and there’s power surging through his body, his suit is burning. The footage switches back to the Ironman armor. He’s shooting across the battlefield in the direction of Peter, the vitals from the iron spider suit are flashing red in the corner. Peter watches as this other version of himself locks eyes on Ironman, and then he lifts his hand and snaps. The footage goes grainy as a shockwave shoots out from the gauntlet and Thanos’s army turns to dust. There’s just a glimpse at the very end of Peter, his face covered in dirt and blood, his suit burning away, black lines crawling up the skin of the left half of his face. It’s just a few seconds and then it’s gone as the Ironman suit breaks away from Tony.
Peter closes the webpage and drops his head onto the desk again, making himself take slow even breaths. The Peter of this universe is dead. He sacrificed himself by putting on the gauntlet and snapping away the army. The same way that Tony had in his universe. That means that here, in this universe Tony Stark was still alive. Tony was alive. It takes all of Peter’s willpower not to bolt out of the chair and run straight to Stark Industries. He has to be smart about this. He has to be. He can’t go messing with the multiverse anymore than he already has. He can’t take that kind of risk again. It’s been nearly eight months since everything went to shit in his own universe. Eight months of living along, of avoiding everyone he’d once loved. Even if things are different in this universe he can’t mess it up. He needs to go straight to Doctor Strange and get him to send him back to where he belongs.
He stays in the library for several more hours, watching the internet as more information comes out. There’s another video leaked at one in the afternoon, his own video diary from the trip to Germany. His interactions with Tony in the car afterward. The internet is in a frenzy over the whole thing, everyone shocked to discover that he was just a boy. That Tony would put him at risk by bringing him into that world. They demand answers from Tony, they demand answers from May. May who’s still alive, Peter has to force himself to stay still again at that piece of information. Peter’s headstone is turned into a shrine, with more and more pictures of it covered in flowers, cards, and stuffed animals popping up online.
Just after four Ned Leeds and Michelle Jones-Watson, two first year M.I.T students are brought in for questioning in regards to the hacking of Stark Industries and the Avenger’s servers. MJ sends out a tweet right as her dorm is raided.
The world deserves to know who he was.
Peter has to move. He tries to rub away the tightness in his chest as he gets to his feet and slips out of the library. He makes sure to keep his hood tugged down low to hide his face and he finds himself checking his clothes every now and then as he walks to make sure that his suit isn’t showing at all beneath his jeans or hoodie. His face is everywhere right now. The last thing he needs is for someone to recognize him.
“Okay, I gotta find the wizard first,” He mumbles to himself as he slips his phone from his pocket and curses when he realizes that he’s got no service. Of course, he would have no service this isn’t even his universe. He decides that his best bet is to make it to Greenwich village and he’s sure that from there he’ll be able to spot the building. He briefly considers changing into his suit and swinging over there but tosses that idea away before it’s even fully formed. Not only is his real face everywhere but there are billboards and murals of spiderman on the walls as well. He slips into an alleyway and leans his back against the wall. “I’m so fucked,” he groans burying his face in his hands. This is all way too much for him to take in at once. Tony is alive, May is alive, Ned and MJ are at M.I.T, everyone remembers him. Everyone is mourning him. They care about him. They know him. He slides until he’s sitting on the damp ground and holds his head in his hands. There’s no way he can stay here. There’s too much at risk. There’s too much temptation.
“Thirty seconds,” He whispers to himself, then he squeezes his eyes shut and slowly counts to thirty as he forces himself to breathe evenly. “Thirty seconds and then I need a plan.”
When his thirty seconds are up he gets back to his feet and stands up straight. He’s managed to live for seven months like a shadow in his universe. He can manage one day in this one. Doctor Strange’s house is pretty memorable so he’s sure that once he makes his way to Greenwich village he’ll be able to locate it, but first, he needs to do one thing. Just one quick thing. Because he’d given up everything to make sure Ned and MJ could make it into M.I.T without his secret identities ruining it for them and he sure as hell wasn’t going to let them throw it away in this universe.
Peter stands up straight and takes four deep even breaths, and then heads out towards Hell’s kitchen.