"How do you know my name?" Spiderman said, unable to keep the surprise out of his voice, resisting the urge to fidget as he met the gaze of this powerful woman.
"You told me," She said, suddenly holding a cup of tea.
"What?" Peter's voice asked through his earpiece while the woman sipped on her tea. "You told this random woman but only just told us today?"
"I didn't tell you anything, I've never met you," Spiderman replied confusedly.
"Not yet, you haven't," She confirmed with a smile, Spiderman was about to respond when he caught onto her words. He stared at her with wide eyes, frozen for a moment before he gathered his thoughts and stared intently at her.
"Not yet?" He asked curiously. "Are you talking about time travel?"
"Not necessarily," She said, vanishing the cup away before leaning back in her chair. "Do you see this?" She asked, gesturing to a necklace around her neck which held what appeared to be a golden pendent that had an exact design of the symbol that was on the building, except there was a glowing green circle behind the lines. "This is a special magical artefact of mine, it is known as the 'Eye of Agamotto', it is a powerful relic that was created by Agamotto, the first Sorcerer Supreme."
"Sorcerer Supreme?" He blinked.
"Yes, I am the current one," She explained patiently. "Master of the mystic arts and charged with protecting Earth from various different threats, specifically the ones that are magical in nature. I am referred to as 'The Ancient One',"
"You don't look that old," He responded, she wasn't the youngest person around but she was hardly ancient.
"You shouldn't comment on a woman's age, Harold," She smirked.
"Compliments are the exception," He replied easily. "Now, you were saying?"
"Now, this device is not a time-turner like the ones in your world. In fact, it is actually one of six remnants of a singularity that predated the universe, representing the element of time. This artefact gives its owner control of time, including allowing me to see many different possible futures."
"That seems like a lot of power," He said uneasily, causing the woman to chuckle for some reason.
"Every version of you I've met has expressed that same concern," She explained with a pleased smile. "Worry not, it is only ever used in emergencies and extreme situations, or when dealing with dangerous individuals." She gestured to him. He frowned, unsure if he should feel flattered about her calling him dangerous. "You see, I keep a watch list of potential threats to this world, and you are on that list. Not really at the top, but I could see you making your way up."
"Oh...um...thanks," He said awkwardly. "I don't really know if I would consider myself a threat to the entire world."
"You're not, not right now anyway," She agreed. "Though there is no denying that you have the potential to be one. I think, Harry or Spiderman if you prefer, that you are far more dangerous than you realise. If you truly wanted to be a threat then you would be one of the greatest that this world has ever seen." She said solemnly before suddenly smiling at him. "Anyway, you're likely wondering why I contacted you."
"That thought did cross my mind," He admitted. He wasn't really sure that this woman was all too right in her head, he certainly didn't see himself as a world-destroying threat.
"I have need of your help," She explained. "As I have said, part of my job is to deal with threats to this planet and right now I currently have a threat that I need to deal with."
"Oh...well...what do you need from me?" He asked. "I'm not really that magical at the moment, truth be told,"
"I am aware of that, and I'm aware of many possible reasons why that is," She replied. "What I am proposing is a simple exchange, you help me with my problem and I help you with your problem, and in the process, we may end up saving several hundred thousand lives, so...win-win as they say."
"With all due respect, how do I know this isn't a trap or trick of some kind?" Spiderman asked. "I know nothing about you."
"I suppose that you'll simply have to make a choice," She replied. "Is your uncertainty worth more to you than the lives of others? Risk your life or risk the possibility that others may die?"
"Well, that's just not fair," Spiderman muttered before standing up. "Alright, but I got my eyes on you. So, where are we..." He blinked as he suddenly found himself standing in a completely different room that appeared to be a library of some kind.
"What the hell?" Gwen's voice echoed in his ear.
"So sorry," The Ancient One's voice called a few meters behind along with the shuffling of paper. "Just need to double-check something,"
"I..." He opened his mouth to speak, only for the room to change again, this time into a display area of some sort. He quickly whipped around and snapped up his wrist, sending a web shot that quickly attached the Ancient One's hand to a black vase of some sort. "Stop that," He said in an annoyed voice. "That's really rude."
"So sorry," She said, looking anything but sorry, with a wave of her free hand the webs vanished. "Take a moment, " She told him before pulling out what looked to be a peacock feather from a collection of feathers in a display case. "I'll be back in two ticks," She said before suddenly vanishing.
"Show off," Harry muttered as he looked around.
"Well, she definitely can do magic, either that or she's got some amazing illusion tech that Mysterio would be proud of," Peter's voice spoke up.
"Are you seriously doubting the existence of magic right now?" Gwen's voice blurted out.
"No, just pointing out a possibility," Peter said defensively.
"Hmm," Spiderman frowned as he looked around. The room appeared to be an artefact room of some sort, holding various different items that Harry could tell were magical items. Some were pinned or hung on walls, others displayed on podiums, and some were in glass cases like this odd-looking cape that appeared to be floating in the air. The items ranged from simple-looking weapons like swords to odd-looking contraptions like the metal skeleton of a cat or even normal-looking things like the black vase from earlier.
"Whoa," Peter spoke up. "Is that Excalibur?!" He blurted out when Spiderman spotted an impressive-looking double-edged sword with silver crossguards, a black handle and a gold pommel.
"Hmm," He leaned forward and read a small inscription on the sword handle. "No, it's not Excalibur, unless that happens to also have been made in Pakistan like this sword."
"Oh," Peter sounded undeniably disappointed while Gwen giggled in the background. Meanwhile, Spiderman continued to walk around the room, staring at the various objects around him. Most of them stayed still, though some did shake or move slightly when he got near them.
"What the..." Spiderman trailed off as he got near a glass case with a weird item displayed in it. Hanging from a web line that was attached to the ceiling of the glass was what appeared to be a large metal-looking spider. The spider was a bright crimson red, from the top it looked like a large red oval with four legs sticking out of each side and what appeared to be two metal fangs sticking out from the top of a circle at the top of the spider, he guessed that that was its head. The spider appeared to have noticed him as it dropped down from the web, landed on all eight legs and stared right up at him, which was hard to do considering that it didn't really have eyes.
"That's kind of cute," Gwen commented.
"He likes you," The Ancient One's voice came up from behind Spiderman, causing him to jump as he turned around and barely stopped himself from elbowing her in the neck.
"Would you stop that? Now, what's that?" He asked, gesturing to the spider in the case.
"One of many magical artefacts that we house, that particular one was from the fifteen hundreds if I remember correctly, discovered in an island near Scotland I believe." She answered. "Now, we should move on and..." The Spider cut her off as he leapt forward and headbutted the glass, shaking it. It stepped back before doing so again, and again.
"Is that normal?" Spiderman couldn't help but ask.
"No, it's not," She admitted with a frown as the glass cracked.
"Shouldn't we do something about this?" He gestured to the damaged glass.
"Yes, yes, you're right," She agreed before waving her hand and opening the glass display.
"That's not exactly what I had in mind," He said dryly as the spider crawled out and looked up at him. "Hello," Spiderman greeted him, warily. "You alright? Hungry?" The spider stepped forward and placed its two front legs on top of his left foot, staring up at him.
"He likes you," The ancient one repeated, looking quite intrigued.
"I have a magnetic personality," Spiderman replied dryly as he knelt to look at the spider. He cautiously extended a hand and slowly placed it on top of the spider, he gave it a gentle stroke and was rewarded with what appeared to be a purring sound. "You like that, huh?" Spiderman asked. The spider stopped purring and looked at him, thanks to his powers he could always understand the general thoughts of each spider, usually those would be wondering about when it would eat or where to make its nest. This one had one particular thought that he was picking up on.
I chose you.
'What am I? A Pokemon?' He wondered just before the spider leapt up and over his head.
"Hey!" Spiderman blurted out as he felt it on his back. "What the...ow!" He hissed as he suddenly experienced what felt like four large needles digging into his back. "What the hell?!" He turned to the Ancient One who stared at him with an odd expression.
"It seems to me that you have a new friend for life," She told him before waving her hand, causing a mirror to appear behind Spiderman who looked back, blinked and then rubbed his eyes through his mask before blinking again. He stared deeply as if what he was seeing was a mirage of some sort. It appeared as if the spider was now merged into his back, he could see it now had four legs that were spread across his back, but he could tell that the four more legs were now in him, a hissing sound followed and soon he couldn't feel the legs inside of him. Had they disappeared? Or could he just no longer feel them?
"What...what is this supposed to do?" He asked her, admittedly feeling more than a bit worried.
"Perhaps we can find out?" She suggested. "If you're ready to help me that is,"
"Help you how?" Spiderman asked, he realised he was asking a lot of questions but he challenged anyone else to be in his position and not ask so many.
"A few days ago, an artefact was discovered to be missing," She revealed. "I've had my people look into and they couldn't find it, though it did coincidentally go missing during the same time as one of my students."
"So what? Do you think he was kidnapped and taken with the artefact? Or was he the one that took the artefact?"
"I'm hoping it was the former, unfortunately, I feel it's likely to be the latter," She admitted disappointedly. "The artefact in question is the 'Wand of Watoomb', a magical artefact created by 'Watoomb'."
"Oh yeah, that guy, I think I saw him on 'Wheel of Fortune' that one time," Spiderman replied sarcastically, earning an amused huff from the Ancient One.
"Watoomb was powerful, to say the least, not much is known about him," She continued. "He was apparently a mortal sorcerer at one point, at least according to some of our historical references. Watoomb is a mystical deity and part of the group known as the 'Octessence'. He created several different magical artefacts and spells that we use. In fact, there are multiple 'Wands of Watoomb', each with different purposes. They are one-foot-long crystalline batons with demonic heads carved on either end. The one in question that was stolen was used to create portals."
"So, to summarise, you've got a missing student at the same time as a missing artefact that can create portals pretty much anywhere, and you want my help." Spiderman hummed. "Fuck it, I can think of worst ways to spend a night."
"Excellent," She said brightly, raising her hands and bringing his attention to a golden double-fingered ring on her right hand, she waved her arm in a circle and suddenly a sparkling, orange portal was created on his right, leading into what appeared to be a dark basement of some sort. "The wand is not the only way to create portals," She smirked before stepping through the portal and staring back at him. "Well, are you coming?" She asked with a smile, he took a moment to snap himself back into reality before stepping in through the portal.
"Do we have a plan?" He asked just before the portal closed behind him. He looked around, there was not much in this room. His super senses allowed him to see easily enough in the dark, there were a couple of shelves stocked with different types of cleaning supplies. There was a washing machine and a tumble dryer, neither of which looked like they had been used, collecting almost twice as much dust as the cleaning supplies.
The rest of the room looked empty, with nothing else worth noticing besides the lightbulb hanging from the ceiling.
"I've tracked his location to this building," She replied as she gestured with her hand, turning the light on, revealing that the walls, ceiling and floor were all the exact same shade of grey. "I can get past most of his defences, but there will be certain ones that I believe will require your unique brand of skills."
"And those would..." He trailed off as he felt the familiar tingle of his spider-sense, he leaned to the side automatically and a metal bird flew past his head, it turned around and screeched at him whilst a dozen more birds suddenly appeared. Each bird was designed to look like a raven and was made of some silver metal.
"Ah, and here we have the first defence," The Ancient One noted with the same tone that a mother would use when suddenly finding the vegetable she wanted in the supermarket.
"Yippe," Spiderman drawled just before the birds charged towards them. He quickly used both webshooters to shoot two out of the air whilst another four got in close, he was about to jump when suddenly four red spider legs shot out from his back and impaled them easily. "Oh...so that's what you do," He realised dumbly, staring at the four legs before glancing towards the Ancient One who had already dispatched the others.
"Hmm," She hummed as she stared at him and his pointy large legs. "Well...that's certainly interesting," She commented before the legs flicked outwards, throwing away the metal birds. A second later the legs retracted back in, but not before one of them waved at her. "Are you controlling them?"
"I didn't know they could do that," He reminded her.
"Oh yes," She said, sounding as if she had genuinely forgotten that this was the first time he had met the spider. "Anyway, let's get on with this."
"Before we do, I'm curious about why you brought me here."
"I told you, I need your help and..."
"Yeah, yeah, that bullshit's nice and all, but if we're being honest, you don't need me that much," He replied, waving off her explanation. "If you and your lot are half as good at magic as you say you are then you don't need my help, why have you really brought me here?"
"I wasn't lying when I said there are some defences here that may require your help," She told him. "However, you are correct in me saying this is not the only reason for bringing you with me. The student we're searching for is important, very important."
"And why's that?"
"When you were born, we sensed it," She explained. "There was a large magical pulse on the day of your birth, we tracked it down to you. I sent two of my people to investigate it, one of them died a month ago, and the other one is somewhere in this building. It's my opinion that if we find him, we may just discover a bit more about you."