Chapter Text
“Mr. Stark!”
Peter sat bolt upright in bed, hands gripping the sheets tightly. He was drenched in a cold sweat. His eyes darted around fervently. It took a moment for the panic to die down enough for him to realize that he wasn’t on Titan, there weren’t armies surrounding him. He was alone.
He ran a hand down his face and looked over at the clock sitting on the bedside table. The red numbers read an impassive 3:24 am. He sighed and swung his legs out of bed and headed to the kitchen. He turned on the coffee maker and turned to look at the machine that was taking up the majority of the small living room in his apartment.
Since he’d been living alone, he’d ended up with a lot of time alone with his thoughts. That wasn’t always great. His mind kept drifting back to things Peter would rather not think about, such as Tony’s death, May’s death, losing MJ and Ned, and his own death. But one thing his mind kept drifting back to was Beck.
Beck screwed up so many things in Peter’s life after Tony’s death. But he had also planted a seed in Peter’s head about the multiverse. Even if he had been lying about that, after everything he’d done with Strange, he knew without a doubt that parallel universes existed. The other Peters had been amazing, and with everyone he’d ever known now forgetting that Peter even existed, he was feeling more and more lonely and isolated every day.
In the middle of the living room was something that looked like a mini stargate. In fact, he had based the design on the stargate. He hadn’t designed it to have locking chevrons, but it did spin. There was a large ring in the middle which would spin and that should create the field to open the portal. He wasn’t sure if it would work. He heard his coffee maker finish and grabbed his mug of coffee before heading over, taking a sip then setting the mug on the table.
Peter grabbed his suit and slipped out of the sweatpants and t-shirt he was wearing to put it on. He didn’t have the money or space for all the equipment he’d enjoyed while Tony was still around, and even after. Before everyone forgot who he was. But he still had his suit, and the tech in his suit and Karen still worked. He slipped the sweatpants back on over the suit and got back to work.
He quickly lost track of time as he worked on wiring, having Karen double and triple-check his calculations. He’d thrown back on the t-shirt, an old AC/DC shirt he’d gotten at a thrift store because it reminded him of Tony. It felt like the proper work attire while building stuff. He hoped Tony would have been proud of the tech work Peter had done. Even if everything else would have deeply disappointed him.
The sun had already risen by the time Peter stopped and looked at his handiwork.
“Hey Karen. Are all the connections in place?”
“Everything appears to be connected properly,” Karen reported through the suit.
“Great. I think it’s time for a test then. See if this thing will power on.”
“Alright. Be careful Peter. We still aren’t sure how accurate the calculations are.”
“Yeah. I know,” Peter said, going over to the control panel. He flipped the switches, powering it up. The air hummed with electricity. He could feel his hair standing on end under his suit and his Peter tingle started to go off like an itch at the back of his head.
“Readings so far indicate the gate is working,” Karen informed him.
“Ok. Thanks Karen. Let me know when it’s charged.” His hand hovered over the big red button in the middle of the panel. If his calculations were correct, then this should, theoretically, open a gateway to another universe.
Or it could blow out the power for a good section of Queens.
“Gate fully charged.”
Peter pressed the button, excitement coursing through him.
At first, nothing happened. Peter looked at the gate, watching the readout on the electricity through the HUD in his suit. It seemed to drop to near 0 very quickly. He felt his hope fade as it seemed the machine hadn’t worked.
Then several things happened all at once.
The electricity all surged back rather quickly with an electrical hum building to a loud buzz. The ring spun, going faster and faster. It started sparking as it did. Most of the sparks were in the middle of the gate where the portal should be, though some flew off in other directions. The lights dimmed and flickered around him.
“Peter, I would advise moving back from the gate.”
Peter probably should have. There was electricity arcing wildly around him. Not to mention that his Peter tingle was going off like crazy. But Peter’s excitement and curiosity got the better of him. He couldn’t look away as a ball of electricity started forming in the middle of the gate. The electricity was rising as it fed into the ball, slowly growing it. As it was becoming the size of a basketball Peter thought he could see something in the middle of the ball.
“Peter. I would highly suggest moving away from the gate.”
“Karen, do you see that? In the middle there. That’s something, right?”
“Peter, the electricity is reaching dangerous levels. If a stray bolt should hit you-”
Karen didn’t get to finish her sentence as a stray bolt shot out from the center of the ball and hit Peter directly in the chest. He gasped, gripping the consul in front of him. He tried to move but found he couldn’t. He looked down, his HUD scrambling from the electricity coursing through him and the suit. The bolt he’d seen jump out at him appeared to have attached itself to his chest. His head was screaming at him to run, his whole body felt like it was on fire.
Peter tried to move, only to find his body wouldn’t respond to him. He felt panic grip his chest, tightening like a crushing weight around him. He tried to force his arms and legs to respond to him. He managed to push himself up off the consul, only to immediately fall to the ground. He gasped, trying to take in air. He could feel his diaphragm spasming, along with about half of his body, as the electricity arched through him. He could feel his irregular heartbeat echoing through his ears.
The sound of electricity grew louder. It seemed like all Peter could hear was the sound of his own heart trying to beat and the roar of the electricity from the machine. He couldn’t properly see what was going on around him. He was spasming too much to focus, and the light was too bright. Not to mention his HUD was having a seizure as well.
Then suddenly, everything stopped.
Peter’s head swam. Everything hurt. He could still feel the residual electricity flickering through his body. Slowly, Peter untensed his muscles, closing his eyes and letting his head rest on the cold floor he was laying on. He slowly got his breathing under control. His heart began to beat normally again.
Once his body stopped screaming at him, with only an underlying Peter tingle left, he opened his eyes to take stock of what had happened.
As he blinked to clear his eyes, he began to see a grey sky above him, framed by the sides of two dark buildings. Evidently, Peter was no longer in his apartment. Where he was though, Peter had no idea.
He slowly started to become more aware of his surroundings. The ground he was laying on was cold and hard and, as Peter was beginning to realize, wet. He groaned, pushing himself up to sit and looking around. He was sitting in the middle of an alley, half in a puddle.
The air smelled weird. It was full of smog and pollution, which wasn’t new to Peter being from New York City, but it was different. There was more of it than there should have been. And it didn’t smell like normal New York smog. Peter carefully got up.
“Hey Karen, where are we?” Peter asked. There was no response.
“Karen?” There was a desperate edge to his voice this time. Something must have happened to her after he got zapped. He hoped she hadn’t gotten fried. Since everyone else forgot about Peter, Karen was the only sort of friend he had. He couldn’t lose her. He just hoped the damage wasn’t irreparable.
Peter decided that he needed to see where he was. He shot a web at the top of a nearby building, saying a silent prayer when his web shooters still worked. It was mere seconds before he was at the top and looking out over the city around him.
Nothing looked familiar. Peter knew the skyline of New York, probably better than anyone else, and this wasn’t it. The buildings here were foreign. He couldn’t see any of the landmarks. No Empire State Building, no One World Trade Center, no Stark Tower, nothing. He could feel the panic rising back in his chest as he looked around. Some big sign on one of the buildings said “WAYNE” in all red letters. As he looked around, he thought he could see the name repeated on more buildings.
Peter was scared as panic welled up in him. He felt like he was suffocating. He reached up and clawed off the mask, gasping in air. It appeared his machine had done something. But it might have also left Peter in a much worse position than he’d already been in.