In Queens, New York, the door to a small bedroom opened and a tired teenager walked inside carrying his school bag.
The room itself was fairly ordinary. Textbooks were stacked on a desk near the window. School assignments were scattered beside a half-disassembled science project.
On the walls were several posters, including one of Tony Stark and another of Luke during the Battle of New York back in 2012.
Peter Parker tossed his bag onto the floor and was about to start his homework when a voice suddenly came from the middle of the room.
"Hmmm. Your room is a lot more normal than I expected."
Peter froze. His spider-sense didn't react. That was the first alarming thing. The second was that there was suddenly a person standing in his bedroom.
He looked up. Standing near his desk was Luke, casually looking around the room as if he owned the place.
"You even have a poster of me." His eyes lingered on it. "Come to think of it, I really don't make many public appearances."
Peter's brain practically stopped functioning. He stared at Luke, then at the poster, then back at Luke. His eye twitched. For several seconds his mind completely failed to process what he was seeing.
Luke noticed immediately. "You seem shocked."
Peter remained frozen.
"Is it because a strange man suddenly appeared in your bedroom, or is it something else?"
That finally snapped Peter out of it. He stepped backward and shut the bedroom door behind him, his school bag slipping from his hand and landing on the floor with a thud.
"You..." He pointed toward Luke. "You are..." His voice failed him.
"I'm Luke." He shrugged. "You should already know my name."
Peter continued staring. Luke wasn't just famous. He was Luke. One of the most powerful beings on Earth. The man who had fought during the Chitauri invasion.
The man surrounded by enough rumors and conspiracy theories to fill entire sections of the internet. The man who rarely appeared in public and somehow became even more mysterious because of it.
"You are actually real."
"That's usually how existing works."
Peter ignored the comment entirely, his mind already racing. "How did you get into my room?"
Luke glanced at the closed window, then the locked door, then back at Peter. "I walked in."
Peter stared at him.
"I mean, shouldn't you be getting suspicious instead of wondering why I'm here, Spider-Man?" Luke said as he opened the closet and pulled out a homemade Spider-Man suit. He held it up and examined it.
"Hmmm. This suit is really crude."
Peter's eyes widened. He immediately lunged forward and snatched the suit from Luke's hands. "I don't know what Spider-Man you're talking about."
He shoved it behind his back. "I'm just a fan. That's why I have the suit."
Luke simply smiled. That somehow felt worse than being accused directly. "No need to hide it, Peter. I know you're Spider-Man. I know how you got your powers."
Peter froze. Then his spider-sense activated — a sharp warning spreading through his body, every muscle tensing instinctively, eyes locking onto Luke.
The sensation wasn't weak. His instincts were practically screaming at him. He subtly shifted his footing. Was his spider-sense warning him about Luke?
Luke noticed the reaction. "Hmmm." He looked mildly interested. "It seems your spider-sense is working as fine as ever."
Peter didn't relax. "Wait." His eyes narrowed. "Are you the reason it's going crazy right now?"
"No."
"No?"
"I'm not the thing it's warning you about. Currently there is an accident happening in the multiverse."
Before Luke could continue, Peter immediately interrupted.
"Multiverse? As in the theory of infinite universes where different actions, different choices, and different events create different realities?" He stepped forward.
"Are you saying the multiverse is actually real?"
Luke stared at him for a moment. "Yes."
Peter's eyes widened even further. "So there are alternate Earths? Different histories? Wait, does that mean there are universes where I'm not Spider-Man? Are there universes with multiple Spider-Men? Can different universes collide? Can people travel between them?"
Luke rubbed his forehead. As expected. No matter the universe, no matter the timeline, every Spider-Man seemed physically incapable of hearing the word multiverse without immediately asking twenty questions.
Peter finally stopped when he noticed Luke staring at him. "What?"
"Nothing." Luke shook his head. "I'm just confirming another multiversal constant."
"What constant?"
Luke looked at him with a completely straight face. "Every Spider-Man has a big mouth."
"But let's talk about that some other time. Currently you should be expecting some sort of pull," Luke said.
He could already see the effects of the broken spell spreading through the Web of Life and Destiny.
The spell cast by Doctor Strange wasn't confined to a single universe anymore — it was acting like a beacon, pulling together people connected through Spider-Man's existence across different realities.
And unfortunately for Peter, he happened to be Spider-Man.
"Ummm... no?"
Luke looked at him. Peter looked back. Nothing happened. For several seconds both remained completely still.
Then Peter suddenly disappeared.
Luke blinked. The spot where Peter had been standing was now empty. There wasn't even a flash of light. One moment Peter Parker was there. The next moment he wasn't.
"Yep."
*****
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