In the mirror dimension, near where Jack and Peter had been standing, someone had been watching them the whole time.
"It has been many years since then, Jack Walker," a bald woman spoke to a man who looked like Jack — but older. More mature.
"Yes, Ancient One. Thank you for the help this time. Without it, a new parallel world would have been created."
"Didn't I already warn you — if you play with time, time will play with you," the Ancient One said, her voice perfectly calm.
Hearing that, Jack felt embarrassed. Last time he'd promised her confidently that he would be careful, but this time a criminal from the future had used a time machine to come back and kill his past self. Thankfully, he'd found and stopped him quickly — otherwise it would have been a disaster.
"I will be careful with it," Jack promised again, a little sheepish.
She didn't respond to that. She simply watched his past self and the group leave the area in silence.
"Then I'll take my leave, Ancient One. Since I came here unannounced, I should return soon before they notice and make a scene," future Jack told her.
"Hope you don't forget what you promised."
Jack nodded, then activated a blue time portal from his suit, a small cube in his other hand. Inside the cube, if you looked closely, was a small creature — the villain he'd captured. With a small smile, he stepped through the portal as it closed behind him.
Watching future Jack leave, the Ancient One stepped through her own magic portal and was gone.
On the other side, future Jack arrived in an advanced city where most people were wearing suits similar to his own. It was filled with aliens from different planets — this was the city he had built to operate as the main headquarters for the Plumbers organization, and it had grown much bigger than he'd ever imagined.
As he walked through the streets, everyone he passed showed him respect, their faces easy and content.
He stepped inside his place and stopped.
A mature Gwen was scolding a kid in the corner.
"How many times have I told you not to play with the equipment? And now you've stolen the time machine and lost it?"
"How was I supposed to know someone would steal it from me? I just wanted to see a past scene on Earth without affecting anything," a small twelve-year-old girl who looked just like a younger Gwen complained back.
Then she spotted Jack, and her whole expression changed. She ran straight toward him.
"How's my little angel?"
"Dad, tell your wife to stop complaining all the time," she said, latching onto him.
"Jack, why couldn't I contact you?" Gwen said, turning to him. "Your daughter stole the time machine and lost it."
"Don't worry — I already caught the one who took it from her." He held up the small cube.
Seeing the person who'd stolen it from her now trapped inside, the little girl's eyes lit up. She grabbed the cube.
"You little villain — how dare you steal from me while I was playing?" She shook the cube hard, the figure inside tumbling around.
"Easy, easy — give that here," Jack said, taking it back from her gently.
Gwen looked at the girl, unamused. "You're grounded. No leaving your room until your homework is finished. Go."
The girl looked at Jack with hopeful eyes. Jack stayed quiet. She sighed and headed out, calling back as she went, "Bye, Dad — we can play together after I'm done."
He watched them go, then looked down at the cube in his hand.
"I think it's time I threw you into the Null Void," he said quietly to the figure inside.
Back in 2008
After dropping Ben and Peter home, Jack headed back to his place. He was in a good mood — after saving Ben, the system had given him 500 points. Five hundred in one go. He hadn't expected that much, but it made sense. Ben being alive clearly mattered more to the Spider-Man story than he'd thought.
[New Alien Unlock at: 600 Heroic Points]
[Heroic Points Available: 1,000 Points]
"Okay, system — unlock the next alien," Jack instructed.
[New Hero Unlocked: Galvanic Mechamorph]
[Points Remaining: 400]
[Next Hero Unlocked at: 800 Points]
Seeing the new alien available on the Omnitrix, he felt a rush of excitement.
"It's Upgrade. System, give me the details."
Species Identified: Galvanic Mechamorph (Origin: Galvan B)
Core Ability: Assimilate, control, and enhance technological systems
Passive Traits: Self-repair, adaptive restructuring, liquid-metal morphology
Active Skills: Tech override, weapon amplification, system-wide control Limitation Warning: Reduced efficiency without technological interface
"This is a seriously overpowered alien. I can't wait to see how it works here," Jack muttered, already pressing the dial.
"Upgrade."
The black and green alien form rose from where Jack had been standing, filling the room.
"Wow. This is something else." He could feel it immediately — electrical signals, Wi-Fi, faint pulses from nearby devices, all of it registering like a second sense. He spotted his laptop on the table, shifted into a liquid state, and flowed straight into it.
Inside, the laptop transformed — black and green lines spreading across every surface like veins.
The screen lit up on its own as he moved through it, stepping into what felt like an open digital space. And there, in the middle of it all, was a small figure.
"Master — you can enter here?" Red Queen looked genuinely surprised.
"It's me, Red Queen. Did I catch you off guard?"
"Yes, Master."
He spent the next few minutes optimizing the system from the inside — performance, processing speed, response time. By the time he was done, the laptop was running faster than anything he could have bought, and he had a dozen new ideas already forming.
"Red Queen, you have Natasha's contact, right?"
"Yes, Master."
"Contact her and tell her to arrange a small jet to Afghanistan tomorrow. I'm free to go save the billionaire."
"Yes, Master."
He stepped back out and spent the remaining time testing Upgrade on different gadgets around the room — and then on the suit itself. The results were above anything he'd expected.
With Grey Matter handling the design work and Upgrade doing the actual modifications, I could push the suit to a completely different level. Just need time.
The fifteen-minute limit ran out, and he shifted back to normal.
"This time limit is really a problem," he muttered, flexing his hand. "But once I sort the suit out, the one-minute cooldown should be manageable."
"Master, I contacted Natasha — but she's insisting on coming with us to save Stark. I tried to steer her away from the idea, but she wouldn't let it go."
Jack thought about it for a moment.
"Fine. Tell her she can come — but she follows my lead." It didn't change much anyway. He was already on SHIELD's radar, so Natasha being there hardly made a difference. "Are they trying to track you?"
"Yes, Master. They seem to think their technology is good enough to find this address." She said it with a noticeable edge of pride. "Foolish."
"Stay careful. Don't let them find this place."
"No problem, Master. With me here, they won't find a thing."
On the other side of the city, inside SHIELD headquarters, a team of software analysts had been at it for hours.
"You still can't find it?"
"Sorry, sir. Whoever's running their system is routing through different IP addresses from different countries every few minutes. We can't pin it down."
Nick Fury stood behind them, listening. Hearing that it was still impossible to find, he said nothing — but the thought was there. He'd spent a lot of money hiring these people, and so far they had nothing to show for it.
A/N:
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