The crime emperor grabbed the parachute pack and stumbled into Manhattan's night, blazing like a firestorm. He popped the canopy—only to find the fabric had been dusted with glowing powder by Skyl, shining with a bright, eerie blue. Tense cops mistook it for a rocket, and he immediately drew concentrated fire.
The wild volley turned Kingpin's legs into Swiss cheese. He even took several 9mm rounds in the rear. Screaming, he crash-landed onto a nearby apartment building, smashed through someone's window, and vanished into the chaos of shouting voices.
Kingpin got away. He wouldn't accept a humiliation like this, and by the standard operating procedure of Marvel villains, he'd definitely find a way to come back swinging.
Even without his nest, Kingpin's influence still spread worldwide. The roots of his evil hadn't been cut fatally. He was still the East Coast's underworld ruler, the kind of man who could raise a hundred hands with one call.
But he was going to lose everything soon. The more he fought back, the more he would lose—until he was lower than dust.
Skyl withdrew his gaze and looked up at Gali, straining to hold billions of tons of earth suspended in midair. The fact that the timid daughter of a cosmic god had shown up here surprised him—though this was very much a case of good intentions making everything worse.
Half of New York could see the chunk of city that had been ripped up into the air. What Gali had done was more terrifying than launching thirty thousand nukes. If she let go and that much mass dropped, it would trigger a quake easily on the level of a magnitude seven.
In this pre-Avengers era, New Yorkers weren't used to anything like this. After the Chitauri invasion, people would learn to act like it was just another Tuesday. But tonight, Manhattan was full of screams, and fear spread like smoke.
Skyl flew higher—
And saw the Ancient One had already arrived, confronting Gali. A powerful extraterrestrial life-form appearing on Earth with zero warning was enough to make even the Sorcerer Supreme break into a cold sweat.
Gali's cheeks were red from holding the strain. Faced with the Ancient One's questioning, she didn't even have the breath to answer. Worse, she thought the Ancient One was hostile—and she'd already decided whether she was going to fight or run.
"Don't let go!" the Ancient One shouted. "Hold on!"
"D-don't… come closer." Gali freed one hand and pointed at the Ancient One, and the floating mass below them trembled violently. People in the streets panicked. Air-raid sirens screamed across the city. Helicopters climbed to the right altitude, and their spotlights finally caught the two figures suspended in the sky.
Reporters, thrilled in the way only disaster-loving cameras could be, excitedly broadcast the spectacle. They even slapped a nickname on Gali—the "One-Hand Supergirl," the woman lifting a skyscraper like it weighed nothing.
Skyl's voice cut through the stiff standoff. "Gali. It's me. Don't let go."
"Skyl!"
Gali looked around and spotted him in the southwest—just a lean figure drifting in the night. Skyl stood on a visible spiral of wind, holding the Book of Mora, chanting a spell under his breath.
He kept casting while also using a sending spell to speak to them.
"Ancient One, that girl is Gali—Galactus's daughter, and my friend's granddaughter."
The Ancient One's expression eased. "I brought the Eye of Agamotto. If things spiral out of control, I'll reverse time. So go ahead—do what you need to do."
Skyl nodded. After about half a minute of chanting, he completed the spell. The Book of Mora flared with ghostly light as he borrowed a demon-god's power to cast a high-tier spell far beyond his own normal capacity. That wasn't typical for a wizard his age—his knowledge and willpower were abnormal.
"[Supreme Polymorph]."
The base of the floating structure suddenly came alive. Thousands of petrified stone tendrils—each hundreds of feet long—unfurled from beneath it, stabbed down into the shaft below, and spread outward, becoming load-bearing supports. The ground thundered. Streets buckled as enormous stone limbs forced their way into the earth. In front of a spell like this, people and traffic truly were no different from ants.
When the shaking finally stopped, the formerly floating building had grown a solid foundation of its own. It stood firmly on the surface now—an absurd landmark, taller than the Empire State Building.
Skyl's magic had effectively and permanently altered the landscape. Superstitious New Yorkers started praying on the spot. A news anchor, babbling incoherently, dropped to his knees inside the helicopter and frantically made the sign of the cross.
"Gali, you're good. You can let go."
Gali released her grip slowly. The blue energy column vanished instantly. The building gave a soft shudder, sprinkled loose dust and dirt, and then stabilized.
By now, thousands of Spider-Men had restrained everyone inside— including the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who had tried to infiltrate for a rescue, Hawkeye and Black Widow. They'd been treated like criminals and webbed up right along with the rest.
Brave officers entered to search the building and found nothing but criminals trussed up in webbing—no immediate danger at all. They began escorting the gangsters out in an orderly line. For a while, the prisons were going to be overflowing.
Mission accomplished. The Spider-Men's pay had already been delivered in advance. Skyl opened a portal, and the civilian heroes from countless parallel worlds waved goodbye and headed home one by one.
The Ancient One shook her head and sighed. She believed Skyl's method was messing with the balance of the multiverse. But she couldn't exactly put a leash on Skyl. If Skyl went to Eternity and complained, the Ancient One would be the one suffering for it. So the Sorcerer Supreme decided to practice the ancient art of pretending she hadn't seen anything—opened a portal back to Kamar-Taj, and went to drink tea.
Skyl stayed by the portal and counted heads. By the end, he was still short a few Spider-Men—mostly the animal ones. They were especially mischievous, and he had to go hunting for them personally: Spider-Cat, Spider-Pig, Spider-Crocodile… who even knew why the multiverse allowed something like that.
In the end, one Spider-Man still remained by the portal, unwilling to leave.
It was the Amazing Spider-Man—the Andrew Garfield version. When Skyl found him, that Peter Parker had already lived through Gwen's death. Skyl hadn't bribed him with gold. He'd convinced him with a single sentence:
Want to see Gwen one more time?
Now they stood on the rooftop. The portal beside them led back to his universe. Skyl lingered at the edge of it, looking a bit like the ferryman of the Styx—because one step through that doorway meant a kind of separation that felt like life and death.
Gwen, the student, had an excellent impression of these brave, kind superheroes. Under normal circumstances, if she'd met any of them on the street, she wouldn't have minded sitting down in a coffee shop and having a pleasant, magical afternoon. But right now, she only wanted to go home. Her father was out in the streets, begging God to let his daughter return safely.
The Amazing Spider-Man stopped Gwen. He clearly wanted to say something, but the words wouldn't come.
Gwen's eyes reflected the terrified city tonight—the world in chaos looked like fireworks after a long separation. She looked at Peter with a sympathy and curiosity that was hard to pin down.
"I heard your girlfriend… the me from your world… died." Gwen swallowed. "I'm sorry, sir."
Peter cautiously lifted a hand as if he wanted to touch Gwen's face, but she flinched away.
"Sorry, Gwen. I can't. I just… I still haven't accepted it." His voice shook. "Where do you go to school?"
"Midtown High."
"Okay. That's good. I went there too. In that world."
"I'm a senior. What about you?"
"I already graduated." Behind the mask, Peter sounded like he was choking on grief. "You're amazing. Listen to me. After you graduate, apply to Oxford. It'll suit you there. Go to England."
"Thank you." Gwen hesitated. "So… if there's nothing else, can I go?"
"Yes. Goodbye." Peter paused. "I can take you down. Is that okay?"
"Uh… sure?" Gwen agreed, a little nervous. Then she climbed onto Peter's back.
They jumped from the edge of the rooftop.
Gwen rode the Spider-Express again, and the rush of the rapid drop dragged a bright, surprised laugh out of her.
Skyl and Gali stood off to the side like two third wheels for a long while.
"This is nice," Skyl murmured.
Gali clutched her stomach. "I'm hungry, Skyl. Let's go get a late-night snack. I want a huge bowl of meatball soup."
"Wait a bit."
Peter delivered Gwen to her father. Seeing them reunited eased something inside him—an ache that had lived in his bones. Gwen and her father were both people he'd watched die once. The scene in front of him had only existed in his dreams.
Peter returned to the rooftop, and Skyl told him, "Time to go back, Spider-Man."
"Can I stay here?"
"You can."
Peter went rigid. That answer was completely unexpected. "I thought you wouldn't agree."
"Do I look like some rule-bound, ordinary wizard?" Skyl smiled. "I don't care what consequences it causes to keep you in this universe."
Peter fell silent for a long time. In the background, Gali kept complaining, "So hungry, so hungry, I'm really so hungry…"
"No… forget it." Peter finally said. "I have to go back. I want to stay, but my world needs Spider-Man."
Skyl chuckled softly. That sense of duty was what made Peter Parker the one and only Spider-Man. "My respects, friendly neighborhood hero… though honestly, there's a way to get the best of both worlds…"
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