"The multiverse crisis..."
"You know who I am? But you should be from another universe."
Doctor Strange studied Peter in surprise. His eyes lingered on the Spider suit, which felt both unfamiliar and strangely familiar at the same time.
"You're Spider-Man from another universe?"
Peter nodded. The Spider Full Bottle in his hand turned into a streak of light and vanished back into his system storage.
"I should be Spider-Man from Earth-65. As for whether it's 65A or 65B, I couldn't tell you. The multiverse has a lot of overlap. One event, two different outcomes, and that can branch off into entirely different universes. Right, my name's Peter Parker. I'm another version of him."
Peter pointed at the Dutch kid, who still looked thoroughly confused.
The guy was definitely curious, but the topic had already gone so deep into multiverse theory that he looked completely lost.
"Of course, as the Sorcerer Supreme, you should've been able to sense my arrival, right? Even if he and I don't look alike, our genetic sequence should be identical. And on top of that, I was dragged here by a bizarre magic portal, so there's no way you didn't notice."
That made Doctor Strange shoot a glare at the Dutch kid.
He knew perfectly well why this different Peter had appeared here. It was because this unreliable high schooler had kept rambling and interrupting the spell until the magic went wrong and dragged someone else in.
Strange might have been the one casting the spell, but the Dutch kid absolutely carried a huge share of the blame.
If anything, he probably carried more of it.
Strange frowned and said slowly, "I did sense a kind of incompatibility between you and this universe at first. But now it's gone. What exactly are you? Why is this world accepting you? Your existence feels almost like you were part of this universe from the beginning."
He had never seen anything like it.
For a moment, he had even wondered whether his senses were malfunctioning.
But when he turned to look at the Lizard and Otto, he could still clearly perceive that foreign, out-of-place presence coming off them.
So the problem wasn't his perception.
The problem was Peter.
Peter knew exactly what Strange meant.
It was probably the effect of his dimensional stability. He could be accepted by any Marvel universe, which basically made him a perfectly legal stowaway.
He had already proven that in the parallel universe before.
Everyone else had been affected by the quantum distortion. He was the only one who wasn't. He could stay as long as he wanted.
"I think I'm someone chosen by the multiverse. You noticed it too. I seem to have some kind of universal stability, so even if I appear in your world, the world itself doesn't reject me."
"Chosen by the multiverse?"
Doctor Strange found that very hard to believe.
This self-proclaimed Peter Parker felt completely different from the one standing next to him.
The Dutch kid gave off an entirely different feeling.
From this one, Strange could sense danger.
He tried to find some trace of panic on Peter's face, but since Peter was telling the truth, there was nothing to catch. In the end, Strange simply closed his eyes and began calculating.
The way he started shaking his head and muttering made Peter blink.
"Did he just have a seizure? He isn't about to bite his tongue, is he? We should move before he dies in front of us, because that would be impossible to explain."
"Mr. Strange is calculating the outcome. I've seen him do it once before."
The Dutch kid didn't seem too surprised by the performance. He just stood there and waited.
Three minutes later, both Peter and the Dutch kid were staring in shock.
Doctor Strange still hadn't opened his eyes. Instead, his body started trembling even harder, and smoke actually began rising from his head. It really looked like he was about to bite his tongue.
"You're sure this isn't a seizure?"
"I... I don't know! What do we do?!"
Looking at the panicking Dutch kid, Peter sighed. Of course. When it mattered, he still had to handle it himself.
He strode forward and, without hesitation, smacked Strange across the face hard enough to snap him out of it.
The good news was that it worked.
The bad news was that Strange's face was now badly swollen, which was not a great look.
"Fine. Your fate is extremely strange. According to the original timeline, you were never supposed to become Spider-Man at all. You were supposed to die. But then your fate was changed, and after that I couldn't see the result anymore. Still, there is one thing I can confirm. The multiverse really does seem to acknowledge you."
Doctor Strange was breathing hard. That calculation had cost him an enormous amount of magical energy, and prying into fate had left him sweating all over.
He had never experienced this kind of backlash before.
There was only one explanation.
Peter's destiny was too powerful for him to calculate fully.
But Strange's expression had turned complicated, because he had glimpsed something.
Only a fragment.
But that fragment alone was horrifying.
"If you keep being Spider-Man with this mentality, your universe may eventually suffer an irreversible catastrophe because of you."
"Thanos?"
"No. You. You'll become the disaster of your universe. I can't see why."
Strange looked at Peter gravely, stayed silent for a moment, then continued.
"You'll become entangled with countless versions of yourself. And... be careful of Doctor Strange."
That was somehow even more confusing.
What was that supposed to mean?
Be careful of Doctor Strange?
He was Doctor Strange.
The Dutch kid looked lost.
Peter looked even more lost.
What kind of warning was that?
One second he was saying Peter would become the root of some universe-ending disaster. Then he was saying Peter would become entangled with countless other versions of himself. Then he told him to be careful of Doctor Strange.
None of it flowed together.
And Peter had never once said he wanted to destroy a universe.
He just wanted to be an antihero and do what he wanted.
Who woke up one day and thought, You know what, maybe I should destroy the Earth for fun?
That was either insanity or a deep shortage of affection growing up.
"Got it. I'll keep it in mind."
"But first, let me explain the kind of danger that happens when universes start overlapping."
"I've crossed into another universe before. There were a lot of Spider-Men there too, and like me, they all came from different universes. When a being that doesn't belong to a universe appears inside it, the universe itself starts rejecting them. If it gets severe enough, that timeline can collapse completely."
"That's the multiverse crisis. The multiverse is supposed to exist in parallel, without direct overlap. Unless you're acknowledged by the multiverse itself or possess the right kind of power, forcing interference only leads to collapse."
"Sure, one main timeline can have countless branches. If one branch disappears, a few more will form somewhere else. That might not matter to the multiverse as a whole. But to the people in that specific universe, it's a catastrophe, isn't it?"
Peter laid out everything he knew.
He mixed in a few of his own guesses too. He didn't have hard proof for all of it, but it should be close enough.
Hopefully it would at least give this universe's Doctor Strange a useful lead.
(End of Chapter)
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