Chapter 26

A/N: Question's still up guys

Ebony Maw still interrogating Dr. Strange. Dr. Strange is floating horizontally, face down, and is surrounded by dozens of glassy needles, each about two feet long.

"In all the time I've served Thanos, I've never failed him. If I were to reach our rendezvous on Titan with the Time Stone still attached to your vaguely irritating person, there would be... judgment." The needles start to contact Dr. Strange's face, causing an obviously painful whitish subcutaneous glow at each touch. "Give me... the stone."

Cut to Tony who is watching, hidden, from above. The Cloak of Levitation taps him on the arm. He raises his hand to it, ready to shoot, but he sees what it is and stands down.

"Wow you're a seriously loyal piece of outerwear, aren't you?" Tony shakes his head.

"Yeah, uh, speaking of loyalty..." Peter starts, as Tony and the Cloak turn to face Peter and Kat dropping down from above.

"What the-" Tony gasps. 

"I know what you're gonna say," Kat adds.

"You should not be here." Tony says as the Cloak moves to "stand" at Tony's side. 

"I was gonna go home-" Peter starts.

"I don't wanna hear it." Tony raises his hand.

"But it was such a long way down and I just thought about you on the way..." Peter continues.

"And now I gotta hear it." Tony sighs. The Cloak shakes its collar in sympathy and shrugs.

"...And I kinda stuck to the side of the ship. And this suit is ridiculously intuitive, by the way. So if anything, it's kinda your fault that I'm here." Peter finishes. "And it's probably my fault that Kat's here." The Cloak looks shocked.

"What did you just say?" Tony looks up.

"I take that back. And now we're here in space." Peter says.

"Yeah." Tony crosses to stand right in front of Peter. "Right where I don't want you to be. This isn't Coney Island. This isn't a field trip. It's a one-way ticket. You hear me? Don't pretend like you thought this through. You could not have possibly thought this through."

"No. I did think this through." Peter argues.

"You could not have possibly thought this through." Tony shook his head.

"I didn't want to be here, but here I am." Kat adds.

"It's just .. you can't be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man if there's no neighborhood." Peter waits for Tony's reaction. "Okay. That didn't really make any sense, but you know what I'm trying to say."

Tony breaths shakily. "Come on. We got a situation." He leads Peter over to a viewpoint on the torture below. Peter crouches to study the situation, the Cloak leaning over his shoulder. "See him down there? He's in trouble. What's your plan? Go." 

"Um. Okay, okay... uh..." Peter and the Cloak pop back upright. "Okay. Did you ever see this really old movie, Aliens?" The Cloak lifts its collar in surprise.

"No." Kat shake her head.

"Oh, we are so having a movie night once this is over." Peter grins.

"Okay!" Kat giggles.

"Hey, focus kids." Tony snaps in front of them.

"Painful aren't they? They were originally designed for microsurgery. And any one of them..." Ebony Maw trails off,  turning to see Iron Man standing there, hand repulsors ready to fire. "...Could end your friend's life in an instant." 

"I gotta tell you, he's not really my friend. Saving his life is more a professional courtesy." Tony shakes his head.

Ebony Maw walks slowly towards Iron Man, beckoning very large, very solid metal objects to float behind him. "You've saved nothing. Your powers are inconsequential compared to mine."

"Yeah, but the kid's seen more movies." Tony shurgs, and fires a rocket from his shoulder which pierces the side of the ship to Maw's right and begins to suck everything out with depressurization, especially Maw and his large objects. Dr. Strange is pulled loose of his pinnings, loses the needles, but also heads for the hole, helpless to resist. The Cape wraps around his arm and an anchor point, but Dr. Strange's arm slips loose and he keeps going. 

Spider-Man shoots a web strand at Dr. Strange with one hand and holds onto a piece of the ship with the other. It breaks, sending them both towards space when his Iron-Spider suit's metal arms brace him to keep him from being sucked out. Fortunately, Dr. Strange is still surrounded by the ship's atmosphere making haste to leave. Mystic quickly uses her powers to pull the 2 back in slowly, but is pulled off her feet as well.

"Yes! Wait what are those?!" Peter cheers as Kat anchors herself, and slowly pulls them back in. Tony quickly sprays nanites onto the hole to plug it up. Dr. Strange safely, if emphatically, hits the floor. Ebony Maw is seen floating in space, quite dead, ice from the escaped atmosphere frosting over his grimace. Spider-Man lands on his new legs, retracts them, and finds the Cape "standing" next to him.

"Hey, we haven't officially met." Peter offers the Cape his hand to shake. It ignores his offer and continues to Dr. Strange. "Cool." Iron Man walks past Dr. Strange, shaking his head and with his armor retreating into its containment as Dr. Strange gets to his feet and becomes en-Cloaked.

"We've gotta turn this ship around." Strange starts.

"Yeah. Now he wants to run. Great plan." Tony rolls his eyes.

"No, I want to protect the stone." Strange fires back.

Tony walks towards the expansive front view-port, showing a hyper-speed/warp effect.

"And I want you to thank me now. Go ahead, I'm listening." Tony says, annoyed. 

"For what? Nearly blasting me into space?" Strange snarks. 

"Who just saved your magical ass? Me." Tony snaps. 

"I seriously don't know how you fit your head into that helmet." Strange shakes his head.

"Admit it. You should have ducked out when I told you to. I tried to bench you. You refused." Tony growls. 

"Unlike everyone else in your life, I don't work for you." Strange says.

"And due to that fact, we're now in a flying doughnut billions of miles away from Earth with no backup." Tony growls

Peter raises his hand. "I'm backup."

"No. You're a stowaway. Kat is more backup than you, and she didn't even want to be here." Tony waggles a finger between himself and Dr. Strange. "The adults are talking."

Peter looks at Kat and she shrugs.

"I'm sorry, I'm confused as to the relationship here. Wh- what is he, your ward?" Strange points between Tony and Peter.

"Father son." Kat whispers.

"No. I'm Peter, by the way." Peter says.

"Dr. Strange." Strange answers.

"Oh, we're using our made-up names. Um... I'm Spider-Man, then." Peter adds.

"This ship is self-correcting its course. Thing's on autopilot." Tony informs. 

Stephen Strange walks closer to Tony. "Can we control it? Fly us home?" Tony is lost in bad memories and does not respond right away. "Stark?"

"Yeah?" Tony snaps to attention. 

"Can you get us home?" Strange asks. 

"Yeah I heard you. I'm thinking... I'm not so sure we should." Tony starts.

"Under no circumstance can we bring the Time Stone to Thanos. I don't think you quite understand what's at stake here." Strange snaps 

Tony stalks over to Strange. "No. It's you who doesn't understand, that Thanos has been inside my head for six years since he sent an army to New York and now he's back! And I don't know what to do. So I'm not so sure if it's a better plan to fight him on our turf or his but you saw what they did, what they can do. At least on his turf, he's not expecting it. So I say we take the fight to him. Doctor. Do you concur?"

Strange pauses. "Alright, Stark. We go to him. But you have to understand... if it comes to saving you or the kids or the Time Stone... I will not hesitate to let either of you die. I can't because the fate of the universe depends on it." 

"Nice. Good. Moral compass. We're straight." Tony steps over to Peter, he formally taps each of Peter's shoulders with the edge of his hand, dubbing him as is done at a knighting. "Alright, kid. You're an Avenger now." Tony doesn't look at him as he says those words, knowing well what he is signing him up for.

Peter looks at Tony in disbelief, and then cycles through delight, satisfaction, pride and determination, and braces himself for what's to come.

"Congrats man." Kat says.

I SWEAR GUYS! JUST ANSWER THE STUPID QUESTION! ONCE IT GETS TO THE DUSTING, I WILL NOT BE UPDATING UNTIL Y'ALL ANSWER, OKAY?

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