Chapter 44: Issue 44: Trials of Merlin Part XV
"No, this is actually pretty familiar. I'm more curious as to where you got that mirror!" Strange replied as he struggled from being imprisoned by his own Red Bands of Cyttorak.
Wong was strung up as well as he struggled to get free. "Oh, this old trinket, it was made from a Carbuncles Gemstone, Merline gave it to me as a gift when he tried courting me. Way back then when he was the Sorcerer Supreme!" The woman spoke with a confident tone.
"You mean you stole from Merlin. He has died Morgan Le Fay, he died a long time ago, why have you returned?" Strange spoke loudly for anyone that might be listening in.
"He died because that pesky Ancient one wouldn't mind her own business. If he had joined me then we would have conquered this world and ushered in an age of untold magic. Now are you going to tell me where the stones are, or am I going to have to torture the truth out of you?" Morgan responded tightening her fist causing the bands around the two to squeeze them to the point of yelling out in pain, "Don't lie to me, I can feel that they're active."
MJ frowned as the two crawled along the roof as quietly as they could. MJ sent him a telepathic message and made Peter's eyes goes wide, "I've learned to turn myself invisible, so I'll look for a chance to grab the mirror."
"Fine, I'll draw her attention." Peter then stood up and stared down at Morgan from the ceiling, he placed his hand over his mouth and coughed, "Excuse me, I want to hire a magician for a birthday party, this is the right place? Right?"
Morgan turned around and looked at Peter, "Oh, what a cute child."
Peter shook as he landed on the ground and stared at her, Morgan was truly a beauty, long black hair, fair white skin, and glowing green eyes, "I don't suppose you could let my friend go?"
Seeing Peter, she felt the energy of the Power Ruby flowing inside his body, figuring out that he was the new rightful owner she smiled and said, "I don't mind as long as you hand over your Magic Stones,"
"I'm sorry but these Magic Stones belong to someone else." Peter covered his crotch, making Morgan's calm smile crack.
"What a foul mouth little boy, perhaps big sister Morgan here should teach you a lesson." A violet stream of magic gathered around her hand, as she pointed it at Peter and said, "Bad children should be punished, for foul language, I think sealing your lips is suitable punishment."
She waved her hand that was surrounded with black and purple energy and smiled, looking at Spider-Man with a smug expression of confidence and said, "Well, little boy, anything you have to say? I bet you can't because I've sealed it shut. But don't worry, your punishment isn't over just yet."
"Yeah, I have something to say. Who the hell do you think you are? First, you say you're after my stones, and now you want to punish me? Lady, you got some serious problems, I'm only 17 and a half, I should report you to the FBI," Peter said while crossing his arms.
Morgan frowned, "Odd, are you immune to Hex Magic."
"I mean, what are you, hundreds of years old? I pretty sure what you're insinuating is illegal."
A violet energy erupted from her palms and shot towards Peter as she said, "Fine, the hard way then!"
He managed to dodge a few of them, but eventually was completely outnumbered. The bolts of energy slammed into Peter sending him flying away.
While he soared through the air, MJ strung out a web and hit the surface of the handheld Mirror, pulling it out of her hands as Peter smashed against the wall and coughed up a mouth full of blood.
"OW!" Peter shouted as he felt the shock run through his entire body.
However, his pain was worth it because a second later, the bands around Doctor Strange unraveled.
MJ jumped down beside Peter and webbed up the Mirror with her organic webbing to seal the magic and asked, "You okay, babe?"
She helped pick Peter out of the wall as the wall-crawler replied, "Peachy. Magic-Lady packs a punch."
They stared down Morgan who clicked her teeth as the room and space they were in returned to normal.
A series of runes appeared around Strange's hands as he said, "Well, the tables turned rather fast now wouldn't you say?"
Morgan smiled, "No matter, even if you destroy me, this body is nothing but an avatar, only a fraction of my power is in it. If you don't hand over my possessions, I'll just keep sending them back to disrupt your lives."
"Hah! You and I both know that you can't possibly breach the void for with many Avatars. To send even one here would take up a phenomenal amount of your energy, and where you are right now, I imagine you don't want to waste too much of it.
"So what? Even a fraction of my power is enough to handle the likes of you," Morgan said as her body started to grow, her clothing ripped as she transformed into a giant fire-breathing dragon.
"Burn!" The dragonized sorceress shouted as a violet flame shot out from her mouth.
Strange placed up a barrier and began to push back while Peter jumped up and webbed her mouth shut with his organic webbing.
She quickly shaped shifted her body to shrink and escape the webs. Once she returned to a humanoid form, she instantly returned to her dragon form and shot magical flames at Peter.
MJ webbed up a net and tried to throw it over Morgan but was hit in the waist by dragon tail and sent flying into the wall.
Just being around an Avatar of Morgan caused their Spider senses to go into overdrive, so it made it almost impossible to predict her moves and doge properly. Thanks to it constantly ringing in their heads, they might as well not have the senses at all. They didn't even want to imagine what it would be like fight her at full power.
Morgan took full advantage of her advantage and attacked the heroes with her centuries of combat experience. She held Peter in place with a series of dark-fire spells and used melee to keep MJ occupied.
However, even without their danger-sense, the two heroes weren't defenseless. By relying on their martial skill and experience to dodge and attack, they were slowly starting to memorize Morgan's attack patterns.
Peter managed to break free and kicked the dragon lady in the leg, knocking her over while MJ fell from above to stomp into her head.
At the same time, Strange sent out his red bands and tried to entrap her. However, both MJ's falling kick and Strange's spell harmlessly ran through what looked like a transparent hologram.
"It's an illusion!" Strange shouted as he felt a bolt of Morgan's powerful magic striking him on the back.
Wong caught him and jumped back beside Spider-Man before saying, "Glad you two made it back. Thanks for the help."
"Yes...the help is much appreciated," Strange barely managed to say as he wiped the blood from his mouth.
"Peter cracked his knuckles and said, "No problem, now what do you think about bringing an ancient legend down."
Spider-Woman looked to the giant dragonized Morgan, "Looks like you have some bad luck, Morgan! Since this is just an Avatar we don't have to worry about killing you."
"For once, we can go all out!" Peter jumped forward and charged towards Morgan.
The evil sorceress laughed as she glared down at them and said, "Foolish child, you think you can match the might of a Dragon!?"
MJ appeared beside her and said, "Who knows? We haven't exactly gone all out since we constantly have to worry about our opponent's lives."
Morgan went to attack her when MJ grabbed her tail, her feet slid across the ground before she managed stop the full force of the blow.
"That wasn't so bad," MJ grinned as she held her in place.
At the same time, Peter jumped up to the roof and leapt from it to punched her on the top of her skull, "Normally I'm against punching ladies, but for you, I'll make an exception."
While she was dazed, Spider-Man and Spider-Woman jumped back and webbed Morgan's body up and pulled her towards them. As the organic webbing made contact the sorceress, her shape shifting power started to wane and caused her to revert back into her human form.
She tried to cast a spell to escape, but it was no use. The Spider-Heroes added more of their webbing to wrap her arms and legs up, piling on the webs with anti-magic properties.
As Peter and MJ pulled her in, they felt the several tones they were lifting suddenly weightless.
As they punched out with all their might, they hit the villain in the stomach, causing a loud cracking noise to echo throughout the room. They looked over to see Morgan's body shattering into a million pieces and fell to the ground like broken glass.
She reformed from the dust and glass shards while shouting, "What naughty children!"
The room began to twist and turn as Strange pulled them into the mirror world. Morgan's body grew until it started to eclipse the size of a high-rise building. She then placed out her hand and sent down a massive ray of world ending magical based energy.
Peter and MJ created a dome of webbing encasing them in a layer of magic protection. With Strange reinforcing it, they managed to hold out, but them Morgan flicker her fingers, causing the webbing and the ground underneath them to be pulled up and launched across the sky.
They tumbled around inside the empty space inside the web-bubble, when suddenly, Peter grabbed Strange and MJ grabbed Wong. Spider-Man then kicked out the bottom of the ground beneath them and flew out the hole alongside Spider-Woman.
Strange hovered next to them and said, "Can you keep her busy while I prepare a banishment spell?"
"Sure, but can't we just destroy her?" Peter asked when his suit lit up during the activation of his power mode.
"I almost forgot about that. I suppose you could." Strange laughed as he turned to Morgan and said, "You're in real trouble now!"
"Impossible! He can use the Power Ruby to its full capacity?!" Morgan started to shake a bit.
Peter then reappeared in front of her and punched her in her giant gut so hard, the blow sent her flying back at Mach speed, destroying anything that she flew through.
He didn't let her off with just a simple punch. While Morgan screamed in pain, he focused the Power Ruby's energy into his Lightning mode and shot a bolt of lightning that would make Thor think he was his illegitimate child.
[Thor: Son?]
"It's a good thing we're in the Mirror world," MJ said as she watched her boyfriend wreaking havoc on a mythological being.
Peter raised his hand and created a ball of fire and lightning energy that exploded over Morgan's body shattering the very fabric of her magic.
As she started to crack and crumble into dust, her Avatar screamed out in vengeance, "I will remember this child! You think yourself worthy of that power, but only I am capable of doing so. A mere novice..."
Peter kicked the image of her away and hovered over the massive star like construct she sank into, "I think I'll handle it just fine."
Snapping his fingers, the miniature star disappeared, and the power mode come to a halt with 30 seconds remaining.
"12 hours until the Power Ruby recharges completely," Webster mentioned as the glow on the back spider dimmed.
MJ jumped into his arms, and shouted, "That was Amazing! I wonder how strong you'll get when you claim ownership of the rest of Merlin's gems."
Strange walked over to him and said, "I agree, I imagine you will be of great help for any future threats to come."
Wong then nodded his head, before saying, "I think it's time to begin the remaining trials, your knowledge of magic is sufficient to not need my teachings anymore, not to say that I couldn't teach you more, because I can. However, since you two have found your own path, I don't wish to interfere with what discoveries you'll make."
Peter and MJ smiled at each other.
"So does this mean we can go back to our lives?" She asked as she looked at Strange with eyes that could make a pouting puppy dog cave in.
"Yes, but remember you are free to come here and ask for advice about anything. My library is open to you both, and just because you've reached the starting line, doesn't mean you get to neglect your studies."
"If you're done, we should head off to the vault, I'm curious to see what the stones have in store for you," Wong commented while walking away.
Strange took them back to the real world and led them towards the magic vault. Peter and MJ stood at the threshold of a large archway and walked through with curious expressions. They peered inside, seeing millions of strange artifacts that were either sealed or placed in a display case with what Peter thought to be some form of magical protection or sealing enchantments all over the items.
As they approached the Merlin Gems, Peter could feel a connection between the Power Ruby on his back. They were like a series of bells that rang on the same frequency, harmonizing in perfect chorus. He started to approach it while he stared in awe at all five of the finely cut stones.
The Time Opal, the Reality Topaz, the Soul Emerald, the Mind Sapphire, and the Space Amethyst, all of them glowed with a mysterious and immense energy. The radiance of the gems only grew brighter the closer Peter got.
As he stood over the Merlin Gems, the first to approach him was the Space Amethyst and Time Opal. For some unknown reason, Peter realized that they both wanted to test him at the same time. They floated in front of the Reality and Soul stones, almost as if they were displaying their order of importance or possibly the order in which they were created.
Strange looked at Peter with a fascinated expression as he said, "Simply place your hand out to accept."
Peter looked to MJ who nodded her head and said, "I'll be right here with you."
As he reached out his hand, he felt himself being pulled into the gems before he was thrown across time and space. Colors blended together, the space around became warped, and then it all cleared up when he suddenly felt his body smash into a table.
Peter quickly jumped up, began looking around, and realized that he was no longer in Strange's Sanctum anymore. However, he was surrounded by a group full of familiar Heroes.
Another Spider-Man was wearing his black suit, Luke Cage was standing next to Jessica Cage who was guarding their baby, Clint was dressed in the Ronin uniform, Maya Lopez standing next to him, Captain America was looking down at him, and Logan were all staring at between the two Spider-Men.
"This isn't where I parked my car!" Peter rubbed the back of his head.
"Clone!" this universe's Spider-Man shouted, when Peter waved his hands.
"No, not a clone, you from a different universe, speaking of different universes which one am I in?"
Everyone was stunned as Peter removed his mask. "See, bit young to be a clone, after all, they wouldn't create a child since they can easily age them to the peak of their maturity would they?"
"Holy crap! Look how young I am!" This Universe's Peter shouted.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone