Expect Disappointment, But Hold Onto Hope

Chapter 5

A/N: WHOA, GUYS, I'M SO PROUD OF MYSELF FOR ACTUALLY COMING BACK TO FINISH THIS! 😂 It's taken me...many months to write this chapter, but...yeah we're gonna ignore that hehe. This is definitely not my best writing, but hey, it's over 1000 words, so I guess it's either good and short or long and...less good? I don't know, but enjoy! I'm writing Chapter 6 right now! 😁

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the writing itself.

Warnings: None (I don't think, but if there are any warnings I should add, just comment).

"So, um, what now?" MJ asked tentatively.

"I…was hoping you would know," Peter shrugged.

"Oh. Okay," she mumbled. "Well, I guess we go get a wizard?"

"Strange," Peter said, nodding to himself.

"We don't know magic, Peter, so what's so strange about needing a wizard to use magic?" Michelle replied, rolling her eyes.

"No, no, no. I mean like Doctor  Strange. W-we need to get Doctor Strange,” Peter stammered.

MJ sighed and nodded while picking at her newly painted nails.

“Hey, MJ, what is it?” Peter said softly.

“No, it’s nothing,” she mumbled. “But, um, isn’t he the guy who made all of us…”

Peter shut his eyes for a brief moment and took a deep breath. “Yeah, well he also saved the multiverse right?”

“If saving the multiverse includes hurting us, then maybe we shouldn’t-”

“Not everything is about us, Michelle. I get that you wouldn’t know that, but there are bigger problems,” Peter snapped.

MJ bit her lip, taken aback. She nodded wordlessly, causing Peter to immediately regret the words that had come out of his mouth moments before. Sometimes he really hated himself -- why was he acting like any of this was her fault?

"Em, I'm sorry, I-I don't know why I-"

"It's…fine. I get it, you're stressed out because you think you have to do this all on your own. That's always been your problem, Peter. You have to know that no matter what happens, you've always got me, okay?"

Peter stared straight into her sincere, solemn eyes. Maybe he didn't want to always have her stuck in the middle of all these dangerous situations. Maybe he didn't want her help. Maybe, deep down, he didn't want her to remember.

Thankfully, before he said anything he’d regret, the sounds of stomping reverberated down the cracked stairs and into the "wizard's dungeon".

"Parker."

"Strange," Peter said, a small, fond smile playing on his lips.

"What's going on?" Strange groaned. "How do you manage to make another mess so soon?"

"Gee, it's so nice to see you too! Life's been kinda decent, thanks,” Peter quipped; Strange rolled his eyes and smoothed his already oddly neat hair. "But I don't know, okay? If anything, your spell messed this up."

"Are you blaming this on me?" Honestly, he really reminded Peter of Mr. Stark sometimes.

"N-no, but-"

“Well now you’re making me fix another one of your problems,” Strange grumbled.

“What,” MJ suddenly cut in, “like you ‘fixed’ the multiverse after you screwed it up?”

“I didn’t ‘screw it up’, your boyfriend did!”

“My boyfriend was just trying to live his life and do some good, and you had to get all your magic involved and ruin that spell that was supposed to make our lives have some semblance of normal-”

“Wait, I’m still your boyfriend?” Peter unhelpfully (but very happily) interjected.

She looked a little unsure, but smoothly replied, "yeah, of course, why wouldn't you-"

“Enough,” Strange demanded, “both of you. I’m sorry about this crazy, magical rollercoaster that you’ve both been on, but I can’t do anything about it. All we can do is get the…octopus man back to his universe and make sure nobody else comes back through.”

“And there’s a magic way to do that, right? No more life-threatening danger for me and Peter?” MJ asked hopefully.

Peter shot her a look of “do you really believe that could ever happen”, and she shrugged with that same disinterested look, tightening her puffy ponytail.

…

“Okay, so what’s the plan? Ooh, do I get that cool magic webshooter thing again? That was so cool.”

“It was definitely not cool, it was freaky! You were just like thwip, thwip, thwip, and then a tree came through-”

Strange let out a sigh and rolled his eyes. “First, where’s that wizar- uh, I mean where’s your friend?”

“Ned?” MJ narrowed her eyes in confusion. “Why?”

“Parker, tell her to do what I say or I’ll put her in the octopus’ universe.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s against the law,” Peter said, wincing as he pulled on a shirt MJ had tossed him.

Michelle huffed at Strange’s behavior, and she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“Where’s Ned?” Stephen repeated.

"He doesn't remember," Peter muttered.

Strange didn't acknowledge that any further.

"Are we gonna come up with a plan or not?" MJ whined impatiently.

Peter just groaned at their obvious lack of cooperation while Strange glared daggers into the back of Michelle's head.

"Okay, here's an idea, why don't we just go at it?" Peter eventually suggested. "Strange and I just find Doc Ock and-"

"Doc Ock?"

"Why does everyone think it's so weird that I call him that? He's literally a doctor who's an octopus."

"Peter, just ignore the negative energy coming from that corner," MJ said, gesturing in Strange's direction, "of the room, and keep talking; we're kinda short on time here."

"Right, okay, um, so hear me out, we locate Doc Ock with some magic thingy that I'm just gonna assume you have, and then we can just send him back to his dimension again, right?”

“What about the thing that sent him here in the first place?” Strange heaved a sigh. “I’m gonna go get some air, talk to Wong about this, ‘cause he’s the Sorcerer Supreme now or whatever…” He trailed off as he walked back the way he came before.

Peter immediately seemed to deflate, but he nodded in agreement with the wizard (with a slight eye roll, but nobody needs to know that-).

Out of nowhere, MJ let out a small yelp of happiness, snapping her fingers and pointing at Peter. “I have another idea! But it involves some multiverse stuff that Dr. Strange might not approve of…”

“It doesn’t matter anymore if he doesn’t approve; this is too urgent to care. Besides, I think we all remember who won that fight at the Grand Canyon,” he boldly replied.

“I thought that was in the Mirror Dimension, and I’m pretty sure he let you win, but-”

Peter made a “sh” sound, saying that she didn’t have to retell the whole thing, and the important part is that he did in fact win. “What’s your idea?”