A Call to Arms

08

SPACE

Maw was interrogating Doctor Strange and Madison. Doctor Strange and Madison were floating horizontally, face down, and were surrounded by dozens of glassy needles, each about two feet long.

Maw said, "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... judgement." The needles started to contact Doctor Strange and Madison's faces, causing an obviously painful whitish subcutaneous glow at each touch. "Give me... the Stone."

Tony and Ben were watching, hidden, from above. The Cloak of Levitation tapped them on the arms. They raised their hands to it, ready to shoot, but they saw what it was and stood down.

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

"Yeah, uh, speaking of loyalty...." Peter and Nathan began.

Tony, Ben and the Cloak turned to face Peter and Nathan, dropping down from above. "What the-"

"We know what you're gonna say."

"You two should not be here."

The Cloak moved to "stand" at Tony and Ben's sides.

"Nathan and I were gonna go home-" Peter was cut off.

"I don't wanna hear it," Tony argued.

"But it was such a long way down and we just thought about you two on the way..."

"And now we gotta hear it."

The Cloak shook its collar in sympathy and shrugged.

Nathan continued. "...And we kinda stuck to the side of the ship. And these suits are ridiculously intuitive, by the way. So if anything, it's kinda your fault that we're here."

Tony, under his breath, muttered, "God damnit..." The Cloak looked shocked. Tony's tone became serious. "What did you just say?"

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

"Yeah." He crossed to stand right in front of Peter and Nathan. "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," Peter said. "We did think this through."

"You could not have possibly thought this through."

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

Tony breathed shakily, realizing he couldn't beat Peter's logic and Ben said, "Come on. We got a situation." He and his father led Peter and Nathan over to a viewpoint on the torture below. Peter and Nathan crouched to study the situation, the Cloak leaning over their shoulders. "See them down there? They're in trouble. What's your plan? Go."

"Um. Okay, okay... uh..." Peter and the Cloak popped back upright. "Okay. Did you ever see this really old movie, Aliens?"

The Cloak lifted its collar in surprise.

---

Maw was still interrogating Doctor Strange and Madison, who groaned loudly. "Painful aren't they? They were originally designed for microsurgery. And any one of them..."

At the "thump" behind him, Maw turned to see Iron Man and Steel Iron standing there, hand repulsors ready to fire.

"...Could end your friends' lives in an instant," Maw finished.