In Every World, In Every Story update (Patreon)

“You idiots.” Karla rose from the desk, flinging her coat off like flimsy wrapping. “Did you think I would give up power, for any reason? Not be prepared for a reality shift when one comes along every five minutes? You Avengers, you’re so arrogant, thinking you’re the only ones that matter…“

“What the hell’s an Avenger?” Peter asked, getting to his feet. He wasn’t one of those superheroes that took a beating for a living. Big secret—wrestling was fake. He would’ve expected getting hit to hurt more. And yeah, it hurt, but it wasn’t proportional to how much force had been invested in it (and clearly Karla was stronger than the average bear, both metaphorically and literally). So he could tough out the sting of pain and then the lingering ache from getting slammed like a car crash.

“God, you really don’t remember anything!” Karla hissed. “This is what you wanted, Parker, you agreed to it! You volunteered!”

“You wanna know what I remember?” Peter replied. “I do my own stunts.”

He leapt at her, landing in a crouch before her with his arm extended in a punch.

His fist went through Karla’s chest.

“Oh God, I’m so sorry! I thought you have invulnerability to go with superstrength, that’s usually the way it works—“

“I’m intangible, sweetie.” And now she blasted him, a bright flash of light that sizzled his flesh like a hot skillet as it propelled him backwards. “Now I’m not.”

Peter really wished he’d worn his webshooters. Not the kind of protection he thought he’d need at an orgy, but you never knew…

He swiped up a potted dragon tree instead, hurling it at Karla. She went intangible, letting it pass right through her. Peter lunged right after it, and went through her as well. There was a method to his moronity. He’d talked enough with his screenwriters to know there were certain ways to go about fighting someone with superpowers. See how long the duration of their powers lasted. See if you could wear them out. Keep an eye out for exceptions or weaknesses.

It all looked a lot easier when Captain Marvel did it. Maybe he should go get her.

Peter picked up the dragon tree as soon as he’d landed, swinging it back around at Karla. The intangibility had worn off, as he’d hoped—short bursts of power were all she got. Unfortunately, he’d swung it by the pot, so all he accomplished was swiping her with the fronds of the tree.

“Oww!” Karla cursed and went intangible again. When Peter threw the potted plant at her, it went right through. “What are you trying to do, garden me to death?”

“Is that a weakness of yours, per chance?”

She held up her hand and Peter realized that buzzing sensation he was getting wasn’t a cell phone left on vibrate, but his spider-sense. Been a while since it’d went off. He wasn’t used to it. He dodged, just like old times, and totally evaded the… the laser Karla fired into the floor. It put a neat hole in the carpet, scorched the hardwood. Peter hit the ceiling, clinging to it.

“You know, I’d hate to jump to conclusions, but I’m getting the impression you might not be as human as you claim.”

“And you’re not as mutant as you claim!” Karla replied, blazing more light at him. Peter leapt down as she burst a hole through to the next floor up. “Did you think I wouldn’t remember, Parker? Where was all this mutant solidarity back home, I wonder?”

Peter rolled out of the way of another blast, scooping up her desk and throwing it at her. Intangibility again. Fucking annoying…!

“What are you talking about?” he asked. “Are you getting all this from one of your patients after you gave them the special pills?”

“The reality shift! The unmaking! The remaking! I remember! That’s the way it works with two gravity stones! Nothing can touch me when I’m that powerful, that intangible! Not even chaos magic!”

“Chaos magic?” Peter asked. “Like with Magneto’s daughter.”

“Oh, look, it has a brain—“ Karla fired from both hand, Peter barely dodging out of the way in time. The floor collapsed where he’d been standing. Clumsy, awkward from years of inexperience, he didn’t nimbly land on the wall but collided with it, driving his shoulder through to the brickwork. The whole wall shook, dislodging some books from the shelf abutting it.

The bookshelf…

Peter grabbed books like it was a midnight sale of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hollows, throwing them at Karla in twos and threes. She phased, letting them pass through her, but there was only so long she could keep it up. And she had a lot of books.

“Stop that!” Karla ordered, firing light blasts. He juked and jived out of the way, not letting up the onslaught. “You cretin, quit it!”

Her intangibility wore off unexpected, letting her be nailed in the forehead by a copy of Grey’s Anatomy. Peter instantly dove onto her, tackling her to the ground. She phased again, but this time Peter phased with her, and they both passed through the floor, down to the next story of the building, landing on their feet. Tangible again.

He wrapped his hands around her throat. She puts hers to his face.

“I can snap your neck right now,” Peter threatened.

“And I can blow your brains out the back of your skull.”

“It’s a stalemate then.”

“Quite.”

“Since it looks like we’re not going anywhere for a while, why don’t you tell me what the hell you were babbling about?”

Karla smiled. “Wanda. Dear, sweet, innocent Wanda, everyone’s favorite mutant, the lady-in-waiting for the House of M… she’s not just going to rule this world. She made it.”

“Your explanation isn’t self-explanatory.”

“Her chaos magic, you imbecile! Everyone knows she can change little things, make a cup of coffee tip over or float a pencil… but she has as much power as dear old dad. Only effective on a much wider scale. She didn’t just turn a handkerchief into a dove… she turned the world into this.”

Peter shook his head. “Bullshit.”

“No, it’s true. I avoided it, cut a deal—I’m a schemer, you know, and we schemers take precautions. My black little soul… I wasn’t using it, so I sold it off for insurance, just in case of exactly this.”

“Sold it?” A queasy feeling of familiarity filled Peter. Deja voodoo. “To who? Who’d want your soul?”

“Admittedly, not the usual suspect. My ticket for the Pit was punched a long time ago; why bother buying a seat for me when I was already on the plane? But I’m good at compromise. Sinking to the depths of depravity. Do you want to know who owns us?” Karla’s eyes flashed black. “She’s in here with me…”

This would be where Lily burst through the window.

She was riding the Goblin Glider, and in the haze and confusion, Peter mostly registered her silhouette. Out of the corner of his eye, she looked the same as ever. “Lil, get over her! Take her out!”

Karla looked over at the new arrival, seeming impeccably cool, but Peter was close enough to see the frantic calculation in her eyes. “Ms. Hollister! What a pleasant surprise…”

“I let her go, you start blasting!” Peter faced front. His back was to the wall that Lily had come through, and now he trained all his attention on Karla, wanting to be ready to pulp her at the slightest notice. He heard Lily’s footsteps behind him. “How about it, Sofen? I know you’re not a mutant, so whatever power you’ve got has to have an off-switch. Stand down, I’ll put my movie on the cutting room floor, and we’ll all call it a day.”

Karla looked over his shoulder. “Is that what you want, Lily? To call it a day?”

“Don’t bother, she’s on my side. Spider-Man and his Amazing Friend, that’s us.”

“Friend? Is that what you want, Lily?” Karla smacked her lips on the name.

“Lily, maybe you could give her a sample of some of the punishment you’re carrying?”

“Yes, Lily—give me a sample.”

Then Peter felt Lily’s hand run down his back, down to his ass. He shivered as she squeezed it, knowing Karla was seeing every move, every feel. She tugged his trousers down, out of the way, and played her fingers over his naked ass. Peter felt himself stiffen with desire, becoming hyper-aware of Karla’s added proximity, her nakedness.

“Lily, have you been enjoying the show?” Karla asked in a shivery voice.

“Oh yes,” Lily whispered, reaching around to cup Peter’s balls, tingle a finger along his shaft. “I saw it all. How many others, Dr. Sofen?”

“Not as many as you’d think,” Karla said. She drew closer, her body pressing to Peter’s from in front, while Lily wrapped around his back. She flexed her muscles and Peter automatically responded, keeping Karla from pushing him off-balance as they strained against each other. Karla laughed. “Enough to keep things interesting. With the right selection.”

“Lily, what are you waiting for? Kick. Her. Ass.”

Lily reached around him, running her hand over the high cheekbones of Karla’s face. Karla’s hands skated off Peter, back around to Lily, caressing her tenderly… Lily kissed Peter’s neck, meeting Karla’s eyes. Peter suddenly felt like he was in the middle of sheer lust, drowning in it, filled with it…

Lily stepped around him. She got down on her knees in-between them. She looked so different with her hair down, wild… and she was green. Hard to tell in the shadows of the darkened room, with her features the same, but he could see the tint of her skin. Horns emerging from her hair. Fake, or had she used a new iteration of the formula Osborn had been working on? No way to tell. They looked real.

A cape was wrapped around her shoulders, but otherwise she was wearing a strapless top, plenty of cleavage evident between her neckline and the cape that coiled around her neck like a scarf. Who could’ve guessed what lushly curved breasts she had under her prim dresses? Or the shapely ass that was apparent in her skintight leather pants? She was a knockout now, her long hair shimmering down instead of primly coiled up, her creamy breasts heaving, her hand jerking on his cock—Jesus, he might come in her soft fist any second, the sight of her was so incredible.

With the hand that wasn’t jerking Peter off, Lily palmed Karla’s thigh, her thumb hooked on the labia, pulling it open for Lily to give in to her depraved hunger. She licked and kissed and tongued Karla’s burning pussy, all ravenous greed and desperate satiation, until Karla was thrashing her cunt lewdly against Lily’s mouth. Peter watched, getting hotter and harder. Soon, he was struggling not to come. And the only reason he was trying was because he knew that if he waited, he could fuck them, fuck both of them.

Lily was caught up in the delicious taste of Karla’s cunt, squirming beneath her lips, and Karla was shuddering and moaning and instinctively fucking Lily’s mouth. Lily seized her ass, holding on fiercely to it as she tasted in a delirium of lust. Karla gave into the same delirium, taking one hand away from Peter’s throat, instead gripping Lily’s hair. Then her other hand, both holding Lily to her cunt. She was at Peter’s mercy.

They both were.

Peter grabbed Lily by the shoulders and pulled her back, lowering her to the floor, Karla mindlessly following her down until she was kneeling, straddling Lily’s face as the green-skinned woman laid on her back. Then Peter loomed over Karla, gripping her face as she stared up at him. She was still moaning happily. Her face was half-obscured by his growing erection.

Suddenly he stepped over her, one leg crossing over her shoulder so that he was standing astride her where she knelt. His balls, full and hairy, laid against her breasts, and that was enough to cause a rush of blood to her sex. Karla grabbed his hips with both hands and opened her mouth wide. She was not surprised when Peter took his cock in his hand and planted the tip between her parted lips. He jackhammered down until the entire shaft was pushing for her belly.

Karla couldn’t imagine anything more fantastic. Surrounded by sleek, warm flesh, a hard-working tongue between her powerful legs, a thick cock in her throat. Nothing could possibly top this.

Her guest thought so too. And so did Lily.

She moaned into Karla’s cunt, touching herself now, rocking on her hips as she fucked herself. Her legs were spread wide, her toes clutching with every thrust of her fingers, her other hand massaging her breasts, finding two diamond-hard nipples to tweak and pinch.

Feels so good! She thought unbelievingly. Her fingers actually felt better than Harry’s hard, driving cock… at least when Peter was there.

She drove her fingers up her sex to the knuckle, twisting them, grinding her thumb against her clit. A rush of sensation whirled through her head, her sex, her whole body. She felt her pussy contract, both inside her body and on her fingers, and she moaned, writhed underneath the coupling Peter and Karla, her hand grinding between her thighs. She arched up, thrusting her breasts high, her nipples feeling ready to burst. She loved the feeling so much, she screamed it aloud… right into Karla’s pussy.

Karla barely noticed—receiving such pleasure during sex was only her due. Her real concern was with Peter. She had no intention of doing anything but taking his cum in her mouth. She wouldn’t be deprived of anything he could offer her, not his hard body, not his hard cock, and not the exquisite joy of tasting his seed.

“Now! Nowwwww!” Peter cried, holding Karla stiffly in place as he spiked down through her mouth, his cock jamming deeply into her throat. He squirmed and twisted above her, his face a mirror of his delicious torment: eyes tightly shut, mouth wide open, crying out mindless rapture. Every muscle in his body was straining to shove his prick down Karla’s throat and give her all the cum in his body.

She took it all. She sucked him and sucked him, pumping on his prick with her lips, squeezing it firmly with her throat, urging every drop of cream from his flaring manhood. She wouldn’t let his cock out of her mouth even as he had fired his last shot.

Lily had fucked herself until every twinge of orgasmic sensation had subsided. Now Karla pulled her up, letting her pass through her intangible body, to join her in licking the cum from Peter’s twitching cock. Karla also forced Lily to feed her her fingers, sucking the delicious juices from them before going back to Peter.

They licked him absolutely clean, Lily even bobbing her head on it, gently massaging his robust member to eke the last few drops from him. Slowly, he came back down to earth from his hard climax.

“Fuck,” he exclaimed finally. “Fuck. You… you swallowed my cum.” Gwen had never—

“Yes,” Karla agreed, Lily smiling along. “And she wants some too. And I want more.”

Peter felt his cock tremble. Still hard. Softly pulsating.

“That was only the beginning,” Karla said.

“I want those videos,” Peter insisted.

“You’ll get them. All of them. After all, I don’t need them anymore. Not now that you’ve admitted how… fulfilling your weekly therapy can be.”

Peter said nothing. Just took Lily by the horns and eased her down to his burgeoning erection. He wanted to find out if she swallowed too.

“Maybe you should bring Gwen next time,” Karla suggested. “I do offer couples counseling as well…”

***

Peter left the party. Lily stayed.

Karla had actually encouraged him. To branch out, have more fun. Tell her all about it. Lily had said something about actually bringing him people to ‘share’. About him showing Harry how to treat a woman. Jesus Christ.

Still, he felt an equilibrium, walking down the street. Like he’d finally cleared some hurdle. This was who he was. A cheater, an adulterer. He didn’t know why he was this way, but he was. But he could still be good to Gwen. She didn’t have to know. She didn’t have to suffer. He didn’t know what had created this gulf between them, this discomfort of him towards her, but he’d fix it, even if he couldn’t fix anything else. He’d treat her right.

The elevator reached the car park and opened. There was a teenage girl standing there.

“Remember,” Layla Miller said.

***

Mary Jane stood just inside the room, looking tall and lean in a flowing dress top and jeans that clung to the curvings of her body below the waist. “Geez, tigress—and here I thought you were confirmed sushi. Cold fish.”

“P-please… I was just…” Gwen choked out, but that was all she choked out.

Mary Jane approached, stopping behind the chair, putting her soft hands on Gwen’s shoulders and massaging gently. “Relax, Gwendolyn. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Even I do it, and you know I’m not short of men. Or anything else. It’s just something about your own touch, every so often. You know what I’m talking about. Peter’s great, I’m sure, but you’re the only one who can know exactly what you want…”

Despite herself, a shrill laugh snuck out of Gwen. “I don’t know what I want…”

“Don’t you?” Mary Jane purred. One hand slid down Gwen’s shoulder, over the slight muscle of her arm. “I can see exactly what you want.” Her hand brushed across Gwen’s full breast. “Can’t you?”

“Tell me?”

Mary Jane paused a moment. The side of her hand touching Gwen’s breast. Staying there, warm and different… soft. “You really are a beautiful woman, Gwen. I can see why Peter married you…”

It was all so new to Gwen, so different… wrong? Gwen had no idea how to get out of it. Didn’t know if she wanted to. She flinched when Mary Jane’s fingers began to toy with a nipple. She didn’t know if it felt good or bad. But it felt different. So different from her life up to then, her life with Peter…

She shivered as Mary Jane’s warm breath tingled in her ear. “I hear things,” she whispered. “I know you haven’t even looked at another man since you married Peter… and he hasn’t looked at you either. All that lush, youthful body going to waste… none of it being touched… not even those lovely tits.” The word, so harsh, made Gwen flinch again. It felt good, flinching. She could admit that now. “Not big…” MJ went on, “but shaped so well…”

Gwen didn’t not want this… or she did… she didn’t know… she knew she wasn’t supposed to want this, but she didn’t know what she did want, she didn’t know. “Mary Jane, please…” She didn’t even know what she was asking for.

“You know me,” Mary Jane said jokingly, “I’m always turned on.” She was cupping both breasts now. “But you turn me on even more.” She was kissing Gwen’s throat. “How about that? I’m hot for Mrs. Parker…”

Gwen still knew she was supposed to want this, but now she also knew that she didn’t care.

Mary Jane spun the chair around. She was between Gwen’s legs suddenly, her ripe mouth against Gwen’s, forcing the weak lips open, quick wet tongue inside, a strange hand caressing her mound, so different from her own… so wonderful.

Gwen felt another woman’s firm breasts crushing her own, another woman’s silken sex burning into her own, and the room spun dizzily as the other woman’s tongue met her own, and her panting breath met Mary Jane’s. They mixed. Everything mixed.

And Gwen knew she was lost.

Only now she knew that was what she had wanted, all along.

***

Gwen Stacy.

Ben Parker.

George Stacy.

All the others.

All at once.

***

He ran. Some could follow. But only one did.

***

Felicia Hardy caught up to him. Not the first time they had raced. This was the first time she’d literally had to tackle him to get him to stop, although she’d always threatened to. She pinned him down and kissed him hard and it was so shocking (so familiar) that he didn’t struggle. He lay there, exhausted on all emotional levels but still horribly ready, physically, as Felicia plied herself off him.

She wore tight pants and a black cut-off shirt. She looked good.

“It’s okay, Spider. I know. I know.”

Peter stayed on the ground. Feeling the weight of the world at last. But he managed to scoot himself to the parapet of the rooftop he was on, lean against it by the time the others caught up.

Luke Cage’s human resistance. The people you heard about on the news while the scary music played. And some X-Men. Scott and Emma.

Just a few, but loaded for bear.

“This isn’t right,” Peter said. “We fixed this.”

“It’s been unfixed,” Scott said. The natural leader. “There was a universal… catastrophe.”

“You know the kinda thing we usually stop?” Cage asked. “We didn’t stop it.”

“And Wanda did this again? Christ! I thought she was better! I was teammates with her, I trusted her—“

“It’s not Wanda.” Strange. Dressed in his old threads. Clearly, he’d been one of the first recruits. “It’s Doom.”

Peter didn’t have to think about it long. “Yeah, that figures.”

“He actually saved us,” Iron Fist said. It’d taken the universe imploding, but he’d gotten out of the footie pajamas. “Cast some kind of spell that scavenged whatever it could from the detritus, brought it all together here. Restoring from the recycle bin, you might say.”

“But why this place? Why…” Gwen?

“It isn’t,” Emma said. “Not just this place, at least. All of the domains have been salvaged from the refuse heap. There are other Cyclops, other me’s… I’m the prettiest, though.”

“Okay.” Peter still felt like throwing up, but now it was like his stomach was empty, at least. “How do we fix it?”

There was an awkward silence. Peter was used to those. But usually when he made a joke, not when he asked how they saved the day.

“Guys?”

Scott spoke like he would put a wounded animal out of its misery. “We don’t.”

“What are you talking about, don’t—“

“There’s nothing to fix. Nothing to restore. This world wasn’t changed from anything, it was made like this out of scratch.”

“No, no, last time, Wanda—“

“This isn’t that spell,” Danny insisted. He fumbled to explain, but Strange beat him to the punch.

“Think of it as wheelbarrow ruts. The spell that Wanda cast left an impression on reality itself. When Doom’s spell was cast, some of the energy followed the path that Wanda had laid down. But instead of modifying the old world to fit an outline, this created a new world in the shape of that same outline. We don’t exist outside the House of M. This is our reality. The only reality we’ve ever known.”

“But my memories. I can remember—“

“Because those were present in the original firmament. Our wishes, our desires, helped shape Wanda’s initial spell. They were carried along with this one.”

“So we’re clones.” Peter grinned humorlessly. “There really is nothing new under the sun.”

“Literally,” Emma pointed out. “Doom really is a spectacularly uncreative man when you get right down to it.”

“And he chose Sue as his queen instead of you,” Scott needled.

“At least it wasn’t Storm.”

“Do you mind?” Peter cried.

The two stared at the outburst. Their thoughts clear: since when did Peter Parker want everyone to take things seriously?

“Have to excuse the levity,” Scott said. “I’m a bit euphoric at the moment. This is a bit of an improvement on how I remember things.”

Emma pushed the knife in further. “Less giant robots coming to kill our kids.”

“So that’s it then?” Peter asked. “We made out like bandits in this—got bribed with our perfect lives—so let’s just all kick back and enjoy it?” He brought his fist down on the parapet, brought down some debris that could’ve crushed someone if Dr. Strange didn’t dispel it.

Peter kupped up, paced a little, kicked a pebble into the next domain.

“We—“ Scott began.

Peter wasn’t about to let him start. He wasn’t in the mood for mutant bullshit, not Wanda’s, not anyone’s. “Why did you bring me out?” he demanded. “If I was so damn happy, why’d you make me remember?”

Scott waited patiently for him to finish. “Two reasons. First off, we all know you. And you would’ve have wanted us too.”

With great power comes great responsibility. That phrase was still screwing with him from another fucking dimension.

“Second,” Scott continued. “You weren’t happy. None of us were. Something about this reality… not passing the snuff test. It didn’t satisfy us. Wasn’t real. But… knowing the truth… maybe…”

“Maybe what? Maybe I can win some argument with my wife, ‘hey honey, consider this, you’re supposed to be dead’!?”

“Calm yourself,” Strange said. “I have been in contact with… friends elsewhere. There are motions being made to put all this right. Reed Richards is on the move.”

“So what? Back to reality again? Getting to pick up the pieces all over again?”

“No matter what, this domain cannot be restored.”

“Like the man said,” Danny put in. “There’s nothing to restore it to.”

“So it doesn’t matter. We’re clones. All this pain and it’s not even mine…” Peter shook his head. No wonder he’d been acting like his marriage didn’t matter. It didn’t. Nothing did.

“There’s still work to be done.” Scott was speaking. Of course. “Xavier’s ideals still hold true, no matter if the prejudice is for humans or against.”

Emma let out a brief, bitter laugh. Scott ignored her.

“We have to either bring down Magneto or make him see reason.”

“Yeah.” Peter nodded. He sounded like Lily. Funny how things tumbled out. He had the familiar feeling that somewhere, Madame Web was laughing her ass off. “Yeah, sure. I’m in. Why not. Where’s my six-shooter, sheriff, let’s go have a shoot-out at the O.K. Corral!”

“Actually,” Emma said. “You could serve the cause better as a celebrity. You being exposed would probably only hurt the cause.”

“Okay. Great. That too. I’ll just go back to living my life, then. Thanks for totally fucking my head.”

“Peter,” Felicia began.

“This was the way it had to be,” Scott insisted. It sounded like an order.

“No, no, I get it. You’ll be in touch, right? Ask me for my help on some mission or another?”

“Something like that.”

“Great. Cool. Awesome. I gotta go. Think I need some air.”

He needed to breathe. He needed to think. He needed to see Gwen.