C146 Spider-Man (Patreon)
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“I found the cube.” Mystique says over the phone.
‘Two stones in one day?’ Peter thought hopefully. “Where is it?”
Walking out of his room one hand gripping the Orb, refusing to let it out of his grasp, and the other holding his phone, Peter entered the bathroom.
“In some place called the Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility in the Mojave Desert.” Mystique answers as Peter turns on the shower. “I have the exact coordinates for the facility.”
“Good work.” Peter congratulates her as he starts getting undressed. “Did you run into any trouble?”
“No, but Shield is most likely aware of my meddling...” Mystique reveals as she explains how she obtained this information.
...
“I’m sure Fury wasn’t happy with someone impersonating him.” Peter muttered with a laugh as he sat on the toilet, waiting for the call to end before hopping into the shower. “They don’t know it was you though, right?”
“No, but Fury may be suspicious of me.” Mystique guesses thoughtfully. “I’m probably among the top of the list when it comes to suspects.”
“You should be fine.” Peter says with a shrug. “Just don’t say anything and cooperate with any investigation Fury brings to you. We can come up with a good alibi later on as well.”
“I agree, but that isn’t the real problem.” Raven says as Peter's bathroom starts to steam up. “It’s only a matter of time before Shield looks into what I was doing. If we don’t act quickly, they may move the Tesseract, and finding it again will be far more challenging, I’m sure.”
“Okay, so we need to speed up our heist.” Peter mutters as the gears in his mind start turning. “Where are you right now?”
“California.” Mystique answers swiftly.
“Text me your exact location and I’ll portal over in about 20 minutes.” Peter says as he hangs up the phone before she could reply and hops into the shower.
Throughout his hot shower, Peter was trying to think of the best way to steal the Tesseract. His original plan required some allotted time for Mystique to infiltrate the facility and shut down the surveillance cameras, but that may not be viable anymore.
‘I’ll just wing it, I guess...’
————————————————
As Peter was about to leave to see Mystique, he was left with a very glaring problem.
‘What should I do with this?’ Peter thought as he looked down at the Orb on his computer desk. ‘A fancy paperweight perhaps?’
Of course, Peter was joking.
The Power Stone may be contained but it’s far too dangerous to be left behind on his desk, holding some papers in place. It could either get stolen, which wasn’t likely with the magic Peter has protected his house, or one of his loved ones could misplace it or accidentally cause some sort of catastrophe by messing with it.
‘I need a place to safely store it...’ Peter didn’t think this far, as he set all of his attention on finding the damn thing.
...
‘That might work for now.’ After a few moments of thought, Peter came to decision and walked down to the basement.
The last people to live in this house left behind a big safe in the basement, which just so happened to be bolted to the floor. The realtor that sold them the house said that the former owner didn’t want to pay to have it moved, and left it behind.
Now the safe belonged to them, and May used it to hold some of her more expensive jewelry and sensitive documents. Peter's social security number and birth certificate were in there as well.
Cracking open the safe, Peter takes everything out and starts working his magic.
Spell after spell, Peter enchanted the metal safe with every defensive and offensive enchantment that he could think of. After all, he was protecting one of the most powerful objects in the world, so Peter made sure to use everything he knew.
‘I feel bad for any thieves that somehow get in...’ Peter thought as he put everything back into the safe, including the Orb, and locked it up.
Keeping his eyes on the now very dangerous safe, Peter slowly backed away until he was out of range of the defenses.
“Peter!” May's voice calls as he hears the sound of footsteps moving down the stairs. “Are you down here?”
“Yes, don’t come any closer!” Peter exclaims, stopping his aunt from leaving the stairs.
“What?” May looks at Peter in confusion as she stops at the bottom step. “Why?”
“I may have enchanted the safe to obliterate the souls of would-be thieves, among other gruesome defenses.” Peter explains horribly.
Looking across the basement with a horrified look, May stared at the safe warily.
“Why?” May asked, even more confused than before.
“I needed somewhere to store something dangerous.” Peter answers vaguely. “This is only temporary. I’ll remove the enchantments in a few days. Just stay away from the safe until I say otherwise, okay?”
“Sure...” May nods as she retreats upstairs with Peter following closely behind. “I’ll keep the basement door locked, just in case.”
“That’s probably smart.” Peter nods as he watches her shakily lock the door.
“You should tell MJ and Ned. They visit a lot. Especially MJ, who practically lives here now...” May says teasingly, momentarily forgetting about the death trap in her basement.
“She does not live here...” Peter says, causing his Aunt to roll her eyes at him.
“She spends almost every night in your bed, has two drawers in your room for clothes, and let's not forget her shelf in the bathroom cabinet.” May says as her smirk grows with every word.
“Fine... She lives here.” Peter reluctantly gives in to her logic. “Is that a problem?”
“No, of course not!” May says genuinely. “I love MJ. If you two broke up, I don’t know what I’d do.”
“That’s good to know, I guess?” Peter says, unsure how to feel about her confession.
———————————————
After dealing with the Orb's momentary security, as Peter planned to move it to a better location with much more intricate protections, Peter called MJ and Ned and made it very clear that his basement is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death.
Yep, he gave them the old Dumbledore Third-floor corridor warning.
At first, they thought that he was joking, as they read Harry Potter as well, but soon realized that Peter was being deadly serious.
Once they fully understood, Peter dawned his suit, turned it black, and teleported over to Mystique, who was impatiently waiting for his arrival in an empty parking garage.
“What took you so long?” Raven glares as Peter walked through the portal. “You said twenty minutes... That was an hour ago!”
“Sorry, I was dealing with something.” Peter says vaguely as the portal closes behind him. “Do you have the coordinates?”
“Yeah, in here.” Mystique taps a finger on her forehead.
“Good, let’s go.” Peter says as he takes out his phone.
“Not so fast.” She says, stopping Peter in his tracks.
“What?” Peter asks in confusion.
“I believe now is a good time to reveal my payment.” Mystique says with a smile as she leans on the trunk of a car she stole.
“Can this wait?” Peter asks with an annoyed sigh. “I’d rather take the Tesseract before Fury figures anything out.”
“No, I need to know that you can deliver what I want.” Raven says with a shake of her head. “As long as you agree, then it shouldn’t take long.”
“Fine, lay it on me.” Peter says as he leans on a nearby pillar.
“I’ve lived a very long life and will continue to live even longer.” Mystique reveals as she morphs from a brunette woman to her blue original form. “It’s a part of my mutation.”
Her metamorphic powers and low-level healing factor have slowed the degenerative effects of her aging process, allowing her to biologically stay in the prime of her life for a long while.
“Okay, what does that have to do with your request?” Peter asks, ready to leave already.
Ignoring his rushed attitude, Mystique continues.
“Due to this, many people I’ve grown to care about over the years have aged and passed before me.” She says and Peter started to understand where this was going. “I would like for that to stop.”
“You want me to extend the life of everyone you care about?” Peter asks incredulously. ‘I should have figured out a different way to perform Peggy’s tests. Now everyone in the Avengers knows about the Elixir's effects.’
Though, getting access to all of the medical equipment the Tower has without leaving any traces would have been a challenge of its own, and they would have figured it out sooner or later anyway.
Especially when they found out that Peggy used to be a granny.
“No.” Mystique holds up two fingers. “Only Charles and Erik.”
After running away from her own family, Mystique became an adopted sibling to Charles, so they have a loving brother and sister relationship.
As for Erik, the feelings in her heart were anything but brotherly love. Raven loved Erik as a man, which is why she made the reluctant choice to abandon her adopted brother and his ideology all those years ago and take the side of the man she loved.
‘Are two sets of Elixirs worth an Infinity Stone?’ Peter thought jokingly.
Of course, they were.
With enough of the Infinity stones, Peter could make an ocean of Resurrection Elixir with a snap of his fingers.
The trade was heavily in his favor.
Not to mention the fact that Peter didn’t mind helping his fellow Avengers.
Watching Peter with a calm face, Mystique's inner emotions were turbulent as she hoped for an affirming answer.
“Sure, but the resources needed for such an operation are beyond rare. They’ll have to wait until I can collect everything.” Peter mixes the truth with lies.
Yes, the dragon bones were a rare resource, but he had enough to make Elixir for four people at the moment. Those four people are himself, MJ, May, and Ned.
Peter also needed to get some for Tony as well.
He wouldn’t waste the stash that he set aside for his loved ones on anyone, so Raven would have to wait.
Peter planned to hunt for more Dragon Bones in the future, while looking into alternative ingredients along the way, but she didn’t need to know all of this.
“As long as you promise that they’ll get the same treatment as Miss Carter when the time comes.” Mystique looks to Peter for affirmation.
“Of course, you have my word.”
A/N: 1775 :) Long chapters today. I’m going to sleep. GN