Chapter Text
It was just after midnight in New York when Stephen finished his session with Pepper with a soft exhale. He could feel the end was drawing very near. In another lifetime, he would have ignored the slight pull of exhaustion and pushed another four, five, six-seven-eight hours, however long it took to finish the job tonight.
But his duty was not just to Pepper, and because of that, he had to conserve his energy for any emergencies that may spring up during the night, especially with how things had been unravelling over the last forty-eight hours. They were pushing it close with their wait on taking back a Sanctum, but Stephen was confident he was nearing the end of his procedure, and reality wasn't quite at the point that they needed to intervene yet.
In the meantime, the least he could do was give Tony a status update. He pushed himself out of the bedside chair with a soft grunt and went to find the other man.
He was in the living room this time, tablet in hand and a glass of either water or vodka by his side. From the amount, it was likely water, and Stephen would be very concerned if it was otherwise.
Tony heard his approach and looked up, reading glasses slipping down his face. Stephen blinked.
"When did you start using reading glasses?"
"Technically never, because I'm not letting Pepper know I only got them when she was in a coma," he said when he took them off. "So that revelation isn't coming until a couple months from now, you hear?"
Stephen snorted. He went to the kitchen to help himself to a glass of water. "I don't think I've caught you with them before."
"That's because I only started getting a headache trying to read my tablet without them this month," Tony said. "Lab computers are still fine, though I'm not sure how long I can keep that going while still maintaining the optimal amount of space used on a display. It won't look that great if everything's written with a size 72 font."
"You sure you weren't having trouble before this month?" Stephen asked. He grabbed the cup and placed it under the water filter built into the fridge. "I'm pretty sure I caught you squinting at the tablet that we played games with, back in October."
"I didn't say I wasn't having trouble," Tony argued, not even bothering to look up from his tablet. "The headaches just weren't a thing yet. Still, didn't want to wear them until Pep was awake. Figured I can show her that I'm 'taking care of my health' while she recovers from whatever the hell a year of bedrest does to her, help reassure her that I'm fine and that she can focus on herself. Thinking three steps ahead, y'know."
"They do call you a futurist in this reality, don't they?" Stephen walked over and took the armchair adjacent to Tony.
"They don't in yours?" Tony retorted, but before Stephen could answer, Tony continued speaking. "Huh—you aren't taking off?"
Stephen cleared his throat. "I figured I owe you at least an update on my progress." Stephen wasn't ever good at this, talking to the loved ones of those he treated, and even now, after everything, this still made him feel a bit uncomfortable. But the fact that Tony hadn't been hounding him after every session for updates—or that, rather, he didn't try to stop him when he portalled out immediately after, and that he didn't blast his phone with demands—made Stephen feel that he owed it to him to try and give him another status report, especially considering the detangling period was taking even longer than he had originally thought it would take.
Tony's eyes gleamed with interest that he didn't bother concealing and put his tablet down. "What do you have for me?"
Stephen licked his lips. "I won't lie to you; it's been a fairly complicated procedure. But I think Ms Potts is fortunate in that I was formerly a neurosurgeon. That, along with the application of Master Wu's expertise, has made this a more positive prognosis than it may have been otherwise."
Tony frowned at him. "Cut the doctor bullshit out, Stephen. Give it to me straight: when will she wake up?"
There was a nervous energy behind Tony's words. Yeah, Tony had definitely been holding himself back from asking questions over the last week. "It would be blasé of me to guarantee she'll wake, even at this point," Stephen answered solemnly, "though I still believe that I am her best hope for it." Before Tony could argue, Stephen barreled on, "I think it will be two or three more sessions—depending on how badly the point of contact needs to be repaired—until I've removed all the malignant magic and fixed what damage it wrought. Perhaps one more further to help guide her spirit into the waking world if it's having a hard time coming back naturally. I may have Master Wu join me again if that were to happen."
Tony leaned back into the couch and his whole body shuddered in his exhale. "Right. Not that long, then." He glanced back at him. "Wong's still on board with our plan about the Sanctum, right? If the rifts start getting really bad before you're finished?"
Stephen inclined his head. "Yes." He took another drink of water, then set the glass half-empty down on the table. "And it works for me. I understand you would be very upset if I were to die before Pepper was fully treated."
Tony frowned again. "Well, sure, but I'd be pretty upset at you dying too, y'know." Before Stephen had to figure out how to reply to that, he went on, "But she could be really helpful if she was awake and, say, you were injured again."
"And how's that?" Stephen asked, lifting an eyebrow.
"Mmm, well, she knows all these really great yoga positions that probably count as physical therapy. You could be PT buddies."
"Yoga's not physical therapy," Stephen retorted, but his brow furrowed in thought. "Though there are some similar themes to each in its focus on movement. But their purposes are different."
"I mean, it felt like I was doing yoga when I was in PT after Afghanistan—well, in that hospital between Afghanistan and the States," Tony retorted. "All the movement and this and that, and I swear the therapist said something about realigning my spiritual balance."
"Yeah, now you're just making shit up."
"I would never make shit up." Tony put a hand to his chest in mock horror.
"Now that I know is—"
A trill beep cut through their conversation and Stephen glanced down with a frown at his belt. "Sorry."
Tony exhaled. "No, no, probably a sorcerer or—someone else calling about a rift." Stephen glanced up at him at the unspoken name, but Tony's expression remained blank.
It beeped again, and Stephen turned his attention back to the phone pouch on his belt. He slid it out and glanced at the number. There was no name attached to the call—so it wasn't one of the masters or Rogers, and it obviously wasn't Tony. Maybe one of Rogers' associates or an apprentice. He answered the call. "Hello?"
"Doctor Strange?"
Oh dear God. He had completely forgotten about the other person who had his number, one he hadn't bothered to save in his contacts. "Peter?" At the name, Tony immediately straightened on the couch.
"Uh, Spider-Man at the moment, sir. You wanted me to call you when I saw something strange—sorry, something weird—"
"Never mind that. What is it?" Stephen stood, and Tony stood with him.
"Well, I was on my regular patrol in Queens, sir, just keeping an eye out and being the regular Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and all, making sure no one's up to no good—"
"The point, P—Spider-Man?"
"Oh, right! Well, I was actually helping an old guy with his groceries and he started complaining to me about a weird thing happening at a nearby park. His description made no sense, so I went to look at it and—well, it's definitely weird."
"Describe it."
"Put it on speaker!" Tony demanded, seemingly having enough of hearing only one part of the conversation with his vigilante intern.
Stephen obliged him, putting the phone on speaker and then setting it to float in the air between them so he could grab his sling ring. He could guess what Peter was about to describe.
"Okay, so uh—basically it looks like there's a hole in the sky. Or maybe not a hole, something more like a giant rip. It's like someone made a big rip in the air and the cut part is dark, but even with night vision turned on all I can see is something that's glistening when light passes into the hole. It almost seems like there's another place entirely beyond the hole, as impossible as that sounds."
Before Stephen could say something, Tony spoke up. "You stay far away from that rift, kid, you hear me?"
"Is—Mr Stark?!"
Stephen glared at Tony for the interruption and overrode whatever he was about to reply. "Yes, he's here. I told you I was working with him. But he's right: keep yourself and anyone else away from the rift. You said you were at a park? Is there anyone else around?"
"Uh, there are a few homeless people camped out not too far away. Maybe twenty or so feet? A couple of them are filming it, I think. Oh, and someone walking his dog just stopped to do the same. Don't usually see dog walkers out this late, but that dog's really big so he's probably fine."
Stephen held back the deep sigh caused by both the civilians and the unnecessary tangent. "Okay, I need you to get everyone out of the park—and to hopefully stop filming, if you can." But God knew that people were more addicted to capturing good footage for their social media than keeping themselves safe. It was a miracle humanity had survived as long as it had with such common reactions. "Where—"
"Wait," Peter interrupted, "something's happe—oh my God! What the heck is that?!" The audio became momentarily unclear as Peter clearly moved, though a couple shouts of fear and a strange buzzing noise came through.
Fuck. "Where are you?!" Stephen shouted, getting his sling ring ready.
"Get me to the lab!" Tony demanded.
Stephen did that for Tony, and he followed after him through the portal, phone floating beside him as Peter shouted, "Get out of here!" to whoever else was unlucky enough to be in the vicinity. "I'm—in Queens! Kis—whoa!" Another break for motion. "Get out of here!" he shouted again at someone, then said, "Kissena Park—south side, near the path east of the Velodrome parking lot!"
"Did you get all that?" Stephen asked Tony. Tony had grabbed the containment unit for his armor off his desk and slapped it on his chest.
In the meantime, Peter kept talking to himself, perhaps not realizing he was still on the phone. "Wha—oh, what is that stuff?! Oh—oh, no, that's not good—"
"FRI, pull a street view image!" Tony said. Stephen watched as Tony's armor came from the containment unit and began to cover him, but he was quickly distracted by the image of a city park shown via a holographic as large as it would be in reality. Stephen looked at the image as he created a portal to the spot itself; through the new portal, the city night and loud buzzing sound coming from the phone clashed with the idyllic daylit picture.
Tony needed no prompting; he ran through the moment it came up, and by the time he was fully in New York City, he was wholly covered in his armor and shooting several yards up into the air. Stephen followed, his phone left behind in the lab as the portal closed behind him.
The rift was in clear view, right in the middle of an empty field of the park perhaps one hundred yards east from the parking lot Google Street View had dumped them on. But whatever had come through had moved, as had Peter.
"Southeast!" Tony shouted, then sped ahead. With barely a thought, the Cloak lifted him and Stephen followed.
Even if Tony hadn't caught wind of where they had moved in the last twenty or so seconds, Stephen would have found the trail easily from the rift. There were what appeared to be scorch marks on the trees and in the grass at various intervals, though they appeared oddly wet rather than dry.
It wasn't even ten seconds until they caught up with Peter and the creature at the courts on the south side of the park; beyond, two-story houses dotted a relatively quiet Queens neighborhood. If any of the residents woke up to the buzzing sound, they would see the three of them fighting a large, bug-like creature, which looked like a thickly-built spider with a nasty wasp stinger and flying on bat-like wings. At about ten feet tall, it was an amalgamation of several nightmares.
This was not what Stephen wanted to deal with this evening.
This was not what Tony wanted to deal with this evening.
It was good Stephen was present—but the absolute last person that should have been here as well was Spider-Man. The kid wasn't supposed to be here. It didn't matter that it was Queens; he was supposed to be handling small-time crooks, not interdimensional bug monsters. And that Peter was here before him was absolutely unacceptable.
"You need to get out of here!" was Tony's greeting to him as he flew in, blasting his repulsor at the creature. It, in turn, spat out a gooey saliva-like substance that he dodged. The liquid hit the chain-link fence of the court behind him, which it immediately ate through, then it started to eat the concrete ground it landed on.
Well, that wasn't good.
"I've got a giant flying spider attacking Queens! I can't go!"
"This is way above your pay grade, kid. That spit'll eat right through your suit," Tony retorted before flying over towards where Stephen was hovering. "Stephen, how do we beat this thing?"
"Not sure," was the answer Tony didn't want to hear. "I'm not familiar with this creature. But it's not like the Chaos creature we encountered last month." Stephen threw up a shield to block another splash of the acidic liquid, which thankfully held firm against it. "You should be able to kill it. I need to close the rift before any more of these things fly through."
"Go on!" Tony said, and Stephen left to head back north to the rift. He turned the comms back on to connect to Peter's mask. "Wizard's gonna close the rift while we deal with this thing. Make sure it doesn't get past the courts—we can't have it reach the houses!"
"Wha—did you say Doctor Strange's a wizard?!"
Tony tried the repulsor blast again. It hit, but the big bug seemed barely phased by the contact. "He calls himself a 'Master of the Mystic Arts' but that's basically a longer way to say wizard."
"That's so cool!" Peter was trying to web up the creature, that much Tony could see, but the wings seemed to be cutting through the sticky substance without issue.
Ugh, he could really use Rhodey or Vision here, but he hadn't thought to summon either of them in the thirty seconds they were at the lab. He was regretting not waking them up (or disrupting Vision's meditation or whatever the hell he did when everyone else slept). He flew above the eldritch horror bug and aimed a small missile at it; if the creature dodged it, the missile would only cause a crater in the ground, which just meant the landscaping would become a bit more interesting. Again the bug was too damn fast for the weapon, but the fire from the small explosion behind it caused it to buzz angrily, which could be a good thing.
"Seems the thing doesn't like fire!" Tony said to Peter—a small distraction that turned out to be a major mistake.
"Boss!" FRIDAY shouted, but at that point it was too late—by the time he saw the large glob of acid coming his way, there wasn't any time to think of anything. That was because, despite all of his genius and invention, he was still just a man with human reflexes.
But there was one there who had superhuman reflexes. Tony was bluntly reminded of that as something fast and heavy collided with him even as FRIDAY shouted out her warning. In a split second he was out of the line of fire of the otherworldly acid that he had no desire to test the nanites against, not with how fast the acidic spit was eating through the concrete and metal in the basketball court.
But just as he was about to thank the kid for the save, Peter screamed, a loud and piercing cry that froze Tony's blood. His relief turned into terror as he saw that, in pushing him out of the way, Peter managed to get some of the acid splashed on the left side of his face mask where it was quickly eating away at the material and burning his skin underneath. Peter managed to web at a tree to slow his descent, but he stumbled as he landed and fell on his knees.
Tony nearly froze, his mind screaming as he was caught between helping Peter and the very, very bad decision it would be to turn his back on the acid bug. The bug made the decision for him as it started heading towards Peter, as if it sensed weakened prey.
Oh no it fucking didn't. He sent a barrage of homing missiles on the sucker, enough to kill something five times its size, but it wasn't enough. The fire of the artillery weakened it and sent it careening into the branches of a higher tree, but it definitely wasn't the dead corpse it needed to be.
When he looked back at Peter, he was relieved beyond words to see Stephen present. "Get him out of here!" he shouted over the angry buzzing filling the area. Stephen had to realize that getting Peter help was now their number one priority.
—which meant he needed backup that could get here instantly. "FRIDAY, call Wong." And until he got backup there, he'd do his best to keep the damned bug creature away from the other two as the most annoying, destructive distraction he could possibly be.
And he was very, very good at all three of those things.
Peter's injuries were bad, that much was clear when Stephen had flown back to them after hearing the shout of clear pain. Tony was yelling something in the background, but the words were inaudible with not only the loud buzzing of the extra-dimensional creature, but Peter's cries beside him.
Peter had managed to tear the mask off, but the damage was already partially done. Stephen had only seen an acid wound once in his career, while he was doing his clinicals in emergency medicine. That one was on an arm; unsurprisingly, acid to the face was significantly worse. While the mask had protected the young man from part of the damage, it was starting to corrode his skin and muscle. Action had to be taken, fast.
Stephen placed the palm of his hand on Peter's forehead, and in one instant his cries of pain were silenced as he was knocked unconscious. It was only as Stephen applied another spell to stop the acid from doing any further damage that he realized Tony was flying above them, talking to him. Or well, shouting. In the background, the bug was detangling itself from another tree.
"Why is he unconscious?!"
"He's stable," Stephen said. "I put him under for now, but he needs further treatment."
"Then get him out of here!"
"I can't leave without sealing the rift!" No matter how much he wanted to help Peter more, he couldn't let more of these creatures emerge to cause destruction and harm to this world. To New York.
"I called Wong—he'll be here any sec! Get out of here!"
Stephen only hesitated for a second further before trusting Tony, Wong, and any others he brought could handle the rest of this. Peter needed help, and the faster he got to work, the better his results.
"Going," he said, and he directed the Cloak to take Peter. He created a portal to Tony's basement lab and grabbed the fallen mask carefully as the Cloak carried Peter's unconscious form through. Stephen stepped on through from Queens to Tony's private lab in the Avengers Compound and the portal shut behind him.
Stephen immediately directed the Cloak to take Peter to the wash station that was part of the lab installation in the basement. Getting the rest of the acid off Peter was integral, even if he had been able to slow down its natural properties by magic. So he set the burned side of Peter's face under a flow of cool, gentle water and began rinsing it away.
The good news was that while it had hit a large part of the left side of his face, it did not seem to get into his eye. He stilled his hand magically just to open the left eye to confirm that it was fine, then placed a cloth over both eyes to help prevent any water from streaming into them. The Cloak provided the rest of the barrier with its collar after Stephen carefully manipulated it into position. While the Cloak wasn't particularly fond of water, it would endure it as needed—and especially so for emergencies. At least, that was the case with his old Cloak. He wasn't entirely sure about this one, yet.
But even as Stephen worked, doubt started to gnaw at him concerning his choice of location. While portalling to Tony's basement workshop had been instinctual at this point, what he really wanted was to bring Peter to a hospital.
At the thought of Metro-General and Christine, Stephen's heart clenched. If he went to the hospital here, there would be no Christine waiting for him. She wasn't there to help, to keep things on the down-low and help keep Peter's identity a secret while he got thorough emergency care.
She had never been there in the first place. She had never met Stephen Strange in this reality.
And worse, there were no other medical facilities he could turn to, either. Stephen couldn't bring Peter to any medical bay in the Avengers Compound due to the government still trying to figure out Spider-Man's identity—and all the questions as to how he got to the Compound instantly from New York City would put Stephen in a tighter spot as well. He couldn't afford that, not with him being needed to close the rifts.
And with Kamar-Taj still completely inaccessible, he didn't even have a safe haven for Peter there. No, the only tools he had were whatever was available in this basement and his own rudimentary healing spells.
He clenched his teeth and refocused on Peter. He couldn't lament any longer on what he did not have and needed to focus on what he could continue to do to stabilize Peter. Unfortunately, there was little more he could do to stabilize an acid burn than what he was already doing: cold flowing water for a long, long time.
But as time ticked onward and the minutes passed after his first healing spells, he did consider something else that he needed once he was finished with the water. "Where is the med kit?" he muttered aloud as he looked at the various cabinets and drawers that covered the area.
He had forgotten one other feature of the basement workshop in this moment of emergency. "It's in the cabinet to your top left, Doctor Strange," FRIDAY chimed in. Stephen startled for a second, but quickly recovered. He made sure Peter's position under the sink was stable before leaving him laying on the Cloak as he grabbed the med kit and started to break it open. "Would you like for me to wake Doctor Cho?" FRIDAY continued.
Doctor Cho? Hmm. He wasn't sure what her stance was on the Accords and what she would do if she found out Spider-Man was a kid. For both Peter's and Tony's sake, he said, "I don't think she could do anything I cannot. But if Colonel Rhodes is present, I could use another set of arms, maybe." And he would want to know where Tony was.
"I will summon him."
As the water continued to stream over part of Peter's face, Stephen started again his own brand of healing magic. It wasn't terribly robust—nothing like Master Wu's, for instance—but it was strengthened by everything he knew about human anatomy. It involved subtle things such as discouraging foreign contaminants from entering the body at a specific area—in this case, the open wounds on Peter's face—and sealing off areas that had not been touched to prevent the spread of the contaminating substance. He wasn't sure if he should attempt any sort of repairment spells as he had no experience working on enhanced bodies. He knew Peter had some sort of super strength, but he did not know if that included any other metabolic enhancements to keep up with the strength. It would be better to ask him once he brought him back to consciousness.
He was in the middle of the last of his spellwork when he saw Rhodey descending the stairs to the door to the lab. Following behind him was Vision. Stephen frowned slightly and glanced up at the ceiling. "You got both?" he asked.
"Vision heard Colonel Rhodes coming down the hall," FRIDAY said in explanation. Well, Stephen hoped Peter didn't mind too much. His face was partially covered with both the cloth and water, so that could help him if he was especially worried.
The interior of the wash station was blocked from viewing at the entrance of the lab, so Stephen only heard the door open and a couple steps, accompanied by a slight mechanical depressurization sound made by Rhodey's leg braces. Vision was utterly silent.
"Hello?" Rhodey called.
"Back here," Stephen said. He let another layer of the spell sink onto Peter's skin, just beneath the flowing water, as Rhodey and Vision rounded the corner.
"Oh God," Rhodey muttered. They certainly must have looked like a sight: the Cloak, floating up like a gurney against the counter and supporting Peter's body as the left side of his face sat under the faucet's flood of continuous cold water with sparks of golden magic glowing underneath the flow. The greenish part of the acid had long run off, but just because it appeared to be gone didn't mean it was actually gone. Rhodey took a second look at the scene and said, "Since when have you been working with Spider-Man?"
"Since tonight when a rift showed up in a park in Queens," Stephen answered.
"Queens? I know they've started to appear in some cities at night, but—Queens is way worse than what Wong let on."
"This is the first time it's shown up in a major metropolis like this," Stephen explained. He started another layer of the spell on Peter's face. "And unfortunately, something nasty came through. I'm not sure what happened while I was trying to close the rift, but its spit got on his mask in the process. Wong was joining Tony—likely with others—as I brought him here."
While he summarized what happened, Vision had come closer and rounded the Cloak to stand opposite of Stephen and see Peter's front side. Though his eyes were still draped with the towel, Vision still saw enough to say, "I remember that you commented on Spider-Man's youthful voice during the battle at the airport, Colonel, but I did not imagine him to be this young."
"What?" Rhodey rounded him as well and stared. "Jesus," he muttered, then reached for the cloth before thinking better of it. He looked at Stephen. "Did the acid hit his eyes?"
"Thankfully, no. That's just to keep the water out of his eyes."
"Right," Rhodey nodded. "Still, from what I see—God, he looks like he's just a kid. Do we know how old he is?" He paused, then frowned further. "Does Tony know how old he is?"
Stephen wasn't entirely sure if it was his place to say his age—that would be for Peter to decide once he woke up. Instead he said, "From what I understand, Tony has been trying to protect him." From bad guys with better gear, and, from what he recalled, from the government at first by bringing him under the fold of the Accords, then after Peter thwarted that plan, by stalling officials handily for the last two years. Still, at the time, Stephen hadn't known that Spider-Man was underage young.
But after listening to Peter on the phone and his refusal to leave the scene of something far beyond his purview, he could see what Tony was trying to do—even if Stephen would have done it differently, perhaps.
Rhodey pinched the bridge of his nose in visible frustration. "Right. Of course he was. God damn it, Tony."
Vision was slightly frowning. "Are the other masked vigilantes on the streets this young?"
"I really, really hope not. I feel bad enough watching eighteen- and nineteen-year-olds shipped overseas in the military. We don't need teenage vigilantes to add to that." Rhodey shook his head with a jerk and looked back at Stephen. "That's a topic for another time. What do you need from us?"
Stephen placed another layer of the magic on Peter's face. "He'll need somewhere to recover, but I don't think it can be the Compound medbay. He's protective about his identity. He may also need a skin graft, depending on what his enhanced body can—or cannot—do."
Rhodey shook his head. "We can't have him in the medbay. Maybe he could be in your old room. We could use Cho's team, the same one that worked on you, if he does need a skin graft, though. She has some pretty amazing technology in that department, and her team is very discreet."
Vision asked, "How long do you need to run him under the water?"
"In total, at least twenty minutes. I am treating it as you would any acidic burn from Earth's chemicals, though it's possible the same rules don't apply. Still, it's a baseline to work with."
"How long has it been so far?" Rhodey asked.
Stephen frowned and shook his head. "I'm not sure." He reached for his pouch where he usually put his phone—and found it empty. Shit. Where had he last used his phone?
FRIDAY, as ever, proved to be most helpful. "You've been running the water for sixteen minutes and twenty-three seconds, Doctor Strange. And if I am reading your movement correctly, you are looking for your phone, which you left floating in the lab. It fell onto the floor after you were gone."
Ah, right. "Thanks. Could one of you…?"
"Of course, Doctor." Vision left to find the phone in the greater lab area.
Stephen applied another diagnostic spell on Peter to see how his vitals were performing. As he did, Rhodey asked, "Have you heard anything from Tony?"
He shook his head. "If he's still fighting that creature, I imagine it's keeping him occupied. Otherwise he may be busy keeping civilians and first responders out of the park while Wong and the others try to close the rift." Though, if that were the case, he would have expected Tony to call in for a status update on Peter. Which likely meant he was dealing with the bug—or more bugs. Not a great thought. Stephen exhaled. "I want to get back there, but I don't think it would be wise to leave Peter as the acid isn't necessarily the same as Earth acids." If it started reacting in a way that was delayed, he would hate himself for not taking extra precaution. And he was certain that Tony would hate him, as well.
"FRIDAY will let us know if they need extra backup," Rhodey said. "In the meantime, I can make sure my suit is prepared. I'll be back in a few minutes."
Stephen inclined his head in reply, then turned his attention back to Peter. As he applied another spell to look at what remained of the acidic particles on Peter's face, Vision set his phone down beside him. "You had no new notifications on your phone's lock screen, Doctor," he said pleasantly. At his furrowed look, Vision explained, "Colonel Rhodes asked if you had heard from Tony. I decided to take a look at your lock screen to see if there were any missed messages or notifications. I hope that wasn't an intrusion?"
"No, no, that's fine," he said. "Tony would probably find it easier to use FRIDAY, anyway."
"Very true," said Vision. His own brow furrowed lightly at the spellwork. "May you walk me through what you are doing?"
Stephen explained some of the diagnostic and healing spell work he had set upon Peter's skin to better block the acid and any other contaminants from digging deeper under the layers. The one he kept the closest eye on was the one that had identified the acid's structure as an unwelcome material and the reason he was laying Peter under the flowing water for so long: irrigation was the best tactic to neutralize and wash away all the acid.
Not too long after twenty minutes had passed, he saw no lingering contaminants on Peter's skin as identified by his spell. Stephen kept the kid's eyes covered with the damp towel in some attempt at anonymity as he took the first aid kit, then gestured for the Cloak to bring him to the couch, Vision following. As they moved, Rhodey returned to the room, this time with his large suit of armor. War Machine, Stephen was pretty sure it was called. The lab door was just large enough to let him through.
"How is he?" Rhodey asked.
"The acid's gone, but there is—moderate damage," Stephen said. The Cloak set Peter on the couch and carefully wiggled its way out to set itself upon Stephen's shoulders once more. Stephen ignored the dampness of the collar as it brushed against his neck. "I put him under a spell before I came here. I'm not sure if I should lift it now and ask him more questions about his powers and if those include regenerative abilities, or wait until we have access to morphine." There was no denying that the kid would be in quite a bit of pain with the injury he sustained. But Stephen didn't want to apply anything other than protective bandaging until he understood what Peter's body was capable of. He grabbed the dressing from the kit and set it over the burn area, then paused as he reached for the bandaging and frowned at the shaking in his hand. "One of you should probably put on the bandage."
"Certainly," Vision said. As he carefully wound it to Stephen's specifications, a portal opened into the lab and Wong stepped through. He had a hole at the end of one of his sashes and a small cut above his eyebrow, but otherwise appeared fine. The portal closed behind him.
"The rift's taken care of," Wong said in greeting, brushing his brow off with his sleeve. "Never seen those things before, but I recognized the dimension. Remind me to make note of it." He took a step forward. "How's Spider-Man?"
"I managed to flush out the acid, and he has thankfully kept his sight. I'm not sure what the damage will be to his muscular functions on the left side of his face, though—it depends entirely on what his body is capable of beyond super strength."
Wong looked up from his study of Peter to look at Stephen. "Doesn't Tony know?"
Stephen shook his head. "I haven't gotten the chance to get that information yet. How long do you think he'll be dealing with Queens authorities?"
Wong frowned. "Tony told me he was coming here to see how Spider-Man was doing."
"What? No, I haven't heard from Tony since I got here." Alarm bells began to ring in the back of his head. "How long ago was this?"
"It was soon after our arrival, perhaps five minutes after."
Peter was under the water for well over twenty minutes—so that left what, fifteen, twenty minutes of Tony completely unaccounted for? But surely FRIDAY would have said something.
"FRIDAY," Rhodey said with the voice that reminded Stephen that he was, indeed, a colonel. "Where's Tony?"
FRIDAY didn't say anything. But one of the monitors in the lab suddenly turned on; it was the computer that was used to monitor all of the trackers watching for Strange's movements.
As he approached the computer, Stephen saw that it was muted. But it didn't change the fact that one of the sensors had a glaring red box surrounding it, indicating that a portal had been made at one of the sensor's locations.
And eighteen minutes ago, the sensor had tripped at the New York Sanctum.
