Work Text:
"Marc. Marc, hey, wake up."
He felt a hand gently touch his shoulder. He only shifted, mumbling incoherent words.
"Marc."
He opened his eyes blearily. He saw Layla sitting on the bed next to him, who was brushing through his hair with her hand gently.
"Mm. What is it?" Marc asked tiredly, rubbing his eyes. He always woke up a bit groggy, even if he got his eight hours. Layla let out a light chuckle. "Your going to miss work for the fifth time in a row." Marc's half-closed eyes shot open and he quickly sat up on his bed. "What? What time is it?"
"10:10, you dumbo. Your shift was meant to start ten minutes ago." Layla answered with a laugh. Marc groaned in response, "Ugh, I'm always sleeping through my alarms."
He got up and quickly got his clothes ready. "Coffee's on the kitchen table waiting for you. And you did wake up, but you just pressed snooze. You probably forgot." Layla replied.
Marc quickly got dressed, fixing his hair and taking his morning coffee and a quick slice of toast. They were staying at a hotel for a while, and the hotel's furniture was pretty good, a huge improvement compared to his mess at home. He quickly fed Not-Gus, said bye to Layla and headed out the door to his car. He got in and began to start driving to his workplace, speeding up a bit, but he didn't care too much because he knew Donna would complain regardless.
"Steven. Steven." Marc called.
"Mhm. What is it?" Steven answered wearily in his rear-view mirror, still sounding half asleep.
"Time for work, sleepyhead."
"Do I have to? I'm tired.."
"Well, we're already twenty minutes late, and Donna is going to consider us crazy if we randomly switch up with a whole different attitude and accent. And we don't want to get fired as we nearly did last time." Marc replied sharply, hoping to get the message across.
"Fine." Marc chuckled at Steven's grumpy attitude. "Yknow, you seem like the type of person who would wake up all chatty."
"Dont even get me started. You can't say much, I don't wake up as bad as you do on my best day."
"Whatever you say, buddy, if it makes you feel any better." Steven scoffed at Marc's teasing in response. They pulled up in the parking space next to the museum. Marc allowed Steven to front for the job
and he ran straight for his workplace. When he got inside, he instantly saw Donna, who had the same frown on her face that she always has.
"Fifth time in a row, Stevie. I'm going to be honest this time, okay?" Donna said.
"Donna, I'm so sorry, I-"
"No no no," Donna interrupted, "I don't want to hear it. But I'm getting fed up of this. So you better do your job correctly and not be late next time, okay? This is your last chance."
Steven sighed, letting his hands fall to his side as he watched Donna walk away slowly. She turned around to give him a final look of disapproval. "And remember, your not a tour guide, Stevie."
"It's.. Steven.." he whispered so quietly that Donna didn't hear him. He went to do his job.
An hour later, he heard a loud fuss nearby, as if a bunch of teenagers just came in. Curious as to what it was, he decided to give it a look. He walked over and saw a group of about 15 teenagers, it seemed like they were on one of those school trips. He noticed J.B and Dylan talking to the kids. He couldn't help but come over. "Hey, J.B," He said, walking over to the group. Some of the teenagers looked at him as J.B gave him a nod.
"Hey Scotty, how you doing?"
"Erm, it's actually Steven.. but, I'm doing good. You looking out for these guys?" He pointed to the circle of teenagers, which he now was a part of. J.B gave a nod. "They are on a school trip. They go to Midtown High School, in New York."
"Hey, he works in the museum aswell! What's your name sir?" A brown haired and brown eyed cushy male asked Steven. He gave a light smile; these teenagers didn't seem so bad.
"Steven Grant. I work at the gift shop, but I come here usually anyway, because I'm more into the tour guide stuff." There was a kid who had a phone out, and seemed to either be recording the tour or himself, and he seemed like he was trying to act like one of those famous celebrities with the way he held his phone like a camera.
"I'm Ned Leeds, He's Flash Thompson," he pointed to the guy with the camera. Steven looked at Ned and he saw him mouth 'but we don't really like him' Steven gave a light chuckle at that. "This is Peter Parker, my best friend." He pointed to a kind brown haired boy. The kid gave Steven a friendly smile and a wave, before talking back to a girl. "And the person he's talking to is his girlfriend, MJ. Cool, right?" MJ was a friendly girl with long, wavy hair. She also waved, giving a light 'hey' before talking to Peter again. Ned named the other people in the group aswell. They seem like a lovely group of people, Steven thought to himself.
"Oo! A plushie!" Flash got a nearby plushie of Taweret. "Is this one of the gods?" Steven shared a nod.
"Yes. Her name is Taweret."
"How many gods are there in total?"
"Well, you see, Egyptian gods like Taweret come to a group called the Ennead, which is just a group of the different gods. There are 12 main gods that make up this group. Sobek, Seth, Isis, Thoth, Osiris, Horus, Oshtur, Ra, Sekhmet, Anubis, of course Khonshu and Bast.. oh sorry, I'm rambling, aren't I?"
"Wow, sir! You know your stuff!" Peter said excitedly.
"Well, it is my job." Steven winked. Steven followed them around for a while, as Dylan (who he ignored the entire time seeing as what happened the last time they tried to talk) and J.B showed them around. Steven helped a lot, and seemed to be doing a better job at entertaining them than even Dylan, who's whole job was being the tour guide. He talked to the group for about 30 minutes, until Donna came up to him and gave him a lecture Infront of everyone.
"Steven! What the hell do you think your doing?" Donna came up to him and asked, irritated. "Helping the kids, if that wasn't obvious." Steven instantly facepalmed himself in his mind for saying that last part.
"How many times do I have to get it through your skull that your not the bloody tour guide. You are Steven Grant of the Gift Shop. Is that clear?" He could hear the teenagers cringe at the lecture. "He's not even the tour guide?" Peter whispered to his friends. "He's doing a way better job than the other two people." Ned nodded at that.
"Yeah, I hope he can stay, he's making it fun." Ned said, as Steven let out a sigh.
"Please, why can't you just give me a chance?" He asked desperately. "I promise, I'll make it up to you."
"Your always late, your always complaining and wondering off, and then you wonder why I don't give you a promotion. And after you vandalised the toilet, your lucky we even give you a second chance. You should've been fired ages ago." Through Donna's rambling, he heard Marc trying to speak to him.
"Steven. Steven!" Steven tried to ignore him, instead trying to carry on the conversation best as he could.
"Bollocks.. and who the hell would vandalise a toilet?"
"You, apparently." Donna poked him in the chest. "Steven, get everyone out of there. Someone's coming."
"What?" Steven said, directing it more at Marc than anyone else. He turned around, trying to get a look at the entrance which was blocked by the circle of kids staring at him. He walked forward, uttering an 'excuse me' so he could get past. Donna tried to snatch his attention, but he continued to stare at the entrance. That's when he saw it, a bunch of criminals wearing masks bang open the big entrance door. Steven ran to the security desk close to them and pressed the button that would alert the police and send out an alarm. Everyone else must've not noticed because they stared at him in confusion as he sprinted back.
"We have to go, okay? Just follow me."
"Steven, I expect an explanation this instant." Donna said loudly, seeming pissed off at this point. Then, he heard shouting from the entrance. Everyone looked at the criminals and realised what was happening.
"That. That's happening. We're getting robbed, Donna. Come on, follow me. We need to get everyone someplace safe." Everyone's face lit up in suprise as they began to whisper about what the hell was happening. Steven brought them to a room far away from what was happening and put them all in. The teenagers all formed a horizontal line at the back where they all sat down, talking to each other, most had a confused and scared look on their face. "I already alerted the police," he told Donna before she could even ask.
"Okay. I've got all the other civilians evacuated, so they will not get harmed." J.B informed them. "Okay, that's.. that's good, I'm going to go." He pointed at the door. Donna and the others quickly looked at him in annoyance and confusion.
"No Stevie, you aren't going anywhere. You aren't security and we can't let you get injured." Donna replied, furious.
"And who's going to stop me? You? Mate, some of the things in there are one of a kind, irreplaceable. And yet you consider everything in here to be so disposable." Steven snapped back. Everyone looked at him in shock.
"Steven. Steven it's okay, let me step in." Steven quickly let Marc step in, seeing as his emotions were starting to go everywhere. Marc and Steven had practiced fronting without making it so obvious, and now if they concentrated hard enough he could do it without anyone noticing.
"Scotty.."
"Stevie."J .B and Donna said at the same time.
"No! It's Steven." Marc snapped, trying to do his best impression of a British voice. It seemed to work.. sorta. But he was becoming infuriated by those two and he hadn't even met them. "Not Scotty, Not Stevie. Steven." He gave Donna a glare as he left, whilst throwing her a key. "If I'm not back within ten minutes, you lock that door and wait for the police to arrive." And then he left.
He could already see the shouting of the robbers as they were trying to steal stuff. Who knew what they had already. Marc snuck around, to get a better view. He noted 2 on the left, 2 on the right and 4 by the entrance. Right now he was in the back, and he decided to go with the two on the left first. He snuck up to them, being extremely careful to not make a footstep too loud, but they didn't get a single clue that he was near as they were too entranced by the artifacts and placing them in their duffle bags. There was one of the left side corner and one on the right side corner. He got the one on the left side corner first, putting him in a headlock and covering his mouth to stop him from pulling any attention. The man soon fell unconscious, and Marc let him slip slowly on the ground, taking the knife from the man's hands and putting it into his pocket incase he needed to use it.
The man in the right corner was muttering, something about 'we're going to be rich,' but Marc didn't care. He creeped up on the unsuspecting man, who turned around to face Marc at the last second, Marc quickly punched the man's nose, grabbing the man by the shirt and pushing him to the wall. The man opened his mouth to shout, but was met to a painful kick to the chest and another punch to the face. The man fell to the ground unconscious.
Marc then walked to the entrance, this would be the hardest part. There was a man in each corner of the room. He went to the closest one first, the one in the bottom left corner. He quickly put him in a headlock and watched as he passed out. But then..
"Shit, guys, someone's here!" Everyone turned around and faced Marc. Fuck. All 3 of them had a knife in hand and a look in their face that showed zero sympathy. They all began to walk closer in an attempt to corner Marc. Marc steadily walked to the left side of the room which he was just in and raised his hands up. The 3 men blocked the way out to the middle area, so he was about to go the other way to the back area until - Shit. The 2 men from the right side had came other and blocked both ways out. He felt something tap his shoulder, and he instinctively grabbed the hand on his shoulder and elbowed the person's stomach as he turned around. The man stumbled back in pain, and Marc quickly followed it up with a knee to the stomach. Marc turned around, seeing one of the people with a knife at hand get too close to him, as they tried to stab him, he quickly grabbed the man's hand, took the knife and tossed it to the ground. Marc twisted the person's hand, making him yelp in pain as he kicked the man forward with his shoe making him stumble to the ground.
Marc began to walk backwards, coming to the middle of the room. The 5 men - two injured - began to walk up to him, and when Marc felt his back touch the wall he knew he messed up. The 5 men circled him, now leaving him with no way to escape.
"Look who we have here. You really thought you were good enough to go up against all of us?" The man looked at his shirt. "Aww, you work here don't you? How adorable." The man mocked. Marc glared at him in response.
"I'm not afraid of you." Marc replied sharply.
"Let's teach you a lesson." One of the people walked up to him, and Marc braced for a punch on the nose.
And that's what he got.
His head jolted back in pain. At the same time, he felt a knee to the stomach, and then another punch. He winced, feeling disappointed he let this happen to him. The man punched him a couple more times, as if he was some punching bag, and Marc felt as pain washed through him. He grunted as the man grabbed his neck, pulling him up and choking him. Marc let out a gasp for air that didn't come. He searched his back pocket to find something, anything to let him escape.
Yes, there it is.
He got out the knife and stabbed it in the man's hand. He cringed as the man yelled and fell in pain, but the chokehold he had on Marc was now gone. Marc stumbled to the ground as the others launched at him, but he ducked and managed to get out of the way of them all. He elbowed one of them and watched as they fell to the ground, before Marc moved away from the crowd. That's when he heard loud footsteps coming his way. "This is the police, put your hands in the air!" He turned over and saw 2 police officers with weapons aimed at the criminals. Marc let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding in. Another police officer came up to Marc. "Sir, are you okay?" The officer asked.
"Uh, I feel a bit of pain and.." he felt something drip down his nose, he wiped at it with his hand and noticed it was blood. "My nose is bleeding a bit, but other than that I'm fine." The officer nodded.
"Okay. We'll get these criminals arrested quickly. We've evacuated most people, and we're getting the rest now. I recommend you go with them." Marc nodded, and began to walk back to where Peter and the others were. He stared at a reflection to fix his nose, wiping the blood away so that when he came in the room it wouldn't look like he just got beat up.
"Marc, you okay?" Steven asked using the reflection. "Don't worry, Steven. That was nothing." He chuckled. It wasn't a lie, he had been through worse. After wiping his nose, he let Steven front to avoid suspicion. Donna was mad at him, but Peter and his friends looked sorta thankful, as if he was expecting Marc to get hurt.
"Bro, why didn't you use your spider-powers?" Ned asked in a whisper to make sure no one else heard him.
"Because I don't have my suit," Peter replied quietly. He scanned the room and was confident no one heard him.
"Plus, no one got hurt, so everything went well in the end." Peter assured Ned. Ned let out a nod. "Missed opportunity, but whatever."
Peter overheard Steven and his boss arguing. He sorta felt bad for Steven, he was a nice guy and his boss didn't treat him right at all. Everyone was led outside, and when he saw Steven leave, he had to say goodbye. Work was to be cancelled for the next two days because of what happened, and so was the school trip. They would be given a hotel to stay in for the next few days instead, and were allowed to do whatever they wanted as long as they didn't go too far.
Steven told Layla what had happened, and she wasn't too happy either. Everything would've turned upside down if it wasn't for Marc, and yet they got no credit for it. Donna was completely biased, and he hated her more day by day.
[A FEW DAYS LATER] Peter was in the hotel with MJ and Ned. They were still quite surprised with what happened a couple days ago, but they easily distracted themselves from it. Everyone was asleep, Peter took the bed, MJ took the couch and Ned took the sleeping bag. It wasn't much but they used what they had. Plus, there wasn't enough rooms for everyone in this hotel because the school had a strict budget.
Peter felt his eyes flutter. He heard something - the sound of a phone. He opened his eyes slowly, and rubbed them. He let out a yawn before looking at the desk next to him. His ringtone was going off on his phone, and someone was calling him. He checked Ned and MJ were still asleep before reaching his phone. His heart skipped a beat when he saw who was calling him.
Why the hell was Doctor Strange calling him at 3 in the morning? It's not everyday that Strange calls him out of nowhere. He quickly answered it. "Hello?" Peter said, in a loud whisper.
"Hey, Peter." Doctor Strange answered. Peter could hear the doctor's tiredness over the phone. "Uh, Strange, sir, why are you calling me at 3AM?"
"I'm just checking on you. You doing alright? I heard your museum got robbed."
"What.. uh, yes sir I'm fine. But couldn't you have saved that for the morning?"
"Well, yes. But we're having a little meeting at 1. Is that fine with you? We'll portal you there and back, shouldn't be more than 2 hours."
"Like an Avengers Meeting?" Peter asked excitedly.
"Yep. I'll take that answer as a yes. It'll be quite important. See you there, kid."
"You sound tired, Strange. You should get some sleep."
"I'm fine." Then he hung up. Jeez, someone's a little grumpy, Peter thought to himself.
[1 PM]
Ned, Peter and MJ were watching a movie together; the Transformers. "Wow, that is so cool!" Ned laughed. And suddenly, an orange portal opened, and Ned and MJ jumped back on the couch.
"Peter?" Doctor Strange stepped forward, looking around until he eventually saw him. "You ready?"
"OMG it's Doctor Strange!" Ned blurted out loud, then put a hand over his mouth.
"Hey, Strange, Yes I am." Peter got his bracelet off of the the table and put it on. This bracelet would allow him to turn into his Spider-Suit with just a press of a button. Peter got up to head for the portal.
"Wait, Peter, where are you going?" MJ asked Peter turned around. "I'm going with the Avengers. Don't worry, I'll be back in about 2 hours.' And then he stepped through the portal.
"Woahh, I forgot how cool the Avengers Tower looked." Peter admired the tower he was in. They were in the conference room, and he could name everyone there: Natasha, Clint, Natasha's sister Yelena, Kate Bishop, Tony, Thor, Dr Strange, Scott Lang, and Bruce Banner. Peter took a seat next to Thor and Tony.
"Okay. Everyone is here, so we will now start. Some of you may have already heard of it, but yesterday news reported a very strange phenomenon happening in Egypt, in a place called Cairo. JARVIS, show the footage." JARVIS pulled out a hologram of a news reporter, with the camera showing the night sky change. But it wasn't a natural change, it was a sudden change. Like the night sky was suddenly going back in time - no one could put their word on exactly what it was.
"Coming at you live, a very strange phenomenon is occuring within the sands of Cairo as the sky is.. changing? There is no reasonable explanation as to what is occurring, but let's just hope it isn't the end of the world." The news reporter stated. The clip ended, and Tony continued.
"That's not the worst thing, however, as this incident happened little more than a month ago, and yet it only has become public a day ago. As if they didn't want us to see what was happening at first."
"..Strange? Have you heard about anything like this being possible?" Bruce asked Strange, who seemed deep in thought. If anyone knew anything about magic, it would be him. And yet, he couldn't remember any spell that could change the sky, not like that.
"Strange..?"
"No. I don't think so. Especially like that. With how fast that change was, that's something I've never seen before. I will have to do more looking in Kamar Taj."
Everyone sat in silence for a minute, trying to figure out what could've caused that.
"Also, one more thing to add, another vigilante has been spotted a few days ago. JARVIS, pull it up." A hologram of a mummy-looking suit was shown. "I believe it goes by the name Moon Knight. It's first appearance was in Cario and now has been seen a few times in London. Fitting it's name, it is only seen at night. I'm not surprised if this is a vigilante who wants to keep a secret identity, seeing as it hasn't been spotted without its mask once."
"And your suggesting..?" Natasha asked.
"Well, we try to look out and see if we can catch them. They seem powerful, and that means if they're up to no good they will be our enemy. And if not.. who knows, maybe he can join us."
"And how are we supposed to catch them?" Kate Bishop asked.
"For now, we do nothing. We wait to see more appearances of him until we get a better deal of who we're up against.
And then, we pay him a little visit."