Ethan stared down at the face beneath the hood. It was a heart-shaped face with fair skin and a light dusting of freckles across her nose. Her hair was a short, blonde bob, and her blue eyes were narrowed at him with enough lethal intent to stop a heart.
She wasn't just a woman. She was the woman.
Beneath the cloak, a flash of a white-and-black jumpsuit with pink and neon-blue webbing patterns caught the moonlight.
Spider-Woman? Gwen Stacy?
Ethan's mind went into overdrive. How was she here? This was 2007—the very beginning of the MCU timeline. She was a multiversal traveler, but she belonged in Miles Morales' orbit, or at least a decade later than this. Did she take a wrong turn at an Alchemax collider?
"What are you looking at, freak?" Gwen hissed, her voice sharp. "Haven't seen a woman before? Untie me!"
She let out a frustrated grunt, struggling against the glowing orange ropes. But the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak were physical manifestations of mystical will—the more she fought, the more they molded to her form. As she twisted, the bands tightened across her chest and hips, accentuating the athletic curves of her spider-suit in a way that made Ethan's face turn a suspicious shade of red.
"Ahem... sorry," Ethan muttered, quickly looking away from the "immoral" geometry of his own spell. "The bands respond to resistance. It's a magic thing, not a 'me' thing."
He snapped his fingers. The glowing energy pulsed and the bands shifted, loosening their grip around her torso but remaining firmly locked around her wrists and ankles. He wasn't about to let a Spider-variant loose on a New York rooftop until he had answers.
Gwen stopped struggling, exhaling a breath of relief, though her glare didn't soften. "You're one of them, aren't you? The guys in the robes. I saw the big circular window across town. Is this how you treat visitors? You just hog-tie them on roofs?"
"In my defense, you were the one doing Olympic-level parkour across Hell's Kitchen at midnight," Ethan countered, crossing his arms. "I'm the Sanctum Master. It's literally my job to catch dimensional anomalies. And you, Gwen, are the biggest anomaly I've seen all week."
Gwen's eyes widened. "How do you know my name?"
Ethan smirked. "Oh, believe me... I know a lot more than just your name." He walked a slow circle around her, his mind already calculating the 5,000 system points he was about to bag. "So, Gwen Stacy. Care to tell me how a girl from Earth-65 ends up in a world where Tony Stark just barely learned how to fly a tin suit? Because according to my records, you're about fifteen years early for the party."
Gwen went dead silent, her defiance flickering into genuine confusion. "Earth-65? Tony Stark? I don't know what you're talking about, but if you don't let me go, you will regret it."
"Oh, how so?" Ethan shrugged. "Your parlor tricks are nothing in front of me. So let's calm down and talk. Why are you here, and where is your interdimensional travel watch? I know you guys usually carry one of those gadgets."
"I don't have a watch!" Gwen snapped, her voice trembling slightly. "I was fighting... something. A rift opened, and the next thing I know, I'm falling into a dumpster in some dark alley. And now I'm being bound by some pervert. This place is a nightmare."
Ethan rubbed his chin. No watch? A random rift? This wasn't the Spider-Verse plot he knew.
****
[ System Alert]
New Mission: Domesticate the Stray.
Goal: You can't just leave a Spider-variant wandering the streets of NYC. S.H.I.E.L.D. will have her in a lab within the hour. Bring her to the Sanctum.
Reward: 1000 points, Unlocking Multiversal Mission Features.
****
Domesticate? System, your choice of words is really pushing it, Ethan thought.
"Alright, Gwendolyn," Ethan said, waving his hand. The Crimson Bands floated her off the roof like a piece of luggage. "You're coming with me. We have a lot to talk about."
"I am not going anywhere with a creepy magician!"
"Technically, you're already going," Ethan remarked as he opened a golden portal beneath them. "And don't worry. I'm not going to harm you. Besides, you don't want to be moving around aimlessly in an unknown world."
He flicked his wrist, dispelling the bands as they passed through the gateway.
Gwen fell onto the plush Persian rug of the Sanctum's foyer. She scrambled up, glaring at Ethan, but she didn't run. He was right—she had nowhere to go, and despite his weirdness, she sensed no malice from him.
Ethan stepped into the foyer and closed the portal. Gwen looked around the cavernous, relic-filled hall with wide, curious eyes, but she kept her mouth shut.
"Welcome to 177B Bleecker Street," Ethan said, gesturing to the grand staircase. "Make yourself at home. I'll go get the first-aid kit and some clothes that don't scream 'extra-dimensional vigilante.'"
Gwen watched him walk away, her shoulders finally dropping an inch. "Great. I'm stuck with a wizard."
Author's Note:
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