"Now what is it that you want now Wanda?" Wong asked, stepping right in front of them with a stern expression aimed at Wanda.
"Well first off Wong, I want to sincerely apologize for the way I acted the last time we met. I let the Darkhold corrupt me so much to where I became a monster. I never intend for that to happen again." Wanda said.
Wong remained stoic as he digested all of this information. "Um does that mean you accept the apology or that you don't accept?" Peter asked.
"What else did you come here for?" Wong asked, disregarding Peter's question all together.
"Well, it actually has something to do with the Darkhold......or its corruption I should say." Wanda said. She then took off the gloves she was wearing and then showed her fingers to Wong. He looked at the gray color on the bottom part of her fingers and looked back at Wanda. "I have a theory that the corruption is wearing off, but I don't know if it's accurate, or if it is accurate, then what has caused it to occur."
Wong's face softened slightly at the news. "You are correct. The corruption is leaving you Wanda." he said. "And it's more than likely because of what you are doing now."
"What do you mean?" Wanda asked.
"Corruption is based on self-centered thoughts. The reason you allowed the corruption to get to you before was because your thoughts were self-centered. All you cared about was being reunited with your kids. You did not care where you had to go, what you had to do.......or who you had to go through in order to get what you want. You even went as far as murdering people in other universes in order to get what you want. And you were willing to kill a girl in order to take her power for yourself." Wong said.
Wanda's eyes rested to the floor and tears threatened to roll down her face. All of those things Wong said were accurate. In all truth, she was even scared of herself for what she had done. Instinctively, Peter went and wrapped an arm around her and held her close. Wanda looked up at him and offered as much of a grateful smile as she could muster to him. He was right. She was happy he was with her right now. She didn't even wanna think how she would be if he wasn't with her now.
"You did some very self centered things Wanda. And that's why the corruption is showing on your fingers. But one way to defeat corruption.....is doing some unselfish deeds. It seems like that's what you have been doing. Whatever it is you're doing, it's causing the corruption to melt away." Wong continued.
Wanda looked at Wong again and got lost in her thoughts again. What was she doing that caused the corruption to melt away? What unselfish deeds was she committing to?
"Well that makes sense." Peter said, drawing Wanda's attention. "You've been helping people at the FEAST shelter. You saved me from the lizard. And you've been helping.......Spider-Man......stop some crime. Those are some pretty unselfish deeds."
"Yes." Wong said. "The more of that you do, the more you will free yourself of the Darkhold's corruption. But the more self-centered actions you do.....the more the corruption will return."
"Good to know." Wanda commented. "Thank you." Wong only nodded his head, with the hard expression still evident on his face.
"Where's Stephen?" Peter asked, looking around the Sanctum. Wong looked at Peter.
"Dr. Strange is not here. He's busy handling an incursion that he caused." Wong said.
"An incursion? What's that?" Peter asked.
"It's when a world gets destroyed based on the actions of an individual from anther universe. Strange caused an incursion for dream-walking while trying to stop you." Wong said, looking at Wanda again, who winced. Clearly she had done more damaged then she realized. She hoped that she didn't cause an incursion. "So now he's left to go and fix it."
"I see." Peter said.
"Even if he wasn't off doing that, he's gone through a lot as of recently. Dealing with the Scarlet Witch," Wong said, causing another sigh to come out of Wanda. "And dealing with the Spider-Man mess not too long before that," Peter inwardly winced at Wong's words. "He deserves some time to rest and relax."
"Understandable. Thanks for your input." Wanda said, grabbing Peter's arms and pulling him towards the door. Peter, sent one last awkward wave to Wong before the doors to the Sanctum closed. "That was a lot more uncomfortable than I thought it was gonna be." Wanda admitted.
"I'm sorry Wanda." Peter said.
"Don't be." Wanda interjected. "I brought this upon myself. And I needed to face this in order to get some answers." Wanda then looked back at her now gloved hands. "At least now I know that the corruption is wearing off at long last."
Peter looked around for any sort of distractions to try and get their mind off of this grim subject. And then his eyes rested upon a police station and he got an idea.
"Well let's act to get rid of those black fingers some more shall we?" Peter asked.
Wanda looked at Peter in confusion, before she saw the police station out of the corner of her eye. "You mean go on patrol?" she asked.
"Yep. Another unselfish deed couldn't hurt now could it?" he asked. Wanda then shrugged in agreement.
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Spider-Man and Scarlet Witch were on top of a tall building, waiting for any crime to appear and it was late in the evening. All was quiet between the two until Scarlet Witch broke the silence.
"Peter......you're being very quiet right now. And that's terrifying. Something wrong?" she asked.
"What? Why would me being quiet be a bad thing?" Spider-Man asked.
"Because you normally don't stop talking. It's in your nature to keep talking and talking Peter. So when you actually do stop, that's when I know something is up. So what's going on?" Scarlet Witch asked.
"Well nothing Wanda. I just thought you.....may want some quiet time after what you heard from Wong." Spider-Man admitted.
Scarlet Witch sighed and said, "I appreciate the gesture Peter, but I'm fine. I actually was starting to panic when I heard that you weren't talking. So now you've put me at ease."
Spider-Man held back a slight chuckle at her words. It was funny to hear that his inability to be quiet was a way to comfort her. Maybe she really is the one for him after all.
"Good to hear." Spider-Man said. Then the alarm to a nearby store sounded just beneath them. They looked down to see about ten crooks running into a store. "You know, these guys have a bad habit of having heroes around when causing crimes." he added, before diving down to meet the thugs.
"True." Scarlet Witch said before floating down with Spider-Man.
They got down to see the thugs were all in the store, all crowding the cashier. "Hey geniuses!" Spider-Man called, catching the attention of all the thugs. "If you're gonna rob a store, at the very least make sure there are no superheroes sitting right above you before doing so!"
"Spider-Man! And the Red Witch?!" one of the thugs yelled out.
"Scarlet Witch." Scarlet Witch mumbled, while shaking her head.
"Kill them both!" another thug said, and about half of them pulled out their guns and aimed them at the heroic couple. But with a wave of her hand, Scarlet Witch destroyed all of the guns.
"Now that's just splendid." the first thug said.
"Old fashioned way then!" another thug said, and they all rushed out to attack the heroes.
Scarlet Witch sent two of them into the wall outside of the store, knocking them out. Spider-Man webbed up another thug that was charging right at him and then threw him to the nearby pole. Then when another guy came charging at him, he was quickly encased in red energy and sent flying into the wall, just like the first two thugs. Spider-Man then did a roundhouse kick that knocked another thug out instantly.
While three more thugs simultaneously charged at Scarlet Witch, she simply waved her hand and used her mind powers to cause the three thugs to start beating up each other. Meanwhile, the ninth thug came up to Spider-Man. But there was something off about this thug. As he was getting closer, Spider-Man could tell that the thug's eye pupils were replaced with a sickly grayish color for a moment before returning to normal.
"Uh, do you have an eye problem?" Spider-Man asked the thug. The thug paid no mind to the remark and sprinted at the webbed head. Spider-Man sent a kick his way, but the thug dodged it swiftly. Too swiftly to be exact. This thug must have been working out a lot because only people with the finest motor skills could do what he did right then and there, and in such a fast motion. Then in a flash, the thug grabbed a hold of him in a vice grip. "I think it's weird for you to want to touch people like this pal."
And then, Spider-Man felt something.......odd on his skin. It seemed as if something slimy was coming onto him. He tried pushing the thug off, but his vice grip remained intact. Only after the strange feeling went away, was Spider-Man able to shove the thug off of him, who remained unconscious on the ground.
'What was that all about?' Spider-Man thought to himself, just before his spider sense kicked in as the last thug came at him with a metal pipe. Spider-Man only side-stepped the strike, and the pipe bounced off the car that Spider-Man was standing in front of and whacked the thug right in the head, knocking him out.
"You brought this on yourself....Literally." Spider-Man commented.
"I gotta say." Scarlet Witch said, now leaving the three unconscious thugs that were fighting each other before behind her. "You were right. This was a good distraction."
"Yep. That's a perk to doing this." Spider-Man said. "Now let's get out of here before the cops show up. I'm still not sure if I'm on their Christmas list or not."
"Good point." Scarlet Witch chuckled before teleporting them to the top of the building again. "Hey Peter....."
"Yes Wanda?" Spider-Man asked, taking off his mask.
"Do you think that it's wrong for me to want forgiveness from the wizards? The ones that are affiliated with Doctor Strange?" she asked.
Well this was out of left field.
"Well no. I don't think it's wrong that you want forgiveness. I don't know if you'll ever get it but.......as far as if it's right to want forgiveness........I think it's not a bad thing at all. Why do you ask?" Peter asked.
"Just Wong's expression earlier today when I apologized. He didn't speak a word about it.......And I guess I can't fault him." Scarlet Witch said.
"He might one day. You never know." Peter said with a shrug. Scarlet Witch smiled at Peter's optimism. She knew that she could use that every once in a while now in her life.
"Thanks Pete." she said. "Well......I'm kinda tired after today. Aren't you?"
"Well hold on now." Peter said. "You said you were gonna watch the Star Wars prequels with me tonight."
"Ah. I did, didn't I?" Scarlet Witch said. "Alright, well I will try to stay awake for it all.......I said try."
"Eh, forget it. We'll wait till tomorrow when you're actually awake." Peter said with a smirk.
"That actually sounds a lot better." Scarlet Witch said with a grateful smile.
"Alright, well......I guess we should just go home now then." Peter said.
"With pleasure." Scarlet Witch said. And then she used her powers to teleport them back to the apartment.
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Peter was currently in his Spider-Man uniform without his mask on and was being held up by his hair. The green goblin had forced him down multiple floors of the apartment building and was holding his head as he glared at Aunt May, who was standing in front of the two with a steel weapon in her hand.
The goblin sneered in disgust as he looked at May. "That pathetic sense of morality, he got it from you!" Goblin spat out. Peter was too beat up to even move to shove the goblin away, or to get his aunt away from here.
"May run." he managed to mumble out.
"You tried to fix me.....and now....I'm gonna fix you." he said darkly. And that was just before an object started to move in a downwards motion from outside.
"May run. Now." Peter mumbled out again. But Aunt May still didn't budge. And then the glider cam crashing through the glass doors of the building, and rammed right into May.
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"NO!" Peter cried out as his eyes snapped open. He was breathing heavily in relief as he realized it was all just a dream. He was gonna close his eyes again to rest, when realization hit him square in the face.
He wasn't in his room. Or his apartment for that matter.
He was outside. It sounded like he was right in the middle of Times Square, and he was hanging upside down.
But that's not all that he noticed.
He noticed that he was wearing a brand new costume. The costume was similar to his Spider-Man costume with the lenses and the spider in the front. But this costume was jet black and the spider logo was large and white as a ghost. To say that he was surprised would be a major understatement.
"What in the actual fu-"