Chapter 350: The Spider-Society — ETA 30 Seconds
Every last person on the battlefield — Avengers and alien horde alike — froze in place. None of them had ever imagined this universe housed this many Spider-Men, let alone that they'd all show up here, all at once.
Were all these Spider-Men reinforcements Ethan had called in personally?
Just how deep did this other-universe man's connections actually run, that he could summon an army of Spider-Men on demand?
Was "Spider-Man" just this universe's local specialty or something? Was Ethan secretly also a Spider-Man?
Or was his entire home universe just... wall-to-wall Spider-Men?
To the Avengers, Ethan's mystique kept compounding by the second — a man strong enough to personally kill Thanos, and now apparently connected enough to summon a small army of Spider-Men on a moment's notice. Terrifying. Unfathomable. Absolutely not a man to cross.
They'd guessed right — this was, in fact, exactly the reinforcement Ethan had called in. He'd gotten knocked back by Thanos moments ago and hadn't rushed straight back into the fight — instead he'd bought himself the time to think through exactly who to summon.
It wasn't a decision to make lightly. Every choice here could tip the entire battle one way or the other.
While Ethan was mentally running through his options, his attention snagged on a message sitting in the Group Chat — Tobey-Peter, checking in about the current situation.
That was the moment inspiration struck.
The Spider-Society. A league of Spider-Men drawn from countless different parallel universes, each equipped with a Dimensional Watch capable of jumping straight into any world with its own Spider-Man — including this battlefield.
Ethan moved fast. First, he messaged Tobey-Peter through the Group Chat, telling him to alert Miguel O'Hara and get the Spider-Society mobilized.
Miguel was technically already in the Group Chat, sure — but Ethan knew perfectly well the man barely glanced at it most of the time.
So he took an extra step to make sure the message actually landed.
Right after that, Ethan used On Your Right to pull Tobey-Peter through directly, giving the Spider-Society HQ a physical anchor point they could lock the Dimensional Watches onto.
Practically the entire Spider-Society headquarters showed up. A handful were out on assignment or tied up with personal responsibilities — someone watching the kids over a break, that sort of thing — but everyone else jumped at the chance to join a battle this massive.
Before long, wave after wave of Spider-Men came pouring through shimmering, rainbow-colored wormholes onto the battlefield. Every one of them from a different universe, each carrying their own signature gear and skill set.
Some were close-combat brawlers. Others specialized in ranged attacks. Some wore heavy armor, others light, flexible suits. Their arrival alone gave the Avengers a massive shot of morale.
Ethan watched them stream through the rainbow portals one after another.
"Spider-Man's here — everybody clear the way!" A wheelchair-bound Spider-Man, buffed up rainbow-colored and stacked with power-ups, kicked his own chair aside dramatically as he emerged.
"Huh. Rough world, this one." A punk-styled Spider-Man stepped calmly out of his portal, scanning the battlefield with cold, detached eyes — he'd only come for Ethan's sake, honestly.
"YES! Finally, a fight worth having!" A Spider-Man wearing a paper bag over his head whooped in excitement.
"God, look at these local heroes — an absolute mess. Guess yours truly's gonna have to save the day again." A Spider-Man in ornate armor sniffed haughtily.
"Man, this world's Peter's got it rough — dude's already flat on the ground!"
"Someone call for me?"
"Was that me?"
"Enough chatter! Get to work, Spider-Men!"
As hundreds of Spider-Men flooded the battlefield, the tide of the fight began to shift.
Thanos's army's advance ground to a halt under the sudden pressure, and the Avengers began, slowly, to find their footing again.
Watching it all unfold, Banner couldn't help but marvel. "This is insane. I genuinely can't tell one Spider-Man apart from another anymore."
"Eh — that lone one lying on the ground over there is Peter. Ours," Clint said with a shrug.
"You know, Bruce, you really do have the luck of an idiot sometimes — running into someone this powerful in another universe entirely. And it's not just raw strength, either — the man's genuinely kind. He brought me back from the dead, and now he's killing Thanos to save our whole universe." Natasha's gaze lingered on Ethan, a flicker of gratitude and something close to admiration in her eyes. What woman, after all, didn't have a soft spot for a strong, mysterious man?
"Don't get any ideas. He's not from your universe," Clint said pointedly, then charged straight back into the alien horde to keep fighting.
The Avengers stationed near Ethan's fight had their own reasons for shock and awkwardness — though it had nothing to do with the Spider-Society's arrival. They were staring at their own parallel-universe counterparts.
Scarlet Witch and Wanda — one grieving Vision, the other Hell's Kitchen's own.
Fat Thor and a far more muscular, imposing Thor.
Old Tony and Young Tony — the younger one being Hell's Kitchen's own, the two timelines separated by roughly a decade.
The three pairs stared at each other, none of them quite sure what to say.
Doctor Strange, watching the scene, allowed himself a rare smile. Finally — someone other than him had to reckon with meeting another version of themselves.
God only knew how disorienting and bewildering that first encounter had been for him.
What genuinely drove Doctor Strange up the wall, though, was the sheer ease of it all. As far as he knew, the only way to travel between parallel universes was through the Darkhold's dream-walking technique — and even that came with real, dangerous side effects.
But none of this crowd — the Spider-Men, Ethan, or Thanos — showed any sign of side effects at all.
So how were they doing it? Had some other universe's technology advanced to the point where crossing parallel realities was as casual as boarding a plane?
And how had Ethan managed to reach out to so many different universes at once? Doctor Strange could tell easily enough that none of these Spider-Men shared a home universe.
He'd always believed that becoming Sorcerer Supreme put him at the very peak of the multiverse — in power, in knowledge, in everything. But ever since Ethan showed up, he'd come to realize he'd been nothing more than a frog at the bottom of a well the whole time.
Strange, for his part, wasn't burdened with any of these heavy thoughts. He was simply enjoying the show.
"We meet again. Though you're looking a little rough these days. Shouldn't a guy your age just retire and go home to watch the kids?" Young Tony teased, spotting Old Tony's battered state.
Even while ribbing him, he reached out a hand and helped the old man back to his feet.
"I've got a wife and kid, unlike you, you sad single dog."
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