Location: The Archive of Everything
Time Remaining Until Multiversal Collapse: 63:21:44
The Archive didn't have a door.
It had an entrance condition.
Peter, Miguel, Deadpool, and Billy stood at the edge of a swirling maelstrom made of yellowing script pages, concept art, and voice actor contracts that were never fulfilled.
A sign floated in front of them, etched in typewriter font:
"TO ENTER: ANSWER THIS – WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST STORY?"
Deadpool smirked. "Easy. 1991. 'The New Mutants' #98. Massive guns. Bigger sarcasm. Butt pouches for days."
The storm pulsed.
Deadpool vanished into thin air.
His voice echoed, muffled: "I REGRET NOTHING—EXCEPT MAYBE X-MEN ORIGINS!"
Miguel frowned. "Okay. It's literal. And probably psychically invasive."
Peter stepped forward.
Closed his eyes.
Said, "My name is Peter Parker. I was bitten by a radioactive spider. I tried to be a hero. I failed. And someone died."
The maelstrom softened. Opened.
They stepped through.
Inside The Archive
Silence.
Stacks upon stacks of unlabeled stories.
Shelves that stretched into memory.
A museum built on forgotten arcs.
Peter brushed a dusty plaque:
"Untold Tales: Peter Parker, Marvel Knights Intern (One-Shot, 2005 – Cancelled in Pitch)"
Miguel whispered, "This is where they bury what didn't fit."
Peter: "Or what they weren't ready to tell."
Billy sneezed ink.
The Storywarden Appears
An old woman in a robe made from dialogue balloons emerged from the mist.
Her name was Madame Manuscript.
First Editor. Keeper of Lost Plots.
She walked with a cane shaped like a stylized comma.
She stared at Peter with tired, piercing eyes.
"You shouldn't be here, child. You still exist."
Peter: "I need answers."
Madame Manuscript waved a hand.
The room reshaped into a hallway of Peter's own forgotten arcs.
Each one whispered.
"What if you'd never met MJ?"
"What if Uncle Ben lived?"
"What if you never became Spider-Man at all?"
Peter nearly stumbled into one—but Miguel yanked him back.
"Careful. Touch one, and it rewrites you."
Deadpool reappeared from behind a curtain labeled "Too Meta For Canon."
"Guys. I just saw a musical crossover between me and a sentient taco. It slaps."
Peter turned back to Madame Manuscript.
"We're trying to stop Reboot Prime. He's locking continuity across the multiverse. We need history—context."
Manuscript sighed.
Then pointed.
"To stop him… you must find The First Draft."
Quest for The First Draft
Deeper in the Archive they walked.
Past echoing halls of never-published sidekicks.
Past a thousand versions of Gwen Stacy, smiling in a hundred timelines and falling in all the rest.
Deadpool: "So uh, this is… quietly horrifying."
Peter saw a shelf marked "Future Peter(s)." One caught his eye.
A dusty old hardcover labeled:
"Spider-Man: The Last Thread."
He opened it.
And gasped.
Inside the Book: A Warning
The pages told of a Peter grown old, tired, forgotten by the world.
A hero who saved everything—only to be erased when the universe "streamlined."
And on the last page…
His final quote:
"We weren't meant to last. Just to remind them what matters."
Peter shut the book.
Deadpool tried to hug him.
Peter shoved him off.
Miguel stepped forward. "That's the path Reboot Prime wants. End the cycle. One final 'clean' Spider-Man."
Peter: "And delete everyone else."
Billy growled.
Even he knew that wasn't right.
They Find the First Draft
At the base of a spiral staircase shaped like the Spider-Signal, they found it:
A scroll.
Wrapped in living web.
Guarded by—
THE AUTHOR.
Not a person.
A shape.
A shifting, featureless mass made of writer's blocks, dry-erase outlines, and caffeine.
It spoke in editorial notes.
"YOU SEEK TO CHANGE THE CORE NARRATIVE."
Peter stepped forward.
"I don't want to change it. I want to protect it."
The Author leaned in.
"AND WHAT IF IT IS YOU WHO MUST END TO SAVE IT?"
Peter hesitated.
But said nothing.
The Author unwrapped the scroll.
Handed him the First Draft.
Inside?
A version of Peter who never failed.
Who never lost Uncle Ben.
Who never needed guilt to be great.
Peter read it…
And shook his head.
"This isn't me. It's a lie."
The scroll burned in his hands.
Revelation: Reboot Prime's Plan
The Archive walls groaned.
A projection of Reboot Prime appeared—composed entirely of blank trade paperbacks.
"You refuse the perfect arc. So be it. Your multiverse ends as noise."
He raised a hand.
The Archive began to erase itself.
Deadpool grabbed three books and screamed, "I'M STEALING THESE FOR FUNKO POP PITCHES!"
Madame Manuscript tossed them an escape panel hidden beneath a canceled She-Hulk cover.
"RUN, CHILDREN OF CHAOS."
Escape from the Archive
The team raced through collapsing shelves.
Past a library fire made of misprinted panels.
Through an elevator operated by Uatu the Watcher's forgotten intern.
They burst out—
Back into the Multiversal Transit Nexus.
The Archive gone.
Peter clutched only a single page he'd grabbed on the way out.
One sentence:
"A hero doesn't need a perfect origin. Just a reason not to quit."
Miguel checked the countdown.
62:00:00
Peter looked up at the web of timelines.
"Next stop?"
Deadpool, holding a glowing Poké-ball-shaped item: "Let's hit a crossover world next. I hear Spider-Verse vs. Street Fighter is canon-adjacent."
Peter ignored him.
But smiled.