Spiderman Stories

Space Surgery

"No. It's you who doesn't understand, that Thanos has been inside my head for six years, since he sent an army to New York and now he's back. And I don't know what to do. So I'm not so sure if it's a better plan to fight him on our turf or his, but you saw what they did. What they can do. At least on his turf he's not expecting it. So I say we take the fight to him. Doctor. Do you concur?"
"Mr Stark?" Peter asked quietly.
"Alright, Stark. We go to him."
"How do I get this thing off?" Peter whispered to himself.
"But you have to understand. If it comes to saving you, or the kid, or the time stone."
"Ah," Peter gasped as the suit retracted, revealing his red and blue Spiderman suit beneath, and he raised a hand to his waist.
"I will not hesitate to let either of you die. I can't. Because the universe depends on it."
"Mr Stark?" Peter asked again, being sure to raise his voice.
"Nice. Good. Moral compass."
"I don't mean to interrupt but..."
"What is it?" Dr Strange asked before both he and Tony looked across at Peter.
"I think I've been hit," Peter said as blood dripped between his fingers and onto the floor.
"Oh crap," Tony said as he went towards Peter. "Let me see it."
"It hurts Mr Stark."
"I bet it does kid," Tony said as Peter took his hand away and he looked at the wound. "Oh man, that's not good. "
"I can feel something moving around as I breathe Mr Stark."
"Yeah. It looks like there's something in there. It could be a piece of metal from the ship."
"I used to be a surgeon, so would it help if I had a look?" Dr Strange asked as he came over and both Peter and Tony turned to him.
"Yeah, that would be helpful. Thank you for mentioning that before," Tony replied sarcastically and Dr Strange gave him a look as he came beside Peter.
"I've got, super healing mr. Dr, Strange," Peter said as Dr Strange knelt beside him and began inspecting his wound.
"That's something. Were you born with it?"
"No, I er... I was bitten by a spider. Ah!"
"Yeah, there's definitely something in there. Even with advanced healing, you can't heal by yourself while the object's still inside of you. I need to take it out."
"Can you do that? We need him to be ready to fight once we arrive. Can you calculate how long that will be Friday?"
"My systems calculate that the arrival time will be in one hour."
"Ok, good. That's plenty of time. Strange, can you do some of your magic and pull it out? He should have enough time to heal before we arrive."
"Unfortunately none of the spells that I know can perform medical procedures."
"Are you being serious or sarcastic? I find it hard to tell."
"Urgh, it's starting to get hard to breathe Mr Strank," Peter said as struggled to get air into his lungs.
"I'm being serious, Stark. I'm going to have to take it out myself."
"Ok, but you haven't got any equipment and this place isn't exactly clean. I don't want you making the kid any worse."
"I'm getting dizzy," Peter said and Dr Strange looked up at Peter.

Dr Strange stood up and put his hands around Peter's neck to feel for his pulse.
"Your heart rate is fast, you're going into shock. Lie down," Dr Strange said before he gave Peter a hand to lie on the floor. "Get comfortable. It's not going to be a very pleasant experience for you. Stark, find a medical kit, they'll be one on here somewhere," Dr Strange said as he knelt beside Peter and ripped a hole in his red and blue Spiderman suit to allow easier access to the wound.
"Wow, I'm feeling a lot dizzier," Peter said as Tony put his suit on and began flying around the ship.
"That'll be the blood loss causing your blood pressure to fall and making you dizzy."
"Oh, right," Peter said before Dr Strange began putting pressure on the wound. "Argh!" Peter cried out before he gasped.
"Focus on taking some deep breaths Peter."
"Yeah. What's your. Real name?"
"Dr Steven Strange."
"So you don't have a superhero name?"
"No. And I'm not a superhero."
"But you do magic."
"I harness energy from other dimensions to cast spells and conjure weapons. But you could call it magic."
"So magic is real?"
"No. The magic that you are thinking of is not real."
"I've found one," Tony said as he flew back over and placed a small box next to Dr Strange as he knelt beside Peter. "It's made for aliens but it's got a knife and something that looks like it might be an antiseptic."
"It will have to do," Dr Strange said before he began getting the equipment ready.
"This is going to hurt, isn't it Mr Stark?"
"It won't for you kid. I put a sedative into your suit just in case this happened."
"You planned for us ending up on an alien spaceship Mr Stark?" Peter asked and Dr Strange gave Tony a questioning look.
"What do you think kid? I planned for you getting an injury so bad that we'd have to sedate you on site."
"Oh. You really did, think of everything."
"Well, I know from personal experiences that sometimes sedation is necessary when you're out in the field. Are you ready Doc?"
"I'm ready when you are."
"Ok. You're just going to go to sleep for a bit Pete, ok?"
"Ok," Peter replied as Dr Strange had a knife hanging over his body.
"Administer the sedative Friday."
"Ah," Peter gasped as a needle pierced his skin, then he relaxed as he fell unconscious.

"Ok, he's out," Tony said after a moment.
"Good," Dr Strange said before he began cutting into Peter.
"Oh God," Tony said as he looked away.
"How old is he?" Dr Strange asked as he opened up the wound.
"15."
"Why would you bring a 15 year old into space?"
"I didn't bring him. He followed me and I tried to send him home."
"Well, he didn't listen to you."
"He never does."
"Then why did you give him a suit?"
"Because I don't want to see him get hurt," Tony said and Dr Strange looked at him. "Last time I sent him home he had a cloth suit, and he ended up on the outside of a plane that crashed from 50,000ft. At least with my suit he has some protection."
"And yet I'm doing impromptu surgery on him."
"He was just trying to do the right thing."
"People have got themselves killed trying to do the right thing."
"I know. And that's what I'm afraid of.
"I see the metal shard," Dr Strange said as he picked up the strangely shaped tweezers.

Tony looked back at Peter, only to look away again as Dr Strange took the metal shard out of his body and dropped it onto the floor.
"There. He should be able to start healing now. Stay with Peter and make sure that the wound stays clean," Dr Strange said before he stood up.
"Where are you going?"
"To think of a plan," Dr Strange called and Tony watched him walk away.

Tony then moved to Peter's side and he looked into Peter's face.
"Stop giving me grey hairs kid," Tony said before he ran his hand through Peter's hair. "Why can't you just stay as a friendly, neighbourhood Spiderman?"