New York City – Lower Manhattan – Night
Victor Ashburn walked the midnight streets like a shadow in motion.
He wore a tailored black coat, hood up, face obscured. The city pulsed around him — sirens, drunken laughter, traffic horns — but none of it touched him. To them, he was just another man. To the world, he did not yet exist.
> [Stealth Status: Perfect Concealment – Active]
> Magic. Technology. Cosmic. All perception blocked.
Tonight wasn't about assassinations or empire-building. Tonight was reconnaissance.
Tonight, Victor Ashburn would meet Spider-Man.
---
Three hours earlier – Inventory Report
> [Inventory Update – Acquired from Akh'Rem's Vault]
Item: Reality Anchor Fragment
Origin: Unknown multiversal shard
Status: Dormant
Function: Localized disruption of time-lock events
Victor had studied the shard carefully. It was inert now, but its potential was limitless. It could nudge fixed points — gently enough to go unnoticed, effectively rewriting fate.
But power meant consequences.
So before testing it, he needed to see one of these "timeline-fixed" events unfold — exactly as history intended. Only then could he measure deviation if he interfered.
The event? A low-stakes one, historically speaking.
The night Peter Parker first donned his red-and-blue suit for real.
The one where he stopped a gang from robbing a Midtown tech lab.
Victor needed to watch it unfold… without being seen.
---
Midtown Tech Lab – Rooftop – Midnight
Victor sat on a gargoyle, watching through a pair of binoculars enhanced with mana sight. Below, a gang of six low-level thugs was already setting up charges at the back entrance.
Amateurs.
He didn't intervene. This was a "canon" moment. Peter needed to win — clumsily, awkwardly, but decisively. Just like the original path.
Victor crossed his arms and waited.
Then, he heard it. The faint thwip of a web shooter.
Peter Parker swung in from the right, stumbled slightly on landing, then called out:
"Hey, guys! Is this a tech heist? Because I didn't get the invite."
Victor almost smiled.
> [Scan: Parker, Peter – Age: 16]
Status: Pre-Avengers
Mental State: Anxious / Excited
Mutation: Radioactive Spider / Oscorp Variant
Timeline Consistency: 100%
Peter moved like a natural. Unrefined, yes — his footwork was too flashy, his quips too frequent — but his instinct was pure. Within ninety seconds, three goons were webbed to a light post.
Victor leaned forward.
This was what he needed.
A moment locked in time — unbroken.
Then… something changed.
A fourth attacker appeared. Not from the gang.
Not part of the plan.
A man in white and chrome body armor dropped from a rooftop across the street. His arm cannon charged.
Victor's eyes narrowed.
That was not part of any timeline he remembered.
> [Unknown Combatant Detected]
> Origin: Tech-based mercenary
Weapons Grade: Stark-level
Affiliation: Unregistered
Threat Level: Moderate
The attacker aimed at Peter.
Victor made his decision instantly.
He blinked forward — a shadow skip — and emerged silently behind the merc.
No time for diplomacy.
He snapped his fingers.
The merc's shadow writhed and then dragged him to the ground, pinning him in a cocoon of inky black tendrils.
Peter turned, web shooter raised, then froze.
"You're not one of them," Peter said, eyeing Victor.
Victor let his hood fall slightly — revealing just enough of his face to look human, not monstrous.
"No," he said calmly. "And neither are you."
Peter hesitated. "Thanks for the save… but who are you?"
Victor walked past him.
"Just someone making sure you stick to the right path."
Before Peter could ask more, Victor stepped into shadow and vanished.
---
Elsewhere – SHIELD Surveillance Hub – Same Night
Agent Maria Hill stared at the hacked security feed.
It showed a blurred figure in black intercepting a rogue mercenary and vanishing without a trace.
She rewound the footage again.
Same result.
No facial recognition. No heat signature. Just a voiceprint.
"I want every linguistics expert on this," she said. "And send this to Director Fury."
---
Back at Victor's Penthouse – 2:15 AM
Victor stood before his digital map of timeline convergence points. One of them — the Parker Heist Event — now glowed gold.
> [Timeline Integrity: 96%]
> Deviation: Marginal
Event Outcome: Preserved
Risk: Minimal
He sighed in relief.
It had been close. Too close. If Peter had died, the butterfly effect could have destroyed the Avengers' formation, delayed Ultron, and shifted Thanos's timetable by years.
But now he understood something else:
Someone else was tampering.
That mercenary wasn't a criminal. He was a plant. Possibly hired to take out Peter before his prime. A timeline assassin? Rogue AI? Kang variant?
Victor didn't know yet. But the timeline wasn't as secure as he had assumed.
He couldn't just guide it anymore.
He would have to protect it.
For now.
Until it no longer served its purpose.
---
Meanwhile – Wakanda Border Outpost – Classified
Shuri examined the recovered vibranium-laced casing found in the rubble of a Siberian dig site.
"This alloy's structure is… wrong," she murmured. "It's not Wakandan. Not alien. It's older."
She handed it to Okoye.
"Prepare a report for T'Challa. And double-check interdimensional containment. We might be dealing with something that doesn't belong here."
---
Victor's Private Log – Entry #117
> "The shadow under the world grows teeth.
I met the boy today — not as an enemy. Not yet.
He will be a hero. He will inspire.
And one day, I may have to break him.
For now, I let the web weave."
He closed the log.
He didn't fear Spider-Man.
But now… he respected him.
---