Infinite DC Journeys: The Spider-Man Chronicles

It was just Craig and Kara now. The both of them journeying across the infinite dimensional corridor, as it probably should have been. Craig wasn’t sure if J.P. and Kelsey were ready for real inter-dimensional adventures yet. Abydos was a walk in the park compared to what he, Kara, and Jessica recently went through.

Jessica.

Never again would he expose his little sister to such dangers. He was grateful for Kara’s ability to mentally wipe out all that they had been through from Jessica’s thoughts. He wouldn’t forgive himself if she went through the rest of her life having nightmares of it all. He wasn’t there to see what she had seen, but from what Kara told him, it wasn’t pretty.

So, what was next for Craig of the Creek and Neas the Gladiator of Gallifrey?

Craig asked himself that very question as he waited for Kara to change in the TARDIS wardrobe room, which might as well have been miles and miles from where he was in the console room – waiting for what felt like hours and hours.

She never took this long when she was a he! Why do girls take so long to get ready for stuff?

He heard the clacking of heels reverberate into the console room.

Kara had finally returned, her black hoodie – the very same one she wore when Craig knew her past male incarnation – draped over her right shoulder. She had made only a minor change to her wardrobe, replacing the purple shirt from their previous journey with a tight, long-sleeved yellow top that bore her midriff, revealing her toned, slender waistline.

“It took you that long just to change your shirt?!” Craig griped.

Kara playfully frowned. “Well, excuse me for wantin’ to make a lil’ change before the next trip!”

“At least you kept your hoodie,” Craig observed.

“Of course,” Kara remarked. “It did help you to recognize me after all.” Slipping on the hoodie itself, she approached the central TARDIS control console. “Now then…where we headed to next, lil’ bro?”

Before Craig could respond, he detected a glow at the corner of his eye.

Kara detected it also, prompting her and Craig to look at one area of the console room where a circular sparkling portal opened. A dark-haired, middle-aged woman emerged from it, adorned in attire that gave off a wizardry vibe. “Who are you?” Kara asked her.

“Someone who’s taken a helluva lot of time just to find you,” the woman responded, nodding specifically to Kara. “My name’s Sarah Williams.”

Hearing the surname of “Williams,” Craig’s eyes enlarged with interest. “My last name’s ‘Williams,’ too! Are you like…my grandma from another dimension?!”

“What?!” Sarah cringed. “No! I’m…Wait. Grandma?! How old do you think I am, kiddo?”

Craig shrugged. “I dunno. Sixty?”

His guess only made Sarah that much more offended. “O.K., let’s just pretend I didn’t hear that and walk through this portal I just opened. There’s a lot we need to discuss.”

“Like what?” Kara inquired.

“The fate of the multiverse,” Sarah said.

Kara and Craig followed Sarah through the portal, generated by the Sling Ring she wore on the second and third digits of her left hand. As it turned out, Sarah actually was a sorceress – part of a faction known as the “Masters of the Mystic Arts.” The area that Kara and Craig followed her into was called the Sanctum Santorum in New York City of Earth-M – a reality where superheroes and Muppets coexisted.

According to Sarah, Kara had been to this realm before. “…or a future version of you will have,” Sarah elaborated. “In fact, I do believe she’s with your friend, the Doctor, right about now, helping the Avengers right a wrong in our universe.”

“Thanks for the spoiler,” Kara quipped.

“This place is so awesome!” Craig exclaimed, getting an eyeful of the New York Sanctum. “Everything here looks so mystical! We should bring Kelsey here sometime!”

“This Sanctum isn’t really a place for children,” Sarah told Craig. “As its current protector, I have to make sure none of the relics here are ever tampered with or worse: stolen. It’s the least I can do in the absence of Doctor Strange.”

“Doctor Strange?” Craig uttered, amused by the peculiar name. “Who’s he?”

“The Sanctum’s rightful protector,” Sarah replied. “He was wiped out, along with half of our entire universe by a being named Thanos.”

“Oh, you’ve gotta be kiddin’ me!!!” They heard Kara howl in the adjacent room.

Following her exclamation, which did not sound exactly pleasant, they found her standing beside a tall pedestal where a floating geodesic orb floated at the top. Craig recognized the orb as the same one he, Kara, and Jessica encountered in their recent journey. “Isn’t that…?”

“The Quantum Sphere!” Kara hissed.

It didn’t look quite as big as when it was in the Luthors’ possession. It was roughly the size of a bowling ball.

“Why’s it all fizzy like that?” Craig asked.

The sphere did in fact appear physical unstable, its structure twitching so much that it looked like a discolored blur to the naked eye. “It’s fluxing,” Kara told Craig. “Possibly from whatever our magical friend brought us here for.”

“Correct,” Sarah verified. “It’s reacting to the fluxed state of the multiverse itself, due to the actions of a Doctor Strange from another Earth. The sphere is all that’s keeping Earth-M – our Earth – from splintering along with all the other realities… but it cannot hold it for much longer.”

Kara scoffed, shaking her head. “I can’t believe this. I busted my butt in trying to rid this thing of the multiverse.”

“And now you’ll bust your butt helping it to keep the multiverse together,” Sarah said. “I need you and your ward…”

“He’s not my ward,” Kara spoke in Craig’s defense. “He’s my little brother.”

This facet of information surprised Sarah. “Really? I figured you were his adopted mother or something.”

Kara glared at her. “That coming from the woman who he thought was his grandmother from another dimension.”

“Touché,” Sarah sulked. “Anyway, I need you to find the source of the inter-dimensional flux and stop it before the whole of the multiverse ceases to exist.”

“No prob,” Kara accepted with confidence. “Craig and I got this.”

“You know it,” Craig corresponded, fist-bumping with Kara.

“Good,” Sarah approved. “Except it won’t just be the two of you.”

She cued for two individuals to enter from behind Kara and Craig. The two travelers turned and were surprised to see a pair of costumed superheroes appear. Their outfits brandished a spider motif – one in bright red, blue, and white colors, the other in black and red.

For Craig, they were superheroes he had never seen or heard of before.

Kara, on the other hand, recognized them as Peter Parker and Miles Morales.