The Gremlin's engine surged. Smoke and steam were coming from under the hood, but it backed out of the hole it had pounded in the office wall, and then crunched to a stop. Mary Jane got out, wearing her jeans, a sweater, and leather driving gloves. She opened the trunk, her expression focused and smooth, though her hands were visibly trembling, and emerged with a tire iron.
Mortia staggered out of the wreckage, bloodied, one of her arms smashed beyond recognition, one of her legs obviously broken. Dust clung to her damp clothing and hair, and her expression was dazed, almost childishly confused.
Mary Jane walked to face the battered Ancient, eyes narrowed, and tapped the tire iron against her palm.
Mortia stared at her, dumbfounded. "Who… who are you?"
"That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold," Mary Jane quoted. And delivered a twohanded blow with the tire iron. Mortia staggered. My wife's voice, full of fury, rang out in the predawn air as she swung again. "What hath quench'd them hath given me fire."
She struck the Ancient on the head, and Mortia fell senseless to the ground.
Mary Jane snarled at the fallen Ancient and spat, "What's done is done."
"MJ," I croaked. I fumbled at my left hand with my right, where I'd stuck the last agate to my glove with a bit of webbing, and passed it to her.
She took it with a nod, knelt down, and after a second of consideration, shoved the stone hard into Mortia's ear.
The last Ancient vanished, and Mary Jane stood up. She stared at her tire iron for a moment, then at the car, and then she came to me. I more or less dropped off the wall, and she crouched down to wrap her arms around me. Compared to the last hellish minutes, her touch was pure heaven.
"Thanks," I told her, and meant it.
She shivered and cried a little. Then she pressed a fierce kiss against my head and whispered, "I love you."
I smiled at her. "You," I croaked,
"are going to make one heck of a Lady Macbeth."
Chapter 26
I
don't know how we would have gotten Aleksei home if Wong hadn't driven up in a heavy-duty pickup.
He just pulled up without a word, lowered the tailgate, and wheeled out a hand truck. I wasn't in terribly good shape, but I was able to web up the Rhino—again—and attach him to the hand truck. Getting him into the back of the pickup was another issue with one arm out of commission, but with Wong's help I managed it. Wong isn't big, but he's wiry. Not wiry like me, but stronger than he looks. I was still kind of unsteady on my feet, though, and Wong and MJ moved Felicia themselves.
Wong drove us to Strange's place, and MJ followed in her now-wheezing car. No one seemed to take any notice of us. Granted, it was sunrise on a Sunday, but even so no one seemed to actually make eye contact with the vehicles or any of their occupants. Maybe Strange had done some of that voodoo that he do so well. Or maybe it was just because we were in New York. It would take something a lot weirder than a cocooned bruiser in a Rhino hat, a shirtless Spidey, and a bald Tibetan martial arts expert in a pickup being tailed by a stunning redhead in a crumpled, wheezing limegreen Gremlin to attract attention.
Wong had a pallet ready on the floor of the reception hall, and he put Aleksei on it. He glanced at me, and I pulled the webbing off of him. Felicia rated a cot, and Wong and MJ put her there. Wong examined the large swelling on the side of her head for a few moments, then drew out an old leather valise and opened it, filling the room with the pungent, pleasant fragrance of herbal medicine. He applied a fragrant salve of some kind to her head, another to her neck, and bound a bracelet of some kind of braided plant around her left wrist.
Within minutes, Felicia blinked her eyes open, peered around groggily, and said, "We win?"
"We won," I said.
"Go, us," Felicia mumbled. "You owe me big time, Spider." She then stripped out of my spare costume, staying only more or less covered by the blankets as she did. She sighed in contentment, dumped the clothing on the floor, rolled over, snuggled naked under the blankets, and promptly went to sleep.
Wong looked somewhat startled and uncomfortable at the sight.
I savored the moment.
I was next to get the herbal treatments. I don't know what Wong has growing in his garden, but his stuff makes Tiger Balm look positively anemic. I had so many bruises that he had to open a second jar, and MJ helped him slather it on me. Then he got to Aleksei, applying medicines to his much-abused face and head.
The pain began to fade, and it was a delicious sensation. I sat there hurting less and breathing deeply despite the twinge in my back and my broken wrist, and loved every minute of it.
Wong got to my wrist, frowned, and left.
He returned with the doc, who settled down next to the chair I was slumped in to examine my wrist.
"A clean break," he said. "I can set this for you, if you like."
"Can't you just fix it, O Sorcerer Supreme?" I said in a whimsical voice. "For you, this is just a bippity-boppity-boo-boo, isn't it?"
Strange arched an eyebrow. "Healing magic is quite complex, and its employ must take into account several and various factors which—"
I winced, though he really couldn't see it through the mask, and interrupted him. "Doc. My head."
His eyes wrinkled at the corners. "No," he said.
"Now was that so hard?" I asked him.
"You've no idea," he said.
"Wong," he said to his servant, "I was looking for my Alhambran agates, and I couldn't find them anywhere. Do you have any idea where they are?"
Wong bowed at the waist. "Abject apologies, my master. I seem to have misplaced them."
"Ah," Strange said. He glanced at me. "It's always the little things you wonder about." He bowed his head to me and said, "Congratulations on your victory. It was well done and well won."
"Thank you for your help," I said.
Strange put a hand over his sternum. " 'Help'? I can't imagine what you mean. One ought not confuse my natural concern for your current state of health as partisanship in your recent struggle with the Ancients, which would be against my obligation to maintain a strict balance of mystic forces."
"Oh, right," I said. "Sorry. Thank you for the not-help."
"It was my pleasure not to provide it," he said, his voice warmer. "Let me check on your allies." He circled to Felicia and Aleksei. He lingered longer over the Rhino, murmuring something to Wong, and then returned to me, his expression grave.
"Bad news, Doc?" I asked.
He spread his hands in a noncommittal gesture. "He has taken a terrible beating, and in more than a merely physical sense, but he should recover within the next few days."
"His eyes?" I asked.
"Those too. He seems to be most resilient."
"Yeah," I said. "Annoyingly so."
"You sound as if you do not care for him," Strange said.
"I don't," I said. "Well. I do. I mean, I didn't want him to get killed or anything, but…" I shook my head. "I guess it might have been simpler if he had. He's dangerous."
"Dangerous?" Strange asked.
"You've seen him," I said. "What he's capable of."
"True," Strange said. "And I have seen what you are capable of, as well, I might add. You yourself can be most dangerous, Spider-Man. As can I. And Wong. And, apparently, even Mary Jane."
"You aren't going to rampage anyone into the ground, though," I said. "Neither is Wong or Mary Jane. But the Rhino, I'm not so sure about. He's habitual."
"Ah," Strange said.
"I'm the one who saved his life," I said quietly. "Whatever he does with that life in the future, I'm going to share some of the responsibility for it. If he hurts someone. Or kills someone…" I shook my head. "How would I live with that? I feel… really stupid."