"Spider-Man" Aladdin!AU

An Offer

You guys, I am sooooooooo sorry that this has taken waaaaayyyyyy too long to get up and out to you. Thank you sooooooo much for your patience, and please forgive me! Anywho, on with the story!

MJ glanced curiously at Peter. "What do you mean, 'What now?'"

Peter shrugged awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well, you're the princess and this is about your future, so what do we do?"

She frowned. "Yeah, but this affects all of us--"

MJ was cut off by the door slamming open and a deep voice hollered, "Freeze! Put your hands in the air and release the princess!"

Peter and Ned instantly threw their hands up into the air while the exposed run-away princess just sighed. "Let them go, Quentin. I ran away on my own! They had absolutely nothing to do with it!"

Quentin Beck shook his head. "No can do, Highness. They were found holding you and you clearly tried to fight back."

"What? No! They're my friends! I didn't mean to hit Peter; he accidentally scared me and I reacted by reflex!"

Quentin ignored the princess as he placed handcuffs on both of the boys and forced them into his car. MJ was practically manhandled into the car beside Peter and Ned. She sighed. "I'm sorry I got you guys caught up in all this royal drama."

Peter patted her shoulder as best he could with his hands tied together. "Don't worry. We'll get out. . . . Eventually."

:*:*:*:*:*:

Peter groaned as he and Ned were tossed roughly into one of the cells in the castle dungeon. The last he saw of MJ was her father scowling at her as she was "escorted" up to him on the dias. After that . . . well, let's just say that the guards weren't very gentle when taking them below the foundations.

Ned stumbled into Peter and knocked them both to the ground. After apologizing repeatedly (and Peter telling him it was fine numerous times), the two settled down against the wall. Peter strained against the chains for a few minutes, but even with his super strength from the spider bite, he couldn't break them. He gave up after a while, painful words mulling around in his head. He shook his head, silently singing, "'Wannabe.' 'Villain.' I don't buy that. If they'd look much closer, would they see a menace?No, siree! They'd find out there's so much more to me . . ."

Trying to get rid of the dark thoughts, he struck up a conversation with Ned about the new tech that they were working on building before they were arrested. Their conversation was interrupted, though, when the metal door slammed open, and Quentien Beck stomped in, leering at the boys. He sneered, "Someone wants to see you."

Behind him, Adrian Toomes walked in, and Peter struggled to keep from sweating nervously at the wicked gleam in the royal advisor's eye. Toomes slowed to a stop in front of the boys, standing straight up with his hands resting on his viper staff, smirking. "I have a proposition to make for you . . . boys."

Peter and Ned exchanged looks, but didn't say anything. Toomes' eyes narrowed with greed and determination. "I can get you out of here--with your heads still on your shoulders. In turn, you help me . . . retrieve something. After you find it, I can make you a hero, one able to impress the princess, perhaps?"

Peter, of course, knew MJ appreciated him for who he was, but the lure of becoming a hero, a real hero, not one considered a menace . . . He glanced at Ned before meeting the advisor's dark, gleaming eyes. "What do we have to do?"

Ned frowned, silently asking Peter what the heck was he doing. The half-spider just gestured at his best friend to trust him. Toomes smirked. "Follow me."

:*:*:*:*:*:

After being handled with quite a bit of force, the two teenagers were "escorted" to the edge of the city, where Toomes took many twists and turns that left Peter's head spinning. When they finally left the car, Peter was staring up at a large cliff, the city at his back. The head of a tiger somehow appeared out of the rock, the edge of it's head merging fluidly with the rest of the cliff. It opened its mouth, and Peter was worried that it would try to eat them, but all it did was growl, "Only one may enter here--one who's worth lies far within. The Diamond in the Rough."

Ned gasped in shock, but Peter gazed into its ruby red eyes, finding the carving quite . . . amazing? No. Fascinating? No, that wasn't it either. Captivating? Yes, that's it. He found the tiger quite captivating, a being of magic that had been here, hiding in plain sight.

Toomes grabbed Peter's shoulder and shoved him towards the carving, snarling, "You first. If you fight, your friend here dies. Bring me back the lamp and do not touch anything else."

Peter stumbled into the mouth of the cave, expecting a steep drop-off and to fall to his demise. Instead, he nearly fell to his doom by missing a step on the stairs. Glancing back towards the entrance, Peter muttered, "Creepy jerk."

He slowly climbed down the rock stairs, doe eyes trained on the end of the staircase, pale hand on the wall to keep his balance. As he reached the bottom of the stairs, a glow began to shine, bright and golden. "What the . . .?" He silently slipped into the room to find . . .

Piles upon mounds of treasure and riches more than Peter had ever imagined. His jaw dropped to the floor. "Holy crow!"[Voltron, anyone?]

Then he remembered the words of the sadistic psycho above ground and hurried over to the looming stalagmite that held the reddish-gold oil lamp on it. Why anyone would covet the old artifact was a mystery to the teenager. In the daze of his thoughts, Peter accidentally stepped on something soft.

He lurched backward as the purple carpet he accidentally stepped on leapt to life. "Mr. Carpet, I am so sorry! I swear, I didn't mean to step on you . . ."

Peter was able to see that the carpet was a beautiful, rich purple and had bows and quivers of arrows in black embroidered onto it. It made a few gestures that Peter recognized as sign language for "It's fine". Peter gave it a half-smile, and stepped around it to see the--

A crash caused him to whirl around to see . . . "Ned! What are you doing here?"

"It's not my fault!" Ned wailed. "Toomes pushed me in after you!"

Peter just sighed, and the carpet waved its tassel at the second boy. The spiderling finally began his climb of the stalagmite, one small foot- and handhold at a time. His hands slipped a few times, but Peter managed to make it to the top in one piece. His eyes reflecting the reddish-gold glow of the lamp, Peter picked it up. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, he heard Ned cry, "Peter! I think I found--"

A thundering crash followed, and a voice from everywhere roared, "You have touched the sacred treasure! For this crime, you must die! Perish, mortals!" [Loki, anyone? No?]

Cracks formed on the rock foundation, and lava began spewing from darker parts of the cave. The ceiling began to crack and fall, slamming down on parts of the treasure and burying it for eternity. Peter shot a desperate look at the carpet, and jumped. Luckily, the carpet tended to be thinking the same thing, and caught Peter before he could plummet to his death. The rug swooped down to Ned, and Peter reached down to pull his best friend on behind him. "Ned, what were you thinking! What did you grab?"

Ned shamefully held up an electromagnetic chip the size of a cashew. "It was the last piece we needed to finish the television. I'm sorry, Peter! I didn't . . ."

"It doesn't matter now!" Peter interrupted. "We need to get out of here!"

The carpet used its tassel gesture to the pocket of blue at the top of the collapsed stairs. But before they could fly to the top, a rock smashed onto the rug and hit Peter on the head. As they all fell, Peter's world went dark.

Aaaaand I'll leave you with that! Wow, this one had a lot of time skips. I don't usually use this many skips, I promise. Please, please give @DamnedDeadRoses all of your love, because people have been being very jerky towards her. Until next time!

Quill