Chapter Text
Miles Morales liked to think that he was getting the hang of this whole superhero thing. It had been almost a week since the last time he accidentally stuck himself to something, and he almost never swung face-first into buildings while on patrol. Sure, he hadn’t really had any major crimes to deal with outside of the occasional bank robbery, and sure the cops didn’t really trust him yet, and sure most of the city had already figured out that he was a kid - Miles broke himself out of that train of thought by shooting a web out and sharply changing direction with a single pull of his arms.
‘Man, I’ve got to stop getting myself down like that,’ Miles thought frustratedly.Web-swinging through the city could be the most relaxing thing in the world, but it also made Miles feel incredibly alone. Because as much as he enjoyed being the “one-and-only” Spider-man of his city, he often felt himself missing those few days when he had been one of six Spider-people who had fought to protect NYC. Miles picked out an apartment building’s rooftop and perched himself on the corner of it, almost perfectly sticking the landing. As he rolled his mask up to put his earbuds in, Miles silently wished Peter and Gwen could see him now.
‘Peter would hopefully be impressed with how much I’ve improved over the last few months, and Gwen…’Miles’ stomach began burning and his heart-rate skyrocketed. He stubbornly turned up the volume on his music, as if he could drown out his thoughts with sound. He was reluctant to admit just how often Gwen had entered his thoughts since the collider incident had been resolved. ‘But that’s totally normal though,’ Miles thought stubbornly, ‘It’s totally normal to constantly think about how your friends are doing, and how cool they are, and how much you like their hair-’ Miles silently cursed his thoughts for betraying him. As much as he denied it, Miles knew deep down that it wasn’t just because he admired her as a fellow superhero, or even just as a friend. As Miles stewed on his emotions for a bit, letting the rap music in his ears calm him down, a harsh buzzing noise filled his brain, and his vision turned blue and red, highlighting a large section of downtown. This was almost immediately accompanied by police sirens heading in that exact direction.
‘Finally!’ Miles thought excitedly. He scrambled to his feet, tucking his phone away and pulling his mask down. He took a deep breath, turned the volume to the max, and turned so that his back was facing the edge of the building. ‘Time for Spider-man to go to work.’ Miles backflipped off of the building and swung out into the city.
Upon arriving at the crime scene, a few things immediately stuck out to Miles. First - none of the cops on-site had been injured, thankfully. Second, the same could not be said for their squad cars. Or, what was left of their squad cars, anyway. And finally, the villain they were fighting seemed to be… claymation?
“What the hell -” Miles barely had time to react before a piece of a cop car was launched straight at him. Letting his reflexes take over, he fell back, and while upside down in midair he quickly webbed up the debris before it could cause any more damage. Landing on his feet, Miles took off towards the villain, who seemed to be a hulking man dressed as a Rhino. His out-of-place appearance was causing Miles more anxiety than the actual fight going on.
‘There’s no way this guy is actually from another dimension right?!’ Before Miles even had a chance to be hopeful, Rhino glitched painfully, just like Peter and the others had months ago. ‘Oh my god he’s from another dimension.’ Now, Miles was panicking. Thinking fast, he leapt at Rhino, shot two webs at a manhole cover, and twisted himself in midair to launch it directly at Rhino’s face.
“Hey Gumby, I’m gonna need to see your passport!” Miles quipped as the cover clanged into Rhino’s forehead. Unfortunately, both the manhole cover and the quip only seemed to irritate Rhino further. Rhino roared at the top of his lungs, and charged towards Miles at full speed. Without even thinking about it, Miles jumped to the side and clung to the wall of a building. He immediately began shooting webs and Rhino’s feet to try and slow him down. “See, this is why New Yorkers hate tourists!” Miles quipped, as for a second it seemed like Rhino was slowing down. Unfortunately, he was just changing direction. As Rhino charged towards the cops, Miles frantically leapt towards them, shooting webs entirely on reflex. He managed to web most of them out of the way, and he grabbed two of them himself, but that still left two more cops in Rhino’s way. Before Miles could even process the situation, he was standing in between the cops and Rhino, as if he could stop the charge by himself. Just as it looked like Rhino was going to crush him and the cops, several strands of webbing caught Rhino in the face, and sharply twisted him into some nearby parked cars. Miles blinked in confusion. Just as he was about to wonder what had just happened, his question was answered by his spider-sense loudly going off in his head. Right on cue, two masked figures landed right in front of him. Miles immediately recognized the figure in white.
“Gwen?! What are y-” Miles’s exclamation was cut short by Gwen closing the distance between them and pulling him into one the the tightest hugs he’d ever been a part of. Before Miles could even fully process the fact that Gwen was back in his dimension, let alone hugging him, she broke away from him and swung to the top of a nearby building. The other figure, who Miles now saw was wearing a blue costume with red decals, swung after her. Without even stopping to think, Miles took off after them. The three swung for several blocks before eventually stopping on top of a tall, upscale hotel. Gwen and Miles pulled off their masks and grinned at each other.
“Hey Miles,” Gwen said casually, “you’re not quite as bad at web-slinging as you were the last time I saw you.” Miles’ brain had basically stopped working at this point.
‘Why haven’t I said anything yet? I should say something right? What do I say? Oh! Her hair’s growing back, say something about that!’
“Your hair’s growing back,” Miles said awkwardly, just unable to hide the disappointment in his voice. Gwen laughed softly, and ran her hand through her still lopsided hair-do, which had filled in completely on the right side and just barely reached over her ear.
“You like it?” Gwen asked, flashing Miles a lopsided grin that only served to further melt his brain. “This wasn’t my first choice for a hair-do, but a ‘friend of mine’ picked it out for me.” She pointedly raised an eyebrow at Miles, who had to look away to avoid either laughing or blushing.
“Still sorry about that,” Miles weakly managed, “And if it makes you feel any better, I’ll try to keep my hands far away from your sick haircut. Wouldn’t want a repeat of last time.” Both teens finally burst out laughing.
“Not too far I hope,” Gwen retorted. Her eyes immediately widened and a blush spread across her cheeks as she realized what she said. Miles blinked. ‘Did she just say that? She said that. Did she mean that like she said that?’ This train of thought was derailed by someone behind Miles loudly clearing their throat. Miles spun around to see the other masked figure from earlier, and was finally able to get a good look at his costume.
“You’re… another Spider-man, aren’t you? Like, from a parallel universe.” Miles realized out loud. The other Spider-man nodded, and removed his mask to reveal a young looking man with medium length brown hair.
“The name’s Miguel O’Hara. I’m the Spider-man of Earth-928.” He put his hand out, and Miles shook it confusedly.
“Earth-928? There are that many earths? Wait, does my earth have a number? Who chooses the numbers? Wait, how are either of you even here?! You could totally glitch out like Rhino did! Wait, how did-” Miles’ rambling was cut off by Gwen socking him in the arm. She casually ignored Miles yelp of pain as Miguel chuckled at their display.
“Easy, Miles. First off, there are a lot of Earths out there. A lot. Yours is Earth-1610, and Gwen’s is Earth-65. And as for why we aren’t glitching,” Miguel held up his hand, showing off a wristwatch-like device. “These gizmos allow for autonomous inter-dimensional travel. I designed them myself… with some help, of course.” Stunned, Miles turned to Gwen, who grinned and held up her own gizmo. “Gwen was one of the first Spider-people I met after testing these out.”
“I’ve been helping Miguel do some multiverse maintenance for the last few months.” Gwen said proudly. “Your unwanted guest back there is only the most recent example of people getting spit out into other dimensions and causing chaos.” Miles nodded slowly, as the gravity of what Gwen and Miguel told him set in.
“Wow uh… that’s not good,” Miles managed weakly, “So… what do we do?” Miguel raised an eyebrow.
“We?” Miguel asked, “I haven’t even asked you to join us yet.” Miles shrugged.
“Hey, being a friendly neighborhood Spider-man is cool and all, but I kinda miss saving the Multiverse.” He and Gwen exchanged smiles, no doubt recalling their last team-up. Miguel clapped his hands together affirmatively.
“Great! Glad to have you onboard! Now, uh… I should probably go take that Rhino back to his proper dimension.” Miguel put his mask back on and turned his attention towards the direction of the crime scene. “In the meantime, is there a safe place for us to spend the night in this dimension? It’s been a long day.” Gwen nodded.
“Yeah, I’m gonna go see if May Parker has an extra bed,” Gwen said nonchalantly. “She’s the one I told you about before.” Miguel nodded back.
“I’ll meet you there, then.” Miguel gave Miles a small salute before running to the edge of the building. “Nice meeting you Miles, see ya around!” And with that, he swung off towards Rhino’s location. Miles watched him swing away for a few seconds before Gwen snapped her fingers to get his attention.
“Hey,” Gwen said, her mask already back on. “Race you to Aunt May’s?” Miles grinned and pulled his own mask down.
“Oh, it’s on!” The two raced off the rooftop and swung out into the city. As they dodged and weaved through the New York skyscrapers, the feeling of loneliness that had followed Miles around for the last few months totally dissipated.