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“Hey, Peter, it’s me again, for the twentieth time. Just calling to try and get in touch with you and to let you know that I don’t think that it actually is some sort of Spider-Man freaks convention like I had said before, which I know because a giant lizard just tried to bite off my arm and was subsequently punched by a spider-person in a blue and pink suit. So unless Spidey changed his look, I think there are actually now multiple spider-people and also apparently an influx of villains. Anyways, call me back so that way May can stop fucking texting me,” you pinched the bridge of your nose, breathing deeply, “and please don’t tell her I swore at you, she wants to believe that you’re not exposed to that kind of language every day at high school. Anyways, call me back, I’m worried about you, love you.”
You blinked warily at your phone screen, hoping to hell and back that at some point during your hasty message, Peter sent you a text. All you would’ve needed was a thumbs up, an emphasis reaction to one of the several texts that you had sent him (and they were going through, so he HAD to have heard the stupid ringtone he loved so dearly go off), a thirty-second phone call to inform you that he hadn’t fallen into a ditch or gotten his heart ripped out by a rogue Godzilla-wannabe.
You hated being the older and more responsible one, sometimes.
Peter was such a good kid, that was the thing. He was such a genuinely good teenager, somebody who did his best to follow rules and keep his head down. He didn’t have a wild streak, he didn’t have the typical teen need to make the adults in his life wish he had remained five forever, but he still had this uncanny knack to make you worry like nobody else in the world. How many hours had you already wasted concerning yourself with the teen’s whereabouts? How many years had you lost off of your life with the amount of stress you had to feel on a daily basis?
And he always dodged the questions, every single time you tried to ask him. Once, it was that public transportation had gotten stuck and he hadn’t had cell service. Another time, it was that the bodega owner down the street had needed help stocking the fridge and he had lost track of time. The one you had found the funniest was the time he had tried to cover up whatever he was actually doing with the lie that he had forgotten he and MJ had a curfew, as if that was supposed to make you feel better. It had done nothing but make you remember how young he was and how little you could really do to protect him.
You grimaced as yet another person in a spider-themed suit ran past you, shouting a loud “sorry!” as they narrowly avoided bumping into you. It had taken all your reflexes to not drop your phone, and you looked once more to the home screen, looking as your wallpaper blinked back unhelpfully at you.
You lifted it to your ear once more, puffing air out of your mouth. “Peter, you need to help me out here. I’m worried about you, May hasn’t stopped texting, and Ned and MJ said they had no idea where you were either, so if you use them as an excuse, I’ll know you’re lying. It’s absolute mayhem out here, dude, and I just need to know you’re okay, so just pick up your fucking phone,” another beat, “and I’m sorry again. I’m just scared. Just send me anything you can to let me know you’re okay or at least turn on your Find my Friends so I can track you and beat up whatever is giving you issues.”
The line clicked off once more, and you sent May a quick text to let her know that you still hadn’t heard from him, despite your efforts. She replied with a frantic note letting you know his voicemail was full, and your heart dropped once more. All that you could do at this point was hope that he had accidentally let his phone fall down a vent somewhere and the rats had it now, but your intuition was telling you that that wasn’t the case.
“Boy troubles?” a voice came from behind you, but you kept walking.
Growing up in a city had taught you that it wasn’t worth entertaining every person who tried to draw your attention towards them. Growing up in a city around the same time that aliens and supervillains became a fact of day-to-day life had taught you that it could be downright dangerous, and so you walked on, eyes straight forward and hand still on your phone.
“Oh, come on, don’t be like that,” the voice continued, and you realized very quickly just why it had made you so uneasy. It sounded so incredibly familiar, a voice that you nearly recognized as your own. The cadence was the same, the way that you stressed words and individual syllables, even if the actual sound was slightly different. “Do you really not want to have any fun?”
A hooded figure sidled up next to you, falling into step with you, easily matching your pace. Their walk was all too similar to your own, too, a fact that made your stomach turn. They turned to you, but their face was covered under their hood, making it impossible to pick out any distinguishing features.
“The name’s Jack,” they stretched out a gloved hand, which you ignored pointedly. “Okay, rude. Anyways, I would ask your name, but I already know, and I have this crazy notion that you also know my name,” with the hand that you had ignored, they pointed from themselves back to you, a sight that made bile bubble up in the back of your throat.
You knew, surely you knew. You didn’t want to know, but someway and somehow, you knew. Maybe it was the fact that they were talking in a voice that was almost yours, maybe it was the way they avoided pedestrians in the exact same way that you always did, maybe it was the fact that their costume (orange and black and deeply unsubtle) was styled in the way that you had always worn your clothes. You could try your best to listen to the rational voice in your head, the same one that told you that there was no way this was the case, but that didn’t change the fact that you knew.
The figure clapped their hands together in delight, glee clear in their voice. “Oh, I just watched you figure it out! Very good, I guess we really are smarties in every universe, good for us! Of course, I’m still smarter than you, but that’s no problem, we can fix that.”
“We’re not fixing shit,” you spat, finally halting in your tracks. The world moved on around you, businessmen and people just trying to get their groceries home giving you dirty looks as you blocked the middle of the sidewalk, but you had bigger things to focus on at that moment. “What is this, did somebody make a clone of me who now has decided to become a Halloween-themed freak? Is this some kind of sick joke? I guarantee you, I have bigger things to worry about than this right now, so just… knock it off.”
“Aww,” Jack walked towards you, faux sympathy ringing clear in their voice, “or maybe not that smart after all. Has the poor little other-me never heard of the multiverse?”
“What, the pseudo-science thought experiment that people love to make jokes about? I’ve heard of it.”
“You call it pseudo-science, and yet,” Jack pulled up the bottom of their mask, showing you lips you recognized as your own, “here I am, standing in front of you. You really should work on opening your mind before you leap to conclusions.”
“Can you come get another one of us who isn’t an asshole so I can have this conversation with them?” you huffed, crossing your arms in front of yourself. “Okay, even if I buy into this, what, in this other universe I decided to go crazy and start dressing up like it’s fucking October all the time?”
It was, in fact, October, but you didn't feel the need to clarify that little fact.
“So small-minded, you can’t even see the forest for the trees. He can help you with that.”
“Of course there’s a fucking he,” you flinched, “it isn’t Peter, is it?”
“No,” they drawled, “it’s not Peter, though he’s proven to be a thorn in his side since the beginning. I’m sure if you want to deliver the brat to him, he’d be more than happy to thank you,” they leaned closer to you, causing you to back up against one of the buildings you were standing next to, “and he is so gracious when he thanks us.”
“Stop playing with pronouns, who the fuck is he and what does he want with Peter?”
“Oh, that’s so sad,” they leaned back once more, “what a sheltered existence you’ve lived. You don’t even have a version of him and you don’t know your precious Peter’s little secret, what a pity. No wonder you’re such a stick in the mud.”
“Answer the goddamn question.”
“Well, your little Peter has a certain spider-related problem that he wanted fixed, but in the process, he opened the gates to a whole new world of problems,” Jack pouted. “And what a shame that he just so happened to open those gates to the very people who knew all his secrets, it’s almost like this all was for nothing.”
“If you’re implying Peter is Spider-Man, you’re even crazier than I thought you were.”
Jack shrugged, a smile playing across their lips. “You can ask the kid, if you’re able to find him. As for who he is, he is the man who changed our lives. His name is Norman Osborn, and he is a genius, ahead of his time. He was the one who gave me these gifts. He made me smarter, he made me see the world from a whole new perspective, and he can help you, too. He’s particularly fond of us, I’m sure he wouldn’t say no to having another version of us on the team, especially not one as pretty as you.”
“You’re fucking crazy,” you were completely shaking at this point. You were the same height as Jack, but you had the craziest notion that they were towering over you despite it. “You’re absolutely crazy, and we’re done here.”
“I’m sure you’ll be able to find me,” Jack’s taunting voice followed you, “and if not, we’ll definitely be able to find you.”
You all but ran away, leaving the figure cackling behind you.
“Peter,” your fingers were flying across the screen of your phone as you weaved your way in and out of the foot traffic, “call me the fuck back. Things are crazy and I want to hear the truth from you, but if you opened the multiverse, I would really appreciate it if you let me know.”
To your surprise, you saw him type, the three dots popping up and disappearing in quick succession.
“Let Aunt May know I’m fine,” came his eventual reply. “Where did you hear that?”
“From a crazed version of me who had some other things to say about secret identities.”
Peter didn’t reply, so you tried again. “You ever heard of Norman Osborn?”
“The Oscorp guy?”
“Apparently he’s evil, steer clear. Also if you see somebody who looks and sounds like an unhinged me don’t give them the time of day. TTYL.”
You sent a quick text to May, informing her that Peter was very much not dead and that you were planning on heading to your apartment and staying there until future notice, before you made your way back to your quiet apartment. If the world felt the need to be deeply and irreversibly weird, you would simply hide in your room until it got its act together. Peter was clearly fine taking care of himself (or at least far more fine than you could’ve ever guessed), and right now, you were mostly worried about the fact that there appeared to be two people in the city who were both unstable and a little too interested in you.
If hiding yourself away in the four walls of your apartment was what helped you maintain your sanity, you would content yourself with sitting in front of your laptop and trying to distract yourself from the increasing sense of impending doom you had felt since that unlucky encounter on the street.
May had texted you back, still sounding equally frantic but a little less worried, and a few of your friends had wanted to know if you had seen the new masked heroes and villains who had been wreaking havoc on your beloved city. You threw your phone to the side, feeling as if you had spent too much time staring at it already.
You pulled off your coat and threw it onto your couch, barely able to think of anything other than getting the bag of Halloween candy you had been saving off of the shelf and digging in. The jacket fell just short of the back, and as your eyes moved up from where it was sitting, you noticed a man sitting in your other chair.
Naturally, you screamed, backing up and trying to search for anything you could use to protect yourself. The figure laughed, lips twisting up into a wicked grin. “Come now,” he said your name as if he had said it a million times before, “is that any way to treat an old friend?”
“You’re no friend of mine,” you hissed. “Who the fuck are you?”
“I would’ve expected Jack had told you, they do so love to chat.”
“So you’re him? Norman?”
“Some people call me that, others a name a bit more sinister. Either way, I’m just here to help you out.”
“Get the hell out of my apartment. I don’t want anything from you.”
“You can hide yourself from most everyone, but you can’t hide from me,” the man stood up, and you backed up against your counter, quivering in front of him. He was wearing a green supersuit, and for the first time, you noticed a mask sitting on the floor. Sinister, you were realizing, was the perfect name for him. “Even if you think you are, you’re not all that different from the version of you that I’m familiar with. You even have the same address, the same way of organizing your furniture.”
“That doesn’t mean anything.”
“Doesn’t it? I know you better than you know yourself, because I’ve danced this dance before. To be fair, it didn’t happen in an apartment back in our world, but I can make do with the circumstances. They pushed against me too, but wills crumble quickly when you realize there are better options out there. After all, aren’t you tired of constantly having to play babysitter for that insufferable Parker kid?”
“He’s family,” you snarled, straightening up. The man hadn’t stopped his trajectory until he was standing right in front of you, leaving you with no space to move or back up. Your chest constricted, capturing all your breath with it, but you continued on. “And you’re delusional to think I would abandon him.”
“Do you really think it’s delusional to see what you’re worth and tell you?” You could feel his breath on your face. “So many universes, so many worlds where you’re not able to realize your full potential, but I can help. I can free you of Parker, free you of everyone who has ever held you back. All you have to do to reach your full potential is say yes.”
“You think ‘Jack’ is my full potential?”
“Jack has been useful, but didn’t face the same circumstances you have. Their falling out with Parker was much more sudden, you have festering resentment. That’s useful.”
“Don’t tell me what I feel,” you shoved him, feeling the cool plastic of the suit against your fingers. To your horror, he just laughed, grabbing your hands easily and holding them close to his chest.
“You’ll succumb eventually, I know you will. Until then, I have a rendezvous with the spider, and we’re going to have a hell of a time together,” he backed up, looking at you with gleaming eyes. “Unless you think you can stop me?”
“Fuck off.”
He shrugged, grabbing his mask and heading to your window. “You’ll be seeing me again, and I suspect your answer will be different.”
As quick as he had entered, he was gone, leaving you clutching onto your kitchen counter and panting. Through the night, a laugh echoed.