Chapter Text
It starts as usual - with an anomaly.
An alert popped up on Earth-9091. A strong pulse of energy disrupted matter as universe’s stability rate started to go down. LYLA’s quick analysis showed that another villain-of-the-week slipped through the crack between dimensions and was most likely currently wreaking havoc in this universe.
So, an average Tuesday.
Peter B hops out of the portal, taking in his surroundings. His attention is immediately drawn to a fancy building across the street. People were running out, screaming and pushing each other. A dinner table smashes through the window, showering them with shards of glass.
Parker wastes no more time. He swings over and crawls through the broken window, finding himself on the second floor of a beautiful restaurant. The air is filled with mouth-watering smells of seafood dishes and sounds of chaos. A chair flies by him, crashing into the neon light above. Peter looks over the concrete railing.
The first floor is already an absolute mess. There seemed to be an aquarium in the middle of it, now partially shattered with water pouring onto the tiles. Various fish and manta rays flop pathetically in the puddles, surrounded by pieces of destroyed furniture.
Civilians scramble to find cover, security is rushing in, surrounding the area. And there he stands – the cause of this mayhem – a 15-foot tall behemoth of a man that towered above them all. A giant crimson octopus seemed to grow out from his back, its large deformed sack melded with the man’s upper torso. Long tentacles flail around him, one already has a customer tight in its grip. Doctor (Captain?) Octopus tries to bisect a security guard with a cutlass, the other dodges the blade only to be knocked down by a tentacle the next second.
Captain raises his weapon once again. Peter B. shots a web at guard’s foot, yanking him to the side. Cutlass hits the tiled floor.
“Hey! Dock Ock!”
Parker leaps. His heel hits anomaly square in the temple. Captain’s head flies back but he stands firmly on his feet. Well, this is gonna take a while.
“Ye!” behemoth roars, swinging at Spiderman. Peter rolls out of the way and webs upwards to the ceiling. “What in the nine hells did ye do?!”
“How about you calm down, so I can explain everything?” he shouts. Talking never works, but, hey, worth a shot. Doc Ock’s response was another roar.
Parker jumps down again, aiming for Captain’s tentacle that’s holding a civilian. The captured person was unconscious and turning a dangerous shade of blue. Simply punching the appendage isn’t enough. Too meaty. Spiderman pulls a piece of broken glass towards himself. Not something he’ll be proud of doing, but oh well. The sharp edge tears into the muscle. The tentacle flails wildly, Peter with it. A huge hand tries to tear him off. He keeps pushing the glass deeper. The knot of muscle around civilian’s torso relaxes. They plummet towards the floor. Parker has a fraction of a second to dive after them and carefully rest them on the tiles.
A moment later the same huge fist sends him flying across the room. Crack, his back slams into the wall. Whoosh – the wind is his only warning before a dining table shatters the space where Peter’s head was.
Thank god for spider-sense, that thing keeps Peter B. moving even when his vision is a blurry mess.
Throw a punch, dodge the other three—four—five— okay, this boxing match is a bit unfair! Who let the guy with two giant fists and eight fist-qualifyable appendages into the ring? Peter dances around his opponent, looking for a breach in his defenses. None so far, Doc’s tentacles do a good job of protecting the main body.
At this point it’s a test of endurance, and Parker seems to be losing. He gets a few good hits in, then a tentacle wraps around his leg and throws him onto the floor. He rolls out of the way before a barnacle-covered foot crushes his throat.
Metal flickers above. Spiderman feels it before he can process – sharp, burning pain across his back. He can’t turn fast enough. A blow to the side, and he’s slammed into a set of tables.
“Peter, I’m sending backup, hold on!” LYLA’s voice breaks through the ringing in his ears. Yeah, okay, he does need some help here.
Parker forces himself to stand up.
“Ye are but a shadow of my nemesis!” Captain Octopus booms, approaching him. “A pathetic pile of bird shit! I’ll use yer suit to wipe my— argh!!!”
Hard to monologue when your atoms are literally frying themselves.
As Cap Ock recovers from glitching, a portal opens up on the second floor balcony. A familiar rev of a motorcycle – and one literally drops from above on villain’s head. Any other day Peter might’ve felt a little bad for him, but not for this tough son of a bitch.
“How’s the fish market, Peter?” Jessica shouts, doing a lapse around them to keep the momentum.
“They’re usually not that animated!” he quips back.
Things should’ve gotten better with Jess on board, except they barely do. There’s not enough room for Drew to get proper acceleration, but she runs over some appendages, taking them out of the fight. Peter continues to punch every part that he can reach, trying to ignore the throbbing pain.
The behemoth manages to catch him mid-air, Doc’s thick fingers wrapping around his throat. Peter wheezes, struggling to free himself.
A loud mechanical click. Peter’s whole body goes cold. A gun, a pistol, he has a giant pistol, of course, he’s a pirate—
“Yer brains will be a good food for my fishes”, Octavius grins, and it’s bloody.
Jess shoots a web at Captains hand, yanking the pistol away from Peter B, but the anomaly is strong. They both struggle to overpower each other, while Parker slowly pries villain’s fingers from him.
Something metal bounces off the tiled floor, a small sphere rolls towards them. Captain and Peter both watch as it bumps into Octavius’ foot and splits in two. A small light inside starts blinking rapidly.
Peter feels the effects almost immediately. Pulsating pain fills his mind and he’s suddenly nauseous. His spider-sense goes into overdrive. There’s weird light flashes all around him. Judging by the groans from below, Jess is having a bad time as well.
Captain Ock lets out a wail and falls to one knee. Spiderman slips free from his hold, also dazed.
A dark figure dives down from above. A kick to the head, followed by an uppercut. Cap’s body collapses on the floor with a deafening thud, finally unconscious. The figure shoots out a web and pick up halves of the sphere, clicking them back together.
For a moment, everything is completely still.
A cheer erupts from behind kitchen doors. It swells as people pour into the space. Some surround the small dark figure, others stumble through the dim restaurant trying to get away from this nightmare as soon as possible. Paramedics rush into the building, a regular post-fight routine taking place.
Jess and Peter used the moment to cage the villain and scramble to get to the rooftop, away from curious witnesses. A chill wind blows past them, taking some of the adrenaline with it. Peter groans, taking in the damage.
“Damn, this guy was a real pain in the ass, huh?” he lightly kicks the force cage, earning a glare from Jessica. She sighs, sitting down on her bike.
“Yeah… I don’t envy the Spiderman that has to deal with him.”
Parker hums, looking down at the night city below him. This New York is definitely more on the technologically advanced side. Neon lights faintly outline the sharp edges of menacing brutalist architecture. Cold gusts of wind howl between concrete walls, trying to blow the pair of Spiders off the spacious rooftop. It’s the middle of January, after all.
“Above you”, softly says Drew. Peter B follows her gaze.
Clouds of cosmic dust roll millions of feet above him, myriads of stars surrounding them. Weirdly enough, looking at a nebula, the first thing he thinks of is a huge bruise. The later stages of it, when skin slowly turns to bluish-purple colors with a hint of yellow on the edges. Something small twists in Peter’s chest. For some reason this breathtaking view makes him uneasy.
“Alright, enough stargazing!” LYLA’s voice breaks the silence. “Big guy’s gonna wake up any minute now!”
“Yep! Yep-yep-yep…” Jess hurriedly activates her watch, punching in the command.
Peter steps aside, stretching his tired arms. Something magnetic pulls at his conscious and he knows they’re being watched.
A pair of big white eyes stares right at him from the shadows. Parker raises a hand in greeting.
“Hey, pal! Forgot that you’re here!”
The eyes squint and then move forward. A small figure reveals itself – the one that helped them in a fight.
Bright neon blue patterns on their dark suit are pointy and asymmetrical. The spider logo in the center looks more like an explosion than an arachnid. They aren’t wearing a mask, instead there is a futuristic helmet with a large visor, through which the Spiderman looks at them with narrowed holographic eyes.
“Who the hell are you?!” they ask immediately, their voice robotic and full of static.
Oh, this one is easy.
“We’re Spidermen! Just like you.” Parker replies cheerfully.
They scoff. “Yeah, I got that already. I mean, like, who are you? Where did you come from? That’s not my Octavius-”
Jess is quick to interrupt the flood of incoming questions. “We’re from a different dimension, including him,” she nods at the hulking mass of flesh and octopus.
New Spiderman lets out a small oh, mulling over this bombshell of information.
They don’t seem too shocked learning about the other universes. Instead they look at the trapped Captain Octopus, doing some mental math. Little sparks lit up on their body as they shift on their feet, reflecting the low light from the city – tiny stars, scattered all over their frame.
“How… many other dimensions are there?” the small Spider finally speaks up.
This one is… not as easy.
“Well, at least four.” Peter sagely raises his index finger. Jessica snickers from behind. New Spiderman rolls their holo-eyes.
“We’re still figuring it out, but there’s a whole multiverse of them.” Drew clarifies, starting up her bike. She taps her watch and a portal whirrs into existence. “Thanks for helping us down there, by the way.”
The small Spider mumbles something, completely enthralled by the sight. Peter looks back at Jess and gives a small nod in other Spiderman’s direction, his question silent. Jess pauses checking on the force field and studies them for a moment.
(The main objective of a mission is to get the anomaly out. A secondary objective, if they make contact with a new Spiderman, is to see if they’re a good candidate. Jessica furrows her brows. Sure, those punches she saw had some experience behind them, and the spherical thingamajig was certainly… something. But… )
“We ain’t takin’ a teenager, Peter.”
“What, me?” the figure snaps back to reality, then lets out a groan. “I’m not a teenager, I’m just short!”
Well, that’s settled.
Drew grins. “Alright then, shorty, wanna see somethin’ even cooler? C’mon!”
She rides through the portal, dragging the bad guy behind. Peter gives new Spiderman a gentle pat on the shoulder.
“This whole thing might be a lot, bud. You sure you can handle all of it?”
He isn’t trying to discourage their potential new recruit. But staying silent about the possible hardships would’ve been unfair on Peter’s side, and he doesn’t do unfair.
Helmet’s visor reflects the bright reds and oranges of the portal. Peter can’t make out the face behind the glass, but he knows for sure that the little Spider's eyes are filled with child-like wonder. They give Parker a nod and don’t wait a second longer, jumping into the unknown.