Chapter Text
Miles was hanging on a punching bag, chained up, and looking into the eyes of his doppelganger from this dimension.
- Please, you have to let me go. Our dad will die if I don't get home.
- Your dad. - The Prowler said, emphasizing the first word.
Miles looked at himself pleadingly from Earth 42 and realized that it was unlikely that he would be able to persuade his double to let him go. He was terrified of the immediate future: he had less than 48 hours to save his dad, and he didn't even have a plan. In addition, he is being hunted by a whole pack of Spider-Men who will 100% prevent him from destroying the canon event.
"Okay, Miles, take it easy. First, you need to escape from your evil doppelganger, and then solve the other problems as they come. And I think I have an idea how to get out of here."
- Besides, what good would it do me if I just let you go? - The Prowler bent his steel glove into a fist and put it near Miles' head. This gesture tensed the boy, but it was even better. Now the Prowler's attention was focused on his eyes.
- Look, I know that our... your dad died in this universe. But in mine, he's still alive, and you have a chance to save him by letting me go. Please! - Miles' eyes were still looking at his double, but his hands were trying to feel the metal chain with which he was chained. And finally, the longed-for metal coolness finally touched his fingers.
- I don't care what happens to your father at all. You're definitely not from here, so you have nothing to do with me. I have no reason to help you.
- We have more in common than you think. But you're right, there is something that makes you different from me." The guy smiled mysteriously, putting the Prowler in a stupor.
- "What do you mean...?
- Unlike me, you definitely don't know rule number 1. Don't watch the mouth... watch the hands!
The room glowed blue and a powerful energy exploded from Miles' hands, throwing the Prowler and uncle Aaron from this universe into the opposite wall. The explosion was so powerful that even the glass flew out of the windows. "Well," Miles thought, "that's good for me, less chance of me getting any more scratches."
As he got into a fighting stance and tensed all his muscles, he realized how much they hurt. Every scratch, every bruise, was met with sharp and burning pain. But Miles tried to ignore it. All he had to concentrate on now was the Prowler and uncle Aaron, who were already starting to regain consciousness.
Wasting no time, Miles fired a few shots of webbing in their direction, pinning their hands to the wall. This was to give him a small but necessary head start.
- Sorry, man, I'm going home. You lost your father and gave up, went to the dark side. I'm not going to give up. I'm going to do everything I can to save my dad." Miles walked to the window, about to jump out, but then turned back to the Prowler. - Don't worry, it will dissolve in a while." And with that, the boy jumped out the window, letting the cold rain and night envelop him.
Swinging on the web, Miles felt even more how much his muscles hurt. Every push and pull made itself felt with a dull ache that spread throughout his body. At one point, Miles felt something warm start to flow from his shoulder. He had landed badly on the roof of one of the buildings, hitting his injured shoulder on a ventilation pipe. In an instant, a sharp pain spread across his shoulder, causing white spots to flicker in his eyes. "Hang on Miles, you can't pass out right here, let's just say this isn't a good place. We need to find some safe shelter to catch our breath and plan our next move."
One of the options was to find an abandoned subway station under Brooklyn, like in his universe. There he could definitely hide from unwanted eyes. But immediately the thought of this place flew out of his head, because if Miles from this dimension knows about this place, then who knows how their meeting will end this time. He had managed to escape the first time, but whether he would succeed the next time was anybody's guess.
The Bank of Williamsburg is not a good option either. First of all, it is very high. To get up there, Miles would have to spend a lot of energy and strength, which he doesn't have much of. And with his injured shoulder, it will not be easy to do. Secondly, again, it is a tall building, which means it will be easy to find. He needed to find a place where there were few people.
And then Miles came up with one place - the docks, specifically in the Sunset Park district. In his universe, there were several abandoned buildings there, where he could catch his breath. He was sure that there must be abandoned docks in this New York City as well. So he finally gathered his strength and headed southwest.
Half an hour later, Miles finally arrived at the Sunset Park docks. Luckily for him, there was an abandoned Jumping Jack power plant, which in his universe was operational. After walking around and checking the building for anything strange or foreign, and making sure everything was in order, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. On the 3rd floor, Miles found an abandoned couch and flopped down on it with great pleasure. He didn't care that it was dirty, torn and broken from the cities. The main thing was that he was finally able to exhale with a little relief.
His whole body seemed to be filled with lead, and Miles could feel every muscle, which was occasionally cramped. Of course, he was used to the pain throughout his body whenever he returned from a patrol or a fight with another thief. But compared to the pain he was experiencing now, it was just nothing.
The blood did not stop flowing from his wounded shoulder. The boy examined it to get a rough idea of the extent of the injury. Miles knew that sooner or later, his wounds would heal due to accelerated regeneration, but this one was too deep to heal in the next few days. Normally, he should have gone to the hospital to get stitches. But it was too risky - he didn't know the local people, he didn't know how they would react to a guy who would come to them wounded and covered in scratches, and wearing a spandex suit with a spider logo on the chest.
*Miles lay back down on the couch and began to rethink everything that had happened to him in the last 24 hours: he had been punished for a few months, Gwen had visited him, but only a few months after getting that damned watch for safe multiverse travel, he had traveled to several universes himself, then he had joined the Spider-Man community, where he later learned from some vampire or spider-man that his father would die in a few days.
But one of the most painful memories was that Gwen, the girl he considered his friend, the one he missed for all those 16 months, the one he drew in his sketchbook and on the wall of his secret place, the one who occupied almost all his thoughts and for whom he was going to go to Princeton to study quantum physics and matter movement and find a way to see her again to see her again... She had betrayed him, lied to him, stood aside when he needed her so much. Gwen may have had her reasons for lying, but her attempts to stop him, to prevent him from saving his father, completely destroyed Miles' trust in her.
He didn't want to see them again - not Gwen, not Peter B. Even if they found him, Miles was ready to fight them off, he wanted them to feel the pain they had caused him. And then he would take the watch from one of them and head home to save his dad.
"Well, I have a plan of action in case they find me. Now I can get some rest." And with these thoughts, Miles fell into a deep but disturbing sleep.