Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Oh, uh… am I up?

Alright, I guess I can do this one more time.

My name is Izuku Midoriya. I ate a piece of hair from my childhood hero, and, for over a year, I’ve been the one and only Deku. I think you know the rest. I cleaned up a beach, I got trained by my childhood hero, I got to go to the school of my dreams, I made some friends, I got trained by my childhood hero’s mentor, I learned to stop breaking my arms, I reconciled with my childhood bully, I got my license, I got trained by my childhood hero’s ex-best friend, I fell in love with my best friend, I got trained for two days by a spider-themed American hero, I changed my costume to look more like him, I asked my best friend out, I mastered my power, mastered a bunch of quirks, lost half of them when I defeated my mentor’s arch-nemesis, I graduated my first year, my childhood hero/mentor became my Step-Dad which is… weird, but I’m dealing with it,  and now… here we are.

I’ve taken some bad hits, and broken a shocking number of bones along the way, but, no matter what the world throws at me, I’ll never give up! It’s who I am! It’s what makes me Deku! Whether it’s supervillains trying to kill me or my terrifying homeroom teacher, I face every challenge with a smile and make sure the world knows that I am here and they don’t need to be afraid!

Izuku was not a huge fan of forests. Every time he wound up in a forest, it usually ended with some huge fight. First, there was the training camp, then there was his fight with Gentle Criminal, then there was the disaster with Jaku, and now… Now here he was, waiting in a clearing with dozens of heroes and police officers, ready to launch a highly dangerous operation that was probably going to end with them all having to fight a horde of Nomu.

“I can’t possibly stress how important this mission is,” Detective Tsukauchi's voice buzzed through his earpiece, “Doctor Garaki is the last significant member of the Paranormal Liberation Front yet to be taken into custody. Every second he remains free, Japan is in mortal danger. We all know what he’s capable of. You’re in the middle of nowhere so don’t worry about civilians or property damage. Go in strong and go in fast. You’re free to proceed.”

“You heard the detective, let’s move!” yelled Endeavor, leading the charge into the thick of the forest.

Ochako tapped a button on the side of her helmet, raising the visor so she could lean in and kiss him on the cheek. “Go for it, Deku,” she said, as he ever so slightly blushed. This was one of the little upsides of his updated costume. His new, green, skintight bodysuit with black netting didn’t have that clunky rebreather he would have had to push aside every time he wanted to kiss his girlfriend.

Izuku grabbed Ochako by the waist as he raised One For All Full Cowling to seventy five percent and lifted off the ground. Once upon a time, anything above fifty percent of One For All was Izuku’s ace in the hole, something he only brought out against the strongest of opponents. But ever since his final battle with All For One and Shigaraki, Izuku found himself needing to surpass that limit more and more often. A large portion of the power built up by nine generations had been expended in the fight, and, while Izuku’s quirk was still powerful, it was no longer the vast ocean of near-infinite energy it once was.

But for this? Seventy five percent should be more than enough. Izuku and Ochako flew up above the tree line and above the concrete roof of the bunker. He let go of Ochako, who slowly drifted away as she activated her own quirk, and dived into the bunker, crashing into its roof and shattering it into dust. It was too dark to see anything in here, but his Danger Sense was flaring, so he knew he wasn’t alone in there.

“...Well, well, well, if it isn’t little Izuku Midoriya,” said a voice from the darkness, “My, how you’ve grown.”

“Doctor Garaki,” said Izuku, turning toward the source of the voice, “Surrender, you’re completely surrounded.”

“Funny,” said Garaki, “I was about to say the same thing to you.” The lights in the bunker flickered on, revealing the tanks of Nomu lining the walls and Doctor Garaki sitting in an armchair by the corner with his arm hovering over a button.

“Are we really going to do this again, Garaki?” asked Izuku, “This is the fourth time the heroes have cornered you and you’ve threatened to release an army of Nomu, and it’s never worked out for you. And this time you’re all alone. There’s no League of Villains to come bail you out. You’re the last one. Everyone else is either dead or in prison. Come quietly and maybe we can make life a little better for you. I mean… you’re going to Tartarus for life, but surrender now and maybe we can get you a bookshelf or something.”

“I’m quite glad you mentioned that, Ninth,” said Garaki, pushing the button on his remote. Red lights began to flash, and an alarm blared as the tanks of Nomu slowly opened, releasing the monsters contained within. They stumbled out of their containers, initially confused, but, once their eyes (or whatever they used to see for the ones that did not have them) landed on Izuku, they charged without hesitation. 

Even so, Izuku had learned not to hesitate as well. Months of fighting this war had made his instincts as sharp as a razor. He quickly fired a strand of Blackwhip at the biggest one he could see, drawing it close before swinging it around and sending it flying into a group of Nomu charging right at him, bowling them over. As Danger Sense spiked, he heard a scream from behind him. Izuku turned to see a Nomu with its fist raised, prepared to smash him into the ground. He rolled out of the way of the attack, but before its fist could hit the ground, it started floating into the air as Ochako slapped it on the back. A second later, it was speeding through the air, launched straight into the sky, thanks to an uppercut from Izuku. It was a move the two had mastered from months of fighting Nomu, to a point where neither had to say a word.

BOOM

The wall on the other side of the bunker exploded, showering the room in dust, as Endeavor and the rest of the raid team blew a hole into the wall and began flooding into the room. The bunker descended into a confused melee as the heroes and Nomu fought each other, but the heroes quickly gained the upper hand. Every person on their side had experience dealing with them before, and what Nomus remained in Doctor Garaki’s possession were by no means High-Ends. Those had all been used up during the war.

“Deku, where is Garaki?!” Endeavor’s voice echoed throughout the bunker. Izuku, following his boss’s instructions, flew into the air and scanned the bunker. There! Garaki’s chair was slowly descending into the ground, with three Nomu standing in front of him.

“He’s getting away!” yelled Izuku.

“You pursue, Deku!” ordered Endeavor, “We’ll handle the Nomu.”

Izuku nodded and braced himself as he flew directly at the Nomu, barreling through them like a cannon shot. By now, Garaki had fully descended into the ground, so Izuku deactivated Float and jumped down into the hole in the floor. 

“My, my, how persistent you are, Nine,” said Garaki, as the lights on this newly revealed second floor of the bunker turned on, revealing more Nomu lining the walls but also a strange-looking machine on the opposite side of the room. Two identical pyramids were jutting out of the ground, silver with black stripes and rods sticking out from the tips of them. Halfway in between the two pyramids, there was a table made of the same silver material with a black cylinder sticking out of it. 

“Surrender, Garaki,” Izuku demanded, “There’s no way out!”

“You know, almost a year ago, when you blasted heroes captured Kurogiri, the young master tasked me with discovering a new way to teleport,” said Garaki, “What you are looking at, little Midoriya, is the fruits of that research! Using samples of their DNA, it will teleport the League of Villains out of Tartarus right into this very bunker, undoing all your hard work! And yes, when I say ‘The League of Villains,’ I do include my master!”

Izuku’s eyes widened and his smile disappeared. He couldn’t let this happen! It took everything they had to lock up the League last time! He had to stop that machine! He had to–

Click .

The machine began to whirr, and a glowing orange light emanated from the end of the pyramid. 

“No!” Izuku yelled, taking off from the ground and rushing toward the machine.

“It’s too late, Ninth,” yelled Garaki, cackling maniacally. An orange laser with black dots fired out from the end of the pyramid, just as Izuku fired out a strand of Blackwhip from his right arm. But Garaki was right. He was too late. The laser collided with the board with the League’s DNA samples on it a millisecond before his Blackwhip collided with the machine.

BOOOOOM

A cloud of dust fell over the room as the machine exploded, a hunk of metal barely missing Izuku. A second later, the dust cleared, revealing the now trashed machine and…

No League of Villains.

“What have you done!?” yelled Garaki, slamming his fist down on another button on his remote. Red lights started flashing as the tanks of Nomu began to open, just as Ochako landed beside him. 

“Come on, Deku!” she declared, “Let’s take him down!”

“You did well, Deku,” said Endeavor, as they watched a handful of police officers drag Doctor Garaki away in handcuffs.

“Thank you, Sir,” said Izuku, “I–I can’t believe it’s finally over.”

“There is still work to do,” Endeavor reminded him, “I doubt we’ve gotten rid of all of Garaki’s Nomu. But… with Garaki in prison, this war will be coming to an end shortly.”

Izuku stared down at the ruined bunker, hunks of rubble and the flesh of Nomu dispersed, while Endeavor turned to discuss things with Tsukauchi. This war… it had consumed him for the last year of his life, ever since he walked into the USJ a little over a year ago. His darkest moments and his happiest had all occurred in its shadow. It was a poison in his life, something that prevented him from truly being at ease at any given moment, yet it was a poison he was intimate with. It was a part of his life. And now it’s gone. Who knew what the future held for him? There would still be crime, of course, a hero’s job was never over. Still… things were supposed to get better, weren’t they? But… what if–

“I recognize that look,” said Ochako, “What are you overthinking?”

“It’s… it’s nothing,” said Izuku.

“It’s not nothing,” said Ochako, “I know you, Deku. You’ll keep thinking and thinking about it and letting it stress you out. Tell me what’s bothering you so you can get it out of that big brain of yours.”

“I’m just… worried about the future,” said Izuku, “What comes next after this.”

Ochako chuckled, but it was a sad laugh. “That’s my Deku,” she said, “We just arrested the biggest villain outside of prison and he’s worrying about the next one. I don’t know what’ll come next, but I do know you’ll do better against it if you have a clear head.”

“You’re right again, Ocha,” said Izuku, shaking his head.

“Of course I am,” said Ochako, “Todoroki and Iida said they’d cover us for paperwork. Come on, let’s get out of here.”

Izuku nodded, and so Ochako wrapped her arms around him before Izuku kicked of the ground, flying the two back to Musutafu. As much as he loved all his quirks, Float had easily become his favorite. Blackwhip might be a more efficient way of getting around on a day to day basis and Danger Sense saved his life more times than he could count, but nothing could possible match the feeling of freedom whenever he took to the skies. The two soared over the city, with Izuku flying a bit slower than he normally did, both to savor the sight of the city beneath him and the feeling of Ochako pressed up against him.

“Wanna stop for mochi on the way?” asked Izuku.

Ochako nodded, her helmet only slightly obscuring the blush on her face. Izuku began to slow down as he descended from the sky, coming to a complete stop in front of a small cafe only a few kilometers from UA. The place was small and mostly empty, and as close a thing as the two had to a ‘usual spot’. Given the nature of their lives, what with training and classes and the constant threat of a villain attack forcing them to fly halfway across the country at a moment’s notice, Izuku and Ochako didn’t get out all that much. What dates they did go on were usually impromptu or just a matter of convenience. He had tried to make an effort to plan things out in the early days of their relationship, but circumstances had gotten in the way of things. Making plans for what limited free time they had was nigh impossible considering at any moment they could be called in to deal with the latest rampaging villain. So instead, dates shifted from planned to spontaneous. If they had time on the way back from a hero-thing, they’d stop to get lunch or coffee or in this case mochi. If one of them needed help from the other with school work (it was usually him helping her with English or her helping him with math), they’d study together and call that a date. 

A part of him felt guilty about that. He knew if he opened up to her about those fears, she’d sigh, shake her head, and tell him she didn’t care about that kind of stuff or that she loved him just the way he was or say something else that would make those fears go away for a while, but he couldn’t help feeling that way. Ochako deserved more than whatever fit into his schedule. She deserved more than what was convenient. She deserved fancy nights out, trips to cool places, things that took at least a day or two of planning. She deserved some romance. She deserved to be the center of attention in his life. But even though ‘crime never rests’ is a cliche, that didn’t mean it wasn’t true. 

Maybe they’d be able to have that kind of relationship once crime returned to a pre-USJ level and they graduated. There’d be the initial hurdle since they were planning on starting an agency together and that always required a major commitment of time or energy, but once they were both settled, and more importantly Japan was settled, they’d be able to make plans and not have them derailed. Maybe for once in their lives, they’d be able to stop worrying about the present and focus on the future.

“Umm… Deku?” said Ochako, looking up at him, “Are… are you gonna let me down?”

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” squeaked Izuku, realizing he had been stuck in his own head again, before setting her down on the road outside the cafe.

Ochako laughed as she lead him into the cafe. The two of them placed their orders, got their food, and sat down at a table outside.

“My mom wants to know when you’ll be free to come for dinner,” said Ochako, before taking a concerningly large bite of mochi.

“Uh… I was going to say the same thing about mine,” said Izuku.

Ochako snorted, covering her mouth to keep herself from spitting mochi everywhere. “They still haven’t met yet, right?” she asked. Izuku nodded. “Maybe we can finally set that up.”

“Yeah… maybe,” said Izuku.

“I know that look, Izuku,” said Ochako, raising an eyebrow, “That’s the ‘I have issues but I don’t want to bring them up face’. What’s wrong? You know my parents love you, and I bet our moms would get along great!”

“It’s… what if she brings along All Might?” asked Izuku.

“Oh… that’s… yeah,” said Ochako.

Izuku nodded. “It’s not even that I’m worried about him getting along with your parents or embarrassing me,” he said, “But… it might be a bit awkward, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, you might be right,” said Ochako, “But if that’s going to be a long term relationship, they’re going to have to meet eventually, right? We don’t want them to meet at the wedding, do we?”

Izuku turned bright red and began coughing as Ochako began to laugh uncontrollably. “You’re… you’re right,” he said, as the two began to settle themselves, “I guess at some point I’ll need to rip off the band-aid.”

The two continued eating quietly, until they finished their food and made their way back out into the road, where Izuku activated the float and began flying back toward UA.

“Hey… Deku, do you see that?” asked Ochako, pointing off into the distance.

Izuku turned around toward where Ochako was pointing. There was an… an orange blip in the distance. With… black dots…

Kind of like…

Oh no.

Izuku flew toward the source of the light, fearing the worst. Had the doctor’s machine worked? Would he land in that alley just to come face to face with Shigaraki? Was he about to fight him again in the middle of Musutafu? Or god forbid, what if it was All For One? Izuku wasn’t sure if he had the strength to defeat him again, having expended so much of the stored energy within One For All to defeat them the first time. 

But that wouldn’t stop him from trying. No matter what, he wouldn’t run away from whatever villain awaited him in that alley. 

“Deku, what’s going on?!” asked Ochako.

“I don’t know,” said Izuku, continuing to fly toward the alley, “I think there might be a villain in that alley… but… my Danger Sense isn’t activating.”

“...Ok,” said Ochako, “Whatever’s in there, we’ll face it together.”

The two landed a few feet outside the alley and stared inside. 

No Shigaraki.

No All For One.

No Spinner or Compress or Dabi or Toga.

Just… just a man, lying on the ground, wearing a white lab coat.

“Sir, are… are you alright?” asked Izuku, approaching the lab. He was a bit hesitant if the man’s presence was related to Doctor Garaki’s machine then it was possible he might be a villain, but if he was a villain, then shouldn’t his Danger Sense be active?

“Uggch…” the man groaned, pulling himself to his feet. It was then that Izuku noticed that he was missing his right arm. <Where in god’s name am I?>

<Uh… Sir?> asked Izuku, switching to English, <Are you alright?>

<Yes… yes, I just… I can’t quite remember how I ended up here,> said the man, scratching the back of his head, <One moment, I was in my laboratory, then I was here. Actually, where… where exactly is ‘here’?>

<...Where is your lab?> asked Izuku.

<The Oscorp Building,> answered the scientist, <In New York.>

<You’re… in Japan,> said Izuku.

<...Japan,> the scientist repeated, <That’s… wow.>

<You’re… taking this well,> Izuku commented.

<I’ve had weirder things happen before,> said the scientist, <Curt Conners, and you are?>

<Izuku Midoriya,> he answered, holding out his hand before awkwardly retracting it, <Do you… need help?>

<I should be fine,> said Conners, pulling a phone out of his pocket, <I just need to call the Japanese office of… oh… it appears my phone was fried somehow.>

<Here,> said Izuku, pulling out his phone and handing it to the doctor.

<Thank you,> said Conners, entering the number. <Hmm… that’s odd. The… the number isn’t active.>

<Would… would you like me to call a police officer?> Izuku suggested, <So they can get in contact with the American embassy?>

<Yes… Yes, I think that would be best,> said Conners, <And… forgive me if I’m being rude, that’s… quite an interesting you’re wearing. Are you… perchance a fan of Spider-Man?>

<You know Spider-Man!?> said Izuku, his signature fanboy smile appearing on his face, <Oh… right, you’re from New York.>

Doctor Conners chuckled softly, although there was a hint of sadness to it. <I didn’t realize he had fans in Japan,> he said.

<He visited a while ago, I got to meet him,> said Izuku.

<Spider-Man was a good friend of mine,> said Conners, <I was his high school biology teacher before I moved into a private sector career. The original one, that is. I think the new one is still in high school.>

<The… the new one?> said Izuku.

<Oh, have you not heard?> said Conners, <A new Spider-Man took up Peter Parker’s mantle.>

<What… happened to Peter Parker?> asked Izuku.

<You… you haven’t heard?> said Conners, <I’m… sorry to be the one to break it to you, but Peter Parker died six months ago.>

Dead.

Peter Parker was dead.

For six months. And he had been none the wiser.

Izuku turned around to look at Ochako, still standing at the entrance to the alley. He never really told her about what Spider-Man did for him. Sure, she knew about how he trained him and how Izuku had remodeled his costume to match his (although that was more out of practicality than as an homage), but she didn’t know about their conversation on the roof of UA. The one where Izuku confessed to him that he loved Ochako. The one where Peter Parker opened up about his own relationship issues. The one where Parker told him to take a leap of faith. 

Izuku hoped, he prayed that Parker’s advice to him really counted for nothing. That if Parker hadn’t stumbled into Japan on a dead-end lead, Izuku eventually would have worked up the courage to take that leap of faith anyway. But… he knew it did. Izuku had crushed on Ochako which soon evolved to being hopelessly in love with her for months before Parker came along. And it wasn’t like Izuku had been planning to ask her out before that conversation, he hadn’t even come close to working up the nerve. If that conversation hadn’t happened, if Izuku hadn’t met Peter Parker, it wasn’t at all unlikely that he’d still be pining after her.

And now he was dead. Right after they met.

“AHHH!”

Izuku spun around to see Conners on his knees, crying in pain. But it wasn’t just… pain, there was something indescribable about him. Like the matter around him had suddenly shifted to shards of stained glass, intermixed with both his body and the air around him. Like a glitch in a video game when you ran in on an outdated system or when you played a VHS tape one too many times.

<Doctor Conners!?> yelled Izuku, rushing to help him to his feet, <What was that?>

<I… I have no idea,> said Conners, <I’ve had my fair share of… spasms before but nothing like that.>

<Um… I think this is too important to just call the police,> said Izuku, pulling out his phone, “Hi, Principal Nezu, you’re… well, actually you’ll probably believe this. I–”

“Gaah!” Conners cried again. The doctor fell to the ground and began to shake, but this time there was none of that unusual energy surrounding him. <No! Not–Not here! Listen, you… you must–GAH!>

Doctor Conners began to pull himself to his feet as his skin began to flake and green patches of scales pushed through it. Izuku stepped back and began slowly activating One For All, while Conners’s muscles began to twitch and grow. From the socket of his right arm, muscles, skin, and bone began to sprout, reforming a clawed, reptilian limb. The rest of his body soon transformed to match his newly formed arm, his limbs all growing in size and his digits replaced with claws. His body was covered head to toe in scales, and his mouth was replaced by a long snout with dagger-like teeth.

<Doctor… Doctor Conners?> said Izuku, continuing to back up.

Conners looked up at him with his lizard-like eyes and snarled, before charging wildly at him. But while Conners possessed an impressive speed, he was no match for Izuku’s Danger Sense, and he was able to catch his snapping jaws a foot away from his face. He grit his teeth as he suffered through the pain of having Conners’s teeth pressed into his hands while he held his jaws open. Perhaps he could have simply jumped back to avoid the attack, but that would have meant jumping out of the alley, putting the civilians simply going about their business on the road behind him in harm's way. So he kept him right there, holding his jaw as Izuku shifted his torso to dodge swipes with his claws. 

And then, out of nowhere, the eyes of the lizard creature that used to be Doctor Conners widened before Izuku felt the pressure from holding him back disappear and the monster began floating in the air, revealing Ochako standing behind him. 

Izuku pulled out a web shooter from his belt and approached the creature. The device was nothing like what Spider-Man had used. It was closer in shape to a nail gun, and instead of shooting out a line of webbing for mobility or as a weapon, it was more of a support device, creating shapes to fit his needs. It had a setting for bandaging wounds, creating emergency casts, and nets, mostly for catching falling civilians when he couldn’t afford the time commitment of using Blackwhip. Right now, however, he just needed it for its restraint setting. He pointed it up at the floating lizard and fired, and a few seconds later, it shot out a blob of webbing that wrapped around his target like a mummy. It was a useful feature, but like the rest of its settings, it wasn’t exactly practical for combat. It was just too slow, unwieldy, and would have taken too much time to learn how to properly use. Hatsume offered to build him a version like Spider-Man’s, but having that device on his palms and wrists would have interfered with his Delaware Smashes and his ability to use Blackwhip, so he declined. Besides, Blackwhip did most of the same things while also being far easier to use and giving him much more control.

“What the heck just happened, Deku?” asked Ochako,

“I… I don’t know,” said Izuku, rubbing his palms. He looked up at the lizard creature, flailing wildly in the air, when it suddenly began to… began to glitch in the same way Conenrs had earlier. “But I think this is somehow Garaki’s fault.”

RING RING RIIIIIIIING

Izuku looked down at his now-ringing phone. Principal Nezu was calling him back.

“Uh… sorry about hanging up, Principal Nezu,” said Izuku, “It’s just–”

“Never mind that, Midoriya,” said Nezu, “Something happened to Garaki while he was being transported to Tartarus.”

“What!?” yelled Izuku, “Did he escape?”

“No,” said Nezu, “Doctor Garaki is dead. He was stabbed through the back of his neck, right through his brainstem.”

“Who… who did it?” asked Izuku.

“We have no idea,” said Nezu, “The police officers and heroes who were escorting him were all killed as well and the footage from their cars was deleted. Now then, what did you wish to speak to me about?”

“It’s… kind of weird,” said Izuku.

“I’m sure I’ve heard weirder, Midoriya,” said Nezu.

“Fascinating… absolutely fascinating,” said Nezu, as he stared through the microscope at one of Doctor Conners’s scales.

“Do you have any idea what’s wrong with him?” asked Izuku, “Why he keeps… glitching?”

“I do, actually,” said Nezu, “I once met a man who had the same… issue as Doctor Conners. Not the lizard issue, but the thing that is causing him to… glitch, as you call it. His atoms are unstable on a fundamental level. The reasons why are complicated, to say the least, but it is something I can fix.”

“You can?” said Izuku.

“Certainly,” said Nezu, “The last person I met with this issue had a certain energy surrounding his molecules, stabilizing him in our… stabilizing him. I created a device that can replicate that energy in case I ever found someone in his… particular set of circumstances again. It’s in my office, I’ll have Power Loader bring it over to the police station.”

“And… what about his transformation?” asked Izuku, “I don’t think he’s… in control of it.”

“Hmm… I suppose I can look into it,” said Nezu, “But if you met Conners in a human form, I imagine he will transform back given time. Once he’s returned, we can look into clearing his name with the law. Considering he hurt nobody and given the intense stress he was under, I imagine it won’t be too difficult.”

“Thank you, Nezu,” said Izuku.

“Don’t mention it, Midoriya,” said Nezu, “Now I do believe there is someone waiting for you, yes?”

“Oh, uh, y-y-yeah,” said Izuku, rubbing the back of his head. He made his way out of the support classroom where Ochako was waiting for him.

“Is everything alright, Deku?” asked Ochako.

“Y-Yeah,” said Izuku, “Nezu says he can fix what’s happening with Doctor Conners.”

“My English isn’t that great, so I couldn’t hear everything you and that guy spoke about,” said Ochako, “But even in French, I’ll understand your tone. You aren’t just bummed about Conners.”

“...What did I do to deserve someone like you, Ochako?” Izuku wondered outloud.

“Be yourself,” said Ochako, “So, Deku, Yen for your thoughts?”

“Before he transformed… Conners told me something,” said Izuku, “He told me Spider-Man died a few months ago. And… I hadn’t heard about it.”

“Spider-Man? The guy who guest taught for two days last year?” asked Ochako.

Izuku nodded.

“Oh, Deku, I’m… I’m so sorry,” said Ochako, wrapping her arms around him, “Were you two close?”

“...Yeah,” said Izuku, hesitating for a few moments before answering, “He… he was the one who helped me work up the courage to… to ask you to go on a date.”

Ochako said nothing, just pulling Izuku’s face into her shoulder. They stood there for a few moments, embracing each other outside of the support classroom, until they were forced to step aside when Nezu left to return to his office. 

“So… um…” she said, after a few moments, “Do you… want to do something? Watch a movie or… play some video games or… just talk?”

“Thanks, Ochako. I just… want to clear my head for a bit,” said Izuku.

“Ok,” said Ochako, “I’m here if you need me.”

Izuku smiled and nodded before he made his way out of UA and down to Ground Beta, the same spot where Parker had taught him to swing properly all those years ago. He floated a hundred or so meters off the ground before deactivating the quirk, allowing himself to freefall for a few moments before sending out a strand of Blackwhip that latched onto a nearby building. Just as Parker had taught him, Izuku allowed his body to shift with the momentum of his swing, flipping and twisting when it felt natural. Swinging had become a form of meditation for him. Once he learned to do it properly without feeling like he was ripping his arm off with every arc, it became a great way to clear his head.

And right now, Izuku needed to clear his head. He had beaten Garaki. Garaki was dead. Spider-Man was dead. Peter Parker was dead. Ochako was as perfect as ever. The future… existed. But up here, in the air of this fake city, Izuku could escape from those thoughts, perhaps only for a few minutes, but that was long enough. 

It had to be long enough.

Chapter Text

Ok, ok! Jeez…

I’ll do this one more time.

My name is Miles Morales, and for the past six months, I’ve been New York’s one and only Spider-Man, and things are going great. You all know the rest. I took down Kingpin, I buried my Uncle, I designed my own suit, I guest hosted Jeopardy, endorsed baby powder, apologized for endorsing baby powder, my mustache grew in and then out, I started mastering my powers, and… have kept lying to my parents.

It’s a bit lonely, being the only one. I think about Peter a lot, both my Peter and Peter B. and Pennie and Noir. I wonder what they’d say if they saw me now. I hope they’d say I’m doing them proud. I think about Gwen too, I hope she’s doing well.

But no matter what I face, no matter the fear and anxiety and stress of it all, I’m doing the best I can, to live up to those great expectations. I’m doing the best I can, to be the best Spider-Man I can be!

________

“Needless to say, I mmh mmh mmh, mmh mmh mmh mmh mnn nevertheless. Callin’ it quits now, baby, I’m a wreck.”

Miles could never remember the words, but that didn’t stop him from singing along as he walked down the sidewalk. When he made this journey out into the suburbs for the first time a few months ago, he had actually ended up getting lost, but by now he was decently familiar with the route from the bus station to May Parker’s home. He had been pretty surprised the first time the aunt of the original Spider-Man reached out to him, especially as he didn’t remember giving her his phone number, but he soon learned not to underestimate the old lady. 

Over the past six months he had been acting as Spider-Man, she had occasionally reached out to him about some of the less ‘superhero-ey’ parts of being a superhero. If there was a children’s hospital or homeless shelter the old Spider-Man volunteered for, she was the one who told him about it. But it didn’t have to be big things. Sometimes May sent him a text about an ex-con trying to turn his life around or some kid with a not-so-great home life who Spider-Man used to check in on every once in a while. He didn’t mind, of course. He was supposed to be the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man; after all, he couldn’t spend all his time just beating people up. And besides, if Miles was going to use Peter Parker’s name, Peter Parker’s costume, and Peter Parker’s webs, the least he could do was take up some of Peter Parker’s commitments.

Although… Miles was pretty sure what May Parker wanted from him this time wasn’t so benign. His Spider-Sense wasn’t tingling or anything, but the phrasing of May’s message made him pretty concerned.

“Come over tomorrow. It’s urgent.”

She never told him to do anything, before, it was always suggestions. And she definitely never told him something was urgent. So even though he had other things to do on a Friday night, after he got out of class, Miles skipped out on his clubs, and hopped on the nearest bus to Westchester County, wearing his costume underneath his school uniform. After an agonizingly long bus ride, and a not so agonizingly long walk, he arrived in front of the Parker residence.

Ring.

“Good, you’re here,” said May, opening the door to her house.

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Parker,” said Miles, “How’s–”

“There’s no time for small talk,” said May, pulling Miles inside and leading him out into the backyard.

“Is… is everything alright, Mrs. Parker?” asked Miles, as May unlocked the shed that contained the old Spider-Man’s lair.

“It will be,” said May.

“Cryptic… cool,” said Miles, stepping onto the elevator.

“Have you ever heard the name Doctor Curt Conners before?” asked May, as the elevator slowly descended.

“...Yeah, actually,” said Miles, after thinking for a bit, “He’s… a geneticist, right? At Oscorp? I think he was a guest speaker once in biology class. Why, was he friends with Spi–Peter?”

“They were,” said May, “Doctor Conners suffers from a very specific condition and… well, sometimes he forgets to take his medicine. I reached out to him after Peter… passed, and asked him to text me whenever he takes his medicine every two weeks. The last time he contacted me was fourteen days ago.”

“So you want me to go check on him?” asked Miles, as the elevator touched the ground.

“Exactly,” said May, walking over to a container by the computer, “Make sure he takes his medicine.”

“Um… Can… I ask you something?” said Miles.

May turned and raised an eyebrow at him.

“Why… do you need me for this?” asked Miles, “I mean, I’m totally fine with it, it’s just… I don’t know, it sounds like you’re handling things with Doctor Connors.”

“It’s his condition,” said May, grabbing a vial from the container, “If he didn’t take his medicine and it starts acting up, you’re going to have to deal with it.”

“Wait, is he infectious?” asked Miles, “Cause I don’t know if this whole ‘bit by a radioactive spider’ thing will be much help against that.”

“He’s not infectious,” said May, putting the vial into a metal syringe, “He turns into a giant mutant lizard.”

“...I’m sorry, I think I misheard you there,” said Miles.

“You didn’t,” said May, handing him the syringe, “He turns into a giant mutant lizard if he doesn’t take his medicine.”

“Like… THE Lizard?” asked Miles, as the two got back on the elevator. May nodded. “Like… roams around the sewers and eats people, Lizard?”

“I don’t think he’s ever eaten anyone,” said May, “But yeah, that Lizard.”

“So just… what, drop it off for him or…” said Miles.

“Make sure he takes it, Miles,” said May, “With your own two eyes. Got it? And if it’s too late… jab it into his neck. Doctor Conner is a good man, he… he can just be a little… obsessive, that’s how Peter always described him. He’ll get stuck in his lab for a few days and start to think about how the experiment that turned him into the Lizard could benefit society. He just needs someone to talk to him and make him see sense.”

“Got it,” said Miles, stepping out of the shed, “Where do I find Doctor Connors?”

“Oscorp building, fiftieth floor,” said May, “The entire east side of that floor is all him.”

“He has an entire floor?” said Miles, “What’s he doing up there?”

“Miles, I’m not a scientist,” said May, “Everything I know about Connors is stuff Peter told me.”

“...Oh,” said Miles, hopping the chain fence into May’s front yard, “Anything else you need from me while I’m here?”

“No, but thank you, Miles,” said May, “I’ll be fine. You just go take care of Doctor Conners.”

“Copy that, Mrs. Parker,” said Miles.

________

Another bus ride later, and Miles stepped out of the bus onto a crowded Manhattan street. He walked down the sidewalk for a few minutes, until he found a quiet, empty alley and ducked into it. A few seconds later, he was swinging through the New York air heading toward Oscorp Tower with his school uniform shoved into his backpack. 

Knock Knock Knock.

Miles banged against a window of the Oscorp building, trying to alert the two interns standing on the other side of it. They turned to face him, and Miles mimed opening the window.

“H-H-H-Hi, Sp-Spider-Man,” said one of the interns, opening the window.

“Hey, is this the fiftieth floor?” asked Miles, sticking his head through the window.

“Forty-ninth,” said the other intern.

“Thank you kindly,” said Miles, climbing up to the next four.

Knock Knock Knock.

Again, he banged on the window, this time trying to gain the attention of the receptionist sitting behind a desk a couple of yards away. After a couple more knocks, the receptionist noticed him and rushed to open the window.

“Spider-Man?” asked the receptionist, “What are you doing here?”

“I’m lookin’ for Doctor Conners, is he in?” asked Miles.

“Ye-Yeah,” said the receptionist, “He’s been in his lab all day.”

“Through there?” asked Miles, pointing at a large metal door on the other side of the hallway.

The receptionist nodded. “But Doctor Conners doesn’t like to be bothered.”

“Can you make an exception for Spider-Man?” asked Miles.

“...I’ll ask him,” said the receptionist, pushing a button on her desk, “Doctor Conners? Spider-Man is here to see you. Doctor… Doctor Conners? Doctor Conners? Hello?”

“I need to get in there,” said Miles, as he pulled the metal syringe out of his bag and walked up to the metal door.

“Uh… yeah, right,” said the receptionist, pushing a button that unlocked the door.

Miles stepped into the laboratory, syringe in hand, but found it was empty. The lights were on, as was the computer in the corner, but no Doctor Conners. He searched around for a few moments before his eyes landed on a security camera in the corner of the room. 

“Any chance I can see the security footage?!” called Miles.

A few minutes later, the receptionist managed to pull up the security camera footage from that day. They fast-forwarded through Doctor Conner’s daily research until he suddenly fell to his knees. The receptionist rewound the footage and zoomed in on the doctor, and when they played it again Miles noticed the orange energy around his body. The footage continued playing, the energy growing and growing until suddenly, in a great orange flash, the doctor disappeared.

“That’s… probably not good,” said Miles.

________

“I don’t know, Mrs. Parker! He just… disappeared!” Miles said into his phone as he swung from building to building, “Like with weird energy and stuff!”

“You said he disappeared!?!” asked May Parker, “I can’t hear you all that well with the wind, Miles, I’m getting every other word.”

“Yeah, he–” Miles cut himself off before landing on a rooftop, trying to get out of the wind. “He just disappeared, with… like… electricity and stuff.”

“ Ok … ok, so… Doctor Conners is AWOL,” said May , “ And he may not have taken his medicine. This… is not good.” 

“So what do we do!?” asked Miles.

“We don’t panic, for one,” said May, “But Miles, I can’t tell you what to do in this situation. Weird energies aren’t in my wheelhouse. You’re Spider-Man now, not Peter.”

“Right… right,” said Miles, “I can do this. I, uh… just gotta track down a disappearing lizard-man.”

“You got this, kiddo,” said May , “ I’ll keep an eye on the police scanners for you , let you know if I hear anything.”

“Thanks, Mrs. Parker,” said Miles. 

Alright Miles, let’s think. Someone other than Conners was probably behind this, that teleportation looked pretty painful. So who could have possibly done this to him?

The government?

A rival corporation to Oscorp?

A secret cabal of wizards?

The Illuminati?

A secret organization of Spider-People from across different dimensions who came together to protect the multiverse?

Ok, a rival corporation to Oscorp was probably the most plausible culprit. Maybe whatever Conners was working on threatened to put them out of business and so they… built a device to teleport him out of the Oscorp building. That seemed a bit overcomplicated, but not the craziest thing he’s ever heard before . So, who was Oscorp’s biggest competitor?

Alchemax!

Wait… they didn’t exist anymore, right? 

Who else was there? 

Hmm…

Oh–

RIIIIIIIIIIIIING RIIIIIIIIIIIIING RIIIIIIIIIIIIING RIIIIIIIIIIIIING 

Miles fumbled with his phone for a second before answering the incoming call. “Hey, Mrs. Parker, did you hear anything?” he asked.

“Miles… it’s Mysterio…” said May, “He’s escaped.”

Oh…

That wasn’t good.

________

“Ok, Miles,” he muttered to himself as he swung from rooftop to rooftop, heading towards Ryker’s, “You’ve got two A… an A and a B-lister villain who you’ve never fought before missing. There’s probably some kind of weird science or magic involved, and you’ve got a calc exam you need to study for. It’s gonna be alright. You’re Spider-Man. You’ve got this.”

He continued swinging through Manhattan, across the East River, into Astoria, until he reached the bridge to Rikers. Spotting a cop car driving toward the prison, he twisted in midair and sent himself flying toward the vehicle, hoping to catch a ride, when his body was wracked by a sudden pain that sent him way off course and heading into the river. Panicking, he raised his arm to try and swing himself back onto dry land, only to see an orange energy surrounding the limb, speckled with bits of black. 

“Uh oh…” muttered Miles, as he recalled the footage from Doctor Conners’ lab. As he continued to fall closer and closer to the water, he could feel the energy spreading down his limbs and into his torso, eventually covering every inch of him.

There was a loud bang, followed by a flash of orange light. In an instant, Miles found himself flying through the air of a completely different city. It was kind of hard to not become familiar with the NYC skyline when you were Spider-Man, and he could tell the second he looked at the city below him that he was somewhere else. The only question was where?

Actually… the real question was how he was going to not splatter into a red paste on the ground without breaking or dislocating something. Once he figured that out, he could start figuring out where he was and how he got here. Thankfully, even though he wasn’t in New York, there were still plenty of tall buildings around. He fired a web toward one of them, pulling himself into the alley between two buildings. With two walls close together, Miles began firing webs between them, creating a classic spider’s web fifty feet beneath him. Once he was reasonably confident it was strong enough to break his fall, he curled up into a ball moments before he collided with it. The webbing strained under the force of his fall, but did not break. 

The web bounced up and down for a good thirty seconds, but once it settled down, Miles leaned forward and jumped to the ground. There was a dumpster next to where he landed, overflowing with trash, and on the ground next to it, he spotted some food wrappers, labeled with Japanese characters. Curious, Miles looked inside the dumpster. There were more wrappers, all in Japanese. Now slightly panicking, he swung himself up to the roof of one of the buildings and stared out at the city, his eyes eventually landing on a billboard in the distance. It was advertising a drink of some kind, he wasn’t sure what specifically, and, as he feared, it was in Japanese. 

“Oh no,” he muttered to himself , “I’m definitely not in Kansas.” Why did it have to be Japan? Why couldn’t it have been Philly or Boston or somewhere with train service to NYC? Why couldn’t it have been Australia or Britain or somewhere where they at least spoke English? How was he supposed to get back to New York? He’d probably have to call May Parker and ask her to buy him a plane ticket. But… he didn’t have his passport on him. So he’d … he’d probably have to go to the US Embassy. Hmm. Miles somehow doubted the US government would just , you know, be cool about telling his parents their son somehow wound up in Japan, and there was no way his parents would buy whatever lie he came up with to explain it.  

“Ok… ok, Miles, be cool,” he said to himself , pulling out his phone, “You’re Spider-Man, you’ve got this.” His finger hovered on May’s contact but didn’t press the call button. Miles didn’t have his own phone plan. His parents would definitely notice the bill for this call. Maybe… he could find a pay phone? Yeah, a pay phone. Those still existed , right?

Miles jumped off the roof of the building and began swinging around the city, searching for a pay phone, and it thankfully only took him a few minutes to find one. Maybe his luck was finally turning around! He landed in front of the pay phone, garnering only interested looks from passersby. That was… odd. It was like they were used to seeing guys in tights with powers soar through the air around here. Maybe people in Japan just had better things to care about. Oh well. Maybe, at some point in the future , Miles would get to know the culture a bit better, but, right now, he hoped he wouldn’t be here long enough to learn why.

As he began to think about how he would pay for the phone, given his lack of Yen, pain greater than anything he had ever felt in his life burned through him, like every molecule of his body was being stabbed with a burning fire poker. Miles collapsed to the ground, shaking as he cried out in agony. After a few seconds, it stopped, and he reached out to grab a hand he didn’t recognize and pulled him to his feet.

“Not… Kansas,” he muttered to himself. He knew where he was. Miles had just glitched like Peter B. and Gwen had when they were with him. That meant only one thing. He was stuck in another dimension.

Whelp…

At least he didn’t need to worry about his parents finding out his identity.

________

“So then he jumps off the bridge and I’m just standing there like ‘what?!?’, but then Tokoyami shows up out of nowhere carrying a speedboat!” Kaminari droned on , “Turns out the bank robber had that whole chase route planned out! His whole plan was to jump off the bridge, fake his death, then escape in that boat. Would’ve gotten away with it if Tokoyami hadn’t been there.”

“Woah, bro, that’s crazy,” said Kirishima.

“You, uh, you really can’t do water stuff, can you?” said Ashido.

Kaminari shrugged. “Unless I wanna walk around in a rubber suit, it’s off the table,” he said, “It took me longer than I wanna admit to work up the courage to get into a pool, but there’s no way I’m ever setting off my quirk in one.”

“What about you, Baku-bro?” asked Kirishima, “You ever fight in water?”

“Tsk, of course I have, Shitty-Hair!” declared Katsuki, “You think some stupid water can stop me?”

“Well… it’s probably hard to ignite your sweat when you’re wet, right?” Kaminari pointed out.

“So I don’t get wet then, Pikachu,” retorted Katsuki, rolling his eyes.

“Kinda hard to avoid that when you’re fighting in water, Bakugo,” said Ashido.

Katsuki sighed in exasperation as he rubbed his temples. Once upon a time, he would have blown up (literally) at the three for what they said, but after a year and a half at UA, he had realized both that being the best was something he had to work toward, and that didn’t inherently make everyone else worse. He had gotten over himself enough to keep things under control. 

“You can, when you’re good enough,” he said, after settling himself.

“Hey, Baku-bro, who’s that?” Kirishima asked, pointing at a person in a hero suit at a phone booth, “Doesn’t he kinda look like… ah, what was his name? That American guy who showed up for two days a few months ago. You know…”

“Spider-Man?” Ashido chimed in.

“Yeah, him!” said Kirishima.

Katsuki looked closely at the person’s suit. From a distance, it didn’t look that similar. The same shape, maybe, but it’s not like Spider-Man was the only hero to wear a skintight bodysuit, and he lacked the distinctive red and blue with those webs. But then, as Katsuki was watching, the kid turned around. His mask had those same white eyes that somehow contorted to match his facial movements, and on his chest was a red silhouette of a spider in a red circle.

“That can’t be the same guy, can it?” whispered Kaminari.

“No way,” Ashido muttered, “He’s way smaller.”

“You think he knows the other one?” asked Kirishima.

“Unless there’s some crazy coincidence going on here,” said Kaminari.

“Will you idiots stop gossiping?” said Katsuki , “If you wanna know what his deal is, just ask!”

“...Yeah, I guess–” Kirishima began

“GAHHH!” the Spider-Man look-alike cried as he collapsed in front of the pay phone. He lay on the ground spasming as the space around him distorted like TV static. The four of them all rushed to his side, no idea what was happening but certain it wasn’t good. After a few seconds, he stopped and the space around him returned to normal. Kirishima reached out and offered his hand which the Spider-Man look-alike grabbed before being pulled to his feet.

<Not… Kansas,> he muttered to himself.

<You alright?> asked Katsuki.

<Yeah… yeah,> the guy muttered to himself, <Thanks.>

“Ask him if he knows Spider-Man,” Kaminari whispered.

Katsuki turned to stare daggers at Kaminari for a few seconds before returning to the Spider-Man look-alike. <What the hell was that?> he asked.

<Nothing… it’s nothing,> he muttered.

<Don’t lie to me, I just saw you glitch out on the street,> said Katsuki, fishing around in his pockets till he found his hero license. <I’m a pro-hero too. Tell me what’s wrong and I can get you help.>

<Pro-hero?> said the Spider-Man look alike, the white eyes on his mask shifting like he was raising an eyebrow, <Oh, uh, yep. Pro-heroes. Yeah… wait… did he just say Spider-Man?>

“I heard him say Spider-Man!” said Kaminari, “Does he know him?”

“Quiet, Pikachu!” barked Katsuki, “This guy just collapsed on the street! Lemme figure out what’s wrong with him first!”

<He said Spider-Man again,> said the Spider-Man look alike, <You guys know Spider-Man?>

“God damn it,” Katsuki muttered to himself, <He taught at our school for a few days like… half a year ago. You know him?>

<Yeah, yeah, I know him,> said the guy, <Do, uh… do you have any idea how your school got in contact with him?>

<Why do you care? Do you know him?> asked Katsuki, raising an eyebrow.

<Yeah, he’s… he… was my mentor,> said the guy, <But I need to get in contact with him and my phone is broken. I don’t know his number, ‘cause, he’s, uh, kinda secretive, you know? So do you know how your school got in contact with him?>

Katsuki shrugged. <I don’t know, I guess our Principal probably knew him or something,> he said. <Or All Might knew him. He spent a lot of time in the States.>

<Umm… could… could I maybe… talk with your Principal?> asked the guy.

<...If I can get you in contact with ‘em, will you see a doctor or somethin’ about the glitching?> asked Katsuki.

<Yeah, yeah. Sure,> said the guy.

<Alright… what’s your name?> Katsuki asked.

<Like… my secret identity or… hero-name, alias thingy?> asked the guy.

<Whichever, I don’t care,> said Katsuki.

<Well, my hero name is Spider-Man too,> said the guy, <I kinda took up his name after he became… indisposed for a while. So I guess… just call me Miles. What’s yours?>

<Bakugo,> Katsuki said as he pulled out his phone before realizing he didn’t really know how to get in contact with Nezu outside of just going to UA. He scrolled through his contacts list for a few seconds before eventually clicking on one.

“Kacchan?” the voice on the other end asked.

“Oi, Deku, are you at school?” Katsuki asked.

“Yeah? Do you need me to do something for you?” Deku responded.

“I need to talk to the rat,” said Katsuki.

“You don’t have his phone number?” asked Deku.

“No, I don’t have his number!” barked Katsuki, “Sorry not everyone gets to be All Might’s Secret Lovechild!!”

“Alright, alright! I’ll call him and ask him to call you,” said Deku, “What should I tell him this is about?”

“Spider-Man’s… protege is in Japan, apparently,” said Katsuki, “He says he needs to talk to Nezu.” 

“Sp–Sp–Spider-Man’s protege?!” Deku repeated.

“Yeah?” said Katsuki.

“I’ll… I’ll call Nezu,” said Deku.

Click .

Katsuki stared at his blank phone screen for a few moments , until it started ringing again with an unknown number.

“Hello, young Katsuki!” said Nezu.

“Principal Nezu,” Katsuki acknowledged.

“I hear you ran into Spider-Man’s protege,” said Nezu.

“His name’s Miles,” said Katsuki, “He wanted to talk to you.”

“Did he say why?” asked Principal Nezu.

“He says he can’t get in contact with the original Spider-Man,” said Katsuki, “He was hoping you could. So, can you?”

“Perhaps,” said Nezu, “Either way, I’d like you to bring him to UA. But, tell me, have you seen him… have a seizure or something along those lines.”

“Yeah…” said Katsuki, “How’d you know?”

“Just a theory, one that I’m quickly finding more evidence for,” said Nezu. “Tell young Miles that I’d be happy to speak with him, but I’d rather do it in my office.”

Click.

<He says he might be able to help you,> said Katsuki.

<Cool, so… where is he?> asked Miles.

<You can move like your mentor, right?> asked Katsuki. Miles nodded. <Great. Follow me.>

In an instant, Katsuki ran out into the street and blasted off into the sky, quickly followed by Miles swinging on the same kind of ropes that Spider-Man used.

“Hey! Where are you going!?” yelled Ashido. 

“UA! Meet us there, nerds!” yelled Katsuki.

________

“Woah! This is your school!?” cried Miles as the two landed in front of the absolutely massive campus.

“Best hero school in Japan!” bragged Bakugo, walking through the front gates. Miles prayed his mask hid the awestruck expression on his face as they walked through the halls of the school . There were tons of people wearing hero costumes and others who had extra limbs or horns or different colored skins or other mutations. For once in his life, Miles managed to get lucky. Whatever force had dragged him out of his home dimensions had plopped him down in one where a guy swinging from rooftop to rooftop on spiderwebs wasn’t newsworthy, and where there were people who could get into contact with this universe’s Spider-Man.

Also… hero schools? Why couldn’t there be hero schools in his dimension? Well, he knew why there wasn’t, of course: There just weren’t enough people with both powers and a strong enough sense of justice to go around punching people in the face. Still, that didn’t stop him from being jealous. The closest thing he got to hero school was a two-day crash course from Peter, Gwen, and the rest of the Spiders, and occasional off-handed remarks from his dad about what made a good cop.

At least he was able to console himself with the knowledge that there were probably way more villains in this dimension. Spider-Man-ing would be so much more annoying if every purse snatcher or bank robber had super strength or could control electricity or something. 

He continued following Bakugo down the halls of the school until they eventually reached a brown wooden door. The blond with the bomb hands knocked on it, and a few seconds later, it swung open, revealing…

“A mouse?’ Miles muttered, before covering his mouth.

“Am I a mouse? A dog? A bear?” the creature asked, “I’m the principal! Principal Nezu, and you must be Miles, am I correct?”

“Yes, Sir,” said Miles.

“Come in! Come in!” said Principal Nezu, “Thank you for escorting young Miles here, Katsuki.”

Bakugo shrugged, before walking away from the office. Miles, on the other hand, followed the Principal into his office, who closed the door behind him.

“So, um, Principal Nezu, are you a friend of Spider-Man?” asked Miles, sitting down in front of the large brown desk.

“Would you like a cup of tea, Miles?” asked Principal Nezu. Miles nodded, not wanting to be rude. As he poured two cups of tea, the principal continued to speak. “To answer your question, I wouldn’t go so far as to say we’re friends. In fact, I have no idea how to get in contact with him. I simply happened to run into him while he was stuck here. And when I say here, Miles, I do not mean Japan.”

“You… what do you mean, then?” asked Miles.

“I’m curious, Miles, what do you think I mean?” the Principal asked as he slid a cup of tea across this desk.

Miles picked up the cup and stared into the opaque black liquid. There was only one thing Nezu could mean, but it wasn’t just something he wanted to say out loud. But he supposed if Nezu was hinting at it, he probably wouldn’t sound that crazy, right?

“He… was from another dimension,” said Miles.

Nezu smiled deviously, so deviously that it triggered his Spider-Sense. “Correct,” he said, “This ‘Spider-Man’ said he had somehow ended up in another dimension thanks to some machine. He called it a ‘Super-Collider’.” SHATTER. The ceramic cup fell from Miles’s hand and broke against the floor, but Nezu didn’t miss a beat. “He theorized that because it had taken him slightly too long to get into the machine when he and the other ‘Spider-People’ were attempting to return, it ended up dragging him through several dimensions in order to return to his own. Does that ring a bell, young Miles?”

“You met Peter B.?!” said Miles.

“He just went by Peter Parker,” said Nezu.

“Tall guy? Brown hair? Brown eyes?” said Miles, “Uh… a little, you know, tubby?”

Nezu nodded. “Were you also amongst those ‘Spider-People’ dragged into another dimension by that ‘Super-Collider’?”

Miles shook his head. “No… the Super-Collider was in my dimension. No idea how I ended up here. Well… some idea. There was this orange energy thing that also might have brought another person here with me, but who, why, or how, I don’t know.”

“This other person wouldn’t happen to be Doctor Curt Conners, would it?” asked Nezu.

“You found him?” asked Miles, standing up from his chair.

“Yes, he had a run-in with one of our students,” said Nezu, “But I’m afraid he’s not in the best state right now.”

“That state wouldn’t happen to be big, green, and scaly, would it?” asked Miles, reaching into his pocket.

“It would. Is this normal for him?” asked Nezu.

“Pretty much,” said Miles, pulling out the syringe May Parker gave him. “I don’t know all the details, but he ended up doing this to himself. Just give him a shot of this and he should go back to normal.”

“That’s greatly appreciated,” said Nezu, taking the syringe from his hands, “I was working on a formula of my own, but I couldn’t be certain of the development time. Now, about you. I have three things I’d like to offer you.” The mutant creature reached into a desk drawer and grabbed two things: a wristband and a plastic card. “This is something I developed after your friend Peter B. visited, it should stabilize your atoms in this dimension.”

“You made this in six months?” said Miles, putting on the wristband.

“You’d be surprised what a person with vast resources, a strong grasp on quantum physics, and some of the most talented engineers in the nation a stone’s throw away, can accomplish when they set their mind to it,” said Principal Nezu. “The card is a Heroics Visa. It will act as a hero license for the duration of your stay here. I just need your last name and all will be finalized.”

“It’s Morales,” said Miles, “M-O-R-A-L-E-S.”

“Perfect,” said Principal Nezu, typing something into his computer before handing Miles the card.

“And… what was the third thing?” Miles asked.

“The third thing… is a proposition!” declared Principal Nezu, “How would you like to stay at UA until we figure out how to get you home?”

“Like… just crashing here or…” Miles began

“Nonsense!” said the Principal, “You must be… what, fifteen?”

“...Sixteen,” lied Miles, hoping that the one-year difference might mean Nezu was less likely to hover over him. Something about sixteen sounded a lot closer to adulthood than fifteen did. Maybe it was just because of that all-important driver’s license.

“Sixteen then,” said Nezu, either not catching the lie or not caring, “You’re a teenage hero, we’re a school that trains teenage heroes. Surely it would be a waste to have you sitting around and doing nothing while you’re stuck here, wouldn’t it?”

“But what about figuring out how to get me home?” asked Miles.

“Oh, you won’t be stuck in classes all day, that would be unproductive considering I doubt you speak Japanese, am I correct?” said Nezu. Miles nodded and sheepishly scratched the back of his head. “Then it would be pointless making you sit through a mathematics or history or physics lecture that you wouldn’t be able to understand. Besides, most of our second-year class splits their time between work studies and courses. You’ll only participate in courses related to heroics, and we can spend the rest of our time figuring out how to get you home.”

“Alright, I guess that works,” shrugged Miles.

“Perfect!” said Nezu, “I’ll call Class 2-A’s homeroom teacher in here and have him introduce you to the class before setting you up in a free dorm.”

“Thanks, Mr. Nezu,” said Miles.

“Oh, there’s no need to thank me, Mr. Morales,” said Nezu, reaching under his desk, “It’s been ages–er, six months, I suppose– since something this interesting has happened.”

“Hey, just wondering, is there a Spider-Man in this dimension?” asked Miles.

“I think you’ll be able to answer that question soon enough, Mr. Morales,” said the Principal.

Chapter Text

Let’s take it from the top.

One more time.

My name is Gwen Stacy, and for the last entire year, I’ve been New York’s one and only Ghost Spider. At least, my New York’s one and only Ghost-Spider. Because a few months ago, I learned I wasn’t the only one. That there was a whole universe of Spiders out there. I made my first friend since I let Peter die. And then… he was taken away from me.

But I’m alright. I’m better by myself. I’m better alone. If you want to swing over the streets in defiance of the laws of physics, it’s better not to have anything or anyone tying you down.

___

“AND THE WINNER OF THE CHELSEA HIGH SCHOOL TALENT SHOW IS…” the announcer’s voice screamed through the speaker, pausing a moment to leave the audience in suspense, “THE MARY JANES!”

“Yes!” yelled Cindy, rushing to hug Liz, “We did it!”

“Was it ever really in doubt?” said Betty, a smug grin on her face.

For the first time in a long while, Gwen Stacy genuinely smiled. They had all been rehearsing non-stop for this show for months, and now it was finally paying off. Sure, it’s not like there was a reward for winning beyond bragging rights. And there wasn’t some big-shot producer sitting in the audience looking for the next big thing, that only happened in movies. But the validation was enough. This talent show was their last big hurrah, Liz would be moving to Chicago in a few weeks and none of them were really in the mood to fight a new bassist. Maybe they might hang out to jam, but this talent show was the end of The Mary Janes.

But while Gwen’s smile was genuine, she couldn’t help but feel that their victory was slightly tainted. As she looked out over the stage where the musical acts who lost were standing, she couldn’t help but notice one particular absence. The one person who stood the best chance of beating them wasn’t here today, which meant they couldn’t truly say that they had one. 

Come to think of it, she wasn’t at school today either. Gwen hadn’t thought too much about it, she was always missing class, probably out robbing some rich asshole’s penthouse or something. But she couldn’t believe that she would miss the talent show, especially after the past few weeks of mutual taunting. And knowing her, she wouldn’t just let Gwen win something if she could do something to stop it, that was just her nature. 

Wait…

Nothing had happened tonight.

Something always happened. 

Just about every single time there was some big event in the life of Gwen Stacy, a problem erupted that only Ghost-Spider could solve. Because the universe couldn’t let Gwen Stacy have nice things. But nothing happened tonight. There was no villain attack or earthquake or alien invasion or whatever that forced her to choose between saving people and letting down her frie–bandmates. 

And maybe that’s just what she wanted her to think. Maybe she knew that Gwen would be distracted and was taking this opportunity to steal a superweapon to sell on the black market or rob an orphanage or some other evil thing she knew Gwen would stop if she had the chance.

As the people on the stage began to leave and her bandmates went to collect their trophies, Gwen slipped away and made her way to the bathroom. Double-checking to make sure no one was watching, she slipped through the window and began running toward her apartment. It normally took her ten minutes, but she was in a rush and there was no one around to take notice of a teenage girl with unusually high stamina and speed, so it only took her around five. She climbed up the wall of her apartment and shimmied open the window, before changing into her Ghost-Spider costume. A moment later, Gwen was swinging through the New York sky, with one question on her mind.

Where the hell was Felica Hardy?

________

Less than twenty minutes later, Gwen found herself silently crawling up the walls of the stupidly tall building where Felica lived. It still amazed her sometimes that Felicia lived in the same school district as her, probably just that classic ‘Stacy Luck’ rearing its ugly head, as Peter would’ve put it . At least she could take comfort in the fact that it could have gone so much worse. The two realized the other’s identity at basically the same time, Gwen realized it when she noticed Felicia walking with a limp the night after she saw Black Cat injure herself trying to kill Matt Murdock, and… well, actually, she wasn’t quite sure when Felicia realized she was Ghost-Spider but it was definitely around that time. It meant that the two were able to come to some sort of agreement where they both kept each other’s secrets, in exchange for Felicia staying away from bio-weapons and blackmail and the like and Gwen looking the other way when she robbed people who wouldn’t miss the loot all that much.  

But while they had come to an agreement, it was an uneasy one at best. Felicia had gone back on her word on more than one occasion, one time stealing some weird death ray thingy that Doc Ock built and the other time stealing some of Green Goblin’s old gear , but Gwen had always stopped her and they eventually came back to a status quo, both knowing the other’s secret, but keeping it to themselves. As long as Felicia kept her burglary limited to trust-fund yachts and mafia safehouses, Gwen was more than happy to act like she didn’t exist.

After a few minutes of scaling the building, Gwen reached Felicia’s penthouse and climbed onto the balcony.

Hmm… that's… odd.

All the lights were on.

And was that a puddle on the ground?

Yeah… looks like Felicia left the sink on.

Gwen’s eyes widened as she realized what happened. Felicia wasn’t out committing some robbery she wanted her not to know about, she had been kidnapped. And she just knew she was going to be the one to have to rescue her, regardless of whether she deserved it or not. She couldn’t in good conscience let Felicia get murdered, even if she was willing to turn a blind eye to the occasional burglary. And on a practical level, she couldn’t just let some person who knew her secret be kidnapped by people who probably had some reason to want Ghost-Spider’s identity exposed. That just wasn’t a risk she could tolerate.

Sighing, Gwen took a step back before charging into the glass window of the balcony’s sliding door, shattering it into a thousand pieces. No alarms went off. She took a hesitant step into the penthouse, eyes scanning back and forth for any clues. There were no blood-stains, no broken windows (aside from the one she just broke, of course), the door was locked, and there were no footprints or anything else to suggest a break-in.

It was like she just disappeared into thin air.

________

“Midoriya, is something wrong?” asked Todoroki.

“What? No, everything’s fine!” said Izuku, continuing to walk in circles around

“You’ve been pacing across the common area for five minutes,” said Todoroki.

“Oh… have I?” said Izuku, stopping where he stood.

“Yes,” said Todoroki, “Unless this is some new technique to get more cardio in that I’m not familiar with.”

“Sorry, I’m just waiting for Kacchan to get back,” said Izuku, taking a seat on the couch next to his friend. At this, Todoroki raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“I’m surprised,” said Todoroki, “Isn’t that what raising an eyebrow is supposed to signify?”

“It… it is,” said Izuku, “Why are you surprised?”

“It never occurred to me that you would have a reason to wait for Bakugo so nervously,” said Todoroki, “Considering you see him every day, the only thing I could imagine getting you so nervous about meeting Bakugo would be something very important. But it’s likely only personally important to you because if it were truly important, like an injury, you would be calling him nonstop and I likely would have heard about it from the Class 1A or Endeavor Agency group chat. This leads me to believe it’s something important to you, but not particularly important to Bakugo. Given how close your parents are, it’s probably not a family issue. The only thing I can think of would be plans to do something that you are very invested in but he isn’t, causing you anxiety. I am surprised because I never realized you and Bakugo do things together. You two are on better terms than you were when we first entered UA, but I didn’t think you two had that type of friendship.”

Izuku stared at Todoroki with an awestruck and slightly concerned look on his face . It always amazed him how his friend could be so observant and have such strong powers of deduction while also being completely wrong with his conclusion. He managed to notice his strong relationship with All Might and their similar powers before anyone else and yet was completely incorrect about why.

“I’m not hanging out with him,” said Izuku, after taking a few seconds to process Todoroki’s reasoning, “But you are kind of right. He might have run into someone I know and I want to know what’s going on but I don’t want to bother him. I’m sorry if my pacing was making you nervous.”

“Why would you walking make me nervous?” asked Todoroki, with genuine confusion in his eyes.

“It… just does for some people,” said Izuku, as the doors to Heights Alliance swung open.

“It looks like you don’t have to wait any longer,” said Todoroki.

Izuku turned around to see Kacchan stepping into their dormitory, and he practically leaped off the couch, bolting toward him.

“Kacchan! What happened?” asked Izuku, practically running into him.

“Calm your shit, Deku!” yelled Kacchan, softly yet firmly pushing him away.

“You ran into Spider-Man’s protege?” asked Izuku.

“Yeah, some kid our age. So what?” said Kacchan.

“So… what’s he doing? Where is he?” asked Izuku.

“With the Principal,” said Kacchan, “Why do you care?”

“Just… just curious, you know?” said Izuku, “I, uh, I’d–I’d just like to know what’s–what’s–”

“Jesus, Deku, you gotta work on your lying skills,” said Katsuki, “Whatever, I don’t care. I’m going to my room.”

“I didn’t know you had a brother,” said Todoroki, causing Izuku to trip over his feet and crash into the floor.

“Todoroki!” Izuku exclaimed as he got up.

“Spider-Man is your father, isn’t he?” said Todoroki, “Since your powers are so similar, the only reason I can think of for him having a protege other than you would be him having an older son.”

“I don’t have a brother, Todoroki!” said Izuku, “And Spider-Man isn’t my father!”

“You don’t have to be embarrassed,” said Todoroki, “I can guarantee you no matter what your older brother is like, I have it worse.”

“Todoroki… Spider-Man… he died half a year ago. Probably not long after teaching here,” said Izuku, “I… I wanted to know what happened to him.”

“Oh… I’m sorry for your loss,” said Todoroki.

Izuku sighed, unsure if Todoroki was still insinuating that Spider-Man was his father. “Thanks, Todoroki,” he said after a few seconds, deciding to just accept the condolences . The two sat there on the couch for a few minutes in silence, until both of their phones chimed. It was a text from Aizawa-Sensei, in the official 2A group chat they used for official purposes, telling everyone to come to the common room. In the next few minutes, the rest of class 2A filtered into the common room, including the ‘Bakusquad’ who returned without their namesake. Ochako sat down next to him on the couch and held his hand as they waited for Aizawa-Sensei to show up.

________

“Good, you’re here!” said Principal Nezu, as a disheveled thirty-something-year-old guy dressed in all black with a grey scarf entered the office. “Aizawa, this is Miles Morales. Mr. Morales, this is Aizawa, Class 2A’s Homeroom Teacher.”

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Aizawa,” said Miles, extending his hand. Aizawa looked him in the eyes for a few seconds, sending a shutter down Miles’s spine, before shaking his hand.

“You remember Peter Parker, yes?” said Nezu, “Spider-Man?”

Aizawa looked down at Miles’s chest before nodding. “And I assume Morales is affiliated with him?”

“Yes,” said Nezu, “But there was something I left out about Parker when he visited. He’s not from here.”

“He’s from New York, I know,” said Aizawa, turning to face Nezu.

“Yes… but not our New York,” said Nezu.

“...I’m going to need more coffee for this, aren’t I?” said Aizawa.

“Potentially,” said Nezu, “Peter Parker was from New York, but a New York of an alternate dimension. Mr. Morales here is also from another dimension, although it is a different one than Mr. Parker. He is uncertain how he wound up here and has no idea how to return to his dimension. We’ll be hosting him until we can figure that out.”

Aizawa sighed, lasting a full twelve seconds. “Will he be a part of my class?” he asked.

“For heroics exercises? Yes,” said Nezu, “I think Mr. Morales will do better with your group than Vlad’s, don’t you think?” Aizawa said nothing and just looked Nezu in the eyes. There was probably something there Miles wasn’t getting, but he just decided to ignore it.

“What are his powers?” asked Aizawa, “Are they the same as Parker’s?”

“Miles?” said Nezu.

“Yeah, basically,” said Miles, “I got the strength, the sticking to walls, the senses, the web slingers, but… I can also turn invisible. And I can do this.”

“Do what?” asked Aizawa. Miles held up his right hand and activated his Venom Shock, sending sparks flying across the office.

“I call it my Venom Shock,” said Miles, “I can use it, you know, like a taser, but also like an EMP.”

“Fascinating,” said Nezu, “And do you have any idea how this works?”

“I’d assume it’s me manipulating my body’s energy somehow,” said Miles, “But I don’t really have a lab to figure that out.”

“Well that’s something we can certainly help with,” said Nezu, “Is there anything else you feel the need to discuss?”

“He doesn’t speak Japanese, does he?” asked Aizawa.

“Sorry,” said Miles, “Never thought I’d be pulled into another dimension and wind up in Japan.”

“I’m sure he’ll be able to make do with assistance from his classmates,” said Nezu.

“Do you have any idea how long he’ll be staying for?” asked Aizawa.

“I’m afraid not,” said Nezu, “I haven’t yet cracked interdimensional travel. I do have a few theories as to how he got here, however, and the evidence for one in particular is promising. I’ll elaborate once I’ve checked a few things out. Hopefully, once we understand that, getting him home won’t be too difficult.”

“Alright,” said Aizawa, turning toward the door.

“Oh, before you leave, I do have something a bit urgent to share,” said Nezu, “Another person from Mr. Morales’s universe wound up in ours. He was not quite as friendly as our previous extra-dimensional guests.”

“You’re saying villains from another dimension are going to show up in ours,” said Aizawa.

“I’m saying people from another dimension might show up in ours,” corrected Nezu, “The other man who appeared wasn’t a villain, per se, just a man struggling with something.”

“Umm… I probably should put this all on the table,” said Miles, rubbing the back of his neck, “When I was dragged between dimensions, I was searching for a villain who had just mysteriously disappeared from prison. And he was a villain-villain, not like Conners.”

“And you think he wound up here,” said Aizawa.

“I mean… I didn’t see any camera footage of his escape so I can’t say for certain,” said Miles, “And the dude’s name is literally ‘Mysterio’. Escaping from prison in some unexplainable way isn’t exactly out of character for him.”

“I’ll make sure the police keep an eye out for him,” said Nezu, pulling out a notepad , “ Could you describe him for us?”

“Sure,” said Miles, “Green bodysuit, purple cape, fishbowl helmet.”

“Quirk?” asked Aizawa.

“What?” said Miles

“In our universe, a person’s superpower is called a quirk,” Nezu explained, “Eighty percent of the population has one.”

“Oh,” said Miles, “Well… Mysterio doesn’t have any powers.”

“A villain without powers?” said Aizawa, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah,” said Miles, “His whole thing is illusions. Smoke, special effects, hallucinogens, hypnotism, robots, all that stuff.”

“Thank you,” said Nezu , scribbling into his notepad , “ I’ll be sure to let you know if the police pick him up.”

“Is there any chance I can talk to Doctor Conners?” asked Miles.

“Of course, you can,” said Nezu, “But it will have to wait a few days. I need to give him his injection and then sort things out with the police first.”

“The police?” exclaimed Miles, “Did he…”

“As I stated earlier, Doctor Conners had a run-in with one of our students and was brought into police custody,” said Nezu, “Don’t worry, Mr. Morales. He didn’t harm any civilians and the student was perfectly fine after the encounter. I’m sure the police will release him into my custody, it’s just a matter of speaking to the right people and filling out the correct paperwork.”

“Whew, that’s a relief,” said Miles, “May’d kill me if I let him go back to jail.”

“Who is this May person?” asked Nezu, “Someone from your dimension?”

“Oh, right, sorry, she’s… was my Peter Parker’s aunt,” said Miles.

“Was?” said Aizawa.

Miles looked down at his feet for a few moments. “My Peter Parker, the one from my dimension,” he said, grimacing, “Passed away six months ago, in the Collider-Explosion that brought the Peter you met into my dimension. I’ve been Spider-Man ever since.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” said Nezu, “I never knew your Peter, but I’m sure if he was at all like the one I met, then he was a good man.”

“Yeah… he was,” said Miles.

The three of them sat there in silence for a few moments until Nezu broke the silence. “Well, you should probably get going,” said Nezu, “Your room is set up with a bed and I can get you a laptop if you would like. If you’d like to hand over your cell phone, I can get that set up with our dimension’s internet and service.”

“Thanks,” said Miles, handing the creature his phone.

“Aizawa, for Morales’s sake, please dissuade the students from asking about the reason for his presence,” said Nezu, causing Miles to raise an eyebrow. “I imagine the students knowing you’re a multi-dimensional traveler would prompt quite a few questions, and I don’t want to force you to lie if you don’t wish to answer those questions, so I think it would be better for everyone if they simply weren’t asked , don’t you think? At least until you’re certain you’re ready.”

“Yeah… thanks, Nezu,” said Miles.

“Of course, Mr. Morales,” said Nezu, “Now Aiziawa, would you please escort this young man to Heights Alliance?”

________

“Good, you’re all here,” said Aizawa-Sensei, as he walked through the doors of Heights Alliance followed by a person wearing a black suit with a red spider on the chest, “Class, this is Miles Morales, also known as Spider-Man. He’ll be your guest indefinitely. Any questions?” About a dozen hands went up immediately, causing Aizawa to sigh and rub his temples. “Yes, Yaoyorozu?”

“Sir, is he affiliated with the same Spider-Man who guest taught last year?” Yaoyorozu asked.

“Yes,” answered Aizawa, “Miles is the protege of that Spider-Man. Why they share a hero name , I don’t know. Yes, Iida?”

“Could you elaborate on the indefinite length of his stay?” Iida asked.

“No,” said Aizawa, “It’s indefinite and that’s all you need to know. I expect none of you to inquire about why he’s here in Japan, it doesn’t matter to you. Yes, Asui?”

“Can he speak Japanese, kero?” Tsu asked.

“No, and I expect those of you who speak English to make an effort to assist him,” said Aizawa, “Yes, Sero?”

“Does he have the same powers as the other guy?” Sero asked.

“Ask him on your own time,” said Aizawa, “Yes, Ashido?”

“Will he be attending class with us?” Ashido asked.

“Heroics, yes,” said Aizawa, “General Education, no. And don’t take advantage of him to try and get him to do your homework for you. He’s a guest at this school and in this country so I expect you all to be on your best behavior. Yes, Jiro?”

“Is Spider-Man going to guest-teach again?” Jiro asked.

“Not to my knowledge,” said Aizawa, “Yes, Todoroki?”

“Is he related to the original Spider-Man?” asked Todoroki.

Aizawa just stared blankly at Todoroki for a few seconds before turning to face the class. “If that’s all the relevant questions, I’m leaving. If I hear of anyone mistreating Morales, they will live to regret it.” And with that, he turned around and left the building, leaving the entire class staring at Morales.

“Umm… hello?” said Morales, <That’s… that’s how you say it, right?> Everyone in the class who spoke English nodded except for Izuku, who just watched the younger Spider-Man intensely. 

<Are you related to–> Todoroki began before he was tackled to the ground by Ochako.

“Let him settle in before you start interrogating, Todoroki!” Ochako cried.

<Is… that normal?> asked Morales, pointing at the two.

<Perhaps not normal but certainly warranted,> said Iida, stepping forward, <My name is Tenya Iida, 2A’s class representative. It’s nice to meet you, Morales. Please let me know if you need any assistance adjusting to the new environment.>

<Nice to meet you too,> said Morales, shaking his hand.

“Fellow students, I’m sure we’re all interested in getting to know Morales better,” said Iida, turning to face the class, “But it’s getting late, and I imagine he’s had a long day, so let’s give him some space for now, we can save the socialization for tomorrow.”

“Aw, come on, Iida!” said Kaminari, “We’ve never gotten to hero students from other countries! Now the protege of the guy who kicked all of our butts last year shows up and we can’t ask him questions?”

“Morales isn’t some celebrity for you to gawk at,” chided Yaoyorozu, “Iida’s right. Let’s let Morales get settled in before we bombard him with questions.”

“Alright, alright,” said Kaminari, holding up his hands in mock surrender.

<Which room are you staying in, Morales?> asked Iida.

<Uh…> said Morales, <He said the open Men’s Room on the fifth floor.>

<Alright, I can show you where that is if you’d like,” Iida offered, <Do you have any luggage?> 

<It’s being handled,> said Morales, <And yeah, I’d appreciate you showing me to my room.>

<It would be my pleasure,> said Iida, <I’d be happy to give you a tour of the campus tomorrow if you’re free.>

<I might take you up on that offer,> said Morales. The crowd of Izuku’s classmates stepped aside as Iida showed Morales to the stairs.

“So… Midoriya,” said Ashido, “You know what his deal is?”

“What?!” said Izuku, snapping to attention, “No, what? Why would I know stuff about him? Spider-Man isn’t–”

“I dunno,” Ashido interrupted, “I just thought since you were such a hero fan you might have known about him.”

“Oh, um…” said Izuku, blushing slightly in embarrassment, “Yeah, I didn’t know Spider-Man had a protege.”

After a few minutes, most of the class dispersed, either separating into their friend groups or returning to their rooms, leaving Izuku with Ochako on the common room couch.

________

God, he hoped Aizawa-Sensei wasn’t going to strangle him for this. Izuku knew it might be a little rude to bother Morales this late at night, but he wouldn’t be able to sleep until they spoke. He had to know what happened to Peter Parker. He tiptoed through the quiet fifth floor, past Sato, Todoroki, and Sero’s room until he reached what used to be an empty room and knocked on the door.

<Hey,> said Morales, opening the door with his mask off, revealing his curly black hair, but still wearing the rest of his costume, <Can I help you?>

<Um… my name’s Izuku Midoriya,> said Izuku, offering his hand.

<Miles Morales,> said Morales, <But I guess you knew that.>

Izuku laughed, but it was awkward and hollow. <Yeah… um… I… I… do you know Doctor Curt Conners?>

<Of him, yeah,> said Morales, <Wait… were you the student he…>

<Yeah,> said Izuku.

<Oh, God, I’m sorry you had to–> Morales began.

<It’s ok,> said Izuku, <But… I spoke to him before he…>

<Before he turned into a giant lizard monster?> Morales interjected.

<Y-Yeah,> said Izuku, <He… he told me… he told me Peter Parker… was…>

<Oh… he told you that,> said Morales, eyes widening. Izuku nodded. The two stared at each other as Morales swallowed a lump in his throat. <Were you two…>

<Kind of,> said Izuku, <I only knew him for two days but… he really helped me out . I don’t know how I would’ve gotten through the last few months without some of the advice he gave me.>

<He somehow gave good advice,> said Morales, chuckling.

Izuku smiled. <So… how did he…>

<I’m… I’m sorry, Mi-Midoriya, right?> said Morales. Izuku nodded. <I… I can’t… talk about it right now. Can you… just give me some time? Things… things are complicated.>

<Right, right, I’m… sorry,> said Izuku, <It’s late, I shouldn’t bother you with this, I’ll… I’ll get out of your hair, Morales. Sorry to bother you.>

<No! No! Don’t be sorry,> said Morales, <It’s really no big deal for me, I just need some time. >

<A-Alright,> said Izuku. He stood there in the doorway of Morales’s room before he awkwardly stepped back and let the American shut the door. He continued standing in the hall, feeling guilty for probably bringing back painful memories for this stranger so late at night, before eventually taking a deep breath and returning to his room. Izuku got undressed and fell into bed, but found himself unable to sleep. After a few minutes, he stood up, rubbed his eyes, made his way over to his desk, and opened the bottom drawer. Underneath the slightly burnt notebook, there was a red and black mask and a folded piece of paper, which Izuku gingerly grabbed and opened.

‘Dear Izuku Midoriya,’ the note read, ‘I’m sorry I had to leave in such a rush, but crime rests for no man. This will probably be the last time you hear from me barring a miracle, but I hope you know getting to teach you, even if it was only for two days, is an experience I will always treasure. My name is Peter Parker. For the past 22 years, I thought I was the one and only Spiderman. But recently, I learned that wasn’t the case. I’m not the one and only Spider-Man. And you’re not the one and only Deku. Remember that the next time it all feels like too much. Remember that you’re not alone. That you’re not the only person out there burdened with great power and great responsibility. There are more of us than you could possibly imagine.’

‘If there’s one thing I hope you took away from those two days it would be this: don’t be afraid to be confident. You’re Deku! You’re a hero! Trust yourself. Trust your instincts. I think deep down, you know what you want and you know what the right thing is. Don’t doubt that. Don’t let your fear get in the way of doing what you need to do, whether that be as Deku or as Izuku Midoriya. You've got the heart for it, don’t let that brain of yours with all that fear get in the way of it .’

‘Peter Parker/Spiderman.’

‘P.S. I hope things went well with that Uraraka girl. Here’s a free tip: tap her on the shoulder, look her in the eyes, and say ‘hey’ in a really sexy voice.’

‘P.P.S. There’s like … a 90% chance you’ll get a middle back thing from swinging too much. I don’t know what to do to prevent it. Try yoga or something.’

He reread the note again , and again, and again, but eventually set it down on his desk as he went to wipe his eyes. He couldn’t… couldn’t stain it with his tears. That and the mask were the only things he had to remember him by. 

________

“So what do you think, Tsukauchi?” asked Sansa as Naomasa looked around the crime scene. The entire stretch of highway where the attack had occurred was shut off, creating a major traffic jam but this investigation was far more important than a few people’s commutes.

“It was a sole attacker,” said Naomasa, kneeling over an indent into the pavement, “The bullet holes in the barrier are all pointed in the same way. The officers were all shooting at the same target. The question is who?”

“It’s not like there was a shortage of men who would want to kill Garaki,” said Sansa, “But was this done out of revenge or to silence him.”

“My gut tells me it’s a silencing,” said Naomasa, “But my brain says revenge. A single stab through the back of the neck isn’t exactly the most cathartic way to kill a guy and most people out for vengeance usually don’t make sure all the witnesses are dead. But if the end goal was just ‘Garaki dead’ and not ‘kill Garaki before he talks’ then there would’ve been easier ways to get to him than when he was in a police convoy. And considering all the people who wouldn’t want Garaki to talk, it seems a bit odd they’d send a single attacker.”

“Unless we’re dealing with a very high-end hitman,” Sansa pointed out.

“Sure, but most of the high-end hitmen are dead or in Tartarus,” Naomasa countered.

“So what you’re saying is it’s a really high-end hitman,” said Sansa.

“...I guess so,” said Naomasa, “Assuming it’s a silencing. Have the CSIs look into these indents, I want the works. DNA samples, metallurgical analysis, hell, even radiation!”

“I’m on it,” said Sansa. 

As his partner walked off to go find the forensic techs, Naomasa looked a bit closer at the indent. It seemed unnatural, but in this world of Quirks, there wasn’t really a natural, was there? Still, it didn’t look like a footprint he had ever seen before . It was shaped… like a plus sign, almost. A bit thicker in the center with four prongs sticking out. And all the indents were quite spread out from each other, definitely not the distance between an average person’s legs. 

Like…a spider… 

Or…

Maybe…

An octopus…

________

Chapter Text

BEEP 

BEEP 

BEEP 

BEEP

Miles groaned as he sat up in his bed and reached around for his phone. After a few blind slaps, he managed to graze the off button. He rolled out of bed and searched through his closet for a fresh pair of clothes. He pulled out a white button-down shirt and the blazer of his school uniform, and he suddenly froze when he noticed the green accents on the lapel. This wasn’t his school uniform. This definitely wasn’t a Brooklyn Visions Academy uniform.

Oh, right.

He was in Japan. In another dimension. With no way to get home. Thank God he happened to disappear on a Friday night. He had two days to get home before people would start asking questions about where he was, maybe three or four if his roommate covered for him. His parents would probably be pissed at him for not picking up the phone for a few days, but that was something he could come up with a believable excuse for. 

Whelp. There was no time to dwell on it. Miles put on the UA uniform with his Spider-Suit underneath (which fit surprisingly well considering he had never given anyone his measurements) and stepped out of his room. As he made his way down the stairs to the common room, he took a glance at his phone. There was a singular text from Nezu. Please come to Support Lab 1 at 8:00. Class Representative Iida can show you the way if you require assistance.

“Good… day, Morales!” called a student, a tall, muscular man working in the kitchen. 

“Yo,” waved Miles.

“English ok, sorry,” said the student, “Pancakes?”

“...Pancakes?” Miles repeated.

“Want one?” the student asked.

“Oh!” said Miles, “Thanks! Uh… domo arigato, right?”

The student smiled and nodded. “Name’s Sato,” he said, pouring batter onto a griddle.

“Nice to meet you, Sato,” said Miles, “Haji… haji…”

“Hajimemashite,” said Sato, flipping a pancake in the air.

“Hajimemashite,” Miles repeated, taking a seat at the counter. He sat there quietly for a few minutes, watching as Sato made breakfast until he eventually placed a respectably sized stack with a pad of butter on top in front of him. 

“So… your quirk?” asked Miles, hoping that wasn’t a rude thing to ask. Sato looked at him, slightly confused, until Miles held up his arm and flexed, which seemed to be enough.

“Ah!” said Sato, “Get strong when eat… sweets, but less smart. You? Same as the other Spider?”

“Basically,” said Miles, “I have other stuff too, though. Electricity and invisibility.”

Sato raised an eyebrow, at which Miles held up his hand and sent sparks flying through it before going invisible.

“Wow,” said Sato, “Strong quirk.”

“Thanks,” said Miles, “Yours sounds pretty strong too.”

Sato nodded before setting down his own, much larger plate down across the counter and began to eat while Miles took his first bite. They were delicious, even without syrup. The Morales household had never been big on pancakes, if they had time for a full breakfast, it was usually his mom cooking and she always made food with some nutritional value. The one time they did eat pancakes was on Father’s Day when his dad insisted on making them. It was a family tradition in the Davis household, his grandpa used to make them for his dad and Uncle Aaron every Father’s Day when they were kids and his father was insistent on keeping that tradition alive.

As the two ate by the kitchen, more and more students made their way into the common area, some coming down the stairs and others entering through the front door drenched in sweat, probably returning from early morning workouts. They mostly said hello to him and gave him an occasional pleasantry , but no one attempted to make conversation as they were all busy getting ready for classes. As the clock struck 7:45, Miles finished the last bite of his pancakes and cleared his plate just as Iida walked down the stairs, fully dressed for class and ready to go.

“Good morning, Morales!” said Iida, entering the kitchen and pulling out a beige carton from the fridge.

“Hi, Iida,” said Miles, “Could you help me find out where I’m supposed to go this morning?”

“Of course, it’s my duty as class representative to assist you!” said Iida, before opening the carton and drinking directly from it.

“Uh… cool,” said Miles, deciding not to comment on the unsanitariness of it, “He said I need to be at Support Lab One at eight.” Iida’s eyes widened as he spat orange juice all over the floor. “Is something wrong!?”

“Y-Yes, it’s alright,” said Iida, in between coughs. He set down the carton on the kitchen counter before grabbing a dish towel and wiping up his spill. “Just be careful of that… nevermind, it’s nothing.”

“Be careful of who?” said Miles.

“It’s nothing,” Iida repeated, “It’s just… one of the support engineers is a bit… quirky.”

“...Alright,” said Miles, deciding not to inquire further.

After Iida finished wiping up his spill, he led Miles down the halls of UA until he stopped in front of a large brown door. Taking a deep breath, Iida knocked on the door three times in rapid succession before tackling Miles to the ground .

“Brace yourself!” he yelled, covering his ears.

A few seconds later, the door opened and Nezu stepped out. “Thank you for showing Mr. Morales the way, young Iida,” he said, “Do I need to write you a note for Aizawa-Sensei?”

“...No, Principal Nezu,” said Iida, getting off of Miles and making his way down the hallway.

“Is he ok?” asked Miles, getting to his feet.

“He’s quite alright,” said Nezu, “I can assure you his trepidation was not unwarranted. Welcome, Mr. Morales, to the Support Lab.”

“Woah…” said Miles, jaw hanging open as he looked around the Support Lab. Even this early in the morning, the lab was bustling with activity. There were dozens of students all dressed in UA uniforms handling various pieces of equipment and the air was filled with the sounds of power tools and motor oil.

“As I’m sure you know, powers alone aren’t always enough for a hero, we all rely on technology,” said Nezu, as Miles rubbed his wrists where his web shooters lay. “Alongside our world-class heroics department, UA is proud to boast one of the most competitive support engineering departments in Japan . Every heroics student has access to top-notch support gear built in-house, and can consult with our very own engineers to find solutions to their problems.”

“Wish I had something like that in my dimension,” said Miles, “All I have is Peter Parker’s old stuff.”

“Did he build his own support gear?” asked Nezu.

“Yeah,” said Miles, “He was something of a scientist, I guess.”

“And what about you, Mr. Morales,” asked Nezu, “Do you strive to be anything beyond ‘Spider-Man’? Not that you need to, of course , I’m sure heroics would be more than satisfying.”

“I’m trying to study quantum physics,” said Miles, “They’re doing some pretty cool stuff with it in my dimension.”

Nezu chuckled. “I suppose that isn’t too surprising, given your personal experience with the field,” he said, as the two walked through the lab, “I’d love to talk shop with you later, but for now, we have work to do. Mr. Morales, meet Mei Hatsume, one of our most promising support students.”

“Hi,” said Miles, waving at the pink-haired girl wearing welding goggles who ignored him, wrapped up in whatever she was working on to notice.

“Hatsume, Mr. Morales here needs some of your fluid canisters,” said Nezu.

“He does!?” said Hatsume, the expensive-looking tool she was holding and rushing toward the other side of the lab.

“Fluid canisters?” said Miles, “Wait, do you mean…”

Nezu nodded as Hatsume practically crashed into him carrying a cardboard box overflowing with the same canisters he used for his web shooters. “I’ve been waiting for so long for someone who needed these!” Hatsume declared, brushing aside the half-finished piece of machinery she was working on and placing the box down, “One-Million’s the only one who gets any use out of them , but I just know they could be widely implemented if I just had the chance!”

“Mr. Morales has similar abilities to Spider-Man,” said Nezu.

“Who?” said Hatsume, digging through the box, sending canisters spilling over the sides.

“The guy who gave you that formula,” said Nezu.

“Ohhhhhh, him,” said Hatsume, “Well then! I’ve got something special for you! I originally built this for One-Million but it just didn’t work out with him, and he’s the only one with the reflexes to make it work. Lemme see what you’re using right now!”

“Like… my web fluid? I’m pretty sure it’s the same as what you’re using,” said Miles.

“Not the ammo, the shooters!” said Hatsume.

Slightly nervous but still willing to go along with things, Miles took off his blazer and undid the buttons on the cuff of his shirt, pulling them back to reveal his web shooters. Hatsume quickly reached out to grab his wrist, but Miles pulled back as his Spider-Sense kicked in. “Sorry, sorry, quick reflexes,” he said, before offering her his wrist. She said nothing, pulling up her welding goggles and staring intensely at his wrist.

“Yes! I knew it!” declared Hatsume after a few seconds.

“Knew what?” asked Miles, while Hatsume reached into the box with her free hand.

“That I did it better!” she declared, before yelling something in Japanese. She grabbed ahold of his web shooter and tore it off before slapping a new one on. It was a bit bulkier than his originals, mostly due to a small dial and screen right underneath where the web fluid was held. “This web shooter’s basically the same as yours. Same range, same speed, and slightly higher storage capacity. The big difference is this dial. You can turn it to select a shape you want your webs to come out as instead of just lines! You can shoot out a whole web at once, you can completely wrap a guy up, and you can fire a ball of webs that spreads out on contact. I built that one for stopping the tires of moving cars. It even has a taser web function! The webs are coated in a very thin layer of a conductive liquid! I just need to figure out how to install the taser and it’ll knock someone out cold!”

“That won’t be an issue, Miss Hatsume,” said Nezu, “Mr. Morales can manipulate his own electricity.” Hatsume stared at Miles with a terrifying smile on her face, activating his Spider-Sense. “He claims to be able to use his like an EMP.”

“Show me! Show me! Show me!” yelled Hatsume, dashing across the room before returning with what looked like a CB radio.

“Uh… are you sure?” asked Miles, turning to face Nezu.

“Please, demonstrate,” said Nezu.

“...Alright,” said Miles, pressing his fingers against the device and activating his Venom Shock. Sparks flew from it and crackling filled the air, before the machine popped, spewing smoke and shooting out all its buttons.

“Impressive,” said Nezu.

“It’s pretty useful when I have to fight a giant robot,” said Miles, placing the destroyed machine down on the counter.

“Did… did… did you just say giant robot?” asked Hatsume, grabbing him by his shirt, the smile on her face being replaced by grave seriousness.

“Yeah?” said Miles.

“You fought a giant robot,” said Hatsume. Miles nodded. “Not in a training exercise.” Again, Miles nodded. Hatsume let go of Miles and immediately turned toward one of the work counters, chuckling maniacally under her breath as she pulled out a pad of paper and began writing.

“Should we…” said Miles, turning to face Nezu.

“I think it would be best if we left for now,” said the Principal, leading him out of the lab, “I mainly brought you here to make sure you knew about Miss Hatsume’s stockpile of web fluid in case you ran out. Now, I believe you have a class to get to."

"Alright, I'll... excuse me?"

________

“Alright, class,” said Aizawa, as the class followed him down the path to Ground Beta, “We’ll be doing an urban combat exercise for today’s heroics class. You’ll split into three groups of seven, two of which will go at a time. Each group will start on opposite ends of the city, and the first to incapacitate or capture every member of the opposing group wins. If no one loses after fifteen minutes, I’ll consider it a draw, no matter which side has more members incapacitated. Any questions?”

“Uh, yeah!” said Kaminari, raising his hand, “There’s twenty of us! How are we going to split into groups of seven!?” Aizawa stared into Kaminari’s eyes for ten seconds before Kaminari’s eyes widened. “Oh, right… Morales. Forgot about him.”

“Are there any other questions?” asked Aizawa.

“Sir! Could I ask where Morales is?” said Iida.

“He’ll be here–” said Aizawa.

“Sorry!” a voice from behind them all called, “We got sidetracked!” 

Izuku , along with the rest of the class , turned around to see Yamada-Sensei running toward them, followed by Miles Morales, still taking off his UA uniform that he was wearing over his costume.  

“Sorry… Sorry, Shouta,” said Yamada-Sensei, in between pants as he came to a stop.

“Ahem,” said Aizawa, “Are there any more questions? No? Good. The groups will be divided in the following manner. Group One will be Uravity, Grape Rush, Deku, Chargebolt, Earphone Jack, Tail-Man, and Creati. Group Two will be Shoto, Pinky, Tsukoyomi, Can’t-Stop-Twinkling, Invisible Girl, Anima, and Spider-Man. Group Three will be Dynamight, Red Riot, Ingenium, Cellophane, Sugarman, Froppy, and Tentacole.” Aizawa paused for a moment, allowing the groups to form up. “Groups One and Two will be up first. Make your way to your positions. The exercise begins in five minutes. Move out.”

<You’re with us, Morales,> said Todoroki, grabbing Morales by the hand and leading him along with the rest of his group toward the east end of the fake city while Izuku and his group made their way to the west.

“What’s the plan, Deku?” asked Jiro, as the group approached their starting position with three minutes to spare. 

“Spider-Man will probably strike out on his own,” said Izuku, “Trying to coordinate with him in a group fight would be too difficult since not everyone on that team can speak fluent English. And if he’s anything like the one we met last year, it’s not a bad idea given his powers. I wouldn’t be surprised if Tsukoyomi ends up following him since he can fly. My guess is that the two will try and lead us into a wide, open area where Shoto can ambush us.”

“But you can break his glaciers, right Deku?” Kaminari pointed out.

“I can,” said Izuku, “But Shoto knows I’m not as powerful as I was a few months ago. And we’ve never had a chance to go toe-to-toe like our first Sports Festival since I fought Shigaraki. It’s possible if it came down to an endurance match, he’d win.”

“So then what do we do?” asked Oijiro.

“When Spider-Man and Tsukoyomi come at us, we don’t chase them,” said Izuku.

“And force them to move in closer and closer to lure us out, till one of them is out of position,” added Yaoyorozu.

“Exactly,” Izuku nodded, “Once Tsukoyomi or Spider-Man or both are taken out of the fight, we’ll have the advantage in the air. Ochako and I can fly, and Tail-Man can navigate pretty well up there. With that advantage, we’ll be able to get behind whatever ambush their planning, and lure them into one of our own.”

“Ochako and I?” said Mineta, “Will you please–GAH!”

“I don’t want to know where he was going with that,” said Jiro, retracting her jack from the back of his neck.”

“Once we have the edge in the air, we’ll move in on them,” continued Izuku, “Group Two are mostly mid to long-range fighters. Shoto and Twinkling aren’t too hard to deal with if you can close the gap .”

“Easy for you to say,” mumbled Kaminari.

“Chargebolt, you’re on Pinky,” said Izuku, “She’s fast, but acid is slower than lightning. Tail-Man, you’re on Twinkling. Like I said, get in close. Creati , Uravity, if we incapacitate Spider-Man but Tsukoyomi is still on the field, you two go after him and I’ll handle Shoto. If we control the skies, he’ll be much easier to deal with. If we incapacitate Tsukoyomi but not Spider-Man, then you two will probably have to deal with him , I’m the only one with the aerial mobility to handle Spider-Man. Grape-Rush, you just provide backup. Keep the other team on their toes. Make sure Anima sticks to backup and doesn’t try to get involved.”

“What about me?” asked Jiro.

“You’re on Invisible Girl,” said Izuku, “If their original plan fails and we don’t take the bait, there’s a chance she might hide to run out the clock and force a draw. It’s not the first time she’s tried it.”

“Got it,” said Jiro.

“I just have one concern, Deku,” said Yaoyorozu, stroking her chin, “What if Miles Morales has radically different powers than the original Spider-Man?”

“Then… we’ll deal with it, I guess,” said Izuku, “There’s no planning for that, but since our plan is to wait, we won’t be caught off guard like we would if we rushed in.”

“Exercise begins in thirty seconds,” Aizawa’s voice buzzed from the PA system.

“Everyone ready?” asked Izuku, powering up One For All to fifteen percent.

“Ready!” said the rest of his group in unison.

________

“So what’s going on exactly?” asked Miles, “I kinda missed the explanation. Also … who are you?”

“Shoto Todoroki,” said the dual-haired person leading him by the arm, “Hero name Shoto. We’re fighting the other group in… two minutes and thirty-six seconds.”

“And… what’s their deal?” asked Miles, “And ours?”

“...Yaoyorozu, or Creati, is the girl in the red , she can create things with her lipids if she knows their atomic structure. Uraraka, or Uravity, is the girl in the pink , she can remove something’s gravity. Ojiro, or Tail-Man, is the blonde in the gi , he has a tail and knows martial arts. Mineta is the guy in all purple , he throws balls that you stick to. Jiro, or Earphone Jack, is the girl in the leather jacket , she can hear things from really far away and shoot soundwaves from her speakers. Kaminari, or Chargebolt, is the guy with yellow hair , he shoots electricity, but he can’t aim well. Midoriya, or Deku, the guy in green…” Todoroki grimaced. “He has super strength, he can fly, he can sense incoming danger, and he can shoot these things called Blackwhip. They’re kind of like your spider webs.”

“I can’t help but notice, Shoto, that one of these things is not like the other,” said Miles.

“Midoriya is complicated,” Todoroki acknowledged, “But beyond his powerset, he’s smart. He was the only one of us who was able to take down your mentor when he trained up.” Miles’s eyes widened. “Granted, it was by surprise, but still, Midoriya is the biggest threat. He’s strong, he’s fast, and he’s smart. He’s the biggest threat.”

“And what do we have?” asked Miles.

“Ashido, or Pinky, Koda, or Anima, Aoyoma, or Can’t-Stop-Twinkling, Hakagure, or Invisible Girl, Tokoyami, or Tsukoyomi, and us,” said Todoroki, pointing people out as he named them. “Ashido shoots acid, Koda speaks to animals, Aoyoma shoots a laser from his stomach, Hakagure is invisible and can refract light, Tokoyami… is kind of complicated, but basically he attacks people with his shadow and can fly, and I shoot fire and ice.”

“Alright… who here speaks English?” asked Miles.

“I can, obviously,” said Todoroki.

“Kind of,” said Ashido.

“Some,” said Hakagure.

“I am able to,” said Tokoyami.

“Cool… cool,” said Miles, “Anyone have any ideas?”

“Ground Beta has an open park area not too far from here,” said Todoroki, “Since Aizawa never specified a villain and hero team, that means we don’t need to worry about property damage. You and Tsukoyomi could lure the other team there and I could freeze the entire area. We’ll have Anima on recon, Aoyoma act as support for you two if Deku or Uravity pursue you in the air, Pinky will be with me to help mop up anyone the ice didn’t get since she can navigate pretty well on frozen terrain , and Hakagure will try and distract their back line one we launch our ambush.”

“Sounds good enough to me,” said Miles, “Teams aren’t really my forte so I’ll just go with what you say.”

“It’s likely the best course of action. That’s what I fear,” said Tokoyami, “Planning against Midoriya is a nightmare. He has an intimate understanding of all of our abilities and skills. He knows what our ideal strategies would be and likely has an idea to counter him. What if he’s anticipated this movement and doesn’t fall for the bait? Spider-Man and I would be over-extended. I would guess Deku has the best chance of defeating Spider-Man and Creati has a very strong matchup against me if I lack the element of surprise.”

Todoroki said nothing and stroked his chin. “Do you have a better idea?” he asked.

“Why bother baiting them?” Tokoyami suggested, “Why not set up in this park and dare them to attack? We can prepare them with Aoyoma’s lasers from a distance.”

“Then we’d be completely ceding the initiative to them,” said Todoroki.

“Perhaps, but then we’d avoid over-extending,” Tokoyami pointed out, “And while our opponents are fierce, they lack firepower.”

“Thirty seconds remaining,” interrupted the voice of Aizawa from the intercom. 

“Maybe,” said Todoroki, “But do you want to get into a fight with a Creati who’s been able to sit back and make stuff and a Deku who’s been able to observe and plan for ten minutes?”

“...I suppose not,” said Tokoyami, “But still, I fear our plan is too risky.”

“Uhh… guys?” said Miles, “This is just a thought but … if we’re worried about Deku predicting and countering whatever plan we come up with, there’s one plan he can’t predict.”

“Oh? You have some strategy in mind?” asked Tokoyami.

“The opposite, actually,” smirked Miles.

“The exercise has begun,” said Aizawa, with absolutely no pomp or fanfare.

________

“Keep your ears focused on the air, Earphone Jack,” said Izuku, standing at the head of their group with Ochako by his side as they slowly and cautiously walked down the empty road.

“I hear… two things approaching from the southeast,” said Jiro, “Moving fast. One’s going straight for us and the other’s going up and down, so I’m guessing that’s Spiderman.”

“Guess you were right, Izuku,” smirked Ochako.

“Stay focused on them,” said Izuku, “You remember what … what the original Spider-Man did when he was here last.”

Izuku couldn’t wait for this exercise to be over and done with , hoping that Morales was now willing to answer his question. He had barely slept last night and had zoned out through his morning courses in anticipation of it . But at the same time, he was also excited at the idea of seeing what Morales was capable of. A part of him hoped that by beating Spider-Man’s protege, he’d prove to Parker that Izuku had followed his advice, that he was a person worthy of that small but life-changing bit of training and advice he gave him half a year ago.

“They’re getting closer,” said Jiro, “I give us a minute.”

“They came fast,” said Yaoyorozu, creating a net gun in one hand and one of those dolls she liked to make in the other. 

“Are you ready, Uravity?” said Izuku, levitating off the ground.

“I’m with you, Deku,” said Ochako, following him.

He floated a few meters above the rooftops, hoping to get a better view of the city, and spotted Morales and Tokoyami approaching in the distance. They were approaching quickly, and flew further into the air, and readied his Blackwhip. While Float was useful for combat, he knew from experience that it was better for air-to-ground than air-to-air. It was a fast quirk, but not a maneuverable one, especially when he was using anything above fifty percent. When he was swinging with Blackwhip, he had to stay moving. He could not fly in an easily predictable straight line like with float. Turning and adjusting his altitude was much more fluid. And if Miles Morales was anything like Peter Parker, Izuku would need every advantage he could muster.

THWIP

Izuku looked down to see a strand of webbing stuck to one of the buildings on the street where the rest of his team stood. He could see Morales about to approach. Taking a deep breath, Izuku deactivated Float and let himself start falling to the ground. Soaring through the air like a speeding bullet on a direct course to intercept the younger Spider-Man, he cocked back his fist in preparation to attack. But just as he was about to strike, Morales turned his head and pulled back seconds before Izuku could land the blow. In an instant, Morales spun around and kicked Izuku in his now exposed stomach, sending him flying through the air before he could use his Float or Blackwhip to reorient himself.

“They’re here!” yelled Jiro, pointing up at the sky, where Tokoyami floating a dozen or so meters above the rooftop Miles now stood on. His cloaked friend wasted no time, completely ignoring his classmates and charging directly at the only other person in the sky. Thankfully, Ochako managed to brace herself in time and took the attack well, grabbing hold of Tokoyami and kneeing him in the chest.

But Izuku had more important things to worry about than his girlfriend’s fight. He had his own to deal with. Onl y… Morales was just standing there on the rooftop, not trying to pepper the people on the ground with attacks or running to encourage Izuku to chase him.

<Hey!> called Morales, <Watch this!> Izuku raised his fists and upped One For All to twenty percent, ready for whatever attack Morales was about to throw his way, but it never came. The American in the black suit just took a step forward and did a backflip. <Pretty cool, right!? So are we gonna fight, or…> Yaoyorozu responded by shooting a net at him, which he easily dodged. <Alright, I guess we are.> 

Morales ran backward as he fired two strands of webbing into the two taller buildings next to him. A moment later, he was slingshotting through the air, heading straight toward Izuku. A dozen strands of Blackwhip flew out from his hands, slicing through the air, but Morales was able to weave through them with ease, landing on the rooftop right in front of Izuku. A flurry of punches quickly followed the landing, but with some help from Danger Sense, Izuku was able to dodge easily .

<You’re pretty fast!> said Izuku, as Morales jumped over a roundhouse kick.

<You’re not so bad yourself,> responded Morales, firing a ball of webs at Izuku’s foot still planted on the ground which Izuku knocked away with a tendril of Blackwhip, <Todoroki told me you beat Pe–Spi–Wait, yeah, Peter. You know his name.>

The determined smile on Izuku’s face washed away, replaced with a mournful grimace. <I got lucky,> he said dryly. 

<He’s still alive,> said Morales, running right toward him. Izuku’s eyes widened, throwing him off long enough for Morales to sweep Izuku’s leg, sending him tumbling to the ground. <Faked his death to throw off his enemies.>

<He’s … he’s still alive?” said Izuku, rolling to the side just in time to dodge a downward punch from Morales.

<Yup!> said Morales, dodging a swipe from Izuku, which was followed by punch after punch Morales dodged easily.

<Did things work out with…> asked Izuku, struggling to remember Parker’s wife’s name.

<With MJ?> said Morales. Izuku nodded, as he continued throwing punches at his opponent. <Uh… yeah! They’re doing fine. Hey once I beat you, can we talk for a bit?>

<Sure!> said Izuku, holding up his arms to block a kick from Morales.

O w…

Morales hit hard. Izuku had taken worse hits in his life as the scars littering his body attested to, but he had never been hit so hard by a person Miles’s size. And as far as he knew, that was passive strength. Morales had a mutation, so he didn’t have to turn it on and off the same way Izuku or All Might did. He shuddered for a brief moment at the idea of what Morales’s Spider quirk would’ve done combined with One For All, before moving up to forty-five percent just as Morales swung at him with an uppercut.

<...Uh oh,> said Morales, as Izuku caught him by the wrist half an inch from his chin. The determined grin returned to Izuku’s face as he turned around and swung Morales over his head, sending him crashing into the rooftop , sending dust rubble flying around them. Izuku covered his eyes for a moment , relying on his Danger Sense to warn him of any incoming attacks, but it never activated. He opened his eyes as the dust settled, but Morales was nowhere to be seen. Parker’s protege wasn’t anywhere to be seen , he wasn’t flying through the city skies, trying to lead Izuku into an ambush, he was just … gone.

BEHIND

Izuku pulled his head back in the nick of time to dodg e…

Nothing. He felt the air move and the force behind the blow, but there was nothing there.

Was it Hakagure? No, that was impossible. He could sense the weight behind the attack , there was no way it could have come from Hakagure. Had Tokoyami figured out some way to literally turn into shadows or something? No, Izuku could still see him having it out with Ochako, fighting in the air while their teammates provided ground support. That could only mea n…

Oh no.

IN FRONT

<Wow, I gotta say, sharp reflexes,> said Morales’s voice from plain air as a punch grazed his side, sending him recoiling backward, <And that’s coming from me!> Izuku swung wildly at the source of the voice but just hit the air. <Are you plagiarizing me, Deku?> A punch aimed at the back of his head struck his shoulder thanks to some quick movements. <I mean, you got the webs, the strength, the senses. I know they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but come on! I–oww…>

Finally! Izuku managed to get a shot in on Morales’s stomach, sending him tumbling across the rooftop as he deactivated his invisibility. <I definitely can’t copy that if you’re worried about it,> said Izuku.

<Yeah… yeah, I figured,> said Morales, staggering to his feet. 

<Could Parker do that?> asked Izuku.

<Nope! Morale s… Morales family special,> said Morales, raising his fists.

<You know, I thought we were going to get to fight in the air,> said Izuku.

<Maybe later,> said Morales, <But for now, I just need to keep you right here. > 

Right here? Was he trying to throw Izuku off about being bait? <What’s so important about right here?> he asked.

<Cause you’re away from that guy,> said Morales, pointing behind him.

Izuku’s blood went as cold as the air around him. It got dark as if the sun itself was being blotted out . He turned around and his worst fears were confirmed. Behind him, eclipsing the entire road where his team stood , was a massive iceberg .

He had guessed wrong.

Chapter Text

Without missing a beat, Izuku spun around and ran toward the edge of the rooftop. He had guessed wrong. There was no ambush. There was no trap. Morales and Tokoyami hadn’t been trying to bait them into Todoroki, they had just gotten there first. Morales was now a low priority. He needed to take out Todoroki yesterday. There was no way he could fight both of them at the same time, and between the two, Todoroki was the one he had the best chance of taking down quickly. Once he was dealt with, he could see about rescuing his likely trapped teammates. He could only hope Yaoyoruzu had managed to shield their teammates, keeping them unfrozen even if they were stuck. 

He leaped into the air, activating Float, Morales wasn’t out of the fight yet and fired a web into his leg, keeping him from flying away.

<You can fly!?> said Morales, grasping the web with both hands. Izuku ignored his remark, too focused on breaking free to respond, but no matter how hard he flew, Morales’s legs remained firmly planted on the ground, even if it was obvious he was straining himself. The tug-of-war continued for a few seconds, Izuku unable to free himself and Morales unable to ground Izuku, when Morales suddenly let go of the web and jumped backward as Tokoyami crashed into the ground next to him.

“Get Shoto!” Ochako yelled, landing on the rooftop with her fist raised, “I’ll hold them off!”

Not wasting any time, Izuku charged at the origin of the iceberg, not bothering to conserve energy as he pushed One For All to sixty-five percent. He and Todoroki locked eyes, his dual-haired friend flanked by Aoyoma and Ashido, who all ran in different directions. The Number One Hero’s son pressed both hands together, activating both parts of his quirk at the same time to flood the street with steam, obscuring his vision. Danger Sense activated just in time for him to twist out of the way of Aoyoma’s laser, cutting through the steam and revealing his location. Slightly adjusting his course, Izuku dodged a second and third laser before ramming into Aoyama, knocking him out cold. A dozen globs of acid flew through the air from behind him, but Izuku just coated his arm in Blackwhip and swatted them away, a few drops managing to make contact, but those were more of an irritation than an injury. Eyes locked onto where the acid appeared from in the steam and from where he heard movement, Izuku pivoted and ran in that direction, just barely missing Ashido as she skated away.

The steam that covered the street had mostly dissipated by now, revealing Todoroki and Ashido’s positions. He was standing between the two, with Todoroki having doubled back and now standing right in front of the glacier. The world seemed to come to a stop as Izuku considered his options. At this range, Todoroki would be able to launch one of his signature flashy attacks before Izuku hit him. It would probably be ice, not fire. If he dodged, the attack would hit Ashido, and if it was ice, she was well suited to thaw herself out, but she couldn’t protect herself against fire. The only question was whether Izuku would make it through that glacier with enough momentum. If the ice slowed him down just enough for Todoroki to get in a second attack, Izuku would be staring down the barrel of a point-blank Flashfire Fist, and that would be game over. 

There was no room for error. Izuku upped his One For All to ninety percent and kicked off the ground, concentrating his energy on Float and his arms to crash through the incoming glacier, and it looked like Todoroki was going to oblige him. He had his left arm extended, conjuring ice from thin air, and his right cocked back, ready for the follow-up flames.

The ice crept along his skin, the first bits evaporating quickly as they came in contact with his skin, rippling with energy. But it grew and grew and grew, obscuring all in front of him, till a CRACK filled the air and Izuku once again saw the face of his opponent, a brilliant flame blazing from his left hand.

One second. Only a second separated the two of them.

“FLASHFIRE–”

Half a second.

“FIST!”

It burned. Izuku could feel his costume slowly begin to melt away under the heat from Todoroki’s attack. His gauntlets and sleeves turned into a mess of slightly melted nylon and mangled fabric.

But it didn’t reach his skin. Just as Todoroki’s attack began, Blackwhip from Izuku’s hands reached out and wrapped around Todoroki’s fist, pushing it to the side and redirecting the attack into a nearby building, which promptly collapsed. The Hot and Cold Hero’s eyes widened as Izuku pulled back his free fist before slamming it into Todoroki’s stomach, sending him crashing into his own iceberg and knocking him out.

A moment later, Izuku fell to one knee, quickly lowering One For All back down to fifty percent. Even if the quirk wasn’t as strong as it used to be, going to ninety could still take a lot out of him if he wasn’t careful, and there was still a fight to be had. 

Speaking of which…

Izuku got to his feet and turned to face Ashido, now skating wildly in the other direction. She was fast, but Izuku was faster. All it took was a bit of Float and Blackwhip, and he was able to close the gap within seconds and restrain her.

“Alright, alright, you got me,” said Ashido.

“Where’s Anima?” asked Izuku, pulling out his web shooter, “And Invisible Girl?” She said nothing, so Izuku released her from his Blackwhip and fired a ball of webs that wrapped around her. “I’m not going to knock you out, so you don’t have to deal with the headache. If you show up later and I find you escaped…”

“I’ll stay put unless someone lets me out,” said Ashido, “Scout’s Honor.”

Holstering his web shooter, Izuku turned to the massive glacier behind him. Right now, the fight was basically two on two, him and Ochako against Tokoyami and Morales. Hakagure and Koda were still out there, and while they were both skilled, they were more support and recon-oriented. The question now was whether to go back up Ochako or go rescue his teammates. Both were incredibly risky. If he took too long rescuing his teammates, Ochako could be knocked out, but if he went to help her, then they’d be putting all their eggs in an even, two-on-two fight instead of a seven-on-two. And there was always the chance that he’d waste a minute punching through the glacier only to find his teammates unconscious and him too exhausted to fight or return to that rooftop to find Ochako knocked out and Morales and Tokoyami waiting for him.

After a few seconds of thought, he took to the skies, heading back toward the rooftop where he had left Ochako. To go rescue his teammates would be to assume Yaoyorozu was able to create some barrier that prevented her and the rest of his team from being frozen solid. That was something she had done in the past on several occasions, but it was by no means something she could consistently do. And given how Todoroki had the element of surprise with his attack, the odds of her pulling it off were too low for him to risk it. If he helped Ochako, the worst possible outcome was him fighting a two-on-one fight in his current state. If he tried to rescue his teammates, the worst possible outcome was him fighting a two-on-one, completely exhausted. One outcome was significantly worse than the other. If the rest of his teammates had managed to stay conscious during the blast, they’d just have to hold out until he dealt with Morales and Tokoyami.

“GAH!” Ochako’s cry echoed through the streets. Izuku pushed himself back up to sixty-five percent and rushed toward the rooftop, and seconds later, he landed to find…

Nothing.

Well, not nothing. Both Ochako and Tokoyami were incapacitated, Tokoyami lying unmoving on the ground and an unconscious Ochako stuck to a nearby building, which he frowned at. But there was no fight to be found. No sign of Morales to be found.

Wait! Izuku spun around and began searching for any signs of movement, a shift in the air, footsteps, dust kicked up, anything. For a moment, he forgot Morales could turn invisible. Still nothing. He closed his eyes, letting Danger Sense take the wheel. Still nothing. No stabbing pain alerted him to an imminent attack. 

Did he run? Izuku activated Float again and levitated in the air, searching for a sign of Morales, but there was still no sign of him in the skies. Was he trying to run out the clock? Why? Even if it was now one-on-three, that would mean a draw, not a win, according to the rules Aizawa laid out. Did he not know that? The instructions were given in Japanese… So maybe Todoroki or Tokoyami never brought it up?

There! There he was! He couldn’t see Morales when he was invisible, but he could still see Ashido! There was a small flash of light in the distance, and he could vaguely make out Ashido moving. He jumped back into the sky, giving himself an initial boost of speed before dropping Float and activating Blackwhip, swinging from building to building as he made his approach. As he got closer and closer and Ashido came more and more into view, he could see the web restraints mostly torn apart, but Morales was still invisible.

IN FRONT

Izuku pulled himself to the side just in time to dodge a ball of webs from Morales as he reappeared a few feet away from Ashido before he turned around and jumped into the sky, firing a web into another nearby building. Completely bypassing Ashido, Izuku chased Morales as they both swung through the air. He’d deal with her later; right now he needed to end things with Morales before he disappeared again. Doing so was easier said than done. Unsurprisingly, Morales was fast in the air. If it came down to pure swinging ability, he was probably faster than Izuku. But it never came down to one thing in a fight, and Izuku had built up much more speed with his launch off the rooftops with Float than Morales was able to with a running start off the ground, so he quickly found himself gaining on the American. 

<Hey, are you One-Million by any chance?> asked Morales, turning his head slightly as he swung to face Izuku.

<You met Hatsume?> said Izuku.

<I’ll take that as a yes,> said Morales.

<How’d you know?> asked Izuku, shooting out a tendril of Blackwhip that Morales easily dodged.

<I didn’t wrap up my own teammate,> said Morales, <And she said a dude named One-Million was the only guy who used her web fluid. Wasn’t that hard to figure out it was you. Why does she call you that?>

<Honestly, I think it’s because she doesn’t remember my name,> Izuku admitted.

<Why One-Million?> asked Morales, spinning to fire a ball of webbing.

<It’s… not really a long story,> said Izuku, pushing himself out of the way of Morales’s attack with a tiny push from Float, <But not one I can really tell when we’re fighting!>

<Alright, you can tell me when I win!> said Morales, as he turned and pulled himself in between two buildings, disappearing from Izuku’s view. He quickly followed, but as he entered the gap, he saw no sign of Morales.

RIGHT .

Keeping himself in place with Float, Izuku cocked his head back just in time to avoid a swipe from Morales, catching his invisible arm with his right hand, his fingers grazing Izuku’s chin. As Morales regained his visibility, Izuku could tell he was smirking underneath his mask.

<...Hey,> said Morales.

ZAAAP

Blue sparks flew out from Morales’s hand, sending Izuku flying head first through two buildings, and before he could regain his footing, Morales had slingshotted himself through the hole and tackled Izuku into a third and a fourth building. But before they could crash into a fifth, Izuku managed to free one of his fists enough to punch Morales in the chest, sending both of them flying upward, as Morales had managed to stick him with a web right before the blow. The two of them crashed through the floors of four stories and landed on the roof. 

“Five minutes remaining in the exercise,” said Aizawa.

________

Aizawa said something on the intercom in Japanese, as both he and Midoriya got to their feet, breathing heavily.

“Since when could… could you shoot electricity?” asked Izuku, tearing off the mangled remains of his right sleeve, revealing the scars littering his arm.

“From what I heard from Todoroki, you shouldn’t be complaining about an opponent pulling a random ability out of nowhere,” countered Miles, pulling up the bottom of his mouth and spitting out a wad of blood.

This… hadn’t gone according to plan. Technically they didn’t have a plan, but he hadn’t expected things to turn out this way. The rest of his teammates thought he was crazy for suggesting they just charge the other team, but he raised a good point. If Midoriya was some amazing strategist who’d be able to predict or counter any strategies they came up with, then why bother planning in the first place? If they knew they were going to lose a battle of wits, then make it a battle of fists. Todoroki had said it himself, they had the advantage in firepower, so why not use it? 

But both Todoroki and Tokoyami had warned him that what he was suggesting would hinge on Miles keeping Midoriya occupied, and that had been, well, kind of a mixed bag. On one hand, Todoroki and half of their team were unconscious or tied up, but on the other hand, Morales had kept Midoriya occupied long enough for Todoroki to take out almost all of their team in one go. Maybe if he had gotten lucky, he might have been able to catch up to Midoriya before he had knocked out Todoroki, but he hadn’t factored in Ura… the girl in the pink. She had been able to keep both him and Tokoyami occupied in hand-to-hand combat for a minute and a half, even taking down Tokoyami in the process somehow, and that was plenty of time for Midoriya to do his thing. The only person who had managed to fight him for that long without superpowers or advanced technology or years spent mastering close-quarters combat was Kingpin, and Kingpin was, well, much bigger than Uraraka to say the least, and he had only just figured out the whole Spider-Man-thing. 

But Oh My God, Midoriya was tough. Miles had sent him flying through four buildings and somehow HE was the one spitting out blood! He had already been expecting a challenge after he learned Midoriya was the one who took down Lizard, and Todoroki and Tokoyami’s hype had strengthened those expectations, but he only really grasped what he was dealing with after fighting him. They seemed to be evenly matched. He could tell the green-haired hero was physically stronger and tougher than him, considering he was flexing through icebergs, but Miles was pretty confident he was just a bit faster when it came to dodging the other’s blows, and his Venom Shock and Camouflage evened things out. In the end, Miles was pretty sure this fight was going to come down to who collapsed first. 

And if being Spider-Man meant anything, it meant not being the one to collapse first. Blue lightning coursed through his arm, matching the green of Midoriya’s, and he swung wildly, hoping to make any sort of contact. Midoriya backpedaled, dodging and weaving through the swings, until he managed to duck underneath one attack and punch him in the stomach, sending Miles falling to the ground and causing his Venom Shock to blow another hole into the roof of the building. Midoriya rushed forward, raising his leg to kick him while he was down, but in doing so, he left himself exposed, giving Miles a chance to sweep his one leg still on the ground, sending Midoriya to the ground as well, his leg breaking a second hole into the roof a few feet from the one Miles broke. The two heroes got to their feet and began circling one another, but were both jostled from their stances as the entire building began to shake.

Uh oh… 

It looked like they blew one too many holes into the building. Midoriya quickly took to the skies, but before Miles could make it, the floor beneath him gave out, throwing off his aim. He flailed through the air as the building fell apart around him, crashing through floor after floor, the thin layers of concrete collapsing upon contact.

“I got you!” yelled a voice from below. The wall facing the street blew open as Midoriya charged through it, crashing into Miles and wrapping his arms around him.

________

As the dust settled around the collapsed building, Izuku released Morales from his grip before collapsing to his knees and deactivating One For All. Every inch of his body was racked with pain and he was completely exhausted. Even if these buildings were facades, designed to be torn down and rebuilt with ease, that didn’t mean having one dropped on you didn’t hurt. 

<Holy crap,> muttered Morales, staggering around the rubble. In his peripheral vision, Izuku could see him pull up the bottom of his mask to breathe, before offering Izuku a hand up. <Do… Do we finish this? I don’t really feel like running away.>

<I… I guess so,> said Izuku, <I don’t feel like chasing you.>

<Alright, then… let’s finish this,> said Morales, raising his hands.

Izuku raised his as well, turning his One For All to forty percent, the most he was confident he could sustain. The two again began circling each other, repeating the scene on the roof, when Morales suddenly froze and started making exes with his hands.

<Wait! Wait! Wait!> he yelled. Izuku also froze, puzzled by Miles’s sudden change in demeanor.

BEHIND

CRACK

________

“Wait! Wait! Wait!” Miles yelled as the floating two-by-four came into view. Midoriya froze, a confused look on his face as he didn’t realize who Miles was talking to. The two-by-four pulled back, before smacking Midoriya in the head, snapping it in half and knocking the green-haired hero out cold.

Aizawa said something he didn’t understand in Japanese, before switching to English. “The exercise is over. Group two wins.

“We won!” cheered Hagakure, the two floating gloves moving up and down.

“...Yeah, we did it,” said Miles, sighing as he reached down to pick up Midoriya. 

He had always thought it was silly when characters in comic books or cartoons or animes were mad about winning a fight dishonorably. That didn’t change after becoming Spider-Man. He was always more than happy to ‘fight dirty’ if it meant winning, it’s not like he did this for the thrill of it. But right now, carrying Midoriya through the fake city, he started to understand how they felt. It’s not like Midoriya had a shot at winning the exercise at that point. There couldn’t have been more than two or three minutes left at that point, and even if he managed to beat Miles in that time, he’d still need to find and incapacitate Hakagure and Koda in what time he had left. Yet still, even if his fight was hopeless, Miles felt he deserved better than that. If he had let the building collapse on Miles, he could have potentially won, and he had thrown that chance away to make sure he was safe.

Or maybe Miles had always felt this way, deep down. This might have been the first real fight of his life with no real stakes. No one was going to die or get robbed if he lost. He wasn’t even being graded! Maybe that’s why he was always comfortable with ‘cheating’, because it meant saving lives. He wouldn’t go so far as to say he enjoyed that fight, but it was certainly much less stressful than any other fight he had gotten into.

And if he was being completely honest, Miles felt a bit robbed by the outcome. It’s not like he had any gaping desire to prove himself better than Midoriya, but after fighting the guy for ten minutes without a real conclusion was just unsatisfying. 

“Gah…” Midoriya muttered, returning to consciousness, “What… happened?”

“Invisible Girl with the steel chair, man,” said Miles.

“St… Steel chair?” said Midoriya.

“Well… piece of wood, actually,” said Miles, “She knocked you out while you weren’t looking.” Hakagure said something in Japanese and chuckled. “Thanks… for giving me that hand back in the building, Midoriya.”

“Of course,” said Midoriya, “Uhhhh…. My head’s killing me.”

“I’ll take you to the… wait, this school has a nurse’s office, right?” asked Miles. Midoriya nodded. “Then I’ll take you there.”

“Midoriya, Morales, a quick word,” said Aizawa, as they approached the rest of the group. In the corner of his eye, Miles noticed the rest of the two groups either being carried back by robotic stretchers or by classmates. “You both treated this too much like an exercise. Midoriya, you acted like this was a game where both sides would be making plans to combat the other’s strengths. That won’t happen in the real world. You won’t have spent a year getting to know the other side’s strengths, weaknesses, and mindset, and they won’t know yours. You tried to plan around their strengths and how they would use them most effectively instead of planning how to use yours the most effectively. Morales, your plan was, quite frankly, stupid. If this had been the real world, then you’d have lost. If Midoriya had been planning like he was going to face a group of random enemies with limited information instead of people he knew, you would have been demolished. You did no recon, and your group didn’t move cohesively. Not being used to working in a group environment is no excuse. Now both of you, go to the infirmary. You both clearly have concussions. Instead of having Group Two fight Three, we’ll have Pinky, Anima, and Invisible Girl join Group Three, which will then be split into two groups of five.”

“Y…Yes, Sir,” said Midoriya.

________

<So… Parker told you his name,> said Morales, sitting across from him in the bed of the infirmary, <And about MJ.> Izuku nodded. <Wow, that’s… wow.>

<Is that unusual?> asked Izuku, tilting his head.

<Uh… yeah,> said Morales, <He’s a pretty private guy. Really cares about his whole ‘secret identity’ thing.>

<He did mention having enemies,> muttered Izuku.

<...Yeah,> said Morales, pursing his lips.

<So… if you don’t mind me asking…> said Izuku. Oh, God. Was he going to ask this? He prayed Todoroki would never find out about this conversation. <Are you related to him? Your powers are so similar.>

At this, Morales chuckled. <No,> he said, <I just got lucky to have similar powers to him. Peter always said it could have been anyone who… who ended up with his abilities. That anyone could have been Spider-Man. That it was just about doing the right thing.>

“Anyone… can be a hero,” Izuku muttered to himself, <How did you two meet?>

<I was spray painting a wall when–>

<You were vandalizing something?> interrupted Izuku.

<Relax! It was just an abandoned subway tunnel!> Morales defended himself, <Besides, it was pretty good art.>

<Oh, um… sorry,> said Izuku.

<All good,> said Morales, <Anyway, I saw… something I shouldn’t have and got in the way of him trying to take down some bad guys. He had to save me instead of… you know. I… I talked him into training me, even though he really didn’t want to, and that was that. How about you? How’d you end up becoming a hero?>

<I was… um… kind of a late bloomer with my quirk,> said Izuku, <Before it came in, like… two years ago, I ran into All Might and asked him if I could be a hero without powers. He… he said no. That same day, I saw a… a friend of mine being attacked by a villain, one who I had accidentally let loose. My legs… they moved faster than I could think. I ran in to try and save him, All Might ended up rescuing us, and he was so impressed he decided to train me. It turns out my quirk was just waiting for me to get stronger before it kicked it. For the first few weeks, I was at UA, it broke my bones when I used it. And… that’s that, I guess.>

<You broke your bones when you used your powers?!> said Morales.

Izuku smiled softly and held up his scarred arms. <The doctors say if I overuse them, I might lose use of them entirely. I… It’s sometimes hard to feel things with them.>

<Oh… I’m… I’m sorry to hear that, Midoriya,> said Morales.

<It’s fine,> said Izuku, his smile growing some teeth, <It was all worth it in the end, right? I got to be a hero.>

<I hear you,> said Morales, <I love being Spider-Man, even when it’s hard. I couldn’t imagine what would have happened if… you know.> Izuku nodded.<So… I do have to ask, why did Peter tell you his name?>

<I guess… we just connected,> said Izuku, <He taught me how to properly swing with Blackwhip. And gave me some really good advice.>

<Advice? From Peter?> said Morales, raising an eyebrow, <What kind of advice?>

<Um…> Izuku blushed, <Relationship advice.>

Morales began laughing uncontrollably. <Relationship advice? From Peter?>

<It–It–It was good advice!> Izuku defended, <I might not have ever asked out Ochako if it wasn’t for him!>

<...Ochako?> said Miles, smirking.

<Oh, uh, Ochako Uraraka,> Izuku explained, <She’s–>

<Bob cut? Pink cheeks?> said Morales.

<Y-Yeah, her,> said Izuku.

<How long has that been going?> asked Morales.

<Sixth months!> said Izuku, <As of next Tuesday.>

<Whew,> Morales whistled, <Do you, uh, you think that’s gonna be, uh… long term.>

<God, I hope so,> said Izuku, before blushing as he realized what he said.

<Wow… just… just saying that out loud, huh?> said Morales.

<Please don’t tell her,> begged Izuku, mortified.

<Relax, relax, I’m a firm follower of the bro-code,> said Morales. The two sat there in a semi-awkward silence before Morales again looked up at him. <So… what’s the deal with One-Million? What’s the story there?>

<Oh, that?> said Izuku, <It started after I jumped on a pile of landmines…>

<Jesus…> muttered Miles.

<Yeah… well, it was to win a race for a competition,> said Izuku, <And… I did. I got one million points for the next round of that competition, Hatsume was on my team, so… One Million.>

The two sat in silence for a few moments before Izuku spoke up.

<You… You said you were painting a wall when you met Spider-Man, right?> he asked. Miles nodded. <Could… you show me your drawings?>

________

“Fascinating, absolutely fascinating,” said Nezu, staring at the wreck of Garaki’s machine. It had been heavily damaged when Izuku Midoriya had interfered with its laser, but much of it was still intact. It was a shame none of the files could be found on location. Garaki must have deleted them or stashed them somewhere else. There were almost certainly other bases of his out there, many they would find years later now that the man himself was dead.

“So you think this is what brought me here,” said Doctor Conners, stroking his chin.

“It’s my working theory,” said Nezu, “But it has weight to it, much of it circumstantial, I will admit, but weight nonetheless. Both you and the Spider-Man of your dimension described a similar energy to the one Izuku Midoriya described when the machine first fired.”

“Then why me?” asked Doctor Conners, “I had nothing to do with this machine, I don’t even work in the same field.”

“I have a theory for that as well, but I’ll ask you not to take offense,” said Nezu.

“I’m a scientist, Mr. Nezu,” said Doctor Conners, “You don’t need to worry about hurting my feelings.”

“Very well,” said Nezu, “This machine was designed to teleport six villains from our dimension outside of prison. One of these villains, Spinner, had a lizard-based mutation. You were a villain with a lizard-based mutation. When the machine backfired, it confused you for Spinner.”

“That’s ridiculous!” said Doctor Conners, “Even if we bear a resemblance, it’s not like we share DNA!”

“I’m aware,” said Nezu, “But consider this: why is your Spider-Man here, then?”

“Which villain is he similar to?” asked Doctor Conners.

“None,” said Nezu, “But he is quite similar to Izuku Midoriya, even an alternate Peter Parker commented on it. And the machine made contact with his energy.”

“So… what, you’re suggesting that different universes have… narrative similarities? Character archetypes?” said Doctor Conners, “You realize how insane that sounds, don’t you?”

“I do,” said Nezu, “But the multiversal is uncharted territory, Doctor Conners. You may very well be one of the first cohorts of people to travel into another dimension in the history of every dimension. We’re dealing with forces and energies far beyond our comprehension. And it wasn’t like your Super-Collide,r which was intentionally built for the purpose of multi-dimensional travel, this was essentially an accident. If you require more evidence, your Spider-Man claims a villain named Mysterio disappeared not long after you, and he is fairly similar to our Mr. Compress.”

“This… this is all too much,” said Doctor Conners, collapsing into a chair by the machine, “There’s a reason I got into biology and not physics, you know.”

“I understand, Doctor Conners,” said Nezu, “But I promise you, I’ll do everything in my power to figure out a way to return you to your home dimension.”

“Mr. Nezu…” said Doctor Conners, “I appreciate it. But I do have to warn you… There are villains in my dimension far worse than I am.”

Chapter Text

The dimly lit bar had closed twenty minutes ago, but the four men seated at a table in the center didn’t care. Though the sign-out front said ‘Johnny’s Place,’ it was really theirs. Being part of Hammerhead’s crew had its benefits.

“Flush!” said the man in the red hat, throwing his cards on the table. The other men groaned in annoyance as he pulled the pile of chips close. “Sorry, boys, I win again.”

“You cheatin’ bastard!” the man sitting across from him, kicking over the table and pulling out a gun.

“Woah, woah! Paulie, it’s just a game!” said another man, holding his hands.

“He’s cheatin’!” declared Paulie.

“Ah, don’t bother Tommy, he’s just angry he's too bad at cheating to get away,” said the man in the black hat.

“Are you crazy, Caesar!?” yelled a fourth man.

“Let me handle this, Pete. Paulie, if you’re gonna shoot, pull the damn trigger already,” said Caesar, getting up from his seat. The two stared at each other for a few tense seconds, the other gangsters all slowly inching toward their guns, before Paulie sat back down. “Alright, I don’t got all night, fellas.” Two men picked the table up and set it back down. “I can clean you out for a few more plans, then I gotta go.”

“You sure?” said Tommy, restacking his chips.

“I, uh, got some business to handle down at the docs, if ya know what I mean,” said Caesar,

“Does the boss know about that?” asked Pete, shuffling the deck of cards.

“What, did you guys quite the family and all get jobs with the Bugle or somethin’?” said Caesar, “What’s with all the questions?”

“We’re just worried about you, Caesar,” said Tommy.

“I’m a big boy, Tommy, I think I can handle myself,” said Caesar, rolling his eyes.

“You say that now, but you just got back from Philly,” said Paulie.

“Oh, what, somethin’ big happened?” said Caesar, “I was gone for two days!”

“Yeah, we know,” said Pete, “The night you left, Ghost-Spider decided she was gonna go on a rampage. She took down three of Paulie’s safe houses and two of mine.”

“Shit, really?” said Caesar, pulling out a cigarette.

“It’s been bad,” said Tommy, lighting it, “And it ain’t just us she’s after. Nefaria, Manfriedi, Fisk’s old guys, everyone. The boss is pissed. I hear he and Nefaria are callin’ a truce till they take care of her.”

“Why?” asked Caesar, “Someone do somethin’ stupid?”

“Who knows?” said Paulie, “But hey, she’s a broad, right? My girl’s always pissed off for no reason!”

“Shut the hell up, Paulie, this is serious!” said Caesar, “I got a lot riding on things goin’ smoothly tonight, an’ if that gets screwed up because some shmuck in a rival group shot a kid or did somethin’ stupid I wanna know!”

“He is right about the first thing,” said Tommy, sliding each of the four men two cards, “No one knows why she’s decided to put in the extra hours makin’ our lives hell. So what are you gonna do? Can you put things off?”

“No,” said Caesar, pulling out a phone, “I’m gonna have to call in some extra muscle.”

“You think that’ll help?” asked Pete, “A bunch more guys at the docks might just draw her attention.”

“I ain’t gettin’ a bunch more guys,” said Caesar, “Just one. Poindexter owes me a favor from a while back.”

“Damn, you’re really serious about this if you’re using your favor from him,” said Tommy.

“I sure as shit am,” said Caesar, dialing the number, “This thing’s is gonna be my ticket up. I can’t let–”

CRASH

The front window of the bar shattered as a trash can crashed through it, knocking over the table and sending the four men diving for cover.

“It’s Ghost-Spider!” yelled Paulie, pulling out his gun.

“Sorry to interrupt, boys!” yelled an all too familiar voice as Paulie’s gun was dragged out of his hand by a white web. A moment later, Ghost-Spider jumped through the shattered window, crouched low to the ground and ready to fight. Paulie ran forward, fists raised, but he was quickly knocked down, his legs effortlessly swept out from under him by Ghost-Spider.

“WOAH WOAH WOAH!” yelled Caesar, holding up his hands, “C’mon, Ghost-Spider, we’re just playin’ cards here!”

“Don’t play the innocent act with me, Cicero!” yelled Ghost-Spider.

“I’m not!” said Caesar, taking a hesitant step forward, “But we ain’t doin’ anything wrong right now, and you ain’t in the habit of beatin’ people up for the sake of it! So… c’mon, let’s talk, what’s this about? What did we do?”

“Where’s. Black. Cat.” said Ghost-Spider, “What did you do with her?”

“Black Cat?” said Caesar, “That’s what this is about? I got no clue where she is, Ghost-Spider! If I did, I’d be tellin’ ya! We all hate her! We’d like nothin’ more than to see you take down that thief! She stole my ma’s broach at Freddo Pazzo’s wedding last fall!”

“...She’s been kidnapped,” said Ghost-Spider.

“Oh…” said Caesar, “That, uh, probably don’t sound too good, then.”

“You think?” said Ghost-Spider.

“Still, we had nothin’ to do with whoever took her, Ghost-Spider,” said Caesar.

“Maybe not you, but what about your boss?” asked Ghost-Spider.

“Hammerhead?” said Caesar. Ghost-Spider nodded. “He wants nothin’ to do with her. Usually cause whenever someone gets involved with Black Cat, you end up comin’ along for the ride. Guess he was right.”

Ghost-Spider looked down at the floor of the bar, now covered with broken glass, and rubbed the back of her neck. “Well… if you see anything–”

“What, you got a ‘missing cat, call this number for a reward’ flyer,” said Caesar, “Gonna go around staplin’ them to street lights? If I hear somethin’ and I see ya, I’ll let you know.”

“Alright… um… bye, then,” said Ghost-Spider, jumping through the broken window, “Have fun with your game, I guess.”

“See you around, Ghost-Spider,” said Caesar.

________

“Uravity, we have reports of a break-in at ACL Holdings,” the voice of Ryukyu buzzed in her ear, “Everyone else at the agency is occupied, but you’ll have police backup.”

“I’m on it!” declared Ochako, deactivating her own gravity and firing her grappling hook into a nearby building.

“Be careful,” Ryukyu warned, “ACL Holdings is a major pharmaceutical research company. The only thing valuable in there to be stolen are samples of diseases. If something breaks, it could be disastrous.”

“Got it,” said Ochako, pulling herself above the rooftops. In the distance, she saw the bright, neon-green letters ACL on a nearby skyscraper. Even if she wasn’t as fast as Deku or Bakugo, Ochako was no slouch when it came to airspeed. It only took her a few minutes to make her way through the dozen blocks in between her and the building, landing on the helipad on the roof right as the access door swung open and a woman, who couldn’t be much older than Ochako, wearing a black, skintight bodysuit, and the same color domino mask, with long, flowing snow-white hair that black cat ears poked out of, ran through.

<Oh la vache,> the woman muttered to herself, <What alarm did I trip? That’s what I get for not casing the joint properly.>

“You’re under arrest!” Ochako yelled.

“Sorry, mon amie,” smirked the woman, speaking perfect Japanese with an accent not unlike Aoyama's, “I’m not an indoor cat.”

Ochako rushed at the woman, ready to end the fight before it began, but somehow tripped over seemingly nothing, falling to the ground as the woman rushed toward the edge of the rooftop. With all the skill of a professional gymnast, she flipped off the rooftop, before firing a grappling hook into a nearby building. But Ochako was quick to recover from the fall (although the embarrassment of tripping would take a while) and followed her into the air above the still-packed streets of Tokyo. 

“Hand over the samples!” yelled Ochako, firing her grappling hook into a nearby building, “And they might go easy on you!”

“Wait, samples?” said the woman, shifting in the air to face her, “What samples?”

“The ones you stole from ACL Holdings!” yelled Ochako.

“That’s what they were making there?” said the woman, landing on a nearby rooftop and beginning to run.

Ochako landed on the same building shortly after her and began chasing her from rooftop to rooftop. The cat-burglar (Ha!) was a picture of grace and poise as she leaped from building to building, making Ochako feel like an oaf as she slid over HVAC units and rolled as she came down. 

<Why are there heroes everywhere here?> the cat-burglar said to herself as she jumped over an exposed pipe like it wasn’t even there.

“Not as crowded in France!?” said Ochako, jumping over the same pipe and nearly tripping.

“America, actually,” said the woman, leaping to another building, “But yes! Don’t you have something better to do?”

“Than stopping you from stealing samples of deadly viruses?” said Ochako, right on her tail, “Not really!”

“Viruses?” said the woman, “What viruses?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about!” said Ochako, “You don’t just rob a pharmaceutical company with some of the best high-tech security in the city for no reason!”

“Hah! If that’s the best security in this town, I might end up moving here,” said the woman, “I was just there for the CEO’s safe!”

“You broke into ACL Holdings just to rob one guy’s safe!?” said Ochako, incredulous.

“A girl’s gotta eat, hero!” said the woman, “And he made it oh so easy for me. Who brags about a diamond collection to a barista? I mean she was cute, but still! Why diamonds? Why not cars? Or mansions? I think he took that whole ‘Girl’s Best Friend’ thing a bit too seriously. So I just swiped his wallet and keys and decided why not?”

“Oh… well I can’t just let you get away with breaking the law!” declared Ochako.

“You’ll have to–GAH!” yelled the woman, freezing in midair and starting to spasm as Doctor Conners had earlier, the space around her distorting. After a few seconds of this, she fell to the ground, and Ochako rushed to her side, fearing she had suffered a seizure or heart attack. “Uch… merde. The game’s up, is it?”

“What was that?” asked Ochako, helping her to her feet.

“I don’t know,” said the woman, rubbing her forehead, “It’s been happening for a while now. One day I’m in my apartment, the next I’m in Japan and that starts happening to me. I figure I take a few scores, enough to get back to New York, and there I can figure out what happened to me.”

“You really needed to steal diamonds to get back?” said Ochako, unimpressed, “Plane tickets aren’t that expensive.”

“I don’t know if things are different in Japan, but in the US, people generally don’t carry their passports on them at home,” said the woman, rolling her eyes, “Smuggling yourself across the Pacific isn’t cheap, at least if you have some dignity.”

Ochako grimaced as she began reaching toward her handcuffs. Was she really going to do this? Arrest some girl her age just for stealing diamonds from some multi-millionaire CEO who was just trying to get home? It’s not like she hurt anyone. She didn’t even hurt Ochako! All she did was run for it.

Her hand inched closer and closer to where her handcuffs were on her utility belt. This woman had illegally trespassed and tried to steal another person's property. It was the same crime as someone breaking into a family’s home and stealing their TV. It was the same crime as the people who stole copper piping off her dad’s worksites back when she was a kid. It was theft, no matter the victim. She was a hero. She had a duty to uphold the law. 

Her hand moved past her belt and into her pocket, fishing out her phone.

She had a duty to help.

“Ryukyu, it’s me,” said Ochako into the phone, “I lost the burglar.”

“Did you get a good look at her?” asked her boss.

“No,” said Ochako, “She wore all black and had a mask.”

“Damn it,” said Ryukyu, “Well, the good news is she didn’t manage to steal anything dangerous. Forensics are sweeping the place, but it’s not looking good. A pipe burst in the security room and fried all the camera footage. Imagine the chances of that. Your patrol hours ended a few minutes ago, by the way. I can take care of the paperwork if you want to get back to UA, Froppy told me you got knocked out in class earlier.”

“Thanks, boss,” said Ochako, before hanging up.

“You’re letting me go,” said the woman, coming out as more of a statement than a question.

“I’m not arresting you,” Ochako corrected, “Big difference.”

“If I’m not under arrest and I’m not free to leave, then what’s gonna happen?” asked the woman.

“I’m going to get you help,” said Ochako.

“You know someone who can get me back to New York?” asked the woman.

“I mean… he probably can,” said Ochako, “But I think he might be able to help you with the other thing.”

“The… whatever’s happening to me?” asked the woman. 

Ochako nodded. “We ran into another person dealing with the same thing yesterday,” she said, “And Iz–I heard he was doing much better now.”

“Iz?” said the woman, raising an eyebrow.

“My colleague,” said Ochako.

“Ah… tu as un petit ami, oui?” said the woman, “Oui. Est-il beau? Ou est-il une elle?”

“I… I don’t speak French,” said Ochako.

“Oui. Il est beau,” said the woman, “Je pense que tu ne accepterais rien de moins, une femme radieuse comme toi. Comment est-il? Grand? Musculaire? Un sourire comme le soleil? Tout les chose? Qu’est qu’il?”

“What are you saying?” asked Ochako.

“Iz! Qui est Iz?” asked the woman. Ochako had no idea what she was saying but she guessed it was a question based on tone. Oh God… was she asking about Izuku?

“Look, the train to Musutafu leaves in twenty minutes, we can talk later,” said Ochako.

“Ah, bien,” said the woman.

“What’s your name, by the way?” asked Ochako, realizing she forgot to ask.

“...Gwen, Gwen Stacy,” said the woman, following Ochako down to the street.

________

“Thank you for joining me at this late hour,” said Nezu, as Miles sat down across from his desk, pouring him a cup of tea.

“I’m used to late nights,” said Miles, taking a sip, “Is Doctor Connors alright?”

“He is,” said Nezu, “He’s assisting me with something pertaining to your situation.”

“You told him about the whole ‘alternate dimension’ thing?” said Miles.

Nezu nodded. “He took it well enough,” he said, “Not as well as you did, but you had some experience with this before.”

“Cool, so… what’s with the meeting, then?” asked Miles.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

“Because I believe we’ve found another friend of yours!” said Nezu, “Do you know a certain Gwendaline Stacy?”

“Gwen’s here!?!” said Miles, practically jumping out of his seat.

“Come on in, Uraraka,” said Nezu.

The door swung open as Miles practically bounced with excitement. Gwen was here! He had missed her so much! He couldn’t wait to show her how far he had come since she last saw him.

“Hello, Miss Stacy,” said Nezu, as two women stepped into his office, Uraraka and one with white hair he didn’t recognize for a few seconds, “I believe you know Mr. Morales here, yes?”

“...I have absolutely no idea who this person is,” said the woman.

“You… you don’t?” said Nezu, faltering.

That… was not Gwen. That was Black Cat, Felicia Hardy. Except, like, a really young version of her, who had a French accent for some reason. The one in his dimension was in her forties, having given up crime after saving Spider-Man to become an art gallery owner.

“Uraraka. Please give us the room,” said Nezu. Uraraka stood there silently for a few seconds before sighing and leaving. “You’re sure you don’t know this person?”

“I know a Gwen Stacy, and that’s not her,” said Miles, “That’s Felicia Hardy.”

“How do you know my name!?” said Black Cat.

“How do you know my name?!” Black Cat demanded, “Are you a friend of Gwen? If she told you, I swear I’ll make her–”

“Gwen didn’t tell me!” said Miles.

“Please, both of you sit down,” said Nezu. Black Cat hesitated for a few seconds, clearly debating whether to sit down or shred Miles’s face off. Thankfully, she chose the former, and the two both sat down in front of Nezu’s desk. “Alright, clearly I made a mistake here. Miss… Hardy, I’ll be candid with you. You’re in another dimension. That is what has been causing you to ‘glitch’. Mr. Morales is also from another dimension. I incorrectly assumed you two were both from the same dimension, which seemed to be confirmed to me when he knew who Gwen Stacy was.”

“So there’s no need for secret identities,” Miles added, “It’s not like the people back home will ever find out what happened here.”

“You… have a secret identity?” said Black Cat, skeptically.

“Mr. Morales is the Spider-Man of his dimension,” Nezu explained, “I assume you have one as well given how Morales knew who you really were.”

“There’s a Spider- Man out there?” said Black Cat.

“I'm guessing Gwen’s the Ghost-Spider of yours,” said Miles. Black Cat nodded. 

Black Cat nodded. “But how did you know my name?”

“Yeah, uh… you’re kinda retired from crime in my dimension,” said Miles, “And forty. And not French, for some reason.”

“Retired from crime?” said Black Cat, “You mean vigilantism?”

“You were a vigilante?” said Miles. He knew Black Cat occasionally helped out Spider-Man in his dimension, but she was by no means a vigilante. 

“Of course!” said Black Cat, “How else would I know Gwen’s secret identity? ”

“I must ask, why were you caught by Uraraka stealing diamonds?” asked Nezu.

“How else was I going to get back to New York without a passport?” Black Cat pointed out, “I can’t exactly go to the US embassy dressed like this.”

“A fair point,” said Nezu, sipping his tea.

“So… that girl, Uraraka, said you could help me?” said Black Cat.

“Of course, of course!” said Nezu, reaching into his desk and pulling out a wristband, “This ought to stabilize you in this dimension.”

Black Cat looked cautiously at Miles, who nodded and held up his wrist, revealing his own wristband. “Thank you,” she said, putting it on.

“Now as for getting you home,” said Nezu, “That will take a while. The machine that ripped you into our dimension did so by accident. It was originally supposed to be a teleportation device that backfired horribly. I’m close to figuring out how exactly that ended up happening, but it will take time to figure out how to reverse that process. In the meantime, Mr. Morales has been training with our Class 2A, I’m happy to extend that offer to you as well.”

“Eh, I think I’ll pass,” said Black Cat, “Heroics aren’t really my cup of tea.”

“I thought you said you were a vigilante,” said Miles, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, but not like you or Gwen,” Black Cat clarified, “It’s more… aggressive investigative journalist, not badgeless cop. The ‘steal documents proving a politician is corrupt’ type, not the ‘beating up purse snatchers, helping cats out of trees’ type. I’m not your friendly neighborhood Black Cat.”

“You’ll have to regale me with your stories sometime,” said Nezu, an unnerving smirk on his face. “I have great respect for anyone who dedicates their lives to taking down those society has deemed above the law. I still think you may benefit from participating in exercises, but I will respect your decision. I am afraid, however, that I must insist upon you staying at UA in the meantime.”

“...And if I say no?” said Black Cat, leaning forward in her seat.

“Miss Hardy, need I remind you that you were arrested once already?” said Nezu, “And unfortunately, most heroes are not Ochako Uraraka. If it were almost anyone else on that rooftop, we would be having this conversation through prison bars.”

“She only caught me because I didn’t have this,” said Black Cat, tapping her wristband, “Besides, it’s not like I need to do anything that risky if I’m not trying to get back to New York.”

“Mr. Morales, would you please give us the room?” asked Nezu.

“Um… ok?” said Miles, getting up from his seat. With awkward silence filling the air, Miles made his way out of the office, where Uraraka was waiting, sitting with her knees crossed against the wall.

“Hey,” said Uraraka.

“Hi,” said Miles, sitting down a foot away from her.

“I don’t think we ever got to talk yet,” said Uraraka, “My name’s Ochako Uraraka. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Yeah, I know,” said Miles, “Todoroki told me who you were. You put up one hell of a fight this afternoon.”

“Thanks,” said Uraraka, “Didn’t do much good, but thanks.”

“Hey, your team might’ve won that exercise if Midoriya hadn’t…” said Miles.

“Been himself?” said Uraraka, smiling. Miles nodded. “Yeah, he’s always been that way. But it’s what I–” Uraraka cut herself off mid-sentence, a light blush on her cheeks.

“He told me about you,” said Miles, “In the nurse’s office. And feel free to slap me if this is too personal, but why’d you cut yourself off there? There’s no reason to be embarrassed. You two seem great together.”

“Oh no! Is that what it sounded like!?” said Uraraka, eyes widened, “I swear, I’m not embarrassed or anything, it’s just… just…” Uraraka shoved her face into her hands and sighed, before muttering something.

“I didn’t catch that,” said Miles.

“I’m worried if I start talking about him, I won’t stop,” she muttered, just loud enough for Miles to hear.

“Wow… that’s…”

“Corny?” said Uraraka, pulling her head out of her hands.

“I mean, a bit, yeah,” said Miles, “But it’s sweet!”

“Thanks,” grumbled Uraraka, “I hope you know you helped him a lot today.”

“By… dropping a building on him?” said Miles, confused.

Uraraka snorted. “Whatever you two talked about in the infirmary helped him out a lot,” she clarified, “He was really upset yesterday when he found out about what happened to your mentor. He’s doing a lot better now.”

“Oh…” said Miles, “I didn’t realize the two were so close.”

“I didn’t realize it either,” said Uraraka, “But it makes sense in retrospect. He wasn’t doing great half a year ago. Things were bad with the war and Deku wasn’t taking it well. He’s doing a lot better now. He’s still kind of a ball of anxiety and guilt, but hey, we’re heroes. Who isn’t, right? He has gotten better, though. He trusts himself more. He’s not beating himself up as much about what he could have done better than he used to. He’s a little shaken up after dealing with that villain who disguised himself as Shigaraki, but I know he’d be doing a lot worse if it was the same Deku from before he met Spider-Man.”

“I’m… glad I was able to help,” said Miles, holding back a frown. He thought back to how Midoriya looked in the infirmary, covered in scars. Some were sustained in the field, but some were just from trying to unlock his power. Midoriya had broken himself over and over again just to be a hero.

Peter Parker had given up his life to become a hero. He had given up his life to save Miles. What had Miles given up to be a hero? Some peace of mind? A few late nights? An honest relationship with his parents (which he arguably didn’t even have before becoming Spider-Man)? 

He always tried to be the best Spider-Man he could be. That’s what he told himself, anyway. It was ok that he made mistakes, it was ok that he wasn’t as good as his predecessor. He was still young. He was still learning. He would get better in time. 

Yet Midoriya hadn’t been a hero for much longer than him. They had both learned how to use a power they didn’t fully understand. So how was it that he seemed to be the perfect hero? How was it that Midoriya seemed to be the perfect Spider-Man without being Spider-Man?

________

“Why do you find the idea of staying here so distasteful, Miss Hardy?” asked Nezu, as the door shut behind her.

“I’m not an indoor cat,” Felicia insisted.

“You fear I’m going to put a leash on you, is that it?” said Nezu. Felicia grit her teeth. “The… intricacies of human emotion are often lost on me, but I can sympathize with what you feel. You think anything other than total self-reliance means you’re now indebted. That accepting assistance means giving someone else power over you.” Felicia said nothing, simply frowning and staring at the ground. “But we’re heroes, Miss Hardy. We’re here to help.”

“Yeah… you’re heroes,” said Felicia, “That’s the problem.”

“...Ah,” said Nezu, “I won’t lie to you and pretend heroes in Japan are all beacons of justice. There are certainly those who would rather protect those entrenched interests that you claim to fight. But we’re not like that, Miss Hardy, all we want is to help people.”

“That’s what they said about Matt Murdock,” Felicia whispered under her breath.

“A hero in your dimension?” asked Nezu.

“Not like here,” said Felicia, “Murdock was a lawyer. He helped out poor people who couldn’t afford good ones. Everyone called him a hero. He got the keys to the city for defending a group of people whose homes were built on top of illegally dumped waste. But at night… Murdock was one of the best hitmen in New York.”

“You lost someone to him,” said Nezu.

Felicia pursed her lips before nodding. “My father.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” said Nezu.

“Sorry isn’t going to bring him back,” said Felicia.

“Uraraka mentioned on the phone that you stole the CEO of ACL Holding’s wallet, do you still have it?” asked Nezu.

“Um… yeah?” said Felicia, reaching into a pocket of her jumpsuit and pulling it out.

“May I see it?” asked Nezu.

A bit confused, Felicia set it down on the table. It’s not like there was a lot of cash in there or anything, and there were plenty of other pockets to be picked. She had mostly stolen it for the ID card to get into the building without triggering the security system, not for the actual money. Nezu picked it up and shook it out on his desk, and a few colorful bills fell out.

“You’ve now paid me eight hundred Yen,” said Nezu, collecting the bills, “This is no longer a hero offering charity to a civilian. This is one private individual paying an institution for room and board. Is this amenable to you?”

“I–I–I–” Felicia stuttered.

“I understand why you don’t wish to be helped by heroes, Miss Hardy,” said Nezu, “But don’t cut off your nose to spite your face. Having you on campus will make it much easier to get you home. So please, accept a dorm. You won’t owe me anything. I’m not solely assisting you and Mr. Morales out of the goodness of my heart. First, I simply enjoy the challenge of it. Second, Japan doesn’t need super-powered individuals from other dimensions galavanting around, especially now. I’m trying to understand how to return you to your dimension so I can figure out how to prevent dangerous and potentially villainous individuals from being dragged to ours. If you find relying on heroes so detestable, then think of this as you checking into a hospital for treatment of a sickness. I’m accepting your meager payment because I don’t wish to see this disease spread and cause a pandemic. Will you accept this arrangement?”

“A–Alright,” said Felicia, shaking his paw.

________

Hmm…

The memories of that hack scientist said it ought to be… 

Ah, there it was. 

A metal claw reached out and tore out a loose piece of concrete in the wreckage of a building in the middle of the abandoned village he now found himself in, revealing the trapdoor. He quickly pried it off and descended below the wreckage, covering his mouth to keep out the dust. Turning on the night-vision setting on his goggles, he searched for an electrical panel, and after a few minutes, he found one. The same claw stabbed into the panel, quickly interfacing with the various systems that ran the bunker. 

Let there be light.

As horrid an engineer as Garaki was, Otto could appreciate the design of the facility. It made life so much easier when everything was run by computers. It took him about a minute to crack the pathetic security of the bunker, and he quickly activated the reserve power supply. There was only enough to keep things running for a few days, so restoring the main supply would be his first…

Oh…

It appeared that the main power supply was mostly functional. It was just that most of it was being used up by something, or rather, a great many small things, which left other systems like lighting or oxygen deprived of energy. He diverted some of the reserve power to the cameras and began flipping through them, their feeds appearing on his goggles, till…

There they were. Otto made his way through the maze-like halls of the bunker until he reached a service elevator seemingly in the middle of nowhere. He pried open the elevator shaft and climbed down to the second floor, where most of the power was being diverted to.

“It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world,” said Otto, a smile forming on his face, “But on that account, we shall be more attached to one another.”

Monsters. Tanks and tanks of monsters. Oh, Garaki was a fool to be sure. Then again, any man who called himself a biologist was a fool. In the end, they always failed to grasp that flesh had limitations. You could only stretch DNA so far before it snapped. Perhaps in this dimension, there was a bit more leeway given the strange powers most people possessed, but in the end, there were still limits. Garaki knew that better than anyone, and yet he still insisted on shoving quirk after quirk into his monsters, hoping to create something to stand up to heroes, instead of embracing the obvious solution. It was like these people forgot there was a reason farms were plowed by tractors and not oxen. Why roads were filled with cars and not horses and buggies. Metal was stronger than flesh. That was an unchangeable fact of the universe, and Octavius was already picturing those few tweaks he would need to make that could exponentially increase the Nomu’s combat capabilities. 

But doing so would require time, and that was a scarce commodity for him right now. He only had a day or two at the most until his atoms tore themselves apart. And that wasn’t an issue he could solve on his own. Garaki’s machine had backfired in bringing him here. The only thing in his memories that were of use were the schematics for the machine, and he didn’t have the time or resources to rebuild it. Otto would need to see the wreckage of the original if he was going to be able to fix his issue. Once that was handled, he could see about properly utilizing Garaki’s pet project.

Heading back up a floor, Otto soon found himself in front of the main computer system of the bunker. It took him only five minutes to hijack a satellite and reconfigure it to scan the entire globe for the same energy he was now radiating. Five distinct sources showed up, all in Japan. One massive one centered on the nearby city of Musutafu, another large one out in the middle of a forest out in the countryside, a third where he was, a fourth in Osaka, and a fifth in the mountains.

After a little bit more finagling, Otto found himself staring directly at the fourth and fifth sources, courtesy of a hijacked NSA satellite. Even if this dimension was crawling with heroes, it did have its upsides, namely that nobody invested in cyber-security. Everything here was infinitely more easy to crack into than computers in his dimension. Even he couldn’t access this type of top-secret government technology on a whim. 

Unfortunately for him, whatever was causing that radiation in Osaka was indoors, while whatever was in the mountains was hiding in a cave. It seemed he would need to–

The door of the building swung open and a man stepped out, just as someone crawled out of the cave.

“It seems I’m not alone in traveling here,” muttered Otto. On both camera feeds, the two figures froze and started shaking, their atoms pulling apart just as he had been doing for the past day. “Perhaps they can be…”

A devious smile stretched across his face.

“Persuaded.”

Chapter Text

BEEP 

BEEP 

BEEP 

BEEP

With a groan, Miles rolled out of bed and slapped his phone. Most of his injuries from yesterday’s training exercise had healed up, but the nurse couldn’t do anything about the soreness. Did these students do those exercises every day? How did they have time to do hero stuff after getting into fights like that on a daily basis? Miles usually got into some kind of fight every day or so but they were nowhere near that intense. Usually a particularly persistent or stupid purse snatcher or group of bank robbers or something that he could wrap up without breaking a sweat. But fights like the one he just got into with Midoriya… that was… like… every other week at most.

As he rubbed his aching muscles, Miles stared into the mirror. He had been in this dimension for a day and a half and he still had no idea how he got here, not to mention getting home. New York was short a Spider every minute he was here. There were people there depending on him and he was letting them down. He was–

Miles shook his head and slapped himself on the cheek. There was no use in brooding over it. Throwing his jacket on over his suit, he made his way down the stairs and into the common area which was surprisingly empty. He expected it to be a bit more packed at this time of day, with students getting ready for class and whatnot, but there were only a few people he only vaguely recognized and none of them were wearing school uniforms. Miles looked down at his uniform, and then his eyes widened. It was Sunday. It must be their day off. Fully aware of the eyes on him, he awkwardly walked back up the stairs and into his room, quickly taking off his uniform and throwing on a simple long-sleeve shirt and pair of jeans he and Present Mic had purchased yesterday before returning to the common room. 

“Hello, Morales!” called a voice from the other end of the room. It was… Iida! Right. That was his name. 

“Hi Iida,” called Miles, as Iida sped-walked over to him. He clearly just got back from exercising, wearing a sweat-drenched tank top, gym shorts, and a headband the same color as his hair. “Out for a run?”

“Yes!” said Iida, walking past him and making his way toward the refrigerator, where he grabbed a carton of OJ and again drank straight from the carton.

“So, uh, you’re a big orange juice fan,” Miles observed.

“Mnh,” acknowledged Iida, setting down the carton and wiping his lips, “It powers my engines.”

“Se… Seriously?” said Miles, “Like… the internal combustion engines in your legs are powered by orange juice.”

“To my knowledge, yes,” Iida nodded.

“...How?” said Miles, “Orange juice doesn’t… you know… have thermal energy to be released like gasoline or diesel.”

“My theory was it burns the calories in the beverage,” said Iida.

“But there’s no way OJ has enough calories in it to match gasoline,” Miles pointed out, “And also… why OJ then? Why not just sugar and water or whatever?”

“I never said it was a good theory,” mumbled Iida, rubbing the back of his neck, “It’s just always been orange juice. It worked the same for my father and brother.”

“...Oh,” said Miles.

“I always thought he had an endocrine gland that reacted to it,” called Izuku from the doorway, also dressed in workout clothes.

“Like one which produces a hormone…” Miles began.

“Which refines the carbon out of the orange juice,” Izuku nodded.

“And it would, what, react to the Vitamin C?” said Miles.

Izuku nodded. 

“It could also be the magnesium,” called a voice from the stairs.

“Is orange juice high in it, Yaoyorozu?” asked Izuku.

“It is,” said Yaoyorozu, “And it’s highly flammable. Perhaps his body refines the magnesium from it and burns it? Granted, he would need to drink quite a lot of orange juice for that to work. So perhaps his body uses the magnesium to create some more efficient fuel.”

“All interesting theories,” said Iida, “It’s hard to see what goes on down there with the metal and whatnot. Apparently, it casts a shadow on the X-ray. To actually see what happens inside my legs would require an… invasive surgery. And you can’t exactly open up an engine with a scalpel and sow it up with stitches. Most doctors aren’t exactly trained as mechanics.”

“Oh… yeah, I guess that would be a problem,” said Miles.

“Feel free to ask them to check at my autopsy,” said Iida. All three of them stared at him blankly. “...That was a joke,” he added after an awkward silence.

“So Morales, how long have you been a hero?” asked Yaoyorozu, quickly changing the subject.

“Six months,” said Miles.

“And where are you studying? I can’t say I’m very familiar with American hero schools,” said Yaoyorozu.

“Uh… it’s an apprenticeship, actually,” said Miles.

“Really? I didn’t know that was an option,” said Yaoyorozu.

“Yeah, uh, I go to a regular high school but after school and during the Summer I train with Spider-Man,” said Miles, “I study the law and stuff I need to know to pass the test on my own time.”

“That’s quite the packed schedule,” said Iida, “I commend you on your diligence. It must be difficult teaching yourself all those elements of heroics.”

“Eh, my dad helps me out,” said Miles, the lie coming from his lips with ease after half a year of lying to his parents.

“Is he a hero as well?” asked Yaoyorozu.

“No, police,” said Miles.

“He must be pleased with your choice of career,” Iida observed.

“...Yeah,” Miles lied.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why go for an apprenticeship instead of a hero school?” asked Yaoyorozu.

“I guess…” said Miles, trying to think of a lie, “I want to go to college. Kinda hard to get into a good one after studying heroics.”

“To study anything in particular?” asked Izuku.

“Theoretical physics,” said Miles.

“Theoretical physics?” Izuku repeated.

“I suppose understanding physics would be very useful for you,” said Iida, “Given how you apply your quirk. Although I can’t say I see why the theoretical aspects would be.”

“Well, sure, understanding string theory isn’t exactly applicable to saving people, but it’s not always about that,” Miles defended, “I have other things I’m interested in.”

________

Izuku stared down at his feet and grimaced. Did… did he have anything else he was interested in? As he thought and thought about it, nothing came to mind. For as long as Izuku could remember, he had been desperate to be a hero. It had been his overarching passion ever since he was a child. His hobbies all revolved around heroes. Most of his free time was spent either watching heroes or training to be one. The comic books, movies, and video games he enjoyed were all hero-related. That hadn’t been something he really considered before. He had naturally assumed that was just part of the job, but… well, it wasn’t, now that he thought about it. Best Jeanist and Present Mic both had whole careers based on their non-heroic interests. All Might didn’t have much in his life besides being a hero, but he knew now that wasn’t healthy. And Miles… Miles might be just as good as Izuku was, while also planning on pursuing a degree in a subject matter not exactly known for being easy to understand. 

For a while now, Izuku thought about being more than just a hero. He didn’t want to be exactly like All Might. He wanted to have friends, he wanted his family, and he wanted Ochako. He didn’t want to take on the burden of society squarely entirely on his shoulders. And yet deep inside of him, he knew there would always be a conflict between what he wanted to do and what he could do. Would he be able to truly enjoy life outside of his profession, knowing that every moment of free time was a moment not spent saving someone?

At that moment, he felt a tinge of jealousy toward Miles. A part of him wondered what would have happened if he had been taught by a man like Peter Parker. A man who had been married. A man who wanted to have children. A man, not just a hero. Would he be able to consider college? Having something in his life beyond heroics? It was only a small part of him who contemplated the possibility. He would be eternally grateful to All Might for all the man had done for him. If it wasn’t for him, he wouldn’t have been able to become a hero in the first place. Yet he still couldn’t help wishing he had a mentor who could teach him how to be a person as well as a hero.

He was suddenly distracted from his introspection by an intense vibration in his pockets, which could only have been one thing: a Hero Network alert. And from the look of things, both Iida and Yaoyorozu had gotten it too. He reached into his pocket and checked his phone.

“Oh, dear God,” Yaoyorozu mumbled, staring down at hers.

“Nomu attack!” called Iida, rousing everyone else in the Heights Alliance Common Room from whatever they were doing.

<What’s going on?> said Miles, raising an eyebrow.

<Nomu attack,> said Izuku, <They’re genetically engineered monsters with several quirks.>

<Where?> asked Miles, pulling off his shirt to reveal his costume underneath.

<Not too far from here,> said Izuku, checking his phone, <Do you wear that costume everywhere?>

<Don’t leave home without it,> he said, pulling his mask out of his pocket.

<Yaoyorozu?> said Izuku, turning to his friend as Iida sped away. She was already pulling off her sweater, revealing the costume she had probably just created underneath.

<I’ll take him,> she said, and a moment later, Izuku was speeding down the hall to where he kept his costume. That was one of the upsides of having a speedy quirk like Float. In the event of an emergency, he was only a minute at most away from where he kept his costume. And that wasn’t just a matter of vanity. It was about whether or not he was fully equipped for the situation. A matter of whether or not he had his braces, his gloves, his medical equipment, and his web-shooter going into a fight. Being this fast gave him a strategic advantage. He could be fully equipped and at the fight minutes before someone like Kaminari or Kirishima got there without even stopping to get their costumes. 

Now fully dressed for a fight, Izuku flew out of an open window and up into the skies. The alert from the Hero Network said it was half a kilometer West, and so Izuku flew up into the sky to do some basic recon. It didn’t take long for him to see the fires, and soon after he saw the black shapes in the sky. There must have been at least three dozen of them, all flying. Not hesitating for a moment, Izuku dived down and began flying toward them. 

Where did these come from? Anyone who had any connection with Nomu was rotting in a cell. Was Garaki keeping them under Musutafu and had they just happened to escape? How the heck had they missed that? As he continued to fly, he shook his head, focusing on the situation. The alert hadn’t mentioned any other heroes on the scene. Given the severity of the situation, it wouldn’t be long until someone showed up, but for now, it was probably just him. He’d have to hold them off until backup arrived. Thankfully, they were flying Nomu. For almost any other hero, they were normally much more difficult, but the opposite was true for Izuku. Flying Nomu usually meant weaker ones. It was just a matter of physics. Wings couldn’t support as much muscle mass as a grounded one. They rarely had regeneration quirks or shock absorption quirks or anything that made them too difficult to eliminate, so it was only a matter of catching them, which was something he was more than equipped to handle. 

As he got closer, the black shapes took on a more distinct form. The Nomu, with their bloodshot eyes and leathery skin, were everywhere, some soaring in the sky and others diving down, presumably to attack civilians. He had to put a stop to this as soon as possible. Pushing Float as far as he could, he charged at the nearest Nomu floating a dozen or so meters above a building, covering his face with his arms to brace himself in preparation for crashing into its muscled flesh. Yet the crash never came. Time seemed to slow around him as he kept flying through the air, unable to process what had happened. There was no sudden pressure, no cracking bones, no sudden warmth on his face. Izuku just kept flying with his hands covering his head till–

CRASH

He hit something. Something hard. Definitely not a Nomu. He looked around to see he had hit a building two streets behind it. He had missed. How had he missed? The Nomu wasn’t flying that fast. It hadn’t even turned to see him until Izuku was sure it was too late. Quickly recovering from the crash, he fired strands of Blackwhip at the Nomu, still flying through the sky like he wasn’t even there. It made no movement as the black ropes of energy cut through the air, yet the second they were about to hit it, the Nomu contorted its body, dodging them with ease. Izuku willed the tendrils to circle back around, taking another shot at wrapping up the monster, but again it easily dodged them. 

Suddenly, the Nomu screeched, before it turned around and flew straight toward Izuku, who also took off into the sky. The two flew around each other for a brief moment before the Nomu charged forward and took a swing at Izuku, who easily dodged. Yet it only hit him a second later that his Danger Sense hadn’t activated. Maybe this Nomu was so braindead that it wasn’t capable of feeling malice? That didn’t make much sense but it was the only thing he could think of. Getting his head back in the fight, he swung wildly at the Nomu, who also dodged his attack seamlessly. Had he really gotten that weak? Was One For All so diminished that this random Nomu was able to dodge him? What kind of quirk combination did it have to be able to move so effortlessly?

BBBBZZZZRRRRRRRRTTTTTTT

For a moment, he was blinded by a bright orange light speckled with black dots, concerningly similar to that of Garaki’s machine. He looked down at the ground, the source of that energy, and standing there was a shirtless man with white hair, gaunt and pale, skin dry and cracked. Izuku’s ears began to ring as he uttered one word.

“Shigaraki.”

________

“A-Are you sure this is safe, Morales!?” said Yaoyorozu as the two of them swung through the air, clinging to his side.

“Sure!” he said, “I’ve done this plenty of times! Are we heading the right way?”

“Y-Y-Yes!” said Yaoyorozu, “Keep going straight and you’ll–” The girl froze mid sentence as the scene of destruction came into view. “Drop me off on the ground,” she said, quickly regaining her footing, “You assist Midoriya, and I’ll focus on the fires.”

“Got it,” nodded Miles. The two continued swinging for a minute, before quickly descending to one of the nearby buildings. He dropped Yaoyorozu half a meter above the rooftop, whose parachute fell with perfect form, before swinging back up into the air and toward where he saw a green blur in the sky. 

“Spider-Man!” Yaoyorozu called from the ground just as he was about to enter the fight. Quickly spinning around, Miles fell to the ground, firing a net at the ground to stop his fall a few feet above where she was standing. “Something’s going on here.”

“Um… yeah, I see the flying monsters,” said Miles, jumping to the ground.

“Not that!” said Yaoyorozu, gesturing toward a building on fire across the street, “Don’t you feel anything?”

“...Not really?” said Miles.

“Exactly! We should feel the heat from this far away,” said Yaoyorozu, “At least smell the smoke! But I don’t feel anything! And look!” Yaoyorozu approached the on-fire building, pulling a fire extinguisher out of her chest before spraying it into an open window. “Nothing! No sound, no flare-up, nothing!”

Eyes widening under his mask, Miles ran into the building. “What are you doing!?” Yaoyorozu yelled, but he ignored her and continued running into the burning building. She was right. No heat, no smell of smoke, nothing. Hesitantly, he reached out and held his hand into the flames. There was a faint flicker. 

A faint, electric flicker.

Oh no.

“It’s fake!” yelled Miles, “All of it! Even the monsters!”

“What!?” said Yaoyorozu, “What do you mean!?”

“It’s–It’s a villain! Mysterio!” said Miles, “It’s all holograms! Illusions and stuff!”

“So… no one’s in danger?” said Yaoyorozu.

“Who knows?” said Miles, “Mysterio isn’t the type to just go crazy in the streets. He has something planned. I just don’t know–”

BBBBZZZZRRRRRRRRTTTTTTT

Miles turned around to see a huge flash of orange and black. Standing at its center was a skinny guy with white hair, yet Miles only saw him for a second before Izuku crashed into the ground where he was standing. As the dust cleared, however, the man remained unharmed, now standing in front of one of the buildings. 

“Morales, are you sure this is an illusion?!” asked Yaoyorozu, grabbing him by his suit and staring into his eyes, deathly serious.

“Yes,” said Miles, knowing now wasn’t the time to crack jokes.

“You need to restrain Deku,” she said, “If he thinks that man is real, who knows what kind of damage he could cause before realizing it?”

“You really think he’ll–”

CRASH

Miles turned around to see Izuku crashing into the front of a building, taking down a significant portion of the front wall in the process.

“Yeah, I’m on it,” said Miles, quickly swinging into the air after Izuku, who was rocketing off after the hologram. Whoever that white-haired guy was, he was clearly dangerous if Izuku had such a violent reaction to him. He could certainly envision the damage Yaoyorozu was suggesting if this kept up. But as he swung, a disconcerting question crept into the back of his mind. How? How had Mysterio managed to build this many projectors? How did he know Izuku would be the first person on the scene? And how did he know exactly how to set him off? Mysterio was a smart guy, there was no doubting that. Miles was pretty confident he’d be able to put together a scheme like this where he led the heroes on a wild goose chase trying to stop Izuku while he did whatever he was planning but in two days? There was no way he was that smart.

“Izuku!” Miles called as he swung above a diving Midoriya, “It’s not real!” But as much as he yelled, Izuku couldn’t hear him. Or maybe he just wouldn’t. Miles wasn’t sure. He fired a net at him, hoping to restrain him long enough to talk him down, but Izuku flew away at the last moment, still chasing the hologram of the white-haired man. For a brief second, he caught a glimpse of Izuku’s face. It was a heart-stopping mixture of fear, desperation, and anger, nothing like the smiling, determined one he saw yesterday. And a second later, he was gone. That look on his face was replaced by the back of his head which was replaced by the concrete road as he took to the air again. 

________

Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. Stop him. 

That was the only thought in his head as he flew through the empty streets chasing Shigaraki. The heir of All For One was just out of reach, staring back at him as the two raced through the air with that sadistic grin that haunted his dreams. He could hear a voice coming from beside him but Izuku didn’t process what it was saying. He had to stop Shigaraki. Everyone in Musutafu was counting on him. Everyone in Japan was counting on him. He could only hope that Shigaraki was just as weakened after their fight as Izuku was. Otherwise… 

He didn’t want to imagine otherwise.

The two continued flying down the streets of Musutafu, with Izuku occasionally getting close enough to land a blow that always hit the nearest building or demolished the ground but never actually hit him. Shigaraki was uncharacteristically passive, not even bothering to respond to his attacks or using a single quirk. Perhaps One For All had destroyed all of his? That was the best he could probably hope for. Eventually, he made a sharp right turn down an alley and Izuku followed him without missing a beat. 

<STOP!? called a voice from above him. It could only be a foot or two above him. A split second later, a form appeared centimeters in front of him. It was too close for Izuku to stop. The two crashed into one another, sending the form flying through the air and into a building across the street. Forgetting all about Shigaraki entirely, Izuku rushed toward the rubble of the crash site. 

Staring down at the rubble in horror, he realized what happened. <Mi–Spider-Man, I–I–I–I’m sorry, are you→

<Yeah,> said Miles, in between coughs, <I’m good.>

<I–Shigaraki, I’ve got to–> Izuku began when–

THWIP.

A strand of webbing landed on his chest.

<It’s not real, Izuku,” said Miles, pulling himself to his feet.

<W-What?> said Izuku.

<It’s a hologram, dude!> said Miles, <Think about it! This city is supposed to be on fire. Do you smell smoke? Do you feel the heat?>

Izuku’s eyes widened. <A… A hologram? Who… Who could–>

<Alas, I had to construct my projectors on short notice,> said an electronic voice from behind him. Izuku spun around to see a man with an opaque fishbowl helmet, green metallic suit, and flowing purple cape levitating a meter off the ground behind him.<Hello, Spiderlings, I’m so glad we could finally meet.>

<Mysterio,> said Miles, <Fancy running into you here. And it’s Spider-Man.>

<Is it?> said Mysterio, <You’ll have to excuse me, I was a bit preoccupied over the past year, I never managed to learn what your stage name was. They warned me of the possibility you’d show up eventually but to see you so soon, it’s truly… magical, isn’t it?>

<Yeah, it is, isn’t it?> said Miles, stepping forward, <Now then, you wanna shut off your projectors and go quietly or do you want to make this difficult?>

<Now where would the fun be in that, Spiderling?> said Mysterio.

<C’mon, every hero in the city is on their way here, what are you gonna do, saw us all in half?> said Miles.

<I’m afraid the show isn’t over yet, Spiderling!> declared Mysterio. His suit began to slowly turn translucent when Miles shot a web at his chest. <You think this will–GAH!> The web suddenly began to glow blue as electricity flowed through it, disabling the invisibility.

<So… you wanna turn yourself in now?> said Miles, crossing his arms.

<You’ll never catch me, Spider-Man!> declared Mysterio, flying into the sky.

<Iz–> Miles began.

<Deku in the field,> he interrupted.

<Deku, go warn the other heroes. Mysterio has something planned, I don’t know what it is,> said Miles, swinging into the sky, <I’ll get this guy before he makes it back to Caesar's!>

<Got it!> said Izuku.

________

“Hey, Mysterio!” Miles called as he soared through the air. He wasn’t going as fast as he probably could, his body still reeling from the crash earlier, but he was still easily able to keep pace with Mysterio. “Tell you what, I’ll let you go if you guess what card I’m thinking of!” There was a cracking sound coming from the sky above him. Miles looked up to see a skyscraper collapsing and people falling to the ground. He ignored them. If he was really in danger, his Spider-Sense would be tingling. “Yeah, you probably wouldn’t have guessed it anyway,” he said, flipping through the holograms.

“What, a joker?” called Mysterio, flipping around to fire a laser beam from his wrist.

“Nah, man, Holographic Charizard!” called Miles, at first ignoring the beam but quickly shifting to dodge it as his Spider-Sense activated. 

Yet he was too late. The beam struck him in the side and sent him tumbling toward the asphalt, but he quickly recovered and shot a web at a nearby balcony, resuming the chase. 

“Cool toy! Where can I get one?!” said Miles, weaving through the lasers as Mysterio flew through an alley and above a public park.

“You think–” Mysterio continued to speak, but Miles was instantly taken away from him by his Spider-Sense. He turned his head, and flying through the air was a bronze orb, maybe four inches in diameter, glowing green.

BOOOOOOM

The explosion knocked both Miles and Mysterio down to the ground, landing in the tree canopy in the park. A few seconds later, a branch collapsed and he fell to the ground. Ears ringing, he stumbled to his feet, scanning the air for a sign of whatever caused the explosion.

BZZRT

Miles quickly ducked as a laser flew over his head. Mysterio was standing a few yards away from him, his suit heavily damaged by the fall. His cape was torn and tattered and there was a huge crack in his helmet, while smoke was pouring from his boots.

“C’mon, Beck,” said Spider-Man, sidestepping a laser and stepping closer, “It’s over.”

“It’s not over, Spiderling,” said Mysterio, firing again, “This is just the beginning. You think you’ve seen through my facade?”

“Not really,” said Miles, shooting a web that blocked the laser on his wrist, creating a small explosion that sent him to the ground, “I know what your deal is, Beck, I know you’re not just a villain of the week looking to make some people panic for gits and shiggles. This is a distraction. My one question is…” THWIP. Miles pulled Mysterio in close. CRACK . With a single punch, he shattered his helmet, revealing his dirty blond hair and light beard. “Is this the real you? Or just another illusion?” Miles cocked his fist back, and Beck flinched in anticipation, but he stopped his fist an inch away from his face and poked him on the nose. “Boop. Feels real enough to me. So, what’s the plan, Beck? Gonna pull a rabbit out of your hat?”

Miles' eyes widened as his Spider-Sense tingled. Instinctively, he jumped back, barely dodging the woman in the white leotard flying through the air who crashed into a tree next to them. In the brief moment they were separated, Mysterio scrambled to his feet and ran through the park, with Miles moving to follow, but quickly stopping as he heard footsteps coming from direction the woman came from.

“What the…” came a modulated voice from a man in a green, robotic suit, with orange-yellow eyes and black accents, “Who the hell are you!? Why do you look like…”

“Spider-Man?” Miles finished, raising his fists. He wasn’t sure who this person was, but he had a bad feeling about him. If he knew who Spider-Man was, that meant he was probably from another dimension,

“Spider- Man ?” he said.

“Yeah, you know, Spidey, Web-Head, Wall-Crawler, does whatever a spider can, that guy?” said Miles. “That’s me too. It’s a bit hard to explain but I gotta go catch that wizard. So are we fighting or–” Miles cut himself off midsentence and ducked as he sensed the impending gunshots, rushing under the bullet and sweeping the man’s legs. But the man was fast, dodging Miles’s kick and then kneeing him in the chest. Yet he quickly recovered, flipping backward and regaining his footing. “You here with Mysterio?”

“...What?” said the man, rushing at Miles with his arm pulled back, “Mysterio’s dead.”

“Oh, right, yeah, you probably have no idea what’s happening,” said Miles, catching the punch and throwing the man over his shoulder and toward a nearby tree. He was preparing to follow up with a taser web, hoping whatever circuitry in his suit wasn’t well shielded, when he flinched and the storm of angry yelling in Japanese. The woman in the leotard, who he just noticed had bunny ears sticking out of her head, was charging at the man in the green suit, who was flying right toward her. With a triumphant cry, she spun around and roundhouse kicked the man in the back, launching him into the sky.

“Thanks for the assist,” said Miles. The woman nodded, a smug grin on her face.

Turning around to the trail of footprints, he prepared to start chasing Mysterio again, when his Spider-Sense activated. He looked up to the sky. 

Blinking green lights, getting closer and closer. Wasting no time, he turned around and kicked the woman in the chest with all his might, hopefully pushing her out of the blast zone. He heard a pat on the ground behind him. One hit the ground, then another, then another. He dived to safety, covering his head and waiting for the explosion.

BAAANNNNNGGG.

Confused at both his being alive and the distance he was from the boom, Miles turned around to see the smoke in the air, right above the treeline, and a small crater where the bombs landed.

Only the crater wasn’t caused by the explosion. Not directly. It was caused by the girl lying inside of it.

“Gwen!?”

“Miles?”

Chapter Text

It had been two days since Felicia Hardy had gone missing, and Gwen had gotten no closer to finding her, although that wasn’t too surprising. Given the lack of evidence as to who took her, Gwen had been forced to resort to a more… blunt approach, namely fighting every mobster she could get her hands on. The plan made sense in theory. Felicia used to work with some of the more ‘take-over-the-world-y’ villains back in the day, even if it was usually just a one-off job stealing some piece of technology that they needed for whatever they were planning, but ever since their fight on the roof of Matt Murdock’s office where the two discovered the other one knew their secret, she had stayed away from that side of her rogue’s gallery. 

“He’s a murderer, Gwen!” Felicia yelled, shredding the webs wrapped around, “Why are you protecting him!?”

“I know what he is!” Gwen screamed, dodging a swipe from her claws, “But I can’t decide who lives and dies, Felicia! Wait… Gwen?”

“Felicia?” said Black Cat, the two masked women freezing.

“Uh… so you know,” said Gwen.

“Yeah… and you do too,” said Felicia.

“To be fair, you didn’t do a great job hiding it,” said Gwen, “There aren’t a lot of women your age with white hair.”

“Said the pot to the kettle,” said Felicia, “At least I hide my accent when I’m not in costume.”

“Wait… you normally speak like that?” said Gwen, “I thought you were putting it on to throw the police off.”

“Non,” said Felicia, “Mon père vient de France.”

“Oh…” said Gwen, “So… so what do we do now?”

“I have to kill Murdock, ma araignée,” said Felicia, “He killed my father.”

“I can’t let you do that, Felicia,” said Gwen.

“He must die,” Felicia insisted, “Sang pour sang, blood for blood. Murdock works for the mafia, he knows the rules of things.”

Gwen pursed her lips, before deciding to pull off your mask. “If you kill Murdock now, he’ll be remembered as a hero, Felicia,” she said, “Let me help you. We’ll get what we need to take him down.”

“You think the courts will deal with him?” scoffed Felicia, “He’s a hero. Fisk runs this city, he won’t let his best hitman go to jail without a fight.”

“I know,” said Gwen, “That’s why we’ll take him down too.”

And so they did. It took them two months of fighting and gathering evidence and planning, but they got Murdock and Kingpin and all his top guys in a room with a mountain of drugs. Her father had rounded up all the good cops he knew and taken all of them into custody, and District Attorney Castle managed to have them all sentenced to life in prison. 

All except Murdock. He escaped the night before the trial began. No one had seen him ever since.

Ever since then, Felicia focused on the mafia as one of her main targets for robbery. So if someone had taken her, it was probably them. But so far, there had been nothing, and if nothing turned up tonight, she’d have to start thinking of a new strategy. Not because she was exhausted with it, beating up mobsters was the closest thing she had to going to therapy, but because after tonight, she’d know for certain whether they took her or not. She could see Hammerhead sitting at his desk across the street from her, all alone. Even if he wasn’t directly responsible, he’d know if any of the other families were. Taking a deep breath, she leaped off the roof of the skyscraper and fired a web into Hammerhead’s building, swinging herself right into Hammerhead’s office. 

“Where’s Black Cat!” yelled Gwen, pulling herself to her feet. Hammerhead said nothing, his face shrouded in darkness but she could easily make out who it was from the silhouette. No guards rushed in to stop her. Cautiously, she stepped forward and pulled out her phone, turning on the flashlight. “Holy shit…”

Hammerhead was dead. His throat had been slit and his corpse had been tied to his chair.

Spider-Senses tingling…

“Hello, Spidey,” said a distorted, robotic voice from behind her, “Long time no see.”

Gwen turned around with a horrified look on her face. She recognized that voice, but even if she didn’t, she’d have known who it was. Only one person called her Spidey, and he was supposed to be rotting away in Rykers. Hovering outside the window she just shattered on his glider, stood a man in a bulky, robotic, green suit.

“Goblin,” said Gwen, “How did you get out of prison?”

“Hammerhead said you were creating too many problems for him and his organization,” said Green Goblin jumping off of his glider and into the office, “He broke me out on the condition that I kill you. Too bad he didn’t stipulate that I don't kill him.”

“Where’s Black Cat?” said Gwen, “What did you do to her?”

“Black Cat? Oh… right, her,” said Green Goblin, “I heard she tried to steal some of my old stuff while I was away.”

“Where is she?” Gwen repeated.

Green Goblin shrugged. “If I had her, I wouldn’t be hiding her from you, Spidey,” he said, “She’d probably be dangling from the Brooklyn Bridge or something.” The man cracked his knuckles and his neck. “It’s been a year since I’ve had a good fight, so apologies in advance for not giving you a quick death, even though you don’t deserve one.”

In an instant, Green Goblin lunged forward, his mechanical suit glowing with green energy, while Gwen raised her fists and backpedaled, staying just out of reach of her former friend, until she saw her opportunity and ducked under his arm, rolling through her legs as she made a break for the open skies. 

“You can’t run, Ghost-Spider!” yelled Green Goblin, jumping on his glider and chasing after her, “You’ll pay for what you’ve done!”

“I didn’t kill him, Goblin!” yelled Gwen

“DON’T LIE TO ME!” yelled Green Goblin, chucking a glowing green orb into the air, which exploded behind her and knocked her onto a nearby rooftop. “HAVE SOME INTEGRITY AND OWN UP TO IT, Ghost-Spider!”

“I… I didn’t do it, Osborn,” said Gwen, trying to pick herself up as Green Goblin landed next to her, “I didn’t kill–AH!”

Green Goblin kicked her in the stomach, sending her rolling across the rooftop. “You don’t get to say his name,” he said.

Gwen rose to her feet, the white upper half of her costume now blackened and torn and her hood being knocked off her head. “I don’t want to fight you, Harry,” she said, “You were a good man, once.”

The Green Goblin reached up and pulled off his helmet, revealing the large scar across his cheek and his incredibly short-cut hair. “I was never good, Spidey,” said Harry, “Nobody in this world was good. Nobody except Peter Parker. And you killed him.”

“He was,” said Gwen.

“Don’t talk about him like you know him,” spat Harry, putting his helmet back on, “Don’t talk about him like you know what you took from me. From Gwen Stacey. From his family. He wanted to be like you, you know that? He was worth a hundred of you.”

“He was,” Gwen whispered under her breath, tears welling in her eyes as she pulled up her hood. The two charged at each other, fists pulled back and ready to strike, when both of them fell to the ground. A pain unlike anything she had felt since… since six months ago stabbed into every inch of her body, as the two of them were both surrounded with orange energy. 

But Gwen was quicker to recover than Harry. She was Ghost-Spider. She wouldn’t let intense agony keep her down. She scrambled to her feet and suplexed the temporarily incapacitated Harry, sending him crashing through the ceiling. Instead of following up, however, she ran for his glider. If she could take that out of the fight, she could handicap his mobility and keep him from running.

Gwen’s eyes widened and jumped backward as her Spider-Senses activated, just barely dodging a green, metallic fist that burst through the ceiling beneath her. It clawed through the concrete, pulling open a hole big enough for Harry to jump through. 

“What the hell was that?” said Harry, brushing the rubble off his shoulder.

“How should I-GAH!” said Gwen, before being interrupted as the orange energy bespeckled with black spots consumed them both. She staggered across the rooftop, blinded by the energy as she swung wildly at where she assumed Harry was, but soon felt two cold hands grip around her which tossed her into the sky.

And then, as she was flying through the air, Gwen felt a heat along her face. That was odd. It was just after eleven at night. Why would she feel heat on her face? She opened her eyes.

“Where the…” she muttered to herself. It was daytime, somewhere noon probably, and the sun illuminated the unknown city. Quickly spinning around, Gwen swung herself back onto the rooftops. This definitely wasn’t New York. For one, there wasn’t a massive mountain in the distance, and the tall buildings were all different. Wait… was she in Japan? That red building in the distance looked like the Tokyo Tower, which meant the mountain was Mount Fuji. How the hell was she in Japan!?

Gwen began to swing through the city, thinking about what to do when she double taked as she saw a man with orange skin, easily nine feet tall just casually walking down the street. And further down the road, she saw a woman wearing what looked like a superhero costume. Was that person a cosplayer or did Japan have their own heroes? And if they did, why was he just… walking down the street? Without getting mobbed by civilians? She couldn’t set foot on the ground without someone asking for a selfie or throwing something at her. 

Wait…

Oh, God, was she in another dimension? Peter really was right about Stacy luck.

“Shiiiiiiiiiii…” Gwen muttered to herself,  “How the hell did I end up here?” Well… she supposed that orange energy wasn’t a coincidence, but it’s not like that told her anything. Did someone build another super-collider? Her journey to this dimension felt much more abrupt than her last multiversal jump, but another Kingpin or Alechemax being behind this wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. Wait… if she was in another dimension, did that mean she’d start to–

Through gritted teeth, Gwen screamed as she began to glitch again, and a few seconds later, she was back on her feet. That wasn’t a sensation she missed. 

“Ghost-Spider!” yelled a voice from behind her.

“Seriously!?” called Gwen, jumping off the roof and starting her swing, “You’re still here!?”

“What the hell did you do!?” yelled Harry, chucking a Goblin Grenade that exploded a few feet away from her.

“What the hell did you do!?” Gwen retorted, spinning to catch a second grenade with her webs which she tossed into the air.

“You’re… serious,” said Harry, “You had nothing to do with this?”

“Yeah!” said Gwen, continuing to swing as Harry chased her, “So what do you say, truce? Till we figure out what the hell is going on?”

“Sorry, Spidey, no dice,” said Harry, shooting at her from the gun embedded in his gauntlet, “As long as I’m close enough to kill you, I’m gonna try.”

“You realize you could be stuck here forever without my help, right?” said Gwen, fully knowing that her help could also mean jack as she dodged the bullets.

“I don’t give a crap about forever, Spidey,” said Harry, throwing another grenade which knocked her back onto the rooftops. As she rose to her feet, Harry jumped off his glider, the weight of his suit cracking the concrete. “You took away any reason I had to care.”

“Gah!” cried Gwen as an uppercut collided with her chin, sending her sprawling on the ground. She turned around to see Harry standing right above her, his gun a foot away from her face.

“Goodbye, Spidey,” said Harry, his mask opening up to reveal his face.

BANG

Gwen barely dodged the bullet, getting a new hole in her hood in the process, and kicked Harry in the leg, sending him to one knee.  Rolling to the side and dodging two more shots in the process, Gwen vaulted over the ledge of the rooftop, letting herself start falling. A few moments later, Harry’s glider flew off as well, the Green Goblin searching for Gwen, not realizing she hadn’t swung away, but rather stuck herself to the same building she jumped off, and once he flew by, she sprung her trap, webbing him in the back and pulling with all her strength. Harry went flying off his glider and crashed into the building she was on a few stories down while his vehicle continued flying. 

“Oi!” called a voice from a distance. Gwen looked up to see a woman in a white leotard with navy blue thigh-high boots and… was that a robot arm? Cool. The woman started speaking in Japanese and racked her brain trying to remember what she knew from high school.

<Um… say it again?> asked Gwen, <Japanese not good.>

“English?” asked the woman. Gwen nodded. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Uh… now’s not really a great time,” said Gwen, “That guy’s kinda trying to kill me.”

“You a hero?” she asked.

Gwen hesitated for a moment before nodding, not really sure what that meant in this dimension. “Yeah,” she said, “Ghost-Spider.”

“Didn’t ask,” said the woman cracking her knuckles, “What’s that guy’s deal?”

“His name’s Green Goblin, real name Harry Osborn,” said Gwen, “Super-strength, spec-ops training and armed to the teeth. He’s… getting away!” In an instant, she pushed herself off the building and began swinging after Harry, who managed to recover his glider and was again flying through the air.

The two continued their chase, with the lady with the robot arm following from the rooftops. 

“Wait, why am I doing this?” Gwen muttered to herself, “Isn’t he the one trying to kill me? Why am I chasing him?”

“Quit running, punk!” yelled the lady with the robot arm, as she leaped off the building, speeding toward Harry like a bullet. Getting a better look at her, Gwen noticed the cotton tail and ears. It looked like she had some kind of rabbit mutation, which gave her some crazy leg strength judging by how fast she was. But Harry was still Harry, and he wasn’t going to let himself be taken down so easily. He spun around and in his hand she saw him clutching a green glowing orb.

Oh no.

BOOM.

The grenade detonated halfway down a different street, the rabbit lady having spun around and kicked in like a soccer ball far away from them. Acting quickly, Gwen pulled herself upward and fired a web at the now falling hero, launching her at Harry. Smiling like a maniac, she crashed directly into Harry's robotic suit and both of them plummeted toward the park below them. Gwen lost track of them in the tree line, and so began to hover in the sky above it, listening for an explosion or a gunshot. After a few moments, she heard the crack of a tree trunk, and a bit later there was a gunshot. Gwen rushed toward the source of it, and when she reached the clearing, she saw three blinking lights on the ground underneath someone. Not thinking for a moment, she webbed up all three and pulled them up above her.

B-B-BOOM

The explosion sent her plummeting into the ground. “Aw man,” she grumbled, trying to pick herself up. It had been a while since she had taken a hit that bad.

“Gwen?” called a familiar voice in front of her.

She looked up. “Miles?” Miles held out his hand which she took, allowing him to pull her to his feet. “It’s… it’s really you?”

“Were you the Gw–” he began.

“Ghost-Spider!” she interrupted.

“Oh, right! Sorry!” said Miles, “Are you the Ghost-Spider who came to my…”

Gwen nodded. “Oh, uh…” she stuttered as Miles wrapped his arms around her. “It’s good to see you too… Spider-Man.”

“Wait, Mysterio!” “Wait, Goblin!” they both cried at the same time.

“Wait, Goblin?” “Wait, Mysterio?” they both said, confused.

“Mysterio’s here?” said Gwen.

“That was Green Goblin?” said Miles.

“Alright, alright, one thing at a time,” said Gwen, “Where’s Mysterio?”

“Somewhere in this park,” said MIles, “I fried his suit and shattered his helmet, I don’t think he could have gotten far. Goblin’s probably the bigger threat.”

“I… think he’s handled,” said Gwen, pointing behind them. Miles turned around to witness what she saw: the rabbit lady pouncing on Harry and pummeling his helmet into scraps. “Besides, even if he gets away, he’ll show up eventually. I think the only time he goes more than a week without trying to kill me is when he’s in prison. But if your Mysterio is like mine, who knows what he’ll get up to?”

“Yeah, you’re right,” said Miles, running through the park, following a trail of footprints, with Gwen following. The two continued running, eventually starting to swing, until they reached the main street and saw a man in a green suit running down the sidewalk, pushing civilians out of the way as he ran.

“Beck, c’mon, man, I got places to be!” called Miles, firing a web that wrapped around his legs.

“It’s weird seeing Mysterio as a dude,” commented Gwen, webbing up his torso.

“He’s a girl in your dimension!?” said Miles.

“Nah, just messing with you,” smirked Gwen, “Turn off the illusion, Mysterio! He… he has some illusion going on, right?” Miles nodded. “Turn ‘em off!”

Mysterio looked down at his wrist. “You got me,” he said, a devious smirk on his face. Gwen tensed up, expecting some sort of trap, but her Spider-Senses didn’t activate. 

“Hey, Nezu,” said Miles, speaking into a cell phone, “We caught… What!? Who? Oh… oh no. Yeah, I… I know of them. He… Oh, God..”

Click.

“Where’s Octavius?” said Miles, voice lacking any whimsy.

“Ah, so he succeeded,” said Mysterio.

________

“So… this is what brought me here,” said Felicia, staring down at the broken down machine.

“Mmn,” the man in black, Aizawa, her mind supplied, grunted.

“It was some kind of teleportation device,” said Doctor Conners.

“Yet it malfunctioned with these… disastrous effects,” said Nezu.

“So what’s the plan then?” asked Felicia.

“We’re pretty close to figuring out the design specifications,” said Nezu, “Once that happens, we can hopefully reverse engineer it.”

“That’s… a bit vague of a plan, isn’t it?” said Felicia.

“I wouldn’t expect anything more specific anytime soon, Ms. Hardy,” said Doctor Conners, “We’re dealing with forces beyond our understanding here. Interdimensional travel isn’t exactly an established science.”

“Nezu,” said Aizawa, pulling out his phone, “You see this?”

“Get on it, this might be Garaki from behind the scenes,” said Nezu, looking up at the screen. Aizawa nodded and left the room.

“What was that?” asked Felicia.

“A major villain attack is ongoing not too far from here,” said Nezu, “It will be handled shortly I believe.”

Felicia nodded before making her way out of the engineering lab where the machine was being held, and eventually winding up underneath a tree in the courtyard of UA, watching the students in their brightly colored costumes take off toward the smoke rising in the distance.

“Stacy!?” called Uraraka, running from the building, carrying her helmet in her hands. 

“Hey,” called Felicia, waving to her.

Uraraka waved back, but quickly refocused and put on her helmet as she ran toward the massive gate. Felicia watched in mild curiosity as she took off into the sky, firing a grappling pling hook into a building across the street and launching herself toward the smoke. 

Felicia remembered the first time she saw Ghost-Spider. The Rhino had just robbed some bank and Gwen swooped in from the skies to stop him. She vividly remembered where she was when it went down; she was sitting on a park bench across the street, scoping the place out for her own robbery. Felicia smiled when she saw her. It was funny, wasn’t it? This woman, this woman capable of such amazing feats of strength and (though she was loath to admit it) grace was saving others? Helping them? That wasn’t how things worked. The strong preyed on the weak and the weak preyed on the weaker. It became even funnier after she found out she was Gwen. The friendless loser who nobody really liked and seemed to have nothing but contempt for everyone and everything spent all her free time helping people? Hilarious. 

Now she found herself in a world full of Gwens. A world full of people born with great power who devoted themselves to helping others. It felt unreal at first. But the proof was in her face and it was undeniable. She was sitting under a tree, watching dozens of people her age running toward danger to help, not running away to save their own skins.

And it wasn’t funny anymore. 

The scornful humor was replaced by something else. Something uncomfortable. Was… Was it shame? She could do what Gwen did. Maybe not as well, but she could do something. It’s not like she even needed the money anymore, if she was being honest. Back in New York, she could always take solace in the fact that she was surrounded by people worse than her. That Gwen was a singular, unique entity. Not here. It would be insane to follow in her footsteps back in her New York, but here? Doing what she did was expected. Standard. This was a new feeling for Felicia, and not one she–

BOOOOOOM .

Felicia immediately rose to her feet as the explosion tore through the building. Taking a deep breath, Felicia extended her claws, before cautiously making her way toward the smoke. UA was her best chance of getting home, she reminded herself, that the principal was keeping her out of prison. It was only logical to see if anything was threatening that. 

With her usual speed, she scaled the walls and stepped through the broken glass window, a feeling of unease growing in her stomach as she realized which room she was in. This was where Nezu was keeping the machine.

“Fascinating,” muttered a vaguely familiar voice from the smoke.

“Who are you!?” Aizawa demanded, “How did you get past our defenses!?”

“Your technology was amateur at best,” taunted the voice, as loud, clanking footsteps filled the air, “I imagine by the standards of your dimension, it’s highly impressive, but in the face of true scientific brilliance, well, I am afraid your dimension simply falls short. Now… hand over the machine before you creatines irreversibly damage the fabric of reality.”

“Another interdimensional traveller…” muttered Nezu, “Fascinating.”

Felicia’s eyes widened as the smoke began to clear. It was Doc Ock, only for some reason he had robot arms instead of actual octopus arms. Weird. For a moment she wondered if people still called him Ock, but she snapped back to reality as two robotic arms jutted forward, Aizawa barely dodging. She watched in silence, hiding in the shadows as the two began to battle. The hero was clearly outmatched. He was barely able to duck and weave through the mechanical onslaught, and when he lashed out with his scarf, it was effortlessly caught and torn away from the hero. Under these circumstances, with his power effectively useless, it was only a matter of time before a tentacle grabbed him by the throat and pressed him against the wall.

SHIING

Ock cried out in pain Felicia’s claws dug into his shoulders, forcing him to let go of Eraserhead to try and fling her off. But she was too fast for him and jumped off the villain’s back at the last minute, landing on all fours before again jumping back to dodge more tentacles. She had to stop Ock from getting the machine. Yeah. That’s why she attacked him. Because if Ock got the machine, there was no way she’d be able to get home. With all the grace and skill of an entire life spent pursuing gymnastics, dance, and daring heists, she glided through Ock’s tentacles and dodged the lasers from the small cannon on his shoulder, before sliding through his legs and scratching the device on his back.

“HARDY! YOU INSOLENT BRAT!” yelled Ock, staggering backward.

“Thanks for the save, kid,” said Aizawa, rubbing his neck. 

“Don’t tha–” Felicia cut herself off mid word as Ock pulled a small, futuristic looking gun from the device on his back that held his arms. Both her and Aizawa bent down, prepared to dodge when–

Click.

The gun fired.

Felicia turned around.

“Oh no,” said Doctor Conners, staring at the small dart sticking into his leg.

Doc Ock grinned. “It’s usually reptiles who fear cats, Hardy,” he taunted, “I hope Doctor Conners will prove to be an exception.”

The scientist fell to his knees, screaming, as his body began to grow and contort, tearing his clothes and revealing his scaly, green skin. Without warning the creature lunged at the two, Aizawa attempting to restrain it with his scarf while Doc Ock continued his attack.

“Where’s… backup… Nezu!” yelled Aizawa, as Felicia backflipped away from a tentacle. 

“It cannot be far,” said Nezu, cautiously backing away, “But most of the students were sent to deal with the Nomu attack. I’m sure several of our co-workers went to join them.”

“Shit,” muttered Aizawa, just as the Lizard chomped through his scarf. Without missing a beat, the creature charged straight toward Felicia, and unfortunately, she did not have a Spider-Sense. The monster tackled her into the wall and opened its massive, tooth filled maw, only to be knocked away by an explosion. The two of them quickly rose to their feet, ready to go at one another, but the monster looked at her, then at Aizawa, and turned tail and jumped out the broken window. 

Felicia turned back around. 

The machine was gone.

___

“Ah, so he succeeded,” taunted Mysterio.

“What… What happened?” asked Gwen.

“WHERE IS HE!?” yelled Miles, leaning over the defeated villain and webbing him to the ground.

“Calm down!” yelled Gwen, pressing a hand on his chest, “Tell me what happened.”

He took a deep breath. “Doc Ock attacked UA. It’s… well… a hero school, basically,” he explained.

“...You’re kidding,” said Gwen.

“They’ve been letting me stay there ever since I got here,” Miles continued, “They said they had the machine that caused all this, that brought me and, well, I assume it also brought you here. Doc stole it. Without it, I… I don’t know how we’ll get home.”

Gwen grimaced, but after a few seconds, she let it transition into a soft smile. “Then we’ll just have to get it back,” she smirked, “We’re Spider… Spider-People? Let’s go with that. We’re Spider-People, after all.”

Miles sighed. “Yeah… we’re Spider-People.”

“Aw, how cute!” taunted Mysterio, “I–”

Thwip.

“Probably for the best,” said Gwen, as Miles lowered his arm.

“Oi!” called a voice from the forest, “Wait, the hell!? Why are there two of you!?” Gwen turned around to see the rabbit lady carrying a knocked out Harry Osborn over her shoulder, his helmet smashed to pieces.

“Long story,” said Gwen, “I–GAH!” She fell to the ground mid sentence, glitching out. Man, she really, really did not miss that.

“Are you ok!?” asked the rabbit lady, rushing to her side.

“It’s fine,” Miles answered on her behalf, “I’ll take her to get help. Can you, uh… handle him?” 

He gestured at the villain webbed to the ground, and the hero nodded. Moments later, he was carrying her through the skies as he swung through the city. “So… how have things been?” he asked, as she slipped out from his grip and began swinging on her own.

“Same old, same old,” shrugged Gwen, “I know this isn’t exactly great timing, but… I’m really glad we got to meet again, Miles.”

Her friend spun around with concerning speed, losing his focus and falling for a few seconds before returning to his swing. “Uh… y… you too,” said Miles.

“Spider-Man!” called a voice from a distance, “I… I went to warn the others, but…” A teenage boy dressed in a green costume flew toward them. “I was too late. They had already attacked UA. I’m… I’m sorry, Miles, I…”

“It’s fine, Midoriya,” said Miles, “It’s not your fault.”

“If I had just been faster or thought things through before chasing Shigaraki, I–” Midoriya continued.

“There’s no point beating yourself up over it now,” shrugged Miles.

“Uh… you gonna introduce me to your friend, Miles?” asked Gwen.

“Oh! Right!” said Miles, “Midoriya, Gwen. Gwen, Midoriya.”

“Hey,” waved Gwen.

“Wait… another Spider-Man?” said Midoriya, “How is that… unless… maybe she has a similar Quirk that works well with Parker’s web slingers and–”

“He, uh, apparently does this a lot,” said Miles, as Midoriya stopped floating and began swinging on black ropes from his hands. She watched him intently as he swung. It wasn’t quite as effortless as her and Miles’s movement, he had a little tension that they lacked, but it was clear this wasn’t Midoriya’s first time swinging. And that costume… the black lines on the green jumpsuit. So he must be this dimension’s Spider-Man. And he could fly AND swing? That was just unfair. Gwen, Miles, and Midoriya continued swinging for a few minutes until they arrived at a large campus with smoke rising from a higher floor.

“Ock’s work, I’m guessing,” said Gwen, as they landed inside the gate.

“Yeah,” sighed Miles.

“You know whoever did this?” asked Midoriya.

“I think so,” said Miles, “It’s… probably for the best if we talk to Nezu in private, Midoriya.”

“Oh… alright,” said Midoriya, looking down, slightly dejected.

“C’mon, Gwen,” said Miles, swinging up to the hole in the upper floor. The two landed on the charred floor covered in broken glass, where a few men in costumes accompanied by some police officers stood. She mentally reminded herself that this was a dimension where heroes were commonplace, and that she didn’t need to fear the police, before following Miles as he approached the man with the scarf in a black jumpsuit. 

“I need to talk to Nezu,” said Miles, “We, uh… have another… visiter.”

The man looked Gwen up and down before sighing. “He’s in his office,” said the man. 

She followed Miles as he made his way through the group of police and heroes and down the hall, eventually reaching a large door that he knocked on.

“Come in,” called a grave voice from the inside.

Chapter Text

“I’m here! I’m here!” said Peter, crawling through the open window.

“You’re late again, Pete,” sighed MJ, pulling herself off the couch and tossing her a button-down shirt. “We’re going to be late for the doctor.”

“I know, I know,” muttered Peter, pulling off his mask and buttoning the shirt, “There was this train derailment in the Bronx, I had to catch it, it took emergency services way too long to get down there, MJ! I swear to God, I might file a complaint with the Mayor’s Office!”

“Well, you’re lucky we now have a good excuse for why we’re late,” said MJ, tossing on her jacket as Peter picked up a pair of jeans off the ground. “I told the OB/GYN that’s what held us up. Now, are you ready to go?”

“Yeah,” said Peter, tying his shoes. He paused for a second as MJ approached the door and smiled.

“Peter! C’mon, what are you waiting for?” asked MJ. 

“Just… I can’t believe this is real sometimes,” said Peter.

MJ skeptically raised an eyebrow. “After everything you’ve been through,” she said, “This.” She gestured to her slightly swollen belly. “This is what you’re having a hard time believing?”

“I guess… I guess after all the insanity,” said Peter, following her out the door, “Normal things start feeling like a dream.”

“Come here, Parker,” said MJ, rolling her eyes before pulling him in for a kiss.

But as they made their way down to the car, Peter felt his phone buzz. Climbing into the passenger seat of MJ’s newly acquired minivan, he pulled it out and checked the text.

Uh oh.

Ock escaping a few days ago was really bad. He had been searching nonstop for the man, but there had been no sign of him in the criminal underworld. None of his accomplices knew a thing about where he was.

This, this was somehow worse.

“MJ, I… I need to go,” said Peter.

“Pete, we’ve had to reschedule this twice!” said MJ, “I know you said you want to be there for me through this, but at some point, I’ve got to actually see the doctor. I–”

MJ froze mid-sentence as he showed her the text from Detective Castle, his friend on the police force. 

“Go,” she said.

Without a word, Peter ran out of the car and ran back into the house. A few minutes later, he was swinging across the city in costume, heading straight to Rikers Island. 

“Good, you’re here,” said Detective Castle, as Peter jumped off the truck he hitched a ride on to cross the bridge. The detective led him through the halls of the prison, various inmates hurling insults at him, but mostly remaining silent. Eventually, they arrived at the large cell with no bars; the heat of the scorching room still felt from behind the large, metal door. Both Peter and Detective Castle stood back as the Rikers Guard in the heat-proof suit opened the door.

It was empty.

“We have no idea how he got out,” said Detective Castle, “There was some weird energy, the inmate fell to the ground, and then he was gone.”

“You think Ock’s involved?” asked Peter, recalling the similar details to the two escapes.

“I got no clue, Spider-Man,” said Castle, “But if you don’t find him soon, a whole lotta people are going to die.”

“I know, Frank,” said Peter, sighing in frustration, “I know.”

“God help the people living wherever the hell he ended up,” said Frank.

___

Miles opened the door, and the two of them stepped into an office. Behind the large, wooden desk at the back sat a small, furry creature, one who would have certainly shocked Gwen a year ago, but after seeing Porker, it was hard for anything to really be surprising to her anymore. And sitting in front of the creature’s desk was…

“Felicia?”

“Gwen?”

“So you two know each other,” said the creature, rubbing his temples. “Well, I suppose it’s only natural that you have a Felicia in your dimension and she has a… Gwen, you say?”

Gwen shook her head. “That’s my Felicia,” she said, “She’s been missing for days. I’ve been trying to find you for days.”

“Oh?” said the creature, “Well… that’s an interesting development. Please, have a seat.”

“Gwen, I…” Felicia began, before cutting herself off as Gwen sat down next to her.

“First things first, your name is Gwen, is it not?” asked the creature, “Gwen Stacy?”

“Um… yeah?” said Gwen, pulling off her mask, “How… how did you know?”

“Miss Hardy used your name as an alias when she first arrived,” the creature explained, reaching into a desk drawer. “You may call me Nezu. Please, put this on. It will assist with your, ehem, glitching.”

The creature handed her a small wristband, which she stared at for a moment before putting it on. “So… Do you know what happened to bring me here?” she asked.

“It’s… a tad complicated,” said Nezu, “And if it’s alright with you three, I’d like to explain the whole truth. And not just to you three. There’s someone else who has a right to know what is happening.”

___

“Ah, good, you’re here,” said Nezu, as Izuku stepped into his office.

“Sir, what’s going on?” asked Izuku, glancing at the three people sitting in front of his desk, two he recognized, one he didn’t.

“Miles, Gwen, Felicia, I asked Midoriya to come in for this because I believe he has a right to know what is happening,” said Nezu, “Do you mind?”

“...Ok,” said Miles.

Gwen shrugged.

The woman he didn’t recognize merely stared. Not rejecting, not accepting.

“Please have a seat, Midoriya,” said Nezu. Confused and a little intrigued, Izuku sat down next to Miles. “A few months ago, as you know, Peter Parker showed up as a… guest lecturer for a few days. What I neglected to tell you was that Peter was not a traveller from New York. At least, our New York.”

“Our New York?” Izuku repeated. What could he possibly mean? How could there be another New York?

“Peter Parker was a traveller, Midoriya, an interdimensional traveller,” Nezu explained. 

Izuku’s eyes widened. “Interdimensional travel!?” said Izuku, getting up from his seat, “How is that possible!?”

“It isn’t,” said Nezu, “Not here, at least. But in another dimension, researchers built a machine that could essentially drag people into another dimension, but with grave consequences for the universe in which it was activated. The Peter Parker of that dimension tried to stop it.”

“My Peter Parker,” said Miles.

“That’s right,” said Nezu.

“You’re… you’re from another dimension?” said Izuku, eyes widening.

“Yes,” said Nezu, “Now, from what I understand, that dimension’s Peter Parker wound up in that machine, summoning five Spider-Men, including Gwen Stacy and the man you met six months ago. Parker and I had an in-depth discussion on how the machine worked. At first, we thought it was common DNA, but Gwen Stacy wasn’t a Peter Parker, so it couldn’t be purely that. Then we thought it was the spider that bit them. You see, our dimension is somewhat of an outlier with the existence of Quirks. Both Peter, Miles, and Gwen acquired their superpowers through being bitten by a radioactive Spider, so we thought something about their mutated DNA brought them together, but one of the Spiders was not bitten.” 

“You… you’re Quirkless?” said Izuku.

“Yeah?” said Miles, “Nobody’s born with powers where I’m from. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time to get my powers.”

“We continued to think things through, coming up with different theories,” said Nezu, “Then… we stumbled onto a… a more complicated theory. I’m hesitantly dubbing it ‘multiversal constant theory’. I propose that some things are universal constants in the multiverse. That certain people appear in certain forms across every single dimension. Why and how, I don’t know, but I believe Spider-Man is one of those things.”

“But… but our dimension doesn’t have a Spider-Man,” Izuku pointed out. 

“Don’t we?” said Nezu, raising an eyebrow.

“No, we don’t,” said Izuku, “The closest thing I could find was an early American hero who went by the Spider. He did live in New York, and he also had to hide from his enemies, like Peter said he had to, but aside from the name, they had nothing in common! And he turned out to be a serial killer who had died two hundred years ago, so I… I… oh… you… You mean…”

“Yes,” said Nezu, “I believe you are this dimension’s Spider-Man.”

“But… But… But that’s impossible!” said Izuku, “I’m… I’m… I’m just some… some guy!”

“Well, let’s start with the superficial,” said Nezu, pulling a file out of his desk, “You all share similar powers, enhanced strength, and your black whip matches their webs. To delve a little deeper, if you don’t mind, neither you nor Peter nor Miles nor Gwen were born with powers. They were all acquired, and if you’ll forgive me for overreaching, I know you all struggle with the idea that you didn’t deserve them. To delve even deeper, you all share a tendency to attempt to save those that everyone else would deem beyond saving. Do you think any other hero would have tried to redeem Shigaraki, Midoriya?”

He was taken back to a destroyed city. An outstretched hand to a man filled with anger and hate. 

“I… No, sir,” said Izuku.

“Parker told me the most important part of being Spider-Man wasn’t the webs or the powers or the costume,” Nezu continued, “He said it was the smile. The willingness to crack jokes and act nonchalant in the face of danger, not because you aren’t scared, but because you are terrified. Tell me, Midoriya, does that remind you of any advice you’ve internalized?”

Izuku looked down at his shoes and slumped back down in his chair. This… this was too much. The multiverse was real. Miles and these other two people were apparently from other dimensions. So was Peter, apparently. The man who, in only a few days, changed his life forever. And Izuku was somehow also Peter, and Miles, and this Gwen person at the same time, or at least a version of them? What did that mean? Did that change anything? 

“For what it’s worth,” said Gwen, “I had you pegged as this dimension’s Spider the second I saw you. Right, Miles?”

“I… It makes sense,” conceded Miles.

He looked over at Parker’s protege (Or… was he still? Izuku wasn’t sure). He wasn’t fooled for a second by those holograms. He immediately saw the truth. And Peter… Peter was Peter. He had taken on their entire class and basically won without breaking a sweat. Izuku really only won because he got lucky. He couldn’t help but feel like a failure. He had only just learned this was a title, and one that he somehow possessed, but the weight of failure felt crushing.

“Now… to continue this story,” said Nezu, “Several days ago, we launched a raid on Doctor Garaki’s bunker. To fill in the blanks for Miss Stacy and Miss Hardy, Garaki was a genius scientist who worked on behalf of a group called the ‘League of Villains.’ He developed a machine that he intended to use to teleport his comrades from prison. But, like how the Peter Parker of Miles’s dimension got into the Super-Collider, Midoriya here got in the way. The same thing that pulled you and Peter to Miles’s dimension pulled you both here.”

“How did Harry wind up here?” asked Gwen, “Or Mysterio? Or Octavius? Or… her?”

“Miss Hardy?” asked Nezu. Gwen nodded, and Nezu turned to look at her. “Miss Hardy, I take it your claims of vigilantism have been… exaggerated.”

“Hah!” Gwen laughed, “She’s no vigilante! She’s a two-bit thief!”

“One,” said Hardy, “I have helped you before, have I not? Two, I am an excellent thief, merci beaucoup.”

“Hmm…” said Nezu, “I’ll admit, I had my suspicions. You see, when the energy from Garaki’s machine struck Midoriya, they did also struck the DNA of six League of Villains members. That’s what brought the men you fought today here, and it appears that’s what brought Miss Hardy here, too.”

“So… she’s one of…” Izuku muttered.

“I would guess Compress,” said Nezu, turning toward Izuku, “Given they are both thieves. Although they don’t share the magician's relation.”

“Did you say magician?” asked Miles. Nezu nodded. “Yeah, that’s one hundred percent Mysterio. Who else is in this ‘League of Villains ’? Maybe we can figure out who’s who.”

“Well… the first one is obvious,” said Nezu, pulling out another file. He flipped it open to reveal a picture of Spinner holding a sword. “I believe the good Doctor Conners is our Spinner.” He placed down five more pictures, each one sending shivers down Izuku’s spine. “And you’ve already identified Mr. Compress. That leaves four. Dabi, Himiko Toga, All For One, and Tomura Shigaraki. The pyromaniac son of the number one hero, obsessed with revenge. A teenage girl controlled by her instincts and a mad thirst for blood. A centuries-old megalomaniac who steals the powers of others. And a man who simply wishes to tear the world to shreds.”

“Son of a rich guy, obsessed with revenge?” said Gwen, grabbing the picture of Dabi. “Sounds like Harry to me. He… He blames me for the death of… of my Peter Parker, he’s been trying to kill me ever since. A lady in a rabbit costume arrested him. And a megalomaniac who tries to steal powers? That sounds like Ock to me. I don’t know if this one is mine or not, but my Octavious has always been trying to replicate my powers.”

“So that leaves two,” said Nezu, “And we know of one more multi-dimensional traveller with a superficial connection to one. But I fail to see what Himiko Toga and Miss Hardy have in common aside from vague cat-like tendencies. If you could shed some light on this, Miss… Miss… where did she go?”

All four of them looked up from the desk to see that Felicia Hardy was gone.

“Oh… yeah… she does that,” said Gwen.

“I wonder who he’s gonna be,” muttered Miles, staring at the picture of Shigaraki.

“I’ll send someone to look for her,” said Nezu, “In any case, we should discuss how to proceed. I think being tight-lipped is the best course of action here, as distasteful as it might seem. We’ll put both Miss Stacy and Miss Hardy in 1-A as well and, well… simply refuse to answer any questions. It might be frustrating for the students, but it will be worth it to dodge any uncomfortable questions. Our first lie about Miles has been ruined by your presence here. We cannot guarantee any future lies will not also be damaged by future arrivals.”

___

Ochako landed on the roof of UA, pulling her helmet off and rubbing the sweat from her brow. The emergency turned out to be a false flag. Some illusion Quirk, according to the police, but trying to calm down panicking civilians was exhausting nonetheless. She was about to make her way downstairs through the roof access door when she saw a familiar shape sitting against the HVAC. 

“Stacy?” Ochako called. No response. “Everything alright?”

“I never wanted to be here, you know,” said Stacy.

“You told me,” Ochako reminded her, “Has Nezu figured out how to get you back to New York?”

“Not… Not ‘here’ here,” said Stacy, “I never chose to do ‘this’. I didn’t wake up one day and decide to become a diamond thief.”

“Are… Are you alright, Stacy?” asked Ochako.

“My name’s not Gwen Stacy,” she said, “I lied. It’s Felicia Hardy.”

“Oh…” said Ochako, looking down at the ground, “Well… I guess that’s all right. I mean… I’m just a stranger, right? At least you came forward.”

“Only because she showed up,” Sta–Hardy muttered, “I’m… I’m not a bad person, you know. I don’t hurt people, I don’t take from people who can’t afford to lose it. Does that make me a villain?”

“I don’t think so,” said Ochako, sitting down next to her, “And even if that did… I…” She thought of a smiling face with two blond, messy buns. “I don’t think that makes you a monster.” She thought of the man she loved, staring back at her with a smile as the world seemed to collapse around him. About how that man nearly killed himself to save someone who truly didn’t deserve it. “Besides, even if you were, I don’t think anyone is beyond redemption.”

Hardy laughed. “You… You really believe that,” she said, “God, you’re naive.”

Ochako chuckled. “Maybe,” she shrugged, “The redemption is… well… it’s hard, but I think the hard part is reaching out for it. If you offer a helping hand and someone accepts it, you can get out of the mud. Most people just don’t want to offer the hand, and even fewer people will accept it.”

Hardy stared out over the UA campus for a few minutes in pure silence.

“So…” she said, “Tell me about Iz.”

“Oh, God, this again?” Ochako blushed, hiding her face in her knees.

“What?” said Hardy, leaning over her, “A cat can’t help being curious, Raka. I may be a cynic, but I’m a sucker for a good romance. What’s he like? How did you meet? How did you start dating?”

“He’s… He’s perfect,” said Ochako, looking up at the sky, “If only he’d realize it.”

___

“So… this is a lot to process, I’m guessing,” said Gwen, leaning on the wall outside of Nezu’s office.

“I… Yeah,” admitted Izuku, “Is it that obvious?”

“Eh, and Miles were already more used to weird stuff than you before we got involved in multi-dimensional adventures,” said Gwen, “People with superpowers are common in your dimension. For you, seeing people who can do what we do is every Tuesday. For us, running into someone else with superpowers is, well… It usually ends with them trying to kill us. Right, Miles?”

Miles nodded, scratching the back of his head and trying to avoid looking at Midoriya. 

He felt a lot of emotions whenever he thought too hard about his… Spider-Colleague, and a few made him feel good. Mostly adequate, and guilt over that inadequacy, and then more inadequacy over feeling guilty, and it all just repeated in a toxic cycle. He seemed like everything Miles wanted to be. He was already a great hero. He had saved Japan. He was strong, he was bold, he was decisive. Miles wasn’t sure how he hadn’t recognized him as this dimension’s Spider-Man earlier, but now that he realized it, the comparisons were just that much harder to avoid making, and Miles seemed to always come up short.

“You’re… You’re both really from another dimension,” said Izuku, eventually managing to make eye contact with Miles.

Miles nodded again. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” he said.

“It’s ok,” said Izuku, flashing him a smile which faded after a few seconds, “But… were there any other lies?”

Miles thought long and hard for a few moments before answering. “Peter Parker is dead,” he said. Izuku’s eyes widened. “Not the one you met. But… When Conners told you that Peter Parker was dead, he was telling the truth. My Peter Parker did die. He… He was trying to save me and…”

“I’m sorry,” said Izuku.

“Loss is a part of being Spider-Man, Midoriya,” said Gwen, “I lost my Peter, too. He… He was my best friend.”

“I lost my uncle,” Miles added, “He had always believed in me, encouraged me to follow my dreams.”

“I… I lost, Sir,” said Izuku, “He… Well… He was my mentor. One of them, at least. He didn’t really like me most of the time, but… but… he came around in the end before he…”

“This is getting sad,” declared Gwen, after a few minutes, “Holy crap, Miles! I can’t believe you’re really here!”

Miles was taken aback at the sudden change in attitude from Gwen, but decided not to dwell on it for too long. “Uh, yeah! I can’t believe it! You’re really here!”

“And I still haven’t really introduced myself to you yet,” said Gwen, turning toward Izuku, “Gwen Stacy, a.k.a. Ghost-Spider.”

“Izuku Midoriya, hero name Deku,” said Izuku, shaking her hand.

“How long have you been doing this hero shtick?” she asked.

“About a year,” said Izuku, “How about you?”

“Year and a half,” said Gwen, smirking slightly.

“Hey…” said Miles, finally deciding to look Izuku in the eyes, “How did you get your powers? You weren’t bitten by something radioactive, too, were you?”

Izuku looked behind him, then past Miles and Gwen. The two of them quickly leaned in, understanding the apparent need for secrecy. “They… They were given to me,” he admitted.

“Given?” whispered Gwen, raising an eyebrow.

“It… It had been a really bad day for me,” explained Izuku, “I was walking home from school and I got attacked by this slime villain, but All Might saved me.” 

This time it was Miles’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “All Might?”

“The number one hero,” he elaborated, “I had been Quirkless all my life, but… but… I always wanted to be a hero, and so I asked him if someone without power could be. He said no.”

He thought back to standing there in that crowd of mourners in a poorly fitting Spider-Man costume. About how Mary Jane said that anyone could be Spider-Man. He wanted to be mad at this ‘All Might’ guy for not following his lead, but he wasn’t sure he could. Could everyone be a hero in a world where every villain was superpowered? No. No, they could. Being a hero was about more than stopping criminals. He was the friendly-neighbor Spider-Man, after all.

“A bit later, I saw the same villain attacking my… friend,” Izuku continued, “And I just… my feet moved before I could think. I rushed in to try and save him. All Might rescued me again. He found me a bit later and offered to give me his Quirk.”

“People can just give each other their superpowers here?” said Gwen.

“He can,” said Izuku, “It’s part of his Quirk. My Quirk. One For All.”

“So… you were chosen to be the top hero in this dimension,” said Miles. Izuku nodded. Uch. Of course. The contrast between the two couldn’t get wider. Izuku got his powers through being a hero. Miles got his through dumb luck. At least Peter had only been in the lab to get bitten by that Spider because he had been a prodigy chemist. 

“Gwen Stacy,” called a voice from behind them. All three turned around to find Aizawa standing alongside Uraraka and Felicia Hardy. “Are you ready to meet the class?”

___

“So…” said Quentin, staring at the man in handcuffs sitting across from him in the jail cell, “Why were you trying to kill Spider-Man?”

“Who the hell is Spider- Man ?” asked the man in the smashed-up metal suit, “Where in God’s name am I?”

“Oh, so you just got here,” said Quentin, “Well… welcome to Japan, my friend. A Japan, that is, although not yours.”

“Stop talking in riddles or I’ll beat the hell out of you once I get these handcuffs off,” the man threatened.

Quentin pouted. “You’re no fun,” he said, “We’re in another dimension, genius. And I’m guessing by the emphasis you put on man there, you’re from the same dimension as the female Spider.”

“That makes no god da–GAH!” The man cried out in pain as he began to glitch out. He would have felt sympathy for him, Quentin certainly didn’t miss that, but he decided the man clearly didn’t deserve it.

“You know, if you hate the Spiders as much as I do,” said Quentin, “I might have a proposition for you.”

“However… However much you hate him ,” said the man, breathing heavily, “I hate her more.”

“I take it it’s deeply personal for you then,” said Quentin, “Not merely a stifled ambition.”

“Something like that,” the man muttered.

“Well then!” said Quentin, “Might I get your name before I invite you to my little cabal?”

“...It’s Harry,” said the man, “Harry Osborn.”

“Oh… Osborn,” said Quentin, “I take it you go by Green Goblin.”

“How’d you–” Harry began.

“Your father exists in my dimension,” said Quentin, “Call me Mysterio.”

“ You’re Mysterio?” said Harry. “He’s some crazy theme park owner in my dimension.”

“Huh…” said Quentin, unsure how to respond to that information.

“Hey!” yelled the guard in heavily accented English, rapping his nightstick against the bars before yelling something in Japanese. 

Just at that moment, Quentin felt a warm sensation in his mouth and smiled. He got up from the bench and approached the guard. “Excuse me, sir,” he said, effortlessly slipping out of his handcuffs while keeping his hands behind his back. “I am TRYING..” He reached through the bars of the cell and grabbed the police officer by the throat. 

“TO HAVE…”

 He smashed the guard’s face into the bars. 

“A…” 

SLAM.  

“POLITE…” 

SLAM

“CONVERSATION!”

The guard fell to the ground, spitting up blood, and Quentin rushed over to Harry, quickly unlocking his cuffs with the key he grabbed off his body, only to be punched in the face by his newly freed comrade.

“Warn me before you pull shit like that again!” Harry yelled.

Quentin spat out his fake tooth, glowing orange in a wad of blood. Ignoring the attack, and the guards rushing in, he reached down and grabbed it, before grabbing Harry by the leg just as he heard the clicking of revolvers being cocked. He closed his eyes as the shouting filled the room and a warm sensation enveloped him.

He opened his eyes to find himself on the familiar floor of the bunker.

“Where… Where are we?” asked Harry.

“I see your end of the plan went well, eh, Octavius?” said Quentin, looking over at the scientist working on some machine.

“Of course it did,” said Octavius dismissively, “...You distracted the heroes for much longer than I anticipated.”

Accepting what he assumed was a compliment, he made his way over to Octavius, dragging Harry behind him. “On the way, I found another lost soul,” said Quentin, “And two who I think we would like to stay lost. This is Harry Osborn. He goes by the Green Goblin.”

At this, Octavius turned around and examined the young man. “Where did you get that suit?” he asked.

“Stole it from SHIELD,” said Harry.

“Tsk,” muttered Octavius, “Give me a few hours with it and I’ll make what you originally stole look like a children’s toy.”

“How the hell did we all get here?” asked Harry, “And those two Spiders?”

“ Two Spiders?” said Octavius. 

“Both children,” said Quentin, ignoring how he had technically been defeated by them. After all, he was only leading a diversion, right? “They’ll pose no true threat to us.”

“Don’t underestimate her,” said Harry.

“This… this is good,” said Octavius, “Once I finish repairing the machine, we can all return to our dimensions and strand them here.”

“I don’t want her stranded,” said Harry, “I want her dead.”

“Hmm…” muttered Octavius, “I was unsure how I wanted to utilize these… creatures.” He gestured with a robotic arm at the rows and rows of Nomu. “Now… I think I know for certain. Doctor Garaki had vision, but only so much. I feel as though I am Cortés, discovering a new land filled with gold, ripe for conquest. This world… it has so much opportunity, if only someone could seize it.”

“I must ask,” said Quentin, “What resource do you plan on exploiting here? What gold do these Aztecs have?”

“Flesh,” said Octavius, grinning sadistically, “Genes that provide them with extraordinary abilities. With this army of Nomu, no force in my dimension could stop me. If I took over this world, used its people to create an even larger army… no force in the multiverse could stop me. I see it clearly now, Mysterio. Countless dimensions, all ripe for the plucking.”

“What makes you think you could take this one?” asked Quentin, “You couldn’t conquer your own, and the only super-powered opposition you had then was Spider-Man.”

“Super-powered foes mean nothing to me,” said Octavius, turning back to work on the machine. “This land is weak. Its governments are merely facades erected to protect their precious heroes. And their technology is hopelessly, hopelessly outdated. Give me a few months to build weapons, and I swear to you, Japan will fall, and the world not long after it. Then I will be free to build my army in peace, no Spider-Man to get in my way. I can send both of you home. It will only take a day or two to restore the machine, or you can stay, and when the conquest is over, you can both have a world all to yourself.”

“Your offer is hard to refuse,” Quentin admitted.

“You’re insane,” said Harry, not an insult, just a fact, “I don’t want a world to myself. I just want her dead.”

“You, Mr. Osborn, are remarkably short-sighted,” said Octavius, “But I respect your dedication to your task. Join me and you can have her head on a spike.”

Harry nodded and offered his hand. 

A metallic tentacle shook it.

“Mysterio said you could fix the glitching,” said Harry.

“I have a… temporary solution,” said Octavius, as a syringe filled with a yellow fluid extended from a tentacle. Harry sighed before holding out his wrist, allowing the Doctor to plunge the needle into it. “This will prevent the glitching for up to twenty-four hours. Unfortunately, repeated injections will liquify one’s liver. I am currently developing a permanent solution.”

“You know…” Quentin wondered out loud, “The Spider-Man I fought over the park wasn’t glitching out.”

“Hmm…” muttered Octavius, “And neither was Doctor Conners. Speaking of which, I’ll need to track him down. Perhaps that… little creature at the school figured out a solution. His defenses were far better than the CIA’s. I think… I will need to take advantage of your services, Mysterio.”

A cold, deranged cackling filled the room, echoing off the metal walls of the bunker.

“I see you’re having a little shin-dig, Ocky,” the voice taunted, “You didn’t forget to invite me now, did ya?”

“ You ,” said Octavius, “How did you find me?”

Chapter Text

“Class, this is Felicia Hardy, hero name Black Cat, and Gwen Stacy, hero name Ghost-Spider,” said Aizawa, “They will also be staying with us indefinitely. Any questions?” Practically every hand from Class 2A rose into the air. “Well… too bad. It’s all classified. You are not to ask any of them why they are here. The consequences for asking will be grave. Am I understood?” Every hand immediately went down. “Good.”

Aizawa left the dormitory, leaving Izuku, Ochako, Miles, Gwen, and Felicia standing in front of a class with half their jaws hanging open.

“Would, um…” said Yaoyorozu, “Would you like me to show you to your rooms, Stacy and Hardy?”

The two interdimensional travellers looked at one another, before nodding.

“I’ll come with you!” offered Ochako, leading the two up the stairs, leaving Izuku and Miles standing side by side.

“So… um…” said Kaminari, stepping forward, “What the hell?”

___

After a few minutes of setting up with Yaoyorozu, who was kind enough to make her all the stuff she needed for her room with her truly mind-blowing Quirk, Gwen made her way down stairs into a common room that had seemed like it had returned to whatever normalcy she, Miles, and Felicia had shattered, just in time for–

“WOAH!” yelled a student with hair redder than MJ’s as he tripped, tossing his backpack into the air. Reacting quickly, Gwen caught the bag, held it open, and caught the pencil cases, notebooks, the calculator, and everything else that had fallen out in the process.

“...Holy crap,” said one of the students with long ears and purple hair, breaking the awe-filled quiet that fell upon the class, “You, uh, you have really good reflexes.”

“Thanks,” said Gwen, tossing the bag back to the red-haired kid, before spinning around and catching the pencil being chucked at the back of her head.

“You have no idea,” said Felicia, stepping down the stairs.

“Wait,” said the purple-haired student, “Can… Can you catch anything thrown at you?”

“Pretty much,” shrugged Gwen, tossing the pencil back at Felicia, turning around just in time to catch the couch cushion being thrown at her, “So can Miles, I think.”

“Hey!” called a tall student with blue hair, “These are our guests! No throwing things!”

One of the students with pink skin said something in Japanese, and the blue-haired student responded with something that sounded a lot like a lecture. 

“What are they saying?” she whispered to Felicia, who she recalled being able to speak Japanese.

“She suggested it would be a fun way to break the ice,” she explained, “He is lecturing her about how rude that is.”

Gwen grinend.

“Tell the class we need an open space and some blindfolds.”

___

<Are you guys sure about this?> asked Yaoyorozu, as she made both Gwen and Miles both put on blindfolds in the center of the common room.

<Eh,> shrugged Gwen, tying it behind her head, <What could go wrong?>

<A concussion,> grumbled Tenya.

<We all get expelled,> said Jirou.

<We’ll be fine ,> declared Miles, giving them a thumbs up.

The whole room started to get quiet as each member of Class 2A began circling their guests. Some of them carried soft foam balls, courtesy of Yaoyorozu, while others had picked up objects of various sizes from the room. Eventually, Kirishima took a deep breath, and took a step forward.

THUNK.

He threw the ball hard. Kirishima was one of the most naturally physically strong people in the class. Miles physically recoiled as he caught it, but he caught it nonetheless. 

Thunk.

Gwen caught the next ball, courtesy of Ashido. 

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. 

The floodgates opened as a flurry of balls from all directions followed. Some of his classmates began climbing on the furniture to throw stuff down at them, but Gwen and Miles caught everything easily. 

<C’mon, are you guys really trying?> taunted Miles, as he caught a banana thrown at him from Shoji, <Try and actually hit me!>

Oh, he wanted a challenge? 

He’d give him a challenge. 

Izuku activated One For All at 50% percent cocked his arm back, tightly gripping the foam ball.

BOOM.

It exploded into a million pieces as Miles accidentally activated his venom shock and blew it up.

“Uhh… Midoriya,” said Hakagure, “Shouldn’t you be in there with them?”

“What?” said Izuku, confused. Did she somehow know he was connected to them? How? How could she have–

“You can do the same thing with your Danger Sense, right?” Hakagure pointed out.

“Um… kind of?” said Izuku, “I don’t think it’s as fine tuned as their Spider-Sense.”

“Wait, Spider-Sense!?” laughed Kaminari, “That’s what they call it!?”

“C’mon, Midoriya!” said Kirishima, “Let’s see what you can do!”

“Yeah! Show those Americans what us UA students can do!” blurted out Sero.

<Uh… What’s going on?> asked Miles, raising his blindfold.

<I guess Midoriya’s gonna join you,> shrugged Jirou.

Izuku looked over at Kacchan and Ochako standing across the room, who scoffed and frowned respectively, before turning back to the rest of the class. They were staring at him with anticipation. He could sense their eagerness.

<...Fine,> said Izuku, stepping into the center of the room.

___

“Not bad,” said Miles, pulling off his blindfold as the class began to clean up the disaster the common room had become.

“Uch… Thanks,” said Izuku, rubbing his temples as he also removed his blindfold.

“Are you alright, Izuku?” asked Gwen.

“Yeah… it’s… Danger-Sense hurts when I use it too much,” Izuku grumbled, “Especially when I try to force it.”

“Your Danger-Sense?” said Gwen.

“It’s like your Spider-Sense,” Izuku mumbled, “It’s like getting stabbed in the head whenever I use it.”

“Jeez…” muttered Miles.

“Then… Why the hell did you join us?” asked Gwen.

“You guys were doing it,” shrugged Izuku, leaning down to pick up the scraps of foam on the ground beside him.

“Yeah, but my Spider-Sense feels like a little tingle,” explained Gwen, picking up a rubber ball from the ground, “I don’t have to force it. It just… happens. You shouldn’t hurt yourself over a game, Izuku.”

“It’s not that bad,” claimed Izuku, “I just need to lie down for a bit and I’ll be fine.” He smiled as he tossed the pieces of foam into the trash. “Besides, everyone had fun, right?”

“Hmm…” grumbled Gwen.

“Deku…” chided Uraraka, approaching the group.

“I’m fine, Ocha,” said Izuku.

She gave Izuku a look that gave him instant deju-vu to the looks his mother gave his father whenever she was upset but didn’t want to press. God, he hoped he’d be able to see that look from her again someday. He was trying to not think too much about how Doc Ock had stolen the machine and just maintain the blind faith that Nezu would figure out where it was. 

___

Felicia sneaked out of the common room just as the rest of the class decided they had had enough of throwing various things at the three Spider-People, not wanting to be roped into the clean-up. Felicia had always been social, but that had always been with the knowledge that she might need to take advantage of her classmates for some sort of personal gain. With these strangers, strangers who she’d hopefully never see again after a few days, it was hard to work up the motivation to make the effort of getting to know them. That Uraraka girl seemed nice enough, albeit extremely naive, but she had soured in her mind once she realized that Izuku Midoriya was the ‘Iz’ she had mentioned. He was this dimension’s Spider-Man, allegedly, and while she wouldn’t say she hated Spider-Men, she wasn’t exactly giddy at the prospect of getting close to one, even if it would be temporary by necessity. 

She made her way up the stairs and into the room she had been given, opening the door and–

“Goblin,” she growled, pouncing on the man in green armor sitting on her bed. How had he gotten in without setting off the alarms? He wasn’t wearing his helmet, at least. She’d scratch out his eyes and–

She phased right through him, landing on the opposite side of the bed.

“It’s a hologram,” Harry explained, pushing his hand through the wall for effect.

“What the hell do you want, Osborn?” asked Felicia.

“What the hell are you doing here,” said Harry, “You? At a school for heroes? Not exactly in character, Felicia.”

“Girl’s gotta keep a roof over herself somehow, Osborn,” said Felicia, “Now what do you want?”

“Hmm…” said Harry, “Well… I’ll cut to the chase, I need you to do something for me.”

“Not a chance,” said Felicia.

“What if I could offer you something in exchange?” said Harry.

“Oh please,” said Felicia, rolling her eyes, “What could you possibly have that I want?”

“You’re the best thief there is, Felicia,” said Harry, “I won’t deny that. But there is one thing I’m better at stealing than you are.”

“Government weapons?” said Felicia, “Not exactly my style, Osborn.”

“Not weapons,” said Harry, “Lives.” Felicia’s eyes widened. “You do what you do best for me, and once we get back home, I’ll do what I do best for you. I’ll give you Matt Murdock’s head on a spike.”

“Get out,” said Felicia.

“Neither of us are good people, Felicia,” Harry continued, “It’s who we are. You’re a thief, I’m a killer. But we both at least know that there are people out there much, much worse. People that took from us. People who tore out our hearts. And that… that gives us the chance to set one thing right in our miserable lives. I don’t blame Ghost-Spider for not accepting her fate. It’s human nature. She deserves what’s coming to her, but I can’t say I wouldn’t fight back if someone came after me for something I deserved. But Murdock? Murdock deserved everything you tried to do to him. He might have killed more people than I have. And she protected him. What kind of hero does that, Felicia? She not only did evil, she prevented you from doing one good thing before you’re damned for eternity.”

“Get. Out,” ordered Felicia.

“Fine,” said Harry, “But if you decide to do the right thing, you know how to contact me.”

The hologram disappeared, and Felicia picked up the small, black device sitting on the ground in front of her bed. She stared at it for a few seconds. It was so fragile. She could crush it to pieces with just a tight squeeze.

She placed it in her pocket and opened the window, ready to jump out when–

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

“MISS HARDY!” the voice from the other side of the door called, “AS 2-A CLASS PRESIDENT, IT WOULD BE MY HONOR TO OFFER YOU A TOUR OF THE CAMPUS!”

___

“Hey… Stacy,” the girl with the auburn bob cut. Uraraka, her mind supplied. “I… I just wanted to let you know I was sorry to hear about Spider-Man.”

“Excuse me?” said Gwen.

“Deku, he… he told me about how he passed away a few months ago,” Uraraka explained, “I know… I know Aizawa said not to ask, so I won’t, but… I just wanted to let you know I was sorry.”

“...Thanks,” said Gwen, not really sure what to say. 

What the hell was she talking about? She knew that Peter B. had shown up here a few months ago, but he was still alive, as far as either of them knew. Did she know about other dimensions too, somehow? Did Nezu create some elaborate lie about his death to prevent students from asking about him? Or… maybe… 

Oh, right.

She was talking about Miles’s Peter.

Izuku had said something about it earlier. And Nezu had said something about Doctor Conners being the Lizard. Could that be Miles’s Doctor Conners? 

However she heard about it, hearing about the death of Peter Parker still hurt, even if it wasn’t her Peter. She still felt the hole in her heart he left every day of her life. Miles had been the only person to come at all close to filling it, even if it was only for a scant few hours. But she was fine with that. She’d rather live her life with a broken heart than have it fixed only to break again over and over again.

“Me, Izuku, and Iida wanted to know if you and Hardy got a tour of the campus yet,” she said.

Gwen shook her head.

“Would… Would you like one?” Uraraka offered.

“Sure,” shrugged Gwen, playing it cool. But deep down, she had to admit she was giddy at the idea of getting to see a school for heroes. 

“Great!” said Uraraka, “Iida’s getting Hardy!”

___

“Jesus…” muttered Gwen, “How many fake cities does this place have?”

“Just the one,” explained Iida, “After the war began, we didn’t have the budget to maintain several fake cities, so the Principal just decided to just expand Training Ground Beta.”

“War?” said Felicia, raising an eyebrow. 

“It’s… a long story,” whispered Izuku. 

“Do… Do you mind if I try it out?” asked Gwen.

“Try it out?” said Iida.

“Sure!” said Uraraka.

“Now, hold on, I think–” Iida began.

“Come on, Iida,” said Uraraka, “Stacy is our guest! It would be rude to deny her access to training facilities.”

“Yes, but…” Iida mumbled.

“I can join her,” Izuku offered.

“Cool!” said Gwen, shooting a web into the nearest building, “See ya!”

“Wait! I haven’t gotten official clearance for you to–” 

Iida’s voice gradually faded away as Gwen began swinging through the city. There was something uncanny about the whole thing. She had swung through an empty city before, but never in daylight. A few minutes later, Izuku finally caught up with her, swinging on his black ropes.

“Cool place!” she yelled, speaking over the wind in her face, “The smell’s wrong, but still!”

“The… smell?” said Izuku.

“Yeah! Too clean!” said Gwen, “It smells fake. Real cities don’t smell like this. At least… New York doesn’t.”

“What… What does New York smell like?” asked Izuku.

“Uch, don’t make me ruin your innocence,” said Gwen, swinging herself onto a rooftop, “So… you really learned to be a hero here?”

“Yeah!” said Izuku, “UA’s the best hero school in the country!”

Gwen sighed. “You’re lucky, you know that?”

“I know,” nodded Izuku, “I think about what would have happened every day if I didn’t meet All Might.”

“No, not that!” said Gwen, “I mean… that too, but I mean having all this. You’re lucky you didn’t have to figure everything out by yourself.”

“Oh…” said Izuku, looking down at the ground, “You… You really had to figure it all out yourself?”

“Pretty much,” shrugged Gwen, “So did Miles, for the most part. And Peter. Not a whole lot of guys running around in spandex to learn from.”

“I… I thought Peter trained Miles,” said Izuku.

Gwen shook her head. “For a day or two, maybe,” she explained, “But the Miles you see today, he’s taught himself everything he knows, as far as I can tell.”

“Seriously?” said Izuku.

“There didn’t seem to be anyone else in his dimension who could have taught them,” said Gwen, taking a seat on the ledge of the building, “Maybe Aunt May gave him a few pointers here and there, but I don’t think there are any other heroes there. There weren’t any in mine.”

“He really taught himself,” Izuku mumbled, “He fought me to a standstill, you know.”

“Is that so surprising?” said Gwen, raising an eyebrow. There were clearly some deeper emotions behind that statement. She didn’t peg Izuku as the vain type, but what else could it be aside from ego?

“No,” sighed Izuku, sitting down next to her, “He’s amazing.

“Alright, spill,” said Gwen, “What is it? Are you jealous? Cause he can turn invisible and shoot lightning?”

“What? No!” said Izuku.

“Then what are you upset about?” said Gwen.

“I’m not–”

“Look, I don’t exactly… like people,” said Gwen, “Miles is one of the few that I do. So if you’ve got a problem with him–”

“I feel ashamed!” Izuku admitted.

“...What?” said Gwen.

“I feel ashamed,” Izuku mumbled, “He’s been a hero half as long as me and he’s so much better.”

“...I thought you said you fought to a standstill,” said Gwen.

“Exactly!” said Izuku, “I’ve been trained! And…”

“And?” Gwen prodded.

“And… this is all I am,” Izuku confessed, “For… For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be a hero, Gwen. I’ve dedicated myself to this. I… I nearly trained myself to death. I’ve broken every bone in my body for this! But Miles, he… he’s better than me. He can see things more clearly. And he wants to go to college to study astrophysics. He’s an artist. A good one! And… I could have had that… If I wanted to, I could have.”

“...Is there really nothing, Izuku?” asked Gwen, “Think about it. Is there nothing else?”

“There… there is her,” said Izuku.

“Her?” said Gwen.

“Ochako,” whispered Izuku, “And I only built up the nerve to ask her out because of Parker.”

“Well…” said Gwen, “I don’t blame you. Miles is… amazing. I think… you and I were in a similar boat, Izuku. Like I said, I don’t exactly like people. I lost my best friend not long after I put on the mask, and then the only other person who I didn’t hate spending time with blamed me and tried to kill me over it.”

“That’s… That’s rough,” said Izuku.

Gwen snorted. “Yeah, it was,” she said, “And… I threw myself into being a hero. I was out there every day after school and every night till dawn. I think… part of me hoped some thug with a gun would get lucky, if I’m being honest. But I… I got to a better place, I think.”

“How… How did you do it?” Izuku asked.

“I… I just took things one day at a time, I guess,” said Gwen, “I started playing music again. I… I think that helped a lot. I joined a band. Started… spending time with some people again. I… I kind of made friends again.”

“I don’t know how to play music,” mumbled Izuku, “I… I don’t really have any hobbies.”

“Well… it’s never too late to learn something new, Izuku,” said Gwen, “And it seems like you’re probably in a better spot than I am. You at least have friends here at UA.”

“...Thanks, Gwen,” said Izuku, “Um… What is it that you play?”

“Drums, why?” answered Gwen.

___

“So… how do you like campus?” asked Ochako, as she and… Hardy sat down at a table in the cafeteria.

“It’s… nice, I guess,” shrugged Hardy, staring out the window.

“Well, I should be going,” said Iida, looking down at his watch, “My patrol starts in half an hour.”

“See ya, Iida!” said Ochako. The two watched in silence as the navy-haired man jogged down the hall, leaving the two alone in the empty cafeteria, before Ochako turned back toward Hardy. “I’ve been meaning to ask, you speak Japanese, English, and French, right?” Felicia nodded. “You said you were from New York and you’ve got a French accent, so the first two make sense, but why did you learn Japanese?”

“I know a lot of languages,” shrugged Hardy.

“How many?” asked Ochako.

“Those three, plus Mandarin, Spanish, Italian,” said Hardy, “I know some basic Russian, some German, and enough Greek and Turkish to get by.”

“Jeez…” mumbled Ochako, “How did you end up learning so many?”

“Me and my father, we… we moved around a lot when I was younger,” Hardy explained, “And wherever we lived, even if it was for a few months, he… he… he always tried to make sure I learned some of the language.”

“What did he do that made him move around so much?” she asked. The idea of living in so many countries sounded insane to Ochako. Then again, she still hadn’t entirely gotten used to living in a medium sized city like Musutafu. Some people were just country girls at heart, she supposed.

“He… was an art collector,” said Hardy.

“Really? That must be an amazing job!” said Ochako, “What museum did he work for?”

“He worked for… various… private collectors,” said Hardy.

“That’s way cooler than what my dad does,” said Ochako, “He just runs a construction company. What country is he in now?”

“He’s dead,” said Hardy, staring out the window.

Ochako grimaced, looking down at the table in embarrassment. “Can… Can I ask how?”

“He was shot,” said Hardy, “A… A mobster in New York wanted to buy a piece from his… collection. He said no. The mobster didn’t take it too well.”

“Oh…” she whispered.

“He’s still out there,” Hardy continued, “The one who did it. They managed to bust his boss and they had him in a cell, but he escaped. Nobody’s seen him in months.”

“I’m so sorry, Hardy,” said Ochako.

“Why?” sneered Hardy, rolling her eyes, “It’s not like you had anything to do with it. Blame the New York Police Department and… and…”

“And?” Ochako pushed.

“Her,” growled Hardy.

“Who?” Ochako pushed. 

No response. 

She thought about it for a few moments, and one name came to mind. 

“...Gwen?”

Hardy stared at her, eyes filled with sorrow, rage, and hints of tears. She nodded. “I was going to get the bastard myself,” she said, “But I let her talk me into letting the police handle it. She convinced me that it would be better if the world could see that bastard for who he was. And she let him get away.”

“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” said Ochako, “But… I’m sure Gwen is beating herself up over it.”

“Why?” Hardy sneered again, “Why would she give a shit about a broken promise? She wants to save people. Fine. Maybe she’s upset that a killer is on the loose. But if she gave a damn about me, she would have let me take care of it.”

“I… I don’t know Gwen very well,” admitted Ochako, “But… people can care, Hardy, even if they have no reason to. I mean… that’s why we’re all here, right?”

“Is it?” spat Hardy, raising an eyebrow, “So I can only assume you people aren’t getting paid for this, right?”

Ochako grimaced, recalling her confession to Izuku and Iida about wanting to give her parents a better life. “We are,” she conceded.

“Uh huh, how am I not surprised?” said Hardy, rolling her eyes. 

“That’s fair,” said Ochako, reaching into her pocket, “And I won’t lie and say we deserve money for doing the right thing. It’s… hard to think about, sometimes. The money mattered… matters a lot to me. I… I didn’t grow up with money. I never got to travel outside my hometown very much. You got to travel the world, I’ve only left Japan once in my life. I won’t pretend the paycheck didn’t affect my choice to be a hero. But that doesn’t mean we don’t genuinely care. Look at this.”

Hardy looked down at her phone as Ochako pressed play. Her look changed from one of scorn to shock, horror, and confusion as she watched the glacier shatter along with Izuku’s arm. It was his match with Todoroki from the first Sports Festival. ‘It’s your power!’ he cried, ‘Not his!’  

“What… What the hell is this?” she asked.

“I think… that was when I fell in love with Izuku Midoriya,” Ochako explained, “Todoroki, the guy with the white and red hair, he… he didn’t have a great childhood. He hated his power. Half of it, at least. I won’t explain why, because it’s personal, but when Izuku found out, he… he… he did that to himself. He broke himself, over and over, to get Todoroki to use his powers. Because he cared. They weren’t friends. Winning that tournament would have been great for Izuku’s career. But he forced Todoroki to use his powers. He forced him to try and win. Because he cared. Even when he shouldn’t. That’s… That’s the essence of being a hero.”

Hardy continued to look down at the phone, not saying a word.

“I… I don’t know Gwen Stacy very well,” admitted Ochako, “But she’s a hero. One who went out of her way to stop you from getting yourself killed trying to take down the man who killed your father. That means something, doesn’t it? That she cares about you enough to stop you from throwing your life away?”

Hardy finally looked back up at her. “I never asked for her to care,” she said, getting up from the table, “I never asked anyone to care. Even if she was beating herself up over it like you claim, why does that matter? Just because you emotionally self-flagellate yourself over your sins doesn't mean you’re absolved from them. Murdock is out there, and he wouldn’t be if Gwen hadn’t butted in and let me handle things myself. It’s all fun and games when your boyfriend hurts himself to save a friend, but what about when he hurts someone else and nobody gets saved? Is he still a hero then, Ochako?”

Ochako gazed into her eyes, so full of hate. “It doesn’t make him a villain,” she said.

Hardy turned around and walked out of the cafeteria.

___

“...Holy crap,” Gwen muttered, as Izuku opened the door to the dorm room. The room wasn’t much like she expected. It was pretty tidy and there was quite a bit of hero merch everywhere, but the walls were covered with band posters for what looked like Death Metal bands. She had only known Izuku for a few hours, but he seemed like a generally wholesome person. A bit of a cinnamon roll, to be honest. “I didn’t picture you as a metal-head, Izuku.”

“Oh, uh… this isn’t my room,” Izuku explained, “It’s Kacc–Katsuki Bakugo’s.”

“How’d you get in then?” she asked.

“He doesn’t lock his door,” Izuku explained.

“...Isn’t he worried someone might steal his stuff?” asked Miles, trailing in after them.

 “Oh, everyone is waayyyy too scared of him to go in his room,” explained Izuku.

“Except you?” asked Gwen.

Izuku shook his head as he made his way over to the closet. “I’m… I’m just hoping when he sees what I’m doing, he’ll be too distracted to blow me up,” he explained, opening the closet door. “Ah, here they are.”

Izuku reached into the closet and pulled out…

“Woah…” said Gwen, admiring the snare drum in his hands, “That’s some nice hardware.”

“I think he got these ones right after he was kidnapped,” said Izuku nonchalantly, “But he’s been playing ever since he was a kid.”

“Do you think he’ll mind if I try ‘em out?” she asked, taking the snare from his hands, “These ones are so much nicer than mine.”

“Probably,” said Izuku, a smirk appearing on his face, “But I know how to deal with him.”

It took a few minutes of assembly, but eventually, they got the drumset ready and Gwen sat down on the stool. She took a deep breath, and…

She went into that place again. The pops of color in her mind exploded into the air as the wood of the stick hit the plastic batter head. She thought. She felt. About the joy of seeing Miles. About her fear over Felicia. Her confusion at showing up in another dimension, again. About her sadness over Peter, once again rearing its ugly head. Everything. Anything. She thought and she struck and she thought and she struck until…

“OI!” an angry voice yelled as the door was kicked open. Gwen stopped playing as the blond, presumably Bakugo yelled something in Japanese before switching back to English. “What the hell are you all doing in my room!? I swear, I don’t care where the hell–”

“Hi Kacchan!” Izuku interrupted, “Gwen mentioned she played drums, so I told her you did too and she said there was no way you were better than her!”

“WHAT!?!?” screamed Bakugo.

“Yeah!” said Izuku, “So I asked if I could hear her play, and we didn’t want to bother Yaoyorozu with making new ones we’d only use once, and we couldn’t find Jirou, so–”

“GET OFF THE DAMN STOOL!” yelled Bakugo. Her Spider-Senses tingling mildly, Gwen quickly complained. The angry blond snatched the drumsticks from her hands and sat down on the stool before–

Alright…

He was pretty good, she would concede that.

But she was better. She was sure of it.

___

“Aizawa, please come down to my office,” Nezu’s voice buzzed over the intercom.

“Uch…” grumbled Shouta, turning around just as he was about to step into his room. It was one in the morning. What the hell could he want now? And for once in his life, Shouta was pretty sure he needed it. The past few days had exhausted him. First they finally take down Garaki, then Spider-Man’s protege from another dimension arrives, then Garaki gets killed, then villains from that dimension show up, then a Ghost-Spider, and to top it all off, UA gets attacked.

But bearing it all with his stoic, slightly grumbly resolve, he made his way down the stairs of the teacher’s dorm, through the halls, and toward Nezu’s office. Hmm. That was odd. His boss was standing outside the door, drinking a cup of tea. Nezu always liked to await them inside his office, and he never greeted anyone with his back turned toward them.

“Ah, good, you’re here,” said Nezu, staring into his office.

“What’s so important that you felt the need to call me in the middle of the night?” asked Shouta, continuing to approach.

Nezu said nothing, simply taking another sip of tea as Shouta got closer and closer. 

Hmm… 

It looked like the door was open, from this angle.

Nezu never left his door–

Oh, shit.

He looked inside the open door, now realizing what just happened. The office had been ransacked. File cabinets turned over, papers scattered everywhere, and the computer monitor that sat on his desk was lying on the floor.

“At least she spared my tea set,” said Nezu.

“She?” said Shouta.

“First thing in the morning, I want you to wake our guests and Izuku Midoriya and have them come to my office,” said Nezu, “Ochako Uraraka as well, I think. Felicia Hardy is on the loose.”

Chapter Text

“You… You’re serious…” stuttered Ochako.

“I’m afraid so,” said Nezu, “That’s twice in twenty-four hours, villains have bypassed UA defenses. I can somewhat understand Doctor… Octavius, yes?” Miles nodded. “I can understand a man from a dimension with superior technology managing to do so, but it appears I have gravely underestimated Miss Hardy’s skills as a thief. Even if she had been collaborating with Octavius, I have plenty of analog defense measures set up in my office in the event that we were hacked.”

“She’s always been lucky,” grimaced Gwen.

“She must be for all my traps not to activate,” said Nezu, examining the inside of a filing cabinet.

“I’m serious,” said Gwen, “That’s her superpower.”

“...Not the retractable claws?” asked Nezu.

“Wait, she has powers?” said Miles, “The one in my dimension doesn’t.”

“The claws are an implant,” Gwen explained, “Her actual superpower is manipulating probability. She told me she was breaking into a lab that was running an experiment on that kind of stuff and accidentally got caught in the middle of it. Instead of waking up with severe brain damage, she got superpowers. It’s impossible to chase her without slipping on something or tripping or some piece of equipment breaking.”

“So… she’s naturally Quirkless?” said Ochako, raising an eyebrow.

“It’s… a long story,” said Nezu, “But you’ve spent the most time with her out of everyone over the past few days. Do you have any idea what she might be doing? Where might she be going?”

“I… I… New York, maybe?” Ochako suggested, “She could be going anywhere.”

“Hmm…” said Nezu, “Thank you, Miss Uraraka, you’re free to go.”

“But I–” Ochako began.

“Thank you, Miss Uraraka,” said Nezu, “You are free to leave.”

“Is she going to be alright?” asked Ochako, refusing to do so.

“I don’t know,” said Nezu, “But I can assure you that you will be informed of any progress in the case.”

Ochako looked over at Izuku, then at Gwen, then at Miles, before sighing and leaving the three of them alone with Nezu and Aizawa.

“Do you think she might be trying to head back to New York?” said Izuku, “I know it’s not… her New York, but it might still feel like home to her.”

“It would explain why she fled, but not why she robbed my office,” said Nezu, sitting down behind his desk.

“Money?” suggested Miles, “Maybe she was trying to steal enough to get a plane ticket.”

“Some of my security measures failed due to what I can only assume is her power, but most were manually disabled,” said Nezu, “This office simply doesn’t have enough money to justify the effort.”

“And knowing Felicia, it wouldn’t be hard for her to find a more profitable target,” Gwen added.

“There’s only one thing in this office that she couldn’t get anywhere else that would also be of value to her,” said Nezu, typing into his computer, “And… Yes, it appears she took it. She covered her tracks well, but I can tell she made a copy of my research on interdimensional travel.”

“Why would she want that?” asked Gwen, “Felicia’s smart, but she’s not ‘build a new dimensional portal smart.’ And it’s not like she could build a new one faster than you guys could, even if she stole enough to hire someone smart enough.”

“No, but Doc Ock probably is,” Miles pointed out, “The one in my dimension built the original super-collider. I bet this one could repair Garaki’s machine.”

“But how would she know where to find this… Doctor Octavius?” asked Izuku, “If… he’s anything like All For One, and… I mean… considering how he got here, he must be, he must be well hidden.”

“If he bypassed UA’s defenses once, he could probably do it again,” said Gwen.

“You think he reached out to Gwen?” asked Miles.

“Why not?” shrugged Gwen.

“He did not,” asserted Nezu.

“...Why not?” asked Gwen.

“Because he would have had Mr. Osborn reach out in his stead,” said Nezu. The three stared at him in shock and confusion. “Both he and Mr. Beck escaped from prison shortly after arriving there. They both disappeared. The camera footage glitched out when it happened. I imagine Octvius had gotten a start repairing the machine and restored its original purpose of teleporting people.”

“And you didn’t think to tell us!?” yelled Gwen, slamming her fist down on Nezu’s desk.

“It would have been pointless,” claimed Nezu, “Neither you nor Miles have the capacity to track him down. That isn’t an insult to your investigative skills, but a fact. You are both operating in a foreign country where you do not know the language. I couldn’t take the risk of either of you going vigilante, as you both are clearly prone to do, and getting captured. Our best hope of getting rid of these invasive villains was to allow their unstable molecules to rip themselves apart.”

“You… You were just going to let them die?” said Izuku.

“Of course not,” said Nezu, “I was attempting to track them down. I was developing the technology needed to trace the energy signature of Garaki’s machine when Miss Hardy burglarized my office. Once it was ready and I knew where they were, we would have brought them into custody. But until they are in prison, I feel no great desire to prevent them from… ‘glitching’ themselves to death.”

The three Spiders stood there in silence, Gwen fuming, Izuku shaking, and Miles deeply conflicted, until Miles finally broke the silence.

“Do you think that’s what Octavius wanted from your office?” asked Miles, “A way to stop the glitching.”

“It very well could be,” said Nezu, “But regardless of what he wanted, without the machine being active, I have no way to trace them. Your stay in this dimension might be even more indefinite than planned, I’m afraid.”

“What… What about the wristbands?” said Izuku.

“What about them?” said Nezu.

“Well… Felicia Hardy must be wearing one, right?” said Izuku. The three all nodded. “I don’t really… understand the science of what’s happening, but is there a way you could just… y’know, trace that?”

“...It would take a lot of energy to stabilize an entire person’s molecular structure in this dimension,” said Miles.

“And there’s no way Hardy would trust someone enough to take it off,” added Gwen, “So if Hardy is wherever Octavius is…”

“Call Hound Dog,” Nezu ordered, looking toward Aizawa, “Tell him we have a new energy signature to trace with the machine.” Aizawa nodded and left the room. “And you three… suit up. The raid will be as soon as possible.”

___

“Not bad, Hardy,” said Harry, as he and Felicia leaned against the wall, watching Octavius at work. She felt a bit naked without her wristband, but Ock had assured her he would only need it for a few minutes to copy its schematics and cover up any potential energy signatures. “I knew you had it in you.”

“Wasn’t that hard,” shrugged Felicia, “I see you fixed up your suit.”

“The doc gave me a few upgrades,” smirked Harry, “Gotta say, this one is way uglier than ours, but he definitely knows his stuff. I’m sure if you asked nicely, he’d fix up your claws or something.”

“I’m good,” said Felicia, extending her claws, “You may trust him to fix up your suit, but… I don’t exactly trust him to do surgery on me.”

“Fair enough,” shrugged Harry.

“What exactly is he planning to do here, Harry?” asked Felicia.

“Well… once he gets the portal working again, he’s going to get some equipment from his lab back in his dimension,” Harry explained, “Some… gene editing machine, I don’t really get the specifics. He said he needed it to start making more of these.” He gestured to the rows and rows of genetically engineered monsters behind Doc Ock. “Then once his operation is up and running, we kill Ghost-Spider, you and I get to go home, then I help you kill Murdock.”

“And… what is he going to do after we’re home?” asked Felicia.

“Interdimensional conquest, I guess,” shrugged Harry. “He said he wanted to use the people here to make more of those Nomus, and then use those Nomu to conquer other dimensions. I don’t really give a shit, to be honest. I just want Ghost-Spider dead.”

Felicia grimaced. This wasn’t exactly what she had signed up for. She didn’t even care that much about getting Harry to help kill Murdock. She just wanted to go home. Other dimensions, hero schools, another version of her existing, other Spider-Men, genetically engineered monsters, it was all too much. She was a thief. She stole things that were shiny because she liked shiny things. That’s all she wanted to be in life. That’s all she–

“Damn it!” yelled Doc Ock, turning away from his work bench. A holographic screen appeared mid-air, depicting men in costumes and police uniforms in the middle of the forest. “They’ve found us. Most of the Nomu upgrades are incomplete, and the lunatic is occupied stealing those files from the HPSC. I need time to calibrate the teleporter to make our escape. Mysterio, Goblin, buy us some time.”

“Why the hell did you even send him, Doc?” asked Harry, putting on his helmet and summoning his glider to him, “You said you wanted discretion, right?”

“He might claim to be chaos incarnate, but he doesn’t realize how predictable he is,” said Ock, typing into a holographic keyboard. “He at least is able to delay his bloodlust in exchange for a promise of future… victims. Now get out there and stall, Goblin.”

“Aye aye, Captain,” said Harry, mock saluting as he jumped on his glider.

“What about me?” Felicia asked.

“You are to stay here,” said Ock, tentacle reaching out to grab something from his workbench, “I have a very specific task for you.” The tentacle retracted and deposited something in front of Felicia. Some kind of…

“Is this a detonator?” she asked, hesitantly picking it up.

“No,” said Ock, “I need to make two calibrations on the teleporter. One to teleport us and the not-yet-completed Nomu out of here, and one to teleport our secret weapon here. As you can imagine, one of those calibrations is much, much simpler than the other. There’s a small red light on that button, which will turn on when fully calibrated. If Goblin and Mysterio cannot stall and the heroes breach the bunker before I finish preparing the teleporter, push that button immediately.”

“This secret weapon…” said Felicia, “Are you sure it’ll be enough?”

“Oh, trust me, Miss Hardy,” said Ock, grinning maniacally, “Escape may be unnecessary after he shows up. There may not even be a police force to arrest us.”

___

“Be careful,” warned the police officer in the trench coat, as the SWAT and heroes spread out in the forest surrounding the abandoned village. Tsukauchi, he recalled. Including Miles and Gwen, there was also a mountain of a man with a flaming moustache (which… how?), some guy dressed like a ninja, and a few students from Class 2A, Shoji, Tokoyami, and Kirishima. “We have very little idea what we’re going against.”

“This is weird,” whispered Gwen.

“...Yeah, I know,” said Miles, “Not every day you’re in another dimension.”

“No, I mean… being around so many cops, it’s… It’s weird,” said Gwen, “It makes me kind of uncomfortable.”

Oh right. He sometimes forgot about how Peter Parker had once been a target for the police in his dimension when he was first starting out. And Gwen wasn’t replacing a Spider-Man who was already on good terms with the NYPD, like he was.

“Team A is ready,” Tsukauchi muttered into the radio.

“B is ready.” 

“C is ready.”

“Alright,” said Tsukauchi, “Team A, let’s–”

“Get down!” yelled Miles, tackling the officer to the ground as a laser sliced the tree in front of him in half.

“They know we’re here!” Tsukauchi yelled into the radio, as another laser struck the ground beside them.

“Spider-Man, c’mon!” yelled Gwen, leaping into the trees. Miles quickly followed her, and soon they spotted the figure floating high in the sky, a black dot shooting green lasers down at the ground. “What do you think, Goblin or Mysterio?”

“Mysterio never fired lasers like this,” said Miles.

“Neither has Goblin,” said Gwen.

“Looks like Ock gave them some upgrades,” said Miles.

Just then, another figure shot up from the ground. The black dot in the sky fired another green laser that filled the air with dust, but the figure dodged. Black lines soon shot out of the figure, causing both Miles and Gwen to realize who it was, which wrapped around the black dot, flinging it right toward them. 

“It’s Goblin,” Gwen observed.

Goblin was soon able to recover, however, as he recalled his glider and resumed stability. But Miles and Gwen were soon upon him, both firing webs into his armor and pulling themselves up toward him. Before the villain could react, the two launched themselves at him, punching simultaneously and sending him tumbling to the ground. 

“Of course you had to show up,” growled Goblin, pulling himself to his feet.

“New suit,” Gwen observed.

“Well, I’ve been going at this job for months with the same tools and they haven’t worked,” chuckled Goblin, cracking his knuckles, “You know what Einstein said about insanity, right? I figure it’s time to try something different.”

“I don’t suppose you’re gonna come quietly, Goblin,” said Miles, “You’re, uh, kinda surrounded. This forest is crawling with heroes and police.”

“Couldn’t take me down yourselves so you decided to get help?” Goblin sneered.

“Hey, if you wanted to go mono a… goblin a spider, we could have worked this out,” Gwen claimed, “You’re the one who decided to become buddy-buddy with Ock and Mysterio.”

“And Felicia,” added Goblin. Gwen frowned. “Heh… C’mon, Spidey, don’t tell me you actually trusted her?”

“Enough,” said Gwen, rushing at the Goblin with her fist pulled back. The Goblin easily dodged the first swing and responded with a glowing green fist of his own that Gwen dodged in turn. The two both ducked to the ground moments later as Goblin fired a laser from his shoulder. Gwen quickly rushed to his feet and continued her attack, the Green Goblin easily dodging her attacks before blasting her in the chest with a laser. Miles just watched in silence. There was something… off about this, and he wasn’t quite sure what. He had listened to Gwen's description of Osborn. He didn’t seem like the one to taunt, at least… not like that. Gwen had called him angry, above all. He guilted Gwen; he didn’t taunt her. 

Maybe…

Miles formed a ball of webbing in his hand as Gwen recovered from the attack, before chucking it at Green Goblin’s foot. As expected, the villain dodged easily, but Miles noticed what he hoped to notice: there was no dirt on his leg. ‘Goblin’ quickly responded to his attack, firing a laser that Miles easily dodged before rushing at the villain with his venom shock and camouflage active.

As he suspected, the ‘Goblin’ turned away from him and back toward Gwen. It didn’t bother dodging as Miles jabbed his electrified hand right through the drone’s holographic facade, shorting it out and revealing the electronics underneath. Gwen looked down at the electronic mess and then back at Miles before sighing.

“Mysterio,” she said.

“Freakin’ Mysterio,” Miles repeated.

“What the hell was that?” asked Tsukauchi, as he approached from behind.

“It’s a drone,” Gwen explained.

“With a hologram,” Miles added, “You should radio the other two teams. Let ‘em know what they’re up against.”

“Got it,” said Tsukauchi, pulling out his radio. He held it up to his face to speak into it, but quickly recoiled as static filled the air. “Damn it. They’re jamming it.”

“Must be Ock,” said Miles.

“At least we know we’re in the right place,” said Gwen,

“We’ll have to just advance and hope the other teams follow,” grumbled Tsukauchi.

“You said these were drones, correct?” the tall man with the flaming mustache asked, stepping through the woods. Both Gwen and Miles nodded. “Good. That means I don’t need to hold back.”

Everyone surrounding the hero instantly recoiled from the heat as a flash of light filled the air. A moment later, Miles looked up in the sky to find a smoking hunk of metal falling to the ground near where Izuku flew.

“Whew,” Gwen whistled as she and Miles began swinging through the forest, easily outpacing the rest of the heroes and police backing them up. He heard Tsukauchi yell something in Japanese, but Miles couldn’t hear it. “I can’t believe how much it sucks living in a dimension without backup.”

“Hey, at least there aren’t as many super villains,” Miles pointed out, “Could you imagine if every purse snatcher had super strength or could shoot lasers out of their eyes?”

“Good point,” conceded Gwen, as the two swung to the side to dodge another laser. “More drones!”

Another fake Goblin slammed into the ground in between them, firing lasers out of both hands that the two Spiders easily dodged, before Miles again reactivated his camouflage. As he predicted, the drone immediately turned away from Miles and focused entirely on Gwen. Mysterio must have put these together in a rush and not bothered to give them thermal vision or a sonar or anything beyond a basic sonar. Stepping around the twigs and stones that littered the forest floor to not give away his location, Miles approached the drone before jabbing his electrified hand through where its head was, and again it fell to the ground in a dead heap. 

“C’mere,” said Gwen, swinging up to the tree line. Miles followed her, and the two climbed through the branches and leaves till they were looking up at the open sky.

“Holy crap,” muttered Miles.

It was a beautiful day out. Sunny, no clouds, nice and warm. All was calm.

Except for, y’know, the dozen or so drones in the sky raining hell down upon them. Izuku was fighting off two in the distance while the exploding figure he presumed was Bakugou was fighting off another. The sky was a mixture of volleys of green lasers blasting down at the heroes and red and orange flames retorting. Miles had never fought Mysterio before a few days ago, but he knew from Aunt May’s stories how tricky he usually was, especially when he had time to prepare. And if Mysterio combined his holographic drones with Doc Ock’s weapons… 

This was going to be painful. 

“We gotta keep going,” declared Miles, “Nobody else here has a tingling in their head that tells ‘em to dodge lasers from the sky. Let’s get down into that bunker and put a stop to this.”

“I don’t know, Miles,” said Gwen, “We’re heading into their lair and we know nothing about what’s inside. And I’ve fought Mysterio before. There’s usually not some big red ‘shut off all the drones’ button sitting around somewhere. If we go in by ourselves, backup might not arrive faster than if–”

Both of them froze as they watched what appeared to be a trapdoor in the middle of the abandoned village, and a Goblin drone flew out. Immediately, the two jumped down from the treetops and approached the now-sealed panel.  Wordlessly, Gwen reached down and pressed her hands flat against where the door was, and Miles quickly followed,

“Alright,” Gwen began, “One… two… three!”

With only an ounce of resistance, the metal panel gave way, and the two fell backwards with the panel still stuck to their hands, only for them both to dodge it and roll to the side as another Goblin drone sliced it in half with a laser. Without missing a beat, Miles activated his camouflage and again charged at it with an electrified fist.

“That won’t work on me!” Goblin shouted as he caught Miles’s fist. Before he could react, Goblin threw Miles over his shoulder and slammed him into the ground, raising a glowing green hand over his face. “Mysterio’s drones might not have infrared vision, but I do. I’ve been watching their camera feeds. I know all your little tricks, Spider- Man .” 

Miles struggled in vain against Goblin’s robotic grip as the laser powered up, but before he could fire it, the Green Goblin was forced back as Gwen kicked him in the helmet. Not hesitating for a moment, Miles rose to his feet and again charged at him as he tangled with Gwen, leaping over the armored man and punching him in the back of the head seconds after Gwen elbowed him in the gut.

“ You ,” spat the Goblin, turning around as he rose from his knees. The two heroes both leapt to the sides as he fired lasers from both hands, but before Miles landed, the Goblin rolled a flashing green orb right where he was about to touch ground. The Spider-Man of Earth 1611 braced himself. He knew it was too late to dodge what came next.

BOOM.

“You’re a goddamn pest, that’s what you are,” said Goblin, approaching Miles as he tried to recover. “I don’t know you.” Gwen, seeing his predicament, charged at the Goblin, but before she could stop him, a cannon extended from his shoulder and began shooting rapid-fire lasers at her, forcing her back on the defense as she ducked and weaved through the hail of plasma. “But you’re like her. So, who was it?” A kick to the chest sent Miles sprawling across the ground. “Which good man you killed through your ego and negligence?” Miles attempted to rise only for the Goblin to kick him across the face, sending him back to the ground. “Was it Peter Parker too?” Miles screamed out in pain as the Goblin stomped him into the ground. “Is the one good man in a bad, bad world destined to die at the hands of you goddamn Spiders in every dimension?” STOMP. “Why? What did he do to deserve it?” STOMP. “He was worth a hundred of you.” STOMP . “He was–GAH!”

Before the metal boot could again stomp down on his chest, Miles reached up and caught it. His breathing was heavy and he could feel a warm spot by his mouth that he could only assume was blood, but he would not sit there and take the Goblin’s assault, both verbal and physical. He was Spider-Man. And Spider-Man always got back up.

“I don’t know you either, but she’s told me all about you and your Peter Parker obsession,” said Miles, slowly pushing the boot upward, his hand slowly sparking. “I gotta say, it’s kind of creepy for you to be obsessed with a guy you hardly know.”

BZZZZZRT

In a blinding blast of electricity and light, the Green Goblin was launched backward. Seeing her opportunity, Gwen jumped through the air, over the flying villain, and shot webs down at the cannon that had been harassing her before tearing it off. 

“How dare you,” said Goblin, summoning his glider, his every word laced with hate, “He was my best friend. And she killed him!”

“Would Peter want this, Harry?” said Gwen, “Would he want you to be consumed by vengeance on his behalf?”

“Uh huh, spare me the diatribes,” spat Goblin, “You’re both vigilantes. It’s all fun and games till you’re on the other side of it, it’s it, Ghost-Spider? All of a sudden, taking justice into your own hands is morally reprehensible.”

Gwen stared at the ground, breathing heavily in a depressed, silence. She could feel the weight of her guilt on her shoulders. It had been her negligence that had gotten Peter Parker killed. She hadn’t killed him the way the police and Goblin thought she did, but if she had been a better Ghost-Spider, he would have survived that night and if she hadn’t been Ghost-Spider at all, he never would have injected herself with that serum. But… did she deserve Goblin’s justice? Was his right to exact justice the same as her right to fight crime?

Miles…

Was not having it.

“We’re not doing this,” he declared, stepping forward.

“What’s wrong, Spider-Man, are you too afraid to confront–”

“Nope,” he interrupted, “We’re not doing this. We’re not having an ethical debate with a goddamn serial killer. I don’t care if she’s made mistakes or done something wrong, you kill people, dude. Like, lots of ‘em. You killed twenty people like two days ago, dude. People who went through the trouble of breaking you out of prison, by the way. She allegedly but not really has the death of one person who was actively trying to kill people on her. There’s no… no… no freakin’ moral equivalence here!”

“Peter Parker was–”

“Get the hell over him, dude!” yelled Miles, rubbing his temples, “Literally everyone loses people! And a lot of the time, they think those people are the best people who ever live! I lost the one guy who always encouraged me to be myself to an actual goddamn monster! You don’t see me committing casual murder! Peter lost his Uncle Ben and he did go on a revenge fueled rampage! You don’t actually care about justice or doing what’s right, you’re just angry and taking it out on her!”

With his glider held under his arm, the Goblin stepped forward.

“Ock…” he said, speaking into his arm, “The police and heroes are going to be here any second. Get the welcoming party ready.”

Seconds later, the ground began to shake. Both Miles and Gwen immediately swung themselves up to the rooftops of the worn-down houses in the middle of the abandoned village as the ground behind them began to open up. The mechanical whirring lasted for only a few seconds before ceasing, and left a gaping pit of seemingly bottomless darkness in the center of the village. That whirring was soon replaced by a creaking like nails on a chalkboard as both of their Spider-Senses began to tingle. 

The pit of seemingly bottomless darkness became less seemingly bottomless with every second that creaking sound filled the air. And as–

“Spider-Man!” yelled Gwen, tackling Miles to the side as a green laser blasted where he had stood a second ago. The two quickly stumbled back to their feet and began swinging throughout the abandoned village as the Goblin chased them on his glider. They jumped from crumbling building to crumbling building, staying one step ahead of the villain’s blasts that easily blew holes into the decrepit ceilings. 

“You go left, I go right,” said Gwen, “On three!”

“Got it!” said Miles.

“One…” Gwen began, “Two… Three!” 

Immediately, the two split off from one another, Miles twisting mid-swing and pulling himself to the left. He could still hear the Goblin’s lasers and his Spider-Sense still tingled. A few seconds later, he pivoted himself in the air to dodge another laser, spinning back around to get a better look at his opponent. He was floating halfway between him and Gwen, firing lasers from both hands before flying up and up, soon escaping both of their visions.

“You, uh, didn’t learn how to fly over the past six months too, did you?” asked Gwen, landing on a rooftop next to him. Miles shook his head. “Crap…”

“But he does,” said Miles, gesturing to the green blur rushing straight toward where the Goblin flew. A loud cracking noise filled the air as Izuku crashed into Goblin. The villain began plummeting to the ground, his glider racing to catch him.

But it was too slow.

And Miles knew it. 

Leaping into action, Miles ran toward the edge of the building and began firing webs onto one a few yards away from him, right under where he hoped the Goblin was falling. Gwen quickly realized what he was doing and jumped over his newly created web to the other building and followed his lead, firing into the roof he stood on. Goblin’s suit was heavy. He knew that well enough after taking so many punches from it. Osborn continued to fall, his glider closing the gap and Izuku’s black webs closing it even faster but still ultimately too slow, until–

CRACK .

THUD.

The webs were strong enough to catch him. Its tensile strength was stronger than steel, after all.

But the walls those webs were stuck to?

Not so much. Both Mies and Gwen were forced into the air as they crumbled under the stress of the impact, the dust nearly blinding them. He felt a sudden pressure on his back but remained calm as his Spider-Sense remained dormant. Seconds later, the dust cleared, revealing Izuku holding him and Gwen by the spandex of their costumes before laying them down on the ground beside the newly formed crater.

“Is… Is he alright?” asked Izuku.

As the dust cleared, Gwen stepped into the crater and approached the revealed form of the Goblin, wrapped up in the web she and Miles had created. His suit was cracked and he wasn’t moving.

“I… I didn’t realize he would…” said Izuku, covering his mouth in horror, “I thought he was...”

Gwen knelt down over the unconscious Goblin before tearing off his helmet, revealing his buzzcut scalp and scarred face.

“He’s alive,” she said, “He’s still breathing.”

“I thought he was just a drone,” said Izuku, “I thought he was a drone.”

“Well if he didn’t want people making that mistake, he probably shouldn’t have sent out a bunch of drones that look exactly like him,” shrugged Gwen, before reaching out and firing more webs at the unconscious Goblin.

“Isn’t that kind of overkill?” said Miles.

“Osborn can break out of webbing with sheer anger,” claimed Gwen, “There’s no such thing as overkill when it comes to him.”

“If you say so,” said Miles, giving her a hand as she stepped out of the crater.

“What’s going on with your team, Izuku?” asked Gwen.

“They got attacked by those drones,” said Izuku, “I went airborne to take out the ones shooting down at us. It’s only Katsuki and I here that can fly. Ochako and Endeavor too, I guess, but they’re not super great that high up and in open skies. I–”

All three froze as a screeching filled the air. In silent unison, they all swung up toward one of the few buildings left still standing that overlooked where the pit had once been.

“Oh, God…” said Izuku.

“I, uh… I don’t think those are drones, you guys,” said Miles, looking down at the screeching black monsters standing on a metal platform. Each one was massive and muscle-bound, but what most concerned Miles was the electrical wiring sticking out of most of their heads. The glowing robotic eyes that half of them had. The metallic plates where parts of their skin should be. Miles didn’t know much about these monsters, the same ones Mysterio had faked an attack of, but he knew how UA had reacted to them. How the entire campus had mobilized to repel the attack. And if Ock had gotten his tentacles on them and given them some cybernetic upgrades…

This… This wouldn’t be fun.

Chapter Text

“Nomu!” Izuku yelled, jumping off the rooftop the three stood on as the rest of the police and heroes finally began to exit the forest. Without hesitation, Izuku flung himself toward the dozen or so Nomu screeching on that metal platform, powering up One For All to seventy five percent and shovelling the energy into float. In only half a second, he crossed the brief distance between himself and the Nomu, slamming one onto another before rolling to the ground just in time to dodge a fist that slammed into the ground, getting caught in the metal floor of the platform.

‘LEFT!’ Danger Sense practically screamed at him. He followed its advice on instinct, and he could feel what it was warning him of before he saw it. The flames were centimeters from his body. He looked to his left and his eyes widened as he realized they were coming from one of their arms. Directly from its arm. It wasn’t being fired from its hand, because it had no hand. At the end of its wrist, there was a grey metal stump with a small pipe not unlike the ones on Iida’s legs extended from it, and that was where the fire shot out of. 

The Nomu had been modified. And it wasn’t the only one.

Izuku released his Blackwhip, which ducked under the flame and wrapped around the Nomu’s arm, pulling it toward another Nomu that was rushing toward him. But it simply shrugged off the flames and continued charging at him, holding its arm up high and revealing its metal claws, whirring like chainsaws as the light of the sun reflected off of them. Once again, Izuku dodged thanks to Danger Sense and punched the Nomu in its outstretched arm, but there was only a slight reaction. It was as if he had just punched a steel beam. Punches like those could obliterate Nomu that lacked significant protection Quirks, and this one had just shrugged it off like it was nothing. Two more Nomu charged him from behind, and while Izuku was able to roll between their legs, his follow up kick to the back of one of them elicited the same lack of reaction, as did the punch to the other’s chest Izuku landed after it turned around. 

That confirmed it in his eyes. Shock absorption Quirks were rare, even rarer were ones that could shrug off One For All powered punches, and even rarer than that were Nomu with those Quirks that hadn’t already been killed at Jaku or any of the countless other battles over the past few months. Anything Garaki hadn’t already used were generally second class Nomu, with fewer and weaker Quirks. If he had a bunch of them that could resist Izuku’s punches, he would have used them long ago. That man Octavius had modified them to be strong enough to resist his punches. 

‘BEHIND!’ Danger Sense yelled. 

“GAH!” Izuku cried, as he felt electricity course through his body. Before he could react, even with Danger Sense, tentacles from a Nomu’s arm wrapped around his torso and began shocking him.

‘RIGHT!’ Danger Sense called. Izuku had time to look and time to brace himself, but he couldn’t free himself from the grip of the tentacles before the first of the Nomu collided with his chest, knocking the wind out of him. He spat blood as the Nomu with the electronic eyes and metal plate on its chest cocked his fist back, but before he could attack, Blackwhip shot out from his fingers and stabbed the tentacle Nomu in the chest, allowing Izuku to wiggle free just before the punch hit. Instead it crashed into the tentacle Nomu and Izuku quickly flew away with float. 

With a second of breathing room, Izuku ignored the pain in his chest and spat into his hand. No more blood. His lungs were fine enough. But he only had a second of breathing room, as soon all ten Nomu were upon him. Acting entirely on instinct, Izuku dodged, ducked, and sidestepped a dozen fists and a flurry of lasers, occasionally striking out with a blow that pushed a Nomu back a few inches yet unable to follow up before another attacked him. 

‘BEHIND!’ Danger Sense screamed again, and again Izuku followed before feeling the sensation of heat on his chest. The was a brief moment of confusion for him. The flamethrower Nomu was standing a few feet from him and he could clearly see its metal stump was not aflame. The blast of fire came from somewhere else and it struck one of the Nomu right in its glowing red eyes.

Then he realized where it came from.

“DIE SHITTY NOMU!” yelled Kacchan, landing beside Izuku and blasting a Nomu in the leg. The beast fell to one knee and Izuku quickly capitalized on its injury, leaping above it and wrapping it in Blackwhip before throwing it into the air. More and more heroes ran out from the forest and the Nomus rushed to greet them. There was a brief moment of relief within him, but it quickly vanished as he watched Kaminari fire a futile blast of electricity at one of the Nomu. Most of his classmates and heroes struggled against the average Nomu, and these were no average Nomu. Maybe not quite as strong as the one who attacked the USJ, but they were definitely in the same league as it. 

He had to stop them. 

He had to save them. 

___

“Wait, Izuku, let’s… let’s think this through!” yelled Gwen, watching Izuku leap off the rooftop and charge at the Nomu.

“I… I don’t know if we can stop him, Gwen,” said Miles, “It took me forever to stop him from chasing one of Mysterio’s holograms.”

On one hand, Miles found himself becoming increasingly frustrated at Izuku’s single-minded drive. If he had just stood back for a few seconds, he, Miles, and Gwen could have talked through a plan. Maybe the best course of action was to double back and regroup with the back-up who had just shown up. That guy with the fire-moustache or Bakugo both seemed to know what they were doing, maybe they had some ideas.

On the other hand, Miles found himself feeling increasingly ashamed at his lack of that drive. He had never been in a situation like that before. He had never been face to face with such an overwhelming threat in his home dimension. And while in these specific circumstances, what Izuku just did was kind of boneheaded, there would be times where it was the only choice to save a life. What if this wasn’t in an abandoned village? What if this was in the middle of Brooklyn? What if instead of being surrounded by armed police officers and trained heroes, they were surrounded by the people of New York, just trying to live their lives? Miles wasn’t sure he could. Certainly not without hyping himself up. But Izuku? It didn’t occur to him to value his own life above other people. He just jumped in to face the danger without hesitation. Because he, fundamentally, was a hero. That’s why he was here. Miles, fundamentally, was just some guy who got lucky. 

“I think trying that panel might be a good idea now,” said Gwen, jumping off the building and swinging toward where Goblin had appeared to him with Miles quickly following her. The two flew over the heroes and police rushing toward the Nomu, before landing at the isolated and exposed hole in the ground where they had pried off that steel panel the drones had flown out of.

“Do you think we can actually do anything down there?” asked Miles.

“Weren’t you the one who suggested breaking in?” countered Gwen, climbing into the hole.

“Yeah, but that’s before the Nomu showed up,” Miles pointed out, following her down there, “The drones might have an off button. Or you can do the whole ‘hang the guy upside down over a big hole until they do what you say’ technique to Mysterio to get him to turn ‘em off. But who knows if Ock can even stop those things? What if they just hit things till something hits them back hard enough to stop them?”

“Well, the way I see it, it’s now three on two down there instead of four on two,” said Gwen, “If they sent out the drones and those creatures, I’m guessing the actual villains are probably alone down there. And Ock has a teleporter with him. What if he leaves?”

“Good point,” conceded Miles, “Still, maybe I should go first?”

“Miles, I know you’ve gotten really good over the past few months, but I don’t need you to–” Gwen began, cutting herself off when Miles turned invisible. “Oh… Right.”

Gwen awkwardly scootched herself to one side of the narrow shaft, allowing Miles to push past her and continue climbing down toward the bunker. Eventually, a dark metal floor came into view and Miles froze, unsure how to proceed. He looked back at Gwen, the uncertainty visible in his masked eyes but a confident nod steadied him, and so he carefully lowered himself out of the ventilation shaft and onto the ground of the bunker. 

Doc Ock was standing only a dozen yards away from him, typing into a holographic keyboard. Black Cat stood not far behind. 

And in front of him…

Miles’s eyes widened. 

There were tanks and tanks of Nomu. Hesitantly, he began to approach them to get a closer look as Gwen shot him a concerned and frustrated look from behind her mask. As he got closer, his fears were slightly alleviated as he noticed its extremities were separated from its torso. The head hung a few centimeters above its neck, connected by a dozen or so tendons. The skin on its left cheek had been torn off, exposing its gums, flesh and teeth, along with wires and metal in certain places. Examining the arms and legs and torso revealed similar results. Gashes and gouges in the muscle and skin peeled off, with bits of electronics stuffed inside. The Nomu in the tank next to this one was the same as well as the Nomu in the tank next to that one. It was both horrifying and disgusting, but Miles was relieved. If these monsters were all like this, it meant they wouldn’t be able to fight. 

Now confident that he wouldn’t be immediately surrounded by Nomu and smashed into a fine red paste the second his camouflage came undone, Miles began to approach Doc Ock, still typing into that holographic keyboard. Felicia stood there silently, looking down at the small device she was holding that Miles hoped he wouldn’t find out what it did. Anger swelled inside of him as he passed by her. For a moment, he wondered if Gwen felt more or less betrayed by her. On one hand, they actually had a relationship and some semblance of an agreement that she had betrayed. On the other…

Surely she expected this from her, didn’t she?

As Miles continued to–

Oh no.

When he walked past Felicia, he had glanced at her. And in that moment, he wasn’t glancing in front of him. And one foot went where it wasn’t supposed to. Every instance of embarrassment, every accidental innuendo, every time he dropped something or knocked something over, it all seemed so… inconsequential. Not compared to this. He had tripped. Over nothing. Right here. Right now. He–

He wasn’t falling anymore.

On sheer instinct, he had reached out to grab something, anything to stop his descent, and while there was nothing closeby a hand could wrap around, Miles had the benefit of Spider-powers. He managed to lay one hand flat against a Nomu tank, enough to stop him before he hit the ground.

CRASH.

Miles froze as he tried to steady himself. For a second, he feared he had somehow knocked something over, but soon realized the crashing sound came from the hallway across the room. Loud footsteps soon followed the initial crash. Even this far away, he could hear the sound of scraping nails on metal alongside those steps. After finally getting back on his feet, he looked over at the two villains. Felicia was on her toes, looking over at that hallway with her claws extended, while Octavius simply kept typing on his keyboard.

“So, you finally showed up,” he said, “Even in other dimensions, you still have awful timing, Lizard.”

“Would you rather I have shown up later?” spat the Lizard, slinking in from the hallway, “And hide your hatches better next time. If I found it that easily, the heroes won’t be that far away.”

“Not my bunker,” shrugged Doc Ock, “And we’ll be evacuating shortly. 

“Where’s Mysterio?” asked the Lizard, looking around.

“Coordinating the drones outside,” said Ock, “You’re welcome, by the way. You’re lucky I carry spare Lizard formula in my suit.”

“Yours… is different,” said the Lizard, stepping out of my hallway, “I studied the effects of it. Under normal circumstances, it would make a man much weaker than mine, but… I can think with it. With both running through my veins, I have brain and brawn.”

“Well as fascinating as this all is,” said Ock, rolling his eyes, “We’ll have to explore the scientific ramifications of this at a later date, I’m afraid. There are a few dozen heroes and police officers outside, after all.”

“You think your monsters won’t be able to defeat the heroes?” said the Lizard.

“Perhaps,” shrugged Ock, “But then the heroes will simply call for backup, which is a luxury we don’t entirely possess.”

“Entirely?” said the Lizard, raising an eyebrow.

“I would rather not utilize our backup with him so closeby,” said Ock, gesturing to one of the holographic screens, currently depicting the man with the flaming mustache hurling fire at one of the Nomu.

“...Ah,” said the Lizard, somehow realizing what Ock was talking about, “The father or the son?”

“...The son,” said Ock.

Taking a deep, silent breath, Miles continued to walk forward, preparing to strike. He could feel his electricity roaring inside him, ready to be released. All it would take was one hit, one hit and this would all be over. One hit, and the villains would have nowhere to run. One hit, and he could finally go home.

He froze mid step as the Lizard stared at him. With his head tilted slightly, the mutated doctor took a step toward him, although Miles wasn’t quite sure whether he was looking at him or Octavius or something else. The Lizard took another step, then another, and soon he was walking toward Miles. Time seemed to slow down as Miles was forced to make a decision, Attack or don’t attack. If he ran at Octavious, he might be able to hit him before either he or the Lizard could do anything, but he might not. If he didn’t, the Lizard might get in between the two, making attacking Octavious much more difficult or even discover Miles, but he also might not and Miles could still continue approaching sneakily.

The Lizard took another step and Miles took a deep breath.

Screw it.

Without warning, Miles turned on his Venom Shock and rushed at Octavious. In his peripheral vision, he was the Lizard leap toward him, claws extended, while Octavious merely turned in shock. He was three feet, then two, then one, then half, then a few inches, then–-

He was a whole lot more than a few inches away. The Lizard tackled Miles to the ground, snarling into his face.

“I knew I smelled something,” he growled, pinning him to the floor with his massive claws. 

“I’m, ew, definitely, smelling something!” said Miles.

“So, the little Spider found his way in,” said Ock, “I had planned on designing a Nomu specifically to kill you, but it seems you’ve saved me the trouble of seeking you out. I hope you’re–”

Ock cut himself off mid sentence as Miles felt the weight leave his shoulders and for a moment, he was blinded by a fluorescent light as the Lizard flew off of him. WIthout wasting a moment to question what had happened, Miles charged at Ock, arm coursing with electricity, only to be caught by a tentacle and again jammed into the ground.

BANG!

As Gwen wrestled with the Lizard, Ock turned around and stared at a holographic screen. It was Izuku, tearing off a trapdoor and jumping down into the bunker. 

“Damn it!” said Ock, “Push the button, Hardy!” All eyes on the room turned toward Black Cat, who stared down at the device in her now shaking hand. Miles fired a web into her arm, but Hardy quickly sliced it free. Yet she didn’t push the button. He could hear a cacophony of footsteps echoing down the hallway. The heroes were getting close. “Damn it, Hardy, push the button!”

Black Cat looked up at Octavius and said nothing. The fear and confusion and guilt in her eyes was palpable, but she didn’t push the button. Ock reached out with a tentacle, but she recoiled, before jumping backward onto a Nomu tank.

“Fine! If you won’t do it I will,” said Ock, typing into the holographic keyboard as his tentacles kept trying to grab ahold of Felicia, “You wish to delay our escape, fine, I can spend the thirty seconds to activate it remotely.” As he typed, Miles grabbed ahold of the tentacle pinning him to the ground with both hands and pried it off of him, giving himself just enough space to wiggle free before jumping backwards to dodge a laser from a cannon on Ock’s back. As both the tentacle that had pinned him and the one chasing Black Cat attacked him, he saw Black Cat jump down from the Nomu tank and rushed between Octavious’s legs grabbing a the white wristband Nezu had given her off the desk and jumping back onto the tanks.

“What the hell are you doing, Hardy!?!” yelled Ock, redirecting a tentacle to grab the wristband from her. But Hardy continued to remain silent, as Miles ducked under a tentacle and got a lucky shot it, punching Ock into a tank that shattered, sending guts and wires spilling everywhere. As Black Cat began rushing toward Gwen, Ock got back on his… well… metaphorically got back on his feet and resummoned the keyboard. With a single push of a button, Miles was blinded as  by a burst of orange light as a loud whirring sound filled the air

When Miles opened his eyes, he saw a red and black figure standing in between him and Doc Ock.

“Damn it!” yelled the figure, “What the hell, Doc! I was just about to–”

“Carnage,” he said, “Kill everyone.”

Carnage… where had he heard that name before…

His mind recalled a photo of his universe’s Peter in highschool on May Parker’s mantle, where he stood next to a blond haired girl a bit shorter than him. She had been like an older sister to him, before being killed by a monster named Carnage, a creature that had broken away from the venom symbiote. 

It had come as quite a shock to realize his universe had a Gwen Stacy.  

That quickly turned to sadness upon realizing she had died.

Killed by some version of the creature standing in front of him.

Carnage looked back at Ock, then at Miles, with a massive jagged grin on his face. Miles took a step back, his Spider-Sense tingling, It had never done that before, it had never activated with a mere glance from someone before. He could feel this man’s murderous intent, and that alone was enough to set it off.

“Oh…”

“Goodie.” 

He moved faster than Miles could see, and it was only thanks to his Spider-Sense that he avoided getting decapitated and instead only got slashed across the chest. He quickly lashed out against his attacker, punching him right in his chest, a sea of blood right and total black, but the symbiote simply shrugged off the blow before slashing him across the arm. Miles kicked him in the face before leaping backward and examining his wounds. They were bleeding, but the cuts weren’t that deep. He could still fight.

Or… perhaps fight was an exaggeration. It was more accurate to say he could avoid being shish-kabobed by Carnage. He could at least keep with the symbiote, dodging the slashes and strikes from his blade-like arms and the jagged spears that shot out from every part of his body. Occasionally, he managed to land a blow to the torso or swat an extremity away with enough force to almost constitute an attack, but he Carnage was unambiguously on the offensive and Miles was on the defensive.

“FREEZE!” a booming voice yelled from across the room. Miles only was able to glance at the heroes and police storming into the bunker before leaping backward to dodge a slice from Carnage that nearly cut him in two. Without warning, he instantly swung around and in moments, he was upon the backup, stabbing the flaming hero in the gut before turning toward the rest of them. Miles looked over at Ock, then at Carnage, and made his decision. 

He had to stop Ock. He would trust Izuku and the rest of the heroes to stop Carnage. They were all boxed in right now with no way to escape aside from Doctor Garaki’s machine. As Ock frantically typed into his holographic keyboard with one tentacle making adjustments on the physical machine, Miles leaped into the air, venom shock ready, only for him to pivot midair as Gwen was tossed right at him.

A second later, there was a flash of orange light.

___

“FREEZE!” yelled Endeavor, as the heroes turned a corner into the center of the bunker. It was only him, Endeavor, Kacchan, and a few others heroes who had made it down here along with a dozen or so police officers, as most of his classmates, the police and the other heroes who were participating in the raid were still dealing with the remaining drones. A chill ran down Izuku’s spine as he stepped out into the main room and he noticed the tanks and tanks of Nomu. If they had shown up a few days later… 

He didn’t want to think of that possibility.

Izuku was forced back into the present with a sudden shock of Danger Sense, once sharper and more painful than anything he had felt since the day he defeated Shigaraki. Endeavor cried out in agony as before anyone realized it, he had been stabbed through the gut by the creature in red. Another villain from another dimension was here, one they hadn’t factored in. Seconds later, all the police officers fell to the ground in unison, bleeding from various parts of their bodies. Izuku could only barely sidestep a spear to the side, before lashing out with a fist at one hundred percent.

He wasn’t sure who this person was…

But Izuku wasn’t taking any chances.

Yet before the attack could hit…

There was a flash of orange light.

___

“So, you finally showed up,” said Octavious, as Gwen continued to watch from the shaft those drones had flown out of, “Even in other dimensions, you still have awful timing, Lizard.”

The Lizard said something, but Gwen wasn’t really listening. All she could do was stare and watch as he continued to walk down the hall. Rationally, she knew it wasn’t Peter. This was Doctor Curt Conners, according to Principal Nezu. But the rational side of her brain wasn’t exactly in charge right now. All she could think about was the prom dance. Watching that snout, those scales, those claws burst through the gym wall. Seeing him transform back into Peter. Holding him as he drew his last breath.

She was briefly snapped out of her thoughts as she watched Miles uncloak himself only to get caught by one of Octavious’s tentacles. Jumping out of the shaft, she webbed up Lizard before he could attack her friend, pulling him toward her and slamming him into a wall. He said something, probably a taunt, but Gwen couldn’t hear it. She fought him on instinct and muscle memory, with only the smallest amount of conscious thought spared to it. It was hard to even call it a fight. All she did was dodge. She wasn’t sure she could bring herself to strike back.

What felt like both seconds, minutes, hours, and days later all at the same time, there was a flash of orange light, and suddenly there was a man in all red standing in between Miles and Octavious. It was a symbiote, she realized, although it was clearly different than venom. Yet she was quickly forced to refocus on the Lizard who resumed his attack. Gwen grimaced and steeled herself. This. Was. Not. Peter. She repeated this mantra over and over in her head, yet still, she found herself unable to strike him. 

He lacked that qualm. For half a second, she decided to turn back toward Miles as she heard him grunt in pain. Carnage had slashed him across the arm. And in that half a moment, he caught her. The Lizard raised her up over her head and threw her across the room, nearly crashing into Miles, before crashing into a Nomu tank which shattered.

There was another flash of orange light, this one infinitely larger than the previous one. In a daze, Gwen pulled herself to her feet, her Spider Sense not at all active, which was quite odd. In any sort of fight, her Spider-Sense would be at least a little active, which meant…

Oh no…

Gwen realized why her Spider Sense was inactive before her sight returned to her. It was gone. It was all gone. Octavious, the Lizard, Carnage, and Felicia? All gone. The machine? Gone. The tanks and tanks of Nomu? Empty. She staggered forward, walking in a daze toward Miles who lay on the ground, breathing heavily, who she gave a hand up. The two looked around in a stunned silence as the rest of the heroes entered the bunker, Izuku at their head. 

“So… what now?” she asked.

“I… I don’t know,” said Izuku.

___

Felicia Hardy was a fighter. 

Sure, she was currently climbing up through the vent she assumed Miles and Gwen had snuck down through originally, the trigger Ock had given her snapped onto her belt. Nobody had seen her get through and she had her wristband. As long as she could make it through the forest, she was home free.

Felicia Hardy was a fighter, metaphorically.

She took what she wanted. She didn’t sit back and accept whatever the universe threw at her, she fought back, claws out. 

However, that very rarely took the form of getting into actual fights. Her father had taught her the basics of a few martial arts and she was more than capable of taking down the average museum security guard or police officer, but in general, Felicia ran from direct confrontation. She wasn’t a coward or anything, at least, she didn’t think she was, just a pragmatist. What was she, reasonably, going to do in a fight against someone like Gwen who could hold up a crashing train? Or someone like Harry Osborn who was not only some super marine but also had a suit of power armor that could crush her skull like an empty can of soda. Why stand and fight against something like that when running and hiding was just so… so… so easy?

And as she snuck through the abandoned town, easily sneaking past the much too distracted heroes and police and into the forest, she realized just how much it had really come to bite her in the ass. 

She wasn’t sure why she didn’t push the button when Ock told her too, but no matter why, she didn’t need to run. She could have stood and fought with the heroes. Or she could have actually pushed the button and fought with Ock. But, as per usual, Felicia couldn’t commit to either side and so alienated herself from both. They’d soon be coming for her, she imagined. The heroes for obvious reasons, while she doubted Ock would just be willing to let her live as a loose end despite what limited information she really did provide. But she could run. And she could hide. That was all she was good for.

Eventually, after God knows how long, she had well and truly broken the pitiful perimeter established by the police and made her way out into whatever city was closest to the bunker, and she got back to doing what she did best. Felicia quickly shed her black costume and mask in exchange for the shirt and pants she had been provided by UA, before casually strolling down the street as if she hadn’t just escaped a major law enforcement action. Once again, Felicia’s good luck struck her. It was sitting there, practically taunting her. 

An ad on a bus station bench: Uehara Jewelers. A quarter of a kilometer away. Perfect.

It took her only a few minutes to find it. Just a small jewelry store. One guard, metal detectors, that’s it. This would be a piece of cake. She quickly ducked into an alley across the street and scaled the building to get a bird’s-eye view, standard practice for her in any heist, especially considering she was somewhat light on equipment. But as she settled in for a long couple of hours, leaning next to an HVAC unit as she watched for police and heroes, she began to notice an odd sound coming from the opposite side of the roof, a mixture of…

Moans.

Moans and chewing.

Cautiously, she left her hiding spot and went to see what it was coming from, and quickly froze as she saw the hobo in the ratty trench coat sitting on the ledge, a paper bag with some fast food logo and an empty wrapper next to him. The man turned around, and Felicia was instantly hit with deja vu. He looked so familiar, even if she couldn’t place it. The man looked her up and down, before reaching into the bag and pulling out a parcel wrapped in white paper.

“Want one?” he asked, “I always pig out when I’m in other dimensions.”

Chapter Text

Fine, fine, ok.

I’ll do it. 

One. 

More. 

Time.

My name is Peter B. Parker. I got bitten by a radioactive spider and for the past…

No, you know what? Screw this. You already know this stuff. You saw the movie. Can we please just get on with the chapter?

Yeah? We good?

Cool.