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Falling.
He's falling; the wind whistles past his ears, and water gathers in his eyes. He frantically tugs his mask over his face, his arms shooting out in front of him in a panic.
How was Miles falling? Where is the punching bag he was just tied to? His uncle, well, his other uncle Aaron and the other him?
Shaking fingers press down on his web launchers, and Miles barely manages to keep himself together as his shoulders, following his arms, snap upwards, straining his hands to hold onto his thin ropes of webbing.
His landing is anything but elegant, bumping into food stalls, nearly knocking over people piled on a motorbike, flinging through a cluster of birds, and finally smacking into a wall. The tension in his webbing goes slack, and he slowly slides down the wall and lands on a dusty roof.
A groan exits his mouth as he releases his grips on his webs, and his arms flop down to his sides pathetically. Miles pulls off his mask again, keeping his eyes screwed shut, and rethinks his steps.
Okay, so he was in Universe 42, the place where his spider was from. He was knocked out by Miles 42, the Prowler, and was brought to Uncle Aaron's apartment. Then they tied him up to the punching bag, and he nearly had a heart attack from Uncle Aaron punching right beside his head with his big, scary metal clawed glove. Then, what happened?
Miles' body graciously provides the answer and glitches violently. The attack on his atoms leaves him feeling like his veins are full of lava and his head is filled to the brim with fireworks. He struggles to regain control of his body, desperately trying to suppress the overwhelming pain. As the glitches subside, Miles presses the palms of his hands onto his eyelids. "Ow, mierda, that's still sore."
Panting, Miles rolls to sit with his back against the wall he'd crash landed into. The air is a tad bit dusty, blended with smoke and fumes from vehicles, and the sounds of bustling traffic fill the air. Miles takes a moment to catch his breath, his heart pounding in his chest. Looking around himself, Miles recognises the bright and colourful cityscape; he's in Pavitr's Universe, the city of Mumbattan.
Or, he's followed, stupidly, as he knows now, Gwen into this Universe and out of his own.
A flash of white and purple from the corner of his eye makes him turn invisible quickly, his heart beating in his throat. Ah, right, Spot is here. Miles needs to try to deal with him.
Hauling himself up, Miles takes a deep breath before sliding his mask on and ringing his wrists. In moments, he's swinging between buildings, still invisible, mind you, heading directly towards the Alchemax facility and ignoring Gwen—Miles is still upset over the whole keeping huge secrets from him with Peter B and literally every other spider person in existence. All while being able to visit him for several months just at the click of a tiny button, and just not trying to see him. He gave up on art college to have the slimmest of chances of seeing any of them again. He even tried to go to one of the most expensive physics colleges in all of America to have the smallest possibility of seeing everyone again— Pavitr, and Spot's petty arguments a few streets over.
A snicker leaves Miles lips as he hears Pavitr ranting about the stupidity of "chai tea, which is just saying tea tea," with Spot replying that he loves "chai tea," making Pavitr let out an enraged "NO."
Landing on the roof of the facility, Miles finds an opened window and enters silently. He crawls on the ceiling once he's inside, having easily avoided the on going fight between Gwen, Pavitr, and Spot. He searches the building and eventually finds the room he's been looking for.
Now that he's crouched on the super colliders control room's ceiling, still invisible, surrounded by scientists working at their desks. The clicking of computers echoing around the room. Miles honestly hasn't the faintest idea of how he's meant to avoid the whole "Spot-absorbing-dark-matter" situation.
Maybe he could try unplugging something? He doesn't think that his luck would help him if he started pushing random buttons; hell, he'd probably end up helping Spot's plan if he tried that. How about pulling the fire alarm? Eh, it's worth a shot; at least the scientists would be safe and not dead.
Moving down a wall, Miles glances around the room and finds the fire alarm stuck to the ceiling and a lever to activate it on the wall to his left. He aims his web shooters at them, and the reactions of the scientists and the wailing of the alarm overlap each other as he edges around the wave of people exiting the room and leans against one of the desks closest to the windows viewing the collider.
Next, he eyes a few plugs that, in his opinion anyway, look important and rips them out of their sockets with his webbing, then he finally returns to his place of resting on the desk from earlier.
One huff, a full body glitch, and two sighs later, Spot enters the room with a frantic Pavitr and Gwen chasing after him. Miles stays seated on the desk, still invisible, and watches with his chin on his fist as the two other spider men— err, spider people. Wow, that'll never seem normal—attempting to shower Spot in their webbing.
He doesn't move to help, only watches on as Spot, barely, manages to put up the electric shield. The electric wall cutting the two spider people off from the main area of the control room entirely. Miles almost gives himself away by chuckling when Spot grumbles loudly about the loose plugs that Miles had removed from their sockets.
While Spot goes about fixing everything that Miles did, Miles finally hops off the desk and goes towards the electric shield that's blocking the others from stopping the villain.
Having decided that it would be awkward if he stood right in front of Pavitr and Gwen when he took down the shield only to be run over by said people, Miles placed both of his hands onto the glowing surface right by the wall.
Small tingles of electricity wiggled up his arms, making Miles' hair stand on end. He takes a deep inhale of air, forcing the electricity in the shield up his arms, and grits his teeth together as he absorbs the electric wall. He does it, even if his sleeves are left smoking a little, but Miles just decides to ignore that, and he turns to look back at everyone else in the room.
The spider people are blinking confusedly at the sudden loss of wall in front of them, and, strangely enough, Hobie hasn't arrived yet.
"Guess he really doesn't believe in consistency; he doesn't even do the same thing again in, what is this? Time travel? Who knows?" Miles muses to himself.
Spot's shoving the last plug back into its right place, his other hand already using holes—Dios, he's not going to keep calling them holes; that just sounds gross. Using portals to flick switches, push buttons, and reach out for Miles. Wait.
"¡Qué! I was hidden!" Miles' cry is cut off—very rudely, Miles might add—by Spot dragging him into a portal by his ankle; he yelps as he's thrown out of another portal and lands in the wall behind Gwen and Pavitr with a thump. His vision swims as he tries to regain his bearings.
"Oh! A new guy? Hi, new guy! I'm Pavitr; nice to meet you!" Pavitr greets him warmly while ducking to avoid a desk chair being tossed at him. Miles only waves back groggily while lugging himself out of the him sized dent in the wall. He tumbles to the floor in a messy pile of flailing limbs.
Gwen stares at Miles' form, who can already sense the oncoming questions soon to be thrown his way. He blocks out her looks and nods over in Spot's direction. He honestly doesn't have the energy or willpower to deal with that specific situation.
He doesn't hear any type of response from her and continues to steady himself once he frees himself completely from the wall. His ears picked up some rattling from above them. Miles blinks as the vent cover is kicked open by a boot, and the familiar guitar of Hobie Brown sails out of the vent at Spot. It lands a hit on Spot's head, soon followed by its leather clad, cool, and long legged owner. Hobie.
"My bad for bein' late to the party! Tonne of traffic. Oh? We got a rookie and an evil fella?" Hobie says as he sends a kick at Spot's abdomen, getting an oof in response to the action. "Welcome to the kickass club, or ass kickin' crew; I can't tell you what to call it, new guy. I'm Hobie, Hobie Brown. Do you 'ave a name? Or will you forever be known as the "new guy"? Wait a minute, isn't he that fella from 1610, Gwendy?"
Miles grumbles under his breath while launching his webs at Spot's feet. Gwen, sailing out of a portal emitting from the ceiling, swings off Pavitr's arm and lands beside Hobie.
"Yes. That's Miles Morales. He's not meant to be here!" She hisses out, dodging a portal swiftly, obviously aiming the last statement at Miles, who grunts as Spot drops him into a portal and reappears in the middle of a wall.
Hobie and Pavitr tilt their heads towards Miles as he leaps from the wall to the ceiling and onto Spot's shoulders. His legs wrapped around the faceless man's neck, only to be partially shoved through a portal, his head reappearing underneath one of the work desks. The thud of his head and the underside of the desk echoing throughout the room.
Spot shrieks loudly. The noise is making Miles ears ring. "You're still treating me like a joke, Spider-Man! Get off me! I'm not a horse!"
"I don't! Dios mio. Work with me, man, come on–" Spot pokes a finger near Miles' eye. "Just cooperate with me!"
Hobie watches Miles, barely suppressing a chuckle as Miles tightens his hold on the bad guy, bends at an oddly impressive angle, wacks Spot's knees with a stray swivel chair, and nudges Pavitr's shoulder. "I dunno, I think the new guy is." Miles scowls as Spot creates a portal under himself, his legs exiting a portal in the centre of the ceiling. "Well, he ain't doing too badly. So far."
Pavitr hops onto a desk, shoots several lines of webbing at Spot's legs, and starts jumping around the room, encircling Spot in his webs. "I like the new guy. Has he spoken to us yet? Hey new guy! We aren't scary; well, I can't speak much for the others, but I'm nice!"
"¿Estàs jugando?" Miles complains as Spot shakes him off and rips out of Pavitr's webbing, glitching mid-air. The teen landed in a crouch between Hobie and Pavitr's tense forms. "Hi, I'm Miles. That's Spot. He's trying to absorb dark matter. That machine," Miles points at the collider behind the windows, "makes black holes, and Spot wants to turn it on."
"Ah, yes, that's very not good." Pavitr replies, and Hobie only nods on Miles' opposite side.
Simultaneously, they all fire webbing at Spot, who just shattered the casing of a big red button, pressed it, and broke one of the huge viewing windows. This is not a good development, Miles decides in his head.
The brightness of the collider makes Miles shut his eyes, and he feels the ground tremble beneath him. They all aim a wire of web at Spot, who then avoids everyone's except Gwen's, and she twists the webbing around her hand to get a better grip.
Gwen's shoes start slipping on the floor, with Spot dragging her with him towards the small black hole forming. Pavitr shoots out a rope of webbing, and Gwen catches it with one hand, her other one straining to hold back Spot. Noticing Pavitr shifting forward on the floor, Miles attaches a string of web to him, and then, as he begins to slip, Hobie copies while wrapping some of his webbing around a metal bar.
Soon enough, all four of them are dangling by their webs, with Spot only inches away from the mini black hole. Miles tries to pull Pavitr back to him with no luck, then Spot turns to face them, his body seeming to shift, his limbs twitching oddly, and his shadow moving like it's alive, and speaks.
"This is going to be good for us, Spider-Man." His pale hand rises at his side, fingers forming the shape of scissors. "You and I, we'll live up to our potential. You'll finally have a villain worth fighting, and I WON'T JUST BE A JOKE TO YOU!"
Miles winces as his arms are stretched along with everyone's webbing. "You aren't a joke! Right guys?"
Pavitr and Gwen's replies mix together, and Miles hardly manages to cover his snort with a fake cough at Hobie's response.
"I DON'T BELIEVE IN COMEDY!"
There's an awkward pause.
"JUST KIDDING!"
Spot's body glitches bizarrely, and he closes the space between his fingers. Miles and the others grunt as they crash back into the control room. Miles somehow ends up closest to the shattered window, and they all watch as Spot disappears into the black hole created by the collider. Blood rushes in Miles' ears as he watches Spot morph with the dark matter, his hair standing on end as images flash in front of his eyes.
Buildings collapsing, cars flipping on streets, window shards raining down onto screaming people's heads, bodies covering everything, a little girl in a flowery dress crying out for her mother, Miles' Dad running towards the small girl—a building coming down on top of them—
Ice floods Miles blood as Spot faces him, breathing shallowly. "I'm going to take everything from you. Like you took everything from me." Miles cringes at hearing the threat for the second time. "See you back home, Spider-Man."
"No! Spot stop, please!" Miles shouts, eyes wide, as Spot is completely sucked into one of his portals, the room coming to a standstill.
Hands trembling, Miles stands up. Pavitr is already up to his left and brushing dust off of his shoulders; Gwen is glaring at Miles from his right; and Hobie, beside her, is adjusting his guitar on his back.
"Well," Pavitr starts, Miles slowly turning his head to him, "there's another easy--" he's cut off by Miles hand dragging him out of the control room by the scruff of his neck, the two of them just escaping the explosion from the collider by a hair. "WOAH! Thanks for that, new guy!"
Miles releases his hold on Pavitr once they exit the building, with Hobie and Gwen running out the front doors just as its foundations begin to shift.
"That's not a great thing to see, again." Is all that Miles manages to catch from Hobie speaking under his breath before the four of them swing together.
Hobie dives down, moving civilians out of the building's path. Pavitr, Miles, and Gwen fire webs at the crumbling building, trying to slow it with their webs. Miles panics momentarily as all of their webs give way from the massive building's weight, glancing down at the bridge beneath them.
"Pav!" Miles yelps, "The bridge! People on the bridge!"
Nodding, Pavitr quickly swings down to the bridge, using his webs to create a barrier between the people and the falling debris. Miles and Gwen follow suit, working together to evacuate anyone still on the bridge. Hobie joins their attempts while using his guitar to blast any of the debris that manages to bypass the web between them and the still moving, shuddering building.
A quake strikes the bridge, support wires snapping around them, and the road under a familiar red double decker bus gives out, people's screams filling the air. Miles nearly jumps clean out of his skin as Pavitr cries out in alarm.
"Gayatri! No, no nononono-" He darts forward, webs already attached to the bus, and shouts out as he struggles to keep the bus from falling, slipping from the bridge, and frantically shooting out a web to keep himself and the bus in the air. "Hobie, Miles, Gwen—ah—someone! Help me! It's too heavy!"
"On the way, Pav! Give us a minute." Hobie calls out as he sweeps a couple off their feet and deposits them further away from the danger zone. Meanwhile, Miles quickly swings into action, shooting webs to support the bus and relieve some of the weight from Pavitr's struggling arms.
Sweat gathers on Miles forehead, hauling the bus and Pavitr up. Once Pavitr is within reach, Miles sticks a line of web around the other's waist and grits his teeth while tugging him onto the bridge. Hobie arrives after a few seconds, and Miles lets go of the bus once the back wheels touch down on the upper side of the bridge, his arms shaking significantly from straining them so much. Miles takes a moment to catch his breath, feeling the burn in his muscles from the immense effort. He looks at Pavitr, who is visibly relieved to be back on solid ground, and gives him a reassuring nod. The idea of collapsing onto the pavement, not for the first time today, seemed like a wonderful option.
"Wait, the girl in the red dress and Inspector Singh," Miles remembers, swirling on his toes as he spots their figures crouched together in the direct path of the last of the building's remaining debris.
"Shoot, shoot, shoot!" He chants under his breath as he races towards them, blood pumping in his legs and ears, drowning out the rest of the noise around him. He briefly notes Gwen's voice and someone else's somewhere close by calling out his name. But before he can even think about replying, he's diving over Inspector Singh and the little girl. He creates a sheet of webbing all around them to lessen the amount of rubble about to cover them, and he leans over the pair just as the first clumps of wall fall around them.
- x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x -
Miles huffs harshly from the weight of who knows how much rubble is on top of him. Inspector Singh is under him, gingerly comforting the little girl curled up in his lap with small sobs recking her tiny frame. The sight made Miles' heart clench. Dust floats in the thin pocket of air surrounding them. Miles' mask is helping filter it out, thankfully, and he watched as Inspector Singh gave the little girl a clean cloth to cover her mouth. Miles tries to shift the debris off of him, but it only results in a sharp pain shooting through his arms and back. He winces, realising that he may be trapped for a while longer if outside help doesn't move quickly.
Voices are shouting just outside the pile of debris blocking them from the others. Miles is really hoping that he doesn't glitch before the others get the three of them free. Gwen's muffled voice reaches them first; the chunk of concrete to Miles' right shifts before it is removed, allowing sunlight through the gap.
Legs beginning to shake, Miles gets Inspector Singh and the girl out first, and Pavitr's voice greets them softly once they're cleared out of the ruins. A weak smile tugs at Miles lips as he hears the little girl reunite with her mother and the Inspector with his own daughter.
Taking a deep breath in, Miles stands to his full height and shoves the rubble off of himself, just in time for Gwen to tackle him with a hug. He barely keeps himself upright. As Gwen holds on tightly, Miles feels the weight of exhaustion and relief wash over him. He wraps his arms around her, momentarily grateful for her support. The sound of sirens in the distance signals the arrival of emergency services, and Miles knows that the civilians are, at least, in safer hands now.
"Why would you do that? I thought I'd lost you too, Miles." Gwen whispers into his shoulder, her voice still noticeably watery.
"Well, I'm still here, aren't I?" He returns, his arms awkwardly patting her back. She lets him go after a few seconds, the watch on her wrist beeping and flashing. She steps away from Miles, and a small hologram pops out of it. She then moves out of Miles hearing range.
"Man like Miles! My guy!" Hobie appears from behind him, his hands landing on his shoulders, and his colours changing every two or three seconds. "That was wicked, man. Did you know that you were sparking during that lil' sprint of yours? It was lit."
Miles lets out an airy snicker, a grin worming itself onto his face. "Oh? I didn't know, man."
A chuckle stops him from speaking further. Hobie's head tilts over his shoulder, and his mask spikes just inches from Miles head. "How'd you give Miguel the slip? Did you steal someone's watch or what?"
Feeling like a bucket of ice was dumped on his head, Miles fumbles to reply. "What'd you mean? Who's Miguel? Haha...." Miles knows that his diverting is pathetic; don't come at him; he's panicking over here.
One of Hobie's arms wraps around Miles shoulders, and the other teen is practically hanging off of Miles. "You know, you ain't the only one who's got, how should I put this? Multiversal issues, I suppose. C'mon, walk with me real quick." Noticing the large amount of tension in the younger teens form, Hobie quickly adds, "I'm not gonna kill you, nor am I handin' you in to Mr. Vampire. Chillax, Miles."
Miles quietly allows Hobie to lead him off the edge of the bridge. Soon enough, he finds himself sitting criss-crossed upside-down in front of Hobie Brown, both of their masks off. The older teen still looks effortlessly cool, with his silver piercings popping out on his dark skin, his guitar strapped to his back, and his leather jacket swaying slightly in the light breeze.
"I know you glitched after you got out of Miguel's place, Miles." Hobie's gaze is calculating, as if he's picking Miles apart in front of him.
Paling, Miles grips his mask tightly in his hands. "How'd you know?"
Hobie shrugs, his left hand tapping his head. "My spider sense said so; also, the same thing kind of happened to me. Once I tossed the travel watch off, I did some weird mini glitch while going back home, and the next thing I knew, I was 'ere, again, I mean." He spreads his arms out, gesturing to the city around them.
"Haven't all of my new and fancy stuff in my pockets, though." He turns out his pockets, and a moth that seems to be made out of newspaper flutters out.
Nodding along to Hobie's explanation, Miles shuffles a bit in his spot. "Yeah, the same with me. I led the others away from the main building, then snuck back inside to the "Go Home" machine, and I think it picked out the universe my spider was from 'cause I ended up being knocked out by the Prowler version of myself and tied to a punching bag. It was not fun, I'll tell you that much."
"Trust Miles Morales to escape a whole superhuman army only to be defeated by himself." Hobie laughs airily while shaking his head. "You're somethin' else, Miles."
Miles scowls at him and nudges him with his foot, "As if you were any help."
Hobie raises an eyebrow, a lazy smirk working its way onto his face. "Hey, I showed you how to get out of that glowing cage, didn't I? So I did help, plus, I didn't chase you, unlike other people." He rolls his shoulders.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Miles agrees half heartedly.
Simultaneously, both of their spider senses go off, and then Jess's stern voice echoes from above them along with people rushing about the bridge. "Block off the area. A canon event has been broken; keep people at a safe distance!"
Miles bites his lower lip, his eyebrows scrunching together. "That's not good." He murmurs under his breath.
"You have a plan?"
Oh, Hobie, you sweet summer child, is all that drifts through Miles' head. "Totally."
Hobie gives an unconvinced nod. "Is it a good one?"
"It's, uh, a plan, man. Have you met me? I work on the go."
"Well, excuse me for getting my 'opes up over here." Hobie sassed back, rising from his sitting position and cracking his neck. "We following them back to Miguel's place, or what are we doing here?"
Wincing at the dull ache in his back from being thrown into the wall earlier and the rubble falling directly on top of him, Miles stands too. "Yup, you know how you kept taking pieces of tech from Miguel's place? What were they for?"
"Oh, those? I was using them to make my own multi-verse travelling doohickey. Just without the trackin' part. " Hobie mentions it offhandedly, like he just said he had a banana for lunch, and Miles is left gaping at the older teen as they crawl up the side of the bridge. "Stole the plans for the watches right in front of the big man himself. Not that he knows that; I annoyed him into ignorin' me, and hey presto, long term borrowin' at its finest and easiest. All I need now are a few more bits of 2099 tech, and we'll have our own lovely, untraceable multiverse travel watches. What? Do I have somethin' on my face?"
Miles shakes his head in disbelief. "You're so damn cool, it's unfair."
Hearing this, Hobie grins and winks at him before hopping up onto the upside of the bridge. Miles slips his mask on and sticks close to Hobie's side. The other male waltzes up beside Gwen, who's just finished being grilled vigorously by Jess.
"Woah, what's all the fire 'bout, Jessie dear? That can't be very good for Jr." Hobie gestures down at the lady's baby bump with raised eyebrows.
All Hobie gets in return is a harsh glare.
Jess barely glances at Miles, who is silently standing behind Hobie, before leading them into a swirling red and orange portal. As they step through the portal, the air crackles with energy, and a rush of warmth engulfs them. The swirling colours of red and orange intensify, making Miles hold his breath and squeeze his eyes shut.
Let's try this again.
"This place is so pretentious." Miles repeats to himself for the twentieth time since he trailed after Hobie into the portal into Miguel's universe, Universe 2099.
The glaring white buildings reflect light off their sleek surfaces, giving the illusion of grandeur and superiority. Miles can't help but feel a sense of unease as he walks among the people who helped Miguel hunt him, only wanting to save his dad.
Shaking himself out of his own thoughts, Miles spider sense warns him of an oncoming glitch, and he clenches his jaw while nudging Hobie with his foot. The older teen glances back at him and takes in his tense expression before nodding.
Miles watches as Hobie walks up behind some random spider people crowded together, slips his right hand down towards one of their wrists, and taps their shoulder with his other hand. Hobie says something to the group, which then gets mixed responses from each of them. Some of them seem confused, while others appear pleased or upset by Hobie's words.
Miles observes the varying reactions while still slowly tailing Jess, his spider sense still pulsating louder in his ears with unease. He wonders what Hobie said to them.
Whatever one of the spider people says in response, one of the pleased looking ones, causes the others to turn in their direction. They seem angered by what might've been said and start arguing amongst themselves, their volume rising with every word said.
Miles watches as the tension escalates, only just noticing Hobie swipe one of the upset people's watches right off their wrist. The person didn't even realise the item was being removed.
Hobie quietly backs away from the group, who are now yelling at each other and gaining the attention of others, and returns to Miles' side. As they follow Gwen and Jess through a crowded area, Hobie presses the stolen watch into Miles hand. He quickly slips the item onto his left wrist, tucking it underneath his suit sleeve as he does so.
The watch closes around his wrist snuggly, and the screaming from Miles spider senses lowers to a dull humming. He nods to Hobie in thanks.
He gains a playful grin from Hobie as the older teen snatches a piece of 2099 tech off of a wall.
"This'll work out so much better than last time." Miles hopes in his mind as Jess opens the double doors to Miguel's office. "I'm coming to save you, Dad."
He enters the dimly lit room with Hobie close at his side.