Miles Morales shot up. His spider sense was ringing like crazy. Not even a second later, he stopped a vicious kick from sending him back to napland. Only…
"Gwen?!" He recoiled once he saw who exactly he blocked. The other spider person on the roof they woke up on did the same.
"Miles?!" She said, astonished that she saw him again. After all, living in two separate dimensions didn't exactly make social calls the easiest element to plan. Miles lowered his forearm as Gwen pulled back her kick. They examined each other, trying to understand what exactly was going on. Gwen spoke first.
"How do you have four inches on me? Last I saw, you were still 'going through puberty'" She ended teasingly. Miles rubbed his neck sheepishly after getting his lame excuse thrown back at him. He then took a moment to look Gwen over for any physical differences from the last time they met. She was still as lithe and stylish as he remembered. Her form fitting black and white suit stylized with pink highlights and a hood made her appearance pop.
"Hey tiger, my eyes are up here," Gwen said, snapping her fingers in front of his eyes. He was about to apologize until his brain caught up with what she said. Tiger? Wasn't that what Peter B. said his Mary Jane Watson called him... Wait, but didn't Peter B. say they only used that name when- Oh god, the more he thought about it, the worse it got!
"Oh my god, why did you do that to me?! I'll never get it out of my head now! How did you even know about that?" He whined as he tried to erase the images of the dad bod that came unbidden the more he thought about the nickname. The night before they left Miles tied up in his room, Peter had gotten drunk (probably to deal with the impending glitchification he thought was going to happen) and he regaled Miles of tales of him and MJ. Most of which were emotionally and mentally scarring, much like everything else Peter B. tried to teach Miles. Miles couldn't see Gwen's smirk, but he could hear it.
"You two are really bad at noticing eavesdroppers. Anyways, you didn't answer my question. Why are you so tall? And… have you been working out?" She asked as she poked at his bicep. He scoffed.
"Hey, uh… Gwendolyn, my eyes are up here," He said trying to come up with something witty. And it worked. Gwen stopped and looked as though her grave was walked over. She shuddered before speaking.
"Only my dad calls me Gwendolyn. Don't do that. It's weird." She shuddered again. Well fair's fair, thought Miles, she made him imagine a naked Peter B. after all. Miles decided to get serious. He took off his mask.
"It's been two years Gwen. A lot of things happen." It was true. Miles Morales was no longer the scrawny kid trying to fill a suit two sizes too big. It fit, eventually. He had gotten his growth spurt, and developed muscle mass along with it that matched the image of heroism he was trying to display. His hair was shorn shorter, and he kept it such in honor of his uncle. The baby face he was teased for was starting to fade. Gwen looked at him, drinking in his new features, before all of a sudden she turned his chin up while she examined something under his neck.
"Uh, Gwen?" He asked confusedly. He was sure that this reveal would be way more dramatic, instead, here he was being sandbagged. He felt her fingers trace something along the underside of his chin.
"What happened…" she asked, almost as if she was afraid of the answer. Miles swallowed, not looking forward to this conversation. He took her hand away and looked her in the eyes.
"When you guys left, I was a new Spider-man in a city that knew Spider-man for ten years." Gwen stared at him, quickly understanding the implication. She had a genius intellect after all. She wrapped him in a one armed hug, pulling him close.
"I am so sorry Miles." She whispered. The battles he fought, she thought to herself. With just the five days of half assed training he got? Peter B. gave him drive, but that wasn't always enough. He pulled away from her. Sensing her guilt, Miles gave her half a smirk to let her know it was okay. Gwen bit her bottom lip, unsure as to what to say.
"Don't worry about it Gwen. I'm here. That just means I got back up. That's what being Spider-man is, remember?" He said softly. She studied the cocky grin he adopted. Miles was easy to read, and he was okay which was all that mattered. She let go of a breath she didn't know she was holding. She pulled her hood back and took off her mask. Miles gasped.
"Yeah, but it's hard to forget something after only four weeks." She said. Heck, her hair hadn't even fully recovered from her escapade to another dimension. Nothing had changed much for her. Heck, the last thing she remembered was writing a new song. She was broken out of her thoughts by the goofiest (and she'd swear to god the dumbest) grin stretched across his face.
"Ten months," He said plainly. Gwen looked at him baffled. What?
"What?" She said as much.
"I've got ten months on you," It took Gwen a moment to understand exactly what he meant.
"Oh no, this is not happening. As far as I'm concerned, you're younger than me. Just because our dimensions are chrono-" She started, adopting a lecturing pose.
"Ten. Months," He said interrupting her. Gwen froze in her lecturing, and sighed.
"Fine." She begrudgingly gave in.
"Woo! I'm older than you now! Wait, does that mean I'm from the future? And if it does, would that mean that you were in the future when I was in the past because-" Gwen covered his rambling mouth with her hand. She would let him celebrate his minor victory, but there would be no talk of timelines. They gave her a headache.
Gwen opened her mouth to ask him if he knew anything about their current situation, but she was interrupted by a quad of police cars racing by underneath the building they were on. Her eyes caught the logo on the side. Where in the multiverse were they? It had to be somewhere in the multiverse, or else Miles and her wouldn't be able to meet. It was also clearly not their own universes.
" 'Ey, 'wen?" Her eyes turned to Miles and she removed her hand. He raised an eyebrow at her and grinned.
"Race ya?" She looked at him confused for a moment before smirking. And then she took a running dive off the building as she threw on her mask.
"Oh come on, Gwen that's cheating!" She heard him shout as he scrambled to catch up. She simply did a flip, and as she caught sight of him while flying through the air, gave him a four finger wave. She could tell that ruffled him because he started picking up speed. Then she heard the craziest thing. Music started blasting from Miles suit. She picked up speed, he was definitely serious now.
"I can't believe you put a speaker in your suit!" She yelled as they both rounded the upcoming corner to follow the police dispatch.
"When DJ Khalil makes songs about you, then you can criticize my design choices. Besides," He pointed towards the spray painted pattern on his chest, "This is what I'm about!" He said smiling. Gwen rolled her eyes good naturedly. It wasn't a bad song either, except…
"Wait, this song's about you?!" Miles only laughed as he overtook her in her shock.
"It's called Elevate. It's sick!"
\-\
Taylor was about to lose her focus, and to be honest she had no clue as to why. Well, more so she knew why but not how.
"Where the heck is that music coming from?" She shouted, her swarm abuzz as she tried to track down where that music was coming from. Problem was, the bugs she could get access to weren't exactly equipped with the best auditory sensors. And the music was getting closer. It was really starting to irritate her, because it meant that her swarm was focused on trying to find a leak rather than keeping track of the Protectorate response outside.
"I don't know, but it's pretty good." Grue mumbled off to her side.
"You would know." Regent commented offhandedly.
"Don't be a dick just because you don't have taste. I still don't understand why you love classical strings." Grue shot back, disarming Regent's insult. Regent shrugged, he didn't have an explanation either.
"Strings suck, pound it." Regent scoffed, Grue froze, and Taylor flinched. Who had said that? Bitch was in the other room and Tattletale was with her. And no way was a hostage that brave. She and the other Undersiders turned around, with Grue clearing away some of the darkness. Standing there was a man in a suit Taylor had never seen before, but he had to be professional. His outfit was clearly well made, but it was stylized as though it were graffiti'd. He had two lenses on his mask and a large red spider emblazoned across his chest.
"What, you're just gonna leave me hanging? That's cold man." The stylized person said. The Undersiders watched him closely, waiting for him to make a move.
"So what are a bunch of kids like you doing in a bank like this?" He said taking a good look around. The man's eyes seemed to linger on the hostages before snapping back to Taylor and her team.
"Who the hell are you?" Leave it to Regent to be a master with words. He pointed his scepter at him. The man simply pointed at himself.
"Me? Really? I'm just your friendly neighborhood Spider-man. You know, like the song says," And at that exact moment in the song, the line dropped. The man then pressed his fingers to the side of his neck and cut the music.
"Now who are you guys?" He asked cheerily, but it only made Taylor more wary. Her swarm was spread out through the entire bank! How in the world had he snuck in? She tried to send one of her insects towards him, but all of a sudden she felt it lash back at her through her power. It wouldn't go near him. She'd never seen this problem before.
"Drop." Regent answered succinctly. Spider-man ( as he called himself) looked startled as though he didn't expect an answer.
"Damn, that's the first time I met a polite villain. So what's your last name?" The hero (clearly he was a hero, given how he called them villains, maybe a vigilante) responded.
"Drop dead asshole." And here, Regent adopted the sneer that he usually did when activating his power, and swung his taser at the masked man. Only for it to be stopped by Spider-man wrapping his hand around it and grabbing it from behind the swing. Regent struggled to pull it out of the hero's grip, and from what little Taylor had learned of self defense lessons, the way he caught it was the hardest method of blocking it.
"Tut. Tut. That's not a nice word, Drop." The spider scolded. Regent adopted a panicked look in his eyes.
"Grue!" He screamed out.
"Got it! Skitter, get a swarm in here!" Her team leader commanded as he brought the darkness to full bear once more. Taylor stalled. She didn't get a chance to tell them!
"I can't, my bugs won't go near him!" She spoke hushed, hoping she didn't give away one of her attack options. She winced as she saw a light cut through the darkness. It was a pale blue and gave off an eerie glow.
"Don't you know? Spiders eat bugs." Oh god.
\-\
"Uh, ma'am? What exactly are you doing here and who are you?" Gallant asked, extremely underprepared for what he was seeing. A woman in a very polarizing costume with a monochromatic scheme and pink highlights was leaned back on a cop car watching the bank. She turned towards him, and Gallant got a good look at her mask. The pale lenses added a lot to her intimidation factor.
"I lost a race." Gallant stared at her confused. That… explained absolutely nothing. He didn't have much time to think it over as Clockblocker decided to step in and try his particular brand of charisma.
"Hey hot mama, the name's Clockblocker, what's a dancer like you doing in a dump like this." Gallant shot a look at the other Ward wearing his suit. Did he just insuinuate-
"I don't do ballet anymore. The shoes are just for comfort." Sure enough, Gallant noted, she was wearing blue ballet shoes as part of her outfit.
"And I'm just waiting." Both Wards looked at each other, all of a sudden much more on guard. That was a classic villain maneuver if anything. Gallant approached cautiously.
"Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you-" The side of Brockton Central all of a sudden exploded outward in a shower of dust and debris. As the smoke cleared out, all the Protectorate forces on hand were watching it clearly. In the middle of a pile of crushed cement were… three of Bitch's dogs?! Another dark shape launched itself out of the hole and landed on top of the bodies of the dogs. It stood to full height, it was a man in what was clearly a super mask. He clapped a few times, then motioned as to wipe dust off his shoulder. He looked up, as if he was all of a suddenly aware of the near thirty Protectorate soldiers with rifles trained on him. He held up both hands. And started waving.
"No need for the applause folks. Just your friendly neighborhood Spider-man cleaning up some bank robbers." Gallant couldn't believe the balls on this guy.
"Took you long enough!" Gallant's head snapped to the woman next to him. Now that he thought about it, the motif between the two were very similar if in different styles. The large and expressive lenses on the mask, along with the skin tight suit and the spider web styling were very telling aspects of both outfits. The man's head snapped in their direction.
"Oh, you made the goober already?" He shouted at the woman from across the street. Gallant stalled, what the hell was a goober?
"Yeah, and it took me half the time it took you to finish fighting them Speedy Gonzalez." She yelled back. And then the man huffed? Yep, he was pouting.
"There's like three more of these mutant dogs in there and five super powered teens. It took a bit longer than I thought it would!" He shouted. The white colored hero covered her mouth with her hand and giggled into it. God this was weird. It was like being the third wheel in a date, Gallant thought.
"Well come on then, let's go!" And on those words, every rifle was set to safety off. It was at this time, that Gallant decided to finally wake up and do his job as the leader of the wards. He cleared his throat and engaged one of the speakers in Clockblocker's suit (they were in every Ward suit so they could get messages across crowds quickly).
"Sir, as part of the Brockton Bay Wards, I have to request that you please stay and surrender yourself to the Protectorate." Both pair of white lenses snapped to him like he was an idiot. He chafed a little under their gazes.
"Please?" He ventured. The lenses met each other.
"He said 'please'." The man said shrugging his shoulders.
"Just do the thing Spider-man." The woman said exasperated. The thing? Then it happened. In plain sight of all the news copters, the Protectorate, and the Wards, Spider-man disappeared instantly. Gallant turned his gaze back from the ensuing panic towards the woman next to him, and she was gone too! He was so screwed! Carlos decided it was finally a good time to speak up.
"You think they're dating? I don't think I can compete with that."
\-\
"So why do we need this goober again?" Miles asked, after swallowing a bite from the burger he bought. It was pretty good to be honest, but had nothing on the burgers back home. Wait, was he becoming Peter?
Uninterested with Miles' ensuing identity crisis, Gwen simply tapped away at the laptop they bought with some of the bank records Gwen created while they were fighting. It was fairly easy for her to simply download the encryption software the bank used for two party identification when she had access to the source. All of a sudden a fry drenched in ketchup was waved in front of her face.
"Come on Gwen eat, we've got time. Besides, like you said, even though we're not in our home dimension, we're not glitching out." Miles consoled as he took another bite of delicious, delicious burger. She let out a light sigh. Miles was probably right, but at the same time, she felt he was treating this with way too much candor.
"I need to use these bank records to falsify a past. It won't pass any serious F.B.I. level investigation, but if we want to do something like open a credit line or rent an apartment, we need it." She hummed as she typed away. It'd only make sense if both of them were eighteen, as they would be emancipated then. Miles could probably pass for it, considering his height and muscle mass, but it'd be a bit harder to pass herself off. Maybe she could-
"Yeah I get that, but trust me. Even if we have to stick around here for the long term, worrying about it before we get-" He said as he closed her laptop, but Gwen cut him off.
"One of us has to be worried, Miles. I don't get how you could sit there when we have no idea of what's going on in our home dimensions. For all we know, everyone we know and love could be-" She began but her mouth was closed by a burger being shoved in her mouth. Miles ran his hand through his hair.
"Look, I know. Remember? We're the same. It's just, we can't do anything from here. From the looks of it, this place doesn't even have a Tony Stark! Do you know how much super genius stuff was inspired from him? It's like all of a sudden I'm in one of my Uncle's old gang flicks. We can't do anything right now. And, well, worrying about them is only going to slow us down while we try to get back. We just have to hope they're alright." He said grimly. Gwen took a bite of her burger as she considered what he said. She chewed and forced the greasy lump down her throat.
"But what if they're not?" She asked quietly. What about her Dad? Her band? What about all the small things that she didn't think she'd miss but are now gone?
"They have to be. Besides, we're Spider-men. We're built on hope. If we're good, then they're good right?" He said trying to cheer both of them up. Gwen eyed him carefully.
"You've really grown Miles."
A.N. Read and Review