The journey begins
The man got up to his feet and saw Miles advancing towards him, he raised his arm to block him when Miles jumped high in the air, the moment he raised his gaze, a fist and a kick to the face sent him back on the ground.
Gwen shot web after web at his head to block his field of vision. She then grabbed his arms he tried to vibrate his face and shed the webbing before Miles smeared his face with a thick layer of web as he landed. Both of them continued to do that while wrapping him in a cocoon, running circles around him however he was constantly vibrating his entire body faster than the two could complete it.
"Hold him still" Peni ordered before throwing a miniaturised device that latched on to him, His vibrations stopped a few seconds later before sparks came from different parts of his body and his fell on one leg with his head down.
" is it over?" Gwen asked still wobbly due to the effects of the drug in her system.
" I don't know looks like.." Miles was cut off as he saw the man go invisible.
"Where is he?" Peni asked before suddenly being lifted off the ground and shoved violently away landing a couple of feet away.
Miles was helping a struggling Gwen to her feet before being punched in the face again. He swung wildly his one free arm which struck something that landed through the door breaking it.
" Get Peni I can take care of myself, I'm ok Miles.."
Peni was shakily getting up trying to activate his companion who was in "sleep mode", she fumbled with the controls she had with her activating just in time to see him struggling against something invisible. He grabbed it more pressure and pushed it to the ground.
Miles arrived and started to do the same hoping to crack through his outer shell, when the man turned visible again. He managed to slip through the ground.
"What just happened?"
"Elements of his body run on some form of electrical current that made him susceptible to my EMP device, it looks like he managed to reboot himself somehow. Woah…" Peni swayed before sitting on the couch reeling from the effects of the drug.
"Where did he go? We have to alert the others. How did he do that?"
"Let's get to the basement. That's where he went." Gwen stumbled towards the elevator.
Spider noir who was still asleep suddenly woke up with a start and looked around. " I just had a flashback. Or was it a dream? I'm not sure..hey guys what uhh..what happened here?" He finished looking around at the destruction. " May is going to be pissed" he mumbled incoherently courtesy of the remaining vestiges of the sedative.
Miles decided to follow Gwen as Spider noir came up to Peni.
"What's wrong?"
" I don't know it looks like he scrambled my device that was scanning him somehow".
"I'll go check on May" Spider noir said as he proceeded to go into her room. She was still in deep sleep. He took her pulse, it was slow but going steadily. He wondered briefly if he should take her with them but then he stopped in his tracks remembering he couldn't exactly defend her in this state. He decided to follow the rest to the basement.
At the basement all of them were soundly asleep as the man fell through the floor and landed close to the spider man who were jolted out of "deep sleep" status through the noise but once again not fully awake.
Peter was watching MJ coming towards him..in a bathrobe walking suggestively. She came close to him and leaned in. He opened his mouth to kiss her senseless when she placed her foot on the floor with a loud thud. He saw her do it again with her other foot and then repeat it as if on a loop.
"C'mon babe what are you doing?" he whined.
"Wake up you idiot, there'll be plenty of time to ogle me later!" and her tapping got louder and louder
Peter groggily woke up to see the man walking towards him thankfully In a much more robotic manner, otherwise the resemblance to his dream would have been too uncanny for him to digest! He tried to hit him on the face but it went through him. The moment the man grabbed him he hit his face and grabbed it between his legs before landing on his hands and throwing him over the head to the other side.
Peter then jumped and latched himself to the ceiling. "Guys I kinda need help here" he yelled reaching the coms. "Also a strategy to beat this guy!". He said moving from one spot to the next on the ceiling barely managing to dodge the guy as he tried to catch him like a basketball.
The elevator opened. The man scanned it and found it to be empty. Confused he entered it and looked around. It was pitch black and the faint outline of equipment attached in the background.
Another contraption slightly larger than before attached to his back. It exploded landing him on his face before he swiftly got up and turned around to see a cloud of smoke surrounding the base outside the elevator.
" Now" the muffled voice of Spider noir yelled before a barrage of webbing started to come at the man's face. He wiped it of slowly enough for Peni to throw another EMP device at him. Once again sparks flew off and instantly he went invisible.
"Seriously how is he still turning invisible? I still don't know how my invisibility works except I can turn it on and off to my will." Miles thought.
"You sure have a lot of toys" Spider noir said.
"I came prepared. But it doesn't seem enough for these guys. Hold him down".
The man was strong however the combined strength of all the superheroes and Peni's companion proved too much as he was perfectly still. Peni started to program the emp device to blast as soon as it detects a surge of current through the man and keep it going for several loops atleast. It was tech from the future after all.
They all had goggles on that could detect wavelengths of a wider range than the human eye including infrared so they could see him struggling to break free.
" Who are you?" Gwen decided to try.
The man stopped struggling and looked at her. She could see his featureless face looking at her. If it wasn't for the fact that he moved like he was sentient he would've made a hell of a scarecrow.
"Does he even talk?" Miles asked
"He wants something from all of us…Mind telling us anything? Why you literally turned back time? Robbed a store? Also interrupted my dream" Peter finished with a thought.
The man simply struggled to get free as another EMP device was activated as he looked at all of them but didn't say anything.
They held him down for several minutes before Peter asked.
"Hey how is Aunt May?"
"She's asleep it'll probably take a few more hours for the drug to wear off. Did you find anything Peni?" Spider noir asked.
"It looks like he is covered in some form of exoskeleton that has adaptive nanotechnology embedded in it. But I really don't understand some of the materials on him. I would need a spectrometer to confirm but some of these alloys, their unlike anything else even in the future world I'm from."
"So what are you saying? He's an android that's also an alien or something?" Gwen asked
"It's possible but I need to get a peek inside him to confirm. One thing is for sure. Someone else is behind all this."
"How can you tell?" Miles asked.
"This" Peni said tapping his face " is a screen it's connected to some kind of a neural interface that is communicating with him sending him instructions. This last piece of communication I was able to download was that to sedate all of us. Thankfully he didn't delete all traces of communication or was unable to."
Peter's thoughts meanwhile shifted to May as he saw her lying perfectly still on her bed in the computer screen. He knew she was asleep but the uncanny resemblance to his own aunt lying on the deathbed brought back traces of the haunting feelings he had buried deep down with her. He knew they couldn't have seen this coming but he felt the familiar guilt all the same along with the emotion he hated the most: Helplessness. He quickly shook it off and silently swore to do a better job of protecting her.
Meanwhile in another universe
A lone figure was sleeping. Various apparatus was attached to his torso. Men and women were taking readings, sorting through data. Shouting instructions at one another. It was almost like a symphony of movement perfectly coordinated with one another. Upon closer inspection some of them were not completely human.
In the dreamlike sequence the movements in the real world were mirrored in the city as the lone figure roamed from one point to another taking in the sprawling city.
"The detailing is impressive, but.." the figure paused looking at the mechanical movements of the people around him." It still not human enough."
Suddenly the figures faded into oblivion before the lone figure's eyes opened in the real world. "Why the hell did you bring me out?"
"One of your minions were caught right now. Do you want to deploy another one?"
"They are already deployed. It's automatic I told you, the spider men are the biggest threats to our plans right now as they may hinder our progress to collect data about the different worlds but their lives are also a big part of what we hope to achieve here. You don't think I prepared for that? Let me get back to perfecting the projections which is what you need me for."
The man simply nodded before letting him go back to sleep. He then turned around before going upstairs and joining the rest of the men who were teleconferencing the whole thing.
"Do you think he can do it?"
"I always thought they were two kinds of people who has the kinds of ambition that he does. The delusional or the visionary. Right now I'm having a hard time deciding which bucket he falls into"
"Alright apparently that's good enough for the other investors to fund this venture of his"
"Did you know there is a whole other universe where animals talk. He's going to visit it the next time."
"At this point anything's possible. What about the humans in that world?"
"We don't know."
"Let's see what he finds out."
"In the meantime what to do with the kidnapped specimen?"
"He said he sent one to study their abilities, understand their lives. Is this the one?"
" After he finishes the simulation it's time we all had a long overdue talk" another spoke up and everyone nodded in agreement as they looked at a smaller screen revealing Peni's companion seemingly disabled.
In Miles's world
"How long is it going to take?"
"Just a couple of more minutes"
Peter was watching May at the screen when suddenly sparks started to fly again from the man's body in all directions and the man started to disintegrate bit by bit.
"What the hell is happening?" Peter asked
"Someone's disintegrating him, the signal is foreign, I can't stop it" Peni replied panicking.
The man was disintegrating part by part. As his face started to turn inward almost like it was imploding he managed to twist his arm and grab Peni's companion's face. He pulled apart and the familiar blips started to appear all over his body and he was vibrating violently.
He fell down completely blank just as the man disintegrated completely. Everyone was too shocked to say anything.
" NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Peni screamed as she went scurrying to his friend and before she could open him up, the blips appeared again before he transformed into another black clad man.
The split second shock was quickly overwhelmed by response as all the superheroes quickly grabbed the immobile man.
Peni was full out sobbing at this point but a part of her knew something was wrong with the scans. But she didn't know where her real companion was at this point. Was it possible someone destroyed him completely..no it's not possible she wouldn't allow it not after nearly losing him the last time.
Before she could process her emotions further the man opened what looked like a pair of eyes that looked way too similar and disturbing for Peni to look at. Without wasting any time she started first.
"Where is he? What have you done to him?" she shouted.
Hey guys I have a question. In the movie Spider ham asked a question about animals in other dimensions but he doesn't say anything about humans. So do I keep them in this story? If yes should they sentient in a way humans normally are? What do you say? Let me know.
Also I'll start calling Peni's companion Sp/dr from now on.
