Enjoy!
"Nice house you have here," Johnny mused.
"It suits us well," Harry said. "Now, why do you need Spider-Man?"
"May I?" Johnny asked, pointing to the sofa.
Harry nodded as he and Gwen also took seats facing Johnny.
"There is someone we need rescuing from a sticky situation, but my team are currently working on another mission and can't help them, so we thought about who we could get to aid us and we thought of Spider-Man. Do you think you can help us?"
"Who do you need rescuing?" Harry enquired.
"Have you heard of the Power Pack?"
"I believe I have," Harry said. "Aren't they a group of children?"
"Well, two of them are teenagers and the other two are slightly younger. Well anyway, Alex, the older one, has gone missing. We think we have located him, but we need help with his recovery. The Power Pack's parents aren't letting the other three out of their sight."
"Do they know of their children's abilities?" Gwen asked.
"No, the kids have managed to hide them away. They think Alex has been kidnapped and they are worried to know that the Fantastic Four are involved. We just want to see him returned safely, we have worked with the Power Pack several times and they have become good friends of ours. Reed, Sue and Ben are devastated they can't come and help."
Harry looked at Gwen.
"Well I don't see why I can't come and help."
"Thank you so much. You know, I did work occasionally with Peter when he started out as Spider-Man. It was a great honour and it will be an honour to work with you as well. Are you able to come now?"
"If it is alright with Gwen?" Harry said.
"Go, it sounds like you are really needed. We can cope here while you are gone."
"Well that settles it then. I am coming with you. Shall we head upstairs?"
"Upstairs?"
"You'll see why," Harry said.
He reached into his pocket and brought out his mask. Standing up he motioned for Johnny to follow him to the stairs. As they went up, Harry removed his coat, tie and began to unbutton his shirt, revealing his suit below.
"Just a sec," he said as they passed a door.
Opening it, Harry placed the clothes on a chair just inside. He flicked his shoes off and bent down to pull off his socks. Unbuckling his belt, down came his trousers. In a flash, he pulled on his boots and gloves. Finally he turned up the collar of the suit, from where he had folded it down so it was hidden beneath his shirt.
"Ok, let's keep going," Harry said as he pulled the door shut.
They were soon in the attic.
"What are we doing up here?" Johnny asked.
"This is my exit," Harry explained as he pulled his mask on half way.
Turning, he gave a final kiss to Gwen and then pulled the mask all the way down. Pressing the button that opens the roof, he got ready to leap out.
"Now that is cool," Johnny said. "Flame on!"
Flames burst out and surrounded Johnny, giving him his famed Human Torch look.
"Bring him back in one piece," Gwen said, "or your worst villain will be nothing compared to me."
"She's a feisty one. You chose well," Johnny said.
"She is the love of my life and I wouldn't have her any other way."
With that, the two jumped out of the attic and were off on their way across the city, heading towards the Baxter Building, leaving Gwen watching her new fiancé swing away.
"Come back safely Harry," she whispered.
Turning, Gwen pressed the button again and the roof door swung shut. She headed back downstairs, where she was going to make herself I nice cocoa and cuddle up on the sofa to watch TV.
A while later, Gwen was fast asleep on the sofa, her blanket covering her sleeping body, the TV still on. The front door opened and Ben and Miles walked in. They both came through to find Gwen.
"Do you think she's alright?" Miles asked.
"Why?"
"She has a sad look on her face, like something bad has happened."
"I don't know, we'll have to wait till she wakes up."
As if by coincidence, Gwen chose at that moment to stir from her slumber and open her eyes, to see the two boys looking at her.
"Oh hi, you're back then."
"Yeah, how are you doing?" Ben asked.
"Hmmm," came the reply as Gwen stretched and sat up.
"That good?"
Gwen proceeded to tell them what had happened.
"Hey, congratulations," Ben said when she mentioned the engagement. "That's amazing."
"Absolutely!" echoed Miles.
Gwen quietly thanked them and finished recounting the events of the evening.
"We should have gone instead," Ben said when she explained where Harry had gone. "I would quite happily have done that."
"I know, but Johnny wanted the Spider-Man. We didn't want to reveal all of our identities to him. Too many people are beginning to discover who we really are. Harry was really hesitant in even talking to him at first."
"Well I hope he isn't gone too long, we need him here to help deal with the current threat."
"I know," Gwen signed. "But we'll just have to step up and try to cover his absence. I better go and call Liz, she'll need to cover Oscorp."
With that, Gwen got up and went to another room to go and phone Liz.
"Do you think he's going to come back?" Miles asked.
"He better, or I am going to kill him," Ben said.
They both turned in for the night, wondering on the fate of Harry and whether he and the Human Torch would succeed in the venture.
Three days had passed and there was still no sign of Harry or Johnny. Gwen had begun to panic and had moved to stay with Aunt May who was supporting her. Ben and Mile were constantly checking when on patrol for any sign. Liz had been trying the placate Tony Stark on Harry's disappearance and no show at Oscorp.
Ben had just woken up and was plodding his way down the stairs. It had been a rough night, he and Miles had managed to stop a murder, three burglaries, a gang shoot out and dealt with an apartment block on fire. What he needed right now was a large mug of coffee, however that may have to wait.
As he reached the bottom of the stairs, there was a loud knocking on the front door. It got harder and more desperate. Ben checked the camera screen. It was a boy, about 12 years old. He had short brown hair, blue eyes, fair skin and was dressed in a blue t-shirt, jeans and trainers. He was also quite well build for a 12 year old, muscle clearly visible on his arms.
"COME ON, ANSWER THE DOOR!" the boy shouted, while still persisting with the banging.
'He seems as though he may be in trouble,' Ben thought.
With a sigh, he went over to the door, unlocked it and pulled it open. The boy was just bringing his fist down for another knock as the door opened and instead of connecting with the wood, it was about to connect with Ben's chest. However, he was able to use his spider sense to moved out of the way in time, so the boy stumbled forward as his fist went into the empty void. Ben caught him before he fell.
"Finally," the boy said. "I thought I would be knocking for ages. Where's my brother? Is he here?"
"I think you might have the wrong house, buddy. There isn't anyone else here."
"No I was told that my brother would be here. Where is he?"
"Whoah there. Who is your brother?"
"Alex. Alex Power. I was told he would be here."
"Who told you he would be here?" Ben asked.
"A voice, a voice in my dream. I was told to meet him here. I had to escape from my parents to get here."
Ben realised that this must the brother of the boy Harry and Johnny had gone to rescue.
"You had better come inside," Ben said. He didn't want to raise the neighbour's suspicions.
The boy rushed in and Ben quickly closed the door. He directed the boy to the living room and told him to sit down. Ben felt slightly embarrassed because he was still wearing his pyjamas, a t-shirt and shorts. For someone who goes out in public wearing spandex, to be embarrassed about wearing pyjamas in front of a 12 year old, was stupid.
"So what's your name?" he asked the lad.
"Jack, what's yours?" came the reply.
Ben hesitated for a moment. He wasn't sure whether to use his real name, but how could the boy know of his extra curricular activities. He felt it would be ok.
"I'm Ben. Perhaps you could tell me more about the voice that told you to come here."
"I don't know, it was really strange. It came to me as I was dreaming last night and it woke me up in such a fright. There was no face or any images, just the voice. It seemed to be shouting, almost in desperation but I didn't recognise who it was."
Ben thought for a moment. He needed to see if the boy was really who he claimed to be.
"How can you prove to me you are who you say you are?"
Jack gave a little smile and jumped to his feet.
"Easy. Costume on!"
As he finished speaking, there was a swirl of golden light that appeared just below Jack's chin and it began to spin and descend around him. As it did so, the clothes that had been covered by the light disappeared and were replaced by a blue skin tight suit, that had a black square covering the torso and a blue cloud like shape in the centre of that. The black also extended down his right sleeve and a small v on the back of his collar. He had silver bands around his wrists and also at the top of his boots, just under his knees.
"Mass Master at your service," Jack announced as his suit finished appearing.
"Quite an entrance, Mass Master," Ben said. "Are you supposed to reveal your secret identity to a stranger? How do you know I can be trusted? I might not even know about your brother."
That stumped Jack for a moment and made him think that he had just done something really stupid. However at that moment, someone else was going to do something more stupid.
"Hey Ben, how's it going?" Miles said walking into the living room.
He too had just gotten up, but was feeling much fresher that Ben. So much so, Miles was going to go out and have another swing around the city, which would explain why he had come into the living room wearing his Kid Arachnid suit, without the mask. When Miles saw Jack he stopped in his tracks.
"Oh," was all the sound he could make.
"That makes me think you can be trusted," Jack said, pointing at Miles. "You share a house with Kid Arachnid. Does that mean you know Spider-Man? Are you Spider-Man?"
"No kid, I am not Spider-Man," Ben replied truthfully.
It wasn't a lie, he wasn't Spider-Man, Scarlet Spider yes, Spider-Man no.
"Yes I do know Spider-Man. He went with the Human Torch to go and rescue your brother, but we haven't seen them back yet. Sorry."
Jack slumped back into his seat.
"It looks like you have things all sewn up here," Miles said. "I'll just leave you to it."
He turned to leave the room, but was stopped by Ben.
"Oh no you don't. You have royally messed up, so you can wait here with us."
Miles' shoulders slumped.
"Fine."
He moved round the sofa and dropped his mask on the coffee table and slumped down next to Jack.
"So who are you then?" Miles asked Jack.
"I'm Jack and I am here to find my brother Alex."
"Oh the one that Spider-Man and the Human Torch went to go and find?" Miles directed that question to Ben, who nodded.
"I am sure they will find him," Miles reassured Jack.
They sat for a few more moments in silence, no one knowing what to say. It wasn't long before Jack piped up.
"So if you're Kid Arachnid and Spider-Man is out getting Jack, do you know Scarlet Spider?"
"We do know him yes," Ben replied before Miles could add to the mess he had created. "He isn't here at the moment. He went out on patrol, which is where Kid Arachnid was supposed to be."
Ben's face hardened at that moment.
Suddenly, a bright, glowing square appeared in the middle of the room, hanging in midair. The three of them jumped up. Miles there on his mask and Jack suddenly went from being a solid human, to a floating cloud, his top half still looking like him, but his legs had been replaced by cloud at his waist. Ben was stuck, without his suit, he had to play the part of regular human. He got into a defensive stance. The centre of the square began to disappear as from the inside of the edges, the light began to expand. Within seconds, the whole square was now a bright golden light.
What came next surprised the occupants of the room. A foot suddenly shot out of the light, a black boot, followed by the rest of the leg, which was covered in a skin tight material, coloured white, but with black shapes appearing over the surface every now and then. A second foot and leg followed and then a torso, arms and then head. The hands were last out and attached to those where the familiarise gloves of Spider-Man, who followed the figure. They both clattered to the floor. A moment later, the Human Torch emerged, flying through and landing a short distance away.
"Shut the gate," Spider-Man said.
The Human Torch turned and hurriedly pressed a button on a device he was holding. This time, the outer edges of the square began to shrink, until it disappeared altogether, with a slight pop.
"Alex!" Jack cried with glee, as he ran over to his brother, who was sprawled on the floor.
"Hey Jack, you made it," Alex said as he raised his head. "Why are you wearing your costume?"
Alex's tone had changed to add a light bit of anger.
"Um, I needed to prove who I was. I had to show that I was related to you and that was the only way I knew how."
"Sorry, that is my fault," Ben said. "I just had to make sure. When you have a strange boy knocking at your door early in the morning and then coming up with a story about a missing brother, you have to get the facts straight."
Spider-Man turned to actually look at Ben and Miles and realised Miles was in his suit.
"Um," Spider-Man gestured to Ben and Miles, "can I have a word with you two?"
"Sure," they both said together.
The three hurried out into the kitchen, where Spider-Man pulled up his mask to reveal Harry beneath, with a very big black eye.
"What happened to your eye?" Miles was halfway through saying, when Harry interrupted him.
"Why are you not wearing your mask?" he asked in an angry whisper.
Ben explained what had happened, but Harry didn't seem very impressed about it.
"We're just luck that the Power Pack can be trusted. Johnny speaks very highly of them and the work they have done with the Fantastic Four. Does he know that you are Scarlet Spider?"
"No he doesn't. I told him that Scarlet is out on patrol."
"Good." Harry put his head in his hand. "Too many people, too many people," is all he said.
"Spider-Man!" called Johnny from the other room.
Harry pulled his mask back down and proceeded through to the living room.
"Yes," he said.
"Thanks again for everything," Johnny said, holding out his hand, which Harry took and shook.
"It was a pleasure, dangerous, but a pleasure. It was good meeting you Alex, just try not to get sucked into a parallel universe again."
Harry shook Alex's hand and smiled under his mask, although no one could tell.
"Thank you Spider-Man. I promise to stay away from inter-world gateways."
"Come on kids, we had better get you back to your parents before they miss you," Johnny said.
"Wait," Jack interrupted. "The voice telling me to come here, what was that?"
"That was me," Spider-Man said. "We needed to open the gateway somewhere safe, this house, but needed someone with DNA similar to ours on the other side. You were the best choice. We managed to send an echo signal through the gateway. It took us a whole week just to get that working. We then took a second week trying to open the gateway enough for us to get through."
"You were there for two weeks?" Jack questioned.
"Yes, but it felt much longer," Jonny said. "You sound surprised."
"It's only been three days for us," Ben said.
"Time must work differently where we were," Spider-Man said.
"Anyway, we need to go, regardless of how long. The longer they are away from their parents, the harder it will be to explain to them," Johnny said.
They said their goodbyes and Johnny left with Jack and Alex in tow. Ben, Miles and
Harry were left in peace, which allowed Harry to remove his mask.
"You better let Gwen know you're back," Ben said to Harry.
"Where is she?" he asked.
"She went to stay with Aunt May last night. She was getting really worried about you."
"I'll go and phone her now."
Harry ran out of the room and upstairs to his bedroom, where he had left his phone in his trouser pocket.
"Right, can I now go out on patrol?" Miles asked.
"Sure," Ben said with a wave of his hand.
He didn't really care. All Ben wanted was his cup of coffee. He zombie walked into the kitchen, grabbed a mug and put it under the coffee machine. Putting a pod inside, he pushed a button and watched the steaming brown liquid fill the mug. When it had finished, he picked it up and brought it to his mouth. As it ran down his throwing, Ben felt so much better and with that, he went back to the living room to watch TV as he sipped his drink. When he got back there, Miles was gone and Harry hadn't reappeared. Not his problem right now, it was time to relax. It had been a strange morning.