Well...this is it: the ending of Two Spiders on a Web. I can't believe it went this far. I only did this cause someone suggested an MCU Peter and Spider-Gwen pairing and it just ballooned into something I didn't expect people would be into. I thought I'd finish this in about 5 chapters, maybe 10 tops, but now we've doubled that.
And this is with me still cutting stuff off. I still had plans for more slice of life segments like going to the beach, more Hero for Hire shenanigans, Karen becoming Earth-65 Vision, the entire plot with Shadowcat that got massively cut down etc etc. It's probably for the best. This story is bloated enough even with those removed.
As complying with the majority of votes Tony Stark dies. Sorry for the people who wanted him alive for shenanigans and funny awkward family dinners, but the majority has spoken. Least he can still come back in the Spider focused Extra Story.
Peter swung ahead to Stark tower with Gwen right behind him. His head was swirling, jumping from one thought to another. Disbelief at what just happened, shock that they'd just been attacked and now a growing feeling of uncertainty of what they were going to do now.
But most of all he was angry. Angry at To- Stark for tricking him and angry at himself for letting him. Gwen warned him. She told him not to trust Stark and he didn't believe her. He was so desperate to see Mr. Stark again that he let himself think that the stranger wearing his face was someone he could believe in. This was all his fault. He gave him the nanotech, he was the one who helped him create his inventions.
All of this was his fault.
"Peter, your heart rate is elevated," Karen said, "Please calm down. You will need a clear mind for the fight ahead."
"Yeah, I'm with her," Gwen said. They both decided to keep an open line on their comms; needed whatever advantage they could get right now, "If those bots are anything like the ones we fought back at Wasp's place this is gonna be a hell of a shitshow. We need to make sure to get the civvies out first. Then we need to find a way to take the fight somewhere more isolated."
"Maps indicate a condemned building close by. It should be unoccupied," Karen said.
"Then I guess we'll lure them there first," Peter said. They were getting close now, "Gwen...I'm really sorry about-"
"Not now, Pete. Let's just kick this guy's ass first before we start apologizing for anything, yeah?"
"Absolutely."
The scene they got made him sick. Burning cars, people screaming and running as the goblin bots caused chaos around them. It reminded him when he was just a kid. 11 years old when he and May were out in town when the Chitauri attacked. He remembered hiding in a car with May holding him tight, trying to shush his crying while buildings were destroyed around them. How many kids were down there now, he wondered, being held in their parent's arms while some bastard destroyed everything.
And leading the charge was them. Spider-Man and Spider-Woman. It was going to be the final nail in their coffin, the fall of the Spiders and, presumably, the rise of this world's Iron Man.
Not on their watch.
Peter webbed the outstretched arm of a goblintron before it could chuck a bomb at a fleeing crowd and jerked it up, "Oh no you don't!" The bomb flew upwards and exploded right between the fake Spiders. Peter heard a pair of all too human screams come from the pair and when he looked again he saw whatever holographic disguise they used flickering in and out. That would make things easier.
"I'll go after my evil twin! You do yours!" Gwen swung past him and, before her copy could even turn to look at her, kicked her straight across the ribs with both feet hard enough to smash her against the side of a building. Peter followed her lead and shot two lines of webbing straight at the flickering Spider-Man's chest. Looking closer he that the suit definitely wasn't nanotech. It looked too crude, too makeshift. Must've been one of Mysterio's spares.
Made this easier then.
Peter pulled himself towards the fake Spider and punched him hard in the jaw. He dodged the retaliatory repulsor blast and flipped back with his right hand aimed forward, "Karen, activate stun web!" The webs came out in a rapid burst of short, hardened balls. The fake Spider-Man grunted and was pushed back when Peter raised his left hand and fired a web mine on the roof of the opposite building.
He flipped and kicked him in the chest. The mine gave a quick beep and pulled him straight down to the roof. Peter webbed his arms, legs and face down till the fake Spider was covered under a literal ton of webbing.
Off to the side, Gwen kicked her doppleganger in the head hard enough to break the holographic helmet. Just barely Peter saw the fake's eyes widen in shock before jumped, shot two lines of webbing at the side of the roof then surge forward like a slingshot.
Gwen gave her another hit for good measure then webbed her down like Peter did his, "Come on!" She nudged her head and broke into a swing with Peter following after her. With the fakes gone the goblintrons switched targets from the civilans to them, "Any of them staying behind?!" Gwen shouted.
Peter looked back and didn't spot any stragglers, "No, I don't think so!" They were close to the building now. It definitely looked abandoned; actually it looked more like it was on its last legs with chunks of it missing and the foundation open. Perfect place to make sure no one would get hurt, "Karen, you have any ideas?"
"Nothing for now, Peter. None of these machines have nanotech so they should be simple to dispatch."
"Got it."
Peter grabbed a pole and used it to spin himself around. He shot towards the goblintron at the front kicked it off its glider, "I'll take that!" Gwen landed on the glider and used it to charge a group of four goblintrons clustered together. She waited till the last second before she activated the pumpkin bombs in the storage compartment and jumping off.
He felt the explosion even from where he was, "Use their tools against them, Peter." Karen. Peter hummed and, after punching through another goblintron, grabbed the lightsaber clipped to its waist, "Hey, over here!" He sliced another clean in half. This should've been so cool, but now all he could think about was what would come next. They'd have to fight Stark next, right?
They took down the last of the bots when his spider-sense rang again, "Peter, multiple hostiles approaching." He looked up and the mask of his eyes narrowed when he saw the approaching group of 9. More nanotech like the guy they fought in Dyne Tower, but the one in front stood out. His suit was sleeker, a mix of black and silver with none of the rough edges of the ones around him.
That was Stark.
"Look who finally showed up." Gwen landed next to him and he practically saw the sneer under her mask, "What was your plan here, Stark? Frame us for crimes then swoop on in and be the big fucking hero?"
"Believe it or not, it wasn't." His voice was calm, casual like the times they sat down and talked over Chinese food. Peter's hands balled into tight fists, "If the kid just played along and didn't start poking around things would've gone great. I wasn't lying when I said I liked you." He looked right at him. Peter suddenly felt sick, "You're smart, you had a bright future ahead of you. Was even gonna offer you a job in case the whole dimension thing didn't pan out."
"You used me..." Peter muttered. Karen said something but he didn't even hear her.
"Used you? Last I checked I didn't force you into anything. You were the one who came rolling up to me with your hands out." Peter wanted to shout something back, but he couldn't. He was right. He made the first move. He was so desperate to see Mr. Stark again that he was willing to take a stranger wearing his face, "Not that I'm complaining. Cause these things? They're definitely lightyears ahead of the tech I was getting."
"What was the point of the attacks?" Gwen asked, "Framing Harry, hurting and killing all those people...what was the point of it?!"
"Little corporate sabotage. But that's neither here nor there." He nodded to the flying nanotech goons beside him, "Let's take em out, guys. Test run time."
His spider-sense rang again. Peter jumped into a swing and aimed for the closest nano-goon, "Not so fast!" Someone shouted. His spider-sense rang and he didn't even get a chance to kick the guy before a repulsor blast hit him in the side and smashed him against the wall.
"Surround him! Follow the hotel simulation's combat data!" He raised his hand to fire a web grenade before another kicked his wrist and pinned him to the ground, "Make sure he can't use his webs!" Another shouted. Peter fought and struggled but eventually he was pinned to the ground facedown with a nano-goon holding onto each limb.
"Peter, we must-"
"Huh, that was easy." Peter looked up and froze when he saw Gwen. She was held down too, forced on her back with every limb held down like he was, "Knew gathering that combat data would've been useful." Stark stood in front of her. Gwen continued to struggle and growled up at him, her suit turning black and jagged edges piling into the the side of her hood, "That's the symbiote? Interesting. If I was more a biology kind of guy I'd be interested in studying you. But since I'm not..."
Stark raised his right hand and aimed a repulsor blast to Gwen's head. He was going to kill her if he didn't do anything.
He didn't even hesitate to say the next words.
"Karen, activate instant kill!"
The four spider legs jutted out of his back and immediately got to work. The first two holding down his arms got stabbed through the neck before getting tossed off the roof. The ones on his legs were hit in the shoulders and chest first but as soon as Peter managed to stand up they fell too, one with a leg through his forehead and another where his heart would've been.
"Gwen!" He swung towards Stark and hit him as hard as he could. Pieces of the faceplate flew clean off at the impact before the nanotech quickly repaired them, "Get away from here!" The spider legs took down the two holding down her feet. She flipped up, hitting the two holding down her arms as she went, then shot a line of webbing to each of their face before making them headbutt each other.
Peter focused on Stark, "That's new. When did-" He didn't let him finish. All four spider legs stabbed him across the chest. There was no arc reactor - nothing for him to target, the grim part of his mind said - but the hits were enough. More pieces of the armor were damaged and torn away only to be quickly replaced by more and more nanotech.
Stark raised his right hand to blast him away only for Gwen to yank it up, "Oh no you don't!" Her hands turned to claws - that was new - and she slashed him across the back, tearing away more of the silvery metal.
"We should be able to defeat him this way, Peter. His nanites are not infinite and they will be consumed repairing the damage."
He and Gwen continued to wail on him. With every hit he took more and more of the damage had a harder time being repaired until, eventually, there was barely anything left but a few scraps that clung to his chest and face, "Fuck you!" Peter screamed, surprising even himself. The last punch he threw destroyed whatever armor he had left on his face and he crashed against a nearby wall, barely managing to sit up with what little nanotech left on his chest.
Peter stepped back and panted. His hands shook he felt blood running down his forehead but all he could focus on was the bastard still looking up at him with a smirk. The same smirk he'd seen from the man he admired since he was a kid.
"What's so funny?" Gwen spat. She was injured too, and like him she paid it no mind, "Your goons are gone and you just got your ass kicked. Doesn't seem like there's a lot to be happy about."
"Because this isn't your win." He laughed, or at least he tried to. It came out as more of a cough, "Those two copies you left behind back there? They don't know who hired them. My 'goons', as you called them? Well you just killed them so it's not like they can go to the police now. It's gonna be my word against yours and who do you think people are gonna believe? A couple of vigilantes who just killed people or me, the guy who suited up and was going to stop those impostors from tearing up the city."
"You think you can get away with it just like that? You're crazy..." Peter muttered.
"Last I checked people don't get convicted on hunches, kid, and I've planted enough proof to point the finger right at Osborn. Face it, I still win."
"Not exactly," Karen's voice rang out through the mask's speakers. Stark actually looked confused, "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Karen and I'm Peter's on-board AI. You do not know me because I suggested to Peter that I be kept a secret."
"An AI, huh? Alternate dimension me's really ahead of the curve." He hissed and stood up straighter, "So...enlighten me. Why isn't it my win?"
"As Peter's aid and companion I serve numerous purposes. Aside from aiding him in combat I also have autonomy to do things when I believe they'll be helpful, such as recording specific encounters." Stark's face fell as the words sank in, "I've been recording everything you've said since your first arrived. Your admissions of guilt, your quote-unquote evil gloating, and your self-assurances that this is all."
"...Footage like that could easily be faked. I'll just-"
"Even if it was recorded live?" Peter could hear the relish in Karen's voice, "I'm sure you're well aware but Peter and Gwen have been taking on jobs as heroes for hire. I helped set up the site and one of the features is allowing a livestream. It was meant for advertisement purposes, but with a little tweaking it could be used for a number of things. Including outing someone who admitted to claims of domestic terrorism."
"You just-"
"Smile for the cameras."
His spider-sense rang. What little nanotech Stark had left moved to his right palm and he lunged right for him, the metal around his hand in the shape of a blade. Peter grabbed his wrist before the tip could make contact and squeezed it hard, "You're gonna pay for what you've done." With one final squeeze the last of the nanotech broke away and he was left with nothing.
The polcie arrived soon after. Stark was quick to plead his case, insisting that it was all a misunderstanding and that he wanted his lawyer. Peter pulled up the hero for hire site on his phone and saw the footage Karen caught, "Wow..." She was telling the truth. Everything from when Stark showed up to his smug assurances that he'd get off and all blame would fall on Osborn, "Karen...?"
"Yes, Peter?"
"You're the best."
"I love you too, Peter."
He put his phone down and looked at Gwen. She was standing beside him, mask off but face still unreadable, "...Gwen?" He touched her shoulder and she shifted slightly, "Are you okay?"
"Feel like I should be asking you that." She smiled grimly and sat at the edge of the building with Peter sitting to her left, "You just punched a guy who had your mentor's face. How do you feel?"
"Like an idiot for letting him trick me like that." He breathed out slowly, "You were right. You told me not to trust him and that people could be completely different across dimensions but I did it anyway. All of this is my fault."
"Hey, you've seen what he's like. Mysterio, that hotel hostage shit...if it wasn't for the nanotech he would've found some way to do whatever fucked up shit he wanted." She held his hand and squeezed, "Point is we stopped him and he's not gonna hurt anyone else again. It's the best we can do."
"Yeah..." He nodded. He didn't feel any less guilty, but with Gwen right next to him it was easier to feel like things could get better, "Gwen, I..."
A chill ran over his entire body and he suddenly felt numb. Gwen's eyes widened and she shouted something, but he couldn't make it out. Peter looked down at his hands and watched as his body turned to dust.
The last thing he saw before everything went dark was Gwen and crying and reaching for him.
"Where's Peter?!"
The assembled Spiders in Loomword all looked at her in surprise. There were only a few of them: Noir and Mayday off on one side while a two Spiders dressed all in red, one redhead and one brunette, both of whom had hair spilling out of the back of their masks. Up above Karn just watched, quiet and creepy as always.
"What are you-"
"He's gone!" Gwen shouted, cutting Mayday off, "H-He just...he turned into fucking dust and-"
The portal at center of the room suddenly opened and Peni stumbled in. The front of her bot was damaged, the screen glitching erratically before it pulled back and she dropped from the cockpit, "G-Guys!" She lay on the floor panting and the long haired brunette - an alternate version of Jess, if she remembered right - knelt down beside her, "W-We gotta...we should..."
"Slow down, kid. Use your words," Noir said.
"I can't slow down...!" She let Jessica pull her up and and looked around frantically, "W-We gotta gather up all of the Web Warriors! Get everyone, Spider-Army style!"
"What's going on?" The redhead asked.
"No time to explain! Just...that Thanos guy is here! He piggybacked on the time heist and now his entire army's trying to destroy Earth-19999!" she shouted. A sudden chill ran down Gwen's body, "Everybody's fighting, doing what they can to stop him! We should go back and help them! Now!"
"Now? But no one's-" Mayday looked around the empty room and cursed, "Damn it, we don't have anyone else here! Billy's out on patrol and everyone else is back in their dimensions!"
"We have to-"
"I'll go!" Gwen said, "You guys can stay here and gather as many Spiders as you can. Maybe we can-"
"By yourselves? You heard what she said, there's an entire army waiting at the back of that portal. You need as much help as you can get," Noir said. He unholstered his gun and looked up at Karn, "Karn, you contact Billy and the rest, tell em to Spider up and go to the kid's dimension as soon as they can. We'll go in and make sure Stacy and the kid don't get themselves killed."
"I can do so, but are you sure you all are prepared for this?" Karn asked.
"Yeah, definitely. We aren't abandoning him," Mayday said.
"If what I heard about my dimension's Thanos is even half right then they'll need all the help they can get. I'm in too," Alternate Jessica said.
"I legit have no clue what's going on, but...screw it, I'm game," The redhead - another Mary Jane judging by her voice - said, "We all ready?"
"Yep! SP/dr's damaged but we can still fight!" Peni clambered back into the cockpit and the screen shifted to an angry emoji through the glitching, "Come on, no time to waste! We gotta help save a universe!"
The portal opened and they all jumped in. Gwen didn't know what to expect at the other side, but seeing the wasteland from every doomsday movie ever was enough to shock even her. The group of Spiders landed and barely had time to regain their bearings before some four legged, crusty skinned thing charged towards them and tackled Noir to the ground.
"Noir!" Mayday didn't get a chance to help them before a bunch more of the monsters came for them. Gwen dodged the frenzied swipes before she jumped and stomped the damn thing's head into the ground. It still trashed around so she stomped again till it finally stopped moving. She tried to ignore the little voice in her head telling her she'd just killed it. No time to worry about that.
Noir shot the monster that tackled him right up its jaw then shoved it off before Peni grabbed him and used the mech as a shield from the next charging beast. Mayday and Alternate Jess punched and webbed down as many as they while the other Mary Jane turned her hand into a blade and cut through three of them at once. If they were anywhere else she would've stopped to ask how the hell she did that but right now they had more important things to worry about.
They prepared themselves for the next group coming towards them when a gigantic foot suddenly smashed them into paste, "What the-" She looked up and wasn't as surprised as should've been at the sight of a titanic guy in a red suit running past them and punching what looked like a flying, alien whale so hard it fell to the ground and crushed a large group of the aliens.
"That's...something." Noir panted. He patted Peni's face screen gratefully then shot another straggler coming for them, "Suddenly I'm starting to doubt our plan to just jump in here."
"Too late now!" Gwen knocked out (killed?) three more with Mayday and Jessica's help. Gwen tossed another one of the aliens far away like it was a volleyball before a sudden blast of laser fire surged past her head and burned through another charging alien's skull. She looked to the source and found what looked like a female Iron Man (Iron Woman?) covered head to toe in blue, "Thanks!"
"No problem." They continued fighting the horde. Now that the initial shock wore off these things were stupidly simple, always charging ahead no matter how many of them they put down, "I'm guessing you're friends with Spider-Man?" Iron-Woman asked, blasting one of the fliers with a chest beam.
"Yeah! Is he here?!" Gwen punched another one to the ground.
"He was with the group Dr. Strange had. He should be around here somewhere." Another chest beam, "Kind of hard to give specific directions right now. Sorry."
"It's fine. Just glad to know he's alright." Well, as alright as he could be considering they were smack dab in the middle of an apocalypse movie.
Noir slammed another alien down to the ground and shot it through the eye, "We can keep watch over here, Stacy. You go look for the kid."
"Are you-"
"Just go, Gwen!" Mayday shouted.
Giving them all a grateful nod, she shot a line of webbing to an honest to god spaceship and let it fly her over the warzone. From up here she saw exactly how insane it all was. One one side were the aliens being led by a purple guy in a suit of armor that she assumed was Thanos. Definitely fit with what Peter told her. On the other side was a wide assortment of people ranging from a male She-Hulk, guys using bows and spears and guns and people who looked like they were slinging around actual magic.
Her eyes eventually caught a guy in a red and gold suit that reminded her way too much of the Stark they just fought. He stood alone, blasting as many of the aliens as he could before a big guy knocked him against a piece of rubble, "Mr. Stark!" Somehow, even through the chaos around her, she heard him. Peter stood at a high incline and webbed the big dude's back. A quick tug later and the same giant from before stomped him flat.
"Peter!"
She swung over there and watched as Peter helped his Tony Stark back up to his feet, "Hey, woah!" Peter's mask pulled back to expose his dirty, wounded face with Stark doing the same, "You're not gonna believe what's been going on! Remember when we were on Titan? Well when I disappeared I didn't actually die! I got taken to another dimension and I actually just fought an evil version of you but then I turned to dust again and woke up up back on Titan then- wait, what are you doing?"
Stark hugged him. Gwen stopped herself from running over there and just looked on quietly. From where she was she saw the look of utter relief in his Tony's face, his eyes watery with tears that he barely kept down. Right then and there she understood why Peter was cared about him so much. It was clearly mutual.
The hug lasted for a few more seconds before they broke apart. Stark looked past Peter and raised an eyebrow when he saw her, "Friend of yours?"
"Huh...?" Peter turned around and his face broke out in a wide, open grin, "Gwen! You're here!"
She ran ahead and practically tackled him to the ground in a tight embrace, her own mask pulling back, "I thought I lost you." Unlike Tony she couldn't keep from crying, "When you turned back to dust I thought..."
"Y-Yeah, me too." Peter returned the hug and she put her face to the crook of his neck. He smelled like blood, sweat and ash but she couldn't even pretend to care. He was here, and they were both going to survive the fucking doomsday that purple grimace wanted, "U-Uh...Mr. Stark, this is Gwen. When I got taken to another dimension she was the one who took care of me."
"Heh, you have my sympathy." The older man's smile was teasing, but still had the same relief from before, "Look, as much as I wanna sit down and play catch up we have a universe to save. We can chat later, yeah?"
"D-Definitely!" Tony nodded and flew away to another part of the battlefield. Peter watched him go for a second before turning back to her, "What are you doing here? I thought-"
"I told you before: Spiders always stick together." She grinned, "Now come on, let's make sure that big, purple asshole gets what's coming to him."
The fights that came next were a blur. Aliens - Outriders, the talking space raccoon called them - never stopped and Gwen lost count by the 30th one she put down. She tried to stick together with Peter, but with how chaotic everything was they eventually got separated.
And then it was over. One second she was about to get pulverized by a giant whale next to the gun-toting raccoon and the next it turned to dust. Gwen watched, panting and barely conscious, as the purple grimace's entire army disappeared. Was this what it looked like five years ago, she wondered, just...watching everyone around you turn to nothing. How did Peter feel back then?
She stumbled past the survivors licking their wounds. In the end the Spider-Army never came. Then again, how long did the fight really last? Felt like hours but she knew it couldn't have been.
She stopped when she saw Peter kneeling in front of his mentor. He looked terrible. His entire right arm up to the right half of his face was burned and the skin of his exposed face was a pale gray, "Mr. Stark, can you hear me?" Peter asked desperately. The older man couldn't even look at him. His gaze was focused upwards and his breaths came out in short, shallow gasps.
He was dying.
"It's Peter...hey, we won, Mr. Stark. We won, Mr. Stark. We won. You did it, sir, you did it." Nothing. It must've taken everything he had to even keep his eyes open, "...I'm sorry, Tony."
Peter broke down. Gwen felt helpless and couldn't do anything but slowly walk towards them. The blue armored woman gently pulled Peter back and knelt down in front of her husband to say their final words.
She felt like an intruder here, like she wasn't supposed to see this. Shaking away those thoughts, she got close to Peter and pulled him into a comforting embrace. She wished she could've done something more, done something to comfort Peter, but all she could do was be here for him now the same way he'd been there for her all those months.
They met up with the rest of the Spiders soon after. All of them were alive, but they'd taken their share of bumps and scratches. Noir's arm was broken, both Mayday and Alternate Jess had concussions, Peni's entire robot was wrecked and the other Mary Jane got cut in half at one point (good thing she could heal...). That wasn't even counting the numerous cuts, bruises and other nasties they all took from the fight.
They decided to stay, at least until their wounds healed up. They left a message to Billy to stop the Spider-Army plan and followed Mrs. Stark back to her home. She insisted they take the guest rooms and they weren't exactly keen on arguing with the woman who just lost her husband.
Gwen peeled off the suit and stared at her reflection in the mirror. Even with her powers she took some bad hits. There was a pinkish mark on her right cheek that'd definitely bruise in a couple of days and there was an ugly burn at left side of her neck up to her shoulder. She opened the faucet and winced as the icy cold water flushed the blood from the small, numerous cuts on her hand.
She still couldn't believe that just happened. Being a part of the Web Warriors she was used to crazy shit. The first time she found out about the multiverse was when Billy recruited her to fight the Inheritors and after that they went around the web, righting wrongs like demonic symbiote invasions or the spread of rampant capitalism...okay, that last one was just what Spider-Punk insisted they did.
But even then, no matter how much insane shit they'd been through, she was damn sure nothing would ever top this. They just saved an entire dimension from a madman who wanted to be a galactic Hitler. She was still reeling from the idea of it. Even now a part of her thought this'd all just be a dream, that any second now she'd wake up next to Peter in her bed back home and tell him all about the crazy shit she just saw.
Peter's broken sob reminded her that it was far too real.
Gwen slowly trudged back to the room and and cringed. They both looked awful. The tanktop and shorts she'd changed into exposed her cut, dirty body and Peter, dressed in a pair of oversized pants, wasn't any better. There was a huge cut across his back with already drying blood and his left eye was closed shut after a nasty hit from one of the Outriders.
"Hey..." Gwen sat behind him on the bed and put her hands on his shoulders. She didn't know what to say. When her Peter died everyone was quick to offer words of comfort and tell her they knew what it felt like, but it just made her feel even more bitter. Nothing they said helped and it was only with enough time that she could finally get up in the morning without feeling like her life was shit.
That was what Peter needed: time. There was nothing she could say here that would magically fix everything. He would hurt, he would lash out and blame himself for what he could have done. And she'd be there every step of the way.
She pulled him close to her in another embrace and they both lay down on the bed. Neither of them said a word to one another and the only sound to be heard were Peter's stifled sobs and Gwen humming a lullaby she remembered her mom used to sing to her every time she felt sad.
The funeral was a week later. They all stayed, mostly as a sign of solidarity towards Peter and partially because something happened with their watches. They couldn't go back, though Octavia was quick to assure them she'd fix it by the end of the week. Just a glitch, she said, nothing that a routine tune-up and some testing couldn't solve.
The Spiders sans Peter took up a corner a respectable distance away. They didn't know the man and it felt odd being there in the center with all the people who loved him, "...Doesn't feel like we should be here," Noir said. They all dressed up for the occasion and she had to admit it was odd seeing them outside of their costumes.
"Always feels like that," the other Mary Jane said. It was eerie how much she looked like the MJ she knew. If it wasn't for her harsher eyes they could've been exact copies, "I've been to funerals before. Trust me, doesn't get any easier even if you're 'supposed' to be there."
"I feel sorry for Peter..." Peni mumbled. Her spider was sitting atop of her head droopily to match her mood, "I talked a bit with this world's Tony Stark. I could see why he admired him."
"We did what we could. There's nothing more that needs to be said about it," Alternate Jess said.
"Yeah, maybe you're right..." Mayday mumbled, "How is he? Peter, I mean."
"I...don't know." He didn't rage and scream like Gwen did after her Peter died. Mostly he was just quiet.
Eventually the funeral ended and they all met up again. Peter was there to see them off. Gwen wanted to stay, but she knew she had to go back home and at least update everyone on where the heck she'd been the entire week. She promised Peter that she'd come back. She'd help him through this.
They all activated their portal watches and...nothing, "What the...?" Gwen rapidly pressed her watch's activator, "What's going on? I thought Octavia said she fixed it on her end?"
Their watches beeped and Octavia's face appeared on the screen. Her dour look did not promise good things, "Guessing by the looks on your faces that things didn't work out?"
"What the hell's going on, Octavius? I thought you fixed things?" Noir asked.
"I did. I thought it was an issue on my end and I tweaked the portal, but..." She chewed on her lower lip and showed a strand of the Great Web. It was cut off from the rest, "Apparently whatever happened over there cut off that dimension from the others. You mentioned the Infinity Stones being used, right? Given the stones' origins it's quite likely that using them disrupted the dimensional barriers."
"So...we're stuck here?" Mayday asked.
"For now, yes. There's nothing much I can on my side," Octavia muttered, "I'll try to see if I can gather some Spiders empowered by the Phoenix to see if we can try and repair the pathways, but until then I suggest making yourselves at home. This...might take a while."
The call ended. All of them looked at each other in various states of disbelief, annoyance and, in the case of Noir, looking like he wanted to shoot something. Peter coughed awkwardly and Gwen forced a smile.
"Well, looks like it's your turn to play tour guide, Pete. Go easy on us."
Whoo! Wrote all this in one day so it's probably not the best, but whatever. We're here. Two Spiders on a Web has ended and we've reached the proper hook for the sequel.
Like I said before the sequel will take place in a close approximation to Far From Home except that Peter's experiences with Evil Stark have hardened him. So no, he's not going to give the killdrone device to Mysterio and he's going to be far more suspicious. Gwen's presence also allows them to pull off more Battle Couple segments along with some of his classmates' reactions to Peter Parker dating the 20 year old Teacher's Assistant assigned to them on the field trip.
Sorry if the Evil Stark plotline ended anti-climactically. The main draw was Peter's feelings on the fight rather than the fight itself. Ditto the Endgame fight. I did have some plans for some stuff like Noir using the demon symbiote to go ape on the Outriders or Gwen trying to portal out of Earth-19999 with the glove so Thanos couldn't grab it. And of course the Spider Army.
Tony Stark's death winning the vote rendered all these scenes pretty pointless, though, since the fight would end the same regardless and it wouldn't make sense. So I cut them out. Less of a hassle regardless.
The trapped Spiders are Gwen, Noir, Mayday Parker, Ultimate Jessica Drew, Peni Parker and Mary Jane from Looking Glass. This should allow us a decent back and forth.
Anyway, I'll be making the sequel at...some point, so the next update I make for this chapter will be an announcement when I do. See you then!
Questions:
1. Last chance: does Gwen room with Peter and Aunt May in their apartment or with the other Spiders? While she interacts with both groups regardless there will be changes in focus dependent on where she ends up staying. More awkward family dinners with May vs more roommate shenigans with the Spiders. I'll put it up as a vote on the profile too.
2. Any plots you wanna see before Peter and Gwen leave New York? I'm considering having them interact with the Defenders at least once, but that might not work. Some people also really wanna see interactions with Morgan Stark and Harley, but that's a bit more difficult.