The Invincible Spider-Man

Chapter 67: Best Of Both Worlds- Part 1

"Okay, what the actual Hell?" asked Peter to himself, as he stared at the billboard which talked about his death.

"I swear to God, if this is Mysterio being Mysterio…" he continued thinking, as he took off his mask made of webbing and began to walk out of Central Park cautiously, making sure there weren't any traps nearby.

The streets were relatively empty. There were people walking on the sidewalks, but barely any cars. Everyone seemed to be staring at the ground and walking, not acknowledging each other's presence.

"In recent news, the wrestler Mac Gargan, also known as The Scorpion, made a very charitable donation to the Peter Parker Foundation, all of the money going to kids who have lost their parents and wayward teens," said JJ Jameson, on a podcast that a civilian was listening to.

"Scorpion being a wrestler? Okay, I need to gather my bearings," said Peter, as he ducked into an alleyway, and began to run up a wall. He reached onto the roof, and began to look around.

The city seemed to be enveloped in a thick fog of gloominess, the sky was light grey and the sun seemed to be hiding behind the clouds. Peter checked his watch, but it was completely erratic.

"Where the Hell am I? Last thing I remember, it was snowing and I was fighting…Kraven! What if he did this?" asked Peter, as he shot a web to see if his web shooters still worked. Luckily enough, they seemed to work just fine, as Peter made another mask of webbing around his face, cutting out eye holes.

He jumped off of the roof and began to swing.

"Could Kraven have done this? No, the guy was way too backward, plus he seemed just as surprised as me when that…portal showed up. Am I in some simulation, like The Matrix? Or an alternate universe, like Cloverfield? God, stop overthinking Peter, and just ask someone!" Peter lectured himself.

All of a sudden, his Spider-Sense went nuts, as he quickly shot a web and dodged a laser beam.

"WOAH!" exclaimed Peter, as he shot another web towards a building, sticking to it. He looked at the ground and saw a man with a fishbowl head, and a purple cape.

"Mysterio, I should've known it was you!" said Peter, landing on the ground.

"Looks like the tabloids were right. Spider-Man never died!" shouted Mysterio, as he unleased an armada of bats towards Peter, who jumped over them, webbed them up and threw them back at Quentin.

"I know this whole thing is an illusion, Mysterio! Just give up," sighed Peter.

"My name is Mysterion, or did you forget?" asked Quentin.

"Wow, what a name change! You just added another alphabet, what a genius move!" mocked Peter.

"What are you talking about?" asked Mysterion, shooting more lasers from his hands.

"No, what are you talking about?" asked Peter, just as confused. "You're the one who opened up a fake portal and now made the illusion of this version of New York, right?" asked Peter, kicking Mysterion in the chest.

"Dude, what?" asked Mysterion, stopping his attacks. "I thought this was our weekly friendly fight?" he asked.

"What weekly fight? We've been enemies for years now!" said Peter, readying himself to attack.

"Did you forget? We attack each other just as friends, remember?" asked Mysterion, taking off his helmet.

Before Peter could even say anything, Quentin hugged him.

"I knew the Bugle was lying. There's no way my best pal would die," he said, sniffling a little.

"Did you forget that time when you and your Sinister Death Squad attacked me?" asked Peter.

"What's that? Are you okay?" asked Quentin.

All of a sudden, Peter's Spider-Sense tingled again. But before he could react, a black and red figure came swinging in, kicking Peter straight off of his feet.

"ARGHH!" exclaimed Peter, as he tumbled down the street. Peter got to his feet, and took a look at his assailant.

He was wearing a black and red variation of the Spider-Man suit. However, the lenses had a shade of red outlining them, same for the webbing. The spider logo was lower down the chest too.

"Hold on, Peter!" said Quentin, as he began to attack the other guy.

"No Beck, wait!" exclaimed Peter, webbing up Quentin's hands.

"Pete, what are you doing?" asked Quentin.

"Who are you?" asked the black and red figure, wearing a backpack that connected to his wrists. His voice sounded surprisingly juvenile.

Peter shot another web towards a building, pulling himself up as he began swinging away.

"No, wait!" shouted the other Spider-Man, as he began to haphazardly swing behind him.

Spider-Man landed on a wall, as he quickly began running up the building. The other Spider-Man also stuck himself to the wall, and began to run up. However, he seemed much slower, as his legs began to slip.

"Whoa…WHOAAAA!" he shouted, as he slipped and began plummeting to the ground.

Peter quickly shot another web towards the falling Spider-Man's chest, managing to catch him a few feet from the ground.

A few seconds passed by, as Peter caught his breath.

"Can we talk now?" he asked.

"Who are you?" asked the black and red Spider-Man. Peter got to the top of the roof and helped pull him up.

"I'm Spider-Man," he said.

"You're lying. Spider-Man's dead," replied the other Spider-Man.

Peter took off the webbing mask, revealing his face. The other Spider-Man's eyes went wide.

"It…it can't be…" he gasped, upon seeing Peter's face. He then took off his own mask, revealing the face of a young Puerto-Rican boy.

"Wow, you're…young," said Peter, a little shocked.

"I'm not that young! I'm almost 14, okay?" he said.

"And what's your name?" asked Peter.

The boy looked hesitant, as he looked at Peter's face.

"Miles. Miles Morales," he replied.

"Okay, Miles. Why did you seem so shocked when you saw my face? Aside from the fact that apparently I'm dead," said Peter.

"Yeah. How are you alive, I saw your body…." Replied Miles.

"I'm 90% sure I'm in an alternate universe right now. One where I'm dead, you're Spider-Man, and Quentin Beck is my best friend," said Peter.

"I'm not Spider-Man…" sighed Miles.

"What do you mean? You shoot webs, you're wearing the suit, you can kind of stick to walls," replied Peter.

"I'm not as good as Spider-Man, at all," he replied, looking at the ground.

"What exactly happened here? Like how did New York go from the city of dreams to…this?" asked Peter.

"Follow me," said Miles.

Miles and Peter reached a graveyard. Peter seemed surprised to see the number of graves. There was one towards the center of the cemetery, which had a plethora of bouquets and candles.

A shudder ran down Peter's spine when he read the headstones.

"Here lies Peter Parker. Beloved husband and nephew. Spider-Man." read out Peter.

"It happened about 6 months back. I got bit by this weird ass spider near Alchemax Tower," said Miles.

"So, your spider wasn't from Oscorp?" asked Peter.

"What's Oscorp?" asked Miles.

"Nevermind. What happened after that?" asked Peter.

"So I found out I could do some crazy stuff, like stick to walls, and the whole "Spider-Sense" thing. I realized I was like Spider-Man, who has…had, been around for about 8 years," said Miles.

"I wanted to be like him. Be as awesome and loved as him. And so I decided to do that. I made this…makeshift suit out of some old spandex from my uncle's closet, and bought a Spider-Man mask. There was a disturbance at Queens, and Spider-Man was there," he continued.

"When I got there, it was at May Parker's house. Peter was fighting some…some monster. I saw that monster grab Peter and throw him towards a tree, and then he grabbed a police car and it exploded," narrated Miles, a tear falling down his eyes.

"I could've helped, I should have. But I was too scared. The house was on fire, and Mary Jane was carrying Aunt May out, when the monster attacked him. I saw Peter get up, even though it looked like he was already dead. I had never seen anything like it," continued Miles.

"Wait, what was Mary Jane doing there?" asked Peter.

"You both were engaged," said Miles.

"Woah," replied Peter.

"He…I mean you, managed to stop that monster from killing them, but then you died in Ms Parker and MJ's arms," said Miles, staring at Peter's grave.

"Miles, you couldn't have done anything to stop it. Whatever happened, I'm sure it couldn't have been stopped," said Peter.

"I know but, there's always that what if? What if I could've changed something?" said Miles.

Peter sighed. He knew exactly what it was to feel guilty that way.

"I think, if your Peter was here. He'd be glad that someone is carrying on his legacy. And if I were to die, I wouldn't mind dying if it meant I saved the people closest to me. I'm sure your Peter would feel the same way," said Peter.

"Right…thanks," said Miles, smiling a little. All of a sudden, he got a call.

"Hey Ma," said Miles.

"Miles, where are you?" asked his mother.

"Uh sorry, I was…hanging out with Ganke! I'll be home soon, promise," said Miles.

"You know about the curfew, I don't want you to get into trouble," said his mother.

"I definitely won't," said Miles, as his mother hung up.

"Come with me. I'm guessing since you're in an alternate universe, and that well…you're dead, you've got nowhere to go," said Miles.

"Yeah. I need to find a way back home somehow too," said Peter, as he thought about something.

"Where are Aunt May and Mary Jane? I have to go see them!" said Peter.

"Peter, I don't think that's a good idea. I mean, they think you're dead," said Miles.

"I know but…oh man," thought Peter. "I just need to know if they're okay," replied Peter.

"Okay. But meet me here later," said Miles, as he took out a notepad and a pen from his backpack. He wrote down an address and handed it to Peter.

"See you later," said Miles, as he left.

Peter sighed as he looked at his own grave.

Kraven came to, in an unknown location.

"What place is this?" he asked himself. Huge red and green lights were blinding him, and a weird scent filled his nostrils.

As he got to his feet, a man approached him. He was rather large, and wore a red jacket. His beard was large and white.

"Ho ho ho! And who do we have here?" asked the man, in a booming voice as he gestured towards Kraven.

"You are not who I am looking for. I seem to have lost the scent of the spider," said Kraven.

"Well, Mr Claus definitely commends you on your sense of fashion!" said the Santa impressionist, putting a hand on Kraven's shoulder.

Kraven grabbed his arm and twisted him, before grabbing his beard and pulling him closer.

"WOAAH!" shouted Santa, as his fake beard was ripped away by Kraven.

"Where is Spider-Man?" asked Kraven, directly to Santa's face.

"H-He's gone!" exclaimed the impressionist, scared out of his mind. Some people began dialing the cops, as they stared at Kraven in fear. Grunting, he dropped the man on the ground, as he walked towards a balcony.

Kraven was on the fourth floor of a shopping mall, at about 9 pm in the night.

All of a sudden, he caught another scent, this one catching him off guard.

Kraven pulled out his machete, his head moving left to right quickly. Just then, he figured out where the scent was coming from: A nearby rooftop, just northwest of him. There was a silhouette of someone standing there, contrasted with the moonlight.

He put his machete back, as Kraven jumped from the balcony and onto another building in front of it, grasping onto an exposed brick. He then pulled himself upward and grabbed a windowsill. Repeating this, he got on top of a building adjacent to the figure.

Taking a running start, he jumped off of the building and landed directly in front of the figure.

"Your scent…it cannot be…" said Kraven.

The figure turned around and walked towards him, revealing his face to be Kraven's, only with shorter hair, a slight stubble, and a bionic eye and left arm.

"My name is Sergio Kravinoff. But the people here call me…The Grim Hunter," he said.

"Impossible. You cannot be me!" said Kraven, taking a few steps back and pulling out his machete.

"I am Sergio Kravinoff. You are Sergei Kravinoff of Earth 9180. This is Earth 1610. I summoned you here, well, on accident," explained Sergio.

"You're lying. This is one of Spider-Man's tricks!" explained Kraven, throwing his machete at lightning speed. Sergio quickly deflected the knife with his bionic arm.

"As you can see, I have made some…improvements," chuckled Sergio. "I realized that the traditional ways are very flawed, and if I wanted to defeat the Spider-Man, I will need more than a machete and a few herbs and potions," he continued.

Kraven lunged at Sergio, managing to get a couple punches in, but Sergio was able to block the rest, as he kicked Kraven away. He pressed a button on his bionic arm, as a small compartment on his forearm opened on his forearm.

The compartment shot out a small gas bomb, which engulfed Kraven. However, Kraven was able to take away his focus from the effects of the gas and focus only on Sergio.

Kraven took out a pellet and threw it towards Sergio. The pellet exploded, giving out a similar green gas.

Sergio began to choke, as he got to his knees.

"Tradition always wins," said Kraven, as he pulled out his machete, and stabbed Sergio straight through his chest.

Sergio spat up blood, as he continued to choke on the gas and his own blood, as Kraven kicked him off of the building.

Panting, he put his machete back inside its holster.

"There can only be one," he said, wiping some blood from his mouth.

"Bravo! Incredible performance!" said Sergio, standing behind Kraven.

Kraven was flabbergasted, as he turned around to see a perfectly fine Grim Hunter. He looked back towards the street, only to see that Sergio's body had disappeared.

"What, how?" asked Kraven.

"You seriously think you could just redirect your focus and that would prevent the gas from affecting you?" laughed Sergio. "Maybe for normal inhalants, but this gas right here, also contains a small stream of nanobots, which hijack your synapses, causing you to hallucinate," continued Sergio.

"Don't worry, the effects barely last a few seconds," he said. "Now, are you willing to listen to me?"

"Fine," said Kraven.

"I dedicated the last 4 years of my life to killing Spider-Man. Mendel Stromm, who is dead in your universe, gave me these…upgrades to help me defeat him. He implanted a microchip in me which essentially makes me technologically fluent," explained Grim Hunter.

"Sadly, just recently my Spider-Man was killed by something that was borderline demonic, and so I never got that chance of ripping his head off of his body. However, I realized I could always bring in a Spider-Man from an alternate dimension, and carry out the execution," explained Sergio. "There are multiple Earths, just like yours, existing in one colossal multiverse," he continued, as Kraven chuckled.

"My son reads a lot of those science-fiction books, so I am familiar with that concept," he said, smiling to himself.

"Right. Anyways, I decided to choose your Spider-Man, and hence made a device that could bring him to my universe. However, it sucked you in as well. So here we are, two Kravens and one Spider," finished Sergio.

"What's your idea?" asked Kraven.

"My idea, is that we team up to get Spider-Man," said Sergio.

"No. My Spider-Man is my hunt. Not anyone else's," said Kraven, firmly.

"Did I forget to mention, that maybe, just maybe…he isn't the only Spider-Man in this universe?" smirked Sergio.

Peter arrived at his old house at Queens, where this universe's Aunt May was living. He landed on the roof of another building, and hid behind their chimney.

A few news vans were still parked outside on the street, and a light was on in the house. Stealthily, Peter jumped to a house adjacent to May's, and was able to see through the window.

He saw Aunt May sitting at a table, holding a photograph of her, Peter and Ben. Peter immediately recognized it: It was the photograph they took when an 11 year old Peter won the 2nd place prize at the Fisk Science Exhibition. Only in this universe he had come first.

Tear streaks were visible on May's face, as she wiped her tears with her handkerchief.

"I can't leave her like this. She needs me," said Peter, as he hopped off of the roof and began to approach the window.

He hesitated a little, as he placed his palm on the window. May had walked to the fridge with the photograph, as she stuck a fridge magnet towards the top. That's when she began to sob uncontrollably, as she put her left hand on the photograph, and covered her face with her right.

Tears began to well up in Peter's eyes too.

"I can't just leave her here. But this isn't the right time to shock her like this, not right now," thought Peter, as he left the window and hopped back to the adjacent building.

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the address that Miles had written.

"Alright then," said Peter, as he swung towards the address, in Brooklyn.

Peter reached a house in Brooklyn, in a pretty well maintained neighborhood. It was quite late at night, so every house's lights were off, except for one window in a house towards the end of the cul-de-sac.

Peter approached the window, only to see Miles sewing his suit. He gingerly knocked on the window.

Miles looked up towards Peter and grinned a little, as he opened the window, allowing Peter to step in.

"You live in a pretty decent neighbourhood," said Peter, as he stood near Miles' desk.

"Yeah it is pretty good. Sucks that I'm leaving it though," sighed Miles. Peter was about to question the statement, when he noticed a jacket hanging near Miles' cupboard.

"Brooklyn Visions, huh? That's a pretty prestigious school. I almost got in, but we couldn't afford it," chuckled Peter.

"Yeah, but I really don't wanna go there. As much as I am a geek, the students there are super studious. And also a little elitist," said Miles.

"Elitist? How so?" asked Peter.

"99% of them come from the Upper West Side of Manhattan. And here I am, a kid from Brooklyn who got lucky after winning a lottery. I'm basically the prime target for bullying," replied Miles.

"Did you know that even Captain America was from Brooklyn?" asked Peter, trying to cheer up Miles.

"Touché," replied Miles, smiling a little.

"So, what are you working on?" asked Peter.

"The web shooter tubes. I'm trying to make them less bulky," said Miles.

"Wait, what tubes?" inquired Peter. Miles pointed towards his open backpack. Peter saw two canisters of web fluid, connected to two tubes. Both the tubes connected to a contraption on each of Miles' wrists when he wore the suit.

"It's problematic, but it does work," said Miles.

"Didn't you try making a smaller, tubeless and backpack-less web shooter?" asked Peter.

"I did, but I didn't really know how to make it work," said Miles. "I figured out the web fluid though, in my defense," said Miles. Peter picked up the canister, examining it.

"What chemicals did you use?" asked Peter.

"Tetrachloromethane, Ethyl Ethanoate, Toluene and Methanol as a solvent," said Miles.

"You didn't use Salicylic Acid too?" asked Peter, a little confused.

"I went with Hexanediamide to help polymerize it with the Tetrachloromethane," replied Miles. Peter thought about it for a second.

"That's…actually really clever! It lets you store it under-"

"Low pressure. I always loved chemistry," said Miles, grinning from ear to ear.

"Still, the tubes do make it really impractical," said Peter.

"I did sort of design a web shooter mechanism, but I'm not sure how well it would work," said Miles, as he walked up to his desk and pulled out a notebook. He flipped through the pages and stopped at one, containing many web shooter designs.

"You were on the right track with using electromagnetism…did you try using an induction coil?" asked Peter.

"I didn't! I think that's what was missing," said Miles, with an "aha!" look on his face.

"We can try creating a new and improved web shooter. Essentially, when you press down on the trigger, which could have a magnet attached to it, it can connect to another magnet. Using an induction coil, those magnets can generate a mini-electric current that could get sent to the back of the web shooter. That current could then trigger another soft magnetic material, which pulls on the magnetic lid of a small web shooter canister, stored under high pressure-" started Peter

"And when the lid is suddenly removed, the web fluid will be quickly shot out because of that high pressure, almost instantly solidifying into a proper strand! Genius!" finished Miles, as he high-fived Peter.

"I can see why Reed Richards called you one of the smartest people on the planet," said Miles.

"He did?" asked Peter, surprised.

"Yeah, but he's a supervillain on this Earth. I'm guessing that's not the same for you," replied Miles, laughing a little.

"Wow, I don't even want to imagine that," replied Peter, laughing himself. "I think after we finish making the web shooters today, we need to figure out a way to get me back home," he continued.

"Yeah, I may have an idea on that," said Miles.

"I'm listening," replied Peter.

"Just a couple months ago, a company announced that they were working on trans-dimensional technology. And a few weeks back, all their work was reported to be stolen. What if someone stole it from there?" inquired Miles.

"It's possible. We could visit the place, stealthily of course, and find out more about the tech. What company was this?" asked Peter.

"Tricorp Industries," said Miles, as Peter's jaw dropped.

"Oh dear Lord, no! Please don't tell me who runs Tricorp," said Peter, groaning.

"A pretty good philanthropist called Lonnie Lincoln. What's wrong with him?" asked Miles.

And that's part one of this three-parter! Wonder what the Kravens are up to, and how will Peter's pseudo-reunion with Tombstone go? Stay tuned for more!

I gotta say, life definitely hasn't been better for me. Things have been going really well! I've also got a Halloween party to attend, and I'm definitely going dressed up. Here's a hint about who: He is the One Who Knocks. I'm also shifting back to my old house in a couple weeks (been staying at my grandma's for the past 3 years thanks to renovation at the original place). It certainly is bittersweet since I spent a lot of time here, but I'm excited nonetheless! Also, holy freaking Hell that trailer for The Batman is like my personal brand of heroin. I'm gonna make this quick as I gotta go watch the trailer again for the 89th time! I also bought a new laptop, yay!

Fate-Be Changed: Pretty much! Although it is also setting up a storyline for Season 6 ;)

Geek4Life: Ahahaha you never know lmao

SpideyXBC: Yep! I'm definitely taking heavy inspiration from the Ultimate Comics.

Teller-Story: Luckily that was half-explained in this chapter! Of course it will all be cleared up by the next one (or even the third chapter). And yeah, it was only Peter and Kraven, since they were in very close proximity to it.

I am the Voice: Yep! Expect a lot of team ups and cool usage of Miles' powers!

Guest: That definitely happened with Mysterion! And (possibly) in the next two chapters!

Yours Truly,

Shadow Strike.