Part 5 - Blood of the King

Chapter 83 - The Way Home

Aunt May's was the only place anyone could think of where all the spiders could stay. Old Miles and Gwen worked on taking apart the dimensional watch the latter had been using until someone got around to making her a proper suit. They were hoping they could modify it to allow them to jump between dimensions in this multiverse, but weren't particularly hopeful. Max was sitting on the couch, trying to relax but couldn't. When the Scarlet King came back, he wouldn't be able to protect his friends because he was stuck here. That being said, the King was likely to come for his chief weapon. The Scarlet Crucible was leaning against the wall. It had shrunk massively as soon as they had laid theirs hands on it. Conall had been designated its protector, but right now he was taking a shower and Max was its guardian. Peter picked the weapon up, admiring how precisely crafted it was.

"Be careful. If you hit even someone's hair with that, it'll kill them. Or so I'm told."

Peter put it down again and sat next to Max.

"So, which dimension are you from?" He asked.

"7610, but in a different multiverse."

"A different multiverse? What's the difference between two multiverses?"

"I don't know. I'm fifteen."

"Oh right. I thought you might be some ancient guy in disguise like your friend Conall."

"If I was immortal, I'd never do anything. You've got all that time to do anything you want, so you just say you'll do it later."

"Maybe that's the whole reason we die? So that we have motivation to live."

"Too philosophical. Like I say, fifteen and scared about my friends because I'm trapped even further from home than you and fifteen year old Gwen."

"What's the deal with those middle-aged spiders? They look like Miles and Gwen, but he's really aggressive and she looks like she's been to Hell and back."

"They are Miles and Gwen. And they're my parents. Dad hasn't been to Hell, Mum has. Both have been dead but they don't remember seeing anything other than darkness. Mum's sort of an assassin or something, at least she has been since she came back about a week ago. Dad's in charge of an organisation called the Ethereal Legion that's supposed to protect our multiverse but is doing a pretty bad job at it."

"And that makes him aggressive?"

"No, the power just went to his head. What makes him aggressive is Mum being dead for ten years, at least that's my theory. They do crazy things without each other, they do good things with each other. I think everything they've been through has made them crazy. Then there's me: crazy's only surviving kid."

Conall appeared, his hair soaking wet.

"Alright, Spider-Boy. That was a good watch. Do you want a pay rise for such a good job?"

"I didn't know I was getting paid."

"Sure you are. Have a marshmallow."

Max caught the bag of marshmallows thrown his way and took one.

"Thanks, I guess? How much of a raise do I get?"

"An extra three seconds of nap time."

Suddenly, the front door burst open. Conall had a gold sword half drawn by the time he realised it was young Miles.

"You guys have to see this. There's aliens outside! They have a ship!"

Old Miles and Gwen emerged from the kitchen, and Aunt May and young Gwen appeared at the top of the stairs.

"Aliens?" Pressed Peter.

"Yeah! Big grey things. Six arms, or could all be legs. I dunno."

The three spiders from the other multiverse, Premis, looked at each other.

"Of course the Quintari have a way to travel in the omniverse." Realised old Miles.

Everyone pushed to the front door. Max was out first and confirmed it was Quintari. A ship hovered high overhead in the twilight sky; two actual Quintari watched from the middle of the road. People were staring from their doorsteps all along the street, and the rest of New York was probably staring up. The Quintari approached, holding a box which they placed on the driveway, looking at Conall, Max and his parents.

"The High Aether hopes you are all OK and has requested that we give you the contents of this box. It contains four devices capable of transporting human beings back to Premis. For reference, you are in Noladis, Earth-1610."

Old Gwen opened the box, admiring the shiny watches.

"Tell the High Aether we're thankful for this and will never be able to repay the debt."

Old Miles added:

"You can tell him the Scarlet King was killed for now, as well."

The Quintari nodded.

"We will. Good luck." They looked at Peter and young Gwen. "The High Aether has requested that we take you to your home dimensions."

Peter's shoulders slumped, but young Gwen smiled happily.

"Thanks!" She said, before turning to young Miles. "Can I talk to Miles a minute?"

"Of course."

Conall rolled his eyes as the pair disappeared back into the house.

"Get the bleach out, people. We all know what they're about to do."

"They're fourteen and fifteen." Replied Max.

The immortal face palmed.

"Not...what I meant."

Five minutes later, Peter and young Gwen were gone with the Quintari. Aunt May and young Miles smiled as the other four put the watches on.

"Thanks for letting us hang about." Said old Gwen.

"No problem. Thank you for helping me clean up the mess."

Max turned to young Miles.

"Don't turn out like my dad."

"I'll try."

The four made to activate the watches when there was an ear splitting crack. Gwen and Conall had weapons drawn before Max had even turned round. He stared in shock at the abominations flooding out of a red crack in reality. The best way to describe them was a beaked lizard with wolves' teeth and a varying number of tentacles. Eight emerged from the crack, along with a plume of rancid red smoke.

"The Scarlet King's reign is eternal." Said a raspy voice from the crack, accompanied by the sounds of screams, before it sealed itself.

One of the abominations let out a horrific screech which the others took up. One bounded towards Max, its tentacles swiping at him. He ducked the first, was slapped by the second and knocked to the floor by the third before the thing bore down on top of him. Before it could bite his head off, Conall grabbed it and drove his short sword through its skull. The abomination shook him off, his blade stuck through where its brain should have been.

"Well damn. These things have changed." He commented, hauling Max back to his feet.

May had fled back into the house, so the four from Premis and young Miles made their stand. Each picked a fight with the hideous mutants. Two went for Conall and Gwen while the other three took on a single one each. The eighth seemed larger than the others and held back, prowling. Conall won his fight first, naturally, by cutting the abominations' heads clean off then driving each of his swords through their chest areas. They crumbled to the ground, melting into foul pools of pale liquid. Max was struggling the most, wrestling with his monster's beaked face while its paws tore at his body. Conall formed a golden spear which he hurled, skewering the creature through the body. It melted on top of Max, much to his disgust. Old Miles won next, killing the beast with a venom strike. He webbed a broken piece of fence into his hand and drove it through the last one attacking Gwen. Young Miles used his own venom strike. Now the only one that remained was the largest one, which Max noted had at least ten tentacles. One grabbed each of them by the throat, lifting them into the air. Conall and Gwen cut themselves free but were caught again by another as the old ones grew back. Young Miles tried his venom strike; it clearly inflicted pain on the abomination which was enough to make it let them go and start screaming again, a little too similarly to SCP-096, old Gwen thought. Old Miles charged a mega venom strike and slammed his fist into the monster's face. It almost passed out but recovered, baring its teeth and moving to grab them again with its tentacles. Conall dodged, landing an Ethereal punch which the abomination hardly batted an eyelid at. His swords simply glanced off its skin. At this point, police cars came screaming round the corner. Young Miles spotted his father and began to panic; there was a high chance everyone here was going to die if they couldn't find a way to kill the creature. Conall engaged in a vicious fight, swiping at tentacles with two swords. Max grabbed the abomination around the neck but was shaken off and thrown away. The police officers opened fire but the bullets did absolutely nothing. Old Miles landed another venom strike which seemed to do more damage than anything else. The creature turned its attention to him, leaping forward and knocking him to the floor where it gnawed at his arm which he tried to use to block its attack on his face. Gwen kicked it off. Conall stopped next to Max who wasn't entirely sure what to do.

"Don't you spider people like throwing cars at things?"

"There's nothing to swing off to get any force."

"Clench up, Spider-Boy."

Conall grabbed Max's arm and dragged him into the air, his wings spread wide. When they were a decent height, he dropped the spider who fired a web up. Conall caught it and Max webbed one of the empty police cars.

"Heads up!" He yelled to his mother who rolled out of the way as the vehicle crashed down on the monster.

For a few precious moments, there was silence. The team and police officers held their breath. But not even a ton of metal defeated this thing. It was clearly injured, shown by the hundreds of cuts all over its body. The tentacles burst out of the wreckage and the creature scrabbled out. It stood on top of the rubble like it was a throne, sending tentacles at young Miles, Gwen and Max. They were knocked to the floor, each being battered by three. The tenth tentacle hovered around near old Miles and Conall, daring either to make a move. Miles had an idea and turned to Conall, knowing he would need the immortal's help to pull it off.

"Conall, I can take this thing out but I need your help."

"What do I do?"

"Keep that tentacle distracted. And...tell Max and Gwen I love them."

The immortal frowned.

"I've only known you a few days but that doesn't sound reassuring."

"It's the only way to kill it and keep everyone in this dimension safe."

"It's your life. I hope you've thought this through."

"Sometimes heroes have to make sacrifices. I'm not a hero, at least not anymore, but this is one I have to make."

"Don't start a big speech. Just get on with it before your family glitch to death."

Old Miles took a step towards the creature; the tentacle went for him but Conall jumped in front and began to slash at it, cutting away small chunks that melted as they hit the ground. Miles took a deep breath and began to charge a venom strike. As it grew stronger and stronger, it turned yellow to become mega, but still he didn't stop. Even the creature watched, intrigued, as electricity began to shoot into his body from anything with any electric charge. The creature dodged an arc. Miles gritted his teeth as every nerve in his muscle screamed at him. When there was no more electricity he could take, he took a few steps at the abomination and threw the hardest punch he had ever thrown. As it struck the beast, lightning arcs tore out in every direction, forming an electrical ball around him and it. The tentacles retreated; Conall created an X with his arms, forming a large shield between the resulting explosion, the police officers and spiders.

When the smoke and dust cleared, the creature had melted leaving behind a skeleton. Nearby lay old Miles, completely still. Max and Gwen ran over to him.

"Miles!"

Their efforts to wake him didn't work. Gwen put two fingers to his neck then slumped back. Max tried to shake his father again, but it was pointless. Conall bowed his head, knowing this was a major loss not just for the Legion, or the multiverse of Premis, but a loss for the entire omniverse. Max stood up, his mind barely able to comprehend that he was staring at his father's dead body. With Charlotte it had been different: he hadn't seen her dead, just heard and taken it in stride. Suddenly, there was an enormous booming sound: a deep, raspy laugh.

"The Scarlet King's reign is eternal."

Crossovers in this Chapter

- SCP Foundation