Part 7 - Guardians
Chapter 124 - Family Roadtrip
News reports were flooding in like someone had just blown up a dam. Almost all of them said the same thing: the capital of the United Kingdom, London, had been invaded and taken over by an army of robots. They bore no insignia, flew no banner, but still they had claimed control. Reports also came in of mass executions. Miles and Gwen sat in one of the underground city's bars, working their way through some bottles of Koca-Soda.
"Coca Cola is still better." Gwen said.
"Maybe next time I'm in your dimension I'll bring a couple of bottles and we can settle this."
"I'll bet you a dollar you say Coca Cola is better."
"Great. I'll have one more dollar to spend in the local ruined supermarket. If it doesn't glitch out first."
"Maybe we were only glitching because of Kingpin's collider?"
Miles looked up from his phone with raised eyebrows.
"There's a lot of evidence that says otherwise."
"Miguel never mentioned the watches stop us glitching but I haven't glitched once. Not even in the shower when I'm not wearing it."
"OK, now we're going into 'too much info' territory."
"Not quite." She paused, glancing over at someone at another table. "Hey Miles, that guy's been watching us for nearly five minutes."
"Which guy?"
She nodded her head in the guy's direction.
"There's a lot of drunk people here. Get ready to start a bar fight." Miles replied.
Gwen frowned a little.
"Are you OK, Miles?"
"Things are just getting worse and worse and I don't know what to do about it."
Gwen was about to reply when the guy stood up. As he approached, she got a better look. He appeared to be about the same age as them, his hair was a sort of caramel colour she thought was probably about half-way between her's and Miles'. He stopped beside their table.
"You want to know what to do? Look for Jessica; she's been missing for hours and neither of you have noticed."
"Who are you?"
"Your long lost son." The guy replied, in a tone somewhere between serious and joking, as he walked away again.
Miles raised his eyebrows, then turned back to Gwen.
"We don't have a son, do we? I mean, we haven't even…you know."
"Now there's a good question: if two people from different dimensions hooked up to have a baby, how would that work? Would you have to give the foetus a watch or…"
"OK. Just stop."
Gwen laughed, then turned serious again.
"Forgetting all that, whoever he really is, he's right. We haven't seen Jessica all day."
Miles nodded, putting his phone away.
"Let's go have a look around."
For nearly two hours, the spiders searched for Jessica. Eventually they gave up and sat down on a bench near a fountain. Gwen leaned her head on Miles' shoulder.
"Do you think they killed her?" She asked.
"Maybe. Hopefully not."
Suddenly, their spider senses alerted them to something. Both looked to see Professor Zumerwalt approaching. He smiled a little as he passed, then seemed to trip and dropped the bundle of papers he was carrying.
"Oh dear. That is the third time today. It is almost like I have been rehearsing to do that and give someone a message like they do in films."
The spiders set to work helping him pick the papers up. When they were back in the professor's hands, he tilted the one on the top of the pile a little. In big, bold letters was written 'will meet you, your quarters, midnight'.
"Thank you. I will see you around."
"See you, prof." Miles replied.
When he was round the corner, he and Gwen exchanged a look. What did the professor want?
Midnight was almost upon them. Miles was drawing; Gwen was looking at herself in the mirror, specifically at a scar that seemed to be appearing faintly above her left eyebrow. Miles stopped, wondering what exactly it was he had drawn. The image had just popped into his mind and he thought it looked cool. An enormous red figure with seven horns was battling fiercely with someone, little more than a speck in comparison but slightly scaled up for artistic purposes, wielding a fist of lightning. His mind was taken away from the subject by a quiet click from the door. The spiders tensed up in case a robot had come in the professor's place, but it was him. He locked the door behind him, his face filled with fear.
"I do not have long, so please let me talk. I know both of you are spider people, but that doesn't matter. I know who and where Jessica is, I know what the thing around her neck is."
"What do you mean 'who' Jessica is? She's just like the rest of us." Gwen replied.
"No, she is not. The thing around her neck is an Ethereal Plate; the gem, of course, not the chain. It is what they are after, and now they have what they want."
"Where is she?"
"In London. She was taken last night. I do not know if she is alive, just that that is where she was being taken. She and the Plate must be rescued at all costs. I understand saving lives is your primary goal, but the Plate holds enough power to flatten a country."
"There isn't much left of any countries to flatten." Miles replied.
"You believe this ends here, in this world? It has already spread to other worlds; to other temporal streams."
"Back-track a second. What's so special about Jessica?" Gwen asked.
"She…"
The door clicked. The professor panicked and looked for an escape route. Miles pulled the grate off the air vent and Zumerwalt clambered inside.
"Don't trust anyone." Were his last words as the spider replaced it and pretended to be working on his drawing as a staff member opened the door.
"Good evening, and my apologies for interrupting. But have you seen Professor Zumerwalt anywhere? He missed roll-call."
"Nope. We've been in here since curfew started." Gwen replied.
There was the sound of footsteps coming up the hall.
"Ah, Miss Harriet. Were you looking for me?" Asked Zumerwalt.
"Yes professor. You were missing at roll-call."
"I was merely pulling a late shift and lost track of time. Come, I need some supper."
Miss Harriet closed the door with an apologetic nod. Miles and Gwen turned to each other in an instant.
"We have to go to London." Said Gwen.
"Agreed. Let's pack; we leave as soon as curfew lifts."
"How do we get there?"
"Drive, I guess. There's a garage on the entrance level."
"Great…I thought we stopped crime, not committed it."
"Desperate times call for desperate measures. Get some sleep; I'll set an alarm."
Miles and Gwen were out as soon as the door clicked and unlocked. The corridors seemed mostly quiet, other than the occasional security guard who seemed perfectly happy with them being there. They headed to the entrance level and into a garage where a number of vehicles were parked. Miles spotted one that made him slightly jealous.
"Can we have that one?" He asked.
Gwen looked and shook her head.
"It's expensive. It'll have an alarm."
Miles slumped his shoulders a little, making puppy dog eyes. Gwen rolled her eyes.
"That doesn't work on me."
"Yeah, I know. What about that Jeep? It looks like it can take some punishment if we're pursued."
Gwen nodded. Miles tried the door handle expecting it to be locked, but it opened. He went round to the front and opened the bonnet. He and Gwen stared at the jumble of pipes, wires and boxes.
"Maybe just venom strike the thing and it might start?"
"I tried that once. The entire car blew up. Still, worked out well cos I used the trick to take down Rhino."
"Great. Let's jump-start it the old fashioned way."
"Do you know how?"
"Something to do with wires under the steering wheel, I think."
It took nearly ten minutes, but the spiders eventually managed to start the car. Miles took the wheel and drove off. He hadn't passed his driving test yet, but had been pretty good on his lessons. Anyway, he doubted road laws mattered much in the middle of a nuclear wasteland. He sighed as they came to an enormous steel door. However as the car stopped, klaxons started and lights began to flash red. He hoped it wasn't the alarm being raised, but a second later the door opened. It groaned, but eventually stopped moving with a thump. Miles put his foot down and drove through. More klaxons and lights flashed and the door sealed itself.
"That was easy."
"I had a teacher at school who had a red button on their desk that said that." Gwen replied.
"Ever get to press it?"
"The rule was if you finished a test with a quarter of your time left then got full marks, you could press it. Only one person ever did it."
"You?"
"I wish. I was too busy worrying if the police had figured out who I was yet. They were the smart kid in the class."
"You sound like you didn't like him."
"He was just a pig. And…my ex."
"Ooh. What ended that relationship?"
"Well, I started to open up to him about my life problems then he went and told everyone. Me and Peter were never the popular kids, but my popularity ratings went up like a rocket. At least in the laughing stock department. What about you? Any weird buttons or exs you thought were human but were just pigs?"
"No buttons, no. You're my first girlfriend, too. I had quite a few girls coming after me, but I always figured I'd know the one when I saw her. Maybe I'll be right?"
"You're right so far."
There was a short silence in which the meaning of what Gwen had just said sank in for both of them. Miles glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She had gone red, realising she'd just basically said yes if Miles had been proposing. Suddenly, there was a rustling sound in the back. Miles hit the brake and the car screeched to a halt. He and Gwen turned to find themselves staring down the barrels of two guns. They were retracted and the carrier spun them on his fingers.
"Just goes to show how useless your spidey senses are. If I'd been a bad guy, you'd be dead by now."
"What the hell are you doing back there?" Gwen snapped.
It was the same guy who had pointed out Jessica was missing yesterday. He grinned.
"Tagging along for the ride. I'd go by myself, but what's the point when you can go with someone else?"
Miles just glared, worried he was going to shoot them both, which the guy picked up on.
"If I was gonna kill you I'd have already done it. I'm on your side."
"Cos pointing guns at our heads really screams 'I'm here to help'."
"Whatever. Just keep driving. Follow signs for Glasgow, then take the M74 towards Carlisle. From Carlisle, follow signs for the Midlands, then for the South. Eventually you'll find directions for London. We've got at least an eight hour drive on our hands, so I hope you're comfy."
Miles sighed and set off again, deciding the guy was right about it being a long drive.
"Who are you?" Gwen asked, continuing the interrogation.
"I told you: your long lost son."
"We don't have a son. Let me put it this way: what's your name?"
"Maximilian, but everyone calls me Max."
"Got a surname?"
"Sure, but since you don't believe me about me being your long lost son, you won't believe me about this."
"Hit me."
"My full name is George Jefferson Maximilian Morales-Stacy. Born…I can't remember the day but it was in the year 2033. Dimension 7610."
"That's thirteen years away! You're crazy."
"No, I'm just this Dei Volente guy who's name keeps popping up."
"Jesus Christ…you need some help."
"I wouldn't bother swearing to him. He died a couple of months back, although it was the year 2048."
Gwen turned to face the front, casting Miles a glance which she only got a shrug back from.
"This mission isn't safe for civilians." Gwen said to Max.
"Don't worry. I've got myself covered."
"Out of curiosity, how old are you?"
"Relative to me, one and a half billions years, give or take a few thousand. Relative to you, I'm sixteen and one month. Relative to old Premis, twenty."
"Why's a sixteen year old so keen to get himself killed?"
"Because someone's been murdering my kids."
"You're sixteen. Find something better to do than sleeping around like that. You might catch something."
"It was only one person."
"How many kids you got?"
"I did have ten, then someone killed five. Probably six."
"How does a sixteen year old have ten kids? In fact, I don't want to hear."
"Gladly. I'm not exactly comfortable with talking about what I do with my fiancé in bed with my mum. Let's just enjoy the family road trip."
Gwen turned round to him.
"I am not your mum, and Miles is not your dad."
"And there was supposed to be a flashy gold guy who should have burned Minas Tirith to the ground by now, but he's not around so…"
"Enough, Maximilian."
"Oh alright. I'll be normal. See how long it takes us to find Jessica in a city the size of London."
Crossovers in this Chapter
Not one! It's almost refreshing after all that SCP stuff.