Arc 1 - Chapter II: Here Comes the Spider-man

When Kairi woke up, he had a pounding headache. So with a groan, he raised his hand to block out the sunlight that had peaked through the window and into his eyes. Blinking the last bits of light out of his eyes, he looked around his dorm room.

Wait…

His dorm room?

His thoughts halted as he tried to remember what happened to him yesterday. Miles woke him up, went to school, met Wanda, went to Stan's after school, and… he was on his way back to the dorms when he… found a four-eyed cat? That was the last thing he remembered. But remembering all the information just made his headache worse. Cradling his head between his hands, he tried to massage his temples to alleviate it.

Still, the question remained, how did he get back to the dorm?

You're welcome…

Startled by the voice that came out of nowhere, Kairi nearly fell off the top bunk if he hadn't grabbed the mattress to steady himself. Where did…? No, he couldn't possibly be losing it, can he? He wasn't studying that much and it wasn't like he was really stressing over anything of importance.

No, you're not going crazy…

Or maybe you know what? He definitely was going crazy. Because voices shouldn't answer your thoughts and once they did, that's when you should check yourself into the loony bin to be outfitted for a straight jacket. Though he was regretting not being able to do more as a teenager because who knew how long it would take for him to become normal again.

You are not going crazy, listening to what I'm saying…

Kairi sighed, he might as well enjoy his last day of school before he told his mother about the voice inside his head. Peering down at the bottom bunk, he saw Miles had gotten back some time last night as well, given that he was lying haphazardly on the bottom bunk. Leaping down to the floor, Kairi looked over at the clock, the dorm cafeteria would be open for breakfast soon.

You know what? I'm done trying to convince you, wake me up if something interesting happens…

Ignoring the voice as it started to become silent, he breathed out a sigh and went over to his closet for a fresh change of clothes and was a little baffled that he was still wearing the uniform from yesterday. He should probably take a shower if he more than likely didn't take one last night and had slept in his uniform.

Grabbing his towel, his bath stuff, and a fresh uniform set, he went off to the communal shower on his floor and was pleased to find that no one else was awake and using the bathroom, meaning that he had the whole place to himself. For the moment anyway. Showering quickly, he got dressed and got ready himself ready for the day before he returned back to his dorm room, where he found that Miles was still slumbering. Putting his towel, bath stuff, and dirty clothes in their respective places, he went over and kneeled at the bottom bunk.

"Hey, Miles," he shook his shoulder. "Miles, dude, breakfast."

"Huh?" Miles lifted his head groggily. "Oh, Kairi. Uh, yeah, I can totally eat some breakfast," he mumbled before his head fell back again and he began to snore.

Rolling his eyes with a sigh, Kairi decided to let his friend continue to sleep. He could bring some fruit or something back for him later.

When he got to the cafeteria, he saw that there were only a few other students who were awake like he was. But then again, it was only twenty minutes after the cafeteria opened for the morning. Grabbing scrambled eggs, sausages, and steamed potatoes and herbs for his breakfast, he added an apple to go along with it along with some orange juice. Finding a seat to have breakfast in an empty cafeteria wasn't an issue since a large majority of the tables were empty.

Heading to such an empty table, he took a seat and started chowing down. Pulling out his freshly charged phone that he had plugged in before he took a shower, he checked his emails and text messages. As usual, his mom had left a text saying goodnight. Texting a reply saying that he had been exhausted from studying last night and that he was sorry that he had missed her text, Kairi frowned at the white lie he told. He then put his phone back into his pocket and went back to his meal.

"Mind if I sit here?"

With his spoon still in his mouth, Kairi looked up to see Wanda looking at him. He was about to open his mouth to answer, but then quickly remembered that his mouth was full. So instead, he just nodded and gestured to the chair across from him.

"Thanks," she chuckled as she took the proffered seat.

Removing the spoon from his mouth and chewing, he swallowed before he spoke, clearing his throat a bit. "Sorry about that, good morning, Wanda," he said in greeting with an apology.

She blinked before nodding, "Morning, Kairi."

Kairi was a little confused by the short moment that she looked blankly at him as if a little bewildered, but ultimately dismissed it. Maybe she just spaced out or something. It's not like he wasn't guilty of doing the same.

She looked down at his food before smirking at him, "Not going to make another blueprint with your food again today?"

Kairi blinked before raising his hand to sheepishly rub the back of his neck. "Uh, no. Nope, not today, sorry if I got your hopes up or anything," he replied.

"It's cool," she waved off. "Though I'm a little curious what kind of blueprint you made yesterday. Were you planning on making a building or something?"

"A sculpture, actually," he replied with a shrug. "I like making sculptures out of scrap and junk, but I kinda need to know what I'm making first, see what the end product will be, so I make sketches or blueprints first."

Wanda's eyes lit up in interest, "Oh, wow, that's so cool! You have any pictures of your work?"

"Uh, yeah," he nodded as he grabbed his phone from his pocket again. Entering his phone's gallery, he pulled up the album that had all of his pictures of his previous work. A sculpture of the entire city of New York made from various pieces of metal, a statue of Alexander Hamilton made from the scrap metal of cars made from the '70s painted over by Miles, another statue completely made of computer wires shaped into the form of German Shepherd, and other sculptures he had made over the years. He then slid his phone over to Wanda for her viewing pleasure.

"Oh, wow, you seriously made these?" she gaped, swiping to see the next work.

"Yeah," he nodded, unable to help the smile of pride on his face.

Oooh, who's she? Your girlfriend…?

Kairi stilled.

Oh, great, the voice was back.

Technically, I never left…

Perfect.

And you didn't answer the question…

Don't talk to the voice, Kairi, you'll just make things worse.

Still in denial, huh? It's cool, your understanding of the world as you know it will never be the same again…

Breathing out a sigh, he massaged his temples to alleviate the incoming headache.

"You all right there?"

Looking up, he saw Wanda looking at him in concern. "Uh, yeah, I'm fine," he nodded with a flat smile, "I just woke up with a killer headache this morning, so far it's been coming and going."

"Oooh," Wanda winced in sympathy, "I think I've got some aspirin in my dorm if you need it."

"No thanks," he smiled, "like I said, it comes and goes, so I'll think I'll be alright."

Not that it would work anyway.

"On second thought…"

"Yeah, sure," Wanda nodded. "Soon as we're done eating, we can head to my room."

After they had finished eating, Kairi had taken another apple for Miles and stuffed it into his pocket before Wanda led him to her room. And Kairi was a little surprised to see how… barren it was. From the looks of it, she didn't have a roommate and what she did own didn't seem to amount to much. He had at least expected some personal belongings that would gleam as to the person Wanda was, but it was like she living the Spartan life, the bare essentials.

Wanda opened a drawer and pulled out a bottle of aspirin. "One bottle of aspirin, as ordered," she smirked as she held it out to him.

"Thanks," he nodded before popping the bottle open and taking two pills for himself. He had thought about just taking one but…

Seriously, those pills are not going to work.

Yeah, he needed all the help he could get.

Tossing the pills into his mouth, he was about to toss his head back to dry swallow when…

"Whoa, what're you doing?" Wanda looked at him incredulously.

"Uh, swallowing the pills?" he said unsurely, looking at her with a brow raised.

"Okay, okay… no. That's one way to get a pill stuck in your throat, dude," she cringed before she started looking around her room, moving the limited amount of stuff she had in her room around. "Okay, I think I have a water bottle somewhere so you can take your pills like a normal person."

Ooh, I like her. She's got spunk, you should ask her out.

Oh yeah, sure, like he was going to take dating advice from a voice from inside his head.

"Found it!" Wanda raised a pink sports bottle triumphantly, having found it with her backpack. Honestly, she didn't know why she didn't start looking there. "Here," she offered the bottle to him.

Kairi blinked, staring at her earnest smile before releasing a sigh and taking the bottle from her, drinking a swig of water to swallow the pills. "Thanks," he said, holding the bottle out back to her.

"You're welcome," she nodded, her smile dialing down a little but was still there.

I can feel your heart beating faster. You like her.

Seriously, not taking dating advice from you!

Hmm, your loss.

And he spoke to the voice, making things worse, not even an hour after he had told himself not to directly speak to it.

…

He really was going crazy.

At this point, you probably are given how hard you're in denial.

"Thanks for the aspirin, Wanda," Kari palmed his forehead, wincing in pain from his increasing headache. "But actually, I think I'm gonna head to the nurse, my headache is actually getting stronger and I don't think the pills will react in time. Maybe I'll take the day off today."

"Oh, okay, do you want me to help you get there?" she asked, concern clearly written over her face.

Aww, she cares. Looks like you have a chance.

Shut up!

"No, I'm good, thanks," he smiled at her gratefully. "You've already been a big help. Besides, I'm pretty sure you have to get ready for class soon and I'm sure that I can make it to the nurse on my own."

"If you're sure," she frowned at him unsurely.

"I am," he nodded. "Thanks again, Wanda," he said before turning around to leave her dorm room. "I'll see you later."

"Yeah, later," she nodded, watching him leave.

And unknown to Kairi, her senses had been going off like crazy around him today. It happened intermittently and interestingly enough, it happened whenever his headaches seemed to get worse from how he had been wincing randomly during her conversations with him so far. Was he like her? She knew from first-hand experience how disorienting getting used to it all can be for the first time.

Looking down at her pink water bottle for a moment. It was time to play a little hooky.

…Some time later…

"Ugh," Kairi groaned in pain as he dragged himself to the top bunk.

"You okay, dude?" Miles looked at him in concern. "You don't look so hot."

"Just a severe headache is all, bro," Kairi assured before wincing at another bout of head-induced pain. "The nurse prescribed me some pain pills and allowed me to be excused from class for the day. She said I'll be right as rain by tomorrow. Or at least better."

"Uh, okay," Miles frowned, still concerned. "You sure you don't want to take my bunk? Come on, dude, in case you roll off and fall."

Kairi waved him off, "Nah, I'm good, dude, thanks. I'll just tuck myself into the corner next to the wall, I'll be fine.

"If you're sure," Miles frowned, a little dubious. "Anyway, I'll take notes for you in class. Good thing our schedules are the same, right?"

Kairi nodded, "Thanks man, I appreciate it."

"Ah, you'd do the same for me," Miles waved off.

Kairi then remembered something, "Oh, before I forget, I brought an apple for you from the cafeteria, it's in my blazer pocket."

Miles went over to the blazer that had been draped over the chair at Kairi's desk and pulled out said apple. "Ooh, Granny Smith, thanks, man, you're the best," Miles nodded in thanks before taking a bite. "And feel better."

"Thanks, Miles," he said to his friend as Miles left the room, closing the door behind him.

I like him, he's loyal. Hard to find that in a friend these days.

And the voice would just not stop talking… He was very tempted to take those pills the nurse had prescribed him, but she warned him that he should take them in a few hours after the effects of the aspirin he had taken had run through his system.

Again, they won't work. You're not actually having a headache, you're just stressing yourself out because you fail to realize that I am not a voice inside your head.

What else could you be?!

An alien.

…

Wait, what?

"I am an alien, Kairi Lopez," a voice that was certainly not his sounded off beside Kairi's head. "Or put more precisely, I am a symbiote."

Startled, he looked over to see a head colored black and yellow with four red eyes staring at him. Eyes wide in surprise and a little horror, he looked to see where the head was connected, following the tendril-like form coming from the base of the head down to… His own shoulder?

Oh god.

"Holy shit."

"There is nothing holy about any of this. Hell, I'm pretty sure God has left the building. Even my god's gone, but that's okay, he was an asshole."

Kairi stared at the heading coming out of his shoulder for a long moment. "I'm not going crazy, am I?" he asked eventually. "I'm really not going crazy."

"No, you're not. Told you."

"Uh-huh. Right, you did," Kairi nodded before groaning into his hands. "Okay, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell." Taking in a deep breath, he lowered his hands and looked back at… the alien, who looked at him curiously. "Right, so first, introductions. You know my name already, so what's yours?"

"Oh, polite. I knew I liked you for a reason," replied the alien. "My name's Sleeper."

Kairi tilted his head to the side, "Not gonna lie, your name's a little weird. But then again, my name translates to 'ocean village,' so who am I to judge?"

"Hm, I appreciate your honesty," Sleeper titled its own head.

"So… is there any reason you're on Earth?" Kairi asked. "It's not to take over the planet or something like that, is it?"

"What? No!" Sleeper balked. "Why do you humans always assume every alien is trying to take over your planet? No, never mind that. Listen, Kairi, I need your help."

"My help?" he frowned. "What can I do? I'm just a high school student."

"I am trying to go home," said Sleeper. "I am actually from another dimension, Kairi, another Earth. Similar to yours, but different in some aspects. Don't ask me which ones, it's not like I went to school. But I do know that my world did not have a Spider-man as yours does."

"So then how am I- we, supposed to get you home?" asked Kairi.

"Tell me, does your Earth have an Alchemax corporation?" asked Sleeper. "On my Earth, I remember that they were heavily researching interdimensional travel and space transportation. Honestly, they were off their rocker sometimes, but who knows what they're up to on your Earth?"

"Uh, well, I guess I can Google it," Kairi frowned as he reached for his phone and started typing. "Hmm. Alchemax. Oh, yeah, here it is. Says that they research many scientific innovations, including… interdimensional travel and space transportation. Are you serious?"

"Hmm, looks like idiots are in charge of the Alchemax on this Earth too," Sleeper mused, peering at the phone screen before turning back to its current host. "Sucks for you. Eh, but then again, you have Spider-man."

"Right," Kairi drew out flatly before turning his attention back to his phone. "Huh, looks like they're mostly funded by this Wilson Fisk guy. Don't know who he is, but he has a building here in Brooklyn."

"We should definitely check it out, who knows what we'll find," said Sleeper. "If the scientists are really stupid, maybe they have already built an active interdimensional transporter device."

Kairi looked at Sleeper with a frown, "Wait, but you need this interdimensional thing though, right? How is it stupid?"

Sleeper scoffed, "Just because I need it doesn't make it any less stupid. The longer it stays in human hands, the more likely it is that you humans would accidentally cause catastrophes on apocalyptic proportions."

Shifting over to sit on the edge of his bed, Kairi leaped down from the top bunk and landed on his feet. "Okay, harsh, but I won't argue with you there," he sighed as he rubbed the back of his head. He then looked over at Sleeper's head, "So are you just gonna be there or can you go away?"

"What do you mean?" asked Sleeper.

"Well, it isn't normal for a human to have a second head sticking out of their shoulder," Kairi said flatly.

"Well of course it isn't!" Sleeper laughed. "I was just messing with you, Kairi."

To Kairi's morbid fascination, he watched as Sleeper's head began to recede into his shoulder until it was gone. "That is so weird," he mumbled. "You're still there though, right?"

Of course, I am.

"Right, of course," he breathed out a little sigh before he went over to his closet and changed into some casual clothes. "Wait, but people will notice if I leave through the front door though," he said aloud.

Then just go out the window.

Kairi balked, "We're on the fourth floor of the building, I'm not gonna jump!"

Oh, right. Here…

He watched as the same material that Sleeper's head had been made out of snaked across his skin, enveloping him from down to his feet and up to his head. "Hold on, what are you-"

For a moment, he saw nothing but darkness as the tendrils slid across his head. And then he saw… everything, though the edge of his sight was a little distorted.

He groaned at the new sensation of… whatever this was, falling to his knees on the floor. His head was spinning as if he had been on a roller coaster too many times. And trust him, he snuck onto enough roller coaster rides when he was younger to know what that felt like.

Breathe, Kairi, breathe.

Eventually, the disorientation went away.

"Whoa, what's this?" he asked aloud before his hands snapped to his throat. "Hold on, is that my voice? Is that my voice?"

Technically, our voice. Check your mirror.

Doing as the alien said, Kairi walked into his closet and was surprised to see that he had been encased in some sort of form-fitting like suit. All black save for the gold on his forearms and chest and what covered his head resembled Sleeper's face.

"Holy shit, I look badass!"

I'm glad that you approve, but Alchemax? Remember?

"Oh, right, sorry."

You are forgiven.

Opening his window, Kairi jumped out, thankful that there weren't any passersby that could have seen him. Landing on the opposite rooftop, he looked down at his hands before looking in the direction of Fisk's building, feeling giddier than he had ever before. Dashing off in the right direction, he enjoyed it as he ran parkour along the city's rooftops.

Though, if either Kairi or Sleeper had been paying a bit more attention, one of them would've seen Wanda peek out from the corner of the dorm building, sticking to the side of the brick wall. She had watched the transformed Kairi go with a contemplative frown on her face. It was time to get her gear out…

…Some time later…

Upon reaching the rooftop of one of the buildings sitting across Fisk's building, Kairi narrowed his eyes at the place, which reflected on the main pair of eyes on Sleeper's face that covered his. As it was still morning, people who worked in the building were there, working on whatever it was they did for Fisk.

"So, uh, I just realized this, but how the heck are we going to get in there?" Kairi asked aloud.

What do you mean?

"Well, it's not like we can just walk into the building, we won't fit in. You're an alien and I'm a teenager who should be in school right now."

Huh… good point.

Kairi was surprised when a part of his… er, Sleeper's… their form began to shift and change where his pocket would be. That same area then dipped inward before a tendril came out, holding his phone.

Can you look at those map apps on your phone or something? They should have a way in for us, right?

"Not specifically and I doubt Fisk's people would advertise their building's weak points on the internet," Kairi replied as he looked at his phone that Sleeper's tendril was still holding up.

So there's no way in? Maybe we can try later tonight when there are fewer people?

"Maybe, but I remember in my history class from last year that New York City's buildings were once connected by the subway tunnels." Grabbing his phone from Sleeper's tendril, he started Googling public records. "Jackpot," he chuckled when he found what he was looking for.

Finding a subway entrance a few blocks away, Sleeper receded back under Kairi's skin, allowing him to blend in with the other humans.

So… Sleeper, what exactly are you?

I told you, I'm a symbiote.

Okay, but that doesn't really explain much.

Can you explain what a human is?

A mammalian organism that evolved over the course of millions of years that developed the capacity for higher learning, abstract thinking, and self-awareness.

…

Well, now you're just showing off.

So…?

Look, all I know is that symbiotes were made by some primordial deity that wanted to kill everybody because he could, so he created symbiotes to help him do that. Some stuff happened and that deity that created symbiotes got offed or something, which was around the time I was born. Anyway, symbiotes need hosts to survive but when we do find a host, we can give our hosts kickass abilities!

Like a super-suit and the ability to run and jump fast?

Heck yeah!

Shaking his head, Kairi looked up just as the subway arrived at the station closest to Fisk's tower underground. Disembarking the subway train, he let the train leave before he peered into the tunnel it had just been in.

"Wow, it's dark," he squinted into the darkness.

Not for me.

Kairi didn't have time to protest when Sleeper's form encase itself over him. However, this time, Sleeper was in control.

Whoa, hold on! I thought I was in control when you did this!

"If I feel like giving you control, then yes, you are in control," Sleeper chuckled as he entered the tunnel, uncaring for the darkness. Though Kairi noted that he could see into the dark now and Sleeper's vision was now kinda similar to night vision but in red."But then again, isn't that the illusion of control?"

Really? Are you seriously going to paraphrase Ellen Langer? Look, can I have control, please? It feels weird to have someone moving my legs for me.

Well, since you asked so nicely.

Kairi nearly stumbled when Sleeper surrendered control, rightening his balance before he could trip and fall.

"You did that on purpose."

Guilty.

Shaking his head, Kairi kept moving, eventually finding a maintenance tunnel with a simple locked gate, which kept people out from the rest of the tunnel. At least from the bottom anyway, the gate didn't reach up to the ceiling.

"We can jump that, right?"

We jumped from rooftop to rooftop, of course, we can!

"Right," Kairi nodded as he bent his legs to jump.

One…

Two…

Three!

Bam!

To his surprise, Kairi didn't jump over the gate, instead, he had jumped all the way up to the ceiling. Not expecting it, he crashed face-first into the concrete before falling back onto the top of the gate on his back. And from there, fell back onto the same spot on the concrete floor he had jumped from.

"What the hell?"

What the hell? What was that?

"I don't know, you tell me!" Kairi replied, just as incredulous as the alien. "You're the symbiote! Why did we jump so hard?"

Look, just… jump again. But this time, do it more softly.

Kairi jumped, but only lifted up maybe two inches. Maybe.

Not that soft!

"Well, I'm sorry that I don't want to make a repeat of our first attempt."

Okay, I'm taking control this time. I'll just jump and hand controls back to you.

"Fine."

Sleeper looked up at the gate and jumped. Straight into the concrete ceiling and from there, landed on his back on the top of the gate before falling back on the same side they had yet to move from, landing in the same spot.

Not as easy as it looks, is it?

"Shut up."

Maybe a running start?

Looking back, Sleeper took a few steps back before looking back at the gate. Releasing a growl, he made a dash for the gate and jumped. Only to hit the top half of the bars of the gate before slowly sliding down onto the floor into a defeated heap.

Not gonna lie, if a simple gate is the only thing that's stopping us, we're going to have so many issues after this.

"Screw it, we climb!" Fed up, Sleeper grabbed a bar in each hand and made to climb only to get stuck since he couldn't move his hands up to grab the higher portions of the bar. "You've got to be kidding me…" Thoroughly annoyed, Sleeper began shaking the gate violently. "Why can't we get past you!?"

The door of the gate slowly opened with a loud creak of unoiled, rusty hinges. Slowly, Sleeper looked over at the now open door in disbelief.

…

I won't tell anyone about this if you don't.

"Agreed."

Tugging their shared hands from the bar, eventually, Sleeper was able to let go before giving control back to its host. Strangely enough, when Kairi was in control and touched the door, his fingers didn't stick like what happened with Sleeper. Dismissing the information for the moment, Kairi followed the rest of the tunnel and eventually found a working fuse box at a junction that looked like it had seen some recent use with many cables connected to it.

Were people down here?

Looking to the left where the junction connected to and the wires went off in, he saw that there was a lot of modern tech lining the walls of the tunnel. And each piece of equipment all had the same thing printed on it, Alchemax.

Ooh, I think we're getting close.

Or maybe not, because as he continued to follow the tunnel, he had eventually found himself at a dead-end. And that dead-end looked like an abandoned and rundown control room or something. Maybe it had been a monitoring station for the old systems that used to be done here.

"Are you sure?" Kairi asked, frowning at the rundown, abandoned look of the place.

He must've jinxed it, because no sooner did he say that, something large crashed into the windows of the room, causing him to fall onto the floor with a grunt. But apparently whatever it was that crashed was too big as it hadn't crashed through into the room, just merely breaking the old windows.

Pretty much!

Shaking his head of the cobwebs in his head, Kairi ignored the symbiote in his head and went over to the wall beneath the now broken windows.

"Norman, listen to me."

Upon hearing the voice, Kairi peaked over and saw Spider-man crash into a metal shipping container. "Spider-man?" he breathed in surprise.

"I cannot let you open a portal to another dimension," Spider-man said to an adversary. "Brooklyn is not zoned for that!

Kairi followed the hero's line of sight and his eyes widened when he saw the very large, mutated form of the Green Goblin. He had seen pictures of the Green Goblin before, even this large mutated form when he had attacked New York City for whatever reason. Honestly, with these supervillains, all their reasons seemed to just blend together.

Holy crap.

"It's not up to me!" the Green Goblin snarled. "Why won't you quit, Spider-man?"

"I guess I like Brooklyn not being sucked into a black hole," Spider-man quipped as he webbed and swung along the roof of the larger space in order to create momentum to use against the large mutated thing who had been once a man. "Staten Island, maybe. Not Brooklyn!"

"We should probably just leave, try tomorrow, right?" Kairi mumbled as he stared at the large, hulking form of the monstrous Green Goblin fight against Spider-man.

Why aren't you running already, you idiot?!

"What, you don't think we can help?"

Two minutes ago we were stopped by a freakin' gate longer than I'm comfortable with! Do you really think we can help against that thing? It's a giant monster throwing bombs! BOMBS! Who does that?!

Kairi looked up at the fight going on in front of them, "No, yeah, you're right. We'd be slaughtered by him."

Good, now run!

Before he could, however, the Green Goblin crashed into the now ruined control room again, causing the floor to collapse beneath his feet. "Whoa!" he cried out, his hands reaching out to grab something, anything, to stop himself from falling. Although the gesture itself was futile, tendrils shot out from his palms and latched onto the ceiling above. "Holy crap, was that you, Sleeper?" he asked as he held onto the ends of the tendrils.

Sorta? I mean, I knew I had them, but I didn't think they could go that far.

"Well, no use complaining about good luck," Kairi breathed a sigh of relief. "But, uh, how do we let go?"

I dunno, try letting go?

Kairi did as recommended and the tendrils unstuck themselves from the ceiling, causing him to fall and slide down the rubble to the large bay that Spider-man and Green Goblin were fighting in. Ducking undercover, he tried to avoid the fight that raged around him, which was a little difficult given the Goblin's large size. Just trying to get away from the fight because Sleeper certainly had a good point considering a gate did stop them for a concerning amount of time.

On your left!

What?

Reflexively, Kairi ducked down to the ground as a piece of an industrial crane soared where his head had been. Looking up over his shoulder from the floor, he saw the Green Goblin swing his impromptu weapon again, though this time downward. Rolling to the side to avoid the blow, he got to his feet as he looked up, and dashed through the doorway he had headed to in the first place.

Watch your step!

Tendrils shot forth from the back of his legs and latched onto the floor behind him as he almost stepped over a ledge. "Thank you," he breathed a sigh of relief.

You're welcome.

Looking up in the new room he had found himself in, he frowned at the obviously advanced tech that surrounded him with a control room sitting on the wall opposite of him. Though whatever this was seemed to be a prototype or something because parts of the walls were unfinished. And on either side of him on the far walls were devices that reminded him of sci-fi engines. But they couldn't be engines, they were pointed at one another. So what were they?

Kairi, behind you!

He tried to duck, but it was futile anyway as a very large body crashed into him, sending them both flying into the strange room. He was about to fall into one of the incomplete walls and down to the ground far below when a hand gripped him by his shoulder. Looking back at the hand keeping him from falling, he saw that it was red and had a web design, so he looked up at the masked face of Spider-man.

"Hey, kid, cool costume," said Spider-man.

I'm not a costume!

"Uh, this isn't a costume," Kairi said, a little dazed considering he was talking to New York's superhero. All he had to do was not look stupid. Don't look stupid, don't look stupid, don't look stupid.

"Ha, you sure?" Spider-man asked as he lowered them to one of the construction platforms below. "The voice changer is pretty cool."

Sleeper, could you pop your head out or something?

Of course.

Spider-man's eyes widened when the mask that covered Kairi's face slid off and formed a full head, having shifted over to hang over the teen's shoulder, "Holy crap! And here I thought I've seen everything."

"Hi, I'm an alien from another dimension," Sleeper greeted cheerfully.

Spider-man groaned, "Oh, please don't tell me Fisk already opened the portal more than once already."

"Look, Spider-man, this guy," Kairi motioned towards Sleeper's head with his own, "all he wants is to go home back to his dimension, that's why we're here. There's an Alchemax in his Earth too, so we thought that our Alchemax had something that could send him home."

Spider-man frowned, "Well, unfortunately, Fisk's device is too untested and he's breaking through any safety procedure in the books. I already took a look into his machine's specs, and using it would destroy the space-time continuum. But maybe I can still help."

"Sleeper?"

"That's fine with me," the symbiote replied. "Last thing I want is to be ripped apart molecule by molecule trying to go home."

"Great," Spider-man nodded as he rose to his feet and stood on the edge of the platform. "Then I'll be right back before all of us are 'ripped apart molecule by molecule.' The both of you just stay here."

"Got it," Kairi nodded as Sleeper's head formed a mask over his face.

Spider-man gave a two-fingered salute. "See you in a bit," he said before leaping.

And from his position, Kairi watched as Spider-man made his way to the ceiling above, the hero's hands and feet sticking to its surface. Which got Kairi thinking, how exactly did Spider-man stick to surfaces as he did? As he watched Spider-man look around the ceiling panels, the hero seemed to find what he was looking for as he moved a particular panel away. However, before he could do more, a bird's screech echoed in the chamber before Spider-man was swiped away by a green blur.

"The Vulture?" Kairi blinked in surprise.

"Dammit, Toomes, I was in the middle of something," Spider-man groaned in annoyance as he fought back against the winged villain. "Are you mad at me?" he asked after he was knocked toward one of the engine-looking machines on the wall. "It feels like you're mad at me."

"Consider it payback for stopping me kill Bestman," the Vulture snarled, taking swipes at the Spider-hero with his sharpened wings.

"Right," Spider-man said flatly before he fired a web to launch himself at the man. But before he could reach the avian-themed villain, the Green Goblin came from above and slammed his foot onto Spider-man, pinning the hero down. "Ow, what the heck, Norman? You gain weight recently?"

"Doo-be doo, doo-be doo, da da da da, doo-be doo…" Kairi looked up when he heard someone scatting on the loudspeaker. "Watch out, here comes the Spider-man… You like my new toy? Cost me a fortune, but, hey, can't take it with you, am I right?"

"Kingpin," Spider-man grunted from beneath the Green Goblin's foot.

"Heh, you came all this way," drawled Kingpin. "Why don't you watch the test. It's one hell of a freakin' light show, you're gonna love it."

"I doubt it," Spider-man grunted as he tried in vain to get out from the Goblin's foot. But when the device began to spin, he looked in the direction of the control room in alarm. "No! No, don't do this! Stop! You don't know what it can do! You'll kill us all!"

See? said Sleeper as some sort of device lowered from the ceiling between the two large machines to sit in the exact middle of the chamber. I told you that you humans would just cause apocalyptic catastrophes!

"Not now!"

And from the two machines, a brightly colored beam was fired and connected between them. Kairi had no idea what was going on, but he knew it was bad. Everything seemed to be… not right. Parts of the chamber looked like it was not there and at the same, it was there… just five times over.

"Am I going crazy now?" Kairi mumbled in disbelief.

If you are, I'm right there with you…

Still pinned, Spider-man looked up at the ceiling. And when he spotted it, he couldn't help but quip, "Hey, Norman, what's your take on head trauma?"

"What?" But before the monstrosity could react any further, one of the ceiling panels fell off its mount and fell straight onto the Goblin's head. Collapsing like a puppet with its strings cut, the hulking beast fell aside.

"Tried to warn ya, pal," said Spider-man as he got to his feet and fired a web to the ceiling to go back to the panel to stop this.

Unfortunately, the Goblin recovered almost instantly and with a roar, flew towards the costumed hero, grabbing Spider-man by with his prehensile foot. Still enraged, the Goblin then held Spider-man to the center of the beam.

And Kairi and Sleeper could only watch in horror.

Until the beam exploded, sending everything into darkness.

AN:

Okay, not gonna lie, Sleeper is probably my most favorite character I've written. According to the comics, the guy is smug and boastful, and given that he was raised by Dr. Strange, I figure he's probably the most human symbiote from the get-go and isn't afraid to show it.

Also, this will be my only update to any of my stories for the next few weeks as I will be focusing more on my research projects and my finals soon after.

So as always, stay safe, stay healthy, and you all have a good day.