I do not own Spider Man or any of the characters.
Night Lights
I stare at the black hole for a moment before looking to the girls. Both of them nod, taking my hands, and we step through together. A few very disorienting moments of travelling between dimensions later, we fly out of the portal onto a building in New York. However, the moment we do, something's instantly wrong. Both girls shriek in pain, clutching their heads, before collapsing to the ground. Their shrieks transform into roars as both suddenly retake their true forms. Lexi's roar turns back into a shriek first as her body ripples slightly.
"What's going on!?" I ask.
"He's...fighting us!" Lexi forces out.
"Filthy human!" Jess snarls in the same distorted voice every other symbiote I've ever met has had, then groans. "No! I won't! How dare you speak to a queen with such a familiar tone!? I can't...stop it!"
"Kiss her!" Lexi orders.
I don't hesitate, grabbing Jess by the head and pulling her into a kiss. She freezes, then kisses me back, wrapping her arms around me. As she does, I open another black hole and pull Lexi to me with ice webbing, wrapping an arm around her and another around Jess before stepping into the black hole. I don't know where we're headed, and I don't care. We needed to get out of there. So, after a couple of minutes, when we're ejected from that portal and land, very ungracefully, in some dark, wet back alley with water covering the ground, I silently hope that we're in one of the worlds we're supposed to be in. However, I don't bother to check because Jess is still kissing me desperately, and I can sense her fear. Finally, Lexi reaches over, back in her human form now, and kisses Jess on the cheek, then the side of the neck. Jess pulls away, gasping and panting for breath, and slowly retakes her own human form, forming herself clothes with it.
"Are you okay?" I ask.
"I think so," Jess says, wiping her eyes as Lexi nods quietly to show me she's alright too.
"What happened?" I ask.
"There was something there," Jess says. "I could sense him. A monster. A being of immeasurable power and rage. He sensed us. And then, suddenly, I could feel him in my head. Clawing at my brain and trying to force me to follow his will. Suddenly, everything made me mad. There was so much anger. So much hate. I couldn't hold him back. If you hadn't kissed me and blocked him out, he would have made me kill you."
"Knull," Lexi says. "That's his name. I could sense a little about him as I tried to keep myself under control. He's the God of the Abyss, the nothingness that existed before the universe, that universe, existed. When light was used to create the universe, it took some of his kingdom away, so he wanted it back and killed one of the celestials that took it. He got cast out by the rest, so he's been waging a war against them since. He created the Symbiotes of that universe, or maybe all universes. That's why he would have been able to control us if we'd stayed."
"Then we are never going back there," I say, pulling out my interdimensional phone, as well as the wormhole device to check where we are.
"Ben?" Peni asks, answering on the first ring. "What's up?"
"We need you to search Universe Six-One-Six for us," I say. "There's a symbiote god or something there that can force Lexi and Jess under his control if we're there longer than two seconds."
"Oh wow," Peni says. "That's bad. Okay, sure. I'll go check."
"Thank you," I say. "We're in our next-to last universe now, so we'll be here for a while, I expect."
"Good luck," Peni says. "And don't forget to check in when it's time."
"We will," I promise. "Thank you Peni."
"No problem," she says, and hangs up.
I start the scanner searching and we all walk out into the street, looking around. We're across the road from a hotel, fortunately, so we walk over to it and I rent us a room. After a couple minutes, we get to it and I use y powers to freeze dry my clothes, setting my backpack off to the side. We're in a room with only one bed, again, because apparently two girls and a boy, all three late teens, only get hotel rooms if they're planning to have sex, and therefor only need one bed. I look over at Lexi and Jess, both of whom are visibly shaken, then climb onto the bed, pulling them both into a hug, both holding me tightly, Jess beginning to cry into my shoulder. I stroke her back comfortingly, Lexi giving her a light squeeze with the arm around her. Jess may be the older sister, but Lexi's always had a stronger will. Lexi and I have come to the conclusion that that was why Carnage chose her over Jess, despite Jess having the same abilities. Now, Jess is in a much worse condition than Lexi, and after a few minutes, I can tell Lexi's mostly recovered thanks to her worry for her sister, and is helping me comfort Jess.
"Whatever happens, we'll let this dimension's Spiderman handle it," I say.
"No," Jess says. "We'll help out if anything comes up. I'll be okay."
"Are you sure?" Lexi asks worriedly.
Jess smiles and nods. "I'll be alright now.
"Okay," I say. "You two should get some rest."
Both of them nod and I give them both a kiss before they lay down, pulling me down between them. I wrap an arm around them both, the two holding hands on my chest, lacing their fingers together before closing their eyes and quickly drifting off to sleep. I remain awake in case they have nightmares. With as shaken as they are, I expect they will, so I settle in for a long night.
Light flashes outside the window, waking me from my sleep. I carefully pull my arms back, kissing Lexi's cheek when she starts to stir, telling her to go back to sleep. Then, I walk to the window and stop, seeing the screens in Time Square showing a man with glowing blue skin and what looked like electricity racing through his skin, giving him his blue glow. I glance at the bed as Lexi and Jess push themselves up, both yawning and looking over at me.
"What is it?" Lexi asks, recognizing the look on my face.
"Looks like electricity powers," I say. "I don't think I've ever asked, but are you two immune to electricity?"
"No," Jess says. "Neither are you, though."
"No, but ice is better than direct contact," I say. "You two stay here. This dimension's Spiderman is probably there, so I'll go lend a hand. Then I'll come back here when I'm done."
Lexi nods, pushing herself up and walking over, looping her arms around my neck. "You want Ice Spider, the black one SHIELD gave you, or Sub Zero?"
"Give me the black one," I say. "Ice Spider will raise too many questions and Sub Zero would draw too much attention."
Lexi nods and envelops me for a moment before pulling back, reforming in front of me as she had been before. She gives me a quick kiss before stepping back, and I pull the mask around my neck up over my face.
"Hurry back," Lexi says.
"I will," I promise, then turn, jumping out of the window and quickly swing to the roof of a building on the edge of Time Square just in time to see the man swing his arms down at his sides, shouting for the cops to stop yelling at him to lay on the ground.
As he does, a massive pulse of blue electricity shoots outward, except, whether the electricity hits the cops or their cars around him or not, everything is thrown. I frown, watching the wave of energy fade. I'm pretty sure, if I've leaned anything from being around Peni and discussing superpowers and theories about potential abilities of other Spider People, this guy's energy blast was either coupled with electromagnetic energy, allowing him to control and throw metal objects, the energy itself had compressed the air into a shockwave, or both were happening. I see a police car about to crush a cop, but before it can, Spiderman flips over the car and catches it. I hum thoughtfully. Apparently, he's got the usual power set.
I swing down to the ground off to one side and walk forward as the cops open fire at the guy, only for their bullets to burn away into ash after getting within a few inches of him. He's got an invisible energy field around him. That'll be a problem. And he most likely will be able to channel his electricity along my ice, which means mid to long-range attacks only.
"Hello Spiderman," I say, stepping up beside him as he drops the car onto its wheels, the cop he had saved ordering everyone to hold their fire.
"Do I know you?" Spiderman asked.
"No," I say, forming an ice mallet. "But I was passing through and figured you might appreciate an extra set of superpowers lending you a hand."
"Oh that is so cool!" Spiderman said. "You generate ice? That's sweet! I'm just really strong and have a good reaction time."
I shrug. "So, what's the story with this guy?"
"I dunno," Spiderman says. "Just got here. Gimme a sec." He jumps up onto the roof of the car in a crouch. "Hey Sparkles!" he raises a hand as the guy turns to him. "Hey how you doing?"
"It's you!" the guy mumbles, staring at Spiderman in awe.
"Yeah I know it's me!" Spiderman says. "Who are you?"
"You don't remember me?" the man asks, taking a step forward, his foot landing in a puddle and sending visible bolts of electricity racing through the water, then along metal grates in the road under the car.
"No, should I?" Spiderman asks, following the electricity, only to freeze as he sees it end an inch short of a set of stairs where a couple dozen people are gathered.
"I walked into the street," the man says. "The car almost hit me, you swung me up. You saved me. You said you...needed me."
"The guy...you're the guy with the blueprints," Spiderman says.
"Yes," the man nods. "Blueprints."
"Yes!" Spiderman says, dropping into a seat on the cop car, then sliding off of it, starting forward. "I remember you! Of course I remember you. you're my eyes and ears! Uh...what's yo-what's your name again?"
"How could you forget me?" the man asked.
"Oh no, I do, I know it, don't tell me," Spiderman says, turning away and raising his hands as he tries to remember.
"It's Max!" the man says.
"Is it Max?" Spiderman asks at the same time.
"Yes," Max nods.
"I'm sorry, I didn't recognize you with the...you look different," Spiderman says, just as I catch his shoulder.
"Max, I don't think you want to hurt anyone, do you?" I ask.
"No," Max says.
"Alright, well, look down at your feet," I say.
He looks and his eyes widen as he looks around at the water and metal grates surrounding him.
"Every time you touch something that conducts electricity, you leak a bit of what you've got stored up," I say. "I might be able to help, if you'll work with me."
"How?" Max asks.
"I can generate ice," I say, holding out the mallet as evidence. "Ice doesn't conduct very well, so if I make you somewhere to stand that's thick enough, you should be able to stand there without risking accidentally hurting anyone."
"Okay," he nods.
"Alright," I say, kneeling and placing my hands on the ground. "I'll make a platform under you and see if it works."
Max nods and a thin sheet of ice spreads from my hands under Max before a four foot wide, circular platform begins to rise from under him, getting about a foot and a half in the air before I stop and evaporate the rest of the ice.
"There," I say. "That should keep you from accidentally hurting anyone for a bit."
"What if it melts?" Max asks. "The water will conduct electricity along the surface."
"Oh, my ice only melts if I let it," I say. "Otherwise, it stays perfectly solid."
"Okay," Max nods.
"Now that you're safe," Spiderman says. "What's going on Max? What happened to you?"
"I don't know what's happening to me," Max says, looking down at his hands as electricity sparked from his skin. "There's power, but I got so much...so much anger."
"I can see that," Spiderman says. "I can see you don't wanna be here, I can see you're scared, I can see you're confused. I can see you don't want them shooting you."
"I don't want them shooting me anymore," Max says, pointing back at the cops.
"You guys, this is my buddy Max, I told you about Max," Spiderman says. "No one shoots at Max!"
"Max," I say. "How did this start?"
"I...I don't know," Max says. "I was...I was fixing a power leakage and I got shocked. I fell into a tank filled with electric eels, and then...I remember waking up like this."
I glance at Spiderman, who sucks in a slow breath. That would have been fatal, and yet, here he is, with a brand new electricity control power to boot.
"It's going to be okay, Max," Spiderman says. "We're gonna figure this out."
"I just...I just wanted everyone to see me," Max says.
"How about you come with me and my friend here," Spiderman says, gesturing at me. "We'll go somewhere and we'll talk, away from all these people, okay?"
"Yeah," Max nods. "Yeah that sounds-"
He slips suddenly and I swear as he lands in a puddle. Lightning arcs out of his hands instantly and he shouts in pain as it does. Then, a sniper on one of the buildings takes a shot, the bullet hitting his shoulder but burning away before it could hurt him.
"No!" Spiderman shouts. "No stop!"
Max shouts in anger, shoving himself up and shoving his hands toward the building, twin lightning bolts flashing from his hand and blasting the building. Spiderman attaches a web to Max's hand, yanking it to stop him attacking the sniper, except that the electricity shoots along his webbing and blasts him, launching him backward into a cop car.
"Max, stop!" I snap. "We're trying to help you! If you attack anyone else, we'll have to stop you!"
The screen above where Max had blasted suddenly breaks free and falls, Spiderman shoving himself up and using webbing from his other hand's webshooter to pull the only cop in the way of its fall out of danger, allowing the screen to shatter on the ground. The crowd that's been watching from off to the side cheers, but the three of us ignore them.
"Max, we just want to help," I say. "That cop got a little jumpy, and I'm sorry. But me and Spiderman, we can still help you, if you'll let us."
Max looks around as the remaining screens all change from an image of Max to an image of Spiderman. People began to shout and jeer at Max, calling him a stupid freak, and telling him to get lost, others chanting "Spidey" over and over.
"Don't listen to them, Max!" I say. "We can help you!"
"Shut up!" Max shouts suddenly, beginning to breathe faster as he slowly turns, looking around, finally stopping on a video of Spiderman. "You're so selfish."
"Stay with me Max!" Spiderman says.
"You set me up!" Max growls.
"No, I didn't set you up!" Spiderman says.
"You lied to me!" Max shouts.
"No, I'm trying to help you!" Spiderman says. "Let me help you!"
Max shouts in rage, kneeling and slamming his hands into a metal grate, sending electricity flying through the trail of grates at Spiderman. Spiderman flips backward, doing a handspring off the cop car just before the electricity hits it and flips it into the air after Spiderman. Electricity shoots past Spiderman, charging the metal railings of the stairs with a fatal current. Spiderman uses webbing to catch the cop car, sticking the web netting between two buildings, then flips backward over the stairs, yanking two people's hands away from the railing a split second before the rest of the electricity can reach them and kill them, then lands at the top of the stairs as the entire railing lights up with electricity. At the same moment, I slam my ice mallet into the ground, ice erupting from the puddle Max is standing in, encasing his body up to his shoulders in ice and lifting him four feet into the air.
"I'm sorry, Max," I say. "You didn't leave me a choice."
"It's my birthday," Max snarls. "Now its time for me to light my candles!"
Electricity explodes off of him, shattering my ice instantly before a blast of electricity flies at me and another at Spiderman. We both avoid them, and Max turns to continue to fire at Spiderman, who rips a fire hydrant off the ground with webbing and swings it around at Max. Max leans back out of the way, then launches another bolt of lightning at Spiderman just as I throw a rod made of ice at him. The electric field around him intensifies in order to shatter the ice, but at the same time as his lightning hits Spiderman and launches him into a bus stop, the fire hydrant hits Max, launching him into one of the giant screens.
"Everyone get the hell out of here!" I shout. "Now!"
Already most of the people are running, but those who are still here finally turn and flee, except for a blonde girl that I assume knows Spiderman. Before her presence can become a problem, however, Jess and Lexi run over, both wearing tight black bodysuits and masks like mine, now, Jess grabbing the blonde by the hand and turning to run.
"No!" the blonde says. "I'll be fine!"
"Trust me, my friend with the ice has it handled!" Jess says. "Spiderman's going to be fine! Now let's go!"
Lexi sprints over to me and stops beside me, turning to Max as Spiderman staggers over to stand beside us.
"Your friend have ice powers too?" Spiderman asks.
"Actually, she's a shapeshifter," I say. "She can use it to mimic physical powers, like strength, jumping. She can copy your webbing too."
"Oh that's so cool!" Spiderman says. "We should talk after this."
"Oh that, we can agree," I say as Max finally stirs, grabbing two broken wires hanging beside him. "Oh fuck."
He holds them to his chest and they begin to spark and snap loudly, and his blue glow intensifies as he roars. Then, all power goes out anywhere near them. For a heartbeat, everything's dark. Then, a wave of blue electricity explodes out of Max, shattering the massive screens and breaking them all free of their buildings. I slam my hands into the ground and ice erupts from the ground under each, catching them and freezing them in place. Max pushes himself out of the crater he'd formed in the building and begins to float. He holds his hands out and fires a pair of lightning bolts at the fleeing civilians, only for a wall of ice to block it, the electricity arcing outward across the ice's surface but dying out before reaching the ground.
"You!" Max snarls, turning to me. "You made me stand still for the sniper!"
"I kept you from accidentally frying dozens of innocent people!" I correct him. "I was going to make you a safe path out so we could get you somewhere safe, for you and everyone else! But come to find out, ice tends to be slippery! I guess that dumbass cop didn't get the memo!"
"You set me up with that cop!" Max shouts.
"No, Max," I say. "I didn't set you up with that cop. But I did set you up this time."
Max's eyes widen just before a massive spray of water slams into him, knocking him out of the air and onto the ground before Spiderman shuts off the fire hose he's holding.
"Alright, that's enough," Spiderman says. "Alright, Mike." He holds his hand over his shoulder with his palm facing backward to give one of the firefighters a high five. "Big John." He gives that one a high five too. "Nice work, fellas. It was a pleasure doing business with you." He swings the hose in a circle twice before catching the nozzle."
I kneel, freezing the water on the ground and encasing Max in ice, again leaving his head exposed. Then, as the police begin to walk forward to arrest him, I let the ice evaporate all at once, dropping him onto his head hard enough to knock him out. After a moment, Jess returns with the blonde, Jess walking over to me and Lexi.
"Glad we didn't really have to fight," I say. "You would definitely not have been doing anything."
"Maybe," Lexi says noncommittally.
"So, who's the blonde, anyway?" I ask.
"Gwen Stacy," Jess says.
"Should have guessed," I sigh. "Come on. I want to go back to sleep before we have to answer questions. Lexi and Jess both nod and we leave quickly, getting into an abandoned back alley before we all swing up to the roof and quickly head back to out hotel, sneaking back inside and heading back to bed.
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