Pain.

Pain, pain, pain.

Whispers?

Pain.

Moving.

Moving?

Pain.

Dark

Pressure.

Pain.

Prick, pain...?

Shouts?

Whispers.

"Thank you."

Numb.

Pain.

Light. Ceiling. Shadow.

"You awake?"

Small nod. Pain.

"You're not in the clear. Hang in there, kid."

Black.

Numbing pinpricks of pain.

Pain.

I'm going to...

"I'm going to-"

Flash.

Falling. Pain.

Falling. Pain.

Falling. Pain.

Twist in the air. Parachute, parachute.

Jolt. PAIN.

Buildings. A world.

Black.

I slowly came around. Pain laced through me from head to foot, enough to make me groan out loud. It hurt to do even that, as my throat was beyond parched.

I moved the arm that didn't hurt as badly to my head, absently rubbing my forehead in an attempt to lessen the headache that was already forming.

I attempted to open my eyes, but the world spun around me at a dizzying rate so I closed my eyes again. I really didn't want to add any more pain to my already aching body.

What happened to me...? Oh, oh yeah. The Lizard. It really had taken a lot out of me, huh. If I ever face off with him in my universe, I'm going to call the Ultimates first. Was I home yet? I wasn't sure.

Since I wasn't opening my eyes at least for a few minutes, I decided instead to focus on my other senses. I could smell something delicious in the air… waffles? I'm pretty sure it was waffles. I could hear dishes being washed too. I shifted to the side, the clothes I was wearing ruffling over what felt like freshly washed sheets. Whatever I was lying on wasn't lumpy, in fact, it was very comfy.

I also realised that I didn't have my suit on, and instead what felt like bandages wrapped around me in various places and a comfy but lose shirt and pants. So someone had taken care of me and had fixed me up. I'm pretty glad that they had, because oh boy, I hadn't had the chance during the fight to assess my injuries beyond 'holy hell they hurt' and 'I can feel blood.' And then I basically passed out so I wasn't in good shape.

Now to find out if whoever had fixed me up was friendly. I sincerely hope it isn't some big bad who wants to do something evil and it somehow involves me. I was very done with that, like so done that I would just groan and punch someone. Who cares if they're going to kill me for escaping? It's better than being brainwashed or forced to do something crappy.

So, finally, I slowly began to open my eyes, determined to figure out what life would have in store for me next. I immediately noticed that the ceiling was not in new condition. In fact, I'm pretty sure that was the start of mould in the corner…

I glanced around from my position, and huh. I was on a bed. In a bedroom. Admittedly it was kind of small, but what else was new? It's New York. So I guessed that I probably wasn't in an evil secret person's house. Bad guys always seemed to have lots of money.

Now for the real question, was I back in my universe or a completely different one?

With stubborn determination I lifted myself up to a sitting position, breathing heavily in pain because ow, my chest and arms and body hated me. I swung my legs over the side and when I tried to put weight on my injured leg it hurt like hell and I actually yelped in pain. Whoops.

The door swung open and I immediately knew I wasn't in my universe. There was a guy dressed up in a fancy skin-tight costume. There was a spider on his chest, but no webs going out from it. His eyes were black and so was most of his suit. Very scary, I really hoped they weren't like that spidey from the first world.

"You're awake, how are you doing?" they asked, folding their arms and leaning against the door frame.

"Um, pretty sore. Like I got hit by a bus at least two times. How did I get here? You were the one who stitched me up, right?" I asked, studying them.

"I found you bleeding out on my rooftop so I brought you here. How did you get so hurt?" They replied. They could have just said 'yes I did' but whatever.

"Well, short version or long version?" I asked. They simply stared at me so I decided to go with the short version. "Well, I was fighting The Lizard in a universe where zombies had killed nearly everyone. I beat him, at least I'm pretty sure, but it beat me up. Man, he was fast. Does that help?"

They took a few steps towards me as they said, "So you're telling me that you were in a universe where there were zombies?"

"Yeah, I get how absolutely insane I sound but please take my word for it. I've been jumping around a bunch of universes because of a whole series of events that frankly I don't want to get in to."

They rubbed their forehead but seemed to give in. "I've got waffles if you want some?"

I eagerly nodded and moved to get up but they quickly stopped me, pushing me back onto the bed. "Don't put weight on that leg, you need to give it a few more hours at least before your healing factor will be able to handle it before ."

I frowned, "How do you know I have a healing factor?"

"I saw your wounds from the glass seal up in about half an hour after I took out any glass remaining. A normal human wouldn't be able to do that." They answered as they walked into the kitchen and came back with my breakfast.

"Oh… How long was I out?" I decided to ask, instead of the twenty questions about his costume and his powers and what this universe was like that popped into my head.

"Eighteen hours or so. Eat slowly or you'll be sick."

After I had consumed five waffles I felt full and relaxed. I honestly hadn't been expecting to get this sort of treatment for my wounds. I mean, I thought that I would have had to go to a hospital in whatever universe I was in, but thanks to the power of landing on someone's roof that had the skills to wrap me up I was all good.

I had a feeling that I had been treated for some of my injuries when I had still been in the zombie universe. I knew I had had a cut or something when I was... when I hit the wall. But there wasn't any injury when I felt around for one. I knew that with all of my injuries I had been healing for at least a couple of days for it to have reached this point.

My leg was swollen and the bite wound was surrounded by heavy and dark bruising. The bite marks there were beginning to scab or scar over. My arm was in a similar state, except the claw marks looked a lot worse than my leg. Both of them hurt quite a bit but I could handle it. The one that was going to be the worst, and would probably scar, was my chest wound. On the area over my heart was where it was worst, as some bits of my skin and muscle were quite loose and struggling to bleed. It was still sluggishly bleeding in parts there. On my right side, it was a cleaner cut, as his claws had more or less just caught while the lizard had thrown me, but some parts were still jagged. Over my body, there were small marks from where glass had punctured me that had scarred over by now. Parts of the rest of me also had carpet burns from where I had been thrown around. I also had a small cut from where my face had hit the wall and some ripped out hair.

Overall, I looked like I had been running from a bear, got hit by a train and then torn into by the bear while a deer stomped all over me. I was beyond thankful that I had a healing factor. I would have bled out and died if I was a normal human. Or at least I'd have to recover for a few months in a bed.

I decided I needed a shower, because dried flakes of my blood were all over me and frankly it was gross. I also had to find my backpack and see where my suit was at. Probably unusable.

I gingerly placed my leg on the ground, taking a few deep breaths before placing weight on it. It hurt like fire, but after a few seconds of deep breathing, I was able to take a few steps. Every step was nearly unbearable, but I knew I had to get these things done before I left for a new world. But after being doing this thing for over a year or something I was used to bruises. That was probably a bad thing.

I ended up taking a longer shower than I normally had, which was to be expected. I had cleaned and redressed the wounds with new bandages, which had definitely taken quite a while.

After all of that, I walked out into the main room, finding it in a similar state to the room. Not that big, not that small with the walls threatening to grow mould. I spotted my bag in a corner and quickly went over to it. I dug around in the bag and changed into my spare clothes and put my web shooters on. I guessed that Spider-man had put it in once the web had dissolved from around my bag.

I guess someone had been smart enough to make sure I was at least holding on to my bag when I teleported.

As I was standing back up again, putting my bag on my back, I saw something glinting in the light. I looked over and was startled to find a gun in plain sight, leaning against the wall. What was that doing there? I mean, maybe this Spider-man had been patrolling and had taken it from a bad guy but…

Something in my gut told me that was far from the truth.

"That's my favourite one, it's an AS50. What do you think?" I jumped and whirled around, openly staring in shock at this Spider-man. My body protested the sudden movement a moment later.

"W-what do you mean it's your favourite one? Spider people are good guys, we don't kill-"

"I kill, it's called being an assassin."

"Why aren't you a hero?"

"I saw that there are other ways to be a hero." He replied, placing his hands on his hips.

"But… why would you kill people? You hurt people's family, what about…" What would Peter say? "What about Uncle Ben?"

"Don't say his name!" Spider-man roared. I flinched away, wary that if they really wanted to hurt me they could. I was in no state to fight, but I would if I had to.

At the very least it proved that it was indeed Peter Parker underneath the costume.

"I'm just trying to say that you have a lot of power-"

"I'm using my powers responsibly, I'm killing the bad guys, instead of keeping them alive so that they can just kill another person. They don't change-"

"You don't know if they'll change or not! They could move on and do something useful. You don't know what lead them to be in that place. Maybe they were blackmailed or forced to do whatever they're doing and you're killing what's basically a defenceless human!"

"You don't know who I kill! Besides, they won't change. I know they won't."

"You don't know that! Even Uncle Aaron could have changed! My dad did." My spider-sense hummed warningly as this Spider-man took a menacing step forward. I took my own step back, lowering into a more defensive crouch even as my body began to heavily protest.

"They don't change, or at least most of them don't. Why risk it? Why is one person's death worth more than ten others to you? But you'll learn soon enough. Who's to say you haven't already killed someone without knowing?" I flinched,"But, while you're here," my spider-sense went up a notch and I braced myself, "-in my apartment which I have been kind enough to stitch you up in, you don't question why I do things the way I do."

I was about to concede and give up, when the pin prickles started. A surge of reckless confidence rose up in me and it was enough to give me the courage to square my shoulders and say, "You're a coward for giving in. Killing is easy, but killing is not always the answer. If you can't see that-" Spider-man raised his fist, "-then you're the one who won't change."

As he swung at me, aiming for my face, a flash of light swamped me and once again I was falling through the air. I made a parachute in a matter of seconds and then let myself be carried slowly down.

Here we go again.

As I was falling through the air I noted that this world was teeming with people. Which meant that I wouldn't have to wonder what had happened and I could get help if I was about to die at the hands of a lizard. You know, just superhero problems.

I landed smoothly on top of a roof, where I bundled up my parachute and hid it in a corner. I briefly wondered what would happen if I just let it float around. It would probably get blown off the top and fall either on to another building or the streets below. If that happened… then it might go over someone and that would be very funny. Kind of. Not really. It could go over a car too and that wouldn't be good.

I shook my head and wandered over to the edge, peering over. I had gotten some attention but not too much. Only a few people had looked up, which in New York terms was about twenty. I didn't have a costume so I decided against swinging around. If I did that would be bad, phones were good for many things but not for me right now. Well, if it wasn't my universe then it would be fine. No one would be able to go after my family and Hydra wouldn't immediately go after me.

Seriously, I was so done with them. I was now behind at school by two months. Two months! That meant I would have to spend my holidays catching up on it or something. It was so unfair.

Anyway, I climbed down the side of the building camouflaged, ignoring the pain it cause me, and when I was close enough to the ground I hopped off and walked onto the pathway. First things first, find out what has happened to this universe's Peter Parker.

That should tell me if I was home or not. I mean, if he was dead and there was a lot of stuff about him dying that would tell I was likely home. Then from there I can google me and find the articles about me being gone. If he wasn't dead then I wasn't home. Simple really.

I kept my head down, pulling my hoodie up to obscure my face somewhat. I hurried along to the closest library I thought might be around and went to the first free computer I found.

I went into the search bar and searched up Peter Parker. I clicked enter and waited impatiently for it to load. I had a schedule here! I didn't, but it could not be any slower.

Finally, it loaded and it said something about Peter Parker being an employee of the Bugle. Nope, not home. I wondered how they were faring with that job… considering the Bugle hated anything red, blue and spider-themed.

I grabbed my stuff and wandered out of the library. So, what should I do now? I couldn't exactly go say hi to this Peter. I could, but that would be weird. I could go crime fighting… but I didn't have my costume on me. It wouldn't affect my secret identity, but I don't think any robbers would take me as seriously without a costume. Well… they didn't take me seriously with it anyway.

And I was pretty hurt, but if I kept a careful watch on the injuries I should be ok.

What did I have to lose?

The sun had set and I had just finished wrapping up a group of robbers who had been trying to break into a bank. They had been pretty easy to take down, they didn't even have guns for crying out loud! All they had were baseball bats. Robbers these days.

I turned to one of the bank employees. "Can you call the police?" They nodded a few times, looking pretty shaken. I smiled a reassuringly as I could before deciding that that was taking care of. I walked out with a "Thanks."

I climbed the side of a building as soon as I thought I could and sat down on the ledge. My stomach rumbled and I sighed, I was hungry but I didn't really want to play Russian roulette with my food, the bullet being something disgusting. As I opened my bag I heard a loud 'bang' and when I looked up I could hear a blaring alarm going off and lights flashing. Probably a bank and an explosion.

Never mind, life had other plans, besides eating, for me.

I closed it up, put the bag on my back and webbed it up tight. I then webbed myself in the general direction of the explosion. I had a strong feeling that this would turn in to a big superhero fight. Which was not what I needed when I was still healing.

But I was a hero and this is what heroes did, go out of their way to help others even at the cost of your own wellbeing. Which sucked but whatever.

I swung into the scene and my eyes widened. Oh hell no. This was the opposite of what I needed!

Before my very eyes, Sandman was facing off against police officers who were trying to stop him with bullets. Which wasn't working too well. He was made out of sand, what would bullets do?

The universe had something against me, I'm sure of it. It went 'you know what we should do? Make Miles face a villain that was probably out of their league when they weren't at full capacity or with a costume. And make him hungry too!' I mean, come on! It was so unfair!

Sandman, with what looked like jewels, bracelets and other shiny things in their body surged like a wave towards the police officers who cried out in alarm. That was my cue.

"I've got this!" I yelled at the police officers, which caused everyone on the scene to pause in surprise, including dusty butt. I quickly used this opportunity to swing down and punch the growing mound before flipping out of the way. Seconds later a fist smashed into the ground right where I had been, causing the ground to shake.

Yep, completely out of my league. Please, please let there be other superheroes in this world.

I lunged forward, narrowly curving out of the way of a punch, and kicked it in the face. My leg went straight through and my spider-sense yelled in warning. Before I could try to stop it, Sandman had grabbed me by my leg.

He rose up, still holding my leg, and laughed at me as I tried to tug myself out of his grip. At the very least I was thankful that he had grabbed my uninjured leg.

"Nice try, kid. But it'll take more than that to stop me." He said. His voice was very grating, and I hated it.

"I'll have you know-" before I could finish, he threw me towards the policemen. I twisted in the air and managed to land heroically on the windshield of a car. Huh, didn't know I could do that.

"It'll take more than that to stop me too, John Blund." I countered, jumping back at him. He tried to punch me but I ducked under his blow and went for a venom strike. His sand surged to the side and he grabbed me by the feet, again.

He slammed me into the ground before throwing me to the side. I suddenly crashed into a window and rolled several times before coming to a stop. What was it with villains and throwing me through windows? Or at least Grade A… (B?) villains?

I got to my feet, ignoring how my shirt had torn open at the front and I now had new cuts from the glass. Including my chest wound, which had decided it was a convenient time to open up again. Nothing new on my back because of my backpack and I wasn't sure if that was a blessing or a curse.

I ignored it all in favour of getting up and running back at Sandman, only to stop in shock when I saw someone punching it in the face. They flipped over him and jumped on to the side of a building. Sandman went to punch them but I ran up and zapped them.

Three… "Haha, you thought that would stop me? What'd you think tapping would do, kid?"

Two… "Oh I know I can't beat you, but this probably will."

One… Sandman exploded into a pile of sand with all the stuff he had stolen scattered across the ground. I looked over at the police officers, who had been watching everything, and said, "You can come collect all the stuff now."

The other person who had joined in the fight jumped down. I stared at them as I realised several things at once.

They were wearing looked like some kind of armour (it was mostly blue with the headpiece being red), it had a spider symbol on it and they were definitely smaller than me.

"Who are you?" She asked. Her voice was kind of squeaky, so I was pretty much positive that she was younger than me.

"I'm Miles Morales, I'm from a different universe where I'm Spider-man. Who are you?"

"Spiderling. All my friends are gonna be so jealous when I tell them I meet someone from a different universe!" She exclaimed, throwing her hands up in victory.

I chuckled, "I guess they will be. Are you old enough to be fighting crime?"

"I'm nine! And Mum and Dad said I could." She huffed.

I put my hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay. Say, is your dad Peter Parker?" I asked quietly.

Suddenly someone landed in the middle of us and punched me in the face. I stumbled back, cursing my spider-sense for not warning me, while Spiderling gasped in shock.

"What was that for?" I asked, rubbing my cheek. I looked up and froze as I saw a familiar red and blue costume.

"How do you know who I am?" Peter hissed, grabbing me by the shirt and lifting me up.

"Ow, ow, ow! That's where I'm hurt, oww…!" I cried, and Peter hesitantly put me down. I looked down, yep that was blood seeping through my hoodie. It hurt like hell too.

"Look, I'm Spider-man from a different universe. No, I don't have my costume at the moment because it got completely ruined, and I know who you are because Peter's tend to wear that. Except for the last one I met, they wore a different one." I rambled, deciding to ignore my chest for the time being. Even though it hurt. Even though I should get it checked out as soon as I could.

Someone else landed beside Peter and crossed their arms. "Who's this?" Their costume was similar to Peter's and had red where he normally did, but white where the blue normally was.

"I'm Miles, I've been jumping across universes and I'm kind of bleeding here," I answered, resisting the urge to roll my eyes. Could they at least try and overhear things I said not two seconds ago?

Peter sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I've got a medkit close by. I'll help you with it."

"Thanks. And don't worry, you didn't reopen it. You just made it worse." I tried to say soothingly, then cringed.

Spiderling put her hands on her hips, "You're terrible at reassuring people."

I nodded in agreement.

I thwipped a web and let it attach to a nearby building when I remembered that I was hurt, so this would hurt like a son of a gun, but it was necessary. If I wanted to get any better I had to first experience some pain.

After three blocks we finally stopped at a building. I got up there as fast as I could, cursing my wounds, and tore my bag out of its webs. I put it on the ground before I took my hoodie off.

I winced, and not just from the pain of taking off my hoodie. The wound was slowly oozing blood, and it looked like it had been closing over when it was opened again so it was shallower than when I was in the last universe but it still looked pretty bad.

The white and red Spider-woman winced in sympathy when she saw it. "That looks pretty nasty. How'd you manage to get that?"

"The Lizard. Turns out fighting him with no proper backup was a bad idea. Didn't have much of a choice though." I explained. She nodded slowly, with one of her eyebrows raised.

"Found it!" I heard Peter exclaim and he quickly came over. He opened the bag and quickly dug around in it where he finally found what he was looking for. A red towel. He wiped away the blood around my chest as quickly as he could before grabbing a bottle of something and dumping it on my chest. I hissed in pain, that just made it sting! I was guessing it was alcohol of some kind.

Then he grabbed out a bandage and wrapped around my chest a few times. He ended up using the whole roll. He tucked the end in and then pinned it in place. Satisfied, he stepped back.

"There you go, all better." He said.

I stared down at it for a few moments before looking up at him. "You've done that a few times, haven't you?"

"Just a couple." He said, and it was obvious to me that he did on a regular basis. There was no other way that he would be so sure of himself when doing it otherwise.

I went to the edge of the building, and that's when I started to feel the pins and needles. "Dang it, I'm about to go." I chucked my blood-stained hoodie on and grabbed my bag, "Thanks, and bye!