I closed the dorm door behind me. I was alone. I chucked my bag to the side, climbed up onto my bed and curled up in a ball.

I was such a screw up.

Yet here I was, moping about instead of fixing it. Instead of doing anything productive like hunting down Owlsley and stopping him.

I rolled over, facing the window. It was only lunch break. I shouldn't go out as Spider-Man now. Maybe tonight. I would go back to Alchemax and hunt him down from there - since that was the only place I knew that was linked to Owl.

Something shifted in the corner of my eye.

I ignored it, it was probably an ant.

I probably should have gone back there by now. Like, I didn't know what they had really done to that guy - the guy I had watched been experimented on. I understood he was dead, that much was clear, but why had he mutated the way he had?

If it wouldn't stop Alchemax, knowing, it would at least put my mind at ease.

Several somethings moved in the corner of my eye.

Alright, that's it. I sat up and climbed out of bed. I swear if Ganke has left another open packet of chips somewhere and we have an ant infestation I'll…

Well, do nothing. I have already yelled at him. He didn't need me to rub salt into the wound.

I finally spotted one of the things moving. And paused. It was a grain of sand? I peered closer, which was when this one grain of sand was joined by another, three more, ten more, thirty, a hundred, and in a gust of wind there was a small sand man in front of me.

I took a cautious step back, eyeing this creature. "Um, are you sentient?"

The sandman bent in half, laughing. Sand should not laugh, or talk, or move around like that. This thing was against the laws of nature! Oh wait-

"Wait, are you Sandman? Like, the villain Sandman?" I asked, curling my hands into fists and preparing to fight. I never did want to face a villain down at school, especially considering the collateral damage, but if I had to-

"Chill kid, I'm your new bodyguard. Courtesy Fisk," Sandman said casually, wiping a fake tear out of his eye. "Name's Flint Marko."

"...Hi Flint. I'm not going to have to fight you, am I?"

Sandman raised an eyebrow at me, "I ain't gonna fight you. You're like, what, twelve?"

"Fifteen. And you never know, I'm still fighting bad guys even though they all know I'm, y'know, a minor," I said casually. I sat down in my desk, breathing out. "So what exactly are you going to do, mister bodyguard? Because I kind of don't want you watching me 24/7, if you catch my drift."

He raised his hands up in surrender, "Believe me kid, I don't want to be watching your scrawny ass either. I'm just spread around outside of this school and your home. If our Owl buddy tries to do something, I'm here to stop him from causing damage. Capiche?"

"Huh, I thought Fisk would play dirtier than that," I commented absently.

Flint shrugged, "You're the same age as his kid was when he died. He's probably just waiting for some other fellow to get you to kick the bucket."

I couldn't help my chuckle, "Letting others do the dirty work, sounds like him. So that means you're not going to actually follow me around while I do, say, Spidey work, right?"

"Nada kid, staying alive as Spidey is your job. If you're being Miles, then it's a different deal."

"Ah of course, because me and Spidey are totally different. Not like we're the same person or anything."

Flint rolled his eyes, "If you die without your costume on, people will be way more upset. Pro tip kid, go out in your costume so people will think its a heroic death."

"...Even if it isn't?" I said slowly, squinting at him.

"Now you catch my drift. Peter's wasn't exactly spectacular now was it? But everyone thought he went out with a bang because he was in his costume."

I winced, "Yeah, let's use nicer language when talking about him. Capiche?"

He shrugged, turning away. "He was a good fighter, that was for sure. Even if he was a pain in the ass. His puns weren't even that good."

"And that's your cue! I've got work to do and you're cramping my style," I declared, swinging on my chair so I was facing the desk, and not Flint.

"See you round kid," Flint said. And just like that, he disappeared into the wind.

I scrubbed at my eyes. Well, even if I was still iffy on calling Fisk an ally, guess I had to call Flint one.

I almost admired Fisk's engenuity. Putting a guy made out of sentient sand all around whatever you wanted to protect was a genius idea. As much as I hated to admit it.

I didn't want to be around Ganke, stuck in the dorm in silence, which was my excuse for why I was back at the warehouse at ten pm. Not that I needed an excuse to be Spider-Man but-

I landed on the warehouse's rooftop with a 'thunk.' This place still looked dark, grubby and abandoned - to the point where I was tempted to check my gloves for how stained they were.

I climbed through the closest open window and went down the long stairways on a webline. It took me too late to realise that I probably needed a flashlight - since there was no light down here. Guess Alchemax had left? I slapped my hand over my hidden phone pocket. Phew, still had it.

I hit the ground with a small thunk. I crept over to the door and peeked in. There was one small light on, but besides that everything was pretty much the same as how I had left it. Machines broken from their own gunfire, light bulbs burst, and sciency stuff like microscopes spread haphazardly around the place. The one change was that the mutated spider man was gone, only a puddle of blood to show where he had been.

I cracked the door open, wincing at the sound. No alarms started blaring, no traps falling from the ceiling, just an abandoned science lab underneath an abandoned warehouse.

I walked over to the nearest non-broken computer, footsteps echoing endlessly around the room. I pressed the on button and waited. And waited. The computer wouldn't start. I cursed under my breath. Guess they had shut the power off.

I was walking over to the test tube when I heard an ominous thunk. I stopped in place, camouflaging for good measure. I peeked around the test tube. There was a small light that I hadn't noticed before - hidden by the very structure I was peeking around.

Curly, fuzzy hair with a colourful headband greeted me. I looked down further and found a way too familiar green suit with four arms sticking out. Gulp.

I jumped onto the ceiling, preparing myself for a fight. "Ms Octavius?" I said tentatively.

She jumped, peered around and then looked up. I briefly uncamouflaged before camouflaging again - letting her know who it was, but still protecting myself.

"Ah, Miles. What can I help you with?" She asked, leaning back over her papers. Wait, papers? Hadn't noticed that earlier. Had been caught up with the whole 'sworn enemy' thing.

"What are you doing here?" I asked after a small pause. She still wasn't attacking me? I fell back to the floor, standing back a few feet.

She sighed, rubbing her temple. "Alchemax isn't listening to me. Clearly these human experiments were going to fail - you can't just mix two different superhuman's DNA and mash it into another person. Especially because we know the mutations of both you and Peter are so specific!"

I blinked a couple of times. My memories flickered back to the invisible man in the bank. He had said that he had me to thank. But if Ms Octavius is telling the truth…

"Me and dead Peter's?" I asked quietly, taking a nervous step forward.

Octavius swung in her chair, giving me her full attention. I stepped back, getting into a lower crouch. She raised an eyebrow at the motion. "I'm not going to attack you, Morales. I had a look at your science grades actually - pretty impressive, I'm sure you could apply for an internship at Alchemax. Think of the possibilities. I could even mentor you!"

I straightened up and folded my arms. "Um, thanks? But no thanks, I don't exactly want to work on human experimentation…"

She waved a hand dismissively. "We only started after OWL began funding us. They wanted super soldiers in such a short span of time, it was ridiculous. Human gene editing is in very early stages right now. They should have given us years!"

"Wait, CRISPR, right?" I probbed.

"Exactly. See not everyone knows about this kind of technology. This is why you should join Alchemax."

I shook my head. "Not happening. Look, do you know what they're doing with my DNA? And Peter's?"

"Of course I do. Head scientist, remember? I wanted to focus back on multiverse travel - we were so close - but funding drives the industry nowadays," she said, frustration ebbing in every word.

I shrugged, "I would have to shut that down if you tried it again, you know that, right?"

She straightened, but her mouth twitched at the corner. "Bringing people over from other dimensions was never going to work - never in the long term. But don't you want to see your friends again? I've already figured out a new model to-"

I cut her off, "I would love to, but not at the cost of the multiverse collapsing. Sorry."

She shrugged, "Your loss. I even made it more stable - no more glitching as long as you don't spend too long in the other dimension."

"We're getting off topic again," I pointed out. "Look, I don't get it. Why aren't you attacking me? Threatening my whole family? Being a villain?"

"Me? A villain?" She laughed, slapping her knee. "Scientific advancement isn't evil."

I tilted my head up, groaning. "Ok! Not a villain, even though you tried to kill me and Peter and the other spider-people. But you're not attacking me, why?"

She turned back to her papers, scribbling something down. "Simple, Miles, we aren't enemies. In fact… I think we could help each other."

"Oh not this again," I sighed.

She squinted at me. "Not again?" she echoed.

"Fisk," I said as way of explanation. She nodded sympathetically.

"Look, I can't shut down this gene editing and focus on multiverse travel until OWL is no longer funding us. But that won't happen until OWL is taken down - we all know Leland is trying to be the new Fisk. But you! You can stop Owl. I can't because I'll lose my position but you!" She stood up, taking excited steps towards me. "You can't be stopped. You're a one man army. And with my inside knowledge, you can do it. Bit of data destroying here - don't give me that look, we all know about that electric blast that took out this place - bit of jailing Owlsley there, and I'll get to do what I want again!"

I stepped back, "That… sounds good. But I'll say what I said to Fisk. Why should I trust you?"

"You're actually working with Fisk?" She asked, squinting at me suspiciously.

I turned on my heel, pacing restlessly. "You think I want to?" I spat, whirling back around and jabbing a finger in her direction. "Tell me what you would do if everyone was coming for your parents throats and you were offered protection for them?"

She held her hands up in defeat. "Touche. You shouldn't trust him, he's a snake. You can trust me because I don't care about you."

"...because you don't care about me?" I repeated slowly.

"Yes, I don't. I could care less about your family and about you. But what you can do for me? Now that's something I'm interested in." She held a hand out for me to shake. "I get what I want, you get what you want. It's perfect."

I kept my hands folded. "Alchemax wants me - dead or alive. You're Alchemax."

She rolled her eyes. "Alchemax may want you for their super soldiers experiments. But I don't. You can keep your powers, your head and your blood."

I took a deep breath. I grabbed her hand and shook it once. "Fine. But if you try and kill me, capture me or otherwise betray me - deal's off."

She grinned, "You're going to try and take down OWL anyway, with or without me. I'll just help you do it more efficiently. Now, since you're here, do you want to know more about what they're doing with your DNA?"

I sighed, "Yeah, let me know. Hit me with it."

She held up the papers in her hand, "Sit down, class is in session."

I gave her a weird look but complied.

"So, when we kidnapped you we wanted some of your DNA and your blood, right? Well, you might have been confused about why we needed your blood if we were just going to clone you or whatever," she began.

"Yeah, I mean, I found it odd but I didn't want to ask…" I said with a small shrug.

"Well, your DNA is fascinating but we think the key to understanding how your powers came about is in your blood. We think that whatever caused the two of you to, well, be Spider-Man, wasn't through your genetics - necessarily. What caused you to get your powers?" She asked innocently.

I gave her a look. "Uh huh, like I'm going to tell you."

She shrugged, "Worth a shot. But I'm sure you have some ideas now."

I rubbed my eyes. It was probably getting late at this point. "Look, what do you know about Owl? Like, where's he hiding out? What's his whole plan with me and Peter's DNA? Who's he linked to."

Liv grinned, "I'll tell you, if you tell me how you got your powers."

I rolled my eyes, "Should have guessed you would try that. Fine, I got bit by a spider."

Now she was the one giving me a look like I was an idiot. "You really think I'm going to fall for that?"

"I wish I could say I was trying to trick you, I'm really not. That's how it happened," I reassured her.

She sighed, "Yeah alright. How about I send you an email? More convenient all around, don't you think."

"Why not? Send it that way. I can kick his ass any day of the week."