"Absolutely not!" Violet hissed in a stern voice, making sure only Andrew heard her.
"Come on Vi, it could be fun," Andrew grinned despite his sister rubbing her temple in frustration. "You're just scared because it's something you've never done before."
Violet smacked Andrew's arm, "I'm not scared to go skateboarding! I'm more worried about us messing up the timeline so bad that Dad and Mom never get together! We would be wiped from existence. This is... this is stupid and foolish."
Andrew snorted, "you think they won't get together because we hang out with him for an hour after school?"
"I don't know!" she replied. "Look, let's just get to the time we need to be at," Violet pulled Andrew down the hall.
Peter was waiting near the front doors of the school, so she ushered Andrew out a different exit.
"He seems... lonely," Andrew said, concerned. "I don't think he has many friends."
"It gets better for him," Violet answered in a dismissive tone. Then, softer, she added, "he'll have Gwen, Harry, and Mary Jane in his life."
"Yeah, because thatall works out in the end," he snapped. Violet winced at his tone but said nothing.
Once out of the school, the path to the Osborn Mansion was to the left, so they took a right.
"Here looks good," Violet nodded at an empty alleyway.
Andrew looked around doubtfully. There were no windows on either side, and at the end of the alley there was a tall wooden fence completely blocking off the exit. Even in the daylight hours, it was dark and grimy.
"It smells like piss," Andrew crossed his arms over his chest. "Why can't we just go back to the guest house?"
"It takes nearly an hour to walk there from here and I'd rather get on with this. The sooner we get this done, the better. For everyone." Violet said.
"Okay, okay," Andrew raised his hands in a mockingly placating way. "So we have to figure about 4.8 seconds is one day..." Andrew stroked his chin in thought while Violet took the black cube out of her school bag. "We're going to need to go like two years forward," he sighed.
Violet nodded. "Two years would be 730 days, but we should try for 690 days..." she paused, "we don't want to jump too far ahead and miss our chance."
Andrew turned on his cell phone to quickly calculate how long they would need to hold down the time jump button. "55 minutes and 12 seconds," he then proceeded to click on the stop watch app, "I'll time it."
Violet held the black cube between the two of them, the bottom already open and exposing the newfound button. Andrew grabbed onto the cube with one hand and held his phone with the other.
"We're going to have to stand here holding this thing for nearly an hour. Are you ready?" Andrew asked.
"Of course I am," Violet answered, determined. Her finger hovered over the blue button for a moment.
"I'll tell you when to let go," he told her, "press it!"
The world around them blurred quickly. Colors flashed from light to dark so quickly it seemed like a slow strobe light effect.
Not moving was getting annoying, but Andrew held the cube with Violet, counting down the time. Ironically, it seemed like the minutes took hours. He looked over at his sister for a moment, who had her eyes clenched shut to block out the intense nauseating feeling he was sure she was experiencing too. Glancing at his phone, Andrew saw that they had hit 26 minutes. He wasn't sure whether letting Violet know about how much time was left was a good or bad idea. In the end, he decided against it; he didn't want to risk getting sick if he opened his mouth now. They had lasted this long; only halfway to go.
Out of nowhere, what could only be explained in that moment as a small explosion happened directly between Andrew and Violet. One moment, he had been looking at his phone, and the next, he had been sent flying across the alley, upwards into a brick wall, and crashing to the ground. He instantly felt a warmness on the back of his head. When he felt the spot, he felt a sticky substance; he was bleeding. Looking up quickly, he tried adjusting his eyes to the gloom, looking for his sister.
Andrew shakily got to his feet and an indistinct blur flashed past him. Before he could even try to register what happened, another blur flashed in front of him, albeit slightly slower than the former.
"What...happened?" Violet asked in a hoarse voice.
Andrew ran to her and helped her up off the ground.
"Are you okay? Are you bleeding?" he questioned as his eyes scanned her for injuries. Violet dusted herself off and turned her arm to reveal a bad scrape.
"I'm fine. This will heal in no time," she smiled and then frowned just as quickly. Her eyes focused on the ground and went wide. "What happened!?"
Andrew turned and saw exactly what she was looking at.
The black cube was in pieces scattered across the alley.
"No..." Andrew looked back at Violet, their eyes a matching set of shock and horror. He dropped to his knees and frantically began scooping up the pieces to the cube.
"It doesn't look like we're going to be able to fix that," Violet said in a small voice.
He didn't answer her until all the pieces had been picked up.
"Maybe we can figure something out," he said, "maybe... maybe we can fix it. We don't know yet."
Violet grabbed one of the chunks in his hands, "look at it Andrew, the pieces are melted," she dropped it back in his hands.
"What the hell are we going to do now? Are we stuck here? Are- oh great!" Andrew bent down and picked up his cell phone, screen and everything else cracked and unresponsive. "Dammit!" he flung the broken phone against the brick wall, shattering it completely.
"I know this is bad," Violet started, "but we need to keep calm and remember the reason we're here, okay?"
Andrew shoved the broken pieces into Violet's bag.
"We have nothing here, Vi! No friends, no family, no home, we don't even have real identities! What are we supposed to do?" he raked a hand through his hair in frustration.
"First, we stick with the plan. Let's figure out when we are and then we can go from there," Violet said, "Andrew, come on."
Andrew scowled, reluctantly following her.
It had only been two blocks before they reached a newspaper stand. The newspaper stand worker seemed to be adamantly discussing something with an older couple. Violet looked around quickly making sure nobody was watching, and flung out a small strand of webbing to the nearest paper.
"Check this out," Violet said as she passed the newspaper to Andrew.
'Electro defeated by Spider-Man!' the front page read in bold print. There was a picture with an electric-blue man on one side and Spider-Man with a fire hydrant lassoed to his webbing on the other.
"Great," Andrew passed the newspaper back to Violet.
"It's only been about a year," Violet put her hand to her chin as she stared at the picture, "what are we going to do for a year?"
"A year?" Andrew scoffed, "what are we going to do period?"
"Hey kid, you gonna pay for that?"
Violet looked over at the newspaper man who was waiting expectantly.
"Oh, uh, sorry about that," she laughed nervously and picked off any remaining webbing from the paper before setting it back on the stand.
"Should we check and see if Harry's guest house is still empty?" Andrew asked as Violet pulled him away from the glaring newspaper man.
"I don't know," said Violet, biting her lip, "that may be our only option right now."
"We should also check and make sure everything is going smoothly with the others," said Andrew, "you know, Dad, Mom, Harry, Gwen..."
Violet continued walking silently next to Andrew, apparently lost in thought. "We're going to need to be able to get ahold of each other this time," she said.
"Right," Andrew agreed, "but seeing as neither of us have phones or money, I'm not sure what you want us to do."
Violet stopped.
"What?" Andrew asked.
She nodded her head in the direction of two older men who were standing next to each other in front of a pawn shop. The taller of the two passed a small bag of some kind of white powder to the shorter man, in exchange for a wad of cash. They quickly parted ways and the taller man headed towards them.
Violet didn't have to say anything for Andrew to understand what she meant.
"I've got this," Andrew said in a low voice to her as the taller man walked past them. The man's face had dirt smudges like he hadn't taken a shower in days, and he was wearing a torn grey shirt. "Just wait here, I'll be back in a few."
"Wait," Violet tugged on Andrew's sleeve, "you're always doing the dirty work. I can do it this time."
"Nah, that's what big brothers are for," Andrew grinned.
Violet sniffed derisively. "You're older by two minutes," she said.
"And that's how long it will take me to get that money," he replied before taking off towards the man.
The man hadn't gotten too far ahead. Andrew walked ahead of the man, and turned, blocking his path.
"Move, kid," the man demanded in a croaky voice.
"I don't think so," Andrew grabbed the man's arm, glaring at him. He stood several inches taller than Andrew.
"What the hell do you think-" the man started, but then suddenly cut off.
"You're not going to yell for help. You're not going to attempt to harm me in any way," Andrew said in a hard voice, "you're going to give me the money that the other man just gave to you."
"I am?" asked the man, his voice shook slightly and the color drained from his face.
"Yes. Hand it to me. Now," Andrew commanded.
The man reached into his pocket and pulled out several hundred dollar bills. Andrew took the money with his free hand and stuffed them into his pocket.
"Maybe next time you won't go selling illegal drugs to people in broad daylight," Andrew said to the man as he released his arm. With a quick glance to make sure nobody had seen their exchange, Andrew walking towards his sister.
"I- I needed that money to buy my family food," the man said in a hollow voice, "my daughters haven't eaten in two days."
Andrew stopped and turned back to the man, frowning. He stared at the man for a moment, before letting out a groan and grabbed the man's arm a second time.
"What's your name?" Andrew asked the man.
"Henry," the man answered quickly.
"Are you telling me the truth, Henry? Were you planning on using that money to buy food for your family?" he pressed.
"Yes. Some of it."
Andrew let out a low growl and pulled out one the bills from his pocket and shoved it into Henry's hand. "Use this. But find another line of work," he released the man again, causing him to stumble back.
Shaking his head, Andrew ran back to his sister.
"Here," Andrew passed Violet two of the bills and kept one for himself.
Violet pocketed the money, and mumbled a small "thanks."
"Yeah, so, you want to go run into a place and get us some cheap pay-as-you- what?" Andrew asked suddenly, noticing Violet wasn't paying attention.
"Nothing," said Violet, hastily looking away from the man in the torn grey shirt, who was looking around as if he has no idea where he was. "Before you say anything, yes I was paying attention, and yes I will go buy us the phones."
Andrew nodded slowly, "okay, great."
Violet was back within twenty minutes. She dug around in her bag for a moment and then set the new cell phone into Andrew's hand.
"It's pink," he said, looking down at the phone in his palm.
"Oops," Violet snatched the phone from him and replaced it with a silver one."I already programmed our numbers into each other's phones on the way here."
"Awesome. Too bad you got us flip phones," he mock sighed before slipping the phone into his pocket.
She rolled her eyes at him, "they were under twenty dollars, so no complaining. Also, it's already five o'clock."
"We should check on the others before it gets too late," Andrew said as he leaned against a wall.
"Right. How do you want to do this?" Violet asked, slipping the phone into her pocket.
"Well, Mary Jane—er, Mom," Andrew shrugged, "lives pretty far from here. We can always check on her tomorrow. I say we split up and meet back at the guest house tonight."
Violet nodded, "I'll go to the mansion. That way we know the place is still safe and I can find out how he is," she said.
"And I'll go check out our old house," Andrew said, just as Violet pursed her lips. "What?" he questioned.
"Nothing," she shook her head, "see you tonight."
Violet didn't comment any further before she turned around and headed the other direction. Andrew rolled his eyes and departed.
He knew his sister was just bursting to tell him to behave himself, to not "mess up the timeline." What she didn't understand was that no matter how bad the future could get, it was nothing compared to what they were about to encounter.
Before long, Andrew found himself once again on the sidewalk in front of his old home. His dad's house. Right now. His great-aunt, who he referred to as 'Aunt May' for her sake, would be living here too at this time. His heart lurched as he realized he would be able to meet Uncle Ben too. He had heard nothing but good stories about his great uncle.
Andrew quickly knocked on the front door before he got cold feet.
"H-hello," a warm, concerned face greeted him. Aunt May, years younger, took a second glance at him, eyebrows pulled together, but quickly smiled at him. "How may I help you?"
"Hi, I'm Andrew. I'm a friend of Peter's," he held out his hand with a genuine smile. He hadn't seen his aunt in such a long time. "Sorry, we haven't met before."
Aunt May shook his hand, "May."
"I was supposed to meet Peter today, but he isn't answering his phone." Andrew took his cell phone out and shrugged a shoulder, the lie easily slipping through his teeth. "Is he home?"
"Yeah, yeah he's here," she pointed towards the garage, "he's doing some kind of experiment. He's making a lot of noise so it'd probably be best to forego knocking and just go on in," Aunt May told him, a little bit too much enthusiasm in her voice.
"Thanks," Andrew grinned, "it was nice to meet you."
"You too, dear," she said before closing the door.
Andrew made his way to garage and was about to open the door, but to his surprise there was no sound coming from inside. He knocked quietly with the back of one of his knuckles and called out "Hello." No answer.
"Okay?" Andrew opened the garage door and shut it behind him. Peter wasn't inside, but there definitely was some kind of experiment going on. A very familiar strand of webbing was strung from one side of the garage to the other. Andrew picked up a small black device, recognizing it immediately as a web shooter.
"Well, he isn't too careful about hiding this stuff," Andrew muttered to himself.
There were several different types of batteries thrown off to the side on a work bench, all destroyed. The burning acidic smell caused him to crinkle his nose.
A piece of paper with several notes crossed off it it, and some with stars next to them was laying next to one of the batteries. Andrew skimmed through it and pocketed the note, a smile on his face.
Andrew ducked under the webbing and pulled over a lawn chair while he waited. He pulled out his phone to check if Violet had texted him yet, and just as he stuffed the phone back into his pocket the garage door opened.
Peter came in, walking backwards so he could pull the door shut with his foot. Andrew couldn't tell what, but Peter was holding something somewhat large in his arms. His white t-shirt was slightly wet, indicating it had just started to rain outside.
"Hey!" Andrew called out from the lawn chair, his arms crossed.
With an undignified yelp, Peter dropped the car battery from his arms, but quickly grabbed it again before it hit the ground.
"Wha- who- what are you doing in here!?" Peter turned around, confused and angry, "wait... Andrew?"
"Yup," Andrew smiled as he sat up from the chair. "What's with the battery?" he nodded towards the car battery in Peter's arms.
"That's- why are- how did-" Peter sputtered as he set the car battery down on the workbench, along with a bag with something dark sticking out of it. "How did you get in here?"
"I opened the door."
Peter scowled. "But why? Why are you here? Don't you know anything about privacy?"
"Your aunt told me to come wait for you in here," Andrew shrugged, lifting an eyebrow as he once again eyed the dead batteries on the table.
Peter's eyes opened wide as he realized everything that was in front of him. He quickly picked up a sheet off the ground, that looked as though it was used to cover floors while the walls were getting painted, and threw it over the strand of webbing.
"I'm just experimenting- testing these cables- just a stupid project for- scientific reasons-" Peter began babbling again as he worked to cover up any evidence he thought could incriminate him.
Andrew noticed for the first time that his father's hair wasn't quite as shaggy as he remembered it. He also had a new kind of sadness to him, one that Andrew couldn't figure out just yet.
"You want any help?" Andrew pointed towards the car battery, "my sister is the smart one, but I might be able to help."
Some memory seemed to dawn on Peter's face, "it's been a year. Where have you two been? Did you just stop going to school?"
"We had some family trouble," Andrew answered.
"But, you're here now?" Peter narrowed his eyes, "did everything get sorted out?"
"Not really," Andrew replied. "My sister and I, we're not actually sure what we're doing right now," he laughed.
Peter looked like he wanted to ask him what he meant by that, but shook his head instead. "This... project I'm doing. I'm attempting to help a friend."
"Okay," Andrew waited for him to continue.
"You've heard of Spider-Man I'm assuming?"
"Yeah?" Andrew raised an eyebrow.
Peter took the sheet off the webbing. "I'm kind of his official unofficial photographer. I get paid to take pictures of him in action," Peter explained. "Anyway, he is having trouble with this particular guy, and I'm trying to find him a way to take the guy down without getting his web shooters electrocuted."
Peter picked up one of the electrified web shooters and tossed it to Andrew.
Andrew eyed the object in his hand before placing it back on the workbench, "Shit."
"Right. Anyway, I'm hoping I can somehow get this car battery to work. Bigger battery and all."
Andrew contemplated that for a moment, "I don't think that's going to work how you want it to."
"Oh yeah? Why's that?" Peter smiled, humoring him.
"Have you tried anything else?" Andrew asked.
"Yes. I've tried nearly every kind of battery, except this one," Peter gestured towards the car battery, "rubber, plastics, everything."
Andrew stood up and pulled back on the web strand a little before letting it go, "have you tried magnetizing them at all?"
"Um, well no, I haven't tried that," Peter bit his bottom lip, "but, I really think this will work."
"Go on then, let's see," Andrew sat back in the lawn chair, smiling.
Peter grabbed the bag from off the workbench and pulled out a wetsuit.
"Whoa, dude, uh-" Andrew started as Peter began removing his pants.
Peter rolled his eyes. "Calm down I have boxers on," he said, and Andrew visibly relaxed as Peter began climbing into the wetsuit.
"Going scuba diving?" Andrew laughed as Peter put the scuba mask over his face.
"Just being careful," Peter huffed, grabbing the jumper cables.
"It's not going to work," Andrew crossed his arms as he made himself comfortable in the chair, "but have at it."
The second Peter clamped the charger onto the webbing, the electricity sent him flying backwards. Andrew instinctually flung his arm out, making sure Peter didn't hit the wall.
"Thanks- oh crap!" Peter jumped up as the webbing and car battery burst into flames. Andrew passed him the fire extinguisher and he quickly fixed the situation at hand.
With a loud sigh, Peter plopped himself onto the floor, tossing the extinguisher into a pile of old tools.
"I'm hungry," Andrew said, somewhat awkwardly, trying to lighten the mood.
Peter perked up at that. "If you're hungry, we have fajitas," he jumped up from the floor, tossing the scuba mask to the side.
"Hell yeah I'll have some fajitas," Andrew rubbed his hands together; he was never one to deny free food.
"Great. My aunt will be happy," Peter laughed, pulling the wetsuit off and dressing himself.
Andrew gave a doubtful laugh. "Oh yeah, why's that?" he asked.
"She uh... she just likes visitors is all," Peter said, not really looking at Andrew. "Well, let's go," Peter nodded towards the garage door.
Andrew didn't need to be told twice.