Chapter 17

"Wherein Kendrick makes new inter dimensional friends, and fights for everything."

Thanks to Exile037 for reviewing. Yeah, he might have a little crush on Silk, but it's more of just an attraction, than anything else. Glad you're liking Spider-Gwen.

Thanks to WolfDragon for reviewing. Glad you liked how I wrote your OC, you won't believe how nerve racking it was to make sure I did justice to him. As for a story...I don't know. I might have an idea for something, but then again...well, I guess we'll have to see if he survives Spider-Verse first.

They were surrounded by blue again.

It was reminiscent of when Kendrick first came to the Spider-Verse with Peter, Miles, Jessica, and Anya. He had no idea where he was going, and all he had in front of him was an ocean of blue...stuff. Curious, he reached out to touch the blue.

"You might not want to do that," Daisuke the dog...spider thing said.

"Why not?"

"We're traveling through through dimensions. Touching that blue could send your hand anywhere from the day you were born to Superman's cereal."

"Point taken," Kendrick said as he pulled his hand back, then yelled out. "Peter!"

New World Peter Parker stopped, right before he almost licked the cosmic blue portal stuff.

"Jesus man," Kendrick said. "What if you had licked that?!"

"Do you just lick everything you see?" Spider-Gwen asked, incredulous.

"Oh, speaking of licking," he started with a sly look on his face. "Let me tell you what me and my Gwen..."

"Oh my god!" Gwen said, covering her ears. "Stop talking!"

"What? I was just going to say we got out and got ice cream," Peter said, faking innocence.

"All right, that was a good one," Kendrick said, trying not to smile.

"Yeah, you got me," Gwen said, uncovering her ears.

"And then I ate her out."

"My life is over," Gwen said, falling to her knees. "Goodbye, and thanks for all the corndogs."

Unbeknownst to Gwen, Kendrick reached behind his back and gave Peter a high-five.

"Nice," he whispered.

"Thanks," Peter whispered back.

"Sorry to interrupt," Daisuke said. "But we've arrived at our destination."

The portal they were in opened up, and they fell out.

"Thank you riding Air...," Peter started. "Oh, I already told that joke."

They landed in...something. They were in a large area that appeared to be some hope of giant hallway. The floors were made of large silver tiles, each about the size of a car, some of them missing, and just leaving a large green hole in its place that looked like it led to nowhere. On each side of them were large walls with squares on them. Each square seemed to hold another dimension in it. Seeing the universe where it unraveled, Kendrick (and he could tell the others were too) felt astounded. He felt a great feeling. Not many people, if any, have ever seen this place. This would stay with him forever. He also felt...small. Seeing all these different worlds, he realized that he had such a small part in all of it. He was, almost literally, a spider, a really tiny one, in the vast web of life, destiny, and reality. Kendrick was tempted to just stay in one place and look at all the dimensions. From grown men fighting each other with little monsters that came out of these red and white balls, to Kerry Washington taking a bath (Kendrick was trying really hard not to keep watching, although he wanted to), to Superman actually having a bowl of cereal. It was surreal. Looking over the dimensions, however, Kendrick saw one that made him stop. It was his own.

And they were having Drake's funeral. And he was missing it.

It was pretty normal for a funeral. His mom was there, his dad was there, and they were...crying? They were actually crying. From they way they had treated him for all his life, they had the nerve to cry at his funeral? Kendrick didn't know what to think. He also saw Jen there. And Marshall. God, he missed them. He also saw Kim. And...who was that? In the back, there was a man, keeping to himself. Secluded. Kendrick couldn't make out who it was, but he had a feeling he knew them from somewhere. He really didn't feel like thinking about it though, and he felt like crap for not being there. So, he turned and decided to check on the others.

And he saw they were in the same boat as him.

They were all looking up at different realities. He didn't know if it was their own, or what. He walked to the closest one, New World Spider-Man, and saw what he was looking at.

It was outside a hospital. Three people were walking out: an older man, and older woman, and...

Peter Parker.

They were walking along, happy, laughing, enjoying each other's company. It was a happy scene. (For the story of these characters, go read Spider-Verse Team-Up #1!)

"That...that could've been us," Peter said, a tear strolling down his cheek. "We could've been so happy."

"Are one of those two...are they...gone?" Kendrick asked, not sure if it was his business.

"My uncle. Ben," Peter said with a sniff. "He died. He died because of...I wasn't ready to see this. To see him. To see how happy we could've been...if I had just..."

Without knowing what he was doing, Kendrick wrapped Peter in a hug, which he returned. Kendrick had lost people too. It never got any easier, but it was always less lonely when people were there. People that understood you. People that could relate, and could help get you through the tough times.

"Oh, how sweet," a diabolical voice said to their right. They looked and saw...

The goddamned Inheritors.

Well, shit.

They all stood ready as two men in old school clothing, both with black hair that receded into a design that made it look like two butt cheeks. One was bigger than the other.

"Aw shit!" Kendrick said, trying to ease the tension. "They got that Lebron hairline tho!"

The smaller one felt his scalp and charged angrily. "How dare you?!"

"Morlun, wait!" the bigger one called.

"Why wait Daemos?" the Inheritor, apparently named Morlun called back. "It's not as if they can hurt..."

Right then, he fell into one of those holes in the tiles I told you about. Y'know, the ones that fall forever.

"..meeeeeeeeeee." he called as he started to fall.

"That's why I wanted you to wait," Daemos said. "Moron."

"No!" Peter said as he sprayed a web into the hole, attaching it to Morlun and pulling him up until they were right next to each other, standing on the tile.

"Why on earth would you save me?" Morlun asked, obviously confused.

"Because I'm not like you," Peter said. "I'm better."

"No..." he said, right before he picked him up by his neck. "You're a fool!"

Kendrick, Gwen, and Daisuke rushed towards the scene, until Daemos stopped them in their tracks by landing in front of them.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked, sarcastically.

Back at them, Peter repeatedly kicked Morlun in the stomach, trying to hurt him, to no avail.

"No...," Peter said. "Not like this..."

"Oh you poor fool," Morlun said right before he opened his mouth to suck in Peter's life force. "There's no other way this could have ended."

Peter looked up at the image he had seen earlier of him, his aunt, and his uncle. "I'm sorry Uncle Ben," he said...

...until he kicked Morlun in the nuts, making him drop him.

"I promised you I'd never hit girls!" Peter said before jumping from where he was to where the other spiders stood. "Come on guys, we got an existence to save!"

Following his lead, Ken and the other spiders started to run away.

"So, uh, how exactly do we do that Daisuke?" Ken asked the resident genius/dog of the group.

"I'm gonna have to sew back together the hole in the continuum." he said.

"How the heck do you do that?" Gwen asked.

"I have my ways," Daisuke said. "I just need you to keep the Inheritors off me."

"I was worried you'd say that," Ken said as they all stopped, as Daisuke worked on he hole they had entered through.

"You guys ready to die?" Peter asked.

"Might as well," Kendrick said.

"Well then," Gwen said as they all jumped towards the Inheritors. "It's hopscotch-banana time!"

"...what?" Kendrick asked.

"I'm about to die, let me have this."

"Fair enough."

Kendrick sprayed numerous web lines at the Inheritors, trying to bind them, but they easily broke through.

"Look at this Morly," Daemos said. "They think they possess a chance."

"I told you not to call me that," Morlun said, aggravated.

"Oh what, you don't like being called Morly, huh Morly?" Kendrick teased, trying to get him off his game.

"You insolent, little..." Morlun started, before he tackled Kendrick, both of them flying into a different dimension.

"Hey, I'm Batman," the man said to the attractive waiter. "You wanna know my secret identity?"

"...why?" the waiter asked, confused.

"Ahem," the man in blue with the red cape said, trying to stop his friend. "Um, can we just have some coffee?"

"Sure," the waitress said, walking away, avoiding the smile of the man in the cowl.

Suddenly, a portal opened and two beings came out. One was in a red and blue costume, the other was a man in old clothes with terrible hair.

"Never call me Morly!" the bigger one said.

They landed right in the middle of the table, breaking it.

"Our table!" the man in the cape said, picking the two men up and holding them apart. The man in red cowered away, while the bigger one struggled to attack the smaller one, but unable to break the man's grasp.

"Well, now what are we gonna do?" the man with the cap said as the portal they were in closed.

"Hold on," Batman said as he dug around on his utility belt.

"What are you...?" Superman asked.

"Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na," the man said before pulling out a small device. "Batman!"

"What...the heck..is that?" Superman asked.

"An inter-dimensional grenade," Batman said before throwing it in the air, allowing a portal to open.

"Good riddance," Superman said as he threw the two into the portal, before it closed. "Hey, how'd you even mange to get one of those," Superman said before stopping himself. "Don't say it, don't say it..."

"Because I'm Batman!"

"And you said it," Superman said, lowering his head.

The waitress walked back up to them. "You know you're gonna have to pay for this table, right?"

The two looked at each other, before Batman jumped over the booth and ran out the door, mumbling something like "meana I'm Batman."

"But...but you're rich!" Superman called, before signing and reaching into his pocket and taking out his wallet. "How much do I owe you?"

Kendrick and Morlun busted back into the area they were in, landing on some tiles. Kendrick sprayed web in Morlun's eyes causing him to instinctively grab them.

Kendrick jumped from under Morlun and ended up flying into Spider-Gwen, who was dodging a punch by Daemos. They both landed on the ground as Gwen landed on his lap.

"Yo Ken," Peter called, spraying a web that pulled them away from Daemos, who was ready to attack them. "Hands off my girl!"

"I'm not your girl!" Gwen yelled, kicking Peter.

"Jeez, I was kidding!" Peter said, rubbing the area he was kicked in. "What, is your Peter an asshole or something?"

"Leave me alone," Gwen said, moving Peter out of the way of an attack by Morlun.

And Kendrick realized that was all they could do. They couldn't hurt the Inheritors. The only thing they could hope to do was avoid them for as long as they could. It was only a matter of time before they were devoured.

"It's done!" Daisuke yelled at them, a large smile on his young face. "Reality is saved!"

They had done it. They had actually done it. Kendrick saw that the others had lost their drive. Now that the crisis was averted, there was nothing to fight for but their own survival. And there was no way they could win.

"Use your teleports!" Daisuke told them as he jumped down to them. "I fixed the tear so we can use them as much as we want now! I'll hold them off!"

"What?" Gwen exclaimed. "No, you're going with us!"

"There's no time," Daisuke said as he threw them his teleporter. "Go!"

Daisuke stood before the Inheritors, a big smile on his face. He took some stuff out of his pockets that looked like smoke bombs that were mostly a greenish brown, with different colors swirling on each of them. He threw the one with red swirls at them, watching it explode in a furry of red fire that actually seemed like it hurt them.

"What are you guys waiting for?" Daisuke asked, still with a big smile. "Get out of here!"

"We're not leaving you Daisuke!" Kendrick and yelled.

"You're coming with us!" Peter yelled.

Daisuke sighed. He threw a ball with blue swirls on it at their feet, and it exploded into a portal, sucking them in.

"No!" they all yelled in unison.

"See you guys later," Daisuke said, never dropping his youthful smile. "It was fun."

"Daisuke!" Kendrick yelled out as the portal closed, leaving just Daisuke and the Inheritors.

"That was unwise," Daemos said with a smile. "Now you're trapped with us."

"I think you got it twisted hair cut," Daisuke said. "I'm not trapped in here with you, you're trapped in here with me!"

Suddenly, Daisuke threw all the orbs he had in his hand at the Inheritors, which they caught.

"What was that you said about us being trapped?" Morlun asked.

"3...2...1..."

"What are you...?" Daemos started, before something amazing happened.

The orbs exploded, sending a volley of yellow, green, orange, and purple fire everywhere, causing the Inheritors to yell out in pain. Daisuke kept his smile as he saw the Inheritors burn and fall to the ground, their sling bubbling and burning until there was nothing left but charred skeletons. The fire surrounded Daisuke and he smiled.

Going out saving my friends, he thought, still with that smile. Not a bad way die...

"We have to go back for him!" Gwen yelled in the portal.

"This is my fault," Peter said.

"Peter, how is this your fault?" Kendrick asked.

"He gave us his teleporter," he said. "But since we didn't go, he had to use his blue orb thing, which he was obviously gonna use to escape once we were safe. If we had just left, Daisuke would be fine."

They all sat there, saddened at the lost of their friend. Remembering his smile.

"I told him I was gonna Old Yeller him," Gwen said, a tear forming in her eye.

"Another good person," Peter said, him starting to cry too. "Dead because of me..."

"No. No, no, no, no." Kendrick said. "No crying."

"How can you say that?" Gwen asked. "Aren't you sad?"

"Of course I'm sad," Kendrick said. "But Daisuke knew what he was doing. He was a hero till the end, and we should be proud that we knew him."

They said nothing.

"I know this life sucks. I know...I know we've lost people. Friends, uncles...," Kendrick stopped before he continued. "Brothers. But, we have to be proud in the fact that they'd be proud of us. That they're looking down at us from Heaven or wherever they are, and that they're smiling, because, y'know what? We're making them proud. We just saved the whole goddamned universe, for God's sake. With Daisuke. He's a hero. We're all heroes. And wherever he is, wherever our loved ones are, they know that. They know that. And...and I know we'll miss them, and we'll miss a lot more people when we lose them too, but we can't lose sight of who we are, and what we are. Heroes. And that's...damn it, that's gonna have to be enough."

Nobody said anything. They just sat there. Nobody wanting to break the silence. They were proud. And they didn't know what the future held, but they were ready for it.

And that, right there, was enough.

Oh my god, I love this chapter.

I'm so happy this chapter turned out good, because last chapter was rushed, but this was was fantastic. It had laughs, it had sadness, it had character development. I really feel proud of this. I don't even care if nobody liked this, because I did.

I know this chapter is a little early, but since I've been gone so long, I thought I'd make an exception. R/R.

NEXT: GIANT ROBOTS AND A NEW SAFE ZONE!

-Brad