TW: descriptions of violence
I really rushed to get this chapter out, I'm going out of town for a couple days and needed to get it done. Sorry if it's not the best quality, I had a different idea in my head for this chapter and tried my best to write it out, so I hope it's okay. When I get back I might edit/update it again.
Thank you lady-necromancer on Tumblr for the help with Spanish in this chapter!
Reader's Perspective
This was not an ideal situation, probably the furthest from an ideal situation that could happen in the history of situations. What is that thing called, Murphy's Law? "Whatever can happen will", and "nothing is as easy as it looks:, or however it goes. Here Pavitr and I were, trying to console Jess who was currently lying on the ground in pain, possibly in labor. She had a near permanent grimace on her face, Pavitr was completely panicking, pacing in circles, and I was on my knees next to Jess.
"Pavitr, please calm down." I demanded, my stress morphing into irritation very quickly.
"There's a baby being born and we're not in the medical wing, and there's no one around! What do we do!" He replied, his pitch very high, his hands gripping the top of his head.
"Can you shut up?!" Jess snapped, her tone annoyed .
I know she didn't mean it, she was in tremendous pain and her hormones were going haywire, probably more than mine were. Sweat beaded on her forehead, her lips still pulled back in an uncomfortable grimace, her eyes squinted shut - I felt terrible for her and scared, taking her hand. She squeezed with so much pressure I swear she was going to break my fingers. Pavitr kneeled down at the end of Jess' feet, her legs bent at the knee as she laid on her back. Pavitr held her knees close together, closing them.
"What are you doing?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow at him.
"I'm trying to stop the baby from coming!" He whined in a panic.
Jess chuckled humorlessly: "The baby is going to be born when the baby is going to be born, there's no stopping that, hon."
"Do you feel any contractions?" I asked her.
" Oh yeah," Jess replied with great emphasis, "I've been feeling this wave of cramps since yesterday. I had a feeling, but I blew it off… you saw my water broke, that means I'll be giving birth soon."
"How soon?" Pavitr questioned.
"Could be hours, could be a day."
"So we have time…" I mumbled mostly to myself.
I looked down at my watch, pushing buttons, trying to get a hold of someone who could help us. I'll be honest, I didn't really know how to use this thing other than opening portals. Pavitr was at my side, trying to assist me in pushing buttons. Stressful chaos ensued, all of us getting irritated with each other very quickly. It was clear that none of us were functioning well in this situation.
"Why couldn't I be stuck with people who know how to work the fucking watch!" Jess roared.
"Pavitr, stop pushing buttons, I can't see what I'm doing! Can you please just leave and go get help!" I chastised.
"I'm just trying to help you faster!"
"I wish my husband was here…" Jess sighed to herself.
Her expression changed, an overwhelming sense of despair took over. She started to crumble under the pain, her sadness washing over, ready to consume everything. I felt so awful for her, I never had experienced a canon event for myself (yet), I couldn't imagine what it would be like to lose a spouse.
The thought of losing Miguel nearly knocked the wind out of me.
I don't know what happened next. I had stilled along with Jessica, the somberness from her comment drawing my attention away from my dimension travel watch. Pavitr had leaned over to hit something, but with my own fingers pressed on the watch we hit the wrong switch. A portal opened up below all three of us, swallowing us whole before we even had the fight in us to get out.
We landed with a thud in some mysterious universe. As I came to I noticed where we were was very dark, damp, and smelled terrible. Rain poured down on us, making it harder to see where we were at. Pavitr leaned on some dumpsters for support, standing up slowly to survey the scene. I could see now that we were in an alley and that it was night.
"That's just perfect, Pavitr, where the hell did we end up?" I shouted over at him.
"That wasn't my fault! The watch did this itself, I don't know how, but it did!" He shouted back.
We argued back and forth. I felt bad, Pavitr was a sweet kid and I know I was only reacting due to stress. Being stuck in the rain, soaked, with a woman giving birth would make anyone snap under the strain. The sounds of a steel door closing caught our attention, all three of our Spidey Senses alerting us to something nearby.
"Pavitr, use your watch to send us back, something is wrong." Jess warned, forcing herself to sit up.
A sudden electrical current shot through the air, making all of our hair stand up on end. A quick zap sent us all tumbling backwards. Sparks flew from our dimensions travel watches, the lights fizzling out. We all started to glitch. Whoever sent that pulse did so as a targeted attack.
A version of Doc Ock emerged from the darkness, his goggles shone from a dim streetlight. This Doc Ock was different; he matched his world perfectly: cold, dark, sinister. His mechanical arms not only carried him, but seemed to slither when they moved; it gave me the creeps. My Spidey Senses were going crazy with his presence. He didn't speak a word, only observing us as his eyes swept across the scene. Pavitr and I stood over Jess, protectively. She watched us, straining to reach out to us with her hand, uttering for us to be careful. I had a horrible, weighted feeling in the pit of my stomach. My sense of flight was more heightened than my sense of fight. I knew that this Doc Ock was incredibly dangerous, but we had no way to retreat without abandoning Jess, and there was no force on earth or heaven that was going to cause that.
Part of me wondered if I was having a nightmare. This all seemed way too convenient and strange. Where the hell were we? I know we sent ourselves here by accident, but this Doc Ock just happened to know how to hit us to disable our watches? None of this was adding up.
I'm used to villains monologuing, but he still said nothing at all, instead he finally just shot one of his mechanical tentacles toward us. Pavitr grabbed it, stopping it from hitting Jess. He struggled against it while I lifted Jess and managed to move her further back and out of the alley. We came to a clearing that looked like a rundown construction zone. The claws clamped down on Pavitr's hands, hurling him far over his shoulder. Pavitr managed to catch himself with his web and slingshot back, but the other arms knew he was coming.
I back flipped out of the way as one of the mechanical arms slammed into the ground where I had been standing. It struck the concrete with enough force to indent it. I shot a few webs at Doc Ock's face, but his other mechanical arms blocked the shot and sliced through them with ease. I started to run in a giant circle around him, attempting to distract him so Pavitr could attack from above. I continued to shoot my webs, but one of his arms was blocking, the other slinking its way around trying to grab me. His other two arms were fighting Pavitr, blocking each coordinated kick and strike. This man was able to telegraph nearly everything we threw at him. Pavitr chambered his leg for a roundhouse kick toward Doc Ock's head, but a mechanical arm managed to snatch one of his ankles, and toss toward me. I extended my arms out, managing to catch him, but the force and the slick concrete sent both of us tumbling backward. The rain was making this fight extra difficult, but the conditions did not seem to slow down this creepy version of Doc Ock. He dashed at us, his arms thrusting into the ground hard enough to leave cracks and gaping holes in the concrete. He had a look in his eye that I briefly caught a glimpse of under his goggles, a look that petrified me completely. It was beyond the means of animalistic bloodlust, there was a blankness to it, an absolution… his only intention was to kill.
Another arm caught Pavitr's ankle again as his focus was on the arms waving above him. The other mechanical arm opened its claws, rushing for his neck. I leapt toward it, catching it, and using all my strength to push it backward. My senses tried to warn me of an oncoming attack, but I glitched before I could get out of the way.
One of the mechanical arms struck me in the stomach. Hard. The world seemed to freeze for a moment, my breath being forced from my lungs, my feet being swept upward from off the ground. I flew into the side of a nearby building, tumbling to the ground, unable to fully catch myself from landing wrong. Spit dribbled from my mouth as I struggled to gasp for air. I was on my hands and knees, one of my arms gripping my abdomen as an extreme pain bloomed and spread.
My little twitchy sea monkey…
My vision blurred, my hearing deafened… I could hear Pavitr shouting something, the mechanics whirring of the arms moving; I could feel the vibration of Doc Ock stomping toward me, but I couldn't move. I raised my other hand to shoot a web in a weak act of self defense, but one of the arms had found my neck, its claws encircling around my windpipe. He lifted me by my neck.I tried to wiggle free out of desperation, my hands gripping at the claws, trying to pry them off. I was losing oxygen quickly, my windpipe being crushed underneath his claws, my consciousness becoming hazy as my eyes began to roll back in my head. Doc Ock started to slam me into the same building I had crashed into, he did this repeatedly, the arm still holding me by my neck.
My head snapped back and forth like whiplash with every devastatingly powerful impact. I could hear snapping and cracking, I don't know if it was my bones or ligaments, my body couldn't pinpoint where the pain was coming from. Pavitr's desperate pleas for my life becoming fainter and fainter, the feeling of my own body starting to drift away. I'm not sure what happened next, I know I was thrown. I could feel myself become airborne, the pressure off my neck, the back of my head free from being pounded into a wall.
I felt myself crash into the ground, hard, my body twisting and turning uncomfortably until I stopped. I opened my eyes, laying on my stomach. I saw Doc Ock grip Jess by her foot, dragging her across the wet ground. Pavitr dashed at him, and that's the last thing I remember before everything went dark.
Miguel's Perspective
An emergency distress signal alerted Lyla: "Hey Miguel, Pavitr, Jess and Sunshine's dimension travel watches went offline."
Miguel swiped his screen away and looked over at Lyla. She displayed a virtual map of different Earths, scrolling across all of them as she went to pinpoint their location.
"They also aren't here, before the signal went out, I have their last location marked here before they went dark."
Seeing the numbers Earth 9591 displayed on the holographic screen made a chill run down his spine.
"9591? Are you sure? How did they get there?" Miguel was aghast.
"I don't know, but I don't like this…" Lyla commented.
"I don't either, we need to get them out of there before their presence is discovered." Miguel leapt off the platform.
"What's going on?" Peter asked, just coming back from putting May down for a nap.
"We have an extraction to do, I need you, Hobie, Ben and Gwen to come with me. This takes priority."
"Why us?" Gwen questioned, still somewhat sulky from the conversation they had earlier.
"Because all of you are here. I don't know how, but Sunshine, Pavitr and Jess have been transported to a very dangerous universe. We need to hurry and get them out." Miguel explained.
They all pulled their Spider hoods on as Miguel opened the portal, materializing his own over his head. As they traveled through the bright array of colors like a long tunnel, Miguel could see the end of the portal open up ahead. He could see Doc Ock moving around and some commotion going on.
Damn! He thought to himself.
He was hoping that no one had noticed them appear in that world.
His webs shot through the portal before they had fully arrived, catching Doc Ock by his multiple mechanical arms. Doc Ock was preparing to stab Pavitr with a large, sharp needle protruding from one of his arms, holding Pavitr in place with his actual, non-mechanical arms.
Peter B, Gwen, and Ben had managed to knock him into one of the nearby buildings as Miguel's webs clinged onto him. Gwen dashed over to Jess, who was lying on the floor, while Peter B and Ben continued to fight Doc Ock. They ended up throwing a containment shield around him, his telegraphing and strength was out matching their own. Even as he was captured, it seemed apparent he was going to break out of it from sheer force.
"Boss, I don't think this is gonna hold." Peter warned, calling over his shoulder.
Pavitr ran over to Miguel, his mask half torn, part of his face exposed. Tears streamed down his face as he gripped Miguel's arm, trembling and trying to form a coherent sentence.
"I don't know what happened, we pressed something on the watch, and we ended up here. Sunshine, she's… she's-" his words spilled out quickly, jumbling together.
Miguel felt his heart skip a beat for a moment. He whirled around to see Hobie cradling her in his arms. Her body looked like a rag doll, her limbs limp, her head lolled back. Hobie was patting her face, trying to make her come to.
"No, no, no, no-" Miguel dashed over toward them.
"She's not waking up!" Hobie informed him, looking up at Miguel hopelessly.
Miguel guided Hobie to lay her down on the concrete. Her neck was red, already forming bruises, her forehead also bruised and very swollen. He un-materialized his mask, pressing his ear to her chest to listen.
There was no heartbeat, her chest was unmoving.
"No, please no!" He cried, started chest compressions immediately. He grabbed her nose, blowing air into her mouth. "Come on!" He continued to push down on her chest with his hand.
Peter stood over them, his hand clasped over his mouth as he watched the distressing scene play out. Hobie kept her head tilted slightly back, trying to clear up her airway. The world was fading away around Miguel, his only focus was on her. Ben watched warily as Doc Ock continued to strike the containment field, weakening it slowly; Gwen tended to Jess, who was also struggling to stay conscious in her current state; Pavitr trembled next to Peter, burying his face into his arm. This entire situation was more than a mess, it was a disaster, he still didn't understand how it happened.
Two minutes had passed and it felt like a century.
"Miguel…" Lyla began, her synthetic voice sympathetic.
"Please, mi vida, please! Por favor despierta, no te puedo perder.." Miguel pleaded in anguish.
"Miguel, I think I need to call it, we can't stay here much longer…" Lyla interjected again, her tone careful.
"She's not fucking dead!" He snarled, losing his composure, still performing chest compressions.
Peter placed a hand on his shoulder, he violently shrugged him off. He dared a glance toward him and where Lyla had materialized, they looked grim. He couldn't give up on her, he refused to believe that his worst fears of losing another person he loved were coming true. He knew Lyla was right, they couldn't stay here much longer, but there was no way he could give up on her.
The sound of a sharp intake of breath snapped his attention back. Her eyes snapped open, her mouth agape, sucking in air. Miguel cradled her head as Hobie held her hand, her fingers weakly wrapping around his. Her eyes met Miguel's, she tried to form words but the damage done to her throat restricted the use of her voice. She pleaded with her eyes, her free hand rubbing her stomach. Miguel lifted the bottom of her hoodie, revealing an incredibly bruised and red stomach. She kept gesturing to her abdomen, her face scrunched up in agony and fear. He could tell she was in a lot of pain, his heart panged for her as he held her, wanting nothing more than to whisk it all away.
"We're going to get you help, I promise." Miguel soothed, stroking her hair. He directed his attention to Hobie. "Hobie, can you please take her to the medical facility back home?"
"Of course." Hobie answered, softly, picking her up gently.
Miguel went over to Gwen, checking on Jess. She was awake, but also writhed in pain. He saw that her water broke and knew the baby was coming soon. He told Gwen and Pavitr to escort her back with Hobie, placing a calming hand on Jess' forehead.
"The baby isn't moving…" Jess told him in a hushed and terrified voice.
"I'm going to make him pay for this." Miguel said, his tone low.
Miguel turned to face Doc Ock, still trying to break free from the containment field as Ben stood by. Rage filled his chest, his muscles twinging, his claws and fangs bared. Bloodlust had started to overtake him, his only focus was on the man with the mechanical arms before him.
Doc Ock managed to break through the field, his mechanical arms straining as he pulled it open. Miguel took this opportunity to pounce, tackling him as his arms were occupied. They burst through the back of the containment field, both hitting the ground and rolling. Before Doc Ock could break away from Miguel's hold, he sank his teeth into his neck, pumping him full of venom. His body went limp underneath Miguel, the mechanical arms falling beside his stiff body. Miguel balled his fist back, punching him squarely in the face. He repeated this motion again, and again, and again. Blood started to gush out of his nose and mouth, his eyes began to loll in the back of his head, his nose crunching under the impact of his fist. His face was starting to become unrecognizable.
"Miguel, stop! Don't kill him, you're going to mess up the timeline!" Lyla materialized in front of him, her hands up.
Miguel's fist was above his head, ready to strike Doc Ock again, but Peter had grabbed his wrist to stop him.
"We have to go, Miguel." Peter reminded him.
Miguel paused, weighing their words as he peered down at the villain's face, his other hand gripping his throat. Doc Ock sputtered blood out of his mouth, wheezing, his nose crooked and crushed , his face a mess. Even though he wanted nothing more than to kill him, he knew they were right.
Miguel stood up, brushing his wet bangs from hanging in his face. The rain was starting to pick up, it was time to leave.
Ben opened a portal, they all started to leave one by one. Before Miguel stepped inside he turned to face Doc Ock, still lying on the ground, paralyzed.
"If I find out my friend's baby, or my own unborn baby did not survive, I owe you a death." He pointed a threatening finger in his direction.
He left on that promise that he intended to keep.
Notes:
I've read bits and pieces of Marvel Ruins (Earth 9591), but I don't know a lot about it. Sorry if any of my descriptions of that universe's Doc Ock aren't accurate.