Andrew's sleep was surely one of the most pleasant he had had since he got his powers. He dreamed of Gwen, of her smile, of their kiss. Well, kisses, but honestly, who's counting?
His dreams were so seductive that he really didn't want to wake up. He resisted as much as possible to stay asleep. But it was unsuccessful.
"Ugh." He grunted as the sunlight streaming through his window fell into his eyes, making him turn around to avoid the sun's rays.
Andrew let out a sigh as he sat up in bed, his head tilted away from the sunlight. He raised a hand to cover his mouth.
He walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind him, opened the shower and waited for the water to heat up. While he waited, he pulled out his phone and opened his music app, and randomly pressed one of his assembled playlists. As the music began to play, he nodded rhythmically and tested the water coming from the shower head.
Comfortable and warm.
Undressing, he stepped into the shower stall, beginning the start of his day. Once he had finished showering with his other daily morning rituals, he had returned to his room and checked the data that had been sent to his phone.
Various articles had been written about what had happened the night before and they all basically said the same thing; Wilson Fisk had built a machine that threatened the safety of the city, his accomplices included Lonnie Lincoln, Olivia Octavius, Adrian Toomes and MacDonald Gargan. The articles also had a few links to websites with videos reporting the same thing as the articles.
However, one video caught his attention.
Someone took a picture of him as he was swinging between buildings. If he remembered correctly, it was after he cleared out Fisk's accounts. Fortunately, the picture was blurry and even the report itself wondered who the new masked vigilante was, as well as several indicating that he must be the new Spider-man. This made him smile, people understood that even if Peter died, the symbol that was Spider-man had survived.
...A little later at the hospital...
"Are you okay, Isabelle?" Jeanne asked as she sat down in the chair next to her daughter's hospital bed.
Last night had been hell for the hospital, what Fisk did under her building had caused all kinds of havoc. The whole building had shaken as if they were experiencing an earthquake just below a fault line, the lights flickered as if they were during exorcisms in the movies, and for a few moments the old woman was sure that last night could have been her last night.
But luckily, her grandson had stepped in and saved the day. She wasn't sure of the specific details, but she was sure he had something to do with what had made everything go back to normal. And as the new Spider-man, that was no small thing. She knew her daughter was just as proud of Andrew as she was, if not more so.
Isabelle nodded in response to her mother's question. However, she could drink coffee and not the damn juice boxes the doctors had forced on her. Shifting in her seat on the hospital bed, she winced when she felt parts of her body ache a little.
"Hi, Grandma."
Jeanne turned in her chair and smiled when she saw her grandson.
"Oh, Andrew, there you are." She laughed as she stood up and went to hug him. "Oh, I'm so proud of you."
"Hey, I only saved the town." Said Andrew with a joking shrug. "It wasn't much."
Jeanne merely shook her head in amusement.
Walking past her, Andrew sat down next to his mother.
"Hi, Mom." He said.
Isabelle smiled as she reached out with her able-bodied arm, stroking the side of his face as she looked into the eyes he had inherited from his father.
"Hi, Andrew. Did you make it?" She asked.
He nodded, a look turned wistful, reminding himself that he would never see Gwen. Unless some scientist was smart enough and erudite enough on the subject to invent a device to travel through the multiverse without suffering the same backlash as his friends and the girl he loved.
"Yeah. I sent them back to their respective home dimensions." He replied.
Isabelle frowned at the expression on her son's face. But it didn't take him long to realize what the source of all this was; Gwen. Evidently, the teenager had also gone home.
"I'm sorry about Gwen, Andrew." She said, understanding her son's pain.
He shrugged his shoulders.
"It's okay, Mom. I'll find a way to find her I'm sure." Said Andrew hopefully.
Isabelle could only smile, her son was truly in love.
"I hope, for your happiness, that you do." Said she with a maternal smile.
"Thank you, Mom." Said Andrew as a tear beaded on his face.
"Otherwise..." Isabelle began to change the subject. "How does it feel to use Spider-man's web-shooters?"
"I didn't use them." Andrew replied, surprising his mother.
"But then how do you..." Isabelle couldn't finish her sentence because son rolled up one of his sleeves to show that he had nothing on his wrist, and quickly wove a web that lodged itself in a corner of the room, shocking both women.
"Oh god..." Jeanne sighed.
"I know, the others were surprised too. At least it saves me money, since I will not have to regularly recharge a bracelet." Said Andrew.
This made Isabelle laugh and then began to give him tips for being a superhero, until a nurse arrived to check on Isabelle.
Andrew chose that moment to leave, to go on patrol.
But before he could change, the environment around him began to shake with various flashes of light around him. When the two phenomena stopped, he climbed to the top of a building to change and begin his patrol.
A few weeks later, in the RAFT visiting room, as Andrew sat in front of a glass window with a telephone handset next to it, a door on the other side of the glass opened, revealing one of the guards escorting Olivia Octavius, who was wearing the same hairstyle as before she revealed her mechanical arms to Alchemax, an orange prison uniform and a pair of glasses.
The scientist immediately recognized the teenager. She took a seat in front of him and grabbed the handset that was on her side of the glass as Andrew did the same.
"Here, here. If it isn't Taskmaster's son. Or should I say, the actual Spider-man." Olivia said with amusement, while Andrew remained unperturbed, which surprised her even more than the fact that he'd come to see her in prison. "Oh, you're not even surprised, that I know your secret identity?"
"Not by a long shot. You obviously knew I was part of the other-dimensional Spider-man group when you saw some at Alchemax. And the only one left here is me, so a simple costume change isn't going to mislead you." Andrew reflected, making Olivia smile.
Even though they were adversaries, the teenager's insight made her start to like him.
"Agreed. But then, you didn't come to me to make sure I didn't know who you were. Did you?" Olivia asked, curious about her visitor's purpose.
"Very well, then let's get to the point. Weren't you the one who designed the synchrotron? Who had made all the multiversal shit that happened in this universe possible?" Andrew asked.
"Indeed, me and the Alchemax scientists put it all together, but I did most of the work on the equations. Why are you interested in this? Is it to find someone...? Someone you lost, or... someone you had to send back to their dimension?" Olivia replied, with great interest.
"That's none of your business. I'm just trying to make it possible to travel from one universe to another without the risk of cellular decomposition." The teenager replied without giving the scientist the whole reason. He didn't want to give her control of the discussion.
The scientist slumped back in her chair, looking sheepish.
"Well, I'm sorry to break it to you, but everything I know and the theories I've established about the multiverse are contained in the data you stole with the other two spiders." Olivia explained.
"So without a synchrotron..." Andrew began.
"...It'll be impossible for you to figure out how to do that." Oivia continued. "I'm sorry, kid. If I were free I could have continued my work, solved the problem of cellular decomposition. Have the power of the multiverse in the palm of my hand, and help you get what you want."
Andrew understood that Olivia was disguisedly offering to break her out in exchange for her help in finding a way to travel through the multiverse.
The offer was very tempting, but he knew he couldn't trust Octavius.
"Good-bye, Dr. Octavius." He said, putting the phone back in its place before getting up and leaving.
He could hear Olivia shouting from the window; she sincerely wanted to help him, to master travel between universes. She really wanted to understand the finer points of travel between universes.
...Later at the Batemans'...
Andrew lay depressed on his bed. Apart from Octavius, no one had given serious thought to traveling between universes.
The TV in his room was on, and he'd hoped to take his mind off things with a series on a TV channel, but his universe had decided to amuse itself with his situation, and was broadcasting the series Sliders.
Onyx, sensing her master's sadness as she entered the room, went over to the bed and lay down beside him, her head resting on the teenager's belly.
To thank the animal for his attempt to comfort him, Andrew petted him before scratching him as he closed his eyes.
Before he knew it, several objects in the room began to levitate. The animal noticed this before and noticed a hexagonal-shaped hole above them with someone in it, but didn't growl when he saw the person above them.
On the contrary, he squeaked as if he was glad to see her.
"Andrew... Hey Andrew!" Said the person in a familiar voice.
The teenager opened his eyes to see Gwen standing over him from some kind of multiversal portal.
"Are you free?" She asked.
"Gwen! How...?" He shouted, backing up to his headboard, as Gwen jumped out of the portal to land on the bed, the animal stood up and tried to lick Gwen, who stroked the animal in return.
"I'm glad to see you too." She said to the animal, which then decided to leave the room, wanting to eat some kibble.
The superheroine turned her gaze to Andrew, who was shocked to see her. He was beginning to lose hope of ever seeing her again, and there she stood before him.
"Is it really...?" He asked before being interrupted by Gwen, jumping on top of him to kiss him.
He quickly accepted the kiss, too happy to see her again. An added detail increased his appreciation of the kiss... Gwen tongued him.
Once the kiss was broken, Andrew couldn't help but hug Gwen, who returned the embrace.
"I missed you too." Said Gwen, returning the embrace.
"How, is that possible?" Andrew asked before realizing that Gwen had some kind of high-tech bracelet on her wrist. "What's going on?"
"That's uh... that's why I'm here." Gwen admitted, looking down at the floor. She wished their reunion had lasted longer before moving on to the mission. "Follow me, I'll explain everything outside."
As Gwen slipped on her mask and headed for the window, Andrew pulled his costume from the back of his closet where he'd been hiding it.
"Can you step outside for two seconds, please? Just long enough for me to put on my costume." He asked.
"Why are you afraid of what I'll see?" Gwen asked teasingly.
"If you want to see me in my boxers, you can stay. On the other hand, my mother could come home at any time, but it's up to you." Andrew retorted, having to restrain himself from laughing after his statement as he saw Gwen's face redden before she climbed out the window.
Once in his Spider-man outfit, he climbed out of the window and set off with Gwen flitting through the city before they left through a portal identical to the one she'd arrived with.
He didn't know what lay ahead, but if it meant being with the girl he loved, he'd be in.