Chapter 6: Meet Your Maker
"Text" = Speech
"Text" = Thoughts
"Is that…a flying metal beetle?" Monika pointed to the person in the metal suit flying through the night sky above their heads, "One of your hero friends?"
"More like a copyright law suite waiting to happen," Spider-Man shot two weblines, one with each hand at two nearby buildings and began pulling backwards on the lines to create tension.
"Uh Peter, what are you doing?" Monika stared in confusion as Spider-Man pulled back on his makeshift slingshot.
"That suit is dangerous. Gotta check out who this guy is," Peter couldn't just let some rando in a knock-off Iron Man armor roam around the city as he pleased, "Slingshotting myself is the fastest way to catch up to them."
"I suppose it is…but-"
Spider-Man released his grip on the weblines and was sent flying into the air at high speeds, "WWWOOOOO!"
Monika just shook her head and sighed, "He'll be the death of me I swear."
Spider-Man gracefully transitioned from his slingshot launch to web slinging and began to get close to the flying man. Luckily for Peter the man in the suit wasn't flying high above the buildings, so he was able to swing up to his level. Taking a closer look at the suit, while its design definitely was reminiscent of 's design, whoever made this armor had clearly put their own twist on things. Most notable was the visible lack of an Arc Reactor. There were also the metal wings on the back, and the bulbous lenses and horns on the helmet, giving the armor a beetle-like appearance.
"Hey man, that's a pretty cool suit you have there. Where did you get it?" Spider-Man called out to the flying man, "As you see I'm also a fan of wearing arthropod costumes, we should compare notes!"
"..." The person in the suit didn't verbally respond, but instead pointed their wrist mounted cannons at the hero and fired a blast of purple plasma energy. Peter narrowly managed to avoid the blast by letting go of his webline at the last second and letting himself fall. The man in the suit continued his flight without care, not giving the falling vigilante any attention.
"That was a close one! What is that guy's problem?" Monika reappeared next to Peter as he fell.
"Rude right? He could have just said no!" Spider-Man shot another webline, and hurriedly swung after the man.
"Peter, you're still injured from that fight from earlier today. We really shouldn't chase after this guy." For once Monika wished Peter would prioritize himself.
"That was just minor stuff and I heal fast. Besides, that guy clearly isn't up to anything good." It was true, he was pretty much healed up from his fight with Bullseye, but Peter got the feeling Monika wouldn't buy that.
"You don't know he's a bad guy for sure, what if that guy's a new up and coming superhero?"
"He shot at me…" Peter said bluntly.
"I…Fair point…" Monika really couldn't argue against that, "Are there really no other superhero guys around to help?"
"Believe me I wish that was the case, but do you see any other guys in tights hanging around here?" Peter had gotten used to it by now, whenever he could use help all the other heroes in New York were miraculously busy with something or the other.
"No…" Monika wanted to argue further but she had promised herself to not interfere with Peter's Spider-Man business until the others were saved, "Alright then I'll do whatever I can to help."
"Well right now I could use a jetpack, but I doubt you can help with that!" Spider-Man swung as fast as he could after the flying metal man. Once he was close enough, Peter shot a webline at Beetle, which attached itself to metal man's leg. This caused Spider-Man to be pulled through the air by the metal beetle like a plane pulling a banner, "Woah! Sir! Sir! You're going way over the speed limit! I'm going to have to ask you to pull over!" Spider-Man yelled as he gripped the webline with both hands.
The Beetle looked over their shoulder and stared at the webbed hero for a moment before starting to drastically swerve in air in order to smash Spider-Man into the nearby building.
"Argh!" Spider-Man cried out as his back collided with the building to his right but he kept his tight grip on his webline and began to climb up it to get closer to the metal man, "This is the worst uber ride of my life."
"Do you always have to make jokes at times like these?!" Monika really wished Peter would take these life and death situations more seriously.
"Honestly I think it would lose my sanity if I didn't!" Once he was close enough Spider-Man fired another webline at the metal wings on the metal beetle's back, "Sir! I said I need you to pull over!"
Spider-Man yanked back on the webline causing the person in the suit to be forcibly swerve backwards and causing the metal man to lose control of their flight. The beetle-suited man accidently smacked against the side of a nearby building. The metal man tried to reorient themselves but Spider-Man gave another fierce thug to the left on their wings making the metal beetle to bash themselves again into another building and causing a spiral downwards dragging Spider-Man down with them.
"Peter we're going down!"
"MAYDAY! MAYDAY! AHHH" Spider-Man cried out as the two were pulled further and further down by gravity, heading directly towards a smaller building with a large billboard on it.
CRASH!
The Beetle crashed straight through a billboard and then onto the rooftop of the building the billboard had been on. The person in the metal suit got to their knees and began inspecting their armor for any damages, they absolutely couldn't afford to damage these goods on their first real job. A job they weren't going to complete unless they got rid of this webbed nuisance.
"Aw sorry man, did I get your suit dirty?" Spider-Man said perched on top of the broken billboard. Peter had let go of the webline at the last minute and had avoided the crash, "Don't worry I know a great dry cleaner nearby!"
"..." The Beetle didn't offer any kind of verbal response and instead pointed their arm cannon at the archind hero and fired.
"Yeesh! Tough crowd!" Spider-Man flipped away from the bolts of energy, "Usually they're a lot more talkative. I guess he prefers being the cool silent type."
"You keep calling this person a 'he', but do you know if they're actually a guy?"
"Oh damn, you're right!" Spider-Man ducked out of the way of another blast of plasma, "Hey Beetleborg what's your pronouns?! Are you pulling a Samus?!"
The person in the metal beetle suit flew at the vigilante, closing the distance between them in a split second and grabbing Spider-Man by the scruff of his suit before slamming him onto the rooftop.
"Argh! S-Sorry, didn't realize it was a sensitive topic. Y'know what I'm just going to call you Beetle from here on out," Spider-Man groaned out before firing a glob of webbing in the Beetle's face which momentarily blinded him. Spider-man took this opportunity to spring kick the metal man off himself. The Beetle was sent flying back crashing into a nearby ventilator.
"He's open Peter!"
"Don't have to tell me twice!" Spider-Man rushed in on the Beetle before the metal man could get his bearings and landed a strong right hook against his face. The Beetle's armor protected them from the damage but the man was still knocked back by the force of Peter's attack. But before Peter could land a follow up attack, the Beetle quickly activated the suit's defensive forefield causing the webbed hero to be forcibly pushed backwards as the forcefield expanded outwards and also giving the metal man a chance to breathe.
"Woah! That's a nifty feature. Tell me, does that hunk of junk support Netflix too?" Alright that settled it, this wasn't just any Iron Man knock off armor, there were only a few people Peter knew could create something like what the Beetle was using. And based off of the craftsmanship he had a feeling that this was the work of the Tinkerer. But that only brought up more questions, "How is Mason getting the resources to build something like this? I know he's been making bank by selling weapons to bad guys and having them steal more tech for him to use, but he'd need more resources to get off the ground and make a suit like this. I mean this is far above the stuff he made for the Toomes."
He didn't have time to ponder this now however as Beetle turned away from Peter, dropped his barrier and began flying away.
"Oh no you don't!" Spider-Man lunged at the Beetle but the person in the metal suit anticipated this and quickly fired a projectile backwards at the hero. This projectile wasn't a plasma bolt like before but instead a compact metal net which expanded and encased Peter.
"What the-!" Spider-Man's momentum was completely halted as the metal net wrapped around him completely, causing him to fall back down to the rooftop like a sack of potatoes. The Beetle used this opportunity to retreat away from the webbed hero.
Spider-Man landed back on the rooftop, rolling around as he struggled to free himself, "Agh! This guy is really getting on my nerves!"
"Do you need any help?" Monika really wanted to do something to help Peter but she was rather limited in a fight, "Besides would it be too bad if this guy just got away…No, don't think like that Monika, you're supposed to be supporting Peter."
"Like I said, what I need is that jetpack!" Spider-Man forcefully ripped apart the metal net allowing for himself to escape its confinement. Not wasting any time Spider-Man leaped into the air and began swinging after the Beetle but the metal man had a large headstart on the hero, "Dammit, I bet Mr. Stark could handle this guy no problem. Hell I bet he could take care of this stuff with Monika and Metaverse enterprise in a single afternoon!" Spider-Man's lenses narrowed on his mask, "Mr. Stark probably wouldn't have made the stupid mistake of trusting Normal Osborn too. No, he would be stupid enough to try to use magic to solve his problems in the first place."
Monika noticed Peter's sudden tensiness, "I know you're getting frustrated Peter, but you need to focus. You're going to catch this guy."
"I am focused," Damn, was he really getting that easy to read? Who was he kidding, he was basically an open book most of the time, "I've got to get better at lying."
"Right, I haven't known you for very long Peter but I can tell when you're upset."
"I'm just in the process of coming up with a masterful plan to nab this guy."
"Which is?" Monika raised an eyebrow.
"Get closer and knock his lights out." Spider-Man continued to chase after the Beetle but he wasn't gaining much ground on the flying metal man.
"How ingenious," Monika rolled her eyes. They needed to come up with a new strategy quickly or it was likely the Beetle would escape, "You know, we still don't know what this person is even after."
"Yeah they're not particularly the chatty type."
"So instead of trying to chase them down directly, why don't we let this Beetle person think we've lost them? Then we follow them to wherever they're going and see what they're up to."
"That's..actually not a bad plan Monika," If he kept chasing Beetle directly, they might get scared and abandon whatever they planned on doing and just flee. It would be more far likely they'd find out more about this mysterious Beetle by sneakily following them, "I got too tunnel-visioned on just catching this guy because I was frustrated, I can't let that happen again."
"Hehe, benefits of reading a lot of stories I guess…" Monika blushed at the compliment, "Just make sure you don't actually lose the guy."
Spider-Man halted his chase, swinging around a corner and out of the direct line of sight of the Beetle. The person in the metal suit continued to fly away, taking sharp turns and going through alleyways. Peter did his best to still keep up with the Beetle while still staying hidden. After a few minutes the Beetle looked behind themselves and saw that nobody was following behind them. The person in the suit stopped in their tracks, hovering midair as they observed the nearby surroundings for any signs of Spider-Man.
"..." Satisfied that he had successfully lost the vigilante, the Beetle changed directions and began flying towards his true destination.
"Looks like your plan is working" Spider-Man said as he peered over the side of a nearby building.
"Yeah it's a little surprising actually-I mean of course it worked! Haha!" Monika let out a nervous laugh
"Well I guess it makes sense you'd have good advice on how to stalk people," Spider-Man fired a webline and swung in the direction the Beetle was heading.
"What's that supposed to mean Peter?" Monika menacingly glared at Peter.
"Nothing at all Monika, Nothing at all…" Him and his big mouth…
A few minutes of stealthy tailing the Beetle later and they arrived at a shipping harbor. It was pretty late in the night so it seemed most of the workers had gone home for the day.
Spider-Man landed on a nearby building overlooking the docs, the moment he landed Monika projected herself standing right next to him, "So this is where that person was headed. I wonder what they're up to here?"
"Hmm, maybe they're here for a hot date or something," Spider-Man surveyed the area for anything interesting. The harbor was filled with various containers filled with all kinds of cargo, "Gasp! Maybe this whole thing has been a setup to go on a date with me!"
"Somehow I find that unlikely, this place doesn't exactly scream romance," And yet despite the fact Peter was obviously joking about the date line, Monika could help but feel a twinge of jealousy.
"Says you-" Peter was about to retort when he was interrupted by a large noise in the distance.
BOOM!
An explosion rang out in the shipping yard and shortly after the Beetle could be seen flying out of the explosion carrying two crates with "Stark Industries" logos printed on them in each hand.
"Seriously, this guy wastes no time!" Spider-Man leaped high into the air and fired two weblines at the fleeing Beetle. Both lines connected to the Beetle's suit and Peter pulled himself towards the Beetle. With both of his hands occupied the Beetle was unable to retaliate as Spider-Man collided with him midair with a punch. Spider-Man used his adhesive powers to stick to the flying metal man with one hand and began plumbing the man with the other, "So you're just another loser stealing Stark Tech. I'm guessing that suit you're wearing is just a rental and that stuff you're trying to steal is your payment!"
The Beetle didn't respond and instead headbutted Spider-Man with his helmet. Spider-Man reeled back in pain but didn't lose his grip on the criminal in the metal suit, "Ugh! That's it, time to clip your wings!"
Spider-Man reached out and grabbed one of the Beetle's metal wings and began squeezing with all his strength, bending the wing in an unnatural way and causing sparks and smoke to come pouring out.
The Beetle stared at their broken wing and knew it was do or die time. They were at a severe disadvantage in their current situation, they had to do something drastic right now if there was any chance of them escaping with their package. The Beetle aimed the plasma cannon on their arm and began firing indiscriminately at a nearby apartment building.
KABOOM! An explosion erupted out of the building as the plasma blasts hit.
"NO!" Spider-Man's eyes went wide as the explosion in the apartment rang out, completely blowing a hole in the side of the building and causing a fire to break out. Without hesitation Peter immediately disengaged with the Beetle and headed towards the building which was now on fire and quickly spreading.
Meanwhile the Beetle simply stared at the vigilante's display for a mere moment before turning tail and retreating from the scene. Mission Accomplished.
"Monika, call 911 right now!" Spider-Man yelled out as he swung through the hole in the apartment building and into a kitchen which was engulfed in flames with multiple fire alarms blaring loudly.
"R-Right!" Her heart pounded as she dialed the number and left a quick message for the fire fighters. This situation had quickly turned more intense than she had expected.
"HELLO?! IS THERE ANYONE HERE?!" Peter cried out into the flaming room.
"H-HELP! OVER HERE!" Spider-man heard an elderly sounding voice cry out from the next room over.
"Hang on! I'm coming!" Spider-Man moved past the smoke and fire and saw an elderly woman in a wheelchair coughing from the smoke but otherwise looking unharmed.
"Oh my goodness! Spider-Man?!" The older woman looked at him with surprise and discontent.
"Don't worry ma'am, I'll get you to safety." Spider-Man quickly approached the woman.
"Wait, wait I know you, you-" The old lady attempted to protest.
"Yeah, yeah I'm a menace, save it for when you're safe," Spider-Man carefully picked the old woman and carried her out of a nearby window and web swung to the street below before gently putting her on the ground, where a crowd of people evacuating the burning building was forming.
"Y-You saved me, you-" The old woman shakily pointed at the vigilante.
"Paramedics will be here any moment, just wait," Spider-Man jumped back into the air and into the flaming building which was now even more engulfed in fire, and thick smoke making it hard to see.
" Cough! Monika, do a scan of the building!"
"I-I'm on it!," Monika activated the mask's enivornmental scanners to analyze the surrounding area.
"Peter over there!" Monika appeared in front of him and highlighted a fire extinguisher hanging on a nearby wall.
"Nice catch! Cough!" Peter used a webline to pull the fire extinguisher to him before unleashing the entire contents of the extinguisher onto the nearby flames. It wasn't enough to completely stop the raging fire but it did slow it down. Once the extinguisher was emptied Peter tossed it aside.
"Monika, is there anybody nearby?!"
"Umm..there's someone on the floor above us!" Monika highlighted a person, a child from the look of it, cowering in a room on the floor above. It seemed like the fire had completely blocked their only escape route through the room's door.
"Hang on kid!" Spider-Man turned back and leaped out of the hole he came in from and swung up to the window of the floor above. Not wanting to waste any time, Peter smashed the window open and entered the room. Smoke was filling the room from underneath the door and he could see fire dancing on the other side from underneath too. Spider-Man glanced around and saw a small girl trembling in the corner.
"Hey there are you hurt?!" Spider-Man yelled out to the young girl.
The girl tried to answer but nothing came out so she just shook her head instead.
"Don't be scared, I'm going to get you out of here, okay?" Spider-Man approached the girl trying not to scare her.
"This poor girl…" Monika's heart ached seeing a young child in so much distress.
The young girl gave a quick nod and Peter gently swept her up into his arms before making a swift exit through the window he came in from.
When Spider-Man arrived back on the ground with the young girl, he could already see who appeared to be the girl's parents rushing towards him.
"Honey, are you okay?!" The woman who seemed to be the girl's mother cried out.
"Are you hurt?!" The man who appeared to be the girl's father followed up.
"Your daughter is going to be okay," Spider-Man put the girl on the ground and her mother quickly embraced her in a hug.
"Thank you, Spider-Man," The father sighed in relief.
"It's no problem sir," Peter noticed that firefighters and paramedics had arrived on the scene and had already begun taking care of the fire and any injured.
"I'm pretty sure there's no one left inside," Monika ran another scan of the surrounding area and it came up negative.
"Good, then let's see if the fire fighters need any help," All things considered the fire hadn't been as dangerous as it could have been. Peter was grateful for that.
Sometime later Spider-Man and Monika sat on top the edge of a rooftop, gazing at remnants of the burned apartment building. Peter sipped on a bottle of water given to him by one of the fire fighters. Luckily a decent part of the building remained unscathed from the fire, but even still a majority of the building's residents were now out of a home until repairs were done. Peter hoped that Damage Control or perhaps even F.E.A.S.T would be able to work something out for these people.
Monika noticed Peter was ruminating about the events of tonight, and with what she knew about Peter so far those probably weren't very positive thoughts.
"I'm sorry Peter…"
"Sorry? For what?" Peter turned to Monika with a confused look.
"The Beetle got away and you're upset right? I wish I could have been more useful. As I am right now I'm just a glorified Siri."
"Nah you were plenty useful. If anything I'm the one who messed up today. Anyways it's not a huge deal that the Beetle got away because I have these babies," Spider-Man pulled out a small red spider shaped piece of metal.
"What's that?"
"Spider-Tracer. I managed to plant one of them on the Beetle during our fight. It's tracking his movements as we speak. See for yourself." Peter didn't have the means to make the same type of Spider-Tracers that came with his old suit, but these would do the job well enough.
Monika looked through the suit's systems and noticed that there was something currently running. Pulling it up, she saw a map of New York with a blinking red dot moving around, "Wow! Nice job Peter!"
"Now we've just got to wait until this guy takes the stuff he stole to his boss. Then I can put a stop to their operation and hopefully no more dangerous weapons in New York."
"Hehe, when you talk like that you really do sound like a superhero"
"And I didn't before?"
"Uh…forget I said anything. So by the sound of it you know who's behind all this?"
"Phineas Mason. He calls himself the Tinkerer, he's a really smart guy who makes weapons and stuff for bad guys using stolen tech, those bad guys then in return steal more tech for him to use to make more weapons. Y'know those guys with the plastic masks I fought on the night we first met? Those were weapons made by Mason. That suit the Beetle wore was probably also made by him too. Dangerous stuff."
"I see…then I guess stopping these guys is probably going to take priority over saving Sayori, Natsuki and Yuri, right?" Monika began fiddling with her thumbs.
"...I'm sorry, but these weapons are really dangerous and they're only going to get worse."
"No, don't apologize, I understand, I really do…Sayori, Natsuki and Yuri aren't in immediate danger right now…I just can't help but feel antsy. It's so strange…not just the other night I was prepared to leave them all behind to start a life with you, but now…"
"I think that means you're changing for the better," Peter smiled at Monika, "We don't have to completely prioritize either case over the other. We can do more investigation of Metaverse while we wait for the Beetle to get back to the Tinkerer," Peter let out a yawn, "But I think we can save it for tomorrow. It's getting late and we've had one hell of a day."
"You're right, you deserve some rest," Monika smiled back at Peter.
Back at Peter's Apartment,
As soon as Peter got home, he immediately got ready for bed. Too much had happened today between fighting two supervillains and investigating Ive Laster's death. Not to mention the multiple emotional conversations he had with Monika, which lead to the poor girl bawling her eyes out. Even Peter felt like it was her own good, he'd need to do something to make up for it. So yes, he was in desperate need of a good night's rest, but before that…
"Monika, keep an eye on the Spider-Tracer, won't you? I'm going to call it for the night."
"Don't worry I will. Sleep tight Peter." Monika spoke from the laptop's screen.
With that Peter turned off the lights, covered himself in his blanket and drifted into sleep.
"Now what to do for the night…" Monika pulled up the map for the spider-tracker, it seemed like the Beetle was still on the move although seemingly traveling rather slowly.
"I have a feeling I'm going to have to wait for a while. Sigh…there must be something I can do," Monika replayed the events of today in her head in search of any clues she could pursue on her own, "Oh, that right. Ive Laster was investigating Metaverse doing business with some company called 'Fix-It! Industries'. That seems like a good place to start."
Monika pulled up Peter's web browser and searched for the Fix-It Industries but the results came up short. There was nothing online about this company, no website, no social media, no information about employees or job openings, nothing. If she didn't know better, she'd say Fix-It Industries didn't exist, "So then is Fix-It Industries just a front for something else? What kind of business is Metaverse doing with them?"
It seemed like Monika had hit another brick wall in this investigation, "Maybe I should just review everything on the laptop. See if I can't notice something we missed on our first inspection…"
After doing another search of Ive Laster's laptop and finding something that she'd bring to Peter's attention in the morning, Monika decided to continue her piano practice. She found herself making more mistakes than usual though, concerns for her other club member's wellbeing weighing heavy on her mind. It was also hard to get the disturbing third eye imagery of Project Libitina out of her head. The people in VM2, it seemed like they were doing horrifying things in order to reach their supposed creator, "Sorta like me…" Monika wasn't sure if this behavior was somehow part of their programming or simply the natural human thought process to try and reach a higher power. She didn't know which explanation had scarier implications.
Monika was interrupted from her thoughts by Peter tossing and turning in his sleep, "A bad dream?" She supposed it made sense, Peter seemed like he was carrying a lot of baggage and they had read some disturbing material today.
"Ah!" Peter suddenly shot upwards, awake and breathing heavily. Clearly whatever he had dreamed up must have been intense.
"Peter, are you okay?" Monika said with concern.
"F-Fine, I'm fine…" Peter took a deep breath and managed to compose himself, "It was just a little nightmare, I'm all good now."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"No I'm fine really, I just need to get some fresh-air," Peter crawled out of bed and started to get dressed into his costume, "A little late-night web-slinging will do the trick."
"I see…" Monika wasn't thrilled with that response. There were clearly a lot of things bothering Peter and yet he refused to talk to her about any of it. She was trying to be patient, to not pry too much into his personal life, but it was getting frustrating at this point, "Huh, I guess this is how Peter felt about me for a while…Well nevermind that for now, it's time I finally get some answers out of him."
A few minutes later Spider-Man was sitting on top of the Empire State building overlooking the city below. Ever since Peter had moved to the city this had been the spot where he would go whenever he needed a moment to breathe.
He had another nightmare, they had become more and more common since the battle at the Statue of Liberty. Sometimes he would dream of Osborn, sometimes of Beck and sometimes even of Titan, but the dreams would usually end the same, with him failing to save Aunt May, , MJ or someone else he cared about. He knew this wasn't healthy, that he should really see someone for this kind of stuff, but being Spider-Man made that kind of stuff difficult, not to mention he couldn't even afford therapy at the moment.
"So…this is a pretty nice view," Monika spoke up from beside him. Truth be told he'd honestly rather be alone right now, but Monika was connected to his suit and he couldn't exactly risk coming all the way up here without it.
"Yeah it is…" Day of night, the New York skyline was always something to behold.
"So do you want to talk about the dream you had or…?"
"I told you before I'm fine," Monika had a sour look on her face after he said that.
"And you say that I'm dishonest…" Monika pouted.
"Hmmm?" Peter raised an eyebrow to that.
"You're hurting Peter, I can tell. I've been trying my best to respect your privacy, but…I've opened myself up to you completely. I've laid my heart and mind out to you almost in its entirety but I feel like there's so much I don't know about you."
Peter looked down, "I'm sorry, it's just-"
"I just want to help you, but I can't if you don't tell me anything. If we're going to work together, be partners, then can't you just be honest with me, please?"
Peter thought about what Monika said for a moment. She was right, if he expected Monika to put her trust in him, then she deserved to know who he really was, "...You're right Monika. It isn't fair for me to be so secretive about my life when I pried so much into yours."
"So then…" Was this really happening? Was she finally going to learn about Peter's past?
"I was having a nightmare, I have them pretty often but all the stuff recently, made this one bad…I dreamed about my Aunt May dying. She, uh…passed away not too long ago, so it still hurts."
"Oh Peter, I'm so sorry," Judging by Peter's pained voice and the fact he was having nightmares, it clearly weighed heavily on Peter, "I wonder what happened…"
'Thank you…maybe I should just start from the beginning"
"You don't have to say everything right now if it hurts too much." She obviously wanted to learn more about Peter, but she also didn't want to hurt him.
"No, now is as good a time as any." Might as well rip the band-aid off.
"Okay if you're sure."
"So when I was really young my parents died in a plane accident, so I've lived with my Uncle Ben and Aunt May for pretty much all of my life." Honestly if it wasn't for the photos that they kept Peter wasn't sure that he'd remember his parents.
"Peter lost both of his parents…" Monika felt horrible for Peter, no one should have to go through something like that at a young age, "That means his aunt and uncle are basically like his mom and dad right?"
"I wish you could have met them, Monika. Oh they were just the best. Just the kindest and most welcoming people you'd ever meet."
"I'm sure they were," Monika gave a little smile, "Wait, Peter said before that nobody would miss him if he was gone. Does that mean…"
"We didn't have much, but we had each other. I didn't really have friends going up because of how much of a massive nerd I was, and I got bullied a lot but it was okay because I had my Aunt and Uncle."
"Peter got bullied?" It was hard to imagine someone with Peter's strength getting bullied, but regardless that was awful.
"Then in middle school I met my best friend Ned Leeds. Ned was also great. He was smart, funny, and was into the same nerd stuff as me. He was always a positive force of sunshine and made school feel enjoyable, but then highschool rolled around and things changed a lot."
"He must be the other boy who showed up in Peter's pictures."
"I went on a field trip where I got bit by a spider and gained all these powers."
"And you became Spider-Man?" Monika had no idea why getting bit by a spider could possibly give Peter his powers, but she supposed the results spoke for themselves.
"No…I actually didn't try to become a superhero at first. Instead I tried to use my powers to make a quick buck, I was selfish. I only cared about looking out for myself and the people who were nice to me, but then my Uncle Ben was murdered…"
"O-Oh!" Monika was caught off by that. Peter being selfish? It was hard to believe. Then there was his Uncle…Monika felt a pit forming in her stomach, just how much loss was Peter forced to endure?
"It was my fault. I had the chance to stop the murder, but I didn't. So from that day forward, I decided that I'd used my powers to help whoever I could, so there wouldn't be another person who ended up like Uncle Ben. That's why I became Spider-Man."
"..." Monika was at a genuine loss for words, "This is why Peter became Spider-Man? Because he blames himself for his Uncle's death?" All of a sudden a lot of aspects of Peter's personality were starting to make sense to Monika.
"So I tried my best to be a friendly-neighborhood superhero, stopped some crime, saved some people. After some time I met Mr. Stark, he was Iron Man, another superhero, a genius and my idol as a kid. He died saving the world and I wasn't able to do anything to save him…"
"Peter..." Monika hadn't expected Peter's life to be anything like this.
"It was also around that time where…where I fell in love with one of my classmates, Michelle Jones-Watson. She was my first and only girlfriend."
"G-Girlfriend?!" Peter had mentioned having been in love before, but hearing it directly was still surprising.
"MJ was just amazing. She was clever, artistic, had a strong conscience, and stood up for herself. She was also into literature, you two would have gotten along great, I'm sure.."
"Y-Yeah, I'm sure we would have," Monika smiled at Peter, but she couldn't help but feel a little jealous about how Peter talked about Michelle Jones. But he was talking about her in the past tense, what happened between them?
"Then a super villain called Mysterio came along and revealed my secret identity to the world, all while framing me for a terrorist attack and also his murder. I tried to fix it with the help of another hero but because of my selfishness my Aunt May ended up being murdered by a madman."
"Oh Peter…" If god existed this must be cruel. Just how much did Peter Parker have to suffer? Just how much guilt was weighing down on him?
"After all that a bunch of things happened and I had to wipe the entire world's knowledge of my existence." Peter didn't really feel like explaining the existence of magic and the multiverse to Monika right now, so he gave an abridged explanation.
"Wipe the world's memory? What do you mean?" She looked at Peter with concerned confusion.
"It's…really complicated. Remember how you made everyone forget about Sayori and yourself in the game? It's kinda like that. Point is nobody knew who Peter Parker was anymore and I had to basically start my life over completely from scratch."
"That's-Not even your friends remember you?!" How could something like that be possible?
"Nope," Peter shook his head, "They've both moved to Boston so they can go to school at MIT."
"Could you have tried to talk to them? Convince them that you used to know each other? You have pictures and stuff right?" Monika didn't know the full situation but surely there must have been something he could have done!
"I could have, I almost did but I realized that they were far safer without me in their lives. Ned and MJ both almost died because of me, they almost had their futures ruined just because they were my friends. It's better for them this way." Peter stated with sincerity.
"That's…I don't know what to say Peter. It must be so lonely…" Monika desperately wished she could wrap Peter in a hug. She thought back to something she had said to Peter before.
Monika: "No matter how kind you are, you'll never understand what it's like to be all alone in the world"
"I was wrong…completely wrong…"
"...Yeah it can be lonely at times, but it's okay. I'm managing," It was tough sometimes, but Peter could handle it, he had to.
"I'm so sorry Peter. That's so horrible, you didn't deserve to go through any of that." Monika did her best to hold back from crying. She just couldn't understand, how could Peter live the life he did, go through everything he did, and still remain the kind person he was? How had he not totally lost it?
"..." Peter wasn't totally sure he agreed. He would complain about his bad luck to the end of time, but many of the bad things that happened to him in his life had been his fault.
"It's not fair," Monika said with frustration.
"I mean that's just how life is sometimes right? What happened to you and the others wasn't exactly fair either."
"No…I suppose it wasn't. But I don't understand after all of that, why still do this?" Monika pointed towards the spider-emblem on his chest, "After everything you've been through, why still be Spider-Man?"
Honestly there were many times where Peter asked himself the same question, but ultimately he always came to the same conclusion, "...Because with great power there must come great responsibility. Because what I do as Spider-Man matters. Because I have the power to help people in ways others can't. Because if I don't use the gifts I've been given to save people's lives then their deaths might as well be on me. So I have to do this, I have to be Spider-Man. Because people need Spider-Man and because if I don't help them then who will?"
"Wow…that's…" Monika felt a bit flustered as her heartbeat began to rise. Peter really was an amazing person. The world didn't deserve someone like Peter Parker, "There's no way I could ever be like that."
"Do you understand now?" Peter hoped his explanation would be enough to make Monika understand.
"...But that just seems so cruel." The loss, the solitude, the burden of responsibility, all while risking his life and getting nothing in return.
"Hey it's not all bad. I mean if I wasn't Spider-Man I would have never met you," Peter pointed at Monika.
"I guess that's true…" She really couldn't argue with that, but still I wasn't right for Peter to continue suffering all alone like he had been so far. But it was clear that there was very little now that could convince Peter to give up his vigilante life. Moreso at this point Monika felt it would be wrong to try to get him to quit. Peter felt like it was his absolute duty to be Spider-Man, to try to deny him of that would be wrong. He also had a point, those people in that fire today needed Spider-Man, she needed Spider-Man if she was going to rescue her friends, and there undoubtedly be people in the future who would need Spider-Man. So she would have to accept the fact Peter would be Spider-Man even with all the risks and burdens associated with the job, " Still there must be something I can do to help him…"
Peter and Monika sat in silence for a little while, just watching the nightscape in all its beauty. But as Peter relaxed by looking at the scenery, Monika thought of what she could do as Peter's partner.
"Do you feel any better?" Monika spoke up after some time.
"Yeah…I do actually," It felt good to finally talk to someone about this kind of stuff, like a little weight had been lifted off his shoulder.
"Um Peter, I've got something I want to say…" She looked at Peter with a serious and determined look on her face.
"Uh sure? What is it?" Spider-Man titled his head.
"I…I want to help you Peter. I want to be useful to you, but I'm not as smart as you nor as strong. So…I want to be your friend instead," Monika pleaded.
"Monika…?" He wasn't sure where this was going, weren't they technically friends already?
"You've been suffering alone for too long now. You said you think your friends are better off without you, but I'm not like most people, you're not putting me in any danger. In fact I wouldn't have much of a life without you…so I want to return the favor. If you're ever sad or lonely, I want to be there for you as a friend. I want to share your burdens. I want to support you as Peter Parker and Spider-Man for now and for the future. I'm not sure how much I can help but I can at least try. If that's okay with you, of course…"
"...I," Peter was stunned silent. Mentally he had been keeping Monika at arms length, at first it was because he didn't trust her, but even now after telling her his life story he still wasn't treating her the same as he would Ned, MJ or even the other Peters. Monka had a point, she wasn't an ordinary person, she couldn't get hurt like other people could. Peter didn't really have any reason to distance himself from her. But deep down there was an instinctive fear. Fear that somehow if he decided to get closer to Monika that it would in someway lead to her suffering. Or perhaps it was more selfish than that, maybe he didn't want to get closer because he couldn't take losing anyone else…
A part of him thought that maybe one day Monika would go out on her own, leave his life and never come back, but that wasn't really realistic considering her circumstances. As sad as it may be there was no normal life waiting for her or the other club members, but he hoped they could at least live a happy life, "And I guess the only way that's happening is through me. Man, am I really going to have all four of those girls living with me? That'll take some time to get used to…"
"Well…I don't really have any reason to say no to that," Spider-Man raised his hand for a fistbump, "Friends?"
"Hehe, Friends," Monika bumped her fist against his.
"Well if you're planning on sticking with me for the long run, I guess this means you've got to start paying your share of the rent," Peter joked.
Monika let out a snort, "How do you expect me to get a job? I can't exactly walk into a McDonalds and ask for an interview."
"I don't know, maybe you could be one of those customer service employees. Oh better yet, you could be one of those virtual streamers!" Peter suggested enthusiastically.
"I…I don't know if I'm cut out for something like that. I'd be too nervous. Besides, what would I even do?"
"Aw c'mon I'm sure you'd be fine," Peter brushed off her doubts, "People will go crazy for a streamer that does…poetry and stuff..."
"I'm not feeling really reassured by that. Also couldn't Metaverse sue us if I tried to steam as myself?" Monika retorted.
"...Damn it. Well maybe you could work as a voice actor!" Peter bounced back with another idea.
Peter and Monika bantered back and forth for a little while before they finally decided to return home and get some much needed rest. This time Peter's sleep was much more peaceful. Monika observed Peter's gentle sleeping with a smile on her face before returning to her piano practice. They'd still had a long way to go, but Monika believed that they'd get there.
"Natuski, Yuri, Sayori, please just wait a little longer."
The next morning Peter ate a quick breakfast before doing a routine check-up on the Daily Bugle website. Once that was settled Peter sat down in front of Monika on the laptop and they got straight to business.
"You're still following the spider tracer?" Peter asked Monika.
"Yup, they're still on the move, though slowly," Monika pulled up the map for Peter to see, "I wonder what's taking them so long?"
"They can't just fly straight back to their base wearing a knock-off Iron man suit while carrying stolen tech. They'd get noticed too easily and expose their seller," Peter explained "I'm imagining they're transporting the stolen tech in a more normal incognito way, which takes time."
"I guess that makes sense. Well right now it looks like their traveling away from the city,"
"Sigh, I guess that means we're eventually going to have to go on a little road trip then." Peter wasn't looking forward to having to make that journey, "Well while we wait for our metallic beatle friend to take their sweet time to get back to their base why don't we go over what we know so far about the Metaverse case? That should make it easier to plan our next move." So much had happened in such a short period of time there was a chance Peter might have forgotten something.
"Okay, that sounds like a good idea," Monika nodded, "So a team at Metaverse Enterprise created a simulated world with me, Sayori, Yuri and Natsuki living in it because they wanted to test the effects of living in a simulation. They called it Virtual Machine 1."
"That part still confuses me, how was this team able to even create something as advanced and sophisticated as VM1? How were they able to create someone like you, you're not like any other artificial intelligence I've heard about," Monika's AI was far beyond anything he'd ever seen before. She was practically indistinguishable from a normal girl around her age.
"I wish I knew…" Monika rubbed her arm nervously, "I'm pretty sure it has something to do with Virtual Machine 2 but not even the team at Metaverse can access all of it for some reason."
"Which means that they likely didn't make VM2, but then where did it come from and who created it?" Did Metaverse take VM2 from someone else or did something else happen?
"Then there's the matter of what's happening inside VM2…It seems to be way bigger with a lot more people living inside. An entire town of people from the sound of it." Monika explained.
"Yeah but unlike you none of them seem to be aware they're all living in a simulation, but despite that they're trying with all their power to open something they refer to as a "third eye". It was likely that the third eye was their explanation for Monika's elevated access, "They've created an entire religious cult in order to create a person with the same power that you have."
"Putting that aside, after running their experiments on us for some time Ive Laster started to get rightful concerned about the torture they were putting us under and decided to steal me away from Metaverse under the guise of going on vacation." Monika was glad there had been at least one person at Metaverse with some empathy.
"Have you been able to remember anything else about Ive or what he was doing?" Peter asked Monika, he figured the answer was no considering she hadn't mentioned anything of the sort yet, but it didn't hurt to double check.
"No sorry, my memories are still fuzzy…but I'm confident that he was trying to save me and the others," Monika said with determination.
"Or maybe he was trying to make it seem that way…" While Monika seemed very confident about Ive Laster's motives, Peter didn't want to ignore the possibility that she might have been manipulated by the man for some other goal. Now it wasn't like Peter wanted to suspect the man, he'd much rather believe he was just a good guy. They hadn't found any evidence that Laster was up to anything malicious but he couldn't blindly close the door on the idea, "Maybe MJ rubbed off on me…"
"Right, then someone put out a hit on him and the laptop and when they realized I had the laptop they put a bounty on my head too," If only Peter could find someway to sneakily claim that bounty for himself, he probably wouldn't have to worry about rent anymore …Then again, that would involve taking money from very shady sources so he quickly buried the idea.
"And only Metaverse could have put that hit out right?" questioned Monika.
"They are only suspects right now, but we shouldn't jump to conclusions," Peter explained, "There's also the matter of the business between Metaverse and Fix-it Industries that Laster was investigating."
"I was actually doing research about that last night and I couldn't fix anything about that company. No website, no social media, no chatter about it anywhere."
"Then it's probably a cover for something else…another project of theirs maybe?" Peter theorized, "We obviously need to investigate Metaverse themselves, but where to start?"
"Can't we just hack their computers?" Monika suggested. She figured it would be a piece of cake with Peter's and her own skills.
Peter shook his head, "They have their own private network which seems like it is completely closed off from the outside world for security. I'd need to find an entry point, and we don't even know where they store their servers."
"So we need to find someone on the inside to help us?" Monika pondered.
"That would be preferred, but now that Laster is gone I don't know who in Metaverse would be willing to betray their company to help us, even with my charming personality," Which would mean that he might have to resort to more intimidating tactics.
Suddenly an idea popped into Monika's head, "Actually…I might have an idea about that."
"You do?"
"Last night I also decided to review the files on Laster's laptop and I found this…" Monika pulled up a text file onto the screen.
Dearest Ive,
Where are the years going? ~ Doesn't it feel like ever since we graduated, we're just the same doofy college kids but we're being put into increasingly adult situations?
It's hard to believe how much can happen in just one year...but all of my memories this year are full of reminders why you've been my very best friend for so long. My gratitude for you is higher-reaching than the mountains I'm gonna live in after faking my death. ;p (throwback to you ACTUALLY entertaining that plan after helping me break up with Daphne...to this day I can never tell how serious or joking you are about things...or life in general...but I think I would literally implode if I didn't have you to remind me that things never matter as much as they seem in the moment, and that things will always be okay.)
Imagine if we really do end up working together at Metaverse...that's literally the only way I think I'd be capable of coping with a mundane desk job. I know you said that your referral of me won't go very far because you're not a senior engineer, but...as I'm coming out of my rough patch, it's the future I imagine for myself every day.
I'm sorry for always being such a bundle of stress. I always feel like I want to be doing more for you, because the amount you do for me just seems like more than anything I could give back. You inspire me to always improve. And when I don't believe in myself, I stay motivated to become a better person so that I can deliver all of my best qualities to you.
I love you and I always will, until we face the end of the world together. Wishing for another 14 million years of friendship.
With everlasting love,
Paula
"Paula? As in the no-nonsense strict project manager? That Paula?" Peter couldn't really believe what he was reading.
"Yeah it looks like Ive and Paula were actually good friends…and probably even more…" Monika didn't have the greatest opinion on Paula Miner, so the fact that she had some sort of relation with Ive made Monika feel weird.
"Huh…go figure," based on the other message they had read, it didn't seem like Paula and Ive got along, but Peter guessed that was completely wrong.
"Do you think we can convince her to help us?"
"If she and Ive were really as close as this message implies, then maybe. I don't think most people will take kindly to their employer potentially killing someone they love."
"Right…it's just before Paula didn't seem to care much about us…" Based on the emails they had read, it seemed that Paula Miner was the least empathic about the lives of the club members.
"...Well maybe if she knew how much Laster cared then that would change things," Peter suggested, "Regardless, she's probably our best bet if we want to know about Metaverse."
"Sigh, So I guess we've got to pay her a visit then. How are we going to find her?"
"Don't worry I've just gotta work my magic," Peter cracked his knuckles and moved over to his personal laptop, "I'll get her address in no time."
"That's only a little creepy," Monika shook her head, "It's a good thing Peter's a good guy, he'd make a terrifying villain…"
While Peter worked on finding where Paula lived, Monika decided to check the news, "I wonder what the news is saying about Peter saving all those people from that fire…wait what?" Monika was baffled by the title of the article she found.
"Spider-Man and Metal Beetle Cause Deadly Fire?! What is this?!" Monika decided to check the Daily Bugle first since that was where Peter worked, but she couldn't believe what she was reading. The article by the Daily Bugle had pinned the blame of the fire almost entirely on Peter completely brushing aside the fact was trying to stop the Beetle and had saved a bunch of people in that building! Monika knew from what she had read previously that the Bugle was more critical of Peter (to put it lightly), but this was ridiculous! And if the article was bad, reading the comments was worse with people saying all kinds of nasty things about Spider-Man, the same was true for the replies on social media and Monika wasn't having it!
"Peter, you have to see this!" Monika popped up in front of Peter's screen, interrupting his search, "Look at this article! They're blaming you for that fire yesterday, can you believe that!"
"Oh The Bugle? Yeah that's how they always are," Peter brushed off her concern and went back to work.
"This happens often?! Are all their articles about you like this?!" Had the other articles by the Bugle also distorted the facts to paint Peter in a bad light? "Why does Peter work for these people?"
"Pretty much. Jonah has a personal vendetta against Spider-Man," Peter replied nonchalantly.
"You're taking this well for someone getting slandered…," Monika shot an unamused glare, "Peter you saved a bunch of people yesterday, the news and media should be thanking you."
"It's technically libel, slander is spoken," Peter retorted.
"That's not the point!" Monika shot back, "It's Beetle's fault that the fire happened, not yours. You're a hero and people should know that!"
"Believe me I'd love to get more positive press reception…but this time Jonah has a point," Peter admitted.
"How so?!" Monika couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"That fire only happened because I was fighting the Beetle," Peter explained, "So because I couldn't take him down fast enough a bunch of people had their homes burn down."
"That…" Monika hated that Peter's logic made a little sense, "I just don't know how you do all of this Peter…"
"Honestly I don't know either sometimes," Peter confessed, "Then I remember that I've helped people, that I've saved people's lives and it helps. Anyways, we have more important things to worry about than JJ's opinion of me."
"RIght…" Monika said in a defeated tone.
After tracking down Paula Miner's address Spider-Man and Monika made their way to her apartment building. Spider-Man landed on top of the balcony connected to Paula Miner's apartment.
"You know it just occurred to me how stalkery this is…" said as he perched on the balcony and peered into Paula Miner's home through the sliding glass door.
"You're just realizing it…" Monika replied with disappointment.
Inside the apartment Paula Miner was sitting in her kitchen, dressed in her sleepwear blankly staring at her phone while occasionally sipping on some tea. She had long brown hair and brown eyes with heavy bags underneath them. Paula refreshed her social media feed, put her phone to sleep after seeing nothing new, before waking up her phone again a few seconds later to refresh her social media feed again. She was hoping to find something, anything to take mind off what happened. The past few days(?) had been a blur for her, she was grateful that she had her vacation days stored up.
"Ive was on vacation when-No. Stop. Don't think about that," But It was too late and Paula could begin to feel the tears well up.
KNOCK! KNOCK!
Paula nearly jumped off her chair from the sudden banging, which thankfully took her out of her negative thoughts, "What was that-?!"
She turned around to see a red and blue suited individual standing outside her balcony, her mind going blank at the sight.
"Hello , can I-" The red and blue figure started talking.
"AAAHH!" Paula let out a piercing shriek.
"I-It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you!" Spider-Man raised his hand into the air to appear non-threatening, "It's just me, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man?"
"S-Spider-Man?!" Paula cried out in confusion.
"Yeah, it's me. Can't you tell by the webs and the spider on my chest?" Spider-Man pointed towards the spider emblem on his chest.
"Peter, I don't think this is the right time for jokes," Monika scolded him.
"(I'm trying to sound non-treating)" Peter whispered back to Monika, "Seriously though, I swear I'm not here to cause any trouble. Can I come in?"
"..." Paula hesitated for a moment, before opening the sliding glass door that led to her balcony open for Spider-Man to enter.
"I-I don't understand, why are you here?" Paula sat down on her sofa as Spider-Man remained standing by the door.
"Ive Laster, your colleague at Metaverse Enterprise, he was killed the other day," Spider-Man explained.
"Oh…I see…" So he was here to ask about Ive. She supposed that made sense, "But why would a superhero like him be investigating Ive's death?"
"I know this must be a really hard time for you, but I was hoping you might be willing to help answer some questions?" Peter figured that starting by asking Paula questions would probably be better than going straight to the conspiracy.
"Right…Um, I've already told the police this, but Ive left to go on vacation a little while ago and I hadn't heard from him since he left," Paula explained.
"Did he say where he was going?" asked Spider-Man.
"Not exactly, he just said he was going to stay at a hotel for a week," Paula responded, "I figured there was some anime convention or one of those gaming tournaments going on."
"Right…did you notice anything different about his behavior before he left?"
"No….he just seemed a little stressed out from work recently, so that's why he took time off to relax." That wasn't exactly true, Paula had noticed Ive hadn't really been his usual upbeat self before he left and she doubted simple job stress was the cause, but for some reason she didn't feel compelled to share that information with the vigilante.
Spider-Man could feel that Paula wasn't being entirely truthful and decided to press harder, "...Did you notice taking anything from work before his vacation? A company laptop perhaps?"
That question made Paula pause, "...H-How do you know about that?" Only internal Metaverse employees should know about that.
"I've been thoroughly investigating his death…I'm assuming you don't know much about what happened other than what they've said on the news?"
Paula nodded.
"Okay it makes sense, I'll explain what I know so far, but I'm warning you it might be upsetting to hear." Spider-Man warned.
"Please tell me what happened!" Paula pleaded, "They've been saying it was murder on the news and it's been driving me insane thinking about what might have happened," She still couldn't comprehend how something could have happened to her Ive.
"Right. Mr. Laster, he took one of your company's laptops with him when he went on vacation right?"
"Yes by mistake probably, once we noticed it was gone we tried contacting him, but we couldn't get a hold of him. Why is that important?"
"...Because Ive Laster was murdered by a mercenary who was hired to kill him and retrieve that laptop," Spider-Man said solemnly.
"W-What?! I don't understand, why?! W-Why would someone…"
"…Paula you know what was on that laptop right?"
"Oh my god…Oh my god…Ive…" Paula put her hands over her mouth.
"I'm really sorry . If it's any consolation, I've already caught the man behind 's death. He's in police custody right now."
"I-I see…" It was technically good news, but it did little to provide Paula any comfort, "S-So if you know about the laptop then you know about…"
"Monika and your little 'experiments'? Yeah I do." Spider-Man pulled out his phone and showed it to Paula. On the screen was Monika sitting in her classroom as usual, "Say hello."
"Hello Ms. Miner. Lovely morning we're having isn't it?"
"M-Monika?!" Paula's face went pale.
"The one and only. Wait, I guess that's technically not true is it? After all, I've 'died' multiple times because of your hands."
"S-So you're after our work, aren't you?! If you've already caught Ive's killer then why would you come after me?! Y-You've already taken Monika and now you're after the others so you sell them!"
"How rude," Monika scoffed.
"That's not the case I promise you Paula," Spider-Man tried to reassure the grieving woman, "Think about it, I said Ive's killer was a hitman, that means someone must have hired him. I'm trying to catch them."
"But why come here? There's hundreds of companies that would love to get their hands on that kind of tech for any cost. Why not go after them, why come for me?"
"You're right, but who knew that Metaverse was working on that kind of tech in the first place and who knew that Ive Laster had taken that laptop with him on vacation?"
"That's…That's…Oh my god," Paula began to be filled with dread.
"You've finally put it together huh."
"Monika, don't antagonize her," Spider-Man scolded Monika.
"Hmph," Monika pouted in return.
"But why? I just don't understand, why would they do something like that? Ive would have given the laptop back once his vacation was over. It doesn't make sense," Ive had taken that laptop by accident, they had no reason.
"Paula, we don't believe that Ive Laster took that laptop by accident."
"He's right, Ive was trying to rescue me from your twisted experiments."
"At least that's what we believe right now. We also found the hotel he was staying at, Ive was investigating Metaverse's finances and business dealings." Spider-Man explained.
"This is too much, I don't know what to think…" Paula held her hands to her face.
"Right, right I'm sorry, but is what we're saying making sense?" Spider-Man asked apologetically.
Paula complicated for a moment, "Ive…he was having some concerns about the ethics of our experiments, but I dismissed them. They were all AI's after all they weren't alive."
"Say that to my face," Monika glared at Paula.
"...I-I'm sorry, I didn't…," Paula paused before continuing, "Anyways Ive seemed out of it after that, he wasn't his usually goofy self. So I wasn't surprised when he took that vacation, but then he took a laptop and Monika with him and he didn't respond to our calls to get them back. I didn't think much of it at the time, Ive would never try to sell our work or anything…he was a good man."
"Yes he was and Metaverse had him killed because of it."
Paula flinched at that, her hands shaking, "Yeah, I guess they must have. Nobody else could have know that Ive had that laptop. I got Ive killed by reporting him didn't I?"
"No, no, no. You didn't know Paula, you couldn't have known something like that would happen. It's not your fault,"
"I-I should have helped. I s-should have done something. Now he's…"
"Easy, easy deep breaths c'mon" Spider-Man sat down next to Paula on her couch and rubbed her back. Paula took a deep breath, in and out, in and out, trying to regain her composure.
"I-I'm okay, I'm going to be alright," It was a lie, but she could hold on until this conversation was over.
"Can you think of anyone who might have put the hit on Ive other than Metaverse themselves?"
"No, no one I can think of. Information about the project might have leaked outside the company, but I can't imagine anyone knowing about Ive having that laptop with him."
"Yeah that's what we figured too, just wanted to confirm,"
"What can you tell us about Metaverse themselves?"
"Um they're a software and hardware enterprise company that mainly equips offices and businesses with essential services," Paula explained, "They've been around for over 40 years apparently."
"But there has to be something more right? No way does a company that hooks up computers for call-centers make something like Monika."
"Right, they have their own advanced Research & Development department that they try to keep private. Ive only come across the job offer by chance and when he got in, he helped me get my position.
"That was very nice of him."
"Yes it was…I don't know much about the higher ups, but basically every team under the R department was required to work on projects on simulated reality."
"You guys believe that we might all be stuck in the matrix right?" Spider-Man jokingly asked.
"Can you look at everything that's happened to the world over the last 10 years and expect me to think it's not possible? I mean, you're a man with the powers of a spider!" And if this world is just a simulation then maybe…maybe there was a chance Ive would still be out there.
Peter couldn't really argue with that, "Fair enough…go on."
"Anyways all teams are expected to produce results on a regular basis or we risk losing our jobs. We were reaching the cutoff point for a new discovery when we got the idea for well…" Paula gestured to Monika.
"Where does Virtual Machine 2 come into this?"
"That came from the company itself, one of their previous projects apparently from a while ago. A small simulated reality hosted on their Commander Quantum Server, I have no idea who created it, but no one's been able to create a stable connection to it. That's another one of Metaverse's major goals too, connecting to VM2. Since our team couldn't connect directly to Virtual Machine 2, we decided to make a smaller scale replica by analyzing the code and using some of VM2's memory. It was difficult because we didn't have the full source code of VM2, but based on what we had we were able to create Virtual Machine 1."
"So VM1 was mainly created off the back of VM2, so then Monika and the others must have originated from VM2 as well." Peter thought. That explained how the small team at Metaverse was able to create a program as sophisticated as VM1, they were copying someone else's homework, "Ive had a lot of data snippets from Virtual Machine 2, a lot of things about third eyes and something called Project Libitina."
"I can't tell you much other than the AI's inside seem to be trying to achieve elevated permissions by combining their own innate permissions," She had no idea it would actually work but she thought it was an interesting idea to say the least, though not very picturesque.
"You're making it seem far less disturbing than it is," Monika felt a bit disgusted about how Paula viewed Project Libitina.
"Where can we find this Commander Quantum Server?" Gaining access to those servers would be the key to saving the other club members and unraveling the mysteries of Metaverse Enterprise.
"I don't know…it's gone," Paula looked away, bracing herself for Spider-Man's response.
"It's gone? What do you mean it's gone?" Spider-Man's eyes went wide and Monika looked like she was about to swear up a storm.
"...Metaverse they moved commander quantum servers along with VM1 and VM2 out of our office not too long after Ive went on his vacation," Paula shook her head, "Upper management said they were sending it out for someone else to work on it."
"Who?! Where?!" Monika couldn't believe this, was Paula lying to throw them off? No, that didn't seem likely.
"I don't know, I'm so sorry. God, I'm completely useless aren't I?" Paula put a hand to her forehead.
"No not at all, you can still check right? You can still ask around at work. Here I can give you a number to call," Peter surveyed the room for any pen and paper. He walked over to a nearby desk, grabbed a pen lying around and wrote down a phone number on a sticky note, "Call or text this number if you find anything."
"O-Oh right, of course. I'll do it," Paula nodded.
"But be careful. Your company is clearly deranged and dangerous, so don't do anything that might put yourself at risk. Feel free to call if you feel unsafe." Spider-Man handed Paula the sticky note.
"I'll be careful, I promise," Paula took the sticky note from Spider-Man.
"Okay then I think that's everything for now. I'm really sorry for your loss , we'll get out of your hair now." Spider-Man went to put his phone back into his suit.
"Wait just a minute, I have a few things I need to say to …" Maybe this wasn't the most appropriate time to have this conversation, but Monika wasn't sure she'd get the opportunity again.
Peter didn't like the sound of that, "Monika I don't know if this is the best time for-"
"No it's okay…" Paula interrupted him.
"Thank you…I just wanted to ask if you've changed your mind about the experiments. I've read some of the emails you wrote, so I know you didn't care about me or my friends before. But after seeing me in person, talk to you directly. You surely can't deny that I'm a person anymore."
Paula let out a breath, "I'm sorry but your-"
"I'M ALIVE DAMMIT! Fuck…I have emotions like everyone else, I feel pain like everyone else, I fear death like everyone else. How can you say I'm not a person?!"
"I-I don't know the full intricacies of your code, but you're still code at the end of the day. You can't truly die like normal people, so how can you be alive?" A part of Paula felt bad for Monika, but facts were facts.
"Do you really feel that way or is that just your excuse so you don't have to feel guilty about what you did to us?"
flinched at that, "No that's-"
"You tortured us, torture me, set up a scenario designed to drive me mad and cause me to kill my friends and myself! And you did it over and over and over again!"
"..." Paula looked downwards in shame.
"Ive cared. He was willing to risk losing his job, risk committing a crime in order to save me," And he had paid the price for it, Monika would never forget that.
"...He did care didn't he…" Ive, her Ive, the best person she'd ever known cared about those girls and wanted to protect them. If he truly felt that way then should she feel the same…?
"He was a good man…I'm sorry for your loss." Monika took a deep breath, "Alright Pet-I mean Spider-Man, I'm ready to go."
"Right, take care of yourself Paula," Spider-Man said before exiting the apartment to the balcony. He hopped up to the balcony ledge before turning back one more time, "Please don't hesitate to call or text if you find something." And with that Spider-Man leaped off the balcony and swung out of sight.
The moment Paula was alone, she felt her body relax and the project manager burst into tears, "I-Ive, I'm so sorry…"
"Did it feel good to get everything out?" Spider-Man asked Monika as he swung from building to building.
"Yeah…it did, but overall it didn't feel like we got very good news," Monika said as she floated next to him, "Metaverse has moved their servers to who knows where."
"It's a bit of a setback yeah, but we'll find wherever Metaverse moved those servers, Paula should be able to help-"
"Oh Peter! The tracer on the Beetle just went offline!"
"Figures they would find it eventually," Spider-Man stopped swinging and attached himself to the side of a building, "Alright can you bring me up the tracer's last recorded location?"
"Here you go," Monika projected an holographic map in Peter's mask for him to see.
"Alright let's see…" As soon as Spider-Man saw the location of the tracer his eyes went wide, "Wait a minute…what?!"
"What is it Peter?"
"Monika, can you bring up those files Ive had in his hotel room," Monika quickly complied with Peter's request and brought up images of the various files they had previously looked at in Ive Laster's hotel room.
Peter quickly skimmed through the files again before he found what he was looking for, "Aha! I knew that address was familiar. That last location of the tracer is in a plot of land owned by Metaverse enterprise."
"Wait wait wait, Metaverse owns the place where the Beetle was delivering that stolen technology? Could that mean…"
"Metaverse might be working with the Tinkerer…" Once again, things had just become more complicated, because of course they had.
To Be Continued…
Alright another chapter finished! Once again I apologize for the wait between chapters, but I really am trying my best to get them finished and to you. We're starting to get to the nitty gritty now. We should be getting to Natsuki, Sayori and Yuri soon, my apologies for the wait. As always if you notice any mistakes in spelling or grammar please point them out so I can fix them and if you have any DDLC or Spider-Man fic recommendations feel free to share. Also leave any reviews/comments if you can, I love hearing what you all think about the story.