Chapter 6: Welcome to New York

I have randomly decided that each chapter is done when it reaches 6 pages. Have I said that before? I'm not sure. I've been stressed and dissociating/procrastinating lately and time is blurring together. Regardless, I'll probably keep this arbitrary rule to keep chapters as timely as possible, though due to an upcoming difficult test and another story, posts will slow down. The whimsy will always remain.

Ned was trying really hard to stay focused, he really was. He was here for Peter and whatever madness was happening in his life right now. He wasn't here to gawk at literally everything on his path through the Compound.

But he had to look where he stepped so . . .

By the time they reached the Med Bay, Ned had lost track of how many times he gasped at stuff. Between cool tech and secret agent-y people and even a possible glimpse of the Falcon, Ned was bursting at the seams. But the moment he saw the worried look on Peter's face, Ned set all that aside and focused on his friend.

"Peter, my baby!" May rushed forward, embracing her nephew in a hug. He hugged her back, nuzzling against her. For some reason, despite his heightened senses, he appreciated physical touch more after he got his powers. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Almost all healed up."

Ned approached once May gave Peter some space, then he initiated The Handshake. Peter grinned at the familiarity. Ned's eyes were drawn to the stitches on his arms, but the skin looked fine, so he didn't worry too much. "I'm glad you're okay, man."

"Me too."

Michelle came last, looking as broody and standoffish as ever, which, in Ned's eyes, showed how much she cared. "Hey, dork."

"Michelle!" Peter seemed surprised to see her. "Are you okay? The last thing I remember is you jumping the evil version of you to save me!"

Michelle seemed equally surprised to hear that. "I'm fine. I wasn't hurt badly. The guy was only focused on you. I tried to keep him away from you, but that didn't work out well with just a pan for a weapon."

Peter grinned. "I'm impressed you were able to hold your own with just a pan. Thank you."

The only response he got to that was a curt nod.

Ned was fine for all of five seconds before Tony Stark and lady in a lab coat walked right past him with one of the latest Stark Pads that wasn't even available to the public yet. Then his brain sort of short circuited again until he got himself under control.

"Glad you all made it safe," Tony greeted. He smiled, but underneath he looked serious. Ned would bet his Lego Deathstar that it was because of Peter's weird new biometrics. Ned had kept checking them on the way, and they hadn't changed at all. And when he pulled up old records, he confirmed how very different they were.

"We're all safe right now," May agreed. "But how do we keep it that way? How do we figure out what's going on?"

"That's the complicated part . . . Dr. Cho will fill you all in while I work on a few things. And Friday, return the lights to 50% brightness."

Peter pouted as the room dimmed, ducking his head down and placing his hands over his face. "I told her it was okay to make it brighter again!"

"And I'm telling her to set it at a level we can all see comfortably at," Tony countered.

Peter stuck his tongue out at him.

Dr. Cho ignored the exchange. She held bowed minutely at the guests. "Good morning, everyone." Her tone was clipped and no-nonsense, but not unkind. "I've spoken to Mrs. Parker before, but not the rest of you. I'm Dr. Cho, the Avenger's, and Peter's, primary physician. I specialize in metabiology and unusual cases, and Peter's just become more unusual." She proceeded to explain a series of changes Peter had abruptly undergone last night in what sounded like something out of a paranormal horror movie. When she began discussing his eyes, she asked him to look up. When Peter tilted a certain way, his pupils glowed bright green.

Ned glanced over at Michelle, figuring this must be a lot for her to take in. But she was listening intently and calmly, as if this were simply another class at Midtown.

"His overall health remains unchanged," Dr. Cho concluded. "We've only had to update the parameters that are healthy for him in our database."

That made Ned snap his fingers. "Aha! That's why your vitals have been weird all morning!" Everyone turned to look at him and he suddenly regrated calling attention to himself.

Peter sighed. "Yeah, I'm running a few degrees colder, and my heartrate is faster than ever, but I don't really feel different. The regular lights don't even bother me so long as I don't stare directly into them."

May went to him again, sitting on the edge of the cot. "That's good. So long as you're healthy, we can deal with whatever comes our way. Okay?"

"I know. It's all just gonna be annoying. Mr. Stark said he has to make contacts to hide how my eyes glow, and you know I hate contacts." Peter's face scrunched with disgust. "But other than that, it's fine. A little weird to see, but fine." He didn't sound entirely fine about it, but Ned didn't blame him. Peter deserved some time to come to terms with this.

"I think they look cool," Michelle piped up. All eyes turned to her, but she looked only at Peter. "You could probably pass as the Moth Man if you're caught without your mask at night."

Peter's eyes brightened at that. "You mean I could help the legend live on?!"

Tony held up a hand. "Whoa there, no, we are not going to involve anymore paranormal entities in this until we know what's going on with our two prime suspects. If you have no more questions about Spider-Boy, I'll pull up what little we know so far."

Ned did have questions about how the tapetum lucidum worked and how amazing the new night vision was, but he figured that could wait until later.

"Alright, so Friday captured these images of Cape Man when I confronted him yesterday." Tony flicked his hand and holographic images of the man Michelle had described appeared. Now that he could see it, Ned could totally identify that cape as Dr. Strange's, which was a scary thought. How had this man gotten a hold of it?

"Dr. Strange?" Peter asked, confused. "Wait, that's not him. Who is that?"

"That's Cape Man, our John Doe #1. I've been trying to contact Strange all night, but he's off world or off dimension or whatever. Wong said he should be back in a few days, but he also confirmed that's the special sentient cape, so either Strange finally traded it in or someone got to him."

Ned clutched his laptop tight to his chest. He had a bad feeling about this.

"We don't have an identity or a motive for Cape Man," Tony continued. "All we know is that he took Peter's blood to do something presumably magical. And . . ." Tony glanced awkwardly at May. "He was ready to kill Peter and Michelle until I got there."

Michelle nodded along in stoic confirmation. Ned saw May's fists clench in her lap.

"Then we have possible John Doe #2, or some other anomaly going on. Because an interdimensional rift opened last night. My tech isn't great at these sorts of cosmic things yet, but this was powerful enough to appear on the radar, which means something powerful came through from who knows where."

Ned gasped, torn between awe and horror.

"I sent some of the Avengers to check the area, but there weren't any clues. And at the same exact time, Peter's blood turned purple, his eyes went black, and he started talking about going to meet someone. As much as I would like to think that's a coincidence, I've had Friday run several scans and there are faint traces of the same interdimensional energy in Peter."

"Sounds like Cape Man released some sort of eldritch spider god," Michelle said unironically.

Tony laughed halfheartedly. "Yeah, let's not joke about that."

"So what do we do with this information?" May asked.

"We wait for some more."

Kraven flew high above the city that was so much like how his had once been. There were differences, of course. Hammer Tower was replaced by Stark Tower. The Statue of Liberty was still intact. Oscorp was short and lost in the skyline, nothing like the futuristic monolith he was used to.

The wrongness of the sight never truly went away regardless of how many New York Cities he saw. But he wasn't here to reminisce. He was here on a hunt at last. He knew the Weaver would come here in search of their totem.

There had been a few options open to the Weaver from the moment the Blood Oath was completed. The very easiest one was unlikely: total annihilation. The Weaver didn't like to destroy their creations, going so far as to actually meddle in mortal affairs when danger stirred. Had it been any other entity of such power, Kraven would have feared being struck down instantly with the entire universe. But he knew his quarry too well.

Another option was for the Weaver to use all their resources to make Kraven's life a living hell, forcing him to give up the Blood Oath. This was also unlikely, as it would require putting their precious spiders and Totems in danger, and possibly driving the general populace mad if the eldritch energy went unchecked for too long. Again, the Weaver cared too much to succumb to such theatrics.

This left the final option: to funnel away the greater aspects of their powers in a pocket dimension, allowing the Weaver to assume a more mortal appearance and blend into the city. This was risky for them, forcing them to rely more on the Totem to protect them. Kraven wished he had taken the time to kill the Spider of this universe so he wouldn't have to worry about them at all, but he had managed to severely injure the Totem. He had a couple of days to search while neither the Weaver nor their Totem was at full strength. That almost made it too easy.

Honestly, with this being his final hunt, Kraven would have been disappointed if that was it. But there was still the challenge of finding this one fake mortal in a city full of already odd mortals.

He grinned. He relished a challenge.

Larry Hartman stared at the store window, melancholy. His kids really wanted those new Spider-Man plushies. At first, he had told them that they already had too many toys, but then he got the email, and he decided that his kids needed as much happiness as they could get right now. Especially during the move.

Larry sighed. He hated moving. He had never done it as a kid. His family always lived in the same place all his childhood, and he wanted to give that same stability to his kids. But it was now so far out of his control.

At first it had been due to rent and had only been around the boroughs. Queens, Brooklyn, never Manhattan. It was annoying, but as the family grew and their salaries fluctuated, it had been necessary. Then he found a perfect job. He loved this job. It paid so well and was the least toxic place he'd ever worked at, but now they were asking him to move out of the state entirely. It would come with a significant bonus, enough to guarantee great vacations every year and to fulfill his daughter's desire to go to those fancy coding camps.

But they would be moving. Again. Far from their schools and their friends. And they had already been so upset the last few times . . .

Why couldn't good news come alone? Why did it always have to come at the expense of something else?

Larry sighed and turned to enter the store, but a woman was in his way.

"S'cuse me," Larry said automatically, moving around her.

The woman's head swiveled to look at him, neck twisted unnaturally. Black eyes peered deep into his soul. Sharp teeth smiled at him.

"You are excused," the not-human woman told him in a voice that echoed with whispers.

Larry turned around and ran. He couldn't wait to tell his kids the good news that they would be leaving the craziness of New York behind.

Behind him, the not-human woman frowned. She supposed they still had some work to do on her human disguise if it was still frightening people. But at least this man hadn't screamed or bled from his eye sockets. Progress was progress!