Origin Issues 05: The Hobo Spider-Man and the Punk
"Okay, people. Let's start from the beginning one last time. My name is Peter B. Parker."
(A comic book with a maskless Spider-Man in a hobo jacket swinging in the air was shown, thrown onto Gwen's.)
"I was bitten by a radioactive spider, and for the last 22 years, I've been the one and only Spider-Man. I'm pretty sure you know the rest."
(A radioactive spider bites Peter B. on the wrist. Unlike Spider-Woman, this Spider-Man doesn't jump off the ledge of a tall building. Instead he sits down to read the newspaper and drink coffee. "What a day," he mutters to himself.)
"You see, I saved the city. Fell in love. I got married and saved the city some more. Maybe too much"
(Spider-Man saves the day. He kisses Mary Jane Watson upside down. He marries the redhead later on in life and a montage of him saving the city is shown.)
"My marriage got testy."
(Peter B. lays awake at night while MJ is alseep, away from him and pillows separate them.)
"Made some dicey money choices. DON'T invest in a spider themed restaurant."
(Peter B. made some dicey money choices. A spider-themed restaurant closes down for good. It was a bad investment.)
"Then like 15 years pass blah blah blah super boring."
(More flashbacks of him saving the city are shown.)
"I broke my back. A drone flew into my face."
(Spider-Man breaks his back from falling from very high at one point. A camera drone flies into his face as he swings.)
"I buried Aunt May. My wife and I split up. But I handled it like a champion!"
(Peter B. stands before the grave of his aunt. He and MJ sign the divorce papers while not looking at each other in the eyes. But they both look saddened by their choice. Peter B. moves into a different apartment and goes to sob and cry his heart out in the bathtub as the shower rains down on him as he wears his Spider-Man suit and mask.)
He did not in fact, handle it like a champion. Losing his only parental figure and then divorcing? I'd be surprised if he wasn't affected a lot like he is now.
"Cause you know what, no matter how many times I get hit, I always get back up."
(Spider-Man spends weeks, no months just laying in bed, only moving to go to the bathroom, eating, watching TV or turning off his alarm. He wasn't getting back up from these two hits that easily.)
"And I got a lot of time to reflect and work on myself. Did you know that seahorses, that they mate for life? Can you imagine a seahorse seeing another seahorse and then making it work?"
(Spider-Man watches a wildlife documentary about seahorses. To be fair, they are underrated and adorable. His mask's eye lenses reflect the seahorses on the screen in front of him.)
"She wanted kids and...and it scared me. I'm pretty sure I broke her heart."
(Peter B. stares at his phone as he calls MJ or she is the one calling. He considers what to say if he/she answers before hanging up with a heavy heart.)
"Flash forward, I'm in my apartment doing push-ups, doing ab crunches, getting strong,"
(Peter B. is doing the opposite. He is eating pizza as he removes his shirt and his flabby belly is bouncing from the action.)
"When this weird thing happened. And I gotta say, weird things happen to me a lot. But this was real weird."
(Peter B is lying down eating pizza until an interdimensional portal opens above him. He stares up at the portal with wide eyes as he tries to take a bite of his pizza but it, along with him, glitches due to the portal. His stuff is then seen floating into the portal and Peter B. tries to web himself to not go through but is unsuccessful as he gets sucked through, not before managing to grab his mask with a web but failing to grab the pizza slice that gets stuck on the ceiling.)
(Peter B. seems to be going through time and space across the Web of the Multiver as he dresses himself in his outfit then he is shouting as he is then shot out of the super collider like a canon and he bounces around New York like a pinball until he hits a billboard in Times Square.)
"You see, I was in New York but things were different."
(As Peter B. Parker regains his bearings, he notices that New York City looks different than what he knows.)
"Also, I was dead. . . and blonde. I was kind of perfect."
(He then sees the news report declaring a 26 year old Peter Parker is discovered dead and Spider-Man. This New York's webslinger is a blonde.)
"It was like looking into a mirror."
(Peter B. pulls his mask up to reveal his bloodied and bruised face with a shocked expression. The former from bouncing around the Big Apple like a pinball and the latter from seeing another version of him is declared dead.)
"I have a feeling that the thing that brought me here, was the thing that got him killed."
(He attends this world's Peter Parker's funeral in secret and listens to this world's Mary Jane's words. Then his Spider-Sense tingled and he looked to where it wanted him to look instantly. His eyes find two teens with Spider masks. The girl with white and light pinkish purple while the boy wore the traditional red mask with black designs. Peter B. furrowed his brow. Why was his sense focused on two teens?)
"You wanna know what happened next?"
(Peter B. follows the two teens with an elderly man to an apartment, probably one of theirs before they leave to an abandoned subway tunnel and station.)
"Me too."
He walks into the darkness and then he is hit in the face with a shovel courtesy of one of the teens with a metallic BONG! Peter B. spins around with a dopey expression before collapsing to the ground unconscious.
The two teens pick up the unconscious hobo and carry him out of the abandoned subway station and tunnel to the surface. To anyone who asks, Nico explained rather easily that the man was his father who spent too much time at the local bar for the day and passed out. Gwen felt that the Native American teen came up with that lie a bit too easily but she didn't ask. It wasn't important than this stranger that looked like Peter Parker.
They then carry him through the streets to another apartment. One that belonged to Aaron Davis. "Him and his family are close friends of mine." Nico told Gwen as she and he were pulling/pushing the unconscious man up the fire escape of the building.
"Close enough that he'll be okay with you bringing an unconscious hobo to his apartment?" Gwen remarked sarcastically.
"Uncle Aaron's a construction worker for the city," Nico explained as he shoves the unconscious man through the window of the apartment. "He's usually not home during the weekdays." He paused as he realized that he had not been at school for two days. He shrugs and dismisses it. Not important right now.
"Alright if you say so," Gwen replied with a shrug.
The two teens entered the apartment. Nico drags the unconscious hobo over to the punching bag hanging from the ceiling. He holds the man up and glances over to Gwen. "Web him to the punching bag." he told her.
Nodding, Gwen THWIPPED multiple web lines to tie the unconscious man to the punching bag. Nico walked over to a closet and dug through its contents. "Aha! It's still here! I knew it!" he said in excitement as he pulls out a large bag.
"What's still here?" Gwen asked, turning the Native American teen in confusion.
"Something that will help keep my identity a secret," was all Nico said in response before he goes down the hall to the bathroom.
Gwen rose an eyebrow. "I don't remember giving you advice on that." she said.
"You didn't, Spider-Man did like about two minutes before he died," Nico replied through the bathroom door.
Gwen grimaced at that reminder. Because that meant Peter Parker and that brought up her own memories of her best friend that was also Peter Parker and who died in her own world.
Roughly four minutes later, Nico stepped out of the bathroom dressed in black. Well, more black than usual. It looked like he was planning to blend in with the shadows. He was putting on black gloves and pulling on a black mask with what looked to be pointed ears. Like a bat.
"Are you dressing as the Grim Reaper or Zorro?" Gwen asked, tilting her head.
"Ha ha ha, hilarious," Nico said sarcastically. "No, I'm not. I'm-"
"The Cape Crusader? The Grey Ghost?" Gwen asked.
"No, I'm Ba-" Nico shook his head.
"Black ninja guy from G.I. Joe?" Gwen said with a smirk.
"No, Snake Eyes doesn't have a cape," the Native American teen shook his head. He points to the bat symbol on his chest. "I'm Batman."
"You are?!" Gwen said, feigning shock and even covering her mouth. "Wwoww! I can't believe it! Actually I can totally believe it from how you've read four different comics about Batman back at school."
Nico rolled his eyes before walking over to the unconscious man as Gwen chuckles and pulls her mask down her face. He pulls out a red boat horn. He shakes it slightly before aiming it at the man's right ear and HONKS loudly.
The man jolts awake. "I'M NOT READY TO HAVE KIDS!" he paused and saw the two teens before him. His Spider-Sense went off lightly in the back of his head. Not in an alarming way, but more like, "You're like me."
Both masked teens leaned back in confusion and surprise. They didn't expect that first part. Clearing his throat, Nico quickly shakes his head to focus. "Okay, hobo. We got some questions for you." he said, deepening his voice.
"Wha-Did one of you hit me on the head with a shovel?" the middle aged man asked, shaking his head.
"We're asking the questions here, Old Man." Gwen said, her eye lenses narrowing. "Now, why do you look like Peter Parker?"
"Because I am Peter Parker," the man replied gruffly as the punching bag spun around.
"Really?" Nico asked skeptically. "Are you some clone grown out of a lab and the only sole purpose is to act like the good guy to the public but are actually controlled by the crazy scientist that made you?"
". . . What?" both Gwen and Peter B. give the Native American teen confused looks.
"Watch Superman: Doomsday, you'll get why I had to ask that," Nico said, looking away briefly.
". . . No, I'm not a clone," Peter B. replied.
"Oh yeah? If you're Peter Parker, why are you older than the last time I saw your face?" Nico asked, getting close. "Why is your hair a different color and why are you almost as fat as Fishlegs Ingerman from HTTYD?"
Peter B. didn't expect the kid in black to know this world's Peter Parker. He then acted offended. "I'm not fat. This is just a result of traveling to another universe without warning."
Both Nico and Gwen didn't seem to buy that explanation. "Right, if that's true then I should have gotten fat." Gwen snarked.
"Oh man, you were spared that effect? Damn," Peter B. says, trying to continue with that lie.
"Okay then, this means shutting down the collider and sending you home will be easier," Nico said. Gwen looked to him with a raised eyebrow. The Native American teen shrugs at her. "What? He may be a Spider-Man hobo, but he could help us get to Alchemax and then we can find a way to send you two back to your home dimensions and I can shut the collider down."
"Okay, out of the two of you, I can tell you're new to this, Zorro." Peter B. said bluntly.
"I am not Zorro!" Nico said, now no longer speaking in a deep voice. "Zorro has a hat and a sword!"
"Okay, sorry, Grey Ghost."
"Grey Ghost has a hat too. Not to mention, dressed in grey. It's in the name. This is black like a black jaguar." Nico retorted, gesturing to his suit before he looked at Gwen. "You'd think that he'd know that, with his age."
"Moving on that you're new to this," Peter B. continued as he made the punching bag move so that he was facing away from the two teens. "So let me give some word of advice. Don't watch the mouth. Watch the hands." He holds up his now free hands.
Just then both kids' Spider Sense rang in their heads like alarm bells.
"Ah shit." Nico muttered before being slammed by the kicked punching bag and his back collided with the wall behind him.
"Hey!" Gwen shouted before her torso was webbed to the wall behind her. "Peter!"
But the hobo was already climbing out the window. "Trust me, Boy in Black, this will help you be a better hero." he said as he got out the window.
Nico and Gwen break out of their web bonds and run to the window, just to see Peter B. suddenly cry out in pain as he morphs into different shapes and flashes like a million colors under three seconds before returning to normal.
". . . Did you just glitch like a broken video game?" Nico asked as Peter B. fell to his knees in pain.
"Are you okay?" Gwen asked in a concerned voice just before the exact same thing happened to her.
"Gwen?" Nico asked, catching Gwen as she glitched back to normal. "That. . . didn't feel right," the blonde girl mutters with a wince.
"Yeah, I don't think our atoms are real jazzed to be in a different dimension." Peter B. said with a grunt, holding his side. Then he glitches again as does Gwen.
Nico looked between the two people from two different dimensions. ". . . Okay, something tells me that wasn't just a one time thing." he said in thought and worry because that looked painful for them to experience.
"Look," Peter B. stands up and turns to face Nico and Gwen. "I'm not looking for a side gig to be a Spider-Man coach. I got a lot going on in my dimension. Like a lot."
"Given that you have some gray hair, I can believe that." Nico remarked. "But working together would make sending you and Gwen back to your home dimensions a whole lot easier."
Peter B. had jumped to the other wall and paused as if in consideration before turning (looking upside) to look back at the Native American. "Wait, you said something about a Collider." he said to Nico.
The Native American slowly nodded his head. "Yeah, Kingpin and Alchemax created a Super Collider to open up a portal to other dimensions." he replied. He glanced at Gwen and back at Peter B. "Now that I'm looking at you two, the Collider must have accidentally brought you two to this dimension."
"Accidentally?" Gwen repeated. Nico shrugged. "I don't think Kingpin would want to bring two Spider-people to this dimension." Maybe it's a result of the Green Goblin forcing my world's Spider-Man into those beams energy, he thinks to himself as he recalls that moment of the Super Collider. "Unless he plans to kill them all."
"Where's this Collider?" Peter B. asked.
"Under Fisk Tower in Brooklyn," Nico replied.
"Goodbye!" Peter B. turns around and begins to walk away up the building wall.
"Hold up, we can help you!" Gwen said as she jumps on the wall across from her.
"Not to mention, she needs to go back to her home dimension too!" Nico added, following her lead. "And I need to destroy that Collider."
"No chance, I'm going to hope into it when it turns on again," Peter B. replies as he walks away. The two teens walk after her.
"We can't risk it like that!" Nico protested. "The Spider-Man of my world said if that machine turns on, everybody dies."
"Everybody dies," Peter B. repeated mockingly. "That's what they always say, but there's always a little bit of time before everybody dies and that's when I'll do my best work."
Gwen crossed her arms. "We can't risk that." she said sternly. "Let's make a plan and work together."
"Besides, you might need this override key," Nico said, holding the flashdrive Peter Parker had given him.
"Ah, you got a goober." Peter B. holds his hand out to Nico. "Give it."
". . . You call it a goober?" Nico asked. "Who are you, Peter Hobo Parker or Spongebob Squarepants?"
"There's always an override key, a shut down key, I just call it a goober." Peter B. replied. "Give it."
Nico's Spider-Sense went off lightly in the back of his head. Not frantic or urgent like the last few times, more like a whisper to his ears of 'Don't give it to him.' Recalling that Gwen said always trust your Spider-Sense, the Native American teen shakes his head at Peter B. "I'll give it to you, if you let us all work together."
"Give it," Peter B. demanded. Nico clenched his hand around the override key while shaking his head. "No. I need this to destroy the Collider."
"I need it to go home. Give it."
"Peter, let us help." Gwen said to Peter B. "This whole thing is our responsibility. And you know as well as us that with great power-"
"Don't you dare say those words. Don't do it. I am sick of those words." Peter B. snapped at Gwen and he looks back at Nico.
The Native American stared at the Spider-Man hobo and stared before he shoved the override key/flashdrive down his throat.
Nico shudders while both Peter. B and Gwen stare at him in shock. "That was worse than the time I ate some raw grubs back in the Northwest." he muttered to himself. He looks back up to Peter B. with a determined expression.
"We are working together," Nico declared steelily.
Peter B. looks back and forth between the Native American and the blonde girl teens before sighing. "Fine. Fine! We're working together."
"Great, that wasn't so hard was it?" Nico asked with a smirk.
"Yeah, yeah. Come on, we don't have a second to lose," Peter B. declared.
Both Nico and Gwen look at each other with a grin.
Now both Gwen and Nico are frowning as they sit across from Peter B. in a Spider themed restaurant. "Apparently we have enough time for a couple of burger meals," Nico muttered as he ate a large chicken burger.
"I mean, we do have high metabolism," Gwen shrugged, taking a bite out of her cheeseburger.
Peter B. was enjoying himself. "I love these burgers, so delicious," he mutters in bliss. "You know this place shut down a while back in my dimension. I don't know why. I really don't."
Is this what my Peter Parker would have become in my dimension if he didn't. . . Gwen thought to herself, unsure what to think of the older variant of Peter Parker stuffing food down his throat.
Nico himself didn't know what to think about another variant of his hero acting like this and ultimately decided to ignore it and focus. "Okay, can you give me some advice for this job?" Nico asked, making sure he wasn't alluding to any connection to being a vigilante.
"Sure," Peter B. replied, licking his fingers. "Disinfect the mask. Take baby powder in the suit. Heavy on the joints. It prevents chaffing. You don't want chaffing, right? And be on the look for drones when you're swinging."
"I know that sounds a bit random," Gwen said, "but he's got some good advice there."
Nico rolled his eyes. "Great." he drawled. "Okay, we're all done eating. I've done some digging and found Alchemax's locations in the city and there is a technology campus in the Hudson Valley."
He gives Peter B. an eager smile. "So, do you think you can teach me to swing on the way over?" he asked.
Peter B. laughs in response.
Gwen, Peter B. Nico rode a bus through the Hudson Valley. "I'm not swinging to the Hudson Valley, Nico." the older man explained upon seeing the Native American teen giving him a questioning look. "Not after a hearty burger-breakfast. Keep your legs fresh, you're gonna thank me later."
As Nico shakes his head in response while Gwen tilts her head in a so-so manner. The hobo had a point.
They're dropped off about a mile and a half from Alchemax Labs. The three of them suit up and strike a dramatic pose.
Nico looks at Gwen. "By the way, you look real good in that suit," he said to the blonde Spider-Woman.
"Thanks," Gwen said, her lenses narrowing in a way that she's smiling under her mask. "And seeing your suit in daylight, it looks real good for being homemade."
Peter B. notices Nico's costume. "The cape looks impractical." He criticized the Native American. "And all black?"
"Says the hobo wearing grey sweatpants," quipped Nico before he shrugged. "It has a purpose," he explained. "And Batman rarely works in daylight."
Peter B. and Gwen look at each other before shrugging. The trio of heroes lie at the edge of the woods scoping the buildings before them. It's a group of beautiful Zaha Hadid style buildings, a dream campus.
Peppered amongst are people in lab coats. Most of them look rather thuggish in appearance.
"I guess we should retrace my world's Peter Parker," Nico said, turning to the hobo next to him. "So, how do we do that, Hobo Parker?"
Ignoring the jab, Peter B. rubs his chin. "That's a good question... What would I do if I were me...?" he said aloud and thought for a second. "Got it. Step One: I infiltrate the lab..."
(We readers see a multi-panel of images comic-style of the mission going off without a hitch - and with Nico and Gwen barely appearing.)
"Two: Find the head scientist's computer-" Peter B. continued before being interrupted by Nico and Gwen.
"That lady with the bike is the head scientist." Nico pointed out to a woman that arrived with a bike.
"We saw her in this documentary at school." Gwen explained.
"Cool. Step Three: I re-examine my personal biases." Peter B. said. "Step Four: I hack the computer."
(Nico and Gwen POPS into the multi-panel comic style image of Peter B. downloading the override code from the scientist's computer.)
"It's not technically hacking." Nico said.
Gwen nods her head. "It's kinda-"
(Peter B. shoves them out of view.)
"Not now, hold on, I just lost my train of thought... " he rethinks what his plan is before continuing. "Step Five: download the important stuff, I'll know it when I see it, and Step Six:... I grab a bagel from the cafeteria and run."
At least the guy has his priorities straight, Nico thought in response to that last bit before realizing something. "So what are Gwen and I doing?
Peter B. paused and thought of an answer. "Uh Step 7: Gwen can come." he said to the Spider-Woman and looks to Nico. "You stay here, you're lookout. Very important."
Nico bristles at that, his mask managing to glare at the older man. "Look, man you have to teach me to do Spider-Man stuff or I'm not going to be able to help -" he tries to explain before Peter B. begins stretching.
"Alright..." Peter B. mutters before with a THWIP! and he is swinging away. "Watch and learn, kid, I'll quiz you later!"
Then he's gone, stealthily swinging across the clearing toward the main building, where Peter crawls down to a grate that he opens and enters.
"How am I supposed to watch and learn when I won't be able to see anything he does?" Nico asked incredulously to Peter B.'s parting words.
Gwen looked at Nico. "Maybe it's best you sit this one out." she said with a shrug. "You'll get real lessons, promise!" With a THWIP! she's gone and now Nico is alone.
Nico sighs in frustration. "Of all the variants in the Multiverse. . . Why did I get stuck with the janky-old, broke, hobo Spider-Man?"
He punches the boulder behind him and cracks it. Nico stared at the cracked boulder. ". . .That's new."
Suddenly, Nico sees a black limo, and the passenger that steps out is none other than Kingpin and he is flanked by Tombstone, he walks into Alchemax.
Kingpin! Nico's eyes widened in surprise. He hides behind the rock, thinking. What does he do? What does he do? What does he do? Slow down and relax. Let your instinct take over, he tells himself.
Three minutes later, Nico is running across a field towards Alchemax. What am I doing? What am I doing? What am I doing? What am I doing?
The Native American teen reaches the building and looks over the side of the building, as Kingpin and Tombstone enter.
He climbs up the wall to the roof. He walks over to the open grate. He hesitates briefly before exhaling and then he enters the grate and crawls into the vents of the building.
He follows Kingpin, with Tombstone, marching through the halls below. Kingpin blocks light from below as he walks.
"Gwen! Gwen!" Nico whispers in a tone he hopes the mentioned Spider people hear. "Peter! Peter!"
Nico wasn't looking where he was going, so he fails to notice the LARGE BUTT ahead of him and bumps into it. "Gah!" he cried out before seeing who it was. "Parker!"
Peter B. looks back at him with annoyance. "Yeah, what are you doing here?!" he exclaimed.
"We told you to stay outside!" Gwen whispered.
"First off, it sounded more like a suggestion than an order," Nico quipped. "Second, Kingpin's here! Just move over!" he said that last part to Peter B. The Native American teen tries to worm up next to the hobo.
Peter B. hissed, "C'mon! You're stepping on my foot!"
"Move a little to your right-!" Nico said.
While a bit amused at the sight, Gwen tried to speak to Nico. "Nico, go back outside."
Nico shakes his head, "I can't sit there and just let Spider-Man die without doing anything about it." he declared without thinking. "I'm not doing that again."
Peter B. stiffens and softens. Gwen reacts the same.
"What?" Nico asked at their silent response.
Peter B. think about it over before responding, "Most people I meet in the workplace try to kill me, so, you're a nice change of pace." he quipped.
"Uh, Mr. Fisk!" called a voice from below the vents. The Head Scientist leads Kingpin to a computer. "Look at this data. I know you can't really understand it, but these are really good numbers." she said.
Nico furrows his brow. Did she just call her boss dumb?
She goes to the computer and enters her password.
Peter B. suddenly said to Gwen and Nico. "And... I got the password!"
Nico looks back down at the computer screen that shows photos of cluster poles and busses, etc. like that weird art sculpture he had seen the night the Prowler chased him through Brooklyn.
"Uh, Mr. Fisk. If we fire again this week, there could be a black hole under Brooklyn." the scientist said to Fisk. She points to the photos. "You see this? And this? This is multiple dimensions beginning to crash into each other."
Nico suddenly recalls what had happened being in the epicenter of that whole event. It was both awesome and terrifying.
Gwen notices how the Native American teen is going rigid. "This is pretty standard superhero stakes, you get used to it." She quipped.
Catching on what she was planning, Peter B. says, "Watch this, he's going to say 'you've got 24 hours!'" he points down to the room and-
Kingpin speaks to the scientist, pointing at her. "You've got twenty-four hours."
"Well, you really know your work for a hobo." Nico remarked humorously.
Back in the room below, the scientist protests. "What this means is that there could be a rupture in the space time continuum." she said.
Peter B. leans back a bit in the vent. "Oooh, that's bad. Actually everything she said was bad, I was lying before." he admitted.
"Still standard stakes?" Nico remarked to Gwen.
The group below is now exiting the room. And as they do, both Peter B. and Gwen quickly and quietly climbs out of the air vent and smoothly crawls upside down along a ceiling duct and jumps down. He starts hacking into the scientist's computer. Nico climbs after them, only for his hands and feet to get stuck on the hanging lights.
They hear the scientist talking to Fisk outside the room. "Okay hold on, let me show you some more data."
Peter B. looks back, sees Nico out of the vent. "What're you doing, bud?
Nico exerts himself, trying to unstick. He shakes his head. "I can't move! I lost control of my sticking spider powers!" he grunts.
Both Gwen and Peter B. look at each other as this reminds them of themselves. Right. Too much stress for the first mission.
Gwen looks up at Nico. "OK, relax your fingers!" she said.
Peter B. shakes his head. "We don't have time. Just "let go," be in the moment!"
Nico looks at the hobo incredulously. "I am in the moment, it's a terrible moment!"
Peter B. gestures to the door. "They're right there, they're going to see you! Nico, you gotta unstick. What do you do to relax?"
Nico pauses. "Relax. Okay..." He starts singing "In The End" by Linkin Park. "It starts with one thing. I don't know why."
Gwen couldn't help but chuckle in amusement while Peter B. facepalms at the desk. "You gotta be kidding me."
Slowly but surely, Nico unsticks a finger. Then another. He starts to move his hands.
-The rest of his fingers come unstuck and then start to fall. Nico and the metal duct crash to the ground with a huge CLANG!
Peter B. is annoyed and exasperated. "Teenagers, just the worst-" his spider-sense motivates him to look at the door's window, through which he sees the head scientist turning her head back to the direction of her office, having heard the crash.
The Native American teen rises to his feet and turns off his phone. "I mean, it was either that or humming." he said with a shrug.
Peter turns, suddenly in a panic. He grabs the two teens and shoves them behind the desk and down to the floor. "Remember this password!: Dgfampesand4$35876534545435."
"Slow down, Peter! I- I need to write it down!" Nico protested.
Peter B. either ignores that or doesn't hear the Native American over his own voice as he smoothes hair under his mask. "-and download the schematic -" he said. "-While I turn on the charm."
The Head Scientist walks into her office to see Spider-Man standing "casually" with his arm on her desk and a metal vent duct dented in the MIDDLE OF THE FLOOR.
No way she's going to ignore that, Nico thought as Gwen rose up to the computer and quietly began to type in the password she had heard.
"Spider-Man?" the woman said in surprise.
Okay, apparently seeing the superhero back from the dead would distract her, Nico rationalizes.
"Oh, hey. Didn't see you there..." Nico hears Peter B. speaking to the scientist.
"Wow. Okay I'm kinda freaking out right now." Footsteps approach Peter B. "I mean, you're supposed to be dead."
"Surprise!" the hobo Spider-Man said jokingly.
Nico looks under the desk and sees the Head Scientist suddenly pulling up Spidey's mask.
"Whoa -OK that's a no-no, we don't like that-!" he tried to joke like the other Peter Parker had said.
The scientist gasps. " This is fascinating." She quickly appraises him up and down, now laser focused.
She snaps on a latex glove and grabs Peter's face who mumbles, "OK, that's m'face-"
"An entirely different Peter Parker." she mutters and bends down to poke Peter's stomach. "Okay, a little bit of a gut, perhaps from dimensional warping."
Peter B. nods his head. "Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I was way flatter before I warped."
Nico rolls his eyes at that exchange while Gwen paused as she was typing the password: Dgfampesand#4$...then...?
Nico looks back out from under the desk and sees the scientist speaking to herself. "Travel through the multiverse appears to have deteriorated..."
Gwen looked at Nico. "3454543... Ah what was the rest?!" she whispered.
Nico pauses, unsure of the rest. "35 or 53." he muttered.
Peter B. whistles at them from where he is.
The Head Scientist looks up at him, a little suspicious. Peter B. quickly covers the suspicious act. "How old are you?" he asked and glanced over to the computer. "You don't look a day over 35!"
Gwen types the 35. And it works, but she sees a baffling unorganized mess of apps and files on the screen.
"What?" Nico poked his head up and saw the screen for himself. "Organize your desktop, lady!" he mutters.
As Peter B. frantically clocks two teens while trying to not be obvious, the scientist suddenly shoves him into a chair. "This might pinch a little." Mechanical restraints strap Peter to the chair.
Peter B. hisses at the feeling. "Ow! Ow, ow!"
She grabs a tongue depressor and advances. "I know, I just need to get these samples." She jams the tongue depressor in Peter's mouth. "Yeah, ok." he muttered.
The Head Scientist studies a sample on a slide. "Wow. Just complete cellular decay." she says out loud in surprise and awe. "I've never seen anything like this."
Peter sees the two teens sneaking their way to the ceiling with the computer and monitor. "What are you doing?" he whispered.
Nico turns back to him from the ceiling. "We are just taking the whole thing!" he snapped.
Gwen shrugs at Peter B.
The Head Scientist turns to look at Peter. "And obviously you've been glitching."
Peter B. stares at her before trying to lie. "Glitching? No. Why would you even say that?" Just then he glitches in a flash of multiple colors and shapes under three seconds with a cry of pain before returning to normal.
"If you stay in this dimension too long, your body's going to disintegrate." the woman said to him, looking more and more fascinated by the explanation. "Do you know how painful that would be, Peter Parker?"
Peter B. looks at her with wide eyes. "Uh, I don't know." he admitted.
"You can't imagine." she replied and then she looked at him, weirdly intense. "And I, for one, can't wait to watch."
Both Gwen and Nico suddenly tense from hearing this.
Peter B. stares at her, also tense and realizes something. "What did you say your name was?"
"Doctor Olivia Octavius." the woman replied.
Octavius, Peter B. repeated in his mind as was Gwen and they remembered who that is in their respective universes. OH NO.
She takes off her blue glasses, shrugs off her lab coat to reveal a dark green jumpsuit and puts on red goggles. Her four rubber looking tentacles unfurl behind her.
One tentacle grabs Peter by the neck and slams him into the wall.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet this dimension's DOCTOR OCTOPUS.
"Can I assume that your friends call you Doc Ock?" Peter B. quipped through a strained voice.
"My friends actually call me Liv." she replied as she fixes her hair into the shape of an octopus's head with some strands appearing like tentacles. "My enemies call me Doc Ock."
Peter B. stares before he shoots a web towards the door control panel, opening the door for Nico to escape through. "I got this! Run!"
Doc Ock laughs. "Who are you talking to?"
Nico and Gwen were luckily not discovered yet. Gwen crawls to the door while Nico looks down the empty hallway but hesitates leaving Peter behind.
Peter B. shouts. "I got it!"
"Oh, you got it Peter?" Doc Ock mocked.
Nico takes off down the hallway with Gwen. Peter B. is repeatedly SLAMMED into the glass walls as Miles runs by him-
SLAM!
"I got it handled!"
SLAM!
"Everything is fine!"
The alarms suddenly with red alert lighting in the hallway. Nico runs with Gwen, admittedly more terrified than his mask shows, carrying the computer.
So many emotions swirl his mind. Then He runs into a young student with red hair. "Oof!" they both cried out.
Peter B. flies through the other room. "Okay this is a little bit bad."
"Oh, you're chatty!" Doc Ock laughs.
The student looks up at Nico and his bat-masked face and freaks out. Nico rises back up and runs away before she could say anything.
Peter and Doc Ock continue fighting through offices and laboratories. It's, well, let's let Peter tell us: "And this is the moment that I'm losing the fight."
BOOM!
Peter B. SMASHES through the glass wall and lands next to Nico and Gwen as they run.
Pausing, Nico holds up the computer and monitor, shrugs at Gwen.
Peter B. quickly gets back up. "Alright, let me tell you the good news." he jogs over to the other teens. "We don't need the monitor." He grabs the monitor, throws it.
". . . Ok that was funny." Nico declared with a chuckle.
Peter B. is then grabbed by Doc Ock's tentacle. -Then, through the dust, the two teens see the four armed silhouette of Doc Ock before them! She emerges, towering above.
"Peter! You didn't tell me you had a couple of friends!" Doc Ock declared. "Another Spider? And a Bat?" then she sees Nico holding the computer. "Could you give me that back, young man? It's proprietary."
Her arm extends to Nico when Gwen swings him out of the way and out the door.
Peter B. shoots a web to close the door in Ock's face!
"Nice going, Peter!" Gwen laughed before the three of them ran out of a door and found themselves facing a group of dining who look to be grad students.
A beat of silence before Nico just said, "Welp."
"Act normal?" Gwen asked the older Spider person.
". . . Yep." Peter B. said, reaching a hand to the table and the plate of bagels next to him. "Selecting a bagel... act super normal..."
The trio starts to walk past the buffet, looking SUPER NORMAL (not normal at all), to the door.
The grad students all notice their presence, very easily. "Spider-Man?"
Peter B. laughs. "You know, it's funny I get that a lot." he said.
Gwen held up her hand. "Hey. I'm Spider-Woman." she said.
Nico saluted the crowd. "I'm Batman," he said in a mumble and not deepening his voice.
Peter B. trades Nico the bagel for the computer, "Now we do a witchy-switchy." he said as the students pull WEAPONRY. Apparently they're also armed security guards. Every. Single. One of them.
"Book it!" Nico cried out as they turned around and ran for the door and the students/security guards chased after them. Shooting lasers and shouting.
"Hey!"
"Hands Up!"
"Get back here!"
"Where do you think you're going?"
"He took a bagel!"
Gwen looks back incredulously. "Really?"
Nico shrugs, "It must be some good bagel." he takes a bite of the bagel in hand. He hums at the taste. It is a good bagel.
And that says a lot, he rarely eats bagels!
As they run across the balcony, Peter B. takes off one of his web shooters and throws it to Nico, who struggles to put it on. "Alright time to swing, just like I taught you!"
"You didn't do anything." Nico retorted. He tossed the bagel over at one of the scientists that appeared at the door and hit him in the forehead.
Peter B. doesn't deny that. "You're right! I didn't! It's a little joke for team building!"
Then he throws Nico off the deck, swinging into the forest. "Alright, you ready?"
"Of course I'm not ready!" Nico snapped.
"Just follow our leads!" Gwen said before THWIPing out a webline herself and then she and Peter B. swing through the trees.
Nico freezes. He's never actually swung before! He watches the two Spider-People like Gwen said before shooting out a webline for himself but ends up swinging face first into a tree! "Ow! Shit!" he cries out.
The Native American teen runs as gunfire explodes branches and tree trunks around him.
Peter B. calls out to Nico as he and Gwen swing. "Everybody knows that the best way to learn is under intense, life-threatening pressure!"
Nico fumbles with his web shooter. "C'mon, c'mon!" he mutters frantically. Guards find him and start shooting.
Nico ducks down from the fire. "Uh oh." he muttered before running. He sprints along the forest floor as Peter B. and Gwen swing above him.
"What are you doing down there?!" Peter B. asked.
"Thinking of a way to swing!" Nico replied as he jumped over a log.
"Well hurry up! You gotta swing or they'll catch you!" Gwen said urgently.
"This is what you wanted!" Peter B. shouted.
Nico hears a buzzsaw behind him. Looking behind, he sees Doc Ock appearing cutting down trees with her mechanical arms like the aliens from Chicken Little. "Uh oh."
Nico tries to find a purchase with his web shooter but he keeps missing. "Come back, little boy!" Doc Ock said mockingly.
Peter doubles back, yelling advice back at Miles. "Aim with your hips. Look where you want it to hit. Square your shoulders!"
"Don't forget to follow through." Gwen adds her own advice.
"Don't shoot off your back foot." Peter said next.
Nico vertically runs up a tree - and sees that he's out of runway! "That's too many things at once!"
Peter B. retorts. "Then stop listening to me!
"That's the best idea you've had all day!" Nico shoots back before he leaps off the tree, shoots off the web and. . . it connects!
He swings around the tree and then lets go as he swings around the front. He spreads his cape the way Batman does and ends up gliding over the trees as Peter B. knocks down Doc Ock.
"Way to go, Nico!" Gwen laughed upon seeing the Native American glide through the air.
"Hey! I can see my house from up here!" Nico quipped before swings onto a branch and swings alongside Peter. "I'm doing it! I'm actually getting the hang of it!"
Peter B. nods his head. "Good, you're doing it! Double tap to release and thwip it out again. Thwip and-"
Nico nods his head. "Okay. Thwip-" he said
Peter B. finishes, "-And release. And thwip-" he instructs. The two swing in sync as they carry the computer in between them.
They both say in unison. "Release. Thwip. And release." Peter B. laughs.
"You're a natural." Gwen said, swinging next to Nico on the right of the Native American teen.
Peter B and Nico said. "Thwip. Release." the older Spider-Man turns to Nico. "Feel the rhythm?" he asked.
"Woohoo!" Nico whooped. "And release!"
"You go, Nico!" Gwen cheered.
Peter B. chuckles. "Good work, Nico."
It's ugly...but they look pretty good. They really do. Nico looks to Peter B. "I gotta say, you're amazing, for a Hobo Spider-Man!" he laughs.
Peter B. laughs with him. "We're a little team. Me as the teacher who can still do it. You as the student who can do it just not as good." Nico and Gwen give him two playful glares at that. "I'm proud of us! Is there something you want to say to me?" Just then, Peter GLITCHES, falling down onto a thick branch.
Nico and Gwen watched him fall. "Peter!" they shouted before Gwen GLITCHES as well and she slammed into a tree branch and lands next to Peter B.
Nico crashes onto the branch, grabbing the computer by it's power cord. However, the branch breaks under the combined weight, causing both to fall down, which allows Ock to grab the computer - They're done for. But then-
-WHOOSH!
A blur of shifting colors swings by and the trio is caught in a web. "What the. . . ?" Nico mutters in confusion.
He wasn't the only one. "Who did that?" Peter B. asks.
"Wasn't me," Gwen shrugs.
In mid-air they see a mysterious person in what Nico thinks is punk rock attire with spikes and spiky bracelets, a red Spider-Man mask with spiky hair spikes on the top of his head, a red and blue sweater with black jeans and a metal spiky electric guitar. Nico squints his eyes. "Spider-Punk?"
Doc Ock notices the figure and smiles eagerly, most likely at the implications before her octopus arms are webbed to the trees next to her and then she is hit in the face with the guitar.
The figure then lands on the branch across the webbed trio who look at him in surprise and confusion. The figure then reaches a hand to his mask and lifts it up to reveal a teenage boy with long blonde hair and dark green eyes with an expression that just says "Do you want to get in trouble with me?" with two noticeable scars on his face.
With their Spider Senses going off like the first time they all met, Nico and the others stare at him, shocked before the Native American teen finds his voice. "And you are?"
"The name's Ravens. Hunter Ravens," the variant of Spider-Punk replied. "I'm from another dimension" Then he chuckles and rephrases. "I mean, another, another dimension."
When you think of a hero, you don't think of a punk teenager. And yet, that's what Hun-
"Alright, alright, shut the Hell up." Hunter interrupts the narrator. "Alright, people, we're doing this for the first time?"
Yes. Go on ahead.
"The name's Hunter Ravens. I'm just your average Punk teenager who got bitten by a radioactive spider and for about three years, I've been the one and only Spider-Man. I'm pretty sure you all know the rest."
(Hunter Ravens is shown participating in punk fights, being a punk in school before a large hairy spider bites him on the rest.)
"I'm a punk with an obsession with comic books, especially the Spider-Man comics. Other than a punk, I write comics with my uncle Stan and hang out with my friend Riley Morales, dating Gwen Stacy, I took up the mantle of Spider-Man after my Peter Parker/Spider-Man died in battle after I got bit by the spider."
(Multiple Marvel comics are shown along with Hunter's uncle Stan, his friend Riley and Gwen Stacy.)
"I was just on patrol and about to go after some robbers when this red-blue portal opened above me and the next thing I know, I'm in a different New York City that just lost its Spider-Man."
(Hunter swings through his New York as Spider-Man. He sees some thugs and moves to catch them before a portal opens above him. He looks up in shock before it sucks him in like a vacuum cleaner and then he flies through space and time before he shoots across New York City of Earth 2004-21 like a cannon ball and lands on a subway station. He swings through the streets and sees the news declaring that Peter Parker/Spider-Man is dead.)
"My Spider-Sense went off and I saw a variant of Gwen Stacy and two people I didn't recognize and then my Sense told me to head to Alchemax."
"Looks like I showed up in time." Hunter said to the trio who now stood on the ground. He looks to Peter B. Nico and Gwen, his Spider-Sense tingling lightly. "You're like me."
"So, you're not Spider-Punk?" Nico asked.
"Nah, but I'm a big fan of him," Hunter said. "You a Batman fan?"
"Yeah, I designed my costume after Arkham," Nico replied.
Just then shouting from the grad students/security guards was heard followed by gunfire.
"Okay, this Comic Fan Meet and Greet is cool and all," Gwen spoke up. "But we need to go."
"Yeah, come on. Let's go." Peter B. said, swinging away with Gwen.
Nico tilts his head at Hunter. "Did your Spider happen to glitch?" he asked.
Hunter aims to shoot a web before pausing. ". . . Yeah, it did." he answered slowly.
". . . Huh," Nico hummed before he was yanked by a webline off the ground.
Next chapter: The Spider-Gang