"Hobie, we cleared out?"
Radioing Hobie Barnes was the best course of action for the time being. He had eyes on the ground far below the plummeting Alchemax laboratory.
"We haven't cleared the bridge yet! These people need more time!"
Everybody knew what was at stake if they couldn't act fast enough. Eric needed some help back onto his feet, which he used to stand back up after Miles helped him up. A silent nod was shared between them before everyone ran for the steep drop where the building started to plummet. Avoiding tragedy didn't mean that they could take a break. Making sure that the civilians stuck on the heavily trafficked bridge were able to escape with their lives intact.
Tailing the group was Eric as he still couldn't push himself too much after undergoing multiple cases of near death experiences. Leaping off the edge of the steep drop over the guard railing was everybody except Eric. He tailed the group and was just about to jump when someth8ng stopped him.
It isn't fair!
His feet immediately stopped in their tracks when that unexpected thought entered his mind. Turning around, the body of a wounded little boy in bloodied medical garbs crawled towards him at a distance. Their face had twisted itself to reflect the resentment and hatred they felt for Eric with every fiber of their being.
You took everything! My life! My purpose! Even my fucking name! Why do you get to keep everything! WHY?!
None of it was fair. Eric understood the cold truth of the matter. He lived because he was given this body to use as the vessel he piloted to be who he was now. A boy robbed of this simple right had every reason to be angry at this injustice.
Still…
Eric looked upon the soul making him hallucinate their weakened presence with pure hatred. His mask didn't disguise the anguish that had been inflicted by them from their selfish actions. What used to be guilt had shifted into unbridled anger.
"You treated them like your property. Like they were yours because you deserved them."
Lifting their gaze to Eric showed how much he hated this existence now.
Though he took no joy in this shift of stances. In his eyes was genuine pain over what had occured. The resolution of this incident didn't bring Eric peace as he now understood who he was now. Had he only been the thing that was sacrificed for this individual, he would have held nothing against the one he had replaced all those years ago. Simply put, the stagnant remains of this damaged soul tried to make the women he loved into their property. Such a disgusting action was inexcusable in his eyes. Staring into those damaged eyes revealed no sense of remorse or regret for what he did. Eric only saw the immature desire to take what they thought was theirs by right.
Staring at the image of the enraged child still trapped in their resentment of him, his eyes carried this complex mixture of numerous emotions that couldn't be understood. Knowing who he was and how he lived his life made this difficult for him. He knew he had no right to speak against the boy he robbed life from. He knew this child had no say in how he suffered as a passenger in his own body. Yet there was this scathing hate he felt as he looked upon somebody who attempted to hurt those he loved.
"If you ever try to lay your hands on her or anybody else, I will not hesitate to end it all. I already know this life isn't mine to begin with…"
Narrowing his eyes at the brutalized image of the boy brought a serious understanding he wanted them to know without any miscommunication. Pulling his knife, Eric brought the weapon to his own neck and even let the edge of his blade sink in a little to the exposed flesh. It wasn't pleasant, but he needed to establish how serious he was to the original owner of this body with a demonstration of how far he was willing to take things for those he wanted to protect.
"So know how little I value our lives versus theirs. Nothing will make me choose you or me over them."
Returning the knife to its sheathe, he ignored the shrill cries of the child screaming at him with all the hate they could summon in that moment. For this twisted soul, that was an ocean being unleashed all at once.
I FUCKING HATE YOU! YOU STOLE FROM ME! WHY DID YOU GET TO LIVE?! WHY?! WHY DO I HAVE TO SUFFER FOR YOU?!
He had to keep walking. Listening to the child almost made him vomiting as he endured the hatred being spewed his way. Enduring the guilt was what he needed to do as he turned his back on the one person he had always thought was the death he never wanted to cause. Eric leapt off of the edge of the drop and followed the others as the Alchemax building plummeted.
Further below Web Weaver, Miles and the others were trying to slow down the building plummeting down towards the still occupied bridge of cars locked in unmoving gridlocked traffic. Their earlier evacuation did empty the buildings of everybody who would have lost their lives had they not had time to do so. Now the issue was preventing the people trapped on the bridge from suffering said fate themselves.
Trying to use webbing or any other sort of method led to constant breaks in secured spots that everybody utilized one after another. How Web Weaver managed to hold up this colossal mass of metal, glass, and cement all on his own baffled Miles as he couldn't even get his webbing to stop snapping underneath the intense weight of it plummeting.
All the time they could salvage from this situation did help Pavitr and Hobie evacuate more people, but things were going at a snail's pace. A lot of people were still panicking as the Alchemax building started to plummet yet again. Chunks of destroyed high rises were punching holes through cars as well as the bridge itself. Eve and Felicia had to dive ahead of the falling building to assist in getting people to safety.
Eric had finally caught up while doing what he could with silk bombs snagging the sides of the lab before they eventually snapped under the added momentum of gravity. Miles and Gwen already were just doing what they could to buy as much time as possible for everybody below. Things were depending on every possible second they could buy for everybody.
Eve was the only one able to smash boulders with her symbiote strength and durability reliably to save as many innocent bystanders. She first terrified everybody before they realized she was helping with her monstrous physical power. Felicia was with the other Spidermen to swing people to safety and out of harm's way. So far, a significant amount of people had been saved. One unfortunate incident of those being stuck on the bridge was a public bus with too many people crowding the sliding doors and preventing it from opening up. Their fear kept them all from being able to safely exit.
One gigantic mass of cement knocked loose from a skyscraper plummeted downwards through the road itself. Nobody lost their lives with only emptied cars suffering as casualties, but it made more of the bridge start to crumble away with more cars being slowly swallowed by its growth. Pavitr felt his spider sense ignite as he dropped off a terrified mother and daughter away from the danger. His eyes immediately spotted the bus he missed with the one person he cared for so personally. Launching himself with his webbing shot him directly at the falling bus with his girlfriend who failed to pull the emergency release on the back windshield.
Catching several tons of metal midair strained Pavitr's arms like nothing else. All that was keeping Gayatri from plummeting to her death was a single line of webbing stuck to the back paneling of the bus she was still trapped in. He willed every fiber of his being to not let go. Now he had to secure the bus in order to pull it to safety. More destruction all around them made this infinitely harder for the one person desperate to save his lover.
"Mama! Mama!"
A shrill cry made Pavitr's veins go cold as he turned back at the road being smashed to bits with a child wearing a red shirt that became lost in the chaos and hid under a car when she got separated from her family. Worse than that, Sergeant Singh was sprinting directly for the child to save her.
"No! Wait, stop!"
Desperation set in as Pavitr now had to deal with this new scenario. He strained to lift the bus up high enough to tie it off to some rebar sticking out of the crumbling hole he was hanging from the edge of. Time wasn't in his favor as more falling debris prevented Singh from carrying the girls to safety.
"Gwen, there's a Canon event happening right now-"
"Not now, Lyla!"
Slamming her palm on her Spider Society watch turned the device off and made the holograms with Lyla in them disappear. She knew that this was a convergence of expected events that this reality had built up. The past few months of preparing for this to happen led to her hoping that Eric was right about everything.
Miles saw the Sergeant and the child from afar and immediately changed course to go and save them. As he was about to leap off of the top of a bridge support, a hand caught his left arm. Turning to the one stopping him shocked him as it was none other than Eric. Deactivating the mask with the hood still up revealed a deathly serious expression boring straight through him.
"What if this is the wrong decision?"
Processing this outlandish question made it clear that Eric wanted a very serious answer out of Miles. The student quickly knew what he wanted to say in response to this man holding him accountable for his actions.
"Then they're my wrong decisions."
Remembering how his teacher never shied away from accepting responsibility reminded Miles of his moral center. The memory of Aunt May forgiving Web Weaver that fateful day still remained in his mind. Seeing the amount of anguish his former teacher had endured with the death he felt responsible for illustrated the responsibility shouldered by spiders.
Weathering that storm was his mentor. They went through hell and brought Miles under their wing to teach him better than the mistakes they made in his position. Recognizing that effort made Miles that much more responsible in Eric's eyes.
"... Clench your teeth."
No other explanation was given to Miles as he suddenly felt his entire spin before he was faced with the destination he wanted to be at to save the civilians. This one-way trip involving his costume's waistband being handled like a throwing sling sent him flying at Sergeant Singh who was trying to shield the child he had come to defend like a literal bullet.
Miles was terrified as he had never traveled at such impossible speeds in his entire life. Focusing on his sole objective of saving the innocent shielded him from stray thought as he was thrown like a spear at the innocent Singh and the little girl. In fact, Miles needed to slow himself down a tad bit as he realized he was coming in too hot. Two quick lines of webbing helped slow his trajectory enough for him to flip and snatch up Singh and the girl while running for safety. More and more of the rubble came crashing down all around him. Dodging everything slowed him down enough that he couldn't completely evade several chunks of concrete slabs landing on his location. The impact was deafening as everybody how had been saving innocent bystanders were rushing in to clear the rubble. Eve felt especially guilty for snapping at Miles over her frustrations earlier and didn't want their last interaction to be that of her embitterment.
Gwen, Eric, and Eve all yanked the slabs of concrete away to reveal a very shaken Miles with Sergeant Singh still cradling the innocent child in his arms underneath Miles's body. Getting them out of the destruction took seconds with Miles needing Eric to steady him a little after narrowly avoiding death just now.
"You did good, Miles."
Only Miles heard the man tell him he did well on his own terms. Spiderman saved people with all of his might, and the young man did just that. How even the younger Eric Yim acted like his previous teacher didn't matter so much as how he felt motivated by their teachings.
Just then, an alert went off on Eric's, Gwen's, Felicia's, Eve's, and even Hobie's personal devices. Eric chose to be cautious and leapt off of the side of the section of intact bridge they all stood upon. Hobie quickly followed him while the other spiders remained up on top to address the crowd now cheering them all on for saving so many people. Miles got caught up in the celebration while Eric and hobie were scrambling through their holographic interfaces to find a solution to the current issue.
"Who the hell authorized this much dimensional travel?! Does that asshole do this with every Canon event?!"
Trying to stitch the damaged parts of this reality shut with their devices was a mad scramble of fixing a building currently being rammed by molten hot battering ram on multiple fronts. This much travel would collapse any dimension with the blatant disregard of the structural integrity of the reality being violated so carelessly. Hobie did what he could to help Eric, but there just was too much being torn apart at the fabric of this dimension to stop the potential collapse.
Many ships were already appearing through multiple portals under the command of the Spider Society. Abusing this already compromised dimension from Spot's interference made things infinitely worse. Punctures in reality were erupting as the moment of this world's current time was experiencing multiple breaches already.
Both Hobie and Eric were already being outpaced by the damaged parts of this dimension. They couldn't fix the damage being inflicted with the limited means they had to do so.
"Mate, we're fucked if this goes on! We need something now, or everything here is done for!"
Trying to fix something being torn apart in real time was easier said than done. To calculate the exact formula to stitch the damaged areas of this dimension being violated in real time was beyond Eric's mortal capabilities. Saving this reality from collapsing needed something much more permanent than his abilities could achieve.
Allow me, my champion.
Hobie didn't expect a bright white light to suddenly erupt out of nowhere right behind him. Flames as pure as freshly fallen snow enveloped him as he couldn't feel the usual backlash from utilizing his transformation. All that happened is that he slowly started falling asleep into a dreamless slumber.
Turning back, Hobie saw Web Weaver in his altered state. He didn't know why, but all of his instincts demanded that he back away. Not out of fear. This was reverence down to the most primal of impulses.
Then the altered Web Weaver began to almost glide over whatever surface he raced across. Like a living banshee, the image if his cloak surrounding his body while he moved so smoothly on vertical, horizontal, and diagonal surfaces from all angles was strange to witness.
The further he traveled, the more this image of a spider crawling at immense speeds became tangible. Everywhere around the city were these black spots of voids being torn into the fabric of reality. Fixing them seemed impossible for the Spider Society, but not from something as outlandish as a titan spider consumed in cold flames webbing and fixing all of these holes in reality with a shot of its web sealing and then shrinking to restore the parts of this dimension that were eaten up by these random breaches. The sight of a colossal arachnid bringing back loved ones and restoring their beloved city brought countless people to their knees as they all began to pray to this spider god out of pure devotion as many families and friends were weeping in the streets with joy as their loved ones were suddenly being restored by the white flaming webs shrinking and restoring the fabric of this reality.
When this enormous spider finally patched up the breaches of this reality, it climbed up the supports where the bridge had almost been destroyed by the plummeting Alchemax laboratory and let out a triumphant roar that was more akin to a nuclear reactor running at full power than it was the roar of an animal. Finished with its mission, the flames that created its body began too dissipate and vanish piece by piece. Nothing remained of the being with only one thing starting to plummet towards the ground directly above the spiders. Distinguishing Web Weaver's iconic white cloak against the sky was easy for the three women who were now coordinating with each other to save their man. Eve launched Gwen upwards with a boost with her hands as she aimed for the nearest bridge support to latch onto. Felicia raced up towards Eric as he plummeted with her grapple hooks and was able too even slingshot herself up towards him at the last moment to intercept him as soon as possible. Catching Eric's unconscious body then led to the next part of their rescue with Gwen launching herself off of the bridge support and creating breakable webs that will catch weight and slow down whatever hit it between the cables making up the two sides of the intact suspension bridge. Keeping Eric safe during this important moment of lowering lethal force against his body did bring down the amount of force that could have been lethal with Felicia making sure that her man was still okay while this happened. The one who brought it all home was Eve as she located Felicia and Eric and made sure to absorb as much as she could of the inertia to keep those she loved dearly safe.
All of their efforts brought Web Weaver back safe and sound as he was slowly waking back up after such a sudden transformation. His eyes were filled with confusion as to why he had Miles and the others all Hovering over him in a circle.
"What happened?"
Again, all three women dove at Eric to make sure he was actually there. He wasn't able to respond properly as they were all pressing down on his chest bow while they felt exhausted from all of the constant near death encounters Eric had in such a short amount of time. Even Miles collapsed with Pavitr catching him before he hit his head on a broken piece of concrete. If his mentor died just now, Miles wouldn't know what he could have done after that potential event. No matter what, this man always came to Miles's aid to guide him in his darkest times. Losing that sort of kindness in his life wasn't allowed. Not in his world.
High above the city of Mumbattan were the ships still Hovering in place after witnessing the collapse of a Canon event suddenly become nonexistent. Jessica Drew herself was standing at the command platform with everybody else watching in complete silence at what they just witnessed. The complete evasion of a Canon event vanished right before their eyes and Web Weaver was at the center of it all.
Deep down, Jessica knew what this meant.
A call suddenly arrived through the ship's transmission system. She had her suspicions as to who would reach out to her in this confusing mess of a scenario. Connecting the call to her personal earpiece led to the one watching everything flooding her comms incessantly.
Sometimes she wished that her boss could just think for himself and not bug her in such circumstances.
Thirteen Minutes Later
Establishing aid and helping with the recovery effort was the least the Spider Society could do for everybody that had suffered so terribly just now. Many spiders were more than eager to assist the ailing citizens who needed their help.
Pavitr wasn't sure about how he should have felt as he saw a lot of citizens if his beloved city start to worship this new spider god. His own aunt was blowing up his phone with texts regarding the giant deity that just revived countless people and repaired the city like it was nothing. Days of worship were going to be infinitely more complicated with what he knew was the new doctrine of a new god being formulated to offer tribute to whatever just did what they did.
Landing the main ship and unloading Jessica herself as she instructed the relief effort wouldn't have rubbed Hobie the wrong way as much without the knowledge that the society almost brought this reality to its end by simply appearing. What would have been simple mistrust turned into outright spite of this clueless organization. Countless geniuses all blindly following the orders of one man disgusted Hobie to no end. Had they questioned anything once, somebody would have come across the truth. Hobie himself felt guilty of this as he now saw the reality of everything.
All Jessica had her eyes focused on was the man now eating what looked like kebabs off of wooden skewers next to a small huddle of those who were most concerned about his well being. Eve had sniffed out an unattended to-go box of goat and chicken skewers that could help Eric regain his strength as he felt famished to a painful degree after waking up again.
Wolfing all of that seasoned meant down in just a few bites satiated the painful appetite trying to force him to eat in the first place. He honestly didn't know what the hell happened to make him so hungry to begin with as Gwen, Felicia, and Eve all brought it in to embrace the man they loved dearly. Clearly he missed what was likely an earth shattering event, thought he did return their embrace as he told them that he loved them all dearly.
"Web… Eric."
Jessica caught Web Weaver's attention by intentionally calling him by his actual name. Noticing her doing this made him turn towards the black woman who stood before him with a serious expression adorned upon her face.
"He requested you. Bring everybody else with you."
Only Pavitr was allowed to remain behind to help with the disaster relief of his home dimension.
Miles was also invited to join, to which he almost expressed excitement before Eric's hand caught his right shoulder. Just hearing his voice let the young man know that this wasn't something to celebrate.
"Don't drop your guard."
Simple didn't translate to mediocre. Knowing how his former teacher operated, the reason he was so short meant that he couldn't talk in depth. He trusted Miles to pick up on his short dialogue.
So he kept it all under wraps. Giving Web Weaver the benefit of the doubt was a decision he felt was the only right one in this scenario.
Nueva York, Earth-982
Arriving through the typical portal of the Spider Society had been delayed as Eric said he 'needed to take a shit'.
Eleven Minutes of him being away until he reappeared brought everybody to this strange elevator that was clearly ascending with everybody being on the underside of the platform going up. Eve had to hold Felicia with her right forearm being positioned in front of her horizontally to act as her lover's seat. Not being a spider didn't leave Felicia a lot of room to arrive at the Spider Society without somebody to catch her. Eve just enjoyed the sight of Felicia's impossibly soft ass smashing against her arm so beautifully.
In that moment, Hobie removed his mask to reveal his thick dreads with Eric unveiling his face to remind Miles hat he too was a very attractive male. The odds seemed stacked against him against these two studs.
"How are you two this cool?"
Neither of the spiders went easy on Miles in their response as Hobie spoke first.
"I've always been this cool."
"I don't know. I just act as I should."
Left behind in an emasculated way by these two wasn't pleasant. He didn't resentment them, though he did wish he wasn't such an awkward teen to begin with whole interacting with them. None of this mattered all to much to Eric as he said something to Miles to make this a truly memorable experience.
"Hey Miles, watch this."
Eric gestured to one side of the walls ascending from their perspectives. On cue, the sudden sight of the futuristic city suddenly appeared before Miles.
This was a place of fantasy.
Never in his lifetime did Miles ever expect to see the futuristic cities of his imagination come to fruition. Flying cars, towering skyscrapers of unique designs, it all screamed futuristic to him.
His eyes were still glued to the scenery as they all arrived at the entrance lobby of the Spider Society. Eric decided it best for him to call out to the starstruck teen taken aback by his childhood visions coming to life.
"Miles."
Hearing the voice of Eric calling out to him automatically caught the young man's attention. It brought Miles back to reality as he followed the others into the arrival lobby where so many other spiders from alternate dimensions were all interacting with one another. Scanning around at all of these spiders from such unique places left the older teen in complete wonderment. Eve and Felicia both reoriented themselves with the floor as Gwen and Eric shortly followed suit.
Above them was Jessica as she was advised by another spider regarding where Spot's potential location was currently. When the main hub of the Spider Society was finally visible, Miles couldn't believe how large of a task force this was.
"... Wow."
Interjecting from behind was Gwen with a favt she thought would be a bit grounding for Miles's expectations.
"Most of them are here as part timers."
Eight Minutes Later
Traversing the Spider Society pathways amazed Miles Morales. Nothing else I'm his entire life came close to the monumental architecture of this fantastical society. Childish wonderment and curious inquiry weren't things that could protect Miles in this dangerous place. Eric trailed behind as he remained behind Miles to share as much information as he could with the young man.
When he glitches, Jessica threw Miles a day pass that was essentially a dimensional anchor that Eric could have built in a day's time. The disappointment of receiving what was essentially a tourist pass led to Miles then receiving something from somebody else out to make sure that the teen would be okay no matter what.
"Miles, keep your eyes forward and act like nothing is happening."
Following these commands helped bring him up to speed regarding the actual reason he had been summoned alongside Web Weaver and the others. Remaining neutral while listening to his mentor, obeying the commands fed to him by Eric felt bizarre. On his right was a golden Cuban link bracelet that Eric suddenly instructed him to put onto his left wrist. The urgency in Eric's voice had it on in mere seconds. Then the order to tuck it under his suit's glove hid the item from prying eyes. The thing felt like it was becoming more comfortable as it shrank down to perfectly match Miles's wrist.
Coordinating their positions to let Miles wear the bracelet; confirming that he actually managed to wear it let Felicia and Eve breathe a sigh of relief as they didn't have to body block the surveillance footage anymore. In Miles's case, he had to ignore a valuable accessory that shrank to his exact measurements that Web Weaver instructed him to ignore. Doing so had him fighting every impulse imaginable as the security system of the Spider Society showed nothing out of the ordinary with the group traveling towards the central hub. Visual camera data was the extent that the leader of the Spider Society was able to scrub in this instance.
Approaching a very important looking part of the Spider Society base led everybody through a hallway filled with numerous villains all trapped within orange energy cages that could expel any physical force applied to them. So many villains of strange origin or bewildering narratives all lined the sides of this hallway stuffed with all sorts of cooky and zainey characters. Very few of these criminals garnered Miles's respect as he observed them casually. Peering into a prowler's cell with this unbelievable level of detail had the prowler saying it was rude to stare without reason. This reason stood until the one who could bypass such silly things began to make his way past these criminals.
Miles returned to his group and saw that the bigger looking villains all looked away from Web Weaver and his party. All of the criminals that the vigilante passed by all looked away out of fear for their own lives. Only those who were killers themselves could smell the unbearable stench of blood coming off of him. Web Weaver was the killer of killers. So it only made sense that only the most fearsome of killers in this place could pick up on his violent tendencies.
The next area that Miles was introduced to was the 'Go Home Machine'. Complex machinery gave this transparently skinned machine to connect laser webbing to provide a barrier that can send the criminals captured by the Spider Society back to their dimension of origin. Right before their eyes was a version of Rhino being sent back to his home of origin. Battle cries were all wasted as the machine sent the villain back to their original dimension. Seeing the good was one thing. Witnessing those who disapproved of its true nature all turned away while Miles accidentally ran into a glowing girl made of cooler colored lights when their spider senses synced up with each other.
"H-hey! I'm, um… I-I'm Miles."
Much to her embarrassment, the teen sitting at home controlling her avatar felt embarrassed as she had been piloting this version of herself that she felt was unprepared for such an encounter like this.
Margo Kess and Miles were awkwardly trying to chat when Miles realized that he was left alone with her by his original party and needed to run after them. She just thought that he was a cute boy as she went back to managing the Go Home Machine on her own.
Later
Entering the further depths of this place felt a bit nerve racking for Miles. By instinct, he stuck to Web Weaver's side as he couldn't shake this sense of apprehension plaguing him the closer they got to the leader of this Spider Society. Beside him was the only one who saw through the real purpose of this meeting.
"Miles, I need you to keep acting normal for now. Just be ready when the time comes."
"What? Ready for what?"
Walking away towards Gwen up ahead, Miles only felt confused as to what he meant by all that. He had no idea what he needed to look out for and it put him slightly on edge.
Entering this chamber with a beam of pale light pouring from the ceiling, Gwen let Miles know that the slowly descending platform was a purposefully designed feature of this room. Up above on top of the platform was the one and only Miguel O Hara.
The platform descended very slowly. It tried several people's patience as there wasn't a single reason why Miguel needed to make his command console this slow in any practical capacity. Being dramatic seemed to be the way he conducted himself in all situations. Including this one.
"Ahem… Miguel, this is Miles. Miles, this is Miguel."
"Ah, uh… H-hi! It's nice to finally meet you."
What Eric said earlier made Miles more wary of his situation. With that increased awareness, he could pick up on the rather unnatural hostility aimed at him from Miguel. Keeping his cool became harder for the young Spiderman to maintain his cool. Faced with the one in charge of this whole operation left him a little more than a little nervous. Maintaining his vistage of pure naivety felt a bit nerve racking with somebody trying to bore a hole through him with their stare alone.
Skipping the Spanish he thought would have helped his case seemed to be the right choice. Miguel didn't looked pleased in the slightest with present company accounted for. Making a case for his presence within the base of the Spider Society besides being summoned here justified left the teen a bit flustered.
"Listen, I think we need to approach Spot in a different way."
"Oh, is that right."
Arrogant sarcasm dripped from Miguel's voice the more Miles tried to give his possible solution for Spot. He was too busy trying to keep his words straight while Miguel kept pretending to listen to the nervous teen. Reaching for his dense metal trash bin and hurling it with all his might at both Gwen and Miles was the last straw for Eric.
Appearing before Miles and Gwen in less than a second, they flinched with normal human reactions as the projectile was caught by Web Weaver from the bottom rim of the sturdy waste bin. Miles managed to pull his eyes back up in time to see his past mentor do something even he saw was a direct spit in the leader of the Spider Society's face as Web Weaver easily crushed the trash bin down into a smaller metal ball within seconds that seemed to even glow red hot as it reached the size of a tennis ball. He then lifted it to the side and just dropped it. The metallic impact felt like a grenade going off as the sheer sign of disrespect that Web Weaver demonstrated how he personally hated Miguel O Hara.
Trying to hurt both the woman he loved dearly and an innocent teen who was a better hero than all of these moronic spiders in this 'society' pissed him off. Miguel deserved to know how much he was hated as Gwen did her best to push back Eric while he kept staring death threats back at Miguel in a mutual staring contest of hatred. Jessica even had to step in and pull her boss back as he looked too eager to start a fight to the death with one of the more dangerous spiders in the multiverse. Their unbridled rage against one another was a serious point of concern she had over Miguel's ability to lead this mission.
"Miguel, that's enough!"
Snapping back to reality gave Miguel the realization he had acted out of line. Both spiders were still staring at each other with genuine spite as Felicia pulled Eric's eyes to hers and kissed him through his mask before pulling back and asking him to wait behind everybody else. She grounded him and made him agree to be sensible enough to be the bigger man.
Avoiding another fight between Web Weaver and Miles lowered the injuries to an all time low during their encounters. He stood behind the woman who loved him while Miguel needed his right hand man to shake some sense back into his anger
addled mind. The man in charge of this whole operation collected himself and began to share the reason he had such a problem with everything going on currently.
"You interrupted a Canon event!"
Before anybody could ask what he meant by that, Eric was already storming back up to Miguel with another bout of rage behind his words as even Miles was finding himself restraining Web Weaver during his enraged outburst.
"Canon events are bullshit and you know it! I analyzed the data of that first event and know what you did! How could you?! The structure of reality couldn't endure what you did, and you carelessly-"
"Eric! Stop!"
Eve was the one who held Eric's face in her hands as she calmed him down with her affection for him. He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against Eve's as an apology as she pressed hers back to let him know own she still loved him. Overhearing this outburst, Jessica immediately became interested as she didn't know what Web Weaver was talking about in the first place.
Calming both aggressors down gave everybody a moment to breathe with Eric backing up by about eight steps while Miguel returned to his lecture regarding the build of the multiverse. Between these two was an inevitable clash where they would end up killing each other out of spite alone, if not out of hatred.
One of them dying was the only way this existence between so many dimensions could continue.
Miguel O Hara reprimanded Gwen, Hogie, and brushed over Felicia and Eve with an underhanded comment that was a poor choice to make with Web Weaver in the room.
"These two?! They're only more worthless than they are now if they couldn't breathe anymore. How on-"
Jessica just barely pulled Miguel out of the way of a ballistic webbing shot made by Web Weaver to actually kill Miguel O Hara. She couldn't believe the words that just came out of her once Distinguished leader's mouth just now. He was calloused, but he never came off as so hateful un the past. What was the purpose of her own personal sacrificed if it meant serving this sick individual who left all under his command reluctant at best to follow his order on the merit of his leadership alone.
Eric was consoled by Gwen as she too was enraged by the offhanded comment against her beloved. Understanding his anger gave her the chance to de-escalate the issue from her own personal understanding of how much of a corrupt scumbag Miguel was in her eyes now. Facing Gwen's rage got him yelled at by Jessica's most promising spider student. Not even the mentor could argue against the points being made against the man trying to still exercise his control over all spiders
"Worthless?! I should beat you till all of your bones are broken, Miguel! How dare you talk like that against the women who risked their lives for your mission!"
Stopping Gwen wasn't appropriate as Miguel was hit with more valid points of his negligent methods of rule over the spider society.
"How can we keep doing this, Miguel?! We're running on empty while following YOUR instructions! If you ever talk down on Felicia or Eve like that again, I will make sure your death will be a Canon even PERSONALLY!"
As he was about to eliminate the obstacle of Gwen's outburst, Jessica herself was the one to grab his right wrist and look at him with a serious expression that challenged him as a person. If he wanted to eliminate Gwen, then Jessica wouldn't hesitate to act as her sworn mentor.
She already felt as though she had neglected her student for far too long up until now, anyways.
Facing the potential rebellion from his right hand man made things unbearably tense. Only one voice cut the lines drawn tightly in this atmosphere of conflict.
"Whoa, can't we just calm down for a moment? We don't have to start killing each other for a solution, after all."
From the darkened hallway behind those who entered this chamber as guests was none other that Peter B. Parker. Only thing that made more than one individual extremely panicked was the sight of his empty baby satchel.
"Peter, where is May?"
Eve was the most even nerved of the lot as he said that his daughter was okay dismissively. Felicia, Eve, and Eric all went branching off to find the vulnerable child in the blink of an eye with Eve returning with the child in less than five seconds. The little ginger bundle of joy happily cooed at Eve as she smiled with all of her seemingly scary teeth. May Parker was this genuinely pure bundle of joy that Eve and Felicia were so easily bound to that Peter was a bit jealous as to how his own daughter was more keen on spending time with these women from another dimension rather than her own peepaw.
Eve returned with a safe May in her arms as the child played with her many white fangs. Carrying her while the child kept pulling at her sturdy teeth genuinely made Eve happy as she got to spend more time with this precious child who trusted her so much. Felicia just enjoyed the sight of her loved one acting so nurturing to a child that the father was negligent in protecting just now.
Peter then engaged with Miles and Gwen with photos of his own daughter that all looked the same to the younger duo. Demonstrating
his experience in understanding the child's micro-expressions was Peter's personal privilege to demonstrate.
"Peter! Look after your fucking kid, already!"
Making up some excuse that his daughter ate avocado didn't hold up all that much as Eric reprimanded him for carrying his child into this dangerous place that could still seriously injured his child with just one moment of carelessness on May's part. A needless risk that Eric and the others all reprimanded Peter for repeatedly.
All he did was ignore them in favor of showing Miguel all of the baby photos Peter B. Parker had saved on his mobile. Even Miguel was a better caretaker that Peter as he easily made sure that May wasn't hurt when he caught her falling off of him when she stopped sticking. Both hands were used to catch her body and her head to prevent her from getting hurt. Giving Peter back his child only frustrated Eric and the others how neglectful Peter was with his daughter.
She had no business being brought here to this danger prone dimension. Eve was the one most pissed off about it as she felt most fearful for the innocent little girl's safety left at the hands of a buffoon of a father.
Updating Miles on the current state of affairs within the multiverse was the first step for Miguel in his purpose of bringing the teen to the Spider Society HQ. He asked Lyla to do the thing as she doused the entire room in complete darkness so that the real light show could begin.
A tree of light began to shoot up from the ground far above the heads of everybody standing within the room to show the structure of the dimensions all interconnected with one another. Caught up with the light show was none other than Miles. Listening in didn't remove his suspicions over the real agenda of the Spider Society that the man he trusted more than all of these costumed actors.
"This is the multiverse."
Unfurling before Miles was an intricate system of webs that connected all realities with one another. It looked truly unbelievable as it all closed in on parts of the projected model that Miguel had produced so far through his efforts researching the multiverse. Events all repeated through the realities that all contained a spider all had common factors with Miguel saying how these factors needed to be consistent to guarantee the safety of the civilians of each universe. He even sold his own sob story of how he tried to replace the life of another Miguel O Hara who died in another universe that he tried to replace and caused a universal collapse which killed everybody inside of said universe besides him.
In this narrative, changing expected events meant risking lives. This truth would have held more ground for Miles if he wasn't exposed to the reality of the situation. How his teacher was responding to the approach of the Spider Society more than when he prevented this Canon event brought him back to reality. These accusations weren't adding up at all.
For Miles, nothing about this theory made sense in the way that Miguel wanted it to become. How was he the one who escaped the dimensional collapse when so many others suffered their end? Couldn't he have pulled the daughter he personally took charge of and at least preserved her life by moving her to another reality that would have at least given her a fighting chance?
Things weren't making sense in his mind as he had been taught to look at all possibilities. Observing these possibilities didn't add up in his eyes.
Pulsing through his skull were those visions from the Mumbattan supercollider. Enduring was all he could do with those same haunting visions revisiting his mind again. Visions of his father falling to a fate he failed to protect him from still confronted him in his most vulnerable moments.
?
Again.
He found himself in this empty vacuum again after experiencing those visions when his spider sense flared up just now. That same empty void surrounded him as he decided to simply ask his questions after the experience he gained from the last time he appeared in this place.
Who am I.
Several pauses went by before he got a response from the ether. It took him a moment to recover having a voice in his head that wasn't his own speak to him.
A stray child. One outside of my great design.
Just turning around revealed a titanic spider engulfed in frigid flames of white right behind him. Allowing this presence to simply speak unveiled so much more to Miles as he felt all these complicated emotions flow through him. Countless thoughts not his own threatened to crack his skull open like a raw egg against a countertop.
Pouring the truth about Miles's existence into his mind unveiled a disturbing reality. Against the grain of intentions of his life, he wasn't supposed to exist.
Visions of the spider that bit him glitching flooded his brain. Proof that he was nothing but a mistake kept Miles down at the mere fact he couldn't exist anymore in this proper timeline. Accepting this reality was the easier choice in the matter. Yet something kept him from submitting to this reality.
What will you do?
He had to make a choice. These numerous options weren't what he wanted to do as he made up his mind already. Only one correct answer remained when he finally resurfaced.
Spider Society Central Command
Miles resurfaced in an instant from something rather intense.
He knew he had to stop this from happening. Asking when it would happen gave him the deadline of roughly two days from Miguel's own mouth. Only one logical answer existed for Miles after knowing the truth. Nothing else mattered as he just wanted to prevent a tragedy.
"Send me home."
Miguel refused.
Turns out that Miles's dad was to be a sacrifice at the pyre of Spiderman. Out of the darkness of the room were more spiders who all surrounded Miles with their own personal burdens as Peter B. Parker tried to approach Miles with Felicia holding him back by the back of his pink robes.
"This should be his fucking choice. Not yours."
Web Weaver blocked out all further commentary from the peanut gallery with his interference. Nobody wanted to step on this guy's toes with the reputation he built up for himself. Villains mentally broken with evidence of inhumane torture evident on their bodies followed the infinitely more positive reputation of Gwen Stacy. She had become a shining star while he became a lethal individual who inspired fear like in his home dimension.
These traits would now drive the future forward to its new destination.
Progress never fails, as they say.