Hello everyone!
I'm sorry for not posting a chapter last month! I actually was getting Scuba certified, so most of my free time outside of work was spent with working on the online classes I had to complete. But I'm back with another chapter!
Also, I wanted to take the time to thank you all for reading this story! Last month (which I'm frustrated with myself for missing) was the four-year anniversary of this fic, so I wanted to let you know how much I appreciate you all for reading this story!
So without further delay, here's the next chapter! I'm thinking that the next one will probably be the final arc of this storyline, though you may end up seeing characters from this arc again in future chapters! Including some familiar characters in this chapter!
Enjoy the chapter!
Adventure in the Spider-Verse: Part Three
Earth 50101:
"So this is called dosa," Eddie said, looking at the street food that Pav had gotten him. "It kinda looks like a crepe to me."
"SMELLS GOOD," Venom said, his head poking out of the teen's shoulder to peer at the food.
"It tastes good, too," Pavitr spoke up, the Spider-Man hanging upside down from a nearby billboard, mask pulled away from his mouth so he could eat.
It was now late afternoon in the city of Mumbhattan, and Eddie had managed to survive most of the day without anyone noticing that he occasionally fritzed out like a broken TV. There had been a few close calls, but Pavitr would come up with some excuse or weird question to draw attention away from the other-worldly visitor, at least until he was back to normal. Thankfully, this only happened a few times, but the randomness of the attacks made it hard to focus on anything else.
Venom in particular hated these episodes, having to try very hard to keep from roaring out loud and crushing whatever was in front of him. Eddie could sense his friend's agitation, and wondered how they were supposed to get home.
"So," the teenaged superhero continued, taking another bite. "You're from Earth, but not this Earth. Or at least, not Earth in this year."
"Right," Eddie said, taking a bite of his snack, which was good, before tearing off a piece and tossing it towards the alien's head. "It's supposed to be summer for us, AND the 90's. Plus, I don't remember learning about Mumbhattan in Geography. There's Manhattan, in New York state."
The teen superhero shook his head. "I have never heard of a 'New York,' but I guess we can safely assume you're from another universe." He suddenly looked thoughtful. "Scientists have theorized this sort of stuff for years, but to see that it's actually possible..."
"It's not as cool when you find yourself in another universe with no way home," the younger teen reminded him, frowning a little.
"Sorry." Pavitr dropped down to the rooftop they were resting on, sitting cross-legged across from the boy. "But you said that this glowing portal of sorts just appeared in a convenience store and brought you here?"
Eddie nodded.
"And you weren't doing anything strange before that? Nothing that could've altered time and space itself?"
"Dude, I was just buying some frozen tater tots."
"THEY'RE OUR FAVORITE," Venom spoke up, accepting another piece of dosa from his host.
"Hmm..." Spider-Man took another bite of his own food. "The portal must've been created by something, or someone. Maybe perhaps in your own dimension? Or mine."
"But how're we supposed to find out who's been working on a portal to other universes?" Eddie asked. "And what if that person's in my dimension, and they don't know I'm here? How am I supposed to get home?"
"Not to mention those phasing attacks you keep having," Pavitr added. "I'm guessing it could be a side-affect of cross-dimensional travel. I suppose... if we are from different universes, then the atoms that make up everything must be different too. Maybe your body's rejecting the atoms of this universe, or something." He shook his head again. "It's all theory, of course. We have no way of knowing for sure."
"So we're stuck here forever, then?" Eddie asked, his scowl deepening. "No offense, but I kind of have a life back in my world. A dad, some friends, fireworks-"
"WE STILL DON'T LIKE THOSE."
"Kind of got bigger things to worry about, V."
"You won't be stuck here forever," the Indian teenager promised, a kind smile on his face. "I'm Spider-Man; it's my job to help others as a superhero! And I'm going to help you find a way home, no matter how long it takes. And until then, you can stay with me and my May Auntie; she's really kind, and makes the best Chai you've-"
The teenager suddenly paused, his eyes widening. Quickly pulling his mask down, he stood up, looking around.
"What is it?" Eddie asked, standing up as well. Venom retreated back into his host, alert for possible danger.
"I don't know," Spider-Man replied. "It's this... I call it my 'Sense of Spider.' When somethings off, or there's danger around, it lets me know. Kind of like a sixth sense."
"And it's going off right now?"
"Yes, like crazy." He put a hand to the side of his head. "But I don't-"
A pinprick of light appeared a few yards behind the teenager, near the corner of the rooftop. It quickly grew bigger, becoming a pulsating, glowing circle of purple and red and white lights. It made a loud humming noise, and edges of it seemed to fritz and phase like Eddie and Venom sometimes did.
Eddie gasped, taking several steps back. "That's it! It's a portal like the one that brought me here."
"Amazing," Pavitr muttered, having stepped back as well. "Do you think it's here to take you home?"
"Maybe? But what if it takes me to a whole other world?"
WE SHOULD GO THROUGH IT AND FIND OUT, Venom said. BEST CASE SCENARIO, WE END UP HOME.
"Or we could end up in a universe with, like, no technology and everyone's a hotdog or something."
"What's a hot dog?" Spider-Man asked. "Is it-" He suddenly straightened up. "Sense is going off again. I think-"
Before he could finish his sentence, two figures suddenly appeared, stepping out of the portal onto the rooftop. Eddie and Pavitr stared at them in shock, and even Venom stuck his head out, wanting to get a better look at the strangers. And these two guys definitely were strange.
First off, one of them wasn't even human. He looked humanoid, but Eddie was pretty sure that humans weren't supposed to have brown fur or sharp teeth. To the boy's shock, he realized that the person looked like a werewolf of sorts. And bizarrely, he was wearing a similar costume to Pavitr: a red-and-blue costume with web designs all over and a spider on the chest, and a mask to cover the eyes.
But the other guy, despite being human, put the wolf-man to shame. It was like... How could Eddie describe him?
KALIDESCOPE, V said in his mind, and his human host agreed.
The second guy was constantly shifting his appearance, the color of his skin and clothes changing every few seconds. But besides that, the guy didn't even look like he was in three-dimensions. Rather, he looked like someone had cut out a bunch of body parts from magazines and threw them together. Just looking at him made Eddie's eyes hurt, but he saw that he also wore a Spider-Man costume, though this one had a spiked vest and mask, and had an electric guitar strapped to his back.
"... and that's how you use your watch to get to a specific dimension," the Wolf-Man was saying, looking at something on his wrist. Eddie saw a white band with an orange display that seemed to hover over the stranger's wrist, like a hologram from a cartoon.
They have to be from other dimensions, the boy thought. Are they the ones that brought me here?
"Now," the Wolf-Man continued, looking at the large orange display and tapping it, as if it were solid, "it's taken us to where the anomaly is, and-" He looked up and finally noticed Eddie, Venom and Pavitr. "See? It's right there, just like the sensor indicated."
Both Eddie and Pavitr turned to look behind them, half expecting to see whatever it was the other-worldly visitor was talking about. But nothing was there.
"Uh..." Eddie turned back to the strangers. "What are you-"
"Then you just take this thing," the Wolf-Man continued, as if he hadn't heard the boy. He took a small white disc from his belt. "Hit this button, and-"
He tossed it towards Eddie, and the disc skidded across the rooftop, coming to rest between the boy's feet. Suddenly, there was a burst of red light, and the next thing he knew, Eddie found himself suddenly encased in a red, static-like bubble of energy.
"What the-"
His arms flailed out, hitting the very solid walls. Starting to panic, he pushed against the unfamiliar material, but it wouldn't budge.
"EDDIE!" Pavitr had ran over to him, trying to grab at the bubble but unable to get a firm grip on the glowing surface. His voice sounded slightly muffled to Eddie, and as both teenagers tried to break through the barrier, Wolf-Man and his companion walked over to them.
"And it's that simple," Wolf-Man explained to the other guy, smiling at Eddie's futile attempts to break out. "Brocks are a dime a dozen, but I've never seen one this young before."
"Let me OUT!" Eddie yelled, trying to kick at the bubble but slipping and falling instead.
"Who are you guys?" Pavitr demanded, standing in a defensive-position between Eddie and the strangers. "Where did you come from?"
"Don't worry," Wolf-Guy assured his friend. "I've got this." He turned back to Pavitr. "Hello, fellow Spider-Person from..." He checked his watch. "Which Earth is this again? Oh! Earth 50101!" He looked back up at the teenaged hero, grinning and showing sharp teeth. "Sorry if we scared you! My name's Peter Barker; I'm also a Spider-Man, or Spider-Wolf, rather."
"I thought it was 'Wolf-Spider,'" the other stranger spoke up. He spoke so quietly that Eddie nearly didn't' hear him, but was able to catch that the man had a thick British accent.
"No, it's 'Spider-Wolf,'" the werewolf replied. "That's not important." He turned back to Pavitr. "We're like you; we're Spider-People from other universes. Superheroes fighting for the common good."
WE DO NOT CARE, Venom snapped angrily, and seconds later, the alien symbiote had covered his host, and was hammering on the sides of the bubble prison. "LET US OUT RIGHT NOW!"
"Now you see why I said it's best to get in there quickly and capture them before they even realize what's happening?" Spider-Wolf said to his British friend. "Brock/Venom symbiotes are particularly powerful and violent; there's a reason just about every Spider-Person has a Symbiote Canon Event, because they're such formidable opponents."
"WE'LL SHOW YOU FORMIDABLE, WOLFIE!" The symbiote hammered on the bubble, which shook and fritzed a little, but it didn't break.
"Why did you capture my friend?" Pavitr asked, still looking at the two strangers with suspicion and not lowering his fists.
"Two reasons," Spider-Wolf replied. "First, to save his life. He's been here for several hours, so he's most likely fritzing-"
As if on-cue, a sudden spasm of pain shot through Eddie and Venom, making them cry out in pain and fall to their knees, the symbiote sinking back into his host's skin.
"-Like that," the wolf-person continued. "It's a symptom of cross-dimensional travel. Without one of these-" He held up his wrist to show Pavitr the white watch. "-a traveler's cells would eventually decay and they die. So firstly, we're saving his life. And second, he's a villain that got sent here by mistake, so we need to take him back to his own dimension before he causes any more trouble."
This last sentence made both Eddie and Pavitr stare at Spider-Wolf with shock. Eddie, slowly climbing to his feet, was especially confused.
"A villain?" he asked. "I... I'm not a villain."
"Of course you are," Spider-Wolf said, bringing up his orange holo-display for the two teenagers to see. Eddie saw his own face, alongside the words: "ANOMALY IDENTIFIED. NAME: EDDIE BROCK. EARTH: 20919-FF."
WHAT DOES THE 'FF' STAND FOR? Venom wondered.
"Every Spider-Person has an Eddie Brock or Venom Symbiote -or both, in most cases - as a villain in their universe. And recently, a bunch of villains have been sucked out of their worlds into others, causing trouble-"
"Hey, I didn't cause any trouble," Eddie broke in, frowning at the werewolf. "I was just trying to enjoy my Fourth of July-"
"You celebrate that in your universe?" the British Spider-Man spoke up, and Eddie found it hard to look at the guy with him flashing a different color every other second. "Don't celebrate it in my world's America, 'cause it gets taken over by this fascist dictator, like the UK was." He scratched the side of his face, and given his slight slouch, he appeared almost bored to be there. "Most countries are bein' ruled by fascist dictators in my universe, actually..."
"Whatever," Eddie continued, turning back to Spider-Wolf, "I was just minding my own business when some portal brought me here! I didn't do anything wrong, and I'm DEFINITELY not a villain either! And that insult sounds a bit rich, coming from the man-eating WEREWOLF!"
"Hey! I don't eat people anymore," the Spider-Person snapped, his mask's eyes narrowing at the boy. "Which is a net win for you and everyone I work with!"
"Well, I've never eaten anybody, and neither has Venom," the teenager countered, pounding his fists on the red bubble again.
The wolf-person growled, teeth bared. Venom quickly covered his host's head, morphing his shape into that of a wolf's head. He growled right back, and for a few moments, the two of them growled at each other until the British Spider-Man stepped between them.
"Yo, can we calm down now, yeah? No need for the hostilities." He slapped Spider-Wolf on the shoulder, making the hero stagger a little. "Seems clear to me that the kid won't be a problem; no need to make things difficult by arguing. Let's get him back to headquarters so we can get him home, yeah?" He turned to Pavitr. "You can come too, meet Miguel. Guy's okay, but a bit strict. Got a stick up his rear, if you know what I mean."
Eddie, Pavitr and Spider-Wolf looked at the ever-changing man for a few moments, and then at each other.
"You know I still don't like you?" Spider-Wolf asked Eddie.
"The feeling's mutual, trust me," the teenager replied.
"And if you or your parasite-"
EXCUSE US?!
"We'll behave," Eddie promised, sticking Venom's head back into his chest before the symbiote could say anything.
Sighing, Spider-Wolf hit a button on his wristwatch. The red bubble receded, becoming a small white disc at the boy's feet. The superhero shot out some webbing to take the device back, pocketing it.
"We're taking them both straight to the Go-Home Machine," the werewolf said, hitting another button as a brightly-colored portal opened up behind him. "Oh, and you'll need this."
He took a bracelet out of his pocket and tossed it to Eddie.
"That'll keep you from fritzing all the time."
"Thanks," the teenager replied, quickly putting it on.
"Okay," Pavitr said, walking over to Eddie, "I think we can safely assume these guys are behind you ending up here."
"Yeah," Eddie said in a low voice, frowning a little. "I don't know if I like them that much. No offense, since they're technically you from other universes, but they think V and I are evil or something." He looked at the British Spider-Man. "At least that guy seems chill."
"HE GOT US OUT OF THAT BUBBLE," Venom added, poking his head out of his host's shoulder. "PLUS, HE'S BRITISH."
"So?"
"YOU ALWAYS TOLD US THAT BRITISH PEOPLE WERE COOL."
"Not when they stole a bunch of your country's stuff," Pavitr muttered.
"Well..." Eddie looked at the portal. "We can't stay here. Might as well go and trust that they can help us get home."
"And if not?" the other teenager asked.
"THEN WE SQUASH THOSE SPIDERS," Venom said, grinning evilly. "NO OFFENSE, PAVITR."
"None taken, but remind me never to cross you."
"I second that," Eddie agreed, making his way over to join Spider-Wolf and the British Spider-Man by the portal. The werewolf still eyed the teenager suspiciously, but didn't say anything as he stepped into the portal.
"Ready, V?" the boy asked.
"READY."
And on that note, Eddie stepped into the portal.
Thank you all again for reading! Please follow and favorite to get notifications on future chapters!
I'll see y'all next time!
-aggiefrogger