"What the hell is that?" Gwen asked as she spotted the large crowd moving towards the tower that had become the base of operations for the Spider Society.

"If I had ta guess?" Hobie said. "I'd say the people finally wised up to Miguel and his bullshit and are going on a rampage."

"Try and sound a BIT less happy about that," Gwen said, rolling her eyes.

"This is what I wanted, Gwendy. People to open their eyes and actually see how bad that bastard was. What kind of monster he and those that thought he hung the stars truly were."

"You do realize that to them both of us are part of that second group, right?"

Hobie though shook his head. "Nah… everyone knows I'm a rebel. As for you I'll make-em see that you finally got your head twisted back on right and-"

Gwen didn't get to hear the rest of what Hobie was going to say as suddenly her spider-sense went haywire. There was danger in all directions and she couldn't figure out where it was coming from. She twisted her head about, feeling like her brain was in a vice, trying to figure out what she had missed, what was coming at her, what was causing her mind to roar out in terror…

Then there was a sickening feeling in her gut that only came when she went into freefall and she realized that she'd lost hold of her webline and was falling.

'Every universe… Gwen Stacy falls for Spider-Man.'

Miles hadn't understood the double meaning of that.

She flailed wildly, trying to figure out where she could fire off a webline and, hopefully, get control of her plunge but the world was spinning to rapidly about her eyes and she couldn't focus. And her spider-sense was still screaming, which of course it was, she was falling to her death and-

Strong arms wrapped around her and Gwen let out a 'oompf' as the wind was knocked out of her, followed by a cry of pain as she slammed into a roof. But the catch had at least slowed her fall down enough that it was only a bruising rather than a splatting that she received.

"Sorry about that, Miss," the Peter said. She knew it was a Peter because she heard the voice often enough and they tended to have similar tones and cadences to their voices. It was a cruel reminder of her best friend who she'd never see again. Just another way to torture herself.

'Maybe next time I can find an entire society of Mileses and listen to them-Mileses? Milisi?' Gwen shook her head. "I think I got bashed harder than I thought."

"That would be the Spider-Zapper," a new voice said and Gwen closed her eyes and then opened them, trying to get her vision to work. When it finally did she found herself staring at the digital avatar of Margo Kess, aka Spider-Byte. "It screws with Spider senses… makes them go on the fritz."

"That's why the landing wasn't as smooth as it should have been," a Spider-Man in a suit said; Gwen tried to remember his name but couldn't.

"Thanks Spider-CEO," she finally said lamely. Perhaps that Spider-Zapper had screwed up her sense of humor as well.

"Dr. Richard Parker," the suited Spider-Man said.

"…right, the quack," she said only to wince the moment the words left her mouth. "Sorry… sorry! I'm just all muddled-"

"Don't apologize, Gwendy," Hobie said as he landed next to him. "Man is a quack. Isn't that right, Dick?"

Richard clearly wasn't pleased with the name calling but then he took a moment to compose himself before saying, "You all have a right to be angry. I… did not help the situation at all. I understand that. And I will work to regain your trust."

"He's trying," Margo commented. "And he sees that Miguel is full of shit." She narrowed her eyes. "And you, Gwen?"

"Yeah," she said without hesitation, "yeah, my eyes are open now. Took a few different people yelling at me to get it…"

"Not the best way to help someone," Richard said and Gwen suddenly found herself thinking about how she had trained Miles. Screaming at him to figure it out, allowing her own frustrations to get the better of her instead of remembering how HARD it was to learn to be Spider-Woman, not saying a word as the others ganged up on him…

'God, was I ever his friend?' she asked only for Margo to suddenly snap her fingers in front of her face.

"Hey. Itty Bitty Pity Committee?" Gwen blinked and couldn't help but look down at her chest before realizing that Margo had said 'Pity' which made a lot more sense. "We aren't doing any good standing around here feeling sorry for ourselves. We need to get to work."

"Doing what though?" Hobie asked. "We came here to find Miles and spotted that mob and there is still an invasion going on." He gestured at the city. "Seems like there is a lot of work to do. Though I'll tell ya, my work is finding the kid-"

"Don't call him that," Gwen said automatically.

"-and getting him the hell out of here."

"That is already covered," yet ANTOHER Spider-Man said, this one wearing medical scrubs. He was crouched on a wall, watching them all carefully. "Not sure if I should tell you who has him…"

"Percy," Richard said with a sigh, "please believe us that we are here to help. We've… realized the mistakes we've made."

"Please," Gwen said, turning to the Spider-Doc, seeing him as her only hope of ever finding Miles. With the madness of the city it would be easy for whoever had stolen him to slip away and with the multiverse to play in she'd never find him. "Please…" she repeated, pulling off her mask, already feeling her eyes burn as she tried to stop her tears. She wouldn't fall apart… wouldn't be the stereotypical weeping love interest begging some big strong man to save her one and only…

"The Superior Spider- Man got him and his family out."

"The… you let an Otto Octavius take him?" Hobie exclaimed, shocked. Gwen winced; on Hobie's earth Otto was Prime Minister Osborn's second in command. Known as 'The Octopus' because he had his tentacles wrapped around all aspects of life, squeezing the freedom from it as Hobie had often said. And she knew there were plenty of Spiders who weren't happy with the Superior Spider-Man considering that, per the rumors, he'd stolen Peter's body. All Miguel had said was that it was 'handled' and that had been enough for her-

Gwen blinked.

"You're making a face," Margo whispered as Hobie continued to rant about giving Miles to Superior Spider-Man.

"I did the thing again."

"The thing."

"The thing."

"What thing?"

"The-" Gwen sighed as she realized she wasn't talking to Peter B. or Hobie or Miles or (she stopped herself from listing Jessica… Jessica didn't fucking deserve to be part of that group; never again). "I was taking Miguel's words at face value and accepting that what he was saying was the gossip truth."

"Oh. That." Margo shrugged. "Yeah, I think all of us are going to be fighting through that for a while."

"-no better than Neville Chamberlain!" Hobie roared.

"I don't actually know who that is," Percy said, finally leaping down from the wall. "But what I do know is that Otto Octavius is NOT always an evil man." He jabbed his finger at Hobie. "I would have thought you, of all people, would understand that."

"Is this a black thing?"

"Ya, it is," Percy said, owning up to it. "How many times have you been judged just because of the color of your skin? The multiverse is infinite. That means there are Good Ottos, Evil Peters, and maybe a few Hobie Browns who aren't judgmental bigots."

"None of this is helpful," Richard said, moving to stand between Percy and Hobie. The latter was fuming and Gwen knew he was close to either throwing fists and storming off. She moved and touched his arm and Hobie stiffened before glowering at her.

"I don't need a minder."

"None of us do," she replied with a roll of her eyes. "All of us are so well adjusted and certainly don't have anger issues. That's why we aren't wearing spandex and standing on a rooftop."

And then she began to giggle.

Not laugh.

Not chortle.

Not embrace the madness and scream while she also cackled.

She giggled.

Like a flighty school girl.

It was horrible.

But she just can't stop giggling.

"if it helps," Percy said as Gwen struggled to get control of herself, "Otto was able to get Miles up and walking so I trust him-"

"Wait, what?" Hobie said and Gwen finds herself just as startled. "What do you mean he's up?"

"Miles is awake?"

"He was when I last saw him," Percy said. "Otto injected him with something and it fixed all the damage."

"He's… he's…"

And suddenly Richard is easing her down and while she wants to tell him to fuck off because she remembers how shit he was as a psychologist and she wondered 'what would my life have been like if he had actually helped and not made me think Jessica and Miguel were the only ones I could rely upon'.. she also is really glad he's helping because its keeping her from spiraling into unconsciousness.

"Breathe, Gwen… just breathe," Richard said softly.

"I'd like to get back to the point that his parents were here?" Margo said. "Because I think I would remember authorizing civilians to be here."

"His… his parents?" Gwen's mind screeches to a halt at that.

Miles' parents.

His dad.

'It's a canon event,' Miguel had said coldly when he'd first told her that Miles' world was about to hit the next major one.

'But he lost his uncle!' Gwen had argued.

'The death of a captain,' he had warned and it had felt like a warning. Gwen's father was a captain… and despite everything that had happened between the two of them Gwen certainly didn't want her father to die. But Miguel had made it sound like such a threat…

"I'm not sure how they got there but them, Miles, and a baby were taken by Otto." Something exploded below them and Percy winced. "Honestly it might be better that they aren't here."

Gwen looked out at the tower and saw that the mob was doing their best to try and breach it. A taxi was tipped over and burned, windows of nearby shops were shattered, and the screams of outrage were getting louder.

"Seems like Spider-Chaos really has whipped them into a frenzy," Margo said.

Hobie though shook his head. "That ain't Chris' style."

"We're on first name basis with the warlord?" Richard asked.

"He ain't a warlord. He's my friend. Someone hurt by the Spider Society too. And someone who is protective of kids and don't give me that look, Gwendy." Gwen forced herself to stop glaring at him. "Miles is still a kid to him. You are too, if he thinks about it. Why he just insulted you and shot ya with his time barb or whatever he's fucking calling them now." Hobie shrugged. "This invasion… its because of the kids. But that riot isn't him."

"Meaning someone else is taking advantage," Percy stated.

"Not… surprising," Richard finally said. "With everything coming out about Miguel he's turned enough people against him. And he wasn't the most popular person there was."

"So… we get popcorn and watch?" Hobie asked.

Gwen though shook her head. "There might be innocent people in the tower still." Miguel had hired plenty of people to help run the Society. People to work the food courts, trainers for the gyms, so on. It wasn't all done with AI and the like. It was why Nueva York tolerated an influx of Spiders in their world. With all the havoc and chaos that came from having hundreds, maybe thousands of Spider-powered people running around (Gwen had failed to really count how many they had) no city would be willing to deal with them all unless they got something out of it. And what Miguel provided was jobs. Lots of jobs.

"And there are prisoners as well," Margo pointed out. "We can't risk them releasing all of them out into the world… yes, Hobie," she held up his hand to forestall his rant about political prisoners, "there are probably a lot of innocent people in there. But there are just as many, if not more, criminals that would have no problem raping and pillaging."

"Raping and pillaging?" Hobie said, arching an eyebrow. "They aren't pirates."

Gwen coughed.

"…okay, so Green Beard is a pirate," Hobie admitted and Gwen grimaced as she remembered having to fight THAT villain. She'd been so water logged that it had taken a week to get all the fluid out of her ears.

"But the point remains," Margo said.

"And there the prisoners that are innocent… they won't handle well being released out here, not knowing what to do," Richard pointed out. "They'll be confused, disoriented, scared…"

Hobie grimaced. "That mob don't look like they are ready to be friendly with them." He rolled his shoulders. "Then I guess we have to go."

"Indeed we do!" a familiar voice called out and Gwen sagged in relief as she turned to see Spider-Ham, Noir, and Peni swing down to them.

"Friends of yours?" Percy asked.

"Yea, they-"

Gwen froze.

'Are they though?' she thought to herself, looking at the three. 'After all… it wasn't just Miles you've avoided. Noir refused to join the Spider Society and we never let Ham in because he was too much of a wild card. And Peni… when is the last time I talked with her?' She looked at the mecha Peni was riding in and WISHED she could see her face… but also thankful she couldn't. 'You saw how this was beating her down. How it was grinding her to dust. How her smile was disappearing. What did you do to help her Gwen? What-'

Margo smacked her upside the head.

"Hey!" Gwen shouted, rubbing her skull.

"You were brooding. Stop it."

"I was not!" Gwen complained.

"You were," Margo countered. "I'm friends with Drivedevil, I know brooding. Knock it off and focus on more important things."

"So," Ham said, looking at Gwen and gesturing at her, "finally pull your head out of Miguel O'Hara's tuckus?"

"Fully removed," Gwen said.

"Still got some shit in her ears so we have to give her a few bops to unlodge it," Hobie stated with a casual shrug. "But she's getting better."

"We can handle that," Noir said before looking down at the mob that was rallying around the tower. "But can we handle them?"

"We don't even know WHO we are handling," Richard stated. "We can't just swing down there without some idea."

"We assumed it was Spider-Chaos' crew," Noir stated. "But I'm guessing it isn't that knucklehead's pals?"

Hobie shook his head. "Ain't Chris' style."

"Oh Chris!" Ham said, throwing his hands into the air. "So good to know we're so friendly with him!"

"We are," Hobie said. "And if you want to avoid any more problems with them stick with me."

"That didn't work out well for us against Asgard," Gwen muttered but Hobie just glanced at her and she kept her mouth shut.

"We don't wait around when someone is in danger," Peni said, her mech distorting her voice slightly. "That is what we were taught. With great power comes great responsibility. It was Miguel who made us forget that."

Gwen winced as she remembered just how many people she had stood by and watch suffer because of 'canon'. She wondered if she would ever be able to wash the blood from her hands… and her soul.

'I once heard that some warrior culture believed that all the men you killed in battle were waiting for you in the afterlife, to fight you one more time to determine if you were allowed peace. I wonder how many innocent people are waiting for me, ready for a chance to repay me for my inaction-'

Margo smacked her again.

"STOP THAT!" Gwen shouted.

"Shit in the ears, just like I told ya," Hobie replied, the others nodding.

"Whatever," Gwen muttered, rolling her shoulders. "Lets get going… we have a mob to put down."

It felt almost right for the others to join her. Like this was how it was supposed to be. All of them with her, swinging into danger, ready to save the day.

Except there was someone missing.

'Miles… I wish you were here with us.'