Moving incredibly fast, Mayday flew through... wherever she was. It was all happening so quickly that it was hard to process, but all the lights she was seeing above and around her made it seem like she was flying through space, only it couldn't have been, since she was able to breathe. Before she could even begin to register anything else, she was suddenly spinning around as if she had ended up at a water park slide, only much, much faster than that. Suddenly, a bright light appeared behind her, and she was heading for it...

EARTH-19241

Suddenly, the world around her reappeared as Mayday found herself in a free fall. Firing a web, she managed to stick it to a nearby building. Clutching it tightly, she swung through the air, though her momentum ended up being more than she had been prepared for. As a result, her ensuing landing proved more of a tumble, including rolling over her recently broken arm several times, causing her to cry out and clutch at it as she finally came to a stop. Lying on her back while grasping at her injured arm, everything that had transpired in the last couple of minutes came rushing back to Mayday's mind, hitting her all at once: the initial attack, both her and her father being beaten, her father being murdered in cold blood by him... finally, she couldn't take it anymore. Tears streamed down her cheek almost instantly, and she cried out several times as she bitterly wept, the pain in her arm only exacerbating her screams.

Ever since the day she'd found out that her father was secretly the superhero known as Spider-Man, all she had dreamed about was being a hero of her own and saving the city with him. When she'd gotten her powers, her excitement at the possibility had only increased. Now, she hated herself for ever being so naive. Mayday's father had repeatedly warned her that being a superhero wasn't just fun and glory, but it was being brave and risking their lives. Still, the man had been through so much that it had almost seemed as though he were invincible and that he would always come home to her and her mother in the end... but now, he would never come home again.

And now, here she was stuck in... wait, where WAS she?

That question burning in her mind finally proved enough to stir her from her puddle of emotions, and she managed to stand, still clutching her banged up arm. As she formed a makeshift sling out of webbing, she walked to the edge of the building, realizing she was in Times Square. Had she merely been transported across the city? It was then that she noticed some things that were different though; for instance, the "Pizza Poppa's" restaurant on the right was "Poppa's Pizza." Also, she caught sight of a "Stark: The Musical" instead of "Rogers: The Musical."

An idea then entered her head; at first, she tried to dismiss it on the grounds of how insane it seemed. What else explained all these differences she was seeing though? It wasn't even just names of things, but she could see people were dressing differently, even from all as high up as she was. All of that, combined with the portal she'd been sucked into, and the light show she'd traveled through, only led to one conclusion: she'd traveled to a different universe.

But... how was she supposed to get home?

It was then that Mayday remembered the bracelet her father had removed from their enemy, and she glanced around the rooftop. Sure enough, she found it lying on the far-right side, and she went over and picked it up. Examining it only led to more confusion though, as she found no buttons or switches on the small device or anything else that indicated how it operated. Still, this had to be how she'd been transported here, so Mayday knew she had no choice but to figure it out. Luckily, she inherited her father's passion for science. She would need a place to work though, somewhere that had some tools with which to tinker with the device and find out exactly what made it tick. Being a stranger on a different Earth, however, was bound to make this a tricky matter.

Before she could process the matter further, however, her eyes were drawn to a large screen just above her. A new clip came over the jumbotron with a headline:

"HERO LAID TO REST: THOUSANDS MOURN FOR THE LOSS OF PETER PARKER, A.K.A. SPIDER-MAN, IN LARGE CEREMONY."

Mayday suddenly found herself frozen once more, her eyes glued to the screen as a reporter came on and shared more details about notable figures at the ceremony and some of what was said. His attacker was described as an "unknown but merciless assailant, who had since disappeared." Her brain began connecting the dots as she remembered how her father's murderer had boasted of such multiversal slaughtering. Had he been the one to do this? Had he deprived this world of, if this Spider-Man had been anything like her father, it's greatest hero?

Even as she was contemplating all this, her own painful memories of a Spider-Man much closer to her began to flood Mayday's mind again as well. She could hear him cry out from having his eye plucked from his skull, his resigned but determined look as he made a point to save her even as he'd clearly accepted that his time had come... it was all quickly becoming overwhelming.

"No," she muttered. "I have to get out of here... I have to leave!"

Before she could even fully turn around to do exactly that, the bracelet suddenly lit up in her hand, a portal emerging in front of her a second later. She glanced down at the bracelet then back at the portal, her brain trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Had the device just reacted to her words? No, that couldn't be it; her dad hadn't said anything about her leaving before the portal had sucked her away and expelled her into this world. Perhaps it went even deeper than that, reacting to her thoughts, emotional state, or even both.

Whatever the case, she had a way back home... but should she take it? If she went back and took on the monster that had killed her father, the same fate likely awaited her. Most of her father's allies in the superhero community were either dead, retired, or off-world, and she could only imagine a few who could stand up to him anyway. She knew she couldn't do this alone though, but where was she supposed to go to get help?

Suddenly, Mayday's spider-sense rang out and, taking a second to focus, she found it was directing her towards what looked like a couple of police helicopters overhead, one of them shining a spotlight directly at her.

"PDNY! Please, stop what you're doing and put your hands up!"

Panicking, Mayday leapt into the portal, the world disappearing behind her as the portal closed. Controlling her momentum in the place was still hard though, and she began to flail, though not as much as previously.

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Eventually, she fell through another portal, managing to stabilize herself and land on her feet. This time, she'd ended up in an alleyway, the bright morning sun giving away that she had definitely not ended up back home, as their and her most recent stop both were during the evening hours.

Deciding to explore a little, perhaps find a place to come up with a plan, Mayday found an old, discarded trench coat next to a trash can, removing her mask as she threw it over the rest of her costume. It definitely didn't smell the best, but at least it would likely ensure that no one would bother her. She then ventured out of the alley and into New York sidewalk traffic. She'd had a thought upon entering this new world, one that made her admittedly a bit nervous, but one she still felt was the right one to do: find this world's Spider-Man, and at the very least warn them of the threat from her world that would be coming for them should she fail. To say she was intimidated by likely coming face to face with a multiversal variant of her father was an understatement, but she felt she had to alert them, and maybe see if perhaps they had any suggestions on what to do?

She didn't get far, however, when she came across a newspaper stand, where the front headline caught her eye:

"ONE MONTH LATER: A WORLD WITHOUT SPIDER-MAN."

Mayday couldn't believe her eyes; she grabbed the newspaper, scanning it for information on how this Spider-Man died, ignoring the stand operator's complaining about not paying for it. Sure enough, she found a similar description of the attacker to her own enemy and that of the murderer of the Spider-Man of the previous world she'd been on. He'd already gotten to them too.

Tossing the paper back to the stand, Mayday ran off, pushing through the crowd before finding a private alley to disappear into. Taking out the bracelet device, she tried her best to concentrate to open up a new portal. Nothing happened at first, and she started to grow frustrated.

"Come on, come on!"

"Hey, you!"

Mayday turned around to find some shady-looking individuals wandering into the alley, the first one brandishing a gun as they crowbar as they entered.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," she muttered as they approached. "Look, guys, I don't want any trouble..."

"Too bad, Stray!" the other one called out. "You strayed into the wrong territory!"

"No, seriously, I don't..."

The first guy took a swing at her, but Mayday simply backhanded him against his face, knocking him down. Everyone glanced at his unconscious form before looking back at her, their expressions morphing from shock to indignation.

"The Strays have powers now!" one of them shouted as they pointed at Mayday. The remaining four individuals then all drew their guns on her.

"Oh man, I have to get out of here!" she thought.

Suddenly, another portal opened behind her, catching her and the others off guard. Taking advantage of the distraction, she leapt inside, the portal fortunately closing before anyone could get a shot off her way. This time, she started off being able to streamline her body, seemingly in control. She realized though that she would need to decide where she was going; she contemplated just going home to face him herself, realizing that perhaps bringing someone else into the conflict would only result in the same fate as her father and the Spider-Men from the other two worlds she had just visited. At the same time, she really wanted to stop him once and for all, and she knew that she couldn't do it on her own, but what right did she really have to bring someone else into her fight?

Suddenly, Mayday began swirling around, and she'd realized that her unfocused mind had caused her to lose control. Suddenly finding herself at the mercy of the multiverse, a bright light soon came into view, and, bracing herself, she prepared to enter another world...

EARTH-102307

Emerging much higher up, Mayday once more entered a state of free fall once more. Glancing around, she eyed what looked like the Chrysler building, so she fired a web, swinging up and onto her destination. From there, she glanced out, trying to deduce whether she'd ended up at home or in another strange universe. It was hard to tell from so high up, as the building structure looked the same, but it had in the other two worlds she'd stopped at recently as well.

Taking a moment to straighten her sling over her busted arm and slipping her mask back on while shedding the jacket she'd been wearing, Mayday was about to fire a web in one direction when, suddenly, she heard a cry for help. For a brief moment, she considered ignoring it, but she remembered how her father had pressed her about responsibility to use her powers for the benefit and safety of others. As much as she wanted to focus on her own problems, she knew that there was no true jurisdiction for her responsibility, so she changed course and swung down to find who needed her help.

She quickly deduced the situation, observing what looked like someone attempting to mug or assault someone in an alley. Having just escaped a similar situation herself, Mayday landed behind the two individuals.

"Hey man, back off," she said, "before I make you."

The individuals then turned to her, and Mayday's Spider-Sense was suddenly going crazy. She couldn't seem to see anything unusual at first, until two mechanical tentacles suddenly shot out at her, snagging her by her arms and slamming her against a wall, causing her to cry out as pain once again shot through her injured arm. She looked down, observing the one whom she'd thought was being mugged removed her full-length coat, revealing a middle-aged woman with four total mechanical appendages operating out of a harness into her backside. She then took out some money with one of them, handing it to the man beside her.

"Thanks," she said. "Now, get lost."

The man promptly did just that, the tentacles then lifting the woman up closer to Mayday until they were nearly face to face.

"Well, this is a surprise," the woman said. "I have to admit, I wouldn't have thought of her to be one to send someone else to do her job, but hey, I'm nothing if not flexible."

"W-who are you talking about?" Mayday asked, the woman's cold smirk admittedly sending chills down her spine.

"Oh, don't worry, dear," the woman replied, tilting her head as she was seemingly eyeing something specific. The appendage holding her broken arm then released its clamp on her, slowly moving over and grabbing the bracelet, removing it from Mayday's arm.

"No!" she cried out.

"Oh, was this important?" the woman replied, chuckling. She then crushed it, dropping the tiny pieces to the ground, and Mayday's heart felt as though it had just shattered as well.

"Now," the woman replied, "you're coming with me dear. You're going to help me get something I want... or should I say, someone."

"For the Lord is righteous, He loves justice; the upright will see His face." Psalm 11:7