Miles Morales (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sparkinyou) wrote2020-10-02 01:43 pm
sparkinyou) wrote2020-10-02 01:43 pm
Friday Evening: Brooklyn - Under Fisk Tower
Getting to the super-collider was surprisingly not that hard. Kingpin was having a very inappropriate wake for the Peter Parker of this Earth which involved all the wait staff wearing Spider-Man masks.
So after going through the party; having a strange conversation with Mary Jane Parker of this Earth regarding bread and not-bread subtext and then going through Kingpin's private elevator to get to the super-collider.
It was just starting up as they leaped on top of one of the huge particle accelerator.
Peter took a long look as the energy beams fired and took a deep breath.
"Peter, you don't have to stay behind. I can do it," Gwen offered.
Peter shook his head. "It's okay. I've made up my mind," he said, firmly. "I’ll put the goober in and take over the beam. After you're gone, I'll blow the thing up."
Peter started crawling across the ceiling when the familiar surge of adrenaline hit the Spider-Gang.
"They know we're here," Gwen whispered, just as the Kingpin's men and henchmen started to attack.
Meanwhile up above, Peter had just about to insert the USB key into the auxiliary control panel (and putting it in wrong the first time) when a hatch opened and tentacles began to spread out and encircling him. "Nice to see you again, Peter," she cooed before grabbing him and slamming him into the ceiling.
It wasn't enough that Peter was trying to get to the goober into the slot thingy so he could get everyone home. Now there were tentacles tying him up and hindering his efforts. Granted he was also trying to put it in the wrong way. "Why are these things so difficult?"
With a hard yank and the squeezing of her tentacles, Doc Ock started to put the squeeze on Peter. "Any last words?" she asked, as Peter's ribs began to crack audibly.
"Can I get a minute to think about it?" Peter grunted/quipped. "Do you have a pen?"
Doctor Octopus smirked in response. "Goodbye Peter Parker." She pulled back a free tentacle and clenched the end into a fist.
But then something wasn't right. She turned her head to look at her tentacle-
-only for it to smack herself in the face. And then again. And again in the most bizarre "Why are you punching yourself?" scenario ever. Suddenly the tentacle dropped and Peter spotted a blur of motion whiz by him.
"Who did that?" Doc Ock shouted.
From below two web lines shot out and suddenly in a blip Miles appeared in his new costume; yanking on the webbing and rocketing toward Doc Ock.
Peter blinked in surprise. Miles?
Doctor Octopus was amazed as well. "Spider-Man?"
She didn't have enough time to react as Miles' fist connected with her jaw. The impact was enough for her to lose her grip on both the ceiling and Peter Parker. In one smooth movement, Miles stuck himself to the ceiling and shot a webline to yank Peter back up with him.
Peter was elated, grabbing his protege by the shoulder! "Miles! You’re doing it on command!"
"About time right?" Miles said, his masked barely able to hide his smile.
"I love you!" Peter shouted jubilantly and a second later he was lost in his own thoughts. "Do I want kids?"
Any chance to feel awkward or make a snappy response was interrupted by a large octagonal tile being chucked at their head by Doctor Octopus.
"Oh! I forgot about her!"
Really Peter?
"Heads up!" Suddenly there was a Gwen flying past them delivering a savage kick to Doc Ock sending her smashing toward the stream.
"Hey Gwen!" Miles shouted cheerfully as she landed next to them.
"I like the costume," she said giving Miles a pat on the back.
"Thanks," Miles said cheerfully. "I made it myself."
"Uh, Guys?" Peter pointed down below as a black box was being raised from the floor into the streams.
"That doesn't look good," Miles commented.
Suddenly there was an explosion of light as buildings and elements from other dimensions began to expand out of the beam generated by the super collider.
"Looks like our dimensions are coming to us," Gwen commented, gravely.
"Watch out!" Peter shouted as all three jumped off the ceiling to avoid a bus that Doctor Octopus had thrown at them.
"We got to get back up there!" Gwen shouted as they began to free-fall towards the beam.
"Hang on!" Miles shouted grabbing Gwen's arm and shot a web line towards Peter.
"Time for a fastball special!" Peter shouted, grabbing the line and whipping it so Miles and Gwen headed straight for Doc Ock at high velocity. In one smooth succession Gwen, Miles and Peter landed multiple kicks on Doc Ock, landing on top of the platform above the super-collider.
Just as Doc Ock began to recover, Miles and Gwen each threw a punch simultaneously at her knocking her back toward the stream.
(And then fist bumped each other)
It didn't stop Doc Ock. She grabbed a hold of two buildings that had erupted from the collider and flung herself back at the trio.
"Buckle up guys," Gwen said, readying herself for a fight. "This could take a while."
That thought quickly ended as a bus appeared from the stream and smashed into Doc Ock and turned her into a mass that should not be shown in a PG-13 movie.
"All right. Never mind," she said. "Let's stop this thing."
"No problem," Miles said stepping towards the end of the platform. "I got this."
"No. I got this," Peter countered as he reached for a hidden pocket. "I'm the one with the-"
Peter stopped. Looked down. And then looked up to see-
-Miles holding up the goober.
"Oh, you got to be kidding me."
"Don't watch the mouth," Miles said tucking the goober away. "Watch the hands."
And with that he back-flipped off the platform. Flattening himself, Miles dropped down between the debris and weird dots coming from the collider. When he reached the bottom of the collider he shot out webbing to use the centrifugal force of the spinning collider to throw him straight up to the ceiling.
"Ah... Did we teach him that?" Peter asked.
"I didn't teach him that," Gwen said shooting a web line. "And you definitely didn't."
Taking a breath, Miles took the goober and slid it into the port on the auxiliary control. The first time. Without an issue. See how it's done, Peter?
Immediately a 3D control pad shot up from the system with clear labels on how to adjust the super collider. God bless you, Mr. Ween. "Guys! I got control of the thing! Let's go!" he shouted out.
“You’re up Spider-Ham,” Miles said as he adjusted the virtual controls to the pig’s specific universe.”
He turned to look at Spider-Ham standing there with a large wooden mallet and sad in his eyes.
“I want you to have this. It’ll fit in your pocket,” Spider-Ham sad sadly.
Miles took the mallet because… okay?
The pig nodded in response and threw out his arms to the side. “That’s all folks,” he declared and leaped into the stream below in a dramatic fashion.
“Is he allowed to say that?” Peter asked. “Legally?”
Gwen laughed as Miles dialed into her universe. “You ready?
She paused for a moment and took off her mask. “Look, Miles. I know I was hard on you but-”
“It’s all good,” Miles said pulling back his mask a bit so she could see there was no hard feelings. “For real. I understand what you were trying to do.”
He held out his hand to her. “Friends?”
To his surprise, Gwen took his hand and smiled back. “Friends.”
Miles couldn’t stop his smile from getting bigger. “Cool.”
“See you around… Spider-Man,” Gwen said pulling her mask back on and leaping elegantly into the stream below.
Miles watched her disappear into the stream and turned back to Peter. “Your turn.”
“Yeah,” Peter said hesitantly. “Yeah, right.”
Suddenly there was the sound of glass shattering and Miles felt the surge of his spider-senses kick in.
Both Peter and Miles turned to see the immense form of the Kingpin jumping through the observation deck and leaping from building and floating items to get where they were. “YOU’RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE!”
Before Miles could say anything, Peter had snapped his mask back into place and was thwipping out a new web line. “I’ll hold him off, you shut this down!” he shouted.
“Peter!” Miles shouted. “That wasn’t the deal!”
But Peter was already leaping away. “Push the green button! Do not wait for me!”
Miles shook his head and fired off a web, hitting Peter square in the back. Miles yanked on the line pulling Peter back to one of the nearby floating buildings and then leaped after him.
Peter whirled around to face Miles. “What are you doing?”
“Peter! You’ve got to go home!” Miles pleaded.
Peter shook his head. “This guy could kill you! I can’t let Spider-Man die.”
“Neither can I,” Miles said, defiantly standing his ground.
Peter’s expression softened. “Miles… it’s okay.”
“Yeah. It is ok.” Miles didn’t hesitate. Dropping down he swept his leg under Peter’s supporting leg, knocking Peter backward and over the edge of the building. Following through the maneuver, Miles grabbed the front of Peter’s uniform.
“You’ve got to go home, man,” he pleaded.
The look on Peter’s face suddenly showed all the anxiety and worry he felt. He grasped Miles’ arm firmly. “How do I know I’m not going to mess it up again?”
Miles couldn’t help but smile at him. “You won’t.”
Peter took a moment to get it. He smiled back. “Right. It’s a leap of faith.”
He let go of Miles’ arm.
And Miles dropped him into the stream. There was a smile on Peter’s face and while Miles couldn’t hear the words he saw Peter’s lips moving and understood what he was saying.
“Not bad, kid.”
There was a loud bang and the building underneath Miles disintegrated revealing a new edifice coming up from underneath him. Miles recognized it immediately. The Brooklyn Bridge.
There was a loud sustained angry scream and Miles turned to find Kingpin falling down to the ground in front of him. “You’re not stopping this!” he snarled at Miles. “Not today!”
Whatever doubt Miles had disappeared. He was not running away this time. “I am stopping this!” he shouted back. “Right now!”
The fight began. Fists flew and even with Miles’ new strength and senses the fight was taking its toll on him. For all his bulk and muscle, Kingpin was fast. And he knew how to use it.
Miles threw one punch at Kingpin only for him to catch it in his huge meaty hand. Miles threw another and suddenly both his hands were trapped in Kingpin’s grip. In a panic Miles tried to fire a venom strike into Kingpin only for it to fizzle out.
“It’s not so easy doing it on your own, is it? I can’t wait to kill one more Spider-Man.” Kingpin growled and headbutted Miles to the ground. Raising his giant fist in the air, he gave Miles a triumphant look. “You killed my family, and now I’m going to make sure you never see yours again."
The fist came down and Miles felt pain and then nothing else. He blacked out. Then light came in at the edges as he realized his face was flat on the ground. And he heard Kingpin talking to someone. A woman?
“Wilson! What are you doing?”
“Vanessa?”
“You stay away from us!”
“Vanessa? Vanessa! Richard!”
Miles opened his eyes to see a woman and a boy, shifting in and out of reality. What is going on?
And then there was another voice.
“Spider-Man!”
Dad?
He turned and from the observation deck he could faintly see a familiar form. What is he doing here?
“Get up Spider-Man!”
That… That was not what Miles expected. For his father to believe in Spider-Man...?
Miles pulled himself off the ground, using the distraction of whoever Vanessa and Richard were to get on his feet.
“Hey Kingpin! Ever hear of the shoulder touch?”
Kingpin blinked looking down, not realizing that Miles had gotten to his feet. "What?"
Miles grabbed Kingpins shoulder and digging deep fired off a venom strike inspired by his dad. His mom. His uncle. What was the phrase Uncle Aaron told him to use?
“HEY!”
Kingpin flew backward stunned and Mile fired off two webs to entangle him, swinging around and around.
“I’m always going to have my family!” Miles shouted at Kingpin as he began to gain velocity. “Do me a favor! Hit the green button!”
Miles let go of the weblines and watched as Kingpin flew up and hit the exact spot of the ceiling he needed.
There was an explosion of electrical energy and Miles barely had a moment to revel in it before the Super-Collider started going in reverse, sucking all the materials it had been spewing from multiple realities. He fired off a web and swung up to ceiling and clung on for dear life trying to keep from getting sucked in.
Finally there was a pause, a clank and then a giant-
-explosion.
And he was still alive. He quickly looked over to make sure his father was okay and then quickly made his way towards the unconscious Kingpin.
He had work to do.
*******
From his perch on the Fisk building, Miles had a good view of the sight below. And it didn’t take long for him to see his father putting some of the people responsible for the super-collider into various cop cars and vans. He was busy doing his job but-
He was there. He saw Miles fight Kingpin. And cheered for him.
Without much though he pulled out his cell and dialed his father’s number.
“Miles? Miles? Miles?! Are you ok?”
God. It was so good to hear his voice. “Yeah, I’m ok. You’re probably busy so-”
“No no no no, I can talk!” He was busy. And he shouldn’t talking but... “I can talk. Look, so I called earlier because, uh, your uncle…”
The voice trailed off and Miles winced. The image of his father sobbing over Uncle Aaron immediately popped into Miles' head. “I know Dad,” he said feeling that wave of guilt and remorse wash over him. “I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah.”
Miles just sat there listening to his Dad fumble with the phone and trying to speak. Finally his Dad found the words
“Look Miles, what I said on the phone, it wasn’t just talk. Look you know, I was thinking maybe we could find a nice wall privately owned-”
Miles closed his eyes. It felt like his heard was going to explode. “Dad, all right, I-”
But his Dad kept on going. “Like at the police station and you could...“throw” up some of your art?”
Miles closed his eyes and pulled his mask down. He shifted into his invisibility and jumped down the building to where his father was swearing at his cell phone.
“C’mon man, C-Mobile--”
Miles dropped his invisibility right in front of his dad and lowered his voice. “Officer?”
“Spider-Man!” His father almost jumped out his skin. “Listen, down there, that was, I mean I owe you--”
And suddenly Miles was hugging his father.
“Whoa!”
I know this is weird for you, Dad. But I need this right now.
Miles felt his father’s hands rest gently on his shoulders. This was so awkward. Miles reluctantly pulled himself away. “I look forward to working with you,” he said keeping his voice low.
His father chuckled. “Yeah, me too, I guess. I don’t approve of your methods but, we’re just gonna have to agree to disagree.”
That was good enough for Miles.”Thank you for your bravery tonight.” He shot a web line onto a nearby street light and then because he also needed to say it,” I love you.”
His father balked. “Wait. What?”
Before he took off, he gave one more shout to his father. “Look behind you!”
He made his way to the top of the building to watch the a spotlight flash on the Kingpin all strung up in the sky.
Miles smiled. And then there was a familiar voice echoing in his ears.
“Not bad for a fucking rookie.”
Miles blinked. “Professor Ween?”
“You did good, kid. Reality is back to normal thanks to you. Are you feeling okay? That was quite a fucking beat down you took.”
“You were monitoring me the entire time?” Miles asked incredulously.
“Fuck, yeah I was,” Barry voice crackled over the apparent earpiece built into Miles’ mask. “You think I’m just handing out superhero suits to minors without supervision? No fucking way I was letting you run around without tracking you and make sure you stayed alive.”
Miles let out a groan.
There was a chuckle on the other end of that communication. “Hey, You did this on your own,” Barry said encouragingly. “You should be proud. Now, I got a portal open for you near the Brooklyn Bridge. You can join the rest of us heading back to the island.
Miles let out a long sigh and smiled. "On my way," he said thwipping out a line and heading towards the bridge.
[Once again preplayed with the wonderful and . NFI and NFB.
One more post and I'll be done spamming your reading list with my plot!]
So after going through the party; having a strange conversation with Mary Jane Parker of this Earth regarding bread and not-bread subtext and then going through Kingpin's private elevator to get to the super-collider.
It was just starting up as they leaped on top of one of the huge particle accelerator.
Peter took a long look as the energy beams fired and took a deep breath.
"Peter, you don't have to stay behind. I can do it," Gwen offered.
Peter shook his head. "It's okay. I've made up my mind," he said, firmly. "I’ll put the goober in and take over the beam. After you're gone, I'll blow the thing up."
Peter started crawling across the ceiling when the familiar surge of adrenaline hit the Spider-Gang.
"They know we're here," Gwen whispered, just as the Kingpin's men and henchmen started to attack.
| As the lasers started firing, Jessica swung toward a catwalk where she would have a little bit of cover from the fire, but there was Scorpion skittering toward her. “How did you even get up here so fast?” she asked as she charged. She showed lining up a punch, then turned and ducked at the last moment to slide under him, webbing his legs together as she passed. She stopped her slide by grabbing his tail and pulling herself up for a drop kick to the back of his head. He was too tough to go down that easily, but it was a good start. | |
 | "Vas a pagar por eso!" Scorpion snarled as his two legs suddenly split into many, bursting out of Black Widow's webbing; his tail immediately trying to stab away at the woman who just kicked him. |
| "Will you take credit?" Jessica dodged left, grabbing the tail as she leaped over the catwalk railing. She planted her feet on the bottom of the catwalk and pulled, trying to throw Scorpion with some additional leverage. | |
 | The leverage did its duty and threw the scorpion toward the wall of the collider where a certain Spider-Ham was waiting. "What are you? Some kind of cartoon?" The Scorpion asked as he flew through the air. "You got a problem with cartoons?" Spider-Ham snarled back and from no where pulled out a large wooden mallet and smashed the Scorpion like a baseball back towards Jessica to finish him off. "Did a cartoon do that?" he called after Scorpion and then blew a raspberry at the villain. |
| Jessica dove off the catwalk to introduce her fist to Scorpion's face in midair. It was awesome and knocked him out. "Thanks for the assist, Ham!" Jessica called out while shooting a webline to pull her up to some of the laser guys. If she could help thin out some of their numbers, that would help out everyone else. | |
 | "My pleasure," Spider-Ham said following suit. "Let's end this so I can get home to my sweet and lovely Mary Crane Watsow. You take the left. I'll take the right." And from (hopefully) a pocket, Spider-Ham yanked out a very large magnet that pulled most of the laser rifles out of the hands of the bad guys on his side of of their hands. The rifles flew through the air and hit the magnet with a loud "TWANG." "Your turn, Black Widow!" |
| "Can do!" Jessica swung into a kick to one goon, who flew backwards into a couple other goons. As the goons fell, Jessica snagged their laser rifles with webs and threw them at the next group of goons. "I think your way is still more efficient." | |
| "Well your normal world of physics and gravity is confusing to me," Spider-Ham commented as he smacked another goon with his wooden mallet. "For instance that guy should have flown through the wall leaving a perfect human shaped hole." |
| "Yeah, sorry," Jessica said as a door opened and a couple guys came onto the platform Jessica was on. "Best I can do is this!" She charged the lead guy, took his gun and threw it at the guy behind him while scooping the first one up and throwing him at the wall next to the door. He broke through the wall, leaving a big, roughly circular hole. Through which Jessica saw a bunch more goons who did not expect that to happen. And who now started shooting their lasers. "Oops!" she said as she dived off the platform. | |
| "I got your back!" Spider-Ham shouted as he shot a webline up in the air to the top of the scaffolding- And moments later a large anvil which had no reason to be in a small pocket fell down on some of the goons with a comedic clang. |
| Jessica swung back up to the anvil. "Like I said. Efficient." | |
| Damn. Miguel swung over to the goons, dodging lasers, and swept through them. He didn't even have to attack them directly, just lead them into shooting each other while trying to get him. He smiled grimly under his mask, doing several passes, kicking out and pulling up short, giving them just enough target to think they had him, then getting out of the way. "Really ought to watch where you're shooting," he offered helpfully. | |
 | "And you should watch where you're going," Tombstone snarled as he stepped out from behind some scaffolding and aimed a shot at Miguel. |
| Miguel dodged the shot and swung back feet-first to hit Tombstone solidly in the chest. "Always do." He followed up with a kick at his chin and slashed down to shred the gun with his talons. | |
 | The hit and the kick threw Tombstone back a few feet and the shredded gun clattered off the side of the scaffolding and into the chamber of the super-collider. Tombstone pulled himself to his feet and threw a couple of punches at Miguel. "It's going to take more than that to get rid of me," he snarled. |
| Miguel dodged the punches. "Okay." He came in with an uppercut to the jaw, aiming to lay him out without breaking his neck, hopefully. | |
 | Without a chance to defend himself Tombstone crashed onto the platform of the scaffolding, giving Miguel the chance to come up with a snappy one-liner. |
| Miguel shrugged and headed off. Morph had once accused him of being the only non-funny Spider in the multiverse. He didn't see much point in breaking a trend. |
Meanwhile up above, Peter had just about to insert the USB key into the auxiliary control panel (and putting it in wrong the first time) when a hatch opened and tentacles began to spread out and encircling him. "Nice to see you again, Peter," she cooed before grabbing him and slamming him into the ceiling.
It wasn't enough that Peter was trying to get to the goober into the slot thingy so he could get everyone home. Now there were tentacles tying him up and hindering his efforts. Granted he was also trying to put it in the wrong way. "Why are these things so difficult?"
With a hard yank and the squeezing of her tentacles, Doc Ock started to put the squeeze on Peter. "Any last words?" she asked, as Peter's ribs began to crack audibly.
"Can I get a minute to think about it?" Peter grunted/quipped. "Do you have a pen?"
Doctor Octopus smirked in response. "Goodbye Peter Parker." She pulled back a free tentacle and clenched the end into a fist.
But then something wasn't right. She turned her head to look at her tentacle-
-only for it to smack herself in the face. And then again. And again in the most bizarre "Why are you punching yourself?" scenario ever. Suddenly the tentacle dropped and Peter spotted a blur of motion whiz by him.
"Who did that?" Doc Ock shouted.
From below two web lines shot out and suddenly in a blip Miles appeared in his new costume; yanking on the webbing and rocketing toward Doc Ock.
Peter blinked in surprise. Miles?
Doctor Octopus was amazed as well. "Spider-Man?"
She didn't have enough time to react as Miles' fist connected with her jaw. The impact was enough for her to lose her grip on both the ceiling and Peter Parker. In one smooth movement, Miles stuck himself to the ceiling and shot a webline to yank Peter back up with him.
Peter was elated, grabbing his protege by the shoulder! "Miles! You’re doing it on command!"
"About time right?" Miles said, his masked barely able to hide his smile.
"I love you!" Peter shouted jubilantly and a second later he was lost in his own thoughts. "Do I want kids?"
Any chance to feel awkward or make a snappy response was interrupted by a large octagonal tile being chucked at their head by Doctor Octopus.
"Oh! I forgot about her!"
Really Peter?
"Heads up!" Suddenly there was a Gwen flying past them delivering a savage kick to Doc Ock sending her smashing toward the stream.
"Hey Gwen!" Miles shouted cheerfully as she landed next to them.
"I like the costume," she said giving Miles a pat on the back.
"Thanks," Miles said cheerfully. "I made it myself."
"Uh, Guys?" Peter pointed down below as a black box was being raised from the floor into the streams.
"That doesn't look good," Miles commented.
Suddenly there was an explosion of light as buildings and elements from other dimensions began to expand out of the beam generated by the super collider.
"Looks like our dimensions are coming to us," Gwen commented, gravely.
"Watch out!" Peter shouted as all three jumped off the ceiling to avoid a bus that Doctor Octopus had thrown at them.
"We got to get back up there!" Gwen shouted as they began to free-fall towards the beam.
"Hang on!" Miles shouted grabbing Gwen's arm and shot a web line towards Peter.
"Time for a fastball special!" Peter shouted, grabbing the line and whipping it so Miles and Gwen headed straight for Doc Ock at high velocity. In one smooth succession Gwen, Miles and Peter landed multiple kicks on Doc Ock, landing on top of the platform above the super-collider.
Just as Doc Ock began to recover, Miles and Gwen each threw a punch simultaneously at her knocking her back toward the stream.
(And then fist bumped each other)
It didn't stop Doc Ock. She grabbed a hold of two buildings that had erupted from the collider and flung herself back at the trio.
"Buckle up guys," Gwen said, readying herself for a fight. "This could take a while."
That thought quickly ended as a bus appeared from the stream and smashed into Doc Ock and turned her into a mass that should not be shown in a PG-13 movie.
"All right. Never mind," she said. "Let's stop this thing."
"No problem," Miles said stepping towards the end of the platform. "I got this."
"No. I got this," Peter countered as he reached for a hidden pocket. "I'm the one with the-"
Peter stopped. Looked down. And then looked up to see-
-Miles holding up the goober.
"Oh, you got to be kidding me."
"Don't watch the mouth," Miles said tucking the goober away. "Watch the hands."
And with that he back-flipped off the platform. Flattening himself, Miles dropped down between the debris and weird dots coming from the collider. When he reached the bottom of the collider he shot out webbing to use the centrifugal force of the spinning collider to throw him straight up to the ceiling.
"Ah... Did we teach him that?" Peter asked.
"I didn't teach him that," Gwen said shooting a web line. "And you definitely didn't."
Taking a breath, Miles took the goober and slid it into the port on the auxiliary control. The first time. Without an issue. See how it's done, Peter?
Immediately a 3D control pad shot up from the system with clear labels on how to adjust the super collider. God bless you, Mr. Ween. "Guys! I got control of the thing! Let's go!" he shouted out.
| Jessica swung up to join the others. "Good job, Miles! Welcome back!" | |
| "Yeah, not bad for a rookie, huh?" Miles said, cheerfully adjusting the controls to tune into Jessica's universe. "Before you go, I wanted to thank you for faith in me. It meant a lot." | |
| "Will do," Jessica said. She gave a casual salute to the group as she dived into the portal, genuinely curious where it might send her. Hopefully not into the middle of space! That would be a terrible ending to this story for her. | |
| Miles watched Jessica fall into the streams and made the adjustments to the console before turning to Miguel. "You're up, Mr. O'Hara! I guess I'll see you around the island some time." | |
| "Count on it," Miguel said, giving him a wave. "Hopefully with less near-death involved. Though knowing Fandom, there's no guarantees." And with a quick leap, Miguel jumped into the stream on his way home to Fandom. |
“You’re up Spider-Ham,” Miles said as he adjusted the virtual controls to the pig’s specific universe.”
He turned to look at Spider-Ham standing there with a large wooden mallet and sad in his eyes.
“I want you to have this. It’ll fit in your pocket,” Spider-Ham sad sadly.
Miles took the mallet because… okay?
The pig nodded in response and threw out his arms to the side. “That’s all folks,” he declared and leaped into the stream below in a dramatic fashion.
“Is he allowed to say that?” Peter asked. “Legally?”
Gwen laughed as Miles dialed into her universe. “You ready?
She paused for a moment and took off her mask. “Look, Miles. I know I was hard on you but-”
“It’s all good,” Miles said pulling back his mask a bit so she could see there was no hard feelings. “For real. I understand what you were trying to do.”
He held out his hand to her. “Friends?”
To his surprise, Gwen took his hand and smiled back. “Friends.”
Miles couldn’t stop his smile from getting bigger. “Cool.”
“See you around… Spider-Man,” Gwen said pulling her mask back on and leaping elegantly into the stream below.
Miles watched her disappear into the stream and turned back to Peter. “Your turn.”
“Yeah,” Peter said hesitantly. “Yeah, right.”
Suddenly there was the sound of glass shattering and Miles felt the surge of his spider-senses kick in.
Both Peter and Miles turned to see the immense form of the Kingpin jumping through the observation deck and leaping from building and floating items to get where they were. “YOU’RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE!”
Before Miles could say anything, Peter had snapped his mask back into place and was thwipping out a new web line. “I’ll hold him off, you shut this down!” he shouted.
“Peter!” Miles shouted. “That wasn’t the deal!”
But Peter was already leaping away. “Push the green button! Do not wait for me!”
Miles shook his head and fired off a web, hitting Peter square in the back. Miles yanked on the line pulling Peter back to one of the nearby floating buildings and then leaped after him.
Peter whirled around to face Miles. “What are you doing?”
“Peter! You’ve got to go home!” Miles pleaded.
Peter shook his head. “This guy could kill you! I can’t let Spider-Man die.”
“Neither can I,” Miles said, defiantly standing his ground.
Peter’s expression softened. “Miles… it’s okay.”
“Yeah. It is ok.” Miles didn’t hesitate. Dropping down he swept his leg under Peter’s supporting leg, knocking Peter backward and over the edge of the building. Following through the maneuver, Miles grabbed the front of Peter’s uniform.
“You’ve got to go home, man,” he pleaded.
The look on Peter’s face suddenly showed all the anxiety and worry he felt. He grasped Miles’ arm firmly. “How do I know I’m not going to mess it up again?”
Miles couldn’t help but smile at him. “You won’t.”
Peter took a moment to get it. He smiled back. “Right. It’s a leap of faith.”
He let go of Miles’ arm.
And Miles dropped him into the stream. There was a smile on Peter’s face and while Miles couldn’t hear the words he saw Peter’s lips moving and understood what he was saying.
“Not bad, kid.”
There was a loud bang and the building underneath Miles disintegrated revealing a new edifice coming up from underneath him. Miles recognized it immediately. The Brooklyn Bridge.
There was a loud sustained angry scream and Miles turned to find Kingpin falling down to the ground in front of him. “You’re not stopping this!” he snarled at Miles. “Not today!”
Whatever doubt Miles had disappeared. He was not running away this time. “I am stopping this!” he shouted back. “Right now!”
The fight began. Fists flew and even with Miles’ new strength and senses the fight was taking its toll on him. For all his bulk and muscle, Kingpin was fast. And he knew how to use it.
Miles threw one punch at Kingpin only for him to catch it in his huge meaty hand. Miles threw another and suddenly both his hands were trapped in Kingpin’s grip. In a panic Miles tried to fire a venom strike into Kingpin only for it to fizzle out.
“It’s not so easy doing it on your own, is it? I can’t wait to kill one more Spider-Man.” Kingpin growled and headbutted Miles to the ground. Raising his giant fist in the air, he gave Miles a triumphant look. “You killed my family, and now I’m going to make sure you never see yours again."
The fist came down and Miles felt pain and then nothing else. He blacked out. Then light came in at the edges as he realized his face was flat on the ground. And he heard Kingpin talking to someone. A woman?
“Wilson! What are you doing?”
“Vanessa?”
“You stay away from us!”
“Vanessa? Vanessa! Richard!”
Miles opened his eyes to see a woman and a boy, shifting in and out of reality. What is going on?
And then there was another voice.
“Spider-Man!”
Dad?
He turned and from the observation deck he could faintly see a familiar form. What is he doing here?
“Get up Spider-Man!”
That… That was not what Miles expected. For his father to believe in Spider-Man...?
Miles pulled himself off the ground, using the distraction of whoever Vanessa and Richard were to get on his feet.
“Hey Kingpin! Ever hear of the shoulder touch?”
Kingpin blinked looking down, not realizing that Miles had gotten to his feet. "What?"
Miles grabbed Kingpins shoulder and digging deep fired off a venom strike inspired by his dad. His mom. His uncle. What was the phrase Uncle Aaron told him to use?
“HEY!”
Kingpin flew backward stunned and Mile fired off two webs to entangle him, swinging around and around.
“I’m always going to have my family!” Miles shouted at Kingpin as he began to gain velocity. “Do me a favor! Hit the green button!”
Miles let go of the weblines and watched as Kingpin flew up and hit the exact spot of the ceiling he needed.
There was an explosion of electrical energy and Miles barely had a moment to revel in it before the Super-Collider started going in reverse, sucking all the materials it had been spewing from multiple realities. He fired off a web and swung up to ceiling and clung on for dear life trying to keep from getting sucked in.
Finally there was a pause, a clank and then a giant-
-explosion.
And he was still alive. He quickly looked over to make sure his father was okay and then quickly made his way towards the unconscious Kingpin.
He had work to do.
*******
From his perch on the Fisk building, Miles had a good view of the sight below. And it didn’t take long for him to see his father putting some of the people responsible for the super-collider into various cop cars and vans. He was busy doing his job but-
He was there. He saw Miles fight Kingpin. And cheered for him.
Without much though he pulled out his cell and dialed his father’s number.
“Miles? Miles? Miles?! Are you ok?”
God. It was so good to hear his voice. “Yeah, I’m ok. You’re probably busy so-”
“No no no no, I can talk!” He was busy. And he shouldn’t talking but... “I can talk. Look, so I called earlier because, uh, your uncle…”
The voice trailed off and Miles winced. The image of his father sobbing over Uncle Aaron immediately popped into Miles' head. “I know Dad,” he said feeling that wave of guilt and remorse wash over him. “I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah.”
Miles just sat there listening to his Dad fumble with the phone and trying to speak. Finally his Dad found the words
“Look Miles, what I said on the phone, it wasn’t just talk. Look you know, I was thinking maybe we could find a nice wall privately owned-”
Miles closed his eyes. It felt like his heard was going to explode. “Dad, all right, I-”
But his Dad kept on going. “Like at the police station and you could...“throw” up some of your art?”
Miles closed his eyes and pulled his mask down. He shifted into his invisibility and jumped down the building to where his father was swearing at his cell phone.
“C’mon man, C-Mobile--”
Miles dropped his invisibility right in front of his dad and lowered his voice. “Officer?”
“Spider-Man!” His father almost jumped out his skin. “Listen, down there, that was, I mean I owe you--”
And suddenly Miles was hugging his father.
“Whoa!”
I know this is weird for you, Dad. But I need this right now.
Miles felt his father’s hands rest gently on his shoulders. This was so awkward. Miles reluctantly pulled himself away. “I look forward to working with you,” he said keeping his voice low.
His father chuckled. “Yeah, me too, I guess. I don’t approve of your methods but, we’re just gonna have to agree to disagree.”
That was good enough for Miles.”Thank you for your bravery tonight.” He shot a web line onto a nearby street light and then because he also needed to say it,” I love you.”
His father balked. “Wait. What?”
Before he took off, he gave one more shout to his father. “Look behind you!”
He made his way to the top of the building to watch the a spotlight flash on the Kingpin all strung up in the sky.
Miles smiled. And then there was a familiar voice echoing in his ears.
“Not bad for a fucking rookie.”
Miles blinked. “Professor Ween?”
“You did good, kid. Reality is back to normal thanks to you. Are you feeling okay? That was quite a fucking beat down you took.”
“You were monitoring me the entire time?” Miles asked incredulously.
“Fuck, yeah I was,” Barry voice crackled over the apparent earpiece built into Miles’ mask. “You think I’m just handing out superhero suits to minors without supervision? No fucking way I was letting you run around without tracking you and make sure you stayed alive.”
Miles let out a groan.
There was a chuckle on the other end of that communication. “Hey, You did this on your own,” Barry said encouragingly. “You should be proud. Now, I got a portal open for you near the Brooklyn Bridge. You can join the rest of us heading back to the island.
Miles let out a long sigh and smiled. "On my way," he said thwipping out a line and heading towards the bridge.
[Once again preplayed with the wonderful
One more post and I'll be done spamming your reading list with my plot!]