This was all written like. Directly after Into the SpiderVerse came out and kind of ignored the ending bumper with Miguel because I didn't know what was coming. So! We're going to say this is an alternate universe of an alternate universe.
Not like it's out of the question LOL
_
Peni Parker was smart. She had learned how to hack into a mainframe when she was six, and she had been making her own mechanical suits since she was eight. Her father’s death had catapulted her headfirst into the role of pilot at nine, her main motivation for creating those suits fading with the sudden realization that the one that she wanted to pilot them would never be able to again. But there was something else that probably made her more dangerous and more efficient than anyone believed she could be:
Peni was adaptable.
When given the information that the only one that could use her father’s suit was her, Peni had gone with it. She had allowed the spider-half of the SP//dr CPU to bite her, and in turn she had gained the arachnid’s presence in her own brain…and she had also gained the ability to use the mech. Peni had taken to it like a fish to water and had been operating the mech successfully for five years. She had learned how to use the SP//dr’s own abilities and make them her own, she had learned how to hack those same mainframes when bullets were fired at her, and she had learned how to go with the flow when under constant pressure. It was why when the world suddenly changed around her in a way that pulled her into a swirling vortex of color, she didn’t panic, she instead sought to gain information.
It had been harder than she had originally anticipated. The universe she had found herself in had a significantly less advanced information system and it had been difficult to gain access to it. Yet, Peni was adaptable. She made it work as well as she could, until she felt the tugging in the back of her mind.
Finding the black-and-white man pressing himself to the side of a building had been odd at first. Okay, more than odd, it had been downright mind-blowing. There was nothing to explain why he was able to stick to the side of the condemned building, nothing to explain why he was absorbing all of the multicolored lights from the billboards and reflecting said light as white. He was an anomaly dressed in a trench coat and a spider-mask, complete with large bug-eyed lenses, and it was odd.
It was also kind of amazing.
Peni couldn’t stick to walls, she used her SP//dr for that, but here this man was, and he was pressed to it as though he was made for it. Even so, there was a kinship she felt to him, a mutual understanding born from something that she couldn’t quite grasp hold of. Yet, there had been some information that she had managed to glean from this world, and this was something that she actually recognized, even though she had not expected to see it so soon, nor quite in this manner.
She had seen the information in this world of someone called Spider-Man. Had seen videos of him swinging across New York with webs, stick to walls, and dodge things that he would have no knowledge about, and she thought that perhaps this man was the same. He was simply as out-of-place as her, but in a very different way.
Peni wondered if whatever had pulled her to this world had pulled him as well. It was what allowed her to do something else she hadn’t initially planned on doing.
It allowed her to be vulnerable. It allowed a bit of that fear to rise up and display itself before someone who she had no doubt would not take advantage. And besides…whatever fear she was feeling, whatever unvoiced anxiety she was struggling with, she could tell that he was in much worse condition than her. Even still, the moment she opened her mouth and allowed a surprised, almost awed “you’re like me” pass her lips, and heard the answering echo from him, she watched as everything that he was feeling was discarded. He stood before her, booted-feet easily keeping him stuck to the concrete as he stared into her revealed eyes as the hatch opened, and she found herself idly impressed.
‘Peter,’ as it turned out his name was, was also proving to be adaptable.
When he suggested that he was like her, and they both had similar out-of-place stylizations, and brought up the fact that this similarity likely wasn’t coincidence, she was sold. She was sold enough to not mind when it turned out that Peter couldn’t adapt quite quick enough. Peni herself was having trouble whenever she looked at him, she couldn’t imagine the agony of suddenly being hit with an almost infinite number of colors.
Peni’s tolerance was quickly turned to impressed when he suddenly flung himself away from her mech and threw out his own web halfway to their destination – a taller building so she could gain more signal (the past was weird). The web he threw out was as black as he was, a stark contrast to the white of her own, but she knew what it was as soon as she saw it. He kept pace with her easily, though he had to take two swings for every one of hers. Her extra five feet made up for a lot when it came to swinging, but he still managed to keep right alongside her.
Peni grinned as she realized that this wasn’t just someone that was like her, this was someone that she could trust. This was someone that would push themselves, would push her, and she needed that. Particularly when the rest of the world didn’t seem to want to stop throwing curve-balls at her.
The pig was…weird. He was colored, which was nice, but he seemed to disobey every law of physics there was.
Peter Porker did not adapt to the world around him. Porker made the world adapt to him.
He came in literally floating in the breeze by his nose, towards a hot-dog stand of all things. The only thing that saved the people from a panic-attack and potential questionings of sanity was a black web that was launched out, catching the pig, and bringing it to them. Peter Porker reacted to them in a similar way to the way that Peter and herself had reacted to each other, and gave his own story as they all stood on top of another building, out of the way of the people underneath as the sun set behind them
Adapt, Peni reminded herself, adapt. The poor black-and-white Peter looked absolutely boggled when she spared a glance his way. This wasn’t his day.
“So, I was a spider living in the basement of this wonderful pig named May Porker, right? Well one day she decides she wants to reinvent the hair-dryer and irradiates herself!” He throws his hands around as he describes this, and both Peni and Peter watched him silently, taking in his pacing. “And then she bit me, and I turned into a pig, with most of the abilities I had before when I was a spider! She’s been acting as my Aunt ever since, I think she feels bad for biting me, but it’s not been that bad of a gig! I get to save the world and aside from Pork-Grind, it’s been a pretty nice deal. I guess you can all call me Porker considering there’s another Peter that got here first, and that’s a good way to identify us. But what about your stories? Who are you guys?”
The explanations they gave had very little difference to the one that they had told each other, and Porker made a bit of an exaggerated “yeesh” sound as Peter finished his own story. “Lighten up a little,” he told him. Peter didn’t give him a response.
The fact that it was also a Peter that they found, though in this case given the last name of Porker, further emphasized the fact that this seemed extremely targeted. It also made the idea of seeing if this universe had an Aunt May even more appealing to Peni. Pete – something that black-and-white Peter suggested they call him when it became apparent that it was likely the Spider-Man of this universe was likely named Peter, and they couldn’t both be Peter – seemed extremely wary of the idea at first, but at both Porker and Peni’s combined pushing, he caved.
Peni found Aunt May’s address easily enough once she knew what to search for, as well as the confirmation she needed that it really was a Peter Parker that was swinging around the city. They had their safe-haven found, they had the one that could help them, and likely hook them up with her nephew in order to get them back home, in case Peter lived somewhere else. They would be able to help him fix what was wrong, they would save the world…
Later, Peni would almost wish that Pete hadn’t caved to their plan of finding Aunt May.
Peni hid SP//dr as she didn’t want to draw anymore stares than they already did, her spider friend carefully perched on her shoulder.
The way the door swung open and an older woman stepped out was something that Peni had not expected, nor was the sight of the baseball bat. She especially hadn’t expected the way she locked eyes on Pete and almost sagged. Peni watched as that Aunt May threw her arms around Pete, and how after a moment’s shock, Pete returned the embrace. They were brought into her house before attention could truly focus on them, and that was when they saw the television.
“Peter Parker found dead at 26,” read the ticker-tape on the news station it was turned to, and Peni felt her heart sink.
Pete tightened his grip on this aunt that wasn’t his, and the other two took a step back out of respect.
It was something else to adapt to, and they were good at that.
_
Adaptability was something that Miles did not seem to have.
It seemed to be something that he was learning, but for now he didn’t have it. He couldn’t react to Pete’s punches, not even when he loudly announced what he was about to do, he couldn’t react to Ham’s quick-talking, and he couldn’t react to her questions. He couldn’t turn invisible, he couldn’t shock anyone… Miles could barely swing, could barely cling to walls.
Miles couldn’t get back up.
Miles was the kid she never got to be.
Miles was the one that had never been forced to adapt, and while a part of her resented that, the rest of her envied that. Well, now the world was trying to force him, and he just…wasn’t ready. Peni didn’t hate him, nor did she want him to die, and it was with this in mind that she was one of the first to state that he couldn’t be of help to them. Pete’s voice was right there with hers, as was Porker’s, and while Gwen tried to say that she had seen him, knew he had potential, it seemed as though Miles knew he wasn’t ready to adapt either.
Miles ran, having finally managed to turn invisible, and Peni hoped that he stayed away, if only for his own safety. Miles isn’t like them, he can’t adapt, and Peni doesn’t want him to get hurt.
_
Pete couldn’t be the one to use the Goober.
When making it she had not considered the fact that he had never seen color before in his life. She had made the Goober with color, had designed it to be simple to use – for ones that had grown up with color, had learned their names and shades when they were growing up, not one that had never seen them. Pete kept trying with the Rubik’s cube, kept trying to name the colors, and he kept failing. He recognized his failure and took himself off the list of people that could stay behind. This was something that he couldn’t adapt to, not in time, and as soon as he recognized it, he stepped away. It was done with a grace she had not expected, even though she could see the way it killed him. He didn’t want to let Peter B do it, he didn’t want to let Gwen do it, his very nature hating the fact that he had to let another life take the hit, but he knew that he couldn’t do it.
Peter Porker had a similar problem, as being a pig he was used to color, but was color-blind in a way that was different to Pete’s. He reacted to the inability with a similar way to how he reacted to everything else, made a joke out of it. Peni wasn’t sure how to react to the cartoon pig that operated on a different level than they did, but she was willing to see how far he could take his ability to make things adapt to him and see what he could do.
Peni vowed to herself that as soon as she found something that she couldn’t adapt to, she would handle it like Pete.
When they finally went together to stop the Kingpin, the fight was worse than she had ever expected. It was also the most surprising. She hadn’t expected herself to suddenly be pinned to the ground as Scorpion hit and hit and hit and… Peni couldn’t do it.
Peni couldn’t adapt, she couldn’t get him to stop, she couldn’t get away, she was…she was going to die.
She let go…
And then she was saved.
Porker appeared out of nowhere and proved that there was so much more to him than met the eye, something she had known from the beginning. The large mallet he pulled out of his pocket and beat Scorpion with was a wonder, and if Peni hadn’t been struggling to get out of her crippled mech she would have been amazed. Pete came in then after Porker stunned him, and grabbed the Scorpion with his deadly tail, swinging him around in a circle as she finally managed to climb out of her busted mech and pulled the SP//dr’s leg away, holding it like a bat, making eye contact with Pete. Pete let go, sending the Scorpion flying towards her, and she finally hit him with that leg, sending him out into the void, rage filling her and fueling her. Her rage faded just as suddenly as it appeared, taking in the sight of her broken mech. Spider crawled out then, the small arachnid that was her best friend and had been her only companion crawling onto her hand as she offered it. She felt the words that he whispered into her skull, felt the soothing thrum of assurance in her head, and in the tapping of his pedipalps on her hand, and then there was someone behind her. When Pete offered her his shoulder, she accepted as she offered the Spider her own, and Pete swung her out and towards the Goober with the others, for one final goodbye, and she felt a smile stretch her face as she finally caught sight of Miles, a sudden burst of happiness hitting her even in her mourning over the lost mech.
Miles had adapted.
They would be okay. They’d all go home, and they’d be okay. Miles knew what he was, he knew who he was. He was Spider-Man. He could do it.
They said their goodbyes and their last words, and then they were gone.
Peni found herself in her universe down more friends than she ever wanted to lose, and for once in her life decided she didn’t want to adapt. She wasn’t going to quietly accept it like Pete had, she was going to do something different.
Peni was going to be like Porker. She was going to force the universe to adapt to her. She was bringing her Spider-Fam back, no matter how long it took her, and the universe, quite simply: could suck it.
Summary: Ch. 3 - "In an idle sort of way, none of them had expected for Noir’s blood to be black. None of them had expected that their sudden appearance would be just the distraction that the Lizard had needed. None of them had expected for that very black and very unexpected blood to be painting the wall behind him as Lizard’s claws dug into his flesh, and sent his body flying limply to hit the wall with a wet-sounding smack." - A story based on recovery, color, and the knowledge that you're not alone.
_
In honor of the new Spider-Verse movie coming out, I am going to be posting the entirety of Burning Matches to tumblr. It's already posted on AO3 under the same title, username HopelesslyLost, so if you want it, you can find it. As it is, I've been avoiding it because it's HUGE, but I figure I might as well.
Buckle up.
-
It was horrifying. It was dizzying. His mind spiraled in a million different directions, his body pressing against hard concrete as he desperately attempted to draw breath into his lungs, fingers scrabbling at the building, seeking something, anything that he could use to ground himself. He closed his eyes, tilting his head back, trying to focus on the roughness of the concrete that he could feel, ripping his gloves off in order to be that much closer, barely remembering to shove them in a pocket as he did so. He didn’t even notice the fact that his fingers had dug into the rough edges to the point where they were starting to bleed.
His breath was still rattling in his lungs, his body still tense, but if he kept his eyelids closed, he could at least pretend that nothing had changed.
What had happened?
One moment, Peter had been swinging after some two-bit crooks, intent on putting them on ice after they had shot up one of the poorer localities…and in Hooverville, that was saying something. The next, he had somehow swung into something that squeezed him tighter than the Sandman, and hit harder, too. When he finally was spat out of whatever it was that caught him, he found himself here. This…this…
Peter didn’t know what this was. He didn’t know what was surrounding him, had no idea what was happening, why he was here, where here even was! What was happening? Slowly, slowly, Peter peered out through his goggles, his eyes squinted as narrow as he could make them and still be able to see.
It was like an icepick was driving into his skull.
Peter closed his eyes again, heaving a breath in, and letting it whistle out.
He was having a panic-attack, pressed to the side of an unknown building, and all because he didn’t know what he was seeing. What an absolute clusterfuck. This was stupid, this wasn’t him. He had adjusted to being bitten by a spider and seeing a Spider-God before him, he had adjusted to being able to shoot webs out of his own wrists, and climb on walls - he could do this.
He could do this.
He opened his eyes and kept them open against the searing brilliance that pierced him and forced himself to actually look at what surrounded him. It made his eyes water and his pupils kept sliding over everything, unable to focus on what he was seeing. Eventually finding it too much, he instead turned his attention up, away from the flashing of…whatever it was. Was he having a stroke? A seizure? What the fuck was going on?
Focus on the sky, Pete, focus on the sky, he thought to himself, heaving in another deep breath. The sky was…the sky was odd, too. It was as open and as big as his own, but the…he didn’t even know what to call it. He didn’t know what it was that was spread out over him, that was tinting everything… Peter focused on the big fluffy clouds that drifted across the sun, taking in their appearance, the way they were so normal, and finally closed his eyes again.
Maybe this was it, maybe he was dying.
A sudden pain lanced through his head, a sharp and sudden feeling that was like his spider-sense was on overdrive, giving him the feeling like there were a million spiders crawling up his spine. His eyes flew open and there was something else over him.
Peter’s first thought was to reach for his gun, to shoot the thing that was between him and the semi-familiar sight of the sky, but the thought faded as quickly as it came. As soon as he made…eye-contact? with the thing that was above him, the feeling of spiders changed to something else. Something familiar. It almost hurt, but it didn’t, a feeling of such strong connection it was almost like he was looking at himself in the mirror.
“You…” he started softly, distantly recognizing another softer, distorted, and certainly more feminine voice say the words at the same time, “you’re like me…”
A…hatch for lack of a better word, opened up in the strange metallic thing that rested over him, blocking the sun, and a…little girl stared down at him, her eyes wide and…he hadn’t ever seen eyes like that before. A little too big, a little too bright, but at the same time he still felt like he knew them. He felt like he knew the one that was looking at him, like he was connected to her. It was an odd thought and he wasn’t sure how much he liked it, but it stuck. Because she was like him.
“Are you okay?” the girl asked him, those eyes changing, becoming even bigger, if it were possible, worry in their depths.
“I…” he started, and then shook himself. Peter saw the way that she kept glancing around her as though waiting for someone to spot them, he saw the way that she pressed into the torso of her…machine, even as she asked how he was. This odd little girl was scared, and he didn’t want to cause her anymore fear. He took all of his fear, all of his pain, and all of his confusion and balled it up internally before shoving it deep under his ribs, to be ignored until he got a spare minute (the fact that he never got a spare minute was ignored).
“I’m sorry, kiddo, I’m fit as a fiddle, just…a little disoriented.” He focused on her face, focused on those eyes, fighting to ignore everything else. “Are you alright? Are you…from here?” He pushed himself away from the building, watching as the…robot? backed up a few paces as stood up before it, allowing them to stare at each other roughly eye-to-eye. She was covered in…whatever everything else was covered in, her clothing an odd light tone, and her face shaded much differently than he thought it should be. She looked as though she could have belonged…perhaps…if everything else wasn’t so…bright.
Sure enough, she shook her head.
“I was pulled here, I…don’t know what happened, exactly, but I think we’re both in an alternate dimension,” as she spoke her voice sharpened, and her expression cleared, all of her focus on him. The fear had left her in her rush to explain, and Peter knew immediately that this was her element. “You obviously don’t belong here, you’re completely in black and white which goes against everything around us, and everything that I have seen. I also don’t belong here, see, this is the year 2018, and I’m from the year 3145.”
“Woah, back-up, it’s 2018 here?” Peter asked, finding something else to trip him up. This was shortly followed by the realization, “You’re from 3145? Who are you, kiddo, what’s your name?”
“Yes,” she responded before straightening up and reciting, “My name is Peni Parker, and I work with the SP//dr mech, my father’s mech,” she patted the interior of the…mech she was in, said mech making a pleased-sounding chirp and putting its ‘hands’ on its ‘hips.’ “Before…before he died that is. I connect to it through a psychic link with a spider that lives within the robot and together we protect New York.” She grinned, and as she spoke Peter watched as a rather large spider crawled into view with a feeling of trepidation clawing its way up his spine, watching as it perched on her shoulder and gave a brief cheer. When it did nothing else he slowly allowed himself to relax, but couldn’t keep his gaze away from that spider. “We’re a great team!” She called out and held up a finger that...the Spider tapped back with one of its legs. What the fuck. After a moment of thought he resolved to leave it alone unless it got too close. Peter had been bit before. He wasn’t going to be bit again. “I love to hack into mainframes and I love New York!” She called out brightly and broke his train of thought, and the triumphant pose they had both fallen into after their...tap...held for another few seconds before breaking and she gave a slight frown. “What about you? I know you’re like me, I can feel it, but…”
“Well…” Peter paused, trying to think of a way to condense everything he had gone through into something that would be kid-friendly and wouldn’t make the kid either pity him or…be traumatized. “My name is Peter Parker. Where I’m from the year is 1933, and I’m a Private Investigator… I got bitten by a magic spider that gave me spider powers and I’ve been using them ever since to put a dent in the crime that plagues New York. I like…” he hesitated on what he could say that he liked, looking into those wide and interested eyes and fishing through the possibilities. “I like egg creams, and I like to punch Nazis.” He paused at seeing the way that she seemed to dim, not at the idea of him punching Nazis, he could tell, but…almost at the lack of enthusiasm, and spat out something else, “I like to let matches burn down to my fingertips, sometimes, so I can…” he let his voice die out.
Her expression had only turned sadder, somehow, the robot lowering itself from its proud pose into something more somber.
Smooth.
“So, you can what?” she asked. And even her mech looked upset, which was even smoother. How the hell did he fuck it up this much?
“So, I can feel something,” he answered finally. “But that’s not important. If you’re not from here, and I’m not from here, why are we here? And where is here?”
“From what I’ve managed to gather, which isn’t much, admittedly, the technology here is all so…old,” she griped, “it doesn’t connect well with my SP//dr. But I do know there is a Spider-Man! I was in the middle of seeing if I could track him when I felt…well, I felt like there was someone I had to see around.” She ducked her head slightly. “I had thought at first that it might be him, since…well, I thought he’d be the only one from here. But I’m okay with finding you!” She grinned, a bright and happy expression. “I’m just…glad to not be alone.”
Peter nodded and kept his eyes focused on the little girl before him, watching as she shrunk slightly at the admission, her foot gently circling the metal floor of her pod. He idly wondered if she could stick to walls on her own, or if she was simply at the mercy of the robot’s abilities. The idea frightened him in an idle sort of way. Being that dependent on anything, even a mech that had a link with him, was not something he had any desire for.
He also had no idea how to answer her admission. He saw the moment that she realized this, an odd…flush spreading across her cheeks, but he couldn’t think of anything to say to make it better. Peter internally cursed his lack of people-skills and wondered how many ways he could kick his own ass.
“We…we need somewhere to stay!” she finally called out, regrouping remarkably well in the face of Peter’s own inability. “Maybe we can find the Spider-Man of this reality. I bet they’ll be able to help us! They might even know how we got here.”
“Knowing the Spider luck, he’ll probably be right in the middle of it.”
The gripe got a brief laugh from Peni, and Peter smirked to himself proudly.
“Alright, so we have to find Spider-Man. Do you have any ideas?” Peni asked. “I can connect to another mainframe and try and hack in, but…I kind of stand out.” She paused. “You definitely stand out. I don’t think they’d notice me if I just walked up to somewhere, but you…” She didn’t say anything else, and she didn’t have to. Peter hesitated, standing up and looking out at the city before them, thinking.
“You’re a Parker, right? Peni Parker?”
“Yes,” Peni responded, beaming. “And you’re a Parker, too! A Peter Parker.” She frowned slightly. “Do you think that there’s a Parker here that’s running around as a Spider-Man?”
“I don’t doubt that in the least. Two spider-people pulled out of alternate dimensions and brought to another universe with a Spider, both named Parker? Once I’d call coincidence, but this feels too focused.”
“I think so, too!” She grinned. “Alright! I’ve got something to look for now, this will make things so much easier!” Peni hunkered back into the torso of her robot, which closed before her. “Come on!” she called out, and Peter watched as she leapt to another building, the leap something that made his entire body flinch backward as he followed her movement with his eyes and simultaneously took a better look at his surroundings. It hurt, and he found himself covering his eyes, ducking down.
It took a second before Peni seemed to realize he wasn’t behind her. He felt it when she landed before him, the hatch opening again, and he forced himself to open his eyes. Her wide and worried eyes stared at him, and Peter forced himself to straighten.
“I’m sorry,” he managed softly, “I…it hurts,” he finally admitted. “I don’t know what I’m seeing, and it really…it just hurts my head.”
“All the colors are really freaking you out, huh?” she asked him, but before Peter could ask what she meant, her robot reached out. “Don’t worry! I’ll help you out, just hold still.” Peter found himself grabbed, before being positioned in such a way that he could cling to the back of her robot. He hunkered down against it, holding his hat with one hand, a terrible mixture of shame and disgust welling up within him.
Pathetic.
“I’ll just carry you! We’ll get there soon, just try and get your eyes to adjust, okay? I know you can do it!” She cheered, the face of the robot staring at him with a bright smile blinking across its ‘face’, which was odd. Peter resigned himself to being carried and felt as she adjusted herself to his weight, and then leapt.
For a moment they were in free-fall, and then her robot thwiped its wrist out, webbing shooting out and swinging them up and out. It was a familiar experience, even without the control he usually enjoyed. It also allowed him to get used to the sight of the world zipping by him, the…colors blurring together as they swung.
He had to get used to this. He had to be useful.
Peter forced his eyes to stay open and trusted in Peni to get them where they needed to go in order to gain information. They would figure out what was going on, and then they would figure out how to get home, Peter was certain. This was just another strange pothole in the road he called life. He’d been hitting them so often they were almost expected by this point.
It took Peni a long time before the collective Spiders could finally make actual physical contact with each other, and somehow longer to finally gain contact with Pete. As their monochromatic friend had never had any real experience with cellphones or any other object that Peni could think to make to allow them to talk to each other, Peni had decided to wait until she had a working method of jumping to alternate universes before attempting to reach him. It was a hard decision to make, Pete had been the one to spend the most time with her, and she missed him dearly, but it made sense.
It was likely that the sight of the group of them would be a lot easier to take, and likely easier to trust, than some random device that called his name, or otherwise tried to contact him in that way. The fact that he wouldn’t know how to actually use the device helped solidify the decision, and so Peni focused on calling up the others, helping them contact each other, and then buckled down to open up their dimensions without destroying the universe, or their cells.
It was a good thing that Peni thrived under pressure. Adapt or force the world to bend, and Peni in this instance, had decided to use force.
Communication came first, and it started with Gwen. While it would have been easier to start with Miles as she had a baseline for what his universe felt like…a part of her had been scared to try it. They had taken out everyone aside from the Kingpin.
They had taken out everyone aside from the one who had killed Spider-Man, and while a part of Peni really believed that Miles had adapted and knew what he was doing, another part of her was terrified. She contacted Gwen.
Peni hadn’t spent a lot of time with Gwen, but in that time, she had discovered that Gwen was cool. Gwen was a drummer in a band, had an amazing haircut that Peni would get Grounded-For-Life for if she tried, and her poise and dexterity had been amazing. If that wasn’t a person to emulate Peni didn’t know what was. It also turned out that Gwen’s universe was also very close in structure to Miles’.
When she finally gained contact with the other girl it was to drop a communicator in the vague shape of a watch into her lap. Naturally it was able to be charged with a USB, which had not been a small feat. Figuring out the proper current as well as the pin size and length had been a chore, but the result was something that Gwen could wear without issue and use to both text and call with. The holographic keyboard was a touch of Peni’s own universe, but also one that she thought would be appreciated.
Gwen was the one who pushed for Miles’ universe to be the second, and Peni accepted without any pushback. When Gwen was finally able to open the small portal and drop his own watch onto Miles’ it was a moment of celebration. It had also been a true breakthrough. Passing the watch to Gwen to run some tests, who was then able to rip her own portal through to Miles’ and give him his watch and not having any lasting consequence to either wearer or watch?
Brilliant.
Peni had trouble finding Peter B. More trouble than she really expected. It wasn’t because his universe was that different to theirs, but more…his universe seemed to be the norm. There tended to be a lot of Peter Parkers that acted as Spider-Man, and finding the right one was a bit like finding a needle in a haystack. Made of Peter Parkers. Which was weird. When she finally found him, it was to stumble upon the sight of Peter B kissing a very familiar red-head.
Peni had been unable to contain her squee at the sight, Peter pulling back in shock at the sound, and then reeling at the sight of a portal hovering behind MJ. MJ, for her part, took the rip in space like a champ, and aside from stepping behind Peter as he was the most prepared to deal with the strange and unusual, she stood her ground.
“You got back with MJ, oh, Peter, that’s so good! I’m so happy for you!” Peni cried out, her hands under her chin, and hearts in her eyes. Literally.
“Peni!” Peter exclaimed, shock, embarrassment and awe on his face in equal measures. “How…?” he started.
“Can’t explain, not enough time, take this! There’re instructions on the back! Miles and Gwen are connected, too!” She threw the watch at him with a slip of paper taped to the back, something he caught without trouble due to his literally sticky fingers, and the portal closed on a pair of baffled expressions.
Peni wasn’t surprised when she gained a frenzied series of texts from Peter B, but she was too busy laughing to care that much. She texted Gwen and Miles and alerted them to the fact that Peter B was with MJ and they had contact. The texts slowed to a halt when the other two immediately started texting Peter B their own congratulations, and it didn’t take long for a very simple, but very heartfelt: “Thank you” to appear on her screen, followed by “MJ says hello, and thanks you, too.”
Peni felt a warmth spread from the bottom of her toes to the top of her head, and a grin spread as wide as possible on her face as she gave another ferocious squee. She was rocking this.
Peni immediately set to work contacting Peter Porker, fueled by the success and the thanks she had been given. While it was true that Porker was a bit like Pete in the way that he didn’t have access to a lot of their technology, Porker also operated by this… Porker had called it ‘cartoon-logic,’ and Peni hated it, but that didn’t change the fact that he was absurdly good at making anything given to him work. She didn’t think he would have any trouble getting the device to work, nor did she think he wouldn’t be able to make it adapt to him in the same way he forced everything else around him to change.
She was right.
Porker took the watch when she gave it to him and sealed the portal again, and within moments had managed to not only get it to send pictures of his own world, something that Peni hadn’t originally given it the ability to do, but also sent her flowers through it. Two of them were a bright pink, and while one she recognized as a rose, the other took her a bit to learn the name of. It was a geranium she eventually discovered, and came with a beautiful white flower that she also learned was a lily of the valley. In combination, these three flowers turned out to be, not only an expression of friendship, but a return to happiness when she looked up old flower meanings later.
Peni put them in water and had to fight back tears.
She finally took a moment to relax and just texted and talked to the others for what seemed like hours, listening to their voices, memorizing the sounds of their laughter and the quips that seem to never stop from everyone, herself included. It just seemed to be a Spider thing.
MJ talked, too, and it was so nice to hear her voice, and Peter B’s voice responding to her, and to them. He sounded so much happier, and that made Peni happy, too.
Spiders Adapt or they Force the world around them to Bend, and Peter B had managed to force his, if only with a good deal of groveling and reevaluation, and promises, promises, promises.
The only one left was Pete.
It was time to work on actual prolonged physical contact, because she owed everybody one hell of a hug.
It was difficult, first because she had to isolate what made them corrode, and then because she had to find out how to fix it all. There was also the danger inherent with that stability being connected to a watch that could either be destroyed or malfunction. If she was going to make this work, she had to make sure that either that watch was going to be near-indestructible, or she had to make them adapt.
What to do, what to do.
Eventually, Peni decided that she was going to have to make some serious tweaks to the watches themselves. While it would probably be safer to make either a nanotech injection or something else that would make their cells physically adjust to the other universes, a field wouldn’t have as much physical adjustments, and there was no telling how everyone else would react to the nanotech. That was one thing in particular that would have to be studied later as soon as she had access to the others and they could really dive into it. As it was, a protective field would make it so their own bodies wouldn’t corrode, but would also be a hell of a lot less invasive.
Peni worked and she worked, her Spider a constant presence handing her tools and whispering encouragement into her brain, until finally…finally.
Peni took her first step into Gwen’s world, Spider on her shoulder, and the older girl greeted her with a loud cry of happiness, and arms that wrapped around her and spun her around. Peni had brought her tools with her, and she worked on fixing Gwen’s watch while Gwen brought them pizza, the two girls laughing and talking as they ate and Peni modified Gwen’s watch. The entire time Peni never glitched once, nor did she feel the slight wrongness that had always been at the back of her mind when inside of Miles’ universe. When they were finished, Gwen followed Peni back into her universe, so she could properly examine Gwen and see to it that the field worked the same on her, and Peni had access to better tools if it didn’t.
It also brought her back to the actual SP//dr mech, the one that she had been recreating at the same time as connecting to the rest of the Spiders, and also the one that had been left behind to finish its own field. The plan with the SP//dr mech was to provide another safe-zone should anyone else’s watches bust. The trickiness of making sure that it could create any field in an isolated manner had left it behind the first time, but now that she had Gwen to help test with it was done faster.
When it was discovered that Gwen was able to not only stay in her universe and her own feeling of wrongness wasn’t present, Gwen and Peni both made the leap to Miles’ universe, this time with the entire mech.
Miles greeted them with all the grateful enthusiasm a new Spider that had been missing his friends could. He also formally introduced them to his roommate, Ganke Lee, who seemed a lot more accepting of them when they didn’t have a talking pig, and also when he knew what was happening. Ganke had talked to them a few times through text and over a…technically seven-way group-chat when MJ had joined the five of them, and Ganke had gotten involved. It was good to see him properly, and…not give him a mini heart-attack.
When Peni finally managed to properly adjust Miles’ own watch, they said a very sorry goodbye to Ganke, who was not only very understanding, he was also very supportive. They were going to Peter B next, and Ganke knew not just how much Peter B meant to Miles, he knew how much Miles and the others meant to Peter B. They didn’t have enough watches to bring him, regardless, and Ganke honestly wasn’t that sure how sold he was on hopping dimensions anyway.
Peter B greeted them with a large hug and laughter, holding them all on the side of the building they had leapt out onto as their dimension hopper locked onto him perching there. Peni had leapt out of her mech at the sight of him, Peter B instinctively catching her much like he had the watch, and then simply gathered the other two teens up in his arms and held them. They held him back, laughing, and very much near tears. He was so much happier, so much more whole. He’d even managed to lose some weight, something he was endlessly ribbed for. When Peter B invited them back to meet MJ they accepted without hesitation, and a procession of spiders swung through his New York.
MJ, who was used to being able to get into places she otherwise wouldn’t have, was waiting on another rooftop after Peter called her to let her know what to expect.
MJ was sweetness and warmth in equal measures, combined with an unrelenting strength that made them instantly understand why losing her had caused such a strain on Peter. It also made them understand why he loved her so much in the first place. There was a moment when the urge to tease Peter for managing to gain someone so far out of his league rose, but then they saw the way they stood together. That familiarity and closeness that only came from knowing each other, and understanding each other, and above-all struggling together.
Peni made more heart-eyes and clasped her hands under her chin, sighing deeply.
“I’m so glad I get to meet you all,” MJ said, and she hugged them, too, and it was… Peni didn’t have the words, but she felt like she didn’t need to. “Thank you,” she said softly. “Thank you so much for…everything you did for Peter. For each other,” the smile she gave them was soft and they couldn’t help but beam back.
“Thank you for taking him back, he was an absolute wreck!” Miles finally said with a pair of finger guns and a wink, and the moment was broken with a great deal of laughter and teasing. MJ had a wicked smirk and quipped with the best of the Spiders, and Peni idly hoped that she’d have someone like an MJ one day. That would be nice.
Peter B’s watch was taken and fixed, and with one last kiss, Peter B joined them on their second-to-last dimension jump.
Peter Porker’s universe was loud and chaotic, and felt a bit like they had stepped into a Looney Tunes episode, not just because of the way everything looked, but because of the context. Peter Porker’s position was slightly different. While Gwen had been on the side of a building, Miles in his dorm, and Peter on another building, Porker was in the middle of something else.
Peter Porker was in the middle of a shower.
The screaming that exploded from everyone was a mixture of truly horrified and embarrassed. The door slammed behind them as they all dove out of the room, and a moment later a (decent) pig stormed out of the bathroom with his face blushing a very bright red, but he recovered quicker than they did.
“Ah, relax, that gag’s a staple in my universe, you wouldn’t be the first, and I doubt you’re the last.”
The hopeless giggling that finally escaped Peni’s mouth was echoed by Gwen, and then finally the rest had fallen into a mixture of hysterical laughter. Porker made them tea, which was…an odd experience to drink. It felt there, but it didn’t feel…real, somehow. It was so surreal, but it also left them with the one watch that Peni had left. Porker finished bringing out chairs from a supply closet that looked like it couldn’t hold as much as it did, and they all gathered around the table in the kitchen as they drank their tea.
Peni worked on this last watch that hadn’t been given to an owner yet, as well as Porker’s, tongue poking out as she fought to work out the kinks. Finally, it was finished, and the rest looked to her in anticipation as Porker put his watch on his wrist with a smile.
“Alright, guys,” Peni said, anticipation building up inside of her like a balloon, a smile on her face as she walked back to her robot. “Last one, are you all ready?”
“Let’s find Mr. Tall, Dark, and Gloomy!” Porker called out with a fist-pump, and Peni sent them one last series of coordinates.
The dimension hop was accompanied by the familiar lurch in the bottom of their stomachs as they tumbled end over end through a webbed-void, and then they lurched to a stop as they finally hit smog, black, and gloom.
They huddled together on the roof of the building they had found themselves on, rain pouring down around them and almost immediately drenching them before Peni’s robot spun into position to protect them from the rain.
“…Hello, Tall, Dark, and Gloomy!” Ham called out, patting the concrete of the building beneath him. There was a brief snort from Gwen, who immediately put her hand over her mouth.
“What, it was funny?” she snipped at the rest of the Spider’s combined disbelieving looks. Porker crossed his arms, nodding proudly.
It was then that the sound of machine-gun fire broke the silence. They immediately went into battle-stances, ready, senses straining as they fought to figure out where it came from.
Flashes of light from a nearby building that resembled an old-timey speakeasy drew their attention in this world of gloom, and they soon realized that that was where the bullets were coming from. The flock of screaming men and women was another tip-off. They immediately leapt off the building, falling in a formation that they gravitated to without thinking. Peter B was the first to break through the door, flipping to stick to the ceiling above as Spider-Gwen landed on the railing overlooking a much bigger establishment than had been originally anticipated. Spider-Ham was on a table, Miles standing next to him with his hands ready to shoot webs at anyone who came near, while Peni rose behind them in her mech.
They weren’t expecting the sight that they came to
Pete was behind a kicked-over table, a tommygun and his usual pistol both held out before him, both aimed at something that a few of them instinctively recognized.
Larger and more horrifying than they had ever seen or expected, teeth twice the length of Peter’s hand held in a mouth that couldn’t properly hold them, tongue lolling out between the gums and all held in a scaled and familiar head whose large black eyes focused and reflecting no light. Its hunched-over body loomed over the much smaller man with his weapons, tail whipcord thin and lashing behind it as its claws were bared and ready.
At the sudden banging of the door and the leap of everyone into position paused, Pete paused in his firing to see who had appeared.
“You guys-“
In an idle sort of way, none of them had expected for Pete’s blood to be black. None of them had expected that their sudden appearance would be just the distraction that the Lizard had needed. None of them had expected for that very black and very unexpected blood to be painting the wall behind him as Lizard’s claws dug into his flesh, and sent his body flying limply to hit the wall with a wet-sounding smack.
In the end, no one knew who screamed, but it was Gwen who attacked first.
Not again, not again, not again, was the only thought beating its way through Gwen’s mind, taking in the sight of Pete snapping back, the blood spraying through the air, the sickening crack, and the wet and solid thud as he fell to the ground. The Lizard stood there, the Lizard. The thing that took Peter, the thing that took Her Peter, that took everything from her, the thing that stole her dreams, her thoughts, the thing that took her friend. It took her friend, it took her friend, it took her friend…
It wouldn’t take this one. It wouldn’t take Pete, it wouldn’t take Peter.
Gwen leapt from the balcony without knowing the scream she was hearing was coming from her own mouth, her thoughts on vengeance and redemption.
-
Miles was baptized in the blood of Peter Parker.
Peter’s last words to Miles were etched into his brain, breathed out in kindness, in reassurance, even though he lied to Miles between his teeth. In a way, Miles as a hero had been born the day that he died, unable to do anything to help, only able to watch as Fisk pounded him into the pavement, as red spread around a hero that had given everything for the city. Had given his life for the city. For him. And all Miles could do was watch him die and then run. Run to save the life that couldn’t do anything to help.
The blood on his hands was visible in the red of his fingers, a reminder and a promise to himself to never let it happen again.
It wasn’t going to happen again. He couldn’t let it happen again. Miles was better, he was more prepared, he wasn’t going to run. He wasn’t going to run no matter how big or how slobbery or how jagged the teeth. Miles was ready. Miles was going to save Peter.
Miles didn’t recognize that his own voice was crying out, didn’t realize that arcs of electricity were riding up his hands, but that creature was about to find out what happened to people that hurt Miles’ friends.
_
Porker had never seen blood. Not in the way that splattered across the ceiling and floor, not in the way that seeped from a body as it lay on the ground unmoving.
Porker had the sudden horrifying, wretched realization that his friends were fragile. He had known it in a way, known it in the sight of a news-reel ticking that Peter Parker was dead, but it hadn’t really hit him until now. They couldn’t take hits to the head with an anvil, couldn’t take falling down a mountain and landing in your own personal crater. They couldn’t survive. They would die. They would die and it was a terrible, gut-churning realization that belonged with the sight of Peni being beaten and beaten and beaten by Scorpion, with no way out.
Porker needed to protect his friends. He needed to keep that from happening ever again, so even as he leapt out towards the Lizard, as his fingers balled into fists and his voice joined the scream that was pulsing in his heart and in his ears, he vowed to never let this happen again.
Blood just wasn’t funny.
_
My fault, my fault, my fault, my fault, rang through Peni’s mind with the beating of her heart, a constant pulse in the background that sped up as she screamed and screamed. Her mech launched over the edge of the balcony, her voice leaving it in the garbled sound produced by the vocal modifier.
This was her fault.
She hadn’t looked before she leapt, she had come into a world that she knew nothing about, and she had expected for it to be just like theirs. For the world to be sunny and warm and for him to be waiting for them with a hug and a shout of recognition. She had expected for maybe some tears, but not the kind of tears that were wetting her face now. Not the awful, large tears that swamped her eyes and made it hard to see the face of the thing that had kil-hurt her friend.
If she had only tried to make contact. If she had only tried to do something to let Pete know they were coming. If she only…if she only…
Peni refused to adapt to a world where Pete no longer lived. She refused to allow this thing to hurt him again, to hurt any of her other friends.
Peni had gotten them into this mess, she would get them out.
_
Peter B moved without thinking, flipping one of the cartridges in his web-shooters out for another with the grace and dexterity of one that had been doing so for decades as he crawled across the ceiling towards Pete’s crumpled body, knowing that if he could get there in time before Pete bled out too much he could seal the wounds with the web-fluid in his wrist. Sanitary, pain-relieving web-fluid, an invention that had taken a while to perfect, but one he never left the house without.
He dropped down next to Pete’s limp body, soft and gentle words dripping from his mouth without thought, his mind on autopilot, one part of him focused on saving Pete, the other on the battle that was happening across from him. He would join in a moment, but first he had to make sure that there would be someone that they could still save.
He’d lost too many people for him to be able to move on without knowing he’d done all he could.
_
Gwen’s blood pulsed in her veins, her heart hammering as she shot webbing on either side of the Lizard, yanking back and using the natural elasticity to send her flying towards the creature. En Pointe shoes kicked out, and Gwen almost cried out as she connected. She was grabbed and thrown before she could recover from the sharp and jarring feeling of hitting what felt like jagged concrete, the scales sharper than she thought they would be, jutting out. The claws of the Lizard had dug into her uniform and drew out beads of blood, but they were ignored as she flipped, landing on the wall in a crouch.
It was hard to see. Everything was in shades of black and gray and white, almost blending together, the Lizard only visible as the lights above swung, highlighting different parts of its large and crouched body. It was so big. Bigger than her friend, bigger than Rhino, all teeth and scales and claws and death, and Gwen didn’t know if they could stop it.
Miles landed in the next breath, slamming his hands down on the Lizard’s head, taking the opportunity she had created. Electricity arced out and cast light into the shadows, before Miles was thrown as well, an inhuman guttural cry rising out of the thing’s throat as Porker hit it with an anvil that seemed to come from nowhere. It barely flinched, only reaching out and grasping Porker’s entire body in its clawed hand before flinging him to the side. Porker bounced like a ball, careening back towards the Lizard and making contact with his fist into the thing’s jaw.
Porker reeled back, shaking his hand that had grown about twice its original size and pulsed red.
“New plan,” he cried out, “Never do that again!”
Gwen shot out a web as the Lizard moved to slice the pig with its claws, catching its hand and pulling back. She found herself torn from the wall for her trouble, plywood coming with her in splinters. The yelp that left her mouth was swallowed down, even as she let go and was sent flying. Peter B, switching cartridges once again, shot out his reloaded one.
“Fastball Special!” he cried out, and she caught the webline he fired instinctively, feeling as he turned on his heel and spun her, speeding up her momentum and sending her flying back.
She connected once again with a new understanding of what she was hitting, and this time the Lizard moved with her, letting out a shriek as she hit it. She kicked off, flipping back as SP//dr gripped hold of the thing while it was distracted and threw it through a wall. They took a pause to reevaluate and catch their breath, and then it charged back through the wall, throwing off brick and dust and letting out a shriek like nails across glass, like death itself given voice.
Gwen charged again, screaming back at it, and was thrown to the side by a whipcord tail. Miles was gripped by a clawed hand, only to be released as Peter B kicked it under its jaw, sending teeth snapping together in a way they weren’t supposed to. Peter B was caught by Lizard’s tail wrapping around his leg and slammed into a nearby table. Peter B gave a wheeze and then found himself thrown away.
“Always with that tail!” he cried out weakly, and grasped the line that Gwen shot out towards him. Gwen swung him around in the move that she had felt and sent Peter B launching back towards the Lizard. He webbed the Lizards’ claws as they launched out towards him, sliding under its reaching arm and driving his foot into its belly. It grabbed him with its other hand and slammed him down, its foot coming down to crush him, when SP//dr tackled it.
The two of them grappled, Peter B rolling out of the way, shooting webs at the Lizard’s feet as he went. It stretched out its claws, tearing through the webbing and shrieking in annoyance. SP//dr was the one hurled next, slamming into the staircase.
“Is that all you do, just throw us around?” Porker called out. “I could use some variety!” Several frying pans were launched at the Lizard’s head, bouncing off with an echoing clang at every hit. It shrieked again and charged at him. Porker gave a brief, “whoops,” before he was grasped and repeatedly slammed into the ground, before being sent out again, bowling into Peter B who had leapt forward to help. Miles made the jump onto the Lizard, crouching on its back and hands slamming down over its black eyes.
Electricity burst into being and the Lizard shrieked.
Shuddering and shaking it launched itself backwards, crushing Miles into the brick, and stopping the flow of electricity. Miles gave a wheeze, the Lizard moving to tear into his soft belly with its claws, when Gwen leapt again, and was caught in its hand.
SP//dr leapt onto its back this time, seeking to grasp it, trying to get it to let go, even as its grip became crushing. Gwen wheezed, when the thing gave another pained shriek. Lizard’s scales were peeled off it as SP//dr was thrown away, its grip literally torn away, that tail wrapping around it and pinning it to the wall. Peter B and Porker were grasped in the claws of its foot, slamming them down, and Miles was still catching his breath as it turned back to Gwen.
Gwen stared up into black eyes devoid of all light, and those teeth spread wide in a maw made for tearing flesh. Saliva and tongue spilled out, flicking across her mask, as it lowered its face down towards her, and the sounds of the other Spider’s screamed into her ears, and she knew this was it. This was how she died. This was her penance for killing Peter, this was her….
BANG
BANG
BANG
The sound exploded out of nowhere and the Lizard stopped in its movement, gurgling breath wheezing from its lungs as that black ichor that had splattered from Peter slowly poured from the Lizard. As another Lizard died, holding her, staring down at her, and Peter’s face and his voice and the smiles he would give her, and the light, all that light, snuffed out so soon and…and…
The grip around her became slack, the Lizard stumbling forward, releasing Peter B, releasing Porker, and Gwen was finally able to shove herself away, just as the Lizard fell to the ground in a cold, dead, heap. Blood poured from its back, from the wounds opened by SP//dr and finished with…with…
Gwen’s gaze turned to where the shots had come from and found Peter there, one hand forcing himself upright. A black streak of blood trailed behind him from where he had dragged himself to grab his gun, the weapon itself smoking in his other hand as he held it up, the limb wrecked with trembling.
Peter killed the Lizard, Gwen giggled to herself, a terrible, horrible feeling rising up in her chest. She thought she might vomit at the thought that Peter killed the Lizard. Peter killed her friend. Peter tore him from her life, and it wasn’t fair, it wasn’t fair…
Gwen focused back on the Peter before her now, forcing herself to focus on what was happening, on the now, fighting back the rising panic. Peter had rolled his mask up to reveal his nose, the sight of that black blood dribbling down from his mouth, from his nose probably the reason, his breath a whistling gurgle between clenched teeth. His skin was pale as chalk, all gray draining out of him with his blood, those teeth still grit, blood staining them and bubbling with his breath.
“Get…” he gasped out, voice a terrible, mangled little thing, more rasp than tone, “fucked,” he finished, and collapsed in a bloody heap, mouth gaping open and chest barely rising.
Peter wasn’t dead. Peter wasn’t dead. Peter wasn’t dead.
She could still save him.
_
SP//dr moved before the others, its hand carefully opening and flattening into something that could be used a bit like a hospital gurney. “Hurry!” Peni gasped as she pressed buttons and opened protocols like crazy. Her heart was hammering in her throat and she had managed to finally wipe away her tears. She could do this. She could save him.
“We have to take him to my world! I have the technology to help him, he’ll be okay!” Peni cried out, and that was enough to get the others moving. Limping and swaying turned to running, Porker the first one next to the limp body. The pig carefully reached out, but before he could roll him over, Peter B cried out,
“Wait!” he switched his web-cartridge yet again, carefully webbing the other into a cocoon of whatever made that web so special. “We don’t know if he has any internal breakages or if it’s hurt his spine. We have to make sure that we won’t make anything worse.” As soon as he was properly encased, Peter B helped Gwen and Miles slide Pete’s limp body onto SP//dr’s outstretched hand, Porker underneath Peter’s head and doing his best to keep him completely level.
SP//dr stood up carefully, metal sliding into place around Pete to keep him stable and changed into its spider-stance at the push of a button. She typed commands feverishly into her mech, inputting coordinates, and crunching numbers to make sure they appeared exactly where she wanted them to. A portal started opening up before them, and each of them grabbed hold of one of the legs, Porker holding onto the same one as Gwen. SP//dr jumped through as soon as it solidified and everyone had a good grip, and they all found themselves back in that void.
When they finally found themselves back on solid ground, it was to the familiar mechanical and utterly futuristic look of Peni’s universe.
“Hang on!” Peni called out, and each of them hurriedly braced themselves. Peni launched herself out of her own personal room, the only thing she knew the exact coordinates to, sending scientists and workers on the other side of the sliding doorway out of the way as she cried out a warning. The SP//dr mech rotated to run across the ceiling, Peter’s ‘gurney’ shifting to keep him bodily upright. The people they were running past kept looking up and gasping, but none of them made a move to follow them.
They knew better by now, knew that if she was running through the compound like this it meant that danger was quick to follow. They wouldn’t be bothered, and Peni would be able to concentrate on saving Pete.
Peni took them through doors that slid open before them and closed behind them in a long mechanical row, before finally turning off into the medical bay. SP//dr dropped down onto the floor with a smooth and controlled motion, Peter’s body was lowered even smoother, the SP//dr mech moving towards a see-through panel on the opposite wall. It was semi-transparent, made of a strange rose-colored plexiglass, and it was the best thing that Peni had ever seen in her life. The Spiders dropped down around her instinctively, watching as SP//dr reached out with its other hand and began pressing buttons marked in Japanese.
SP//dr carefully slit her way through the webbing, revealing the bloody and mangled body she was holding. Peni gave a tiny whimper, lowering her hand so the others could reach him easier, biting back her tears. It wasn’t the time.
“Get everything covering his torso off,” Peni ordered. Peter B was the one to take over in this regard, easily tearing the remains of the shredded leather vest and turtleneck sweater away from him, throwing the torn remains to the ground. The long jacket required a bit more finesse, but he was finally bare from the waist up. The webbing that Peter B had covered his wounds with was soaked through with blood, and she pressed a button to her left as soon as she saw the black. She couldn’t look at the chalk-white skin for too long, couldn’t look at the rest of the wounds that tore into his torso, evidence of sloppy stitching crawling across his chest. A slot opened up at the touch, a tray sliding out immediately, and SP//dr’s head turned to look at Peter directly. “B, I need a sample of your web fluid here, it needs to know what to get rid of. It’ll remove the web-fluid and fix the skin underneath, so we don’t have to worry about it tearing out any clotting.”
Peter B followed her directions without question, throwing in the whole cartridge with an easy flick. They watched as machines disassembled it as soon as the tray re-entered the slot, pink turning blue. The web-fluid was pulled apart by various machines, a constant oil keeping the web from getting stuck on them, as well as electricity that wired through the webbing and broke it into its base parts. A green light suddenly turned on as the last of the web disintegrated, the machine humming to life, and the doors opened, a plastic ‘bed’ sliding out. SP//dr lowered Pete onto it, and the ‘bed’ slid back into place.
Pete’s torso was suddenly highlighted in red in a panel above them, the machine finding the source of the wound in an instant. Relief started to spread through them, when suddenly Pete’s entire body was highlighted in red. The machine gave an angry-sounding beep, and a word flashed on the screen:
This chapter starts off with a bit of a flashback into Miles' perspective of a bit of last chapter and in particular that conversation that Jefferson mentions having with his kid and then goes from there, just so you're not confused.
Ps. Nicolas Cage playing a Teenager will never not be funny.
_
Miles listened to Peter’s voice as he explained who they were and what they needed with awe building up in his chest. He had already been vaguely impressed when Peter began speaking Spanish, but at every word that trickled from his lips, every carefully crafted lie that blended truth with the small barely-perfected idea that Miles had gone with, that bubble of vaguely impressed had turned into amazement. He hoped that it didn’t spread on his face, but one look at the bleeding mess of his friend helped secure the look to concern.
Then Peter took off the mask. Peter took off the mask. Peter did the one thing that had terrified Miles, that had made him shake and shiver, and finally stare at Spider-Man in the same way he had before he died, with the same belief and trust that he could make it better.
This time, Peter had managed to do so, in a way that made Miles’ breath catch in his throat. The mixed ball of guilt and horror in his chest was soothed slightly when his mother and father moved to help, but in the end, it was only tugged tighter, driven into his belly at the sight of every other face that was bared. Every other mask that was taken off.
Miles felt like opening his mouth, like giving voice to the cry building inside of him, the “I am Spider-Man” that was on the tip of his tongue, the confession that Miles couldn’t speak.
That Miles wouldn’t speak.
Miles stayed in the background, watching his friends as they quietly watched his mom, as Peni moved to help, and felt that guilt pull tighter. When his mom finally pronounced that Pete was going to be okay, and the others began to relax, Miles had a terrified moment where he thought that his dad would kick them out. Instead he began offering for them to stay. They agreed, and after some discussion on where to put everyone and what to wear once their costumes were removed, they all began piling up in the living room. They helped Miles clean up the floor of his room, Peter revealing a home remedy that he said he used all the time, removing the blood that had pooled there as though it had never been there.
But it had been, and the citrusy smell of Peter B’s concoction still hovered in his room.
Miles wanted to join them in a way, he wanted to join his friends so badly, but when his father approached him, he knew that was unlikely to happen. His dad put his arm over his shoulder, twinging sore muscles as he did so (but Miles wouldn’t flinch), while his other took hold of his mom, leading them back into the hallway and away from the cuddle-pile that was forming in the living room, surrounding Pete’s makeshift-bed on the coach. A part of him knew that he didn’t belong there.
He was a coward.
His dad sighed, steering him into the room and closing the door behind them gently. His mom had gone to get showered and changed, having refused to take one until the others were taken care of first. The look that his dad was giving him was gentle, a kind of soft concern mixed with caring in a way that Miles didn’t deserve… He was such a bad son. Lying through his teeth, and he knew as his dad sat down on the bed and stared at Miles, that he would have to lie some more.
“What happened?” his dad asked, voice gentle, seeming to recognize the way that Miles wanted to hide, wanted to run away and never be found. “Miles, it’s a school-night, why…why were you out of school, where were you where they found you? What…just what happened?” There was a line of frustration there underneath the concern, but his dad’s face was so open, and he had been trying so hard, and Miles…
“Because I couldn’t stop thinking about Uncle Aaron,” Miles croaked out, “I left and I…I went where we used to go. Where we…he helped me throw up a tag, and I just…I just wanted to see it again.” He gave a shuddering gasp, and it was real, because the burning in his throat just wouldn’t stop. “There was this thing, this awful…it was huge. It came out of nowhere and it… Dad…” Miles sniffed. “It almost killed me, but…but that man, the one that got so hurt…he, he dove in front of me. He took the hit, and it…” Miles shook his head, remembering that awful crack, that terrible sound of tearing flesh, and suddenly there were arms wrapped around him. His dad, holding him close and holding him tight. “He flew, and he hit the wall, and they were suddenly all there, and they took it out before it could hurt me, but…I’m so sorry,” Miles gasped out against his dad’s chest, his own arms wrapping around him in turn. “I didn’t know where else to take them, and I…I couldn’t just leave them there, they…they saved me.”
“No, no,” his dad whispered, hushing him, his lips pressed against the top of his head in a way that Miles hadn’t felt since he was small. It made him feel equal parts better and worse. “No, Miles, I’m just glad…I’m so glad that you’re safe. I’m so glad that they were there. I could have…I could have lost you and I wouldn’t have known… Oh, Miles, don’t apologize for having a good heart.” His dad brushed his thumb under Miles’ eye, catching a tear and meeting Miles’ eyes with a pride that made Miles want to gag. “I’m proud of you for bringing them here. I’m proud of you for helping. It’s that spark of yours.” His face curled into a slight smile before he looked in the general direction of the living room. That smile faded slightly the longer he looked that way, his eyebrows pinching together, and Miles felt a sudden spur of dread.
“You’re not going to turn them in dad, are you?” Miles asked, and that spur of dread turned into a spike. His dad turned to him with wide eyes, before he immediately shook his head.
“Hey, hey, no. You don’t have to worry about that. None of them are from…from here, anyway, so there’s no one that I could turn them in to if I wanted to.” His dad dropped to his knees before him when Miles’ expression shifted, alarm creeping into it. “And I don’t want to”, he emphasized, his hands solid weights on Miles’ shoulders. “They saved my boy, Miles. How could I betray that in good conscience? How could I take their lives when they gave me back one of the lives that matters the most to me? No. We’ll keep their secrets. They’ll be safe in this house, I promise. I just…I want to be sure that we’re safe, too, so I…I don’t want you around them yet without me being there. I trust them, I do, I just…” His dad sighed, struggling to express himself, but meeting his eyes anyway, hoping for understanding
Miles nodded slowly, giving it to him.
“Okay, thank you, Miles, that…that makes me feel better.” His dad sighed, and hugged him once again, crushing him to his chest in a way that robbed his lungs of air and made his heart warm all at once. “I’m so glad you’re safe,” he whispered once again into his hair, and Miles hugged him back. Finally, his dad pushed him away, and nodded his head towards the bed. “You get some sleep, okay, kiddo?” Miles nodded and moved to grab some pajamas. As he did so his dad gave one last, “I’m proud of you,” before shutting the door behind him.
Miles didn’t move for a moment, holding himself still, a too-large t-shirt in one hand, and a pair of shorts in the other. For a moment he thought he was going to drown in guilt, when a sudden rapping against his window startled him. Miles looked up and over to the fire-escape, spotting a hand by his window.
“Miles,” a quiet voice called, far below a regular human’s hearing, but definitely not his. “Miles, are you decent? Can I come in?”
Peter B… Miles immediately moved to the fire-escape, throwing the window open and allowing the older Spider to crawl through.
“Hey, thanks, I just…”
“You took off the mask,” Miles whispered, his voice pinched and his eyes wide. “You…but I…” he couldn’t catch his breath, a mixture of horror and amazement, and guilt, guilt, guilt all clamoring inside of him.
“Hey, hey, breathe, kiddo,” Peter B said softly, crouching down before him. He took his shoulders in his hands in a way that his father had before him, brown eyes of a distinctly lighter shade staring into his own. “I did. I thought that if we showed them some trust they might repay the favor. I know how hard it is to tell your own family the truth, kid, it’s okay. Really, it’s okay.”
Miles choked on tears and found himself clinging to the other Spider. Peter B wrapped his arms around him easily, and Miles sniffed into the strange cartoon-covered pajamas that the other was wearing.
“Shh,” Peter B hushed gently, rubbing a single hand on his back as the other held him steady. “It’s okay, you’re okay. It’s normal to be scared of this. It’s okay.” The other continued, his voice a quiet litany of words, gentle and even, and slowly Miles calmed.
Finally, Miles pulled back, rubbing at his face, whispering out a quiet, “Thanks.”
“It’s no problem, kiddo, really,” Peter B responded, smiling at him gently. “I wanted to make sure you didn’t have any serious injuries before I hunkered down to wait with the others.”
Miles shook his head almost immediately but paused when he recognized Peter B’s look of skepticism. “Just bruising,” Miles answered, “I don’t think it cracked a bone or anything.”
“Miles, are you sure?” Peter B asked, and his voice was so soft Miles smiled at him.
“You bet,” he responded, wiping his eyes. “I’m alright, thank you for checking on me…but how did you get past my dad?”
“I wasn’t in the pile when he originally started looking. I’m gonna talk to him a bit, I think. Get some stuff cleared up.” Peter B smiled at him then. “I heard your cover-story, by the way, solid stuff.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, man, you were…well, you were fantastic.” Miles managed, and Peter B grinned.
“You learn a few things kid, one of them is how to lie. So, trust me when I say that I know exactly how scary it is to tell your family, and any of that guilt you feel? Choke it and kill it, because you don’t have to feel guilty, definitely not for any of our decisions, right?” Peter B’s expression was as serious as it ever got, those eyes staring into his so intently, and finally Miles managed to give a nod. “Okay, good. Now get some sleep, I’ll keep watch, it’ll be okay.”
Miles swallowed, but felt himself nodding anyway, a gentle sort of calm washing over him. Peter B crawled out the same way he came, going back to the others, and Miles felt that he could relax.
In hindsight, Miles should have known it wouldn’t last.
The pounding of his heart was almost louder in his ears than the scuffle that was happening before him, the calls of “Pete!” and the ringing of guilt and shock and…
“Peter Benjamin Parker!” was suddenly belted out by his mom and Miles froze, eyes wide and body tense for all of two seconds before he realized whose name got called out. The sight of both Peter Benjamin Parkers staring at his mom with horror on their faces – and for Pete, Miles could feel the horror even through the mask - was almost enough to make up for the near heart-attack he had suffered, and Miles almost wanted to laugh. Pete was finally talked off of Peter B, pressing himself against the couch and trying so desperately to get his bearings. It made his heart hurt.
When his mom asked him to take off his mask and Pete refused, Miles felt his heart lurch. Pete looked so small. When dressed in his trench coat and the vest underneath, it had bulked him up, and made him bigger, but now, pressed up against his couch with his body curled in a defensive position, head down and surprisingly thin shoulders hunched up around his ears… He looked fragile, he looked… Nothing like Pete. Nothing like the man that Miles had come to sort of know.
Though really, what did he know about him? What did he actually know?
Pete using a tommy-gun had been a shock. Hell, Pete shooting whatever that thing was had been a shock, but… It was still a Peter Parker under that mask. It was still someone that Miles knew, and someone that he trusted.
“Hey,” his dad said, his voice that gentle cop-voice that Miles had only heard a couple of times, usually reserved for either the very hurt or the very scared. Miles supposed that Pete counted as both right now, and that kind of hurt. “Look around, you see all of these people? All of these people want you to get better, we all want to make sure you’re okay, and none of us, you hear me? None of us are going to use your identity against you. It’s okay. You can take off that mask. You can trust us.” His dad took a breath, those goggles turning to fix him in their thousand-yard stare, but his dad simply gave him a slight grin, encouragement and gentleness there within the gaze.
“You’re Peter Parker, right? Well, my name is Jefferson Davis, but any of you can call me Jeff, okay?” He prompted, those goggles still glued to him, attention fixed, even as his dad turned his attention to all of them, an open expression on his face that made Miles feel warm. “This is my wife Rio Morales, she’s the one that’s taking care of you. She’s a nurse, and a damn good one.” His dad indicated his mom as he spoke, and his mom smiled gently and gave a small wave when Pete’s attention turned to her.
“Call me Rio,” she said, and her voice was just as soft as his dad’s, her attention on everyone as well. Then his dad indicated him.
“That kid over there, the one you protected? His name’s Miles, I don’t know if you got to meet him formally before…what happened to you, and I know your friend mentioned his name, but…” His dad took a breath, his eyes closing as he fought for composure. “I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been there to protect him. But I want you to know that you don’t have anything to fear from me or my family. None of us are going to use your identity or your face against you. Not after what you all did for us.”
For a moment Miles thought that Pete would voice his confusion, would try and correct the statement, try and deny it, but he didn’t. Pete just swallowed thickly, starting to uncurl from his protective ball. Encouragingly, his dad spoke one more time,
“No Peter Parkers, or Porker, or Gwen or Peni have anything to fear from us, alright? You’re safe. All of you are safe with us.”
Pete stared at him, taking in his posture, the way he was crouched in front of him, and then that mask turned to Miles. Miles watched as he finally made what he thought was eye-contact and Miles made sure to straighten up, squaring his shoulders. There was a promise in his eyes, and in his heart, beating against his rib-cage. Miles knew his family, and he trusted his dad, and he trusted his mom, and he trusted his friends. He tried to impart all of those feelings towards the man in the mask, whose chest was still bleeding so sluggishly, and finally, finally…
Ghost-white hands went up to that black mask, starting with the goggles, which were lifted up slowly, and Miles found himself holding his breath along with the rest of the room. The eyes that were revealed to them were strange, the iris a clear gray that was piercing, the pupil constricted to a small black dot, either at the light or…maybe just at the color. His sclera was as white as the rest of him, but the dark veins that were just barely visible and the small gray line of his waterline ending in his tear-duct was strange, even as it made his eyes stand-out. There was dark bruising around them, whether from tiredness or multiple hits, coupled by the start of many tiny little scars dusting his skin. His pupils didn’t seem to focus on any of them, flitting too fast from one face to the other, reminding Miles a bit of shimmering fish in an aquarium. Slowly, those hands that removed the goggles began pulling at the leather and mesh of the mask, peeling it back gingerly from his throat.
That very familiar chin was revealed to them, but it wasn’t covered in the stubble that Miles had expected. It was marked with a scar, however, a scar that ran up from his chin to just above his lips. Miles stared, watching as slowly but surely a face that he had never quite expected was revealed. In a way, he supposed he had been expecting some of it. Miles had been assuming that it would be scarred, and it was, that scar on Pete’s chin joined by one that went across the bridge of his nose, and a few dusted around his eyes that made Miles nervous seeing them clearly without the shadow of the mask itself, and one long one ran just under his hair-line, but…
Miles had assumed that Pete would be older, or about the same age as Peter B. The face that was revealed to him looked more like his Peter. In fact, it…it might even look younger, and Miles knew that the shock that he felt was mirrored by the rest of them, particularly in the way that Peter B’s mouth fell open. The mask was finally completely pulled off, revealing a shock of black hair that was alarming mainly in the contrast it presented to that white face, but also in the cut of it.
Miles had thought that Gwen had looked bad when she had first shaved off part of her hair after Miles’ wound up stuck to her, but… Pete’s hair looked hacked at, choppy in a way that suggested he was doing it himself and possibly blindfolded, but it also appeared like it wasn’t going to be seen. Like it was cut for the simple purpose of staying under his mask and that was it. Like Peter Parker didn’t exist anymore in his world, completely lost to Spider-Man. A gray tongue licked at slightly lighter gray lips nervously, those gray eyes still darting between them all.
For a moment there was silence. Shocked and mildly horrified silence.
“How old are you?” Peter B suddenly managed to ask, brown eyes still wide.
Pete finally locked eyes on him, a black eyebrow crawling its way up his face. “Eighteen,” he said, and Miles felt his own mouth drop, a reaction that was mirrored by everyone around him. As the silence continued, that eyebrow lowered slowly, and his mouth scrunched up slightly, and he dropped his eyes when no one moved, and everyone continued to stare. “Alright, seventeen, you don’t have to act like I’m a grifter,” he grumbled after the silence grew too long, and Miles sat down.
“I thought you were thirty? Or at least…at least in your later twenties?” Peter B managed, his voice slightly higher in pitch, slightly squeaky, and Miles found himself nodding along with Peni, Ham, and Gwen, his parents looking mildly surprised themselves. “The way you act…the…the way you talk I just?” Peter B threw his hands out towards him. “What?”
“Thanks,” Pete managed, leaning back with a slight smirk, scarred lips shifting almost grotesquely, “it’s the trauma.”
Miles choked on his own spit. Between Miles’ own sudden loud coughs as he tried to get his breath back, and the other Spiders’ yells of shock and confusion, it took a moment to realize that Pete was beginning to press back against the couch. Those eyes went back to darting and his legs curled up to his chest tighter, and even as Miles managed to catch his breath the thought that Pete might not be joking echoed in his head.
Miles was about to say something, when he almost saw the moment Pete began locking the emotion away.
Miles didn’t think back to the Spiders’ standing around him, knocking him to the ground, and yelling at him with much fondness. While he knew in his heart, then and now, that it hadn’t been done out of any malice, but rather a deep-seeded worry, it had still been a moment of trauma. Trauma that he had needed in a way, and something that helped prepare him for the onslaught of Kingpin and the rest of them, but still trauma. He still remembered Pete’s voice though,
“Can you close off your feelings, so you don’t get crippled by the moral ambiguity of your violent actions?”
That statement pounded through his head, and he had no doubt that that was exactly what the other was doing, though instead of fighting moral ambiguity, he was fighting trauma.
“Thank you!” Miles’ voice finally called out, his voice loud, cutting through the other Spiders’ and his own parent’s voices sharply, anxiety leaping into his throat when everyone turned to face him. But Miles pushed through, taking a deep breath, “Thank you,” he repeated. “For…for saving me. I…” Pete was staring at him, those gray eyes fixed in his direction, black brows pinched slightly together. “I would have been dead, and…just thank you. I’m sorry you got hurt…”
Pete continued the quiet staring for a moment longer, before that kind of twisted smile pulled at his lips again. “You go up against a lot of hard boys in this line of work, kid, and that comes with a lot of injuries. This ain’t anythin’ new. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
“Right, well, in order to make sure you can do it again, do you mind letting me look at your stitches?” His mom asked, moving forward. “I want to redo them and check your head. You seem to be pretty aware, but I want to make sure.”
Pete turned his attention back to her and after a moment gave a slight shrug. “Alright.”
“Okay, thank you. I’m going to work on your stitches first, do you mind lying back for me?” His mom asked. Pete hesitated for a moment, before finally began moving into a lying down position. His mom peeled back the bandages and made a few unhappy hisses at the sight before her but seemed pleased there wasn’t as much damage as she had feared. His skin was already starting to heal around the stitches, which was strange to see, but she had a feeling that if they had waited any longer that healing wouldn’t have been able to stick.
His dad worked again as an unofficial nurse, handing her things and sanitizing the needle for her, as well as handing her the alcohol needed to clean the wound.
His mom began pouring alcohol on a few cotton pads to use for sanitizing around the wound, “I wish I could sanitize everything better, and had better equipment…”
“Better than doin’ it over a sink with whiskey,” Pete replied easily with a slight shrug.
“Man, I feel that one,” Peter B agreed, scratching at his chest. “Only…with rubbing alcohol. I didn’t realize whiskey was actually that sanitary?"
“Been usin’ it for years where I’m from,” Pete answered. “Haven’t gotten an infection yet, so I figure it’s worth it.”
“I wish I’d known about that sooner,” Gwen grumbled. “I couldn’t buy a lot of rubbing alcohol when my dad didn’t know without it looking suspicious, but he had a lot of whiskey. Now I’m able to stock up on everything, but that would have been helpful. I kept seeing it in movies, but I thought it was just a Dollywood thing, you know? I should have looked it up.”
His mom stopped and stared at Pete, before staring at Peter B, and then finally at Gwen, her eyes wide and almost horrified. “If any of you ever have something like this happen again, you come right to me, okay? If you can hop dimensions to help the new Spider-Man then you absolutely must hop dimensions to deal with your injuries, that is absolutely unacceptable. No puedo creerlo…!”
“I don’t want to impose…” Pete started, just as Peter B began shaking his head, and Gwen also opened her mouth to reply.
“No! Absolutamente inaceptable, I will not hear any talk of imposing or otherwise bothering me. You come to me.” She pressed the wet gauze to Pete’s chest as a gesture of both finality as well as insistence. The other Spiders shut up, and fell silent, his eyes closing slightly at the sudden coolness. She began mumbling quietly, wiping away the black blood once again before fixing the stitches.
Pete didn’t comment or move through the process, even though Miles knew the stitching had to be odd. When she was finally done, she had him put his back to the couch and she sat on it behind him, reaching out and running her hands across his head, frowning down at his hair as she did so. She pulled her hand back suddenly, slight surprise on her face, and Miles blinked at the sight of more blood on her gloved-hand. It blended in with his hair so well he hadn’t even seen it. After careful evaluation from his mom she gave a grateful sigh.
“It feels like it was just a cut, I can’t find any sign of a crack or movement, and it has clotted well. I think your mask helped prevent it from getting any worse.” She frowned at his hair for a moment before shaking it off, though Miles was still getting over that chop job someone had made of his hair. It looked bad. His mom didn’t press though and moved away from him. Pete relaxed when she wasn’t as close to him, his shoulders rolling slightly. “Alright. I’m going to bring you something to drink, and I want you to drink all of it.” She frowned at him, before leaving for a moment. Miles grinned and sat down, watching Pete stare after her with wide eyes, a tinge of satisfaction in his chest.
Watching his mother mom someone else was quite entertaining, but also something Miles felt oddly proud of. Pete…didn’t act like he had had much mothering in his life. Miles wondered if Pete had an Aunt May in his world…he wondered if Pete was alone. The thought of that, of being alone in that world with the black and white gloom and fog and those monsters…with no one to help him… To be seventeen in that world and completely on his own. That was just four years older than him. Four years and… Miles snapped out of it at a hand on his shoulder. He looked up and saw Gwen in front of him, her blue eyes worried.
Miles blinked, before forcing a slight smile on his mouth. Gwen smiled back, her eyes still worried, before butting her head in Pete’s direction, the man still staring up at his mom as though he hadn’t seen anything like her before in his life. Miles inclined his head slightly and she gave a slight nod before her smile turned much brighter.
“He’s got us,” she mouthed to him, her eyes bright and happy, and Miles found himself grinning back. Pete did have them. He’d be okay. He managed to make eye contact with the other man. Gray eyes blinked at him, slightly overwhelmed, and slightly amused. The expressions were familiar but…muted. Before he had more time to process his mom was finally back.
“Drink all of this,” his mom pressed, finally pushing a carton of juice and the tablets into his hands. “It helps your body metabolize iron and the tablets are iron supplements, they’ll help with your blood-loss. Judging from the chart you don’t have that much of a difference in terms of biological chemistry, so you still need both vitamin-c and iron.” His mother watched as Pete blinked wide eyes at first the carton and then to the tablets, and then back to her. “Anda, bébelo, Parker!”
Pete flinched before opening the carton and blinked at the smell. Pete frowned, looking at the carton with narrowed eyes.
“That’s called orange juice, bud!” Ham called out. “You recognize it?”
“I don’t know…” he frowned, looking at the carton and then back to his mom. “The whole…?”
“The whole thing,” his mom confirmed. “Don’t worry about sanitation, and don’t worry about us, I need to go shopping later anyway,” his mom waved off his worry and he finally took a drink. They watched as grey narrowed eyes suddenly opened wider and he looked at the carton again in amazement.
“Why’s it called orange juice?” he asked.
“Because the fruit that it’s made of is called an orange,” Peter B responded immediately.
“Is…is the fruit called an orange because of its color?” Pete pointed at the fruit on the box, holding it up so they could see. “This is an orange…and that’s because it’s orange?”
“You got it,” Ham gave him a thumbs-up, and then blinked. “I think?”
“Why is it called an orange?” Peni asked, frowning.
“I always thought it was called that because of the fruit?” Peter B frowned.
“Is it because of the color?” Miles asked. “I know that in Spanish it’s naranja…but…that means orange, too?” Miles pulled out his phone and began looking it up as a debate started warring. “Noogle has failed me!” he finally called out.
“Well what the heck. I don’t know what came first, but for whatever reason, that color and the fruit is known as orange here.”
“What’s it called where you’re from?” Miles asked, looking to Pete finally, everyone else following his gaze as well.
“We just call them citrus fruits. They don’t have any particular name…” Pete stared at the carton a little longer. “Oranges.”
“You don’t know what color…” His dad paused, staring at the black and white man before him, taking in the slow and steady crawl of that black eyebrow over a chalk-white face, before crossing his arms and frowning. “Alright, you know what? That was admittedly a stupid question.”
Pete’s mouth pulled into that stilted and slightly twisted smile, and Miles had a sudden lurch when he thought that maybe that was his smile. He wasn’t being funny, or teasing, or even taunting, he just…that twisted, and almost ugly thing was his smile. Miles wondered how little opportunity he had to smile and made a vow that he’d do something to change that. He glanced at the others, finding several pairs of eyes meeting his own, a certainty in them, and found himself realizing that he wasn’t the only one who seemed to have made that connection and he likely wasn’t the only one who had made that decision.
They started chatting amongst themselves as Pete began sipping at the orange juice with a little more fervor. He seemed the most relaxed when their attention wasn’t on him, and Miles was happy to comply with that wish.
“Did he change back?” Pete asked suddenly, and they blinked.
“Did who change back?” his dad asked.
“The Lizard. Did he change back into a human after I shot him?”
