In 2099, you could count the number of superheroes in existence on one hand. Alchemax spent a lot of time working to wipe out anyone who went against their status quo, and superheroes definitely fit that bill. (They especially hated Spider-Man... but that was mostly Miguel’s fault for poking the bear.) 2020 was a little different. In 2020, there were superheroes all over. There were hundreds of them, just waiting for trouble to stop. It was all a little overwhelming.
It made it a lot more comforting to see a familiar face. Iceman --- Bobby looked the same now as he had in 2099, putting out a fire with a smile on his face. Miguel stopped mid-swing (froze, Bobby would’ve said) to watch, eyes wide under his mask. It wasn’t a grandfather or a great uncle... this was Bobby Drake, eighty-odd years younger than he’d been when Miguel knew him.
The fire was out now, the people safe, and Spider-Man hadn’t moved. He could swing off before Bobby saw him. He could ask Lyla to crank on the camotech and avoid detection. He could do a lot of things but, rather than doing any of them, he swung over. Curiosity, he figured, annihilated the geneticist. “That was pretty impressive,” he greeted. “Got any other secret powers under all that ice?” Immortality, for example?