SPIDER-MAN 1.0
Ava stepped out of the portal, taking in everything she saw, from the tees that surrounded them, the the buildings she could see that seemed to touch the sky. She moved away a few steps as the rest of her family walked out of the portal, severing the link their hands formed to touch the nearest tree.
It was smaller than the trees back home, and with less foliage. She turned to ask Olivia’s opinion, only to find her face scrunched up for some reason.
“What’s wrong, Olivia?” Ava asked, worried. Olivia’s face evened out, but she still seemed a bit disturbed.
“There’s not enough plant life here, and the ones that are here are. . . weaker than the ones back home. It seems that a few miles from here and onward there are large patches of plant life missing. It’s just weird to feel.”
Ava nodded, pointing to the buildings. “It’s probably to make room for those. Maybe there’s more beings here than in our universe, and they build those to make room.”
Her dad nodded, holding a book that said ‘Guide To The Verses: Everything You Need To Know About Your Location!’ on the front. “Apparently there are about 7.1 billion beings on this planet, a lot more than what is on ours.”
Ava was stunned. She had never even heard of that word used for numbers before, but it must mean it was a really big number.
Dad cleared his throat, a pair of reading glasses appearing on his face as he squinted at the pages of the book. “Hmmm, it says here that this is universe number 1,788,334,512. This planet is called Earth, mainly populated by humans, though there are a few beings some would call less than human.
“I believe that the red and blue figure Ava and I saw is one of these beings. He’s obviously very important. He was bitten by a spider on a field trip and it gave him spider powers, which he uses to save people. In short, he has superior strength to humans, has something he calls a spidey-sense which acts as some precognition for danger.
“He can also cling to walls and shoot webs from his wrists, which he doesn’t often do because he can’t keep up with the nutrition needed to create those webs. Instead he has web shooters and a. . . chemical formula he uses to shoot the mechanically.”
Ava turned over this information in her head, deciding that she would get close to him, as it was obvious all the fun stuff would be happening around him. “What's his name, father?”
He checked his book, and said, “Peter Parker.”
★~★
Four boring hours later, Ava's father had made enough money (by magic) to buy them a small apartment down the hall from Peter Parker. Before that they had bought normal (for this universe and planet at least) clothes.
Ava and her siblings studied themselves in the full length mirror in the hallway. Olivia had chosen a whole rack of shorts and short-sleeved shirts. Andrew, Ava's twin brother, had chosen cargo pants and a tank top, along with other clothes with similar style. Ava had chosen the same type of style as he had, though if anyone asked, she had chosen it first. Izzy had chosen a multitude of dresses and stockings, as well as Andrea. Alora chose some sweatpants and t-shirts, May some tights and dresses, and Lyla loose shirts and shorts.
It was. . . strange to see herself wearing such outrageously different clothing from the ones she had been wearing her whole life. The clothes didn't look bad on her, or on anyone, and were actually quite comfortable.
Their dad walked up to them, carrying his book, dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. It definitely did not fit into his scholarly appearance, but who was Ava to judge?
"Now, according to the book, it is required by law for all children to go to school. School is basically a mass study, where a lot of children gather in one place to learn."
Andrea frowned. "What's the point of learning about this world if we're just gonna leave it soon? Especially since we can probably just learn from the book?"
Dad shrugged. “For the experience? If you really don’t want to, we can just homeschool you, but this is the perfect opportunity to get close to the beings on this planet, you know, integrate into their culture.”
Ava shared a look with Andrew, asking him a silent question, and got a look in return that said, If you want to, then I’ll go along.
“Andrew and I will go. Besides, if we don’t like it we can just get homeschooled.” There was a chorus of agreements from her siblings. And that was that.
★~★
The next Monday, Andrew was getting ready for school. They all were, rushing around to get to the supplies Andrew had organized the night before. Ava scrambled to get extra paper, while Izzy grappled with May for the colored pens. Andrea was more interested in the mechanical pencils, while Andrew himself had already picked his supplies the night before.
He smiled to himself as he watched Alora sneak some colored pens from the fighting duo. Despite fundamentally being an organized person, he couldn’t deny feeling happy watching his family be chaotic; be themselves.
Ava broke away from the frenzy, breathing hard, triumphantly clutching a bright green binder full of paper in one hand and several pencils in the other. Olivia stuck out her tongue, mumbling something about unfair magic. She quickly put them in her backpack, then straightened up with a firm look on her face.
“Everyone needs to be ready in the next five minutes,” she said loudly, her stern voice in effect. Since their mom and dad had absolutely no clue how to drive, and none of them trusted the metal snake known as a train, it was up to her to make sure they got to their respective schools- by walking. If they just so happened to stop and take in the sights on their way- well, nobody had to know.
Andrew watched her take a deep breath, worry tracing his features as she stumbled slightly. She noticed the look he was giving her, and waved him off. “I haven’t eaten anything yet.”
Alarmed, he immediately dashed to the kitchen to get a banana for her. He told her sternly as he handed the food to her, “You need to eat, Ava. You use too much magic to not be eating enough.”
She laughed, taking a huge bite. “I know, I know. I’m just not used to the food here. I’m not sure if I like it or if I’m disgusted by it.”
Silently Andrew agreed with her, but wouldn’t admit considering the topic they were on. Ava finished the banana and threw away the peel, feeling immensely better. “Come on everyone, we need to get going. You know the drill, everyone needs to form a chain so that no one gets lost.”
Ava grabbed onto Andrew, who grabbed onto Izzy, who grabbed onto Alora, who grabbed onto Lyla, with Andrea, May, and Olivia taking the rear. They walked to the middle school first, where May, Izzy, Lyla, Alora and Andrea were dropped off. Olivia, as the oldest, signed all the necessary paperwork, making some stuff up as needed, and changing a few things so that it made sense to Earthlings. She made sure to let the staff know that May was mute, not deaf, so she could work as expected but couldn’t be called on to speak.
There were many hugs and goodbyes before Ava was carefully leading them to the high school where her, Andrew, and Olivia would be attending. Again, Olivia did necessary paperwork, and while she did that Andrew and Ava compared their schedule together.
“Oh wow, what a coincidence.” Ava said mischievously. “All of our classes are the same.”
They smirked at each other, fae blood at work as they both had compelled the school to give them the same classes.
Olivia walked up to them, giving them a hug and a smile goodbye. “See you later.”
“Bye.”
“See ya.”
As Andrew walked with Ava to their first class, he wondered how middle school was treating his younger siblings.
★~★
Lyla sat in her chair silently, trying to pay attention to what was being said but not really caring. What care could she give when learning about math? In her world it was called Numbers and she knew all that she needed to know already. All that she cared to know.
Before she had stumbled into the Great Library, she had been lost. She had been withdrawn and shy and directionless. Then she had read the Beginners Guide to Healing, and her entire world seemed to just light up. She became more confident. At five years old, she had discovered her purpose in life.
Every day she would spend her time surrounded by books that would give her information on the only thing she cared to learn. There were books on so many different things, but she never spared them a second glance. And after her parents died, she threw herself into her studies even further.
Some days she wouldn’t even eat, trying to distract herself from the pain, thinking to herself that if only I had known a bit more I could have helped them I could have-
And then Cordelia and Daniel had adopted her, soothed her hurt, and helped her heal. At the time, all her little 6-year-old brain could think was - I wanna help someone like that.
And now seven years later, she was the best Healer in her world. She wondered how good the Healers were in this world, and if she could learn anything from them.
“Ms. Nerada!” Her teacher snapped, causing her to jump to attention. “Are you even paying attention? Come up here and solve this equation!”
Lyla looked on the board to see a complex arrangement of numbers that she could probably solve in a couple of minutes, if she was trying to get it right. Internally, she rolled her eyes. Who even cares, ughhh.
Still, deciding to be good for the day, she stepped up to the board and used the knowledge she did have with Numbers- Math -to solve the stupid equation.
She hoped her siblings were having more fun than her.