Shocking portals

Miguel is safe to say, done with his life.

That’s why he doesn’t make an attempt to sit up or stand on his feet, because now he’s stuck in a foreign universe, away from his home, his life, not that he had one to begin with, but still, his little attempt of helping someone ended with a disastrous consequence for him.

Just like every single time he tried to be good.

He’s starting to see a pattern here actually, maybe the universe is telling him to give up, on either being a good person or on his life, it depends on his mood he supposes.

Miles got up minutes ago and was just staring at him from above, he tried to make an effort to ignore him, but the kid can’t read the shocking metaphorical room apparently.

“Stop hovering” he finally spoke.

“Oh thank god you’re awake, I thought I was gonna have to poke you with a stick” Miles tried to joke, but it fell flat on the ground, leaving silence in It’s trail.

“What are you doing?” Miles finally asked after a while, getting tired of watching Miguel just laying there on the dirty ground of an alleyway.

“I don’t know, contemplating all of my life decisions that lead me to this specific moment” Miguel replied with a dead tone to his voice.

Miles shifted around, looking away then looking back at Miguel nervously, who he can’t read his face because of the mask, but he has a feeling that Miguel is not all that jolly to be here.

“… I have a feeling you’re mad at me” Miles finally said, breaking the silence, to which he got a very fast reply from the man on the ground,

“Oh! Do you!?” Miguel said curtly, sarcasm obvious in his voice as he finally sat up and looked back at Miles, his mask shifting a bit to show an annoyed slash angry expression on his face. “What part of ‘stay at the apartment’ did you not understand!?”

“I- Listen, I just wanted to go home!”

“And I was going to help you!” Miguel countered, “but you had to go and follow me around, to which I have no idea how you did that without me noticing by the way, but you did! And now I’m completely shocked up-!”

Miguel barely finished his sentence before he let out a distorted scream as his body burst into colorful glitches, the lights filling up the dark alleyway before it stopped and he fell on his hands, hissing in pain.

“So…that’s what it feels like huh…” he groaned before he adjusted himself and sat on the ground, his head in one hand while the other was still holding onto the ground.

“Yeah…” Miles said as he stood there, “glitching is not fun, doc ock called it ‘cellular decay’, or what Peter said, ‘your atoms aren’t all that jazzed by being in the wrong dimension’” he explained, letting out a half hearted laugh at the end, not really a real one, just a poor attempt from him to lighten up the mood.

He got no response to that, and he really started to feel bad, Miguel really was trying to help out but he just ‘shocked him over’.

He approached Miguel before sitting next to him, he took a deep breath before speaking up again.

“Listen… I’m-… I’m really sorry about this, it’s just…. It’s been a rough time for me okay?” He tried to explain, “a lot of people that I depended on and trusted turned their backs on me… I just thought that by waiting for others to help out wouldn’t… well… help, I thought that it’d be better if I just took the matter into my own hands you know?”

“And you sneaking into Alchemax without my permission was you taking matters into your own hands?”

“I guess…”

Miguel looked at him for a second, then looked away, thinking about this whole situation.

It’s obvious that Miles was just a scared kid, he knows the feeling, he’s been a scared kid his entire life, and a lot of people turned their backs on him too… well not like it wasn’t his fault, he just loved pushing people away because he hates having nice things apparently.

He let out a sigh.

“Listen… I get the feeling… I didn’t have the best relationships with people either, well, most of it being my fault, but we’re not talking about that” he said, “but I get the feeling, being alone out there while everyone wants you dead?, shit’s scary”

Miles looked at him with wide eyes.

“Well maybe not dead for your case” he corrected.

“People want you dead? Like outside of being Spiderman?”

“Buddy, these spider powers came from an attempt on my life” he replied as he watched Miles’s eyes grow wide.

“Wait really!?” He asked as he received a nod, “wait- why? How!?”.

“I was an insufferable jerk, I still am, but I’m trying to tone it down a bit, as for how? that’s a story for another day” Miguel said before standing up and dusting himself, Miles immediately stood after him.

“Wait! come on you can’t just drop that on me then not tell me about your mysterious ominous past!”.

Miguel hummed before turning to look at him “maybe I’ll tell you when I’m bored enough”.

He then extended his talons and started climbing up the wall to get to the rooftop of the building next to them.

Miles frowned, but there was no actual hard feeling behind it, he’s honestly glad that Miguel isn’t angry with him anymore, so far he’s been the only one that’s genuinely attempting to help him out through all of this, aside from Hobie, he’s very grateful for that palm advice, but even after that, Hobie didn’t really stick around, he kind of ditched him…

No time to dwell on those feelings right now, he put his legs on the wall and walked up with ease, when he caught up to Miguel he found him looking at him in wonder behind the mask.

“You’re gonna have to tell me how you can do that by the way” he said, “plus how did you actually follow me? I’m pretty sure I would’ve noticed if you were around me”

Miles laughed a little, “maybe I’ll tell you when I’m bored enough”

Miguel did a gesture to which Miles can only assume is him rolling his eyes, then he continued climbing until he reached the top, Miles a bit behind him.

Before Miles could catch up though, he heard Miguel call.

“Hey, uh Miles?”

“Yeah?”

“Has your universe always been this… depressing?” He asked, and Miles was actually confused by this statement.

He hurried to the top.

“What do you mean by depressing it’s-“ but he cut himself off once he saw the view from above, everything did look depressing, from the destroyed buildings, to the villains being plastered everywhere.

He wasn’t gone for that long for the villains to take over the city, this doesn’t make sense?

Was he too late? Did Spot destroy everything he loved?

This is wrong, this is… this wasn’t supposed to happen!

He jumped when he felt two hands land on his shoulders.

“Miles I’m gonna need you to calm down” Miguel spoke as he was now in front of Miles, hunched so he can be on eye level with him, it was only then that Miles realized that he was shaking like crazy.

He took a few breaths and calmed down enough to focus.

“Are you okay?” Miguel asked him gently.

“Yeah- yeah I’m okay, it’s just…” Miles trailed off as he walked past Miguel and removed his mask to get a better view at the city,“did I fail?”.

Miguel stood behind him, quiet for a second.

“Listen, maybe this isn’t what it looks like” he said, “how about we go to your house, I’m pretty sure that everything is okay” he tried to assure him, but then again, he was never one for assuring people, especially in this situation, it’s really hard to cheer up when everything around them is screaming the opposite.

Regardless, Miles nodded and put his mask back on.

They decided to jump rooftops instead of swinging, Miles didn’t have the webs to do that.

—-

Gwen and the others decided to search for miles at his house, or his alternate’s house if he existed.

They were swinging around the city and trying to keep away from any criminals or villains given how this world is far more dangerous than any other dimension they’ve been in.

There’s no Spider-Man to protect the city, every super can go rogue and no one would be there to stop them.

It makes Gwen really sad to see it this way, but some things are just not meant to be.

They approached Miles’s house before Peter B, who was in front of them all stopped and lifted his hand up to stop them as well.

“Why did you stop?” Gwen asked.

“We’re here” he replied, “but we’re not alone, look”, he then pointed a finger towards the direction of where he was staring, Gwen followed it only to see a very familiar Spider-Man suit.

“Miguel”

“Looks like he beat us here,” Peter B said.

Pav looked from behind for a second, “hey is it just me, or does his suit look different?” He pointed out.

“No time to play ‘point the difference’, he must be here for Miles” Gwen replied quickly before turning to the gang.

“What do we do?” She asked.

“Well, if he’s here then Jess must be around too, so keep a lookout in case She’s around” Hobie suggested,to which he got approval.

“Good idea, Margo, you keep an eye out for Jess” he then turned to the rest of them, “Pav, Gwen, You guys are coming with me, Miles must be in the house if Miguel is waiting for him outside, Pete, Ham, Penni and Hobie, I’m gonna need you guys to distract big guy over there for us”

They all nodded, Margo left to keep a look out while the rest separated just as planned.

—-

Miguel found himself waiting on top of the roof of a neighboring building to Miles’s home. They arrived earlier when Miles decided to go in and see if his parents are okay. It's been a few minutes and the kid didn’t show up, which makes him a bit worried.

However his attention is dragged somewhere else when his enhanced hearing picks up on some whispering, he turns around and uses his enhanced vision to see a group of people separating a few buildings away.

That can’t be good.

He stood up to assess the situation, but out of nowhere a web found it’s way right on his face, he struggled and stumbled a bit before removing it from his face, looking back up he found himself surrounded by a bunch of people wearing suits that struck a resemblance to the heroic age spider-Man suits… and a robot… and is that a pig?

Suddenly he remembered what miles had told him, an elite strike force of spider people are after him…

And now they found them, and they must be here to capture Miles.

“ shock”