Prologue
“Is this on? Is it? oh, ok… where do I even start? My name is May Elizabeth Reilly, in 1956 I was bitten by a radioactive spider and became the one and only Spider-Night-Fever of my world – well, only after Saturday Night Fever came out of course, before that I just simply went by Spider-Woman.
My Uncle Dave, who was a mechanic and a hobby inventor, helped me build my first gear – but then he died. Then, I married my high school sweetheart Ben Parker soon after graduation, but after 5 years of marriage he also died. Since then, I’ve been raising his nephew Peter alone, while also juggling work and superhero stuff. But as time goes on I find less and less time for the latter…”
Peter was sitting alone by the dining table with multiple books and an almost finished bowl of food next to him. The sun had just started going down but the small two bedroom apartment was already dark, only the dim light in the kitchen illuminated the place, which was barely enough for the young man to read his books properly. Still, for some reason he always prefers to study there, even though he has his own room. The radio was on in the background, not loud enough to distract him from his studies, it was only going so he wouldn’t sit in complete silence.
May stepped into the apartment and let out a tired sigh as she closed the door behind her. He yawned and stretched as her arrival dragged him out of his studies.
“I hope you study well because I’ll never let you work in retail, that’s for sure.”
“May! Hi!” He closed the book he was reading and put his glasses onto the table, turning his head towards his aunt to speak to her.
“Speaking of which… How was your exam today?”
As soon as she took her coat and shoes off she made her way to the fridge, opening it. It was practically empty, only some salami and a few pieces of cheese was in there. Not a feast but it’ll do for tonight.
“Fine… there were some topics in it the professor never even taught us but whatever…”
“Peter...”
“I know but how was I even supposed to know something that I’ve never even heard about?” He knew what she would say. That he needed to get scholarships because otherwise they can’t afford university. That he has to take this seriously if he wants to finish his studies. He already heard her speech a thousand times and probably will hear it twice this amount in the future. He quickly changed the subject before she could scold him.
“Sorry, I ate all the leftovers, there was only enough for one…”
“It’s okay, I wasn’t that hungry anyway.”
She closed the door while holding some cheese, she took his plate while still chewing the last pieces and started to do the dishes. The radio was still on, but the music stopped and an anxious reporter’s voice could be heard. Peter reached over the table to increase the volume.
“New villain or just a rebranded old one? A mysterious man has appeared in the city with similar powers to Electro, the only difference is that the suspect has a strange machine on his back that seems to be the source of his powers. The police are useless as he is still roaming the streets of New York and causing havoc.”
Peter looked at May expectedly but she was still turned away from him doing the dishes and acting like she hadn’t heard the news. He was about twelve when he learnt that his aunt is Spider-Night-Fever, he already looked up to her before that but this just made him even prouder. How many people can say that anyone in their family is a superhero? Technically he couldn’t, as it is a secret but to him it was enough that he knows.
She also seemed happier when she fought crime, it was almost like she was only herself when she put on her latex suit and rollerblades. May would never admit this, but Peter suspected that that was her way of releasing the built up stress over work. Anyone who looked at her could tell she enjoyed the adrenaline rush, the banter with the villains and doing something that actually helps the city. But ever since she locked up most of the bad guys she only concentrated on her every day job and barely does any superhero work anymore.
“I think you should check it out, they might need your help…”
“Sweetheart, I’m really tired.” She took a long pause. “Besides, I haven’t used my web shooters for so long I’m not even sure they work anymore.”
He stood up and walked over to her, leaning on the counter. He decided on convincing her to catch that new ‘Electro’, whatever it takes. He wanted to see the old May, the one who wasn’t so apathetic about the world around her. The one who would do anything to protect her city.
“And if I promise to do the dishes?” He tilted his head, almost like challenging her.
She sighed but chuckled, as she shook her head. Even if they are not related by blood it was very obvious she raised him.
It didn’t take long for May to find her way to the crime scene. It was already dark outside, only a few street lights brightened the streets. When I say a few, I really mean it - most of them were gone out, even the few that were working were flickering. With the light pollution almost gone she could see the stars for the first time in a long time. As she was looking at the night sky she noticed a man probably in his 60s doing exactly the same. The more she looked at him, the stranger he looked: he was wearing Biedermeier era fashion, including a tophat and walking cane of course. But that was not the weirdest part of him, on his back there was some kind of machine that was almost twice his size, some parts were so damaged that she could see cogs turning in it, generating electricity. He was also wearing goggles and a pair of rubber gloves. This must be the guy, she thought to herself, as she rolled closer to him on her rollerblades. But it’s just an old man, he doesn’t seem that dangerous…
“Excuse me sir, are you the ‘havoc’ they were talking about on the radio?”
The sudden words addressed to him had spooked him and he turned around pointing his cane towards her. They both inspected each other suspiciously, though May tried to force a smile on her face, not to cause him to do anything rash.
“On the what?”
She raised an eyebrow as he asked this, she had no idea what his deal was and judging from his puzzled expression, he had the exact same thought process about her.
“Are you some kind of method actor or what?”
“Oh, no, ma’am.” he straightened his spine proudly, or at least as much as the electricity engine on his back let him. “My name is Lord Maxwell Dillon and the most unusual event has happened to me! You see, I’m an engineer and I was testing out this new machine on–”
“Ugh, I haven’t got all day.”
She rolled her eyes and before he could reply anything she punched him in the face. He didn’t hesitate to attack back, he lifted his cane and sent an aimed electricity bolt with it in her direction which sent her flying into the wall behind her. After the shock had worn off she stood up and shook herself.
“Woah, I didn’t expect that from you, old man.”
“To tell the truth ma’am, me neither!” He held his cane in both hands now, inspecting it in amazement. “As I was saying, I was just about to te–”
“You talk too much.” She groaned and shot a web at the building opposite of them, pulled on it which made her roll towards him at an unexpected speed, she kicked him into the wall, but he regained his balance surprisingly quick. He swung his cane towards May, trying to hit her. The first hit had landed, but after the second swing she kicked it out of his hands and grabbed him by his collar, headbutting him repeatedly. He grabbed her shoulders, trying to push her away from him, so he could break free.
As they were fighting, a portal slowly opened up next to them, illuminating the street with an orange glow. They stopped, still holding each other’s collar and just stared at the entryway in the air.
“What the hell is that?” Asked May, turning her head towards the strange opening.
“It’s like the one that brought me here! Well, not truly, it was quite different looking, but it worked just like that.”
“Wait, what?”
“That’s what I was trying to explain, you see! I was at home, in my garden which is lovely at this time of the year–”
Suddenly, a huge man jumped out of the opening, right through them, which knocked both May and Electro to the ground. The old man had difficulties getting up because of the heavy machine on his back, but the woman sat up immediately to see what was going on.
The man was wearing a red and blue suit with stylized spider markings, a mask was covering his face. He was tall and buff, with broad shoulders; she could only see his outlines as he was covering most of the light sources behind him, casting a huge shadow on May as he hunched over her. If his appearance wasn’t a dead giveaway already, her spider-sense started tingling, meaning he was a spider-person as well, just like her. Well, not exactly like her, he had a strange aura to him. And talons. Yeah, it must have been the talons.
“I’ll take it from here.” He held out a hand for her so he could help her get up. She took it and he lifted her up without any difficulties.
“The hell you will!”
She stepped closer to him, trying to intimidate him. It must have looked funny for anyone who saw this scene, as she didn’t even reach the height of his shoulders. Still, that wouldn’t stop her, she pointed a finger in his face.
“I’m here to help.” He pushed her hand away, somewhat irritated. “I catch anomalies that are causing disturbance in other universes, like this one.”
He motioned to Biedermeier Electro, who was still on the ground struggling to get up, waving his limbs around, like a tortoise stuck on his back. The living example of a ‘multiversal disturbance’.
“Well, that explains most things…”
She turned to pick up the fight where she left it, but the man put out his arm to stop her. She looked up at him with a questioning look.
“As I said, I’ll take it from here. The least you could do is to not stand in the way.”
“The stage is yours...”
She stepped away as she said that, she had a strange, knowing look on her face. He turned around to finally face Electro… only for him to not be there anymore. The eyes on his mask widened and his head frantically turned from left to right, looking for him. May stepped closer to him and rested her hands on her hips, chuckling.
“How can you even manage to lose an old man with a heavy machine on his back?”
He glared at her as a response, she couldn’t see his expression but it was obvious he was shooting daggers at her with his eyes. He pinched the bridge of his nose, irritated.
“...Did you see where he went by any chance?” He asked, hesitantly.
She shrugged and shot a rope of web, swinging away without a word. He let out a groan and shot out his own lasery web as well, following her between buildings.
“I work alone.” She said when she noticed him behind her.
“Not today, this is more important than that.” He paused, his pride barely let him continue. “We need each other’s help with this one.” He was basically mumbling, he wasn’t happy about this either.
“Maybe you do, I don’t.” She turned around, swinging backwards while she talked. “Who are you anyway?”
“I’m Spider-Man 2099, I came from Earth-928. I’m the leader of a group whose job is to catch anomalies across the multiverse.”
“Groovy.”
She jumped down, soon he landed behind her as well. They noticed the villain hitting a streetlight with his cane, it was still lit and he was frustrated it didn’t go out immediately. They ran towards him, Spider-Man 2099 in front of her as he held out his hand to shoot webs at Electro, so did May. Only she wasn’t aiming at Maxwell…
“Go home and leave my dimension’s problem to me, I can handle it.”
She shot a pair of webs at the man’s legs and arms, he fell to the ground with a loud thud. He let out an animalistic growl as she rolled past him on her roller skates.
“Ugh, why do you have to be so annoying?”
He quickly broke free and threw a heavy motorcycle in their direction, hitting both of them.
“Are you kidding me? A motorcycle?” She held her face.
“You literally started it! You’re unreasonably stubborn!” He stepped closer to her as she sat on the ground, towering above her, bearing his teeth like a wild animal. “I’ve never met anyone as unbearable as you in my–”
He couldn’t finish his sentence. Electro’s engine started to overheat, the cogs were turning faster by the minute as lighting bolts were shooting out of it. The electricity he was generating somehow lifted him up from the ground. This wasn’t just about a few lamp posts anymore; this affected the electrical power of the whole city at best and could cost human lives at the worst.
The two spider-people were watching him wide eyed at first, then looked at each other in amazement.
“You didn’t say he could do that.”
“Because I didn’t know.” She paused for a moment and looked back at the old man. “I don’t think he knew either.”
“I really didn’t!” chimed in Maxwell, with a huge grin on his face. “This is a feeling most wonderful! I’ve never felt so powerful! Well, only one time when I was–”
As he kept on talking the heroes looked at each other again and for the first time, they had a moment of understanding: now they really have no choice but to work together. Spider-Man looked at her expectedly, she rolled her eyes and groaned.
“Ugh, fine.”
The man shot out his web and pulled himself up, getting closer to attack Electro. She pushed a button on her watch, the wheels on her roller skates retracted, turning them into anti-gravity boots so she could be stuck to walls, then followed her new ‘partner’.
In the air, they took turns attacking him, swinging around waiting for the other to hit, kick, whatever, not to bother the other. They even held the villain down with webs so the other could sneak in a stronger, more thought out punch. They were also careful around his lighting bolts, they didn’t want to get hit by them obviously.
“So… you’re like from the future, right?” she asked while jumping from one building to another, kicking Electro in the face in the process.
“Technically.”
“When’s ABBA’s next album coming out then?”
“What’s ABBA?”
She stopped for a moment on a wall out of pure shock before shooting a series of webs at Electro again.
“Seriously? Mamma Mia? Waterloo?”
“Neither rings a bell.”
The old man looked at them excited, he felt he could finally join in on their conversation.
“I on the other hand do know Waterloo! I fought against Napoleon’s army there, by the side of the Duke of Wellington. Nice fellow, I was surprised to learn he’s actually Irish–”
“SHUT UP!” They yelled as they both tried to lend a punch on him from his two sides with as much force as they could. However, he ducked away just in time which caused them to hit each other in the face; Miguel was hit right under his eye, while May was hit on her nose, which of course started bleeding immediately. They both groaned in pain as they fell to the ground.
“This is all your fault!” screamed the man while getting up.
They stood in each other’s face and started arguing – again. The old man came down to the ground and swung his cane towards May, but Spider-Man caught it with his hand and held it in place. It was like a reflex, neither of them acknowledged Maxwell being there anymore, so he just stood there awkwardly, watching the argument unfold.
“My fault? I could have caught this dude without any trouble if you just let me do my own damn thing!”
“Well, if it weren’t for you interfering in my job, the anomaly would be already locked up as we speak!”
As Electro saw they were busy with each other, he tried to slowly back away. May out of pure reflex shot webs at him, tying him up so he couldn't get away, still not breaking eye contact with the man for a single moment. It really could have been this easy, they didn’t even realise this as they kept screaming at each other’s face, trying to intimidate one another.
“Oh, I’m interfering in your job? I’d like to remind you that you’re the one who came to my universe!”
“That’s not the point! I’m here to catch this guy and you endanger the multiverse – including your own dimension – by preventing me from doing so! Do you even know what that means?”
“I don’t, could someone expla–”
“SHUT UP ELECTRO!” They yelled in unison, quickly going back to arguing but as they realised he’s already been tied up for a while, they looked back at him surprised.
“Huh, when did that happen?” Spider-Man asked.
“Honestly? No clue.”
They stood there awkwardly for a moment, avoiding eye contact.
“Shouldn’t you…?” May broke the silence.
“Yeah, right.” He opened a portal. “Unless you want to take care of it yourself.” He said sarcastically, as he picked up the villain.
She didn’t reply, only held out her hand with furrowed brows.
“Hope I’ll never have to see you again.”
He hesitated but shook her hand.
“Let’s hope that for the sake of your universe…” then he added, almost mumbling. “And for your own good as well...”
He threw the old man into the portal and shortly stepped into it himself. He looked back at her over his shoulder before the entrance closed, its orange light disappearing and leaving the streets in the dark once again.
May looked up at the sky. With the light pollution gone the stars have never shined so bright before.
It has been a few days since Electro was captured, the city has already forgotten about him and the newspapers quickly became bored of his fight with the wonderful Spider-Night-Fever and the mysterious new Spider-Man no one has ever seen before – or since then, for that matter.
May and Peter were in the kitchen, they’ve just finished lunch; she was washing the dishes while her nephew was drying and putting the clean plates away. Suddenly, someone rang the bell of the apartment.
“I’ll get it.” Said the boy.
He put the towel down and ran to open the door. He exchanged a few words with the person there, even though they weren’t trying to be quiet, May still couldn’t hear them because of the running tap water.
“Aunty, someone’s looking for you!” Yelled Peter from the entrance of their apartment.
She put the plate she was holding down and went to check who was by the door, still drying her hand with a kitchen towel as she made her way across the room.
Peter stepped away so she could see him. It was a tall man, with a familiar stature, only he was in his everyday clothing now and wasn’t wearing a mask. He also had a black eye, right at where she accidently hit Spider-Man during the fight.
“I’m looking for–”
“Oh God, it’s you.” She immediately frowned, when she recognised his voice. Her nephew quickly realised who it was from his aunt’s reaction, as she did nothing but complain about this man for the past few days. “What do you want?”
“May I come in?”
She hesitated but let him in, motioned towards the kitchen table while swinging the towel in her hand onto her left shoulder. The man sat down.
“Coffee?”
“Yes, tha–” she aggressively put a cold cup of water and a pouch of instant coffee in front of him. “ –nk you…”
She sat down across from him, glaring at him, waiting to hear what he had to say. Peter closed his bedroom door behind him, so they could talk freely.
“I’m not going to beat around the bush, I want you to join the Spider Society.” she raised an eyebrow at him. “Okay, want is a strong word. But I saw you fighting, and while I think you need to fix your attitude–”
“How charming...”
“... while I think you need to fix your attitude, we do need more people like you.”
She thought for a moment before replying.
“And if I don’t want to join?”
“You don’t have to. Honestly it would be better for my nerves.” He touched his blackeye, as he said that. He pulled some kind of electrical business card out of his pocket and slid it in front of her. “If you made up your mind, use this.” he stood up. “I’ll let myself out.”
May was sitting by the kitchen table in the dark, twirling a glass of wine. She has been there for hours now, staring at the card that the society’s leader has left her. Peter stepped out of his room in his pajamas to get some water and was surprised to see his aunt still up.
“Oh, you’re awake.” he put his hand on one of her shoulders, dragging her out of her thoughts.
“I can’t sleep.” she sighed, still not looking away from the card.
He sat down, crossed his arms on the table.
“You should join them.”
“Seems like a lot of work.”
“Useful work.” he added.
She pointed at her nose which was still swollen from the hit from Spider-Man.
“Right…” He thought for a moment. “Remember when I had hid your suit away when I found out you were Spider-Woman?”
“Of course.” She smiled at the memory. “You were worried about me getting hurt.”
“I was so afraid I would lose you. I had no friends or MJ at the time, only you. I couldn’t even sleep if I knew you were out there, fighting.” He pulled his chair closer to her. “But you always calmed me down, saying if you can protect the city then you are perfectly capable of protecting yourself as well.”
She finally looked away from the card and looked at Peter with tears in her eyes. She remembers clearly, he was just a small boy crying and begging on his knees for her not to go. How could anyone forget this? Her heart broke every time she closed the door behind herself, but at the time she felt like she had no other choice.
Peter was looking down, playing with the hem of his sleeve.
“You also said that those people need you because you’re the only one strong enough to help.” He looked back up at her. “That the whole city’s safety rests on your shoulders alone. Well, looks like more people need your help now but this time you wouldn’t be alone. You’d have a whole society behind you.”
She knew he was right, she turned her head away. She didn’t want anyone to see her cry, especially not her nephew. She knew that technically there wasn’t anything wrong with expressing one’s feelings but she got so used to pushing them down that she didn’t even dare to show such kind of ‘weakness’.
He stood up and hugged her, which caused a tear to roll down her cheek. She didn’t make any sobbing sounds but it was obvious to her nephew she was crying. She cried because she knew how hard it was for Peter to grow up like this. She cried because she never acknowledged how difficult it was for her to do all of this alone. But most importantly, she cried because she forgot what she used to fight for and that she’s just a shell of her own self.
They stayed like that for a while before she pulled away, teary eyed.
“I’m so proud of the man you’ve become.”
“You raised me well.” His eyes were also teary.
They hugged again, she ruffled his already messy hair and swiped away her tears.
“You convinced me, I’ll call that beast of a man first thing in the morning.”
“How did he even get so huge?” He wondered out loud.
“I mean I got stronger as well when I was bitten but that is a bit over the top, don’t you think?”
“That spider must have been on steroids…” Peter laughed before going back to his room to finally fall asleep again.