Chapter 1
Earth-41998 [Iteration: 3009]
Tokyo, Japan, 2023
Police sirens and car horns make up the city ambiance as a lonely alleyway sits with a menacing but comforting darkness. A masked man swings into the alley with webs from his wrists and stumbles to a halt, groaning. He collapses, back leaning against a cold, brick wall. Strained curses spill from his mouth as he doubles over in pain. Blood dripped from his lips which he wiped away. He caught his breath and gripped at the pants of his spider suit. Quick footsteps were heard coming towards the groaning individual.
“Hey, you alright there?”
Some sort of Spider-Man with a heavy British accent kneels next to him. He places a comforting hand on his shoulder. He took deep breaths to stabilize his breathing for the time being. The man with the British accent had a colorful spider suit, tall combat boots, lots of chains and accessories as well as a guitar slung over his shoulder. He had tall metal spikes down the middle of his head on his mask. He was constantly changing colors and art styles. His presence most definitely makes a statement that no one seemed to mention in the moment.
“Yeah, I’m good. Go without me. It’s safer for both of us.”
He sighs and stands up, walking away. Shooting webs to the parallel walls, he looks back at the man sitting on the ground, groaning and erratically breathing. He had a pitying aura to him.
“You sure you’re ok?”
He nods, rubbing his arms as if that would make the pain leave any sooner than it came. He looked up to the colorful, inconsistently changing Spider-Man, who was looking down at him arms outstretched, connected by webbing.
“Just a couple bruises. I'll be fine. Don't worry about me. You know I've been through worse."
Hesitation fills the air. He nods and retracts his webs, walking over to him. He digs through his bag that's slung over his shoulder, and pulls out a heavily decorated box, handing it to him. That same pitying aura stays, unmoving, directed towards the sitting man.
“Here. Think about it. You can stay for as long as you’d like. We can hide you.”
He swings away on his webs as he watches him leave. Police cars momentarily following after the colorful Spider-Man. He lets his head fall back against the cool wall and glances at the box. He flips the latches open and the box is lined with a cheap black velvet fabric. Inside the box is a big colorful bulky watch with mini spikes. The screen glows orange, showing in bright yellow letters:
Location: Earth-41998 [Iteration 3009]
Tokyo, Japan 2023
12:34 AM
“Huh”
He puts on the watch and a screen slides out of the side showing a blue screen with his vitals and other information about his current location. Pressing some random button, it opens a vibrant, hexagonal portal spinning, creating an electric warbling noise. Police sirens grow louder and almost on instinct, he runs into the strange portal before it quickly disappears. After a moment or two he is met with a dark room, glowing orange lines trail the cold, metal walls. He walks towards a big pair of sliding doors and it slides open with a loud hiss, letting a bright light shine in. Once the light dies down, he sees a long white, glistening hall filled with many different variations of spider mans, women, and even what seem to be inanimate objects on all corners of the place.
Getting distracted, he bumps into some sturdy surface, stumbling back a bit. He rubs the spot on his head groaning before looking at what he bumped into. Getting a good look, he realizes he's now stood in front of a tall, dark man sporting dark slicked back hair and a red and blue, form-fitting spider suit. The man looked at them with a serious, judging look. Almost intimidating to him, but it's not the most he's seen.
"Watch where you're going."
His voice is deep, but somehow matches his menacing aura. He begins to walk away before coming to an abrupt stop and turning around. He has a slightly confused look, scanning him up and down. Confused, he experiments, taking a small step away. He turns and starts to walk away when he is stopped by a strong hand gripping his shoulder.
"Hold on a minute, do I know you?"
He eyed him up and down with a raised eyebrow. He fidgets with his fingers as he searches through his brain for a response. Preferably, one that would not anger this tall, dark, mysterious man, who's grip got a bit harder each second. Beads of nervous sweat run down his neck as the man's eyes bore into his very being. God, what an intense stare. He glances away for a split second and musters up a half-baked response.
"Uh, no?”
The man looks down at his bulky and obviously handmade watch and back to his masked face. At the distance he was from him, he was clearly much taller. He became more intimidating the longer he was in his shadow. He watched him slightly squint his eyes as a small, dreading feeling like he really fucked up entered through the back of his mind. He suddenly felt a migraine settle in his brain which didn't help the situation at all.
"Where did you get that watch?"
He attempted to back up looking around as if someone would step in and save him, yet still feeling worried. He pulled his hoodie back up as a sign of anxiousness and stumbled on his words.
"It's uh-um.."
An orange hologram of a short-haired girl in a fur coat and pink heart-shaped glasses on the man's shoulder suddenly appeared and began to speak.
"Miguel, come on. Hands off and step away from the kid."
He took a step back and a deep breath, releasing his shoulder from a close death grip. He moved his shoulder around, rubbing it. He was definitely as strong as he looks. He was still close enough that he could make out small details on his face. Like small scars, and dark circles shadowing his eyes. He noticed that his eyes were a deep crimson red, and almost seemed to glow. He had high cheekbones and a rigid face. He took in the details of his face before the hologram on his shoulder piped up once again.
"Further back. You're literally breathing down his neck, Migs."
He looked to the hologram annoyed, and waved it away unsuccessfully as it appeared on his other shoulder, tapping it's foot, seeming to wait for him to move. He rolled his eyes and glared at the hologram.
"First of all, LYLA, don't call me that. I've told you this numerous times, and yet you still don't listen."
Migs? Really? What a name. The shorter man snickered a little which caused the taller man to snap his attention back to him with an hard glare. He focused his attention on something else as he stepped further back from where he was and took a small breath to regain his previous composure.
"I'll ask one more time. Where. Did you get. That. Watch?"
He forgot about his anxiousness for the moment before he started speaking again. This time, he was more serious and seemed quite threatening. His aura was quite overpowering and still had that menacing and intimidating feel to it. He could hear a small sound from the larger man. Almost like a growl, like an animal nearly ready to jump a smaller animal. He sucked on his teeth which showed gleaming, white fangs. His eyes widened a bit at the sight. He crossed his arms as he awaited a response from him.
"A friend! Just a friend."
He raised an eyebrow. He looked to the hologram who just shrugged and disappeared. He sighed and looked back down to him. He cocked his head to the side with a sarcastic face. He had seen plenty of expressions in his lifetime, making it easy to read people. Although, he wasn't easy to read himself. He never kept himself open or vulnerable. Too risky.
"A friend, huh? What friend?"
"His name is Hobie Brown, he also goes by Spider Punk?"
He pinched the bridge of his nose at the mention of the name and took a deep breath, as if just hearing the name gives bad memories.
"Oh yeah, yeah. I know who he is."
That's when it finally clicked for him. His eyes grew wide and he just stared blankly at the man. Disbelief flooded his face. Was it really..? In the flesh? He quietly gasped and the other man noticed him staring bug-eyed at him.
"What is it? Is there..something on my face?"
"Wait, are you Miguel O'Hara? THE Miguel O'Hara? Spider-2099?"
He rolled his eyes in utter annoyance and turned around.
"Yeah, I'm not giving out autographs."
"No, no, no. I'm not a fan. Hobie told me about you and I'm just surprised to finally meet you in perso- Agh!"
He suddenly started violently glitching and he quickly doubled over with a pained shriek. Miguel threw something in his direction which landed on the ground almost silently. As he was catching his breath, he took the bracelet and slowly stood up.
"Wha..what is this?"
He said, his voice strained. He examined the bracelet. It was white and neon blue stripes that seemed to glow in the light of the hall.
"It's a day pass. It's to keep you from-"
He was stopped by the sound of electric glitching and the shorter man fell to his knees.
"From that."
He put on the day pass bracelet and caught his breath as he stood back up. He took a deep breath, feeling his migraine fade away.
"What's your name, by the way?"
Standing up, they saw Miguel walk away. Speed-walking to catch up with him, they responded.
"Terrance."
"Hm, where are you from?"
Miguel looked at his watch and typed something in as Terrance finally caught up, sounding out of breath. He looked up at Miguel and asked him to repeat the question. He cleared his throat and repeated himself. "I said, where are you from?"
Terrance, looked at him for a moment in silence. “Tokyo.”
Miguel raised an eyebrow, looking at some information popping up on his watch.
"Alright. How long have you had your powers?"
Miguel walked into a dark room with yellow holographic screens projected around the room. He swiped a few of them away and moved them around, reading the text upon them. Terrance assumed it was his office or something of the sort.
"About a month or so now. Maybe a bit more."
”A month? that’s it?”
“Yeah. Is that a problem?”
He stood a bit away from Miguel, fumbling with his bracelet. He looked around the room and slightly jumped when the heavy doors behind him slid shut with a bang. He typed something into one of the screens and turned back to Terrance.
"Come with me, I wanna see how skilled you are with your powers."
Terrance nodded and followed him to a white room that he figured was a training room or some kind of show room. Miguel stood against one of the walls as he held out his hand to signal the go ahead for Terrance. He shook himself to get all the nerves out and he started web slinging first, creating a web connecting two of the walls. He did some flips and climbed up the walls and traveled from one side of the room to the other. He fell to the ground feet first and walked over to Miguel.
"So uh..how was that?"
Miguel raised his eyebrows slightly and slightly moved his head from side to side.
"Yeah, I'll say I'm somewhat impressed. How about this, and be lucky I'm doing this. We have a small spar, kay? And if you pin me for 30 seconds, I'll let you stay permanently and if I pin you, then you're gone. Deal?"
Miguel held out his hand. Terrance hesitated, but nevertheless agreed, shaking his hand.
"Yeah, deal."