Another Chance

Once the portal had opened back up in Earth-928 Miguel’s home dimension it practically shot him out with him smashing into a wall while still holding Miles close to his chest and making his back taking the brunt of the force, Miguel groaned looking back up seeing the portal become unstable and glitching before glitching out of existence cutting off complete contact to dimension 1610, no longer existing. His ears were ringing slightly, and he looked around before something did get through the ringing of his ears ‘crying?’ Miguel slowly looked back down and looked down at a distressed baby, Miguel squints in confusion. ‘Baby why is there?’

“MIERDA Miles!” He quickly sat up and cradled the baby close to his chest trying to calm him down he was slightly stressing he didn’t really know how to calm him down. “Hay shhhh niño calm down, I know it’s scary, I’ve got you shhh cálmate (calm down)” while slightly bouncing the baby. Lyla appeared near the both of them and mimicked patting the babies head softly, “there, there I know he’s scary and ugly but there’s no need to cry” Miguel stopped what he was saying to try and calm the baby down and looked back up at Lyla with a deadpan look. “Really? That’s really not helpful right now.”

Lyla shrugged and sat back on an imaginary chair. “Well why else would he be crying” Miguel did a mocking smile “oh I don’t know! Maybe because he just watched his Mamá and entire world glitch out of existence with him being the only survivor and being left alone!” Miguel just gave an unimpressed flat look while Lyla just looked back with an eyebrow raised.

“Right anyway, soooo how do you get it to calm down anyway cause whatever you’re doing, isn’t stopping it’s wailing” Lyla pointed at ‘it’ still obviously crying and wanting comfort. “I- I don’t know! I think it would want its Má and not a complete stranger holding him! Also it’s not an ‘it’ don’t call him an ‘it’ it’s a human child that’s alive and breathing not some random inanimate object, your more of an ‘it’ than him” Lyla gasped and put her hands on her hips.

“How dare you! I am perfectly alive and functioning thank you very much. I mean the baby, Miles was it? Can’t even do anything it’s completely useless other than crying which seems to be the only thing it can do!” Miguel scowled and pulled Miles closer to his chest protectively. “You know what!! How about I just unplug or reboot you than let’s see how useful you-“ just as Miguel was about to finish that sentence. Miles started glitching in Miguel’s hold ,which then turned the wailing and crying into full on screaming in pain, panic and fear.

Miguel’s and Lylas eyes widened and froze for a second before absolutely freaking out. “WHAT! He was fine what changed! H-He survived his original dimension collapsing why is he glitching out now!” He quickly stood up and ran over to his office/ workshop Lyla saw where he was heading and opened the automatic doors for him so he could run straight through to the medical bed they had set up near the corner of the workspace that was littered with half finished robotic projects lying around he quickly chucked everything that was laying on the medical bed off with one hand and then gently put Miles on said bed but when he tried to pull away Miles had quickly latched onto one of his fingers not wanting to be left, Miguel smiled sadly and kneeled down to look into wet honey brown eyes staring right back at his own reddish brown ones, he gently and slowly started to peel off Miles fingers from his one, which only prompted Miles to start crying more hiccuping and reaching out again.

“Shhh está bien cálmate niño (Shhh its alright calm down kid)I’ll be right here by your side okay I won’t leave you” he quickly took his hand away and looked away cause if he looked back he wouldn’t be able to tear his eyes away but he needed to figure out why he was all of a sudden no longer well. He quickly turned to screen beside the bed ignoring the crying once again. “Lyla! Please run a entire body scan not only on his cells but also general body to figure out if there are any injuries or complications that are not immediately noticeable” Lyla nodded and appeared directly in front of Miles and encased him in a warm yellow glow going back and forth in a line scanning him.

As she was about to share the results Miles glitched again badly. Which caused him to start screaming again in pain. Miguel quickly rushed over to him panicking. “Please no otra vez (not again) please don’t leave again. haré lo que sea (i will do anything) just don’t leave me again” while Miguel was about to go into hysterics again, much like he did 3 weeks ago, Lyla quickly appeared next to him, “Miguel calm down. We-“ he wasn’t listening continuing to hold onto Miles tears coming to his eyes breathing starting to pick up mumbling nonsense. “por favor, no me quites otro hijo. Haré cualquier cosa por favor, por favor. (please don't take another child from me. I will do anything please, please)” Lyla got in his face in between him and Miles. “Miguel listen! I think we should be able-“ she stopped talking when she saw his far off eyes realising he wasn’t listening to her still mumbling variations of sorry’s in English and Spanish. She groaned in frustration.

“MIGUEL” Lyla also at the same time as shouting his name sent a light shock through the watch trying to get his attention. Miguel quickly gasped and looked back at Lyla eyes finally focusing on her. “Good to have you back with us in the land of the living Miguel. Now I can understand why this will be traumatic for you especially only having this happen to you 3 weeks ago, but I can’t touch solid objects so if you want to actually help this kid I need you to pull it together boss man” Miguel breathed even deep breathes rubbing his eyes with his fingers nodded.

“Yes sorry of course. What did you find on the scan, how bad is the cellar decay. Is there any chance of stopping it” Lyla crossed her arms and leaned back on her heels looking at Miguel. “Well if you were actually listening I was gonna say we can actually stop the cellar decay completely for the time being until we find a more permanent solution.” Miguel quickly whipped his head up, eyes wide and disbelieving staring at his assistant.

“What… what do you mean how?” Lyla smirked and then pointed down at his wrist or rather the watch on his wrist “the gizmo silly, it can keep someone’s cells that are in the wrong dimension from glitching out. But since you are in your in dimension right now you don’t need it.” Miguel looked down at his wrist then back at Lyla and then at Miles who was whimpering and hiccuping but had seemed to calm down for a second instead of full on balling his eyes out. “But… but I had tried that with Gabriella, I had given her my Gizmo and she still, she still…” he couldn’t finish that sentence but Lyla knew what he was trying to say and smiled sadly.

“While I get what you’re trying to say and you’d be right if it was the same situation which it isn’t.” Miguel frowned and looked at Lyla while she brought up two screens with different measurements and information. “It is indeed true that if you tried to give the gizmo over to someone that was in the final statues of cellar decay or dimensional collapse that sure it wouldn’t work at all, we discovered this the hard way.” Pointing at screen one while relaying this information and then teleported over to the second screen and started explaining again. “Fortunately that isn’t this type of case, while I was doing a scan of miles his cells are in distress with not being in the right dimension and are slowly starting to decay but not at a unstable rate, it is extremely painful still when it does happen and he’s still unstable sure. But that can easily be fixed by just giving him your Gizmo for the time being, easy fix!”

Miguel looked at her slacked jawed and looked back down at Miles who was reaching for him again he slowly reached his hand out again for Miles to grab which Miles quickly grabbed his pointer finger with a death grip obviously not wanting Miguel to leave him again. “So you’re saying that it’s just normal out of your dimension kinda glitching, and not the glitching out of existence within a couple minutes kind of glitching?” Lyla put her hands on her hips and put on a beaming smile. “That’s correct! You’re not as dumb as you seem to be! Though I would put the watch on soon though cause from my last scan the next wave of glitches should be coming around in mmmm about 30 seconds and counting” Miguel was about to go off at Lyla about her first comment when what she said last registered and he frantically grabbed his gizmo watch and unclipped it from himself and quickly straightened Miles left arm to attach the watch to it even though it was only supposed to fit on an adults wrist it looked like a whole sleeve on a baby.

Miguel and Lyla waited a few more seconds in silence to see if the glitching would start back up but after around 30 seconds was up nothing seemed to happen and Miguel breathed a massive sigh of relief “si hay un dios? gracias( if there is a god? thank you)” Lyla rolls her eyes and crossed her arms. “What you didn’t believe me! I’m astounded how could you betray me like this Miguel” she dramatically put her head to her head and fake cried. Miguel frowned and tried to swat her away like a fly. “Yea, yea your sooooo great now mind telling me what else you found on that great scan of yours” Miguel reached towards Miles face lightly wiping away any remaining tears softly smiling at the curious eyes looking back at him.

Layla nodded and changed the two screens into three all relaying different information on the scan of Miles.
“Well good news is that Miles is safe from glitching and cellar decay yippee!” There were electric holograms of confetti that went off and Lyla got a fun party hat on top of her head. Miguel looked at her not amused, but Miles seemed to be trying to reach with his left arm that had the watch on it reaching for the hologram confetti slightly smiling, right hand though was still in a death grip on Miguel’s one finger refusing to let go for a minute. Lyla frowned and crossed her arms getting rid of the hologram party items. “Fine moody” she turned herself back to the screens and kept relying the rest of the information.

“From what I’ve been able to gather Miles should be fine in this dimension as long as he has the gizmo on him, we should probably make a smaller prototype though as it looks ridiculous on him. Other than that his health seems to be alright his cells should start to recover from the shock of being in the wrong dimension, he is slightly taller than he should be for a 9 month old but other than that he seems to be completely healthy for a baby of his age weights good and everything, though when I was scanning for injuries I did find one.” Miguel quickly looked up at her with a worried frown and then looked back at the screens.

“What kind of injury is it, did he get it from when he landed back in our dimension or is it something else does it require and kind of medicine or doctor?” Lyla shook her head no and moved some things around on the screen to have a scan and picture of Miles hand on the screen in front of them. Then she zoomed in on the back of his hand to see two dots on it. Miguel looked confused and quickly looked at Miles right hand that was holding his finger and sure enough there was two slightly red dots on the back of his hand like little puncture wounds they were slightly faded and hard to see but still there enough you can see it. He turned slowly towards Lyla looking for an explanation.

“The injury was definitely not caused when we went through the portal in fact the bite mark is actually a few days old almost on the verge of healing but still quite not there, there’s also something else I discovered his genetic makeup is slightly different and his cells are also slightly mutated but sadly the scan couldn't exactly tell me why it was different all it came up with is a question mark and saying data unfound.” Miguel eyes widened for what felt like the twentieth time today and quickly turned back to Lyla with an accusatory finger pointed at her. “I thought you said his cells were fine and would recover!” Lyla crossed her arms again and gave Miguel a bored look. “No I said the were no longer glitching and were stable and would recover, I never said that they weren’t weird and that I couldn’t one hundred percent read them.” Miguel frowned and grumbled and rubbed his eyes again.

“Okay well is there anyway we could find a device advanced enough to read his cells and find out what is wrong with them?” Lyla hummed and nodded “yes, but you’re not gonna like it~” Miguel frowned and glared at her “I don’t like this whole situation so far. So try me” Lyla smirked back and teleported right in his face about an inch away “the go home machine back at Spider-Man HQ” Miguel frowned further in confusion. “¿qué? HOW ON EARTH WOULD THAT HELP US FIGURE OUT ANYTHING!! That’s meant to detect Spider-Man DNA and then send them home to there-“ he stopped himself from speaking and quickly looked down at Miles hand where the two slight puncture marks stared right back at him. “There’s… there is no way that’s possible” Lyla smirked and leaned back bring up a tinier screen beside her with some words on it.

“I have a hypothesis. A good chunk of his cells and genetics are mutated or don’t seem to align with his original cells, he doesn’t seem to be in any pain from that thankfully but I also think that his cells were mutated from something not from his earth or dimension. But even though that sounds bad I know it does I, I also have a hunch that, that’s what saved him when his dimension started to collapse. So for now at the very least he doesn’t seem to be any threat to our dimension so we can at least breath easy knowing that!” Miguel looked back at Miles slowly processing everything, Miles tilted his head and looked back up at Miguel just as curiously.

“So what your saying is, is that he’s potentially made up of to different dimensions cells? And let’s say that’s correct how did that even happen, and if it did happen that’s what saved him from glitching out of existence like the rest of his dimension.” Lyla shrugged. “Yeaaaaa more or less but hay I’m just guessing” Miguel glared at her. “What a shocking guess then” Miguel looked back down at the two bite marks rubbing them. “So what about the bite mark, anything about that in your hypothesis.” Lyla raised an eyebrow at him and leaned back.

“Oh come on Miguel. I know you’re smart enough to figure out what it most likely means” Miguel raised an eyebrow mimicking her reaction. “Oh really? Cause I distinctly remember you calling me stupid or dumb on numerous occasions. So care to enlighten me?” Lyla dramatically sighed and made it look like she was containing a smirk. “If I must!” Miguel rolled his eyes at her antics. “I suspect that, that bite on his right hand was caused by a spider that magically turned up in his universe accidentally bit the poor kid genetically modified his DNA which ultimately saved his life. Meaning! He’s just like you Miguel! Well not just like you. You never got bit by a spider you just made yourself 50% spider. But you get what I mean. you have a little spider-ling it’s almost like fate!” Miguel paused at the last sentence and looked at her slightly confused.

“Fate what fate?” Lyla rolled her eyes and made a massive sighing sound. “Do I actually have to explain everything! You Miguel O’Hara Spider-Man 2099 tragically lost his daughter from another universe due to her universe tragically collapsing in on its self all of a sudden for no reason- DON’T interrupt! As we still truely don’t know what caused it to collapse. So let me finish thank you! Ahem. 3 weeks later another universe tragically collapses and all that’s left is a single child crying and scared and not glitching and decaying like everything else in its dimension. A father who lost his everything to a dimensional collapse and a child that lost everything himself to the same thing, and they both somehow find each other in there time of need, so they can save each other. And on the bonus side he might even be a Spider-Man variant!”

Miguel was about to debunk her theory that sounded more like some weird fantasy kid book. But she weirdly did have a point he had completely lost himself to grief and was not doing anything and was most likely gonna let himself shrivel up and die till today, heck this is the first time in weeks he hasn’t been bed ridden, or working himself to death trying to find a solution that doesn’t even exist. And Miles god Miles just lost the only people and universe he had ever known. His life hadn’t even begun there was a good chance he wouldn't remember any of this when he would eventually and hopefully grow up.

He looked down sadly at Miles looking at his eyes that reminded him so much of his Gabriella. Lyla all of a sudden appeared in Miguel’s peripheral vision looking at him in pity. “Look Miguel I’m not saying you should replace her I know that isn’t right or something someone should do. But you can’t keep living how you were. It was bad and extremely unhealthy and all I’m saying is, is that Miles here also doesn’t have anyone else left, I just think it’ll be good for the both of you to have each other. Ya know?” Miguel sadly nodded before closing his eyes and nodded. “Okay” Lyla looked at him in surprise “okay?” Miguel nodded again more sure now. “Yep okay. If we are doing this, I’ll need some or I guess not some, a lot of supplies and I’ll need to clean out the spare room next to mine to transform it into a room for Miles but firstly Lyla can you search up all the best baby products as well as the best food to feed a 9 month old child and gather any information I’d need to know on top of that anything the information web says to buy. Just buy it I don’t care of the cost” Lyla smiled wildly and saluted him. “Yes sir!” Before disappearing to do a massive information search. He breathed a massive sigh and rubbed his face he heard some slight noises coming from beside him nothing more than noises and nonsense but it made him give an amused huff.

Miguel looked back down to see Miles smiling at him slightly more happy and smiling moving to try and grab his feet with his forcibly straightened left arm thanks to the massive watch that’s attached to his entire arm which frankly did look ridiculous.

Miguel then went to scoop Miles up again but before he did he readjusted the blanket around him hard to do with one arm while the other one was still being held captive by Miles one hand. But he managed it, he quickly scooped him up in his arms which made Miles give a slight giggle still looking up at Miguel smiling, Miguel smiled back at him and started making his way back to the living area and sat down on the coach with Miles in his lap looking at him with a tilted head and Miles seemed to tilt his head to, Miguel raised an eyebrow and Miles again seemed to try and do the same thing much less successfully but still enough that you could recognise the attempt, Miguel than tilted his head to the other side seeing if Miles would copy him yet again and with out a doubt repeated the action which made Miguel give a slight chuckle. “Oh I can already tell your gonna be an issue” Miles gleefully smiled and giggled back at him not understanding what he had said just happy to be there.

“I’ll take you to spider HQ tomorrow hopefully we can figure out what happened with you and I can maybe get some stuff from my lab there to try and make a smaller Gizmo or just something to keep you stabilised in my dimension. Sound like a good plan?” Miles cooed and tried reaching for Miguel’s face trying to touch his nose and hair. Miguel smiled. “I’ll take that as a yes, cause my plans are great, and if Lyla says otherwise she’s a big stinking liar.” Lyla then materialised herself in front of them.

“You do realise this big stinking liar can always hear you right?” Miguel smirked “absolutely it’s why I said it, how was it getting the baby stuff sorted?” Lyla rolled her eyes but still answered. “Of course I did I’m not just some ordinary AI I’m the best, I ordered everything that was required or recommended most things will turn up in an hour cause I requested 1 hour delivery I don’t know how people used to live in the past without getting stuff delivered so quickly it blows my nonexistent brain. Most stuff can be set up with a push of a button. I also ordered the best food for Miles at this age and then some more, some of the best toys and I also uploaded everything you’d need to know for this time on your digital screen, I would of uploaded it to your Gizmo but it is currently being occupied by Miles” she then materialised right in front of Miles face and smiled.

Miles laughed and tried to reach out for her again like he did earlier which obviously didn’t work still but that didn’t stop him from trying. “Awww I’m already the favourite!” Miguel’s head quickly snapped to her in shock and then frowned. “Uh excuse you? What on earth makes you think you’re the favourite” Lyla turned to him and smirked. “I mean look at him, he adores me can’t take his eyes off his Aunt” Miguel frowned even further and then just looked confused. “Aunt? Really, why out of all the titles you could choose for yourself you chose Aunt? Why??” Lyla made a face as if to say ‘duh isn’t it obvious’ “uhh because everyone knows that the cool Aunt is the superior title to have, and plus I got all the coolest stuff for little Miles here I’m practically already fulfilling the cool Aunt role and I’m dressed the part too” Miguel just looked at Lyla like she was an idiot which in his eyes she was. Miguel just shook his head.

“Yea sure whatever.” Miguel then felt movement and looked over to see Miles yawn and was wriggling around and whining clearly uncomfortable. “Hay Lyla can you scan him and see what his vitals are at does he need to eat or drink, I know he needs sleep it’s been a… a very long day for him but I’d like to know if he needed to have any other needs met before I try to put him down for a nap.” Lyla nodded and started scanning once done she shook her head. “I mean he’s a little dehydrated but other than that the only thing that’s really bothering him is indeed sleep.” Miguel nodded deciding that before the poor boy starts crying again that it’ll be best to put him down for a nap, he then looked over at the time to see it was 9:58pm and grimaced okay maybe a sleep and not a nap is in order. He totally forgot that Lyla had woken him up around mid day this morning before everything went to absolute crap today.

As he walked to his bedroom the doors opened and he looked at the mess his room was in and sighed, it was an absolute mess and not one anyone should live in let alone a child or baby, he’d need to sort that out immediately tomorrow. He gently rearranged the sheets and pillows on the bed and then went over to the closet to grab a big fluffy blanket and made it into a nest sort of cocoon to hopefully stop Miles from rolling near the edges of the bed once satisfied he went to try and lightly lay Miles down in the big fluffy wall blankets and as he was about to let go he remembered one very important detail that he had forgotten about “bien joder (well fuck)”

Miles was still tightly holding onto his finger how he had forgotten that was a complete mystery to him but when he tried to get the tiny fingers off of him it made Miles who had started to slowly doze off to sleep after a very stressful day, start whining and grip his finger tighter. He slapped his forehead not knowing what to do cause if he did end up removing the tiny fingers there’s a very good chance that Miles would indeed wake up most likely screaming with tears running down his face.. again.

Lyla who Miguel didn’t even realise she was there until he saw a phone flash out of the corner of his eye and when he went to turn to look at her she had a shit eating grin on her face having the time of her life. “You quite done there?” He asked frustrated she took one more photo before the phone disappeared from her hand “eh just about quite the situation you got there huh?” Miguel groaned. “Yea ha ha, it’s very funny now can you help me, I really don’t wanna wake the Niño pequeño (little kid) up” Lyla nodded as if to look like she was thinking. “Well you could always lie down on the bed with him and sleep next to him. Then you’ll be there if something happens and you can look at it as a bonding moment for the both of you!” Miguel squinted at her. “ ah yes cause being held hostage by a 9 month old is totally bonding and even if I wanted to I have to collect the baby stuff that you ordered for me, that could arrive any moment at this point” Lyla looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Miguel it looks like you died and came back to life with those eye bags you have you need to sleep and what better way to sleep, than with our new buddy here. And before you say anything I can ask the delivery robot or guy to leave all the stuff in the hallway and I’ll lock the door from the hallway into the whole house so there’s no risk of a break in from front door to hallway, and then once they have gotten rid of all the stuff in the hallway I’ll automatically shut and lock the front door and activate all security measures. Easy done!” Miguel was about to protest when Lyla spoke up yet again being the voice of reason.

“Come on Miguel after the 3 weeks you’ve been punishing yourself with? You need this just as much as him, he needs someone around him he’s most likely never been without his mom or dad he needs a actual person there for him to feel safe it’s most likely why he refuses to let go of you, afraid that he will be left alone again with someone new, and no one else he knows.” Miguel looks back at Miles still holding onto his finger now with both hands with a slight look of discomfort on his face even though it looked like he was already passed out and was asleep Miguel sighed and rubbed a hand down his face, and reluctantly started to climb into his bed with one hand being held by Miles and his other one curled around him protectively and angled his face towards Miles and he could see Miles face slowly start to relax in his sleep breathing evening out, and Miguel wasn’t much better now that he was laying down he could start to feel how god damn tired he was before surrendering himself to sleep he whispered.

“buenas noches Miles que tengas dulces sueños estaré aquí cuando despiertes te lo prometo niño (goodnight Miles have sweet dreams i will be here when you wake up I promise kid)