Ch 3 Chaos at work
Miguel woke to something touching his face, he scrunched up his face and slowly tried to open his eyes still trying to wake up and see that, there was a tiny pair of hands in his face covering his vision slightly. Miguel let out a light chuckle, and with his own hands gently grabbed the tiny hands from his face and lowered them, now with his vision not being obscured he could see that Miles was definitely awake and out of his fluffy blanket walls and barley an inch away from Miguel’s face. “Buenos días a ti también (good morning to you too)” Miles let out a laugh and had a big smile on his face, Making Miguel give a light smile back to him. He moved his other hand towards his face to rub the sleep from his eyes and then looked over at the electronic panel beside his bed that read 4:07am Miguel’s eyes frowned in confusion. Sure he hadn’t slept well in weeks but he did feel mostly well rested which was odd considering that he only got around 5 hours sleep and that it was 4 in the morning. He looked back at Miles who was trying to get his attention again by pushing against his chest. Miguel gently started to run his hand over Miles head.
“Why you up so early niño, is something wrong? Bored ,hungry?”
Miles only whined and pushed further into Miguel’s chest with his head and started making gibberish noises. Miguel raised an eyebrow. “That a yes?” Miles made a really loud whinging sound before just flopping down on the bed face first and giving up. Miguel gently moved his arms so he could roll Miles over onto his back to see an impressive looking pout on the babies face glaring back up at him. “Right… Hay Lyla you there?” Lyla appeared above the both of them looking down at Miguel smiling. “Good Morning sleepy head have a good sleep.” Miguel slowly started to sit up while still looking down at Miles who still refused to move from his spot on his back still giving a slight glare to Miguel. He then only noticed he was no longer in his Spider-Man suit which he doesn’t remember deactivating. “Hay Lyla did you manually deactivate my suit, also can you scan the kid to see if he needs anything. As well do you know why he woke up so soon after going to sleep, I’m sure he’s gonna still be tired later if he only got 5 hours of sleep.” Lyla started scanning the kid nodding along to what Miguel was saying.
“Well first off that’s a lot of questions this early in the morning don’t you think? But yes I did deactivate your suit shortly after you passed out and also if I’m being honest I am quite surprised with him sleeping as long as he did but I guess he did have quite the day yesterday.” Miguel looked at her confused. “What? He didn’t sleep that long. He only slept for 5 hours that’s not nearly enough time for a kid to sleep I remember that kids need at least 8 hours of sleep or more” Lyla nodded and brung up a screen next to her from some sort of website that had pictures of babies at all different sizes. “That would be true IF Miles was a child but he’s not he’s a baby apparently according to numerous information sources they typically have 1 sleep and 2 naps a day. But according to numerous reports of a baby is taken out of there typical sleeping arrangement or bed they won’t actually go to sleep but just have a nap and babies only nap for around 2.5 hours or 3.5 hours. So he’s in this weird limbo of a really long nap or a really short sleep. Oh and by the way he’s hungry I ordered some pre made baby food packs for 8-12 month old babies, that you can just open and give to him until we can actually figure out what we can feed him and get supplies”
Miguel frowned and lifted Miles up from his grumpy position on his back and into his arms and against his chest, Miles lightly pushing against him whining again clearly upset about his pouting being interrupted. “Wait so how long will it take until he settles in to sleep to the correct amount? Wait how long are babies supposed to sleep if they’re supposed to have 2 naps a day that are around 3 hours each.” Miguel lightly sat up Miles still close to his chest. “Apparently it could take weeks even a few months to get him into a new bed let alone a new routine with no familiar faces around. And as for sleeping, ehhhh around 10 maybe 12 hours.” Miguel slowly stood up with a confused look, looking down at miles. “Really that long?”
Miguel started walking to the door that leads into the living room Lyla opening it for him when he was close enough. Lyla appeared in front of Miguel as he was walking towards the couch. “Apparently. That’s what the internet says. I got no other points of information or references” Miguel reached the couch and put Miles down on it before going to turn towards the hallway door to retrieve the pre made food for Miles, but then paused and turned back around to face Miles. “Lyla can you make an estimated guess about the likelihood of Miles hurting himself more either being on the couch or the floor?” Lyla appeared in front of Miles with a thinking face tilting her head. “Likelihood of hurting himself on the couch is up to 83% on the couch and 23% on the floor” Miguel’s eyes widened and quickly scooped Miles up and off the couch and put him on the rug next to the couch instead.
“Floor it is”
Miguel then continued walking towards the hallway door which opened automatically when getting close enough to it, only to see the mountain of boxes between the hallway and front door. “Dios mío” Miguel didn’t even know where to start he quickly turned back to where Lyla was watching Miles as she was bringing up hologram animals to entertain him. “Lyla do you know what box the food would be in by any chance?” Lyla didn’t even turn away from Miles while replying with “uhhh yea nope! There’s like 200 items there and some are actually doubled up in one box. Soooo good luck Miguel! Wish I could help, but you know the whole hologram thingy, can’t touch sold objects deal” she then wiggled her hands as to demonstrate the not being able to touch sold objects.
Miguel glared at her and grumbled out a half hearted “vete a la mierda (fuck you)” before turning around and going back into the hallway trying to find the food for Miles in one of the many boxes.
Meanwhile with Lyla and Miles. Miles had gotten slightly bored of the holograms and getting annoyed that his hands just kept going through the animals. So with great determination decided to roll over onto his stomach and with some struggle and a few attempts got onto his hands and knees and with a happy smile started to crawl in the direction that Miguel went. Lyla let out a laugh while following him. “Well would you look at that! Our little man can crawl already” Lyla then teleported her way to see Miguel slicing packages open with his claws and then going through them to see what was in them. “Hay Miguel you better have found that food” Miguel gave her a quick glance before continuing to keep going through the box he was currently in. “Why? And also why aren’t you watching Miles” As he stopped going through the box he was just in and going to move to the next one over he saw movement in the corner of his eye and turned to see Miles slowly start to enter the hallway where he was. “Cause it seems Miles is coming to you so you can watch him yourself” Lyla said with a smirk. Miles started trying to make his way over quicker with a huge smile on his face.
Miguel was stunned before quickly snapping out of it and bending down and quickly picking Miles up giving a proud smile. “increíble trabajo niño (Amazing job kid) I’m so proud of you. You want to help me open the rest of the boxes until we find your food? Sound like a good idea?” Miles laughed trying to clap his little baby hands but it not working very well with the still very big watch on his arm. Luckily they didn’t have to wait long as after they started opening boxes together the second box they opened miraculously had the food in it, Miguel let out a relieved sigh and picked up a handful of packets before wondering back over into the kitchen and reading the instructions ‘put in food activator at power level 1’ “seems easy enough” Miguel lightly peeled off the packaging and putting one of the trays into the activator machine and turning the power notch to 1 and pressing start.
He then grabbed some towels and napkins knowing that the next 10 minutes will be very messy as he may not know much about this age group for children but the one thing he did know is that they were messy and uncoordinated. He then heard the beep of the food being ready and went to grab it out of the machine after pulling it out Miles immediately starting reaching for it clearly hungry, Miguel chuckled lightly “alright, alright I get it your about to get your food just hold on.” He then put the food tray on the kitchen bench and then putting miles down in front of it. ‘This shouldn’t be to hard’
Around 10 minutes later
Miguel had an astonished look on his face food on his face hands and hair, not to mention the kitchen counter the floors some of the walls and somehow even a little on the ceiling and a giggling Miles. But somehow considering everything the only food he somehow managed to get anywhere on himself was on his hands and a little bit around his mouth which was honest to god impressive as hell. Meanwhile Lyla was cackling in the background holding her stomach while also recording the whole ordeal. “OH MY SHOCK!! That was the best thing I’ve ever witnessed!!” Miguel just stood there still processing everything he went to rub his eyes but then saw that those too were covered in food and quickly went to wash them under the automatic sink. “I just- I just don’t understand how it all happened I went to wipe up one piece of food that accidentally flicked off his plate and then I turn back and it’s somehow on the kitchen walls! Like how does that even happen! I turned away for a second! If that!” Miguel sighed while grabbing a cloth and wetting it under the water from the sink to bring over to miles to lightly wipe his hands and face.
Lyla was still laughing but had seemed to calm down a bit. “I have no idea but it was magical! Why don’t you leave me to watch him for a bit while you go take a shower to wash the food off of yourself and while your at it maybe clean your bedroom so you can move some of Miles’s new stuff in? Also I’m pretty sure if you don’t clean any of your clothes that you’ve left lying around soon you won’t have any to wear” Miguel sighed knowing she was right but just really not wanting to do it, but it needed to be done at some point, and a really did want to wash the food out of his hair.
“You sure I can leave him with you and nothing will happen?” Lyla put her hand over her heart and smiled closing her eyes with her other hand up in the air. “Of course you can definitely count on me to make sure nothing goes wrong with Miles” Miguel just blinked slowly at her “yea no I’m going to get the foldable play pen I just found” before grabbing Miles and putting him on the ground again and walking to go get said play pen, from one of the boxes. Lyla made an offended noise but stayed with Miles to make sure he didn’t wonder off anywhere and get hurt cause if she didn’t it would only prove Miguel right.
A few moments later Miguel came back holding a flat looking box and bringing it to the couch area before leaning it up against the couch and grabbing the coffee table in the middle of the carpet and moving it sideways out of the way, and away from the couch before going back to grab the box and pulling out a white flat looking case and putting it on the ground before pushing a button and standing back and after 3 beeps it started expanding out of the white case and after about 5 seconds of it moving around and expanding it turned into a white baby play pen. Lyla and Miles watched from the side still near the kitchen, Miles watching in pure amazement while Lyla was looking at it judgementally. “It looks like a baby prison” Miguel was about to argue back saying that it wasn’t but then stopped and thought about it. “Yea you know what that’s basically what it is. It’s so baby’s don’t wonder off when the parents aren’t watching basically, so yea I guess it is a kinda prison” he then went to grab Miles and walked back over to the play pen and lightly popped him in it. Miles looked back up at him curiously to see what was going on.
“Okay I’ll be like 30 minutes tops I’ll do a 10 minute shower 20 minutes cleaning. You think you should be able to handle him for that long” Miguel said looking at Lyla. Lyla scoffed and waved him off, going into the newly dubbed ‘baby prison’ next to Miles. “Yea, yea I totally got this” Miguel narrowed his eyes at her obviously doubting her. “Hay don’t give me that look, I’ve got this go have a shower or whatever” Miguel reluctantly turned around and started going towards his room.
Lyla waited for him to leave before turning back to Miles who was looking at her expectedly. “Mmm what would you wanna do, we could switch on the tv that’s in front of us, I could make hologram humans or animals? Nah I already did that uhhhhhh OH! I’ve got it I can simulate different places or scenarios, that should be fun right.” They was then a soft glow around the baby prison that Miles was looking around in awe at, and then the scenery changed to being under the ocean where lush plants and corals were as well as fish and other ocean dwellers. Miles looked around in amazement and he was reaching out to try and touch everything laughing when fish would swim by his head. Lyla looked at him with amusement. “Pretty cool right? I knew I got this, wanna try something else, how about somewhere like a dessert!” The scenery quickly changed to a barren dessert with a fake sun beating down above them, Miles quickly looked over to Lyla not amused. “Yea okay that was my bad kid, maybe the middle of the dessert wasn’t the funniest location let’s try somewhere else, how about uhhh- Oooo! I got one a rainforest!”
They went through a lot of different locations for a while some being more nature oriented and others being extravagant cites everything was going fine until.
“Hay! You know what else I can do? I can simulate you flying! Kids like that right, wanting to be able to fly and feel like a bird or whatever, let’s try that yea! That’ll be fun” the scenery changed again around Miles the sides around Miles changed to clouds and blue sky he looked around confused before looking down and his breath catching in his throat at seeing the ground so far away from him, and immediately letting out a ear piercing scream while starting to cry that would not have been to much of an issue, if not for the fact that he turned invisible. Lyla immediately stopped the simulation and looked on with an open mouth and wide eyes. “MILES! Miles where’d you go bud!” She frantically was teleporting around the area where she could hear the screaming and crying of the clearly distressed baby. She also then heard the bedroom door sliding open with fast heavy foot steps and then stopping a few feet away from where she was in the play pen.
“WHAT HAPPENED WHERE IS HE!!!” Miguel shouted in panic, lyla grabbed at the side of her head shaking her head. “I DON’T KNOW!! We were playing with holograms and then we were trying to pretend fly and- I SWEAR HE WAS RIGHT HERE!! Or I guess he still is! I can still hear him! And there’s 2 body heat signatures in the room!!” Miguel quickly ran closer to the play pen looking around every inch of it before dropping to the floor and putting his hand in there frantically sweeping the floor of it trying to find the missing kid. ‘No no no no no nononono not again please don’t leave please please-‘ all of a sudden his hand made contact with something and his eyes widened as where he had touched started to become visible and then he felt to hands touch his big one and when they had made contact with his, starting with Miles head and going to his feet he became visible again, still wailing in obvious panic was reaching for Miguel begging to be picked up and be comforted.
Miguel quickly turned to look at Lyla with a shocked expression and she turned to him and looked absolutely stunned. Miguel quickly turned back to Miles who was still very upset and quickly picked him up in his arms holding him close, Miles immediately buried his head in Miguel’s shoulder and continued crying, Miguel stood up and put his hand on Miles back rubbing it up and down shushing him lightly and whispering ‘it’s okay, it’s okay I’m here’ after Miles seemed to calm down slightly mostly just hiccuping he turned to Lyla. “Bring up the recording of the living area and play 30 seconds before he seemed to disappear” Lyla nodded and activated the TV and turning off the volume on it but playing the video feed as requested and started watching. And sure enough everything is fine and then the scenery changes around a baby Miles who looks confused and is looking around and then when he looks down looks absolutely petrified and starts crying and then one minute he’s there and the next he’s not. “Okay play that bit again” Miguel says stepping closer to the screen, Lyla rewinds it wordlessly and they both rewatch it again. Same thing happens again and again, Lyla finally pauses the video a final time will tapping her hands together nervously. “Soooo wanna go to HQ to go to the scanner” Miguel immediately nodes “Yep” and quickly leaves to get something from the bedroom, with Miles still in his arms, he quickly comes back with a black blanket which he uses to cover Miles while still holding him and caressing his hair. “Lyla can you activate my suit please” Miguel asks still adjusting the blanket.
Lyla nods and brings up a hologram panel and presses a button and Miguel’s suit immediately appears on himself he gives a wordless nod in thanks. “Can you open a short portal to HQ, I don’t wanna walk through the entire spider-society currently especially with Miles and when we don’t know what’s going on with him” Lyla brings up another screen putting in some numbers and after about 2 seconds a portal opens up. “This should get us straight to the go home machine” Miguel takes a deep breath “can you tell if there’s anyone currently in that room with the sensors” Lyla shook her head. “Currently the sensors are saying it’s empty right now it is the best time to go as it’s still early and there will be less Spider-People around, the longer we wait the more chance we could get caught.” Miguel nodded and after making sure Miles is secure in his arm and under the blanket he walks through the portal.
On the other side the are in the middle of the room before the go home machine Miguel quickly checks around before quietly making his way over to the DNA scanner he gently moves the blanket off of Miles before gently nudging him to look at the DNA scanner and with the bright light Miles tries to bury his head back into Miguel’s shoulder which didn’t really matter cause the DNA scanner had already gotten the DNA scanned and it was slowly loading on the screen next to it. Lyla and Miguel patiently looked at it and waited until it popped up with.
Earth-42
“FORTY TWO?!?” Miguel was completely shocked and Lyla just looked slightly confused. “Huh? Well that’s a shock I was gonna more guess, I don’t know 1609 or even 1611 you know something actually close to 1610 but I mean 42 works too, I guess” Miguel shook his head. “No that makes no sense it must of scanned wrong let’s try again” Miguel again tried to nudge Miles face towards the scanner which Miles let out a small whine about being turned towards the bright light in his face again, and immediately put his head back against Miguel’s shoulder with a soft thump. Waiting for the machine to load again only to come up again with. Earth-42. “Oh come on!” Miguel rubbed his eyes feeling a headache coming on. “Okay well, the machine is pretty adamant that it’s earth 42 Miguel. Soooo do you want me to download any important information about earth 42? Like their Spider-Man what year they’re in, what technological advancements they have.” Lyla questioned already pulling up many screens ready to download the information.
Miguel sighed but nodded “Yes, any information right now would be helpful it would also be helpful to know if they were the direct cause of 1610’s collapse.” Lyla nodded tapping away at her screen. “I want to drop into my lab here get some parts to see if I can make a smaller Gizmo something just to stabilize someone’s atoms to stop them from glitching in the wrong universe.” Lyla nodded about to answer when she frowned slightly and cringed. “Oh no” Miguel also frowned at that pulling Miles closer who has been responsible well behaved since being here. “Uhhh we have a slight problem” Miguel panicked slighting “what? What kind of problem” Lyla pulled the screens down and pulled up another one of a security feed showing someone walking towards the area they were in.
“¡Mierda!(Fuck!)” Miguel quickly walked over to behind one of the consoles and gently put Miles on the ground with the black blanket over them. “Lyla stay here and watch him make sure he stays calm and doesn’t make to much noise. AND DO NOT! Do any holograms.” Lyla rolled her eyes and crossed her arms but didnt say anything as they were running out of time before their guest would be here. Miguel quickly walked back over near to the main console of the go home machine when someone rounded the corner already speaking.
“Hay remember I told you guys no one’s allowed to be in here until 9am! Me and Jesse agreed on those rules and you shou-“ he immediately stopped talking as his eyes made contact with Miguels.
Miguel internally groaned. ‘dios Peter B Parker why Peter B out of all the people to come by’ Peter immediately lit up upon seeing Miguel. “OH MY GOD! Miguel! Gosh it’s so good to see you, I didn’t realize you were here I was gonna try and call you again later today- oh but that doesn’t matter now! Um how you been! Uh do you need anything I’d there anything you need us to do-“ Miguel put a hand up silencing Peter from his rambling.
“I’m Fine. Sorry I didn’t return you or Jesses calls I’ve been busy. I just came to get a few things from my lab and I’ll be off” Miguel tried to walk past Peter trying to get him out of the room. When Peter frowned and didn’t seem to be following ‘fuck’
“Then why were you in here if you needed stuff from your lab” Miguel turned back to face Peter. “Cause I was double checking everything was in order before I got what I needed and then head off, that includes going through the reports from the go home machine.” Peter nodded before giving a once over looking at Miguel.
“Right. well are you looking after yourself, are you sure you should be even grabbing stuff from your lab to work on anything” Miguel narrowed his eyes at Peter not appreciating the comment and crossed his arms . “What’s that supposed to mean Parker” Peter sighed dragging a hand down his face. “Look man I don’t wanna sound disrespectful, but you look exhausted and thinner than I remember you, you’ve been gone for 3 weeks with no contact all I’m saying is, is that maybe you take some actual time off to you know get better.” Miguel scowled at that. “I’m perfectly fine, and I am looking after myself, so thanks for your concern I don’t need it, now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to go grab some stuff from my lab, so I can leave”
Miguel made a movement to try and walk away again, when Peter gave a frustrated sigh and ran to follow behind Miguel trying to keep the conversation going.
“Well I don’t think you are! You obviously haven’t worked through anything and it looks to me that you’ve just been chucking yourself into work. Gosh I shouldn’t have listened to Jesse when she said to give you time alone I should have come and visited you after the first 2 weeks of no contact.” Miguel was getting frustrated now not wanting to talk about anything remotely about the last 3 weeks or what happened those 3 weeks ago. “I don’t need your pity also you don’t know where I live, what was your plan go knock on every door in Nueva York” Peter also slightly getting annoyed now by Miguel dismissing him.
“I was actually gonna ask Lyla for it thank you! And if she didn’t tell me and it came down to it then yea! Maybe I would.” Miguel rolled his eyes as he entered his lab already pulling out pieces from other projects and scrap metal that he could use for the new prototype gizmo. “Miguel come on, we are here for you, everyone at spider society is. You got to at least attempt to talk about it” Miguel was really at his bursting point with all this. “I don’t NEED to attempt anything I’m doing great by myself” Peter grabbed one of the pieces that Miguel was reaching for and snatching it away. “What- Peter I need that give it to me-“
“When will you release that what happened 3 weeks ago wasn’t your fault-“
Miguel growled “you don’t know that-”
“I don’t but what I do know is that none of us have seen anything like that before and that my nightmares have been plagued by that day, so I can’t imagine what your going through with-“
Miguel took a step forward “stop talking-“
“NO! Cause you actually need to hear this, have you actually given yourself time to grieve or have you just been working yourself to the bone ignoring your own health! For something you can’t fix!”
“YOU DON’T KNOW THAT!! THERE COULD STILL BE A WAY-“
“SHES GONE MIGUEL!! GABRIELLA, DOESN’T EXIST ANYMORE SHES-“
Miguel slammed his fist into a wall making a huge indent in it and an extremely loud noise. “you don’t think I fucking know that?…. You don’t think I’ve spent countless nights seeing her fade and glitch out of existence calling out to me? Telling me I failed her?… let me make one thing f u c k i n g clear to you Parker, you don’t get to talk about how you think I should feel until you have a child of your own and then you can come tell me your bullshit until then? Keep her name out of your FUCKING MOUTH. Do you understand me” the air around them was chilling Peter was breathing slightly fast slightly scared. “M-Miguel I’m so sorry I didn’t mean-“ Miguel turned away not letting him finish “… get out” Peter took a step forward reaching out a hand “Miguel look I’m-“
“GET OUT”
Peter held his breath than sighed and began to walk out “I’m sorry I overstepped, if you need anything please call, until then Jesse and I will keep holding down the fort” and with that Peter walked fully out.
Miguel took a deep breath there were silent tears running down his face but he didn’t dare acknowledge them and kept grabbing anything he could possibly need for the mini Gizmo. Once he was done he put everything he needed into a small bag before chucking it over his shoulder and walking back in the direction of the go home machine. “Lyla are you there” Lyla then appeared out of this air keeping pace with Miguel. “How’s Mills any trouble” Lyla laughed which made Miguel raise an eyebrow. “He fell asleep shortly after you guys left I think he was tired out from his outburst when he disappeared briefly” Miguel wordlessly nodded feeling drained not really wanting to talk. “I over heard the conversation by the way. Just so you know? I would never give your address to anyone unless I thought you were dying cause I think if I did you’d actually follow through with unplugging me.” Miguel gave a little chuckle at that. “Thanks” Lyla grinned back. “No problem Miggy!”
As they finally got back to where Miles was being kept hidden he pulled back the black blanket to reveal Miles completely passed out to the world. “You weren’t kidding when you said he fell asleep, should I be worried that he can sleep in random places like this is that an issue.” Lyla shrugged “beats me” Miguel gently picked Miles up and brought him close to his body Miles subconsciously seemed to lean into Miguel anyway. Miguel smiled and then frowned looking at Miles face and then back down at Miles arm to see the watch/gizmo staring back at him reminding him that Miles isn’t supposed to be here, that he wouldn’t survive without something stabilising him that he’s not permanent in this world to fragile is this world.
“I can’t lose another kid” Lyla looked back over at Miguel concerned but didn’t say anything letting Miguel continue. “If I loose him I don’t think I’ll survive, I wasn’t really surviving until he came along, if I loose him I think I’ll lose myself to madness . I can’t take another heart break of losing a child I just can’t” Miguel put his forehead to Miles forehead openly crying in a rare moment of weakness and acceptance. Lyla looked down at Miles and back at Miguel.
“Then we will just have to make sure it won’t happen won’t we” Miguel gave a slight look to her still holding Miles impossibly close. “We will figure out a way to make him be able to stay here permanently and safely. I promise you Miguel we won’t loose him…. Sigh Come on let’s go home I think it’s been a long day and it’s not even 9am yet! You make my job so difficult, I don’t even get to sleep!” Miguel mumbled ‘you don’t need to sleep’ Lyla rolled her eyes but started opening a portal back to the apartment house, as it opened before Miguel walked through “hay I’m gonna stay back a bit and delete the security footage and actually make sure things are running smoothly here, give lots of cuddles to Miles for me!” As she waved bye to Miguel as he slowly walked through the portal absolutely feeling drained and refusing to let go of Miles even for a second he couldn’t loose another child he just couldn’t.