The Prowler
Meanwhile, Earth-2099
Peter was on his was to control center when he ran into Hobie, Hobie Brown, the last person he thought would see here.
"Hey Hobie--how's your finding-Miles-action going?" Peter joked about the disappearance of Spider-Man from Earth-1610 with Hobie. Apparently nobody's taking this seriously. They didn't even consider Miles as missing. The kid maybe just got loss on the way. Or, as Peter said--
"Nah I'm pretty sure he'll be fine--the kid probably headed home! For-For his, final exam or something! Maybe his mom called him--anyway he's FINE!! He's a good boy, he can take care of himself!"
"No he didn't."Hobie was heading to the monitoring center. He wanted to check on something. The day when Miles was transported, he would like to see the video tape.
"How did you know?" Peter placed his daughter on the ceiling and watched reassuringly as Mayday skillfully crawled over in Miguel's direction.
"Coz if he did, he would have answered my calls. Plus I went to his house. He's not there. Or his dorm."
"Wow--did you follow him? Hobie...Jesus...are you guys dating? You guys are dating right?" Peter still didn't take this whole thing seriously. But he decided to come with Hobie. He hasn't seen the boy for some days, and Peter can sometimes have just a little excessive trust on Miles.
"...I'm finding him. Something's wrong."
Hobie did not choose to answer positively.
He just knew that something went wrong with Miles. His sudden disappearance, his out-of- touch, and most importantly, Miles was lost on his way to find and help him. Hobie's innate sense of justice made it impossible for him to ignore it all. He could help but feels that this is all because of him. And he needs to find Miles.
He needs to find Miles , makes sure he's alright, and confesses his feeling to him.
Yeah, he has a thing for Miles. He would have told him, but just as he wanted to, Miles' gone missing.
Hobie's spider sense keeps warning him the moment he knew Miles' missing. And he needs to find out--
"Lyla, can you show me the tape of, about two days ago, when Miles was transported?"
"Yeah I don't know--Miguel don't usually just let anybody go through the videos, or the transporting records. Sorry. Oh and if you guys ever see Miles, remind him to ALWAYS report back, okay ? I mean the last time he didn't!"The LYrate lifeform approximation shrugged her shoulder, then buried herself again into that mountain-like pile of files.
"Miles never--" Peter tried to argue, but Hobie interrupted him.
"'S alright. "Hobie nodded, and at the moment Lyla turned around, Peter watched as he plugged something into the mainframe.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Peter asked in a low voice, catching Hobie as he was about to leave, but again, he didn't remind Lyla of what Hobie had just done.
Hobie calmly replied:"I hacked into the system. It's really not that complicated."
"No--I mean--wait you WHAT??"
"Thought they wouldn't lemme get to it easily. So I might just as well...work my way around 'em."
Hobie turns on the screen on his wristwatch and looks for the security footage he needs by date; as time continues to rewind, the picture gets closer to the scene he wants-
Hobie saw Miles appear on the screen with his backpack and uniform; Miles' face was a little tense, he said something to Lyla and seemed to relax; the numbers above the portal kept changing and at the moment it stopped Miles disappeared into the portal -
Stop.
Hobie's fingers pointing at the screen sliding forward, colored light on his black painted fingernails reflecting the image: just a moment after Miles stepped into the portal, the number on the portal stopped and showed just one figure.
Earth-38.
Apparently his Peter Pan was transported to the wrong universe.
"Oh boy--something's going wrong..." Peter finally realized something when he saw the scene. If Miles was transported to the wrong place he would know. And he would definitely try to reach for them. But he didn't. They never received a single response from Miles. That means either his watch broke, he forgot, or he's in danger.
Peter crossed his fingers praying for the situation to be one of the first twos.
"Looks like I need to go to Earth-38." Hobie started to open the portal; he pressed the screen few times, locating the direction.
"I'd go with you--if, of course you need. You know I wasn't always in this unbunding-real-ease status."
Hobie raised his head in greeting to Peter and then stepped into the portal.
He's finding his Peter Pan.
"If you need anything--just give us a call!!"
Peter shouted behind him.
…………………………………………………………
Earth-38
Miles stared nervously at Hobbie's movements, that book contained quite a few of his secrets, things that could not be known - at least not by Hobbie. He tried to snatch the book back with the spider silk, but Hobie was obviously much more experienced than him, dodging nimbly at the moment Miles shot the spider silk, hands compulsively pressed Miles' shoulders, forcing him to watch with himself.
"What are you drawing? Let's find out--Hm, Miles...Morales. "Hobie saw the name on the title page. His Bambi had a funny name.
"Let's see--hmm. Wow, lookie, what, we, got, here."
The arm pressed against Miles' shoulder wasn't too hard, but Miles didn't know why he couldn't resist or move; his body couldn't put any force into it, as if paralyzed by some toxin. Myers' spider-sense was gone. This time it wasn't because he selectively ignored or didn't care, but completely - it was gone.
Miles did not know what was happening. In fact he had a hard time maintaining a clear head, in this case, with his back pressed against Hobie's chest and the other man comfortably burying his head in the nape of his neck like a lazy panther.
At the moment when Miles desperately tried to recall his thoughts, Hobie had flipped his sketchbook to the page with images he wanted.
"Aww, these are all me? Bambi I'm flattered. Wow, you must've been busy, drawing this amount of..me."
There are almost, a dozen portraits of Hobbie; at the very beginning only appear in the corner to occupy a small space, most of the other blank are uncle Aaron and Gwen; however, as the number of pages increases, Hobie occupies more and more images, to the last few pages full of his figure, he is wearing a uniform, playing guitar, or half of his face covered by a mask, holding a tamale image.
Hobie held Miles down while he looked through the images; he began to get a strange feeling, like a thousand little worms gnawing at his veins and heart; he uncontrollably began to wonder about another person he'd never met, someone he hadn't known before Miles had so many intimate moments with someone who looked like him, they must have known each other for a long time, long enough-- -So what else had they done?
The Prowler's pride and ego made it very easy for him to confuse curiosity with jealousy.
Miles squirmed uncomfortably, his super strength allowing him to break free easily, but he still didn't want to do this to Hobbie: "Umm.. it's really personal. . it's really personal.... So can you just...give it back?"
To Miles' surprise, Hobie closed the book and put it in his backpack this time very quickly:"Good work. I mean your drawings. Think you could do one more? I can be your...personal model, you can let me do whatever postures you like, clothes on, clothes off...whatever you like."
Every time when Hobie praises him Miles would have this strange feeling. His mind would go blank, his head would become fuzzy, making him unable to think clearly, his heart would pounding, faster than ever, his face blushing, even his eyelashes would trembling.
It was almost like some sort of addiction, that he cannot control himself but drowning in it, yearning for more.
And the Prowler noticed that. He can feel Miles' body trembling when he flirted with him. And his reaction just satisfied the Prowler's desire. Now he just needs to test it a few more times, train his Bambi to get used to his praise, then furthermore, get addicted to it, yearn for it.
And he needs to be patient. Playing hard to get. Or something like that.
Hobie let go of Miles:” I assume you don't have a place to stay?"
"You're right--hey can I stay over at yours? The boat or the apartment would be fine."
Miles struggled to get his breathing back to normal, deliberately turning slightly sideways to hide his change; he didn't notice the flicker of amusement on the other man's face when he suggested he wished to stay at Hobie's.
"Sure...Miles. "
……………………………………………………
When Miles followed Hobie to his destination, his eyes almost fell out; on the way here he had curiously asked Hobie why he didn't choose to use spider silk to travel between cities, which would undoubtedly be more effective; to which Hobbie's answer was --
"True. That way's more efficient. But don't you want to spend more time with me, walking through these streets, enjoying the city's view at night, hmm? Won't you do that?"
Miles refused to answer the provocative question.
And now, Miles is standing outside a building with a surprised expression:"Weren't you used to, live on a boat? What's with this...mansion?"
Hobie led him into the spacious and vast house inside:"Well, I just thought this suited me. You like it?"
"Um--Do I like a big house with heated pool, whole set of PlayStation 5 and a game room? Duh!!"Miles looked around with excitement:"I mean the boat was cool enough, but this, this is like heaven."
Miles was overwhelmed by the excitement of that big, luxurious game room, that he forgot the Hobie he knew would despite all this and calling them 'the hoax of consumerism'.
………………
It took Miles long enough to realize something was wrong. He forgot something. Something vital--
Miles accidentally let his wristwatch collide with the game console with a sound; the rattle briefly snapped him back to reality, while after his eyes fell to his wrist, Miles finally remembered something and bounced up from his seat in a flash.
"Shoot! Shoot shoot shoot I totally forgot!"
He was supposed to contact with the HQ the moment he met Hobie, within 24 hours. And now's...it's been less than a day, that means he still got time. Just not very long.
Miles tapped on his watch, but to his dismay his screen flashed some white dots and a few colored lines and then went completely black.
His watch broke. Dead.
Miles searched for a tool he could use - he eventually chose a pencil from his backpack and used it to pry open the dial.It looks like the circuit was overloaded, like being shocked by some sort of, strong electrical power.
It must happened on his way here, Miles believes, during the transportation. The universe-travel must've broke it. And he needs help fixing that--he can't get it done, not when he's a senior in high school.
Wait. He remembers. Hobie made this before, he can definitely help.
But Hobie's not here. Miles looked around and found that Hobie has left at some point.
So he just decided to find him.
"Hobie? Are you out there? Look I need you--hey man? Geez where are you..."
Miles stepped out of the room and began to search the somewhat unbelievably large house for any sign of Hobbie. He opened what he thought was the bedroom door and found him in the pantry; when he thought the place was the kitchen, Miles went into the bathroom again.
This is exhausting.
Fortunately, his spider-sense finally kicked in at this moment, and Miles wasn't about to ignore it; he followed his instincts around the room, down the stairs to the second floor, and pushed open a black door -
It was the study.
But Miles did not feel frustrated or trying to give up. He continued to feel his way through the room, which was very simply furnished, so simple that in addition to hundreds of books only a table and lamp; he carefully stared at the bookshelf search, fingers touched over one specific layer of those shelves - something, a hard bump made him curiously pressed down.
The bookshelf began to flip over, parting to either side to reveal a deep, dark tunnel inside.
Miles' curiosity was further ignited. He probed over to check it out and found that it wasn't so much a tunnel - but a hole leading vertically underground.
What was down there?
"Hobie?"
He shouted tentatively twice toward the devolution, getting no response.
So he just decided to jump into it. see for himself.
It's Hobie's house, he'll be fine. what could possibly go wrong?
As he stomped through the hole and prepared to jump down, Miles suddenly looked up and stared at the bookshelf above him. He didn't notice anything, but his spider sense made him look up subconsciously.
Miles now does not know that his every move is hidden in the bookshelf above the camera, not a drop to another person.
He jumped.
.............................. ...........................
Miles shot a web stuck to the bookshelf, and then he grabbed the web and jumped down. Before he jumped Miles did not realize how deep the hole was; when his feet finally touched the ground, Miles was forced to crouch down to reduce the force between him and the ground.
When he finally adjusted to the light below, Miles began to search around.
……This is no game room o-or home cinema or whatever. This place, looks like a torture chamber.
There's some red stains on the corner, Miles hated to admit, yet it looks like nothing but blood. A punch bag was hanging right on the ceiling, and there were some metal pieces on the table.
And then he found the glove. A metal one, with sharp claws. Lying on that table just besides those metal pieces.
He has seen this claw before. His uncle Aaron used to have one. And himself, the Miles Morales from Earth-42 has one.
This belongs to the Prowler.
"Hello Bambi."
Miles turned around when he was startled by the sound, seeing nothing but a man standing in the shadow. His eyes were glowing in the dark.
"You're...the Prowler." Miles mumbled. His voice's trembling without him even knowing.
Now what happened before explained. Everything just adds up. Why this Hobie was reacting indifferently when they first met, why he never called Miles' name or Peter Pan, not until he saw Miles' sketchbook, why he didn't have a uniform or web shooters to travel, why he lived in a mansion instead of a boat, and why he'd kissed Miles with an aggressive posture--
Wrong guy. He had found the wrong Hobie, and to make things worse, he doesn't know a thing about this Hobie. He's the Prowler, he is probably a villain, he and Miles' had been hanging out, he kissed him and tried to do something more--
And now, the Prowler is looking at Miles with interest, as if Miles was his prey, and he's ready to pounce on him, just one signal--
"Hello Bambi. You found me."
—————————TBC—————————