Why a sunflower is like a player

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Why a sunflower is like a player?

In the past decade or even more years of his life, Miles had never heard a question so illogical.

Likewise, he had never experienced so many strange things before becoming a Spider-Man.

Like the Canon event that most Spider-Men have to go through, like the countless encounters he's had with prowlers, mysdeerio, villains from two-dimensional worlds-
And for example, in recent days a strange contagious disease has started to spread in the headquarters. A part of Spider-Men started spitting flowers out of their mouths.

At first, they thought it was some kind of prank - after all, Ben Reilly was the one who first developed the, symptoms. He walked into HQ as confidently as ever on Monday and got up to speak under the watchful eyes of the crowd, especially Miguel - and just as he opened his mouth, a small daisy floated down from his mouth.

"......."
The atmosphere in the meeting room began to fall into silence. A part of Spider-Men thought this was just some kind of attention-grabbing gimmick or another whimsy of Ben, and another part pondered if today was some kind of holiday, otherwise how would Ben spit flowers out of his mouth?

As the crowd watched, Ben desperately opened his mouth to try to explain, but as he did so he only let more daisy petals float out of his mouth.

"Ben, knock it off," Miguel said, frowning at his slight pollen allergy. He's not used to be exposed in pollen.

"Seriously dad, I'm not messing--Ahem Ahem! Around! I'm not--" Ben explained desperately for himself, accompanied by more petals floating down from his mouth.

"What, are you bitten by a flower or something? Come on boy, we're not gonna call you Flower-Man, are we?" joked Peter, putting his arm around Ben's shoulders as he watched the scarlet spider turn around as if to say something to him, and the next thing he knew, Peter was spat on by the other side with a face full of flower petals.

"......"

It wasn't until similar symptoms began to spread among Spider-Men that they finally began to take it seriously.
They were sitting in the dining room, Pavitr, Gwen, Miles and Hobie, and Pavitr was doing his best to persuade Miles to try yoga and insisted that only in Mumbadon could they experience the most orthodox -
"Yoga is great for--Ahem ahem!!!"

Miles watched as a marigold flower floated out of the other man's mouth and finally landed slowly on his food. When he looked up again, Pavitr was covering his mouth in horror:"Oh my god--is everything going to be okay?"

Gwen and Miles looked at each other, not knowing what to say; Hobie patted Pavitr comfortingly: "Relax my man, we'll find it out, the cure or anything, you're alright."

"Thx man.... .though how do you know it?"

"Coz we're heroes. and in fairytales, heroes are always gonna be okay." shrugged Hobie. His sarcasm doesn't detract from his concern for his friend.

"We need to find Miguel, ASAP. kid, come with me."
Peter gravely pulled up Pavitr and Mayday was left with him; he couldn't risk his little girl until he figured out where this symptom was coming from and how it was spreading.

……………………………………………………
"The agony--just leave me here and let me die...and after that, burn my corpse okay? Just stop any possibility of spreading--"

"You're NOT--dying! Lyla, any news? No? Okay just keep trying--"
Miguel looked at all the information on the big screens in front of him, and he now had to find the source of the symptoms while getting Ben Reily to pull himself together:"You're our patient zero, we are going to save you, and figure out how the hell it happened--it's not clear whether this, syndrome is contagious--”

"Actually, we can be sure..."
Peter takes Pavitr into the medical room and reluctantly raises the hand of the Spider-Man India under Miguel's gaze:"Patient 1 is right here. Kid over here got the same reaction. Coughing flowers."

"Lyla, find every one who's in touch with these two, tell them to stay right here, nobody in nobody out. Not until we find out how to solve it."

Pavitr looked terrified; he tried to say something, but when he opened his mouth he could only spit out a few marigold petals.

It all happened so suddenly that no one knew how to explain it.

.............................. ..............................
Miguel's full attention was focused on this inexplicable epidemic; one by one, people in all parts of the headquarters reported starting to cough flower petals out of their mouths, and they were unconnected and had no contact with each other; Ben Reilly's situation was getting worse and worse, and the flowers he coughed out were already carrying blood; and just to make things better, Pavitr left when he wasn't attention, left.

Hobie broke the camera in Pavitr's area and even put a sticker with a skull on it; and Miles - the only Spider-Man in the room who was able to stealthily evade surveillance. Coz he can turn invisible.

Just great.

Miguel looks at the empty room, his face gradually becoming gloomy; he turns to the side of Peter:"Tell me you didn't know about this?"

"What? ME?? Are you kidding--this is some kind of a joke right? Heh heh, heh... I mean, come on Miguel! I--"

"You're a terrible liar."

Peter gave up under the watchful eye of Miguel's trial:"Okay I kind of know it!! But Miguel, the kid's only 13 and he was frightened! Besides we gonna figure it out, right? Also if we currently can't....then you can't prevent a boy from seeing his loved ones, right?"

"I said this many times, sometimes we have to choose, between saving one person and saving the entire universe--and why are you always choosing the first one?!"

"Because we choose the right one!" Peter patted Miguel's shoulder reassuringly: "C'mon man, you've seen what happened last time with Miles-it's, okay. things will work out as they supposed to be!"

"Lyla--"
Just as Miguel was about to retrieve the fleeing of patient #1, his assistant pushed his glasses to alert him to screen #37.

The screen shows Gate No.8, and Indian Spider-Man is now walking in through it. Next to him is Miles, from the 1610 universe, and Hobie.

For the umpteenth time, Miguel is considering putting retirement on the agenda.He's too tired for this shit.

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"Guys--I know it! Look! I'm no longer puking flowers!"
Pavitr began to advertise loudly almost as soon as he walked into HQ - he had somehow solved that nasty symptom, and his words were drawing countless Spider-Men, the vast majority with the same symptoms, towards him. Including an aggressive Miguel.

The moment he saw the other man, Pavitr cringed and took two steps back. But he persisted in explaining:"So I was coughing flowers again, but this time there was blood on it...I-I thought I was dying and I'd really want to see my girlfriend again before dying--so I was in Mumhattan with Gaia and and we both thought we're dying and-and Gaia was crying...but the point is!! She hmm...we-we...may have...kissed, a little?"Pavitr's brown skin gradually began to turn red after he took off his mask, and his speech became stumbling: "But then after that kiss... I'm not coughing petals anymore! Like no flowers coming out of my mouth!"

"You're okay? Like nothing else, you're not feeling any discomfort??"
Miguel took off his mask at this point; he went back and forth around Pavitr, checking him out and briefly forgetting that Pavitr had just broken the rules and left HQ; all that mattered to him now was fixing this inexplicable condition - which they briefly named flower vomiting.

Stupid name.

Miguel looks like he's going to say something else, but then he starts coughing; in full view of everyone when he holds out his hand over his mouth, a pink flower lying in his palm.

Un-Oh.

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So, according to the analysis of Pavitr's conclusion by the hundreds of Spider-Men present with super brains, this inexplicable symptom of flower vomiting is only contagious between people with crushes and can be solved by a kiss with the crush; after getting this conclusion most of Peter, those who have not yet confided in Mary Jane, choose to go back to their own universe and find a way to solve it all;; But it also explains nicely why Peter and Mayday, Gwen, Miles, and Spider-Cat aren't affected in any way; Mary Jane and Peter have just celebrated their reunion anniversary and have never been more emotionally stable; Mayday is so small she probably can't even spell the letters of her crush; Spider- Cat only cares if the cat climbing frame at headquarters is installed according to schedule; and Gwen and Miles-

At first almost everyone thought something was going on between them - or at least, they had a crush on each other; and what happened in Earth-8 confirmed their suspicions: in that universe Gwen and Miles got married.
But then they noticed that the aura between the two had changed; they were still close, just more on the side of a ...... friend-to-friend closeness. Cindy Moon had asked tentatively, and Gwen had said, rather easily, that they were just friends. And they both agreed that what happened in Earth-8 had nothing to do with them; Gwen felt as if she was using Miles as an emotional support after Peter's death, and Miles had his own crush, only he didn't mention it -

Gwen suddenly remembered something. She turned around and looked anxiously for the figure in the black uniform; almost everyone was present, except for Hobie and--

"Miles--There you are! Hmm...are you, okay? Like you ever feel..coughing-flowerish?"Gwen tentatively inquired after finding Miles, who she was 100% sure had mentioned to her that he had a crush after their private conversation, but that everything seemed fine so far - "Gwen?

"Gwen? Yeah yeah I'm fine--nothing happened.
Miles looked a little hesitant, his eyes searching around like he was looking for someone, and finally seemed to make up his mind: "Hey... so anyone see Hobie? . so anyone see Hobie?"

"He probably hasn't known about this.... but on the bright side, he's not the kind of guy who'd be in a relationship--or has a crush on anybody, so he's probably fine?" recalls Gwen carefully, although she often went to stay at Hobie's house during the time when she and her dad were having a falling out. She never remembered, or heard Hobie mention, the other woman's relationship during the time when she and her dad were at odds...

"Right?" Gwen inquired uncertainly. Then she saw Miles hold out his hand toward her, a bright yellow flower petal lying in his palm.

"I saw this falling from his mouth on the way back . . so I guess, no."

Incredible. They were amazed at each other's discovery that Hobie could have a crush. In their minds, Spider-punk didn't look like he had a crush - he was more of the type to block people in an alley, or to rock out in front of a large crowd while playing his guitar and confessing his love out loudly.

………………………………………………
This is Miles' first visit to the 138 universe. His mission is to find Hobie and tell him the solution to his symptoms, maybe...help him find his crush? Or just bring the other guy back to headquarters.

Although, Miles considered that the other party would not be so easy for him to find.

The style of this universe is perfectly in line with Hobie, with collage-like environments everywhere and constantly changing colors that make Miles dizzy, but he still manages to save a little boy who is about to be hit by a car while crossing the road, a lady who is being robbed, and a cat who is trapped in a tree.

As a thank you, the cat was gracious enough to leave a scratch for Miles when he was rescued.

Fortunately, it only took Miles three hours to find Hobie.

He passed by an illegal protest rally, and the leader with his studded spider mask and trademark electric guitar was too conspicuous. After a brief moment of reflection Miles decided to go after Hobie first, or at least, to proceed with the anti-government operation while keeping him alive.

"Hey--Hobie! Hobie I'm here! Listen we gotta talk--"

Miles was 100 percent sure Hobie saw him. He's also 100 percent sure he heard him, but the only thing Miles isn't sure about is why Hobie chose to run away when he saw him.

Literally, runned away.

"Hobie wait--oh god what the--Stop!"
Miles didn't hesitate for a second to chase after him. He was far less familiar with the city than Hobie, and there were countless times he lost track of the other man, but that didn't matter too much; Miles just had to follow the sunflower petals Hobie coughed up along the way to find the other man without incident.

"Man what the--why are you running away from me? Alright not important right now--listen I know you're puking flowers too, and we've--" Miles eventually managed to find Hobie on the corner of the city. Hobie, although he didn't know why the other man had stopped so suddenly; in fact, the whole chase felt more like a game to him, as if Hobie was baiting him on purpose - he hoped it was just an illusion.

"I'm fine." Miles was still pausing to catch his breath when he heard Hobie's voice, and he couldn't have sounded more full of himself: "Nothing's happening to me."

As Hobie said this, a bright yellow flower petal fell from his mouth along with his uncontrollable cough.
Miles thought the other guy was simply insulting his intelligence.

"It is!!! Look there's--It is obviously a flower, coming right out of your mouth."

"Is not."Hobie sounds rather calm, couldn't be calmer:"It's a representation of my freewill, against capitalism and fascist."

"Haha, very funny."Miles made a face. He decided to bring the other man back to HQ anyway, or at least, tell the other man -
"Listeb we find the solution, okay? It's not a big deal you just need to--"

"To kiss my crush. I know that."

"Wait--what?? You knew that??"
Hobie's reaction was too much for Miles to take: "So why didn't you tell us--and why are you running away?" Miles had too many questions; at the same time, a strange sour feeling came over Miles after he heard Hobie say the word my crush, which he had noticed on the way back to HQ with Hobie to bring He had noticed it on the way back to HQ with Hobie: the other man had been trying to hide the petals he had coughed up, which Miles had seen more than once; he had wanted to ask Hobie who his crush was and why he was hiding the petals numerous times, but he had backed off after seeing the indifferent look on Hobie's face; then Hobie had disappeared from their sight --

"Have you any idea why a sunflower is like a player?" Hobie suddenly spoke up and interrupted Miles' thoughts.

"What?? What does it have something to do with this conversation?"

"Coz they both follow the sun(song)."

"It's...bad punchline, "Miles was completely confused, he didn't know where the conversation was going to go, so he forcibly interrupted :"Okay c'mon man--if you're not telling me who's this..crush you have, at least you could go back to the HQ, and we'll work something out together. You could die for it you know? So let's--"

"I'm not coming back, Peter Pan. And I'm not telling. But I'll let you guess."

Guess? Guess what?

Alright... let him think... Hobie got this, secret crush on someone. It can't be Gwen or someone from their league, otherwise Hobie would have told long time ago--can it be someone from Earth-138? That way it would be a really wide range--or is he thinking the wrong way...?
Without Miles noticing, Hobie was getting closer and closer to him; when Miles looked up he realized that Hobie appeared directly above him; due to his height advantage the other side easily enveloped Miles' entire body in shadow.

"Time's up Peter Pan."

"Yeah," Miles mumbled a reply, and a bold suspicion grew within him: "You're right.

Miles suddenly shot out spider silk, imprisoning Hobie's hands firmly against the wall; now in a sudden reversal of form, Hobie's guitar fell to the floor, unnoticed; Miles turned a little closer to the other man and put his knee between Hobie's legs; one of his hands reached out tentatively, as if to touch Hobie's face, but finally stopped in mid-air.

"Since you're not telling me, well, I guess the only way to find out is to do it and see for myself, huh?"

As if he had made up his mind, Miles met the playful eyes of the man he had pinned against the wall and announced:

"I'm kissing you."

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