Sacrifice was one thing everyone had to bring along the way. Peter knew sacrifices, he knew what they meant. For him and the others, a sacrifice had pushed them to be who they were today.
He really liked the kid, he was young, and inexperienced but learned fast, and he hadn’t as much regret on his plate as him and the others. He was naïve, but in a good way, and Peter, while not really able to help, wanted to give him everything possible along the way until he and the other spider-people had to go back home.
That also meant teaching the kid about consequences. And currently, Miles had to fight his very own battle because he wasn’t careful enough and lured Kingpin’s henchmen right to them. Peter had seen the Prowler taking after the boy. He knew every one of these villains because he had fought their equivalents back home, and it seemed like the others had met their own share of them. He was about to shove Scorpion in Noir’s direction to go after the kid but got caught by Liv Octavius. He sighed and watched as Miles jumped through the gaping hole in the roof, the purple-greenish blur of the Prowler right at his heels. Miles had the goober, and he needed to make sure that that thing didn’t get cracked as well or there would be a whole lot of more problems.
Somehow they got collectively shoved out on the street, hell Aunt May rained hell on the villains to get out of her home, and Peter already heard the sirens wail close by. Cops were close, and they either finished here quickly, or others would get involved and possibly hurt. He was too busy to notice a black car roll. He just noticed the police car, because he crashed right into it after another toss from Tombstone landed him right there. He groaned, apologized precautionary, and dodged another swing of tentacle arms.
“Stop it right there!” The policeman shouted and Peter wished it would have been that simple. He glanced up to the roof and was about to leap up there because Miles got himself in trouble with the Prowler and was struggling against the costumed man’s grip when a shot rang right beside him. He wasn’t hit, but it was too close to be comfortable. The soft “thunk” of a body landing on the other hand wasn’t assuring at all. He looked around, and just before he saw the man, a young-sounding scream broke from the rooftop. It had been Miles, but right then he clung to the Prowler, who swiped at Kingpin and smoked the hell out of them. Peter was close enough to see that Miles had gotten himself free and was rushing down to the officer, the Prowler hot on his heels. Peter wanted to get the villain away, but the shock that ran through him was just less mean than the one Miles accidentally had given him when they just met. His muscles locked up, and all he could see were tear-streaked eyes and the yellow glowing eyes that met his before the both of them disappeared with the officer’s body in tow.
The villains had left before more police arrived at the scene. Peter hoped that Miles hadn’t gone too far, he hoped the boy was still okay because his own Prowler certainly never left out a chance to kill him. It only took him a few swings, and a few houses down he saw the body of the officer again, but no Miles and no Prowler. Gwen had followed him and she seemed to have more courage than him because she walked up to the dead policeman and crouched down. The nametag read J. Davis but much more important was a picture that was in his breast pocket. Gwen gasped at it, and Peter took a step to her and looked over her shoulder. He sighed; this time defeated. The picture showed the man smiling, a woman in his arm, and a young kid smiling brightly into the camera. It was an older picture. He barely recognized the kid but it was the hair… That had been Miles. And the officer must have been his dad.
Peter flagged down another police car to direct them before he took off to meet up with the others again. They all looked like they had just lost someone, with defeat written on each of their faces.
“We have to look for Miles.” Gwen suggested but Peter, who hated to be the one rational here, shook his head.
“We have to find the goober, maybe Miles still has it…” Peni argued quietly. She was still young, and it seemed like this hit her the hardest right then. She went right back at her computer and tried to locate it, but when it came up it was still at May’s. She found it under the rubble of the roof in the Livingroom. Peter apologized to May for the mess and she gave him a look that would have made him want to apologize, but it wasn’t in his hands anymore. They had to move forward.
“You know the kid just tried his best. I remember when my Peter made mistakes similar to his, and now you leave him alone?” She accused and it bit deep, but he had to. He had to sacrifice the kid to return. As bitter as it tasted, there was no other way. He knew that if they didn’t stop Fisk, this would probably expand into every other universe out there, and it was enough that it already seemed to affect 6 universes so far.
“I am sorry, Aunt May…”
“You should be.” She said and turned on her heels. They went and planned the next step.
In the end, it was Miguel who saved his ass. Spider-Man 2099 looked at him with that usual frown that Peter started to hate beyond anything.
“I am sorry, Miguel.” He bit out and the other man gave him a huff.
“You just had to mess up again.”
“What?”
“All you seem to accomplish is making a mess. What is happening in 1610? We got a whole lot to do. It started the anomalies.”
“It can’t be that bad, Miguel. There is still a Spider-Man looking after New York.”
“You sure about that? Because you and the others not only messed with the already messy trouble that 1610 dead Parker left behind, but you sped things up before the new guy was ready to take it. Now he is the original anomaly, and I have no way to see what he is going to do.”
“What do you mean?”
“Whatever he decided to be, it is not being Spider-Man.” Miguel hissed, his sharp teeth glinting in the orange light of his base, and Peter? Peter felt lost.
Time does run differently in every universe. He had returned, guilt-ridden and sad. It was his fault, and a kid with potential superpowers decided, because of his inability to save someone, to not become Spider-Man, even though he had the potential. Maybe he became something else, he had hopes that Miles had enough courage and hope with him left to become someone who people would look up to, and not the next villain of the week.
He had returned to his earth. 616 was his home, and MJ, while still angry with him, had welcomed him home and over a few months softened up, and they got back together. Kids still frightened him, but MJ… had patience with him.
He returned to being part-time Spider-Man. He couldn’t just quit, even though he had another failure on his ledger, Miguel still somehow counted him in, and they struggled to keep their own and all the others through Spider-people-connected universes together. They tried to narrow down where things started to decay, but apparently, every universe became unstable through one thing or another.
He was glad to have MJ and at some point even Mayday. His baby girl brightened his day, even when everything else went to shit.
“We lost one of the points today.” Miguel informed him and Peter stared at the blank spot in the universe map.
“Which one?”
“Universe-42.”
“It’s gone? How?” Peter gasped and Miguel shook his head.
“No hope, no heroes, nothing left. We can’t help there anymore. I had to shut it down from us or it would have infected every other one even worse.”
“What do you mean?”
“Earth-42 was supposed to have a Spider-Man, but the spider was lost due to what happened on Earth-1610. The good ones stopping the corruption couldn’t hold out any longer.” Miguel explained and Peter stared at him in disbelief.
“You got a whole army out of this door to help them, and we just watched? Miguel, we were supposed to help!”
“We can’t!” Miguel bellowed and Peter took a step back. He was glad he hadn’t taken Mayday with him, because this turned sour really quickly.
“What do you mean we can’t? You shut that world down, just because no one can help in your opinion. We don’t do that, Miguel.”
“You want to rip that universe apart as well? Go ahead, it is gone beyond help anyway!” Miguel snarled and a portal opened. He was ready to shove Peter right through it, and fear shone in 616-Spider-Man’s eyes. That seemed to be enough to stop Miguel in his anger because he turned around and huffed at his screens again, shoulders raised up to his ears in anger.
“42… hasn’t had a canon event yet, has it?”
“No.”
“Why are you shutting it down then? Just because it turned dark?”
“Because it is the most similar to 1610, and looking at them… 1610 is on the brink of either establishing itself somehow or breaking apart fully.”
“Is it because Miles didn’t become Spider-Man?” Peter asked quietly and O’Hara gave him a dry chuckle.
“1610 on its own isn’t stable since Fisk played with that collider. It is hanging on thin threads and I wish I just could shut it down as well, but calculation says if I do it, everything we have, will end. It has no canon event anymore and yet it looks like it connects to us so strongly that if we just shut it down something will happen with us. I don’t know if it is that kid you guys left behind, or anyone else in there, but if we get the anomaly there stopped, we can stabilize the others.”
“I stopped following you there at some point, but it sounded like we have to make a trip to 1610 again.” Peter cheered helplessly and Miguel rolled his eyes at him.
“And 42. It seems.” The 2099 variation muttered.
“Good! I get the band back together and we will go.”
“No, you might take Gwen, I can give you Hobie, he is hanging around somewhere… But not anyone else. Keep it as low as possible.”
“And the punk is lowkey?” Peter chuckled, spirits soaring higher. He might have a chance to correct his mistake with Miles, and push him in the right direction after all.
“He is different enough for whoever you might face in 1610 to maybe find a point to get a hold of your rogue Spider-Man.”
“At least you are not spitting mad anymore about 1610.”
“Oh, if you fuck that up, Peter, I will make sure you stay in 616 and out of my operation as long as I need to.” Miguel threatened and Peter swallowed but nodded.
He had things to do.
He saw the changes in 1610 immediately and Gwen had noticed too.
“This place looks like shit.” Hobie muttered and grunted at the elbow to the gut from his fellow Spider-person. Gwen had liked Miles a lot, and Peter knew puppy love when he saw it, but he also knew this might have a whole lot of heartbreak if things went downhill here.
Earth 1610 was bathed in a lot of dark colors. It used to be colorful, Miles was a bright spot with the splashes of colors he left behind in the form of his art, tags, and stickers. He had seen the small things. But right now it was like New York hasn’t seen the light of a good day in years. Heavy rain hung in clouds around the skyscrapers, some of them looked as rotten as everything felt.
“That is what happens when one of us is no longer here to help?” Gwen asked helplessly and Peter nodded solemnly.
“You two are a bit younger, but yes. Let scum and villainy run long enough and New York becomes a center of anarchy and hatred.” He muttered and Hobie looked at him quizzingly.
“And you left that boy here, hating everything we stand for, without looking back?” The punk growled under his mask and Peter gave him a scoff in return.
“I wanted to come back. I wanted to explain…”
That was when his senses jumped to high alert. Hobie and Gwen must have sensed it too because the very next moment they sprung apart as claws split the brick wall between them.
“Prowler.” Peter hissed when he recognized the purples and greens. He was ready to attack, wanting answers about where Miles was, but was stopped when his muscles once again locked up. Neither Hobie nor Gwen fared better, both of them trapped in an electric mine. The current chasing comically through them had a purplish glow, it seemed like this Prowler came well-equipped to stop them.
“Turn back to where you came from. I keep Brooklyn safe from what you have done.” The voice growled. Peter’s eyes widened, he never thought that Prowler of all people would turn a leaf for the good ones.
“You were the last one who has seen a kid we are looking for. When Officer Davis died.” Peter told him and the Prowler, sitting eerily on the edge of the roof on the house they had chosen as a perch to start their manhunt, grunted as if he tried to choke down a humorless laugh.
“I don’t know what you want with him, I just know that whatever you guys had done? It had made this place a whole lot worse. Good night, Spider-Man.” The Prowler spat and whatever trapped them had tranqued them and Peter saw how his partners collapsed from the wall like flies before it was lights out for him.
He came back to himself bound to a punching bag, alone, and couldn’t help to chuckle into the groan. It sounded more like a wheeze than anything else, but Peter had done this already. Miles had brought him here, the same apartment, the same punching bag. It would be easy to get free. Maybe Prowler didn’t know as much about them as he thought.
The man in the shadows looked older, too old for it to be Miles. But he wore a shirt that clearly shouted that he was the Prowler.
“You know, been here before. Where are the others?” He asked, trying to get the villain to talk, but he was ignored as the man walked to his music station. Rude.
“Hey man, I really have no problem with you, I have to find a kid, you happened to be the last one I know who had seen him.” Peter said as he wiggled in his bonds. He was surprised that his hands were cuffed quite well, and the light current in the chain made his fingertips numb and useless. Not as easy to wiggle free…
“What makes you believe I still know where the kid is? What makes you believe I will talk with you?” The man growled and it sounded hostile enough that Peter was concerned. He really got to know where the others were as well.
“I… I have to talk to him. He might be the key to stop this.”
“What is this?” The man asked, his voice still gruff, but curiosity clearly in there as well.
“What happened with the officer? It was a series of events that started something that affected more than this universe.”
“Bullshit!” The man shouted, hostility now clear as a day and Peter winced at the volume of the voice and how hard his senses told him to flee.
“I am telling the truth. The kid, Miles? He got something that can help us.” A punch hard enough to rattle the bag and him deep to his bones hit the punching bag. Suddenly it wasn’t just one Prowler, but two, and this one was in full costume, just as tall as the other but a lot more threatening. The guy knocked him right back out, and what seemed to be seconds later and smelling salt that would sting in his nose forever, stood threatening over him.
“Why do you think he would help you?” Prowler 1 asked. The new one stared at him even more eerily. That was bad. Villains normally didn’t share their identity. And another one prowling in the night through the city? Really bad.
Prowler 2 moved way too fast, because suddenly Peter, with the punching bag still attached to him, laid on his side, head tugged in to avoid a hard kick to the head. He slowly opened his eyes and stared at a mural.
It was a splash of color in an otherwise dark city.
It was a mural of the late Officer Jefferson Davis.
“Why should I help you?” The younger one asked, and Peter gasped when the mechanical mask retreated and Miles stared back. His eyes were full of hate and distrust. He had already lost.
“You let him die.”