Chapter 3
By the end of the prep team’s entire ordeal, Peter felt like a plucked and prepared chicken. Out of all the fights he’d been through and the pains he’d felt, getting his eyebrows picked out for thirty minutes had been one of the worst things he’d ever endured. They’d shamelessly taken all of his clothes off and perfected every inch of his body no matter how much he protested. The three had taken files and gotten every inch of dirt out from under his finger and toenails, much to their disgust, while Peter weakly tried to explain that he was a superhero who didn’t always have time for manis and pedis. They even waxed the peach fuzz off his lips and chin, much to his protest. “Some prep teams choose to focus on their’s tributes' handsomeness, if they’re attractive enough, or if they’re young enough, their cuteness. There are so many strategies, my dear! Your designer wants to capitalize on your boyish charm– we can’t have any mustaches or beards for that, even if it’s baby peach fuzz, no, sir!” Bruly had explained. That made Peter’s stomach churn even worse. There were kids young enough to focus on their childish cuteness?! Peter saved kids, not teamed up against them and murder them!
After an eternity, they’d allowed Peter to get out of bed and walk to the next place he was supposed to go. Strangely enough, the strange cuffs that attached him to his bed morphed into handcuffs. While the prep team layered a fuzzy blue robe over his body, he furrowed his brows and inspected the cuffs. They were like nothing he’d ever seen before– sleek, shiny, and strong enough for even him to be able to break them. “Those are power-inhibitor cuffs, dear. The Gamemakers don’t like to take any chances after the incident in the Second Games!”
Peter’s shoulders sagged. Power-inhibitor cuffs, great. Not only was he in this hellish reality but he didn’t even have his powers to help him. That would probably explain why the eyebrow-plucking hurt so much, then.
Sapphire informed Peter that they were taking him to his designer in order to prep him for the Tribute Parade. He silently moaned because he’d learned by now not to let his emotions show in front of the Prep Team. They were oddly excited for the Games, which Peter found barbaric- how could anyone be excited to watch children fight to the death? He had no idea how he landed here. He was bracing himself to see a red, white, and blue shield fly through the wall any minute now and take the heads off his sadistic (albeit very sweet) Prep team.
As they continued through the hallway, Peter could see natural light up ahead– windows! Maybe Peter could see where he was now, and try to formulate a way to get these cuffs off and get out of this place. The least he had to do was find a way to contact Mr. Stark, or Nick Fury, or any of the Avengers, really. Hell, if he could get a voicemail into May or Ned or Michelle he might be able to get out of here.
“Wait till you see the city, Peter! Everyone is so excited to see you!” Bruly excitedly exclaimed, clapping their hands.
“And what city, exactly are we-”
Peter was cut short when they reached the glass walls in the hallway, and his jaw dropped.
Spanning as far as his eyes could see was a city full of a conglomerate of oddly-shaped, badly-proportioned, mismatched, colorful buildings. There was no congruency from building to building in the city, and there was no rhyme or reason to the bizarre paths that the streets took. The city was a hodge-podge of bright, interesting buildings that all looked like they had no place being next to one another yet somehow, they all managed to fit together to create a strange, homey feel. In the sky, Peter saw several purple swirling masses of energy here and there spitting out objects that looked minuscule from this distance. Peter watched as the objects fell onto the ground. Mounds in the distance that he’d assumed were buildings caught the objects, and Peter noted that they were mounds of trash of some sort beyond the outskirts of the city.
What the hell is this place? Peter thought to himself. He had never seen anything like it before. And the people!
Far, far below the airborne walkway he was currently on were throngs upon throngs of people marching to somewhere Peter couldn’t see. Colorful bursts of powder burst in the air, and occasionally, fireworks lit off in the middle of the crowd. He could hear the roar of the people from up here- they were dressed in all sorts of clothing, but Peter couldn’t see anything else too closely. Many of them were holding up banners that had a wide variety of faces and colors on them– but before Peter could look too closely, he was urged forward by the Prep Team. “It’s quite the sight, deary, but you’ll get your proper introduction soon!”
“Introduction…?” Peter asked, voice trailing off as the hallway abruptly ended in a singular room with one doorway and a strange silver and gold chair in the middle. The chair seemed to be hovering over some sort of track that led into an opening that was pitch black and didn’t allow Peter to see what was in. His stomach churned as Sapphire marched him towards the chair and Peter realized he was going to have to go into the darkness. “Uh, what is this?”
“No worries, Peter! You will meet your designer on the other side- we will be there, too! Just enjoy the ride, and make sure you listen! The city loves when the Victor is well-versed in their culture!”
Peter lightly tried to resist being forced into the chair, but Meyha gave him a stern, scary look and Peter begrudgingly set himself into the chair. The alien-person-girl-thing had been silent but smiling, which honestly just creeped Peter out.
Sapphire and Bruly fastened Peter’s cuffs to the arms of the chair and waved goodbye as the chair started to move towards the darkness. He wanted to close his eyes but he knew that he had to stay even more alert so he could look after himself with his senses and his powers currently gone. As the chair breached the darkness, a few dim lights on the ceiling lit up and Peter found himself traveling through a tunnel full of strange machinery he didn’t recognize. It seemed advanced, maybe even more advanced than Mr. Stark’s top-secret tech. As Peter glanced around the tunnel in wonder, a voice rang out through the tunnel that made him nearly jump out of his skin.
“Fear not, for you are found.”
The voice was strangely robotic and feminine, making Peter’s heart sore as he thought of Friday.
“You are about to embark on a journey that is one of the highest honors in the galaxy,”
Peter lightly tried to break the arms of the chair but it seemed to make of the same metal that was practically indestructible.
“You have been chosen as a Tribute to participate in the Seventy-fourth Annual Champion Games.”
As the voice spoke the last line, the lights started to flicker out and left Peter in a chair floating forward into the darkness.
“But what are the Games?”
Peter felt the chair start to lurch forward and gain velocity in the darkness, and eventually, the dark gave way to a terrifyingly realistic depiction of a gorgeous, flowery meadow in the middle of a ring of towering, unnaturally tall mountains. He’d never seen anything like it. Peter looked around in wonder as the chair traveled. A butterfly flitted overhead, and birds were chirping all around him. What kind of technology was able to produce this?
“The answer is: The best time of year in the entire universe!”
Peter frowned.
“You are significant. You are valuable. Here, you are loved. That is why our beautiful citizens voted you in as a Tribute in this year’s games!”
Okay, what kind of culty shit was this? Around Peter, he watched as a ring began to rise out of the ground in the center of the meadow around him. He squinted, and saw that raised platforms lifted out of the ground holding… people? No, that couldn’t be quite right. He swore that the one he was currently looking at had four arms.
“The Games consists of twenty-four of the most talented teenagers across the universe. The Tributes will face off in the universe’s toughest battle royale.”
Peter watched as all of the people standing on the platforms jumped off and began to race towards a big mound of crates and what appeared to be weapons and food in the center. His stomach churned as he looked around at all the Tributes– some were children, so, so small, and most, if not all, did not seem to be human. A small child with red skin that couldn’t have been more than four feet tall ran towards Peter, and he swiveled his head as the chair turned to allow Peter to watch where the child was running. A large, green, monstrous creature ran towards the child, and Peter’s heart clenched… until the child opened its mouth and unleashed a stream of molten lava that caused the green creature to shriek and fall to the ground, something booming in the sky as it fell.
“Of course, the other Tributes are not the only dangers you will face in the arena!”
Peter furrowed his brows as the scene around him darkened and he reemerged in a forest setting. Peter glanced around, trying to find what he was supposed to be looking at, but when he found it, he nearly screamed. A young girl with tentacles for hair sprinted through the forest, a panicked look on her thin, narrow face. Behind her was a gigantic, slimy spider that moved unnaturally. The girl turned to shoot water out of her hands at the creature, but it was futile. Peter screamed as the spider quickly overcame her and something boomed in the sky once more.
“Our Gamemakers work year-round around the clock to design the fantastical arena and Mutations that the Tributes will face!”
Everything around Peter blackened once more as he continued to travel forward, and he re-emerged in what appeared to be a lab. Around Peter, an assortment of aliens in white coats hunched over computers and collaborated. More importantly, he was looking at the technology they were using. Everything seemed far too advanced, even more than Tony’s technology, to ever be something possible on Earth. This only solidified the fact that Peter was currently existing in some extraterrestrial nightmare.
“In preparation for the games, there is a three-day-long training period to form alliances, rack up sponsors, show off your personality to the city, and most importantly, get scored on your skills!”
As the voice continued, Peter’s chair began to move faster and faster and the forces pushed his head back against the chair. He grimaced as his stomach twisted from the speed and he flashed by lights that eventually became one long blur in his head.
“Good luck, Tribute Number Twenty-Four, and may the odds be ever in your favor!”
Peter closed his eyes and the voice rang in his head.
When he opened them, he was in a new room entirely. He glanced around and saw that he was in a large suite with plush, velvety red carpet. Tables and shelves lined the walls, filled with different makeups, tools, and other odds and ends that Peter couldn’t identify. He glanced around at the luxurious room before his eyes landed on the man in front of the chair. He was wearing an outfit that consisted entirely of leopard-print clothing. His appearance was a bit more plain and humble than the Prep team’s, with a strange, unnatural gold sheen to his warm, dark skin and his hair cropped short to his head with gold dusting. He smiled warmly at Peter. “Peter Parker, it’s so nice to finally meet you. My name is Cerulean, and I’ll be your designer for the games.”
A concerned, slightly confused look settled on Peter’s face. Cerulean approached the chair and clicked a button on the side, and the cuffs opened up and retreated back into the chair. The moment the power-inhibitor cuffs were off, Peter’s senses came flooding back to him in an instant. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath of relief; he’d felt blind without them. “Thanks, I did not like those,” Peter said, opening his eyes and chuckling. It quickly died out when Peter forced himself to remember where he was and what he was doing.
He really needed Mr. Stark to get here soon.
“The Tribute parade is happening in about an hour. This is where the people of the galaxy will be introduced to you,” Cerulean explained with a warm smile on his face. He motioned to a portion of the wall where throngs of the same people Peter saw earlier were streaming into massive bleachers, chanting and cheering and celebrating. “It’s best practice to really make a big entrance here. Jenta and I, she’s your counterpart’s designer, have decided to capitalize on your abilities for the parade. It’s a bit different than most approaches, so I think the crowd will enjoy it.”
“My… my counterpart?” Peter asked. Cerulean nodded.
“There are twenty-four candidates, as I’m sure you saw in the video, voted in by pairs by the citizens of the city. The pairs are matched up by powersets– it’s a complicated process. However, those are ranked. You two were the twenty-third and the twenty-fourth candidates voted in. It’s nothing to be embarrassed by. You’re lucky they even noticed you on your planet at all. The twenty-third candidate’s name is Lyvernae. She’s… quite like you.”
Peter frowned. Quite like him? He wasn’t sure anyone else gained superpowers by being bitten by radioactive spiders. He watched as Cerulean walked over to a large standing wardrobe and Peter quickly glanced around the room, thinking he’d have an opportunity to escape. As he searched the room, he saw that there were no windows, and only one door directly next to Cerulean. It seemed like it had some sort of bio-scanner to get by-
“I really wouldn’t try escaping, Peter. The Games may have only been happening for Seven years, but there have been thousands of years worth of Champions Challenges. Nobody leaves this place.”
By the time Cerulean had dressed him up and the prep team had fussed over him and applied makeup to him, Peter was over it. He had been the entire time, but he especially was now. Lyvernae had proven to be a rather sassy, fiery teenage girl. There was an air of mystery around her and she was reserved, but when she talked, it was full of both spite and passion. It quickly became obvious that she did not want to be here anymore than Peter did. She was a small, younger girl with straight black hair, and she looked human enough but there was just something off about her that Peter couldn’t quite put his finger on. His senses got weird every time he went around her. Still, he was resolute in his ways and he would not kill her. He wasn’t going to kill anyone .
Peter’s costume, for lack of better terms, was a delicate white suit that looked as though it was made out of webs. There were gems and sparkles woven in everywhere, so when Peter stepped into the light, he gleamed like a star. He had to admit it looked way nicer than he thought it would. Lyvernae’s costume was a body-tight dress that made Peter sick to his stomach. She said that she was fifteen, which was two whole years younger than Peter. He was seventeen, and one of the oldest Tributes, though there were many 18-year-olds. Her dress was metallic in nature and it shone in different hues of green and blue depending on the way the light hit it. If Peter didn’t know any better, he’d say that it looked like a giant beetle shell. He started to get the idea that if her powers were as similar to his as people claimed, then she had… beetle powers? He hoped that that wasn't the case and that for once in his life he was dumber than he thought.
The prep teams guided Peter and Lyvernae to a carriage that was being pulled by strange black creatures that must’ve been some alien version of horses. He caught glimpses of other Tributes around him but everything was moving too fast for him to actually pay attention. As Peter and Lyvernae settled into the carriage and gripped the edge to hold themselves in place, he nervously glanced around the holding area and started to gauge the other Tributes. Peter and Lyvernae’s were far more elegant and simple than most others who were sporting huge, ridiculous costumes not dissimilar from Lady Gaga and Elton John, Peter thought. “Do you, uh, know much about these… Games?” He nervously asked Lyv. She nodded. Her face seemed paler than it had when he first met her.
“Yea, my planet is a pretty popular one to select tributes from.” She looked up at Peter and gave him a weird look. “You’re from Earth, aren’t you?”
Peter nodded. “Yea. We don’t, uh, we don’t know much about this there. Like, at all. I mean, we know aliens exist and stuff because of the Avengers and Loki and Thanos and everything but…” Peter’s voice trailed off when he saw the way she scrunched her nose up in distaste.
“It’s not nice to call people that.” Her voice was flat and full of teenage girl disdain. Peter’s cheeks reddened. He realized that people not from Earth probably didn’t take kindly to the word alien. She turned and faced the creatures pulling their carriages. “I think I heard they’re finally broadcasting to Earth this year because you’re the first Tribute the city has voted from there. There was another champion from Earth, too, but he ran away and made everyone upset.”
Peter nodded. “Oh. Wait, who?”
Lyv shrugged. “Big green guy. Really strong. Thor Odinson broke him out, I think.”
“Hey, I know those guys!” Peter excitedly exclaimed. For the first time, someone had brought up something familiar to him. He presumed she was talking about Bruce, and she was definitely talking about the Thor he knew and loved. He watched as Lyv sighed. “You really don’t know a lot about the Games, do you?”
“Nope.”
“Great. Well, technically we’re counterparts but sometimes it doesn’t matter. Some team up, some kill each other. I don’t care either way because we’re both going to die.”
Peter frowned, but he didn’t answer. She was right; he’d rather die than kill someone else. He still didn’t quite understand why they were in the same pair.
“See those guys up there? The first few carriages?” She pointed to the front of the procession and Peter spied the teens walking onto those carriages. They all looked large and strong and scowled around at anyone who looked at them. The back of Peter’s neck tingled when he looked at them, and he nervously rubbed the back of his head.
“Yea, why?”
“Those are the Careers. Their planets train for their entire childhood for this. They campaign to be voted into the games as a Tribute. They’re strong, they’re mean, and they’re probably going to be the ones that kill us.”
Peter’s stomach twisted. He was just getting over looking at the people in the first cart dressed in asinine blue outfits when Cerulean came up to the both of them. “You both look very nice. When you get out there, press the button on each of your right wrists. It’ll give the crowd a nice surprise. And don’t forget to smile!”
Peter and Lyv both turned over their wrists to reveal small buttons neither of them had noticed. “Good luck,” Cerulean wished them, stepping away from the cart. Lyv let out a small gasp as the cart jerked forward simultaneously with the others, and both of them instinctively gripped onto the front edge of the carriage. The animals all moved in eerie unison, and Peter grew nauseous as he heard the roar of the crowd awaiting them outside of the waiting area. Now would really be the perfect time for the Avengers to swoop in and save the day. The fact that Thor and Hulk had both been here before gave Peter hope that they’d be able to find him before he was forced into these stupid, stupid games.
Peter watched as the first few carts left the waiting area and heard the crowd break into an absolute frenzy. There were pops of fireworks everywhere, and he heard drums being beat and music ringing in all of their ears. His senses were on overload, and he winced the louder and louder the crowd got. Peter hated loud noises, and he hated bright and flashing lights without his suit on. Everything was dialed to 100. Besides him, it seemed as though Lyv was suffering from the same thing.
Before they knew it, their carriage rushed forward out of the cover of the waiting area. They emerged under the sky pulsating with different purple energy masses that Peter surmised were wormholes — why else would they be spitting out stuff? — and in a valley settled between two absolutely massive grandstands that stretched the length of the long, glittering road. At the end of the road was a tall, thin building that Peter could only describe as fucking weird.
Lyv and Peter glanced at each other before both pressing their buttons at the same time.
The crowd went absolutely wild, and Peter watched on a mega screen as giant white legs erupted from the back of his suit. They felt light and looked feathery and ethereal. They glittered every time they moved in the light and seemed to dance in the wind. Peter had to admit that it was a rather dazzling outfit but seemed to be a far cry from what he was actually about. Cerulean’s words rang in his head and he followed the leader of the other Tributes, nervously smiling and waving at the screaming crowds. Lyv’s suit similarly had a pair of large, translucent wings dotted with large, luxurious gems sprout from her back and begin to flutter in the air. They glanced at each other as the crowd roared over their costumes.
Both of them had the same look in their eyes: this was going to be one hell of a ride.