Chapter 4
Tommy was swinging around the city on the weekend, enjoying his daytime patrol while Charlie was at work, when his spidey-sense started going off. It wasn’t bad, just an itch at the back of his mind that told him there might be trouble. He figured he should go check it out, and swung in the direction of the problem, the itch getting stronger as he neared it.
A ship was touching down in a public park’s grass, angular and foreign. People ran out of the area, shrieking about aliens. Tommy saw the people rushing out, and swung into the park, suspicious.
The ship filled his vision, the extended legs touching the ground. Glancing around, most people had either already left, or were leaving. Except one guy, who was staring up at the ship in awe, clearly high. “Hey, man, get out of the way, there could be hostiles in there!” Tommy shouted.
“This is so cool!” The guy yelled. “D’you think they want to probe me? I wouldn’t mind it, I’ll be honest-”
Tommy webbed his back, thoroughly disgusted and just wanting him to stop talking. He pulled the dude toward him, away from the weird, probably dangerous ship. The guy whined the whole way, struggling weakly.
“Go over there.” Tommy said, pointing away from the spaceship. Before the dude could argue, he said, “Or I’ll stick you to a wall myself.”
The dude pouted, making his way away from the ship. Tommy stared at it, trying to figure out what was going on. He swung into the air, looking at it from all sides. Before he could try to figure out what to do with it, the back of the ship opened, part of it opening to a platform. He landed away from it, trying to see inside.
A dude with unnaturally bright red hair stepped out, pointing at him. “Do you know where Stark tower is?” He asked.
Tommy sighed. “That depends. The last time we had an alien looking for the Stark tower, he tried to kill everyone. What do you need?”
The dude glanced back. “We’re looking for help. We’re good guys, don’t worry.”
Tommy debated. He really didn’t want to go walking right up to the Avengers tower in-costume, that sounded like a shortcut to trouble. He wanted to tell the guy no, and tell him to find someone else to take him there.
The dude gestured behind him, walking down the platform. Three more guys stepped out, one tall with black skin that wasn’t solidified at the edges, one with huge antlers made out of wood growing from his head, and another that honestly just looked like an anthropomorphic cat. The first was carrying another man, who would’ve looked relatively normal if not for the wounds scattered around his face and skin.
“Please.” The red-haired dude said. “We need help.”
Tommy’s thoughts solidified, and he nodded. “Alright. I’ll take you there. Are you guys gonna leave your giant alien ship in the park?”
The red-haired guy looked back at it. “Yeah.” He shrugged. A second later, and the ship shimmered, disappearing. “Look, I told you that feature was a good idea.” He said, turning to the cat-man. The cat-man rolled his eyes, smiling.
“Come on, then.” Tommy said, turning and walking in the direction of the Tower. The four followed.
“So what’s up with your skin?” The red-haired guy asked him. “I thought Earth only had humans, with human-skin.” The rest of the people who had come with him were looking around the city. People on the streets parted way for them, staring but going about their day anyways.
“I have human-skin.” Tommy said, lifting his mask only so his neck was showing. “It’s a suit.”
“Oh.” The other said, intrigued. “That’s interesting. What’s it for? Fashion? I’ve never heard of that.”
“It’s, uh… Well, protection. I don’t want people to know who I am, so I cover myself.”
“That’s fair.” The other nodded. “Are you a criminal?”
“What? No, not really. I stop criminals. Uh, Earth criminals. I don’t do space criminals.” Tommy said. “Do you guys have names? Or do you want me to use the names I have for you in my head?”
“I’m Velvet.” He said. “The demon is Bad, that’s his name. The short guy is Antfrost. The dude with antlers is Callahan. He’s mute, so, y’know, don’t expect him to talk. And the unconscious dude is Sapnap. He’s human, too.”
Tommy nodded, rolling that information around his brain. “What happened to him?” He asked bluntly.
“We don’t really know.” Velvet said.
“He didn’t tell us. We found him like this.” Antfrost said.
“Yeah, we’re kind of pissed about it.” Velvet said. “There’s not a lot of humans that aren’t on Earth in the galaxy. Even fewer human doctors. We heard Stark has dealt with humans and aliens before, so we figured that was the best place to take him.”
“He’ll figure it out.” Tommy told him. “You guys, like, don’t want your ship towed, right?”
“Towed?” Velvet echoed.
“Yeah, like, the city takes it because you’re not parked right.”
“Uh, no, we would not like that.” Velvet said.
“Alright, I’ll talk to Mr. Stark about it.” Tommy said.
“Do any of your cars hover?” Antfrost asked.
“Uh, no.” Tommy said. He was then pestered with questions all the way to the Tower, from all of the currently conscious members of the group.
When they stood in front of it, Tommy sighed to himself.
“Alright, you guys have to stay out here. If you try to walk in the front looking like you do, you’re going to get security called on you the second you step in. I’m going to go try to catch attention on the cameras or something.” He said.
Velvet nodded. “Alright. We’ll stay here.”
Tommy nodded back, and stepped up to the side of the building. He hopped onto the side, and started making his way up the side.
“Woah- do humans usually do that?” He heard muttered from underneath him.
He was definitely sending alerts through the building. He’d tried to make it to the top of the tower once before, and was told off by the tower’s AI before he could. Just as expected, an AI started talking to him, this time a female Irish-accented voice, and much less aggressively. “Hello, Spider-Man. Can I ask why you’re climbing the Tower?”
“I need to talk with Mr. Stark.” He said, pausing his climb.
“Alright. One second.”
Stark’s voice came through. “Kid?”
“Hey. There’s a bunch of aliens outside who want to see you. One of them’s unconscious.” Tommy told him.
“Oh. Uh, who is it?”
“I have no idea. Their spaceship is in the park that’s closest to the Tower. They don’t want it towed, so you might want to call someone about it.”
“They’re not going to tow a spaceship.” Stark said humorously.
“You know what I mean. It’s also kind of invisible at the moment, so.”
“Are they friendly aliens?”
“As far as I can tell. They said they just want help. The unconscious one is wounded.”
“Oh, shit, yeah he is.”
Tommy looked down, and saw him come out the front doors. He jumped off the side of the tower, perching on the top of a streetlight that was next to them.
“Hey. I’m Sam Stark.” He introduced, crossing his arms.
“Hi. I’m Velvet.” The other said. “You know human anatomy, right?”
“Yeah.” Stark said, raising an eyebrow.
“Could you help him?” Velvet asked, pointing at Sapnap. “He’s human. Well, haf-human, but his body's mostly human and that’s the problem. We didn’t know where else to go, and he’s not currently conscious enough to take care of it himself, so…”
Stark nodded, pressing a finger to his earpiece. “Friday, tell Skeppy and Ponk to get down to the floor level. I have some aliens for them to deal with.” He crossed his arms again. “So what happened?”
“We don’t know.” Velvet said honestly. “We got a help call from Callahan. We found them both, and he was just like this, looking like he got his ass kicked. There was another ship that was leaving as soon as we came in. Callahan doesn't remember what happened. We came here because we found out you’ve dealt with aliens before. We figured you’d be the least likely to shoot us.”
Stark narrowed his eyes, nodding thoughtfully. A dude burst through the doors behind him, eyes narrowed suspiciously. Another came after.
“What’s happening?” The first guy asked. Ponk Rhodes.
“Get this guy to the infirmary wing.” Stark said, pointing at Sapnap. “Might have some… Different injuries. I don’t know.”
Rhodes looked at the man, then looked at the one carrying him, and sighed, gesturing for Bad to follow him. The second one who’d come out went in close behind, peppering the alien with questions.
“We can still be with him, right?” Velvet asked, watching them.
“Oh, yeah, I’m not letting you out of my sight. I’m going to have a long talk with some government officials later.” Stark sighed. “We have to figure out what to do with your ship first.”
Velvet nodded. “We left it back there somewhere.” He said, pointing behind him.
“We’ll go get it, you guys can put it on my roof.” Stark said. Then he turned to Tommy. “Can we talk?”
“Yeah, no, not happening.” Tommy told him. “I came here to drop off a bunch of aliens. That’s done now, I’m leaving.”
Before Sam could say anything, the kid shot a web and swung away. He sighed again, closing his eyes for a second. “Alright,” He said, blinking, “Let’s go get your ship before the city comes to take it apart.”
Foolish burst into the room. “We’re going to Midgard!”
Dream sat up sharply, catching his knife. “What? Why?”
“Aliens!” Foolish grinned.
“Aren’t we the aliens?” Dream raised an eyebrow.
“Well, yes. But others just landed, right in New York. We’re going to go check it out.”
“You mean you’re going to go check it out,” Dream corrected, “And I’m going to be dragged with you.”
“Exactly.” Foolish nodded.
“That is a bad idea. If you can’t recall, Midgard doesn’t very well like me.” Dream hissed.
“It’ll be fine. I’ll be with you. We’ll just go check it out. You don’t have anything better to do.”
Dream scowled. “Okay, but what if I do?”
“Like what?”
“Like…” Dream searched for an answer. “Like stabbing you right now, because you’re annoying.”
“Come on! It’ll be fine.”
“Do I have any choice in this?” Dream groaned.
“Absolutely not. I just don’t want to have to chase you down if you leave.” Foolish told him.
“I’m tempted.” Dream deadpanned.
“I will put my hammer on you.”
He sighed. “This is a terrible idea. But you will deal with the fallout when someone sees me and tries to forcibly remove me from life. Yeah?”
“Sure.” Foolish grinned.
Dream rolled his eyes, standing. His clothes shimmered, turning from his usual dress to something more Midgard-acceptable. “Fine. Let’s get it over with. Are you really going to wear that?”
Foolish glanced down at himself as they walked out the room. “My clothes are fine.”
“At least put a shirt on. I don’t want to deal with mortals ogling at you as we walk through the streets.”
“Fine.” Foolish pouted, heading for his own room. “My hammer’s in my room, anyway.”
A while later, and they stood in front of Heimdall at the end of the Rainbow Bridge.
“We’re going to Midgard.” Foolish told him.
“Unfortunately.” Dream snarked. Foolish elbowed him.
Heimdall’s eyes ran over Dream’s face. “Very well.” He said finally, turning and pushing his sword into the slot. He turned it, and the Bifrost opened. The two stepped up to the edge. “I won’t be seeing you two for a while.”
“What does that mean?” Dream asked.
“Come on.” Foolish grinned, pulling him towards the Bifrost.
“Why do you need to be so cryptic all the time?” He shrieked as the Bifrost pulled him through space.