Tergeminus

Sometime in the months after the Battle of the Statue of Liberty, in Peter-One’s world…

“What do you mean, you need to learn how to drive?”

Peter-One looked at the other two, confused why the question seemed so baffling to them. “I’m going to MIT, it’s in Boston. I need to learn how to drive-Wait, neither of you know how to drive?”  There goes his idea of just asking them to teach him.

The other two Peters looked at each other. They were relaxing on top of his high school late in the night, waiting for the police scanner to go off to alert them of their first mission of the night. Peter-One was sitting obediently by the scanner while his two elders were on either side of him, the tallest leaning casually against the railings and the oldest stretching against a bent pipe that conveniently came up to waist-level.

“I went to NYU,” the taller Peter answered, “Never left the city.”

“Me neither,” the oldest Peter agreed, “And I went to Columbia.”

Peter-One blinked, baffled. “Wait a minute, you two have what degrees?“

“Ph.D,” the other two said simultaneously, while Peter-Two added, “-and a post-doc.”

“So between us, we’ve got like, six degrees and I’ll get the seventh, but we can’t drive a car?”

“I bike,” Peter-Two offered lamely.

“I skateboard.” Peter-Three sounded proud of himself until he saw the unhappy hunch in Peter-One’s posture. He lifted his shoulders like he didn’t know what else to defend himself with. “We’re Spidermen, what’d you expect? We swing everywhere when we’re in a hurry.”

“I can do that in Boston, but I also have to blend in. I can’t just drop out of the sky for a hangout and say I got there by subway like I can in New York.”

“And I guess we have to move your stuff to Boston…” Peter-Two mused with a long suffering sigh. He did one final stretch against the pipe and then came over to sit with his younger counterpart. Peter-Three followed and they formed a loose triangle around the scanner. 

“Okay, so what’s the plan?”

Peter-One cringed. “Well, here’s the problem. I don’t really have valid… ID… and I kinda need one for, you know, life. But I’m under 18, so to get a Learner’s Permit in New York State, I need signed consent from a legal guardian.”

Peter-Two froze as both of his other selves turned to him expectantly. “Oh, what, me?”

Peter-Three pointed at him. “Uncle Parker, married to Aunt Mary from out-of-town,” he reminded him smugly.

Peter-Two crossed his arms defensively. “How does that even work with our names-“

“I don’t think it does,” Peter-One agreed with worry, “I don’t think your IDs work in my world either.” All of this would be so much easier if Mr. Stark was still alive. Even Pepper might have been willing to pull some strings for him if she still remembered. 

“Wait,” Peter-Three’s voice grew higher with excitement as he sat up straighter. “Does this mean we get to forge documents? I’ve always wanted to forge documents.” At the other two’s surprise, he shrugged. “What? I binged a lot of Forensic Files in my day.” 

“That show is so old now,” Peter-One complained. “They rebooted Unsolved Mysteries, that’s a lot better-“

“Back to the point,” Peter-Two broke in, his tone both annoyed and affectionate, “Okay, let’s say I get a fake ID so I can sign some papers. What else do we need?”

Peter-Three shrugged and leaned back on his hands. “I’ll get one, too, because we’re going to need to rent a car and this one-“ he pointed at Peter-One, “isn’t over twenty-five years old.”

Peter-One felt like he was missing a big point. “And that’s a problem because…?”

“Under twenty-five and you pay extra to rent a car, kid. I don’t think our wallets can take the extra abuse.” Peter-Three counted off with his fingers. “Let’s go over our options here. I’m still paying off student debt, you currently don’t exist, we both have rent and this one-“ he jerked his thumb at Peter-Two, “has to pay mortgage.” 

Peter-One looked down and played with the the edge of his red boots. “S-Sorry, here I go, dragging you guys into my problems again-“

“Peter, it’s okay,” Peter-Two said gently, “If we keep visiting your world, we’re going to have to act like civilians sometimes and we can’t all go by Peter. An ID helps.”

“On that topic,” Peter-Three rubbed his hands together eagerly, “This means we have to pick a new name.” 

At MIT, that September…

Ned was waiting in line at the food trucks when a tall, lanky man in a zip-up hoodie and glasses bumped into him. A box of clothes went flying everywhere. “Oof, my bad, man,” the man said quickly, kneeling pick up the scattered clothes. He had a mess of gravity-defying brown hair and a friendly face that…seemed familiar, but unfamiliar at the same time. 

“Oh it’s okay, let me help,” the boy responded, kneeling to help him gather the clothes to re-pack the box. “Happens all the time. Move-in week is pretty hectic.”

“Yeahhh, tell me about it. It’s my little brother’s first day and we’re running around like headless chicken about it.” 

Ned picked up a shirt with a school logo on it. He stared at it. “No way! This is my high school!”

“Oh yeah?” The tall man grinned, reaching for the shirt and tucking it back in the box, “Maybe you guys know each other.” 

“Yeah, maybe! Your brother is a freshman?”

“Yup. Well, he was going to apply last year but he took a year off to handle um-“ the man paused for a second, as if struggling to find the right words, “-blip stuff.”

Ned sighed sympathetically as he put the last shirt in the box. “Yeah, I get it. My lola was a mess when I came back.” 

“We were all… a mess when he came back, too,” the tall man said haltingly. “Anyways, not important- You’re not a freshman, right?”

Ned smiled, proudly. “Yup, sophomore this year.”

“Great! Would you mind showing my brother around? He’s a bit helpless with navigation, always gets lost and stuff.” 

“Ooooh,” Ned nodded in understanding, “Sure, this campus is pretty big. Happy to help!”  

They returned to the dorms engrossed in cheerful conversation, the taller man -Andrew, he called himself- carrying the box of clothes and the shorter man carrying two boxed meals (one for his lola, he said, because she was helping him move in, too.) They stopped briefly at Ned’s room, where an old, stout woman was folding his clothes neatly into his dresser. 

“Hi, grandma,” Ned said in Tagalog to her, settling the food down on his dorm table and laying out utensils out of habit, “This is Andrew, he’s helping his brother move in.”

Andrew waggled his fingers at her from both sides of the box and grinned. “It’s a pleasure, lola. I’d shake your hand but you know-can’t.”

His grandmother smiled back. “What a nice young man. Handsome, too.”

“You say that about everyone,” Ned responded, grinning, “You can start eating. I’ll be back later, I’m gonna go talk to his brother. Andrew said he gets lost.”

“Oh honey, are you sure? Remember how lost you were when you moved in?”

“I’m not gonna tell him that.” Ned gave a strained smile up at Andrew. “Lola says it’s nice to meet you.”

They made their way downstairs to the freshman levels. There was a chaotic mass of people buzzing in and out of the hallways as numerous families helped their young college students move in. Ned weaved through the crowd with a bounce in his feet. He really liked move-in week, it gave him throwbacks of how ecstatic he felt last year when he got in. 

Andrew led the way to the dorm room at the very end, closest to the stairwell. “Ned’s here,” he announced as he walked in, in a ‘ta-da’ sort of tone. 

Huh? Ned thought, stopping at the doorway. 

The two inside the room looked up at their arrival. An older man with neatly combed hair was in the middle of hanging clothes into the closet, whereas a teenager with curly hair was squatted over a box of books. He rose quickly, nervously wiping his hand on his jeans before holding one out for Ned. His eyes were wide and nervous. “Oh hi, I… I’m Peter Parker. I’m new.” 

“Hi, I’m Ned Leeds,” Ned shook his hand, hesitantly because he didn’t know why the other seemed so nervous. “I’m a sophomore, I live three floors above you.”

The older man by the closet raised a hand to give a finger waggle, too. “I’m Tobey,” he sighed, “His… uncle.”

“Nice to meet you, sir.” Ned missed the discomfort that flashed across Tobey’s face at the term ‘sir’ when he turned back to Peter, both curious and eager. “I think we went to the same high school, that’s wild. How come I’ve never met you?”

Peter froze, then looked nervously at Andrew and his uncle. “I…”

“He’s a total wallflower,” Andrew said quickly, distracting himself by laying out clothes on the bed. “Always stayed at home, played video games, didn’t have much of a life, really.” 

“Right. Yes. I k-kept to myself,” Peter nodded. 

“Ahhhh yeah, video games will do that. Lola had to drag me out of my room because I got so sucked into- wait, is that Lego Star Wars?!?” Ned crossed over to the toys partially organized on Peter’s desk, eyes wide with excitement. “No way, I LOVE this collection!” 

Peter beamed, “Yeah, I know-I mean, yeah, it’s great!”

“Yo, you gotta show me what you have later. I’ve been wanting the Death Star for a while!“ 

“Oh I’ve got that! It got… broken, earlier, but um, I think I have all the pieces.” Peter shuffled a foot into the carpet nervously. “You wanna build it together later?”

Ned’s eyes boggled. “YES, duh! But- oh…“ he eyed the other two in the room, suddenly remembering their presence and why he was there to begin with. “C’mon, I can show you around first. It shouldn’t take long.” He made an awkward hand gesture at the older brother and the uncle. “You wanna come with or-?”

“No,” the two older man said in unison, then shared a knowing look.

“We’re good,” Tobey clarified. “We’ll set up his room for him. You two, um, go ahead.” 

“It’s not our school, so…” Andrew made shoo-ing motions with his hands. “Go for it.” 

“Uh-huh.” Ned headed out the door. “C’mon, Peter, I’ll show you the School of Science first. Do you have a major yet?”

Mouthing ‘thank-you’ to his counterparts, Peter rushed out to keep up, his shoulders hunched as he slid his hands into his pockets. “Oh no, I’m undeclared, actually.”

“Yeah, same. They won’t make me pick until the end of this year. I might go for a B.S. of science though, I really like the labs that they have-“

Their voices drifted away and the two remaining men shared a look. 

“I didn’t expect it to be that easy,” Peter-Two admitted as he watched them go. 

“Told you, Legos opens all doors,” Peter-Three said with a grin. He leaned against the bed and tilted his head, considering. “He said science lab, right?”

Peter-Two hung up one of their teenaged self’s hoodies and eyed him suspiciously. “Yes…?” 

“Wanna check it out?”

Peter-Two stared at him, then balked. “We’re not breaking into the lab at MIT of all places-“ he hissed.

“I need more web fluid. I’ll make some extra for the kid,” Peter-Three responded with a shrug. “Anyways, when was the last time you’ve been in a university science lab? Just imagine the funding. I bet all their equipment is new.” He was practically salivating at the idea. 

Peter-Two paused, clearly tempted. “Well… it has been a while…”

“Done,” Peter-Three bounced on his toes gleefully. “Let’s do it tonight.” 

“We’re not getting caught,” Peter-Two added, firmly. “We’ll leave everything exactly as we found it.”

“Of course, “ Peter-Three answered, then thought about it a few seconds longer. “But who would know, it’s not like the kid’s going to get into trouble because nobody know he’s Spiderman-“

“We’re not getting caught,” Peter-Two repeated, his grey eyes flashing like steel. 

“Fine, dad,” Peter-Three agreed, then dodged a t-shirt thrown at his face.