What’s Up, Danger?

Miles woke up in his bed, in his room, but it was wrong.

Everything looked the same, from the books on his bookshelf to the posters to the pillow under his head, but something was off about it.

He remembered the pain and the glitching and he remembered his mother’s horrified face before he blacked out.

His mom. Where was she? Had he scared her away?

He started to get out of the bed, but stopped when a wave of pain rolled through him. He groaned and fell back. He was so tired of pain.

His door cracked open and his mom- wrong, inaccurate, erroneous- peeked in.

“Hey, Miles, time to get up for school.” she said, smiling.

What? It was- should have been- Thursday. He should be at Visions, being awakened by the loud thumping beats of the rap song Ganke had set as his alarm. And his mom always called him ‘mijo’ when she was waking him up.

Miles didn’t even attempt to sit up again, only groaned again at the aching pain in his head that came from thinking. Gwen would have a laugh at that if he ever told her that. Not to self: don’t tell Gwen.

His mom(false)’s face fell as she came closer. “Are you feeling okay, mijo?”

Now, Miles was, like, 87 percent sure something was up- there was a near constant buzzing feeling at the base of his neck that was telling him not to let his guard down, and a sense of wrong-ness was surrounding him- but he was in pain and confused, and hearing the familiar nickname relaxed him.

She kneeled next to his head and felt his forehead. “You’re pretty warm,” she muttered. “Alright, no school then. I’ll call Mrs. Carrington.”

“It’s Mr. Wright,” he corrected. Mrs. Carrington had been the principal of his old school ever since he’d started there. She was probably mixing her up with the director of Visions.

Rio frowned at him. “Mijo, I’m pretty sure I know who your principal is. You’ve only been going to this school since first grade.”

“But- Visions?” he said, bewildered.

She felt his forehead again. “Do you have a fever? You didn’t get into Visions.”

Miles just stared at her. He didn’t know what he was supposed to say. Was there anything to say?

The buzzing feeling got stronger.

Kid Arachnid had thought he’d seen it all.

Peter Parker, his mentor, dying. Having to fight Green Goblin and a plethora of other villains alone for the first time. Two Green Goblins and what seemed to be a ghost from his past. Alternate universes. Taking over another version of himself’s body.

But this was a whole other level.

“Gwen?” he said. “Wait, I know a Gwen.” She was one of the cool kids, and Kid was pretty friendly with her, but not enough that he would call them actual friends.

“Hold up, Miles?” Gwen said. “Is that Miles? 616 Miles?”

“Not exactly,” Ganke said. “Current theory is body-swapping. This is a different version of Miles who has taken over his body.”

Gwen hummed in realization. “So Miles is probably in- what was his name?”

“Kid Arachnid.”

“So Miles is probably in Kid Arachnid’s body and world.”

Kid cut in before the talk could get too sciencey. That was always Peter’s jam. “Uhh, so would he be exactly where I left? Cause that could go wrong real fast.”

“Why?” Gwen asked. Kid noted the protectiveness in her voice.

“Well, I- well, me and Pete just defeated Green Goblin, and he’s nasty in my world, and if it’s a Spider-Man that doesn’t know about my world that could end badly.”

The other line went silent except for the clacking of laptop keys. “Can’t do anything about it for now,” Gwen said, frustration coloring her tone. “Miguel still won’t respond to me, and he’s the only one with a working transporter and he refuses to tell me anything about it. We should tell Peter B, though.”

“Peter B?” Kid asked. He felt kind of stupid for asking so many questions, but he should know what was happening in case he was needed.

“Peter Parkers seem to be the majority of Spider-Men,” Gwen said, still typing away. “The B’s just a way to tell them apart. Anyway, don’t tell him this, but he acts like Miles’ dad, even though Miles still has a dad.”

Kid felt a pang at that, but he pushed it aside. When he had been talking to Ganke before, he had promised not to cry, and he wasn’t going to break that promise now.

Another line started ringing and, again, was answered almost instantly by a frantic sounding man.

“Is that Miles? Is he okay? Are you okay? You can’t worry me like that, kid, my heart’s not what it used to be you know.”

“Peter, this is gonna sound weird,” Gwen started.

“Try me,” Peter B said. “What could possibly be weirder than multiple dimensions in which I am a pig and also a little girl and who knows what else.”

“Well, here’s some of that ‘else’,” Gwen said. “Our current hypothesis is that Miles switched bodies with another Miles.”

“What does that mean,”

“The person on the line is Miles Morales, but not the one we know. We’ve been calling him Kid Arachnid. By the way, is that okay? We never actually asked.”

He cleared his throat. “Oh, yeah that’s fine.”

Peter had become very quiet on the line. Meanwhile, Gwen went back to typing.

“Wait,” Ganke said, and Kid jumped because the other boy had been very quiet and Kid had honestly forgotten he was there. He was surprised to see Rio still there as well. “Gwen, you said you were seeing spikes in the multiverse?”

“Yeah? The multiverse is always spiking and expanding and moving around and whatnot, but these were pretty big spikes.”

“Like someone traveling through dimensions?”

Understanding flooded into Gwen’s words. “Maybe. Could be Miles, maybe Miguel, but this seems like too many for two people. I’ve got at least fifteen spikes in the past two days.”

“But it’s not just Miles and Miguel,” Ganke turned towards Kid with an excited grin. “Kid, tell them what was happening before you came here.”

“Oh!” Kid said realizing what Ganke was implying. “Yeah, so-”

After the story, Peter and Gwen were silent for a minute.

“Maybe the Goblin traveling is messing with the fabric of the multiverse,” Peter said. “Miles was there when the collider blew up, right?” Rio winced at the thought. “So maybe he’s more connected to the multiverse or something, and ripping holes in dimensions is messing him up.”

“That would explain why Jeff is also glitching,” Rio said. “He was at the collider site then, too.”

“Where is he now?” Gwen asked.

“They’re bringing him here. I didn’t think the hospital would be able to do anything.”

“Wait, they listened to you?” Peter said incredulously. “You’d think if someone started glitching out of nowhere that they’d call the government or something, not bring him to his house.”

The doorbell and Rio stood up. “Well, he’s here, so I’m not complaining.”

“I’ll go help her,” Ganke said, following Rio out.

They left an awkward silence behind them.

Gwen went back to typing, Peter wasn’t talking, and Kid sat on the bed that was his but also wrong, and fiddled with his shirt hem, wishing someone would say something.

Someone must have been granting wishes, because Gwen hissed a ‘yes’ and the typing intensified.

“What happened?” Peter asked. “What’s the ‘yes’ for?”

“I’ve got a lock on Miguel,” Gwen said. “He’s currently in dimension 54. Hold on, sending distress signal.”

A loud beeping filled the speakers and another line opened up.

“Gwen, what’s up?” An unfamiliar voice asked, sounding out of breath.

“Miguel, got a minute?”

“Uhh,” Miguel was panting and Kid could hear fighting behind him. “Let me take care of something real quick.”